23

 Now, whether is it better to have within out bosom two hundred thousadT
 free citizens, attached to our political institutions, and ready to contend un-
 to death in their defence, or an equal number of domestic foes-foes by
 birth, bv colour, by injuries, by cast, by every circumstance of life-ready
 to take advantage of every emergency of the state, to work our injuryf
 Whether is it better to have two hundred thousand labourers, in the most
 abject condition of ignorance, with no motive for toil but the rod, and no
 rule of conduct but the caprice of-a master, sometimes indeed humane and
 just, but often hardly more refined than themselves; or an equal number of
 hardy, happy and laborious yeomanry, such as the heart of a patriot would
 yearn ovet in the day of his country's prosperity, and repose on, as on a
 rock, in the hour of her need Vain and most futile is the philosophy
 which will allow a man to doubt, choosing between such alternatives.
   Whatever is contrary to the laws of nature or the rules ot'justice, must,'
 of necessity, be ultimately hurtful to every community which attempts to
 enforce it. For no human sagacity can fbresee all possible contingencies;
 jnor can any state of artificial preparation, however ample, encounter, at ev-
 ,ery point, the ceaseless activity of principles which belong to the very es-
 sence of things. This is most eminently true of the evils which result
 out of slavery. It feeds, as it were, upon itself, and reacts again in multi-
 plied forms of ill. The care which in other countries would be bestowed,
 in better living and more bountiful support, on the poorer classes of the
 whites, is in slave countries lavished on slaves, and they increase faster in
 proportion. Their increase again encourages the emigration from amongst
 us of the labouring whites, whose small places are bought up, to add to
 the extensive farms cultivated bv slaves. Then our laws of descent re-
 duce the children of the rich to moderate circumstances; who, rather than
 lose ideal rank, sell out and remove to some new country, where, in the
 gradual improvement of affairs, they hope to regain their former condition.
 We lose, in this manner, the bone and sinew of the state; but the slaves
 remain, and increase, to fill up the space thus created. While this destruc-
 tive operation is accomplishing, the slave owners themselves are only pro-
 crastinating a little the day of' their own trial. As the number of slaves
 increases, their value must diminish, with the diminishing value of the pro-
 ducts of their labour, in an increasing ratio. Then comes the competition
 with free labour from the adjacent states. This region of country is al-
 ready supplied to a great extent, with articles of the first necessity, from
 other states, which we ought to produce as cheap as any other people, an)
 some of which we formerly exported in immense quantities. Other arti
 cles which we still look upon as among our most valuable staple produc-
 tions, are brought into this state, and sold at a profit, by auction, in the
 streets of our villages. All this must produce a continual decline in the
 value of slaves, which will still decline further as they steadily grow up-
 on the whites, until they become themselves the chief article of export.
 Such is already the case in large portions of several of the slave-holding
 states. Thevalue of the staples of the southern states, would, for sa)me
 years, keep up the value of slaves. But when the progress of events shall
 produce the same condition of public necessity there, that is steadilv ad-
 vancing here, and they will no longer receive slaves as merchandise, it re-
 quires no gift of prophecy to foresee the calamitous condition that niust en
.sue, over the whole slave-holding region. Never was there a more fal
lacious idea, than that slavery contributed any thing towards the perma-
nent resources of a state. It is an ulcer eating its way into the very heart
of the state, and which, while it remains, cannot be mitigated 'v any
change of constitution, but would work its effects with unerring certainty,
under every possible condition of society.
  There is another aspect of this painful subject, which is full of deep anl