<^ ' 
 
 
i 
 
THE 
 
 IMPENDING CIUSIS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE SOUTH: 
 
 HOW TO M E E T IT 
 
 BY 
 
 HINTON EOWAN HELPER, 
 
 or KORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 CouNTRTMKN ! I Bue for simplc justice at 5'our hands, 
 
 Naught else I ask, nor less will liave ; 
 
 Act right, therefore, and yield my claim. 
 
 Or, by the great God that made all things, 
 
 I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd \—Shakspeare. 
 
 The liberal deviseth liberal things, 
 
 And by liberal things shall he stand.— /6aj/iA. 
 
 FIFTEENTH THOUSAND. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 A. B. BURDICK, No. 145 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 18G0. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1857, by 
 
 IIINTON ROWAN HELPER, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of tho District Court of the United Stales foi the 
 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 J. J. Rbkd, Printer & Sterbottper, 
 43 &. 45 Centre Street. 
 
(To 
 
 H E N II Y M , WILLIS. 
 
 OF CAUFORNIA, 
 
 FORMERLY or MARYLAND., 
 
 W O O 13 F O II 13 C . HOLM A N , 
 
 OF OREGON, 
 
 FORMERLY OF KENTCCKT, 
 
 MATTHEW K. SMITH, 
 
 CF WASIIIXGTON TERRITORY, 
 
 FORMERLY OF VIRGINIA, 
 AND TO TUB 
 
 NOX-SLAVEIIOLDING WHITES OF THE SOUTH 
 
 GENERALLY, 
 
 WJI ETHER AT HOME OR ABROAD 
 
 THIS WORK 13 MOST CORDIAU.Y 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 BV Til KIR 
 
 SINCERE FRIEND AND FELLOW-CITIZEN, 
 
 THE AUTHOK. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2013 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://archive.org/details/impenOOhelp 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 If my countrymen, particularly my countrymen of the South, 
 B ill more particularly those of them who are non-slaveholders, 
 shall peruse this work, they will learn that no narrow and partial 
 doctrines of political or social economy, no prejudices of early 
 education have induced me to write it. If, in any part of it, I 
 have actually deflected from the tone of true patriotism and na- 
 tionality, I am unable to perceive the fault. What I have com- 
 mitted to paper is but a fair reflex of the honest and long-settled 
 convictions of my heart. 
 
 In writing this book, it has been no part of my purpose to cast 
 unmerited opprobrium upon slaveholders, or to display any special 
 friendliness or sympathy for the blacks. I have considered my sub- 
 ject more particularly with reference to its economic aspects as re- 
 gards the whites — not with reference, except in a very slight de- 
 gree, to its humanitarian or religious aspects. To the latter side 
 of the question, Northern writers have already done full and 
 timely justice. The genius uf the North has also most ably and 
 eloquently discussed the subject in the form of novels. Yankee 
 wives have written the most popular anti-slavery literature of 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 the day. Against this I have nothiDg to say ; it is all well 
 enough for women to give the fictions of slavery ; men should 
 give the facts. 
 
 I trust that my friends and fellow-citizens of the South will 
 read this book — nay, proud as any Southerner though I am, I 
 entreat, I beg of them to do so. And as the work, considered 
 with reference to its author's nativit}', is a novelty — the South 
 being ray birth-place and my home, and my ancestry having resi- 
 ded there for more than a century — so I indulge the hope that 
 its reception by my fellow-Southrons will also be novel ; that is 
 to say, that they will receive it, as it is offered, in a reasonable 
 and friendly spirit, and that they will read it and reflect upon it 
 as an honest and faithful endeavor to treat a subject of enormous 
 import, without rancor or prejudice, by one who naturally comes 
 within the pale of their own sympathies. 
 
 An irrepressibly active desire to do something to elevate the 
 South to an honorable and powerful position among the enlight- 
 ened quarters of the globe, has been the great leading principle 
 that has actuated me in the preparation of the present volume ; 
 and so well convinced am I that the plan which I have proposed 
 is the only really practical one for achieving the desired end, that 
 I earnestly hope to see it prosecuted with energy and zeal, until 
 the Flag of Freedom shall wave triumphantly alike over the val- 
 leys of Virginia and the mounds of Mississipp.. 
 
 H. R. H. 
 
 Jch , 1857. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TAOA 
 
 coMrAnisoN" uetweex xnE free and the slave states.. H 
 Profrress and Prosj)ority of the Xortli — Inertness and Imbe- 
 cibty of the South — The True Cause and the Remedy — 
 Quantity and Vahie of the Ap;ricultural Products of tlie 
 two Sections — Important Statistics — Wealth, Revenue, 
 and Exdenditure of the several Slates — Sterling Extracts 
 and (^leneral Remai'ks on Free and Slave Labor — The Im- 
 mediate Abolition of Slavery the True Policy of the South. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 now slavery can ee abolished 123 
 
 \ alue of Lands in the Free and in the Slave States — A few 
 Plain Words addressed to Slaveholders — The Old Home 
 stead — Area and Population of the several States, of the 
 Territories, and of the District of Columbia — Number of 
 Slaveholders in the United States — Abstract of the Au- 
 thor's Plan for the Abolition of Slavery — Oflicial Power 
 and Desi)oti.<m of the Oligarchy — Mal-treatment of the 
 Non-slaveholding ^Vhites — Liberal Slavelnjlders. and what 
 may be expected of them— Slave-driving Democrats— Class- 
 ification of Votes Polled at the Five Points Precinct in 
 1850— Parts played by the Republicans, Whigs. Democrats, 
 and Know-Nothings during the last Presidential Cam- 
 paign — How and why Slavery should be Abolished with- 
 out direct Compensation to the ^Lasters—The American 
 Colonization Society — Emigration to Liberia — Ultimatum 
 of the Non-slaveholding Whites. 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 BOUTHERX TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY 188 
 
 What the Fathers of the Republic thought of Slavery — 
 Opinions of Washington — Jetl'erson — Madison — Monroe — 
 Henrv — Pvandolph — Clay — IJt'uton — Mason — McDowell— 
 Iredell— Pinkney— Leigh— Marshall— Rolling— Ch.'indler 
 — Summers — Preston — Fremont — Blair — Maury — Rirney. 
 Delaware — McLane. Maryland — Martin. Virginia — Bill of 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 PAQI 
 
 Rights. North Carolina — Mecklenburg Declaration of In- 
 dependence— Judge Ruffin. South Carolina— Extracts from 
 the Writings of some of her more Sensible Sons. Georgia 
 — Gen. Oglethorpe — Daricn Resolutions. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 KORTHERX TESTIMONY 235 
 
 Opinions of Franklin — Hamilton — Jay — Adams — "Webster 
 -Clinton— Warren— Complimentary Allusions to Garrison, 
 Greeley, Seward, Sumner, and others. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TESnsIONY OF THE NATIONS 245 
 
 The Voice of England — Opinions of Mansfield — Locke — 
 ■ Pitt — Fox — Shakspeare— Cowper — Milton — Johnson — 
 Price — E *ckstone — Coke — Hampden — Harrington — For- 
 tescue — ]^'*onghani — The Voice of Ireland — Opinions of 
 Burke — 'O'urran — Extract from the Dublin University Mag- 
 azine for December, 185G — The Voice of Scotland — Opin- 
 ions of Reattie — Miller — Macknight — The Voice of France 
 — Opinions of Lafayette — Montesquieu — Louis X — BulFon 
 — Rousseau — Brissot — The Voice of Germany — Opinions 
 of Grotius — Goethe — Luther — Extract from the Letter of 
 a living German writer to his Friends in this Country — 
 The Voice of Italy — Opinions of Cicero — Lactantius — Leo 
 X — The Voice of Greece — Opinions of Socrates — Aristotle 
 — Polybius — Plato. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCHES 258 
 
 Introductory Remarks — Presbyterian Testimony — Albert 
 Barnes — Thomas Scott — General Assembly in 1818 — Sy- 
 nod of Kentucky — Episcopal Testimony — Bishop Horsley 
 — Bishop Butler — Bishop Porteus — John Jay — Anti- 
 slavery Churchman — Baptist Testimony — Rev. Mr. Bris- 
 bane, of South Carolina — Francis Wayland — Abraham 
 Booth — Baptists of Virginia in 1789 — Methodist Testi- 
 mony — John Wesley — Adam Clarke — Extrxcts from the 
 Discipline for 1784, '85 and '97 — Catholic Testimony — 
 Pope Gregory XVI — Pope Leo X — The Abbe Roynal — 
 Henry Kemp. 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER yil. 
 
 iSR. 
 
 BIBLE TESTIMOXY 275 
 
 The Bible an Anti-Slavery Text-book — Selected Precepts 
 and Sayinf^s of the Old Testament — Selected Precepts and 
 Sayinjrs of the New Testament — Irrefraf^ability of the Ar- 
 guments here and elsewhere introduced against Slavery. 
 
 CHAPTER VIIT. 
 
 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE 281 
 
 Opening Remarks — General Statistics of the Free and of 
 the Slave States — Tonnage, Exports, and Imports — Pro- 
 ducts of Manufactures — Miles of Canals and Railroads in 
 Operation — Public Schools — Libraries other than Private 
 — Newspapers and Periodicals — Hliterate White Adults — 
 — National Political Power of the two Sections — Popular 
 Vote for President in 185G — Patents Issued on New In- 
 ventions — Value of Church Property — Acts of Benevo- 
 lence — Contributions for the Bible Cause, Tract Cause, 
 Missionary Cause, and Colonization Cause — Table ol 
 deaths in the several States in 1850- Number of Free 
 White Male Persons over fifteen years of age engaged in 
 Agriculture or other out-door Labor in the Slave States — 
 Falsity of the Assertion that White Men cannot cultivate 
 Southern Soil — White Female Agriculturists in North 
 Carolina — Number of Natives of the Slave States in the 
 Free States, and of Natives of the Free States in the Slave 
 States— Value of the Slaves at .^400 per head— List of 
 Presidents of the United States — Judges of the Supreme 
 Court — Secretaries of State — Presidents of the Senate — 
 Speakers of the House — Postmasters General — Secretaries 
 of the Interior — Secretaries of the Treasury — Secretaries 
 of War — Secretaries of tlie Navy — Result of the Presiden- 
 tial Elections in the United States from 179G to 185G — Aid 
 for Kansas — Contributions for the Suflerors in Ports- 
 mouth, Va.. during the Prevalence of the Yellow Fever in 
 the Summer of 1855 — Congressional Representation — Cus- 
 tom House Receipts-When the Old States were Settled and 
 the New Admitted into the Union — First European Set- 
 tlements in America — Freedom and Slavery at the Fair 
 — What Freedom Did — What Slavery Did — Average Value 
 per Acre of Lauds in the States of New York and North 
 Carolina. 
 
CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FAOB 
 
 COiniERCIAL CITIES SOUTHERN COMMERCE 331 
 
 ^'ea for a groat Southern Commercial City — Impoitancc of 
 Cities in General — Letters from the Mayors of sundry 
 American Cities. North and South — AYealth and Popula- 
 ticm of New-York. Baltimore. Philadelphia, New-Orleans, 
 Bf'Ston. St. Louis. Brooklyn, Charleston, Cincinnati, Louis- 
 ville, Chicacro, Richmond. Providence, Norfolk, BufTalo, 
 Savannah, New-Bedford, AVilmington — AVealth Concen- 
 trated at Commorcial Points — Boston and its Business — 
 Progressive Growth of Cities — A Fleet of Merchantmen — 
 Commerce of Norfolk — Baltimore, Past, Present, and Fu- 
 ture — Insignificance of Southern Commerce — Knslavement 
 of Slaveholders to the Products of Northern Industry — 
 Almost Utter Lack of Patrioilsra in Southern Merchants 
 and Slaveholders. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE 360 
 
 Why this Work was not Published in Baltimore— Legisla- 
 tive Acts Against Slavery — Testimony of a West India 
 Planter to the Advantages of Free over Slave Labor — The 
 True Friends of the South— Slavery Thoughtful— Signs of 
 Contrition— Progress of Freedom in the South — Anti- 
 slavery Extracts from Southern Journals — A Riirht Feel- 
 ing in the Right Quarter— The Illiterate Poor Whites of 
 the South. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 BOUTHERN LITERATURE 383 
 
 Instances of Protracted Literary Labor— Comparative In- 
 significance of Periodical and General Literature in Ihe 
 Southern States— The New-Yo?k Tribune-Southern Sys- 
 tem of Publishing- Book-makrng in America— The Busi- 
 ness of the Messrs. Harper— Southern Journals Struggling 
 for Existence- Paucity of Southern Authors— Proportion 
 of White Adults, over Twenty Yetrs of Age, in each State, 
 who cannot Read and Write, to .he Whole White Popu- i 
 
 lation — Southern Authors Compelled to Seek Northern ' 
 
 Publishers — Conclusion. 
 
CHATTER I 
 
 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FREE AND THE SLAVE ST.vTIS. 
 
 It is not our intention in this chapter to enter into an 
 elaborate ethnographical essay, to establish peculiarities 
 of difference, mental, moral, and physical, in the great 
 family of man. Neither is it our design to launch into a 
 philosophical disquisition on the laws and principles of 
 light and darkness, with a view of educing any additional 
 evidence of the fact, that as a general rule, the rays of 
 the sun are more fructifying and congenial than the shades 
 of night. Nor yet is it our purpose, by writing a formal 
 treatise on ethics, to draw a broad line of distinction be- 
 tween right and wrong, to point out the propriety of mor- 
 ality and its advantages over immorality, nor to waste 
 time in pressing a universally admitted truism — that vir- 
 tue is preferable to vice. Self-evident truths require no 
 argumentative demonstration. 
 
 What we mean to do is simply this : to take a survey 
 of the relative position and importance of the several 
 states of this confederacy, from the adoption of the na- 
 tional compact ; and when, of two sections of the country 
 starting under the same auspices, and with equal natural 
 advantages, we find the one rising to a degree of almost 
 unexampled power and eminence, and the other sinking 
 
12 COMPARISON BETWiEN THt. 
 
 into a state of comparative imbecility and obscurity, it is 
 our determination to trace out the causes which have led 
 to the elevation of the former, and the depression of the 
 latter, and to use our most earnest and honest endeavors 
 to utterly extirpate whatever opposes the progress and 
 prosperity of any portion of the union. 
 
 This survey we have already made ; we have also in- 
 stituted an impartial comparison between the cardinal 
 sections of the country, north, south, east, and west ; and 
 as a true hearted southerner, whose ancestors have resided 
 in North Carolina between one and two hundred years, 
 and as one who would rather have his native clime excel 
 than be excelled, we feel constrained to confess that we 
 are deeply abashed and chagrined at the disclosures of 
 the comparison thus instituted. At the time of the adop- 
 tion of the Constitution, in 1789, we commenced an even 
 race with the North. All things considered, if either the 
 North or the South had the advantage, it was the latter. 
 In proof of this, let us introduce a few statistics, begin- 
 ning with the states of 
 
 NEW YORK AND VIRGINIA. 
 
 In 1*190, when the fiist census was taken, New York 
 contained 340,120 inhabitants ; at the same time the pop- 
 ulation of Virginia was 748,308, being more than twice 
 the number of New York. Just sixty years afterward, as 
 we learn from the census of 1850, New York had a popu- 
 lation of 3,097,394 ; while that of Virginia was only 
 1,421,601, being less than half the number of New York I 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 13 
 
 In 1791, the exports of New York amounted to $2,505,- 
 465 ; the exports of Virginia amounted to $3,130,805. In 
 1852, the exports of New York amounted to $87,484,456 ; 
 the exports of Virginia, during the same year, amounted 
 to only $2,724,657. In 1790, the imports of New York 
 and Virginia were about equal ; in 1853, the imports of 
 New York amounted to the enormous sum of $178,270,- 
 999 ; while those of Virginia, for the same period, amount- 
 ed to the pitiful sum of only $399,004. In 1850, the pro- 
 ducts of manufactures, mining and the mechanic arts in 
 New York amounted to $237,597,249 ; those of Virginia 
 amounted to only $29,705,387. At the taking of the last 
 census, the value of real and personal property in Vir- 
 ginia, including negroes, was $391,646,438 ; that of New 
 York, exclusive of any monetary valuation of human be- 
 ings, was $1,080,309,216. 
 
 In August, 1856, the real and personal estate assessed 
 in the City of New- York amounted in valuation to $511,- 
 740,491, showing that New-York City alone is worth far 
 more than the whole State of Virginia. 
 
 What says one of Virginia's own sons ? lie still lives ; 
 hear him speak. Says Gov. "Wise : 
 
 " It may be painful, but nevertheless, profitable, tc re- 
 cur occasionally to the history of the past ; to listen to the 
 admonitions of experience, ond learn lessons of wisdom 
 from the eflbrts and actions of those who have preceded 
 us in the drama of human life. The records of former days 
 show that at a period not very remote, Virginia stood pre- 
 eminently the first commercial State in the Union ; -vNhen 
 her commerce exceeded in amount that of all the New 
 
COMPARISO.N BETWEEN inK 
 
 England States combined ; when the City of Norfolk 
 owned n ore than one hundred trading ships, and her di- 
 rect foreign trade exceeded that of the City of New-York, 
 now the centre of trade and the great emporium of North 
 America. At the period of the war of independence, the 
 commerce of Virginia was four times larger than that of 
 New-York.-^ 
 
 The cash value of all the farms, farming implements 
 and machinery in Virginia, in 1850, was $223,423,315 ; the 
 value of the same in New-York, in the same year, was 
 $576,031,568. In about the same ratio does the value of 
 the agricultural products and live stock of New- York ex- 
 ceed the value of the agricultural products and live stock 
 of Virginia. But we will pursue this humiliating compa- 
 rison no further. With feelings mingled with indignation 
 and disgust, we turn from the picture, and will now pay 
 our respects to 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS AXD NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 In 1790, Massachusetts contained 378,717 inhabitants ; 
 in the same year North Carolina contained 393,751 ; in 
 1850, the population of Massachusetts was 994,514, all 
 freemen ; while that of North Carolina was only 869,039, 
 of whom 288,548 were slaves. Massachusetts has an area 
 of only 7,800 square miles ; the area of North Carolina is 
 60,704 square miles, which, though less than Virginia, is 
 considerably larger than the State of New-York. Massa- 
 chusetts and North Carolina each have a harbor, Boston 
 and Beaufort, which harbors, with the States that back 
 
FHEK AND THE SLAVE STATES. X5 
 
 them, are, by nature, possessed of about equal capacities 
 aiid advautag'cs for commercial and manufacturing enter- 
 prise. Boston has grown to be the second commercial 
 city in the Union ; her ships, freighted with tlic useful and 
 unique inventions and manufactures of her ingenious arti- 
 sans and mechanics, and bearing upon their stalwart arms 
 tlie majestic flag of our country, glide triumphantly through 
 the winds and over the waves of every ocean. She has 
 done, and is now doing, great honor to herself, her State 
 and the nation, and her name and fame are spoken with 
 reverence in tfiC remotest regions of the earth. 
 
 How is it with Beaufort, in Xorth Carolina, whose har- 
 bor is said to be the safest and most commodious any- 
 where to be found on the Atlantic coast south of the har- 
 bor of New- York, and but little inferior to that? lias 
 anybody ever heard of her ? Do the masts of her ships 
 ever cast a shadow on foreign waters ? Upon what dis- 
 tant or benighted shore have her merchants and mariners 
 ever hoisted our national ensign, or spread the arts of 
 civilization and peaceful industry ? What changes worthy 
 of note have taken place in the physical features of her 
 superficies since " the evening and the morning were the 
 third day ?" But we will make no further attempt to 
 draw a comparison between the populous, wealthy, and 
 renowned city of Boston and the obscure, despicable little 
 village of Beaufort, which, notwithstanding " the placid 
 bosom of its deep and well-protected harbor," has no i)lacc 
 In the annals or records of the country, and has scarcely 
 ever been heard of fifty miles from home. 
 
 In 1853, the exports of Massachusetts amounted to 
 
16 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 $16,895,304, and her imports to $41,367,956 ; during .he 
 same time, and indeed during all the time, from the period 
 of the formation of the government up to the year 1853, 
 inclusive, the exports and imports of North Carolina were 
 80 utterly insignificant that we are ashamed to record 
 them. In 1850, the products of manufactures, mining and 
 the mechanic arts in Massachusetts, amounted to $151,- 
 137,145 ; those of North Carolina, to only $9,111,245. In 
 1856, the products of these industrial pursuits in Massa- 
 chusetts had increased to something over $288,000,000, a 
 sum more than twice the value of the entire cotton crop 
 of all the Southern States I In 1850, the cash value of all 
 the farms, farming implements and machinery in Massa- 
 chusetts, was $112,285,931 ; the value of the same in 
 North Carolina, in the same year, was only $71,823,298. 
 In 1850, the value of all the real and personal estate in 
 Massachusetts, without recognizing property in man, or 
 setting a monetary price on the head of a single citizen, 
 white or black, amounted to $573,342,286 ; the value of 
 the same in North Carolina, including negroes, amounted 
 to only $226,800,472. In 1856, the real and personal 
 estate assessed in the City of Boston amounted in valua- 
 tion to within a fraction of $250,000,000, showing conclu- 
 sively that so far as dollars and cents arc concerned, that 
 single city could buy the whole State of North Carolina, 
 and by right of purchase, if sanctioned by the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States, and by State Constitutions, hold 
 her as a province. In 1850, there were in Massachusetts 
 1,8^1 native white and free colored persons over twenty 
 years of age who could not read and write ; in the same 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 17 
 
 year, the same* class of persons in North CaroliLa nifiH- 
 bored 80,083 ; while her 288,548 slaves were, by legisla- 
 tive enactments, kept in a state of absolute ignorance and 
 unconditional subordination. 
 
 Uoping, however, and believing, that a large majority 
 of the most respectable and patriotic citizens of North 
 Carolina have resolved, or will soon resolve, with unyield- 
 ing purpose, to cast aside the great obstacle that impedes 
 their progress, and bring into action a new policy which 
 will lead them from poverty and ignorance to wealth and 
 intellectual greatness, and which will shield them not on- 
 ly from the rebukes of their own consciences, but also from 
 the just reproaches of the civilized world, we will, for the 
 present, in deference to their feelings, forbear the furthei 
 enumeration of these degrading disparities, and turn our 
 attention to 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 An old gentleman, now residing in Charleston, tcld us, 
 but a few months since, that he had a distinct recollection 
 of the time when Charleston imported foreign fabrics for 
 the Philadelphia trade, and when, on a certain occasion, 
 his mother went into a store on Market-street to select a 
 silk dress for herself, the merchant, unable to please her 
 fancy, persuaded her to postpone the selection for a few 
 days, or until the arrival of a new stock of superb styles 
 and fashions which he had recently purchased in the me- 
 tropolis of South Carolina, This was all very proper 
 Charleeton had a spacious harbor, a central position, and 
 
18 COMPARISON BETWEFN THE 
 
 a mild climate ; and from priority of settlement riad busi- 
 ness connections, to say nothing of other advantages, she 
 enjoyed greater facilities for commercial transactions than 
 Philadelphia. She had a right io get custom wherever 
 she could find it, and in securing so valuable a customer 
 as the Quaker City, she exhibited no small degree of laud- 
 able enterprise. But why did she not maintain her supre- 
 macy ? K the answer to this query is not already in the 
 reader's mind, it will suggest itself before he peruses the 
 whole of this work. For the present, suffice it to say, 
 that the cause of her shameful insignificance and decline 
 is essentially the same that has thrown every other South- 
 ern city and State in the rear of progress, and rendered 
 them tributary, in a commercial and manufacturing point 
 of view, almost entirely tributary, to the more sagacious 
 and enterprising States and cities of the North. 
 
 A most unfortunate day was that for the Palmetto State, 
 and indeed for the whole South, when the course of trade 
 was changed, and she found herself the retailer of foreign 
 and domestic goods, imported and vended by wholesale 
 merchants at the Xorth. Philadelphia ladies no longer 
 look to the South for late fashions, and fine silks and 
 satins ; no Quaker dame now wears drab apparel of 
 Charleston importation. Like all other niggervillcs in our 
 di.-rcputable part of the confederacy, the commercial em- 
 pc.'ium of South Carolina is sick and impoverished ; her 
 silver cord lias been loosed ; hti golden bowl has been 
 broken ; and lier unhappy people, without proper or profit- 
 able employment, poor in pocket, and few in number, go 
 mourning or loafing about the streets. Her annual im^ 
 
FREE AND THE S.'^VE STATES. 19 
 
 portations arc actually less now than they were a century 
 ag-o, when South Carolina was the second commercial 
 province on the continent, Virginia being the first. 
 
 In nCO, as we learn from Mr. Benton's "Thirty Years' 
 View," tlie foreign imports into Charleston were $2,GG2,- 
 000 ; in 1855, they amounted to only $1,750,000 ! In 
 1854, the imports into Philadelphia, which, in foreign 
 trade, ranks at present but fourth among the commercial 
 cities of the union, were $21,903,021. In 1850, the pro- 
 ducts of manufactures, mining, and the mechanic arts, ir 
 Pennsylvania, amounted to $155,044,910 ; the products of 
 the same in South Carolina, amounted to only $7,063,513. 
 
 As shown by the census report of 1850, which was pre- 
 pared under the superintendence of a native of South Car- 
 olina, who certainly will not be suspected of injustice to 
 his own section of the country, the Southern states, the 
 cash value of all the farms, farming implements, and ma- 
 chinery in Pennsylvania, was $422,508,040 ; the value of 
 the same in South Carolina, in the same year, was only 
 $86,518,038. From a compendium of the same census, we 
 learn that the value of all the real and personal property 
 in Pennsylvania, actual property, no slaves, amounted to 
 $729,144,998 ; the value of the same in South Carolina, 
 including the estimated — we were about to say fictitious 
 — value of 384,925 negroes, amounted to only $288,257,- 
 604. We have not been able to obtain the figures neces- 
 sary to show the exact value of the real and personal es- 
 tate in Philadelphia, but the amount is estimated to be not 
 less than $300,000,000 ; and as, in 1850, there were 408,- 
 762 free inhabitants in the single city of Philadelphia, 
 
20 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 against 283,544 of the same class, in the whole state of 
 South Carolina, it is quite evident that the former is more 
 powerful than the latter, and far ahead of her in all the 
 elements of genuine and permanent superiority. In Penn- 
 sylvania, in 1850, the annual income of public schools 
 amounted to $1,348,249 ; the same in South Carolina, in 
 the same year, amounted to only $200,600 ; in the former 
 state there were 393 libraries other than private, in the 
 latter only 26 ; in Pennsylvania 310 newspapers and pe- 
 riodicals were published, circulating 84,898,672 copies an- 
 nually ; in South Carolina only 46 newspapers and peri- 
 odicals were published, circulating but 7,145,930 copies 
 per annum. 
 
 The incontrovertible facts we have thus far presented 
 are, we think, amply sufficient, both in number and mag- 
 nitude, to bring conviction to the mind of every candid 
 reader, that there is something wrong, socially, politically 
 and morally wrong, in the policy under which the South 
 has so long loitered and languished. Else, how is it that 
 the North, under the operations of a policy directly the 
 opposite of ours, has surpassed us in almost everything 
 great and good, and left us standing before the world, an 
 object of merited reprehension and derision ? 
 
 For one, we are heartily ashamed of the inexcusable 
 weakness, inertia and dilapidation everywhere so manifest 
 throughout our native section ; but the blame properly 
 attaches itself to an usurping minority of the people, and 
 we are determined that it shall rest where it belongs. 
 More on tliis subject, however, after a brief but general 
 eurvey of the inerjualities and disparities tnat exist between 
 
FREE ASn TIIK SLAVE STATES. 21 
 
 those two grand divisions of the country, "which, witl-out 
 reference to the situation that any part of their territory 
 bears to the cardinal points, are every day becoming more 
 familiarly known by the appropriate appellation of 
 
 TlIE FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 
 
 It is a fact well known to every intelligent Southerner 
 that we are compelled to go to the North for almost every 
 article of utility and adornment, from matches, shoepcgs 
 and paintings up to cotton-mills, steamships and statuary ; 
 that we have no foreign trade, no princely merchants, nor 
 respectable artists ; that, in comparison with the free 
 states, we contribute nothing to the literature, polite arts 
 and inventions of the age ; tliat, for want of profitable 
 employment at home, large numbers of our native popula- 
 tion find themselves necessitated to emigrate to the West, 
 whilst the free states retain not only the larger proportion 
 of those born within their own limits, but induce, annually, 
 hundreds of thousands of foreigners to settle and remain 
 amongst them ; that almost everything produced at the 
 North meets with ready sale, while, at the same time, 
 there is no demand, even among our own citizens, for the 
 productions of Southern industry ; that, owing to the 
 absence of a proper system of business amongst us, the 
 North becomes, in one way or another, the proprietor and 
 dispenser of all our floating wealth, and that we are de- 
 pendent on Northern capitalists for the means necessary 
 to buila our railroads, canals and other public improve- 
 ments ; that if we want to visit a foreign country, even 
 
22 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 though it may lie directly South of us, we find no convcLicnt 
 way of getting there except by taking passage through a 
 Northern port ; and that nearly all the profits arising from 
 the exchange of commodities, from insurance and shipping 
 offices, and from the thousand and one industrial pursuits 
 of the country, accrue to the North, and are there invested 
 in the erection of those magnificent cities and stupendous 
 works of art which dazzle the eyes of the South, and attest 
 the superiority of free institutions I 
 
 The North is the Mecca of our merchants, and to it they 
 must and do make two pilgrimages per annum — one in the 
 spring and one in the fall. All our commercial, mechanical, 
 manufactural, and literary supplies come from there. We 
 want Bibles, brooms, buckets and books, and we go to the 
 North ; we want pens, ink, paper, wafers and envelopes, 
 and we go to the North ; we want shoes, hats, handker- 
 chiefs, umbrellas and pocket knives, and we go to the 
 North ; we want furniture, crockery, glassware and pianos, 
 and we go to the North ; we want toys, primers, school 
 books, fashionable apparel, machinery, medicines, tomb- 
 stones, and a thousand other things, and we go to the 
 North for them all. Instead of keeping our money in cir- 
 culation at home, by patronizing our own mechanics, man- 
 ufacturers, and laborers, we send it all away to the North, 
 and there it remains ; it never falls into our hands . again. 
 
 In one way or another we are more or less subservient 
 to the North every day of our lives. In infancy we are 
 swaddled in Northern muslin ; in childhood we are hu- 
 mored with Northern gewgaws ; in youth we are instruct- 
 ed out of Nor*-Jiern books ; at the age of maturity we sow 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 23 
 
 our " wikl oats" on Xoitbcrn soil ; in midille-lilo wo ex- 
 haust our wealtli, energies and talents in the disbonorablo 
 vocation of entailing our dependence on our ijliildren and 
 on our children's children, and, to the neglect of our own 
 interests and the interests of those around us, in giving 
 aid and succor to every department of Northern power ; 
 in the decline of life wo remedy our ej'e-sight with Nor- 
 thrcn spectacles, and support our inGrmities with Northern 
 canes ; in old age wx' arc drugged with Northern physic ; 
 and, finally, when we die, our inanimate bodies, shrouded 
 in Northern cambric, arc stretched upon the bier, borne to 
 the grave in a Northern carriage, entombed wntli a Nor- 
 thern spade, and memorized with a Northern slab I 
 
 But it can hardly be necessary to say more in illustra- 
 tion of this unmanly and unnational dependence, which is 
 BO glaring that it cannot fail to be apparent to even the 
 most careless and superficial observer. All the world 
 Bees, or ought to see, that in a commercial, mechanical, 
 manufactural, financial, and literary point of view, we arc 
 as helpless as babes ; that, in comparison with the Free 
 States, our agricultural resources have been greaily ex- 
 aggerated, misunderstood and mismanaged ; and that, in- 
 stead of cultivating among ourselves a wise policy of mu- 
 tual assistance and co-operation with respect to individ- 
 uals, and of self-reliance with respect to the South at largo, 
 instead of giving countenance and encouragement to the 
 industrial enterprises projected in our midst, and inst<.'ad 
 of building up, aggrandizing and beautifying our own 
 States, cities and towns, w^e have been spending our sub- 
 stance at the North, and are daily augmenting and 
 
24 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 streDgthening the very power which now has as so com- 
 pletely under its thumb. 
 
 It thus appears, in view of the preceding statistical 
 facts and arguments, that the South, at one time the su- 
 perior of the North in almost all the ennobling pursuits 
 and conditions of life, has fallen far behind her competitor, 
 and now ranks more as the dependency of a mother coun- 
 try than as the equal confederate of free and independent 
 States. Following the order of our task, the next duty 
 that devolves upon us is to trace out the causes which 
 have conspired to bring about this important change, and 
 to place on record the reasons, as we understand them, 
 
 WHY THE NORTH HAS SURPASSED THE SOUTH. 
 
 And now that we have come to the very heart and soul 
 of our subject, we feel no disposition to mince matters, 
 but mean to speak plainly, and to the point, without any 
 equivocation, mental reservation, or secret evasion what- 
 ever. The son of a venerated parent, who, while he lived, 
 was a considerate and merciful slaveholder, a native of 
 the South, born and bred in North Carolina, of a family 
 whose home has been in the valley of the Yadkin for near- 
 ly a century and a half, a Southerner by instinct and by 
 all the influences of thought, habits, and kindred, and with 
 the desire and fixed purpose to reside permanently within 
 the limits of the South, and with the expectation of dying 
 there also — we feel that we have the right to express our 
 opinion, however humble or unimportant it maybe, on any 
 and every question that affects the public good ; and, so 
 
FREE AXn THE SLAVE STATES. 25 
 
 help U3 Gc»d, " sink or swira, live or die, survive or pei> 
 ish,** we arc determined to exercise that right with manly 
 firmness, and without fear, favor or aflection. 
 
 And now to the point In our opinion, an opinion which 
 has been formed from data obtained by assiduous r^ 
 searches, and comparisons, from laborious investigation, 
 logical reasoning, and earnest reflection, the causes which 
 have impeded the progress and prosperity of the South, 
 which have dwindled our commerce, and other similar 
 pursuits, into the most contemptible insignificance ; sunk 
 a large majority of our people in galling poverty and ig- 
 norance, rendered a small minority conceited and tyran- 
 nical, and driven the rest away from their homes ; entailed 
 upon us a humiliating dependence on the Free States ; dis- 
 graced us in the recesses of our own souls, and brought 
 us under reproach in the eyes of all civilized and enlight- 
 ened nations — may all be traced to one common source, 
 and there find solution in the most hateful and honible 
 word, that was ever incorporated into the vocabulary of 
 human economy — Slavery ! 
 
 Reared amidst the institution of slavery, believing it to 
 be "s^Tong both in principle and in practice, and having 
 seen and felt its evil influences upon individuals, comma 
 nities and states, we deem it a duty, no less than a privi- 
 lege, to enter our protest against it, and to use our most 
 strenuous efforts to overturn and abolish it 1 Then we 
 are an abolitionist? Yes ! not merely a freesoiler, but an 
 abolitionist, in the fullest sense of the terra. We are not 
 only in favor of keeping slavery out of the territories, but, 
 
 carrying our opposition to the institution a step further, 
 2 
 
26 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 we here unhesita Hingly declare ourself in favor of its im- 
 mediate and unconditional abolition, in every state in this 
 confederacy, where it now exists I Patriotism makes u* 
 a freesoiler ; state pride makes us an emancipationist ; i 
 profound sense of duty to the South makes us an abolition 
 its ; a reasonable degree of fellow feeling for the negro, 
 makes us a colonizationist. With the free state men in 
 Kanzas and Nebraska, we sympathize with all our heart 
 We love the whole country, the great family of states and 
 territories, one and inseparable, and would have the word 
 Liberty engraved as an appropriate and truthful motto, on 
 the escutcheon of every member of the confederacy. We 
 love freedom, we hate slavery, and rather than gfve up 
 the one or submit to the other, we will forfeit the pound 
 of flesh nearest our heart. Is this sufiBciently explicit and 
 categorical ? If not, we hold ourself in readiness at all 
 times, to return a prompt reply to any proper quest'on 
 that may be propounded. 
 
 Our repugnance to the institution of slavery, springs 
 from no one-sided idea, or sickly sentimentality. We have 
 not been hasty in making up our mind on the subject ; we 
 have jumped at no conclusions ; we have acted with per- 
 fect calmness and deliberation ; we have carefully consid- 
 ered, and examined the reasons for and against the insti- 
 tution, and have also taken into account the propable con- 
 sequences of our decision. The more we investigate the 
 matter, the deeper becomes the conviction that we are right; 
 and with this to impel and sustain us, we pursue our labor 
 with love, with hope, and with constantly renewing vigor. 
 
 That we shall encounter opposition we consider as cer- 
 
 I 
 
FREE AND inE ?LAVE STATES. 27 
 
 tain ; pcrliaps we may even Lc subjected to insult and 
 violence. From the conceited and cruel oligarchy of the 
 South, we could look for nothing less. But we shall 
 shrink from no responsibility, and do nothing unbecoming 
 a man ; we know how to repel indignity, and if assaulted, 
 shall not fail to make the blow recoil upon the aggres- 
 sor's head. The road we have to travel may be a rough 
 one, but no impediment shall cause us to falter in our 
 course. The line of our duty is clearly defined, and it is 
 our intention to follow it faithfully, or die in the attempt. 
 
 But, thanks to heaven, we have no ominous forebodings 
 of the result of the contest now pending between Liberty 
 and Slavery in this confederacy. Though neither a prophet 
 nor the son of a prophet, our vision is sufficiently pene- 
 trative to divine the future so far as to be able to see that 
 the " peculiar institution" has but a short, and, as hereto- 
 fore, inglorious existence before it. Time, the rightcr of 
 every wrong, is ripening events for the desired consumma- 
 tion of our labors and the fulfillment of our cherished 
 hopes. Each revolving year brings nearer the inevitable 
 crisis. The sooner it comes the better ; may heaven, 
 through our humble efforts, hasten its advent. 
 
 The first and most sacred duty of every Southerner, who 
 has the honor and the interest of his country at heart, is 
 to declare himself an unqualified and uncompromising abo- 
 litionist. No conditional or half-way declaration will 
 avail ; no mere threatening demonstration will succeed. 
 With those who desire to be instrumental in bringing 
 about tht triumph of liberty over slavery, there should be 
 neither evasion vacillation, nor equivocation. WesbiM'll 
 
28 ' COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 listen to no modifying terms or compromises that may be 
 proposed by the proprietors of the unprofitable and ungod- 
 ly institution. Nothing short of the complete abo.ition of 
 slavery can save the South from falling into the vortex of 
 utter ruin. Too long have we yielded a submissive obe- 
 dience to the tyrannical domination of an inflated oligar- 
 chy ; too long have we tolerated their arrogance and self- 
 conceit ; too long have we submitted to their unjust and 
 savage exactions. Let us now wrest from them the scep- 
 tre of power, establish liberty and equal rights through- 
 out the land, and henceforth and forever guard our legis- 
 lative halls from the pollutions and usurpations of pro- 
 slavery demagogues. 
 
 We have stated, in a cursory manner, the reasons, as 
 we understand them, why the North has surpassed the 
 South, and have endeavored to show, we think success- 
 fully, that the political salvation of the South depends up- 
 on the speedy and unconditional abolition of slavery. We 
 will not, however, rest the case exclusively on our own 
 arguments, but will again appeal to incontrovertible facts 
 and statistics to sustain us in our conclusions. But be- 
 fore we do so, we desire to fortify ourself against a charge 
 that is too frequently made by careless and superficial 
 readers. We allude to the objections so often urged 
 against the use of tabular statements and statistical facts 
 It is worthy of note, however, that those objections never 
 come from thorough scholars or profound thinkers. Among 
 the majority of mankind, the science of statistics is only 
 beginning to be appreciated ; when well understood, it 
 will be recognized as one of the most imp »rtant branches 
 
FREE AN'D THE SLAVE STA1ES. 29 
 
 of knowledge, and, as a matter of course, be introduced 
 and taught as an indispensable element of practical edu- 
 cation in all our principal institutions of learning. One 
 of the most vigorous and popular transatlantic writers of 
 the day, Wm. C. Taylor, LL.D., of Dublin, says : 
 
 " The cultivation of statistics must be the source of all 
 future improvement in the science of political economy, 
 because it is to the table of the statistician that the eco- 
 nomist must look for his facts ; and all speculations not 
 founded upon facts, though they may be admired and ap- 
 plauded when first propounded, will, in the end, assuredly 
 be forgotten. Statistical science may almost be regarded 
 as the creation of this age. The word statistics w^as in- 
 vented in the middle of the last century by a German pro- 
 fessor,* to express a summary view of the phj'sical, moral, 
 and social conditions of States ; he justly remarked, thai 
 a numerical statement of the extent, density of population, 
 imports, exports, revenues, etc., of a country, more per- 
 fectly explained its social condition than general state- 
 ments, however graphic or however accurate. When 
 Buch statements began to be collected, and exhibited in a 
 popular form, it was soon discovered that the political and 
 economical sciences were likely to gain the position of 
 physical sciences ; that is to say, they were about to ob- 
 tain records of observation, which would test the accu- 
 racy of recognized principles, and lead to the discovery of 
 new modes of action. But the great object of tliis new 
 science is to lead to the knowledge of human nature ; that 
 
 • AchoLmll, a native of Elbing, Prussia. Born 1710, died 1792. 
 
30 COMPARIiOX BErNVE«.:N THE 
 
 is, to ascertain the general course of operation of man's 
 mental and moral faculties, and to furnish us with a cor- 
 rect standard of judgment, by enabling us to determine 
 the average amount of the past as a guide to the average 
 probabilities of the future. This science is yet in its in- 
 fancy, but has already produced the most beneficial effects. 
 The accuracy of the tables of life have rendered the cal- 
 culations of rates of insurance a matter of much greater 
 certainty than they were heretofore ; the system of keep- 
 ing the public accounts has been simplified and improved; 
 and finally, the experimental sciences of medicine and po- 
 litical economy, have been fixed on a firmer foundation 
 than could be anticipated in the last century. Even in 
 private life this science is lik(3ly to prove of immense ad- 
 vantage, by directing attention to the collection and regis- 
 tration of facts, and thus preventing the formation of hasty 
 judgments and erroneous conclusions." 
 
 The compiler, or rather the superintendent of the seventh 
 United States census. Prof. De Bow, a gentleman of more 
 than ordinary industry and practical learning, who, in his 
 excellent Review, has, from time to time, displayed much 
 commendable zeal in his efforts to develop the industrial 
 resources of the Southern and South-western states, and 
 who is, perhaps, the greatest statistician in the country, 
 says : — 
 
 " Statistics are far from being the barren array of figures 
 ingeniously and laboriously combined in^o columns and 
 tables, which many persons are apt to suppose them. 
 They constitute rather the ledger of a nation, in which, 
 like the merchant in his books, the citizen can read, at one 
 
FllEE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 31 
 
 riew, all of the results of a year or of a period of years, ae 
 compared with other periods, and deduce the profit or the 
 loss which has been made, in morals, education, wealth or 
 power." 
 
 Impressed with a sense of the propriety of introducing, 
 in this as well as in the succeeding chapters of our work, 
 a number of tabular statements exhibiting the comparative 
 growth and prosperity of the free and slave states, we have 
 deemed it eminently proper to adduce the testimony of 
 ifkil^ distinguished authors in support of the claims which 
 official facts and accurate statistics lay to our considera- 
 tion. And here we may remark that the statistics which 
 we propose to offer, like those already given, have been 
 obtained from official sources, and may, therefore, be relied 
 on as correct. The object we have in view in making a 
 free use of facts and figures, if not already apparent, will 
 soon be understood. It is not so much in its moral and 
 religious aspects that we propose to discuss the question 
 of slavery, as in its social and political character and 
 influences. To say nothing of the sin and the shame of 
 slavery, we believe it is a most expensive and unprofitable 
 institution ; and if our brethren of the South will but 
 throw aside their unfounded prejudices and preconceived 
 opinions, and give us a fair and patient hearing, we feel 
 confident that we can bring them to the same conclusion. 
 Indeed, we believe we shall be enabled — not alone by our 
 own contributions, but with the aid of incontestable facts 
 and arguments which we shall introduce from other sources 
 — to convince all true-hearted, candid and intelligent 
 Southerners, wLo may chance to read our book, (and wo 
 
8^ COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 hope their name may be legion) that slavery, and nothing 
 but slavery, has retarded the progress and prosperity of 
 our portion of the Union ; depopulated and impoverished 
 our cities by forcing the more industrious and enterprising 
 natives of the soil to emigrate to the free states ; brought 
 our domain under a sparse and inert population by pre- 
 venting foreign immigration ; made us tributary to the 
 North, and reduced us to the humiliating condition of mere 
 provincial subjects in fact, though not in name. We 
 believe, moreover, that every patriotic Southerner thus 
 convinced will feel it a duty he owes to himself, to his 
 country, and to his God, to become a thorough, inflexible, 
 practical abolitionist. So mote it be I 
 
 Now to our figures. Few persons have an adequate 
 idea of the important part the cardinal numbers are now 
 playing in the cause of Liberty. They are working won- 
 ders in the South. Intelligent, business men, from the 
 Chesapeake to the Rio Grande, are beginning to see that 
 slavery, even in a mercenary point of view, is impolitic, 
 because it is unprofitable. Those unique, mysterious little 
 Arabic sentinels on the watch-towers of political economy, 
 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, T, 8, 9, 0, have joined forces, allied them- 
 selves to the powers of freedom, and are hemming in and 
 combatting the institution with the most signal success. 
 If let alone, we have no doubt the digits themselves would 
 soon terminate the existence of slavery ; but we do not 
 mean to let them alone ; they must not have all the honor 
 of annihilating the monstrous iniquity. We want to become 
 an auxiliary in the good work, and facilitate it. The lib* 
 eratioi: of five m'Uions of " poor white trash" from the 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 33 
 
 second degree of slavery, and of three millions of miserable 
 kidnapped negroes from tlie first degree, cannot be acconi- 
 plished too soon. That it was not accomplished many 
 years ago is our misfortune. It now behooves us to take 
 a bold and determined stand in defence of tlie inalienable 
 rights of ourselves and of our follow men, and to avenge 
 the multiplicity of wrongs, social and political, which we 
 have sufl'ered at the hands of a villainous oligarchy. It is 
 madness to delay. We cannot be too hasty in carrying 
 out our designs. Precipitance in this matter is an utter 
 impossibility. If to-day we could emancipate all the slaves 
 in the Union, we would do it, and the country and every- 
 body in it would be vastly better off to-morrow. Now is 
 the time for action ; let us work. 
 
 By taking a sort of inventory of the agricultural products 
 of the free and slave States in 1850, we now propose to 
 correct a most extraordinary and mischievous error into 
 which the people of the South have unconsciously fallen. 
 Agriculture, it is well known, is the sole boast of the 
 South ; and, strange to say, many pro-slavery Southerners, 
 who, in our latitude, pass for intelligent men, are so puffed 
 up with the idea of our importance in this respect, that 
 they speak of the North as a sterile region, unfit for culti- 
 vation, and quite dependent on the South for the necessa- 
 ries of life ! Such rampant ignorance ought to be knocked 
 in the head 1 "We can prove that the North produces 
 greater quantities of bread-stuffs than the South I Figures 
 shall show the facts. Properly, the South has nothing left 
 to boast of ; the North has surpassed her in everything, 
 
 and is going farther and farther ahead of her every day. 
 
 2* 
 
34 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 We ask the reader's careful attention to the following 
 tables, which we have prepared at no little cost of time 
 and trouble, and which, when duly considered in connection 
 with the foregoing and subsequent portions of our work, 
 will, we believe, carry conviction to the mind that the 
 downward tendency of the South can be arrested only by 
 the abolition of slavery. 
 
7RF.K AND THE SL.WE ST.MES. 
 
 35 
 
 TABLE NO. 1. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OP THE FREE STATES 1850. 
 
 Suites. 
 
 Wheat, 
 bushels. 
 
 California 17,228 
 
 Coimecticut 41,762 
 
 Illinois 9,414,575 
 
 Indiana , 6,214,458 
 
 Iowa 1,530,581 
 
 Maine 296,259 
 
 Massachusetts 31,211 
 
 Michigan 4,925,889 
 
 New Hampshire 185,658 
 
 N.-w Jersey 1,601,190 
 
 New York.' 13,121,498 
 
 Ohio 14,487,351 
 
 Pennsylvania 15,367,091 
 
 Rho<le Island I 49 
 
 Vermont 535,955 
 
 Wiaconsin 4.2:'6,131 
 
 '2.157.486 
 
 Oat8, 
 bushels. 
 
 1,258,738 
 10,087,241 
 5,655,014 
 1,524,345 
 2,181,037 
 1,165.146 
 2,866,056 
 973,381 
 3,378,063 
 26,552,814 
 13,472,742 
 21,538.156 I 
 215,232 I 
 2,307,734 I 
 3,414,672 ! 
 
 Indian Corn, 
 bushels. 
 
 12,236 
 
 1,935,043 
 
 67,616,984 
 
 62,964,363 
 
 8,656,799 
 
 1,751 ),056 
 
 2,345,190 
 
 6,641,420 
 
 1,573,670 
 
 8,759,704 
 
 17,858,400 
 
 59,078,695 
 
 19,835,214 
 
 639,201 
 
 2,032,396 
 
 1,988,979 
 
 96,590,371 I 242,018,650 
 
 TABI.K NO. II. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 "Wheat, 
 bushels. 
 
 Oats, 
 
 bushels. 
 
 Indian Com, 
 bushels. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 294,044 
 
 199,639 
 
 482.511 
 
 1,027 
 
 1,088,534 
 
 2,142,822 
 
 417 
 
 4,494.680 
 
 137,990 
 
 2,981.652 
 
 2,130,102 
 
 1,066,277 
 
 1,619,386 
 
 41,729 
 
 11,212,616 
 
 2,965,696 
 
 656,183 
 
 604,518 
 
 66,586 
 
 3,820.044 
 
 8,201,311 
 
 89,637 
 
 2,242.151 
 
 1.503,288 
 
 6,278,079 
 
 4,052,078 
 
 2,322,155 
 
 7,703,086 
 
 199,017 
 
 10,179,144 
 
 28 754 048 
 
 Arkansas , 
 
 Delaware 
 
 8.893,939 
 
 3,145,542 
 
 1.596,809 
 
 30^080,099 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georcria 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 68,672,591 
 10,266,373 
 10,749,858 
 22,446,552 
 36,214,537 
 27,941,051 
 16,271.454 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 62,276,223 
 
 Texa.s 
 
 6 028.876 
 
 Virginia. 
 
 35,254,319 
 
 
 
 27,901,476 
 
 49,882,979 
 
 348,992,282 
 
36 
 
 FREE AND THE SL^'E STATES. 
 
 TABLE NO. III. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE FREE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 California 
 
 Coniiecticui 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts. . 
 
 Michigan 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania.. . 
 Rhode Island.. . 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Potatoes, (L 
 
 Ryp, 
 
 Brirley, 
 
 &. S.) bush. 
 
 bushels. 
 
 bushels. 
 
 10,292 
 
 
 9,712 
 
 2.689,805 
 
 600,893 
 
 19.099 
 
 2,672.294 
 
 83,364 
 
 110,795 
 
 2,285,048 
 
 78,792 
 
 45,483 
 
 282,363 
 
 19,916 
 
 25,093 
 
 8,430,040 
 
 102,916 
 
 151,731 
 
 3,585,3S4 
 
 481,021 
 
 112,385 
 
 2,361,074 
 
 105,871 
 
 75,249 
 
 4,307,919 
 
 183,117 
 
 70,256 
 
 3,715,251 
 
 1,255,578 
 
 6,492 
 
 15,403,997 
 
 4,148,182 
 
 3,585.059 
 
 5,245,760 
 
 425,918 
 
 354,358 
 
 6,032,904 
 
 4,805,160 
 
 165,584 
 
 651,029 
 
 26,409 
 
 18,875 
 
 4,951,014 
 
 176.233 
 
 42,150 
 
 1,402,956 
 
 81,253 
 
 209,692 
 
 59,033,170 
 
 12,574,623 
 
 5.002.013 
 
 TABLE NO. IV. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES- 
 
 ■1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana ,. 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi . . . . 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 rotatoes, (L 
 
 Rye, 
 
 bushels. 
 
 Barley, 
 
 &, 8.) bush. 
 
 bushels. 
 
 6,721,205 
 
 17,261 
 
 3,958 
 
 981,981 
 
 8,047 
 
 177 
 
 305,985 
 
 8,066 
 
 66 
 
 765,054 
 
 1,152 
 
 
 7,213,807 
 
 53,750 
 
 11,501 
 
 2,490,666 
 
 415,073 
 
 95.343 
 
 1.524,085 
 
 475 
 
 
 973,932 
 
 226,014 
 
 745 
 
 5,003,277 
 
 9,606 
 
 228 
 
 1,274,511 
 
 44,268 
 
 9.631 
 
 5,716,027 
 
 229,663 
 
 2,735 
 
 4,473.960 
 
 43,790 
 
 4,583 
 
 3,845,560 
 
 89,137 
 
 2.737 
 
 1,426,803 
 
 3,108 
 
 4,776 
 
 3,130,567 
 
 458,930 
 
 25,437 
 
 44,847,420 
 
 1 608,240 
 
 161,907 
 
FREE AN'D THE SLAVE STATES. 
 
 37 
 
 TABLE NO. V. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OP THE FREE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Buckwlieat, 
 bu8lu'la. 
 
 Beans & Peas, 
 bushels. 
 
 Clov.i GraiM 
 seeds, bush. 
 
 California 
 
 ■ 
 
 229,297 
 
 184,509 
 
 149,740 
 
 62,516 
 
 104,523 
 
 105,895 
 
 472,917 
 
 65,205 
 
 878,934 
 
 3,183,955 
 
 638,060 
 
 2,193,692 
 
 1.245 
 
 209,819 
 
 79,878 
 
 2,292 
 
 19,090 
 
 82,814 
 
 35,773 
 
 4,475 
 
 205,541 
 43,709 
 74,254 
 70,856 
 14,174 
 
 741,546 
 
 60,168 
 
 55,231 
 
 6,846 
 
 104,649 
 20,657 
 
 
 ConiiectWut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 30,469 
 
 17,807 
 30,271 
 
 Iowa 
 
 2 438 
 
 Maine 
 
 18,311 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 6.087 
 
 Michigan 
 
 26 274 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 8,900 
 91,331 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 184.715 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 140,501 
 178,943 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 5,or,6 
 
 15 696 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 6,486 
 
 
 
 8,550,245 
 
 1.542,295 
 
 762,265 
 
 TABLE NO. VI. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Loui.siaiia 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi. . .. 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennc««ee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Buckwheat, 
 
 Beans & Peas, 
 
 Clov. & Grass 
 
 bushels. 
 
 bushels. 
 
 seetlrv, bush. 
 
 348 
 
 892,701 
 
 685 
 
 175 
 
 285,738 
 
 626 
 
 8,615 
 
 4,120 
 
 3,928 
 
 65 
 
 1.35,359 
 
 2 
 
 250 
 
 1,142,011 
 
 560 
 
 16,097 
 
 202,574 
 
 24,711 
 
 3 
 
 161,732 
 
 99 
 
 103,671 
 
 12,816 
 
 17,778 
 
 1,121 
 
 1,072,757 
 
 617 
 
 23,611 
 
 46,017 
 
 4,965 
 
 16,704 
 
 1,584,252 
 
 1,851 
 
 283 
 
 1,020,900 
 
 406 
 
 19,427 
 
 369,321 
 
 14,214 
 
 69 
 
 179,.351 
 
 10 
 
 214,898 
 
 521,579 
 
 53,155 
 
 405,357 
 
 7,637,227 
 
 123,517 
 
38 
 
 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 TABLE NO. VII. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE FREE STATES 18lO. 
 
 States. 
 
 Flaxseed, 
 bushels. 
 
 Val. of Gar- 
 den products. 
 
 S75,275 
 
 196,874 
 
 127,494 
 
 72,864 
 
 8,848 
 
 122,387 
 
 600,020 
 
 14,738 
 
 56,810 
 
 475,242 
 
 912,047 
 
 214,004 
 
 688,714 
 
 98,298 
 
 18,853 
 
 32,142 
 
 Val. of Or- 
 chard prod'ts. 
 
 
 703 
 
 10,787 
 
 36,888 
 
 1,959 
 
 580 
 
 72 
 
 519 
 
 189 
 
 16,525 
 
 57,963 
 
 188,880 
 
 41,728 
 
 939 
 1,191 
 
 S17,700 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 175,118 
 446.049 
 324,940 
 8,434 
 342,865 
 
 Indiana. 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Michijran 
 
 463,995 
 132,650 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 248,560 
 
 607,268 
 
 1,761,950 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 695,921 
 
 723,389 
 
 63,994 
 
 315,255 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 4 823 
 
 
 
 
 358.923 
 
 S3, 7 14,605 
 
 S6, 332,914 
 
 TABLK NO. VIII. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi. . . . 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia. 
 
 Flaxeeed, 
 bushels. 
 
 69 
 321 
 904 
 
 622 
 75,801 
 
 2,446 
 26 
 
 13,696 
 
 38,196 
 55 
 
 18,904 
 26 
 
 52,318 
 
 Val. of Gar- 
 den products. 
 
 S84,821 
 
 17,150 
 
 12,714 
 
 8,721 
 
 76,500 
 
 303.120 
 
 148,329 
 
 200,869 
 
 46,250 
 
 99,454 
 
 39,402 
 
 47,286 
 
 97,183 
 
 12,354 
 
 183,047 
 
 203.484 Sl,377,260 Sl,356,827 
 
 Val. of Or- 
 chard prod'ts. 
 
 S15,108 
 
 40,141 
 
 46,574 
 
 1,280 
 
 92,776 
 
 106.230 
 22.259 
 
 164,051 
 50,405 
 
 514.711 
 34.348 
 35,108 
 52.894 
 12,505 
 
 177,137 
 
FREE AN'D THE 
 
 RECAPITULATIOX — 
 
 Wheat 72,157,486 bush 
 
 Oats 96,590,371 " 
 
 Indian Corn 242,618.650 " 
 
 Potatoes (I. & S.). 59,033,170 " 
 
 Rye 12,574,623 " 
 
 Barley 5,002,013 " 
 
 Buckwheat 8,550,245 " 
 
 Beans & Peas 1,542,295 " 
 
 CI0V.&, Grass seeds 762,265 •' 
 
 Flax Seeds 358,923 '• 
 
 Garden Products.. 
 Orchard Products. 
 
 !LA\E 
 
 STATES. 
 
 89 
 
 -FREE 
 
 STATES. 
 
 
 J. (a) 
 
 1.50 
 
 .. S108,236,220 
 
 (1 
 
 40 
 
 . .. 38,636,148 
 
 (1 
 
 60.... 
 
 ... 145,571,190 
 
 " 
 
 38.... 
 
 . . . 22,432,604 
 
 " 
 
 1.00.... 
 
 ... 12,574,023 
 
 It 
 
 90.... 
 
 ... 4,501,811 
 
 n 
 
 50 
 
 ... 4,275,122 
 
 u 
 
 1.75 
 
 2,699.015 
 
 (1 
 
 3.00.... 
 
 2,286,795 
 
 <( 
 
 1.25.... 
 
 448,647 
 . .. 3,714,605 
 . . . 6,332,914 
 
 Total, 499,190,041 buBhcls, valued as above, at S351,709,703 
 
 RECAPITUL.\TION SLAVE 
 
 STATES. 
 
 
 "Wheat 
 
 27,904,476 bush. 
 49,882,799 " 
 
 (a) 
 
 1.50 
 
 40.... 
 
 ,. $ 41,850 714 
 
 Oats 
 
 ... 19,953.191 
 
 Indian Corn 
 
 348,992,282 " 
 
 
 60 ... . 
 
 ... 209,395,369 
 
 Potatoes (I. & S.). 
 
 44,847,420 '• 
 
 
 38.... 
 
 ... 17,042,019 
 
 Rve 
 
 1,608,240 " 
 161,907 " 
 
 
 1 00 .. 
 
 ... 1,608,240 
 145,716 
 
 Barley 
 
 
 90 
 
 Buckwheat 
 
 405,357 " 
 
 
 60.... 
 
 202,678 
 
 Beans & Peas 
 
 7,637,227 " 
 
 
 1.75.... 
 
 . .. 13,365,147 
 
 CI0V.& Grass seeds 
 
 1 123,517 '• 
 
 
 3.00.... 
 
 370,551 
 
 Flax Seeds 
 
 203,484 " 
 
 
 1.25.... 
 
 254,355 
 
 Garden Products. , 
 
 
 
 
 ... 1,377,260 
 
 Orchard Products. 
 
 
 1 valued as above, 
 
 1,355,827 
 
 Total 
 
 481,766,889 bushels, 
 
 at S306,927,067 
 
 TOTAL DIFFERENCE BUSHEIrMEASURE PRODUCTS. 
 
 BuHhela. Value. 
 
 Free States 499,190,041 S351,709,703 
 
 Slave States 481,766,889 306,927,067 
 
 Balance in busbeh 17,423,152 Difference in value. ..$44,782,630 
 
40 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 So much foi the boasted agricultural superiority of the 
 South I Mark well the balance in bushels, and the differ- 
 ence in value I Is either in favor of the South ? No ! 
 Are both in favor of the North ? Yes I Here we have 
 unquestionable proof that of all the bushel-measure pro- 
 ducts of the nation, the free states produce far more than 
 one-half ; and it is worthy of particular mention, that the 
 excess of Northern products is of the most valuable kind. The 
 account shows a balance against the South, in favor of the 
 North, of seventeen million four hundred and twenty-three thovr 
 sand onz hundred arid fifty-two bushels, and a difference in 
 value of forty-four million seven hundred and eighty-two thou- 
 sand six hundred and thirty-six dollars. Please bear these 
 facts in mind, for, in order to show positively how the free 
 and slave States do stand upon the great and important 
 subject of rural economy, we intend to take an account of 
 all the other products of the soil, of the live-stock upon 
 farms, of the animals slaughtered, and, in fact, of every 
 item of husbandry of the two sections ; and if, in bringing 
 our tabular exercises to a close, we find slavery gaining 
 upon freedom — a thing it has never yet been known to do 
 — ^we shall, as a matter of course, see that the above 
 amount is transferred to the credit of the side to which it 
 of right belongs. 
 
 In making up these tables we have two objects in view ; 
 the first is to open the eyes of the non-slaveholders of the 
 South, to the system of deception, that has so long been 
 practiced upon them, and the second is to show slave- 
 holders themselves — we have reference only to those who 
 are not too perverse, i ignorant, to perceive naked ti'utha 
 
FREE AND THE ^LAVE STATE3 41 
 
 — that free labor is far more respectable, pn Citable, and 
 productive, than slave labor. In the South, unfortunately, 
 no kind of labor is cither free :r respectable. Every white 
 man who is under the necessity of earning his bread, by 
 the sweat of his brow, or by manual labor, in any capaci- 
 ty, no matter how unassuming in deportment, or exem- 
 plary in morals, is treated as if he was a loathsome beast, 
 and shunned with the utmost disdain. His soul may be 
 the very seat of honor and integrity, yet without slaves — 
 himself a slave — he is accounted as nobody, and would 
 be deemed intolerably presumptuous, if he dared to open 
 his mouth, even so wide as to give faint utterance to a 
 three-lettered monosyllable, like yea or nay, in the pres- 
 ence of an august knight of the whip and the lash. 
 
 There are few Southerners who will not be astonished 
 at the disclosures of these statistical comparisons, be- 
 tween the free and the slave States. That the astonish- 
 ment of the more intelligent and patriotic non-slaveholders 
 will be mingled with indignation, is no more than we an- 
 ticipate. We confess our own surprise, and deep chagrin, 
 at the result of our investigations. Until we examined 
 into the matter, we thought and hoped the South was 
 really ahead of the North in oiic particular, that of agri- 
 culture ; but our thoughts have been changed, and our 
 hopes frustrated, for instead of finding ourselves the pos- 
 sessors of a single advantage, we behold our dear native 
 South stripped of every laurel, and sinking deeper and 
 deeper in the depths of poverty and shame ; while, at the 
 same time, we see the North, our su:cessful rival, extract- 
 ing and absorbing the few elt Ticnts of wealth vot remain- 
 
42 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 ing amongst us, and rising higher and higher in the scale 
 of fame, fortune, and invulnerable power. Thus our dis- 
 appointment gives way to a feeling of intense mortifica- 
 tion, and our soul involuntarily, but justly, we believe, 
 cries out for retribution against the treacherous, slave- 
 driving legislators, who have so basely and unpatriotically 
 neglected the interests of their poor white constituents and 
 bargained away the rights of posterity. Notwithstand- 
 ing the fact that the white non-slaveholders of the South, 
 are in the majority, as five to one, they have never yet 
 had any part or lot in framing the laws under which they 
 live. There is no legislation except for the benefit of slave- 
 ry, and slaveholders. As a general rule, poor white per- 
 sons are regarded with less esteem and attention than 
 negroes, and though the condition of the latter is wretcli- 
 ed beyond description, vast numbers of the former are in- 
 finitely worse off. A cunningly devised mockery of free- 
 dom is guarantied to them, and that is all. To all intents 
 and purposes they are disfranchised, and outlawed, and 
 the only privilege extended to them, is a shallow and cir- 
 cumscribed participation in the political movements that 
 usher slaveholders into office. 
 
 We have not breathed away seven and twenty years in 
 the South, without becoming acquainted with the dema- 
 gogical manoeuverings of the oligarchy. Their intrigues 
 and tricks of legerdemain are as familiar to us as house- 
 hold words ; in vain might the world be ransacked for a 
 more precious junto of flatterers and cajolers. It is amus- 
 ing to ignorance, amazing to credulity, and insulting to 
 intelligence, to hear them in their blattering efforts to mys- 
 
YRLE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 43 
 
 tify and pervert tlie sacred principles of liberty, and turn 
 the curse of slavery into a blessing-. To the illiterate 
 poor whites — made poor and ignorant by the system of 
 slavery — they hold out the idea that slavery is the very 
 bulwark of our liberties, and the foundation of American 
 independence I For hours at a time, day after day, will t, 
 they expatiate upon the inexpressible beauties and excel- 
 lencies of this great, free and indeptrulent nation ; and final- 
 ly, with the most extravagant gesticulations and rhetori- 
 cal flourishes, conclude their nonsensical ravings, by at- 
 tributing all the glory and prosperity of the country, from 
 Maine to Texas, and from Georgia to California, to the 
 " invaluable institutions of the South !" With what pa- 
 tience we could command, we have frequently listened to 
 the incoherent and truth-murdering declamations of these 
 champions of slavery, and, in the absence of a more poli- 
 tic method of giving vent to our disgust and indignation, 
 have involuntarily bit our lips into blisters. 
 
 The lords of the lash are not only absolute masters of 
 the blacks, who are bought and sold, and driven about 
 like 80 many cattle, but they are also the oracles and ar- 
 biters of all non-slaveholding whites, whose freedom is 
 merely nominal, and whose unparalleled illiteracy and de- 
 gradation is purposely and fiendishly perpetuated. How 
 little the " poor white trash," the great majority of the 
 Southern people, know of the real condition of the country 
 is, indeed, sadly astonishing. The truth is, they know 
 nothing of public measures, and little of private afiairs, 
 except what their imperious masters, the slavenlrivcrs, 
 condescend to tell, and that is but precious little, and 
 
44 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 even that little, always garbled and o le-sided, is never 
 told except in public harangues ; for the haughty cava- 
 liers of shackles and handcuffs will not degrade them- 
 selves by holding private converse with those who have 
 neither dimes nor hereditary rights in human flesh. 
 
 Whenever it pleases, and to the extent it pleases, a 
 slaveholder to become communicative, poor whites may 
 hear with fear and trembling, but not speak. They must 
 be as mum as dumb brutes, and stand in awe of their au- 
 gust superiors, or be crushed with stern rebukes, cruel 
 oppressions, or downright violence. If they dare to think 
 for themselves, their thoughts must be forever concealed. 
 The expression of any sentiment at all conflicting with 
 the gospel of slavery, dooms them at once in the commu- 
 nity in which they live, and then, whether willing or un- 
 willing, they are obliged to become heroes, martyrs, or 
 exiles. They may thirst for knowledge, but there is no 
 Moses among them to smite it out of the rocks of Horeb. 
 The black veil, through whose almost impenetrable meshes 
 light seldom gleams, has long been pendent over their 
 eyes, and there, with fiendish jealousy, the slave-driving 
 ruffians sedulously guard it. Non-slaveholders are not 
 only kept in ignorance of what is transpiring at the North, 
 but they are continually misinformed of what is going on 
 even in the South. Never were the poorer classes of 
 a people, and those classes so largely in the majority, and 
 all inhabiting the same country, so basely duped, so 
 adroitly swindled, or so damnably outraged. 
 
 It is expected that the stupid and sequacious masses, 
 the white victims of slavery, will believe, and, as a gen- 
 
FREE AND TUB SLAVE STATES. 45 
 
 eral thing, they do believe, whatever the slaveholders 
 tell them ; and thus it is that they are cajoled into the na- 
 tion that the} are the freest, happiest and most intelligent 
 people in the world, and are taught to look with prejudice 
 and disapprobation upon every ne*w principle or progres- 
 sive movement. Thus it is that the South, woefully inert 
 and inventionless, has lagged behind the North, and is 
 now weltering in the cesspool of ignorance and degra- 
 dation. 
 
 We have already intimated that the opinion is preva- 
 lent throughout the South that the free States are quite 
 sterile and unproductive, and that they are mainly depen- 
 dent on us for breadstuffs and other provisions. So far 
 as the cereals, fruits, garden vegetables and esculent 
 roots are concerned, we have, in the preceding tables, 
 shown the utter falsity of this opinion ; and we now pro- 
 pose to show that it is equally erroneous in other parti- 
 culars, and very far from the truth in the general reckon- 
 ing. We can prove, and we intend to prove, from facts 
 in our possession, that the hay crop of the free States is 
 worth considerably more in dollars and cents than all the 
 cotton, tobacco, rice, hay and hemp produced in the fifteen 
 slave States. This statement may strike some of our 
 readers with amazement, and others may, for the moment, 
 regard it as quite incredible ; but it is true, nevertheless, 
 and we shall soon proceed to confirm it. The single free 
 State of New- York produces more than three times the quan- 
 tity of hay that is produced in all the slave States. Ohio 
 produces a larger number of tons than all the Southern and 
 South westcri Stat4^8, and so does Pennsylvania. Vermont, 
 
46 COMPARISON "JET WEEN THE 
 
 little and unpretending as she is, does the same thing, 
 with the exception of Virginia. Look at the facts as pre- 
 sented in the tables, and let your own eyes, physical and 
 intellectual, confirm you in the truth. 
 
 And yet, fors )oth, the slave-driving oligarchy would 
 whip us into the belief that agriculture is not one of the 
 leading and lucrative pursuits of the free States, that the 
 soil there is an uninterrupted barren waste, and that our 
 Northern brethren, having the advantage in nothing ex- 
 cept wealth, population, inland and foreign commerce, 
 manufactures, mechanism, inventions, literature, the arts 
 and sciences, and their concomitant branches of profitable 
 industry, — miserable objects of charity— are dependent on 
 us for the necessaries of life. 
 
 Next to Virginia, Maryland is the greatest Southern 
 hay-producing State ; and yet, it is the opinion of several 
 of the most extensive hay and grain dealers in Baltimore, 
 with whom we have conversed on the subject, that the do- 
 mestic crop is scarcely equal to one-third the demand, 
 and that the balance required for home consumption, about 
 two-thirds, is chiefly brought from New-York, Pennsylva- 
 nia and Massachusetts. At this rate, Maryland receives 
 and consumes not less than three hundred and fifteen 
 thousand tons of Northern hay every year ; and this, as 
 we are informed by the dealers above-mentioned, at an 
 average cost to the last purchaser, by the time it is sto ,v- 
 ed in the mow, of at least twenty-five dollars per ton ; it 
 would thus appear that this most popular and valuable 
 provender, one of the staple commodities of the North, 
 commands a market in a single n'ave State, to the amount 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 47 
 
 of seven million ci<^ht hundred and scvonty-fivc thousand 
 dollars per annnm. 
 
 In this same State of Maryland, less than one iiillion of 
 dollar's worth of cotton liuds a maiKct, the whole number 
 of bales sold here in 1850 amounting to only twenty-three 
 thousand three hundred and twenty-five, valued at seven 
 hundred and forty-six thousand four hundred dollars. 
 Briefly, then, and in round numbers, we may state the case 
 thus Maryland buys annually seven millions of dollars 
 wortn of hay from the North, and one million of dollars 
 worth of cotton from the South. Let slaveholders and 
 their fawning defenders read, ponder and compare. 
 
 The exact quantities of Northern hay, rye, and buck- 
 wheat flour, Irish potatoes, fi-uits, clover and grass seeds, 
 and other products of the soil, received and consumed in all 
 the slaveholding States, we have no means of ascertaining; 
 but for all practical purposes, we can arrive sufficiently 
 near to the amount by inference from the above data, and 
 from what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears 
 wherever we go. Food from the North for man or for 
 beast, or for both, is for sale in every market in the South. 
 Even in the most insignificant little villages in the inte- 
 rior of the slave States, where books, newspapers and 
 other mediums of intelligence are unknown, where the 
 poor whites and the negroes are alike bowed down in 
 heathenish ignorance and barbarism, and where the news 
 is received but once a week, and then only in a Northern- 
 built stage-coach, drawn by horses in Northern harness, 
 in charge of a driver dressed uip-a-^ie in Northern habili- 
 ments and witi a Northern whip in his hnnd, — the agri* 
 
48 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 cultural products of the North, either crude, prepared, 
 pickled or preserved, are ever to be found. 
 
 Mortifying as the acknowledgment of the fact is to us, 
 it is our unbiased opinion — an opinion which will, we be- 
 lieve, be endorsed by every intelligent person who goes 
 into a careful examination and comparison of all the facts 
 in the case — that the profits arising to the North from the 
 sale of provender and provisions to the South, are far 
 greater than those arising to the South from the sale of 
 cotton, tobacco and breadstuffs to the North. It follows, 
 then, that the agricultural interests of the North being 
 not only equal but actually superior to those of the South, 
 the hundreds of millions of dollars which the commerce 
 and manufactures of the former annually yield, is just so 
 much clear and independent gain over the latter. It fol- 
 lows, also, from a corresponding train or system of deduc- 
 tion, and with all the foregoing facts in view, that the dif- 
 ference between freedom and slavery is simply the dif- 
 ference between sense and nonsense, wisdom and folly, 
 good and evil, right and wrong. 
 
 Any observant American, from whatever point of the 
 compass he may hail, who will take the trouble to pass 
 through the Southern markets, both great and small, as 
 we have done, and inquire where this article, that and 
 the other came from, will be utterly astonished at the va- 
 riety and quantity of Northern agricultural productions 
 kept for sale. And this state of things is growing worse 
 and worse every year. Exclusively agricultural as the 
 Sf uth is in her industrial pursuits, she is barely able to 
 support her sparse and degenerate population. Her men 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 49 
 
 and her domestic animals, both dwarfed into shabby ob- 
 jects of commiseration under the blighting effects of sla^ 
 very, are constantly feeding on the multifarious products 
 of Northern soil. And if the whole truth must bo told, we 
 may here add, that these products, like all other articles 
 of merchandize purchased at the North, are generally 
 bought on a credit, and, in a great number of instances, 
 by far too many, never paid for — not, as a general rule, 
 because the purchasers are dishonest or unwilling to pay, 
 but because they are impoverished and depressed by the 
 retrogressive and deadening operations of slavery, that 
 most unprofitable and pernicious institution under which 
 they live. 
 
 To show how well we are sustained in our remarks up- 
 on hay and other special products of the soil, as well as 
 to give circulation to other facts of equal significance, 
 we quote a single passage from an address by Paul C. 
 Cameron, before the Agricultural Society of Orange County, 
 North Carolina. This production is, in the main, so pow- 
 erfully conceived, so correct and plausible in its statc^ 
 ments and conclusions, and so w^ell calculated, though, 
 perhaps, not intended, to arouse the old North State to a 
 sense of her natural greatness and acquired shame, that 
 we could wish to see it published in pamphlet form, and 
 circulated throughout the length and breadth of that un- 
 fortunate and degraded heritage of slavery. Mr. Came- 
 ron says : 
 
 "I know not when I have been more humiliated, as a 
 North Carolina farmer, than when, a few weeks ago, at a 
 railroad depot at the very doors of our State capital, 1 saw 
 
60 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 wagons drawn by Kentucky mules, loading witu Northern 
 hay, for the supply not only of the town, but to be taken 
 to the country. Such a sight at the capital of a State 
 whose population is almost exclusively devoted to agri- 
 culture, is a most humiliating exhibition. Let us cease to 
 use every thing, as far as it is practicable, that is not the 
 product of our own soil and workshops — not an axe, or i* 
 broom, or bucket, from Connecticut. By every consider- 
 ation of self-preservation, we are called to make better 
 efforts to expel the Northern grocer from the State with 
 his butter, and the Ohio and Kentucky horse, mule and 
 hog driver, from our county at least. It is a reproach on 
 us as farmers, and no little deduction from our wealth, 
 that we suffer the population of our towns and villages 
 to supply themselves with butter from another Orange 
 County in New-York." 
 
 We have promised to prove that the hay crop of the free 
 states is worth considerably more than all the cotton, 
 tobacco, rice, hay and hemp produced in the fifteen slave 
 States. Tlie compilers of the last census, as we learn from 
 Prof De Bow, the able and courteous superintendent, in 
 making up the hay-tMes, allowed two thousand two hun- 
 dred and forty pounds to the ton. The price per ton at 
 which we should estimate its value has puzzled us to some 
 extent. Dealers in the article in Baltimore think it will 
 average twenty-five dollars, in their market. Four or five 
 months ago they sold it at thirty dollars per ton. At the 
 very time we write, though there is less activity in the 
 article than usual, we learn, from an examination of sundry 
 prices-current and co-imercial journals, that hay is selling 
 
FREE AND TIIK SLAVE STATES. 51 
 
 in Savannali at $33 per ton ; in Mobile and New Orleans 
 at $2(j ; in Charleston at $25 ; in Louisville at $24 ; and 
 in Cincinnati at $23. The average of these prices is 
 tire7iii/-six dollars sixteen and two-third cents ; and we suppose 
 it would be lair to employ the figures which would indicate 
 this amount, the net value of a single ton, in calculating 
 the total market value of the entire crop. Were we to do 
 this — and, with the foregoing facts in view, we submit to 
 intelligent men whether we would not be justifiable in 
 doing it, — the hay crop of the free states, 12,090,982 tons, 
 in 1850, would amount in valuation to the enormous sum 
 of $331,081,695— more than four times the value of all the 
 cotton produced in the United States during the same 
 period ! 
 
 But we shall not make the calculation at what we have 
 found to be the average value per ton throughout the 
 country. What rate, then, shall be agreed upon as a basis 
 of comparison between the value of the hay crop of the 
 North and that of the South, and as a means of testing the 
 truth of our declaration — that the former exceeds the aggre- 
 gate value of all the cotton, tobacco, rice, hay and hemp 
 produced in the fifteen slave States ? Suppose we take 
 $13,08 J — just half the average value — as the multiplier in 
 this arithmetical exercise. This we can well afford to do ; 
 indeed, we might reduce the amount per ton to much less 
 than lialf the average value, and still have a large margin 
 left for triumphant demonstration. It is not our purpose, 
 however, to make an overwhelming display of the incom- 
 parable greatness of the fre(i States. 
 
 In estimating the value of the various agricultural pro- 
 
52 COMPARISON BETWfEN THE 
 
 ducts of the two great sections of the country, we have 
 been guided by prices emanating from the Bureau of Agri- 
 culture in Washington ; and in a catalogue of those prices 
 now before us, we perceive that the average value of hay 
 throughout the nation is supposed to be not more than 
 half a cent per pound — $11.20 per ton — which, as we have 
 seen above, is considerably less than half the present 
 market value ; — and this, too, in the face of the fact that 
 prices generally rule higher than they do just now. It 
 will be admitted on all sides, however, that the prices fixed 
 upon by the Bureau of Agriculture, taken as a whole, are 
 as fair for one section of the country as for the other, and 
 that we cannot blamelessly deviate from them in one par- 
 ticular without deviating from them in another. Eleven 
 dollars and twenty cents ($11.20) per ton shall therefore 
 be the price ; and, notwithstanding these greatly reduced 
 figures, we now renew, with an addendum, our declaration 
 and promise, that — We can prove, and we shall now proceed to 
 •prove, that the annual hay crop of the free States is worth consid- 
 erably more in dollars and cents than all the cotton, tobacco, rice, 
 hay, hemp and cane sugar annually produced in the f '\een slave 
 States. 
 
FRKE AND TIIF, SI,AVK STATF,3. 58 
 
 HAY CROP OF THE FREE STATES 1S50. 
 
 12,690 98<i tons a 11,20 S142,108,908 
 
 SUNDRY rRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 Cotton 2,445,779 bales a 32,00 S78,2G4,928 
 
 Tobacco, 185,023,900 lbs. " 10 18,502,390 
 
 Kice (rough) 215,313 497 lbs. " 4 8.012,539 
 
 Hay 1,137,784 tons " 11,20 12,743,180 
 
 Hemp 34,073 tons "112,00 3,883,376 
 
 Cane Sugar 237,133,000 lbs. " 7 10,599,310 
 
 $138,605,723 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 Hay crop of tlie free States $142,138,998 
 
 Sundry products of the slave States 138,605,723 
 
 Balance in favor of the free States .... $3,533,275 
 
 There is the account ; look at it, and let it stand in at- 
 testation of the exalted virtues and surpassing powers of 
 freedom. Scan it well, Messieurs lords of the lash, and learn 
 from it new lessons of the utter inefficiency, and despica- 
 ble imbecility of slavery. Examine it minutely, liberty- 
 loving patriots of the North, and behold in it additional 
 evidences of the beauty, grandeur, and super-excellenco 
 of free institutions. Treasure it up in your minds, out- 
 raged friends and non-slaveholders of the South, and let 
 the recollection of it arouse you to an inflexible determina- 
 tion to extirpate the monstrous enemy that stalks abroad 
 in your land, and to recover the inalienable rights and 
 liberties, which have been filched froLi you by an unprin- 
 cipled oligarchy. 
 
 In deference to truth, decency and good sense, it is to 
 
54 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 be hoped tlial, negro-driving politicians will never more 
 have the effrontery to open their mouths in extolling the 
 agricultural achievements of slave labor. Especially is it 
 desirable, that, as a simple act of justice to a basely de- 
 ceived populace, they may cease their stale and senseless 
 harangues on the importance of cotton. The value of cotr 
 ton to the South, to the North, to the nation, and to the 
 vrorld, has been so grossly exaggerated, and so extensive 
 have been the evils which have resulted in consequence 
 of the extraordinary misrepresentations concerning it, that 
 we should feel constrained to reproach ourself for remiss- 
 ness of duty, if we failed to make an attempt to explode 
 the popular error. The figures above show what it is, and 
 what it is not. Recur to them, and learn the facts. 
 
 So hyperbolically has the importance of cotton been 
 magnified by certain pro-slavery politicians of the South, 
 that the person who would give credence to all their fus- 
 tian and bombast, would be under the necessity of believ- 
 ing that the very existence of almost everything, in the 
 heaven above, in the earth beneath, and in the water un- 
 der the earth, depended on it. The truth is, however, that 
 the cotton crop is of but little value to the South. New 
 England and Old England, by their superior enterprise 
 and sagacity, turn it chiefly to their own advantage. It 
 is carried in their ships, spun in their factories, woven in 
 their looms, insured in their ofSces, returned again in their 
 own vessels, and, w'th doubie freight and cost of manu- 
 facturing added, purchased by the South at a high premi- 
 um. Of all the parties engaged or interested in its trans- 
 portation and manufacture, the South is the only one that 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATE-^. 55 
 
 does not make a profit. Xor docs she, as a general tiling, 
 malvC a profit by producing it. 
 
 We arc credibly informed that many of the farmers in 
 the immediate vicinity of Baltimore, where we now write, 
 have tnrncd their attention cxclusivelj" to hay, and that 
 from one acre they frequently gather two tons, for which 
 they receive fifty dollars. Let us now inquire how many 
 dollars may be expected from an acre planted in cotton. 
 Mr. Cameron, from whose able address before the Agricul- 
 tural Society of Orange County, North Carolina, we have 
 already gleaned some interesting particulars, informs us, 
 that the cotton planters in his part of the country, " have 
 contented themselves with a crop yielding only ten or 
 ticelve dollars per acre,''^ and that " the summing up of a large 
 surface gives but a living result." An intelligent resident 
 of the Palmetto State, writing in De Bows Review, 
 not long since, advances the opinion that the cotton 
 planters of South Carolina are not realizing more than one 
 per cent, on the amount of capital they have invested. 
 While in Virginia, very recently, an elderly slaveholder, 
 whose religious walk and conversation had recommended 
 and promoted him to an eldership in the Presbyterian 
 church, and who supports himself and family by raising 
 niggers and tobacco, told us that, for the last eight or ten 
 years, aside from the increase of his human chattels, he 
 felt quite confident he had not cleared as much even as 
 one per cent, per annum on the amount of his investment. 
 The real and personal property of this aged Christian con- 
 sists chiefly in a large tract of land and about thirty ne- 
 groes, most of whom, accenting to his own v onfcssion, are 
 
66 COMPARISOX BETWEEN THE 
 
 more expensive than profitable. The proceeds arising from 
 the sale of the tobacco they produce, are all absorbed in 
 the purchase of meat and bread for home consumption, and 
 when the crop is stunted by drought, frost, or otherwise 
 cut short, one of the negroes must be sold to raise funds 
 for the support of the others. Such are the agricultural 
 achievements of slave labor ; such are the results of " the 
 sum of all villainies." The diabolical institution subsists 
 on its own flesh. At one time children are sold to pro- 
 cure food for the parents, at another, parents are sold to 
 procure food for the children. Within its pestilential at- 
 mosphere, nothing succeeds ; progress and prosperity are 
 unknown ; inanition and slothfulness ensue ; everything 
 becomes dull, dismal and unprofitable ; wretchedness and 
 desolation run riot throughout the land; an aspect of most 
 melancholy inactivity and dilapidation broods over every 
 city and town ; ignorance and prejudice sit enthroned 
 over the minds of the people ; usurping despots wield the 
 sceptre of power ; everywhere, and in everything, between 
 Delaware Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, are the multitudin- 
 ous evils of slavery apparent. 
 
 The soil itself soon sickens and dies beneath the unna^ 
 tural tread of the slave. Hear what the Hon. C. C. Clay, of 
 Alabama, has to say upon the subject. His testimony is 
 eminently suggestive, well-timed, and truthful ; and we 
 heartily commend it to the careful consideration of every 
 spirited Southron who loves his country, and desires to 
 see it rescued from the fatal grasp of " the mother of har- 
 lots :" Says he : 
 
 " I can show you, with sorrow, in the older portions of 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 5t 
 
 Alabama, and in my native county of Madison, the sad 
 memorials of the artless and exhausting culture of cotton. 
 Our small planters, after taking the cream off their lands, 
 unable to restore them by rest, manures, or otherwise, are 
 going further West and South, in search of other virgin 
 lands, which they may and will despoil and impoverish in 
 like manner. Our wealthier planters, with greater means 
 and no more skill, are buying out their poorer neighbors, 
 extending their plantations, and adding to their slave 
 force. The wealthy few, who arc able to live on smaller 
 profits, and to give their blasted fields s«me rest, are thus 
 pushing off the many who are merely independent. Of the 
 $20,000,000 annually realized from the sales of the cotton 
 crop of Alabama, nearly all not expended in supporting 
 the producers, is re-invested in land and negroes. Thus 
 the white population has decreased and the slave increas- 
 ed almost pari passu in several counties of our State. In 
 1825, Madison county cast about 3,000 votes ; now, 
 she cannot cast exceeding 2,300. In traversing that 
 county, one will discover numerous farm-houses, once the 
 abode of industrious and intelligent freemen, now occu- 
 pied by slaves, or tenantless, deserted and dilapidated ; he 
 will observe fields, once fertile, now unfenced, abandoned, 
 and covered with those evil harbingers, fox-tail and broom- 
 sedge ; he will see the moss growing on the mouldering 
 walls of once thrifty villages, and will find ' one only mas- 
 ter grasps the whole domain,' that once furnished happy 
 homes for a dozen white families. Indeed, a country 
 in its infancy, where fifty years ago scarce a forest tree 
 had } een fellol by the axe of the pioneer, is already exhi- 
 
68 COMPARISOX BETWEEN THE 
 
 biting the painful signs of senility and decay, appare: t in 
 Virginia and the Carolinas." 
 
 Some one has said that " an honest confession is good 
 for the soul," and if the adage be true, as we have no 
 doubt it is, we think Mr. C. C. Clay is entitled to a quiet 
 conscience on one score at least. In the extract quoted 
 above, he gives us a graphic description of the ruinous 
 operations and influences of slavery in the Southwest ; and 
 we, as a native of Carolina, and a traveler through Vir- 
 ginia, are ready to bear testimony to the fitness of his re- 
 marks when he referred to those States as examples of 
 senility and decay. With equal propriety, however, he 
 might have stopped nearer home for a subject of compa- 
 rison. Either of the States bordering upon Alabama, or, 
 indeed, any other slave States, would have answered his 
 purpose quite as well as Virginia and the Carolinas. 
 Wherever slavery exists there he may find parallels to the 
 destruction that is sweeping with such deadly influence 
 over his own unfortunate State. 
 
 As for examples of vigorous, industrious and thrifty 
 communities, they can be found anywhere beyond the 
 Upas-shadow of slavery — nowhere else. New-York and 
 Massachusetts, which, by nature, are confessedly far in- 
 ferior to Virginia and the Carolinas, have, by the more 
 liberal and equitable policy which they have pursued, in 
 substituting liberty for slavery, attained a degree of emi- 
 nence and prosperity altogether unknown in the slave 
 States. 
 
 Amidst all the hyperbole and cajolery of slave-driving pol- 
 iticians^ who, as W3 have already seen, are * the books, tho 
 
rRT.F. AND THE SLAVE STATES. 59 
 
 arts, the academies, that show, contain, and govern all tho 
 South,' we arc rejoiced to see that 'Sh. Clay, Mr. Cameron, 
 and a few others, have had the boldness and honesty to 
 step forward and proclaim the truth. All such frank 
 admissions are to be hailed as good omens for the South. 
 Nothing good can come from any attempt to conceal the 
 unconcealable evidences of poverty and desolation every- 
 where trailing in the wake of slavery. Let the truth be 
 told on all occasions, of the North as well as of the South, 
 and the people will soon begin to discover the egregious- 
 ness of their errors, to draw just comparisons, to inquire 
 into cause and effect, and to adopt the more utile measures, 
 manners and customs of their wiser cotemporaries. 
 
 In wilfully traducing and decrying everything North of 
 Mason and Dixon's line, and in excessively magnifying the 
 importance of everything South of it, the oligarchy have, 
 in the eyes of all liberal and intelligent men, only made an 
 exhibition of their uncommon folly and dishonesty. For a 
 long time, it is true, they have succeeded in deceiving the 
 people, in keeping them humbled in the murky sloughs of 
 poverty and ignorance, and in instilling into their untu- 
 tored minds passions and prejudices expressly calculated to 
 strengthen and protect the accursed institution of slavery ; 
 but, thanks to heaven, their inglorious reign is fa&t draw- 
 ing to a close ; with irresistible brilliancy, and in spite of 
 the interdict of tyrants, light from the pure fountain of 
 knowledge is now streaming over the dark places of our 
 land, and, ere long — mark our words — there will ascend 
 from Delaware, and from Texas, and from all the intermo- 
 diat« States, a huzza for Freedom and for Equal Rights, 
 
60 COMIi^ISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 that will utterly confound the friends of despoti^m, set at 
 defiance the authority of usurpers, and carry consternation 
 to the heart of every slavery-propagandist. 
 
 To undeceive the people of the South, to bring their t© 
 a knowledge of the inferior and disreputable position which 
 they occupy as a component part of the Union, and to give 
 prominence and popularity to those plans which, if adopted, 
 will elevate us to an equality, socially, morally, intellectu- 
 ally, industrially, politically, and financially, with the most 
 flourishing and refined nation in the world, and, if possible, 
 to place us in the van of even that, is the object of this 
 "^ork. Slaveholders, either from ignorance or from a wilful 
 disposition to propagate error, contend that the South has 
 nothing to be ashamed of, that slavery has proved a bless- 
 ing to her, and that her superiority over the North in an 
 agricultural point of view makes amends for all her short- 
 comings in other respects. On the other hand, we contend 
 that many years of continual blushing and severe penance 
 would not suffice to cancel or annul the shame and disgrace 
 that justly attaches to the South in consequence of slavery 
 — the direst evil that e'er befell the land — that the South 
 bears nothing like even a respectable approximation to the 
 North in navigation, commerce, or manufactures, and that, 
 contrary to the opinion entertained by ninety-nine hun- 
 dredths of her people, she is far behind the free States in 
 the only thing of which she has ever dared to boast — agri 
 culture. We submit the question to the arbitration of 
 figures, which, it is said, do not lie. "With regard to the 
 bushel-measure products of the soil, of which we have 
 already taken an inventory, we have seen that there is a 
 
FREE AND THE SIJ^VE STATES. 61 
 
 balance against the South in favor of the Ncrth oi seventeen 
 mUHon four hiindral and ticcnly-thrce thousand one hundred and 
 Jifty-two bushels, and a diflference in the value of the same, 
 also in favor of the North, of forty-four million seven hundred 
 and elghtif-firo thousand six hundred and thirty-six dollars. It 
 is certainly a most novel kind of agricultural superiority 
 that the South claims on that score I 
 
 Our attention shall now be directed to the twelve prin- 
 cipal pound-measure products of the free and of the slave 
 States — hay, cotton, butter and cheese, tobacco, cane, su- 
 gar, wool, rice, hemp, maple sugar, beeswax and honey, 
 flax, and hops — and in taking an account of them, we 
 shall, in order to show the exact quantity produced in 
 each State, and for the convenience of future reference, 
 pursue the same plan as that adopted in the preceding 
 tables. "Whether slavery will appear to better advantage 
 on the scales than it did in the half-bushel, remains to be 
 seen. It is possible that the rickety monster may make a 
 better show on a new track ; if it makes a more ridiculous 
 display, we shall not be surprised. A careful examina- 
 tion of its precedents, has taught us the folly of expecting 
 anything good to issue from it in any manner whatever. 
 It has no disposition to emulate the magnanimity of its 
 betters, and as for a laudable ambition to excel, that is a 
 characteristic altogether foreign to its nature. Languor 
 and inertia are the insalutary viands upon which it de- 
 lights to satiate its morbid appetite ; and " from bad to 
 worse" is the ill-omened motto under which, in all its fee- 
 ble eflbrts and achievements, it ekes out a most miserable 
 and deleterious existence 
 
62 
 
 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 TABLE NO. IX. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE FREE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Hay, tons. 
 
 Hemp, tons. 
 
 Hope, lbs. 
 
 California 
 
 2,038 
 
 516,131 
 
 601,952 
 
 403,230 
 
 89,055 
 
 756,889 
 
 651,807 
 
 404,934 
 
 598,854 
 
 435,950 
 
 3,728,797 
 
 1,443,142 
 
 1,842,970 
 
 74,418 
 
 866,153 
 
 275,662 
 
 12,690,982 
 
 4 
 
 150 
 
 44 
 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 554 
 
 3,551 
 
 92,796 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Michioran 
 
 8,242 
 
 40,120 
 
 121,595 
 
 10,663 
 
 257,174 
 
 2,133 
 
 2,586,299 
 
 63,731 
 
 22 088 
 
 Kew Hampshire 
 
 Ne w Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 277 
 
 Vermont 
 
 288,023 
 15,930 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 
 198 
 
 3,463,176 
 
 TABLK NO. X. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Hay, tons. 
 
 Hemp, tons. 
 
 Hops, lbs. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 32,685 
 
 
 276 
 
 Arkansas ;, 
 
 3,976 
 
 15 
 
 157 
 
 Delaware 
 
 80,159 
 
 
 348 
 
 Florida 
 
 2.510 
 
 
 14 
 
 Georgia 
 
 23,449 
 
 
 261 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 113,747 
 
 17,787 
 
 4,309 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 25,762 
 
 
 125 
 
 Maryland 
 
 157,956 
 
 63 
 
 1,870 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 12,504 
 
 7 
 
 473 
 
 Missouri 
 
 116,925 
 
 16,028 
 39 
 
 4,130 
 9,246 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 145,653 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 20,925 
 
 
 26 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 74,091 
 
 595 
 
 1,032 
 
 Texas 
 
 8,354 
 369,098 
 
 1,137,784 
 
 139 
 
 7 
 
 Virginia. . ^ 
 
 11,506 
 
 
 
 
 84,678 
 
 33,780 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 
 
 es 
 
 TABLE NO. XI. 
 
 AGRTCriTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE FREE STATES — 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Flax, 
 11.8. 
 
 Mapio Sugar, 
 
 Tobacco, 
 
 "■•■ 
 
 California 
 
 17,928 
 
 160,063 
 
 684,469 
 
 62,660 
 
 17,081 
 
 1,162 
 
 7,152 
 
 7,652 
 
 182,965 
 
 940,577 
 
 446,932 
 
 630,307 
 
 85 
 
 20,852 
 
 68,393 
 
 50,796 
 
 218,904 
 
 2,921,192 
 
 78,407 
 
 93,542 
 
 795,525 
 
 2.439,794 
 
 1,298,863 
 
 2.197 
 
 10,3571484 
 
 4,588,209 
 
 2,326,525 
 
 28 
 
 6.349,357 
 
 610,976 
 
 32,161,799 
 
 1 000 
 
 ^Connecticut 
 
 1,267,624 
 841,394 
 
 Illinois 
 
 
 1,044 620 
 6,041 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Michigan 
 
 138,246 
 1,245 
 
 Now Hampshire .... 
 
 50 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 310 
 
 New York 
 
 83,18y 
 
 10,454,449 
 
 912,651 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsvlvauia 
 
 Rhode' Island 
 
 Vermont. 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 1,268 
 
 
 
 3,048,278 
 
 14,752,087 
 
 TABLK NO. XII. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Flax, 
 Ibfl. 
 
 Maple Sugar, 
 lbs. 
 
 Tobacco, 
 
 lb8. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkan.sas , 
 
 3,921 
 
 12,291 
 
 17,174 
 
 50 
 
 6,387 
 
 2,100,110 
 
 35,686 
 
 665 
 
 627,160 
 
 693,796 
 
 333 
 
 368,131 
 
 1,048 
 
 1,000,450 
 
 643 
 9,330 
 
 60 
 
 437,405 
 
 255 
 
 47,740 
 
 178,910 
 
 27,932 
 
 200 
 
 158,557 
 
 1,227,665 
 
 164,990 
 218,936 
 
 Florida 
 
 Gcororia 
 
 998,614 
 423,924 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 55,501,196 
 26,878 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 21,407,497 
 49,960 
 
 Missouri.. 
 
 17,113,784 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 11,984,786 
 
 Soutli Carolina 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas. 
 
 74.285 
 
 20,148,932 
 
 66,897 
 
 Virf'inia. 
 
 66.803,227 
 
 
 
 
 i-e";.198 
 
 2,088.0^' 
 
 185,023,906 
 
64 
 
 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 TABLE NO. XIII. 
 
 ANIMAL PRODUCTS OF THE FREE STATES 185 H. 
 
 States. 
 
 Wool, 
 lbs. 
 
 Butter and 
 Cheese, lbs. 
 
 Beeswax and 
 Honey, lbs. 
 
 California 
 
 5,520 
 
 497,454 
 2,150.113 
 2,610,287 
 
 373,898 
 1,364,034 
 
 585,136 
 2,043,283 
 1,108,476 
 
 375,396 
 
 10,071,301 
 
 10,196,371 
 
 4,481,570 
 
 129,692 
 3,400,717 
 
 253,963 
 
 39,647,211 
 
 855 
 11,861,396 
 13,804,768 
 13,506,099 
 
 2,381.028 
 11,678;205 
 15,159,512 
 
 8,077,390 
 10,173,619 
 
 9,852,966 
 
 129.507,507 
 
 55,268,921 
 
 42,383,452 
 
 1,312,178 
 20,858,814 
 
 4,034,033 
 
 349,860,783 
 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 93,304 
 869,444 
 935,329 
 321,711 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana .... 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 189,618 
 
 59,508 
 
 359,232 
 
 Massachusetts ., 
 
 Michio^an 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York' , 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 117,140 
 156,694 
 1,755,830 
 804,275 
 839,509 
 6,347 
 249,422 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 131,005 
 
 6,888,368 
 
 TABLE NO. XVI. 
 
 ANIMAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 1 Wool, 
 lbs. 
 
 Butter and 
 Cheese, lbs. 
 
 Beeswax and 
 Honey, lbs. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 657,118 
 
 182,595 
 
 57,768 
 
 23,247 
 
 990,019 
 
 2,297,433 
 109,897 
 477,438 
 559,619 
 
 1,627.164 
 970,738 
 487,233 
 
 1,364,378 
 131,917 
 
 2,860,765 
 
 12,797,329 
 
 4,040,223 
 1,884,327 
 1,058,495 
 389,513 
 4.687,535 
 
 10,161,477 
 685,020 
 3,810,135 
 4,367,425 
 8,037,931 
 4,242,211 
 2,986,820 
 8,317,266 
 2,440,199 
 
 11,525,651 
 
 Gi,034,224 
 
 897,021 
 
 Arkansas , 
 
 Delaware 
 
 192,338 
 41,248 
 
 Florida »... 
 
 18,971 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 732,514 
 
 1,158,019 
 
 96.701 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 74,802 
 397,460 
 
 Missouri 
 
 1,328,972 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 512,289 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 216,281 
 1,030.572 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas. ^^ 
 
 380825 
 
 Virginia 
 
 880,767 
 
 
 7,964,760 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 
 
 65 
 
 TABLE NO. XV. 
 
 AGRICULTURAl PROI UCTS OF THE SLAVE SFATES 1850. 
 
 bta'.es. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 LouL'iiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi.... 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina, 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Cotton, bales Cane Sugar, Rough Rice, 
 of4u0 1b8, lihdB.10001bfl. lbs. 
 
 504,429 
 65,344 
 
 45,131 
 
 499,091 
 
 758 
 
 178,737 
 
 484,292 
 
 50,545 
 300,901 
 194,532 
 
 58,072 
 3,947 
 
 2,445.779 
 
 87 
 
 2,750 
 
 846 
 
 10 
 
 226.001 
 
 8 
 
 77 
 
 3 
 
 7,351 
 
 237,133 
 
 2,312,252 
 63,179 
 
 1,075,090 
 
 38,950.691 
 
 5,688 
 
 4,425,349 
 
 2,719,850 
 
 700 
 
 5,405,868 
 
 159,980,613 
 
 258,854 
 
 88,203 
 
 17,154 
 
 215,313,497 
 
 RECAPITULATION FREE STATES. 
 
 Hay 28,427,799,680 lbs. (S) 1-2 c. $142,138,998 
 
 Hemp 443,520 " " 5" 22,176 
 
 Hops 3,463,176 ♦' " 15" 519,476 
 
 Flax 3,ai8,278 " " 10 '♦ 304,827 
 
 Maple Sugar 32,161,799 " " 8" 2,572,943 
 
 Tobacco 14,752,087 '♦ " 10" 1,475,208 
 
 "Wool 39,647,211 " " 35" 13,876,523 
 
 Butter and Cheese... 349,860,783 " " 15" 62,479,117 
 
 Beeswax and Honey.. 6,888,368 " " 15" 1,033,255 
 
 ToUl, 28,878,001,902 ibg, valued aa abc^e, S214,422,523 
 
66 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 RECAPITULATION SLAVE STATES. 
 
 Hay 2,548,636,160 lbs. © 1-2 c. ,..S12,7i3,180 
 
 Hemp 77,667,520 " " 5 " 3,883,376 
 
 Hops 33,780 " " 15 " 5,067 
 
 Flax 4,766,198 " " 10 " 476,619 
 
 Maple Sugar 2,088,687 " " 8 " 167,094 
 
 Tobacco 185,023,906 " " 10 " 18,502,390 
 
 Wool 12,797,329 " '« 35 " 4,479,065 
 
 Butter and Cheese 68,634,224 " " 15 " 10,295,133 
 
 Beeswax and Honey 7,964,760 '♦ " 15 " 1,194,714 
 
 Cotton 978,311,600 " " 8 " 78,264,928 
 
 Cane Sugar 237,133,000 " " 7 '• 16,599,310 
 
 Rice (rough) 215,313,497 " " 4 " 8,612,539 
 
 Total 4,338,370,661 lbs. valued as above, at 8155,223,415 
 
 TOTAL DIFFERENCE POUND-MEASCRE PRODUCTS. 
 
 Pou7ids. Value. 
 
 Free States 28,878,064,902 $214,422,523 
 
 Slave States 4,338,370,661 155,223,415 
 
 Balance in pounds, 24,539,694,241 Diflference in value, $59,199,108 
 
 Both quantity and value again in favor of the North I 
 Behold also the enormousness of the difference I In this 
 comparison with the South, neither hundreds, thousands, 
 nor millions, according to the regular method of computa- 
 tion, are sufiScient to exhibit the excess of the pound- 
 measure products of the North. Recourse must be had to 
 an almost inconceivable number ; billions must be called 
 into play ; and there are the figures telling us, with un- 
 mistakable emphasis and distinctness, that, in this depart- 
 ment of agriculture, as in every other, the North is vastly 
 the superior of the South — the figures showing a total 
 balance in favor of the former of twenty-four billion fice huji' 
 
FREE AXn THE SLAVE STATES. 61 
 
 died and thlrtij-nine mdlion sir hundred and ninitij-four thousand 
 two hundrcil and fort y-ene ^pounds, valued at fifty-nine million 
 o^nt hundred and ninetij-nine thousand one hundred and eight 
 dollars. And yet, the Nortli is a poor, God-forsaken coun- 
 try, bleak, inhospitable, and unproductive I 
 
 What next ? Is it necessary to adduce other facts in 
 order to prove that the rural wealth of the free States is 
 far greater than that of the slave States ? Shall we make 
 a furtlicr demonstration of the fertility of northern soil, or 
 bring forward new evidences of the inefficient and desola- 
 ting system of terra-culture in the South ? Will nothing 
 less than " confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ,'' 
 suffice to convince the South that she is standing in her 
 own light, and ruining both body and soul by the reten- 
 tion of slavery ? Whatever duty and expedience require 
 to be done, we are willing to do. Additional proofs are at 
 hand. Slaveholders and slave-breeders shall be convinced, 
 confuted, convicted, and converted. They shall, in their 
 hearts and consciences, if not with their tongues and 
 pens, bear testimony to the triumphant achievements of 
 free labor. In the two tables which immediately follow 
 these remarks, they shall see how much more vigorous 
 and fruitful the soil is when under the prudent manage- 
 ment of free white husbandmen, than it is when under the 
 rude and nature-murdering tillage of enslaved negroes ; 
 and in two subsequent tables they shall find that the live 
 stock, slaughtered animals, farms, and farming implements 
 and machinery, in the free States, are worth at least one 
 thousand million of dollars more than the market value of 
 the same in the slave States I In the face, however, of all 
 
68 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 these most significant and incontrovertible facts, the oli- 
 garchy have the unparalleled audacity to tell us that the 
 South is the greatest agricultural country in the world, 
 and that the North is a dreary waste, unfit for cultivation, 
 and quite dependent on us for the necessaries of life. How 
 preposterously false all such babble is, the followins: 
 tables will show : — 
 
FREE AND THE SI^VE STATKS. 
 
 69 
 
 TA15I.K NO. XVI. 
 
 ACTUAL CKOrS PER ACKE ON THE AVEilAGE IN TUE TREE 
 STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Wheat, 
 
 bUrthflrt, 
 
 Oatu, 
 bushfla. 
 
 Rye. 
 buabcls. 
 
 Iiid. Corn, 
 bushels. 
 
 Irish Pota- 
 toes, buoh. 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 10 
 10 
 
 11 
 11 
 
 12 
 12 
 lo 
 
 1:3 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 21) 
 20 
 30 
 
 26 
 26 
 30 
 26 
 25 
 21 
 
 30 
 
 35 
 
 14 
 
 18 
 
 13 
 
 17 
 
 25 
 
 20 
 
 40 
 33 
 33 
 32 
 27 
 31 
 32 
 30 
 33 
 27 
 30 
 20 
 
 32 
 
 30 
 
 85 
 115 
 100 
 
 Iowa 
 
 100 
 
 
 120 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 ^liclii'^nn 
 
 170 
 140 
 
 New Ilanipsliirc.. . 
 
 New JfiM y 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 220 
 100 
 
 Pennsvlvania 
 
 Rliode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 ^Visconsin 
 
 75 
 
 100 
 178 
 
 
 161 
 
 325 
 
 107 
 
 436 
 
 1,503 
 
 TABI.K NO. XVII. 
 
 ACTUAL CROrS PER ACRE ON THE AVERAGE IN THE SLAVE 
 STATES 1850. 
 
 StatfH. 
 
 Wheal, 
 bUbheld. 
 
 Alabama. 
 Arkansas. 
 Delaware. 
 
 Florida . . 
 Gcoriiia. , 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri , 
 
 North Carolina, , 
 S«>ulh Carolina.. 
 
 'J't-nnessee 
 
 To.xas 
 
 Virsinia 
 
 11 
 
 15| 
 5 
 
 13, 
 
 111 
 
 7l 
 
 15 
 
 121 
 
 Oats, 
 
 Hye, 
 
 Ind. Corn. 
 
 IriHh I'ota- 
 
 bushels. 
 
 buohels. 1 bushels. 
 
 too8, bush. 
 
 12 
 
 
 15 
 
 60 
 
 18 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 20 
 
 175 
 
 18 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 125 
 
 18 
 
 11 
 
 24 
 16 
 
 130 
 
 21 
 
 18 
 
 23 
 
 75 
 
 12 
 
 
 18 
 
 105 
 
 20 
 
 
 34 
 
 110 
 
 10 
 
 15 17 
 
 65 
 
 12 
 
 1 11 
 
 70 
 
 10 
 
 7, 21 
 
 120 
 
 
 20 
 
 250 
 
 13 
 
 5 18 
 
 75 
 
 199 
 
 63 
 
 275 
 
 1,300 
 
10 
 
 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 RECAPITl'I ATION OF ACTUAL CROPS PER ACRE ON THE 
 AVERAGE 1850. 
 
 FREE STATES. 
 
 Wheat 12 bushels per acre. 
 
 Oats 27 
 
 Rye 18 
 
 Indian Corn 31 " " 
 
 Irish Potatoes 125 " " 
 
 SLAVE STATES. 
 
 Wheat 9 bushels per acre. 
 
 Oats 17 
 
 Rye 11 " « 
 
 Indian Corn. 20 " " 
 
 Irish Potatoes 113 " " 
 
 "What an obvious contrast between the vigor of Liberty 
 and the impotence of Slavery! What an unanswerable 
 argument in favor of free labor I Add up the two columns 
 of figures above, and what is the result ? Two hundred 
 and thirteen bushels as the products of five acres in the 
 North, and only one hundred and seventy bushels as the 
 products of five acres in the South. Look at each item 
 separately, and you will find that the average crop per 
 acre of every article enumerated is greater in the free 
 States than it is in the slave States. Examine the table 
 at large, and you will perceive that while Massachusetts 
 produces sixteen bushels of wheat to the acre, Virginia 
 produces only seven ; that Pennsylvania produces fifteen 
 and Georgia only five : that while Iowa produces thirty- 
 six bushels of oats to the acre, Mississippi produces only 
 twelve ; that Rhode Island produces thirty, and North Ca- 
 rolina only ten : that while Ohio produces twenty-five 
 bushels of rye to the acre, Kentucky produces only eleven; 
 that Vermont produces twenty, and Tennessee only seven: 
 that while Connecticut produces forty bushels of Indian 
 corn to the acre, Texas produces only twenty ; that New 
 Jersey produces thirty-three, and South Carolina only 
 eleven : that while New Hampshire produces two hundred 
 and twenty bushels of Irish potatoes to the acre, Maryland 
 produces only seventy-five ; that Michigan produces one 
 hundred and forty, and Alabama only sixty. Now for 
 other beauties c ^ slavery in another table. 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 
 
 Tl 
 
 TABL,i: NO. XVI IT. 
 
 VALUE OF FARMS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN THE FllEE STATES 
 
 —1850. 
 
 l^oehVal. of Farms, 
 Farm. Imp. &.Mac. 
 
 Btates. 
 
 California 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts. . . 
 
 Michiijan 
 
 New Hampshire.. 
 
 New Jersev 
 
 New York. 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania. . .. 
 Rhode Island.. . 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Value of 
 
 Val. of Animals 
 
 Live Stock. 
 
 Slaughtered. 
 
 Sn,:3o 1,058 
 
 S107,173 
 
 7,4G7,49l) 
 
 2,202,266 
 
 24,209,258 
 
 4,972,286 
 
 22,478,555 
 
 6,567,935 
 
 3,089,275 
 
 821.164 
 
 9,705 726 
 
 1,646,773 
 
 9,047,710 
 
 2,500,924 
 
 8,008,734 
 
 1,328,327 
 
 8,871,901 
 
 1,522,873 
 
 10,679,291 
 
 2,638,552 
 
 73,570,499 
 
 13,573,883 
 
 44.121,741 
 
 7,439,243 
 
 41,500,053 
 
 8,219,848 
 
 1,532.637 
 
 667,486 
 
 12,643,228 
 
 1,861,336 
 
 4,897,385 
 
 920,178 
 
 S286,376.541 
 
 S56,990,237 
 
 S3,977,524 
 
 74,618.963 
 
 102,538,851 
 
 143,089,617 
 
 17,830,436 
 
 57,146,305 
 
 112,285,931 
 
 54,763,817 
 
 57,560,122 
 
 124,663,014 
 
 576,631,568 
 
 371,509,188 
 
 422,598,640 
 
 17,568,003 
 
 66,100,509 
 
 30,170,131 
 
 S2,233.058 619 
 
 TABLK NO. XIX. 
 
 VALUE OF FARMS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN THE SLAVE STATES 
 —1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Geomia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi. . .. 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Te.xas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Value of 
 Live Stock. 
 
 S21.690,112 
 
 6,647,969 
 
 1,819,281 
 
 2,880,058 
 
 25,728.416 
 
 29,661,436 
 
 11,152,275 
 
 7,997,634 
 
 19,403,662 
 
 19,887,580 
 
 17,717,647 
 
 15,060,015 
 
 29,978,016 
 
 10,412,927 
 
 33,656,659 
 
 S253,723,687 
 
 Val. of Animals i CashV^al. of Farm^*, 
 Slaughtered. Farm. Imp. & Mac. 
 
 S4, 82 3, 485 
 1,163,313 
 373,605 
 514,685 
 6,339,762 
 6,462,598 
 1,458,990 
 1,954,800 
 3,636.582 
 3,367,106 
 5,767,866 
 3,502.637 
 6,401,765 I 
 1,116.137 
 7,502,986 i 
 
 869,448,887 
 
 16,866,541 
 
 19,390,310 
 
 6,981,904 
 
 101,617,595 
 
 160,190,299 
 87,391,336 
 89,641,988 
 60.501,561 
 67,207 068 
 71,823,298 
 86,-')68,038 
 
 103,211,122 
 18,701,712 
 
 223,423,315 
 
 $54,388,377 ; 81,183,996,274 
 
72 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 RECAPITULATION FREE STATES. 
 
 Value of live Stock $286,376,541 
 
 Value of Animals slaughtered, 56,990,237 
 
 Value of Farms, Farming-Implements and Machinery, 2,233,058,619 
 
 82,576,425,397 
 RECAPITULATION — SLAVE STATES. 
 
 Value of Live Stock $253,723,687 
 
 Value of Animals slaughtered 64,388,377 
 
 Value of Farms, Farming Implements and Machinery, 1,183,995,274 
 
 $1,492,107,338 
 
 DIFFERENCE IN VALUE FARMS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
 
 FreeStates, $2,576,425,397 
 
 Slave States 1,492,107,338 
 
 Balance in favor of the Free States $1,084,318,059 
 
 By adding to this last balance in favor of the free States 
 the differences in value which we found in their favor in 
 our account of the bushel-and-pound-measure products, we 
 shall have a very correct idea of the extent to which the 
 undivided agricultural interests of the free States prepon- 
 derate over those of the slave States. Let us add the dif- 
 ferences together, and see what will be the result. 
 
 BALANCES ALL IN FAVOR OF THE NORTH. 
 
 Difference in the value of bushel-measure products,. $44,782,636 
 Difference in the value of pound-measure products.. 59,199,108 
 Difference in the value of farms and domestic animals 1,084,318,059 
 
 Total $1,188,299,803 
 
 No figures of rhetoric can add emphasis or significance 
 to these figures of arithmetic. They demonstrate concltt- 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES. 73 
 
 sively the great moral triumph of Liberty over Slavery. 
 They show uiie(|iiivocally, in spite of all the blarmy and 
 boasting of slave-driving politiciaas, that the entire value 
 of all the agricultural interests of the free States is very 
 nearly twice as great as the entire value of all the agricul- 
 tural interests of the slave States — the value of those in- 
 terests in the former being twenty-five hundred million of 
 dollars, that of those in the latter only fourteen hundred 
 million, leaving a balance in favor of the free States of 
 ojie billion one hundred and eighty-eight million two hundred and 
 ainety-nine thousand eight hundred and three dollars ! That is 
 what we call a full, fair and complete vindication of Free 
 Labor. Would we not be correct in calling it a total 
 eclipse of the Black Orb ? Can it be possible that the 
 slavocracy will ever have the hardihood to open their 
 mouths again on the subject of terra-culture in the South ? 
 Dare they ever think of cotton again ? Ought they not, 
 as a befitting confession of their crimes and misdemeanors, 
 and as a reasonable expiation for the countless evils which 
 they have inflicted on society, to clothe themselves in 
 sackcloth, and, after a suitable season of contrition and 
 severe penance, follow the example of one Judas Iscariot, 
 and go and hang themselves ? 
 
 It will be observed that we have omitted the Territories 
 and the District of Columbia in all the preceding tables. 
 We did this purposely. Our object was to draw an equi- 
 table comparison between the value of free and slave labor 
 in the thirty-one sovereign States, where the two systems, 
 comparatively unaffected by the wrangling of politicians, 
 and, as a matter of course, free from the interference of 
 
74 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 the general government, have had the fuUt-ot opf ortunities 
 to exert their influence, to exhibit their virtues, and to 
 commend themselves to the sober judgments of enlightened 
 and discriminating minds. Had we counted the Territories 
 on the side of the North, and the District of Columbia on 
 the side of the South, the result would have been still 
 greater in behalf of free labor. Though " the sum of all 
 villanies" has but a mere nominal existence in Delaware 
 and Maryland, we have invariably counted those States on 
 the side of the South ; and the consequence is, that, in 
 many particulars, the hopeless fortunes of slavery have 
 been propped up and sustained by an imposing array of 
 figures which of right ought to be regarded as the property 
 of freedom. But we like to be generous to an unfortunate 
 foe, and would utterly disdain the use of any unfair means 
 of attack or defence. 
 
 We shall take no undue advantage of slavery. It shall 
 have a fair trial, and be judged accordi-ng to its deserts. 
 Already has it been weighed in the balance, and found 
 wanting ; it has been measured in the half-bushel, and 
 found wanting ; it has been apprized in the field, and found 
 wanting. Whatever redeeming traits or qualities it may 
 possess, if any, shall be brought to light by subjecting it 
 to other tests. 
 
 It was our desire and intention to furnish a correct table 
 of the gallon-measure products of the several States of the 
 Union ; but we have not been successful in our attempt to 
 procure the necessary statistics. Enough is known, how- 
 ever, to satisfy us that the value cf the milk, wine, ardent 
 spirits, malt liquors, fluids, oils, and molasses, annually 
 
FREE AXn THE SLAVE STATES 75 
 
 produced and sold in the free States, is at east fifty mil- 
 lions of dollars g^reatcr than the value of the same articles 
 annually produced and sold in the slave States. Of sweet 
 milk alone, it is estimated that the monthly sales in three 
 Northern cities, New York, Philadelphia and Boston, 
 amount to a larger sum than the marketable value of all 
 the rosin, tar, pitch, and turpentine, annually produced in 
 the Southern States. 
 
 Our efforts to obtain reliable information respecting 
 another very important branch of profitable industry, the 
 lumber business, have also proved unavailing ; and we are 
 left to conjecture as to the amount of revenue annually 
 derived from it in the two grand divisions of our country-. 
 The person whose curiosity prompts him to take an 
 account of the immense piles of Northern lumber now lying 
 on the wharves and houseless lots in Baltimore, Richmond, 
 and other slaveholding cities, will not, we imagine, form 
 a ver}' flattering opinion of the products of Southern for 
 csts. Let it be remembered that nearly all the clippers, 
 steamers, and small craft, are built at the North ; that 
 large cargoes of Eastern lumber are exported to foreign 
 countries ; that nine-tenths of the wooden-ware used in the 
 Southern States is manufactured in New England ; that, 
 in outrageous disregard of the natural rights and claims 
 of Southern mechanics, the markets of the South are for- 
 ever filled with Northern furniture, vehicles, ax helves, 
 walking canes, yard-sticks, clothes-pins and pen-holders 
 that the extraordinary number of factories, sieam-cngines, 
 forges and machine-she ps in the free States, require an 
 extraordinary quantity of cord-v.ood ; that a large majority 
 
76 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 of the magnificent edifices and other structures, boki 
 private and public, in which timber, in its various forms, 
 is extensively used, are to be found in the free States — 
 we say, let all these things be remembered, and the truth 
 will at once flash across the mind that the forests of the 
 North are a source of far greater income than those of the 
 South. The difference is simply this : At the North every- 
 thing is turned to advantage. When a tree is cut down, 
 the main body is sold or used for lumber, railing or paling, 
 the stump for matches and shoepegs, the knees for ship- 
 building, and the branches for fuel. At the Soutu every- 
 thing is either neglected or mismanaged. Whole forests 
 are fcllad by the ruthless hand of slavery, the trees are 
 cut into logfi, rolled into heaps, covered with the limbs 
 and brush, and then burned on the identical soil that gave 
 them birth. The land itself next falls a prey to the fell 
 destroyer, and that which was once a beautiful, fertile and 
 luxuriant woodland, is soon despoiled of all its treasures, 
 and converted into an eye-offending desert. 
 
 Were we to go beneath the soil and collect all the min- 
 eral and lapidarious wealth of the free States, we should 
 find it so much greater than the corresponding wealth of 
 the slave States, that no ordinary combination cf figures 
 would suffice to express the difference. To say nothing 
 of the gold and quicksilver of California, the ir^.. and coal 
 of Pennsylvania, the copper of ^lichigan, the lead of Illi- 
 nois, or the salt of New-York, the marble and freestone quar- 
 ries of New England are, incredible as it may seem to those unac- 
 qitainteii icith the facts, far more important sources of revenue 
 than all the subterranean deposits in the slave States. From the 
 
Fnn-: axp the sr.AVK states. 17 
 
 most reliable statictics witiiia onv roach, we ire led to the 
 inference that the total value of all the precious metals, 
 rocks, mir.erals, and medicinal waters, annually extracted 
 from the bowels of the free States, is not less than eighty- 
 five million of dollars ; the whole value of the same sub- 
 stances annually brought np from beneath the surface of 
 the slave States does not exceed twelve millions. In this 
 respect to what is our poverty ascribable ? To the same 
 cause that has impoverished and dishonored us in all other 
 respects — the thriftless and degrading institution of 
 slavery. 
 
 Nature has been kind to us in all things. The strata 
 and substrata of the South are profusely enriched with 
 gold and silver, and precious stones, and from the natural 
 orifices and aqueducts inVirgina and North Carolina, flow 
 the purest healing waters in the world. But of what avail 
 is all this latent wealth ? Of what avail will it ever be, 
 so long as slavery is permitted to play the dog in the 
 manger ? To these queries there can be but one reply. 
 Slavery must be suppressed ; the South, so great and so 
 glorious by nature, must be reclaimed from her infamy 
 and degradation ; our cities, fields and forests, must be 
 kept intact from the unsparing monste: ; the various 
 and ample resources of our vast domain, subterrarcous as 
 well as superficial, must be developed, and made to con- 
 tribute to our pleasures and to the necessities of the 
 world. 
 
 A very significant chapter, and one particularly perti- 
 nent to many of the preceding pages, might be written 
 on the Decline of Agriculture in the Slave States ; but as 
 
78 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 the press of other subjects admonishes us to be concise 
 upon this point, we shall present only a few of the more 
 striking instances. In the first place, let us compare the 
 crops of wheat and r^^e in Kentucky, in 1850, with the 
 corresponding crops in the same State in 1840 — after 
 which, we will apply a similar rule of comparison to two 
 or three other slaveholding states. 
 
 KENTUCKY. 
 
 Wheat, bus. Rye, bus. 
 
 Crop ofl840 4;803,152 1,321,373 
 
 " "1850 2,142,822 415,073 
 
 Decrease 2^660,330 bus. Decrease- 906,300 bus. 
 
 TENNESSEE. 
 
 Wheat, bus. Tobacco, lbs. 
 
 Crop of 1840 4,569,692 29,550,432 
 
 " " 1850 1,019,386 20,148,932 
 
 Decrease 2,950,306 bus. Decrease 9,401,500 lbs. 
 
 VIRGINIA. 
 
 Rye, bus. Tobacco, lbs. 
 
 Crop of 1840 1,482,799 75,347,106 
 
 « "1850 458,930 56,803,227 
 
 Decrease 1,023,869 bus. Decrease 18,543,879 lbs. 
 
 ALABAMA. 
 
 Wheat, bus. Rye,bu<!. 
 
 Crop of 1840 838,05:i 51,000 
 
 " •' 1850 294,044 17,261 
 
 Decrease 544,008 bus. Decrease 33,739 bus. 
 
 The story of these figures is too intelligible to require 
 words of explanation ; we shall, therefore, drop this part 
 
FREE A\0 THE SLAVE STATE5. t9 
 
 c»f our subject, and proceed to compile a couple of tables 
 that will exhibit on a single page the wealth, revenue and 
 expenditure, of the several states of the confederacy. Let 
 it be distinctly understood, however, that, in the compila- 
 tion of these tables, three million two hundred and four 
 thousand three hundred and thirteen negroes are valued 
 as personal property, and credited to the Southern States 
 as if they were so many horses and asses, or bridles and 
 blankets — and that no monetary valuation whatever is 
 placed on any creature, of any age, colcr, sex or condi- 
 tion, that bears the upright form of man ii the free Statefl. 
 
80 
 
 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 TABLE NO. XX. 
 
 WEALTH, REVENUE ANP EXPENIITURE OF TUE FREE 5TATES-- 
 
 1850. 
 
 Sl:UC8. 
 
 Real and Tereonal 
 property. 
 
 Revenue. 
 
 Expenditure. 
 
 California 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 S22,161,872 
 
 155,707,980 
 
 156,265,006 
 
 202,650,264 
 
 23,714,638 
 
 122,777,571 
 
 573,342,286 
 
 59,787,255 
 
 103,052,835 
 
 153,151,619 
 
 1,080,309,216 
 
 504,726,120 
 
 729,144,998 
 
 80,508,794 
 
 92,205,049 
 
 42,056,595 
 
 S4,102,172,108 
 
 S-366,825 
 
 150,189 
 
 736,030 
 
 1,283,064 
 
 139,681 
 
 744,879 
 
 598,170 
 
 548.326 
 
 141,686 
 
 139,166 
 
 2,698,310 
 
 3,016,403 
 
 7,716,552 
 
 124,944 
 
 185,830 
 
 135,155 
 
 S925,625 
 137,326 
 192,940 
 
 1,061,605 
 131,631 
 624,101 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Michigan 
 
 New Hampshire.. 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 674,622 
 
 431,918 
 
 149,890 
 
 180,614 
 
 2,520,932 
 
 2,736.060 
 
 6,876,480 
 
 115,835 
 
 183,058 
 
 136,096 
 
 P^ 
 
 S18,725,211 
 
 S17,076,733 
 
 TABLE NO. XXI. 
 
 WBALTH, REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE OF THE SLAVE STATES 
 
 1850. 
 
FREE AND TRR SI.AVF STATF.3. 81 
 
 Entire Wealth of the Free States, S4, 02,172,108 
 
 Entire Wealtii of the Slave States, iiicliuling Slaves, 2./);]G,0'.U),7:37 
 
 Balance in favor of tlie Free States, Si, 160,081, :J71 
 
 AVliat a towering moiiuincnt to the beauty and g"lory of 
 Free Labor I AVliat irrefragable evidence of the unequaled 
 efficacy and grandeur of free institutions I These figures 
 are, indeed, too full of meaning to be passed by without 
 comment. The two tables from which they are borrowed 
 are at least a volume within themselves ; and, after all the 
 pains we have taken to compile them, we sliall, i)erhaps, 
 feel somewhat disappointed if the reader fails to avail liim- 
 self of the important information they impart. 
 
 Human life, in all ages, has been made up of a series of 
 adventures and experiments, and even at this stage of the 
 world's existence, we are almost as destitute of a perfect 
 rule of action, sccuhir or religious, as were the erratic co- 
 temporaries of Noah. It is true, however, that we have 
 made some progress in the right direction ; and as it seems 
 to be tlie tendency of the world to correct itself, we may 
 suppose that future generations will be enabled, by intui- 
 tion, to discriminate between the true and the false, tlie 
 good and the bad, and that with the development of this fac- 
 ulty of the mind, error and discord will begin to wane, and 
 finally cease to exist. Of all the experiments that have 
 been tried by the people in America, slavery has proved 
 the most fatal ; and the sooner it is abolished the better it 
 will be for us, for posterity, and for the world. One of 
 the evils resulting from it, and that not the least, is ap- 
 
 pai'-nt in the figures above. Indeed, the unprofUalleiiess of 
 4* 
 
82 
 
 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 slavery is a monstrous evil, when considered in all its 
 bearings ; it makes us poor ; poverty makes us ignorant ; 
 ignorance makes us wretched ; wretchedness makes us 
 wicked, and wickedness leads to the devil I 
 
 "Ignorance is the curse of God, 
 
 Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven." 
 
 Facts truly astounding are disclosed in the two last 
 tables, and we could heartily wish that every intelligent 
 American w^ould commit them to memory. The total 
 value of all the real and personal property of the free 
 States, with an area of only 612,597 square miles, is one 
 billion one hundred and sixty-six million eighty-one thou- 
 sand three hundred and seventy-one dollars greater than 
 the total value of all the real and personal property, in- 
 cluding the price of 3,204,313 negroes, of the slave States, 
 which have an area of 851,508 square miles I But extra- 
 ordinary as this difference is in favor of the North, it is 
 much less than the true amount. On the authority of South- 
 rons themselves, it is demonstraUe beyond the 'possibility of refu- 
 tation that the intrinsic value of all the property in the free States 
 is more than three times greater than the intrinsic value of all the 
 property in the slave States. 
 
 James Madison, a Southern man, fourth President of the 
 United States, a most correct thinker, and one of the 
 greatest statesmen the country has produced, " thought it 
 wrong to admit the idea that there could be property in 
 man," and we indorse, to the fullest extent, this opinion of 
 the profound editor of the Federalist. We shall not recog- 
 nize property in man ; the slaves of the South are not 
 
/REE AND THE SI^VE STA.ES. 83 
 
 wvUh a groat in any civilized community ; no man cf gCD' 
 uine decency and refinement would hold them as property 
 on any terms ; in the eyes of all enlightened nations and 
 individuals, they are men, not merchandize. Southern 
 pro-slavery politicians, some of whom have not hesitated 
 to buy and sell their own sons and daughters, boast that 
 the slaves of the South are worth sixteen hundred million 
 of dollars, and we have seen the amount estimated as high 
 as two thousand million. Mr. De Bow, the Southern su- 
 perintendent of the seventh census, informs us that the 
 value of all the property in the slave States, real and per- 
 sonal, including slaves, was, in 1850, only $2,930,090,737; 
 while, according to the same authority, the value of all 
 the real and personal property in the free States, genuine 
 property, property that is evcr^^wherc recognized as pro- 
 perty, was, at the same time, $4,102,172,108. Now all 
 we have to do in order to ascertain the real value of all 
 the property of the South, independent of negroes, whose 
 value, if valuable at all, is of a local and precarious char- 
 acter, is to subtract from the sum total of Mr. De Bow's 
 return of the entire wealth of the slave States the estima- 
 ted value of the slaves themselves ; and then, by deduct- 
 ing the difference from the intrinsic value of all the pro- 
 perty in the free States, we shall have the exact amount 
 of the overplus of wealth in the glorious land of free soil^ 
 free labor, free speech, free presses, and free schools. 
 And now to the task. 
 
 Entire Wealth of the Slave States, including Slaves $2,9^6,090,737 
 Estimated Value of the Slaves, 1,600,000,000 
 
 True Wealth of the Slave States, $1,336,090,737 
 
84 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 True Wealth of the Free States, S4.102;:72;108 
 
 True Wealth of the Slave States, 1 ,336,090,737 
 
 Balance in favor of the Free States, ■ .. $2,766,081,371 
 
 There, friends of the South and of the North, you have 
 the conclusion of the whole matter. Liberty and slavery 
 are before you ; choose which you will have ; as for us, in 
 the memorable language of the immortal Ilenry, we say, 
 " give us liberty, or give us death I'^ In the great struggle 
 for wealth that has been going on between the two rival 
 systems of free and slave labor, the balance above exhibits 
 the net projfits of the former. The struggle on the one side 
 has been calm, laudable, and eminently successful ; on the 
 other, it has been attended by tumult, unutterable cruelties 
 and disgraceful failure. We have given the slave drivers 
 every conceivable opportunity to vindicate their domestic 
 policy, but for them to do it is a moral impossibility. 
 
 Less than three-quarters of a century ago — say in.l789, 
 for that was about the average time of the abolition of 
 slavery in the Northern States — the South, with advan- 
 tages in soil, climate, rivers, harbors, minerals, forests, 
 and, indeed, almost every other natural resource, began an 
 even race with the North in all the important pursuits of 
 life ; and now, in the brief space of scarce three score 
 years and ten, we find her completely distanced, enervated, 
 dejected and dishonored. Slave-drivers are the sole authors 
 of her disgrace ; as they have sown so let them reap. 
 
 As we have seen above, a careful and correct inventory 
 of all the real and personal jprojperty in the two grand divi- 
 sions of the country, discloses the astounding fact that, in 
 1850 tho free States were worth precisely two thousand 
 
FREE AXn THE SLAVE STArE.-?. f** 
 
 JfiYW hiindrtil and sutif-six miifKrii eight ijh.m l/ioiisa:.*l three hun- 
 drexl and scvcnfif-f'nc dollars more than the slave States I 
 T\^enty-8even Inindred and sixty-six million of dollars ! — 
 Think i»f it I AVhat a vast and desirable sum, and how 
 much better ofl' the South would be with it than without 
 it ! Suoh is the enormous amount out of which slavery 
 has defrauded us duriuf^ the space of sixty-cjne years — • 
 from 1789 to 1850 — being an average of about forty-five 
 million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum. 
 During the last twenty-five or thirty years, however, our 
 annual losses have been far greater than they were form- 
 erly. There has been a gradual increase every year, and 
 now the ratio of increase is almost incredible. No patri- 
 otic Southerner can become conversant with the facts 
 without experiencing a feeling of alarm and indignation. 
 Until the North abolished slavery, she had no advantage 
 of us whatever ; the South was more than her equal in 
 every respect. But no sooner had she got rid of that 
 hampering and pernicious institution than she began to 
 absorb our wealth, and now it is confidently believed that 
 the merchants and negro-driving pleasure-seekers of the 
 South annually pour one hundred and twenty million of 
 dollars into her coffers 1 Taking into account, then, the 
 probable amount of money that has been drawn from the 
 South and invested in the North within the last six years, 
 and adding it to the grand balance above — the net profits 
 of the North up to 1850 — it may be safely assumed that, 
 in the present year of grace, 1857, the free States are icorth 
 at least thirty-four hundred million of dollars more thun the start 
 States! Let hira who dares, gainsay these remarks and 
 
86 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 calcQlations ; no truthful tongue will deny them ; no hon- 
 orable pen can controvert them. 
 
 One more word now as to the valuation of negroes. 
 Were our nature so degraded, or our conscience so elastic 
 as to permit us to set a price upon men, as we would set 
 a price upon cattle and corn, we should be content to abide 
 by the appraisement of the slaves of the South, and would 
 then enter into a calculation to ascertain the value of for- 
 eigners to the North. Not long since, it was declared in 
 the South that " one free laborer is equal to five slaves," 
 and as there are two million five hundred thousand Euro- 
 peans in the free States, all of whom are free laborers, we 
 might bring Southern authority to back us in estimating 
 their value at sixty-two hundred million of dollars — a hand 
 some sum wherewithal to ofiset the account of sixteen hun- 
 dred million of dollars, brought forward as the value of 
 Southern slaves! It is obvious, therefore, that if we were 
 disposed to follow the barbarian example of the traffick- 
 ers in human flesh, w^e could prove the North vastly 
 richer than the South in bone and sinew — to say nothing 
 of mind and morals, which shall receive our attention 
 hereafter. The North has just as good a right to appraise 
 the Irish immigrant, as the South has to set a price on 
 the African slave. But as it would be wrong to do either, 
 we' shall do neither. It is not our business to think of 
 man as a merchantable commodity ; and we will not, even 
 by implication, admit "the wild and guilty fantasy," 
 that the condition of chattelhood may rightfully attach to 
 sontient and immortal beings. 
 
 In this connection, we would direct the special atten- 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE STATr.S. 87 
 
 tion of the reader to tlie following eloquent passage, ex- 
 hibiting the philosophy of free and slave labor, from the 
 facile i)en of the editor of the North Anw lean and United 
 States Gazette : 
 
 "In the very nature of things, the freeman must pro- 
 duce more than the slave. There is no conclusiou (»!' 
 science more certain. Under a system Avhich gives to ;i 
 laboring man the fruit of his toil, there is every motive to 
 render him diligent and assiduous. If he relies on being 
 employed by others, his wages rise with his reputation for 
 industry, skill, and faithfulness. And as owner of the 
 soil, there is every assurance that he will do what he can 
 to cultivate it to the best advantage, and develope its la- 
 tent wealth. Self-interest will call forth what powers of 
 intellect and of invention he has to aid him in his work, 
 and employ his physical strength to the greatest possible 
 advantage. Free labor receives an immediate reward, 
 which cheers and invigorates it ; and above all, it has 
 that chief spring of exertion, hope, whose bow always 
 spans the heaven before it. It has an inviolate hearth ; 
 it has a home. But it looks forward to a still better con- 
 dition, to brighter prospects in the future, to wdiicli its 
 efforts all contribute. The children in such a household 
 are chief inducements to nerve the arm of labor, that they 
 may be properly cared for, fed, clothed, educated, accom- 
 plished, instructed in some useful and honorable calling, 
 and provided for when they shall go out ui)on the world. 
 All its sentiments, religious and otherwise, all its aflcc- 
 tions for parents and kindred, all its tastes are so many 
 impelling and stimulating forces. It is disposed to read, 
 
88 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 to ornament its home, to travel, to enjoy social intercourse, 
 and to attain these ends, it rises to higher exertions and 
 a stricter economy of time ; it explores every path of em- 
 ployment, and is, therefore, in the highest degree produc- 
 tive. 
 
 " IIow different is it with slave labor 1 The slave toils 
 for another, and not for himself AV'hether he does little 
 or much, whether his work is well or ill performed, he has 
 a subsistence, nothing less, nothing more ; and why should 
 he toil beyond necessity ? He cannot accumulate any 
 property for the decline of his years, or to leave to his 
 children when he is departed. Nay, he cannot toil to bet- 
 ter the present condition of his children. They belong to 
 another, and not to him. He cannot supply his hut with 
 comforts, or embellish it with the adornments of taste. 
 He does not read. He does not journey for pleasure. In- 
 ducements to exertion, he has none. That he may adapt 
 himself to his condition, and enjoy the present hour, he 
 deadens those aspirations that must always be baffled in 
 his case, and sinks down into ease and sensuality. His 
 mind is unlighted and untutored ; dark with ignorance. 
 Among those who value him most, he is proverbially in- 
 dolent, thievish, and neglectful of his master's interests. 
 It is common for even the advocates of slavery to declare 
 that one freeman is worth half a dozen slaves. With every 
 cord to exertion thus sundered, the mind benighted, the 
 man nearly lost in the animal, it requires no deep philoso- 
 phy to see why labor cannot be near as productive as it 
 would be were these conditions all reversed. Though 
 ever so well directed by the superior Bkill, and urged for- 
 
FRFE AXn THR S AVE STATES 89 
 
 wanl by tlic strong]:; arm of the master, slave lalor is 
 necessarily a blight to the soil — sterility follows in its 
 steps, and not afar olV. 
 
 " What a diflerence, j)lain and heaven-wide, between the 
 outward and interior life of a slave and of a free commu- 
 nity, resulting directly and palpably from this diflerence 
 in its labor. The cottago-home, amid trees and shrubbery, 
 its a})artments well adorned and furnished, books on its 
 shelves, and the passing literature of the day scattered 
 around ; the few, perhaps, but well-tilled acres, belonging 
 to the man who tills them ; the happy children with sunny 
 prospects ; the frequent school ; the church arrayed with 
 beauty ; the thriving, handsome village ; the flourishing 
 cities and prosperous marts of trade ; the busy factories ; 
 railroads, traffic, travel — where free labor tills the ground, 
 how beautiful it all is in contrast to the forlorn and dreary 
 aspect of a country tilled by slaves. The villages of such 
 a country are mainly groups of miserable huts. Its com- 
 paratively few churches are too often dilapidated and un- 
 sightly. The common school-house, the poor man's col- 
 lege, is hardly known, showing how little interest is felt 
 in the chief treasures of the State, the immortal minds of 
 the multitude who are not born to wealth. The signs of 
 premature old age are visibly impressed upon everything 
 that meets the eye. The fields present a dread monotony. 
 Everywhere you see lands that are worn out, barren and 
 deserted, in c/jnsequence of slave tillage, left for more fer- 
 tile lands in newer regions, which are also, in their turn, 
 to be smitten with sterility and forsaken. The fioc com- 
 munity may increase its population almost without limit. 
 
90 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 The capacity of slave countries to sustain a population is 
 soon at an end, and then it diminishes. In all the elements 
 of essential prosperity, in all that elevates man, how strik- 
 ing the contrast between the region that is tilled by slave, 
 and the region that is tilled by free labor." 
 
 For the purpose of showing what Virginia, once the 
 richest, most populous, and most powerful of the States, 
 has become under the blight of slavery, we shall now in- 
 troduce an extract from one of the speeches delivered by 
 Henry A. Wise, during the last gubernatorial campaign 
 in that degraded commonwealth. Addressing a Virginia 
 audience, in language as graphic as it is truthful, he 
 says : — 
 
 " Commerce has long ago spread her sails, and sailed 
 away from you. You have not, as yet, dug more than 
 coal enough to warm yourselves at your own hearths; you 
 have set no tilt-hammer of Vulcan to strike blows worthy 
 of gods in your own iron-foundries ; you have not yet spun 
 more than coarse cotton enough, in the way of manufac- 
 ture, to clothe your own slaves. You have no commerce, 
 no mining, no manufactures. You have relied alone on 
 the single power of agriculture, and such agriculture ! Your 
 sedge-patches outshine the sun. Your inattention to 
 your only source of wealth, has seared the very bosom of 
 mother earth. Insteadof having to feed cattle on a thou- 
 sand hills, you have had to chase the stump-tailed steer 
 through the sedge-patches to procure a tough beef-steak. 
 The present condition of things has existed too long in 
 Virginia The landlord has skinned the tenant, and the 
 
FRKK AND THK .SLAVF, STATF.S. 91 
 
 tenant has skinned the huul, nntil all have <^i\ wi\ poor 
 to^^^ether." 
 
 AVitli tears in its eyes, and truth on its lips, fur the first 
 time after an interval of twenty years, the RicJimond in- 
 quirer heli)s to paint the melancholy picture. In 1852, that 
 journal thus bewailed the condition of Virginia : — 
 
 " We have cause to feel deeply for our situation. Phil- 
 adelphia herself contains a population far greater than 
 the whole free population of Eastern Virginia. The little 
 State of Massachusetts has an aggregate wealth exceed- 
 ing that of Virginia by more than $126,000,000." 
 
 Just a score of years before these words were penned, the 
 same paper, then edited by the elder Ritchie, made a most 
 earnest appeal to the intelligence and patriotism of Virgi- 
 nia, to adopt an effectual measure for the speedy over- 
 tiirow of the damnable institution of human bondage 
 Uere is an extract from an article which appeared in its 
 editorial column under date of January 7tli, 1832 : 
 
 " Something must be done, and it is the part of no 
 honest man to deny it — of no free press to affect to con- 
 ceal it. When this dark population is growing upon us ; 
 ■when every new census is but gathering its appalling 
 numbers upon us ; when, within a period equal to that in 
 which this Federal Constitution has been in existence, 
 these numbers will increase to more than two millions 
 withni Virginia ; when our sister States are closing their 
 doors upon our blacks for sale, and when our whites are 
 moving westwardly in greater numbers than we like to 
 hear of when this, the fairest land on all this continent, 
 for soil, and climate snd situation, combined, might be- 
 
92 comfaRison between the 
 
 come a sort of garden spot, if it were worked .ythe lands 
 of white men alone, can we, ought we, to sit quietly down, 
 fold our arms, and say to each other, ' Well, well ; this 
 thing will not come to the worst in our days ; we will 
 leave it to our children, and our grandchildren, and great- 
 grandchildren, to take care of themselves, and to brave 
 the storm I' Is this to act like wise men ? Means, sure 
 but gradual, systematic but discreet, ought to be adopted, 
 for reducing the mass of evil which is pressing upon the 
 South, and will still more press upon her, the longer it is 
 put off. We say now, in the utmost sincerity of our hearts, 
 that our wisest men cannot give too much of their atten- 
 tion to this subject, nor can they give it too soon." 
 
 Better abolition doctrine than this is seldom heard. 
 Why did not the Enqurier continue to preach it ? What 
 potent influence hushed its clarion voice, just as it began 
 to be lifted in behalf of a liboral policy and an enlightened 
 humanity ? Had Mr. Ritchie continued to press the truth 
 home to the hearts of the people, as he should have done, 
 Virginia, instead of being worth only $392,000,000 in 1850 
 — negroes and all — would have been worth at least $800,- 
 000,000 in genuine property ; and if the State had eman- 
 cipated her slaves at the time of the adoption of the Con- 
 stitution, the last census would no doubt have reported her 
 wealth, and correctly, at a sum exceeding a thousand 
 millions of dollars. 
 
 Listen now to the statement of a momentous fact. The 
 value of all the propert}^ real and personal, including 
 slaves, in seven slave States, Virginia, North Caiolina, 
 Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida and Texas, is less 
 
FREE AND THE SI^WE STATES. 03 
 
 tlian tlie real and personal estate, which is rnquestionable 
 property, in the single State of Xcw-York Nay, worse; 
 if eight entire slave States, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, 
 Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas, and 
 the District of Columbia — witli all their hordes of human 
 merchandize — were put up at auction. New- York could 
 buy tlieni all, and then have one hundred and thirty-three 
 millions of dollars left in her pocket I Such is the amaz- 
 ing contrast between freedom and slavery, even in a pe- 
 cuniary point of view. AVhen we come to compare the 
 North with the South in regard to literature, general in- 
 telligence, inventive genius, moral and religious enterprises, 
 the discoveries in medicine, and the progress in the arts 
 and sciences, we shall, in every instance, find the con- 
 trast equally great on the side of Liberty. 
 
 It gives us no pleasure to say hard things of the Old 
 Dominion, the mother of Washington, Jeflerson, Henry, 
 and other illustrious patriots, who, as we shall prove here- 
 after, were genuine abolitionists ; but the policy which slie 
 has pursued has been so utterly inexcusable, so unjust to 
 the non-slaveholding whites, so cruel to the negroes, and 
 so disregardful of the rights of humanity at large, that it 
 becomes the duty of every one who makes allusion to her 
 history, to expose her follies, her crimes, and her poverty, 
 and to publish every fact, of whatever nature, tbat would 
 be instrumental in determining others to eschew her bad 
 example. She has wilfully departed from the faith of the 
 founders of this Republic. She has not only turned a deaf 
 ear to the :ounsel of wise men from other States in the 
 Union, but slie has, in like manner, ignored tin* teachings 
 
94 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 of the great warriors and statesmen who have sprur-^ from 
 her own soil. In a subsequent chapter, we expect to show 
 that all, or nearly all, the distinguished Virginians, whose 
 bodies have been consigned to the grave, but whose names 
 have been given to history, and whose memoirs have a 
 place in the hearts of their countrymen, were the friends 
 and advocates of universal freedom — that they were inflex- 
 ibly opposed to the extension of slavery into the Territories, 
 devised measures for its restriction, and, with hopeful 
 anxiety, looked forward to the time when it should be 
 eradicated from the States themselves. With them, the 
 rescue of our country from British domination, and the 
 establishment of the General Government upon a firm basis, 
 were considerations of paramount importance ; they sup- 
 posed, and no doubt earnestly desired, that the States, in 
 their sovereign capacities, would soon abolish an institu- 
 tion which was so palpably in conflict with the principles 
 enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, it 
 would seem that, among the framers of that immortal 
 instrument and its equally immortal sequel, the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States, there was a tacit understanding 
 to this efiect ; and the Northern States, true to their 
 implied faith, abolished it within a short period after our 
 national independence had been secured. Not so with the 
 South. She has pertinaciously refused to perform her duty. 
 She has apostatized from the faith of her greatest men, and 
 even at this very moment repudiates the sacred principle 
 that " all men are endowed by their Creator with certain 
 unalienable rights," among which " are life, liberty, and 
 the pui-suit of 1 ippiness." It is evident, therefore, that 
 
FREE AND THE SIJIVE SPATES. 95 
 
 the free States arc the only members of this confe leracy 
 tliut have cstiiblishcd republican forms of government 
 based upon the theories of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, 
 llenry, and other eminent statesmen of Virginia. 
 
 The great revolutionary movement which was set on foot 
 in Charlotte, Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, on the 
 20th day of May, 1T75, has not yet been terminated, nor 
 will it be, until every slave in the United States is freed 
 from the tyranny of his master. Every victim of the vile 
 institution, whether white or black, must be reinvested 
 with the sacred rights and privileges of which he has been 
 deprived by an inhuman oligarchy. What our noble sires 
 of the revolution left imfinished it is our duty to complete. 
 They did all that true valor and patriotism could accom- 
 plish. Not one iota did they swerve from their plighted 
 faith ; the self-sacrificing spirit which they evinced w^ill 
 command the applause of every succeeding age. Xot in 
 vindication of their own personal rights merely, but of the 
 rights of humanity ; not for their own generation and age 
 simply, but for all ages to the end of time, they gave their 
 toil, their treasure and their blood, nor deemed them all 
 too great a price to pay for the establishment of so com- 
 prehensive and beneficent a principle. Let their posterity 
 emulate their courage, their disinterestedness, and their 
 zeal, and especially remember that it is the duty of every 
 existing generation so to provide for its individual inter- 
 ests, as to confer superior advantages on that which is to 
 follow. To this principle the North has adhered with the 
 strictest fidelity. IIow has it been with the Soutli ? Has 
 she iiVtatcd the praiseworthy example of our illustrious 
 
96 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 ancestors ? No 1 She has treated it with the utmost 
 contempt ; she has been extremely selfish — so selfish, 
 indeed, that she has robbed posterity of its natural rights. 
 From the period of the formation of the government down 
 to the present moment, her policy has been downright sui- 
 cidal, and, as a matter of course, wholly indefensible. She 
 has hugged a viper to her breast ; her whole system has 
 been paralyzed, her conscience is seared, and she is 
 becoming callous to every principle of justice and magnar 
 nimity. Except among the non-slaveholders, who, besides 
 oeing kept in the grossest ignorance, are under the 
 restraint of all manner of iniquitous laws, patriotism has 
 ceased to exist within her borders. And liere we desire 
 to be distinctly understood, for we shall have occasion to 
 refer to this matter again. We repeat, therefore, the sub- 
 stance of our averment, that, at this day, there is not a 
 grain of patriotism in the South, except among the non- 
 slaveholders. Subsequent pages shall testify to the truth 
 of this assertion. Here and there, it is true, a slaveholder, 
 disgusted with the institution, becomes ashamed of him- 
 self, emancipates his negroes, and enters upon the walks 
 of honorable life ; but these cases are exceedingly rare, and 
 do not, in any manner, disprove the general correctness of 
 our remark. All persons who do voluntarily manumit 
 their slaves, as mentioned above, are undeniably actuated 
 by 'principles of pure patriotism, justice and humanity ; 
 and so believing, we delight to do thorn honor. 
 
 Once more to the Old Dominion. At her door we lay 
 the bulk of the evils of slavery. The first African sold in 
 America was sold on James River, in that State, on the 
 
FREE AND THE SlJiXE STATES. 9T 
 
 20t]i of Aig-iist, 1G20 ; and although the institution was 
 fastened upon her and the other colonies by the mother 
 country, she was tlic first to perceive its blighting and 
 degrading influences, her wise men were the first to de- 
 nounce it, and, after the British power was overthrown at 
 York Town, she should have been the first to abolish it. 
 Fifty-seven years ago she was the Empire State ; now, 
 with half a dozen other slaveholding states thrown into 
 the scale with her, she is far inferior to New- York, which, 
 at the time Comwallis surrendered his sword to Washing- 
 ton, was less than half her equal. Had she obeyed the 
 counsels of the good, the great and the wise men of our 
 lation — especiall}^ of her own incomparable sons, the ex- 
 tendible element of slavery would have been promptly 
 arrested, and the virgin soil of nine Southern States, Ken- 
 ^uckj', Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Mis- 
 souri, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas, would have been 
 saved from its horrid pollutions. Confined to the original 
 states in which it existed, the institution would soon have 
 been disposed of by legislative enactments, and long be- 
 fore the present day, by a gradual process that could have 
 shocked no interest and alarmed no prejudice, we should 
 liave rid ourselves not only of African slavery, which is 
 an abomination and a curse, but also of the negroes them- 
 selvcs,'who, in our judgment, whether viewed in relation 
 to their actual characteristics and condition, or tlirough 
 the strong antipathies of tlic wliitcs, are, to say the least, 
 an undesirable population. 
 
 This, then, is the ground of our expostulation with Vir- 
 ginia : that, in stubborn disregard of the advice and 
 
98 C0MPAKI30X B-ITEEX THE 
 
 friendly warning's of "Washington, Jefferson, Malison, 
 Henry, and a host of other distinguished patriots who 
 sprang from her soil — patriots whose voices shall bo 
 heard before we finish our task — and in utter violation 
 of every principle of justice and humanity, she still persists 
 in fostering an institution which is so manifestly detri- 
 mental to her vital interests. Every Virginian, whether 
 living or dead, whose name is an honor to his country, has 
 placed on record his abhorrence of slaver^^ and in doing 
 so, has borne testimony to the blight and degradation that 
 everywhere follow in its course. One of the best aboli- 
 tion speeches we have ever read was delivered in the Vir- 
 ginia House of Delegates, January 20th, 1832, by Charles 
 James Faulkner, who still lives, and who has, we under- 
 stand, generously emancipated several of his slaves, and 
 sent them to Liberia. Here follows an extract from his 
 speech ; let Southern politicians read it attentively, and 
 imbibe a moiety of the spirit of patriotism wliich it 
 breathes : — 
 
 " Sir, I am gratified to perceive that no gentleman has 
 yet risen in this Hall, the avowed advocate of slavery. 
 The day has gone hy when such a voice could he listened to icith 
 'patience, or even icith forbearance. I even regret. Sir, that 
 wo should find those amongst us who enter the lists of 
 discussion as its apologists, except alone upon the ^ound 
 of uncontrollable necessity. And yet, who could have 
 listened to the very eloquent remarks of the gentleman 
 from Brunswick, without being forced to conclude; that he 
 at least considered slavery, however not to be defended upon 
 frhmple, yet as being divested of much of its enormity, as 
 you approa-^h it in practice. 
 
tHEK AND Tin: SLAVE STA'KS. 9'J 
 
 " Sir, if there be one who concurs with that gOLtlenian 
 in the harmless character of this institution, let me re- 
 quest him to comi)are the condition of the slaveholdin<^ 
 portion of this connnonwcalth — barren, desolate, and seared 
 as it iccrt by the avenging hand of Heaven — with the descrip- 
 tions which wo liave of this country from those who first 
 broke its virgin soil. To what is this change ascribable ? 
 Alone to the withering and blasting effects of slavery. If this 
 docs not satisfy him, let me request him to extend his 
 travels to the Northern States of this Union, and beg him 
 to contrast the happiness and contentment which prevail 
 throughout that country', the busy and cheerful sound of 
 industry, the rapid and swelling growth of their popula- 
 tion, their means and institutions of education, their skill 
 and proficiency in the useful arts, their enterprise and 
 public spirit, the monuments of tlicir commercial and man- 
 ufacturing industry ; and, alxn^e all, tlieir devoted at- 
 tachment to the government from wliicli they derive their 
 protection, with the derision, discontent, indolence, and poverty 
 of the Southern country. To what, Sir, is all this ascrib- 
 able ? To that vice in the organization of society, by which one- 
 half of its inhabitants are arrayeA in interest and feeling against 
 the other half — to that unfortunate state of society in which 
 freemen regard labor as disgraceful, and slaves shrink 
 fnjm it as a burden tyrannically imposed upon them — to 
 that condition of things in which half a million of your 
 population can feel no s^'mpathy with the society in the 
 prosperity of which they arc forbidden to participate, and 
 no attachment to a government at whose hands they re- 
 ceive nothing but injustice. 
 
100 
 
 COMPARISON BETWi:EX THE 
 
 "If this sIiouIl uot be sufficient, and the curious and 
 incredulous inquirer should suggest that the contrast 
 which has been adverted to, and which is so manifest, 
 might be traced to a difference of climate, or other causes 
 distinct from slavery itself, permit me to refer him to the 
 two States of Kentucky and Ohio. No difference of soil, 
 no diversity of climate, no diversity in the original set- 
 tlement of those two States, can account for the remark- 
 able disproportion in their natural advancement. Sepa- 
 rated by a river alone, they seem to have been purposely and 
 providentially designed to exhibit in their future histories the dif- 
 ference ichich necessarily results from a country free from, and a 
 country afflicted with, the curse of slavery. 
 
 " Vain and idle is every effort to strangle this inquiry. 
 As well might you attempt to chain the ocean, or stay the 
 avenging thunderbolts of Heaven, as to drive the people 
 from any inquir^^ which may result in their better condi- 
 tion. This is too deep, too engrossing a subject of consid- 
 eration. It addresses itself too strongly to our interests, 
 to our passions, and to our feelings. I shall advocate no 
 scheme that does not respect the right of property, so far 
 as it is entitled to be respected, with a just regard to the safety 
 and resources of the State. I would approach the subject 
 as one of great magnitude and delicacy, as one whose va 
 ried and momentous consequences demand the calmest and 
 most deliberate investigation. But still, Sir, I would ap- 
 proach it — aye, delicate as it may be, encompassed as it 
 may be with difficulties and hazards, I would still approach 
 it. Tlie people demand it. Their security requires it. 
 In the language of the wise and prophetic Jefferson, ' You 
 
FRKB AND THE SLAVE STATES. 101 
 
 mus approach it — you must bciir it — you ii ast adopt 
 some i)lan of enuuicipution, or worse will follow.'" 
 
 Mr Curtis, iu a speech iu the Vir^iuia Legislature in 
 1S32, said: 
 
 " There is a malaria in the atmosphere of these regions, 
 wliich the new comer shuns, as being deleterious to his 
 views and habits. Sec the wide-spreading ruin which the 
 avarice of our ancestral government has produced in the 
 South, as witnessed in a sparse population of freemen, 
 deserted habitations, and fields without culture I Strange 
 to tell, even the wolf, driven back long since by the ap- 
 proach of man, now returns, after the lapse of a hundred 
 years, to howl over the desolations of slavery." 
 
 Mr. Moore, also a member of the Legislature of Virginia, 
 in speaking of the evils of slavery, said : 
 
 " The first I shall mention is the irresistible tendency 
 which it has to undermine and destroy everything like vir- 
 tue and morality in the community. If we look back 
 through the long course of time which has elapsed since 
 the creation to the present moment, we shall scarcely bo 
 able to point out a people whose situation was not, in 
 many respects, preferable to our own, and that of the other 
 States, in which negro slavery exists. 
 
 " In that part of the State below tide-water, the whole 
 face of the country wears an appearance of almost utter 
 desolation, distressing to the beholder. The very spot 
 on which our ancestors landed, a little more than twc 
 hundred years ago, appears to be on the eve of again bf*- 
 coming the haunt of wild beasts." 
 Mr. Rives, of Cami)bell county said : 
 
iv/2 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE 
 
 " On the niiltiplied and desolating evils of slavery, he 
 was not disposed to say much. The curse and deteriora- 
 ting consequence were within the observation and expe- 
 rience of the members of the House and the people of Vir- 
 ginia, and it did not seem to him that there could be two 
 opinions about it." 
 
 Mr. Powell said : 
 
 " I can scarcely persuade myself that there is a solitary 
 gentleman in this House who will not readily admit that 
 slavery is an evil, and that its removal, if practicable, is 
 a consummation most devoutly to be wished. I have not 
 heard, nor do I expect to hear, a voice raised in this Hall 
 to the contrary." 
 
 In the language of another, " we might multiply ex- 
 tracts almost indefinitely from Virginia authorities — tes- 
 tifying to the blight and degradation tiiat have overtaken 
 the Old Dominion, in every department of her affairs. 
 Her commerce gone, her agriculture decaying, her land 
 falling in value, her mining and manufactures nothing, 
 her schools dying out, — she presents, according to the 
 testimony of her own sons, the saddest of all pictures — 
 that of a sinking and dying State." Every year leaves 
 her in a worse condition than it found her ; and as it is 
 with Virginia, so it is with the entire South. In the terse 
 language of Governor Wise, " all have grown poor to- 
 gether." The black god cf slavery, which the South has 
 worshipped for two hundred and thirty-seven years, is but 
 a devil in disguise ; and if we would save ourselves from 
 being engulphed in utter ruin we must repudiate this foul 
 god, for a purer de'ty, and abandon his altars for a holier 
 
FREE AND THE SI-UE STATES. 103 
 
 sLrinc. No time is to be lost ; his fanatical adorers, tho 
 despotic adversaries of buinan liberty, arc concoctiDg 
 Bchemes for the enslavement of all the laboring classes' 
 irrespective of race or color. The issue is before us ; wo 
 cannot evade it ; vrc must meet it with firmness, and with 
 unflinching valor. 
 
 What it was that parah^zed the tongues of all those 
 members of the Virgina Legislature, who, at the session 
 of 1831-32, distinguished themselves by advocating a 
 system of emancipation, is a mystery that has never yet 
 been solved. Whether any oi all of them shared a divi- 
 sion of spoils with a certain newspaper editor, we 
 have no means of knowing ; but if all accounts be true, 
 there was consummated in Richmond, in tlie latter part 
 of the year 1832, one of the blackest schemes of bribery 
 and corruption that was ever perpetrated in this or any 
 other country. AVe arc assured, however, that one thing 
 is certain, and it is this : that the negro population of 
 Virginia was very considerably and suddenly decreased 
 by forcible emigration — that a large gang was driven 
 further South, sold, and the proceeds divided among cer- 
 tain renegades and traitors, who, Judas-like, had agreed 
 to serve the devil for a price. 
 
 We would fain avoid all personalities and uncompli- 
 mentary allusions to the dead, but when men, from love 
 of lucre, from mere selfish motives, or from sheer turpi- 
 tude of heart, inflict great injuries and outrages on the 
 public, their villainy ought to be exposed, so that others 
 may be deterred from foil Dwing in their footsteps. As a 
 general rule, man's moral nature is, we believe, so strong 
 
104 COMPARISON B£rWELX THE 
 
 that it invariaLly prompts him to eschew vice and prac- 
 tice virtue — in other words, to do right ; but this rule, 
 like all others, has its exceptions, as might be most strik- 
 ingly illustrated in the character of , and 
 
 some half-dozen or more of his pro-slavery coadjutors. 
 From whose hands did this man receive fifty thousand 
 hillars — improperly, if not illegally, taken from the 
 public funds in Washington ? When did he receive it ? — 
 and for what purpose ? — and who was the arch-dema- 
 gogue through whose agency the transfer was made ? 
 He was an oligarchical member of the Cabinet under Mr. 
 Polk's administration in 1845, — and the money was 
 used, — and who can doubt intended 1 — for the express 
 purpose of establishing another negro-driving journal to 
 support the tottering fortunes of slavery. From the 
 second volume of a valuable political work, " by a Sena- 
 tor of thirty years," we make the following pertinent 
 extract : — 
 
 " The Glohe was sold, and was paid for, and how ? bo- 
 comes a question of public concern to answer ; for it was 
 paid for out of public money — those same $50,000 which 
 were removed to the village bank in the interior of Penn- 
 sylvania by a Treasury order on the fourth of November, 
 1844. Three annual installments made the payment, and 
 the Treasury did not reclaim the money for these three 
 years ; and, though traveling through tortuous channels, 
 the sharpsighted Mr. Rives traced the money back to its 
 starting point from that deposit. Besides, Mr. Cameron, 
 who had control of the village lank, admitted before a 
 committee of Congress, that he had furnished money for 
 
FREE ANJ THE SLAVE STATES. 105 
 
 the pa3'mcnts--an admission ^vllicll tlio obIi<^ing' Commit- 
 tee, ou rc(iuest, left out of their report. Mr. Kobert J. 
 Walker was Secreta y of the Treasury during these three 
 years, and the conviction was absolute, among the close 
 observers of the course of things, that he was the prime 
 contriver and zealous manager of the arrangements which 
 displaced Mr. Blair and installed Mr. Ritchie." 
 
 Thus, if we are to believe Mr. Bcntop, in his " Thirty 
 fear's View," and we are disposed to regard him as good 
 luthority, tin; Washington Union was brought into exis- 
 tence under the peculiar auspices of the ostensible editor 
 of the Richmond Enquirer ; and the two papers, fathered 
 by the same individual, have gone hand in hand for tlir^ 
 last dozen or thirteen years, the shameless advocates and 
 defenders of human bondage. To suppose that either has 
 been sustained by fairer means than it was commenced 
 with, would be wasting imagination on a great improba- 
 bility. Both have uniformly and pcrtinacicusly opposed 
 every laudable enterprise that the white non-slaveholder 
 has projected ; indeed, so unmitigated has been their hos- 
 tility to all manual pursuits in which iheir stupid and vul- 
 gar slaves can not be employed to advantage — and if 
 there is any occupation under the sun in which they can be 
 employed to good advantage, we known not what it is — 
 that it'is an extremely diflicult matter to find a respecta- 
 ble merchant, mechanic, manufacturer, or business man 
 of any calling whatever, within the bounds of their circu 
 lation. 
 
 We have been credibly inf(jrmed by a gentleman from 
 Powhaltan < ounty. in Virginia, that in the year 1836 or 
 
IOC COiirARISON BETWEEN .HE 
 
 '3T, or about that time, the lion. Abbott Lawrence, of Bos- 
 ton, backed by his brother Amos and other millionaires of 
 New England, went down to Richmond with the sole view 
 of reconnoitering the manufacturing facilities of that place 
 — fully determined, if pleased with the water-power, to 
 erect a large number of cotton-mills and machine-shops. 
 He had been in the capital of Virginia only a day or two 
 before he discovered, much to his gratification, that nature 
 had shaped everything to his liking ; and as he was a 
 business man who transacted business in a business-like 
 manner, he lost no time in making preliminary arrange- 
 ments for the consummation of his noble purpose. His 
 mission was one of peace and promise ; others were to 
 share the benefits of his laudable and concerted scheme ; 
 thousands of poor boys and girls in Virginia, instead of 
 growing up in extreme poverty and ignorance, or of having 
 to emigrate to the free States of the West, were to have 
 avenues of profitable employment opened to them at home ; 
 thus they would be enabled to earn an honest and reputa- 
 ble living, to establish and sustain free schools, free libra- 
 ries, free lectures, and free presses, to become useful and 
 exemplary members of society, and to die fit candidates 
 for heaven. The magnanimous New Englander was in 
 ecstasies with the prospect that opened before him. Indi- 
 vidually, so far as mere money was concerned, he was per- 
 fectly independent ; his industry and econ' my in early 
 life had secured to him the ownership and oontrol of an 
 ample fortune. With the aid of eleven other men, each 
 equal to himself, he could have bought the whole city of 
 Kichmo!. i — negroes and all — though it is not to be pre- 
 
'•REE AND TilE SLAVE STATES. 107 
 
 tyjmcd that ho would have disgraced his name by becoming 
 a trader in human llesh. But ho was not selfish ; unlike 
 the arrogant and illiberal slaveholder, he did not regard 
 li in. self as the centre around whom everybody else should 
 revolve. On the contrary, he was a genuine philanthropist. 
 While, with a shrewdness that will command the admira- 
 tion of ever}' practical business man, he engaged in nothing 
 that did not swell the dimensions of his own purse, he was 
 yet always solicitous to invest his capital in a manner cal- 
 culated to promote the interest of those around him. Nor 
 was he satisfied with simply furnishing the means whereby 
 his less fortunate neighbors were to become prosperous, 
 intelligent and contented. "With his generous heart and 
 sagacious mind, he delighted to aid them in making a 
 judicious application of his wealth to their own use. 
 Moreover, as a member of society, he felt that the commu- 
 nity had some reasonable claims upon him, and he made 
 it obligatory on himself constantly to devise plans and 
 exert his personal efforts for the public good. Such was 
 tlie character of the distinguished manufacturer who hon- 
 ored Richmond with his presence nineteen or twenty years 
 ago ; such was the character of the men whom he repre- 
 sented, and such were the grand designs which they 
 sought to accomplish. 
 
 To the enterprising and moneyed descendant of the Pil- 
 grim Fathers it was a matter of no little astonishment, 
 that the immense water-power of Richmond had been so • 
 long ncglcctc i. He expressed his surprise to a number 
 of VirginiauF^ and was at a loss to know why they had 
 not, long prior to the pveriod of his visit amongst them. 
 
108 COMPARISON BETWEEN TSE 
 
 availed themselves of the powerful elemen k th tt is eter- 
 nally gnashing and foaming over the falls of James River. 
 Innocent man I He was utterly unconscious of the fact 
 that he was " interfering with the beloved institutions of 
 the South," and little was he prepared to withstand the 
 terrible denunciations that were immediately showered on 
 his head through the columns of the Richmond Enquirer. 
 Few words will suffice to tell the sequel. That negro- 
 worshipping sheet, whose hireling policy, for the last four 
 and twenty years, has been to support the worthless black 
 slave and his tyrannical master at the expense of the free 
 white laborer, wrote down the enterprise ! and the noble 
 son of New England, abused, insulted and disgusted, 
 quietly returned to Massachusetts, and there employed 
 his capital in building up the cities of Lowell and Law- 
 rence, either of which, in all those elements of material 
 and social prosperity that make up the greatness of States, 
 is already far in advance of the most important of all the 
 seedy and squalid niggervilles in the Old Dominion. Such 
 is an inkling of the infamous means that have been resort- 
 ed to, from time to time, for the purpose of upholding and 
 perpetuating in America the accursed institution of 
 slavery. 
 
 Having in view all the foregoing facts, we were not in 
 the least surprised when, while walking through Holly- 
 wood Cemetery, in the western suburbs c f Richmond, not 
 long since, our companion, a Virginian of the true school, 
 directed our attention to a monument of some pretentions, 
 and exclaimed, " There lie the remains of a man upon 
 whose monument should be inscribed in everlasting prom- 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE S/A' ES. 109 
 
 iiicnce the finger of scorn pointing downward." The reader 
 scarcely needs to be told that we were standing at the 
 
 tomb of , who in the opinion of our friend, 
 
 had, by concentrating within himself the views and pur- 
 poses of all the evil spirits in Virginia, greatly retarded 
 the abolition of slavery ; so greatly, indeed, as, thereby, 
 to throw the State at least fifty years behind her free 
 competitors of the North, of the East, and of the West 
 It is to be hoped that Virginia may never give birth to 
 another man whose evil influence will so justly entitle him 
 to the reprobation of posterity. 
 
 How any rational man in this or any other country, 
 with tlic astounding contrasts betw^een Freedom and Sla- 
 very ever looming in his view, can offer an apology for 
 the existing statism of the South, is to us a most inexpli- 
 cable mystery. Indeed, we cannot conceive it possible 
 that the conscience of any man, w^ho is really sane, would 
 permit him to become the victim of such an egregious 
 and diabolical absurdity. Therefore, at this period of our 
 history, with the light of tlie past, the reality of the pre- 
 sent, and the prospect of the future, all so prominent 
 and so palpable, we infer that every person who sets up 
 an unequivocal defence of the institution of slavery, must, 
 of necessity, be cither a fool, a knave, or a madman. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that the slavocrats look at 
 but one side of the question. Of all the fanatics in the 
 country, they have, of late, become the most unreasonable 
 and ridiculous. Let them deliberately view the subject 
 of slavery in all its aspects and bearings, and if they are 
 possessed of honest hearts and couvincible minds, they 
 
110 COMPARISON BETWEEN^ THE 
 
 will readily perceive the grossness of their past eiTors, 
 renounce their allegiance to a cause so unjust and dis- 
 graceful, and at once enroll themselves among the hosts 
 of Freedom and the friends of universal Liberty. There 
 are thirty-one States in the Union ; let them drop Califor- 
 nia, or any other new free State, and then institute fifteen 
 comparisons, first comparing New-York with Virginia, 
 Pennsylvania w4th Carolina, Massachusetts with Georgia, 
 and so on, until they have exhausted the catalogue. 
 Then, for once, let them be bold enough to listen to the 
 admonitions of their own souls, and if they do not soon 
 start to their feet demanding the abolition of slavery, it 
 will only be because they have reasons for suppressing 
 their inmost sentiments. Whether we compare the old 
 free States with the old slave States, or the new free 
 States with the new slave States, the difference, unmis- 
 takable and astounding, is substantially the same. All 
 the free States are alike, and all the slave States are alike. 
 In the former, wealth, intelligence, power, progress, and 
 prosperity, are the prominent characteristics ; in the latter, 
 poverty, ignorance, embecility, inertia, and extravagance, 
 are the distinguishing features. To be convinced, it is 
 only necessary for us to open our eyes and look at facts 
 — to examine the statistics of the country, to free ourselves 
 from obstinacy and prejudice, and to unbar our minds to 
 convictions of truth. Let figures be the umpire. Close 
 attention to th? preceding and subsequent tables is all we 
 ask ; so soon as they shall be duly considered and under- 
 stood, the primary object of this work will have been 
 accomplished. 
 
FUKE AND THK SLAVE ST. ES, IK 
 
 Not coiiteiu ^viUl eating* out the vitals of the South, 
 shivery, true to tlie eharacter which it has acquired for 
 insatiety and rapine, is beg'iuning to make rapid encroacli- 
 ments on new territory ; and as a basis for a few remarks 
 on the blasting influence which it is shedding over tlie 
 broad and fertile domains of the West, which in accord- 
 ance with the views and resolutions offered by the immor- 
 tal Jeflerson, should have been irrevocably dedicated to 
 freedom, we beg leave to call the attention of the reader 
 to another presentation of the philosophy of free and slave 
 labor. Says the North American and United States Gazette : 
 
 " We have but to compare the States, possessing equal 
 natural advantages, in which the two kinds of labor are em- 
 ployed, in order to decide with entire confidence as to which 
 kind is the more profitable. At the origin cf the govern- 
 ment, Virginia, with a much larger extent of territory than 
 New-York, contained a population of seven hundred and 
 fifty thousand, and sent ten representatives to Congress ; 
 while New- York contained a population of three hundred 
 and forty thousand, and sent six representatives to Con- 
 gress. Behold how the figures are reversed. The popu- 
 lation of New-York is three and a half millions, represent- 
 ed by thirty-three members in Congress ; wdiile the popu- 
 lation of Virginia is but little more than one and a half 
 millions, represented by thirteen members in Congress. It 
 is the vital sap of free labor that makes the one tree so 
 thrifty and vigorous, so capable of bearing with all ease 
 the fruit of such a population. And it is slave labor whicli 
 strikes a decadence through the other, drying up many oi 
 its branches with a fearful sterility, and rendering the 
 
112 COMIAEISCN BETWEEN THE 
 
 rest but scantily fruitful ; really incapable tf sustaining 
 more. Look at Ohio, teeming with inhabitants, its soil 
 loaded with every kind of agricultural wealth, its people 
 engaged in every kind of freedom's diversified employ- 
 ments, abounding with numberless happy homes, and with 
 all the trophies of civilization, and it exhibits the magic 
 effect of free labor, waking a wilderness into life and 
 beauty ; while Kentucky, with equal or superior natural 
 advantages, nature's very garden in this Western world, 
 which commenced its career at a much earlier date, and 
 was in a measure populous when Ohio was but a slumber- 
 ing forest, but which in all the elements of progress, is 
 now left far, very far, behind its young rival, shows how 
 slave labor hinders the development of wealth among a 
 people, and brings a blight on their prosperity. The one 
 is a grand and beautiful poem in honor of free labor. The 
 other is an humble confession to the world of the inferiority 
 of slave labor." 
 
 Equally significant is the testimony of Daniel E. Goodloe, 
 of North Carolina, who says : — 
 
 " The history of the United States shows, that while the 
 slave States increase in population less rapidly than the 
 free, there is a tendency in slave society to diffusion, 
 greater than is exhibited by free society. In fact, diffusion, 
 or extension of area, is one of the necessities of slavery ; 
 the prevention of which is regarded as directly and imme- 
 diately menacing to the existence of the institutior^ This 
 arises from the almost exclusive application of slave labor 
 to the one occupation of agriculture, and the difficulty, if 
 not impossibility, of diversifying empbyments. Free soci- 
 
FREE AND THE SLATI STATES. 113 
 
 etj, on the contrary, has indefinite resources of develop- 
 ment within a restricted area. It will far excel shive 
 society in the cultivation of the ground — first, on account 
 of the superior intelligence of the laborers ; and secondly, 
 in consequence of the greater and more various demands 
 upon the earth's products, where commerce, manufactures, 
 and the arts, abound. Then, these arts of life, by bringing 
 men together in cities and towns, and emploj'ing them in 
 the manufacture or transportation of the raw materials of 
 the farmer, give rise to an indefinite increase of wealth 
 and population. The confinement of a free people within 
 narrow limits seems only to develop new resources of 
 wealth, comfort and happiness ; while slave society, pent 
 up, withers and dies. It must continually be fed by new 
 fields and forests, to be wasted and wilted under the pois- 
 onous tread of the slave." 
 
 Were we simply a freesoilcr, or anything else less than 
 a thorough and uncompromising abolitionist, we should 
 certainly tax our ability to the utmost to get up a cogent 
 argument against the extension of slavery over any part 
 of our domain where it does not now exist ; but as our 
 principles are hostile to the institution even where it does 
 exist, and, therefore, by implication and in fact, more hos- 
 tile still to its introduction into new territory, we forbear 
 the preparation of any special remarks on this particular 
 subject. 
 
 With regard to the unnational and demoralizing institu- 
 tion of slavery, we believe the majority of Northern people 
 arc too scrupulous. They seem to think that it is enough 
 for them to be mere freesoilers, to keep in check the diffu- 
 
114 COMPARISON BETWEEN' THE 
 
 sive element ( f slavery, and to prevent it from crossing 
 over the bounds within which it is now regulated by muni- 
 cipal law. Remiss in their national duties, as we contend, 
 they make no positive attack upon the institution in the 
 Southern States. Only a short while since, one of their 
 ablest journals — the JVorth American and United States Gar 
 zette, published in Philadelphia — made use of the following 
 language : — 
 
 " With slavery in the States, we make no pretence of 
 having anything politically to do. For better or for worse, 
 the system belongs solely to the people of those States ; 
 and is separated by an impassable gulf of State sovereignty 
 from any legal intervention of ours. We cannot vote it 
 down any more than we can vote down the institution of 
 caste in Hindostan, or abolish polygamy in the Sultan's 
 dominions. Thus, precluded from all political action in 
 reference to it, prevented from touching one stone of the 
 edifice, not the slightest responsibility attaches to us aa 
 citizens for its continued existence. But on the question of 
 extending slavery over the free Territories of the United 
 States, it is our right, it is our imperative duty to think, 
 to feel, to speak and to vote. We cannot interfere to cover 
 the shadows of slavery with the sunshine of freedom, but 
 we can interfere to prevent the sunshine of freedom from 
 being eclipsed by the shadows of slavery. We can inter- 
 pose to stay the progress of that institution, which aims 
 to drive free labor from its own heritage. Kansas should 
 be divided up into countless homes for the ownership of 
 men who have a right to the fruit of their own labors 
 Free labor would make it bud and blossom like the rose ; 
 
I REE AND THE SL^TE STATES. 115 
 
 would cover it with beauty, and draw from it boundless 
 wealth ; would throng it with population ; would make 
 States, nations, empires out of it, prosperous, powerful, 
 intelligent and free, illustrating on a wide theatre the 
 beneficent ends of Providence in the formation of our gov- 
 ernment, to advance and elevate the millions of our race, 
 and, like the heart in the body, from its central position, 
 sending out on every side, far and near, the vital influences 
 of freedom and civilization. May that region, therefore, 
 be secured to free labor." 
 
 Now we fully and heartily indorse every line of the lat- 
 ter part of this extract ; but, with all due deference to 
 our sage cotemporary, we do most emphatically dissent 
 from the sentiments embodied in the first part. Pray, 
 permit us to ask — have tlie people of the North no inter- 
 est in the United States as a nation, and do they not see 
 that slavery is a great injury and disgrace to the whole 
 country 7 Did they not, in " the days that tried men's 
 souls," strike as hard blows to secure the independence of 
 Georgia as they did in defending the liberties of Massa- 
 chusetts, and is it not notoriously true that the Toryism 
 of South Carolina prolonged the war two years at least ? 
 Is it not, moreover, equally true that the oligarchs of 
 South Carolina have been unmitigated pests and bores to 
 the General Government ever since it was organized, and 
 that the free and conscientious people of the North are 
 virtually excluded from her soil, in consequence of slavery ? 
 It is a well-known and incontestible fact, that the North- 
 ern States furnished about two-thirds of all the Ameri- 
 can troops engaged in tlie Revolutionary "War ; and, 
 
116 COMPARISON BETWEIN THE 
 
 tliougli they were neither more nor less brave or patri 
 otic than their fellow-soldiers of the South, yet, inasmuch 
 as the independence of our country was mainly secured by 
 virtue of their numerical strength, we think they ought 
 to consider it not only their right but their duty to make 
 a firm and decisive effort to save the States which they 
 fought to free, from falling under the yoke of a worse ty^ 
 ranny than that which overshadowed them under the reign 
 of King George the Third. Freemen of the North I we 
 earnestly entreat you to think of these things. Hitherto, 
 as mere freesoilcrs, you have approached but half-way to 
 the line of your duty ; now, for your own sakcs and for 
 ours, and for the purpose of perpetuating this glorious 
 Kcpublic, which your fathers and our fathers founded in 
 septennial streams of blood, we ask you, in all serious- 
 ness, to organize yourselves as one man under the banners 
 of Liberty, and to aid us in exterminating slavery, which is 
 the only thing that militates against our complete aggran- 
 dizement as a nation. 
 
 In this extraordinary crisis of affairs, no man can be a 
 true patriot without first becoming an abolitionist. (A 
 freesoiler is only a tadpole in an advanced state of trans- 
 formation ; an abolitionist is the full and perfectly devel- 
 oped frog.) And here, perhaps, we may be pardoned for 
 the digression necessary to show the exact definition of 
 the terms ahdish, alxdition and aholit'wnist. We have looked 
 in vain for an explanation of tlie signification of these 
 words in any Southern publication ; for no dictionary has 
 •)vcr yet been published in the South, nor is there the least 
 )robability that one ever will be published within her bor- 
 
FREE AND THE SI-AVE STATES. Ill 
 
 dors, until slavery is ahullshed ; but, thanks \o Ileavon, a 
 portion of this continent is what our Kevohitionary Fath- 
 ers and the Fathers of the Constitution fought and hibored 
 and prayed to make it — a huid t)f freedom, of power, of 
 progress, of prosperity, of intelligence, of religion, of liter- 
 ature, of commerce, of science, of arts, of agriculture, of 
 manufactures, of ingenuity, of enterprise, of wealth, of 
 renown, of goodness, and of grandeur. From that glori- 
 ous part of our confederacy — from the North, whence, on 
 account of slavery in the South, we arc under the humili- 
 ating necessity of procuring almost everything that is 
 useful or ornamental, from primers to Bibles, from wafers 
 to printing-presses, from ladles to locomotives, and from 
 j)ortfolios to portraits and pianos — comes to us a huge 
 volume bearing the honored name of Webster — Xoah 
 \Vebstcr, who, after thirty-five years of unremitting toil, 
 completed a work which is, we believe, throughout Great 
 Britain and the United States, justly regarded as the stan- 
 dard vocabulary of the English language — and in it the 
 terms abolish, abolition, and abolitionist, are defined as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " Abolish, r. (. To make void ; to annul ; to abrogate ; ap- 
 plied chiefly and appropriately to establish laws, contracts, rites, 
 customs and institutions ; as to abolish laws by a repeal, actual 
 or virtual. To destroy or put an end to ; as to abolish idols." 
 
 "Abolition, n. The act of abolisliing ; or the state of lein;:; 
 abolifshed ; an annulling; abrogation; utter destruction; as the 
 abolition of laws, decrees, or ordinances, rites, customs, dc. The 
 'fitting an end to slavery ; emancipation." 
 
 '' .Ujolitionist, n. A person who favors abolition, oi the im- 
 ui:dia'e emancipation of slaves." 
 
118 COMPARISON BETWEEN TliE 
 
 There, gentlemen of the South, you have the definitions 
 of the transitive verb abolish and its two derivative nouns, 
 abolition and abolitionist ; can you, with the keenest possi- 
 ble penetration of vision, detect in either of these words 
 even a tittle of the opprobrium which the oligarchs, in their 
 wily aLd inhuman efforts to enslave all working classes 
 irrespective of race or color, have endeavored to attach to 
 them ? We know you cannot ; abolition is but another 
 name for patriotism, and its other special synonyms are 
 generosity, magnanimity, reason, prudence, wisdom, reli- 
 gion, progress, justice, and humanity. 
 
 And here, by the way, we may as well explain whom 
 we refer to when w^e speak of gentlemen of the South. 
 We say, therefore, that, deeply impressed with the convic- 
 tion that slavery is a great social and political evil, a sin 
 and a cn?ne., in the fullest sense, whenever we speak of gen- 
 tlemen of the South, or of gentlemen anywhere, or at what- 
 ever time, or in w^iatever connection we may speak of 
 gentlemen, we seldom allude to slaveholders, for the sim- 
 ple reason that, with few exceptions, we cannot conscien- 
 tiously recognize them as gentlemen. It is only in those 
 rare instances where the crime is mitigated by circum- 
 stances over which the slaveholder has had no control, or 
 where he himself, convinced of the impropriety, the folly 
 and the wickedness of the institution, is anxious to abolish 
 t, that we can sincerely apply to him the sacred appella- 
 tion in question — an appellation which we would no sooner 
 think of applying to a jpro-slavery slaveholder, or any other 
 pro-slavery man, than we would think of applying it to a 
 border-ruffian, a thiel or a murderer. Let it be under- 
 
FREE AND THE SLAVE ST/ TES. IIS 
 
 stood, however, that the rare iustanccs of which we speak 
 are less rare than many persons may suppose. We 
 are personally acijuainted with several slaveholders in 
 North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Virginia, 
 who have unreservedly assured us that they were dis- 
 gusted with the institution, and some of them went so far 
 as to say they wou^-^ V ^lad to acquiesce in the provision 
 of a statute whicn nould make it obligatory on them all 
 to manumit their slaves, witnout the smallest shadow or 
 substance of compensation. These, we believe, are the 
 sentiments of all the respectable and patriotic slavehold- 
 ers, who have eyes to see, and see — ears to hear, and 
 hear ; who, perceiving the imi).)verishing and degrading 
 efTects of slavery, are unwilling to entail it on their chil- 
 dren, and who, on account of their umlcviating adherence 
 to truth and justice, are, like tlie more intelligent non- 
 slaveholders, worthy of being regarded as gentlemen in 
 every sense of the term. Such slaveholders were "Wash- 
 ingt<jn, Jefiferson, Madison, and other illustrious Virgirh 
 ians, wlio, in the language of the great chief himself, de- 
 clared it among their ''fird ivishcs io see some plan adopted 
 by wliich slaver}^ in this country, may be abolished by 
 law." The words embraced wnthin this quotation were 
 used by Washington, in a letter to John F. Murcer, dated 
 September 9th, 1786 — a letter from which we shall quot<» 
 more freely hereafter ; and we think his emphatic use of 
 the participle a WiV/<'.'/, at that early day, is proof positive 
 that the glorious " Father of his Country" is entitled to 
 the first pla2e in the calendar of primitive American abo 
 litionists. 
 
120 COMPARISON BETWEEN THB 
 
 It is against slavery on the whole, and against slav€*- 
 holders as a body, that we wage an exterminating war. 
 Those persons who, under the infamous slave-laws of the 
 South — ^laws which have been correctly spoken of as a 
 "disgrace to civilization," and which must be annulled 
 simultaneously with the abolition of slavery — have had 
 the vile institution entailed on them contrary to their 
 wills, are virtually on our side ; we may, therefore, very 
 properly strike them off from the black list of three hun- 
 dred and forty-seven thousand slaveholders, who, as a 
 body, have shocked the civilized world with their barba- 
 rous conduct, and from whose conceited and presumptu- 
 ous ranks are selected the ofiScers who do all the legisla- 
 tion, town, county, state and national, for (against) five 
 millions of poor outraged whites, and three millions of 
 enslaved negroes. 
 
 Non-slaveholders of the South ! farmers, mechanics and 
 workingmen, we take this occasion to assure you that the 
 slaveholders, the arrogant demagogues whom you have 
 elected to offices of honor and profit, have hoodwinked 
 you, trifled with you, and used you as mere tools for the 
 consummation of theu* wicked designs. They have pur- 
 posely kept you in ignorance, and have, by moulding your 
 passions and prejudices to suit themselves, induced you to 
 act in direct opposition to your dearest rights and inter- 
 ests. By a system of the grossest subterfuge and misre- 
 presentation, and in order to avert, for a season, the ven- 
 geance that will most assuredly overtake them ere loDg, 
 they have taught you to hate the abolitionists, who are 
 ^^,-^ i...of OT.^ oT^iv true friands. Now, as one of your 
 
FRKE V\T> THE SLiVE STATES. 121 
 
 awn number, wc appeal to jou to join us in our patriotic 
 endeavors to rescue the generous soil of the South from the 
 usurped and desolating control of these political vampires. 
 Once and forever, at least so far as this country is CvD- 
 oerned, the infernal question of slavery must be disposed 
 of ; a speedy and perfect abolishment of the whole insti- 
 tution is the true policy of the South — and this is the 
 policy which we propose to pursue. Will you aid us, will 
 you assist us, will you be freemen, or will you be slaves ? 
 These are questions of vital importance ; weigh them well 
 in 3'our minds ; come to a prudent and firm decision, and 
 hold yourselves in readiness to act in accordance there- 
 with. You must either be for us or against us — anti- 
 elavery or pro-slavery ; it is impossible for you to occupy 
 a neutral ground ; it is as certain as fate itself, that if you 
 do not voluntarily oppose the usurpations and outrages 
 of the slavocrats, they will force you into involuntary 
 compliance with their infamous measures. Consider well 
 the aggressive, fraudulent and despotic power which they 
 have exercised in the aflfairs of Kanzas ; and remember 
 that, if, by adhering to erroneous principles of neutrality 
 or non-resistance, you allow them to force the curse of 
 slavery on that vast and fertile field, the broad area of all 
 the surrounding States and Territories — the whole nation, 
 in fact — will soon fall a prey to their diabolical intrigues 
 and machinations. Thus, if you are not vigilant, will 
 thoy take advantage of your neutrality, and make you 
 and others the victims of their inhuman despotism. Do 
 not reserve the strength of your arms until you shall have 
 been rendered powerless to strike ; the present is the 
 
122 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE STATED. 
 
 proper time for action ; under all the circumstaices, ap« 
 thy or indifference is a crime. First ascertain, as nearly 
 as you can, the precise nature and extent' of your duty, 
 and then, without a moment's delay, perform it in good 
 faith. To facilitate you in determining what considera- 
 tions of right, justice and humanity require at your hands, 
 is one of the primary objects of this work ; and we shall 
 certainly fail in our desire if we do not accomplish oui 
 task in a manner acceptable to God and advantageous to 
 man. 
 
 But we are carrying this chapter beyond all ordinary 
 bounds ; and yet, there are many important particulars in 
 which we have drawn no comparison between the free and 
 the slave States. The more weighty remarks which we 
 intended to offer in relation to the new States of the West 
 and Southwest, free and slave, shall appear in the suc- 
 ceeding chapter. With regard to agriculture, and all the 
 multifarious interests of husbandry, we deem it quite un- 
 necessary to say more. Cotton has been shorn of its 
 magic power, and is no longer King ; dried grass, common- 
 ly called hay, is, it seems, the rightful heir to the throne. 
 Commerce, Manufactures, Literature, and other important 
 subjects, shall be considered as we progress. 
 
now SLAVERY CAN BE ADOLISnED. 123 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 Preumtnary to our elucidation of what we conceive to 
 be the most discreet, fair and feasible plan for the abolition 
 of slavery, we propose to offer a few additional reasons 
 why it should be abolished. Among the thousand and one 
 arguments that present themselves in support of our posi- 
 tion — which, before we part with the reader, we shall en- 
 deavor to define so clearly, that it shall be regarded as 
 ultra only by those who imperfectly understand it — is the 
 influence which slavery invariably exercises in depressing 
 the value of real estate ; and as this is a matter in which 
 the non-slaveholders of the South, of the West, and of the 
 Southwest, are most deeply interested, we shall discuss it 
 in a sort of preamble of some length. 
 
 The oligarchs say we cannot abolish slavery without 
 infringing on the right of property. Again we tell them 
 we do not recognize property in man ; but even if we did, 
 and if we were to inventory the negroes at quadruple, the 
 value of their last assessment, still, impelled by a sense 
 of duty to others, and as a matter of simple justice to our- 
 selves, we, the non-slaveholders of the South, would be 
 fully warranted in emancipating all the slaves at once, 
 and that, too, without any compensation whatever to 
 
124 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABCIISHED. 
 
 those who claim Id be their absolute masters and owners 
 "We will explain. In 1850, the average value per acre, of 
 land in the Northern States was $28,07 ; in the North* 
 western $11,39 ; in the Southern $5,34 ; and in the South- 
 western $6,26. Now, in consequence of numerous natural 
 advantages, among which may be enumerated the greater 
 mildness of climate, richness of soil, deposits of precious 
 metals, abundance and spaciousness of harbors, and super- 
 excellence of water-power, we contend that, had it not 
 been for slavery, the average value of land in all the 
 Southern and Southwestern States, would have been at 
 least equal to the average value of the same in the North- 
 ern States. We conclude, therefore, and we think the 
 conclusion is founded on principles of equity, that ycu, 
 the slaveholders, are indebted to us, the non-slaveholdei s, 
 in the sum of $22,73, which is the difference between 
 $28,07 and $5,34, on every acre of Southern soil in our 
 possession. This claim we bring against you, because 
 slavery, which has inured exclusively to your own benefit, 
 if, indeed, it has been beneficial at all, has shed a bligh^ 
 ing influence over our lands, thereby keeping them out of 
 market, and damaging every acre to the amount specified. 
 Sirs ! are you ready to settle the account ? Let us see 
 how much it is. There are in the fifteen slave States, 
 346,048 slaveholders, and 544,926,720 acres of land. Now 
 the object is to ascertain how many acres are owned by 
 slaveholders, and now many by non-slaveholders. Sup- 
 pose we estimate five hundred acres as the average landed 
 property of each slaveholder ; will that be fair ? We 
 think i yill, Kking into consideration the fact that 174,503. 
 
now SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 125 
 
 of the whole number of slaveholders hold less than five 
 slaves each — 68,820 holding only one each. According 
 to this hypothesis, the slaveholders own 1*13,024,000 acres, 
 and the non-slaveholders the balance, with the exception 
 of about 40,000,000 of acres, which belong to the General 
 Government. The case may be stated thus : 
 
 Area of the Slave States 544,926,720 acres, 
 r Acres owned by slaveholders.. 173,024,000 
 Eitiiuatos < Acres owned by the government 40,000,000— 213,024,000 
 (Acres owned by non-slaveholders 331,902,720 
 
 Now, chevaliers of the lash, and worshippers of slavery, 
 the total value of three hundred and thirty-one million nino 
 hundred and two thousand seven hundred and twenty 
 acres, at twenty-two dollars and seventy-three cents per 
 acre, is seven billion Jive hundred and forty-four million one 
 hundred and forty-eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-Jive 
 dollars ; and this is our account against you on a single 
 score. Considering how your villainous institution has 
 retarded the development of our commercial and manufac- 
 turing interests, how it has stifled the aspirations of in- 
 ventive genius ; and, above all, how it has barred from us 
 the heaven-born sw^eets of literature and religion — con- 
 cernments too sacred to be estimated in a pecuniary point 
 of view — might we not, with perfect justice and propriety, 
 duplicate the amount, and still be accounted modest in 
 our demands ? Fully advised, however, of your indi- 
 gent circumstances, we feel it would be utterly useless 
 to call on you for the whole amount that is due us ; we 
 shall, therefore, in your behalf, make another draft on the 
 fund of non-slaveholding generosity, and let the account, 
 meagre as it is, stand as above. Though we have given 
 
126 HOW SLAVE tV CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 you all the offices, and you have given us none of tlie 
 benefits of legislation ; though we have fought the battles 
 of the South, while you were either lolling in your piazzas, 
 or playing the tory, and endeavoring to filch from us onr 
 birthright of freedom ; though you have absorbed t^e 
 wealth of our communities in sending your own children 
 to Northern seminaries and colleges, or in employing Yaih 
 kee teachers to officiate exclusively in your own families, 
 and have refused to us the limited privilege of common 
 schools ; though you have scorned to patronize our mech^ 
 nics and industrial enterprises, and have passed to the 
 North for every article of apparel, utility, and adornment ; 
 and though you have maltreated, outraged and defrauded 
 us in every relation of life, civil, social, and political, yet 
 we are willing to forgive and forget you, if you will but do 
 us justice on a single count. Of you, the introduceiTS, 
 aiders and abettors of slavery, we demand indemnification 
 for the damage our lands have sustained on account there- 
 of ; the amount of that damage is $7,544,148,825 ; and 
 now. Sirs, we are ready to receive the money, and if i1 k> 
 perfectly convenient to you, we would be glad to have yor 
 pay it in specie ! It will not avail you. Sirs, to parley (U 
 prevaricate. We must have a settlement. Our claim IS 
 just and overdue. We have already indulged you tor» 
 long. Your criminal extravagance has almost ruined TiS 
 We are determined that you shall no longer play the pro 
 fligatc, and fair sumptuously every day at our expense 
 How do you propose to settle ? Do you offer us your S& 
 grocs in part payment ? We do not want your negroas. 
 We would not have all of them, nor any number of them, 
 
HOW SLAVERY CA.V BE ABOLISHED. 12*1 
 
 even as a gift. We hold ourselves above the disreputa- 
 ble and iniquitous practices of buying, selling, and own- 
 ing slaves. What we demand is damages in money, or 
 other absolute property, as an equivalent for the pecuniary 
 losses we have suffered at your hands. You value your 
 negroes at sixteen hundred millions of dollars, and propose 
 to sell them to us for that sura ; we should consider our- 
 selves badly cheated, and disgraced for all time, here and 
 hereafter, if we were to take them off your hands at six- 
 teen farthings I We tell you emphatically, we are firmly 
 resolved never to degrade ourselves by becoming the 
 mercenary purchasers or proprietors of human beings. Ex- 
 cept for the purpose of liberating them, we would not 
 give a handkerchief or a tooth-pick for all the slaves in 
 tlie world. But, in order to show how brazenly absurd 
 are the howls and groans which you invariably set up 
 for compensation, whenever we speak of the abolition of 
 slavery, we will suppose your negroes are worth all you 
 ask fur them,.and that we are bound to secure to you every 
 cent of the sum before they can become free — in which 
 case, our accounts would stand thus : 
 
 Noii-slavcholdev's account a!T;ainst Slavclu)klers $7,544,148,825 
 
 Slaveholder's account against Non-slaveholders 1,600,000.000 
 
 Balance due Non-slaveholders S'5/J44,148,8iio 
 
 Now, Sirs, we ask you in all seriousness. Is it not 
 true that j'ou have filched from us nearly five times the 
 amount of the assessed value of your slaves ? Why, then, 
 do you still clamor for more ? Is it your purpose to make 
 the game perpetual ? Think you that we will ever con- 
 tinue to U;w at the wave of your wand, that we will bring 
 
128 HOW SLA^ERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 humanity into everlasting disgrace by licking the hand 
 that smites us, and that with us there is no poiit beyond 
 which forbearance ceases to be a virtue ? Sirs, if these be 
 your thoughts, you are laboring under a most fatal delu- 
 sion. You can goad us no further ; you shall oppress us 
 no longer ; heretofore, earnestly but submissively, we 
 have asked you to redress the more atrocious outrages 
 which you have perpetrated against us ; but what has 
 been the invariable fate of our petitions ? With scarcely 
 a perusal, with a degree of contempt that added insult to 
 injury, you have laid them on the table, and from thence 
 they have been swept into the furnance of oblivion. Hence- 
 forth, Sirs, we are demandants, not suppliants. We de- 
 mand our rights, nothing more, nothing less. It is for you 
 to decide whether we are to have justice peaceably or by 
 violence, for whatever consequences may follow, we are 
 determined to have it one way or the other. Do you as- 
 pire to become the victims of white non-slaveholding ven- 
 geance by day, and of barbarous massacre by the negroes 
 at night ? Would you be instrumental in bringing upon 
 yourselves, your wives, and your children, a fate too hor- 
 rible to contemplate ? shall history cease to cite, as ai 
 instance of unexampled cruel cy, the Massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew, because the world — the South— shall have furn- 
 ished a more direful scene of atrocity and carnage ? Sirs, 
 we would not wantonly pluck a single hair from your 
 heads ; but we have endured long, we have endured 
 much ; slaves only of the most despicable class would 
 endure more. An enumeration or classification of all tho 
 ifcbuses, insultfi^ wrongs, injuries, usurpations, and oppre^ 
 
now SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 129 
 
 ^ijns, to wliich you have subjected us, would fill a larger 
 voluaic than this ; it is our purpose, therefore, to speak 
 only of those that afiect us most deeply. Out of our eflects 
 your have long since overpaid yourselves for your negroes ; 
 and now. Sirs, you viust emancipate them — speedily eman- 
 cipate them, or we will emancipate them for you I Every 
 lon-slaveholdei in the South is, or ought to be, and will 
 be, against you. You yourselves ought to join us at once 
 in our laudable crusade against " the mother of harlots." 
 Slavery has polluted and impoverished your lands ; free- 
 dom will restore them to their virgin purity, and add from 
 twenty to thirty dollars to the value of every acre. Cor- 
 rectly speaking, emancipation will cost you nothing ; the 
 moment you abolish slavery, that very moment will the 
 putative value of the slave become actual value in the 
 soil. Though there are ten millions of people in the South, 
 and though you, the slaveholders, are only three hundred 
 and forty-seven thousand in number, you have within a 
 fraction of one-third of all the territory belonging to the 
 fifteen slave States. You have a landed estate of 173,- 
 024,000 acres, the present average market value of which 
 is only $5,34 per acre ; emancipate your slaves on Wednes- 
 day morning, and on the Thursday following the value of 
 your lands, and ours too, will have increased to an aver- 
 age of at least $28,07 per acre. Let us see, therefore, 
 even in this one particular, whether the abolition of 
 slavery will not be a real pecuniary advantage to you 
 The present total market value of all your landed property, 
 at $5,34 per acre, is only $923,248,100 I With the beauty 
 arv* bunligh of freedom beaming on the same estate, it 
 
130 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 would be worth, at $28,07 per acre, $4,856,873,680 Th( 
 
 former sum, deducted from the latter, leaves a balance oi 
 
 $3,933,535,520, and to the full extent of this amount wil 
 
 your lands be increased in value whenever you abolisl 
 
 slavery ; that is, provided you abolish it before it con- 
 
 pletely " dries up all the organs of increase." Here is ; 
 
 more manifest and distinct statement of the case : — 
 
 Estimated value of slaveholders' lands after slavery ) <a,^ or a -oo cqa 
 u 11 v. V V 1- 1- J > Mjoobj/bdjbou 
 
 shall have been abolished ) 
 
 Present value of slaveholders' lands 923,248,160 
 
 Probable aggregate enhancement of value $3,933,535,520 
 
 Now, Sirs, this last sum is considerably more than twice 
 as great as the estimated value of your negroes ; and those 
 of you, if any there be, who are yet heirs to sane mind.*- 
 and honest hearts, must, it seems to us, admit that the 
 bright prospect which freedom presents for a wonderfii' 
 increase in the value of real estate, ours as well as yours, 
 to say nothing of the thousand other kindred considerations, 
 ought to be quite sufficient to induce all the Southern 
 States, in their sovereign capacities, to abolish slavery at 
 the earliest practical period. You yourselves, instead of 
 losing anything by the emancipation of your negroes — 
 even though we suppose them to be worth every dime of 
 $1,600,000,000 — would, in this one particular, the increased 
 value of land, realize a net p-ofit of over twenty three hundreo 
 miUiuiis of doUars ! Here are the exact figures : — 
 
 Net increment of value which it is estimated wilK 
 
 acxrue to slaveholders' lands in consequence ( S3;933,535,520 
 of the abolition of slavery , . , ) 
 
 Pt tative value of the slaves 1 ,600,000,000 
 
 Slaveholders' estiu.ated net landed profits of cman. S2, 333 ,535,620 
 
now SLAVKRY CAN BE AUOLISIIED. 131 
 
 What is th^ import of these figures ? The}^ are full of 
 moaning. Thoy proclaim themselves the financial inter- 
 V essora for freedom, aiul, with that open-hearted liberality 
 wiiich is so characteristic of the sacred cause in wlioso 
 behalf they plead, they propose to pay you upward of three 
 thousand nine hundred millions of dollars for the very 
 " property" which you, in all the reckless extravagance 
 of your inhuman avarice, could not find a heart to price at 
 more tiian one thousand six hundred millions. In other 
 words, your own lands, groaning and languishing under 
 the monstrous burden of slavery, announce their willing- 
 ness to pay you all you ask for the negroes, and ofler you, 
 besides, a bonus of more than twenty-three hundred 
 millions of dollars, if you will but convert those lands into 
 free soil ! Our lands, also, cry aloud to be spared from 
 the further pollutions and desolations of slavery ; and now. 
 Sirs, we want to know explicitly whether, ornot, it is^^our 
 intention to heed these lamentations of the ground ? We 
 want to know whether you arc men or devils — whether 
 you are entirely selfish and cruelly dishonest, or whether 
 you have any respect for the rights of others. We, the 
 non-slaveholders of the South, have many very important 
 interests at stake — interests which, heretofore, you have 
 steadily despised and trampled under foot, but which, 
 henceforth, we shall foster and defend in utter defiance of 
 all the unhallowed influences which it is possible for you, 
 or any other class of slaveholders or slavebreeders to bring 
 against us. Not the least among these interests is our 
 landed property, which, to command a decent pricv, only 
 needs to be disencumbenid of slavery. 
 
132 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 lu his present condition, we believe man exercises one 
 of the noblest virtues with which heaven has endowed him, 
 when, without taking any undue advantage of his fellow- 
 men, and with a firm, unwavering purpose to confine his 
 expenditures to the legitimate pursuits and pleasures of 
 life, he covets money and strives to accumulate it. Enter- 
 taining this view, and having no disposition to make an 
 improper use of money, we are free to confess that we have 
 a greater penchant for twenty-eight dollars than for five ; 
 for ninety than for fifteen ; for a thousand than for one 
 hundred. South of Mason and Dix*»u's line we, the non- 
 slaveholders, have 331,902,720 acres of land, the present 
 average market value of which, as previously stated, is 
 only $5,34 per acre ; by abolishing slavery we expect to 
 enhance the value to an average of at least $28,07 per acre, 
 and thus realize an average net increase of wealth of more 
 than seventy-five hundred millions of dollars. The hope of 
 realizing smaller sums has frequently induced men to per- 
 petrate acts of injustice ; we can see no reason why the 
 certainty of becoming immensely rich in real estate, or 
 other property, should make us falter in the performance 
 of a sacred duty. 
 
 As illustrative of our theme, a bit of personal history 
 may not be out of place in this connection. Only a few 
 months have elapsed since we sold to an elder brother an 
 interest we held in an old homestead which was willed to 
 us many years ago by our dear departed father. The tract 
 of land, containing two hundred acres, or thereabouts, ia 
 situated two and a half miles west of Mocksville, the cap- 
 ital of Davie ( Dunty, North Carolina, and is very nearly 
 
HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED 133 
 
 cquallr divided by Bear Creek, a small tributary of the 
 South Yadkin. More than one-third of this tract — on which 
 we have plowed, and hoed, and harrowed, many a long 
 summer without ever suffering from the effects of coup de 
 soUil — is under cultivation ; the remaining portion is a well- 
 timbered forest, in which, without being very particular, 
 we counted, while hunting through it not long since, sixty- 
 three different kinds of indigenous trees — to say nothing 
 of either coppice, shrubs or plants — among which the 
 hickory, oak, ash, beech, birch, and black walnut, were 
 most abundant. No turpentine or rosin is produced in our 
 part of the State ; but there are, on the place of which we 
 speak, several species of the genus Pinus, by the light of 
 whose flammable knots, as radiated on the contents of 
 some half-dozen old books, which, by hook or by crook, had 
 found their way into the neighborhood, we have been ena- 
 bled to turn the long winter evenings to our advantage, 
 and have thus partially escaped from the prison-grounds of 
 those loathsome dungeons of illiteracy in which it has been 
 the constant policy of the oligarchy to keep the masses, 
 the non-slaveholding whites and the negroes, forever con- 
 fined. The fertility of the soil may be inferred from the 
 quality and variety of its natural productions ; the meadow 
 and the bottom, comprising, perhaps, an area of forty 
 acres, are hardly surpassed by the best lands in the valley 
 of the Yadkin. A thorough examination of the orchard 
 will disclose the fact that considerable attention has been 
 paid to the selection of fruits ; the buildings are tolerable ; 
 the water is good. Altogether, to be frank, and nothing 
 nore, it is, for its sizo, ■)ne of the most desirable farnw ii 
 
134 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 the CDiinty, and will, at any time, command the maximum 
 price of land in Western Carolina. Our brother, anxious 
 to become the sole proprietor, readily agreed to give us 
 the highest market price, which we shall publish by-and- 
 bye. While reading the Baltimore Sun, the morning after 
 we had made the sale, our attention was allured to a para- 
 graph headed " Sales of Real Estate," from which, among 
 other significant items, we learned that a tract of land 
 containing exactly two hundred acres, and occupying a 
 portion of one of the rural districts in the southeastern 
 part of Pennsylvania, near the Maryland line, had been 
 sold the week before, at one hun/J.red and five dollars and fifty 
 cents per acre. Judging from the succinct account given 
 in the Sun, we are of the opinion that, with regard to fer- 
 tility of soil, the Pennsylvania tract always has been, is 
 now, and perhaps always will be, rather inferior to the one 
 under special consideration. One is of the same size as the 
 other ; both are used for agricultural purposes ; in all 
 probability the only essential difference between them is 
 this : one is blessed with the pure air of freedom, the other 
 is cursed with the malaria of slavery. For our interest in 
 the old homestead we received a nominal sum, amounting 
 to an average of iprecisel j five dollars and sixty cents per acre. 
 No one but our brother, who was keen for the purchase, 
 would have given us quite so much. 
 
 And, now, pray let us ask, what does this narrative 
 teach ? We shall use few words in explanation ; there is 
 an extensive void, but it can be better filled with reflection. 
 The aggregate value of the one tract is $21,100 ; that of 
 tJie othe'is only $1,120; the difference is $19,980. We 
 
now SI.AVEUY CAN BE AHOLISIIED. 135 
 
 contend, therefore, in view of all the circumstances de- 
 tailed, that the advocates and retainers of slavery, have, 
 to all intents and purposes, defrauded our family out of 
 this last-mentioned sum. In like manner, and on the sanio 
 basis of deduction, we contend that almost every non- 
 slaveholder, who cither is or has been the owner of real 
 estate in the South, would, in a court of strict justice, b(^ 
 entitled to damages — the amount in all cases to be de- 
 termined with reference to the quality of the land in ques 
 tion. "We say this because, in violation of every principle 
 of expediency, justice, and humanity, and in direct oppa 
 sition to our solemn protests, slavery was foisted upon us, 
 and has been thus far perpetuated, by and through the 
 diabolical intrigues of the oligarchs, and by them alone : 
 and furthermore, because the very best agricultural lands 
 in the Northern States being worth from one hundred t<- 
 one hundred and seventy-five dollars per acre, there is lu 
 possible reason, except slavery, why the more fertile and 
 congenial soil of the South should not be worth at least 
 as much. If, on this principle, we could ascertain, in thf 
 matter of real estate, the total indebtedness of the slave- 
 holders to the non-slaveholders, we should doubtless find 
 the sum quite equivalent to the amount estimated on * 
 preceding page — $7,544,148,825. 
 
 AVe have recently conversed with two gentlemen wh(* 
 to save themselves from the poverty and disgrace o^ 
 slavery, left North Carolina six or seven years ago, an« 
 who are now residing in the territory of Minnesota, when 
 thoy have accumulated handsome fortunes. One of then 
 hue' traveled extensively i'l Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio 
 
136 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 Indiana, and other adjoining States ; and, according to 
 his account, and we know him to be a man of veracity, it 
 is almost impossible for persons at a distance, to form a 
 proper conception of the magnitude of the difference be- 
 tween the current value of lands in the Free and the Slave 
 States of the West. On one occasion, embarking at 
 Wheeling, he sailed down the Ohio ; Virgina and Ken- 
 tucky on the one side, Ohio and Indiana on the other. He 
 stopped at several places along the river, first on the right 
 bank, then on the left, and so on, until he arrived at Evans- 
 ville ; continuing his trip, he sailed down to Cairo, thenco 
 up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Des Moines ; having 
 tarried at different points along the route, sometimes in 
 Missouri, sometimes in Illinois. Wherever he landed on 
 free soil, he found it from one to two hundred per cent, 
 more valuable than the slave soil on the opposite bank. 
 If, for instance, the maximum price of land was eight dol- 
 lars in Kentucky, the minimum price was sixteen in Ohio ; 
 if it was seven dollars in Missouri, it was fourteen in Illi- 
 nois. Furthermore, he assured us, that, so far as he could 
 learn, two years ago, when he traveled through the States 
 of which we speak, the range of prices of agricultural 
 lands, in Kentucky, was from three to eight dollars per 
 acre ; in Ohio, from sixteen to forty ; in Missouri, from 
 two to seven ; in Illinois, from fourteen to thirty ; in Ar- 
 kansas, from one to four ; in Iowa, from six to fifteen. 
 
 In all the old slave States, as is well known, there are 
 vast bodies of land that can be bought for the merest 
 trifle. We know an enterprising capitalist in Philadel- 
 phia \i«ho owns in his individual name, in the State of 
 
HOW SI.AVKRY CAK BE ABOMSIIED. 13t 
 
 Virginia, oiie hundrtd and thirty thousand acres, for which he 
 paid only thirty-seven and a half cents per acre I Some years 
 ago, in certain parts of North Carolina, several large 
 tracts were purchased at the rate of twenty-Jive cents per 
 acre I 
 
 Hiram Berdan, the distinguished inventor, who has fre- 
 quently seen freedom and slavery side by side, and who 
 is, therefore, well qualified to form an opinion of their re- 
 lative influence upon society, says : 
 
 " Many comparisons might be drawn between the free and the 
 slave States, either of which should be sufficient to satisfy any 
 man that slavery is not only ruinous to free labor and enterprise, 
 but injurious to morals, and blighting to the soil where it exists 
 The comparison between the States of Michigan and Arkansas, 
 which were admitted into the Union at the same time, will fairly 
 illustrate the difference and value of free and slave labor, as well 
 as the difference of moral and intellectual progress in a free and 
 in a slave State. 
 
 In 1836 these young Stars were admitted into the constella- 
 tion of the Union. Michigan, with one-half the extent of terri- 
 tory of Arkansas, challenged her sister State for a twenty years' 
 race, and named as her rider, ' Neither slavery, nor involuntary 
 servitude, unless for the punishment of crime, shall ever be tole- 
 rated in this State.' Arkansas accepted the challenge, and 
 named as her rider, ' The General Assembly shall have no power 
 to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without the consent 
 of the owners.* Thus mounted, these two States, the one free 
 and the other slave, started together twenty years ago, and now, 
 havinir arrived at the end of the proposed race, let us review and 
 mark the progress of each. Michigan comes out in 1856 with 
 three times the population of slave Arkansas, with five timea 
 the assessed value of farms, farming implements and machinery 
 and with eight times the number of public schools." 
 
 Ii: the foregoing part of our work, we have drawn com* 
 
138 HOW SLAVERY CAN IE ABOLISHED 
 
 parisons between the old free States and the old slave 
 States, and between the new free States and the new slave 
 States ; had we sufficient time and space, we might 
 with the most significant results, change this method of 
 comparison, by contrasting the new free States with the 
 old slave States. Can the slavocrats compare Ohio with 
 Virginia, Illinois with Georgia, or Indiana with South Car- 
 olina, without experiencing the agony of inexpressible 
 shame ? If they can, then indeed has slavery debased 
 them to a lower deep than we care to contemplate. Here- 
 with we present a brief contrast, as drawn by a Maryland 
 abolitionist, between the most important old slave State 
 and the most important new free State : 
 
 ''Virginia was a State, wealthy and prosperous, when Ohio was. 
 a wilderness belonging to her. She gave that territory away, 
 and what is the result 1 Ohio supports a population of two mil- 
 lion souls, and the mother contains but one and a half millions ; 
 yet Virginia is one-third larger than the Buckeye State. Virginia 
 contains 61,000 square miles, Ohio but 40,000. The latter sus- 
 tains 50 persons to the square mile, while Virginia gives employ- 
 ment to but 25 to the square mile. Notwithstanding Virginia's 
 superiority in 3'ears and in soil — for she grows tobacco, as well 
 as corn and wheat — notwithstanding her immense coal-fields, and 
 her splendid Atlantic ports, Ohio, the infant State, had 21 repre- 
 sentatives in Congress in 1850, while Virginia had but 13 — the 
 latter having commenced in the Union with 10 Congressmen. 
 Compare the progress of these States, and then say, what is it but 
 Free Labor that has advanced Ohio? and to what, except slavery, 
 can we attribute the non-progression of the Old Dominion ?" 
 
 As a striking illustration of the selfish and debasing 
 influences which slavery exercises over the hearts and 
 minds of slaveholders themselves, we will here state the 
 
now SLA1 ERY CAN BK ABOLISHED. 180 
 
 /act that, when we, the non-slaveholders, remonstrate 
 against the continuance of such a manifest wrong and in 
 humanity — a system of usurpation and outrage so obvi 
 oush detrimental to our interests — they fly into a terrible 
 passion, exclaiming, among all sorts of horrible threats, 
 which are not unfrequently executed, "It's none of your 
 business !" — meaning to say thereby that their slaves do 
 not annoy us, that slavery alTocts no one except the mas- 
 ters and their chattels personal, and that we should give 
 ourselves no concern about it, whatever I To every man of 
 common sense and honesty of purpose the preposterous- 
 nes3 of this assumption is so evident, that any studied 
 attempt to refute it would be a positive insult. Would it 
 be none of our business, if the}^ were to bring the small-pox 
 into the neighborhood, and, with premeditated design, let 
 " foul contagion spread ?" Or, if they were to throw a 
 pound of strychnine into a public spring, would that be 
 none of our business ? Were they to turn a j^ack of mad 
 dogs loose on the community, would we be performing the 
 part of good citizens b}'' closing ourselves within doors 
 for the space of nine days, saying nothing to anybody '/ 
 Small-pox is a nuisance ; strychnine is a nuisance ; mad 
 dogs are a nuisance ; slavery is a nuisance ; slaveholders 
 are a nuisance, and so are slave-breeders ; it is our 
 business, nay, it is our imperative duty, to abate nui- 
 Bances ; we propose, therefore, with tlie exception of 
 strychnine, which is the least of all these nuisances, to 
 exterminate this catalogue from beginning to end. 
 
 We mean precisely what our words express, when wo 
 say we ^K-lieve thievi's are, as a general rule, less amenh- 
 
140 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 ble to the moral law than slaveholders ; and here is the 
 basis of our opinion : Ordinarily, thieves wait until we 
 acquire a considerable amount of property, and then they 
 steal a dispensable part of it ; but they deprive no one of 
 physical liberty, nor do they fetter the mind ; slaveholders, 
 on the contrary, by clinging to the most barbarous relic 
 of the most barbarous age, bring disgrace on themselves, 
 their neighbors, and their country, depreciate the value 
 of their own and others' lands, degrade labor, discourage 
 energy and progress, prevent non-slaveholders from accu- 
 mulating wealth, curtail their natural rights and privi- 
 leges, doom their children to ignorance, and all its atten- 
 dant evils, rob the negroes of their freedom, throw a 
 damper on every species of manual and intellectual enter- 
 prise, that is not projected under their own roofs and for 
 their own advantage, and, by other means equally at 
 variance with the principles of justice, though but an in- 
 significant fractional part of the population, they consti- 
 tute themselves the sole arbiters and legislators for the 
 entire South. Not merely so ; the thief rarely steals from 
 more than one man out of an hundred ; the slaveholder de- 
 frauds ninety and nine, and the hundredth does not escape 
 him. Again, thieves steal trifles from rich men ; slave- 
 holders oppress poor men, and enact laws for the perpetu- 
 ation of their poverty. Thieves practice deceit on the 
 wise ; slaveholders take advantage of the ignorant. 
 
 We contend, moreover, that slaveholders are more crim- 
 inal than common murderers. We know all slaveholders 
 would not wilfully imbue their hands in the blood of their 
 fellow-men ; but i*- is % fact, nevertheless, that all slave- 
 
BOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOIJSHED. 141 
 
 holders arc uLider the shield of a perpetual license to mnr- 
 dor. This license they have issued to themselves. Ao 
 cording to their own infamous statutes, if the slave raises 
 his hand to ward off an unmerited blow, they are permitr 
 ted to take his life with impunity. We are personally 
 acquainted with three ruffians who have become actual 
 murderers under circumstances of this nature. One of 
 them killed two negroes on one occasion ; the other two 
 have murdered but one each. Neither of them has ever 
 been subjected to even the preliminaries of a trial ; not 
 one of them has ever been arrested ; their own private 
 explanations of the homicides exculpated them from all 
 manner of blame in the premises. They had done noth- 
 ing wrong in the eyes of the community. The negroes 
 made an effort to shield themselves from the tortures of a 
 merciless flagellation, and were shot dead on the spot* 
 Their murderers still live, and are treated as honorable 
 members of society I Xo matter how many slaves or free 
 negroes may witness the perpetration of these atrocious 
 homicides, not one of them is ever allowed to lift up his 
 voice in behalf of his murdered brother. In the South, 
 negroes, whether bond or free, are never, under any cir- 
 cumstances, permitted to utter a syllable under oath, ex- 
 cept for or against persons of their own color ; their tes- 
 timony against white persons is of no more consequence 
 than the idle zephjT of the summer. 
 
 We shall now introduce four tables of valuable and in- 
 teresting statistics, to which piiilosophic and discrimina- 
 ting readers will doubtless have frequent occasions to 
 ref**- Tables 22 and 23 wQ. show the area of the several 
 
143 HOW SLAATIRY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 States, in square miles and in acres, and the number of 
 inhabitants to the square mile in each State ; also the 
 grand total, or the average, of every statistical column ; 
 tables 24 and 25 will exhibit the total number of inhabi- 
 tants residing in each State, according to "-jie census of 
 1850, the number of whites, the number o^ free colored, 
 and the number of slaves. The rec^pital-ttions of these 
 tables will be followed by a comp' j+e list of the numbei 
 of slaveholders in the United Statz-.s, chewing the exact 
 number in each Southern State, and in the District of 
 (Columbia. Most warmly do we commend all these statis 
 tics to the studious attention of the reader. Their lan- 
 guage is more eloquent than any possible combination of 
 Koman vowels and consonants. We have spared no pains 
 m arranging them so as to express at a single glance the 
 great truths of which they are composed ; and we doubt 
 not that the plan we have adopted will meet with general 
 approbation. Numerically considered, it will be perceived 
 that the slaveholders are, in reality, a very insignificant 
 class. 0*' them, however, we shall have more to say here 
 after. 
 
HOW SLWERY CAN BE AHOLISnED. 
 
 143 
 
 TABLK NO. XXII. 
 
 AREA OF rilE FKEE STATES. 
 
 St.-\tC8. 
 
 Square Miles- 
 
 Acres. j 
 
 
 155,080 
 
 4,674 
 
 55,405 
 
 33,809 
 
 50,014 
 
 31,766 
 
 7,800 
 
 56,243 
 
 9,280 
 
 8,320 
 
 47,000 
 
 30,064 
 
 46,000 
 
 1,306 
 
 10,212 
 
 63,924 
 
 612,597 
 
 9! >, 827, 200 ' 
 
 2,901.360 1 
 
 35,359,200 
 
 21,637,760 
 
 32,584.960 
 
 20,330,240 
 
 4,992,000 
 
 35,995,520 
 
 5,930,200 
 
 5,324,800 
 
 30,080,000 
 
 2(3,576.000 
 
 29,440,000 
 
 835.840 
 
 6,535,680 
 
 34,511,360 
 
 392,062,082 
 
 C onnccticut 
 
 Illinois -. 
 
 
 Iowa 
 
 >*aine 
 
 IMassachusctts 
 
 Micliioran 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 New Jer.sey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Peiiiisvlvaiiia 
 
 Rliode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 
 Inhabit'iits to 
 square mile. 
 
 .69 
 79.33 
 15.37 
 29.24 
 
 3.78 
 
 18.36 
 
 127.50 
 
 7.07 
 34.26 
 58.84 
 65.90 
 40.55 
 50.26 
 112.97 
 30.76 
 
 5.66 
 
 21,01 
 
 TABLE NO. XXIII. 
 
 AP.EA OF THE SLAVE STATES. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georcria 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississii)pi. . . . 
 
 Missouri.. 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas. 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Square Miles, 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Inhabit'ntP tc 
 square mile. 
 
 50,722 
 
 32,027,490 
 
 1521 
 
 52.108 
 
 33,406,730 
 
 4.02 
 
 2,120 
 
 1,356,800 
 
 43.18 
 
 69,268 
 
 37.031,520 
 
 1.48 
 
 68,000 
 
 37,120,000 
 
 15.62 
 
 37,680 
 
 24.115,200 
 
 26.07 
 
 41,255 
 
 26.403,200 
 
 12.55 
 
 11,124 
 
 7,110,360 
 
 52.41 
 
 47,156 
 
 30,179,840 
 
 12.^6 
 
 67,380 
 
 43,123,200 
 
 10.12 
 
 50,704 
 
 32,450,560 
 
 17.14 
 
 29,3^5 
 
 18,805,400 
 
 22.75 
 
 45,600 
 
 20,184,000 
 
 21.99 
 
 237,501 
 
 152,002.560 
 
 .89 
 
 61,352 
 
 30,165/280 
 644,926,720 
 
 23.17 
 
 851,448 
 
 11.29 
 
144 
 
 HOW SLAVERY CAX BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 TABLE NO. XXIV. 
 
 POPULATION OF TUE FREE STATES 1850. 
 
 BUtes. 
 
 California 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts. . 
 
 Michigan 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania... 
 Rhode Island . . . 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Whites. 
 
 Free Colored. 
 
 Total 
 
 91,635 
 
 962 
 
 92,597 
 
 363,099 
 
 7,693 
 
 370,792 
 
 846.034 
 
 5,436 
 
 851,470 
 
 977,154 
 
 11,262 
 
 988,416 
 
 191,881 
 
 333 
 
 192,214 
 
 581.813 
 
 1,356 
 
 583,169 
 
 985,450 
 
 9,064 
 
 994,514 
 
 395,071 
 
 2,583 
 
 397,654 
 
 317,456 
 
 520 
 
 317,976 
 
 465,509 
 
 23,810 
 
 489,555 
 
 3,048,325 
 
 49,069 
 
 3,097,394 
 
 1,955,050 
 
 25,279 
 
 1,980,329 
 
 2,258,160 
 
 63,626 
 
 2,311,786 
 
 143,875 
 
 3,670 
 
 147,545 
 
 313,402 
 
 718 
 
 314,120 
 
 304J56 
 
 635 
 
 305.391 
 
 13,233.670 
 
 196,116 
 
 13,434,922 
 
 TABLE NO. XXV. 
 
 POPULATION OF THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina.. . 
 South Carolina... 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Whitca. 
 
 426,514 
 162,189 
 71,169 
 47,203 
 521,572 
 761,413 
 255,491 
 417,943 
 295,718 
 692,004 
 653,028 
 274,563 
 756,836 ! 
 154,034 
 894,800 
 
 6,184,477 
 
 Free 
 Colored. 
 
 Slaves. 
 
 2,265 
 
 342,844 
 
 608 
 
 47,100 
 
 18,073 
 
 2,290 
 
 932 
 
 39,310 
 
 2.931 
 
 381,622 
 
 10,011 
 
 210,981 
 
 17,462 
 
 244,809 
 
 74,723 
 
 90,368 
 
 930 
 
 309,878 
 
 2,618 
 
 87,422 
 
 27,463 
 
 288,548 
 
 8,960 
 
 384,984 
 
 6,422 
 
 239,459 
 
 397 
 
 68,161 
 
 64,333 
 
 472,528 
 
 228.138 
 
 8,200,364 
 
 Total 
 
 771,623 
 209,897 
 91,532 
 87,445 
 906,185 
 982;405 
 517,762 
 683,034 
 606,326 
 682,014 
 869,039 
 068.507 
 
 1,002,717 
 212,692 
 
 1,421.661 
 
 9,612,979 
 
now SI.AVFRY CAN BE ABOUSHED. 145 
 
 RECAPITUlJkTION — AREA. 
 
 Square Mileo. Acres. 
 
 Area of the Slave States, 851,448 544,926,720 
 
 Area of the Free States 612,597 392,062,082 
 
 Balaiwcs in faror of Slave States . . . 238,851 152,864,638 
 
 RECAPITULATION' POPULATION 1850. 
 
 Whiten. Total. 
 
 Population of the Free Statos .... 13,233,670 13,434,922 
 
 Population of the Slave State? ... 6,184,477 9,612,976 
 
 Balances in favor of the Free States 7,049,193 3,821,946 
 
 FREE COLORED AND SLAVE 1850. 
 
 Free Necrroes in the Slave States 228,138 
 
 Free Negroes in the Free States 196,116 
 
 Excess of Free Negroes in the Slave States 32,022 
 
 Slaves in the Slave States 3,200,364 
 
 Free Negix>es in tl)e Slave States 228,138 
 
 Aggregate Negro Population of the Slave States in 1850. . . 3,428,502 
 
 TH« TERRITORIES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
 
 Area in Square Miles. Population. 
 
 Indian Territory 71,127 
 
 Kansas " 114,798 
 
 MinnesoU " 166.025 G,077 
 
 Nebraska " 335,882 
 
 N. Mexico " 207,007 61,547 
 
 Oregon " 185,030 13,294 
 
 Uuh " 269,170 11,380 
 
 Washington " 123,022 
 
 Columbia, Dist. of 60 *51,687 
 
 Aggregate of Area and Population, 1,472,121 143,986 
 
 •Of th« 61,aw JnhahltJu>-# Ir the Dlatrlct of CoIumWa, In 1850, 10,067 were Freo 
 Colored, anl 3.ft^7 were ftlfc7«s 
 
1^6 HOW SLAVEKT CAN BE ABOLISHEE. 
 
 NJMBER OF SLAVEHOLDERS IN THE UNITEJ STATES 1850, 
 
 Alabama 29,295 
 
 Arkansas 5^999 
 
 Columbia, District of, 1,477 
 
 Delaware 809 
 
 Florida 3,520 
 
 Georgia 38,456 
 
 Kentucky 38,385 
 
 Louisiana 20,670 
 
 Maryland 16,040 
 
 Mississippi 23,116 
 
 Missouri 19,185 
 
 North Carolina 28,303 
 
 South Carolina 25,596 
 
 Tennessee 33,864 
 
 Texas 7,747 
 
 Yircrinia 55,0&3 
 
 Total Number of Slaveholders in the United States 347,525 
 
 CLASSIFICATION OF THE SIJLVEHOLDERS 1850. 
 
 Holders of 1 slave 6S,820 
 
 Holders of 1 and under 5 105,683 
 
 Holders of 5 and under 10 80,765 
 
 Holders of 10 and under 20 54,595 
 
 Holders of 20 and under 50 29,733 
 
 Haiders of 50 and under 100 6,19G 
 
 Holders of 100 and under 200 1,479 
 
 Holders of 200 and under 300 187 
 
 Holders of 300 and under 500 56 
 
 Holders of 500 and under 1,000 9 
 
 Holders of 1,000 an i over 2 
 
 Aggregate Number :>f Slaveholders in the United States..... 347,626 
 
HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOiISHEn. 14t 
 
 It thus appears that there arc iiitlic United States, tliree 
 hundred and forty-seven thousand five hundred and twen- 
 ty-five slaveholders. But this appearance is deceptive. 
 The actual number is certainly less than two hundred 
 thousand. Professor De Bow, the Superintendent of the 
 Census, informs us that " the number includes slave- 
 hirers," and furthermore, that " where the party owns 
 slaves in different counties, or in different States, he will 
 be entered more than once." Now every Southerner, who 
 has any practical knowledge of affairs, must know, and 
 does know, that every New Year's day, like almost evcrj 
 other day, is desecrated in the South, by publicly hiring 
 out slaves to large numbers of non-slaveholders. The 
 slave-owners, who are the exclusive manufacturers of pub 
 lie sentiment, have popularized the dictum that white ser- 
 vants, decency, virtue, and justice, are unfashionable ; and 
 there are, we are sorry to say, nearly one hundred and 
 sixty thousand non-slaveholding sj^'cophants, who have 
 subscribed to this false philosophy, and who are giving 
 constant encouragement to the infamous practices of 
 slaveholding and slave-breeding, by hiring at least one 
 slave every year. 
 
 In the Southern States, as in all other slave countries, 
 there are tliree odious classes of mankind ; the slaves 
 tliemselves, who are cowards ; the slaveholders, who are 
 tyrants ; and the non-slaveholding slave-hirers, who are 
 lickspittles. ^Vhethe^ either class is really entitled to the 
 regards of a gentleman is a matter of grave doubt. TIjo 
 slaves are pitiable ; the slaveholders are detestable ; the 
 elave-hirefs are contemptible. 
 
l48 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 With the statistics at our command, it is impossible for 
 ns to ascertain the exact numbers of slaveholders and non- 
 slaveholding slave-hirers in the slave States ; but we have 
 data whicli will enable us to approach very near to the 
 facts. The town from which we hail, Salisbury, the capi- 
 tal of Rowan county. North Carolina, contains about twen- 
 ty-three hundred inhabitants, including three hundred and 
 seventy-two slaves, fifty-one slaveholders, and forty-three 
 non-slaveholding slave-hirers. Taking it for granted that 
 this town furnishes a fair relative proportion of all the 
 slaveholders, and non-slaveholding slave-hirers in the 
 slave States, the whole number of the former, including 
 those who have been " entered more than once," is one 
 hundred and eighty-eight thousand five hundred and fifty- 
 one ; of the latter, one hundred and fifty-eight thousand 
 nine hundred and seventy-four ; and, now, estimating that 
 there are in ^taryland, Virginia, and other grain-growing 
 States, an aggregate of two thousand slave-owners, who 
 have cotton plantations slocked with negroes in the far 
 South, and who have been "entered more than once," we 
 find, as the result of our calculations, that the total num- 
 ber of actual slaveholders in the Union, is precisely one 
 hundred and eighty-six thousand five hundred and fifty- 
 one — as follows : 
 
 Number of actual slaveholders in the United States 186,551 
 
 Nuraber " entered more than once" 2,000 
 
 Number of non-slaveholding slave-hirers 158,974 
 
 Aggregate number, according to De Bow 347,525 
 
 The greater numl er of non-slaveholding slave-hirers, are 
 
now SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 149 
 
 a kind of third-rate aristocrats — persons who formerly 
 owned slaves, but whom slavory, as is its custom, has 
 dragged down to poverty, leaving them, in their false and 
 shiftless pride, to eke out a miserable existence over the 
 hapless chattels personal of other men. 
 
 So it seems that the total number of actual slave-own 
 ers, im^uding their entire crew of cringing lickspittles, 
 against whom we have to contend, is but three hundred 
 and forty-seven thousand five hundred and twenty-five. 
 Against this army for the defense and propagation of sla- 
 very, we think it will be an easy matter — independent of 
 the negroes, who, in nine cases out of ten, would be do- 
 lighted with an opportunity to cut their masters' throats, 
 and without accepting of a single recruit from either of 
 the free States, England, France or Germany — to muster 
 one at least three times as large, and far more respectable 
 for its utter extinction. We hope, however, and believe, 
 that the matter in dispute may be adjusted without array- 
 ing these armies against each other in hostile attitude. 
 We desire peace, not war — justice, not blood. Give us 
 fair-play, secure to us the right of discussion, the freedom 
 of speech, and we will settle the difEculty at the ballot- 
 box, not on the battle-ground — by force of reason, not by 
 force of arms. But we are wedded to one purpose from 
 which no earthly power can ever divorce us. We are de- 
 termined to abolish slavery at all hazards — in defiance of 
 all ihe opposition, of whatever nature, which it is possible 
 for the slavocrats to bring against us. Of this they may 
 take due notice, and govern themseh^es accordingly. 
 Before wt^ proceed further, it may be necessary to call 
 
150 now SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED, 
 
 attention to the fact that, though the ostensible proprie- 
 torship of the slaves is vested in fewer individuals than 
 we have usually counted in our calculations concerning 
 them, the force and drift of our statistics remain unim- 
 paired. In the main, all our figures are correct. The 
 tables which we have prepared, especially, and the reca- 
 pitulations of those tables, may be relied on with all the 
 confidence that is due to American official integrity ; for, 
 as we have substantially remarked on a previous occasion, 
 the particulars of which they are composed have been 
 obtained from the returns of competent census agents, 
 who, with Prof. De Bow as principal, were expressly em- 
 ployed to collect them. As for our minor labors in the 
 science of numbers, we cheerfully submit them to the can- 
 did scrutiny of the impartial critic. 
 
 A majority of the slaveholders with whom we are ac- 
 quainted — and we happen to know a few dozen more than 
 we care to know — own, or pretend to own, at least fifteen 
 negroes each ; some of them are the masters of more than 
 fifty each ; and we have had the honor (!) of an introduc- 
 tion to one man who is represented as the owner of six- 
 teen hundred ! It is said that if all the lands of this lat- 
 ter worthy were in one tract, they might be formed into 
 two counties of more than ordinary size ; he owns plan- 
 tations and woodlands in three cotton-growing States. 
 
 The quantity of land owned by the slaveholder is gene- 
 rally in proportion to the number of negroes at his ' quar- 
 ter ;" the master of only one or two slaves, if engaged in 
 aorriculture, seldom owns less than three hundred acres ; 
 the holder of eight or ten slaves usually owns from a thou- 
 
now SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 151 
 
 sand to fiftccu hundred acres ; five thousand acres are not 
 unfrcquently found in the possession of the master of fifty 
 slaves ; while in Columbia, South Carolina, about twelve 
 months ago, a certain noted slaveholder was pointed out 
 to us, and reported as the owner of nearly two hundred 
 thousand acres in the State of Mississippi. How the great 
 mass of illiterate poor whites, a majority of whom are tlie 
 indescribably wretched tenants of these slavocratic land- 
 sharks, arc specially imposed upon and socially outlawed, 
 we shall, if we have time and space, take occasion to ex- 
 plain in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 Thus far, in giving expression to our sincere and settled 
 opinions, we have endeavored to show, in the first place, 
 that slavery is a great moral, social, civil, and political 
 evil — a dire enemy to tme wealth and national greatness, 
 and an atrocious crime against both God and man ; and, 
 in the second place, that it is a paramount duty which we 
 owe to heaven, to the earth, to America, to humanity, to 
 (^)ur posterity, to our consciences, and to our pockets, to 
 adopt efiectual and judicious measures for its immediate 
 abolition. The questions now arise, IIow can the evil be 
 averted ? What are the most prudent and practical means 
 that can be devised for the abolition of slavery ? In tlio 
 solution of these problems it becomes necessary to deal 
 with a multiplicity of stubborn realities. And yet, we can 
 see no reason why North Carolina, in her sovereign capa- 
 city, may not, with equal ease and success, do what forty- 
 five other States of the world have done within the last 
 forty-five years. Xor do we believe any good reason exists 
 why Virgil ja should not perfirm as great a deed in 18n9 
 
152 BO^ SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 as did New-York in 1799. Massachusetts abolished slav- 
 ery in 1780 ; would it not be a masterly stroke of policy 
 in Tennessee, and every other slave State, to abolish it in 
 or before 1860? 
 
 Not long- since, a slavocrat, writing on this subject, said, 
 apologetically, " we frankly admit that slavery is a mon- 
 strous evil J but what are we to do with an institution 
 which has baffled the wisdom of our greatest statesmen ?^ 
 Unfortunately for the South, since the days of Washington, 
 Jefferson, Madison, and their illustrious compatriots, she 
 has never had more than half a dozen statesmen, all told ; 
 of mere politicians, wii"e-pullers, and slave-driving dema- 
 gogues, she has had enough, and to spare ; but of states- 
 men, in the true sense of the term, she has had, and now 
 has, but precious few — fewer just at this time, perhaps, 
 than ever before. It is far from a matter of sm'prise to us 
 that slavery has, for such a long period, baffled the " wis- 
 dom'^ of the oligarchy ; but our surprise is destined to cul- 
 minate in amazement, if the wisdom of the non-slaveholders 
 does not soon baffle slavery. 
 
 From the eleventh year previous to the close of the 
 eighteenth centuiy down to the present moment, slavehold- 
 ers and slave-breeders, who, to speak naked truth, are, as 
 a general thing, unfit to occupy any honorable station in 
 life, have, by chicanery and usurpation, wielded all the 
 official power of the South ; and, excepting the patriotic 
 services of the noble abolitionists above-mentioned, the sole 
 aim and drift of their legislation has been to aggrandize 
 themselves, to strengthen slavery, and to keep the poor 
 vIiit^B, the constitutional majority, bowed down in tUt* 
 
now SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISUED. 153 
 
 deepest depths of degradation. We propose to subvert 
 this entire system of olig-archal despotism. We think there 
 should be sojiu legislation for decent white men, not alone 
 for negroes and slaveholders. Slavery lies at the root of 
 all the shame, poverty, ignorance, tyranny and imbecility 
 of the South ; slavery must be thoroughly eradicated ; let 
 this be done, and a glorious future will await us. 
 
 The statesmen who are to abolish slavery in Kentucky, 
 must be mainly and independently constituted by the non- 
 slaveholders of Kentucky ; so in every other slave State. 
 Past experience has taught us the sheer folly of ever ex- 
 pecting voluntary justice from the slaveholders. Their 
 illicit intercourse with " the mother of harlots" has been 
 kept up so long, and their whole natures have, in conse- 
 quence, become so depraved, that there is scarcely a 
 spark of honor or magnanimity to be found amongst them. 
 As well might one expect to hear highwaymen clamoring 
 for a universal interdict against traveling, as to expect 
 slaveholders to pass laws for the abolition of slavery. 
 Under all the circumstances, it is the duty of the non- 
 slaveholders to mark out an independent course for them- 
 selves, to steer entirely clear of the oligarchy, and to 
 utterly contemn and ignore the many vile imstruments of 
 power, animate and inanimate, which have been so freely 
 and so effectually used for their enslavement. Now is the 
 time for them to assert their rights and liberties ; never 
 before was there such an appropriate period to strike foi 
 Freedom in the South. 
 
 Had it not been for the better sense, the purer patriot- 
 ism, and the more practical justice of the non-slaveholders, 
 
 1* 
 
154 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHEE 
 
 the Mi idle States and New England would still be groan. 
 Ing and groveling under the ponderous burden of slavery ; 
 New-Yurk would never have risen above the dishonorable 
 level of Virginia ; Pennsylvania, trampled beneath the 
 iron-heel of the black code, would have remained the un- 
 progressive parallel of Georgia ; Massachusetts would 
 have continued till the present time, and Heaven only 
 knows how much longer, the contemptible coequal of 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Succeeded by the happiest moral effects and the grand- 
 est physical results, we have seen slavery crushed be- 
 neath the wisdon of the non-slaveholding statesmen of 
 the North ; followed by corresponding influences and 
 achievements, many of us who have not yet passed the 
 meridian of life, are destined to see it equally crushed 
 beneath the wisdom of the non-slaveholding Statesmen of 
 the South. With righteous indignation, we enter our dis- 
 claimer against the base yet baseless admission that 
 Louisiana and Texas are incapable of producing as great 
 statesmen as Rhode Island and Connecticut. AVhat has 
 been done for New Jersey by the statesmen of New Jer- 
 sey, can be done for North Carolina by the statesmen of 
 North Carolina ; the wisdom of the former State has abol- 
 ished slavery ; as sure as the earth revolves on its axis, 
 the wisdom of the latter will not do less. 
 
 That our plan for the abolition of slavery, is the best 
 that can be devised, we have not the vanity to contend ; 
 but that it is a g^ od one, and will do to act upon until a 
 better shall havl been suggested, we do firmly and con- 
 pcientiously believe. Though but little skilled in the deli- 
 
now SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 155 
 
 caic art of surgcn , we have pretty thoroughly probed 
 slavery, the frightful tumor on the body politic, and have, 
 we think, ascertained the precise remedies requisite fur a 
 speedy t^ud perfect cure. Possibly the less ardent friends 
 of freedom may object to our prescription, on the ground 
 that some of its ingredients are too griping, and that it 
 u'ill cost the patient a deal of most excruciating pain. 
 But let them remember that the patient is exceedingly 
 refractory, that the case is a desperate one, and that dras- 
 tic remedies are indispensably necessary. When tlicy 
 shall have invented milder yet equally efficacious ones, 
 it will be time enough to discontinue the use of ours — 
 then no one will be readier than we to discard the infalli- 
 ble strong recipe for the infallible mild. Not at the per- 
 secution of a few thousand slaveholders, but at the resti- 
 tution of natural rights and prerogatives to several mil- 
 lions of non-slaveholders, do we aim. 
 
 Inscribed on the banner, which we herewith unfurl to 
 the world, with the full and fixed determination to stand 
 by it or die by it, unless one of more virtuous efficacy shall 
 1)6 presented, are the mottoes which, in substance, embody 
 the principles, as we conceive, that should govern us in 
 our patriotic warfare against the most subtle and insiv li- 
 ons foe that ever menaced the inalienable rights and liber- 
 ties and dearest interests of America : 
 1st. Thorough Organization and Independent Political 
 
 Action on the part of the Non-Slaveholding whites of 
 
 the South. 
 2nd. Ineligibility of Slaveholders — Never another vote to 
 
 the Trafficker in Human Flesh. 
 
1^6 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 3rd. No Co-operation with Slaveholders in Politics — No 
 Fellowship with them in Religion — No Affiliation with 
 them in Society. 
 
 4th. No Patronage to Slaveholding Merchants — No Guest- 
 ship in Slave-waiting Hotels — No Fees to Slaveholding 
 Lawyers — No Employment of Slaveholding Physicians 
 — No Audience to Slaveholding Parsons. 
 
 6th. No Recognition of Pro-slavery Men, except as Ruf- 
 fians, Outlaws, and Criminals. 
 
 6th. Abrupt Discontinuance of Subscription to Pro-slavery 
 Newspapers. 
 
 7th. The Greatest Possible Encouragement to Free White 
 Labor. 
 
 8. No more Hiring of Slaves by Non-slaveholders. 
 
 9th. Immediate Death to Slavery, or if not immediate, 
 unqualified Proscription of its Advocates during the Pe- 
 riod of its Existence. 
 
 10th. A Tax of Sixty Dollars on every Slaveholder for each 
 and every Negro in his Possession at the present time, 
 or at any intermediate time between now and the 4 th 
 of July, 1863 — said Money to be Applied to the trans- 
 portation of the Blacks to Liberia, to their Colonization 
 in Central or South America, or to their Comfortable 
 Settlement within the Boundaries of the United States. 
 
 nth. An additional Tax of Forty Dollars per annum to be 
 levied annually, on every Slaveholder for each and every 
 Negro found in his possession after the 4th of July, 
 1863 — said Money to be paid into the hands of the Ne- 
 groes so held in Slavery, or, in cases of death, to their 
 nejt of kin, and to be used by them at their own option. 
 
HOW SLAVERY C^N BE ABOLISHED. 161 
 
 This, then, is the outline of our scheme for the abolition 
 of slavery in the Southern States. Let it be acted upon 
 with due promptitude, and, as certain as trutli is mightier 
 than error, fifteen years will not elapse before every foot 
 of territory, from the mouth of the Delaware to the embo<j- 
 uing of the Rio Grande, will glitter with the jewels of 
 freedom. Some time during this year, next, or the year 
 following, let there be a general convention of non-slave- 
 holders from every slave State in the Union, to deliberate 
 on the momentous issues now pending. First, let them 
 adopt measures for holding in restraint the diabolical ex- 
 cesses of the oligarchy ; secondly, in order to cast off the 
 thraldom which the infamous slave-power has fastened 
 upon them, and, as the first step necessary to be taken to 
 regain the inalienable rights and liberties with which they 
 were invested by Nature, but of which they have been 
 divested by the accursed dealers in human flesh, let them 
 devise v^ays and means for the complete annihilation of 
 slavery ; thirdly, let them put forth an equitable and com- 
 prehensive platform, fully defining their position, and ih- 
 viting the active sympathy and co-operatiou of the mil- 
 lions of down-trodden non-slaveholders throughout the 
 Southern and Southwestern States. Let all these things 
 be done, not too hastily, but with calmness, deliberation, 
 prudence, and circumspection ; if need be, let the dele- 
 gates to the convention continue in session one or two 
 weeks ; only let their labors be wisely and thoroughly per- 
 lormed ; let them, on Wednesday morning, present to the 
 poor whites of the South, a well-digested scheme for the 
 recJaraatiol of their ancient rights and prerogatives, and, 
 
158 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOHSHED. 
 
 on the Thursday following, slaA^ery in the United States will 
 be worth absolutely less than nothing ; for then, besides be- 
 ing so vile and precarious that nobody will want it, it will 
 »e a lasting reproach to those in whose hands it is lodged. 
 Were it not that other phases of the subject admonish 
 as to be economical of space, we could suggest more than 
 a dozen different plans, either of which, if scrupulously 
 carried out, would lead to a wholesome, speedy, and per- 
 fect termination of slavery. Under all the circumstances, 
 however, it might be difiScult for us — perhaps it would 
 not be the easiest thing in the world for any body else — 
 to suggest a better plan than the one above. Let it, or 
 one embodying its principal features, be adopted forth 
 with, and the last wail of slavery will soon be heard, 
 growing fainter and fainter, till it dies utterly away, to be 
 succeeded by the jubilant shouts of emancipated millions. 
 Henceforth, let it be distinctly understood that ownership 
 in slaves constitutes ineligibility — that it is a crime, as 
 we verily believe it is, to vote for a slavocrat for any office 
 whatever. Indeed, it is our honest conviction that all the 
 pro-slavery slaveholders, who are alone responsible for the 
 continuance of the baneful institution among us, deserve 
 to be at once reduced to a parallel with the basest criminals 
 that lie fettered within the cells of our public prisons. 
 Beyond the power of computation is the extent of the moral, 
 social, civil, and political evils which they have brought, 
 and are still bringing, on the country. Were it possible 
 that the whole number could be gathered together and 
 transformed into four equal gangs of licensed robbers, ruf- 
 fip-ns, thieves, and niurdc^'crs, a ^ciety, we feel assured, 
 
HOW SUiVERY CAN BE ABOUSHED. 159 
 
 would sufTor less from t icir atrocities then than it docs 
 now. Let ihe wholesome public sentiment of the non- 
 slaveholders be vigilant and persevering in bringing them 
 down to their proper level. Long since, and in the most 
 unjust and cruel manner, have they socially outlawed the 
 non-slaveholders ; now security against further oppression, 
 and indemnity for past grievances, make it incumbent on 
 tlie non-slaveholders to cast them into the identical pit 
 that they dug for their betters — thus teaching them how to 
 catch a Tartar I 
 
 At the very moment we write, as has been the case ever 
 since the United States have had a distinct national exist- 
 ence, and as will always continue to be the case, unless 
 right triumphs over wrong, all the civil, political, and other 
 offices, within the gift of the South, are filled with no<^ro- 
 nursed incumbents from the ranks of that execrable band 
 of misanthropes — three hundred and forty-seven thousand 
 in number — who, for the most part, obtain their living by 
 breeding, buying and selling slaves. The magistrates in 
 the villages, the constables in the districts, the commis- 
 sioners of the towns, the mayors of the cities, the sherifls 
 of the counties, the judges of the various courts, the mem- 
 bers of the legislatures, the governors of the States, the 
 representatives and senators in Congress — are all slave- 
 holders. Nor does the catalogue of their usurpations end 
 here. Through the most heart-sickening arrogance and 
 bribery, they have obtained control of the General Govern- 
 ment, and all the consuls, ambassadors, envoys extraordi- 
 nary and ministers plenipotentiary, who are chosen from 
 tlie South, and commissioned to foreign countries, aro 
 
160 HOW SLiVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 selected with special reference to the purity of their pro 
 slavery antecedents. If credentials have ever been issued 
 to a single non-slaveholder of the South, we are ignorant 
 of both the fact and the hearsay ; indeed, it would be very 
 strange if this much abused class of persons were permit- 
 ted to hold important offices abroad, when they are not 
 allowed to hold unimportant ones at home. 
 
 And, then, there is the Presidency of the United States, 
 which office has been held forty-eight years by slaveholders 
 from the South, and only twenty years by non-slaveholders 
 from the North. Nor is this the full record of oligarchal 
 obtrusion. On an average, the offices of Secretary of 
 State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of the Interior, 
 Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of War, Postmaster-Gen- 
 eral and Attorney-General, have been under the control of 
 slave-drivers nearly two-thirds of the time. The Chief Jus- 
 tices and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, the Presidents pro tem. of the Senate, 
 and the Speakers of the House of Representatives, have, 
 in a large majority of instances, been slave-breeders from 
 the Southern side of the Potomac. Five slaveholding Pres- 
 idents have been reelected to the chief magistracy of the 
 Republic, while no non-slaveholder has ever held the office 
 more than a single term. Thus we see plainly that even 
 the non-slaveholders of the North, to whose freedom, en- 
 ergy, enterprise, intelligence, wealth, population, power, 
 progress, and prosperity, our country is almost exclusively 
 indebted for its high position among the nations of the 
 earth, have been arrogantly denied a due participation in 
 the honorp of federa j'ffice. When " the sum of all villain- 
 
HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOUSHED. 161 
 
 ies'' shall have ceased to exist, then the rights of the non- 
 slaveholders of the North, of the South, of the East, and of 
 the West, will be duly recognized and respected ; not before. 
 
 With all our heart, we hope and believe it is the full 
 and fixed determination of a majority of the more intelli- 
 gent and patriotic citizens of this Republic, that the Pres- 
 idential chair shall never again be filled by a slavocrat. 
 Safely may we conclude that the doom of the oligarchy is 
 already sealed with respect to that important and dignified 
 station ; it now behooves us to resolve, with equal firm- 
 ness and effect, that, after a certain period during the next 
 decade of years, no slaveholder shall occupy any position 
 in the Cabinet, that no slave-breeder shall be sent as a di- 
 plomatist to any foreign country, that no slave-driver shall 
 be permitted to bring further disgrace on either the Senate 
 or the House of Representatives, that the chief justices, 
 associate justices, and judges of the several courts, the 
 governors of the States, the members of the legislatures, 
 and all the minor functionaries of the land, shall be freo 
 from the heinous crime of ownership in man. 
 
 For the last sixty-eight years, slaveholders have been 
 the sole and constant representatives of the South, and 
 what have they accomplished ? It requires but little tirao 
 and few words, to tell the story of their indiscreet and 
 unhallowed performances. In fact, with what we have 
 already said, gestures alone would suffice to answer the 
 inquiry. We can make neither a more truthful nor em- 
 phatic reply than to point to our thinly inhabited States, 
 to our fields despoiled of their virgin soil, to the despicable 
 price o/ lands^ to our unvisited cities and towns, to our 
 
162 now SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 vacant harbors and idle water-power, to the dreary ab- 
 sence of shipping and manufactories, to our unpensioned 
 soldiers of the revolution, to the millions of living monu- 
 ments of ignorance, to the poverty of the whites, and to 
 the wretchedness of the blacks. 
 
 Either directly or indirectly, are slave-driving dema- 
 gogues, who have ostentatiously set up pretensions to 
 statesmanship, responsible for every dishonorable weak- 
 ness and inequality that exists between the North and the 
 South. Let them shirk the responsibility if they can ; but 
 it is morally impossible for them to do so. We know 
 how ready they have always been to cite the numerical 
 strength of the North, as a valid excuse for their inability 
 to procure appropriations from the General Government, 
 for purposes of internal improvement, for the establish- 
 ment of lines of ocean steamers to South American and 
 European ports, and for the accomplishment of othe/ ob- 
 jects. Before that apology ever escapes from their lips 
 again, let them remember that the numerical weakness of 
 the South is wholly attributable to their own villainous 
 statism. Had the Southern States, in accordance with 
 the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, abolished slavery at the same time the Nortliern 
 States abolished it, there would have been, long since, 
 and most assuredly at this moment, a larger, wealthier, 
 wiser, and more powerful population, south of Mason and 
 Dixon's line, than there now is north of it. This fact be- 
 ing so well established that no reasonable man denies it, 
 it is evident that the oligarchy will have to devise an- 
 other subterfuge for even temporary relief. 
 
now SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 163 
 
 Until slavery and si weliol Jcis cease to be the only 
 favored objects of IcgisVation in the South, the North will 
 continue to maintain the ascendency in every important 
 particular. With those loathsome objects out of the way, 
 it would not take the non-slaveholders of the South more 
 than a quarter of a century to bring her up, in all re- 
 Bpccts, to a glorious equality with the Xorth ; nor would 
 it take them much longer to surpass the latter, which is 
 the most vigorous and honorable rival that they have in 
 the world. Three quarters of a century hence, if slavery 
 is abolished within the next ten years, as it ought to be, 
 the South will, we believe, be as much greater than the 
 North, as the North is now greater than the South. Three 
 quarters of a century hence, if the South retains slavery, 
 which God forbid ! she will be to the North much the 
 same that Poland is to Russia, that Cuba is to Spain, or 
 that Ireland is to England. 
 
 AVliat we want and must have, as the only sure means 
 of attaining to a position worthy of Sovereign States in 
 this eminently progressive and utilitarian age, is an ener- 
 getic, intelligent, enterprising, virtuous, and unshackled 
 population ; an untrammelcd press, and the Freedom of 
 Speech. For ourselves, as white people, and for the ne 
 groes and other persons of whatever color or condition, 
 we demand all the rights, interests and prerogatives, that 
 are cruarantiod to corresponding classes of mankind in the 
 North, in England, in France, in Germany, or in any other 
 civilized and enlightened country. Any proposition that 
 may be offered co iceding less than this demand, will be 
 prompth and dis aiufully rejected. 
 
164 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOUSHED. 
 
 Speaking of the non-slaveh elders of the South, George 
 M. Weston, a zealous co-laboi er in the cause of Freedom, 
 says : — 
 
 '• The non-slaveholdhig whites of the South, being not less 
 than seven-tenths of the whole number of whites, would seem 
 to be entitled to some enquiry into their actual condition; and 
 especially, as they have no real political weight or consideration 
 in the country, and little opportunity to speak for themselves. 
 I have been for twenty years a reader of Southern newspapers, 
 and a reader and hearer of Congressional debates ; but, in all 
 that time, I do not recollect ever to have seen or heard these 
 non-slaveholding whites referred to by Southern ' gentlemen,' as 
 constituting any part of what they call ' the South? "When the 
 rights of the South, or its wrongs, or its policy, or its interests, 
 or its institutions, are spoken of, reference is always intended to 
 the rights, wrongs, policy, interests, and institutions of the three 
 hundred and forty-seven thousand slaveholders. Nobody gets 
 into Congress from the South but by their direction ; nobody 
 speaks at "Washington for any Southern interest except theirs. 
 Yet there is, at the South, quite another interest than theirs ; 
 embracing from two to three times as many white people ; and, 
 as we shall presently see, entitled to the deepest sympathy and 
 commiseration, in view of the material, intellectual, and moral 
 privations to which it has been subjected, the degradation to 
 which it has already been reduced, and the still more fearful 
 degradation with which it is threatened by the inevitable opera- 
 tion of existing causes and influences." 
 
 The following extract, from a paper on " Domestic 
 Manufactures in the South and West," published by M. 
 Tarver, of Missouri, may be appropriately introduced in 
 this connection : — 
 
 " The non-slaveholders possess, generally, but very small means, 
 and the land which they possess is almost universally poor, and 
 60 sterile that a scanty subsistence is all that can be derived from 
 
now SIJkVF.RY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 165 
 
 its cultivation ; and the more fertile soil, beinj; in the pcesession 
 of the slavelioUlers, must ever remain out of the power of those 
 who have none. This state of things is a great drawback, and 
 bears heavily upon and depresses the moral energies of the 
 poorer classes. The acquisition of a respectable position in the 
 scale of wealth appears so difficult, that they decline the hopeless 
 pursuit, and many of them settle down into habits of idleness, and 
 become the almost passive subjects of all its consequences. And 
 I lament to say that I have observed of late years, that an evi- 
 dent deterioration is taking place in this part of the population, 
 the younger portion of it being less educated, less industrious, 
 and in every point of view less respectable than their ancestors.'- 
 
 Equally worthy of attention is the testimony of Gov. 
 Hammond, of South Carolina, who says : — 
 
 " According to the best calculation, which, in the absence of 
 statistic facts, can be made, it is believed, that of the three hun- 
 dred thousand white inhabitants of South Carolina, there are not 
 less than fifty thousand whose industry, such as it is, and com- 
 pensf.ted as it is, is not, in the present condition of things, and 
 does not promise to be hereafter, adequate to procure them, 
 honestly, such a support as every white person is, and feels him- 
 self entitled to. And this, next to emigration, is, perhaps, the 
 heaviest of the weights that press upon the springs of our pros- 
 perity. Most of these now follow agricultural pursuits, in fee- 
 ble, yet injurious competition with slave labor. Some, perhaps, 
 not more from inclination, than from the want of due encourage- 
 ment, can scarcely be said to work at all. They obtain a preca- 
 rious subsistence, by occasional jobs, by hunting, by fishing, 
 sometimes by plundering fields or folds, and too often by what is, 
 in its effects, far worse — trading with slaves, and seducing them 
 to plunder for their benefit." 
 
 Conjoined with the sundry plain straightforward facts 
 whir h have issuei*. from our own pen, these extracts show 
 con usively that immediate and independent political 
 
166 HOW SLAVERY .AN LE ABOUSHED. 
 
 action on the part of the non-slaveholding whites of the 
 South, is, with them, a matter, not only of positive duty, 
 but also of the utmost importance. As yet, it is in their 
 power to rescue the South from the gulf of shame and 
 guilt, into which slavery has plunged her ; but if they do 
 not soon arouse themselves from their apathy, this power 
 will be wrenched from them, and then, unable to resist the 
 strong arm of the oppressor, they will be completely de- 
 graded to a social and political level with the negroes, 
 whose condition of servitude will, in the meantime, be- 
 come far more abject and forlorn than it is now. 
 
 Tn addition to the reasons which we have already as- 
 signed why no slavocrat should, in the future, be elected 
 to any office whatever, there are others that deserve to be 
 carefully considered. Among these may be mentioned the 
 illbreeding and the ruffianism of slaveholding officials. 
 Tedious indeed would be the task to enumerate all the 
 homicides, duels, assaults and batteries, and other crimes, 
 of which they are the authors in the course of a single 
 year. To the general reader their career at the seat of 
 government is well known ; there, on frequent occasions, 
 choking with rage at seeing their wretched sophistries 
 scattered to the winds by the sound, logical reasoning of 
 the champions of Freedom, they have overstepped the 
 bounds of common decency, vacated the chair of honora- 
 ble controversy, and, in the most brutal and cowardly 
 manner, assailed their unarmed opponents with bludgeons, 
 bowie knives and pistols. Compared with some of their 
 barbarism? it home, however, their frenzied onslaughts at 
 tlie national C-^^ital have been but the simplest breaches 
 
HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 161 
 
 ol civil deportment ; and it is only for tlie purpose of 
 a^oidin^ personalities that we now refrain from divulging 
 a few instances of the unparalleled atrocities wliich they 
 have perpetrated in legislative halls South of the Poto- 
 mac. Nor is it alone in the national and State legisla- 
 tures that they substitute brute force for genteel behavior 
 and acuteness of intellect. Neither court-houses nor pub- 
 lic streets, hotels nor private dwellings, rum-holes nor 
 law-offices, are held sacred from their murderous conflicts. 
 About certain silly abstractions that no practical business 
 man ever allows to occupy his time or attention, they are 
 eternally wrangling ; and thus it is that rencounters, 
 duels, homicides, and other demonstrations of personal 
 violence, have become so popular in all slaveholding com- 
 munities. A few years of entire freedom from the cares 
 and perplexities of public life, would, we have no doubt, 
 greatly improve both their manners and their morals ; and 
 we suggest that it is a Christian duty, which devolves on 
 the non-slaveholders of the South, to disrobe them of the 
 mantle of office, which they have so long worn with dis- 
 grace to themselves, injustice to their constituents, and 
 ruin to their country. 
 
 But what shall we say of such men as Botts, Stuart, and 
 Macfarland of Virginia ; of Raj-nor, Morehead, Miller, 
 Stanly, Graves, and Graham of North Carolina ; of Davis 
 and Hoffman of Maryland ; of Blair and Benton of Mis- 
 souri ; of the Marshalls of Kentucky ; and of Etheridge of 
 Tennessee ? All these gentlemen, and many others of the 
 same school, entertain, we believe, sentiments similar to 
 those that were entertained by tiie immortal Fathers of the 
 
168 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 Republic — that slavery is a great moral, social, civil, and 
 political evil, to be got rid of at the earliest practical pe- 
 riod — and if they do, in order to secure our votes, it is only 
 necessary for them to " have the courage of their opinions," 
 to renounce slavery, and to come out frankly, fairly anJ 
 squarely, in favor of freedom. To neither of these patri- 
 otic sons of the South, nor to any one of the class to which 
 they belong, would we give any offence whatever. In our 
 strictures on the criminality of pro-slavery demagogues 
 we have had heretofore, and shall have hereafter, no sort 
 of reference to any respectable slaveholder — by which we 
 mean, any slaveholder who admits the injustice and inhu- 
 manity of slavery, and who is not averse to the discussion 
 of measures for its speedy and total extinction. Such 
 slaveholders are virtually on our side, that is, on the side 
 of the non-slaveholding whites, with whom they may very 
 properly be classified. On this point, once for all, we desire 
 to be distinctly understood ; for it would be manifestly un- 
 just not to discriminate between the anti-slavery proprie- 
 tor who owns slaves by the law of entailment, and the pro- 
 slavery proprietor who engages in the traffic and becomes 
 an aider and abettor of the institution from sheer turpitude 
 of heart ; hence the propriety of this special disclaimer. 
 
 If we have a correct understanding of the positions 
 which they assumed, some of the gentlemen whose names 
 are written above, gave, during the last presidential cam- 
 paign, ample evidence of their unswerving devotion to the 
 interests of the great majority of the people, the non-slave- 
 holding whites ; and it is our unbiassed opinion that a 
 more positive truth is no where recorded in Holy Writ, 
 
now SLAVERY CAN" DE ABOLISHED. 169 
 
 than Kenneth Raynor uttered, when he said, in substance, 
 that the greatest good that conld happen to this country 
 would be the complete overthrow of sUive-driving democ- 
 racy, alias the nigger party, which has for its head and 
 front the Ritchies and Wises of Virginia, and for its caudal 
 termination the Butlers and Quatlebums of South Carolina. 
 
 And this, by the way, is a fit occasion to call attention 
 to the fact, that slave-driving Democrats have been the 
 perpetrators of almost every brutal outrage that ever dis- 
 graced our halls of legislation. Of countless instances of 
 assault and battery, affrays, and fatal rencounters, that 
 have occurred in the court-houses, capitols, and other pub- 
 lic buildings in the Southern States, we feel safe in say- 
 ir.g that the aggressor, in at least nine cases out of ten, 
 has been a negro-nursed adherent of modern, miscalled 
 democracy. So, too, the challenger to almost every duel 
 has been an abandoned wretch, who, on many occasions 
 during infancy, sucked in the corrupt milk of slavery from 
 the breasts of his father's sable concubines, and who has 
 never been known to become weary of boasting of a fact 
 that invariably impressed itself on the minds of his audi- 
 tors or observers, the very first moment they laid their 
 eyes upon him, namely, that he was a member of the Dem- 
 ocratic party. Brute violence, however, can hardl}^ be 
 said to be the worst characteristic of the slave-driving 
 Democrat ; his ignorance and squalidity arc proverbial ; 
 his senseless enthusiasm is disgusting. 
 
 Peculiarly illustrative of the material of which sham dem- 
 ocracy is composed was the vote polled at the P'ive Points 
 
 pricinct, in the city of New-York, on the 4th of November, 
 
 8 
 
ITO HOW SLAVERY CAX BE ABOLIStllD. 
 
 18" 6, when James Buchanan was chosen President by a 
 min,0TUv of the people. We will produce the dgv. js : 
 
 Five Points Prec: ict, New- York City, 1856. 
 
 Votes cast for James Buchanan ^ 574 
 
 " " John C. Fremont 16 
 
 " " Millard Fillmore 9 
 
 It will be recollected that Col. Fremont's majority over 
 Buchanan, in the State of New-York, was between seven- 
 ty-eight and seventy-nine thousand, and that he ran ahead 
 of the Fillmore ticket to the number of nearly one hundred 
 and fifty-one thousand. "We have not the shadow of a 
 doubt that he is perfectly satisfied with Mr. Buchanan's 
 triumph at the Five Points, which, with the exception of 
 the slave-pens in Southern cities, is, perhaps, the most vile 
 and heart-sickening locality in the United States. 
 
 One of the most noticeable and commendable features 
 of the last general election is this : almost every State, 
 whose inhabitants have enjoyed the advantages of free 
 soH, free labor, free speech, free presses, and free schools, 
 ani who have, in consequence, become great in numbers, 
 in virtue, in wealth, and in wisdom, voted for Fremont, 
 the Republican candidate, who was pledged to use his 
 inJuence for the extension of like advantages to other 
 parts of the country. On the oilier hand, with a single 
 honorable exception, all the Statos which "have got to 
 hating everj^thing with the prefix Free, from free negroes 
 down and up through the whole catalogue — free farms 
 free labor, free society, free will, free thinking, free chil 
 dren, and free schools," and which have exposed their cit 
 i^'ens to all the po ils of numerical weakness, absolute ig 
 
now SLAVERY CAX BE ADOLISnO. Itl 
 
 norancc, and hopeless poverty, voted for Buchanan, the 
 Den ocratic candidate, who, in reply to the overtures of 
 his slave-driving partisans, had signified his willingness 
 to pursue a policy that would perpetuate and disseminate, 
 without limit, the multitudinous evils of human bondage 
 Led on by a huckstering politician, whose chief voca 
 tion, at all times, is the rallying of ragamuffins, shoulder 
 strikers, and liquor-house vagabonds, into the ranks of hi^-. 
 party, and who, it is well known, receives from the agents 
 of the slave power, regular installments of money for this 
 'fifamous purpose, a Democratic procession, exceedingly 
 "lotley and unrefined, marched through the streets of one 
 )f the great cities of the Xorth, little less than a fortnight 
 previous to the election of Mr. Buchanan to the Presi- 
 dency ; and the occasion gave rise, on the following day, 
 to a communication in one of the morning papers, from 
 which we make the following pertinent extract : 
 
 '• "While the Democratic procession was passing tlirough the 
 sireets of this city, a few days since. I couhl not but think how 
 significant the exultation of that ignorant multitude was of the 
 ferocious triumphs which would be displayed if ever false Dem- 
 ocracy should succeed in throwing the whole power of the coun- 
 try into the hands of the Slave Oligarchy. It is melancholy to 
 think that every individual in that multitude, ignorant and de- 
 praved though he may be, foreign perhaps in his birth, and utterly 
 unacquainted with the principles upon which the welfare of the 
 country depends, and hostile it may be to those principles, if he 
 does understand them, is equal in the power which he may exer- 
 cise by his vote to the most intelligent and upright man in tne 
 community. 
 
 "Of this, indeed, it is useless to complain. AVe enjoy our 
 freedom with th> contingency vf its loss by the acts of a numeri- 
 cal njajority. I behooves all men, therefore, who have a regard 
 
112 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 to the common good, to look carefully at the influences "which 
 ma}' pervert the popular mind ; and this, I think, can only be 
 done by guarding against the corruption of individual character. 
 A man who has nothing but political business to attend to — I 
 mean the management of elections — ought to be shunned by all 
 honest men. If it were possible, he should have the mark of Cain 
 put upon him, that he might be known as a plotter against the 
 welfare of his country." 
 
 That less than three per cent, of those who voted for Col. 
 Fremont, that only about Jive per cent, of those who gave 
 their suffrages to Mr. Fillmore, and that more than eighteen 
 per cent, of those who supported Mr. Buchanan, were per- 
 sons over one and twenty years of age who could not read 
 and write, are estimates which we have no doubt are not 
 far from the truth, and which, in the absence of reliable 
 statistics, we venture to give, hoping, by their publicity, 
 to draw closer attention to the fact, that the illiterate for- 
 eigners of the North, and the unlettered natives of the 
 South, were cordially united in their suicidal adherence to 
 the Nigger party. With few exceptions, all the intelligent 
 non-slaveholders of the South, in concert with the more 
 respectable slaveholders, voted for Mr. Fillmore ; certain 
 rigidly patriotic persons of the former class, whose hearts 
 were so entirely with the gallant Fremont that they refused 
 to vote at all — simply because they did not dare to express 
 their preference for him — form the exceptions to which we 
 allude. 
 
 Though the Whig, Democratic, and Know-Nothing news- 
 papers, in all the States, free and slave, denounced Col. 
 Fremont as an intolerant Catholic, it is now generally con- 
 ceded t lat be was nowhere supported by the peculiai 
 
now Sl.AVFRY CAN' RE AnOLISITED. 173 
 
 friends of Pope Pius IX. The votes polled at l Ic Fivo 
 Points jrccinct, which is almost exclusively inhabited by 
 low Irish Catholics, show how powerfully the Jesuitical 
 intluence was '.»rou«jht to bear against him. At that de- 
 lectable local ty, as wc have already shown, the timid 
 Sage of ^Mieatland received fivo hundred and seventy- four 
 votes ; whereas the dauntless Finder of Empire received 
 only sixteen. 
 
 True to their instincts for Freedom, the Germans, gene- 
 rally, voted the right ticket, and they will do it again, and 
 continue to do it. With the intelligent Protestant element 
 of the Fatherland on our side, wc can well afford to dis- 
 pense with the ignorant Catholic clement of the Emerald 
 Isle. In the influences which they exert on society, there 
 is so little difference between Slavery, Popery-, and Xegro- 
 driving Democracy, that we are not at all surprised to sec 
 them going hand in hand in their diabolical works of inhu- 
 manity and desolation. 
 
 There is, indeed, no lack of evidence to show that the 
 Democratic party of to-day is simply and unreservedly a 
 sectional Nigger party. On the loth of December, 1856, 
 but a few weeks subsequent to the appearance of a scan- 
 dalous message from an infamous governor of South Caro- 
 lina, recommending the reopening of the African slave 
 trade, Emerson Etheridgc of Tennessee — honor to his 
 name ! — submitted, in the House of Pepresentatives, the 
 following timely resolution : — 
 
 " Resolved, That this House regard all suggestions or proposi- 
 tions of every kind, by whomsoever made, for a revival of the 
 slave traie, as shocking to the moral sentiments of the enlightened 
 
74 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 portion of mankind, and that any act on the part of Congress, 
 legislating for, conniving at, or legalizing that horrid and inhuman 
 traffic, would justly subject the United States to the reproach and 
 execration of all civilized and Christian people throughout the 
 world." 
 
 Who voted for this resolution ? and who voted against 
 it ? Let the yeas and nays answer ; they are on record, 
 and he who takes the trouble to examine them will find 
 that the resolution encountered no opposition worth men- 
 tioning, except from members of the Democratic party. 
 Scrutinize the yeas and nays on any other motion or reso- 
 lution affecting the question of slavery, and the fact that 
 a majority of the members of this party have uniformly 
 voted for the retention and extension of the "sum of all 
 villanies/' will at once be apparent. 
 
 For many years the slave-driving Democrats of the South 
 have labored most strenuously, both by day and by night 
 — we regret to say how unsuccessfully — to point out abo- 
 lition proclivities in the Whig and Know-Nothing parties, 
 the latter of which is now buried, and deservedly, so deep 
 in the depths of the dead, that it is quite preposterous to 
 suppose it will ever see the light of resurrection. 
 
 For its ti^ckling concessions to the slave power, the 
 Whig party merited defeat, and defeated it was, and that, 
 too, in the most decisive and overwhelming manner. But 
 there is yet in this party much vitality, and if its friends 
 will reorganize, detach themselves from the burden of 
 slavery, espouse the cause of the white man, and hoist the 
 fair flag of freedom, the time may come, at a day by no 
 means remote, when their hearts will exult in triumph 
 over the ruins of miscalled Democracy. 
 
now SIJVVKRY CAN' DE ABOLISHED. 175 
 
 U IS not too late, however, for the Democratic party to 
 B\ jure to itsch" a pur*? renown ami au almost cci'tain per- 
 petuation of its power. Let it at once discard the worship 
 of slavery, and do cari-cst battle for the principles of free- 
 dom, and it will live victoriously to a period far in the 
 future. On the other hand, if it does not soon repudiate 
 the fatal heresies which it has incorporated into its creed, 
 its doom will be inevitable. Until the black flag entirely 
 disappears from its array, we warn the non-slaveholders 
 of the South to repulse and keep it at a distance, as they 
 would the emblazoned skull and cross-bones that flout 
 them from the flag of the pirate. 
 
 With regard to the sophistical reasoning which teaches 
 that abolitionists, before abolishing slavery, should com- 
 pensate the slaveholders for all or any number of the ne- 
 groes in their possession, we have, perhaps, said quite 
 enough ; but wishing to brace our arguments, in every im- 
 portant particular, with unequivocal testimony from men 
 whom we are accustomed to regard as models of political 
 sagacity and integrity — from Southern men as far as pos- 
 sible — we herewith present an extract from a speech de- 
 livered in the Virginia House of Delegates, January 20, 
 1832, by Charles James Faulkner, whose sentiments, as 
 then and there expressed, can hardly fail to find a re- 
 sponse in the heart of every intelligent, upright man : — 
 
 •• But, Sir, it is said that society havinp; conferred tliis property 
 on the slaveholder, it cannot now take it from liim without an 
 adequate compensation, by which is meant full value. I may be 
 singular in the opinion, but I defy the legal research of the House 
 to poinfc me to a principle recognized by the aw, even in the or- 
 dina'-y course of it* adjudicat'ons, where the community pays 
 
ItG HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOUSHED. 
 
 for J ropertj which is removed or destroyed because t is a nui- 
 sance, and found injurious to that societ3\ There is, I humbly 
 apprehend, no such principle. There is no obligation upon 
 society to continue your right one moment after it becomes in- 
 jurious to the best interests of society ; nor to compensate you 
 for the loss of that, the deprivation of which is demanded by 
 the safety of the State, and in which general benefit you partici- 
 pate as members of the community. Sir, there is to my mind a 
 manifest distinction between condemning private property to be 
 applied to some beneficial public purpose, and condemning or re- 
 moving private property which is ascertained to be a positive 
 wrong to society. It is a distinction which pervades the whole 
 genius of the law ; and is founded upon the idea, that an}" man 
 who holds property injurious to the peace of that society of 
 which he is a member, thereby violates the condition upoa the 
 observance of which his right to the property is alone guaran- 
 tied. For property of the first class condemned, there ought to 
 be compensation ; but for property of the latter class, none can 
 be demanded upon principle, none accorded as matter of right. 
 
 '•' It is conceded that, at this precise moment of our legislation, 
 slaves are injurious to the interests and threaten the subversion 
 and niin of this Commonwealth. Their present number, their 
 increasing number, all admonish us of this. In different terms, 
 and in more measured language, the same fact has bean conceded 
 by all who have yet addressed this House. ^ Something must be 
 done.J emphatically exclaimed the gentleman from Dinwiddie ; 
 and I thought I could perceive a response to that declaration, in 
 the countenance of a large majority of this body. And why must 
 something be done ? Because if not, sa3"s the gentleman from 
 Campbell, the throats of all the white people of Virginia will be 
 cut. No, says the gentleman from Dinwiddie — ' The whites can- 
 not be conquered — the throats of the hlacka wili be cut.' It is a 
 trifling difference, to be sure. Sir, and matters not to the argu- 
 ment. For the fact is conceded, that one race or the other must 
 be exterminated. 
 
 '"Sir, such being the actual condition of this Commonwealth, 
 I ask if W3 would not be justified now, supposing all considera- 
 tions of po icy and hurt.anity concurred without e"^,n a moment's 
 
HOW SL-WFRY CAN BE AROLI^;ITE^. HT 
 
 del IV, in staving ofT this appalling and ovcrwlielniing calamity ? 
 Sir, if this iinnK-nsc negro population wore now in amis, gather- 
 ing into black and formidable masses of attack, would that man 
 be listened to, who spoke about property, who prayed you not 
 to direct your artillery to such or such a point, for you would dc 
 stroy some of hitf property? Sir, to the eye of the Statesman, 
 as to the eye of Omniscience, dangers pressing, and dangers that 
 must riccessurili/ press, are alike present. AVith a single glance 
 he embraces Virginia now, with the elements of destruction re- 
 posing quietly upon her bosom, and Virginia is lighted from one 
 extremity to the other with the torch of servile insurrection and 
 massacre. It is not sufficient for him that the match is not yet 
 a^nplied. It is enough that the magazine is open, and the match 
 will shortly be applied. 
 
 '•Sir, it is true in national as it is in private contracts, that loss 
 and injury to one party may constitute as fair a consideration as 
 gain to the other. Does the slaveholder, while he is enjoying 
 his slaves, reflect upon the deep injury and incalculable loss 
 which the possession of that property inflicts upon the true in- 
 terests of the country ? Slavery, it is admitted, is an evil — it is 
 an institution which presses heavily against the best interests of 
 the State. It banishes free white labor, it exterminates the me- 
 chanic, the artisan, the manufacturer. It deprives them of occu- 
 pation. It deprives them of bread. It converts the energy of a 
 community into indolence, its power into imbecility, itscCQciency 
 into weakness. Sir, being tlius injurious, have we not a right to 
 demand its extermination? shall society suffer, that the slave- 
 holder may continue to gather his crop of human flesh? What 
 is his mere pecuniary claim, compared with the great interests of 
 the common weal? Must the country languish, droop, die, that 
 the slaveholder may flourish? Shall all interests be subservient 
 to one — all rights subordinate to those of the slaveholder ? Has 
 not the mechanic, have not the middle classes their rights — rights 
 incompatible witli the existence of slavery ? 
 
 ''Sir, so great and overshadowing arc the evils of slavery — so 
 sensibly arc they felt by those who have traced the causes of our 
 national decline — so perceptible is the poisonous operation of its 
 princijles in the va 'cd and diversified interests of this Common- 
 
1T8 now SLAVERY CAN HE AHOLISIIEI . 
 
 wealth, that all, whose minds are not warped bj prejudice or in- 
 terest, must admit that the disease has now assumed that mortal 
 tendency, as to justify the application of any remedy which, un- 
 der the great law of State necessity, we might consider advisa- 
 ble." 
 
 From the abstract of our plan for the abolition of sla- 
 very, it will be perceived that, so far from allowing slave- 
 holders any compensation for their slaves, we are, and 
 we think justly, in favor of imposing on them a tax of 
 sixty dollars for each and every negro now in their pos- 
 session, as also for each and every one that shall be born 
 to them between now and the 4th of July, 1863 ; after 
 which time, we propose that they shall be taxed forty dol- 
 lars per annum, annually, for every person by them held 
 in slavery, without regard to age, sex, color, or condition 
 — ^the money, in both instances, to be used for the sole 
 advantage of the slaves. As an addendum to this propo- 
 sition, we would say that, in our opinion, if slavery is not 
 totally abolished by the year 1869, the annual tax ought 
 to be increased from forty to one hundred dollars ; and 
 furthermore, that if the institution does not then almost 
 immediately disappear under the onus of this increased 
 taxation, the tax ought in the course of one or two years 
 thereafter, to be augmented to such a degree as will, in 
 harmony with other measures, prove an infallible death- 
 blow to slavery on or before the 4th of July, 1876. 
 
 At once let the good and true men of this country, the 
 patriot sons of the patriot fathers, determine that the sun 
 which rises to celebrate the centennial anniversary of our 
 national independence, shall not set on the head of any 
 filav* within the limits of our Republic. Will not the 
 
now SILVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 179 
 
 ncnr^iavcholdcrs of the North, of the South, of the East, 
 aud cf the West, heartily, unanimously sanction this pro- 
 position ? Will it not be cheerfully indorsed by many of 
 the slaveUilders themselves? Will any rc^pedahle man 
 enter a protest a<j'iinst it ? On the 4th of July, 187G — 
 sooner, if we can — let us make good, at least so far as we 
 are concerned, the Declaration of Independence, which 
 was proclaimed in Thiladelphia on the 4th of July, 1776 
 — that " all men are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
 tain inalienable rights ; that among these, are life, liberty, 
 and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights, 
 governments are instituted among men, deriving their 
 just powers from the consent of the governed ; that 
 whenever any form of government becomes destructive 
 of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to 
 abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its 
 foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers 
 in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect 
 their safety and happiness." In purging our land of the 
 iniquity of negro slavery, we will only be carrying on the 
 great work that was so successfully commenced by our 
 noble sires of the Revolution ; some future generation 
 may possibly complete the work by annulling the last and 
 least form of oppression. 
 
 To turn the slaves away from their present homes — - 
 away from all the property and means of support which 
 their labor has mainly produced, would be unpardonably 
 cruel — exceedingly unjust. Still more cruel and unjust 
 would it be, ho wever, to the non-slaveholding whites no 
 less than i\ the icgroes, to grant further toleration to the 
 
180 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 existence of s avery. In any event, come what will, 
 transpire wLat may, the institution must be abolished. 
 The evils, if any, which are to result from its abolition, 
 cannot, by any manner of means, be half as great as the 
 evils which are certain to overtake us in case of its con 
 tinuancc. The perpetuation of slavery is the climax of 
 iniquity. 
 
 Two hundred and thirty-seven years have the negroes 
 in America been held in inhuman bondage. During the 
 whole of this long period they have toiled unceasingly 
 from the gray of dawn till the dusk of eve, for theii 
 cruel task-masters, who have rewarded them with scanty 
 allowances of the most inferior qualities of victuals and 
 clothes, with heartless separations of the tenderest ties of 
 kindred, with epithets, with scoldings, with execrations, 
 and with the lash — and, not unfrequently, with the fatal 
 bludgeon or the more deadly weapon. From the labor of 
 their hands, and from the fruit of their loins, the human- 
 mongers of the South have become wealthy, insolent, cor- 
 rupt, and tyrannical. In reason and in conscience the 
 slaves might claim from their masters a much larger sum 
 than we have proposed to allow them. If they were to 
 demand an equal share of all the property, real and per- 
 sonal, which has been accumulated or produced through 
 their efforts. Heaven, we believe, would recognize them as 
 honest claimants. 
 
 Elsewhere we have shown, by just and liberal estimates, 
 that, on the single score of damages to lands, the slave- 
 holders are, at this moment, indebted to the non-slavehold- 
 ing whites in the extraordinary sum of $7,544,148,825 
 
now SLAVERY CAN HE ABOUSnED. 181 
 
 Considered in connection with the righteous chiini of wages 
 for services which the negroes might bring against their 
 masters, these ligures arc the heralds of the significant fact 
 that, if strict justice could be meted out to all parties in 
 the South, the slaveholders would not only be stripped of 
 every dollar, but they would become in law as they are in 
 reality, the hopeless debtors of the myriads of unfortunate 
 slaves, white and black, who are now cringing, and fawn- 
 ing, and festering around them. In this matter, however, 
 so far has wrong triumphed over right, that the slavehold- 
 ers — a mere handful of tyrants, whose manual exercises 
 are wholly comprised in the use they make of instruments 
 of torture, such as whips, clubs, bowie-knives and pistols 
 — have, as the result of a series of acts of their own vil- 
 lainous legislation, become the sole and niggardly propri 
 etors of almost every important item of Southern wealth ; 
 not only do they own all the slaves — none of whom any 
 really respectable person cares to own — but they are also 
 in possession of the more valuable tracts of land and the 
 appurtenances thereto belonging ; while the non-slavehold- 
 ing whites and the negroes, who compose at least nine- 
 tenths of the entire population, and who are the actual 
 producers of every article of merchandize, animal, vegetar 
 ble, and mineral, that is sold from the South, arc most 
 wickedly despoiled of the fruits of their labors, and cast 
 into the dismal abodes of extreme ignorance, destitution 
 and misery. 
 
 For the services of tlie blacks from the 20th of August, 
 1620, up to the 4th of July, 1863 — an interval of precisely 
 two hundred and forty-two years ten months and fourteen 
 
182 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 days — their masters, if unwilling, ought, in our judgment, 
 to be compelled to grant them their freedom, and to pay 
 each and every c ne of them at least sixty dollars cash in 
 hand. The aggregate sum thus raised would amount to 
 about two hundred and forty-five millions of dollars, which 
 is lesB than the total market value of two entire ciops of 
 cotton — one-half of which sum would be amply sufficient 
 to land every negro in this country on the coast of Liberia, 
 whither, if we had the power, we would ship them all 
 within the next six months. As a means of protection 
 against the exigencies which might arise from a sudden 
 transition from their present homes in America to their 
 future homes in Africa, and for the purpose of enabling 
 them there to take the initiatory step in the walks of civ- 
 ilized life, the remainder of the sum — say about one hun- 
 dred and twenty-two millions of dollars — might, very 
 properly, be equally distributed amongst them after their 
 arrival in the land of their fathers. 
 
 Dr. James Hall, the Secretary of the Maryland Coloniza- 
 tion Society, informs us that the average cost of sending 
 negroes to Liberia does not exceed thirty dollars each ; 
 and it is his opinion that arrangements might be made on 
 an extensive plan for conveying them thither at an average 
 expense of not more than twenty-five dollars each. 
 
 The American colonization movement, as now systema- 
 tized and conducted, is simply an American humane farce. 
 At present the slaves are increasing in this country at the 
 rate of nearly one hundred thousand per annum ; within 
 the last ten years, as will appear below, the American 
 Colonization Society Las sent to Liberia less than five 
 thousand negroes. 
 
now SIJLVERY CAK BE ABOLISHET). 
 
 183 
 
 Em grants sent to Liberia by the American Colonization 
 Society, during the ten years ending January 1st, 1857. 
 
 In 1817 39 
 
 In 1848 213 
 
 In 1849 474 
 
 In 1850 590 
 
 In ISol 279 
 
 In 1852 568 
 
 In 1853 583 
 
 In 1854 783 
 
 In 1855 207 
 
 In 1856 544 
 
 Total 
 
 4280 
 
 . Emigrants. 
 
 Tlie average of this total is precisely four hundred and 
 cwenty-eight, which may be said to be the number of ne- 
 groes annually colonized by the society ; while the yearly 
 increase of slaves, as previously stated, is little less than 
 one hundred thousand ! Fiddlesticks for such coloniza- 
 tion ! Once for all, within a reasonably short period, let 
 us make the slaveholders do something like justice to 
 their negroes by giving each and every one of them his 
 freedom, and sixty dollars in current money ; then let us 
 charter all the ocean steamers, packets and clipper ships 
 that can be had on liberal terms, and keep them con- 
 stantly plying between the ports of America and Africa, 
 until all slaves shall enjoy freedom in the land of their 
 fathers. Under a well-devised and properly conducted 
 system of operations, but a few years would be required 
 to redeem the United Sj'ates from the monstrous curse of 
 
 negro s avery. 
 
184 BJW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 Some few years ago, when certain ethnographical oli- 
 garchs proved to their own satisfaction that the negro was 
 an inferior "t^'pe of mankind," they chuckled wonder- 
 fully, and avowed, in substance, that it was right for the 
 stronger race to kidnap and enslave the weaker — that be- 
 cause Nature had been pleased to do a trifle more for the 
 Caucasian race than for the African, the former, by virtue 
 of its superiority, was perfectly justifiable in holding the 
 latter in absolute and perpetual bondage I No system of 
 logic could be more antagonistic to the spirit of true 
 democracy. It is probable that the world does not con- 
 tain two persons who are exactly alike in all respects ; 
 yet " all men are endowed by their Creator with certain 
 inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness." All mankind may or may not be 
 the descendants of Adam and Eve. In our own humble 
 "way of thinking, we are frank to confess, we do not be- 
 lieve in the unity of the races. This is a matter, however, 
 ■which has little or nothing to do with the great question 
 at issue. Aside from any theory concerning the original 
 parentage of the different races of men, facts, material 
 and immaterial, palpable and impalpable — facts of the 
 eyes and facts of the conscience — crowd around us on 
 every hand, heaping proof upon proof, that slavery is a 
 shame, a crime, and a curse — a great moral, social, civil, 
 and political evil — an oppressive burden to the blacks, 
 and an incalculable injury to the whites — a stumbling- 
 block to the nation, an impediment to progress, a damper ^ 
 on all the nobler instincts, principles, aspirations and en« 
 terprises of man, and a dire enemy to every true interest. 
 
now SI^VF.RY CAN* Dr. \Bor.isnED. 185 
 
 Waiviiif^ all other counts, wc have, -sve think, shown 
 to the satisfaction of every impartial reader, that, as else- 
 where stated, on the single score of damages to lands, the 
 Blaveholders are, at this moment, indebted to us, the non- 
 slaveholdii g whites, in the enormous sum of nearly seven- 
 ty-six hunilred millions of dollars. What shall be done 
 with this amount ? It is just ; shall payment be de- 
 manded ? Xo ; all the slaveholders in the country could 
 not pay it ; nor shall we ever ask them for even a moiety 
 of the amount — no, not even for a dime, nor yet for a 
 cent ; we are willing to forfeit every farthing for the sake 
 of freedom ; for ourselves we ask no indemnification for 
 the past : we only demand justice for the future. 
 
 But, Sirs, kniglits of bludgeons, chevaliers of bowie- 
 knives and pistols, and lords of the lash, we are unwill- 
 ing to allow you to swindle the slaves out of all the rights 
 and claims to which, as human beings, they are most 
 sacredly entitled. Not alone for ourself as an individual, 
 but for others also — particularly for five or six millions 
 of Southern non-slaveholding whites, whom your iniqui- 
 tous statism has debarred from almost all the mental and 
 material comforts of life — do we speak, when we say, you 
 must emancipate your slaves, and pay each and every one 
 of them at least sixty dollars cash in hand. By doing this, 
 you will be restoring to them their natural rights, and 
 remunerating them at the rate of less than twenty-six 
 cents per annum for the long and cheerless period of their 
 servitude, from the 20th of August, 1G20, when, on James 
 River, in Virginia, they became the unhappy slaves of 
 heartless nr asters. Moreover, by doing this you will be 
 
186 HOW SLAVERY CAN BE ABOLISHED. 
 
 performing' but a simple act of justice to the non-slave 
 holding whites, upon whom the institution of slavery has 
 weighed scarcely less heavily than upon the negroes 
 themselves. You will also be applying a saving balm to 
 your own outraged hearts and consciences, and your chil- 
 dren — yourselves in fact — freed from the accursed stain 
 of slavery, will become respectable, useful, and honorable 
 members of society. 
 
 And now. Sirs, we have thus laid down our ultimatum. 
 What are you going to do about it ? Something dread- 
 ful, as a matter of course I Perhaps you will dissolve 
 the Union again. Do it, if you dare ! Our motto, and we 
 would have you to understand it, is t/ie abclUion of slavery, 
 and t/ie perpetuation of the American Union. If, by any means, 
 you do succeed in your treasonable attempts to take the 
 South out of the Union to-day, we will bring her back to- 
 morrow — if she goes away with you, she will return with- 
 out you. 
 
 Do not mistake the meaning of the last clause of the 
 last sentence ; we could elucidate it so thoroughly that no 
 intelligent person could fail to comprehend it ; but, for 
 reasons which may hereafter appear, we forego the task. 
 
 Henceforth there are other interests to be consulted in 
 the South, aside from the interests of negroes and slave- 
 holders. A profound sense of duty incites us to make the 
 greatest possible efforts for the abolition of slavery ; an 
 equally profound sense of duty calls for a continuation of 
 those efforts until the very last foe to freedom shall have 
 been utterly vanquished. To the summons of the righte- 
 ous mo>'itor within, we shall endeavor to prove faithful ; 
 
now SLAVERY CAN »E AnOLISHED. 187 
 
 nc opportunity tor intlicting a morLjl wound in the side 
 of sluvory shall be pennittod to pass us unimproved. 
 Thus, terror-ongendorcrs of the South, have we fully and 
 frankly defined our position ; wc have no modifications 
 to propose, no compromises to ofifer, nothing to retract 
 Frown, Sirs, fret, foam, prepare your weapons, threat, 
 strike, shoot, stab, brin«^ on civil war, dissolve the Union, 
 nay annihilate the solar system if you will — do all this, 
 more, less, better, worse, anything — do what you will, 
 Sirsj, you can neither foil nor intimidate us ; our purpose is 
 ap firmly fixed as the eternal pillars of Heaven ; we have 
 determined to abolish slavery, and, so help us God, abo- 
 lish it we will I Take this to bed with j^ou to-nig^ht, Sirs, 
 and think about it, dream over it, and let us know how 
 you fell t<w) orrow mornin":. 
 
CHAPTER HI. 
 
 SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 If it please tlic reader, let him forget all that we haT '> 
 written on the subject of slavery ; if it accord with his 
 inclination, let him ignore all that we may write hereaf- 
 ter. We seek not to give currency to our peculiar opin- 
 ions ; our greatest ambition, in these pages, is to popular- 
 ize the sayings and admonitions of wiser and better men. 
 Miracles, we believe, are no longer wrought in this bede^^ 
 iled world ; but if, by any conceivable or possible super- 
 natural event, the great Founders of the Republic, Wash- 
 ington, Jefferson, Henry, and others, could be reinvested 
 with corporeal life, and returned to the South, there is 
 scarcely a slaveholder between the Potomac and the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, that would not burn to pounce 
 upon them with bludgeons, bowie-knives and pistols I 
 Yes, without adding another word, Washington would be 
 molhed for what he has already said. Were Jefferson now 
 employed as a professor in a Southern college, he would 
 be dismissed and-driven from the State, perhaps murdered 
 before he reached the border. If Patrick Henry were a 
 bookseller in Alabama, though it might be demonstrated 
 beyond the shadow of a d?ubt that he had never boug'^i. 
 
SOUTIintN TESTIMdN'Y AHAIXFT SLAVERY. ISO 
 
 sold, received, or presented, any kind of literature except 
 Bibles and Testaments, he would first be subjected to the 
 ignominy of a coat of tar and feathers, and then limited 
 to the option of unceremonious expatriation or deatli. 
 How seemingly impossible are these statements, and yet 
 how true 1 Where do we stand ? What is our faith ? 
 Are we a flock without a shepherd ? a people without a 
 prophet? a nation without a government? 
 
 Has the past, with all its glittering monuments of 
 genius and patriotism, furnished no beacon by which we 
 may direct our footsteps in the future ? If we but prove 
 true to ourselves, and worthy of our ancestry, we have 
 nothing to fear ; our Revolutionary sires have devised and 
 bequeathed to us an almost perfect national policy. Let 
 us cherish, and defend, and build upon, the fundamental 
 principles of that polity, and we shall most assuredly 
 reap the golden fruits of unparalleled power, virtue and 
 prosperity. Heaven forbid that a desperate faction of 
 slaveholding criminals should succeed in their infamous 
 endeavors to quench the spirit of liberty, which our fore- 
 fathers infused into those two sacred charts of our politi- 
 cal faith, the Declaration of Independence, and the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, Oligarchal politicians are 
 alone responsible for the continuance of African slavery in 
 the South. For purposes of self-aggrandizement, they 
 have kept learning and civilization from the people ; they 
 have wilfully misinterpreted the national compacts, and 
 have outraged their own consciences by declaring to tlieir 
 illiterate constituents, that the Founders of the Republic 
 were nf \ ab:)litioLi8ts. When the dark clouds of slavry. 
 
190 SOUTHERN TESTIMOXY AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 error and ignorance shall have passed away, — and »/.i be 
 liove the time is near at hand when they are to hi diss; 
 patcd, — the freemen of the South, like those of oth>'/ seo 
 lions, will learn the glorious truth, that inflexible opposi- 
 tion to Human Bondage has formed one of the disiin 
 guishing characteristics of every really good or great 
 man that our country has produced. 
 
 The principles, aims and objects that actuated the 
 framers of the Constitution, are most graphicallly and 
 eloquently set forth, in the following extract from a 
 speech recently delivered by the Hon. A. H. Cragin, of 
 New Hampshire, in the House of Representatives : 
 
 " When our forefathers reared the magnificent structure of a 
 free Republic in this "Western land, they laid its foundations 
 broad and deep in the eternal principles of right. Its materials 
 were all quarried from the mountain of truth ; and, as it rose 
 majestically before an astonished world, it rejoiced the hearts and 
 hopes of mankind. Tyrants only cursed the workmen and their 
 workmanship. Its architecture was new. It had no model in 
 Grecian or Ivoman history. It seemed a paragon, let down from 
 Heaven to inspire the hopes of men, and to demonstrate the favor 
 of God to the people of a new world. The builders recognized 
 the rights of human nature as universal. Liberty, the great first 
 right of man, they claimed for 'all men,' and claimed it from 
 ' God himself.' Upon this foundation they erected the temple, 
 and dedicated it to Liberty, Humanity, Justice, and Equality. 
 Washington was crowned its patron saint." 
 
 " The work completed was the noblest effort of human wisdom. 
 But it was not perfect. It had one blemish — a little spot — the 
 black stain of slavery. The workmen — the friends of freedom 
 everywhere — deplored this. They labored long and prayerfully 
 to remove this deformity. They applied all the skill of their 
 art; but they labored in vain. Self-interest was too strong for 
 patnotism am love of libert} . The work stood still, and for t 
 
SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVF.RY. 191 
 
 time it was iloubtful whetlur tlic cxpcritnent would succeed. Tho 
 biot iMUst rori-lin, or the whole must fail. The workmen revar- 
 nishcvl their work, to conceal and cover up the stain. Slavery 
 was recognized, but not sanctioned. The word slave or slavery 
 must not mar the Constitution. So great an inconsistency musi 
 not be proclaimed to tlie world.'' 
 
 '' All agreed, at that time, that the anomaly should not increase, 
 and all concurred in the hope and belief that the blemish would 
 gradually disappear. Those noble men looked forward to the 
 time when slaver}' would be abolished in this land of ours. They 
 beliovcd that the principles of liberty were so dear to the people, 
 that they would not long deny to others what they claimed for 
 themselves. They never dreamed that slavery would be extended, 
 but firmly believed it would be wholly blotted out. / challengi 
 any man to show me a single pati-iol of the Revolution uho was in 
 facor of slacci'ij, or uho advocated its extension. So universal 
 was the sentiment of lib( rty then, that no man, North or South, 
 could be found to justify it. Some palliated the evil, and desired 
 that it might be gradually extinguished j but none contemplated 
 it as a permanent institution." 
 
 '"Liberty was then the national g.iddcss, worshiped by all the 
 people. They sang of liberty, they harangued for liberty, they 
 prayed for liberty, and they sacrificed for liberty. Slavery was 
 then hateful. It was denounced by all. The British king was 
 condemned for foi.-ting it upon the Colonies. Southern men were 
 foremost in entering their protest against it. It was then every- 
 where regarded as an evil, and a crime against humanity." 
 
 The fact is too palpable to be disguised, that slavery 
 aud slaveholders have always been a clog and a dead-weight 
 upon the government — a disgrace and a curse to humanity. 
 The slavcholding Tories of the South, particularly of South 
 Carolina, in their atrocious hostility to freedom, prolonged 
 the arduous war of the Revolution from two to three j-ears ; 
 and since the termination of that momentous struggle, in 
 which, thanlj Heaven, they were most signally defeated, 
 
192 SOUTHERN TESTIMOXY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 it has been their constant aim and effort to subvert the 
 dear-bought liberties which were achieved by the non- 
 slavcholding patriots. 
 
 Non-slaveholders of the South I up to the present period, 
 neither as a body, nor as individuals, have you ever had 
 an independent existence ; but, if true to yourselves and 
 to the memory of your fathers, you, in equal copartnership 
 with the non-slaveholders of the North, will soon become 
 the honored rulers and proprietors of the most powerful, 
 prosperous, virtuous, free, and peaceful nation, on which 
 the sun has ever shone. Already has the time arrived for 
 you to decide upon what basis you will erect your political 
 superstructure. Upon whom will you depend for an equi- 
 table and judicious form of constitutional government? 
 Whom will you designate as models for your future states- 
 men ? Your choice lies between the dead and the living — 
 between the Washingtons, the Jeffersons and the Madisons 
 of the past, and the Quattlcbums, the Quitmans and the 
 Butlers of the present. We have chosen ; choose ye, 
 remembering that freedom or slavery is to be the issue of 
 your option. 
 
 As the result of much reading and research, and at the 
 expenditure of no inconsiderable amount of time, labor and 
 money, we now proceed to make known the anti-slavery 
 sentiments of those noble abolitionists, the Fathers of the 
 Kepublic, whose liberal measures of public policy have 
 been so criminally perverted by the treacherous advocates 
 of slavery. 
 
 Let us listen, in the first place, to the voice of him who 
 
gOCTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLA\T:RT. 193 
 
 was " first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of 
 liis countrymen," to 
 
 THE VOICE OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 In a letter to Jolin F. Mercer, dated September 9th, 
 1780, General Washington says : — 
 
 " I never mean, unless some particular circumstances should 
 compel me to it, to possess another slave hy purchase, it being 
 among my Jirst wuihes to see some plan adopted by which slavery, 
 in this country, may be abolished by law." 
 
 In a letter to Robert Morris, dated Mount Vernon, April 
 12, 17SG, he says :— 
 
 " I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more 
 sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it. 
 But there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can 
 be accomplished, and that is by legislative authority ; and this, 
 as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting." 
 
 He says, in a letter 
 
 ^ To the Marquis de Lafayette — April 5th, 1783: — 
 The scheme, my dear Marquis, which you propose as a prece- 
 dent, to encourage the emancipation of the black people in this 
 country from the state of bondage in which they are held, is a 
 striking evidence of the benevolence of your heart. I shall be 
 happy to join you in so laudable a work ; but will defer going 
 into a detail of the business till I have the pleasure of seeing you." 
 
 In another letter to Lafayctto, he says : — 
 
 '• The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so con- 
 Fpicuous on all occasions, that I never wonder at any fresh proofs 
 of it ; }>ut your late purchase of an estate in the Colony of Cay- 
 enne, with the view of emancipating the slaves on it, is ageneroiia 
 
 9 
 
194 SODTHEKN" TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 ard noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit 
 might diffase itself generally into the minds of the people of this 
 country." 
 
 In a letter to Sir John Sinclair, he further said : — 
 
 " There are in Pennsylvania laws for the gradual abolition of 
 slavery, which neither Virginia nor Maiyland have at present, but 
 which nothing is more certain than they must have, and at a 
 period not remote." 
 
 From his last will and testament we make the following 
 extract : 
 
 '^Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all 
 the slaves which I hold in my own ri^ht shall receive their free- 
 dom. To emancipate them during her life would, though earn- 
 estly wished by me, be attended with such insuperable difficulties, 
 on account of their intermixture by marriage with the dower ne- 
 groes, as to excite the most painful sensation, if not disagreeable 
 consequences, from the latter, while both descriptioEs are in the 
 occupancy of the same proprietor, it not being in my power, un- 
 der the tenure by which the dower negroes are held, to manumit 
 them." 
 
 It is said that, " when Mrs. Washington learned, from 
 the will of her deceased husband, that the only obstacle to 
 the immediate perfection of this provision was her right 
 of dower, she at once gave it up, and the slaves were 
 made free." A man might possibly concentrate within 
 himself more real virtue and influence than ever Wash- 
 ington possessed, and yet he would not be too good for 
 such a wife. 
 
 From the Father of his Country, we now turn ^i the au- 
 thor of the Declarati )n of Indep^mdence. We will listen to 
 
SOUTIIERX TEST.MOXY Af^AlNST SI, IVKRV. 195 
 
 THE VOICE OF JEFFEKSOX. 
 
 On the 39tli ami 40tli pages uf liis Notes oi Virginia, 
 JelVerson says : — 
 
 '•There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the man- 
 ners of our people, produced by the existence of slavery among 
 us. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpet- 
 ual exercise of the most boisterous passions — thn most unremit- 
 ting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on 
 the other. Our children see this, and learn to imi^atc itj for 
 man is an imitative animal. Tiiis quality is the germ of all edu- 
 cation in him. From his cradle to his grave, he is learning to 
 do what he sees others do. If a parent could find no motive, 
 either in his philanthropy or his self-love, for restraining the in- 
 temperance of passion towards his slave, it should alwaNS be a 
 suflicient one that his child is present. But generally it is not 
 suflicient. The parent storms, the ciiild looks on, catches thr 
 lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smallc 
 slaves, gives a loose rein to the worst of passions ; and, thu* 
 nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but b^ 
 stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man nmst be ? 
 j)rodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved bj* 
 such circumstances. And with what execration should tlv 
 Statesman be loaded, who. pennitting one half the citizens thu*- 
 to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into des 
 pots and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part 
 and the amor patriae of the other ; for if a slave can have v 
 country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that 
 in which he is born to live and labor for another ; in which hi 
 must look up the faculties of his nature, contribute, as far as de 
 pends on his individual endeavors, to the evanishmeut of the hu 
 man race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endlest* 
 generations proceeding from him. "With the morals of the peo- 
 ple, their industry also is destroyed j for, in a warm climate, no 
 man will labor for himself who can make another labor for him. 
 This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves a very small pro- 
 portion, indeed, are ever seen tu labor. And can the liberties 
 
19G SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLATERS 
 
 of a nation be thought secure, when we have remov: d their only 
 firm basis — a conviction in the minds of the people that thesp 
 liberties are of the gift of God ? that they are not to be violated 
 but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when 1 
 reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever; 
 that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revo- 
 lution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among 
 possible events ; that it may become probable by supernatural 
 interference ! The Almighty has no attribute which can take 
 Bide with us in such a contest." 
 
 "While Virginia was yet a Colony, in ltT4, she held a 
 Convention to appoint delegates to attend the first general 
 Congress, which was to assemble, and did assemble, in 
 Philadelphia, in September of the same year. Before that 
 Convention, Mr. Jefferson made an exposition of the rights 
 of British America, in which he said : — 
 
 " The abolition of domestic slavery is the greatest object of 
 desire in these Colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in 
 their infant State. But previous to the enfranchisement of the 
 slaves, it is necessary to exclude further importations from Africa. 
 Yet our repeated attempts to effect this by prohibitions, and by 
 imposing duties which might amount to prohibition, have been 
 hitlicrto defeated b}' his Majesty's negative ; thus preferring the 
 immediate advantage of a few African corsairs to the lasting in- 
 terests of the American States, and the rights of human nature, 
 deeply wounded by this infamous practice." 
 
 In the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, 
 of which it is well known he was the author, we find this 
 charge against the King of Great Britain : — 
 
 '•' He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating 
 its most sacred rights of life and liberty, in the persons of a dis- 
 tant people who never offended him. captivating and carrying 
 them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable 
 
SOUrnERN TESTIMOXT AC.WS^T SLAVERY. 197 
 
 death in their tninsportatiou thither. This piriitical \v;uf:ire. the 
 opprobrium of inlidcl powers, is the warfare of the Christian 
 King of Great Britain. Determined to keep a market wlierc men 
 BhouUl be bought and sold, he has at length prostituted liis nega- 
 tive for suppressing any legislative attempt to prohibit and re- 
 strain this execrable commerce." 
 
 Uear him further ; he says : — 
 
 '' We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are cre- 
 ated equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
 miolienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights, governments 
 are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the 
 consent of the governed." 
 
 Under date of August tth, 1185, in a letter to Dr. Price 
 of London, he says : — 
 
 " Northward of the Chesapeake you may find, here and there 
 an opponent of your doctrine, as you may find, here and there, a 
 robber and murderer ; but in no great number. Emancipation 
 is put into such a train, that in a few years there will be no 
 slaves northward of Maryland. In Maryland I do not find such 
 a disposition to begin the redress of this enormity, as in Virginia. 
 This is the next State to which we may turn our eyes for the 
 interesting spectacle of justice in conflict with avarice and op- 
 pression ; a conflict wherein the sacred side is gaining daily 
 recruits from the influx into office of young men grown up, and 
 growing up. These have sucked in the principles of liberty, as 
 it were, with their mother's milk ; and it is to tlK'm I look with 
 anxiety to turn the fate of the question," 
 
 In another letter, written to a friend in 1814, he made 
 u:«e of the following emphatic language : — 
 
 '• Your favor of July 3^st was duly received, and read with pe- 
 culiar pleasure. The sentiments do honor to the head and heart 
 
198 SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 of the writer. Mine on tlu subject of the slaverj' of negroes 
 have long since been in the possession of the public, and time has 
 only served to give them stronger root. The love of justice and 
 the love of country plead equally the cause of these people, and 
 it is a reproach to us that they should have pleaded it so long in 
 
 Again, he says : — 
 
 " What an incomprehensible machine is man ! who can endure 
 toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication 
 of his own liberty ; and the next moment be deaf to all those 
 motives whose power supported him through his trial, and in- 
 flict on his fellow man a bondage, one hour of which is fraught 
 with more misery than a£;es of that which he rose in rebellion to 
 oppose." 
 
 Throughout the South, at the present day, especially 
 among slaveholders, negroes are almost invariably spoken 
 of as " goods and chattels," " property," " human cattle." 
 In our first quotation from Jefferson's works, we have 
 seen that he spoke of the blacks as citizens. We shall 
 now hear him speak of them as brethren. He says : — - 
 
 " TVe must wait with patience the workings of an overruling 
 Providence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of 
 these our brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be 
 full, when their groans shall have involved Heaven itself in dark- 
 ness, doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress. 
 Nothing is more certainly written in the Book of Fate, than that 
 this people shall be free." 
 
 In a letter to James Heaton, on this same subject, 
 dated May 20, 1826, only six weeks before his death, he 
 «ays : — 
 
 " My sentiments have bem forty years before the public. Had 
 
SOITIIFRX TI-^TTMON-Y AnAIX^T SLAVERY, 109 
 
 I t<?pcato(l tliotn fort}' times, tlicy would liavc only become tlio 
 more stale and threadbare. Althouj^h I shall not live to see them 
 consummated, they will not die with me." 
 
 From the Fatlier of tlic Declaration of Independence, wo 
 now turn to the Father of the Constitution. We will 
 listen to 
 
 THE VOICE OF MADISOX. 
 
 Advocating the abolition of the slave-trade, Mr. Madison 
 said : — 
 
 '* The dictates of humanity, the principles of the people, the 
 national safety and happiness, and prudent policy, require it of 
 us. It is to be hoped, that by expressinj^ a national disapproba- 
 tion of the trade, we may destroy it, and save our country from 
 reproaches, and our posterity from the imbecility ever attendant 
 on a country filled with slaves." 
 
 Again, he says : — 
 
 ''It is wrong to admit into the Constitution the idea that thcro 
 can be property in man." 
 
 In the 39tli No. of " The Federalist," he says :— 
 
 '' The first question that offers itself is, whether the general 
 form and aspect of the government be strictly Republican. It is 
 evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius 
 of the people of America, and with the fundamental principles of 
 the Revolution, or with that honorable determination which ani- 
 mates eviry votary of freedom, to rest all our political experi- 
 ments on the capacity of mankind for self-government," 
 
 In the Federal Convention, he said . — 
 
 "And in tlie third place, where slavery exists, the Republican 
 theory becomes still more fallacious." 
 
200 SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 On another occasion, he says : — 
 
 " TTe have seen the mere distinction of color made, in the 
 most enhghtened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive 
 dominion ever exercised by man over man." 
 
 THE VOICE OF MONROE. 
 
 In a speech in the Virginia Convention, Mr. Monroe 
 eaid : — 
 
 ^^ We have found that this evil has preyed upon the very vitals 
 of the Union, and has been prejudicial to all the States, in which 
 it has existed." 
 
 THE VOICE OF HENRY. 
 
 The eloquent Patrick Heni-y says, in a letter dated Jan- 
 uary 18, 17t3 :— 
 
 '•'Is it not a little surprising that the professors of Christianity, 
 whose chief excellence consists in softening the human heart, in 
 cherishing and improving its finer feelings, should encourage a 
 practice so totally repugnant to the first impressions of right and 
 wrong ? What adds to the wonder is, that this abominable prac- 
 tice has been introduced in the most enlightened ages. Times 
 that seem to have pretensions to boast of high improvements in 
 the arts and sciences, and refined morality, have brought into 
 general use, and guarded by many laws, a species of violence and 
 tyranny which our more rude and barbarous, but more honest 
 ancestors detested. Is it not amazing that at a time when the 
 rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in 
 a country above all others fond of liberty — that in such an age 
 and in such a country, we find men professing a religion the most 
 mild, humane, gentle, and generous, adopting such a principle, as 
 repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and 
 destructive to liberty? Every thinking, honest man rejects it in 
 speculation. How free in practice from conscientious motives ! 
 Would any one believe that I am master of slaves of my own 
 
SOrmERN' TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 201 
 
 purchase ? I am drawn aloiv^ by the general inconvenience cf 
 jving here without them. I will not. I cannot justify it. How- 
 ever culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue 
 as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and la- 
 ment my want of conformity to them. I believe a time will 
 come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lament- 
 able evil. Everything we can do is to improve it. if it happens 
 in our day; if not, kt us transmit to our descendants, together 
 with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot, and an abhorrence 
 for slavery. If we cannot reduce this wished-for reformation 
 to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with lenity. It is 
 the furthest advance we can make towards justice. It is a debt 
 we owe to the purity of our religion, to show that it is at vari 
 ance with that law which warrants slavery." 
 
 A^ain, this great orator says : — 
 
 '• It would rejoice my very soul, that every one of ray fellow 
 oeings was emancipated. "We ought to lament and deplore the 
 necessity of holding our fellow-men in bondage. Believe me ; 
 I shall honor the Quakers for their noble efforts to abolish 
 slavery." 
 
 TUE VOICE OF RANDOLPH. 
 
 That cxccntric genius, John Randolph, of Iioanoke, in a 
 letter to William Gibbons, in 1820, says : — 
 
 " With unfeigned respect and regard, and as sincere a depreca- 
 tion on the extension of slavery and its horrors, as any other 
 man, be him whom he may, I am your friend, in the literal sense 
 of that much abused word. I say much abused, because it is ap- 
 plied to the leagues of vice and avarice and ambition, instead 
 of good will toward man from love of him who is the Prince of 
 Peace." 
 
 While in Congress, he said : 
 
 '• Sir, I envy neither the heart nor the head of that man from 
 the North who rises here ti defend slavery on principle.'' 
 
 9* 
 
202 SOUTHERN TESTTMOSV AriATN'ST SLAVERY. 
 
 It is well known that he emancipated all his negroes. 
 The following' lines from his will are well worth perusing 
 and preserving : — 
 
 '* I give to my slaves their freedom, to which my conscience 
 telJs me they are justly entitled. It has a long time been a mat- 
 ter of the deepest regret to me that the circumstances under 
 which I inherited them, and the obstacles thrown in the way by 
 the laws of the land, have prevented my emancipating them in 
 my life-time, which it is my full intention to do in case I can 
 accomplish it." 
 
 THOMAS M. RANDOLPH. 
 
 In an address to the Virginia Legislature, in 1820, Gov. 
 Randolph said : — 
 
 " "We have been far outstripped by States to whom nature has 
 been far less bountiful. It is painful to consider what might 
 have been, under other circumstances, the amount of general 
 wealth in Virginia." 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH. 
 
 In 1832, Mr. Randolph, of Albemarle, in the Legislature 
 of Virginia, used the following most graphic and emphatic 
 language : — 
 
 " I agree with gentlemen in the necessity of arming the State 
 for internal defence. I will unite with them in any effort to re- 
 store confidence to the public mind, and to conduce to the sense 
 of the safety of our wives and our children. Yet, Sir. I must 
 ask upon whom is to fall the burden of this defence ? Not upon 
 the lordly masters of their hundred slaves, who will never turn 
 out except to retire with their families when danger threatens. 
 No, Sir • it is to fall upon the less wealthy class of our citizens. 
 
SOITRERN TF.STIMOXY AGAINST SLAVERY. 203 
 
 chiefly upon the non-slaveholder. I have known patrols turned 
 out when there was not a slaveholder among them ; and this is 
 the practice of the country. I have slept in times of alarm quiet 
 in bod, without having a thought of care, while these individuals, 
 owning none of this property themselves, were patrolling under 
 a C(»uipulsory process, for a pittance of seventy-five cents per 
 twelve hours, the very curtilage of my house, and guarding that 
 property which was alike dangerous to them and myself. After 
 all. this is but an expedient. As this population becomes more 
 numerous, it becomes less productive. Your guard must be in- 
 creased, until finally its profits will not pay for the expense of 
 its subjection. Slavery has the elToct of lessening the free popu- 
 lation of a country. 
 
 '• The gentleman has spoken of the increase of the female slaves 
 being a part of the profit. It is admitted j but no great evil can 
 be averted, no good attained, without some inconvenience. It 
 may be questioned how far it is desirable to foster and encour- 
 age this branch of profit. It is a practice, and an increasing 
 practice, in parts of Virginia, to rear slaves for market. IIow 
 can an honorable mind, a patriot, and a lover of his country, bear 
 to see this Ancient Dominion, rendered illustrious by the noble 
 devotion and patriotism of her sons in the cause of liberty, con- 
 verted into one grand menagerie, where men are to be reared for 
 the market, like oxen for the shambles ? Is it better, is it not 
 worse, than the slave trade — that trade which enlisted the labor 
 of the good and wise of every creed, and every clime, to abolish 
 it ? The trader receives the slave, a stranger in language, aspect, 
 and manners, from the merchant who has brought him from the 
 interior. The ties of father, mother, husband, and child, have all 
 been rent in twain ; before he receives him, his soul has become 
 callous. But here, Sir, individuals whom the master has known 
 from infancy, whom he has seen sporting in the innocent gam- 
 bols of childhood, who have been accustomed to look to him for 
 protection, he tears from the mother's arms and sells into a 
 strange country among strange people, subject to cruel taskmas- 
 ters. 
 
 "He has attempted to justify slavery here, because it exists in 
 Africa, s^nd has stated that it exists all over the world. Upon 
 
204 SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 the same principle, he could justify Mahometanism, with its plu- 
 rality of ^yiYes, petty wars for plunder, robbery, and murder, or 
 any other of the abominations and enormities of savage tribes. 
 Does slavery exist in any part of civilized Europe ? No, Sir, in 
 no part of it." 
 
 PEYTON RANDOLPH. 
 
 On the 20th of October, 1714, vrhile Congress was in 
 session in Philadelphia, Peyton Kandolph, President, the 
 following resolution, among others, was unanimously 
 adopted : — 
 
 " That we will neither import nor purchase any slave imported 
 after the first day of December next ; after which time we will 
 wholly discontinue the slave-trade, and will neither be concerned 
 in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commo- 
 dities or manufactures, to those who are concerned in it." 
 
 EDMUND RANDOLPH. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States contains the fol- 
 lowing provision :— 
 
 "No person held to service or labor in another State, under the 
 laws thereof, escaping to another, shall, in consequence of any 
 law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or 
 labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom 
 such service or labor may be due." 
 
 To the studious attention of those vandals who contend 
 that the above provision requires the rendition of fugitive 
 slaves, we respectfully commend the following resolution, 
 which, it will be observed, was unanimously adopted : — 
 
 "On mo^'ion of Mr. Randolph, the word 'sei^itude' was struck 
 
SOITITF-RN' TF.STIMOXY AfiAIN'>r SLAVKkV. 20,'; 
 
 out, and ' service'' unanimously inserted — the formei being 
 thought to express the condition of^ slaws, and the latter the ob 
 ligation of free persons." — Madiso7i Papers, vol. III., p. 15G9. 
 
 Well done for the Randolphs I 
 
 THE VOICE OF CLAY. 
 
 Ilcnry Clay, whom everybody loved, and at the mention 
 of whose name the American heart always throbs w^ith 
 emotions of grateful remembrance, said, in an address be- 
 fore the Kentucky Colonization Society, in 1829 : — 
 
 " It is believed that nowhere in the farming' portion of the 
 United States would slave-labor be generally employed, if the 
 proprietor were not tempted to raise slaves by the high price of 
 the Southern market, which keeps it up in his own." 
 
 In the United States Senate, in 1850, he used the follow- 
 ing memorable words : — 
 
 '• I am extremely sorry to hear the Senator from Mississippi 
 say that he requires, first the extension of the Missouri Compro- 
 mise line to the Pacific, and also tliat he is not satisfied with 
 that, but requires, if I understand him correctl}', a positive pro- 
 vision for the admission of slavery South of that line. And now, 
 Sir, coming from a slave State, as I do, I owe it to myself, I owe 
 it to truth, I owe it to the subject to say that no earthly power 
 could induce me to vote for a specific measure for the introduc- 
 tion of slavery where it had not before existed, either South or 
 North of that line. Coming as I do from a slave State, it is my 
 solemn, deliberate and well-matured determination that no 
 power, no earthly power, shah compel me to vote for the posi- 
 tive introduction of slavery either South or North of that line. 
 Sir while you reproach, and justly too, our British ancestors for 
 the introduction of this institution upon the continent of Ame- 
 rica I am, for one, unwilling that tlie posterity of the present in- 
 
206 SOUTHERN TESTIMOXY AGAINST SLA.VERT. 
 
 habitants of Calif jrnia and of New Mexico, shall reproach us for 
 doing just what we reproach Great Britain for doing to us. If 
 the citizens of those territories choose to establish slavery, and 
 if they come here with Constitutions establishing slavery, I am 
 for admitting them with such provisions in their Constitutions ; 
 but then it will be their own work, and not ours, and their pos- 
 terity will have to reproach them, and not us, for forming Con- 
 stitutions allowing the institution of slavery to exist among 
 them. These are my views. Sir, and I choose to express them ; 
 ind I care not how extensively or universally they are known." 
 
 Hear him further ; he says : — 
 
 " So long as God allows the vital current to flow through my 
 veins, I will never, never, never, by word, or thought, by mind 
 or will, aid in admitting one rood of free territory to the ever- 
 lasting curse of humau bondage." 
 
 A bumper to the memory of noble Harry of the West I 
 
 CASSIUS M. CLAY. 
 
 Of the great number of good speeches made by members 
 of the Republican party during the late Presidential cam- 
 paigT-^ it is, we believe, pretty generally admitted that the 
 bei^t one was made by Cassius M. Clay, of Kentucky, at 
 the Tabernacle, in New-York City, on the 24tli of October, 
 1856. From the speech of that noble champion of freedom, 
 then and there delivered, we make the following graphic 
 extract : — 
 
 " If there are no manufactures, there is no commerce. In vain 
 do the slaveholders go to Knoxville, to Nashville, to Memphis 
 and to Charleston, and resolve that tlr will have nothing to do 
 with these abolition eighteen millicno of Northern people ; that 
 they will build their own vessels, manufacture their own goods, 
 ship their own products to foreign countries, and break down 
 
sorrnERN teshmoxy aga.-nst slavery. 207 
 
 New-York, Philadelphia and Boston! Again they rcsolrc and 
 rercsolvc, and yet there is not a single ton more shipped and not 
 a single article added to the wealth of the South. But, gentle- 
 men, they never invite sueh men as I am to attend their Conven- 
 tions. They know that I would tell them that slavery is the cause 
 of their poverty, and that I will tell them that what they are aim- 
 ing at is the dissolution of the Union — that they may be prepared 
 to strike for tliat whenever the nation rises. They well know that 
 by slave labor tlie very propositions which they make can never 
 be realized ; yet when we show these things, they cry out, ' Oh, 
 Cotton is King !' But when we look at the statistics, we find 
 that so far from Cotton being King, Grass is King. There are 
 nine articles of staple productions which are larger than that of 
 cotton in this country." 
 
 " I suppose it does not follow because slavery is endeavoring 
 to modify the great dicta of our fathers, that cotton and free 
 labor are incompatible. In the extreme South, at New Orleans, 
 the laboring men — the stevedores and hackmcn on the levee, 
 where the heat is intensified by the proximity of the red brick 
 buildings, are all white men, and they are in the full enjoyment 
 of health. But how about cotton ? I am informed by a friend 
 of mine — himself a slaveholder, and therefore good authority — 
 that in Northwestern Texas, among the German settlements, who, 
 true to their national instincts, will not employ the labor of a 
 slave — they produce more cotton to the acre, and of a better 
 quality, and selling at prices from a cent t(^ a cent and a half a 
 pound higher than that produced by slave labor. This is an ex- 
 periment that illustrates what I have alway^ held, that whatever 
 is right is expedient." 
 
 THE VOICE OF BENTON. 
 
 In his " Thirty Years' View," Thomas U. Benton says : — 
 
 "My opp:>sition to the extension of slavery dates further bark 
 than 1844 — forty years further back ; and as this is a suitable 
 time for a general declaration, and a sort of general conscience 
 delivery, I wi.l say that my opposition to it dates from 1804, when 
 
208 SOUTHERN TESTMOXY AGAINST SLATERY. 
 
 I was a student at la^y in the State of Tennessee, and studied the 
 subject of African slavery in an American book — a Virginia book 
 — Tucker's edition of Blackstone's Commentaries." 
 
 Again, in a speecli delivered in St. Louis, on the 3rd of 
 November, 1856, he says : — 
 
 '' I look at white people, and not at black ones ; I look to the 
 peace and reputation of the race to which I belong. I look tc 
 the peace of this land — the world's last hope for a free govern- 
 ment on the earth. One of the occasions on which I saw Henry 
 Clay rise higher than I thought I ever saw him before, was when 
 in the debate on the admission of California, a dissolution was 
 apprehended if slavery was not carried into this Territory, where 
 it never was. Then Mr. Clay, rising, loomed colossally in the 
 Senate of the United States, as he rose declaring that for no 
 earthly purpose, no earthly object, could he carry slavery into 
 places where it did not exist before. It was a great and proud 
 day for Mr. Clay, towards the latter days of his life, and if an art- 
 ist could have been there to catch his expression as he uttered 
 that sentiment, with its reflex on his face, and his countenance 
 beaming with firmness of purpose, it would have been a glorious 
 moment in which to transmit him to posterity — his countenance 
 all alive and luminous with the ideas that beat in his bosom. 
 That was a proud day. I could have wished that I had spoken 
 the same words. I speak them now, telling you they were his, 
 and adopting them as my own." 
 
 THE VOICE OF MASON. 
 
 Colonel Mason, a leading and distinguished member of 
 the Convention that formed the Constitution, from Virginia, 
 when the provision for prohibiting the mportation of 
 slaves was under consideration, said : — 
 
 '• The present question concerns not the importing States alone, 
 
SOUrnERN* TESTIMOXT AGAINST SIJLVERY. 209 
 
 but tho whole Union. Slavery discourages arts and nianufactures. 
 The poor despise labor when performed by slaves. They prevent 
 the emigration of whites who really enrich and strengthen a 
 country. They produce the most pernicious effect on manners. 
 Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the 
 judgment of Heaven on a country. As nations cannot be re- 
 warded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By 
 an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes na- 
 tional sins by national calamities. He lamented that some of our 
 Eastern brethren liad, from a lust of gain, embarked in this nefa- 
 rious traffic. As to the States being in possession of the right 
 to import, this was the case with many other rights, now to be 
 properly given up. He held it essential, in every point of view, 
 that the General Government should have power to prevent tho 
 iucrease of slavery." 
 
 THE VOICE OF MCDOWELL. 
 
 In 1832, Gov. McDowell used this language in the Vir- 
 ginia Legislature : — 
 
 " Who that looks to this unhappy bondage of an unhappy peo- 
 ple, in the midst of our society, and thinks of its incidents or is- 
 sues, but weeps over it as a curse as great upon him who inflicts 
 as upon him who suffers it ? Sir, you may place the slave where 
 you please — you may dry up, to your uttermost, the fountains of 
 his feelings, the springs of his thought — you may close upon his 
 mind every avenue of knowledge, and cloud it over with artificial 
 night — you may yoke him to your labors, as the ox, which liveth 
 only to work and worketh only to live — you may put him under 
 any process which, without destroying his value as a slave, will 
 debase and crush him as a rational being — you may do this, and 
 the idea that he was born to be free will survive t all. It is 
 allied to his hupe of immortality — it is the etherial part of his 
 nature which oppression cannot rend. It is a torch lit up in hia 
 soul by the hand of Deity, and never meant to be eytinguished 
 bj the hand of man." 
 
210 sournERN testdioxy against slavery. 
 
 THE VOICE OF IREDELL. 
 
 Ill the debates of the North Carolina Convention, Mr. 
 Iredjll, afterwards a Judge of the United States Supreme 
 Court, said : — 
 
 " When the entire ahohtion of slavery takes place, it will be 
 an event which must be pleasing to every generous mind, and 
 every friend of human nature." 
 
 THE VOICE OF PINKXEY. 
 
 William Pinkncy, of Maryland, in the House of Dele- 
 gates in that State, in 1189, made several powerful argu- 
 ments in favor of the abolition of slavery. Here follows 
 a brief extract from one of his speeches : — 
 
 ''Iniquitous and most dishonorable to Maryland, is that dreary 
 system of partial bondage which her laws have hitherto sup- 
 ported with a solicitude worthy of a better object, and her citi- 
 zens by their practice, countenanced. Founded in a disgraceful 
 traflSc, to which tlie parent country lent its fostering aid, from 
 motives of interest, but which even she would have disdained to 
 encourage, had England been the destined mart of such inhuman 
 merchandize, its continuance is as shameful as its origin. 
 
 I have no hope that the stream of general liberty will forever 
 flow unpolluted through the mire of partial bondage, or that they 
 who have been habituated to lord it over others, will not, in time, 
 become base enough to let others lord it over them. If they re- 
 sist, it will be the struggle of pride and selfishness, not of princi- 
 ple." 
 
 THE VOICE OF LEIGH. 
 
 In the Legislature of Virginia, in 1832, Mr. Leigh 
 Baid : — 
 
 'I thought, till very lately that it was known to every horlv 
 
SOlTill-UN TrSTIMON'Y ACAI^'ST SI.AVERY. 211 
 
 that, (lurinjj: (lie lu'Vcliition. and for many y(>nrs after, the aholi 
 tion of slavery w:is a fuvorite topic with many of our ablest 
 Statesmen, who entertained with respect all the schemes which 
 wisdom or injrenuit}- could suggest for its accomplishment." 
 
 THE VOICE OF MARSnALL. 
 
 Thomas Marshall, of Fauquier, said, in the Virginia 
 Legislature, in 1832 :— 
 
 " "Wherefore, then, object to slavery ? Because it is ruinous to 
 the whites — retards improvements, roots out an industrious popu- 
 lation, banishes the j'comanr}' of the country — deprives the spin- 
 ner, the weaver, the smith, the shoemaker, the carpenter, of em- 
 ployment and support." 
 
 THE VOICE OF BOLLING. 
 
 Philip A. Bulling, of Buckingham, a member of the Leg- 
 islature of Virginia in 1832, said : — 
 
 '•The time will come — and it may be sooner than many are 
 willing to believe — when this oppressed and degraded race can- 
 not be held as they now are — when a change will be effected, 
 abhorrent, Mr. Speaker, to you, and to the feelings of every good 
 man. 
 
 The wounded adder will recoil, and sting the foot that tram- 
 ples upon it. Tlie day is f:ist approaching, when those who op- 
 pose all action upon this subject, and, instead of aiding in devis- 
 ing some feasible plan for freeing their country from an acknow- 
 ledged curse, cry ' impossible,^ to every plan suggested, will curse 
 their perverseness, and lament their folly.'' 
 
 THE VOICE OF CHANDLER. 
 
 Mr. Chandler, of Norfolk, member of the Virginia Legis- 
 lature, in 1832, took occasion to say: — 
 
 " It is admitted, by all who have addressed this Ilouse, that 
 
212 SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAL ST SLAVERY. 
 
 slavery is a curse, and an increasing one. That it ras been de- 
 structive to the lives of our citizens, history, with unerring truth, 
 will record. That its future increase will create commotion, can- 
 not be doubted." 
 
 THE VOICE OF SUMMERS. 
 
 Mr. Summers, of Kanawha, member of the Legislature 
 of Virginia, in 1832, said : — 
 
 " The evils of this system cannot be enumerated. It were un- 
 necessary to attempt it. They glare upon us at every step. 
 When the owner looks to his wasted estate, he knows and feels 
 them." 
 
 THE VOICE OF FRESTON. 
 
 In the Legislature of Virginia, in 1832, Mr. Preston 
 said : — 
 
 " Sir, Mr. Jefferson, whose hand drew the preamble to the 
 Bill of Rights, has eloquently remarked that we had invoked for 
 ourselves the benefit of a principle which we had denied to 
 others. He saw and felt that slaves, as men, were embraced 
 within this principle." 
 
 THE VOICE OF FREMONT. 
 
 John Charles Fremont, one of the noblest sons of the 
 South, says : — 
 
 "I heartily concur in all movements which have for their ob- 
 ject to repair the mischiefs arising from the violatiDn of good 
 faith in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. I am opposed to 
 slavery in the abstract, and upon principles sustained and made 
 habitual by long settled convictions. I am inflexibly opposed 
 to its extension on this continent beyond its present limits." 
 
 " The great body of non-slavcholding Freemen, including those 
 of the South^ upon whose wvi'fare slavery is an oppression, will 
 
SOUTHERN TESTIMONT AGAIKST SLAVERY. 213 
 
 discover that tlio power of the General Government over tho 
 Public Lands may be beneficially exerted to advance their inter- 
 ests, and secure their independence , knowing this, their sufTra- 
 ges will not be wanting to maintain that authority in the Union, 
 which is absolutely essential to the maintenance of their own 
 liberties, and which has more than once indicated the purpose of 
 disposing of the Public Lands in such a way as would make every 
 settler upon them a freeholder." 
 
 THE VOICE OF CLAIR. 
 
 In an Address to the Republicans of Marj^land, in 1856, 
 Francis P. Blair says : — ■ 
 
 " In every aspect in which slavery among us can be considered, 
 't is pregnant with difficulty. Its continuance in the States in 
 which it has taken root has resulted in the monopoly of the soil, 
 to a great extent, in the hands of the slaveholders, and the entire 
 control of all departments of the State Government ; and yet a 
 majority of people in the slave States are not slave-owners. This 
 produces an anomaly in the principle of our free institutions, 
 which threatens in time to bring into subjugation tc slave-own- 
 ers the great body of the free white population." 
 
 THE VOICE OF MAURY. 
 
 Lieut. Maury, to whom has been awarded so much well- 
 merited praise in the world of science, says : — 
 
 '' The fact must be obvious to the far-reaching minds of our 
 Statesmen, that unless some means of relief be devised, some 
 channel afforded, by which the South can, when the time comes, 
 get rid of the excess of her slave population, she will be ulti- 
 mately found with regard to this institution, in the predicament 
 of the man with the wolf by the ears ; too dangerous to hold on any 
 lon^icr, and equally dangerous to let go. To our min<l, the event 
 is as certain to hajtpen as any event which dei)en(ls on the con- 
 tingencies of the futu-e. viz. : that unless means bo deviled for gra- 
 
214 SOUTHERN" TESTIMONY AGAINSl SLAVERY. 
 
 diiall}'' relieving the slave States from the vinriue pressure :^ this 
 class upon them — unless some way be opened by which they may 
 be rid of their surplus black population — the time will come — it 
 may not be in the next nor in the succeeding generation — but, 
 sooner or later, come it will, and come it must — when the two 
 races will join in the death struggle for the mastery." 
 
 THE VOICE OF BIRXEY. 
 
 James G. Birney, of Kentuckj, under whom the Aboli- 
 tionists first became a National Party, and for whom thej* 
 voted for President in 1844, giving him 66,304 votes,says : 
 
 " We have so long practiced injustice, adding to it hypocrisy, 
 in the treatment of the colored race, both negroes and Indians, 
 that we begin to regard injustice as an element — a chief element 
 — the chief element of our government. But no government 
 ■which admits injustice as an element can be a harmonious one or 
 a permanent one. Harmony is the antagonist of injustice, ever 
 has been, and ever will be ; that is, so long as injustice lasts, 
 which cannot always be, for it is a lie, a semblance, therefore, 
 perishable. True, from the imperfection of man, his ambition 
 and selfishness, injustice often finds its way incidentally into the 
 administration of public aSairs. and maintains its footing a long 
 time before it is cast out by the legitimate elements of govern- 
 ment." 
 
 "Our slave States, especially the more southern of them, in 
 which the number of slaves is greater, and in which, of course 
 the sentiment of injustice is stronger than in the more northern 
 ones, are to be placed on the list of decaying communit'es. To a 
 philosophic observer, they seem to be falling back on the scale 
 of civilization. Even at the present point of retrogression, the 
 cause of civilization and human improvement would lose nothing 
 by their annihilation." 
 
 THE VOICE OF DELAWARE. 
 
 Strong anti-slavery sentiment had become popular id 
 
sorrnERX testimony against slavery. 215 
 
 Delaware as early as 1785. AVith Maryland and Missouri, 
 it may now be ranked as a semi-slave State, Mr. MeLanc, 
 a member of Congress from this State in 1825, said : — 
 
 "I shall not imitate the example of otheii.gcntIemen by mak- 
 ing professions of my love of liberty and abhorrence of slavery, 
 not, however, because I do not entertain them. I am an enemy 
 to slavery." 
 
 THE VOICE OF MARYLAND. 
 
 Slavery has little vitality in Maryland. Baltimore, the 
 greatest city of the South — greatest because freest — has a 
 population of more than two hundred thousand souls, and 
 yet less than three thousand of these are slaves. In spite 
 of all the unjust and oppressive statutes enacted by the 
 oligarchy, the non-slavelnjlders, who "with the exception 
 of a small number of slaveholding emancipationists, may 
 in truth be said to be the only class of respectable and 
 patriotic citizens in the South, have wisely determined 
 that their noble State shall be freed from the sin and the 
 ehame, the crime and the curse of slavery ; and in accor- 
 dance with this determination, long since formed, they aro 
 giving every possible encouragement to free wOiite labor, 
 thereby, very properly, rendering the labor of slaves bitth 
 unprofitable and disgraceful. The formation of an AboU- 
 tion Society in this State, in 1789, was the result of the 
 influence of the masterly speeches delivered .'n the House 
 of Delegates, by tlie lion. "William Pinkney wliose undy- 
 ing testimony we have already placed on record. Nearly 
 seventy years ago, this eminent lawyer and Statesman 
 declared to lac people of America, that if they did not 
 
216 SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 mark out the bounds of slavery, and adopt measures for 
 its total extinction, it would finally " work a decay of the 
 spirit of liberty in the free States." Further, he said that, 
 " by the eternal principles of natural justice, no master in 
 the State has a right to hold his slave in bondage a single 
 hour." In 178T, Luther Martin, of this State, said : — 
 
 " Slavery is inconsistent with the genius of republicanism, and 
 has a tendency to destroy those principles on which it is sup- 
 ported, as it lessens the sense of the equal rights of mankind, 
 and habituates us to tyranny and oppression." 
 
 THE VOICE OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 After introducing the unreserved and immortal testi- 
 mony of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Henry, and the 
 other great men of the Old Dominion, against the institu- 
 tion of slavery, it may to some, seem quite superfluous to 
 back the cause of Freedom by arguments from other Vir- 
 ginia abolitionists ; but this State, notwithstanding all 
 her more modern manners and inhumanity, has been so 
 prolific of just views and noble sentiments, that we deem 
 it eminently fit and proper to blazon many of them to the 
 world as the redeeming features of her history. An Abo- 
 lition Society was formed in this State in 11 91. In a me- 
 morial which the members of this Society presented to 
 Congress, they pronounced slavery " not only an odious 
 degradation, but an outrageous violation of one of the most 
 essential rights of human nature, and utterly repugnant 
 to the precepts of the Gospel." A Bill of Rights, unan- 
 innusly agreed upon by the Virginia Convention of June 
 12, 1776, holds— 
 
SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY 211 
 
 " That all men are, by nature, equally free and independent; 
 
 That Goverument is, or ought to be, instituted for the common 
 benefit, protection, and security, of the People, Nation, or Com- 
 muiiit}' ; 
 
 That elections of members to seive as reprcsentatis'cs of tho 
 people in assembly ought to be free ; 
 
 That all men having sufficient evidence of j)crmanent common 
 interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right 
 of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property, 
 for public uses, without their own consent or that of their repre- 
 sentatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have 
 not in like manner assented, for the public good ; 
 
 That the freedom of the Press is one of the greatest bulwarks 
 of Liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic Govern- 
 ments ; 
 
 That no free Government or the blessing of Liberty can be 
 preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, mod- 
 eration, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by a frequent re- 
 currence to fundamental principles." 
 
 The " Virginia Society for the Abolition of Slavery/* 
 organized in 1791, addressed Congress in these words : — 
 
 '•Your memorialists, fully aware that righteousness exalteth a 
 nation, and that slavery is not only an odious degradation, but 
 an outrageous violation of one of the most essential rights of hu- 
 man nature, and utterly repugnant to the precepts of the gospel, 
 which breathes ' peace on earth and good will to men,' lament 
 that a practice so inconsistent with true polic}- and the inaliena- 
 ble rights of men. should subsist in so enlightened an age, and 
 among a people professing that all mankind are, by nature, 
 equally entitled to freedom." 
 
 TUE VOICE OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 If the question, slavery or no slavery, could be fairly pre- 
 B«.'nted fur the decision of the legal voters of North Caro- 
 lina at the next popular election, we believe at least two- 
 
 10 
 
218 SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 thirds of them would deposite the no slavery ticket. Perhaps 
 one-fourth of the slaveholders themselves would vote it, 
 for the slaveholders in this State are more moderate, de- 
 cent, sensible, and honorable, than the slaveholders in 
 either of the adjoining States, or the States further Soutli ; 
 and we know that many of them are heartily ashamed of 
 the vile occupations of slaveholding and slave-breeding in 
 which they are engaged, for we have the assurance from 
 their own lips. As a matter of course, all the non-slave- 
 holders, who are so greatly in the majority, would vote to 
 suppress the degrading institution which has kept them so 
 long in poverty and ignorance, with the exception of those 
 wJio are complete automatons to the beck and call of their 
 imperious lords and masters, the major-generals of the 
 oligarchy. 
 
 How long shall it be before the citizens of North Caro- 
 lina shall have the privilege of expressing, at the ballot- 
 box, their true sentiments with regard to this vexed ques- 
 tion ? Why not decide it at the next general . 'lection ? 
 Sooner or later, it must and will be decided — de( ded cor- 
 rectly, too — and the sooner the better. The first "southern 
 State that abolishes slavery will do herself an immortal 
 honor. God grant that North Carolina may be that State, 
 and soon 1 There is at least one plausible reason why 
 this good old State should be the first to move in this im- 
 p^stant matter, and we will state it. On the 20th of May, 
 1775, just one year one month and fourteen days prior to 
 the adoption of the Jeffersonian Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence, by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, July 
 4, 1776, *he Mecklenburg Declarjltion of Independence, the 
 
SOrniERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 210 
 
 authorship of which is generally attributed to Ephraim 
 Brevard, was proclaimed in Charlotte, Mecklenburg county, 
 North Carolina, and fully ratified in a second Convention 
 of the people of said county, held on the 31st of the same 
 month. And here, by the way, we may remark, that it is 
 supposed Mr. Jefferson made use of this last-mentioned 
 document as the basis of his draft of the indestructible 
 title-deed of our liberti(>s. There is certainly an identical- 
 ness of language between the two papers that is well cal- 
 culated to strengthen this hypothesis. This, however, is 
 a controversy about which we arc but little concerned. 
 For present purposes, it is, perhaps, enough for us to 
 know, that on the 20th of May, 1775, when transatlantic 
 tyranny and oppression could no longer be endured, North 
 Carolina set her sister colonies a most valorous and praise- 
 worthy example, and that they followed it. To her infa- 
 mous slaveholding sisters of the South, it is now meet that 
 she should set another noble example of decency, virtue, 
 and independence. Lot her at once inaugurate a policy 
 of common justice and humanity — enact a system of 
 equitable laws, having due regard to the rights and inter- 
 ests of all classes of persons, poor whites, negroes, and 
 nabobs, and the surrounding States will ere long applaud 
 her measures, and adopt similar ones for the governance 
 of themselves. 
 
 Another reason, and a cogent one, why North Carolina 
 should aspire to become the first free State of the South \a 
 this : The first slave State that makes herself respectable 
 by casting out " the mother of harlots," and by rendering 
 entcTprise and industry honorable, will immediately rccervo 
 
220 SOUTHERN TESTDIOXY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 a large accession of most worthy citizens from other States 
 in the Union, and tlms lay a broad foundation of permanent 
 political power and prosperity. Intelligent white farmers 
 from the Middle and New England States will flock to our 
 more congenial clime, eager to give thirty dollars per acre 
 for the same lands that are now a drug in the market be- 
 cause nobody ^ ants them at the rate of five dollars per 
 acre ; an immediate and powerful impetus will be given 
 to commerce, manufactures, and all the industrial arts ; 
 science and literature will be revived, and every part of 
 the State will reverberate with the triumphs of manual 
 and intellectual labor. 
 
 At this present time, we of Xorth Carolina are worth 
 less than either of the four adjoining States ; let us abolish 
 slavery at the beginning of the next regular decade of 
 years, and if our example is not speedily followed, we shall, 
 on or before the first day of January, 1870, be enabled to 
 purchase the whole of Virginia and South Carolina, inclu- 
 ding, perhaps, the greater part of Georgia, An exclusive 
 '.ease of liberty for ten years would unquestionably make 
 us the Empire State of the South. But we have no dispo- 
 sition to debar others from the enjoyment of liberty or any 
 other inalienable right ; we ask no special favors ; what 
 we demand for ourselves we are willing to concede to our 
 neighbors. Hereby we make application for a lease of 
 freedom for ten years ; shall we have it ? May God ena- 
 ble us to secure it, as we believe lie will. We give fair 
 notice, however, that if we get it for ten years, we shall, 
 with the approbation of Heaven, keep it twenty — forty — 
 a thousand -forever ! 
 
SOUTHERN' TESTIMOXY AfiAlN'ST SLAVERY. 221 
 
 We transcribe the Mecklenburg Resolutions, wliicli, it 
 will be observeil, iicknowleJg'c the " inherent and inalien- 
 able righU of man," and " declare ourselves a free and 
 independent people, are, and of ri<jht ought to be, a sove- 
 reign and self-governing- association, under the control of 
 no power other than that of our God, and the general go- 
 vernment of the Congress." 
 
 ilECKLEXBURG DECL.\RATION OF IXDEPENDENCE, 
 
 As proclaimed in the town of Charlotte, North Carolina, 
 May 20th, 1775, and ratified by the County of Mecklen- 
 burg, in Convention, May 31st, 1775. 
 
 " I. Resolved — That whosoever, directly or indirectly, abetted, 
 or in any way, form or manner, countenanced the unchartered 
 and dangerous invasion of our riglits as claimed by Great Britain, 
 is an enemy to this country, to America, and to the inherent and 
 inalienable rights of man. 
 
 "II. Resolved — That we the citizens of Mecklenburg Count}', 
 do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us 
 to the mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all 
 allegiance to the British Crown, and abjure all political connec- 
 tion, contract or association with that nation, who have wantonly 
 trampled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the 
 blood of American patriots at Lexington. 
 
 "III. Resolved — That we do hereb}' declare ourselves a free 
 and independent people, are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign 
 and self-governing association, under the control of no power other 
 than that of our God, and the general government of the Con- 
 gress ; to the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly 
 pledge to each other our nmtual co-operation, our lives, our for- 
 tunes, and our most sacred honor. 
 
 '• IV. Resolved — That as we now acknowledge the existence and 
 rontrol of no law or legal officer, civil or military, within thia 
 county, we do hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of life, all, each, 
 
222 SOUTHERN' TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY, 
 
 and every of our former laws — wlicreiri, nevertheless, the ck wn 
 of GreatBritain never can be considered as holding rights, privi- 
 leges, immunities or authority therein.'- 
 
 Had it not been for slavery, which, with all its other 
 blighting' and degrading influences, stifles and subdues 
 every noble impulse of the heart, this consecrated spot 
 would long since have been marked by an enduring 
 monument, whose grand proportions should bear witness 
 that the virtues of a noble ancestry are gratefully remein 
 bered by an emulous and appreciative posterity. Yet, 
 even as things are, we are not without genuine consola- 
 tion. The star of hope and promise is beginning to beam 
 brightly over the long-obscured horizon of the South ; and 
 we are firm in the belief, that freedom, wealth, and mag- 
 nanimity, will soon do justice to the memory of those fear- 
 less patriots, whose fair fame has been suffered to moul- 
 der amidst the multifarious abominations of slavery, pov- 
 erty, ignorance and grovelling selfishness. 
 
 Judge Iredell's testimony, which will be found on a 
 preceding page, and to which we request the reader to 
 recur, might have been appropriately introduced under 
 our present heading. 
 
 In the Provincial Convention held in North Carolina, in 
 August, 1714, in w^hich there were sixty-nine delegates, 
 representing nearly every county in the province, it was — 
 
 " Resolved — That we will not import any slave or slaves, or 
 purchase any slave or slaves imported or brought into the Pro- 
 vince by others, from any part of the world, after the first day 
 of November next." 
 
 In Iredell's Statutes, revised by Martin, it is stated that, 
 
SOL'THF-RX TEsriMOXY ACATN'.-T SI.AVKRY. 223 
 
 'In North Carolina, no general law at all was passed, ^rior to 
 toe revolution, declaring who might be slaves." 
 
 That there is no Ifgil slavery in the Southern States, and 
 that slavery no where can be legalized, any more than 
 theft, arson or murder can be legalized, has been virtually 
 admitted by some of the most profound Southern jurists 
 themselves ; and we will here digress so far as to furnish 
 the testimony of one or two eminent lawyers, not of Xorth 
 Carolina, upon this point. 
 
 In the debate in the United States Senate, in 1850, on 
 the Fugitive Slave Bill, Mr. Mason, of Virginia, objected 
 to Mr. Dayton's amendment, providing for a trial by jury, 
 because, said he : — 
 
 '* A trial hv jury nccessaril}' carries with it a trial of the whole 
 right, and a trial of the right to service will be gone into, ac- 
 cording to all the forms of the Court, in determining upon any 
 other fact. Then, again, it is proposed, as a part of the proof to 
 be adduced at the hearing, after the fugitive has been re-captured, 
 that evidence shall be brought by the claimant to show that slavery 
 is established in the State from which the fugitive has abscond- 
 ed. Now this very tiling, in a recent case in the city of New- 
 York, was required by one of the judges of that State, which case 
 attracted the attention of the authorities of Maryland, and against 
 which they protested. In that case the State judge went so far as 
 to say that the only mode of proving it was by reference to the Sta- 
 tute book. Such proof is required in the Senator's amendment ; 
 and if he means by this that proof shall be brought that slavery 
 is established by existing laws, it is impossible to comply with 
 the requistion, for no such law can be produced, I apprehend, in 
 any of thi slave States. I am not aware that there is a single 
 State in which the institution is established by positive law." 
 
 Juige Clarke, of Mississippi, says : — 
 
224 SOUl'HERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 " In this State the legislature have considered slaves as reason 
 able and accountable beings j and it would be a stigma upon the 
 character of the State, and a reproach to the administration of 
 justice, if the life of a slave could be taken with impunit}'-, or if 
 he could be murdered in cold blood, without subjecting the olTen- 
 der to the highest penalty known to the criminal jurisprudence 
 of the country. lias the slave no rights, because he is deprived 
 of his freedom? lie is still a human being, and possesses all 
 those rights of which he is not deprived by the positive provi- 
 sions of the law. The right of the master exists not by force of 
 the law of nature or nations, but by virtue only of the positive 
 law of the State." 
 
 The Hon. Judge Ruffin, of North Carolina, says : — ■ 
 
 '• Arguments drawn from the well-established principles, which 
 confer and restrain the authority of the parent over the child, 
 the tutor over the pupil, the master over the apprentice, have 
 been pressed on us. The Court does not recognize their applica- 
 tion ; there is no likeness between the cases ; they are in opposi- 
 tion to each other, and there is an impassable gulf between them. 
 The difference is that which exists between freedom and slavery, 
 and a greater cannot be imagined. In the one, the end in view 
 is the happiness of the youth, born to equal rights with that gov- 
 ernor on whom the duty devolves of training the young to use- 
 fulness, in a station which he is afterwards to assume among free- 
 men. To such an end, and with such a subject, moral and intel- 
 lectual instruction seem the natural means, and, for the most 
 part, they are found to suiBce. Moderate force is superadded 
 only to make the others effectual. If that fail, it is better to 
 leave the party to his own headstrong passions, and the ultimate 
 correction of the law, than to allow it to be immoderately in- 
 flicted by a private person. AYith slavery it is far otherwise. 
 The end is the profit of the master, his security, and the public 
 safety ; the subject^ one doomed, in his own person and his pos 
 terity, to live without knowledge, and without the capacity to 
 muka anything his own, and to toil that another may reap the 
 fru'ts. What moral considerations shall be addressed to such a 
 
SOCTHERK TESTIilOSY AGAIN'ST SLAVERY. 225 
 
 being to convince him, wluit it is impossible but that tlie most 
 stupid must feel and know can never be true, that lie is thus to 
 •abor upon a principle of natural duty, or for the sake of his own 
 oersonal happiness ? Such services can only be expected from 
 one uho has no will of his own ; who surrenders his will in im- 
 plicit obedience to that of another. Such obedience is the con- 
 sequence only of uncontrolled authority over the body. There 
 is nothing else which can oj)erate to produce the effect. The 
 power of the master must be absolute to render the submission 
 of the slave perfect. I most freely confess my sense of the 
 harshness of this proposition. I feel it as deeply as any man 
 can J and as a principle of moral right, every person in his rr- 
 tirement must repudiate it." 
 
 An esteemed friend, a physician, who was I .^rn and 
 bred in Rowan county, Xortli Carolina, and who now re- 
 sides there, informs us that Jud<jc Gaston, who was one 
 of the half dozen Statesmen wh(jm the South has produced 
 since the days of the venerable fathers of the Republic 
 was an avowed abolitionist, and that he published an ad- 
 dress to the people of North Carolina, delineating, in a 
 masterly T^anner, the material, moral, and social disad' 
 vantages of slaver}'. AVhere is that address ? Has it 
 been suppressed hy the oligarchy ? The fact that slave- 
 holders have, from time to time, made strenuous eflorts to 
 expunge the sentiments of freedom which now adorn the 
 works of nobler men than the noble Gaston, may, perhaps, 
 fully account for the oblivious state into which his patrio- 
 tic address seems to have fallen. 
 
 THE VOICE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 Poor South Carolina ! Folly is her nightcap ; fanati- 
 c'sm \3 her d iy-dreara ; fire-eating is her pastime. She haf 
 
 10* 
 
226 SOCTHERX TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 lost her better judg-ment ; the dictates of reason and pV.i 
 losophy have no influence upon her actions. Like the wile 
 who is pitiably infatuated with a drunken, worthless hus- 
 band, she still clings, with unabated love, to the cause of 
 her shame, her misery, and her degradation. 
 
 A Kentuckian has recently expressed his opinion of this 
 State in the following language : — 
 
 " South Carolina is bringing herself irrecoverably in the public 
 contempt. It is impossible for any impartial lover of his coun- 
 try, for any just thinking man, to witness her senseless and 
 quenchless malignancy against the Union without the most im- 
 measurable disgust and scorn. She is one vast hot-bed of dis- 
 union. Her people think and talk of nothing else. She is a fes- 
 tering mass of treason." 
 
 In 1854, there were assessed for taxation in 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA, 
 
 Acres of Land 17,289,^59 
 
 Valued at 822,836,374 
 
 Average value per acre SI, 32 
 
 At the same time there were in 
 
 NEW JERSEY, 
 
 Acres of Land 5,324,800 
 
 Valued at S153,161,619 
 
 Average value per acre S28,76 
 
 We hope the Slavocrats will look, first on that picture, 
 and then on this ; from one or the other, or both, they may 
 glean a ray or two of wisdom, which, if duly applied, will 
 be of incalculable advantage to them and their posterity 
 Wl trust, also, tha^ the non-slaveholding whites will view. 
 
SOnilERX TESTIMONV AfJAIN'ST SLAVERY. 227 
 
 witb discriminating minds, the dilTorcnt lights and shades 
 of these two pictures ; they are the parties most deeply 
 interested ; and it is to them we look for the glorious revo- 
 lution that is to substitute Freedom for Slavery. They 
 have the power to retrieve the fAllcn fortunes of Soutli 
 Carolina, t j raise her up from the loathsome sink of iniquity 
 into which slavery has plunged her, and to make her one 
 of the most brilliant stars in the great constellation of 
 States. While their minds are occupied with other con- 
 siderations, let them not forget the diflercncc between 
 ticenty-eight dollars and seventy-six cents, the value of land per 
 acre in New Jersey, which is a second-rate free State, and 
 (/ne dollar and thirty-tico cents, the value of laud per acre in 
 South Carolina, which is, jpar trccllence, the model slave 
 State. The difTercnce between the two sums is twentj'- 
 seven dollars and forty-four cents, which would amount to 
 precisely two thousand seven hundred and forty-four dol- 
 lars on every hundred acres. To present the subject in 
 another form, the South Carolina tract of land, containing 
 two hundred acres, is worth now only two hundred and 
 sixty-four dollars, and is depreciating every day. Let 
 slavery be abolished, and in the course of a few years, 
 the same tract w*ill be worth five thousand seven hundred 
 and fifty-two dollars, with an upward tendency. At this 
 rate, the increment of value on the total area of the 
 State will amount to more than three times as much as the 
 present estimated value of the slaves 1 
 
 South Carolina has not always been, nor will she always 
 continue to be, on the wrong side. From Ramsay's His- 
 tory of tif State, we learn that, in 17*14, she — 
 
228 SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 ''Resolved — That Ilis ^Majesty's subjects in North America 
 (without respect to color or other accidents) are entitled to all 
 the inherent rights and liberties of his natural born subjects 
 within the Kingdom of Great Britain ; that it is their fundamen- 
 tal right, that no man should suffer in his person or property 
 without a fair trial, and judgment given by his peers, or by the 
 law of the land." 
 
 One of her early writers, under the ncn de plume of Phi- 
 lodemus, in a political pamphlet published in Charleston 
 in 1784, declares that — 
 
 " Such is the fatal influence of slavery on the human mind, 
 that it almost wholly effaces from it even the boasted character- 
 istic of rationality." 
 
 This same writer, speaking of the particular interests 
 of South Carolina, says : — 
 
 " It has been too common with us to search the records of 
 other nations, to find precedents that may give sanction to our 
 own errors, and lead us unwarily into confusion and ruin. It is 
 our business to consult their histories, not with a view to tread 
 right or wrong in their steps, but in order to investigate the real 
 sources of the mischiefs that have befallen them, and to endeavor 
 to escape the rocks which they have all unfortunately split upon. 
 It is paying ourselves but a poor compliment, to say that we are 
 incapable of profiting by others, and that, with all the informa- 
 tion which is to be derived from their fatal experience, it is in 
 vain for us to attempt to excel them. If, with all the peculiar 
 advantages of our present situation, we are incapable of surpass- 
 ing our predecessors, we must be a degenerate race indeed, and 
 quite unworthy of those singular bounties of Heaven, which we 
 are so unskilled or undesirous to turn to our benefit." 
 
 A recent number of Frazcr's Magazine contains a well- 
 limed and well-Trritten article from the pen of Wm. Henry 
 
StHTIlRKX rr.S'lIM.iN V ACAINST SI.AVI.ltV. 229 
 
 Iliirlbut, of tliis Stuto ; and from it wc make tlie following 
 extract : — 
 
 '• As all sagacious observers of the operation of the system of 
 slavcrj have demonstrated, the profitable employment of slave- 
 labor is inconsistent with the development of agricultural sci- 
 ence, and demands a continual supply of new and unexhausted 
 soil. The slaveholder, investing his capital in the purchase of 
 the laborers themselves, and not merely in soil and machines, 
 j)aying his free laborers out of the profit, must depend for his 
 continued and progressive prosperity upon the cheapness and 
 facility with which he can transfer his slaves to fresh and fertile 
 lands. An enormous additional item, namely, the price of slaves, 
 being added to the cost of production, all other elements of that 
 cost require to be proportionably smaller, or profits fail." 
 
 In an address delivered before the South Carolina Insti- 
 tute, in Charleston, Nov. 20th, 1856, Mr. B. F. Perry, of 
 Greenville, truthfully says : — 
 
 " It has been South Carolina's misfortune, in this utilitarian 
 age, to have her greatest talents and most powerful energies di- 
 rected to pursuit?, which avail her nothing, in the way of wealth 
 and prosperity. In the fir.st settlement of a new country, agri- 
 cultural industry necessarily absorbs all the time and occupation 
 of its inhabitants. They must clear the forests and cultivate the 
 earth, in order to make their bread. This is their first consider- 
 ation. Then the mechanical arts, and manufactures, and com- 
 merce, must follow in the footsteps of agriculture, to insure either 
 •'ndividual or national prosperity. No people can be highly pros- 
 perous without them. Xo people ever have been. Agriculture, 
 alone, will not make or sustain a great peojde. The true policy 
 of every people is to cultivate the earth, manufacture its pro- 
 ducts, and send them abroad, in exchange for those comforts and 
 luxuries, and necessaries, which their own country and their own 
 industry cannot g.ve or make. The dependence of South Car- 
 olina Dn Europ\ and the Northern States for all the necessaries 
 
230 SOUrHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 comforts and luxuries, which the mechanic arts afford, has, in 
 fact, drained her of her wea/th, and made her positively poor, 
 when compared with her sister States of the Confederacy. It is 
 at once mortifying and alarming, to see and reflect on our own 
 dependence in the mechanic arts and manufactures, on strangers 
 and foreigners. In the Northern States their highest talents 
 and energy have been diversified, and more profitably emploj'ed 
 in developing the resources of the country, in making new inven- 
 tions in the mechanic arts, and enriching the community with 
 science and literature, commerce and manufactures." 
 
 THE VOICE OF GEORGIA. 
 
 Of the States strictly Southern, Georgia is, perhaps, tb'> 
 most thrifty. This prosperous condition of the State is 
 mainly ascribable to her hundred thousand free white 
 laborers — more than eighty-three thousand of whom aro 
 engaged in agricultural pursuits. In few other slave 
 States are the non-slaveholders so little under the domina- 
 tion of the oligarchy. At best, however, even in the most 
 liberal slave States, the social position of the non-slave- 
 holding whites is but one short step in advance of that 
 of the negroes ; and as there is, on the part of the oligar- 
 chy, a constantly increasing desire and effort to usiu-p 
 greater power, the more we investigate the subject the 
 more fully are we convinced that nothing but the speedy 
 and utter annihilation of slavery from the entire nation, 
 can save the masses of white people in the Southern States 
 fcom ultimately falling to a political level with the blacks 
 — both occupying the most abject and galling condition 
 of servitude of which it is possible for the human mind 
 to conceive. 
 
 Gen. Oglethorpe, under whose management the Colony 
 
sournERX testimony again'st si^vvery. ^.31 
 
 f Gtwrgia was settled, in 1733, was bitterly opposed to 
 the institution of slavery. In a letter to Granville Sliarp, 
 dated Oct. 13th, 177G, he says :— 
 
 "My friends and 1 settled the Colony of Georgia, and by cliar- 
 ter were established trustees, to make laws, &c. We deterniiiu-d 
 not to Rufler slavery there. But the slave merchants and tluii 
 adherents occasioned us not only much trouble, but at last jijot 
 the then government to favor them. AVe would not suffer slav- 
 ery, (which is against the Gospel, as well as thefundamentallavv 
 of England.) to be authorized under our authority ; we refused, 
 as trustees, to make a law permitting such a horrid crime. The 
 government, finding the trustees resolved firmlj'" not to concur 
 with what they believed unjust, took away the charter by which 
 no law could be passed without our consent.-' 
 
 On the 12th of January, 1775, in indorsing the proceed- 
 ings of the first American Congress, among other resolir 
 tions, " the Keprescntatives of the extensive District oi 
 Darien, in the Colony of Georgia'^ adopted the following : — 
 
 "5. To show the world that we are not influenced by an}^ con 
 tracted or interested motives, but a general philanthropy for ^^ 
 mankind, of whatever climate, language, or complexion, we hereby 
 declare our disapprobation and abhorrence of the unnatural prac- 
 tice of slavery in America, (however the uncultivated state of our 
 country or other specious arguments may plead for it.) a practice 
 founded in injustice and cruelty, and highly dangerous to our lib- 
 erties, (as well as lives.) debasing part of our fellow creatures be- 
 low men, and corrupting the virtue and morals of the rest ; ant 
 is laying the basis of that liberty we contend for, (and which w- 
 pray the Almighty to continue to the latest posterity,) upon a 
 very wrong foundation. We therefore resolve, at all times. t.» 
 use our utmost endeavors for the manumission of our slaves in 
 this Colony, upon the most safe and equitable footing fcr the 
 masters and Jiemsclve* 
 
232 SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 The Hon. Mr. Reid, of this State, in a speech deliverea 
 in Congress, Feb. 1, 1820, says : — 
 
 " I am not the panegyrist of slavery. It is an unnatural state, 
 a dark clDud, which obscures half the lustre of our free institu- 
 tions. For my own part, though surrounded by slavery from my 
 cradle to the present moment, yet — 
 
 ' I hate the touch of servile hands, 
 I loathe the slaves who cringe around.' " 
 
 As an accompaniment to those lines, he might have 
 uttered these : — 
 
 " I would not have a slave to till my ground ; 
 To carry me, to fan me while I sleep 
 And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth 
 That sinews bought and sold have ever earned." 
 
 Thus have we presented a comprehensive summary of 
 the most unequivocal and irrefragable testimony of tha 
 South against the iniquitous institution of human slavery 
 What more can we say ? What more can we do ? We 
 might fill a folio volume with similar extracts ; but we 
 must forego the task ; the remainder of our space must be 
 occupied with other arguments. In the foregoing excerptis 
 is revealed to us, in language too plain to be misunderstood, 
 the important fact that every truly great and good man 
 the South has ever produced, has, with hopeful confidence, 
 looked forward to the time when this entire continent shall 
 be redeemed from the crime and the curse of slavery. Our 
 noble self-sacrificing forefathers have performed their part, 
 and performed it well. They have laid us a foundation as 
 enduring as th« carjih itself ; in their dying moments they 
 
SOUTHERN TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 233 
 
 admonished us to carry out their designs in the ufLuilding 
 and completion of the superstructure. Let us obey their 
 patriotic injunctions. 
 
 From each of the six original Southern States we have 
 introduced the most ardent aspirations for liberty — the 
 most positive condemnations of slavery. From each of 
 the nine slave States which have been admitted into the 
 Union since the organization of the General Government, 
 we could introduce, from several of their wisest and best 
 citizens, anti-slavery sentiments equally as strong and con- 
 vincing as those that emanated from the great founders 
 of our movement — "Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Patrick 
 llenry and tlie Kandolphs. As we have already remarked, 
 however, the limits of this chapter will not admit of the 
 introduction of additional testimony from either of the old 
 or of the new slave States. 
 
 The reader will not fail to observe that, in presenting 
 these solid abolition doctrines of the South, we have been 
 careful to make such quotations as triumphantly refute, in 
 every particular, the more specious sophistries of the 
 oligarchy. 
 
 The mention of the illustrious names above, reminds us 
 of the fact, that the party newspapers, whose venal columns 
 are eternally teeming with vituperation and slander, have 
 long assured us that the Whig ship was to be steered by 
 the Washington rudder, that the Democratic barque was 
 to sail with the Jefferson compass, and that the Know- 
 Nothing brig was to carry the Madison chart. Imposed 
 npon by these monstrous falsehoods, we have, from time 
 to time, been induced to engage passage on each of these 
 
^>34 
 
 SOUTHERN TESTIMOXY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 corrupt and rickety old hulks ; but, in every instance, we 
 have been basely swamped in the sea of slavery, and are 
 alone indebted for our lives to the kindness of Heaven and 
 the art of swimming. Washington the founder of the 
 Whig party ! Jefferson the founder of the Democratic 
 party I Voltaire the founder of Christianity I God forbid 
 that man's heart should always continue to be the citadel 
 of deception — that he should ever be to others the antipode 
 of what he is to himself. 
 
 There is now in this country but one party that promises, 
 in good faith, to put in practice the principles of Washing- 
 ton, Jefferson, Madison, and the otlier venerable Fathers 
 of the Republic — the Republican party. To this party we 
 pledge unswerving allegiance, so long as it shall continue 
 to pursue the statism advocated by the great political 
 prototypes above-mentioned, but no longer. We believe 
 it is, as it ought to be, the desire, the determination, and 
 the destiny of this party, to give the death-blow to slavery ; 
 should future developments prove the party at variance 
 with this belief — a belief, by the bye, which it has recently 
 inspired in the breasts of little less than one and a half 
 millions of the most intelligent and patriotic voters in 
 America — we shall shake off the dust of our feet against 
 it, and join one that will, in a summary manner ovf^rr^^f- 
 the intolerable grievance. 
 
NORTHEUN TESTIMOXV. 235 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NORTHERN TESTIMONf, 
 
 The best evidence that can be given of the enlightened 
 patriotism and love of liberty in the Free States, is the 
 fact that, at the Presidential election in 1856, they polled 
 thirteen hundred thousand votes for the Pepublican can- 
 didate, John C. Fremont. This fact of itself seems to 
 preclude the necessity of strengthening our cause with the 
 individual testimony of even their greatest men. Having, 
 however, adduced the most cogent and conclusive anti- 
 slavery arguments from the Washingtons, the JefTersons, 
 the Madisons, the Randolphs, and the Clays of the South, 
 we shall now proceed to enrich our pages with gems of 
 Liberty from the Franklins, the Hamiltons, the Jays, the 
 Adamses, and the Wcbsters of the North. Too close at- 
 tention cannot be paid to the words of wisdom which we 
 have extracted from the works of these truly eminent and 
 philosophic Statesmen. "We will first listen to 
 
 THE voice of franklin. 
 
 Dr. Franklin was the first president of " Tlie Pennsyl- 
 vania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery ;'' 
 
236 NORTHERN TE311M0NY. 
 
 and it is now generally conceded that this was the first 
 regularly organized American abolition Society — it having 
 been formed as early as 1774, while we were yet subjects 
 of the British government. In 1790, in the name and on 
 behalf of this Society, Dr. Franklin, who was then within 
 a few months of the close of his life, drafted a memorial 
 " to the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
 United States," in which he said : — 
 
 " Your memorialists, particularly engaged in attending to the 
 distresses arising from slavery, believe it to be their indispenRa- 
 ble duty to present this subject to your notice. They have ob- 
 served, with real satisfaction, that many important and salutary 
 powers are vested in you, for ' promoting the welfare and secur- 
 ing the blessings of liberty to the people of the United States; 
 and as they conceive that these blessings ought rightfully to be 
 administered, without distinction of color, to all descriptions of 
 people, so they indulge themselves in the pleasing expectation 
 that nothing which can be done for the relief of the unhappy ob- 
 jects of their care, will be either omitted or delayed. 
 
 From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the por- 
 tion, and is still the birthright of all men, and influenced by the 
 strong ties of humanity and the principles of their institution, 
 3-our memorialists conceive themselves bound to use all justifia- 
 ble endeavors to loosen the bonds of slavery, and promote a gen- 
 eral enjoyment of the blessings of freedom. Under these im- 
 pressions, they earnestly entreat your attention to the subject 
 of slavery ; that you will be pleased to countenance the restora- 
 tion to liberty of those unhappy men, who, alone, in this laud of 
 freedom, are degraded into perpetual bondage, and who, amid the 
 general joy of surrounding freemen, are groaning in servile sub- 
 jection ; that you will devise means for removing this inconsis- 
 tency of character from the American people; that you will, pro- 
 mote mercy and justice towards this distressed race; and that 
 you will step t: the very verge of the power vested in you for 
 
NOnniERX TESTIMOXV. 237 
 
 discouraging every species of trafTic in the persons of our fcllow- 
 mcn." 
 
 On another occasion, he says : — '• Slavery is an atrocious de- 
 basement of human nature." 
 
 THE VOICE OF HAMILTON". 
 
 Alexander Hamilton, the brilliant Statesman and finan- 
 cier, tells us that — 
 
 *' The sacred rights of mankind arc not to be rummaged for 
 among old parchments or musty records. They are written as 
 with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the 
 hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured 
 by mortal power." 
 
 Again, in 1774, addressing himself to an American Tory, 
 he says : — 
 
 '• The fundamental source of all 3'our errors, sophisms, and 
 false reasonings, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of man- 
 kind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you 
 could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, 
 entitled to equal privileges. You would he convinced that natu- 
 ral lihcrty is the gift of the beneficent Creator to the whole hu- 
 man race ; and that civil liberty is founded on that." 
 
 THE VOICE OF J.VY. 
 
 John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States under 
 the Constitution of 1789, in a letter to the lion. Elias Bou- 
 dinot, dated Nov. 17, 1819, says : — 
 
 '' Little can be added to what has been said and written on the 
 ^uhject of slavery. I concur in the opinion that it ou^ht not to 
 be introduced nor permitted in any of the new States, and that 
 it ought '.o be gradually diminished and finally abolished in all 
 of them 
 
238 NORTHERN TESTIMONY 
 
 " To me, the constitutional authority of the Congress to prohi 
 bit the migration and importation of slaves into any of the States 
 does not appear questionable. 
 
 " The first article of the Constitution specifies the legislative 
 powers committed to the Congress. The 9th section of that article 
 has these words : ' The migration or imporlation of such persona 
 as any of the now-existing States shall think proper to admit, 
 shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808, 
 but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not ex- 
 ceeding ten dollars for each person.' 
 
 " I understand the sense and meaning of this clause to be, tha'; 
 the power of the congress, although competent to prolnbit such 
 migration and importation, was to be exercised with respect to 
 the iheji existing States, and them only, until the year 1S03, but 
 the Congress were at liberty to make such prohibitions as to any 
 new State, which might in the mean time be established. And 
 further, that from and after that period, they were authorized to 
 make such prohibitions as to all the States, whether new or old. 
 
 " It will. I presume, be admitted, that slaves were the persons 
 intended. The word slaves was avoided, probably on account 
 of the existing toleration of slavery, and its discordanc}^ with the 
 principles of the Revolution, and from a consciousness of its be- 
 ing repugnant to the following positions in the Declaration of In- 
 dependence : ' We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all 
 men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
 with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' " 
 
 In a previous letter, written from Spain, whither he had 
 been appointed as minister plenipotentiary, he says, 
 speaking of the abolition of slavery : — 
 
 '•Till America comes into this measure, her prayers toITeaven 
 will be impious. This is a strong expression, but it is just. I 
 believe that God governs the world, and I believe it to be a 
 maxim in His, as in our Courts, tha those who ask for equity 
 ousht to d D it." 
 
NORTHF.RN' TKSTIMOXV. 239 
 
 WILLIAM JAY. 
 
 The lion. Win. Jay, a noble son of Chief Justice Jolm 
 Jay, says : — 
 
 '• A crisis has arrived in which wc must maintain our rights, or 
 surrender them for ever. I speak not to abolitionists alone, but 
 to all who Talue the liberty our fathers achieved. Do you ask 
 what we have to do with slavery ? Let our muzzled presses an- 
 Bwer — let the mobs excited against us by the merchants and 
 politicians answer — let the gag laws threatened by our governors 
 and legishiturcs answer, lot the conduct of the National Govern- 
 ment answer." 
 
 THE VOICE OF ADAMS. 
 
 From the Diary of John Quincy Adams, " the old mau 
 eloquent," we make the following extract : — 
 
 '* It is among the evils of slavery, that it taints the very sources 
 of moral principle. It establishes false estimates of virtue and 
 vice ; for what can be more fa^se and more heartless than this 
 doctrine, which makes the iirst and holiest rights of humanity to 
 depend upon the c(;lor of tlie skin ? It perverts human reason 
 and induces men endowed with logical powers to maintain that 
 slavery is sanctioned by the Christian religion ; that slaves are 
 happy and contented in their condition ; that between master 
 and slave there are ties of mutual attachment and affection ; that 
 the virtues of the master are refmed and exalted by the degrada- 
 tion of the slave, while at the same time they vent execrations 
 upon the slave-trade, curse Britain for having given them slaves, 
 burn at the stake negroes convicted of ?nmes, for the terror 
 of the example, and writhe in agonies of fear at the very men- 
 tion of human rights as applicable to men of color." 
 
 THE VOICE OF WF.BSTFR. 
 
 In a speech wh*'5h he delivered at Xiblo's Garden, in 
 
240 NORTHERN TESTIMONY. 
 
 the city of New-York, on the 15th of March, 184t. Danid 
 Webster, the great Expounder of the Constitution, said : — 
 
 "On the general question of slavery, a great part of the com- 
 munity is already strongly excited. The subject has not only 
 attracted attention as a question of politics, but it has struck a 
 far deeper one ahead. It has arrested the religious feeling of 
 the country, it has taken strong hold on the consciences of men. 
 He is a rash man, indeed, and little conversant with human na- 
 ture, and especially has he an erroneous estimate of the charac- 
 ter of the people of this country, vrbo supposes that a feeling of 
 this kind is to be trifled with or despised. It wiil assuredly 
 cause itself to be respected. But to endeavor to coin it into sil- 
 ver, or retain its free expression, to seek to compress and con- 
 fine it, warm as it is, and more heated as such endeavors would 
 inevitably render it — should this be attempted, I know nothing, 
 even in the Constitution or Union itself, which might not be en- 
 dangered by the explosion which might follow." 
 
 When discussing the Oregon Bill in 1848, he said: — 
 
 "I have made up my mind, for one, that under no circumstan- 
 ces will I consent to the further extension of the area of slavery 
 in the United States, or to the further increase of slave repre- 
 Bectation in the House of Representatives." 
 
 Under date of February 15th, 1850, in a letter to the 
 Rev. Mr. Furness, he says : — • 
 
 " From my earliest youth I have regarded slavery as a great 
 moral and political evil. I think it unjust, repugnant to the nat- 
 ural equality of mankind, founded only in superior power ; a 
 standing and permanent conquest by the stronger over the 
 weaker. All pretense of defending it on the ground of different 
 races, I have ever condemned. I have even said that if the black 
 race is weaker, that is a reason against, not for, its subjection 
 and oppression. In a relig'ous point of view I have ever regard- 
 ed it, and even spoken cf ii, not as subject to any express donun* 
 
NORTHERK TESTIMONY. 241 
 
 elation, cither in the Old Testament or the New, but is apposed 
 to tile wliole spirit of tlie Gospel and to the teacliings of Jesus 
 Clirist. Tile ivligion of Jesus Clirist is a religion of kindiies-^, 
 justice, and brotherly love. But slavery is not kindly alTcctiou- 
 ate; it docs not seek anothers, and not its own ; it docs not let 
 the oppressed go free. It is, as I have said, but a continual act 
 of oppression. But then, such is the influence of a habit of 
 thinking among men, and such is tiie influence of what has been 
 long established, that even minds, religious ani tenderly con- 
 scientious, such as would be shocked by any single act of oppres- 
 sion, in any single exercise of violence and unjust power, are not 
 always moved by the reflection that slavery is a continual and 
 permanent violation of human rights." 
 
 While delivering a speech at Buffalo, in the State of 
 New York, in the summer of 1851, only about twelve 
 months prior to his decease, he made use of the following 
 emphatic words : — 
 
 '•I never would consent, and never have consented, that there 
 should be one foot of slave territory beyond what the old thir- 
 teen States had at the formation of the Union. Never, never ." 
 
 NOAH WEBSTER. 
 
 Noah Webster, the great American vocabulist, says : — 
 
 ^'That freedom is the sacred right of every man, whatever be 
 Lis color, who has not forfeit<;d it by some violation of muni- 
 cipal law, is a truth establislied by God himself, in the very crea- 
 tion of human being?. No time, no circumstance, no human 
 power or policy can change the nature of this truth, nor repeal 
 the fundamental laws of society, by which every man's right to 
 liberty is guarantied. The act of enslaving men is always a vio- 
 lation of those great primary laws of society, by which alonc^ 
 i\w master himself holds rvery particle of his own freedom." 
 
 a 
 
242 NORTHERN ?ESTDIONY. 
 
 THE VOICE OF CLINTON. 
 
 DeWitt Clinton, the father of the great s^^stem of inter- 
 nal improTements in the State of New York, speaking of 
 despotism in Europe, and of slavery in America, asks : — 
 
 '• Have not prescription and precedent — patriarchal dominion 
 — divine right of kings and masters, been alternately called in to 
 sanction the slaveiy of nations 1 And would not all the despot- 
 isms of the ancient and modern world have vanished into air, if 
 jhe natural equality of mankind had been properly understood 
 and practiced 7 * * * This declares that the same measure of 
 justice ought to be measured out to all men, without regard to 
 adventitious inequalities, and the intellectual and physical dispari- 
 ties which proceed from inexplicable causes." 
 
 THE VOICE OF WARREN. 
 
 Major General Joseph Warren, one of the truest pat- 
 riots of the Eevolution, and the first American officer of 
 rank that fell in our contest with Great Britain, says : — 
 
 *' That personal freedom is the natural right of every man. and 
 that property, or an exclusive right to dispose of what he has 
 honestly acquired by his own labor, necessarily arises therefrom, 
 are truths that common sense has placed beyond the reach of 
 contradiction. And no man, or body of men, can, without being 
 guilty of flagrant injustice, claim a right to dispose of the persons 
 or acquisitions of any other man or body of men, unless it can be 
 proved that such a right has arisen from some compact between 
 the parties, in which it has been explicitly and freelj' granlicd." 
 
 Otis, Hancock, Amrs, and others, should be heard, but 
 for the want of space. Volumes upon volumes might be 
 filled with extracts similar to the above, from the works 
 of the deceased Statesmen and sages of the North, who, 
 
NOUTHKUN- TESTIMONY. 24 3 
 
 whilt living, proved themselves equal to the ta^k of ex- 
 teriniiuitiuij; iVoiii their owu States tl c matehless curse ot* 
 human slavery. Such are the men who, though no lunger 
 with us in the flesh, " still live." A living principle — an 
 immortal interest — have they, invested in every great and 
 good work that distinguishes the free States. The rail- 
 roads, the canals, the telegraphs, the factories, the fleets 
 of merchant vessels, the magnificent cities, the scientific 
 modes of agriculture, the unrivaled institutions of learning, 
 and other striking evidences of progress and improvement 
 at the North, are, either directly or indirectly, the oil- 
 spring of their gigantic intellects. When, if ever, com- 
 merce, and manufactures, and agriculture, and great en- 
 terprises, and truth, and liberty, and justice, and magnan- 
 imity, shall have become obsolete terms, then their names 
 maj' possibly be forgotten, but not tell then. 
 
 An army of brave and worthy successors — championg 
 of Freedom now living, have the illustrious forefathers of 
 the Xorth, in the persons of Garrison, Greeley, Giddings, 
 Goodell, Grow, and Gerrit Smith ; in Seward, Sumner, 
 Stowe, Raymond, Parker, and Phillips ; in Beecher, Banks, 
 Burlingame, Bryant, Hale, and Ilildreth ; in Emerson, 
 Dayton, Thompson, Tappan, King and Clieevcr ; in Whit- 
 tier, Wilson, Wade, Wayland, Weed, and Burleigh. These 
 are the men whom, in connection with their learned and 
 eloquent compatriots, the Everetts, the Bancrofts, the 
 Prescotts, the Chapins, the Longfellows, and the Danas, 
 future historians, if faithful to their calling, will place on 
 record as America's true statesmen, literati, preachers, 
 philosophei ^, and philanthi3-)ists, of the present age. 
 
244 NORTHERN TESTIMONY. 
 
 In this connection, however, it ma}^ not be amiss tc rer 
 maik that the Homers, the Platos, tlie Bacons, the New- 
 tons, the Shakspeares, the Miltons, the Blackstones, the 
 Cuvieis, the Humboldts, and the Maca-ulajs of Amercia, 
 have not yet been produced ; nor, in our humble judgment, 
 will they be, until slavery shall have been overthrown and 
 freedom established in the States of Virg-inia, Kentucky, 
 and Tennessee. Upon the soil of those States, when free, 
 or on other free soil crossed by about the same degrees 
 of latitude, and not distant from the Appalachian chain of 
 mountains, will, we believe, be nurtured into manhood, in 
 the course of one or two centuries, perhaps, as great men 
 as those mentioned above — greater, possibly, than any 
 that have ever yet lived. Whence their ancestors may 
 come, whether from Europe, from Asia, from Africa, from 
 Oceanica, from North oi South America, or from the 
 islands of the sea, or whatever honorable vocation they 
 may now be engaged in, matters nothing at all. For 
 ought we know, their great-grandfathers are now humble 
 artisans in Maine, or moneyed merchants in Massachu 
 setts ; illiterate poor whites in Mississippi, or slave-driv- 
 ing lordlings in South Carolina ; frugal farmers in Michi- 
 gan, or millionaires in Illinois ; daring hunters in the 
 Rocky Mountains, or metal-diggers in California ; peasants 
 in France, or princes in Germany — no matter where, or 
 what, the scope of country above-mentioned is, in our 
 opinion, destined to be the birth-place of their illustrious 
 offspring — the great savans of the New World, concern- 
 ing wh<jim we should console ourselves with tlie hope that 
 they ara not burir i deeply in the matrix of the future. 
 
rESTIMr.XY OF THE XATIOXS. 2tl 
 
 CnAPTER V. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS. 
 
 T% the true friends of freedom throughout the world, it 
 is a pleasing thought, and one which, by being communi- 
 cated to others, is well calculated to universalize the prin- 
 ciples of liberty, that the great heroes, statesmen, and 
 sages, of all ages and nations, ancient and modern, who 
 have ever had occasion to speak of the institution of hu- 
 man slavery, have entered their most unequivocal and 
 positive protests against it. To say that they disapproved 
 of the system would not be sufficiently expressive of the 
 utter detestation with wliich they uniformly regarded it. 
 That they abhorred it as the vilest invention that the Evil- 
 One has ever assisted bad men to concoct, is quite evi- 
 dent from the very tone and construction of their lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Having, with much pleasure and profit, heard the testi- 
 mony of America, through her representative men, we 
 will now liear that of other nations, through their repre- 
 sentative men — doubting not that we shall be more than 
 remunerated for our time and trouble. Wo will firs/ 
 listen to 
 
24(5 TESTIMONY 01 THE NATIONS. 
 
 THE VOICE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 In the case of James Somerset, a negro TVno had been 
 kidnapped in Africa, transported to Virginia, there sold 
 into slavery, thence carried to England, as a waiting-boy, 
 and there induced to institute proceedings against his 
 master for the recovery of his freedom, 
 
 MANSFIELD Saj^S : 
 
 " The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable 
 of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only 
 by positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, 
 occasion, and time itself whence it was created, is erased from the 
 memory. It is so odious that nothing can be sufficient to sup- 
 port it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, 
 may follow from the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed 
 or approved by the law of England, and therefore the black must 
 be discharged." 
 
 LOCKE says : — 
 
 " Slavery is so vile, so miserable a state of man, and so directly 
 opposite to the generous temper and courage of our nation, tnat 
 it is hard to be convinced that an Englishman, much less a gen- 
 tleman, should plead for it." 
 
 Again, he says : — 
 
 " Though the earth, and all inferior creatures be common to 
 all men, yet every man has a property iu his own person j thia 
 nobody has any right to but himself." 
 
 riTT says : — 
 "It is injustice to permit slavery to remain fvf a Bingle hour." 
 
 FOX says : — 
 *'With regard to a regulation of slavery, my detestation of it.'^ 
 
TESTIMi^XV OF TIIK NATIONS. 247 
 
 existence induces nie to know no such thing as a regulation of 
 lohbory, and a restriction of murder. Personal freedom is a 
 rght of which he who deprives a fellow-creatare is criminal in 
 &o depriving him, and he who withholds is no less criminal in 
 withholding." 
 
 siiAKsrEARE says : — 
 
 " A man is master of his liberty." 
 
 Again, he says : — 
 
 '•It is the curse of Kings, to be attended 
 By slaves, that take their humors for a warrant 
 To break within the bloody house of life, 
 And, on the winking of authority. 
 To understand a law ; to know the meaning 
 Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns 
 More upon humor than advised respect." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 " Heaven will one day free us from this slavery," 
 
 Again : — 
 
 " Liberty ! Freedom ! Tyranny is dead ! — 
 Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets ; 
 Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, 
 Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement" 
 
 cowpER says : — 
 
 "Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if tiieir lungs 
 Receive our air, that moment tliey are free. 
 They touch our country and their shackles fall. 
 That's noble, and bespeaks a nution proud 
 And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then. 
 And let it circulate through every vein 
 Of all your Empire, that where Britain's power 
 Is felt, laankind may feel her mercy too !" 
 
248 TESTIMONY OF THE VATIOXS. 
 
 MILTON asks : — 
 
 " TThere is the beauty to see, 
 
 Like the sun-brilliant brow of a nation when frieo ?" 
 
 Again, he says : — 
 
 " If our fathers promised for themselves, to make themselves 
 slaves, they could make no such promise for us." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 "Since, therefore, the law is chiefly right reason, if we are 
 bound to obey a magistrate as a minister of God, by the very same 
 reason and the very same law, we ought to resist a tyrant, and 
 minister of the devil." 
 
 DR. JOHNSON says : — 
 
 *' No man is by nature the property of another. The rights of 
 nature must be some way forfeited before they can justly be taken 
 
 DR. PRICE says : — ■ 
 
 '* If you have a right to make another man a slave, he has a 
 right to make you a slave." 
 
 BLACKSTONE says : — 
 
 ''If neither captivity nor contract can, by the plain law of na- 
 ture and reason, reduce the parent to a state of slavery, much 
 ^ess can they reduce the offspring." 
 
 Again, he says : — 
 
 " The primary aim of society is to protect individuals in the 
 enjoyment of those absolute rights which were vested in them by 
 the immutable laws of nature. Hence it follows that the first 
 and primary end of human laws is to maintain those absolute 
 rights ' indiv-'duals." 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS. 219 
 
 Again : — 
 
 '' If any human law shall allow or require us to commit crime, 
 we arc bound to transgress that human law, or else we must 
 offend both the natural and divine." 
 
 COKE says : — 
 
 "What the Parliament doth, shall be holden for naught, when- 
 ever it shall enact that which is contrary to the rights of nature." 
 
 HAMPDEN says : — 
 
 "The essence of all law is justice. What is not justice is not 
 law J and what is not law, ought not to be obeyed." 
 
 HARRINGTON says : — 
 
 "All men naturally, are equal ; for though nature with a noble 
 variety has made ditfercnt features and lineaments of men. yet as 
 to freedom, she has made every one alike, and given them the 
 same desires." 
 
 FORTEscuE says : — 
 
 "Those rights which God and nature have established, and 
 which are therefore called natural rights, such as life and liberty. 
 need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in 
 every man than thej' are ; neither do they receive any additional 
 strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. 
 On the contrary, no human power has any authority to abridge 
 or destroy them, unless the owner himself shall commit some act 
 that amounts to a forfeiture." 
 
 Again, he says : — 
 
 ^ The law, therefore, which supports slavery and opposes lib- 
 erty, must necessarily be condemned as cruel, for every feeling 
 of human nature advocates liberty. Slavery is introduced by hu- 
 man wickedness, bu* God advocatns liberty, by the nature which 
 he has given to man ' 
 
 11* 
 
450 TESTDIOXY OF THE NATIONS 
 BROUGHAM SajS I 
 
 " Tell me not of lights — talk not of the property of the planter 
 •n his slaves. I deny the right ; I acknowledge not the property. 
 In vain you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim. There is 
 a law above all the enactments of human codes, the same through- 
 out the world, the same in all times ; it is the law written by the 
 finger of God on the hearts of men ; and by that law. unchangeable 
 and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and ab- 
 hor blood, they shall reject with indignation the wild and guilty 
 phantasy that man can hold property in man." 
 
 THE VOICE OF IRELAND. 
 
 BURKE says : — 
 
 " Slavery is a state so improper, so degrading, and so ruinous 
 to the feelings and capacities of human nature, that it ought not 
 to be suffered to exist." 
 
 cu-RRAN says : — 
 
 •• I speak in the spirit of British law, which makes liberty 
 commensurate with and inseparable from British soil ; which 
 proclaims even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment he 
 sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he 
 treads is holy and consecrated by the genius of Universal Eman- 
 cipation. No matter in what language his doom may have been 
 pronounced; no matter what complexion, incompatible with free- 
 dom, an Indian or African sun may have burnt upon him ; no 
 matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven 
 down ; no matter with what solemnities he may have been de- 
 voted upon the altar of slavery, the moment he touches the sacred 
 soil of Britain, the altar and the god sink together in the dust ; 
 his soul walks abroad in her own majesty ; and he stands re- 
 deemed, regenerated and disenthrall ri by the irresistible genius 
 of Univcrsa Emancipation.'' 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS. 251 
 
 The PiiMin University Magazine for December, 185G, 
 Bays : — 
 
 '' The United States must learn, from the example of Rome, 
 that Cliristianity and the paj^an institution of slavery cannot co- 
 exist toiTcther. Tlie Ivopublic nuist take her side and choose her 
 favorite child j for if she love the one, she must hate the other." 
 
 THE VOICE OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 BEATTiE says : — 
 
 "Slavery is inconsistent with the dearest and most essential 
 rights of man's nature ; it is detrimental to virtue and industry ; 
 it hardens the heart to those tender sympathies which form the 
 most lovely part of human character ; it involves the inno- 
 cent in hopeless misery, in order to procure wealth and pleasure 
 for the authors of that misery ; it seeks to degrade into brutes 
 beings whom the Lord of Heaven and Earth endowed with ra- 
 tional souls, and created for immortality; in short, it is utterly 
 repugnant to every principle of reason, religion, humanity, and 
 conscience. It is impossible for a considerate and unprejudiced 
 mind, to think of slavery without horror." 
 
 MILLER says : — 
 
 "Tlie human mind revolts at a serious discussion of the. sub- 
 ject of slavery. Every individual, whatever be his country or 
 complexion, is entitled to freedom." 
 
 MACKNiGHT says : — 
 
 " Men-stealers are inserted among the daring criminals against 
 whom the law of God directed its awful curses. These were 
 persons who kidnapped men to sell them for slaves ; and this 
 practice seems inseparable from the other iniquities and oppres- 
 sions of slavery ; nor can a slave dealer easily keep free from 
 this crminality, i ' indeed the receiver is as bad as the thief." 
 
252 TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS. 
 
 THE YOICE OF FRANCE. 
 
 LAFAYETTE says : 
 
 " I would never have drawn my sword in the cause o America, 
 if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of 
 slavery." 
 
 Again, while in the prison of Magdeburg, he says ; — 
 
 " I know not what disposition has been made of my plantation 
 at Cayenne ; but I hope Madame de Lafayette will take care that 
 the negroes who cultivate it shall preserve their liberty." 
 
 0. Lafayette, grandson of General Lafayette, in a let- 
 ter under date of April 26th, 1851, says ; — 
 
 " This great question of the Abolition of Negro Slavery, which 
 has my entire sympathy, appears to me to have established its 
 importance throughout the world. At the present time, the 
 States of the Peninsula, if I do not deceive myself, are the only 
 European powers who still continue to possess slaves ; and 
 America, while continuing to uphold slaver}^, feels daily, more and 
 more how heavily it weighs upon her destinies." 
 
 MONTESQUIEU asks : — 
 
 "What civil law can restrain a slave from running away, since 
 ho is not a member of society ?" 
 
 Again, he says : — 
 
 " Slavery is contrary to the fundamental principles of all socie* 
 
 ties." 
 
 Again ; — 
 
 *' In democracies, where they are all upon an equality, slavery 
 is contrary to the principles of the Constitution." 
 
TESTIilOXV f THE NATION'S. 253 
 
 Again : — 
 
 " Nothing puts one nearer the condition of a brute than a ways 
 to see freemen and not be free." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 '• Even the earth itself, wliich teems with profusion under the 
 cultivating hand of the free born laborer, shrinks into barrenness 
 from the contaminating sweat of a slave." 
 
 LOUIS X. issued the following edict : — 
 
 " As all men are by nature free born, and as this Kingdom is 
 called the Kingdom of Franks, (freemen) it shall be so in realit}'. 
 It is therefore decreed that enfranchisement shall be granted 
 throughout the whole Kingdom upon just and reasonable terms." 
 
 BUFFO N says : — 
 
 '• It is apparent that the unfortunate negroes are endowed with 
 excellent hearts, and possess the seeds of every human virtue. I 
 cannot write their history without lamenting their miserable 
 condition." " Humanity revolts at those odious oppressions that 
 result from avarice." 
 
 ROUSSEAU says : — 
 
 '• The terms slavery and right, contradict and exclude each 
 other." 
 
 BRissoT says : — 
 
 '•Slavery, in all its forms, in ail its degrees, is a violation of 
 divine law and a degradation of human nature." 
 
 THE VOICE OF GERMANY. 
 
 CR0TIU3 says : — 
 
 " Those are men-stealers who abduct, keep, sell or buy slaves 
 or free men. To 8*eal a m\n is the highest kind of theft." 
 
254 TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS. 
 
 GOETHE says ; — 
 
 Such busy multitudes I fain would see 
 Stand upon free soil with a people free." 
 
 LUTHER says : — 
 
 "Unjust violence is, by no means, the ordinance of God, and 
 therefore can bind no one in conscience and right, to obey, whe- 
 ther the command comes from pope, emperor, king or master." 
 
 An able German writer of the present day, says, in a 
 recent letter to his friends in this country : — 
 
 " Consider that the cause of American liberty is the cause of 
 universal liberty ; its failure, a triumph of despotism everywhere. 
 Remember that while American liberty is the great argument of 
 European Democracy, American slavery is the greater argument 
 of its despotism. Remember that all our actions should be gov- 
 erned by the golden rule, whether individual, social, or political ; 
 and no government, and, above all, no republican government, is 
 safe in the hands of men that practically deny that rule. Will 
 you support by your vote a system that recognizes property of 
 man in man ? A S3'stem which sanctions the sale of the child by 
 its own father, regardless of the purpose of the buyer ? What 
 need is there to present to you the unmitigated wrong of slavery ? 
 It is the shame of our age that argument is needed against 
 slavery. 
 
 " Liberty is no exclusive property ; it is the property of man- 
 kind of all ages. She is immortal, though crushed, can never die ; 
 though banished, she will return ; though fettered, she will yet 
 be free." 
 
 THE VOICE OF ITALY. 
 
 CICERO says : — 
 
 " By the grand laws of nature, all men are born free, and this 
 law is universal! ^ binding upon all men." 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS. 255 
 
 Again, he says : — 
 
 ••Eternul jaslicc is the basis of all human laws." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 " Law is not something wrought out b}' man's ingenuity, nor is 
 it a decree of the people, but it is something eternal, governing 
 the world by the wisdom of its commands and prohibitions." 
 
 Ag-ain :— 
 
 " Whatever is just is also the true law, nor can this true law 
 be abrogated by any wriiten enactments." 
 
 Again : — • 
 
 *• If there be such a power in tlie decrees and commands of 
 fools, that the nature of things is changed by their votes, why do 
 they not decree that what is bad and pernicious shall be regarded 
 as good and wholesome, or why, if the law can make wrong right, 
 can it not make bad good?" 
 
 Again:— 
 
 " Those who have made pernicious and unjust decrees, have 
 made anything rather than laws." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 '• The law of all nations forbids one man to pursue liis advan- 
 tage at the expense of another." 
 
 LACTANTius says : — 
 
 " Justice teaches men to know God and to love men, to love 
 jind assist one another, being all equally the children of God." 
 
 LEO X. says : — 
 
 '• Xot only does the Christian religion, but nature herself cry 
 out against the state of slavery ." 
 
256 TESTIMOXY OF THE NATIONS. 
 
 THE VOICE OF GEEECE. 
 
 SOCRATES says : — 
 
 " Slayery L a system of outrage and robbery." 
 
 ARISTOTLE says : — 
 
 " It is neither for the good, nor is it just, seeing all men are by 
 nature alike, and equal, that one should be lord and master over 
 others." 
 
 poLYBius says : — • 
 
 ' None but unprincipled and beastly men in society assume the 
 mastery over their fellows, as it is among bulls, bears, and cocks." 
 
 PLATO says : — ■ 
 
 "Slavery is a system of the most complete injustice." 
 
 From each of the above, and from other nations, addi- 
 tional testimony is at hand ; but, for reasons already 
 assigned, we forbear to introduce it. Corroborative of the 
 correctness of the position which we have assumed, even 
 Persia has a voice, which may be easily recognized in the 
 tones of her immortal Cyrus, who says : 
 
 " To light, iii V)rder not to be made a slave, is noble." 
 
 Than Great Britain no nation has more heartily or hon- 
 orably repented of the crime of slavery — no nation, on the 
 perception of its error, has ever acted with more prompt 
 magnanimity to its outraged and unhappy bondsmen. 
 Entered to her credit, many precious jewels of liberty re- 
 main in our possession, ready to be delivered when called 
 for ; of their value some idea may be formed, when we 
 state that the}" are filigreed with s-'ich names as Wilber- 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS. 257 
 
 force, Buxton, Granville, G rattan, Camden, Clarkson, 
 Sharp, Sheridan, Sidney, Martin, and Macaulay. 
 
 Virginia, the Carolinas, and other Southern States, 
 which are provided with lepuhlican (!) forms of govern- 
 ment, and which have abolished IVeedom, should learn, 
 from the history of the monarchal governments of the Old 
 World, if not from the example of the more liberal and 
 enlightened portions of the New, how to abolish slavery. 
 The lesson is before them in a variety of exceedingly in- 
 teresting furms, and, sooner or later, they must learn it, 
 cither voluntarily or by compulsion. Virginia, in particu- 
 lar, is a spoilt child, having been the pet of the General 
 Government for the last sixty-eight years ; and like most 
 other spoilt children, she has become froward, peevish, 
 perverse, sulky and irreverent — not caring to know her 
 duties, and failing to perform even those which she docs 
 know. Iler 6u{)eriors perceive that the abolition of sla- 
 very would be a blessing to her ; she is, however, either 
 too ignorant to understand the truth, or else, as is the 
 more probable, her false pride and obstinacy restrain her 
 from acknowledging it. "What is to be done ? Shall 
 ignorance, or prejudice, or obduracy, or willful meanness, 
 triumph over knowledge, and liberality, and guilelessness, 
 and laudable enterprise ? No, never I Assured that Vir- 
 ginia and all the other slaveholding States are doing 
 wrong every day, it is our duty to make them do right, if 
 we have the power ; and we believe we have the power 
 now resident within their own borders. What are tho 
 opinions, generaUy, of the non-slavcholding whites ? Let 
 them speak. 
 
258 TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCHES. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCHES. 
 
 '•Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. 
 Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, 
 Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement !" 
 
 In quest of arguments against slavery, we have perused 
 the works of several eminent Christian writers of different 
 denominations, and we now proceed to lay before the reader 
 the result of a portion of our labor. As it is the special 
 object of this chapter to operate on, to correct and cleanse 
 the consciences of slaveholding professors of religion, we 
 shall adduce testimony only from the five churches to 
 which they, in their satanic piety, mostly belong — the 
 Presbyterian, the Episcopal, the Baptist, the Methodist, 
 and the Roman Catholic — all of which, thank Heaven, are 
 destined, at no distant day, to become thoroughly aboli- 
 tionized. With few exceptions, all the other Christian 
 sects are, as they should be, avowedly and inflexibly op- 
 posed to the inhuman institution of slavery. The Con- 
 gregational, the Quaker, the Lutheran, the Dutch and 
 German Refcrmed, the Unitarian, and the Universalist, 
 especially, ai 3 all honorable, able, and eloquent defenders 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE CnURlHES. 259 
 
 of the natural rights of man. We will b'^giii by intro- 
 ducing' a mass of 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. 
 
 The Jlev. Albert Barnes, of Pliiladelphia, one of the most 
 loarned Presbyterian preachers and commentators of the 
 day, says :- 
 
 "There is a deep and growing conviction in the minds of the mass 
 of mankind, that slavery violates the great laws of our nature ; 
 that it is contrary to the dictates of humanity ; that it is essen- 
 tially unjust, oppressive, and cruel ; that it invades the rights of 
 liberty with which the Author of our being has endowed all hu- 
 man bcmgs ; and that, in all the forms in which it has ever ex- 
 isted, it has been impossible to guard it from what its friends 
 and advocates would call ^ abiLses of the system.' It is a viola- 
 tion of the first sentiments expressed in our Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, and on which our fathers founded the vindication of 
 their own conduct in an appeal to arms. It is at war with all 
 that a man claims lor himself and fur his own children ; and it is 
 opposed to all the struggles of mankind, in all ages, for freedom. 
 The claims of humanity plead against it. The struggles for free- 
 dom everywhere in our world condemn it. The instinctive 
 feeling in everj- man's own bosom in regard to himself is a con- 
 demnation of it. The noblest deeds of valor, and of patriotism 
 in our own land, and in all lands where men have struggled for 
 freedom, are a condemnation of the system. All that is noblo 
 :n man is opposed to it; all that is base, oppressive, and cruel 
 pleads for it. 
 
 '•The spirit of the Xew Testament i3 against slaver}', and the 
 principles of the New Testament, if fairly ajjplied, would abolish 
 it. In the Xew Testament no man is commanded to purchase 
 and own a slave ; no man is commended as adding anything to 
 the evidences of his Christian character, or as performing the 
 appropriate duty of a Christian, f^r owning one. No where in 
 the New Testament is the institution referred to as a good one, 
 or as a desirable one. It is commonly — indeed, it is almost uni- 
 
2G0 TESTIMONY OF THE CIIURlHES. 
 
 versall}' — conceded that the proper application oi the principles 
 of the New Testament would abolish slavery everywhere, or that, 
 the state of things which will exist when the Gospel shall be 
 fairly applied to all the relations of life, slavery will not be found 
 among those relations. 
 
 " Let slavery be removed from the church, and let the voice of 
 the church, with one accord, be lifted up in favor of freedom ; 
 lot the church be wholly detached from the institution, and let 
 there be adopted by all its ministers and members an interpre- 
 tation of the Bible — as I believe there may be and ought to be — 
 that shall be in accordance with the deep-seated principles of our 
 nature in fiivor of freedom, and with our own aspirations for lib- 
 erty, and with the sentiments of the world in its onward pro- 
 gress in regard to human rights, and not only would a very 
 material objection against the Bible be taken away — and one 
 which would be fatal if it were well founded — but the establish- 
 ment of a very strong argument m favor of the Bible, as a reve- 
 lation from God, would be the direct result of such a position." 
 
 Thomas Scott, the celebrated English Presbyterian Com- 
 mentator, says : — 
 
 " To number the persons of men with beasts, sheep, and horses, 
 as the stock of a farm, or with bales of goods, as the cargo of a 
 ship, is, no doubt, a most detestable and anti-Christian practice." 
 
 From a resolution denunciatory of slavery, unanimously 
 adopted by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church, in 1818, Tve make the following extract :— 
 
 '' TVe consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human 
 race by another as a gross violation of the most precious and sac- 
 red rights of human nature, as utterly inconsistent with the law 
 of God, which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and 
 as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the Gos- 
 pel of Christ, which enjoins that ' all things whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.' * * * We 
 rcjoic^ that the church to which we belong commenced, as early 
 
TEsrwoyr of the churches. 2G1 
 
 as atM vn'-^fr in vhis country, tlic good work of cndcavorinpj to 
 put an end to .jlatcry, ami that iu the same work nniny ol' its 
 members hcvve ever since been, and now are, among the most ac- 
 tive, vigon^us, and ellicient hiboivrs. ♦ * * "We earnestly exhort 
 thera to continue, and, if possible, to increase, their exertions to 
 etTect a total abolition of slavery." 
 
 A Cominitlce of the Synod of Kentucky, in an address 
 ^^ the Presbyterians ot that State, says : — 
 
 • That our negroes will be worse off, if emancipated, is, we feel, 
 but a specious j)retext for lulling our own pangs of conscience, 
 and answering the argument of the philanthropist. None of us 
 believe that God has so created a whole race that it Is better for 
 them to remain in perpetual bondage." 
 
 EPISCOPAL TESTIMOXY. 
 
 BISHOP noRSLEY says : — 
 
 •■ Slavery is injustice, which no consideration of policy can ex- 
 tenuate." 
 
 BISHOP BLTLER says ; 
 
 '• Despicable as the negroes may appear in our eyes, they are 
 the creatures of God, and of the race of mankind, for whom Christ 
 died, and it is inexcusable to keep them in ignorance of the end 
 for which they were made, and of the means whereby they may 
 become partakers of the general redemption." 
 
 BISHOP P0RTEU3 says : — 
 
 '•The Bible classes raen-stealers or slave-traders among the 
 murderers of fathers and mothers, and the most profane criminals 
 on earth." 
 
 John Jay, Esq., of the City of Xpw-York — a most exem- 
 plary Episcopalian — in a pamphlet entitled, " Thoughts on 
 
262 TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCnSS. 
 
 the Duty of the Episcopal Church, in Relation to Slavery,^ 
 says :— 
 
 ** Alas ! for the expectation that she would conform to the s\nv\t 
 of her ancient mother ! She has not merely remained a mute and 
 careless spectator of this great conflict of truth and justice with 
 h3'pocrisy and cruelty, but lier very priests and deacons may be 
 seen ministering at the altar of slavery, ofFering their talents and 
 influence at its unholy shrine, and openly repeating the awful 
 blasphemy, that the precepts of our Saviour sanction the system 
 of American slavery. Her Northern clergy, with rare exceptions, 
 whatever they may feel on the subject, rebuke it neither in pub- 
 lic nor in private, and her periodicals, far from advancing the 
 progress of abolition, at times oppose our societies, impliedly de 
 fending slavery, as not incompatible with Christianity, and occa- 
 sionally withholding information useful to the cause of freedom." 
 
 A writer in a late number of " The Anti-Slavery Church 
 man," published in Geneva, Wisconsin, speaking of a cor 
 tain portion of the New Testament, says : — 
 
 " This passage of Paul places necessary work in the hands of 
 Gospel ministers. If they preach the whole Gospel, they must 
 preach what this passage enjoins — and if they do this, they must 
 preach against American slavery. Its being connected with pol- 
 itics does not shield them. Political connections cannot place 
 sin under protection. They cannot throw around it guards that 
 the public teachers of morals may not pass. Sin is a violation 
 of God's law — and God's law must be proclaimed and enforced 
 at all hazards. This is the business of the messenger of God, 
 and if anything stands in its way, it is his right, rather it is his 
 solemn commission, to go forward — straightway to overpass the 
 lines that would shut him out, and utter his warnings. Many 
 sins there are, that, in like manner, might be shielded. Fashion, 
 and rank, and business, are doing their part to keep much sin in 
 respectability, and excuse it from the attacks of God's ministers. 
 But what are th?se, that they sh.ouldseal a minister's lips — what 
 more are the w hes ol 'ooliticians ?" 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE CniKCIlES. 2G3 
 
 For further testimony from this branch of the Christian 
 pvBtem, if desired, we refer the reader to the Wcw Dudley 
 A. Tyng", tht- Rev. Evan M. Johnson, and the Kev. J. Mc- 
 Xaiiiara, — a I Broad Church Episcopalians, whose magic 
 ihxpiencc and irresistible arguments bid fair, at an early 
 day, to win over to the paths of progressive freedom, truth, 
 justice and humanity, the greater number of their Iligh 
 and Low Church brethren. 
 
 BAPTIST TESTIMONY. 
 
 Concerning a certain text, the Ticv. Mr. Brisbane, once 
 a slaveholding Baptist in South Carolina, says : — 
 
 '* Paul was spcakinp; of the law as having been made for men- 
 stealcrs. Where is the record of that law ? It is in Exodus 
 xxi. IG, and in these words : ' He that stcaleth a man, and selleth 
 him, or if he be found in his possession, he shall surely be put 
 to death.' Here it will be perceived that it was a crime to sell 
 the man, for which the seller must suffer death. But it was no less 
 a crime to hold him as a slave, for this also was punishable with 
 death. A man may be kidnapped out of slavery into freedom. 
 There was no law against that. And why ? Because kidnap- 
 ping a slave and placing him in a condition of freedom, was only 
 to restore him to his lost rights. But if the man who takes him 
 })ecomes a slaveholder, or a slave seller, then he is a criminal, 
 liable to the penalty of deatli, because he robs the man of liberty. 
 Perhaps some will say this law was onl}' applicable to the first 
 holder of the slave, that is, the original kidnapper, but not to his 
 successors who might have purchased or inherited him. But 
 what is k'.Inapping? Suppose 1 propose to a neighbor to give 
 liim a certain sum of monc}' if he will steal a white child in Car- 
 r.lina and dr'livcr him to me. lie steals him ; I pay him the 
 money upon his delivering the child to me. Is it not my act as 
 fully as his? Am I not also the thief? But does it alter the 
 case whether I agree before hand or not, to jiay him for tho 
 
264 TESTIMONY OF TEE CHURCHES. 
 
 child? He steals him, and then sells him to me. He is found 
 by his parents in my hands. Will it avail me to say T purchased 
 him and paid my money for him ? AVill it not be asked, Do you 
 not know that a white person is not merchantable ? And shall I 
 not have to pay the damage for detaining that child in my ser- 
 vice as a slave ? Assuredly, not only in the eyes of the law, but 
 in the judgment of the whole community, I would be regarded a 
 criminal. So when one man steals another and offers him for 
 sale, no one, in view of the Divine law, can buy him, for the rea- 
 son that the Divine law forbids that man shall in the first place 
 be made a merchantable article. The inquiry must be, if I buy, 
 I buy in violation of the Divine law, and it will not do for me 
 to plead that I bought him. I have him in possession, and that is 
 enough, God condemns me for it as a man-stealer. My having 
 him in possession is evidence against me, and the Mosaic law 
 says, if he be found in my hands, I must die. Now, when Paul 
 said the law was made for men-stealers, was it not also saying the 
 law was made for slaveholders 1 I am not intending to ap- 
 ply this term in harsh spirit. But I am bound, as I fear God 
 to spoak what I am satisfied is the true meaning of the apostle." 
 
 In his "Elements of Moral Science," the Rev. Francis 
 Wayland, D.D., one of the most erudite and distinguished 
 Baptists now living", says : — 
 
 " Domestic slavery proceeds upon the principle that the mas 
 ter has a right to control the actions, physical and intellectual, of 
 the slave, for his own, that is, the master's individual benefit ; 
 and, of course, that the happiness of the master, when it comes 
 in competition with the happiness of the slave, extinguishes in 
 the latter the right to pursue it. It supposes, at best, that the 
 relation between master and slave, is not that which exists be 
 tween man and man, but is a modification, at least, of that which 
 exists between man and the brutes. 
 
 " Now, this manifestly supposes that the two classes of beings 
 are created with dissimilar rights : that the master posseses 
 rights which have never been conceded by the slave ; and that 
 
TEi-TlMONY OF THE CHCRCHES. S95 
 
 the !.lavo has no rights at all over the means of happiness which 
 God has piven him, whenever these means of happiness can bo 
 renilered availiibl«» to tlie service of his master. It supposes that 
 the Creator intended one human being to govern the physical, 
 intellectual and moral actions of as many other human beings aa 
 by purchase he can bring within his physical power ; and that 
 one human bving may thus acquire a right to sacrifice the happi- 
 ness of any number of other human beings, for the purpose of 
 promoting his own. Slavery thus violates the personal liberty 
 of man as a ph3-sical. intellectual, and moral being. 
 
 "It purports to give to the master a right to control the physical 
 labor of the slave, not for the sake of the happiness of the slave, 
 but for the sake of the happiness of the master. It subjects the 
 amount of labor, and the kind of labor, and the remuneration 
 for labor, entirely to tlie will of the one party, to the entire ex- 
 clusion of the will of the other party. 
 
 ** But if this right in the master over the slave be conceded 
 there are of course conceded all other rights necessary to insure 
 its possession. Hence, inasmuch as the slave can be held in this 
 condition onl}' while he remains in the lowest state of mental im- 
 becility, it supposes the master to have the right to control his 
 intellectual development, just as far as may be necessary to se- 
 cure entire subjection. Thus, it supposes the slave to have no 
 right to use his intellect for the production of his own happiness ; 
 but, only to use it in such manner a,5 may conduce to his master's 
 profit. 
 
 And. moreover, inasmuch as the acquisition of the knowledge 
 of his duty to God could not be freely made without the acqui- 
 «tion of other knowledge, which might, if universally diffused, 
 endanger the control of the master, slavery supposes the master 
 to have the right to determine how much knowledge of his duty 
 a slave shall obtain, the manner in wliich he shall obtain it, and 
 tlie manner in which he shall discharge that duty after he shall 
 have obtained a knowledge of it. It thus subjects the duty of 
 man to God entirely to the will of man ; and this for the sake of 
 pecuniary profit. It renders the eternal hapj)inesA of the one 
 party subservient to the temporal happiness of the Pther. And 
 
 12 
 
266 TESTIMONT OF THE CHURCHES. 
 
 this principle is commonlj carried into effect in g oveL >Iding 
 countries. 
 
 If argnmentwere necessary to show that such a system asthia 
 must be at -variance with the ordinance of God, it might be easily 
 drawn from the effects which it produces both upon morals and 
 national wealth. 
 
 Its effects must be disastrous upon the morals of both parties. 
 By presenting objects on whom passion may be satiated without 
 resistance and without redress, it cultivates in the master, pride, 
 anger, cruelty, selfishness and licentiousness. By accustoming 
 the slave to subject his moral principles to the will of another, 
 it tends to abolish in him all moral distinction ; and thus fosters 
 in him lying, deceit, hj'pocrisy, dishonesty, and a willingness to 
 yield himself up to minister to the appetites of his master. 
 
 The effects of slavery on national wealthy may be easily seen 
 from the following considerations : — 
 
 Instead of imposing upon all the necessit}' of labor, it restricts 
 the number of laborers, that is of producers, within the smallest 
 possible limit, by rendering labor disgraceful. 
 
 It takes from the laborers the natural stimulus to labor, namely 
 the desire in the individual of improving his condition ; and sub- 
 stitutes, in the place of it, that motive which is the least opera- 
 tive and the least constant, namely, the fear of punishment with- 
 out the consciousness of moral delinquency. 
 
 It removes, as far as possible, from both parties, the disposition 
 and the motives to frugality. ^Neither the master learns frugality 
 from the necessity of labor, nor the slave from the benefits which 
 it confers. And here, while the one party wastes from ignorance 
 of the laws of acquisition, and the other because he can have no 
 motive to economy, capital must accumulate but slowly, if indeed 
 it accumulate at all. 
 
 No country, not of great fertility, can If/ng sustain a large slave 
 population. Soils of more than ordinary fertilit}^ can not sustain 
 it long, after the richness of the soil has been exhausted. Hence, 
 slavery in this country is acknowledged to have impoverished 
 many of our most valuable districts ; and, hence, it is continually 
 migrating from the older settlements, to those new and untilled 
 regions, where tl e accumulated i":.anure of centuries of vegetation 
 
TESTIMOXY OF THE CHTRCHES. 207 
 
 has formed a soil, whose productiveness may. for k nh le, sustain 
 a system at variance with the laws of nature. Many of our free 
 and of oiir slaveholding States were peopled at about the same 
 time. The slaveholding States had every advantaj^e, both in soil 
 and climate, over their neighbors. And yet the accumulation of 
 capital has been greatly in favor of the latter. If any one doubts 
 whether this diflerence be owing to the use of slave labor, let 
 him ask himstlf what would have been the condition of the slave- 
 holding States, at this moment, if they had been inhabited, from 
 the beginning, by an industrious yeomanry; each one holding his 
 own land, and each one tilling it with the labor of his own hands. 
 
 The moral precepts of the Bible are diametrically opposed to 
 slavery. They are, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, and 
 oil things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do 
 ye even so unto them. 
 
 The application of these precepts is universal. Our neighbor 
 is every one uhom we may henejit. The obligation respects all 
 things whatsoever. The precept, then, manifestly, extends to 
 meii^ as mcit, or men in every condiiion; and if to all things 
 whatsoever, certainly to a thing so important as the right to per- 
 sonal liberty. 
 
 Again. By this precept, it is made our duty to cherish as 
 tender and delicate a respect for the right which the meanest in- 
 dividual possesesover the means of happiness bestowed upon him 
 by God, as we cherish for our own right over our own means of 
 happiness, or as we desire any other individual to cherish for it. 
 Now, were this precept obeyed, it is manifest that slavery could 
 not in fact exist for a single instant. The principle of the pre- 
 cept is absolutely subversive of the principle of slavery. That 
 of the one is the entire equality of right; that of the other, the 
 entire absorption of the rights of one in the rights of the other. 
 
 If any one doubts respecting the bearing of the Scripture pre- 
 cei»t upon this case, a few plain questions may throw additional 
 light upon the subject. For instance, — 
 
 "Do the precepts and the spirit of the Gospel allow me to de- 
 rive my support from a system which extorts lalor from my fel- 
 low-men, wi'hout allowing them any voice in the equivalent 
 which they shal recbive ; »nd which can only be sustained by 
 
268 TESTIMONT OF THE CHURCHES. 
 
 keeping them in a state of mental degradation, and by shuttLij 
 them out, in a great degree, from the means of salvation ? 
 
 " Would the master be willing that another person should sub- 
 ject him to slavery, for the same reasons, and on the same grounds 
 that he holds his slave in bondage ? 
 
 *' Would the Gospel allow us, if it wert in our power, to reduce 
 our fellow-citizens of our own color to slavery ? If the gospel be 
 diametrically opposed to the principle of slavery, it must be op- 
 posed to the practice of slavery ; and therefore, were the princi-j 
 pies of the gospel fully adopted, slavery could not exist. i 
 
 '• The very course which the gospel takes on this subject, seema 
 to have been the only one that could have been taken, in order 
 to effect the universal abolition of slavery. The gospel was de- 
 signed, not for one race, or for one time, but for all races, and for 
 all times. It looked not at the abolition of this form of evil for 
 that age alone, but for its universal abolition. Hence, the impor- 
 tant object of its Author was, to gain it a lodgment in every part 
 of the known world ; so that, by its universal diffusion among 
 all classes of society, it might quietly and peacefully modify and 
 subdue the evil passions of men ; and thus, without violence, 
 work a revolution in the whole mass of mankind. 
 
 *' If the system be wrong, as we have endeavored to show, if 
 it be at variance with our duty both to God and to man, it must 
 be abandoned. If it be asked when, I ask again, when shall a 
 man begin to cease doing wrong? Is not the answer, immedi- 
 ately ? If a man is injuring us, do we ever doubt as to the time 
 when he ought to cease ? There is then no doubt in respect to 
 the time when we ought to cease inflicting injury upon others." 
 
 Abraham Booth, an eminent theological writer of the 
 Baptist persuasion, says : — 
 
 " I have not a stronger conviction of scarcely anything, *ihan 
 that slaveholding (except when the slave has forfeited his lib- 
 erty b}' crimes against society) is wicked and inconsistent with 
 Christian character. To me it is evident, that whoever would 
 purchase ar innocent )lark man to make him a slave, would 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCHES. 2G9 
 
 Trith cqn.ll readiness purchase a white one for the same pii 'pose 
 could he do it with equal impunity, and no more disgrace." 
 
 At a meeting of the General Committee of the Baptists 
 of Virginia, in 1789, the following resolution was oQered 
 by Eld. John Lclaud, and adopted : — 
 
 " Resolved, That slavery is a violent deprivation of the rights 
 of nature, and inconsistent with reptiblican government, and 
 therefore we recommend it to our brethren to make use of every 
 measure to extirpate this horrid evil from the land ; and pmy 
 Almighty God that our honorable legislature may have it in 
 their power to proclaim the great jubilee, consistent with the 
 principles of good policy." 
 
 METHODIST TESTIMONT. 
 
 John Wesley, the celebrated founder of Methodism, 
 Bays : — 
 
 ^ Men buyers are exactly on a level with men stealers." 
 
 Again, he says : — 
 
 " American Slavery is the vilest that ever saw the sun ; it con- 
 stitutes the sum of all villanies." 
 
 The learned Dr. Adam Clarke, author of a voluminous 
 commentary on the Scriptures, says : — 
 
 " Slave-dealers, whether those who carry on the traflRc in hu- 
 man flesh and blood ; or those who steal a person in order to 
 sell him into bondage ; or those who buy such stolen men or 
 women, no matter of what color, or what country; or the nations 
 who legalize or connive at such trafBc ; all these are men-steal- 
 ers, and God classes them with the most flagitious of mortals." 
 
 One of the rales laid down in the Methodist Discipli^o 
 as amended ii: 1784, was ae follows : — 
 
2T0 TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCHES. 
 
 " Every member of our Society who has slaves in his posses- 
 Bion, shall, within twelve months after notice given to him by 
 the assistant, legally execute and record an instrument, whereby 
 he emancipates and sets free every slave in his possession." 
 
 Another rule was in these words : — 
 
 " No person holding slaves shall in future be admitted into 
 Society, or to the Lord's Supper, till he previously complies with 
 these rules concerning slavery." 
 
 The answer to the question — " What shall be done with 
 those who buy or sell slaves, or give them away" — is 
 couched in the following language : — 
 
 " They are immediately to be expelled, unless they buy tnem 
 on purpose to free them." 
 
 In 1785, the voice of this church was heard as follows ; — 
 
 " We do hold in the deepest abhorrence the practice of slave- 
 ry, and shall not cease to seek its destruction, by all wise and 
 prudent means." 
 
 In 1791, the Discipline contained the following whole- 
 some paragraph : — 
 
 "The preachers and other members of our Society are re 
 quested to consider the subject of negro slavery, with deep 
 attention, and that they impart to the General Conference, 
 through the medium of the Yearly Conferences, or otherwise, 
 any important thoughts on the subject, that the Conference may 
 have full light, in order to take further steps towards eradica- 
 ting this enormous evil from that part of the Church of God with 
 which they are connected. The Annual Conferences are directed 
 to draw up addresses for the gradual emancipation of the slaves, 
 to the legislatures of those States in which no general laws have 
 been passed for that purpose. These addresses shall urge, in 
 the most n^spectful but pointed manner, the necessity of a law 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCHES. 271 
 
 foi the pra Jual emancipation of slaves. Proper committees shall 
 be apjiointeil by the Annual Conferences, out of the most respect- 
 able of our friends, for cunduo inj; the business ; and presiding 
 elders, elders, deacons, and travelinj^ preachers, shall procure as 
 many proper sijjnatures as possible to the addresses, and give all 
 the assistance in their power, in every respect, to aid the com- 
 mittees, and to forward the blessed undertaking. Let this be 
 continued from year to year, till the desired end be accom- 
 plished." 
 
 CATHOUC TESTIMONY. 
 
 It has been only about twenty years since Pope Greg- 
 ory XVI. immortalized himself by issuing the famous Bull 
 against slavery, from which the following is an extract : — • 
 
 " Placed as we are on the Supreme seat of the apostles, and 
 acting, though by no merits of our own, as the vicegerent of 
 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who, through his great mercy, con- 
 descended to make himself man, and to die for the redemption 
 of the world, we regard as a duty devolving on our pastoral 
 functions, that we endeavor to turn aside our faithful flocks en- 
 tirely from the inhuman traffic in negroes, or any other human 
 beings whatever. * * * In progress of time, as the 
 clouds of heathen superstition became gradually dispersed, cir- 
 cumstances reached that point, that during several centuries 
 there were no slaves allowed amongst the great majority of the 
 Christian nations ; but with grief we are compelled to add, that 
 there afterwards arose, even among the faithful, a race of men, 
 who, basely blinded by the appetite and desire of sordid lucre, 
 difl not hesitate to reduce, in remote regions of the earth, In- 
 dians, negroes, and other wretched beings, to the misery of sla- 
 very ; or finding the trade established and augmented, to assist 
 *.he shameful crime of others. Nor did many of the most glori 
 OU3 of the Roman Pontiffs omit severely to reprove their con- 
 duct, as injurious to their souls' health, and disgraceful to the 
 Christian name Among these may be especially quoted the 
 bull of Paul lU which bears the date of the 2'Jlh of May, 1537 
 
272 
 
 TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCHES. 
 
 addressed to the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledc , and another 
 still more comprehensive, by Urban YIIL, dated the 22d of April, 
 1G36, to the collector Jurius of the Apostolic chamber in Portu- 
 gal, most severely castigating by name those who presumed to 
 subject either East or "West Indians to slavery, to sell, buy, ex- 
 change, or give them avray, to separate them from their wives 
 and children, despoil them of their goods and property, to bring 
 or transmit them to other places, or by any means to deprive 
 them of liberty, or retain thera in slavery ; also most severely 
 castigating those who should presume or dare to afford council, 
 aid, favor or assistance, under any pretext, or borrowed color, to 
 those doing the aforesaid ; or should preach or teach that it is 
 lawful, or should otherwise presume or dare to co-operate, by 
 any possible means, with the aforesaid. * * * Where- 
 fore, we, desiring to divert this disgrace from the whole confines 
 of Christianity, having summoned several of our venerable broth- 
 ers, their Eminences the Cardinals, of the H. R. Church, to our 
 council, and, having maturely deliberated on the whole matter, 
 pursuing the footsteps of our predecessors, admonished by our 
 apostolical authority, and urgently invoke in the Lord, all Chris- 
 tians, of whatever condition, that none henceforth dare to subject 
 to slavery, unjustly persecute, or despoil of their goods, Indians, 
 negroes, or other classes of men, or be accessories to others, or 
 furnish them aid or assistance in so doing ; and on no account 
 henceforth to exercise that inhuman traffic by which negroes are 
 reduced to slavery, as if they were not men, but automata or chat- 
 tels, and are sold in defiance of all the laws of justice and human- 
 ity, and devoted to severe and intolerable labors. "We further 
 reprobate, by our apostolical authority", all the above-described 
 offences as utterly unworthy of the Christian name; and by the 
 same authority we rigidly prohibit and interdict all and every in- 
 dividual, whether ecclesiastical or laical, from presuming to de- 
 fend that commerce in negro slaves under pretence or borrowed 
 color, or to teach or publish in any manner, publicly or privately, 
 things contrary to the admonitions which we have given in these 
 letters. 
 
 " And, Inally, that these, our letters, may be rendered more 
 appare'i* X. all, and that no person may allege any ignorance 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE CnURCHES. 273 
 
 thereoC we decree and order that it shall be published accordinj^ 
 to custom, and copies thereof be properly affixed to the gates of 
 St. Peter and of the Apostolic Chancel, every and in like manner 
 to the General Court of Mount Citatorio, and in the tield of tlie 
 Campus Florae and also through the city, by one of our heralds, 
 according to aforesaid custom. 
 
 "Given at Rome, at the Palace of Santa Maria Major, under 
 the seal of the fisherman, on the 3d day of December, 1837, and 
 iu the ninth year of our pontificate. 
 
 " Countersigned by Cardinal A. Lambruschini." 
 
 We have already quoted the language of Pope Leo X., 
 who says : — 
 
 " Not only does the Christian religion, but nature herself cry 
 :)ut against the State of slavery." 
 
 The Abbe Raynal says : — 
 
 " He who supports slavery is the enemy of the human race. 
 He divides it into two societies of legal assassins, the oppressors 
 and the oppressed. I shall not be afraid to cite to the tribunal 
 of reason and justice those governments which tolerate this 
 cruelty, or which even are not ashamed to make it the basis of 
 their power." 
 
 From the proceedings of a Massachusetts Anti-slavery 
 (Convention in 1855, we make the following extract ; — 
 
 " Henry Kemp, a Roman Catholic, came forward to defend the 
 Romish Church in reply to Mr. Foster. lie claimed that the 
 Catholic Church is thoroughly anti-slavery — as thoroughly as 
 even his friend Foster." 
 
 Thus manfully do men of pure hearts and noble minds, 
 
 whether in Church or State, and without regard to sect or 
 
 party, lift up their voices against the wicked and pernicious 
 
 institution of human slavery. Thus they speak, and thus 
 
 12* 
 
2*74 
 
 TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCHES. 
 
 they are obliged to speak, if they speak at all ; it is only 
 the voice of Nature, Justice, Truth, and Love, that issues 
 from them. The divine principle in man prompts him to 
 speak and strike for Freedom ; the diabolical principle 
 within him prompts him to speak and strike for slavery. 
 
 From those churches which are now — as all churches 
 ought to be, and will be, ere the world becomes Christian- 
 ized — thoroughly imbued with the principles of freedom, 
 we do not, as already intimated, deem it particularly ne- 
 cessary to bring forward new arguments in opposition to 
 slavery. If, however, the reader would be pleased to hear 
 from the churches to which we chiefly allude — and, by the 
 bye, he might hear from them with much profit to himself 
 — we respectfully refer him to Henry Ward Beecher, 
 George B. Cheever, Joseph P. Thompson, Theodore Parker, 
 E. H. Chapin, and H. W. Bellows, of the Noith, and to M 
 D. Conway, John G. Fee, James S. Davis, Daniel Wilson, 
 and W. E. Lincoln, of the South. All these reverend gen- 
 tlemen, ministers of different denominations, feel it their 
 duty to preach against slavery, and, to their honor be it 
 said, they do preach against it with unabated zeal and 
 success. Our earnest prayer is, that Heaven may enable 
 them, their cotemporaries and successors, to preach against 
 it with such energy and effect, as will cause it to di sap- 
 pea- forevei ^rom the soil of our Republic. 
 
BIBLE TESTIMONY. 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 BIBLE TESTIMONY. 
 
 Every person who has read the Bible, and who has a 
 proper understanding of its leading moral precepts, feels, 
 in his own conscience, that it is the only original and com- 
 plete anti-slavery text-book. In a crude state of society — 
 in a barbarous age — when men were in a manner destitute 
 of wholesome laws, either human or divine, it is possible 
 that a mild form of slavery may have been tolerated, and 
 even regulated, as an institution clothed with the impor- 
 tance of temporary recognition ; but the Deity never ap- 
 proved it, and, for the very reason that it is impossible 
 for him to do wrong, he never will, never can approve it. 
 The worst system of servitude of which we have any ac- 
 count in the Bible — and, by the way, it furnishes no 
 account of anything so bad as slavery (the evil-one and 
 his hot home alone excepted) — was far less rigorous and 
 atDcious than that now established in the Southern States 
 of this Confederacy. Even that system, however, the 
 worst, which seems to have been practiced to a considera- 
 ble extent by tl ose venerable old fogies, Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob, was le of the monstrous inventions of Satan 
 
276 BIBLE TESTIMONY. 
 
 that God " winked" at ; and, to the mind of the oiblical 
 scholar, nothing can be more evident than that He deter- 
 mined of old, that it should, in due time, be abolished. 
 To say that the Bible sanctions slavery is to say that the 
 Bun loves darkness ; to say that one man was created to 
 domineer over another is to call in question the justice, 
 mercy, and goodness of God. 
 
 We will now listen to a limited number of the 
 
 PRECEPTS AND SAYINGS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 '' Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhajbit- 
 ants thereof." 
 
 " Let the oppressed go free." 
 
 " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
 
 " Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the 
 person of the mighty ; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy 
 neighbor." 
 
 " The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all 
 night until the morning." 
 
 " Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways." 
 
 '• Do justice to the afflicted and needy ; rid them out of the 
 hand of the wicked." 
 
 " Execute judgment and justice ; take away your exactions 
 from my people, saith the Lord God." 
 
 '• Therefore thus saith the Lord ; ye have not hearkened unto 
 me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every 
 man to his neighbor : behold, I proclaim a liberty for j'ou, saith 
 the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine ; and 
 I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the 
 earth." 
 
BIBLE TESTIMONY. 27 T 
 
 •^ ITc that st?aleth a man. and scllcth him, or if he be found in 
 
 his hand, he shall surely be put to death." 
 
 '• Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall 
 cry, but shall not be heard."' 
 
 "lie that oppresseth the poor rcfroacheth his Maker." 
 
 "I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against 
 the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that 
 oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, 
 and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, 
 saith the Lord of lloots." 
 
 " As the partridge setteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not ; so 
 he that gettcth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the 
 midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool." 
 
 And now wc will listen to a few selected 
 
 PRECEPTS AND SAYINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 '•Call no man master, neither be ye called masters." 
 
 " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you 
 do ye even so to them." 
 
 " Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love j 
 in honor preferring one another." 
 
 " Do good to all men, as ye have opportunity." 
 
 • St7Jid fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath 
 made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of 
 bondage." 
 
 "If thou mayest be made free, use it rather." 
 
 " The laborer is worthy of his hire." 
 
 " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 
 
 Some years ago a clerical lickspittle of the slave power 
 
BTB BIBIE TESTIMONY. 
 
 had the temerity to pv.blish a book or pamphlet entitled 
 " Bible Defence of Slavery," which the Baltimore Sun, in 
 the course of a caustic criticism, handled in the following 
 manner : — 
 
 "Bible defence of slavery ! There is no such thing as a Bible 
 defence of slavery at the present day. Slavery in the United 
 States is a social institution, originating in the convenience and 
 cupidity of our ancestors, existing by State laws, and recognized 
 to a certain extent — for the recovery of slave property — by the 
 Constitution. And nobody would pretend that, if it were inex- 
 pedient and unprofitable for any man or any State to continue to 
 hold slaves, they would be bound to do so on the ground of a 
 " Bible defence" of it. Slavery is recorded in the Bible, and ap- 
 proved, with many degrading characteristics. War is recorded 
 in the Bible, and approved, under what seems to us the extreme 
 of cruelty. But are slavery and war to endure for ever because 
 we find them in the Bible? or are they to cease at once and for 
 ever because the Bible inculcates peace and brotherhood?" 
 
 Thus, in the last five chapters inclusive, have we intro- 
 duced a mass of anti-slavery arguments, human and di- 
 vine, that will stand, irrefutable and convincing, as long 
 as the earth itself shall continue to revolve in its orbit. 
 Aside from unafiected truthfulness and candor, no merit 
 is claimed for anything we have said on our own account. 
 With the best of motives, and in the language of nature 
 more than that of art, we have simply given utterance to 
 the honest convictions of our heart — being impelled to it 
 by a long-harbored and unmistakable sense of duty which 
 grew stronger and deeper as the days passed away. 
 
 If half the time which has been spent in collecting and 
 arranging those testimonies had been occupied in the 
 composUi m of original matter, the weight of paper and 
 
BIBLE TESTIMONY. 219 
 
 binding and the number of pag-es would have been much 
 greater, but the value and the effect of the contents would 
 have been far less. From the first, our leading motive 
 has been to convince our fellow-citizens of the South, non- 
 Blaveholders and slaveholders, that slavery, whether con- 
 sidered in all its bearings, or, setting aside the moral as- 
 pect of the question, and looking at it in only a pecuniary 
 point of view, is impolitic, unprofitable, and degrading ; 
 how well, thus far, we have succeeded in our undertaking, 
 time will, perhaps, fully disclose. 
 
 In tlK) words of a contemporaneous German writer, 
 whose language we readily and heartily endorse, " It is 
 the shame of our age that argument is needed against 
 slavery." Taking things as they are, however, argument 
 being needed, we have offered it ; and we have offered 
 it from such sources as will, in our honest opinion, con- 
 found the devil and his incarnate confederates. 
 
 These testimonies, culled from the accumulated wisdoai 
 of nearly six thousand centuries, beginning with the great 
 and good men of our own time, and running back through 
 distant ages to Saint Paul, Saint John, and Saint Luke, 
 to Cicero, Plato, and Socrates, to Salomon, David, and 
 Moses, and even to the Deity himself, are the pillars of 
 strength and beauty upon which the popularity of our 
 work will, in all probability, be principally based. If the 
 ablest writers of the Old Testament ; if the eloquent pro- 
 phets of old ; if tlie renowned philosophers of Greece and 
 Rome ; if the heavenly-minded authors and compilers of 
 the New Testament ; if the illustrious poets and prose- 
 writers, hci ^s, statesmen, sages of all nations, ancient 
 
280 BIBLE TESTIMONY. 
 
 and modern ; if God himself and the hosts of learned 
 ministers whom he has commissioned to proclaim his 
 word — if all these are wrong, then we art wrong ; on the 
 other hand, however, if they are right, we are right ; for, 
 in effect, we only repeat and endeavor to enforce their 
 precepts. 
 
 K we are in error, we desire to be corrected ; and, if it 
 is not asking too much, we respectfully request the advo- 
 cates of slavery to favor us with an expose of what they, 
 in their one-sided view of things, conceive to be the ad- 
 vantages of their favorite and peculiar institution. Such 
 an expose, if skillfully executed, would doubtless be re- 
 garded as the funniest novel of the times — a fit produc- 
 tion, if not too immoral in its tendencies, to be incorpo- 
 rated into the next edition of ©'Israeli's curiosities of 
 literature. 
 
 < 
 
FREE FICrRES AN'D SL.\VE. 981 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 IT!n)ER this heading we propose to introduce the remain- 
 der of the more important statistics of the Free and of the 
 Slave States ; — especially those that relate to Commerce, 
 Manufactures, Internal Improvements, Education and Re- 
 ligion. Originally it vras our intention to devote a 
 separate chapter to each of the industrial and moral in- 
 terests above-named : but other considerations have so 
 greatly encroached on our space, that we are compelled to 
 modify our design. To the thoughtful and discriminating 
 reader, however, the chief statistics which follow will be 
 none the less interesting for not being the subjects of an- 
 notations. 
 
 At present, all we ask of pro-slavery men, no matter in 
 what part of the world they may reside, is to look these 
 figures fahrly in the face. We wish them to do it, in the 
 first instance, not on the platforms of public debate, where 
 the exercise of eloquence is too often characterized by 
 violent passion and subterfuge, but in their own private 
 apartments, where no eye save that of the All-seeing One 
 will rest upon them, and where, in considering the rela- 
 tions which they sustain to the past, the present, and the 
 
282 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 future, an opportunity will be afforded them of securing 
 that most valuable of all possessions attainable on earth, 
 a conscience void of offence toward God and man. 
 
 Each separate table or particular compilation of statia- 
 tics will afford food for at least an hours profitable reflec- 
 tion ; indeed, the more these figures are studied, and the 
 better they are understood, the sooner will the author's 
 object be accomplished, — the sooner will the genius of 
 Univeraal Liberty dispel the dark clouds of slavery. 
 
PREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 283 
 
 TABT.K NO. XXVI 
 
 TONSAOE, EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF THE FRES: STATES 1355. 
 
 Stale*. 
 
 Tonnnge. 
 
 Exports. 
 
 I ni porta. 
 
 California 
 
 92,023 
 137,170 
 
 53,797 
 3,098 
 
 800,587 
 970,727 
 
 69,490 
 
 30,330 
 
 121,020 
 
 1,404,221 
 
 91,007 
 397,708 
 
 61,038 
 0,915 
 
 15,024 
 
 S8,22 1,066 
 878,874 
 647,053 
 
 4,851,207 
 
 28 190,925 
 
 608.091 
 
 1,523 
 
 087 
 
 113,731,238 
 
 847,143 
 
 6,274,338 
 
 330,023 
 
 2,895 ,46S 
 
 174,057 
 
 S107,520,0<.«3 
 
 $5,951,379 
 
 (^oiiiu'Ot ir tiL ... .... 
 
 630,820 
 
 Illinois 
 
 64,509 
 
 Iruliana 
 
 
 
 
 •Maine 
 
 2,927,443 
 
 Massaclmsetts 
 
 Miclii-an 
 
 Now Hampshire 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 45,113.774 
 
 281,379 
 
 17,786 
 
 1,473 
 
 New York 
 
 164,776,511 
 
 Ohio 
 
 600,050 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 RluHle' Islaud 
 
 15,300,935 
 630,387 
 691,593 
 
 Wisconsin .... 
 
 48,159 
 
 
 
 
 4.252.615 
 
 §236,847.810 
 
 TABLK NO. XXVII. 
 
 TONNAGE, EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF THE SLAVE STATES 1855. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 leorjjia 
 
 Ke:itucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 .Mi>sissi;»|)i . , , . 
 
 Missouri.. 
 
 North Carolina. 
 8'»uih Carolina. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Te.xas 
 
 Vir^jinia. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 36,274 
 
 19,186 
 
 14,835 
 
 29.505 
 
 22,080 
 
 201,149 
 
 234,805 
 
 2,475 
 
 00 592 
 
 60,077 
 
 00,935 
 
 8,104 
 
 8,812 
 
 92,788 
 
 Exports. 
 
 S14,270,585 
 
 08,087 
 1,403,594 
 7,513,519 
 
 55,367,962 
 10,395,984 
 
 433,818 
 12,700,250 
 
 910,961 
 4,379,928 
 
 855,51' ; S107,480,CS8 
 
 Imports. 
 
 S619,961 
 
 6,821 
 
 45,998 
 
 273,716 
 
 12,900,821 
 
 7,788,(M9 
 1,061 
 
 243.083 
 1,688,542 
 
 262 50S 
 855,41)5 
 
 S24,58G,528 
 
284 
 
 FREE FIGURES vND SLAT*. 
 
 TABLE NO. XXVIII. 
 
 PRODUCT OF MANUFACTURES IN THE FREE STATES — 1850. 
 
 S^tes. 
 
 Val. of Annual 
 froductfe 
 
 Capital 
 invested. 
 
 Ilanda 
 employed. 
 
 California 
 
 S12,862,522 
 45,110,102 
 17,236,073 
 18,922,651 
 3,551,783 
 24,664,135 
 
 151,137,145 
 10.976,894 
 23,164,503 
 39,713,586 
 
 237,597,249 
 62,647,259 
 
 155,044,910 
 
 22,093,258 
 
 8,570,920 
 
 9,293,068 
 
 S842,586,058 
 
 SI, 006,197 
 
 23,890,348 
 
 6,385,387 
 
 7,941,602 
 
 1,292,875 
 
 14,700,452 
 
 83,357,642 
 
 6,534,250 
 
 18,242,114 
 
 22,184,730 
 
 99,904,405 
 
 29,019,538 
 
 94,473,810 
 
 12,923,176 
 
 5,001,377 
 
 3,382,148 
 
 S430,240,051 
 
 3,964 
 47 770 
 
 Connecticut ^ ,. 
 
 Illinois 
 
 12,065 
 
 14,342 
 
 1,707 
 
 28,078 
 
 165,938 
 
 9,290 
 
 27,092 
 
 37,311 
 
 199,349 
 51,489 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Michio^an ... .... 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 146,766 
 
 20,881 
 
 8,445 
 
 6,089 
 
 780,576 
 
 TABLE NO. XXIX. 
 
 PRODUCT OF MANUFACTURES IN THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 Stateu. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi. . . . 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennesse 
 
 Texas. , 
 
 Virginia. . . . 
 
 VaL of Annual 
 
 Capital 
 
 Hands 
 
 products. 
 
 invested. 
 
 employed. 
 
 S4.538,878 
 
 S3,450,606 
 
 4,936 
 
 607,436 
 
 324,005 
 
 903 
 
 4,049,296 
 
 2,978,945 
 
 3,888 
 
 668,338 
 
 547,060 
 
 991 
 
 7,086,525 
 
 5,460,483 
 
 8,378 
 
 24,588,483 
 
 12,350,734 
 
 24,385 
 
 7,320,948 
 
 5,318,074 
 
 6,437 
 
 32.477,702 
 
 14,753,143 
 
 30,124 
 
 2,972,038 
 
 1,833,420 
 
 3,173 
 
 23,749,265 
 
 9,079,695 
 
 16,%a 
 
 9,111,245 
 
 7,252,225 
 
 12,444 
 
 7,063,513 
 
 6.056,865 
 
 7,009 
 
 9,728,438 
 
 6,975,279 
 
 12,032 
 
 1,165,538 
 
 539,290 
 
 1.066 
 
 29,705,387 
 
 18,109,993 
 
 29,10? 
 
 $165,413,027 
 
 S95,029,879 
 
 161,733 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 285 
 
 TABI.K NO. 
 
 MILES OF CANALS AND RAILROADS IN THE FREE STATES— 
 
 1854-1857. 
 
 Statefl. 
 
 CannU, milcg, 
 1854. 
 
 Railroads, 
 lulloa, 1857. 
 
 Cost of Rail- 
 roads, 1855. 
 
 California 
 
 61 
 100 
 367 
 
 60 
 100 
 
 11 
 147 
 
 989 
 921 
 936 
 
 22 
 
 600 
 
 2,524 
 
 1,806 
 
 253 
 
 442 
 
 1,285 
 
 600 
 
 645 
 
 472 
 
 2,700 
 
 2,869 
 
 2,407 
 
 85 
 
 615 
 
 629 
 
 
 
 $25,224,101 
 65,663,656 
 20,585,923 
 2,300,000 
 13,749,021 
 69,167,781 
 22,370,397 
 15,860,949 
 13 840.030 
 
 111,882.503 
 
 67,798,202 
 
 94,657,675 
 
 2,614,484 
 
 17,998.835 
 
 6,600,000 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 Ne^v Jor->ey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 
 
 3,682 
 
 17,855 
 
 S538,313,647 
 
 TABLE NO. XXXI. 
 
 MILES OF CANALS AND RAILROADS IN TUE SLAVE STATES 
 
 1854-1857. 
 
 Slates. 
 
 Canals, miles, 
 1854. 
 
 Railroads, 
 miles, 1857. 
 
 Cost of Rail- 
 roads, 1855. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 51 
 14 
 
 28 
 486 
 101 
 184 
 
 13 
 50 
 
 181 
 
 484 
 
 120 
 86 
 
 1,062 
 306 
 263 
 597 
 410 
 189 
 612 
 706 
 608 
 57 
 
 1,479 
 
 S3,986,208 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 600,000 
 
 250,000 
 
 17,034,802 
 
 6,179,072 
 
 Georsia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 1,731,000 
 
 12,651,333 
 
 4,520,000 
 
 1,000 000 
 
 6,847,213 
 
 13,547,093 
 
 10,436.610 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 16,406,250 
 
 Virginia 
 
 
 1,111 
 
 6ig5D 
 
 S96, 252,581 
 
286 
 
 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 TABLE NO. XXXIl. 
 
 BANE CAPITAL IN THE FREE AND IN THE SLAYE 6TATES 
 
 1855. 
 
 Free Statos. 
 
 Slave StaUs. 
 
 California 
 
 
 Alabama 
 
 S2,296,400 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 S15,597.891 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 
 Illinois 
 
 2,513,790 
 
 Delaware 
 
 1,393,175 
 
 Indiana 
 
 7,281,934 
 
 Florida 
 
 
 Iowa .... .... 
 
 Georgia 
 
 13,413,100 
 
 Maine 
 
 7,301,252 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 10,369,717 
 
 Massachusetts. . . 
 
 54,492,660 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 20,179,107 
 
 Michigan 
 
 980,416 
 
 Maryland 
 
 10,411,874 
 
 New Hampshire.. 
 
 3.626,000 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 240,105 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 5,314,885 
 
 Missouri.. 
 
 1,215,398 
 
 New York 
 
 83,773,288 
 
 North Carolina... 
 
 6,205,073 
 
 Ohio 
 
 7,166,581 
 19,864,825 
 
 South Carolina... 
 Tennessee 
 
 16 603,253 
 
 Pennsylvania..., 
 
 6,717,848 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 17,511,162 
 
 Texas 
 
 
 Vermont 
 
 3.275,656 
 
 Virginia 
 
 14,033,838 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 1,400,000 
 
 Total 
 
 
 Total 
 
 S230,]00,340 
 
 S102,078,94G 
 
 TABLK NO. XXXITI. 
 
 MILITIA FORCE OF THE FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES 1852. 
 
 Free States. 
 
 Slave States, 
 
 California 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 51,640 1 
 
 170,359 ' 
 
 53,918 ! 
 
 62.588 
 
 119,690 1 
 
 63,958 
 
 32,151 
 
 39,171 
 
 265,293 
 
 176,455 
 
 276,070 
 
 14,443 
 
 23.915 
 
 32 203 
 
 i 
 
 1,38184a * 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 76,662 
 17,137 
 
 9 0<>r, 
 
 Indiana , . 
 
 12 122 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Georgia 
 
 57 312 
 
 Maine. .- 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina. .. 
 South Carolina.. . 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas., 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Total... 
 
 81 840 
 
 Massachusetts... . 
 
 Michigan 
 
 New Hampshire.. 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 43,823 
 46,86 1 
 36,084 
 61,000 
 79,448 
 65,209 
 71,252 
 19.766 
 125,128 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Totail 
 
 792,876 
 
rRF.F, riGURFS AN'D SL.WR. 
 
 28T 
 
 TABI.r: NO. XXXIV. 
 
 POST OFFICE OPERATIONS IN THE FREE STATES 1^55. 
 
 8ute«. 
 
 California 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts .. 
 
 Micliiijan 
 
 New-Hampshire. 
 
 New-.Tf r.-^ey 
 
 New- York 
 
 Ohio , 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island ,. . 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Stamps ( Total Port tHge Cu«tofTnui» 
 sold. collected. the niHils. 
 
 SSI. 4 37 
 
 S23 1.591 
 
 SI 35,386 
 
 79.284 
 
 179,230 
 
 81,462 
 
 105.252 
 
 279,887 
 
 280.038 
 
 60,578 
 
 180,405 
 
 190,480 
 
 28.198 
 
 82,420 
 
 84,428 
 
 60,165 
 
 151,358 
 
 82,218 
 
 259.062 
 
 532.184 
 
 153,091 
 
 49,763 
 
 142.188 
 
 148,204 
 
 38,387 
 
 95,609 
 
 46,631 
 
 31,495 
 
 109,697 
 
 80,084 
 
 542,498 
 
 1,383,157 
 
 481,410 
 
 107,958 
 
 452,613 
 
 421,870 
 
 217,293 
 
 683.013 
 
 251,833 
 
 30.291 
 
 68,624 
 
 13,891 
 
 36,314 
 
 92.816 
 
 64,437 
 
 33,638 
 
 112,903 
 
 92,842 
 
 31,719,513 I S4,670.725 S2,608,295 
 
 TABI.K NO. XXXV. 
 
 POST OFFICE OPERATIONS IX THE SLAVE STATES 1855. 
 
 States. 
 
 Stamps 
 
 60ld. 
 
 Total P.)^>t:ll,'e 
 
 collected. 
 
 CostofTrarwL 
 themaiia. 
 
 Alahama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 S44,514 
 
 8.941 
 
 7,298 
 
 8,764 
 
 73.880 
 
 65,694 
 
 60,778 
 
 77.743 
 
 31,182 
 
 63,742 
 
 34,235 
 
 47.368 
 
 48.377 
 
 24.5:^.0 
 
 96,799 
 
 §104,514 
 
 30,664 
 
 19.644 
 
 19,275 
 
 149,063 
 
 130.067 
 
 133.753 
 
 191.485 
 
 78,739 
 
 139.652 
 
 72.759 
 
 9L6:>0 
 
 Ift3.6s6 
 
 7().4:Ui 
 
 217,861 
 
 226.816 
 117,659 
 
 l)olaware .. 
 
 9 243 
 
 Floriila 
 
 77.553 
 
 Ot'or^ia . 
 
 216 003 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 144,101 
 133 810 
 
 Marvland 
 
 192 743 
 
 
 170,785 
 
 Missouri 
 
 185,096 
 148 2 49 
 
 Nt»rth Carolina 
 
 South Caflina 
 
 192.216 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virjjii ia 
 
 116.091 
 209,936 
 245,592 
 
 
 S<i66,845 
 
 $1,653,198 
 
 S2,385,953 
 
288 
 
 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVK. 
 
 TABLE NO. XXXVI. 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE FREE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. ~ ' 
 
 California 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts. . 
 
 Michigan 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania... 
 Rhode Island . . . 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Number. 
 
 Teachers. 
 
 Pnpils. 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 4fl 
 
 1,656 
 
 1,787 
 
 71,269 
 
 4,052 
 
 4,248 
 
 125,725 
 
 4,822 
 
 4.860 
 
 161,500 
 
 740 
 
 828 
 
 29,556 
 
 4,042 
 
 5,540 
 
 192,815 
 
 3,679 
 
 4,443 
 
 176,475 
 
 2,714 
 
 3,231 
 
 110,455 
 
 . 2,381 
 
 3,013 
 
 75.643 
 
 1,473 
 
 1,574 
 
 77,930 
 
 11,580 
 
 13,965 
 
 675,221 
 
 11,661 
 
 12,886 
 
 484,153 
 
 9,061 
 
 10,024 
 
 413,706 
 
 416 
 
 518 
 
 23,130 
 
 2,731 
 
 4,173 
 
 93,457 
 
 1,423 
 
 1,529 
 
 68,817 
 
 62,433 
 
 72,621 
 
 2,769,901 
 
 TABLE NO. XXXVII. 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky . . . . , 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina, 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Number. 
 
 Teachers. 
 
 Pupils. 
 
 1,152 
 
 1,195 
 
 28,380 
 
 353 
 
 355 
 
 8,493 
 
 194 
 
 214 
 
 8,970 
 
 69 
 
 73 
 
 1,878 
 
 1.251 
 
 1.265 
 
 32,705 
 
 2,234 
 
 2,306 
 
 71,429 
 
 664 
 
 822 
 
 25,046 
 
 898 
 
 986 
 
 33,111 
 
 782 
 
 826 
 
 18 746 
 
 1,570 
 
 1,620 
 
 61,754 
 
 2,657 
 
 2,730 
 
 104.095 
 
 724 
 
 739 
 
 17,838 
 
 2,6s0 
 
 2,819 
 
 104,117 
 
 349 
 
 360 
 
 7,946 
 
 2,930 
 
 2,997 
 
 67,353 
 
 18,607 
 
 19,307 
 
 681»801 
 
FREE Fir.rUES AN'D SLAVE. 
 
 289 
 
 TABI.i: NO. XXXVIII. 
 
 LIBRARIES OTHER THAN PRIVATE IN THE FREE STATES lft50. 
 
 Stat.'s.' 
 
 NuniVor. 
 
 VolumeB, 
 
 California 
 
 104 
 
 152 
 
 151 
 
 32 
 
 236 
 
 1,462 
 
 417 
 
 129 
 
 128 
 
 11,013 
 
 352 
 
 393 
 
 96 
 
 96 
 
 72 
 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 165,318 
 62,486 
 
 
 68,403 
 
 Iowa ,. 
 
 6,790 
 
 Maine 
 
 121,969 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 684,015 
 
 lyiichi'^an 
 
 107,943 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 f5,759 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 80,885 
 1,700,820 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 186,826 
 363,400 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 104,342 
 
 Vermont 
 
 64,641 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 21,020 
 
 
 
 
 14,911 
 
 3,888,234 
 
 TABLE NO. XXXIX. 
 
 LIBRARIES OTHER THAN PRIVATE IN THE SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States, 
 
 Number. 
 
 Volumes. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 56 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 88 
 
 80 
 
 10 
 
 124 
 
 117 
 
 97 
 
 38 
 
 26 
 
 34 
 
 12 
 
 54 
 
 20,623 
 420 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 17,950 
 
 Florida .- 
 
 2,660 
 
 Geor'na .... 
 
 
 31,788 
 
 Kent ucky 
 
 79.400 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 26,800 
 
 Maryland 
 
 ^lississippi 
 
 125,042 
 21,737 
 
 Missouri 
 
 75,056 
 
 North Carol 
 
 na 
 
 29 592 
 
 South Carol 
 
 ina. . . ... . 
 
 107,472 
 
 Tennes.'iee. . 
 Te.\as 
 
 
 22.896 
 4.230 
 
 Virginia . . . 
 
 
 88,402 
 
 
 695 
 
 649,577 
 
 13 
 
290 
 
 FREE FIGURES ArD SLAVE 
 
 TABLB NO. XL. 
 
 NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS PUBLISHED IN IRE 
 FREE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Numbv-T. 
 
 Copies Printed 
 annually. 
 
 
 7 
 
 46 
 
 107 
 
 107 
 
 29 
 
 49 
 
 202 
 
 68 
 
 38 
 
 61 
 
 428 
 
 261 
 
 309 
 
 19 
 
 85 
 
 46 
 
 761,200 
 4 "^Ql 932 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 5,102,276 
 4.316.828 
 1,512,800 
 4,203,064 
 64.820,564 
 3,247,736 
 3,067,552 
 4,098,678 
 115,385 473 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 ^Iichi°'"an 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pe.itisylvania 
 
 30,473,407 
 84,898 672 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 2,756,950 
 2,567,662 
 2,665,487 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 
 
 1 790 
 
 334.146,281 
 
 TABLE NO. XLT. 
 
 NEWSPAPERS 
 
 AND PERIODICALS PUBLISHED IN THE 
 SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Number. 
 
 Copies Printed 
 annually. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 A'^'kansas 
 
 CO 
 9 
 ID 
 10 
 51 
 62 
 65 
 68 
 60 
 61 
 51 
 46 
 50 
 34 
 87 
 
 704 
 
 2,662,741 
 377,000 
 
 Dc laware 
 
 421.200 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 319:800 
 
 4.070,868 
 
 6.582,838 
 
 12,416,224 
 
 Miryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 19.612,724 
 1,752 504 
 
 M ssouri 
 
 6 195 560 
 
 N'>Tth Carolina 
 
 2.020.564 
 
 Sl nth Carolina 
 
 7,145.930 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 6 940 750 
 
 Texas 
 
 1,296,924 
 0,223,068 
 
 81,038,693 
 
 Virginia 
 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 291 
 
 TABI.K NO. Xr.II. 
 
 1LLITEAA'_*E WHITE ADULTS IN THE 
 
 FREE ST.\TES 
 
 —1850. 
 
 Stnto^ 
 
 Native. 
 
 Forcljrn. 
 
 2.917 
 4,013 
 6,947 
 3,205 
 1,077 
 4,148 
 
 20,484 
 3,009 
 2,004 
 5,878 
 
 68,052 
 9,062 
 
 24,989 
 2,359 
 5,624 
 4,902 
 
 173,790 
 
 Total. 
 
 Califi.rnia 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 2,201 
 
 826 
 
 34,107 
 
 67,275 
 
 7,043 
 
 1,9')9 
 
 1,055 
 
 4,903 
 
 893 
 
 8,370 
 
 23,241 
 
 51,908 
 
 41,944 
 
 981 
 
 665 
 
 1,459 
 
 2^8.725 
 
 5,118 
 4,739 
 
 Illinois 
 
 40,054 
 
 70,540 
 
 8,120 
 
 6,147 
 
 27 539 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Alainc 
 
 Mas'>achuselts 
 
 Michigan 
 
 7.912 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 2 957 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 14,248 
 91,293 
 61,030 
 66,928 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 3,340 
 6,189 
 6,361 
 
 422,515 
 
 
 TAlil.K NO. XLIII. 
 
 ILLITERATE WHITE ADULTS IN THE 
 
 SLAVE STATES 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Native. 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 139 
 
 27 
 
 404 
 
 295 
 
 400 
 
 2,347 
 
 6,271 
 
 3,451 
 
 81 
 
 1,801 
 
 340 
 
 104 
 
 606 
 
 2,4.^8 
 
 1,137 
 
 Total. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 33,618 
 
 16,792 
 
 4,132 
 
 3,564 
 
 40,794 
 
 64,340 
 
 14,950 
 
 17,364 
 
 13,324 
 
 34,420 
 
 73,226 
 
 15,580 
 
 77,017 
 
 8 037 
 
 75,s08 
 
 .. . 
 
 33,757 
 
 16,819 
 
 4 530 
 
 Florida 
 
 OeurTia 
 
 31859 
 41 200 
 
 Kentuckv 
 
 60,087 
 21, '^'U 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland.. 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 20,815 
 13,405 
 
 Missouri 
 
 36,281 
 73,566 
 15,684 
 77,622 
 10,525 
 77,005 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Termessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 493,026 
 
 19,856 
 
 612,88: 
 
292 
 
 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 TABLE NO. XI.IV. 
 
 NATIONAL POLITICAL POWER OF THE FREE STATE3- 
 
 •1857. 
 
 States. 
 
 Senators. 
 
 Rep. in lower 
 House Cong. 
 
 2 
 4 
 9 
 11 
 2 
 
 6 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 33 
 21 
 25 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 Electoral 
 votea. 
 
 California 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois . 
 
 6 
 11 
 
 Indiana 
 
 13 
 
 Iowa 
 
 4 
 
 Maine 
 
 8 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Michifran 
 
 13 
 6 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 5 
 
 Kew Jersev 
 
 New York" 
 
 7 
 35 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsj'lvania 
 
 23 
 
 27 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 4 
 
 Vermont 
 
 5 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 32 
 
 144 
 
 17G 
 
 TABI.H NO. XLV. 
 
 NATIONAL POLITICAL POWER OF THE SLAVE STATES 185T. 
 
 States. 
 
 Senators. 
 
 Rep. in lower 
 House Cong. 
 
 Electoral 
 votes. 
 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 8 
 
 \ 
 
 8 
 6 
 
 10 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 4 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentuck.v 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 Maryland 
 
 8 
 
 
 7 
 
 jNIissouri 
 
 9 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 10 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 . 8 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virgil ia. . . . 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 
 30 
 
 90 
 
 120 
 
FRF.F FICTRES AN'P SLAVE. 
 
 29-: 
 
 TAHLK NO. XLVr. 
 
 fOPULAU VOTE FOR PRESIDENT RY THE FREE STATCi J 850. 
 
 Statw. 
 
 Reptiblican. 
 Fremont. 
 
 A mn-ican. 
 Fillmore. 
 
 35,113 
 
 2,615 
 
 37,444 
 
 22,3S6 
 
 0,180 
 
 3,325 
 
 10,626 
 
 1,660 
 
 422 
 
 24,115 
 
 124,00 1 
 
 28,126 
 
 82,175 
 
 1,075 
 
 545 
 
 579 
 
 Dnnocrafie. 
 Bui.b:inan. 
 
 51,025 
 
 34,005 
 
 ■ 105,348 
 
 118.670 
 
 30,170 
 
 30,080 
 
 30,240 
 
 52,136 
 
 32,780 
 
 46,043 
 
 105.878 
 
 170,874 
 
 230,710 
 
 6.580 
 
 10,560 
 
 52,843 
 
 Total 
 
 California 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 20.330 
 
 42,715 
 
 96,189 
 
 94,375 
 
 43,954 
 
 67,379 
 
 108,100 
 
 71,762 
 
 38,345 
 
 28,338 
 
 276,907 
 
 187.407 
 
 147,510 
 
 11,467 
 
 30,561 
 
 66,000 
 
 107,377 
 
 80,325 
 
 238,081 
 
 2:)5 431 
 
 
 Iowa 
 
 80,304 
 
 100,784 
 
 107,056 
 
 125,558 
 
 71,556 
 
 99.396 
 
 5971389 
 
 386,407 
 
 460,305 
 
 19,722 
 
 50,675 
 
 119,512 
 
 Maine 
 
 Ma.ssachusetts. . . 
 
 Michigan 
 
 New Hampshire.. 
 
 New Jersev 
 
 New York. 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania.. . , 
 
 Rhode' Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 
 1,340.618 
 
 303,500 
 
 1,224,750 
 
 2,958,958 
 
 TABLE NO. XLVII. 
 
 POPULAR VOTE FOR PRESIDENT BY THE SLAVE STATES 1856. 
 
 States. 
 
 Republican. . American. 
 Freinout. | Fillmora 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina .. 
 South Carolina*.. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Te.\as 
 
 Virginia 
 
 • No popular vote. 
 
 308 
 
 314 
 
 281 
 
 291 
 
 1,194 
 
 28.552 
 10.787 
 6,175 
 4,833 
 42.228 
 67,416 
 20,700 
 47,400 
 24,195 
 48,524 
 36,886 
 
 60,178 
 15,214 
 60,278 
 
 Democratic. 
 Buchaiiaa 
 
 40,739 
 21,010 
 8,004 
 6,358 
 50,578 
 74,012 
 22,104 
 30,115 
 35,446 
 58,164 
 48,246 
 
 73,638 
 28,757 
 80.826 
 
 Total 
 
 75,201 
 32,607 
 14,487 
 11,191 
 98,806 
 
 142,372 
 42,873 
 86,856 
 59.641 
 
 106,688 
 85,132 
 
 130,816 
 
 44,001 
 
 150.305 
 
 470,405 I 600,587 . 1,090,!>^ 
 
294 
 
 FREE FIG THE ^^ .VXD SLAVE. 
 
 TABI^K NO. XLVIII. 
 
 TALUE OF CnURCIIES IN THE FREE AND IN THE SLAVE STATES 
 
 IboO. 
 
 Free S 
 
 tales. 1 
 
 Slave States. 
 
 California 
 
 S288,400 
 3,599,330 
 1,532,305 
 1,568,906 
 235,412 
 1,794,209 
 
 10.504,888 
 
 '793,180 
 
 1,433,266 
 
 3,712,863 
 
 21,539,561 
 5.860,059 
 
 11,853,291 
 
 1,293,600 
 
 1,251.655 
 
 512,552 
 
 Alabama 
 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Arkan.sas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Sl,244,741 
 
 149,686 
 
 340,345 
 
 192,600 
 
 1,327,112 
 
 2 295,353 
 
 1,940,495 
 
 3,974,116 
 
 832,622 
 
 1,730,135 
 
 907,785 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Maine. 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Michi^ran 
 
 New Hampshire... 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri.. 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont. 
 
 2.181,476 
 
 1,246,951 
 
 408,944 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Total 
 
 2,902,220 
 
 Total 
 
 $•67,773,477 
 
 $21,674,581 
 
 TABLK NO. XLIX 
 
 PATENTS ISSUED ON NEW INVENTIONS IN THE FREE AND IN 
 THE SLAVE STATES 1856. 
 
 Free States. 
 
 Slave States. 
 
 California 
 
 13 
 
 142 
 
 93 
 
 ?I 
 
 42 
 
 331 
 
 22 
 
 43 
 
 78 
 
 592 
 
 139 
 
 267 
 
 18 
 
 35 
 
 33 
 
 Alabama 
 
 11 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 8 
 
 Indiana 
 
 3 
 
 
 13 
 
 Maine 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 20 
 
 jNIas'-achusetts 
 
 30 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Maryland 
 
 49 
 
 New Hampshire.. . 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 'South Carolina 
 
 ! Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 8 
 32 
 
 9 
 10 
 
 reinisylvania 
 
 Rhode" Island 
 
 23 
 4 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Virginia 
 
 42 
 
 Wisctf isin 
 
 Total 
 
 
 Total 
 
 1,929 
 
 268 
 
FRFF. FKJURHS AND SLAVE. 
 
 295 
 
 TABI.C NO. L. 
 
 BIBLB CAUSE AND TUACT CAUSE IN TUE FREE STATES 1855. 
 
 States. 
 
 Contnbu. for 
 the Bible Causa 
 
 Coniribii. for 
 the Tract C.iuse. 
 
 California 
 
 C'>»nieciicat 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts . . 
 
 Micliiijan 
 
 New-IIanipshire. 
 
 New-Jersey 
 
 New- York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island . . . 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 si.ooo 
 
 s^ 5 
 
 24,528 
 
 15,872 
 
 28,103 
 
 3,786 
 
 6,755 
 
 1,491 
 
 4,216 
 
 2,005 
 
 5,449 
 
 2,981 . 
 
 43,444 
 
 11,492 
 
 5,554 
 
 1,114 
 
 6,271 
 
 1,288 
 
 15,475 
 
 3,516 
 
 123,386 
 
 61,233 
 
 25,758 
 
 9,576 
 
 25,360 
 
 12,121 
 
 2,609 
 
 2,121 
 
 5,709 
 
 2,867 
 
 4,700 
 
 474 
 
 S310.667 
 
 S131,972 
 
 TABLK NO. LI. 
 
 BIBLE CAUSE AND TRACT CAUSE IN THE SLATE STATES 1855. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georcia 
 
 Kentucky ., . 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Contribu. for Contribu. for 
 
 the Bible Cause, the Tiact Cause. 
 
 £68,125 
 
 S3,351 
 
 4.77 
 
 2,950 
 
 110 
 
 1,037 
 
 163 
 
 1.957 
 
 5 
 
 4,532 
 
 1,468 
 
 5,956 
 
 1,366 
 
 1.810 
 
 1,099 
 
 8,909 
 
 6,365 
 
 1,067 
 
 207 
 
 4,711 
 
 936 
 
 6,197 
 
 1,419 
 
 3,984 
 
 3 222 
 
 8,383 
 
 1,807 
 
 3,985 
 
 127 
 
 9,296 
 
 6,894 
 
 S24,725 
 
296 
 
 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 TABLE NO. l.II. 
 
 MISSIONARY CAUSE AND COLONIZATION* CAUSE IN THE 
 FREE STATES 1855-1856. 
 
 Stages. 
 
 Contributions for 
 Miss'y purposes, 1855. 
 
 Contributions for 
 Coloniza. pur., 1856 
 
 California 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 S 192 
 48,044 
 10,040 
 
 4,705 
 
 1,750 
 
 13,929 
 
 128,505 
 
 4,935 
 11,963 
 19,946 
 172,115 
 19,890 
 43,412 
 
 9,440 
 11,094 
 
 2,216 
 
 S 1 
 9 233 
 
 Illinois 
 
 643 
 
 Indiana 
 
 34 
 
 Iowa 
 
 3 
 
 Maine 
 
 1 719 
 
 Massachusetts .... ... 
 
 1 422 
 
 Michioran 
 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 1,130 
 3,261 
 24,371 
 2,687 
 4,287 
 2,125 
 304 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 806 
 
 
 S502,174 
 
 S51,930 
 
 TABLK NO. LIII. 
 
 MISSIONARY CAUSE AND COLONIZATION* CAUSE IN THE 
 SLAVE STATES 1855-1856. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 ^lissouri 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina, 
 
 Tennesso) 
 
 Texas. .. 
 
 yi r-ini? . 
 
 Contributions for 
 
 Contributions for 
 
 Miss'y purposes, 1855. 
 
 Coloniza. pur., 1866 
 
 So,963 
 
 Sl,113 
 
 455 
 
 1 
 
 1,003 
 
 250 
 
 340 
 
 13 
 
 9,846 
 
 5,323 
 
 6,953 
 
 4,436 
 
 334 
 
 871 
 
 20,677 
 
 406 
 
 4,957 
 
 2,177 
 
 2,712 
 
 313 
 
 6,010 
 
 969 
 
 25.248 
 
 129 
 
 4,971 
 
 1,611 
 
 349 
 
 6 
 
 22,106 
 
 10,000 
 
 S101,934 I 
 
 For colonizing free blacks in Liberia. 
 
 S27,018 
 
FREE TK^URKS AN'P PI.AVE. 
 
 207 
 
 TAI3L1-: NO. I. IV. 
 
 PEATIIS IN THE FREE STATES — 18^ C 
 
 Sutes. 
 
 Number of 
 deaths. 
 
 5.781 
 
 11,019 
 
 12,728 
 
 2,014 
 
 7,515 
 
 19,4 U 
 
 4,520 
 
 4,208 
 
 0,407 
 
 44,889 
 
 28.949 
 
 28,818 
 
 2,241 
 
 3,182 
 
 2,884 
 
 Ratio to the Xuinbei 
 living. 
 
 California . . 
 
 
 Coiiucclicut 
 
 04 18 
 
 
 78.28 
 
 Indiana 
 
 77.G5 
 
 Iowa 
 
 94.03 
 
 Maine 
 
 77 29 
 
 Massacliusctls 
 
 Michi»'an 
 
 61.23 
 88.19 
 
 New Haiupshire 
 
 74 49 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 75 70 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 69 85 
 G8.41 
 81 63 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 A eruiont 
 
 65.83 
 100 13 
 
 
 105 82 
 
 
 
 
 184.249 
 
 72.01 
 
 TABI.K NO. I.V. 
 
 DEATHS IN THE SLAVE STATES 1850." 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georsiia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virjiin r 
 
 Number of 
 
 Ratio to the Number 
 
 deaths. 
 
 living. 
 
 9,084 
 
 84.94 
 
 2,9.s7 
 
 70.18 
 
 1,209 
 
 75.71 
 
 983 
 
 93.67 
 
 9.920 
 
 91.93 
 
 15.200 
 
 64.60 
 
 11.948 
 
 42.85 
 
 9.594 
 
 60.77 
 
 8,711 
 
 69.93 
 
 12,211 
 
 55.81 
 
 10.207 
 
 85.12 
 
 7,997 
 
 83.59 
 
 11.759 
 
 85 34 
 
 3,046 
 
 69.79 
 
 19,058 
 
 74.01 
 
 133,805 i 71.82 
 
 ♦ For an explanation of this Table tea the next six p«iges. 
 
FREE FIGURES ANT) SLAVE. 
 
 TABLE NO. JLVI. 
 
 FREE WHITE MALE PERSONS OVER FIFTEEN YEARS OF AGE 
 
 ENGAGED IS AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER OUT-DOOt 
 SLAVE-STATKS 1850. 
 
 LABOR IN THE 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Pelaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Geororia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana , 
 
 Maryland , 
 
 Mississippi , 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina.. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 No. engaged 
 
 No. en^aeed 
 
 
 in 
 
 in other out- 
 
 Total 
 
 Agriculture. 
 
 door labor. 
 
 
 67,742 
 
 7,229 
 
 74,971 
 
 28,436 
 
 5,596 
 
 34,032 
 
 6,225 
 
 4,184 
 
 10,409 
 
 5,472 
 
 2,598 
 
 8,070 
 
 82,107 
 
 11.054 
 
 93,161 
 
 110,119 
 
 26,308 
 
 136,427 
 
 11,524 
 
 13,827 
 
 25,351 
 
 24,672 
 
 17,146 
 
 41,818 
 
 50,028 
 
 5,823 
 
 55.851 
 
 64,292 
 
 19,900 
 
 84,192 
 
 76,338 
 
 21,876 
 
 98,214 
 
 87,612 
 
 6,991 
 
 44,603 
 
 115,844 
 
 16,795 
 
 132,t 39 
 
 24,987 
 
 22.713 
 
 47,700 
 
 97,654 
 
 33,928 
 
 131,582 
 
 803,052 
 
 215,968 
 
 1,019,020 
 
 Too hot in the South, and too unhealthy there — white 
 men "can't stand it" — negroes only can endure the heat 
 of Southern climes I How often are our ears insulted 
 with such wickedly false assertions as these I In what 
 degree of latitude — ^pray tell us — in what degree of lati- 
 tude do the rays of the sun become too calorific for white 
 men ? Certainly in no part of the United States, for in 
 the extreme South we find a very large number of non- 
 slaveholding whites over the age of fifteen, who derive 
 their entire support from manual labor in the open fields. 
 The sun, that bugbear of slaveholding demagogues, shone 
 on more than one mil "ion of free white laborers — mostly 
 agriculturists — in the slave States in 1850, exclusive of 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SI^VE. 299 
 
 inosc engaged in commerce, trade, manufactures, the me- 
 chanic arts, and mining. Yet, notwithstanding ail these 
 mstanoes of exposure io his wrath, we have had no intel- 
 ligence whatever of a single case of coup de so-leil. Ala- 
 bama is not too hot ; sixty-seven thousand white sons of 
 toil till her soil. Mississippi is not too hot ; fifty-five thou- 
 sand free white laborers arc hopeful devotees of her out- 
 door pursuits. Texas is not too hot ; forty-seven thousand 
 free white persons, males, over the age of fifteen, daily 
 perform their rural vocations amidst her unsheltered air. 
 
 It is stated on good authority that, in January, 1856, 
 native ice, three inches thick, was found in Galveston 
 Bay ; we have seen it ten inches thick in North Carolina, 
 with the mercury in the thermometer at two degrees be- 
 low zero. In January, 1857, while the snow was from 
 three to five feet deep in many parts of North Carolina, 
 the thermometer indicated a degree of coldness seldom 
 exceeded in any State in the Union — thirteen degrees be- 
 low zero. The truth is, instead of its being too hot in the 
 South for white men, it is too cold for negroes ; and we 
 long to see the day arrive when the latter shall have en- 
 tirely receded from their xmcongenial homes in America, 
 and given full and undivided place to the former. 
 
 Too hot in the South for white men 1 It is not too liot 
 for white women. Time and again, in different counties 
 in North Carolina, have we seen the poor white wife of 
 the poor white husband, following him in the harvest-fiild 
 from morning till night, binding up tlie grain as it fell 
 from his cradle. In the immediate neighborhood from 
 vhich w© "«ail, there are not less than thirty young 
 
300 FKEE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 women, non-slaveholding whites, between the ages of fit- 
 teen aiLd twenty-five — some of whom are so well knowD 
 to us that we could call them by name — who labor in the 
 fields every summer ; two of them in particular, near 
 neighbors to our mother, are in the habit of hiring them- 
 selves out during harvest-time, the very hottest season of 
 the year, to bind wheat and oats — each of them keeping 
 up with the reaper ; and this for the paltry consideration 
 of twenty-five cents per day. 
 
 That any respectable man — any man with a heart or a 
 soul in his composition — can look upon these poor toiling 
 white women without feeling indignant at that accursed 
 system of slavery which has entailed on them the miseries 
 of poverty, ignorance, and degradation, we shall not do 
 ourself the violence to believe. If they and their hus- 
 bands, and their sons and daughters, and brothers and 
 sisters, are not righted in some of the more important par- 
 ticulars in which they have been wronged, the fault shall 
 lie at other doors than our own. In their behalf, chiefly, 
 have we written and compiled this work ; and until our 
 object shall have been accomplished, or until life shall 
 have been extinguished, there shall be no abatement in 
 our efforts to aid them in regaining the natural and inali- 
 enable prerogatives out of which they have been so infam- 
 ously swindled. "We want to see no more plowing, or 
 hoeing, or raking, or grain-binding, by white women in 
 the Southern States ; employment in cotton-mills and other 
 factories would be far more profitable and congenial to 
 them, and this they shall have within a shorlt period aftei 
 slavery shall have be<»n abolished. 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 301 
 
 Too hot in llie South for white men I What is the tes- 
 timony of reliuUe Southrons themselves? Says Cassius 
 M. Chiy, of Kentueky : — 
 
 '• In the extreme Soutli, at New Orleans, the lahoring men— 
 t]i« stevedores and hackmen on the levee, where the heat is in- 
 tensified hy the proximity of the red brick buildings, are all 
 white men, and they are in tlic full enjoyment of health. But 
 how about Cotton ? I am informed by a friend of mine — him- 
 self a slaveholder, and therefore good authority — that in North- 
 western Texas, among the German settlements, who true to their 
 national instincts, will not employ the labor of a slave — they pro- 
 duce more cotton to the acre, and of a better quality, and selling 
 at prices from a cent to a cent and a half a pound higher than 
 that produced by slave labor." 
 
 Says Gov. Ilammond, of South Carolina: — 
 
 ^ The steady heat of our summers is not so prostrating as the 
 short, but frequent and sudden, bursts of Northern summers." 
 
 In an extract which may be found in our second cha|> 
 ter, and to which we respectfully refer the reader, it will 
 be seen that this same South Carolinian, speaking of " not 
 less than fifty thousand" non-slaveliolding whites, says — 
 " most of these now follow agricultural pursuits." 
 
 Says Dr. Cartwright of New Orleans : — 
 
 •' Here in New Orleans, the larger part of the drudgery — work 
 requiring exposure to the sun, as railroad-making, street-paving, 
 dray-driving, ditching and, building, is performed by white peo- 
 ple." 
 
 To the statistical tables which show the number of 
 deaths in the free and in the slave States in 1850, we 
 would dire:t special attentioa Those persons, particu-. 
 
302 FREE FIGURES AN*D SLAVE. 
 
 larly the propogandists of negro slavery, who, heretofore, 
 have been so dreadfully exercised on account of what they 
 have been pleased to term " the insalubrity of Southern 
 climes," will there find something to allay their fearful 
 apprehensions. A critical examination of said tables will 
 disclose the fact that, in proportion to population, deaths 
 occur more frequently in Massachusetts than in any South- 
 ern State except Louisiana ; more frequently in New York 
 than in any of the Southern States, except Maryland, Mis- 
 souri, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas ; more frequently 
 in New Jersey, in Pennsylvania, and in Ohio, than in 
 either Georgia, Florida, or Alabama. Leaving Wisconsin 
 and Louisiana out of the account, and then comparing the 
 bills of mortality in the remaining Northern States, with 
 those in the remaining Southern States, we find the differ- 
 ence decidedly in favor of the latter ; for, according to 
 this calculation, while the ratio of deaths is as only one to 
 •14.60 of the living population in the Southern States, it is 
 as one to *I2.39 in the Northern. 
 Says Dr. J. C. Nott, of Mobile :— 
 
 " Heat, moisture, animal and vegetable matter are said to be 
 the elements which produce the diseases of the South, and yet 
 the testimony in proof of the health of the banks of the lower 
 portion of the Mississippi River, is too strong to be doubted, — 
 not only the river itself but also the numerous bayous which me- 
 ander through Louisiana. Here is a perfectly flat alluvial coun- 
 tr}^, covering several hundred miles, interspersed with intermina- 
 ble lakes, lagunes and jungles, and still we are informed by Dr. 
 Cartwright, one of the most acute observers of the day, that this 
 country is exempt from miasmatic disorders, and is extremely 
 healthy. His assertion has been confirmed *o me by hundreds 
 of witnesses, and we know from our own observation, that the 
 population present a robust and healthy appearance." 
 
fREE FIGURES ANT) SLAVS. 
 
 But tlic bcsi /art is yet to come. In spite of all the 
 blatant assertions of the oligarchy, that the climate of the 
 South was arranged expressly for the negroes, and that 
 the negroes were created expressly to inhabit it as the 
 healthful servitors of other men, a carefully kept register 
 of all the deaths that occurred in Charleston, South Caro- 
 lina, for the space of six years, shows that, even in that 
 locality which is generally regarded as so unhealthy, the 
 annual mortality was much greater among the blacks, in 
 proportion to population, than among the whites. Dr. Nott 
 himself shall state the fi\cts. He says : — 
 
 " The average mortality for the last six years in Charleston 
 for all ages is 1 in 51, including all classes. Blacks alone 1 in 
 44 ; whites alone. 1 in 58 — a very remarkable result, certainly. 
 This mortality is perhaps not an unfair test, as the population 
 during the last six years has been undisturbed by emigration and 
 acclimated in a greater proportion than at any former period." 
 
 Numerous other authorities might be cited in proof of 
 the general healthiness of the climate south of Mason and 
 Dixon's line. Of 127 remarkable cases of American lon- 
 gevity, published in a recent edition of Blake's Biographi- 
 cal Dictionary, 68 deceased centenarians are credited to 
 the Southern States, and 59 to the Northern — the list being 
 headed with Betsey Trantham, of Tennessee — a white wo- 
 man, who died in 1834, at the extraordinarily advanced age 
 of 154 years 
 
304 
 
 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 TABI.K NO. LVII. 
 
 NATIVES OF THE SLAVE STATES IN THE FREE STATES, AND NATIVES 
 OF THE FREE STATES IN THE SLAVE STATES. 1850. 
 
 States. 
 
 Natives of the 
 Slave States. 
 
 States. 
 
 Natives of the 
 Free States. 
 
 California 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 24,055 
 
 1,390 
 
 144,809 
 
 176,581 
 
 31,392 
 
 458 
 
 2,980 
 
 3,634 
 
 215 
 
 4,110 
 
 12,625 
 
 152,319 
 
 47,180 
 
 982 
 
 140 
 
 6,353 
 
 609,223 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas ......... 
 
 4,947 
 7,965 
 6 996 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky ..„. 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 1 718 
 
 Iowa 
 
 4,249 
 31,340 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 14,567 
 
 Michicran 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 23,815 
 4,517 
 
 55,664 
 2,167 
 2,427 
 6,571 
 9,982 
 
 28,999 
 
 New-Hampshire 
 
 New-Jersey 
 
 New-York 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Tennesee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 
 
 
 
 205,924 
 
 This last table, compiled from the 116th page of the 
 Compendium of the Seventh Census, shows, in a most lucid 
 and startling manner, how negroes, slavery and slave- 
 holders are driving the native non-slaveholding whites 
 away from their homes, and keeping at a distance other 
 decent people. From the South the tide of emigration still 
 flows in a westerly and north-westerly direction, and it 
 will continue to do so until slavery is abolished. The fol- 
 lowing remarks, which we extract from an editorial article 
 that appeared in the Memphis (Tenn.) Bulletin near the 
 close of the year 1856, are worth considering in this con- 
 nection : — • 
 
 " We have never before observed so large a number of immi- 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SlAVE. 305 
 
 grants going westward as arc crossing the river at tliis jjoint 
 daily, the twc <l'rry boats — sometimes three — going crowded from 
 early morn un.il tlie boats cease making their trips at night. It 
 is no uncommon sight to see from twenty to fort}' wagons en- 
 camped on the bluff for the night, notwithstanding there has 
 been a steady stream going across the river all day, and yet the 
 iry is, still they come." 
 
 About the same time the Cassville (Geo.) Standard 
 spoke with surprise of the multitude of emigrants crowd 
 ing the streets of that town bound for the far West. 
 
 Prof. B. S. Hedrick, late of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 
 says : — 
 
 " Of my neighbors, friends and kindred, nearly one-half have 
 left the State since I was old enough to remember. Many is the 
 time I have stood by the loaded emigrant wagon, and given the 
 parting hand to those whose faces I was never to look upon 
 again. They were going to seek homes in the free West, know- 
 ing, as they did, that free and slave labor could not both exist 
 and prosper in the same community. If any one thinks that I 
 speak without knowledge, let him refer to the last census. He 
 will there find that in 1850 there were fifty-eight thousand native 
 North Carolinians living in the free States of the "West — thirty- 
 threc-thousand in Indiana alone. There were, at the same time, 
 one hundred and eighty thousand Virginians living in the free 
 States. Now, if these people were so much in love with the ' in- 
 stitution,' why did they not remain where they could enjoy its 
 blessings ? 
 
 " From my knowledge of the people of North Carolina, I be- 
 lieve that the majority of them who will go to Kansas during 
 the next five years, would prefer that it should be a free State. 
 I am sure that if I were to go ihcre I should vote to exclude 
 blayery." 
 
 For daring to have political opinions of his own, and 
 because he did rot deem it his duty to conceal the fac-* 
 
306 
 
 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 that he loved liberty better than slavery, the g-allant au- 
 thor of the extract above quoted was peremptorily dis- 
 missed from his post of analytical and agricultural chem- 
 ist in the University of North Carolina, ignominiously 
 subjected to the indignities of a mob, and then savagely 
 driven beyond the borders of his native State. His vil- 
 lainous persecutors, if not called to settle their accounts 
 in another world within the next ten years, will probably 
 survive to repent of the enormity of their pro-slavery 
 folly. 
 
 TABLE NO. LVIII. 
 
 VALUE OF THE SLAVES AT $400 PER HEAD. 1850.* 
 
 States. 
 
 Value of the Sl.ives 
 at $400 per head. 
 
 Val. of Real and Per. 
 Estate, Ie.*s the val. of 
 slaves at $400 p. bead. 
 
 Alabama > 
 
 ;b'l 37,187.600 
 
 18,840,000 
 
 916,000 
 
 15,724,000 
 
 152672.800 
 84,892,400 
 97,923,600 
 36.147,200 
 
 123,951,200 
 34.968,^00 
 
 115,419,200 
 
 153,998,600 
 95,783,600 
 23.264,400 
 
 189,011,200 
 
 S81 066 782 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 21,001,025 
 17,989,863 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 7,474.734 
 182,752,914 
 217,236,056 
 186,075,164 
 183,070.164 
 105,000.000 
 102,278,907 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 111,381,272 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 134,264,094 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 111,671,104 
 
 Texas 
 
 32 097,940 
 
 Virninia 
 
 202,634,638 
 
 
 
 
 81,280145,600 
 
 SI, 655,945,1 37 
 
 Tables 34 and 35 show that, on account of the pitiable 
 poverty and ignorance of slavery, the mails were trans- 
 ported throughout the Southern States, during the year 
 
 * It is intended that thia Table shall be considered in connection with Tables 
 XX ind XXI, on page 80. 
 
FREE FTGl'RES AKD SLAVE. 
 
 30' 
 
 1855, at an extra cost to the General Government of moro 
 than six Imndred thousand doHars I In the free States, 
 postages were received to the amount of more than two 
 millions of duUars over and above the cost of transporta- 
 tion. 
 
 To Dr. G. Bailey, editor of the National Era, Washington 
 city, D. C, we are indebted for the following useful and 
 interesting statistics, to which some of our readers will 
 doubtless have frequent occasion to refer :- 
 
 PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Appointed. 
 
 March 4. 1789 
 
 '• 3: 1707 
 March 4. 1797 
 
 "^ 3. 1801 
 March 4. 1801 
 
 •' 3, 1.H09 
 March 4. 1809 
 
 •• 3. 1817 
 March 4, 1817 
 
 " 3. 1825 
 March 4, 1825 
 
 •• 3. 1829 
 March 4, 1829 
 
 " 3, 1837 
 March 4. 1837 
 
 " 3, 1841 
 March 4, 1841 
 
 " 3, 1845 
 March 4, 1845 
 
 " 3, 1849 
 March 4, 1849 
 
 " 3, 18.V3 
 March 4, 1853 
 
 •• 3, ;857 
 Maroh4, 1867 
 
 '• 3, VX\ 
 
 George Washington, Virginia, 
 John Adams, Massachusetts. 
 Thomas Jefferson, Virginia. 
 James Madison, Virginia. 
 James Monroe, Virginia. 
 John Q. Adams, Massachusetts. 
 
 Andrew Jackson, Tennessee. 
 
 Martin Yan Buren, New York. 
 William II. Harrison, Ohio. 
 James K. Polk, Tennessee. 
 Zachary Taylor, Louisiana. 
 Franklin Pierce, New Hampshire. 
 James Buchanan, Pennsylvania. 
 
 At the close of «^« term for which Mr. Buchanan is elected, 
 
308 FREE FIGURES AND ST^AVE. 
 
 it will have been seventy-two 3'cars since the organization of the 
 present Government. 
 
 In that period, there have been eighteen elections for Presi- 
 dent, the candidates chosen in twelve of them being Southern 
 men and slaveholders, in six of them Northern men and non- 
 slaveholders. 
 
 No Northern man has ever been re-elected, but five Southern 
 men have been thus honored. 
 
 Gen. Harrison, of Ohio, died one month after his inauguration, 
 Gen. Taylor, of Louisiana, about four months after his inaugura- 
 tion. In the former case, John Tyler, of Virginia, became act- 
 ing President, in the latter, Millard Fillmore, of New York. 
 
 Of the seventy-two years, closing with Mr. Buchanan's term, 
 should he live it out, Southern men and slaveholders have occu- 
 pied the Presidential chair forty-eight years and three months, 
 or a little more than two-thirds of the time. 
 
 THE SUPREME COURT. 
 
 The judicial districts are organized so as to give five judges 
 to the slave States, and four to the free, although the population, 
 wealth, and business of the latter are far in advance of those of 
 the former. The arrangement affords, however, an excuse for 
 constituting the Supreme Court, with a majority of judges fr:ra 
 the slaveholding States. 
 
 MEMBERS. 
 
 Chief Justice— R. B. Taney, Maryland. 
 Associate Justice — J. M. Wayne, Georgia. 
 
 '•' " John Catron, Tennessee. 
 
 " " P. V. Daniel, Virginia. 
 
 " " John A. Campbell. Alabama^ 
 
 « " John McLean, Ohio. 
 
 " " S. Nelson, New Yoik. 
 
 " " R. C. Grier, Pennsylvania. 
 
 " " B. R. Curtis, MassachiLsetls. 
 
 Reporter— B. C. Howard, Maryland. 
 Clerk— \T T. Carroll. 7). C. 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 309 
 
 SECRETARIES OF STATE. 
 
 rhe highest office in the Cabinet is that of Secretary of State, 
 vho has under his charge the fon-ign relations of the country. 
 Since the year 1789, there have been twenty-two appointments 
 to the office — fourteen from slave States, eight from free. Or, 
 founting by years, the post has been filled by Southern men and 
 daveholders very nearly forty years out of sixty-seven, as follows : 
 Appointed. 
 
 Sept. 26. 1780, Thomas Jefnrson, Virginia. 
 Jan. 2, 1794, E. Randolph, Virginia. 
 Dec. 10, 1795, T. Pickering. Mcissachiisetts. 
 May 13, 1800| J. Marshall Virginia. 
 March 5, 1801, James Madison, Virginia. 
 March 6, 1809, R. Smith, Miryland. 
 April 2, 1811, James Monroe, Virginia. 
 Feb. 28, 1815, » '' " 
 
 March 5, 1815, J. Q. Adams, Massachusetts. 
 March 7, 1825, Henry Clay, Kevtucky. 
 March C, 1829, Martin Van Buren, New York. 
 May 24, iSo], E. Livingston, Louisiana. 
 May 29, 183 5, Louis Mi Lane, Delaware. 
 June 27, 1834, J. Forsyth, Georgia. 
 March 5, 1841, Daniel Webster, Massachusetts, 
 July 24, 1843, A.P.Upshur, Virginia. 
 March 6, 1844, J. C. Calhoun, South Carolina. 
 March 5, 1845, James Buchanan, Pennsylvania. 
 March 7, 1849, J. M. Clayton, Delaware. 
 July 20, 1850. Daniel Webster, Massor.husetts. 
 Dec. 9, 1851, E. Everett, Mas<achmefts. 
 March 5, 1853, W. L. Murcy, New York. 
 
 PRESIDENTS PRO TEM. OF THE SENATE. 
 
 » Tice the year 1809, every President pro tern, of the Senate of 
 the Cnited States has been a Southern man and slaveholder, with 
 the exception of Samuel L. Southard, of New Jersey, who held 
 the office for a very short time, and Mr. Bright, of indiana,who has 
 held ♦, for on€ or tw sessions, we believe, havin^r been elected. 
 
310 
 
 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 however, as a known adherent of the slave interest, be. eved to 
 be interested in slave " property." 
 
 SPEAKERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
 
 April, 1789 
 March 3, 1791 
 Oct. 24. 1791 
 March 2. 1793 
 Dec. 2, 1793 
 March 3. 1795 
 Dec. 7, 1795 
 March 3, 1797 
 May 15, 1797 
 March 3, 1799 
 Dec. 2, 1799 
 March 3, 1801 
 Dec. 7, 1801 
 March 3,1807 
 Oct. 26, 1807 
 March 3, 1811 
 March 4. 1811 
 Jan. 19, 1814 
 Jan. 19, 1814 
 March 2, 1815 
 Dec. 4, 1815 
 Nov. 13, 1820 
 Nov. 15. 1820 
 March 3, 1821 
 Dec. 3, 1821 
 March 3, 1823 
 Dec. 1, 1823 
 March 3, 1825 
 Dec. 5, 1825 
 INIarch 3. 1827 
 Dec. 3, 1827 
 June 2, 1834 
 June 2, 1834 
 March 3. 1835 
 Dec. 7, 1835 
 March 3, 1839 
 Dec. 16, 1839 
 March 3, 1841 
 May 31, 1841 
 Mtk-ch 3, 1843 
 
 F. A. Muhlenberg, Fenn. 
 J. Trumbull, Connecticut. 
 
 F. A. Muhlenberg, Penn. 
 
 Jonathan Dayton, New Jersey, 
 
 Theodore Sedgwick, Mass. 
 Nathaniel jMacon, N. Car. 
 J. B. Yarnum, Massackiisetis, 
 Henry Clay, Kentucky. 
 Langdon Cheves, S. Car. 
 ^ Henry Clay, Kentucky. 
 
 > J. W. Taylor, New-York. 
 
 > P. B. Barbour, Virginia. 
 
 > Henry Clay, Kentucky. 
 
 \ J. W. Taylor, New-York. 
 A. Stevenson, Virginia. 
 John Bell, Tennessee. 
 James K. Polk, Tennessee. 
 11. :M. T. Hunter, Virginia, 
 J zhn White, Tennessee. 
 
FRF.E FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 311 
 
 T>cc. 4, 1843 
 March 3. 1S45 
 Dec. 1. 184') 
 March 3, 1S47 
 Dec. 0, 1847 
 March 3. 1849 
 Dec. 22, 1840 
 March 3, 1851 
 Dec. 1, 1851 
 March 3, 1853 
 Dec. 1, 1853 
 March 3. 1855 
 Feb. 28, 185G 
 March 3, 1857 
 
 J J. W. Jones, Virginia. 
 J J. W. Davis, hidiana. 
 i R. C. Winthrop, Mass. 
 i IIowcll Cobb, Georgia. 
 i Linn Boyd, Kentucky. 
 
 i Nathaniel P. Banks, Mass. 
 
 POSTMASTERS-GENERAL. 
 
 Appointed— 
 
 Sept. 2G, 1789, S. Osgood, Massachusetts. 
 Aug. 12, 1791, T. Pickering, Massachusetts. 
 Feb. 25, 1795, J. Ilabershani, Georgia. 
 Nov. 28, 1801, G. Granger. Connecticut. 
 March 17. 1814, R. J. Meigs, Ohio. 
 Jane 25, 1823. John MoLean, Ohio. 
 March 9^ 1829. W. T. Barry, Kentucky. 
 May 1. 1835, A. Kendall, Kentucky. 
 May 18, 1840, J. M. Niles, Connecticut. 
 March 6, 1841, F. Granger, New York. 
 Sept. 13, 1841, C. A. Wickliffe, Kentucky. 
 March 5, 1845, C. Johnson, Tennessee. 
 March 7. 1849. J. Collamer, Vermont. 
 July 20, 1850, N. K. Hall, New York. 
 Aug. 31, 1852, S. D. Hubbard, Connecticut. 
 March 5, 1853, J. Campbell, Pennsylvania. 
 Sectionalism docs not seem to have had much to do with this 
 Department ^r with that of the Interior, created in lS48-'49. 
 
812 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 SECRETARIES OF THE INTERIOR. 
 Appointed — 
 
 March 7, 1849, T. Ewing, Ohio. 
 
 July 20, 1850, J. A. Pearce, Maryland. 
 
 Aug. 15,' 1850, T. M. T. McKennon, Pennsylvania, 
 
 Sept. 12, 1850, A. H. H. Stuart, Virginia. 
 
 March 5, 1853, R. McClelland, Michigan, 
 
 ATTORNEYS-GENERAL. 
 Appointed- 
 Sept. 26, 1789, E. Randolph, Virginia. 
 June 27, 1794. W. Bradford. Pennsylvania. 
 Dec. 10, 1795, C. Lee, Virginia, 
 Feb. 20, 1801, T. Parsons, Massachusetts. 
 March 5, 1800, L. Lincoln, Massachusetts. 
 March 2, 1805, R. Smith, Maryland. 
 Dec. 23, 1805, J. Breckinridge, Kentucky. 
 Jan. 20, 1807, C. A. Rodnej, Pennsylvania. 
 Dec. 11, 1811, W. Pinkney, Maryland. 
 Feb. 10, 1814, R. Rush, Pennsylcanid. 
 Nov. 13, 1817, W. Wirt, Virginia. 
 March 9, 1829, J. McPherson Berrien, GeorgicL 
 July 20, 1831, Roger B. Taney, Maryland. 
 Nov. 15, 1833, B. F. Butler, New York. 
 July 7, 1838, F. Grundy, Tennessee. 
 Jan. 10, 1840, H. D. Gilpin, Pennsylvania. 
 March 5, 1841, J. J. Crittenden, Kentucky. 
 Sept. 13,18n, II. S. Legare, South Carolina. 
 July 1, 1843, John Nelson, Maryland. 
 March 5, 1845, J. Y. Mason, Virginia. 
 Oct. 17, 1846, N. Clifford, Maine. 
 June 21, 1848, Isaac Touccy, Connecticut. 
 March 7, 1849, R. Johnson, Maryland. 
 July 20, 1850, J. J. Crittenden, Kentucky. 
 March 5 1858, C. Gushing, Massachusetts. 
 
FREE nr.UIlES AN'D 3L1VK. 318 
 
 SECRETARIES OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 /lie post of Secretary of the Treasury, although one ol jjreat 
 »%..{K>rtance, requires financial abilities of a high order, which are 
 more fri-qucntly found in the XoKh than in the South, and affords 
 Httle opportunity for intluencing general politics, or the questions 
 springing out of Shivery. We need not therefore be surpr'jsed 
 to Irarn tluit Northern men have been allowed to discharge its 
 diM.Gs some forty-eight years out of sixty-seven, as follows: 
 
 4>polnted— 
 
 Sept. 11, 1789, A. Hamilton, New York, 
 Feb. 3, 1795, 0. Wolcott, Connecticut. 
 Dec. 31, 1800, S. Dexter, Massachusetts. 
 May 14, 1801, A. Gallatin, Pennsylvania. 
 Feb. 9, 1814. G. W. Campbell, Tennessee. 
 Oct. 6, 1814, A. J. Dallas, Pennsylvrania. 
 Oct 22, 181G, W. XL Crawford, Georgia. 
 March 7,1825, R. Rush, Pennsylvania. 
 March G, 1829, S. D. Ingham, Pennsylvania. 
 Aug. 8, 1831, L. McLane, Delaware. 
 May 29, 1833, W. J. Duane, Pennsylvania. 
 Sept. 23, 1833, Roger B. Taney, Maryland. 
 June 27, 1834, L. Woodbury, New Hampshire. 
 March5, 1841, Thomas Ewing, Ohio. 
 Sept. 13, 1841, W. Forward, Pennsylvania. 
 March 3, 1843, J. C. Spencer, New York. 
 June 15, 1844, G. M. Bibb, Kentucky. 
 March 5, 1845, R. J. Walker, Mississippi. 
 March 7, 1849, W. M. Meredith, Pennsylvania. 
 June 20, 1850, Thomas Corwin, Ohio. 
 March 5, 1843, James Guthrie, Kentucky. 
 
 SECRETARIES OF WAR AND THE NA^'Y. 
 
 The Slaveholders since March 8th, 1841, a period of Ovarly 
 sixteen years, have taken almost exclusive supervision of the 
 Nivy. Northern men having occupied the Sccretar}'8hip only two 
 
 14 
 
314 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 years. Nor has any Northern man been Secretary of War since 
 1849. Considering that nearly all the shipping belongs to the 
 free States, which also supply the seamen, it does seem remarka- 
 ble that Slaveholders should have monopolized for the last six- 
 teen years the control of the Navy. 
 
 SECRETARIES OF WAR. 
 Appointed- 
 Sept. 12, 1789, Henry Knox, Massachusetts, 
 Jan. 2, 1795, T. Pickering, Massachusetts. 
 Jan. 27, 179G, J. McHenry, Maryland. 
 May 7, 1800, J. Marshall, Virginia. 
 May 13, 1800, S. Dexter, MassachuspMs. 
 Feb. 3, 1801, R. Griswold, Connecticut. 
 March 5, 1801, H. Dearborn, Massachusetts, 
 March 7, 1802, ^Y. Eustis, Massachusetts. 
 Jan. 13, 1813, J. Armstrong, New York. 
 Sept. 27, 1814, James Monroe, Virginia. 
 March 3, 1815, W. H. Crawford, Georgia, 
 April 7, 1817, G. Graham, Virginia. 
 March 5, ] 817, J. Shelby, Kentucky. 
 Oct. 8, 1817, J. C. Calhoun. South Carolina 
 March 7, 1825, J. Barbour, Virginia. 
 May 26, 1828, P. B. Porter, Pennsylvania, 
 March 9, 1829, J. II. Eaton, Tennessee. 
 Aug. 1, 1831, Lewis Cass, Ohio. 
 March 3, 1837, B. F. Butler, New York. 
 March 7, 1837, J. R. Poinsett, South Caroline 
 March 5, 1841, James Bell, Tennessee. 
 Sept. 13, 1841, John McLean, Ohio. 
 Oct. 12, 1841, J. C. Spencer,' Neio York. 
 March 8, 1843, J. W. Porter, Pennsylvania. 
 Feb. 15, 1844, W. Wilkins, Pennsylvania. 
 March 5, 1845, William L. Marcy, New York 
 March 7, 1849, G. W. Crawford, Georgia. 
 July 20, 1850, E. Bates, Missouri. 
 Aug. 15, 1850, C. M. Conrad, Louisiana. 
 March 5, 853, Jefi'erson Davie Mississippi, 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 815 
 
 SECRETARIES OF THE NAVY. 
 
 Appointed- 
 May 3, 1798, G. Cabot, M.issachusetts. 
 May 21, 1798, B. Stoddart, Massachusetts. 
 July 15, 1801, R. Smith, Maryland. 
 May 3, 1805, J. Crowninshield, Massachusetts. 
 March 7, 1809, P. Hamilton, South Carolina. 
 Jan. 12, 1813, W. Jones, Pennsylvania. 
 Dec. 17, 1814, B. W. Crowninshield, Massachusetts. 
 Nov. 9, 1818, Smith Thompson, New York. 
 Sept. 1, 1823, John Rogers, Massachusetts. 
 Sept. 16, 1823, S. L. Southard, New Jersey. 
 March 9, 1819, John Branch, North Carolina. 
 May 23, 1831, L. "Woodbury, New Hampshire. 
 June 30, 1834, M. Dickcrson, NeiD Jersey. 
 June 20, 1838, J. K. Paulding, New York. 
 March 5, 1841, G. F. Badger, North Carolina. 
 Sept. 13, 1841, A. P. Upshur, Virginia. 
 July 24, 1843, D. Ilenshaw, Massachusetts. 
 Feb. 12, 1844, T. W. Gilmer, Virginia. 
 March 14. 1844, Janies Y. Mason, Virginia. 
 March 10, 1845, G. Bancroft, Massachusetts. 
 Sept. 9, 184C, James Y. Mason, Virginia. 
 March 7, 1849, W. B. Preston, Virginia. 
 July 20, 1850, W. A. Graham, N. Carolina. 
 July 22. 1852, J. P. Kennedy, Maryland. 
 March 3, 1853, J. C. Dobbin, N. Carolina. 
 
 RECAriTULATIOX. 
 
 Presidency. — Southern men and Slaveholders, 48 vcirs 3 
 months ; Northern men, 23 years 9 months. 
 
 Pro. Tern. Presidency oj the Senate. — Since 1809, held by 
 Southern men and Slaveholders, except for three ( r four sesiions 
 by Northern men. 
 
 Sjyeakership of the House. — Filled by Southern men and Slave- 
 holder? forty -three years, Northern men, twcnty-fivo. 
 
bl6 FREE HGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 Szqtreme Court. — A majority of the Judges, including ^hief 
 Justice, Southern men and Slaveholders. 
 
 Stcretaryship of State. — Filled by Sout)iern men and Slave* 
 holders forty years, Northern, twenty-seven. 
 
 Attorney Generalship. — Filled by Southern men and Slave- 
 holders forty- two years, Northern men, twenty-five. 
 
 War and Navy. — Secretaryship of the Navy, Southern men and 
 Slaveholders, the last sixteen years, with an interval of two 
 years. 
 
 William Henry Hurlbut, of South Carolina, a gentle- 
 man of enviable literary attainments, and one from whom 
 we may expect a continuation of good service in the emi- 
 nently holy crusade now going on against slavery and 
 the devil, furnished not long since, to the Edinburgh Re- 
 view, in the course of a long and highly interesting article, 
 the following summary of oligarchal usurpations — show- 
 ing that shaveholders have occupied the principal posts 
 of the Government nearly two-thirds of the time : — 
 
 Presidents . - - - 
 
 11 out of 16 
 
 Judges of the Supreme Court 
 
 - 17 out of 28 
 
 Attorneys-General - - - 
 
 14 out of 19 
 
 Presidents of the Senate 
 
 - 61 out of 77 
 
 Speakers of the House 
 
 21 out of 33 
 
 Foreign Ministers - . - 
 
 - 80 out of 134 
 
 As a matter of general interest, and as showing that, 
 while there have been but 11 non-slaveholders directly be- 
 fore the people as candidates for the Presidency, there 
 have been at least 16 slaveholders who were willing to 
 serve their country in the capacity of chief magistrate, 
 the following tabl may be here introduced : — 
 
 I 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 317 
 
 RESn.T OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATE3 
 
 FROM 779G TO 1856. 
 
 Tear. 
 179G 
 
 s 
 
 1800 i 
 
 1S04 
 
 1832- 
 
 1830 
 
 185G 
 
 • No choice 
 
 Name of Candidate. Elect'l vola 
 
 John Adams - - - 71 
 
 Thomas Jt'tlVrson - - . 68 
 
 riiomas Jt'tlcrsoa - - • 73 
 
 .lolni Adams _ - - 64 
 
 Thotnas Jofrorson - _ _ 1G2 
 
 Charles C. Pinckncj - - 14 
 
 James Madison - - - 128 
 
 Charles C. Pinckney - - 45 
 
 James Madison - . _ 122 
 
 l)e Witt Clinton - - - 89 
 
 James Monroe - - - - 183 
 
 Kufus King - - - - 34 
 
 James Monroe - - - - 218 
 Xo opposition but one vote - 
 
 Andrew Jackson* - - - 99 
 
 J.)hn Q. Adams - - - 84 
 
 W. II. Crawford - - . 41 
 
 Henry Clay _ - _ 37 
 
 Andrew Jackson - _ . 178 
 
 John Q. Adams - - _ 83 
 
 Andrew Jackson - . _ 219 
 
 Ilenrv Clay - . - 49 
 
 John'Flovd - - - - 11 
 
 William Wirt - - - 7 
 
 Martin Van Buren - - . 170 
 
 William II. Harrison - - 73 
 
 IIuo;h L. White - - - 26 
 
 Willie P. Mangum - - - H 
 
 Daniel Webster ... 14 
 
 William II. Harrison - - 2.>4 
 
 Martin Van Buren - - - GO 
 
 James K. Polk - - - ]70 
 
 Henry Clay - - - - 105 
 
 Zachary Taylor - - . 1(33 
 
 Lewis Cass - - - - 127 
 
 Franklin Pierce - - > 254 
 
 General Winlield Scott - 42 
 
 James Buchanan - - . 174 
 
 John C. Fremont - - 114 
 
 Millard Fillmore - > - y 
 
 hy tl>o people ; Jola Q. AdanoB elected by the House of Rcf re^-ry 
 
318 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 AID FOR KANSAS. 
 
 As a sort of accompaniment to tables, 50, 51, 52 and 53, 
 we will here introduce a few items which will more fully 
 illustrate the liberality of Freedom and the niggardliness 
 of Slavery. 
 
 From an editorial article that appeared in the Rich- 
 mond (Va.,) Dispatch, in July, 1856, bewailing the close- 
 fistedness of slavery, we make the following extract : — 
 
 " Gerrit Smith, the Abolitionist, has just pledged himself to 
 give $1,500 a mouth for the next twelve months to aid in estab- 
 lishing Freedom in Kansas. He gave, but a short time since, at 
 the Kansas relief meeting in Albany, §3,000. Prior to that, he 
 had sent about §1,000 to the Boston Emigrant Committee. Out 
 of his oNrn funds, he subsequently equipped a Madison county 
 company, of one hundred picked men. and paid their expenses 
 to Kansas. At Syracuse he subscribed §10,000 for Abolition 
 purposes, so that his entire contributions amount to at least 
 §40,000." 
 
 An Eastern paper says : — 
 
 " The sura of §500 was contributed at a meeting at New Bed- 
 ford on Monday evening, to make Kansas free. The following 
 sums have been contributed for the same purpose: §2,000 in 
 Taunton : §600 in Raynham : §800 in Clinton : §300 in Danbury, 
 Ct. In Wisconsin, §2,500 at Janesville : §500 at Dalton : §500 
 at the Women's Aid Meeting in Chicago : §2,000 in Rockford, 111." 
 
 A telegraphic dispatch, dated Boston, January 2, 1857, 
 informs us that — 
 
 " The Secretary of the Kansas Aid Committee acknowledges 
 the receipt of §42,678." 
 
 Exclusive of the amounts above, the readers of the New- 
 
FIIEE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 319 
 
 York IVibune have contributed about $30. ^00 for the pur- 
 pose of securing Kansas to Freedom ; and, with the same 
 object iu view, other individuals and societies have, from 
 time to time, made large contributions, of which we have 
 failed to keep a memorandum. The legislature of Ver- 
 mont has appropriated $20,000 ; and other free State 
 legislatures are prepared to appropriate millions, if neces- 
 sary. Free men have determined that Kansas shall be 
 free, and free it soon shall be, and ever so remain. Har- 
 moniously the work proceeds. 
 
 Now let us see how slavery has rewarded the poor, ig- 
 norant, deluded, and degraded mortals — swaggering lick- 
 spittles — who have labored so hard to gain for it " a local 
 habitation and a name" in the disputed territory. One D. 
 B. Atchison, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Bor- 
 der RuGSans, shall tell us all about it. Over date of Octo- 
 ber 13th, 185C, he says : 
 
 '* Up to this moment, from all the States except Missouri, vre 
 have only received the following sums, and through the following 
 persons : — 
 
 A. W. Jones, Houston, Miss., . . . . ^152 
 
 II. D. Clayton, Eufala, Ala., 500 
 
 Capt. Deedrick. South Carolina, ... 500 
 
 $1,152." 
 
 On this subject, further comment is unnecessary. 
 
 Numerous other contrasts, equally disproportionate, 
 might be drawn between the vigor and munificence of 
 freedom and the impotence and stinginess of slavery. We 
 will, however, in addition to the above, advert to only a 
 ijiniile instance. During the latter part of the summer of 
 
320 FREE IT.-:rRES AND SIjVVE. 
 
 1855, the citizens of the niggervilles of Nckfolk and Ports- 
 mouth, in Virginia, were sorely plagued with yellow fever. 
 Many of them fell victims to the disease, and most of those 
 who survived, and who were not too unwell to travel, left 
 their homes, horror-stricken and dejected. To the horror 
 of mankind in general, and to the glory of freemen in par- 
 ticular, contributions in money, provisions, clothing, and 
 other valuable supplies, poured in from all parts of the 
 country, for the relief of the sufferers. Portsmouth alone, 
 according to the report of her relief association, received 
 $42,541 in cash from the free States, and only $12,182 in 
 cash from all the slave States, exclusive of Virginia, within 
 whose borders the malady prevailed. Including Virginia, 
 the sum total of all the slave State contributions amounted 
 to only $33,398. Well did the Richmond Examiner remark 
 at the time — " we fear that generosity of Virginians is but 
 a figure of speech." Slavery I thy name is shame I 
 
 In CONNECTION with tables 44 and 45 on page 292, it will 
 be well to examine the following statistics of Congressional 
 representation, which we transcribe from Reynold's Polit- 
 ical Map of the United States : — 
 
 UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 16 free States, with a white population of 13.238,070, have 32 
 Senators. 
 
 15 slave States, with a white population of 6.186,477, have 30 
 Sena* )rs. 
 
 Sc :hat 413,708 free men of the North enjoy but the same pol- 
 itical privileges in the U. S. Senate as is given to 206,215 slave 
 propagandists, 
 
FREE FIGCRES AND SLAVE. 821 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
 
 The free States have a total of 144 members. 
 
 The slave States have a total of UO members. 
 
 One free State Representative represents 91,935 T^4.i:e men 
 and women. 
 
 One slave State Representative represents CS,725 white men 
 and women. 
 
 Slave Representation gives to slavery an advantage over free 
 dom of 30 votes in the ilouse of Representatives. 
 
 CUSTOM-HOCSE RECEIPTS. 1854. 
 
 Free States, $00,010,489 
 
 Slave States, 5,1::;G,9G9 
 
 Balance in favor of the Free States, — . $54,873,520 
 
 A contrast quite distiuguishable ! 
 
 That the apologists of slavery cannot excuse the sliame 
 and the shabbincss of themselves and their country, as we 
 have frequently heard them attempt to do, by falsely as- 
 serting that the North has enjoyed over the South the ad- 
 vantag-es of priority of settlement, will fully appear from 
 the following table : — 
 
 free states. 
 
 1C14. New- York first settled by the Dutch. 
 1C20. Massachusetts settled by the Puritans. 
 1C23. New-Hampshire settled by the Puritans. 
 1G24. New-Jersey settled by the Dutch. 
 1035. Connecticut settled by the Puritans. 
 1C3G. Rhode Island settled by Roger Williams. 
 168ii Pennsylvania settled by "NVilliam Penn. 
 1791. Vermont admitted into the Union. 
 1802. Ohio admitted into the Union. 
 1816. Indiana admitted into the Unioa. 
 14* 
 
822 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVl 
 
 1818. Illinois admitted into the TJnJon. 
 1820. Maine admitted into the Union. 
 183G. Michigan admitted into the Union. 
 1846. Iowa admitted into the Union. 
 1848. "Wisconsin admitted into the Union. 
 1850. California admitted into the Union. 
 
 SLAVE STATES. 
 
 1007. Yirg jia first settled by the English. 
 1G27. Delaware settled by the Swedes and Fins. 
 1G35. Maryland settled by Irish Catholics. 
 1050. North Carolina settled by the English. 
 1070. South Carolina settled by the Huguenots. 
 1733. Georgia settled by Gen. Oglethorpe. 
 1782. Kentucky admitted into the Union. 
 1796. Tennessee admitted into the Union. 
 1811. Louisiana admitted into the Union. 
 1817. Mississippi admitted into the Union. 
 1810. Alabama admitted into the Union. 
 1821. Missouri admitted into the Union. 
 1836. Arkansas admitted into the Union. 
 
 1845. Florida admitted into the Union. 
 
 1846. Texas admitted into the Union. 
 
 In the course of an exceedingly interesting article on 
 ihe early settlements in America, R. K. Browne, formerly 
 editor and proprietor of the San Francisco Evening Jaurnalj 
 says : — 
 
 '■ Many people seem to think that the Pilgrim Fathers wore 
 the first who settled upon our shores, and therefore that they 
 ought to be entitled, in a particular manner, to our remembrance 
 and esteem. 
 
 This is not the case, and we herewith present to our readers a 
 list of settlements nade in the present United States, prior to 
 that of Plymouth • 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 323 
 
 1504. A Colony of French Protestants under Ribaull settled 
 in Florida. 
 
 15G5. St. AugTistine* founded by Pedro Melendcz. 
 
 1584. Sir Walter Kaleigh obtains a patent and sends t\ro ves- 
 sels to the American coast, which receives the name of Virginia, 
 
 1607. The first effectual settlement made at Jamestown, Va., 
 by the London Company. 
 
 1014. A fort erected by the Dutch upon the site of Xew-York. 
 
 1615. Fort Orange built near the site of Albany, X. Y. 
 
 1G19. The first General Assembly called in Virginia. 
 
 IGJO. The Pilgrims land on Plymouth Rock." 
 
 FREEDOM AND SL^UERY AT THE FAIR. 
 WUAT FREEDOM DID. 
 
 At an Agricultural Fair held at Watertowii, in the State 
 of New-York, on the 2d day of October, 1856, two hundred 
 and twenty premiums, ranging from three to fifty dollars 
 each, were awarded to successful competitors — the aggre- 
 gate amount of said premiums being $2,396, or an average 
 of $10.89 each. From the proceedings of the Awarding 
 Committee we make the following extracts : — ■ 
 
 Best Ilorse Colt, George Parish, - §25.00 
 
 Best Filly, J. Staplin, - - - 20.00 
 
 Best Brood Mare, A. Blunt, - - - 25.00 
 
 Best Bull, Wm. Johnson, - 25.00 
 
 Best Heifer, A. M. Rogers, - 20.00 
 
 Best Cow, C. Baker, - - - 25.00 
 
 Best Stall-fL'd Beef, J. W. Taylor, - 10.00 
 
 Best sample Wheat, Wm. Ottley, - . 5.00 
 
 Best sample Flaxseed, 11. "Weir, - - . 3.00 
 
 Best sample Timothy Seed, E. S. Hay ward - .3.00 
 
 (Highest) Best Team of Oxen, Hiram Converse, 50.00 
 
 (Lowest) Best sample Sweet Corn, L. Marshall, - - 3.00 
 
 Aggregate amount of twelve premiums, - - - §214 ^ 
 An ft-erage of Sl~-^^ each. 
 
 * The oldest town io the L'nileil SUtes. 
 
324 
 
 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 WHAT SLAVERY DID. 
 
 At the Rowan County Agricultural Fair, held at Mineral 
 Springs, in North Carolina, on the 13th day of November, 
 1856, thirty premiums, ranging from twenty-five cents to 
 two dollars each, were awarded to successful competitors 
 — the aggregate amount of said premiums being $42, or 
 an average of $1.40 each. From the proceedings of the 
 A warding Committee we make the following extracts : — 
 
 Best Horse Colt, 
 
 T. A. Burke, - 
 
 - I^2.0C 
 
 Best Filly, 
 
 James Cowan, - 
 
 . 2.00 
 
 Best Brood Mare, 
 
 M. W. Goodman, 
 
 - 2.00 
 
 Best Bull. 
 
 J. F. McCorkle,- 
 
 - 2.0C 
 
 Best Heifer, 
 
 J. F. McCorkle, 
 
 - 2.00 
 
 Best Cow, 
 
 T. A. Burke, - 
 
 - 2.00 
 
 Best Stall-fed Beef, 
 
 S. D. Rankin, - 
 
 - 1.00 
 
 Best Sample Wheat, 
 
 M. AY. Goodman, 
 
 - 50 
 
 Best lot Beefs, 
 
 J. J. Summerell, 
 
 25 
 
 Best lot Turnips. 
 
 Thomas Barber, - 
 
 - 25 
 
 (Highest) Best pair Match Horses, 
 
 , R. W. Griffith, - 
 
 - 2.00 
 
 (Lowest) Best lot Cabbage, 
 
 Thomas Hyde, - 
 
 - 25 
 
 Aggregate amount of twelve premiums. 
 An average of ^1.36 each. 
 
 ^16.25 
 
 Besides the two hundred and twenty premiums, amount- 
 ing in the aggregate to $2,396, freedom granted several 
 diplomas and silver medals ; besides the thirty premiums 
 amounting in the aggregate to $42, slavery granted none 
 — nothing. While examining these figures, it should be 
 recollected that agriculture is the peculiar province of the 
 slave States. If commerce or manufactures had been the 
 subject of the fair, the result might have shown even a 
 greater disproportion in favor of freedom, and yet thero 
 
FREE HGCRES AXD SLAVE. 325 
 
 would have been some excuse for slavery, for it makes no 
 pretensions to either the one or the other ; but as agricul- 
 ture was tlie subject, slavery can have no excuse what- 
 ever, but must bear all the sliame of its niggardly and rc^ 
 volting impotence ; this it must do for the reason that 
 agriculture is its special and almost only pursuit. 
 
 The Reports of the Comptrollers of tlie States of New 
 York md North Carolina, for the year 1856, are now be- 
 fore U3. From each report we have gleaned a single item, 
 which, when compared, the one with the other, speaks 
 volumes in favor of freedom and against slavery. We 
 refer to the average value per acre of lands in the two 
 States ; let slavocrats read, reflect, and repent. 
 
 In 1856, there were assessed for taxation in the 
 State of 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 Acres of land .... 30,080,000 
 
 Valued at . . . . $1,112,183,136 
 
 Average value per acre . , S36.97 
 
 In 1856, there were assessed for taxation in the 
 State of 
 
 NORTH CAROUNA, 
 
 Acres of land .... 32,450.r)G0 
 
 Valued at . . . $98,800,636 
 
 Average value per acre . . $3.06 
 
 It is difficult for us to make any remarks on the official 
 facta above. Our indignation is struck almost dumb at 
 this astounding and revolting display of the awful wreck 
 that slavery is leaving behind it in the South. "We will 
 however, go into a calculation for the purpose of ascer 
 
526 FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 taining as nearly as possible, in this one particular, how 
 much North Carolina has lost by the retention of slavery. 
 As we have already seen, the average value per acre of 
 land in the State of New York is $36.97 ; in North Caro- 
 lina it is only $3.06 ; why is it so much less, or even any 
 less, in the latter than in the former ? The answer is, 
 slavery. In soil, in climate, in minerals, in water-power 
 for manufactural purposes, and in area of territory, North 
 Carolina has the advantage of New York, and, with the 
 exception of slavery, no plausible reason can possibly be 
 assigned why land should not be at least as valuable in the 
 valley of the Yadkin as it is along the banks of the 
 Genesee. 
 
 The difference between $36.97 and $3.06 is $33.91, 
 which, multiplied by the whole number of acres of land in 
 North Carolina, will show, in this one particular, the enor- 
 mous loss that Freedom has sustained on account of Slav- 
 ery in the Old North State. Thus :— 
 
 32,450,560 acres a $33,91 .... $1,100,398,489. 
 
 Let it be indelibly impressed on the mind, however, 
 that this amount, large as it is, is only a moity of the 
 sum that it has cost to maintain slavery in North Carolina. 
 From time to time, hundreds upon hundreds of millions of 
 dollars have left the State, either in search of profitable, 
 permanent investment abroad, or in the shape of profits to 
 Northern merchants and manufactures, who have b( come 
 the moneyed aristocracy of the country by supplyiLg to 
 the South such articles of necessity, utility, and adorn- 
 ment, as would have been produced at home but for the 
 pernicious presonv'c of the peculiar institution. 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 327 
 
 A reward of Eleven Hundred Millions of Dollars .s of- 
 fered for the conversion of the lands of North Carolina 
 into free soil. The lands themselves, desolate and impov- 
 erished under the fatal foot of slavery, oflbr the reward. 
 How, then, can it be made to appear that the abolition of 
 slavery in North Carolina, and, indeed, throughout all the 
 Southern States — for slavery is exceedingly inimical to 
 them all — is not demanded by every consideration of 
 justice, prudence, and good sense? In 1850, the total 
 value of all the slaves of the State, at the rate of four luin- 
 dred dollars per head, amounted to less than one hundred 
 and sixteen millions of dollars. Is the sum of one hun- 
 dred and sixteen millions of dollars more desirable than 
 the sum of eleven hundred millions of dollars? AVhcn a 
 man has land for sale, docs he reject thirty-six dollars per 
 acre and take three ? Non-slaveholding whites I look 
 well to your interests I Many of you have lands ; com- 
 paratively speaking, you have nothing else. Abolish sla- 
 very, and you will enhance the value of every leaguo, 
 your own and your neighbors', from three to tliirty-six dol- 
 lars per acre. Your little tract containing two hundred 
 acres, now valued at the pitiful sum of only six hundred 
 dollars, will then be worth seven thousand. Your chil- 
 dren, now deprived of even the meagre advantages of 
 common schools, will then reap the benefits of a collegiate 
 education. Your rivers and smaller streams, now wast- 
 ing their waters in idleness, will then turn the wheels of 
 multitudinous mills. Your bays and harbors, now un- 
 known to commerce, will then swarm with ships from 
 
328 FREE FIGURES A>'D SLAVE. 
 
 every enlightened quarter of the globe. .•5'on-slavehoid- 
 ing whites 1 look well to your interests I 
 
 Would the slaveholders of North Carolina lose anything 
 by the abolition of slavery ? Let us see. According to 
 their own estimate, their slaves are worth, in round num- 
 bers, say, one hundred and twenty millions of dollars. 
 There are in the State twenty-eight thousand slaveholders, 
 owning, it may be safely assumed, an average of at least 
 five hundred acres of land each — fourteen millions of acres 
 in all. This number of acres, multiplied by thirty-three dol- 
 lars and ninety-one cents, the difference in value between 
 free soil and slave soil, makes the enormous sum of four 
 hundred and seventy-four millions of dollars — showing 
 that, by the abolition of slavery, the slaveholders them- 
 selves would realize a net profit of not less than three 
 hundred and fifty-four millions of dollars I 
 
 Compensation to slaveholders for the negroes now in their 
 possession I The idea is preposterous. The suggestion is 
 criminal. The demand is unjust, wicked, monstrous, damn- 
 able. Shall we pat the bloodhounds of slavery for the sake 
 of doing them a favor ? Shall we fee the curs of slavery in 
 order to make them rich at our expense ? Shall we pay the 
 whelps of slavery for the privilege of converting them into 
 decent, honest, upright men ? No, never I The non-slavehol- 
 ders expect to gain, and will gain, something by the abolition 
 of slavery ; but slaveholders themselves will, by far, be the 
 greater gainers ; for, in proportion to population, they own 
 much larger and more fertile tracts of land, and will, as a 
 matter of course, receive the lion's share of the increase 
 in the va^ue of not only real estate, but also of other gen- 
 
FREE FIGURES AND SI^VE. 829 
 
 nine property, of which they arc likewise the principal 
 owners. How ridiculously absurd, therefore, is the objec- 
 tion, that, if we liberate the slaves, we ruin the masters I 
 Not long since, a gentleman in Baltimore, a native of Ma/- 
 ryland, remarked in our presence that he was an aboli- 
 tionist because he felt that it was right and proper to bo 
 one ; " but," inquired he, " are there not, in some of the 
 States, many widows and orphans who would be left 
 in destitute circjimstances, if their negroes were taken 
 from them ?" In answer to the question, we replied that 
 slavery had already reduced thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands of non-slaveholding widows and orphans to the low- 
 est depths of poverty and ignorance, and that w^e did not 
 believe one slaveholding widow and three orphans were 
 of more, or even of as much consequence as five noi> 
 slaveholding widows and fifteen orphans. " You are 
 right," exclaimed the gentleman, " I had not viewed tho 
 subject in that light before ; I perceive you go in for the 
 greatest good to the greatest number." Emancipate the 
 negroes, and the ex-slaveholding widow would still retain 
 her lands and tenements, which, in consequence of being 
 surroundnd by the magic influences of liberty, w^ould soon 
 render l)or far more wealthy and infinitely more respect- 
 able, than she could possibly ever become while trafficking 
 in human flesh. 
 
 The fact is, every slave in the South costs the State in 
 which he resides at least three times as much as he, in the 
 whole course of his life, is worth to his master. Slavery 
 benefits no one but its immediate, individual owners, and 
 them only in a pecuniary point of view, and at tlie sacri- 
 
330 F]<EE FIGURES AND SLAVE. 
 
 fice of the dearest rights and interests of the whole mass 
 of non-slaveholders, white and black. Even the masters 
 themselves, as we have already shown, would be far bet- 
 ter ofif without it than with it. To all classes of society 
 the institution is a curse ; an especial curse is it to those 
 who own it not. Non-slaveholdin^ whites ! look well to 
 vour interests I 
 
 I 
 
301OIERCIAL CITIES SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 331 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COMMERCIAL CITIES SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 
 
 Our theme is a city — a great Southern importing", ex- 
 porting, and manufacturing city, to be located at some 
 point or port on the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia or Vir- 
 ginia, whore we can carry on active commerce, buy, sell, 
 fabricate, receive the profits which accrue from the ex- 
 change of our own commodities, open facilities for direct 
 communication with foreign countries, and establish ah 
 those collateral sources of wealth, utility, and adornment, 
 which are the usual concomitants of a metropolis, and 
 which add so very materially to the interest and import- 
 ance of a nation. Without a city of this kind, the South 
 can never develop her commercial resources nor attain t(j 
 that eminent position to which those vast resources would 
 otherwise exalt her. According to calculations based upor 
 reasonable estimates, it is owing to the lack of a great 
 commercial city in the South, that we are now annually 
 drained of more than One Ilundred and Twenty Millions 
 of Dollars ! AVe should, however, take into consideration 
 the negative loss as well as the positive. Especially 
 should we think of the influx of emigrants, of the visits of 
 strangers and cosmopolites, of the patronage to hotels and 
 
332 COMMERCIAL CITIES — SOUTHERN C^DMMERCE. 
 
 public halls, of tlie profits of travel and transportatioii, of 
 the emoluments of foreign and domestic trade, and of nu« 
 merous other advantages which have their origin exclu- 
 sively in wealthy, enterprising, and densely populated 
 cities. 
 
 Nothing is more evident than the fact, that our people 
 have never entertained a proper opinion of the importance 
 of home cities. Blindly, and greatly to our own injury, 
 we have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars towards 
 the erection of mammoth cities at the North, while our 
 own magnificent bays and harbors have been most shame- 
 fully disregarded and neglected. Now, instead of carry- 
 ing all our money to New- York, Philadelphia, Boston, and 
 Cincinnati, suppose we had kept it on the south side of 
 Mason and Dixon's line — as we would have done, had it 
 not been for slavery — and had disbursed it in the upbuild- 
 ing of Norfolk, Beaufort, Charleston, or Savannah, how 
 much richer, better, greater, would the South have been 
 to-day I How much larger and more intelligent would 
 have been our population. How many hundred thousand 
 natives of the South would now be thriving at home, in- 
 stead of adding to the wealth and political power of other 
 parts of the Union. How much greater would be the num- 
 ber and length of our railroads, canals, turnpikes, and tel- 
 egraphs. How much greater would be the extent and 
 diversity of our manufactures. How much greater would 
 be the grandeur, and how much larger would be the num- 
 ber of our churches, theatres, schools, colleges, ly^cums, 
 banks, hotels, stores, and private dwellings. How many 
 more clippers and steamships would we have sailing on 
 
COMMERCIAL CITIES SOUTHERN COMME.tCE. 333 
 
 the ocean, liow vastly more reputable would we be abroad, 
 how infinitely more respectable, progressive, and happy, 
 would we be at home. 
 
 That we may learn something of the importance of 
 cities in general, let us look for a moment at the great 
 capitals of the world. What would England be without 
 London ? What would France be without Paris ? What 
 would Turkey be without Constantinople ? Or, to come 
 nearer home, what would Maryland be without Baltimore ? 
 What would Louisiana be without New Orleans ? What 
 would South Carolina be without Charleston ? Do we ever 
 think of these countries or States without thinking of their 
 cities also ? If we want to learn the news of the country, 
 do we not go to the city, or to the city papers ? Every 
 metropolis may be regarded as the nucleus or epitome of 
 the country in which it is situated ; and the more promi- 
 nent features and characteristics of a country, particularly 
 of the people of a country, are almost always to be seen 
 within the limits of its capital city. Almost invariably 
 do we find the bulk of the floating funds, the best talent, 
 and the most vigorous energies of a nation concentra'^ed 
 in its chief cities ; and does not this concentration of 
 wealth, energy, and talent, conduce, in an extraordinary 
 degree, to the growth and prosperity of the nation ? Un- 
 questionably. Wealth develops wealth, energy develops 
 energy, talent develops talent. What, then, must be the 
 condition of those countries which do not possess the 
 means or facilities of centralizing their material forces, 
 tlieir energies, and their talents ? Are they not destined 
 
334 COMMERCIAL CITIES —BUUTHERV COMilERCi. 
 
 to occupy an inferior rank among ;he nations .if the 
 earth ? Let the South answer. 
 
 And now let us ask, and we would put the question 
 particularly to Southern merchants, what do we so much 
 need as a great Southern metropolis ? Merchants of the 
 South, slaveholders I you are the avaricious assassinators 
 of your country I You are the channels through which 
 more than one hundred and twenty millions of dollars — 
 $120,000,000 — are annually drained from the South and 
 conveyed to the North. You are daily engaged in the 
 unmanly and unpatriotic work of impoverishing the land 
 of your birth. You are constantly enfeebling our resources 
 and rendering us more and more tributary to distant parts 
 of the nation. Your conduct is reprehensible, base, crim- 
 inal. 
 
 Whether Southern merchants ever think of the nume- 
 rous ways in which they contribute to the aggrandize- 
 ment of the North, while, at the same time, they enervate 
 and dishonor the South, has, for many years, with us, been 
 a matter of more than ordinary conjecture. If, as it would 
 seem, they have never yet thought of the subject, it is 
 certainly desirable that they should exercise their minds 
 upon it at once. Let them scrutinize the workings of 
 Southern money after it passes north of Mason and Dix- 
 ori's line. Let them consider how much they pay to North- 
 ern railroads and hotels, how much to Northern mer- 
 chants and shop-keepers, how much to Northern shippers 
 and insurers, how much to Northern theatres, newspapers, 
 and periodicals. Let them also consider what disposition 
 is made of it after it is lodged in the hands of the North. 
 
COMMERCIAL CITIES — SOUTHERX COMMERCE. 335 
 
 Is not the greater part of it paid out to Northern manu 
 facturers, mechaiMCs, and laborers, for the very articles 
 which are purchased at the N )rth — and to the extent that 
 this is done, are not Northern manufacturers, mechanics, 
 and laborers directly countenanced and encouraged, while, 
 at the same time. Southern manufacturers, mechanics, 
 and laborers, arc indirectly abased, depressed, and dis- 
 abled ? It is, however, a matter of impossibility, on 
 these small pages, to notice or enumerate all the me- 
 thods in which the money we deposit in the North 
 is made to operate against us ; suffice it to say that 
 it is circulated and expended there, among all classes of 
 the people, to the injury and impoverishment of almost 
 every individual in the South. And yet, our cousins of 
 tlie North are not, by any means, blameworthy for availing 
 themselves of the advantages which we have voluntarily 
 yielded to them. They have shown their wisdom in grow- 
 ing great at our expense, and we have shown our folly in 
 allowing them to do so. Southern merchants, slaveholders, 
 and slave-breeders, should be the objects of our censure ; 
 they have desolated and impoverished the South ; they 
 are now making merchandize of the vitals of their coun- 
 try ; patriotism is a word nowhere recorded in their vo- 
 cabulary ; town, city, country — they care for neither ; 
 with them, self is always paramount to every other con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Having already compared slavery with freedom in tlie 
 States, we will now compare it with freedom in the cities. 
 From every person as yet unconvinced of the despicable- 
 
336 COMMERCIAL CITIES — SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 
 
 ness of slavery, we respectfully ask attention to the fol- 
 lowing letters, which fully explain themselves : — 
 
 Finance Dkpartment Comptroller's Office, ) 
 New-York, February 17th, 1857. S 
 
 H. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 Your letter to Mayor Wood has been handed to me for au 
 answer, which I take pleasure in giving as follows : 
 
 The last assessment of property in this city was made in 
 August, 1856. 
 
 The value of all the real and personal property in the city, ac- 
 cording to that assessment, is ^511,740,492. 
 
 A census of the city was taken in 18^5, and the number of in- 
 habitants at that time can be obtained only from the Secretary 
 of Sta<^^ Very truly yours, 
 
 A. S. Cady. 
 
 State of New-York, Secretary's Office, > 
 Albany, February 24, 1857. J 
 
 H. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir : — 
 Yours of the 17th February, in regard to the population of the 
 city of New York, is before me. According to the census of 
 
 1855 the population was 029,810 
 
 1850 " " " - 515,547 
 
 1845 " " " 371,223 
 
 1840 " " '* 312,710 T 
 
 1835 '* " " 268,089 • 
 
 1830 " " " 197,112 
 
 As to the population now, you have the same facilities of judg 
 ing that we have from the above table. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 A. N. Wakefield, Chief Clerk, 
 
COMMERCIAL CITIES — SOUTHERN TOMMERCE. 337 
 
 Mayor's Office, City IIai.l, 
 
 Baltimore, December 26, 185G. 
 IT. R. IIelpkr, Esq., 
 
 Dfar Sir — 
 His Honor the Mayor of this City has requested me to reply 
 to your communication of the 24th inst.. addressed to him. re- 
 questing answers to certain questions. 
 
 In answer to your first intenogatory, I would state that the 
 amount of direct taxation assessed January 1st, 1850, was 
 ^102,053.839 ; the amount of exempt taxation (i. e. property out 
 of the limits of direct tax) assessed at that date was §0,054,733. 
 In reply to your second inquiry, I would state that no census 
 of the city has been taken since 1850. The estimated population 
 at this time is about 250,000. Respectfully Your.s, &c., &c., 
 
 D. H. Blanciiard, Secretary. 
 
 Office of tue Mayor of ths City of Philadelphia, > 
 
 December 30, 1850. ^ 
 
 II. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 In reply to your note of the 25th inst., received to-day, I has- 
 ten to give you the estimates you ask. 
 
 Real Estate, 150 millions ; it is about one-half the real value. 
 Its market price is at least 300 million dollars. 
 
 The Personal Estate is returned at 20 millions ; it is over 110 
 millions. There has been no census since 1850. The population 
 now is 500,000. Yours truly, 
 
 Q.Vaux. 
 
 State of Louisiana, Mayoralty of New Orleans, \ 
 City Hall, 3d day of Jan'y, 1857. $ 
 
 Mr. H. R. Helper, 
 
 New-York : 
 
 Dear Sir : — 
 In answer to your note of the 24th December, I beg to refer 
 you to the enclosed abstract for the value of real estate and 
 slaves according to the list asseBsment. 
 
 15 
 
338 COililERCIAL CITIES S0UT.1ERN COiniERCE. 
 
 T'lere has heretofore been no assessment of personal prr-perty 
 — there having been no t^x authorized until this year. The as- 
 sessment is now being made and will probably add about §5^000,- 
 000 to the assessment as stated in the abstract. 
 
 There has been nc census since the U. S. census of 1850, ex- 
 cept an informal census, made in 1852, for the purpose of dividing 
 the city into wards anew. 
 
 The estimated population now is about 150 to 175.000 inhabi- 
 tants — permanent population — including the floating population 
 at this season, it would probably reach not less than 210,000 in- 
 habitants. The U. S. census was taken in the summer months, 
 and is very incorrect as to the absolute population of New Or- 
 leans. Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obed't serv't, 
 
 J. B. Walton, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 By reference to the abstract of which Mr. "Walton speaks, 
 we find that the value of real and personal property is 
 summed up as follows : — 
 
 Real Estate, - - - ^67,460,115 
 
 Slaves, - - - - 5,183,580 
 
 Capital, - - . - 18,544,300 
 
 Total - - - §91,188,195 
 
 City Hall, Boston, 
 Dec. 31, 1856. 
 
 Dear Sir: — Yours of the 25th inst., addressed to the Mayor, 
 has been handed to me for a reply — and I would acconlingly 
 s'^ate that the value of real and personal estate in this city, on 
 the first day of May, A.D. 1856, was ^249,162,500. 
 
 The census of the city of Boston, on the first day of May, A.D 
 1855, was 162,748 persons. 
 
COmiERClAL CITIES — SOCTHERX COMMERCE. 339 
 
 Tlic estimated population of tlie city :f Boston at this date — 
 say January 1st, li>57 — is 105,000. 
 
 Yours, very respectfully, 
 
 Saml. T. McCleary, 
 
 City Clerk. 
 
 St. Louis, > 
 Feb. 27, 1857. \ 
 n. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 New- York : 
 
 Dear Sir : — 
 In reply to yours of the 9th inst., I beg leave to state, that a 
 census of our population was taken in the spring of 1856 by the 
 Sheriff, and although it was inaccurate, yet the population as re- 
 turned by him was then 125,500. That his census is too low- 
 there is no doubt. Our population at this time is at least 
 140.000. 
 
 Our last assessment was made in February, 185G. Value of 
 real and personal estate, is, in round numbers, §03.000,000. 
 
 Trusting this information will be sufScient for your purpose, 
 I remain, Y'ours, &c., 
 
 John How, 
 
 Mayor, 
 
 Mayor's Office. City IIall, Brooklyn. 
 January 2-lth, 1857. 
 H. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 Sir:— 
 The an-swers to your inquiries are as follows : 
 The last assessment of property in this city was made in 
 August, 185G. 
 
 The value of all the real and personal property in the city, ao- 
 cording to that assessment, is 895,800.440. 
 
 A census of the city was taken in 1855, and the number of in- 
 habitants, according to it, was 205,250. 
 The estimated population now is 225,000. 
 The last annua report of the Comptroller, together with a 
 
S40 COMMERCIAL CITIES SOUTHERN COMMERCS. 
 
 communication of the Mayor to the Common Council, made on 
 the 5th of Jan.. 1857, have been transmitted by mail to your ad- 
 dress, and from them you may be able to obtain any further 
 nformation you may desire. Yours, respectfully, 
 
 S. S. Powell, 
 
 Mayor. 
 By C. S. Brainerd. 
 
 Mayor's Office, > 
 Charleston, Feb. 16, 1857. 5 
 II. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 (New York,) 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 Yours of the 9th has just been received, I sent you, through 
 the Clerk of Council, some time ago, the Annual Fiscal State- 
 ment of the Committee on Accounts made to the City Council, 
 which would give some of the information which you desire. I 
 will have another copy sent you. 
 
 No census has been taken since 1848. The population at pre- 
 sent must be between fifty and sixty thousand. 
 
 Any information which it may be in my power to furnish you 
 with, will always give me pleasure to supply. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Wm. Porcher Miles, 
 
 Mayor. 
 
 From a report of the " Annual accounts of the city of 
 Charleston, for the fiscal year ending the 31st of August, 
 1856," it appears that the total value of real and personal 
 property, including slaves — nearly half the population — 
 was $36,127,751. 
 
 Mayor's Offick, > 
 
 Cincinnati, Jan'y 2, 1857. y 
 Dear Sit : — In reply to your note of the 25th ult., I beg leave 
 to say that the -alue of all the real and personal property in 
 
roMMrr.riAi. cirrns — soiTiirny commerce. 341 
 
 thU city, as assessed for taxation, amounts to .$^^8,810,734. The 
 realty being 800,701,207; the personalty $;20.79r),203, and tht 
 bank and brokers' capital $17. 314.204. The assessment of the 
 realty was made in 1853 ; that of the personalty is made \n 
 March of each year. 
 
 Our present population is estimated at 210,000. No complete 
 census has been taken since 1850. 
 
 The total of taxes levied on the above assessment of .^88,810, 
 734, for city purposes, was §529,727,05. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your ob'dt. scrv't, 
 n. R. Helper, Esq., Jas. J. Faran 
 
 New- York. Mayor. 
 
 ^Iayor's Office, 
 Louisville, Ky., January 1st, 1857. 
 II. Pv. Helper, Esq., 
 
 New-York City, 
 
 Deal' Sir : — 
 Your favor 24th ult. is received — contents noted. I will re- 
 mark in reply, that the taxes of this city are levied only on real 
 estate, slaves, and merchandise, (exclusive of home manufac- 
 tures.) which are taken at what is supposed to be their cash 
 value, but is much less than the real value. Our last assessment 
 was made the 10th January, 185G, and amounted to $31. 500,000. 
 There has been no census of this city taken since 1850, our 
 charter requiring that it shall be taken this year. I am now pre- 
 paring to have it done. It is supposed Louisville at this time 
 has a population of 05 or 70 thousand. 
 
 I send with this my last annual message to the Gen. Council 
 and accompanying documents. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 JoH.N Bakbee Miyor. 
 
342 COMMERCIAL CITIES — SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 
 
 Daily Tribune Office, > 
 
 Chicago, May 21, 1857. 5 
 II. R. Helper, Esq. 
 
 Sir:— 
 In the ^lay No. of Hunt's Merchants' Magazine you will find 
 some of your questions answered. The actual cash value of pro- 
 perty is not taken by the assessors. Citizens are not sworn as 
 to the value of their personal effects, nor is real estate given in 
 at twenty per cent, of its selling cash price. An elaborate esti- 
 mate of the real value, in cash, of Chicago, which we have seen. 
 
 puts the real estate at ^125,000.000 
 
 Improvements on the same, - - - - !5;24,000,000 
 
 Personal property, $22,000,000 
 
 In 1857 total value, ----- $171,000,000 
 
 On half a dozen streets in this city lots sell readily at $1,000 to 
 $1,200 per foot front, exclusive of improvements. 
 
 A census of the population of Chicago was taken in October, 
 1853, and in June, 1855, the latter by State authority. That of 
 October '53 found 60,052 ; that of June '55 found 80,509. The 
 best estimate at present makes the number, on May 1st, 1857, to 
 be 112,000, which is rather under than over the truth. The 
 amount of building, in the city, is immense, but as quickly as a 
 tenement can be spiked together, it is taken at a high rent ; and 
 at no former period has there seemed so rapid an augmentation 
 of population. Very truly yours, 
 
 Ray & Mf:dill, 
 
 Eds. Ch. Trih. 
 
 Richmond, Va. 
 
 April 25th, '57. 
 H. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir : — 
 Yours of the 14th inst. has been received and should have been 
 answered sooner, but it was impossible tc get the information 
 you desired earlier. The value of the real estate in the city of 
 Richmond is $18,000,000. The value of the personal is $101,920. 
 Total value $18,201,920. This does not include slaves, of whom 
 there are C,472 in the city. The State values each slave at $300 
 
COiri[FR( fAL CITIES — SOlTnERN COMMERCE. 343 
 
 each— making !j$ 1.04 1.000. which, added to the total above, makes 
 ^'20.14.').5'A). The numher of inhabitants — white and black, is 
 34,612 within the corporation limits. The assessment was made 
 in li>55 throughout the whole State. 
 
 Yours, very respectfully, 
 
 B. "W. Starke. 
 
 Mayor's Office, > 
 
 Providence, Dec. 31st, 185G. I 
 11. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 New York, 
 
 Dear Sir : — 
 Yours of 25th is this moment received. You will receive with 
 this a connnunication from the Chairman of the Board of Assess- 
 ors, giving the requisite information from that department. I 
 Bend you this day a census report, taken 1855. which will give 
 you the information asked. Our population at this time is be- 
 tween 50 and 00,000. Respectfully, 
 
 Ja.mes Y. Smith, 
 
 3Iayor. 
 
 Assessor's Office, > 
 Providence, Dec. 31st, 185G. J 
 II. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir : — 
 Ilis Honor, the Mayor of this City, has requested me to answer 
 your communication of the 25th inst., addressed to him, so far as 
 relates to the valuation of this city, &c., which is hcrewi h pre- 
 sented. 
 
 The valuation of this Cit}- in 1850 is as follows : 
 
 Real Estate, ,'ji:;T,.487.11G 
 
 Personal Estate, - - - - 21.577.400 
 
 Total, S58,0G4,51G 
 
 Our last assessment was ordered in June last, and completed 
 on the 1st day oi' September la'^t. 
 
344 COMMERCIAL CITIES SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 
 
 Rates of taxation $7 75 per SIOOO. 
 Amount of tax raised ^450,000. 
 
 Kespectfally yours, 
 
 Joseph Martin, 
 Chairman of the Board of Assessors. 
 
 Herald Office, 
 Norfolk. Ya., 28th April, 1857. 
 II. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 New-York, 
 
 Dear Sir .•^- 
 The value of all the real estate, as re-assessed about two months 
 ago, is set down, say, in round numbers, at five and a half mil- 
 lions. The actual value would bring it somewhat above that 
 mark. The assessment of the personal property will be com- 
 pleted in three or four weeks hence ; but its ea:act value cannot 
 be arrived at from the fact that a large portion of this descrip- 
 tion of property — including slaves — is taxed specifically without 
 regard to its value. It is estimated by the assessors, however, 
 that the personal exceeds the real estate, and may be safely set 
 down at six and a half millions. 
 
 There has been no census taken since 1850. The State autho- 
 rities assume the population to be IG.OOO, but I am informed by 
 the assessors that 17,000 is a fairer estimate. 
 
 Hoping that the information given may answer the purpose 
 for which you require it, I am. Respectfully yours, 
 
 R. G. Broughton. 
 
 \ 
 
 Mayor's Office, > 
 Bufi"alo, March 10, 1857. 5 
 Dear Sir: — Yours, of the 9th inst., was received this morning. 
 The answers to your questions are as follows : 
 
 The last valuation of the property of our ci ty was made in April, 
 18.56. 
 
 Valuati ^n of real estate, . . . §r 8,1 14,040 
 " personal estate, . . 7,300,436 
 
 Total real and personal, $45,474,476 
 
CMIMERCIAL CITIES — SOUTIIERX COMMERPE. 345 
 
 The last census was the State census, taken in the summer of 
 1855. That showed a popuhition of 74,'211 ; a fiiir estimate now 
 is 90,000. Kespectfull y. 
 
 Your ob't serv't, 
 
 F. P. Stevens. 
 
 Mayor's Office, > 
 
 Savannah, 9th January, 1856. ^ 
 II. R. Helper, Esq., 
 
 New- York, 
 
 Dear Sir : — 
 In reply to your first interrogatory, I send you the last Mayor's 
 report, in which you will find the information you seek. 
 No census has been taken of the city since 1850. 
 The estimated population is 25,000. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 J. P. SCREVEX, 
 
 3Iayor. 
 
 From the Ma3'oi-'s annual report, we learn that the " as- 
 sessments or value of lands and improvements," for the 
 year ending October 31st, 1856, amounted to $8,999,015. 
 The value of the personal property is, perhaps, about 
 $3,000,000 — total value of real and personal estate 
 $11,999,015. 
 
 City of New-Bedford, > 
 
 Mayor's Koom, 1 mo., 0th, 1857. 5 
 n. K. Helper:— 
 
 Yours of the 4th inst. came to hand this morning. 
 In reply to your inquiries, I will say that the amount assessed 
 on the 1st day of May, 1856, was as follows : — 
 
 Real Estate, .«j;9;31 1,500 
 
 Personal, 17,735,500 
 
 Total, ^27.047,000 
 
 15* 
 
346 COilMERCIAL CITIES — SOUTnERN COMMERCE. 
 
 The returns of a census taken the previcus autumn gave 20,391 
 persons, from which there is not probably much change. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 Geo. Ho\vland, Jr. 
 3Iayor. 
 
 Mayor's Office, > 
 
 i7. 5 
 
 Wilmington, N. C, May 23d, 185/ 
 H. R Helper, Esq., 
 
 New-York, 
 
 Dear Sir : — 
 I am in receipt of yours of 19th inst. The value of real estate 
 as per last assessment, 1st April, 1856, was $3,350,000 
 
 We have no system by which to arrive at the value 
 of personal property : I estimate the amount, however, 
 exclusive of merchandize, at $4,509,000 
 
 There has been no census taken since 1850 — the present num- 
 ber of inhabitants is estimated at 10,000. 
 
 I regret my inability to afford you more definite information. 
 Very respectfullj^, &c., 
 
 0, G. Parsley, 
 
 Mayor. 
 
COilMERClAL CITIES — SODTHER.V /OilMERCE. 
 
 in 
 
 From the foregoing communications, we make up the 
 following summary of the more important particulars : — 
 
 NIKE FREE CITIES. 
 
 Naino. 
 
 ropulation. 
 
 Wealth. 
 
 Wfaltli 
 per capita. 
 
 New York 
 
 700,000 
 
 500.000 
 
 165,000 
 
 225,000 
 
 210,000 
 
 112,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 90,000 
 
 21,000 
 
 2,083,000 
 
 $511,740,492 
 
 325,000,000 
 
 219,162,500 
 
 95,800,440 
 
 88,810,734 
 
 171,000,000 
 
 58,064,516 
 
 45,474,476 
 
 27,047,000 
 
 $1,572,100,158 
 
 S731 
 
 Philatk'Iphia 
 
 Bo.sLon 
 
 650 
 1,510 
 425 
 422 
 1,527 
 967 
 505 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Proviilcnce 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 New Bedford 
 
 1,288 
 
 
 S754 
 
 NINE SLAVE CITIES. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Wealth. 
 
 Wealth 
 per capita. 
 
 Baltimore 
 
 250,000 
 175,000 
 140,000 
 60,000 
 70,000 
 40,000 
 17,000 
 25,000 
 10,000 
 
 787,000 
 
 $102,053,839 
 91,188,195 
 63,000,000 
 36,127,751 
 31,500.000 
 20,143,520 
 12,000,000 
 11,999,015 
 7,850,000 
 
 $375,862,320 
 
 $408 
 
 New Orleans 
 
 St. Louis 
 
 521 
 450 
 
 Charleston 
 
 602 
 
 Louisville 
 
 Richmond 
 
 450 
 503 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 Savannah 
 
 705 
 480 
 
 Wilmington 
 
 785 
 
 
 
 
 $477 
 
 Let it not be forgotten that the slaves tnemselves are 
 valued at so much per head, and counted as part of the 
 wealth of slave cities ; and yet, though we assent, as wo 
 have done, to the inclusion of all this fictitious wealth, it 
 will be observed that the residents of free cities are far 
 wealthier, per capilc^ than the residents of slave cities. 
 We trust the reader will not fa'i to examine the figures 
 with great care 
 
348 COMMERCIAL CITIES- -SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 
 
 In this age of the world, commerce is an indispensable 
 element of national greatness. Without commerce we 
 can have no great cities, and without great cities we can 
 have no reliable tenure of distinct nationality. Commerce 
 is the forerunner of wealth and population ; and it is 
 mainly these that make invincible the power of undying 
 States. 
 
 Speaking in general terms of the commerce of this coun- 
 try, and of the great cities through which that commerce 
 is chiefly carried on, the Boston Traveler says : — 
 
 " The wealth concentrated at the great commercial points of 
 the United States is truly astonishing. For instance, one-eighth 
 part of the entire property of this country is owned by the cities 
 of New-York and Boston. Boston alone, in its corporate limits, 
 owns one-twentieth of the property of this entire Union, being 
 an amount equal to the wealth of any three of the New-England 
 States, except Massachusetts. In this city is found the richest 
 community, per capita^ of any in the United States. The next 
 city in point of wealth, according to its population, is Providence, 
 (R. I.j) which city is one of the richest in the Union, having a 
 valuation of fifty-six millions, with a population of fifty thousand." 
 
 The same paper, in the course of an editorial article on 
 the ''Wealth of Boston and its Business," says : — 
 
 " The assessors' return of the wealth of Boston will probably 
 show this year an aggregate property of nearly three hundred 
 milhons. This sum, divided among 160,000 people, would give 
 nearly ^2,000 to each inhabitant, and will show Boston to be 
 much the wealthiest community in the United States, save New 
 York alone, with four times its population. The value of the 
 real estate in this city is increasing now with great rapidity, as 
 at least four millions of dollars' worth of new houses and stores 
 will be built this year. The personal estate in ships, cargoes, 
 
COMMERCIAL CITIES — SOITIIF-RN' C03fMERCE. 349 
 
 Stocks, &c., is grc'jitly iirrcasing with each succeeding year, not 
 withstundiivj: the many disasiers and h)sses constantly occurring 
 in sucli kinds of property. 
 
 "It is impossible to get the exact earnings of tlie nearly sia 
 hundred thousand tons of shipping owned in this city. But per- 
 haps it would not be much out of the way to set the total amount 
 for 1855 at from fifteen to twenty millions of dollars. This sum 
 las probabl}' been earned by our fleet engaged in the domestic 
 trade, and in commercial transactions with the East and "VVesi 
 Indies, South America, the Pacific. Europe and Africa. The three 
 sources from which the population of Boston is maintained, and 
 its prosperity continued, are these : Commerce, trade, and manu- 
 factures. Its annual trade and sales of merchandise are said now, 
 by competent judges, to amount to three hundred millions of 
 goods per annum, and will soon grcatlj- exceed that vast sura. 
 The annual manufactures of this city are much more in amount 
 than in many entire States in this Union. They amount, accord- 
 ing to recent statistics, to nearly seventy-five millions of dollars.'^ 
 
 Freeman Ilimt, the accomplished editor of Hn^iCs Mer- 
 chant^ Magazine, writing on the "Progressive Growth of 
 Cities," says : — 
 
 •' London is now the greatest concentration of human power 
 the world has ever known. Will its supremacy be permanent ? 
 or will it, like its predecessors, be eclipsed by western rivals ? 
 New-Yorkers do not doubt, and indeed have no reason to doubt, 
 that their city, now numbering little more than one-third of the 
 population of Ltmdon, will, within the next fifty years, be greati-r 
 than the metropolis of the British empire. 
 
 ''New York, with her immediate dependencies, numbers about 
 900 000. Since 1790 she has established a law of growth whi( h 
 doubles her population once in fifteen years. If this law con- 
 tinues to operate, she may be expected to possess 1,800,000 in 
 1871,3,000,000 in 1880, and 7,200,000 in 1901. If twenty years 
 be allowed New Y'ork as her future period of duplication, she 
 would orertake L'^ndon b}- the end of fifty vcars ; London mar, 
 
350 COMMERCIAL CITIES — SOUTHERN COMilERCE. 
 
 then huive five millions j New-York will almost certainly have 
 more than that number. 
 
 Will the star of empire become stationary at New-York ? 
 The interior plain of North America has within itself more means 
 to sustain a dense population in civilized comfort than any other 
 region of the world. The star of empire cannot be arrested in 
 its western course before it reaches this plain. Its most promis- 
 ing city at present is Chicago. The law of its growth since 1840 
 seems .o be a duplication within four years. In 1840 it num- 
 bered 4,379. In June of this year it will contain 88,000. At 
 the same rate of increase carried forward, it would overtake New- 
 York within twenty years. If six years be allowed for each 
 future duplication, Chicago would overtake New-York in thirty- 
 three years. If the growth of Chicago should in future be mea- 
 sured by a duplication of every seven years, it would contain 
 5,622,000 in forty -two years. 
 
 " In 1901, forty-five years from this time, the central plain, in- 
 cluding the Canadas, will contain about eighty millions of peo- 
 ple. Its chief city may be reasonably expected to contain about 
 one-tenth of this population. Before the end of this century the 
 towns and cities of the central plain will contain, with their 
 suburbs, not less than half the entire population ; that is to say, 
 forty millions. How these millions shall be apportioned among 
 the cities of that day, is a subject for curious speculation." 
 
 A FLEET OF MERCHANTMEN. 
 
 The Boston Journal^ of a late date, says : — 
 
 " About one hundred sail of vessels, of various descriptions, 
 entered this port yesterday, consisting of traders from Europe, 
 South America, the West Indies, and from coastwise ports. The 
 waters of the bay and harbor presented a beautiful appearance 
 from the surrounding shores, as this fleet of white-winged mes- 
 sengers made their way towards the city, and crowds of people 
 must have witnessed their advent with great delight. A more 
 magnificent sight is seldom seen in our harbor." 
 
 Would to God that such sifi^hts could sometimes be seen 
 
COMMERaAL CITIES — SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 351 
 
 in Southern harbors ! "When slavery shall cease to para- 
 lyse tlie energies of our people, then ships, coming- to us 
 from the four quarters of the globe, will, with majestic 
 grandeur, begin to loom in the distance ; our bays will 
 rejoice in the presence of "the white-winged messengers," 
 and our levees resound as never before with the varied 
 din of commerce. 
 
 COMMERCE OF NORFOLK. 
 
 The Southern Argus thus speaks of the ruined commerce 
 of a most despicable niggerville : — 
 
 '•"NVe question if any other community, certainly no other in 
 the United States of America, have made greater exertions to 
 resuscitate tlie trade of Norfolk tlian the mercantile portion of 
 the inhabitants; in proof of which nineteen-twentieths of those 
 engaged in foreign commerce have terminated in their insolvency, 
 the principal cause of which has been in the unrelenting hostility, 
 to this day, from the commencement of the present century, of 
 the Virginia Legislature, with the co-operation of at least the 
 commercial portions of the citizens of Richmond, Petersburg and 
 Portsmouth." 
 
 How it is, in this enlightened ago, that men of ordinary 
 intelligence can be so far led into error as to suppose that 
 commerce, or any other noble enterprise, can be established 
 and successfully prosecuted under the dominion of slavery, 
 is, to us, one of the most inexplicable of mysteries. " Com- 
 mercial" Conventions, composed of the self-titled lordlings 
 of slavery — Generals, Colonels, Majors, Captains, ctcoatera 
 — may act out their annual programmes of farcical non- 
 sense from now until doimsday ; but they will never add 
 one iota to the materi»V m .'al, or mental interests of the 
 
352 COMMERCIAL CITIES SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 
 
 Soutn, — never can, until their ebony idol shall have been 
 utterly demolished. 
 
 BALTIMORE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 
 
 We are indebted to the Baltimore Patriot for the follow- 
 ing interesting sketch of the Monumental City as it was, 
 and as it is, and as it may be : — 
 
 "The population of Baltimore in 1790 was 13.503; in 1800, 
 15,514; in 1810, 35,583; in 1820, 62,738; in 1830, 80,625; in 
 1840, 110,313; in 1850, 169,054. The increase of inhabitants 
 within two particular decades, will be found, by reference to the 
 above table, to be remarkable. Between 1800 and 1810, the 
 population nearly doubled itself; between 1840 and 1850, the 
 increase was two-thirds ; and for the past five years, the numer- 
 ical extension of our population has been even more rapid than 
 during the previous decade. We may safely assume tha-t Balti- 
 more contains at the present time not less than 250.000 inhabit- 
 ants. But the increase in the manufactured products of the State, 
 as shown by the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, is a 
 matter of even greater astonishment. The statistical tables of 
 1840 estimate the aggregate value of the manufactures of Mary- 
 land at ^13,509,636 — thirteen millionjive hundred and nine thou- 
 sand six hundred and thirty-six dollars. In 1850, the value of 
 the articles manufactured within the limits of the State amounted 
 to ^32.593,635 — thirty-two millionjive hundred and ninety-three 
 thousand six hundred and thirty Jive dollars ! A signal proof 
 that the wealth of the State has increased with even far greater 
 rapidity than its population. A quarter of a century ago, the 
 sum of our manufactures did not much exceed five millions of 
 dollars per annum. At this day it may be set down as falling 
 but little short of fifty millions. These are facts taken from ofii- 
 cial sources, and therefore understated rather than exceeded. 
 They are easily verified by any one who will take the necessary 
 trouble to examine the reports for himself; and they justify us 
 in the assertion thi^,t wc are but fifteen yea ^ behind Philadelphia 
 
COMMERCIAL CITIES — SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 353 
 
 in population, and arc only at the same ivlativc distance from 
 her in point of wealth. 
 
 A change has been going on for some time past in our com- 
 mercial and industrial affairs which all may have noticed, but the 
 extent of which is known to but few, and we hazard nothing in 
 Baying that this enormous progression must continue, because it 
 is based upon a solid foundation, and therefore subject to no or- 
 dinary contingencies. 
 
 Occupying geographically the most central position on this 
 Continent, with vast mines of coal lying within easy distance to 
 the North and West of us, with a harbor easy of access, and with 
 railroads penetrating by the shortest routes the most fertile sec- 
 lions of the Union, we need nothing but the judicious fostering 
 of a proper spirit among our citizens to make Baltimore not only 
 the commercial emporium of the South and West, but also the 
 great coal mart of the Union. Our flour market is already tho 
 most extensive in the known world — we speak without exagger- 
 ation, for this also is proven by unquestionable facts. There is 
 more guano annually brought into our port than into all the other 
 ports of the United States put together, and the demand for this 
 important article of commerce is steadily increasing. Our ship- 
 ments of tobacco are immense, and as the improvement in the 
 depth of the channel of the Patapsco increases, must inevitably 
 become much greater. 
 
 Such, then, is our present condition as a commercial commu- 
 nity, and when we add that our prosperity is as much owing to 
 our admirable geographical position as to the energy of our mer- 
 chants and manufacturers, we design to cast no imputation on 
 these excellent citizens, but rather to stimulate them to renewed 
 efforts in a field where enterprise cannot fail of reaping its due 
 reward. 
 
 Take any common map of the United States and rule an air 
 line across it from Baltimore to St. Louis, and midwa}- between 
 the two it will strike Cincinnati — the great inland centre of 
 trade — traversing at the same time those wonderfully fertile val- 
 leys which lie between the latter point and the ^lississippi river. 
 Now let it be remembered that since the introduction of rail- 
 way 8 fluvial naviga ' ^n has been, to a considerable extent, super- 
 
354 COMMERCIAL CITIES SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 
 
 seded by inland transport, because of the greater speed and cer 
 tainty of the latter. Let it be remembered also that the migra- 
 tion westward is incessantly going on, and that with every farm 
 opened within striking distance of a great arterial railway, or its 
 anastomosing branches, a certain amount of freight must find its 
 way to the seaboard markets, while the demand for manufactured 
 products, and for domestic or foreign commodities, in exchange 
 for breadstuffs or raw material, must necessarily increase ; 
 thereby adding greatly to the prosperity of the commercial cen- 
 tre towards which articles of export tend, and from which im- 
 ports in return are drawn. It would be difficult to estimate the 
 value of what this trade will be fifty years hence, or what the 
 population of Baltimore, situated as she is. will by that time 
 have become. 
 
 Reasoning from causes to effects, and presuming that ordinary 
 perseverance will be used in promoting the interests of our city, 
 industrially and commercially, we are justified in believing that 
 its progress must be in an accelerated ratio, and that there are 
 those now living who will look back with surprise and wonder 
 at its growth and magnitude, as we have done while comparing 
 its present aspect with that which it exhibited within our own 
 memory." 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, but one not at all surprising to 
 those whose philosophy leads them to think aright, that 
 Baltimore and St. Louis, the two most prosperous cities in 
 the slave States, have fewer slaves in proportion to the 
 aggregate population than any other city or cities in the 
 South. While tbe entire population of the former is now 
 estimated at 250 000, and that of the latter at 140,000— 
 making a grand total of 390,000 in the two cities, less 
 than 6,000 of this latter number are slaves ; indeed, neither 
 city is cursed with half the number of 6,000. 
 
 In 1850, there were only 2,946 slaves in Baltimore, and 
 2,656 in St. Louis — total in the two cities 6,602 ; and in 
 
COMMERCIAL CITIES SOUTHERN' COMMERCE. 355 
 
 both places, tliank Heaven, this heathenish chiss of the 
 population was ia})iilly decreasing. The census of 1800 
 will, in all probability, show that the two cities arc en- 
 tirely exempt from slaves and slavery ; and that of 1870 
 will, we prayerfully hope, show that the United States at 
 large, a* that time, will have been wholly redeemed from 
 the unspeakable curse of human bondage. 
 
 What about Southern Commerce ? Is it not almost en- 
 tirely tributary to the commerce of the North ? Are we 
 not dependent on New-York, Philadelphia, Boston, and 
 Cincinnati, for nearly every article of merchandise, whe- 
 ther foreign or domestic ? Where arc our ships, our mari 
 ners, our naval architects ? Alas I echo answers, where ? 
 
 Reader I would you understand how abjectly slave- 
 holders themselves are enslaved to the products of North- 
 ern industry ? If j^ou would, fix your mind on a Southern 
 "gentleman" — a slave-breeder and human-flesh monger, 
 who professes to be a Christian ! Observe the routine of 
 his daily life. See him rise in the morning from a North- 
 ern bed, and clothe himself in Northern apparel ; see him 
 walk across the floor on a Northern carpet, and perform 
 his ablutions out of a Northern ewer and basin. See him 
 uncover a box of Northern powders, and cleanse his teeth 
 with a Northern brush ; see him reflecting his phj-siog- 
 nomy in a Northern mirror, and arranging his hair with a 
 Northern comb See him dosing himself with the mendi- 
 caments of Northern quacks, and perfuming his handker- 
 chief with Northern cologne. See him referring to the 
 time in a Northern witch, and glancing at t/ie news in a 
 Northern gazette. See him and his family sitting in 
 
356 COMMEBCIAL CITIES — SOUTHIR.V COMMERCE. 
 
 Northern chairs, and singing and praying out of Northern 
 books. See him at the breakfast table, saying grace over 
 a Northern plate, eating with Northern cutlery, and drink- 
 ing from Northern utensils. See him charmed with the 
 melody of a Northern piano, or musing over the pages of 
 a Northern novel. See him riding to his neighbor's in a 
 Northern carriage, or furrowing his lands with a North- 
 ern plow. See him lighting his segar with a Northern 
 match, and flogging his negroes with a Northern lash. 
 See him with Northern pen and ink, writing letters on 
 Northern paper, and sending them away in Northern en- 
 velopes, sealed with Northern wax, and impressed with a 
 Northern stamp. Perhaps our Southern " gentleman" is 
 a merchant ; if so, see him at his store, making an unpa- 
 triotic use of his time in the miserable trafiSc of Northern 
 gimcracks and haberdashery ; see him when you will, 
 where you will, he is ever surrounded with the industrial 
 products of those whom, in the criminal inconsistency of 
 his heart, he execrates as enemies, yet treats as friends. 
 His labors, his talents, his influence, are all for the North, 
 and not for the South ; for the stability of slavery, and 
 for the sake of his own personal aggrandizement, he is 
 willing to sacrifice the dearest interests of his country. 
 
 As we see our ruinous system of commerce exemplified 
 in the family of our Southern '' gentleman," so we may see 
 it exemplified, to a greater or less degree, in almost every 
 other family throughout the length and breadth of the 
 slaveholding States. We are all constantly buying, 
 and selling, and wearing, and using Northern merchan- 
 dise, at a dou) e expense to both ourselves and our neigh* 
 
COMMERCIAL CITIES — SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 357 
 
 bors. If wc but look at ourselves attentively, we sluill 
 find that we are all clothed cap a pie in Is orihcrn habilji- 
 mente. Our hats, our caps, our cravats, our coats, our 
 vests, our pants, our gluvcs, our boots, our shoes, our 
 under-garments — all come from the North ; ^vhence, too, 
 Southern ladies procure all their bonnets, plumes, and 
 flowers ; dresses, shawls, and scarfs ; frills, ribbons, and 
 ruffles ; cufls, capes, and collars. 
 
 True it is that the South has wonderful powers of endu- 
 rance and recuperation ; but she cannot forever support the 
 reckless prodigality of her sons. We arc all spendthrifts ; 
 some of us should become financiers. We must learn to 
 take care of our money ; we should withhold it from the 
 North, and open avenues for its circulation at home. We 
 should nut run to New-York, to Philadelpliia, to Boston, 
 to Cincinnati, or to any other Northern city, every time 
 we want a shoe-string or a bedstead, a fish-hook or a hand- 
 saw, a tooth-pick or a cotton-gin. In ease and luxury we 
 have been lolling long enough ; we should now bestir 
 ourselves, and keep pace with the progress of the age. 
 Wc must expand our energies, and acquire habits of enter- 
 prise and industry ; we should arouse ourselves from the 
 couch of lassitude, and inure our minds to thought and 
 our bodies to action. We must begin to feed on a more 
 substantial diet than tliat of pro-slavery politics ; we should 
 leave off our siestas and post-meridian naps, and employ 
 our time in profitable vocations. Before us there is a vast 
 work to be accomplished — a work which has been accu- 
 mulating on our hands for many years. It is no less a 
 Work t^jan that of infusing the spirit of liberty into all our 
 
358 COMMERCIAL CITIES SOUTHERN COMMERCE. 
 
 systems of commorce, agriculture, manufactures, govern- 
 ment, literature, and religion. Oligarchal despotism must 
 be overthrown ; slavery must be abolished. 
 
 For the purpose of showing how absolutely Southern 
 " gentlemen," particularly slaveholding merchants, are 
 lost to all sense of true honor and patriotism, we will 
 here introduce an extract from an article which appeared 
 more than three years ago in one of the editorial columns 
 of the leading daily newspaper of the city of New- York. 
 It is in these words : — 
 
 '*' Southern merchants do indeed keep away from New-York 
 for the reason that they can't pay their debts ; there is no doubt 
 that if the jobbers of this city had not trusted Southern traders 
 for the past three years, they would be a great deal better 
 off than they are. * * * Already our trade with Canada is be- 
 coming as promising, sure, and profitable, as our trade with the 
 South is uncertain, riskful, and annoying." 
 
 Now, by any body of men not utterly debased by tho 
 influences of slavery, this language would have been con- 
 strued into an invitation to stay at home. But do South- 
 ern merchants stay at home ? Do they build up Southern 
 commerce ? No I off they post to the North as regularly 
 as the seasons, spring and fall, come round, and there, 
 like cringing sycophants, flatter, beg, and scheme, for 
 favors which they have no money to command. 
 
 The better classes of merchants, and indeed of all other 
 people, at the North, as elsewhere, have too much genuine 
 respect for themselves to wish to have any dealings what- 
 ever with those who make me^phandise of human beings. 
 Li-uited as is our acquaintance in the city of New-York, 
 
COMMERCIAL CnTES — SOnnERN COMMERCE. 359 
 
 wc know one firm thero, a large wliolosalo liouso, that 
 makes it au invariable rule never to sell goods to a m-i- 
 chant from the slave States except for cash. Being well 
 acquainted with the partners, we asked one of them, on 
 one occasion, why he refused to trust slave-driving mer- 
 chants. " Because," said he, " they are too long-winded 
 and uncertain ; when we credit them, they occasion us 
 more loss and bother than their trade is worth." Non- 
 slaveholders of the South I recollect that slavery is the 
 only impediment to your progress and prosperity, that it 
 stands diametrically opposed to all needful reforms, that 
 it seeks to sacrifice you entirely for the benefit of others, 
 and that it is the one great and only cause of dishonor to 
 your country. Will you not abolish it ? May Heaven 
 help you to do your duty I 
 
860 FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE "WAYSIDE. 
 
 Finding that we shall have to leave unsaid a great many 
 things which we intended to say, and that we shall have 
 to omit much valuable matter, the product of other pens 
 than our own, but which, having collected at considerable 
 expense, we had hoped to be able to introduce, we have 
 concluded to present, under the above heading, only a few 
 of the more important particulars. 
 
 In the first place, we will give an explanation of the 
 reason 
 
 WHY THIS WORK WAS NOT PUBLISHED IN BALTIMORE. 
 
 A considerable portion of this work was written in Bal- 
 timore ; and the whole of it would have bocn written and 
 published there, but for the following odious clause, which 
 we extract from the Statutes of Maryland : — 
 
 " Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Marj'land, That 
 after the passage of his act, it shall not be lawful for any citi- 
 zen of this State, knowingl})^ to make, print or engrave, or aid in 
 the making, printing or engraving, within this State, any picto- 
 rial representation, or to write or print, or to aid in the writing or 
 printing any pamphlet, newspaper, handbill or other paper of an 
 inflammatory character, and having a tendency to excite discon- 
 
FACTS ANP ARr.rMF.NTS DY THE WATSIDK. 86l 
 
 tcTit or 5tip up insurrection amongst the people of color of this 
 State, or of either of the other States or Territories of the Unit- 
 ed States, or knowingly to carry or send, or to aid in the carry- 
 ing or sending tlie same for circulation amongst the inhabitants of 
 either of tl»e otlier States or Territories of the United States, and 
 any person so offending shall be giiiity of a felony, and shall on 
 conviction be sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary of this 
 State, for a period not less than ten nor more than twenty years, 
 from the time of sentence pronounced on such person," — Act 
 passed Dcc^ 1831. See 2nd Dorseij, page 1218, 
 
 Now so long as slaveholders are clothed with the man- 
 tle of oflScc, so long will they continue to make laws, like 
 the above, expressly calculated to bring tlie non-slavehold- 
 ing whites under a system of vassalage little less onerous 
 and debasing tlian that to which the negroes themselves 
 are accustomed. What wonder is it that there is no na- 
 tive literature in the South ? The South can never have 
 a literature of her own until after slavery shall have been 
 abolished. Slaveholders are too lazy and ignorant to write 
 it, and the non-slaveholders — even the few whose minds 
 are cultivated at all — are not permitted even to make the 
 attempt. Down with the oligarchy 1 Ineligibility of slave- 
 holders — never another vote to th<* trafificker in human 
 flesh I 
 
 LEGISLATTV'E ACTS AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 In his Compendium of the Seventh Census, Mr. DeBow 
 has compiled the following useful and highly interesting 
 facts : — 
 
 "The Continental Congress of 1774 resolved to discontinue the 
 »Uve trade, in w) ich resolution they were anticipated by the Con- 
 
 16 
 
362 FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAfSIDE. 
 
 ventions of Delegates of Virginia and North Carolina. In 1789 
 the Convention to frame the federal Constitution, looked to the 
 abolition of the traffic in 1808. On the 2nd of March, 1807, Con- 
 gress passed an act against importations of Africans into the 
 United States after January 1st, 1808. An act in Great Britain 
 in 1807 also made the slave trade unlawful. Denmark forbid the 
 introduction of African slaves into her colonies after 1804. The 
 Congress of Vienna, in 1815, pronounced for the abolition of the 
 trade. France abolished it in 1817, and also Spain, but the acts 
 were to take effect after 1820. Portugal abolished it in 1818. 
 
 "In Pennsylvania slavery was abolished in 1780. In New 
 Jersey it was provisionally abolished in 1784 j all children born 
 of a slave after 1804 are made free in 1820. In Massachusetts, 
 it was declared after the revolution, that slavery was virtually 
 abolished by their Constitution, (1780). In 1784 and 1797, Con- 
 necticut provided for a gradual extinction of slavery. In Rhode 
 Island, after 1784, no person could be born a slave. The Consti 
 tutions of Vermont and New Hampshire, respectively, abolished 
 slavery. In New York it was provisionally abolished in 1799, 
 twenty -eight years' ownership being allowed in slaves born after 
 that date, and in 1817 it was enacted that slavery was not to 
 exist after ten years, or 1827. The ordinance of 1787 forbid 
 slavery in the teiritory northwest of the Ohio." 
 
 Besides the instances enumerated above^ slavery has 
 been abolished in more than forty different parts of the 
 world within the last half century, and with good results 
 everywhere, except two or three West India islands, 
 where the negro population was greatly in excess of the 
 whites ; and even in these, the evils, if any, that have fol- 
 lowed, are not justly attributable to abolition, but to the 
 previous demoralization produced by slavery. 
 
 In this connection we may very properly introduce the 
 testimony of a West India planter to the relative advan- 
 tages of Free over Slave Labor. Listen to Charles Petty 
 
FACTS AKD ARGUMENTS BY THE ^VAYSIDE. ^C)^ 
 
 John, :f Barbadocs, who, addressing himself to a citizen 
 of 0111 own country, says : — 
 
 '• In 1834,1 came in possession of 257 slaves, under tlie law? 
 of England, which required the owner to feed, clothe, and furni>h 
 them with medical attendance. With this number I cultivated 
 my sugar plantation until the Emancipation Act of August 1st, 
 1838, when they all became free. I now hire a port'.on of those 
 slaves, the best and cheapest of course, as you hire men in tho 
 United States. The average number which I employ is 100. with 
 which I cultivate more land at a cheaper rate, and make more 
 produce than I did with 257 slaves. With my slaves I made from 
 100 to 180 tons of sugar yearly. With 100 free negroes I think 
 I do badly if I do not annually produce 250 tons. 
 
 If, in the forty and more instances to which we have 
 alluded, the abolition of slavery had proved injurious in 
 a majority of cases, the attempt to abolish it elsewhere 
 might, perhaps, be regarded as an ill-advised cflurt ; but, 
 seeing that its abolition has worked well in at least four- 
 teen-fifteenths of all the cases on record, the fact becomes 
 obvious that it is our duty and our interest to continue to 
 abolish it until the whole world shall be freed, or until wo 
 shall begin to see more evil than good result from our 
 acts of emancipation. 
 
 THE TRUE FRIENDS OF THE SOt^-H. 
 
 Frcesoilers and abolitionists are the only true friends of 
 the South ; slaveholders and slave-breeders are downright 
 enemies of their own section. Anti-slavery men are work- 
 ing for the Union and for the good of the whole world ; 
 proslavery iien are working for the disunion of the States, 
 and for the cood of nothing except themselves. Than 
 
864 FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE. 
 
 such men as Greeley, Seward, Sumner, Clay, and Birney, 
 the South can have no truer friends — nor can slavery have 
 more implacable foes. 
 
 For the purpose of showing that Horace Greeley is not, 
 as he is generally represented by the oligarchy, an invete- 
 rate hater of the South, we will here introduce an extract 
 from one of his editorial articles in a late number of the 
 New York Tribune — a faithful advocate of freedom, whose 
 circulation, we are happy to say, is greater than the 
 aggregate circulation of more than twenty of the principal 
 proslavery sheets published at the South : — 
 
 " Is it in vain that we pile fact upon fact, proof on proof, show- 
 ing that slavery is a blight and a curse to the States which cher- 
 ish it ? These facts are multitudinous as the leaves of the forest j 
 conclusive as the demonstrations of geometry. Nobody attempts 
 to refute them, but the champions of slavery extension seem de- 
 termined to persist in ignoring them. Let it be understood, 
 then, once for all, that we do not hate the South, war on the 
 South, nor seek to ruin the South, in resisting the extension of 
 slavery. "We most earnestly believe human bondage a curse to 
 the South, and to all whom it affects ; but we do not labor for its 
 overthrow otherwise than through the conviction of the South of 
 its injustice and mischief. Its extension into new Territories we 
 determinedly resist, not by any means from ill will to the South, 
 but under the impulse of good will to all mankind. We believe 
 the establishment of slavery in Kansas or any other "Western 
 Territory would prolong its existence in Virginia and Maryland, 
 by widening the market and increasing the price of slaves, and 
 thereby increasing the profits of slave-breeding, and the conse- 
 quent incitement thereto. Those who urge that slavery would 
 not go into Kansas if permitted, wilfully shut their eyes to the 
 fact that it has gone into Missouri, lying in exactly the same lati- 
 tude, and is now strongest in that north-western angle of said 
 Stale, which was covertly filched from what is now Kansas 
 within tb last twenty years. Even if the growth of hemp, com 
 
FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE 365 
 
 tnd tobacco were not so profitable in Eastern Kansas, as it en- 
 dcntly must be, the crowth of slaves for more Southern con- 
 sumption would inevitably prove as lucrative there as in Virginia 
 and Maryland, which lie in corresponding latitudes, and whose 
 c^iief staple export to-day consists of negro bondmen destined for 
 the plantations of Louisiana and Mississippi, which could be sup- 
 plied more conveniently and cheaply from Kansas than from their 
 present breeding-places this side of the Alleghanies. 
 
 Whenever we draw a parallel between Northern and Southern 
 production, industr}-, thrift, wealth, the iew who seek to parry 
 the facts at all complain that the instances are unfairly selected — 
 that the commercial ascendancy of the North, with the profits 
 and facilities thence accruing, accounts for the striking prepon- 
 derance of the North. In vain we insist that slavery is the cause 
 of this very commercial ascendancy — that Norfolk and Richmond 
 and Charleston might have been to this country what Boston, 
 New-York and Philadelphia now are, had not slavery spread its 
 pall over and paralyzed the energies of the South." 
 
 This may be regarded as a fair expression of the senti- 
 ments of a great majority of the people noi th of Mason 
 and Dixon's line. Our Northern cousins " do not hate the 
 South, war on the South, nor seek to ruin the South ;" on 
 the contrary, they love our particular part of the nation, 
 and, like dutiful, sensible, upright men, they would pro- 
 mote its interests by facilitating the abolition of slavery. 
 Success to their efforts I 
 
 SLAVERY THOUGHTFUL SIGN'S OF CONTRmOX. 
 
 The real condition of the South is most graphically de- 
 scribed in the following doleful admissions from the Charles- 
 ton Standard: — 
 
 '•In its every aspect our present condition is provincial. We 
 bava within our linits no solitary metropolis of interest or ideas 
 
5G6 FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE. 
 
 -no marts of exchange— no radiating centres of opinion. "What- 
 ever we have of genius and productive eneij^}', goes freely in to 
 swell the importance of the North. Possessing the material 
 which constitutes two-thirds of the commerce of the whole coun- 
 try, it might have been supposed that we could have influence 
 upon the councils of foreign States ; but we are never taken into 
 contemplation. It might have been supposed that England, 
 bound to us by the cords upon which depend the existence of 
 four millions of her su^^jects, would be considerate of our feel- 
 ings ; but receiving her cotton from the North, it is for them she 
 Las concern, and it is her interest and her pleasure to reproach 
 us. It might have been supposed, that, producing the material 
 which is sent abroad, to us would come the articles that are taken 
 in exchange for it ; but to the North they go for distribution, and 
 to us are parcelled out the fabrics that are suited to so remote a 
 section. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of New- York being tributary to Norfolk, 
 Charleston, Savannah or New Orleans, these cities are tributary 
 to New-York. Instead of the merchants of New- York standing 
 cap in hand to the merchants of Charleston, the merchants of 
 Charleston stand cap in hand to the merchants of New-York. — 
 Instead of receiving foreign ships in Southern waters, and calling 
 up the merchants of the country to a distribution of the cargo, 
 the merchants of the South are hurried off to make a distribution 
 elsewhere. In virtue of our relations to a greater system, we 
 have little development of internal interests ; receiving supplies 
 from the great centre, we have made little effort to supply our- 
 Relves. We support the makers of boots, shoes, hats, coats, shirts, 
 flannels, blankets, carpets, chairs, tables, mantels, mats, carriages, 
 jewelry, cradles, couches, coffins, by the thousand and hundreds 
 of thousands ; but they scorn to live amongst us. They must 
 have the gaieties and splendors of a great metropolis, and are not 
 content to vegetate upon the dim verge of this remote frontier. 
 
 As it is in material interests, so it is in arts \nd letters— our 
 pictures are painted at the North, our books are published at the 
 North, our periodicals and papers are printed at the North. "We 
 are even fed on police reports and villany from the North. The 
 papers published at he South which ignore the questions at issue 
 
FACTd AND ARCJUMEN'IS BY THE WAYSIDE. 3G7 
 
 Dctwecn the sections are generally well sustained ; the books 
 which expose the evils of our institution are even read with 
 avidity beyond our limits, but the ideas that are turned to the 
 condition of the South are intensely provincial. If as things now 
 are. a man should rise with all the geniusofShakspeare, or Dick- 
 ens, or Fielding, or of all the three combined, and speak from the 
 South, he would not receive enough to pay the costs of publica- 
 tion. If published at the South, his book would never be seen 
 or heard of, and published at the North it would not be read. — 
 So perfect is our provincialism, therefore, that enterprise is forced 
 to the North for a sphere — talent for a market — genius for the 
 ideas upon which to work — indolence for ease, and the tourist for 
 attractions." 
 
 This extract exhibits in bold relief, and in small space, 
 a large number of the present evils of past errors. It is 
 charmingly frank and trutliful. DcQuincey's Confessions 
 of an opium eater are nothing to it. A distinguished writer 
 on medical jurisprudence informs us that " the knowledge 
 of the disease is half the cure ;" and if it be true, as per- 
 haps it is, we think the Standard is in a fair way to be 
 reclaimed from the enormous vices of proslavery statisoL 
 
 PROGRESS OF FREEDOM IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 " Now, by St. Paul, the work goes bravely on." 
 
 As well might the oligarchy attempt to stay the flux 
 and reflux of the tides, as to attempt to stay the progress 
 of Freedom in the South. Approved of God, the edict of 
 the genius of Universal Emancipation has been proclaimed 
 to the world, and nothing, save Deity himself, can possi- 
 bly reverse it. To connive at the perpetuation of slavery 
 is to disjbey the comraanda of Heaven. Not to be an 
 
368 FACTS AND ARGUIIENTS liY THE WAYSIDE. 
 
 abolitionist is to be a wilful and diabolical instrument of 
 the devil. The South needs to be free, the South wanta 
 to be free, the South shall be free I 
 
 The following" extracts from Southern journals will show 
 that the glorious light of a better era has already begun 
 to penetrate and dispel the portentous clouds of slavery. 
 The Wellsburg (Va.) Herald, an independent paper, refer- 
 ring to the vote of thirteen Democrats from that section, 
 refusing, in the Virginia Legislature, in 1856, "to appro- 
 priate money from the general treasury for the recapture 
 of runaway slaves," says : — 
 
 " We presume these delegates in some degree represent their 
 constituents, and we are thereby encouraged and built up in the 
 confidence that there arc other interests in Virginia to be seen to 
 besides those pertaining to slavery." 
 
 A non-slaveholding Southron, in the course of a commu- 
 nication in a more recent number of the same journal, 
 says : — 
 
 " We are taxed to support slavery. The clean cash goes oui 
 of our own pockets into the pockets of the slaveholder, and this 
 in many ways. I will now allude to but two. If a slave, for 
 crime, is put to death or transported, the owner is paid for him 
 out of the public treasury, and under this law thousands are paid 
 out every year. Again, a standing army is kept up in the city of 
 Richmond for no other purpose than to be ready to quell insur- 
 rection among the slaves ; this is paid for out of the public trea- 
 sury annually. This standing army is called the public guard, 
 but it is no less a standing army always kept up. We will quote 
 from the acts of 185G the expense of these two items to the State, 
 on the 23d and 24th pages of the acts : — ' To pay for slaves exe- 
 cuted and transported, $22,000 ;' 'to the public guard at Rich- 
 mond, $24,000.' This, be it noticed, is only for one year, mak- 
 
FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE VAYSIDE. 369 
 
 ing near $50,000 for these two objects in one year; lut it can 
 be shown bj the present unequal plan of taxation betwt-cn slave 
 property and other propert}'. that this is but a small item of our 
 cash pocketed by the slaveholders; and yet some will say wo 
 have no reason to complain." 
 
 The editor of the Wheeling Gazette publishes the follow- 
 ing as his platform on the slavery question : — 
 
 *' Allying ourself to neither North nor South, on our own hook 
 we adopt the following platform as our platform on this question, 
 from which we never have and never will recede. We may fall 
 
 on it, but WILL NEVER LEAVE IT. 
 
 The severance of the General Government from slavery. 
 
 The REPEAL of the fugitive slave law. 
 
 The REPEAL of ihe Kebi^aska Kansas Bill. 
 
 Ko more slave territories. 
 
 The purcuase and manumission of slaves in the District 
 OF Columbia, or the removal of the seat of government to 
 free territory." 
 
 Says the Baltimore Clipper: — 
 
 ' The South is contending for, and the North against, the ex- 
 tension of slavery into the territories ; but we do not think that 
 either side would consent to dissolve the Union about the negro 
 population — a population which we look upon as a curse to the 
 nation, and should rejoice to see removed to their native clime 
 of Africa." 
 
 The National Era, one of the best papers in the country, 
 published in Washington City, P. C, says : — 
 
 '•The tendency of slavery to diffuse itself, and to crowd out 
 free labor, was early observed by American patr'jts, North and 
 South; and Mr. Jefferson, the great apostle of Republicanism, 
 made an effort, in 1784, to cut short the encroaching tide of bar- 
 baric despotism, liv prohibiting slavery in all the territories of 
 
 IG* 
 
3 to FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE. 
 
 the Union, dovrn to thirty-one degrees of latitude, which was 
 then our Southern boundary. His beneficent purpose failed, not 
 for want of a decisive majority of votes present in the Congress 
 of the Confederation, but in consequence of the absence of the 
 delegates from one or two States, which were necessary to tho 
 constitutional majority. "When the subject again came up, in 
 1787, Mr. Jefferson w^as Minister to France, and the famous ordi- 
 nance of that year was adopted, prohibiting slavery North and 
 West of the Ohio river. Between 1784 and 1787, the strides of 
 slavery westward, into Tennessee and Kentucky, had become too 
 considerable to admit of the policy of exclusion ; and besides 
 those regions were then integral parts of Virginia and North 
 Carolina, and of course they could not be touched without tho 
 consent of those States. In 1820, another effort was made to ar- 
 rest the progress of slavery, which threatened to monopolize the 
 whole territory west of the Mississippi. In the meantime the 
 South had apostatized from the faith of Jefferson. It had ceased 
 to love universal liberty, and the growing importance of the cot- 
 ton culture had caused the people to look with indifference upon 
 the moral deformity of slavery ; and, as a matter of course, the poli- 
 ticians became its apologists and defenders. After a severe strug- 
 gle a compromise was agreed upon, by which Missouri was to be 
 admitted with slavery, vi hich was the immediate point in contro- 
 versy ; and slavery was to be excluded from all the territory 
 North and West of that State. 
 
 " We have shown, from the most incontestable evidence, that 
 there is in slave society a much greater tendency to diffuse itself 
 into new regions, than belongs to freedom, for the reason that it 
 has no internal vitality. It cannot live if circumscribed, and 
 must, like a consumptive, be continually roving for a change of 
 air to recuperate its wasting energies." 
 
 In the Missouri Legislature, in January, 1857, Mr. Brown, 
 of St. Louis, proved himself a hero, a patriot, and a states- 
 man, in the following words : — 
 
 " I am a Free-Soiler and I don't deny it. No word cr TOte of 
 mine shall ever inure to the benefit of such a monstrous doctrine 
 
FACTS IXD ARGUMENTS BY THE W kYSlDE. 371 
 
 ft:> the extension of Slaver}^ over the patrimony of the free white 
 laborers of the country. I am for the greatest good of the 
 greatest number, and against the system which monopohzes the 
 free and fertile territory of our country for a few slavehoklers, 
 to the exchision of thousands upon thousands of the sinewy sons 
 of toih The time will come, and perhaps very soon, when the 
 people will rule for their own benefit and not for that of a class 
 ichich, numerically speaking, is insignijicant. I stand here in 
 the midst of the assembled Legislature of Missouri to avow my- 
 self a Free-Soiler. Let those who are scared at nr.mes shrink 
 from the position if they will. I shall take my stand in favor of 
 the white man. Here in Missouri I shall support the rights, the 
 dignity and the welfare of the 800,000 non-slaveholders in pre- 
 ference to upholding and perpetuating the dominancy of the 
 oO.OUO slaveholders who inhabit our State." 
 
 T)ie St. Louis Democrat, in an editorial article, under 
 date of January 28, 1S57, entitled itself to the favorable 
 rcprard of every true lover of liberty, by talking thus bold- 
 ly on the subject of the " Emancipation of Slavery in 
 Missouri" : — 
 
 ** Viewing the question as a subject of State policy, we will ven- 
 ture to say that it is the grandest ever propounded to the people. 
 If it were affirmed in a constitutional convention, and thoroughly 
 carried out without any violation of vested rights, Missouri, in a 
 few years subsequent to its consummation, would be the fore- 
 most State on the American continent. Population would flow 
 in from all sides were the barrier of negro slavery once removed, 
 and in place of 80,000 slaves, we should have 800,000 white men, 
 which, in addition to the population we would have at that time, 
 would give us at once an aggregate of two millions. 
 
 Is Missouri ambitious of political power? — a power which is 
 clipping away from the South. Tiie mode of acquiring it is 
 found. "We are not rash enough to attempt a description of our 
 condition if the clement of free labor were introduced. The 
 cartli would give up its hidden treasures at its bidding as the sea 
 
87 2 TACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAVSIDE. 
 
 will give up its dead ; and the soil would bloom more luxui antly 
 than if it drank the dews of Ilermon nightly ; ten thousand 
 keels would Tex our rivers, towns along their banks would grow 
 into cities, and St. Louis would soon unite in itself the attributes 
 of the greatest commercial manufacturing and literary metropolis 
 in the world. Let it be remembered that we have every inani- 
 mate element of wealth and power within our limits, and that 
 we require only labor — free labor — for we need not say that servile 
 labor is inadequate. * * * 
 
 There need be no pernicious agitation, and even if there 
 should, it is the penalty which we cannot avoid paying at some 
 time ; and it is easier to pay it now. than in the future. Who 
 that watches passing events and indications, is not sensible of 
 the fact that great internal convulsions await the slave States ? 
 Better to grapple with the danger in time, if danger there be, 
 and avert it, than wait until it becomes formidable. One thing 
 is certain, or history is no guide : that is. that slavery cannot be 
 perpetuated anywhere. An agitation now would be the effort 
 of the social system to throw off a disease which had not 
 touched its vitals ; hereafter it would be the struggle for life 
 with a mortal sickness. But we do not apprehend any agita- 
 tion more violent than has been forced upon us for 3'ears by the 
 pro-slavery politicians. Agitating the slavery question, has 
 been their constant business, and nothing worse has resulted 
 from it than their elevation to office — no very trifling evil, by 
 the way — and the temporary subjugation of Kansas. 
 
 Besides, we know that all the free States emancipated their 
 slaves, and England and France theirs suddenly ; and we have 
 yet to learn that a dangerous agitation arose in any instance." 
 
 In addition to all this, it is well known, and we thank 
 Heaven for the fact and for the indication, that, at the 
 election held for Mayor of St. Louis, in April, 1857, the 
 Abolition candidate, himself a native of Virginia, was 
 triumphantly elevated to the chief magistracy of the city. 
 Three cheers for St. Louis ! nine for Missouri 1 tliirt/^en 
 for the S* :th 
 
FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE. 373 
 
 In reference to the late election in St. Louis, in which 
 the Emancipation party triumphed, the Wheeling (Va.) 
 Intelligencer says : — 
 
 " These elections do demonstrate this fact, beyond a cavil, that 
 the sentiment of the great majority of the people of tliis Union 
 is irrevocably opposed to the extension of slavery ; that they are 
 determined, if overwhehning public sentiment can avail anytiiing, 
 another slave State shall not be admitted into the confederacy. 
 And why are they so determined ? Because they believe, and 
 not only believe, but see and know, that slavery is an unmiti- 
 gated curse to the soil that sustains it. They know this, because 
 they see every free State outstripping every slave State in all the 
 elements that make a people powerful and prosperous ; because 
 they see the people in the one educated and thriftv, and in the 
 other ignorant and thriftless ; because they have before their eyes 
 a State like our own, once the very Union itself almost in impor- 
 tance, to-day taking her rank as a tifth rate power." 
 
 Xon-slaveholders of the South ! fail not to support the 
 papers — the Southern papers — that support your interests. 
 Chief amongst those papers are the St. Louis (Mo.) Demo- 
 crat^ the National Era, published in Washington City, D. 
 C, the Baltimore Clipper, the Wheeling (Ya.) Intelligencer, 
 and the Wellsburg (Va.) Herald. 
 
 A RIGHT FEELING IN THE RIGHT QUARTER. 
 
 There is but one way for the oligarchy to perpetuate 
 slavery in the Southern States, and that is by perpetuating 
 absolute ignorance among the non-slaveholding whites. 
 This it is quite impossible for them to do. God has scat- 
 tered the seeds of knowledge throughout every portion of 
 the South, and they are, as might have been expected, be- 
 ginning to take roc in her fertile soil. The following ex- 
 
374 FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE. 
 
 tracts from letters which have been received since we 
 commenced writing this work, will show how powerfully 
 the spirit of freedom is operating upon the minds of intel- 
 ligent, thinking men in the slave States. 
 
 A Baltimorean, writing to us awhile previous to the 
 last Presidential election, says : — 
 
 " I see that the Trustees of the University of North Carolina 
 have dismissed Prof. Hedrick for writing a letter in favor of Re- 
 publican principles. Oh, what an inglorious source of reflection 
 for an American citizen ! To think, to know that our boasted 
 liberty of speech is a myth, an abstraction. To see a poor pro- 
 fessor crushed under the feet of the tyrannical magnates of slavery, 
 for daring to speak the honest sentiments of his heart. Where 
 is fanaticism now, North or South ? Oh, my country, my coun- 
 try, whither art thou tending ? Truly we have fallen upon 
 degenerate days. God grant that they may not be like those 
 of ancient Greece and Rome, the forerunners of oit countrj-'s 
 ruin." 
 
 In a letter under date of November 1, 185G, a friend 
 who resides in the eastern part of North Carolina, 
 says : — 
 
 '• In the papers which reached me last week I notice that our 
 own State has been disgraced by a junto of pro-slavery hot-spurs, 
 who had the audacity to meet in Raleigh for the express purpose 
 of concocting measures for a dissolution of the Union. It appears 
 that the three leading spirits of this cabal were the present gov- 
 ernors of three neighboring States — three treasonable disturbers 
 of the public peace, who, under the circumstances, should, in my 
 opinion, have been shot dead upon the spot ! I have each of 
 their names noted down in m}'^ memorandum, and I shall cer- 
 tainly die unsatisfied, if I do not live to hear of their being tho- 
 roughly tarred and feathered, and ridden on a rail, by the non- 
 fllavchoUliiig whites, 
 
TACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAISIDE. 875 
 
 have been chiefly leveled. Rely upon it, that, if they do not soon 
 sneak away into their graves, a day of retributive justice will 
 most assuredly overtake them." 
 
 A native and resident of one of the towns in western 
 North Carolina, under date of March 19, 1857, writes to us 
 as follows : — 
 
 " While patrolling a few nights ago I was forcibly struck with 
 the truthfulness of the remarks contained in your last letter. — 
 Here I am. a poor but sober and industrious man. with a family 
 dependent on me for support, and after I have finished my day's 
 labor, I am compelled to walk the streets from nine in the even- 
 ing till three in the morning, to restrain the roving propensities 
 of other people's ' property ' — niggers. Why should I llms be 
 deprived of sleep that the slaveholder may slumber ? I frankly 
 acknowledge my indebtedness to you for opening xuy eyes upon 
 this subject. The more I think and see of slavery the more I de- 
 test it. * * * I am becoming restless, and have been debat- 
 ing within my own mind whether I had not better emigrate to a 
 free State. * * * If I live, I am determined to oppose slavery 
 somewhere — here or elsewhere. It will be impossible for me to 
 keep my lips sealed much longer. Indeed, I sometimes feel that 
 I have been remiss in my dut}- in not having opened them ere 
 now. But for the unfathomable ignorance that pervades the mass 
 of the poor, deluded, slavery- saddled whites around me, I would 
 not suppress my sentiments another hour.-' 
 
 Again, under date of April 7, 1857, he says : — 
 
 '•I thank God that slavery will, in my opinion, soon be abol- 
 ished. I wish to Heaven I had the ability to raise my voice suc- 
 cessfully in favor of a just system to abolish it. I would indeed 
 be rejoiced to have an opportunity to do something to relieve 
 the South of the awful curse. Fear not that you will meet with 
 no hympathizers in the South. You will have hosts of friends on 
 every side — even in this town, if I am not greatly mistaken, a 
 
3T6 FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE. 
 
 large majority of the citizens will add an enthusiastic Amen I to 
 your work." 
 
 "We might furnish similar extracts from other letters, 
 but these, we think, are quite sufficient to show that the 
 millennium of freedom is rapidly dawning throughout the 
 benighted regions of slavery. Coveted events are happen- 
 ing in charming succession. All we have to do is to wait 
 and work a little longer. 
 
 THE ILLITERATE POOR WHITES OF THE SOUTH. 
 
 Had we the power to sketch a true picture of life 
 among the non-slaveholding whites of the South, every in- 
 telligent man who has a spark of philanthropy in his breast, 
 and who should happen to gaze upon the picture, would 
 burn with unquenchable indignation at that system of Afri- 
 can slavery which entails unutterable miseries on the supe- 
 rior race. It is quite impossible, however, to describe accu- 
 rately the deplorable ignorance and squalid poverty of the 
 class to which we refer. The serfs of Russia have reason 
 to congratulate themselves that they are neither the 
 negroes nor the non-slaveholding whites of the South. 
 Than the latter there can be no people in Christendom 
 more unhappily situated. Below will be found a few 
 extracts which will throw some light on the subject now 
 under consideration. 
 
 Says William Gregg, in an address delivered before the 
 South Carolina Institute, in 1851 : — 
 
 " From the best estimates that I have been able to make, I 
 put dowr the white people who ought to work, and who do not, 
 
FACTS AND AKCrMKXTS BY Tllfc: VAVSIPE. 37 T 
 
 or who are so cniploved as to be wholly unproductive to the 
 State, at one hundred and twenty-five thousand. Any man wlio 
 is an observer of things could hardly pass through our country, 
 without being struck with the fact that all the capital, enter- 
 prise, and intelligence, is employed in directing slave labor; and 
 the consei^uence is, that a large portion of our poor white peoj)le 
 are wholly neglected, and are sullored to while away an exist- 
 ence in a state but one step in advance of the Indian of the 
 forest. It is an evil of vast magnitude, and nothing but a change 
 in public sentiment will effect its cure. These people must be 
 brought into daily contact with the rich and intelligent — they 
 must be stimulated to mental action, and taught to appreciate 
 education and the comforts of civilized life ; and this, we believe, 
 may be effected only by the introduction of manufactures. My 
 experience at Graniteville has satisfied me that unless our poor 
 people can bo brought together in villages, and some means of 
 employment afforded them, it will be an utterly hopeless effort to 
 undertake to educate them. We have collected at that place 
 about eight hundred people, and as likely looking a set of coun- 
 try girls as may be found — industrious and orderly people, but 
 deplorably ignorant, three-fourths of the adults not being able to 
 read or to write their own names. 
 
 '•It is only necessary to build a manufacturing village of 
 shanties, in a healthy location, in any part of the State, to have 
 crowds of these people around you, seeking employment at half 
 the compensation given to operatives at the North. It is indeed 
 painful to be brought in contact with such ignorance an I degra- 
 dation." 
 
 Again he asks : — 
 
 " Shall we pass unnoticed the thousands of poor, ij^norant, 
 degraded white poop!e among us, who, in this land of olenty, 
 live in comparative nakedness and starvation? Many a one is 
 reared in proud South Carolina, from birih to manhood, who 
 has never passed a month in which he has not, some part of the 
 time, been stinted for meat. Many a mother is there who will 
 tell you that her children are but scantily provided with h»*<»ad, 
 
378 FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE 
 
 and much more scantily with meat ; and, if they be c'.ad with com- 
 fortable raiment, it is at the expense of these scanty allowances 
 of food. These may be startHng statements, but they are never- 
 theless true ; and if not believed in Charleston, the members of 
 our legislature who have traversed the State in electioneering 
 campaigns can attest the truth." 
 
 In an article on " Manufactures in South Carolina^'' pub- 
 lished some time ago in DeBoxc's Review, J. H. Taylor, of 
 Charleston (S. C.) says ; — • 
 
 " There is in some quarters, a natural jealousy of the slightest 
 innovation upon established habits, and because an effort has 
 been made to collect the poor and unemployed white population 
 into our new factories, fears have arisen that some evil would 
 grow out of the introduction of such establishments among 
 us. * * * The poor man has a vote as well as the rich man, 
 and in our State the number of the former will largely overbalance 
 the latter. So long as these poor but industrious people can see no 
 mode of living except by a degrading operation of work with the 
 negro upon the plantation, they will be content to endure life in 
 its most discouraging forms, satisfied that they are above the 
 slave, though faring often worse than he." 
 
 Speaking in favor of manufactures, the Hon. J. H. 
 Lumpkin, of Georgia, said in 1852 : — 
 
 " It is objected that these manufacturing establishments will 
 become the hot -beds of crime. But I am by no means ready to 
 concede that our poor, degraded, half-fed, half-clothed, and 
 ignorant population — without Sabbath Schools, or any other 
 kind of instruction, mental or moral, or without any just appre- 
 ciation of character — will be injured by giving them employment, 
 which will bring them under the oversight of employers, who 
 will inspire them with sclf-.-espect by taking an interest iu theij 
 welfare. ' 
 
FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE. 379 
 
 In a paper on the " Extension of Cotton and Woo, Fadch 
 ries at the South" Mr. Steadman, of Tennessee, says : — 
 
 " In Lowell, labor is paid the fair compensation of 80 cents a 
 day for men, and S- a week fo- women, beside board, while in 
 Tennessee the average compensation for labor does not exceed 50 
 cents per day for men, and §1.25 per week for women." 
 
 In the course of a speech "vvhich he delivered in Congress 
 several years ago, Mr. T. L. Clingman, of North Carolina, 
 said : — 
 
 "Our manufacturing establishments can obtain the raw mate- 
 rial (cotton) at nearly two cents on the pound cheaper than the 
 New-England establishments. Labor is likewise one hundred 
 per cent, cheaper. In the upper parts of the State, the labor of 
 either a free man or a slave, including board, clothing, &c., car 
 be obtained for from SI 10 to S120 per annum. It will cost ac 
 least twice that sum in New-England. The difference in the cost 
 •of female labor, whether free or slave, is even greater." 
 
 The Richmond (Va.) Dispatch says : — 
 
 '• We will only suppose that the ready-made shoes imported 
 into this city from the North, and sold hero, were manufactured 
 in Richmond. What a great addition it would be to the means 
 of employment ! How many boys and females would find the 
 means of earning their bread, who are now suffering fora regular 
 supply of the necessaries of life." 
 
 A citizen of New-Orleans, writing in DeBow^s Reiieir^ 
 says : — 
 
 " At present the sources of employment open to females (save 
 in menial oflices) are very limited ; and an inability to procure 
 suitable occupation is an evil much to be deplored, as tending in 
 Its consequeiiCL'S to produce demoralization. The superior grades 
 of female laboi may be considered such as imply a uecessity for 
 
S80 FACTS AND ARGIM-NTS BY THE WAYSIDE 
 
 education on the part of the employee, while the menial class is 
 generally regarded as of the lowest ; and in a slave State, this 
 standard is ' in the lowest depths, a lower deep/ from the fact, 
 that, by association, it is a reduction of the white servant tc the 
 level of their colored fellow-menials." 
 
 Black slave labor, though far less valuable, is almost 
 invariably better paid than free white labor. The reason 
 is this : The fiat of the oligarchy has made it fashionable to 
 *' have negroes around," and there are, wo are grieved to 
 say, many non-slaveholding whites, (lickspittles,) who, in 
 order to retain on their premises a hired slave whom they 
 falsely imagine secures to them not only the appearance 
 of wealth, but also a position of high social standing in 
 the community, keep themselves in a perpetual strait. 
 
 Last Spring we made it our special business to ascertain 
 the ruling rates of wages paid for labor, free and slave, in 
 North Carolina. We found sober, energetic white men, 
 between twenty and forty years of age, engaged in agri- 
 cultural pursuits at a salary of $84 per annum — including 
 board only ; negro men, slaves, who performed little more 
 than half the amount of labor, and who were exceedingly 
 sluggish, awkward, and careless in all their movements, 
 were hired out on adjoining farms at an average of about 
 $115 per annum, including board, clothing, and medical 
 attendance. Free white men and slaves were in the em- 
 ploy of the North Carolina Railroad Company ; the former, 
 whose services, in our opinion, were at least twice as val- 
 uable as the services of the latter, received only $12 per 
 month each ; the masters of the latter received $16 per 
 month for every slave so employed. Industrious, tidy 
 
FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE VAY5IDE. 381 
 
 white girls, from sixteen to twenty years of age, had mnch 
 difllculty in hiring themselves ont as domestics in private 
 families for $-10 per annum — board only included ; negro 
 weuchcs, slaves, of corresponding ages, so ungraceful, 
 stupid and filtliy that no decent man would ever permit 
 one of them to cross the threshold of his dwelling, were in 
 brisk demand at from $G5 to $70 per annum, including 
 victuals, clothes, and medical attendance. These are facts, 
 and in considering them, the students of political and so- 
 cial economy will not fail to arrive at conclusions of their 
 own. 
 
 Notwithstanding the greater density of population in 
 the free States, labor of every kind is, on an average, about 
 one hundred per cent, higher there than it is in the slave 
 States. This is another important fact, and one that every 
 non-slaveholding white should keep registered in his mind. 
 
 Poverty, ignorance, and superstition, are the three lead- 
 ing characteristics of the non-slaveholding whites of the 
 South. Many of them grow up to the age of maturity, and 
 pass through life without ever owning as much as five 
 dollars at any one time. Thousands of them die at an ad- 
 vanced age, as ignorant of the common alphabet as if it 
 had never been invented. All are more or less impressed 
 with a belief in witches, ghosts, and supernatural signs. 
 Few are exempt from habits of sensuality and intemperance. 
 None have anything like adequate ideas of the duties 
 which they owe either to their God, to themselves, or to 
 their fellow-men. Pitiable, indeed, in the fullest sense of 
 the term, is their condition. 
 
 It is the almost utter lack of an education that has re- 
 
882 FACTS AND ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE. 
 
 duced them i o their present unenviable situation. In the 
 whole South there is scarcely a publication of any kind 
 devoted to their interests. They are now completely un- 
 der the domination of the oligarchy, and it is madness to 
 suppose that they will ever be able to rise to a position of 
 true manhood, until after the slave power shall have been 
 utterly overthrown. 
 
SOUTHKRN LITERATniE. 
 
 383 
 
 CHAPTER XI, 
 
 SOUinERN LITERATURE. 
 
 It is with some degree of hesitation that we add a chap- 
 ter on Southern Literature — not that the theme is inap- 
 propriate to this work ; still less, that it is an unfruitful 
 one ; but our hesitation results from our conscious inabil- 
 ity, in the limited time and space at our command, to do 
 the subject justice. Few, except those whose experience 
 has taught them, have any adequate idea of the amount 
 of preparatory labor requisite to the production of a work 
 into which the statistical element largely enters ; espe- 
 cially is this 80, when the statistics desired are not readi- 
 ly accessible through public and official documents. The 
 author who honestly aims at entire accuracy in his state- 
 ments, may find himself baffled for weeks in his pursuit 
 of a single item of information, not of much importance in 
 itself perhaps, when separately considered, but necessary 
 in its connection with others, to the completion of a har- 
 monious whole. Not unfrequently, during the preparation 
 of the preceding pages, have we been subjected to tliis 
 delay and annoyance. 
 
 The following brief references to the protracted prepar- 
 atory l.'il>()r8 and inevitable delays to whidi authors are 
 
384 SOUTHERN LITERATTJRE. 
 
 subjected, may interest our readers, and induce thtm to 
 regard with charity any deficiencies, either in detail or in 
 general arrangement, which, owing to the necessary haste 
 of preparation, these concluding pages of our work may 
 exhibit : 
 
 Goldsmith was engaged nine years in the preparation 
 of " The. Traxdhr^'' and five years in gathering and arrang- 
 ing the incidents of his ^^ Deserted Village/^ and two years 
 in their versification. 
 
 Bancroft, the American Historian, has been more than 
 thirty years engaged upon his History of the United States, 
 from his projection of the work to the present date ; and 
 that History is not yet completed. 
 
 Hildreth, a no less eminent historian, from the time he 
 began to collect materials for his History of the United 
 States to the date of its completion, devoted no less tlian 
 twent^'-five years to the work. 
 
 "Webster, our great lexicographer, gave thirty-five years 
 of his life in bringing his Unabridged Dictionary of the 
 English Language to the degree of accuracy and complete- 
 ness in which we now find it. 
 
 Dr. John W. Mason, after ten years' labor in the accu- 
 mulation of materials for a Life of Alexander Hamilton, 
 was (jompelled to relinquish the work on account of im- 
 paired health. 
 
 Mr. James Banks, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, who 
 recently delivered a lecture upon the Life and Character of 
 Flora McDona'd, was eighteen years in the collection oJ 
 his materials. 
 
SOCTHERN LITF.RATLKE. 385 
 
 Oalibiclicff, a distinguished Paissiun author, spent twcnty- 
 fivc years in writing the Life of Mozart. 
 
 Examples of this kind might be multiplied to an almost 
 indefinite extent. Indeed, almost all the poets, prose- 
 writers, painters, sculptors, composers, and other devotees 
 of Art, who have won undying fame for themselves, have 
 done so through long 3'cars of earnest and almost unre- 
 mitted toil. 
 
 We are quite conscious that the fullness and accuracy 
 of statement which are desirable in this chapter cannot be 
 attained in the brief time allowed us for its completion ; 
 but, though much will necessarily be umitted that ought 
 to be said, we shall endeavor to make no statement of 
 facts which are not well authenticated, and no inferences 
 from the same which are not logically true. We can only 
 promise to do the best in our power, with the materials at 
 our command, to exhibit the inevitable influence of slavery 
 upon Southern Literature, and to demonstrate that the ac- 
 cursed institution so cherished by the oligarchy, is no less 
 prejudicial to our advancement in letters, than it in destruc- 
 tive of our material prosperity. 
 
 What is the actual condition of Literature at the South ? 
 Our question includes more than simple authorship in the 
 various departments of letters, from the compilation of a 
 primary reader to the production of a Scientific or Theo- 
 logical Treatise. We comprehend in it all, the activities 
 engaged in the creation, publication, and siile of books 
 and periodicals, from the penny primer to the heavy folio, 
 and from the dingy, coarse-typed weekly paper, to the 
 
 large, well-filled daily. 
 
 It 
 
388 SOUTHERN LITERATURE. 
 
 It were uujust to deny a degree of iiitellcctua .ictivity 
 to the South. It has produced a few good authors — a few 
 ccmpetent editors, and a moderately large number of 
 clever magazlnists, paragraphists, essayists and critics 
 Absolutely, then, it must be conceded that the South has 
 something that may be called a literature ; it is only when 
 we speak of her in comparison with the North, that we say, 
 with a pardonably strong expression, " The South has no 
 literature." This was virtually admitted by more than one 
 speaker at the late " Southern Convention" at Savannah, 
 Said a South Carolina orator on that occasion : " It is im- 
 portant that the South should have a literature of her ov/n, 
 to defend her principles and her rights ;" a sufficiently 
 plain concession that she has not, now, such a literature. 
 "^Mi facts speak more significantly than the rounded periods 
 of Convention orators. Let us look at facts, then. 
 
 First, turning our attention to the periodical literature 
 of the South, we obtain these results : By the census of 
 1850, we ascertain that the entire number of periodicals, 
 drdly, semi-weekly, weekly, semi-monthly, monthly and 
 qTiarterly, published in the slave States, including the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, were seven hundred and twenty-two. 
 These had an aggregate yearly circulation of ninety-two 
 million one hundred and sixty-seven thousand one hundred 
 and twenty-nine. (92,161,129). The number of periodicals, 
 of every class, published in the non-slaveholding States 
 (exclusive of California) was on; thousand eight hundred 
 and ninety-three, with an aggregate yearly circulation of 
 three hundred and thirty-three million three hundred and 
 eighty-six thousand and eighty-one. (333,386,081). 
 
SOUTHERX LITERATURE. 887 
 
 We are awaio that there may be inaccuracies in tnc fure- 
 goinij estimates ; but the compilers of tlic census, not we, 
 ;ire responsible for them. Besides, the figures arc unques- 
 tionably as fair for the South as for the North ; we accept 
 them, tlicrefore, as a just basis of our comparisons. Nearly 
 seven 3'ears have elapsed since these statistics were taj;en, 
 and these seven years have wrought an immense change 
 in the journalism of the North, without any corresponding 
 change in that of the South. It is noteworthy that, as a 
 general thing, the principal journals of the free States are 
 more comprehensive in their scope, more complete in every 
 department, and enlist, if not a higher order of talent, at 
 least more talent, than they did seven years ago. This im- 
 provement extends not only to the metropolitan, but to the 
 country papers also. In fact, the very highest literary 
 ability, in finance, in political economy, in science, in sta- 
 tism, in law, in theology, in medicine, in the belles-lettres, 
 is laid under contribution by the journals of the non-slave- 
 holding States. This is true only to a very limited degree 
 of Southern journals. Their position, with but few excei> 
 tions, is substantially the same that it was ten years ago. 
 They arc neither worse nor better — the imbecility and in- 
 ertia which attaches to everything which slavery touches, 
 clings to them now as tenaciously as it did when Uenry 
 A. Wise thanked God for the paucity of newspapers in the 
 Old Dominion, and the platitudes of " Father" Kitchie were 
 recognized as the political gospel of the Soutli. Tiny have 
 not, so far as we can learn, increased materially in immber, 
 nor in the aggregate of their yearly circulation. In the 
 free States r.o week passes that docs not add to the uum- 
 
38 8 SOUTHERN LITERATUKE. 
 
 bcr of their journals, and extend the circle of their readers 
 and their influence. Since the census tables to Tvhich we 
 have referred were prepared, two of the many excellent 
 weekly journals of which the city of New-York can boast, 
 have sprung into being, and attained an aggregate circu- 
 lation more than twice as large as that of the entire news- 
 paper press of Virginia in 1850 — and exceeding, by some 
 thousands, the aggregate circulation of the two hundred 
 and fifty journals of which Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, 
 Georgia, Xorth Carolina and Florida, could boast at the 
 time above-mentioned. 
 
 In this connection, we beg leave to introduce the fol- 
 luvring letter, kindly furni^ed us by the proprietors of 
 the N. Y. Tribune, in answer to enquiries which we ad 
 dressed to them : — 
 
 Tkibune Office. Xfw York. ( 
 30th May, 1857. ' $ 
 Mr. H. R. Helper, 
 
 Sir:— 
 In answer to your inquiry we inform you that we employ in 
 our building one hundred and seventy-six persons regularly : 
 this does not include our carriers and cartmen, nor does it include 
 the men employed in the Job OflBce in our building. During 
 the past year we have used in printing The Tribune^ Forty-four 
 thousand nine hundred and seventy nine (44,979) reams of paper, 
 weighing two million three hundred and ten thousand one 
 hundred and thirty (2.310.130) pounds. We publish one hundred 
 and seventy-six thousand copies of our weekly edition, which 
 eoes to press, the second form, at 7 1-2 o'clo ;k, A. M. and is 
 finished at 2 A. M. the next morning. Our mailers require 
 cighti^en to nineteen hours to mail our Weekly, which makes 
 from thirty to hirty-two cart loads. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Qreeley & McElrath. 
 
?orTii::u\ i.rrnKATrRF,. 389 
 
 Throughout the iiou-slavchnKlini^ States, the uewspapci 
 or magazine that has net improved during the last deeado 
 of years, is an exeei)tion to tlie general rule. Throughout 
 the entire slaveholding States, the newspaper or maga- 
 zine that has improved during that time, is no less an 
 exeeption to the general rule that there obtains. Outside 
 of the larger eities of the South, there are not, probably, 
 half a dozen newspapers in the whole slaveholding region 
 that can safely challenge a comparison with the country- 
 press of the North. What that country-press was twenty 
 years ago, the country-press of the South is now. 
 
 We do not deny that the South has produced able jour- 
 nalists ; and that some of the newspapers of her princi- 
 pal cities exhibit a degree of enterprise and talent that can- 
 not fail to command for them the respect of all intelligent 
 men. But these journals, we regret to say, arc marked 
 exceptions to the general conditicm of the Southern press ; 
 and even the best of these fall far below the standard of ex- 
 cellence attained by the leading journals of the North. In 
 fact, whether our comparison embraces quantity only, or 
 extends to both quantity and quality, it is found to be 
 immeasurably in favor of the non-slaveholding States, 
 which in journalism, as in all other industrial pursuits, 
 leave their slavery-cursed competitors at an infinite dis- 
 tance behind them, and thus vindicate the superiority of 
 free institutions, which, recognizing labor as honorable, 
 secure its rewards for all. « 
 
 The literary vassalage of the South to the North con- 
 stitutes in itself a most significant commentary upon tho 
 diatribes of tho former concerning " a purely Southern 
 
oOO SOUTHERN' LITERATURE. 
 
 literature." To be^iu at the beginning — the Alphabetical 
 Blocks and Educational tables from which our Southern 
 abecedarian takes his initial lesson, were projected and 
 manufactured in the North. Going forward a step, we 
 find the youngling intent in spelling short sentences, or 
 gratifying his juvenile fondness for the fine arts by copy- 
 ing the wood-cuts from his Northern primer. Yet another 
 step, and we discover him with his Sanders' Reader, his 
 Mitchell's Geography, his Emerson's Arithmetic, all pro- 
 duced by Northern mind and Northern enterprise. There 
 is nothing wrong in this ; it is only a little ridiculous in 
 view of the fulminations of the Southern proslavery press 
 against the North. Occasionally however we are amused 
 by the efibrts of the oligarchs to make their own school- 
 books, or to root out of all educational text-books every 
 reference to the pestilential heresy of freedom. A " gen- 
 tleman" in Charleston, S. C. is devoting his energies to 
 the preparation of a series of pro-slavery elementary works, 
 consisting of primers, readers, &c. — ^and lo 1 they are all 
 printed, stitched and bound north of J^^ason and Dixon's 
 line 1 A single /«c^ like this is sufiScient to overturn whole 
 folios of theory concerning the divinity of slavery. The 
 truth is, that, not school-books alone, but works of almost 
 every class produced by the. South, depend upon Northern 
 enterprise and skill for their introduction to the public 
 Mr. DeBow, the eminent Statistician, publishes a Southern 
 Reviow, purporting to be issued from New Orleans. It 
 is printed and bound in the city of New York. We clip 
 the following paragraph from a recent number of tin? 
 Vicksburgh (Miss.) Whig: — 
 
SOITIIF.RK I.rrF.RATlRF:. 891 
 
 "SoLTHEKX ENTKRrRiZE. — Evcii tlio Mississippi Legislature, 
 at its late session allowed its laws to go to Boston to be printed, 
 and made an appropriation of S'5,000 to pay one of its members 
 to go there and read the proof sheets instead of having it done 
 in the State, and thereby assisting in building np a J>out! em 
 publishing house. AVhat a commentary on the Yankee-haters !" 
 
 The Greensboro (N. 0.) Patriot thus records a similar 
 contribution, on the part of that State, to " the creation of 
 a purely Southern Literature y 
 
 " We have heard it said, that those who had the control 
 of the printing of the revised Statutes of North Carolina, in 
 order to save a few dimes, had the work executed in Boston, in 
 preference to giving the job to a citizen of this State. AVe 
 impugn not the motives of the agents in this matter ; but it is a 
 little humiliating that no work except the commonest labor, can 
 be done in North Carolina ; that everything which requires a little 
 skill, capital, or ingenuity, must be sent North. In the case under 
 consideration, we have heard it remarked, that wlien tlie whole 
 bill of expenses connected with the printing of the Revised 
 SUitutes in Boston was footed up, it only amounted to a few 
 thousand dollars more than the job would have cost in this 
 State. But then we have the consolation of knowing that 
 the book came from the North, and that it was printed among 
 the abolitiojiists of Boston ; the peculiar friends of North Carolina 
 and the South generally. — Of course we ought to be willing to 
 pay a few extra thousands in consideration of these important 
 facts !" 
 
 Southern divines give us elaborate " Bible Arg'uincnts ;" 
 Southern statists heap treatise upon treatise through 
 which tlie Federal Constitution is tortured into all, mon- 
 strous shapes ; Southern novelists bore us ad infinilum 
 with pictures of the beatitudes of plantation life and the 
 negro-quarters ; Southern verse- wrights drone out their 
 
392 SOUTHERN LITERATURE. 
 
 di'owsy dactyls or grow ventricous with their turgid heroics 
 all in defence of slavery, — priest, politician, novelist, bard- 
 ling, severally ringing the changes upon " the Biblical 
 institution," " the conservative institution," '' the human- 
 izing institution," " the patriarchal institution" — and 
 then — have their books printed on Northern paper, with 
 Northern types, by Northern artizans, stitched, bound and 
 made ready for the market by Northern industry ; and 
 yet fail to see in all this, as a true philosophical mind 
 must see, an overwhelming refutation of their miserable 
 sophisms in behalf of a system against which humanity 
 in all its impulses and aspirations, and civilization in all 
 its activities and triumphs, utter their perpetual protest. 
 From a curious article in the "American Publishers 
 Circular" on " Book Making in America," we give the fol 
 lowing extracts : 
 
 " It is somewhat alarming to know that the number of houses 
 now actually engaged in the publishing of books, not including 
 periodicals, amounts to more than three hundred. About three- 
 fourths of these arc engaged in Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, 
 and Baltimore — the balance being divided between Cincinnati, 
 Buffalo, Auburn, Albany, Louisville, Chicago. St. Louis, and a 
 few other places. There are more than three thousand book- 
 sellers who dispense the publications of these three hundred, be- 
 sides six or seven thousand apothecaries, grocers, and hardware 
 dealers, who connect literature with drugs, molasses, and nails. 
 
 •'The best printing in America is probably now done in Cam- 
 bridge ; the best cloth binding in Boston, and the best calf and 
 morocco in New-York and Philadelphia. In these two latter 
 styles we are, as yet, a long distance from Ileyda}-, the pride of 
 London. Ilis finish is supreme. There is nothing between it 
 and perfection. 
 
 " Books have miriti^lied to such an extent in our country, that 
 
sorrnERV i.iTF.nATrnE. 593 
 
 it now takes 750 paper mills, with '2.000 en2:incs in ronsrant 
 operation, to snpply tlie printers, who work day ami night, en- 
 deavoring; to keep tlieir engajrenients with ])nblishers. 'riuso 
 tireless mills produced 270.000.000 pounds of paper the past year, 
 which hnmcnsc suppl}' has sold for about ^27,000,000. A pound 
 and a quarter of rags were required for a pound of paper, and 
 400,000.000 pounds were therefore consumed in this way last 
 year. The cost of manufacturing a twelve months' supply of 
 paptT for the United States, aside from labor and rags, is cr^m- 
 puted at S4:000;000. * ♦ ♦ 
 
 '• The Harper establishment, the largest of our publishing 
 houses, covers half an acre of ground. If old Mr. Caxton, who 
 printed those stories of the Trojan war so long ago, could follow 
 the Ex-Mayor of Xew-York in one of his morning rounds in 
 Franklin Square, he would be, to say the least, a little surprised. 
 lie would see in one room the floor loaded with the weight of 
 150 tons of presses. The electrotyping process would puzzle 
 him somewhat ; the drying and pressing process would startle 
 him ; the bustle would make his head ache ; and the stock-room 
 would qu.te finish him. An edition of Harpers' Monthly Maga- 
 zine alone consists of 175,000. Few persons have any idea how 
 large a number tliis is as applied to the edition of a book. It is 
 computed that if the.^^e magazines were to rain down, and one 
 man should attempt to pick them up like chips, it would take 
 him a fortnight to pick up the copies of one single number, sup- 
 posing him to pick up one every second, and to work ten hours 
 a day." 
 
 '•The rapidity with which books are now manufactured is 
 almost incredible. A complete cop}- of one of IJuhver's novels, 
 publi.'jhed across the water in three volumes, and reproduced 
 here in one, was swept through the press in New-York in fifty 
 hours, and ofTercd for sale smoking hot in the streets. The fabu- 
 lous edifice proposed by a Yankee from Vermont, no longer seems 
 an impossibility. 'Build the establishment according to my 
 plan.' said he ; ' drive a sheep in at one end, and he shall inime' 
 diately come out at Uie other, four quarters of lainl). a felt hat, a 
 leather apr« •>., and a quarto Bible.' " 
 
594 SOUinERN UrERATURE. _ 
 
 The busi icss of the Messrs. Harper, whose establish- 
 ment is referred to in the foregoing extract, is probably 
 more generally diffused over every section of this country 
 than that of any other publishing house. From enquiries 
 recently made of them we learn that they issue, on an 
 average, 3,000 bound volumes per day, throughout the year, 
 and that each volume will average 500 pages — making a 
 total of about one million of volumes, and not less than 
 five hundred millions of pages per annum. This does not 
 include the Magazine and books in pamphlet form, each 
 of which contains as much matter as a bound volume. — 
 Their bills for paper exceed $300,000 annually, and as the 
 average cost is fifteen cents per pound, they consume 
 more than two millions of pounds — say one thousand tons 
 of white paper. 
 
 There are regularly employed in their own premises 
 about 550 persons, including printers, binders, engravers, 
 and clerks. These are all paid in full once a fortnight in 
 bankable money. Besides these, there are numerous au- 
 thors and artists in every section of the country, who fur- 
 nish manuscripts and illustrations, on terms generally 
 satisfactory to all the parties interested. 
 
 The Magazine has a monthly circulation of between 
 115,000 and 200,000, or about two millions of copies annu- 
 ally. Each number of the Magazine is closed up about 
 the fifth of the month previous to its date. Three or four 
 days thereafter the mailing begins, commencing with 
 more distant subscribers, all of whom are supplied before 
 any copies are sold for delivery in New-York. The inten- 
 tion of the } 'iblishers is, that it shall be delivered as nearly 
 
SOlTriF.RX LirERATlRE. 395 
 
 as possible on tlie same clay in St. Louis, Xew-Orlcans, 
 Cincinnati, rhilaiK'li>hia, Boston, and Xcw-Yoik. It takc3 
 from ton to twelve days to dispatch the -whole edition, 
 (which weighs between four and five tons,) by mail and 
 express. 
 
 Their new periodical, " Harpers' Weekly," has, in a little 
 more than four months, reached a sale of nearly 10,000 
 copies. The mailing of this commences on Tuesday night, 
 and occupies about three days. 
 
 Ex-Mayor Harper, whom we have found to be one of 
 the most affable and estimable gentlemen in the city of 
 New- York, informed us, sometime ago, that, though he had 
 no means of knowing positively, he was of the opinion that 
 about eighty per cent, of all their publications find final 
 purchasers in the free States — the remainder, about twenty 
 per cent., in the slave States. Yet it is probable that, with 
 one or two exceptions, no other publishing house in the 
 country has so large a per centagc of Southern trade. 
 
 Of the " more than three hundred houses engaged in the 
 publication of books," to which the writer in the "Ameri- 
 can Publishers' Circular" refers, upwards of nine-tenths of 
 the number are in the non-slaveholding States, and these 
 represent not less than ninety-nine hundredths of the 
 whole capital invested in the business. Baltimore has 
 twice as many publishers as any other Southern city ; and 
 nearly as many as the whole South beside. The census 
 returns of 1850 give but twenty-four publishers for the 
 entire South, and ten of these were in Maryland. The 
 relative disproportion which then existed in this branch 
 of enterprise, betvcen the North and the South, still 
 
396 SOUTHERN LITERATURE. 
 
 exists ; or, if it lias been changed at all, that change is 
 in favor of the North. So of all the capital, enterprise 
 and industry involved in the manufacture of the material 
 that enters into the composition of books. All the paper 
 manufactories of the South do not produce enough to sup- 
 ply a single publishing house in the city of New-York. — 
 Perhaps "a Southern Literature" does not necessarily in- 
 volve the enterprises requisite to the manufacture of books ; 
 but experience has shown that there is a somewhat inti- 
 mate relation between the author, printer, paper-maker 
 and publisher ; in other words, that the intellectual activ- 
 ity which expresses itself in books, is measurable by the 
 mechanical activities engaged in their manufacture. — 
 Thus a State that is fruitful in authors will almost necessa- 
 rily be fruitful in publishers ; and the number of both classes 
 will be proportioned to the reading population. The pov- 
 erty of Southern literature is legitimately shown, there- 
 fore, in the paucity of Southern publishers. We do not 
 deny a high degree of cultivated talent to the South ; we 
 are familiar with the names of her sons whose genius has 
 made them eminent ; all that we insist upon is, that the 
 same accursed influence which has smitten her industrial 
 enterprises with paralysis, and retarded indefinitely her 
 material advancement, has exerted a corresponding influ- 
 ence upon her literature. How it has done this we shall 
 more fully indicate before we close the chapter. 
 
 At the " Southern Convention" held some months since 
 at Savannah, a good deal was said about " Southern liter- 
 ature," and many suggestions made in reference to the 
 best means for its promotion. One speaker thought that 
 
SOlTlir.nX I.TTF.RATrRE. SOT 
 
 " they ccnilcl g-ot toxt-books at lioino without ^oiuj^ to cither 
 OKI Eii-hin.l or New Kno-huul for tliom." Well -they can 
 try. The elVort will not harm tlieiii ; nor the North eitiuM'. 
 Tlie orator was confident " that the South had talent enough 
 to do anything that needs to be done, and independence 
 enough to do it." The talent we shall not deny ; the inda- 
 fendence we are ready to believe in when we see it. AVhen 
 she throws off the incubus of slavery under which she goes 
 staggering like the Sailor of Bagdad under the weight of 
 the Old Man of the Sea, she will prove her independence, 
 and demonstrate her ability "to do anything that needs to 
 bo done." Till then she is but a fettered giant, wliosc 
 vitals arc torn by the dogs which her own folly has engen- 
 dered. 
 
 Another speaker, on the occasion referred to, half-uncon- 
 sciously it would seem, threw a gleam of light upon the 
 subject under discussion, which, had not himself and his 
 hearers been bat-blind, would have revealed the clue that 
 conducts from the darkness in which they burrow to the 
 day of redemption for the South. Said he : — 
 
 '• Northern publishers employ the talent of the South and of 
 the whole country to write for them, and pour out thousands an- 
 nually for it ; but Southern men expect to get talent without 
 paying for it. The Southerfi Quarteilij Review and the Literary 
 Messenger are literally struggling for existence, for want of mate- 
 rial aid. * * * It is not the South that builds up Northern lit- 
 erature — they do it themselcea. There is talent and mind and 
 poetic genius enough in the South to build up a literature of a 
 high order ; but Southern puhlirihers cannot get money enough 
 to assist them in their enterprises, and, therefore, the South ha.i 
 uo literature. 
 
398 SOUTHERN LITERATURE. 
 
 Here are truths. " Southern men expect to get tale.it 
 without paying for it." A very natural expectation, con- 
 sidering that they have been accustomed to have all their 
 material wants supplied by the uncompensated toil of their 
 slaves. In this instance it may seem an absurd one, but 
 it results legitimately from the system of slavery. That 
 system, in fact, operates in a two-fold way against the 
 Southern publisher: : first, by its practical repudiation of 
 the scriptural axiom that the laboreris worthy of his hire ; 
 and secondly, by restricting the circle of readers through 
 the ignorance which it inevitably engenders. How is it 
 that the people of the Xorth build up their literature ? — 
 Two words reveal the secret : intelligence — compensation. 
 They are a reading jpeojple — the poorest artizan or day-laborer 
 has his shelf of books, or his daily or weekly paper, whose 
 contents he seldom fails to master before retiring at night ; 
 and they are accustomed to 'pay for all the looks and papers which 
 they peruse. Readers and payers — these are the men who 
 insure the prosperity of publishers. Where a system of 
 enforced servitude prevails, it is very apt to beget loose 
 notions about the obligation of paying for anything ; and 
 many minds fail to see the distinction, morally, between 
 compelling Sambo to pick cotton without paying him wa- 
 ges, or compelling Lippincott & Co. to manufacture books 
 for the planter's pleasure or edification upon the same lib- 
 eral terms. But more than this — where a system of en- 
 forced servitude prevails, a fearful degree of ignorance 
 prevails also, as its necessary accompaniment. The en- 
 slaved masses are, of course, thrust back from the fountains 
 of knowledge by the sti 'tng arm of law, while the poor 
 
SOUTHERX LrrERATmE. 399 
 
 non-slavcliolding classes arc almost as cfTectually excluded 
 from the institutions of learning by their poverty — the 
 sparse population of slaveholding districts being unfavor- 
 able to the maintenance of free schools, and the exigencies 
 of their condition forbidding them to avail themselves of 
 any more costly educational privileges. 
 
 Northern publishers can " employ the talent of the South 
 and of the whole country to write for them, and pour out 
 thousands annually for it," simply because a reading poj)- 
 ulation, accustomed to pay for the service wliich it receives, 
 enables them to do so. A similar population at the South 
 would enable Southern publishers to do the same. Substi- 
 tute free labor for slave labor, the institutions of freedom 
 for those of slavery, and it would not long remain true 
 that " Southern publishers cannot get money enough to 
 assist them in their enterprises, and therefore the South 
 has no literature." This is the discovery which the South 
 Carolina orator from whom we (iuoto, but narrowdy escaped 
 making, wlien he stood upon its very edge, and rounded 
 his periods with the truths in whose unapprehended mean- 
 ings was hidden this germ of redemption for a nation. 
 
 The self-stultification of fully, however, was never more 
 evident than it is in the current gabble of the oligarchs 
 about a " Southern literature." They do not mean by it a 
 healthy, manly, normal utterance of unfettered minds, 
 without which there can be no proper literature ; but an 
 emasculated substitute therefor, from which the element, 
 of freedom is eliminated ; husks, from which the kernel 
 has escaped — a body, from which the vitalizing spirit has 
 fled — a literature which ignores manhood by confounding 
 
400 SOITIIERN LITERATTRE, 
 
 it with brutehood ; or, ill best, deals with all sii iles jf 
 freedom as treason against the " peculiar institution." 
 There is not a single great name in the literary annals of 
 the old or new world that could drawf itself to the stature 
 requisite to gain admission into the Pantheon erected by 
 tiiese devotees of the Inane for their Lilliputian deities. 
 Thank God, a " Southern literature," in the sense intended 
 by the champions of slavery, is a simple impossibility, 
 rendered such by that exility of mind which they demand 
 in its producers as a prerequisite to admission into the 
 guild of Southern authorship. The tenuous thoughts of 
 such authorlings could not survive a single breath of manly 
 criticism. The history of the rise, progress, and decline of 
 their literature could be easily written on a child's smooth 
 palm, and leave space enough for its funeral oration and 
 epitaph. The latter might appropriately be that which, 
 in one of our rural districts, marks the grave of a still-born 
 infant : — • 
 
 " If so early I am done for, 
 I wonder what I was begun for !" 
 
 We desire to see the South bear its just proportion in 
 the literary activities and achievements of our common 
 country. It has never yet done so, and it never will until 
 its own manhood is vindicated in the abolition of slavery. 
 The impulse which such a measure would give to all in- 
 dustrial pursuits that deal with the elements of material 
 prosperity, would be imparted also to the no less valuable 
 but more intangible creations of the mind. Take from the 
 intellect of the South the incubus which now oppresses it, 
 and its rebour.d would be glorious ; the era of its diviner 
 
SOITIIKRX I.ITKRATl'KE. 40X 
 
 inspirations would begin ; and its triumphs would be a 
 perpetual vindication of the superiority of free institutions 
 over those of slavery. 
 
 To Duyckinck's " Cyclopedia of American T^iterature — a 
 sort of Omniuvi-gathcrum that reminds one of Jeremiah's 
 figs — we are indebted for the following facts : The whole 
 number of " American authors" whose place of nativity 
 is given, is five hundred and sixty-nine. Of these seventy- 
 nine were foreign born, eighty-seven were natives of the 
 South, and four hundred and three — a vast majority of 
 the whole, first breathed the vital air in the free North. 
 Many of those who were born in the South, received their 
 education in the North, quite a number of whom became 
 permanent residents thereof. Still, for the purposes of 
 this computation, we count them on the side of the South. 
 Yet how significant the comparison which this computa- 
 tion furnishes I Throwing the foreign born (adopted 
 citizens, mostly residents of the North) out of the reckoning, 
 and the record stands, — Northern authors /oz^r hundred and 
 three; Southern, eighty-seven — a dificrencc of three hundred 
 and sixteen in favor of the North 1 And this, probably, 
 indicates very fairly the relative intellectual activity of 
 the two sections. 
 
 We accept the facts gleaned from Duyckinck's work as 
 a basis, simply, of our estimate : not as being absolutely 
 accurate in themselves, though they arc doubtless relia- 
 ble in the main, and certainly as fair for the South as 
 they are for the North. We might dissent from the judg- 
 ment of the compiler in reference to the propriety of 
 applying the teiTQ " literature" to much that his compila- 
 
402 SOLTHERN UTERATURE. 
 
 tion contains ; but as tastes have proTcrbially differed 
 from the days of the venerable dame who kissed her cow 
 — not to extend our researches into the condition of tilings 
 anterior to that interesting event — we will not insist upon 
 our view of the matter, but take it for granted that he has 
 disentombed from forgotten reviews, newspapers, pamph- 
 lets, and posters, a fair relative proportion of " autliors'' 
 for both North and South, for which " American Litera- 
 ture" is unquestionably under infinite obligations to him I 
 
 Griswold's "Poets and Poetry of America" and Thomos 
 Buchanan Read's " Female Poets of America" furnish evi- 
 dence, equally conclusive, of the benumbing influence of 
 slavery upon the intellect of a country. Of course, these 
 compilers say notliing about Slavery, and probably never 
 thought of it in connection with their respective works, 
 but none the less significant on that account is the testi- 
 mony of the/rtc/5 which they give. From the last edition 
 of Griswold's compilation, f which contains the names of 
 none of our female writers, he having included them in a 
 separate volume) we find the names of one hundred and 
 forty-one writers of verse : of these one was foreign-born, 
 seventeen natives of the slaveholding, and one hundred and 
 twenty-three of the non-slaveholding States. Of our female 
 poets, whose nativity is given by Mr. Read, ela-en are 
 natives of the South ; and seventy-three of the North I These 
 simple arithmetical figures are God's eternal Scripture 
 against the folly and madness of Slavery, and need no aid 
 of rhetoric to give emphasis to the startling eloquence of 
 tb^iir revelations. 
 
 But, after all, literature is not to be estimated by cubi^^. 
 
SOITIIKRN irF.RATURE. 403 
 
 feet or pounds avcrdiipois, nor measured by the bushel or 
 the yardstick. Quality, rather than quantity, is the true 
 standard of estimation. The fact, however, matters little 
 for our present purpose ; for the South, we are sorry to 
 say, is as much behind the North in the former as in the 
 latter. We do not forget the names of Gayarre, Benton, 
 Simms, and other eminent citizens of tlie Slave States, 
 who have by their contributions to American letters con- 
 ferred honor upon themselves and upon our common coun- 
 try, when we affirm, tliat those among- our authors wlio 
 enjoy a cosmopolitan reputation, are, with a few honor- 
 able exceptions, natives of the Free North ; and that the 
 names which most brilliantly illustrate our literature, in 
 its every department, are tiiose which have grown into 
 greatness under the nurturing influence of free institu- 
 tions. " Comparisons are odious," it is said ; and we will 
 not, unnecessarily, render them more so, in the present 
 instance, by contrasting, name by name, the literary men 
 of the South with the literary men of the North. We do 
 not depreciate the former, nor overestimate the latter. 
 But let us ask, whence come our geographers, our astron- 
 omers, our chemists, our meteorologists, our ethnologists, 
 and others, who have made their names illustrious in the 
 domain of the Natural Sciences ? Not from the Slave 
 States, certainly. In the Literature of Law, the South 
 can furnish no name that can claim peership with those of 
 Story and of Kent ; in Ilistoiy, none that tower up to the 
 altitude of Bancroft, Prcscott, Ilildrcth, Motley and Wash- 
 ington Irving ; in Theology, none that can challenge 
 favorable compariso.: with those of Edwards, D wight. 
 
404 SOUTHERN L'TKRATURE. 
 
 Channiiig, Taylor, BuslincU, Tyler and Wayland in Fio 
 tiou, none 11 at take rank with Cooper, and Mrs. Stowc ; 
 and but few that may do so with even the second class 
 novelists of the North ;* in Poetry, none that can command 
 position with Bryant, Halleck, and Percival, with Whit- 
 tier, Longfellow, and Lowell, with Willis, Stoddard and 
 Taylor, with Holmes, Saxe, and Burleigh ; and — we might 
 add twenty other Northern names before we found their 
 Southern peer, with the exception of poor Poe, who, with- 
 in a narrow range of subjects, showed himself a poet 
 of consummate art, and occupies a sort of debatable 
 ground between our first and second-class writers. 
 
 We might extend this comparison to our writers in 
 every department of letters, from the compiler of school- 
 books to the author of the most profound ethical treatise, 
 and with precisely the same result. But we forbear. 
 The task is distasteful to our State pride, and would have 
 been entirely avoided had not a higher principle urged us 
 to its performance. It remains for us now to enquire, 
 
 What has produced this literary pauperism of the South ? 
 One single word, most pregnant in its terrible meanings, 
 answers the question. That word is — Slavery I But we 
 have been so long accustomed to the ugly thing itself, 
 and have become so familiar with its no less ugly fruits, 
 that the common mind fails to apprehend the connection 
 between the one, as cause, and the other as effect ; and 
 
 * We Southrons all glory in the literary reputation of Mr. Simras ; 
 yet we must confess his inferiority to Cooper, and prejudice alone 
 will refuse to admit, that, while in the art of the novelist he is tho 
 superior of Mrs. Stowe ^i genius he must take position below her. 
 
SOUTnCRN' LITERATl'RE. 405 
 
 it tiicR'forc becomes necessary to give a more iletailcil 
 answer to our interrogatory. 
 
 Obviously, tlien, tlic ci^nditions ro(iuisite to a flourish- 
 ing literature arc wanting at the South. These are — 
 
 I. Readers. The people of the South arc not a rcadiug 
 people. Many of the adult population never learned to 
 read ; still more, do not care to read. We have boon im- 
 pressed, during a temporary sojourn in tlie North, with 
 the diflerencc between the middle and laboring classes in 
 the Free States, and the same classes in the Slave States, 
 in this respect. Passing along the great routes of travel 
 in the former, or taking our seat in the comfortable cars 
 that pass up and down the avenues of our great commer- 
 cial metropolis, we have not failed to contrast the emplo}"- 
 ment of our fellow-passengers with that which occupies 
 the attention of the corresponding classes on our various 
 Southern routes of travel. In the one case, a large pro- 
 portion of the passengers seem intent upon mastering the 
 contents of the newspaper, or some recently published 
 book. The merchant, the mechanic, the artizan, the pro- 
 fessional man, and even the common laborer, going to or 
 returning from their daily avocations, are busy with their 
 morning or evening paper, or engaged in an intelligent 
 discussion of some topic of public interest. This is their 
 leisure hour, and it is given to the acquisition of such in- 
 formation as may be of immediate or ultimate use, or to 
 the cultivation of a taste for elegant literature. In the 
 other case, newspapers and books seem generally ignored, 
 and noisy discussions of village and State politicj;, the 
 tobacco and cotton crops, filibueterism in Cuba, Nicaragua, 
 
406 SOCTHERN LITERATURE. 
 
 or Sonora, the price of negroes generally, and especially 
 of "fine-looking wenches," the beauties of lynch-law, the 
 delights of horse-racing, the excitement of street fights 
 with bowie-knives and revolvers, the "manifest destiny" 
 theory that justifies the stealing of all territory contigu- 
 ous to our own, and kindred topics, constitute the warp 
 and woof of conversation. All this is on a level with the 
 general intelligence of the Slave States. It is true, these 
 States have their educated men, — the majority of whom 
 owe their literary culture to the colleges of the North. 
 Not that there are no Southern colleges — for there are in- 
 stitutions, so called, in a majority of the Slave States. — 
 Some of them, too, are not deficient in the appointments 
 requisite to our higher educational institutions ; but as a 
 general thing. Southern colleges are colleges only in 'name, 
 and will scarcely take rank with a third-rate Northern 
 academy, while our academies, with a few exceptions, are 
 immeasurably inferior to the public schools of New- York, 
 Philadelphia, and Boston. The truth is, there is a vast 
 inert mass of stupidity and ignorance, too dense for indi- 
 vidual effort to enlighten or remove, in all communities 
 cursed with the institution of slavery. Disguise the un- 
 welcome truth as we may, slavery is the parent of igno- 
 rance, and ignorance begets a whole brood of follies and 
 of vices, and every one of these is inevitably hostile to 
 literary culture. The masses, if they think of literature 
 at all, think of it only as a costly luxury, to be monopo- 
 lized by the few. 
 
 The proportion of white adults over twenty years of ago, 
 
SOmirRN I.ITERATrRF. 407 
 
 in each State, who cannot read and write, to the ichvU 
 white popuhxtion, is as follows : 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 1 
 
 to ever} 
 
 5G8 
 
 Louisiana, 
 
 1 to 
 
 ever} 
 
 38i 
 
 Vermont, 
 
 
 (( 
 
 473 
 
 ^laryiand 
 
 
 u 
 
 27 
 
 N. Hampshire, 
 
 
 (( 
 
 310 
 
 Mississippi, 
 
 
 (( 
 
 20 
 
 Massachusetts, 
 
 
 " 
 
 IGG 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 
 (( 
 
 18 
 
 Maine, 
 
 
 u 
 
 108 
 
 South Carolina, 
 
 
 i( 
 
 17 
 
 Michigan, 
 
 
 u 
 
 97 
 
 Missouri, 
 
 
 «< 
 
 IG 
 
 lUiode Island, 
 
 
 iC 
 
 G7 
 
 Alabama, 
 
 
 it 
 
 15 
 
 New Jersey, 
 
 
 <; 
 
 58 
 
 Kentucky, 
 
 
 « 
 
 13i 
 
 New York, 
 
 
 a 
 
 5G 
 
 Georgia, 
 
 
 <( 
 
 13 
 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 
 C( 
 
 50 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 
 " 
 
 12i 
 
 Ohio, ' 
 
 
 li 
 
 43 
 
 Arkansas, 
 
 
 (( 
 
 Hi 
 
 huliana, 
 
 
 a 
 
 18 
 
 Tennessee, 
 
 
 c 
 
 11 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 
 ;; 
 
 17 
 
 North Carolina, 
 
 
 •' 
 
 7 
 
 In this table, Illinois and Indiana arc the only Free 
 States which, in point of education, are surpassed by any 
 of the Slave States ; and this disgraceful fact is owing", 
 principally, to the inllux of foreigners, and to immigrants 
 fi'oni the Slave States. New- York, Khodo Island, and 
 Pennsylvania have also a large foreign element in their 
 population, that swells very considerably this percent- 
 age of ignorance. For instance, New- York shows, by 
 the last census, a population of 98,722 who cannot read 
 and write, and of this number 68,052 are foreigners ; 
 Rhode Island, 3,G0T, of whom 2,359 are foreigners ; Penn- 
 sylvania, 76,272, of whom 24,989 are foreigners. On the 
 other hand, the ignorance of the Slave States is princi- 
 pally nalive ignorance, but comparatively few emigrants 
 from Europe seeking a home upon a soil cursed with "tho 
 peculiar institution." North Carolina has a foreign popu- 
 
408 SOUTHERN LITERATCRE. 
 
 lation of only 340, South Carolina only 104, Arkansas only 
 27, Tennessee only 505, and Virginia only 1,137, who can- 
 not read and write ; while the aggregate of native igno- 
 rance in these five States (exclusive of the slaves, who are 
 debarred all education by law) is 2T8,948 ! No longer ago 
 than 1837, Governor Clarke, of Kentucky, in his message 
 to the Legislature of that State, declared that " by the 
 computation of those most familiar with the subject, one- 
 third of the adult population of the State are unable to write 
 their names f^ and Governor Campbell, of Virginia, reported 
 to the Legislature, that "from the returns of ninety-eight 
 clerks, it appeared that of 4,614 applications for marriage 
 licenses in 1837, no less than 1,047 were made by men 
 unable to write." 
 
 In the Slave States the proportion of free white children 
 between the ages of five and twenty, who are found at 
 any school or college, is not quite one-fifth of the whole ; 
 in the Free States, the proportion is more than three-fifths. 
 
 "We could fill our pages with facts like these to an 
 almost indefinite extent, but it cannot be necessary. No 
 truth is more demonstrable, nay, no truth has been more 
 abundantly demonstrated, than this : that Slavery is hos- 
 tile to general education ; its strength, its very life, is in 
 Ihe ignorance and stolidity of the masses ; it naturally 
 and necessarily represses general literary culture. To 
 talk, therefore, of the " creation of a purely Southern 
 Literature," without readers to demand, or writers to pro- 
 duce it, is the mere babble of idiocy. 
 
 II. Another thing essential to the creation of a litera- 
 ture is Mental Freedom. How much of that is to be fbund 
 
SOCTIIERV LITERATinF.. 409 
 
 in the region of Slavery ? We will not say that there ia 
 
 nam ; but if it exists, it exists as the outlawed antagonist 
 
 uf human chattelhoot-l. He who believes that the desjxH 
 
 tisni of the accursed institution expends its nuilignaiit 
 
 forces upon the slai't, leaving intact the white and (so called) 
 
 free pi^pulation, is the victim of a most monstrous delu 
 
 si«)n One end of the yoke that bows the African to tlie 
 
 dust, presses heavily upon the neck of his Anglo-Saxou 
 
 master. The entire mind of the South either stultifies 
 
 itself into acquiescence with Slavery, succumbs to its 
 
 authority, or chafes in indignant protest against its 
 
 monstrous pretensions and outrageous usurpations. A 
 
 free press is an institution almost unknown at the South. 
 
 Free speech is considered as treason against slavery : 
 
 and when people dare neither speak nor print their 
 
 thoughts, free thought itself is well nigh extinguished. 
 
 All that can be said in defence of human bondage, may be 
 
 spoken freely ; but question either its morality or its 
 
 policy, and the terrors of \y\\c\\ law are at once invoked to 
 
 put down the pestilent heresy. The legislation of the 
 
 Slave States for the suppression of the freedom of speech 
 
 and the press, ia disgraceful and cowardly to the last 
 
 degree, and can find its parallel only in the meanest and 
 
 bloodiest despotisms of the Old World. No institution 
 
 that could boar the light would thus sneakingly seek to 
 
 burrow itself in utter darkness. Look, too, at the mobbings, 
 
 lynchings, robberies, social and political proscriptions, 
 
 and all manner of nameless outrages, to which men in the 
 
 South have been subjected, simply upon the suspicion that 
 
 the}' were the enemies of Slrivrry. We could fill page 
 
 18 
 
410 SOUTHERN LITERATURE. 
 
 after page of tliis v(jliiine with the recoid of such atroci- 
 ties. Bat a simple reference to them is enough. Our 
 countrymen have not yet forgotten why John C. Under- 
 wood Avas, but a few months since, banished from his 
 home in Virginia, and the accomplished Hedreck driven 
 from his College professorship in North Carolina. Th^-y 
 believed Slavery inimical to the best interest of the South, 
 and for daring to give expression to this belief in mode- 
 rate yet manly language, they were ostracised by the 
 despotic Slave Power, and compelled to seek a refuge 
 from its vengeance in States where the principles of free- 
 dom are better understood. Pending the last Presiden- 
 tial election, there were thousands, nay, tens of thousands 
 of voters in the Slave States, who desired to give their 
 tiulTrages for the Republican nominee, John C. Fremont 
 himself a Southron, but a non-slaveholder. The Consti- 
 tution of the United States guaranteed to these men an 
 expression of their preference at the ballot-box. But were 
 they permitted such an expression? Not at all. They 
 were denounced, threatened, overawed, by the Slave 
 Power — and it is not too much to say that there was 
 really no Constitutional election, — that is, no such free ex- 
 pression of political preferences as the Constitution aims 
 to secure — in a majority of the Slave States. 
 
 From a multiplicity of facts like these, the inference is 
 unavoidable, that Slavery tolerates no freedom of the 
 press — no freedom of speech — no freedom of opinion. To 
 expect that a whole-S(mled, manly literature can flourish 
 under such c mditions, is as absurd as it would be to look 
 for health amid the pestilential vapors of a dungeon, or 
 
sorrnEnx utf.ratl-rk. 411 
 
 for tlic continuance of animal lifi^ wit. out the aid of 
 oxyg-on. 
 
 HI. Mental activity — force — enterprise — arc requisite 
 to the creation of literature. Slavery tends to sluggish- 
 ness — imbecility — inertia. Where free thought is trea 
 son, the masses will not long take the trouble of thinking 
 at all. Desuetude begets '.ncompetencc — the dare-not soon 
 becomes the cannot. The mind thus enslaved, necessarily 
 loses its interest in the ju'ocesses of other minds ; and its 
 tendency is to sink down into absolute stolidity or sot- 
 tishness. Our remarks find melancholy confirmation in 
 the abject servilism in whicli multitudes of the non-slave- 
 holding whites of the South are involved. In them, 
 ambition, pride, self-respect, hope, seem alike extinct. 
 Their slaveholding fellows are, in some respects, in a still 
 more unhappy condition — helpless, nerveless, ignorant, 
 selfish ; yet vain-glorious, self-sufiicient and brutal. Are 
 these the chosen architects who are expected to build up 
 " a purely Southern literature ?" 
 
 The truth is, slavery destroys, or vitiates, or pollutes, 
 whatever it touches. No interest of society escapes the 
 influence of its clinging curse. It makes Southern religion 
 a stench in the nostrils of Christendom — it makes Southern 
 politics a libel upon all the principles of liCimblicanism — 
 it makes Southern literature a travesty upon the honora- 
 ble profession of letters. Than the better class of South- 
 ern authors tJiemselves, none will feel more keenly the 
 truth of our remarks. They write books, but can find for 
 thcrn neither publishers nor remunerative sales at tho 
 South The executors of Calhoun seek, for his workn, a 
 
412 SOUTHERN LITERATURE. 
 
 Northern publisher. Benton writes history .*nd prepares 
 voluminous compilations, which are given to the world 
 through a Northern publisher. Simms writes novels and 
 poems, and they are scattered abroad from the presses of 
 a Northern publisher. Eighty per cent, of all the copies 
 sold are probably bought by Northern readers. 
 
 When will Southern authors understand their own in- 
 terests ? When will the South, as a whole, abandoning 
 its present suicidal policy, enter upon that career of pros- 
 perity, greatness, and true renown, to which God by his 
 word and his providences, is calling it ? "If thou take 
 away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth 
 of the finger and speaking vanity ; and if thou draw out 
 thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul ; then 
 shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the 
 noonday : And the Lord shall guide thee continually and 
 satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones ; and 
 thou shalt be like a watered g-arden, and like a spring of 
 water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of 
 thee shall build the old waste places ; thou shalt raise up 
 the foundations of many generations ; and thou shalt be 
 called, The repairer of the breach. The restorer of paths to 
 dwell in." 
 
 Our limits, not our materials, are exhausted. We would 
 gladly say more, but can only, in conclusion, add as the 
 result of our investigations in this department of our sub- 
 ject, that Literatim and Liberty are inseparable ; the one can 
 never have a vigoroiis ensfence icithout being weddcA to the other. 
 
CONCLl .-lOX. 413 
 
 Our work is Jouo. It is the voice of the non-shwcliold- 
 iug whiles of tho South, through one identified with them 
 by interest, by feeling-, by position. That voice, by whom- 
 soever spoken, must yet be heard and heeded. The time 
 hastens — the doom of slavery is written — the redemption 
 of the South draws nigh. 
 
 In taking leave of our readers, we know not how we 
 can give more forcible expression to our thoughts and in- 
 tentions than by saying that, in concert with the intelligent 
 free voters of the North, we, the non-slaveholding whites 
 of the South, expect to elevate John C. Fremont, Cassius 
 M. Clay, James G. Birney, or some other Southern non- 
 slaveholder, to the Presidency in I8G0 ; and that the pa- 
 triot thus elevated to that dignified station will, through 
 our cordial co-operation, be succeeded by Wiluam II. Sew- 
 ART, Charles Sumner, John McLean, or some other non- 
 slaveholder of the North ; — and furthermore, that if, in 
 these or in any other similar cases, the oligarchs do not 
 quietly submit to the will of a constitutional majority of 
 the people, as expressed at the ballot-box, the first battle 
 between freedom and slavery will be fought at home — and 
 may God defend the right 1 
 
 rHE LSD. 
 
G E X i; U A I 1 1\ D E X. 
 
 Abstract of tlie Author's Plan for the Aholition of SKavcry, 155. 
 
 Achcnwall, 2'.>. 
 
 Adams, John Quincy, 230. 
 
 Agriculture and taher out-door pursuits, numhcr of free white male 
 
 Southrons enizaiit'd in, 2'.»8. 
 Aiiricultural Products, — See Corn, Wheat, Rye, Oats, Barley, Ilay, 
 
 Cotton, Tobacco, &c. <S:c. 
 Animals Slau2[litered, Value of, 71. 
 Anti-slavery Letters from native Southrons, 874. 
 Area of the several States and Territories. IV-l. 
 Aristotle, 2oG. 
 Attorneys-General, 312. 
 Baltimore, Letter from the Mayor of, 3.']7. 
 Baltimore, Past, Preseiit, and Future, 352. 
 Baltimore, Why this Work was not published there, 360. 
 Bancroft, Geor<ze, 384. 
 Bank Capital of the several States, 2S6. 
 Banks, James, 384. 
 Baptist Testimony, 263. 
 Barley, 30. 
 
 Barnes, Rev. Albert, 250. 
 Beans and Peas, 37. 
 Beatlie, James, 251. 
 Beeswax and Honey, 04. 
 Benton, Thomas li., 10, 105, 107, 207. 
 Bible Testimony, 275 — Bible Cause Contributions, 296. 
 Birney, James G., 214, 413. 
 Blackstone, Sir William, 248. 
 Blair, Francis P., 105, 167, 213. 
 Boiling, Philip A., 211. 
 Book MakiniT in America, 302. 
 Booth, Abraham, 208. 
 Boston, Letter from the Mayor of, 338. 
 Botts, John M., 107. 
 Brisbane, Rev. Mr., 203. 
 Brissol, 253. 
 
 Brooklyn, Letter from the Mayor of, 339 
 Brougham, Lord, 250. 
 Browne, R. K., 322. 
 Buchanan, James, 170. 
 Buckwheat, 37. 
 
 Buffalo, Letter from the Mayor of, 3U. 
 Butloa, 253. 
 Burke, Edmund, 250. 
 Butlo", Bishop, 261. 
 
416 GEXERAL INDEX, 
 
 Butter and Cliecse, 64. 
 
 Cameron, Paul C, 49, 55. 
 
 Canals, miles of, in the several States. 285 
 
 Cane, Sugar, 53, Go. 
 
 Cortwright, Dr., of New-Orleans, 301. 
 
 Catholic Testimony, 271. 
 
 Chandler, Mr., of Virginia, 211. 
 
 Charleston, Letter from the Mayor of, 3^0. 
 
 Chicago, Letter from, 342. 
 
 Ciiurches, Value of, in the several States, 291 
 
 Cicero, 254. 
 
 Cincinnati, Letter from the Mayor of, 340. 
 
 Oities, nine Free and nine Slave, 347. 
 
 Clarke, Dr. Adam, 269. 
 
 Clarke, fudge, of Mississippi, 223. 
 
 Clav, Henry, 205. 
 
 Clav, Cassius M., 206, 301, 413. 
 
 Clav, C. C, 56. 
 
 Clinton, DeWitt, 242. 
 
 Clover and Grass Seed, 37. 
 
 Coke, Sir Edward, 249. 
 
 Colonization Movements, 183. 
 
 Colonization Cause Contributions, 296. 
 
 Commercial Cities — Southern Commerce, 33 
 
 Comparison between the Free and the SIav« States, \i 
 
 Corn, 35, 69. 
 
 Cotton, 53, 65. 
 
 Cowper, William, 247. 
 
 Cragin, A. H., 190. 
 
 Curran, John Philpot, 250. 
 
 Curtis, Mr., of Virginia, 101. 
 
 Darien (Georgia) Ftesolutions, 231. 
 
 Davis, Henry Winter, 167. 
 
 Deaths in the several States in 1850, 297. 
 
 DeBow, J. D. B., 30, 50, 83. 
 
 Dublin University Magazine, 251. 
 
 Emigration to Liberia, 183. 
 
 Episcopal Testimony, 261. 
 
 Etheridge, Emerson, 167, 173, 
 
 ExiKJiiditures of the several States, 80. 
 
 Exports, 283. 
 
 Facta and Arguments by the Wayside, 360. 
 
 Farms, Cash Value of, 71. 
 
 Faulkner, Charles James, 98, 175. 
 
 Flax, 62— Flaxseed, 38. 
 
 Fortcscue, Sir John, 249. 
 
 Fox, Charles James, 246. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 235. 
 
 Free Figures and Slave, 281. 
 
 Free Wliite Agriculturalists in the Slave States. 2U8. 
 
GF.NEIUI, INI'KX. 411 
 
 Frredom and b.avcry at tlie Fair. :V2-^ 
 
 Frocilom in the South, Pro<rress of, ;;».7 
 
 Fremont, J*>hu Charles, 170, 1212, 41ii, U:. 
 
 Gaston, Judize, of N»>rih Carolina. SJ.-). 
 
 Garden Products, Value of, oS 
 
 G<Kthe, 254. 
 
 Goo«ihH^ Daniel R., 112 
 
 (JoUlsmilh, Oliver, ;>bl. 
 
 (Ji-ahaiM, William H., lb". 
 
 Graves, Calvin, ItiT. 
 
 (iieeley, Horace, 361. 
 
 Grotius, 253. 
 
 Hall, Dr. James. 182. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 237. 
 
 Hammond, Gov., 165, 801. 
 
 Hampden, John, 249. 
 
 Hari)er Brothers, 304. 
 
 Harrington, James, 249. 
 
 Hav. 63. 
 
 Hedrick, B. S., Prof, 305, 410. 
 
 Hemp, 53, 62. 
 
 Henrv, Patrick, 84, 200. 
 
 Hildreth, Richard, 384. 
 
 lloflman, H. W.. 167. 
 
 Honey. 64. 
 
 Hops, 62. 
 
 Horsley, Bisliop, 201. 
 
 How Slavery can he Abolished, 123. 
 
 Hunt, Freeman, 349. 
 
 Hurlbut, William Henry, 229, 316. 
 
 illiterate Poor Whit«'s of the Snuih, 376. 
 
 Illiterate White Adults, 291, 4(i7 
 
 Imports, 283. 
 
 I.'dian Corn, 35, 69. 
 
 InhahitanUs to the S<|n.'ire Mile, 113. 
 
 Itiveiiiiofis, New, PaH"i'< i^vn..,| ,.n i-, ls.V>, 2^. 
 
 Iredell, Judize. 210. 
 
 Fay, John, Jwhj^t', 237 
 
 Jav, John, Em]., 261, 
 
 JaV, William, 239. 
 
 Jerterson, Tliomas. 195, 222. 
 
 Johnson, Samuel, Dr., 248. 
 
 Kiinsas, Aid for, 318. 
 
 K<'nip, Henry. 273. 
 
 Lartuiitius, 255. 
 
 Lafayette, Gen., 252—0 Lafayette, 262. 
 
 Lawrence, Abb«»tt and Amos, 100. 
 
 Leigh, Mr., of Virgiira, 210. 
 
 L.'o X., 2>5. 
 
 Liberia, Emigration o 1^^ 
 
4 I S GENERAL IN'DKX- 
 
 Libraries Other than Private, 289. 
 
 Live Stock, Value of, 71. 
 
 Locke. John, 246. 
 
 Louis X., 253. 
 
 Louisville. Letter from the Mayor of, 341, 
 
 Luther, Martin, 25 1. 
 
 McDcwell, Gov., 209. 
 
 McLane. of Delaware, 215. 
 
 Macfarland. Wm. II., 167. 
 
 Macknight, James, D.D., 251. 
 
 .Madison, James. 82, 199. 
 
 Mansfield, Lord, 246. 
 
 Manufactures, Products of, 284. 
 
 Maple Sui^ar, 63. 
 
 Martin, Luther, 216. 
 
 Marshall, Humphrey, 167 
 
 Marshall, Thomas, 211, 
 
 Mason, James M., 223. 
 
 Mason, John W., 384. 
 
 Mason, Col., of Vircrinia, 208. 
 
 Massachusetts and North Carolina, 14. 
 
 Maury, M. F., 213. 
 
 Meckienburg Declaration of Independence, 221, 
 
 Methodist Testimony, 209. 
 
 M.iiLia Force of the'Several States, 286. 
 
 Miller, H. W., 167. 
 
 Jiller, Prof., of Glasgow, 251. 
 
 Milton, John, 248. 
 
 Missionary Cause Contributions, 296. 
 
 Monroe, James, 200. 
 
 Montesquieu, 252. 
 
 Moore, Mr., of Virginia, 101. 
 
 Morehead, John M., 107. 
 
 National Political Power of the Several States, 292. 
 
 Natives of the Slave States in the Free States, and Nati^X'«l of La 
 
 Free States in the Slave States, 304. 
 New- Bedford, Letter from the Mayor of, 345. 
 New-Orleans, Letter from the Mayor of, 337. 
 Newspapers and Periodicals, 290. 
 New-York and Virginia, 12. 
 New- York and North Carolina, 325. 
 New-York Citv, Letter from the Mavor of, 336. 
 Norfolk, Letter f.om, 344. 
 
 North American and United States Gazette, 87, 111, 114. 
 North Carolina'and Massachu-?tts, 14. 
 North Carolina and New-York 325. 
 Northern Testimonv, 235. 
 Nott. J. C, Dr. a02, 303. 
 Oats, 3.5, 69. 
 Oglethorpej Gen., 2-30. 
 
GEKERAL NDEX. 
 
 419 
 
 Orchard Products, Value of, 38. 
 Patents Issued on New Inventions, 294. 
 Pennsvlvatiia and South Carolina, 17. 
 Perrv,'B. F., 220. 
 Pettvjohn, Charles 3G3. 
 Philadelphia, Letter from the Mayor of, 337. 
 Piiiknev. William, 210, 213. 
 Pitt, William, 21G. 
 Plato, 230. 
 Polvhius, 256. 
 Pojie Gresory XVI., 271. 
 Po|>e Leo X., 235. 
 
 popular Vote for President in 1856, 293, 
 population of the Several States, 144. 
 Porteus, Bishop, 201. 
 P»)stmasters-General, 311. 
 Post Ofllce Statistics, 2b7. 
 Potat»>es, 30, G9. 
 Powell, Mr., of Virsinia, 102. 
 Precepts and Sayings of the Old Testament, 270. 
 Precepts and Sayings of the New Testament, 277. 
 Pre>byterian Testimony, 259. 
 Presiiients of the Unitetl States, 307. 
 
 Presidential Elections in the U. S. from 17*.tC to ISjO. 317 
 Preston, Mr., of Virginia, 212. 
 Price, Dr., of London, 248. 
 Providence, Letter from the Mayor of, 343. 
 Railroads, Miles of, in the Several States, 285. 
 Randolph, John, of Roanoke, 201. 
 Randolph, Thomas M., 202. 
 Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, 202. 
 Randolph, Peyton, 204. 
 Randolph, Edmund, 204. 
 Raynal, The Abbe, 273. 
 Ray nor, Kenneth, 107, 100. 
 
 Recapitulation of the Quantity and Value of Bushel Measure Pro- 
 ducts, 39-10. 
 Recapitulation of the Quantity and Value of Pound- Measure Pre 
 
 ducts, 05. 
 Recapitulation of the Value of Farms and Donicstic Animals, 72. 
 Real and Personal Proj)criy, 80. 
 lUid, Mr., of Georuia, 233. 
 Revenue of the Several States, 80. 
 Rice. 53, 6-5. 
 
 Richmond, Letter from, 342. 
 Ritchie, Thomas, 92, 105. 
 Rives, Mr., of Virginia, 101, 101. 
 Rousseau, 253. 
 
 Rutlin, Judgo, of North Carolina, 221. 
 Rve. 36. O'J. 2. 
 
420 CFN-F.RAI, IXDEX. 
 
 Savannali, Letter from the Mayor of, 346. 
 
 Scliools, Public, 288. 
 
 Scott, Thomas, (Common .ator), 260. 
 
 Secretaries of State. 309. 
 
 Secretaries of the Interior. 312. 
 
 Secretaries of the Treasury, 313, 
 
 Secretaries of War. 314. 
 
 Secretaries of tlie Navy, 315. 
 
 Shakspeare, 247. 
 
 Slavelvolders, Number of, in the United States, 146. 
 
 Slaves, Value of, at S400 per head, 306. 
 
 Slavery, Leaislative Acts asainst, 361. 
 
 Slavery Thouirhtful —Signs of Contrition, 365. 
 
 Smith,' Gerrit, 318. 
 
 Socrates, 256. 
 
 South Carolina and Pennsylvania, 17. 
 
 Southern Literatuie, 383. 
 
 Southern Testimony atrainst Slavery, 188. 
 
 Speakers of the House of RepresenLTtives, 310. 
 
 St. Louis, Letter from the Mayor of, 339. 
 
 Stanly, Edward, 167. 
 
 States, the Several, when First Settled, 321-322. 
 
 Statistics, Science of, 29, 30. 
 
 Stuart, A H. IL, 107. 
 
 Summers, Mr., of Virginia, 212. 
 
 Supreme Court, Judges of, 308. 
 
 Tarver, M., 161. 
 
 Taylor, Wm. C, L.L D., 20. 
 
 Territories, the, Area and Population of, 115. 
 
 Testimony of the Nations, 245, 
 
 Testimony of the Churches, 258. 
 
 Tobacco, 53, 62, 78. 
 
 Tonnage of the Several States, 283. 
 
 Tract Cau.'^e Contributions, 295. 
 
 Underwood, John C, 410. 
 
 Virsinia and New-Yoik, 12. 
 
 Votes cast for President in 1856, 293. [293 
 
 Votes, Classification of, Polled at the Five Points Precinct in 1856 
 
 Walker, Robert J., 105. 
 
 Warren, Joseph, Gen., 242. 
 
 Washiuiiton, George, Gen., 193. 
 
 Way land, Francis, D D , 261. 
 
 Wealth of the Several States, 80. 
 
 Webster, Daniel r 210. 
 
 Webster, Noah, 117, 241, 384. 
 
 Wesley, John, Rev., 269, 
 
 Weston, George M., 164. 
 
 Wheat, 35, 69, 78. ' 
 
 Whv the North has surpass 'd the South. 
 
 Wise Henry A., 13, 9(\ 102.