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CANNIBALS ALL!
OR,
SLAVES WITHOUT MASTERS.
BY
GEORGE FITZHUGH,
OF PORT ROYAL, CAROLINE, VA.
"His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against
him."--GEN. XVI. 12.
"Physician, heal thyself."--LUKE IV. 23.
RICHMOND, VA.
A. MORRIS, PUBLISHER.
1857.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
ADOLPHUS MORRIS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Eastern District of Virginia.
C. H. WYNNE, PRINTER, RICHMOND.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
DEDICATION vii
PREFACE ix
INTRODUCTION xiii
CHAPTER I.
The Universal Trade 25
CHAPTER II.
Labor, Skill and Capital 33
CHAPTER III.
Subject Continued--Exploitation of Skill 58
CHAPTER IV.
International Exploitation 75
CHAPTER V.
False Philosophy of the Age 79
CHAPTER VI.
Free Trade, Fashion and Centralization 86
CHAPTER VII.
The World is _Too Little_ Governed 97
CHAPTER VIII.
Liberty and Slavery 106
CHAPTER IX.
Paley on Exploitation 124
CHAPTER X.
Our best Witnesses and Masters in the Art of War 127
CHAPTER XI.
Decay of English Liberty, and growth of English Poor Laws 157
CHAPTER XII.
The French Laborers and the French Revolution 176
CHAPTER XIII.
The Reformation--The Right of Private Judgment 194
CHAPTER XIV.
The Nomadic Beggars and Pauper Banditti of England 204
CHAPTER XV.
"Rural Life of England," 218
CHAPTER XVI.
The Distressed Needle-Women and Hood's Song of the Shirt 223
CHAPTER XVII.
The Edinburgh Review on Southern Slavery 236
CHAPTER XVIII.
The London Globe on West India Emancipation 274
CHAPTER XIX.
Protection, and Charity, to the Weak 278
CHAPTER XX.
The Family 281
CHAPTER XXI.
Negro Slavery 294
CHAPTER XXII.
The Strength of Weakness 300
CHAPTER XXIII.
Money 303
CHAPTER XXIV.
Gerrit Smith on Land Reform, and William Loyd Garrison
on No-Government 306
CHAPTER XXV.
In what Anti-Slavery ends 311
CHAPTER XXVI.
Christian Morality impracticable in Free Society--but
the Natural Morality of Slave Society 316
CHAPTER XXVII.
Slavery--Its effects on the Free 320
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Private Property destroys Liberty and Equality 323
CHAPTER XXIX.
The National Era an Excellent Witness 327
CHAPTER XXX.
The Philosophy of the Isms--Shewing why they abound
at the North, and are unknown at the South 332
CHAPTER XXXI.
Deficiency of Food in Free Society 335
CHAPTER XXXII.
Man has Property in Man 341
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The "Coup de Grace" to Abolition 344
CHAPTER XXXIV.
National Wealth, Individual Wealth, Luxury and economy 350
CHAPTER XXXV.
Government a thing of Force, not of Consent 353
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Warning to the North 363
Chapter XXXVII.
Addendum 373
DEDICATION.
TO THE HONORABLE HENRY A. WISE.
DEAR SIR:
I dedicate this work to you, because I am acquainted with no one who has
so zealously, laboriously and successfully endeavored to Virginianise
Virginia, by encouraging, through State legislation, her intellectual
and physical growth and development; no one who has seen so clearly the
evils of centralization from without, and worked so earnestly to cure or
avert those evils, by building up centralization within.
Virginia should have her centres of Thought at her Colleges and her
University, centres of Trade and Manufactures at her Seaboard and
Western towns, and centres of Fashion at her Mineral Springs.
I agree with you, too, that State strength and State independence are
the best guarantees of State rights; and that policy the wisest which
most promotes the growth of State strength and independence.
Weakness invites aggression; strength commands respect; hence, the Union
is safest when its separate members are best able to repel injury, or to
live independently.
Your attachment to Virginia has not lessened your love for the Union. In
urging forward to completion such works as the Covington and Ohio Road,
you are trying to add to the wealth, the glory and the strength of our
own State, whilst you would add equally to the wealth, the strength and
perpetuity of the Union.
I cannot commit you to all the doctrines of my book, for you will not
see it until it is published.
With very great respect,
Your obedient servant,
GEO. FITZHUGH.
_Port Royal, Aug. 22, 1856._
PREFACE.
I have endeavored, in this work, to treat the subjects of Liberty and
Slavery in a more rigidly analytical manner than in "Sociology for the
South;" and, at the same time, to furnish the reader with abundance of
facts, authorities and admissions, whereby to test the truth of my
views.
My chief aim has been to shew, that _Labor makes values, and Wit
exploitates and accumulates them_; and hence to deduce the conclusion
that the unrestricted exploitation of so-called free society, is more
oppressive to the laborer than domestic slavery.
In making a distinct onslaught on the popular doctrines of Modern
Ethics, I must share the credit or censure with my corresponding
acquaintance and friend, Professor H. of Virginia.
Our acquaintance commenced by his congratulating me, by letter, on the
announcement that I was occupied with a treatise vindicating the
institution of Slavery in the abstract, and by his suggestion, that he
foresaw, from what he had read of my communications to the papers, that
I should be compelled to make a general assault on the prevalent
political and moral philosophy. This letter, and others subsequent to
it, together with the reception of my Book by the Southern Public, have
induced me in the present work to avow the full breadth and scope of my
purpose. I am sure it will be easier to convince the world that the
customary theories of our Modern Ethical Philosophy, whether utilitarian
or sentimental, are so fallacious or so false in their premises and
their deductions as to deserve rejection, than to persuade it that the
social forms under which it lives, and attempts to justify and approve,
are equally erroneous, and should be re-placed by others founded on a
broader philosophical system and more Christian principles.
Yet, I believe that, under the banners of Socialism and more dangerous,
because more delusive, Semi-Socialism, society is insensibly, and often
unconsciously, marching to the utter abandonment of the most essential
institutions--religion, family ties, property, and the restraints of
justice. The present profession is, indeed, to stop at the half-way
house of No-Government and Free Love; but we are sure that it cannot
halt and encamp in such quarters. Society will work out erroneous
doctrines to their logical consequences, and detect error only by the
experience of mischief. The world will only fall back on domestic
slavery when all other social forms have failed and been exhausted. That
hour may not be far off.
Mr. H. will not see this work before its publication, and would dissent
from many of its details, from the unrestricted latitude of its
positions, and from its want of precise definition. The time has not yet
arrived, in my opinion, for such precision, nor will it arrive until the
present philosophy is seen to be untenable, and we begin to look about
us for a loftier and more enlightened substitute.
INTRODUCTION.
In our little work, "Sociology for the South," we said, "We may again
appear in the character of writer before the public; but we shall not
intrude, and would prefer that others should finish the work which we
have begun." That little work has met, every where, we believe, at the
South, with a favorable reception. No one has denied its theory of Free
Society, nor disputed the facts on which that theory rests. Very many
able co-laborers have arisen, and many books and essays are daily
appearing, taking higher ground in defence of Slavery; justifying it as
a normal and natural institution, instead of excusing or apologizing for
it, as an exceptional one. It is now treated as a positive good, not a
necessary evil. The success, not the ability of our essay, may have had
some influence in eliciting this new mode of defence. We have, for many
years, been gradually and cautiously testing public opinion at the
South, and have ascertained that it is ready to approve, and much
prefers, the highest ground of defence. We have no peculiar fitness for
the work we are engaged in, except the confidence that we address a
public predisposed to approve our doctrines, however bold or novel.
Heretofore the great difficulty in defending Slavery has arisen from the
fear that the public would take offence at assaults on its
long-cherished political axioms; which, nevertheless, stood in the way
of that defence. It is now evident that those axioms have outlived their
day--for no one, either North or South, has complained of our rather
ferocious assault on them--much less attempted to reply to or refute our
arguments and objections. All men begin very clearly to perceive, that
the state of revolution is politically and socially abnormal and
exceptional, and that the principles that would justify it are true in
the particular, false in the general. "A recurrence to fundamental
principles," by an oppressed people, is treason if it fails; the noblest
of heroism if it eventuates in successful revolution. But a "frequent
recurrence to fundamental principles" is at war with the continued
existence of all government, and is a doctrine fit to be sported only by
the Isms of the North and the Red Republicans of Europe. With them no
principles are considered established and sacred, nor will ever be.
When, in time of revolution, society is partially disbanded,
disintegrated and dissolved, the doctrine of Human Equality may have a
hearing, and may be useful in stimulating rebellion; but it is
practically impossible, and directly conflicts with all government, all
separate property, and all social existence. We cite these two examples,
as instances, to shew how the wisest and best of men are sure to deduce,
as general principles, what is only true as to themselves and their
peculiar circumstances. Never were people blessed with such wise and
noble Institutions as we; for they combine most that was good in those
of Rome and Greece, of Judea, and of Mediaeval England. But the
mischievous absurdity of our political axioms and principles quite
equals the wisdom and conservatism of our political practices. The ready
appreciation by the public of such doctrines as these, encourages us to
persevere in writing. The silence of the North is far more encouraging,
however, than the approbation of the South. Piqued and taunted for two
years, by many Southern Presses of high standing, to deny the
proposition that Free Society in Western Europe is a failure, and that
it betrays premonitory symptoms of failure, even in America, the North
is silent, and thus tacitly admits the charge. Challenged to compare and
weigh the advantages and disadvantages of our domestic slavery with
their slavery of the masses to capital and skill, it is mute, and
neither accepts nor declines our challenge. The comparative evils of
Slave Society and of Free Society, of slavery to human Masters and of
slavery to Capital, are the issues which the South now presents, and
which the North avoids. And she avoids them, because the Abolitionists,
the only assailants of Southern Slavery, have, we believe, to a man,
asserted the entire failure of their own social system, proposed its
subversion, and suggested an approximating millenium, or some system of
Free Love, Communism, or Socialism, as a substitute.
The alarming extent of this state of public opinion, or, to speak more
accurately, the absence of any public opinion, or common faith and
conviction about anything, is not dreamed of at the South, nor fully and
properly realized, even at the North. _We_ cannot believe what is so
entirely different from all our experience and observation, and _they_
have become familiarized and inattentive to the infected social
atmosphere they continually inhale. Besides, living in the midst of the
isms, their situation is not favorable for comprehensive observation or
calm generalization. More than a year since, we made a short trip to the
North, and whilst there only associated with distinguished
Abolitionists. We have corresponded much with them, before and since,
and read many of their books, lectures, essays and speeches. We have
neither seen nor heard any denial by them of the failure of their own
social system; but, in the contrary, found that they all concurred in
the necessity of radical social changes. 'Tis true, in conversation,
they will say, "Our system of society is bad, but yours of the South is
worse; the cause of social science is advancing, and we are ready to
institute a system better than either." We could give many private
anecdotes, and quote thousands of authorities, to prove that such is the
exact state of opinion with the multitudinous isms of the North. The
correctness of our statement will not be denied. If it is, any one may
satisfy himself of its truth by reading any Abolition or Infidel paper
at the North for a single month. The Liberator, of Boston, their ablest
paper, gives continually the fullest expose of their opinions, and of
their wholesale destructiveness of purpose.
The neglect of the North to take issue with us, or with the Southern
Press, in the new positions which we have assumed, our own observations
of the working of Northern society, the alarming increase of Socialism,
as evinced by its control of many Northern State Legislatures, and its
majority in the lower house of Congress, are all new proofs of the truth
of our doctrine. The character of that majority in Congress is displayed
in full relief, by the single fact, which we saw stated in a Northern
Abolition paper, that "there are a hundred Spiritual Rappers in
Congress." A Northern member of Congress made a similar remark to us a
few days since. 'Tis but a copy of the Hiss Legislature of
Massachusetts, or the Praise-God-Barebones Parliament of England.
Further study, too, of Western European Society, which has been engaged
in continual revolution for twenty years, has satisfied us that Free
Society every where begets isms, and that isms soon beget bloody
revolutions. Until our trip to the North, we did not justly appreciate
the passage which we are about to quote from Mr. Carlyle's "Latter-Day
Pamphlets." Now it seems to us as if Boston, New Haven, or Western New
York, had set for the picture:
"To rectify the relation that exists between two men, is there no
method, then, but that of ending it? The old relation has become
unsuitable, obsolete, perhaps unjust; and the remedy is, abolish
it; let there henceforth be no relation at all. From the
'sacrament of marriage' downwards, human beings used to be
manifoldly related one to another, and each to all; and there was
no relation among human beings, just or unjust, that had not its
grievances and its difficulties, its necessities on both sides to
bear and forbear. But henceforth, be it known, we have changed all
that by favor of Heaven; the 'voluntary principle' has come up,
which will itself do the business for us; and now let a new
sacrament, that of _Divorce_, which we call emancipation, and
spout of on our platforms, be universally the order of the day!
Have men considered whither all this is tending, and what it
certainly enough betokens? Cut every human relation that has any
where grown uneasy sheer asunder; reduce whatsoever was compulsory
to voluntary, whatsoever was permanent among us to the condition
of the nomadic; in other words, LOOSEN BY ASSIDUOUS WEDGES, in
every joint, the whole fabrice of social existence, stone from
stone, till at last, all lie now quite loose enough, it can, as we
already see in most countries, be overset by sudden outburst of
revolutionary rage; and lying as mere mountains of anarchic
rubbish, solicit you to sing Fraternity, &c. over it, and rejoice
in the now remarkable era of human progress we have arrived at."
Now we plant ourselves on this passage from Carlyle. We say that, as far
as it goes, 'tis a faithful picture of the isms of the North. But the
restraints of Law and Public Opinion are less at the North than in
Europe. The isms on each side the Atlantic are equally busy with
"assiduous wedges," in "loosening in every joint the whole fabric of
social existence;" but whilst they dare invoke Anarchy in Europe, they
dare not inaugurate New York Free Love, and Oneida Incest, and Mormon
Polygamy. The moral, religious, and social heresies of the North, are
more monstrous than those of Europe. The pupil has surpassed the master,
unaided by the stimulants of poverty, hunger and nakedness, which urge
the master forward.
Society need not fail in the North-east until the whole West is settled,
and a refluent population, or excess of immigration, overstocks
permanently the labor market on the Atlantic board. Till then, the
despotism of skill and capital, in forcing emigration to the West, makes
proprietors of those emigrants, benefits them, peoples the West, and by
their return trade, enriches the East. The social forms of the North and
the South are, for the present, equally promotive of growth and
prosperity at home, and equally beneficial to mankind at large, by
affording asylums to the oppressed, and by furnishing food and clothing
to all. Northern society is a partial failure, but only because it
generates isms which threaten it with overthrow and impede its progress.
Despite of appearing vain and egotistical, we cannot refrain from
mentioning another circumstance that encourages us to write. At the very
time when we were writing our pamphlet entitled "Slavery Justified," in
which we took ground that Free Society had failed, Mr. Carlyle began to
write his "_Latter Day_ Pamphlets," whose very title is the assertion of
the failure of Free Society. The proof derived from this coincidence
becomes the stronger, when it is perceived that an ordinary man on this
side the Atlantic discovered and was exposing the same social phenomena
that an extraordinary one had discovered and was exposing on the other.
The very titles of our works are synonymous--for the "Latter Day" is the
"Failure of Society."
Mr. Carlyle, and Miss Fanny Wright (in her England the Civilizer)
vindicate Slavery by shewing that each of its apparent relaxations in
England has injured the laboring class. They were fully and ably
represented in Parliament by their ancient masters, the Barons. Since
the Throne, and the Church, and the Nobility, have been stripped of
their power, and a House of Commons, representing lands and money, rules
despotically, the masses have become outlawed. They labor under all the
disadvantages of slavery, and have none of the rights of slaves. This is
the true history of the English Constitution, and one which we intend,
in the sequel, more fully to expound. This presents another reason why
we again appear before the public. Blackstone, which is read by most
American gentlemen, teaches a doctrine the exact reverse of this, and
that doctrine we shall try to refute.
Returning from the North, we procured in New York a copy of Aristotle's
"Politics and Economics." To our surprise, we found that our theory of
the origin of society was identical with his, and that we had employed
not only the same illustrations, but the very same words. We saw at once
that the true vindication of slavery must be founded on his theory of
man's social nature, as opposed to Locke's theory of the Social
Contract, on which latter Free Society rests for support. 'Tis true we
had broached this doctrine; but with the world at large our authority
was merely repulsive, whilst the same doctrine, coming from Aristotle,
had, besides his name, two thousand years of human approval and
concurrence in its favor; for, without that concurrence and approval,
his book would have long since perished.
In addition to all this, we think we have discovered that Moses has
anticipated the Socialists, and that in prohibiting "usury of money, and
of victuals, and of all things that are lent on usury," and in
denouncing "increase" he was far wiser than Aristotle, and saw that
other capital or property did not "breed" any more than money, and that
its profits were unjust exactions levied from the laboring man. The
Socialists proclaim this as a discovery of their own. We think Moses
discovered and proclaimed it more than three thousand years ago--and
that it is the only true theory of capital and labor, the only adequate
theoretical defence of Slavery--for it proves that the profits which
capital exacts from labor makes free laborers slaves, without the
rights, privileges or advantages of domestic slaves, and capitalists
their masters, with all the advantages, and none of the burdens and
obligations of the ordinary owners of slaves.
The scientific title of this work would be best expressed by the
conventional French term "_Exploitation_." We endeavor to translate by
the double periphrases of "Cannibals All; or, Slaves without Masters."
We have been imprudent enough to write our Introduction first, and may
fail to satisfy the expectations which we excite. Our excess of candor
must, in that event, in part supply our deficiency of ability.
CANNIBALS ALL!
CHAPTER I.
THE UNIVERSAL TRADE.
We are, all, North and South, engaged in the White Slave Trade, and he
who succeeds best, is esteemed most respectable. It is far more cruel
than the Black Slave Trade, because it exacts more of its slaves, and
neither protects nor governs them. We boast, that it exacts more, when
we say, "that the _profits_ made from employing free labor are greater
than those from slave labor." The profits, made from free labor, are the
amount of the products of such labor, which the employer, by means of
the command which capital or skill gives him, takes away, exacts or
"exploitates" from the free laborer. The profits of slave labor are that
portion of the products of such labor which the power of the master
enables him to appropriate. These profits are less, because the master
allows the slave to retain a larger share of the results of his own
labor, than do the employers of free labor. But we not only boast that
the White Slave Trade is more exacting and fraudulent (in fact, though
not in intention,) than Black Slavery; but we also boast, that it is
more cruel, in leaving the laborer to take care of himself and family
out of the pittance which skill or capital have allowed him to retain.
When the day's labor is ended, he is free, but is overburdened with the
cares of family and household, which make his freedom an empty and
delusive mockery. But his employer is really free, and may enjoy the
profits made by others' labor, without a care, or a trouble, as to their
well-being. The negro slave is free, too, when the labors of the day are
over, and free in mind as well as body; for the master provides food,
raiment, house, fuel, and everything else necessary to the physical
well-being of himself and family. The master's labors commence just when
the slave's end. No wonder men should prefer white slavery to capital,
to negro slavery, since it is more profitable, and is free from all the
cares and labors of black slave-holding.
Now, reader, it you wish to know yourself--to "descant on your own
deformity"--read on. But if you would cherish self-conceit, self-esteem,
or self-appreciation, throw down our book; for we will dispel illusions
which have promoted your happiness, and shew you that what you have
considered and practiced as virtue, is little better than moral
Cannibalism. But you will find yourself in numerous and respectable
company; for all good and respectable people are "Cannibals all," who do
not labor, or who are successfully trying to live without labor, on the
unrequited labor of other people:--Whilst low, bad, and disreputable
people, are those who labor to support themselves, and to support said
respectable people besides. Throwing the negro slaves out of the
account, and society is divided in Christendom into four classes: The
rich, or independent respectable people, who live well and labor not at
all; the professional and skillful respectable people, who do a little
light work, for enormous wages; the poor hard-working people, who
support every body, and starve themselves; and the poor thieves,
swindlers and sturdy beggars, who live like gentlemen, without labor, on
the labor of other people. The gentlemen exploitate, which being done on
a large scale, and requiring a great many victims, is highly
respectable--whilst the rogues and beggars take so little from others,
that they fare little better than those who labor.
But, reader, we do not wish to fire into the flock. "Thou art the man!"
You are a Cannibal! and if a successful one, pride yourself on the
number of your victims, quite as much as any Feejee chieftain, who
breakfasts, dines and sups on human flesh.--And your conscience smites
you, if you have failed to succeed, quite as much as his, when he
returns from an unsuccessful foray.
Probably, you are a lawyer, or a merchant, or a doctor, who have made by
your business fifty thousand dollars, and retired to live on your
capital. But, mark! not to spend your capital. That would be vulgar,
disreputable, criminal. That would be, to live by your own labor; for
your capital is your amassed labor. That would be, to do as common
working men do; for they take the pittance which their employees leave
them, to live on. They live by labor; for they exchange the results of
their own labor for the products of other people's labor. It is, no
doubt, an honest, vulgar way of living; but not at all a respectable
way. The respectable way of living is, to make other people work for
you, and to pay them nothing for so doing--and to have no concern about
them after their work is done. Hence, white slave-holding is much more
respectable than negro slavery--for the master works nearly as hard for
the negro, as he for the master. But you, my virtuous, respectable
reader, exact three thousand dollars per annum from white labor, (for
your income is the product of white labor,) and make not one cent of
return in any form. You retain your capital, and never labor, and yet
live in luxury on the labor of others. Capital commands labor, as the
master does the slave. Neither pays for labor; but the master permits
the slave to retain a larger allowance from the proceeds of his own
labor, and hence "free labor is cheaper than slave labor." You, with
the command over labor which your capital gives you, are a slave
owner--a master, without the obligations of a master. They who work for
you, who create your income, are slaves, without the rights of slaves.
Slaves without a master! Whilst you were engaged in amassing your
capital, in seeking to become independent, you were in the White Slave
Trade. To become independent, is to be able to make other people support
you, without being obliged to labor for _them_. Now, what man in society
is not seeking to attain this situation? He who attains it, is a slave
owner, in the worst sense. He who is in pursuit of it, is engaged in the
slave trade. You, reader, belong to the one or other class. The men
without property, in free society, are theoretically in a worse
condition than slaves. Practically, their condition corresponds with
this theory, as history and statistics every where demonstrate. The
capitalists, in free society, live in ten times the luxury and show that
Southern masters do, because the slaves to capital work harder and cost
less, than negro slaves.
The negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the
freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work
not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life
provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they are oppressed
neither by care nor labor. The women do little hard work, and are
protected from the despotism of their husbands by their masters. The
negro men and stout boys work, on the average, in good weather, not more
than nine hours a day. The balance of their time is spent in perfect
abandon. Besides, they have their Sabbaths and holidays. White men, with
so much of license and liberty, would die of ennui; but negroes
luxuriate in corporeal and mental repose. With their faces upturned to
the sun, they can sleep at any hour; and quiet sleep is the greatest of
human enjoyments. "Blessed be the man who invented sleep." 'Tis
happiness in itself--and results from contentment with the present, and
confident assurance of the future. We do not know whether free laborers
ever sleep. They are fools to do so; for, whilst they sleep, the wily
and watchful capitalist is devising means to ensnare and exploitate
them. The free laborer must work or starve. He is more of a slave than
the negro, because he works longer and harder for less allowance than
the slave, and has no holiday, because the cares of life with him begin
when its labors end. He has no liberty, and not a single right. We know,
'tis often said, air and water, are common property, which all have
equal right to participate and enjoy; but this is utterly false. The
appropriation of the lands carries with it the appropriation of all on
or above the lands, _usque ad coelum, aut ad inferos_. A man cannot
breathe the air, without a place to breathe it from, and all places are
appropriated. All water is private property "to the middle of the
stream," except the ocean, and that is not fit to drink.
Free laborers have not a thousandth part of the rights and liberties of
negro slaves. Indeed, they have not a single right or a single liberty,
unless it be the right or liberty to die. But the reader may think that
he and other capitalists and employers are freer than negro slaves. Your
capital would soon vanish, if you dared indulge in the liberty and
abandon of negroes. You hold your wealth and position by the tenure of
constant watchfulness, care and circumspection. You never labor; but you
are never free.
Where a few own the soil, they have unlimited power over the balance of
society, until domestic slavery comes in, to compel them to permit this
balance of society to draw a sufficient and comfortable living from
"terra mater." Free society, asserts the right of a few to the
earth--slavery, maintains that it belongs, in different degrees, to all.
But, reader, well may you follow the slave trade. It is the only trade
worth following, and slaves the only property worth owning. All other is
worthless, a mere _caput mortuum_, except in so far as it vests the
owner with the power to command the labors of others--to enslave them.
Give you a palace, ten thousand acres of land, sumptuous clothes,
equipage and every other luxury; and with your artificial wants, you are
poorer than Robinson Crusoe, or the lowest working man, if you have no
slaves to capital, or domestic slaves. Your capital will not bring you
an income of a cent, nor supply one of your wants, without labor. Labor
is indispensable to give value to property, and if you owned every thing
else, and did not own labor, you would be poor. But fifty thousand
dollars means, and is, fifty thousand dollars worth of slaves. You can
command, without touching on that capital, three thousand dollars' worth
of labor per annum. You could do no more were you to buy slaves with it,
and then you would be cumbered with the cares of governing and providing
for them. You are a slaveholder now, to the amount of fifty thousand
dollars, with all the advantages, and none of the cares and
responsibilities of a master.
"Property in man" is what all are struggling to obtain. Why should they
not be obliged to take care of man, their property, as they do of their
horses and their hounds, their cattle and their sheep. Now, under the
delusive name of liberty, you work him, "from morn to dewy eve"--from
infancy to old age--then turn him out to starve. You treat your horses
and hounds better. Capital is a cruel master. The free slave trade, the
commonest, yet the cruellest of trades.