'Well, my corn I have to bring round by vessel from Washington (North Carolina), and it costs me high when it gets here,—about ten bits (a dollar and twenty-five cents), I think.'
'And in New York you could buy it now at sixty to seventy cents. What does your hay cost?'
'Thirty-five dollars. I pay twenty for it in New York,—the balance is freight and hauling.'
'Your pork costs you two or three dollars, I suppose, for freight and hauling.'
'Yes; about that.'
'Then in those items you might save nearly a hundred per cent.; and they are the principal articles you consume.'
'Yes; there's no denying that. But another thing is just as certain: it costs less to support one of my niggers than one of your laboring men.'
'That may be true. But it only shows that our laborers fare better than your slaves.'
'I'm not sure of that. I am sure, however, that our slaves are more contented than the run of laboring men at the North.'
'That proves nothing. Your blacks have no hope, no chance to rise; and they submit—though I judge not cheerfully—to an iron necessity. The Northern laborer, if very poor, may be discontented; but discontent urges him to effort, and leads to the bettering of his condition. I tell you, my friend, slavery is an expensive luxury. You Southern nabobs will have it; and you have to pay for it.'