Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-05-06
From The n O. Delta.
rum 'Ic ~ " 0Sbl1s
TO WHAT FREE LABOR LEADS


In paper read before an institute in the city Of
New York, not long since, by D. D. Deeming, on
the Power Of Cotton, the following statement oc-
ours:
Twenty-Five years ago Patricks dollar would buy
twice the amount Of neeessares that he can get now
What is the cause? Supplies are as ample to-day
as at any former period. The price Of food has
gone up, and the value of white men has gone
In 1881 the ratio of paupers in this State was 128
1881 -" "a" to24
1856 " 1tol7
In twenty-five years the laboring class of New
York has paid for the luxury Of So Freedom" dou-
bic price for food and an increased pauperism of
over one hundred per cent. During all this time,
the Anti-slavery philosophers Of that State have
not ceased to jubilate over the more abundant
wealth and prosperity Of the Northern States com
pared with the relative development of the South.
Very well; but they failed to show that the labor
ing class of the South was put on half allowance
of food aud that as brilliant culmination Of our
prosperity one in seventeen of them was thrown
upon public charity as a pauper. They failed to
show that the labor of the South could ever suffer
restitution, while the capital which owned and en-
ployed it could command subsistence. Lastly they
failed to show that Free Labor may not starve while
capital is swimming in boundless plenty and luxury,
and that the coexistence of the greatest aggregate
prosperity and the EXTREMIST destitutiOn among the
Iaboring class, is impossible condition in free
State.
Different results flow, necessarily from different
principles. The principle Of - Freedom (such as
we find il in England and the NOrth) has a necessary
tendency to monopoly on the one hand, and to des-
itutiOn the other; whereas the principle of Sla-
very as it operates III the South leads essentially
to security Of life and subsistence and to an eouita-
bic diffusion Of comforts among the laboring class
The slavehOlder owns his labor and therefore must
to promate his own interest feed and cIothe it. and
improve its skill and efficiency by securing the high
est individual development Of the aborer. But the
non-saveholding capitalist does not own his labor
though it is to his interest to absorb all Of its profits
The more abundant labor is, and the more produc-
tive it is the less Of its fruits is enjoyed by the la
borer; and If he should happen to form part of a
surpsage of labor then he is an industrial ovpher
on the negative side of the unit he counts less than
nothing-that is, he must starye He is q dead
weight; let him be Topped of it will not pay capt.
talany longer t. keep the life in him. He has en-
ioyed " Freedom: voted for it, perhaps; perchanee
fought for it; pursued it with a single devotion
idOlized it; now let him be MARTYR for II
In Ireland, few years ago, over half a million of
victims performed the duty of martyrdom for .,Free-
dom, " by perishing on the public highways In
England, the yotaries performed the Office less OBJ
trusiyely, but the sacrifice in the aggregate was pro-
baby as large. In New York City we are told that
over thirty thousand unfortunate sewing women
pendulate between starvation and shame And vet
we can hear no end to the story Of the diabolical
villanies Of Slavery, and the tender mercies and
divine beauties of 90 Freedom
Such some of the inevitable results Of the in
dustriaI chaos called Freedom to establish the
supremacy Of which fanatics and pretended philan-
thropists would destroy the SAFE orderly and bene
cent labor system of tho South. 1t is poor recon-
mendation of physcians prescription, that it has
already poisoned his own family.