The ratio of increase of population, especially in this country, is one
of the surest tests of public prosperity. Let us then again listen to
the impartial testimony of the late census. From this we learn that the
increase of population in the free States from 1830 to 1840, was at the
rate of 38 per cent., while the increase of the _free_ population in the
slave States was only 23 per cent. Why this difference of 15 in the two
ratios? No other cause can be assigned than slavery, which drives from
your borders many of the virtuous and enterprising, and at the same time
deters emigrants from other States and from foreign countries from
settling among you.
The influence of slavery on population is strikingly illustrated by a
comparison between Kentucky and Ohio. These two States are of nearly
equal areas, Kentucky however having about 3000 square miles more than
the other.[3] They are separated only by a river, and are both
remarkable for the fertility of their soil; but one has, from the
beginning, been cursed with slavery, and the other blessed with freedom.
Now mark their respective careers.
[3] American Almanac for 1843, p. 206.
In 1792, Kentucky was erected into a State, and Ohio in 1802.
Free population of Kentucky. Free population of Ohio.
1790 61,227, a wilderness.
1800 180,612, 45,365
1810 325,950, 230,760
1820 437,585, 581,434
1830 522,704, 937,903
1840 597,570, 1,519,467
The representation of the two States in Congress, has been as follows:
1802, Kentucky 6, Ohio 1,
1812, " 9, " 6,
1822, " 12, " 14,
1832, " 13, " 19,
1842, " 10, " 21,
The value of land, other things being equal, is in proportion to the
density of the population. Now the population of Ohio is 38.8 to a
square mile, while the free population of Kentucky is but 14.2 to a
square mile--and probably the price of land in the two States is much in
the same proportion. You are told, much of the wealth is invested in
negroes--yet it obviously is a wealth that impoverishes; and no stronger
evidence of the truth of this assertion is needed, than the comparative
price of land in the free and slave States. The two principal cities of
Kentucky and Ohio are Louisville and Cincinnati; the former with a
population of 21,210, the latter with a population of 46,338. Why this
difference? The question is answered by the _Louisville Journal_. The
editor, speaking of the two rival cities, remarks, "The most potent
cause of the more rapid advancement of Cincinnati than Louisville is the
ABSENCE OF SLAVERY. The same influences which made Ohio the young giant
of the West, and is advancing Indiana to a grade higher than Kentucky,
have operated in the _Queen_ City. They have no _dead weight to carry_,
and consequently have the advantage in the race."
In 1840, Mr. C. M. Clay, a member of the Kentucky Legislature, published
a pamphlet against the repeal of the law prohibiting the importation of
slaves from the other States. We extract the following:
"The world is teeming with improved machinery, the combined
development of science and art. _To us it is all lost; we are
comparatively living in centuries that are gone; we cannot make
it, we cannot use it when made._ Ohio is many years younger, and
possessed of fewer advantages than our State. Cincinnati has
manufactories to sustain her; last year she put up one thousand
houses. Louisville, with superior natural advantages, as all the
world knows, wrote 'to rent,' upon many of her houses. OHIO IS A
FREE STATE, KENTUCKY A SLAVE STATE."
Mr. Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky, in a pamphlet published the same
year, and on the same subject, draws the following comparison between
Virginia and New York:
"In 1790, Virginia, with 70,000 square miles of territory,
contained a population of 749,308. New York, upon a surface of
45,658 square miles, contained a population of 344,120. This
statement exhibits in favor of Virginia a difference of 24,242
square miles of territory, and 408,188 in population, which is
the _double_ of New York, and 68,600 more. In 1830, after a race
of forty years, Virginia is found to contain 1,211,405 souls,
and New York 1,918,608, which exhibits a difference in favor of
New York of 607,203. The increase on the part of Virginia will
be perceived to be 463,187, starting from a basis more than
double as large as that of New York. The increase of New York,
upon a basis of 340,120, has been 1,578,391 human beings.
Virginia has increased in a ratio of 61 per cent., and New York
in that of 566 per cent.
"The total amount of property in Virginia under the assessment
of 1838, was $211,930,508. The aggregate value of real and
personal property in New York, in 1839, was $654,000,000,
exhibiting an excess in New York over Virginia of capital of
$442,069,492.
"Statesmen may differ about policy, or the means to be employed
in the promotion of the public good, but surely they ought to be
agreed as to what prosperity means. I think there can be no
dispute that New York is a greater, richer, a more prosperous
and powerful State than Virginia. What has occasioned the
difference?... There is but one explanation of the facts I have
shown. The clog that has stayed the march of her people, the
incubus that has weighed down her enterprise, strangled her
commerce, kept sealed her exhaustless fountains of mineral
wealth, and paralyzed her arts, manufactures and improvement, is
NEGRO SLAVERY."
These statements were made before the results of the last census were
known. By the census of 1840, it appears that in the ten preceding
years,
The population of Virginia has increased 28,392
In the same time the population of N. Y. increased 710,413
The rate of increase in Virginia was 2.3 per cent.
" " New York, 33.7 "
Virginia has 12.5 free inhabitants to a square mile.
New York 52.7 " " " "
In 1790, Massachusetts, with Maine, had but 378,717 inhabitants,
" Maryland, 319,728 "
In 1840, Massachusetts alone, 737,699 "
" Maryland, 469,232 "
Now let it be recollected that Maryland is nearly _double_ the size of
Massachusetts. In the last there are 98.8 free inhabitants to the square
mile; in the former only 27.2.
If we turn to the new States, we find that slavery and freedom have the
same influence on population as in the old. Take, for instance, Michigan
and Arkansas. They came into the Union about the same time--
In 1830, the population of Arkansas was 30,388
In 1840, " " 97,574
In 1830, " Michigan, 31,639
In 1840, " " 212,267
The ratio of increase of white inhabitants, for the last ten years, has
been in Arkansas as 200 per cent; in Michigan, 574 per cent. In both
instances the increase has been chiefly owing to immigration; but the
ratio shows the influence of slavery in retarding immigration. Compare
also Alabama and Illinois--
In 1830, the free population of Alabama, was 191,975
" " " Illinois, 157,455
-------
Excess in favor of Alabama 34,520
-------
In 1840, free population of Illinois, 476,183
" " " Alabama, 337,224
-------
Excess in favor of Illinois, 138,959
We surely need not detain you with farther details on this head, to
convince you what an enormous sacrifice of happiness and prosperity you
are offering on the altar of slavery. But of the character and extent of
this sacrifice you have as yet had only a partial glimpse. Let us
proceed to examine