The Arkansas banner., 1844-05-15

North, i'll the poor-house and the jail, and
 the asylums of the idiot and insane. There : the boundless and almost unpcopled territory of Mexico, and of Central and Southern Anne. Irlca, with its delicious climate. and most pro.
 life soil, renders most easy the means of sub. , sistence; and there they would not be de '. graded caste, but equals among equals, not
 only by law, but by feeling and association The medical writers all say, and expe- rlencc confirms the assertlon,l that lll-treat- , ment, overwork, neglect iii infancy and sick ness, drunkenness, want, and crime, are the chief causes of idioey, blindness, and lunacy ; : whilst none will deny that want and guilt fill. the poor-house and the jail. Why Is Ii, i then, that the free black Is (as the census l proves much more Wretched III condition, : and debased in morals, thant the slave; These = free blacks are among the people ol the North, and their condition is most deplorable in the two great States of Maine and Massachusetts, . where, since l7S0, slavery never eXisted.- Now, the people of the \ orth arc eminently
 humane, religious, and intelligent. What,
 then, k the cause of the misery and debase- ment of their free black population It IS chiefly n the fact that ihe free blacks, among
  tion---lrc, and ever will be, degraded caste, free only in name, without any of the bles- sings of freedom. Here they can have no pride, and no aspiIations--no spirit of indus try or emulation; and, in most cases, 10 live, to vegetate, Is their only desire. Hence, the efforts to improve their condition, so long made, in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and many other States, have proved utterly una vailing; and t grows worse every year, as
 that population augments in numbers. ln
 vain do many of the States give the negro
 tine right of suffrage, and all the legal privi- leges of the whites the color marks the
 dreadful difference which, here, at least, ages
 cannot obliterate. The negroes, however equal in law, are not equal in fact They are nowhere found in the colleges or uniyer- sites, upon the bench or at the bar, i'll the
 muster, or the jury-boX, i'll legislative or eX- ecutye stations; nor does marriage, the great bond of society, unite the white with the
 negro, eXcepta rare occurrence of such unnat- ural alliance, to call forth the scorn or dis gust of the whole community. Indeed, l
 could truly say, if passing into the immediate
 presence of the Most High, that, iii morals and comforts, the free black Is far below the slave and that, while the condition of the slave has been greatly amehOrated, and Is improving every year, that of the free blacks as the official tables demonstrate) Is sinking in misery and debasement at every census, as, from time 10 time, by emancipation and other causes, they are augmented in number Gan 1t, then, be sinful to refuse to change the con- dition of the slaves to position of far greater wretchedness and debasement, by reducing i them to the level of the iree-ncgro race, to occupy the asylums eff the deaf and dumb, ] the blind, the idiot, and insane; To wander as mendieaats; to live in pestilent alleys and novels, by theft or charity; or to prolong a miserable existence i'll the poor-house or the jail All history proves that no people on earth are more deeply imbued with the love of freedom, and of its diffusion everywhere, among all who can appreciate and enjoy Its
 blessings, than the people ot the South and
 if the negro slave were improved in morals
 and comforts, and rendered capable of self government, by emancipation, it would not be gradual, butimmediate, if the profits of slavery
 were tenfold greater than they are. Is slave
 ry, then, never to disappear from the Union? :? If confined within its present limits, do not
 perceive when or how 1t Is to terminate. IL is true Mr. George Tucker, the distin- 1 guished Firginan, and professor in their great
 university, las demonstrated that, in a period
 not exceeding eighty years, and probably less, from the density of the population i'll all the slaveholding States, hired labor would be as abundant and cheap as slave labor, and that all pecanjary motive for the continuance of slavery would then have ceased. But
 would it, therctore, then disappear3 No, il certainly would not for, at the lowest ratio,
 the slaves would then number at least ten
 millions. Could such a mass be emancpa- ted And if so, what would be the result? We have seen by the census and other proof,
 that one-sixth of the free blacks must be supported at the public eXpense; and that at i the low rate of $50 each, 1t would cost ESQ.,
 100000 per annum to be raised by taxation i to support the free blacks then in the South
 requiring support, namely l,666,6G6, il man
 omission were permitted; but as such a tax
 could not be collected. emancipation would
 be as it now Is, prohibited bg taic, and slave
 " could not disappear i'll this manner, even when Il became unprofable No, ten mil- lions Of free blacks, permitted to roam at i large in the limits of the South, could never be tolerated. Again, then, the question Is
 asked, Is slavery never to disappear from the
 Union: This is a startling and momentous question, but the answer is easy, and the
 proof is clear; | pi{k certainly disappear if
 Teras IS re-daaered 10 the Union; not by
 abolition, but against and in spite of all its
 frenzy, slowly, and gradully, by diffusion, as
 it has already thus nearly receded from sev- eIal of the more northern of the slavehold-
 ing States, and as it will continue thus more
 rapidly to recede by the remuneration of Texas, and finally, in the distant future, with
 out shock, without abolition, without a
 convulsion, disappear into and through Tex
 as, into Mexico and Central and Southern
 America. Thus, that same overruling Proy-
 dence that watched over the landing of the l nnl imrants and 1nilmrin1s nj IaLnnstnu.n nrL