The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-02-24

and statistics we are about to offer.
LSneountry like ours, made up Of varions
81 ch one inviting immigration by pre-
e many advantages as possible, popula-
ton win naturally and irresistibly centre where
the most numerous and valuable considerations
are presented. We may, therefore, safely
affirm thata rapid and continuous increase OF
is the most certain measure Of pub
lie and private prosperity. This proposition
needs no proof, for its opposite involves the
absurdity that our citizens, when left free to
act, are incapable of appreciating and under
standing their own interests. Centuries must
roll around before any portion Of these States
can touch the point "where population presses
upon the means Of subsistence" That dogma
can, therefore, form no element in our present
reasonings on the progress and laws Of popula'
ton.
Commencing, then, with Maryland, one OF
the Oldest slaves States, we submit the follow
ing statements and statistics, taken from
pamphlet published in Baltimore, in 1916, en-
titled Slavery in slsrylsnd, tri,fy considered"
This pamphlet was written by John L. Carey,
Esq, distinguished member OF the Baltimore
Bar. Amer well considered introduction, Mr.
Carey thus speaks of the blighting effect CT
slavery in his own State.
For years past our cotton growing states
have been exporting their sod; and with that
improyidence which slavery generates, that love
Of present hsduIgnce, careless, Of what may
follow, the South has reesissd in return the
means Of enjoyment only-notting whsrewith
to renovaie the outraged ground. Such apro-
cess long continued must, in the end, ruin the
finest lands in the world It's effects are appa-
rent in the Atlantic States, in the southwest
operating irresisiihly to draw the planters of
Carolina and Georgia from thsir worn out helds.
The same general observations will apply TO
our slave holding sections in Maryland, and 10
many parts Of eastern Virginia too, If il were
necessary TO pursue the investigation there
Emigration 10 the west has kept pace with tlls
Impeachment Of our lands Large tracts has
come into the hands Of few propriei0rs--tao
large TO be improved, and too rnuch exhausted
to De productive. But this il not the worst---
The traveller, as he journeys through these
districts, smitten with premature barreEnes A
with a curse, behoids fields, once enclosed and
subject 10 tillsge, now abandoned and waste,
and covered with struggling pines or seubby
ing vestiges OF former cultivation. From
swamps and undrained morssses. maJ1ia ex-
hAles and like pessilence infects the 0fnnty.
The Inhabitants become q sallow race; tie cur
rent Of life stagnates; energy fails; the spirits
droop. Over the whole region a melancholy
aspect broods. There are everywhere signs Of
dllapidation, from the mansion Of the planter
with It's windows half-glazed, its doors half
hinged, its lawn trampled by domestic animals
that have ingress and egress through the broken
enclosures, 10 the ragged roadside house where
thriftless poverty fnds its abode. No neat cot
tages with gardens and flowers giving life TO
the landscape; no beautiful villages where cul-
tivated taste blends with rustic simplicity, en-
riching and identifying; no fiourshing towns
alive with the hustle of industry-none of those
are seen; no, nor any diversified succession OF
well cultivated farms with their substantial
homesteads and capacious barns; no well-con-
structed bridges, no well-censtru:ted roads,
Neglect, the harbinger Of decay, has stamped
her impress everywhere. Slavery. bringing
with il from its African home its Characteristic
accomplishments, seems to have breathed over
its resting places here the same ossoating
breath which made Sahara . desert"
Mr.. Carey next gives a detailed statement Of
the population of each county in Maryland,
commencing in / 100, and bringing it on in regu-
lar decades to IS4O, exhibiting in the aggregate
the following remarkable results:
"In nine counties in Maryland the white pop
ulation has diminished since 1890. These are
the counties: Montgomery, rrince Ueorge, 81.
Msry's, Calvert, Charles, Kent, Caroline, Tai
bot and Queen Anne's. The aggregate white
population Of those counties in 100 was q, 1852;
in 1910 il was 81, 40s. Here is a falling off of
nearly 10000; if the account were carried TO
the present year the falling of would be more
than 10000.
"These nine counties include the chief slave
holding sections of the State. In five of them
taken together, to-wit:-MOntgomery, Prince
George, ST. Mary's, Calvert, and Charles, the
number Of slaves exceeds that Of the white pop
ulation. These are chiefly the tobacco grow
ing counties, together with the county Of Fred
erick.
"The counties of Allegheny, Washington,
Frederick, and Baltimore, and Baltimore City,
are the portions of the State in which slavery
has existed but partially. That Ia to say, Allie
ghany, with an aggregate population of Is, 704,
has but sll slaves Washington, i'm population
of 2S $50, has , sos slaves; Frederick has $40
slaves to a population Of 5000; Baltimore
county, $3.50 slaves in an aggregate population
Of s0,256; and Baltimore City includes but
3,2I2 slaves in it, population Of l02,sl3-
more City out Of the account, il will be found
that the aggregate white population OF tbs rest
of the State has diminished since 1896. In
other words the increase of our population,
which is about one hundred and fifty tho isand
since the first census, has been mainly in those
counties where slavery has been least promi-
nent. In those portions Of the State where
slavery prevails most prominently, the white
population, during the last fifty years, has d.
He then sums up by the following compare
son of a portion of the free and slave States,
which exhibits the latter in painfully humiIi-
ating contrast:
"The contrast presented by the progress Of
the free States, Within fifty years, and by that
Of the saveholding States for the same period, |
is so familiar that il would be useless to burden
these pages with statistics to illustrate il. Il
may be sufficient to state, in respect TO the in
crease of population, that in 1890 the free |
States, including Massachusetts, and Maiae,
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
Vermont, New York, New Jersey and Pen nsyl- /
Eania, had population of ,97l Ass; while The |
States, Delaware, Maryland, with |
The District, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia, contained So, 494 in
labitants. In 1910 the same FREQ States num-
,ered population Of 6,76i ,0s2, and the same
'layeholding States had an entire population of
!, s27 ITO. The former increased in a ratio more
han double as compared with the latter.
"In our own State, however, where we do not
row cotton, sugar, or rice, and where there are
no new lands to present fresh soil to the plough,
md to invite settlers from distance, the in
,rease OF population in our chief slsveholding
has been nothing at all. There has been
| decrease, and a yery marked one. How has
his decrease happened but bya process similar