Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-09-30
From the Washington Republic.]
Slavery and Emigration.


really think that it would be very unfair t.
t, prohibit them from emigrating, with thei
= slaves to any of the Territories belonging t.
/ the United States in common. To those
/ who regard Negro Slavery as right in the alb
stract, and an institution that ought to be per
: petuated this is very natural view of the sub
i ject They say that the citizen of free State
4 has the right to emf CRATE to the Territories
: and take with him whatever property he may
= hold in his own State under the laws thereof
l and that there can be no equality of rights be-
e tween the citizens of the several States, unless
! the citizens of the Slave States are permitted
to do the same.
!, Leaving wholly out of view the obvious an
J swer to this argument, namely, that the right
Of property in human beings can only exist by
virtue of positive local law, in violation of nat
r ural rights, while all other kinds of property,
recognized as such by the laws of any of the
States, are subjects of property according to
the universally admitted principles of natural
: law and natural right, We propose to examine,
briefly, whether the exclusion of Slavery from
the Territories operates any more iniuriously
upon the Shareholders of the South. than its
| establishment does not only on the entire pop
) ulatlon OF the North, but upon the most nu-
merous class of citizens, even in the slave
} States themselves.
Property does not consist merely in tangible
things. cattle, machines, implements, &c
Skill in the useful arts, professional learning
literature, science, &c, are all property to their
possessors, and in the use of which they have
just as clear natural right as the possessor Jf
houses and lands, cattle, or machinery. have IN
such tangible things, The most valuable prop
erty which the emigrants fros, the free States
have to take with them to new countries is
property Of this intangible character. Nine
tenths of the eniigIt,rts tron, the free States
take with them starrely any other capital save
their capacity for labor, their skill, science
learning, and energy. These cannot be profit
ably employed to any great extent, where do
fnestic Slavery exists. A limited number may
find profitable employment in the learned pro-
fessions, and such branches of art as are above
the capacity of the negro slave, but SO far as
the great mass of laboring men are concerned,
the occupation of the ground by negro slaves
is a positive exclusion of them from any State
or Territory. To say nothing ofthe social deg
radiation to which laboring men, and non-slave-
holders generally, are subjected in slave States,
it is utterly impossible that any large number
| of free laborers can find employment, at re-
muneratiyc rates, where Slavery prevails to the
| extent it does in some of our Southern States.
To establish Slavery in Territories, there
fore, is to exclude the free laborers of the
North from emigrating to them, just as effec-
tually as to prohibit it excludes the slayehod-
ers of the South. The stakeholder may 90 to
! free State if he pcases, but he cannot take his
! q, NJ oP
| services. So the free aborer may emigrate to
| a slave State but he cannot take his industry,
his mechanical skill, his inventive genius. &c,
with him, and enjoy their legitimate fruits
| In fact the STAKEHOLDER who enligrates to free
| State or Territory, docs not sacrifice half so
much as the free aborer who emgrates to
slave State or Territory. We might enforce
| this proposition by many arguments and illus
trations, but we shall content ourselves for the
present with showing, from statistics. that in
actual practice Slavery has proved much
more powerful repellant to immigration from
the free States, than free institutions have to
immigration from the slave States
| The natural tendency of immigration, unless
diverted by extraordinary causes, is from the
| North towards the SOuth--lrom colder to
warmer cimates-from denscly to more sparse |
| ly populated regions-from gh-pr;ced lands
| to low priced.
| All of these conditions exist in favor of i'm |
migration from the free to the slave States
OF the old States, which have furnished the |
| great bulk of emigrants. the Northern have |
always been much more densely populated |
than the Southern; while the latter have an
immense advantage in area of territory, as
well in the natural productiveness of soil, |
and the cheapnesS Of lands
| According to the well known natural, laws of
immigration, therefore, should expect to
| find many more natives of the free States re- |
siding in the slave States, than natives of the !
latter residing in the former. But authentic |
statistics show Just the reverse Of this to be !
| true.
We find from the census returns of 1850, |
that the number of natives of slave States |
then living in the free States, was 606,24S, |
while the natives of free States living in the |
slave States numbered only 2O6,5l4. Thus it
will be seen, that yearly three times as many
persons have emigrated fromsthe slave States
to the free as from the free to the slave States
and this in defiance of natural TENDENCIES to
a directly contrary result What disturbing
cause but Slavery has thus diverted emigration
| from It's obviously natural course
In the face of these figures it is idle to argue
that the exclusion of Slavery from the Terri
tories is more injurious to the people of the
slave States, tliun its establishment is to the
people of the free States. The facts refttte the
argument. Where one STAKEHOLDER would be
deferred from emigratng to free territory, be.
| cause he could not there make Use of his eapi=
tai. consisting of negroes, many free laborers
would be deferred from emgrating TO slave
territory for precisely the same reason-that
! is 20 say, because they could not make tfse Of
their capital, consisting of their industry, their
SKILL and their ingenuity. It matters very
little to the owner of property desiring toeTni-
CRATE to particulsr country, whether there
are positive laws there prohibiting him from
holding his property, or institutions rendering
it comparatively valueless.
While numerous natural causes have COM
bined to invite the people of the North to seek
the warmer cimes and cheap and fertile lands
of the South, they have been deferred by a
Gorgonean monster that has guarded her por-
tails, threatening them with poverty, oppres-
sion, and social degradation, if venturing with
in the limits of his domain. On the other
hand, the same fearful monster has actually
driven from the slave States, where they had
plenty Of room, and plenty of good and cheap
lands vast hordes of their population, to seek
homes in opposition to the natural laws of en-
igration in more northern ATTITUDES.
The emigrating classes in the slave States
themselves are mostly non-savehoIders. The
facts prove that they desire to emigrate to free
territory, and do emigrate to it, as fast they
can command the necessary means to do Sc