It is not to be supposed that the slaveholders have failed to avail themselves of their influence in the federal government. A very brief statement will convince you, that if they are now feeble and emaciated, it is not because they have been deprived of their share of the loaves and fishes.
By law, midshipmen and cadets, at West Point, are appointed according to the Federal ratio; thus have the slaveholders secured to themselves an additional number of officers in the Army and Navy, on account of their slaves.
Reflect for a moment on the vast patronage wielded by the President of the United States, and then recollect, that should the present incumbent (General Taylor) serve his full term, the office will have been filled no less than fifty-two years out of sixty-four by slaveholders! [15]
[ [15] Except one month by General Harrison.
Of 21 Secretaries of State, appointed up to 5th March, 1849, only six have been taken from the free States.
For 37 years out of 60, the chair of the House of Representatives has been filled and its Committees appointed by slaveholders.
Of the Judges of the Supreme Court, 18 have been taken from the slave, and but 14 from the free States.
In 1842, the United States were represented at foreign Courts by 19 Ministers and Charges d'Affaires. Of these fat Offices, no less than 13 were assigned to slaveholders!
Surely, surely, if the South be wanting in every element of prosperity—if ignorance, barbarity and poverty be her characteristics, it is not because she has not exercised her due influence in the general government, or received her share of its honors and emoluments.