10



than they can ever become while the blighting
shadow of slavery rests upon them.
  One more comparison of statistics and we
leave this part of our subject.
  From the census returns of 1840, we have
compiled the following tables:
  The amount of capital invested in Manufac-
tures in 1840, as stated in the census was as fol-
lows:
  Ohio,                         16,905,257
  Kentucky,                       5,945,259

Difference in favor of Ohio,   10,959,998
  Nearly three times as much capital invested
in Manufactures in Ohio.
  Compare the capital invested in- Commerce:
  Ohio,                         22,200,210
  Kentucky,                      10,322,301

Difference in favor of Ohio,   11,877,909
  One million and a half more than twice as
much capital invested in Commerce in Ohio.
  Take next the products of the Mines and of
the Forest:
  Ohio-Mines,                    2,069,859
        Forest,                     500,000



Kentucky.-Minep,
           Forest,



2,569,859
1,242,062
  200,000

1,642,062



Difference in favor of Ohio,       927,797
  To reduce the whole matter to a smaller com-
pass, let us give the per ceiit. estimates:
Excess of the population of Ohio, 94 per cent.
       of the capital invested in
         Manufactures in Ohio, 185 per cent.
       of the capital invested in
       Commerce in Ohio,      115 per cent.
   " of the products of Mines
        and the Forest,         60 per cent.
  It is seen at a glance, that so far as these
items are concerned, not only is Ohio as a State
far richer than Kentucky, but there is much
greater wealth relativel to the population in
Ohio than in Kentucky. Were no more tzapi-
tal invested in commerce and in manufactures
in the former than latter, relatively to the pop-
ulation, it would be not quite twice as much as
in Kentucky-that is, only 32,000,000; but
the real amount we have, invested, is, 39,105,-
467!
  But it may be said that what Ohio gains in
manufactures and commerce is lost in agricul.
ture. This, too, is easily tested, and we submit
the following table, taken from the report of the



Commissioner of Patents, made in 1844, which
is believed to be as accurate as the census of
1840, and brings the comparison nearer to our
own time:
                       Ohio.      Kentucky.
Wheat,   bushels.  15,969,000   3,974,000
Barley,      "         191,000       14,000
Oats,        "      20,393,000   11,901.000
Rye,                   84.0,000   2,316,000
Buckwheat, "           792,000       13,000
Indian Corn, "     48,000,000  47,500,000
Potatoes,    "       4,847,000    1,371,000
Tobacco,   lbs.      6,888,000   57,555,000
Cotton,     "-                      880,000
Silk,                   31,500        5,810
Sugar,               4,380,000    2,447,000
Hay,       tons.     1,876,000      164,000
Flax  Hemp "            1,000       12,000
  It is needless to go into an estimate of the ag-
gregate values. The table shows, at once, that
Ohio possesses double the agricultural wealth of
Kentucky. Her Indian Corn and Wheat alone
are worth the whole of the products of Ken-
tucky, as set down in the foregoing table. The
aggregate value of all those products, only ex-
ceed by one-fourth, the value of the simple item
of Hay in Ohio.
  When to all this we add that Kentucky is
at least equal to Ohio in all natural resources; wvas
settled at an earlierperiod, and hada population
of 73,000, when Ohio was a wilderness; while
now, after a race of forty years, Ohio has twice
the population, three Limes the Manufacturing
and Commercial wealth, and more than double
the Agricultural, then we are prepared to form
some estimate of the comparative value of the
free-labor and slave-labor systems.
  Kentucky contains about twenty-fivemillions
of acres of land, and, according to the Auditor's
Report, the value of all the slaves in the State is
a little over 50,000,000. If, by emancipation,
the average increase in the price of land should
be two dollars an acre, that increase would pay
for all the slaves in the State. We have no doubt
that, if our Commonwealth were rid of slavery,
the enhanced value of the soil would be more
than equal to the assessed value of all the slaves.
  Wve might adJ to the statistics we have now
given, and thus pile proof on proof of the fact
thatslavery is hostile to all the industrial interests
of a State. But we have adduced enough to sat-
i fy any man of candid mind, that slavery has
greatly retarded the growth of our Common-
wealth, and prevented the development of the
resources with which she is so rich'y endowed.
Remove this incubus from her fair bosom, and
she will speedily become quickened with a new
life, and enter with spirit on a career of the high-