P a r t i a l c auses may retard the decline i n the value of slaves. T h e t endency of slaves is to crowd into those countries or districts, i f n ot o bstructed by the policy of States, where their labor is most profitably e mployed. T h i s is the law of their nature, as it is the genera! l aw o f a ll c apital and labor. T h e slave trade has not yet been effectively stopt in the Island of C uba. W henever it is, as slaves can be there more profitably employed, on more valuable products than i n the U . States, and as the supply there is much below the demand w hich w i l l a rise out of the susceptibilites of the island for a gricultural p roduce, they w i l l r ise in price much higher there t han i n the U . S. I f the laws do not forbid it, vast numbers w i l l be exported to that i sland. A n d if they do prohibit i t , many w i l l be smuggled i n , tempted by the high prices which they w i l l b ear. B ut n either t his, n or any other conceivable cause, can for any l ength o f time, check the f all i n the value of slaves to w h i c h t hey are inevitably destined. We have seen that, as slaves d iminish i n price, the motive of the proprietors of them to rear t he offspring w i l l a bate, that consequent neglect i n providing for t heir w ants w i l l e nsue, and consequent voluntary emancipation w i l l t ake place. That adult slaves w i l l , i n p rocess o f time, sink i n v alue even below a hundred dollars each, 1 have not a doubt. T h i s r esult may not be brought about by the termination of the first p eriod of their duplication, but that it w i l l c ome, at some s ubsequent, and not distant period, I think perfecly clear. Whenever the price of the adult s hall be less than the c ost o f r aising h i m from i nfancy, w hat inducement w i l l the proprietor of the parent have to incur that e xpense? I n such a state of t hings, i t w i l l be in v ain t hat t he laws prohibit manumission. No laws can be enforced o r w i l l be respected, the effect o f which is the r uin o f those on w hom they operate. In spite of a ll t heir penalties the liberation or a bandonment of slaves w i l l t ake place. A s the two races progressively multiply and augment the source o f supply of labor, its w ages w i l l d iminish, a nd the preference already n oticed w i l l be given of free to slave labor. B u t another effect w i l l a lso arise. There w i l l be not only a competition between the two r aces for employment, but a struggle, not perceptible perhaps to the s uperficial o bserver, for subsistence. In such a struggle the stronger and more powerful race w i l l p revail. A n d as the law w h i c h r egulates the state of population in any given community, is derived f rom the quantity of its subsistence, the further c onsequence w ould be an insensible decline i n the increase of the weaker race. P inched b y want and neglected by their masters, who would regard t hem as a burthen, they would be stimulated to the commission o f crimes, and especially those of a petty description. W hen w c consider the cruelty of the origin of negro slavery, its n ature, the character of the free institutions of the whites, and the i rresistible p rogress of public opinion, throughout A m e r i c a as w e l l as i n Europe, it is impossible not to anticipate frequent insurrecttons;aniong the blacks in the U . States. T h e y are rational beings