Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1857-03-28
sPcEcE OF B. GRA4z BaowS Is TuE Missouri Leo.

= SPEECH OF l5sSfRAtE BROWN III TUE t1iSSOuRI1EG'
1sLATGRE.-We have received, inpamphles form,
copy ofthe above named speech. Nr. Brownis
the editor Of the st. Louis Dc,aocrat and one of
the ablest writer's in tho country. He is now
taking leading position in Missouri politics,
aud, although but yet a young man, has eyince1
asagaCity and philosophical craftsmanship,
which rank him among the foremost we trust
ere leng to see him filling high positionin the
Federal Councils. This speech WIS called forth
by the resolution against emancipation introdu.
ce3into the Legislature. Upon this question,
Mr.. Brown has ayowed himself, and party, the
friends and advocates Of emancipation, and Of
free laboTas against slave labor. he has shown,
beyond question, that free State more pros.
porous in all the elements of wealth than slave
State; TINT free labor shuas slave labor; and he
has also shown that the lands in tho more north
en- slave States, together with the general prop-
serty, would soon double and treble in value were
emancipation to take place. Mr.. Browns views
are, substantially, those of Henry Clay's. Al,
though pointed and directed, as they are, to inn
mediate results in Missouri, they take more
practical .ond elaborate form. The following
passage in the speech, Interference to our oWn
State, VIII not be without interest:
In respect to culture, by the hands Of slaves,
we have seen enough, in other and older States,
TO teach us lesson that should not be disregar-
died.. As one instance, i may refer you to Vir-
gtnia-the first born Of. the wilderness where
her once rich and teemiug moulds arc now eX-
hansted by the slothfnl and negligent cultiva-
ton that has there predominated. Year after
year It has been going on-plOWing in the same
furroW-unst the flint of the earth has exposed
its baroness, and plantations have been aban-
doned and become forests. That all this is but
the result Of injurious dllagc, has since been
made manifest in a singular degree. Lands,
which was given up by the Shareholder as too
poor TO produce the necessary food to sustain
its laborers under slave culture, have since been
4 to very great extent, taken up by FREQ white
laboring men from the Northern States, and nu-
tured ag0ln into luxuriant productivenesS.-
Those men have come into the State and re-
deemed tho refuse farms, worn out by slave la.
Dor, and the result is smiling landcape where
before was deserted cabin The slavery sys-
TEN there is now in the hands ofimmense proprie-
tors, who lay claim only to the past. The future
OF the Old dominion rests with the free white
agriculturNlists, who are yearly restoring value
to her broad lands. Again the effect of this in
stltution may be seen in its influence upon the
culture and prOpTietOrship of the soil Of Kentuc-
Ky. The earlier days Of my life were passed
there, and / have, therefore, personal know
ledge touching its operation. 1t is true that
slave labor. has n0tias yet been able to exhaust
the miraculous fertility Of limestone country,
but the other and customary attendants upon
the slave system have not been wanting there
n generation or two has sufficed to concentrate
vast tracts in the hands of single owners, while
the small farmers, the men too poor to purchase
moor, and too proud to work beside the slave
have boon forced TO burden their estates to
thatch them over with mortgages for temporary
relief; and, finally, to abandon their Inheritance
and seek new homes in new territories. / could
nj SVfHBcf RT0fk
nages where ten years ago, the population was
double what 1t now is; where the country
round was dotted with frequent farms, where
beautiful gardens and .shayen lawns spoke to
the eye, but where now all7is held in the hands
of one or two proprietors and farmed by over
secFs and slaves. Such has been the effect Of
that system upon the landed interests of that
State, and such 1belieYe its necessary effect
everywhere. From the earliest time down to
the present day, such has been the natural con-
sequence Of the institution, and see not why,
iflett unchecked, it would not ultimately be SO
here likewise. From the steppes Of Russia. TO
the plantations of Cuba; 1t has worked out this
social condition-this landed monopoly-and
sec not why this State should prove an reception
to the experience Of all other States.
!. ln perusIng, not long since, and able essay, by
mn admired American author, upon the subject
OF the Decline of the Roman Empire, - was
most iorcIbly struck by the graphic delineation
which he gave the controlling and sinister inilIl-
ence, which this absorption Of the land, in few
hands, exeFted in hdstening the overthrow of
that great nation of antiquity. The name of
that author stands high III Democratic annals,
and cannot but be greeted favorably in this as
scmbty--it was GoRGE BANcRoFT.s II will not
DE too great an Infringement upon time, l trust
4 " 7 quote passage or two from his volume,
Which seem to me remarkably applicable to the
mn mNtter we are considering. He is tracing the
fallen greatness of Rome and saws
when IibeFiuS 5SennnrOniuS CHrncchOS IN
his way to Spain, to serve in the army before
Nnmantia, travelled through Italy, he was led
( 20 observe the tmprovertshment Of the great boz
dy of citizens in the rural districts Instead of
httlo farms, studding the country with their
pleasant aspects and nursing an independent
race, nc beheld nearly al the lands of Italy en-
crossed by large propFietOrs and the pillow was
ln;tl1c hSnds of the slave. In tho carly periods
OF the State, Cincinnatus, nj work in his
1tield, was tho model of patriotism: agriculture
and war had been. tho labor and Office of free.
i men out OF these, tho greater number bad now
been excluded from. empl oyment by the increase
OF slavery, and Its tendency to confer the exclu-
sslSe possession of the soil on the few. The
palaces Of the wealthy lowered In tho landscape
IN solitary GTadcnr the plebians hid themselves
: IN miserable novels. DepriS ed of the dignity
OF tTeeholderS they could not evCn hope for oc.
euPation; forthe Opulent Landowners preferred
rather to mako use of his slaves whom he could. !
mot but maintain, and who constituted his hnj-
~. Excepting the small number Of the immea-
surably= rich, and q feeble and constantly de-
crcastng class Of independent hushandmen,
poverty WAS extreme. The King of Syria had (,
TCvetonced the edlots OF Roman envOys as
though they had been tho commands of henvcn.s
the rulers Of Egypt had exalted the Romans
above the immortal gods and from tho fertile
heids OF WcsteFns Africa, Nasinissa had sSntwo
that tcWas but . Roman oyerscer. Yet great
majority Of the Roman citizens, now that they
had become the COflfIuereYSs of tho VrilrlA wore