It had always appeared to me as singular that the Americans, at the time
of their Declaration of Independence, took no measures for the gradual,
if not immediate, extinction of slavery; that at the very time they were
offering up thanks for having successfully struggled for their own
emancipation from what they considered foreign bondage, their gratitude
for their liberation did not induce them to break the chains of those
whom they themselves held in captivity. It is useless for them to
exclaim, as they now do, that it was England who left them slavery as a
curse and reproach us as having originally introduced the system among
them. Admitting, as is the fact, that slavery did commence when the
colonies were subject to the mother country admitting that the petitions
for its discontinuance were disregarded, still there was nothing to
prevent immediate manumission at the time of the acknowledgement of
their independence by Great Britain. They had then everything to
recommence they had to select a new form of government, and to decide
upon new laws; they pronounced, in their declaration, that "all men were
equal;" and yet, in the face of this declaration, and their solemn
invocation to the Deity, the negroes, in _their_ fetters, pleaded to
them in vain.
I had always thought that this sad omission, which has left such an
anomaly in the Declaration of Independence as to have made it the taunt
and reproach of the Americans by the whole civilised world, did really
arise from forgetfulness; that, as is but too often the case, when we
are ourselves made happy, the Americans in their joy at their own
deliverance from the foreign yoke, and the repossessing themselves of
their own rights, had been too much engrossed to occupy themselves with
the undeniable claims of others. But I was mistaken; such was not the
case, as I shall presently show.
In the course of one of my sojourns in Philadelphia, Mr Vaughan, of the
Athenium of that city, stated to me that he had found the _original
draft_ of the Declaration of Independence, in the hand-writing of Mr
Jefferson, and that it was curious to remark the alterations which had
been made previous to the adoption of the manifesto which was afterwards
promulgated. It was to Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin, that was
entrusted the primary drawing up of this important document, which was
then submitted to others, and ultimately to the Convention, for approval
and it appears that the question of slavery had NOT been overlooked when
the document was first framed, as the following clause, inserted in the
original draft by Mr Jefferson, (but _expunged_ when it was laid before
the Convention,) will sufficiently prove. After enumerating the grounds
upon which they threw off their allegiance to the king of England, the
Declaration continued in Jefferson's nervous style:
"He [the king] has waged cruel war against human nature itself,
violating its most sacred rights of _life and liberty_, in the person of
a distant people who never offended him; captivating and carrying them
into slavery, in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in
their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of
infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain,
determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold; he
has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt
to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce; and that this
assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now
exciting these very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase
that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon
whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed
against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to
commit against the lives of another."
Such was the paragraph which had been inserted by Jefferson, in the
virulence of his democracy, and his desire to hold up to detestation the
king of Great Britain. Such was at that time, unfortunately, the truth;
and had the paragraph remained, and at the same time emancipation been
given to the slaves, it would have been a lasting stigma upon George the
Third. But the paragraph was expunged; and why I because they could not
hold up to public indignation the sovereign whom they had abjured,
without reminding the world that slavery still existed in a community
which had declared that "all men were equal;" and that if, in a monarch,
they had stigmatised it as "violating the most sacred rights of life and
liberty," and "waging cruel war against human nature," they could not
have afterward been so barefaced and unblushing as to continue a system
which was at variance with every principle which they professed.
Note. Miss Martineau, in her admiration of democracy, says, that, in
the formation of the government, "The rule by which they worked was no
less than the golden one, which seems to have been, by some unlucky
chance, omitted in the Bibles of other statesmen, `_Do unto others as ye
would that they should do unto you_'" I am afraid the American Bible, by
some unlucky chance, has also omitted that precept.
It does, however, satisfactorily prove, that the question of slavery was
not _overlooked_; on the contrary, their determination to take advantage
of the system was deliberate, and, there can be no doubt, well
considered--the very omission of the paragraph proves it. I mention
these facts to show that the Americans have no right to revile us on
being the cause of slavery in America. They had the means, and were
bound, as honourable men, to act up to their declaration but they
entered into the question, they decided otherwise, and decided that they
would retain their ill-acquired property at the expense of their
principles.
The degrees of slavery in America are as various in their intensity as
are the communities composing the Union. They may, however, be divided
with great propriety under two general heads--eastern and western
slavery. By eastern slavery, I refer to that in the slave states
bordering on the Atlantic, and those slave states on the other side of
the Alleghany mountains, which may be more directly considered as their
colonies, viz, in the first instance, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia,
North and South Carolina; and, secondly, Kentucky and Tennessee. We
have been accustomed lately to class the slaves as non-predial and
predial,--that is, those who are domestic, and those who work on the
plantations. This classification is not correct, if it is intended to
distinguish between those who are well, and those who are badly treated.
The true line to be drawn is between those who work separately, and
those who are worked in a gang and superintended by an overseer. This
is fully exemplified in the United States, where it will be found that
in all states where they are worked in gangs the slaves are harshly
treated, while in the others their labour is light.
Now, with the exception of the rice grounds in South Carolina, the
eastern states are growers of corn, hemp, and tobacco; but their chief
staple is the breeding of horses, mules, horned cattle, and other stock:
the largest portion of these states remain in wild luxuriant pasture,
more especially in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, either of which
states is larger than the other four mentioned.
The proportion of slaves required for the cultivation of the purely
agricultural and chiefly grazing farms or plantations in these states is
small, fifteen or twenty being sufficient for a farm of two hundred or
three hundred acres; and their labour, which is mostly confined to
tending stock, is not only very light, but of the quality most agreeable
to the negro. Half the day you will see him on horseback with his legs
idly swinging--as he goes along, or seated on a shaft-horse driving his
wagons. He is quite in his glory; nothing delights a negro so much as
riding or driving, particularly when he has a whole team under his
control. He takes his wagon for a load of corn to feed the hogs, sits
on the edge of the shaft as he tosses the cobs to the grunting
multitude, whom he addresses in the most intimate terms; in short,
everything is done leisurely, after his own fashion.
In these grazing states, as they may very properly be called, the
negroes are well fed; they refuse beef and mutton, and will have nothing
but pork; and are, without exception, the fattest and most saucy fellows
I ever met with in a state of bondage; and such may be said generally to
be the case with all the negroes in the eastern states which I have
mentioned. The rice grounds in South Carolina are unhealthy, but the
slaves are very kindly treated. But the facts speak for themselves.
When the negro works in a gang with the whip over him, he may be
overworked and ill-treated; but when he is not regularly watched, he
will take very good care that the work he performs shall not injure his
constitution.
It has been asserted, and generally credited, that in the eastern states
negroes are regularly bred up like the cattle for the western market.
That the Virginians, and the inhabitants of the other eastern slave
states, do sell negroes which are taken to the west, there is no doubt;
but that the negroes are bred expressly for that purpose, is, as regards
the majority of the proprietors, far from the fact: it is the effect of
circumstances, over which they have had no control. Virginia, when
first settled, was one of the richest states, but, by continually
cropping the land without manuring it, and that for nearly two hundred
years, the major portion of many valuable estates has become barren, and
the land is no longer under cultivation; in consequence of this, the
negroes, (increasing so rapidly as they do in that country.) so far from
being profitable, have become a serious task upon their masters, who
have to rear and maintain, without having any employment to give them.
The small portion of the estates under cultivation will subsist only a
certain portion of the negroes; the remainder must, therefore, be
disposed of, or they would eat their master out of his home. That the
slaves are not willingly disposed of by many of the proprietors I am
certain, particularly when it is known, that they are purchased for the
west. I know of many instances of this, and wins informed of others;
and by wills, especially, slaves have been directed to be sold for
_two-thirds_ of the price which they would fetch for the western market,
on condition that they were not to leave the state. These facts
establish two points, viz, that the slaves in the eastern states is well
treated, and that in the western states slavery still exists with all
its horrors. The common threat to, and ultimate punishment of, a
refractory and disobedient slave in the east, is to sell, him for the
western market. Many slave proprietors, whose estates have been worn
out in the east, have preferred migrating to the west with their slaves
rather than sell them, and thus is the severity of the western treatment
occasionally and partially mitigated.
But doing justice, as I always will, to those who have been unjustly
calumniated, at the same time I must admit that there is a point
connected with slavery in America which renders it more odious than in
other countries; I refer to the system of amalgamation, which has, from
promiscuous intercourse, been carried on to such an extent, that you
very often meet with slaves whose skins are whiter than their master's.
At Louisville, Kentucky, I saw a girl, about twelve years old, carrying
a child; and, aware that in a slave state the circumstance of white
people hiring themselves out to service is almost unknown, I inquired of
her if she were a slave. To my astonishment, she replied in the
affirmative. She was as fair as snow, and it was impossible to detect
any admixture of blood from her appearance, which was that of a pretty
English cottager's child.
I afterward spoke to the master, who stated when he had purchased her,
and the sum which he had paid.
I took down the following advertisement for a runaway slave, which was
posted up in every tavern I stopped at in Virginia on my way to the
springs. The expression of, "_in a manner white_" would imply that
there was some shame felt it holding a white man in bondage:--
"_Fifty Dollars Reward_.
"Ran away from the subscriber, on Saturday, the 21st instant, a slave
named George, between twenty and twenty-four years of age, five feet
five or six inches high, slender made, stoops when standing, a little
bow legged; generally wears right and left boots and shoes; had on him
when he left a fur cap, a checked stock, and linen roundabout; had with
him other clothing, a jean coat with black horn buttons, a pair of jean
pantaloons, both coat and pantaloons of handsome grey mixed; no doubt
other clothing not recollected. He had with him a common silver watch;
he wears his pantaloons generally very tight in the legs. _Said boy_ is
in a manner _white_, would be passed by _and taken for a white man_.
His _hair_ is _long and straight_, like that of a _white_ person; looks
very steady when spoken to, speaks slowly, and would not be likely to
look a person full in the face when speaking to him. It is believed he
is making his way to Canada by way of Ohio. I will give twenty dollars
for the apprehension of said slave if taken in the county, or fifty
dollars if taken out of the county, and secured so that I recover him
again.
"Andrew Beirne, junior,
"Union Monroe City,
"July 31st, 1838. Virginia."
The above is a curious document, independently of its proving the manner
in which man preys upon his fellow-man in this land of liberty and
equality. It is a well-known fact, that a considerable portion of Mr
Jefferson's slaves were his own children. If any of them absconded, he
would smile, thereby implying that he should not be very particular in
looking after them; and yet this man, this great and _good_ man, as Miss
Martineau calls him, this man who penned the paragraph I have quoted, as
having been erased from the Declaration of Independence, who asserted
that the slavery of the negro was a violation of the most sacred rights
of life and liberty, permitted these his slaves and his children, the
issue of his own loins, to be sold at auction after his demise, not even
emancipating them, as he might have done, before his death. And, but
lately, a member of congress for Georgia, whose name I shall not
mention, brought up a fine family of children, his own issue by a female
slave; for many years acknowledged them us his own children; permitted
them to call him by the endearing title of _papa_, and eventually the
whole of them were sold by public auction, and that, too, during his own
lifetime!
But there is, I am sorry to say, a more horrible instance on record and
one well authenticated. A planter of good family (I shall not mention
his name or the state in which it occurred, as he was not so much to
blame as were the laws), connected himself with one of his own female
slaves, who was nearly white; the fruits of this connexion were two
daughters, very beautiful girls, who were sent to England to be
educated.
They were both grown up when their father died. At his death his
affairs were found in a state of great disorder; in fact, there was not
sufficient left to pay his creditors. Having brought up and educated
these two girls and introduced them as his daughters, it quite slipped
his memory that, having been born of a slave, and not manumitted, they
were in reality slaves themselves. This fact was established after his
decease; they were torn away from the affluence and refinement to which
they had been accustomed, sold and purchased as slaves, and with the
avowed intention of the purchaser to reap his profits from their
prostitution it must not, however, be supposed that the planters of
Virginia and the other Eastern states, encourage this intercourse; on
the contrary, the young men who visit at the plantations cannot affront
them more than to take notice of their slaves, particularly the lighter
coloured, who are retained in the house and attend upon their wives and
daughters. Independently of the moral feeling which really guides them
(as they naturally do not wish that the attendants of their daughters
should be degraded) it is against their interest in case they should
wish to sell; as a mulatto or light male will not fetch so high a price
as a full-blooded negro; the cross between the European and negro;
especially the first cross, i.e. the mulatto, is of a sickly
constitution, and quite unable to bear up against the fatigue of field
labour in the West. As the race becomes whiter, the stamina is said to
improve.
Examining into the question of emancipation in America, the first
inquiry will be, how far this consummation is likely to be effected by
means of the abolitionists. Miss Martineau, in her book, says, "The
good work has begun, and will proceed." She is so far right; it has
begun, and has been progressing very fast, as may be proved by the
single fact of the abolitionists having decided the election in the
state of Ohio in October last. But let not Miss Martineau exult; for
the stronger the abolition party may become, the more danger is there to
be apprehended of a disastrous conflict between the states.
The fact is that, by the constitution of the United States, the federal
government have not only no power to _interfere_ or to _abolish_
slavery, but they are bound to _maintain_ it; the abolition of slavery
is expressly _withheld_. The citizens of any state may abolish slavery
in their own state but the federal government cannot do so without an
express violation of the federal compact. Should all the states in the
Union abolish slavery, with the exception of one, and that one be
Maryland, (the smallest of the whole of the states,) neither the federal
government, or the other states could interfere with her. The federal
compact binds the general government, "first, not to _meddle_ with the
slavery of the states where it exists, and next, to _protect_ it in the
case of runaway slaves, and to _defend_ it in case of _invasion_ or
_domestic violence_ on account of it."
It appears, therefore, that slavery can only be abolished by the slave
state itself in which it exists; and it is not very probable that any
class of people will voluntarily make themselves beggars by surrendering
up their whole property to satisfy the clamour of a party. That this
party is strong, and is daily becoming stronger, is very true: the
stronger it becomes the worse will be the prospects of the United
States. In England the case was very different; the government had a
right to make the sacrifice to public opinion by indemnification to the
slave-holders; but in America the government have not that power; and
the efforts of the abolitionists will only have the effects of plunging
the country into difficulties and disunion. As an American author truly
observes, "The American abolitionists must trample on the constitution,
and wade through the carnage of a civil war, before they can triumph--"
Already the abolition party have done much mischief. The same author
observes, "The South has been compelled, in self-defence, to rivet the
chains of slavery afresh, and to hold on to their political rights with
a stronger hand. The conduct of the abolitionists has arrested the
improvements which were in progress in the slave states for the
amelioration of the condition of the slave; it has broken up the system
of intellectual and moral culture that was extensively in operation for
the slave's benefit, lest the increase of his knowledge should lend him
a dangerous power, in connection with these crusading efforts; it has
rivetted the chains of slavery with a greatly increased power, and
enforced a more rigorous discipline; it has excluded for the time being
the happy moral influence which was previously operating on the South
from the North, and from the rest of the world, by the lights of
comparison, by the interchange of a friendly intercourse, and by a
friendly discussion of the great subject, all tending to the bettering
of the slave's condition, and, as was supposed, to his ultimate
emancipation. Before this agitation commenced, this subject, in all its
aspects and bearings, might be discussed as freely at the South as
anywhere; but now, not a word can be said. It has kindled a sleepless
jealousy in the South toward the North, and made the slave-holders feel
as if all the rest of the world were their enemies, and that they must
depend upon themselves for the maintenance of their political rights.
We say rights, because they regard them as such; and so long as they do
so, it is all the same in their feelings, whether the rest of the world
acknowledge them or not. And they are, in fact, _political_ rights,
guaranteed to them by the constitution of the United States."
It is not, however, impossible that the abolition party in the Eastern
and Northern states may be gradually checked by the citizens of those
very states. Their zeal may be as warm as ever; but public opinion will
compel them, at the risk of their lives, to hold their tongues. This
possibility can, however, only arise from the Northern and Eastern
states becoming manufacturing states, as they are most anxious to be.
Should this happen, the raw cotton grown by slave labour will employ the
looms of Massachusetts; and then, as the Quarterly Review very correctly
observes, "by a cycle of commercial benefits, the Northern and Eastern
states will feel that there is some material compensation for the moral
turpitude of the system of slavery."
The slave proprietors in these states are as well aware as any political
economist can be, that slavery is a loss instead of a gain, and that no
state can arrive at that degree of prosperity under a state of slavery
which it would under free labour. The case is simple. In free labour,
where there is competition, you exact the greatest possible returns for
the least possible expenditure; a man is worked as a machine; he is paid
for what he produces, and nothing more. By slave labour, you receive
the least possible return for the greatest possible expense, for the
slave is better fed and clothed than the freeman, and does as little
work as he can. The slave-holders in the eastern states are well aware
of this, and are as anxious to be rid of slavery as are the
abolitionists; but the time is not yet come, nor will it come until the
country shall have so filled up as to render white labour attainable.
Such, indeed, are not the expectations expressed in the language of the
representatives of their states when in congress; but, it must be
remembered, that this is a question which has convulsed the Union, and
that, not only from a feeling of pride, added to indignation at the
interference, but from if feeling of the necessity of not yielding up
one tittle upon this question, the language of determined resistance is
in congress invariably resorted to. But these gentlemen have one
opinion for congress, and another for their private table; in the first,
they stand up unflinchingly for their slave rights; in the other, they
reason calmly, and admit what they could not admit in public. There is
no labour in the eastern states, excepting that of the rice plantations
in South Carolina, which cannot be performed by white men; indeed, a
large proportion of the cotton in the Carolinas is now raised by a _free
white_ population. In the grazing portion of these states, white labour
would be substituted advantageously, could white labour be procured at
any reasonable price.
The time will come, and I do not think it very distant, say perhaps
twenty or thirty years, when, provided America receives no check, and
these states are not injudiciously interfered with, that Virginia,
Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, (and, eventually, but
probably somewhat later, Tennessee and South Carolina) will, of their
own accord, enrol themselves among the free states. As a proof that in
the eastern slave states the negro is not held in such contempt, or
justice toward him so much disregarded, I extract the following from an
American work:--
"An instance of the force of law in the southern states for the
protection of the slave has just occurred, in the failure of a petition
to his excellency, PM Butler, governor of South Carolina, for the pardon
of Nazareth Allen, a white person, convicted of the murder of a slave,
and sentenced to be hung. The following is part of the answer of the
governor to the petitioners:--
"`The laws of South Carolina make no distinction in cases of deliberate
murder, whether committed on a black man or a white man; neither can I.
I am not a law-maker, but the executive officer of the laws already
made; and I must not act on a distinction which the legislature might
have made, but has not thought fit to make.'
"That the crime of which the prisoner stands convicted was committed
against one of an inferior grade in society, is a reason for being
especially cautious in intercepting the just severity of the law. This
class of our population are subjected to us as well for their protection
as our advantage. Our rights, in regard to them, are not more
imperative than their duties; and the institutions, which for wise and
necessary ends have rendered them peculiarly dependent, at least pledge
the law to be to them peculiarly a friend and a protector.
"The prayer of the petition is not granted.
"Pierce M Butler."
In the western states, comprehending Missouri, Louisiana, Arkansas,
Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama, the negroes are, with the exception
perhaps of the two latter States, in a worse condition than they ever
were in the West India islands. This may be easily imagined, when the
character of the white people who inhabit the larger portion of these
states is considered a class of people, the majority of whom are without
feelings of honour, reckless in their habits, intemperate, unprincipled,
and lawless, many of them having fled from the eastern states, as
fraudulent bankrupts, swindlers, or committers of other crimes, which
have subjected them to the penitentiaries--miscreants defying the
climate, so that they can defy the laws. Still this representation of
the character of the people inhabiting these states must, from the
chaotic state of society in America, be received with many exceptions.
In the city of New Orleans, for instance, and in Natchez and its
vicinity, and also among the planters, there are many most honourable
exceptions. I have said the majority: for we must look to the _mass_--
the exceptions do but prove the rule. It is evident that slaves, under
such masters, can have but little chance of good treatment, and stories
are told of them at which humanity shudders.
It appears, then, that the slaves, with the rest of the population of
America, are _working their way west_, and the question may now be
asked:--Allowing that slavery will be soon abolished in the eastern
states, what prospect is there of its ultimate abolition and total
extinction in America?
I can see no prospect of exchanging slave labour for free in the western
states, as, with the exception of Missouri, I do not think it possible
that white labour could be substituted, the extreme heat and
unhealthiness of the climate being a bar to any such attempt. The
cultivation of the land must be carried on by a negro population, if it
is to be carried on at all. The question, therefore, to be considered
is, whether these states are to be inhabited and cultivated by a free or
a slave negro population. It must be remembered, that not one-twentieth
part of the land in the southern states is under cultivation; every
year, as the slates are brought in from the east, the number of acres
taken into cultivation increases. Not double or triple the number of
the slaves at present in America would be sufficient for the cultivation
of the whole of these vast territories. Every year the cotton crops
increase, and at the same time the price of cotton has not materially
lowered; as an everywhere increasing population takes off the whole
supply, this will probably continue to be the case for many years, since
it must be remembered, that, independently of the increasing population
increasing the demand, cotton, from its comparative cheapness,
continually usurps the place of some other raw material; this, of
course, adds to the consumption. In various manufactures, cotton has
already taken the place of linen and fur; but there must eventually be a
limit to consumption: and this is certain, that as soon as the supply is
so great as to exceed the demand, the price will be lowered by the
competition; and, as soon as the price is by competition so lowered as
to render the cost and keeping of the slave greater than the income
returned by his labour, then, and not till then, is there any chance of
slavery being abolished in the western states of America. See Note 4.
The probability of this consummation being brought about sooner is in
the expectation that the Brazils, Mexico, and particularly the
independent State of Texas, will in a few years produce a crop of cotton
which may considerably lower its price. At present, the United States
grow nearly, if not more, than half of the cotton produced in the whole
world, as the return down to 1831 will substantiate.
Cotton grown all over the world in the years 1821 and 1831; showing the
increase in each country in ten years.
+=========================+===========+===========+
Y Y1821 lbs. Y1831 lbs. Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
YUnited States Y180,000,000Y385,000,000Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
YBrazil Y 32,000,000Y 38,000,000Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
YWest Indies Y 10,000,000Y 9,000,000Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
YEgypt Y 6,000,000Y 18,000,000Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
YRest of Africa Y 40,000,000Y 36,000,000Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
YIndia Y176,000.000Y180,000,000Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
YRest of Asia Y185,000,000Y115,000,000Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
YMexico and South America,Y 44,000,000Y 35,000,000Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
Yexcept Brazil Y Y Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
YElsewhere Y 8,000,000Y 4,000,000Y
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+
YIn the World Y630,000,000Y820,000,000Y
+=========================+===========+===========+
The increase of cotton grown all over the world in ten years is
therefore 190,000,000 lbs. Brazil has only increased 6,000,000; Egypt
has increased 12,000,000; India, 5,000,000. Africa, West indies, South
America, Asia, have all fallen off; but the defalcation has been made
good by the United States, which have increased their growth by
205,000,000 of lbs.
In the Southern portion of America there are millions of acres on which
cotton can be successfully cultivated, particularly Texas, the soil of
which is so congenial that they can produce 1,000 lb. to the 400 lb.
raised by the Americans; and the quality of the Texian cotton is said to
be equal to the finest sea island produce. It is to Texas particularly
that we must look for this produce, as it can there be raised by white
labour; [see Note] and being so produced, will, as soon as its
population in creases to a certain extent, be able to under sell that
which is grown in America by the labour of the slave.
Increase of cotton grown in the United States, from the year 1802 to
1831.
+=====+===========+======+===========+
YYearsYlbs. YYears.Ylbs. Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1802Y 55,000,000Y 1817Y130.000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1803Y 60,001,000Y 1818Y125,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1804Y 65,000,000Y 1819Y167,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1805Y 70,000,000Y 1820Y160,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1806Y 80,000,000Y 1821Y180,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1807Y 80,000,000Y 1822Y210,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1808Y 75,000,003Y 1823Y185,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1809Y 82,000,000Y 1824Y215,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1810Y 86,000,000Y 1825Y256,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1811Y 80,000,000Y 1826Y300,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1812Y 75,000,006Y 1827Y270,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1813Y 75,000,000Y 1828Y325,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1814Y 70,000,000Y 1829Y365,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1815Y100,000,000Y 1830Y360,000,000Y
+-----+-----------+------+-----------+
Y 1816Y124,000,000Y 1831Y385,000,000Y
+=====+===========+======+===========+
It may be asked: how is it, as Texas is so far south, that a white
population can labour there? It is because Texas is a prairie country,
and situated at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. A sea-breeze always
blows across the whole of the country, rendering it cool, and refreshing
it notwithstanding the power of the sun's rays. This breeze is
apparently a continuation of the trade-winds following the course of the
sun.
From circumstances, therefore, Texas, which but a few years since was
hardly known as a country, becomes a state of the greatest importance to
the civilised and moral world.
I am not in this chapter about to raise the question how Texas has been
ravished from Mexico. Miss Martineau, with all her admiration of
democracy, admits it to have been "the most _high-handed_ theft of
modern times;" and the letter of the celebrated Dr Charming to Mr Clay
has laid bare to the world the whole nefarious transaction. In this
letter Dr Charming points out the cause of the seizure of Texas, and
the wish to enrol it among the federal states.
"Mexico, at the moment of throwing off the Spanish yoke, gave a noble
testimony of her loyalty to free principles, by decreeing `That no
person thereafter should be born a slave, or introduced as such into the
Mexican states; that all slaves then held should receive stipulated
wages, and be subject to no punishment but on trial and judgment by the
magistrate.' The subsequent acts of the government fully carried out
these constitutional provisions. It is matter of deep grief and
humiliation, that the emigrants from this country, while boasting of
superior civilisation, refused to second this honourable policy,
intended to set limits to one of the greatest of social evils. Slaves
come into Texas with their masters from the neighbouring states of this
country. One mode of evading the laws was, to introduce slaves under
formal indentures for long periods, in some cases, it is said, for
ninety-nine years; but by a decree of the state legislature of Coahuila
and Texas, all indentures for a longer period than ten years were
annulled, and provision was made for the freedom of children during this
apprenticeship. This settled, invincible purpose of Mexico to exclude
slavery from her limits, created as strong a purpose to annihilate her
authority in Texas. By this prohibition, Texas was virtually shut
against emigration from the southern and western portions of this
country; and it is well known that the eyes of the south and west had
for some time been turned to this province as a new market for slaves,
as a new field for slave labour, and as a vast accession of political
power to the slave-holding states. That such views were prevalent we
know; for, nefarious as they are, they found their way into the public
prints. The project of dismembering a neighbouring republic, that
slaveholders and slaves might overspread a region which had been
consecrated to a free population, was discussed in newspapers as coolly
as if it were a matter of obvious right and unquestionable humanity. A
powerful interest was thus created for severing from Mexico her distant
province."
The fact is this:--America, (for the government looked on and offered no
interruption,) has seized upon Texas, with a view of extending the curse
of slavery, and of finding a mart for the excess of her negro
population: if Texas is admitted into the Union, all chance of the
abolition of slavery must be thrown forward to such an indefinite
period, as to be lost in the mist of futurity; if, on the contrary,
Texas remains an independent province, or is restored to its legitimate
owners, and in either case slavery is abolished, she then becomes, from
the very circumstance of her fertility and aptitude for white labour,
not only the great _check to slavery_, but eventually the means of its
_abolition_. Never, therefore, was there a portion of the globe upon
which the moral world must look with such interest.
England may, if she acts promptly and wisely, make such terms with this
young state as to raise it up as a barrier against the profligate
ambition of America. Texas was a portion of Mexico, and Mexico
abolished slavery; the Texians are bound (if they are _Texians_ and not
Americans) to adhere to what might be considered a treaty with the whole
Christian world; if not, they can make no demand upon its sympathy or
protection, and it should be a _sine qua non_ with England and all other
European powers previous to acknowledging or entering into commercial
relations with Texas, that she should adhere to the law which was passed
at the time that she was an integral portion of Mexico, and declare
herself to be a Free State--if she does not, unless the chains are
broken by the negro himself, the cause and hopes of _emancipation_ are
lost.
There certainly is one outlet for the slaves, which as they are removed
thither and farther to the west will eventually be offered:--that of
escaping to the Indian tribes which are spread over the western
frontier, and amalgamating with them; such indeed, I think, will some
future day be the result, whether they gain their liberty by desertion,
insurrection, or manumission.
Of insurrection there is at present but little fear. In the eastern
slave states, the negroes do not think of it, and if they did, the
difficulty of combination and of procuring arms is so great, that it
would be attended with very partial success. The intervention of a
foreign power might indeed bring it to pass, but it is to be hoped that
England, at all events, will never be the party to foment a servile war.
Let us not forget that for more than two centuries we have been
_particeps criminis_, and should have been in as great a difficulty as
the Americans now are, had we had the negro population on our own soil,
and not on distant islands which could be legislated for without
affecting the condition of the mother country. Nay, at this very
moment, by taking nearly the whole of the American cotton off their
hands in exchange for our manufactures, we are ourselves virtually
encouraging slavery by affording the Americans such a profitable mart
for their slave labour.
There is one point to which I have not yet adverted, which is, Whether
the question of emancipation is likely to produce a separation between
the Northern and Southern states? The only reply that can be given is,
that it entirely depends upon whether the abolition party can be held in
check by the federal government. That the federal government will do
its utmost there can be no doubt, but the federal government is not so
powerful as many of the societies formed in America, and especially the
Abolition Society, which every day adds to its members. The interests
of the North are certainly at variance with the measures of the society,
yet still it gains strength. The last proceedings in congress show that
the federal government is aware of its rapid extension, and are
determined to do all in its power to suppress it. The following are a
portion of the resolutions which were passed last year by an
overwhelming majority.
The first resolution was; "That the government is of limited powers, and
that by the constitution of the United States, congress has no
jurisdiction whatever over the institution of slavery in the several
states of the confederacy;" the last was as follows: "Resolved,
therefore, that all attempts on the part of congress to _abolish
slavery_ in the district of Columbia, or the territories, or to prohibit
the removal of the slaves from state to state; or to discriminate
between the constitution of one portions of the confederacy and another,
with the views aforesaid, are in _violation_ of the constitutional
principles on which the _union_ of these States rests, and beyond the
jurisdiction of congress; and that every petition, memorial, resolution,
proposition, or paper touching or relating in any way or to any extent
whatever to slavery as aforesaid, or the abolition thereof, shall
without any farther action thereon, be laid on the table, without
_printing, reading, debate, or reference_." Question put, "Shall the
resolutions pass?" Yeas, 198; Noes, 6--_Examiner_.
These resolutions are very firm and decided, but in England people have
no idea of the fanaticism displayed and excitement created in these
societies, which are a peculiar feature in the states, and arising from
the nature of their institutions. Their strength and perseverance are
such that they bear down all before them, and, regardless of all
consequences, they may eventually control the government.
As to the question which portion of the States will be the losers by a
separation, I myself think that it will be the northern slates which
will suffer. But as I always refer to American authority when I can, I
had better give the reader a portion of a letter written by one of the
southern gentlemen on this subject. In a letter to the editor of the
_National Gazette_, Mr Cooper, after referring to a point at issue with
the abolitionists, not necessary to introduce here, says--"I shall
therefore briefly touch upon the subject once more; and if farther
provocation is given, I may possibly enter into more details hereafter;
for the present I desire to hint at some items of calculation of the
value of the Union _to the North_.
"1. Mr Rhett, in his bold and honest address, has stated that the
expenditures of the government for twenty years, ending 1836, have been
four hundred and twenty millions of dollars; of which one hundred and
thirty were dedicated to the payment of the national debt. Of the
remainder, two hundred and ten millions were expended in the northern,
and eighty millions in the southern states. Suppose this Union to be
severed, I rather guess the government expenditure of what is now about
fifteen millions a-year to the North, would be an item reluctantly
spared. No people know better what to do with the `cheese-parings and
the candle-ends' than our good friends to the North.
"2. I beg permission to address New York especially. In the year 1836
our exports were one hundred and sixteen millions of dollars, and our
imports one hundred and forty millions. It is not too much to assign
seventy-five millions of these imports to the state of New York. The
South furnishes on an average two-thirds of the whole value of the
_exports_. It is fair, therefore, to say, that two-thirds of the
_imports_ are consumed in the South, that is, fifty millions. The
mercantile profit on fifty millions of merchandise, added to the agency
and factorage of the Southern products transmitted to pay for them, will
be at least twenty per cent. That is, New York is gainer by the South,
of at least ten millions of dollars annually; for the traffic is not
likely to decrease after the present year. No wonder `her merchants are
like princes!' Sever the Union, and what becomes of them!
"3. The army, the navy, the departments of government, are supported by
a revenue obtained from the indirect taxation of custom-house entries,
the most fraudulent and extravagant mode of taxation known. Of this the
South pays two-thirds. What will become of the system if the South be
driven away!
"4. The banking system of the Northern states is founded mainly on the
traffic and custom of the South. Withdraw that for one twelve-month,
and the whole banking system of the North"
-- tumbles all precipitate
Down dash'd.
"Suppose even one state withdrawn from the Union, would not the
pecuniary intercourse with Europe be paralysed at once?
"5. The South even now are the great consumers of New England
manufactures. We take her cotton, her woollen goods, her boots and
shoes. These last form an item of upwards of fourteen millions
annually, manufactured at the North. Much also of her iron ware comes
to the South; many other `notions' are sent among us, greatly to the
advantage of that wise people, who know better the value of small gains
and small savings than we do.
"6. What supports the shipping of the North but her commerce; and of
her commerce two-thirds is Southern commerce. Nor is her _commerce_ in
any manner or degree _necessary_ to the South; _Europe_ manufactures
what the _South wants_, and the _South_ raises what Europe _wants_.
Between Europe and the South there is not and cannot be any competition,
for there is no commercial or manufacturing, of territorial interference
to excite jealousies between them. We want not the North. _We can do
without the North_, if we separate to-morrow. We can find carriers and
purchasers of _all we have to sell_, and of _all we wish to buy_,
without casting one glance to the North.
"7. The North seems to have a strange inclination to quarrel with
England. The late war of 1812 to 1814 was a war for Northern claims and
Northern interests, now we are in jeopardy from the unjust interference
in favour of the patriots of Canada; and a dispute is threatened on
account of the north-eastern boundary. The manufacturing and commercial
interferences of the north with Europe will always remain a possible, if
not a probable, source of disputes. The _North_ raises what _Europe_
raises; commercially they need not each other--they are two of a trade,
they raise not what each other wants--they are _rivals_ and
_competitors_ when they go to war. Does not the South, who is not
interested in it, pay most part of the expense, and is not the war
expenditure applied to the benefit of the North? Sever, if you please,
the Union, and the North will have to pay the whole expense of her own
quarrels.
"8. Our system of domestic servitude is a great eye-sore to the
fanatics of the North. But there are very many wise and honest men in
the North; ay, even in Massachusetts. I ask of these gentlemen, does
not at least one-third of the labour produce of every Southern slave
ultimately lodge in the purse of the North! If the South works for
itself it works also for the Northern merchant, and views his prosperity
without grudging.
"9. Nor is it a trifling article of gain that arises from the
expenditure of southern visitors and southern travellers, who spend
their summers and their money in the north. The quarrelsome rudeness of
northern society is fast diminishing this source of expenditure among
us. Sever the Union, and we relinquish it altogether. We can go to
London, Paris, or Rome, as cheaply and as pleasantly as to Saratoga or
Niagara.
"Such are some of the advantages which the north derives from a
continuance of that union which her fanatic population is so desirous to
sever. A population with whom peace, humanity, mercy, oaths, contracts,
and compacts, pass for nothing--whose promises and engagements are as
chaff before the wind--to whom bloodshed, robbery, assassination, and
murder, are objects of placid contemplation--whose narrow creed of
bigotry supersedes all the obligations, of morality, and all the
commands of positive law. With such men what valid compact can be made?
The appeal must be to those who think that a deliberate compact is
mutually binding on parties of any and every religious creed. To such
men I appeal, and ask, ought you not resolutely to restore peace, and
give the south confidence and repose?
"I have now lived twenty years in South Carolina, and have had much
intercourse with her prominent and leading men; not a man among them is
ignorant how decidedly in most respects, the south would gain by a
severance from the north, and how much more advantageous is this union
to the north than to the south. But I am deeply, firmly persuaded that
there is not one man in South Carolina that would move one step toward a
separation, on account of the superior advantages the north derives from
the union. No southern is actuated by these pecuniary feelings; no
southern begrudges the north her prosperity. Enjoy your advantages,
gentlemen of the north, and much good may they do ye, as they have
hitherto. But if these unconstitutional abolition attacks upon us, in
utter defiance of the national compact, are to be continued, God forbid
this union should last another year.
"I am, sir, your obedient servant,
"Thomas Cooper."
"Many fine looking districts were pointed out to me in Virginia,
formerly rich in tobacco and Indian corn, which had been completely
exhausted by the production of crops for the maintenance of the slaves.
In thickly peopled countries, where the great towns are at hand, the
fertility of such soils may be recovered and even improved by manuring,
but over the tracts of country I now speak of, no such advantages are
within the farmer's reach."--_Captain Hall_.
"Many, very many, with whom I met, would willingly have released their
slaves, but the law requires that in such cases they should leave the
state; and this would mostly be not to improve their condition, but to
banish them from their home, and to make them miserable outcasts. What
they cannot at present remove, they are anxious to mitigate, and I have
never seen kinder attention paid to any domestics than by such persons
to their slaves. In defiance of the infamous laws, making it criminal
for the slave to be taught to read, and difficult to assemble for an act
of worship, they are instructed, and they are assisted to worship
God."--_Rev Mr Reid_.
"The law declares the children of slaves are to follow the fortunes of
the mother. Hence the practice of planters selling and bequeathing
their own children."--_Miss Martineau_.
The return at present is very great in these western states; the labour
of a slave, after all his expenses are paid, producing on an average 300
dollars (65 pounds) per annum to his master.