8

change the character of our population nor the
habits of our people. It is useless for us to
hold conventions and listen to the best means of
preserv lg the balance of trade-for the balance
will always be against us while capital and
labor are shut out by a general contempt for
labor.
  It must then be evident that the want of en-
terprise, the aversion to labor, and the absence
of general education, so often complained of by
Southern men as existing to a deplorable extent
in the Southern States, can be attributed only
to the system of slavery; which, to use the lan-
guage of a distinguished Virginian, is "a mil-
dew that has blighted in its course every region
it has touched from the creation of the world."
In viewing the effects of slavery on some of the
richest sections of our country, we are remind-
ed of the language of the Prophet when speak-
ing of the ravages committed by locusts: "1 The
land before them is as the garden of Eden-be-
hind them is a desolate wilderness."
  To conclude our general view on the produc-
tive capabilities of the free and slave States, we
subjoin the following table, taken from the cen-
sus of 1840:
                     Slave States Free States
Hardware and Cutlery  373,162   6,078,804
Cotton Goods           3,724,447   42,625,506
Silk    do                 3,096     116,820
Woolen do              1,376.184   19,420,819
Glass of all kinds     189,500   2,700,3931
Leather                5,219,7d0   12,163,249
Shoes, Saddlery, c.  4,574,469  28,569,841
Paper and Playing
  Cards                 528,204    5,590,202



Precious Metals         122,520
Other     do            834,260
Musical Instruments    22,878
Carriages and Wag's  2,515,665
Furniture              1,301,504
Lead, Gold, Silver, and
  Copper               6,756,808
Machinery              2,285,212
Drugs, Medicines,dyes
  and paints            635,469
Soap and Candles     1,557,156
Rope                   1,658,206
Tobacco, chewing and
  smoking              3,634,742
Sugar, Chocolate and
  Confectionary        1,322,883
Granite, Marble and
  other stone           391,831
Iron                   6,539,461
Coal, (anthracite and
  bituminous)         3,122,000
Brick,  Stone,  and
  Wooden Houses     14,421,391
Bricks and Lime      3,541,022
Hats,CapsandBonnets   905,074



4,612,440
8,875,176
      90
   90)1,(!52  
 8,312,220 1
 6,193,798

 26,344,703
 8,694,368

 3,894,935
 4,405,210
 2,360,040

 2,167,142

 3,256,282

 3,304,655
 17,187,434

 11,412,176

27,496,960
6,201,090
9,215,768



Flour, Oil and Plank 23,454,809
Distilled Liquors   2,807,113
Other articles not enu.



52,120,485
11,521,502



  nerated            14,216,125   52,162,220

                    107,934,996 397,965,552
Produce of the South              107,934,996

Balance against us               290,030,556
  If to this we add the excess of the agricul-
tural products of the free over those of the slave
States, viz: 52,707,913, we have the entire
balance against the latter of 342,738,469.
  We now turn to our own home, to our own
State, to Kentucky, and we ask the serious at-
tention of our fellow citizens to somearguments
and statistics, collected by a distinguished
gentleman of this State, and first published in
1845. Their general correctness will not be
questioned:
  The number of slaves in Kentucky, at vari-
ous periods, may be stated thus:
                                Slaves.
      In 1790    -    -    -    11,830
         1800    -    -    -   40,343
       " 1810     -    -    -   80,561
       " 1820     -    -    - 126,732
       i 1830     -    -    - 165,213
       " 1840     -    -    - 182,258
  From this table it appears that in the first ten
years the slave population was more than trebled;
in the next decade, again, more than doubled;
and in the next twenty years it again was doub-
led; and from  1830 to 1840 exhibited still an
additional increase of 27,045 slaves.
  What the increase has been since 1840 we
have very imperfect means of ascertaining, but
the probability is, that we now have in our
State from 190,000 to 200,000 slaves. This
table shows that in half a century the slave pop-
ulation has multiplied upon itself nineteen times!
In the period we have considered, what was the
advance of the free population of Kentucky
The answer includes both white and free colored
persons.
   Free pop'tion.
1790  61,247     Original stock 61,247
18)0 180,6 2 In'c fm 1790 to 1800 119,365 or 194 8 pr ct.
18l1 325,950  do. iSJ to 1SI0 145,338 or 80 5
1820 437,58a  do.  1810to1820111,636or 342
1830 622.701  do.  1820 to 1o 8;,l9 or 194 '
1840 697,670  do.  183U to 1840 74,786 or 143 "
By an examination of the foregoing table, it
will be perceived that though the free population
of Kentucky continues to increase, yet in every
period of ten years since 1810, the rate has
been gradually diminishing, and in a fearful de-
gree.
  The proportion of free persons to slaves in