Virginia... 75,480 89,242 110,548 2,605 2,290 1,805 380,282 492,666 646,583 89,737 90,386 85,382 790,710 949,133 1,097,373 449,087 472,528 495,826 N. Carolina.... 507,601 580,491 679,965 245,817 288,548 328,377 267,360 283,523 308,186 327,038 384,984 407,185 410,448 524,503 615,336 280,944 381,682 467,461 28,760 48,135 81,885 25,717 39,310 63,809 337,224 428,779 520,444 253,352 342,844 435,473 180,440 296,648 407,551 195,211 309,878 479,607 183,959 272,953 354,245 168,452 244,809 312,186 Kentucky. 597,520 771,424 920,077 182,258 210,981 225,490 646,151 763,258 859,528 183,059 239,459 287,112 Total....... 4,809,097 6,412,605 8,435,020 2,481,622 3,200,364 3,999,353 In 1790, the products of the country were almost entirely the result of slave labor, and the exports were principally from the Southern States, and these did not reach $5,000,000 per annum. In 1850, the annual value of manufactures in the free States was $842,586,058, and the annual value of manufactures in the slave States was $165,413,027. In 1855, the commercial exchanges of the United States (imports and exports) were $536,435,719, of which $404,368,503 belonged to the free States, and $132,067,216 to the slave States. 66 We find these facts in a book known as Helper's Impending Crisis," got up and used to frighten the people of the North into the belief that it was necessary for the Abolition party to obtain the control of the Federal Government, and make war upon the South, in order to arrest the progress of the institution of slavery. We believe no one will deny the important part this book has played in sustaining the "irrepressible conflict," and stimulating sectional strife. Now we take this book (granting that its statistics are correct) as the strongest possible evidence that slavery has been declining since the Federal Union was formed that the institution is doomed to disappear in the regular order of nature at no very distant day. We use this book to prove precisely what the Republican demagogues, in their mangling of the subject, have attempted to disprove. According to the statistics of Helper's book, the free States have been gaining on the slave States from the outset, in territory, population, manufactures, products, arts, sciences-everything that constitutes national greatness; and all this, according to its own account, under the statesmen and statesmanship of that same South which it so violently and so atrociously abuses. From 1828 to 1833, a disposition was manifested in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky, to adopt measures for the abolition of slavery within their limits. But most unfortunately, a species of rabid fanaticism, known in these days as abolition, made its appearance in our midst, and by its unreasonable demands, its bitter invective, sweeping denunciation, and unnatural, unconstitutional tendencies, raised such a general and determined opposition on the part of the South, that all hope of any immediate movement tending to emancipation in any of the slave States was speedily extinguished. In this abolition movement we see the beginning of that treason which has dissevered the Confederacy. It can be said, however, that slavery in the State of Delaware has steadily declined, and is now nearly extinct. In 1790, this State had 8,887 slaves. In 1850, but 2290; and the census of 1860 gives only 1,805. Slavery in Maryland is also gradually becoming extinct. In 1790, the slave population numbered 103,036. The census of 1860 gives 85,382 slaves, to 646,583 whites. Western Virginia-the mountainous region is gradually ridding itself of the negro, and manifesting decided free soil proclivities. When the State of Virginia--the proud Old Dominion--the mother of Presidents, wakes up to the fact that something more honorable and profitable awaits her than a decaying existence as the mother of negroes-the Africa of the slave States-she will shake off the incubus, and stand forth in all the glory to which she is entitled from ancient and noble associations. In Missouri, slavery is also on the decline. The proportion of slaves to the whites is less in this State than that of any other State except Delaware. The city of St. Louis, the empire city of the West, is already a free city. In Texas, slavery has but a feeble existence, except in what is called Eastern Texas, constituting scarcely onequarter of the State. Texas looks large, very large, on the map, but of the 274,000 square miles it contains, at least 100,000, or more than one-third, is a desert, where neither white nor blacks can live. The entire country west of the 100th meridian, is a dreary waste (except immediately on the Rio Grande), that never will be settled. South of the River Colorado, and east of the 100th meridian, constituting what is known as Western Texas, would be free to-day if separated from Eastern Texas. The fear that this extensive region would be eventually converted into slave states, which convulsed the North when Texas was admitted into the Union, will never be realized. IN VIEW OF THESE GREAT AND IMPORTANT FACTS, IT BECAME apparent, that the Almighty was working out the abolition of slavery in his own good time and manner, and somewhat too rapidly for the special designs of certain abolition fanatics and selfish politicians, whose life-long struggle for spoils and power was likely to end in grief, if political success should not be speedily attained. It became necessary, therefore, to forestall the Almighty. To this end, a political convention was held in the city of Pittsburg, August, 1856, to organize a party whose object should be to act on the defensive against the South, to resist the aggressions, the extension of slavery, to prevent the slaveholding interest from obtaining permanent control of the Federal Government ! This convention gave birth to the republican party-a party which a CLAY, a WEBSTER, or other statesmen of past days, and whom it was necessary to kill off before such a party could be created-would have scorned. There is no denying the fact, that the republican party of 1856, comprehends the free soil party of 1848, and the liberty party of 1844, all having their common foundation far back in original abolitionism, under the auspices of which, what may be termed venom distilleries were established, in the shape of abolition societies, abolition journals, abolition tracts, abolition lectures, abolition sermons, etc., and which for more than thirty years, distilled their poison into the public mind in one unceasing drip. On the 25th of October, 1858, the acknowledged creator and leader of the republican party, Wм. H. SEWARD, stood up before the people of the North, and declared the principles and purposes of the party, as follows: "It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation. Either the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina, and the sugar plantations of Louisiana will ultimately be tilled by free labor, and Charleston and New Orleans become marts for legitimate merchandise alone, or else the rye fields and wheat fields of Massachusetts and New York must again be surrendered by their farmers to slave culture, and to the production of slaves, and Boston and New York become once more the markets for trade in the bodies and souls of men." Based upon such infidel notions as these-such an utter want of faith in the overruling power of divine Providence and the progress of humanity-abolition, under the name of republicanism, drew a large body of the most respectable and wellmeaning people of the North, into the belief that the freedom. of their own soil, and the salvation of the Federal Government, depended on the success of the republican party in 1860. Upon this unnatural, false issue, abolition-livid abolition-achieved success, and is now enthroned in Wash ington. It was these views, and the fear of abolition success, that caused us to remark, in MEXICAN PAPERS, No. 3, Sept. 15, 1860, page 128, as follows: "The 'irrepressible conflict' leaders dread these developments (the decline of slavery) more than all else. Mr. SEWARD feels that they are already beginning to have their influence, and he is exerting himself to destroy the effect and keep up the sectional flame until after the election in November next. We detect this in every speech he makes on his western tour. Mr. SEWARD has clothed himself with an idea-the assumption that he is something like a Divine Essence the spirit of progressive freedom on this continent, and many good people bow down to him as such. "You who take the opposite ground, and whose business it is, give the people light on this subject. THE PEOPLE NEED LIGHT! They are ready to receive it. Every ray shed does some good, even at this late moment. Follow the demagogues and fanatics, and puncture the wickedest political humbug that ever cast its dark and threatening shadow over a great and prosperous nation." That dark and threatening shadow has become a reality. The reputed author of the idea of the "irrepressible conflict" is President of the United States, and the elaborator of that idea is his premier, but--where is our country? GENERAL RECAPITULATON. In the foregoing history of Commercial Slavery in America, the principal endeavor has been to set forth three points, namely: First. The rise of Commercial Slavery in America. Second. The culminating Period of Commercial Slavery in America. Third. The decline of Commercial Slavery in America. In elucidating the first mentioned point, the following facts are narrated: First. The commencement of the era of Commercial Slavery, by the discovery of the west coast of Africa by the Portuguese in 1441. Second. This discovery of the New World by COLUMBUS in 1492. |