The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-12-26
NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER &c. 1855:

slavery would only complicate us in the gene
raj wrong, and make us responsible for our
share of its annual deaths. But fortunately for
our character as a nation, and more fortunate
ly still for the cause Of humanity, our mortali-
ty returns show that, for instance, in the GEN.
trail slave States Of Georgia, Alabama and Flo
rida--certainly fair examples both in regard to
the institution ITSELF and soils, climates, pro.
auctions and exposures-there are fewer deaths
even, in proportion to population, than in the
strictly healthy agricultural districts of the
North, East and West. Now, we infer that good
treatment kindness, abundant food, genial CO.
vernment, large social liberties and enjoyments,
religious freedom and independence, do not
increase the sum total of mortality. They pro-
long life {; and we point to their fruits in the
slave States of the Union, compared with any
other population on the globe, as triumphant
practical vindication, if not Of the institution
itself, at least of the humane spirit in which it
is administered. To illustrate this by COMPARE
son, are there not more men, women and child
rem in this city to-day suffering from hunger,
cold and neglect than in the whole slave States
combined? 1t is from such sources, here and
in Europe, that we must look for an increase
Of mortality.
It is not, then, in soils, climates and occupa-
tons that we are to find the sources Of disease
and death-it is not to the want of medical
skill-it is not rightly considered, because
population is crowding on production-it is
not to defective physical organization-it is
not to epidemics-it is to ignorance, to de-
pressed moral and intellectual conditions and
attributes, to religious fanaticism and intole-
rance, to political dependence and subsection.
These causes operate in modified form in Eng
land and France, more severely in Prussia and
Austria, and most of oil in Russia and they
bear their fruits of death just about in the
proportions assigned to each of these govern
ments of civilization and political equality.
Again, adding the United States, they will
serve greatly to fortify the general conclusion
to which we have arrived in surveying these
mortality statistics, viz: that death is caused,
to frightful extent, by the political institu-
tions of the Old World.
Making all due allowance for an increase Of
population in the five European nations refer
red to-much of it resulting from arbitrary an
nexations without, in fact, affecting numbers
it is not too much to claim that their excess of
mortality over that of the federal Union, within
the period of its constitutional existence, has
been seventy millions of men. 1t is something
more than folly, in this view Of the condition of
the human family, to concentrate the eye of the
philanthropist and the philosopher upon the
operations of armies, and upon the theoretical
dependence and hardships of any portion of
the American people. BY the whole theory Of
civil government, the first object is the preser-
walton of human life. 1t is for this that our
criminal codes were established; for this soci-
ETY. has surrounded the citizen with panoply
Of guards; but it is evident that, practically,
it was only intended to prevent individual kill
ing, giving governments and aristocracies the
unrestricted power Of universal slaughter.