The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-06-07

Two Senators and two Representatives would,
therefore, be the only present addition to the fed
eral strength of the South. ANY further addition
to that strength by the increase of the population
OF Texas would be, as is apparent, entirely at the
expense of the older Southern States, and its
effect could only be to change the centre of gra-
witty, (f we may be allowed to use the metaphor.)
Its only effect could be to draw the strength of
the South from one quarter and place it in ano-
ther-we say that such could be its only effect
on the supposition that the present northern limits
of the slaveholding States are to remain stationary
But we shall attempt to show that the irresisti-
BILE tendency of annexation is to draw the boun-
daries between the North" and the South
nearer the Gulf--to rid Maryland, Kentucky, and
Virginia, and perhaps Missouri and Tennessee. of
slavery, and thereby transfer the bulk Of the white
population of the South into the opposite scale.
The slave population of Maryland has been d.
minishing for thirty years, every successive CEN
sus showing greater dminution than the pre-
ceding. In 1910 the slave population of Mary
land amounted to one hundred and eleven thou
sand in 1910 it was ascertained to have dwindled
down to eighty-nne thousand, and the accele-
rating decline is likely to show larger curtail-
ment in the ten years between 1910 and 1850
than in all the preceding periods. In Virginia
the slave population had reached its maximum in
lS3O-perhaps year or two preceding that date.
From 1880 to 1910 that class of her population
had fallen off twenty thousand. The natural in
cft 10 oL, for hay
amounted to one fourth of that class of her popu
lation, which at the former period amounted to
four hundred and seventy thousand. Emigration,
therefore, carried off the whole natural increase,
amounting to one hundred and seventeen thou
sand, together with twenty thousand besides The
ratio of increase is easily ascertained by comparing
the respective numbers in the United States at
any two periods from 1910 to 1910. Prior to
the former date the ratio was affected by the At
rican slave. trade.
The number of slaves in North Carolina made
no increase from 1880 to 1S4O-and in South
Carolina, the increase was trfng. In Ken
lucky, though no actual decline has taken place,
it is manifest that the number in 1910 is much
short of what the natural increase would have
made it, if great emigration had not taken place.
What do these facts prove9 They show, in
contestbly, that the black population is drawn by
the gravtating laws of political eeonomy-by the
interests of those who own that species of pro-
perty, to the fertile planting regions which Dor
der the Gulf of Mexico. The same facts demon
strate that three, four, or five of the savehodng
La, AL
or tendency to decline, in the number of slaves.
In the meantime, the more Southern States,
though not fully supplied with that species of
labor, must cease, in few years, to draw off the
population of their older sisters. But the intro
duction of new and vast field of enterprise like
Texas must inevitably rob the more Northern
slave-hodng States of their present laboring
population, and convert them, in spite Of them
selves, into free States. 1t must not be forgot
ten, either, that the States thus made free, con-
tain the bulk of the white population of the South
and by annexation, are likely, in few years,
to be taken from the Southern scale and put into
the Northern.
Perhaps few have considered the capacity of
Texas to absorb the slave population of this
country. The Southern half of the republic
which we have supposed will be converted into
slave State, is twice the size of Virginia, and
every foot of it highly ferte-far more SO than
any portion of this country-besides being purely
adapted to cotton, rice, and sugar. Now some
notion can be formed of the capacity of such
country to employ slave-labor by reference to the
circumstances of Virginia. 1t would be most
extravagant estimate to set down the tobacco
region of Virginia at one-tenth of her territory
and for any other purpose than that Of making
tobacco, the slaves are found to cucumber the
estates of their owners. Yet Virginia has four
hundred and fifty thousand slaves. which can be
proftably employed upon only one-tenth-per-
haps upon no more than one-twentieth, of her ter
ritory. What would such hasdful of laborers
be upon the wide, universally fertile cotton region
of Texas! They would be mere drop in the
bucket And it requires no spirit of prophesy to