i i' ; THE PEOGEESS OF SLAVEEY IN THE UNITED STATES, BY GEORGE M. WESTON. WASHINGTON, D. 0. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 1857. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by GEORGE M. WESTON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Columbia. BUELL k BLANCHARD, PRINTERS AND ST E RE T YPE RS , WASHINGTON, D. C. PREFACE The design of this volume, as indicated by its title, is to describe the past progress of slavery in the United States, and to consider the circumstances which will probably control its movement hereafter The economy, morals, and effects of slavery, are discussed only inci- dentally, and so far as such discussion was unavoidable : it having been the main purpose of the author to deal with the progress of slavery as a matter of fact, accomplished in the past, and to be dis- cerned in the future by the aid of such lights as experience and reason may afford. ♦ In the discussion in this volume of the increase of slaves between 1840 and 1850, the census of 1850 is assumed to be correct. If it did not considerably exaggerate the number of slaves, the increase since 1850 must have been small, and especially if the census of Georgia and Alabama in 1855 is to be relied upon. The number of slaves given by this comparison is as follows : 1S50. 1855. ^fforgia 381,682 389,237 Alabama 342,844 374,784 It is not possible that the increase in Georgia, during this period, was really less than in Virginia and Kentucky. The augmentation of the number of slaves in many of the States may be calculated from year to year, from the annual enumerations of certain descriptions of slaves for the purposes of taxation. On the oasis ot comparisons of this kind, with even large allowances for deficiencies in the census of 1855 in Georgia and Alabama, the pre- diction may be ventured, that the census of 1860, if honestly taken, } "ST ei a Veiy low rate of in crease of slaves between 1850 ana i860, or a serious exaggeration of their number in 1850. in so much of this work as relates to the laws of population, it has not been the ambition of the author to develop any new theory. The admirable sagacity of Dr. Franklin exhausted that subject more than a century ago. The ideas of his little tract upon population have been since expanded into volumes, but no substantial addition has PREFACE. b een W-ae to *»£*££*£$$*£ ot \K work nothing is attempted bej ona tms well-establisbeapnuoxpx^^^. re in themselves uu. sion of the negro r ^ ce 5 ^Xe'anse the vast interests depending Whkh !™ ^baveTeen abl ^command the aid of ingenious soph- T^cS* Voffr^^to .ho. that the past multiplication of slaves m .the Un it « ™«~, fl ^ of hat an unavoidable calamity, was ^he toreseen ^ the territorial expansion of slavery which to ^ multip lication of the ests of those who breed slaves ! that ; ^ ^ b fixi its external ^^^t^tXr^ beneficial, rather than tions, which may be weighed m deciding , ontrolle d for the of the emigration from .the fee* ^' ^ J onteS t in Kansas has Lss of which the reader mus pd e , imme diatey to Mis- climates should be directed to the too >a ^ tQ the ^ ndian souri and Kansas but ^^MeSco, and to Northern Texas; territory behind Arkan as , to_New ^ 1 , g()uthwestern frontl er and that, when slavery » ««^*£ utterly useless, for any purpose it will be time enough and until "*n J Kentucky. . of extinguishing it, to invade m , * ^ ^.^ {] That peculiar eombmationof— ^ of Arkansas which production of cotton, is found m ar P Territory beyond are now entirely unoccupied, and m t in Xortheru . G The overwhelming prepon^eol^^ ^.^ ^ Texas, in Arkansas except imn ^£^ and hl Kansas , renders it ^^ h *v?i!r£^i admirabie and exteus t i r. easy to exclude the negio slave torn enter upon tbe cotton region. Free labor ^^^ m ^ e profits of which have C ciltivation of a great staple o ^ ^'production of : cotton, now been so long monopolized bj slavery 1 Uurist8 of the United t^r^^^*^ * w efficient and • hinds.' THE AUTHOR. Washington, D. C, August, 1857. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page. Comparative statements of the advance of the free and slave States in population. Gain of the free States steady, but not rapid. Comparative statements of the advance of the free and slave States in area. Causes of the superior success and aptitude of the slave States in acquiring territory. Slavery as yet firmly maintained in the northern tier of slave States. The political power of the slave States still formidable 1 CHAPTER II. Considerations rendering it probable that slavery will cease to exist in Missouri. Connection between slavery and the prices of land. Missouri at present more inviting to the free emi- grant than Virginia. Commanding position of Missouri 10 CHAPTER III. Considerations rendering it probable that the emigration from the free States, hitherto moving westward, may hereafter tend southward, to Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. Accumu- lated power of the population of the free States. No apology for slavery in the northern slave States. The right of emigra- tion between the States 2o CHAPTER IV. Slave society stationary. Impossibility of improvement .of the non-slaveholding whites. Tendency of slavery to expel the white race. Example of South Carolina. Slavery predomi- nant in some portions of Virginia, and freedom in others. Non-slaveholding whites in slave countries have no capacity to become artisans and build up towns. Slaveholders will 39 never give up slavery Vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. Page. Comparative growth of Northern and Southern Maryland. Te- nacity of slavery in the southern counties. Advantageous position of Maryland. Descriptions of Eastern and Western Shores. Slaveholders take the best soils. Baltimore not likely to move actively for the abolition of slavery. The growth of the city of Washington favorable to the removal of slavery from the southern counties of Maryland 54 CHAPTER VI. Increase of slaves in the several decades since 1810. Number of slaves in Texas in 1840. Increase of slaves less rapid in the extreme South. Number of slaves enlarges with the area over which they are spread. Why the number of slaves has gained by natural increase in the United States, and not else- where in America 72 CHAPTER VII. The Ordinance of 1787 firmly maintained by subsequent Con- gresses. Slavery in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mis- sissippi, never within the control of Congress. Slavery ob- tained a footing in Missouri and Arkansas contrary to the intention of Congress. The Missouri Compromise was in fact no compromise, but a clear victory of the slaveholders 91 CHAPTER VIII. Emigration does not diminish population. Opinions of Dr. Mal- thus, Dr. Franklin, and the Earl of Selkirk. Illustrations. Nearly a million slaves of Virginia stock existing out of Vir- ginia in 1850, who would not have existed anywhere but for the domestic slave trade. Free negroes increase slowly, if at all. The Northern States cannot be invaded by negroes 10G CHAPTER IX. The argument for slavery, as being necessary for the multiplica- tion of negroes. Carrying slaves into new regions not favor- able to their personal comfort, but the contrary. Cruelties of the domestic slave trade 128 CONTENTS. Vll CHAPTER X. Page. The introduction of slaves into the States of the extreme South, to some extent legislated against by them, and always op- posed by many of their citizens. Slave trading disreputable at the South. The suppression of the domestic slave trade would find supporters in all the Southern States. Inter- colonial slave trade prohibited by Great Britain in 1824.... 141 CHAPTER XL America settled during the first three centuries chiefly by negroes. European immigration inconsiderable until recently. The probability of the further territorial expansion of slavery in the United States considered. The high price of slaves an impediment to this expansion. Within its present limits, slavery will not be crowded for a long time 153 CHAPTER XII. Slavery will be maintained, so long as it is profitable. The state- ment that abolition commenced in 1835, and has retarded emancipation, shown to be untrue. Change in Southern views attributable to increased profits of slavery. Opinions of Gov- ernor Hammond. The discussion of slavery necessary, until the fate of the Territories is decided I? 5 CHAPTER XIII. Review of Debates in Virginia in 1832. Abolition not seriously proposed. The alarm which then existed, in reference to outlets for slaves, since removed. Eastern Virginia opposed to any action. Views of Hon. C. J. Faulkner and others as to slavery. Emancipation in Virginia will be long postponed, unless the domestic slave trade is prohibited 192 CHAPTER XIV. The extension of slavery profitable to the slave-breeding States, but injurious to the other Southern States. The acquisition of Cuba injurious to all the Southern States. Political power the sole object of extending slavery. The agitation of slavery with a view to party ascendency. The South has not gained 206 by agitation Vlll CONTEXTS. CHAPTER XV. Different views of the manner in which slavery may be extin- guished. Slave labor immediately cheap, under certain cir- cumstances, but ruinous as a system. The Southern States have grown poorer by it. Mr. Tarver*s description of the results of cotton-growing. Free labor will encroach upon slavery, because really more efficient and profitable 220 CHAPTER XVI. The decline of slavery will not be the decline of the South, but will benefit the South. The evils apprehended at the South, from the shutting up of slavery, are imaginary. Slaves will not multiply beyond the demand for them, and the fall in their price will be insensible. The slave-breeding States alone interested in the extension of slavery. The question of race connected with the question of slave** 235 CHAPTER XVII. The Union of the States is only endangered by tha, discontent of the slave States, which results from the impoverishing effects of slavery. Slavery itself, and not the agitation of it, origi- nates the feeling of disunion. Xullification first aimed against tariffs. The mischief will be abated, as the area of slavery is diminished. Political quietude the ordinary result of slavery J 47 CHAPTER XVIII. The population of Cuba. Actual number of slaves ; misrepresent- ations corrected. Tendency of slavery in Cuba to disappear by increase of whites, the mortality of slaves, and emancipa- tion under Spanish laws. Classification of agricultural pur- suits. Character and increase of the Monteros. or yeomanry. Example of Porto Rico. Climate of Cuba. Salubrity. Adapt- ation to white labor. Possible changes in the methods of sugar culture. Resources and desirability of the island. If annexed to the Union, the free laborers of the United States will assert their right to it 258 APPENDIX 295 PROGRESS OF SLAVERY. CHAPTER I. Comparative statements of the advance of the free and slave States in population. Gain of the free States steady, but not rapid. Com- parative statements of the advance of the free and slave States in area. Causes of the superior success and aptitude of the slave States in acquiring territory. Slavery as yet firmly maintained in the northern tier of slave States. The political power of the slave States still formidable. In 1790, the inhabited portion of the territory of the United States was divided as follows, between the free and slave States : Free States. Area. Slave States. Area. Connecticut - - 4,674 Delaware - - 2,120 Maine - - - - 31,766 Georgia - - - 58,000 Massachusetts - 7,800 Kentucky - - 37,680 New Hampshire - 9,280 Maryland - - 11,124 New York - 47,000 North Carolina 50,704 New Jersey - - 8,320 South Carolina 29,385 Pennsylvania - - 46,000 Tennessee - - 45,600 Rhode Island - - 1,306 Virginia - - - 61,352 Vermont - - - 10,212 166,358 295,965 In some of the States designated as free in this classification, a little remnant of slavery still lingered 2 In 1790, but was condemned by public opinion, formed no considerable part of their industrial in- terests, and soon ceased to have even a nominal existence. It is probable, that at the commencement, and even at the close, of the Revolutionary War, the area occupied by the slaveholding portion of the United States did not much exceed that occupied by the non-slaveholding portion. The slaveholding popu- lation extended itself to Kentucky and Tennessee subsequently to the Declaration of American Inde- pendence, and at that epoch the greater portion of Georgia was uninhabited. In 1790, the population of the free States was as follows : Whites 1,900,976 Free blacks 27,112 Slaves 40,364 Their total population was therefore 1,968,452, or eleven persons and eight-tenths to each square mile. In 1790, the population of the slave States was as follows : Whites 1,271,488 Free blacks 32,354 Slaves 657,533 Their total population was therefore 1,961,375, or six persons and six-tenths to each square mile. In 1850, the total population of the free States had increased to 13,526,302, divided as follows: Whites 13,330,650 Free blacks 195,416 Slaves 236 3 In 1850, the total population of the slave States had increased to 9,651,500, divided as follows: "Whites 6,222,418 Free blacks- ----- 228,728 Slaves 3,200,364 The following table will show the per centage of increase at each census after 1790, of the different classes of population, and of the aggregate population in the free and slave States : Free States. 1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. 1S40. 1850. Whites 36.85 40.43 27.19 37.70 15.43 36.67 15.65 39.10 21.80 39.42 Blacks 23.01 14.28 Aggregate 36.38 40.02 37.14 36.13 38.73 39.03 Slave S^-js. 1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. Whites 33.94 29.70 28.20 29.35 26.54 34.26 Free blacks... 89.27 76.79 24.92 34.62 18.40 10.49 Slaves 30.09 35.67 . 30.57 32.12 23.98 28.97 Total blacks.. 33.11 38.52 ao.04 32.23 23.51 27.40 Aggregate 33.65 32.79 28.1a 30.46 25.41 31.73 The addition of population to either class of States, by the acquisition of foreign territory, has been inconsiderable. Major Stoddard, in his sketch- es of Louisiana, computes the population of lower Louisiana at 41,700 whites, 38,800 slaves, and 2,500 free blacks, and of upper Louisiana at 9,020 whites, and 1,320 slaves, at the date of the cession of that country to the United States. This is much higher than the Spanish official estimates of the population of Louisiana and Florida in 1801, which amounted to only 49,474. The United States census of Louis- iana, in 1810, exhibited a total population of only 76,556. The total population of Florida, as it appears for the first time in the census of 1830, was only 34,730, and of this number the largest por- tion had emigrated thither from the United States. The population of Texas, at the period of its annex- ation to the American Union, consisted mainly of persons born in the United States, or of the descend- ants of such persons. The native Mexican popula- tion acquired with Texas, is about equal to the same class of population acquired with California. While it appears that the population of the free States has gained steadily upon the population of the slave States, during the period of sixty years, from 1790 to 1850, it appears also that the gain has not been either large, < •• increasing. It was less in the last decade than in the preceding decade. It may prove, during the current decade, to fall far short of the views of those who believe that the numbers of the free State.r. are swelling with resist- less rapidity beyond the numbers of the slave States. Undoubtedly, the gre^T h of Virginia and the Caro- linas is slow, but it i& not so slow as it was thirty- years ago. Undoubtedly, the Northwest is swelling its population at a prodigious rate, but so also is the Southwest. The political weight of the slave States in the American Confederacy, measured by numbers, has diminished during two generations, but only gradually, and almost imperceptibly, and is still great and formidable. The increase of numbers in those States, viewed as a whole, although less than in the free States, has been rapid and uninterrupted. Their population is three times that of all the States at the epoch of American Independence ; and it is not wonderful, looking to their absolute numbers, their prospective increase, the extent and magnifi- cence of the territory which they occupy, and the magnitude of their industrial resources, that a con- sciousness of power should incite them to schemes of further aggrandizement and more extended ambi- tion. It may be presumed that the natural increase of the white population of the slave States, being almost exclusively agricultural, is greater than the increase of the population of the free States, a large and augmenting proportion of which reside in cities. Indeed, without assuming this to be so, it will be difficult to understand why the relative gain of the free States has been so little, considering that they receive the great bulk of the foreign immigration, and considering, also, that the balance of the move- ment of population between the free and slave States has always been largely in favor of the former. The census of 1850 found 609,371 persons living in the free States, who were born in the slave States, and only 206,638 persons living in the slave States, who were born in the free States. The same census found 1,866,397 persons of foreign birth living in the free States, and only 378,205 persons of foreign birth living in the slave States. It is apparent that the superior increase of white population in the free States is not so exclusively attributable to foreign immigration as it is frequently said to be. It was less during the decade from 1840 to 1850 than at any time during the last half cen- tury, and yet the foreign immigration between 1840 and 1850 was vastly larger than ever before. From 6 1800 to 1810, with an inconsiderable foreign immi- gration, the white population of the free States gained upon that of the slave States more rapidly than in any other decade, with a single exception. If the free States are able to possess themselves of territories within the genial latitudes, so as to add the attractions of climate to those of their institu- tions, their accessions of numbers from the slave States will continue to constitute an important element of their increase. Turning now from a consideration of the advance of population, to the consideration of the territorial progress made by the free and slave States since 1790, it will be found that the relative position of the latter has been well sustained. Occupying 295,965 square miles of territory in 1790, they occu- pied in 1850, including Texas, 851,508 square miles, and excluding Texas, 614,004 square miles. In the same space of time, the territory of the free States had expanded from 166,358 square miles, to 612,597 square miles, including California, and to 456,617 square miles, excluding California. The slaveholding population had founded nourishing States west of the Mississippi, before the free population had reached that river. Missouri had been several years admitted into the Union, while Iowa remained wholly unoc- cupied. On the Gulf of Mexico, the slaveholding population, a generation ago, overleaping the bound- aries of the Confederacy, had passed the Sabine, and was advancing upon the Rio Grande. To vast accessions beyond the exterior limits of its occupancy in 1790, it had, within those limits, possessed itselt of the immense Territories once held by independent Indian nations in the States of North Carolina, Ten- nessee, and Georgia. In truth, the genius, the apt- itudes, and the habits of a slaveholding people, all point to territorial expansion. In free communi- ties, and especially in modern times, there is a tendency to the growth of cities and to density of population, so that increase of numbers does not necessarily require an increase of the space occupied. In the Southern States, confined to agriculture by negro slavery, space must be enlarged with numbers, and indeed in a greater ratio, because agriculture, as conducted under that system, continually requires new soils by exhausting old ones. The people of Virginia and the Carolinas would have been forced to emigration, had their population remained station- ary. Under the double pressure of increasing pop- ulation and diminishing resources, their people have been driven forth in vast and unprecedented num- bers. With an equal emigration, the slave-State popula- tion would spread over twice as much new territory as the free-State population. In 1850, the slave States contained eleven persons and three-tenths to the square mile, while the free States contained twenty-one persons and nine-tenths to the square mile. It is sometimes said that freedom is quick and nimble in its movements, while slavery is heavy and cumbersome ; that the free laborer will outstrip the slaveholder in the race for new lands ; and that if the territories of the Union are thrown open to unem- barrassed competition, the free States will win at least that proportion which is due to their numbers. 8 This may be a pleasing delusion, but it is a very shal- low one. In free communities, property becomes fixed in edifices, in machinery, and in improvements of the soil. In slave communities, there is scarcely any property except slaves, and they are easily movable. The freeman embellishes his home ; the slaveholder finds nothing to bind him to soils which he has exhausted. Freedom is enterprising, but not migratory, as slavery is. It is not in the nature of slavery to become attached to place. It is nomadic. The slaveholder leaves his impoverished fields with as little reluctance as the ancient Scythian aban- doned cropped pastures for fresh ones, and slaves are moved as readily as flocks and herds. Whether or not slavery be aggressive and ambitious, it is, beyond peradventure, restless, movable, and ever ready to enlarge its borders. So far, in the history of this country, the slave States have maintained that superiority in extent of territory over the free States, which they possessed when our Government was organized. This superiority they will probably retain during a long period of time, if we exclude from view our Pacific possessions, which formed no part of our original system, and whose permanent attachment to it is neither certain, nor essential. Advancing in population, if not so rapidly as the free States, nevertheless, at a rate of progress without precedent in any other age, or country; advancing in territorial enlargement even more rapidly than the free States; the slave States nave been also able to maintain the vigor and dominancy of their peculiar institution along their whole north- ern line, where it was menaced by the competition 9 and antagonism of free labor. It was the expressed opinion of Washington, in 1795, that Maryland and Virginia could not long delay the measure of eman- cipation, of which Pennsylvania had set the example. The predicted event, after the lapse of two genera- tions, appears, to the superficial view, as distant as ever. Virginia, in sentiment and feeling, if not in interest, is more stubbornly slaveholding than ever before. So also is the Maryland which Washington, knew, and of which he spoke; the agricultural and planting Maryland, upon Chesapeake Bay, and upon the navigable Potomac. The principal foothold which free labor has in Maryland has been acquired since "Washington's time, in the newly-risen city of Baltimore; and even there, it has not yet found an effective voice. While advancing south and west with giant strides, the slave States have yielded no inch of their northern frontier. Spreading to the Gulf of Mexico, passing the Mississippi, and reaching even to the Rio Grande, they hold with an unshaken grasp the waters of the Chesapeake Bay; and beyond the mountains, their ranks, along the whole southern shore of the Ohio, are this clay firm, unbroken, and bristling with defiant strength. Suc- cumbing slowly to an inevitable fortune, and long postponing what they cannot forever avert, they have so far preserved a political power, strong enough, by its compactness, its unity of purpose, and the skillfulness of its direction, to control a great Eepublic. Prompt to appreciate the genius of their system, they have thus far found in terri- torial expansion, and in the constant appropriation of new soils, the means at once of preserving the 10 vigor of their own institutions, and of partially coun- terbalancing the growth of population in the free States. This policy they will pursue hereafter, as they have pursued it heretofore, with undiminished energy. The races which lie in the path of their natural movement, will of themselves prove feeble barriers to a power, which, in two generations, has strided over half a continent. The men who have controlled the fortunes of negro slavery to the present day, have seemed to find in fresh difficulties only new occasions for illustrating their enterprise, their resources, and their audacity. History will not be fairly written, if it does not acknowledge their admin- istrative vigor, their largeness of comprehension, and their unshaken steadiness of purpose. Most deeply is it to be deplored, that these high qualities, instead of being directed to the extension and perpetuation of a system inherently unsound, had not been mani- fested in efforts to displace it safely, gradually, and peacefully, by one more in harmony with the econ- omy, the ethics, and the manners, of an enlightened age. CHAPTER H. Considerations rendering it probable that slavery will cease to exist in Missouri. Connection between slavery and the prices of land. Missouri at present more inviting to the free emigrant than Vir- ginia. Commanding position of Missouri. Although the relative gain in population of the free over the slave States, in any single decade 11 between 1790 and 1850, is not heavy, yet it occurs at each decade, and the aggregate effect of the whole sixty years is large. In 1790, the total population was nearly equal in the two classes of States, being 1,968,452 in the free States, and 1,961,375 in the slave States. In 1850, the population of the slave States had increased to 9,651,500, while that of the free States had increased to 13,526,302, which is an excess of forty per cent. The future gain of the free States, resulting from the same causes, is not likely to be in a less ratio hereafter. In addition to this, it may reasonably be anticipated that some States now maintaining the institution of slavery will rid themselves of it, thus adding still more rapidly to the political ascendency of the free States. To do so in Delaware, only requires that legislative form should be given to a substantially existing fact; while it seems probable that the actual course of events is rapidly accomplish- ing the same result in Missouri. To predict any- thing of Virginia and Maryland, might only be to repeat the mistake of General "Washington in 1795. We may pronounce upon the interests of mankind. It is more difficult to gauge their passions and an- ticipate their follies. In considering this matter, so interesting to the free States as communities, and to free labor in all the States, it must be observed that the question of emancipation in Missouri, and 'the probabilities of emancipation in Missouri, are altogether different from the same question and the same probabilities in Maryland and Virginia, or even in Kentucky. 12 That Missouri emancipates her slaves, if she shall determine to do so, will not much tend to increase the probability, by parity of facts or analogy of reasoning, that Virginia, or Maryland, or Kentucky, will do the same thing. The predicaments are not the same, and the cases will be governed, if even with the same results, by widely variant causes. It is one thing to establish slavery by law : that is, to make slavery lawful; quite another thing to cause it to exist in fact. Missouri, with an area of 67,380 square miles, was admitted into the Union, with a Constitution establishing slavery, immedi- ately after the census of 1820, which found within its limits a slave population of only 10,222, against a free population of 56,364. It was plain, that the destiny of so vast an area was not fixed by numbers so insignificant, and that it remained to be determined by the course of events, and especially by the char- acter of future immigration. In climate and pro- ductions, Missouri is equally adapted to slave and free labor, and its local position invites settlement equally from the free and slave States. The actual progress of its population has been as follows : Year. Total Population. Slaves. 1820 66,586 10,222 1830 140,455 25,091 1840 - 383,702 58,240 1850 ------ 682,044 87,422 1856 ------ 903,599 100,115 The figures for 1856 are taken from newspaper re- ports of the census of that year, but are presumed to be substantially accurate. 13 In the first decade, the proportion of slaves in- creased. Since 1830, it has steadily declined; so that they now constitute only one-ninth of the total population. The admission of Missouri into the Union having been attended by a fierce controversy, terminating in the triumph of the slaveholding in- terest, it was natural that free immigration should at first he repelled, while the owners of slave labor would as naturally be inclined to proceed to reduce their conquest to possession. Since 1830, a more southerly direction has been given to slave labor, by the development of the cotton culture, by the re- moval of Indians from the Gulf States, and by the acquisition of Texas. But although the proportion of slaves diminished from 1830 to 1850, their abso- lute numbers increased perceptibly faster than their natural increase, so that they must have still contin- ued to be brought in from abroad. Since 1850, they have only maintained their natural increase, and no more can have been brought iu than have been car- ried out. On the other hand, all circumstances favor an advancing ratio in the increase of the free popu- lation. The great westward movement of the emi- gration from the free States, in the path of which lies Missouri, is now in full flood. Missouri is projected north to the parallel of forty degrees thirty minutes, and fronts Illinois. On the north, Iowa has sprung into existence within twenty years, and already teems with people. On the west is Kansas, destined to be a free State, if all the omens be not fallacious. On the south is Arkansas, a slave State indeed, but a slave-buying and not a slave-breeding State. Ar- kansas will attract slaves and slaveholders from Mis- 14 souri, rather than furnish them to her. The now evident insecurity of the tenure of slavery in Mis- souri will repel the further immigration of slave- holders, while the dawning prospect of freedom will invite free labor. In large portions of Missouri, slavery has never existed to any important extent. The counties adjoining Iowa, ten in number, contained, in 1856, 57,255 whites, and only 871 slaves. Of the one hundred and seven counties, ninety-five, occupying four-fifths of the area of the State, contained, in 1856, 669,921 whites, and only 57,471 slaves, or nearly twelve to one. In twenty-five of these coun- ties, there was an absolute decrease of the number of slaves from 1850 to 1856. In the whole ninety- five counties, the increase of slaves in that period was only 2,264. Slavery is not strong, and has never been so, except in twelve counties in the centre of the State, embracing about one-fifth of its area, and lying principally upon the Missouri river. It was in these counties that the principal increase of slaves occurred between 1850 and 1856. Their population at those periods was as follows : Year. Whites. Slaves. 1850 108,559 32,414 1856 129,983 42,644 In two of these counties, Lafayette and Howard, (strange desecration of names !) the absolute increase of slaves was 2,276, while that of the whites was only 1,243, the per centage of increase being still more largely in favor of the slaves. This is slavery 15 in high vigor, but not in its highest vigor. To witness that, we must visit those numerous portions of the Gulf States, in which, while slaves increase, the number of freemen absolutely diminishes, the white man being expatriated and extirpated to make room for the negro. If it be assumed, as it probably should be, that slaves are sufficiently numerous in these twelve counties to enable the slaveholding. interest to sacri- fice everything to itself, it should be observed that they embrace but a fifth part of the area of the State, although its choicest agricultural portion, less than a fifth part of the total population, and considerably less than a fifth part of the white population. Their increase of population also, is, and must continue to be, less than that of the four-fifths of the State in which free-labor interests predominate.* It has been proved to be true in the history of this country, that where those who own and cultivate the soil by slave labor are confronted by those who, bred in the habits and with the education of free communities, own and cultivate the soil with their own hands, the planter retires before the farmer, slowly, perhaps, but invariably. The fact is notice- able along the whole line which separates Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, from the free States. With- out intending at present to comment upon all the causes which lie at the bottom of this fact, it is sufficient to observe, that the system of small free- holds and of free labor gives a value to land, which * The writer is indebted for many of these facts and views to an able speech delivered in the Missouri Legislature, 1857, by Hon. B. Gratz Brown. 16 puts it out of the reach of the slave-owner, or induces him to dispose of what he possesses. The dispro- portion in the price of land in the free and slave States is enormous. Undoubtedly, it is an objection (although greatly overrated) to the holding of slaves in the border counties of Maryland and Virginia, that they have opportunities to escape. But if slaves were ever so secure, the high and advancing price of land must be a constant inducement to the slave- holder occupying it, to dispose of his interest in the soil to those who are enabled, by a different econom- ical system, to pay more for it than it is worth to him. The slaveholder yields to this inducement, and withdraws to localities where the valuation of lands and slaves enables them to be worked in combination with profit. If slavery was again legal- ized in Pennsylvania, it could not possess itself of the agriculture of that State. The high prices of farming land would effectually repel it. If the returns of the census of 1850 arc reliable, while the average value of farms per acre in the free States was $19.83, it was in the slave States only $6.18, or less than one-third. In the border slave States, it was $9.25; in the other slave States, omit- ting Louisiana, it averaged only $3.74. In the two counties of Delaware adjacent to Penn- sylvania and New Jersey, and having one per cent, of the population slaves, it was $31.59. In the remain- ing county, having six per cent, of slaves, it was $7.79. In the counties of Maryland adjoining Pennsyl- vania, having five per cent, of slaves, it was $29.63. In the remaining counties, having about forty per cent, of slaves, it was $13.83. IT In the counties of Virginia adjoining Pennsyl- vania, and having but a trifling per centage of slaves, although the lands are poor and mountain- ous, it was $12.98. In the remaining counties in the State, it was $8.42. The following were the prices per acre in the States and counties named, and the per centage of slaves in Kentucky and the counties named : Value Per cent, per acre, of slaves. Ohio $19.99 Indiana ----- 10.66 Illinois 7.99 Kentucky 9.03 22 Ohio counties adjoining Kentucky - 32.34 Kentucky counties adjoining Ohio - 18.27 10 Indiana counties adjoining Kentucky 11.34 Kentucky counties adjoining Indiana 10.44 21 Illinois counties adjacent to Kentucky 4.65 Kentucky counties adjacent to Illinois 4.54 18 It seems that in 1850 the prices of land in Indiana and Illinois were not materially different from prices in Kentucky, either over the general area of those States, or in the border counties. As a consequence, Kentucky was able to maintain its general average of slaves on the line adjoining Indiana and Illinois. On the other hand, a relatively high price of land in the border counties of Ohio is found, in connec- tion with less than half the average of slaves in the adjacent part of Kentucky. Free labor from Indiana and Illinois was not attracted to Kentucky, as it was from Ohio, by relatively lower prices of land. "When the prices of land in Indiana and Illi- 18 nois have advanced to the general average of the free States, as they may have done since 1850, free labor will pass from them to Kentucky, as it has from Ohio, and the ratio of slaves in the adjacent portions of Kentucky must recede. It is an essential condition, however, of the tri- umph of free labor over slave labor, in a contest for the possession of the soil, that the free labor should have had the training of free communities. In such a contest, the non-slaveholders of the South, who as a class (of course, with many exceptions) are shift- less, thriftless, ignorant, and degraded, are no match for the slaveholders. In the old slave States, they do not enter upon such a contest at all, and aspire as little to the ownership of acres as they do to the ownership of slaves. If, escaping into the new slave States, tlicw enjoy a temporary freedom, and even attain the dignity of freeholders, they are soon fol- lowed by their old masters, and reduced to their ancient condition. These observations are, of course, to be applied only to the non-slaveholders of those portions of the South in which slavery is dominant. There are other portions of the South in which sla- very scarcely exists, and which are substantially free communities, with a sturdy and vigorous yeomanry. The following has been the progress of population in Tennessee: Year. Whites. Slaves. 1790 - • - - 32,013 3,417 1800 91,709 13,584 1810 215,875 44,535 1820 339,927 80,107 1830 535,746 141,603 19 1840 640,627 183,059 1850 756,836 239,459 Kentucky had, in 1790, 61,133 whites to 11,830 slaves; in 1850, 761,413 whites to 210,981 slaves. In both these States, the slaveholders have pos- sessed themselves of all the land and all the wealth of every kind. The whites have been constantly driven out, and the proportion of slaves has been constantly increasing. The condition of things in Alabama was eloquently described in an address, published in 1856, by Hon. C. C. Clay, jun., United States Senator from that State. Mr. Clay says : " Our wealthier farmers, with greater means and ' no more skill, are buying out their poorer neighbors, ' extending their slave plantations, and adding to their ■ slave force. The wealthy few, who are able to live ' on smaller profits, and to give their blasted fields ' some rest, are thus pushing off the many who are 6 merely independent. Of the $20,000,000 annually ' realized from the sale of the cotton crop of Alabama, 6 nearly all not expended in supporting the producers, * is re-invested in land and negroes. Thus the white 'population has decreased and the slave increased ' 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, 6 once the abode of industrious and intelligent free- i men, now occupied by slaves, or tenantless, deserted, ' and dilapidated ; he will observe fields, once fertile, 4 now unfenced, abandoned, and covered with those * evil harbingers, foxtail and. broom sedge ; he will see 4 the moss growing on the mouldering walls of once 1 thrifty villages, and will find ' one only master grasps * the whole domain,' that once furnished happy homes 1 for a dozen white families. Indeed, a county in its 20 ■ infancy, where fifty years ago scarce a forest tree ■ had been felled by the axe of the pioneer, is already ■ exhibiting the painful signs of sterility and decay, 'apparent in Virginia and the Carolinas." Facts like these, which are multiplied in the his- tory of this country, have produced a belief that black slavery once planted is ineradicable, and that sooner or later it will accomplish its complete work, the expulsion and destruction of the white man, and substitute the negro in his place. There is, how- ever, a sufficient number of facts, of a contrary char- acter, in the border counties of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, in the vicinity of the city of Wash- ington, and elsewhere, to induce us to pause before accepting so melancholy a conclusion. A closer ex- amination will show, that these conflicting phenom ena arise out of substantially diverse conditions. Free labor, intelligent, educated, animated by the impulse of acquiring property, and trained to habits of thrift, is an overmatch for slave labor; but where free labor is nearly destitute of these qualities, and it is sometimes wholly so, it succumbs in the strug- gle. That it triumphs, or is defeated, under one set of conditions, does not warrant the conclusion that it will triumph, or be defeated, under another set of conditions. If it might be true that half a million of English* paupers, with the habits, physical, intel- lectual, and moral, induced by long ages of pauper- ism, if they could be supposed to be transferred to Texas, would there be overcome and rooted out 1 >y the advancing tide of slaveholders; it by no means follows, that the same fate awaits the thriving Ger- mans who are planting themselves in that magnifi- cent region. If those unhappy whites, who fled, 21 after the Revolutionary War, from wretchedness and degradation in North Carolina, to the wilds of Ten- nessee, have been again subdued by pursuing mas- ters ; it by no means follows that the same fate awaits the indomitable yeomanry of the free States, who may be placed, by the currents and fortunes of mi- gration, in contact with the slaveholder. The farm- ers of Vermont, or of Pennsylvania, or of Ohio, are no such antagonists as that unfortunate class of whites at the South, who, participating in none of the benefits of slavery, yet suffer its worst evils. "Wherever the owner of slave labor encounters these new and unaccustomed antagonists, he must suc- cumb, sooner or later, to their superior vigor. He can neither purchase their acres, nor even retain his own, against the ever-present temptation of the ad- vancing prices which their superior thrift enables them to offer to him. Undoubtedly, therefore, it is not a sufficient basis for assuming the escape of Missouri from slavery, that the numerical preponderance of the whites is large. That circumstance alone might be insuffi- cient. In connection, however, with the present and prospective elements and character of the popu- lation, it may be regarded as decisive. In 1850, the free persons in Missouri were divided, in respect to nativity, as follows : Born in Missouri 277,604 Other slave States 187,518 Free States -------- 55,624 Germany 45,049 Other foreign countries - - - - 27,425 22 Of those born in Missouri, a considerable propor- tion must have escaped the most blighting effects of slavery, which has had, at no period, a firm and established hold upon the State. Of the immigrants living in it in 1850, more than two-fifths were born in free communities. Of the immigrants now living in it, probably a majority were born in free commu- nities; and circumstances may be supposed, which may direct thither a current of free emigration, powerful enough to sweep away all barriers existing to its course. Of the 41,623,680 acres of land in Missouri, there had been disposed of, by sales, grants, and confirm- ations of private claims, as late as June 30, 1853, only 18,900,869 acres. There remained undisposed of, and still the property of the United States, 22,722,811 acres. It was not possible, in the recent and present condition of things in the adjacent free States, that this great body of fertile lands, in a genial climate, should escape the vigilant attention of individual interests. When lands had been car- ried up to ten and twenty dollars per acre in Illinois and Iowa, they could not remain at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre in Missouri ; and the price of a large part of the public lands in Missouri had been reduced even lower than that by the Gradua- tion Act of 1854. The current information of the day is, that the land offices in that State are besieged by competing applicants, and that there is even now scarcely a sufficiency of land for the insatiable demand. When the whole of the soil shall have become private property, as less than half of it was in 1853, the inducement to expel slavery, which 23 results from its depreciating effect upon the value and price of land, will be doubled. If the direction of free immigration is influenced by political considerations, as it legitimately may be, Missouri is a much more inviting point than either Maryland, or Virginia. In area, it nearly equals them both; it surpasses them both in agricultural capacities ; and even in mineral resources, by which they are specially distinguished, it is not inferior to them. In representative population, estimated by the rule of the Federal Constitution, it will approx- imate closely to Virginia at the census of 1860. If it becomes a free State, it will, at the census of 1870, outnumber Virginia and Maryland combined. In position, it is admirable. It is the gate of the high- way to the Great West beyond the Mississippi, while its command of the river, from which it derives its name, gives it a transcendent geographical import- ance. If free institutions become predominant upon the Missouri, as they already are upon the Ohio, their political and commercial control over the lower Mississippi is assured and immovable ; and the poli- ticians who are endeavoring to subvert the Union, are baffled for an indefinite period of time. Thus pre-eminently desirable as an acquisition to the free States, Missouri may be easily and quickly won by them ; while the regeneration of Virginia and Mary- land, by any movement originating in the free States, must be a long and difficult undertaking. If the direction of so much of the free emigration as tends to the genial latitudes, is controlled, as it mainly will be in point of fact, not by political con- siderations, but by the interests, hopes, and tastes, 24 of the individual emigrants, Missouri presents nu- merous attractions, absolutely and comparatively. If Eastern Virginia was unoccupied, and in a state of nature, it would be a wide and rich field for enter- prise and adventure. Filled as it now is with a bar- barous and degraded population, white and black, and with the fertility of its fields sapped and ex- hausted, it is far from inviting. Free immigrants there, will be for years a politically proscribed class, and will hold even their lives and property by the base tenure of hypocritical support of, or acquies- cence in, a system which they detest. In due time, the pressure from the populous North will overcome all obstacles; but it need not yet be directed to a field so repulsive. It is the strange destiny of the white race on this continent to be the gleaners after the negro. It is the negro who has extracted the virgin richness of its best soils, to be restored by the sweat and toil, the brain and muscle, of the white man. In due order and progression, Hercules will perform all his labors ; but those who seek kindly skies, are not yet compelled to nerve themselves to the work of redeeming Atlantic Virginia. Missouri does not need to be redeemed, but only to be occu- pied. It offers, not blasted fields to be reclaimed, but the richest bounties of nature, still intact, and yet to be appropriated by the provident forethought and vigorous hand of the freeman. The free immi- grant will be welcomed, instead of being threatened with fire and sword, as he is by the organs of public opinion at the capital of Virginia. The great city of St. Louis has established free speech and free dis- cussion as the law of Missouri. The way lies open. 25 The problem in respect to Missouri was, and is, what institutions shall be dominant in a region, whose institutions are not yet definitely fixed. The problem in respect to Maryland and Virginia is, by what processes, through what efforts and sacrifices, and in the lapse of what period, States gangrened to the vitals by a fatal mischief, can be restored to health and soundness. Happy for them, if they do not present a new verification of the truth, that while diseases may be quick, remedies must be slow. CHAPTER HI. Considerations rendering it probable that the emigration from the free States, hitherto moving westward, may hereafter tend south- ward, to Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. Accumulated power of the population of the free States. No apology for slavery in the northern slave States. The right of emigration between the States. In the interval between 1790 and 1850, the slaves m the slave States increased five-fold; from 657,533 to 3,200,364. In the same interval, the whites in the free States increased seven-fold; from 1,900,976 to 13,330,650, and outnumbered the slaves more than four to one, instead of only three to one, as in 1790. The ratio of the increase of the slaves is a declining one, while that of the free States is steady, and may be an augmenting one. It is most clear, that free labor is accumulating an enormous power, for what- ever point and whatever moment the two opposing forces may come into collision. That moment has not yet arrived, and may yet be longer postponed. The territorial acquisitions of the _:- i- i* _ -.- .11 i .- - _j*--i~ ~ ~ - 1 - 1 _• •; . "1 - in~i*: .- ~n i- " 28 newspapers, proves the practicability of continuous settlements on that line quite to the limits of Cali- fornia, and the existence, on the greater part of the line, of exceedingly desirable tracts of land. Upon the whole, therefore, while it must be con- ceded, that the head of the "column of free emigra- tion, within the parallels which now circumscribe its principal movement, is in sight of the farthest west- ern limit of arable soils ; it may find outlets both to the north and to the south, and may, perhaps, even continue still west, by changing its modes of indus- try. The information we have is not exact, and leaves a wide range for probable conjectures. But it is certain, that the capabilities of the central re- gions of the continent appear thus far greater and better, as our knowledge of them is extended. But even if the western current of free emigration encounters no such absolute barrier as once seemed to threaten it in the "Great American Desert," de- lineated on the maps executed twenty-five years ago, and even if the fullness of its volume is not dimin- ished by other causes, the proportion contributed to it by the Atlantic States will undoubtedly fall off. The belt of the free States is narrow from north to south, compared with its extension in the opposite direction. From the city of New York to the line of Kansas and Nebraska is nearly fifteen hundred miles. Distances so vast must check even the mi- gratory adventure of modern times. Other things being at all equal, men will prefer to confine their wanderings within a range which will enable them oftener and easier to revisit their kindred and the scenes of their youth. Kansas will be filled, and 29 Nebraska will be filled, and so even will be our most distant possessions upon the Pacific. Nevertheless, if not repelled by a peculiar institution, the emigra- tion from the Northern Atlantic seaboard would more naturally have directed itself upon Maryland, and Virginia, and Kentucky. It is often said that there is a tendency in emigration to keep within the latitudes of its sources. The truth is, the tendency of northerly races is to move southward, attracted by a more gorgeous flora, brighter suns, and balmier airs. This is the natural tendency everywhere, and it has only been checked in its operation here by exceptional causes. So, also, there is a tendency in races born and bred in proximity to the ocean, to remain near it. Accustomed to the food which it furnishes, and to its invigorating breezes, wonted to its sights and to its sounds, it is with reluctance that they seek homes in the heart of a continent. The denizen of Cape Cod does not willingly transfer himself to the wilds of Nebraska. The great man who built his tomb at Marshfield, within the sound of the ocean's surge, only acknowledged a common New England instinct. The navigators and fisher- men of the North, following the coast, would now swarm upon the waters of Chesapeake Bay, and would have penetrated all its rivers and creeks and inlets, palaces would have commanded all its pros- pects, and wealth and taste would have enhanced all its natural beauties, but for the repelling presence of the African race. The motives thus far suggested, to dissuade the emigration from the Atlantic free States from a fur- ther westward progress, and to divert it southward, 30 are connected with, matters of mere feeling and sen- timent. They are not less real, and will not be less efficient, on that account. They are enforced, more- over, by considerations of obvious and tangible in- terest. If the extreme west now reached is to be principally agricultural, as it probably will be for a long period, its remoteness from market imposes a tax of transportation, which, at ordinary prices, must reduce profits to a minimum standard, or destroy them altogether. "Whenever the raising of wheat for the New York or foreign markets can be profit- able in Nebraska, it must be enormously so in East- ern Virginia. If stock growers can realize money across the Mississippi, they can realize more money in the fine grazing region on the south side of the Ohio. Distance from market is a permanent draw- back upon the intrinsic value of lands; and not the less so, because under temporary excitements it does not always affect their price. It would be impossible that emigration westward from the Atlantic States should not be checked, at some point, by mere re- moteness, even if good lands still invited onwards. The inducement to turn southward to regions upon the Atlantic, or in available communication with it, must continually gain in power, and in no long time become decisive. Not the least of the attractions which now draw population across the Mississippi are the disposal of the public lands at prices lower than either their real or market value, and the prior right of purchase secured to actual occupants. The temptation of securing Government lands at one dollar and a quarter per acre proves irresistible. The pre-emp- 31 tors have become so numerous as to absorb the whole public domain, the settlements keeping pace with the surveys. This is what is now going on in Kansas, in Nebraska, and Minnesota; and it u what will continue, until the Government ceases to be a land proprietor, in so much of those regions as is 4 present desirable for occupation. When that period, not now remote, arrives, land will he obtainable there only at market prices. There will no longer be a bounty offered to settlers. Emigrants wdl no longer cross the Mississippi to occupy lands artin- cially cheapened in price. Not only are the public lands m the Western States disposed of at less than their actual and market value, hut those States are provided with immense lines of railroads, constructed out ot the proceeds of these lands, and not only without expense to themselves, but actually contributing largely towards their public charges. In this way, Illinois received a railroad of seven hundred miles, the entire cost of which is met by lands granted by the United States; and it is supposed that the tax agreed to be paid by the road to the State, will soon equal the entire support of its Government. Similar grants, and from which similar results are not unrea- sonably expected, have been made to other Western States. They are not here referred to, with the intention of expressing any opinion as to their pro- priety or impropriety, but as constituting one of the causes which just now give to the emigration from the free States on the Atlantic, a western rather than a southern direction. When the public lands available for settlement in 32 the Western States are sold and granted, an unnat- ural and disturbing influence upon the value of property and the movement of population will cease to exist; and they will both be governed by the principles which ordinarily and permanently control them. The unoccupied lands in the free States, east of the Mississippi, which are now in little request in some of them, will become objects of demand; and the tendency of the free population to press upon the northern tier of slave States will become strong, and finally irresistible. The population of the free States, if it augments during the current decade in the same ratio as in the last, and the ratio will probably be higher, will amount, in 1860, to 18,805,015. Deducting the numbers which may be assumed for Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and California, there will be left for the free States east of the Mississippi a population of about seventeen millions, compressed upon an area of 405,703 square miles. As compared with the area and population and numbers to the square mile of the free States in 1790, this area is less than two and a half times greater, while the population will be more than eight and a half times greater, and there will be forty-six persons and three- tenths, instead of eleven persons and eight-tenths, to the square mile. The hive is becoming filled, and preparing to pour forth its swarms — " A multitude, like which the populous North Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass Rhine or the Danaw." The forces of nature act in silence and unobserved, and by imperceptible degrees. So succeed to each 33 other the revolving seasons ; so advance and recede the tides ; so waxes and wanes the vital energy of nations and of men. It is only after the lapse of time that we mark the expanding tree, which yet ceases not to grow, either by day or in the stillness of the night. So unnoticed, so by inappreciable accretions, and so measured only at intervals, has arisen this population of the free States, now assu- ming such vast proportions. The child has become a man, and has the thews and muscles of a giant. Eo such mass of moral, intellectual, or even physi- cal power, has ever been found before, in one polit- ical combination, in the history of man. Bodily strength is no longer the only physical power. Machinery is physical power. Accumulated capital is physical power. Science is physical power. Skill is physical power. Measured by all true tests, the educated and intelligent millions of the free States make up an aggregate of strength, without a paral- lel since the world began. The strong man cannot be bound with withes. The population of the free States, increasing and multiplying, will demand outlets, and will obtain outlets, in the direction of any system less vigorous than their own ; which is only saying, that in politi- cal dynamics, the greater force will overcome the less. As they cease to pass the Mississippi, they will begin to pass the Ohio and the Potomac. An inferior civilization must give room to that which is superior. It ought not to be tolerated, that eight hundred thousand black slaves should, by their presence in Maryland, and Virginia, and Kentucky, exclude five times that number of skillful and intel- 34 ligent white artisans and farmers from the North. Not only ought it not to he tolerated, hut it will not he tolerated. When the white artisans and farmers want the room which the African occupies, they will take it, not by rude force, hut by gentle and gradual and peaceful processes. The negro will disappear, perhaps to regions more congenial to him, perhaps to regions where his labors can be made more use- ful, perhaps by some process of colonization which charity may yet devise ; but, at all events, he will dis- appear. It is not more certain that the native Indian recedes before the Anglo-Saxon, than that rude labor will recede before skilled labor; and slave labor, the slave being an African, can never be anything but labor of the rudest description. Strangely enough, it has ceased to be the national fashion in America to say anything in praise of free- dom. No " Odes to freedom" are composed, or sung, in modern times, except by those who are content to turn their backs upon all hopes of political advance- ment. The very name of freedom has become a hissing, a by-word, and a reproach. The Poets Lau- reate are at the court and in the service of slavery. Upon the altars of that idol, at once hideous and grotesque, smoke the fattest burnt offerings, and the richest incense ascends daily. And yet how mean, and squalid, and poverty-stricken, and bar- barous a thing slavery is, in contrast with that free- dom which America this day disdains and disowns, but to which she owes all her greatness and all her glory, her fertile fields, her teeming workshops, her stately ships, her thronged cities, her arts, her gen- ius, and her culture. The intrinsic vigor of freedom, 35 however, is not impaired by the refusal of men to acknowledge it ; nor does a wretched idol become a true divinity, because men choose to worship it. "When the trial of strength between freedom and slavery is made along the line between the free and slave States, we shall see in which force are embod- ied the elements of permanent ascendency. The climate of Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, is salubrious, and perfectly adapted to the white man. It is much more so, indeed, than that of New England. In respect to health, it is the most desi- rable zone in the United States. There is no exces- sive heat to prevent the performance of labor by white men. Certain cultivations in certain localities cannot be carried on without the negro, as that of rice in the Carolinas. Of no part of this northern tier of slave States, and of no cultivation now, or ever carried on in them, is this true. The negro is not needed, and must give way when the white race de- mand the room which he occupies. The gradual withdrawal of slavery from Mary- land, and Virginia, and Kentucky, was, until lately, regarded on all hands as not only inevitable, but de- sirable. The annexation of Texas was made palata- ble to the North by the belief that the movement of slavery southward would thereby be hastened. [See Appendix A.] It is only recently that the mainte- nance of slavery in the temperate latitudes has been desired ; and this, not with reference to the economi- cal necessities or advantages of the system, but with reference to considerations of political power. It was from this new view of things, founded upon Mr. Calhoun's notion of a balance of power between the free and slave States, that the introduction of slavery into Kansas was desired. That movement has failed, although hacked by the patronage, and even by the arms, of the Government of the United States. Freedom, under every conceivable and in- conceivable disadvantage, is proving itself too strong for slavery in Kansas, and will yet upset all theories of an equality of power, by taking possession of the Potomac and of the southern side of the Ohio. The higher civilization in the United States, based upon free labor, advancing at a rate of progression more rapid than that of the lower civilization of slavery, has attained a superiority of power too overwhelming to be held in restraint by paper checks and balances. The right of the people of each State to emigrate freely into other States, and enjoy all the privileges of citizenship in them, is among the fundamental rights secured by the Constitution of the United States. " The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all priv- 1 ileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." It is this right which makes us one people in point of law, and it is the exercise of this right which, as much as anything else, makes us one people in point of fact. The right of a citizen of Maine to acquire and occupy lands in Virginia is as perfect, as inde- feasible, as strictly a birthright, rests upon as ample considerations, and depends as little upon favor, as does his right to occupy and acquire lands at home. In that respect, the States constitute but one coun- try, of which the liberties were won and are still defended by the common efforts of all, and are equally open, in every part, to the common possession 37 of all. Freedom of emigration is constitutionally as complete and sacred as freedom of trade. If it is one of the advantages of the Union that the produc- tions of each State are entitled to unobstructed markets in every other, it is equally one of its advantages that the citizens of each State are enti- tled, in any State to which their pleasure or interest may attract them, to every privilege and immunity of citizenship therein. When, in due time, the movement across the Mississippi having spent its force, and the more immediately inviting field of the State of Missouri having been occupied, the free emigration shall direct itself upon Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, it will then move with such an ample volume, and will promise such immediate and present good, that it will be welcomed, rather than obstructed. It is the movement in masses of white labor into Missouri which has excited the inquiry, whether black labor may not be dispensed with; and the same thing will happen elsewhere. It is possible that a State may hold on to an inferior population, from the want of power to substitute anything in its place; but no State will resist a change for the better, which is offered for its acceptance. Men may lack the energy or the wisdom to improve their own condition, but it is rarely that they will resist improvements which come without demanding their agency. At this moment, even in Virginia, it is by no means certain that a majority would not welcome, a free immigra- tion, although moved by the avowed purpose of expelling slavery. "What the real wishes of Virginia are, cannot safely be concluded from the violence 38 and clamors of politicians. It is now evident that a large part of the people of Missouri are disinclined to slavery, desirous of being rid of it themselves, and not at all anxious to force it upon others. The appearance of pro-slavery unanimity, which Missouri was made to assume in 1854, 1855, and 1856, it is now evident, was altogether deceptive. A few noisy and energetic men were able to pass themselves off as representing the whole community, because their opponents, from motives more or less creditable, saw fit to be silent. What, it is quite certain, has happened in Missouri, may now be true of Virginia. Richmond may as little reflect the true voice of Virginia, as Platte county did the true voice of Missouri. In Richmond, slaves constitute the lead- ing article of merchandise, and of political capital slavery constitutes nearly the whole. "We must not mistake the humors of such a locality for the judg- ment of a State. But whether welcome or unwelcome, facilitated or obstructed, the movement of free emigration upon the northern tier of slave States will be irresistible when it is made ; and the period of its commence- ment is not remote. The free States, which have so far gained political power slowly, and only by the superior growth of their own population, will advance with rapid strides, as soon as they begin to make acquisitions from the ancient seats of slavery. Territorial enlargement, the traditional, and as yet successful, policy of the slave States, will avail them nothing, when, no longer able to protect their rear while advancing to new conquests, their losses at home counterbalance their gains abroad. 39 CHAPTEE IV. Slave society stationary. Impossibility of improvement of the non- slaveholding whites. Tendency of slavery to expel the -white race. Example of South Carolina. Slavery predominant in some por- tions of Virginia, and freedom in others. Non-slaveholding whites in slave countries have no capacity to become artisans and build up towns. Slaveholders will never give up slavery. There are no internal elements of change in slave society, when it is once established. The slaves are held to their existing condition by force ; the mas- ters are confined to old pursuits by the want of flex- ibility and adaptability in the character of the labor which they control, and upon the proceeds of which they subsist. The non-slaveholding whites are sunk into abject poverty, and must so remain, without means or hope of escape. " The fieh"> said General Marion, and in those few words he sketched the whole workings of slavery, "have no need of the poor, because they have their own slaves to do their work."* "Without employment and without wages, how can the poor whites better their condition? How can they form those habits of labor without which ac- quisition is impossible? How, in short, can they be *In his Essay on Population, published in 1*751, Dr. Benjamin Franklin says: "The negroes brought into the English sugar islands 1 have greatly diminished the whites there; the poor are by this means 1 deprived of employment, while a few families acquire vast estates. ' The northern colonies, having few slaves, increase in whites." In the Connecticut Act of 1*7 7 4, prohibiting the importation of slaves, the same view is adopted, slavery being declared to be "injurious to the poor." 40 anything but what they are, sunk in the ignorance and indolence of savage life; obtaining the means of a scanty support, or of vicious indulgence, by hunting, or fishing, by occasional jobs, or by partici- pation in the pilferings of slaves ; destitute of prop- erty, and only permitted to occupy, as squatters, such waste and sterile spots as the lords of the soil aban- don to their use, because unprofitable for slave cul- tivation ? There are no elements of recuperation in such a class, and under such circumstances. They are driven off in large numbers by the pressure of absolute want, while those who remain cease to struggle with their lot, and are even made use of, by exciting their prejudices of race and color, as the de- fenders and supporters of a system of things under which they are the chief sufferers. It is not out of such materials as this, that can arise a thoughtful, provident, and thrifty yeomanry, which can dispute the ownership of the soil with those who control slave labor. Cheap and easily acquired as lands have been and still are in Southern Maryland and Eastern Virginia, the opportunities they offer to free and intelligent labor, for the acquisition of freehold independence and competency, have never been im- proved, and never will be, by the non-slaveholding native whites. If the planter ever yields to the farm- er, it must be by the infusion of new stock from Eu- rope, or from the ^Torth. Redemption must come from without. There are no elements of it within. Mr. Webster is reported to have said, that it was the part of wisdom to found government upon property. With less offence, he might have affirmed, that as a matter of fact, in any community which is civilized, 41 and in which private possessions are secure from vi- olence, property is the most commanding of the so- cial forces. Its dominancy is absolute and perfect, where no elements of personal independence exist to counterpoise it. Nowhere is its dominancy more absolute and more perfect, and at the same time more secure and less liable to successful attack, than in slave society. The want of homogeneity in the sub- jected classes, precludes the organization of resist- ance. The Austrian Emperor rules securely, because he can play off race against race, the Serf against the Magyar, the Bohemian against the Lombard ; occu- pying Italy with Hungarian regiments, and garrison- ing Vienna with Italians. Much upon the same principle does the slaveholder administer his princi- pality ; crushing the poor whites by the labor of his slaves, and yet having in these same poor whites a standing force, costing nothing to maintain it, where- withal to put down any attempted rebellion of the blacks. The serfdom of feudal times yielded, in Europe, mainly to the growth and expansion of towns, in which industry, uniting itself with skill, was able to acquire independence ; and in which there were fa- cilities of combining intelligence against the tyranny of the territorial lords. The emergence from that condition, of the agricultural population left to itself, must have been the work of vastly more difficulty and time. An improvement of an agricultural pop- ulation, from the state to which negro slavery re- duces it, seems almost impossible. Where the labors of the field are performed by feudal serfs, as they once were in Europe, society being divided into 2* 42 proprietors and laborers, the condition of the latter may be gradually improved, until it rises to entire and substantial enfranchisement. But under the system of negro slavery, we have another and fright- fully numerous class, that of the poorer whites, who, being neither proprietors, nor laborers, have no posi- tion in the social economy. They are like the Pa- riahs of India. They belong to no caste. No change, except an entire overthrow of the existing order of things, can reach them. The case is hopeless. The mischief is not merely that labor is degraded and rendered dishonorable by the existence of sla- very. Labor is absolutely destroyed by it. The possibility of earning wages, with casual and unim- portant exceptions, does not exist. " The rich have no need of the poor." A form of society, under which the physical vigor of the negro is directed and controlled by the intel- ligence of the white man, considered simply as an economical system for the production of wealth, and without reference to the morality of enslaving one set of men for the benefit of another, has some obvi- ous advantages. But the theoretical perfection of such a system requires that the proportion of whites should be no greater than is necessary for directing and coercing the blacks ; and any excess of whites above that proportion is worse than superfluous, making a class of idlers, or worse than idlers, who, in various ways, destroy or diminish the profits of the industry of others. The system, in this state of perfection, (everything good and bad has a possi- ble perfection of its own,) has existed in many of the European colonies in South America and the 43 West Indies, but never in the United States. Here, the incongruous element of poor whites, having no connection with slavery, and entirely out of place in the machinery of slave labor, has always been large, and would inevitably explode the whole sys- tem, but for the vent for them afforded by our ample Territories. It is not intended to be said, of course, that all the non-slaveholding whites of the slave States are of the class and condition here described. The truth is, that although slavery may legally exist in every part of the slave States, it does not in fact exist, or only to an extent scarcely appreciable, in considerable portions of them. In such portions, we find a class corresponding, in habits and personal independence, with the yeomanry of the free States, although with less advantages of education. It is not in such quarters, however, where slavery does not exist, that we should expect to find its effects. A plantation requires no white people, except the proprietor, the overseer, possibly a physician, and their families.* Its economy does not require the hiring of labor, white, or black; and the intercourse of poor white neighbors with the planter is limited to stealing from him, and carrying on illicit trade in rum and other prohibited indulgences with his negroes. If a State could be supposed to be made up of continuous plantations, the white race would be not merely starved out, but literally squeezed *In Solon Robinson's account, in the American Agriculturist, of the rice estate upon Jehossee Island, belonging to Gov. Aiken of South Carolina, worked by seven hundred negroes, it is stated that "the overseer is the only white man on the place, besides the owner. 11 44 out; and just so far as the system falls short of this, it falls short of attaining its perfect develop- ment. To this point it continually tends, although it may never reach it. Some soils will not support slavery, by reason of sterility, or because they require methods of cultivation and modes of occupation to which slave labor is not adapted. Of some spots, free labor gets the first possession, and is able to hold it, either by its own strength, or because slavery is drawn in other directions by more powerful induce- ments. Commercial and manufacturing interests, necessitating free labor, arise also in the slave States, although slowly; and, so far and so fast as this happens, a white population finds employment and a legitimate position. But such a population is extrinsic to slavery, and forms no part of the econ- omy of slave labor. The destruction and expulsion of the white race are the legitimate effects of the plantation system, and are in fact produced by it, just in proportion as that system is developed. In South Carolina, in 1850, there were 384,984 slaves to 274,563 whites, whereas in 1790 there were 107,094 slaves to 140,178 whites. This advance of the black race upon the white has occurred in spite of the fact, that the western part of the State is mountainous, and not adapted to slavery. In nine of its twenty-nine dis- tricts, or counties, the whites still exceed the slaves, and in some of them largely. This is more than offset, however, by the preponderance of slaves in the tide-water region. In 1850, there were in some of those districts whites and slaves, as follows : 45 . Whites. Slaves. Beaufort - - - - - 5,947 32,279 Charleston 25,208 54,775 Colleton ------ 6,775 21,375 Fairfield - 7,068 14,276 Georgetown 2,193 18,253 Kershaw ------ 4,681 9,578 Sumter 9,813 23,065 Williamsburg 3,902 8,508 The districts of Beaufort, Colleton, and George- town, with 71,907 slaves, and only 14,915 whites, exhibit the system in an advanced stage of develop- ment. Of the total number of white persons who were born in South Carolina, and who were living in 1850, only fifty-eight per cent, remained in that State. The balance, forty-two per cent., had been expelled by the slave system. In 1850, the slaves outnumbered the whites in Mississippi, and they did so in Louisiana, outside of New Orleans. They will soon do so in Alabama. In 1850, the slaves outnumbered the whites in forty- three of the one hundred and thirty-seven counties of Virginia, and largely in the following ones: Whites. Slaves. Amelia 2,785 6,819 Brunswick 4,885 8,456 Buckingham 5,426 8,161 Caroline ------ 6,891 10,661 Charlotte 4,615 8,988 Cumberland 3,082 6,329 Essex - 3,075 6,762 46 Greenville 1,731 3,785 . King William 2,701 5,731 Louisa 6,423 9,864 Nottoway 2,234 6,050 Powhatan ------ 2,513 5,282 Prince Edward - - - - 4,177 7,192 Prince George - - - - 2,670 4,408 Sussex - 3,086 5,992 It is by observing tlie progress of population in such counties that we perceive the true working of slavery. It would be entirely deceptive to view Virginia as a whole, because free labor predominates in large portions of it, slavery existing only in name, as in the following counties : Whites. Slaves. Barbour 8,670 113 Boone - 3,054 183 Braxton 4,123 89 Brooke 4,923 31 Cabell - - 5,902 389 Carroll 5,726 154 Doddridge 2,718 31 Forsyth 3,780 156 Floyd 6,001 443 Gilmer 3,403 72 Grayson - - - • - - - 6,142 499 Hancock 4,040 3 Harrison 11,213 488 Highland 3,837 364 Jackson ------- 6,480 53 Lewis- - - - - - 9,620 368 Logan - - 3,533 87 47 Marion - 10,439 94 Marshall 10,050 49 Mercer 4,018 177 Monongalia 12,092 176 Morgan 3,431 123 Nicholas 3,889 73 Ohio 17,612 164 Pendleton ------ 5,443 322 Pocahontas 3,303 267 Preston ^ - - 11,562 87 Raleigh 1,729 23 Randolph 5,003 201 Ritchie 3,886 16 Scott 9,322 473 Taylor - - 5,130 168 Tyler 5,456 38 Wayne 4,564 189 Wetzel 4,261 17 Wirt -------- 3,319 32 Wood 9,008 373 Wyoming 1,583 61 Into these Western Virginia counties slavery has not penetrated, being repelled, in some instances, perhaps, by their disagreeable proximity to free States, but mainly because of the superior attraction of the cotton and sugar regions of the Southwest. We have thus a free Virginia, as well as a slave Virginia, and it is exclusively in this latter that we are to look for the working and results of slavery. If there is little hope that in an agricultural com- munity, in which the slave system is established, the mass of the white population can be advanced to a 48 position of competence and independence ; there is quite as little hope of the growth, from any elements which such a population affords, of towns, of the mechanic arts, or of manufacturing and commer- cial interests. In the depths of their degradation, there are neither the means, nor the hope, nor scarce- ly the desire, of improvement. Capacity of labor, which is everywhere only the resnlt of use and habit, is not called into existence, and a savage and indo- lent contentment with the coarsest subsistence extin- guishes all desire of advancement. Cuba, with a large non-slaveholding white population, relies upon Europe and the Northern United States for engi- neers, machinists, and ordinary mechanics, and upon Spain for even petty shopkeepers. The " Sandhillers ' ' of South Carolina, and the " Crackers" of Georgia, as the poor whites of those States are familiarly called, never become mechanics, or artisans, or traders. Throughout the South, towns are built up only by Northern and European immigration, and without it there would be scarcely any manifestation of civilization. Mills, railroads, cotton presses, sugar boilers, and steamboats, are mainly indebted for their existence in the Southern States to intelligence aud muscle trained in free communities. In the New Orleans Commercial Bulletin, of April 18, 1857, is a statement of the laying out of the new town of Brash ear, on Berwick Bay, on a new route of travel between New Orleans and Galveston, being by railroad from New Orleans to Brashear, and thence by steamboat through Berwick Bay and the Gulf of Mexico to Galveston. The Bulletin says : "No more favorable site could have been selected 49 < for a town, which in a few years may become a ' flourishing city. It was a short work to survey the * land and lay it off into lots. The peculiar attrac- 6 tion of the place was at once appreciated; a por- < tion of the lots have been put up at auction, and 6 large prices have been realized. We have taken c the following memorandum from the auctioneer's i sale book: "First day— 99 lots— amounting to $28,695 Second" 167 " " 22,680 "Nearly the whole of this property has been sold ' to mechanics, artisans, and storekeepers. The i larger number will commence improvements forth- ' with, and in one year we shall have a flourishing * town immediately on our Gulf shore. "The size of the lots average fifty feet by one 1 hundred feet The lowest price lot brought seven- ' ty-five dollars, and the highest five hundred and c sixty dollars. "A feature or two in this sale is worthy of notice. ' The purcJmsers, with a few exceptions, not exceeding 'Jive or six, are naturalized citizens, principally Germans, * with some Spaniards and Frenchmen, and a few Irish, i Another noticeable fact is, that it seems there is ' no scarcity of money among them ; for several of ' them preferred paying the whole of the purchase- ' money in cash, rather than avail themselves of the ' credit allowed in the terms of sale." These "mechanics, artisans, and storekeepers," who "appreciated" the advantages of Brashear, and who had the means wherewithal to buy and pay for lots in it, were, it seems, scarcely any of them native white citizens of Louisiana. At that point, so remote from the free States, it is not easy to see of what materials the new town could have been constituted, but for the fortunate presence of Europeans, "principally Germans" who stood ready, with well-filled pockets 50 and skillful hands, to lay the foundations of a "flour- ishing city:' Long may it "flourish" a light amid surrounding darkness, and a standing witness of the thrift and vigor of free labor. This town of Brashear is no solitary instance. It is only a particular illustration of what is necessarily and universally true of communities in which negro slavery exists to a controlling extent. If it is not true of the entire area of the slave States of this Union, it is because considerable portions of them are substantially free from that institution. In any aspect of the case, it is not easy to see by what steps and processes a country upon which this institution is thoroughly fastened, can ever be rid of it, except by external pressure. There is no vital stamina left, to throw off the disease. Black labor cannot be supplanted in agriculture by a white labor, the efficiency of which has been destroyed ; nor can such white labor be diverted to other pursuits, re- quiring an intelligence and training which it does not possess, and can scarcely acquire. While the slaves are held to their position by physical force, and the poor whites are held to theirs by a coercion from which escape is scarcely more easy; what prospect is there that the slaveholders will voluntarily give up a system which affords them subsistence without labor, and every species of in- dulgence which they are capable of appreciating, and which, above all, gorges to the full that pride and lust of dominion, which is the strongest social passion in unregenerate man? "What examples of such self-denial are afforded in the history of the world ? 51 It is impossible and idle to persuade the slave- holder that his country, and especially himself as a land proprietor, would be made more prosperous and wealthy by the abandonment of his system ; im- possible, because his opinions are controlled by his inclinations; idle, because he desires no other pros- perity and no other wealth than that which he al- ready possesses. The ideas and notions of one form of society are powerless, when attempted to be brought to bear upon another. Where land and negroes are the only descriptions of property, their possessors have all that is substantial in wealth, either in secure subsistence, or in pre-eminence over others, and they disdain modes of luxury and accu- mulation to which they are not accustomed. If they do not possess palaces, or pictures, or libraries, or statuary, they do not desire them, and they are, at the worst, only in the same predicament, in these respects, with their peers in the governing class to which they belong. The wealth of cities seems to them imaginary, and the indulgences of a high civil- ization, illusive, and even contemptible. If their disdain is barbarous, it is not flatly irrational, and it has a touch of manly pride and vigor in it. He is a bold man who will recommend a radical change in the structure of society to those who occupy the most eligible position in it, and by means of it ; and he is a foolish man who expects such a recommend- ation to be adopted. Mormonism may be a ruinous system, but no clearness of demonstration that it is so, will reconcile the Elders to a change. Their present status has advantages which are known, pos- itive, and suited to their habits, while it is quite 52 uncertain what it would be under a new organization of things. In like manner, the slaveholders are well content to be what their fathers were, the masters of their plantations, and the scarcely less absolute masters of the political communities in which they live. If the structure of their society is marked by comparative rudeness and destitution, they will not hazard a secure pre-eminence, for the sake of im- provements which are unappreciated, unwelcome, and for themselves personally, uncertain. Chancellor Harper, in his oration delivered in 1838, before the South Carolina Society for the ad- vancement of learning, places foremost among the reasons why the people of that State will never abandon slavery, that it would be contrary to " our ' [their] proudest and most deeply-cherished feelings, i which others, if they will, may call prejudices." In the learned Chancellor's order of enumeration, these " proud and deeply-cherished feelings" are first; their "essential interests" are next; and last of all, is a be- nevolent regard for the negro. An acting Governor of Kansas (Mr. Stanton) has recently seen fit to de- clare, at a public meeting in the town of Lawrence, in that Territory, that he " loved" the institution of slavery, and that he would vote to establish it there because he " loved" it. He did not aver a belief that the institution would be for the benefit of the Terri- tory. If he cherishes such a belief, which is not certain, he did not set it up, but rested himself upon the declaration that he u loved" slavery; a declara- tion, of which we may at least admire the ingenuous simplicity. Mr. Stanton is a true son of Eastern 53 Virginia. He "loves" slavery, and sentiment is not to be combated by reason. Is slavery, then, so monstrous and unheard-of a thing, so new in the history of the world, and so re- pugnant to all natural impulses, that it cannot pos- sibly continue ? Few will arrive at this conclusion, who consider what mankind really are and have been, and not what they ought to be and may be. If the normal condition of the race be judged from its actual history in all places and times, slavery, in some form, is not repugnant to it, but agreeable to it. As polygamy is more common than the reverse, so is slavery more common than freedom. It is nat- ural that the strong should subject the weak. Idle- ness is more pleasing than labor; lust, than conti- nence ; self-will, than submission to restraint. Men are prone, not to do good, but to do evil. Slave- holding accords with natural passions. Where just- ice, benevolence, and enlightend self-interest, are not the governing forces in society, slavery will exist; and so far, such forces have controlled only a small minority of mankind. That high civilization, in the midst of which only is true freedom a possi- bility, has been a rare product, and one of slow growth. Slavery is the rule. Freedom is the excep- tion. Of the two conditions of society in this coun- try, that which exists in New England, and that which exists in South Carolina ; it is the last which might claim to be the most permanent, tried by the standard of conformity to the practices of men in all past times. What foundation is there, finally, in experience, or philosophy, for that dreamy, half-expressed opti- 54 mism, wherewithal men persuade themselves that disorders will somehow mend, that evils will disap- pear, and that what is good will supplant what is mischievous? Doubtless, there is a continual move- ment in human affairs, but how often, alas! from bad to worse. Weeds thrive luxuriantly without culture, while the useful fruits of the earth are not always perfected with the utmost vigilance of the husbandman. In all things, the good is laboriously maintained, while evils rush in with a flood. To fall is easy; to ascend, difficult. Like a rower against an adverse tide, man makes slow progress with the utmost effort, while, relaxing but for a moment, he is carried swiftly backwards. Diseases end, but, if of vital parts, rarely except by death. Everything moves forward to its proper consumma- tion. Evil does not become good, but marches to its own fate. CHAPTEE V. Comparative growth of Northern and Southern Maryland. Tenacity of slavery in the southern counties. Advantageous position of Maryland. Descriptions of Eastern and Western Shores. Slave- holders take the best soils. Baltimore not likely to move actively for the abolition of slavery. The growth of the city of Washing- ton favorable to the removal of slavery from the southern counties of Maryland. Following is a statement of the white and slave population of the counties of Maryland bordering upon Pennsylvania, and of the remaining counties, in 1790 and 1850: 55 1790. Whites. Slaves. Border counties - - - 97,664 19,041 Remaining counties- - 107,754 84,303 1850. Border counties - - - 305,282 18,430 Remaining counties- - 112,661 72,938 Of this great increase of whites in the border counties, the larger part is due to the growth of the city of Baltimore; the county of Baltimore, which includes the city, having advanced, in the number of whites, from 30,878 to 174,853, besides contribu- ting some portion of the eighteen thousand whites in the new county of Carroll. The per centage of increase, however, of the whites in the other border counties, is large. On the mere aggregates of whites and slaves in Maryland at each successive census, one might base the conclusion that slavery would be of short dura- tion in that State, and possibly the more compre- hensive conclusion, that there is a general tendency in slavery everywhere to die out and disappear. Such conclusions would be plausible, and the more likely to be accepted, because agreeable in them- selves, and calculated to relieve men from the unpleasant idea that they have work and duties to perform. If this evil will disappear of itself, why suffer our ease to be disturbed by it ? "When we examine more closely, and separate the aggregates of population in Maryland into the parts of which they are composed, we find evidence, not of the evanescence of slavery, but of its wonderful tenacity of life; and it becomes manifest, that with- 56 out the introduction of some new power, the epoch of freedom in that State would still be indefinitely remote. Absolute immobility is never found in human affairs. Population, manners, institutions, are all subject to the great law of change. But in what part of the world shall we find so near an approach to a fixed and stationary position, as in the slaveholding region of Maryland, during the last two generations, and indeed during the last century, its condition in 1790 not having been materially differ- ent from what it was anterior to the Revolution? In truth, it has displayed a capacity of resisting innovation, quite equal to that of China, for even in the Flowery Kingdom there are reformers and new sects. India, with its castes, is not more stable. No part of Christian Europe has escaped vast changes, while Southern Maryland has remained the same. Here, if anywhere, might one, wearied with new things and new ideas, sit himself down with the contented assurance that old habits would never be broken in upon by new fashions, and that age would be solaced by the same society familiar to youth and manhood. From the loop-holes of this chosen retreat, one might look out upon a busy, moving, changeful world, wuth the same tranquil emotions which the poet ascribes to the landsman contempla- ting the perils of the mariner, and to the spectator securely watching the shifting fortunes of battle — " How sweet to stand, when tempests tear the main, On the firm cliff, and mark the seaman's toil ! Not that others' danger soothes the soul, But from such toil how sweet to feel secure ! How sweet, at distance from th* strife, to view Contending hosts, and hear the clash of war." 57 Assuming the area of Maryland to be correctly stated in the compendium of the census of 1850, and taking the proportional areas of the counties from the statements in Lippincott's Gazetteer, the area of the counties bordering on Pennsylvania is 4,474 square miles, while the area of the remaining, or southern counties, is 6,650 square miles. Of the southern counties, distinguishing those upon the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay from those on the western shore, we have the following results : Eastern Shore Counties. Area in square miles 3,031 Whites in 1850 56,169 Whites in 1790 48,048 Slaves in 1850 24,345 Slaves in 1790 33,177 Free colored in 1850 19,359 Western Shore Counties. Area in square miles 3,619 Whites in 1850 56,492 Whites in 1790 59,706 in 1850 48,593 Slaves in 1790 51,126 These southern counties upon the western shore of Chesapeake Bay constitute, so far as Maryland is concerned, the immediate vicinage of the city of Washington. The proportion in them of slaves to whites has not altered, and both have slightly dimin- ished, within sixty years. In addition to the stationary character both of the aggregate population of the southern counties of Maryland, and of the proportion of the two elements of whites and slaves, the reader will not fail to observe, also, how insignificant the whole population is, compared with the area. !No region on the face of the globe contains more admirable advantages of 58 climate, fertility, salubrity, and position. The east- ern shore fronts both upon Chesapeake Bay and upon the Atlantic Ocean. The western shore fronts upon Chesapeake Bay, while its long southern bor- der is washed by the majestic Potomac, which men- of-war can ascend more than one hundred miles from the bay. Both shores are penetrated by numer- ous navigable streams, and creeks, and inlets, making an aggregate of water line superior to that of any State in the Union. Proximity and easiness of access to New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, on the north, and the steady growth of "Washington on the south, afford the best markets, and ought to stimulate agriculture to its highest perfection. One would have supposed that the National Capital would have attracted to its neighborhood a dense and wealthy population; that great roads leading from it in all directions would have been dotted with villas and villages; that it would have been, like Paris, the point of the display and sale of the cost- liest works of art ; that skillful workmen would have filled its wide-spreading suburbs; and that every eligible eminence within an easy ride would have been crowned with the residences of men of compe- tent fortune and cultivated tastes, seeking nearness to the libraries, the monuments, the society, the luxury, and the stirring intellect, of the political centre of a great nation. These southern counties of Maryland, thus stimulated to advancement, are among the oldest settled portions of the United States. They embrace Annapolis, which received its city charter in 1708, which was considered a suit- able place for the sitting of Congress under the Con- 59 federation, and which yet contains numerous archi- tectural monuments of ante-revolutionary wealth and taste. It is a region full of historical interest, m its localities, its traditions, and its distinguished lames. The eastern shore is far removed from the great lines of travel. A picture of the baronial magnifi- cence of one of its great proprietors, drawn by his escaped bondman, Frederick Douglass, is familiar to the reading public. With that exception, very little is popularly known of that isolated region, beyond its position on the map. Yet, undoubtedly, its scenery is as attractive as its position ; and while large portions of its soil were naturally fertile, the remainder is easily reclaimable by the processes familiar to agriculture conducted by free labor. A correspondent of the New York Independent says : "Any one who will take the trouble to notice its < location on the map, cannot fail to perceive that, in < respect to its geographical position, it is unequalled ' by any other part of the Union. The ocean on one ' side, and the largest and most beautiful bay in the ' world on the other, affords at all seasons a safe, ' cheap, and speedy intercourse, with all places 4 desired. ''The bold waters of the bay, or ocean, abounding ' with the finest fish and oysters, and some of them < with wild fowl of flavor and excellence unequalled ' elsewhere, are at every man's door, or within the ' distance of a few miles. "In addition to all other advantages, man is favor- ' ed here by the smiles of a genial climate. He has < to endure neither the austerities of a Northern < winter, nor the debilitating effects of a meridian ' summer. 60 "One is ready to suppose such a region to be \ thickly populated with thriving and wealthy inhal> ' itants. On the contrary, these are just the lands ' for the poor farmers of New England to purchase. ' Maryland is no more than half settled." The same writer quotes the following description from a report, published under authority of the State: "Its scenery, though deprived of the grandeur of < mountains, is more than compensated in beauty 6 by its unrivalled water prospects. The rivers pen- 1 etrate far up the country, winding gracefully from ' farm to farm, which seem to seek the embrace of < the clear blue waters, in whose bosom they lie. < The fresh streams which are bordered by the large < marshes in some seasons of the year present scenes 4 of ravishing beauty. " On many of the rivers, there are large deposits < of Indian shell banks, capable of affording many * millions of bushels of the purest lime. It has < numerous deposits of very rich shell and green- < sand marl. In some of these counties, the green- < sand marl contains a large per centage of gypsum. 6 In many large districts of country, shell marls, < containing from forty to seventy-six per cent, of ' air-slaked" lime, can be obtained with the greatest < facility, being sometimes within a few feet of the < surface, sometimes even cropping out upon it. < The shores of the bay, and its numerous creeks and rivers, afford large quantities of sea-weecl, a most excellent and valuable manure. Where mag- nesia or guano is required, the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, and the proximity of Baltimore market, afford every facility for a cheap supply." Lippineotis Gazetteer (1855) says : "The soil of the eastern shore, and some of the counties of the western, is a mixture of sand and clay, which, though not of the most fertile char- 61 ' acter, is 'easily improved, and by the aid of manure, ' which it possesses at hancWn its extensive beds of ' marl, well repays cultivation. * * * * * * ' The soil receives improvement easily, is readily i cultivated, and the farmers emigrating from the ' rougher soils of the North, find their labors here ' much diminished." The western shore possesses a greater proportion than the eastern, of lands originally fertile, and of lands capable of resisting the effects of cropping without manuring. This would be proved, inde- pendently of descriptive accounts, by the greater proportion of its slave population in early times, and the greater steadiness with which that population has been maintained. The philosopher, guided by the known and fixed relations of comparative anatomy, can determine from a tooth, or a single bone, the form, digestive organs, and habits, of the animal to which it belonged. The relations of slavery to the character and value of land, to the accumulation of capital, and to advance of population, are equally certain and equally known, and we may infer the one from the other with equal safety. The tooth of the ox does not more unmistakably imply a digest- ive apparatus adapted to the herbage upon which he feeds, than do the price of land, the amassed capital, and the density of population, in Massachusetts, imply the system of free labor. The negro slave indicates infallibly a rich soil. He can exist nowhere else, his function in political economy being to destroy every- thing which is destructible, and to improve nothing. The valley of the Nile could sustain him in undimin- ^shed numbers, the bounty of nature which enriches it, being annual and perennial. But wherever the 62 soil is exhaustible, he will exhaust it. "With the census enumerations at various periods, wherever slavery has been permitted by law in the United States, the original fertility of different districts can be deduced from the numbers of slaves, as accurately as from the best-considered reports. The perma- nency of this fertility may be deduced from the per- manency of the slave population, but with less accu- racy, it being a disturbing element in the calculation, that slaves are in some places maintained chiefly with reference to breeding, and scarcely at all with reference to the profits of their labor. The slave- holder takes the best lands, first, because he has the means to command his choice, and next, because none but the best lands can bear the burdens he im- poses upon them. His mission being, not to ame- liorate, but to devastate, he never goes upon land which needs improvement in order to be made profitable, but devolves upon free labor the necessity both of reclaiming natural wastes and of restoring fields blasted by servile cultivation. It may serve for consolation, however, to know that it is not a new thing under the sun, that industry and thrift are made to bear the burden, not only of the wants and the misfortunes, but of the follies, the waste, and the vices of mankind. The southern counties of Maryland on the west- ern shore, on the great line of travel between the North and South, and environing the National Capital, should be familiarly known to large num- bers of persons in all parts of the United States, but they hardly are so, with the exception of what falls under the eye of. the passenger in the rail-cars be- 63 tween "Washington and Baltimore. The carriage roads out of Washington are not numerous, and such of them as are tolerable, are blocked by toll- gates. Silver Spring, the rural retreat of a distin- guished man, six miles from the city, is only access- ible, as a cloud of witnesses can attest, by submitting twice to this sort of tax. Credible authorities affirm that Marlboro', the shire town of Prince George's county, the county incorporated in 1695, and itself of the age of the hero of Queen Anne's time whose name it bears, is secluded, not so much by the eighteen miles of distance which separate it from Washington, as by the twenty gates (not toll-gates, however) which span the way, and effectually check all prying curiosity. In truth, it is only with difficulty that one could acquire such a personal knowledge of the surrounding country, in any di- rection, as would contradict the impressions of its character, derived from the uncouth negroes and barbarous vehicles by which its products are con- veyed to the markets of Washington. The maximum number of slaves attained in Mary- land was in 1810, the course of that species of popu- lation having been as follows : Years. Number of slaves. 1790 103,036 1800 105,635 1810 111,502 1820 107,397 1830 102,994 1840 89,737 1850 90,368 64 It is not satisfactory to observe that the number increased, although only slightly, from 1840 to 1850. The political and social tone of the Southern por- tion of Maryland, as might be inferred from its his- tory and present position, is as thoroughly pro-sla- very as that of any portion of the Union. The in- stitution of slavery is clung to with all the tenacity of pride and hereditary habit, and will only succumb to a resistless pressure from without. To what else than the social influences of this institution, in its fullest vigor, can we ascribe the singular confusion of the intellect of the venerable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, in his exposi- tion of law and history, made under pretext of de- ciding the case of Dred Scott. [Appendix B.] It is well known that the apportionment of repre- sentation in the Legislature of Maryland dwarfs the city of Baltimore in comparison with the agricul- tural counties, and secures to the slaveholders the means of holding in check any legislative movement in favor of free labor, which might originate in their commercial emporium. There is no appearance, as yet, however, of any such movement, nor does one seem to be probable in the immediate future. The position of Baltimore, in this respect, differs radically from that of St. Louis. The commercial develop- ment and future greatness of St. Louis depend largely upon the prosperity of the immense territories of Missouri and Kansas ; and it becomes, therefore, the urgent interest of St. Louis that those territories should be exempted from slavery. This interest is manifest to any comprehension, and addresses itself 65 so powerfully to the instincts of trade, and to the calculations of property-holders, as to override all prejudices and political considerations. The com- merce of Baltimore, on the other hand, has so wide a range as to be little affected, relatively, by the con- dition of the southern counties of Maryland. Their area is only one-tenth of that of Missouri, and the proportion which they contribute to the trade of Baltimore is altogether insignificant, compared with the proportion contributed by Missouri to the trade of St. Louis. With no pressing interest, therefore, to move actively for the removal of slavery from Maryland, Baltimore is operated upon by influences adverse to an agitation of the subject, much stronger than those which are found sufficient to control the commercial classes elsewhere. "While anti-slavery ideas, and even free-soil ideas, find so little favor in Philadelphia and New York, how can they be expected to flourish in Baltimore ? While, however, there is no reason to suppose that the great and growing power of the white pop- ulation of Baltimore will be exerted, through legis- lative agencies, for the extinction of slavery in Maryland ; it acts in that direction by its aggregation of free-labor interests, and by holding in commercial capital a counterpoise to the wealth of the slavehold- ers. Whatever passions may rage, Baltimore binds Maryland firmly to the Union. The scheme of a Southern Confederacy, with Charleston for its com- mercial emporium, might be made acceptable to the planters of Maryland, but could never be made so to the merchants of Baltimore. The Union as it is, is the foundation of their prosperity, and they will 66 ever be found among its foremost and stanehest supporters. While all the old causes tending to produce the extinction of slavery in Maryland will continue to operate hereafter with undiminished force, new ones are coming into play, in the impending movement of the Northern population towards the South, and in the growth of the city of Washington. The location of the Federal Capital on the banks of the Potomac, in the heart of what was then the largest slaveholding region in the country, embracing South- ern Maryland and Eastern Virginia, and in which the ascendency of the slave interest remains, in fact, unshaken to this day, has wonderfully served to increase the control of the slave States over the Federal Government. The social influences of the National Capital have been overwhelmingly on the side of slavery ; and until recently, the advocacy of the interests of free labor has been as effectually interdicted there, as in Richmond, or Charleston. An address delivered in 1856, in opposition to slave- ry, is stated to have been the first thing of that kind ever attempted in Washington, outside of the halls of Congress. It seems likely now to happen, after the lapse of two generations, that the free States are to receive some compensating benefits from the posi- tion of the National Capital. The very fact that it is located in a region abounding in slaves, makes it a point from which influences of opinion and inter- est, one or both, may be brought to bear immediately against the strongholds of slavery; and such influ- ences are sure to be exerted by Washington, so soon as its growth enables it to impress itself upon 67 the surrounding country, instead of being merely the reflection of that surrounding country, as it necessarily was during the feebleness of its infancy. That time has arrived. Washington is now a large and rapidly-thriving city. Its inhabitants will num- ber one hundred thousand at the next census, or not long afterwards. The existence of so large an urban population calls for, and will create, a free-labor interest within a wide circle around it, because it is only that kind of labor which can and will supply its dairy, fruit, and other market wants. It is impos- sible that the environs of a great city should consist of plantations worked by slaves. The planter must give way to the farmer and the gardener. Alreadj 7 , at the commencement of the expansion of Washing- ton, this process of substitution is distinctly observ- able in the immediately-adjoining portions of Vir- ginia and Maryland, and will go on at an accelerated pace, as free labor feels the attractions of congenial neighborhoods added to those of good markets. It is settled, in the judgment of men, by the immense enlargements which are now being given to the public edifices in Washington, that it is to be the seat of the Government of the Confederation for an indefinite period ; and both those who prognosti- cate, and those who threaten, the overthrow of the Confederation, find every year their hearers less and less credulous and less and less alarmed. It is seen, that if the Union is wrecked upon a question of slavery, the line of separation will not be that of Mason and Dixon, or even that of the Potomac, but much farther to the south. It is seen, that the devo- tion of Maryland to the Union is proof against all 68 arts and all attempts; that free-labor institutions, already predominant on the Ohio, will soon control both its banks throughout its whole course; that the political unity of the entire region upon the waters of the Chesapeake Bay is a geographical necessity ; that the tendency of slavery towards the Gulf of Mexico, long manifest, must receive a mark- ed impetus during the present generation ; and that, in fine, whatever disruptions may be possible at remote points, a powerful Confederation will remain, from the centre of which Washington would not be so inconveniently distant as to be unfitted for the seat of its Government. These and other consider- ations tending to inspire confidence in the stability of the political status of Washington, in connection with the general growth and prosperity of the coun- try, in which its position secures its participation, have swollen its population, and wealth, and busi- ness activity, greatly, during a few years past, and will still continue effective in the same direction. As a small city, Washington would take the com- plexion of its opinions from the adjoining country, and from the resident officials of the Federal Gov- ernment. As a large city, Washington must have a character of its own, based upon its own interests, and upon the cast and training of its own population, and this character must necessarily be anti-slavery. The development of mechanical, manufacturing, and commercial pursuits, will draw immigration to it from the free States and from Europe, because it is not in slave countries that artisans and merchants are reared. The interests of Washington are on the same side with the natural opinions of those who 69 will, constitute the majority of its inhabitants. If the density of population in the southern counties of Maryland on the western shore, which would re- sult from the removal of slavery, be computed at even so little as one hundred to the square mile, which is short of the probable truth, the present population would be tripled, the absolute addition of numbers being one-fourth of a million, while the increase of wealth and activity would be even greater. With an equal advancement in the adja- cent counties of Virginia, Washington would be the centre of a numerous and flourishing population, and would enjoy a measure of prosperity which would be independent of all possible political changes. An appeal to the interests of the indus- trial classes and of the property-holders of Washing- ton, so direct, obvious, and urgent, will produce its effect in due time ; earlier if the slavery propaganda loses the control of Government, but, sooner or later, in spite of all obstacles and of all counter influences. In all aspects, and from all motives, the free States should view the growth of Washington with compla- cency. We were carried to the banks of the Poto- mac against our will. Let us hold them with a grasp of iron. The National Capital bears the name of the Father of his Country, and all its traditions connect it with the earlier and purer days of the Re- public. We have enriched it with our treasures and embellished it with our arts. It is in itself the most distinct and most palpable of the symbols of our national power and unity. u Hie illius arma; Hie currusfuit." 70 Whatever changes may occur in the boundaries of our France, as yet enlarging, but hereafter, per- haps, to be diminished, we shall preserve the con- tinuity of our political existence, so long as we re- main masters of Paris. Let us persist in planting there our ideas, more indestructible than political forms. Let us endow it with free roads and free schools, with an unsparing munificence, and make it, in all its institutions and surroundings and influ- ences, a fit expression of the intellect and heart and tastes of a cultivated and free people. It was charged upon Gen. Washington, by the rudeness of contemporaneous jealousy, that he was influenced to his efforts in favor of the selection of the site of the National Capital, by the desire of augmenting the value of his own estates on the oppo- site side of the Potomac. Expectations of that kind were doubtless indulged in by all the adjacent pro- prietors, but although apparently well founded, their realization has been slow, and has only now just commenced, after the lapse of nearly seventy years. It will progress, but only so fast and so far as the system of servile labor yields to a better one ; and this will happen, not by the co-operation, but in spite of the utmost efforts and resistance of those who will be benefited by the change. Slavery will die out in Southern Maryland, not by convincing land proprietors that it is their interest to get rid of it, but because a new system and new men will force their way by sheer strength. Viewed as a whole, and without reference to individual excep- tions, slaveholding is an incurable disorder. It is to be treated only by excision. The remedy is not 71 reformation, but expulsion. As inferior races dis- appear before superior ones, so, of populations of the same stock, must that which has been degraded and debauched by slavery, give room to that which has been elevated by enlightened freedom. Stubbornly as slavery has held its ground in Southern Maryland, and stubbornly as it will still contest the field; it must succumb at last to the pressure from the North, to the arts and civilization concentrated at Baltimore, and to the influences which will radiate from the National Capital. The space which it occupies is not large, and the popu- lation which it controls is insignificant. The emi- gration of a single year, from New England alone, would suffice to overwhelm it. There is nothing in the general tone of political and social opinions in Maryland, including Balti- more and the northern counties, to repel the people of the free States. The fanaticism of the region on the lower Potomac is virulent, but there is as little sympathy between Richmond, (Va.,) or Charleston, (S. C.,) and Baltimore, as between New York and Virginia. The dominant interests in Maryland, both of wealth and numbers, are disconnected with slavery. The State is commercial, vigorous, and progressive; the history of its works of improve- ment displays a combination of public spirit and public virtue, to which there is nothing equal in the annals of American enterprise. The connection of the Hudson river with Lake Erie was indicated and made easy by nature, while the frowning Alleghanies seemed to forbid and render impossible the union of the Ohio and Chesapeake Bay. The sums ex- ponded in achieving this work, unsuccessfully upon the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, but with a tiual triumph in the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, seem incredible, in contrast with the small territory and population of Maryland. The tirst repulse, with a » loss : seven millions of dollars, only seemed to stimulate the effort which resulted in final victory. S rates have displayed public spirit, but no State has displayed a public virtue comparable to that of Maryland, in submitting to enormous U - to meet honestly the cone a of enormous losses. If her enterprise has been wonderful, the civic courage with which she has encountered finan- cial disas! - still more admirable. Her honors and her prosperity have roieally earned. May their shade- - . be less. CHAPTER VI Incr: is IhoBbfi : . Texas in II ?id in the cx- treme South. Xnrcber Fa - over ■which t. Since 1810, the augmentation : slaves in the - ithern States has been by natural ina - nly. with exceptions too unimportant to be noticed. The foreign slave trade ceased in 1808. The &k - in Florida, who appear for the first time in is :i 1830, had nearly all been carried thither 73 from the United States, and principally after 1820. The slaves in Texas, who appear for the first time in the census of 1850, were also an offshoot from the stock in the United States. The importation of slaves from any other quarter was denounced and prohibited by a Convention in Texas, then a Mexi- can province, as early as 1833 ; and this prohibition was continued during its existence as an independ- ent Eepublic. Some slaves had been introduced from foreign countries prior to 1833, but the num- ber must have been small. Colonel Almonte, who was sent to Texas by Santa Anna, in 1834, upon a visit of observation, reported the whole number of slaves as amounting to eleven hundred. In Yoakum's History of Texas, it is affirmed that the actual number was three times as great. But whichever authority be supposed to be the most correct, the number brought in prior to 1833 from other places than the United States, must have been insignificant. Texas not having been admitted into the Union until 1845, the slaves carried thither prior to 1840 do not appear in the census of that year. The ap- parent rate of increase of slaves in the United States is thus diminished below the actual rate, in the decade ending in 1840, while it is again . swelled beyond the actual rate in the decade ending in 1850, by the annexation of Texas. If it was possible to ascertain exactly the number of slaves in Texas in 1840, the progress of the natu- ral increase of the stock of slaves in the United States, in the successive decades, would be accu- rately determined. 4 J 11 - _L !T- 1 - " — - - _— • " :nir : "i _-- ■ - - - ■ ~- - . - - - JZ ''IT. 1 _ - __ - - : _^ ■ -— _i • i ~ ^ i_ _ zl- :_-_-. _ - _._i : n- : :i— i i : "-it ::- - ■ 1_""~_ — _ -_ ....... : -r *_--ri - *-" >'• 7 -i_~ - - ... • - . .. " " ' ~-~ ' 7 ": - :_ " - \- -'-' ii- -"- '.-"- '-" ~ - :~- - - - - - . - - --r i -• . ra wore slaves: and on that assumption, the progress of the slave population in the United States, inclu- ding Texas, has been as follows: During the decade ending — r.-cmt. 1820 - B0.57 1830 o±12 1840 24.48 1850 28.56 During- twenty years, ending — L830 -.'--------- 72.79 1850 s The slave region consists of two divisions: one, in which slaves are kept principally, or largely, with reference to their increase, or the slave-breeding region: the other, in which slaves are kept wholly, or principally, for their labor, and whieh may be called the slave-working region. It these regions were equally salubrious, the increase of slaves would be greater in the slave-breeding region, from lighter labors, more abundant food, and better attention; but in truth, a portion of the slave-working region, on the Atlantic and Gulf eoasts, is malarious. In addition to this, the system of labor applied to the production of sugar, as actually practiced, is specially exhausting. The destruction of negro life in the rice fields of Georgia and the Carolinas. and on the plantations of Louisiana, is far short, indeed, of what has been witnessed in times past in the tropical slave colonies on the continent and islands ol America, and is still going on in Cuba, It is, however, dis- tinctly marked and well known. Being sold to go South, is the constant terror of 77 the : Virginia, and Maryland, and Kentucky. It is the established punishment of attempts to es- cape, and when not inflicted as a punishment, is a fate which they suffer frequently from the necessities, or avarice, of their masters. In the northern slave .-. they are held, ordinarily, in small numbers, and are under the immediate eye of owners, who are concerned in their well being, both by interest and humanity. At the South they are worked in large gangs, under overseers, whose reputation depends more upon the amount of work which can be ac- complished, than upon the methods, or cost of life, by which it is extorted. In the northern slave States, which are food-producing, their fare is abun- dant, and even unlimited, while on the cotton, suear. and rice plantations, it is frequently inadequate to the support of vigorous life. It would be expected, therefore, that as the pro- portion of slaves occupying the healthy, breeding latitude of Virginia, diminished, the ratio of the increase of the whole body of slaves would diminish ; and this view of the case sufficiently explains the difference in that respect between the twenty y preceding, and the twenty years following, the census of 1830. There would still remain, however, the inconsistent fact, that slaves increased more rapidly in the decade ending in 1850 than in the decade ending in 1840. Of this fact, two explana- tions appear probable. The first is. that the aug- menting value and price of negroes have caused a greater attention to their preservation and increase. The second is, that there were fewer slaves sent South, from Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, in 78 the second decade, than in the first, and conse- quently fewer lost in the process of acclimation. The loss in that process in Louisiana has been stated by a respectable newspaper in New Orleans to be as high as twenty-five per cent. It must, at any rate, be considerable. The diminution in the number of slaves sent South in the second decade, as compared with the first, was, in Virginia, forty thousand, and in Maryland and Kentucky, about ten thousand in each. In aid of these suggested expla- nations there are other considerations, which seem entitled to some attention. The period from 1830 to 1840 was one of extraor- dinary movement in the slave population from one locality to another, and doubtless of an unusual number of transfers of slave ownership, resulting from the removal of the Indians from the Gulf States, and the consequent opening up of new and vast cotton fields. The progress of the slave popu- lation was as follows in the Carolinas : 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. North Carolina 205,017 245,601 245,817 288,548 South Carolina 258,475 315,401 327,038 384,984 In North Carolina it was absolutely stationary, and in South Carolina nearly so, from 1830 to 1840, proving that the transfer to other regions and to new owners must have been unusually large; and other things being equal, the negro is worse off in the hands of a purchaser, than with the families which have raised him. The period from 1830 to 1840 embraced some years of almost fabulous profit in cotton planting; 79 and when planting profits are high, the negro is always hard worked. Since 1840, the high price of slaves may be sup- posed to have diminished manumissions, to have increased the vigilance and energy with which the recapture of fugitives is followed up, and to have augmented the number of free negroes reduced to slavery by kidnappers. Indeed, it has led to a proposition being quite seriously entertained in Virginia, of enslaving the whole body of the free negroes in that State by legislative enactment. Upon the whole, if the ratio of increase of slaves during the current decade, or the next decade, falls as low as during the decade ending in 1840, it must be by the extension of the sugar culture, which is notoriously destructive of slave life, by the excessive labors of the grinding season, and by the temptation of occasional enormous profits. On the other hand, it is not to be expected that the ratio will ever be as high as it was prior to 1830. The questions must continually recur, upon what causes this increase of slaves in the United States depends, and at what point it is to stop. These questions are vital to the whole discussion of the destiny of the institution. A steady and large increase of population being constantly presented to us in the United States, the conclusion is natural, that such an increase is to be looked for everywhere, and under all circumstances. Upon extending our range of observation, however, we see that population is stationary, or receding, in many counties, which are not desolated by either war, famine, or pestilence; and it is found that the 80 movement of population is not necessarily advan- cing, but advances, recedes, or remains unchanged, according to certain laws, which are fixed, and not difficult to be discovered. The utmost possible population is the number which can be subsisted according to its habits, either by producing directly what it subsists upon, or by obtaining by exchange what it needs to subsist upon. The limit of a flock of sheep upon a range of a thousand acres is ten times greater than upon a range of one hundred acres. There is nothing quite so simple as that, in fixing the limit of a race of men, not even if it is a race confined to agriculture, because agriculture has greater or less results, as it is carried on with greater or less skill; and the problem complicates itself, and becomes quite independent of mere area, when it is recollected that those who produce nothing which they use, may yet obtain everything they need, if they can produce the wherewithal to com- mand it by exchanges. There will, however, be no more people in any community than can be employed in whatever modes of industry they may be fitted to, at rates of remuneration which will maintain them. The limit of subsistence is then reached, and an increase of population is an impos- sibility. How it is, that while the tendency and capacity of the human species to increase are strong and uniform, it continues, nevertheless, to adapt itself to a limit of subsistence which is changeable, and sometimes contracting, we easily see. "When popu- lation presses hard upon the limit of subsistence, marriages are less frequent and less prolific, fewer 81 children are raised, and people die earlier, because they live less comfortably. It is not necessary, in order to stop an advancing population, that it should butt itself against the dead wall of downright starva- tion. That sometimes happens, but it is a rough remedy, and not often needed. The moral and physical impediments, quite short of starvation, which restrain the expansion of population within proper bounds, are numerous, and ordinarily suffi- cient. All this, it may be said, is well enough, applied to free persons, but wholly inapplicable to slaves, who cannot be conceived to be under any pruden- tial restraints as to marriage and offspring. Our flock of sheep in the range is equally as little restrained by prudential considerations; but where such considerations do not exist, the limit of subsist- ence remains, and it is physically impossible that it should be passed. And if prudential considerations do not operate upon the slave, they do upon his master; and that is equally efficient, and even more efficient. The objection that a slave population will not keep itself within the bounds indicated by its possi- ble remunerating employment, is altogether differ- ent from that taken in the twenty years' discussion, in and out of the British Parliament, of the proposed abolition of the African slave trade; a discussion which exhausted the keenness and dialectic vigor of a whole generation 'of men. It was insisted that the stocks of negroes could not be kept up in the Colonies without annual importations; and this indeed was proved by the past history of those 82 Colonies, and of all countries in which negro slavery existed, saving only the United States. The oppo- nents of the slave trade, in maintaining that the stocks of negroes could be kept up by natural increase, made the most of the case of the United States as the only one in their favor. There was, in fact, no part of the argument which they were obliged to labor harder than this : that, with proper attention, the prolific vigor of the negro would vindicate itself, even under the depression of slavery. The precedents, with a single exception, were against them, and their arguments, sufficient to ground hope upon, rather than to carry solid con- viction, have not since been verified in the experi- ence of the British Colonies. Indeed, it is much more easy to see how a slave population will be kept within proper bounds, than how a free population will be. The physical bar- riers are alike to both. In the case of the free population, the prudential considerations do not always outweigh passion, while, as they address themselves to the master, they do not encounter any such countervailing force. It is not so much, however, by restraining the -intercourse of the sexes, as by a treatment of the women unfavorable to child- bearing, and by a treatment of the children actually born unfavorable to their life, that the raising of slaves is checked, where the value of slaves does not make it profitable to raise them. It sometimes hap- pens, as in a few instances now existing in Cuba, that plantations are stocked exclusively with male slaves. But ordinarily an increase, where it is not desired, is not prevented in this way, but by a man- 83 agement of the women and children calculated to effect the proposed end. While the possible limit of numbers of a race of men is not determinable by area merely, it is proximately so in reference to negro slaves, whose special adaptation is to agriculture, and to agricul- ture by rude and unimproving processes. Undoubt- edly, their labor may be made available in other employments, in which muscle, rather than intel- ligence, or nicety of manipulation, is required; and it is even insisted (although, as yet, without practical proofs on any extensive scale) that it is equal to the management of machinery in the pro- duction of textile fabrics. It is most manifest, however, from the intrinsic probabilities of the case, and from an experience most ample in space and time, that the labor of negro slaves, in the low con- dition of intelligence and instruction, above which they cannot be permitted to rise with safety to the system of slavery, must be of the rudest description, and must be mainly applied to agriculture; and that the limit of their possible numbers must be substan- tially indicated by the area upon which they can be worked. If it is desired to arrest the increase of their numbers, it can be infallibly done by simply circumscribing their local limits. If it is desired to enlarge their numbers, that too can be done, in the climate of the United States, and with the average treatment of slaves in the United States, by simply expanding their local limits. There is no mystery or uncertainty in either process. Except in the United States, the slave populations in America have exhibited no capacity to enlarge 84 their numbers ; indeed, have rarely been able even to maintain them. Wherever the foreign slave trade has been per- mitted in tropical countries, the destruction of negro life in the condition of slavery has been uniform, and a matter of systematic calculation; it having been considered better economy to buy new negroes, than to preserve the lives of old ones, or to rear the young. The number of slaves found in the British "West India Islands, at the epoch of emancipation, was 660,000. The number which had been imported (Carey on the Slave Trade, Foreign and Domestic) was not less than 1,700,000, and was, perhaps, 2,000,000. Taking the numbers of slaves imported into Cuba, as stated by Humboldt, down to 1820, from the custom-house returns, and as stated since by the British Commissioners at Havana, we have the fol- lowing results : Slaves by the census of 1853 - - 330,425 Number imported to that time - 651,379 Lord Brougham, in his Inquiry into the Colonial Policy of the European Nations, says of the slave population in St. Domingo : "During nine years, ending 1784, the total num- ' bers had only increased from two hundred and < fifty thousand to two hundred and ninety-seven ' thousand; whereas, supposing the propagation < only to have kept up the stock, the importation ' during that period should have produced an aug- ' mentation of a hundred and twelve thousand at < least." 85 It is useless to multiply authorities. The expe- rience of all the colonies of all nationalities, in the West India Islands, in Brazil, and in the Guianas, was uniform and unbroken. So long as the slave trade supplied victims, the natural increase fell far short of the deaths, and the stock was increased or maintained only by importations. It is true, that as the importations consisted ordi- narily of two males to one female, there was an excess of males in the slave populations, although not in that proportion, because there was a constant tendency to the equality of sexes, resulting from births. The deficiency of females, however, was never so great, as of itself to have precluded an increase of numbers by propagation. Even in Cuba, where it was greatest, the census of 1827 found 103,652 females to 183,290 males, and the census of 1841 found 155,245 females and 281,250 males. In many of the Colonies, the excess of males was inconsiderable. In the French Islands, Guada- loupe and Martinique, in 1836, only nineteen years after the prohibition of the slave trade by France, the female slaves were 107,222, while the males were only 98,358. In Jamaica, in 1824, seventeen years after the prohibition of the slave trade by Great Britain, and less than that time after it actu- ally ceased to exist, the equality of the sexes was fully restored. Mr. Steele, who visited Barbados in 1790, (see his account in a work entitled Mitigation of Slavery,) to inspect his own extensive estates, found a due pro- portion of the sexes, males one hundred and seventy- one, females one hundred and seventy-five, and that 86 his stock had been reduced from four hundred and ninety-two to three hundred and forty-six, mainly by inattention to the pregnant females, and to the children born. Let us see, now, what the movement of the slave population has been, where the slave trade has been abolished. Of the British Colonies, Mr. Carey (Slave Trade, Foreign and Domestic) says : "In 1817, nine years after importation had been ' declared illegal, (the number of slaves then being < 323,827,) the number is stated at 316,150; from ' which it would appear that the trade must have 1 been in some measure continued up to that date, i as there is no instance on record of any natural in- ' crease in any of the islands, under any circum- ' stances. It is, indeed, quite clear that no such ' increase has taken place ; for had it once com- 1 menced, it would have continued, which was not 4 the case, as will be seen by the following figures : "In 1817, the number was, as we see, 346,150. In < 1820 it was only 342,382 ; and if to this we add the ! manumissions for the same period, (1,016,) we have < a net loss of 2,752. "In 1826, they had declined in numbers to 331,119, ' to which must be added 1,848 manumissions ; show- 1 ing a loss, in six years, of 9,415, or nearly three per ' cent. " The number shown by the last registration, 1833, < was only 311,692; and 'if to this we add 2,000 that * had been manumitted, we shall have a loss, in < seven years, of 19,275, or more than five per cent. In sixteen years, there had been a diminution of ten per cent. ; one-fifth of which may be attributed to manumission ; and thus it is clearly established, that in 1830, as in 1792, a large annual importation would have been required, merely to maintain the number of the population. "That the condition of the negroes was in a 87 c course of deterioration in this period, is clearly ' shown by the fact that the proportion of births to ' deaths was in a steady course of diminution, as is ' here shown : # . Deaths. Births. "From 1817 to 1820 were registered 25,104 24,348 " 1823 " 1826 " " 25,171 23,026 " 1826 " 1829 « " 25,137 21,728 "The destruction of life was thus proceeding with 1 constantly accelerating rapidity; and a continuance 1 of the system, as it then existed, must have wit- 1 nessed the total annihilation of the negro race ' within half a century. ***** "If we look to British Guiana, we find the same ' results. In 1820, Demerara and Essequibo had a 6 slave population of 77,376; by 1826, it had fallen < to 71,382; and by 1832 it had still further fallen to < 65,517. ***** "The number of slaves emancipated in 1834, in 6 all the British possessions, was 780,993; and the ' net loss in the previous five years had been 38,811, ' or almost one per cent, per annum." In the French Colonies, the slave populations remained substantially stationary, after the stoppage of supplies from the slave trade ; increasing a very little in Guadaloupe and Martinique, and diminish- ing a very little in Cayenne. The closing of the slave trade by Brazil is too recent to enable us to determine its effect upon the number of slaves. It may be useful to notice some of the causes of the difference, in respect to the increase of slaves, between the United States and the tropical regions of America in which negro slavery has existed. In the first place, it is manifest that forced labor must be more destructive of life, under tropical suns, than in climates in which vigorous muscular effort is healthy and congenial, as it is in the lati- tude of Virginia, and in the elevated regions of the Carolmas, of Tennessee, of Georgia, of Alabama, and of Texas. In the second place, the enormous profits of trop- ical agriculture offer a constant temptation to the system of wearing out slaves by excessive labors, and, with reference merely to present economy, actually justify that system. The sugar culture has destroyed more life than all the European wars of the twenty years which followed the French revolu- tion. No race has been found at all equal to it, in the style in which it is conducted in slave countries, with its nineteen hours of work per clay in the grinding season, save the African, and even that race breaks down under it. The unhappy Coolie falls exhausted under the whip, or ends his misery by suicide. The sugar culture in this country is managed with more regard to slave life, because the price of slaves is high, but is still destructive of it. In the third place, while the general system of slavery in the tropical regions has been that of large plantations under the management of agents and overseers, the proprietors being often on the other side of the Atlantic; the general system in the United States has been that of small proprietors, which brings the slave under the immediate eye and supervision of his owner. Of the two systems, the latter is incomparably the most humane. In the fourth place, the foreign slave trade had existed in great activity in all the tropical regions, as it never did in the United States ; the system of relying upon it to keep up the stock of negroes was thoroughly established; all habits in reference to the management of negroes, and especially of the women and children, had been formed under that system; and when the slave trade was cut off, it would necessarily take time to introduce a manage- ment, having in view the maintenance of the stock of negroes by natural increase. Finally, the price of negroes in the tropical regions, even after the abolition of the slave trade, has been far below what it has been of late years in the United States, in which it has been raised by the opening of new and rich regions adapted to servile labor, and the consequent increase of capital devoted to the employment of that species of labor. The inducement to raise the negro is, of course, proportioned exactly to his value. From 1790 to 1810, all the conditions were more favorable to the natural increase of slaves in the United States than they have ever been since, with the single but important exception, that their low value diminished the inducement to raise them. "What the natural increase was during that period is not determinable with accuracy, but it was certainly less than it was from 1840 to 1850 ; and that it was greater during this latter period, under circum- stances in other respects more unfavorable, illus- trates the truth that high prices augment the numbers of slaves. The difficulty of determining the natural increase from 1790 to 1810, arises from the fact that the foreign slave trade was permitted in some States until 1808, and that the number brought in by it is 4* 90 not accurately known. Mr. Carey (Slavery, Domes- tic and Foreign) fixes the number, by a series of calculations, at seventy thousand, which is thought to be "evidently too small" by the statists who made up the compendium of the census of 1850. During the four years ending January 1, 1808, Charleston (S. C.) was thrown open to slaves, and thirty-nine thousand and seventy-five were import- ed, as appears by the custom-house records. Making allowance for the number gained by the acquisition of Louisiana, and for this importation at Charleston alone, and the natural increase of slaves between 1800 and 1810 would be about twenty-five per cent, only. So long as the area of slavery is suffered to be enlarged, it is, of course, impossible to conjecture the maximum number attainable by the slave population of the United States. But it could not probably exceed double its present number, within the present slave States, if it be confined to agricultural employments ; and since, in fact, before it can be doubled, it will not exist in some of the present slave States, its duplication, without some new enlargement, may never be witnessed. After its external limits are once fixed, and after the spaces not now occupied within its external limits are filled, we may look for that gradual decline in the value of slaves, which will check their increase, or even cause their numbers to decline. An indefi- nite and never-ending multiplication of slaves, or any multiplication at all beyond the demand occa- sioned by profitable employment, supposes an in- conceivable reversal of the best-established laws of 91 population. It is only a pretext for alarms, which are relied upon to terrify us into opening new regions to slavery, as the only palliative of an evil which might otherwise overwhelm us, when, in truth, it is precisely to that policy that the existing magnitude of the evil is attributable. CHAPTER VII. The Ordinance of 1787 firmly maintained by subsequent Congresses. Slavery in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, never within the control of Congress. Slavery obtained a footing in Missouri and Arkansas contrary to the intention of Congress. The Missouri Compromise was in fact no compromise, but a clear victory of the slaveholders. The peculiarity of the United States is, that it embraces a large slave-breeding region, as well as a large slave- working region. Although the real interests of these two regions are not harmonious, but in many respects adverse, it has been found possible to combine them politically by the instinct of a common property, sensitive in its nature, and artfully represented as being in danger of a common attack; while the superior cunning of the slave- breeders has enabled them to wield this combination for their own sole behoof. The power of this com- bination was not dominant during the early period of the Government of the United States, but soon became so, and has not encountered any formidable resistance since 1820. The Ordinance of 1787, in respect to the North- western Territory, forever prohibiting slavery there- 92 in, is imperishable evidence of the prevailing opin- ion of that clay, that the power of the nation ought to be exerted to check the expansion of that insti- tution beyond its existing limits. The prohibition of this Ordinance was maintained by the United States under the present Constitution, Congress having twice refused its assent to the allowance of slavery, for limited periods, within the present boundaries of Indiana and Illinois, when it was asked for by the Territorial authorities and some portions of the resident citizens. In the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, slavery was extended and estab- lished without the participation of the Government of the United States, and in the absence of any power on its part to prevent it. Kentucky had been an integral portion of Virginia, had been slave- holding from its original settlement, and, when formed into a separate State, retained slavery in the exercise of its own independent right to do so. Tennessee was formed out of territory ceded by North Carolina, which State made it a condition of the cession, "that no regulation made, or to be made, shall tend to emancipate slaves." The States of Ala- bama and Mississippi were formed out of territory ceded by Georgia, which State stipulated that the Ordinance of 1787 should "in all its parts extend to 4 the territory contained in the present act of cession, that ' AKTICLE ONLY EXCEPTED WHICH FORBIDS SLAVERY." It is true, that Congress passed an act to organize the Territory of Mississippi, making this same ex- ception in respect to slavery, in 1798 ; and that the cession of Georgia, requiring and imposing this exception, was not made until 1802. But the ope- ration of the act of 1798 was, by its terms, made subject to the rights of jurisdiction and property of Georgia, and the act provided for commissioners to treat with that State for the cession subsequently obtained. It is manifest, therefore, that this excep- tion in favor of slavery, in the act of 1798, was made in compulsory deference to the known views of Georgia, and was only in anticipation of the requi- sition which Georgia actually made in 1802. So far there is no evidence of any complicity of the national power of the United States in the ex- pansive movement of slavery. What was done is attributable, either to the rooted attachment of the citizens of the South to that institution, or to the authoritative interference in its favor of the Govern- ments of the slaveholding States, as in the instances of North Carolina and Georgia, prescribing, in virtue of their rights of proprietorship, that Congress should do nothing to interdict it. In 1790, about which time the State Governments of Tennessee and Kentucky were formed, their pop- ulation was as follows : Whites. Slaves. ■ Kentucky 61,133 11,830 Tennessee- --'--- 32,013 3,417 Considering the small number of their slaves, and their little pecuniary value at that period, (less than one hundred dollars each,) Kentucky and Tennessee might easily have provided for their emancipation, if they had had any disposition to do so. On the other hand, Alabama and Mississippi, when, at the epoch of the formation of their State 94 Governments, they were in a condition to control their own destinies in this particular, had so large a proportion of slaves in their population, ahout one- third in Alabama, and about three-sevenths in Mis- sissippi, that no movement of that kind could have been looked for. There is not the slightest reason to suppose, however, if the proportion of slaves had been ever so small, that those States, made up of emi- grants from other slaveholding States, would have interdicted slavery. In 1824, a most earnest attempt was made by that class of the inhabitants of Illinois, to call a convention to alter the Constitution of that State, so as to establish slavery there. A full ac- count of this attempt may be found in Perkin's An- nals of the West. It was defeated, after an animated political contest, by a majority of only eighteen hun- dred out of twelve thousand votes. The principal portion of the population of Illinois was then in the southern part of it, which had been settled chiefly from the slaveholding States ; and it is said that, even at this day, the establishment of slavery finds many advocates in that quarter. In 1836, the Republic of Texas, then forming its Constitution, established slavery, and precluded the Legislature from inter- fering with it, or from checking the ingress of slaves from the United States, or from even permitting emancipation by the owners of slaves, except on condition of their removal beyond the limits of the Republic. Yet the number of slaves in Texas, in 1834, was only about three thousand, according to the highest estimate, and could not have been much increased during the two following years of revolu- tion and war. Of so little value is the assertion, 95 often made, that slavery is submitted to, because it is established, and cannot be removed. If such an assertion is sometimes sincere, it is, in the vast ma- jority of cases, a piece of shallow hypocrisy. On the 26th of March, 1804, the Congress of the United States passed an act for the government of the vast territories acquired in the previous year from France, under the name of Louisiana. The power of Congress over the subject of slavery in those territories, was not questioned at that day ; and in what Congress then did, is to be found the authentic evidence of the opinions on that subject which controlled it. The act of March 26, 1804, organized so much of these territories as was south of the latitude of thirty- three degrees, being the present State of Louisiana, ander the name of the " Territory of Orleans ; " and as to the remainder of these territories, denominated the " District of Louisiana" it was provided as follows : " The executive power now vested in the Gov- ' ernor of the Indiana Territory, shall extend to * and be exercised in the said District of Louisiana. ' The Governor and Judges of the Indiana Territory ' shall have power to establish, in the said District i of Louisiana, inferior courts, and prescribe their ' jurisdiction and duties, and to make all laws < which they may deem conducive to the good gov- 4 ernment of the inhabitants thereof." In respect to the " Territory of Orleans," Congress prohibited the foreign slave trade, prohibited also the introduction of slaves who had been brought into the United States from abroad subsequent to May 1, 1798, and finally provided as follows : " No slave, or slaves, shall, directly or indirectly, 96 1 be brought into said Territory, except by a citizen 1 of the United States, removing into said Territory 1 for actual settlement, and being at the time of such 1 removal bona fide owner of such slave, or slaves ; ' and every slave imported, or brought into said ' Territory, contrary to the provisions of this act, ' shall thereupon be entitled to, and receive, his or * her freedom." The actual condition of things in the " Territory of Orleans''' was, that slaves were numerous, and constituted nearly one-half of the population. Major Stoddard (Sketches of Louisiana) states the whites at 41,700; the slaves at 38,800. These numbers are probably too large, but the proportion is con- firmed by the authentic census of 1810. Under these circumstances, Congress permitted slavery to remain, but absolutely prohibited both the foreign and domestic slave trade. In permitting slave- holding citizens of the United States, moving into this Territory, to take their slaves with them, Con- gress may be supposed to have been influenced, in part, by the desire of introducing American citizens into the newly-acquired province, and thus assu- ring and confirming the possession of it. Within the "District of Louisiana, 1 ' according to Major Stoddard, there were 9,020 whites, and 1,320 slaves. Nearly the whole of this population was north of the present State of Arkansas. From the present State of Louisiana, north, far enough to include the considerable settlement at New Madrid, in the present State of Missouri, Major Stoddard estimated the whole population at only 1,350. This was the actual state of the case, although it cannot be presumed to have been known with exactness, 97 when Congress legislated in 1804. The Territory was practically as remote as Oregon is now, and it may be supposed that Congress was merely advised, that the population was altogether inconsiderable, principally located in the latitude of the free Ter- ritory of Indiana, and possessing a few slaves only. The act of 1804 contains no prohibition of, or restriction upon, the introduction of slaves into the "District of Louisiana " and it cannot be supposed, therefore, that Congress contemplated the continued existence of slavery within it. If such a result had been considered possible, the same prohibitions and restrictions would have been placed upon the "Dis- trict of Louisiana," as had been placed upon the a Territory j Orleans." The "District of Louisiana" was put under the control of the Government of Indiana Territory, which was free territory under the Ordinance of 1787. The actual course of events, equally unexpected and disastrous, was, that under the administration of the Governor and Judges of Indiana Territory, slavery became established in Missouri. The coun- try, absorbed by the great events in our foreign relations which preceded the war of 1812 with Great Britain, and by the overwhelming interests of that war, paid little heed to the slow movements of an obscure and far-distant province. That the country would have interfered, however, to arrest slavery in Missouri, if earlier aroused to it, is abun- dantly evident from the stout resistance which was made to the evil in 1820, when it challenged public attention by demanding admission into the Union. On the 1st of October, 1804, the Governor and 98 Judges of Indiana Territory enacted a law for the " District of Louisiana" not indeed establishing slavery, but recognising and protecting it, by provis- ions making the stealing of slaves a capital offence, directing the sale of the slaves of intestates where a division in kind among heir3 was impracticable, &c. This Indiana act of 1804 was silent as to the introduction of slaves. It remained the only statute law on the subject of slavery until 1817, when some additional provisions were made by the Territory of Missouri. In 1812, the " District of Louisiana" was organized as the Territory of Missouri. In 1819, the Territory of Arkansas was detached from it. In 1820, the population of those Territories was as follows : Whites. Slaves. Missouri 55,988 10,222 Arkansas 12,579 1,617 In the history of these unheeded and obscure events is to be found the origin of results, which, in their full development, have changed the whole face of affairs on this continent. If Congress, in 1804, had provided affirmatively for the prevention of slavery in upper Louisiana, which, in the condi- tion of public sentiment at that time, would cer- tainly have been done, if the continuance of slavery there had been anticipated ; or if the Governor and Judges of the Territory of Indiana had legislated in harmony with the spirit and intent of the act of Congress from which they received their authority ; how completely all subsequent history would have been reversed. The negro race, except immediately 99 along the Gulf of Mexico, would not have passed the Mississippi; Missouri would now be twice as populous as it is ; Arkansas would be a great and flourishing State; Wisconsin and Minnesota would have remained as yet an untrodden wilderness; Lake Superior would not yet have been opened to navigation; while on the South, the social institu- tions of (at least) Northern Texas would have been those of civilization and freedom, instead of those of slavery and barbarism. It was impossible to arrest altogether the growth and development of regions so fertile and genial, and admirably circum- stanced in respect to natural facilities of communi- cation, as the States of Missouri and Arkansas, but they have been dwarfed and kept back for a gene- ration by the blight of servile institutions; while free white emigration, which tended naturally to the Southwest, was not even permitted to move West, but has been pushed artificially to the extreme Northwest. It is not improbable that the legislation of 1804 may be felt in a future not distant, in the destinies of the country upon Puget's Sound, whose railroad communication with the Valley of the Mis- sissippi may be anticipated by half a century, because free population has been forced up by the barrier of slavery into hyperborean regions. So far reaching may be the consequence of laws, and so momentous are the responsibilities of those who are permitted to shape the destinies of infant communities. In 1820, this whole question of slavery extension was presented to the country, in the application of Missouri for admission into the Union, and, after a discussion of the most searching vigor and earnest- 100 ness, was decided in favor of the slave-breeders ; and commencing with this signal triumph, that interest has held undisputed sway over the legislation of the Republic, down to the present time. Contrary to the inducements of immediate pecu- niary advantage, the slave-working region, the cot- ton and sugar region upon the Gulf of Mexico, was found, on this occasion, acting in concert with Vir- ginia. That those whose chief business was the raising and selling of slaves, should wish to multiply markets for slaves, was plain enough. That those who were large and constant purchasers of slaves, should assist in creating competing purchasers, was a proof, that the sympathy of a common property, and views, more or less distinctly defined, of polit- ical domination, were strong enough to reconcile them to temporary sacrifices. In the Missouri con- troversy, as in the Kansas controversy of our own times, the slave-owners of all descriptions, and what- ever their special interests were, acted in unbroken unity and phalanx. In that controversy, Mississippi and Alabama, with vast bodies of unoccupied land, and pining for population, insisted upon diverting across the Mississippi emigration which otherwise would have been directed upon themselves; just as more recently, Texas, to her own immediate and palpable injury, was found a hearty co-operator in the effort to push slavery into Kansas.* * If slavery could have been carried into the mines of California, and if the effect of transferring them to that sphere of labor had been to raise the price of a negro man to $5,000, as Gov. Wise of Virginia insists it would have been, the Gulf States would have been forced to abandon the business of cotton raising. 101 It is sometimes said, that the Missouri controversy of 1820 was settled by a compromise, but this is a most flagrant perversion of history. What species of compromise is that, in which one party gets everything it asks, without the slightest restriction, or the minutest abatement, and the other party gets nothing better, than a naked promise, to be fulfilled after the lapse of a generation, and with no guarantee of good faith ? At the very moment of the adoption of this dis- astrous measure, Mr. Pinckney, a Representative in Congress from South Carolina, despatched the fol- lowing letter to a Charleston editor : " Congress Hall, March 2, 1820. {Three o'clock at night.) "Dear Sir: I hasten to inform you that this mo- * ment we have carried the question to admit Missouri ' and all Louisiana to the southward of thirty-six de- 1 grees thirty minutes, free of the restriction of sla- 1 very, and give the South, in a short time, an addi- < tion of six, and perhaps eight, members to the ' Senate of the United States. It is considered here ' by the slaveholding States as a great triumph. The 1 votes were close — ninety to eighty-six — produced ' by the seceding and absence of a few moderate men ' from the North. To the north of thirty-six degrees \ thirty minutes, there is to be, by the present law, < restriction, which you will see by the votes I voted 1 against. But it is at present of no moment ; it is ' a vast tract, uninhabited only by savages and wild ' beasts, in which not a foot of the Indian claim to ' soil is extinguished, and in which, according to the < ideas prevalent, no land office will be open for a \ great length of time." "With respect, your obedient servant, "Charles Pinckney." 102 For the present, everything secured to the South, and the provision affected to be made for the North put off to a far-distant future; these are the ideas expressed in Mr. Pinckney's letter. And does he not convey the other idea, not fit to be put in express words, that it would be time enough to take care of this future when it arrived, and that one generation of slaveholders having secured all it wanted, the next generation of slaveholders might be trusted to take care of itself? A compromise implies an adjustment and accord between parties; terms proposed on one side, and accepted on the other. Nothing of that kind occur- red in 1820. The men who truly represented the free States, scouted the offer of the line of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, proposed as an idle rule for a future generation, as an insulting and transparent fraud. They understood perfectly well how little mere good faith would weigh against the vast pecu- niary and political interests of slavery^ and that, in the progress of time and events, that institution would seize every inch of territory it could occupy, regardless of all agreements. The true men of 1820 from the free States made no compromise. They resisted the admission of Missouri to the last, but were beaten, outvoted, and vanquished. The offer of the line of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, as the rule of an indefinite future, deceived nobody, and was expected to deceive nobody. It was merely invented as the best cover the case admitted of, for the few men from the free States, who were pre-de- termined to betray their constituents at all events, and who would have done it, if need be, without 103 any cover. The controversy of 1820 was ended, not by a compromise, but by clear victory for one side, and the total rout of the other. The policy of the Government was reversed, and a new and disastrous epoch of slavery extension and slave-breeding was entered upon, the end of which is not yet clearly visible. Everything has since happened, which might have been expected to happen, after the humiliation and overthrow of the free States in 1820. As soon as the progress of population had reached the region behind Missouri, the line of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes was wiped out, and slavery has been arrest- ed in its progress, neither by its own good faith, nor by the political resistance of the country, but by the competition of free labor. Compared with the stout resistance to the admission of Missouri, the political opposition of the free States to the enslavement of Kansas, was feeble and short-lived. It exploded in a fitful outbreak in 1854, and ended ignominiously in the Presidential contest of 1856, when, even in the free States themselves, a majority of the voters were found on the side of candidates in the interest of slavery extension. Of the value of agreements to be fulfilled within a much shorter time than the period of a generation, where the subject-matter is slavery, we have had an- other illustration in the case of Texas. The measure of annexation was carried upon a stipulated division of it between free and slave labor, and could have been carried in no other way. The line of division, the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, is set down in the act of annexation. Texas, north of 104 that line, has since been made national territory, at a cost of ten millions of dollars, and appears now on the map as a part of ISTew Mexico and of the Indian Territory behind Arkansas; but the obligation of good faith, that it shall be free from slavery, still attaches to it unimpaired. The obligation is only twelve years old, but is already forgotten ; and if it is enforced at all, it must be by free emigration, as the obligation of 1820 recently has been in the case of Kansas. At this moment, there is no political element in the United States strong enough to resist any scheme which the slave-breeders may devise. The obstacles which they encounter at home and abroad arc none of them political. The Government, in all its branches, is in their hands. If they fail to overrun all the present Territories of the Union, it is because white laborers increase faster than slaves, and need room, and have the capacity to take it. If they fail to acquire Cuba, it is because the acquisition is resisted by combinations abroad, and not because the treasury and fleets of the nation are not com- pletely at their command to buy it, or seize it. If they fail to occupy the contiguous portions of Mexico, it is because they may not be adapted to slave labor, and not because the Government would hesitate one single moment to make any acquisition which the interests of slavery demand. They are still in the enjoyment of the prestige of the victory achieved in 1820, the undisputed masters of national legislation, the dispensers of national patronage, and the dictators of national opinion. It is when things are at their worst, that they 105 sometimes begin to mend. "When the advancing tide has reached high water, from that instant it begins to ebb. Slavery has conquered politicians, but it cannot conquer the laws of nature. It bears within itself the seeds of decay and death, and its fate cannot be averted, although it may be post- poned. As a system, it is inherently unsound, and its apparent prosperity is false and hollow. It creates nothing and improves nothing, and only exists by the constant destruction of the natural wealth of fertile soils. It will die when it ceases to be nourished by that which alone sustains its life. To circumscribe it, is to kill it. Since the conquest of Texas in 1836, it has made no acquisition abroad, and during the last twenty years of constant agita- tion it has appropriated by occupation no single square mile of the national domain at home. It gained nothing, as a system of labor, by the annex- ation of Texas in 1845, because Texas was already slaveholding ; and it lost much, both as a system of labor and politically, because that annexation re- sulted in the conquest of California, which is free, and which offers a convenient basis for extending free institutions southward and eastward. At the very moment when a decree of the Supreme Court has declared negro slavery to be the law of the Ter- ritories, irrepealable by Congress, or by the people, white labor is advancing to possess them with the strong hand. If freedom has been outgeneraled, it cannot be outnumbered, and if worsted in the arena of politics, it may command a better fortune on other fields. 106 CHAPTER Vni. Emigration does not diminish population. Opinions of Dr. Malthus, Dr. Franklin, and the Earl of Selkirk. Illustrations. Nearly a million slaves of Virginia stock existing out of Virginia in 1850, who would not have existed anywhere but for the domestic slave trade. Free negroes increase slowly, if at all. The Northern States cannot be invaded by negroes. Population is not reduced by the emigration of free persons, or by the deportation of slaves, unless the emigration or deportation equals or exceeds the possible rate of natural increase, because nature forthwith fills the vacuum. Indeed, it frequently happens that population is increased by emigration. Population will advance, sooner or later, to the limit of possible subsistence, unless the whole natu- ral increase is carried off, and ordinarily, with just as much rapidity, during the existence of emigra- tion, as in the absence of it. It is not often that the range of employment affording subsistence expands so fast as the human species is capable of expanding under favorable circumstances; and hence the rate of increase of the species is checked, unless emigra- tion takes off the surplus. It is only this surplus which emigration takes off, and without emigration this surplus would not exist, being rendered impos- sible by the lack of employment and subsistence. Mr. Malthus, in his Essay on Population, says : " There are no fears so totally ill-founded as the ' fears of depopulation from emigration." ******* "The population of the ' United States of America, according to the last 6 census, is 5,172,312. We have no reason to believe ' that Great Britain is less populous at present, for 107 ' the emigration of the small parent stock which 6 produced these numbers. On the contrary, a cer- 1 tain degree of emigration is known to be favorable ' to the population of the mother country. It has ' been particularly remarked that the two Spanish ' provinces, from which the greatest number of ' people emigrated to America, became in conse- * quence more populous." In his observations upon the Highlands of Scot- land, (1805,) the Earl of Selkirk says: "By the returns made to Dr. Webster in 1755, the ' seven parishes of the Isle of Skye contained 11,252 * inhabitants. By those to Sir John Sinclair, be- < tween 1791 and 1794, 14,470. Some time after ' Dr. Webster's enumeration, the emigrations com- 6 menced, and since the year 1770 have been fre- ' quent, and of great account. A gentleman of ' ability and observation, whose employment on the i island gave him the best opportunities of informa- c tion, estimates the total number who emigrated * between 1770 and 1790 at 4,000. The number ' who during the same period went to the low coun- 6 try of Scotland, going in a more gradual manner, ' and exciting less observation, could not be so well ' ascertained, but from concurring circumstances he 4 considered 8,000 the least at which they could be 6 reckoned. Notwithstanding this drain, it appears 6 that the natural tendency of population has more ' than filled the blank ; and if, to the numbers which 6 have left the island, we add the natural increase 6 which has probably taken place among them also ' in their new situation, we cannot doubt that there ' are now living a number of people, descended from ' those who inhabited the island at the period of Dr. ' Webster's enumeration, at least double of its actual * population. Now, let it be supposed, for the sake * of argument, that the whole of those could again 'be collected within the island. _**!■* When * its actual numbers are an oppressive burden, what 108 1 would be the case if such an addition were made? 4 Can it possibly be believed, that, if the emigrations 4 had not taken place, the same natural increase 4 would have gone on ? And does not this instance 4 demonstrate, that to restrain emigration, would * only be to restrain the principle of increasing ' population?" In a tract upon population, published in 1751, Dr. Benjamin Franklin says: "Any occasional vacancy in a country (if the laws 4 are good) will soon be filled by natural generation. 4 Who can now find the vacancy made in Sweden, 4 France, or other warlike nations, by the plague of 4 heroism forty years ago; in France, by the expul- 4 sion of the Protestants; in England, by the settle- 4 ment of her colonies; or in Guinea, by a hundred ' years' exportation of slaves, that has blackened half 4 America? " There is no bound to the prolific nature of plants, 4 or animals, but what is made by their crowding and 4 interfering with each other's means of subsistence. ' "Was the earth vacant of other plants, it might 4 gradually be sowed and overspread with one kind 4 only; as, for instance, with fennel; and were it 4 empty of other inhabitants, it might, in a few 4 years, be replenished from one nation only; as, for 4 instance, with Englishmen. Thus there are sup- 4 posed to be now upwards of one million of English 4 souls in North America, (though it is thought scarce 4 80,000 have been brought over sea,) and yet, per- 4 haps, there is not one the fewer in Britain, but 4 rather many more, on account of the employment 4 the colonies offered to manufacturers at home. 44 In fine, a nation well regulated is like a polypus; 4 take away a limb, its place is soon supplied ; cut it 4 in two, and each deficient part shall soon grow out 4 of the part remaining. Thus, if you have room 4 and subsistence enough, as you may, by dividing, 4 make ten polypuses out of one, you may, of one, 109 ' make ten nations, equally populous and powerful; ' or, rather, increase a nation ten-fold in numbers ' and strength." If Malthus, and Selkirk, and Franklin, had lived to the present day, they would have been able to il- lustrate their views by examples on a more extended scale. Of the old nations in Europe, it is the non-emi- grating which are stationary, and the migrating which are advancing in population. Of the one class, France, with a population of twenty-eight mil- lions in 1790, had only reached thirty-five millions in 1856, and in the last decade has gained only half a million, while Great Britain, which is colonizing the globe, is enlarging her numbers at home. The London Times (1857) says : " In 1842 the estimated population of England and < Wales was 16,124,000; in 1856 it was 19,044,000, 1 showing an increase of nearly 3,000,000 in fourteen ' years. In Scotland the increase seems to have ' been in the same proportion, the population in < 1856 being estimated at 3,033,177. It is probable 6 the total population of the United Kingdom at the < present time does not fall far short of 29,000,000. ' This increase is not only satisfactory, but astonish- i ing, when we consider the immense drain of late ' years by emigration. In the ten years ending 1 1856, we find that the United Kingdom sent out ' 2,800,000 emigrants, a greater stream than has 6 poured from one country since the modern history ' of Europe began. "That the population of the United Kingdom 4 should, in spite of this seemingly exhausting drain, 4 continue to increase, is sufficiently explained by 4 the statistics of births and marriages. In 1842 the 4 population of England and Wales was 16,124,000, 110 < and the births 517,739; but in the year 1856 we ' find that, with a population of 19,044,000, the births i are 657,000: that is, while the population has in- ' creased less than one-fifth, the number of births in •' the year has increased nearly two-sevenths. Thus ' we learn the very gratifying fact that our popu- * lation is not only increasing, but actually increasing ' at a greater ratio than it was fifteen years ago, so ' far as births are concerned. And the evidence ' from the return of deaths is equally cheering; for 1 in 1842 the deaths were 349,519 to 16,000,000; in '1856 they were only 391,369 to 19,000,000; or, ' while the population had increased nearly one- ' fifth, the deaths had increased little more than ' one-ninth. Another fact which proves the pros- * perity of the country is the great increase of mar- 1 riages. In 1842-'43 the marriages were in England < and Wales 118,825 and 123,818, respectively; in 6 1853 they had risen to 164,520, and though slightly ' diminished in 1855 by the war, they were 159,000 ' in 1856. The number, then, on an average of years, ' may be said to have increased one-third from the ' beginning to the conclusion of the period embraced * in the return, while population has increased less ' than one-fifth." In certain years, but few, however, the emigration from Ireland has exceeded the natural increase; but its population has kept up with the means of sup- porting it, and numbers as many this day, as if not a man had left its shores. Emigration has not di- minished the number of Irishmen in Ireland, while it has been spreading the race throughout the world. The Portuguese and Spaniards have ceased to colonize and have ceased to multiply. In Germany, on the other hand, population advances, while emigrants swarm, eastward to Russia, westward to America, and even to the antipodes. Ill Even more striking examples may be found in our own country, in which are combined, in a remarkable degree, the enterprising spirit of emi- gration, and inviting temptations and opportunities for it. In 1850, while 2,101,324 New England born were living in their native States, 241,596 had moved to the Middle States, and 196,074 had moved to the Northwest. From the old Southern States, the white emigration has been even greater, reach- ing forty-two per cent, of the white population of South Carolina living in 1850. And yet in none of the old States does population diminish, while they are filling up the new; and over a large por- tion of the Atlantic seaboard, the increase is con- stant and large. That emigration does not diminish population is clear enough, and that it sometimes increases popu- lation is equally clear. This last result is explaina- ble in various ways. Dr. Franklin suggests that English colonization, by creating and enlarging markets for manufactures, renders possible a greater English population at home; and upon the same principle, JSTew England would be to-day less popu- lous, without the contributions she has made to the numbers and vigor of the "West. Where facilities for emigration exist, and where children may be easily established in colonies and new States, mar- riages will increase in frequency and fruitfulnes, as illustrated in the British statistics reproduced by the London Times, In the case of the Spanish provinces referred to by Mr. Malthus, where emi- gration created a demand for people, they " became in consequence more populous" 112 A slave population will not be diminished by emigration any more than a free population, but may be increased by it, upon the same principles, making allowance for the difference in the cases. Let us see how it has been with Virginia, that " Guinea" of the "Hew World, which has "blackened half America" by her "exportation of slaves " and will "blacken" the whole of it, if she can have her own way. The 293,427 slaves found there in 1790 amounted, with their descendants, (they quintupled in sixty years,) to 1,467,135 in 1850, of whom 472,526 were then living in Virginia, and the balance, 994,609, were living elsewhere, and the census of 1860 will find nearly fourteen hundred thousands of negro slaves of Virginia stock outside of her limits. Can we console ourselves, in the presence of an infliction so enormous and so deplorable, with the belief that Virginia has been relieved of a burden cast upon others, that this vast number of slaves must, at all events, have existed, and that it was a mere question of the place where ? We may believe this, if we choose to do so, and may persist in the belief by resolutely closing our ears to facts and common sense, but not otherwise. 1,467,135 negro slaves could not be subsisted in Virginia. The remunerative employment for them is not found there. The numbers actually in Virginia are main- tained, not by the profits of their labor, but by sell- ing their annual increase; and it is this increase, with the high value it possesses in the market, which causes them to be kept. The breeding of them is deliberately carried on, and carefully looked after, for the purpose of selling them, and not for 113 the purpose of working them. It is, in short, the extended demand for this kind of people, which makes Virginia u more populous " in slaves. In a speech before the Colonization Society, in 1829, Henry Clay said: "It is believed that nowhere in the farming por- * tion of the United States would slave labor be ' generally employed, if the proprietors were not ' tempted to raise slaves by the high price of the Southern 1 markets, which keeps it up in their own." In his Review of Debates in 1831-32, Professor Dew, of Virginia, says: "Six thousand slaves are yearly exported from ' Virginia to other States. A full equivalent being ' left in the place of the slave, this emigration ' becomes an advantage to the State, and does not ' check the black population as much as, at first ' view, we might imagine ; because it furnishes ' every inducement to the master to attend to the 6 negroes, to encourage breeding, and to cause the greatest i number possible to be raised. Virginia is, in' fact, a ' negro-raising State for other States." — Professor Dew, of Virginia, Review of Debates in 1831-32. In the Legislature of Virginia, in 1832, Mr. Gholson said: "It has always (perhaps erroneously) been con- ' sidered, by steady and old-fashioned people, that ' the owner of land had a reasonable right to its ' annual profits; the owner of orchards to their ' annual fruits ; the owners of brood mares to their ' product; and the owners of female slaves to their * increase. The legal maxim of partus sequitur ' ventrem is coeval with the existence of the right of < property itself, and is founded in wisdom and 'justice. It is on the justice and inviolability of ' this maxim that the master foregoes the service of the 'female slave, has her nursed and attended during the 5* 114 'period of her gestation, and raises the helpless infant < offspring. The value of the property justifies the ' expense, and I do not hesitate to say that in its * increase consists much of our wealth." In the Convention to revise the Constitution of Virginia, (See Debates in Virginia Convention of 1829-30,) Judge Upshur observed that a then recent law of Louisiana had reduced the value of slaves in Virginia, "in two hours after it was known,'" twenty-five per cent. ; referring, undoubtedly, to the stringent Louisiana statute of January 31, 1829, which interposed numerous and formidable obsta- cles to the introduction of slaves into that State. Nothing could more strikingly illustrate the fact, that the price of Virginia slaves depends, not upon real value at home, but upon markets abroad, and that they are raised, not to be worked, but to be sold. The idea that anything has been gained by pro- viding outlets for the slaves of the northern slave States, is a delusion and a snare; a cheat in those who propagate it, and a pitfall for the unwary. The only one of those States which has made any substantial progress in getting rid of slavery since the Revolution, is Delaware ; and Delaware prohibits the sale or removal of slaves, and in that prohibition is the sole explanation of her progress. If her citizens could have sold slaves, they would have raised them. Only being permitted to work them, and not finding that profitable, they have not raised them. In the letter of Hon. Robert J. "Walker, advocating the annexation of Texas, in 1844, it was promised 115 that by that measure slavery in Kentucky and Vir- ginia would be "greatly diminished in twenty years." That has not happened, but the reverse. In Vir- ginia, the number of slaves, which had diminished during the previous decade, increased during the decade which was signalized by the annexation of Texas. In Kentucky, slaves increased in both de- cades, but most rapidly in the last; a little more than ten per cent, between 1830 and 1840, but nearly sixteen per cent, between 1840 and 1850. It is thus shown by experience, as well as by sound reasoning, that the multiplication of slaves which results from outlets, overbalances the number drained off. There is no reason to believe that there has been any progress for the better in the northern slave States, the slave-breeding States, since 1850; down to which time the census shows that slavery was only confirmed in them, because made profitable, by the faculty of selling the increase to the extreme South. The Eichmond (Ya.) Examiner, of May 29, 1857, says: " The mistaken idea seems to prevail, to a great < extent, that the slave population of Virginia is ' annually diminished by the sales of our slaves into 6 more southern States. This is a very great mistake. 6 The slave population, so far from diminishing in 6 numbers, is steadily increasing. According to the 1 statistical information which we published in our < issue of last Friday, the slaves in Virginia have 6 increased some fifteen thousand since 1850. In < our opinion, the Abolition dream of a prospective ' emancipation of our slaves is utterly and hopelessly ' visionary and vain. For ourselves, we rejoice to 116 < believe that African slavery is as permanently and 6 immovably fixed and fastened to our soil, as the < bedded ores of the Alleghanies." Slaves being taxable property, their numbers are ascertained at frequent intervals. In Kentucky, from 1850 to 1855, the taxable slaves increased from 196,841 to 202,790. * • To no point can we look for any compensation for the vast regions of the Southwest overrun by slavery, unless it be to Missouri. That State, un- doubtedly, has been saved from a large slave popu- lation, and may yet be reclaimed to freedom, because the States on the Gulf of Mexico have presented greater inducements for the employment of slave labor. But this proves, not that any region has been relieved of slaves by making markets for them, but that a wider space has been opened for slavery than it had the physical capacity to occupy; that for lack of numbers it could not appropriate in fact what it commanded by legislation ; and that, in short, by an inexplicable generosity, we have offered to the slave-breeders more than they could possibly take. Under the actual condition of things in the slave States, the profits of slave-breeding are almost fabulous. Three notices of sales within the present month (May, 1857) have happened to arrest the eye of the writer, and the attention of the reader is requested to the enormous prices paid for children. *The statement on page 19, that the proportion of slaves to whites has been constantly increasing in Kentucky, should be modified. It was true down to 1830. Since that time, it has slightly diminished, in consequence, chiefly, of the expansion of the white population in the cities and counties on the Ohio river. 117 Case I. From a Southern paper, copied into the New York Tribune. "Judy, aged twenty-four years, and child, $1,255; ' Jack, aged four years, $376; Elvina, aged five 'years, $400; Bettie, aged eight years, $785; ' Henry, aged twenty-nine years, diseased, $605 ; ' Jeff, aged twenty-six years, $1,100; George, aged ' nineteen years, $1,205." Case II, From the Baltimore Sun. Sale in Prince George's county, adjoining Washington city. "The following slaves, owned hy L. II. Chew, 'have heen sold, viz: one woman and two small ' girls sold for $1,450. Boy about fifteen years of ' age sold for $915. Small boy sold for $700. Girl ' about fourteen years of age sold for $900. Two ' small girls sold, one for $880 and the other for '$350." Case III. From an account of sales in Morgan county, (Missouri,) May 2, published in St. Louis Republican. "A negro man, twenty-five years old, brought '$1,250; a man, twenty-eight years old, brought ' $905; a girl, nine years old, brought $805; two ' boys, the eldest ■Q.ve years old, brought $487; the ' other, two and a half years old, brought $325." Is it wonderful that the "brood mares," with such prices for their young, should be well fed and well groomed ? Is it wonderful that the desire should be most ardent to extend institutions, under which "Jack, aged four years" will sell on the auction block for three hundred and seventy-six good, hard dollars ; while three hundred and twenty-five dol- lars is thought cheap enough for a boy "two and a half years old?" And, finally, taking human nature 118 as it is, who is most blameworthy: he who raises " small girls" for sale under the temptation of these prices, or he who creates, or connives at creating, the markets upon which such prices depend ? It is too plain for argument, and indeed is admit- ted, that no such number of negroes could or would be maintained in Virginia, as slaves, as the number of slaves of Virginia stock now scattered over the country; it is hardly affirmed that the actual number kept there as slaves, would be kept as such, if the faculty of selling abroad was taken away ; and it is not denied that the rate of increase of slaves in Vir- ginia is stimulated by prices which result, not from the profits of their labor, but from sales. The argu- ment urged by those who uphold the famishing of markets for the slaves (at present the chief product) of Virginia, is, that although their rate of increase might be diminished by cutting off those markets, it would still be large, and that the number, who could not be profitably employed as slaves, would still exist in the form of freed negroes; and it never fails to be added, that in that form they would flow over into the free States, to their great damage and annoyance. Let us look this matter in the face, and see how formidable it really is. The actual increase of any people, beyond the number which may be supported by the natural fruits of the earth, and without labor, depends upon the energy, industry, and arts, by which the means of subsistence may be multiplied. Savages, indolent and thriftless, do not increase at all, and it is only civilization which renders a dense population possi- 119 ble. It is under the operation of these principles, that where two races are thrown into contact, or in- termingled in one society, the inferior diminishes and disappears. The superior race multiplies faster, be- cause it increases more rapidly its command over the means of subsistence. The capacity of all races of men to increase, look- ing merely to the power of procreation, is great and uniform. But to be stationary in numbers is the fact most commonly observed, and may be said to be the ordinary rule. What is called the natural increase of the species, is merely the power to increase if subsistence is provided, and, in fact, never occurs when the race is in the condition usually denom- inated the state of nature. Any increase which is observed, arises from improved methods of indus- try, from accumulating capital, and from a perfected social order. While an increase of numbers may therefore be said to be natural, so far as it depends upon the power of procreation; it is in fact more truly artificial, because it depends also on the degree of civilization, and of the resulting command over the means of subsistence. It is the exception, and not the rule, in the history of mankind. What is there about the negro to exempt him from the operation of these principles, or what is there in his history to induce us to believe that they are not fully applicable to him ? In the West India Islands and in South America, where the climate is supposed to be most congenial to them, the race of free negroes is either stationary or diminishing. In St. Domingo, where the freed negro has existed the longest time, and in the most considerable numbers, 120 the diminution in sixty years is believed to be one- half. In the twenty-five years in which he has existed free in Jamaica, if his numbers are kept up, which is doubtful, it is only by importations. Cuba presents no exception, the increase of free negroes being fully accounted for by manumissions. In the United States, the free negroes may have gained by natural increase, but far less than either the slaves or the whites. In the slave States, the per centage of increase from 1830 to 1840 was only eighteen and one-half per cent. ; from 1840 to 1850, only ten and one-half per cent. ; being, in the whole twenty years, about one-half of the increase of the slaves, and less than one-half of the increase of the whites. Manu- missions, which had been frequent before, in conse- quence of the low price of slaves, have been sensibly diminished since 1830, and of late years are in several States permitted only on condition of removal. It is thus that the small gain of the free negroes, ten and one-half per cent, from 1840 to 1850, may be taken as the most correct measure of their natural increase. In the free States, from 1840 to 1850, the increase of the free negroes was fifteen per cent., which is about one-half of the increase of the whites, after deducting what may be computed to be the gain of the whites by immigration. In Xew England, from 1840 to 1850, the colored race in- creased less than two per cent. Since 1810, the colored race in the free States, including free and slaves together, has increased, in the decade ending 1820, fifteen and one-half per cent. ; in the decade ending 1830, fifteen and one-half per cent. ; in the decade ending 1840, twenty-two per cent. ; in the 121 decade ending 1850, fourteen and one-half per cent. ; the rate in each instance being far below that of the whites. In the free States, it is necessary to take the increase of the colored race as a whole, as, under the termination of slavery in several of them by law, considerable numbers have been, from time to time, transferred from the slave to the free category. It is impossible to determine, with exact accuracy, what the natural increase of the colored race in the free States has been. It is suggested, on very prob- able grounds, that it is apparently diminished by the transfer to the white column in the census, of the colored blood, where its trace is imperceptible, or where those concerned, in cases in which the colored trace is perceptible, but not marked, choose to be reckoned as white. If there is, in this way, an ap- parent loss to the negro stock, and an apparent gain to the white stock, it is small. The emigration of the colored race from the free States is merely nom- inal. To Liberia, down to 1852, it had only amounted to 457 persons. On the other hand, there has been a constant addition to the colored race in the free States, not by the immigration of free negroes from the South, the negro race being emphatically a non-emigrating race ; but by fugitive slaves, and by negroes emancipated and removed by their masters, the removal being a matter of human- ity in some instances, but of late years being made compulsory by the laws of many of the slave States. How much of the increase of the colored race in the free States consists of these additions, is a matter of conjecture, more or less probable, but is certainly large. Thus in New England, from 1810 to 1850, 122 the increase was only fifteen and one-half per cent., while in the same period it was nearly twelve hun- dred per cent., or from 3,310 to 41,977, in the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, all bordering upon the slave States, and into all of which large numbers of emancipated slaves are known to have been car- ried. It is notorious that the negroes of the Atlantic free States have not emigrated to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The negro is rarely an emigrant, and it is even difficult to drive him from the place of his birth, as the slave States have found, after trying the experiment very thoroughly. The census of 1850 found eighty-one and one-half per cent, of the free colored population, living in the States in which they were born ; and if an allowance is made for re- movals which were compulsory, in order to effect emancipations, and for fugitive slaves, the number of voluntary removals is reduced to an insignificant figure. The great increase of free negroes in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, being explained by their in- troduction for the purposes of emancipation, or as fugitives from slavery; their small rate of increase in New England, where their introduction for such or any other reasons does not take place to any appre- ciable extent, may be taken as an approximate measure of their increase by procreation in all the free States. If it be said that their slow increase in ISTew England is exceptional, and attributable to a climate specially uncongenial to the negro; the an- swer is ready, that, slow as it is, it is greater than it is in Jamaica, or Cuba, or St. Domingo. In any probable view of the subject, the natural increase of the free negroes in the United States 123 must be estimated at a very low rate. The idea, that the negro possesses a prolific vigor which is strong enough to override all the laws of political economy, may alarm the careless, but will not bear examination. The picture so often drawn of the free negro, swarming and multiplying like the frogs of Egypt, and devouring the substance of the white race, is a fancy sketch, not only unsupported by observation, but demonstrably impossible to be realized. In truth, if free negroes were what those who seek to terrify us with predictions of their indefinite multiplication, describe them to be, they would speedily become extinct, instead of increasing. If th ey were ' ( idle, " " dissolute, " " thieves, ' ' ' 'prostitutes, ' ' "beggars," " overrunning jails and alms-houses," u a depraved and worthless population," it is quite certain that the calamity of their presence, if great, would be only short-lived. Thieves, prostitutes, and rob- bers, do not multiply their species. The ranks of the worthless and dissolute are kept good by recruits, and not by natural increase. To rear families re- quires some degree of industry and forethought. It is precisely because the free negroes are not what those who would alarm us represent them to be, that they are able to keep their numbers good, and even perhaps slightly to augment them. Their intellectual capacity is certainly less than that of the Caucasian race, but they have many valuable quali- ties, and have a capacity to be useful in many employments. Whenever, instead of epithets and declamation, we have had exact statistics of their condition, education, occupations, and acquisitions 124 of property ; the picture, under all the disadvantages of their social position, is both creditable for the present and promising for the future. But whatever opinion the reader may have upon these questions of fact, as to the actual or possible condition of the free negro ; it is altogether certain that no greater number of that race can exist in any community, than can vindicate their right to exist in it, by that best of all tests, the capacity to obtain the means of subsistence. Upon the whole, and in a long period of time, there will be no more of them than can make themselves useful, or, in other words, can render services which will command the means of support. Individuals may live by crime or charity, but these are exceptional cases. Races of men are not kept alive and perpetuated, and still less multi- plied, in that way. In any view of the subject, there is nothing to excite alarm, in any rational apprehension, in respect to the increase of free negroes. Who will deny them the small and humble space they occupy ? If they are an inferior race, and they certainly are so, this affords no justification for oppressing them, but a reason, rather, for treating them with kindness and protection. In his moral constitution, the negro is docile, affectionate, patient under injuries, grate- ful for benefits, and contented. The free negro, in his present numbers in this country, is not a danger- ous member of society, nor is any increase of his numbers possible, in the condition of freedom, which would make him so. The multiplication of the negro in the condition of slavery, is the true point of danger. 125 In respect to the free States, especially, it is impossible that any considerable augmentation of the number of free negroes within their limits can occur. That such augmentation will not arise by natural increase, is proved by all sound reasoning, and by a long and conclusive experience. As little to be apprehended is that influx and invasion of Africans from the Southern States, so often threat- ened as the certain result of their partial or total liberation from the condition of slavery. Who ever before, or in any discussion except this of slavery, in which vast pecuniary interests stimulate the prop- agation of the most monstrous absurdities, main- tained it to be possible that a superior race could be invaded, overrun, and displaced, by an inferior race? By what processes or methods is it conceivable that the blacks of Virginia, if assumed to be liberated, could ever get a foothold in considerable numbers in communities constituted industrially and socially as those of Pennsylvania, New York, and New England ? That they could not be forced to emigrate by anything short of compulsory deportation, is shown in the history of the past; and compulsory deportation would not be attempted, and, if attempt- ed, would certainly be rendered impossible by coun- tervailing legislation on the part of the free States. But assuming that no legal barriers should be inter- posed, and that large bodies of the liberated negroes of Virginia should desire to emigrate to the free States, the thing is ludicrously impossible. Superior races may invade inferior ones by arms, or by indus- try and arts, but the converse will not happen until all existing laws of politics and of political economy 126 are revolutionized. It is not the negro, and e cially it is not the negro just liberated from the debasing influences of slavery, who can displace from employment the skillful artisans and intelligent Laborers of the Northern State-. If. then, it is proved by a long and uniform expe- rience, in all parts of the United States, that the natural increase of free negroes, if there is any such increase at all, is inconsiderable; if it be shown that this failure to increase is no accidental feet, but is governed by unchangeable laws which control the relations of superior and inferior races ; it results that the enormous multiplication of Virginia blacks, which has been pointed out, is due solely to the domestic slave trade, it being impossible that they could now exist in the form of free negroes, or, without the domestic slave trade, in the form of slaves. Without the domestic slave trade, the Virginians would never maintain a single slave beyond the number for which profitable employment could be found; as that number was reached, and there was a tendency to exceed it, the prices of slaves would fall, and the breeding and rearing of slaves would be diminished. It is not a necessary conclusion that a general emancipation would result from this condition of things, because grown slaves would still possess a certain value. They would not be raised at all. unless this was so. Manumis- sions, however, would be more common, and by the combined operation of manumissions and of the diminished number reared, the stock of slaves would be kept at the standard indicated economically by the range of remunerative employment, and control- 127 led by this consideration, that unless slaves were worth rearing, slavery would cease to exist. "Under any aspect, and however results in other respects might be modified by circumstances, this much is clear, that no more slaves would be held in Virginia as such, than their masters could profitably retain ; and that as the blacks passed from the category of slaves to the category of free negroes, their multi- plication would cease. It is not certain that the free negroes in this country, now stationary, or nearly so, so far as nat- ural increase is concerned, would not begin to dimin- ish from the moment when any considerable addition should be made to their number. It is quite clear, indeed, that this would happen in the present con- dition of their intelligence and training in industrial arts, there being only a limited number of positions in the economy of social life which they can fill. If however, their condition in these respects is improva- ble, as there is reason to believe that it is, so that greater numbers could be maintained; that, of itself, is no cause for regret. God forbid that permission to live should be refused, or begrudged, to any hu- man being, or race, who shall establish, by industry and capacity, their right to live. And if to any race, is it to the African that we dare to deny the per- formance of the common duties of humanity ? Shall prejudice of color, pride of superior intellect, or dis- dain for ignorance and poverty, be strong enough to overpower, in generous minds, all sentiments, both of compassion and justice, towards a people upon whom such grievous wrongs have been heaped by our ancestors, and even by ourselves ? Is it only to 128 them, with their multiplied claims upon us, that we shall refuse a welcome to the free and unembarrassed competition of life, to take their chance with us and others, and to achieve such destiny as capacity and merit and fortune may conduct to ? Are our doors, thrown open to all other peoples, and tongues, and conditions of men, from every clime and from every quarter of the globe, to be closed only to a race which has the right to demand redress from us for centuries of accumulated oppression ? CHAPTER IX. The argument for slavery, as being necessary for the multiplication of negroes. Carrying slaves into new regions not favorable to their personal comfort, but the contrary. Cruelties of the domes- tic slave trade. It is seen that in this country, and in the presence of its white population, the negro will multiply only in the condition of slavery, just as certain animals are multiplied by domestication, or servitude, and in some latitudes cannot exist at all in any other state. Upon this predicament of fact, is founded an appeal for African slavery in the interest of human- ity, as the only means of perpetuating a race, with the guardianship of which we find ourselves in- trusted. "The antagonism of races," says one, (Resources of the Southland West, vol. 2, page 203,) "is work- ' ing itself out in every instance where two races ' are put in collision, by the quicker or slower ex- 129 * tinction of the inferior and feebler race. The only 4 exceptions to this rule which the world has ever 4 seen, are where the beneficent system of serfdom 4 (?'. e., slavery) has come to the rescue and protection 1 of the weaker race. * * * One only door * seems opened by nature to prevent such a catas- 4 trophe ; and that is, through the beneficent system 4 of slavery." This view of the subject is elaborately enforced in the Review of Debates in the Virginia Legislature, by the late Mr. Dew, Professor in "William and Mary's College, and by Chancellor Harper of South Carolina, in his address heretofore quoted in this work. The benevolent Chancellor says : "The care of man gives the boon of existence to 4 myriads [of domestic animals] who would never 'otherwise have enjoyed it; and the enjoyment of 4 their existence is better provided for while it lasts. 4 * * * It belongs to the being of superior faculties i to judge of the relations which shall subsist be- 4 tween himself and the inferior animals. * * * On 4 the very same foundation, with the difference only 4 of circumstances and degree, rests the right of the 4 civilized and cultivated man over the savage and 4 ignorant. * * * By enslaving only, could he have 4 preserved them. * * * It is a refined philoso- 4 phy, and utterly false in its application to general 4 nature, or to the mass of human kind, which 4 teaches that existence is not the greatest of boons, 4 and worthy of being preserved even under the most 4 adverse circumstances. * * * The African slave 4 trade has given, and will give, the boon of existence 4 to millions and millions in our country, who would, 4 otherwise, never have enjoyed it, and the enjoyment 4 of their existence is better provided for while it 4 lasts." The fact that the negro, in the condition of free- 130 dom, would only multiply slowly, if at all, in the United States, and might possibly become extinct, seems to be agreed, and is unquestionably true. But that the multiplication of the negro is, in itself, sufficiently desirable to justify slavery as a means of multiplying him, is not unanimously maintained, even at the South. Thus, Mr. Tucker, of Virginia, in his Notes on the Progress of the United States, (1843,) says: " Since the emancipated class are found to increase ' more slowly than either the slaves or the whites, < they [the Legislature] ought to encourage, rather ' than check, private manumission." The philosophy of the Virginian, if of a less ex- quisite humanity, in respect to the African race, than that of the South Carolinian, is vastly more sensible. If it be desirable to preserve and increase inferior and feebler races of men, it may undoubtedly be done by means of domestication, or slavery. In that humanity, however, which can delight itself in contemplating the multiplication of slaves, senti- mentality must be a much larger ingredient than sound reason. If an increase of the human species, looking merely to the animal enjoyment of life, and without reference to social condition, affords pleasure to the benevolent mind; it must be recollected that slaves can only exist by the displacement of, or to the exclusion of, vastly greater numbers of freemen. Under similar circumstances, in respect to climate and natural resources, the density of slaveholding populations is far less than that of non-slaveholding populations, and the aggregate of human life is as much diminished as are its true enjoyments. This 131 is uniformly observed as a matter of fact, and results from principles which are easily understood. Popu- lation is proportioned to the means of subsistence, and these depend upon industry, thrift, the progress of the arts, and the improvement of morals, all of which it is the essential nature of negro slavery to destroy. Undoubtedly, slavery may multiply negroes in this country, but only by diminishing the number of whites in a vastly greater ratio. The extinction of the "inferior" and "feebler" races, in presence of those which are more vigorous, is no "catastrophe " but occurs gradually and peace- fully, according to laws which nature manifests throughout not only the animal but the vegetable world. The system of slavery, which prevents this extinction, is no scheme of "nature" but a violation of all moral and natural laws. Under some circumstances, the question may be between a slave population and none at all, but not during the present century has choice been so nar- rowed in any part of this country. If the States upon the Gulf of Mexico had kept out the Virginia negroes, they would have had instructed and intelli- gent Europeans in their stead, without cost to them- selves, and without diminishing that species of immigration into the Northern States. Their cli- mates would have attracted large numbers, who have either not crossed the Atlantic at all, or have gone to Mexico and South America, where conge- nial and accustomed seasons counterbalance the dis- advantages of a less stable political organization. Akin to the suggestion made in the name of humanity, that slavery should be maintained as a - me&. - f multiplying th suggest ilhout R 3 improved by all L States States from lusted soils 1 - - _ 3G :ned to be in proper: - - - - - hie of himself and removi a _ Wl - "-^ n paid _ _ .ant women and _ 3 leas £ upon h 3 easily ex- is in :.ual - _ d for - -ieh has It is se mil- - 133,1 - 1 TinreT _ n the . b v the t " - - 133 sleep and rest. In onr own euuliy, : ; it n Mary- land and Virginia that slaves fare the w in the susrar resrions of Louisiana and Texas, where the scale of pre- fitei .. sfs :he calcular; them np in a given number- of years as a maner of economy ? Is it not notorious, that the Btel :<»n the Gulf of Mexico, in which forced labor is re- productive to those who own it. are made osc the northern slave States, not merely as markets in which to dispose of slaves as a matter of profit, but as a Botany Bay furnished to their hands, to which their slaves are sent by way of punishment ! The truth is. it is the temptation of great, imme- diate profits, which, more than anything else. ; slaves to be overworked, jnst as beasts of burden are overworked under similar eireumsr: meea. As the remuneration for a single years labor, vigorously pushed, bears a higher proportion to the calculated value of a whole life: just in that ratio, the induce- ment diminishes to look mainly to the preservation of life, and the inducement inere:> si I look mainly to the present use. Or. in other words, the time within which men can afford to use slaves up. is shortened, exactly as the arinual profit reach - higher per rentage of their original c ifl In his u Mm • V Si Chancellor Harper. 01 South Carolina, says : " If the income of every plantation of the Southern • States were permanently reduced one-half, or much • more than that, it would not take one jot from the • support and comforts of the slaves. And this can • never be materially altered, until they shall become 1 so unprofitable that slavery must oi necessity be ; abandoned." 134 This view of the subject, that the support and comforts of the slaves are always kept at the mini- mum consistent with their vigor and availability, and are not reduced with diminished incomes, be- cause incapable of reduction without abandoning the system altogether; effectually disposes of the suggestions, that they would be any worse off, if confined to old States and old plantations, or would be any better off, by transfer to new regions. It shows that the law of the interest of the master, forever forbidding their rise above the condition necessary to their profitable use, follows them whithersoever they are carried. But, although ac- curate to this extent, and so far as he goes, Chan- cellor Harper fails to notice, that while the support and comforts of the slave are not susceptible of material diminution ; the severity of his labor is and must be augmented precisely in proportion to the profit which the master makes out of it. What the slave has most of all things to dread, is an increase in his owner's gains ; and he can only hope for his liberty, when, by the entire annihilation of his mas- ter's gains, the motive to retain him in servitude ceases to exist. Thus far, the effect of the removal of slaves from old States to new States, has been considered upon the supposition that they are removed with and by their masters, without change of ownership, and in company with the families with which they have been reared. This sometimes happens, but in a majority of instances the removal is effected through the instrumentality of the slave trader, and involves all the multiplied and unimaginable horrors of the 135 domestic slave trade ; that abominable traffic, which is the disgrace of our age and country, and in com- parison with which, the African slave trade was innocent and merciful. The separation of husbands and wives, of parents and children, and of brothers and sisters; the abrupt severance of all the ties which bind human beings to the locality of their birth ; the transfer to new masters, strange climates, and, it may be, vast distances; exposure upon the auction block; all these attend inevitably upon the opening of new regions to slavery. The victims are not heathen savages, as they were in the foreign slave trade, but those who are, to a greater or less extent, christianized and civilized, and in whom sensibility to moral suffering is cultivated and active. If the kidnapped native of Africa may sometimes find his condition improved in the hands of new masters; humanity can delude itself with no such hope in reference to the negroes of our northern slave States, who are carried daily in the come gang of the slave trader, to wear out an existence in what is to them a far-distant world, rendered doubly wretched by its contrast with their former lot. The whole picture is one of unrelieved misery, without palliation, and without possible mitigation. How often have we had described to us the helpless terror of the slave, when, having been decoyed into some place and position to be conveniently taken posses- sion of by the slave dealer, he is suddenly informed of the fate which awaits him; how often have we had described to us the wailings and utter despair of families, who wake to find a father, a husband, or a son, hurried without warning to a doom, invest- 136 ed, perhaps, in their imaginations, with horrors greater than even the reality. How often have we had described to us the pangs of these separations, softened by no adieus, falling sudden and irresisti- ble like the thunderbolts of Heaven, and eternal as the grave. And yet, what is in so few instances described at all, and never described accurately, because language, which is an invention of man, falls short of the pathos of nature; occurs in this country upon a vast scale, and continuously, with the tacit connivance of the nation, and while a plain power given to Congress by the Constitution, for the express purpose of putting an end to it, slumbers unused. Thus, instead of the imaginary benefit to the slave accruing from the opening to slavery of new regions ; it is in and by the domestic slave trade, which the continued expansion of slavery stimulates, and is intended to stimulate, that all the evils of the system are aggravated, and all its redeeming features are obliterated. When the association of the families of masters and of slaves is hereditary, or of long continuance, it is easy to conceive of an attachment, which on one side softens the sense of bondage, while on the other it mitigates the selfishness, and tempers the roughness, of arbitrary rule. The most pleasing pictures are presented, by those who would reconcile us to the institution of slavery, of the devotion of slaves to the persons and families of their masters, commencing with childhood, and con- firmed by ancient habit. If these pictures are some- times drawn from the imagination, it is not doubt- ful that they are also sometimes drawn from nature. 137 They are conformable to what is frequently observed in all races under analogous circumstances, and are specially probable from the peculiar docility and affectionateuess of the negro. It is consoling to humanity to be able to believe, that in many instances, servitude, thus smoothed and lightened, is consistent with a. tolerable measure of physical and moral comfort. It is the peculiar misfortune and condemnation of chattel slavery, as distinguished from those systems in which the serf is attached to the soil, that its victims are necessarily liable, by the ordinary chances of human affairs, to be torn from the asso- ciations of birth, early acquaintance, and accustomed masters. Change of residence or occupation of the owner, the division of estates, forced sales under the pressure of debt; these facts are of constant occur- rence, and especially the last, because slaveholding, by its very nature, nourishes pride and extravagance, and is attended by thriftlessness and dilapidation. If, in the transfers of slaves, which result from these facts, their own well-being is sometimes consulted, it oftentimes is not and cannot be. How terribly are these inevitable results of chattel slavery multiplied and aggravated, where there is a constant enlargement of its area, and, as a necessary consequence, so long as Congress fails to interpose its prohibitory power, the domestic slave trade. What before might be said to be occasional and exceptional, becomes a permanent system. It may, for example, be easily shown, that after a liberal allowance for the number of slaves who remove from Virginia in com- pany with their masters; there are ten thousands 6* 138 lold annually out of that State to new masters, or ,o slave traders, and, of course, sold, lfke horses and sattle, upon the commercial principle merely, of sell- ug to the highest bidder. By what gauge and measure shall we undertake to compute the wretch- edness of this vast deportation, the ties which are broken, or the desolation of those who are left be- hind? Nor is it to be overlooked, aside altogether from the rupture of family ties, the change of owners, and the breaking up of old associations, that the transfer from an old country to a new one is itself unfavor- able to the slave. It is in new regions, where we find the most enterprise and activity, that we find the most fevered pursuit of wealth, and where the restraints, which tend to harmonize its pursuit with benignant manners, have the least power. Where men have gone, at some sacrifice of comfort, in quest of fortune, we shall find it followed with unwonted ardor, and with a more than common disregard of opposing obstacles. It was a happy touch of nature which induced Mrs. Stowe to make Arkansas the scene of the most cruel sufferings of Uncle Tom. How different is the position of the man who culti- vates his paternal acres, with the aid of laborers whom he has inherited, from that of the man who has gone hundreds of miles to the wilds of Texas, for the express object of making the greatest pos- sible amount of money in the least possible space of time, and whose slaves have been obtained by pur- chase. In the secluded plantations of remote fron- tiers, men escape those restraints of public opinion, which, in older communities, constitute a protection 139 to the slave, insufficient, undoubtedly, but still valu- able, and most important to be preserved. And, without reference to the restraints of public opinion, the man who works his slaves, because he has them, following the ways and methods of his fathers, and not unfrequently controlled by a mere routine, with- out calculation, is likely to be a more indulgent master, than the man, who, with sharpened cupid- ity, has fixed the time within which his crops must repay the cost of his laborers, and produce the an- ticipated profit which stimulated their purchase. Upon the great plantations of the extreme South, where the slaves are worked in large gangs, under the whip of the overseer, a mass of testimony, over- whelming and irrefutable, and which harmonizes with the intrinsic probabilities of the case, compels us to believe that their lot combines the most toil- some drudgery, with the roughest fare, and the fewest possible alleviations and indulgences. This is a sad condition, even for those who were born in it, and never knew a better one. How insupportable, then, must it be to those transported thither from the farming States of the North ! No error, certainly, can be more deplorable, than the belief that slaves have anything to gain by the extension of slavery under any circumstances, and least of all at the present day, when such extension can only be south- ward, and for the purpose of being employed in tropical cultivation. If, however, it was by possibility true that some small benefit would accrue to the negro race, from permitting the indefinite diffusion of slavery, it would be a most lame and impotent justification of 140 it. The multiplication of a race of black slaves in new regions, to the necessary exclusion of white men, involves mischiefs too manifest, too vast, and too lasting, to be compensated by any conceivable temporary benefit. It is a curious illustration of the inconsistency of mankind, that those who in one breath assail with ridicule the slightest exhibition of sympathy for the negro, or of regard for his rights, in the next breath put forward the interest of the negro as a sufficient justification for the sacrifice of the most vital inter- ests of the white race. It is the Virginians and South Carolinians, doubters of even the human char- acter of the negro, who declare that slavery must be maintained, in order that he may exist and multiply; and who represent his possible extinction, by being remitted to the condition of freedom, as a calamity by all means to be averted. It is the Virginians and South Carolinians who insist that white men shall not occupy our Territories, but that they shall be kept open as preserves for slaves, to the end that the pleasures of buck negroes may not be curtailed, and that negro wenches may breed without let or hin- drance. It is the Virginians and South Carolinians, who, turning negrophilists, declaim piteously against the cruelty of setting bounds to the expansion of the black man. It is not to be wondered at, that the world listens with incredulity, when an appeal, in the interest of humanity to the African, is made from such quarters ; or that when the appeal is sub- jected to criticism, it proves to be utterly without foundation. 141 CHAPTER X. The introduction of slaves into the States of the extreme South, to some extent legislated against by them, and always opposed by many of their citizens. Slave trading disreputable at the South. The suppression of the domestic slave trade would find supporters in all the Southern States. Inter-colonial slave trade prohibited by Great Britain in 1824. If it be concluded that the domestic slave trade is both cruel and opposed to sound policy, it would still remain to be considered whether the interests and passions, which can be rallied to its support, present insuperable obstacles to any attempt to put an end to it. Practical men, if they will not wholly forego desirable reforms, will at any rate postpone their efforts to effect them, until the convenient and opportune moment shall have arrived. They will reflect that, as Mr. Jefferson said in the last letter he is known to have written, public affairs depend upon the resolutions of others ; and that those who have charge of a good cause, must wait patiently until the currents of wind and tide become favorable. That they have become so, in the present case, how- ever, is sufficiently probable to justify a trial. In all the States in which slaves are sold, there is an opposition to their introduction, which has found expression, from time to time, in legislative measures; although in the extreme South, now constituting the principal market for slaves, these measures have not gone beyond the prohibition of their introduction by traders, or for the purpose of being sold, and have still permitted their introduc- 142 tion by planters for their own use, which has led to easy evasions of the laws. It may be noticed that in one Southern State, (Mississippi,) the prohibition of the domestic slave trade has been a matter, not merely of legislation, but of express constitutional requirement. The Mississippi State Constitution, as revised in 1832, contained the following : " The introduction of slaves into this State, as < merchandise, shall be prohibited, from and after ' the first day of May, 1833 : Prof idol, That the act- < ual settler, or settlers, shall not be prohibited from ' purchasing slaves in any State in this Union, and 1 bringing them into this State for their own indi- ' vidual use, until the year 1845* " The power here conferred upon the Legislature, to commence in 1845, has never been exercised. The prohibition of the introduction of slaves as merchandise, was supported by a law passed in 1837, declaring all notes and bonds given for such prohibited merchandise to be absolutely void ; and this law, after protracted controversy, has been judi- cially sustained. Recent discussions in the Legislature of Georgia, where such laws exist, have been extensively repub- lished in the free States ; and the views of policy upon which they depend, are, therefore, familiarly known. Many Southern economists say, that the error of planters is to devote their accumulating capital ex- clusively to increasing their negro force, instead of to improvements of their land; that occasional high prices of crops tempt them to the purchase of slaves on credit, at rates which prove ruinous when 143 the prices of crops become low ; that slaves cost now, and have cost for some time, more than they are intrinsically worth; and that the States which breed slaves are making exorbitant profits at the expense of their customers. So far as it is important to those who now hold slaves in the Gulf States, to maintain their price and value, they will, of course, be opposed to the competition of slaves introduced from abroad. The present course of things throws upon the Gulf States, not merely the increase of their 'own slaves, but nearly the entire increase of all the slaves in the United States. In this way, the slaves have already acquired a preponderance in numbers over the whites in Mississippi, and the same thing will soon happen in Alabama, where they have always been gaining upon the whites. In Georgia, their ratio of increase from 1840 to 1850 exceeded that of the whites, and the causes which produced this result must act hereafter with greater force. If Louisiana presents a different appearance, it is be- cause of the existence in it of a great commercial city, with a large white population, and because the peculiar cultivation of Louisiana, that of sugar, is enormously destructive of slave life. The tendency of things is, in short, to concentrate upon the imme- diate shore of the Gulf of Mexico, the great bulk of the slave population of the United States ; to give to that population a constantly-augmenting preponder- ance over the white race ; and to increase the possi- bility of such a catastrophe as was witnessed in St. Domingo. These dangers are not unobserved by reflecting 144 men in that region, and are frequently urged by them as objections to the domestic slave trade. That they have not excited a more general and constant attention may be attributed, in part, to the fact noticed in Lord Brougham's admirable disqui- sition upon the colonial policy of the European Powers, that the occupation of the planter is rather commercial, than agricultural, in view of the large proportion of personal property in the capital in- volved, of the ease with which that personal prop- erty may be converted or removed, and of the mag- nitude of occasional profits. The Southern planter is far less interested than the Northern farmer, in the permanent welfare of the community in which his operations happen to be carried on. He is, to be sure, an agriculturist, because land is a necessary element in his system of production ; but land is not always the largest item in his inventory of stock, and he rarely looks to any increase of its price, either by its direct improvement, or by the general growth and development of the country. The nat- ural fertility of his acres is a thing to be worked up into money in the shortest possible time. If he occasionally admits the idea, that affairs are tending to a general overthrow and ruin, he is easily con- soled by the belief that there is an abundance of time for his own individual escape from the wreck. For the present, he knows that he is making money out of his negroes ; and he determines to have more negroes, from whatever quarter he can obtain them, and leave the future to take care of itself. But while this is the reasoning of many, and while others fail to reason at all, there is still a consider- 145 able body of men in the Gulf States who view with deep and undisguised apprehension the wholesale transfer of slaves into their limits which is going on from the northern slave States. Of late, a new view of the subject is taken by many politicians at the extreme South, namely, that the continuance of the domestic slave trade will transfer Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky, to the side of the free States, and on that account ought to be put an end to by the Gulf States themselves. This view is taken by many influential individuals and presses. Its precise character will be best understood from the following extract from the JSTew Orleans Delta, of April 29, 1857: "The extreme Southern States have their eyes ' upon Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. They are watching with the eyes of the Argus — watching it as closely as the Scotch did the Cheviot ' Hills. ****** The remedy is plain enough. For example: Maryland has 90,368 slaves; Vir- ginia, 472,528; Kentucky, 210,981; Missouri, ' 87,422. Those States, from their position, have ' long been regarded as the piquet sentinels of c slavery. They may resist the anti-slavery pres- * sure, but self-defence should urge the States lying 6 south of them to look to the permanency of the 1 institution along the frontier, and render ' assu- 4 ranee doubly sure.' This can be done by passing 6 stringent enactments, preventing the four States ' above named from emptying their slave population, c as they are now doing, into the country south of * their boundaries. With a slave population of ' 861,299, to say nothing of the natural increase, * in four States containing only an area of 177,412 « square miles, it is highly improbable that the idea 6 of emancipation would be tolerated for a moment. ' Colonization would be out of the question, and the 1 146 < result would be resistance to the death to Northern 1 aggression. Common danger and common inti ' would compel Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and < even Missouri, to keep up a permanent alliance ' with the Carolina-. Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, ' and the Gull" States. In this way. the slave exodus 1 can he stopped, and the danger averted/' If the views attempted to be supported in this work are well taken, the New Orleans Delta is entirely mistaken in believing that the sale of sla out of the northern .-lave States will, of itself, ever make them free, or has any tendency to do BO. But just bo far as this belief, whether mistaken or • prevails at the South, (and it is, in fact, general, both at the North and South,) it will tend to recon- cile the admirers of slavery to the prohibition of the domestic slave trade. In the northern slave States, it is by no means certain that this prohibition would be universally opposed. It is common to think and speak of Vir- ginia, as slave-breeding Virginia. The two ideas are as indissolubly associated as cotton-spinning 18 with Manchester, or as cutlery is with Sheffield. Nor is it either unnatural, or without foundation, because slaves do undoubtedly constitute the prin- cipal export of that State, while the opening of mar- kets for slaves is the sole object, real and avowed, of her public men. Notwithstanding all this, it is well known that there are large numbers of persons in Virginia who detest the whole business, and would be glad to put an end to it. The anecdote is often repeated, and very familiar, of the indignation with which the late John Ran- dolph repelled an offer to purchase one of his slaves. 147 This particular anecdote may be a fiction, but it truly illustrates a feeling common with slaveholders. Of the sales of slaves actually made to slave traders, a considerable portion is, doubtless, due to misfor- tune and necessity. But ought not slaves to be pro- tected against such consequences of the misfortunes and necessities of their masters ? In all parts of the South, the occupation of the slave trader is positively disreputable. Vast num- bers of men, who hold slaves, would disdain the idea of selling them, without some reference to the char- acter of the purchaser; and to dispose of them to the slave trader, is, always in substance, and gener- ally in form, to send them to the auction block, and to the highest bidder. The enormity of such a pro- ceeding is flagrant, and it may well be hoped that there is no State in the Union, in which, after proper discussion, it could be sustained. The faculty of taking their slaves being still left to the citizens of the northern slave States, when they see fit to re- move into other States, the prohibition of the do- mestic slave trade would only terminate a traffic, in which few of them participate, and many of them secretly deplore, or openly condemn. The citizens of Virginia indignantly deny that they breed and rear slaves for the purpose of selling them. Not only do those who interpose this denial, do so, in the vast majority of cases, with a conscious- ness of truth ; but, perhaps, in no single instance can it be truly affirmed, that any individual slave is raised for the purpose of being sold. The determination to rear slaves is formed and executed this year, while the act of selling may not take place until twenty 148 years hence. The two things are probably never resolved upon and consummated, as parts of one plan. The fallacy of the denial interposed by the people of Virginia, consists in this, that although no one slave may be raised with a special view to his sale, yet the entire business of raising slaves is carried on with reference to the price of slaves, and solely in consequence of the price of slaves ; and this price depends, as they well know, solely upon the domestic slave trade. Of the men who deny for themselves individually the fact of raising slaves for the purpose of selling them, too many make no scruple in insisting upon markets to keep up the price of slaves. The well-known lamentation of a successful candidate for the Governorship of Vir- ginia, uttered without rebuke before a Virginia au- dience, that the closing of the mines of California to slave labor, had prevented the price of an able- bodied negro man from rising to ^.ve thousand dol- lars, is only a single example of the freedom and publicity with which the domestic slave trade is advocated in that State. The King of Dahomey, on a certain occasion, admitted that he took captives in war, and that he sold into slavery the captives so taken ; he admitted that the sale of slaves afforded him his princpal rev- enue ; but he denied that he ever went to war for the purpose of procuring captives to be sold as slaves, and for the truth of his denial, he vouched his own honor and the honor of all his ancestors. The King of Dahomey, however, has found it im- possible to allay the suspicions of mankind; and it will be equally impossible for Virginia, so long as 149 the selling of slaves is her principal business, to avoid the imputation that she breeds them for sale, and especially when so many of her citizens do not scruple to avow it. In the discussion in the Virginia Legislature in 1832, Mr. Brodnax (January 19) said: "It is not the domestic demand for slave labor ' which has ever graduated their price here, but the 'foreign demand. Their labor is infinitely more < productive on the sugar and rice and cotton ' plantations of the South and "West, than it can ' ever be rendered in Virginia, and consequently 4 their value here must very much depend on the 4 demand there. No man could, from mere pecu- 4 niary considerations, afford to give $500 for a slave, 4 to be worked on an ordinary Virginia plantation." In the same discussion, Mr. Gholson (January 18) said: "Our slaves constitute the largest portion of our 4 wealth, and, by their value, regulate the price of 4 nearly all the property we possess. Their value, 4 on the other hand, is regulated by the demand for 4 it in the Western markets ; and any measures 4 which would close those markets to us, would 4 essentially impair our wealth and prosperity. * * * 4 Its value now is frequently affected to the extent of 4 one-fourth by fluctuations in the Western markets." This corresponds with a statement made about the same time, by the late Judge Upshur, that the announcement of a law of Louisiana, restricting the importation of slaves, depreciated their price in Virginia twenty-five per cent. It is, therefore, not to be disguised that there is in the northern slave States a powerful interest, which will rally, without shame, to defend this odious traffic ; and its violence may be expected to 150 be in proportion to its wickedness. Those who have deliberately made up their minds to defy the moral condemnation of the whole civilized world, will fight desperately in a desperate cause. But while all this is unfortunately true, it is equally certain that in those same States large numbers may be rallied on the other side; and even should they prove to be in the minority, they would be formi- dable in moral weight, and in the justice of their cause. The abolition of the domestic slave trade is a measure which could be advocated with effect from the hustings in every Southern State, because it strikes at what is admitted by slaveholders them- selves to be an abuse and a scandal. There is, perhaps, not a single Southern State which has not legislated in some form to restrain it. Slavery may be a popular institution in that quarter, but slave trading is not so, and can never be made so. It is an assailable point. The defences are weak, and the defenders are few. Is it probable that any national party would be found bold enough to inscribe upon its banner the upholding of the domestic slave trade? Is it prob- able that any National Convention, even should its session be holden at the city of Charleston, South Carolina, would venture to incorporate into its platform such a plank as that? If, on a recent occasion, politicians were found to be so nervously sensitive in respect to the foreign slave trade, and so ostentatiously emphatic in their repudiation of it, is it probable that they will be found ready to shoulder the weight of a traffic, admitted on all hands to be in every respect more odious? 151 Iu 1824, the Parliament of Great Britain (Act 5 George IV, caput 113) prohibited the inter-colonial slave trade to the British Colonies, with a carefully- guarded exception in respect to household servants, and the farther exception of an authority continued to 1829, to the King in Council, to permit by special license the transportation of slaves from one Colony to another, under certain circumstances, and pro- vided it was made to appear "that such removal is essential to the welfare of the slaves proposed to be so removed.'" And not only did this act prohibit the inter-colonial slave trade, but it provided, also, that where one Colonial Government embraced several islands, slaves should not be transported from one island to another, except by the proprietor himself, and u for the purpose of cultivating any estate or plant- ation belonging to such proprietor" and then only after obtaining from the Colonial Governor u a license for such removal, specifying therein the special cause thereof " This legislation, so worthy of imitation, was in- duced by all the considerations which had carried through the prohibition of the foreign slave trade, reinforced by additional ones not less strong. While it invaded no right of the owners of slaves, it tended to diminish the rupture of family ties among the slaves, to render transfers of ownership less common, and, so far as it went, to change a chattel servitude into the less obnoxious form of predial servitude. The abolition of the domestic slave trade in this country would cut up by the roots the industrial and political connection of the slave-breeding with 152 the slave-working States; a connection which, in all its aspects, is full of mischief. It would leave the system of slavery to stand or fall, in each State, upon its own economical advantages within each State. It would diminish the total increase of slaves, and would save the Gulf States from being overwhelmed by the black flood which is now set- ting upon them. It would speedily and peacefully terminate slavery in the whole tier of northern slave States. It would extinguish the motive which now instigates the acquisition of foreign territories, to serve as new areas for the employment of slave labor; which acquisition is now pressed upon the Government as a leading policy, to the manifest hazard of our external peace. It would terminate slavery agitation, by withdrawing that subject from the arena of national contests, and leaving it to be settled by each State for itself. It would make sla- very a State institution merely, and save the country from any further disturbance from it, in matters of national policy, foreign and domestic. It would end a traffic which is demoralizing and disgraceful. And, above all, it is demanded by humanity and by justice. 153 CHAPTER XI. America settled during the first three centuries chiefly by negroes. European immigration inconsiderable until recently. The prob- ability of the further territorial expansion of slavery in the United States considered. The high price of slaves an impediment to this expansion. Within its present limits, slavery will not be crowded for a long time. At the epoch of the discovery of America, the population of Europe was small, and it could only- make scanty contributions of people to the New "World ; and as it was itself just emerging from a state of barbarism, it could not extend to new regions any elevated or enlightened civilization. Slavery was one of the established systems of that period, and the holding of heathen slaves enjoyed the full sanction of the church. And it had so hap- pened, that the value of the negro in the condition of servitude had been long tried, especially in Spain and Portugal, and was well understood. What has occurred in America, was, under all the circumstances, inevitable. Incalculable resources existed in the mine and in the soil, but by whose hands could they be .developed? Where it was practicable to enslave the native people of the coun- try, their physical organization was unequal to the forced labors imposed upon them, and they perished speedily from the face of the earth. Europe was itself sparsely populated. A few, under the stim- ulus of religious zeal, or adventurous spirit, tried the voyage (then one of months instead of weeks) across the Atlantic; while others, but still few, sub- mitted to the expatriation as tlje commuted punish- 154 ment of their crimes. The people who could subdue and cultivate the New "World, existed only in Africa. Their number was indefinitely large ; and not only did no existing moral and religious scruples forbid their coerced appropriation to that work, but it was considered rather to be in the safe line of religious duty, to subject the negro heathen to Christian bap- tism and Christian masters. It is oftentimes loosely said, that America has been settled by the European races, and different portions are distinguished, as settled by the English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The truth really is, that America, including its islands, has been set- tled chiefly from Africa, and by negroes; and it is only in our own immediate times, that its coloniza- tion by Europeans has been commenced upon a scale of any magnitude. Prior to the commencement of the present century, the number of negroes brought hither had probably exceeded the whole number of Europeans of all nationalities, who had emigrated hither, twenty-fold, or even more; and down to within less than twenty years ago, the African slave trade still brought in more people than did voluntary white immigration. Writing in 1751, Dr. Benjamin Franklin says that the then computed number of English in North America was one million, and that the immigra- tion from England was thought to have amounted to eighty thousands. If Dr. Franklin had exclusive reference to the "English," as his language implies, there should be added to the estimate a proportion- ate amount for the immigration of other nationalities, which would not greatly augment it. The immigra- 155 tion down to the period of the Revolutionary War may possibly have been larger, but still could not have been great. JSTo official accounts were kept, prior to 1819, of the number of foreigners arriving in the United States. Mr. Brownel, in his History of Emigration, fixes upon two hundred and fifty thousands, as the highest possible number which can be computed to have arrived between the close of the Revolutionary War and 1819. Mr. Brownel says: "Mr. Samuel Blodgett, a statistician of more than 4 ordinary research and accuracy, wrote, in 1806, 4 while every fact in regard to immigration was 4 fresh in the minds of the people, that from ' the 4 best records and estimates at present obtainable,' 4 the immigrants arriving in this country did not 4 average, for the ten years from 1784 to 1794, more 4 than 4,000 per annum. "During 1794, 10,000 persons were estimated to 4 have arrived in the United States from foreign * countries. "In 1818, Dr. Adam Seybert, member of the ' House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, in 4 his exceedingly- valuable ' Statistical Annals ' of 4 the United States, wrote to the following effect: 4 'Though we admit that 10,000 foreigners may have 4 arrived in the United States in 1794, we cannot 4 allow that they did so, in an equal number, in any 4 preceding or subsequent year, until 1817 ; ' and he 4 assumes that 6,000 persons arrived in the United 4 States from foreign countries in each year from 4 1790 to 1810 ; to him, and to the authorities he 4 consulted, this average seemed a generous one." In 1792, according to the report made to the King of Spain by the Conde de Revillagigudo, Mexico, exclusive of the Intendencies of Vera Cruz and Guadalaxara, contained a total population of 156 4,483,529, of whom 7,904 were Europeans, and 677,458 were Creoles of European blood. The excluded Intendencies contained, in 1803, a total population of 786,500, and probably a greater pro- portion of European stock. These results corres- pond substantially with those arrived at in 1803 by Humboldt. They imply a very small European immigration into Mexico. At the commencement of the present century, the general statement commonly made by geographers was, that the number of whites in Mexico equalled the number of whites in the whole of South America. As late as 1819, Bonnycastle computed the whites in Brazil at only 500,000, and the negroes at four times as many. In 1761, more than two centuries after the settlement of Brazil by the Portuguese, Edmund Burke, in his "Settlements in America," says that the negroes there outnumbered the whites ten to one. Upon the whole, it would not appear that the total European emigration to America, during the first three centuries after its discovery, exceeded half a million. In reference to the number of negroes taken in Africa for transportation to America, the Encyclo- pedia Americana (1851) says it has been "calculated ' to amount during the last three centuries to above < forty millions, of whom fifteen or twenty per cent. * die on the passage." In 1840, the estimates of the number taken for transportation ranged from 150,000 to 250,000. When it is considered that the stock of negroes in the United States is due mainly to natural increase, 157 - and not to importation, and contrast these vast importations with the comparatively small number of negroes now existing in other parts of America; it is seen how immense a sacrifice of human life has been made, to enable the civilized world to be supplied at cheap prices with sugar, rum, and coffee. Within the last twenty years, European emigra- tion to America has been large, and rapidly increas- ing. The following table of the foreign immigration (nearly all of it European) into the United States since 1819, made up from official registers kept at the custom-houses, is taken from Brownel's History of Emigration : Period of years. Number. During 10 years, ending Sept. 30, 1829, 128,502 " 10J " " Dec. 31, 1839, 538,381 " 9f " " Sept. 30, 1849, 1,427,337 6J- " " Dec. 31, 1855, 2,118,404 European emigration to other parts of America has been increasing of late years, although perhaps not so rapidly as to the United States. It is under- stood to be large to Brazil, since the extinction of the slave trade there in 1850. The people of Europe are increasing in numbers, and in the command of the means of emigrating. The voyage across the Atlantic is being improved, in respect to speed, safety, cost, and comfort, and all the inducements to emigration are increased. That its aggregate amount will continue to enlarge, in the absence of causes not now foreseen, would seem to be certain, although the proportion of it directed upon the 158 • United States may diminish. The time is probably not distant, when the European stock will be pre- dominant in numbers in South America, as the other races there, native and imported, are either stationary or declining. In short, considering the time of the discovery of America, the inviting fields for labor presented in it, and the difficulty, if not impossibility, of supply- ing this labor, except from Africa, the slave trade to this continent was an inevitable fact. It was sus- tained by interests wide and strong, and has yielded only slowly and reluctantly to the changed opinions of mankind. In an order and progress of things, dictated by irresistible causes, it was the mission of the negro to furnish the chief labor of the New World, until, in the fullness of time, its different portions have been and shall be enabled to pass suc- cessively to the higher and nobler civilization of freedom. We are now, at length, in the midst of a new and better epoch. The population in America of Euro- pean extraction has grown so large, and the ac< 5- sions to it bv immigration are so vast, that we can begin to see that the mission of the negro here is nearly completed, and that the limits of his possible expansion may be computed. In fifty years, the white races now in the United States, and their de- scendants, will number more than one hundred mil- lions. "While it is impossible to predict exactly the march of this great multitude, or to define precisely the regions it will occupy, it is easy to see that the negro in Xorth America must be pressed into narrow bounds. And it is in North America only 159 that he is formidable, because it is here only that his numbers are increasing; the African race in South America and in the West Indies being either stationary or declining, except so far as it is kept up by the slave trade, which is reduced now to a single island, restrained even there within close limits, and menaced constantly by that complete extinction which it cannot long escape. Fifty years will swell the number of the white race in the United States to one hundred millions. Another fifty years, if the rate of increase is not checked, (and it will not be so long as territorial ex- pansion is possible,) will swell the number to four hundred millions. Where else, except in Mexico, Central America, and the vast continent of South America, are these myriads of our posterity to find the outlets which will give them space and verge enough? But if those immense regions, of which so little has been explored, and of which even less is occupied, are to remain unpopulated until the negro race of the United States is sufficiently multi- plied for that purpose, they will remain unpossessed, not for one century, but for many centuries. No delusion has so little foundation as that as- sumed law of climate which would confine the white races to the latitudes of the free States of this Union. But when it is insisted upon in reference to our own country, where the facts which overthrow it are familiar to everybody, it is not wonderful that it is kept up in reference to countries of which we know less. When it is denied that the Southern States can be occupied by anybody but negroes, two-thirds of their inhabitants being actually whites, 160 and the increase of the whites being greater than that of the blacks, what absurdities may not be maintained ? If we look to the origins of the European races which inhabit this country, Georgia and Alabama and Tennessee are more like their mother countries than New England is. The Irishman and English- man and German find in Missouri and Texas, a climate less dissimilar to that at home, than they do in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The heats of summer arc longer and steadier at the South, but not more excessive than at the North. Labor in the fields is performed by whites, and without any ill conse- quences, in the extreme South. Nearly all the heavy, out-door work in the city of New Orleans is performed by whites. Humboldt observes that the Caucasian races are distinguished by their flexibility of organization in respect to climate ; and of this we have a remarkable instance in the French, who have long occupied the lower Mississippi and the most northerly of the Canadas, and without any loss of their original vigor in either of those widely sepa- rated latitudes. The descendants of that race, ex- pelled from Acadia, suffered a dispersion equally wide, being found in the Carolinas, on the Gulf of Mexico, and on the upper St. John in the latitude of Quebec. If there are malarious regions at the South, on the coasts of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, they are of limited extent; and as a whole, the white race exhibits as much physical vigor at the South as at the North, and, in the opinion of many observers, decidedly more. The mountain regions of the South, which are extensive, are cele- 161 bratecl for the size, hardiness, and muscular power of the white men who occupy them. The philosophers who, apparently unwilling that white men should descend below the limit of per- petual frost, show that no race except the African does now exist in the Southern States, although the census tables prove quite the contrary, have no diffi- culty in demonstrating that Mexico and Central America can only be occupied by negroes. In logic, as in morals, it is only the first mis-step which is difficult, all conclusions being possible and legiti- mate for those who select their premises at pleasure. The practical experience of mankind is a sufficient answer to fanciful rules, which, applied on the other side of the Atlantic, would surrender to the African, Spain, France, and Italy, and drive back their pres- ent inhabitants to the shores of the Baltic. The three thousand years of recorded civilization in the regions which environ the Mediterranean on all its sides, prove that no part of the continental borders of the Gulf of Mexico, and none of the islands which separate it from the ocean, need be abandoned to the barbarism of negro slavery. The European stock is found everywhere, from Texas to Patagonia, and in every part of that whole extent is more vigor- ous and prolific than any other race, indigenous or imported. Isothermal lines are not uniform with parallels of latitude; vertical suns are qualified by ocean breezes and mountain heights ; and America, even at the equator, offers to man salubrious abodes. The experiment of Africanizing America has had a long trial, of more than three centuries, and has failed at all points and in every particular. Of 162 course, it was not expected to bring civilization and the arts to the New World, and it has failed even to populate it. The policy of Africanization ought now to be given up ; but whether given up or not, it must soon yield to a new and better order of events. To obtain a more correct appreciation of the prob- able course of the competing races and .social organ- izations of the United States, let us sketch, by way of contrast, a course of things vainly believed to be possible by those identified with the interests and passions of slavery, and which they are still strug- gling to bring about. The first and essential step in their scheme of ambitious aggrandizement is to extend their favor- ite institution in one continuous line across the con- tinent to the Pacific Ocean, as far to the north as possible, but, at all events, somewhere, with the ex- pectation that it would prove an impassable barrier to the progress of free labor to the southward. This point being secured, the process of absorption is to be applied to all the regions which intervene between the United States and Brazil, so that the finest por- tions of America may become one unbroken and homogeneous slave empire. Oceanward, these men contemplate no less adventurous enterprises, than to prop up the tottering fabric of slavery in Cuba, to re-conquer the rebellious blacks of Hayti, and, in due time, to restore the ancient order of things in the British and French West Indies. These are great projects, but not too great for the ambition and en- thusiasm and restless energy of the men who have conceived them. Their achievement might be pos- 163 sible, if strategy could overcome numbers in a ques- tion of races, as it not unfrequently does in war. But fifty years will only carry up the number of slaves in the United States to twelve millions, even if their rate of increase be kept up to what it was between 1830 and 1850, which is altogether improb- able. By what tactics of disposition and movement, are twelve millions of negroes to dispute the field with one hundred millions of white men ? It is probable that the immigrants from Europe during the current decade, and their descendants, who will be living in the United States in 1860, will alone equal the whole number of slaves at that time. It was the darling object of the slaveholders to apply the Missouri Compromise line to the Terri- tories acquired from Mexico in 1848. They would doubtless have succeeded in it, if the result had been within the control of the Federal Government, and if sufficient time had been given for the opera- tions which have failed in no instance since 1820 to subdue Congress to their purposes. It happened, however, that the whole matter was brought to an abrupt termination by the movement of the people of California themselves, who proclaimed it a free State, and covered the whole territory on the Pacific acquired from Mexico. This cut the knot, and ended the vocation of compromising politicians. To evade the consequences of the signal discom- fiture then suffered, has been, and still is, an object of intense solicitude. It is this which has instigated buccaneering raids upon Lower California and upon Sonora; it is this which, at any moment judged opportune, will transfer any number of millions of 164 dollars, which may be necessary for the purpose, from the treasury of the United States to the treasury of Mexico, for the purchase of these prov- inces, already predoomed to slavery by a decision of the Supreme Court; it was this which induced the Administration of President Pierce to squander ten millions of dollars to consummate the acquisition which has devoted the name of Gadsden to lasting ridicule. And the same purpose, to which no sacri- fice seemed too great to secure a railroad route, along which the peculiar institutions of Texas might be carried to the Pacific, is still manifested in the establishment of roads and mails and passenger transportation on or near the same line. It has become a race, whether the negro from Texas and Arkansas, or the white laborer from Kansas and the free West, shall first reach New Mexico and the Gulf of California; and until the policy of the Govern- ment is changed, it is only for the negro that ways will be opened and roads built. Next in order of time to the triumph of freedom in California, and, if possible, of even more trans- cendent importance, is its triumph in Kansas, now believed to be secure. That Kansas is the key to the West, is apparent from an inspection of the map ; but every increase of our knowledge of the countries beyond it, adds to the estimate of its value. Routes, traversable in summer as well as in winter, to the Pacific, must be deflected southward from Kansas. Such practicable routes are known to exist, and will be opened and used, although the Government of the United States may give all its patronage to routes starting in slave regions; and Kansas will 165 thus be the point from which trade, travel, and settlements, will extend to New Mexico. Situated in the heart of the continent, Kansas only needs population to exert a wide and decisive control, eastward upon Missouri, southward upon the Indian Territory, and southwestward upon Northern Texas, New Mexico, and Sonora. It is, in short, yet to be determined whether slavery will be able to possess itself of any part of the northern and substantially unoccupied portions of Mexico, which we have already acquired, or may acquire hereafter; and it was always questionable whether it could successfully invade those portions which contain any considerable population. The generally-received opinion is, that negro slavery can only be safe where the free races are purely white, and that it cannot be established in the midst of mongrel and colored races. This was Mr. Calhoun's opinion, often expressed, in reference to acquisitions from Mexico. Even the small Mex- ican population which is left in Texas, is spoken of there as dangerous to the institution, and has l^een repeatedly threatened with expulsion on that account. The reader may examine in this connec- tion the opinions quoted from the debates on the annexation of Texas, which may be found in the appendices to this volume. An additional obstacle to the progress of negro slavery into the populated portions of Mexico, is the fact that there already exists there a class of laborers, whose cheapness and efficiency make them formidable competitors of the African. In reference to the adaptation to slave labor of 166 the unoccupied portion of Mexico, Mr. Olmsted, in his valuable volumes upon Texas, recently published, gives a negative opinion as to the region upon the Rio Grande, the per centage of tillable soil being stated to be small, and only to be found in diminu- tive patches. General Gadsden, late Minister to Mexico, informs the public that the region-upon the lower Colorado and the Gulf of California is adapted to rice, cotton, and sugar, and may be made to bear the same relation to our Pacific possessions to the north of it, as is borne by South Carolina and Georgia to the Northern Atlantic States. It was to reach this region that General Gadsden agreed to pay twenty millions of dollars, reduced by the United States Senate afterwards to half that sum. Both these opinions have respect to agricultural capacity, and not to the value of labor applied to mining. The question of slavery is frequently said to be a question of soil and climate. It is, in truth, a question of the value and supply of labor, and is only a question of soil and climate, in so far as those elements control, as they ordinarily do, the utility of labor and the effective demand for it. But slavery has always been applied to mining, and was, in fact, first introduced into America with that view. It was not the soil, but the mines of California, which, in the opinion of a Virginia Governor, would have carried up the price of an able-bodied negro to five thousand dollars. Is it certain that the mines of New Mexico and of the northern provinces of Mexico, not yet acquired, do not offer a field for labor more productive even than cotton and sugar plantations ? 167 The oracular dogma of Mr. Webster, that the laws of God prohibit slavery in New Mexico, is well remembered. Miss Martineau correctly observed of Mr. Webster, that, with all his great qualities, he was a trickster in oratory, and elaborate in all the theatrical resources of language. While he did not neglect substance, he was studiously attentive to forms. This particular dogma owes all its currency to the swelling and mysterious phraseology in which it is clothed. Nobody understood better than Mr. Webster, the art of imposing upon mankind. If he had said simply that slaves could not be profitably employed in New Mexico, those who heard him would have perceived that that was something within the ordinary range of human intelligence, and they might have agreed with him in opinion, or otherwise. But he did not miscalculate, that when he proclaimed that the laws of God prohibited sla- very in New Mexico, many of his hearers would permit it to pass unquestioned, under the belief that he understood that matter better than they did. Latitude has nothing to do with the forms of soci- ety, or with the passions of men. Lust, cruelty, the oppression of the weak by the strong; these are found everywhere. Slavery exists at the equator, and amid the snows of Russia. It is peculiar to no climate and to no pursuit. Slavery in New Mexico is prohibited by no law of man, and by no law of God, except that law of justice, which forbids it everywhere. It is invited there by the profits of mining, and will inevitably go there, unless free labor pre-occupies the ground. Undoubtedly, it is upon the determination of the 168 social institutions, which shall control the great region stretching from Kansas southwestwardly to the Gulf of California, that the fate of slavery in the United States largely depends. If free labor gets possession of that region, slavery will be confined to the skirts of the Gulf of Mexico, towards which it will be pressed constantly and irresistibly. Slavery will never be extinguished by pecking at one border, while an indefinite enlargement is still possible for it at another. Until it is surrounded completely and impassably, the period of its extinction cannot be computed. It is in this view of the subject, that, so far as free emigration may be influenced by political objects, it seems to be unwise to direct it upon Virginia. It is not there that the stress of the battle is. It is not within, but without, the limits of Virginia, that the general question of slavery, and even the question of slavery in Virginia itself, is to be settled. If we would destroy this Samson, we must know wherein his strength lies. Before we deal blows, let us see that they are aimed at vital parts. And can there be one single remaining doubt, that it is territorial expansion which is the life and soul of slavery as it exists in the United States, that this is the hair which makes the strong man invincible, that this is the enemy's Malakoff against which we are to thunder with unwearied pertinacity, summer and winter, day and night, never doubting that his com- plete overthrow will follow its capture ? The causes which will soon operate to carry emi- gration from the free Atlantic States into Virginia, have been heretofore considered. The motives 169 which will address themselves to the interests of emigrants to move in that direction, will prove strong and decisive in due time. They need not be enforced by artificial stimulation, either now, or hereafter. If we could command legislation and command events, (in truth, we can command neither,) it would not be good policy to push the slaves of Virginia into Arkansas and Texas, which would be to push them from a point where an extension of slavery is impossible, to points where it may be imminent. If the enemy disposes his forces, so as to expose us to the greatest possible dangers, that is to be ex- pected, and to be met by such opposing strategy as we may be able to devise ; but it is not wise to in- vite him, or drive him, into positions in which he will be most effective and most menacing. The tendency of slave labor to the southwest cannot be prevented, but it ought not to be stimu- lated, and it may be met by a free emigration to the same quarter. Kansas, already safe, may be made formidable by a great population. Missouri may unquestionably be rescued from slavery by an active white immigration, and so may be large por- tions of Arkansas. The proportion of slaves in Ar- kansas is not large, and its total population is insig- nificant, in contrast with its area and resources. With an area of 52,198 square miles, Arkansas had, in 1850, with a total population of 209,897, 47,100 slaves; in 1854, by a State census, taking the numbers of 1850 for two counties not returned in 1854, the total population had increased to 251,458, and the slaves to 59,492. Arkansas upon a 170 the Mississippi is low, and reputed to be unhealthy, but, as we proceed west, becomes higher and more salubrious. Northwestern Arkansas, like South- western Missouri, is not adapted to slave labor. Xo parts of it, in fact, are specially so, except upon the Mississippi and Red rivers. There are few slaves in that portion of Missouri which adjoins Arkansas. The slaves are principally in the southeastern por- tion of the State. In 1850, the northern half of the State, with more than one-half of the white popula- tion, had only one-fifth of the slave population. The wealth of Arkansas in minerals is incalculable, and, as soon as the State is opened by railroads, it ought to be taken possession of by a white population. This would make assurance doubly sure, that the Indian Territory behind it, which is one of the most desirable and attractive regions on the continent, shall not be overrun by slavery. It deserves consideration, that the same fact which intensifies the desire of slaveholders to extend the range of their peculiar property, impairs their power of extending it. The same high and advancing price of the negro, which gives vivacity to the rhet- oric by which the system of slavery is upheld, indis- poses his owner to run the hazard of losing him. Able-bodied negroes at fifteen hundred dollars apiece, are expensive troops to be exposed to the chances of battle. That sort of ware has become too precious to be trusted to the rough and tumble of a contested political field. Slave-owners are ex- ceedingly prudent in acts, however it may be in words. In the campaign in Kansas, they did every- thing except to carry their slaves there. Xo elo- 171 quence could persuade them to do that. They sent up their poor whites to that war, but wisely kept their blacks at home. The whites they sent there cost but little. The household troops, Caesar and Sambo, remained upon the old plantations. And what happened in Kansas, happened also in Nica- ragua. No single negro was carried from the United States to cultivate the sugar estates which were to be had there for the asking, under the late adminis- tration of General Walker. It seemed to be agreed, indeed, that if that sort of labor was obtained for Nicaragua, it must be by the old-fashioned trade, and at coast-of- Africa prices. The planters of the United States could not be enticed from the comfort- able certainty which they were enjoying, by dazzling but precarious profits, held up to them in Central America. Is it at all likely that they will follow other adventurers to tha^ field, or similar fields, while negroes possess their present marketable value ? It is not improbable that the high price of slaves, which is so potent a dissuasive of their exposure to risks, may be maintained, or even enhanced, until the fate of all debatable territories is settled. The capacity and aptitude of slave labor to appropriate new territory, are greater than those of free labor, numbers being equal; but it must be recollected, that not only are there within the present external limits of the slave States, vast regions wholly unoc- cupied, but that the population of regions heretofore considered to be occupied, admits of a large increase, by improved modes of transportation. The railroad system enlarges the effective area of the countries 172 to which it is applied, by rendering possible the cul- tivation of lands, impossible without it by reason of the expense of conveying crops to markets. If the number of slaves is duplicated, within thirty or thirty-five years, the entire increase will be absorbed by the agricultural capacities of the slave States which are not yet touched, without any enlarge- ment of their exterior limits, and without taking into account the applications which may be made of slave labor to other pursuits. It. is not in our day and generation that the slaveholders will be crowded for room, even if they be kept within the 851,508 square miles which they now control, but of which they occupy only a portion. Their politi- cal ascendency has enlarged their external bound- aries, beyond the physical capacity of their slaves to fill them up. Instead of being driven to new enlargements by the pressure of an accumulating black population; the truth really is, that new en- largements, at present, will avail them nothing, from the deficiency of their black population. They will see that this is so, if, instead of listening to politi- cians, they will look at the facts immediately around them and under their own observation. The extension of negro slavery over Mexico and Central America, which fires the imaginations and rounds the periods of Southern orators, will be found, when subjected to the logic of figures, to be impossible, on the basis of the actual negro popula- tion of the United States. It can only be made pos- sible by the revival of the African slave trade, and that the civilized world will never permit. The tendency of the slave population to pass the 173 Mississippi is not strong, and does not seem to be much greater than it was five-and-twenty years ago. If we look to Missouri, slaves have only augmented since 1850 to the extent of their natural increase. If we look to Arkansas, the gain between 1850 and 1854 was only 12,392; and of this number, one-third is due to natural increase. It is only in Texas that we see evidence of any important movement of the slave population across the Mississippi, and even there it is greatly overrated. Taking the State re- turns, the number of slaves in Texas increased in eight years, from 184T to 1855, only 66,914; that is to say, from 39,060 to 105,974. With a proper allowance for the gain by natural increase, the aver- age annual slave immigration, during those eight years, did not exceed 6,551. Texas may easily fur- nish room for a million of slaves, and at this rate, a long period must elapse before it is filled up ; and, in the mean time, where is the slave population which is to overrun Sonora, Lower California, and finally, the whole of Mexico ? Certainly, until Texas is tolerably filled, there can be no natural pressure of the slave population upon the regions beyond; and in the contest of races and systems which is now progressing, time is everything. A pause of a few years only in the territorial advance of slavery, leaves the field unobstructed to the flood of free white emigration which is pouring down upon the Southwest. The present tendency of the slave population of the Southern States is rather to consolidation, than to an enlargement of exterior limits. It is likely to continue so for many years, under the influence of 174 the railroad system, in which those States are em- harking with an energy so commendable. This change of tendency will promote the real interests of the Sonth, present and remote; but, at all events, it is unmistakable as a matter of fact. The observation of this fact will have its influence upon the new States hereafter to be formed. The paramount object of new States is to invite immi- gration, and they will readily see that this will be best accomplished by free institutions. If they make slave labor lawful, there is very little of it to be spared from the old States, while the establish- ment of slavery will keep out free laborers. If mankind were governed in politics, as uniformly as they are in the conduct of their private affairs, by their interests, this consideration would be decisive. But it will weigh much, with every allowance for the frenzy of political passions. The people of Texas committed a deplorable mis- take, when they established slavery as their funda- mental and unchangeable law, in 1836. Their hopes of a great and sudden immigration from the South have been completely disappointed; and they are now buying negroes at enormous prices, and in the nice of the certainty, that every negro they buy, keeps out ten intelligent white laborers, who would •come without cost, if slavery did not exist. It may be hoped that, with the experience of Texas before them, other new States will not repeat the same folly. 175 CHAPTER XII. Slavery will be maintained, so long as it is profitable. The state- ment, that abolition commenced in 1835, and has retarded eman- cipation, shown to be untrue. Change in Southern views attrib- utable to increased profits of slavery. Opinions of Governor Hammond. The discussion of slavery necessary, until the fate of the Territories is decided. Of the immediate abolition of slavery in the United States as a whole, it is sufficient to observe that those who alone have the power to accomplish it, can by no possibility be persuaded to exert that power. However proper, therefore, it may be to present the considerations which are supposed to indicate that its abolition is a moral duty, there is nothing practical in any discussion of the conse- quences which would flow from its abolition. That it will not take place in our day and generation, is as indubitable as anything future can be. It is said, that if the abolitionists had been more temperate and conciliatory in their language, they might long since have persuaded the slaveholders to give up slavery, at any rate in the northern slave States. It is even said that in some of those States public opinion had nearly ripened in favor of eman- cipation, when the zeal of the abolitionists was fatally aroused, and all hope of it destroyed or indefinitely postponed. And, as a necessary infer- ence from these statements as to what is past, it is said that emancipation can only be looked for here- after, and may then be looked for, when the people of the free States shall cease to make it the subject of agitation. 176 It is necessary, to the intelligibility of these state- ments, that some precise time be fixed when the acts and language of the abolitionists became sufficiently intemperate and threatening to produce the deplo- rable results now imputed to them. The year 1835 is the designated epoch of this outbreak of abolitionism, which dashed so many hopes of humanity, and extinguished so many virtuous resolutions. This was the fatal year when the purpose of emancipating their slaves, which had existed for fifty years in the breasts of the people of Virginia and Kentucky, waiting for the favorable moment to be put into execution, was disastrously and perhaps finally frustrated. One would imagine, from what is said upon this subject, that, prior to this year 1835, such a thing as an abolitionist had never existed in America ; that no man had ever denounced the wickedness or exposed the folly of slavery; that it was a subject forbidden to the political forum, to the pulpit, and to the press ; that no society had ever been formed to put it down; and that, in short, abolitionism dates with Arthur Tappan and William Lloyd Garrison. There is not an intelligent man born in America, who has reached or past middle life, who does not personally know that there is not one particle of truth in any of these statements, or the least color, or pretence of color, for them. Abolitionism, which existed before the Revolution, was so developed and vivified by the discussions and doctrines which led to and sustained that struggle, that it may be said to have been one of the fashions of the Revolutionary epoch; and it remained a 177 living, warming, and glowing principle, so long as the men of that day survived upon earth. Its record remains, luminous and imperishable, in the statutes and Constitutions of the Northern States of the Union. It exists in every written memorial of the opinions of the free States, without interruption, during the half century which followed the Revolu- tion. Sermons, newspapers, orations, school books, every form of literature, in short, in which popular impulses are most wont to speak out, are full of it. "Was it not in 1819 and 1820, that the whole North glowed with fervent heat in resistance to the admis- sion of Missouri into the Union; that slavery was discussed and denounced in all its moral and economical relations; and that its reprobation by the free States was unanimous and immovable, although baffled and rendered powerless by cow- ardly and treacherous representatives ? How has it happened, then, that denunciation of slavery, and effort for its overthrow, which had been incessantly manifested at the North, and not unfre- quently at the South also, should now be said to have commenced in 1835, and never to have been heard of before? By what strange hallucination and falsification is it, that men forget or deny facts which are an essential part of the history of the country, and are yet fresh in the recollection of innumerable witnesses? The year 1835 was the epoch, not of any new or increased agitation against slavery, but of an agita- tion of an altogether different sort; of a political agitation, of which abolitionism was not the cause, but the pretext; and the object of which was to com- 178 bine the Southern States into one solid mass, for the present purpose of controlling the Government of the country, and (with many) for the ulterior pur- pose of dissolving the Union. It was in 1835, not that abolitionism first manifested itself, but that Southern agitation, before that time directed against the protective tariff system, was shifted upon slavery, for political and personal purposes. Colonel Benton, in his Thirty Years in the Senate, speaking as a witness, and fortifying his statements by documentary proofs, shows the commencement, motives, and progress, of this new movement. Con- trasting the comparative decay of the Southern States, great in fact, and made greater by exaggerated recollections of Southern prosperity in early times; observing that the Southern belief, which imputed this decay to the tariff, had led to sectional Southern Commercial Conventions, to estrangement from the Union, and even to attempted nullification; he says : "A real change had come, and this change, the < effect of many causes, was wholly attributed to i one — the unequal working of the Federal Govern- < ment — which gave all the benefits of the Union to < the North, and all its burdens to the South. And ' that was the point on which Southern discontent ' broke out — on which it openly rested in 1835, 1 when it was shifted to the danger to slave prop- < erty. The tariff question having been settled by the compromise of 1833, it was necessary to direct " Southern discontent" to some new quarter, and it was accordingly "shifted to the danger to slave prop- erty" in a report made in 1835 in the United States 179 Senate, by Mr. Calhoun, of which Colonel Benton says: "The insidiousness of this report was in the * assumption of an actual impending danger of the ' abolition of slavery, * * * when the fact was, i that there was not one particle of any such danger. 4 * * * Mr. Calhoun characterized his movement ' as defensive — as done in the spirit of self-defence ; ; it was then characterized by Senators as aggressive ' and offensive. * * * Thus, within two short years 4 after the * compromise' of 1833 had taken Mr. ' Calhoun out of the hands of the law, he publicly i and avowedly relapsed into the same condition, 4 recurring again to secession for a new grievance. * * * * It now becomes proper to tell that Mr. Clay, ' after seeing the relapse of Mr. Calhoun, became ' doubtful of the correctness of his own policy in 6 that affair, (the compromise of 1833.") The assertion that the spirit of abolition, either originated in 1835, or received any special impetus in 1835, is untrue, and contradicted by all authentic history. It would not be difficult, indeed, to show that it had, on the contrary, been retrograding since the Revolution, both at the North and at the South. No new discoveries have been made in modern times, of the evil consequences of slavery, as a ques- tion of economy and expediency ; and so far as it is a violation of the natural rights of man, it was more offensive to our ancestors than it is to ourselves. If the spirit of liberty still survives, it is less warm, less generous, and less pervading, than it was during the Revolutionary age. As early as 1788, Luther Martin, of Maryland, said : "Slavery is inconsistent with the genius of re- ' publicanism, and has a tendency to destroy those 180 ' principles on which it is supported, as it lessens the * sense of the equal rights of mankind, and habitu- ' ates us to tyranny and oppression. "At this time we do not generally hold this com- 1 merce [the slave trade] in so great abhorrence as ' we have done. When our liberties were at stake, ' we warmly felt for the common rights of men. ' The danger being thought to be past which threat* ' ened ourselves, we are daily growing more insen- ' sible to those rights." What the character of a people is supposed to be by those who address them, is always shown by the arguments used and the motives appealed to. The contrast, in these respects, between those who resist slavery to-day, and those who resisted it seventy years ago, is wonderful. It was then thought suffi- cient to point out, that slavery violated the inalien- able rights of human nature, and the Christian rule of doing to others as we would have others do to us. In any average miscellaneous American audience of the present day, sentiments like these would be received with ridicule, or indifference. It is now necessary, in order to arouse opposition to slavery, to show, not that it violates the rights of others, but that it destroys our own interests, that it ruins the white race, and that it saps the general wealth. It is, in short, not to the consciences, but to the self- ishness of men, that appeals are directed in these later times. If it be said, that before what is called the out- break of abolitionism in 1835, plans of emancipation were being matured at the South, and were on the point of execution, what evidence is offered of the fact? Is it pretended that any movement of eman- cipation had been made in any slave State for half 181 a century, or was then in progress in any of them ? Is anything pretended, in short, beyond this, that in the Legislature of Virginia, at its session of 1831-32, there was a discussion of the propriety of emancipa- tion ; a discussion which was brought on by a then recent and alarming slave insurrection; a discussion which ended in the nearly unanimous adoption of a declaratory resolution against emancipation; a dis- cussion which terminated as suddenly as it began, and which had been definitively abandoned before the year 1835 ? Did anything come of the discussion, or was anything proved by it, except the unshaken and immovable purpose of the controlling majority of the people of Virginia to hold fast to slavery? And if there was discussion in 1832, was there any- thing new and hopeful in that? Had there not been for half a century a minority in Virginia which had discussed slavery, denounced it, and sought to abol- ish it? Had not Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Henry, and Mason, talked and written against sla- very ? But what evidence is there, or what reason is there to believe, that this minority, which has always existed in Virginia, and exists there now, although silenced by a reign of terror, has ever made substantial progress, or has ever approached the achievement of its wishes ? 'Not only is the averment, that, prior to 1835, any Southern States were preparing to abolish slavery, without evidence to support it, but it is contradicted by the whole history of the country. In 1820, the South was as unanimous and as ardent, in the Mis- souri controversy, to extend slavery over the West, as it was in 1854, in the Kansas controversy. The 182 zeal of the sons in 1854 was no greater than that of the fathers in 1820. In 1824, one of the fiercest political contests which has ever agitated Illinois, was carried on to introduce and establish slavery there. The movement, to be sure, was not favored by all of its citizens who were Southern born, but all who did favor it were Southern born, and they were stimulated by the sympathy and active aid of the surrounding slave States. The conquest of Texas by slavery, and for the uses of slavery, was planned and substantially executed, before what is called the abolition agitation of 1835. It appears, in fact, in the history of this very discussion of 1832 in Virginia, now said to have sprung up in the absence of abolition agitation, that that agitation was in full vigor, and was then known and fiercely denounced in Virginia. In his message to the Legislature of that State, at its session commencing in December, 1831, after stating the particulars of the Southampton slave insurrection, Governor Floyd said : "Those plans of treason, insurrection, and murder, 1 have been designed, planned, and matured, by ' unrestrained fanatics in some of the neighboring * States, who find facilities in distributing their c views and plans amongst our population, either ' through the post office, or by agents sent for that ' purpose throughout our territory. * * * The senti- ' ments, and sometimes the words, of these inflam- ' matory pamphlets, which the meek and charitable ' of other States have seen cause to distribute as ' firebrands in the bosom of our society, have been ' read." In the discussion which followed in the Legisla- ture, Mr. Knox (January 17) denounced "those 183 6 Yankee philanthropists ivho have had so much agency 4 in fermenting strife upon this question''' On the succeeding day, Mr. Gholson went at large into the subject, and declared that civil war itself would be a less calamity than the Northern agita- tion then in progress, but which, according to the romancers of the present day, did not commence until three years afterwards. Mr. Gholson said : "Northern lights have appeared. Incendiary 4 publications have scattered their illuminating rays 4 among us, to conduct the slave to massacre and * bloodshed. But these are not lights of the age, or 4 lights from heaven. It is the * glare of Avernus — 4 a darkness visible,' in the light of which, demons 4 and devils alone delight to dwell. I most ardently 4 hope that these Northern lights will not be disre- 4 garded or overlooked by the Southern Republics 4 of this Union. Sir, they must be extinguished, 4 or the most melancholy consequences will ensue. 4 Already, do I fear, their machinations have suc- 4 ceeded in impressing into the minds of our slaves * a spirit of restlessness and insubordination. These 4 are the true authors of all our apprehensions and 4 unhappiness ; and, in the voice of my constituents, 4 I call upon my Government to interpose all the 4 power at its command to shield and protect them 4 from the evil. These fanatical miscreants are not 6 only violating the statutory laws of Virginia ; they 4 are violating the soundest and justest principles of 4 international law itself, and weakening and break- 4 ing asunder those kind and amicable relations 4 which should ever subsist between sister States. * 4 * * If there is no mode of peaceable redress 4 secured to us, I declare, on the responsibility of 4 the public station I now occupy, that, rather than 4 submit to the continuance of evils like these, with- 4 out the hope of redress, I would appeal to war, and 4 deem it the lesser evil." 184 Although the discussion of 1831-32, in the Legis- lature of Virginia, is attributable to a then recent slave insurrection, and not to the anti-slavery movements which were then particularly active in Europe and in the Northern United States ; yet it is proof, and of the most decisive character, that the agitation of abolition has, at any rate, no tendency to retard emancipation, even if it has no tendency to promote it. The year 1832 was the epoch of emancipation in the British Colonies, and during the period which immediately preceded 1832, the public mind of Great Britain had been necessarily concentrated upon that subject, while there had been a corresponding activity of discussion on this side of the Atlantic. This fact, however, did not prevent discussion in Virginia. No man is ever restrained from pursuing a course in harmony with his own wishes and opinions, merely because he is advised to it by others; although it is common enough, to make the manner of disagreeable advice, the pretext for fhe purpose, already pre-determined, to disregard it. It contradicts the universal experience of mankind to suppose that the people of any of the Southern States have been kept back from measures, which they had really determined to be for their own interests, by mere irritation and resentment against the few persons at the North, whom they are accus- tomed to characterize as fanatics. It is insulting to the people of the South to suppose them to have been influenced in a matter of the first importance, affecting social stability, and controlling the value of property, by a motive so inadequate and so puerile. 185 Undoubtedly, a change has taken place within twenty years in Southern opinion in respect to slavery, but we can find quite other explanations for it than the asserted fact that abolition agitation commenced in 1835, which is a pure fiction, and which, even if true, had no sufficient tendency to produce the consequences imputed to it. Slavery is maintained by the same cause which originates it. It exists because it is profitable, and will continue to exist, until the motive of interest, which sustains it, is so far diminished as to be counterbalanced by other considerations. 'Now, the value of slaves has been steadily advancing during the last twenty years, having more than doubled within that period. Precisely in proportion as slavery has become more profitable, attachment to it has increased, and the number of those, where it exists, who seek to abolish it, has diminished. - This is an adequate explanation of whatever change in Southern opinion has occurred. Governor Hammond, of South Carolina, in his well-known letter, written a few years since, to Thomas Clarkson, places the whole subject upon the true ground, with a frankness characteristic of the man and of his State. Governor Hammond says : "They [the abolitionists] revile us as 'atrocious ' monsters,' 'violators of the laws of nature, God, and 'man,' our homes the abode of every iniquity, our 1 land a 'brothel.' We retort, that they are 'incen- ' diaries' and 'assassins.' Delightful argument! ' sweet, potent ' moral suasion ! ' What slave has ' it freed — what proselyte can it ever make? But, ' if your course was wholly different — if you distilled ' nectar from your lips, and discoursed sweetest 8*. 186 ' music, could you reasonably indulge the hope of ' accomplishing your object by such means? Nay; ' supposing that we were all convinced, and thought ' of slavery precisely as you do, at what era of ' ' moral suasion ' do you imagine you could prevail ' on us to give up a thousand millions [two thousand ' millions in 1857] of dollars in the value of our ' slaves, and a thousand millions of dollars more in ' the depreciation of our lands, in consequence of ' the want of laborers to cultivate them ? Consider ; ' were ever any people, civilized or savage, persuaded i by any argument, human or divine, to surrender, * voluntarily, two thousand millions of dollars? * Would you think of asking five millions of Eng- ' lishmen to contribute, either at once or gradually, i four hundred and fifty millions of pounds sterling 1 to the cause of philanthrophy? * * * You see ' the absurdity of such an idea. Away, then, with * your pretended 'moral suasion.' You know it is * mere nonsense." It would be difficult to select more apt and vigor- ous words than those with which Governor Hammond disposes of the idle assumption that slavery is main- tained, in consequence of the (so called) violence of the abolitionists, or for any other reason than the simple and sufficient one that it is profitable, and profitable to such a degree, that, taking human nature as it is, slaveholders would not give it up, if they were all convinced that they ought to do so. If, in lieu of denunciation, the abolitionists had " distilled nectar from their lips, and discoursed siceetesi music " the slaveholders, in the opinion of Governor Hammond, would have still clung to slavery. The case, as he well observes, is not within the power of " moral suasion" He does not even hesitate to denounce, as an "absurdity" and "-nonsense" the 187 idea that the vast pecuniary interests involved in slavery could be made to succumb to any moral appeal, however vigorous, or however graceful. The view taken by Governor Hammond is clearly correct, and he is entitled to respect for the energetic frankness with which he has expressed it. It should not be understood that Governor Hammond admits that slaveholding is fairly subject to moral criticism. He expressly maintains the contrary. It is not assuming that the people of the South are sinners above other men, to assume that they will not give up slavery so long as it is profitable to maintain it, and so long as it forms so considerable a part of their industrial system as it now does. Nor does such an assumption imply an acquiescence in the theory, at once degrading and demoralizing, that mankind can only be moved by appeals to their interest, and that conscience, benevolence, and generosity, express ideas which have no place in public affairs. Nothing is more certain than that the abolition of slavery in the Northern States of this Union, during the Revolutionary War and afterwards, was very much due to generous instincts, to a sense of moral and political right, and to the promptings of religious duty. Yet it must be recollected that the number of slaves so liberated was small, and their pecuniary value at that period exceedingly trifling. How might it be at the present day at the North, if slavery still existed there, with its increased advantages, growing out of the increased value of labor and the difficulties of supplying household 188 service? And if its abolition would be doubtful, it is certain that, if the laws did not prohibit it, our Northern cities would abound in slaves, and the rivalries of luxury and display would be manifested in retinues of the most approved sleekness and of the purest jet. With masses of men and in public affairs, as with individuals in private affairs, the appeals of self- interest, when large and urgent, may be ordinarily expected to overbalance merely moral suggestions. And there is this difference between masses of men and single individuals, that that regard for character, which, with the latter, comes in aid of the moral sense, and is to a large extent a practical substitute for it, is lost in the irresponsibility of a crowd. If this view is unpalatable to ingenuous and inexperi- enced youth, or to that enthusiasm of any age which will anticipate no obstacle to what is right, and no defence of what is wrong ; it is not inconsistent with a confidence in the practical power, within certain limits, of unselfish and elevated impulses. Because we cannot expect everything from that class of motives, it by no means follows that we can expect nothing. ISTot only is the dogma that mankind are governed wholly by interest, repulsive and demoral- izing, but it is untrue. It is received only by those shallow intellects which cannot comprehend the complicated organization of the human mind, and which find a relief in the simplicity of a theory which represents it as moved only, as a balance is, by the preponderance of material and homogeneous weights. The practical sense of mankind in private life teaches them quite another rule: that benevo- 189 lence and justice have a substantial influence in human affairs, although liable to be overpowered by great interests; and that an entire inability to oppose temptation is not to be inferred, because a certain amount of temptation is irresistible. Nor should it be forgotten, in judging of the probable conduct of slaveholders, and of the conclu- sions to which they will be led as to the moral basis and political expediency of their peculiar domestic institution, that many things in it justly repulsive cease to be so, because familiar and accustomed; that, in this as in other matters, self-interest warps and clouds the judgment; and that the temper and habits formed by slaveholcling are peculiarly unfa- vorable to sound reasoning upon it; "it being, by sorroivful experience, remarkable," to quote the testi- mony of the Quakers of Pennsylvania, in 1754, against slavery, "that custom and familiarity with evil ' of any kind have a tendency to bias the judgment and to 1 deprave the mind." On a fair view of the subject, tbe people of the free States will be more blamable than the people of the slave States, if the vast extensions of the system of slavery, now meditated, botb at home and by acquisitions of foreign territory, shall be allowed to be consummated. Placed in a position to observe tbe institution without any bias derived from educa- tion, babit, or interest; comprehending perfectly how wasteful it is of physical resources, how cor- rupting of morals, and how debasing in its effects both upon blacks and whites ; the people of the free States will be inexcusable, if they do not oppose its wider spread, with that unanimity, steadiness, and 190 resolution, necessary to be combined in order to resist ejffectively so powerful and active a mischief. We have seen that the tenacity with which slavery is clung to, can, with no semblance of truth, be attributed to the attacks said to have been made upon it by the abolitionists; that this tenacity is founded, not upon irritation, but upon interest; that it will yield to no form of persuasion, even if its lips " distilled nectar, and discoursed sweetest music; " and that it will only succumb, when slavery, circum- scribed within fixed limits, shall cease to be profit- able with the progress of population. This, however, is viewing slavery in the United States as a whole. It exists in fact in distinct parts, and, while its general strength may be for the present unassailable, it may still yield in particular quarters. In several of the slave States, the interests of slavery bear so small a proportion to all others, that its speedy extinction would give no shock to industry, or greatly disturb the relations of property. To the public mind in these States, argument and persuasion may be hopefully addressed. But it is, after all, not so much with reference to the States in which slavery exists, as in reference to the vast Territories of the Union whose fate in that particular remains to be determined, that the per- sistent discussion of the character and consequences of slavery is the first political duty of the present times. The fortune of those Territories cannot be so vitally and lastingly affected by any other one decision, or indeed by all other conceivable decisions combined, as by this one of the establishment or prohibition of slavery. It controls wealth, popular 191 tion, the arts, education, and morals. The whole area of the Territories equals the whole area of the States ; and if the view be limited to so much of the Territories as is probably exposed to the calamity of slavery, it is still sufficient to demand the most urgent and vigilant measures of defence. If the institutions of the Territories are to be determined hereafter, not by Congress, but by the people who will inhabit them, that people should be well instructed in political duty, and instruction would be incomplete indeed, which did not include the most transcendent of all political topics. Our sons and daughters, who go forth to possess the land, should be guarded against the sophistries and temptations which will assail them, inflamed with a love of liberty, and armed with an intelligent appreciation of its inestimable value. The nature of the arbitrament to which the fate of the Territo- ries is remitted, invites, and even commands, the discussion of slavery. And what discussion, grander in theme, or controlling vaster or more lasting results, can incite genius, or arouse eloquence, than this, which shall determine whether the territorial march of the American people over a boundless continent, shall be that of bondage, idleness, and ruin, or of freedom, industry, and prosperity ? 192 CHAPTER XHI. Review of Debates in Virginia in 1832. Abolition not seriously proposed. The alarm which then existed, in reference to outlets for slaves, since removed. Eastern Virginia opposed to any action. Views of Hon. C. J. Faulkner and others as to slavery. Emanci- pation in Virginia will be long postponed, unless the domestic slave trade is prohibited. The debate in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832, upon the subject of slavery, deserves attention, not merely with a view to correct the misrepresent- ations of it which have been industriously circulated of late years, but because a correct knowledge of the feelings and opinions developed by it, will throw useful light upon the future. The first thing to be noticed about this debate is, tha\ it is to be ascribed exclusively to the South- ampton slave insurrection of the preceding summer, which resulted in the massacre of sixty-one white persons, and created the keenest excitement, not only in Virginia, but throughout the entire South. Among other evidences of the wide-spread conster- nation, is the fact that an extra session of the Legis- lature of Louisiana was convened by the Governor, for the express purpose of prohibiting the importa- tion of slaves, at which extra session the law of "November 19, 1831, was enacted, increasing the stringency of the previous law of January 31, 1829. From the Richmond Enquirer of January 12, 1832. "Our oldest readers will do us the justice to say * that we had forborne to touch the subject of colored * population for twenty-seven years. We felt that ' none is more delicate, and none more beset with < difficulties. But at length the outbreaking in 193 4 Southampton spread horror throughout the Com- i mon wealth. We saw the flood-gates of discussion < for the first time raised, in consequence of this * unparalleled event. * * * The press broke the * silence of fifty years. * * * All these things were ' indeed new in our history. And nothing else could * have prompted them but the bloody massacre in ' the month of August." It can hardly be said that the attention of the people of Virginia was turned seriously to the subject of abolishing slavery. The plans discussed had reference to the removal of free negroes, and there were only two memorials presented which looked to abolition. A committee was raised, at the commencement of the legislative session, to consider the subject of the free negroes, the slaves, and the Southampton insurrection, but this com- mittee was opposed to abolition, and the law which they finally reported had relation only to free negroes. Giles's Register, which is generally referred to with a reliance that it omits the notice of no con- temporaneous event of importance, has the three following paragraphs, and they are all which relate to the subject. From Niles's Register, January 7, 1832. "The best judgment of the people of Virginia < and some of the other Southern States is earnestly < exerted to discover what may be done with the 6 colored population. But the public attention, we < think, is unfortunately chiefly directed to the free < blacks." From the Register of January 28. "The slave question is yet in full debate before the Virginia House of Delegates. It seems prob- 9 194 < able that 'something will be done.' The declining 6 condition of the State is plainly seen, and the real ' cause of it fully acknowledged by many." From the Register of February 25. "Virginia. — The bill relative to the removal of ' the free colored population of that State was ' passed, by a vote of seventy-nine to forty-one." It would be extraordinary indeed, if, in truth, a serious movement had been made to abolish slavery in the Legislature of Virginia, the principal slave- holding State in the Union, and especially if such a movement had received considerable support, that no notice of it should be found in the fullest and most accurate chronicle of passing events. In fact, no such movement was made. The initi- ative in the discussion came from the other side. It was not because anybody proposed abolition, that debate arose, but because those who desired that slavery should be indefinitely continued, demanded and insisted upon a legislative declaration that sla- very should not be abolished. It was the pro-slavery party, conscious of its overwhelming strength, which commenced the battle. The question was, not whether abolition should be carried, but whether a legislative declaration against abolition should be made ; and on this ques- tion there were many votes in the negative, given, to a small extent, perhaps, by persons in favor of abolition, but mainly by persons who were opposed to abolition, and so avowed themselves, but who were yet disinclined to any affirmative repudiation of abolition. A similar case occurred last winter in the Legisla- 195 ture of Missouri. Nobody had proposed abolition there, but a resolution against abolition was intro- duced and forced through, exciting debate, and drawing out anti-slavery speeches. On the 10th of January, Mr. Goode, a sturdy champion of slavery, arose in the Virginia House of Delegates, and stated, that some newspapers were presuming to hint at abolition, and that a legislative declaration was needed, to quiet the public mind. Having inquired when the committee on negroes would report, and being answered that a report might be expected on the 13th, but not with abso- lute certainty, he said that the judgment of the House should be forthwith pronounced, and that he should, on the next day, offer a resolution with that view. Accordingly, on the 11th, he proposed the follow- ing: " Resolved, That the select committee raised on the * subject of slaves, free negroes, and the melancholy < occurrences growing out of the tragical massacre 6 in Southampton, be discharged from the consider- ' ation of all petitions, memorials, and resolutions, ' which have for their object the manumission of 6 persons held in servitude under the existing laws < of this Commonwealth, and that it is not expedient 6 to legislate on the subject." On the next day, January 12, Mr. Goode insisted that his resolution should be taken up and consid- ered, and carried his point, by a vote of one hundred and sixteen to seven. January 16, the select committee reported the following resolution, which superseded that proposed by Mr. Goode : 196 " Resolved, (as the opinion of this committee,) That ' it is inexpedient for the present Legislature to 6 make any legislative enactment for the abolition ' of slavery." Only two motions to amend were pressed to a vote; one by Mr. Preston, of Montgomery, to sub- stitute the word "expedient" for the word "inexpe- dient;" the other by Mr. Bryce, to add a preamble to the report. The whole matter was disposed of on the 25th of January. It is evident, from the published debates, that Mr. Preston's motion to amend did not contemplate any positive action, and was not supported with that view, but was resorted to, as a parliamentary move- ment, by those who did not mean to be committed to a declaration against abolition. The following is found in the reports of January 25: "Mr. Rives said he merely wished to point out to i the gentleman from Montgomery (Mr. Preston) ' the anomalous position in which the House was ' placed by his motion to amend the report. Mr. ' Rives did not believe there was a member in the ' House who was in favor of legislating upon the f subject of abolition this year. Yet, if this motion ' were to be voted upon as the measure of the ' friends of abolition, this result would happen; it 1 would be entered on the journal that the House < voted for acting this year — at the same time every 6 member, when asked the question, said he was not ' in favor of acting." Again Mr. Rives said : "There was not, he believed, a single member ' who thought a plan could be presented, for which ' they would be willing to vote. The gentleman ' from Montgomery shakes his head, said Mr. Rives. 197 4 I believe lie is alone, if he is prepared to go for 6 any plan of abolition at this time." Mr. Preston declined to withdraw his amendment. He said: "He wished the House to decide whether they 4 would adopt some preliminary mode of action. If 4 any scheme should be adopted, which did not meet 4 his approbation, he should not consider himself 4 pledged, by his vote for the amendment, to vote 4 for it." "Mr. Wilson, of Botetourt, said, that, as voting 1 for the amendment would imply no pledge to vote 4 for any particular measure that would take from 4 the citizen his property, he should vote for the 4 amendment." Mr. Preston's amendment was lost by a vote of fifty-eight to seventy-three. Mr. Bryce's motion to amend the report by pre- fixing a preamble, was carried by a vote of sixty- seven to sixty, the preamble being as follows : "Profoundly sensible of the great evils arising 6 from the condition of the colored population of 4 this Commonwealth; induced by humanity as well 4 as policy to an immediate effort for the removal, in 4 the first place, as well of those who are now free, 4 as of such as may hereafter become free ; believing 4 that this effort, while it is in just accordance with 4 the sentiments of the community on the subject, 4 will absorb all our present means, and that the 4 removal of slaves should await a more definite 4 development of public opinion." The question recurring on the resolution of the committee, it was agreed to without a division. The report of the committee, as amended by the preamble of Mr. Bryce, was then adopted by a vote of sixty-four to fifty-nine. 198 And so the whole thing was ended. A well- turned preamble held out a hope that something might be done at a more convenient season, but for the present the House resolved, nemine eontradicente, to do nothing. Of those disposed to do something to diminish the evil of slavery, very few suggested its compulsory abolition at any period, however remote. The measure meeting the most favor, proceeded upon^ the idea that the right of property in slaves was too sacred to be taken away, even on payment of com- pensation, and only contemplated the purchase of such as might be offered for sale by their owners. On the 13th of January, Mr. Brodnax maintained: "That not a slave should be manumitted without ' being deported from the State. Nothing should < be attempted which could affect injuriously the < value or security of property. The State should ' take from no citizen a slave, without the consent 6 of the owner. He should start by sending six ' thousand free negroes annually to Liberia. The 6 increase of the colored population might thus be ' kept down, and the threatened evils prevented." It was this view which was taken by the Eichmond Enquirer, now often referred to as having favored the abolition movement in 1832. It is true that on the 7th of January the Enquirer declared that "some- thing must be done" in consequence of the increasing- numbers of the slaves; but the courage of the editor soon faded out, under the denunciations of the slave- holders. From the Enquirer of January 19. "The rules that we should pursue are: Touch not < private property. Violate no vested rights in the 'slightest degree. Receive all that is voluntarily 199 4 given. Pay full compensation for all that is freely ' sold and freely purchased. Deport all that are i given or bought. Eaise as soon as we can the 'funds that are necessary for the purpose. Take * time for the consummation of any plan — a century, * if necessary." From the Enquirer of January 2G. ""We expressed a very brief opinion upon the ' lessening of an evil ' that has increased, is increas- ' ing, and ought to be diminished.' The article ' which we put forth was discreet and moderate. 1 We thought so then, and we think so still. If 4 any opinions have been since advanced by others, ' which strike at the strong and inalienable right of ' the white man in his slave, are we to blame for 6 that error? If some gentlemen have fallen into ' any wild scheme of emancipation, * * * shall we * be held up as the enemies of the whites ? * * * ' Have we not uniformly held, that not the hair of ' a slave's head must be touched, without the free, * voluntary, cheerful assent of his lawful proprietor? " The Enquirer, it seems, was willing to postpone the abolition of slavery to 1932, which is nine years later than the time when, according to the computa- tion of Judge Tucker of Virginia, it must neces- sarily cease, even in the Gulf States, by the pressure of population. The number of slaves, which was stationary in Virginia between 1830 and 1850, had increased steadily prior to 1830; and this increase was still looked for in the future, at the period of the debate in 1832. In fact, it was apprehended that it would go on more rapidly than before, in consequence of the refusal of the Southwestern States to receive slaves. The action of Louisiana was constantly referred to in the debate, and it was stated that a 200 similar action in Kentucky had only failed by a few votes. And upon this it may be remarked, that no such thing as abolition could have been meditated in Kentucky, if a proposition to forbid the intro- duction of more slaves was supported only by a minority. It was the apprehension of an increase of their slaves which excited uneasiness in Virginia in 1832. Subsequent events have removed this uneasiness. Southwestern markets have drawn off their surplus, and abolition is no longer suggested. Is it not easy to see that the removal of this cause of uneasiness, in connection with the increasing prices of slaves, is sufficient to explain the decadence in Virginia of the tendency to emancipation (feeble as it was) displayed in 1832; and that it is idle to impute it to anything since done, or omitted to be done, at the North ? From the Enquirer of January 7. " Something must be done, when every new census ' is but gathering its appalling numbers [of slaves] ' upon us; when within a period equal to that in ' which this Federal Constitution has been in exist- ' ence, those numbers will increase to more than ' two millions within Virginia; when our sister 1 States are closing their doors upon our blacks for < sale." In the House of Delegates, January 11, Mr. Randolph, of Albemarle, said: "If exportation ceases, the slave population, at 4 its hitherto rate of increase, must, in 18G0, be < 1,028,000; .in 1900, 2,910,000." From the Charlottesville (Va.) Advocate, quoted in the Enquirer of January 19. "It is well known that nearly all the Western and ' Southern States have either taken measures, or are 201 4 now taking them, to prevent the further importa- 4 tion of this species of property into their territories. 4 When this class of our population shall, hy the 4 adoption of such measures on the part of our 4 neighboring States, be left without any outlet 4 whatever to the State of Virginia, who can say 4 what their numbers may be, fifty years hence? " The threatened closing of the former outlets for slaves, seemed specially to alarm Virginia west of the Blue Ridge. The black current, as they argued, would begin to flow in upon themselves. These views were presented by several speakers, but with special vigor by Hon. C. J. Faulkner, now a member of Congress. On the 20th of January, he said: 44 Heretofore, the western part of this State has 4 been protected from this redundant slave popula- 4 tion, by the innumerable outlets through which it 4 escaped to every portion of the Union, but more 4 particularly by the Southern demand. This was * our protection. But now, Maryland, on the north, 4 has closed her territory against the further import- 4 ation of our blacks; Kentucky has taken the 4 alarm, and the Southern markets are closed 4 against us. Will not the waters, thus dammed up, c flow back to the farthest western extremity of this 4 Commonwealth? "Uniformity in political views, feelings, and in- 4 terests, in all the parts of this widely-extended 4 State, would, I admit, be extremely desirable. 4 But that uniformity is purchased at too dear a 4 rate, when the bold and intrepid forester of the 4 West must yield to the slothful and degraded 4 African ; and those hills and valleys which until 4 now have re-echoed with the songs and industry 4 of freemen, shall have become converted into deso- 4 lation and barrenness by the withering footsteps 4 of slavery. Sir, it is to arrest any such possible 4 consequences to my country, that I, one of the 202 4 humblest, but not the least determined, _ of the 4 "Western delegation, have raised my voice for 4 emancipation. Sir, tax our lands — vilify our coun- < try — carry the sword of extermination through our 4 now defenceless villages ; but spare us, I implore 4 you, spare us the curse of slavery — that bitterest 4 drop from the chalice of the destroying angel." It is proper and important to note, in this connec- tion, that if anything was said, or done, in the Legislature of Virginia, in 1832, pointing at all in the direction of emancipation, it came from West- ern, or non-slaveholding, Virginia. Eastern Virginia was for keeping things as they were. There is noth- ing in the case, in any aspect of it, which can be cited as proof that the slaveholders of Virginia evinced any disposition to give up slavery. On the 25th of January, in reference to the amendment moved to the resolution of the select committee, to substitute the word "expedient" for the word "inexpedient" Mr. Rives said: "He could not speak positively, but he did not 4 think there was a member from a county east of 4 the Ridge, who would vote for the amendment." Mr. Sims, January 25th, said : "Those most interested in this question, involv- 4 ing, as had been erroneously said, so much danger, 4 looked on supinely, and had no desire for legisla- 4 tive action. Eastern Virginia had not spoken." Mr. Gholson, January 18th, said: "From our wide-extended territory, and hundreds 4 of thousands of population, but two memorials have 4 been addressed to this body on the subject of 4 emancipation; one from the county of Loudon, 4 and the other from a society of Quakers in Han- 4 over. The community entertains no such senti- 203 * ments as those ascribed to it in this debate. There ' is one question on which the public mind is defi- 4 nitely settled; that is, the propriety of removing ' the free colored population. The subject of abo- 1 lition is one which has not engaged their serious ' attention. * * * "What portion of this Commonwealth is it which * demands this measure at our hands? Not the 4 East, sir; for they rise up, almost as one man, 1 against it. * * * It is a question in which the ' East is vitally, and, I may say, almost exclusively ' interested." This debate in the Virginia Legislature, if it accomplished no other good, brought out some vivid descriptions of the slave-ridden portions of the State, and some statements, most valuable, as coming from those having personal opportunity to observe the facts, of the manner in which slavery operates upon laboring white men. Mr. Marshall, January 20, said : "It is not for the sake of the slave, nor to ' ameliorate his condition, that abolition is desirable. 'Wherefore, then, object to slavery? Because it 4 is ruinous to the whites — retards improvement — < roots out an industrious population — banishes the 1 yeomanry of the country— deprives the spinner, < the weaver, the smith, the shoemaker, the car- ' penter, of employment and support. There is no ' diversity of occupation, no incentive to enterprise. 6 Labor of every species is disreputable, because ' performed mostly by slaves. Our towns are sta- 6 tionary, our villages almost everywhere declining, ' and the general aspect of the country marks the ' curse of a wasteful, idle, and reckless population." Mr. Boiling, January 11, said : "The system of slavery drives from us the labor- the honest, industrious poor. The slave- 204 holder must have his slaves taught various trades — they must be coopers, carpenters, millers, black- smiths, ditchers, &c, which necessarily excludes the laboring white man from all of them to a great extent, and deprives him of those means, which he would otherwise enjoy, for the support of himself and family. The small freeholders are driven off also. * * * The sparseness of the white population appears almost an insurmountable obstacle in the way of the education of their children. * * * If we turn our eyes to that part of our country which lies below the mountains, and particularly below our rivers, it seems as if some judgment of Heaven had passed over it, and seared it. Fields once cultivated are now waste and desolate — the eye is no longer cheered by the rich verdure that decked it in other days ; no, sir, but fatigued by an inter- minable wilderness of worn-out, gullied, piny old fields." Mr. Moore, January 11, said: "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. Tall and thick forests of pines are everywhere to be seen, encroaching upon once cultivated fields, and casting a deep gloom over the land, which looks a3 if nature mourned over the misfortunes of man. The very spot on which our ancestors landed, a little more than two hundred years ago, appears to be on the eve of again becoming the haunt of wild animals." Mr. Brodnax, January 19, said: " That slavery in Virginia is an evil, and a trans- cendent evil, it would be idle, and more than idle, for any human being to deny. Many of the finest portions, originally, of her territory, now exhibited scenes of wide-spread desolation and decay. "Who ; can doubt that it is principally slavery that is at the ; bottom of all?" 205 Mr. Bruce, January 19, said: "Our soil is almost everywhere exhausted. Its ' character is written in indelible letters on every 1 hill-side in the Commonwealth; he who runs may < read ; and the traveller needs no interpreter to tell ' him that all is barrenness and exhaustion." Mr. Bruce was opposed to any interference with slavery, on the ground that no other labor but that of slaves could be obtained for a country so thor- oughly exhausted. White emigrants, he insisted, could not be induced to come in. Mr. Sims con- curred in this view. It certainly had in 1832, and has even now, a good deal of foundation. "With the progress of time, it will have less ; but it is not until the fresh lands of the West within available distances shall have been occupied, that free labor emigration can be expected to direct itself upon regions deso- lated by negro slaves. On a full review of this debate, it will be found to confirm the belief that it is idle to expect the abolition of slavery, where slaves, by their number and value, constitute so considerable a part of the property of a community as they did in Virginia in 1832. There was a general admission of the disas- trous effects of slavery, and a general expression of desire that it might in some way be got rid of; but all this was of no avail in presence of the fact, that the slaves were worth to their owners one hundred millions of dollars. How to deal with that fact was a problem which could not be managed, and its solution was therefore passed over to posterity. The question has not been since disturbed in Vir- ginia, nor will it be, so long as slave markets keep 206 down any troublesome increase of slaves, and make slave-breeding profitable. The prohibition of the domestic slave trade by the Gulf States, or by Congress, would bring about emancipation speedily in Virginia. In the absence of that, slavery will yield, but later, to the advance of the free population of the North. But in neither contingency will the epoch of emancipation be hastened by persuasion, or retarded by irritation, one single day. CHAPTER XIV. The extension of slavery profitable to the slave-breeding States, but injurious to the other Southern States. The acquisition of Cuba injurious to all the Southern States. Political power the sole object of extending slavery. The agitation of slavery with a view to party ascendency. The South has not gained by agitation. It is not easy to perceive that the Southern States, as a wdiole, have any present pecuniary interest in the extension of slavery over new regions. That sort of interest is peculiar to Virginia, and to two or three other States engaged in the business of selling slaves. The major pecuniary interest of the South is to have slave labor cheap. To make it cheap, it is even desired by many persons at the South that the African slave trade should be reopened. Yet a course of policy, calculated to make it dear, is supported at the South with zealous unanimity, and quite as warmly in the Gulf States, which are large purchasers of slaves, as anywhere else. Everywhere 207 else, in South America, and in the West Indies, the constant effort of those engaged in prosecuting agri- culture by servile labor, has been to increase its supply and abundance. It is only in the United States, that we see in the same class the contrary effort, to make it scarce and high, by opening new and competing markets for it. If this is explicable in respect to Virginia and two or three States simi- larly situated, it is inexplicable, upon economical considerations, in respect to all the remainder. Never before, in any country, or under any system of labor, free or servile, have we seen those who own all the land and property of a community, and whose incomes depend upon its industry, endeavor- ing to diminish the number of laborers by opening up fields of enterprise elsewhere to draw them off. If, sometimes, emigration is viewed with compla- cency, it is where labor is superabundant, and where the emigrants engage in different pursuits from those of the parent country, and thereby give it new markets. It is upon this principle that Great Britain is satisfied with the annual transfer of large numbers of her people to agricultural colonies ; and it is this consideration, among others, which serves to recon- cile New England to the movement of her people to the "West. The South finds no such compensa- tion as this for the emigration of slave labor, but to the first loss of population is added the second loss of a new competition in the same pursuits. The people transferred from the old cotton States do not become purchasers of cotton in their new situations, but producers of it, and under circumstances of so much advantage, by reason of the fertility of new 208 soils, as seriously to impair the profit of its cultiva- tion in its former seats. It is in this way that the growth of the extreme Southwest, not only depletes the South of its wealth and people, but is the growth of a rival in the same pursuits, and thus inflicts a double injury. It is true, that such individual citizens of the South as are in a condition to emigrate, may escape this injury by shifting it upon others ; and that the number of those who can and do emigrate is considerable. The habits of the Southern people are migratory; their local attach- ments are feeble; and their property is chiefly movable. But if the emigrants are numerous, the non-emigrants are still more numerous, and even the emigrants do not avoid loss altogether. They can transfer their slaves, but they must sell their lands, and at the reduced prices which attend upon stationary population and the decay of general wealth. That important element of the increase of private fortunes, the constant enhancement of the value of real property which results from an aug- menting density of population, which is in full activity at the !N"orth, does not exist at all at the South, and cannot exist, until the policy of territo- rial enlargement is abandoned. That policy, which aims at political results only, sacrifices, in short, every pecuniary and industrial interest of the South, except the single one of slave-breeding, which is confined to a locality comparatively narrow and unimportant. The depreciation of lands, the decay of towns, and the general failure of works of public improvement, in the older Southern States, although attributable, 209 in part, to the system of slavery, are attributable, in part, also, to that unnatural diffusion of their popu- lation over new territories, which has been stimu- lated by political objects, and by the cupidity of slave-breeders. Many persons at the South, observ- ing the consequences of this diffusion, resist and de- nounce it. It was discussed ably and elaborately, a year since, in one of the commercial newspapers of Charleston, S. C, and the sound conclusion arrived at, that if new territories are to be occupied by slave labor, it can only be done by the ruin and exhaustion of the old slave States, unless the African slave trade is revived. Those who intelligently contemplate the spread of slavery over New Mexico and Central America, undoubtedly intend to renew the African slave trade, as the only means to the proposed end, if the civilized world will permit it, as happily it will not. Four millions of slaves, and the slaves in the United States will hardly reach that number in 1860, may accomplish a good deal, but they cannot occupy a continent. Even within their present lim- its, their deficient numbers and enormous prices, cripple industrial operations, and seriously impair the value of land and of all other natural elements of wealth. Nothing, indeed, but the madness of party passions could blind 'the South to the practical folly of sending away their laboring population, of which they possess so little in comparison with their area and their resources. The case of the South is not that of a country which has a surplus and dangerous population which it desires to get rid of, and for which outlets must be found, from overruling considerations of safety, 9* 210 and at whatever sacrifice of other interests. A large number of the Southern States voluntarily import slaves, and some of them, to an important extent. For the present, then, it is idle to represent that outlets are desired for slaves, or that their accu- mulation has become alarming. If this was really so, the domestic slave trade would be prohibited by the States, whose slave population is increased by it, but as yet we have seen no efficient and steady legis- lation having that object in view. And not only would the domestic slave trade be prohibited, but fugitive slave laws would be repealed, or cease to be enforced; and, instead of the pursuit of runaway slaves, they would be encouraged and assisted to get off. Undoubtedly, agriculture by slave labor, accord- ing to the methods now practiced by planters, re- quires a constant supply of new lands; but of these, a sufficiency exists, within the present limits of the slave States, for the wants of the present generation at least. To acquire still other new lands, is only to depreciate the value of those already possessed. It may be said, that extensions of territory arc now sought, because it is foreseen that they will be necessary for other generations, and for a distant future. That they will ever be needed at all, is a matter of doubtful and obscure speculation, and the masses of mankind are never influenced by remote objects. If theorists imagine that they perceive a good to be accomplished for those who are unborn, by extending the area of slavery, it is only the present advantage of such extension which causes it to be supported, and that present advantage is polit- 211 ical ascendency. Least of all men, can slaveholders claim to be acting in the interest of posterity. The whole system of slavery is a system of sacrificing permanent interests to temporary ones ; of robbing soils for immediate gains ; and of realizing to-day, reckless of the future, such advantage as may be reaped from the employment of a labor which hap- pens to be the most presently accessible. A striking instance of the sacrifice of pecuniary interests to the pursuit of political ascendency, is presented in the eagerness of the South to bring Cuba into the American Union. That measure, it is conceded, would annihilate the sugar inter- ests of Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, already large, and rapidly extending. If, by possibility, and as to this there is great uncertainty, Cuba might be a slave market for the slave-breeding States, it would not compensate for the loss of the slave market now found in our own sugar region. So long as the present Union continues, the acquisition of Cuba would be injurious to the South in every respect, except as a means of political ascendency. It might be otherwise, if a dissolution of the Union could be effected ; and it is probably with a view to its disso- lution, that Cuba is by many chiefly desired. The design is to add the control of the production of sugar, to the control of the production of cotton, and to place the independence and power of a Southern Confederacy upon the basis of these two greatest staples of commerce. It has been noticed that many persons in the Gulf States advocate the prohibition of the domestic slave trade, for the purpose of compelling Virginia, Mary- 212 land, and Kentucky, to retain the institution of sla- very. Whether, or not, the proposed measure would really have that effect, the fact that it is urged upon such grounds, is conclusive evidence that, with those who urge it, the slavery question is not one of labor or profits, but of political calculation. The editors in New Orleans propose to prohibit the domestic slave trade, not with a view to any interest of Louis- iana, not to keep up the price of slaves now in Louis- iana, and not from any alleged belief that the fur- ther importation of slaves is dangerous to Louisiana. In the opinion of these editors, more slaves are wanted; and to obtain them, they advise that the African slave trade be reopened. But, at the same moment, they are ready to cut Louisiana off from a supply of labor, which they believe to be needed, to the end that Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, may still continue to be slave States, in which Louis- iana has no imaginable interest, except what she may be supposed to have in preserving the political power of that class of States. It is manifest that the people of the South are exceedingly sensitive upon the question of political power, and that this sensibility may be successfully aroused to reconcile them to great sacrifices in other respects. It did not exist, to any great extent, at the period of the formation of the present Govern- ment of the United States, and only arose when the determination was subsequently formed to maintain slavery as a permanent institution. It broke out in full vigor in the Missouri controversy in 1820, and has been greatly inflamed by the controversies in relation to the extension of slavery, which com- 213 menced in 1847, and have continued to the present time. The theory of a balance of power between the free and slave States, to be obtained by preserv- ing an equality in the number of each, and thus preserving an equality in the Senate of the United States, (a theory which Mr. Calhoun, if he did not originate it, devoted all his power and vehemence to enforce,) has done a good deal to keep alive the political jealousy of the South, and to give it point, direction, and form. It would be in vain to attempt argument, in opposition to a sensibility like this, chronic, morbid, and constantly fed by bad advisers. It will yield, at length, to time and events. The utter hopeless- ness of attempting to keep up a balance of power, between the free and slave States, will soon become manifest, and the ideas of men will then run in other channels. The census of 1860 will give to the free States two-thirds of the United States House of Representatives ; the census of 1870 will give them probably three-fourths. The theory of checks and balances, in presence of majorities so large, and so certain to grow continually larger, will be abandoned and forgotten. "When the moment arrives, in which reason shall resume its office, it will be discovered that during a political connection of seventy years, under the present Constitution, the free States have attempted no interference with the peculiar institution of the South ; that their own interests are promoted by the prosperity of the South, and would suffer from social disturbances in that quarter; and that although they undoubtedly wish to hasten the period of the extinc- 214 tion of slavery, their counsel and good offices may always be relied upon, to have that consummation reached by ways and processes in harmony with the real interests of those immediately concerned. But this moment, when the voice of reason can be heard, will never arrive, so long as the possible extension of slavery is held up to the passions of men, and so long as the struggle upon that point is going on. It will not arrive until that struggle shall be ended, definitively and unmistakably, and until the heats which it has evolved shall have sub- sided. This sensibility upon the question of political power, so long as it is kept up, banding all the slave States together in one common feeling, inspiring them with the belief that they have one common interest, and inculcating among them all adherence to the common cause as a point of honor, exerts an influence most unfavorable to their freedom of action. In the debates in the Virginia Legislature in 1832, those who spoke in opposition to any measures looking to emancipation insisted, with scarcely an exception, that such measures would be a betrayal by Virginia of the interests of her sister slave States, neighboring and remote; and that Virginia ought not to move, except in harmony with those States, and after consultation with them. At the present time, in Missouri, emancipation is resisted as an act of treachery to the South, or as an abandonment of what is called the cause of the South. So it really is, if the political ascendency of the South is a substantial and attainable good. And so, at any rate, it will be regarded, until the 215 idea of the possible political ascendency of the South is abandoned. Of late years, the political aspect of the slavery question has received a new form and modification, and the ascendency of a particular party has become so identified with the ascendency of a particular institution, that the success of one is viewed as the success of the other, and the strength of both is combined upon each. The slavery agitation commenced in 1835 by Mr. Calhoun, and those who sympathized with South Carolina nullification, aimed at a dissolution of the Union, to be effected by making the South a unit upon a sectional issue. The men concerned in that agitation, having since become the masters of the Democratic party, while they have not given up this original object as an ulterior one, have added the new object of controlling the Union while it lasts, through the same instrumentality of a combined South. Holding out the extension of slavery to adherents in one section, and patronage and official honors to adherents in another section ; able, by the first motive, to control the whole of one section, and only needing, by appeals to individual venality and ambition, to detach a small minority from the other section; they occupy, it must be confessed, a posi- tion of great advantage. It is, however, the effect of these operations upon the question of slavery, and not their effect upon the success of parties, which is now proposed to be discussed. One effect is, to produce a party interest in favor of extending slavery, and against its extinction any- 216 where, distinct from the sectional interest of that character which the South is supposed to have. Thus, emancipation in Missouri is dreaded, not merely as the loss of a State to the South, hut as the possible loss of a State to the Democratic party ; and in that view, is as much deprecated by the adherents of that party at the North as at the South. Its entire weight, through every available channel of influence and patronage, is brought to bear against emancipation in Missouri; and no man in that State would be permitted to occupy the posi- tion, at one and the same time, of a Democrat and an emancipationist. It is this same party interest, which is at the bottom of the effort now being made to provide for the legal establishment of slavery in the embryo State of Oregon, and in a new State which it is proposed to form out of the southern portion of California. The great necessity of these communities being population, and a population of negro slaves being practically unattainable, no other interest except that of a party triumph can be imag- ined for a policy which would certainly repel free immigration. If even the African slave trade could be revived, these States are on the wrong side of the continent to be benefited by it. Another effect, and this is still more important, is to keep up an agitation at the South most unfa- vorable to the spread of sound views in that quarter. The ascendency of a particular party being depend- ent upon keeping the public mind excited upon the topic of slavery, the agitation is maintained with or without reference to the interests of slaveholders, but at all events maintained, because party power 217 rests upon it. Just in proportion as sectional passions can be excited, is the influence of the violent magnified, while men who counsel modera- tion are suspected as lukewarm, or denounced as treacherous. It is notoriously not the slaveholders, specially as a class, who are now the most violent at the'South; and when the ultimate object of a disso- lution of the Union is openly reached, it is admitted that the slaveholders would be specially likely to oppose it. It has happened, in this case as in others, that a party movement, founded upon a subsisting interest, is pursued without exclusive reference to that interest, and even at the hazard of jeopardizing it. It has happened, also, that a party movement, having for its ostensible object the as- cendency of the South, is pursued with the actual effect (if not for the real purpose) of depriving that large portion of the people of the South, which is outside of the ranks of the dominant party, of any influence in public affairs. The rise in the value of slaves within five-and- twenty years, has been stated to be an adequate cause of the renewed zeal with which slavery has been since and is now upheld. Undoubtedly it is so ; but if an additional explanation is required, it is found in the political agitation of slavery, which was commenced in 1835, and which has ended in making adherence to a peculiar institution, at once a tenet of party faith, and a touchstone of loyalty to a section. It is hardly to be expected that this agitation, so profitable to those engaged in it, will ever voluntarily be given up by them. If put down, it must be by the good sense of the people of the South, where it origin- 10 218 atecl, and where it has been kept up. The Kansas controversy came from the South. The abrogation of the Missouri Compromise, which renders inevitable another similar controversy for all our Territories below the parallel of latitude of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, came from the South. The pro- jected appropriation, to the uses of slavery, of Cuba and of additional Mexican territory, comes from the South. These measures have compelled resistance and discussion in the free States. Resistance and discussion will still be forced upon them, so long as the extension of slavery within the present or future limits of the Union is attempted. If measures of agitation are set on foot, they must be met by measures of counter agitation. But will not the reflecting men of the South begin to inquire whether, while parties and individuals have gained by the agitation of the past twenty years, the South itself has gained anything? Has slavery gained anything, in either area or security ? or, rather, has it not lost in respect to both ? The experiment of governing the country by means of a unanimous South has had a long success, but it can have no other possible termination, than to provoke a hostile unanimity at the JSTorth, or such a degree of unanimity, as will transfer to that section the control of public affairs. If the existing agitation in favor of slavery is not put down by the conserva- tive men of the South, it certainly will be put down, at a period not remote, by a change in the locality of political power; and that change may be attended with heats and passions which will bring on an agi- tation of an altogether different character. 219 The union of the North would terminate political agitation in favor of slavery, by rendering such agitation unprofitable to parties and to individuals. If not terminated in that way, it will be at some period, and may be soon, by the loss of its main stimulus, which is the hope of the territorial ex- pansion of slavery. Whenever it becomes manifest that the exterior limits of slavery cannot be further enlarged, there is no longer any common object which can be held up to the passions of the slave States; and it will no longer be possible to wield them as a unit, against the tendencies to division which are found in the ambitious rivalries of indi- viduals, and in the conflicting interests of States. This period of the demonstrated impossibility of the further extension of slavery, looking to the con- tinent only, and without reference to Cuba, may be much nearer at hand than is commonly supposed. So large a mass of emigrants from the free States and from Europe may be thrown upon Missouri, Arkansas, and Kansas, in a single lustrum, as to shut out slavery from any possible entrance into the existing territories of the Union. What may happen in this respect, remains to be seen ; but the con- quest of Kansas has given to free institutions pro- digious advantages, and it will be from the lack of generalship, and not from the lack of men and resources, if the enemy is not now followed up with instant vigor and mortal blows, giving him no breathing spell, and not a moment's pause for re- cruiting, ox a change of tactics. 220 CHAPTER XV. Different views of the manner in which slavery may be extinguished. Slave labor immediately cheap, under certain circumstances, but ruinous as a' system. The Southern States have grown poorer by it. Mr. Tarver's description of the results of cotton-growing. Free labor will encroach upon slavery, because really more efficient and profitable. When slavery in the United States shall cease to expand its territorial area, whether its further ex- pansion be arrested by political obstacles, by the prior occupation of free labor, or for the want of re- gions adapted to slave labor, new questions will ad- vance to a solution. Of the two systems of labor pressing against each other with the advance of population, territorial progress being at an end, which will yield, and by what processes and with what results to the interests connected with the sys- tem displaced? That negro slavery, as it exists in this country, intermixed with a white population, and pressed upon by the white population in the free States, must be a temporary institution, if confined to a fixed area, and must yield at length to the progress of population, is admitted by most of its supporters, although stoutly denied by some of them. But there is very little accord, among either its supporters or opponents, as to the precise process by which its extinction will be reached. The statement of this process most commonly made, is, that when a certain density of population shall be reached, the wages of rude labor will fall so low, that the labor of slaves will be worth no more 221 than the cost of their subsistence, and that no motive will then exist to retain them in the condition of slavery. It is by assuming what this density is, and calculating when it will be reached, that Judge Tucker of Virginia, in his Notes upon the United States, fixed upon 1923 as the probable epoch of the termination of slavery in this country. If it be true that the expansive power of popu- lation must finally reduce wages so low as to destroy slavery, it is certainly not true that wages are re- duced uniformly as population becomes dense. That an operation precisely the reverse of this has been going on in this country within the last thirty years, is a matter of common knowledge. Wages depend directly upon the proportion between the number of laborers and the demand for labor, and it certainly may and does happen, in some cases, that while laborers increase, the call for them increases still faster. It results, therefore, that whatever may be be- lieved to be the ultimate effect of a continually-in- creasing population, it may not reduce wages for a long period; and that slavery, even if it cannot es- cape a final extinction from this cause, may, not- withstanding, enjoy a considerable term of renewed vigor and augmenting profits. This, as a matter of fact, the present generation are witnessing in the United States. It does not appear to be altogether certain, that the population, within the slave States themselves, would ever become so dense, aside from some exter- nal pressure, as to throw oft* slavery. The system tends continually to the expulsion of the white labor- 222 ers ; and that being assumed to be accomplished, the number of slaves may be and will be graduated to the demand for them. They would cease to be raised, unless they were valuable enough to be retained in the condition of slavery. A surplus of slaves is a phenomenon which has never yet been witnessed in the history of the institution, and it seems impossible that it should be of long continuance. If the in- definite duration of slavery, aside from external pressure, is impossible, it is not because a surplus of slaves may arise, but because the multiplication of free laborers cannot be prevented; and that slavery might not permanently prevent such a multiplication of free laborers as would be fatal to itself, is by no means clear. This, however, is a purely speculative question, because slavery in the Southern States will not be left to work out its fate in the popula- tions in the midst of which it exists, but will be acted upon by the altogether diverse social organ- ization and population of the free States. Undoubtedly, a fall in wages to the standard of the cost of raising and subsisting negroes would destroy slavery; but if that is the only way in which it is to be terminated peacefully, the case is by no means flattering. A conclusion which is a sound one is not, to be sure, to be rejected because it is disagreeable. If negro slavery is to endure, aside from violent catastrophes, until white laborers become so multiplied and so miserable as to be commanded at rates corresponding to the support of slaves, it must even be so ; but in that case, one species of slavery will only have been substituted for another. 223 It does not seem to be yet agreed, which of the two kinds of labor is now the cheapest; and the facts we observe are apparently contradictory. If slave labor is not the cheapest, applied in agricul- ture, why is it employed, and why do men pay so much for the opportunity of employing it, that is, pay such high prices for slaves ? If it is the cheap- est, how does it happen that the communities which make use of it are nevertheless less prosperous than those which use a more expensive labor? The philosophy of slavery is exceedingly simple. It costs but little to raise the negro, still less to steal him from Africa. By whichever process obtained, he is hardy and docile ; and if not docile, he may be made so by the lash. By kind treatment, cajol- ery, intimidation, or flogging, or by all combined, he may be made to perform a vast deal of work; and the food and clothing which suffice for him are on a scale of expense, which admits of no reduction consistent with the existence of human beings. It would seem that the employers of a labor like this, could outlive competition in any pursuit to which it is adapted. It is found, however, that there are drawbacks in working this system in practice; and it is even doubtful whether, while it promises profits so enor- mous, it produces any at all. In many instances in which wealth is created where slave labor is employed, we easily perceive that this wealth is only an appropriation and conversion of some previously existing natural wealth. In other instances, we perceive that this labor is not even self-sustaining, and that virgin soils are worked out, without leaving 224 any equivalents to represent them. In a matter depending upon so many computations, and where some of the data are necessarily vague and uncer- tain, there is abundance of room for diversity of opinion; but it is at least doubtful, if the applica- tion of two centuries of slave labor in the Southern States has produced, upon the whole, any valuable result, and whether all existing forms of property at the South are worth so much as the natural fertility of its lands which has been used up. The late Mr. Tarver, of Missouri, in an essay upon Manufactures in the South and "West, pub- lished a few years since, and which may be found in the "Industrial Resources of the South and West" presents, in a very clear light, the matter of fact that the South does not appear to have gained anything in wealth by all its efforts. He imputes this failure, however, not to the character of the labor employed, but to its misdirection ; while he insists, as we shall presently see, that the same labor, transferred from agriculture to manufactures, would overcome all competition. As a writer, Mr. Tarver displays great candor and ability, and it is only the blinding and infatuating influences of the peculiar institution, to which he was wedded, which can explain the strange hopes in which he indulges in respect to manufac- tures. What the results of slave labor actually had been in agriculture he exhibits, very strikingly, in the following passages : "Examples may be found in our own country of ' States having become poorer by a steady perse- ' verance in an unwise application of their labor. 4 Such is the case in the Atlantic States south of the 225 i Potomac, as I think will be granted by every ' intelligent and candid individual who is acquainted ' with the country, and I think it will be admitted * that these States are poorer than they were twenty ' years ago. There is a small increase in the number ' of laborers, and there may have been something ' gained by skill ; but the great source of all wealth ' in an agricultural country — the soil — has been ' greatly deteriorated and diminished. "If one acquainted with the present condition of ' the Southwest were told that the cotton-growing ' district alone had sold the crop for fifty millions ' of dollars per annum for the last twenty years, he ' would naturally conclude that this must be the ' richest community in the world. He might well ' imagine that the planters all dwell in palaces, upon ' estates improved by every device of art, and that c their most common utensils were made of the 'precious metals; that canals, turnpikes, railways, ' and every other improvement, designed either for * use or ornament, abounded in every part of the ' land. He would conclude that the most splendid ' edifices, dedicated to the purposes of religion and ' learning, were everywhere to be found, and that ' all the liberal arts had here found their reward and ' a home. But what would be his surprise, when ' told that, so far from dwelling in palaces, many of ' these planters dwell in habitations of the most ' primitive construction ; that, instead of any artist- ' ical improvement, this rude dwelling was sur- ' rounded by cotton fields, or probably by fields ' exhausted, washed into gullies, and abandoned; ' that instead of canals, the navigable streams remain ' unimproved ; that the common roads of the country ' were scarcely passable; that the edifices erected ' for the accommodation of religion and learning 'were frequently built of logs, "and covered with ' boards ; and that the fine arts were but little ' encouraged or cared for. Upon receiving this 226 ' information, lie would imagine that this was surely c the country of misers — that they had been hoard- < ing up all the money of the world, to the great * detriment of the balance of mankind. But his ' surprise would be greatly increased, when inform- ' ed, that instead of being misers and hoarders of ' money, these people were generally scarce of it, 4 and many of them embarrassed and bankrupt. I ' think it would puzzle the most observing indi- 1 vidual in the country to account for so strange a ' result. ISTo mind can look back upon the history < of this region for the last twenty years, and not < feel convinced that the labor bestowed in cotton- < growing has been a total loss to this part of the ' country. The country of its production has gained * nothing, and lost much. More than all, in the ' transportation of its produce, it has transported 6 much of the productive and essential principles of ' its soil, which can never be returned, thereby 1 sapping the very foundation of its wealth." Mr. Tarver was "puzzled" and so continue to be all those like him, who refuse to see that slave labor is unproductive, wasteful, and ruinous. A system is to be judged in all its parts and by all its effects. What is made directly out of coerced labor, may be lost indirectly by its effect upon the non-enslaved classes; and that is what in fact we observe. It produces in them pride, idleness, extravagance, and thriftlessness ; destroys enter- prise and invention ; and leaves all the processes of industry unimproved, primitive, slovenly, and waste- ful. The decay to which the system tends is swift and inevitable. Many of its advocates, even, admit that it cannot exist without continual reinforcements outside of itself; that is, without continual supplies of fresh land. 227 In the United States House of ^Representatives, April, 1856, Judge "Warner of Georgia, who is reputed to be a gentleman of more than ordinary sagacity and reflection, used the following lan- guage : "There is not a slaveholder, in this House or out 4 of it, but who knows perfectly well, that, whenever 4 slavery is confined within certain specified limits, 4 its future existence is doomed ; it is only a question 4 of time as to its final destruction. You may take * any single slaveholding county in the Southern 4 States, in which the great staples of cotton and 4 sugar are cultivated to any extent, and confine the 4 present slave population within the limits of that 4 county. Such is the rapid natural increase of the 4 slaves, and the rapid exhaustion of the soil in the 4 cultivation of those crops, (which add so much to 4 the commercial wealth of the country,) that in a 4 few years it would be impossible to support them 4 within the limits of such county. Both master 4 and slave would be starved out; and what would 4 be the practical effect in auy one county, the same 4 result would happen to all the slaveholding States. 4 Slavery cannot be confined within certain specified 4 limits without producing the destruction of both 4 master and slave; it requires fresh lands, plenty 4 of wood and water, not only for the comfort and 4 happiness of the slave, but for the benefit of the 4 owner." Only in exceptional spots specially favored by nature, where fertility is exhaustless, or spontane- ously renewed, can the system be permanently maintained. Some of the fairest portions of this country have been already reduced by it to aban- donment and desolation. It is at this day, in the immediate vicinage of the National Capital, in a region settled before New England was, that the 228 inhabitants, more feeble than the aboriginal natives, are unable to repress the multiplication of wild animals, and that, in the words of a Virginian, " the wolf returns to howl over the desolation of slavery." The cheapness of slave labor is thus a delusion and a snare. Nothing promises fairer, but nothing works more badly. And yet, after all its failures, it still has advocates. The causes which combine to produce results are so numerous and so compli- cated, that it is possible to ascribe an admitted fact to a wrong cause; and where there is a possibility of this sort, men generally resort to it, where the true cause is something connected with their immediate indulgence, or gratifies their passions. The obvious decay of the South is therefore imputed to tariffs, to an undue expenditure of the public moneys in other sections, to robberies by the North through the contrivances of commerce, to an exclusive devo- tion to a few staples, to every cause, in short, except to slavery. And the remedy recommended is not free labor, but a dissolution of the Union. So tenacious is this infatuation, that, after a demonstration by experience that slavery is bad economy when applied to agriculture, it is insisted that it will succeed if applied to manufactures. In an address, delivered as late as 1850, Governor Hammond, of South Carolina, argues the point elaborately, and with every appearance of sincere conviction. The principal item of cost in manufac- turing, next to the raw material, being labor ; must not the South be able to drive New England, and even Great Britain, out of the market, " when eighteen < or at most nineteen dollars will cover the whole necessary 229 1 annual cost of a full supply of wholesome and palatable 'food" for a slave, and when, in addition, the Sonth is able to " extend the hours of labor beyond any of its rivals? " Or, as the matter is stated by Mr. Tarver : ''Whatever the price maybe, none can produce 6 any given article as cheap with hired labor, as he ' who owns it himself. It matters nothing to him ' how low others can produce the article ; he can pro- * duce it lower still, so long as it is the best use that 1 he can make of his labor, and so long as his labor ' is worth keeping. It is on this principle that the * Southwest is destined to monopolize the manufac- ' ture of the whole cotton crop of the United States." And yet nothing would seem to be plainer, than that if slavery has failed in a pursuit, in which much of the labor is of the rudest character, it must fail more signally in a pursuit in which a certain amount of skill and training is absolutely necessary. An error which still survives, after its practical exposure on a great scale has been made patent, must be an exceedingly plausible one; and so, in truth, this error of the cheapness of slave labor really is. The facts which seem to support it are presented every day, and are forced upon the notice of all who are in contact with slavery; the facts which overthrow it require a degree of attention and comparison which they are not able or not in- clined to give to them. It is in vain to deny that slave labor, in its immediate application, where it is used, costs less than free labor. If it was not so, it certainly would not be used. It is not sufficient to say that the slave performs less labor than the free- man, that he performs his work badly, that he breaks his tools, that his position makes him a 230 shirk and thief, and that no stimulus to exertion is so efficient as wages. All this being true, and all this being known to be true, slave labor is neverthe- less employed, and not because the employers are under any delusion as to the positive or comparative value of a day's work of a slave, but because they know that, taking cost and value together, it an- swers their purpose better than anything else within their reach. There is no judgment so unerring as that of individuals, concentrated and sharpened by their own interests in the conduct of their own con- cerns. There is no test of a practical truth so reli- able, as the observation of what actually takes place in common life. Motives of pride, or of indulgence, or the mere force of habit even, may be suggested as the explanation of slavery in certain cases; but gangs of slaves are not purchased for work at high prices, except upon intelligent and well-considered calculations of interest. And it must be recollected, that the existing high price of slaves may hereafter disappear as an element in the cost of slave labor, and that the price of a negro need be only the ex- pense of raising him, or, if the foreign slave trade be permitted, the expense of stealing him. Of the employment of slave labor in many Euro- pean colonies at certain periods, it might be sug- gested that it was the only labor to be had. But upon what ground shall we explain its employment in this country, in the midst of a white population ; or the other fact, which we observe wherever slaves are numerous at the South, that the white popula- tion finds employment difficult to be obtained, and is driven to a vast and continuous emigration? 231 Upon what ground but this, that where it is em- ployed, and in comparison with any other labor which now exists there, it is the cheapest which can be had? But this does not prove that slave labor is cheaper than free white labor, necessarily, or under all circumstances, but only that it is cheaper than that sort of free white labor which has been enfeebled and demoralized by the influences of slavery. It only proves that that institution may produce such a degree of idleness and ignorance among the whites within its reach, that they cannot successfully com- pete even with the negro. But, in comparing systems, we must contrast slave labor with free white labor, in the condition to which it is brought by the training of free communities ; and wherever we are able to make this comparison a matter of actual test, the result is always in favor of free labor. At New Orleans, under an almost tropical sun, white men, brought up to habits of steady and continuous industry, are able to supplant slaves in the rudest and severest employments. In fact, in all employments, however apparently rude, if they are one single remove above the simplicity of a tread-mill, intelligence, contrivance, and dexterity, play an important part ; and in most employments, they are of vastly more consequence than mere muscle. And it is noticeable, that among the ten- dencies of the present times, growing out of the progress of invention and civilization, is the dimi- nution of the proportion in industrial operations, of that sort of human labor which calls for muscle only. The less expensive powers of animals, of the 232 waterfall, and especially of steam, are made availa- ble, by ingenious appliances and adaptations, to a constantly-increasing proportion of the work which human necessities require to be done. The sphere of rude labor is being narrowed, and inferior races of men are less and less in demand. When corn was ground by hand, and mines were drained by the bucket, slaves, and even negro slaves, had a value which they no longer possess. And the marked tendency of the age is, still further to cur- tail the requirement for them, and the uses to which they can be economically applied. In addition to the error of comparing slave labor with free labor, as it exists where it is blighted physically and morally by slavery, those who believe in the economy of negro slaves fail to see that, even if their employment might be advantageous to indi- viduals in particular cases, it might still be ruinous as a system, and, when all its influences and conse- quences are taken into the account, more expensive than the opposite system. "We shall be under no liability to mistake, if we observe what occurs in the agriculture on both sides of the long line which divides the free and slave States, confining our attention to the range within which this agriculture is directed to the same pur- suits, and under substantially the same conditions of climate and soil. Tariffs, peace and war, all circumstances of government and markets, are alike on both sides of the line. They differ in nothing but their systems of labor, and there can be no pos- sibility of error in ascribing to this difference the comparative prosperity of the one, and the compara- 233 tive decay of the other. And we thus find, that as a system, and looking to all results direct and collateral, free labor is most efficient, most econom- ical, and most profitable. It might be difficult to satisfy a farmer in Mary- land, or a farmer in Kentucky, that, under the circumstances in which they are now placed, they would individually do better to substitute free labor for slave labor. Yet they cannot fail to see that wheat in Pennsylvania and corn in Ohio are pro- duced at a greater profit than by themselves, as demonstrated by the higher rents paid in those States, or, what is the same thing, the higher prices paid for farms ; and that the system of labor which leaves this larger margin of profit, represented by the rent or prices of land, is, as a whole, better than their own. What is thus shown to be true in wheat and corn, will be found to be true in cotton, when the free labor system reaches the latitude of that plant. Indeed, it is already found to be true by the experience of the German settlements in Texas. There is a large portion of the agricultural labor of free communities which is not hired labor at all, but the industry of the freeholder and his family applied to his own estate. The thrift and economy of that system of husbandry, combined with that attachment to land which is said to be an Anglo- Saxon passion, and with that notion of personal independence associated in the ideas of the yeomanry of the free States with the occupation of their own acres, make up a most formidable antagonism to the institution of slavery. The men bred in the habits of free communities, who work their freeholds with 10* 234 their own hands, have both the ability and the will to buy out the planter, wherever they are forced into contact with him. His slave labor may be cheap and strong, but it carries too heavy a load of idlers. The comparative prices of land, under the two sys- tems of management, show unerringly which is the most profitable, and which must give way to the other. It is not, then, in the aspect of slave labor as being temporarily and apparently cheap, that we are to look for its extinction only when a certain density of population shall bring with it a free labor still cheaper; but it is in the aspect of slave labor, as being permanently and really dear, that we are to look for its gradual displacement, and perhaps final extinction, by the advance of the better system of the free States. The ownership and occupation of land must continually tend to pass to those who can pay the most for it; that is, to those whose system of labor and management is the best. The encroachment of the stronger system upon the weaker may be slow, but is inevitable, and will be irresistible. The extension of the free-labor system to the Gulf of Mexico will not be prevented by climate, but it may be by other causes. Its present power to advance may be diminished by a decay of its vigor, and the opposing system may, by compres- sion, acquire some additional capacity to resist it. It is equally useless and impossible to predict the fortunes of a remote future. What seems to be certain, and that is all which concerns the present generation, is, that in the actual condition of the 235 two systems, that of free labor is the strongest, and will take possession of the border slave States at a period not distant. CHAPTER XVI. The decline of slavery will not be the decline of the South, but will benefit the South. The evils apprehended at the South, from the shutting up of slavery, are imaginary. Slaves will not multiply beyond the demand for them, and the fall in their price will be in- sensible. The slave-breeding States alone interested in the exten- sion of slavery. The question of race connected with the question of slavery. The absolute increase of the evil of slavery in the United States since the Revolution has been great; but, in comparison with the forces with which it may be combated, its extent has diminished. Yast and appalling as it is, it is not absolutely hopeless. If the limit of its territorial expansion is not yet reached, it soon w T ill be, and the commencement of its decline will then be not far distant. The people of the South have been taught to re- gard this decline of slavery, which will result from shutting it up, as the catastrophe of all their pros- perity. To surround them with a cordon of free States, is, in the language which they often use, to surround them with a circle of fire, to be gradually narrowed, until they perish in the flames. But is it certain, that the South will perish when slavery perishes ? Is slavery a thing with which the South must sink or swim, with which its existence is identified, and with which it must share a common fate ? Or is it only art industrial organization, which may be changed for a better one, not only without injury, but with large and obvious benefits? It is surely not credible that any considerable portion of the people of the South, would not prefer to see an ignorant, degraded, and servile population substi- tuted by one intelligent and free. They would surely regard such a substitution as in itself desi- rable ; and if they resist it, it is because it seems im- practicable, because the necessary present sacrifice of property in the value of slaves appears impossible to be borne, or because they apprehend mischiefs from the attempt to make the proposed substitution, more intolerable than the evils to be escaped. If outlets are denied to their African population, will it not increase and multiply, not only until slaves become worthless and the vast sum of two thousand millions of dollars represented by them is sunk, but until every species of property at the South becomes worthless, and the whites must either exterminate the black race, or fly to save their own lives? The errors of opinion in which these questions originate, are by no means to be stigmatized as ab- surd. They are sufficiently plausible to find many believers even at the North, and it is not wonderful that they are generally current at the South, where political agitators are interested to propagate them, and where a practical censorship of the press has almost extinguished any freedom of discussion. Nor is it wonderful that those who are to be, in their own persons, or in the persons of their children, the victims of a catastrophe, if it shall actually occur, should regard even its possibility with apprehension, 237 and feel called upon to avert, not merely its certain approach, but even the danger of it. The feigned alarm of politicians is in itself entitled to no atten- tion, but the sincere anxieties of a great community, in respect to topics so connected with their essential fortunes, are entitled to respectful treatment. Nor is this matter interesting only to the South. If it could even be assumed that the sentiment of national patriotism no longer exists, and that no feeling of fraternal sympathy for the South is enter- tained at the North, for either of which assumptions there is happily no foundation in truth; the North has at least such a selfish interest in the prosperity of the South, growing out of the relations of com- merce, as must forbid indifference to its present condition and future prospects. The truth really is, that the increase of negro slaves in the United States is wholly attributable to the continual enlargement of the area upon which they are employed, and to that combination of a slave-breeding region with, a slave-working region, which is peculiar to this country. This increase is exceptional. It is observed nowhere else. It will cease with the causes which produce it. The num- ber of slaves will adapt itself to the limits of their profitable occupation. The breeding and raising of slaves will fall off, as the prices of slaves fall off. No population, slave or free, can pass the boundaries fixed by the necessities of subsistence. That freed negroes will not multiply in this coun- try, or, if at all, but slowly, is admitted on all hands. The real difficulty is, not that negro slaves will increase to a dangerous degree upon a fixed area, 238 or that the whites, who constitute two-thirds of the people of the South, and who have always increased more rapidly than the blacks, will ever be outnum- bered and expelled by them; but that the cause Which will prevent the increase of slaves upon a fixed area, being a necessary fall in their price, is not agreeable to a region to which the South is ac- customed to look for its opinions. This difficulty lies at the bottom of the whole controversy in re- spect to the extension of slavery. The alarms upon this subject, which are excited at the South, will be sensibly abated, by a cool and careful consideration of it. It has already been noticed, that within existing external limits, the fields for slave labor not yet touched are so large, that no abrupt abandonment of it is likely to be forced. Even if some further territorial expansion be given to slavery in the United States, it cannot be exten- sive. Its utmost limits must be soon reached, if they are not so already. Sooner or later, the slave- holders must reconcile themselves to the conse- quences, whatever they may be, of finding no remaining outlet for their institution. At the utmost, it is only a question of the time when this condition of things shall be reached; and, under all the circumstances, the possible range of this time is not great. No amount of political activity and good fortune can enlarge it much. That slavery in the Southern States, when its external limits are fixed, must decline, and perhaps be extinguished, is a proposition which may be stated in a single sentence, and be comprehended 239 at a single glance; bnt the fact itself must be spread over a long period of time and more than one generation, be realized by insensible gradations, and be attended at every step by palliatives and compensations. As the historians of the present day are unable to fix the precise time when villenage terminated in England, so future historians may be unable to fix the precise time when slavery termi- nated in the United States. The destruction in a single day of the convertible value of two thousand millions of dollars in slave property, would convulse the whole social fabric of the community in which it exists. The same thing, protracted over half a century, would scarcely attract notice. The same causes, which would reduce the value of slaves, would raise the price of land. The institution of property would suffer no shock, although its forms might undergo a change. This view of the subject, to be sure, excludes the idea of any catastrophe of the system by servile insurrection ; but it is not those who understand the subject best, and are most interested in it, who most readily entertain that idea. So far as servile insurrection may be apprehended from foreign inva- sion, it would not depend upon the proportion of races ; and, looking to the long history of the system where it has been left to work itself out without extrinsic interference, the capacity of the Caucasian to hold the negro in slavery, so long as he chooses to do so, is a thoroughly-established and reliable fact. And although it is undoubtedly true that the probability of servile insurrection, whatever it may 240 be, greater or less, increases with an increasing proportion of the servile class, yet it is quite certain that that proportion is not now dangerous in any State in the Union, and will not become so, if the States upon the Gulf of Mexico, which are most threatened, will co-operate in useful and feasible legislation. And neither in the Gulf States nor in the Southern States, as a whole, will the positive or relative numbers of the servile race be increased by prohibiting its territorial expansion ; the only effect of outlets being to stimulate a rate of increase which maintains population notwithstanding the external drain. In that considerable portion of the South which purchases slaves, a fall in the price of slaves has its advantages as well as disadvantages, and it would seem that opinions there are by no means agreed as to which preponderate. South Carolina imported slaves from Africa down to the last moment before the importation was prohibited by the United States; and the reopening of the African slave trade, so that slaves may become abundant and cheap, is now an object extensively and avowedly desired in the States which raise cotton and sugar. It is upon the slave-breeding States only that a fall in the price of slaves would be viewed as an evil without compensations, and it is here that we may look for the most obstinate defence of that policy of furnishing outlets for slavery, which has so long and so cruelly deluded us. It is this class of States which alone have any pecuniary interests to be subserved by the extension of slavery, which is supported by the slave-working States, only 241 because they arc willing to sacrifice economical considerations for the sake of political power. Undoubtedly, Eastern Virginia would be glad to obtain, at one and the same time, cotton-State prices for negroes and free-State prices for lands, but the conjunction of the two things would seem to be impossible. The sale of negroes may go on, per- haps, for many years, but would be prohibited by the Gulf States themselves, the moment it was dis- covered to be proceeding at a rate which threatened to make Virginia a free State. The tone of the press in the extreme South is too decisive and unan- imous to leave a doubt upon this point. Virginia may sell negroes, but only upon condition that she does not sell too many. She will never be permitted to make herself a free State by selling them. The vigilance of the South is aroused against that danger, and will never be put to sleep again. If this view, of the subject is correct, and if at last the prosperity of public works, the development of commerce, and the enhancement of real estate, to which the intelligent men of Virginia are unques- tionably looking as the consequences of being rid of slavery, can only be attained at the cost of some sacrifices in their slave property, those sacrifices may be more cheerfully borne, when seen to be the necessary price of a good which is desired. A patient who is called upon to submit to an operation, even one so little painful and alarming as the extraction of a tooth, can hardly 'be expected to appreciate the full force of that logic, so sound in itself and so entirely satisfactory even to friendly bystanders, which teaches that the operation is in- 11 242 evitable, and that nothing is gained, and something lost, by postponing it. Allowances are to be made for natural irresolution, and even querulousness will not provoke the anger of the considerate. The selling of negroes is an inveterate habit of the Vir- ginians ; and if they postpone its abandonment to the last possible moment, it will occasion no sur- prise. Abandon it, however, they must, sooner or later, by the termination of the territorial expansion of slavery, and possibly before that time, by the refusal of the Gulf States longer to receive their slaves. And abandon it they must, also, with their population of slaves not sensibly diminished. To shift that population upon others, is clearly impos- sible. In fine, the evils apprehended by the South, from prohibiting the territorial expansion of slavery, are either wholly imaginary, or are greatly exaggerated, or are inevitable at some period under any probable course of events, or will be realized so gradually, and with so many attending compensations, as not to be perceived. To destroy slavery is not to destroy the South, but to change its social organization for the better; and such a change is not only practi- cable, but may be reached without sacrifice and without convulsion. Nothing will be hazarded by it, except that sort of political power which, in practice, is only a party ascendency for the benefit of individuals, and which really excludes almost one-half of the people of the South itself, from office and public honors. It is only an abstraction, except as a means to some useful end ; and nothing can be so absurd as to retain an admitted evil, for the mere 243 purpose of founding a dynasty upon a community of misfortune. The true interest of the South is to keep the evil of slavery within the narrowest possible bounds, and to diminish its proportion to the means of relief and to the general resources of the nation. If it is to be finally overcome by substituting the institutions, and, to a certain extent, the population, of the free States, the period of its extinction will be hastened by reducing its bulk, and augmenting the forces which act against it. It may be that some scheme of colonization at the general charge of the nation will yet be found to be practicable, not to remove the evil, which is clearly beyond the reach of such a remedy, but to mitigate it; but never, if the mis- chief is suffered to expand in proportion, or nearly in proportion, to the general advance of the country in wealth and numbers. The question of slavery in the United States is said to be complicated and embarrassed by a ques- tion of color and race, but it is by no means certain that this is any addition to its real difficulties. So far as it is desirable to get rid of the negroes, their very inferiority as a race will accomplish that ; nothing being more clear, than that an inferior race, except in the condition of domestication, or slavery, will not multiply in the presence of a superior race. If it be supposed, that in lieu of the four millions of Africans now held as chattel slaves at the South, four millions of Anglo-Saxons were so held, in the condition of ignorance and degradation which would be necessarily implied in such a supposition ; would not the evil be more dangerous at present, and re- 244 quire a longer time for its cure, if, indeed, it would be manageable at all ? The truth is, the peculiar moral and intellectual conformation of the negro, which renders it so easy to enslave him, and which makes him so little dan- gerous as a slave, makes it safe to liberate him. Whether we base our conclusions upon what we observe of his characteristics, or upon the history of emancipation in the British and French Colonies, there is no reason to suppose, that even the liber- ation instantly and in mass of the slaves at the South, would be attended with peril, whatever losses and inconveniences it might occasion. One would imagine, from the alarm which is expressed at the idea of setting them loose, that they are now chained, or shut up in strong cages, but the timid may be assured that such is not the fact. The negro is not a wild beast, but a man, of a singularly docile species, with a better memory of benefits than of injuries, grateful rather than revengeful, and easily governed, whether as a free laborer, or as a slave. The abolition of slavery in the United States is impracticable, not because it would be dangerous, but because the institution of slavery involves such vast pecuniary interests, that it will not be given up, but will fall only with the profits which sustain it. When that day comes, the negro will not only be found to be not dangerous, but he will gradually disappear, unless, in the mean time, the white race in contact with him shall have been debauched, de- moralized, and degraded, even below his level, by the continuance of the system of slavery. It is only on the supposition, but which is unfortunately one 245 which cannot be excluded from the category of the possibilities, of the depravation of the white race, and of the loss of its natural superiority, that it will run the risk of being expelled by the negro. If we consider the length of time which has elapsed since the Bevolution, and how little has been done to fulfil the promises then made, and to realize the expectations then cherished, of the abo- lition of slavery, the prospect for the future would not seem to be encouraging. The virtue and sa- gacity of the country have not been sufficiently ex- erted, even to confine the mischief to its ancient limits ; and that it has not spread over a greater space than it now occupies, is not so much attribu- table to political opposition, as to the physical im- possibility of multiplying negroes beyond a certain rate. The good fortune of events, however, may more than counterbalance the folly of mankind. We may be nearer to the desired consummation, although it has seemed to recede. The free popula- tion, which will overthrow slavery, by taking its place, did not exist when Washington and Jefferson struggled for abolition, and even believed it to be immediately attainable. We may console ourselves with the reflection, that if the evil has been suffered to grow, the power to which it is destined to suc- cumb, has grown with still greater vigor and rapidity. Washington and Jefferson were abolitionists. Washington died one, but Jefferson lived long enough to see that the accomplishment of any scheme of abolition was impracticable. Washing- ton and (in the early part of his life) Jefferson, like the abolitionists of modern times, overlooked the 246 facts, that in slaveholding States all social and political power is wielded by the slaveholders, and that, so long as slaveholding is in itself profitable, however injurious to other interests, and even to other interests of their own, they will not give it up. Washington and Jefferson, like the abolitionists of modern times, were so profoundly impressed with the evils of slavery, and so offended by its injustice, that they were unable to conceive of its indefinite permanency as a system. The experience of the last sixty years enables us to judge more wisely. The absolute impossibility of any general abolition of slavery in the Southern States during the present generation is so manifest, that practical men will address themselves to other methods of opposing the evil. Happily, it does not follow that slavery, because it cannot be abolished, cannot be checked, and perhaps extinguished. If we cannot grapple with it in one way, we may in other ways. "We can prevent its extension, and that being accomplished, we can advance upon it with the accumulating power of free labor. This may perhaps be done, sooner or later, by the mere operation of the laws of population, but sooner, and more certainly, by vigilant and well-directed effort. If it is probably true that the power chiefly to be relied upon for the removal of slavery from the border slave States, is immigration from the free States; the moment when such immigration is likely to set in with vigor, will be the opportune one for commencing an agitation for freedom in such States. Of this happy selection of the right time for the right thing, we have an example in 247 Missouri. In Kentucky, we have had the contrary example of heroic moral and physical bravery, ex- pended in vain against the prejudices of a slave- holding community. It may even he doubtful, if there is not a positive loss, in moving in advance of free immigration, by embittering the passions of opponents, and rendering them still less accessible to persuasion. CHAPTER XVn. The Union of the States is only endangered by that discontent of the slave States, which results from the impoverishing effects of slavery. Slavery itself, and not the agitation of it, originates the feeling of disunion. Nullification first aimed against tariffs. The mischief will be abated, as the area of slavery is diminished. Political quietude the ordinary result of slavery. The question of slavery in the United States has become so habitually connected with the question of the continued Union of the States, that it is necessary to consider what the precise nature of that connection really is, and in what way the per- manency of the Union will be affected by the prob- able course of events in respect to that institution. It will be found, that so far as feelings of aliena- tion from the Union have existed, and now exist, and so far as dangers actually menace it, they owe their origin, not to the discussion of slavery at the North, but to the effects of slavery upon the South ; and that they will be terminated, not by the cessa- tion of discussion, but by that extinction of slavery 248 iu the border slave States which may be hoped for at a period now not remote. While no unnecessary or exaggerated importance should be given to menaces, positive or contingent, of overthrowing the existing Union, the persistency with which they are made, and the high sources from which they proceed, render it necessary to consider by what dangers, and from what quarters, the stability of the Confederacy is really imperilled. The political institutions under which we live, enduring as they have proved, strong as they are this day, and lasting as we wish them to be, were the work of human hands, and must at length share the fate of all human things. Let us examine the foundations and the great timbers of our political edifice, and see if, happily, we may not strengthen what is weak, and repair breaches before they shall have enlarged beyond the reach of help. If there is danger, let us look it in the face, take the gauge and measure of it, and avert it, if we can, by wise and timely precaution. It is difficult to conceive of a condition of things which should induce the interior States to sever the political connection which gives them unobstructed access to the Atlantic Ocean and to the Gulf of Mexico. It is scarcely less difficult to conceive of a condition of things which should induce the com- mercial and manufacturing States upon the sea- board, to desire a separation from their Southern and Western customers. Certainly, the city of Xew York does not meditate the overthrow of the Union, upon whose commerce her greatness depends, nor does New England wish to be disconnected from any 249 of the States which she supplies with her wares and manufactures. In no part of the free States, from Maine to Iowa, do we discover any serious discon- tents with existing political arrangements. It is true, that throughout the free States a small class of persons is to found, who, with William Lloyd Garrison, denounce any political union with slaveholders as morally wrong. But the number of such persons, after a quarter of a century of eiFort and agitation, is not increasing, and still remains altogether inconsiderable. Great as the evil of slavery is perceived to be, it is quite apparent that a dissolution of the Union is no remedy for it ; and such is at this day the settled and unshaken convic- tion of the North. If the Union is really menaced, the danger is at the South. It is there, and there only, that serious threats of dissolution are made; it is there, and there only, that feelings of alienation and hostility are fostered and encouraged and openly avowed. This state of things at the South manifested itself iive-and-twenty years ago, in the attempted nullifi- cation of South Carolina, and was altogether discon- nected with, and independent of, the agitation of the slavery question. The immediate moving cause of the attempt at disunion at that period, was the disappointed personal ambition of Mr. Calhoun. Such, at any rate, was the contemporaneous judg- ment of the country, and that judgment still remains unreversed. The agitators of that day availed them- selves, as a matter of course, of every possible appeal to the interests and passions of men. Among other things, in the State of South Carolina itself, 250 they excited hopes that the city of Charleston, as the commercial emporium of a Southern Confede- racy, might revive and even surpass its ancient importance. At the epoch of nullification, Mr. Calhoun, although dominant in South Carolina only, had partisans and sympathizers in all the slave States. The real cause of this Southern predisposition ("Southern susceptibility" as Mr. Madison called it) to listen to the appeals of the Palmetto nullifiers, was Southern discontent at the prosperity of the ISTorth. Virginia and the Carolinas, with exhausted soils, stationary populations, and decaying towns, saw with regret and uneasiness and alarm that the free States, with inferior natural advantages, were rapidly surpassing them in numbers and wealth. With jaundiced eyes, they beheld the vigorous com- merce, the thriving manufactures, and the opulent cities, of the North. Refusing to see the true cause of their own misfortunes, and eager to attribute them to every cause but the right one, they insisted that they alone were the producers of real wealth, and that the ISTorth was thriving at their expense. This was the doctrine of the nullifiers of 1832, and it has been steadily insisted upon down to the present time. It is the standard, orthodox doctrine of Southern political literature, and has produced a marked impression upon the public mind of the South. It has, without doubt, become the settled conviction of large numbers of persons in the slave States, that in some way or other, either through the fiscal regulations of the Government, or the legerdemain of trade, the North has been built up 251 at the expense of the South. That Massachusetts, which is said to have no natural productions save granite and ice, should grow rich, while Virginia, with every abounding advantage of soil, climate, waterfalls, forests, mines, and fisheries, with an unrivalled seaport, and on the best line of commu- nication between the Atlantic and the Valley of the Mississippi, should grow poor, is imputable only, according to their theories, to Yankee craft and Yankee rapacity. Without the products of the South, where would Northern ships find freights? Without Southern customers, where could Northern manufacturers find markets? Such questions, and the ideas which prompt such questions, are common in all the slave States. It is always agreeable to impute one's misfortunes to others, rather than to one's self; and this natural prompting of self-love has been stimulated, in the case of the South, by evil counsellors. Mr. Forsyth, of Alabama, on the occasion of his appointment, a year ago, as Minister to Mexico, by General Pierce, used the following language in a public address : "I have no more doubt that the effect of separa- ' tion would be to transfer the energies of industry, 1 population, commerce, and wealth, from the North ' to the South, than I have that it is to the Union ' with us, the wealth-producing States, that the ' North owes its great progress in material prosper- t ^.^ * * * rp^ e -jjnion broken, we should have ' what has been so long the dream of the South — ' direct trade and commercial independence. Then, ' our Southern cities, that have so long languished < in the shade, while the grand emporia of the North ' have fattened upon favoring navigation laws, par- 252 ' tial legislation by Congress, and the monopoly of ' the public expenditure, will spring into life and ' energy, and become the entrepots of a great *■ commerce." These views of Mr. Forsyth, which are those of the whole school of Southern nullifiers, have been promulgated, during the fourth part of a century, with unwearied assiduity, and in many instances, doubtless, as the results of sincere convictions. It is a common mistake, but one easily corrected by a little attention to facts, and especially to dates, that the agitation of the slavery question is the cause of the disunion feeling, greater or less, which exists at the South. The truth clearly is, that the South Carolina nullifiers, and their sympathizers in the other slave States, endeavored to break up the Union, long before any special slavery agitation commenced; and they themselves have been chiefly instrumental in getting up the slavery agitations of these latter days, in aid of their predetermined pur- pose of a separate Southern Confederacy. The hos- tility of South Carolina to the Union was as fierce in 1832 as it is now. Mr. Forsyth's reasons for dis- solving the Union would be just as good, without the present dispute about Kansas, as they are now. The slavery question is made use of to fan the pas- sions of the Southern public, by men who, for con- siderations altogether independent of slavery, wish to bring about a dissolution of the Union. It is quite notorious that it is not the slaveholding class at the South which particularly favors nullification. Those who own slaves largely, are instinctively cautious, conservative, and averse to political exper- 253 iments. The milliners themselves admit, that the slaveholders, as a body, will be likely to oppose their designs. It is not Governor Aiken, with seven hundred negroes upon Jehossee Island, and fabulous numbers elsewhere, or men like him, who will be- come disturbers of the public peace. South Carolina nullification culminated in 1832. Attention was not directed to the abolitionists until 1835, and then, not because they were more active than before, but because a new pretext was needed for disunion. No practical question bearing upon slavery appeared in national politics until 1844, the epoch of Texas annexation, but Southern commer- cial conventions assembled every year, to fan sec- tional prejudices, to prosecute sectional objects, and to propose the overthrow of the Union. The efforts of these men, so long and so pertina- ciously continued, have produced effects which de- serve attention. They have embittered a large por- tion of the South against the North. In many of the slave States, they have seriously weakened the sentiment of national patriotism. The party of nul- lification comprises both talent and numbers ; it has demonstrated its vitality by the length of time during which it has maintained its existence; and it has now assumed proportions which make it the dictate of prudence to observe the course of events, and to take measures of precaution. The origin of the whole difficulty is found in sla- very, in its impoverishing effects, in the discontented humors to which it predisposes, and in its tendency at once to band together those connected with it, and to isolate them from others. The only com- 254 plete remedy for the difficulty is the extinction of slavery, but a remedy much short of this may be sufficient to restore to the Republic a tolerable measure of tranquillity. When slavery shall have been pushed towards the Gulf of Mexico, even only one tier of States, its belt upon the Gulf will be so narrow, and that belt will be so hopelessly cut in two by the Mississippi river, that the disruption of the present Confederacy will be impossible. The advance of free institutions, if even so little as one single ti^r of States, becomes vital in its effect upon political possibilities, by securing the control of the Mississippi river, and by reducing the slave States east of it to proportions too small for an independent existence. It was this view which gave so overwhelming an importance to the Kansas controversy. The question of Kansas was admitted to be the question of Missouri ; it was not admitted to be, but really was, the question of the Mississippi river. The triumph of freedom in Kansas secures directly freedom in Missouri, and will bring us back before long to the original adjustment of 1804, which fixed the thirty- third parallel of latitude as the northern limit of slavery in the Louisiana purchase. The political unity of the valley of the Mississippi river will then be assured, and free institutions must dominate, polit- ically and commercially, over its whole lower course. The great city at its mouth is united by indissoluble ties of interest to the people who dwell on its upper waters, and the Mississippi becomes for the Union a band of iron which no violence can break. A geographical fact is not only a fixed fact, 255 but it is easily comprehended, because it addresses itself to the eye. The conquest of the first line of slave States uncovers the second line, and ^Torth Carolina, Ten- nessee, and Arkansas, will then be dissuaded from disunion by the same apprehended jeopardy of their slave property which now operates upon Virginia and Kentucky. The situation of a border slave State is one of uneasiness, even in quiet times, and would be intolerable, if the Union was broken up. If the course of events in the immediate future be such as may reasonably be anticipated, no separate Southern Confederacy could possibly embrace more than a few States in the southeast corner of the ex- isting Union ; and the scheme of such a Confederacy would be put down by the good sense of the people in that quarter, if, indeed, their patriotism would allow it to be even entertained. In dealing with a question of disunion, no error can be so egregious as to adopt measures advised by those who are themselves disunionists. The men who threatened to destroy the Union unless slavery could be planted in Kansas, were precisely those who wished to plant slavery there for the pur- pose of destroying the Union, and who are baffled and crushed by the actual issue of events. The ultra pro-slavery interest in Missouri is avowedly a nullifying and disunion interest, as the legislative records of that State attest. It is not by furnishing such men the weapons they seek, but by disarming them, that they can be rendered harmless. It is not by permitting slavery to advance, but by compelling it to recede, that the Union can be saved, because, 256 although disunion is not synonymous with slavery, it grows out of slavery and draws all its vitality from slavery. It is not by maintaining the disease which afflicts it, that the body politic can he restored to soundness, hut by confronting it with manly firm- ness, and, if need be, with the caustic and with the knife. Every measure which strengthens slavery, weak- ens the Union; and those who are devising the extension of slavery, do not, in most cases, affect to deny that their ultimate and cherished purpose is to overthrow the existing Government of these States. Our present Minister to Mexico, Mr. Forsyth, as we have seen, openly urges it; and it will be with the view of rendering a dissolution of the Union more practicable, that he will endeavor to make for slavery new acquisitions west of Texas. The same view is, with many, the stimulating motive to the acquisition of Cuba. "What is aimed at, is such a degree of strength for a separate confederation of the slave States, as would make such a scheme fea- sible, or, at least, plausible. The question for the country is, whether a line of public policy can be sound, which will invite any section into new politi- cal combinations, or diminish the difficulties and hazards which now restrain it from such combina- tions. That species of attachment to the Union, which is founded in education, habit, and sentiment, is an important auxiliary in upholding it; but its main reliance, after all, is upon the substantial in- terests of the parties to it. AVhatever makes it more easy for a portion of them to break it up, exposes it to greater chances of overthrow, from 257 the ambition, discontents, and heats of men. The Union may have strength enough to defy all attacks, but a reasonable prudence dictates that its enemies should be watched. Political quiescence is the normal condition of communities which hold negro slaves, and the next generation will see things in that phase. Of all her vast American empire, Spain retained against the spirit of revolution only her West India possessions; and this, because the planters of Cuba feared a con- test in presence of their slaves. It is slaveholding Brazil, whose allegiance to the royal family of Por- tugal has never been shaken. If it should be said that the owners of negroes submit as easily to polit- ical rule as negroes do to personal rule, the remark would be borne out, where the proportion of slaves is large, by the philosophy of the case and the expe- rience of mankind. In our own Revolution, where negroes most abounded, the number was most nu- merous of those who deplored and discountenanced that struggle. And in more modern times, it has not been the slaveholding, but the non-slaveholding colonies of the British Crown, which have displayed a spirit of resistance to imperial edicts. South Car- olina succumbed to a proclamation in 1832. All experience and all philosophy will be at fault, if it does not prove to be true, that the concentration of the slave population in the Gulf States, if it is suffered to go on, will bring us, with whatever evil it may be attended, at least the good of politi- cal quiet in a region which has long vexed us with its clamors. 11* 258 CHAPTER XYI1I. The population of Cuba. Actual number of slaves ; misrepresenta- tions corrected. Tendency of slavery in Cuba to disappear by increase of whites, the mortality of the slaves, and emancipation under Spanish laws. Classification of agricultural pursuits. Character and increase of the Monteros, or yeomanry. Example of Porto Rico. Climate of Cuba. Salubrity. Adaptation to white labor. Possible changes in the methods of the sugar cul- ture. Resources and desirability of the island. If annexed to the Union, the free laborers of the United States will assert their right to Cuba. As slavery in the United States derives its chief vigor, and all its political virulence, from the system of opening new markets for slaves, no discussion of its future prospects would he complete, which did not consider the probability of its expansion on the side of the West Indies. It is there that its ad- herents look for the most immediate and decisive successes. Cuba contains one-half of the entire area of all the West India islands, and would com- mand them all, aside from the political connection of some of them with European powers. Those connections may terminate with time and events. But without looking to its probable influence over a remote future, or even to its immediate influence over the adjoining island of Hayti, Cuba is in itself so magnificent a possession, and presents fields for industry so incalculably vast, that the owners of slave labor in this country make no exaggerated cal- culations, in believing that its appropriation to their use and for their benefit, would maintain indefinitely the value of their peculiar property, consolidate their political power at home so long as the Union of 259 these States shall subsist, and render possible for them an independent national existence, based upon the control of commercial staples. If the acquisition of Cuba can be effected by the utmost efforts of the Government of this country, and at whatever cost of money, it may be regarded as a foregone conclusion, so long as the Government remains in the hands of those who now administer it. If the acquisition is not made, it will be pre- vented by the national obstinacy of Spain, or by obstacles interposed by the diplomacy of other Eu- ropean powers. The measure has been resolved upon by those who control the destinies of this country, and the only present practical questions which remain for us, relate to the consequences which may be expected to flow from it. It is only pertinent to the scope of the present discussion, however, to inquire if one of these consequences will be such an appropriation of Cuba to the uses of the slaveholders, as they anticipate from its acquisi- tion by the United States. Since the changes introduced into the internal administration of Cuba in 1808, very full and fre- quent publications have been officially made of the population and other statistics of that island. Of population, the returns are as follows : Whites. Free blacks. Slaves. Total. 1811 - - - 274,000 114,000 212,000 600,000 1817 - - - 290,021 115,691 225,268 630,980 1827 - - - 311,051 106,494 286,942 704,487 1841 - - - 418,291 152,838 436,495 1,007,624 1846 - - - 425,769 149,226 323,759 898,752 1849 - - - 457,133 164,410 323,897 945,440 1853 - - - 501,988 176,647 330,425 1,008,060 260 The whites must now number not far from 550,000. An enumeration in 1775 gave 95,419 whites, 40,615 free blaeks, and 44,336 slaves, making a total of 170,375. An enumeration in 1791 gave a total of 272,140. These two enumerations, how- ever, are known to have been inaccurate, and to contain important omissions. Thus, Humboldt, who was in Cuba in 1804, from an examination of official registers in many districts, and other sources of information, arrived at the conclusion, that the total population in 1791 could not have been less than 362,700. The first thins: which will attract attention in the table given above, is the small increase of the whites, and the actual diminution of both free blacks and slaves, between 1841 and 1846. As to the whites, the explanation is, that the gar- risons, crews of vessels, and transient persons, which had been included in the census of 1841, and before that, have been since omitted. The numbers em- braced in these descriptions amounted, in 1817, to 32,641; in 1849, to 54,560; and in 1853, to 40,940. Their omission makes a large apparent diminution in the population of Havana, between 1841 and 1846. As to the colored races, it is to be observed, that Don Geronimo Valdez, appointed Captain General in 1841, and removed in 1843, exerted himself reso- lutely and in good faith, and with some success, to suppress the slave trade, and that he granted letters of emancipation to many negroes illegally held in servitude, stated by some authorities as high as three thousands. It is to be observed, also, that during 261 the years 1842 and 1843 there were slave insurrec- tions upon many estates, the suppression of which was attended with great loss of life. These insur- rections, which were in fact isolated and discon- nected, are now sometimes spoken of as "the mulatto insurrection," under the belief that they had been systematically instigated by the mulattoes. So alarming were these insurrections, that the Govern- ment of the island convened a meeting of the plant- ers at Matanzas, in December, 1843, to consider the measures proper to be adopted. This meeting ad- vised, as the best remedy, the absolute suppression of the slave trade; but this recommendation did not suit General O'Donnell, who had succeeded Yaldez as Captain General. The remedy to which he re- sorted was the institution of military commissions, who perambulated the island, and executed large numbers of blacks, free and slave. Some of the barbarities of these commissions will be found de- tailed in the appendix to the Notes of a Physician upon Cuba, published in 1844. The operation seems to have begun in cruelty, and ended in ve- nality ; the free blacks saving their own lives, and' planters saving the lives of their slaves, only by pay- ing ransom money to the butchers appointed by O'Donnell. The number which perished at the hands of the executioner is not known. In reference to the importation of slaves into Cuba, the statements are contradictory, being to a considerable extent conjectural, inasmuch as the whole trade has been, for many years, an illicit one, and contrary to the treaties between Great Britain and Spain. 262 From 1822 to 1828, both years inclusive, the British commissions report the whole known im- portations at 27,000, to which they add a presumed importation, not known, of one-half, or 13,500, making an annual average of importation of 5,786. From 1829 to 1837, the British consul at Havana reported the following importations, five-sixths being ascertained, and one-sixth estimated : 1829 - 1830 - 1831 - 1832 - 1833 - - 10,320 - 11,500 - 12,480 - 9,940 - 10,800 1834 - 1835 - 1836 - 1837 - Total - 13,680 - 17,560 - 17,040 - 18,240 - 121,920 In Mr. Thrasher's edition of Humboldt's Cuba, published in 1856, the following figures of importa- tion are given : 1838 - - 10,495 1847 - - 1,450 1839 - - 10,995 1848 - - 1,500 1840 - - 10,104 1849 - - 8,700 1841 - - 8,893 1850 - - 3,500 1842 - - 3,630 1851 - - 5,000 1843 - - 8,000 1852 - - 7,924 1844 - • - 10,000 1853 - - 12,500 1845 • ■ - 1,300 1854 - - 10,230 1846 - - 419 Total - 114,640 It is stated by Mr. Thrasher that these figures are copied "from the annual reports of the Havana com- i missions to the British Government, and represent the ' maximum of slave importations in Cuba." 263 The smallness of the importation in 1842, as compared with the years preceding and the two years following, is to be ascribed to the repressive efforts of Captain General Valdez, who was not in office two full years. The very small importations commencing in 1845 are attributable, not to legal repression, but to a fall in the price of sugar and molasses, to the production of which the slave labor of the island is largely devoted, and to the rapid abandonment of the culti- vation of coffee. In the Notes of a Physician, (1844,) it is noticed that the year preceding the publication of the work had been one of unparalleled agricul- tural depression, that the price of molasses had compelled some of the planters to throw it away, and that many of the lower classes of white laborers had been thrown out of employment. In a book entitled " Cuba and the Cubans" published in 1850, and ascribed to Mr. R. M. Kimball, it is stated that this commercial depression still continued, and that real estate was declining. u An estate" says Mr. Kimball, "which eight years ago might be sold for $100,000, would not at this dag command $25,000." At the present time, the high prices of sugar stimu- late a great degree of activity in the slave trade. A fall in 'the price of sugar would again reduce it to the standard of 1845, 1846, 184T, and 1848. Considering that the slave population as it existed in 1841, after a period of great activity in the slave trade, was composed largely of newly-imported negroes, among whom mortality is the greatest; considering that the trade was greatly reduced in 1842, was still smaller in 1845, and was merely 264 nominal in 1846 ; considering the compulsory eman- cipations by Captain General Valdez, the numerous and bloody insurrections of 1842 and 1843, and the frightful executions under the authority of General O'Donnell's military commissions; it will not seem surprising that the number of slaves diminished sensibly between 1841 and 1846, although the dimi- nution actually reported appears large. If the point still seems to require explanation, it is found in the high probability that the number of slaves reported in 1841 is beyond the truth. It is, in fact, incredible, if the figures of the slave trade are correct. In all the West India islands, where the slave trade has existed, the slave population has diminished rapidly, so far as natural increase is concerned, and the amount of increase obtained has always fallen much short of the importations. Thus in Cuba the census returns show an increase of 13,300 slaves between 1811 and 1817, whereas, in the same period, the custom-house returns show an importation, according to Humboldt, of 67,700. From 1817 to 1827, copying Humboldt's figures down to 1825, and taking the figures of the British commission afterwards, there was an importation of 128,100, whereas the increase by the census was only 61,674. Between 1827 and 1841, excluding 1827, but including 1841, the importations are stated at 172,887, whereas the increase by the census was 149,553. This would leave the annual loss, inde- pendent of the slave trade, as follows : Annual loss. Between 1811 and 1817 - 9,066 1817 " 1827 6,642 1827 " 1841 1,662 265 No instance can be found of a rate of annual loss so small as this last, in a slave population in tropical regions fed by the slave trade, and it may be pro- nounced impossible. Even since 1846, although more attention is now paid to the raising of slaves, the annual loss to 1853 will be found to be 4,849, the importations in that period having been 40,590, while the gain by the census was only 6,528. Upon the whole, if the discrepancy between the number of slaves reported in 1841 and 1846 be regarded as not sufficiently explained by the known causes of decrease within that period, and if errors are to be assumed ; it will appear more probable that the number given in 1841 is too high, than that the number given in 1846 is too low, and especially as this last" number is confirmed by the enumerations of 1849 and 1853. These observations have been made upon the table of population, not only because the distribu- tion of the classes of population is the primary element of any sound judgment as to the future destiny of Cuba, but because great and pertinacious efforts have been made to mislead the people of the United States in reference to it These efforts are prompted by the desire to create the belief that slavery is a much more important part of the industrial system of Cuba than it really is; to conceal the fact that slavery there is really tottering and precarious; to mask the movements which are meditated to prop it up ; and to discourage any counter attempt to introduce a better system. The single fact relied upon, to prove that the present slave population of Cuba is greater than the 12 266 census shows it to be, is the great increase in the production of sugar, which was 440,000 boxes in 1825, when Humboldt published his work upon Cuba, and is now 1,500,000 boxes. In only one other agricultural cultivation, that of coffee, are slaves much employed; and in this cultivation, the falling off has been nearly as great as the increase in the sugar cultivation. Sugar plays a leading part in the foreign com- merce of Cuba, constituting more than two-thirds of its exports; but its production employs but an insignificant part of its population. On the system and methods practiced in 1825, a plantation with 300 negroes, not working negroes, but old and young, and of both sexes, would produce 2,000 boxes; so that Humboldt computed 66,000 negroes, or about one-fourth of the slave population at that time, as engaged in producing 440,000 boxes. At this rate, the present production would require 225,000 negroes ; but, in fact, the same quantity is produced with -half the force required thirty years ago. In a work printed for private circulation in 1855, quoted by Mr. Thrasher as the production of a gen- tleman distinguished for "his ability as a sugar planter and economist" the statistics are given of "a plantation producing 4,000 boxes, which is neither one of the colossal ones recently made, nor one of those deemed small." For such a plantation, "300 negroes of both sexes and vari- ous ages" are required. "With the same force, the product has doubled since 1825, the saving being accounted for by " the improved division of labor, the 6 use of steam power, the introduction of mechanical 267 1 appliances, as railways from the boiling house to the 1 purging house, pumps for several purposes and water 1 pipes, improved furnaces and clarifiers, cane-carriers, ' bagass-carts, §c, and the greater facilities of transition ' to market" This computation would give 112,500 negroes as required for the production of 1,500,000 hoxes. This sufficiently approximates to the statement of the " Guadro Estadico" of 1846, that the population of the sugar plantations amounted then to 130,816, which implies, after deducting ten per cent, for whites, as estimated by Mr. Thrasher, a negro force of 116,735. The increase of production, since 1846, may be attributed to improvements, without the necessity of supposing an increase of force. In 1825, Humboldt reckoned 28,000 slaves as en- gaged in producing 305,000 quintals of coffee. For the seven years ending 1852, the production averaged annually only 190,000 quintals, so that, in addition to any reduction from improved processes, the num- ber of slaves in this employment must have been reduced from 28,000 to 17,442. As to tobacco, it was when Humboldt wrote, and is now, " cultivated almost entirely by whites and free blacks." In the, elaborate official agricultural returns for 1830, 138,982 slaves engaged in agriculture are val- ued at $300 each, u the others being old, or supposed of little or no value," divided, as to the cultivations they were engaged in, as follows : In sugar and coffee estates - - 100,000 In smaller cultivation - - - - 31,055 In tobacco 7,927 268 Of the 286,942 slaves in 1827, 65,754 were re- ported in the census as living in cities and towns. Following the same proportion, if 301,223 be assumed as the number of slaves in 1830, the rural portion, including the very old, or very young, and all others " supposed of little or no value," must have been 232,037, although the number valued was only 138,982. Following still the same proportion, the slave population of 330,425, reported in the census of 1853, would give for agricultural labors 254,511. According to the uniform accounts we receive, and the extraordinary pressure there is for labor upon sugar estates, there cannot be so large a proportion of agricultural slave labor employed in "smaller cultivation" and "tobacco" as there was in 1830. But admitting that there is, there would still be left for the sugar and coffee estates, nearly all of it being now devoted to sugar, a slave force of 183,126, which is more than enough, upon any principles of computation, to account for all the results achieved. The proportion of slaves, however, employed in agriculture, has increased since 1827. The current information from Cuba is, that "the in-door slaves have been sent to the fields," which is precisely what might be expected from the high prices of sugar. If the total number of slaves is now 330,425, the classification of pursuits may safely be presumed to have so changed from what it was in 1827, that, instead of 183,126 slaves employed in the cultiva- tion of sugar and coffee, 200,000 are employed in the cultivation of sugar alone ; and this force ought to give nearly double the quantity actually produced. 269 It is so far from being true that there is anything in existing agricultural facts in Cuba, or in any accounts we receive from it, to induce us to be- lieve that the number of slaves is greater than is reported in the last census, that it seems difficult to believe that the actual number is so great. Cer- tainly, not half the number can be required for all the sugar which is produced, and yet not only does that cultivation seem to be attracting to itself all the slave labor which can be spared from other pursuits, but thousands of Coolies and Yucatan Indians are pressed into the service. The sugar planters are making profits which enable them to buy all the purchasable labor, and, in addition to that, they hire slaves largely during the grinding season. If it is thus difficult to see where the 330,425 slaves reported in the last census are em- ployed, how utterly incredible is the number of 662,599 assumed for 1855 by Mr. Thrasher. A possible explanation of the apparently exces- sive number of slaves in the census, is the fact that it includes those who are partially emancipated, under the system peculiar to Spanish law, which permits slaves to purchase themselves by instal- ments. Mr. Thrasher states, that many negroes choose to leave a small instalment unpaid, and are thus classed nominally as slaves, when they are not such in fact. But, after all, the balance of probabilities is, that the census exaggerates the number of slaves. The capitation tax upon slaves being confined to house servants, there is no motive to diminish the re- ported number of agricultural slaves. Inducements 270 to exaggerate them, may be found in the vanity of the planters, in their desire to enlarge the basis of their pecuniary credit, or in a policy of magnifying the actual importance of slave industry, and the consequent difficulty of dispensing with it. All statements based, or affected to be based, upon registers of christenings and interments, which show any natural increase of the blacks of Cuba, arc deceptive, either by mistake or fraud. It is contra- dicted by the uniform history of all the West India islands during the continuance of the slave trade; it is contradicted by the history of the British islands, even after the abolition of the trade, although the equality of the sexes was soon restored there, as in Cuba it never has been; it is contra- dicted by the history of Cuba itself, wherever we keep within the domain of authentic facts; and it is contradicted to the eye of every visiter to the island. The negro from Africa, unmistakably marked, is seen everywhere, not only upon the plantations, but upon the quays of the seaports, and in such numbers and proportions as to show everybody that slavery exists only by the slave trade.* It is a matter of notorietv, that the Cubans have resisted the propo- * "Africans, the living witnesses of the present existence of the 1 slave trade, are seen everywhere ; at every step you meet blacks, ' whose cheeks are scarred with parallel slashes with which they < were marked in the African market, and who cannot even speak ; the mutilated Spanish current in the mouths of the Cuba negroes. ' One day, I stood upon the quay at Matanzas, and saw the slaves 1 unloading the large lighters. ' Some of these are Africans,' I said « to a gentleman, who resided on the island. ' They are all Afri- « cans,' he answered ; ' Africans to a man ; the negro born in Cuba « is of a lighter make.' "—Bryant's Letters, 1849. 271 sition to liberate the negroes brought in since 1820 in violation of the treaty of Great Britain, on the ground that this would call for the liberation of nearly the entire mass of the negroes. The nativi- ties of the negroes of Cuba have never been report- ed, but what the proportion of the African-born must be, may be inferred from the fact that even in Porto Rico, where the slave trade scarcely exists, the census of 1835 returns 15,728 out of 34,336, or nearly one-half, as natives of Africa. - Slavery in Cuba has to contend, not only with mortality, but with emancipation, which is made easy by the Spanish laws of the Indies, and occurs constantly and frequently. It would speedily suc- cumb to this double drain, if the slave trade was cut off. All reliable observers agree in this. In his letters from Cuba, in 1849, "W. C. Bryant, whose statements are guarantied by the highest intelligence and character, observes : "The laws of Cuba permit any slave to purchase < his freedom on paying a price fixed by three per- < sons, one appointed by his master, and two by a 6 magistrate. "It is manifest, that if the slave trade could be < checked, and these laws remain unaltered, the < negroes would gradually emancipate themselves; < all at least who would be worth keeping as ser- < vants. The mulattoes emancipate themselves as a < matter of course, and some of them become rich 6 by the occupations they follow. The prejudice of * color is by no means so strong here as in the < United States. " Of course, if Cuba were to be annexed to the < United States, the slave trade with Africa would < cease to be carried on. The planters, however, 'would doubtless adopt regulations insuring the 272 < perpetuity of slavery ; they would unquestionably, ' as soon as they were allowed to frame ordinances 6 for the island," take away the facilities which the < present laws give the slave for effecting his own ' emancipation." The efforts to mislead the people of this country as to the actual classification and probable tenden- cies of the population of Cuba, are unwearied and systematic. We find, for example, in the document signed in 1854, by, among others, the present Presi- dent of the United States, familiarly known as the "Ostend Manifesto," the following paragraphs: "Does Cuba, in the possession of Spain, seriously < endanger our internal peace and the existence of 'our cherished Union ? Should this question be 1 answered in the affirmative, then by every law, ' human and divine, we shall be justified in wrest- ' ing it from Spain. "We should be recreant to duty, be unworthy of i our gallant forefathers, and commit base treason < against our posterity, should we permit Cuba to < be Africanized, and become a second St. Domingo." That an island, in which the white race has been gaining upon the black race for a long time steadily, and of late rapidly, is in no danger of being African- ized ; that an island, in which the white race actually outnumbers the black race, and of whose population slaves constitute only one-third, is in no danger of becoming a second St. Domingo; will be plain enough to those who are permitted to see what the truth is. No illustrations drawn from Jamaica, or from St. Domingo, with few whites in either, are applicable to Cuba. It is not to prevent its African- ization, but in order to Africanize it, and for no other purpose whatever, that its acquisition is de- 273 sired by the authors of the Ostend Manifesto, and those whose interests they represent. It is precisely because Cuba is now in danger of being un- African- ized, that it is sought to be placed under the control of a Republic in which slavery is the dominant polit- ical power. If it is really desired to prevent the Africanization of Cuba, the method is simple. Let Africans be kept out of it, and, if it is acquired by this country, let it be upon the fundamental condition that no negro shall be carried into it, either from Africa or from this country. The offer of a propo- sition like that, would effectually test the sincerity of those who affect to apprehend the Africanization of Cuba. There can be no question of the fact that slavery will die out in Cuba under the government of Spain, if only the African slave trade can be put an end to ; and it is not possible that that trade, terminated everywhere else, can be long maintained in that island. To put an end to this trade more speedily, is one of the reasons given for the acquisition of Cuba by the United States. It is very remarkable, that of those who give this reason, a large proportion openly advocate the revival of the African slave trade by the United States, or propose to populate Mexico and Central America by means of it. There is no single person in this country, who publicly defends the African slave trade, or secretly favors it, who does not demand the acquisition of Cuba. This would certainly be remarkable, if the repression of the slave trade in Cuba was anything but a pretext, as in truth it is not. 274 This pretext would have some color, if those who present it would consent that the trade in slaves from this country to Cuha should be prohibited after its acquisition. It is insulting the common intelligence of mankind to pretend that anything is gained by cutting off this traffic with Africa, merely to open it with the United States. Not only is nothing gained, but much is lost, in every respect. To transfer the savage negro from Dahomey to Cuba is far less wicked and cruel, than to make the same transfer of the Christian negro from Virginia. And the consequences are less injurious, it being clearly established by reason and experience, that every new outlet opened for the slaves of Virginia, only confirms slavery, and increases the number of slaves, in that State. Let us look, now, into the classification of the agricultural pursuits of Cuba. According to the agricultural returns of 1830, as given in McGregor's Commercial Statistics, the lands appropriated by individuals were divided and valued as follows, the caballeria being about thirty- two acres: " 32,857 caballerias, in grazing grounds, for large and for smaller cattle, and attached to Hatos and Cerrales, at 100 dollars $3,285,700 "10,752 in grazing grounds, attached to estates, with enclosures, at 1,000 dollars ---------- 10,752,000 " 15,300 in sugar estates, at 1,500 dollars 22,950,000 "9,200 in coffee estates, at 1,500 dollars 13,800,000 " 20,732 in smaller cultivation, provis- ions, &c, at 2,000 dollars - - - - 41,464,000 " 2,778 in tobacco, at 700 dollars - - 1,944,600" 275 The returns of 1846 are given by Mr. Thrasher as follows : "Number of sugar plantations, 1,442. Coffee * plantations, 1,670. Potreros, 8,691. Haciendas, < 1,239. Tobacco plantations, 9,102. To these, we i may add the following number of farms, called ' Sitios de labor: In the Western Department, 12,286 ; 6 Central, 6,678; Eastern, 6,328." These Haciendas, and Potreros are cattle farms. The first are described by Humboldt, as being often two or three leagues in diameter, not fenced, and pastured by half-wild cattle. Two or three horse- men suffice to take care of them. The second are described by the same authority, as smaller, fenced, and generally with some land planted in maize and plantain. Upon the Potreros, cattle are fattened, and sheep, swine, and goats, are reared. The " farms called Sitios de labor" in the statement of Mr. Thrasher, correspond to the area "in smaller cultivation" in the statement of McGregor. The "Potreros" of Mr. Thrasher are the "grazing grounds attached to estates, with enclosures" of McGregor. The proportions of classes of population, at the time he wrote, are stated by Humboldt, in the dis- tricts containing the large plantations of sugar and coffee, to have ranged from thirty to thirty-six per cent, of whites, from three to six per cent, of free blacks, and from fifty-eight to sixty-seven per cent, of slaves. In the districts of the Vuelta de Abajo, where tobacco is grown, the whites were sixty-two per cent., the free blacks twenty-four per cent., and the slaves fourteen per cent. In the grazing districts, the whites were sixty-six per cent., the free blacks twenty per cent., and the slaves fourteen per cent. 276 Since that date, 1825, important changes have occurred. The whites have doubled, while the slaves have increased about one-seventh. This in- crease of the whites has been mainly in the country, and this circumstance is important both for the present and the future. Among other things, it encourages the hope that the rate of increase of the white population will be kept up. A rural popula- tion gains faster than an urban population ; and this is specially true of Cuba, where the coast towns are least salubrious. This white country population of Cuba is well spoken of in important particulars. " You can have ' no idea," says Mr. Kimball, "of the bold, independent 1 manner peculiar to the country people of Cuba" William C. Bryant says of them in his letters, that "they are men of manly Inuring, of thin make, but often of a good figure, with well-spread shoulders." Ballou, in his History of Cuba, published in 1854, speaks of them as "a manly race of yeomanry," and gives the following account of their position and charac- teristics : "The Monteros, or 3'eomanry of Cuba, inhabit * the less-cultivated portions of the soil, venturing < into the cities only to sell their surplus produce, ' acting as market-men for the cities in the immedi- ' ate neighborhood of their houses. The Moritero < is rarely a slave-owner himself, but frequently is ' engaged on the plantations during the busy season 4 as an extra overseer. He is generally a hard task- < master to the slave, having an intuitive hatred for 1 the blacks. "The Monteros form an exceedingly important < and interesting class of the population of the ' island. They marry very young — the girls from 277 * thirteen to fifteen, the young men from sixteen to ' twenty, and almost universally rearing large families. i Their increase during the last twenty years has been 4 great, and they seem to be fast approaching to a c degree of importance that will make them, like ' the American farmers, the bone and sinew of the ' land. The great and glaring misfortune of their ' present situation is, the want of intelligence and 6 cultivation ; books they have none, nor, of course, ' schools. It is said that, of late, efforts are being * made among them, to a considerable extent, to ' afford their children opportunity for instruction. * Physically speaking, they are a fine yeomanry, ' and, if they could be rendered intelligent, would 6 in time become what nature seems to have de- ' signed them for — the real masters of the country. "There is one fact highly creditable to the Mon- ' tcros, and that is their temperate habits, as it re- ' gards indulgence in stimulating drinks. As a 1 beverage, they do not use ardent spirits, and seem ' to have no taste for the article. I doubt if any ' visiter ever saw one of this class in the least intox- \ icated. This being the fact, they are a very relia- 4 ble people, and can be counted upon in an emer- ' gency." In the "Notes of a Physician" it is said that "the ' Montero eyes with jealousy the wide domains of the ' slave-owner, aside of which his primitive hut sinks into < insignificance" which corresponds with the follow- ing account, reported by Mr. Bryant on the author- ity of a European long resident in the island : "The people of Cuba will not make any effort to ' emancipate themselves by taking up arms. The < struggle with the power of Spain would be bloody 1 and uncertain, even if the white population were < united; but the mutual distrust with which the planters 6 and the peasantry regard each other, would make the * issue of such an enterprise still more doubtful." 278 It is apparent from the disproportionate increase of the different classes of population in Cuba, and from the distribution of agricultural industry, that its tendency is to freedom, and to a great prepon- derance of the white race. Cuba is, in fact, follow- ing the course of Porto Rico, although at some in- terval behind. The case of Porto Rico deserves notice in this connection, because it illustrates the same facts which are operating upon the destiny of Cuba; the adaptation of the West India climate to a white population ; the capacity of such a population there to multiply more rapidly than the blacks in any condition, free or slave; and the tendency of slavery to extinction, under the combined operation of the Spanish laws of emancipation, and of tropical habits of slave management. The case of Porto Rico pre- sents another fact which does not yet appear in the history of Cuba, but is destined to do so ; the suc- cessful application of white labor to the cultivation of sugar. The population of Porto Rico at several periods, (that for 1835 being taken from Turnbull's Cuba,) was as follows : 1802. 1812. 1820. 1835. "Whites - - 78,281 85,662 102,432 180,783 Free mulattoes 55,164 63,983 86,269 85,555 Free blacks - 16,414 15,833 20,191 18,489 Slaves - - 13,333 17,536 21,730 34,336 Total - - - 163,192 183,014 230,622 319,161 The classifications by age, in the census of 1835, prove that the Porto Ricans are both prolific and 279 long-lived, and that Europeans will thrive, not only in a West India climate, but under the labors of the cane-field. In fact, that particular species of labor is avoided by the whites elsewhere in the "West Indies, not because it is severer than the industries which they actually prosecute, but because it is associated with the degradation of slavery. In Porto Rico, that sort of prejudice against it does not exist. Porto Pico has received many slaves, sent thither from the English and French islands by their mas- ters, to avoid their emancipation, and a few from Africa. "Without those external sources of supply, slavery would have become extinct long since. The commerce of Porto Rico is flourishing, being, in 1851, as follows : Imports $6,073,870 Exports 5,761,975 Duties - 1,069,418 Porto Rico is in the latitude of Jamaica, being between eighteen and nineteen degrees north; whereas Cuba is between twenty and twenty-three degrees north. The population in 1846 is stated in Cotton's Atlas to have amounted to 447,914. The case of Porto Rico is a case in point, not only for those who advocate free labor, but for those who advocate white labor, in the warm latitudes. It affords an argument, not only against negro slave labor, but against that other scheme of introducing (so called) free negroes from Africa. The whole theory of bringing in inferior races, negroes or coolies, is fallacious. The advantage is temporary, 280 at best.* Of the coolies, the practice is to take males only, and perhaps that alone is practicable. As to the free negro, experience shows that he will not multiply in the presence of the white man, even where a due proportion of the sexes is established. While they are neither of them self-perpetuating, they both keep out the white race. According to authorities listened to by consider- able portions of the American people, morals and political rights are to be subordinated to tempera- ture, the question of slavery is to be settled by the thermometer, and hereafter, instead of consulting Archdeacon Paley and Adam Smith, we are to look only to Fahrenheit and Reaumur. In " Cuba and the Cubans" of Mr. Kimball, it is stated that "the hottest months do not average more than ' eighty-four to eighty-five degrees, and the coolest present 1 a mean temperature of about seventy degrees. Ice some- ' times forms at night, after a long continuance of the \ northers, but snow never falls." Mr. Kimball gives the following table of the results of long-continued observation : Beg. "Mean temperature at Havana and northern part of the island, near the sea - - - - 77.00 " At Havana, the warmest month - - - - 82.00 " At Havana, the coldest month - - - -70.00 "In the interior for the year, where the land rises from 600 to 1,050 feet above the sea 74.00 "In the coldest month 62.30 "For the year at Santiago de Cuba - - - 80.30 "For the warmest month - 84.00 "For the coldest month 64.00 "At Havana, it is cold when at 70.00 " The coldest day at Havana has been - -60.30 281 "The warmest day at Havana has been - - 92.00 "In the interior, the thermometer many times has sunk to 53.00 "And even to - 50.00" Humboldt, as the results of his observation, fixes the mean temperature of Havana and of the coast at seventy-eight degrees, and of the interior at seventy-three degrees. He adds, that, upon the coasts, in ordinary years, "the thermometer never rises i in August above eighty-six degrees, and I have known 6 the inhabitants complain of excessive heat when it rose < to eighty-eight degrees. ,r This is a warm climate, but not marked by excess- ive heats. The mean temperature is that of Lower Egypt, which is perfectly adapted to European con- stitutions. Of the general salubrity of Cuba, the evidence is decisive. In the " Notes of a Physician" the following state- ments are made : "In connection with the climate, it may be well ' to make a few remarks on the salubrity of the ' island. In all the maritime towns, yellow fever < prevails from June until November, often com- < mencing in May. Sporadic cases occur all the 6 year round in Havana, especially during long spells 1 of wet and warm weather in the winter. The inte- 4 rior of the island is as healthy as France, fevers pre- ' vailing only along the water-courses and swamps, ' and those chiefly intermittent. The red lands are 4 the most healthy, sickness being there produced ' only by the greatest exposure. "To invalids, suffering from affections exacerbated < by the cold of winter, especially to those laboring < under any of the forms of pulmonary disease, Cuba 6 offers a clime far superior to any that the continent ' of Europe possesses, not excepting even that of 12* 282 ' Italy. There is a blandness in its trade winds that * is nowhere else felt." Ballon says: "It is doubtful if Havana, even in the fever < season, is as unhealthy as New Orleans during the < same period of the year/' Mr. Kimball says : "With respect to the salubriousness of the coun- * try, it is usually remarkable, and particularly so ' in the interior of the island. It is certain, that in ' the largest towns situated near the coasts, during ' the intense heats of the summer season, it is usual * for the yellow fever to make its appearance; but 1 besides this not being, as it formerly was, a mortal 1 disease, its attacks are almost surely avoided by ' observing a good hygienic regimen." In Colton's Atlas, the following observations are made upon the West India climate generally: "Even in the warm season, the influence of the < surrounding ocean, the periodically-recurring sea- < breezes, and the height of land in the interior of < the islands, tend to modify the climatic intensity ' peculiar to their geographical position. In the 1 interior of the large islands, in which elevation is ' most marked, a mild and delightful climate is < enjoyed throughout the year. The low lands, < however, in all these islands, are exceedingly < unhealthy, and endemic influences render them < peculiarly hostile to the European constitution." And of Cuba, in particular, it is observed: "The island is intersected longitudinally by a < range of mountains diminishing in height from < east to west. At the east end, where they are < diffused over nearly the entire surface, they attain < their greatest elevation, about 8,000 feet. From 1 the bases of these high lands, the country opens < into extensive meadows, or beautiful plains and 283 1 savannas, with occasionally some low, swampy ' tracts. The climate is hot and moist near the ' coast, but in the interior cool and healthy." In this island, with limited exceptions so admi- rably healthy, the white race does at this moment actually constitute the majority, notwithstanding the vast importations of Africans ; and, so far as a long experience goes, the white race is the only one which is capable of multiplying itself, or even of perpetuating itself. Among the Cubans themselves, there was never any doubt of the adaptation of white labor to all their pursuits; and they have continually demanded white immigration. The planters' meeting at Matanzas, in 1843, demanded this, and so did a similar meeting, convened there in 1837, by Captain General Tacon. These are authentic and reliable expressions of Cuban opinion. The most severe labor in Cuba, that of felling timber, is performed exclusively by whites. The blacksmiths and carpenters are whites. White labor is exclusive, or predominant, in everything but the sugar culture. Free labor has been prejudiced against that culture, from associating it with slavery ; and the methods always and still practiced confine it to great capitalists, who alone can maintain the costly machinery and apparatus by which cane is converted into sugar. So soon as arrangements are made, by which small cultivators of cane can sell it at sugar mills, or have it converted into sugar upon equitable terms, the difficulty is at an end, and cane may be raised by independent freeholders, instead of by gangs of slaves. A similar change was par- tially introduced, years ago, in the coffee production 284 in Cuba, which requires expensive mills to prepare the rough berry for the uses of commerce. This change in the sugar production has been already introduced elsewhere to some extent, and during this year associations in Cuba have proposed it to the authorities of that island. It is feasible in itself, and, whenever made, will be one of the most signal blessings ever conferred upon mankind, by substi- tuting- for a method of cultivation which has been the scourge and scandal of the race, one which is consistent with morals and with happiness. If there is any relation of fitness between the re- sources and beauty of a country and the men who should inhabit it, Cuba belongs of right to the noblest races and the highest civilization. (See Appendix C.) It is here that nature has lavished her richest gifts. If any terrestrial paradise remains to fallen man, it is this island, whose pastures are decked in unfading green; whose forests are clothed with an eternal verdure; all whose seasons bloom with flowers; where succeeds forever to the lustrous night the fragrant morning; where the enjoyment of merely animal life is a conscious and exquisite pleasure; which unites the productions of the trop- ics and of the temperate zone; whose teeming soil bears cotton, indigo, coffee, sugar, and rice, at the same time with wheat and corn, while flocks and herds multiply upon its wide-spreading savannas; whose forests abound with every wood needed for the uses or tastes of man, the oak, the cedar, the pine, mahogany, brazil-wood, and the palm; whose luscious fruits defy enumeration ; whose coasts and rivers teem with the most delicious fish, while all 285 its groves are filled with birds ; and whose mineral riches, of coal, of copper, of sulphur, of gold, and of silver, vie with the profusion of its vegetable life. It is not wonderful that poets become extravagant, and the most prosaic of men poetical, when the theme is this elysium of the Western World. Even Humboldt, who had seen equatorial vegetation on the banks of the Orinoco, revived the animation of youth after the lapse of a generation, in describing the royal palms which adorn the vicinity of Havana and Kegla, the whole land bursting into flowers in early summer, and the "beauty of cultivated nature in ' temperate climates, united with that majesty of the vcge- < table kingdom and that organic vigor which character- 1 ize the torrid zone." Of the tropical and semi-tropical regions of the globe, it is true of a large portion, that repelling circumstances exist, not only in malaria, but in fero- cious beasts and deadly reptiles, or in those frightful convulsions of nature, the volcano, the earthquake, and the tornado, so fatal to the life and industry of man, and, to Northern imaginations, even more ter- rifying than fatal. From all these, Cuba, by a rare fortune, seems to enjoy a happy exemption. No earthquake has merited description since 1678. The hurricane is less frequent and less violent than in any of the West India Islands. No dangerous beast, and no single fatal reptile, is found upon it. Even the native bee is without a sting. It is ordinarily computed that Cuba may support a population often millions. It would contain two- thirds of that number with the density of population attained in Porto Rico: four times that number 286 with the density attained in Barbados. The esti- mates of its area vary from the equivalent of Ire- land, to nearly the equivalent of England and Wales. Our ideas on this continent and in this country are accustomed to spaces so vast, that we realize with difficulty the magnitude of the popula- tions which may be maintained upon small spaces, either by advanced civilization, or by the profusion of nature in the lower latitudes. The future may witness both in combination in this island, and human development will then have culminated. Is it possible, then, that Cuba is to be transferred from the dominion of a monarchy to the embrace of a republic, for the avowed object of perpetuating within it a system of slavery which now totters to its fall? And if such a crime against the rights and hopes of mankind is meditated, will its consumma- tion be permitted ? If Cuba is annexed to the United States for no better purpose than to be degraded into a market for American slave-breeders, will either the w T ish or the power be wanting, in the moral sentiments and in the numbers of the civil- ized world, to baffle and defeat them? Of this America, discovered by the genius and enterprise of white men, is there to be no part where the sun shines and flowers bloom, which they shall be per- mitted to occupy ? Is this nightmare of the negro race to brood over us always and everywhere ? Are we, by no possibility, to escape the interminable progeny of Virginia? Are they to follow us, as rats do, even when we cross the seas ? The men in the United States who are looking to the Queen of the Antilles for the employment of 287 their slaves, however they may control the Govern- ment, cannot control the people of this country; and prudence dictates that they should seasonably con- sider whether they may not be defeated in Cuba as they have been in Kansas. The free States, who will pay the purchase-money of the island, may perhaps appropriate it, where it rightfully belongs, to their own use. The slave trade from the United States to Cuba is to-day free of all practical obsta- cles, our own laws prohibiting only the importation, not the exportation, of slaves; yet none are trans- ported thither, for the plain and sufficient reason, that they are worth less there than here. If the prices of slaves remain relatively as the} 7 now are in Cuba and the United States, the effect of their political connection would be to transfer slaves, not from the United States to Cuba, but from Cuba to the United States ; an operation precisely the reverse of that contemplated by the interests which dictated tlie Ostend Manifesto. The rise of slave prices in Quba beyond the standard in the United States, as the result of its incorporation into the Union, is, at best, an anticipation, and it is a most improbable one. If a new spring is expected to be given to industry in Cuba by the removal of Spanish restric- tions, the same change will open it to unfettered immigration from the Northern States and from the other side of the Atlantic. European laborers have driven the negro from the levees of New Orleans; why will they not drive him from the quays of Havana? Of the greater part of the soil of Cuba, the white race is actually in possession, and with a preponderance of numbers which is daily increasing. 288 Can it be expelled? Will not the sturdy Monteros receive reinforcements, larger and more rapidly than the rival African ? The people of the free States will not stultify themselves, by moving upon the worn-out lands of Virginia, while the Virginia owners of slaves take possession of new lands in Cuba, or elsewhere, to be worn out in their turn. The people of the free States will choose rather to occupy, themselves, the fresh and virgin soils, in Cuba, or wherever found, and thus leave slavery to die out in the midst of the sterility and desolation it has caused. It has been an easy thing for American diplomat- ists, without the knowledge of the country and with- out authority from it, to offer one hundred millions for Cuba, and even more enormous sums ; but not a dollar can be paid, until the whole matter has undergone the most searching discussion in Con- gress and before the people, until all the arrange- ments, which will tend to fix the future condition of the island, are subjected to a prying criticism, and until all its resources and advantages are made familiar objects of popular knowledge. And what else can be the result of that knowledge, but such a white emigration to Cuba as will overwhelm the negro race? If the security of one crop of corn against the frosts of autumn has carried the people of New England to Kansas, will not the three crops, which may be raised in a year, carry still greater numbers to Cuba? If it can be supposed to be pos- sible to carry a Northern population into exhausted Eastern Virginia, will it not move irresistibly to appropriate the virgin resources of Cuba ? 289 No Missouri river lies between us and that island, but a broad ocean, which cannot be blockaded, and which we are accustomed to navigate. The same ocean surrounds it, and no borderers can seize upon its government, or dictate its laws. The acquisition of Cuba cannot be consummated without a distinct development of the purposes which will dictate it. To vote down a proposition to ex- clude the further admission of slaves into it from any quarter, will be to declare that the island is in- tended for the owners of slaves, and not for the free laborers of this country, their joint occupation of it being impossible. Will the free laborers submit to an exclusion? "Will the free States, on whom will fall the burden of the purchase, submit to an exclu- sion ? If they are assessed one hundred millions of dollars for this acquisition, will not the precise pres- sure of that assessment upon each State, county, town, and individual, be computed ? Will no pas- sions be inflamed, when it is seen that such an assessment is imposed for the purpose of enriching the owners of negroes? Is it imagined that the free States, already exasperated, chafed, and sore, will submit with patience to this new infliction ? Fresh from a contest in Kansas, the issue of which has demonstrated the power of their overwhelming numbers, will they not be impelled by every motive, by pride, by passion, by duty, by interest, and by hope, to vindicate and enforce their right to Cuba? The obstacles in the way of removing slavery by a free immigration, are far less in Cuba than in any of the Southern States, having the same proportion of slaves. 13 290 In Cuba, there ia none of that peculiar fanaticism on the subject of slavery, which pervades all classes in the Southern portion of this Union, and renders them apparently insensible to their most obvious interests. With the planters of Cuba, the question of slavery is a question of labor, and not of politics. They em- ploy slaves, only because, and only so far as, it is profitable to do so, and would be prompt to substi- tute any species of labor which promised greater advantages. There is no slave-breeding interest in Cuba. There is no interest there, which wishes to keep labor scarce and high, in order to profit by selling slaves. The planters of Cuba make their fortunes by selling sugar, not by selling slaves, and they would co-operate in a policy which increased the income of their agriculture, even if it diminished the nominal value of so much of their capital as is invested in the ownership of labor. The planters of Cuba have, at all times, favored free wmite immi- gration, and would welcome it from any quarter. The feasibility of substituting free labor for slave labor, where slave labor is now used, and the best methods of obtaining free labor, are discussed con- stantly by the press in Cuba, and in the public associations which represent and watch over its in- dustrial interests. There is no such negro-mania in Cuba as there is in this country. A negro slave is looked at from a common-sense point of view, as a means to an end. It is the production of crops, and not the system of labor by which it is effected, which is the dominant consideration with the planters of Cuba; and any change in their system 291 of labor, which promised greater efficiency and economy in production, would be readily embraced by them. With our own planters, it is altogether different. In politics, it is their negroes, and not their crops, which occupy their exclusive attention. The planters of Mississippi and Alabama seemed, a few years since, to be ready to destroy the Union, because slaves could not be carried into the mines of California; the object of carrying them there being such a calculated rise in their value, as would have put an end to cotton-raising in the United States. It will consume the period of a generation, if it is possible at all, to infect the planters of Cuba with a frenzy like this. The non-slaveholding whites in Cuba are equally unlike the same classes in the Southern States. Instead of attachment to a system, in the profits of which they do not participate, while it excludes them from employment and degrades them in social consideration, they view slavery with a jealousy and hatred which they do not affect to conceal. With anything like universal suffrage, the yeomanry of Cuba would vote the planters down. The author of the Notes of a Physician upon Cuba, a native of South Carolina, and with the peculiar social ideas of that State, declares that these non-slaveholding whites are more dangerous than the slaves, and that they must not be trusted with political power. They do undoubtedly constitute a political element of the first consequence; and when events make it .necessary to do so, the people of this country will inform themselves in reference to it with critical exactness. 292 National ideas and habits are not changed in a day, and it must take a long time to innoculate the Cubans with the prevailing notions of this country in respect to negroes. They have, now, little or none of that peculiar prejudice, which we denomi- nate the prejudice of color, and they are accustomed to the constant emancipation of slaves, by the vol- untary act of their masters, and under the regular operation of the laws. It will take a considerable term of training, under the republican institutions of America, to teach them that personal liberty is a misfortune, and that the rights of human nature are only glittering generalities. In habits and social ideas, the points of dissimilar- ity and repugnance between the Northern Stales and Cuba, are far less numerous and less irreconcilable, than between the Northern and Southern States; and in all social and political respects, emigrants from the free States would be better off in Cuba, than in any Southern State in which slavery is pre- dominant. They would encounter in Cuba none of that suspicion and hatred, which they are never able to escape at the South, except by making themselves objects of contempt. In such a State as Virginia, until free emigration sets in upon it with a volume large enough to enforce respect, Northern men must become supporters of slavery, or remain politically and socially proscribed. The newspapers and the demagogues are incessant in their vituperation of everything Northern, and it is to be presumed that the newspapers and the demagogues understand -what the predominant popular impulses about them are. Instead of this atmosphere of contumely and 293 ostracism, so repulsive to men of just pride, emi- grants from the free States would be received in Cuba, in the event of its incorporation into this Union, on a footing of friendship, and would occupy without prejudice whatever position their capacity and vigor entitled them to claim. The emigration to Cuba from the United States, whatever it might prove to be in the event of the acquisition of that island, greater or less, would, at any rate, proceed almost exclusively from the free States. The whites, who emigrate from the slave States, must go to new and unoccupied regions. The bulk of them do not possess the arts, or skill, or habits of industry, which would enable them to get a foothold in Cuba, where the density of popu- lation already equals that of the old slave States. It is in the free States only that the men are- to be found, to whom Cuba affords a field for successful industry and enterprise. It is because the destiny of the system of slavery in the United States depends so entirely upon the possibility of giving it an expansion beyond the limits of the United States, that it has been consid- ered pertinent to discuss the probabilities of its ex- tension to the island of Cuba. It is in that direction that its extension is really most feasible, and it is there that resistance, if resistance is practicable, should be most vigilant. Nor can Cuba be regarded as foreign to the United States, if, as is the opinion of many, its incorporation into our Republic is a predestined event, and especially when the actual administration of this country was brought into power with an express view to its acquisition. - - r been distinguished by the of i of the 1 ■ " _ - "; by _ but in the opii. kind. This other Hi nal lin- . :; ?an labor: and if the time rr field can be found for the rue that men of the • labor in that islar. quarrel with it, legii - I from it E -ing and ol rion which ;. an APPENDIX A. page THE REASONS ASSIGNED FOB ANNEXING 7ZXAS. The elaborate and vigorous letter of Bos writ- sop] art :f the ::s of that - - attered ;~:r the whole : i in the hands of c" '.-.:. D exercised a most manifest and decisive influence fortarnes of the poG contest then brought to an ; pointment -. "talker to a commandirc & of hiss Thif letteac of Mr. Walker, being thus • hat manner he presented : upon the tra - -Bv the re-annexation of Texts y ear from Dela- te ten years, and Maryland in *. ' diminished in \ .::& Kentucky. It is ..need in Texas, it would recede from the States border! \ 'the free States ::" the North I thus "1 be from actual coot from all influx fron: those States : ■ augmenting fr N - -- • ro-aanexation, as the number ;:' 3 _mented in i - ling & ad Central I S ithern fen nine- 200 ( tenths of their present population are already of the colored races, ' and where, from their vast preponderance in number, they are not 1 a degraded caste, but apon a footing, uol merelj of legal, but, what ' is far more important, of actual equality, with I the popu- 1 lation. Here, then, if Texas is re-annexed, throughout the vast 4 region and salubrious and delicious climate of Mexico, and of Cen- ' tral and Southern America, a large and rapidly-increasing portion ' of the African race will disappear from the limits of the Union. ' There, is a congenial climate for the African race. There, cold and 1 want and hunger will not drive the African, as we see it does in the 1 North, into the poor-house and the jail, and the asylums of the ' idiot and insane. There, the boundless and almost unpeopled ' territory of Mexico, and of Central and Southern America, with its ( delicious climate, and most prolific soil, renders most eagy the 'means of subsistence ; and there, they would not be a degraded ' caste, but equals among equals, not only by law, but by feeling and ' association. Beyond the Del Norte, Blavery will not pass, nol only ' because it is forbidden by law, but because the colored race there 1 preponderate in the ratio of ten to one over the whites ; and hold- ' ing, as they do, the Government and most of the offices in their ' possession, they will never permit the enslavement of any portion ' of the colored race, which makes and executes the laws of the ' country." Every advocate of annexation, from the North and the South, in the Congress by which the measure was consummated, who discussed it in its relation to slavery, urged news identical with those of Mr. Walker, as the published debates attest. The annexed extracts may be read as specimens of the whole. In Senate, June 8, 1854, (App. Cong. Globe, 1st Session, 28th Congress, page 720,) the treaty annexing Texas being under debate, Hon. James BUCHANAN, of Pennsylvania, said: "May not, then, the ' acquisition of Texas be the means of drawing the slaves FAR TO ' THE SOUTH, to a climate more congenial to their nature; and ' may they not finally pass off into Mexico, and there mingle with ' a race where no prejudice exists against their color? That the ' acquisition of Texas would ere long convert Maryland. Virginia, ' Kentucky, Missouri, and probably others of the more northern slave « States, into free States, I ENTERTAIN NOT A DOUBT. From the ' very best information, it is no longer profitable to raise wheat, rye, ' and corn, by slave labor. The slave will naturally be removed from : such a country, where his labor is scarcely adequate to his support, : 297 4 to a region -where he can not only maintain himself, hut yield a ' large profit to his master. Texas will open such an outlet ; and ' slavery itself may thus FINALLY PASS THJ1 DEL NORTE, AND ' BE LOST IN MEXICO." In Senate, June 3, 1854, (App. Cong. Globe, 1st Session, 28th Con- gress, page 537,) Mr. Breese, of Illinois, advocating the annexation of Texas, said : " Others object, sir, that its acquisition Avould encour- 4 age the extension of slavery, and promote its increase. I think the 4 contrary. I believe it would be the means of relieving many of the ' old slave States, and some of the new ones, of this system. Through 4 that avenue, in the course of God's Providence, and by the noise- 4 less and increasing operation of such causes as He has set in 4 motion, the whole black race will, at His own appointed time, find 4 a refuge among a kindred population, inhabiting the southern por- 4 tion of this continent, where they may realize such liberty as they 4 may be capable of appreciating. Slavery will not be increased by 4 this measure, but powerful means will be put in operation by it, • tending to its total extinction in the progress of time. 7 ' In the House, January 25, 1845, (App. Cong. Globe, 2d Session, 28th Congress, page 154,) Mr. Norris, of New Hampshire, said : " The cot- 4 ton, sugar, and rice lands along the Gulf of Mexico, embrace almost 4 the whole extent upon which such labor (slave) can be profitably 4 employed. The march of the institution has been gradually south- 4 ward. The present condition of the northern slave States affords 4 proof of this, which cannot be mistaken. Even Missouri, where 4 slavery has had a mushroom growth, is already stooping under a 4 burden so onerous to her ultimate prosperity, and must, ere long, cast 4 it from her shoulders. What effect will annexation produce upon this 4 institution in Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, 4 and even Tennessee ? It will remove the institution further south, 4 and to a climate more congenial to the negro race. It transfers 4 them to a region where an assimilation of complexion and habits, 4 brought about by the operation of a tropical climate, wiping out 4 the odious distinction of color, is calculated finally to blend tho 4 races, and EXTINGUISH THE INSTITUTION." In Senate, February 22, 1845, (App. Cong. Globe, 2d Session, 28th Congress, page 321,) Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, of New York, said: "The admission of Texas to the Union would doubtless increase 4 the number of slaves there, but would take them from the northerly 4 slave States, until it would virtually abolish itself iD those States, 4 as it had already done in Delaware ; and the slave would find a 298 1 climate more congenial to his nature in a more southern latitude. ' And should he ever regain his freedom, he would see, upon his 1 southern border, a*Hark race of men, who would hail him as a 1 brother, and extend to him the hand of social and political equality, 1 which would never be done here.'' In Senate, February 22, 1845, (App. Cong. Globe, 2d Session, 28th Congress, page 283,) Mr. Ashley, of Arkansas, said: "It (the annex- 1 ation of Texas) opened an outlet for the colored population ; it 1 suffered them gradually to transfer themselves into a region STILL ' FURTHER SOUTH, where their color is not attended with the same ' degrading associations. Here was an opening by which the South < might eventually GET RID OF AX INTOLERABLE BURDEN." In the House. May 7, 1844, (App. Cong. Globe, 1st Session, 28th Con- gress, page 444.) Mr. Tibbetts, of Kentucky, said : u It (the annexa- 1 tion of Texas) will be favorable to the gradual, peaceful, and con- 1 stitutional, abolition of slavery on this continent. They (the slaves) 1 will gradually RECEDE PROM THE NORTH, which is uncongenial 1 to their natures. They will be pushed and crowded on by the tide ' of emigration of the white races of Europe, now flooding this coun- ! try in search of liberty, and seeking freedom from the oppressions 1 of the old "World. They will flow peacefully in an increasing stream 1 along the Mississippi, the great father of waters, and through this ' very land of Texas, until they end their pilgrimage on the shores ' of the Gulf, and in a climate congenial to their nature, and become ' blended with the mixed population of Mexico." "We have here, in various forms of expressions, two opinion: 1. That it was both desirable and practicable to remove slavery from the tier of farming slave States, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and perhaps Tennessee. 2. That while slavery could not pass the Rio Grande, the negro race might and would pass it, and recover both a legal and social equality among the colored races of Mexico and Central America. This discussion was in 1844-'5. Ten years afterwards, the same men were found endeavoring to plant slavery in Kansas, in the lati- tude of Missouri, and for the avowed purpose of propping up slavery in Missouri and in the tier of farming slave States ; and at this moment, no citizen of Missouri can advocate the removal of slavery from that State without being denounced by them as an enemy of the country. These same men are also engaged in attempts, not to realize the benevolent scheme of conducting the negro to liberty and equality 299 among the colored races beyond the Rio Grande, but to plant slavery in Central America by force of arms, and to obtain successive por- tions of Mexico for the same purpose, by purchase and by private B, page 64. MARYLAND. On the 26th of February, 1850, the Legislature of Maryland adopted unanimously a series of resolutions, of which the following was one : "Resolved, unanimously, That the State of Maryland was, at the time « of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and is now, in feeling, 1 and in all the features of her constitution and laws, essentially, fully, 1 and unequivocally, a slaveholding State." Notwithstanding the unanimity of this protestation, Maryland is distrusted by her Southern neighbors. The following paragraph appeared this year in the Norfolk (Va.) Argus: " Maryland, by position and interest, is not entitled to be classed « among the slave States. Her politics show that her press is fast ' bringing about a fraternization between her and the free States, so « called. On each side of the Bay, her people are sound; but north « and west of Baltimore, there is but a shade of difference between < the inhabitants of Maryland and Pennsylvania. It is through Mary- ' land that most of the slaves now escape from Virginia. Her laws < on this subject are wholly ineffectual, and public opinion will not 1 tolerate one that is worth a straw." C, page 284. RESOURCES OF CUBA. The extracts annexed are from the '-Cuba and the Cubans" of Mr. Kimball : "I had intended before this to allude to the climate and atmosphere 1 of this enchanting island. The exquisite freshness of the morning, ' the soft, cool, breeze of the evening, produce a sensation to be en- < joyed only, but never to be described to those living in the forbid- 1 ding North. >y