The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-07-09

from New Orleans, under date Of July 4th, an
nounces the death, on the preceding day, at
Natchez, of SARGEANr S. PRENTIss, esq.
On the 18th ultimo we published &C Letter
to distinguished citizen of South Carolina
which attracted unusual attention. The fol
lowing is second letter from the same pen,
which we commend to the perusal Of our read
ers, with the same reservation of our own
judgment which accompanied the former
PHILADELPHIA, July 4, 1850.
DEAR Sir: There two diseases raging in the
Union anti-slavery and pro-slavery; and from the
latter you are, think, by no means entirely free,
for which reason, perhaps it is that you doubt the
accuracy of my views in regard to the of the
former. propose now to furnish you sketch of
the causes of your own complaint with view to
indicate the remedy, believing that YOU may be
satisfied that both their existence 10 tie same error
Of commercial policy, and that the same remedial
measures will eradicate both. to the great advan-
tage of ourselves, and of the Union in which it is
fortune to live.
Sixty years since, the South united with the
North in prohibiting the introduction of slavery
into the Northwestern Territory. Little more than
forty years since, southern men united with north
ern men in rejecting the application of Indiana to
be exempted from the operation of the ordinance
of 1857 Twenty years since, Maryland, Virginia,
and Kentucky, were almost prepared for measures
looking to the abolition Of slavery within their
limits, and it the almost universal belief
throughout those States, that gradual abolition
Indispensable to their progress in population,
wealth, and happiness
Since then, change, and a most remarkable
l hoe, tGD r.
dream,' and it has been discovered that slavery is
'a blessing" instead of being a curse, az it was
held to be by Washington jefferson, Madison, and
most if not all of their contemporaries per-
haps quite well qualified to form correct judg-
ment in regard thereto any of their descend
ants. II has also been discovered that the wealth
of slave States grows more rapidly than does that
of free ones and that true policy the part of the
latter would lead them to reduce the laboring
classes to state of slavery. Further, it has been
proved that one Of the great objects of certain pro-
visions of the Constitution was the maintenance
Of equilibrium" between the free and the slave
States, and that the ordinance of 'S7 was can act
of aggression" upon the South, which otherwise
would have secured to slavery, and to ITSELF por-
ton of the fertile region north of the Ohio in which
'the domestic institution" would have continued
to exist side by side with those of the numerou
immigrants from the free States, and from Europe,
that would have ilocked to this northern branch of
the southern tree. Extraordinary is this idea,
it is but one of many almost equally that have
been brought out in the long of pro-slavery
agitation, and brought out, too, by men who pro-
fess to be disciples of Adam Smith The answer To
the theory of equilibrium" might be found in the
fact, that the effort in 1912, to extend the Of
free-soi, by incorporating Canadian States within
the Union, tpas a southern measure.
There has thus been total revolution Of the
southern feeling this subject, and il dates back
less than twenty years. Were we to look for the
cause Of this to any mere change of moral feeling,
we should widely should do were we
to ascrbo the northern agitation in regard to free
coil TO increased conviction of the snfulness of
slavery, and increased belief that duty to his
God required interference the part Of the north
ern with the rights OF property of his southern
neighbor The man of the North who denounces
slavery a crime and the stakeholder as a crim-
nal, IL not more moral than were thousands Of his
predecessors who owned slaves, and felt that in
doing they were guilty of no crime; nor is the
OF the South who regards slavery blessing
lcss moral than thousands of his predecessors
who regarded it as blight, and held it to be the
duty of all good citzens exert themselves for its
extinction What, then, ia the cause of this extra
ordinary change Why is it that people who but
twenty years since were nearly united in opin-
ion are now widely separated Why is it that
the cause of emancipation goes backward in the
South, aboltionsm and free soilism go for
ward in the North This is question of great in
tercst and will cndoavor to answer IL, bot 10 do
80 satisfactorily il will be necessary to show what
arc the circumstances that in other countries have
marked the progress of man from slavery to free
dom, or from freedom to a state of slavery.
In all those countries in which men have become
free, we zee that freedom has with increased
density of population and increased value of land,
| the owners of which, a body, have become more
rich its occupants became more Free and their
lands became more and more divided. II de-
sire evidence Of this VIC may look 10 the steady
growth for centuries of value in the land Of Eng
land, accompanied by increased freedom of the peo-
| pie employed in its cultivation to Belgium.
where the freest people of continental Europe pay,
az annual rent for the use Of fax lands ten times
az much as would purchase the fee of of
| good cotton land in Alabama-or to France, where
I land increases steadily in value becomes
! more free-or, in fact, TO any part Of the world
in which the value Of land is increasing, or where
it has at any time increased. The prospsrity5 ide
andhoIder is, therefore, inseparobiy connected ,cih
| The grooming freedom Of the iaborr.
IT, on the contrary, we look TO those countries in
which land diminishes In value shall see popu-
| la,ion diminishing, land accommodating in fewer
hands, the landbolder becoming poor, and its Gull
tvator becoming less free. For proof Of this,
need only look to history for the course of things in
Egypt, Greece, and Italy, 10 the newspapers for
that in Ireland, where the andholder bocomes pau
perizcd az the laborer becomes enslaved.
Why this is and must be may readily be or-
planned. In order that land may increase in value
there must be increase in the quantity of it's pro-
ducts, and in their exchangeablc value; and that
such increase may take place there must be in
crease of population, which cannot be the case
when all are engaged in agriculture. That such
increase may take place the consumer must take
his place by the side of the producer. The farmer
who is obliged TO take his TO distant markets
erhausts his land, and is then obliged to fly to
lands still more distant from market, and tho cx-
changcabe value OF his products diminishes
whereas, he who has marketat his door improves
his land, and obtains constantly increasing re-
turn to labor, and the value Of his products in ex
change for other commodities is constantly in
creasing, and labor yields, therefore, constantly
increasing return of the necessaries, com fors and