Year: 1859

are put constitute as dangerous an attack as


we have yet seen upon the institution Leav-
ing the common ground of humanity for the
slave, he appeals directly to the "Poor white
men" of Kentucky or, more courteously
speaking, the nou-slaveholding class. He
states that for every single Shareholder
in the State there are twenty white men who
! do their own labor and own no slaves The


labor Of these men, he continues Is


brought into competition with that OF


slaves and thereby degraded. To vote with


the shareholders is to vote for their own de-


eredation. &c. DC. After exciting their


preiudiees as much as possible against the
slavoholding class-the "rich aristocrats' and


grand lords of the soil, he proclaims with


many flourishes of rhetoric that he is for the
100000 white working men of kentucky
against the 10000 shareholders.


This kind of an appeal is of course found
ed upon a somewhat fallacious argument, for
the same reasoning might be applied against
the rich classes of every community. As
the poor man in the free States looks to the
time when he may be the owner of large
mansion with an income of Thousands year
from the business which his industry and en-.
terprise have built up, so does the poor man
of the South anticipate the period when he
will be the proprietor of large plantation
we'll stocked with slaves And as thousands
in the North are satisfied with small com
petence so are thousands in the South with
small farm and few black laborers to till
it, Slaves are but property, under the insti-
tutions of the South, and to acquire slaves is
the same as acquiring any other species OF
property; so that poor white man in the
South laboring for the improvement of his
fortunes, is the same as poor white man in
the North doing the same thing. And, as
many shallow parvenues in the North, who
have risen from the tallow chandler business to
the proprietorship of goods, houses and
lands despise the man who is still plodding
along in the old avocation which they them
selves followed, so do the no less shallow
parvenues of the South, who have changed |
from the navigation of atboats to the own
ership of extensive cotton and sugar planta-
tions, scorn, spit upon and contemn the "poor
white man" who is pursuing the same early
career with themselves.


The argument, we say, is somewhat falla-
cious, but then it has its effect, for there is
no stronger chord upon which to play than
the too common envy which the poorer clas-
ses feel for their rich neighbors, in every
community. If the eight hundred thousand
non -slavholding population-the architects,
the artists, the white blacksmiths, the boat
builders, the brick makers, the butchers, the
carpenters, the caulkers, the chambers, the
clock and watch makers, the millwrights,
the tanners, the teamsters, the tailors, the
plumbers, the pedlars and the rest-could be |
made to believe that they were an inferior
and degraded class, by the arbitrary act and
will of the Shareholders, and that they would
never have their rights until slavery was put
down and the great landed aristOcracy of the
South overthrown, it would not be very long
before quite a revolution in the affairs of
Kentucky would be effected. But it is going
to be a hard matter to arouse this feeling to
the extent desired by the Abolitionists. If
you begin with the carpenters, for instance,
you will find that many boss carpenter, so
far from being injured by slave competition,
hes in his employ black carpenters hired
from some wealthy master, at rate far
cheaper than he could obtain white ones
from the free States, and thus he makes slave
labor exceedingly profitable, without owning
a plantation. So with many other of the
trades and callings. In others again there is
and can be no competition from slave labor, |
because slaves are not trained in those en-
ployments. In such cases as these the artist |
or artisan goes on with his business and gets
rich without in the least degree being affec-
ted by the institution of slavery. There are
others again who are employed as teachers,
and, being well paid for their services, new
er stop to fret about the superior wealth of
their patrons. In the various ramifcations
of society there must frequently be harmo-
ny of interests between the laveholding and
the non-slaveholding population, and where
such harmony exists to the extent that it
does now in all the Southern States, there is
no great danger that the prejudices of the
working classes will overthrow the institu-
tion of slavery. They may occasion some
commotion, and influence to some extent cleo
tions, but that will be all. Not until the
Shareholders themselves become convinced
that slave labor is Improbable, will the
emancipation of the slaves take place.


There is prospect of ultimate possible
emancipation in Missouri, because there are
many citizens of that State who do not deem
slave labor of any pecuniary benefit as com
pared with hired white labor Against this
sentiment is another not more selfish, which
may balance against the other and that is
that slave-breeding may be made highly


profitable in that State by the demands from


the South; but this must depend upon the


extension of slave territory, and there's the
rub-for large portion of the North seems
fully determined that there shall be no more
slave territory. 1t is claimed that there are
other States with the same leanings as Mis-.
souri,.


As to the promulgation Of Emancipation
doctrines in the South, the era is supposed by
some TO have arrived when there is more
freedom Of expression and more tolerance of
opinion than formerly. Cassius NJ Clay
now talks from the stump to a crowd which