The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-11-13

him. And 40 far from regarding labor rs
curse, see in it above all things the fayortism
of God Animals are clothed with but a sin
gle vestment; their residences or retreats are
fixed their food is eternally the same. But
there is no limit to the variety, in comfort and
taste. of the human dress Our dwellings rise
| from the cabin to the palace, in structure and
ornaments; whilst our food, in variety and del
! icacy, is only bounded by the wide reach of the
human mind, in its hold upon science and the
development Of the resources of the soil
Labor, then, is an eternal and benetcent law
of our being. Upon It's honor depends its eff
cheney and upon both depend the numbers
the prosperity and happiness of civilized society
When, then, you plant slavery in II State. You do
that thing which tends most powerfully, in con-
sttutional law, to disbOnor labor, and render it
inefficient. Before a man will serve another,
with no inducement but the fear of punishment
the spirit of seltrespect must be utterly extn-
guished-he must be degraded below the beasts.
And the slave has ever been regarded "a the
basest Of men, and the object not only of con-
tempt but hatred-because, in yielding up his
own liberty, he subtracts so much strength from
the mass of men, and to that extent endangers
the liberty Of all others And by necessary
association Of ideas, whatever tho slave touches
has impaired to it something of his own dis
honor appeal to the experience of men--to
those who have been in the free and in the
slave States Here, all those Offices which slaves
in greatest number and most habitually per-
form, are avoided as far as possible by the mass
Of whites who are compelled TO labor And in
kind if not in degree, at whatever remove from
the slave labor is still looked upon with dis
gust, and idleness is regarded as badge of so
cial elevation.
John Quincy Adams said he regarded the
profession of the law no more honorable than
the business of shoe-making. In the eye of
reason the oeblacker is rs honorable as the
shoemaker and if Adams be right, as honor
able as the lawyer It is slavery and slavery
only, in its myriad forms, which degrades the
labOrer
When edited the 7'rUe american in this city,
! found the wives and daughters of the small
shop-kecI5y--s S9sshanics, and Others, who had
40 slaves up before the rising sun, sweeping
B ArJr 4 iris Ibe steps aHi pas. z-:s,3ss'
bringing wafer from INC pv.nSls Dei0re the tlde
of slaves was yet poured into the streets to
wound their sentiments of social equality |
Master-workmcn tell me that the best Journey
men leave the State as soon rs they are married |
In the free States on the contrary the wife and
daughter and lover 60 up-headed to the dis
charge of domestic dutes-made more lovely, in |
the eyes of all by the conscious glow of duty |
performed The Shareholders and rich avoid |
labor entirely They are idlers by profession,
and drOnes upon society; whilst, at distance,
all classes initiate them. Idleness is the mother
of ruin to the State and restitution to indivd-
uals There are no promises in the book Of
Nature or Revelation for the idler Its career
is dcformity in person, stupidity in intellect de-
prayity in morals Its end is poverty and death
Not less than twenty persons Of all ages, sexes
and cOOrs. have come to violent ends in this
State, in three months, in a population of one
million Such n terrible result is the best COM
mentary upon slavery and its vitiatng effects
In the North, every grade in wealth, from the
highest to the lowest have suitable employment
for their children. In manufactures, in agri-
culture, and commerce, rs well rs in the learned
professions there is room for all and only the
man Of business is hOnored.
Here the evil Of dshOnored labor is not con-
fined to us, DEMONSTRATING class, butreaches
masters also Thcson and daughter cannot by
them be put to work alongside of the de-
graded slave, who is Of course an unfit 1850
ciate. The professions are full to starvation
The consequence is sons and daughters are
brought up in deness and elfeminacy mind
body, and estate, 60 to wreck Thus slavery
like the tabled shirt of Nessus, which was ex-
pected to bring pleasure and comfort in the
use, but macLlens its unhappy possessor mt last
Unfortunately for the labOrers, the evils of
slavery are not confined to mere sentiments or
association of ideas, but they come home to
every one, whether in the field or in the workshop
and ruin him by the competition of unpaid |
wages! This is proved by the rctardation or
expulsion of the whites in all slave States BY
the census of the United States, the whole pop
uation doubles in about every twenty-five years.
Take the previous censuscs of the people of
Kentucky, and you will find that we ought in
1851 to have had two millions instead of eight
hundred thousand whites. Our sister State of
Ohio, Of about the same area OF land, with long
or winters less fertile soil and mineral |
wealth, although our junior by many years
has her two millions OF people. Slavery then,
has expelled one million people from the State
do not now consider the amount of human |
suffering which this curse has causedl For if
happiness depends mostly, not upon absolute,
but relative, wcalth--and the man is happiest
who is steadily improving his conditon-who
can estimate the misery of the million of pco-
pie continually decreasing in means, till at last
they see their homes pass into the hands of
strangers, and themselves driven into exile--a
punishment in all Governments deemed suifi-
cient for the greatest of crimes choose to re-
gard it merely us matter of dollars and cents
and rs labor il the admitted source of all
wealth, We have lost one half of our productive
power-One million of labOrers have gone, one |
remains. If we regard man rs productive
machine simply-thc white valued no higher
than the slave ut an average of three hundred |
dollars we have lost a possibly productive
power or capital of three hundred million Of
dollars This is not all we have placed two
hundred thousand African slaves in place of
the same number of white freemcn Now our
fathers of the South, when the Federal Constitu-
ton was formed cOntended, no doubt truly that
the slave was only half as productive as the
white; and that therefore, in taxation two
slaves ought to be counted rs but one white.
This il good authority ut least against our
opponents In the substitution OF slaves for free
men, then we have placed one hundred thou
sand paupers in the State; for whilst ~ ma
chimes they are fed, clothed, and sheltered, mt
the same cost rs whites only producing half ~
much, it is IA if one hundred thousand were
supported out of the aggregate wealth, from
the bone and snew, and the sweat of the face,
of the great mass of laborers, black and white
And every two slaves imported into the State,
for the Shareholders subject us to that also)
and every two born, impose an additional
pauper upon us Again: these emigrants have
taken out more or less of the money of the coun-
| try-say three hundred dollars each and we
have lost three hundred millions more of the
actual accumulated capital of the country-as
much rs all the balance of the wealth, real and
personal ~ shown by the census
| But the same causes which retard popula-
ton hinder education In the free States, SIX
teen times have common school funds been pro-
vided by general taxation 80 ~ to bring edu-
cation into the home of the poorest citizen;
and, rs consequence, not one man. woman
or child, Gf you exclude immigrants from the