in relation to Mississippi, is based upon my view of her present condition, not upon any general theory.  It is not supposed to be applicable to Texas, to New Mexico, or to any future acquisitions to be made south of the Rio Grande."[28] John Forsyth, who for seven years conducted the slave-trade diplomacy of the nation, declared, about 1860:  “But one stronghold of its [i.e., slavery’s] enemies remains to be carried, to complete its triumph and assure its welfare,—­that is the existing prohibition of the African Slave-trade."[29] Pollard, in his Black Diamonds, urged the importation of Africans as “laborers.”  “This I grant you,” said he, “would be practically the re-opening of the African slave trade; but ... you will find that it very often becomes necessary to evade the letter of the law, in some of the greatest measures of social happiness and patriotism."[30]

86. Southern Policy in 1860. The matter did not rest with mere words.  During the session of the Vicksburg Convention, an “African Labor Supply Association” was formed, under the presidency of J.D.B.  De Bow, editor of De Bow’s Review, and ex-superintendent of the seventh census.  The object of the association was “to promote the supply of African labor."[31] In 1857 the committee of the South Carolina legislature to whom the Governor’s slave-trade message was referred made an elaborate report, which declared in italics:  "The South at large does need a re-opening of the African slave trade." Pettigrew, the only member who disagreed to this report, failed of re-election.  The report contained an extensive argument to prove the kingship of cotton, the perfidy of English philanthropy, and the lack of slaves in the South, which, it was said, would show a deficit of six hundred thousand slaves by 1878.[32] In Georgia, about this time, an attempt to expunge the slave-trade prohibition in the State Constitution lacked but one vote of passing.[33] From these slower and more legal movements came others less justifiable.  The long argument on the “apprentice” system finally brought a request to the collector of the port at Charleston, South Carolina, from E. Lafitte & Co., for a clearance to Africa for the purpose of importing African “emigrants.”  The collector appealed to the Secretary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb of Georgia, who flatly refused to take the bait, and replied that if the “emigrants” were brought in as slaves, it would be contrary to United States law; if as freemen, it would be contrary to their own State law.[34] In Louisiana a still more radical movement was attempted, and a bill passed the House of Representatives authorizing a company to import two thousand five hundred Africans, “indentured” for fifteen years “at least.”  The bill lacked but two votes of passing the Senate.[35] It was said that the Georgian, of Savannah, contained a notice of an agricultural society which “unanimously resolved to offer a premium of $25 for the best specimen of a live African imported into the United States within the last twelve months."[36]