I. INCREASE OF POPULATION.
The ratio of increase of population, especially in this country, is one of the surest tests of public prosperity. Let us then again listen to the impartial testimony of the late census. From this we learn that the increase of population in the free States from 1830 to 1840, was at the rate of 38 per cent., while the increase of the free population in the slave States was only 23 per cent. Why this difference of 15 in the two ratios? No other cause can be assigned than slavery, which drives from your borders many of the virtuous and enterprising, and at the same time deters emigrants from other States and from foreign countries from settling among you.
The influence of slavery on population is strikingly illustrated by a comparison between Kentucky and Ohio. These two States are of nearly equal areas, Kentucky however having about 3000 square miles more than the other. [3] They are separated only by a river, and are both remarkable for the fertility of their soil; but one has, from the beginning, been cursed with slavery, and the other blessed with freedom. Now mark their respective careers.
[ [3] American Almanac for 1843, p. 206.
In 1792, Kentucky was erected into a State, and Ohio in 1802.
| Free population of Kentucky. | Free population of Ohio. | |
| 1790 | 61,227, | a wilderness. |
| 1800 | 180,612, | 45,365 |
| 1810 | 325,950, | 230,760 |
| 1820 | 437,585, | 581,434 |
| 1830 | 522,704, | 937,903 |
| 1840 | 597,570, | 1,519,467 |
The representation of the two States in Congress, has been as follows:
| 1802, | Kentucky | 6, | Ohio | 1, |
| 1812, | " | 9, | " | 6, |
| 1822, | " | 12, | " | 14, |
| 1832, | " | 13, | " | 19, |
| 1842, | " | 10, | " | 21, |
The value of land, other things being equal, is in proportion to the density of the population. Now the population of Ohio is 38.8 to a square mile, while the free population of Kentucky is but 14.2 to a square mile—and probably the price of land in the two States is much in the same proportion. You are told, much of the wealth is invested in negroes—yet it obviously is a wealth that impoverishes; and no stronger evidence of the truth of this assertion is needed, than the comparative price of land in the free and slave States. The two principal cities of Kentucky and Ohio are Louisville and Cincinnati; the former with a population of 21,210, the latter with a population of 46,338. Why this difference? The question is answered by the Louisville Journal. The editor, speaking of the two rival cities, remarks, "The most potent cause of the more rapid advancement of Cincinnati than Louisville is the absence of slavery. The same influences which made Ohio the young giant of the West, and is advancing Indiana to a grade higher than Kentucky, have operated in the Queen City. They have no dead weight to carry, and consequently have the advantage in the race."
In 1840, Mr. C. M. Clay, a member of the Kentucky Legislature, published a pamphlet against the repeal of the law prohibiting the importation of slaves from the other States. We extract the following:
"The world is teeming with improved machinery, the combined development of science and art. To us it is all lost; we are comparatively living in centuries that are gone; we cannot make it, we cannot use it when made. Ohio is many years younger, and possessed of fewer advantages than our State. Cincinnati has manufactories to sustain her; last year she put up one thousand houses. Louisville, with superior natural advantages, as all the world knows, wrote 'to rent,' upon many of her houses. Ohio is a free State, Kentucky a slave State."
Mr. Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky, in a pamphlet published the same year, and on the same subject, draws the following comparison between Virginia and New York:
"In 1790, Virginia, with 70,000 square miles of territory, contained a population of 749,308. New York, upon a surface of 45,658 square miles, contained a population of 344,120. This statement exhibits in favor of Virginia a difference of 24,242 square miles of territory, and 408,188 in population, which is the double of New York, and 68,600 more. In 1830, after a race of forty years, Virginia is found to contain 1,211,405 souls, and New York 1,918,608, which exhibits a difference in favor of New York of 607,203. The increase on the part of Virginia will be perceived to be 463,187, starting from a basis more than double as large as that of New York. The increase of New York, upon a basis of 340,120, has been 1,578,391 human beings. Virginia has increased in a ratio of 61 per cent., and New York in that of 566 per cent.
"The total amount of property in Virginia under the assessment of 1838, was $211,930,508. The aggregate value of real and personal property in New York, in 1839, was $654,000,000, exhibiting an excess in New York over Virginia of capital of $442,069,492.
"Statesmen may differ about policy, or the means to be employed in the promotion of the public good, but surely they ought to be agreed as to what prosperity means. I think there can be no dispute that New York is a greater, richer, a more prosperous and powerful State than Virginia. What has occasioned the difference?... There is but one explanation of the facts I have shown. The clog that has stayed the march of her people, the incubus that has weighed down her enterprise, strangled her commerce, kept sealed her exhaustless fountains of mineral wealth, and paralyzed her arts, manufactures and improvement, is NEGRO SLAVERY."
These statements were made before the results of the last census were known. By the census of 1840, it appears that in the ten preceding years,
| The population of Virginia has increased | 28,392 |
| In the same time the population of N. Y. increased | 710,413 |
| The rate of increase in Virginia was | 2.3 per cent. |
| " " New York, | 33.7 " |
| Virginia has 12.5 free inhabitants to a square mile. | |
| New York 52.7 " " " " | |
| In 1790, Massachusetts, with Maine, had but | 378,717 inhabitants, |
| " Maryland, | 319,728 " |
| In 1840, Massachusetts alone, | 737,699 " |
| " Maryland, | 469,232 " |
Now let it be recollected that Maryland is nearly double the size of Massachusetts. In the last there are 98.8 free inhabitants to the square mile; in the former only 27.2.
If we turn to the new States, we find that slavery and freedom have the same influence on population as in the old. Take, for instance, Michigan and Arkansas. They came into the Union about the same time—
| In 1830, the population of Arkansas was | 30,388 |
| In 1840, " " | 97,574 |
| In 1830, " Michigan, | 31,639 |
| In 1840, " " | 212,267 |
The ratio of increase of white inhabitants, for the last ten years, has been in Arkansas as 200 per cent; in Michigan, 574 per cent. In both instances the increase has been chiefly owing to immigration; but the ratio shows the influence of slavery in retarding immigration. Compare also Alabama and Illinois—
| In 1830, the free population of | Alabama, was | 191,975 |
| " " " | Illinois, | 157,455 |
| ———— | ||
| Excess in favor of Alabama | 34,520 | |
| ———— | ||
| In 1840, free population of | Illinois, | 476,183 |
| " " " | Alabama, | 337,224 |
| ———— | ||
| Excess in favor of Illinois, | 138,959 |
We surely need not detain you with farther details on this head, to convince you what an enormous sacrifice of happiness and prosperity you are offering on the altar of slavery. But of the character and extent of this sacrifice you have as yet had only a partial glimpse. Let us proceed to examine
II. THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN THE SLAVE
STATES.
The maxim that "Knowledge is power," has ever more or less influenced the conduct of aristocracies. Education elevates the inferior classes of society, teaches them their rights, and points out the means of enforcing them. Of course, it tends to diminish the influence of wealth, birth, and rank. In 1671, Sir William Berkley, then Governor of Virginia, in his answer to the inquiries of the Committee of the Colonies, remarked, "I thank God that there are no free schools nor printing presses, and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years." The spirit of Sir William seems still to preside in the councils of his own Virginia, and to actuate those of the other slave States.
The power of the slaveholders, as we have already showed you, depends on the acquiescence of the major part of the white inhabitants in their domination. It cannot be, therefore, the interest or the inclination of the sagacious and reflecting among them, to promote the intellectual improvement of the inferior class.
In the free States, on the contrary, where there is no caste answering to your slaveholders—where the People literally partake in the government, mighty efforts are made for general education; and in most instances, elementary instruction is, through the public liberality, brought within the reach of the children of the poor. You have lamentable experience, that such is not the case where slaveholders bear rule.
But you will receive with distrust whatever we may say as to the comparative ignorance of the free and slave States. Examine then for yourselves the returns of the last census on this point. This document gives us the number of white persons over twenty years of age in each State, who cannot read and write. It appears that these persons are to the whole white population in the several States as follows, viz.:
| Connecticut, | 1 to | every | 568 | Louisiana, | 1 | every | 38 1-2 |
| Vermont, | 1 | " | 473 | Maryland, | 1 | " | 27 |
| N. Hamp., | 1 | " | 310 | Mississippi, | 1 | " | 20 |
| Mass., | 1 | " | 166 | Delaware, | 1 | " | 18 |
| Maine, | 1 | " | 108 | S. Carolina, | 1 | " | 17 |
| Michigan, | 1 | " | 97 | Missouri, | 1 | " | 16 |
| R. Island, | 1 | " | 67 | Alabama, | 1 | " | 15 |
| New Jersey, | 1 | " | 58 | Kentucky, | 1 | " | 13 1/2 |
| New York, | 1 | " | 56 | Georgia, | 1 | " | 13 |
| Penn., | 1 | " | 50 | Virginia, | 1 | " | 12 1/2 |
| Ohio, | 1 | " | 43 | Arkansas, | 1 | " | 11 1/2 |
| Indiana, | 1 | " | 18 | Tennessee, | 1 | " | 11 |
| Illinois, | 1 | " | 17 | N. Carolina, | 1 | " | 7 [4] |
[ [4] This summary from the return of the census, is copied from the Richmond (Va.) Compiler.
It will be observed by looking at this table, that Indiana and Illinois are the only free States, which in point of education are surpassed by any of the slave States: for this disgraceful circumstance three causes may be assigned, viz., their recent settlement, the influx of foreigners, and emigration from the slave States. The returns from New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, are greatly affected by the vast number of foreigners congregated in their cities, and employed in their manufactories and on their public works. In Ohio, also, there is a large foreign population: and it is well known that comparatively few emigrants from Europe seek a residence in the slave States, where there is little or no employment to invite them. But what a commentary on slavery and slaveholders is afforded by the gross ignorance prevailing in the old States of South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina! But let us proceed. The census gives a return of "scholars at public charge."
| Of these, there are in the free States, | 432,173 |
| " " slave States, | 35,580 |
Ohio alone has 51,812 such scholars,—more than are to be found in the 13 slave States! Her neighbor Kentucky has 429!! Let us compare in this particular the largest and the smallest State in the Union.
| Virginia has scholars at public charge | 9,791 |
| Rhode Island | 10,912 [5] |
[ [5] See American Almanac for 1842, page 226.
But we have some official confessions, which give a still more deplorable account of Southern ignorance. In 1837, Governor Clarke, in his message to the Kentucky Legislature, remarked, "By the computation of those most familiar with the subject, one third of the adult population of the state are unable to write their names."
Governor Campbell reported to the Virginia Legislature, that from the returns of 98 clerks, it appeared that of 4614 applications for marriage licenses in 1837, no less than 1047 were made by men unable to write.
These details will enable you to estimate the impudence of the following plea in behalf of slavery:
"It is by the existence of slavery, exempting so large a portion of our citizens from the necessity of bodily labor, that we have leisure for intellectual pursuits, and the means of attaining a liberal education."—Chancellor Harper of South Carolina on Slavery.—Southern Literary Messenger, Oct. 1838.
Whatever may be the leisure enjoyed by the slaveholders, they are careful not to afford the means of literary improvement to their fellow-citizens who are too poor to possess slaves, and who are, by their very ignorance, rendered more fit instruments for doing the will, and guarding the human property of the wealthier class.