Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1859-02-24

in that direction. TO free him is to infict
the greatest possible injury, for by that you
expose him to the higher cares, duties and
responsibilities pertaining to citizenship, and
for which he never was fitted by nature and
to which he cannot attain by practice. 1t
will not do to say that the negro can per-
form the duties and responsibilities ola free
man in this country He has never been
subjected to the test, and never can be, sur
rounded as he is with the constant example
Of the white man. In Vermont, where ev-
cry free negro is surrounded by 436 busy,
active whites, he cannot do otherwise than
follow the Gnger-board Of life there. In
Massachusetts, every negro has 100 white
prompters to keep him straight. In New
York, every free negro leans upon 81 whites
for support. Pennsylvania employs AZ
whites to pilot one free negro on his way,
and miserable one it is in most cases.
The free negro must be isolated and left to
his own energies before any solution of this
problem can be made. Where this has
attempted, they have always failed
! In slave-holding Maryland, we have l
free negro to whites throughout the State.
If you leave out Baltimore City and 60 to
the counties you will find the proportion of
free negroes to the whites much greater
In my own county (INorcester) we have 1
free negro to 3 whites; in your county
(Qeen Annes) you have free negro to 2
whites; in Kent (the county above you) they
have l free negro to / Z whites. And so [
might 60 on with similar proportions in most
of the counties In 1850 we had $1,000
free negroes in the State, and according to
the last rate of progression and increment
we cannot now have less than 80. 900, and
will probably have 100, 900 in 1860. Ma
ryland is a small State, aud yet by the GEN.
sus Of 1850, her free negro population ex-
ceeded that of New York by over $1,000:
and outnumbered that Of Pennsylvania by
over 81 ,000. The small county Of Caro-
line alone contains more free negroes than
the three States of Maine, Vermont and
New Hampshire combined What con-
trast! What conclusive evidence that free
dom is foreign in their tastes, and slavery
congenial with all their habitudes and ma
tura.
The rc1oticc increase between the whites
and free negroes in most Of the counties is
equally significant. Take the above three
counties for Illustration: During the ten
years between 1910 and 1850, Worcester
increased 90 whites. and $40 free negroes !:
or, while the white increase was only one
half Of one per cent, the free negro increase
was seventeen per cent. the free negro in
crease being thirty y-four times greater than
the white increase in that time. In Queen
Anne's county your white increase was four
teen per cent, your free negro increase was
thirty per cent. during the last census de-
cade-or more than double the white in
crease. In Kent county the whites actual
ly decreased Is in number; the free negroes
increased 641-which is twenty-six per
cent. upon their numbers! Nor are those
counties exceptions in our State; but the a.
bove proportions of free negro increase over
the whites will hold good in most of the
counties. The whites have increased upon
their numbers more than those figures show,
but they have been crowded out of the
State by free negroes, as I shall presently
show.
The City of Baltimore, with all her natu-
raj increase added to her supplies from our
ONu Otdue anu OIlCI CtdtCS, anu Iuc lluuA
of foreign whites, could only increase a dou-
BILE per centage Of whites over the free ne
groes between 1910 and 1850. The City
must now contain over 80, 900 free negroes;
it had "a 625 in 1850. AS walters in ho-
tells, coachmen, bootblacks, BARRIERS, venders
of small wares, and -laborers by the hour or
job, they no doubt render some service but
if the products of agriculture, to which they
contribute little or nothing, were cut off,
then there would be no need of hotels,
coaches and all those means of living to
which they incline. For all other pursuits
derive their vitality from the labor of the
farmer. Besides there are in all our large
cities and towns enough poor and needy
whites to perform the little handy jobs that
free negroes monopolise.
Persons living in our towns and cities
do not fully see the useless character and
hurtful influence of our vast free negro po-
.pulation. Those free negroes congregate
mostly in or around such places, and are
no.0 constant in their zeal to serve the Doc
tor, Lawyer, Merchant, Mechanic and all
other local pursuits-by the hour or job; but
the time will soon come when it will be O.
therwise, and they will keenly feel, if they
do not sink under, the weight of free ne
gro incubus that is gathering around them.
Maryland is almost exclusively an agricul-
tural State; and valuable as her coal6elds and
iron mines may be; highly important as her
manufactures and commerce are to her
wealth yet, it is upon the agricultural in
terests we chiefly rely in the hour of need.
And that state of things which deranges the
basis upon which our material interests are
founded, is equally hurtful to all diverging
and secondary interests; when the basis
gives way the superstructure must fall into