Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-09-05
From the New York Tribune.
THE PATENT OFFICE AND SLAVERY.

A glance at the contents of the last Patent or
fee Report will reveal some useful and interesting
facts. In the Free States, only one patent has
been taken ont by a native Of Minnesota, which
may be placed against 627 patents taken out by
natives Of New York. The next lowest number
taken out by a single Free State ID that OF Iowa,
s and the next highest that of Massachusetts
$40. Pennsylvania shows 2G6, Ohio lI0, Illinois
SO, Maine 90, Vermont Al, Michigan q, Califor
MIA IL. OF the Slave States, Arkansas |, and
Florida l, are the lowest upon the list. Texas
follows with s, North Carolina with I, South Car
Dina with 9, Alabama with IL, Kentucky with 20,
Louisiana with "a. OF Slave States Gnd Terrific
ries, Virginia takes the lead, with 10 inventions.
folio wed by Maryland with A, and the District of
Columbia with AZ. A striking fact is, that while
the Free States have taken out l,9S2 PATENTS the
Slave States show but 29l issued to them. The
number of patents issued to Europeans was 90
OF the classes of patents issued, the Slave States
show only 2 instances Of inventions in wearing
appeared, against l3 in the Free States only q
in medicine and surgery, against 10 in the Free
States only ID in firearms, against Is in the Free
States only 7 in the arts. printing. &c, against
III in the Free States only 3 in grinding mills,
against 80 in the Free States ; only 81 in agricul-
ture against 68 from New York alone, 80 from
Pennsylvania alone. and 237 from all the Free
States together. But it is unnecessary to 60 fur
tier with the statistics. The relative portion IN
all the classes the same.
LII ID lmDOSSlUle 10 dCCUuHb U HiHy Vi lbSeC
signal differences upon any other ground than that
Of the two systems of labor at the North and the
South, and their influence upon intellectual activi-
ty. 1t may be said that the South is not devoted
to manufactures, and thus lacks stimulus to man
featuring improvements. That is very true, in \
certain sense but it strikes US as rather circular
reasoning. With an almost entire monopoly Of
the great manufacturing staple, why is not the
South engaged in manufactures? And, if dispoS-
ed to enter upon such enterprises, Of which dispo'
sition there is here and there an indication, espec-
tally in Georgia. it seems to US that the absence
of intelligent labor ought to excite the ingenuity
Of Southern inventors. If our manufacturers ct
the North, with the brightest and best paid labor
ers in the world, have been obliged to resort to ma
chinery, how much more necessary must nachin-
cry be to the South which has the worst paid and
stupidest laborers in the world ! Then in sgricul'
ture the South is certainly quite as directly ard
decidedly interested as the North, and yet 1t con-
tributes hardly anything to improvements in that
science, and even exhibits q great reluctance to
employ them when made by others. There are
hundreds of plantations which have gone to ruin
for want of machines which no Northern farmer
would be without, and on which the mode of culti-
walton is almost as primitive as it is in the Basque
provinces. There is the same light grabbing with
old fashioned hoes, and the same skimming Of the
surface with old-fashioned plows. And yet the
more thoroughly and efhcaciously the Southern
farmer can make steel take the place of human
sipews. the better for him. lie has indeed ten
times greater need of these substitutes than the
Northern agriculturalist. Why are they not en-
~ployed?
The answer to this question can only be found
we apprehend, in that system Of labor which de.
stroys all habits of exertion and self-reliance, and
which disquali6es the employer as well o. the EN-
ployed for muscular and continuous sxertion. L;
is not the habit of the stakeholder to create. He
has taken "A position falsely and blindly conberya'
tive, and from that he will not bulge one inch
All centuries are alike to him, and the nineteenth
is no better than the twelfth. No wonder he makes
such a poor figure in the Patent Office.