The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-10-17
Emancipation I'm MARYLAND.

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Inc success of the immediate emarcipa
:! .ionlsts IA Maryland, in the fall elections,
Is cohiieently predicted. This seems too
sooa ,hin9 10 expect, and yet if the facts
t se. ioI.n 10 me address Of the committee of
nno,,a l.e ,l Union party to the
peoPie Oh mat State have their legitimate
influence the Marylanders will certainlv
determine that the sooner thew car rid
themselves OF slavery the better. and will
vote accordingly The address is one of
the most admirable documents we have
seen. No northern abolitionist could have
put the matter in so fair and convincing
style. There is no assault upon slayeboId-
ers, as II they We're necessarily guilty of all
possible crimes, and no attempt to excite
sacred luminosity against the relic of bar
barlsm. But the political and economic
reasons making the removal Of slavery
from the State desirable are calmly pre-
scented, and only those who prefer their
private interest in slavery to the general
welfare OF their fellow citizens can refllse
10 ADMIT that a plain case is made out for
the policy oflmmediate emancipation.
Ihere are but l6, 600 Shareholders in Ma
committee prove the bad economy of sla-
very by contrasting the free with the slave
portion OF the State. The counties north
OF the Sassafras and Patapsco rivers have
few slaves and are substantially free terri
tory. The free counties contained in 1850,
oSoslff CultlNdlSu dcTeS, Wllle the slave
counties had La, 623; but the free lands
were valued at $47, ISL ,6I5 while the slave
lands were worth only S4l,775.Gs4. The
farms in slave counties averaged l43 acres
each worth 50, 433; the free farms, averaging
only lOl acres each, were yet worth Si,965.
The free land was worth SlS,S2, the slave
land $23,9l per acre. The contrast is the
more striking when we remember that the
slave counties are the old, the free coun-
ties the new. The taxable property of the
slave part 1t sixty-nine millions; of the
free part eighty-five millions.
In Maryland as in Virginia the slave
holders have managed to absorb the politi-
cal power of the state. The white pdpula-
ton in the free section ofthe state is 3S5, 643,
while in the slave section it is but l3O,275,
and yet the slave section is divided into IA
counties to in the northern part, and so
has majority Of the state senate. This adj
vantage has been industriously used, and
the election of delegates to the assembly is
so fixed that in the northern half964l white
persons have delegate, while in the south
1881 white persons have delegate. Thus
one-tourth the white population have con-
trolled the government of Maryland, and
the small minority Of planters have ruled
that it might slip from their hands by the
progress OF population in the free counties,
the shareholders procured an amendment
TO the constitution prohibiting emancipa-
ton by act of the legislature. They have
fixed the taxes to suit themselves, and pay
only about one-third as large a tax on
slaves as is levied on other property of the
same value, and in every way have. so di-
rected legislation as to favor the sIavehold-
ers at the expense of the free laborers of
the State. But the power is in the hands
OF the on-slaveholding, and they will use
II as soon as they comprehend their own in
terests, and all the more freely and radio
ally on account of the abuses they have suf-
fered from the Shareholders. The commit
tee also urge with great force that slavery
is rapidly dying out by force of circum-
stances, and if com pensation is to be accept
ad at all 1t must be now or never. This is
motive which the slave owners more espe-
cially must feel the force of. Whether the
The people of Maryland are yet wise enough
% move at once for the removal of slavery
'r not, the logic of events is irresistible,
md the State must inevitobly become free.