General Sherman, it is stated by an Augusta paper, said, in connection with a gentleman of Georgia, that "Slavery will exist in the South after the conclusion of peace, let the war terminate as it may, and that he expects to own a thousand slaves himself one of these days." We have little doubt that General Sherman made the remark, and as little that it will be realized in the event of our subjugation. What the form of slavery, or what name will be given to it by Yankee ingenuity, we cannot foresee, but that the thing itself will continue, and that the negroes will have to work harder and fare worse than slaves have ever worked or fared before in the Southern States, is as certain as the rising of to-morrow's sun.
The Yankee sentiment of abolition is simply envy of the slaveholder, not love of the slave. Why should he love the black laborer of a distant region more than the white laborer of his own? --Every one is familiar with the harsh and oppressive manner in which Yankee employees in every department of business are treated by their employers. The thing is notorious and undeniable. It is ridiculous, then, to suppose that men so selfish, callous and tyrannical to their white dependents should have a general and generous sympathy with African slaves. With the exception of some fanatics, whose imaginations have run away with their reason, there is not an honest Abolitionist in the Northern States. The only question which presents itself to the great mass of that money — seeking and practical race is, "Will slavery pay?" The fate of slavery and the Confederacy, if conquered, depends solely upon the answer to that question.
General Sherman has evidently made up his own mind in the affirmative. He knows, and his countrymen know as well, that cotton, rice and sugar cannot be cultivated without slave labor. There is some question about tobacco. It may be that the Yankee will conclude that slave labor will not pay in Virginia and other border States. In that event, they will give a sop to the philanthropy of the age by sacrificing the non-paying labor of those States to the demands of abolition, calling upon the world to admire and applaud their humanity, whilst they simply change the name and proprietorship of slavery in the cotton States. General Sherman expects to own a thousand slaves, and other Federal generals will be equally fortunate.--The possession of the slaves will be simply transferred from the hands of their present owners to those of soldiers and citizens of the United States. They will raise more cotton, more sugar, and more rice, than were ever raised before. The only change in the system will be one which will enable the new slave-owners to be relieved from the support of the laborers in sickness and old age. The horror which the African troops experience in this war is nothing to that which they will suffer in fighting the battles of civilization? They will die like sheep under their Yankee taskmasters; but their places can be readily supplied by importing Coolies, after the fashion of England and France, or reopening the slave trade. No remonstrances of England and no Africa coast squadrons would prevent the adoption of the latter alternative if found essential to the demand of slave labor. It was the Yankees and England who first brought slaves from Africa to this continent, and either of them would do it again, or any other thing which their interests demand.
Next to the present proprietors, the condition of the present slaves will, in the event of Southern subjugation, be most pitiable. The contrast to their former condition will intensify the agonies of their exhausting toil. They will be in the hands of men who do not understand them, who have no real sympathy with them, nor any concern of any kind, except to squeeze the greatest amount of profit possible out of their bones and sinews. They will curse the day that they ever heard of abolition; but it will be too late.
