Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1861-02-28
Reasons for Patience.

OF tne - freprtssIDie cOnUlct between Free
dom and Slavery and the result Of the last
year s enumeration indicates Enthusiastically
what the issue OF the struggle will be. The
friends OF Freedom have every reason to rejoice
at the evidence it will give Of the growing pre-
ponderancc of Free labor and Free. State power
In the Union and grounds for assured conf
dence, that ten years more of the conflict be-
tween the social and industrial systems, will
reduce the population of the Slave States to
little more than one-third of the whole even
supposing them to maintain their present foot.
hold and if some two or three of the Border
States should in the meantime be transferred
from the weaker to the stronger side, by eman-
cipation, the result will be that @ the South ="
will be dwaried numerically, to proportions ut
tery inconsistent with the high prctensions she
has heretofore set up.
The population Of the Free States, accordin 2
to the published returns Of the Census, has in
creased during the last ten years in II greater
ratio than during any similar term since 1890
The highest ratio heretofore known was that Of
the census Of 1910, when it was forty per cent.
and two hundredtbs The present enumera-
ton gives ratio of increase of 1875. The
total population Of these States was in 1850,
1853 600; that of 1860 is Is, $50 900, show
ing gain OF b,496,000 in the ten years.
The Southern population, free and slave, in
a n L. :,
a gain 1920, 900. The ratio of increase has
been 20 80 per cent, or l. SO less than the
Free States during the term.
The free population of the South has in
creased at the rate Of 3l.5l9 per cent; but the
slave population has gained at the ratio Of only
N.937. At no time has the slave interest en-
Joyed such uninterrupted prosperity AZ during
the ten years prior to the taking OF this Cen
sus the Southern staples never before bore
such uniformly high prices negroes wera never
worth 50 much wealth was never created 50
rapidly and yet the melancholy truth mani
tests itself that the slave population has in.
creased Mt q less rate than during the compare
lively dull period from 1910 to 1850. This
seems to be II law OF the economy Of Slavery
that the prosperity OF the master is always ac-
companed by tho destruction of the slave. 1t
is illustrated in the whole history Of the sys-
tenn in this country, rs far back as the Census
reports extend. In free Countries it is a well
recognized law OF political economy, that the
eras Of prosperity are those in which popua-
ton increases, while the eras Of lstagnation in
business, and the years Of short crops, are |
those IN which population makes little progress
In our Southern States the reverse Is true, as il
regards the slaves. Leaving out of view the
period prior to 1910, when the Slave trade
with Africa existed, and we find in the returns
Of each Census the cleatest evidence that the
Of the master and of the slave are
Thus, from 1910 to 1920, and |
from 1920 to 1880, dull periods, in which low !
prices were paid FOR Southern staples, the ra-
tics OF increase Of the slaves were respectively
2909 and 1902; while from 1920 to 1910, |
when the price of cotton rose so high as to set
doubled ia value by the enhanced demand for
their labor, their increase was only 1881 per
cent. From 1910 to 1850, when prices were
lower, and when the temptation to over work I
the slaves was less, the rate of their increase
was again augmented to 2S.Sl per cent. But
we dismiss this view Of Che subject for the
present, which is aside from tho point we set
out 10 establish.
The respective rates of increase of the two |
sections during the last ten years, If applied to
the next, would give Tor the Free States popu.
lation Of 26, G9l 900 and to the South pop
ulation of l6,4j3,00O, Of which five millions
would be slaves. Deducting two-flths of these
slaves from the aggregate would leave Federal
population Of ll,453 900, which is but little
more than one.third Of what will be the aggre. |
gate representative population of the country
ten years henco.
II, in the meantime, Delaware, Maryland,
and Missouri should become FREQ States, with
projects OF emancipation on foot, which seems
to be probable, the effect will DO to leave the
South with less free populateon than it now
possesses, and perhaps with less aggrega te pop
ulation. Missouri has l,0o7 900 free inhabit-
ants, Delaware has 2lO 900, Maryland has 6i6,-
OOO-in the aggregate, 1853, 900 free men,
which will, in all probability, b, transferred
from the " South to the North" during the
next decade, together with their increase, nat.
ural and by immigration, which will number
nearly million more.
Here then are soiial and economical causes a,
work which no political combinations or disin
tegratons can resist and which must inallibly
reduce the slave interest in this country almost