Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1844-04-27
NATIONAL INTELLlGENCER.
"ANNExATIoN, REALISTICALLY CONSIDERED.

ton is to be transferred TO Texas, without some
thing like an equivalent loss those older regions
Of the country from which these resources have
been drawn. We have all heard of that bird that
pierces its own breast ieed its young but it never
before occurred TO us that the moher-pelican must
not grow somewhat emaciated, fher brood is to be
fattened in that way alone. Experiments have been
attempted, too, in re-invgorating the bodies Of old
people, by transfusing into them the fresh and
healthy vital fluid of tbe young-a process soon
found, we believe, t:. be no help to either party
Here, however, is sin wilder proposition-to
transfuse from the only half-illed veins of the old
into those of the young, with no loss-nay, with
benefit to the former.
Texas offers habitable surface probably equal
to full one-fourth of the Union as now peoped. To
bring it rapidly into settlement and Improvement,
there must then be something like proportionale
transfer of capital and population in other words,
the reduction Of these, throughout the present
States at large, must approach TO something like the
rate of 25 per cent.
Such, however, it is easy TO see, will not be the
effect in all quarters alike: the depletion will be but
slight from certain quarters of the country, and il
may be almost total from others. The Northern
anu rr1o s'~.vs Ill, in general but send forth
thither lew casual wanderers adyenrnrars fso"a
the freer track Of Westward migration, now to be
left them by the diversion Of the great stream flow
ing out of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia;
while the main and direct drain must be from the
Slave States, the inhabitants of which alone
fitted, by climate pursuits, and institutions, to the
new region so that the exhaustion in question must
be almost entirely confined to them, and must ope-
rate, Of course, upon only about one-third Of the
Union, whose entire population will therefore only
exceed what Texas will swallow up by about the
ratio which third bears to fourth. Ii is clear,
therefore, that the ebb of population from the Slave
States to unexhaused SOIL and climate far more
propitious for the employment Of the African aborer,
must be very great and that the Slave States gene
rally must be large losers in the value Of The proper
ty which migration will leave them.
One step, further, however. The process in
question will act unequaIly upon the Slave States
themselves, according as save-labor is now profta
BILE or Improbable amongst them. Louisiana, Mis-
sissipp, Arkansas, and Alabama may somewhat
vie, in climate and soil, with Texas and will there
fore be less injuriously affected while the employ
ment of servile labor must be absolutely annihated
in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky
These contain near two millions of slaves is diff
cult to imagine how any part Of them should be
kept from leaving them. We make little doubt
that the entire black population will be carried of.
OF these, one-half may be sold and leave their
price behind them: the rest will probably migrate
with their owners 1t is not difficult to calculate the
value Of million Of slaves. With them, it is safe
to say that full million Of the whites will abandon
their native seats, carrying with them least pro-
perry enough to purchase and to fit for cultivation
the lands to which they are togo. We pretend moi
10 estimate the amount OF wealth which will be thus
transferred ; but il can ha IDLY fail to rise to some
thing like the represented by the slaves remov.
ed, not Sold
Of a magnitude something like this must be, 10
the deserted region, this loss OF property, stimula-
ed as it will be by not only the charm which the
last new-found Hesperia, the latest Land OF Pro-
mise, has for people, but by individual and pub
lie embarrassments, by debt and heavy taxation.
The spectacle will, we have little doubt, approach
TO that bold figure by which the historians Of the
day describe the throng that marched to the Cru
Soocs, ~hCh ~ was stiin'HBJ lidi " seemed as
if Europe, loosened from its foundations was about
10 fling itself upon Asia. Little short Of that scene
will the Atlantic Slave States present.
So much for the outward operation. But is this
ALT What becomes Of the value of lands, when
you take away those who cultivate them 1t be-
comes imaginary or speculative only. More than
half the lands Of the region in question must evi-
IDENTIFY go at once ont Of cultivation. Even what
continues TO be occupied must greatly depreciate,
and probably sink to not more than the Government
price Of frontier lands, to attract an influx of
Northern cutivators. By this process alone must
the South then repair its depopulation but not then
without visiting in turn, upon the colder States from
which it will draw, repetition Of the evil which
has laid it waste.
Such-supposng what can in no manner
bring ourselves to suppose peaceful occupation
Of our worthiy- obtained acquisition, will be its
benefits 10 the States said TO seek this fatal boom
Of the sugar and cotton lands Of Louisiana, Misss-
sippi, and Alabama, it will probably reduce the va
lue one-half and il will annihiate that Of the res,
for slave labor altogether.
Nor must we neglect to advert to another Geo.
nomcal effect: it will certainly deprive the Gov
eminent Of nearly all revenue from the land sales
If Texas is to be filled up, and the breach of con-
tinuty in Southern population TO be repaired there
can be little or no migration in any other direction