Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-03-23
The Future of the Southern States.
From the New York Post, Feb. 10th.

The Future of the Southern States.
From the New York Post, Feb. aOth.l
Robert ]. Walker has written, in the Con-
tinental Monthly. two letters on American
finances and resources, in which he shows,
from the census, the disadvantages under
which the Southern States have labored by
reason Of the existence of slavery there. lie
compares, in the first place, Maryland with
Massachusetts, taking Maryland because
that State has greater natural advantages
than any other; and because it has increased
in population per square mile more rapidly,
from 1890 to 1860, than any other slavehOld-
ing State. Maryland has Il ,l24 square miles
area, Massachusetts,, 1000 square miles;
MARYLAND has shore line, sea and river, Of
1886 miles; Massachusetts,, 764 miles. In
MARYLAND the rate of mortality Is but one to
81; Massachusetts,, l to 81. The area Of ara
BILE land in Maryland is more than double
that Of Massachusetts, and the soil more fer
tile. Maryland has inexhaustible mines oil
coal and iron and the necessary tuXes; Mas
sachusetts has no coal, no valuable mines OF
iron, nor fluxes. The population of Mary
land in 1870 was 3l9,72S; Of Massachusetts,
378,7l3. In 1860 Maryland had 1904;
Massachusetts, ,23l ,O65. In seventy years
Maryland increased 367 300; Massachusetts,
49,, ,34S, or more than double as much. In
1870 Maryland had % persons to the mile, in
1850, 81; in 1870 Massachusetts had 4S TO
the square mile, in 1850, lj7. Bear in mind
that Maryland has double the area good land
that Massachusetts has, and the enormous
difference will be seen. The value Of the
products of Massachusetts, in 1860 was
S2S7, 900 900; OF Maryland, S 100000. In
Massachusettsit was S2b5 per head; in Mary.
land, So. That is to say, the average annual
v,l,,a Of tho lahnr uf a1rh MaSSl-
chusetts was greatly more than double that
in Maryland. Massachusetts, with smaller
territory, had $40 miles Of railroad; Mary.
land but $50. The value Of allpropeIty, real
and personal, was, in Massachusetts, SSl5,-
Ol0 00J; in Mar, land S376, ,000,C0o Comparing
this with the value Of products before men
toned, the profit on capital was in Massa-
chus.tts thirty-ive per cent; in Maryland,
seventeen per cent, or less tn hal and it
is noticeable fact that in only two slave
States, Delaware and Missouri, was the rate
OF profit larger than in Maryland, and both
of these had comparatively fewer slaves. IT,
now, we take intelligence as Il standard, IN
Massachusetts, the value OF printed matter
was, in 1860, S2,9O5,9l6; in Maryland, $780,,
l55. Massachusetts had 222 newspapers and
periodic lis, Of which ll2 were political, 81
religious, 5l literary, IS miscellaneous; Mary
land had only 81, all but one or two political.
Massachusetts had S,679 public schools;
Maryland, 907. Massachusetts had 1851
adults who could neither read nor write;
Maryland, 3S,436, exclusive Of her slaves:
Let free working men ponder these facts, ana
say under what system, whether OF free or
slave labor, they can earn the largest wages,
or their children can receive the best educa-
ton.
But Walker goes on to show more re-
markable fact-that as Maryland is to Massa-
chusetts SO is South Carolina to Maryland.
He shows that, in 1860, the product per head
in Massachusetts, was $50. IN Maryland S)6;
in South Carolina $50. Thus in free and
educated Massachusetts the reward o! labor
| is more than double that in Maryland, and
four times that in South Carolina. "Slavery
then, the census proves, is hostile to the pro-
gress Of wealth and population; to science,
| literature and educationi TO schools, colleges
and universities; to books and hbrariesi to
churches and religion; to the press, and
| therefore to free government; hostile 10 the
| poor, keeping them in want and ignorance;
| hostile to labor, reducing it to servitude, and
| decreasing by two-thirds the value Of its pro-
ducts; hostile to morale, repudiating among
slaves the marital and parental condition,
classifying them BY law as chattels, darken-
| ing the immortal soul, and making it crime
to teach millions Of human beings to read
and write"
Now we may look at these figures in two
ways. They Show how fatally slavery has
hampered the progress in wealth, varied in
dustry, comfort and Intelligence OF the States
in which it existed they show that precisely
in proportion rs slavery fi0urished, SO the
prosperity of the State declined. The law
extends even 20 countless" says Walker,
"those having comparatively the fewest slaves
increasing far more rapidly in population.
But in these same figures we can see the fu-
ture Of the South, freed from the curse OF
slavery. What Massachusetts, is-and more,
too-Maryland may become, and that speedi-
IL; what New York has gained BY freedom,
that Virginia may gain, too, and the easier
that she far excels New York in many OF the
most important sources of material wealth |;
she has deeper harbors, mines Of coal and
! iron shorter line of communication with
| the West, larger territory; the balance OF
natural wealth is all on her side
! Once settled by free American working
men, who carry with them, wherever slavery
does not prevent, schools and churches, books
and newspapers, machinery and intelligent
| labor the South must quickly rival the North
| in wealth, in comfort, in intelligence, as well
as in loyalty The future Of that rich region
is written in the history Of the free North;
with free labor, free speech and free schools
Maryland will equal Massachusetts,, and Vir-
ginia New York; Mississippi will blossom as
Iowa, Alabama as Illinois, and Tennessee as
Ohio; and the marvellous development OF the
free Western States must repeat itself in all
the South