Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1859-03-02

time you bring reduction upon everything else
and it reaches in its depressing effects and
sympathies the wages of the laboc of the non
slaveholding inhabitants, thereby involving in
the runous result all interests aud oil classes.
The times of distress are when prices are low
when negroes bring about halRprice, and land
and every other species of property is low III a
corresponding degree. 1t is then that all clas-
ses suffer, except those whose hSsiness Aourishes
upon the misfortunes of the people. When was
this discovery made, that low prices and cheap
labor were the harbingers of prosperity? Even
in the North, where labor is free, it is anything
else but an evidence of the prosperity of the
country, that the wages of labor are low. And
yet, that condition of cheap labor and low
wages, which is the result Of fhe dsproportlon
of labor and capital, owing to the great density
of their population, is actually presented as
proof Of prosperity by the advocates of the
African Slave Trade. In the report of the
Committee, which was read tb. the last South
ern Convention, allusion is made to this subject
in the following words: $50 also is labor
necessary to the value Of rested interests. In
respect of such interests the South has been
singularly unfortunate. At the North, men
step to opulence. The foreisns nspopulat;on pour
cd upon that section has given progress to
every line of business, and value to every arLi-
Gle of property. Lands bought one year, arc
worth twice as much the nexh and the people
there-as values are such around them-hnve
the comforts of wealth, and the further satisfac-
ton of being regarded as tie most enterprsing
and iudicous in existence. EsNot so wih aus.
Here there has been no wave of foreign power
to raise the value of our restd interests. On
the contrary, the wave Of labor is continually
gliding from us, and though our laLor has been
productive our products abundant, there are
many of US, in the older sections, who would
fail to sell estates to-day for as much as we paid
for them in market fifty years ago. This state
of things would be altered by: the foreign Slave
Trade. That would give population, and popu-
lation alone would necessarilS advance the val
ue of vested interests. For between population
and the price of real interests at least, there is
an intimate and necessary cpnnexion. In the
Southern States, where there are bnt twelve
persons to the square mile the average value is
about six dollars to the acre.l In the Northern
States, where there are one! hundred to the
square mile, the average value is about fifty
dollars to the acre. In England, where there
are three hundred and thirty-three to the square
mile, the value is about one hundred and seven
ty dollars per acre." &c. And SO it is that an
increase in population gives necessary increase
in the value of real property;l and so it is also
cessary increase in the value Of every other mat
ter that becomes the subject Of comman want"
THIS picture presents ina strong light the
advantages of a dense population, and cheap
labor. This condition OF things arises from the
vast disproportion between the vested interests
or the real estate, and the population AMI labor
Now it is to be observed, that the advantages
here spoken Of are on tue side Of the capitalist
tho propretors of the vested interest-and
not on the side Of the wave of population, and
the class of laborers who have contributed so
much to the prosperity of the other class. The
proportion of one hundred people to the square
mile, would give to each, not quite slx-and half
acres of land, if equally divided. The land,
therefore, belongs to small class OF the popula-
ton, and these great advantages arc all on their
side. And rs the country grows older and
denscr in population, that disproportion between
these classes becomes greater, as it is in Eng
land, where there are three hundred and thirty.
three people to the square mile, not two acres
to the individual. And labor is still cheaper,
and the value of vested interests greater. This
is prosperity to the small class of proprietors OF
the vested interests, but death to the masses Of
the people. Fifty dollars m acre, and the price
doubling every year, as this report intimate, or
one hundred and seventy dollars an acre. may
be OIL advantage to the fortunate capitalists, but
it is death to the other class. And cheap wages
for the labor Of that class whose toll and sweat
extracts its fruits from the SOIL may benefit the
landlord, but it grinds the tenant. This condl-
ton of things may enable tue capitalists to step
TO opuLence, but it makes the landleSs population
step in the other direction. 1t keeps them all
the time stepping lower and lower, as their
wages decrease, and they realize to their sorrow
the truth of the other faithful observation Of
the writer of this Report, that an increase in
the value of real property" also "that an in
crease of competitors will give necessary
increase in the raluc of erery other mailer that
becomes The subject of common ,aCant." This is
profoundly true OF all the necessary means Of
subsistence-food, raiment and shelter from the
pitiess storm. An increase Of competitors, in
creases the price of all these, at the same time
the same cause reduces the wages of labor.
The verifcation of this saying may be had in
the crowded countries of Europe; and q full
exemplifcation of the benefits and prosperity
of this state of things may be seen there. The
owners of vested interests steps to opulence,
and the people-the masses OF the population
are reaping the bitter fruits of cheap labor, and
abundant labor, and high value of real estates,
and the increasing value Of every other mat
ter, which is tue subject Of Common want"
10 them, policy which ojjercdto enhance that
state Of things, would be regarded In tho light
Of famine and pestilence' II might be addressed
with more favor tU the class which enjoyed the
possession of opulence and Vested interests, pro-
vidcd the governments Under which they liFed
were strong enough to protectth landholdeEs
against agrarianism. 1t is precisely this stats
OF things which causes the wave OF foreign pop
ulation, which according to the notion Of this
Report, has added such blessings to the North,
to flow to this country. That wave is now
making its escape from an increase of population
and cheapness of labor. They are flying from
the starvation which these causes have brought
upon them. And the same causes are having
their effect, to limited degree, in the denser
portions of the North. The population is flow
ing into the Northwest, and when all that coun-
try which now furnishes a refuge for their sur
plus population shall become filled up and shall
itself realize the benefits Of high priced lands
and cheap labor, they will contribute wave,
which will turn Southward and bring upon US
the same state of things.
The author Of this report might have gone q
step farther with his argument;:he might have
said that this prosperous condition of things, as
he is pleased to consider it at the North, is in
compatible with the existence Of Slavery. These
very causes of dense populationand cheap labor
abolished slavery there. 1t rendered it more
profitable to hire free laborers than maintain
Slaves. And when that felicititous type of So
ciety which he presents for our admiration,
shall exist in the South, he will find thut slave
ry will cease to exist. That more scrvile sys-