FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION.
ADDRESS
9?*-
TO THE
PEOPLE
OF
WEST VIRGINIA;
SHEWING THAT
SLAVERY IS INJURIOUS TO THE PUBLIC WELFARE, AND
THAT IT MAY BE GRADUALLY ABOLISHED, WITH¬
OUT DETRIMENT TO THE RIGHTS AND IN¬
TERESTS OF SLAVEHOLDERS.
BY A SLAVEHOLDER OF WEST VIRGINIA.
LEXINGTON:
TAINTED BY R. C . NOEL.
1S47.
Library of
Emory University
223284
iiny 211950
CORRESPONDENCE.
Lexington, Va., Sept. 1st, 1847.
Dear Sir:
The undersigned believing that the argument recently deliver¬
ed by you in the Franklin Society, in favor of the removal of the
negro population from Western Virginia, was not only able but un¬
answerable; and that its publication will tend to bring the public
mind to a correct conclusion on that momentous question; request
that you will furnish us with a full statement of that argument for
the press.
We cannot expect that yau will now be able to furnish us with
the speech precisely as it was delivered, nor is it our wish that you
shall confine yourself strictly to the views then expressed. Our
desire is to have the whole argument in favor of the proposition,
presented to the public, in a perspicuous and condensed form. And
believing that your views were not only forcible but conclusive,
and that they were presented in a shape, which cannot give just
cause of offence to even those who are most fastidious and excitable
on all subjects having any connexion with the subject of slavery,
we trust that you will be disposed cheerfully to comply with our
request above expressed.
Very Respectfully,
Your ob't serv'ts,
S. McD. MOORE,
JOHN LETCHER,
DAVID P. CURRY,
JAMES G. HAMILTON,
GEORGE A. BAKER,
J. H. LACY,
JOHN ECHOLS,
JAMES R. JORDAN,
JACOB FULLER, Jr.,
D. E. MOORE,
JOHN W. FULLER.
The Rev. Henry Ruffner, D. D.
Lexington, Va., September 4tb, 1847.
To Messrs. Moore, Letcher, 8fc.,
Gentlemen :
Though long opposed in feeling to the perpetuation of slavery, yet
like others I felt no call to immediate action to promote its removal,
4
until the close of the important debate in the Franklin Society, to
which your letter alludes. The arguments delivered by several of
yourselves, and the results of my own examination of facts, so im¬
pressed my mind with the importance of the subject to the welfare
of the country, that I proceeded immediately to write out an argu¬
ment in favor of a gradual removal of slavery from my native soil,
our dear West Virginia ; and intended in some way to present it to
the consideration of my fellow-citizens. Some months ago you pri¬
vately signified adesire that it might be printed, and have now formally
made the request.
I cheerfully comply, so far as this, in the first instance, that I will
prepare for the press an Address to the Citizens of West Virginia,
comprising the substance of the argument as delivered by me, en¬
riched and strengthened by some of the impressive views exhibited
by several of yourselves. Within the limits of a moderately sized
pamphlet, it is impossible to introduce every important consideration
bearing on the subject, or to do more than present the substance of
the prominent facts and reasons which were more fully exhibited and
illustrated by the debaters in the Society,
As we are nearly all slaveholders, and none of us approve of the
principles and measures of the sect of abolitionists, we think that no
man can be offended with us for offering to the people an argument,
whose sole object is to show that the prosperity of our West Virginia
—if not of East Virginia also,—would be promoted by removing
gradually the institution of slavery, in a manner consistent with the
rights and interests of slaveholders.
To the Great Being who rules the destinies of our country, I com¬
mit the issue of this important movement.
Yours,
HENRY RUFFNER.
CITIZENS
ADDRESS
to the
OF WEST VIRGINIA.
Fellow-Citizens,
Now is the time, when we of West Virginia should review
our public affairs, and consider what measures are necessary and ex¬
pedient to promote the welfare of ourselves and our posterity.
Three years hence another census of the United States will have
been completed. Then it will appear how large a majority we are
of the citizens of this commonwealth, and how unjust it is that our
fellow citizens of East Virginia, being a minority of the people,
should be able, by means of their majority in the Legislature, to
govern both East and West for their own advantage. You have
striven in vain to get this inequality of representation rectified.
The same legislative majority has used the power of which we
complain, to make all our complaints fruitless, and to retain the as¬
cendancy now when they represent a minority of the people, which
they secured to themselves eighteen years ago, while they yet re¬
presented the majority.
You have submitted patiently, heretofore, to the refusal of the
East to let West Virginia grow in political power as she has grown
in population and wealth. Though you will not cease to urge your
claims, you will, if necessary, still exercise this patient forbearance,
until the next census shall furnish you with an argument, which
cannot be resisted with any show of reason. Then—as it seems to
be understood among us—you will make a final and decisive effort
to obtain your just weight in the government.
That will be a critical period in your public affairs. A great end
will then be gained, or a great failure will be experienced. Are
you sure of success ? Can you be sure of it, while the question of
representation stands alone, and liable to unpropitious influences,
even on our side of the J51ue Ridge? We propose to strengthen
this cause, by connecting with it another of equally momentous
consequence—in some respects even more—to our public welfare.
United they will stand ; divided they may fall.
You claim the white basis of representation, on the republican
6
principle that the majority shall rale. You deny that slaves, who
constitute no part of the political body, shall add political weight to
their masters, either as individual voters or as a mass of citizens.
But the slaveholding interest, which is supreme in the East, is also
powerful in -ome parts of the West. Let this be considered as a
perpetual and a growing interest in our part of the State, and it
may throw so much weight on the side of the Eastern principle of
representation, when the hour of decision comes, as to produce a
compromise, and to secure to the East a part at least of what she
claims on the ground of her vast slave property. But let all the
West, on due consideration, conclude that slavery is a pernicious in¬
stitution, and must be gradually removed ; then, united in our views
on all the great interests of our West Virginia, we shall meet the
approaching crisis with inflexible resolution; and West Virginia
can and must succeed in her approaching struggle for her rights and
her prosperity.
The more you consider the subject, the more y( u will be convin¬
ced that both these questions—the white basis and slavery—are of
vital importance, and so intimately connected, that to insure success
in either, we must unite them in our discussions both among our¬
selves and with East Virginia. On both should our views and our
policy be firmly settled, when the crisis of 1850 shall arrive.
It is not the object of this address to discuss the question of re¬
presentation. We leave that subject to the abler management of
those who have heretofore conducted the discussion. Yet as the
success of the great measure which we shall advocate in this address,
will depend much upon our obtaining a just share of representation
in the Legislature, we call your attention to some facts, for the pur¬
pose of showing, that West Virginia has heretofore suffered incalcu¬
lably from her weakness in the Legislature. We remind you of
these things, not to excite resentful feelings, but to confirm you in
your purpose to adhere inflexibly to your just claim of representa¬
tion on the white basis, without compromise. We shall refer to two
facts only, out of many that might be mentioned.
Fifty years ago, when the country beyond the Ohio began to be
opened for settlement, Virginia had already been for years in full
and undisputed possession of her extensive territory on this side,
The country between the Alleghany and the Ohio, containing eigh¬
teen millions of acres, much of it excellent soil, and abounding in
mineral wealth, was an almost unbroken wilderness, and almost in¬
accessible to emigrants, for want of roads through the mountains.
The feeble and detached settlements applied, and for thirty years
continued to apply, almost in vain, for legislative aid to open wagon
roads from the Eastern settlements into their valleys. Let the Acts
of Assembly for these thirty years of our infancy in West Virginia,
be examined, and they will show how little, how very little, our
Eastern mother was willing to do to promote the growth of her
nurseling in the mountains. A few thousand dollars out of her rich
treasury—very few indeed—and now and then some arrearages of
taxes due from the poor settlers in the wilderness, was all that the
7
government could be prevailed on to advance, for the "purpose of
opening this extensive territory for settlement, and to accommodate
its secluded inhabitants.
Now can any man doubt, that if the Legislature had, in the pros¬
perous days of East Virginia, from 1794 to 1824, appropriated only
ten or twelve thousand dollars a year to make good wagon roads
through the mountain districts, that West Virginia would have in¬
creased in population and wealth far more than she did, or could do
without roads ? May we not affirm, that if East Virginia had pur¬
sued that just and enlightened policy, West Virginia would 20 years
ago have been more populous than she was by 100,000 souls, and
more wealthy in a still greater proportion ? No man who has seen
the effect of some lately-constructed roads, in promoting population
and wealth, can doubt it. And what shows more conclusively the
blindness or illiberality of this Eastern policy towards the West, is,
that the public treasury would have been remunerated, fourfold at
least, by the additional revenue which this early outlay for roads—had
it been made—would have produced from the taxpayers of West
Virginia. Here we have one notable instance of what West Vir¬
ginia has suffered from her dependence on an Eastern Legislature.
Though her growth in spite of Eastern neglect, has enabled her of
late years to get some valuable improvements made, she is still de¬
pendent for every boon of this kind, upon the will of those Eastern
people who are now a minority of the Commonwealth.
The other instance to which we intended to refer, is of still greater
importance than the former. Many of you remember that in 1832,
when a negro insurrection in Southampton county had filled nearly
all Virginia with alarm, and made every white man think of the evils
of slavery, a resolution was introduced into the Legislature, to adopt
a system of gradual emancipation, by which the State might, in the
course of 60 years, get rid of the evils of slavery.
Whatever may be thought of such a measure in reference to
Virginia, where the slaves are more numerous than the whites ; there
can be no rational doubt that in West Virginia, the measure, had it
been carried 15 years ago, would by this time have wrought a most
happy change in the condition and prospects of the country : and so
the people of West Virginia then thought, for they were generally
and warmly in favor of it, and zealously advocated it through their
able and patriotic Delegates. But in spite of their efforts, it was re¬
jected by the all powerful Eastern majority, though several Eastern
Delegates joined the West in its support.
We do not censure our Eastern brethren for opposing this measure
SO far as their part of the State is concerned. But still, we of West
Virginia must deem ourselves not only unfortunate, but aggrieved,
when an Eastern majority in the Legislature debars us from obtain¬
ing measures conducive to. our welfare, because these same measures
may not suit the policy of East Virginia.
Though defeated for the time, the friends of gradual emancipation
8
were not In despair. There was a general acknowledgment of the
evils of slavery ; and strong hopes were entertained that, in a few
years, a decided majority of the Legislature would be for ridding the
country of this deleterious institution. But these hopes were sadly
disappointed. East Virginia became more and more adverse, not
only to emancipation in any mode or form, but to any discussion of
the subject. Even in our West Virginia, though we believe no ma¬
terial change of sentiment has taken place, little has since been said,
and nothing done, to effect an object so important to the welfare of
the country.
This.long silence and apparent apathy on our part, is also in some
degree owing to our conscious inability to do any thing requiring Le¬
gislative action, unless East Virginia be pleased to aid us, and this-
we have felt certain she would not do, at any time since the debate
of 1832.
But this unfavorable change of sentiment in Virginia, is due chiefly
to the fanatical violence of those Northern anti-slavery men, who
have been usually called Abolitionists.
The excitement in Great Britain on the subject of West Indian
slavery, was caught by some enthusiasts in this country, and from
that day to th'13 some thousands of these people have been smitten
with a sort of moral insanity. A malignant rage against slave-hol¬
ders—denoted by bitter denunciations and unprincipled calumnies—
has characterized their proceedings. Many other anti-slavery men,
led on by indiscreet zeal, but actuated by purer motives, contributed
to swell the torrent of denunciation, and to alarm the Southern peo*
pie by incessant attempts to disturb their domestic relations, and to
drive them into an immediate abolition of slavery. Southern men
of all parties were indignant at this unjustifiable interference with
their domestic concerns : they knew also that as the principles of
the abolitionists were erroneous, so the measures which they insisted
on our adopting, were rash and dangerous.
The friends of gradual emancipation soon saw that of all the ill
winds that would blow upon their cause, this storm of abolitionism
was the worst. They had to postpone all efforts to effect their ob¬
ject, until this tempest of fanaticism should spend its violence, or
become less alarming. It has raged during 15 years : and now the
abolitionists may boast, if they will, that they have done more in
this time to rivet the chains of the slave, and to fasten the curse
of slavery upon the country, than all the pro-slavery men in the
world have done, or could do, in half a century. They have not,
by honorable means, liberated a single slave: and they never will,
by such a course of procedure as they have pursued. On the con¬
trary, they have created new difficulties in the way of all judicious
schemes of emancipation, by prejudicing the minds of slave-holders,
and by compelling us to combat their false principles and rash
schemes, in our rear; whilst we are facing the opposition of men,
and the natural difficulties of the case, in our front.
9
But, feilow-ciiizens, shall we suffer this meddlesome sect of aboli¬
tionists to blind our eyes to the evils of slavery, and to tie up our
hands, when the condition of the country and the welfare of our¬
selves and our children, summon us to immediate action ? We all
agree that the abolitionists shall not interfere with any policy that
we may choose to adopt, in reference to our domestic relations. We
repudiate all connection with themselves, their principles and their
measures. All that we ask of them, is that they stand aloof, and let
us and our slaves alone. One thing we feel certain of, that we
can and do provide better for the welfare of our slaves, than they
ever did or ever will. What have they ever done, to better the con¬
dition of the slaves whom they have enticed away from their mas¬
ters ? We venture to affirm, that the majority of the poor fellows
who have thus been lured away, have regretted the ease and plenty
which they left behind them. We are not sure that those even, who
Itave been paraded, as abolition lions, from city to city, to tell horri¬
ble stories—the more horrible the better—about the cruelty of slave¬
holders—have long enjoyed as much comfort in their lying occupa¬
tion', as many a contented inmate of our Southern negro-quartersuias
enjoyed in his slavery.
But what of all these abolition manoeuvres ? They are of such
a character, that they disgrace the party which employs them, and
disable that party to do as much mischief as they otherwise could.
Having failed in their first mode of action, by denunciatory pamph¬
lets and newspapers and by petitions to Congress, the most violent
class of abolitionists have now formed themselves into a political
party, aiming to subvert the Federal Constitution, which guvantiea
the rights of slaveholders, and to destroy the Federal Union, which
is the glory and safeguard of us all. Thus they have armed against
themselves every American patriot: and what is most remarkable,
they have met, from the opposite extreme, those Southern politicians
and ultra-proslaverv men—called chivalry and nullifiers—who so of¬
ten predict and threaten a dissolution of the Union. Thus it is that
extremes often meet.
Now when the ultraists on both sides have shown their colors, we
may leave them to the management ol the uncorrupted classes of
American citizens, who will doubtless give a good account of them
all—whilst we of West Virginia steer our course in the safe mid¬
dle way, and seek to remove the plague of slavery from our limits,
without incurring the charge of ultra-abolitionism on the one hand,
or of ultra groslaveryism—or whatever it may be called—on the
other. Against the one party, we affirm the right of slaveholding,
under present circumstances : against the other party, we affirm the
expediency of removing slavery from West Virginia, and from every
other State or portion of a State, in which the number of slaves is
not too large.
At the same time we avow the principle, that every State, and
every great division of a State, ought, in a domestic matter of sudi
2
10
importance to judge and act for itself. We disclaim all intention to
interfere with slavery in East Virginia. We leave it to our brethren
there, to choose for themselves, whether they will let the institution
remain as it is, or whether they will modify it or abolish it, in one
way or in another. Their slave population is relatively eight times
as large as ours. The same remedy may not be expedient in such
different stages of a disease. All that we ask of our Eastern breth¬
ren, in regard to this matter, is, that if West Virginia shall calj for a
law to remove slavery from her side of the Blue Ridge, East Vir¬
ginia shall not refuse her consent, because the measure may not be
palatable to herself.
Heretofore no such scheme for West Virginia only has been pro¬
posed among us ; and no State has abolished slavery in one part of
her territory and retained it in another. For this reason some per¬
sons may at first thought consider such a scheme as unfeasible. A
State composed partly of free, and partially of slavebolding terri¬
tory, may seem to present a political incongruity, and to be incapa¬
ble of conducting its public affairs harmoniously. To relieve the
minds of those who may feel apprehensions of this sort, we offer the
following suggestions.
1. Free States and slavebolding States have, during 53 years,
lived peaceably and prosperously under one Federal government.
Sectional jealousies and occasional jars have occurred, but without
evil consequence.
2. Nothing in the nature of the case need create difficulty, ex¬
cept the framing of laws that may affect the rights and interests of
slaveholders. But an amendment of the constitution could easily
provide lor the security of slaveholders in East Virginia against all
unjust legislation, arising from the power or the anti-slavery princi¬
ples of the West.
3. After such an emancipation law as we propose, should be
passed for West Virginia, no immediate change would take place in
the institution of slavery among us ; except that masters would pro¬
bably choose to emancipate or remove from the State, a larger num¬
ber of slaves than heretofore. As only the next generation of ne¬
groes would be entitled to emancipation, the law would not begin
its practical operation for 21 years at least, and then it would operate
gradually for 30 or 40 years longer, before slavery would be extin¬
guished in West Virginia. So that for many years the actual slave
interest among us would not be greatly diminished.
4. There is, and long has been, in different parts of Virginia,
every degree of difference, from the least to the greatest, between
the slavebolding and non-slaveholding interests of the people. In
some parts, the slaves are two or three times as numerous as the whites,
and the slavebolding interest overrules and absorbs every thing. In
other parts, not one man in a hundred owns a slave, and the slave-
holding interest is virtually nothing. In West Virginia at large, the
slaves being only one-eighth of the population, and the slavebolding
11
population less than one-eighth of the whites, the free interest pre¬
dominates nearly as much as the slave interest predominates in East
Virginia : so that we have in practical operation, if not in perfection,
that political incongruity of slave interest and free interest, which is
feared as a consequence of the measure that we propose.
5. By allowing West Virginia her just share of representation,
and, if she call for it, a law for the removal of slavery, East Virginia
will do more to harmonize the feelings of the State, than she ever
has done, or can do by a continued refusal. West Virginia being
then secured in her essential right? and interests, will not desire a
separation, nor be disposed to disturb the harmony of the Common¬
wealth. So far from aiding the designs of the abolitionists, either in
Congress or in our Legislature, both her feelings and her interests
will make her more than ever hostile to that pernicious sect.
6. If East Virginia apprehend, that the delegates from the free
counties would often speak more freely about slavery matters, than
she would like to hear in her central city of Richmond ; let her agree
to remove the seat of government to Staunton, near the centre of
our territory and of our white population, and she will be free from all
annoyance of this sort. West Virginia would then appear no more
like a remote province of East Virginia, and be no longer subject to
the disadvantage of having all measures affecting her interest, acted
upon by a Legislature deliberating in the heart of East Virginia, and
exposed to the powerful influence of a city and a people, whose
bland manners and engaging hospitalities, are enough to turn both
the hearts and the heads of us rough mountaineers, whether we be
legislators or not.
Having thus removed some grounds of misapprehension and pre¬
judice respecting our views, we shall now proceed, fellow-citizens,
to lay before you some facts and arguments, which prove the expe¬
diency of abolishing slavery in West Virginia, by a gradual process,
that shall not cause any inconvenience either to society in general, or
to slaveholders in particular.
We use no theoretical or abstract arguments. We ground our
conclusions upon facts and experience. Though the history of other
ages and countries would furnish us with useful illustrations* we
have not room in this address to extend our observations much be¬
yond our own age and country. Nor is it necessary that we should ;
for within these limits we have abundant materials for argument,—
far more than we shall he able to use on the present occasion.
No where, since time began, have the two systems of slave labor
and free labor, been subjected to so fair and so decisive a trial of
their effects on public prosperity, as in these United States. Here
the two systems have worked side bv side for ages, undej"such equal
circumstances both political and physical, and with such ample time
and opportunity for each to work out its proper effects,—that all must
admit the experiment to be now complete, and the result decisive.
No man of common sense, who has observed this result, can doubt
J2
for a moment, that the system of free lahor promotes the growth and
prosperity of States, in a much higher degree than the system of
slave labor. In the first settlement of a country, when labor is scarce
8nd dear, slavery may give a temporary impulse to improvement:
but even this is not the case, except in warm climates, and where
free men are scarce and either sickly or lazy: and when we have said
this, we have said all that experience in the United States warrants
us to say, in favor of the policy of employing slave labor.
It is the common remark of all who have travelled through the
United States, that the free States and the slave States, exhibit a
striking contrast in their appearance. In the older free States are
seen all the tokens of prosperity :—a dense and increasing popula¬
tion ;—thriving villages, ■ towns and cities;—a neat and productive
agriculture, growing manufactures and active commerce.
In the older parts of the slave States,—with a few local excep¬
tions,—are seen, on the contrary, too evident signs of stagnation or
of positive decay,—a sparse population,—a slovenly cultivation
spread Over vast fields, that are wearing out, among others already
worn Out and desolate;—villages and towns, " lew and far between/'
rarely growing, often decaying, sometimes mere remnants of what
they were, sometimes deserted ruins, haunted only by owls ;—gene¬
rally no manufactures, nor even trades, except the indispensable
few ; —commerce and navigation abandoned, as far as possible, to
the people of the free States ;—and generally, instead of the stir
and bustle of industry, a dull and dreamy stillness, broken, if bro¬
ken at all, only by the wordy brawl of politics.
But we depend not on general statements of this sort, however'
unquestionable their truth may be. We shall present you with sta¬
tistical facts, drawn from public documents of the highest authority.
We shall compare slave States with free States, in general and in
particular, and in so many points of view, that you cannot mistake in
forming your judgment of their comparative prosperity. %
Density and increase of population are, especially in fife United
States, both an element and a criterion of prosperity. The men of
a State are its first element of power—not only military power, and
political power—but what is of more importance, productive power.
The labor of men produces wealth, and with it the means of all hu¬
man comfort and improvement. The more men there are on a
square mile, the more power there is on that square mile, to create
every thing that conduces to the welfare of man. We know that
the natural resources of every country are limited ; and that whenever
there are men enough in a country, to improve all its resources of
wealth to the best advantage, increase of population becomes an evil.
But no State in this Union has yet approached that point; no slave
Slate has advanced half way to it. England still prospers with more
than 250 inhabitants to the square mile ; Virginia languishes with
only 20, though she is by nature almost as richly endowed as Eng«*
land. Massachusetts thrives with 100 inhabitants.to the square mile;
13
Virginia, considering her natural advantages, ought to thrive as well
with a much larger number ; and so she would, if she had the same
quality of men on her soil.
Without further preface, we proceed to compare
1. The progress of population in the free States and the slave-
holding; States.
It has so happened that, from the beginning, these two classes of
States have been nearly equal in number and in natural advantages ;
only the slaveholding States have always had the larger share of ter¬
ritory, with a soil and climate peculiarly adapted to the richest pro¬
ducts of Agriculture.
At the first census in the year 1790, these two classes of States
were about equal in population : the free States had 1,968,000 in¬
habitants, and the slave States 1,961,000 ; so that they started even
in the race of population ; for the superior extent of the slave States
gave them an advantage in the race, far more than equivalent to their
small inferiority of numbers.
Twenty years later, it was found that the free States had gained
276,000 inhabitants more than the slave States; though Louisiana
with her population, had in the mean time been added to the latter.
The free States continued to run ahead, gaining more and more
on the slave States at each successive census, up to the last in 1840,
when they had a population of 9,729,000, against 7,320,000 in the
slave States.
This result is more surprising, when we consider that in 1790, the
slave States had a territory embracing 220,000 square miles, against
160,000 square miles in the free States; and that as new States and
Territories were added to the old, the class of slave States still gain¬
ed in Territory, as they continued to fall behind in population. In
1840, the slaveholding Territory, actually inhabited, contained an
area of 580,000 square miles, at least; while the inhabited free Ter¬
ritory, contained about 360,000 square miles. The slave country
was therefore less than half as thickly peopled as the free country.
Some advocates of slavery apologize for this result, by ascribing
it to foreign emigration, which, they say, goes almost wholly to the
free States. We deny that it goes almost wholly to the free States:
but if it did ; what are we to infer from the fact ? That slavery
does not check the growth of States ? No ; but on the contrary,
that it checks their growth in various ways; partly by repelling emi¬
grants, who would come from the<free States and from foreign coun¬
tries—which it does : and partly by driving out free laborers from
the slave States into the free States—which it does, also.
But this general comparison between the two classes of States,
does not truly measure the effect of slavery in checking the growth
and prosperity of States; because, in the first place, it takes in the
new thinly peopled slave States, where slave labor operating on
pew soils of the best quality, has not had time to do its work of
impoverishment and desolation ; and because, in the se'cond place, it
takes in .some States, both old and new, in which the slaves are com-
14
paratively few, and a predominance of free labor counteracts the
destructive tendencies of slavery. Such are the old State of Mary¬
land and the new State of Missouri ; besides others—as Kentucky
and Tennessee—in which slavery, though deeply injurious, is itselt
held in check by a free laboring population.
We will therefore take the old free States, and compare them
with the old slave States of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, in
which slave labor predominates.
New England and the middle States of New York, New Jersey,
and Pennsylvania, contained in 1790, 1,968,000 inhabitants, and in
1840, 6,760,000 ; having gained, in this period, 243 per cent.
The four old slave States had in 1790, a population of 1,47.3,000 ;
and in 1840, of 3,279,000, having gained, in the same period, 122
per cent, just about half as much in proportion, as the free States.
They ought to have gained ;ibout twice as much; for they had at
first only seven inhabitants to the square mile, when the free States
not only had upwards of twelve, but on the whole much inferior ad¬
vantages of soil and climate. Even cold, barren New England,
though more than twice as thickly peopled, grew in population at a
faster rate than these old slave States.
About half the territory of these old slave States is new country,
and has comparatively few slaves. On this part the increase of
population has chiefly taken place. On the old slave-labored low¬
lands,a singular phenomenon has appeared : there, within the bounds
of these rapidly growing United States,—yes, there, population has-
been long at a stand ; yes, over wide regions—especially in Virgi¬
nia—it has declined, and a new wilderness is gaining upon the cul¬
tivated land ! What has done this work of desolation ? Not war,
nor pestilence; not oppression of rulers, civil or ecclesiastical;—but
slavery, a curse more destructive in its effects than any of them.
It were hard to find, in old king-ridden, priest-ridden, overtaxed,
Europe, so large a country, where within twenty years past, such a
growing poverty and desolation have appeared.
It is in the last period of ten years, from 1830 to 1840, that this
consuming plague of slavery has shown its worst effects in the old
Southern States. Including the increase in their newly settled, and
Western counties, they gained in population only 7§ per cent; while
cold, barren, thickly peopled, New England gained 15, and the old
middle States, 26 per cent. East Virginia actually fell off 26,000
in population; and with the exception of Richmond and One or
two other towns, her population%ontinues to decline. Old Virginia
was the first to sow this land of ours with slavery; she is also the
first to reap the full harvest of destruction. Her lowland neighbors
of Maryland and the Carolinas, were not far behind at the seeding;
nor are they far behind at the ingathering of desolation. Most sor¬
ry are we for this fallen condition of "The Old Dominion," and of
her neighbors: but such being the fact, we state it, as an argument
and a warning to our West Virginia. It demonstrates the ruinous
effects of slavery upon the countries in which the longest and most
complete trial of it has been made.
15
There are certain drugs, of which large doses are poisonous, but
small ones are innocent or even salutary. Slavery is not of this
kind. Large doses of it kill, it is true ; but smaller doses, mix them
as you will, are sure to sicken and debilitate the body politic. This
can be abundantly proved by examples. For one, let us take the
rich and beautiful State of Kentucky, compared with her free neigh¬
bor Ohio. The slaves of Kentucky have composed less than a
fourth part of her population. But mark their effect upon the com¬
parative growth of the State. In the year 1800, Kentucky contain¬
ed 221,000 inhabitants, and Ohio, 45,000. In forty years, the popu¬
lation of Kentucky had risen to 780,000; that of Ohio to 1,519,000.
This wonderful difference could not be owing to any natural supe¬
riority of the Ohio country. Kentucky is nearly as large, nearly
as fertile, and quite equal in other-gifts of nature. She had greatly
the advantage too in the outset of this forty years race of popula¬
tion. She started with 5i inhabitants to the square mile, and came
out with 20: Ohio started with one inhabitant to the square mile,
and came out with 38. Kentucky had full possession of her terri-?
tory at the beginning. Much of Ohio was then, and for a long time
afterwards, in possession of the Indians. Ohio is by this time con¬
siderably more than twice as thickly peopled as Kentucky; yet she
still gairis both by natural increase and by the influx of emigrants;
while Kentucky has for twenty years been receiving much fewer
emigrants than Ohio, and multitudes of her citizens have been yearly
^noving off to newer and yet newer countries.
In Tennessee the proportion of slaves is about the same, and the
effects are about the same, as in Kentucky. Missouri is too new a
country to afford instruction on this subject; but her physical ad¬
vantages are drawing such a multitude of free emigrants into her,
that her small amount of slavery must, ere long, give way and van¬
ish before "the genius of universal emancipation."
Maryland has comparatively few slaves, and these are found
chiefly about her old tide water shores, where like the locusts, they
have eaten up nearly every green thing. On the whole, the slaves
of Maryland have composed between a fourth and a fifth part of her
population. Her progress under this dead weight, has been much
slower than that of her neighbor Pennsylvania; and would be com¬
pletely stopped, if this free neighbor did not send a vivifying influ¬
ence into her upper counties and her city of Baltimore.
Our own West Virginia furnishes conclusive evidence, that slave¬
ry, in all quantities and degrees, has a pernicious influence on the
public welfare. But we reserve this example to a subsequent head
of the argument, where we can present it in a more complete form.
We have now seen how slavery, when in full operation, first
checks, and then stops, the growth of population ; and finally turns
it into a decline. We have seen also that slavery, when in partial
operation, or mixed with a larger proportion of free labor, hangs
like a dead weight upon a country, and makes it drag heavily on¬
wards in the march of population.
Increase of population depends upon increase in the means of
1G
living. Whenever the three great branches of productive industry,
Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce, or any of them, continue
to yield increasing products, the population will increase at the same
rate; because then industry produces a surplus beyond the present
wants ot the people, and more families can be supported. This is
the general rule. The only exceptions to it are partial and tempo¬
rary in their occurrence. Population may increase to a small de¬
gree, while the yearly products of industry are stationary ; but then
it can be, only by allowing to each individual a reduced share of
products. In this case poverty and misery increase with the popu¬
lation, and must soon stop its progress. In this country, where emi¬
gration to new territories is so easy, the people are sure to relieve
themselves by emigration, whenever the means of living begin to
fail in their native place. Without some pressure of this sort, at¬
tachment to -their native land is ordinarily sufficient to prevent men
from emigrating. Some may emigrate without any feeling of ne¬
cessity ; but as many, if not more, will not emigrate, until want
pinches them sorely.
We may lay it down as a general rule, therefore, that the quanti¬
ty of emigration from a State is a pretty accurate index of its com¬
parative prosperity. If few leave it, we may justly infer that its
industry is th#ying—sufficiently so to support the natural increase
of its population, and to make nearly all contented at home. But
if a large and perpetual stream of emigrants is pouring ouc of it in
search of better fortune elsewhere;—it is an infallible symptom-oj^
one of two things; either that the country has no more natural'
sources from-which industry may draw increasing products,or that
the people areNdefficient in enterprise and skill to improve the re-
sources of their country.
Let us apply this rule to Virginia, and how will she appear ? We
take it for granted, that the people of Virginia multiply as fast,
naturally, as the people of other States—that is, at the rate of 334
per cent in ten years ; so that if none emigrated, the number
would be increased by one third in that period of time.
Compare this natural increase with the census returns, and it ap¬
pears that in the ten years from 1830 to 1840, Virginia lost by emi¬
gration no fewer than 375,000 of her people, of whom East Vir¬
ginia lost 304,000 and West Virginia 71,000. At this rate Vir¬
ginia supplies the West every ten years with a population equal in
number to the population of the State of Mississippi in 1840 !
Some Virginia politicians proudly—yes, proudly,—fellow-citi¬
zens,—call our old Commonwealth, The Mother of States ! These
enlightened patriots might pay her a still higher compliment, by
calling her The Grandmother of States. For our part, we are
grieved and mortified, to think of the lean and haggard condition
of our venerable mother. Her black children have sucked her so
dry, that now, for a long time past, she has not milk enough for her
offspring, either black or white.
But, seriously, fellow-citizens, we esteem it a sad, a humiliating,
fact, which should penetrate the heart of every Virginian, that from
17
the year 1790 to this lime, Virginia has lost more people by emigra¬
tion, than all the old free States together. Up to 1840, when the
last census was taken, she had lost more by nearly 300,000. She
has sent—or we should rather say, she has driven from her soil—at
least one third of all the emigrants, who have gone from the old States
to the new. More than another third have gone from the other old
slave States. Many of these multitudes, who have left the slave
States, have shunned the regions of slavery,-and settled in the free
countries of the West. These were generally industrious and en¬
terprising white men, who found by sad experience, that a country
of slaves was not the country for them. It is a truth, a certain truth,
that slavery drives free laborers—farmers, mechanics, and all, and
some of the best of them loo—out of the country, and fills their places
with negroes.
What is it but slavery that makes Marylanders, Carolinians, and
especially old Virginians and new Virginians—fly their country atsuch
a rate ? Some go because they dislike slavery and desire to get
away from it: others, because they have gloomy forebodings of what
is to befal the slave States, and wish to leave their families in a
country of happier prospects : others, because they cannot get profita¬
ble employment among slaveholders : others, industrious and high-
spirited working men, will not stay in a country where slavery, de¬
grades the working man : others go because they see that their coun¬
try, for some reason, does not prosper, and that other countries, not
Jar •■off, are prospering, and will afford better hopes of prosperity to
themselves: others, a numerous class, who are slaveholders and can¬
not live without slaves, finding that they cannot live longer with them •
on their worn out soils, go to seek better lands and more profitable
crops, where slave labor may yet for a while enable them and their
children to live.
But you know well, fellow-citizens, that this perpetual drain of
our population, does not arise from a failure of natural resources for
living in Virginia. How could it, while so much good soil is yet a
wilderness,'and so much old soil could be fertilized ; and while such
resources for manufactures and commerce lie neglected 1 •,
Had Virginia retained her natural increase, or received; as many
emigrants as she sent away, frotn the year 1790 to the present time,
she would now have had three times her actual population ; and, had
all been free-men, each laboring voluntarily, and for his own benefit,
all could have prospered in her wide and richly-gifted territory.
The true cause of this unexampled emigration is, that no branch
of industry flourishes, or can flourish among us, so long as slavery is
established by law, and the labor of the country is done chiefly by
mien, who can gain nothing by assiduity, by skill, or by economy..
All the older slaveholding Slates have proved this by sad experience.
We shall make good the assertion by setting before you,
2. A comparative view of the Agriculture, the Manufactures
3
18
and the Commerce, of the old free States, and the old slave
States,—especially Virginia.
Thus we shall lay open the immediate causes of the vast emigra¬
tion from our State, and of the slow growth of West Virginia afrd
Kentucky, in comparison with the neighboring free countries.
You will observe also, how every class of facts that bear ut all upon
the subject, lead uniformly to the same conclusion; how every line
of inquiry always points to slavery, as the original cause of inferior
prosperity or of positive decline.
In our statements we always go upon the best evidence which can
be had,—generally official documents.
We begin with
The Agriculture of the old States.
The census of 1840 embraces returns ol the number of livestock
in each State;—the estimated quantities of grain and other crops
raised the preceding year;—-the value of poultry, of the products
of dairies, orchards and market gardens ;—the quantities of fire¬
wood, lumber, tar, &cv, sold in each State ;—together with the num¬
ber of persons employed in agriculture.
The plan wa3 to obtain a complete view of the agriculture of the
United States. Many errors undoubtedly exist in these returns,
partly from wrong estimates of the iarmers, partly from the negligence
of the Deputy Marshals who took the census. Some blunders of
the latter are manifest upon the face of the returns ; but these may
sometimes be corrected, if not perfectly, yet sufficiently for all uee-
ful purposes.
Be it observed, that what we want to know on the present occa¬
sion, is not the quantity to a bushel, nor the value to a dollar, of
the agricultural products of each State ; but such a comparative view
of what the lands of the several States produce, in quantity and in
value, that we may form a substantially correct judgment of the rela¬
tive productiveness of their agricultural industry. This we can do
beyond a reasonable doubt, by a judicious use of the census. Per¬
sons acquainted with this sort of investigations know, that although •
each farmer in reporting his crops might commit some error, yet
when all the reports came to be summed up, the errors would tend
to balance one another; and that, as the same sorts of errors would
probably be committed in all the States, the returns might, on the
whole, be comparatively right, though each one was positively wrong.
Thus, if the returns for Virginia should be one-fourth below the
truth, and those for New York one-fourth below the truth; each
wouldbe erroneous in itself, yet the twowould truly represent thecom*
parative products of agriculture in these States : and this is all that
we want in the present argument. But again, suppose that the errors
did not tally so exactly ;—for example, that the returns for Virginia
were one-fourth below the truth, but for New York only oueffifth be<»
19
low the truth ; yet if it appeared by the returns, that the agriculture
of Virginia was only half as profitable as that of New York ; though
the result would not show accurately how much less profitable our
agriculture was, than that of New York ; yet it would truly show the
fact, that it was much less profitable;—and this degree of truth is
sufficient for our argument.
Now if any man deny that this sufficient degree of truth can be
deduced from the census; he is bound to sustain his denial, by con¬
victing the census of a greater amount of error than we have made
allowance for;—and that too, in the very same returns that we use in
our calculations. But no man alive can do this ; for these returns
are incomparably the best evidence that exists on the subject, and are
substantially confirmed by the agricultural census of New York—
(since made)—so far as that State is concerned; and in fact, generally
confirmed by all sorts of evidence, so far as any exists.
In the returns of hemp and flax raised in Virginia, there is an evi¬
dent blunder of the Deputy Marshals in the counties of Bedford,
Prince William, Lee and Lewis: where hundred weights reported,
seem to have been set down as tons. With this exception, no great
error appears. WTe have made the correction in our calculations ;
but enormous as the error seems to be, it might stand without ma¬
terially varying the comparative results.
By estimating the value of the yearly products of each State, and
dividing the same by the number of persons employed in making
those products, we find the average value produced by each person:
and by comparing the results of the calculation for the several States,
we discover the comparative productiveness of Agricultural labor in
the States. This is what we want for our argument.
Professor Tucker, late of the University of Virginia, in his use¬
ful book, on The Progress of Population, &c., has given in detail
a calculation of this sort. He was certainly not partial to the North
in his estimates. We have carefully examined them; and think
that his valuations of products are in some particulars erroneous.
We think,< also, that he has omitted some elements necessary to an
accurate result. We have therefore in our own calculations ar¬
rived at results somewhat different from his ; yet so far as our argu¬
ment is concerned, [the difference is immaterial. We can therefore
assure you, fellow-citizens, that no sort of calculation, founded on
any thing like truth or reason, can bring out a result materially dif¬
ferent from ours.
We have not room here for the particulars that enter into the cal¬
culations : we can only give the results themselves.
The general results, according to both Mr. Tucker and ourselves,
are as follows:
In New England, agricultural industry yields an annual value,
averaging about one hundred and eighty dollars to the hand, that is,
for each person employed.
In the middle States of New York, New Jersey aud Pennsylvania,
20
the average is about two hundred and sixty-five or two hundred and
seventy-dollars to the hand.
And in the old slave States, South of the Potomac, the average is
about 130 dollars to the hand. This, according to our calculation,
is rather above the average for East Virginia, but below that for West
Virginia. The average for all Virginia is about 138 dollars.
Thus it appears by the best evidence which the case admits of,
that the farmers^of the middle States, with their free labor, produce
more than twice as great a value to the hand, as the farmers and
planters of the old slave States ; and that even the New Englanders,
on their poor soils and under their wintry sky, make nearly forty per
cent more, to the hand, than the old Southerners make in the "sunny
South," with the advantage of their valuable staples, cotton and to¬
bacco.
in Maryland, the result is intermediate between the average of the
North and that of the South : and this agrees strikingly with her con¬
dition as a half-slave State ; for lower Maryland is cultivated by ne¬
groes, and has a languishing agriculture, as well as'a stationary popu¬
lation : but upper Maryland is cultivated by free labor, and has a
thriving agriculture with a growing population.
These results, founded on the best evidence, and confirmed by
general observation, are for substance undubitably correct, and can¬
not be overthrown.
Now it is admitted on all hands, that slave labor is betteV*adapted
to agriculture, than to any other branch of industry; and that, if not
good for agriculture, it is really good for nothing.
Therefore, since in agriculture, slave labor is proved to be far less
productive than free labor,—slavery is demonstrated to be not only
unprofitable, but deeply injurious to the public prosperity.
We do not mean that slave labor can never earn any thing for him
that employs it. The question is between free labor and slave labor.
He that chooses to employ a sort of labor, that yields only half as
much to the hand as another sort would yield, makes a choice that is
not only unprofitable, but deeply injurious to his interest.
Agriculture in the slave Statesmay.be characterized in general by
two epithets—extensive—exhaustive—which in all agricultural coun¬
tries forebode two things—impoverishment—depopulation. The gen¬
eral system of slaveholding farmers and planters, in all times and
places, has been, and now is, and ever will be, to cultivate much
land, badly, for present gain—in short, to kill the goose that lays the
golden egg. They cannot do otherwise with laborers who work by
compulsion, for the benefit only of their masters ; and whose sole in¬
terest in the matter is, to do as little and to consume as much as pos¬
sible.
This ruinous system of large farms cultivated by slaves, showed
its effects in Italy, 1S00 years ago, when the Roman empire was at
the height of its grandeur.
Pliny, a writer of that age, in his Natural History, (Book IS, cl).
21
1—17,) tells us, that while the small farms of former times were cul¬
tivated by freemen, and even great commanders did not disdain to
labor with their own hands, agriculture flourished, and provisions
were abundant: but that afterwards, when the lands were engrossed
by a few great proprietors, and cultivated by fettered and branded
slaves, the country was ruined, and corn had to be imported. The
same system was spreading ruin over the provinces, and thus the
prosperity of the empire was undermined. Pliny denounces as the
worst of all, the system of having large estates in the country culti¬
vated by slaves, or indeed, says he, " to have any thing done by men
who labor without hope of reward."
. So Livy, the great Roman historian, observed, some years before
Pliny, (Book 6, ch. 12,) that "innumeraole multitudes of men for¬
merly inhabited those parts of Italy, where, in his time, none but
slaves redeemed the country from desertion —that is, a dense popu¬
lation of free laborers had been succeeded by a sparse population of
slaves.
In further confirmation of our views of the unproductiveness-of
slave labor, when employed in agriculture, we call your earnest at-«
iteration, fellow-citizens, to an address delivered to the Agricultural
Clubs of Mecklenburg, Va., and Granville, N. C., on the 4th of
July last, by James Bruce, Esq.
Mr. Bruce is an intelligent gentleman, and one of the largest slave¬
holders of Virginia. His opinion of slave labor is therefore entitled
to great weight.
We have room for only a few extracts from his Address. After
an estimate of the value of slave labor on the exhausted soil of Vir¬
ginia, compared with its value in cultivating sugar and cotton on
the exuberantly fertile bottoms of Louisiana, he says; r'This cal¬
culation makes the average product of slave labor in Virginia a lit¬
tle over 22 dollars [a year, for each slave.] Thus we see that the
profits of slave labor in Louisiana are more than four times greater
than in Virginia. The inference seems to be very clear, if there be
the remotest approach to accuracy in these calculations, that a largo
portion of our negroes should be sent to the South West. 1 doubt
whether every man who owns more than ten working hands, would
not be better off by the sale or removal of all beyond that number.
But, it may be said, shall we part with so large a portion of our la¬
bor, and leave our lands to waste? Certainly if the labor be un¬
productive, it is folly to keep it. The slave adds nothing to the
moral and physical strength of the country, and if his labor be
profitless, of course he is a nuisance, and the sooner we rid our¬
selves of him the better. His place ivill soon be supplied with a
better population, and in the meantime the poorer lands will be
thrown out of cultivation. The poorer lands in cultivation scarce¬
ly produce returns beyond the support of the laborers who cultivate
them. But, gentlemen, (continues Mr. Bruce) there is another
view of this question, which should urge us to immediate removal.
Jill look to the period when the negro must leave Virginia and
22
North Carolina. There is now a demand for this population, and
the new States of the South are anxious to receive it. The time is
approaching when this demand may cease* and tuhen their doors
may he closed against the admission oj our slaves. Is it prudent
to lose the present opportunity ? Is it not better to commence the
work at once, and to do now what we may be unable to do, when
the emergency becomes more pressing?"
" Suppose (says Mr. Bruce again) all this dead capital, now in¬
vested in slaves, were to become an active monied capital, how ma¬
ny manufactories might be built ? How many improvements might
be made ? Capital would attract labor,t labor for our workshops
and our fields. We should soon have a dense population, which
would give schools to our children, a marlcet to our farmers, and those
railroads which we now clamor for, hut which our poverty and a
sparse population places far beyond our reach."
Every sentence in these extracts contains an important truth;
and especially do the lines that we have marked with Italic letters
deserve the rr.aturest consideration of every citizen of Virginia.
Agriculture, according to Mr. Bruce, cannot flourish among us,
because slave labor is unproductive, and keeps down the population,
—also because it prevents the growth of manufactures, and there¬
by deprives our farmers of a home market, the most valuable of
all;—also because it disables the country to construct railroads and
canals, to facilitate trade and travel; and finally, we may add, be¬
cause it destroys the spirit of industry and enterprise in the white
population, and thus prevents them from doing what is yet in their
power to do for the improvement of the country.
Thus it comes to pass that lower Virginia with stores of fertili¬
zing marl on her extensive shores, still goes on to impoverish pro¬
bably ten times as much land as she fertilizes;—that the valley,
though full of limestone and fertile subsoil, is on the whole becom¬
ing more exhausted by a too wide-spread and shallow cultivation;—
and that West Virginia in general,—to mention but one of many
particulars,—still leaves unoccupied the cheapest and the best sheep-
walks in the United States, and confines her husbandry to a few old
staple products; while New York and Vermont, in their snowy cli¬
mate, gain millions of dollars annually by sheep-husbandry.
In 1840, Vermont had 160 sheep to the square mile, and New
York, in her Northern districts, nearly as many: whilst Virginia
had only 20 to the square mile,—few of them fine-wooled sheep,
and these few chiefly on her Northern border, near free Pennsyl¬
vania.
No doubt sheep could be kept among our mountains, at one third
*We will add to Mr. Brace's remark, that the time is not distant, when the
Southern demand for slaves must cease, and the surplus of this population
in old Virginia be diffused over'West Virginia—as we may show before we
close this address.
fHe means free labor; and thus suggests his opinion of the superior pro¬
ductiveness of free labor, for which he would make room by removing the
slaves,
23
of what they cost in those cold Northern countries, where they
must be stabled and fed during the five snowy months.
Suppose that the mountains of Virginia were as well stocked with
improved breeds of sheep as those North countries ; they would
now be pastured by six millions of those useful animals ; whose
yearly product of wool and lambs would be worth seven or eight
millions of dollars; and the keeping of them would furnish profit¬
able occupation for 12,000 families of free citizens. Then how
changed would be the scene ! Our desolate mountains enlivened
with flocks ; and ten thousand now silent nooks and dells, voGal
with the songs of Liberty,—"The Mountain Nymph, sweet Liber -
ty"!—Why is it not so in our mountains ?—-They who keep slaves
cannot keep sheep. The occupation requires care; but what do
slaves care? Poor wretches ! what should make them care ?
A few significant facts will conclude this sketch of our slave-sys¬
tem of agriculture. The towns and cities of lower Virginia are sup¬
plied with a great part of their hay, butter, potatoes, and other ve¬
getables, not from the farms of Virginia, but from those of the free
States. And even our great pastoral valley imports cheese in large
quantities from the North. *
Next we shall notice briefly
The Influence of Slavery on Manufactures.
It matters not to our argument, whether a high tariff or a low ta¬
riff be thought best for the country. Whatever aid the tariff may
give to manufactures, it gives the same in all parts of the United
.States.. Under the protective tariffs formerly enacted, manufactures
have grown rapidly in the free States; but no tariff has been able
to push a slaveholding State into this important line of industry.
Under the present revenue tariff, manufactures still grow in the
North; and the old South, as might be expected, exhibits no move¬
ment) except the customary one of emigration. VVe hear indeed,
once in a while, a loud jjeport in Southern newspapers, that " The
South is waking up," because some new cotton mill, or other manu¬
facturing establishment,1* has been erected in a slave State: a sure
sign that in the slave States an event of this sort is extraordinary.
In the free States it is so ordinary, as to excite little attention.
Even the common mechanical trades do not flourish in a slave
State. Some mechanical operations must, indeed, be performed ire
every civilized country ; but the general rule in the South is, to im¬
port from abroad every fabricated thing that can be carried in ships,
such as household furniture, boats, boards, laths, carts, ploughs, axes
and axehelves, besides innumerable other things, which free com¬
munities are accustomed to make for themselves. What is most
wonderful, is, that the forests and iron-mines of the South supply,
in great part, the materials out of which these things are made. The
Northern freemen come with their ships, carry home the timber
and pigdron, work them up, supply their own wants with a part,
and then sell the rest at a good profit in the Southern markets.—
^st
Now, although mechanics, by setting up their shops in the Souths
could save all these freights and profits ; yet so it is, that Northern)
mechanics will not settle in the South, and the Southern mechanics
are undersold by their Northern competitors.
Now connect with these wonderful facts another fact, and the
mystery is solved. The number of mechanics in different parts of
the South, is in the inverse ratio of the number of slaves: or in
other words, where the slaves furm the largest proportion of the in¬
habitants, there the mechanics and manufacturers form the least. In
those parts only where the slaves are compaiatively few, are many
mechanics and artificers to be found; but even in these parts they
do not flourish, as the same useful class of men flourish in the free
States. Even in our Valley of Virginia, remote from the sea,
many of our mechanics can hardly stand against Northern compe¬
tition. This can be attributed only to slavery, which paralyzes our
energies, disperses our population, and keeps us few and poor, in
spite of the bountiful gifts of nature, with which a benign Provi¬
dence has endowed our country. ■,
Of all the States m this Union, not one has on the whole such
various and abundant resources for manufacturing, as our own Vir¬
ginia, both East and West. Only think of her vast forests of tim¬
ber, her mountains of iron, her regions of stone coal, her valleys of
limestone and marble, her Fountains of salt, her immense sheep-
walks for wool, her vicinity to the cotton fields, her innumerable
waterfalls, her bays, harbors and rivers for circulating products on
every side;—in short every material and every convenience neces¬
sary for manufacturing industrv.
Above all, think of Richmond, nature's chosen site for the great¬
est manufacturing city in America—her beds of coal and iron,, just
at hand—her incomparable water-power—her tide water navigation,
conducting sea vessels from the foot of her falls,—and above them
he? fine canal to the mountains, through which lie the shortest
routes from the Eastern tides to the great rivers of the West and
the South West. Think also that this Richmond in old Virginia,
" the mother of States," has enjoyed these unparalleled advantages
ever since the United States became a nation;—and then think
again, that this same Richmond, the metropolis of all Virginia, has
fewer manufactures than a third rate New England town;—-fewer—
not than the new city of Lowell, which is beyond all comparison,-—
but fewer than the obscure place called Fall River, among the bar¬
ren hills of Massachusetts :—and then fellow-citizens, what will
you think,—what must you think—of the cause of this strange
phenomenon ? Or, to enlarge the scope of the question What
must you think has caused Virginians in general to neglect their
superlative advantages for manufacturing industry ?—to disregard
the evident suggestions of nature, pointing out to them this fruitful
source of population, wealth and comfort ?
Say not that this state of things is chargeable to the apathy of
Virginians. That is nothing to the purpose, for it does not go to
the bottom of the subject. What causes the apathy ? That is the
Question. (jaome imngme that they give a good reason when (leav¬
ing out the apathy) they say, that Virginians are devoted exclusive¬
ly to agriculture. Hut why should they be, when their agriculture
is tailing them, and they are flying by tens of thuusands from their
worn out fields to distant countries? Necessity, we are told by
these reasonerSj^j^ri vc the New Englandcrs from agriculture in their
barren country, to tr;uTe and manufactures. So it did : Necessity
drives all mankind to labors and shifts for a living. Has necessity,
the mother of invention, ever driven Virginians to trade and manu¬
factures? No; but it drives them in tnultitudes from their native
country. They cannot be driven to commerce and manufactures.
What is the reason of that? If a genial climate and a once-fertile
soil wedded them to agriculture, they should have wedded them al¬
so to their native land. Yet when agriculture fails them at home,
rather than let mines, and coal beds, and waterfalls, and timber-
forests, and the finest tide rivers and harbors in America, allura
them to manufactures and commerce, they will take their negroes
and emigrate a thousand miles. This remarkable fact, that they will
quit their country rather than their ruinous system of agriculture,
proves that their institution of slavery disqualifies them to pursue
any occupation, except their same ruinous system of agriculture.
We admit that some few individuals should he excepted from this
conclusion: but these few being excepted, we have given you the
conclusion of the whole matter; and as Lorenzo Dow used to say—
You cannot deny it.
But many Virginians, from the rarity of manufactures among
them, are apt to conceive so largely of those that they see or hear
of in our State, that they can hardly be persuaded of the exceeding
deficiency of Virginia in this branch of industry. Therefore, in
order to establish the truth of all that we have said on this subject,
we shall give you from the census of 1810, a comparative view of
the manufactures of some of the Free States, and of Maryland and
Virginia. We go no farther South in our comparison, but remark
what is well known to be true, that the farther South, and the lar¬
ger the proportion of slaves, the fewer are the manufactures of the
country.
We begin with Iron-making, which, although an agricultural
operation according to the political economists, is however common¬
ly classed with manufactures. In the returns of the census for Vir¬
ginia, there is an evident blunder ; one furnace in Brunswick county
being reported to have made 5000 tons of cast metal. We have
reduced this to 500 tons; which cannot be below the truth. With
this exception, the returns for Virginia are probably correct. Those
for some of the Northern States are certainly defective—but we
take them as they are.
We put together the three New England States of Vermont,
Massachusetts and Connecticut, which aie in size and resources for
iron-making, equal to about one-third of Virginia. New York is
inferior to Virginia in iron mints, and Peunsylviuia about equal-
4
26
New Jersey and Maryland are not half so richly furnished with
ore-beds as our State.
Putting cast iron and bar iron together for brevity's sake, we find
by the census that the three New England States made about 33,-
000 tons a year; New York 82,000 tons ; New Jersey 18,000 tons ;
Maryland 19,000 tons; Pennsylvania 186,000 tons; Virginia 20,-
000 tons; and young Ohio, with less than half the resources of Vir¬
ginia, 43,000 tons. The two Carolinas together made 4,000 tons.
If we value the cast iron at thirty dollars a ton, and the fiar iron at
fifty dollars, exclusive of the value of the pig metal used in making
it, then Pennsylvania, the only State that has resources for iron-
making equal to those of Virginia, made iron to the value of about
7,400,000 dollars a year, and Virginia, to the value of 720,000 dol¬
lars,—less than one-tenth.
Next, in order to save room, we put together the values of the
manufactures of Cotton, Wool, Leather, and articles manufactured
out of iron and steel, such as Cutlery, Hardware, fyc. We also
put together the three New England States of Massachusetts, Con¬
necticut and Rhode Island, which are in size equal to about one-
fifth of Virginia, and in natural resources for manufactures, to about
one-tenth.
The total value of these four manufactures was,—In the three
New England States, fifty millions of dollars ; in New York, twen¬
ty-one millions; In little New Jersey, six millions; In Pennsylva¬
nia, sixteen millions; In Maryland, three and a half millions; and in
Virginia two and three-fourth millions: So even half-slaveholding
Maryland, a comparatively small State, beats Virginia in these manu¬
factures : and as to the wholly free States, why, you see how the
comparison stands.
To give a clearer idea of the comparative amount of these manu¬
factures, we divide the total value in the several States by their po¬
pulation; and thus find how much it makes on the average for each
individual. In the three New England States, the average is forty-
five dollars a head ; in New York, njne dollars; in New Jersey,
sixteen ; in Pennsylvania, nine; in Maryland seven and a half; and
in Virginia two and a fourth.
If we had taken into the calculation all the various kinds of manu¬
facture, the result of the comparison tvould not be materially dif¬
ferent. We may say therefore that the old Free States have in
general about seven or eight times as large a proportion of manu¬
factures, as our old State of Virginia has, notwithstanding her su¬
perior resources for that branch of industry.
The last census gave also the cost of constructing new buildings
in each State, exclusive of the value of the materials. The amount
of this is a good test of the increase of wealth in a country. To
compare different States in this particular, we must divide the total
cost of building by the number of inhabitants, and see what the
average will be for each inhabitant. We find that it is in Massachu¬
setts, $3 60 cents; in Connecticut, $3 50 cents; in New York*
27
#3 00; in New Jersey, $2 70 cents; in Pennsylvania, $3 10 cents;
in Maryland, $2 30 cents; and in Virginia, Si 10 cents.
The census enables us also to find what proportion there is be¬
tween the number of persons employed in agriculture, and the num¬
ber employed in mechanical trades and manufactures. By calcula¬
tion we find, that for every 100 persons employed in agriculture,
there are employed in manufactures and trades, the following num¬
bers, viz: in Massachusetts, 98 ; in Connecticut, 49 ; in New York,
38 ; in New Jersey, 48 ; in Pennsylvania, 51; in Maryland, 20 ;
and in Virginia, 17.
All these successive comparisons, that we have made between the
principal old free States and Virginia, coincide in their general
results; and thus prove each other to be approximately correct,—
sufficiently so to answer the purpose of our present argument. The
reader must have observed also, how uniformly half-slaveholding
Maryland serves as an intermediate stepping-stone, as we descend
from the high level of Northern prosperity, to the low ground of
Virginia depression.
Surely we need say no more to satisfy every one of you, fellow-
citizens, that trades and manufactures do not flourish in Virginia;
that they are indeed in a very low state; though nature has done
every thing that nature can do, to make them easy and profitable to
our people.
Let us now turn to the third great branch of productive industry,
Commerce and Navigation.
The Northern people derive much of their wealth from com¬
merce and shipping. But the slave States are more deficient in
these, than they are in manufactures. They only make cotton and
tobacco for Northern men and foreigners to buy and ship. We
have mentioned, in general terms, the excellent facilities which our
State possesses for commercial pursuits. We may say, that her bay,
and tide-rivers all make one great haven, 500 miles long, situated
midway between the Northern and Southern extremes of our At¬
lantic coast. Norfolk is the natural centre of the foreign and coast¬
ing trade of the United States. It ought to have commanded the
trade of North Carolina, of all the countries upon the waters of the
Chesapeake, and of half the Great West. It ought to have been
the second, if not the first, commercial city in the United States.
Norfolk is an ancient borough, and once stood in the first rank of
American seaports. But its trade declined, its population was long
at a stand, and nothing but the public Navy Yard has kept it up.
Meanwhile, Northern towns have grown up to cities, and Northern
cities to great and wealthy emporiums ; until our Virginia seaport,
once their equal, would cut a poor figure among their suburbs. Oh
28
that Norfolk were as prosperous, as her citizens are kind and hospi¬
table ! < ■
This sketch of the natural advantages of Norfolk, compared with
its condition, is a good index of the commercial history of Vir¬
ginia. In fact the commerce of our old slave-eaten Common¬
wealth, has decayed and dwindled away to a mere pittance in the
general mass of American trade.
The value of her exports, which twenty-five or thirty years agp,
averaged four or five millions of dollars a year, shrunk by 1842, to
2,820,000 dollars, and by 1845, to 2,100,000 dollars.
Her imports from foreign countries, were, in the year 1765, valued
at upwards of 4,000,000 of dollars; in 1791, they had sunk to 2J
millions ; in 1821, they had fallen to a little over one million ; in <
1827, they had come down to about half this sum; and in 1843, to
the half of this again, or about one-quarter of a million ; and here
they have stood ever since,—at next to nothing.
So our great Virginia, with all her natural facilities for trade, brings
to her ports about one five-hundredth part of the goods, wares and
merchandize, imported into the United States.
Shall we be told that the cause of this decline of Virginia com¬
merce, is the growth of Northern cities ; which by means of iheir ca¬
nals and railroads and vast capital, drawn off the trade from smaller
ports to themselves? And what then ? The cause assigned is
itself the effect of a prior cause. We would ask those who take
this superficial view of the matter: Why should the great commer¬
cial ports be all outside of Virginia, and near or in the free States ?
Why should every commercial improvement, every wheel that speeds
the movements of trade, serve but to carry away from the slave
States, more and more of their wealth, for the benefit of the great
Northern cities? The only cause that can be assigned, is, that where
slavery prevails, commerce and navigation cannot flourish, and cottf-
mercial towns cannot compete with those in the free States. They
are merely places of deposit, for such country produce, as cannot bo
carried directly to the Northern markets. Here Northern and foreign
ships come to carry away these products of slave labor—and this
constitutes nearly all the trade of Southern ports.
No State has greater conveniencies for ship navigation and ship
building, than Virginia. Yet on all her fine tide waters, she has littJ#
shipping ; and what she has, is composed almost wholly of smaU
bay craft and a few coasting schooners. The tonnage of Virginia
■—that is, the number of tons that her vessels will carry—is shame¬
fully small, compared with that of the maritime free States. Maine and
Massachusetts, with about an equal population, have about fifteen
times as much; little Rhode Island has considerably more; New.
York has at least twelve times as much ; Pennsylvania, with her one
sea port, has more than twice as much ; and so has half-slaveholding
Maryland.
As to ship building, Virginia, that ought, with her eminent advan??
29
tages for the business, to build as many ships as any State in the
Union, does less at it than the least of those free States. All that
she builds in a year on her long forest-girt shores, would carry only
eight or nine hundred tons—that is, about as much as one good
packet ship of the North. Maine and Massachusetts build thirty-five
times as much; little Rhode Island builds twice as much ; New York
twenty times as mnch ; Pennsylvania twelve times as much; and
Maryland seven times as much ; and what would astonish us, if we
did not know so many like lacts, is, that much of the ship timber
used in the North, is actually carried in ships from our Southern
forests, where it might rot before Southern men would use it for any
such purpose. We do not blame our Southern people for abstain*
ing from all employments of this kind. What could they do ? Set
their negroes to building ships ? Who ever imagined such an ab¬
surdity ? But could they not hire white men to do such things?
■No : for in the first place, Southern white men have no skill in such
matters; and in the second, place, Northern workmen cannot be hired
in the South, without receiving a heavy premium for working in a
slave State.
Here we close our general review of the effects of slavery upon
the population and the productive industry of States.
We shall now advert briefly to the effects of slavery upon
Common Schools and Popular Education.
There are two ways of estimating the degree of general education
and intelligence among a people : the one is, to judge by the num¬
ber of children going to school ; and the other, to judge by the num¬
ber of grown people who are unable to read or write. The last
census contains returns of all these things.
1. The number of scholars that attended school during some part
of the year, was in New England and New York, one to every four
and a half white persons; in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, one to
every nine ; in Maryland, one to every nineteen ; in Virginia, one to
every twenty-one ; and in the Carolinas, one to every twenty-seven.
2. In respect to the number of grown white persons unable to
read or write, we have to remark, that the returns of the census for
all the States, are somewhat defective ; for the Southern States ex¬
ceedingly so, on account of the great numbers of this class of per¬
sons, and their reluctance to confess their ignorance. The school
systems in the North have made the number very small, excepting
the foreign emigrants, who brought their ignorance with them. In
the South, not only is the number known to be very large, but they
are chiefly natives. Hence it is only in the South, that the defects
30
in the returns prevent us from forming an accurate judgment of the
amount of popular ignorance, resulting from the want of an efficient
school system. In the returns for Virginia, there are eight or ten
counties in which few or none of this class were returned ; and in
many other counties, the numbers returned are evidently far short
of the truth. We ought certainly to add one-third to the total rec
turn, to bring it near the truth. The number returned for Virginia,
is 58,757 : the actual number could not have been under 80,000.
But to be sure of not exceeding the truth, we put it 70,000, We
also put North Carolina at 60,000, and South Carolina at 24,000 ;
which exceed the returns, but certainly fall short of the actual num¬
bers.
By examining the census, we find that the adult part of the popu*
lation is about one-half of the whole. We compare the numbers of
white adults who cannot read, with the total number in each State ;
and find that in New England, these illiterates are as one, to one hun¬
dred and seventy: in New York, as one to fifty-three ; in New Jer¬
sey, as one to fifty-five ; in Pennsylvania, as one to forty-nine ; in
Maryland, as one to twenty-five; in Virginia, as one to five and a
half; in North Carolina, as one to four and a half; and in South
Carolina, as one to five and a half.
We give these only as approximations to the truth; but they are
sufficiently near to show, beyond any manner of doubt, that slavery
exerts a most pernicious influence on the cause of education. This
it does by keeping the white population thinly scattered and poor, and
making the poorer part of them generally indifferent about the edu¬
cation of their children.
A similar difference between the free States and slave States, ap¬
pears in the West, when we compare Ohio with Kentucky and Ten¬
nessee. Four times as large a proportion of children attend school
in Ohio, as in the other two States ; while the proportion of illiterates
is only one-fourth as great. On the whole, the evidence on this sub¬
ject is complete and unquestionable. The people in the slave States
are not, and cannot be, hall as well accommodated with schools, as
in the free States; and slavery inflicts on multitudes of them the
curse of ignorance and mental degradation through life.
Having thus briefly, yet we believe sufficiently, established the
proposition that slavery is pernicious to the welfare of States ; we
shall conclude the argument by establishing the particular proposition*
that slavery is pernicious to the welfare of West Virginia. This
being contained in the general proposition, does not need any sepa-r
rate proof; yet, lest some people should imagine that West Virginia
is an exception, and has not suffered from slavery, we shall demon*
strate to you the contrary by plain facts—facts derived from actual
experience—the very best evidence which the nature of the case
admits of. We compare the past progress and present condition of
i West Virginia, with the past progress and present condition of thG
countries adjacent to her.
31
Fellow-citizens, has it occurred to you to notice the fact, that West
Virginia is almost as large as the State of Ohio ? If the counties of
Allegany and Washington, in Maryland, were added to her, she
would be larger than Ohio.-—" Oh, but Ohio is a much better coun¬
try than West Virginia."—About half the State of Ohio is better,
we grant—that is, it is a better farming country ;—but the other half
is not so good. About one third of Ohio consists of dismal swamps
and poor hills. In mineral wealth our country is decidedly superior.
Taking every thing except slavery into consideration, we say that
West Virginia ought now to have had more than two thirds as much
population and wealth as Ohio. Our great valley is a comparatively
old country, and naturally not much inferior to the best parts of Ohio.
But instead of two-thirds, we have not more than one-fourth of her
population and wealth. In proportion to our natural resources and
actual population, we do not grow even one-third as fast as Ohio,
and our lands in proportion to quality, are not on the whole more
than half as valuable.
But West Pennsylvania furnishes a comparison free from all rea¬
sonable objection or doubt; for it is a country in the same range of
mountains, and similar in every respect, except that it has a harsher
climate. Some say that it is on the whole less fertile. It is not so
large by 5,500 square miles; containing 33,000, while West Vir¬
ginia contains 38,500 square miles.
Let us see
lv The comparative growth and population of West Virginia and
West Pennsylvania.
In 1830, West Virginia contained 378,000 inhabitants.
In 1840, " " '• 432,000
, The increase was 54,000, or I4<J per cent.
In 1830, West Pennsylvania contained 593,000 inhabitants.
In 1840, " " " 815,000
The increase was 222,000, or 37£ per cent.
West Virginia increased in these ten years, about one and a half
to the square mile, and ended with a population of eleven and a half
souls to the square mile.
West Pennsylvania increased in the same time, about seven to the
square mile, and ended with a population of nearly twenty-five to
the sciuare mile.
A
The Great Valley of Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and Alle¬
gany, and from Montgomery county to the Potomac river, has an
area of 10,100 square miles. The same Valley with no material
change of character, extends from the Potomac to the Susquehanna
river, containing an area of 5,100 square miles, in the counties of
32
Cumberland, Franklin, Perry* Huntingdon and Bedford, in Pennj
sylvania, and Washington, in Maryland ; which last, though a feW
6laves remain in it, is a county of free labor. But it might be omit¬
ted, with no sensible change in the result of our comparison.
The Virginia section of the Valley contained,
In 1820, a population of 154,000,
In 1830, " 174.300,
In 1840, •« " 175.500.
The Northern section of the Valley, on half the space, contained,
In 1820, a population of 129,600,
Tn 1830, " " 155,500,
In 1840, " » 179,500.
The Virginia section increased moderately, the first ten years ; but
scarcely at all, the second teu. The total increase in twenty years,
was less than fourteen per cent.
The Northern section kept on, all the time, increasing at a good
rate ; and gained in the twenty years, thirty-eight and a half percent,
nearly three times as much as the Virginia section.
Yet the Virginia section was at last only half as thickly peopled as
the other, and ought therefore to have grown twice as fast. Instead
of that, it came almost to a full stop, the last ten years : in fact the
newer mountain counties, where there are almost no slaves, and they
only, increased a little : the other and richer counties, where slaves
were numerous, and had been gaining on the white population—*
these counties have increased very little for twenty years; some of
them have rather declined. The land has already got slave-sick,
and is spewing out its inhabitants.
What a pity that so rich and so lovely a land, should be afflicted
with this yellow fever and this black vomit.
But let us return to the general comparison.
The Agriculture of West Pennsylvania is much better con¬
ducted, and much more prosperous, than that of West Virginia.
We have calculated its productiveness from the census tables, in the
manner before described ; and we find that the farming industry of
West Pennsylvania yields the annual value of two hundred and
twelve dollars to the hand; that of West Virginia, one hundred and
fifty-eight dollars to the hand. This result is substantially correct;
for the lands of West Pennsylvania are much more highly valued, than
those of similar natural qualities in West Virginia. This is true, both
in the Great Valley, and West of the Allegany. Mark that fact, fel-
low-citizer.s ; it is worthy of deep consideration ; it is full of mean¬
ing. Lands in West Virginia ate much cheaper than similar lands id
the free country North of Virginia. Yet rather than buy end culti¬
vate these eood cheap Virginia lands, Northern fanners go farther,'
pay more, and fare worse ;—so they do, and so they will. They
look upon all Virginia as an infected country ;—and so it is.
Next, the Iron-making Business.
' O
West Virginia had, in 1840, as good natural resources, in evefy
respect, for making iron, as West Pennsylvania. Yet, according to
fhe census of 1840, (when no stone-coal was used in iron furnaces,)
West Virginia made only 14,660 tons of cast and of bar iron, a
year ; when West Pennsylvania, made 116,530 tons. The value of
the West Virginia iron was 515,000 dollars, that of West Pennsyl¬
vania iron was 4,^63,000 dollars. The West V irginia iron mas¬
ters made seventy per cent on their capital, and 390 dollars worth
to the hand-—chiefly slaves. The West Pennsylvania iron-masters
made 109 per cent on their capital, and 720 dollars worth to' fii'e
hand :—all free laborers.
There is no sign of material error in the census returns, from
which we derive these results ; and no error can he supposed, which
would materially change them.
The iron business has since increased in West Virginia; if has
increased vastly more in West Pennsylvania.
Next, Manufactures.
If to the value of the cast and the bar iron of each country, we
add the value of the manufactures ol iron and steel, of wool, cotton
and leather, we get a total of 770,000 dollars in West Virginia, and
about six millions of dollars in West Pennsylvania.
The cost of constructing new buildings, [amounted, in West Vir¬
ginia, to about one-fourth of what it did in West Pennsylvania ; in¬
dicating an increase in wealth and population at the same compara¬
tive rate.
Manufactures make towns, and towns make good markets for far¬
mers ; the larger the towns the better the markets, and the more val¬
uable the lands near them. The Pennsylvania towns are larger and
more numerous than the Virginia towns, both in the Valley and West
of it. The boast of our West Virginia is the good city of Wheel¬
ing. Would that she were six times as large, that she might equal
Pittsburg, and that she grew five limes as fast, that she might keep
tip with her.
We glory in Wheeling, because she only, in Virginia, deserves to
be called a manufacturing town. For this her citizens deserve to be
crowned~not with laurel—but with the solid gold of prosperity.
But how came it, that Wheeling, and next to her, Wellsburg—cf
5
34
all ihe towns in Virginia—should become manufacturing towns ?—
Answer : They breathe the atmosphere of free States, almost touch¬
ing them on both sides.—But again; seeing that Wheeling, as a
seat for manufactures, is equal to Pittsburg, and inferior to no town
in America, except Richmond ; and that moreover, she has almost
no slaves :—why is Wheeling so far behind Pittsburg, and compara¬
tively so slow in her growth ?—Answer : She is in a country in
which slavery is established bv law.
Thus it appears, fellow-citizens, by infallible proofs, that West
Virginia, in all her parts and in all her interests, has suffered im¬
mensely from the institution of slavery.
The bad policy of the Legislature in former times, in respect to
roads and land surveys west of the Allegany, did great injury to the
country. But after allowance is made for this, a vast balance of in¬
jury is chargeable to slavery, and to nothing else. In the Great Val¬
ley, where the other causes had little or no operation, the effects of
slavery are most manifest and most pernicious. In those parts West
of the Allegany, upon the Ohio and its navigable waters, where
want of roads and disputed land titles did least injury—there too the
corrosive touch of slavery has also shown its cankerous effects.
Here, fellow-citizens, we conclude the general argument; not be¬
cause we have exhausted our materials—far from it—but because
you will think we have said enough for the present. We shall now,
by way of appendix to ihe argument, lay down three propositions,
to show the necessity of immediate action, to deliver our West Vir¬
ginia from- the growing evils of slavery.
1. Comparatively few slaves in a country, especially one like ours,
may do it immense injury.
This has been already proved ; but we wish to impress it on your
minds. We shall, therefore, explain by examples, how a few slaves
in a country may do its citizens more immediate injury, than a large
number.
When a white family own fifty or one hundred slaves, they can, so
long as their land produces well, afford to be indolent and expensive
in their habits ; for though each slave yield only a small profit, yet
each member of the family has ten or fifteen of these black work-
animals to toil for his support. It is not until the fields grow old,
and the crops grow short, and the negroes and the overseer rake
nearly all, that the day of ruin can be no longer postponed. If the
family be not very indolent and very expensive, this inevitable day
may not come before the third generation. But the ruin of small
slaveholders, is often accomplished in a single life-time.
When a white family own five or ten slaves, they canr.ot afford to
be indolent and expensive in their habits; for one black drudge can-
35
not support one white gentleman or lady. Yet, because they are
slaveholders, this family will feel some aspirations for a life of easy
gentility ; and because field work and kitchen work are negroes'
work, the young gentlemen will dislike to go with the negroes to
dirty field work, and the young ladies will dislike to join the black
sluts in any sort of household labor.—Such unthrifty sentiments are
the natural consequence of introducing slaves among the families of
a country ; especially negro-slaves. They infallibly grow and
spread, creating among the white families a distaste for all servile
labor, and a desire to procure slaves who may take all drudgery off
their hands. Thus general industry gives way by degrees to indo¬
lent relaxation, false motives oi dignity and refinement, and a taste
for fashionable luxuries. Then debts slyly accumulate. The result
is, that many families are compelled by their embarrassments to sell
off and leave the country. Many who are unable to buy slaves,
leave it also, because they feel degraded, and cannot prosper where
sfavery exists. Citizens of the Valley ! Is it not so ? Is not this
the chief reason why your beautiful country does not prosper like
the Northern Valleys.
2. Slavery naturally tends to increase from small beginnings, un¬
til the slaves out-number the whites, and the country is ruined.
How this comes to pass, is partly explained in the preceding re¬
mark?.
The tendency of a slave population to gain upon the whites, may
be counteracted by local causes, permanent or temporary. One per¬
manent cause is the vicinity of a free State ; a temporary cause oc¬
curred ten or twelve years ago, when the high price of negroes in
the South, caused many to be sold out of our Valley. The tendency
is stronger also in a planting country, than it is in a farming or graz¬
ing eountry ; yet so strong is'the tendency itself, that it overcomes
this check in West Virginia ; for with the temporary exception just'
alluded to, the slave population lias been steadily gaining on the
white, in all parts except the vicinity of the free States.
We have examined the census of counties for the last thirty or
forty years, in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, with the view
to discover the law of population in the Northern slave States. The
following are among the general results.
When a county had at first comparatively few slaves, the slave
population—except near the free borders—gained upon the whites,
and most rapidly in the older parts of the country.
The population, as a whole, increased so long as the slaves were
fewer than the whites, but more slowly as the numbers approached
to equality. In our Valley, a smaller proportion of slaves had the
effect of a larger one in East Virginia, to retard the increase of popu¬
lation.
When the slaves became as numerous as the whites in the Eastern
and older parts of the country, population came to a stand ; when
-they outnumbered the whites, it declined. Consequently, the slave
36
population has tended to diffuse itself equally over the country, rising
more rapidly as it was farther below the white population, and going
down when it had risen above them.
Such were the general results. Exceptions occurred, but all
general rules of this nature have their exceptions. This is never-
tireless the law of population in a slave State.
4. The price of cotton will probably decline more and more,
and consequently the value oj slaves : then also the law of slave
increase, by which it gains on the white population, ivill operate
in West Virginia, ivith ruinous effect, unless prevented by law.
The price of cotton has regulated the price of negroes in Virgi¬
nia; and so it must continue to do; because slave labor is unprofitr
able here, and nothing keeps up the price of slaves but their value,
as a marketable commodity in tire South. Eastern negroes and
Western cattle ore alike in this, that, if the market abroad go down
or be closed,—both sorts of animals, the honied and the woolly-
headed, become a worthless drug at home. The fact is, that our
Eastern brethren must send off, on any terms, the increase of their'
slaves, because their impoverished country cannot sustain even its
present stock of negroes. We join not the English and American 1
abolition cry about " slave-breeding," in East Virginia, as if it werq
a chosen occupation, and therefore a reproachful one. It is no such
thing, but a case of dire necessity, and many a heartache does it cost
the good people there. But behold in the East the doleful conse¬
quences of letting slavery grow up to an oppressive and heart-sick¬
ening burden upon a community ! Cast it off, West Virginians, whilst
yet you have the power ; for if you let it descend unbroken to yout.)
children, it will have grown to a mountain of misery upon iheir >
heads.
We have the following reasons to apprehend, that unless prevent¬
ed by law, thp slave population will in a few years increase rapidly
in West Virginia.
1. The price of cotton must fall, and with it the value of slaves.
From 15 to 20 years ago, the average price qf cotton was 11
cents a pound; in the last five years between 7 and 8 cents. Had
the last crop been a full one, the average would have been under 7
.cents. Every successive full crop now depresses the price lower
and lower ; showing that the supply is on the whole outrunning the
demand. It must outrun the demand, while the Southern slave-
market is open to Northern slaveholders.
From 1820 to 1830, the slaves in the cotton-growing States
(South of Tennessee and North Carolina) increased 51 per cent,
and in the next 10 years they increased 54 per cent. In 1840 the
number including those in Texas was about 1,300,000. The num¬
ber increases as fast as ever ; for to the natural increase of the
Southern stock, is added the increase of the Maryland, Virginia,
and North Carolina negroes, and half the increase of those in Ken¬
tucky and Tennessee. Thus the negro population of the cotton
States, is going on to double itself in a period of 16 or 18 years.
Now the production of cotton must increase at the game fate as,
37
.the slave population ; for cotton and sugar are the only crops in
which the slaves can he profitably employed ; and the production
p£ sugar cannot increase faster than that of cotton. There will be
no stoppage for want of good land : Texas has enough to produce
fen times ihe quantity of the present annual crop.
But the consumption of cotton cannot increase at the same rate,
The population of the countries that consume our cotton, does not
double itself in less than 60 years: how then can they double their
consumption in 18 years, or even twice that period? Therefore
the price of cotton must fall, and the Southern demand for Virginia
negroes must cease.
2. Good policy will require the Southern States, ere long, to
close their markets against Northern negroes. The natural increase
of their present stock of slaves, will increase the production of cot¬
ton as fast as the market will bear. Their short crops have always
brought them more money than their full crops; showing that it is
their interest to restrict the quantity within certain limits. A small
excess in the quantity causes a ruinous fall in the price. Suppose
the average profit to the planters to be now two cents to the pound ;
then a fall of one cent takes away half the profit and half the value
.of their slave labor; and a fall of two cents would ruin the busi-
" ness. Good reason, therefore, had !Vlr. Bruce to apprehend that the
Southern slave market might, ere long, he closed; and to iirgeVir^
ginians to hasten the removal of their negroes to the South.
But vvhether it be closed or not, one thing is evident,—that the
value of slaves in the market must decline more and more. What
then ?
3. When the Southern slave market is closed, or when, by the
reduced profits of slave labor in the South, it becomes glutted ;—
then the stream of Virginia negroes, heretofore pouring down upon
the South, will be thrown back upon the Slate, and like a river
damned up, must spread itself over the whole territory of thq com¬
monwealth. The head spring in East Virginia cannot contain it¬
self; it must find vent: it will shed its black streams through eve¬
ry gap of the Blue Ridge and pour over the Allegany, till it is check¬
ed by abolitionism on the borders. But even abolitionism cannot
finally stop,it. Abolitionism itself will tolerate slavery, when slave¬
holders grow sick and tired of it.
In plain terms, fellow-citizens, Eastern slaveholders will come
with their multitudes of slaves to settle upon the fresh lands of
West Virginia. Eastern slaves will be sent by thousands for a
market in West Virginia. Every vallcv will echo with the cry
"Negroes! Negroes for sale ! Dog cheap! Dog cheap!" And
because they are dog cheap, many of our people will buy them.
We have shown how slavery has prepared the people for this: how
a little slavery makes way for more, and how the law of slave-in¬
crease operates to fill up every part of the country to the same level
with slaves.
And then, fellow-citizens, when you have suffered your country
4o bet filled \v;ith negro-slaves instead of white freemen; when itf
38
population shall he as motley as Joseph's coat of many colors,—as
ring-streaked and speckled as father Jacob's flock was in Padart
Aram ;—what will the white basis of representation avail you, if
you obtain it ? Whether you obtain it or not, East Virginia will
have triumphed ; or rather slavery will have triumphed, and all
Virginia will have become a land of darkness and of the shadow of
death.
Then by a forbearance which has no merit, and a supineness
which has no excuse, you will have given to your children for their
inheritance, this lovely land blackened with a negro population—
the offscourings of Eastern Virginia,—the fag-end of slavery—the
Joajlhesome dregs of that rfup of abomination, which has already
sickened to death the Eastern half of our commonwealth.
Delay not then, we beseech you, to raise a barrier against this
Stygian inundation,—to stand at the Blue Ridge, and with sove?
reign energy say to this Black Sea of misery, " Hitherto shalt thou
come, and no farther."
To show that the extinction of slavery among us is practicable
without injustice or injury to any man, we present you the following
Outlines of a Scheme f ir the Removal of Slavery.
1. Let the farther importa'ion of slaves into West Virginia*
be prohibited by law.
The expediency of this measure is obvious.
2. Let the exportation of slaves be freely permitted, as here¬
tofore ; but with this restriction, that children of slaves, born
ajter a certain day, shall not be exported at all after they are
five years old, nor those under that age, unless the slaves of the
same negro jarnily be exported with them.
When the emancipation of the after-born children of slaves shall
be decreed, many slaves will be exported, from various motives.
The restriction is intended to prevent slaveholders from defeating
ihe benevolent intentions of the law, by selling into slavery those
entitled to freedom, and old enough to appreciate the privilege de¬
signed for them. Young children are allowed to be taken away
with their parents and older brothers and sisters, but not to be sold
off separately to evade the law.
3. Let the existing generation of slaves remain in their pre¬
sent condition, but let their offspring, born after a certain dayt
be emancipated at an age not exceeding 25 years.
By this measure slavery will be slowly but surely abolished, with¬
out detriment or inconvenience to slaveholders. No pecuniary loss
can be sustained, except at the option of the slaveholders, who, if
they think that the measure will diminish the value of their slaves
^ West Virginia, can sell them for exportation or take them away,
\
;jg
with the certainty of making mofe out of them in thdt Wdy/
than they could by keeping them and their children as slaves in
West Virgi nia. It they choose to stay and submit to th'e operation
of the emancipation law, they have lhe Certainty of gaining more1
by the rise in the value of their lands, than they will lose in the'
market value of their slaves, in consequence of the emancipation
Jaw.
Undoubtedly such a law would immediately attract emigrants by
thousands from the North,—farmers, manufacturers and laborers j
who would bring their capital, their skill, and their industry, to en¬
rich the country,—to improve its agriculture, draw out the wealth
of its mines, and make its idle waterfalh'fltnd coaI beds vVork up its
abundant materials of manufacture. Before the law wOufd eman¬
cipate a single negro, it would already have added more to the va¬
lue of the lauds and town property of West Virginia than all her
slaves are worth. If any man among us have many slaves and little
or no land, he can easily profit by the law as well as others ; lethin*
tsell negroes and buy land.
Will any man argue, that the rightsVf slaveholders will be' Vio'-'
dated, because those rights extend to the offspring of their slaves?
Now the slaveholder's right of property extends to the offspring of
!his slaves, so far as this, that when the offspring comes into existence,
the law at present allows him to claim-it«as his. But when the law
of the land shall in this particular be changed, his right is at an end }
for it is founded solely on human law. By nature all men are free
and equal ; and human laws can suspend this law of nature, only sa
long as the public welfare requires it; that is, so long as more evit
than good would result from emancipation. When the law of slavery
is changed for the public good, all that the slaveholder can claim, is
that in some way, he shall be compensated for the property acquired
by sanction of law, and taken away by a change of the law. By our
scheme nothing is absolutely taken from the slaveholder. It giver
hirn an option, to remove without loSsra nuisance which he holds in
the country, or to submit, with a very small loss of value, to another
mode of abating that nuisance. We say that the people have a right
to remove this pest: and that our scheme gives slaveholders double
compensation for what they will suffer by the measure. We have
no doubt that before ten years, nearly every slaveholder would ac¬
knowledge himself doubly compensated.
4. Let masters be required to have the heirs of emancipation taught
reading, writing and arithmetic: and let churches and benevolent
people attend to their religious instruction.—Thus an improved class
of free negroes would be raised up. No objection could be made to
their literary education, after emancipation was decreed.
5. Let the emancipated be colonized.—This would be best for all
parlies. Supposing that by exportation, our slave population should
in ttventy-two years be reduced to 40,000, Then about 1000 would'
go out free the first year, and a gradually smaller number each suc¬
cessive year. The 1000 could furnish their own outfit, by laboring,
40
a' year or two £s hi -1 1 : Rtie! their transportation to Liberia \VouM
cost the people of We Virginia 25,000 dollars: which, as popu¬
lation would by that t< >t > have probably reached a million, would be
an average contribution of '.wefand a half cents a head. This would
he less and less every year.—So easy would it he to remove the
bugaboo of a free-negro population, so often held up to deter us from *
emancipation. Easy would it be, though our calculations were nbt
fully realized.
Finally, in order to h; Un the extinction of slavery, where the * 'A
people desired it, in count!1, containing few slaves : the laiu might, au¬
thorize, the people of arirjt> .ounty, by some very large majority, or by
consent oj a majority of ttu: slaveholders to decree the removal or eman¬
cipation of all the slaves oj' the county, within a certain term of years,
seven, ten or fifteen, according to the number ol slaves.
This as an auxiliary measure, would be safe and salutary ; be¬
cause the only question then in a county, would he the question of
time, which would not be very exciting. But it would be inexpedi¬
ent as the chief or only rn-wiuie ; for rhen the people of the same
county, or of neighboring counties, might be kept embroiled on the
subject for years, and the influence of East Virginia, operating on
counties here and there, might defeat the whole measure, ly, a repeal
of the law. Let us mow body first, and determine the main'
point. Then the connties o?i-ht decide the minor point for them¬
selves. Let West Virginia, (f : rmine to be free on a general princi¬
ple. Then let the counties, they will, modify this principle, for
more speedy relief.
Now, fellow-citizens, it is fo. you to determine whether the slavery
question shall be considered, discussed and decided, at this critical,
this turning point of your cuonj y's history : or whether it shall lie
dormant until the doom of Vest Virginia is sealed. May heaven
direct your minds to the course dictated by patriotism, by humanity
aad by your Own true interest.
A SLAVEHOLDER OF WEST VIRGINIA.
*
. = — ======■ l
05s" Gentlemen friendly to < ..is-r^use, are requested to aid in the sale and
circulation of this Address. The expense of printing this large edition is {
fconsiderable, aud much of it .usf, at all events, fall on a few individuals.
ERRORS OF THE PRESS.
Page 16,Tine 1 (in son copies) for " protective" read " productive."
*' 25 " G for "dr. " rear! "drove."
" " " -2j fur " t eir" read " this."
" 28 " V2 for " awn" read " chaw,"