Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-07-28
THE DEMAND FOR LABOR.

1t was not for the old world that African
Slavery was invented 1t was the opening up
of the new world creating a new and sudden
demand for laborers, that renders the African
valuable as slave. We may hence regard slave
ry, in its present aspect, as the result of the
discovery of America. 1t was a species of
labor that offered to the English colonsts
by Dutch traders to supply the new demand
occasioned by an unlimited amount of untitled
land. 1t was natural therefore, that this kind
of labor should increase as long as the land
remained unexhausted; but the moment that
the supply of new land became limited, that
moment would the demand for labor become
less active.
Previous to the annexation of Texas We had
exhausted nearly all the land in which there
could exist any preteXt for the continuance of
slave-labor; and more land was wanted in or
der to meet the supply of labor on hand. The
slaves had increased so rapidly in the slave
breeding states that new markets were needed
in order to keep up their price In other wo rds
the supply of African labor was becoming great
er than the demand The annexation Of Texas
region of country equal in size nearly to the
Empire of France, regulated the matter of
supply and dem md for some time. 1t confirm
ed the e-breeding states, while it gave new
accession of slave-power by the addition of
slave territory,
But as the extension of slave territory is to
cease with the annexation of Texas it cannot
fail to be perceived that the demand for slave
labor must soon begin to diminish. OF our
arabic public domain there is but very little
left unoccupied so that even our free labor
is beginning TO experience a limited call for
employment. We learn from the papers that
seventy thousand men offered themselves during
the last year at our recruiting depots for adj
mission into the army, fact which shows that
free labor is not in ready demand, since service
in the army is generally the last employment
which men are disposed to seek. But can it
be supposed that free men who are voters will
allow the African to have employment while
they themselves are going without it? These
seventy thousand idle men were almost all re-
jected; for they were four Or five times as nu-
merous as the whole army itself; but what arc
they to doP VIII they consent to remain in
idleness, without bread for themselves and little
ones, while the slave is living upon the fat Of
the land
We are always assured by our Southern
brethren that the slave is much better off thar
the free laborer of the North that all his want,
are carefully and beautifully supplied, Will,
the labor that is expected from him is not heavy
But the question is how can they claim sucl
superior privileges for the slave, while the FIRE,
man is suffering from the want of employment
And not content with this pride fostering OK
clusveness, they come in their aristocratc dis
dain, 10 call the free laborer "the mud sill o
society"
The policy of the South in keeping up sys
ten of slave labor cuts in two ways, like tw'
edged sword, upon the interests of free institu
tons. 1t forces low tariff upon us, by whicl
our free laborers are shut out, to great extent
from manufacturing labor, and it virtually ex
cludes them from more than half of our ma
tional territory this side of the desert. For i