The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-10-17
Emancipation and its Promises
for the Future.

to silence all discussion in this direction
have left the field in anger, perhaps in dis
gust. As we predicted a. the outset, tn
question has forced its way, has compellet
ttention, until at list it is the one thin,
dwelt upon by the first intellects in 1h
State, by all who are candidates tor p'ae
and position ct the hands of the people.
There is nothing at all surprising in al
this, it would be more remarkable were j
| otherwise. The advocates and speeia
champions Of slavery opened the bali, chal
lenged the attention of the whole world II
not be silenced, but will continue until ev
cry issueis exhausted, every people thor
oughly understood.
The people Of Maryland may be said Il
have compelled attention to these things
ut last They hsve been quite ahead of the
politicians in regard to them, While they
were dragged most reluctantly into the
whirl of agitation set in motion by South
Carolina. and while they found their inter.
ests jeepardized and made to suffer by hel
/ treason and folly, once involved in these
| troubles they come to the determination to
investigate fully their causes, and to sc
deal with them finally that they will never
arise-so far as they are concerned, or SC
| far as they can influence the matter-to
! plague them again.
| And in what they may choose to do in
relation to slavery, they may well consider
themselves as wholly absolved from all
| obligations to consult the Cotton States. In
setting their attempted revolution on foot.
the latter took extraordinary pains to re-
pudiate all interference from the direction
Of the border States; for when Virginia,
even, sought to confer with South Carroll
ma, as to to the chance of compromising
matters between the Cotton States and the
Federal Government, the cotton magnates,
through their special organ, the Charles
ton Mercury. thus scornfully repulsed the
ovartures made 10y the Old Dominion. It
said:
"Hear them" the Commissioners "if
them and drench them in champage and
let them go! Let US act as if tn ey had
never come-as if they had never spoken
as if they did not exist; and let them
seek to preserve their treasury-pap through
some more subtle agency than ours. The
time has gone by aohen the voice of q Vir-
ginia politician though he coo like q doue,
should be heard IN the land Of q patriotic
Well, although the debauched politicians
of Virginia yielded finally to the alternate
dictation and Establishments of the "de-
scendants of the Hugnenots,' Maryland
did not IN any sense. She fell back on her
reserved rights, and suffered these States
that would have dragged her to destruction
The result is thatto-day, compared to them,
her prosperity is wonderful, her losses as
nothing. They have indeed, to a consider
able extent, involved her, in common with
other loyal States, in miseries sad to con-
template. Large numbers OF her people
have persisted, many the victims of treason
and madness; many, besides, as defenders
OF the State and of free government. Her
soil, too, has been invaded, and her interest
in slavery-an interest in the outset of these
difficulties valued at twenty millions of
dollars, rendered as nearly worthless as
seems possible, next, indeed, to positive
annihilatiOn.
But now, at this stage of affairs, Maryland
is called upon imperatively to act in regard
to slavery simply on her own behalf; look
ing, indeed to the good OF all the States, so
far as her acts in the premises are concern
ed. Absolutely absolved from all obliga-
tIons-as we have shown-to consult the
slave States south Of her, she must deter
mine upon line OF policy for herself, and
this we are glad to perceive she is about to
do, when every man who assumes a right
or seeks the privilege Of representing her
IN the State or National councils is made to
show his hand.
And soft is, atlast, that however we have
been made to suffer, suffering has brought
reflection, purpose to investigate and to
act. The first fruits of this new condition
OF things are already apparent. The polit-
zeal Economists and the statesmen are in the
field to analyze, to compare, to show the
most incredulous and stiff-necked in Ma
ryland what is for the best and most per-
manent interests Of the State. And to show
this, not only to Maryland, but also to ev.
cry other State similarly situated with her.
And what better way to do this than by the
exhibit OF figures representing facts-facts
which cannot be gainsaid, gotten over by
any display:of forid defamation on the part
OF the leaders of the rebellion.
There is no better way to come at the real
position each State holds than to compare
its progress, from given point Of time to
some other point, with some State its oppO-
site in economic policy-its system Of Ia
Dor, that element which lies at the founda-
ton OF its progress. And now, with the
public attention awakened to investigate,
let us commend the following exhibit,
marking the progress, relatively, Of the
slavehOlding and the non-slaVeholding
States for Single decade.
Here follows an abstract from the GEN.
sus tables of 1860, showing the number of
acres OF improved and unimproved lands
IN the slaveholding States, and their value,
and the same exhibit of lands in the non
slaveholding States-the average value in
the former being, in 1850, Sc IL per acre,
and in 1860, $40 IS; and in the latter, in
1850, $40 II per acre, and in 1860, $24 e3.-
Inc AmeTfcdnS conclusions are TINS sta
ted:]
Well, the conclusion of every unpreju-
diced mind, after carefal examination of
the foregoing figures, will OF course be that
a clearer exhibit of the advantages of free
labor in advancing a State, as compared
with its opposite, could hardly be given.
And what is worth noting, too, the facts
thus shown have been facts for the ten years
preceding this war, although it has taken
10 Ylrn NY fIor Ill
them in this manner before the people,
Ten years since, nay, five, or even three
years since, an exhibit so offensive, so tell
ing, could not have been considered in
Maryland or any other slave State but as
that thing called an ''odious comparison
Now it is brought forward as something
perfectly legitimate in dealing with our
present and prospective fate as common
wealth; and what is more, no politician in
the State dare, in the presence of the peo-
pie ignore or deny its stern conclusions.
And this is all fright and proper. How
are we, as people, ever to find out our true
standing, our rate of progress, the degree
of prosperity with which we are favored,
nn1QSS W hovo tho coT,ro oa tn lob int III