If, fellow-citizens, with all the natural and political advantages we have enumerated, your progress is still downward, and has been so, compared with the other sections of the country, since the first organization of the Government, what are the anticipations of the distant future, which sober reflection authorizes you to form? The causes which now retard the increase of your population must continue to operate, so long as slavery lasts. Emigrants from the North, and from foreign countries, will, as at present, avoid your borders, within which no attractions will be found for virtue and industry. On the other hand, many of the young and enterprising among you will flee from the lassitude, the anarchy, the wretchedness engendered by slavery, and seek their fortunes in lands where law affords protection, and where labor is honored and rewarded.
In the meantime, especially in the cotton States, the slaves will continue to increase in a ratio far beyond the whites, and will at length acquire a fearful preponderance.
At the first census, in every slave State there was a very large majority of whites—now, the slaves out-number the whites in South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana, and the next census will unquestionably add Florida and Alabama, and probably Georgia, to the number of negro States.
And think you that this is the country, and this the age, in which the republican maxim that the majority must govern, can be long and barbarously reversed? Think you that the majority of the People in the cotton States, cheered and encouraged as they will be by the sympathy of the world, and the example of the West Indies, will forever tamely submit to be beasts of burden for a few lordly planters? And remember, we pray you, that the number and physical strength of the negroes will increase in a much greater ratio than that of their masters.
In 1790 the whites in N. Carolina were to the slaves as
| 2.80 to 1, | now as | 1.97 to 1 | |||
| " | S. Carolina, | " | 1.31 to 1, | " | .79 to 1 |
| " | Georgia, | " | 1.76 to 1, | " | 1.44 to 1 |
| " | Tennessee, | " | 13.35 to 1, | " | 3.49 to 1 |
| " | Kentucky, | " | 5.16 to 1, | " | 3.23 to 1 |
Maryland and Virginia, the great breeding States, have reduced their stock within the last few years, having been tempted, by high prices, to ship off thousands and tens of thousands to the markets of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. But these markets are already glutted, and human flesh has fallen in value from 50 to 75 per cent. Nor is it probable that the great staple of Virginia and Maryland will hereafter afford a bounty on its production. In these States slave labor is unprofitable, and the bondman is of but little value, save as an article of exportation. The cotton cultivation in the East Indies, by cheapening the article, will close the markets in the South, and thus it guarantees the abolition of slavery in the breeding States. When it shall be found no longer profitable to raise slaves for the market, the stock on hand will be driven South and sold for what it may fetch, and free labor substituted in its place. This process will be attended with results disastrous to the cotton States. To Virginia and Maryland, it will open a new era of industry, prosperity and wealth; and the industrious poor, the "mean whites" of the South, will remove within their borders, thus leaving the slaveholders more defenceless than ever. But while the white population of the South will be thus diminished, its number of slaves will be increased by the addition of the stock from the breeding States.
And what, fellow-citizens, will be the condition of such of you as shall then remain in the slave States? The change to which we have referred will necessarily aggravate every present evil. Ignorance, vice, idleness, lawless violence, dread of insurrection, anarchy, and a haughty and vindictive aristocracy will all combine with augmented energy in crushing you to the earth. And from what quarter do you look for redemption? Think you your planting nobility will ever grant freedom to their serfs, from sentiments of piety or patriotism? Remember that your clergy of all sects and ranks, many of them "Christian brokers in the trade of blood," unite in bestowing their benediction on the system as a Christian institution, and in teaching the slaveholders that they wield the whip as European monarchs the sceptre, "by the grace of God." Do you trust to their patriotism? Remember that the beautiful and affecting contrast between the prosperity of the North and the desolation of the South, already presented to you, was drawn by W. G. Preston, of hanging notoriety. No, fellow-citizens, your great slaveholders have no idea of surrendering the personal importance and the political influence they derive from their slaves. Your Calhouns, Footes, and Prestons, all go for everlasting slavery.
Unquestionably there are many of the smaller slaveholders who would embrace abolition sentiments, were they permitted to examine the subject; but at present they are kept in ignorance. If then the fetters of the slave are not to be broken by the master, by whom is he to be liberated? In the course of time, a hostile army, invited by the weakness or the arrogance of the South, may land on your shores. Then, indeed, emancipation will be given, but the gift may be bathed in the blood of yourselves and of your children. Or the People—for they will be the People—may resolve to be free, and you and all you hold dear may be sacrificed in the contest.
Suffer us, fellow-citizens, to show you "a more excellent way." We seek the welfare of all, the rich and the poor, the bond and the free. While we repudiate all acknowledgment of property in human beings, we rejoice in the honest, lawful prosperity of the planter. Let not, we beseech you, the freedom of the slave proceed from the armed invader of your soil, nor from his own torch and dagger—but from your peaceful and constitutional interference in his behalf.