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


verify or to falsify Gas the case may be) my
data and deductions, from the details Of the
Census rolls, and the reasonings to be drawn
from them earnestly invite all such to
look into this table, and scrutinize it and
ponder on it. There is scarcely man in a
thousand who prizes into, or realizes the pro-
gressive and intolerable wrongs and injuries
which the South suffers yearly-monthly-
daily-from these furtive and felonious ag-
gressions upon her property-rights, but those
who do, have made an aggregate of losses
heavier than mine.
The increas, of population in the United
States is unexampled in all the world. Even
batting its accessions from foreign emigration,
and it is still without rival. AS it is, and
as / have said, it doubles itself in % years.
The rate Of increase, therefore, is -four per
cent. per annum. Now turn to the free
negroes Of New England. They have
dwindled and dwindled, until they have al
most reached stand still. Their annual
increase amounts to but one-tenth of one
per cent! They could not double them
selves, at that rate, short of four hundred
years! The South's fugitive slaves, which
New England is known to shelter and free
annually, without compromising their own
ers, Independently Of the large numbers
she aids in escaping to Canada, more than
accounts for her entire annual increase, and
consequently shows her native negro popu-
lation gradually wearing out and wasting
away.
Even the free negroes of the six original
slave States Of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
Norm Carolina, South Carolina, and Geor-
gia, only show an annual intrease of two
per cent, but the deficiency is fully ac-
counted for in the migrations Of free negroes
from the old to the new slave States.
But turning from these commonplace de-
tails, and casting our eyes upon the columns
portraying the progress Of free negroism, in
those Of the free States which border on,
or are almost equally accessible to the slave
States, and lo what wonders and contrasts
strike and as onish US The very minimum
OF increase in the seven middle free States,
reaches to 3 ga per cent. per annum, while
Massachusetts,, with her great free negro
thoroghfare of Boston, reaches no higher
than to seven-eighths of one per cent. per
annum! Why, at the rate Of 3 Sd per
cent per annum, they would double every
twenty-seyen years, and it is but one
quarter of one per cent. per annum less
than the rate ofincrease of the white popu-
lation Of the United States, and falls but
that much short therefore, of doubling itself
in every twenty-five years! So much f,r
the minimum of increase.
But what are we to say of the mari"ium
Of increase in these States; of this the most
sluggish and unthrifty class Of people within
our borlers' On turning to the rolls for
Illinois and Michigan, found these States
had been absorbed and deeply intent upon
the manufacturing Of free negroes, and in
creasing their store at the amazing rate of
upwards Of sixteen per cent. per annum,
each, and as no community Of living moth
ers ever yet gave births in quadrupLes, it
was plain that these tabled procreations were
but the spoils Of felonious plumber, and un-
der the morals Of the Frec-soilers, that num-
bers give law, and thefts give title, numer-
Gus and valuable slaves are enticed from
their owners; and, in association with the
vilest and worthlIest that shame the earth,
they are hidden away in the chrysallis as
fugitives from labor, but soon to emerge and
take wing as fugitives from justice Only
to think Of an increase Of sixteen per cent.
per annrm, the quadrupe Of that Of the
United States, and which would double the
free negro population Of those States every
six-and-a-quarter years But why should l
dwell on these cases, when there stands
Ohio augmenting her free negroes out Of the
South's fugitive slaves, until her rate Of IN
crease per annum, has actually attained to
81 per cent, which would nearly double them
seven times in twenty-five years, or more than
double them every four years; and even
such marvel is lost in the wonder that
there stands Indiana by her side, consplc-
uous over all, in the unexampled augmenta-
ton Of her free negroes up to 81 l-3 per
cent. per annum AT this rate OF increase,