The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-06-27

Mr. Walker carefully suppresses the fact, that, in
the same period, there were 36,484 slaves eman-
cipated in those States, who, with their increase,
became free negroes, and are so counted in lS40.
Mr. Walker, therefore, by suppressing the whole
TRUTH has palmed upon the country stupendous
falsehood we would charitably hope that he has
done SO ignorantly. Add 36,4s4 slaves to 1898
free blacks, which was the whole number of me-
groes in the now free States, south of New Eng
land, in 1870, and their number is fraction over
10000. The number in 1910 being, as above
stated, l48, 10Y, in the same States, including
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, their increase has
been less than three to one, instead of eleUen to
one. But Mr.. Walker stops not here having
lain it down that the free negroes of the Northern
States have increased in ratio of eleven to one
in fifty years, he goes on to cypher out, by the
rule of three, what their numbers will amount to
in 1890, which, from his premises, he correctly
enough puts down at 100000. He states his
sum thus If 1898 be 148,1O7, what will 49,
l07 be-losng sight, all the while, of the fact
that in 1890 the slaves were three times as nu-
merous as the free blacks, and, being emancpa-
ted, were added to them. His sum should have
been stated thus: If $4,000 be l48OOO, what will
k4S,00O be. We have been thus particular, that
every schoolboy might appreciate Senator Wal
ker's stupid blunder.
There.were, in 1910, about $4,000 free negroes
in Virginia, and about 100000 slaves. Should
the slaves all be manumitted, Mr.. Walker, if
called upon fifty years hence to calculate the ra-
ito of the increase of free negroes in that State,
would take the free blacks of 1910 for a dvsor,
and those of 1890, which would embrace the
100000 manumitted slaves, for a dividend, and
we should not be surprised if he should make it
appear that they had increased an hundred fold.
But absurd as all this may appear, it would be
comparatively with what it must appear in juxta-
position with another grand discovery of his. He
represents the free blacks, whose fecundity he
has made to surpass all that was ever heard OF
before, to be the most degraded, wretched, and
debased creatures upon the face of the earth.
Mr. w. says that the number of negroes deaf and
dumb. blind, idiots, insane paupers and in prison
in the non-slavehoding States, is l out of l54
which he says is % to against the free blacks
at the North as compared with the Southern
slaves. But MIR. Walker omits two most import
ant facts,viz that the laws of theSouthern States
require every man 10 support his helpless slaves,
consequently there can be no pauper slaves known
to the law. And, secondly, that petty offences
among the slaves are not punished by law, and
hence there are fewer of them in prison.
But the census tables themselves contain gross
and palpable errors, which every man of common
sense must recognize as such at once, and which
every honest man will admit The following in
reference to these blunders is from statement
made by the Hon. Mr.. Severance, of Maine,
upon the right Of petition. The errors of the
census in these particulars have been frequently
pointed out Some of them were exposed by Mr..
Evans, before Mr.. Calhoun left the Senate; and still
later by Mr. Severance, in his speech on the right
of petition. Several physicians of Boston have
lately called the attention Of Congress to these
errors, by petition, and asked that committee
might be appointed TO investigate the matter. In
their petition they state that
"They have carefully compared the number Of
colored insane and idiots, and of the deaf and
dumb and blind, with the whole number of the
colored population, as stated in the printed ed-
ton of the census, in every city, town, and coun-
ty in the United States, and have found the ex-
traordnary contradictions and mprobabilities that
are shown in the following tables:
The tables give the names of The towns at
length, but to save room after giving Maine at
length, we have condensed them.
MAINE.
Total COLI inhabts. Cold insane.
Limerick q
Limington 2
Scarboro' o 6
Poland 0 3