^c« • ^-f" \%^%..^'' y^&.\ V .%^' ^.'fvC,- .?,!!. .o* "^V*^^^^*\<^ <;.•••'•*«' ^**'^^*\<^ ^ ^. •'•• v^^ ^^ N^ ^ *'^BV r.^ ^ -"^ V-^^ ^^..<^^^ .♦^"V -i-^ ^ V-O' V.%* ^i^. ••roductions of a fertile and bodnteous to labor is universal, those who could not be soil. The savage inhabitants of less fruitful | induced to hiborwith their own hands, and in lands, and under more rigorous climates, de I person, if they became slaveholders, would pend on huntisg and fishing for a preeariou.- eupport, and with irregular alternations of abundance and lavish waste, with destitution and hunger and famine. And in every civi- be ready enough to compel the labor of their slaves, and also W(Mild soon learn to economize an' conditions of society ^_uld_ labor be u,ade to produce wealth & Uus aid only could leisure be afforded to thi master class to cultivate mental improvement and rehnernent of manners; and artificial .Trm" lau ZTf- "^' i"^'"^"^'^ whic?;would •timula e the desire and produce the effect to accumulate the products of labor, whicl alone constitute private and public wedlh To t e ^eration and first results of domestic slavcn were due the gradual civilization and gene.S improvement of manners and of arte amonJ ?uLatedTo r' Y''% .<="'"'I"«'-ed and sub- ?4tene.l n'" rr^ politically) by a more en- fern h i^ -P^"' ''•'^y' subsequently emerged 'rom barbarism and dark ,■ ] ^. , ' -- — " "" ""'^ iiiStitution of domestic slavery that was erected the ad- mirable an.l benificent mastership and govern- ment of the patriarch Abraham, who owned so many domestic slaves that he could sud- denly call out and lead three hundred and eighteen of them, able to bear arms, to repel ' and punish the invasion of foreign hostile tubes. Ihe hke system of domestic slavery then, and for many ages after, subsisted ii every part of the world in which any consid- erable moral or mental progress or economical improvement was to be seen. I^Mls of ancient slavery, and its great extnisiem and abuse, and relief of ered by another kind The institution of slavery in ancient times. with :ts great benefits, had also its great evilZ an.l not only m its first establishment, hut 'm gr. sessarj numbers, and no small proportion of them were of captive barbarian and warlike ene- mies. These conditions were necessary causes of weakness of the master class, and of the general community, and helped to invite and to aid the success of the hordes of barbarian invaders that swept over the then civilized world like a deluge, and, for ages afterwards, buried Europe under dark ignorance and bar- barian rule. Still, slow-growing, yet complete, final relief, sprang from the same cause — slavery — that had produced the former civili- zation. In one or other form, whether of the general and political slavery of a people, (as • of the conquered to their conquerors,) or of • class to class, or of serflom, villenage, or .slavery to the soil, or of personal slavery, this •institution was universal during the dark and . eemi-barbarous middle ages of Europe. And in the beginning it was from the slaves made of the enlightened and refined, but effeminate ■.and cowardly former masters of the lands, that the hitter civilization first began, and was communicated to their barbarous con- .querors and their masters. Thus, and a*n- ■trary to the general order of things in this .case, the enslaved, and not the master class, was the source of improvement to the other. To this cause it was owing that the revival of ■civilization and learning in Europe occurred centuries earlier than would have been the case if the slaves, after the complete con- quests made by barbarians, had been as igno- rrant as their masters. The extinction of individual slavery the neces- sary result of an excess of free labor — The competition of free laborers, and their great- est sufferings, produce the greatest profits of capital. But in every country, when covered by a ■ dense ptpulation, and when subsistence to free laborers becomes difiicult to be obtained, the competition for emploj'ment will tend to ■ depress tlie price of labor, gradually, to the lowest rate at which a bare subsistence can be purchased. The indolence natural to man, and especially in his lowest and most degra- •ded state, can then no longer l)e indulged; because to be idle would not he to sutt'er [)ri- vation only, and to incur risks of greater suf- fering, but absolutely and speedily to starve and die of want. If domestic slavery could have contiiuied to exist so long, the slaves ■then would be in a very nmch better condi- "tion than the free laborers, because possessing assured means for support, and that for much less labor and hardship. For sharp want, hunger and cold, are more effective incentives to labor than the slaveowner's whip, even if its use is not restrained by any feeling of jus- tice or merc3% But under such conditions of free labor, domestic or individual slavei'y could not exist. For whenever want and competition shall reduce the wages of free labor below the cost of slave labor, then it will be more profitable for the slaveowner and employer to hire free labor (both cheap- ened and driven by hunger and misery) than to maintain slaves, and compel their labor less effectually and at greater expense. Under such conditions, slaves (if they could not be sold and removed to some other country, where needed) would be readily emancipated by masters to whom they had become bur- densome. Soon, under the operating influ- ence of self-interest alone on the master class^ Jwnestic slavery would come to an end of itself — give place to the far more stringent and oppressive rule of want, as a compeller of labor, and be substituted by class-slavery, or the absolute subjection of the whole class of laborers to the whole class of employers — or of labor to capital. * Then, in the progress of society, first begins to be true, and soon becomes entirely true, the haeknej'ed propo- sition that " free labor is cheaper than slave labor;" and it is only true under these cir- cumstances, when the supply of labor is regu- larly or generally greater than the demand. Then the surplus hands must be left without emploj'ment, and tlierefore without means for subsistence. They can obtain employment only by under-bidding the rate of wages then received by the laborers employed, and so be engaged by throwing as many other laborers out of work. These must, in like manner, submit to the same reduction of wages, to be enabled again to obtain employment by get- ting the places of as many others. Finally, ail are compelled to woik for the reduced wages. But, after this general reduction, still, as before, the supply of hands will exceed (and more and nioi-e Avith the increase of popula- tion) tlie demand for their labor; as many therefore as are surplus must be alwaj's out of employment, and struggling to olMain it — and by the same process, competition, lu'ged by ex- treme want, will tend still more to lower wages. Thus want and competition will continue to compel the superfluous and unemployed hands to submit to more and more reduction of wages, until the amount generally obtained is very much less than what is needed for the comfortable subsistence and healthy support of tlie laborer. And during all the time of this long continued competition and struggle for subsistence, while the rate of wages is being gradually lowered, the amount of toil of each laboier is increased — or at least as long as the human frame can bear increased exer- tion. When the greatest possible amount of labor is thus obtained for the lowest aviount of wages that can barely sustain life and strength for labor, there has been attained tlie most per- fect and profitable eondilion of industrial operations for the class of capitalists and em' 'ployers, and also for the most rap/ul increase of general and national wealth. But these benefits (so much lauded and deemed so desi- rable for every country, and by almost every writer,) are purchased" only by the greatest possible amount of toil, privation, and misery of the class of laborers under which they can live and work. It is readily admitted that slave labor could never yield anything like such large net returns — and that it would not only prttduce less, but would cost more. Slaves could not be subjected to such extreme privation and misery, because they must be fed and clotlied, and cannot generallj' be greatly over- worked, (and never to the profit of the master,) as is caused continually' by the pressure of extreme want, and through competition, on free laborers. If the political and economical pioblem to be worked out is the production of the greatest amount of profit to capitalists, and of wealth to the nation, in a country of dense population and advanced industrial operations, witliout re- gard to the sulferings of the laboring class, it is certain that the Iai)orers must not be slaves, but free from all masters except extreme want. England, after the general abolition of slavery, was more than two centuries ap- proaching this condition, which was fiuall}' reached, and has now been fully enjoyed for many j-ears. Since then, England has been, of all the countries of the woild, the most prosperous in manufactures, commerce, and all industrial employments of capital and labor — and the laboring and poorest classes have been among the most destitute and mis- erable. That they have not been sunk, by competition for food, to still greater misery, and that many more numerous and frequent deaths have not occurred from absolute starv- ation, is owing to the introduction and pro- tection of another kind of slavery — paupei' slavery — which is the certain consequence of, ferings produced by the competition of free and the pm-tial remedy for, the evils and suf- labor. Pauper slavery. Thougli, after the supply of labor in any country has long exceeded the demand, com- Setition for employment will, necessarily, re- uce wages to as little as will serve to main- tain life under great suffering — yet wages cannot be reduced any lower, at least to the further profit of the whole class of capitalists or employers. For, Avhen laborers can no longer subsist on their wages, tlie deficiency must in some way be supplied l)y the property owners. In lawless or badly governed coun- tries, beggary and theft may be the irregular means of drawing that support from property which was denied in wages. In better regu- lated communities, the supply is furnished by the " poor law," or a compulsory provision for the laboring poor who cannot subsist on their wages, as wtll as for the infirm poor, incapa- ble of labor. This system is most extensive and complete in England, and is the necessary result of the competition for employment of free laborers — of England's great and boasted •uccess in all industrial pursuits and profitable •cnployment of labor by capital. And thus it IS, that the cruel oppi'cssion by capital, in reducing wages to the lowest rate, is avenged by the tax levied by and for tlic j)oor, equal to the deficiency of wages for the amount necessary for bare subsistence. And to this relief, which the poor law promises and affords, •rery day-laborer in England looks forward fis the almost certain destiny and last resource «f himself and his family. There are but few of that class who do not, at some time, have to rwort to support by the parish; and every English laborer has more reason to expect to die a ])arish-suj)ported pauper, than other- wise. But this aid held out to pauperism,. wretch- ed as it is, serves to encourage improvidence, and to increase, as much as to relieve extreme want. The pauper laborer, supported by the compulsory and reluctant charity of his parish, is but a little better off than those who perish elsewhere for want of such pruxision. But it is not my purpose to consider the system in either of these aspects, but in anotlier. The pauper, whether laborer or otherwise, receiv- ing su[)port from the parish, is neither more nor less than a slave to the administrators of the law and dispensers of the public charity. The pauper ceases to be a free agent in any respect. If at work far from tlie ]>lace of his birth, (in England,) he is remanded and trans- ported to his own or native iiarisli, there to obt^iin support. If either this forced exile from his long previous place of residence and labor, or other reasons of expediency require it, husband and wife, and parents and chil- dren, are separated, and severally disposed of at the will of the overseers of the poor. The able-bodied laborer, who at his agricultural or other work can earn but six shillings a week, and cannot support his family for less than ten, may, indeed, obtain the deficient four shillings from the jiarish. But to do so, he is subject to be forced to take any service that the authorities may direct. And as the em- ployer receives the pauper laborer against his will, and only because he thereby pays so much of his share of the poor-tax, he not only has the pauper as an in voluntary slave, but he has not even the inducement of self- interest to treat the pauper slave wt-ll, or to care to preserve his health or life. The death of the pauper laborer is no loss to his tem- porary employer, and is a clear gain to the parish. Hence, while all of the millions of pauper population of England are truly slaves, and as much under constraint as if each one and his family belonged to an individual mas- ter, or as negro slaves are here, tluy have not the family comforts, or the care for the pre- servation of their health and lives, enjoyed by every negro slave in Virginia or Mississippi. The negro slaves in the United States have increased from 300,OuO, the number originally imported from Africa, to nearly 4,000,000, or more than twelve for one. This is a sufficient evidence of their general good treatment, in- duccd by the self-interest of the owners. If it were possible to designate, sepiuately, the whole class of poor laborers in England, and to trace them and their descendants (or two hundred years, it is most probable that the original number would be found diminished in as great proportion as that in which our negro slaves have increased — or reduced to less than one-twelfth part. Yet this wide- spread, miserable, and life-destroying hunger slavery and pauper slavery in England is there called freedom by the fanatics and .-o-called philanthropists, who abhor, and c;dl inces- santly for God's vengeance upon, the negro slavery of this country 1 s Evils caused to the former serfs and to the com- munity^ by their emancipation. Such are the present conditions of things, and the relations of labor and capital in Eng- land, especially — and also to great extent in France, and the other most populous and rich- est countries of the civilized world. When these latter conditions (usually understood to be evidences of the highest state of national prosperity) were first in progress, and were extended, personal slavery rapidly disappear- ed. It had formerly been general in some form in every part of Europe. It now only remains as serfdom in the Russian and Aus- trian dominions, and some other of the least improved portions of Europe. When the slaves or serfs of Europe were left free, their masters were relieved from what was then comparatively a burden, be- cause they were able to hire cheaper free labor. But the former slaves suffered from the change more than their former masters gained. All of them were necessarily thrown into the lowest class of free laborers. The most industrious and provident among them could but enter upon the struggle for employ- ment with the most necessitous competitors, previously free. The indolent and the reckless would either live by depredating on the com- munity, as beggars or thieves, or would per- ish from disease or starvation, or other con- sequences of want and suffering. And such were the effects. Even as late as 1693, the amount of pauperism and beggary, vagrancy, thieving, and other petty crimes, and of ex- treme misery, was so great among the poorest class in Scotland, that Fletcher of Salton, (an able statesman, a true patriot, and a stern re- publican, and also a strong reasoner, and an elegant scholar,) wrote and published an elabo- rate argument, maintaining and urging the expediencj' of reducing this class of persons to the condition of slavery, not only to relieve the community, but for their own benefit, and to save them from the extremity of suf- f«ring.* General and extreine suffering from want im- possible i>» a slave- holding community. So long as domestic slavery is general in any country, and for the most part supplies * Fletcher's " Two Discourses on the Affairs of . Scotland.^' The author theroin states, that there were then not less than 200,000 persons in Scotland bejtging ■ their bread from door to door. Thitt was a. time of unusual distress. But, he adds, " yet, in all time, there have been about 100,000 of these vagabonds who have • lived witkout any regard to the lavs of the land, or ■ to those of God and Jiature." He says, further, that all the other nations of Europe (except liolland) groaned under a similar pressure. As no such evil nad been complained of by any of the writers of aii- ' tiquity, and as much poverty was the consequence, in Europe, of the manumission of elaves, Fletcher in- •ferred that the existence of slavery was the cause of the Comfort and industry of the lower orders in former ■ times. Hence, this " statesman and patriot of the highest order" proposed the reducing of all these des- ■ titute mendicants and their posterity to slavery, by a : solemn act of the legislature, (in and for Scotland,) as the only means by which they could be compelled to work, and have insured to them the necessaries of lite. ■ (S^e article " Fletcher of Salton," in Edinburgh En- eyclopcedia and quotation therefi'om, at page 749, vol. ' iji, " Farmer's EegUter." the labor of the country, there is no possibil- ity of the occurrence of the sufferings of the laboring class, such as were described above. There, the evils which are caused by extreme want and destitution, the competition for sus- tenance, class-slavery of labor to capital, and lastly pauper slavery, are all the incidents and necessary results of free society, and "free labflr." Before such evils can visit any la- boring class of personal slaves, they must have first been emancipated, and personal slavery abolished. This abolition of slavery is indeed like to occur in every country in the progress of society, and where the increasing population has no sufficient and advantageous outlet. But so long as do- mestic slavery remains, and is the main supply of labor, among any civilized people, it is a certain indication, and the most unques- tionable evidence, that extensive and long continued suffering from want or hunger have as j'et had no existence in that country. The first great effect of such distress will be to re- duce (by competition) the wages of free labor below the cost of maintaining slaves — and this effect would next cause the extinction of slavery, by the mode of sale and exportation, or otherwise the emancipation of all the slaves. After this step has been made, of course, in due time, the want and suffering, which are the necessary incidents and consequences of free society, are to be expected tcPfoUow in after times. When temporary evils, great loss, and dis- tress, fall upon slaveholding countries, it is not the laboring class (as in free society) that feels the first and heavest infliction, but the masters and employers. If a slaveholding country is visited by dearth, ravaged by war, or by pestilence — or suffers under any other causes of wide-spread calamity — every domes* tic slave is as much as before assured of his customary food and other allowances, and of a master's care in sickness and infirmity, even though the master class, and the country at large, have but half the previously existing profits, or value of capital. A striking proof of this was afforded by the recent (and still continuing) general suspension of payments of the banks in this country, and the consequent universal pecuniary loss and distress. Pay- ments of debts could not be obtained, com- modities could not be sold, and all manufac- turing and some other great industrial opera- tions either had to be continued for greatly re- duced prices and wages, or to be entirely sus- j)ended, if of such kind as could be suspended. In consequence, in the Northern States, the free hired laborers were thrown out of em- ployment, or employed only at much reduced wages. Hence all such persons were greatly damaged or distressed, and thousands of the most destitute were ready to starve. Hence hunger mobs were menacing the city of New York with pillago, and the last evils of a vicious and unbridled and starving populace, excited to insurrection and defiance of legal authority. Universal loss from this cause also visited the slaveholding States, and every property holder, and also, to some extent,every other free man therein. But not a slave has lost a meal, or a comfort ; and as a class, the slaves scarcely know of the occurrence of this great national calamity which has 80 universally damaged their masters, and the capitalists and employers of labor. Kor was the difference of effect owing to the slaves being generally engaged in agricultural labors. The very large business of manufacturing to- bacco, in Virginia, is carried on almost exclu- sively by the labor of slaves, and those mostly hired by the year. The late bank suspension serving to suspend all payments of debts to, and income of, their great establishments, they were generally compelled to suspend work, even though still obliged to feed and support their hired slave laborers, who, for son\e time, thus received their full allowance and 8U[>- port, while remaining perfectly idle, and re- turning no compensation whatever to their em- ployers who had hired them for the year. The " associated labor " doctrine of the social- ists true — but deficient in the main agency, which slaoery only can supply. Thesocialistsof Europe, and of the Northern jing cause. But in all these great and corn- States of this Union, (there are none existing plicated works, the artificers had omitted to in our Southern States,) of every sect, and ! supply the first and great motive power, which however dilferiug on other points, have all lis to be found only in one directing mind, and advocated the association of labor, in some [ one controlling will. Supply the one supreme former other, as the great means for reforming \ head and governing power to the association the evils of society arising from starving com- | of labor, (for the suitable conditions of socie- petition for labor. The founders and preach- ! t}', ) and the scheme and its operation will be- ers of socialism had all observed and earnestly \ come as perfect as can be expected of any appreciated these evils. They saw that, in ad- j human institution. But in supplying this sin- vanced society, labor was the slave of capital, ' gle ruling power, the association is thereby eon- and that the more capital was enriched by 1 verted to the condition of domestic slavery. the employment of labor, the less was acquir- ] And our system of domestic slavery offers in ed and retained by the individual laboi'ers, use, and to the greatest profit for all parties and the more their wants and sufferings were [ in the association, the realization of all that is increased. They also saw, and correctly, that j sound and valuable in the socialists' theories there was great loss of time and labor in the and doctrines, and supplies the great and domestic operations of every poor family, and i fatal defect of all their plans for practically has met with signal, and also speed}', failure; except a few, of religious associations, which were under the guidance and direction of a single despotic head. In all other cases, no mat- ter how benevolent and intelligent the lead- ers — and though one hour of labor, in each day, in this cheap and fertile country, would yield more food than fifteen hours' labor in Eui'ope — still these associations soon failed in their every aim and purpose, and were several- ly broken up as soon as their inherent defects were made manifesto, and seen to be inevita- ble and incurable incidents of the system. Yet, so far as their facts and reasoning go, and in their main doctrines, the socialists are right. Associated labor can be nmch more produc- tive, and be conducted more economically, than the labors of individual persons or fami- lies. The socialist theorists reasoned correctly, and in their practical experiments they devised good but defective plans. They constructed admirable aiid complex machinery to produce certain final results, in which every wheel and other operating agent was well adjusted as a secondary cause, or effect of another preced- most in the poorest families — and also, that the productive labors of all, if associated, and thus aiding each other, might be made much more productive. And if by laborers being associated in large numbers, and directed by their combined knowledge, to the most profit- able purposes and ends, all unnecessary waste (as occurs in isolated families) was prevented, and all the actual eft'orts of labor utilized — the net profits and economy of such associa- ted labor would be much increased, and thus, the laborers might secure and retain a suffi- cient subsistence, out of the larger share of the profits of their labors, which now goes to the share of enjployers and capitalists. Their views and doctrines are true in the main, and are altogether so plausible, and so applicable to the wretched condition of labor in the most advanced conditions of society in Europe, that the teachers have found numerous believers and zealous disciples. Sundry associations have been originated in Europe, and establish- ed in America, (as a new country only offered the needed facilities,) to carry out, in different modes, the great object of associating and eom- assoeiating labor. A few illustrative views will be submitted, which will apply to both the theoretical free associated labor, and to the practical domestic slave labor. Suppose that some extensive industrial ope- ration, as the tillage of a great farm, the work- ing of a mine, or a cotton factory, is carried on by the labor of fifty men, with that of such other few members of their families as can be spared from home. These men, as usual, gene- rally, are married, and have one or more young children. But whether singly and without children, or husbands, or widowers with children, every man is the head of an isolated family, for which separate services are indispensable. Each home or family requires, and has, its separate purchasing of food, (and at retail and highest ju-ioes, ) its separate cook- ing, washing, fires, lights, n\u'sing of children, and of the sick, tfec, Ac. SuclFdutics, in an ordinary or average family, fully occupy the time of the wife and mother. If there is no wife, or the mother is dead, the single man, or the father, is more or less required to perform the like household and woman's d uties. Thus, of bining labor, for the common and general the supposed fifty hou.seholds, probably includ- profit and benefit. But every such attempt [ ing not less than from 150 to 'iUO persons, there 10 may be but the fifty men to labor for -wages. All the many others capable of labor, are fully employed as menial servants and nurses for their respective families. Tliis is necessarily the condition of free laborers, each working for himself and his family. Now suppose, instead of this free popula- tion, that all the laborers and their families were slaves to the employer. Then, with pro- per and convenient arrangement of buildings, in|)lain that he was not raised as much higher in fortune ami rank, as he was truly superior in intellect and \\orth, to most of the actiuil possessors of either in England. From before the daysof Abraliani to within the nineteenth century, the mere fnetof a man's be- ing a slave was no more deemed wrongful than the other general fact that all the political power and wealth of a count i-y should be held by a few persons, (and these not th.- nuist wise or virtuous,) without regard to the consent or opinions of others ; and that a much greater number of their countrymen should be with- out any political jiovver even for defence, and without daily bread, or means for subsistence. These differences in Isngland, the most free country in the Old World, are greater, and more unportant than the diiferenee Itetween the necessary conditions of master and slav4. The propriety of placing these cases in com- parison will be denied on the ground that the 1 free man, however low, is not debarred by 12 law, as the slave is, from rising above his first condition. It is, indeed, theoretically and physically possible that the child of a day laborer, or a pauper, in England, may rise to the higheS, political distinctions that are not hereditary. But, in practice, such elevation would be more improbable tlian a slave, in other countries, rising to wealth and high pub- lic honors. Where difference of race did not (as it does of African slaves) forbid, there have been many more cases of slaves and the sons of slaves, becoming leaders of armies and rulei's of kingdoms, than there have been of the sons of free English laborers or peasants rising to high rank and wealth. When Diocletian rose from the condition of a slave to bo Emperor of the Roman world, he did not encounter and overcome such great obstacles to his ascending progress as would the free laborer of the greatest natural talent in England, to become Prime Minister of the kingdom, or Command- er-in-chief of its armies. Origin and progress of the African slave- trade — Changes of public opinion thereupon. Considerations of morality and religion, or of benevolence, had no bearing whatever on the beginning or the progress of the extinction of slavery, or villenage, in England, and else- where in Europe. It was simplj- a question of gain or loss to the previous masters. And, as conscientious or religious scruples had no influence to encourage or promote this move- ment of emancipation in Europe, neither did Buch scruples exist, or have tlie least operation in restraining the beginning and earl}' progress of the African slave-trade, for the supply of America. Las Casas, one of the most benevo- lent of men, a sincere and devout christian, and a philanthropist as earnest and zealous as Wilberforce or Clarkson, was the first to pro- pose (to the Emperor Charles V.,) the bring- ing of African slaves to South America, by means of the slave-trade, that, by their sub- stituted bondage and labor, might be saved the feebler race of native Americans, who were fast dying out and disappearing under the severe slavery and labor to which they had been subjected by the Spanish colonists. This bondage was destructive to the American slaves, and yet of little profit to their masters. Just the reverse of both these conditions were found in regard to the more docile, patient, strong, and enduring Africans. The distinguished navigator Hawkins was the earliest English slave- tradei". For this and other naval and patriotic services. Queen Elizabeth bestowed on him the then liigh dig- nity and reward of knighthood; and further, she purchased an investment, and held a share in Sir .John Hawkins' continued slave-trading business. England became the great slave- trader, exceeding in the number of negroes annually transported to, and sold in America, the vessels of all the world besides. Tiie busi- ness was deemed of great eoiumercial and national value, was encouraged by the laws, wag recommended bj' the public declarations ofs everal English monarchs, (one of them "William HI.,) and certainly was discounte- nanced by none. The extensive smuggling of African slaves by English ships into Spanish America, in contravention of the laws and ex- clusive commercial policy of Spain, (which did not oppose the colonies receiving slaves, but only the trading with anj' other nation than Spain,) was the cause of war between the two countries ; and by the treaty of peace (of Utrecht) which closed that war, England re- quired and obtained fromSfiain the formal grant of t he right to bring and sell a certain large num- ber of African slaves annually to the Spanish colonies. Kow, what Queen Elizabeth did, and other English Monarchs recommended, or what an\' English administration sustained and pro- moled, would be far from indicating that such acts were virtuous, or even otherwise than in- iquitous. But such open advocating, sustaining, and participating in the slave-trade, and the almost monopolizing it by the English people wiien it Avas naost extended, and this course being continued far into the reign of George 111., will suffice to prove that the slave-trade, so appioved by Monarclis, Parliament, and people, for centuries, and opposed by not even a single voice, could not have been deemed contrary either to morality or religion. Even v/ithin the last seventy years, and after some of the founders of the opposite doctrines had begun to speak, the general opinion of the most moral and religious members of English society had not begun to condemn slavery in the abstract, or even the actual cruelties of the African slave-trade. A sufiicient proof of this assertion is presented in the circumstances of the life of the Rev. John Kewton. In the earlier portion, and through the prime of his life, he had been regularly engaged in the African slave-trade. He had continued in this business as captain of a slave-ship, and when he was free to choose any preferable trade ; and moreover, he so continued to be a regular slave-trader long after he had become a pious, devoted, and exemplary christian. His sin- cerity and his piety have not been doubted by any of those who have since denounced the iniquity of slavery in general, and more es- pecially, of the African slave-trade. It is true, that the Rev. John Newton, late in life, and when a distinguished and venerated preacher of the Gospel, allied himself to the tlien new and growing anti-slave-trade and slavery party of Clarkson and Wilberforce. But this later position of his, in no degree, contradicts what 1 have inferred from his earlier and long continued business as a slave-trader, and when he was no less %ioral, conscientious, and chris- tian, ihan in his later and more distinguished ecclesiastical position. Beginning and progress of the anii-slavery doctrine and sect in the American Revo- lution. Virginia and South Carolina, and perhaps other of the then colonies of England, had earnestly opposed the further introduction of African slaves. But their wishes were disre- garded, and their legislative enactments for this purpose were annulled by the mother country, that her profits from the slave-trade 13 might not be lessened. These facts stand forth among the grievances stated in both the Declarations of Independence, first of Vir- ginia, and of the United States. At that time, and earlier, the prohibition of the further supply of slaves from Africa was prope.", even upon grounds of economy and expedienc}'. At an earlier time, the slaves in A'^irginia had exceeded the whites in number in the pro- portion of ten to seven. In South Carolina, the slaves had been thrice as numerous as the white ]^opulation. — (Dew's Essay on Slavery.) In addition, the ihen settled territory of the colonies was all east of the Alleghany moun- tains, *and there appeared not even a chance for e-\'pansion bej'ond the Mississippi. Under these circumstances, sound discretion and pol- icy required the cessation of any further supply of Aft-ican slaves. But the most cor- rect opinions in regard to national policy, when contested by an opposing and h.ostile party or nation, are apt to run into excess and extremes. Hence, when the further in- troduction of slaves into this country was properly deemed an evil, and a grievance inflicted by England merely for her greater profit in the slave-trade, to aid the just oppo- sition to and denunciation of this oppression, every supposed evil of slavery was cited, and exaggerated. This disposition, in conjunction with the then first springing and fast growing theorttical doctrines of the equal, natural, and political rights of man, which were conceived and nourished in the conflict of opinions caused by the American Revolution, (and which doctrines admitted of no exceptions to their general application,) gave existence to the anti-slavery doctrines and sect, which after- wards became so greatlj- extended, and have had such great influence in loth hemispheres. But while Jefferson and many (if not all) others of the Republican leaders and assertors of American liberty, thus acquired and erro- neousl}^ maintained the opinion of the evil and criminality of African slavery, and hoped for its future extinction in this country, none of them would have advocated, or submitted to, the end since and now sought by the modern disciples of this doctrine, in the immediate and speedy abolition of the obligations of Blavery. Progress of atUi-slavery doctrine and fanat- icism in England, France, and the tfnited States. The new anti-slavery doctrines soon spread in England, and far more extensively. For there, the enthusiasts and fanatics had no practical knowledge of African slavery, and addressed their arguments to a people still more ignorant of the whole subject, and who had nothing to lose, or to suffer, from the most complete carrying into practical opera- tion of these new theoretical views. Still more rapidly, completely, and disastrously, did these views of natural equality of races, and of negro emancipation, spread in France — they being exactly suited to the then revolu- tionary madness of that country. The gen- <8ral opinions and poUtical dogmas prevailing in France, at that time, which were called republican, and falsely deemed promotive of the liberty and well-being of mankind, carried with them, as a corollary, the doctrine that negro slavery was not only a great national evil, but a crime; and the most moderate and conservative reasoners, and even in these Southern States, generally admitted that negro slavery was a a;reat evil and injustice, which it was desirable should be extinguished m soon as it could be done beneficially for the slaves, and safely for the masters. As late as 1830, this speculative anti-slavery opinion was almost universal in Virginia. Not a voice was then heai-d to vindicate or approve the institution, or even to defend its existence and continuance, except on the grounds of necessity — a necessity caused by the political inability of the colonies formerly to prevent slaves being introduced by the mother coun- tr}', and subsequently the manifest danger and general destruction that would follow inime- '■/ diate emancipation. While the slaveholders held strongly to their legal rights of property, and would have resisted to death any foreign interference therewith, there was scarcelj' one of them, of cultivated mind and feelings, who did not deem negro slavery an evil, public and private, political, moral, and economical, and who would not have rejoiced to have in prospect its future and safe extinction. But this moderate condemnation was not enough for the fanatical abolition faction of the Noi'thern States, which was then beginning to exhibit its malignity and strength, and which has ever since been increasing in num- bers and violence. These Northern opposers of slavery, having nothing to lose personally, or at home, have been preaching the natural equality of rights of the negro race, and urging the speediest and most eft'ectual con- summation of their doctrines of universal emancipation and liberty, without the least regard to the evils that would follow. These sentiments have been fast growing and extend- ing in the Northern States and in Europe, and are still extending among the more ignorant and greater number in all countries in which personal slavery has no existence. But the \ violence of the attacks and denunciations of this fanatical school has di-iven slaveholders to examine their own position, and especially to investigate, in proper manner, the question of slavery in all its aspects and bearings. Such examination and investigation, by strict reasoning, had never been before applied to this question. And, the result has been that nearly all thinking and reasoning men now as fully believe negro slaverj^ to be a great ben- efit for this country, as they formerly be- lieved it to be a great evil. And not only has this change been pi'oduced in these slave- holding states, where self interest would serve to quicken and fortify perception of this truth, but also in the Northern States and in Eng- land there is a great and decided reaction in this respect, and change of opinion with many enlightened and the least prejudiced minds. And not only have many men been thus brought to acknowledge the highly beneficial 14 effects of negro slavery, but also to advocate the African slave trade, under legal permission and proper regulations and restrictions. Legislation of the United States and England to suppress the African slave-trade, and the consequences. As soon as the former colonies had become free from the rule of England, Virginia and most of the others prohibited, and entirely prevented thenceforward, the importation of slaves from Africa or any other foreign coun- try. At a later time, aiid after a long strug- gle, the English Parliament enacted the sup- pression of the slave-trade from and after 1807. Since, the Governments of both tlie United States and England have treated the slave-trade as piracy, and have used every effort to prevent its being prosecuted by the people or ships of the respective countries. In this legal policy of suppression, France and other important powers have concurred, and all others agreed in sentiment, and in denun- ciation of the slave-trade, except Spain and Portugal, which powers continued to receive African slaves into their then colonies Cuba and Brazil. Finally, Brazil has also forbid- den the further importation ; and to Cuba alone, and against the laws and treaties of Spain, is the African slave-trade still carried on. Yet, with all th« stringent and general measures used for the suppression of the trade, and with British and American vessels of war continually cruising about and watching the places for embarking slaves in Africa, the at- tempted suppression of the slave-trade has scarcely had any effect in diminishing the number of negroes taken from Africa, while the cruelty and sufferings of the ocean trans- portation (or of the "middle passage") have been made ten-fold more atrocious and life- destroying, than they were in the previous legal and open trade. Formerly, the owners and masters of slave-ships were, at least, un- impeded in the use of every means of care for thfeir captive slaves that pecuniary or selfish interest would dictate. It was not only the most humane, but the most profitable proce- f dure, to protect the health and the lives of the captives, by allowing them good food, enough space, and fresh air. But, since the prohibi- tion, and the heavy penalties, and great risks of capture, the slave-vessels are constructed entirely for swift sailing, to avoid being cap* txu'ed — and, because of the small sizes and low decks of the vessels, the slaves are kept in the most hoirible condition of confinement and suffering that would not be certainly des- tructive of life, so as best to insure the escape and safe voyage of the vessel, though it should be with but one-half of the slaves left alive. For so much had increased the demand and prices of slaves, that if no more than half of a cargo of slaves perished' on the middle pas- sage, tbe other half would return enormous profits on thp whole shipment and expense of the voyage. In reference to these well-estab- lished facts, the so-called "suppression of the African slave-trade," by England, has been denounced by many of the ablest and most zealous of the anti-slavery sect, as an entire failure of the object, even in lessening the number of slaves exported from Africa, and as serving to increase the amount of the cruel- ties and sufferings which accompanied the former legal trade. Height of fanatical opposition to slavery, and r'cent reaction and apyproval of the in-tiitu- tion. But the attempted suppression of the slave- trade M'as denounced only for its inefficiency. Every opinion that was uttered in regard to the suppression was strongly approbatory of the object, and in favor of its being rendered truly and fully operative. Looking to the cruelties and destruction of life, caused by the then existing and illegal slave-trade, it was regarded with detestation and horror, even by the few persons who had so early learned to approve of the practical opeiation and re- sults of negro slavery of long previous origin, and to deem the institution highly beneficial to all parties. The change of opinion on this subject was recent. As late as 1830, in the slaveholding States, there were to be found no defenders or approvers of slavery, but only apologists for the compulsory participation therein of themselves and their countrymen. The existence of slavery was still deemed a great and unavoidable evil, at first inflicted by the unscrupulous avarice of the mother and ruling country — and it was hoped by all that the condition was but temporary, and that, finally, slavery would be removed from our country and people. Professor Dew, of Virginia, was the first, in his "Essay on Slavery," to defend and jus- tify the institution, and, as boldly as ably, to maintain its utility, and the folly and mad- ness of carrying out, in any way, the eman- cipation doctrines and schemes of abolitionists, whether they were the northern and practi- cal, or the southern and theoretical or specu- lative views. Never has any work, of mere reasoning on previously known facts, had such great effect. It seemed as if men in modern limes had not before dared to think on this subject. Soon the benificent operation of slavery in general, (wherever applicable and needed,) and, especially, of negro slavei-y in these Southern States, was acknowledged by many — and since, it has been, and now is, uni- versally recognized and maintained, wherever negro slavery exists — and also by many of the thinking men in countries where anti- slavery fanaticism is most prevalent and in- tolerant. At this day there are more men in the Southern States, and even in Virginia, who would now approve of reopening the legal African slave-trade, (to supply the present great need and demand for labor,) than could have been found twenty-five years ago, who did not then believe that negro slaverj- was an enormous evil and injury, in every aspect, and to every interest concerned. And the belief of the beneficial operation of African slavery, for countries to which it is best suited, is now everywhere extending among the com- parativdy few men of intelligence, as much 15 as the fanatical opposition to slavery is also growing and extending among the more nu- merous body of the ignorant and deluded, or unthinking and prejudiced of the people of the Northern States.* The dogma of the natural mental equality of the black and white races considered. When the anti-slavery doctrines were first taught, and for many years after, one of the main positions of the advocates was, the as- sumption of the natural equality and capacity for mental improvement of the black and white races, or the negro and Caucasian. This bold assumption of the one party was either tacitly admitted, or but rarely and faintly de- nied, by th-e other. It was then generally supposed that, with full opportunity and fa- cilities, and sufficient time for improvement, the negro could be raised to be equal to the white man in mental acquirements — or, at least, to the capacity for self-government, and self-support and preservation. There had then been no sufficiently long and full practi- cal trial or experiment of this doctrine. Since, there have been ample trials in practice which have served so fully to prove the contrary, that no unprejudiced mind can now admit the equality of intellect of the two races, or even the capacity of the black race either to be- come or remain industrious, civilized, when in a state of freedom and under self-govern- ment — or, indeed, in any other condition than when held enslaved and directed by white men. A few general statements and com- ments thereon will be here presented, on each of the several great and long continued ex- periments of freedom conferred on negroes, either as individuals, or in societies and com- munities, independent of the white race. * Professor Dew's Essay, the earliest modern vindi- cation and defence of slavery, has obtained for its au- thor the highest award of merit, not only for its pri- ority, and thus exhibiting original thought and reason- ing, but also because this earliest argument, taken as a whole, is among the best of all the able recent writings on the same side. For, since that beginning, many and able publications have appeared, in which slavery has been examined and defended on every different ground — as in regard to morality and religion, and to Christianity^and as to its political, social, and economical influences and bearings. In some particu- lar branch of the general subject, each of several dif- ferent late writers has excelled all his predecessors. But no one, yet, has so well covered the whole ground of investigation, exposition, and argument, as Profes- sor Dew. The next in order of time, and of merit, and for its extensive scope, is a small volume which was published in Philadelphia, in IS:?*}. It appeared with- out the author's name, though it offers internal evi- dence that he was a Norlliern man. This work, which is entitled " Tlic South Vindicated from the Treason and Tanaticism of the Northern Abolitionists," well deserves republication, and the attentive perusal of all who desire lo be well informed on the general subject. Of other, and able, and conclusive arguments, but di- rected to particular branches only of the general ques- tion, the letters of Gov. J H. Hammond, of South Carolina, to Ularkson, and the "Scriptural and Statis- tical views of Slavery," by the Rev. T. Stringfellow, for their particular and limited objects and popular manner, deserve especial commendation. The "So- ciology," and other recent publications of George Fitz- hugh, Esq., are worthy of high commendation for novel and profounor and ser- vice ; and also, (and especially, at their present high prices,) to have the property continued by the preservation of health and long life, and increased in successive generations. These objects, it is manifest, must be opposed, if not defeated entirelj', by the slaves being too severely worked, or being subjected to other suffering from want of sufficient food, and other necessaries of life and health. Further: capricious and *tyranieal treatment of slaves, even though not damaging their bodily ability and healtli, would be as detrimental to the master's interest, by producing disconte^pt and disobedience. Besides these "motives for just and kind treatment, addi-essed to the self-inte- rest of the master of slaves, there are others which appeal even more strongly to the best feelings and attributes of man. The intimate association of the master and his slaves, throiigh years of direction and service — in many cases continued from early childhood to death — must produce, and does produce, strong and mutual feelings of personal regard and attach- ment. In very many cases this attachment of love has such sway, that the master's kindness of feeling overpowers his judgment, and he fails to maintain the proper degree of discipline and obedience that is necessary for the well- being and happiness of the slaves, as well as for the profit of the master. The sternest master, however deficient in the softer feelings, has at least moi;% of personal attachment to his own slaves than toother persons unknown to, and imconnected with him. And the smallest share of this universally existing feel- ing of personal affection, is just so much more than is felt, or can possibly be felt, by either 21 party in any form of class slavery, or of sub- jection of labor to capital. Thus, whether reasoning a priori from the nature of man, or deducing conclusions from existing known and gi^neral facts, there are niany and strong reasons to induce the owner of domestic slaves to be kind in his treatment, and to strive to avoid injustice and cruelty. Such are generally, and of necessity must be, the general accom- paniments and condition of slavery in these Southern States, at tiie present, and in recent times. But I admit that the case might be (and has been elsewhere) very different. While England supplied America with African slaves, negroes were so cheap in the iSritish West Indies, and wherever else slaves were then admitted, that the master's self-interest was small to preserve his slave's life to old age, and no increase by procreation was desired, or would have been profitable. It was cheaper to buy an adult male negro, than either to rear one from infancy, or to maintain his in- firm and useless old age. Hence, according to human nature, (and just as capitalists in both Old and New England now act towards their free laborers, or class 'slaves,) self-interest generally overcame any promptings of hu- manity. It was to the gain of the owners to treat their slaves hardly and cruelly, and, ac- cordingly, it was so done generally. Neither were the pi'omptings of self-interest often counteracted by any feeling of attachment to the newly imported, brutal, debased, and savage African negroes. Moi'eover, most of the owners, in the British West India Islands were non-residents, and, therefore, were in- capable of forming personal attachment to any of their unknown slaves. This worst and very deplorable condition of negro slaves was owing to accidental and extra- aeous circumstances, (and maiidy to the greedy md linscrupulous avarice of England, minis- tered to by the great profits of the slave-trade,) ind would have been but temporary and tran- aent there, as was the somewhat similar earl}' ondition of slavery in Virginia. But the ne- cessary hardships of free laboi-ers, and the jruel sufferings of class slavery instead of be- ng transient, are fixed, and will be increasing IS long as the competition for labor, and the )ressure of want, shall continue to operate. Che class of employers of free labor cannot jossibly feel any love or personal attachment or their numerous and often changed hire- ings. The only rule on which they act (or ndeed can act) towards them, as laborers, is o obtain from tiiem as much work as possi- ly can be perfonued, for as low wages as will e taken for such work. This is not even a mat- er of choice with the emploj'ers. Tliey have heir places in a complicated system of social lachinery, and each one is compelled to act is required part of the general operation. It i often the case that an individual owner and irector of a ]>lantation, worked by his negro laves, either through his own indolence and arelessness, or his too kind indulgence to his laves, or both these causes combined, fails to btain half of his pro[>er products and income, uch neglect and waste of means have often led, finally, to thefuin of the proprietor, and, consequently, the subsequent sale of the slaves. But, more generally, the less extent of such errors only causes to the proprietor such loss of profit as he can bear without destruction of his business, or diminution of his original capital. But any such diminution of profit, to a great manufacturer or mine owner, would be ruinous. The competition for purchasers, among great proprietors of manufactories, and for the trade of the world, is as keen as is the competition for employment among their la- borers. Many of such capitalists are as con- scientious and humane men as any other em- ployers of labor, and they probably perform as many acts of charity, as charity, as other rich people. But as wages, no employer of numerous laborers is able to add to the pit- tance that will engage the needed labor, though knowing it to be inadequate. A very large part of the expense of these great in- dustrial operations is the wages of labor. A master manufacturer is bound, by the curi'ent mai-ket values, to take certain rates of prices for his products ; which prices return to him, on the general average, but a fair and proper profit on his capital and expenses. If, to make these sales, and secure this profit, he can and does hire his laborers at twenty pence for each day's work, he could not add two pence to that rate of wages without taking that amount out of his own previous and but mod- erate profits. He might be sensible that his laborers required higher wages to sustain health and life, and his feelings of compassion and benevolence might strongly urge him to make the increase ; but for the great expense of labor to be increased to him even by one- tenth more than was paid by all his competi- tors, could not possibly be done without de- struction to his profits, and ruin and speedy stoppage to the business. Such a man would paj^ his share of tax, under the poor law, for aiding to support his and other pauper labo- rers, and. besides, might give alms voluntarily to the extent of his ability ; but .as an em- ployer of laborers, and payer of their wages, he would have no choice but to fulfil his hard and severe part in the great system of "free labor," urged to the utmost by competitioD, and by want. And precisely in lite manner acts every employer of labor, or ptirchaser of the pro- ducts of labor. It is the universal law of trade, of which no particular departures from, or exceptions to, can prevent or affect the general operation, that every one will seek to hire the lowest priced labor, and to buy the lowest priced products of labor. All the knowledge of the facts of want and hunger, and consequent vice and misery, and all that benevolence and charity can feel and wish, cannot materially alter or alleviate the work- ing to its end of the great law of competition, and its deplorable consequences. There are but few, even among the most fanatical denouncers of negro slavery, who, if acquainted with both conditions, would not admit that the far greater amount of suff"er- ing is to be found in the class which thej? 22 falsely term "free laborers." Yet, to remedy, or greath' alleviate these certain, permanent, and growing distresses of free society, no statesma.n lias even attempted ; and, except wild and disorganizing socialists, no reformer has proposed even visionary means for relief. Yet all these statesmen, theoretical reformers, and socialists of every sect, who have all the horrors of class slavery standing and growing under their eyes, neglect its miseries and vic- tims to unite in one universal howl of denunci- ation of negro slavery in this country — which is a far happier condition than that of any class of free laborers in England, and the hap- piest and best condition in which the negro race can possibly be placed. Expediency of the permanence of negro slavery, and of the extension of the area. Assuming as an indisputable fact that God has created and designed the negro race to be inferior in intellect to the white — that the negro possesses in a superior degree the qual- ities of docility and obedience, and of ability to endure the heat and miasmatic air of trop- ical climates, and that he only can safely labor in these most fruitful regions of the earth — while his feebleness of mind and indo- lence of body prevent his voluntary and sus- tained labor, even to preserve life — that the white man can and does direct, control, and compel the labors of the negro beneficially for both, an ' best for profitable production, for civilization, and for the general well-being of the world — I thence deduce the expediency and propriety of not only maintaining, and preserving inviolate, the existing condition of African .slavery, but of its being extended to tyranny of their former colonial government. Of all tropical and South America, Brazil, . which escaped civil war, and Cuba, which has continued a Spanish province, only, have ■ retained the institution of African slavery. , And these two countries only, and certainly for that cause, have greatly extended and! exceeded their former production, notwith- standing all the evils of bad government in both these countries, and for Cuba, the most horrible political oppression by the mother country. From the mongrel races that oc- cupy Mexico, Central America, the inmiense basins of the Orinoco, the upper Amazon, and the La Plata and its tributaries, and which are everywhere spreading and maintaining desolation over these fair and fertile regions of the earth, there is no hope for improvement under their present policy, and their miscalled free institutions. If any or all of these great countries had been subdued, and occupied, and governed by men of Anglo-Saxon race, and for even the last foity years of their free exist- ence had been tilled by negro slaves, there would have been as much and as rapid im- provement made in population, wealth, and greatness, as there has been of actual decline and degradation under the different existing conditions. And these countries, and their inhabitants, will still continue to decline, until the only present and sure remedy s'.all be in operation. No tropical country, or people, in any age, has ever gi-eatly prospered, or been raised to a high grade of industry, production, refinement, and moral worth, except by the aid, and general diffusion of domestic slavery. And in modern times, the important and valu- able products of sugar and cotton, have no- wherever the condition of the earth and its,/where Vjeen great articles of exportation, inhabitants would be manifestly improved thereby. Nearly all Spanish Amei'ica has been degraded, and is now sunk below the hope for resuscitation, partly in consequence of the previous general mixture of blood of the inferior with the superior race — and still more because of tlie subsequent extinction of slavery, and the end of the former subordina- tion of the African and native races to the European. With the throwing off the op- pressive Spanish yoke, and declaring the political independence of all these extensive and fruitful colonies of Spain, it was univer- sally expected that they would rapidly im- prove, and rise, in every attribute of worth and greatness. But all these sanguine and philanthropic hopes and expectations have been miserably and completely disappointed. By each of these revolutionary governments, miscalled free and republican, negro slavery was abolished by law, and equal ]iolitical rights decreed to aU. classes of the popula- tion. The consequence was an immediate and progressive decline of industry and produc- tion ; and now, after forty years of political independence, general security from foreign invaders, and with the possession of (their so called) freedom and republican government, each and all of these republics are but an- archies, more degraded and wretched in every respect than when under the oppression and except when obtained from the labor of do- mestic slaves. Causes of the prosperity of the Northern Stateti without the aid of slavery. It may be objected to the claims here made for the superior economy of slave labor in new. countries, and wherever labor is scarce and dear, that the Northern States of this Confederacy, wfthout slavery, have prospered as much and (as most have said) much more than the slave- holding States. There are sufficient causes of all that is well founded in this claim of equal- ity or superiority, and for the outward appear-! ance of much more than is true. The settlers of all the present United States brought with them from Europe habits of in- dustry and artificial wants, which had been produced and cultivated in their ancestors by their former, and then extinct, old system of slavery. The first colonists of America, though settlers in a new country, were an old people, with established habits of industry. A cold and severe climate, and generally land but moderately productive, required and com- pelled labor and frugality. To be indolent and wasteful would be equivalent to starving before the end of the next winter of six months duration. Further, the settlers of New Eng- land were still more iuTpelled to exertion by their religious fanaticism, which had first 23 made tliem seek a new home on a barren soil, and under a rigorous climate, and prepared them to endure any degree of labor and pri- vation. Not only the virtues, but the follies and the vices nourished by the religion and theocratic government of this j^eculiar people, served to stimulate effort and labor much more than ordinary physical necessities and inducements alone would have done. But, in addition, the puritan New Englanders availed themselves, as much as was serviceable to them, not only of African slaves, but of their Indian captives, whom they systematically re- duced to domestic slavery. And they contin- ued to hold their slaves until after the war of the Revolution. But in so cold a country, and where the products of agricultural labor were of so little amount, slave labor was of much less value than in countries under opposite conditions. As soon as there was even a mod- erate supply of free labor, it became cheaper to hire such, even at higher rates, for the few months onlv when it was available, than to maintain a slave throughout the year, and for months together of winter, when no agricul- tural work could be performed. Hence the time for the natural and economical extinc- tion of slavery in New England soon arrived. And if the masters had not had (and used) the resource of selling their slaves to the South, they would have emancipated them, not for any conscientious scruples, (which now BO heavily oppress them in regard to Southern slavery,) but for profit. The like reasons and causes operated more slowly to extinguish do- mestic slavery in the middle Atlantic States; and the growing anti-slavery doctrines served still more to forward and extend the removal of slavery where it had existed, and to forbid and prevent its being established in the new Northwestern States. The longer and more rigorous winters there also prevented regular or continuous agricultural laboi-, and would have served to detract much from the profits of negro slavery, if it had existed there. But if both law and fanaticism had not forbidden, it would be both profitable and highly benefi- cial to use negro slaves to a limited extent in all the Northwestern States, and especially for house servants. And they would have been indispensable, even for agis'cultural labors, de- spite the disadvantages of climate, if a supply for such service had but been continually fur- nished in the hoi'des of destitute Eurwpean immigrants, who, of course, all go to these States, or newer teiritories. where labor is most in demand, and, therefoie, is most highly paid for. But there are other and stronger reasons for the prosperity and success of the Northern States. Even after negro slavery was re- moved from them, its conlinued existence and extension in the Soulhern States served to foster and stimulate, and reward the industry of the Northern States. Southern products, ever since the existence of the Federal consti- tution, liave been made tributary to Northern navigation, commerce, and manufactures — and the tribute has been made more and more oppressive to the South, and profitable to the North, by means of federal legislation giving bounties, direct or indirect, to Northern in- dustry, capital, and general interests. It will never be knoM'n by the South, nor appreciated by the North, how much tribute iias thus been paid by Southern industry anct capital, (and all derived from the products of negro slavery,) to swell Northern profits and wealth, until the existing union of the Northern and Southern States shall be dissolved. Should that contingency occur, then, for the first time, will the Northern States have to support themselves from their own resources, and without the great and unacknowledged aid to their wealth derived from the slave labor and the products of the South — and they will then learn to know the value of all that they have lost. The intellect of the world coming to the appro- val and support of negro slavery. The defenders and vindicators of negro slaverj' would have nothing to fear for the final and complete success of their cau^e, if the question were to be decided by reason and argument, founded upoii facts and expe- rience. But the case is very dift'erent. In these United States, the rights and property of slaveholders and of the slaveholding States, are assailed in every possible manner by the opinions and votes, and also the lawless action, of the more numerous people of the Northern States, dii-ected by ambitious and unscrupulous leaders, who excite and array ignorant fanat- icism in the Northern States in opposition to slavery in the South, merelj' to gain political power and rank for themselves. Under this great outside pressure of the now powerful Northern States, aided by the fanatical or pretended philanthropy of England and France, it may be, that blind fanaticism, stim- ulating and dii-ecting illegal and incendiary action, may be able to extinguish slavery, (even though in a general extermination of the black race in the States where slavery now exists,) before good sense, truth, and sound reasoning, all of which are now extend- ing in influence, shall come to the rescue. The existing contest between the defenders and the assailants of negro slavery is one in ■ which intellect is, or is about to be, arrayed on one side, and the brute force of ignorant and deluded numbers, on the other. The result of the contest will be of vital impor- tance to the Southern States, either for weal or wo, and, in a very considerable measure, to every class and condition of all America and Europe, and to the future civilization and wel- fare of the world. A. I^ F E N D I X . THE INFLUENCE OF SLAYERY, OR OF ITS ABSENCE, ON MANNERS, MORALS, AND INTELLECT. [Extract from an Address to the Virginia State Agricultural Society, read at the First Annual Meeting, December 16, 1852, by Edmund Rcffin, President; and then printed by order of the Society.] » « » » The subject upon ■which I pro- pose now to offer my opinions and remarks, though not strictly agricultural, is of the high- est degree of interest and importance to the whole agricultural community of this and the other Southern States of the confederacy. This is, the influence of the institution of do- mestic or individual slavery on manners, intel- lect, and moralo, and on the welfare of both masters and slaves; and in these respects compared to the influence of the slavery of class to class, which, in one or other form, either now prevails, or soon will occur, in every civilized country where domestic slavery is not found. The institution of domestic slavery, its ef- fects, influences and probable consequences, constitute the great and all-absorbing subject of discussion at the present time — of defensive and foo often apologetic argument in the South- ern States, and of aggressive and fierce de- nunciation throughout the Northern States of this confederacy. The subject is as broad and varied as it is important. To be fully discus- sed it would require consideration in sundry aspects, but of which each one may be treated separately and distinctly. The expediency and rightfulness of slavery may be considered either as a «[uestion of religion and morals — of public policy and political influence — or of domestic economy and influence upon private interests and on the habits and manners of so- ciety. The former and chief branches of the general question have been already discussed by able writers, to whose arguments I could add no light, even if this occasion permitted so wide a range of discussion. But the latter- named branch has had less attention, or de- fence, on our part ; and as its consideration is intimately connected with agriculture and ag- ricultural interests, in this connection mainly, and as suitable to this occasion, I will now offer some remaks upon the influence of the existing institution of African slavery, on the social qualities, manners, ftnd welfare of the agricultural class in these Southern States. This one and limited relation of sjavery to agricultural interests, requires a still further division, into 1st: The question of the com- parative pecuniary profit of slave labor, or of its absence and its substitutes ; and 2d : The question of social and moral advantages and disadvantages. The first of these subdivis- ions, important as it is to our interests, and certain and easy as would be the demonstration of the result, cannot be here discussed. Th« superior pecuniary profit of slave-labor is a subject of statistics, of calculation and detail, which would be inadmissible at this time and place. But it is not required to reach the proof through such a course of argument. I may assume as granted and unquestionable, the fact almost universally admitted in the Southern States, that slave-labor is in our cir- cumstances, more profitable to the employers, and to agricultural interests, than could be any possible substituted labor. Dismissing, then, this important suljdivision of this sub- ject as settled, I will direct my observations to private interest'^ other than pecuniary, as aff'ected by the influence of the institution of slavery. It has been a fertile subject of declamation and denunciation among the opposers of slavery, that the existence of domestic slavery operated to corrupt manners and morals. Every wide-spread and pervading institution, however beneficial in general eft"ect, must also have some adverse effect or influence in minor points, or exceptional cases. This is true in regard to every great institution of public economy, government, morals, or even reli- gion. He is a poor reasoner who judges not by general rules, but by the exceptions. And that is the mode of argument generally adopt- ed to oppose and denounce the institution of slavery. The so-called facts or premises, if not either entirely false and impossible, as is generally the case, are but rare exceptions to general rules. The great economical objections to slave labor ar« these : The compulsion of authority. and the fear of punishment, to the slave, are less potent than the pressure of want, and de- sire of gain, stimulating free laborers. Hence slaves labor less assiduously than necessitous free laboi'ers. Next, with all this loss of effort still the labor of slaves is so profitable that their owners are tempted by their prosperity and the ease of obtaining a living, to be them- selves indolent and wasteful. These are ef- fects which every where follow similar causes. Their existence is certainly a great detraction from what might otherwise be the profits of Southern agricultural industry and capital. But when this detraction is urged (as is con- tinuall}' done) by the opposers of slavery to Erove the evils of the system, they are in fact ut asserting the truths that the labors of the Southern slaves, in general, are lighter, and yet the profits of tlieir owners greater, than in regard to the corresponding classes of laborers and capitalists in Europe or the Northern States. Northern farmers who are now thriv- ing by greater economy of labor and products, would become bankrupt if subjected to the waste of both, which is general throughout the Southern States. These^evils are the effects certainly of slavery — but effects which are the strongest evidence of the greater benefits of the system, and of the falsehood of the charges against it, as a question of profit for the proprietors, or of oppression and sutt'ering of the slaves. Much is certainly wanting among the agri- cultural class of the Southern States, in educa- tion and mental culture ; and great have been and still remain the obstacles to the higher attainment of these benefits. This also is one of the attendant minor evils of the institution of slavery, caused by the necessary dispersed residences of the superior class of the popula- tion. Still, in no other class of cultivators of the soil, whether in this young and great con- federacy, or in old Europe, can there be found, in proportion to numbers, so much of mental improvement, enlargement of views, and gene- ral information, as ii^ the Southern and slave- holding States. In no other agricultural class, throughout the world, are better nurtured, or 80 weil preserved, the purity of all the domes tic and famit}' virtues of daughters, wives, and mothers. To the most intelligent and fair- judging of foreign travellers and visitors to our Southern country, who have had opportu- nities to observe domestic manners and coun- ti'y society — whether such visitors were na- tives of Europe or of our Northern and slavery- hating States, nothing has seemed more mark- ed and peculiar than facts observed, which were but illustrations of the propositions 1 have asserted, and necessary results of our peculiar social position. Yet it has not oc- curred to these intelligent strangers, who have admired and eulogised the domestic manners and refinement ot the Southern country popu- lation, that the main cause, the essential foundation of the permanence of the peculiar merits which they witnessed with surprise and admiration, are due to the institution of Afri- can slavery. It is this institution, which, by confining the drudgery and brutalizing effects of continued toil, or menial service, to the in- ferior .race, (and of which the subjection, not- withstanding, has served gi-eatly for its benefit and improvement,) gives to the su]ierior race leisure and other means to improve mind, taste, and manners. In countries where domestic slavery does not exist, (or some equivalent condition of society, such as I will advert to,) and where the owners of the soil and all mem- bers of their families are necessarily laborers in the lowest departments or most degrading menial services, there may.be much industry, greater economy and frugality, and possibly, (under the peculiarly favorable, though tran- sient circumstances of a newly settled territo- ry and cheap and fertile lands,) there may be eveu much general accumulation of profit and of wealth. But, nevertheless, such a popula- tion, of necessity, must be, or in a few genera- tions will become, rude in manners, and great- ly deficient in refinement of feeling and culti- vation of mental and social qualities. No one appreciates more highly than myself the ad- vantages to a nation of producing and accumu- lating wealth by the individual members of the great community, and especially, as the greatest public gain, the increase of agricultu- ral production and riches. To advocate and urge the forwarding of the latter results is the especial object of my present service and em- ployment, as it has been one of the most im- portant objects of all my public efforts and labors. Still, may God forbid that we should deem the accunmlation of wealth — even if from its most beneficial and best possible source, the fertilization and culture of the soil — as compensation for the loss or deteriora- tion of the mental and moral qualities of Southern men, and more especially of Southern «^ women I And if brought to the hard necessi- ty of choosing between the two conditions, with their opposite disadvantages, I would not hesitate a moment to prefer the entire existing social, domestic, and industrial conditions of these slaveholding States, with all the now existing evils of indolence and waste, and generally exhausting tillage and declining fertility, to the entire conditions of anj- other country on the face of the globe. Our coun- try population would lose largely in grade by exchanging conditions with the industi-ious, economical, and thrifty Flemish farmers — long and deservedly celebrated for the excellence of their agriculture, and who yet, beyond the routine of their regular work, are almost as uninformed as their most ignorant hired labo- rers. Far worse would be a change to the condition of the proprietary class of France, among whom land generally is so minutely subdivided, that its possession is usually ac- compained by all the toils and privations of day-laborers to the farmer and his family, and of course by the ignorance, coarseness of man- ners, and moral degradation, which are the necessary consequences of such unceasing toil, exposure, and privations. In Britain, it is true, that with much of gross ignorance and rudeness of manners among the lower class of farmers, and with all the agricultural laborers there are, in the higher classes, both of pro« prietors and tenants of lands, many persons of high intellectual attainments. But this ex ception to the general rule is owing to the almost universal mode of tenure of the landed property in that country, and the usual sepa- ration of its possession, as capital, by men of ■wealth, and leisure, and the conducting of the cultivation by tenants upon rent. Even many tenants are men of wealth, who find it more proiitable, as tenants, to conduct very large agricultural operations and capital, than the being proprietors of small farms, and upon a necessarily very limited .scale of operations. These causes are there fur ther aided in operation by the high price of land, which keeps it in the possession of the wealthy and educated, and also the great plenty and cheapness, and degradation, of agricultural labor — much cheaper in that thickly populated country than our slave la bor. Of tliese several conditions of Brilisl agriculture, serving to improve and refine the higher rural or agiicultural classes, and only the higher c]as:~es, not one exists in this coun- try, or possibly can occur for centuries to come, In the Northern and Korthwestern iStates of the confederacy, there are also to be found, (as yet, though they must certainly and soon disappear,) many proprietors and cultivators of land who are men of education and intelli- gence, and whose wives and daugliters have a high degree of refinement of maimers. But in nearly every such case, it will be fouml that this intelligence and retinement were de- rived from some previous and dift'eient tiain- ing and position; and that these qualities have been so far retained in agricultural life by the laige agricultural profits and accumu- lations of wealth available in a newly settled country. But even now, the general condition of the agricultural class in these non-slavf- holding states is much lowered, and tending to what must be hereafter a state of general and deej) degradation, in intellectual and so- cial qualities. And with them, the degrada- tion will not stop when as low as that of the tenantiy of England, or of the boors who reap rich harvests from the fat soil of Belgium. The comparative poverty of soil iji the older ^Northern states, and the general and repeated divisions of property therein, by inheritance, indicate a future condition of the proprietois more like to that of the wretched and igno- rant j)ropiietary class of France. Even now, it is comjiaratively a rare case in the Isorthcrn States to find, what is so com- mon in the Southern, a highly intelligent man, ■with a well educated and refined family, all natives of and still residing in the country, and Vjclonging strictly to the agricultural class. Such persons liave little inducement to remain in (aiid still less to commence) country life and agricultural employments in the Noitheiii States. And sliould aiiy such, perchance, be 80 situated, they must either abandon their pursuits and their locality, or be content that their children shall sink to the geiieial level of the surrounding residents, in coarse man- ners aiid uncultivated intellect. A suflBcient proof of the working of this law of circum- stances is presented continually to the world in the contrast of the representation in Con- gress from the rural districts of the Northern and Southern States respectively. The most distinguished men, and especially statesmen, of the South, have as often (at least) been na- tives and continued residents of the country as of towns — and in talent and in numbers they have far exceeded all from the North in our public councils. In the Northern States there are, indeed', many men of the highest talents, education, and learning — and, it may be, in the latter respects exceeding any in the South, because of the greater advantages of- fered by great cities for literary and scientific pursuits. But these great or learned men are either produced in or gathered to the great cities only. They are men who have acquired their just renown either .iB lawyers, physicians, divines, or professors in scientific and literary institutions. All of gi-eat intellectual power that now exists in the gieat States of Massa- chusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, is to be found in their populous cities only — and almost exclusively in their respective great capitals. Some truly great men may be (and sometimes are) turnished from these cities to aid the public councils. But never does one such come from all the twenty-fold greater country and village constituencies — which even when disposed thus to honoi- the highest talent, (which is not often the case, either in town or country — North or South) — could not possibly find among themselves any high talent to honor. The difference between the intellectual cop.difions of the Northern and Southern agricultural population, is the cause of the usual long existing and well known commanding influence in the Federal Govern- ment of the Southern States, through their representatives, in whatever measures of na- tional policy are directed by wisdom, or in- tellect, or for the benefit of general interests. But we are now much the weakest in votes; and in whatever of public policy is coimected witli sectional interests, frr still baser private selt-iiiteiest, superiorintellecthas no influence, and we arc governed by the brute force and cupidity of superior numbers. The ]icculiar defects of ^Northern agricul- tural labor in its influence on social and do- mestic relationf-, do not (as yet) forbid great pecuni;iry success in agricultural pursuits. In- deed, when no far-reaching intellectual power is lequired to devise or direct a system of cul- tuic or improvement, or while enough of such direction, derived froni former influences, yet remains in operatiloy, in- stead, the cheaper laborers furnished and tasked and driven by hunger and cold. Thus, and for these reasons, acted our English ances- tors, when manumitting their white slaves. Thus, and still better for their own interest, did our Noithern brethren. For when con- vinced that domestic slavery was too costly in their wintry region, they first sold their negro slaves to the South, and while thereaf- ter avoiding their costly use, they continued, as long as permitted by law. to "steal" new supplies from Africa to sell to the Southera States. If the former Southern demand for Africans still existed, and the African slave- trade was open b}- law — or if it were safe and profitable to violate the now prohibitory law — enough of our Nortiiern bielhren wouM be now as ready as ever to supply the demand. And if their access to the coast of Africa was prevented, they would be as willing, (if safe ana proiuauie, j lo Buj)[)iy aii uue ouiuii wiin slavee, by kidnaj)piiig the subjects of their now much desired ally, the negro Emperor of Hayti. Nearly all of the mauj' vessels which have been engaged in the African slave-trade, in violation of the prohibitory laws of the United States, wei'e fitted out for that purpose from Northern ports and by Northern capital, and ■were manned by Northern crews. This trade, since being ]irohibited and made piracy by our laws, has been carried on to supply slaves to Cuba and Biazil, with incomparably more inhumanity and cruelty, than attended tiie formerly legalized and regulated traffic. From time to time we have seen annoimced the de- tection of sundry vessels or persons engaged in this now illegal and atrocious business of torture and murder in the sea voyage; and legal proceedings have often been commenced ag.ainst the supposed ofl'enders in the North- ern cities to which they respectively belonged. But in not one such case have I ever heard of the conviction, followed by due punishment, of any of these worst of criminals. And when such detection of these acts of legal piracy are announced in Northern newspapers, it is usually done in as few words as would serve for any other commercial occurrence of inno- cent or legal character. Yet, besides the ille- gality of the trade, any one such voyage, made by the order and funds of merchants of a Northern city, would furnish more true facts of suffering, crime, and horror, than could possibly occur among all the slaves in the Southern Stales in the same length of time. No furious, popular, and philanthropic indig- nation has been aroused against these detected pirates; neither the crews and their (ounn.an- dei-s, nor the ricii capitalists, who were the owners and real traders, torturers, and mur- derers. The great gain of the trade seems to serve as a veil and excuse for its deep iiuquity. D'Wolf, who was one of the great slave-trading capitalists of Rhode Island, (while the trade was yet legal,) was not, therefore, the less a leading man of that State — as is evident from his having been subsequently elected by its Legislature to the Senate of the United States. If any such Afiican slave-trader had lived in the Southern States, all his wealth would not have lifted him to a respectable position; and he could not have obtained the lowest office, from either people or Government, as readily as did his compeer of Rhode Island attain the highest official station, and, I suppose, the highest estiniaiion, in slavery-hating and pu- ritanical New England. There are still other kinds of slavery besides those produced by force, and by want and suffering. General .ignorance leads to the corruption of a people, and of subjection of mind to mind. And this kind of slavery, as it is in eti'ect, tending to the most awful polit- ical and national evils, is alreadj' growing rap- idly in the so-called free Northern States. It is in their circumstances — of the land culti- vated and owned by an unenlightened and still deteriorating rural j)opulation — of large «ities, in Avhich, with a few men of highest lEiieiieci/uai powers, or pupujur imiuciiv;^, there is collected an enormously predomina- ting number of ignorant, needy, and unprin- opled men — when a very large proportioi^ of the population of these cities is composed, of newly arrived foreigners, often vicious and turbulent, and necessarily unacquainted with the principles of free government, and unused to freedom in any form — I say, it is certain, in such circumstances as thete, that the body of the people will be directed, governed, and in effect enslaved by a few master-minds — and these minds generally acting solely for the promotion of base self-iiiterest and personal aggrandizement. No safe-guards in written constitutions can preserve such a people from being made the tools and slaves of able politi- cal knaves and iinscrupulous demagogucF. With such po|)ulation of both towns and coun- try — with such influences at work, and their tendencies — with such unprincipled leaders and managers, and such followers — in the great State of New Yoi-k, political liberty, in effect, is already at an end; and individual property, and even life, are unsafe. If the doors of every dwelling-house in the Southern country were left niglitly without locks, or bolts, and if every slave on each farm had full command of deadly weapons, (and both such circumstances, in effect, are I'eal in innu- merable and continuing eases,) our property and our lives would be much safer from any attempts thereon by our slaves, than soon will be the property and lives of the rich people of New Tork from their destitute fel- low-citizens, notwithstanding all the protec- tion afforded by the constitution and laws of their nominal free government. Indeed, the beginning of this terrible consummatiorf is alrfady clear!}' indicated in tiie successful pro- gress of the anti-rent-paying combination and movement of the State of New York. For many years, numerous occupiers of rented lands have openly and avowedly leagued to withhold the payment of the rents due to the proprietors, and yet hold to the land. The laws have been trampleil u]>on by this feloni- ous league, and the decrees of courts frus- trated or silenced. The agents of the pro- prietors and creditors have been outrageously maltreated, (as would have been th<^]iiinci- pals, had they dared to appear,) and the offi- cers of justice, when attempting to enforce legal processes, have been resisted by ur i g, and in some cases have been murdered by these detiers of the laws. Growing more powerful and bold witli time and success, these anti-renters have assinned a political (losition and organization, and thus exeicise great influence in state elections. And as a crowning act of triumph, the}' were enabled to secure the election of a candidate for the Chief Magisti'ftcy, upon the undeistood en- gagement of that eandiarenls and children, who are monsters in human shape, and who can avail themselves of these respective characters to perpelrate the most horrible crimes, and inflict the direst calamities on helpless and innocent sufferers, who would, therefore, condemn, and strive to abolish, the institution of marriage, or the sub- jection of children to parents? The legal in malignant and more powerful enemies, should stitution of apprenticeship, prevailing among €ver succeed in abolishing this institution in] every civilized and refined people^ is precisely slavery, only limited in the time of duration. In this generally beneficial relation of master and apprentice — and not less among the North- ern philanthropists than elsewhere — there oc- cur numerous cases of great injustice and cruelty, and of extreme and unmerited suffer- ing. Yet, who, among these even sincere wor- shippei-s of a sickly philanthropy, has proposed as the proper safeguard against such particular cases of oppression and crime, the abolition of the entire system of apprenticeship. Judging from the early existence and con- tinued duration of the institution of domestic Blavery — its almost universal extension — its beneficial influence in subduing barbarism and savage indolence and ignorance — in inducing the culture and improvement of the earth, and promotingtheindustry, civilization, refinement and general well-being of mankind — it seems to me an inevitable deduction, that the insti- tution of slavery is as surely and manifestly established by the wise and benevolent design of God, as the institution of marriage and of parental rule — and it is next to these, and in- ferior to these only, in producing important benefits to mankind. To the direct aid of do- mestic slavery, every cultivated portion of the earth, owes its first improvement, and every civilized people their first emerging from bar- barism. The only exceptions to the existence (past or present) and operation of this great element of improvement, are to be found among the most rude and ignorant of savage tribes, such as the aboriginal inhabitants of North America and Australia. And if it had ever been, since the creation of man, that all man- kind had been sunk in that lowest depth of barbarism, they would have so continued to this day, if without the aid of the institution of domestic slavery, for their improvement, or otherwise, the still more direct exercise of the miraculous, as well as benevolent power of Almighty God. 'K4 ^ V.^ M ipj, 4? ,.,^^\^^»<^ V/ /^\ %..^^ ^^^<^ V ^^'\ -^^^^ • u ^ ♦'•^ > -^x?. .<^ '■ ^^^^^ %.**»i^**\°^ .. V **'^»To^\-?>'^^ '^^^''''^If® ...'^<^'*'« ^^0^ /yA »