11



est prosperity and renown. As a free State, she
would resound from her centre to her extremities
with the busy sounds of enterprise-her popula-
tion vould soon be doubled and trebled-her im-
mense mineral treasures would be opened up to
the light of day-works of internal improve-
ment, facilitating transportation between differ-
ent and distant points would spring into exist-
ence-habits of activity would banish the lan-
guor that is now felt in every vein-cheerfulness
would displace despondency-school-houses and
churches would be greatly multiplied-and the
hum of industry would rise to heaven from every
hill side and smiling valley like an anthem of
praise from a happy and thriving people. When
we reflect on what Kentucky might be, we can-
not too deeply lament that infatuation which has
so long perpetuated a system so detrimental to
all her interests. Slavery has not yet exhausted
her fertility, and brougnt desolation on her fields,
but such will be her melancholy experience, un-
less she casts off her shackles before it is too
late.
  We shall not urge at present those very im-
portant considerations which a faithful examin-
ation of the moral and social influences of sla-
very cannot fail to awaken. If wve wished to
make the picture of slavery dark, appalling,
and revolting in the extreme, we might easily
do so by depicting its effects on the moral and so-
cial relations of the community as they are man-
ifested wherever it is permitted to exist.
  The advocates of slavery, unable to answer
the statistical facts which are so abundant and
prove so clearly that slavery retards the growth
of population, are prone to ask whether Ken-
tucky is not populous enough and whether a
dense population is not to be deprecated rather
than desired. To fortify their position, they re-
fer to the vices which prevail in large cities, and
the difficulties expenencedby the masses in get-
ting along in the most densely populated coun-
tries on the globe. It is sufficient, perhaps, in
reply to such logic, to say that in no State of the
Union, is there the least probability that, within
the next century, the population willpress on the
means of subsistence, for we have an area cf
public lands, embracing over fourteen hundred
millions of acres-more than an acre and a
half for every human being on the face of the
earth. With such a boundless public domain, it
is not at all likely Ihat any of the United States
will, for generations to come, be afflicted with
the evils of over-population. Those gentlemen,
therefore, who affect to think that if Kentucky



should emancipate her slaves, she will soon be
too densely populated, may as well quiet their
apprehensions. There can be no doubt that,
when slavery shall be abolished in our Coin-
monwealth, there will follow a very large in-
crease in our population, and that is precisely
wvhat Kentucky needs to develop her resources,
and to inEure to her an eminent and continued
prosperity.
   Every good citizen is anxious that the mineral
 treasures of the State shall be opened and ren-
 dered available to enterprise-that the facilities
 of inter-communication shall be greatly multi-
 plied-that education shall visit its blessings on
 the mind of every chiid in the State, and that
 churches shall be increased ten-fold, bespeaking
 the universality of the religious sentiment, and
 bringing the altar within convenient distance of
 all. We presume that but few will hazard a de-
 nial of the value of these agents and instrumen-
 talities of the public good, and there are not
 many who would not regard the disemboweling
 of the mineral riches of the State, the multipli-
 cation of works of internal improvement, a
 general diffusion of the blessings of education,
 and a great increase in the number of churches
 as full compensation for all the advantages, real
 and fancied, or our system of negro slavery.-
 Our statesmen and philanthropists have for
 many years been laboring to bring about such
 desirable results, and their labors have been
 ftuitless, because slavery rears its dark and for-
 bidding front and frowns down every attempt to
 introduce great public and private enterprises.
 But let slavery be abolished, and then our popu-
 lation will be increased, and we shall soon have
 our immense mineral riches brought to light, and
 works of internal improvement, schoolhouses,
 and churches will be largely multiplied; so that
 eveiy farmer and manufacturer will be conveni-
 ent to a good market, and the benefits of knowl-
 edge and religion will abound in every neighbor-
 hood, to enlighten the cloud of ignorance that
 now wraps our State, in common with the other
 slave States, as with a pall. By increasing our
 population and by infusing into our now languid
 public spirit that enterprise which has caused
 the neighboring free States to surpass our Com-
 monwealth in the race of prosperity, we shall
greatly multiply all the benefits of civilization.
It cannot be doubted that, if any one of the
slave States was surrounded by a wall, and thus
isolated and debarred from the mental light and
health that come from abroad, it would first
gradually, and then rapidly yield to the destiny