A REMEDY PROPOSED FOR NEGRO STAMPEDES
Some of the St. Louis papers are discussing the subject of negro stampedes, with the view of arriving at some plan that will put an effectual stopper upon like occurrences in the future. The Republican proposes such an enlargement of the police force as will accomplish the object. The Intelligencer thinks this plan impracticable, because the people would not submit to the increased taxation which it involves but submits a project of its own, which it doubts not will effect the object. We quote from the last named paper:
The evil has got to be an immense one, and it is daily becoming more aggravated in its character. It threatens to subvert the institution of slavery in this State entirely, and unless effectually checked, it will certainly do so.
Justifying themselves by reference to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in the Nebraska bill, as a breech of the national faith on the slavery question which absolves them from all further observance of the laws that protect slavery in the North, there are hundreds and thousands of men now in the free States that would rather see our negroes stolen than not, as a punishment for Southern support of the Douglas bill. And there is no doubt that ten slaves are now stolen away from Missouri to every one that was "spirited" off before the Douglas bill.
The remedy the Intelligencer proposes is reviving and legalizing of the African slave trade
"A Remedy Proposed for Negro Stampedes," Chicago (IL) Weekly Democrat, December 23, 1854