Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1854-02-17

A. gr,r-. IL il, the gen,rul L"licf that ia the
great %cottou, sugar and rice districts, Slave
ry will aud should be rcrpotu,t"i. and want
or intellect and ambition are rightly consi-
dcred necessary t. Slavery. Asto instruction,
it Is well known thnt in the majority Of the
States 1t is forbidden by law to teach slaves
TO read and write, stiil il ls done occasionally,
and At n rough gucss probably one in five Of
tho household servants and one in n hundred
OF the field hands can read haltingly.
50 much for the Slaves themselves.
The condition of the non-slaveholding pors
ton Of the population Of the South US given
by "lEoNtS,' is remarkable.
They number, as estimated by a Southern
writer flee serenth, of the whole white popu-
lation Of the South, and Of course have the
political power to control the destiny Of the
slave states. They are n class, however, OF
whom comparatively little information has
been given by travellers, and whose condition
and character the Southern advocates Of
Slavery are wont to ignore. They are,
according to Yeoman as a class, "unapabitious,
incident, degraded, and Miterate," a sort Of
dead peasantry. Their moral standing is low,
many who have never been married living
together as man and wife. Their habitations
are miserable, and their poverty is hopeless,
for they will not work, except barely enough
to get a living, on account Of the degradation
of all labor which is one Of the effects of
Slavery, Their mode Of life is much the
same throughout the South. Some are mere
s~guditer, on the land Of others, some own a
few acres Of unproductive land, and some oc-
cupy wild land, with the owners permission,
on'condition that they clear and improve it.
They dwell in cabins of logs and barely
raise corn and potatoes enough to furnish
them food together with the game they shoot,
We give the conclusion of Yeoman's letter on
this subject in his own words.
-" think / have had as good means O
knowing, and of painfully approaching tn,
evils which arise from excessive competition
to the laborers of the North, as any man
and | cannot hesitate in affirming that there
is no class in the Free States, with the ex
ception Of recent emigrants and victims Of in
temperance, whose condition is not far better
than that of the Notwithstanding population
, of the South. | do not forget the occasional
distress of factory hands and mechanics
crowded in large towns. | have been in
formed Of similar distress reaching to al
equally painful point in manufacturing town
oil the south. The only apology that | cal
find for the assumption constantly made b.
almost all Southern gentlemen and by Mrs
!, TYLER, that evils similar to those arising froI
over-competition are never found in Slav
countries, is the fact of the very slight &C
quaintance they usually have with the yaga
bonds that surround them | have hardl
visited II single planter, however, who did nc
complain of the annoyance which the vagran
and dishonest habits of some of his poe
neighbors gave him.
Inc unfortunate condition and character
= these people, SO far as they differ from thos
of the laboring class Of the North, is main
d the direct effect Of Sldrery, and their materia
moral and intellectual elevation will be con
mensurate with that Of the negroes"
1t is incredible that Northern men can |
{ found who are willing to originate and carl
> out u scheme for extending over the bros
and fertile plains Of territory at present FIRE
y an institution like this whoseblight is upC
all who breath the air it contaminates
which degrades alike the slave, his VINE
:, and the free man too poor to own and t
white to be owned. But the Nebraska fra,
owes its origin to a Northern Senator, it
pressed with all the influence Of a Northe
=, President, and if finally perpetrated--as pr
% phets from all quarters predict it must be
. the deed will be done by aid Of Northe
9 votes. The doughfaces who do it howev
will find it perhaps not quite so simple
+ matter to wipe out the mark which such dir
work must leave upon their names, or to ave
~ the detestation of all who regard the faith
h. compacts, or care for the cause Of hum
- freedom.