ietly spinning away at American slave labor
cotton; and to ease the public conscience of the kingdom, was loudly
talking of a free labor supply of the commodity from the banks of the
Niger! But the expedition up that river failed, and 1845 found her
manufacturing 626,496,000 lbs. of cotton, mostly the product of American
slaves! The strength of American slavery at that moment may be inferred
from the fact, that we exported that year 872,905,996 lbs. of cotton,
and our production of cane sugar had reached over 200,000,000 lbs.;
while, to make room for slavery extension, we were busied in the
annexation of Texas and in preparations for the consequent war with
Mexico!

But abolitionists themselves, some time before this, had, mostly, become
convinced of the feeble character of their efforts against slavery, and
allowed politicians to enlist them in a political crusade, as the last
hope of arresting the progress of the system. The cry of "Immediate
Abolition" died away; reliance upon moral means was mainly abandoned;
and the limitation of the institution, geographically, became the chief
object of effort. The results of more than a dozen years of political
action are before the public, and what has it accomplished! We are not
now concerned in the inquiry of how far the strategy of politicians
succeeded in making the votes of abolitionists subservient to slavery
extension. That they did so, in at least one prominent case, will never
be denied by any candid man. All we intend to say, is, that the cotton
planters, instead of being crippled in their operations, were able, in
the year ending the last of June, 1853, to export 1,111,570,370 lbs. of
cotton, beside supplying near 300,000,000 lbs. for home consumption; and
that England, the year ending the last of January, 1853, consumed the
unprecedented quantity of 817,998,048 lbs. of that staple.[12] The year
1854, instead of finding slavery perishing under the blows it had
received, has witnessed the destruction of all the old barriers to its
extension, and beholds it expanded widely enough for the profitable
employment of the slave population, with all its natural increase, for a
hundred years to come!!

If political action against slavery has been thus disastrously
unfortunate, how is it with anti-slavery action, at large, as to its
efficiency at this moment? On this point, hear the testimony of a
correspondent of Frederick Douglass' Paper, January 26, 1855:

"How gloriously