The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-06-24

!, most cherished hopes of business. By hi
( wastefulness he destroys the most sacre
things committed ohis care. The soil h
cultivates is impoverished and ruined. Tn
tools and implements he uses, are broker
or cast away and lost. The most POSITIVE
injunction delivered to him falls upon cal
lous ears, and are forgotten, because be ha
no motive to remember them. Such ar
the natural consequences Of his condition
: upon the mind Of the slave. His habits o
mind and person are only such as philoso
ply declares he should possess in his cir
cumstances, and experience proves this L
be true!
i A slave under the Influences Of the bes
moral principles, but Invested by being {
slave Of the motives enjoyed by the free mar
will, in the general, never rise much above
the standard we have named; but, if under
the influence Of bad motives, he may fell i'm
measurably below it. In this later case, his
sins Of omission are converted into sins o.
commission. An active malice takes the
place of thoughtless Indifference; a single
dark and fearful paSsion--resentment against
his situation-envelopes his mind, and deeds
Of wanton malevolence and destrlctiveness,
secret or open, mark the path in which he
moves. The inherent defects in this species
Of labor constitute an enormous tax upon
its employment, and the attention of South
em economists is gazing steadily al the fact.
There was a period when these evils, in
separable from the nature of slave labor,
were not so manifest. Whilst our popula-
ton was sparse and laborers were few, and
these were nearly all slaves when lands
were every where comparatively cheap, and
production was mostly agricultural, and our
social wants were few and easily supplied
before il had become necessary to- introduce
to great extent the arts, whose productions
are now so large portion Of the national
wealth, commerce and consumption, slave
labor occupied field almost exclusively
to itself, and as it never came into compe-
tiion with free labor, was seldom or never
compared with it, The increase Of popu-
lation, the high price of lands, declaring
many from agricultural pursuits. the employ
ment Of the mechanic arts both in the south
and north. the rapid multiplication Of labor
erS and the greater draughts which our ma
tional and social wants are constantly max
ing upon the intelligence, invention, skill,
faithfulnesS and activity Of the operative,
have, in many portions Of the Union, forced
competition between free and slave labor,
which is disclosing extensively to the public
mind an immense superiority, in all re-
spects, over the latter. The enquiring mind
has been led to investigate the real causes
which have impaired to the affairs OF our
non-slaveholding States life and vigor and
prosperity, as remarkable on the one hand,
as the torpidity and languor which hangs like
an incubus upon the advancement Of
the slaveholding States, are upon the other
The question is now seriously asked, what
is the reason OF that difference which is seen
between the face of The country on the
northern and southern banks Of the Ohio;
and the deductions Of a sound political
economy are beginning to reply: it is not
the Judgment of God; il is the folly OF
man.
| i
between free and slave labor, and their sew.
eral influences upon the accumulation Of
wealth, are commanding general observa.
lion and reflection.
In the State of Maryland, for instance,
the superior activity, energy, carefulness and
thrifiness OF free labor, are so marked and
decided, as well as so generally understood,
that slave labor has been rapidly sinking
before it.
AS we have passed along, we have seen
the great fundamental political doctrines o.
the country now universally received by the
people, and universally held sacred: the sug
gestions of an enlightened selfinterest, which
is beginning To scan with the eyes Of sobel
calculation and a 'business-like air, the
debts and credits Of the great account before
us the solemn convictions OF religious duty
which, aside Of all human opinions Of the
rights Of man, conceive their obligation il
the purposes of God; and thousand indi
vidual and personal regards, as various as hu
man affairs; causes which no human powe
can resist or control, without changing III,
elements Of our social organism: cause
which no one wishe, 10 resist, or woult
know how to resist if he did, all co-opera
ing with each other in breaking away tn
attachments and loosening the foundation
of this institution Of slavery in the ancien
habits, feelings, customs and prejudice
of the people. If the traveller who i
wandering through the mazes of one Q
our western forests, having lost his way
find himself as he unexpectedly emerg,,
from the overhanging brush and surrourl
ding thickets, suddenly near the father
waters, he may be at loss for a moment
as he gazes upon its turbid and rolling wave:
which seem to flow in many directions, b
determine his course; but it is only for
{ moment: the next has served to discover ho'
9 each minor current and ripping eddy
: (which seemed Of some importance at frs
q has circulated round its little sphere near III
e shore, and then passed off forever IN the gel
: eral confluence Of the stream.
!. So, the eye OF philosophy rests but mi
! ment upon the principles OF the age, all
n detects their tendency. 1t matters not wa
q the observer may be; he may be pro-slav
d fry or an anti-slavery man; he may desire
see it, or he may not; but, If he open h
ewes he must see that human slavery is I
il part of its systems. That it stands amid
s. the creations of the. nineteenth century,
O. foreign and unnatural body; solitary rer
D. nant OF systems which have passed ava
is which is itself to pass away; and again
q whose perpetuity all the elements OF d