Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1850-05-16

Freedom and slavery on the one hand and
climate and geology on the other, are I'M
measurable quantities. We might as well
attempt to determine question in theology
by the cube root, or question in ethics
by the Black Art. Slavery being crime
founded upon human passions, can 20
wherever those passions are unrestralned.
1t has existed in Asia from the earliest ages,
notwithstanding its " formation aud scene
ry." 1t labors and groans on the TANKS of
the Ural mountains now There are to-day
forty-eight millions of slaves in Russia, not
one rood of which comes down so low as
the Northern boundary of California and
New Mexico
Should it be said that Slavery will not
90 into the new territories, because it is un-
profitable, | ask, where is it profitable =
Where Is ignorance so profitable as knowl-
edge Where is ungodiness gain, even
for the things of this life! How little is
the hand worth, at one end of an arm, if
there is not brain at the other! Do not
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and
other States, furnish witnesses By thousands
and tens of thousands, that slavery impoy-
ershes Yet with what enthusiasm they
cherish ii Generally, ignorance is a ne
cessary concomitant Of slavery. OF white
persons, over twenty years of age, unable
to read and write, there were, according to
the las; census, -, Isl in Virginia, $500
III North Carolina, IS ,5I3 in Tennessee,
and SO forth. | have letter before me,
received tins morning, dated IN Indiana, in
which the writer says he removed from \.
4 IN y
old, and at that time he had never seen Il
newspaper III his life. Can there be gen
lus, the inventive talent, or profitable labor
where ignorance is so dense Can the
oppression which trampes out voluntary in
du>try, intelligence, enterprise, and the de-
sire If independence, coDduce TO riches
ct this Is done wherever slavery exists,
aud is part and parcel Of its working. Is
there any other form OF robbug profitable!
Yet individuals and communities have prac-
tlced II and lived By 1t, and We may as well
rely upon " law of physical geography
to arrest the one as the other. Ii Is not
poetry, but literal truth, that the breath Of
the slave blasts vegetation, his tears poison
the earth, aud his groans strike 1t with ster-
llty. 1t would be easy to show why the
master does not abandon slavery, even d.
Md the desolation with which II has sur
rounded him. There IS Combination of
poverty and pride, which slavery produces
on tic doctrdac Of natural appctnce, and
which, therefore, 1t exactly fits. The help
lessness of the master IN regard to all per
sonaI wants, seems to necess!,ate the slave
ry that has begotten it. All moral and re-
4 ,.II Il.
form to the daily practice. Custom blinds
conscience, until, without any ottemPt To-
emancipatc or ame!urate their victims, man
can preach and pray and hold slaves, as
NorIck tests and sings over grare-dIggIur
But slavery cannot 20 INTO California or
New Mexico, because their staple produce
tons are not tobacco, cane, Cotton, or
rice" Up. Az These are agricultural pro-
ducts But Is slave labor confined to arrI
culture Suppose that predial slavery Will
mol become common IN the new territories
Cannot menal! If slaves cannot do field
work, cannot they do houseWcrk! There
Is an opening for hundred thousand slaves
TODAY, III the new territories, for purposes
OF domestic Labor And beyond tins, let
me ask, who possesses any such geologic
vision that at the distance of thousand
miles he can penetrate the valleys and gor
ges of New Mexico and say that gold wiil
not vet be found there as il Is in California
not IN sand and IN gravel only, but in
forty-eight Founders and IN hX!-sIXesl-
This Is the very kind of labor OH which
slaves in al! time, have been so extensively
emDloyed-lhe very labor on winch a mil
lion of slaves in Hi>paniola lost their lives
within few years after ITS discovery by
Columbus. Gold deposits are now worked
within Twenty-Five miles of Santa Fe. The
last account which have seen, of a com
pany of emicrants passing from Santa Re
To California, by the river CHA, announces
rich discoveries of gold upon that river
4 fellow citizen of nine has Just returned
home, who SAYS he saw slave sold at the
mines in California, IN September last. As
vet, the distant regions of the CHA and the
Colorado cannot he worked, because Of the
Apaches, the Utahs, and other tribes of In
dams. But admit slavery there, and the
power OF the government Will be invoked
to extermlnate these Indians, as 1t was be-
fore to eXtermnale the Cherokees and Sem
inoles-Rot to drive item beyond the Mis-
sssippl, but beyond the Styx. A few days
since letter was published in the papers,
dated on board a steamer descending the
Mississippi, which stated that a consldcra-
blenumber Of slaves were on board, bound
for California, under an agreement with
their masters that they should be free after
serving two years at the mines. We know
too, that the reasons assigned for incorpora-
ting provision IN the Constitution of Cal
llornla, authorizing lis Legislature to pass
laws for the exclusion Of free blacks from
the State, was, that slaves would be brought
there under this very form OF agreement,
and by aud by, the country would be over
spread by people Of color who had bought
their freedom. The sagacious men vino
framed the California Constitution came
from all parts of the territory, aud being
collected on the spot, having surveyed all
It's mountains, having breatbed It's air al all
temperatures, aud turned up It's golden soil
these men had never discovered any law
"of physical geography" which the fell
spirit of slavery could not transgfess.-