The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-10-27

to citizens of slavehoding States during tn,
year, while 500 were granted to citizens of non
slayeholding States; to the former there wer'
re.issued 2, to the latter 1874 In other words
while the population of the slavehOlding States
numbers nine millions, and that of the FIRE,
States fourteen millions the inventions of tn,
latter are $50, and of the former, only 79
And so it has always been. Had it not beer
for the mental power and activity, the spirit O
progress, and the genius of invention, develop
ed by free labor institutions, this country woulC
have been unknown, unfelt.
"Our manufactures" says the Report, 1T,
protect which has been the object of 80 mucl
debate owe their very existence to them, tn,
inventive interests. Without them, our for
egn commerce, another favorte, would lose
freight as well as power. Where would be
her exports, were it not for the cotton gin? In
vented by the way, by a man born and devel
I oped under the free labor system Even agri-
culture feels the influence, and under the touch
Of the genius Of invention, promises to fulfil the
much-sought desderatum, and make two blades
Of grass grow where one grew before. Com
pare our means Of inland intercourse with what
they were few years since, and another ind-
cation is afforded of the consideration due to
inventors The difference in our domestic traf
fic as it was and as it is, we owe in great
measure to their ingenuity They have done
an immense work in building up the wealth Of
the country; they have given the nation stand
ing and weight in the eyes of foreign States"
Let it be borne in mind, that the inventive
genius, on which so much of the greatness of
our country depends, is constantly checked and
reprossed by the system of slave labor, while it
finds appropriate field and stimulants where
Freedom and Free Labor prevail.
We did not expect to find in an official re-
port designed for circulation throughout the
matter of @ purely sectional character;
but for the first time in our recollection the
Patent Office Report embraces among many
really valuable papers, one, which not only at
tempts defence of Slavery, but makes an as
sault upon the free States. 1t is an address on
Southern Agricultural Exhaustion and its REM
edy by Edmund Ruihn of Virginia, delivered
before the South Carolina Institute, Charleston
1t forms some seventeen pages in the Report of
the Commissioner of Patents and seems to have
been reprinted from De BowS Review A few
extracts from the address will serve to show
what kind of ideas Mr.. Hodges is sending out
among the freemen of the free States
After rcmarking that upon the productions
Of the earth depends, more or less, all the ben
etts a community can enjoy, Mr.. Ruffn says,
there il large class of exceptions to this general
rue-which is, when an agricultural people or
interest is tributary to some other people or in.
terest, whether foreign or at home. Such ex-
ceptlons are presented in different modes by
the agriculture of Cuba being tributary to
Spain; Of many other countries to their own
despotic and oppressive home Governments;
and of the Southern States of this Confederacv
to greater or less extent, to different pauper
and piunder1ng interests Of the Northern States,
Which, through Legislative endctme,.tS, haze been
mainly Josiered and supported by levying tribute
upon Southern agriculture and iad,,stry
In another place. fearing that his statements
in relation to the exhaustion of the soil in the
South may be construed into an argument
against Slavery he says 81 readily admit that
our slave labor has served greatly to facilitate
our exhaus!ing cultivation, but only because ii
IS a great fac,Lt'y far superior 10 any found
m The non-Siarehoiding States, for all agrieultu-
rat operations. If directed TO
improving instead Of destroying fertility then
the great ant UGiuabie aid of Sldue labor wiH as
much more Gdrdnce improvement as At has gen
erdhy heretofore ddvdnced exhaustion" He re-
fers to certain lands in Lower and Middle Vir-
ginia, where "slave labor is used not only ex.
cusiyely and in larger than usual proportions
because more required on very productive land
bat Is deemed indispensable 10 the greatest prof
u.s. y and operates to produce more increase o.
fertility, and more agricultural profit than ca,
be exhibited from any purely agricultural iabo
and capital north of Mason and Diron's line
He mentions several circumstances why North
Southern, and adds There are sufhcien
causes why, in general, the culture of land il
the Northern States should be less exhaustin
than in the Southern, tcithom detrdcting an,
thing from the superior advantage pe of III
South enjoy IA the use of Africdn SlaUe labor /"
Again, speaking of the importation from tn
North of lime, hay, &c, he says
But this part of our general burden is iail
ly and properly levied by Northern enterpris
and industry upon Southern lstlessness and il
dolence, Very different however, is the Gas
as to the fur greater proportion of the genera
amount of tribute paid by Southern to Nortl
ern interests, from which we have no deienc
because Government induces and enforces tn
payment, by the Legislative machinery, Of pr'
tecting duties and the indirect bounty system
Again, specializing on the results, had VII
gina and the other Southern States taken cal
of their soil, they would have retained the
population they have lost by emigration, an
doubled their representation in Congress- an
"their greater strength would have afforde
abundant Legislative safeguards against II
plunderings and expressions of tariffs, to pr
tect Northern interests; compromises so eaile
10 HoeH NOrthern potcsr pensions and boun'
Gry iaws for HE same purposes and all Sut
Gds, 10 he injury Of The South, efeeted by u