New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-03-07
TuR VALUE OF SLAVES.


its present, specific form, isunquestionaby doomed
to extinction. Now, and for all purposes OF prl'
yate opinion or public action, it is useless TO IN
quire whether it may or may not rcappear in some
other shape. Our general unphilosophical habit
of grouping ancient andmOdern forms OF Slavery
of taking it for granted. for instance that Slavery
in the byzantine Empire, or in Greece or Rome,
must have been something precisely like Slavery
in one of our Cotton-growing States, hos LED to
enormous blunders in the pulpit and the forum. A
very slight observation of the domestic life OF the
anciepts will show that with them the household
demand for slaves, and even for slaves capable OF
the highest civil services far exceeded the demand
for predial slaves. The physicians, grammarians,
clerks stewards, and many of the shopkeepers OF
Rome were slaves, having all tho value OF the
highest degrees of intelligence and professional
skill. Millar, in his Essay on the "Orgln
of Rank" allows, in each Athenan family,
a proportion of three slaves to ono free per-
son; and thinks the proportion in Rome to
have been greater. Chrysostom in his Ep"tle
on Ephesians, is especially severe upon
the Female Slavery in Ccnstantlnople, in the
Fourth Century; and his rebukes are curious Illus
trations of the cruelty practiced by Christian
mstresses jealous of Christian husbands. There
is. in all the history Of the subject tendency to
be observed toward domestic Slavery and prddial
freedom. Thus We find it early asserted: There
are no slaves in England; one may be r'lla'n
"here but not q slave" Oh. Salk. 66)-the word
being derived directly from the Latin riAa-a
country farm (See Cunningham Lao Dict 1T.
VILLAIN Without entering into deeper IN
yestgation of the subject, We may once for all as
sert what it would be easy to prove that slavery
with its innumerabe terminating Influences, mas
never. in all the worlds experience, been found
adapted TO profitable agriculture. DIR. Moan
Webster in his Essays says once beard
Washington remark that from the Northern 70
81 the Southern States, the agricultural improve
ments were in oil inverse proportion to the
(" number of the slaves"
We have been led to the foregoing observations
BY the following paragraph, which we find in the
newspapers:
"yatvAr,os ov NsoHo.s In the h'ssspp House Of Rep
the valuation Of slaves In that state The Ie.ou,on suggest.
.s S ass.r arc Of sI, ho.
at 10; between twenty aud thirty 1880 from thnty 70
sioo"
All statements and estimates like these must
be received with great caution; first, because
shareholders have always been disposed to eIag-
gerate the value of slaves as an eXtenuation
(Which, morally. it is not) of their system; and
secondly, because with the faintest prospect Of
compensated emancipation, we predict that the
estimated value of slaves will rise enormously
children, probably, to $500 each, and those from
fifty upward to $500 each. Government will be
compelled to pay not only an uncomfortable
value for the slave, but pretty sum to soothe the
wounded feelings of the involuntary emancipa-
tionsts This is a question in which We all feel
an interest because most Of this money with
which We are to persuade the shareholders to
recognize and regard their own interests, must
come from the North; and all the advantage
which We shall derive from it, will be that Poiti-
cal stability to which We are already entitled, and
for which we have already paid price considera-
bic if not sufficient.
When we look ut the matter closely, we
find it difficult to comprehend how a
child under ten years Of age can be valued at
$500. At that age, for oil purposes of labor, 1t
ia worse than worthless. Ii earns nothing, or
scarcely anything, and it must be supported.
While the cost Of its sustenance is therefore
thrown upon its parents, upon whose daily toll it
must depend for food and raimcnt its former
owner is relieved from all care Of maintenance
aud nurture. Supposing, therefore, that it is
worth nothing from its first to its tenth year. we
find also that it is worth $3.50 less than nothing,
that being the sum ut which it is valued at it,
, tenth year. But between its tenth aud twentieth
year, it must not only earn its cost of daily sup
port, but the $3.50 ut which it was valued upon
its tenth birthdays and going on, it must be
!, worth $500 plus the cost Of its support in it,
thrtieth year; $3.50 plus the cost Of it's support
in its forteth year, $3.50 minus $500 plus the cost
of its support in its fiHieth year; and after THU
fitch year $3.50 minus $3.50 plus the
i. cost Of its support. e., it is worth sc pei
t annum (reckoning legal interest), may live
30 years, and will cost probably $50 per annum
SO that the planter instead Of receiving from tn,
national treasury 800 for his fifty year old negro
should really pay something to the Government
for taking the aforesaid negro of his hands. w.
! know that no could afford to do it. We have
known ut least two instances in which very ole
0 blacks were encouraged to abscond, did abscond
and were aterward supported for several years il