Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1819-08-28

one year, more Jlan inc Save states g. !.
Then shall the slave states govern the
free !? And shall the slave states have
the whole of the land that has been pur-
chased by the treasure of the United
States, when the free states have furnish
ed most of that treasure Permit slave
ry in Missouri, and you give it to slave
holders. Where is the common farmer,
to leave the poor man out of the ques-
ton, who can bid against STAKEHOLDER
at the United States sales of land +? They
cannot: for slave costs his master very
little for his food and clothing fora year /;
much less than it costs the master for
himself. Then the master and his slave
can make in one year, on farm, more
than twice as much clear gain as the
master farmer could. OF course, man
with one slave, united with his own la
Dor, could afford to give twice as much
for land as a man without slaves be-
cause the land, from the united labor of
the servant and master, would yield more
profit in one year, than in two years la
Dor of the master. Then the slayehold
K
ten times as much for land as he can
who has none, because he makes ten
times as much in year. And SO the
man who has twenty or thirty, upon the
same principle, can afford to give twenty
or thirty times as much as the man who
has to labor alone. There is no wages
to pay the slaves, and their clothing and
food cost but little, and therefore almost
the whole Of the produce they raise is
entire gain; for in proportion to the
number of hands employed to till the
ground, III the same proportion, under
similar circumstances, does the earth
generally yield her fruits, and is valua
bic to the owner in the same proportion.
Then DO farmer who has no slaves, and
who will not hold them, can bid at the
land sales against Shareholders. Then
will the whole of Missouri, Arkansas,
and the Floridas, just out Of a frolic, be
given to the Shareholders, though the
Tree states pay the most of the purchase
money! ask, should not the slave states
pay the most, when their money is not
made by The sweat Of the whites but Of
the blacks | ask what SHAREHOLDERS do
to give them right not only to the SER
vice of their slaves, but right also to
the coua"ies purchased principally by
the labor of the whites Admit slavery
in Missouri. and we exclude all farmers
without slaves; nor can a man who is
noGa Shareholder get an inch of land on
terms that his individual labor, in any
reasonable time, will pay for. But re-
verse the picture-prohibit slavery, and
look to the consequence. The purcha
sers of land can give DO more for it than
individual industry will justify. No such
thing then as thirty or forty dollars an
acre for unimproved land, as at Boon's
Lick or Alabama. Except some eligible
spots as mill-seats, &c. very little land
will then so above congress price. At
the late sale at Edwardsville of land in
the neighborhood Of Vandalia, it sold on
an average for not above 80 per acre.
Much land can then be bad in Missouri
for So per acre by purchasing from the
United States, as was the case. in Illinois;
and this advantage attached to the con-
tract, long credit after paying the first
instruments Then man with a small
capital can purchase land sufficient to
produce an independent competency for
himself and family. Exclude slavery
from Missouri, and thousands and hun
dreds of thousands of men who support
their families in the old states as daily
laborers, Or as tenants, could come to
Missouri, and by procuring quarter or
half section Of land genteelly support
his family, and live happy and indepen
dent the balance of his days, +" under his
own vine and under his own fig tree"
where he and his family, instead Of being
buried in obscurity and oppression, may
be useful, easy, respectable, and con-
tented. Hundreds of families in Illinois
experimentally know the benefits result
ing from the exclusion of slavery. For
if slavery had been tolerated here, hun
dreds who have good plantations could
not have their present farms: slavehold-
ers would have run the price of them so
high in market. O how enchanting and
how glorious the prospect Of SO mate
rally lettering the condition of thou
sands and hundreds of thousands of our
suffering fellow beings! The prospect
of administering such general relief fills
and swells the human heart with rapture.
Then away !! away with slavery! Let it
not extend, but be banished from the
face of the earth. But the extension Of
it in Missouri would mend the condition
of slaves. Admit it. But it would in