Dr. Wayland informs us that slavery is at variance with the ordinances
of God, because it diminishes the amount of national wealth. If the
diminishing of national wealth be proof of the variance from the
ordinances of God, then it will follow that whatever will increase such
wealth must be in conformity to such ordinances,—a position which we
think no one will attempt to maintain. But let us notice the evidence he
adduces to prove that slavery diminishes national wealth. His first
proof is, that slavery does not “impose on all the necessity of labour;”
but that it “restricts the number of labourers—that is, of producers—by
rendering labour disgraceful.”
Now this is surely a proposition which requires to be proved itself
before it can be received as a proof of an antecedent proposition; and
President Wayland seems to have perceived that, under the general term,
“labourers,” it would be incapable of proof; and, therefore, he informs
us that by labourers he means producers. The logicians will agree that
there is a disjointedness in this proposition (very common in this
author) to which exception might be taken; but we suppose Dr. Wayland
means that slavery decreases the number of those whose labour is
employed in the production of the articles or products of agriculture;
for we do not presume he means that the labours of the law, physic,
divinity, the mechanic arts, commerce, politics or war, are rendered
disgraceful by slavery, but agriculture alone; and that, therefore, it
is at variance with the ordinances of God, because it thus diminishes
the amount of national wealth. If this is not his meaning, we confess
ourselves unable to find any meaning in it.
We know of no surer method to test its truth or falsehood than for the
Slave States to compare their number of agricultural producers with
those of the Free States, having relation to the entire population. The
result will be found wholly adverse to the reverend moralist’s position.
In fact, so great is the disproportion between the numbers of
agricultural labourers in the Slave States, compared to those in the
Free, that the articles of their produce often fall down to prices
ruinous to the agriculturist, which very seldom, or never, happens in
the Free States. Let Dr. Wayland study the statistics touching this
point, and he will find himself in error.
But the proposition of President Wayland includes this minor
proposition: That the increase of agricultural products, to the greatest
possible extent, increases national wealth. We are very far from
discovering the truth of this; because the increase of a production,
beyond utility and demand, can add nothing to the value of the
production, since value depends upon utility and demand. If this
position be true, which we think very few at this day will dispute, it
is quite obvious that President Wayland, and even Adam Smith, (from whom
we suppose the former has received this notion,) are quite mistaken when
they predicate the amount of labour to be the sole measure, or, in fact,
the amount of wealth; since that position must render the amount of
labour and the amount of wealth terms of convertible significance,
which, in fact, is seldom the case. Such, then, being the state of the
argument, Dr. Wayland’s proposition is, in effect: That the production
of the articles of agriculture, to an extent beyond any demand or value,
is in conformity to the ordinances of God; and, therefore, their
production, to any less extent, is at variance with those ordinances,
because the first increases and the latter decreases national wealth. We
shall leave these contradictions for the consideration of the professor
of moral philosophy and his pupils.
The second witness Dr. Wayland introduces to prove the truth of his
proposition, that slavery lessens the amount of national wealth, is that
slavery takes from the labourer the natural stimulus to labour,—the
desire of individual benefit,—and substitutes the fear of punishment:
And for the third and last, that slavery removes from both parties the
disposition and motive to frugality; by which means national wealth is
diminished.
If national wealth be the desideratum, in order not to be at variance
with the ordinances of God, it matters not whether the contributors to
it did so contribute through the selfish view of personal aggrandizement
and a desire of elevation above their fellows, or whether they did so to
relieve themselves from some stigma or personal infliction that a
refusal might be expected to fasten upon them. The motive in both cases
is the same—a desire to benefit themselves. Thus Dr. Wayland, therefore,
makes a distinction where, in reality, there is no difference.
But again, if the amount of labour be the criterion of the amount of
national wealth, as he seems to suppose, it can make no difference, in a
national point of view, whether A and B squander the result of their
labours into the possession of C and D, or retain it themselves because
the change of possession in no way destroys the thing possessed. It
might be gathered, from this part of Dr. Wayland’s argument, that the
greatest misers would be the most efficient builders of national wealth,
and, therefore, most in accordance with the ordinances of God.
We are somewhat at loss to perceive the precise idea the author affixes
to the term “national wealth.” Whether this be his or our fault, we
leave for others to decide.
Has it ever occurred to the reverend author to estimate the wealth of a
nation by the moral, physical, and individual welfare of the population?
But we cannot attempt, or undertake, to expose, nor explain, all the
false reasoning, distorted views, and prejudiced conclusions found
heaped up, in heterogeneous confusion, by the abolition writers. The
dissection of mental putridity is as unwelcome a task as that of the
animal carcass in a state of decomposition.
If we cast our eyes over the surface of human life, we notice that
wealth and power usually travel hand in hand but that wealth is
distributed unequally, varied from the lofty possessions of royal power
down to the most scanty pittance of poverty and want;—yet leaving a vast
majority in possession of nothing save life, and their right to the use
of the elements of nature. It is with these lower classes we have the
most to do. The wants of these, most generally, are physical: indeed, we
sometimes find them only on a level with the brute. Thus, the African
mountaineer is prone and content to feed on the decaying remains of what
he may find, and wanders, like the hyena, upon the trail of what he
hopes to find his prey; while the savage islanders of the distant seas
are satisfied with what the ocean heaves on shore. We notice that these
wants are increased by climate; hence, the native of the extreme north,
content with his flitch of blubber, yet robs the bear of his hide for a
blanket. These wants we also find enlarged by the least contact with
civilization. Hence we see the African, on the western coast of his
continent, garnished out with the gewgaws of Europe, and the Indian of
our own clime with the trinkets of trade. And thus we may notice that,
as civilization and capital increase in any country, new objects of
desire, new individual wants increase in proportion. Hence, the
farm-house now exhibits its carpet, whereas Queen Elizabeth was content
with straw!
All these wants require some action, on the part of those who desire
their gratification, to continue their supply, or it must cease;
because, as a general rule, the product of individual labour must bound
the supply of individual wants, in all cases where the individual
possesses no capital which yields an additional revenue.
But a large portion of those in savage life produce nothing; so, also, a
portion from civilized society seem ever disposed to break through the
rules of civilization, to retrograde as to morals, and subsist by trick
or some dishonesty. They produce nothing, and are, therefore, a total
drawback on the welfare of others. We find, also, another portion, the
product of whose labour is inadequate to the supply of their individual
wants, and who are without capital to supply the deficiency. Such must
die, or resort to charity; or retrograde, and live by their wits. Good
men, in all ages, have striven to obviate these evils. The Levitical law
did so by permitting the unfortunate man to sell himself, as a slave,
for six years, or for life, as he might choose, under the state of the
case; or, in case he did not so choose to sell himself, but became
indebted beyond his means, the law forced his sale, and also that of his
whole family. Although, to some, this law may look harsh, yet its
spirit, intention, and effect were in favour of the general good, of
morals, and of life. Yet it was slavery; and we take liberty here to
say, although some may not be prepared to receive it, that such ever
was, is now, and ever will be the spirit, intention, and effect of
slavery, when not disfigured by its abuse.
We have in vain looked through these “Elements” for some proposal of the
author to meet such cases as those of savages, and of those degenerating
and deteriorating poor, in all countries, known to be so from the fact
that they ever strive to live by their wits. And here we may remark that
it is evident the system of alms-giving must terminate when the
capitalists shall find the amount of alms beyond their surplus revenue;
and no one will deny that the whole system has a direct tendency towards
a general bankruptcy. We therefore ask Dr. Wayland to make a proposal
that shall be a permanent and effectual remedy in the cases under
consideration.
Now, very few will say, but that if society can find out some humane
plan by which beggars and thieves can be forced, if force be necessary,
to yield a product of labour equal to the supply of their necessary
wants, the ordinances of God will not sanction the act.
From imperfection, perhaps, in the organization of society, we not only
see individuals branching off, and taking a downward road, but also, in
all old countries, from the very stimulus of nature, a constant tendency
to such an increase of population as lessens the value of labour by
overstocking the demand, whereby its product becomes less than is
required for the supply of individual wants. The consequences resulting
from these facts, so ruinous to individual morals and happiness, often
become national evils and the causes of national deterioration. But,
under the Levitical law, and in all countries with similar provisions,
the effect has been, and ever will be, a division of such population
into a separate caste,—not national deterioration.
With a view to remedy the evils to which we have invited the attention
of the Rev. Dr. Wayland, Sismondi, book vii. chap. 9, has proposed, that
inasmuch, as he says, the low wages of the labouring poor redound wholly
to the pecuniary benefit of the capitalists who employ them, those
capitalists shall be charged by law with their support, when wages
become too low to supply the necessary wants of the labourer; at the
same time bestowing power on the capitalists to prevent all marriages
when the labourer can give no evidence of a prospect of increased means
of subsistence, satisfactory to the capitalist, that he will not be
burdened with the support of the offspring. We are, by no means, the
advocates of Sismondi’s proposed arrangement. But if the labourers,
since in some sense they may be considered freemen, give their consent
to it, we do not perceive that it would be “at variance with the
ordinances of God.”
The author of these “Elements” and Sismondi, we believe, differed
little, if any, on the subject of the abolition of slavery touching the
negro race. Will he say, the proposal of that philosopher to benefit the
condition of the labouring poor, if carried into effect as suggested,
would be “at variance with the ordinances of God?” Yet, all the world
perceive that it is a mere modification of slavery, containing
conditions more obnoxious to human nature than appertains to any
condition of slavery now known beyond the African shores.
Man has ever been found to advance in moral improvement civilization,
and a stable and healthy increase of population, only in proportion as
they have been taught to supply their necessary wants by the products of
individual labour. This is what first distinguishes civilized from
savage life. The savage relies wholly upon the elements, the casualties
that bring him advantage, and the spontaneous productions of nature. The
idea of supplying his wants through the products of labour never enters
the mind. And will it be denied that, even in civilized countries, they
who solely rely upon begging, trick, and dishonesty, for their support,
are always found to be deteriorating, both in morals and in their
physical ability, rapidly receding from all the characteristics of
civilization, in the direction towards savage life. Indeed, a tendency
to move in the same direction is often perceptible among those who only
partially supply the wants of civilized support by the product of
individual labour, and rely upon their wits for the remainder, thus, to
some extent, becoming the plunderers of society. We would have been
happy to have found the causes why these things are so, as well as to
have found the remedy, in “The Elements of Moral Science.”
But let us contemplate, for a moment, a certain class of freemen, the
lazaroni of Italy, who exist, merely, upon one small dish of macaroni,
daily issued to them from the Hospital of St. Lazarus. We are all
familiar with the condition of these people. Let us compare theirs with
what would be the condition of the beggars and thieves of some other
countries, were they placed under the control of some salutary power,
whereby their necessary wants would be supplied by the product of their
individual labour. We need not ask which condition is most “at variance
with the ordinances of God!”
Dr. Wayland has retained, for his last witness, the old trite charge
that slavery impoverishes the soil; that, therefore, it constantly
“migrates from the old to new regions,” “where alone the accumulated
manure of centuries” can “sustain a system at variance with the laws of
nature.” “Hence,” he says, “slavery in this country is acknowledged to
have impoverished many of our most valuable districts.”
We are not aware how far Dr. Wayland has founded this statement upon
facts drawn from his own observation. Has he done so at all; or has he,
carelessly and without reflection, adopted it from the assertions of
others notoriously destitute of ability to form an opinion with
accuracy, or else too deeply prejudiced to give their opinion any value?
Does he wish us to infer that the plough and the hoe, in the hands of a
slave, communicate some peculiar poison to the soil; and by reason of
which “the ground shall not henceforth yield her strength?” Will he
please explain how the effect of which he complains is produced? If he
finds it merely in the mode of cultivation, we then inquire whether the
same mode would not produce the same effect, even if the plough and hoe
were held by freemen? If so, then it is evident that “the impoverishment
of many of our most valuable districts” is not the result of slavery,
but of a bad mode of cultivation. Or, will the doctor contend that if
those valuable districts had been cultivated by free hired men, the
evils from negligence in the labourer would be remedied? “He that is a
hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and careth not for the
sheep.” _John_ x. 13.
Dr. Wayland will not deny that the “heathen round about,” of whom the
Jews were permitted to buy slaves, were a slave-holding people; but we
have no account that their country was impoverished thereby. The
Canaanites, whom the Israelites drove out from Palestine, were
slaveholders; yet the country was represented as very fertile, even to
“overflowing with milk and honey.” The Danites found “Laish very good,”
_Judg._ xviii. 9. And the children of Judah “found fat pasture and good”
about Gedar. 1 _Chron._ iv. 40. “_For they of Ham had dwelt there of
old!_”
For many centuries, slavery extended over every part of Europe, yet
history gives us no account of the ruin of the soil. In Greece and Rome,
the numbers of slaves were extended to millions beyond any number these
States possess; but their historians failed to discover their
destructive influence on the fertility of those countries.
Before the impoverishment of the soil can, with any force, be adduced as
proof against slavery, it must be proved to be a necessary consequence;
which, we apprehend, will be a difficult labour, since the sluggishness
and the idleness of the Canaanites, and of the nations round about, left
their country overflowing with milk and honey, abounding in fat pastures
and good, notwithstanding their population were, to a large extent,
slaves,—since, also, the servile cultivation of the soil in Greece and
Rome did not impoverish it; and since slavery, which everywhere abounded
in Europe, never produced that effect.
If Dr. Wayland will discover the legitimate cause of this impoverishment
of the soil in the Slave States, and teach the planters a better mode of
cultivation, we doubt not he will receive their thanks, and deserve well
of his country, as a public benefactor.
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