has had a natural increase within the last
twenty years—and nearly the same ratio is
borne out by the statistics ever since our gov-
ernment was established—mure than double
the natural increase of the negro population
of the North, adding to that free population
and its increase all the negroes who have
escaped from the South. Is there no force in
that argument? Taking their physical con-
dition, which I contend is the only true
ground upon which to judge of their happi-
ness or misery; taking their physical condi-
tion, their bodily comfort, their mental con-
dition, their moral and their intellectual con-
dition, the statistics abundantly prove that
they are happier, better off, and with a natural
increase more than double, in this state of
bondage, which is represented as so cruel and
inhuman, than it is in a state of liberty.
Now, in regard to the mental condition of
the negro. Do we not all know that any
people who are in a condition that is so dis-
tressing, so outrageous, so oppressive, so mon-
strous, as the condition of slavery is repre-
sented to be by gentlemen who hold different
views from us, must suffer in mind; and that
Buffering in mind produces insanity? Now,
if you look to the statistics of insanity in the
United States, what is the lesson that they
teach? There are more than seven free to one
slave insane in the United States, Now, does
not that show that all these representations of
the distress and suffering imposed on them in
a condition of slavery, are misrepresentations
or that there would be more manifestations of
the effects in cases of insanity without num-
ber? While the ratio, in fact, is as one to
seven in their favor.
And suicide is another result of misery and
oppression. We know that when a people
are subjected to afflictions of mind and body
they are very frequently in their frenzy and
despair driven to the commission of suicide
Now, how many cases of suicide occur among
the slave population of the South? I am
sorry the statistics of the United States do no
afford information upon that point. But 1
appeal to every gentleman in this House to
say how many instances of suicide of slaves
have come to their knowledge. It is true
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe has painted a
glowing picture of a lady of color throwing
herself into the Mississippi, and thus putting
an end to her life. That is a highly painted
picture. Is there a parallel to it in real life
Such a one has not come under my observa-
tion.
A great deal has been said about the sepa
ration of families, the harrowing of the soul
and heart rendings, that is caused among the
negroes by the laws which justify the sepa
rating of the husband from the wife, and the
parent from the child. Sir, had it not been
for the abolitionists of the North, and the war
waged upon the institution of slavery, I be
lieve that in every Southern State there would |
now be laws prohibiting the separation of
families by selling members of them to dis-
tant parts of the country. I am not advised
as to particular States, but if there is any re-
liance to be placed upon what legal gentle-
men tell me, there have been statutes of that
character already passed in several of the
slave States. But I am inclined to think the
affections of the negro are not so strong as
they are represented to be. I have had a
negro woman to go away and leave four
small children. And in my own neighbor-
hood, within a few weeks past, there has been
a case of a negro woman going away and
leaving five small children, one in arms.
And under the particular regime under which
our slaves are now, there was nothing to pre-
vent that negro taking up all those children,
and all their hag and baggage, in broad day-
light. and going off, and no one would have
been able to offer any resistance.
Then, in all that pertains to the physical
condition of the negro, we find that he is in-
finitely better off, more happy and more pros-
perous in the condition of slavery than in the
condition of freedom. Hence, I infer that
the institution is neither immoral, unchris-
tian, or cruel.
But it is said that slavery affects injuriously
the material interests of our State, and hence
we must have emancipation. Sir, the State
of Maryland has been sectionalized, just as
the whole country has been sectionalized.
The Northern States have waged a war of ag-
gression upon the institutions of the South,
and I am sorry to say that the very same
spirit is in our own State; that the northern
and western counties of the State of Mary-
land are wantonly waging an aggressive war
upon the institutions of Southern Maryland.
And they point us to the physical differences
of those sections of the State, and justify the
measure of emancipation because the northern
and western counties are more prosperous,
more populous, more wealthy than the south-
ern section of the State, and say that the
poverty of Southern Maryland is caused by
the blighting influences of slavery there.
Now, sir, are there no other reasons why
Northern and Western Maryland is more
populous, more thrifty, more fertile, more
wealthy than Southern Maryland? Look at
the vast beds of coal embowelled in the moun-
tains there, inviting the laborer, the mechanic,
and the capitalist, and remunerating them
richly for their labor and expense. Look at the
mineral resources of the State, all confined to
Western Maryland. Look at the vast quar-
ries, and the limestone affording ready means
of improving the soil. Look at the Susque-
hanna and its tributaries pouring annually
into the Chesapeake Bay an immense amount
of lumber, throwing into the lap of Cecil and
Harford counties an immense amount of trade
—not owing to any particular enterprise of
those counties. And yet. they vaunt it be- |
