Prospective Emancipation

The BufFalo Courier, a Po]k, Texas and War pnper, hos a leader on the " Prospective Abolition of Slavery." - Our readers nny liave a liltle curiosity to hear what sucha pnpcr would say on such a subject. The Courier contends that besides the 11 monstrous moral wrong " involved in alaveholding, there are weighty politica] reasons why it should be abolished. - Among these it meniions that our professedly free instituüons nre now made " a living lie," by holding slaves under them : that the morul effect of Slavery ( is only evil contmually : " and that its politica! and social efiecls are injurióos to the interesis of the SJaye' States and peple, So much for the first chapter. The second wil! be on the foolishness of ihe abol'uionists, of coun-e. In answering the questionwhat is the remedy, the Editor denouncesthe Abolitioaists who urant nbout unconditional, immediate cmancipation." Their " preposlerous proposilions" and "Quixotic noslrums" find no favor in his eyes. He then proposes his own plan : ' Such plan should ask, simply, thai all children born of slaves, afier thirty years from the enactment of a law foi the object, should be pree, on attaining the age of ttcenty-nne years, and during minority, be bold as under parental govemment."In the eyes of thé Couricr, there is nothing "preposterous" in wnitfng fiftyone years to get ready to begin to reijioveCfa continual evil " f rom the nation- "a living lie!" But we will quote asentence or two, showing the peculiar advantagcs of his plan : " This plan would obvíate the pecuniary difficulties of the cnmpensation to sláve owners, and ihereby divest the question of a greal element of excliement and bitterness. The present slave owner feels that he has a money valué in his claves, for he has paid as it were, a certain sutn in advance for their labor during their Uves. If tliey go free, he loses. Therefore, ahliough the State iá no richer by the slave wealth within her borders, than she would be were they all free, vet to individuals posessing'them, slaves have a valué as much as catile or horses. And we cannot ask, or expect, that they will voluntarily - except in isolaied individual insiances - dispossess themselvesof so large an amount of personal property, from mere abstract notions of human righis. Bul posterity has no such interests - can set up no such It was once witiily asked- " Why shouldwedo anything for posterity, vhen posterity does nothing for us 1 " Tiie white children of generaüons to come, have no more vested right to the black one?, thnn th,e black ones have to thetn. And wicked conveflijonal lau's can confer none. - Nothing bqt expediency ond tyrannical c-jstom have ever licensed such appropriation of man by his fellow,"By thus continuing to enforce " icicked convcntional laws " and the " tyrannical custom" of enslaving men for half a centüry longer. the writer hopes the oppoeition of the Slaveholders may be reWiovjed ; and ihat for the sake of cnrryjng out '■abstract nolions of human rtghts,' they will rob ihcir children, alihough they would not frofn the same motives give uptheirown slaves. Ho w fa r motives of this kind mny opérate iviih Slaveholders, we know not : but we could not gö in for such n poslponement, while immediale emancipation would brngcounu less blessings to all classes in the Slave States. The Courier hopes for some prospective action of this kind, even within our times, especially as it would bo for the interest of the South. He says : " That she would not lose, politically, from the loss of her slave ratio of representation, could be equnlly shown, by laking an extended viewinto the fiiturë, nnd picturing the mighty changes that would benefit her by an augmented frep, enterprising oopulation, that would advanee her manufactures, her artizanship, her commerce, her agriculture, beyond ihe wildest hope of the present - when the büghting mildew of siave servitude shaU have been wiped away. Then her poütical power will bc greater, and growing, instead of retrogmding, oomparatively, as that of Virginia so strikingly bas' We are glad to find the Polk editors discussing ihis subject in any.'of its aspectsj.although we hnvc no very high opinión of .such proposal as are here made. Discussiön upon any subjectessarily implies and nvolves thought, reflection, interest, and knowlerige upon that subject ; and though the Courier says that " Fanaticism has retarded (br long years, the progress of enfranchisometit, by iis clamors, its unreasonable demands," vet we suspect he is indebted to ïhat very 41 Fanaticism " for important nnd fundamental amislavery truths which he ha.s brought to view in this article.