Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-03-05

not All are mutually dependent on each other.
The merehan. depends upon the drayman and the
drayman npsn the merchant. They are each like
wise 70 certain extent dependent upon the
mechanic, the farmer, the manufacturer and
the carrier, and these again Deepen
dent upon the merchant and the drayman'
But to simplify the case, let US consider for mo-
ment the dependence, which all of us feel not
only for the bread we eat but in pecuniary point
of view The farmer is dependent for his crop upon
labor. No matter how rich or valuable his land
may be- it does not produce spontaneously. for
present purposes OF illustration it is no odos
whetherthe labor be slave or free, by which II IS
tiled. The whole value Of slave property IN Ten
nessee amounts to about one hundred and nifty NIL
lions Of dollars. In other words, there Is that
amount invested in slave labor, the chief part Oh
which is agricultural. Suppose you strike down
that labor, does not every see at glance tna'
you deal death-blow to every interest IN society,"
the mechanic, the merchant, the day-laborer, all
stakeholder and non-sayeholder alike, SO that All
have an Immediate personal interest in the question
of slavery. Again, the revenue derI'eu
from slaves for the financial year loo'7oV
was sl55, 344 as appears by the Comptroilers re
port Suppose you strike down slave LABOR WI
make I'D that deficit? 1t must, OF course, increase
TO that extent the tax upon ether KINGS OF iaOor.
But that is not ALL The value OF land depends nam
lv upoa the means of making it productive but 1t
cannot be made to produce without labor SO that,
10 the extent of the loss of labor. you impair the
volre If land. The negro, therefore, pays directly
and insirectlv. more than half our State taxes.
Again we ask. has not every man Fan immediate
nersonal interest in the economic propriety Of
slayery.r even though he may never own slave?
One other illustration, and this we will take from
our connection with the much abused States of
the South a connection with which has been de-
precated by many, as the gravest calamity that
could befall US. Their crops are, as every one
knows essentially dependent upon slave labor.
Suppose, by miracle, for nothing short of mira
Gle could do it, that we could at single bound sur
mount all the evils in our own State, of loss OF
slave labor. Let it be supposed that cur agricuI-
tural products are just the same as before.
Strike down the labor of the cotton States and Of
what value to the farmer are all his surplus pro-
ducts? Who will buy his hogs his cattle, his horses,
mis- mules, his grain, and whatever else he has to
spare? But if the farmer has no market, where is
the money to come from to buy goods, to build
houses support railroads and steamboats,, to give
employment to machine shops, blacksmiths, shoe,
makers, brick masons, draymen, daylaborers, &C.,
&c, &c. So it seems that the man of Tennessee
though he may not own negro, has nevertheless an
immediate personal interest in the economic propriety
of slavery. even throughout the whole of those
States against which some of u.s. in zeal to MAIN
tain our union with the Abolition States have waged
such relentless war. Into what unnatural extremes
do our passions lead US?