The Impending Crisis of the South

l, in the great family of man. Neither is it our design to launch into a philosophical disquisition on the laws and principles of light and darkness, with a

d wrong, to point out the propriety of morality and its advantages over immorality, nor to waste time in pressing a uni

same auspices, and with equal natural advantages, we find the one rising to a degree of almost unexampled power and eminence, and the other sinking into a state of comparative imbecility and obscurity, it is our determination to trace o

e and two hundred years, and as one who would rather have his native clime excel than be excelled, we feel constrained to confess that we are deeply abashed and chagrined at the disclosures of the comparison thus instituted. At the time of the adopt

K AND V

York amounted to $2,505,465; the exports of Virginia amounted to $3,130,865. In 1852, the exports of New York amounted to $87,484,456; the exports of Virginia, during the same year, amounted to only $2,724,657. In 1790, the imports of New York and Virginia were about equal; in 1853, the imports of New York amounted to the enormous sum of $178,270,999; while those of Virginia, for the same period, amount

of New-York amounted in valuation to $511,740,491, showing that New

own sons? He still lives; he

records of former days show that at a period not very remote, Virginia stood pre-eminently the first commercial State in the Union; when her commerce exceeded in amount that of all the New England States combined; when the City of Norfolk owned more than one hund

,568. In about the same ratio does the value of the agricultural products and live stock of New-York exceed the value of the agricultural products and live stock of Virgin

TS AND NORT

is considerably larger than the State of New-York. Massachusetts and North Carolina each have a harbor, Boston and Beaufort, which harbors, with the States that back them, are, by nature, possessed of about equal capacities and advantages for commercial and manufacturing enterprise. Boston has grown to be the second commercial city in the Union; her ships, freighted with the useful an

r benighted shore have her merchants and mariners ever hoisted our national ensign, or spread the arts of civilization and peaceful industry? What changes worthy of note have taken place in the physical features of her superficies since "the evening and the morning were the third day?" But we will make no further attempt to

of the entire cotton crop of all the Southern States! In 1850, the cash value of all the farms, farming implements and machinery in Massachusetts, was $112,285,931; the value of the same in North Carolina, in the same year, was only $71,823,298. In 1850, the value of all the real and personal estate in Massachusetts, without recognizing property in man, or setting a monetary price on the head of a single citizen, white or black, amounted to $573,342,286; the value of the same in North Carolina, including negroes, amounted to only $226,800,472. In 1856, the real and personal estate assessed in the City of Boston amounted in valuation to

at impedes their progress, and bring into action a new policy which will lead them from poverty and ignorance to wealth and intellectual greatness, and which will shield them not only from the rebukes of their own co

IA AND SOU

the metropolis of South Carolina. This was all very proper. Charleston had a spacious harbor, a central position, and a mild climate; and from priority of settlement and business connections, to say nothing of other advantages, she enjoyed greater facilities for commercial transactions than Philadelphia. She had a right to get custom wherever she could find it, and in securing so valuable a customer as the Quaker City, she exhibited no small degree of laudable enterprise. But why did she not maintain her

ions, and fine silks and satins; no Quaker dame now wears drab apparel of Charleston importation. Like all other niggervilles in our disreputable part of the confederacy, the commercial emporium of South Carolina is sick and impoverished; her silver cord has been loosed; her golden bowl has been broken; and h

the imports into Philadelphia, which, in foreign trade, ranks at present but fourth among the commercial cities of the union, were $21,963,021. In 1850, the product

9,144,998; the value of the same in South Carolina, including the estimated-we were about to say fictitious-value of 384,925 negroes, amounted to only $288,257,694. We have not been able to obtain the figures necessary to show the exact value of the real and personal estate in Philadelphia, but the amount is estimated to be not less than $300,000,000; and as, in 1850, there were 408,762 free inhabitants in the single city of Philadelphia, against 283,544 of the same class, in the whole state of South Carolina, it is quite evident that the former is more pow

is something wrong, socially, politically and morally wrong, in the policy under which the South has so long loitered and languished. Else, how is it that the North, under the operatio

the people, and we are determined that it shall rest where it belongs. More on this subject, however, after a brief but general survey of the inequalities and disparities that exist between those two grand d

ND THE SLA

ot only the larger proportion of those born within their own limits, but induce, annually, hundreds of thousands of foreigners to settle and remain amongst them; that almost everything produced at the North meets with ready sale, while, at the same time, there is no demand, even among our own citizens, for the productions of Southern industry; that, owing to the absence of a proper system of business amongst us, the North becomes, in one way or another, the proprietor and dispenser of all our floating wealth, and that we are dependent on Northern capitalists for the means necessary to build our ra

pens, ink, paper, wafers and envelopes, and we go to the North; we want shoes, hats, handkerchiefs, umbrellas and pocket knives, and we go to the North; we want furniture, crockery, glassware and pianos, and we go to the North; we want toys, primers, school books, fashionable apparel, machinery,

wealth, energies and talents in the dishonorable vocation of entailing our dependence on our children and on our children's children, and, to the neglect of our own interests and the interests of those around us, in giving aid and succor to every department of Northern power; in the decline of life we remedy our eye-sight with No

helpless as babes; that, in comparison with the Free States, our agricultural resources have been greatly exaggerated, misunderstood and mismanaged; and that, instead of cultivating among ourselves a wise policy of mutual assistance and co-operation with respect to individuals, and of self-reliance with respect to the South at large, inste

fe, has fallen far behind her competitor, and now ranks more as the dependency of a mother country than as the equal confederate of free and independent States. Following the order of ou

H HAS SURPAS

he South, born and bred in North Carolina, of a family whose home has been in the valley of the Yadkin for nearly a century and a half, a Southerner by instinct and by all the influences of thought, habits, and kindred, and with the desire and fixed purpose to reside permanently within the limits of the South, and with the expectation o

merce, and other similar pursuits, into the most contemptible insignificance; sunk a large majority of our people in galling poverty and ignorance, rendered a small minority conceited and tyrannical, and driven the rest away from their homes; entailed upon us a humiliating dependence on the Free States;

rying our opposition to the institution a step further, we here unhesitatingly declare ourself in favor of its immediate and unconditional abolition, in every state in this confederacy, where it now exists! Patriotism makes us a freesoiler; state pride makes us an emancipationist; a profound sense of duty to the South makes us an abolitionist; a reasonable degree of fellow feeling for the negro, makes us a colonizationist. With the free state men in Kanzas and Nebraska, we sympathize with all our heart. We love the wh

acted with perfect calmness and deliberation; we have carefully considered, and examined the reasons for and against the institution, and have also taken into account the probable consequences of our decisio

t we shall shrink from no responsibility, and do nothing unbecoming a man; we know how to repel indignity, and if assaulted, shall not fail to make the blow recoil upon the aggressor's head. The road we

enetrative to divine the future so far as to be able to see that the "peculiar institution" has but a short, and, as heretofore, inglorious existence before it. Time, the righter of every wrong, is ripening events for the d

e should be neither evasion, vacillation, nor equivocation. We should listen to no modifying terms or compromises that may be proposed by the proprietors of the unprofitable and ungodly institution. Nothing short of the complete abolition of slavery can save the South from falling into the vortex of utter ruin. Too long have we yielded a submissive obedience to the tyrannical do

ain us in our conclusions. But before we do so, we desire to fortify ourself against a charge that is too frequently made by careless and superficial readers. We allude to the objections so often urged against the use of tabular statements and statistical facts. It is worthy of note, however, that those objections never come from thorough scholars or profound thinkers. Among the majority of mankind, the sci

plained its social condition than general statements, however graphic or however accurate. When such statements began to be collected, and exhibited in a popular form, it was soon discovered that the political and economical sciences were likely to gain the position of physical sciences; that is to say, they were about to obtain records of observation, which would test the accuracy of recognized principles, and lead to the discovery of new modes of action. But the great object of this new science is to lead to the knowledge of human nature; that is, to ascertain the general course of operation of man's mental and moral faculties, and to furnish us with a correct standard of judgment, by enabling us to determine the average amount of the past a

and practical learning, who, in his excellent Review, has, from time to time, displayed much commendable zeal in his efforts to develop

se them. They constitute rather the ledger of a nation, in which, like the merchant in his books, the citizen can read, at one view, all of the results of a

its moral and religious aspects that we propose to discuss the question of slavery, as in its social and political character and influences. To say nothing of the sin and the shame of slavery, we believe it is a most expensive and unprofitable institution; and if our brethren of the South will but throw aside their unfounded prejudices and preconceived opinions, and give us a fair and patient hearing, we feel confident that we can bring them to the same conclusion. Indeed, we believe we shall be enabled-not alone by our own contributions, but with the aid of incontestable facts and arguments which we shall introduce from other sources-to convince all true-hearted, candid and intelligent Southerners, who may chance to read o

institution with the most signal success. If let alone, we have no doubt the digits themselves would soon terminate the existence of slavery; but we do not mean to let them alone; they must not have all the honor of annihilating the monstrous iniquity. We want to become an auxiliary in the good work, and facilitate it. The liberation of five millions of "poor white trash" from the second degree of slavery, and of three millions of miserable kidnapped negroes from the first degree, cannot be accomplished too soon. That it was not accomplished many years ago is our misfortu

r importance in this respect, that they speak of the North as a sterile region, unfit for cultivation, and quite dependent on the South for the necessaries of life! Such rampant ignorance ought to be knocked in the head! We can prove that the North produces greater quantities of bread-stuffs than the South! Figures shall show the facts. Properly, the South has nothing left to boast of; the North has surpassed her in everyt

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE F

es.

els.

. India

sh

ia 17,22

41,762 1,258

4,575 10,087,

4,458 5,655,

581 1,524,3

59 2,181,03

31,211 1,165

25,889 2,866

185,658 973,

601,190 3,378

21,498 26,552

351 13,472,7

,367,691 21,538

nd 49 215,

,955 2,307,

86,131 3,414,

96,590,371

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE S

es.

els.

. India

sh

044 2,965,69

9,639 656,1

2,511 604,5

027 66,586

8,534 3,820,

2,822 8,201,3

417 89,637

4,680 2,242,1

37,990 1,503,

1,652 5,278,0

2,130,102 4,052

1,066,277 2,322

19,386 7,703,

29 199,017

12,616 10,179

49,882,979

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE F

Potato

bush

ls. B

sh

nia 10,

2,689,805 60

672,294 83,

285,048 78

,363 19,

6,040 102,

3,585,384 48

361,074 105

e 4,307,919

,715,251 1,2

03,997 4,148,

,760 425,9

6,032,904 4,8

d 651,029 2

951,014 17

,402,956 81

12,575,62

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE S

Potato

bush

ls. B

sh

721,205 17

981,981

305,985

765,05

213,807 53

490,666 415

na 1,52

973,932 2

i 5,003,27

,274,511 4

na 5,716,027

na 4,473,960

3,845,560

26,803 3,

130,567 458

0 1,608,2

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE F

. Buck

. Beans

. Clove

ds

ornia

229,297 19

84,509 82,

49,740 35

,516 4,

,523 205,

ts 105,895

72,917 74,

re 65,265 7

878,934 1

183,955 741

060 60,16

2,193,692 5

nd 1,245 6

9,819 104,

79,878 2

1,542,29

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE S

. Buck

. Beans

. Clove

ds

348 89

175 285

8,615 4

a 55 1

250 1,14

6,097 202,

na 3 16

03,671 12,

i 1,121 1,

23,641 46

na 16,704 1,

lina 283 1

19,427 369

59 179

14,898 521

7,637,22

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE F

s. Fl

. Val.

. Val. o

duc

ia $75,2

t 703 196,

0,787 127,

6,888 72,

959 8,8

0 122,38

tts 72 600

519 14,73

ire 189 56

16,525 475,

,963 912,04

880 214,0

a 41,728 68

land 98,

939 18,8

1,191 32

3,714,605

NO.

ODUCTS OF THE S

s. Fl

. Val.

. Val. o

duc

69 $84,8

321 17,

904 12,

a 8,72

622 76,5

5,801 303,

a 148,32

,446 200,8

pi 26 46,

3,696 99,4

ina 38,196

lina 55 47

18,904 97,

6 12,35

2,318 183,

1,377,260

ATION-FRE

86 bush. @ 1.5

,371 " " 40

2,618,650 " "

S.) 59,033,170

623 " " 1.0

2,013 " " 9

550,245 " "

1,542,295 " "

eeds 762,265 "

358,923 " "

roducts

Products

ushels, valued as a

ATION-SLA

476 bush. @ 1

,799 " " 40

8,992,282 " "

S.) 44,847,420

240 " " 1.

1,907 " "

405,357 "

,637,227 " " 1

seeds 123,517

203,484 " "

roducts

Products

ushels, valued as a

NCE-BUSHEL-ME

ls. V

499,190,041

481,766,889

7,423,152 Difference

account shows a balance against the South, in favor of the North, of seventeen million four hundred and twenty-three thousand one hundred and fifty-two bushels, and a difference in value of forty-four million seven hundred and eighty-two thousand six hundred and thirty-six dollars. Please bear these facts in mind, for, in order to show positively how the free and slave States do stand upon the great and important subject of rural economy, we

ctable, profitable, and productive, than slave labor. In the South, unfortunately, no kind of labor is either free or respectable. Every white man who is under the necessity of earning his bread, by the sweat of his brow, or by manual labor, in any capacity, no matter how unassuming in deportment, or exemplary in morals, is treated as if he was a loathsome beast, and shu

king deeper and deeper in the depths of poverty and shame; while, at the same time, we see the North, our successful rival, extracting and absorbing the few elements of wealth yet remaining amongst us, and rising higher and higher in the scale of fame, fortune, and invulnerable power. Thus our disappointment gives way to a feeling of intense mortification, and our soul involuntarily, but justly, we believe, cries out for retribution against the treacherous, slave-driving legislators, who have so basely and unpatriotically neglected the interests of their poor white constituents and bargained away the rights of posterity. Notwithstanding the fact that the white non-slaveholders of the South, are i

of liberty, and turn the curse of slavery into a blessing. To the illiterate poor whites-made poor and ignorant by the system of slavery-they hold out the idea that slavery is the very bulwark of our liberties, and the foundation of American independence! For hours at a time, day after day, will they expatiate upon the inexpressible beauties and excellencies of this great, free and independent nation; and finally, with the most extravagant gesticulations and rhetorical flourishe

perpetuated. How little the "poor white trash," the great majority of the Southern people, know of the real condition of the country is, indeed, sadly astonishing. The truth is, they know nothing of public measures, and little of private affairs, except what their imperious masters, the slave-drivers, condescend

ll conflicting with the gospel of slavery, dooms them at once in the community in which they live, and then, whether willing or unwilling, they are obliged to become heroes, martyrs, or exiles. They may thirst for knowledge, but there is no Moses among them to smite it out of the rocks of Horeb. The black veil, through whose almost impenetrable meshes light seldom gleams, has long been pendent over their eyes, and there

s that they are cajoled into the notion that they are the freest, happiest and most intelligent people in the world, and are taught to look with prejudice and disapprobation upon every new p

m the truth in the general reckoning. We can prove, and we intend to prove, from facts in our possession, that the hay crop of the free States is worth considerably more in dollars and cents than all the cotton, tobacco, rice, hay and hemp produced in the fifteen slave States. This statement may strike some of our readers with amazement, and others may, for the moment, regard it as quite incredible; but it is true, nevertheless, and we shall soon proceed to con

re is an uninterrupted barren waste, and that our Northern brethren, having the advantage in nothing except wealth, population, inland and foreign commerce, manufactures, mechanism

umption, about two-thirds, is chiefly brought from New-York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. At this rate, Maryland receives and consumes not less than three hundred and fifteen thousand tons of Northern hay every year; and this, as we are informed by the dealers above-mentioned, at an average cost to the last purchaser,

ree hundred and twenty-five, valued at seven hundred and forty-six thousand four hundred dollars. Briefly, then, and in round numbers, we may state the case thus: Maryland buys annuall

our eyes and hear with our ears wherever we go. Food from the North for man or for beast, or for both, is for sale in every market in the South. Even in the most insignificant little villages in the interior of the slave States, where books, newspapers and other mediums of intelligence are unknown, where the poor whites and the negroes are alike bowed down in heatheni

are far greater than those arising to the South from the sale of cotton, tobacco and breadstuffs to the North. It follows, then, that the agricultural interests of the North being not only equal but actually superior to those of the South, the hundreds of millions of dollars which the commerce and manufactures of the former annua

sively agricultural as the South is in her industrial pursuits, she is barely able to support her sparse and degenerate population. Her men and her domestic animals, both dwarfed into shabby objects of commiseration under the blighting effects of slavery, are constantly feeding on the multifarious products of Northern soil. And if the whole truth must be told, we may here add, that these products, like all oth

icultural Society of Orange County, North Carolina. This production is, in the main, so powerfully conceived, so correct and plausible in its statements and conclusions, and so well calculated, though, perhaps, not intended, to arouse the old

pulation is almost exclusively devoted to agriculture, is a most humiliating exhibition. Let us cease to use every thing, as far as it is practicable, that is not the product of our own soil and workshops-not an axe, or a broom, or bucket, from Connecticut. By every consideration of self-preservation, we are called to make better efforts to

twenty-five dollars, in their market. Four or five months ago they sold it at thirty dollars per ton. At the very time we write, though there is less activity in the article than usual, we learn, from an examination of sundry prices-current and commercial journals, that hay is selling in Savannah at $33 per ton; in Mobile and New Orleans at $26; in Charleston at $25; in Louisville at $24; and in Cincinnati at $23. The average of these prices is twenty-six dollars sixteen and two-third cents; and we suppose it

he truth of our declaration-that the former exceeds the aggregate value of all the cotton, tobacco, rice, hay and hemp produced in the fifteen slave States? Suppose we take $13,08?-just half the average value-as the multiplier in this arithmetical exercise. This we can well a

half the present market value;-and this, too, in the face of the fact that prices generally rule higher than they do just now. It will be admitted on all sides, however, that the prices fixed upon by the Bureau of Agriculture, taken as a whole, are as fair for one section of the country as for the other, and that we cannot blamelessly deviate from them in one particular without deviating from them in another. Eleven dollars

THE FREE S

ons a 11,20

TS OF THE SLA

79 bales a 32,

23,906 lbs. "

15,313,497 lbs

4 tons " 11,

tons " 112

,133,000 lbs.

,605

ITULA

he free State

of the slave S

r of the free S

avery. Examine it minutely, liberty-loving patriots of the North, and behold in it additional evidences of the beauty, grandeur, and super-excellence of free institutions. Treasure it up in your minds, outraged friends and non-slaveholders of the South,

deceived populace, they may cease their stale and senseless harangues on the importance of cotton. The value of cotton to the South, to the North, to the nation, and to the world, has been so grossly exaggerated, and so extensive have been the evils which have resulted in consequenc

under the earth, depended on it. The truth is, however, that the cotton crop is of but little value to the South. New England and Old England, by their superior enterprise and sagacity, turn it chiefly to their own advantage. It is carried in their ships, spun in their factories, woven in their looms, insured in their offices, re

the amount of capital they have invested. While in Virginia, very recently, an elderly slaveholder, whose religious walk and conversation had recommended and promoted him to an eldership in the Presbyterian church, and who supports himself and family by raising niggers and tobacco, told us that, for the last eight or ten years, aside from the increase of his human chattels, he felt quite confident he had not cleared as much even as one per cent. per annum on the amount of his investment. The real and personal property of this aged Christian consists chiefly in a large tract of land and about thirty negroes, most of whom, according to his own confession, are more expensive than profitable. The proceeds arising from the sale of the tobacco they produce, are all absorbed in the purchase of meat and bread for home consumption, and when the crop is stunted by drought, frost, or otherwise cut short, one of th

on the subject. His testimony is eminently suggestive, well-timed, and truthful; and we heartily commend it to the careful consideration

n smaller profits, and to give their blasted fields some rest, are thus pushing off the many who are merely independent. Of the $20,000,000 annually realized from the sales of the cotton crop of Alabama, nearly all not expended in supporting the producers, is re-invested in land and negroes. Thus the white population has decreased and the slave increased almost pari passu in several counties of our State. In 1825, Madison county cast about 3,000 votes; now, she cannot cast exceeding 2,300. In traversing that county, one will discover numerous farm-houses, once the abode of industrious and intelligent freeme

slavery in the Southwest; and we, as a native of Carolina, and a traveler through Virginia, are ready to bear testimony to the fitness of his remarks when he referred to those States as examples of senility and decay. With equal propriety, however, he might have stopped nearer home for a subject of compari

ork and Massachusetts, which, by nature, are confessedly far inferior to Virginia and the Carolinas, have, by the more liberal and equitable polic

esty to step forward and proclaim the truth. All such frank admissions are to be hailed as good omens for the South. Nothing good can come from any attempt to conceal the unconcealable evidences of poverty and desolation everywhere trailing in the wake of slavery. Let the truth be to

in the murky sloughs of poverty and ignorance, and in instilling into their untutored minds passions and prejudices expressly calculated to strengthen and protect the accursed institution of slavery; but, thanks to heaven, their inglorious reign is fast drawing to a close; with irresistible brilliancy, and in spite of the interdict of tyrants, light from the pure fountain of k

o her, and that her superiority over the North in an agricultural point of view makes amends for all her shortcomings in other respects. On the other hand, we contend that many years of continual blushing and severe penance would not suffice to cancel or annul the shame and disgrace that justly attaches to the South in consequence of slavery-the direst evil that e'er befell the land-that the South bears nothing like even a respectable approximation to the North in navigation, commerce, or manufactures, and that, contrary to the opinion entertained by ninety-nine hundredths of her people, she is far behind the free States in the only thing of which she

d in the preceding tables. Whether slavery will appear to better advantage on the scales than it did in the half-bushel, remains to be seen. It is possible that the rickety monster may make a better show on a new track; if it makes a more ridiculous display, we shall not be surprised. A careful examination of its precedents, has taught us the folly of expecting anything good to issue from it in any manner whatever. It

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE F

tons Hemp,

ornia

icut 51

s 601,9

403,23

89,05

755,88

etts 651,

n 404,9

hire 598,

ey 435,9

,728,797 4

43,142 1

ia 1,842,9

sland 7

866,15

n 275,66

82 198 3

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE S

tons Hemp,

a 32,6

s 3,976

re 30,

da 2,

a 23,4

113,747 1

ana 25

157,956

ppi 12,5

116,925 1

lina 145,6

rolina 2

e 74,091

s 8,

369,098 1

84 34,6

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE F

es.

Maple

Tob

b

ornia

17,928 50,

60,063 248

,469 2,921,

660 78,4

17,081

ts 1,162 79

,152 2,439

ire 7,652

y 182,965

0,577 10,35

2 4,588,209

530,307 2,3

Island

20,852 6

68,393 610

32,161,799

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE S

es.

Maple

Tob

b

3,921 64

12,291 9,

are 1

a 50 9

5,387 50

00,116 437,4

ana 25

,686 47,740

ippi 66

7,160 178,9

a 593,796 27,

olina 333

8,131 158,55

1,048

0,450 1,227,6

2,088,687

NO.

TS OF THE FRE

es.

Butte

lbs. Bee

ey,

rnia 5

497,454 11,8

50,113 13,80

0,287 13,506

98 2,381,0

,034 11,678

585,136 15,1

43,283 8,077

1,108,476 10,1

75,396 9,852

71,301 129,50

,371 55,268

4,481,570 42,

129,692 1,3

0,717 20,858

53,963 4,03

349,860,7

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE S

es.

Butte

lbs. Bee

ey,

,118 4,040,

2,595 1,884

7,768 1,05

3,247 389

,019 4,687,

7,433 10,161,

109,897 68

7,438 3,810

559,619 4,36

27,164 8,037

a 970,738 4,2

a 487,233 2,9

64,378 8,317,

917 2,440,

69,765 11,52

68,634,22

E NO

ODUCTS OF THE S

Cotton

lbs. Ca

00lbs. R

b

64,429 87

s 65,34

la

,131 2,750

9,091 846

y 758 1

78,737 226,

ry

i 484,292

ouri

lina 50,54

na 300,901 7

194,532

,072 7,3

a 3,947

237,133

ATION-FRE

,680 lbs. @ ?

520 " " 5

,176 " " 1

,278 " " 1

2,161,799 " "

52,087 " " 1

,211 " " 35

e 349,860,783 "

ey 6,888,368 "

02 lbs., valued as

ATION-SLA

,160 lbs. @ ?

,520 " " 5

780 " "

,198 " " 1

2,088,687 "

23,906 " " 10

,329 " " 35

e 68,634,224 " "

ey 7,964,760 "

11,600 " " 8

7,133,000 " "

15,313,497 " "

lbs., valued as ab

NCE-POUND-MEA

ds.

8,878,064,902

4,338,370,6

539,694,241 Difference

be had to an almost inconceivable number; billions must be called into play; and there are the figures telling us, with unmistakable emphasis and distinctness, that, in this department of agriculture, as in every other, the North is vastly the superior of the South-the figures showing a total balance in favor of the fo

to do. Additional proofs are at hand. Slaveholders and slave-breeders shall be convinced, confuted, convicted, and converted. They shall, in their hearts and consciences, if not with their tongues and pens, bear testimony to the triumphant achievements of free labor. In the two tables which immediately follow these remarks, they shall see how much more vigorous and fruitful the soil is when under the prudent management of free white husbandmen, than it is when under the rude and nature-murdering tillage of enslaved negroes; and in two subsequent tables they shall find that the live stoc

E NO

E ON THE AVERAGE IN

es.

els.

els.

s. Ind

Irish P

sh

ticut

11 29 1

12 20

14 36

10 2

etts 16 2

n 10 26

shire 11

rsey 1

12 25 1

12 21

vania 1

Island

t 13 2

sin 14

107 43

NO.

E ON THE AVERAGE IN

es.

els.

els.

s. Ind

Irish P

sh

a 5 12

nsas

are 1

ida

5 18 7

y 8 18

sian

d 13 21

ippi 9

i 11 26

olina 7 1

rolina 8

ee 7 19

15 2

a 7 13

9 63 2

TUAL CROPS PER ACRE

TES. SLA

per acre. Wheat 9

" " Oa

" " Rye

31 " " India

125 " " Irish P

States than it is in the slave States. Examine the table at large, and you will perceive that while Massachusetts produces sixteen bushels of wheat to the acre, Virginia produces only seven; that Pennsylvania produces fifteen and Georgia only five: that while Iowa produces thirty-six bushels of oats to the acre, Mississippi produces only twelve; that Rhode Island produces thirty, and North Carolina only ten: that while Ohio produces twenty-five bushels of rye to the acre, Kentucky produces

NO.

OMESTIC ANIMALS IN T

s. Va

k. Val. o

d. Cash Va

Imp.

,351,058 $107

467,490 2,202,

09,258 4,972,

8,555 6,567,9

275 821,164

726 1,646,77

,647,710 2,500,

8,734 1,328,3

8,871,901 1,52

679,291 2,638,

0,499 13,573,8

741 7,439,24

,500,053 8,219,

1,532,637 667

3,228 1,861,3

897,385 920,

$56,990,237 $

E NO

OMESTIC ANIMALS IN T

s. Va

k. Val. o

d. Cash Va

Imp.

0,112 $4,823,4

7,969 1,163,3

49,281 373,6

80,058 514,

8,416 6,339,7

61,436 6,462,

152,275 1,458

7,634 1,954,8

,403,662 3,636

87,580 3,367,

17,717,647 5,76

15,060,015 3,50

78,016 6,401,7

,927 1,116,1

56,659 7,502,

$54,388,377 $

ATION-FRE

ive Stock

als slaughter

ing-Implements and M

76,4

ATION-SLA

ive Stock

als slaughter

ing Implements and M

92,1

ALUE-FARMS AND

tes $2,5

ates 1,4

of the Free Sta

the bushel-and-pound-measure products, we shall have a very correct idea of the extent to which the undivided agricultural interests

L IN FAVOR

lue of bushel-measur

lue of pound-measure

e of farms and domesti

$1,188

n the former being twenty-five hundred million of dollars, that of those in the latter only fourteen hundred million, leaving a balance in favor of the free States of one billion one hundred and eighty-eight million two hundred and ninety-nine thousand eight hundred and three dollars! That is what we call a full, fair and complete vindication of Free Labor. Would we not be correct in calling it a total eclipse of the Black Orb? Can it be possible that the slavocracy w

have had the fullest opportunities to exert their influence, to exhibit their virtues, and to commend themselves to the sober judgments of enlightened and discriminating minds. Had we counted the Territories on the side of the North, and the District of Columbia on the side of the South, the result would have been still greater in behalf of free labor. Though "the sum of all villanies" has but a mere nominal existence in D

hed in the balance, and found wanting; it has been measured in the half-bushel, and found wanting; it has been apprized in the field, and

value of the milk, wine, ardent spirits, malt liquors, fluids, oils, and molasses, annually produced and sold in the free States, is at least fifty millions of dollars greater than the value of the same articles annually produced and sold in the slave State

-ware used in the Southern States is manufactured in New England; that, in outrageous disregard of the natural rights and claims of Southern mechanics, the markets of the South are forever filled with Northern furniture, vehicles, ax helves, walking canes, yard-sticks, clothes-pins and pen-holders; that the extraordinary number of factories, steam-engines, forges and machine-shops in the free States, require an extraordinary quantity of cord-wood; that a large majority of the magnificent edifices and other structures, both private and public, in which timber, in its various forms, is extensively used, are to be found in the free States-we say, let all these things be remembered, and the truth will at once flash across the mind that the forests of the North are a so

e salt of New-York, the marble and freestone quarries of New England are, incredible as it may seem to those unacquainted with the facts, far more important sources of revenue than all the subterranean deposits in the slave States. From the most reliable statistics within our reach, we are led to the inference that the total value of all the precious metals, rocks, minerals, and medicinal waters, annually ext

vail is all this latent wealth? Of what avail will it ever be, so long as slavery is permitted to play the dog in the manger? To these queries there can be but one reply. Slavery must be suppressed; the South, so great and so glorious by nature, must be reclaimed from her infamy

other subjects admonishes us to be concise upon this point, we shall present only a few of the more striking instances. In the first place, let us compare the crops of wheat and

TUC

bus. Ry

40 4,803,1

2,142,82

330 bus. Decrea

NES

us. Toba

0 4,569,692

,619,386

306 bus. Decrea

GIN

us. Toba

0 1,482,799

458,930

69 bus. Decrease

AB

bus. Ry

840 838,0

294,04

08 bus. Decrea

the several states of the confederacy. Let it be distinctly understood, however, that, in the compilation of these tables, three million two hundred and four thousand three hundred and thirteen negroes are valued as personal property, and credited

E NO

D EXPENDITURE OF T

Real and

Revenue. E

2,161,872 $36

55,707,980 15

,265,006 736

50,264 1,283,

4,638 139,

77,571 744,

573,342,286

,787,255 54

103,652,835

53,151,619 1

,309,216 2,698

,120 3,016,4

29,144,998 7,7

80,508,794 12

205,049 185

,056,595 135

08 $18,725,2

E NO

EXPENDITURE OF THE

Real and

Revenue. E

,204,332 $65

,841,025 68

re 18,

,198,734 6

425,714 1,14

,628,456 779

,998,764 1,14

217,364 1,279

28,951,130 22

,247,707 326

226,800,472 2

288,257,694 5

7,454,704 50

62,340 140

646,438 1,265

37 $8,343,71

the Free States

lave States, including

of the Free State

are, indeed, too full of meaning to be passed by without comment. The two tables from which they are borrowed are at least a volume within themselves; and, after al

we may suppose that future generations will be enabled, by intuition, to discriminate between the true and the false, the good and the bad, and that with the development of this faculty of the mind, error and discord will begin to wane, and finally cease to exist. Of all the experiments that have been tried by the people in America, slavery has proved the most fatal; and the sooner it is abolis

is the cu

ing wherewith w

six million eighty-one thousand three hundred and seventy-one dollars greater than the total value of all the real and personal property, including the price of 3,204,313 negroes, of the slave States, which have an area of 851,508 square miles! But extraordinary as this difference is in favor of the No

ticians, some of whom have not hesitated to buy and sell their own sons and daughters, boast that the slaves of the South are worth sixteen hundred million of dollars, and we have seen the amount estimated as high as two thousand million. Mr. De Bow, the Southern superintendent of the seventh census, informs us that the value of all the property in the slave States, real and personal, including slaves, was, in 1850, only $2,936,090,737; while, according to the same authority, the value of all the real and personal property in the free States, genuine property, property that is everywhere recognized as property, was, at the

lave States, including

e of the Slave

the Slave State

the Free States

the Slave State

of the Free Sta

us death!" In the great struggle for wealth that has been going on between the two rival systems of free and slave labor, the balance above exhibits the net profits of the former. The struggle on the one side has been calm, laudable, and eminently s

vers, harbors, minerals, forests, and, indeed, almost every other natural resource, began an even race with the North in all the important pursuits of life; and now, in the brief space of s

y-five million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum. During the last twenty-five or thirty years, however, our annual losses have been far greater than they were formerly. There has been a gradual increase every year, and now the ratio of increase is almost incredible. No patriotic Southerner can become conversant with the facts without experiencing a feeling of alarm and indignation. Until the North abolished slavery, she had no advantage of us whatever; the South was more than her equal in every respect. But no sooner had she got rid of that hampering and pernicious institution than she began to absorb our wealth, and now it is confidently belie

thousand Europeans in the free States, all of whom are free laborers, we might bring Southern authority to back us in estimating their value at sixty-two hundred million of dollars-a handsome sum wherewithal to offset the account of sixteen hundred million of dollars, brought forward as the value of Southern slaves! It is obvious, therefore, that if we were disposed to follow the barbarian example of the traffickers in human flesh, we could prove the North vastly richer than the South in bone an

ollowing eloquent passage, exhibiting the philosophy of free and slave labor, fr

ect and of invention he has to aid him in his work, and employ his physical strength to the greatest possible advantage. Free labor receives an immediate reward, which cheers and invigorates it; and above all, it has that chief spring of exertion, hope, whose bow always spans the heaven before it. It has an inviolate hearth; it has a home. But it looks forward to a still better condition, to brighter prospects in the future, to which its efforts all contribute. The children in such a household are chief inducements to nerve the arm of labor, that they may be prope

rts, or embellish it with the adornments of taste. He does not read. He does not journey for pleasure. Inducements to exertion, he has none. That he may adapt himself to his condition, and enjoy the present hour, he deadens those aspirations that must always be baffled in his case, and sinks down into ease and sensuality. His mind is unlighted and untutored; dark with ignorance. Among those who value him most, he is proverbially indolent, thievish, and neglectful of his master's interests. It is common for

busy factories; railroads, traffic, travel-where free labor tills the ground, how beautiful it all is in contrast to the forlorn and dreary aspect of a country tilled by slaves. The villages of such a country are mainly groups of miserable huts. Its comparatively few churches are too often dilapidated and unsightly. The common school-house, the poor man's college, is hardly known, showing how little interest is felt in the chief treasures of the State, the immortal minds of the multitude who are not born to wealth. The signs of premature old age are visibly impressed upon everything that meets the eye.

blight of slavery, we shall now introduce an extract from one of the speeches delivered by Henry A. Wise, during the last guberna

of manufacture, to clothe your own slaves. You have no commerce, no mining, no manufactures. You have relied alone on the single power of agriculture, and such agriculture! Your sedge-patches outshine the sun. Your inattention to your only source of wealth, has seared the very bosom of mother earth. Instead of hav

interval of twenty years, the Richmond Enquirer helps to paint the melancho

on far greater than the whole free population of Eastern Virginia. The little State of Ma

al to the intelligence and patriotism of Virginia, to adopt an effectual measure for the speedy overthrow of the damnable instit

and when our whites are moving westwardly in greater numbers than we like to hear of; when this, the fairest land on all this continent, for soil, and climate and situation, combined, might become a sort of garden spot, if it were worked by the hands of white men alone, can we, ought we, to sit quietly down, fold our arms, and say to each other, 'Well, well; this thing will not come to the worst in our days; we will leave it to our children, and our grandchildre

nity? Had Mr. Ritchie continued to press the truth home to the hearts of the people, as he should have done, Virginia, instead of being worth only $392,000,000 in 1850-negroes and all-would have been worth at least $800,000,000 in g

re slave States, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas, and the District of Columbia-with all their hordes of human merchandize-were put up at auction, New-York could buy them all, and then have one hundred and thirty-three millions of dollars left in her pocket! Such is the amazing contrast between freedo

il. In a subsequent chapter, we expect to show that all, or nearly all, the distinguished Virginians, whose bodies have been consigned to the grave, but whose names have been given to history, and whose memoirs have a place in the hearts of their countrymen, were the friends and advocates of universal freedom-that they were inflexibly opposed to the extension of slavery into the Territories, devised measures for its restriction, and, with hopeful anxiety, looked forward to the time when it should be eradicated from the States themselves. With them, the rescue of our country from British domination, and the establishment of the General Government upon a firm basis, were considerations of paramount importance; they supposed, and no doubt earnestly desired, that the States, in their sovereign capacities, would soon abolish an institution which was so palpably in conflict with the principles enunciated in the Declaration

or the establishment of so comprehensive and beneficent a principle. Let their posterity emulate their courage, their disinterestedness, and their zeal, and especially remember that it is the duty of every existing generation so to provide for its individual interests, as to confer superior advantages on that which is to follow. To this principle the North has adhered with the strictest fidelity. How has it been with the South? Has she imitated the praiseworthy example of our illustrious ancestors? No! She has treated it with the utmost contempt; she has been extremely selfish-so selfish, indeed, that she has robbed posterity of its natural rights. From the period of the formation of the government down to the present moment, her policy has been downright suicidal, and, as a matter of course, wholly indefensible. She has hugged a viper to her breast; her whole system has been paralyzed, her conscience is seared, and she is becoming callous to every principle of justice and magnanimity. E

en other slaveholding states thrown into the scale with her, she is far inferior to New-York, which, at the time Cornwallis surrendered his sword to Washington, was less than half her equal. Had she obeyed the counsels of the good, the great and the wise men of our nation-especially of her own incomparable sons, the extendible element of slavery would have been promptly arrested, and the virgin soil of nine Southern States, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas, would have been saved from its horrid pollutions

persists in fostering an institution which is so manifestly detrimental to her vital interests. Every Virginian, whether living or dead, whose name is an honor to his country, has placed on record his abhorrence of slavery, and in doing so, has borne testimony to the blight and degradation that everywhere follow in its course. One of the best abolition speeches we have ev

ret, Sir, that we should find those amongst us who enter the lists of discussion as its apologists, except alone upon the ground of uncontrollable necessity. And yet, who could have listened to the very eloquent remarks o

eg him to contrast the happiness and contentment which prevail throughout that country, the busy and cheerful sound of industry, the rapid and swelling growth of their population, their means and institutions of education, their skill and proficiency in the useful arts, their enterprise and public spirit, the monuments of their commercial and manufacturing industry; and, above all, their devoted attachment to the government from which they derive their protection, with the derision, discontent, indolence, and poverty of the Southern country. To what, Sir, is a

elf, permit me to refer him to the two States of Kentucky and Ohio. No difference of soil, no diversity of climate, no diversity in the original settlement of those two States, can account for the remarkable disproportion in their natural advanceme

and to our feelings. I shall advocate no scheme that does not respect the right of property, so far as it is entitled to be respected, with a just regard to the safety and resources of the State. I would approach the subject as one of great magnitude and delicacy, as one whose varied and momentous consequences demand the calmest and most deliberate investig

h in the Virginia Legi

e avarice of our ancestral government has produced in the South, as witnessed in a sparse population of freemen, deserted habitations, and fields without culture! St

egislature of Virginia, in speaki

ity. If we look back through the long course of time which has elapsed since the creation to the present moment, we shall scarcely be able to p

st utter desolation, distressing to the beholder. The very spot on which our ancestors landed, a littl

f Campbell c

deteriorating consequence were within the observation and experience of the members of the House

owell

admit that slavery is an evil, and that its removal, if practicable, is a consummation most devoutly

est of all pictures-that of a sinking and dying State." Every year leaves her in a worse condition than it found her; and as it is with Virginia, so it is with the entire South. In the terse language of Governor Wise, "all have grown poor together." The black god of slavery, which the South has worshipped for two hundred and thirty-seven years, is but a devil in disguise; and if we would save ourselves from bein

newspaper editor, we have no means of knowing; but if all accounts be true, there was consummated in Richmond, in the latter part of the year 1832, one of the blackest schemes of bribery and corruption that was ever perpetrated in this or any other country. We are assured, however, that one thing is

vice and practice virtue-in other words, to do right; but this rule, like all others, has its exceptions, as might be most strikingly illustrated in the character of -- --, and some half-dozen or more of his pro-slavery coadjutors. From whose hands did this man receive fifty thousand dollars-improperly, if not illegally, taken from the public funds in Washington? When did he receive it?-and for what purpose?-and who was the arch

t reclaim the money for these three years; and, though traveling through tortuous channels, the sharpsighted Mr. Rives traced the money back to its starting point from that deposit. Besides, Mr. Cameron, who had control of the village bank, admitted before a committee of Congress, that he had furnished money for the payments-an admission which

ess advocates and defenders of human bondage. To suppose that either has been sustained by fairer means than it was commenced with, would be wasting imagination on a great improbability. Both have uniformly and pertinaciously opposed every laudable enterprise that the white non-slaveholder has projected; indeed, so unmitigated has been their hostility to all manual purs

tates of the West, were to have avenues of profitable employment opened to them at home; thus they would be enabled to earn an honest and reputable living, to establish and sustain free schools, free libraries, free lectures, and free presses, to become useful and exemplary members of society, and to die fit candidates for heaven. The magnanimous New Englander was in ecstasies with the prospect that opened before him. Individually, so far as mere money was concerned, he was perfectly independent; his industry and economy in early life had secured to him the ownership and control of an ample fortune. With the aid of eleven other men, each equal to himself, he could have bought the whole city of Richmond-negroes and all-though it is not to be presumed that he would have disgraced his name by becoming a trader in human flesh. But he was not selfish; unlike the arrogant and illiberal slaveholder, he did not regard himself as the centre around whom everybody else should revolve. On the contrary, he was a genuine philant

beloved institutions of the South," and little was he prepared to withstand the terrible denunciations that were immediately showered on his head through the columns of the Richmond Enquirer. Few words will suffice to tell the sequel. That negro-worshipping sheet, whose hireling policy, for the last four and twenty years, has been to support the worthless black slave and his tyrannical master at the expense of the free white laborer, wrote down the enterprise! and the noble son of New England, abused, insulted and disg

upon whose monument should be inscribed in everlasting prominence the finger of scorn pointing downward." The reader scarcely needs to be told that we were standing at the tomb of -- --, who in the opinion of our friend, had, by concentrating within himself the views and purposes of all the evil spirits in Virginia, greatly r

we cannot conceive it possible that the conscience of any man, who is really sane, would permit him to become the victim of such an egregious and diabolical absurdity. Therefore, at this period of our history, with the light of the past, the

nstitute fifteen comparisons, first comparing New-York with Virginia, Pennsylvania with Carolina, Massachusetts with Georgia, and so on, until they have exhausted the catalogue. Then, for once, let them be bold enough to listen to the admonitions of their own souls, and if they do not soon start to their feet demanding the abolition of slavery, it will only be because they have reasons for suppressing their inmost sentiments. Whether we compare the old free States with the old slave States, or the new free States with the new slave States, the difference, unmistakable and astounding, is substantially the same. All the free States are alike, and all the sla

or a few remarks on the blasting influence which it is shedding over the broad and fertile domains of the West, which in accordance with the views and resolutions offered by the immortal Jefferson, should ha

irginia is but little more than one and a half millions, represented by thirteen members in Congress. It is the vital sap of free labor that makes the one tree so thrifty and vigorous, so capable of bearing with all ease the fruit of such a population. And it is slave labor which strikes a decadence through the other, drying up many of its branches with a fearful sterility, and rendering the rest but scantily fruitful; really incapable of sustaining more. Look at Ohio, teeming with inhabitants, its soil loaded with every kind of agricultural wealth, its people engaged in every kind of freedom's diversified employments, abounding with numberless happy homes, and with all the tro

stimony of Daniel R. Goodloe,

n of agriculture, and the difficulty, if not impossibility, of diversifying employments. Free society, on the contrary, has indefinite resources of development within a restricted area. It will far excel slave society in the cultivation of the ground-first, on account of the superior intelligence of the laborers; and secondly, in consequence of the greater and more various demands upon the earth's products, where commerce, manufactures, and the arts, abound. Then, these arts of life,

nt against the extension of slavery over any part of our domain where it does not now exist; but as our principles are hostile to the institution even where it does exist, and

n check the diffusive element of slavery, and to prevent it from crossing over the bounds within which it is now regulated by municipal law. Remiss in their national duties, as we contend, they make no positive at

tence. But on the question of extending slavery over the free Territories of the United States, it is our right, it is our imperative duty to think, to feel, to speak and to vote. We cannot interfere to cover the shadows of slavery with the sunshine of freedom, but we can interfere to prevent the sunshine of freedom from being eclipsed by the shadows of slavery. We can interpose to stay the progress of that institution, which aims to drive free labor from its own heritage. Kansas should be divided up into countless homes for the ownership of men who have a right to the fruit of their own labor

rchs of South Carolina have been unmitigated pests and bores to the General Government ever since it was organized, and that the free and conscientious people of the North are virtually excluded from her soil, in consequence of slavery? It is a well-known and incontestible fact, that the Northern States furnished about two-thirds of all the American troops engaged in the Revolutionary War; and, though they were neither more nor less brave or patriotic than their fellow-soldiers of the South, yet, inasmuch as the independence of our country was mainly secured by virtue of their numerical strength, we think they ought to consider it not only their right but their duty to make a firm and decisive effort to save

at one ever will be published within her borders, until slavery is abolished; but, thanks to Heaven, a portion of this continent is what our Revolutionary Fathers and the Fathers of the Constitution fought and labored and prayed to make it-a land of freedom, of power, of progress, of prosperity, of intelligence, of religion, of literature, of commerce, of science, of arts, of agriculture, of manufactures, of ingenuity, of enterprise, of wealth, of renown, of goodness, and of grandeur. From that glorious part of our confederacy-from the North, whence, on account of slavery in the South

ely to establish laws, contracts, rites, customs and institutions; as to abolish la

ulling; abrogation; utter destruction; as the abolition of laws, decrees, or

favors abolition, or the imme

etect in either of these words even a tittle of the opprobrium which the oligarchs, in their wily and inhuman efforts to enslave all working classes irrespective of race or color, have endeavored to attac

r think of applying to a pro-slavery slaveholder, or any other pro-slavery man, than we would think of applying it to a border-ruffian, a thief or a murderer. Let it be understood, however, that the rare instances of which we speak are less rare than many persons may suppose. We are personally acquainted with several slaveholders in North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Virginia, who have unreservedly assured us that they were disgusted with the institution, and some of them went so far as to say they would be glad to acquiesce in the provision of a statute which would make it obligatory on them all to manumit their slaves, without the smallest shadow or substance of compensation. These, we believe, are the sentiments of all the respectable and patriotic slaveholders, who have eyes to see, and see-ears to hear, and hear; who, perceiving the impoverishing and degrading effects of sla

ly with the abolition of slavery-have had the vile institution entailed on them contrary to their wills, are virtually on our side; we may, therefore, very properly strike them off from the black list of three hundred and forty-seven thousand slaveholders, who, as a body, have shoc

ountry is concerned, the infernal question of slavery must be disposed of; a speedy and perfect abolishment of the whole institution is the true policy of the South-and this is the policy which we propose to pursue. Will you aid us, will you assist us, will you be freemen, or will you be slaves? These are questions of vital importance; weigh them well in your minds; come to a prudent and firm decision, and hold yourselves in readiness to act in accordance therewith. You must either be for us or against us-anti-slavery or pro-slavery; it is impossible for you to occupy a neutral ground; it is as certain as fate itself, that if you do not voluntarily oppose the usurpations and outrages of the slavocrats, they will force you into involuntary compliance with their infamous measures. Consider well the aggressive, fraudulent and despotic power which they have exercised in the affairs of Kanzas; and remember that, if, by adhering to erroneous principles of neutrality or non-resistance, you

relation to the new States of the West and Southwest, free and slave, shall appear in the succeeding chapter. With regard to agriculture, and all the multifarious interests of husbandry, we deem it quite unnecessary to say more. Cotton ha