'In wedlock a species of lottery lies,
Where in blanks and in prizes we deal;
But how comes it that you, such a capital prize,
Should so long have remained in the wheel?'
MOORE.
Ann Harriet was determined that her wedding should be a romantic one;
she said that it was by no means an every-day affair, and therefore it
should be carried out in a style proportionate to its rarity. After
consulting Mrs. Pendergast, and searching through a pile of 'New York
Dashers,' she was much inclined to a midnight wedding, especially as
Mrs. Pendergast offered to loan her patent lamp for the occasion; but
when they suddenly happened to hear of a marriage celebrated in the wild
and picturesque woods of the White Hills, it was immediately decided
that there was no better place; so sacred a ceremony should be performed
'under the broad canopy of heaven,' and the birds of the air and the
countless leaves of the trees should sing their epithalamium.
After some search, it was decided that the happy spot should be on
'Huckleberry Hill,' a picturesque elevation about a mile from the
postoffice in Peonytown, covered with a luxurious growth of pines and
hemlocks, interspersed with huckleberry bushes, sweet fern, and
mullenstalks. A small, open place was selected, where the long moss made
a beautiful carpet, and the tall trees on every side entwined their arms
as lovingly together as if they, too, were about to take each other 'for
better for worse,' while the ripple of a brook hidden in the woods lent
a pleasant melody to the scene.
'This is the place of all others,' remarked Ann Harriet. 'Houses may
burn down or decay, churches may be sold and turned into ice-cream
saloons and lager-beer depots--as Mr. Dunstable's was; but these lofty
pines and rugged hemlocks will stand for centuries, to mark the spot
where, in my girlhood, I plighted my troth to that _dear_ Dobbs.'
Preparations for the bridal went gloriously on. The Peonytown dressmaker
was busy day and evening in making up the trousseau of the expectant
bride. The wedding dress was to be of fine white muslin, and no
ornaments to detract from its spotless purity.
The important day at length arrived. The sun rose warm, brilliant, calm,
and cloudless--and so did Ann Harriet. Her heart beat quick and
tumultuously as the coming event of the day suddenly occurred to her,
and she rejoiced to think that she was now to have _one_ to shield her
from the chilling blasts of a cold, relentless world--a husband on whose
breast her weary head could rest and feel secure.
These thoughts made her footsteps light, and she hastened to array
herself for the bridal, which, was appointed at ten o'clock. The barber
of Peonytown was sent for, and, although dressing a bride's hair was
something as yet unknown to him, yet, after much perseverance and more
ox marrow, he succeeded in twisting and braiding her luxuriant black
locks into a kind of triumphal-arched basketwork, that resembled a
miniature summer-house. The white muslin dress was then put on, and a
pair of white kid gloves drawn over her small fingers (plump people have
little hands), and Ann Harriet awaited her husband elect.
All Peonytown had been apprized of the hour of the wedding, and, in
consequence, the grove was at an early period filled with spectators.
Boys climbed into the trees; camp stools were provided; and one
enterprising Peonytowner brought a long wooden settee, and let the weary
rest on it for the slight consideration of half a dime each. The Rev.
Derby Sifter was there too. He was to perform the ceremony, and, as it
was the first wedding in Peonytown for six months, he was in unusual
humor, rubbing his hands together, and laughing at every remark that was
made.
At the appointed time Ann Harriet appeared, hanging lovingly on the arm
of the gallant Captain. The bride attracted universal attention. At
first, indeed, many were impressed with the idea that a crowd of girls
were coming, dressed in unsullied white; but as she approached nearer,
they saw that it was the fair Ann Harriet in her white muslin, leaning
on the arm of Captain Dobbs, who was dressed in full uniform, and had a
carnation pink in his mouth. The Rev. Derby Sifter now stepped forward,
and the parties took their places. No bridesmaids were needed, the bride
'answering' for several. After a few preliminary remarks, the reverend
gentleman pronounced them--under green leaves--_husband and wife!_ Ann
Harriet heaved a sigh of relief: the H had vanished forever from her
name, and D now reigned in its stead. A short prayer then followed.
Meanwhile, a boy in a tree directly over their heads spied a
caterpillar's nest near him, and, breaking a twig from a branch, he
probed the nest, causing a tremendous stampede among the inmates. Down
they dropped, silently and softly, upon the elaborate head of the bride,
who stood wholly unconscious of the additional ornaments so profusely
decorating her hair; the company noticed it, and very soon every one was
in a broad grin. Ann Harriet became conscious of some merriment in that
portion of the party immediately under her observation, and a succession
of blushes suffused her face as she felt that something ridiculous to
herself must have caused it. At that instant a caterpillar, that had
been swinging to and fro on his attenuated web, landed plump on Ann's
nose as she raised her face (he had been waiting for something to turn
up), causing her to give utterance to a scream that made the clerical
gentleman open his eyes, and a couple of catbirds to fly frightened and
squealing from their nests.
At the same time an angry cow, rendered furious by the sting of some
insect, plunged frantically into the wedding circle, bellowing, tossing
her head, and flourishing her tail in a terrific and antinuptial manner.
The Rev. Mr. Sifter was the first one to leave, and, being very spare,
he passed swiftly through the trees and bushes, never looking behind him
till he had reached the meeting house, where he stopped and in his
unconscious delirium caught at the bell rope and rang the bell with a
vigor that started every one from his work, so that in a few minutes
'Extinguisher No. 1' was hurried along the roads by an extempore company
of about fifty men and boys.
Meanwhile, the witnesses of the rural wedding had all skedaddled--to
borrow a Greek word--into the woods, in dire confusion, tearing
dresses, pulling down 'back hair,' hitching hoop skirts, and tumbling
over blackberry vines--but each intent on increasing the distance from
the mad cow. Ann Harriet was not so fortunate; her size prevented her
running, and a fiery peony on her bosom attracted the animal's
attention, so that, with a loud roar, the beast rushed directly upon
her. Had Ann Harriet been--as she was a few weeks before--an unprotected
female, the undertaker of Peonytown would have had a 'big job' that day;
but luckily, he who had just sworn to love and protect her saw that now
was his time and chance to begin; so, drawing his sword, he stepped in
front of his trembling bride, and, as the cow approached with head down
and eyeballs glaring wildly, he aimed a blow with his weapon, which
inflicted a severe cut on her nose.
The cow paused.
'Step backward gradually, my Ann Harriet,' said the valiant Dobbs, 'and
I will see that she does not touch you.'
Ann Harriet stepped backward, but not 'gradually,' for she trod on a
loose stone, which upset her, and she rolled over and over down a
sloping rock, ruining, on the way, any quantity of huckleberry bushes
and pennyroyal. This started the cow, who made another furious charge at
the soldier, who this time, by a well-directed blow, cut one horn sheer
off.
'That's good!' exclaimed he; 'next time I'll take t'other horn, and then
commence on her legs.'
The cow made another retreat, but appeared by no means vanquished. The
Captain stood his ground manfully. Ann Harriet sat on the moss at the
foot of the rock, disentangling from her hair the bruised and mangled
caterpillars which still remained there.
Just as the cow was about to make her third charge, shouts were heard in
the path which led to the village, and in a moment 'Extinguisher No. 1,'
with its brave volunteers, was on the ground. They had followed the
directions of the parson and arrived at an opportune moment.
The boys at once decided that, as there was no fire to put out, they
would 'put out' the cow; so, unreeling the hose, they drew the water
from the brook, and in a very little while a stream of water from a
two-inch pipe struck the astonished cow full in the face, when she
turned and scampered off into the forest, jumping over Ann Harriet at a
single bound, and was seen no more.
Captain Dobbs wiped his gory weapon on the greensward, and returned it
to the sheath. He then sprang to the side of his wife, and, with the
help of the foreman and two brakemen, raised her. She said her nerves
were all unstrung, and she 'never could walk home in the world;' so she
was placed on the box of the hose carriage and carried to the village.
The Peonytowners turned out _en masse_ to meet them, and were anxious
that the heroic Captain should make a speech from the town pump; but he
declined.
In a short time the happy couple were comfortably seated on the sofa in
the parlor of the old homestead, and his arm was as far round her waist
as it would go. Here we will bid them adieu. Ann Harriet being married,
she will have no more _miss_-haps--albeit at some future time something
may be heard of Captain and Mrs. Dobbs--and all the little Dobbses.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Broken-up apple pie.
THE UNION.
IV.
The census tables of the North and the South, and especially of
Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina, heretofore presented, have
proved that slavery greatly retarded the progress of population, wealth,
science, education, and religion. The comparison now instituted between
New York and Virginia demonstrates the same law.
By the census, the population of Virginia in 1790 was 748,308, and in
1860, 1,596,318, making the ratio of increase 113.32 percent. In 1790,
New York numbered 340,120, and in 1860, 3,880,735, the ratio of increase
being 1,040.99. (Table 1, Prelim. Census Rep., p. 132.) Thus, the rate
of increase in New York exceeded that of Virginia more than nine to one.
In 1790, the population of Virginia was largely more than double that of
New York. In 1860, the population of New York was very largely more than
double that of Virginia. In 1790, Virginia, in population, ranked first
of all the States, and New York the fifth. In 1860, they had reversed
their positions, and New York was the first, and Virginia the fifth.
(Rep., p. 120.) At the same rate of progress, from 1860 to 1900, as from
1790 to 1860, Virginia, retaining slavery, would have sunk from the
first to the twenty-first State, and would still continue, at each
succeeding decade, descending the inclined plane toward the lowest
position of all the States. Such has been, and still continues to be,
the effect of slavery, in dragging down that once great State from the
first toward the last in rank in the Union. But if, as in the absence of
slavery must have been the case, Virginia had increased from 1790 to
1860 in the same ratio as New York, her population in 1860 would have
been 7,789,141, and she must always have remained the first in rank of
all the States.
AREA.--The natural advantages of Virginia far exceed those of New York.
The area of Virginia is 61,352 square miles, and that of New York,
47,000. The population of Virginia per square mile in 1790 was 12.19,
and in 1860, 26.02. That of New York, in 1790, was 7.83, and in 1860,
84.36. Now, if New York, with her present numbers per square mile, had
the area of Virginia, her population, in 1860, would have been
5,175,654, and that of Virginia, reduced to the area of New York, on the
basis of her present numbers per square mile, would have been 1,320,000.
This illustrates the immense effect of area, as one of the great
elements influencing the progress of population. But, wonderful as are
these results, the great fact is omitted in this calculation, that
Virginia, in 1790, had largely more than double the population of New
York. Thus, if we reverse the numbers of New York and Virginia in 1790,
and take the actual ratio of increase of each for the succeeding seventy
years, the population of Virginia, in 1860, would have been 728,875, and
that of New York, as we have seen, would have been 7,789,141, making the
difference exceed seven millions, or very largely more than ten to one.
Reverse the areas also, and the difference would exceed eight millions.
SHORE LINE.--As furnishing cheap and easy access for imports and
exports, creating marts for commerce with great cities, and affecting
the interior most beneficially, the shore line, with adequate harbors,
constitutes a vast element in the progress of states and empires. Now,
by the last tables of the United States coast survey, the shore line of
Virginia was 1,571 miles, and of New York 725 miles. The five great
parallel tide-water rivers of Virginia, the Potomac, the Rappahannock,
the York river, James river, and Roanoke (partly in North Carolina),
with their tributaries, furnish easy access for hundreds of miles into
the interior, with both shores of the noble Chesapeake bay for many
miles, as well as its magnificent outlet and the main ocean for a
considerable distance, all within the limits of Virginia. We have seen
that the coast line of Virginia is largely more than double that of New
York, and the harbors of Virginia are more numerous, deeper, and much
nearer the great valley of the Ohio and Mississippi. By the coast-survey
tables, the mean low water into the harbor of New York by Gedney's
channel is 20 feet, and at high-water spring tides is 24.2; north
channel, 24, mean low water, and 29.1 spring tides, high water; south
channel, 22 and 27.1; main ship channel, after passing S.W. spit buoy,
on N.E. course, one mile up the bay, for New York, 22.5-27.06. By the
same tables, from capes at entrance of Chesapeake bay to Hampton, at
mean low water, 30 feet; spring tides, high water, 32.8. Anchorage in
Hampton roads, 59-61.8. From Hampton roads to Sewell's point, 25-27.8.
South of Sewell's point (one mile and a half), 21-23.8; up to Norfolk,
23-25.8. From Hampton roads to James river, entering to the northward of
Newport News, middle ground, 22-24.8. From Hampton roads to James river,
entering to the southward of Newport News, middle ground, 27-29.8. From
abreast the tail of York spit, up to Yorktown, 33-35.8. Elizabeth river,
between Norfolk and navy yard, 25.5-28.3.
When we leave the tide-water rivers for the interior navigable streams,
Virginia has a vast advantage. New York has no such rivers above tide,
but Virginia has the Ohio for hundreds of miles, with its tributaries,
the Kanawha, Guyandotte, and Big Sandy. It is true, New York has several
of the great lakes, and the vast advantage of connection with them
through her great canal. But, in the absence of slavery, the canal
projected by Washington (preceding that of New York) would have
connected, through Virginia, the Chesapeake bay with the Ohio river. The
James river, flowing into the Chesapeake, cuts the Blue Mountains, and
the Kanawha, a confluent of the Ohio, cuts the Alleghany; thus opening
an easy and practicable route for a great canal from the eastern to the
western waters. The valley of the lakes, with which New York is
connected by her canal, has an area of 335,515 square miles. The valley
of the Mississippi, with which the Chesapeake would long since, in the
absence of slavery, have been connected by the Virginia canal, has an
area of 1,226,600 square miles. The shore line of the Mississippi and
its tributaries, above tide water, is 35,644 miles. (Page 35 Compend.
Census of 1850.) Our shore line of the lakes is 3,620 miles, including
bays, sounds, and islands; and that of the British, 2,629. (Ib. 35.) The
connection of the lakes with the Ohio and Mississippi would be the same
for both States, the one being from the lakes to these rivers, and the
other from the rivers to the lakes. The location of Virginia is more
central than that of New York, and Virginia runs farther west by several
hundred miles. We are so accustomed to look at the connection of New
York with the West by her canal, and Virginia with no such union, that
it is difficult to realize the great change if Virginia had been
connected by her progressing work with the Ohio and Mississippi, and
thence, by the present canals, with the lakes.
It is apparent, then, that, as regards easy access to the West, the
natural advantages of Virginia surpass New York, and with greater
facilities for artificial works. How many decades would be required,
after emancipation, to bring the superior natural advantages of Virginia
into practical operation, is not the question; nor do I believe that
the city of New York will ever cease to be the centre of our own trade,
and ultimately of the commerce of the world. But although Virginia, in
adhering to slavery, has lost her supremacy in the Union, it is quite
certain that, as a Free State, she would commence a new career of
wonderful prosperity, that capital and population from the North and
from Europe would flow there with a mighty current, her lands be doubled
in value, and her town and city property far more than quadrupled.
MINES.--Virginia has vast mines of coal, the great element of modern
progress. New York has none. It is coal that has made Great Britain a
mighty empire, giving her power, by land and sea, equal to the manual
force of all mankind. It is stated by the Commissioner of the General
Land Office, in his report before referred to, of November, 1860, 'that
an acre of coal, three feet thick, is equal to the product of 1,940
acres of forest trees; and each acre of a coal seam four feet in
thickness, and yielding one yard of pure coal, is equivalent to 5,000
tons, and possesses, therefore, a reserve of mechanical strength in its
fuel, equal to the life labor of more than 1,600 men.'
This statement of the Commissioner is made on the highest authority, and
proves the vast natural advantages of Virginia over New York. Virginia,
also, has far more abundant mines of iron, more widely diffused over the
State, reaching from tide water to the Ohio. She has also these iron
mines in juxtaposition with coal and all the fluxes. Virginia, also, has
valuable mines of gold, lead, and copper. New York has no gold or copper
mines, and produced in 1860 but $800 worth of lead. (Table 14.)
HYDRAULIC POWER.--Omitting Niagara, which thus far scorns the control of
man, the hydraulic power of Virginia very far exceeds that of New York.
It is to be found on the Potomac and its tributaries, and upon nearly
every stream that flows into the Chesapeake or Ohio. The superior
mildness of the climate of Virginia makes this power available there for
a much greater portion of the year. The great falls of the Potomac,
where Washington constructed the largest locks of the continent, has a
water power unsurpassed, and is but twelve miles from tide water, at
Washington. This point is a most healthy and beautiful location,
surrounded by lands whose natural fertility was very great, and, in the
absence of slavery, must have been a vast manufacturing city. This water
power could move more spindles than are now worked on all this
continent.
AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES.--The natural fertility of the soil of
Virginia far exceeded that of New York, with a more genial sun, and much
more favorable seasons for agricultural products, as well as for stock.
The number of acres of land in Virginia susceptible of profitable
culture, is nearly double that of New York, but much of it has been
impoverished by slave labor, scratching and exhausting the soil, without
manure or rotation of crops. The census shows that Virginia has all the
products of New York, and cotton in addition. Virginia produced, in
1860, 12,727 bales of cotton (table 36), worth, at present prices,
nearly $3,000,000. She also adjoins the States of North Carolina and
Tennessee, producing, in 1860, 372,964 bales, worth, at present prices,
nearly $90,000,000. Virginia is also much nearer than New York to all
the other cotton States. With these vast advantages, with her larger
area, more fertile soil, cheaper subsistence, her coal and iron and
great hydraulic power, with so much cotton raised by herself and in
adjacent States, Virginia should have manufactured much more cotton than
New York. But, by the census (table 22), the value of the cotton
manufacture of Virginia in 1850 was $1,446,109, and in 1860,
$1,063,611--a decrease of one third. In New York, the value of the
cotton manufacture in 1850 was $5,019,323, and in 1860, $7,471,961, an
increase of over 48 per cent. So, if we look at the tables of mines,
manufactures, and the fisheries, with the vastly superior advantages of
Virginia, the whole product in 1860 was of the value of $51,300,000, and
of agriculture $68,700,000; whilst in New York these values were
respectively $379,623,560 and $226,376,440. (Tables of Census, 33 and
36.)
CLIMATE AND MORTALITY.--By table 6, page 22, of the Census, there were
for the year ending June 1st, 1860, 46,881 deaths in New York, being 1
in every 82 of the population, and 1.22 per cent. The number of deaths
in Virginia, in the same year, was 22,472, being 1 in every 70 of the
population, or 1.43 per cent. There was, then, a slight difference in
favor of New York. But Virginia is divided into four geographical
sections: the tide-water, the Piedmont (running from the tide-water
region to the Blue Mountains), the valley between these mountains and
the Alleghanies, and the trans-Alleghany to the Ohio. These three last
sections, containing three fourths of the area and white population of
the State, surpass New York in salubrity, with the most bracing and
delightful climate. The climate of Virginia is far more favorable for
stock and agricultural products than New York, with longer and better
seasons, and is more salubrious than the climate of Europe. (Comp.
1850.)
PROGRESS OF WEALTH.--We have seen how great was the advance in
population of New York over Virginia, from 1790 to 1860, being in the
ratio of more than 9 to 1. Now let us compare the relative progress of
wealth. It is contended by the advocates of slavery, that it accumulates
wealth more rapidly, and thus enriches the nation, although it may
depress its moral and intellectual development, its increase of numbers
and of power, and tarnish its reputation throughout the world. As
population and its labor create wealth, it must be retarded by a system
which, as we have seen in this case, diminishes the relative advance of
numbers in the ratio of more than 9 to 1. But the census proves that
slavery greatly retards the increase of wealth. By tables 33 and 36 of
the census of 1860, it appears, omitting commerce, that the products of
industry, as given, viz., of agriculture, manufactures, mines, and
fisheries, were that year in New York $604,000,000, or $155 _per
capita_; and in Virginia $120,000,000, or $75 _per capita_. This shows a
total value of product in New York more than five times greater than in
Virginia, and _per capita_, more than 2 to 1. If we include the earnings
of commerce, and all business not given in the census, I think it will
be shown hereafter, that the value of the products and earnings of New
York, in 1860, exceeded those of Virginia at least 7 to 1. As to the
rate of increase, the value of the products of agriculture,
manufactures, mines, and fisheries of Virginia, in 1850, was $84,480,428
(table 9), and in New York $356,736,603, showing an increase in Virginia
from 1850 to 1860 of $35,519,572, being 41 per cent., and in New York
$247,263,397, being 69 per cent., exhibiting a difference of 28 per
cent. Now the increase of population in Virginia from 1850 to 1860 was
12.29 per cent., and in New York 25.29 per cent., the difference being
only 13 per cent. (Table 1, p. 131.) Thus, it appears, the increase of
wealth in New York, exclusive of the gains of commerce, as compared with
Virginia, was more than double the ratio of the augmentation of
population. By the census table of 1860, No. 35, p. 195, 'The true value
of the real and personal property, according to the eighth census was,
New York, $1,843,338,517, and of Virginia $793,249,681.' Now we have
seen the value of the products of New York in 1860 by the census was
$604,000,000, and in Virginia $120,000,000. Thus, as a question of the
annual yield of capital, that of New York was 32.82 per cent., and
Virginia 15.13 per cent.; the annual product of capital being more than
double in New York what it was in Virginia. The problem then is solved
in Virginia, as it was in Maryland and South Carolina, and all the South
compared with all the North, that slavery retards the progress of wealth
and accumulation of capital, in the ratio of 2 to 1. Our war taxes may
be very great, but the tax of slavery is far greater, and the relief
from it, in a few years, will add much more to the national wealth than
the whole deduction made by the war debt. Our total wealth, by the
census of 1860, being, by table 35, $16,159,616,068, one per cent. taken
annually to pay the interest and gradually extinguish the war debt,
would be $161,596,160; whereas, judging by Virginia and New York, the
diminished increase of the annual product of capital, as the result of
slavery, is 2.8 per cent., or $452,469,250 per annum, equal in a decade,
without compounding the annual results, to $4,524,692,500.
That our population would have reached in 1860 nearly 40,000,000, and
our wealth have been more than doubled, if slavery had been extinguished
in 1790, is one of the revelations made by the census; whilst in
science, in education, and national power, the advance would have been
still more rapid, and the moral force of our example and success would
have controlled for the benefit of mankind the institutions of the
world.
By table 36, p. 196, of the census of 1860, the _cash_ value of the
farms of Virginia was $371,096,211, being $11.91 per acre, and of New
York $803,343,593, being $38.26 per acre. Now, by the table, the number
of acres embraced in these farms of New York was 20,992,950, and in
Virginia 31,014,950, the difference of value per acre being $26.36, or
much more than 3 to 1 in favor of New York. Now, if we multiply this
number of acres of farm lands of Virginia by the New York value, it
would make the total value of the farm lands of New York $1,186,942,136,
and the _additional_ value caused by emancipation $815,845,925. Now the
whole number of slaves in Virginia in 1860, was 490,865; multiplying
which by $300 as their average value, would be $147,259,500, leaving
$668,586,425 as the sum by which Virginia would be richer in farms
alone, if slavery were abolished. But, stupendous as is this result in
regard to lands, it is far below the reality. We have seen that the farm
lands of Virginia, improved and unimproved, constituted 31,014,950
acres. By the census and the land-office tables, the area of Virginia is
39,265,280 acres. Deduct the farm lands, and there remain unoccupied
8,250,330 acres. Now, Virginia's population to the square mile being
26.02, and that of New York 84.36, with an equal density in Virginia,
more than two thirds of these Virginia lands, as in New York, must have
been occupied as farms. This would have been equivalent, at two thirds,
to 5,500,000 acres, which, at their present average value of $2 per
acre, would be worth $11,000,000; but, at the value per acre of the New
York lands, these 5,500,000 acres would be worth $206,430,000. Deduct
from this their present value, $11,000,000, and the remainder,
$195,430,000, is the sum by which the unoccupied lands of Virginia,
converted into farms, would have been increased in value by
emancipation. Add this to the enhanced value of their present farms,
$815,845,925, and the result would be $1,011,275,925, as the gain of
Virginia in the value of lands by emancipation. To these we should add,
from the same cause, the enhancement of the town and city property in
Virginia to the extent of several hundred millions of dollars. In order
to realize the truth, we must behold Virginia as she would have been,
with New York railroads and canals, farms, manufactures, commerce,
towns, and cities. Then we must consider the superior natural advantages
of Virginia, her far greater area, her richer soil, her more genial sun,
her greater variety of products, her mines of coal, iron, gold, copper,
and lead, her petroleum, her superior hydraulic power, her much larger
coast line, with more numerous and deeper harbors--and reflect what
Virginia would have been in the absence of slavery. Her early statesmen,
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Mason, Tucker, and Marshall, all
realized this great truth, and all desired to promote emancipation in
Virginia. But their advice was disregarded by her present leaders--the
new, false, and fatal dogmas of Calhoun were substituted; and, as a
consequence, Virginia, from the first rank (_longo intervallo_) of all
the States, has fallen to the fifth, and, with slavery continued, will
descend still more rapidly in the future than in the past. Let her
abolish slavery, and she will commence a new career of progress. Freedom
and its associates, education and energy, will occupy her waste lands,
restore her exhausted fields, decaying cities, and prostrate industry,
employ her vast hydraulic power, develop her mines, unite by her grand
canals the waters of the Chesapeake and Ohio, and, placing her feet upon
slavery, hear her proclaim, in the proud language of her own State
motto, '_Sic semper tyrannis._'
By census table 36, p. 197, the value, in 1860, of the farm lands of all
the Slave States, was $2,570,466,935, and the number of acres
245,721,062, worth $10.46 per acre. In the Free States, the value of the
farm lands was $4,067,947,286, and the number of acres 161,462,008,
worth $25.19 per acre. Now if, as certainly in the absence of slavery
would have been the case, the farm lands of the South had been worth as
much per acre as those of the North, their total value would have been
$6,189,713,551, and, deducting the present price, the _additional_ cash
value would have been $3,619,346,616. Now the whole number of slaves in
all the States, in 1860, was 3,950,531, multiplying which by $300, as
their average value, would make all the slaves in the Union worth
$1,185,159,300. Deduct this from the enhanced value of the farm lands of
the South as above, and the result would be $2,434,087,316 as the gain
in the price of farms by emancipation. This is independent of the
increased value of their unoccupied lands, and of their town and city
property.
By census tables of 1860, 33 and 36, the total value of the products of
agriculture, mines, and fisheries in the Free States was $4,100,000,000,
and of the Slave States $1,150,000,000, making the products of the Free
States in 1860 nearly 4 to 1 of the Slave States, and $216 _per capita_
for the Free States, and for the Slave States $94 _per capita_. This is
exclusive of commerce, which would greatly increase the ratio in favor
of the North, that of New York alone being nearly equal to that of all
the Slave States. Now, multiply the population of the Slave States by
the value of the products _per capita_ of the Free States, and the
result is $2,641,631,032, making, by emancipation, the increased annual
product of the Slave States $1,491,631,032, and in ten years, exclusive
of the yearly accumulations, $14,916,310,320.
By the table 35, census of 1860, the total value of all the property,
real and personal, of the Free States, was $10,852,081,681, and of the
Slave States, $5,225,307,034. Now, the product, in 1860, of the Free
States, being $4,100,000,000, the annual yield on the capital was 38 per
cent.; and, the product of the Slave States being $1,150,000,000, the
yield on the capital was 22 per cent. This was the gross product in both
cases. I have worked out these amazing results from the census tables,
to illustrate the fact, that the same law, by which slavery retarded the
progress of wealth in Virginia, as compared with New York, and of
Maryland and South Carolina, as compared with Massachusetts, rules the
relative advance in wealth of all the Slave States, as compared with
that of all the Free States. I have stated that the statistics of
commerce, omitted in these tables, would vastly increase the difference
in favor of the Free States, as compared with the Slave States, and of
New York as contrasted with Virginia. I shall now resume the latter
inquiry, so as to complete the comparison between New York and Virginia.
By commerce is embraced, in this examination, all earning not included
under the heads of agriculture, manufactures, the mines, or fisheries.
RAILROADS.--The number of miles of railroads in operation in New York,
in 1860, including city roads, was 2,842 miles, costing $138,395,055;
and in Virginia, 1,771 miles, costing $64,958,807. (Census table of
1860, No. 38, pp. 230 and 233.) Now, by the same census report, p. 105,
the value of the freights of the New York roads for 1860 was as follows:
Product of the forest--tons carried, 373,424; value per ton, $20; total
value, $7,468,480. Of animals--895,519 tons; value per ton, $200; total
value, $179,103,800. Vegetable food--1,103,640 tons; value per ton, $50;
total value, $55,182,000. Other agricultural products--143,219 tons;
value per ton, $15; total value, $2,148,055. Manufactures--511,916 tons;
value per ton, $500; total value, $391,905,500. Other articles--930,244
tons; value, $10 per ton; total value, $9,302,440. Grand total,
4,741,773 tons carried; value per ton, $163. Total values, $773,089,275.
Deducting one quarter for duplication, makes 3,556,330 tons carried on
the New York roads in 1860; and the value, $579,681,790. The values of
the freights on the Virginia roads, as estimated, is $60,000,000, giving
an excess to those of New York of $519,681,790, on the value of railroad
freights in 1860. The passenger account, not given, would largely
increase the disparity in favor of New York.
CANALS.--The number of miles of canals in New York is 1,038, and their
cost $67,567,972. In Virginia, the number of miles is 178, and the cost
$7,817,000. (Census table 39, p. 238.) The estimated value of the
freight on the New York canals is 19 times that of the freight on the
Virginia canals. (Census.)
TONNAGE.--The tonnage of vessels built in New York in 1860 was 31,936
tons, and in Virginia 4,372. (Census, p. 107.)
BANKS.--The number of banks in New York in 1860 was 303; capital
$111,441,320, loans $200,351,332, specie $20,921,545, circulation
$29,959,506, deposits $101,070,273; and in Virginia the number was 65;
capital $16,005,156, loans $24,975,792, specie $2,943,652, circulation
$9,812,197, deposits $7,729,652. (Table 34, p. 193, Census.)
INSURANCE COMPANIES.--The risks taken in New York were $916,474,956, or
nearly one third of those in the whole Union. Virginia, estimated at
$100,000,000; difference in favor of New York $816,474,956. (Census, p.
79.)
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS, ETC.--Our exports abroad from New York for the
fiscal year ending 30th June, 1860, were $145,555,449, and the foreign
imports $248,489,877; total of both, $394,045,326. The clearances same
year from New York were 4,574,285 tons, and the entries 4,836,448 tons;
total of both, 9,410,733 tons. In Virginia, the exports the same year
were $5,858,024, and the imports $1,326,249; total of both, $7,184,273;
clearances, 80,381 tons, entries, 97,762 tons; total of both, 178,143
tons. (Table 14, Register of United States Treasury.) Revenue collected
from customs same year in New York, $37,788,969, and in Virginia
$189,816, or 200 to 1 in favor of New York. (Tables, U.S. Com. of
Customs.) No returns are given for the coastwise and internal trade of
either State, but the tables of the railway and canal transportation of
both States show nearly the same proportion in favor of New York as in
the foreign trade. Thus the _domestic_ exports from New York for the
above year abroad were $126,060,967, and from Virginia $5,833,371.
(Same table, 14.) And yet Virginia, as we have seen, had much greater
natural advantages than New York for commerce, as well as for mines,
manufactures, and agriculture. But slavery has almost expelled commerce
from Virginia, and nearly paralyzed all other pursuits.
These tables, taken from the census and the Treasury records, prove
incontestably, that slavery retards the progress of wealth and
population throughout the South, but especially in Virginia. Nor can the
Tariff account for the results; for Virginia, as we have seen, possesses
far greater advantages than New York for manufactures. Besides, the
commerce of New York far surpasses that of Virginia, and this is the
branch of industry supposed to be affected most injuriously by high
tariffs, and New York has generally voted against them with as much
unanimity as Virginia. But there is a still more conclusive proof. The
year 1824 was the commencement of the era of high tariffs, and yet, from
1790 to 1820, as proved by the census, the percentage of increase of New
York over Virginia was greater than from 1820 to 1860. Thus, by table I
of the census, p. 124, the increase of population in Virginia was as
follows:
From 1790 to 1800 17.63 per cent.
" 1800 " 1810 10.73 "
" 1810 " 1820 9.31 "
" 1820 " 1830 13.71 "
" 1830 " 1840 2.34 "
" 1840 " 1850 14.60 "
" 1850 " 1860 12.29 "
The increase of population in New York was:
From 1790 to 1800 72.51 per cent.
" 1800 " 1810 63.45 "
" 1810 " 1820 43.14 "
" 1820 " 1830 39.76 "
" 1830 " 1840 26.60 "
" 1840 " 1850 27.52 "
" 1850 " 1860 25.29 "
In 1790 the population of Virginia was 748,318, in 1820, 1,065,129, and
in 1860, 1,596,318. In 1790 the population of New York was 340,120, in
1820, 1,372,111, and in 1860, 3,880,735. Thus, from 1790 to 1820, before
the inauguration of the protective policy, the relative increase of the
population of New York, as compared with Virginia, was very far greater
than from 1820 to 1860. It is quite clear, then, that the Tariff had no
influence whatever in depressing the progress of Virginia as compared
with New York.
We have heretofore proved by the census the same position as regards the
relative progress of Maryland and Massachusetts, and the same principle
applies as between all the Free, as compared with all the Slave States.
In New York, we have seen that her progress from 1790 to 1820, in the
absence of high tariffs, and, even before the completion of her great
canal, her advance in population was much more rapid than from 1820 to
1860. Indeed, it is quite clear that, so far as the Tariff had any
influence, it was far more unfavorable to New York than to Virginia, New
York being a much greater agricultural as well as commercial State.
Having shown how much the material progress of Virginia has been
retarded by slavery, let us now consider its effect upon her moral and
intellectual development.
NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS.--The number of newspapers and periodicals in
New York in 1860 was 542, of which 365 were political, 56 religious, 63
literary, 58 miscellaneous; and the number of copies circulated in 1860
was 320,930,884. (Census tables, Nos. 15, 37.) The number in Virginia
was 139; of which 117 were political, 13 religious, 3 literary, 6
miscellaneous; and the number of copies circulated in 1860 was
26,772,568. Thus, the annual circulation of the press in New York was
twelve times as great as that of Virginia. As to periodicals: New York
had 69 monthlies, of which 2 were political, 25 religious, 24 literary,
and 18 miscellaneous; 10 quarterlies, of which 5 were religious, and 5
literary; 6 annuals, of which 2 were political, 2 religious, and 2
miscellaneous. Virginia had 5 monthlies, of which 1 was political, 2
religious, 1 literary, and 1 miscellaneous; and no quarterlies or
annuals. The annual circulation of the New York monthlies was 2,045,000;
that of Virginia was 43,900; or more than 43 to 1 in favor of New York.
As regards schools, colleges, academies, libraries, and churches, I must
take the census of 1850, those tables for 1860 not being yet arranged
and printed. The number of public schools in New York in 1850 was
11,580, teachers 13,965, pupils 675,221; colleges, academies, etc.,
pupils 52,001; attending school during the year, as returned by
families, 693,329; native adults of the State who cannot read or write,
23,341. Public libraries, 11,013; volumes, 1,760,820. Value of churches,
$21,539,561. (Comp. Census, 1850.)
The number of public schools in Virginia in 1850 was 2,937, teachers
3,005, pupils 67,438; colleges, academies, etc., pupils 10,326;
attending school during the year, as returned by families, 109,775;
native white adults of the State who cannot read or write, 75,868.
Public libraries, 54; volumes, 88,462. Value of churches, $2,902,220.
(Compend. of Census of 1850.) By table 155, same compend, the percentage
of native free population in Virginia over 20 years of age who cannot
read or write is 19.90, and in New York 1.87, in North Carolina 30.34,
in Maryland 11.10, in Massachusetts 0.32, or less than one third of one
per cent. In New England, the percentage of native whites who cannot
read or write is 0.42, or less than one half of one per cent.; and in
the Southern States 20.30, or 50 to 1 in favor of New England.
(Compend., table 157.) But, if we take the whole adult population of
Virginia, including whites, free blacks, and slaves, 42.05 per cent., or
nearly one half, cannot read or write; and in North Carolina, more than
one half cannot read or write. We have seen, by the above official
tables of the census of 1850, that New York, compared with Virginia, had
nearly ten times as many pupils at schools, colleges, and academies,
twenty times as many books in libraries, and largely more than seven
times the value of churches; while the ratio of native white adults who
cannot read or write was more than 10 to 1 in Virginia, compared with
New York. We have seen, also, that in North Carolina nearly one third of
the native white adults, and in Virginia nearly one fifth, cannot read
or write, and in New England 1 in every 400, in New York 1 in every 131,
in the South and Southwest 1 in every 12 of the native white adults.
(Comp. p. 153.)
These official statistics enable me, then, again to say that slavery is
hostile to the progress of wealth and education, to science and
literature, to schools, colleges, and universities, to books and
libraries, to churches and religion, to the press, and therefore to free
government; hostile to the poor, keeping them in want and ignorance;
hostile to labor, reducing it to servitude, and decreasing two thirds
the value of its products; hostile to morals, repudiating among slaves
the marital and parental condition, classifying them by law as chattels,
darkening the immortal soul, and making it a crime to teach millions of
human beings to read or write. Surely such a system is hostile to
civilization, which consists in the education of the masses of the
people of a country, and not of the few only. A State, one third of
whose population are slaves, classified by law as chattels, and
forbidden all instruction, and nearly one fifth of whose adult whites
cannot read or write, is semi-civilized, however enlightened may be the
ruling classes. If a highly educated chief or parliament governed China
or Dahomey, they would still be semi-civilized or barbarous countries,
however enlightened their rulers might be. The real discord between the
North and the South, is not only the difference between freedom and
slavery, but between civilization and barbarism caused by slavery. When
we speak of a civilized _nation_, we mean the masses of the people, and
not the government or rulers only. The enlightenment of the _people_ is
the true criterion of civilization, and any community that falls below
this standard, is barbarous or semi-civilized. In countries where kings
or oligarchies rule, the government may be maintained, (however
unjustly,) without educating the masses; but, in a republic, or popular
government, this is impossible; and the deluded masses of the South
never could have been driven into this rebellion, but for the ignorance
into which they had been plunged by slavery; nor is there any remedy for
the evil but emancipation. If, then, we would give stability and wisdom
to the government, and perpetuity to the Union, we must abolish slavery,
which withholds education and enlightenment from the masses of the
people, who, with us, control the policy of the nation.
With our only cause of ignorance and poverty among the people, and only
element of discord among the States, extirpated by the gradual removal
of slavery and negroism, we would bound forward in a new and wonderful
career of power and prosperity. Our noble vessel of state, the great
Republic, freighted with the hopes of humanity, and the liberties of our
country and of mankind, still bearing aloft the flag of our mighty
Union, indissoluble by domestic traitors or conspiring oligarchs, will,
under Divine guidance, pass over the troubled waters, reassuring a
desponding world, as she glides into the blessed haven of safety and
repose. All the miracles of our past career would be eclipsed by the
glories of the future. We might then laugh to scorn the impotent malice
of foreign foes. Without force or fraud, without sceptre or bayonet, our
moral influence and example, for their own good, and by their own free
choice, would control the institutions and destiny of nations. The wise
men of the East may then journey westward again, to see the rising star
of a regenerated humanity, the fall of thrones and dynasties, the
lifting up of the downtrodden masses, and the political redemption of
our race, not by a new dispensation, but by the fulfilment thus of the
glorious prophecies and blessed promises of Holy Writ. And can we not
lift ourselves into that serene atmosphere of love of country and of our
race, above all selfish schemes or mere party devices, and contemplate
the grandeur of these results, if now, _now_, NOW we will only do our
duty? Now, indeed, is the 'accepted time,' now is the day of the
'salvation' of our country. And now, as in former days of trouble, let
us remember the mighty dead, as, when living, silencing the voice of
treason, and calming the tempest of revolution, he uttered those
electric words: 'UNION AND LIBERTY, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND
INSEPARABLE!'
If we could rise to the height of prophetic vision, behold the
procession of coming events, and, unrolling the scroll of advancing
years and centuries, contemplate our Union securing by its example the
rights and liberties of man, would we not welcome any sacrifice, even
death itself, if we could thus aid in accomplishing results so god-like
and sublime? But, whether in gloom or glory, chastened for national sins
or rewarded for good deeds, let us realize the _great truth_, that the
Almighty directs nations as well as planets in their course, governs the
moral as well as the material world, never abdicating for a moment the
control of either; and that persevering opposition to his laws must
meet, in the end, retributive justice.
PROMISE.
O watcher for the dawn of day,
As o'er the mountain peaks afar
Hangs in the twilight cold and gray,
Like a bright lamp, the morning star!
Though slow the daybeams creep along
The serried pines which top the hills,
And gloomy shadows brood among
The silent valleys, and the rills
Seem almost hushed--patience awhile!
Though slowly night to day gives birth,
Soon the young babe with radiant smile
Shall gladden all the waiting earth.
By fair gradation changes come,
No harsh transitions mar God's plan,
But slowly works from sun to sun
His perfect rule of love to man.
And patience, too, my countrymen,
In this our nation's fierce ordeal!
Bright burns the searching flame, and then,
The dross consumed, shall shine the real.
Wake, watcher! see the mountain peaks
Already catch a golden ray,
Light on the far horizon speaks
The dawning of a glorious day.
Murky the shadows still that cling
In the deep valleys, but the mist
Is soaring up on silver wing
To where the sun the clouds has kissed.
Hard-fought and long the strife may be,
The powers of wrong be slow to yield,
But Right shall gain the victory,
And Freedom hold the battle field.
AMERICAN DESTINY.
We would study the question of American Destiny in the light of common
sense, of history, and of science.
It may be unusual to illustrate from science a principle which is to
have a political application; but we shall endeavor to do so, believing
it to be unexceptionably legitimate. The different departments of
science, science and history, science and politics, have been,
heretofore, kept quite distinct as to the provinces of inquiry to which
it was presumed they severally belonged. Each has been cultivated as if
it had no relation external to itself, and was not one of a family of
cognate truths. This, however, is undergoing a gradual but certain
change, in which it is becoming constantly more manifest that between
the different departments of human inquiry there are mutual dependences
and complicated interrelations, which enable us, by the truths of one
science, to thread the mazes of another.
There are certain general laws which pertain with equal validity to many
departments of activity in the natural world; there are parallel lines
of development as the result of the inherent correlation of forces.
Thus, if we have found a great general law in physiology, that same law
may apply with equal aptness to astronomy, geology, chemistry, and even
to social and political evolution.
One of these general laws, and perhaps the most comprehensive in its
character and universal in its application of any yet known, we will
announce in the language of Guyot, the comparative geographer: 'We have
recognized in the life of all that develops itself, three successive
states, three grand phases, three evolutions, identically repeated in
every order of existence; a _chaos_, where all is confounded together; a
_development_, where all is separating; a _unity_, where all is binding
itself together and organizing. We have observed that here is the law of
_phenomenal life_, the _formula_ of development, whether in inorganic
nature or in organized nature.'
This answers for the department of physics and physiology. We will let
Guizot, the historian, speak for the political and social realm: 'All
things, at their origin, are nearly confounded in one and the same
physiognomy; it is only in their aftergrowth that their variety shows
itself. Then begins a new development which urges forward societies
toward that free and lofty unity, the glorious object of the efforts and
wishes of mankind.'
We find an illustration of this law in the simplest of the sciences, if
the nebular hypothesis be true, as most astronomers believe. We have
first the chaotic, nebulous matter, then the formation of worlds
therefrom, by a continuous process of unfolding. Each world is a unit
within itself, but part of a still greater unit composed of a system of
worlds revolving around the same sun; and this greater unit, part of one
which is still greater--a star cluster, composed of many planetary
systems, and subject to the same great cosmical laws. If the theory be
correct, we find, in this example, the heterogeneous derived from the
simple, and far more completely an organized unit, with all its
complexity, than was the chaotic mass from which development originally
proceeded.
We find additional illustration in coming to our own world. Its primeval
geography was simple and uniform; there was little diversity of coast
line, soil, or surface. But the cooling process of the earth went on,
the surface contracted and ridged up, the exposed rocks were
disintegrated by the action of the atmosphere and the waters; the
sediment deposited in the bottom of the seas was thrown to the surface;
continents were enlarged, higher mountain ranges upheaved, the coasts
worn into greater irregularity of outline; and everywhere the soil
became more composite, the surface more uneven, the landscape more
variegated.
Corresponding changes have taken place in the climate. At first the
temperature of the earth was much warmer than now, and uniform in all
parallels of latitude, as is shown by the fossil remains. Now we have a
great diversity of climate, whether we contrast the polar with the
torrid regions, or the different seasons of the temperate zone with each
other.
The same law of increasing diversity obtains in the fauna and flora of
the various periods of geological history. The earliest fossil record of
animal life is witness to the simplicity of organic structure. Among
vertebrated animals, fishes first appear, next reptiles, then birds;
still higher, the lower type of animals which suckle their young; and as
the strata become more recent, still higher forms of mammalia, till we
reach the upper tertiary, in which geologists have discovered the
remains of many animals of complex structure nearly allied to those
which are now in existence. In the historic period appear many organic
forms of still greater complexity, with man at the head of the
zoological series.
In this glance of zoological progress, we discover increasing
complication of two kinds; for while the individual structure has been
constantly becoming more complex, there are now in existence the
analogues of the lowest fossil types, which, with the highest, and with
all the intermediate, present a maze and vastness of complication,
which, in comparison with the homogeneity of the aggregate of early
structure, is sufficiently obvious and impressive.
There is in this view, still another outline of increasing complexity.
At first the same types prevailed all over the earth's surface; but as
the soil, atmosphere, and climate changed, and the animal structure
became more complex and varied, the limits of particular species became
more and more localized, till the earth's surface presented zoological
districts, with the fauna of each peculiar to itself.
But, what of unitization? Here, there appears to be divergence only, and
that continually increasing.
Guyot says that 'the unity reappears with the creation of man, who
combines in his physical nature all the perfections of the animal, and
who is the end of all this long progression of organized beings.'
Agassiz recognizes man alone as cosmopolite; and Comte regards him as
the supreme head of the economy of nature, and representative of the
fundamental unity of the anatomical scale.
But another and more obvious example of unitization in complexity, is
derivable from the consideration of the animal organism, and will soon
be given.
We will merely mention in passing, that the most complex animals, in the
various stages of fetal development through which they pass, correspond
to the types of structure which are permanent in the lower forms of
animal life. Thus, in the zoological chain, there are beings of all
grades, from the most simple in structure to the most complex; and the
most complex animal, in its development from the ovum or egg, passes
through all these grades of structure, ending in that which is above
all, and distinctively its own. 'Without going into tedious details, man
presents, as regards the most important of his constituent structures,
his nervous system, the successive characteristics of an avertebrated
animal, a fish, a turtle, a bird, a quadruped, a quadrumanous animal,
before he assumes the special human characteristics.' (Draper.)
Our purpose being to show that while complexity of structure is
constantly increasing, unitization, or the organized dependence of one
part on another, is, at the same time, becoming more complete, we shall
refer briefly to the comparative anatomy and physiology of animals.
There is in this connection such wealth of material--a long chain of
animal beings with all grades of structure from very simple to very
complex; each complex animal, in its development from the ovum, passing
through all the lower types of structure in succession; so many new
organs and functions arising in the course of this development; each
organ so arising, becoming, in its turn, more complex in structure, more
specialized in function, and more dependent on the office of other
organs;--in the midst, I say, of all this wealth of material, indicated
here in a great general and imperfect manner, the difficulty, in so
brief an exposition as this, is to know what facts to seize upon as
calculated to illustrate most aptly the principle under consideration.
The development of the senses, with reference to their organs, nerves,
and functions, presents a striking illustration of increasing
complexity.
In the lowest forms of animal life, we find general sensibility only,
and it is claimed that this exists in the lowest forms, without even the
presence of nerves. But as we rise higher in the scale, the special
organs of sense gradually become developed--one new sense after another
appears; but this is not the only line of increasing complexity. When an
organ of sense first appears, its function is of the simplest character;
and it is only when we reach the highest types of animal life that it
performs the greatest variety of offices peculiar thereto. That of touch
is, at first, but crude and simple, becoming delicate and complicated
only in the highest types. The sense of pain is a differentiated
function, possessed only in a slight degree by reptiles and fishes, and
probably not at all by animals still lower in the scale.
The eye-spots of star fishes and jelly fishes simply distinguish light
from darkness, much as we do with our eyes closed. There are many
degrees of development from this condition of the inferior organism to
that of the human eye, which distinguishes the nicest shades of color,
distance, form, and size of objects, and the play of passion on the
human countenance.
The same variety of function is acquired by the ear in its development
from its simplest to its most complex form. In the higher animals, the
organ of hearing is formed of three parts, an external, middle, and
internal portion; but in birds the external ear is wanting; in fishes
both the external and middle parts are wanting; in mollusks it is
reduced to a simple sack of microscopic dimensions, filled with a liquid
in which there are otolithes, or pebbly substances. Such an organ can
distinguish noises only; it can recognize nothing of the infinite
variety of articulations, notes, tones, melodies, harmonies of the human
voice and of musical instruments. There is even a great difference
between the disciplined, and therefore differentiated ear of a cultured
person, and the undisciplined, and therefore less differentiated ear of
a boor. Similar specializations of structure and function pertain to the
other senses; but we may pass them.
The digestive, circulatory, and respiratory systems, and all the other
systems of the animal structure, evince the same law.
The lowest form of the circulating fluid, as in sponges, is simply water
containing gases and organic particles; and this can scarcely be spoken
of as circulating, for it is merely drawn in and then expelled. A little
higher in the scale naturalists find a 'chylaqueous fluid,' which
oscillates in the general cavity of the sack-like animal. The true blood
is another step in development; and even this organized fluid changes
its character as the scale advances. Most animals have no heart; and
when the organ does first appear, it is but a simple, rudimentary
structure, very unlike the complex machine which plays at the centre of
circulation in the higher types.
Though fishes breathe through their gills, receiving all the oxygen they
require from the small amount of air in the water, the swimming bladder
is in them the rudimentary lung--a very simple structure, indeed, when
compared with the more complex arrangement for respiration in the higher
animals.