African Labor Supply Association [pp. 231-235]

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AFRICAN LABOR SUPPLY ASSOCIATION.
lfONTOOMEBRY, ALA., 23d May, 1859.
J. D. B. DE Bow, ESQ., New-Orleans:
Dear Sir:-I see by the newspapers, that an African Labor Supply Association was formed
at Yicksbu g, just after the adjournment of the late Southern Convention. In the published
proceedings I also notice that Mr. Spratt was selected to deliver an address at the next meet ing of the Association, and I was cho-en as one of two alternates.
The Constitution of the association, as it appears in the public prints, is indefinite as to
the designs of the association, or I should rather say, as to the manner in which it will pro mote the supply of African labor.
I therefore address you. as the President of the Association, and request of you a full ex planation of the aims of the Association, and!he means by which it is to be obtained. Par ticularly, I desire lo be informed. whether the Association, in the event that the laws of the
United States against the importation of Africans, as slaves, cannot be repealed or declared
unconstitutional, designs to encourage the slave trade between this country and Africa,
Cuba and B. azil in violation of those laws.
[Signed.] Yours respectfully,
W L. YANCEY.
ARTESIAN SPRINGS, MISS., June 3d, 1859.
IVy-Dear Sir:-Your favor of the 23d May, directed to New-Orleans, has
been forwarded to me at this point.
I cannot think for a moment, that anything in my own character or that of
the gentlemen who were most active in forming the "African Labor Supply
Association," to which you advert, would warrant the inference, that under its
cover are countenanced a design of violating, in any event or under any circumstances, in the letter or the spirit, the Constitution and laws of the country.
These gentlemen whose names are before the public, are among the most intelligent and reputable citizens of Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, and although I was not consulted by them, in any of the steps which preceded the
formation of the asssociation, I was not the less grateful for the decided mark
of confidence and consideration they evinced in selecting me as the permanent
presiding officer.
It would he more complimentary certainly to my pride, to regard your letter,
as that simply of a friend, (perhaps I may add fiom his antecedents, a sympathizer,) having in view a reply, which his convictions taught, would set aright
before the public and upon grounds which must meet its approval, a movement about which it seems there has been misrepresentation and misapprehension.
To one who has observed the signs of the times, the evidence is irresistible,
that the question of labor supply is at this moment, attracting in every part of
the South and of the South-West, a degree of attention which has never been
accorded to it before, stimulated as that question is, by the almost boundless,
and now but partially occupied domain, in our possession or within our reach,
adapted to rich and productive cultivation; by the increasing demand, and enhanced prices obtained for every description of product peculiar to that domain, and by the unprecedented rise in the value of the only species of labor
which it is capable of employing, thus diverting it from every other channel of
industry into a single absorbing one.
In the contingency thus presenting itself, but two alternatives exist from
which a choice can be made by the people qf the South; the one being to
await with folded arms that coming of population and of labor which will be
the result of natural increase, in which we shall have the disadvantage that
other and competing countries are not dependent solely upon such increase;
and the other, to adopt the line of policy putirsued in those countries, to open
the doors and invite and promote the coming of laborers from every source.
The latter expedient, it would appear, has been taxed to its utmost limit during a period of about half a century, and the practical fruits are that whatever
of labor or of population the republican flag has invited, has expended and exhausted itself exclusively in developing, extending and building up the colossal
power of other sections, and in elevating them to that control which they have
at last reached in national affairs.
It is plain, and time and events have demonstrated the fact, that it is not European labor which we want, since that labor during so long an experiment, has
not taken foothold in our limits, evidencing thus an incapacity to adapt itself
to our condition and to become amalgamated with us, but time and events