Valley Spirit

The arguments of Abolitionists are the most contradictory it has ever been our duty to read. The first proposition is, that the black labor in the South, protected and fostered by State Institutions, expels the labor of the whites, and thus is a decided injury to the dominant race. Therefore, for the good of the whites, it should be abolished. If this is so, what is to be the result of their vaunted philanthropic measure? The whites will gradually deprive the blacks of all the labor by their superior energy and industry, and these will be thrown upon the community, an idle, thriftless, vagabond race, to be supported by taxation upon white labor in indolence and debauchery. The duty which has compelled the master to support the slave and make him useful, will have passed away, and, instead of the burthen resting where it should, and where it can be made remunerative, it will fall upon all men--the white laborer as well as the wealthy planter--and no return will be made. It is a plain fact that it requires about three hundred million of dollars per annum to support the negroes. This is now done by the master, who gets a profit in return, but when the white labor has eaten it out, the necessary poor house, police regulations, &c., will have increased this sum to five hundred million dollars per annum; a tax, in times of profound peace, equal to what is now paid in the midst of the most gigantic war the civilized and savage world has ever known, exceeding the tremendous efforts of France in the days of the elder Napoleon.

This conclusion is indisputable upon the premises of the Abolitionists. Therefore, when any man in the North or South is addressed by such arguments, and trusts in them, he must get his own consent to pay annually a tax of five hundred million of dollars per annum for this one purpose alone; and add to it two or three hundred millions additional, for the usual expenses of the government, we do not think it would be an excess to put down the government expenses, one year after another, including war times as well as peace, under such a scheme, at a thousand million per annum. Then, if we add the favorite colonization scheme, with its enormously additional expenses, we can come within the mark by placing the annual governmental expenses at fifteen hundred millions of dollars per annum. This is not excessive. There is the expense of removing them from all parts of the country, the expense of shipping, the purchase of the territory to which they are exiled, the expense of sustaining them. Suppose that we grant that their labor, released from competition of the whites, was to pay five hundred million above what is necessary to feed and clothe them--even the Abolitionists do not grant this much--which is more than they get in servitude, but put the figures down at a minus; still there is a thousand million. That is, every man, woman and child has to pay each $29 per annum to support the negro, or to every father of a family of five, the sum of $145 per annum. There is no use arguing such a question. No people can pay it. It is an absurdity. It is clear that the substitution of white for slave labor involves the duty of sustaining the negroes, or exterminating them with fire and sword. This is the plain matter of fact philanthropy of Abolitionism and colonization, and includes the sum total of its morality.

The very converse of the above proposition is assured by the many Abolitionists--that the negro laborer is superior to the white. That is, that the negro, emancipated from the trammels of slavery, and elevated to the position of the white man, will do better; will be at least equal to him, and in many avocations superior. These men are not struggling, then, to make this a republic of white men, but blacks. The result of their argument is, that blacks being fully equal to the whites, and in some cases superior, will be brought into competition with them. The fact, then, before every white laborer is, that when this scheme succeeds, he may expect a black competing with him in every field of life--on the farm, in the workshop, in the manufactures, and as domestic servants. Everywhere he will find the negro under-working him, and placed upon a precisely equal footing with him. Is there any white laboring man, whose philanthropy extends so far, that, for the purpose of emancipating slaves, he is willing to take the bread from the mouths of his little ones? And yet madness and fanaticism are daily and hourly telling him in the lecture rooms, on the stump and in Congress, that such is to be the result, for the conclusion is inevitable, and hailing the day when it is accomplished as the millennium.

If this be true, the white laborer must prepare for the consequences. The negro, no longer confined by the laws to a particular State or section, will seek his market whatever it can be found. If he is equal to the white, he will no more confine himself to one section than the white does. Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania, notwithstanding stringent laws, will soon find floods of laborers pouring in upon them. The increase of the blacks cannot be confined to the now slave States. It must, in the nature of things, spread, and it will certainly seek the border free States. If they are profitable, more profitable to employers than white labor, they will, as inevitable, make their way to them as water finds its level.

We have thus succinctly placed the two arguments, the only two we have heard that were not all froth, before our readers. It is easy to see that, granting in turn the premises upon which each proceeds, that the emancipation of slavery will be a direct injury to the country. We can state shortly what would be the ultimate result of either. After a heavy expense and turbulence, the States in which there were negroes would be compelled, in self-defense, to resume the old laws, and again reduce the blacks to bondage. Men need not go insane upon it. It is not a question whether slavery is an evil or not, any more than if it is an evil for man to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. It is a fact and condition that cannot be altered without producing injury to both classes. The negroes are here and must be managed. The wisdom of the past shows that they have been at least as well cared for as the laboring whites, and until we can so improve upon the past as to relieve the destitution and suffering of our own race, we had better refrain from experimental plans to add to the comforts of one already situated as God intended them.--Louisville Democrat.

Newmarket, Va., May 7.--Yesterday afternoon a detachment of the Fifth New York Cavalry made a reconnoissance towards Harrisonburg, and when five miles this side they encountered upwards of two hundred of Ashby's Cavalry, and, charging upon them, pushed them within two miles of the town. Ten of the Rebels were killed, and six taken prisoners. Our loss was one killed, and the Batalion [sic] Adjutant taken prisoner. The work on our side was done with the sabre, and was a very gallant affair.

A small Rebel picket was seen in the neighborhood of the Columbia bridge yesterday, in the Luray Vally [sic].

The weather is cool and pleasant. The sick are improving.