The Portland daily press., 1865-03-22


era recaptulation Of the report, the following
aggregates have been compiled:
Number Of owners of one slave, 1883
Number of owners Of two slaves 46.l65
Number of owners of three slaves, "a s6s
Number Of owners Of four slaves 89Iy
Number OF owners OF i've slaves, "a zao
Number Of owners Of six slaves, ~ TX 1
Number Of owners Of seven laves, !. KY
Number OF owners ofe eight slaves, Il oof
Number Of owners Of Il. ne slaves: ! i1oa
Owners of ten slaves and under hteen, ~ oos
Owners of fifteen saves and under twenty, ~ 90
Owners of twenty slaves and under thirty, 70 196
Owners of thirty slaves and under forty, y o48
Owners of forty ayes and under fifty, 5llS
Owners of fifty slaves and under seventy, 5,zlo
Owners of seventy slaves and under one hum .o
Owners Of one hundred slaves and under two
hundred, Soo
Owners Of three hundred slaves and under
five hundred "a
Owners of five hundred slaves and under
tbonsand. Is
Owners Of one thousand slaves and over. l
Total number of Shareholders, 5o4.oo4
Whole number Of slaves, soS f4z
1t will be seen by the above tabular state
ment that about one-fourth of the Southern
slaves belong to masters each Of whom pos
sesses from one slave to nine. The whole
number of Shareholders who own less than nine
slaves each, is 2S6, 8S4; and the average num-
Der of slaves belonging to each is about three
and one-third. Those masterswh own but
few slaves probably treat them more kindly
than those are treated who belong to the rich
planters and work under oyerseers on extern
sive plantations. When man works with his
slaves on small farms, he would be likely to
use them well, as our New England farmers
use their horses and cattle when at work with
them. M
The number of shareholders returned by
the census is 1874, 1884, now if the small slave.
holders are deducted from that number there
willremain only 10s,OOS who own from ten
to several hundred slaves each. These large
shareholders principally constitute the slave
power of the South, and although they num-
Der but little more that 100000 men, yet
they control the South and its politics, and
have had IN years past great influence over
the two political parties in the North. But
the present war has bIavely diminished that
influence, and even the South is in fair way
to get rid OF it altogether. The fact is some
what remarkable that one hundred thousand
men, In country as extensive as ours, and
containing population of more than thirty
millions could have controlled the politics of
q. nation and given shape and form TO so
many Of its measures! r- r.ec r~sa
1t is true that these rich, aristocratic plan
ters have been assisted, In thus outstanding
the slave power, by few men who possessed
brilliant mental powers and made politics
trade, but who might not have owned only a
few slaves and these body servants, and yet
these talented and almost slaveless politicians
were nursed in the lap Of slavery and owed
much of their influence to it. These trading
politicians and the rich planters have always
worked together In the same harness aud for
the same objective points. But the war has
has already changed the conlll,v.. u -->~..ars
in the South, and is destined to work a still
greater change. -
Emancipation of the negroes must work .
great revolution, and make our Southern
States what they ought to be-, and what they
would have been but for the blighting curse of
slavery. The question of primogeniture occu-
pied the attention of our early statesmen and its
abolition was deemed essential in the estab-
lishment of republican institutions. But it
was not so clearly foreseen that slavery
would have the same tendency and b. attended
by the same results; nevertheless, 1t has been
SO, and proud aristocracy has arisen in the
South which rivals that in some of the old
countries. $1,000
Three fourths of all the slaves in the South
are owned by about one hundred thousand men
who constitutes this proud aristocracy which
the war is now fast bringing down to dem
ocratic level. The legitimate result of this
struggle which The Shareholders have forced
upon our Government, is to break up and d.
vide the over grown plantations. Aud surely
such a breaking up and dividing will be a
great benefit to the South and lay anew the
foundation of her future prosperity and
greatness. - =. s-g ~ ruy-s-er
Looking at emancipation in all its aspects
we think it will greatly rebound to the best
interests Of the South. A new life will be
infused through the masses aud the spirit of
enterprise will become the rule and not the
exception. The great landholders, by the
loss of slaves, will be compelled to divide
their extensive plantations and sell them in
small farms which, with proper cultivation,
will produce more agricultural wealth than
when owned by few and worked by slave
labor. The leading feature of the Southern
agriculture has always been great plantations,
but that feature win soon be changed.
In the middle ages the feudal system was
much shaken by the crusades, but not SO much
as the system OF extensive plantations, in the
nineteenth century, viii be by the enfranchise-
ment OF the Southern slaves A great change
must come over the South, and her great sta
pies will enrich thousands where they do not
now enrich 1.-THE of that number. There is u
brilliant future for the South, and may God
speed the day when her soil shall TEEN with
the products of free labor CA. f.-.-s-.r