An examination of the speech made by Mr. Mercer on the occasion
referred to, will show that he was answering the slaveholders' charge
that they paid upon their slaves more than their just proportion of
taxes, when compared with the amount paid by the land-owners of the
state; he pointed out that for the four years following 1820 the land
tax averaged $181,000.00 per annum and the slave tax $159,000.00, but
for the current year (1829) the land tax amounted to $175,000.00 and
the slave tax $97,000.00. "These facts," said Mr. Mercer, "bear me out
in the position that in the current year the capital in slaves is
taxed less than that in land." The census showed an increase in the
number of slaves still in the hands of their Virginia masters, while
the "tables of the natural growth of this population" also
demonstrated that large numbers must have been exported beyond the
state. The portion of increase in the slave population, thus exported,
Mr. Mercer estimated at a value of one and a half million dollars per
annum. It will be observed that he makes no attempt to distribute this
exportation between the various classes heretofore referred to.
Indeed, the averment that "the tables of the natural growth of the
slave population" demonstrated that an annual revenue of any specific
sum had been derived from their exportation is, of course, inaccurate.
The tables referred to simply indicate the normal rate of increase and
the consequent number of slaves which must have been exported. Whether
the excess had been emancipated, or carried, or sent, or sold by their
masters did not, of course, appear. Mr. Mercer was not discussing the
slave trade—he was pointing out the increase in the number of slaves
which should normally accrue to their masters and the consequent
reasonableness of the tax imposed upon them as compared with that
assessed against the lands.
It is believed that this explanation of the subject of Mr. Mercer's
speech will qualify the conclusion which Mr. Smith has drawn from the
statement cited in his text.