l _made of gold_,
and every thing here is, of course, going at full cry--_every planter
wants to open more land and buy more negroes_.' What do these facts
suggest? Do they furnish no explanation of the strong desire in the
Southern States to possess Cuba? Do they furnish no explanation of the
exaggerated irritation got up last year in respect to the West India
squadron, and the demand of the American Government, we fear too
successfully made, that the right of search in the mitigated form in
which it existed should be altogether abandoned? A people familiarized
not only with slavery, but also with the slave trade as between one
class of States and another, can hardly be expected to entertain a very
strong repugnance to a slave trade from beyond the seas. That cargoes of
imported slaves have recently been landed in the United States is not
denied:--that vessels fitted out as slavers have recently been seized in
American ports, we know upon official authority. The same correspondent
whom we have already quoted, says there are two great questions which
occupy the Southern States at this moment. The one is the acquisition of
Cuba. 'The other,' he says, 'is one which has been presented to me
forcibly during my sojourn in the South, and that is the increase of
slave population. You must have noticed an illicit importation of
negroes from Africa landed in Georgia. This has undoubtedly been done,
and I doubt not also that other negroes have been landed. It is of
course the desire of every honest man that the whole force of the
government should be used to put down such a trade, and punish the
offenders; but I fear the profits of the trade are so enormous that it
will be carried on in the face of all opposition. Negroes are now worth
here from 1,000 to 2,000 dollars a-piece. The subject of their being
introduced is being openly discussed, and the propriety of the trade
being again legalized. It is plain this discussion will by and by take
shape. Will not the government be obliged to listen to it, and what will
be the result? When labor is so profitable it will be obtained. How? I
confess to looking upon this subject with great anxiety. The feeling
with regard to slavery both in the North and South has undergone a
material change in the last four years. It is now looked upon with far
less abhorrence.' Is it possible to separate the danger which is here
presented so forcibly from the question of the high price of cotton? We
know b