Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1864-01-30
WHOLE NUMBER 736.



Mr.. Bancroft had an essay on the dos.
,rine of the Roman Empire which, written
in 1884, and describing society which or.
sted more than two thousand years ago, is,
10 many psrticulars,a curiously exact do
scription Of our slave States before the
wars
When Tiberius Sempronius Gracious,
before Numantia, Travelled through Italy,
he was led to observe the impoysrishmept
of the great body of citizens in the rural
districts Instead Of little farms studding
the country with their pleasant aspect, an
independent race, we behold nearly all the
lands Of Italy engrossed by large pfoprie-
tors; and the plough was in the hands OF
the slave He saw the nbabitants
Of the Roman State divided into the few
wealthy nobles; the many INDECENT citizens;
he still more numerous slaves. Reasoning
correctly, be preceved that it was slavery
which crowded the poor freeman out Of em.
ployment, aud barred the way to his I'D.
vaDcement.
Again he writes.
The aristocracy owned the soil aud its
cul,ivators The vast capacity for sccu.
mutation, which the laws Of society secure
TO capital in greater degree than to per.
sonal exeration, displays itself no where so
clearly as In slaveholding States, where
the laboring class is but portion of the
capital of the opuIent. As wealth consists
chiefly in land and slaves, the rates of inter.
est are, from universally Operative causes,
always comparatively high; the difficulty Of
advancing with borrowed capital propoiion-
ally great. The small landbolder finds him.
self unable to compete With those who are
possessed of whole cohorts of boDdmeu; his
slaves, bis lands, rapidly pass.in conse.
quence oe his debts, into to the hands of the
more opulent. The large plantations are
continually following up the smaller ones;
aud land aud slaves come to be engrossed
by few.
This is correct history Of society all
along the lower Mississippi, where the area
10 which cotton and sugar can be proftabIy
grown is narrow. The great planters have
driven ont the smaller holders No one who
has read Olmstead's account. Of the terrible
struggle of the small cotton planters, with
his few slaves, to keep bis head above wa.
ter aud maintain himself beside bis great
! neighhor, but will see the likeness Again,
in ancient Italy-
The large proprietors Of slaves not on
| ly titled their immense plantations, but al
so INDUCED their avarice in training their
slaves to every species of labor, and letting
them out, as horses from livery stable
we find the same practice in the Southern
States; many of the wealthy and more OF
the decaying families living on the returns
of such hire of their trained slaves. Nor
can we omit this passage which brings be-
fore US the dreary worn out old pine fields
Of Virginia before the war:
The large Roman plantations, titled by
slave labor. were the ruin of Italy, and
Vernm eOnftsntibus, latifundia halianiper.
didere The carless system impoverished
the soil, and wore out even the Campagnia.
Large distrsc,s were left waste; others had
been turned into pastures, and grazing in.
stituied for tilIsge. The average crops
hardly ever returned fourfold increase.
Such was fertile Ialy under slavery;
snrh was the more fortile South under the
same detestable system. II we want 70
save the great part Of our country from
rnin, if we want to raise the workingman
there to Intelligence and prosperity. if we
would save our children from the fatal
competition with slaves, we must utterly
destroyed this slave srstocracy. which is
the worst enemy the free workingman has.
Post.