that I place no reliance upon the representa-
tions made here of disaster and destruction
from the extinction of slavery in other places.
Gentlemen have not pretended that disaster
followed the extinction of what little slavery
there was in the Northern States. But the
case of the West India Islands has been cited
at great length. Now, I submit that no man
has carefully read the reports of travellers,
and the statistics which they give, of those
islands since the extinction of slavery there,
but must be forced to the conclusion that on
every score, in every point of view, the West
India Islands have been immeasurably bene-
fited by the extinction of slavery. I ask
gentlemen to go to those prime authorities;
do not take statistics from some of the reck-
less anonymous scribblers who are pandering
to a desire to carry a certain end. Take the
authorities themselves and read them. Take
Cochin's "Results of Slavery;" his "Results
of Emancipation;" the "Ordeal of Free
Labor in West India." I have named but
two or three, but there are scores of them.
And they all force the human mind, without
the possibility of resistance, to the point that
no man can be found who does not labor
more persistently, more correctly, more re-
liably and intelligently as a free man, than
he who labors unwillingly as a slave. I
will read one extract only from Sewell's
"Ordeal of Free Labor in the British West
Indies," p. 66. After summing up statistics,
with which I will not weary the Convention,
he says:
"It cannot be intelligently' questioned, that
Barbadoes, under the regime of slavery, never
approached her present prosperous condition ;
and, in comparing the present with the past,
whether that comparison be made in her com-
mercial, mechanical, agricultural or educa-
tional status, I can come to no other conclu-
sion than that the island offers a striking ex-
ample of the superior economy of the free
system."
That is but a sample of what follows after
almost every summing up of the statistics,
and the statistics fully sustain the remark.
But I do not choose lo base my argument
upon what appears there.
I choose to come home, and when I say
" home," I mean to the United States chiefly,
to our own doors here in Maryland, and I ask
any man to take up the successive census re-
turns of the United States, and examine
them impartially and candidly, and then tell
me what system of labor is found to be best
in the United States. I do not fear the re-
sult of such an examination by any one.
It is now but about eighty years since these
States started as one government. At that time
their institutions, though not strictly homo-
geneous, yet assimilated very much through-
out all the States. Virginia, the Old Do-
minion, was the first State in population, as
she was the first in date of settlement, first in
45 |
wealth, first in everything. Then followed
Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts,
New York, the fifth, and Maryland, the sixth.
1 will not go on with the list further. Thug
the States started. Slavery existed in all of
them, save Massachusetts, and it had existed
there but a short time previously. Very
shortly afterwards steps were instituted for
the extinction of slavery in all the States
north of what is known as Mason and Dixon's
line—in the New England States, in New
York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The
other States retained and still retain, a con-
siderable amount of slave labor. We have
in this State some 87,000 slaves still remain-
ing. Meanwhile the course of empire has
taken its way westward, and in all instances
the more southern portions had the advan-
tage of prior settlement; Kentucky before
Ohio, etc.
Now, sir, though the States stood in 1790,
seventy-four years ago, as I have stated, how
do they stand now? Virginia, from being
the first, has become the fifth in point of
population, and when I say "in point of
population," I mean the aggregate of popu-
lation, free and slave, black and white. If
it he taken upon any other basis, then she
sinks far below that point. Why, sir, Vir-
ginia, with eight times the territory of Mas-
sachusetts, with a soil incomparably superior,
with mines richer than all Massachusetts—
Virginia has about 200,000 less white in-
habitants to-day than Massachusetts, and the
whole value of her taxable property is some
$50,000,000 less than that of Massachusetts.
And I will say here, that I wish it under-
stood, once for all, that in any references I
may make to statistics, I refer not to to-day,
although I say "to-day," but I mean the
time just before this war had desolated the
fields of Virginia, to the census of 1860.
And how is it with Kentucky and Ohio ?
Let us take two State?, side by side, nearly
equal in size, Ohio being the twenty-first
State in point of square miles of territory,
and Kentucky the twenty-second—the one
having 39,964 square miles, and the other
37,680. Those States started on their career
of progress, Kentucky having the advantage
by about thirty years. For a long time she
led Ohio, but now Ohio stands as the third
in population, while Kentucky has become the
ninth. Kentucky sends to Congress eight
representatives; Ohio sends eighteen.
Maryland and Massachusetts are nearly the
same in size. Massachusetts started as the
fourth State in population; Maryland the
sixth. Massachusetts, from the growth of
other States, has sunk to be the seventh, and
Maryland has gone down to the nineteenth.
But population is but one of the indices of
progress and prosperity. Look at the accu-
mulation of wealth; look at the value of
the land, of the farms, in the several States.
Some gentleman, the other day, gravely cited |
