The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-02-09
The Nebraska Question Southern and
Northern sInyerY-.Ehc onstItutlon.

The Nebraska Question Southern and
Northern sIavery-.Ehc Constitution.
The National Era at Washington, the cen
trail organ Of all the antislavery factions OF the
country, says that "the New YORK HERALD
consistent upon no other subject of policy or
principle, has ever been faithful to the interests
Of slavery Upon this allegation we have a
word or two to say.
The abolition organ nj Washington rests the
whole merits Of the slavery question upon the
fundamental abolition dogma that the heredi-
tary system Of Southern labor is an evil-a mo-
raj, social and political evil-and that it should
therefore be extinguished as soon as possible
This was the dogma Of Gen. Pierce in 1916,
when, before popular convention in New
Hampshire, he declared his opinion that the
slave-holding system of the South was a moral
and social evil. Bat is it an evil? and if it be
what do we gain by the discovery? Is not the
hreling system OF cur Northern labor an eviE
Is not labor itself an evil, inflicted as q curse
upon mankind with the expulsion from Para
disc lost" Are not cold, hunger, and naked
ness restitution, disease, and crime, great moral
and social evils under any government and in
every cline? They are evils inseparable from
the imperiections of human nature-they began
with the beginning OF human history, and will
continue to the end.
But, admitting Southern slavery to be an
evil, we doubt whether it leads to more deplor-
able consequences than our hireling system of
free labor, which in truth may be called the
white slavery system Of the North. in contra
distinction to the black system of the South.
Let US judge Of these two systems by their
fruits. BY their fruits shall ye know thcmn
We have been looking into that prodigious
book Of the census, as put together by Mr. De
Bow, for the statistics of pauperism and crime
in the United States with view of institating
comparison upon these returns between the
Northern and Southern sections Of the Union
But in this voluminous mass Of badly digested
materials which Mr. De Bow has thrown upon
the government, we find nothing at all of the
returns Of crime and pauperism. On turning,
however, to the statistics of Mr.. Kennedy.
as published in the HERALD, Of December I,
1852, we find that the number OF paupers in the
six New England States Of Maine New Hamp-
shire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island Vermont
and Connecticut who in 1850 were subject to
charitable support, was 33.431, while for the
same year, the same class of persons in the six
Southern States of Maryland. Virginia, North
and South Carolina, Georgia. and Alabama
numbered only $500. OF these, the native
paupers Of the New Eogland States numbered
in round numbers 10000, while those of the six
Southern States amounted to but II 900
BEcAPIrUL ALTON.
,Nattce
Popuq,ion psapas.
six New England States... 2,705 SOC l9,o0e
Six Southern states .......,. 5,2l9,iI6 1900
That is TO shy, the six New England States
Boosting the highest elements of Northern per-
fiction, in free schools, free labor free speech
and free men, have an average Of more than
three to one of native born paupers rs COM
pared with Mr.. Kcnnedy's Official returns Of
that class in the six Southern States of Mary
land, Virginia. North and South Carolina,
Georgia and Alabama. We select the native
paupers because the foreign are an extrancous
element, allordng no basis for a just compari-
son. And the same advantage will appear to
the South in the comparative returns of the
idiotic, the deaf and dumb, the blind and the
insane.
Why is this! What are the causes OF these
differences in these melancholy returns Of
wretchedness in favor of the South. They may
tc readily explained. The population of the
South j mainly agricultural Of the New
England States is chiefly occupied in manuflc-
lures. The black slaves OF the South, and the
poorest Of the whites have generally enough to
cat anu dir enough for health and wholesome
ventilation The hired laborers of the North
arc 10 a great extent crowded into close and
unwhciesome factories; and on leaving their
work they return to still more crowded and IN
wholesome cellars and garrets, in towns and
cities, rceking with unwholesome vapors. The
plain but substantial fare and the wholesome
cabins Of the negro quarters ola Southern to-
bacco or cotton plantation, are, in truth, more
favorable to health and longevity than the
houses Of many Of our Northern working men 10
towns and cities. comparatively wall-to do in
the world.
With these vital statistics before ~, we have
only 10 say to all anti.slavcry moralists who
consider the slaveholding system Of the South
a social and moral evil. look at home. Begin
ming with General Pierce and his speech al
New Boston, and going down to the abolition
organ at Washington we call the attention of
all the anti-slavery moralists TO the rela-
tive results Of The involuntary black seryitude
Of the South, and the voluntary white seryitude