Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1857-02-14
fE,,rnet from the St. Loa!. New..l

Extract from the st. Louis Nevs.I
TIE EMANCIPATION QUESTION SOLvED-THE
Issue oR SLAVERY IN M1sSoURI.-It appears by
the recent census of Missouri that while the
white population the State has increasd thirty
eight per cent in the last six years the slaves
hayeincreased only two per cent. IN the same
time. There are 244.340 more white persons
in Missouri now than there were in 1851, while
the addition to the number of slaves since that
year. is only 1923. It is evident that this mum
Der, eighteen hundred and twenty-three DOES
not even represent the natural increase OF the
number of slaves (sS, 1927 Yin the State in 1851 !;
for negroes are proycrbially prolific animals,
under circumstances at all favorable to their
multiplication. Neither is it equal to the mum
her of slaves that have been brought into the
State by the substantial farmers from Kentucky
and Virginia who have settled in Missouri with
in the last half dozen years for several Instances
of companies of such emigrants, with as many
as 100 negroes each, have come under our indi-
viduaI observation during the last year. Ger
tainly not less than three thousand slaves nave
been imported into Missouri from other slave
States during the last six wears, What, then,
is the conclusion irresistably forced upon US by
these nndcniable facts? Simply this-that more
slaves have died in, and have been sent out of
the State altogether, than have been born in, or
brought into the State. Out of all that have
been born in and all that have been brought
into the State, since 1851 only enough have
been retained to give the paltry increase of two
per cent. on 9S,Sa7, in six years.
Here is the key to the true solution of the
emancipation question in Missouri. If these fl
CURES are correct and NE are not aware that
they have been questioncd-slavery has reached
its climax in this State. and is on the wane. II
has reached point beyond which it cannot, or
will not, sustain ITSELF and is, hencetorth, doom
ed to decline. The next census will, no doubt,
show n positive decrease in the number Of sla-
YES Had there been no slaves brought into
Missouri, in the last six years, as is the case
with the slave States Virginia, Delaware, Mary
land and North Carolina, there cannotbe doubt
that a positive decrease in our number OF slaves
would have been reported even in the present
census. The fact is beyond question that the
slaves we have sold to the South and set free,
together with those who have run away aud
been stolen by the Abolitionists, since ls5l, con-
siderably out-number either those born amongst
US, or those brought in the State, and very
nearly equal both together.
This is a serious stubborn fact, and is preg-
nant with considerations which our statesmen
would do well to constantly bear in mind Ii
census of Virginia, or Maryland or Kentucky,
should disclose the fact that the number of
slaves in either of those States had increased
only two per cent in six years, the circumstance
would possess but little significance; it would
only show that the demand for slaves ut the eX-
tremc Sonth, where they are consumed, Ind been
nearly equal to the supply of slaves in Virginia,
Maryland, and Kentucky, where they are pro-
duced. Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky are
old slave. growing States, and if during any pc
Iiod, they should sell more slaves to the South
than they had raised during the same time, the
fact would, by no means, warrant the opinion
that the institution of slavery was cTunbling
in them. Their stock of slaves would still re-
main. But Missouri lisa new State, and is an
importer aswcltas an exporter of slaves. Up
to ten years ago, she imported more than she
exported. Her Hemp and Tobacco lands were
being taken up by Virginians and Kentuckians,
and the slaves required to cultivate them were
not diverted by greater demand and higher
price for them in the Cotton-growing regions OF
the Gulf States. She was filling up rapidly
with Shareholders, and promised to become one
Of the strongest of the more Northern Slave
States. But things are now changed. The in
creaSing demand for Cotton has increased the
price of slaves in the Cotton States, and made
them more valuable there than any where else
throughout the South. So high are the prices
they bring, that Missouri, poorly supplied as
she is with the article, enters the market sell
ler sends her negroes to the South to raise cot
ton, and imports white men to raise her cattle
and grain. The result is that the increase OF
her slave population in the last six years is only
eighteen hundred and twenty-three, while the
increase of her white population for the same
period is 244,34O. And yet, slave labor is not
improbable in Missouri. On the contrary, it
is highly remunerative, as the prosperity of the
Hemp and Tobacco Tasers of the State, who
generally own a larger number of slaves than
other farmers, proves. But it is more profitable
in the extreme Southern States, and hence the
expectation of negroes to the South from Mis-
souri, to an extent which, if it continues, will
sooner or later render Missouri slayeless.