The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-12-15

i
number, control the politics of the South and
| of the general government-the Sonth con-
trolling the North at Washington through the
| said eighty thousand Shareholders.
! We have NO doubt that many deIuded
people on the slavery question will read
| over the above statistics, and the estimate
| deduced from them, with sensations Of sur
prise, modification and shame-with sur
prise that the destinies and policy, foreign aud
domestic, of this mighty republic Of twenty
| five millions Of souls, are managed by eighty
| thousand Shareholders; and with sensations Of
modification and shame that the free North
should tamely consent to this most extraordi-
| nary slaveholding despotism. Our credulous
| Northern anti slavery fanatics, shocked at the
social depravities of Southern slavery as they
have ceived them, will be puzz ed to know
how such degrading and demoralizing insti
| tuition can WELD such unlimited power among
q people SO intelligent and free az tue millions
that are required to give shape and direction to
our political affairs.
Let us briefly look into this. If Southern
slavery were the horrible institution depicted
by the abolition journals, and If Southern
Shareholders were the ungodly aristocracy
of semi savsges they are represented
to be, their influence in our national
affairs, would indeed be wonderful and shame
full. But the peculiar institution" Of the
South, though q more fixed and definite form Of
slavery than the servitude Of the North, Is
practically, if the census may be relied upon,
far less deplorable in its results. So. too, if
Southern shareholders constitute an alLpower
fol aristocracy in their section, we have an
aristocracy in the North even more despotic
and powerful. 1t is the same thing in another
form-an aristocracy Of capital. In the South the
capitalists are slaveholders-in the North they
are bankers, fnanciers, manufacturing and other
corporations La the South, the institution OF
slavery and the affairs Of the slavcholding arts
tocracy work reguArly, smoothly, and con-
paratively free from those dreadful fluctuations
between capital and labor which in the North,
are 80 productive of suffering and crime.
As between Southern slavery and Northern
servitude let us take for example a cotton fac
tory at Lowell and Georgia cotton planta-
ton. la the vitiated atmosphere of the fac
tory the operatives work some fourteen hours
pr doy--on the cotton plantation the slaves
labor in the wholesome air Of the open
fields from sun to Gun, with liberal intervals
for rest and refreshment. If the factory opera
tive becomes disqualified for service-alas! too
frequently--no other alternative is left the
poor unfortunate than the almshouse or star
vation. If the plantation slave becomes dis
abled from accident, or from disease, or the in
frmites Of age he has a lien upon his masters
plantation, and is provided for. His health
aud his masters interest 60 together. Sach as
these are among the practical differences be-
tween Northern servitude and Southern slavery.
But the most striking difference is il this-that
the cotton factory shortens the life Of the
operative, while the laborer upon the Southern
plantation not uafrequently survives to the
good old age of . hundred years
Look we at the working, in the aggregate, Of
the Southern as compared with the Northern
sy stem of servitude, and that of the South pre-
sents itself in still more favorable light.
The corporation Of Gotten factory fails n
thousand poor people are instantly thrown ous
Of employment, many with families, and
most Of them with no other means than
their daily labor for their daily bread. Oar
money market is tight-very tigbt-the work
on roads and canals, and in manufacturing and
all business operations is fearfully reduced
Thousands of laboripg people are thus thrown
out OF work, the most prudent among them
having scarcely more than the scanty sixpenny
savings Of the last summer for the winters
subsistence. And this Is not the worst of it
The worst il yet to come. But, even as it il
We venture to say shat there is more positive
suffering, more distress and crime, resulting
from the evils Of destitution alone, among The
poor of this city of New York with its seven
hundred thousand souls, than can be found
among all the three millions and Ave hundred
thousand slaves of the South from all causes
combined.
There is no conflict between the slaveholdiue
aristocraoy Of the South and their laborers
Their interests are Blended, and they work bar.
monionsly together There is continual con-
fiict between capital and labor in the North,
and continual fluctuations in the money mar
ket, resulting from shinplAster mutations or
contractiops, Invariably producing ruiu and
misery to the working classes, from which all
classes In the South--whites and blacks
are comparatively exempt. Our peniteu-
tiaries and jails, asylums and aims
houses, are alled to overaowing-'housapd
of men, women aud children are perish
ing around us for want Of bread, vi lie our mer
chants are exporting it abroad. All these
things are the practical results Of the struggle
between capital and labor between the EN-
ployers and their workmen in the North, inevi-
tably weakening the laborer and Strengthening
the capitalist as his merciless master These
evils of the Northern social system, as between
capital and labor, are rapidly, and, inst nov.
fearfoliy increasing, while Ia the South the re-
latioDs between master and slave secure to the