Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1849-03-30

human life in its present state, choice of evils
is frequently all that is in our power. + Good
and evil, in fact become relative, and not pos
tive terms. And the necessity is recognised
by the example of our Saviour, who applied
the extreme remedy OF the lash to the money
changers who profaned the temple. II is
consistent for rigid sect like the Quakers TO
oppose slavery. because they prescribe and
repudlate war, and luxury, and all other evils.
And we may all hope for the time to come,
when, in the progress of Christianity, the evils
of slavery in the South, and those of pauper.
ism, crime, and mortality in the North will be
greatly mitigated or abolished But the North
can now make no protest, because the luxu.
rious system of Northern civilization not on
ly subjects the great mass of the people to un.
wonted labor and privation, but actually sac
ri6ces in peace greater amount Of life than
is usually expended by communities at war.
If. then, the welfare of neither white nor
black in the South would be promoted by the
restriction or abolition of slavery, would the
prosperity of the North be advanced! The
only thing of which the North complains, on
its own account, is the ratio of representation
fixed by the Constitution, which gives the
South vote equal TO three -ffths of the blacks.
But on the other hand, in consequence of the
existence of slavery in the South. the North
has monopoly of Foreign emigration This
amounted, as we have seen, from 1929 10 1870,
to million and half, including its increase.
Tn the previous thirty years it must have been,
with its increase TO this day at least half
million more. Since 1910 it has amounted 10
a million besides So that the North has the
vote and the power of three millions of peo-
~ IL L Il
now confers, and that is equivalent 10 a white
population only of about two millions
And furthermore, by the peculiar agrcultn-
raj employment of Southern industry and cap
ital. the South is a customer and consumer Of
Northern manufactures and commerce, and o.
Northwestern agriculture Abolish slavery
and convert the South into people of me-
chanics, artizans, and merchants and instead
of the other section And if the march OF
pauperism, crime, and mortality of The North
be so great now, what would it be then,
The condition of modern civilization is far
more Iaborious and oppressive than the an
Gent The seats of ancient science and the
arts were in the mild climates of the Mediter
ranean shore, or in the south OF Asia and Eu-
rope And in America the ruins of her unre-
corded civilization are to be found in paienque
and Copan. all in similar climate The ge-
MUS of England has carried civilization TO a
more northern latitude, and that of America
has extended it, if not higher in latitude, 10 a
still more rigorous climate than that of rng-
land. The wants of such climate are great
and imperious The cost of fuel alone in the
city of New York exceeds ST. 100000 annu-
ally. The clothing must be much warmer,
the houses more substantial, the food more
nourishing, and all more expensive than mil
der climate. And this great augmentation Of
the burdens of civilized life must be horne in
the North by freemen, not as of Old by slaves
Hence have we seen the fearful struggle of
Northern labor for subsistence, notwi:kstand-
ing the immense aid ii has derived from mod
ern machinery and invention But fake from
that labor the custom, and subject it 10 the
competition of the South, where so much less
is required for subsistence, and that so much
cheaper, and the result would be as ruin0us to
the present system of the North as TO that of
the South. These two great systems have
grown up together. That of the North could
not have so much expanded without market
in Southern agriculture-nor could this have
grown so great hut for the demand and sup
plies of the North Together they have -four
ished; together they must iaIter and fall To
restrict. therefore, the territorial extension of
the South, and by circumscribi6g It's industry
render it improbable, is to restrict and para
lie the prosperity OF the. North in all lis de-
partments. Together these institutions have
marched harmoniously to that eminence and
success which have won the prosperity of
both al home, and extorted the admiration OF
the world abroad. If either should fall by the
hand OF the other, the crime would not only
be :ratricide, it would be suicide: and over
the mouIderlng ruins of both would deserve to
be written the epi'aph: Here were people
who disputed about the capacity OF the Afr-
can for liberty and civilization, and did not
themselves possess the capacity TO preserve
their own.