Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1832-06-07

JOHN SERGEANT. ~ 4 e1EU.
THE CHAMPIONS OF THE AMERICAN system!
TIE WORKING MASS ADVOCATES!
HE FRIENDS OF LIBERTY IN EVERY CLIMEi
From an intelligent article in the Rich
mond Enquirer, we take the annexed extract,
in which the true evils of slavery and the true
causes of the degeneracy and decay of the
white population in Virginia. are boldly and
forcibly accounted for:-
The effect Of slavery on our national pros
perity, is well worth consideration. Our 30
iitical power is fast passing away; our rela
tive influence in this union rapidly decreas
ing; and should it be dissolved, (Which God
ayerti) with such a canker preying on our vi
falls. who can foresee the pointof political i'm
beciiity to which we may ultimately arrive?
But no more of this, my national love recoils
at the view.
Whilst one half of our population is taught
TO look on labor as degrading, or arc unable
20 procure employment. should their press
ing wants overcome this feeling; the whole
class Of laborers have a direct interest in do
ing and saving as little as possible, so that
they barely screen themselves from punish
ment. | do not say this is always the case,
but such unquestionably is the general effect,
and If we compare it with a system, in which
each one has a direct interest in producing
and saving as much as possible, the differ
ence in the result throughout an whole com
mnnity, would he astounding. Let us trace
the effects of the two systems a little further,
in a picture, and part of which will be fami
liar TO many, take the case OF a man in Virgi
MIA, having a capital Of $4,000 vested in
lands and negroes, with a family of ten chill
dyen II is sufficient, whilst kept together,
for their comfortable support. As the chill
dyen grow up, there is no want OF their stea-
DIV labor on the farm, even if they have been
so fortunate as TO escape the idea lhati i. would
be degrading
The surplus of the estate affords not the
means of educating them, beyond the ordina
~ instruction Of a country school. As they
crow ur, they must initiate their neighbours
n dress and habits. The girls find ample
employment in making up their own dresses,
or little ornaments Tor their persons; the
Young men must have horses, and perhaps a
slave occasionally to feed and clean them.
With neither employment, nor intellectual a.
musements to keep them at home, they seek
compan at all the public places in their
peighborhood: money must be had, and the
resources of the farm, drained to the utmost,
leave no capital for Improvements, even
SltOutd liz thtsbt ORNNIS $1,000 sOitoic nv
rassnent. Finally the old people die, and
leave a family OF sons, unacclstomed to la
Dor. unfit for professions, helpless, and too
probably vicious from ibdoience The pro
Derty il divided, and each share, too small to
support them in their accustomed courses,
even until they determine Oh what is TO be
done, is most commonly wasted in vice and
sensuality.
View, on the contrary, a family Of equal
numbers and capital, vested in land and stock.
in a non slave holding community. lhe
daughters are compelled to assist their moth
er in all their domestic labor. IL there be a
son Of ~sprightly and promising talents, he IS
educated for a profession, and thus provided
for-The wants of the farm demand the Ia
Dor Of the others in summer, and In winter
they receive the rudiments oil a plain eduea-
ton, until the time at which they may be put
| out 10 trades or business. As they arrive at
age respectively, the small earnings OF indus
try the parents may have saved, are applied
80 establishing them in the pursuit OF their
choice. Finally. the parents die, and leave
the real estate, burthened perhaps with leSa-
eies to the sons, thus compelled to industry,
until they have families of their own, when
] the same process is renewed. In this way is
1 the community continually supplied with an
i industrious class Of laborers. No capital IS
dissipitaled by the system, but a continual ac-
emulation; which, extending through a
whole community for a series of years, VIII
sufficiently account for the difference IN pros
perity between the slave and non slave hold
ing states, without resortlng to the tarIif or
the expressions Of the Federal Government
These and other causes, which, IN the Inn
its of a few newspaper essajs, 1t would DE
impossible TO enumerate, must continually
cause our white population to diminish as the
1 black increases.
With d few such intelligent writers as those
we have quoted, and with their views widely
disseminated among the people OF Virginia
and it is evident that the day of her emanci
patton from the thraldom oil slavery is not Ut
terly remote.
gy-The Augusta Courier says it is rumor-
ed ). Carolina will throw away her Pfesldeh'
llal votes on the Georgia mailman" Gov
Iroup. -
Q5In 1903 Napoleon BonapaEte refused
10 recognise neutI als.-Martin Van buren,,
for a time, was a %neutrel, but he soon exhi
biled his true colors. We doubt very much
whether General jackson will recognise any
neutrals whatever.