The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-04-17
STATISTICAL PALACES.

The Southern Press few days since boosted
that the census when published would afford the
materials for such comparisons between the North
and South as would triumphantly establish the
superiority of the institutions of the latter-that
is, of the system of slsvelabor. In another col
umn the reader may find specimen Of the kind
Of statistical arguments to be expected from the
columns of that press and kindred journals. 1t
is often said that figures will not lie; it is true
that they do not lie, spontaneously but they
can be compelled to lie most outrageously and
nothing s easier than to impose upon the Public
by their help.
To expose the statistical fallacies of the Pro-
Slavery men, we shall analyze the following cal
culations Of the Charleston Mercury:
"There is no boast more commonly or AFRO
gantly made than that of the North over the
South, in the matter Of population The supe-
riority Of their institutions, they are perpetualy
saying, is proved by their superior increase The
Southern Press some time since replied to one of
these boasts by instituting a comparison between
South Carolina aud Massachusetts,, in which the
former showed to advantage. We will extend
this comparison and embrace within il the re-
suits OF the present census--results far more IA
vorable to New England than those of any pre-
cedng census, for a reason that we will point in
the sequel
"Four of the New England States, viz New
Hampshire, Massachusetts,, Rhode Island and
Connecticut, were of the original thirteen who
framed the Confederacy The area of these four
States is 30, II square miles, and their aggregate
population at the first census of 1890 was 1927 s67
Their aggregate population by the census Of 1850
is 1871 PA The increase is q little less than
l22 per cent in the sixty years
"The area of South Carolina is "a 900 square
miles, or nearly the same as the aggregate Of the
. four New England States Her population by
the census of 1890 was 246,073. BY the census
of 1850 it is Cos, 557, the increase being little
more than l6S per cent. Those who wish to try
conclusions as to comparative influence of free
and slave institutions on the advancement Of pop
ulation would do well to solve this problem Of an
increase in South Carolina, during sixty years,
amounting TO ISIS per cent, while the four model
States Of Free-Soidom only show an increase, in
the same time, of l22 per cent"
In the first place, these New England States
were settled just half century before South
Carolina, and in 1890 their population was three
times as dense as that of the latter. New States,
from obvious causes, show far greater ratio Of
increase than old States. The New England
States mentioned were quite densely peopled
before the settlement of South Carolina Ev-
cry one knows that the three hundred thousand
population in Wisconsin will increase in a higher
ratio than the nine hundred thousand in Indi-
ana: and other things being equal, it was newt
able that the ratio of increase for population of
two hundred and forty-six thousand in South
Carolina should be higher than for population Of
eight hundred and twenty seven thousand in the
other States named
But, we shall not rest the argument here. An
analysis of the several censuses from 1890 to 1850
will show, first, that the higher ratio of which
the Mercury boasts, is owing to the augmentation
of the slave population that the free people Of
South Carolina have increased more slowly than
the free people Of the New England States and
that the causes which raised, during the begin
ming of the period noted by the Mercury, the ra-
ito of increase, long since exhausted themselves,
30 that the rate per cent increase for the last
twenty years has been far greater in these States
than in South Carolina.
The following table we have prepared to show
the ratio of increase Of the free and slave popula-
tiOn, in South Carolina, during each decennia Pc
Rod from 1890 to 1850: