Emancipation in the British West India Islands [pp. 422-454]

422 Emancipation in the British West b~dies. LApril,
ART. IV.-E~Anc~p~~~ou IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIA ISLANDS.
1.Claims and Resources of the West Indian Colonies. A Lefter
to the Right llon. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P., late Secretary of
State for the Colonies. By the llon. E. STANLEY, M.P. Lon don: 1850.
2.Farther Facts connected with the West Indies. A second Let ter to the Right llon. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P., late Secretary
of State for the Colonies. By LORD STANLEY, M.P. London:
1851.
3.Jamaica in 1850; or, The Effects of Fifteen Years of Free dom on a Slave Colony. By JOHN BIGELOw. New-York and
London: 1851.
WE have placed these works at the head of this article, not with
the intention of examining their merits as literary compositions,
but for the purpose of adducing the evidence which they afford in
relation to the subject of African slavery, and its abolition by the
Southern States.
The discussion of this subject, while it has engaged thc attention
of the civilized world, has grown to be the absorbing topic of
interest in our own country. More than once has the government
been shaken to its foundations by its agitation, and the domestic
peace and harmony of the Confederacy jeoparded.
In the place of that love and harmony which once pervaded our
land, and made US' truly one people, it has sown broadcast throughout the two great sections of the country-the North and the
South-the seeds of alienation, distrust and apprehension. Abolitionism has spared no means to develop and perpetuate itself.
Not content with entering into the arena of politics, and ascending
the pulpit, it has also invaded our literature. Philosophy, poetry
and rIction, are each in turn used and abused by it in the accomplishment of its purposes.
In this condition of things, it becomes the South to bring to
the consideration of this subject, the calmest reason and the most
cautious investigation. She cannot be too vigilant, and she must