The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1863-01-30

Mississippi, 2g664s sO9.s7s IA
Georgia, 524,5O3 5Sl ,6S2 64S
Total. I,s77,os7 Isql.sss p
The four weaIthiest States Of the Union
we perceive. having had nearly one hun
dred per cent OF labor added 10 their
free population, have thereby added
more than one hundred per cent. to then
wealth or NJ least more than one han
dred per cent. upon the average accumu-
lation oi Tree white labor in the United
States. The aggregate wealth OF these
States,
South Carolina, S2ss,25z,t9t
Louisiana, 2S3.sefife
! Ai..l'aiPp' si...'i W saasi.'y'i. y !.
Sl,oS6,6SsSO2
divided by their entire free white and
colored population. 1915 would give
adividend Of S7SS to each person. THIS
is more than hundred per cent. beyond
the dividend of wealth in the free labor
States, which is S30j, one hundred per
cent. upon which would raise it to SOLO.
The real excess, then, belonging to these
four mixed labor States is 1873 per cent
of superior wealth mostly productive or
reproductive capital. The most produc.
tive part of this capital is the slave labor,
and when this is deducted there still re-
mains large excess, about rs per cent.
in other forms of capital, in favor of the
mixed labor States. This excess would
be much greater but for the fact that the
bulk of real estate, farming land, is, on
account of greater sparseness of popula-
ton, estimated at a very low figure in the
mixed labor States, in comparison with
its valuation in the free labor States,
where the scarcity of land enhances its
nominal value without increasing the
real productive ability of the country.
This comparison could be rendered still
more striking and satisfactory if time per-
mitted the examination of all products
including cotton, tobacco, rice, and on
the other hand, the manufacturing and
mining products, in which the free la
bour States excel, but far less than is
commonly supposed.
Mixed labour States are naturally more
! favorabl to education and religion than
exclusively free labour States. The sew
en- counties of Kentucky which have most
| slave labour, contribute most to educa-
ton and religion. They have only one
| in nineteen of their population over twen
ty years of age who cannot read and write,
while the eighteen counties which have
but 3.2 per cent. OF slaves have l4,O6l, or
over one eighth, who cannot read and
write. In the former the amount e%pen-
ded in education lin lSO0) was 81 ll4,3UJ;
in the latter, with nearly twice as large a
white population, the whole amount exc
pended was but $50, ,452. In the seven
fcoun;ies mentioned, private sohoo.-' "a
literally pauonized; IN the eighteen, Win
two small exceptions, not dollar wa. ex-
pended for private schools apart from .he
public fund. Free labour communities
are always prevented by poverty from de-
ing full justice to education by private
action, and are never generally educated
except by the authority OF the Govern
ment. Mixed labour communities attend
so well to education that the necessity OF
legislation is less felt by them, and in the
United States they have for many years
neglected legislative provisions, thence Il
sparce agricultural population, especially
in newly settled States, has often been de-
ficient in the education of the rural pop
ulation. Hereafter this evil will be re-
moved. But even if 1t should not be re-
moved by legislative action, it is not in
any sense chargeable to the employment
of Slave labour, the tendency Of which is
to increase the number Of those educated,
not only in the primary school, but in
the university.
In estimating the evils that may be as
sociated with slave labour, we should, in
Justice, compare them with those which
are associated with its absence. This ac.
cidental abundance of illiteGates may oe
compared with the necessary and perma-
nent abundance OF paupers and criminals
in purely free labour States. The excess
of ignorant in the mixed labour States
over those in the free labour States was
65, 78O; but the excess of paupers in the
free labour States in 1850 was ll3, ,708,
.and their excess OF convicted criminals
was, in the extreme free labour States,
10, ,459.
Is there any reason in these Facts to
show that nation should undergo desc
lation, or something resembling national
suicide. to convert the former condition
into the latter--to substitute for 65, 7S0
honest, Industrious illiterate people 1885,
lG7 paupers and criminals? We must re-
member. too, that while ignorence will
and NAV be extirpated by the shool-
house, pauperism and crime are atten-
dants upon the free labour system, which
increases feariully with the lapse Of time
and increasing density OF population
When. in the course Of a few generations,
the mixed labour States shall have scarce
1y one illiterate in five hundred, the free
labour States will have n million Of pau
pprs and criminals, and in every reverse
Of trade far greater number
The assertion that slave labour is unia-
yorable 10 the spread OF religion is anoth
er Of those reckless assertions which are
believed, like the unprolitableness OF
slave labour and other ialsehOods Of the
same group The truth is that negro
slavery has. in the United states. never
hindered but always iayoured religion
and has been the means Of ciyilHing and
of thoroughly outstanding about twice
as manvof the heather races as all the
mis,ionary enterprises OF all Protestant
Chri.tpndom combined. The negro race
must either pass through the apprentice
ship Of slavery under the white race, TO
attain civilization and religion or they
must in time utterly perish, like other
barbarisns. In The mixed labour States
religion has been, perhaps, hipdered IN
It's propagation by the yastness Of their
territory aud ,paroness OF their popuIa.
ton Nevertbcless, they are not behind
any other people IN the evidence of pl-
ETY..
Under the delu-iye idea thet African
slavery was preudoial 10 the welfare Of
the white race, the experiment Of abol.
ishng negro slavery was tried in the
Northern States on small scale-too
small for the community to feel IL rs q
| ,,I,,,;t,. ,, 20 Lnoty ita tpun raauita ex.