The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-07-20

annually and aggregately, in the course Of
the last forty years. This has never been
attempted, that know Of have, indeed,
occasionally seen some loose and unsatis-
factory statements made upon one side and
contradicted on the other, in the two Houses
of Congress; but no data were given on
either side, and the estimates seemed TO be
altogether coniectural Entire accuracy in
such matter, is, OF course, unattainable;
but see not why, through estimates drawn
from the science of numbers, and based upon
the principles Of population, we may not APP
proximate it near enough for all the useful
| ends for which such information is wanted.
To ascertain the mdrimum Of the South's
losses, is more than hope for, or shall aim
at; but minimum, and one large enough to
startle and amaze both NORTH and South,
| Except the close Observers and sure enough
to bring to it the assent Of all candid minds
| in both sections, | do aim at, and mean to
demonstrate and establish it, maugre the
doubtings Of skeptics North or South.
My materials are accessible to everybody;
they are all contained in the United States
census, and the several enumerations OF the
free negroes in the several States, (running
through course of thirty years, commencing
in 1910, ending in 1910, will embrace the
entire range Of the calculation. The mate
rials we have, then, are enumerations of
this class of the population in each decennial
cycle for these thirty years; and the materials
we want are, its aggregate increase, and its
rate per cent. Of increase in each of the great
divisions Of the country, the North, the
Middle, and Western, and the South, for
the whole time.
The principle and the mode Of the opera
ton may be unfolded in trice, by taking
the six New England States, as most remote
from the slave States and less influenced by
accessions from their fugitive slaves, and
finding their rate per cent Of increase; and
then by taking the six original slave States,
where the free negroes Of the Union dwell in
the largest numbers, and have thriven most,
and finding rate per cent. Of increase there;
the comparison between the two ought to
give US a safe mean, to measure the aggre-
gate natural increase in both sections Now,
taking that mean and applying it to the
seven Middle and Western States, Give
Of which border upon, and the two others
are most accessible to, the slave States,
we may fairly conclude that the excess Of
free negroes found there over and above
that mean rate per cent. Of the natural in
crease, is made up wholly of fugitive slaves
from the slave States. am aware that the
mean have adopted is not strictly accurate,
but the North cannot complain of the mac
curacy, as that inaccuracy consists entirely
in undertaking the South's losses, for Tin
the absence OF all other data) was con-
strained to follow the census, and could make
no deductions therefore, from the natural
increase of the free negroes of New England,
Of those large accessions which are annually
made to it from the migrations Of fugitive
slaves from the South; and for the same
reasons no deductions were made from the
natural increase Of free negroes in the slave
States; Of the still larger accessions made to
them from the heavy annual emancipations
Of slaves. All these accessions from both sec
tons consequently are cast into the account,
and inpart to the mean therefore, far
higher rate per cent. for the natural increase
than the real facts would hive shown, and
per consequence, exhibits the excess Of free
negroes in the midland free States, over and
above the natural increase, far below what
it really is.
In the wcy of general facts touching the
growth Of the population of the United States,
! think these postnlata may be safely as
sumed:
/. That the natural increase Of the South
ern slaves exceeds that Of any other condition
OF men on this continent.
Q. That the general census cannot show
the fact, because it adds to the natural in
crease of the white race here, the vast an
nual accessions from foreign emigration;
and on the other hand, it allows nothing at
all for these vast annual deductions from
slave-numbers, which are made through pri-
vate emancipation, and escape and enfran-
chisement at the North; and hence, the
census gives the white race the precedence
in natural increase.
3. This being so, and such the cause, that
the white population Of the United States
about doubles itself in every period Of two
and-a-half decennal cycles, or twenty-five
years.
a. That the slave population Of the United
States more than doubles itself in every
period Of three decennial cycles, or thirty
years from the natural increase alone
5. That the free negroes of the Southern
States double in about every period Of three
and-a-half decennal cycles, or thirty-fve
years from the natural increase alone.
6. That the free negroes in the Northern
and Western States double in about every
period Of four decennial cycles, or forty years
from the natural increase alone.
z. That the free negroes of the Southern
States are the most stable and least migra-
tory Of any class Of the population Of the
United States, if we except their migrations
to other sldue States
8. That considerably more Of the free
negroes migrate from the free States 10 the
slave States, than from the slave States to
the free States
9. That forty mine fftietbs Of all native ne