Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-04-01

The Philosophy of the Expression
nirrcPresstbIe CondtCt''--AIoral and
EhyStcn4 A gencles In Civilization
A Readable Article from n COnser.
vatlVc journal.
From the N. Y world.l
1t is probh BILE that before the wear 1000
of the Christian era, human slavery will
have become extinct Weiare already able
to perceive the eradicating agencies, not
IN distant and dim perspective, but in pres
ent aud active energy. 1t is probable that
the political events now transpring are
instruments in the hands of Providence
for accelerating Incorporation
We do not suppose that slavery will be
ever extingnished on this continent by the
mere unaided force of public opinion, al
though we recognize in this one of the
! Chief agents for its overthrow There is
an ever suhssting harmony between the
moral aud the physical world, in virtue of
which the Progress of moral conviction is
accompanied 10y corresponding progress
in the dominion Of man over nature, that
! facilitates the performance of the new du-
ties laid on him by his clearer perception
of moral truths. The growing repugnancc
| to slavery exhibited during the last seven
ty-hve years has kept equal steps with the
gigantic strides madein the same period in
the application of science to industry
Watt was the foreruuuer of WilberforCe
and when the former had perfected that
marvellous machine for abridging hu-
man Iabor-the ''steam cngine-the lat
ter began, in the British Parliament,
his famous agitation against the slave
trade. BY the invention of the steam Gu
gine, and the mnItitudinous and scarcely
less wonderful machinery Which it nra-
pels, human muscles and all sorts of brute
force are rendered. less important to the
worlds industry in the precise ratio in
which labor is done or abridged by TIE
new inventions. When the same work is
alike capable of being performed by steam
engines or horses, property iu engines will
be preferred to property in horses, for the
simple reason that it costs less to feed
them. So, whenever the same work which
is done by slaves can be done bv mNChiu-
cry, superintended by intelligent frcemen,
the free labor and the machines will be
preferred from the same motives of econO-
my. The economic tendencies, therefore,
Ofthc age in which the anti.slavery senti-
mcnt has been so powerfully developed are
rs hostile TO the perpetuity of slavery as is
the growing conviction of its wrOngfuluess
and injustic..
The gathering force of anti-slavery
opinion is one of tue most remarkable
facts in the moral history of the last three
fourths of a century. Commencing with
the cOIdly received labors of CIarksou and
Wilberforce in opposition to the African
slave trade, this great moral movement has
constantly gained new momentum, until it
has become seemingly irresistible. 1t has
bound all the maritime nations in Chris
tendon, by solemn treaty stipulatious, to
aid in blOtting from the seas II traffic in
which they all participated, in the last
century, under the venerable sanction of
the law of nations. 1t has, mt :. large pc
cuninry sacrifice, and to the destruction of
cherished interests, emancipated all the
slaves in the French aud British West In
dia Islands. 1t has also, with the happiest
results, abolished slavery in the Northern
States of the American Union. 1t has
even invaded the semi-barbarOus1 MuSco-
vite empire, and the decree has already
| been issued by the Autocrat of Russia for
tue emancipation of the serf$. This late
| ly developed horror OF slavery, after the
world had tolerated it for ages, is deepcr-
ed by every event by which attention is
conspicuously called to the subject, and it
will probable Le as enduring as the moral
nature Of man. The feeling of insecurity
which has taken / Ossessiou of the South
cru mind, but which is not justified by any
immediate danger, is tribute to the
mighty force OF that public opinion against
which Shareholders are vainly attempting
to erect barriers.
The ultimate downfall of slavery in the
Southern States will be the consequence
partly of moral and partly of political and
economical causes The entire circle of
causes can already be traced. The moral
convictions of the northern people, in tardy
sympathy with those of civilized Europe,
have embodied themselves in political ac-
ton, by which the spread of slavery beyond
its present limits in the United States is
hereafter rendered impossible. Ina sta
tistical article, which we published yes
terday, it was shown that Al migratory
movement is in progress from the old to
the new slave States; resulting, no doubt,
from the fact that slave labor is more re-
munerative on new soils whose fertility
has not been exhausted by sIOvenly slave
culture. Itwas shown, for example, TINT,
although the natural increase of the slave
RE884DHtletion E884D ion has been twsntY:thgse peE e4ats 4as
only about four per cent. more slaves now
than in 1850; nineteen per cent or 73, ,l40
slaves, having emigrated, with their mas
ters, from the State within the ten
years It may, perhaps, he said that II
parallel TO this is found in the older
Northern States, whose population in
creases with Comparative sloWness, in
consequence of the emigration of free
laborers to the new States of the west
But the analogy will soon end. As the
west fills up with inhabitants, and laud
becomes dear, the Produetivencss of the
! older free States will be enhanced and
their power ofFspppOrting additional pop
.ulatiou increased by improved and more
scientific methods of ofagriculture. Butthis