Governor Adams recommends the repeal of the Act of Congress declaring Slave Trade to be piracy, in order to remove the brand with which that law marks the possession of slaves; for he says, "if Slave Trade be piracy, the slave must be plunder;" and he declares that the present position of the South can only be maintained by cheap labour, which can only be obtained in one way-by re-opening the African Slave Trade. The Earl of Clarendon. J. SAVILE LUMLEY. (Inclosure.)—Message of Governor Adams to the Legislature of South Carolina. Executive Department, Columbia, South Carolina, Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives,—The object for which you were recently convened in extra session has been determined. The popular vote has declared in favour of the party of our preference. The past admonishes us to reserve the full measure of our rejoicing to the day when the avowed policy of the party shall have been honestly carried out, when justice shall be re-established, and tranquillity restored to the country. Then, indeed, will the victory be one worthy of the strongest demonstration which patriotism can indulge. So far as the result may be regarded as a rebuke to that Northern party whose principle of cohesion is hatred to the South, we share in the general satisfaction. Considered in reference to the vital issue between the North and South, I fear that it will be a barren triumph-that it will prove to be at best but a brief respite of feverish exhausting excitement, destined to end in embittered feeling and distracted counsel among ourselves. Slavery and free soilism can never be reconciled. Our enemies have been defeated, not vanquished. A majority of the free States have declared against the South upon a purely sectional issue, and in the remainder of them formidable minorities fiercely contended for victory under the same banner. The triumph of this geographical party must dissolve the confederacy unless we are prepared to sink down into a state of acknowledged inferiority. We will act wisely to employ the interval of repose afforded by the late election in earnest preparation for the inevitable conflict. The Southern States have never demanded more than equality and security. They cannot submit to less and remain in the Union without dishonour and ultimate ruin. The internal state of the commonwealth over whose affairs you are called to deliberate, exhibits a gratifying condition of general prosperity and contentment. The South has been mercifully spared the scourge of the "pestilence which wasteth," and our people have sown and reaped in peace. Impressed with a sense of our mutual obligations, and with hearts full of gratitude to God, we enter on the work of duty before us. The profits of the Bank of the State for the last year amount to 280,460 dollars 40 cents, exceeding those of the previous year by 7,418 dollars 48 cents. During the fiscal year, the public debt charged on the Bank has been reduced 4,340 dollars 78 cents. The President of the Bank informed me that he expected to make a further reduction of about 35,000 dollars, the arrangements for which could not be completed before the close of the fiscal year. I refer you to the report of the Comptroller-General for a detailed statement of the financial condition of the State. Since the 1st of October, 1855, the public debt has been increased as follows: By issue of bonds to construct new State House 250,000 dollars; by subscription to Blue Ridge Railroad 200,000 dollars. The following table exhibits the debt, liability, and assets of the State: I herewith transmit a communication from the Hon. W. F. Colcock, inclosing a copy of a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury to the Lighthouse Board, and also a copy of the opinion of the Attorney-General of the United States, in relation to the provisions of an Act of the Legislature of South Carolina, granting sites for lighthouses. On reference to these communications, it will be seen that the General Government declines to proceed, on the ground that the consent given by South Carolina to the purchase, is coupled with the condition that South Carolina retains the jurisdiction. Further legislation is asked. I think when the Southern States surrendered to the General Government the power to regulate commerce, they committed a great blunder; but that is no longer a debatable question. If the necessities of commerce require the erection of the proposed lighthouses, I can see no good reason for declining to make the cession upon the same terms as other States have done. Whenever the people of South Carolina determine to dissolve their connexion with the General Government, the possession of a few lighthouses will interpose but feeble barriers to the execution of such a purpose. The outward pressure against the institution of slavery should prompt us to do all we can to fortify it within. Diffusion is strength, concentration weakness. Our true policy is to diffuse the slave population as much as possible, and thus secure in the whole community the motive of self-interest for its support. I have no doubt of the inherent ability of the institution to maintain itself · against all assaults. It is the basis of our political organism, and it would not be difficult to show that the poorest white man among us is directly concerned in its preservation; but the argument of selfinterest is easy of comprehension and sure of action. I recommend the passage of a law exempting from sale (under contracts to be hereafter entered into) at least one slave. Such an immunity would stimulate every one to exert himself to possess his family at least of a property in some decree above the casualties of debt. As you multiply the number who acquire the property, so will you widen and deepen the determination to sustain the institution. The consumption of cotton has steadily increased, and will in a few years exceed the supply-not from want, on our part, of land on which to grow it, but from want of operators to cultivate it. The demand for the article being greater than the supply, the price must go up, in the absence of all disturbing causes. As long as this continues to be the case, we must prosper; but the certain effect of high prices will be to stimulate the growth of it in foreign countries, and in time to destroy the monopoly which we have so long enjoyed. The possession of this monopoly is the chief element of southern prosperity, and the dependence of the manufacturing interests on us for a supply of this article will continue to prove to be one of our strongest safeguards. The amount of cotton now grown in the East Indies should open our eyes to our true policy. The idea that African slaves only can successfully grow cotton, is an entire mistake. Under British domination, free slaves are now producing in the East more than the entire crop of The United States in 1820. From a report of the Hon. W. L. Marcy, Secretary of State, in answer to a Resolution of Congress, it appears that during the year 1855, the shipments of cotton to Great Britain were, from The United States, in round numbers, 679 millions of pounds, and from the East Indies, Egypt, and Brazil, 202 millions of pounds. Whenever England and the Continent can procure their supply of the raw material elsewhere than from us, and the cotton States are limited to the home market, then will our doom be sealed. Destroy the value of slave labour, and emancipation follows inevitably. This, England, our commercial rival, clearly sees, and hence her systematic efforts to stimulate the production of cotton in the East. The success which has thus far attended those efforts will incite her to redouble them. The East Indies abound in fertile land and cheap labour. France, too, is encouraging and stimulating its growth in Algeria, with like advantages of soil and labour. To maintain our present position, we must have cheap labour also. This can be obtained but in one way-by re-opening the African Slave Trade. Until Providence interposes and changes his organism, the African must continue to be a "hewer of wood and a drawer of water." It is a diseased sentimentality which starts back at the idea of legalizing the Slave Trade, and at the same time, contemplates without emotion, the cruel servitude which capital exacts of labour all the world over. There was a time when canting philanthropists had instilled into us a belief that slavery was wrong. Investigation has entirely changed the once common sentiment on this point. The South now believes that a mysterious Providence has brought the two races together on this continent for wise purposes, and that the existing relation has been mutually beneficial. Southern slavery has elevated the African to a degree of civilization which the black race has never attained in any other age or country. "We see it now in its true light, and regard it as the most safe and stable basis for free institutions in the world." Had the Slave Trade never been closed the equilibrium between the North and the South would not have been destroyed. The North has had the Old World from which to draw her supply of labour, and hence the rapid settlement of the North-west. Since 1808 the South has supplied her own labour, and has necessarily made slower progress in settling up the South-west. If the trade were now open, I am persuaded that the South would not consent to close it; and this is, perhaps, the best answer to the argument derived from the mere sentiment that is arrayed against the proposition. It is apprehended that the opening of this trade will lessen the value of slaves and ultimately destroy the institution. It is a sufficient answer to point to the fact that unrestricted immigration has not diminished the value of labour in the North-western confederacy. The cry there is want of labour, notwithstanding capital has the pauperism of the Old World to press into its grinding service. If we cannot supply the demand for slave labour, then we must expect to be supplied with a species of labour we do not want, and which is, from the very nature of things, antagonistic to our institutions. It is much better that our drays should be driven by slaves-that our factories should be worked by slaves-that our hotels should be served by slaves-that our locomotives should be manned by slaves, than that we should be exposed to the introduction, from any quarter, of a population alien to us by birth, training, and education, and which in the process of time must lead to the conflict between capital and labour, "which makes it so difficult to maintain free institutions in all wealthy and highly civilized nations where such institutions as ours do not exist." In all slave-holding States true policy dictates that the superior race should direct, and the inferior perform all menial service. Competition between the white and black man for this service may not disturb northern sensibility, but it does not exactly suit our latitude. Irrespective, however, of interest, the Act of Congress declaring the Slave Trade piracy is a brand upon us which I think it important to remove. If the trade be piracy, the slave must be plunder; and no ingenuity can avoid the logical necessity of such conclusion. My hopes and fortunes are indissolubly associated with this form of society. I feel that I would be wanting in duty if I did not urge you to withdraw your assent to an Act which is itself a direct condemnation of your institutions. But we have interests to enforce a course of selfrespect. I believe, as I have already stated, that more slaves are necessary to a continuance of our monopoly in plantation products. I believe that they are necessary to the full development of our whole round of agricultural and mechanical resources, that they are necessary to the restoration of the South to an equality of power in the general Government, perhaps to the very integrity of the slave society, disturbed as it has been by causes which have induced an undue proportion of the ruling race. To us have been committed the fortunes of this peculiar form of society resulting from the union of unequal races. It has vindicated its claim to the approbation of an enlightened humanity. It has civilized and christianized the African. It has exalted the white race itself to higher hopes and purposes, and it is, perhaps, of the most sacred obligation that we should give it the means of expansion, and that we should press it forward to a perpetuity of progress. I have received "Resolutions of the Legislature of New Hampshire in relation to the late acts of violence and bloodshed perpetrated by the slave power in the territory of Kansas and at the National Capital. In the exercise of a discretion which, I think, |