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SOCIOLOGY  FOR  THE  SOUTH  OF  THE 
FAILURE  OF  FREE  SOCIETY 
By  George  Pitzhugh 
1854 

"Lincoln  and  I  took  such  papers 
as  the  Chicago  Tribune,  New  York  Tribune, 
Anti-Slavery  Standard,  Emancipator,  and 
National  Era-  On  the  other  side  of  the 
question  wb  took  the  Charleston  Mercury, 
and  the  Richmond  Enquirer.  I  also  bought 
a  book  called  'Sociology,1  written  by 
one  Fitzhugh,  which  defended  and  justified 
slavery  in  every  conceivable  way.  In 
addition  I  purchased  all  the  leading 
histories  of  the  slavery  movement,  and 
other  works  which  treated  on  that  subject. 
Lincoln  himself  never  bought  many  books, 
but  he  and  I  read  those  I  have  named. 
After  reading  them  we  would  discuss  the 
questions  they  touched  upon  and  the 
ideas  they  suggested,  from  our  different 
points  of  view. ■ 

(Herndon's  Lincoln,  page  363). 
See  also  Beveridge,  vol.  2,  pages  30-31. 

H.  E.  Barker 


5c 


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-»     -    .  ,»• 


■c  • 


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N 


SOCIOLOGY  FOR  THE  SOUTH, 


FAILURE  OF  FREE  SOCIETY. 


BY    GEOKGE  FITZHUGH 


THE  THING  THAT  HAS  BEEN,  IT  IS  THAT  "WHICH  SHALL  BE  ;  AND  THAT 
WHICH  IS  DONE  IS  THAT  WHICH  SHALL  BE  DONE;  AND  THERE  IS  NO  NEW 
THING  UNDER  THE  SUN.— Ecc.  1 :  9. 


Naturam  expelles  furca,  tamen  usque  recurret.— Horace. 


RICHMOND,    VA. 
A.    MORRIS,    PUBLISHER 

1854. 


Entered  according  to  an  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1854,  by 

GEORGE    FITZIIUGH, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for 

the  Eastern  District  of  Virginia. 


C.  H.  WYNNE,  PRINTER,  RICHMOND. 


TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  SOUTH 


We  dedicate  this  little  work  to  you,  because  it  is  a 
zealous  and  honest  effort  to  promote  your  peculiar  inte- 
rests. Society  has  been  so  quiet  and  contented  in  the 
South — it  has  suffered  so  little  from  crime  or  extreme 
poverty,  that  its  attention  has  not  been  awakened  to 
the  revolutionary  tumults,  uproar,  mendicity  and  crime 
of  free  society.  Few  are  aware  of  the  blessings  they 
enjoy,  or  of  the  evils  from  which  they  are  exempt. 

From  some  peculiarity  of  taste,  we  have  for  many 
years  been  watching  closely  the  perturbed  workings  of 
free  society.  Its  crimes,  its  revolutions,  its  sufferings 
and  its  beggary,  have  led  us  to  investigate  its  past 
history,  as  well  as  to  speculate  on  its  future  destiny. 
This  pamphlet  has  been  hastily  written,  but  is  the 
result  of  long  observation,  some  research  and  much 
reflection.  Should  it  contain  suggestions  that  will  enlist 
abler  pens  to  show  that  free  society  is  a  failure  and 
its  philosophy  false,  our  highest  ambition  will  be  grat- 
ified. Believing  our  positions  on  these  subjects  to  be 
true,  we  feel  sanguine  they  are  destined  to  final  vin- 
dication and  triumph.  We  should  have  written  a  larger 
work,   had  not  our  inexperience  in  authorship  warned 


IV  DEDICATION. 

us  that  we  had  better  await  the  reception  of  this.  We 
may  again  appear  in  the  character  of  writer  before  the 
public ;  but  we  shall  not  intrude,  and  would  prefer  that 
others  should  finish  the  work  which  we  have  begun. 
Treating  subjects  novel  and  difficult  of  comprehension, 
we  have  designedly  indulged  in  iteration;  for  we  pre- 
ferred offending  the  ear  and  the  taste  of  the  reader, 
to  confounding  or  confusing  him  by  insufficient  elabo- 
ration. In  truth,  fine  finish  and  rotundity  are  not 
easily  attained  in  what  is  merely  argumentative  and 
controversial. 

On  all  subjects  of  social  science,  Southern  men,  from 
their  position,  possess  peculiar  advantages  when  they 
undertake  discussion.  History,  past  and  cotempora- 
neous,  informs  them  of  all  the  phenomena  of  other 
forms  of  society,  and  they  see  every  day  around  them 
the  peculiarities  and  characteristics  of  slave  society,  of 
which  little  is  to  be  learned  from  books.  The  ancients 
took  it  for  granted  that  slavery  was  right,  and  never 
attempted  to  justify  it.  The  moderns  assume  that  it 
is  wrong,  and  forthwith  proceed  to  denounce  it.  The 
South  can  lose  nothing,  and  may  gain,  by  the  discussion. 
She  has,  up  to  this  time,  been  condemned  without  a 
hearing. 

With  respect,  your  fellow-citizen, 

GEO.  FITZHUGH. 


PREFACE. 


"We  hesitated  some  time  in  selecting  the  title  of  our 
work.  We  did  not  like  to  employ  the  newly-coined 
word  Sociology.  We  could,  however,  find  none  other 
in  the  whole  range  of  the  English  language,  that  would 
even  faintly  convey  the  idea  which  we  wished  to  express. 
We  looked  to  the  history  of  the  term.  We  found  that 
within  the  last  half  century,  disease,  long  lurking  in 
the  system  of  free  society,  had  broken  out  into  a  hun- 
dred open  manifestations.  Thousands  of  authors  and 
schemers,  such  as  Owen,  Louis  Blanc  and  Fourier,  had 
arisen,  proposing  each  a  different  mode  of  treatment  for 
the  disease  which  all  confessed  to  exist.  Society  had 
never  been  in  such  a  state  before.  New  exigencies  in 
its  situation  had  given  rise  to  new  ideas,  and  to  a  new 
philosophy.  This  new  philosophy  must  have  a  name, 
and  as  none  could  be  found  ready-made  \o  suit  the 
occasion,  the  term  Sociology  was  compounded,  of  hybrid 
birth,  half  Greek  and  half  Latin,  as  the  technical  appel- 
lative of  the  new-born  science.  In  Europe,  the  term 
is  familiar  as  "household  words."  It  grates  harshly, 
as  yet,  on  Southern  ears,  because  to  us  it  is  new  and 
superfluous — the  disease  of  which  it  treats  being    un- 


VI  PREFACE. 

known  amongst  us.  But  as  our  book  is  intended  to 
prove  that  we  are  indebted  to  domestic  slavery  for 
our  happy  exemption  from  the  social  afflictions  that 
have  originated  this  philosophy,  it  became  necessary 
and  appropriate  that  we  should  employ  this  new  word 
in  our  title.  The  fact  that,  before  the  institution  of 
Free  Society,  there  was  no  such  term,  and  that  it  is 
not  in  use  in  slave  countries,  now,  shows  pretty  clearly 
that  Slave  Society,  ancient  and  modern,  has  ever  been 
in  so  happy  a  condition,  so  exempt  from  ailments,  that 
no  doctors  have  arisen  to  treat  it  of  its  complaints,  or 
to  propose  remedies  for  their  cure.  The  term,  there- 
fore, is  not  only  appropriate  to  the  subject  and  the 
occasion,  but  pregnantly  suggestive  of  facts  and  argu- 
ments  that    sustain    our   theory. 


CHAPTER   I 


FREE   TRADE. 


Political  economy  is  the  science  of  free  society. 
Its  theory  and  its  history  alike  establish  this  po- 
sition. Its  fundamental  maxims,  Laissez-faire  and 
"  Pas  trop  gouverner"  are  at  war  with  all  kinds 
of  slavery,  for  they  in  fact  assert  that  individuals 
and  peoples  prosper  most  when  governed  least. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  wonderful  that  such  a  science 
should  not  have  been  believed  or  inculcated  whilst 
slavery  was  universal.  Roman  and  Greek  mas- 
ters, feudal  lords  and  Catholic  priests,  if  con- 
scientious, must  have  deemed  such  maxims  false 
and  heritical,  or  if  unconscientious,  would  find  in 
their  self-interest  sufficient  reasons  to  prevent 
their  propagation.  Accordingly  we  find  no  such 
maxims  current,  no  such  science  existing,  until 
slavery  and  serfdom  were  extinct  and  Catholic- 
ism maimed  and  crippled,  in  the  countries  that 
gave  them  birth.  Men  belonging  to  the  higher 
classes  of  society,  and  who  neither  feel  nor  appre- 
hend the  ills  of  penury  or  privation,  are  very  apt 
to  think  little  of  those  ills,  and  less  of  the  class 
who  suffer  them.  Especially  is  this  the  case  with 
unobservant,  abstract  thinkers  and  closet  scholars, 


8  FREE   TRADE. 

who  deal  with  little  of  the  world  and  see  less  of 
it.  Such  men  judge  of  mankind,  their  progress 
and  their  happiness,  by  the  few  specimens  sub- 
jected to  the  narrow  range  of  their  experience 
and  observation.  After  the  abolition  of  feudalism 
and  Catholicism,  an  immense  amount  of  unfettered 
talent,  genius,  industry  and  capital,  was  brought 
into  the  field  of  free  competition.  The  immediate 
result  was,  that  all  those  who  possessed  either  of 
those  advantages  prospered  as  they  had  never 
prospered  before,  and  rose  in  social  position  and 
intelligence.  At  the  same  time,  and  from  the 
same  causes,  the  aggregate  wealth  of  society,  and 
probably  its  aggregate  intelligence,  were  rapidly 
increased.  Such  was  no  doubt  part  of  the  effects 
of  unfettering  the  limbs,  the  minds  and  consciences 
of  men.  It  was  the  only  part  of  those  effects  that 
scholars  and  philosophers  saw  or  heeded.  Here 
was  something  new  under  the  sun,  which  refuted 
and  rebuked  the  wisdom  of  Solomon.  Up  to  this 
time,  one-half  of  mankind  had  been  little  better 
than  chattels  belonging  to  the  other  half.  A  cen- 
tral power,  with  branches  radiating  throughout 
the  civilized  world,  had  trammeled  men's  con- 
sciences, dictated  their  religious  faith,  and  pre- 
scribed the  forms  and  modes  of  worship.  All  this 
was  done  away  with,  and  the  new  world  just 
started  into  existence  was  certainly  making  rapid 
progress,    and   seemed   to   the    ordinary    observer 


FREE  TRADE.  9 

to  be  very  happy.  About  such  a  world,  nothing 
was  to  be  found  in  books.  Its  social,  its  indus- 
trial and  its  mor£l  phenomena,  seemed  to  be  as 
beautiful  as  they  were  novel.  They  needed,  how- 
ever, description,  classification  and  arrangement. 
Men's  social  relations  and  moral  duties  were 
quite  different  under  a  system  of  universal  lib- 
erty and  equality  of  rights,  from  what  they  had 
been  in  a  state  of  subordination  and  dependence 
on  the  one  side,  and  of  power,  authority  and 
protection  on  the  other.  The  reciprocal  duties 
and  obligations  of  master  and  slave,  of  lord  and 
vassal,  of  priest  and  layman,  to  each  other,  were 
altogether  unlike  those  that  should  be  practiced 
between  the  free  and  equal  citizens  of  regene- 
rated society.  Men  needed  a  moral  guide,  a  new 
philosophy  of  ethics  ;  for  neither  the  sages  of  the 
Gentiles,  nor  the  Apostles  of  Christianity,  had 
foreseen  or  provided  for  the  great  light  which 
was  now  to  burst  upon  the  world.  Moses,  and 
Solomon,  and  Paul,  were  silent  as  Socrates,  Plato 
and  Aristotle,  as  to  this  social  Millenium,  and  the 
moral  duties  and  obligations  it  would  bring  in  its 
train. 

Until  now,  industry  had  been  controlled  and 
directed  by  a  few  minds.  Monopoly  in  its  every 
form  had  been  rife.  Men  were  suddenly  called 
on  to  walk  alone,  to  act  and  work  for  themselves 
without    guide,    advice    or    control   from    superior 


10  FREE   TRADE. 

authority.  In  the  past,  nothing  like  it  had  oc- 
curred ;  hence  no  assistance  could  be  derived  from 
books.  The  prophets  themselves  had  overlooked 
or  omitted  to  tell  of  the  advent  of  this  golden 
era,  and  were  no  better  guides  than  the  historians 
and  philosophers.  A  philosophy  that  should  guide 
and  direct  industry  was  equally  needed  with  a 
philosophy  of  morals.  The  occasion  found  and 
made  the  man.  For  writing  a  one-sided  philos- 
ophy, no  man  was  better  fitted  than  Adam  Smith. 
He  possessed  extraordinary  powers  of  abstraction, 
analysis  and  generalization.  He  was  absent,  se- 
cluded and  unobservant.  He  saw  only  that  pros- 
perous and  progressive  portion  of  society  whom 
liberty  or  free  competition  benefitted,  and  mistook 
its  effects  on  them  for  its  effects  on  the  world. 
He  had  probably  never  heard  the  old  English 
adage,  "Every  man  for  himself,  and  Devil  take 
the  hindmost."  This  saying  comprehends  the 
whole  philoscphy,  moral  and  economical,  of  the 
"  Wealth  of  Nations."  But  he  and  the  political 
economists  who  have  succeeded  him,  seem  never 
to  have  dreamed  that  there  would  have  been  any 
"  hindmost."  There  can  never  be  a  wise  moral 
philosopher,  or  a  sound  philosophy,  till  some  one 
arises  who  sees  and  comprehends  all  the  "things 
in  heaven  and  earth."  Philosophers  are  the  most 
abstracted,  secluded,  and  least  observant  of  men. 
Their  premises  are  always  false,  because  they  see 


FREE   TRADE.  11 

but  few  facts ;  and  hence  their  conclusions  must 
also  be  false.  Plato  and  Aristotle  have  to-day 
as  many  believers  as  Smith,  Paley  or  Locke,  and 
between  their  times  a  hundred  systems  have  arisen, 
flourished  for  a  time,  and  been  rejected.  There 
is  not  a  true  moral  philosophy,  and  from  the  na- 
ture of  things  there  never  can  be.  Such  a  phi- 
losophy has  to  discover  first  causes  and  ultimate 
effects,  to  grasp  infinitude,  to  deal  with  eternity 
at  both  ends.  Human  presumption  will  often  at- 
tempt this,  but  human  intellect  can  never  achieve 
it.  We  shall  build  up  no  system,  attempt  to 
account  for  nothing,  but  simply  point  out  what 
is  natural  and  universal,  and  humbly  try  to  jus- 
tify the  ways  of  God  to  man. 

Adam  Smith's  philosophy  is  simple  and  com- 
prehensive, (teres  et  rotundus.)  Its  leading  and 
almost  its  only  doctrine  is,  that  individual  well- 
being  and  social  and  national  wealth  and  pros- 
perity will  be  best  promoted  by  each  man's  eagerly 
pursuing  his  own  selfish  welfare  unfettered  and 
unrestricted  by  legal  regulations,  or  governmental 
prohibitions,  farther  than  such  regulations  may  be 
necessary  to  prevent  positive  crime.  That  some 
qualifications  of  this  doctrine  will  not  be  found 
in  his  book,  we  shall  not  deny ;  but  this  is  his 
system.  It  is  obvious  enough  that  such  a  gov- 
ernmental policy  as  this  doctrine  would  result  in, 
would  stimulate  energy,  excite   invention  and  in- 


12  FREE   TRADE. 

dustry,  and  bring  into  livelier  action,  genius,  skill 
and  talent.  It  had  done  so  before  Smith  wrote, 
and  it  was  no  doubt  the  observation  of  those 
effects  that  suggested  the  theory.  His  friends 
and  acquaintances  were  of  that  class,  who,  in  the 
war  of  the  wits  to  which  free  competition  invited, 
were  sure  to  come  off  victors.  His  country,  too, 
England  and  Scotland,  in  the  arts  of  trade  and 
in  manufacturing  skill,  was  an  over-match  for 
the  rest  of  the  world.  International  free  trade 
would  benefit  his  country  as  much  as  social  free 
trade  would  benefit  his  friends.  This  was  his 
world,  and  had  it  been  the  only  world  his  phi- 
losophy would  have  been  true.  But  there  was 
another  and  much  larger  world,  whose  misfor- 
tunes, under  his  system,  were  to  make  the  for- 
tunes of  his  friends  and  his  country.  A  part  of 
that  world,  far  more  numerous  than  his  friends 
and  acquaintance  was  at  his  door,  they  were  the 
unemployed  poor,  the  weak  in  mind  or  body, 
the  simple  and  unsuspicious,  the  prodigal,  the  dis- 
sipated, the  improvident  and  the  vicious.  Lais- 
sez-faire and  pas  trop  gouverner  suited  not  them; 
one  portion  of  them  needed  support  and  protec- 
tion ;  the  other,  much  and  rigorous  government. 
Still  they  were  fine  subjects  out  of  which  the 
astute  and  designing,  the  provident  and  avari- 
cious, the  cunning,  the  prudent  and  the  indus- 
trious  might   make   fortunes  in  the    field   of  free 


FREE   TRADE.  13 

competition.  Another  portion  of  the  world  which 
Smith  overlooked,  were  the  countries  with  which 
England  traded,  covering  a  space  many  hundred 
times  larger  than  England  herself.  She  was  daily 
growing  richer,  more  powerful  and  intellectual, 
by  her  trade,  and  the  countries  with  which  she 
traded  poorer,  weaker,  and  more  ignorant.  Since 
the  vast  extension  of  trade,  consequent  on  the 
discoveries  of  Columbus  and  Yasco  de  Gam  a,  the 
civilized  countries  of  Europe  which  carried  on 
this  trade  had  greatly  prospered,  but  the  savages 
and  barbarians  with  whom  they  traded  had  be- 
come more  savage  and  barbarous  or  been  exter- 
minated. Trade  is  a  war  of  the  wits,  in  which 
the  stronger  witted  are  as  sure  to  succeed  as  the 
stronger  armed  in  a  war  with  swords.  Strength 
of  wit  has  this  great  advantage  over  strength  of 
arm,  that  it  never  tires,  for  it  gathers  new 
strength  by  appropriating  to  itself  the  spoils  of 
the  vanquished.  And  thus,  whether  between  na- 
tions or  individuals,  the  war  of  free  trade  is  con- 
stantly widening  the  relative  abilities  of  the  weak 
and  the  strong.  It  has  been  justly  observed  that 
under  this  system  the  rich  are  continually  grow- 
ing richer  and  the  poor  poorer.  The  remark  is 
true  as  well  between  nations  as  between  individ- 
uals. Free  trade,  when  the  American  gives  a 
bottle  of  whiskey  to  the  Indian  for  valuable  furs, 
or    the   Englishman   exchanges  with   the    African 


14  FREE  TRADE. 

blue-beads  for  diamonds,  gold  and  slaves,  is  a 
fair  specimen  of  all  free  trade  when  unequals 
meet.  Free  trade  between  England  and  Ireland 
furnishes  the  latter  an  excellent  market  for  her 
beef  and  potatoes,  in  exchange  for  English  man- 
ufactures. The  labor  employed  in  manufacturing 
pays  much  better  than  that  engaged  in  rearing 
beeves  and  potatoes.  On  the  average,  one  hour 
of  English  labor  pays  for  two  of  Irish.  Again, 
manufacturing  requires  and  encourages  skill  and 
intelligence;  grazing  and  farming  require  none. 
But  far  the  worst  evils  of  this  free  trade  remain 
to  be  told.  Irish  pursuits  depressing  education 
and  refinement,  England  becomes  a  market  for 
the  wealth,  the  intellect,  the  talent,  energy  and 
enterprise  of  Ireland.  All  men  possessing  any  of 
these  advantages  or  qualities  retreat  to  England 
to  spend  their  incomes,  to  enter  the  church,  the 
navy,  or  the  army,  to  distinguish  themselves  as 
authors,  to  engage  in  mechanic  or  manufacturing 
pursuits.  Thus  is  Ireland  robbed  of  her  very 
life's  blood,  and  thus  do  our  Northern  States  rob 
the  Southern. 

Under  the  system  of  free  trade  a  fertile  soil, 
with  good  rivers  and  roads  as  outlets,  becomes 
the  greatest  evil  with  which  a  country  can  be 
afflicted.  The  richness  of  soil  invites  to  agricul- 
culture,  and  the  roads  and  rivers  carry  off  the 
crops,  to  be  exchanged   for   the   manufactures  of 


FREE   TRADE.  15 

poorer  regions,  where  are  situated  the  centres  of 
trade,  of  capital  and  manufactures.  In  a  few 
centuries  or  less  time  the  consumption  abroad  of 
the  crops  impoverishes  the  soil  where  they  are 
made.  No  cities  or  manufactories  arise  in  the 
country  with  this  fertile  soil,  because  there  is  no 
occasion.  No  pursuits  are  carried  on  requiring 
intelligence  or  skill;  the  population  is  of  neces- 
sity sparse,  ignorant  and  illiterate ;  universal  ab- 
senteeism prevails ;  the  rich  go  off  for  pleasure 
and  education,  the  enterprising  poor  for  employ- 
ment. An  intelligent  friend  suggests  that,  left 
to  nature,  the  evil  will  cure  itself.  So  it  may 
when  the  country  is  ruined,  if  the  people,  like 
those  of  Georgia,  are  of  high  character,  and  be- 
take themselves  to  other  pursuits  than  mere  agri- 
culture, and  totally  repudiate  free  trade  doctrines. 
Our  friends'  objection  only  proves  the  truth  of 
our  theory.  We  are  very  sure  that  the  wit  of 
man  can  devise  no  means  so  effectual  to  impov- 
erish a  country  as  exclusive  agriculture.  The 
ravages  of  war,  pestilence  and  famine  are  soon 
effaced;  centuries  are  required  to  restore  an  ex- 
hausted soil.  The  more  rapidly  money  is  made 
in  such  a  country,  enjoying  free  trade,  the  faster 
it  is  impoverished,  for  the  draft  on  the  soil  is 
greater,  and  those  who  make  good  crops  spend 
them  abroad ;  those  who  make  small  ones,  at 
home.     In  the    absence    of   free   trade,    this  rich 


16  FREE   TRADE. 

region  must  manufacture  for  itself,  build  cities, 
erect  schools  and  colleges,  and  carry  on  all  the 
pursuits  and  provide  for  all  the  common  wants 
of  civilized  man.  Thus  the  money  made  at  home 
would  be  spent  and  invested  at  home;  the  crops 
would  be  consumed  at  home,  and  each  town  and 
village  would  furnish  manure  to  fertilize  the  soil 
around  it.  We  believe  it  is  a  common  theory 
that,  without  this  domestic  consumption,  no  soil 
can  be  kept  permanently  rich.  A  dense  popu- 
lation would  arise,  because  it  would  be  required ; 
the  rich  would  have  no  further  occasion  to  leave 
home  for  pleasure,  nor  the  poor  for  employment. 
The  valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  is  cut  off 
by  mountains  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  except 
for  travel.  Suppose  it  to  continue  so  cut  off,  and 
to  be  settled  by  a  virtuous,  enlightened  people. 
Every  trade,  every  art,  every  science,  must  be 
taught  and  practiced  within  a  small  compass  and 
by  a  small  population,  in  order  to  gratify  their 
wants  and  their  tastes.  The  highest,  most  dif- 
fused and  intense  civilization,  with  great  accumu- 
lation of  wealth,  would  be  the  necessary  result. 
But  let  a  river  like  the  Mississippi  pass  through 
it.  Let  its  inhabitants  become  merely  agricultural, 
and  exchange  their  products  for  the  manufac- 
tures of  Europe  and  the  fruits  of  Asia,  and  would 
not   that  civilization   soon   disappear,   and  with  it 


FREE   TRADE.  17 

the  wealth  and  capital  of  the  country  ?  Mere 
agriculture  requires  no  skill  or  education,  few 
and  cheap  houses,  and  no  permanent  outlay  of 
capital  in  the  construction  of  the  thousand  edi- 
fices needed  in  a  manufacturing  country.  Be- 
sides, the  consumption  of  the  crops  abroad  would 
be  cheating  their  lands  of  that  manure  which  na- 
ture  intended  for  them.  Soon  the  rich  and  en- 
lightened, who  owned  property  there,  would,  like 
Irish  landlords,  live  and  spend  their  incomes 
elsewhere. 

The  profits  of  exclusive  agriculture  are  not  more 
than  one-third  of  those  realized  from  commerce 
and  manufactures.  The  ordinary  and  average 
wages  of  laborers  employed  in  manufactures  and 
mechanic  trades  are  about  double  those  of  agri- 
cultural laborers  ;  but,  moreover,  women  and  chil- 
dren get  good  wages  in  manufacturing  countries, 
whose  labor  is  lost  in  agricultural  ones.  But 
this  consideration,  great  as  it  is,  shrinks  to  in- 
significance compared  with  the  intellectual  supe- 
riority of   all  other  pursuits  over  agriculture. 

The  centralizing  effects  of  free  trade  alone 
would  be  sufficient  to  condemn  it.  The  decline 
of  civilization  under  the  Roman  Empire  was 
owing  solely  to  centralization.  If  political  sci- 
ence has  at  all  advanced  since  the  earliest  an- 
nals of  history,  that  advance  is  the  discovery 
that  each  small  section  knows  best  its   own  inter- 


18  FREE   TRADE. 

ests,  and  should  be  endowed  with  the  most  of 
the  functions  of  government.  The  ancients,  in 
the  days  of  Herodotus,  when  the  country  around 
the  Levant  and  the  Islands  in  the  Mediterranean 
were  cut  up  into  hundreds  of  little  highly  en- 
lightened independent  States,  seem  to  have  under- 
stood the  evils  of  centralization  quite  as  well  as 
the  moderns.  At  least  their  practice  was  wiser 
than  ours,  whatever  may  have  been  their  theory. 
Political  independence  is  not  worth  a  fig  without 
commercial  independence.  The  tribute  which  the 
centres  of  trade,  of  capital,  and  of  mechanical 
and  artistic  skill,  such  as  England  and  the  North 
exact  from  the  nations  they  trade  with,  is  more 
onerous  and  more  destructive  of  civilization  than 
that  exacted  from  conquered  provinces.  Its  ef- 
fects everywhere  are  too  obvious  to  need  the 
citation  of  proofs  and  instances.  Social  central- 
ization arises  from  the  laissez-faire  system  just 
as  national  centralization.  A  few  individuals  pos- 
sessed of  capital  and  cunning  acquire  a  power  to 
employ  the  laboring  class  on  such  terms  as  they 
please,  and  they  seldom  fail  to  use  that  power. 
Hence,  the  numbers  and  destitution  of  the  poor 
in  free  society  are  daily  increasing,  the  numbers 
of  the  middle  or  independent  class  diminishing, 
and  the  few  rich  men  growing  hourly  richer. 

Free   trade  occasions    a  vast  and   useless,  pro- 
bably a  very  noxious  waste  of  capital  and  labor, 


FREE   TRADE.  19 

in  exchanging  the  productions  of  different  and 
distant  climes  and  regions.  Furs  and  oils  are 
not  needed  at  the  South,  and  the  fruits  of  the 
tropics  are  tasteless  and  insipid  at  the  North. 
Providence  has  wonderfully  adapted  the  produc- 
tions of  each  section  to  the  wants  of  man  and 
other  animals  inhabiting  those  sections.  It  is 
probable,  if  the  subject  were  scientifically  inves- 
tigated, it  would  be  found  that  the  productions 
of  one  clime  when  used  in  another  are  injurious 
and  deleterious.  The  intercourse  of  travel  and 
the  interchange  of  ideas  it  occasions  advances 
civilization.  The  intercourse  of  trade,  by  accus- 
toming barbarous,  savage  and  agricultural  coun- 
tries to  depend  daily  more  and  more  on  the  cen- 
tres of  trade  and  manufactures  for  their  supplies 
of  every  thing  requiring  skill  or  science  for  its 
production,  rapidly  depresses  civilization.  On  the 
whole  subject  of  civilization  there  is  a  prevalent 
error.  Man's  necessities  civilize  him,  or  rather 
the  labor,  invention  and  ingenuity  needed  to  sup- 
ply .them.  Relieve  him  of  the  necessity  to  exert 
those  qualities  by  supplying  through  trade  or 
other  means  his  wants,  and  he  at  once  begins 
to  sink  into  barbarism.  Wars  are  fine  civilizers, 
for  all  men  dread  violent  death ;  hence,  among 
barbarians,  the  implements  of  warfare  are  far  su- 
perior to  any  other  of  their  manufactures,  but 
they  lead  the  way  to   other  ^improvements.     The 


20 


FREE   TRADE. 


old  adage,  that  "  necessity  is  the  mother  of  in- 
vention," contains  our  theory  ;  for  invention  alone 
begets  civilization.  Civilization  is  no  foreign  hot- 
bed exotic  brought  from  distant  climes,  but  a 
hardy  plant  of  indigenous  birth  and  growth. 
There  never  was  yet  found  a  nation  of  white 
savages ;  their  wants  and  their  wits  combine  to 
elevate  them  above  the  savage  state.  Nature, 
that  imposed  more  wants  on  them,  has  kindly 
endowed  them  with  superior  intelligence  to  sup- 
ply those  wants. 

Political  economy  is  quite  as  objectionable, 
viewed  as  a  rule  of  morals,  as  when  viewed  as  a 
system  of  economy.  Its  authors  never  seem  to 
be  aware  that  they  are  writing  an  ethical  as  well 
as  an  economical  code  ;  yet  it  is  probable  that 
no  writings,  since  the  promulgation  of  the  Chris- 
tian dispensation,  have  exercised  so  controlling 
an  influence  on  human  conduct  as  the  writings 
of  these  authors.  The  morality  which  they  teach 
is  one  of  simple  and  unadulterated  selfishness. 
The  public  good,  the  welfare  of  society,  the  pros- 
perity of  one's  neighbors,  is,  according  to  them, 
best  promoted  by  each  man's  looking  solely  to  the 
advancement  of  his  own  pecuniary  interests. 
They  maintain  that  national  wealth,  happiness 
and  prosperity  being  but  the  aggregate  of  indi- 
vidual wealth,  happiness  and  prosperity,  if  each 
man  pursues  exclusively  his  own  selfish  good,  he 


FREE    TRADE.  21 

is  doing  the  most  he  can  to  promote  the  gen- 
eral good.  They  seem  to  forget  that  men  eager 
in  the  pursuit  of  wealth  are  never  satisfied  with 
the  fair  earnings  of  their  own  bodily  labor,  but 
find  their  wits  and  cunning  employed  in  over- 
reaching others  much  more  profitable  than  their 
hands.  Laissez-faire,  free  competition  begets  a 
war  of  the  wits,  which  these  economists  encour- 
age, quite  as  destructive  to  the  weak,  simple  and 
guileless,  as   the  war  of  the  sword. 

In  a  book  on  society,  evincing  much  power 
and  originality  of  thought,  by  Stephen  Pearl 
Andrews,  this  subject  is  well  handled.  We  an- 
nex a  short  extract :  "It  follows,  from  what 
has  been  said,  that  the  value  principle  is  the 
commercial  embodiment  of  the  essential  element 
of  conquest  and  war — war  transferred  from  the 
battle-field  to  the  counter — none  the  less  opposed, 
however,  to  the  spirit  of  christian  morality,  or 
the  sentiment  of  human  brotherhood.  In  bodily 
conflict,  the  physically  strong  conquer  and  sub- 
ject the  physically  weak.  In  the  conflict  of  trade, 
the  intellectually  astute  and  powerful  conquer 
and  subject  those  who  are  intellectually  feeble, 
or  whose  intellectual  development  is  not  of  the 
precise  kind  to  fit  them  for  the  conflict  of  wits 
in  the  matter  of  trade.  With  the  progress  of 
civilization  and  development,  we  have  ceased  to 
think    that    superior  strength  gives   the    right    of 


22  FREE   TRADE. 

conquest  and  subjugation.  We  have  graduated 
in  idea  out  of  the  period  of  physical  dominion. 
We  remain,  however,  as  yet,  in  the  period  of 
intellectual  conquest  or  plunder.  It  has  not  been 
questioned  hitherto,  as  a  general  proposition,  that 
the  man  who  has  superior  intellectual  endow- 
ments to  others,  has  a  right  resulting  therefrom 
to  profit  thereby  at  the  cost  of  others.  In  the 
extreme  applications  of  the  admission  only  is  the 
conclusion  denied.  (That  is,  as  he  had  before 
said,  'You  must  not  be  too  bad.'  < Don't  gouge 
too  deep.')  In  the  whole  field  of  what  are  de- 
nominated the  legitimate  operations  of  trade, 
there  is  no  other  law  recognized  than  the  rela- 
tive 'smartness'  or  shrewdness  of  the  parties, 
modified  at  most  by  the  sentimental  precept  sta- 
ted above." 

It  begets  another  war  in  the  bosom  of  society 
still  more  terrible  than  this.  It  arrays  capital 
against  labor.  Every  man  is  taught  by  political 
economy  that  it  is  meritorious  to  make  the  best 
bargains  one  can.  In  all  old  countries,  labor  is 
superabundant,  employers  less  numerous  than  la- 
borers ;  yet  all  the  laborers  must  live  by  the 
wages  they  receive  from  the  capitalists.  The 
capitalist  cheapens  their  wages;  they  compete 
with  and  underbid  each  other,  for  employed  they 
must  be  on  any  terms.  This  war  of  the  rich 
with  the  poor  and  the  poor  with  one  another,  is 


FREE   TRADE.  23 

the  morality  which  political  economy  inculcates. 
It  is  the  only  morality,  save  the  Bible,  recog- 
nized or  acknowledged  in  free  society,  and  is  far 
more  efficacious  in  directing  worldly  men's  con- 
duct than  the  Bible,  for  that  teaches  self-denial, 
not  self-indulgence  and  aggrandizement.  This 
process  of  underbidding  each  other  by  the  poor, 
which  universal  liberty  necessarily  brings  about, 
has  well  been  compared  by  the  author  of  Alton 
Locke  to  the  prisoners  in  the  Black  Hole  of 
Calcutta  strangling  one  another.  A  beautiful 
system  of  ethics  this,  that  places  all  mankind 
in  antagonistic  positions,  and  puts  all  society  at 
war.  What  can  such  a  war  result  in  but  the  op- 
pression and  ultimate  extermination  of  the  weak? 
In  such  society  the  astute  capitalist,  who  is  very 
skilful  and  cunning,  gets  the  advantage  of  every 
one  with  whom  he  competes  or  deals;  the  sen- 
sible man  with  moderate  means  gets  the  advan- 
tage of  most  with  whom  he  has  business,  but 
the  mass  of  the  simple  and  poor  are  outwitted 
and  cheated  by  everybody. 

Woman  fares  worst  when  thrown  into  this  war- 
fare of  competition.  The  delicacy  of  her  sex 
and  her  nature  prevents  her  exercising  those 
coarse  arts  which  men  do  in  the  vulgar  and  pro- 
miscuous jostle  of  life,  and  she  is  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  getting  less  than  half  price  for  her 
work.     To  the  eternal  disgrace  of  human  nature, 


24  FREE   TRADE. 

the  men  who  employ  her  value  themselves  on  the 
Adam  Smith  principle  for  their  virtuous  and  sen- 
sible conduct.  "Labor  is  worth  what  it  will 
bring;  they  have  given  the  poor  woman  more 
than  any  one  else  would,  or  she  would  not  have 
taken  the  work."  Yet  she  and  her  children  are 
starving,  and  the  employer  is  growing  rich  by 
giving  her  half  what  her  work  is  worth.  Thus 
does  free  competition,  the  creature  of  free  so- 
ciety, throw  the  whole  burden  of  the  social  fabric 
on  the  poor,  the  weak  and  ignorant.  They  pro- 
duce every  thing  and  enjoy  nothing.  They  are 
"the  muzzled  ox  that  -treadeth  out  the  straw." 
In  free  society  none  but  the  selfish  virtues  are 
in  repute,  because  none  other  help  a  man  in  the 
race  of  competition.  In  such  society  virtue  loses 
all  her  loveliness,  because  of  her  selfish  aims. 
Good  men  and  bad  men  have  the  same  end  in  view : 
self-promotion,  self-elevation.  The  good  man  is 
prudent,  cautious,  and  cunning  of  fence ;  he  knows 
well,  the  arts  (the  virtues,  if  you  please)  which 
enable  him  to  advance  his  fortunes  at  the  ex- 
pense of  those  with  whom  he  deals ;  he  does  not 
"cut  too  deep";  he  does  not  cheat  and  swindle, 
he  only  makes  good  bargains  and  excellent  profits. 
He  gets  more  subjects  by  this  course ;  everybody 
comes  to  him  to  be  bled.  He  bides  his  time ; 
takes  advantage  of  the  follies,  the  improvidence 
and  vices  of   others,  and  makes  his   fortune    out 


FREE    TRADE.  25 

of  the  follies  and  weaknesses  of  his  fellow-men. 
The  bad  man  is  rash,  hasty,  unskilful  and  im- 
politic. He  is  equally  selfish,  but  not  half  so 
prudent  and  cunning.  Selfishness  is  almost  the 
only  motive  of  human  conduct  in  free  society, 
where  every  man  is  taught  that  it  is  his  first 
duty  to  change  and  better  his  pecuniary  situation. 
The  first  principles  of  the  science  of  political 
economy  inculcate  separate,  individual  action,  and 
are  calculated  to  prevent  that  association  of  labor 
without  which  nothing  great  can  be  achieved;  for 
man  isolated  and  individualized  is  the  most  help- 
less of  animals.  We  think  this  error  of  the  econ- 
omists proceeded  from  their  adopting  Locke's 
theory  of  the  social  contract.  We  believe  no  her- 
esy in  moral  science  has  been  more  pregnant  of 
mischief  than  this  theory  of  Locke.  It  lies  at 
the  bottom  of  all  moral  speculations,  and  if  false, 
must  infect  with  falsehood  all  theories  built  on  it. 
Some  animals  are  by  nature  gregarious  and  asso- 
ciative. Of  this  class  are  men,  ants  and  bees. 
An  isolated  man  is  almost  as  helpless  and  ridic- 
ulous as  a  bee  setting  up  for  himself.  Man  is 
born  a  member  of  society,  and  does  not  form 
society.  Nature,  as  in  the  cases  of  bees  and  ants, 
has  it  ready  formed  for  him.  He  and  society 
are  congenital.  Society  is  the  being — he  one  of 
the  members  of  that  being.  He  has  no  rights 
whatever,  as  opposed  to  the  interests  of  society; 

B 


26  FREE    TRADE. 

and  that  society  may  very  properly  make  any 
use  of  him  that  will  redound  to  the  public  good. 
Whatever  rights  he  has  are  subordinate  to  the 
good  of  the  whole ;  and  he  has  never  ceded  rights 
to  it,  for  he  was  born  its  slave,  and  had  no  rights 
to  cede. 

Government  is  the  creature  of  society,  and  may 
be  said  to  derive  its  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed;  but  society  does  not  owe  its  sove- 
reign power  to  the  separate  consent,  volition  or 
agreement  of  its  members.  Like  the  hive,  it  is 
as  much  the  work  of  nature  as  the  individuals 
who  compose  it.  Consequences,  the  very  opposite 
of  the  doctrine  of  free  trade,  result  from  this  doc- 
trine of  ours.  It  makes  each  society  a  band  of 
brothers,  working  for  the  common  good,  instead 
of  a  bag  of  cats  biting  and  worrying  each  other. 
The  competitive  system  is  a  system  of  antagonism 
and  war;  ours  of  peace  and  fraternity.  The  first 
is  the  system  of  free  society ;  the  other  that  of 
slave  society.  The  Greek,  the  Roman,  Judaistic, 
Egyptian,  and  all  ancient  polities,  were  founded 
on  our  theory.  The  loftiest  patrician  in  those 
days,  valued  himself  not  on  selfish,  cold  individ- 
uality, but  on  being  the  most  devoted  servant  of 
society  and  his  country.  In  ancient  times,  the 
individual  was  considered  nothing,  the  State  every 
thing.  And  yet,  under  this  system,  the  noblest 
individuality  was   evolved  that  the  world  has  ever 


FREE    TRADE.  27 

seen.  The  prevalence  of  the  doctrines  of  polit- 
ical economy  has  injured  Southern  character, 
for  in  the  South  those  doctrines  most  prevail. 
Wealthy  men,  who  are  patterns  of  virtue  in  the 
discharge  of  their  domestic  duties,  value  them- 
selves on  never  intermeddling,  in  public  matters. 
They  forget  that  property  is  a  mere  creature  of 
law  and  society,  and  are  willing  to  make  no  re- 
turn for  that  property  to  the  public,  which  by 
its  laws  gave  it  to  them,  and  which  guard  and 
protect  them  in  its   possession. 

All  great  enterprises  owe  their  success  to  asso- 
ciation of  capital  and  labor.  The  North  is  in- 
debted for  its  great  wealth  and  prosperity  to  the 
readiness  with  which  it  forms  associations  for  all 
industrial  and  commercial  purposes.  The  success 
of  Southern  farming  is  a  striking  instance  of  the 
value  of  the  association  of  capital  and  laborers, 
and  ought  to  suggest  to  the  South  the  necessity 
of  it  for   other  purposes. 

The  dissociation  of  labor  and  disintegration  of 
society,  which  liberty  and  free  competition  occa- 
sion, is  especially  injurious  to  the  poorer  class  ; 
for  besides  the  labor  necessary  to  support  the 
family,  the  poor  man  is  burdened  with  the  care 
of  finding  a  home,  and  procuring  employment, 
and  attending  to  all  domestic  wants  and  concerns. 
Slavery  relieves  our  slaves  of  these  cares  alto- 
gether, and  slavery  is  a  form,  and  the  very  best 


28  FREE    TRADE. 

form,  of  socialism.  In  fact,  the  ordinary  wages 
of  common  labor  are  insufficient  to  keep  up  sep- 
arate domestic  establishments  for  each  of  the  poor, 
and  association  or  starvation  is  in  many  cases 
inevitable.  In  free  society,  as  well  in  Europe 
as  in  America,  this  is  the  accepted  theory,  and 
various  schemes  have  been  resorted  to,  all  without 
success,  to  cure  the  evil.  The  association  of  labor 
properly  carried  out  under  a  common  head  or 
ruler,  would  render  labor  more  efficient,  relieve 
the  laborer  of  many  of  the  cares'  of  household 
affairs,  and  protect  and  support  him  in  sickness 
and  old  age,  besides  preventing  the  too  great 
reduction  of  wages  by  redundancy  of  labor  and 
free  competition.  Slavery  attains  all  these  results. 
What  else  will  ? 

We  find  in  the  days  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  a 
very  singular  pamphlet  attributed  to  him.  It  was 
an  attempt  to  prove  that  two  healthy  laborers, 
marrying  and  having  in  the  usual  time  four  chil- 
dren, could  not  at  ordinary  labor,  and  with  ordi- 
nary wages,  support  their  family.  The  nursing, 
washing,  cooking  and  making  clothes,  would  fully 
occupy  the  wife.  The  husband,  with  the  chances 
of  sickness  and  uncertainty  of  employment,  would 
have  to  support  four.  Such  is  the  usual  and 
normal  condition  of  free  laborers.  With  six  chil- 
dren, the  oldest  say  twelve  years  of  age,  their 
condition  would  be  worse.     Or  should  the  husband 


FREE    TRADE.  29 

die,  the  family  that  remained  would  be  still  worse 
off.  There  are  large  numbers  of  aged  and  infirm 
male  and  female  laborers ;  so  that  as  a  class,  it 
is  obvious,  we  think,  that  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, in  old  countries,  they  are  incapable  of 
procuring  a  decent  and  comfortable  support.  The 
wages  of  the  poor  diminish  as  their  wants  and 
families  increase,  for  the  care  and  labor  of  at- 
tending to  the  family  leaves  them  fewer  hours  for 
profitable  work.  With  negro  slaves,  their  wages 
invariably  increase  with  their  wants.  The  master 
increases  the  provision  for  the  family  as  the  family 
increases  in  number  and  helplessness.  It  is  a 
beautiful  example  of  communism,  where  each  one 
receives  not  according  to  his  labor,  but  according 
to  his  wants. 

A  maxim  well  calculated  not  only  to  retard  the 
progress  of  civilization,  but  to  occasion  its  retro- 
gression, has  grown  out  of  the  science  of  political 
economy.  "The  world  is  too  much  governed,"  has 
become  quite  an  axiom  with  many  politicians. 
Now  the  need  of  law  and  government  is  just  in 
proportion  to  man's  wealth  and  enlightenment. 
Barbarians  and  savages  need  and  will  submit  to 
but  few  and  simple  laws,  and  little  of  government. 
The  love  of  personal  liberty  and  freedom  from  all 
restraint,  are  distinguishing  traits  of  wild  men  and 
wild  beasts.  Our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors  loved 
personal  liberty  because  they  were  barbarians,  but 


30  FREE   TRADE. 

they  did  not  love  it  half  so  much  as  North  Amer- 
ican Indians  or  Bengal  tigers,  because  they  were 
not  half  so  savage.  As  civilization  advances,  lib- 
erty recedes :  and  it  is  fortunate  for  man  that 
he  loses  his  love  of  liberty  just  as  fast  as  he  be- 
comes more  moral  and  intellectual.  The  wealthy, 
virtuous  and  religious  citizens  of  large  towns  enjoy 
less  of  liberty  than  any  other  persons  whatever, 
and  yet  they  are  the  most  useful  and  rationally 
happy  of  all  mankind.  The  best  governed  coun- 
tries, and  those  which  have  prospered  most,  have 
always  been  distinguished  for  the  number  and 
stringency  of  their  laws.  Good  men  obey  supe- 
rior authority,  the  laws  of  God,  of  morality,  and 
of  their  country  ;  bad  men  love  liberty  and  vio- 
late them.  It  would  be  difficult  very  often  for 
the  most  ingenious  casuist  to  distinguish  between 
sin  and  liberty :  for  virtue  consists  in  the  per- 
formance of  duty,  and  the  obedience  to  that  law 
or  power  that  imposes  duty,  whilst  sin  is  but  the 
violation  of  duty  and  disobedience  to  such  law 
and  power.  It  is  remarkable,  in  this  connec- 
tion, that  sin  began  by  the  desire  for  liberty  and 
the  attempt  to  attain  it  in  the  person  of  Satan 
and  his  fallen  angels.  The  world  wants  good  go- 
vernment and  a  plenty  of  it — not  liberty.  It  is 
deceptive  in  us  to  boast  of  our  Democracy,  to 
assert  the  capacity  of  the  people  for  self-govern- 
ment, and  then  refuse   to  them   its   exercise.     In 


FREE   TRADE. 


si 


New  England,  and  in  all  our  large  cities,  where 
the  people  govern  most,  they  are  governed  best. 
If  government  be  not  too  much  centralized,  there 
is  little  danger  of  too  much  government.  The 
danger  and  evil  with  us  is  of  too  little.  Carlyle 
says  of  our  institutions,  that  they  are  "  anarchy 
plus  a  street  constable."  We  ought  not  to  be 
bandaged  up  too  closely  in  our  infancy,  it  might 
prevent  growth  and  development ;  but  the  time 
is  coming  when  we  shall  need  more  of  govern- 
ment, if  we  would  secure  the  permanency  of  our 
institutions. 

All  men  concur  in  the  opinion  that  some  gov- 
ernment is  necessary.  Even  the  political  econo- 
mist would  punish  murder,  theft,  robbery,  gross 
swindling,  &c;  but  they  encourage  men  to  com- 
pete with  and  slowly  undermine  and  destroy  one 
another  by  means  quite  as  effective  as  those  they 
forbid.  We  have  heard  a  distinguished  member 
of  this  school  object  to  negro  slavery,  because 
the  protection  it  afforded  to  an  inferior  race 
would  perpetuate  that  race,  which,  if  left  free  to 
compete  with  the  whites,  must  be  starved  out  in 
a  few  generations.  Members  of  Congress,  of  the 
Young  American  party,  boast  that  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  is  manifestly  destined  to  eat  out  all 
other  races,  as  the  wire-grass  destroys  and  takes 
the  place  of  other  grasses.  Nay,  they  allege  this 
competitive    process   is    going   on   throughout    all 


32  FREE   TRADE. 

nature ;  the  weak  are  everywhere  devouring  the 
strong;  the  hardier  plants  and  animals  destroy- 
ing the  weaker,  and  the  superior  races  of  man 
exterminating  the  inferior.  They  would  chal- 
lenge our  admiration  for  this  war  of  nature,  by 
which  they  say  Providence  is  perfecting  its  own 
work — getting  rid  of  what  is  weak  and  indiffer- 
ent, and  preserving  only  what  is  strong  and 
hardy.  We  see  the  war,  but  not  the  improve- 
ment. This  competitive,  destructive  system  has 
been  going  on  from  the  earliest  records  of  his- 
tory ;  and  yet  the  plants,  the  animals,  and  the 
men  of  to-day  are  not  superior  to  those  of  four 
thousand  years  ago.  To  restrict  this  destructive, 
competitive  propensity,  man  was  endowed  with 
reason,  and  enabled  to  pass  laws  to  protect  the 
weak  against  the  strong.  To  encourage  it,  is  to 
encourage  the  strong  to  oppress  the  weak,  and 
to  violate  the  primary  object  of  all  government. 
It  is  strange  it  should  have  entered  the  head  of 
any  philosopher  to  set  the  weak,  who  are  the 
majority  of  mankind,  to  competing,  contending 
and  fighting  with  the  strong,  in  order  to  improve 
their  condition. 

Hobbes  maintains  that  "a  state  of  nature  is  a 
state  of  war."  This  is  untrue  of  a  state  of  na- 
ture, because  men  are  naturally  associative;  but 
it  is  true  of  a  civilized  state  of  universal  liberty, 
and  free  competition,  such  as  Hobbes  saw  around 


FREE    TRADE.  33 

him,  and  which  no  doubt  suggested  his  theory. 
The  wants  of  man  and  his  history  alike  prove 
that  slavery  has  always  been  part  of  his  social 
organization.  A  less  degree  of  subjection  is  in- 
adequate for  the*  government  and  protection  of 
great  numbers  of  human  beings. 

An  intelligent  English  writer,  describing  society 
as  he  saw  it,  uses  this  language  : 

"  There  is  no  disguising  from  the  cool  eye  of 
philosophy,  that  all  living  creatures  exist  in  a 
state  of  natural  warfare ;  and  that  man  (in  hos- 
tility with  all)  is  at  enmity  also  with  his  own 
species  ;  man  is  the  natural  enemy  of  man  ;  and 
society,  unable  to  change  his  nature,  succeeds  but 
in  establishing  a  hollow  truce  by  which  fraud  is 
substituted  for  violence." 

Such  is  free  society,  fairly  portrayed;  such  are 
the  infidel  doctrines  of  political  economy,  when 
candidly  avowed.  Slavery  and  Christianity  bring 
about  a  lasting  peace,  not  "a  hollow  truce."  But 
we  mount  a  step  higher.  We  deny  that  there 
is  a  society  in  free  countries.  They  who  act 
each  for  himself,  who  are  hostile,  antagonistic 
and  competitive,  are  not  social  and  do  not  con- 
stitute a  society.  We  use  the  term  free  society, 
for  want  of  a  better ;  but,  like  the  term  free 
government,  it  is  an  absurdity :  those  who  are 
governed  are  not  free — those  who  are  free  are 
not  social. 


CHAPTER   II. 

FAILURE  OF    FREE    SOCIETY  AND  RISE  OF  SOCIALISM. 

The  phenomena  presented  by  the  vassals  and 
villiens  of  Europe  after  their  liberation,  were  the 
opposite  of  those  exhibited  by  the  wealthy  and 
powerful  classes.  Pauperism  and  beggary,  we  are 
informed  by  English  historians,  were  unknown  till 
the  villiens  began  to~ escape  from  their  masters, 
and  attempted  to  practise  a  predatory  and  no- 
madic liberty.  A  liberty,  we  should  infer  from 
the  descriptions  we  can  get  of  it,  very  much  like 
that  of  [domestic  animals  that  have  gone  wild — 
the  difference  in  favor  of  the  animals  being  that 
nature^had  made  provision  for  them,  but  had  made 
none  for  the  villiens.  The  new  freemen  were 
bands  of  thieves  and  beggars,  infesting  the  country 
and  disturbing  its  peace.  Their  physical^  condi- 
tion was  worse  than  when  under  the  rule  of  the 
Barons,  their  masters,  and  their  moral  condition 
worse  also,  for  liberty  *  had  made^them  from  ne- 
cessity thieves  and  murderers.  It  was  necessary 
to  retain  them  in  slavery,  not  only  to  support  and 
sustain  them  and  to  prevent  general  mendicity, 
but  equally  necessary  in  order  to  govern  them 
and  prevent    crime.     The    advocates   of  universal 


FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY,    &C.  35 

liberty  concede  that  the  laboring  class  enjoy 
more  material  comfort,  are  better  fed,  clothed 
and  housed,  as  slaves,  than  as  freemen.  The  sta- 
tistics of  crime  demonstrate  that  the  moral  su- 
periority of  the  slave  over  the  free  laborer  is 
still  greater  than  his  superiority  in  animal  well- 
being.  There  never  can  be  among  slaves  a  class 
so  degraded  as  is  found  about  the  wharves  and 
suburbs  of  cities.  The  master  requires  and  en- 
forces ordinary  morality  and  industry.  We  very 
much  fear,  if  it  were  possible  to  indite  a  faith- 
ful comparison  of  the  conduct  and  comfort  of  our 
free  negroes  with  that  of  the  runaway  Anglo- 
Saxon  serfs,  that  it  would  be  found  that  the  ne- 
groes have  fared  better  and  committed  much  less 
crime  than  the  whites.  But  those  days,  the  14th 
and  15th  centuries,  were  the  halcyon  days  of 
vagabond  liberty.  The  few  that  had  escaped  from 
bondage  found  a  wide  field  and  plenty  of  sub- 
jects for  the  practice  of  theft  and  mendicity. 
There  was  no  law  and  no  police  adequate  to 
restrain  them,  for  until  then  their  masters  had 
kept  them  in  order  better  than  laws  ever  can. 
But  those  glorious  old  times  have  long  since 
passed.  A  bloody  code,  a  standing  army  and 
efficient  police  keep  them  quiet  enough  now. 
Their  numbers  have  multiplied  a  hundred  fold, 
but  their  poverty  has  increased  faster  than  their 
numbers.     Instead   of  stealing   and   begging,   and 


36  FAILURE    OF   FREE    SOCIETY 

living  idly  in  the  open  air,  they  work  fourteen 
hours  a  day,  cooped  up  in  close  rooms,  with  foul 
air,  foul  water,  and  insufficient  and  filthy  food, 
and  often  sleep  at  night  crowded  in  cellars  or 
in  garrets,   without  regard   to  sex. 

In  proceeding  to  prove  that  this  is  a  correct 
account  of  the  effects  in  England  of  liberating  the 
laboring  class,  we  are  at  much  difficulty  how  to  se- 
lect from  the  mass  of  testimony  that  at  every  turn 
presents  itself  to  us.  Vvre  are  not  aware  that  any 
one  disputes  the  fact  that  crime  and  pauperism 
throughout  Western  Europe  increased  pari  passu 
with  liberty,  equality  and  free  competition.  We 
know  of  but  a  single  respectable  authority  that 
disputes  the  fact  that  this  increase  is  directly  at- 
tributable to  free  competition  or  liberty.  Even  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  hitherto  the  great  champion 
of  political  economy  and  free  competition,  has 
been  silent  on  the  subject  for  several  years.  With 
strange  inconsistency,  the  very  men  who  assert 
that  universal  liberty  has,  and  must  ever,  from 
the  nature  of  things,  increase  crime,  mendicity 
and  pauperism  among  the  laboring  class,  main- 
tain that  slavery  degrades  this  very  class  whom 
it  preserves  from  poverty  and  crime.  The  ele- 
vation of  the  scaffold  is  the  only  moral  or  physi- 
cal elevation  that  they  can  point  to  which  dis- 
tinguishes the  condition  of  the  free  laborer  from 
his  servile  ancestor.     The  peasantry  of  England, 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  37 

in  the  days  of  Cressey,  Agincourt  and  Shrews- 
bury, when  feudalism  prevailed,  were  generally 
brave,  virtuous,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  high 
degree  of  physical  comfort — at  least,  that  com- 
fort differed  very  little  from  that  of  their  lords 
and  masters.  This  same  peasantry,  when  Charles 
Edward  with  three  thousand  Highlanders  invaded 
England,  had  become  freemen  and  cowards.  Starv- 
ing Frenchmen  will  at  least  fight,  but  starving 
Chartists  only  bluster.  How  slaArery  could  de- 
grade men  lower  than  universal  liberty  has  done, 
it  is  hard  to  conceive ;  how  it  did  and  would 
again  preserve  them  from  such  degradation,  is  well 
explained  by  those  who  are  loudest  in  its  abuse. 
A  consciousness  of  security,  a  full  comprehen- 
sion of  his  position,  and  a  confidence  in  that  po- 
sition, and  the  absence  of  all  corroding  cares  and 
anxieties,  makes  the  slave  easy  and  self-assured 
in  his  address,  cheerful,  happy  and  contented, 
free  from  jealousy,  malignity,  and  envy,  and  at 
peace  with  all  around  him.  His  attachment  to 
his  master  begets  the  sentiment  of  loyalty,  than 
which  none  more  purifies  and  elevates  human  na- 
ture. This  theory  of  the  moral  influences  of 
slavery  is  suggested  and  in  part  borrowed  from 
Alexandre  Dumas'  "French  Milliner."  He,  de- 
scended from  a  negro  slave,  and  we  may  pre- 
sume prejudiced  against  slavery,  speaks  in  glow- 
ing terms  of  its-  happy  iufluence  on  the  lives  and 


38  FAILURE    OF   FREE    SOCIETY 

manners  of  the  Russian  serfs.  He  draws  a  con- 
trast between  their  cheerfulness  and  the  wretch- 
edness of  the  French  laboring  class,  and  attri- 
butes solely  to  the  feeling  of  security  which 
slavery  induces,   their  enviable  cheerfulness. 

The  free  laborer  rarely  has  a  house  and  home 
of  his  own ;  he  is  insecure  of  employment ;  sick- 
ness may  overtake  him  at  any  time  and  deprive 
him  of  the  means  of  support ;  old  age  is  certain 
to  overtake  him,  if  he  lives,  and  generally  finds 
him  without  the  means  of  subsistence  ;  his  family 
is  probably  increasing  in  numbers,  and  is  help- 
less and  burdensome  to  him.  In  all  this  there 
is  little  to  incite  to  virtue,  much  to  tempt  to 
crime,  nothing  to  afford  happiness,  but  quite 
enough  to  inflict  misery.  Man  must  be  more 
than  human,  to  acquire  a  pure  and  a  high  mo- 
rality under  such   circumstances. 

In  free  society  the  sentiments,  principles,  feel- 
ings and  affections  of  high  and  low,  rich  and 
poor,,  are  equally  blunted  and  debased  by  the 
continual  war  of  competition.  It  begets  rival- 
ries, jealousies  and  hatreds  on  all  hands.  The 
poor  can  neither  love  nor  respect  the  rich,  who, 
instead  of  aiding  and  protecting  them,  are  en- 
deavoring to  cheapen  their  labor  and  take  away 
their  means  of  subsistence.  The  rich  can  hardly 
respect  themselves,  when  they  reflect  that  wealth 
is  the   result   of  avarice,   caution,    circumspection 


AND    RISE   OF   SOCIALISM.  39 

and  hard  dealing.  These  are  the  virtues  which 
free  society  in  its  regular  operation  brings  forth. 
Its  moral  influence  is  therefore  no  better  on  the 
rich  than  on  the  poor.  The  number  of  laborers 
being  excessive  in  all  old  countries,  they  are  con- 
tinually struggling  with,  scandalizing  and  under- 
bidding each  other,  to  get  places  and  employ- 
ment. Every  circumstance  in  the  poor  man's  sit- 
uation in  free  society  is  one  of  harassing  care, 
of  grievous  temptation,  and  of  excitement  to  an- 
ger, envy,  jealousy  and  malignity.  That  so  many 
of  the  poor  should  nevertheless  be  good  and  pure, 
kind,  happy  and  high-minded,  is  proof  enough 
that  the  poor  class  is  not  the  worst  class  in  so- 
ciety. But  the  rich  have  their  temptations,  too. 
Capital  gives  them  the  power  to  oppress ;  selfish- 
ness offers  the  inducement,  and  political  economy, 
the  moral  guide  of  the  day,  would  justify  the 
oppression.  Yet  there  are  thousands  of  noble 
and  generous  and  disinterested  men  in  free  so- 
ciety, who  employ  their  wealth  to  relieve,  and  not 
to  oppress  the  poor.  Still  these  are  exceptions 
to  the  general  rule.  The  effect  of  such  society 
is   to   encourage   the   oppression   of  the  poor. 

The  ink  was  hardly  dry  with  which  Adam  Smith 
wrote  his  Wealth  of  Nations,  lauding  the  benign 
influences  of  free  society,  ere  the  hunger  and 
want  and  nakedness  of  that  society  engendered  a 
revolutionary  explosion  that   shook   the    world   to 


40  FAILURE    OF   FREE    SOCIETY 

its  centre.  The  starving  artisans  and  laborers, 
and  fish-women  and  needle-women  of  Paris,  were 
the  authors  of  the  first  French  revolution,  and 
that  revolution  was  everywhere  welcomed,  and 
spread  from  nation  to  nation  like  fire  in  the 
prairies.  The  French  armies  met  with  but  a  for- 
mal opposition,  until  they  reached  Russia.  There, 
men  had  homes  and  houses  and  a  country  to  fight 
for.  The  serfs  of  Russia,  the  undisciplined  Cos- 
sacks, fought  for  lares  and  penates,  their  homes, 
their  country,  and  their  God,  and  annihilated  an 
army  more  numerous  than  that  of  Xerxes,  and 
braver  and  better  appointed  than  the  tenth  legion 
of  Caesar.  What  should  Western  European  poor 
men  fight  for  ?  All  the  world  was  the  same  to 
them.  They  had  been  set  free  to  starve,  with- 
out a  place  to  rest  their  dying  heads  or  to  inter 
their  dead  bodies.  Any  change  they  thought 
would  be  for  the  better,  and  hailed  Buonaparte 
as  a  deliverer.  But  the  nature  of  the  evil  was 
not  understood ;  there  were  some  remnants  of  feu- 
dalism, some  vigor  in  the  Catholic  church ;  these 
Buonaparte  swept  away,  and  left  the  poor  with- 
out a  stay  or  a  hope.  Buonaparte  is  conquered 
and  banished,  universal  peace  restored;  commerce, 
mechanic  arts,  manufactures  and  agriculture  re- 
vive and  flourish  ;  invention  is  stimulated,  indus- 
try urged  on  to  its  utmost  exertion.  Never 
seemed   the    world    so    prosperous,    so    happy,    so 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  41 

progressive.  But  only  seemed!  Those  awful  sta- 
tistics unfold  the  sad  tale  that  misery  and  crime 
and  poverty  are  on  the  increase  still.  The  pris- 
ons are  filled,  the  poor  houses  and  the  penal 
colonies  supplied  too  fast,  and  the  gallows  ever 
pendant  with  its  subject.  In  1830,  Paris  starves 
again,  builds  barricades,  continues  hungry,  and 
hesitates  what  next  to  do.  Finally  sets  up  a 
new  king,  no  better  than  the  one  she  has  ex- 
pelled. Revolution  follows  revolution  with  elec- 
tric speed  throughout  great  part  of  Western  Eu- 
rope. Kings  are  deposed,  governments  changed: 
soon  new  kings  put  in  their  places,  and  things 
subside — not  quietly — into  the  status  quo  ante 
helium.  All  this,  while  millions  of  the  poor  are 
fleeing  from  Europe  as  men  fly  from  an  infected 
plague  spot,  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  other  climes 
and  regions.  Another  eighteen  years  of  hunger, 
of  crime,  of  riots,  strikes,  and  trades  unions, 
passes  over  free  society.  In  1848  the  drama  of 
1880  is  almost  literally  re-enacted.  Again  Paris 
starves,  builds  barricades,  and  expels  her  king. 
Again  Western  Europe  follows  her  example.  By 
this  time,  however,  men  had  discovered  that  po- 
litical changes  would  not  cure  the  diseases  of 
society.  The  poor  must  have  bread;  government 
must  furnish  it.  Liberty  without  bread  was  not 
worth  fighting  for.  A  Republic  is  set  up  in 
Paris  that  promises  employment  and  good  wages 


42  FAILURE   OF   FREE   SOCIETY 

to  every  body.  The  experiment  is  tried  and  fails 
in  a  week.  No  employment,  except  transplant- 
ing trees  and  levelling  mounds,  could  be  found, 
and  the  treasury  breaks.  After  struggling  and 
blundering  and  staggering  on  through  various 
changes,  Louis  Napoleon  is  made  Emperor.  He 
is  a  socialist,  and  socialism  is  the  new  fashion- 
able name  of  slavery.  He  understands  the  dis- 
ease of  society,  and  has  nerve  enough  for  any 
surgical  operation  that  may  be  required  to  cure 
it.  His  first  step  in  socialism  was  to  take  the 
money  of  the  rich  to  buy  wheat  for  all.  The 
measure  was  well-timed,  necessary  and  just.  He 
is  now  building  houses  on  the  social  plan  for 
working  men,  and  his  Queen  is  providing  nurse- 
ries and  nurses  for  the  children  of  the  working 
women,  just  as  we  Southerners  do  for  our  negro 
women  and  children.  It  is  a  great  economy. 
Fourier  suggested  it  long  after  Southerners  had 
practiced  it.  During  these  times  there  was  a 
little  episode  in  Ireland — Ireland,  the  freest  coun- 
try in  the  world,  where  law  is  violated  every 
day,  mocked  at  and  derided,  whence  the  rich 
and  the  noble  have  emigrated,  where  all  are  poor, 
all  equal,  and  all  idle.  A  few  thousands  only 
had  usually  starved  annually ;  but  the  potatoe 
crop  failed ;  they  had  no  feudal  lords  to  buy 
other  food  for  them,  and  three  hundred  thou- 
sand  starved   in    a   single    season.      No    slave    or 


AND   RISE   OF   SOCIALISM.  43 

serf  ever  did  starve,  unless  he  were  a  runaway. 
Irishmen,  although  they  love  liberty  to  distrac- 
tion, have  lost  their  taste  for  starving.  They  are 
coming  en  masse  to  America,  and  in  a  few  years, 
at  the  present  rate  of  emigration,  will  leave  the 
island  without  inhabitants.  The  great  and  in- 
creasing emigration  from  free  society  in  Europe 
can  only  be  accounted  for  on  the  ground  that 
they  believe  their  social  system  so  rotten  that 
no  mere  political  change  can  help  them — for  a 
political  revolution  can  be  had  on  twenty-four 
hours'  notice. 

The  Chartists  and  Radicals  of  England  would 
in  some  way  subvert  and  re-construct  society. 
They  complain  of  free  competition  as  a  crying 
evil,  and  may  be  classed  with  the  Socialists.  The 
high  conservative  party  called  Young  England 
vainly  endeavors,  by  preaching  fine  sentiments,  to 
produce  that  good  feeling  between  the  rich  and 
the  poor,  the  weak  and  the  powerful,  which  slavery 
alone  can  bring  about.  Liberty  places  those  classes 
in  positions  of  antagonism  and  war.  Slavery  iden- 
tifies the  interests  of  rich  and  poor,  master  and 
slave,  and  begets  domestic  affection  on  the  one 
side,  and  loyalty  and  respect  on  the  other.  Young 
England  sees  clearly  enough  the  character  of  the 
disease,  but  is  not  bold  enough  to  propose  an 
adequate  remedy.  The  poor  themselves  are  all 
practical  Socialists,  and  in  some  degree  pro-slavery 


44  FAILURE   OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

men.  They  unite  in  strikes  and  trades  unions, 
and  thus  exchange  a  part  of  their  liberties  in 
order  to  secure  high  and  uniform  wages.  The 
exchange  is  a  prudent  and  sensible  one ;  but  they 
who  have  bartered  off*  liberty,  are  fast  verging 
towards  slavery.  Slavery  to  an  association  is  not 
always  better  than  slavery  to  a  single  master. 
The  professed  object  is  to  avoid  ruinous  under- 
bidding and  competition  with  one  another ;  but 
this  competition  can  never  cease  whilst  liberty 
lasts.  Those  who  wish  to  be  free  must  take  lib- 
erty with  this  inseparable  burden.  Odd-Fellows' 
societies,  temperance  societies,  and  all  other  soci- 
ties  that  provide  for  sick  and  unfortunate  mem- 
bers, are  instances  of  Socialism.  The  muse  in 
England  for  many  years  has  been  busy  in  com- 
posing dissonant  laborer  songs,  bewailing  the  hard- 
ships, penury  and  sufferings  of  the  poor,  and  in- 
dignantly rebuking  the  cruelty  and  injustice  of 
their  hard-hearted  and  close-fisted  employers. 

Dickens  and  Bulwer  denounce  the  frame-work  of 
society  quite  as  loudly  as  Carlyle  and  Newman; 
the  two  latter  of  whom  propose  slavery  as  a  remedy 
for  existing  evils.  A  large  portion  of  the  clergy 
are  professed  Socialists,  and  there  is  scarcely  a 
literary  man  in  England  who  is  not  ready  to  pro- 
pose radical  and  organic  changes  in  her  social 
system.  Germany  is  full  of  Communists ;  social 
discontent  is  universal,  and  her  people  are  leaving 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  45 

e?i  viasse  for  America — hopeless  of  any  ameliora- 
tion at  home  for  the  future.  Strange  to  tell,  in 
the  free  States  of  America  too,  Socialism  and 
every  other  heresy  that  can  be  invoked  to  make 
war  on  existing  institutions,  prevail  to  an  alarming 
extent.  Even  according  to  our  own  theory  of 
the  necessity  of  slavery,  we  should  not  suppose 
that  that  necessity  would  be  so  soon  felt  in  a 
new  and  sparsely-settled  country,  where  the  supply 
of  labor  does  not  exceed  the  demand.  But  it  is 
probable  the  constant  arrival  of  emigrants  makes 
the  situation  of  the  laborer  at  the  North  as  pre- 
carious as  in  Europe,  and  produces  a  desire  for 
some  change  that  shall  secure  him  employment 
and  support  at  all  times.  Slavery  alone  can  effect 
that  change  :  and  towards  slavery  the  North  and 
all  Western  Europe  are  unconsciously  marching. 
The  master  evil  they  all  complain  of  is  free 
competition — which  is  another  name  for  liberty. 
Let  them  remove  that  evil,  and  they  will  find 
themselves  slaves,  with  all  the  advantages  and 
disadvantages  of  slavery.  They  will  have  attained 
association  of  labor,  for  slavery  produces  asso- 
ciation of  labor,  and  is  one  of  the  ends  all  Com- 
munists and  Socialists  desire.  A  well-conducted 
farm  in  the  South  is  a  model  of  associated  labor 
that  Fourier  might  envy.  One  old  woman  nurses 
all  the  children  whilst  the  mothers  are  at  work ; 
another  waits   on  the   sick/ in  a  house  set   aside 


46  FAILURE    OP    FREE    SOCIETY 

for  them.  Another  washes  and  cooks,  and  a 
fourth  makes  and  mends  the  clothing.  It  is  a 
great  economy  of  labor,  and  is  a  good  idea  of 
the  Socialists.  Slavery  protects  the  infants,  the 
aged  and  the  sick ;  nay,  takes  far  better  care  of 
them  than  of  the  healthy,  the  middle-aged  and  the 
strong.  They  are  part  of  the  family,  and  self- 
interest  and  domestic  affection  combine  to  shelter, 
shield  and  foster  them.  A  man  loves  not  only 
his  horses  and  his  cattle,  which  are  useful  to  him, 
but  he  loves  his  dog,  which  is  of  no  use.  He 
loves  them  because  they  are  his.  What  a  wise 
and  beneficent  provision  of  Heaven,  that  makes 
the  selfishness  of  man's  nature  a  protecting  Eegis 
to  shield  and  defend  wife  and  children,  slaves  and 
even  dumb  animals.  The  Socialists  propose  to 
reach  this  result  too,  but  they  never  can  if  they 
refuse  to  march  in  the  only  road  Providence  has 
pointed  out.  Who  will  check,  govern  and  control 
their  superintending  authority  ?  Who  prevent  his 
abuse  of  power  ?  Who  can  make  him  kind,  tender 
and  affectionate,  to  the  poor,  aged,  helpless,  sick 
and  unfortunate  ?  Qui  custodiat  custodes  ?  Na- 
ture establishes  the  only  safe  and  reliable  checks 
and  balances  in  government.  Alton  Locke  de- 
scribes an  English  farm,  where  the  cattle,  the 
horses  and  the  sheep  are  fat,  plentifully  fed  and 
warmly  housed  ;  the  game  in  the  preserves  and 
the  fish  in  the  pond  carefully  provided  for  ;  and 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  47 

two  freezing,  shivering,  starving,  half-clad  boys, 
who  have  to  work  on  the  Sabbath,  are  the  slaves 
to  these  animals,  and  are  vainly  endeavoring  to 
prepare  their  food.  Now  it  must  have  occurred 
to  the  author  that  if  the  boys  had  belonged  to  the 
owner  of  the  farm,  they  too  would  have  been 
well-treated,  happy  and  contented.  This  farm  is 
but  a  miniature  of  all  England  ;  every  animal  is 
well-treated  and  provided  for,  except  the  laboring 
man.  He  is  the  slave  of  the  brutes,  the  slave 
of  society,  produces  everything  and  enjoys  no- 
thing. Make  him  the  slave  of  one  man,  instead 
of  the  slave  of  society,  and  he  would  be  far  better 
off.  None  but  lawyers  and  historians  are  aware 
how  much  of  truth,  justice  and  good  sense,  there 
is  in  the  notions  of  the  Communists,  as  to  the 
community  of  property.  Laying  no  stress  on  the 
too  abstract  proposition  that  Providence  gave  the 
world  not  to  one  man,  or  set  of  men,  but  to  all 
mankind,  it  is  a  fact  that  all  governments,  in 
civilized  countries,  recognize  the  obligation  to 
support  the  poor,  and  thus,  in  some  degree,  make 
all  property  a  common  possession.  The  poor  laws 
and  poor  houses  of  England  are  founded  on  com- 
munistic principles.  Each  parish  is  compelled  to 
support  its  own  poor.  In  Ireland,  this  obligation 
weighs  so  heavily  as  in  many  instances  to  make 
farms  valueless ;  the  poor  rates  exceeding  the 
rents.     But  it  is  domestic  slavery  alone  that  can 


48  FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

establish  a  safe,  efficient  and  humane  community 
of  property.  It  did  so  in  ancient  times,  it  did 
so  in  feudal  times,  and  does  so  now,  in  Eastern 
Europe,  Asia  and  America.  Slaves  never  die  of 
hunger ;  seldom  suffer  want.  Hence  Chinese  sell 
themselves  when  they  can  do  no  better.  A  South- 
ern farm  is  a  sort  of  joint  stock  concern,  or  social 
phalastery,  in  which  the  master  furnishes  the  cap- 
ital and  skill,  and  the  slaves  the  labor,  and  divide 
the  profits,  not  according  to  each  one's  in-put, 
but  according  to  each  one's  wants  and  necessities. 

Socialism  proposes  to  do  away  with  free  com- 
petition ;  to  afford  protection  and  support  at  all 
times  to  the  laboring  class  ;  to  bring  about,  at 
least,  a  qualified  community  of  property,  and  to 
associate  labor.  All  these  purposes,  slavery  fully 
and  perfectly  attains. 

To  prove  the  evil  effects,  moral,  social  and  eco- 
nomic, of  the  emancipation  of  feudal  slaves  or 
villiens,  and  how  those  evil  effects  gave  birth  to 
Socialism,  we  quote  first  from  the  Pictorial  His- 
tory of  England  : 

"  To  the  period  (15th  century,)  immediately 
preceding  the  present,  belongs  the  origin  of  Eng- 
lish pauperism,  as  well  as  of  the  legislation  on  the 
subject  of  the  poor.  So  long  as  the  system  of 
villienage  was  maintained  in  its  integrity,  there 
could  be  no  paupers  in  the  land ;  that  is  to  say, 
no  persons  left  destitute  of  the  means  of  subsist- 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  49 

ence,  except  beggary  or  public  alms.  The  prin- 
ciple of  that  institution  was,  that  every  individual 
who  had  nothing  else,  had  at  least  a  right  of  food 
and  shelter  from  the  landed  proprietor  whose 
bondsman  he  was.  The  master  was  not  more  en- 
titled to  the  services  of  his  villien,  than  the  villien 
was  to  the  maintenance  of  himself  and  his  family, 
at  the  expense  of  his  master.  This  has  of  abso- 
lute necessity  been  the  law  in  every  country  in 
which  slavery  has  existed.  *  * '  *  *  But  as 
soon  as  the  original  slavery  of  the  English  la- 
boring population  begun  to  be  exchanged  for  free- 
dom, and  villienage  gradually,  and  at  last  gene- 
rally passed  away  in  the  manner  stated  in  the 
last  book,  the  working  man,  now  his  own  master, 
was  of  course  left  in  all  circumstances  to  his  own 
resources  ;  and  when  either  want  of  employment, 
or  sickness,  or  the  helplessness  of  old  age  came 
upon  him,  if  he  had  not  saved  something  from  his 
former  earnings,  and  had  no  one  to  take  care  of 
him  from  motives  of  affection  or  compassion,  his 
condition  was  as  unprovided  for  as  that  of  the 
fowls  of  the  heavens.  But  men  will  not  starve, 
whilst  they  can  either  beg  or  steal ;  hence,  the 
first  appearance  that  the  destitute  poor,  as  a  class 
of  the  community,  make  in  our  annals,  is  in  the 
character  of  thieves  and  mendicants,  sometimes 
enforcing  their  demands  by  threats  or  violence."—- 
Vol.  2d,  pages  262,  263. 
c 


50  FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

Such  is  the  description  of  free  society  at  its 
birth,  by  authors  who  hate  and  denounce  slavery. 
We  will  proceed  to  prove  from  like  authority, 
that  the  number  of  mendicants  and  thieves  has 
increased  with  accelerating  speed  from  that  day 
to  this. 

We  find  in  Hume's  History  of  England,  treating 
of  the  discontents  of  the  people  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  VI.,  the  following  language  : 

"  There  is  no  abuse  in  civil  society  so  great 
as  not  to  be  attended  with  a  variety  of  beneficial 
consequences  ;  and  in  the  beginnings  of  reforma- 
tion, the  loss  of  these  advantages  is  always  felt 
very  sensibly,  while  the  benefit  resulting  from  the 
change  is  the  slow  effect  of  time,  and  is  seldom 
perceiv3d  by  the  bulk  of  the  nation.  Scarce  any 
institution  can  be  imagined  less  favorable  in  the 
main  to  the  interests  of  mankind,  than  that  of 
monks  and  friars ;  yet  was  it  followed  by  many 
good  effects,  which  having  ceased  by  the  sup- 
pression of  the  monasteries,  were  much  regretted 
by  the  people  of  England.  The  monks  always 
residing  in  their  convents  in  the  centre  of  their 
estates,  spent  their  money  in  the  provinces,  and 
among  their  tenants,  afforded  a  ready  market  for 
commodities,  and  were  a  sure  resource  to  the  poor 
and  indigent ;  and  though  their  hospitality  and 
charity  gave  too  much  encouragement  to  idleness, 
and  prevented   the   increase   of  public  riches,  yet 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  51 

did  it  provide  to  many  a  relief  from  the   extreme 
pressure  of  want  and  necessity." 

In  the  Pictorial  History  of  England,  under  the 
head  of  the  Condition  of  the  People,  about  the 
16th  and  17th  centuries,  we  find  crime  and  pau- 
perism still  on  the  increase,  and  hundreds  of  es- 
says and  books  written  and  many  acts  of  Par- 
liament passed  on  this  perplexing  and  growing 
evil  in  free  society.  But  it  was  after  Napoleon 
had  made  a  dead  level  of  Western  European  so- 
ciety, a  sort  of  "  tabula  rasa,"  by  destroying  the 
remnants  of  feudalism  and  crippling  and  cramping 
the  Catholic  Church,  that  liberty  and  free  com- 
petition were  first  given  free  scope  and  elbow- 
room.  Not  till  then  had  the  doctrines,  that 
"might  makes  right"  and  "every  man  for  him- 
self, and  devil  take  the  hindmost,"  been  brought 
into  full  play.  The  natural  consequence  was,  that 
the  strong  conquered  and  devoured  the  weak  much 
faster  than  they  had  ever  done  before.  The  world 
of  the  political  economists,  the  rich,  the  astute, 
the  avaricious,  the  prudent,  the  circumspect  and 
hard-hearted,  started  forward  with  railroad  speed 
and  railroad  recklessness.  The  world  of  the  So- 
cialists, (vastly  increased  in  numbers,)  the  poor, 
the  weak,  ignorant,  generous  and  improvident, 
ran  backwards  quite  as  fast  as  the  other  world 
went  forward.  Almost  every  middle-aged  man 
who  can  read  a  newspaper,  is  aware,  that  whilst 


52  FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

the    aggregate    wealth    of    civilized   mankind    has 

on      o 

increased  more  rapidly  since  the  fall  of  Napoleon 
than  it  ever  did  before,  and  whilst  the  discoveries 
and  inventions  in  physical  science  have  rapidly 
lessened  the  amount  of  labor  necessary  to  procure 
human  subsistence  and  comfort,  yet  these  advan- 
tages have  been  monopolized  by  the  few,  and  the 
laboring  millions  are  in  worse  condition  (in  free 
society)  than  they  ever  were  before.  On  this  sub- 
ject we  shall  quote  from  two  able  articles  in  Black- 
wood, not  because  our  positions  need  proof,  bat 
because  these  quotations  will  throw  much  light 
on  the  character  of  the  disease  under  which  free 
society  is  suffering,  and  show  that  protection  of 
some  kind  is  imperiously  demanded  to  shield  the 
masses  from  the  grinding  oppression  of  universal 
liberty,  free  competition  and  laissez-faire,  and  to 
show  that  it  is  the  carrying  into  practical  opera- 
tion the  theories  of  the  political  economists,  or 
free  trade  men,  that  has  occasioned  the  unexam- 
pled progress  and  prosperity  of  the  few  who  are 
strong,  and  the  appalling  and  increasing  crime  and 
destitution  of  the  many,  who  are  weak.  Further, 
these  quotations  will  sustain  and  illustrate  our 
doctrine  that  the  political  economists  have  taken 
partial  views  of  society,  and  have  mistaken  the 
good  luck  and  success  of  their  friends  for  the 
general  condition  and  fortune  of  mankind.  Black- 
wood seems  to  contemplate  protection  against  for- 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  53 

eign  competition  as  an  adequate  remedy.  We 
leave  it  to  the  intelligent  reader  to  say,  whether 
protection  against  social  and  domestic  competition 
is  not  quite  as  necessary — and  nothing  but  slavery 
can  afford  this  latter  protection. 

In  a  review  of  Alton  Locke  in  Blackwood,  Nov. 
No.   1850,   the  following  passages  will  be  found : 

"  No  man  with  a  human  heart  in  his  bosom, 
unless  that  heart  is  utterly  indurated  and  depraved 
by  the  influence  of  mammon,  can  be  indifferent  to 
the  fate  of  the  working  classes.  Even  if  he  were 
not  urged  to  consider  the  awful  social  questions 
which  daily  demand  our  attention  in  this  per- 
plexing and  bewildered  age,  by  the  impulses  of 
humanity  or  by  the  call  of  Christian  duty,  the 
lower  motive  of  interest  alone  should  incline  him 
to  serious  reflection  on  a  subject  which  involves 
the  well-being,  both  temporal  and  eternal,  of  thou- 
sands of  his  fellow-beings,  and  possibly  the  per- 
manence of  order  and  tranquility  in  this  realm 
of  Great  Britain.  Our  civil  history  during  the 
last  thirty  years  of  peace,  resembles  nothing,  which 
the  world  has  yet  seen  or  which  can  be  found 
in  the  records  of  civilization.  The  progress  which 
has  been  made  in  the  mechanical  sciences  is  of 
itself  a' most  equivalent  to  a  revolution.  The  whole 
face  of  society  has  been  altered  ;  old  employments 
have  become  obsolete,  old  customs  have  been  al- 
tered  or    remodelled,    and    old   institutions    have 


54  FAILURE   OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

undergone  innovation.  The  modern  citizen  thinks 
and  acts  differently  from  his  fathers.  What  to 
them  was  object  of  reverence,  is  to  him  subject 
of  ridicule ;  what  they  were  accustomed  to  prize 
and  honor,  he  regards  with  undisguised  contempt. 
All  this  we  call  improvement,  taking  no  heed 
the  while  whether  such  improvement  has  fulfilled 
the  primary  condition  of  contributing  to  and  in- 
creasing the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  people. 
Statistical  books  are  written  to  prove  how  enor- 
mously we  have  increased  in  wealth ;  and  yet,  side 
by  side  with  Mr.  Porter's  bulky  tome,  you  will 
find  pamphlets  containing  ample  and  distinct  evi- 
dence that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  indus- 
trious fellow-countrymen  are  at  this  moment  fam- 
ishing for  lack  of  employment,  or  compelled  to 
sell  their  labor  for  such  wretched  compensation, 
that  the  pauper's  dole  is  by  many  regarded  with 
absolute  envy.  Dives  and  Lazarus  elbow  one 
another  in  the  street,  and  our  political  economists 
select  Dives  as  the  sole  type  of  the  nation.  San- 
itary commissioners  are  appointed  to  "whiten  the 
outside  of  the  sepulchre ;  and  during  the  operation 
their  stomachs  are  made  sick  by  the  taint  of  the  rot- 
tenness within.  The  reform  of  Parliament  is,  com- 
paratively speaking,  a  matter  of  yesterday  ;  and 
yet  the  operatives  are  petitioning  for  the  charter  ! 
These  are  stern  realities,  grave  facts,  which  it 
is  impossible   to   gainsay.     What  may  be   the  re- 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  55 

suit  of  them,  unless  some  adequate  remedy  can 
be  provided,  it  is  impossible  with  certainty  to 
predict;  but  unless  we  are  prepared  to  deny  the 
doctrine  of  that  retribution  which  has  been  di- 
rectly revealed  to  us  from  above,  and  of  which 
the  history  of  neighboring  states  affords  us  so 
many  striking  examples,  we  can  hardly  expect  to 
remain  unpunished  for  what  is  truly  a  national 
crime.  The  offence,  indeed,  according  to  all  the 
elements  of  human  calculation,  is  likely  to  bring 
its  own  punishment.  It  cannot  be  that  society 
can  exist  in  tranquility,  or  order  be  permanently 
maintained,  so  long  as  a  large  portion  of  the 
working  classes,  of  the  hard-handed  men  whose 
industry  makes  capital  move  and  multiply  itself, 
are  exposed  to  the  operation  of  a  system  that 
makes  their  position  less  tolerable  than  that  of 
Egyptian  bondsmen.  To  work  is  not  only  a 
duty,  but  a  privilege  ;  but  to  work  against  hope, 
to  toil  under  the  absolute  pressure  of  despair,  is 
the  most  miserable  lot  that  the  imagination  can 
possibly  conceive.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  virtual  abro- 
gation of  that  freedom  which  every  Briton  is 
taught  to  consider  his  birthright,  but  which  now, 
however  well  it  may  sound  as  an  abstract  term, 
is  practically,  in  the  case  of  thousands,  placed 
utterly  beyond  their  reach. 

"We   shall  not  probably  be  suspected  of  any  in- 
tention to  inculcate   radical  doctrines.     We   have 


56  FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

no  sympathy,   but  the   reverse,   with   the   quacks, 
visionaries   and  agitators,   who  -make   a   livelihood 
by  preaching  disaffection  in  our  towns  and  cities, 
and  who    are    the   worst    enemies    of   the    people 
whose   cause   they  pretend  to    advocate.     We  de- 
test  the    selfish    views    of  the    Manchester   school 
of  politicians,  and  we  loathe  that  hypocrisy  which, 
under  the    pretext   of    reforming,    would    destroy 
the   institutions    of    the    country.     But,   if   it    be 
true,   as  we   believe    it  to    be,   that   the    working 
and  producing   classes  of  the   community  are  suf- 
fering  unexampled    hardship,   and  that  not    of   a 
temporary    and    exceptional    kind,    but    from    the 
operation    of    some    vicious    and    baneful    element 
that  has  crept  into  our  social  system,  it  then  be- 
comes our  duty  to  attempt  to  discover  the  actual 
nature   of  the  evil ;  and,  having   discovered  that, 
to    consider   seriously  what  cure  it   is   possible  to 
apply."     *     *     *     "Here  is  a  question  urgently 
presenting  itself  to  the  consideration  of  all  think- 
ing men ;   a  question  which  concerns  the  welfare  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  ;  a  question  which  has  been 
evaded  by  statesmen  so  long  as  they  dared  to  do 
so  with  impunity;  but  which  now  can  be  no-longer 
evaded  :  that  question  being,  whether    any  possi- 
ble means   can  be  found  for  ameliorating  and  im- 
proving the   condition   of   the   working  classes    of 
Great  Britain,    by  rescuing  them  from  the  cruel 
effects  of  that  competition  which  makes  each  man 


AXD    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  57 

the  enemy  of  his  fellow  ;  which  is  annually  dri- 
ving from  our  shores  crowds  of  our  best  and 
most  industrious  artisans;  which  consigns  women 
from  absolute  indigence  to  infamy ;  dries  up  the 
most  sacred  springs  of  affection  in  the  heart; 
crams  the  jail  and  the  poor-house;  and  is  eat- 
ing like  a  fatal  canker  into  the  very  heart-blood 
of  society."  This  subject  was  deemed  by  Black- 
wood so  important,  that  it  was  resumed  in  a 
subsequent  number  of  that  review,  "  The  Dan- 
gers of  the  Country,"  March  number,  1851.  We 
will  not  fatigue  the  reader's  attention  with  ex- 
tracts from  that  article,  which  is  a  most  able  and 
interesting  one  ;  but  will  merely  state  that,  after 
giving  tedious  and  careful  statistics,  showing  the 
rapid  and  unexampled  increase  of  crime  and  pau- 
perism in  Great  Britain  since  1819,  a  period  in 
which  the  prosperity  of  the  upper  classes  was  as 
remarkable  as  the  continually  increasing  debase- 
ment and  misery  of  the  lower,  the  Reviewer  con- 
cludes with  these  emphatic  words  :  "  But  this  we 
do  say,  and  with  these  words  we  nail  our  colors 
to  the  mast,  Protection  must  be  restored,  or 
the  British  Empire  will  be  dissolved."  Now 
the  evil  complained  of  is  free  competition,  and 
nothing  short  of  some  modification  of  slavery  can 
give  protection  against  free  competition.  To  leave 
no  room  for  cavil  or  doubt  as  to  the  truth  of 
our  positions,  that  pauperism  commenced  and  crime 


58  FAILURE   OF   FREE   SOCIETY 

was  increased  with  the  birth  of  the  liberty  of  the 
laboring  class,  and  that  each  extension  of  liberty 
has  immediately  occasioned  an  accelerated  in- 
crease of  poverty  and  crime,  we  wish  to  adduce 
authorities,  not  only  of  the  highest  character,  but 
representing  all  parties  and  shades  of  opinion. 
We  now  quote  from  the  April  number,  1854,  of  the 
Westminster  Review  on  "  The  Results  of  the  Cen- 
sus." After  treating  of  the  breaking  up  of  the 
feudal  system  and  dissolution  of  the  Catholic 
church,  the  writer  thus  proceeds  :  "  These  inter- 
ests having  gone  down  and  another  class  having 
arisen,  is  there  any  other  to  be  considered  ?  Yes, 
an  enormous  one — an  appalling  one — the  pauper 
interest.  Long  before  the  dissolution  of  the  mo- 
nasteries, the  pauperism  of  the  country  had  be- 
come an  almost  unmanageable  evil.  It  began  with 
the  abolition  of  serfage ;  and  the  monasteries  ab- 
sorbed as  much  as  they  could  of  an  existing  evil, 
increasing  it  all  the  while.  From  the  fourteenth 
century  there  had  been  laws  to  restrain  vagrancy ; 
and  in  the  sixteenth  it  had  increased  'to  the  mar- 
vellous disturbance  of  the  common  weal  of  this 
realm.'  Beggars  went  about,  'valiant  and  sturdy,' 
in  great  'routs  and  companies.'  The  vagrants 
were  to  be  put  in  prison,  branded  and  whipped ; 
the  clergy  were  to  press  all  good  citizens  to  give 
alms;  and  all  who  w^ere  able  must  find  employ- 
ment for  those  who  could  work.     Then  came  the 


AXD    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  59 

compulsory  tax :  and  then  the  celebrated  43d  Eli- 
zabeth; and  all  apparently  in  vain.  The  lower 
class  had  not  risen,  generally  speaking,  with  the 
middle ;  and  there  was  as  wide  an  interval  between 
that  middle  class  and  the  pauper  banditti  of  the 
realm,  as  there  once  was  between  the  landed  class 
and  the  serfs."  Pauper  banditti !  And  this  is 
what  two  hundred  years  of  liberty  makes  of  white 
laborers.  And  now  four  hundred  years  have 
passed  over,  and  their  condition  is  getting  daily 
worse ;  they  are  quitting  their  homes — no,  not 
homes,  for  they  have  none — but  flying  from  the 
land  that  has  persecuted  them  to  every  wild  and 
desert  corner  of  the   earth. 

The  cotemporaneous  appearance  of  Alton  Locke 
and  a  vast  number  of  pamphlets  and  essays  on 
the  subject  of  the  sufferings  and  crimes  of  the  la- 
boring class  in  Great  Britain,  forms  a  most  inter- 
esting epoch  in  the  history  of  social  science.  No 
one  who  pays  the  least  attention  to  the  subject, 
will  doubt  that  the  doctrines  and  philosophy  of 
socialism  or  communism,  which  just  then  became 
rife  in  England,  owed  their  birth  to  the  increased 
and  increasing  sufferings  of  the  poor,  which  that 
philosophy  proposes  to  remove.  The  Edinburgh 
Review,  in  its  January  number,  1851,  discourses 
as  follows:  "As  long  as  socialism  was  confined 
to  the  turbulent,  the  wild  and  the  disreputable, 
and   was    associated   with    tenets   which    made    it 


60  FAILURE    OF   FREE    SOCIETY 

disgusting  and  disreputable,  perhaps  the  wisest 
plan  was  to  pass  it  over  in  silence,  and  suffer  it 
to  die  of  its  own  inherent  weakness.  But  now, 
when  it  has  appeared  in  a  soberer  guise  and  puri- 
fied from  much  of  its  evil  intermixtures ;  when  it 
has  shown  itself  an  actual  and  energetic  reality 
in  France;  when  it  has  spread  among  the  intel- 
ligent portions  of  the  working  classes  in  our  own 
country  more  extensively  than  is  commonly  be- 
lieved ;  when  it  raises  its  head  under  various 
modifications,  and  often  as  it  were  unconsciously, 
in  the  disquisitions  which  issue  from  the  periodi- 
cal press ;  when  a  weekly  journal,  conducted  with 
great  ability  as  to  every  thing  but  logic,  is  de- 
voted to  its  propagation  ;  and  when  clergymen  of 
high  literary  reputation  give  in  their  scarcely 
qualified  adherence,  and  are  actively  engaged  in 
reducing  to  practice  their  own  peculiar  modifica- 
tion of  the  theory,  it  would  be  no  longer  kindly 
or  decorous  to  ignore  a  subject  which  is  so  deeply 
interesting  to  thousands  of  our  countrymen."  In 
speaking  of  the  doctrines  of  the  socialists,  the 
writer  goes  on  to  say :  "  The  position  they  take 
is  this :  Society  is  altogether  out  of  joint.  Its 
anomalies,  its  disfigured  aspect,  its  glaring  ine- 
qualities, the  sufferings  of  the  most  numerous  por- 
tions of  it,  are  monstrous,  indefensible,  and  yearly 
increasing.  Mere  palliations,  mere  sham  improve- 
ments,  mere  gradual  ameliorations  will   not  meet 


AXD    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  61 

its  wants ;  it  must  be  remodelled,  not  merely  fur- 
bished up.  Political  economy  has  hitherto  had  it 
all  its  own  way ;  and  the  shocking  condition  into 
which  it  has  brought  us,  shews  that  its  principles 
must  be  strangely  inadequate  or  unsound.  The 
miseries  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  the  in- 
ability to  find  work,  or  to  obtain  in  return  for 
such  work  as  can  be  performed  in  reasonable  time 
and  by  ordinary  strength  a  sufficiency  of  the  com- 
forts and  necessaries  of  life,  may  all  be  traced 
to  one  source — competition  instead  of  combina- 
tion. The  antagonistic  and  regenerative  principle 
which  must  be  introduced,  is  association."  No  as- 
sociation, no  efficient  combination  of  labor  can  be 
effected  till  men  give  up  their  liberty  of  action 
and  subject  themselves  to  a  common  despotic  head 
or  ruler.  This  is  slavery,  and  towards  this  so- 
cialism is  moving.  The  above  quotation  and  the 
succeeding  one  go  to  prove  the  positions  with 
which  we  set  out  :  that  free  trade  or  political 
economy  is  the  science  of  free  society,  and  so- 
cialism the  science  of  slavery.  The  writer  from 
whom  we  are  quoting  sees  and  thus  exposes  the 
tendency  of  socialism  to  slavery  :  "  The/e  is  the 
usual  jumble  between  the  fourteenth  century  and 
the  nineteenth ;  the  desire  to  recall  the  time  when 
the  poor  were  at  once  the  serfs  and  the  proteges 
of  the  rich,  and  to  amalgamate  it  with  the  days 
of  chartism,  when  the  poor  assert  their   equality 


bZ  FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

and  insist  upon  their  freedom.  It  is  not  thus 
that  irritation  can  be  allayed  or  miseries  removed 
or  wrongs  redressed.  The  working  classes  and 
their  advocates  must  decide  on  which  of  the  two 
positions  they  will  take  their  stand :  whether  they 
will  be  cared  for  as  dependents  and  inferiors,  or 
whether,  by  wisdom,  self-control,  frugality  and  toil, 
they  will  fight  their  independent  way  to  dignity 
and  well-being  ;  whether  they  will  step  back  to 
a  stationary  and  degraded  past,  or  strive  onward 
to  the  assertion  of  their  free  humanity  ?  But  it 
is  not  given  to  them,  any  more  than  to  other 
classes,  to  combine  inconsistent  advantages :  they 
cannot  unite  the  safety  of  being  in  leading  strings, 
with  the  liberty  of  being  without  them  ;  the  right 
of  acting  for  themselves,  with  the  right  to  be  saved 
from  the  consequences  of  their  actions ;  they  must 
not  whine  because  the  higher  classes  do  not  aid 
them,  and  refuse  to  let  these  classes  direct  them  ; 
they  must  not  insist  on  the  duty  of  government 
to  provide  for  them,  and  deny  the  authority  of 
government  to  control  them ;  they  must  not  de- 
nounce laissez-faire,  and  denounce  a  paternal  des- 
potism likewise."  The  greatest  of  all  commun- 
ists, if  communist  he  be,  Prouclhon,  has  also  seen 
and  exposed  this  tendency  of  socialism  to  slavery. 
He  is  a  thorough-going  enemy  of  modern  free  so- 
ciety;  calls  property  a  thief;  and  would,  he  says, 
establish   anarchy  in    place    of  government.     But 


AND   RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  63 

we  have  not  been  able  to  understand  his  system, 
if  any  he  has. 

The  North  British  Review  stands  probably  as 
high  for  its  ability,  sound  political  views  and  lite- 
rary integrity,  as  any  other  periodical  whatever. 
We  will  cite  copiously  from  its  article  on  "  Litera- 
ture and  the  Labor  Question,"  February  No.  1851, 
not  merely  for  the  weight  of  its  authority  and  the 
force  of  its  arguments,  but  chiefly  because  the 
writer  of  that  article  sums  up  with  some  fulness 
and  great  ability  the  proofs  of  the  failure  of  so- 
ciety as  now  constituted  in  Western  Europe,  and 
of  the  almost  universal  abandonment  of  political 
economy,  the  philosophy  of  that  society : 

"  Servants  of  this  class,  and  constituting  by  far 
the  most  numerous  portion  of  every  community, 
are  the  j^'oletaires,  or  speaking  more  restrictedly, 
the  working  men,  who  earn  to-day's  bread  by  to- 
day's labor.  They  are  the  veritable  descendants 
of  those  who  in  ancient  times  were  the  slaves  ; 
with  but  few  differences  their  social  position  is  the 
same.  Despite  sating  banks,  temperance  socie- 
ties, and  institutions  for  mutual  improvement,  the 
characteristics  of  this  class,  like  that  of  the  lit- 
erary class,  is,  and  probably  ever  will  be,  pecu- 
niary insouciance.  From  week  to  week,  these 
thousands  live,  now  in  work  and  now  out  of  work, 
as  careless  of  to-morrow  as  if  Benjamin  Franklin 
had  never  lived,  entering  at  one  end  of  the  jour- 


64  FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

ney  of  existence  and  issuing  at  the  other,  without 
ever  having  at  any  one  moment  accumulated  five 
superfluous  shillings." 

A  beautiful  commentary  on  the  dignity  of  labor. 

As  to  the  prevalence  of  discontent  with  free 
society,  and  of  socialistic  and  revolutionary  doc- 
trines in  France,  the  writer  employs  the  following 
language : 

u  One  cannot  now  take  up  a  French  book-seller's 
list  of  advertisements,  without  seeing  the  titles  of 
publications  of  all  kinds  and  sizes  devoted  to  the 
elucidation  of  social  questions.  '  L' Organization 
du  Travail;'  '  Destinie  Sociale  ;'  c  Etudes  sur  la 
principales  causes  de  la  Misei-e ;'  '  De  la  condition 
physique  and  morale  des  jeune  Ouvriens.'  Such 
are  some  of  the  titles  of  a  class  of  French  books 
sufficient  already  to  form  a  library.  The  thing,  in 
fact,  has  become  a  profession  in  France.  Men  of 
all  kinds  and  of  all  capacities — men  who  do  not 
.care  one  farthing  about  the  condition  of  the  people, 
or  about  the  condition  of  any  body  except  them- 
selves, as  well  as  men  of  reaM  goodness  and  phi- 
lanthropy, now  write  books  full  of  statistics  about 
the  working  classes,  and  of  plans  for  diminishing 
the  amount  of  social  evil.  And  so  too  in  this 
country.  The  '  Condition  of  England  Question' 
has  become  the  target  at  which  every  shallow  wit- 
ling must  aim  his  shaft.  All  literature  seems  to  be 
flowing  towards  this  channel,  so  that  there  seems 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  65 

to  be  a  likelihood  that  we  shall  soon  have  no  lite- 
rature at  all  but  a  literature  of  social -reference." 

Whilst  all  this  hubbub  and  confusion  is  going 
on  in  France  and  England,  occasioned  by  the  in- 
tensest  suffering  of  the  free  laborers,  we  of  the 
South  and  of  all  slaveholding  countries,  have  been 
"  calm  as  a  summer's  evening,"  quite  unconscious 
of  the  storm  brewing  around  us.  Yet  those  people 
who  confess  that  their  situation  is  desperate,  insist 
that  we  shall  imitate  their  institutions,  starve  our 
laborers,  multiply  crime,  riots  and  pauperism,  in 
order,  we  suppose,  to  try  the  experiment  of  Mor- 
monism,  Socialism  or  Communism.  Try  it  first, 
yourselves ! 

The  following  passage — and  we  have  quoted  a 
similar  one  from  Blackwood — is  a  distinct  assertion 
of  the  complete  failure  of  free  society.  It  is  the 
admission  of  witnesses  of  the  highest  character, 
corroborated  by  the  testimony  of  all  classes  of  so- 
ciety— for  the  poor,  by  their  strikes,  trade  unions, 
temperance  societies,  odd-fellow  societies,  and  in- 
surance societies,  speak  as  eloquently  on  this  sub- 
ject as  the  rich   and  the  learned. 

"  '  Alton  Locke'  is,  upon  the  whole,  as  powerful 
a  literary  expression  as  exists  of  the  general  con- 
viction, shared  by  all  classes  alike,  that  the  country 
has  arrived  at  a  condition  when  something  extra- 
ordinary, whatever  it  is,  must  be  decided  on  and 
done,  if  society  is  to  be  saved  in  Great  Britain. 


66  FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

As  such,  therefore,  it  is  a  book  that  should  be 
welcome  to  all  parties." 

Now  listen  to  the  conclusion,  and  see  whether 
the  practical  remedy  proposed  be  not  Slavery. 
We  believe  there  is  not  an  intelligent  reformist 
in  the  world  who  does  not  see  the  necessity  of 
slavery — who  does  not  advocate  its  re-institution 
in  all  save  the  name.  Every  one  of  them  con- 
curs in  deprecating  free  competition,  and  in  the 
wish  and  purpose  to  destroy  it.  To  destroy  it 
is  to  destroy  Liberty,  and  where  liberty  is  de- 
stroyed,  slavery  is  established. 

"  At  what  conclusion  have  we  arrived  ?  We 
have  pointed  out  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
signs  of  the  times,  the  appearance  of  a  literature 
of  social  reference,  originating  in  and  then  farther 
promoting  a  repprochement  between  the  two  ex- 
tremes of  society,  men  of  letters  and  the  working 
classes.  We  have  examined,  and  to  some  extent 
analyzed,  the  two  most  conspicuous  examples  that 
have  been  recently  furnished  in  this  country,  of 
this  new  direction  and  intention  of  literature. 
And  what  has  been  the  result?  The  result  has 
been,  that  in  both  cases,  we  have  found  ourselves 
conducted  by  the  writers  in  question  to  one  point : 
the  pronunciation  of  the  terrible  phrase,  i  Organi- 
zation of  Labor,'  and  the  contemplation  of  a  pos- 
sible exodus,  at  no  very  distant  period,  out  of 
the  Egypt  of  our  present   system,   of  competition 


AND   RISE   OF   SOCIALISM.  67 

and  laissez-faire,  into  a  comparative  Canaan  of 
some  kind  of  co-operative  socialism.  Such  is  the 
fact :  startling  it  may  be,  but  deserving  to  be 
fairly  stated  and  apprehended.  Right  or  wrong, 
we  believe  this  to  be  a  true  version  and  fair  his- 
tory of  our  current  social  literature.  We  have 
elicited  it  from  an  examination  of  but  two  exam- 
ples ;  but  we  believe  the  most  extensive  examina- 
tion would  not  invalidate  it.  Collect  all  the  books, 
pamphlets  and  papers  that  constitute  our  literature 
of  social  reference,  or  assemble  all  our  men  of 
letters,  who  have  contributed  to  that  literature, 
so  as  to  learn  their  private  aspirations  and  opin- 
ions with  respect  to  the  social  problem,  and  the 
last  word,  the  united  note  would  still  be  :  '  The 
Organization  of  Labor  on  the  associative  prin- 
ciple.' There  are  of  course  dissentients,  but  such 
is  the  note  of  the  majority;  and  so  far  as  the 
note  is  of  value,  it  may  be  asserted  that  a  decree 
of  the  literary  faculty  of  the  country  has  gone 
forth,  declaring  the  avater  of  political  economy, 
if  not  as  a  science  of  facts,  at  least  as  a  supreme 
rule  of  government,  to  be  near  its  close." 

Now  strip  these  and  the  extracts  from  Black- 
wood of  their  pompous  verbiage,  and  they  become 
express  assertions  that  free  society  has  failed,  and 
that  that  which  is  not  free  must  be  substituted. 
Every  Southern  slave  has  an  estate  in  tail,  inde- 
feasible by  fine  and  recovery,  in  the  lands  of  the 


08  FAILURE   OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

South.  If  his  present  master  cannot  support  him, 
he  must  sell  him  to  one  who  can.  Slaves,  too, 
have  a  valuable  property  in  their  masters.  Abo- 
litionists overlook  this — overlook  the  protective  in- 
fluence of  slavery,  its  distinguishing  feature,  and 
no  doubt  the  cause  of  its  origin  and  continuance, 
and  abuse  it  as  a  mere  engine  of  oppression.  In- 
fant negroes,  sick,  helpless,  aged  and  infirm  ne- 
gres,  are  simply  a  charge  to  their  master ;  he  has 
no  property  in  them  in  the  common  sense  of  the 
term,  for  they  are  of  no  value  for  the  time,  but 
they  have  the  most  invaluable  property  in  him. 
He  is  bound  to  support  them,  to  supply  all  their 
wants,  and  relieve  them  of  all  care  for  the  present 
or  future.  And  well,  and  feelingly  and  faithfully 
does  he  discharge  his  duty.  What  a  glorious  thing 
to  man  is  slavery,  when  want,  misfortune,  old  age, 
debility  and  sickness  overtake  him.  Free  society, 
in  its  various  forms  of  insurance,  in  its  odd-fellow 
and  temperance  societies,  in  its  social  and  com- 
munistic establishments,  and  in  ten  thousand  other 
ways,  is  vainly  attempting  to  attain  this  never- 
failing  protective,  care-taking  and  supporting  fea- 
ture of  slavery.  But  it  will  blunder  and  flounder 
on  in  vain.  It  cannot  put  a  heart  and  feeling  into 
its  societies  and  its  corporations.  God  makes  mas- 
ters and  gives  them  affections,,  feelings  and  inte- 
rests that  secure  kindness  to  the  sick,  aged  and 
dying  slave.     Man  can  never  inspire  his  ricketty 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  GO 

institutions  with  those  feelings,  interests  and  affec- 
tions. Say  the  Abolitionists — "  Man  ought  not  to 
have  property  in  man."  What  a  dreary,  cold, 
bleak,  inhospitable  world  this  would  be  with  such 
a  doctrine  carried  into  practice.  Men  living  to 
themselves,  like  owls  and  wolves  and  lions  and 
birds  and  beasts  of  prey?  I<o:  "Love  thy  neigh- 
bor as  thyself,"  And  this  can't  be  done  till  he 
has  a  property  in  your  services  as  well  as  a  place 
in  your  heart.  Homo  sum,  humani  nihil  a  me 
alienum  puto!  This,  the  noblest  sentiment  ever 
uttered  by  uninspired  man,  recognises  the  great 
truth  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  society — 
that  every  man  has  property  in  his  fellow-man  ! 
It  is  because  that  adequate  provision  is  not  made 
properly  to  enforce  this  great  truth  in  free  society, 
that  men  are  driven  to  the  necessity  of  attempting 
to  remedy  the  defects  of  government  by  voluntary 
assocations,  that  carry  into  definite  and  practical 
operation  this  great  and  glorious  truth.  It  is  be- 
cause such  defects  do  not  exist  in  slave  society, 
that  we  are  not  troubled  with  strikes,  trade  unions, 
phalasteries,  communistic  establishments,  Mormon- 
ism,  and  the  thousand  other  isms  that  deface  and 
deform  free  society.  Socialism,  in  some  form  or 
other,  is  universal  in  free  society,  and  its  single 
aim  is  to  attain  the  protective  influence  oi  slavery. 
St.  Simon  would  govern  his  social  establishments 
by  savants,  more  despotic  than  masters.    He  would 


70  FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

Lave  no  law  but  the  will  of  the  savant.  He  would 
have  a  despot  without  the  feelings  and  the  inte- 
rests of  a  master  to  temper  his  authority.  Fourier 
proposes  some  wild  plan  of  passional  attraction  as 
a  substitute  for  government,  and  Louis  Blanc  is 
eloquent  about  "attractive  labor."  All  human  ex- 
perience proves  that  society  must  be  ruled  not  by 
mere  abstractions,  but  by  men  of  flesh  and  blood. 
To  attain  large  industrial  results,  it  must  be  vigor- 
ously and  severely  ruled.  Socialism  is  already 
slavery  in  all  save  the  master.  It  had  as  well 
adopt  that  feature  at  once,  as  come  to  that  it  must 
to  make  its  schemes  at  once  humane  and  efficient. 
Socialism  in  other  forms  than  that  of  slavery  is 
not  a  new  thing.  It  existed  in  Crete,  in  Sparta, 
in  Peru,  and  was  practiced  by  the  Essenes  in 
Judea.  All  ancient  institutions  were  very  much 
tinged  with  its  doctrines  and  practices,  not  only  in 
the  relation  of  master  and  slave,  which  was  uni- 
versal, but  in  the  connection  of  the  free  citizens 
to  one  another  and  to  the  government.  The  doc- 
trines of  individuality,  of  the  social  contract  and 
of  laissez-faire,  had  not  then  arisen.  Our  only 
quarrel  with  Socialism  is,  that  it  will  not  honestly 
admit  that  it  owes  its  recent  revival  to  the  failure 
of  universal  liberty,  and  is  seeking  to  bring  about 
slavery  again  in  some  form. 

The  little   experiment  of  universal  liberty  that 
has  been  tried  for  a  little  while  in  a  little  corner 


AND   RISE    OF   SOCIALISM.  71 

of  Europe,  has  resulted  in  disastrous  and  appalling 
failure.  Slavery  has  been  too  universal  not  to 
be  necessary  to  nature,  and  man  struggles  in  vain 
against  nature.  "  Expel  nature  with  a  fork,  and 
she  will  again  return;"  or,  in  the  eloquent  lan- 
guage of  Solomon — "  The  thing  that  hath  been, 
it  is  that  that  shall  be ;  and  that  which  is  done,  is 
that  which  shall  be  done ;  and  there  is  no  new 
thing  under  the  sun." 

Xo  one  who  reads  a  newspaper  can  but  have 
observed  that  every  abolitionist  is  either  an  agra- 
rian, a  socialist,  an  infidel,  an  anti-renter,  or  in 
some  way  is  trying  to  upset  other  institutions  of 
society,  as  well  as  slavery  at  the  South.  The 
same  reasoning  that  makes  him  an  abolitionist  soon 
carries  him  further,  for  he  finds  slavery  in  some 
form  so  interwoven  with  the  whole  frame-work  of 
society,  that  he  invariably  ends  by  proposing  to 
destroy  the  whole  edifice  and  building  another  on 
entirely  new  principles.  Some,  like  Fourier,  are 
honest  enough  to  admit  that  it  must  also  be  built 
with  new  materials.  There  is  too  much  human 
nature  in  man  for  their  purposes.  Part  of  that 
nature  is  the  continual  effort  to  make  others  work 
and  support  him  whilst  he  is  idle ;  in  other  words, 
to  enslave  them,  and  yet  not  be  charged  with  their 
support.  But  Fourier  and  his  disciples  promise 
most  positively  that  their  system  will  in  a  few 
generations    cleanse   mankind   of    their   mundane 


72  FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY,    &C. 

dross,  expel  every  particle  of  human  nature,  and 
that  then  their  system  will  work  admirably.  Until 
then,  we  would  advise  them  to  procure  good  prac- 
tical overseers  from  Virginia  to  govern  their  pha- 
lanxes and  phalasteries ;  and  we  venture  to  affirm, 
if  they  try  one,  they  will  never  be  willing  to  ex- 
change him  for  that  whip-syllabub,  sentimental 
ruler,  "passional  attraction."  Passional  attraction 
is  the  very  thing  government  has  chiefly  to  check 
and  punish,  and  we  suspect  it  will  be  so  to  the 
end  of  the  chapter.  The  argument  seems  fairly, 
however,  to  have  arrived  at  this  point :  All  concur 
that  free  society  is  a  failure.  We  slaveholders  say 
you  must  recur  to  domestic  slavery,  the  oldest,  the 
best  and  most  common  form  of  Socialism.  The 
new  schools  of  Socialism  promise  something  better, 
but  admit,  to  obtain  that  something,  they  must 
first  destroy  and  eradicate   man's    human   nature. 


CHAPTER  III. 

SUBJECT    CONTINUED. 

"  There  was  a  time, 
That  when  the  hrains  were  out,  the  man  would  die  I" 

Cotemporaneously  with  the  explosion  of  his  fa- 
vorite theory,  Mr.  Calhoun  folded  his  robe  around 
him  with  imperial  dignity,  and  expired  in  the  arms 
of  an  admiring  Senate.  Mr.  Macaulay  and  the 
Edinburgh  Review  still  cling  to  life  with  the  quer- 
ulous pertinacity  of  a  pair  of  cats.  "  Othello's  oc- 
cupation's gone  1"  Why  does  Othello  still  linger 
on  the   sta^e  ? 

Since  writing  our  last  chapter,  the  Edinburgh 
Review  for  July,  1854,  has  reached  us.  It  con- 
tains a  critique  on  "  An  Essay  on  the  Relations 
between  Labor  and  Capital.  R.  C.  Morrison." 
The  failure  of  free  society  we  think  is  admitted  in 
that  article.  We  think  the  writer  further  admits 
that  it  cannot  work  successfully  ^without  a  radical 
change  in  human  nature.  The  remedy  suggested 
is  very  simple ;  chronic  and  complex  as  the  diseases 
are  which  it  proposes  to  cure,  yet  that  remedy 
requires  the  poor  to  give  up  the  use  of  stimulants. 
We  do  not  think  with  Lord  Byron,  "that  man 
being  reasonable  should  get  drunk."  We  think, 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  most  irrational  act  in 
r> 


74  FAILURE    OF    FEEE    SOCIETY 

the  world.  But  change  the  line  a  little,  and  it 
is  true:  "Man  being  natural,  will  get  drunk." 
Any  theory  of  society  founded  on  the  disuse  of 
stimulants  by  the  poor,  is  Utopian  and  false.  At 
all  events,  it  involves  the  necessity  of  a  total 
change  in  man's  nature,  for  men  have  ever  used 
stimulants,  and  until  such  change  will  ever  use 
them.  If  the  grog  and  tobacco  rations  were  with- 
drawn, would  not  a  smaller  number  of  laborers  do 
the  work  that  a  larger  number  do  now,  and  thus 
throw  a  number  out  of  employment?  When  capi- 
talists discovered  that  laborers  could  live  on  less 
than  they  do  now,  would  they  not  reduce  their 
wages  ?  "Would  not  famine  be  more  common,  when 
there  was  no  room  for  retrenchment,  no  tobacco 
and  liquor  to  substitute  for  bread,  when  bread  rose 
in  price  ?  Such  is  the  theory  of  Smith  and  Mc- 
Culloch,  who  attribute  famines  in  Ireland  to  the 
too  great  economy  of  the  peasant.  We  think  the 
proposed  remedy  would  aggravate  the  disease ;  but 
it  suffices  for  our  purpose,  that  the  disease  is  ad- 
mitted. The  failure  of  laissez-faire,  of  political 
economy,  is  admitted  now  by  its  last  and  lingering 
votary.  Free  society  stands  condemned  by  the 
unanimous  testimony  of  all  its  enlightened  mem- 
bers. We  will  proceed  to  quote  from  the  article 
on  which  we  are  commenting : 

"A   few   years    ago,    when   distress  among  our 
working  people,  if  not  general,  was  at  least  chronic 


AND    RISE   OF    SOCIALISM.  75 

and  severe,    when    the   public    mind   was    at  once 
crowded    by    startling    disclosures    of  misery,  and 
distracted  by  still  more  startling   projects  for  re- 
lieving it,  the  book  before  us  would  have  excited 
immediate  and  extensive  attention.     A  few  years 
hence,  probably,  when  the  stirring  excitement  and 
the  noble  enterprise  of  war  shall  have  again  given 
place  to  the  more  beneficent  pursuits  of  peace,  and 
when   possibly   a   check   to  our  prosperous  career, 
arising  out  of  war,  shall  have  again  awakened  our 
vigilance    to    those    symptoms    of    social   disorder 
which  we  are  apt  to  neglect  in  ordinary  times,  the 
book  may  take  the  rank  it  appears  to  us  to  de- 
serve.    *     *     *     In   truth,  the   great  problem  it 
proposes  to  discuss  and   elucidate  is  one  of  more 
permanent   and   mighty  interest   than    any    other, 
however  much  transient  convulsions  may  throw  it 
into  the  back-ground,  or  transient  intervals  of  re- 
pose and  comfort  may  lull  us  into  the  belief  that 
it  is  solved  or  shelved.     It  is  not  long  since  public 
attention  was  thoroughly  aroused   to  all  that  was 
deplorable,  indefensible  and  dangerous  in  the  con- 
dition  of  the    mass    of  the   population ;  we    were 
daily  made  aware,   that   as   a   fact,  the  supply  of 
labor   was   usually    in    excess   of  the  demand,  and 
that   much  local   and  occasional  suffering  was  the 
consequence  ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  Irish  famine, 
and   the   similar   visitation  in   the   "Western  High- 
lands,  the   severe  distresses  in  the  manufacturing 


76  FAILURE    OF    FREE    SOCIETY 

districts  of  England  in  1847  and  1848,  and  the 
painful  and  undeniable,  even  though  over-colored, 
revelations  of  the  state  of  many  thousand  artisans 
of  various  trades  in  the  metropolis,  had  alarmed 
us  into  inquiry  and  reflection,  that  the  public  mind 
began  to  comprehend  either  the  magnitude  and 
imminence  of  the  evil  it  had  to  investigate,  or  the 
difficulty  and  complication  of  the  problem  it  was 
called  upon  to  solve." 

The  reviewer  and  the  reviewed  very  successfully 
show,  after  this,  that  a  movement  of  the  laboring 
class  would  be  attended  with  more  danger  in  Great 
Britain  than  any  where  else,  because  in  Great 
Britain  this  class  compose  nine-tenths  of  the  nation. 
In  France,  where  lands  are  minutely  divided,  the 
conservative  interest  preponderates.  There  are 
thirty  thousand  land-holders  in  England,  three 
thousand  in  Scotland,  and  eleven  millions  in  France. 
The  state  of  society  in  Great  Britain  is  pregnant 
with  disastrous  change  and  revolution.  Emio-ration 
affords  a  temporary  vent  and  relief,  but  emigration 
may  cease,  and  then  this  complex  and  difficult  so- 
cial problem  will  recur.  The  laboring  class  are 
about  to  assume  the  reins  of  government.  They 
know  their  own  numbers  and  strength.  All  the 
reasoning  in  the  world  will  not  satisfy  them  that 
they  who  produce  every  thing  should  starve,  in 
order  that  a  handful  of  lords  and  capitalists  should 
live  in  wanton  waste  and  idle  luxury.     Mr.  Mor- 


AND    RISE    OF    SOCIALISM.  77 

rison  will  not  persuade  tliem  that  it  is  a  high 
crime  and  misdemeanor  for  them  to  use  a  little 
beer  and  tobacco,  for  they  make  every  ounce  of 
tobacco  and  pint  of  beer  that  is  consumed  in  the 
kingdom.  A  social  revolution  is  at  hand.  Dr. 
Sanorrado  could  not  arrest  it  with  his  "  bleeding 
and  warm  water,'-'  much  less  Mr.  Morrison  with 
his  cold  water  remedy.  The  teetotalers  should 
give  him  a  brass  medal,  for  they,  like  he,  propose 
to  remedjr  all  the  evils  that  human  flesh  is  heir 
to,  with  abstinence  and  cold  water.  The  Ho- 
meopathists  will  dispute  with  the  Hydropathists  the 
propriety  of  conferring  on  him  an  honorary  title. 
His  infinitesimal  dose  ranking  him  with  the  former, 
and  its  ingredient,  cold  water,  allying  him  with 
the  latter  practitioners.  The  reviewer  admits  that 
Great  Britain  is  in  danger  of  a  far  worse  social 
revolution  than  ever  visited  France,  and  has  no 
preventive  to  suggest  except  to  stop  the  "grog 
ration."  Now,  slavery  is  the  only  thing  in  the 
world  that  can  enforce  temperance.  The  army 
and  navy  are  the  only  reliable  temperance  societies 
in  Great  Britain.  Men  who  have  lost  self-control 
enlist  in  them  to  be  controlled  by  superior  au- 
thority. They  often  prolong  their  lives  thereby. 
Slaves,  like  soldiers  and  sailors,  are  temperate,  be- 
cause temperance  is  enforced  on  them.  If  free 
laborers  will  use  too  much  grog  and  tobacco,  it 
proves  they  arc  not  ripe  for  freedom. 


78  FAILURE   OF   FREE   SOCIETY 

But  we  will  forego  and  give  np  every  word  of 
proof  that  we  have  deduced  from  history  to  shew 
the  failure  of  free  society.  In  the  present  and 
preceding  chapters,  we  know  we  have  adduced  suf- 
ficient historical  evidence  of  that  failure,  but  we 
forego  all  that.  We  take  a  single  admission  of  this 
reviewer — "  that  the  supply  of  labor  is  usually  in 
excess  of  the  demand."  The  admission  of  course 
only  applies  to  Great  Britain,  but  it  is  well  known 
that  in  free  continental.  Europe  the  excess  is  still 
greater.  Now,  is  it  necessary  for  us  to  do  more 
than  state  the  admission  to  prove  that  free  society 
is  absurd  and  impracticable  ?  Part  of  the  laboring 
class  are  out  of  employment  and  actually  starving, 
and  in  their  struggle  to  get  employment,  reducing 
to  the  minimum  of  what  will  support  human  ex- 
istence those  next  above  them  who  are  employed. 
This  next  and  employed  class  are  the  needle-wo- 
men, and  coarse  and  common  male  laborers.  The 
two.  classes  and  their  dependents  constitute  one- 
half  of  mankind.  Theoretically,  this  half  of  man- 
kind is  always  at  starvation  point  in  free  society. 
Practically,  the  proportion  of  the  suffering  desti- 
tute is  much  greater.  We  are  astounded  that  con- 
clusions so  obviously  and  immediately  resulting 
from  admitted  premises,  should  not  have  occurred 
to  every  one,  especially  when  horrid  facts  beck- 
oned the  way  to  the  conclusion. 


AND  RISE  OP  SOCIALISM.  79 

This  whole  article  in  the  Edinburgh  is  unfeeling 
and  libellous,  unjust  and  untrue.  The  greatest 
destitution  and  pauperism  excludes  the  use  of  stim- 
ulants. The  working  women  suffer  most,  and  they 
use  few  stimulants.  The  starving  peasantry  of 
Scotland,  France  and  Ireland,  can  rarely  indulge 
in  them.  It  is  the  well-paid  laborers  who,  after 
the  excessive  fatigues  of  the  day,  indulge  in  the 
pipe  and  the  bottle.  Fatigued,  maddened  and  des- 
perate with  the  prospect  before  them,  some  little 
charity  should  be  extended  to  their  feelings.  Such 
wholesale  abuse  of  the  laboring  class  will  but  pre- 
cipitate the  social  revolution  which  the  reviewer 
dreads, 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    TWO     PHILOSOPHIES. 

In  the  three  preceding  chapters  we  have  shewn 
that  the  world  is  divided  between  two  philosophies. 
The  one  the  philosophy  of  free  trade  and  univer- 
sal liberty — the  philosophy  adapted  to  promote  the 
interests  of  the  strong,  the  wealthy  and  the  wise. 
The  other,  that  of  socialism,  intended  to  protect 
the  weak,  the  poor  and  the  ignorant.  The  latter 
is  almost  universal  in  free  society ;  the  former  pre- 
vails in  the  slaveholding  States  of  the  South. 
Thus  we  see  each  section  cherishing  theories  at 
war  with  existing  institutions.  The  people  of  the 
North  and  of  Europe  are  pro-slavery  men  in  the 
abstract ;  those  of  the  South  are  theoretical  abo- 
litionists. This  state  of  opinions  is  readily  ac- 
counted for.  The  people  in  free  society  feel  the 
evils  of  universal  liberty  and  free  competition, 
and  desire  to  get  rid  of  those  evils.  They  pro- 
pose a  remedy,  which  is  in  fact  slavery ;  but 
they  are  wholly  unconscious  of  what  they  are 
doing,  because  never  having  lived  in  the  midst  of 
slavery,  they  know  not  what  slavery  is.  The  citi- 
zens of  the  South,  who  have  seen  none  of  the 
evils  of  liberty  and  competition,  but  just  enough  of 
those  agencies  to  operate  as  healthful  stimulants  to 


THE   TWO    PHILOSOPHIES.  81 

energy,  enterprise   and  industry,  believe  free  com- 
petition to  be  an  unmixed  good. 

The  South,  quiet,  contented,  satisfied,  looks  upon 
all  socialists  and  radical  reformers  as  madmen  or 
knaves.  It  is  as  ignorant  of  free  society  as  that 
society  is  of  slavery.  Each  section  sees  one  side  of 
the  subject  alone  ;  each,  therefore,  takes  partial  and 
erroneous  views  of  it.  Social  science  will  never 
take  a  step  in  advance  till  some  Southern  slave- 
holder, competent  for  the  task,  devotes  a  ]ife-time 
to  its  study  and  elucidation  ;  for  slavery  can  only 
be  understood  by  living  in  its  midst,  whilst  thou- 
sands of  books  daily  exhibit  the  minutest  work- 
ings of  free  society.  The  knowledge  of  the  nu- 
merous theories  of  radical  reform  proposed  in  Eu- 
rope, and  the  causes  that  have  led  to  their  pro- 
mulgation, is  of  vital  importance  to  us.  Yet  we 
turn  away  from  them  with  disgust,  as  from  some- 
thing unclean  and  vicious.  We  occupy  high  van- 
tage ground  for  observing,  studying  and  classify- 
ing the  various  phenomena  of  society ;  yet  we  do 
not  profit  by  the  advantages  of  our  position.  We 
should  do  so,  and  indignantly  hurl  back  upon  our 
assailants  the  charge,  that  there  is  something 
wrong  and  rotten  in  our  system.  From  their 
own  mouths  we  can  show  free  society  to  be  a 
monstrous  abortion,  and  slavery  to  be  the  healthy, 
beautiful  and  natural  being  which  they  are  trying, 
unconsciously,  to  -adopt. 


CHAPTER    Y. 

NEGRO  SLAVERY. 

We  have  already  stated  that  we  should  not  at- 
tempt to  introduce  any  new  theories  of  govern- 
ment and  of  society,  but  merely  try  to  justify  old 
ones,  so  far  as  we  could  deduce  such  theories  from 
ancient  and  almost  universal  practices.  Now  it 
has  been  the  practice  in  all  countries  and  in  all 
ages,  in  some  degree,  to  accommodate  the  amount 
and  character  of  government  control  to  the  wants, 
intelligence,  and  moral  capacities  of  the  nations 
or  individuals  to  be  governed.  A  highly  moral 
and  intellectual  people,  like  the  free  citizens  of 
ancient  Athens,  are  best  governed  by  a  democracy. 
For  a  less  moral  and  intellectual  one,  a  limited 
and  constitutional  monarchy  will  answer.  For  a 
people  either  very  ignorant  or  very  wicked,  no- 
thing short  of  military  despotism  will  suffice.  So 
among  individuals,  the  most  moral  and  well-in- 
formed members  of  society  require  no  other  gov- 
ernment than  law.  They  are  capable  of  reading 
and  understanding  the  law,  and  have  sufficient  self- 
control  and  virtuous  disposition  to  obey  it.  Chil- 
dren cannot  be  governed  by  mere  law;  first,  because 
they  do  not  understand  it,  and  secondly,  because 


NEGRO    SLAVERY.  83 

they  are  so  much  under  the  influence  of  impulse, 
passion  and  appetite,  that  they  want  sufficient  self- 
control  to  be  deterred  or  governed  by  the  distant 
and  doubtful  penalties  of  the  law.  They  must  be 
constantly  controlled  by  parents  or  guardians, 
whose  will  and  orders  shall  stand  in  the  place  of 
law  for  them.  Very  wicked  men  must  be  put 
into  penitentiaries ;  lunatics  into  asylums,  and  the 
most  wild  of  them  into  straight  jackets,  just  as 
the  most  wicked  of  the  sane  are  manacled  with 
irons ;  and  idiots  must  have  committees  to  govern 
and  take  care  of  them.  Now,  it  is  clear  the 
Athenian  democracy  would  not  suit  a  negro  nation, 
nor  will  the  government  of  mere  law  suffice  for 
the  individual  negro.  He  is  but  a  grown  up  child, 
and  must  be  governed  as  a  child,  not  as  a  lunatic 
or  criminal.  The  master  occupies  towards  him  the 
place  of  parent  or  guardian.  We  shall  not  dwell 
on  this  view,  for  no  one  will  differ  with  us  who 
thinks  as  we  do  of  the  negro's  capacity,  and  we 
might  argue  till  dooms-day,  in  vain,  with  those 
who  have  a  high  opinion  of  the  negro's  moral 
and  intellectual  capacity. 

Secondly.  The  negro  is  improvident ;  will  not 
lay  up  in  summer  for  the  wants  of  winter ;  will 
not  accumulate  in  youth  for  the  exigencies  of  age. 
He  would  become  an  insufferable  burden  to  society. 
Society  has  the  right  to  prevent  this,  and  can 
only  do  so  by  subjecting  him  to  domestic  slavery. 


84  NEGRO   SLAVERY. 

In  the  last  place,  the  negro  race  is  inferior  to 
the  white  race,  and  living  in  their  midst,  they 
would  be  far  outstripped  or  outwitted  in  the 
chase  of  free  competition.  Gradual  but  certain  ex- 
termination would  be  their  fate.  We  presume  the 
maddest  abolitionist  does  not  think  the  negro's 
providence  of  habits  and  money-making  capacity 
at  all  to  compare  to  those  of  the  whites.  This  de- 
fect of  character  would  alone  justify  enslaving  him, 
if  he  is  to  remain  here.  In  Africa  or  the  West 
Indies,  he  would  become  idolatrous,  savage  and 
cannibal,  or  be  devoured  by  savages  and  cannibals. 
At  the  North  he  would  freeze  or  starve. 

We  would  remind  those  who  deprecate  and  sym- 
pathize with  negro  slavery,  that  his  slavery  here 
relieves  him  from  a  far  mere  cruel  slavery  in 
Africa,  or  from  idolatry  and  cannibalism,  and 
every  brutal  vice  and  crime  that  can  disgrace  hu- 
manity ;  and  that  it  christianizes,  protects,  sup- 
ports and  civilizes  him ;  that  it  governs  him  far 
better  than  free  laborers  at  the  North  are  gov- 
erned. There,  wife-murder  has  become  a  mere 
holiday  pastime ;  and  where  so  many  wives  are 
murdered,  almost  all  must  be  brutally  treated. 
Nay,  more :  men  who  kill  their  wives  or  treat  them 
brutally,  must  be  ready  for  all  kinds  of  crime, 
and  the  calendar  of  crime  at  the  North  proves 
the  inference  to  be  correct.  Negroes  never  kill 
their  wives.     If  it  be   objected  that  legally  they 


NEGRO    SLAVERY.  85 

have  no  wives,  then  we  reply,  that  in  an  experi- 
ence of  more  than  forty  years,  we  never  yet  heard 
of  a  ne^ro  man  killing  a  nei^ro  woman.  Our  ne- 
groes  are  not  only  better  oiF  as  to  physical  com- 
fort than  free  laborers,  but  their  moral  condition 
is  better. 

But  abolish  negro  slavery,  and  how  much  of 
slavery  still  remains.  Soldiers  and  sailors  in  Eu- 
rope enlist  for  life ;  here,  for  five  years.  Are 
they  not  slaves  who  have  not  only  sold  their  liber- 
ties, but  their  lives  also  ?  And  they  are  worse 
treated  than  domestic  slaves.  No  domestic  affec- 
tion and  self-interest  extend  their  regis  over  them. 
No  kind  mistress,  like  a  guardian  angel,  provides 
for  them  in  health,  tends  them  in  sickness,  and 
soothes  their  dying  pillow.  Wellington  at  Water- 
loo was  a  slave.  He  was  bound  to  obey,  or  would, 
like  admiral  Bying,  have  been  shot  for  gross  mis- 
conduct, and  might  not,  like  a  common  laborer, 
quit  his  work  at  any  moment.  He  had  sold  his 
liberty,  and  might  not  resign  without  the  consent 
of  his  master,  the  king.  The  common  laborer  may 
quit  his  work  at  any  moment,  whatever  his  con- 
tract ;  declare  that  liberty  is  an  inalienable  right, 
and  leave  his  employer  to  redress  by  a  useless 
suit  for  damages.  The  highest  and  most  honor- 
able position  on  earth  was  that  of  the  slave  Wel- 
lington ;  the  lowest,  that  of  the  free  man  who 
cleaned  his  boots  and  fed  his  hounds.     The  Afri- 


86  NEGEO    SLAVERY. 

can  cannibal,  caught,  christianized  and  enslaved, 
is  as  much  elevated  by  slavery  as  was  Welling- 
ton. The  kind  of  slavery  is  adapted  to  the  men 
enslaved.  Wives  and  apprentices  are  slaves ;  not 
in  theory  only,  but  oTten  in  fact.  Children  are 
slaves  to  their  parents,  guardians  and  teachers. 
Imprisoned  culprits  are  slaves.  Lunatics  and 
idiots  are  slaves  also.  Three-fourths  of  free  so- 
ciety are  slaves,  no  better  treated,  when  their 
wants  and  capacities  are  estimated,  than  negro 
slaves.  The  masters  in  free  society,  or  slave  so- 
ciety, if  they  perform  properly  their  duties,  have 
more  cares  and  less  liberty  than  the  slaves  them- 
selves. "In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  earn 
thy- bread!"  made  all  men  slaves,  and  such  all 
good  men  continue  to  be. 

Negro  slavery  would  be  changed  immediately 
to  some  form  of  peonage,  serfdom  or  villien- 
age,  if  the  negroes  were  sufficiently  intelligent 
and  provident  to  manage  a  farm.  No  one  would 
have  the  labor  and  trouble  of  management,  if 
his  negroes  would  pay  in  hires  and  rents  one- 
half  what  free  tenants  pay  in  rent  in  Europe. 
Every  negro  in  the  South  would  be  soon  liberated, 
if  he  would  take  liberty  on  the  terms  that  white 
tenants  hold  it.  The  fact  that  he  cannot  enjoy 
liberty  on  such  terms,  seems  conclusive  that  he  is 
only  fit  to  be  a  slave. 

But  for  the  assaults  of  the  abolitionists,  much 
would  have   been   done   ere   this   to    regulate    and 


NEGRO    SLAVERY.  87 

improve  Southern  slavery.  Our  negro  mechanics 
do  not  work  so  hard,  have  many  more  privileges 
and  holidays,  and  are  better  fed  and  clothed  than 
field  hands,  and  are  yet  more  valuable  to  their 
masters.  The  slaves  of  the  South  are  cheated  of 
their  rights  by  the  purchase  of  Northern  manufac- 
tures -which  they  could  produce.  Besides,  if  vre 
would  employ  our  slaves  in  the  coarser  processes 
of  the  mechanic  arts  and  manufactures,  such  as 
brick  making,  getting  and  hewing  timber  for  ships 
and  houses,  iron  mining  and  smelting,  coal  mining, 
grading  railroads  and  plank  roads,  in  the  man- 
ufacture of  cotton,  tobacco,  &e.,  we  would  find 
a  vent  in  new  employments  for  their  increase, 
more  humane  and  more  profitable  than  the  vent 
afforded  by  new  states  and  territories.  The  nice 
and  finishing  processes  of  manufactures  and  me- 
chanics should  be  reserved  for  the  whites,  who 
only  are  fitted  for  them,  and  thus,  by  diversifying 
pursuits  and  cutting  off  dependence  on  the  North, 
we  might  benefit  and  advance  the  interests  of  our 
whole  population.  Exclusive  agriculture  has  de- 
pressed and  impoverished  the  South.  We  will  not 
here  dilate  on  this  topic,  because  we  intend  to" 
make  it  the  subject  of  a  separate  essay.  Free 
trade  doctrines,  not  slavery,  have  made  the  South 
agricultural  and  dependent,  given  her  a  sparse  and 
ignorant  population,  ruined  her  cities,  and  expelled 
her  people. 


88  NEGRO    SLAVERY. 

"Would  the  abolitionists  approve  of  a  system  of 
society  that  set  white  children  free,  and  remitted 
them  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  males  and  females, 
to  all  the  rights,  both  as  to  person  and  property, 
which  belong  to  adults  ?  Would  it  be  criminal  or 
praiseworthy  to  do  so  ?  Criminal,  of  course.  Now, 
are  the  average  of  negroes  equal  in  information,  in 
native  intelligence,  in  prudenee  or  providence,  to 
well-informed  white  children  of  fourteen?  We  who 
have  lived  with  them  for  forty  years,  think  not. 
The  competition  of  the  world  would  be  too  much 
for  the  children.  They  would  be  cheated  out  of 
their  property  and  debased  in  their  morals.  Yet 
they  would  meet  every  where  with  sympathizing 
friends  of  their  own  color,  ready  to  aid,  advise 
and  assist  them.  The  negro  would  be  exposed 
to  the  same  competition  and  greater  temptations, 
with  no  greater  ability  to  contend  with  them,  with 
these  additional  difficulties.  He  would  be  welcome 
nowhere;  meet  with. thousands  of  enemies  and  no 
friends.  If  he  went  North,  the  white  laborers 
would  kick  him  and  cuff  him,  and  drive  him  out  of 
employment.  If  he  went  to  Africa,  the  savages 
"would  cook  him  and  eat  him.  If  he  went  to  the 
West  Indies,  they  would  not  let  him  in,  or  if  they 
did,  they  would  soon  make  of  him  a  savage  and 
idolater. 

We   have   a  further  question   to   ask.     If  it  be 
right   and   incumbent   to   subject    children    to    the 


NEGRO    SLAVERY.  89 

authority  of  parents  and  guardians,  and  idiots  and 
lunatics  to  committees,  would  it  not  be  equally 
right  and  incumbent  to  give  the  free  negroes  mas- 
ters, until  at  least  they  arrive  at  years  of  discre- 
tion, which  very  few  ever  did  or  will  attain  ?  What 
is  the  difference  between  the  authority  of  a  parent 
and  of  a  master  ?  Neither  pay  wages,  and  each 
is  entitled  to  the  services  of  those  subject  to  him. 
The  father  may  not  sell  his  child  forever,  but  may 
hire  him  out  till  he  is  twenty-one.  The  free  ne- 
gro's master  may  also  be  restrained  from  selling. 
Let  him  stand  in  loco  parentis,  and  call  him  papa 
instead  of  master.  Look  closely  into  slavery,  and 
you  will  see  nothing  so  hideous  in  it ;  or  if  }-ou 
-do,  you  will  find  plenty  of  it  at  home  in  its  most 
hideous  form. 

The  earliest  civilization  of  which  history  gives 
account  is  that  of  Egypt.  The  negro  was  always 
in  contact  with  that  civilization.  For  four  thou- 
sand years  he  has  had  opportunities  of  becoming 
civilized.  Like  the  wild  horse,  he  must  be  caught, 
tamed  and  domesticated.  When  his  subjugation 
ceases  he  again  runs  wild,  like  the  cattle  on  the 
Pampas  of  the  South,  or  the  horses  on  the  prairies 
of  the  West.  His  condition  in  the  West  Indies 
proves  this. 

It  is  a  common  remark,  that  the  grand  and  last- 
ing architectural  structures  of  antiquity  were  the 
results  of  slavery.     The  mighty  and  continued  as- 


90  NEGRO   SLAVERY. 

sociation  of  labor  requisite  to  their  construction, 
when  mechanic  art  was  so  little  advanced,  and 
labor-saving  processes  unknown,  could  only  have 
been  brought  about  by  a  despotic  authority,  like 
that  of  the  master  over  his  slaves.  It  is,  however, 
very  remarkable,  that  whilst  in  taste  and  artistic 
skill  the  world  seems  to  have  been  retrograding 
ever  since  the  decay  and  abolition  of  feudalism,  in 
mechanical  invention  and  in  great  utilitarian  ope- 
rations requiring  the  wielding  of  immense  capital 
and  much  labor,  its  progress  has  been  unexampled. 
Is  it  because  capital  is  more  despotic  in  its  au- 
thority over  free  laborers  than  Roman  masters  and 
feudal  lords  were  over  their  slaves  and  vassals  ? 

Free  society  has  continued  long  enough  to  jus- 
tify the  attempt  to  generalize  its  phenomena,  and 
calculate  its  moral  and  intellectual  influences.  It 
is  obvious  that,  in  whatever  is  purely  utilitarian 
and  material,  it  incites  invention  and  stimulates 
industry.  Benjamin  Franklin,  as  a  man  and  a 
philosopher,  is  the  best  exponent  of  the  working 
of  the  system.  His  sentiments  and  his  philosophy 
are  low,  selfish,  atheistic  and  material.  They  tend 
directly  to  make  man  a  mere  "featherless  biped," 
well-fed,  well-clothed  and  comfortable,  but  regard- 
less of  his  soul  as  "the  beasts  that  perish." 

Since  the  Reformation  the  world  has  as  regu- 
larly been  retrograding  in  whatever  belongs  to  the 
departments   of  genius,   taste   and  art,   as   it   has 


NEGRO    SLAVERY.  91 

been  progressing  in  physical  science  and  its  appli- 
cation to  mechanical  construction.  Mediaeval  Italy 
rivalled  if  it  did  not  surpass  ancient  Koine,  in 
poetry,  in  sculpture,  in  painting,  and  many  of  the 
fine  arts.  Gothic  architecture  reared  its  monu- 
ments of  skill  and  genius  throughout  Europe,  till 
the  loth  century ;  but  Gothic  architecture  died 
with  the  Reformation.  The  age  of  Elizabeth  was 
the   Augustan    ao*e    of   England.      The   men    who 

o  o  c 

lived  then  acquired  their  sentiments  in  a  world  not 
yet  deadened  and  vulgarized  by  puritanical  cant 
and  levelling  dcmagoguism.  Since  then  men  have 
arisen  who  have  been  the  fashion  and  the  go  for  a 
season,  but  none  have  appeared  whose  names  will 
descend  to  posterity.  Liberty  and  equality  made 
slower  advances  in  France.  The  age  of  Louis 
XIY.  was  the  culminating  point  of  French  genius 
and  art.  It  then  shed  but  a  flickering  and  lurid 
light.  Frenchmen  are  servile  copyists  of  Roman 
art,  and  Rome  had  no  art  of  her  own.  She  bor- 
rowed from  Greece;  distorted  and  deteriorated 
what  she  borrowed;  and  France  imitates  and  falls 
below  Roman  distortions.  The  genius  of  Spain 
disappeared  with  Cervantes ;  and  now  the  world 
seems  to  regard  nothing  as  desirable  except  what 
will  make  money  and  what  costs  money.  There 
is  not  a  poet,  an  orator,  a  sculptor,  or  painter  in 
the  world.  The  tedious  elaboration  necessary  to 
all  the  productions  of  high  art  would  be  ridiculed 


92  NEGRO    SLAVERY. 

in  this  money-making,  utilitarian,  charlatan  age. 
Nothing  now  but  what  is  gaudy  and  costly  excites 
admiration.     The  public  taste  is  debased.    . 

But  far  the  worst  feature  of  modern  civilization, 
which  is  the  civilization  of  free  society,  remains  to 
be  exposed.  Whilst  labor-saving  processes  have 
probably  lessened  by  one  half,  in  the  last  century, 
the  amount  of  work  needed  for  comfortable  sup- 
port, the  free  laborer  is  compelled  by  capital  and 
competition  to  work  more  than  he  ever  did  before, 
and  is  less  comfortable.  The  organization  of  so- 
ciety cheats  him  of  his  earnings,  and  those  earn- 
ings go  to  swell  the  vulgar  pomp  and  pageantry 
of  the  ignorant  millionaires,  who  are  the  only 
great  of  the  present  day.  These  reflections  might 
seem,  at  first  view,  to  have  little  connexion  with 
negro  slavery  ;  but  it  is  well  for  us  of  the  South 
not  to  be  deceived  by  the  tinsel  glare  and  glitter 
of  free  society,  and  to  employ  ourselves  in  doing 
our  duty  at  home,  and  studying  the  past,  rather 
than  in  insidious  rivalry  of  the  expensive  pleasures 
and  pursuits  of  men  whose  sentiments  and  whose 
aims  are  low,  sensual  and  grovelling. 

Human  progress,  consisting  in  moral  and  intel- 
lectual improvement,  and  there  being  no  agreed 
and  conventional  standard  weights  or  measures  of 
moral  and  intellectual  qualities  and  quantities,  the 
question  of  progress  can  never  be  accurately  de- 
cided.    We  maintain  that  man  has  not  improved, 


XEGRO    SLAVERY.  9  .'" 

because  in  all  save  the  mechanic  arts  he  reverts  to 
the  distant  past  for  models  to  imitate,  and  he 
never  imitates  what  he  can  excel. 

We  need  never  have  white  slaves  in  the  South,  he- 
cause  we  have  black  ones.  Our  citizens,  like  those 
of  Home  and  Athens,  are  a  privileged  class.  "We 
should  train  and  educate  them  to  deserve  the  privi- 
leges and  to  perform  the  duties  which  society  con- 
fers on  them.  Instead,  by  a  low  demagoguism  de- 
pressing their  self-respect  by  discourses  on  the 
equality  of  man,  we  had  better  excite  their  pride  by 
reminding  them  that  they  do  not  fulfil  the  menial 
offices  which  white  men  do  in  other  countries.  So- 
ciety does  not  feel  the  burden  of  providing  for  the 
few  helpless  paupers  in  the  South.  And  we  should 
recollect  that  here  we  have  but  half  the  people  to 
educate,  for  half  are  negroes ;  whilst  at  the  North 
they  profess  to  educate  all.  It  is  in  our  power  to 
spike  this  last  gun  of  the  abolitionists.  We  should 
educate  all  the  poor.  The  abolitionists  say  that  it 
is  one  of  the  necessary  consequences  of  slavery 
that  the  poor  are  neglected.  It  was  not  so  in 
Athens,  and  in  Rome,  and  should  not  be  so  in  the 
South.  If  we  had  less  trade  with  and  less  de- 
pendence on  the  North,  all  our  poor  might  be  pro- 
fitably and  honorably  employed  in  trades,  profes- 
sions and  manufactures.  Then  we  should  have  a 
rich  and  denser  population.  Yet  we  but  marshal 
her  in  the  way  that  she  was  going.      The  South  is 


94  NEGRO    SLAVERY. 

already  aware  of  the  necessity  of  a  new  policy, 
and  has  begun  to  act  on  it.  Every  clay  more  and 
more  is  done  for  education,  the  mechanic  arts, 
manufactures  and  internal  improvements.  We  will 
soon  be  independent  of  the  North. 

We  deem  this  peculiar  question  of  negro  slavery 
of  very  little  importance.  The  issue  is  made 
throughout  the  world  on  the  general  subject  of 
slavery  in  the  abstract.  The  argument  has  com- 
menced. One  set  of  ideas  will  govern  and  control 
after  awhile  the  civilized  world.  Slavery  will  every 
where  be  abolished,  or  every  where  be  re-instituted. 
We  think  the  opponents  of  practical,  existing 
slavery,  are  estopped  by  their  own  admission  ; 
nay,  that  unconsciously,  as  socialists,  they  are  the 
defenders  and  propagandists  of  slavery,  and  have 
furnished  the  only  sound  arguments  on  which  its 
defence  and  justification  can  be  rested.  We  have 
introduced  the  subject  of  negro  slavery  to  afford 
us  a  better  opportunity  to  disclaim  the  purpose  of 
reducing  the  white  man  any  where  to  the  condition 
of  negro  slaves  here.  It  would  be  very  unwise 
and  unscientific  to  govern  white  men  as  you  would 
negroes.  Every  shade  and  variety  of  slavery  has 
existed  in  the  world.  In  some  cases  there  has 
been  much  of  legal  regulation,  much  restraint  of 
the  master's  authority ;  in  others,  none  at  all. 
The  character  of  slavery  necessary  to  protect  the 
whites   in    Europe    should   be   much   milder    than 


XEGRO    SLAVERY.  95 

negro  slavery,  for  slavery  is  only  needed  to  pro- 
tect the  white  man,  whilst  it  is  more  necessary  for 
the  government  of  the  negro  even  than  for  his 
protection.  But  even  negro  slavery  should  not  be 
outlawed.  We  might  and  should  have  laws  in 
Virginia,  as  in  Louisiana,  to  make  the  master  sub- 
ject to  presentment  by  the  grand  jury  and  to  pun- 
ishment, for  any  inhuman  or  improper  treatment 
or  neglect  of  his  slave. 

We  abhor  the  doctrine  of  the  "Types  of  Man- 
kind ;"  first,  because  it  is  at  war  with  scripture,, 
which  teaches  us  that  the  whole  human  race  is 
descended  from  a  common  parentage;  and,  se- 
condly, because  it  encourages  and  incites  brutal 
masters  to  treat  negroes,  not  as  weak,  ignorant 
and  dependent  brethren,  but  as  wicked  beasts, 
without  the  pale  of  humanity.  The  Southerner  is 
the  negro's  friend,  his  only  friend.  Let  no  inter- 
meddling abolitionist,  no  refined  philosophy,  dis- 
solve this  friendship. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

SCRIPTURAL   AUTHORITY   FOR    SLAVERY. 

We  find  slavery  repeatedly  instituted  by  God, 
or  by  men  acting  under  his  immediate  care  and 
direction,  as  in  the  instances  of  Moses  and  Joshua. 
Nowhere  in  the  Old  or  New  Testament  do  we  find 
the  institution  condemned,  but  frequently  recog- 
nized and  enforced.  In  individual  instances  slavery 
may  be  treated  as  an  evil,  and  no  doubt  it  is  often 
a  very  great  one  where  its  subject  is  fitted  to  take 
care  of  himself  and  would  be  happier  and  more 
useful  as  a  freeman  than  as  a  slave.  It  was  often 
imposed  as  a  punishment  for  sin,  but  this  affords 
no  argument  against  its  usefulness  or  its  necessity. 
It  is  probably  no  cause  of  regret  that  men  are  so 
constituted  as  to  require  that  many  should  be 
slaves.  Slavery  opens  many  sources  of  happiness 
and  occasions  and  encourages  the  exercise  of  many 
virtues  and  affections  which  would  be  unknown 
without  it.  It  begets  friendly,  kind  and  affection- 
ate relations,  just  as  equality  engenders  antago- 
nism and  hostility  on  all  sides.  The  condition  of 
slavery  in  all  ages  and  in  all  countries  has  been 
considered  in  the  general  disgraceful,  but  so  to 
some  extent  have  hundreds  of  the  necessary  trades 


SCRIPTURAL   AUTHORITY    FOR    SLAVE  HI*.  97 

and  occupations  of  freemen.  The  necessity  which 
often  compels  the  best  of  men  to  resort  to  such 
trades  and  occupations  in  no  degree  degrades  their 
character,  nor  does  the  necessity  which  imposes 
slavery  degrade  the  character  of  the  slave.  The 
man  who  acts  well  his  part,  whether  as  slave  or 
free  laborer,  is  entitled  to  and  commands  the  es- 
teem and  respect  of  all  good  men.  The  disgrace 
of  slavery  all  consists  in  the  cowardice,  the  im- 
providence or  crime  which  generally  originate  it. 
The  Babylonian  captivity  and  slavery  were  in- 
tended to  chastise,  purify  and  elevate  the  Jews, 
not  to  degrade  them.  The  disgrace  consisted  in 
the  crimes,  the  effeminacy  and  the  idolatry  which 
invited  and  occasioned  that  captivity. 

If  the  scriptural  authority  for  slavery  were  rob- 
bed of  its  divine  authorship,  still  it  would  stand 
far  above  all  human  authority.  Moses,  if  an  im- 
postor, was  the  wisest  statesman  that  ever  lived. 
Under  his  stereotyped  and  unchangeable  institu- 
tions, Judea,  a  small  and  barren  country,  went  on 
to  prosper,  until  in  the  age  of  Solomon,  the  Jews 
became  the  wealthiest  and  most  enlightened  people 
on  earth.  More  than  a  thousand  years  afterwards, 
in  the  reign  of  Vespasian,  the  single  city  of 
Jerusalem  defied  for  six  months  the  combined 
power  of  the  civilized  world,  led  on  by  the  best 
warrior  and  greatest  genius  of  the  age. 

Such  vitality  did  those  institutions  of  Moses 
E 


98         SCRIPTURAL    AUTHORITY    FOR    SLAVERY. 

possess,  that  although  the  Jews  were  scattered  in 
after  times  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven,  down  trod- 
den, hated,  persecuted,  oppressed,  still  clinging  to 
the  very  letter  of  his  law,  they  are  to  day  a  great, 
numerous  and  prosperous  people.  Whilst  the  lower 
classes  among  them  are  shrewd,  cunning,  filthy 
and  dishonest,  the  upper  classes  are  honest,  high- 
minded,  enlightened  and  immensely  wealthy.  To- 
day, the  Rothschilds  wield  as  much  power  as  the 
Emperor  Nicholas,  and  wield  it  more  wisely  and 
humanely.  Of  their  institutions  slavery  was  an 
important  element.  If  their  unparalleled  wisdom 
and  success  prove  not  their  divine  origin,  this  at 
least  proves  that  they  are  infinitely  the  best  models 
of  human  polity. 

Ham,  a  son  of  Noah,  was  condemned  to  slavery 
and  his  posterity*  after  him.  We  do  not  adopt  the 
theory  that  he  was  the  ancestor  of  the  negro  race. 
The  Jewish  slaves  were  not  negroes,  and  to  con- 
fine the  justification  of  slavery  to  that  race  would 
be  to  weaken  its  scriptural  authority,  and  to  lose 
the  whole  weight  of  profane  authority,  for  we  read 
of  no  negro  slavery  in  ancient  times. 

The  righteous  Abraham,  the  chosen  of  God  from 
a  wicked  world,  was  both  prince  and  master.  He 
possessed  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  his 
subjects  or  slaves,  and  over  his  wife  and  children. 
When  about  to  sacrifice  Isaac,  he  never  dreamed 
that  any  human  authority  could  dispute  his  right 


SCRIPTURAL    AUTHORITY   TOR    SLAVERY.  99 

or  stay  his  hand.  Yet  who  would  not  prefer  to 
have  been  of  the  household  of  Abraham,  to  delving 
as  a  free  laborer  for  some  vulgar  boss  of  modern 
times.  In  the  times  of  Abraham,  we  may  infer 
from  his  history  that  all  masters  possessed  the 
power  of  life  and  death.  It  teaches  us  another 
lesson, — how  much  there  is  in  a  name.  We  attach 
nothing  humiliating  or  disgraceful  to  the  situation 
of  the  subject  of  a  despotic  prince;  but  call  him 
master,  "  there  all  the  dishonor  lies."  In  truth, 
the  influences  on  character  are  the  same,  provided 
the  persons  subjected  be  the  same. 

The  first  runaway  we  read  of  was  Hagar,  and 
she  we  find,  like  runaways  at  the  North,  about 
to  perish  for  want.  An  angel  of  the  Lord  did 
not  spurn  the  office  which  Senator  Sumner  con- 
temns— to  restore  the  fugitive  to  her  owners. 
"And  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  said  unto  her,  re- 
turn to  thy  mistress  and  submit  thyself  under 
her  hands."  St.  Paul,  the  Chevalier  Bayard  of 
Christianity,  had  not  so  nice  a  sense  of  honor  as 
the  Massachusetts  Senator.  He  returned  Onesi- 
mus  to  his  master.  Christianity  then  inculcated 
and  enjoined  obedience  to  masters.  Pretended 
Christianity,  now,  incites  disobedience  and  insur- 
rection, and  heads  mobs  to  rescue  slaves  from 
their  masters. 

In  Judea  men  might  become  slaves,  as  captives 
taken  in  war;   probably  a  majority  of  slaves  were 


lOO      SCftiiDURAL    AUTHORITY    FOR    SLAVERY. 

of  this  character.  It  has  been,  on  insufficient 
grounds  we  think,  assumed,  that  slavery  owes  its 
origin  generally  to  this  source. 

It  is  true  that  ancient  peoples  made  slaves  of 
the  vanquished,  hut  it  is  also  true,  that  in  all  in- 
stances we  find  slavery  pre-existing  in  both  the 
conquering  and  conquered  nation.  The  word  "  ser- 
vus"  is  said  to  derive  its  origin  from  the  fact  that 
prisoners  of  war  who  were  made  slaves,  were 
saved  or  preserved  from  death  thereby ;  their  lives 
being,  according  to  the  Law  of  Nations  as  then 
understood,  forfeited  to  the  victor.  The  Chinese 
every  day  sell  themselves  to  each  other  to  "save 
or  preserve"  themselves  from  want,  hunger  and 
death.  Such '  instances  no  doubt  were  of  daily  oc- 
currence in  all  ancient  societies,  and  the  word  "ser- 
vus"  may  have  as  well  originated  from  this  social 
practice  as  from  the  practices  of  war.  We  do  not 
think  history  will  sustain  the  theory  that  even  in 
case  of  war,  it  was  the  mere  saving  the  life,  that 
originated  the  term.  Conquerors  in  feudal  times, 
we  know,  and  probably  in  all  times,  parcelled  out 
the  conquered  territory,  both  the  lands  and  the 
people,  to  inferior  chieftains,  whose  interest  and 
duty  it  became  to  preserve  lands,  fruits,  crops, 
houses,  and  inhabitants,  from  the  cruel  rapine, 
waste,  pillage  and  oppression  of  the  common  sol- 
diers. It  is  the  interest  of  victors  not  to  destroy 
what    they    have    vanquished,    and    history    shows 


SCRIPTURAL   AUTHORITY    FOR    SLAVERY.  101 

that  their  usages  have  conformed  to  their  interests. 
We  deem  this  definition  of  the  origin  of  slavery 
by  war  more  consistent  with  history  and  humanity, 
than  the  usual  one,  that  the  mere  life  of  the  pri- 
soner was  saved,  and  hence  he  was  called  "servus." 

Men  might  sell  themselves  in  Judea,  and  they 
could  be  sold  for  debt  or  crime.  The  slavery  of 
the  Jews  was  but  temporary,  that  of  the  heathen 
to  the  Jews  hereditary.  We  cannot  conclude  the 
scriptural  view  of  slavery  better  than  by  the  cita- 
tion of  authorities  collected  and  collated  from  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  by  Professor  Stuart  of 
Andover,  in  a  pamphlet  entitled,  "  Conscience  and 
the  Constitution." 

Exodus  xxi:  2.  If  thou  buy  a  Hebrew  servant, 
six  years  he  shall  serve,  and  he  the  seventh  shall 
go  out  free  for  nothing.  (3.)  If  he  came  in  by 
himself,  he  shall  go  out  by  himself;  if  he  were 
married,  then  his  wife  shall  go  out  with  him. 
(4.)  If  his  master  have  given  him  a  wife,  and  she 
have  borne  him  sons  or  daughters,  the  wife  and 
her  children  shall  be  her  master's,  and  he  shall  go 
out  by  himself.  (7.)  And  if  a  man  sell  his  daugh- 
ter to  be  a  maid  servant,  she  shall  not  go  out  as 
the  men  servants  do.  (8.)  If  she  please  not  her 
master,  who  hath  betrothed  her  to  himself,  then 
shall  he  let  her  be  redeemed :  to  sell  her  unto  a 
strange  nation,  he  shall  have  no  power,  seeing  he 
hath   dealt  deceitfully  with  her.     (9.)  And  if   he 


102      SCRIPTURAL   AUTHORITY    TOR    SLAVERY. 

have  betrothed  her  unto  his  son,  he  shall  deal  with 
her  after  the  manner  of  daughters.  (10.)  If  he 
take  hirn  another  wife,  her  food,  her  raiment,  and 
her  duty  of  marriage,  shall  he  not  diminish.  (11.) 
And  if  he  do  not  these  three  unto  her,  then  shall 
she  go  out  free  without  money.  (20.)  And  if  a 
man  smite  his  servant  or  his  maid,  with  a  rod,  and 
he  die  under  his  hand,  he  shall  be  surely  punished. 
(21.)  Notwithstanding,  if  he  continue  a  day  or  two, 
he  shall  not  be  punished  :  for  he  is  his  money. 
(26.)  And  if  a  man  smite  the  eye  of  his  servant 
or  maid,  that  it  perish,  he  shall  let  him  go  free 
for  his  eye's  sake.  (27.)  And  if  he  smite  out  his 
man  servant's  tooth  or  his  maid  servant's  tooth ; 
he  shall  let  him  go  free  for  the  tooth's  sake. 

Leviticus  xxv  :  44.  Both  thy  bondmen  and  thy 
bondmaids  which  thou  shalt  have,  shall  be  of  the 
heathen  that  are  around  about  you ;  of  them 
shall  you  buy  bondmen  and  bondmaids.  (45.) 
Moreover,  of  the  children  of  the  strangers  that 
do  sojourn  among  you,  of  them  shall  ye  buy, 
and  of  their  families  that  are  with  you,  which 
they  begat  in  your  land  ;  and  they  shall  be  your 
possession.  (46.)  And  ye  shall  take  them  as  an 
inheritance  for  your  children  after  you,  to  inherit 
them  for  a  possession ;  they  shall  be  your  bond- 
men forever. 

Neiv  Testament  Authorities. — Paul  to  the  Ephe- 
sians  vi :    5 — 9.     Servants,  be    obedient  to   them 


SCRIPTURAL   AUTHORITY    FOR   SLAVERY.      103 

that  are  your  masters  according  to  the  flesh,  with 
fear  and  trembling,  with  singleness  of  heart,  as 
unto  Christ ;  (6.)  Not  with  eye  service  as  men- 
pleasers;  but  as  the  servants  of  Christ  doing  the 
will  of  God  from  the  heart.  (7.)  With  good  will 
doing  service  as  to  the  Lord,  and  not  to  men ; 
(8.)  Knowing  that  whatsoever  good  thing  any  man 
doeth,  the  same  shall  he  receive  of  the  Lord, 
whether  he  be  bond  or  free.  (9.)  And  ye  mas- 
ters, do  the  same  thing  unto  them,  forbearing 
threatening,  knowing  that  your  Master  also  is  in 
heaven  ;  neither  is  there  respect  of  persons  with 
him. 

Paul,  Colossians  iii:  22.  Servants  obey  in  all 
things  your  masters  according  to  the  flesh  ;  not 
with  eye  service  as  men-pleasers  ;  but  in  single- 
ness of  heart  fearing  God.  (23.)  And  whatsoever 
ye  do,  do  it  heartily,  as  to  the  Lord  and  not  unto 
man ;  knowing  that  of  the  Lord  ye  shall  receive 
the  reward  of  the  inheritance  :  for  ye  serve  the 
Lord  Christ.  (25.)  But  he  that  doeth  wrong,  shall 
receive  for  the  wrong  which  he  hath  done :  and 
there  is  no  respect  of  persons,  (iv:  1.)  Masters 
give  unto  your  servants  that  which  is  just  and 
equal,  knowing  that  you  also  have  a  Master  in 
heaven. 

Titus  ii :  9.  Exhort  servants  to  be  obedient  unto 
their  own  masters,  and  to  please  them  well  in  all 
things  ;  not   answering  again ;    (10.)  Not  purloin- 


104      SCRIPTURAL   AUTHORITY   FOR   SLAVERY. 

ing,  but  showing  all  good  fidelity ;  that  they  may 
adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour  in  all  things. 
1  Peter  ii:  18.  Servants  be  subject  to  your  mas- 
ters with  all  fear  ;  not  only  to  the  good  and  gen- 
tle, but  also  to  the  froward.  (19.)  For  this  is 
thank-worthy,  if  a  man  for  conscience  toward  God 
endure  grief,  suffering  wrongfully.  For  what  glory 
is  it,  if  when  ye  be  buffetted  for  your  faults,  ye 
shall  take  it  patiently  ?  but  if  when  ye  do  well 
and  suffer  for  it,  ye  take  it  patiently,  this  is  ac- 
ceptable with  God.  (21.)  For  even  hereunto  were 
ye  called :  because  Christ  also  suffered  for  us, 
leaving  us  an  example  that  ye  should  follow  his 
steps. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DOMESTIC     AFFECTIOX. 

Historians  and  philosophers,  speculating  upon 
the  origin  of  governments,  have  generally  agreed 
that  the  family  was  its  first  development.  It  has 
ever  been,  and  will  ever  be,  its  most  common  form. 
Two-thirds  of  mankind,  the  women  and  children, 
are  everywhere  the  subjects  of  family  govern- 
ment. In  all  countries  where  slavery  exists,  the 
slaves  also  are  the  subjects  of  this  kind  of  gov- 
ernment. Now  slaves,  wives  and  children  have 
no  other  government ;  they  do  not  come  directly 
in  contact  with  the  institutions  and  rulers  of  the 
State.  But  the  family  government,  from  its  na- 
ture, has  ever  been  despotic.  The  relations  be- 
tween the  parent  or  master  and  his  family  sub- 
jects are  too  various,  minute  and  delicate,  to  be 
arranged,  defined,  and  enforced  by  law.  God  has 
in  his  mercy  and  wisdom  provided  a  better  check, 
to  temper  and  direct  the  power  of  the  master  of 
the  family,  than  any  human  government  has  de- 
vised. He  who  takes  note  of  every  sparrow  that 
falls,  who  will  not  break  the  bruised  reed,  and 
who  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,  has  not 
been  forgetful  or  regardless  of  wives,  children, 
and  slaves.     He  has  extended  the  broad  panoply 


106  DOMESTIC   AFFECTION. 

of  domestic  affection  over  them  all,  that  the  winds 
of  heaven  may  not  visit  them  too  roughly  ;  under 
its  expansive  folds  other  of  his  creatures  repose 
in  quiet  and  security:  the  ox,  the  horse,  the  sheep, 
the  faithful  dog,  hetake  themselves  to  its  friendly 
shelter,  and  cluster  around  their  protecting  mas- 
ter. 

Domestic  affection  cannot  be  calculated  in  dol- 
lars and  cents.  It  cannot  be  weighed,  or  meas- 
ured, or  seen,  or  felt — except  in  its  effects.  "  The 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth  and  no  man  knoweth 
whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it  goeth."  Its  holy 
fountain  is  concealed  in  deeper  recesses  than  the 
head  of  the  Nile,  and  in  its  course  it  dispenses 
blessings  from  the  rich  overflowings  of  the  heart, 
ten  thousand  times  more  precious  than  that  sacred 
river  ever  gave  to  the  land  of  Egypt.  Political 
economists,  politicians  and  materialists  ignore  its 
existence,  because  it  is  too  refined  for  their  com- 
prehension. The  material  world  engrosses  their 
attention,  and  they  heed  little  those  moral 
agencies  that  Providence  has  established  to  con- 
trol the  material  world.  Slavery  without  domes- 
tic affection  would  be  a  curse,  and  so  would  mar- 
riage and  parental  authority.  The  free  laborer 
is  excluded  from  its  holy  and  charmed  circle. 
Shelterless,  naked,  and  hungry,  he  is  exposed  to 
the  bleak  winds,  the  cold  rains,  and  hot  sun  of 
heaven,  with  none  that  love  him,  none   that   care 


DOMESTIC   AFFECTION.  107 

for  him.  His  employer  hates  him  because  he 
asks  high  wages  or  joins  strikes  ;  his  fellow  la- 
borer hates  him  because  he  competes  with  him  for 
employment.  Foolish  Abolitionists  !  bring  him 
back  like  the  Prodigal  Son.  Let  him  fare  at 
least  as  well  as  the  clog,  and  the  horse,  and  the 
sheep.  Abraham's  tent  is  ready  to  receive  him. 
Better  lie  clown  with  the  kids  and  the  goats,  than 
stand  naked  and  hungry  without.  As  a  slave,  he 
will  be  beloved  and  protected.  Whilst  free,  he 
will  be  hated,  despised  and  persecuted.  Such  is 
the  will  of  God  and  order  of  Providence.  It  is 
idle  to   enquire  the  reasons. 

Soldiers  and  sailors  are,  and  ever  must  be,  also, 
the  subjects  of  despotic  rule.  They  have  sold 
their  liberty.  They  have  sold  their  persons  and 
their  lives.  No  domestic  affection  mitigates  and 
qualifies  their  slavery  !  Those  who  rule  them, 
love  them  not,  for  they  belong  not  to  their  family 
and  household.  It  is  well  that  they  are  men  in 
the  prime  of  life,  who  can  bear  hard  and  harsh 
treatment ;  for  hard  and  harsh  treatment  they  are 
sure  to  get.  Whipping  is  prohibited  in  the  army 
and  navy  !  Miserable  ignorance  and  charlatan- 
ism !  You  cannot  prohibit  whipping  until  you 
disband  both  army  and  navy.  What  is  whip- 
ping ?  Is  it  not  corporeal  punishment  ?  and  is 
not  corporeal  detention  and  corporeal  punishment 
part  of  the  sailor's  and  soldier's  contract.     If  he 


108  DOMESTIC    AFFECTION. 

wishes  to  desert,  may  you  not  and  will  you  not 
restrain  him  by  bodily  force  ?  Will  you  not,  if 
necessary,  knock  him  down,  hand-cuff,  and  im- 
prison him  ?  Nay,  if  he  repeat  the  offence,  will 
you  not  shoot  him  ?  Will  you  not  fasten  a  chain 
and  a  block  to  him  if  necessary  ?  Whipping  has 
not  been  abolished,  and  cannot  be  abolished  in 
navy  or  army.  Whipping  means — corporeal  pun- 
ishment, and  corporeal  detention.  You  retain  the 
right  to  inflict  them,  and  it  is  a  mere  matter  of 
caprice  and  taste  how  they  shall  be  inflicted.  The 
man  whose  person  is  sold  is  a  slave.  The  man 
whose  person  is  imprisoned  for  punishment  has 
felt  the  disgrace  of  whipping  and  endured  more 
than  its  pains. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

RELIGION. 

Our  ancestors  of  the  Revolution  adopted  the 
doctrine  of  free  competition,  demand  and  supply, 
and  Laissez-faire  in  religion,  as  in  almost  every- 
thing else.  The  '•world  was  too  much  governed," 
and  religion  seemed  to  them,  one  of  the  most  odi- 
ous forms  of  government.  The  fires  of  Smithfield, 
the  Gun-powder  plot,  and  the  Vespers  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew were  fresh  in  men's  memories. 

The  Churches  and  lands  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
were  confiscated.  And  an  even-handed  justice  re- 
solved that  there  should  be  no  more  churches, 
church  lands,  nor  even  burying  places  for  the  poor. 
Land  could  not  be  held  for  such  purposes.  They 
professed  to  allow  every  one  to  choose  his  own 
religion,  but  refused  them  a  place  wherein  to 
make  the  selection,  and  to  worship  God  after  the 
selection  should  be  made.  No  government  had 
ever  existed  without  a  recognised  state  religion. 
To  dispense  with  an  institution  so  universal  and 
so  natural,  was  a  bold  experiment.  Fortunately 
for  us,  Christianity  did  slip  into  our  governments 
despite  the  intention  of  their  framers.  It  was 
so  interwoven  with  all  our  customs,  feelings,  pre- 
judices and  lives,  that  to  the  surprise  and  mortifi- 


110  RELIGION. 

cation  of  many,  Christianity,  though  maimed,  crip- 
pled and  disabled,  still  Christianity  was  discov- 
ered amongst  our  own  institutions  ;  and  probably 
lias  continued  to  this  day  the  most  potent  and 
influential  part  of  our  systems. 

Despite  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  secures  to  all  the  free  exercise  of  religious 
freedom,  there  is  scarcely  a  State  in  this  Union 
that  would  permit,  under  the  pretext  of  religious 
forms  and  observances,  any  gross  violations  of 
christian  morality. 

Mormons  and  Oneida  Perfectionists  would  no 
sooner  be  tolerated  in  Virginia  than  Pyrrhic  Dances 
and  human  sacrifices  to  Moloch.  Even  Catholics 
would  not  be  permitted  to  enact  a  Parisian  sab- 
bath, or  Venitian  carnival.  Christianity  is  the 
established  religion  of  most  of  our  States,  and 
Christianity  conforming  itself  to  the  moral  feelings 
and  prejudices  of  the  great  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple. No  gross  violation  of  public  decency  will  be 
allowed  for  the  sake  of  false  abstractions. 

Women  may  wear  paddies  or  bloomers,  but  if 
they  carry  the  spirit  of  independence  so  far  as 
to  adopt  a  dress  to  conceal  their  sex,  they  will 
soon  find  themselves  in  a  cage  or  a  prison. 

We  wished  to  try  the  experiment  of  government 
without  religion,  we  failed  in  the  attempt.  The 
French  did  try  it,  and  enthroned  the  goddess  of 
Reason  hard  by  the  reeking  guillotine.  Moloch 
might  have  envied  the  Goddess  the  number  of  her 


RELIGION.  Ill 

victims,  for  the  streets  of  Paris  ran  with  blood. 
The  insane  ravings  of  the  drunken  votaries  of  Bac- 
chus, were  innocency  and  decency  personified,  when 
compared  with  the  mad  profanity  of  Frenchmen, 
cut  loose  from  religion,  and  from  God. 

Soon,  very  soon,  even  French  republicans  dis- 
covered the  necessity  of  religion  to  the  very  exis- 
tence of  society  and  of  government,  and  with  a  pro- 
fanity more  horrible  than  that  which  installed  the 
goddess  of  Reason,  they  resolved  to  legislate  into 
existence  a  Supreme  Being.  On  this  occasion,  the 
cruel  Robespierre  pays  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
and  just  tributes  to  religion  we  have  ever  read. 
"We  quote  it  as  a  continuation  of  our  argument 
and  an  elucidation  of  our  theory — "  That  religion 
is  a  necessary  governmental  institution." 

"Let  us  here  take  a  lesson  from  history.  Take 
notice,  I  beseech  you,  howT  the  men  who  have  ex- 
ercised an  influence  on  the  destinies  of  States 
have  been  led  into  one  or  the  other  of  the  two  oppo- 
site systems,  by  their  personal  character,  and  by 
the  very  nature  of  their  political  views.  Observe 
with  what  profound  art  Caesar  pleading  in  the 
Roman  Senate,  *  in  behalf  of  the  accomplices  of 
Cataline,  deviates  into  a  digression  against  the 
dogma  of  the  immortality  of  the  human  soul,  so 
well  calculated  do  those  ideas  appear  to  him,  to 
extinguish  in  the  hearts  of  the  judges  the  energy 
of  virtue,   so   intimately  does  the  cause  of  crime 


112  RELIGION. 

seem  to  be  connected  with  that  of  infidelity. — 
Cicero,  on  the  contrary,  invoked  the  sword  of  the 
law  and  the  thunderbolts  of  the  gods  against  the 
traitors.  Leonidas,  at  Thermopylae,  supping  with 
his  companions  in  arms,  the  moment  before  exe- 
cuting the  most  heroic  design  that  human  vir- 
tue ever  conceived,  invited  them  for  the  next  day 
to  another  banquet  in  a  new  life.  Cato  did  not 
hesitate  between  Epicurus  and  Zeno.  Brutus  and 
the  illustrious  conspirators  who  shared  his  dan- 
ger and  his  glory,  belonged  also  to  that  sublime 
sect  of  the  Stoics,  which  had  such  lofty  ideas  of  the 
dignity  of  man,  which  carried  the  enthusiasm  of 
virtue  to  such  a  height,  and  which  was  extravagant 
in  heroism  only.  Stoicism  saved  the  honor  of 
human  nature,  degraded  by  the  vices  of  the  suc- 
cessors of  Caesar,  and  still  more  by  the  patience 
of  the  people." 

In  the  same  speech,  speaking  of  the  philoso- 
phers, he  identifies  atheism  and  materialism  with 
the  then  and  now  prevalent  doctrines  of  Politi- 
cal Economy. — "  This  sect  propagated  with  great 
zeal  the  opinion  of  materialism,  which  prevailed 
among  the  great  and  among  the  Beaux  Esprits ; 
to  it  we  owe  in  part  that  kind  of  practical  philo- 
sophy, which,  reducing  selfishness  to  a  system, 
considers  human  society  as  a  warfare  of  trickery, 
success  as  the  rule  of  right  and  wrong,  integrity 
as  a  matter  of  taste  or  decorum,  the  world  as 
the  patrimony  of  clever  scoundrels." 


RELIGION.  113 

We  are  gradually  dismissing  our  political  pre- 
judice against  religion.  The  Legislature  of  Vir- 
ginia, some  years  ago,  passed  a  law  to  permit  re- 
ligious congregations  to  hold  land  to  erect  churches 
on,  and  at  its  last  session  a  law  was  enacted 
chartering  some  religious  institution.  The  ob- 
servance of  the  Christian  sabbath  is  enforced  by 
law.  Ministers  of  the  gospel  are  recognised  as 
such,  incapacitated  to  hold  civil  offices  and  ex- 
empted from  many  civil  duties.  Oaths  are  admin- 
istered on  the  Bible,  and  infidels,  it  is  the  better 
opinion,  are  incompetent  witnesses.  Marriage  in 
the  South  is  generally  a  Christian  ordinance  as 
well  as  a  civil  contract,  to  be  celebrated  only  by 
ministers  of  the  Gospel.  At  the  North  marriage 
is  a  mere  bargain,  like  the  purchase  of  a  horse, 
with  the  difference,  that  the  wife  cannot  be  swap- 
ped off — hence,  when  they  get  tired  of  her,  they 
knock  her  on  the  head. 

We  are  not  surprised  that  frequent  wife-murder 
should  result  from  their  low,  sordid,  worldly  view 
of  the  marriage  tie,  and  still  less  surprised,  that 
with  these,  and  a  hundred  other  ill  consequences 
arising  from  their  sort  of  marriages,  that  women's 
conventions  should  be  held  to  assert  her  rights 
to  liberty?  independence  and  breeches,  and  that 
sympathising  bachelors  in  the  ranks  of  the  Social- 
ists, propose  to  dispense  with  this  troublesome  and 
inconvenient   relation    altogether.      In  the   Norch 


114  RELIGION. 

there  is  a  tendency  to  anarchy  and  infidelity,  in 
the  South  to  conservatism  and  stricter  religious  ob- 
servation. We  should  be  cautious,  prudent  and 
experimental  in  giving  governmental  aid  to  reli- 
gion. Like  fire,  if  it  escapes  from  our  control, 
it  will  become  dangerous  and  destructive, — but  it 
is  nevertheless  like  fire,  indispensable.  A  repub- 
lic cannot  continue  without  the  prevalence  of  sound 
morality.  Laws  are  useless  and  inefficient  without 
moral  men  to  expound  and  administer  them. 

We  have  not  a  solitary  example  in  all  history 
to  countenance  the  theories  of  our  ancestors,  that 
a  people  may  be  moral,  or  that  a  government  can 
exist  where  religion  is  not  in  some  form  or  de- 
gree recognised  by  law.  What  latitude  shall  be 
allowed  to  men  in  the  exercise  and  practice  of  reli 
gion,  is  a  question  for  the  people  to  determine 
when  the  occasion  requires  it.  It  is  best  not  to 
lay  down  abstract  principles  to  guide  us  in  advance. 
Of  all  the  applications  of  philosophy  none  have 
failed  so  signally  as  when  it  has  been  tried  in 
matters  of  government.  Philosophy  will  blow  up 
any  government  that  is  founded  on  it.  Religion, 
on  the  other  hand,  will  sustain  the  governments 
that  rest  upon  it.  The  French  build  governments 
on  a. priori  doctrines  of  philosophy  which  explode 
as  fast  as  built.  The  English  gradually  and  experi- 
mentally form  institutions,  watch  their  operation, 
and    deduce  general   laws    from   those  operations. 


RELIGIOX.  115 

That  kind  of  philosophy,  which  neither  attempts 
to  create  nor  account  for,  is  admissible  and  useful. 
An  extensive  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the 
various  moral  philosophies  that  have  succeeded 
each  other  in  the  vrorld,  is  useful,  but  only  useful 
because  it  warns  us  to  avoid  all  philosophy  in  the 
practical  affairs  of  life.  If  we  would  have  our 
people  moral,  and  our  institutions  permanent,  we 
should  gradually  repudiate  our  political  abstrac- 
tions and  adopt  religious  truths  in  their  stead. 

It  is  an  unpoplar  theme  to  deny  human  pro- 
gress and  human  improvement.  We  flatter  our- 
selves that  we  are  more  enlightened  as  well  as 
more  moral  than  the  ancients,  yet  we  imitate 
them  in  all  else  save  the  mechanic  arts.  Our 
hearts,  we  think,  are  not  as  hard  and  callous  as 
theirs,  for  they  delighted  in  gladiatorial  combats 
which  would  fill  us  with  horror.  But  we  are  as 
much  pleased  to  hear  of  victories  won  by  our 
countrymen  as  they,  and  our  pleasure  mounts  the 
higher  as  we  hear  of  more  of  the  enemy  killed  in 
battle.  Our  nerves  are  too  delicate  to  witness 
the  pangs  of  the  dying,  but  we  rejoice  to  hear 
they  are  dead.  Now,  our  moral  code  is  one  of 
the  purest  selfishness.  The  ancients  were  divided 
between  Stoicism  and  Epicurism, — the  philosophy 
of  the  Sadducees  and  that  of  the  Pharisees. 
Neither  the  Epicurean,  nor  the  Sadducee  profes- 
sed as    low,  selfish  and   grovelling   a  morality   as 


116  RELIGION. 

that  which  our  prevalent  political  economy  incul- 
cates. The  Stoics  and  the  Pharisees  soared  far  above 
it.  Divest  us  of  our  Christian  morality,  and  leave 
us  to  our  moral  philosophy,  and  we  might  dread 
the  comparison  with  any  era  of  the  past.  We 
have  but  one  moral  code,  and  that  the  selfish  one  ; 
the  ancients  always  had  two,  one  of  which  was 
elevated,  self-denying  and  unselfish.  In  truth,  a 
material  and  infidel  philosophy  has  prevailed  for 
a  century,  and  seemed  to  threaten  the  overthrow 
of  Christianity.  But  man  is  a  religious  animal. 
His  mind  may  become  distempered  and  diseased 
for  a  time,  and  he  may  cavil  and  doubt  as  to 
Deity,  immortality  and  accountability — but  "  con- 
science that  makes  cowards  of  us  all,"  soon  forces 
upon  him  the  conviction  that  he  is  living  in  the 
presence  of  a  God.  The  belief  in  God  and  moral 
accountability,  like  the  belief  in  self-existence  and 
free  agency,  is  necessitous  and  involuntary.  It 
is  part  of  our  consciousness.  We  cannot  prove 
that  we  exist;  we  cannot  prove  that  we  are  free 
agents.  We  must  take  our  consciousness  and 
involuntary  belief,  as  proof  that  we  do  exist  and 
are  free  agents.  This  is  the  conclusion  at  which 
metaphysicians  have  arrived.  Now  explore  all  the 
secrets  of  human  hearts,  all  the  recesses  of  his- 
tory, and  it  will  be  found  that  religion  is  as  much 
a  matter  of  consciousness  and  involuntary  belief 
as  free  agency  or  self-existence.     It  is  a  stubborn 


RELIGION.  117 

fact  in  human  nature.  Statesmen  cannot  ignore 
its  existence,  and  must  provide  for  its  exercise  and 
enjoyment,  else  their  institutions  will  vanish  like 
chaff  before  the  wind. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE     BALANCE     OF     TRADE. 

Political  economists  maintain  that  a  nation  gains 
nothing  by  selling  more  than  it  buys.  That  the 
balance  of  trade  is  a  humbug ;  nay  more,  that  the 
way  for  a  nation  to  get  rich  is  to  buy  more  than 
it  sells.  Thus  more  will  come  in  than  goes  out. 
Instinct  and  common  sense  deny  the  proposition. 
They  say,  that  the  way  for  individuals  or  people 
to  get  rich  is  to  sell  more  than  they  buy.  Philo- 
sophy beats  them  all  hollow  in  argument,  yet  in- 
stinct and  common  sense  are  right  and  philoso- 
phy wrong.  Philosophy  is  always  wrong  and  in- 
stinct and  common  sense  always  right,  because 
philosophy  is  unobservant  and  reasons  from  nar- 
row and  insufficient  premises,  whilst  common  sense 
sees  and  observes  all  things,  giving  them  their  due 
weight,  comes  to  just  conclusions,  but  being 
busied  about  practical  every  day  matters,  has 
never  learned  the  process  of  abstraction,  has 
never  learned  how  to  look  into  the  operations  of 
its  mind  and  see  how  it  has  come  to  its  conclu- 
sions. It  always  judges  rightly,  but  reasons 
wrong.  It  comes  to  its  conclusions  by  the  same 
processes  of  ratiocination  that  abstract  philoso- 
phers do,  but  unaccustomed  and  untrained  to  look 


THE  BALANCE  OF  TRADE.  119 

into  its  own  mental  operations,  it  knows  not  how 
it  arrived  at  those  conclusions.  It  sees  all  the 
facts  and  concludes  rightly, — abstract  philosophers 
see  but  a  few,  reason  correctly  on  them,  but  err 
in  judgment  because  their  premises  are  partial  and 
incorrect.  Men  of  sound  judgments,  are  always 
men  who  give  wrong  reasons  for  their  opinions. 
They  form  correct  opinions  because  they  are 
practical  and  experienced ;  they  give  wrong  rea- 
sons for  those  opinions,  because  they  are  no  ab- 
stractionists and  cannot  detect,  follow  and  ex- 
plain the  operations  of  their  own  minds.  The 
judgment  of  women  is  far  superior  to  that  of 
men.  They  are  more  calm  and  observant.  Every 
mirried  man  knows  that  when  he  places  a  scheme 
before  his  wife  and  she  disapproves  it,  he  con- 
quers her  in  argument,  goes  away  distrusting  his 
own  opinion,  though  triumphant,  and  finds  in  the 
end  his  wife  was  right,  though  she  could  not  tell 
why.  Women  have  more  sense  than  men,  but 
they  want  courage  to  carry  out  and  execute  what 
their  judgments  commend.  Hence  men,  although 
they  fail  in  a  thousand  visionary  schemes,  succeed 
at  last  in  some  one,  and  are  dubbed  the  nobler 
sex.  An  old  bachelor  friend  of  ours,  says :  women 
are  great  at  a  quarrel,  bad  at  argument. 

This  is  deviating  a  little  from  the  balance  of 
trade,  but  we  return  to  it.  All  political  econo- 
mists contend  that  the  local  increase  of  currency 


120         THE  BALANCE  OF  TRADE. 

increases  prices,  and  Say  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that 
doubling  the  money  in  France,  would  double  prices 
in  France.  Rich  men  do  not  give  double  as  high 
prices  as  poor  men,  but  buy  cheaper,  although 
they  have  more  money.  Money  is  cheap  and 
abundant  in  London,  and  prices  are  not  half  what 
they  are  in  new  countries,  which  are  flourishing, 
and  where  money  is  scarce.  Double  the  amount 
of  money  in  the  world,  and  you  double  prices. 
Double  its  amount  in  any  one  country,  and  in 
many  instances  you  would  diminish  prices. — 
Wheat  and  corn,  and  negroes,  and  manufactured 
articles,  would  sell  no  higher  in  Virginia,  if  her 
currency  were  quadrupled,  for  she  would  have  her 
prices  determined  for  those  articles,  by  the  mar- 
kets of  the  world.  Lands  fitted  for  mere  grain 
producing  would  sell  no  higher,  for  their  value 
would  be  determined  by  the  amount  of  money 
their  crops  would  fetch  in  foreign  markets,  and 
be  not  at  all  affected  by  the  amount  of  money  in 
Virginia,  for  Virginia  makes  more  grain  than  she 
can  consume,  and  foreign  markets  regulate  its 
price.  City  lots  and  houses  would  rise  in  value, 
but  even  in  them  the  prices  would  be  somewhat 
regulated  by  the  prices  of  the  world,  for  men  will 
sooner  quit  their  country  than  give  inordinate 
prices  for  houses  to  live  in.  We  never  could  ac- 
count for  the  common  error  and  folly  of  political 
economists,  in   supposing  that  a  local  increase   of 


121  THE    BALANCE    01    TllADE.    ■ 

currency,  would  be  followed  by  a  corresponding 
increase  of  prices*  If  it  were  true,  then  the  bal- 
ance of  trade  would  be  of  no  advantage,  but  it 
is  foolishly  false. 

The  balance  of  trade,  the  accumulation  and 
increase  of  money,  having  no  determinate  in- 
fluence on  prices,  in  many  cases  diminishing  them, 
in  a  few  increasing  them,  what  is  to  become  of 
the  accession  to  the  currency,  for  which  the  bu- 
siness of  the  community  has  no  use  or  demand  ? 
Men  will  not  let  their  money  lie  idle.  It  cannot 
be  employed  by  themselves,  or  by  those  who  bor- 
row it,  in  existing  pursuits.  They  are  all  filled 
up.  The  consequence  is,  that  new  pursuits  arise. 
An  agricultural  country  becomes  a  commercial 
and  manufacturing  one,  and  thus  four  or  five 
times  the  money  is  required  for  its  transactions. 
Ships  and  factories  are  built,  and  thousands  of 
laborers  and  artisans  are  introduced  for  the 
purpose.  Then  it  becomes  necessary  to  build 
houses,  to  construct  roads,  and  to  make  canals. 
Now  there  is  use  for  the  increase  of  money,  oc- 
casioned by  the  favorable  balance  of  trade ; 
and  as  one  dollar  in  currency  represents  some 
twenty  in  property,  every  dollar  imported  in 
excess  over  dollars  exported,  will  occasion  an 
increase  of  local  and  national  wealth  of  twenty 
dollars.  The  man  who  saves  a  thousand  dollars 
of  his   income  is  only  a  thousand    dollars  richer, 

F 


THE  BALANCE  OE  TRADE.         122 

but  the  nation  that  saves  a  thousand  dollars  adds 
twenty  thousand  to  its  wealth.  We  are  no 
cosmopolite  philanthropists,  and  will  not  stop  to 
enquire  the  effects  on  the  wealth  of  the  world, 
but  we  undertake  to  say,  that  the  local  advan- 
tages of  the  balance  of  trade  have  been  grossly 
underrated  by  its  warmest  advocates.  Political 
economists  have  ever  been  the  astutest,  but  most 
narrow-minded  and  least  comprehensive  of  men. 
Whilst  on  this  subject  we  will  remark,  that  so 
far  as  we  have  examined  their  works,  they  con- 
found the  simplest  rules  of  logic.  They  treat  of 
political  economy  as  a  mere  physical  science,  of 
man  as  a  mere  machine,  impelled  by  mechanical 
forces,  and  determine  the  results  of  all  national 
policy  and  industrial  avocations  by  measurements 
of  time,  distance,  cost  of  transportation,  ca- 
pacity of  soil,  climate,  &c.  Now  the  effect  of 
an  exclusive  policy  on  a  people  highly  intellectual, 
having  many  wants,  moral,  mental  and  physical, 
in  a  Northern  clime,  with  a  sterile  soil,  is  to  stimu- 
late that  people  to  the  exertion  of  mind  and  body, 
and  to  make  them  produce  in  a  small  compass  all 
that  human  skill,  industry  and  ingenuity  can 
procure.  In  such  a  country,  as  in  the  little  re- 
publics of  Greece,  under  an  exclusive  policy, 
the  wisdom  of  a  world  must  concentrate,  else 
their  wants,  moral,  physical  and  intellectual,  will 
be  unsupplied.     On  the  other  hand,  a  people  who 


123         THE  BALANCE  OF  TRADE. 

are  supplied  by  commerce  "with  all  that  their 
natures  require  arc  lured  and  enticed  to  be- 
take themselves  to  some  simple  operation,  such  as 
agriculture,  and  thus  become  poor,  half-civilized 
and  ignorant.  We  appeal  to  history  to  attest  the 
universal  truth  of  our  theory.  Trade  never  did 
civilize  a  people ;  never  failed  to  degrade  them, 
unless  they  supplied  the  manufactured  articles. 
On  another  occasion  vre  may  show  how  this  con- 
founding of  the  moral  with  the  physical,  ren- 
ders worthless  all  the  speculations  of  the  econo- 
mists. 

As  further  proof  and  illustration  of  our  theory, 
as  to  the  balance  of  trade,  we  cite  the  following 
examples : — A  country  continually  declining  in 
wealth,  would  have  each  day  less  use  for  a  cir- 
culating medium,  and  would  export  a  part  of  it. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  country  improving  in  wealth 
and  population,  must  continually  increase  her 
medium  of  exchange.  The  balance  of  trade  is, 
therefore,  always  against  the  declining  country, 
and  in  favor  of  the  improving  one.  It  remains 
only  to  show,  that  this  diminution  of  currency 
may  be  a  cause  of  decline,  and  its  increase  a 
cause  of  improvement.  The  importation  of  agri- 
cultural instruments  into  a  country  with  a  rich 
soil,  and  plenty  of  inhabitants,  but  without  those 
instruments,  would  increase  its  wealth  a  thousand 
fold.     Now,   money  is    not   only  necessary  to   set 


THE  BALANCE  OF  TRADE.         124 

agriculture  in  operation,  but  far  more  necessary 
in  all  other  industrial  pursuits.  Therefore,  the 
increase  of  money,  like  the  increase  of  tools  of 
farming,  sets  men  to  work  in  a  thousand  -ways, 
in  which  they  could  not  engage  without  such  in- 
crease. The  Negroes,  the  Indians,  the  Mexicans 
and  Lazzaroni  of  Naples,  would  not  be  benefited 
by  the  increase  of  currency,  by  bank  expansions, 
and  by  a  favorable  balance  of  trade,  but  all  peo- 
ple who  are  ripe  and  prepared  for  new  enter- 
prises, will  be  immensely  benefited  by  such  in- 
crease and  expansion, 


CHAPTER   X. 

BANKS. 

Banks  have  become  so  important  a  part  of  our 
institutions,  and  exercise  so  controlling  an  influ- 
ence on  the  wealth  and  well  being  of  individuals 
and  of  States,  that  any  treatise  on  social  science 
Would  be  imperfect,  that   omitted  to  notice  them. 

Their  importance  is  greatly  increased  in  this 
country  by  the  existence  almost  every  "where  of 
restraining  laws,  which  prohibit  and  punish  pri- 
vate banking,  or  the  issue  of  private  paper,  pay- 
able to  bearer.  Private  credit  being,  we  think, 
very  properly  restricted  in  this  way,  it  becomes 
the  duty  of  the  State  to  supply  its  place  as  fairly 
and  equally  as  practicable  by  bank  credit,  in  the 
form  of  bank  notes.  In  Virginia  especially,  the 
note  holders  have  been  more  than  compensated 
for  the  deprivation  of  this  form  of  private  credit, 
by  the  greater  security  afforded  through  means 
of  corporate  banks. 

Whether  the  effect  of  unrestricted  free  banking 
would  be  permanently  to  flood  the  country  with 
worthless  paper,  or  by  re-action  and  loss  of  confi- 
dence in  all  such  paper,  to  bring  it  back  to  a 
specie  currency,  is  a  question  we  will  not  under- 
take to  solve.     We  are  inclined  to  believe  a  cur- 


BANKS.  126 

rency  solely  metallic  would  be  the  consequence. 
Such  a  currency  is  wholly  unfitted  to  the  wants 
and  usages  of  modern  society. 

The  Virginia  system  of  banking,  with  mother 
banks  and  branches,  has  operated  well  so  far  as 
security  to  note  holders,  and  integrity  of  admin- 
istration are  concerned.  We  have  no  doubt  the 
system,  with  slight  modifications,  will  be  con- 
tinued. In  a  growing  and  improving  State,  its 
capacity  for  expansion  is  one  of  its  greatest  re- 
commendations. It  would  be  well,  within  cer- 
tain limits,  that  the  Legislature  should  permit  the 
present  banks,  at  any  time,  to  increase  their  capi- 
tals, and  to  establish  branches  at  such  points, 
and  with  such  capital,  as  they  please — giving 
them  the  further  power  to  wind  up  such  branches 
when  they  pleased.  We  might  thus  obtain  a  cur- 
rency capable  of  expanding  and  contracting  with 
the  wants  and  exigencies  of  trade.  ISTow,  we  have 
a  fixed  and  stationary  amount  of  currency,  with 
a  population  rapidly  increasing  in  wealth  and 
numbers.  In  the  last  five  years  the  increase  of 
prices,  occasioned  by  the  mines  of  California  and 
Australia,  and  the  growth  and  increase  of  our 
towns,  internal  improvements,  &c.,  has  doubled 
the  moneyed  price  of  the  property  of  Virginia. 
Yet  in  that  five  years  a  very  small  addition  has 
been  made  to  our  banking  capital.  Either  that 
capital  was  entirely  too  great  five  years  ago,   or 


127  BANKS. 

it  is  now  much  too  small,  and  is  cramping  indus- 
try, energy  and  enterprise,  and  preventing  growth 
and  development. 

Some  political  economists  contend  that  the 
increase  of  currency  in  a  country,  metallic  or 
paper,  after  the  existing  demands  of  trade  are 
satisfied,  increases  all  prices,  but  does  not  add 
to  national  wealth.  Others  restrict  and  qualify 
the  proposition,  and  maintain  that  such  increase 
only  enhances  the  prices  of  immoveable  articles, 
whose  value  is  not  determined  by  the  markets  of 
the  world.  Their  doctrines  are  equally  false.  As 
a  permanent  and  normal  fact,  the  prices  of  lands, 
labor  and  city  lots,  are  no  more  affected  by  a  re- 
dundant currency  than  those  of  wheat,  cotton 
and  tobacco.  Rich  men,  with  plenty  of  money, 
do  not  pay  more  for  what  they  buy  than  the  poor, 
but  less.  In  like  manner,  rich  communities  and 
cities,  like  New  York  and  London,  affording  a 
better  market,  pay  less  for  what  they  buy  and 
sell  cheaper  than  poorer  places.  New  banks,  like 
young  merchants,  have  to  buy  their  experience. 
They  give  too  much  credit,  encourage  specu- 
lation and  visionary  unprofitable  enterprises, 
and  thus  inflate  the  prices  of  every  thing  around 
them  for  a  time.  Failures  occur,  re-action  takes 
place,  they  become  over  cautious,  and  depress 
prices  as  far  below  the  proper  standard,  as  they 
had   inflated    above    it.      After    awhile  they  learn 


BANKS.  128 

to  conduct  business  properly,  and  then  prices  as- 
sume a  proper  and  safe  level. 

Two  years  more  must  transpire  before  the 
Legislature  can  convene,  re-charter  the  present 
banks,  or  establish  a  new  system,  and  get  that 
system,  or  additional  branches  of  the  present 
system,  into  operation.  That  the  State  will  suf- 
fer greatly  from  this  delay  we  think  there  can  be 
little  doubt. 

A  banking  system,  such  as  we  suggest,  would 
wield  much  power,  and  constitute  a  most  impor- 
tant governmental  institution.  Its  influence  would 
be  conservative,  and  its  administration  probably 
fair,  equal  and  impartial.  The  number  of  mother 
banks  would  secure  enough  of  competition,  and 
their  interests  would  induce  them  to  establish 
branches,  when  and  where  only  they  would  be 
profitable.  The  stockholders  of  banks  are  gen- 
erally men  of  much  experience  and  knowledge  in 
business,  cautious  and  conservative  in  their  deal- 
ings, and  opposed  to  speculations.  They  are  men 
living  on  their  incomes,  whose  fortunes  are  made, 
and  who  have  no  temptations  to  incur  risk. 
The  control  of  the  amount  of  currency  might  be 
safely  left  in  their  hands,  for  either  too  great 
expansions  or  contractions  would  injure  them. — 
Universal  suffrage  has  given  to  the  progressive 
element  in  society,  the  poor,  the  young,  and  the 
enterprising,  so  much  power,  that  this  conserva- 
tive balance  would  not  be  amiss. 


BANKS.  129 

The  prices  of  land,  and  the  wages  of  labor, 
are  regulated  and  fixed  generally  by  the  prices  of 
the  products  of  land  and  labor,  and  not  at  all 
influenced  by  the  scarcity  or  abundance  of  money. 

The  safe  and  legitimate  influence  of  expansion, 
or  increase  of  currency,  by  stimulating  enterprises 
that  are  profitable,  is  what  no  one  complains  of. 
This  brings  us  to  consider  the  doctrine  which 
we  maintained  in  our  chapter  on  the  Balance  of 
Trade, — That  the  increase  of  currency,  when  it  is 
merely  local  or  national,  will  not  inflate  prices, 
but  if  it  gives  rise  to  new  pursuits  of  industry  and 
new  investments  of  capital  which  are  profitable, 
that  then  each  thousand  dollars  added  to  the  cur- 
rency of  a  country  will  add  at  least  twenty  thou- 
sand to  its  wealth.  In  this  we  assume  that  each 
dollar  in  a  community  is  represented  by  twenty 
dollars  of  property.  Now,  no  people  are  ready 
for  an  increase  of  their  currency,  until  they  are 
also  ready  so  to  increase  their  population,  and 
to  vary  and  add  to  their  trade  and  pursuits, 
as  to  have  twenty  times  as  much  additional  capi- 
tal in  property  as  additional  currency.  In  new 
countries  we  see  instances  every  day  where  the 
value  of  property  is  added  to  twenty  fold,  in  a 
single  year.  In  an  old  country  the  same  thing 
will  oosur,  provided  accessions  to  the  currency 
occasion   new   and  profitable  pursuits  and    enter- 


130  BANKS. 

prises    sufficient   permanently  to    absorb  and   em- 
ploy such  accessions. 

The  banks  of  this  State,  if  they  can  profitably 
double  their  issues,  can  only  do  so  by  increasing 
existing  trade  and  business,  or  by  originating  meas- 
ures that  will  result  in  an  increase  of  the  wealth 
of  the  State  twenty  fold  the  increase  of  their 
issues.  Every  people  ought  to  have  among  them 
as  much  money  as  can  be  profitably  employed, 
because  each  additional  dollar  so  employed  adds 
ere  long  twenty  to  State  wealth.  If  a  million  of 
dollars  were  permanently  taken  away  from  the 
currency  of  a  country,  it  must  either  change  its 
pursuits  and  engage  in  modes  of  industry  requir- 
ing less  capital  in  money ;  or  if  it  continues  its 
then  existing  trade  and  pursuits,  it  must  lessen 
their  amount  in  proportion  to  the  diminution  of 
the  currency.  This  only  could  be  effected  by 
diminishing  the  property  of  the  country  twenty 
millions — that  is,  on  the  assumption  that  twenty 
millions  of  property  require  for  its  proper  admin- 
istration, sales  and  transfers,  one  million  of  money. 
As  we  have  before  contended,  an  increase  of  a 
million  in  currency,  to  render  that  increase  per- 
manent and  profitable,  must  be  followed  by  a  cor- 
responding increase  in  trade,  and  that  this  in- 
crease of  trade  could  only  occur  under  Ordinary 
circumstances,    when    there   was    an    increase    of 


BANKS.      •  131 

twenty  millions  in  the  property  of  the  country,  to 
require  such  trade. 

It  can  make  no  difference  whether  the  increase 
of  currency  be  occasioned  by  bank  expansions  or 
the  importation  of  specie.  If  the  specie  be  not 
needed,  it  will  be  exported ;  if  the  paper  be  not 
required,  it  will  return  on  the  banks.  If  either 
continue  in  circulation,  it  is  because  the  country 
is  increasing,  or  has  increased  its  property,  (of 
other  kinds  than  money,)  twenty  fold  the  increase 
of  currency.  The  increase  of  currency  must 
neither  entirely  precede  nor  follow  the  increase 
of  business.  It  should  occur  as  soon  and  as  fast 
as  prudent,  sensible,  and  honest  men  are  wil- 
ling to  borrow  and  employ  it.  Experienced  bank 
officers  and  stockholders  will  be  the  best  judges 
of  when  and  where  to  increase  or  diminish  the  cur- 
rency. We  conclude  that  if  Virginia  be  ready 
for  an  increase  of  her  currency  in  paper  or  coin, 
she  is  ready  for  twenty  times  as  much  increase  of 
her  property,  and  that  such  increase  cannot  be 
permanently  made  in  her  currency  without  pro- 
ducing such  increase  in  her  property.  We  be- 
lieve she  is  now  ready  for  a  very  large  increase 
of  currency,  provided  such  increase  be  made  by 
judicious  laws,  at  proper  points  in  the  State. — 
Without  it,  industry  must  remain  hampered,  and 
growth  and  development  be  prevented. 


132  BANKS. 

The  doctrine  that  banks  necessarily  occasion 
speculation  and  improvidence  is  untrue.  Loans  of 
coin  are  used  as  iinprovidently  as  loans  of  paper. 
The  stockholders,  if  there  were  no  banks,  would 
loan  their  money  in  specie ;  now  through  the 
banks  they  loan  it  in  paper. 

The  banks  of  Virginia,  if  they  err  at  all,  err 
on  the  safe  side,  that  of  extreme  caution  in  mak- 
ing loans.  But  they  aid  the  poor,  the  young  and 
enterprising,  by  lending  small  sums  on  short 
dates  to  mechanics,  merchants,  manufacturers,  &c. 
Private  individuals  lend  their  money  in  large 
sums,  on  long  credits,  to  farmers  and  other  wealthy 
capitalists.  Money  lent  by  banks,  usually  exer- 
cises a  better  influence  on  the  well  being  and 
progress  of  society  than  money  loaned  by  indi- 
viduals. All  Southern  cities  had  excess  of  bank 
capital  twenty  years  ago,  but  this  excess  neither 
produced  speculation  nor  enhanced  the  price  of 
town  lots. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

D  S  UEY. 

Nothing  has  more  perplexed  political  econo- 
mists and  mankind  at  large,  than  the  subject  of 
usury.  That  it  was  right,  proper,  and  laudable 
for  every  man  to  get  the  highest  market  price 
for  the  use  of  his  money,  as  for  the  use  of 
every  other  article,  was  an  obvious  deduction  from 
all  the  axioms  of  the  economists.  The  instincts 
and  common  sense  of  mankind,  whilst  admitting 
the  premises,  stubbornly  denied  the  unavoidable 
conclusion.  Convicted  in  argument,  but  not  con- 
vinced, they  still  fought  on.  In  truth,  the  error 
lay  in  the  premises,  in  the  axioms  and  first  prin- 
ciples of  political  economy.  That  systematic  self- 
ishness that  inculcates  the  moral  duty  to  let 
every  man  take  care  of  himself  and  his  own  self- 
ish interest,  that  advises  each  to  use  his  wits,  his 
prudence,  and  his  providence,  to  get  the  better 
of  those  who  have  less  wit,  prudence  and  provi- 
dence, to  make  the  best  bargains  one  can,  and 
that  a  thing  is  worth  what  it  will  bring,  is  false 
and  rotten  to  the  core.  It  bears  no  sound  fruit, 
brings  forth  no  good  morality.  "Laissez  nous 
faire,"  and  "  Caveat  Emptor,"  (the  latter  the 
maxim  of  the  common  law,)  justify  usury,  encour- 


184  USURY. 

age  the  weak  to  oppress  the  strong,  and  would 
justify  swindling  and  theft,  if  fully  carried  out 
into  practice.  But  it  is  not  safe  or  prudent  to 
swindle  or  steal ;  one  incurs  the  penalties  of  the 
law ;  and  it  is  not  politic,  for  one  scares  off  cus- 
tomers and  subjects.  The  man  who  makes  good 
shaving  bargains,  will  in  the  long  run  grow  rich  ; 
the  swindler  and  the  thief  never  do.  Mankind 
have  ever  detested  the  extortionate  usurer  who 
takes  advantage  of  distress  and  misfortune  to  in- 
crease his  profits,  more  than  a  Robin  Hood  who 
robs  the  rich  to  relieve  the  poor.  There  is  always 
at  bottom  some  sound  moral  reason  for  the  pre- 
judices of  mankind.  Analyze  their  motives,  their 
feelings  and  sentiments  closely.  The  man  who 
spends  a  life  in  dealing  hardly  and  harshly  with 
his  fellow  men,  is  a  much  worse  and  meaner  man 
than  the  highway  robber.  The  latter  is  chival- 
rous, and  where  there  is  chivalry  there  will  be 
occasional  generosity. 

The  law  should  protect  men,  as  well  from  the 
assaults  of  superior  wit  as  from  those  of  superior 
bodily  strength.  Men's  inequalities  of  wit,  pru- 
dence, and  providence,  differ  in  nothing  so  much, 
as  in  their  capacity  to  deal  in  and  take  care  of 
money.  This  creates  the  necessity  for  laws  against 
usury.  Under  occasional  circumstances,  a  heavy 
rate  of  interest  is  morally  right,  but  it  is  gen- 
erally wrong,  and  laws  are  passed  for  ordinary 
and  not  extraordinary  occasions. 


USURY.  135 

We  do  not  think  badly  of  our  fellow  men,  but 
badly ,  of  their  philosophy. ,  Their  kind  feelings, 
impulses,  and  sentiments,  get  the  better  of  their 
principles,  and  they  are  continually  doing  good 
and  preaching  fivil. 

If  men  were  no  better  than  political  economy 
would  make  them,  the  world  would  be  a  Pande- 
monium. 

The  Bible  fortunately  is  a  more  common  book 
than  Adam  Smith.  Its  influences  are  exerted 
over  the  hearts  and  conduct  of  thousands  who 
never  enter  a  church.  "  The  still  small  voice  of 
conscience"  oft  brings  back  the  mother's  image, 
and  the  mother's  divine  precepts,  "Love  thy  neigh- 
bor as  thyself,"  "Do  unto  others  as  you  would 
that  they  should  do  unto  you." 

As  we  pursue  this  investigation,  we  become 
daily  more  disposed  to  adopt  the  theory  of  Ro- 
bespiere,  "  that  political  economy  and  infidelity 
are  one  and  the  same."  It  was  the  Devil  rebuk- 
ing sin;  and  well  he  might,  for  infidel  France 
sinned  to  such  an  excess  as  to  tire  the  Devil  of 
his  own  work. 


:Even  the  very  Devil 


On  this  occasion  his  own  work  abhorred, 
So  surfeited  with  the  infernal  revel; 

Though  he  himself  had  sharpened  every  sword, 
It  almost  quenched  his  innate  thirst  of  evil." 


CHAPTER   XII. 

TOWNS,    RIVERS   AND    ROADS. 

Towns  and  villages  are  breaks  that  arrest  and 
prevent  the  exhausting  drain  of  agriculture,  aided 
by  rivers  and  roads.  They  consume  the  crops  of 
the  neighborhood,  its  wood  and  timber,  and  thus 
not  only  furnish  a  home  market,  but  manures  to 
replenish  the  lands.  They  afford  respectable  oc- 
cupations, in  the  mechanic  arts,  commerce,  man- 
ufactures, and  the  professions,  for  the  energetic 
young  men  of  the  neighborhood.  They  sustain 
good  schools,  which  a  sparse  country  neighbor- 
hood never  can.  They  furnish  places  and  oppor- 
tunities for  association  and  rational  enjoyment  to 
the  neighborhood  around.  They  support  good 
ministers  and  churches,  and  thus  furnish  religious 
consolation  and  instruction  to  many  who  have  not 
the  means  to  visit  distant  places  of  worship. — 
Rivers  and  roads,  without  towns,  are  mere  facili- 
ties offered  to  agriculture  to  carry  off  the  crops, 
to  exhaust  the  soil,  and  to  remove  the  inhabi- 
tants, rich  and  poor.  This  was  strikingly  exem- 
plified in  Virginia  a  few  years  ago.  The  people 
on  the  rich  lands,  on  navigable  rivers,  were  a  few 
absentees,  without  villages,  towns,  mechanic  arts, 
churches  or  schools.     Thev  made  money  at  home, 


TOWNS,    RIVERS    AND    ROADS.  137 

and  the  rivers  tempted  them  to  spend  it  abroad. 
They  would  not  send  their  grain  to  the  little 
towns  at  the  head  of  tide  water,  because  New 
York  and  Boston  were  equally  convenient,  and 
better  markets  to  buy  and  sell  in.  Our  towns 
were  robbed  of  the  trade  of  their  neighbors  be- 
low by  the  rivers,  and  there  were  no  roads  to 
bring  them  trade  from  above.  The  poor  region 
just  above  the  head  of  tide-water,  was  becoming 
rich  from  necessity.  They  were  obliged  to  have 
villages,  mechanic  arts,  and  manufactures  at  home. 
They  had  no  roads  or  rivers,  and  were  cut  off 
from  the  blessings  of  free  trade.  Their  villages 
contained  good  schools  and  churches,  and  thus 
compressed  within  a  small  compass  the  advan- 
tages of  society  and  civilization.  Most  of  these 
villages  will  be  ruined  by  the  roads  we  are  con- 
structing to  the  West.  There  will  be  no  use  for 
them  when  farmers  can  sell  their  crops  and  get 
their  supplies  on  better  terms  from  the  large  towns. 
The  agricultural  portion  of  the  West  will  be  in- 
jured by  our  system  of  improvements.  Luckily 
for  the  West,  her  varied  and  rich  mineral  re- 
sources, and  her  water-power,  will  occasion  min- 
ing and  manufactures  to  be  carried  on,  towns  to 
arise,  and  home  markets  to  be  offered  to  the  far- 
mer. This  will  be  the  situation  of  the  West  gen- 
erally,  but   in   sections    where    there    are    neither 


138  TOWNS,    RIVERS   AND    ROADS. 

mines  nor  water-power,  the  country  will  be  impov- 
erished by  the  improvements. 

An  overgrown  State,  like  an  overgrown  man, 
is  not  generally  equal  in  wisdom  or  strength  to 
one  of  moderate  size.  The  most  distinguished, 
learned  and  wealthy  States  of  ancient  and  mo- 
dern times,  have  had  small  dominions  and  small 
populations.  They  have  been  obliged,  in  order  to 
secure  their  independence,  to  prosecute  every  art, 
science,  trade  and  avocation  belonging  to  civil- 
ized life.  Thus  a  few  came  to  understand  and 
practice  what  many  performed  in  large  and  cum- 
brous States.  A  small  nationality  and  dense  pop- 
ulation, not  cursed  by  free  trade,  necessarily  pro- 
duces an  intense  civilization,  provided  the  nation 
be  of  a  race  that  needs  and  loves  civilization. 

The  effect  of  free  trade  and  extended  dominions, 
is  to  remove  from  most  individuals  and  sections 
the  necessity  to  acquire  and  practice  the  arts 
of  life  that  require  skill  and  learning,  and  thus  to 
dilute  and  degrade  civilization. 

But  separate  nationality  is  a  mere  form,  not  a 
reality,  when  free  trade  furnishes  what  the  nation 
should  produce   at  home. 

The  cities  in  the  South,  on  tide-water,  will 
grow  rapidly,  as  soon  as  roads  enough  penetrate  the 
West.  People  from  the  interior,  will  sell  their 
grain  and  buy  their  manufactures,  groceries  and 
other   goods,    from    those    cities.     Few,  very   few, 


TOWNS,    RIVERS   AXD   ROADS.  139 

will  change  from  the  cars  to  vessels,  carry  their 
grain  North,  and  buy  their  supplies  there.  Around 
all  these  Southern  cities  the  country  will  become 
rich.  It  will  be  dotted  with  gardens,  orchards 
and  villas.  Large  cities,  like  New  York  and  Lon- 
don, are  great  curses,  because  they  impoverish  a 
world  to  enrich  a  neighborhood.  iNumerous  small 
towns  are  great  blessings,  because  they  prevent 
the  evil  effects  of  centralization  of  trade,  retain 
wealth  and  population  at  home,  and  diffuse  hap- 
piness and  intelligence,  by  begetting  variety  of 
pursuits,  supporting  schools,  colleges  and  religious 
institutions,  and  affording  the  means  of  pleasant 
and  frequent  association. 

Each  Southern  State  may  condense  within  its 
boundaries  all  the  elements  of  separate  indepen- 
dent nationality.  Civilization  is  imperfect  and 
incomplete  until  this  state  of  things  arises.  Each 
State  must  not  only  have  within  itself  good  law- 
yers, doctors  and  farmers,  but  able  statesmen, 
learned  philosophers,  distinguished  artists,  skil- 
ful mechanics,  great  authors,  and  every  institu- 
tion and  pursuit  that  pertain  to  high  civilization. 
Railroads  almost  invariably  increase  national 
wealth  to  an  amount  greatly  exceeding  the  cost 
of  their  construction.  In  countries  purely  agri- 
cultural, the  increase  of  wealth  which  they  occa- 
sion, and  the  diminution  of  wealth  which,  when 
properly  located,  they  prevent,  is  almost  incalcu- 


140  TOWNS,    RIVERS   AND    ROADS. 

lable.  All  the  money  spent  in  the  construction 
of  the  road  is  money  saved,  for  in  merely  agricul- 
tural countries  all  money  not  spent  in  living  is 
carried  off  in  some  way  from  the  country.  But, 
besides  the  addition  of  the  road  itself,  to  the 
wealth  of  such  a  country,  the  increase  of  capital 
in  houses,  the  enhanced  value  of  lots  and  lands, 
&c,  at  the  town  where  they  terminate,  usually 
greatly  exceeds  the  [cost  of  the  road.  Every 
road  that  has  been  constructed  from  any  of  our 
seaboard  Atlantic  cities,  has  produced  this  effect. 
They  have  occasioned  already  an  increase  in  the 
value  of  property  in  those  cities  far  greater  than 
the  cost  of  their  construction.  Whilst  their  erec- 
tion is  going  on,  they  afford  respectable  and  pro- 
fitable employment  to  thousands  near  their  track. 
They  also  afford  an  excellent  market  to  the  far- 
mer for  his  wood  and  timber,  and  many  other 
things  that  were  before  unsaleable.  From  these 
various  considerations,  it  would  seem  to  follow, 
at  first  view,  that  they  should  be  constructed  at 
State  expense.  Especially,  since  it  is  desirable 
that  public  roads  should  not  be  the  subjects  of 
monopoly. 

The  gross  and  grievous  inequalities  in  the  bur- 
den of  taxation,  and  the  resulting  benefits  of 
roads  constructed  at  public  expense,  is  a  strong 
consideration  against  such  mode  of  construction. 
Men   living  a  distance  from  the  roads  derive  no 


TOWNS,    RIVERS    AND    ROADS.  141 

advantages  from  them,  yet  must  pay  equally  for 
building ;  men  owning  valuable  stores,  taverns, 
&c,  in  the  interior,  near  where  a  road  passes, 
are  often  made  to  pay  for  improvements  that  will 
render  their  property  valueless.  Whilst  the  owners 
of  vacant  lots  at  the  termini,  who  have  scarce 
paid  any  of  the  tax  that  built  the  road,  make 
often  immense  fortunes  by  the  increase  occasioned 
in  the  value  of  their  lots. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  the  public  spirited 
and  patriotic,  the  young,  the  enterprising  and 
the  poor,  erect  public  improvements,  the  rich  old 
fogies  laugh  at  their  enterprise,  refuse  to  aid  to 
the  amount  of  a  cent,  and  Pharisaically  con- 
gratulate themselves  on  their  virtue,  prudence 
and  good  sense,  in  securing,  by  the  situation  of 
their  property,  the  larger  portion  of  the  profits 
arising  from  such  schemes,  if  successful,  without 
incurring  any  risk  or  a  cent  of  cost. 

The  towns  where  they  terminate  might  erect 
them  and  make  a  profit  by  doing  so.  But  the 
owners  of  houses,  merchandise  and  money  would 
pay  for  them,  and  the  owners  of  vacant  lots  reap 
most  of  the  profits. 

We  will  not  undertake  to  determine  how,  or 
at  whose  cost,  public  improvement  should  be  con- 
structed. We  think  it  would  be  best  to  lay  down 
no  general  rule,  but  for  the  Legislature  to  act  on 
each  application,  according  to  the  necessity,  char- 


142 

acter  and  probable  profits  and  advantages  of  the 
proposed  work. 

Eastern  Virginians  often  complain  that  they 
are  taxed  to  build  roads  for  the  West.  Roads 
piercing  an  agricultural  interior,  and  terminating 
at  towns,  at  or  near  the  ocean,  usually  impoverish 
the  interior  and  create  immense  wealth  in  the 
seaboard  towns,  and  in  the  country  near  them. 

If  such  should  be,  and  to  a  great  extent  it  no 
doubt  will  be,  the  result  of  our  roads,  then  West- 
ern Virginia  might  with  great  propriety  com- 
plain that  she  was  made  "  to  pay  for  a  stick  to 
break  her  own  head." 

Eastern  Virginia  is  exceedingly  conservative. 
She  opposes  all  innovations,  and  sticks  to  mud 
roads  as  pertinaciously  as  many  of  her  old  gen- 
try did  to  fairtops,  shorts  and  kneebuckles.  But 
she  must  give  way  at  last,  for  she  is  proud  and 
highly  civilized.  Rapid  intercommunication  is  the 
distinguishing  feature  of  modern  progress.  'Tis 
part  and  parcel  of  the  civilization  of  our  times. 
Daily  mails,  telegraphs  and  railroads  are  becom- 
ing necessaries  of  life.  Fashion  is  omnipotent, 
and  these  things  are  exceedingly  useful,  and  "all 
the  rage"  to  boot.  'Tis  easy  to  be  a  prophet  in 
Eastern  Virginia.  .  She  invents  nothing,  but  slowly 
and  reluctantly  follows  in  the  wake  of  less  digni- 
fied, more  fickle,  and  progressive  regions.  Go  to 
England  or  the  North,  and  you   can  foretell  our 


143 

condition  ten  years  hence,  as  certainly  as  you  can 
tell  this  season  in  Paris  the  fashion  of  ladies'  bon- 
nets next  season  in  America.  We  will  monopo- 
lise the  advantages  of  the  system  we  oppose,  for 
not  more  naturally  and  certainly  do  rivers  bring 
detritus  and  alluvium  from  the  mountains,  to  lodge 
them  at  their  mouths  and  deltas,  than  do  railroads 
briDg  the  wealth  of  the  interior  to  enrich  the 
towns  and  country  on  the  seaboard. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 


EDUCATION. 


The  abolitionists  taunt  us  with  the  ignorance 
of  our  poor  white  citizens.  This  is  a  stigma  on 
the  South  that  should  be  wiped  out.  Half  of  the 
people  of  the  South,  or  nearly  so,  are  blacks. 
We  have  only  to  educate  the  other  half.  At  the 
North,  they  educate  all.  Our  Southern  free-trade 
philosophy,  our  favorite  maxim,  "  every  man  for 
himself,"  has  been  the  cause  of  the  neglect  of 
popular  education.  The  civilized  world  differ  from 
us  and  censure  us.  They  say  it  is  the  first  duty 
of  government  to  provide  for  the  education  of  all 
its  citizens.  Despotic  Prussia  compels  parents  to 
send  their  children  to  schools  supported  at  public 
expense.  All  are  educated  and  well  educated. 
As  our's  is  a  government  of  the  people,  no  where 
is  education  so  necessary.  The  poor,  too,  ask  no 
charity,  when  they  demand  universal  education. 
They  constitute  our  militia  and  our  police.  They 
protect  men  in  possession  of  property,  as  in  other 
countries ;  and  do  much  more,  they  secure  men 
in  possession  of  a  kind  of  property  which  they 
could  not  hold  a  day  but  for  the  supervision  and 
protection   of  the    poor.     This  very  property  has 


EDUCATION.  145 

rendered  the  South  merely  agricultural,  made 
population  too  sparse  for  neighborhood  schools, 
prevented  variety  of  pursuits,  and  thus  cut  the 
poor  off  as  well  from  the  means  of  living,  as  from 
the  means  of  education. 

Universal  suffrage  will  soon  attempt  to  remedy 
these  evils.  But  rashness  and  precipitancy  may 
occasion  failure  and  bring  about  despondency. 
We  are  not  yet  prepared  to  educate  all.  Free 
schools  should  at  once  be  established  in  all  neich- 
borhoods  where  a  sufficient  number  of  scholars 
can  be  collected  in  one  school.  Parents  should 
be  compelled  to  send  their  children  to  school. 
The  obligation  on  the  part  of  government,  to  ed- 
ucate the  people,  carries  with  it  the  indubitable 
right  to  employ  all  the  means  necessary  to  attain 
that  end.  But  the  duty  of  government  does  not 
end  with  educating  the  people.  As  far  as  is 
practicable,  it  should  open  to  them  avenues  of  em- 
ployment in  which  they  may  use  what  they  have 
learned.  The  system  of  internal  improvements 
now  carried  on  in  the  South,  will  directly  and 
indirectly,  quite  suffice  to  attain  this  end,  so  far 
as  government  can  aid  properly  in  such  an  ob- 
ject. Government  may  do  too  much  for  the  peo- 
ple, or  it  may  do  too  little.  We  have  committed 
the  latter  error. 

The  mail  and  the  newspaper-press  might  be 
employed,  as  cheap  and  efficient  agents,  in  teach- 


146  EDUCATION. 

ing  the  masses.  No  family  in  the  Union  is  so  dull, 
stupid  and  indifferent,  as  not  to  be  curious  about 
the  news  of  the  day.  Cotemporaneous  history  is 
the  most  interesting  and  important  part  of  his- 
tory. That  is  to  be  had  alone  from  newspapers. 
But  newspapers  contain  on  all  subjects  the  most 
recent  discoveries,  and  the  most  valuable  infor- 
mation. 

A  large  weekly  newspaper  might  be  furnished 
to  every  poor  family  in  the  State,  at  less  than  a 
dollar  a  family.  If  there  were  not  a  teacher  with- 
in fifty  miles,  some  member  of  each  family  would 
learn  to  read,  first  to  get  at  the  neighborhood 
news  and  scandals,  the  deaths,  and  marriages, 
and  murders.  Gradually  they  would  understand 
and  become  interested  in  the  proceedings  of  our 
government,  and  the  news  from  foreign  countries. 
The  meanest  newspaper  in  the  country  is  worth 
all  the  libraries  in  Christendom.  It  is  desirable 
to  know  what  the  ancients  did,  but  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  what  our  neighbors  and  fellow 
country-men  are  doing. 

Our  system  of  improvements,  manufactures, 
the  mechanic  arts,  the  building  up  of  our  cities, 
commerce,  and  education  should  go  hand  in  hand. 
We  ought  not  to  attempt  too  much  at  once. 
'Tis  time  we  were  attempting  something.  We 
ought,  like  the  Athenians,  to  be  the  best  edu- 
cated people  in  the  world.     When  we  employ  all 


EDUCATION.  117 

our  whites  in  the  mechanic  arts,  in  commerce,  in 
professions,  &c,  and  confine  the  negroes  to  farm- 
work,  and  coarse  mechanical  operations,  we  shall 
be  in  a  fair  way  to  attain  this  result.  The  abo- 
lition movement  is  a  harmless  humbug,  confined 
to  a  handful  of  fanatics,  but  the  feeling '  of  anti- 
pathy to  negroes,  the  hatred  of  race,  and  the  dis- 
position to  expel  them  from  the  country  is  daily 
increasing,  North  and  South.  Two  causes  are  in 
active  operation  to  fan  and  increase  this  hostility 
to  the  negro  race.  The  one,  the  neglect  to  edu- 
cate  and  provide  means  of  employment  for  the 
poor  whites  in  the  South,  who  are  thereby  led  to 
believe  that  the  existence  of  negroes  amongst  us 
is  ruin  to  them.  The  other,  the  theory  of  the 
Types  of  Mankind,  which  cuts  off  the  negro  from 
human  brotherhood,  and  justifies  the  brutal  and 
the  miserly  in  treating  him  as  a  vicious  brute. 
Educate  all  Southern  whites,  employ  them,  not 
as  cooks,  lacqueys,  ploughmen,  and  menials,  but 
as  independent  freemen  should  be  employed,  and 
let  negroes  be  strictly  tied  down  to  such  callings 
•as  are  unbecoming  white  men,  and  peace  would 
be  established  between  blacks  and  whites.  The 
whites  would  find  themselves  elevated  by  the  ex- 
istence of  negroes  amongst  us.  Like  the  Roman 
citizen,  the  Southern  white  man  would  become  a 
noble  and  a  privileged  character,  and  he  would  then 
like  negroes  and    slavery,  because  his    high  posi- 


148  EDUCATION. 

tion  would  be  clue  to  them.  Poor  people  can  see 
things  as  well  as  rich  people.  We  can't  hide  the 
facts  from  them.  It  is  always  better  openly, 
honestly,  and  fearlessly  to  meet  danger,  than  to 
fly  from  or  avoid  it.  The  last  words  we  will 
utter  on*  this  subject  are, — The  path  of  safety  is 
the  path  of  duty !  Educate  the  people,  no  matter 
what  it  may  cost ! 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

EXCLUSIVE    AGRICULTURE. 

Writing  as  we  do,  with  the  hope  of  suggesting 
some  things  useful  to  the  South,  we  deem  the  sub- 
ject of  agriculture,  their  favorite  and  almost  sole 
pursuit,  one  worthy  of  separate  consideration,  es- 
pecially as  it  is  intimately  connected  with  the 
doctrines  of  free  trade.  Agriculture  can  never 
be  the  exclusive  pursuit  of  a  civilized  people,  un- 
less by  free  trade,  all  other  wants  than  those  of 
food,  are  supplied  from  abroad.  Man  naturally 
gives  a  preference  to  agriculture  over  all  other 
avocations,  because  it  is  the  most  simple  and  the 
most  independent.  This  preference  is  greatly  in- 
creased when  the  climate  and  soil  are  adapted  to 
its  pursuit.  Such  is  the  case  in  the  Southern 
States,  with  the  additional  inducement  in  its  fa- 
vor, that  the  laboring  class,  the  negroes,  are 
admirably  fitted  for  farming,  and  too  ignorant 
and  dull  for  any  of  the  finer  processes  of  the 
mechanic  arts.  Hence  the  South  has  become  al- 
most exclusively  agricultural,  and  hence,  also,  she 
has  ever  been  the  advocate  of  free  trade,  which 
supplies  the  many  wants  that  agriculture  leaves 
unsupplied. 


150         EXCLUSIVE  AGRICULTURE. 

The  usual  and  familiar  arguments  in  favor  of 
this  policy  are,  that  it  is  cheaper  to  buy  abroad 
good  manufactured  articles  in  exchange  for  agri- 
cultural products,  than  to  buy  them  at  home, 
where  more  indifferent  articles  would  be  obtained 
for  a  larger  amount  of  agricultural  products. 

And  again,  that  we,  having  no  skill  or  spare 
moneyed  capital,  but  possessing  a  rich  soil,  fine 
climate,  and  suitable  labor  for  farming,  should 
follow  farming,  whilst  other  nations,  without  these 
advantages,  but  having  a  large  moneyed  capi- 
tal, and  great  artistic  and  mechanical  skill, 
should  produce  manufactured  articles,  and  ex- 
change them  for  our  grain  and  other  products, 
that  thus  both  we  and  they  would  be  benefited. 
The  argument  is  specious,  but  as  false  as  it  is 
specious. 

If  an  agricultural  people  were  found  without 
any  manufactures,  by  a  manufacturing  one,  the 
effect  of  free  trade  would  be  to  prevent  the  in- 
vention and  practice  of  all  the  mechanic  arts,  for 
"  necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,"  and  such 
trade  would  remove  the  necessity  of  home  manu- 
factures. But,  in  truth,  there  never  was  a  people, 
however  savage,  without  some  knowledge  of  man- 
ufactures and  the  mechanic  arts.  When  that 
knowledge,  as  in  the  instances  of  Africans  and 
Indians,  is  very  slight,  and  the  processes  of  course 
very    tedious,  laborious,    and    inefficient,   the  im- 


EXCLUSIVE    AGRICULTURE.  151 

mediate  effect  of  contact  with  a  civilized  nation 
by  trade,  is  to  extinguish  the  little  knowledge 
they  have,  and  to  divert  them  to  fishing,  hunting, 
searching  for  gold  and  similar  pursuits,  which 
savages  can  practice  almost  as  well  as  civilized 
men.  The  African  ceases  to  smelt  iron  when  he 
finds  a  day's  work  in  hunting  for  slaves,  iron  or 
gold,  will  purchase  more  and  better  instruments 
than  he  could  make  in  a  week,  and  the  Indian 
pursues  trapping,  and  hunting,  and  fishing,  ex- 
clusively, when  he  can  exchange  his  game,  his 
furs  and  fish,  for  blankets,  guns,  powder  and 
whiskey,  with  the  American.  Thus  does  free  trade 
prevent  the  growth  of  civilization  and  depress 
and  destroy  it,  by  removing  the  necessity  that 
alone  can  beget  it.  Its  effects  on  agricultural 
countries,  however  civilized,  are  precisely  similar 
in  character  to  those  on  savages.  Necessity  com- 
pels people  in  poor  regions,  to  cultivate  commerce 
and  the  mechanic  arts,  and  for  that  purpose  to 
build  ships  and  cities.  They  soon  acquire  skill 
in  manufactures,  and  all  the  advantages  necessary 
to  produce  them  with  cheapness  and  facility. 
The  agricultural  people  with  whom  they  trade, 
have  been  bred  to  exclusive vf arming,  by  the  sim- 
plicity of  its  operations,  its  independence  of  life, 
and  the  fertility  of  their  soil.  If  cut  off  like 
China  was,  and  Japan  yet  is,  from  the  rest  of  the 
civilized   world,    they   would  have    to    practise   at 


152  EXCLUSIVE    AGRICULTURE. 

home  all  the  arts,  trades  and  professions  of  civi- 
lized life,  in  order  to  supply  the  wants  of  civilized 
beings.  But  trade  will  supply  everything  they 
need,  except  the  products  of  the  soil.  As  they 
are  unskilled  in  mechanic  arts,  have  few  towns, 
little  accumulated  capital,  and  a  sparse  popula- 
tion, they  produce,  with  great  labor  and  expense, 
all  manufactured  articles.  To  them  it  is  cheaper, 
at  present,  to  exchange  their  crops  for  manufac- 
tures than  to  make  them.  They  begin  the  ex- 
change, and  each  day  the  necessity  increases  for 
continuing  it,  for  each  day  they  learn  to  lely 
more  and  more  on  others  to  produce  articles, 
some  of  which  they  formerly  manufactured, — and 
their  ignorance  of  all,  save  agriculture,  is  thus 
daily  increasing.  It  is  cheaper  for  a  man,  little 
skilled  in  mechanics,  to  buy  his  plough  and 
wagon  by  the  exchange  of  agricultural  products, 
than  awkwardly,  clumsily  and  tediously  to  manu- 
facture them  of  bad  quality  with  his  own  hands. 
Yet,  if  this  same  man  will  become  a  skilful  me- 
chanic, he  will  be  able  to  procure  four  times  as 
much  agricultural  products  for  his  labor,  as  he 
can  now  secure  with  his  own  hands.  His  labor 
too,  will  be  of  a  lighter,  less  exposed,  more  social 
character,  and  far  more  improving  to  his  mind. 
What  is  -true  of  the  individual,  is  true  as  to  a 
nation,  the  people  who  buy  their  manufactures 
abroad,  labor  four  times   as   hard,  and  as  long,  to 


EXCLUSIVE  AGRICULTURE.         153 

produce  them,  as  if  they  made  them  at  home. 
In  the  case  of  the  nation,  this  exclusive  agri- 
culture begets  a  sparse  and  poor  population  ;  sparse, 
because  no  more  people  can  be  employed,  than 
are  sufficient  to  cultivate  the  land, — poor,  be- 
cause their  labor,  though  harder  and  more  ex- 
posed, produces  in  the  aggregate  about  one-fourth 
what  the  same  amount  of  lighter  labor  -would/ in 
a  purely  mechanical  and  manufacturing  country. 
Density  of  population  doubles  and  quadruples 
the  value  of  labor  and  of  property,  because  it  fur- 
nishes the  opportunity  for  association  and  divi- 
sion of  labor,  and  the  division  of  charges  and  ex- 
penses. When  one  man  has  to  bear  the  expense 
of  a  school,  a  church,  a  mill,  a  store,  a  smith's 
shop,  fee,  he  is  very  apt  to  let  his  family  go  with- 
out religion  and  education,  and  his  farm  without 
many  of  the  necessaries  and  conveniences  [that 
properly  appertain  to  it.  Where  a  few  have  to 
bear  these  expenses,  the  burden  on  each  is  very 
heavy,  but  where,  as  in  manufacturing  countries, 
with  a  dense  population  and  many  villages,  these 
expenses  are  sub-divided  among  many,  the  bur- 
den is  light  to  each, — so  that  their  property  and 
their  labor  is  vastly  more  available  and  valuable. 
The  sparsely  settled  agricultural  country  makes 
by  its  pursuits,  one-fourth  what  the  manufactur- 
ing country  does,  and  the  money  that  it  makes  is 
probably,    in  general,    if  spent    at   home,    capable 


154        EXCLUSIVE  AGRICULTURE. 

of  purchasing  one-half  only  of  the  pleasures,  com- 
forts and  luxuries  of  life  that  the  same  amount  of 
money  would  in  countries  engaged  in  other  pursuits. 
The  pleasures  of  society  are  seldom  indulged  in,  or 
if  indulged  in,  at  much  expense  of  time  and  incon- 
venience, in  merely  farming  countries,  where  peo- 
ple live  at  considerable  distance  from  each  other. 
There  is  no  occasion  for  towns  or  cities,  and  not 
enough  of  the  rich  to  support  places  of  recrea- 
tion and  amusement.  The  rich  are,  therefore,  all 
absentees.  Some  go  off  for  pleasure,  some  to 
religious  conventions  and  associations,  some  for 
education,  and  those  who  remain  at  home,  do  so 
not  to  spend  money  and  improve  the  country,  but 
to  save  it,  in  order  that  they  too  may  hereafter 
visit  -  other  regions.  The  latter  class  are  no  less 
absentees,  in  effect,  than  the  former  classes. 
The  consumption  abroad,  of  the  crops  made  at 
home  would,  in  two  centuries,  blast  the  prosperity 
of  any  country,  by  robbing  it  of  the  manures 
which  nature  intended  for  it.  Where  there  are 
many  manufacturing  villages  they  furnish  a  con- 
stant supply  of  manure  to  the  country  around. 
The  manure  made  from  the  farmer's  crop,  con- 
sumed in  those  villages,  is  returned  to  his  soil, 
mixed  with  a  thousand  other  fertilizing  ingre- 
dients from  the  streets,  sewers,  and  factories  of 
the  town.  Thus  only  can  agriculture  flourish, 
and  a  soil  be  kept  permanently  rich. 


EXCLUSIVE   AGRICULTURE.  155 

Few,  very  few  men,  will  acquire  education,  or  con- 
fer it  on  their  children,  unless  some  pecuniary  ad- 
vantage is  to  result  from  it.     The  mass  of  popula- 
tion  in  farming  countries  are  field  hands.     They 
require    no     education   whatever,     even    if    their 
wages  would  procure  it.     The   managers  or  over- 
seers   need    but    little,   for    much    as    agricultural 
chemistry  and  scientific  farming  are  talked  about, 
everybody's    instinctive   common    sense   and  judg- 
ment teaches,  that  they  are  part  of  the  humbugs 
of  the  day.     No    person  would    employ-  an    over- 
seer  who    was    learned    in    the    natural    sciences. 
Botany,  geology,  chemistry,  mineralogy,   and   na- 
tural history,  do  very  well  for  the  closet  philoso- 
pher, but  would  be  dangerous    attainments   in   an 
overseer.    The  farmers  of  Judea,  Egypt,  Greece  and 
Rome,  two  and  four  thousand  years  ago,  were  better 
than    ours.     Farming    rapidly   declined   in  Rome, 
so  soon   as  Cato  and  others   attempted  to  make  it 
a  science.     The  most  potent  qualities  of  soils  and 
atmospheres   evade  all  analysis.     No  difference  is 
found    in    the    death-dealing    air    of   the    Pontine 
Marshes,   and  the  pure    atmosphere  of  the  Appe- 
nines.     When   fever,   plague,   or    cholera   rage   in 
New    Orleans,   the    minutest    analysis   can    detect 
nothing    in    the    air   that    was    not    there   before, 
nothing  which  does  not  exist  in  it  in  the  healthiest 
regions.     Each   adjoining    acre  of  land  may  pro- 
duce wine  or  tobacco  of  very  different  qualities, 


156  EXCLUSIVE   AGRICULTURE, 

yet  no  chemist  can  tell  the  why.  Philosophy  can- 
not prevent  the  weevil,  the  rust,  or  the  joint 
worm. 

Chemists  undertake  to  analyze  exactly  a  grain 
of  wheat,  and  to  determine  accurately  and  pre- 
cisely its  component  parts.  Now,  when  they  can 
make  a  grain  of  wheat,  that  will  vegetate  and 
grow  and  bear  fruit,  we  will  believe  in  agricul- 
tural chemistry.  Till  then,  we  shall  contend  that 
there  is  something  too  minute  and  recondite  in 
vegetable  life  for  mortal  ken  to  read,  and  will 
throw  their  physic  to  the  dogs. 

The  great  secrets  of  animal  and  vegetable  life, 
and  of  their  health,  growth  and  decay,  are  in  a 
great  measure  hidden  from  human  search.  Philo- 
sophy makes  no  advances  in  this  direction.  Galen 
and  Hippocrates  were  as  good  physicians  as  the 
latest  graduate  of  Edinburgh,  and  Cato  as  good 
a  farmer  as  Mr.  Newton.  "A  Paul  may  plant, 
and  an  Apollos  water,  but  God  alone  can  give 
the  increase." 

Farming  is  the  recreation  of  great  men,  the 
proper  pursuit  of  dull  men.  And  the  dull  are  the 
most  successful,  because  they  imitate,  observe, 
and  never  experiment.  Washington  and  Cincin- 
natus  farmed  for  amusement,  George  the  Third 
and  Sancho  Panza,  because  it  was  their  appro- 
priate avocation.  Ambitious  men  sometimes,  to 
hide  their  designs,  and  allay  suspicion,  rear  game 


EXCLUSIVE   AGRICULTURE.  157 

cocks,  or  "cultivate  peas  and  philosophy."  But 
farmers  have  no  use  for  learning,  and  a  farming 
country  would  not  be  a  learned  one  if  books  grew 
on  trees,  and  "  reading  and  writing  came  by  na- 
ture." 

The  population  as  it  increases  must  emigrate, 
for  the  want  of  variety  of  pursuits,  and  more 
avenues  of  employment.  A  manufacturing  State, 
if  it  can  find  agricultural  people  weak  enough  to 
trade  with  them,  may  sustain  an  enlightened  pop- 
ulation indefinite  in  numbers,  for  the  more  dense 
the  population,  the  better  it  is  adapted  for  me- 
chanical and  manufacturing  pursuits.  Internal 
improvements,  like  schools  and  colleges,  cannot 
be  well  sustained  in  farming  States,  because  the 
people  are  too  few  and  too  poor  to  make  or  sup- 
port them. 

Holland  and  Massachusetts  are  two  of  the  rich- 
est, happiest,  and  most  highly  civilized  States  in 
the  world,  because  they  farm  very  little,  but  are  en- 
gaged in  more  profitable  and  enlightened  pursuits. 
The  soil  of  Massachusetts  is  very  poor,  and  that 
of  Holland  not  adapted  to  grain.  Ireland,  the 
East  and  West  Indies,  and  our  Southern  States, 
are  poor  and  ignorant  countries  with  rich  soils. 
They  farm  altogether,  and  their  rich  and  enter- 
prising and  ambitious  men  desert  them  for  pleas- 
ure, promotion,  or  employment,  in  lands  less  fa- 
vored by  nature,  but  improved  by  man. 


158  .      EXCLUSIVE   AGRICULTURE. 

The  South  must  vary  and  multiply  her  pur- 
suits, consume  her  crops  at  home,  keep  her  peo- 
ple at  home,  increase  her  population,  build  up 
cities,  towns  and  villages,  establish  more  schools 
and  colleges,  educate  the  poor,  construct  inter- 
nal improvements,  carry  on  her  own  commerce, 
and  carry  on  that  if  possible  with  more  Southern 
regions :  for  the  North,  whether  in  Europe  or 
here,  will  manufacture  for,  cheat  her,  and  keep 
her  dependent.  She  would  manufacture  for  the 
far  South,  and  get  thus  the  same  profits  and  ad- 
vantages that  are  now  extracted  from  her  by  the 
North.  Do  these  things  and  she  will  be  rich, 
enlightened  and  independent,  neglect  them  and 
she  will  become  poor,  weak  and  contemptible. 
Her  State  Rights  doctrines  will  be  derided,  and 
her  abstractions  scoffed  at. 

In  connection  with  this  subject,  we  will  venture 
a  suggestion  to  the  South,  (for  we  may  not  pre- 
sume to  advise,)  as  to  the  intellectual  progress 
and  improvement  wdrich  the  mechanic  arts,  and 
those  arts  alone  open  to  human  study,  investiga- 
tion and  invention.  We  have  just  stated  that 
the  world  has  not  improved  in  the  last  two  thou- 
sand, probably  four  thousand  years,  in  the  science 
or  practice  of  medicine,  or  agriculture ;  we  now 
add  that  it  has  all  this  while  been  retrograding 
in  all  else  save  the  physical  sciences  and  the 
mechanic  arts.     Eome  imitated  and  fell  short  of 


EXCLUSIVE  AGRICULTURE.         159 

Greece,  in  all  the  departments  of  moral  philo- 
sophy, in  pure  metaphysics,  in  poetry,  in  archi- 
tecture, in  sculpture,  in  oratory,  in  the  drama? 
and  in  painting,  and  we  to-day  imitate  Rome.  It 
is  idle  to  talk  of  progress,  when  we  look  two 
thousand  years  back  for  models  of  perfection. 
So  vast  was  Grecian  superiority  in  art  above  ours, 
that  it  is  a  common  theory,  that  they  possessed 
an  ideal  to  guide  them,  which  has  been  lost,  and 
which  loss  is  irreparable.  The  ancients  under- 
stood the  art,  practice  and  science  of  government 
better  than  we.  There  was  more  intelligence, 
more  energy,  more  learning,  more  happiness,  more 
people,  and  more  wealth,  around  the  Levant,  and 
in  its  islands,  in  the  days  of  Herodotus,  than  are 
now  to  be  found  in  all  Europe. 

The  only  progress  or  advancement  visible  to 
the  eye,  is  that  brought  about  by  the  mechanic 
arts,  aided  by  physical  science.  Chemistry  and 
natural  philosophy  would  have  remained  dead 
letters,  had  not  the  mechanic  stepped  in  to  con- 
struct the  cannon  and  the  gun,  the  compass,  the 
steam  engine,  and  the  electric  wire.  Looking 
back  through  the  vista  of  ages,  the  noblest  and 
oldest  monuments  of  human  intellect  and  human 
energy  are  the  works  of  the  mechanic.  Long  ere 
the  Muse  lisped  in  liquid  and  melodious  numbers, 
long  before  the  buskined  Drama  trod  the  stage, 
long  before  the  Historian  in  stately  mirch  arrayed 


160         EXCLUSIVE  AGRICULTURE. 

the  dim  and  distant  past,  the  Mechanic  had  built 
pyramids,  and  walls,  and  cities,  and  temples,  that 
have  defied  the  lapse  and  corrosion  of  time.  We 
are  at  a  loss  which  most  to  admire,  the  first  ef- 
forts of  his  genius,  his  energy  and  skill,  as  daily 
developed  at  Nineveh,  in  Egypt,  in  Rome,  and  in 
Greece,  or  his  latest  achievements  in  his  steam- 
ships, railroads,  immense  factories,  and  time  and 
distance  destroying  telegraph.  He  looks  into 
heaven  with  his  telescope,  he  is  omnipresent  with 
his  telegraph,  may  he  not  reach  heaven  in  some 
serial  car.  Sic  itur  ad  astra  !  Let  the  ambitious 
South  cultivate,  not  spurn  the  mechanic  arts. 


CHAPTER  XY. 

THE   ASSOCIATION   OF   LABOR. 

If  the  Socialists  had  done  no  other  good,  they 
would  be  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of  mankind  for 
displaying  in  a  strong  light  the  advantages  of  the 
association  of  labor.  Adam  Smith,  in  his  elabo- 
rate treatise  on  the  Division  of  Labor,  nearly  stum- 
bled on  the  same  truth.  But.  the  division  of  labor 
is  a  curse  to  the  laborer,  without  the  association 
of  labor.  Division  makes  labor  ten  times  more 
efficient,  but  by  confining  each  workman  to  some 
simple,  monotonous  employment,  it  makes  him  a 
mere  automaton,  and  an  easy  prey  to  the  capi- 
talist. The  association  of  labor,  like  all  associa- 
tions, requires  a  head  or  ruler,  and  that  head  or 
ruler  will  become  a  cheat  and  a  tyrant,  unless  his 
interests  are  identified  with  the  interests  of  the 
laborer.  In  a  large  factory,  in  free  society,  there 
is  division  of  labor,  and  association  too,  but  asso- 
ciation and  division  for  the  benefit  of  the  employer 
and  to  the  detriment  of  the  laborer.  On  a  large 
farm,  whatever  advances  the  health,  happiness  and 
morals  of  the  negroes,  renders  them  more  prolific 
and  valuable  to  their  master.  It  is  his  interest  to 
pay  them  high  wages  in  way  of  support,  and  he 


162  THE   ASSOCIATION   OF   LABOR. 

can  afford  to  do  so,  because  association  renders  the 
labor  of  each  slave  five  times  as  productive  and 
efficient  as  it  would  be,  were  the  slaves  working 
separately.  One  man  could  not  enclose  an  acre 
of  land,  cultivate  it,  send  his  crops  to  market,  do 
his  own  cooking,  washing  and  mending.  One  man 
may  live  as  a  prowling  beast  of  prey,  but  not  as  a 
civilized  being.  One  hundred  human  beings,  men, 
women  and  children,  associated,  will  cultivate  ten 
acres  of  land  each,  enclose  it,  and  carry  on  every 
other  operation  of  civilized  life.  Labor  becomes 
at  least  twenty  times  as  productive  when  a  hun- 
dred associate,  as  when  one  acts  alone.  The  same 
is  as  true  in  other  pursuits  as  in  farming.  But  in 
free  society,  the  employer  robs  the  laborer,  and  he 
is  no  better  off  than  the  prowling  savage,  although 
he  might  live  in  splendor  if  he  got  a  fair  propor- 
tion of  the  proceeds  of  his  own  labor. 

We  have  endeavored  to  show,  heretofore,  that 
the  negro  slave,  considering  his  indolence  and  un- 
skilfulness,  often  gets  his  fair  share,  and  sometimes 
more  than  his  share,  of  the  profits  of  the  farm, 
and  is  exempted,  besides,  from  the  harassing  cares 
and  anxieties  of  the  free  laborer.  Grant,  however, 
that  the  negro  does  not  receive  adequate  wages 
from  his  master,  yet  all  admit  that  in  the  aggre- 
gate the  negroes  get  better  wages  than  free  labor- 
ers ;  therefore,  it  follows  that,  with  all  its  imper- 
fections, slave  society  is  the  best  form  of  society 


THE   ASSOCIATION   OF  LABOR.  163 

yet  devised  for  the  masses.  When  Socialists  and 
Abolitionists,  by  full  and  fair  experiments,  exhibit 
a  better,  it  will  be  time  to  agitate  the  subject  of 
abolition. 

The  industrial  products  of  black  slave  labor  have 
been  far  greater  and  more  useful  to  mankind,  than 
those  of  the  same  amount  of  any  other  labor.  In 
a  very  short  period,  the  South  and  South-west 
have  been  settled,  cleared,  fenced  in,  and  put  in 
cultivation,  by  what  were,  a  century  ago,  a  handful 
of  masters  and  slaves.  This  region  now  feeds  and 
clothes  a  great  part  of  mankind ;  but  free  trade 
cheats  them  of  the  profits  of  their  labor.  In  the 
vast  amount  of  our  industrial  products,  we  see  the 
advantages  of  association — in  our  comparative  pov- 
erty, the  evils  of  free  trade. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE   FREE    LABORER'S    CARES   AND    ANXIETIES. 

We  think  we  have  shown  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ter, not  only  that  the  physical  condition  of  the  free 
laborer  is  worse  than  that  of  the  slave,  but  that 
its  evils  are  intolerable.  It  is  admitted  and  is 
proved  to  be  so  by  the  almost  unanimous  authority 
of  rich  and  poor,  learned  and  ignorant,  living  in 
the  midst  of  free  society.  What  is  the  mental 
condition  of  the  free  laborer  ?  Is  he  exempt  from 
the  cares  that  beset  wealth  and  power,  and  plant 
thorns  in  the  path  of  royalty  ? 

Poor  men  have  families  as  well  as  the  rich,,  and 
they  love  those  families  more  than  rich  men,  be- 
cause they  have  little  else  to  love.  The  smiles  of 
their  wives  and  the  prattle  of  their  children,  when 
they  return  from  labor  at  night,  compensate,  in 
some  degree,  for  the  want  of  those  luxuries  which 
greet  the  rich,  but  which  render  them  less  keenly 
alive  to  the  pleasures  of  domestic  affection.  Their 
love  is  divided  between  their  possessions  and  their 
families  ;  the  poor  man's  love  is  intensely  concen- 
trated on  his  wife  and  children.  Wife  and  children 
do  not  always  smile  and  prattle.  Want  makes  them 
sad  and  serious.     Cold  and  hunger  and  nakedness 


THE  FREE  LABORER'S  CARES.       165 

give  them  haggard  looks,  and  then  the  poor  man's 
heart  bleeds  at  night  as  he  tosses  on  his  restless 
pillow.  They  are  often  delicate  and  sometimes 
sick.  The  parent  must  go  out  to  toil  to  provide 
for  them,  nevertheless.  He  cannot  watch  over  their 
sick  beds  like  the  rich.  Apprehension  does  not 
sweeten  and  lighten  his  labors.  Xor  does  loss  of 
rest  in  watching  and  nursing  a  sick  wife  or  child 
better  fit  him  to  earn  his  wages  the  next  day.  The 
poor  have  not  the  cares  of  wealth,  but  the  greater 
cares  of  being  without  it.  They  have  no  houses, 
know  not  when  they  may  be  turned  out  of  rented 
ones,  or  when,  or  on  what  terms  they  may  rent 
another.  This  must  be  looked  to  and  provided  for. 
The  head  of  the  family  gets  sick  sometimes,  too. 
Wages  cease.  Does  it  soothe  fever  and  assuage 
pain  to  look  at  a  destitute  family,  or  to  reflect 
on  the  greater  destitution  that  awaits  them,  if  he, 
the  parent,  should  die  ?  Is  he  in  health  and  get- 
ting good  wages — the  competition  of  fellow-laborers 
may  any  day  reduce  his  wages  or  turn  him  out  of 
employment.  The  poor  free  man  has  all  the  cares 
of  the  rich,  and  a  thousand  more  besides.  When 
the  labors  of  the  day  are  ended,  domestic  anxieties 
and  cares  begin.  The  usual,  the  ordinary,  the  nor- 
mal condition  of  the  whole  laboring  class,  is  thaf  of 
physical  suffering,  cankering,  corroding  care,  and 
mental  apprehension  and  pain.  The  poor  houses 
and   poor   rates   prove   this.     The   ragged  beggar 


166  THE   FREE   LABORER'S 

children  in  the  streets,  and  their  suffering  parents 
pining  in  cellars  and  garrets,  attest  it.  Destitute 
France,  poor  Scotland,  and  starving  Ireland  pro- 
claim it.  The  concurrent  testimony  of  ail  history 
and  of  all  statistics,  for  three  centuries,  leave  no 
room  for  cavil  or  for  doubt.  Why,  in  this  age  of 
progress,  are  the  great  majority  of  mankind,  in 
free  countries,  doomed  to  live  in  penitential  pains 
and  purgatorial  agony  ?  They,  the  artificers  of 
every  luxury,  of  every  comfort,  and  every  neces- 
sary of  life,  see  the  idle  enjoying  the  fruits  of  their 
toil.  Is  there  a  just  God  in  Heaven,  and  does  he 
see,  approve  and" ordain  all  this?  Has  it  ever 
been  thus  ?  If  so,  God  delights  in  human  agony, 
and  created  man  to  punish  him.  All  other  ani- 
mals enjoy  life,' and  did  God  make  man  after  his 
own  image,  that  life  should  be  a  pain  and  a  tor- 
ture to  him  ?  Bad  as  the  laboring  man's  condi- 
tion is  now,  those  who  live  in  free  society  tell  us 
it  was  far  worse  formerly.  He  used  to  be  a  slave, 
and  they  say  slavery  is  a  far  worse  condition  to 
the  laborer  than  liberty.  Well,  for  the  argument, 
we  grant  it.  His  condition  was  worse  throughout 
all  past  times  in  slavery,  than  now  with  liberty. 
Is  it  consistent  with  the  harmony  of  nature,  or 
the  wisdom  and  mercy  of  God,  that  such  a  being 
should  be  placed  in  this  world,  and  placed,  too, 
at  the  head  of  it  ?  It  is  rank  Diabolism  to  admit 
such  a  conclusion.  None  but  Lucifer  would  have 
made  such  a  world. 


CARES   AND   ANXIETIES.  167 

God  made  no  such  -world !  He  instituted  slavery 
from  the  first,  as  he  instituted  marriage  and  pa- 
rental authority.  Profane,  presumptuous,  igno- 
rant man,  in  attempting  to  improve,  has  marred 
and  defaced  the  work  of  his  Creator.  "Wife  and 
children,  although  not  free,  are  relieved  from  care 
and  anxiety,  supported  and  protected,  and  their 
situation  is  as  happy  and  desirable  as  that  of  the 
husband  and  parent.  In. this  we  see  the  doings 
of  a  wise  and  just  God.  The  slave,  too,  when 
the  night  comes,  may  lie  down  in  peace.  He  has 
a  master  to  watch  over  and  take  care  of  him.  If 
he  be  sick,  that  master  will  provide  for  him.  If 
his  family  be  sick,  his  master  and  mistress  sym- 
pathise with  his  affliction,  and  procure  medical 
aid  for  the  sick.  And  when  he  comes  to  die,  he 
feels  that  his  family  will  be  provided  for.  He 
does  all  the  labor  of  life ;  his  master  bears  all  its 
corroding  cares  and  anxieties.  Here,  again,  we 
see  harmonious  relations,  consistent  with  the  wis- 
dom and  mercy  of  God.  We  see  an  equal  and 
even-handed  justice  meted  out  to  all  alike,  and 
we  see  life  itself  no  longer  a  terrestrial  purgatory  ; 
but  a  season  of  joy  and  sorrow  to  the  rich  and 
the  poor. 

Man  is  naturally  associative,  because  isolated 
and  alone  he  is  helpless.  The  object  of  all  asso- 
ciations, from  States  to  Temperance  societies,  is 
mutual  insurance.     Man  does  not  feel  the  advan- 


168       THE  FREE  LABORER'S  CARES. 

tage  of  State  insurance,  until  he  is  driven  to  the 
poor  house.  House  insurance  companies-  and  life 
insurance  companies  often  fail ;  and  when  success- 
ful, only  insure  against  a  class  of  misfortunes. 
The  insurance  of  Trade  Unions,  Odd  Fellows, 
and  Temperance  societies,  is  wholly  inadequate. 
Slavery  insurance  never  fails,  and  covers  all  losses 
and  all  misfortunes.  Domestic  slavery  is  nature's 
mutual  insurance  society ;  art  in  vain  attempts  to 
imitate  it,  or  to  supply  its  place. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

LIBERTY    ANJD     FREE     TRADE. 

These  are  convertible  terms ;  two  names  for  the 
same  thing.  Statesmen,  orators,  and  philosophers, 
the  tories  of  England,  and  the  whigs  of  America, 
have  been  laboring  incessantly  for  more  than  half 
a  century  to  refute  the  doctrine  of  free  trade. 
They  all  and  each  failed  to  produce  a  single  plausi- 
ble argument  in  reply.  Not  one  of  their  books  or 
speeches  survived  a  month.  Not  one  ever  was,  or 
ever  will  be,  quoted  or  relied  on  as  authority  to 
disprove  the  principles  of  political  economy.  The 
reason  is  obvious  enough ;  they  were  all  confused 
by  words,  or  afraid  to  make  the  proper  issue. 
They  first  admitted  liberty  to  be  a  good,  and  then 
attempted,  but  attempted  in  vain,  to  argue  that 
free  trade  was  an  evil.  The  socialists  stumbled 
on  the  true  issue,  but  do  not  seem  yet  fully  aware 
of  the  nature  of  their  discovery.  Liberty  was  the 
evil,  liberty  the  disease  under  which  society  was  suf- 
fering. It  must  be  restricted,  competition  be  ar- 
rested, the  strong  be  restrained  from,  instead  of  en- 
couraged to  oppress  the  weak — in  order  to  restore 
society  to  a  healthy  state.  To  them  we  are  indebt- 
ed for  our  argument  against  free  trade.     We  have 

H 


170  LIBERTY    AND    FREE    TRADE. 

extended  it  and  explained  its  application.  They 
demonstrated  that  social  free  trade  was  an  evil, 
because  it  incited  the  rich  and  strong  to  oppress 
the  weak,  poor  and  ignorant.  We  saw  that  the 
disparities  of  mental  strength  were  greater  be- 
tween races  and  nations  than  between  individuals 
in  the  same  society.  History  spoke  less  equivo- 
cally as  to  the  ruinous  effects  of  international 
free  trade,  than  as  to  those  of  social  free  trade. 

Events  are  occurring  every  day,  especially  at 
the  North,  that  show  that  religious  liberty  must  be 
restricted  as  well  as  other  liberty. 

Chinese  idolaters  are  coming  in  swarms  too,  to 
California.  If  they  are  to  be  permitted  to  prac- 
tise their  diabolical  rights,  the  negroes  should  be 
allowed  to  revert  to  the  time-honored  customs  of 
their  ancestors,  and  immolate  human  victims  to 
their  devil  deity.  Mormonism  is  still  a  worse  re- 
ligious evil,  which  Ave  have  to  deal  with. 

Liberty  is  an  evil  which  government  is  intended 
to  correct.  This  is  the  sole  object  of  government. 
Taking  these  premises,  it  is  easy  enough  to  re- 
fute free  trade.  Admit  liberty  to  be  a  good,  and 
you  leave  no  room  to  argue  that  free  trade  is  an 
evil, — because  liberty  is  free  trade. 

With  thinking  men,  the  question  can  never  arise, 
who  ought  to  be  free  ?  Because  no  one  ought  to 
be  free.  All  government  is  slavery.  The  pro- 
per subject  of  investigation  for  philosophers  and 
philanthropists   is,  "Is  the  existing  mode  of  gov- 


LIBERTY    AXD    FREE    TRADE.  171 

ernment  adapted  to  the  wants  of  its  subjects  ?" 
No  one  will  contend  that  negroes,  for  instance, 
should  roam  at  large  in  puris  naturalibus,  with  the 
apes  and  tigers  of  Africa,  and  "  worry  and  de- 
vour each  other."  Nor  are  they  fitted  for  an 
Athenian  democracy.  "What  form  of  government 
short  of  domestic  slavery  will  suit  their  wants 
and  capacities  ?  That  is  the  true  issue,  and  we 
direct  the  attention  of  abolitionists  to  it.  They 
are  now  striking  wild,  and  often  hit  the  Bible, 
and  marriage  tie,  and  the  right  of  property,  and 
the  duties  of  children  to  their  parents  and  guar- 
dians, harder  blows,  than  they  do  negro  slavery. 
They  are  mere  anarchists  and  infidels.  If  they 
would  take  our  advice,  they  would  appear  more 
respectable,  do  less  harm,  and  might  suggest  some 
good.  For  domestic  slavery  like  all  human  insti- 
tutions, has  its  imperfections — will  always  have 
them.  Yet  it  is  our  duty  to  correct  such  as  can 
be  corrected,  and  we  would  do  so,  if  the  aboli- 
tionists would  let  us  alone,  or  advise  with  us  as 
friends,  neighbors  and  gentlemen. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

HEAD-WORK  AND  HAND-WORK. 

Parents  often  warn  their  children,  that  they 
must  live  by  hand-work  or  head-work.  That  the 
latter  is  far  preferable,  because  the  work  is  lighter, 
pays  much  better,  and  is  generally  in  far  higher 
esteem  with  the  world.  Virtue,  intelligence  and 
good  education  are  necessary  to  success  in  the 
latter.  No  man  cares  much  what  the  character 
of  his  ditcher  or  ploughman  is,  but  his  merchant, 
his  lawyer,  his  mechanics,  and  his  physician  must 
be  men  of  good  sense  and  good  morals.  Thus 
do  parents  hold  out  incentives  to  virtuous  exer- 
tion. Governors  and  rulers  should  do  the  same. 
States  must  live  by  hand-work  or  head-work.  The 
production  of  books  on  the  various  arts  and 
sciences,  and  on  other  subjects,  the  manufacture 
of  fine  silks,  woolens,  calicoes,  shawls,  the  mak- 
ing of  exquisite  porcelain,  the  building  of  ships, 
and  steamboats,  the  construction  of  machinery, 
and  a  thousand  other  pursuits  that  we  could  enu- 
merate, require  intelligence  and  attainments  of 
the  highest  order,  and  good  character  besides, 
else  no  one  would  buy  what  would  probably  be  a 
cheat  or  a  counterfeit.     A  nation  chiefly  engaged 


HEAD-WORK  AND  HAND-WORK.       173 

in  such  pursuits,  follows  head-work,  works  within 
doors,  labors  lightly,  and  makes  five  times  as  much 
as  one  engaged  in  the  coarsest  occupations  of 
mere  hand-work.  There  cannot  be  a  surplus  pop- 
ulation with  such  a  people,  because  they  have  the 
world  for  a  market  to  buy  and  sell  in,  and  the 
more  dense  and  numerous  the  population,  the 
better  opportunities  are  afforded  for  the  associa- 
tion and  division  of  labor,  which  increase  its  pro- 
ductiveness and  lighten  its  burdens. 

The  very  reverse  of  all  this  has  been,  till  lately, 
the  policy  and  practice  of  the  South,  inculcated 
and  encouraged  by  her  so  called  philosophers  and 
statesmen.  She  has  pursued  the  very  lowest  and 
coarsest  hand-work, — work  which  required  neither 
character  nor  intelligence,  and  which  shut  out  the 
light  of  education,  by  rendering  education  unne- 
cessary, or  when  necessary,  making  it  impractica- 
ble from  the  sparseness  of  population.  She  has 
worked  hard  and  been  badly  paid.  On  an  aver- 
age, the  products  of  four  hours  of  her  hand  work 
are  exchanged  for  the  results  of  one  hour  of  such 
light  work  as  we  first  described. 

Peoples  and  individuals  must  live  by  hand-work, 
or  head-work,  and  those  who  live  by  head-work 
are  always,  in  fact,  the  masters  of  those  who  live 
by  hand-work.  They  take  the  products  of  their 
labor  without  paying  an  equivalent  in  equal  labor. 
The  hand-work  men  and  nations  are  slaves  in  fact, 


174  HEAD-WORK  AND   HAND-WORK. 

because  they  do  not  get  paid  for  more  than  one- 
fourth  of  their  labor.  The  South  has,  hereto- 
fore, worked  three  hours  for  Europe  and  the 
North,  and  one  for  herself.  It  is  one  of  the 
beautiful  results  of  free  trade. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

DECLARATION      OF     INDEPENDENCE     AND     VIRGINIA 
BILL    OF    RIGHTS, 

An  essay  on  the  subject  of  slavery  would  be 
very  imperfect,  if  it  passed  over  without  noticing 
these  instruments.  The  abstract  principles  which 
they  enunciate,  we  candidly  admit,  are  wholly  at 
war  with  slavery ;  we  shall  attempt  to  show  that 
they  are  equally  at  war  with  all  government,  all 
subordination,  all  order.  Men's  minds  were  heated 
and  blinded  when  they  were  written,  as  well  by 
patriotic  zeal,  as  by  a  false  philosophy,  which,  be- 
ginning with  Locke,  in  a  refined  materialism,  had 
ripened  on  the  Continent  into  open  infidelity.  In 
England,  the  doctrine  of  prescriptive  government, 
of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  had  met  with  sig- 
nal overthrow,  and  in  France  there  was  faith  in 
nothing,  speculation  about  everything.  The  hu- 
man mind  became  extremely  presumptuous,  and 
undertook  to  form  governments  on  exact  philoso- 
phical principles,  just  as  men  make  clocks,  watches 
or  mills.  They  confounded  the  moral  with  the 
physical  world,  and  this  was  not  strange,  because 
they  had  begun  to  doubt  whether  there  was  any 
other  than  a  physical  world.     Society   seemed  to 


176      DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

them  a  thing  whose  movement  and  action  could 
be  controlled  with  as  much  certainty  as  the  mo- 
tion of  a  spinning  wheel,  provided  it  was  organ- 
ized on  proper  principles.  It  would  have  been 
less  presumptuous  in  them  to  have  attempted  to 
have  made  a  tree,  for  a  tree  is  not  half  so  com- 
plex as  a  society  of  human  beings,  each  of  whom 
is  fearfully  and  wonderfully  compounded  of  soul 
and  body,  and  whose  aggregate,  society,  is  still 
more  complex  and  difficult  of  comprehension  than 
its  individual  members.  Trees  grow  and  man 
may  lop,  trim,  train  and  cultivate  them,  and  thus 
hasten  their  growth,  and  improve  their  size, 
beauty  and  fruitfulness.  Laws,  institutions,  so- 
cieties, and  governments  grow,  and  men  may  aid 
their  growth,  improve  their  strength  and  beauty, 
and  lop  off  their  deformities  and  excrescences,  by 
punishing  crime  and  rewarding  virtue.  When 
society  has  worked  long  enough,  under  the  hand 
of  God  and  nature,  man  observing  its  operations, 
may  discover  its  laws  and  constitution.  The 
common  law  of  England  and  the  constitution  of 
England,  were  discoveries  of  this  kind.  Fortu- 
nately for  us,  we  adopted,  with  little  change,  that 
common  law  and  that  constitution.  Our  institu- 
tions and  our  ancestry  were  English.  Those  in- 
stitutions were  the  growth  and  accretions  of  many 
ages,  not  the  work  of  legislating  philosophers. 


AND    VIRGINIA    BILL    OF    RIGHTS.  177 

The  abstractions  contained  in  the  various  in- 
struments on  which  we  professed,  but  professed 
falsely,  to  found  our  governments,  did  no  harm, 
because,  until  abolition  arose,  they  remained  a 
dead  letter.  Now,  and  not  till  now,  these  abstrac- 
tions have  become  matters  of  serious  practical 
importance,  and  we  propose  to  give  some  of  them 
a  candid,  but  fearless  examination.  We  find  these 
words  in  the  preamble  and  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, 

"We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident, 
that  all  men  are  created  equal;  that  they 
are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  ina- 
lienable rights,  that  among  them,  are  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness ;  that  to  secure 
these  rights  governments  are  instituted  among 
men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent 
of  the  governed  ;  that  whenever  any  form  of  gov- 
ernment becomes  destructive  of  these  ends  it  is 
the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  abolish  it,  and 
to  institute  a  new  government,  laying  its  foun- 
dations on  such  principles,  and  organizing  its 
powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most 
likely  to   effect  their   safety  and    happiness." 

It  is,  we  believe,  conceded  on  all  hands,  that  men 
are  not  born  physically,  morally  or  intellectually 
equal, — some  are  males,  some  females,  some  from 
birth,  large,  strong  and  healthy,  others  weak, 
small   and    sickly — some    are    naturally   amiable, 


178      DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

others  prone  to  all  kinds  of  wickednesses — some 
brave,  others  timid.  Their  natural  inequalities 
beget  inequalities  of  rights.  The  weak  in  mind 
or  body  require  guidance,  support  and  protection ; 
they  must  obey  and  work  for  those  who  protect 
and  guide  them — they  have  a  natural  right  to 
guardians,  committees,  teachers  or  masters.  Na- 
ture has  made  them  slaves ;  all  that  law  and  gov- 
ernment can  do,  is  to  regulate,  modify  and  miti- 
gate their  slavery.  In  the  absence  of  legally  in- 
stituted slavery,  their  condition  would  be  worse 
under  that  natural  slavery  of  the  weak  to  the 
strong,  the  foolish  to  the  wise  and  cunning.  The 
wise  and  virtuous,  the  brave,  the  strong  in  mind 
and  body,  are  by  nature  born  to  command  and 
protect,  and  law  but  follows  nature  in  making 
them  rulers,  legislators,  judges,  captains,  husbands, 
guardians,  committees  and  masters.  The  natu- 
rally^ depraved  class,  those  born  prone  to  crime, 
are  our  brethren  too ;  they  are  entitled  to  edu- 
cation, to  religious  instruction,  to  all  the  means 
and  appliances  proper  to  correct  their  evil  propen- 
sities,*and  all  their  failings ;  they  have  a  right  to  be 
sent  to  the  penitentiary, — for  there,  if  they  do 
not  reform,  they  cannot  at  least  disturb  society. 
Our  feelings,  and  our  consciences  teach  us,  that 
nothing  but  necessity  can  justify  taking  human 
life. 

We    are  but   stringing  together   truisms,   which 
every  body   knows   as   well  as  ourselves,  and  yet 


AND    VIRGINIA    BILL    OF    RIGHTS.  179 

if  men  are  created  unequal  in  all  these  respects, 
what  truth  or  what  meaning  is  there  in  the  pas- 
sage under  consideration  ?  Men  are  not  created 
or  born  equal,  and  circumstances,  and  education, 
and  association,  tend  to  increase  and  aggravate 
inequalities  among  them,  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration. Generally,  the  rich  associate  and  in- 
termarry with  each  other,  the  poor  do  the  same ; 
the  ignorant  rarely  associate  with  or  intermarry 
with  the  learned,  and  all  society  shuns  contact 
with  the  criminal,  even  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generations. 

Men  are  not  "  born  entitled  to  equal  rights !" 
It  would  be  far  nearer  the  truth  to  say,  "that 
some  were  born  with  saddles  on  their  backs,  and 
others  booted  and  spurred  to  ride  them." — and 
the  riding  does  them  good.  They  need  the  reins, 
the  bit  and  the  spur.  No  two  men  by  nature  are 
exactly  equal  or  exactly  alike.  No  institutions 
can  prevent  the  few  from  acquiring  rule  and  as- 
cendency over  the  many.  Liberty  and  free  com- 
petition invite  and  encourage  the  attempt  of  the 
strong  to  master  the  weak ;  and  insure  their  suc- 
cess. 

"Life  and  liberty"  are  not  "inalienable:"  they 
have  been  sold  in  all  countries,  and  in  all  ages, 
and  must  be  sold  so  long  as  human  nature  lasts. 
It  is  an  inexpedient  and  unwise,  and  often  un- 
merciful restraint,  on  a  man's  liberty  of  action,  to 


180      DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

deny  him  the  right  to  sell  himself  when  starv- 
ing, and  again  to  buy  himself  when  fortune 
smiles.  Most  countries  of  antiquity,  and  some, 
like  China  at  the  present  day,  allowed  such  sale 
and  purchase.  The  great  object  of  government 
is  to  restrict,  control  and  punish  man  "in  the 
pursuit  of  happiness."  All  crimes  are  committed 
in  its  pursuit.  Under  the  free  or  competitive 
system,  most  men's  happiness  consists  in  destroy- 
ing the  happiness  of  other  people.  This,  then,  is 
no  inalienable  right. 

The  author  of  the  Declaration  may  have,  and 
probably  did  mean,  that  all  men  were  created 
with  an  equal  title  to  property.  Carry  out  such 
a  doctrine,  and  it  would  subvert  every  government 
on  earth. 

In  practice,  in  all  ages,  and  in  all  countries, 
men  had  sold  their  liberty  either  for  short  periods, 
for  life,  or  hereditarily;  that  is,  both  their  own 
liberty  and  that  of  their  children  after  them.  The 
laws  of  all  countries  have,  in  various  forms  and 
degrees,  in  all  times  recognised  and  regulated 
this  right  to  alien  or  sell  liberty.  The  soldiers 
and  sailors  of  the  revolution  had  aliened  both 
liberty  and  life,  the  wives  in  all  America  had 
aliened  their  liberty,  so  had  the  apprentices  and 
wards  at  the  very  moment  this  verbose,  new- 
born, false  and  unmeaning  preamble  was  written. 


AND    VIRGINIA    BILL    OF    RIGHTS.  181 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  an  enthusiastic  speculative 
philosopher;  Franklin  was  wise,  cunning  and  judi- 
cious; he  made  no  objection  to  the  Declaration, 
as  prepared  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  because,  probably, 
he  saw  it  would  suit  the  occasion  and  supposed  it 
would  be  harmless  for  the  future.  But  even 
Franklin  was  too  much  of  a  physical  philosopher, 
too  utilitarian  and  material  in  his  doctrines,  to 
be  relied  on  in  matters  of  morals  or  government. 
We  may  fairly  conclude,  that  liberty  is  alienable, 
that  there  is  a  natural  right  to  alien  it,  first,  be- 
cause the  laws  and  institutions  of  all  countries 
have  recognized  and  regulated  its  alienation ;  and 
secondly,  because  we  cannot  conceive  of  a  civilized 
society,  in  which  there  were  no  wives,  no  wards, 
no  apprentices,  no  sailors  and  no  soldiers ;  and 
none  of  these  could  there  be  in  a  country  that 
practically  carried  out  the  doctrine,  that  liberty 
is  inalienable. 

The  soldier  who  meets  death  at  the  cannon's 
mouth,  does  so  because  he  has  aliened  both  life 
and  liberty.  Nay,  more,  he  has  aliened  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness,  else  he  might  desert  on-  the  eve 
of  battle,  and  pursue  happiness  in  some  more 
promising  quarter  than  the  cannon's  mouth.  If 
the  pursuit  of  happiness  be  inalienable,  men 
should  not  be  punished  for  crime,  for  all  crimes 
are  notoriously  committed  in  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness.     If  these    abstractions   have   some  hidden 


182      DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

and  cabalistic  meaning,  -which  none  but  the  ini- 
tiated can  comprehend,  then  the  Declaration 
should  have  been  accompanied  with  a  translation, 
and  a  commentary  to  fit  it  for  common  use, — as 
it  stands,  it  deserves  the  tumid  yet  appropriate  epi- 
thets which  Major  Lee  somewhere  applies  to  the 
writings  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  it  is,  "  exhuberantly 
false,   and  arborescently  fallacious." 

Nothing  can  be  found  in  all  history  more  un- 
philosophical,  more  presumptuous,  more  character- 
istic of  the  infidel  philosophy  of  the  18th  century, 
than  the  language  that  follows  that  of  which  we 
have  been  treating.  How  any  observant  man, 
however  unread,  should  have  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion, that  society  and  government  were  such  plas- 
tic, man-created  things,  that  starting  on  certain 
general  principles,  he  might  frame  them  success- 
fully as  he  pleased,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  conceive. 
But  infidelity  is  blind  and  foolish,  and  infidelity 
then  prevailed.  Lay  your  foundations  of  govern- 
ment on  what  principles  you  please,  organize  its 
powers  in  what  form  you  choose,  and  you  cannot 
foresee  the  results.  You  can  only  tell  what  laws, 
institutions  and  governments  will  effect,  when  you 
apply  them  to  the  same  race  or  nation  under  the 
same  circumstances  in  which  they  have  already 
been  tried.  But  philosophy  then  was  in  the  chry- 
salis state.  She  has  since  deluged  the  world  with 
blood,   crime    and    pauperism.     She  has    had  full 


AND    VIRGINIA    BILL     OF    RIGHTS.  183 

sway,  and  has  inflicted  much  misery,  and  done  no 
good.  The  world  is  beginning  to  be  satisfied,  that 
it  is  much  safer  and  better,  to  look  to  the  past, 
to  trust  to  experience,  to  follow  nature,  than  to 
be  guided  by  the  ignis  fatuus  of  a  priori  specu- 
lations of  closet  philosophers.  If  all  men  had 
been  created  equal,  all  would  have  been  competi- 
tors, rivals,  and  enemies.  Subordination,  differ- 
ence of  caste  and  classes,  difference  of  sex,  age 
and  slavery  beget  peace  and  good  will. 

We  were  only  justified  in  declaring  our  inde- 
pendence, because  we  were  sufficiently  wise,  nu- 
merous and  strong  to  govern  ourselves,  and  too 
distant  and  distinct  from  England  to  be  well  gov- 
erned by  her. 

Moses  and  Confucius,  Solon,  Lycurgus  and 
English  Alfred,  were  Keformers,  Revisors  of  the 
Code.  They,  too,  were  philosophers,  but  too  pro- 
found to  mistake  the  province  of  philosophy  and 
attempt  to  usurp  that  of  nature.  They  did  not  frame 
government  on  abstract  principles,  they  indulged 
in  no  "a  priori'  reasoning;  but  simply  lopped  off 
what  was  bad,  and  retained,  modified  and  simplified 
what  was  good  in  existing  institutions — 

"And  that's  as  high, 
As  metaphysic  wit  can  fly." 

The  first  clause  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  of  Vir- 
ginia, contains  language  of  like  import  with  that 
which  we  have  been  criticising.     The  fourth  clause 


184  DECLARATION    OF    INDEPENDENCE 

is  in  the  following  words  : — "  That  no  man  or  set  of 
men  are  entitled  to  exclusive  or  separate  privileges 
from  the  rest  of  the  community,  but  in  consider- 
ation of  public  services  :  which  not  being  discendi- 
ble,  neither  ought  the  offices  of  magistrate,  legis- 
lator or  judge,  to  be  hereditary."  This  is  very 
bad  English  and  is  so  obscurely  expressed,  that 
we  can  only  guess  at  the  meaning  intended  to  be 
conveyed.  We  suppose,  that  "  exclusive  or  sepa- 
rate emoluments  and  privileges,"  was  intended  to 
apply  to  such  harmless  baubles  as  titles  of  nobil- 
ity and  coats  of  arms,  and  to  petty  ill-paid  offi- 
cers, and  that  the  author  never  dreamed  that  here- 
ditary property,  however  large,  was  a  "separate 
emolument  or  privilege." 

The  author  saw  no  objection  to  the  right  se- 
cured by  law  to  hold  five  hundred  subjects  or 
negro  slaves,  and  ten  thousand  acres  of  land,  to 
the  exclusion  of  everybody  else,  and  to  trans- 
mit them  to  one's  children  and  grand-children, 
although  an  exclusive  hereditary  privilege  far 
transcending  any  held  by  the  nobility  of  Eu- 
rope,— for  the  nobility  of  Russia  do  not  hold 
such  despotic  sway  over  their  serfs,  as  we  do 
over  our  negroes,  and  are  themselves  mere  slaves 
to  the  Emperor,  whilst  our  slaveholders  have 
scarcely  any  authority  above  them.  We  have 
no  doubt  the  author,  like  our  modern  far- 
mers,   considered    this    "a    mere     circumstance," 


AND    VIRGINIA    BILL    OF    RIGHTS.  185 

and  would  have  told  you  that  a  man  has  a  na- 
tural right  to  his  lands  and  negroes,  a  natural 
right  to  what  belonged  to  his  father. 

Property  is  not  a  natural  and  divine,  but  con- 
ventional right ;  it  is  the  mere  creature  of  so- 
ciety and  law.  In  this  all  lawyers  and  publicists 
agree.  In  this  country,  the  history  of  property 
is  of  such  recent  date,  that  the  simplest  and  most 
ignorant  man  must  know,  that  it  commenced  in 
wrong,  injustice  and  violence  a  few  generations 
ago,  and  derives  its  only  title  now  from  the  will 
of  society  through  the  sanction  of  law.  Society 
has  no  right,  because  it  is  not  expedient,  to  re- 
sume any  one  man's  property  because  he  abuses 
its  possession,  and  does  not  so  employ  it  as  to 
redound  to  public  advantage, — but  if  all  private 
property,  or  if  private  property  generally  were 
so  used  as  to  injure,  instead  of  promote  public 
good,  then  society  might  and  ought  to  destroy  the 
whole  institution. 

From  these  premises,  it  follows  that  government, 
in  taxing  private  property,  should  only  be  limited 
by  the  public  good.  If  the  tax  be  so  heavy  as  to 
deter  the  owner  from  improving  the  property,  then, 
in  general,  will  the  whole  public  be  injured. 

False  notions  of  the  right  of  property,  and  of 
the  duties  and  liabilities  of  property  holders,  de- 
stroy all  public  spirit  and  patriotism,  cripple  and 
injure,    and  prevent  the  growth  and  development 


186     DECLARATION  OP  INDEPENDENCE 

of  the  South.     We  feel   it  our  duty  to  deflect  a 
little  from  our  subject  to  expose  these  errors. 

Now,  a  natural  right  is  a  "divine  right,"  and 
if  we  Southern  farmers  have  a  divine  right  to 
our  little  realms  and  subjects,  is  it  not  hard  to 
dispute  the  like  right  in  sovereigns,  on  a  larger 
scale.  The  world  discovered  that  the  power  of 
kings  was  a  trust  power  conferred  on  them  for 
the  good  of  the  people,  and  to  be  exercised 
solely  for  that  purpose — or  else  forfeited.  Are 
we  guilty  of  treason  in  suggesting  that  farmers 
have  no  better  titles  than  kings,  and  that  the  LAW 
vests  them  with  separate  property  in  lands  and 
negroes,  under  the  belief  and  expectation  that 
such  separate  property  will  redound  more  to  pub- 
lic advantage  than  if  all  property  were  in  com- 
mon ?  We  have  an  aristocracy  with  more  of 
privilege,  and  less  of  public  spirit,  than  any  that 
we  meet  with  in  history.  Less  of  public  spirit, 
because  they  cherish  that  free  trade  philosophy 
which  inculcates  selfishness  as  a  moral  and  politi- 
cal duty,  which  teaches  that  the  public  good  is  best 
promoted  when  nobody  attends  to  public  affairs, 
but  each  one  is  intent  on  his  own  private  ends. 
Naturally,  Southerners,  like  all  slaveholders,  are 
liberal  and  public  spirited.  It  is  their  philosophy 
that  has  taken  away  their  patriotism.  Accord- 
ing to  the  sense  in  which  the  term  "public  ser- 
vices" is  used,  meaning,  no  doubt,  official  services, 


AND    VIRGINIA   BILL    OF    RIGHTS.  187 

in  the  Bill  of  Rights,  no  farmer  could  hold  his 
lands  and  negroes  a  day,  for  they  have  not  ren- 
dered public  services  as  a  consideration  for  their 
great,  "  exclusive  and  separate  emolument  and 
privilege." 

Institutions  are  what  men  can  see,  feel,  ven- 
erate and  understand.  The  institutions  of  Moses 
and  of  Alfred  remain  to  this  day,  those  of  Numa 
and  Lycurgus  had  a  long  and  nourishing  life. 
These  sages  laid  down  no  abstract  propositions, 
founded  their  institutions  on  no  general  princi- 
ples, had  no  written  constitutions.  They  were 
wise  from  experience,  adopted  what  history  and 
experience  had  tested,  and  never  trusted  to  a 
priori  speculations,  like  a  More,  a  Locke,  a. Jef- 
ferson, or  an  Abbe  Sieyes.  Constitutions  should 
never  be  written  till  several  centuries  after  gov- 
ernments have  been  instituted,  for  it  requires  that 
length  of  time  to  ascertain  how  institutions  will 
operate.  No  matter  how  you  define  and  limit, 
in  words,  the  powers  and  duties  of  each  depart- 
ment of  government,  they  will  each  be  sure  to 
exercise  as  much  power  as  possible,  and  to  en- 
croach to  the  utmost  of  their  ability  on  the  powers 
of  other  departments.  When  the  Commons  were 
invoked  to  Parliament,  the  king  had  no  idea  they 
would  usurp  the  taxing  powers  ;  but  having  suc- 
cessfully done  so,  it  became  part  of  the  English 
constitution,  that  the  people  alone  could  tax  them- 


188  DECLARATION    OF   INDEPENDENCE 

selves.  It  was  never  intended  that  ninety-nine 
guilty  should  escape,  socner  than  one  innocent 
man  be  punished ;  yet,  finding  that  the  result  of 
the  English  judicial  system,  the  judges  and  law- 
yers made  a  merit  of  necessity,  and  adopted  it 
as  a  maxim  of  the  common  law.  So,  in  a  hundred 
instances  we  could  show,  that  in  England  a  con- 
stitution means  the  modus  operandi  of  institutions, 
not  prescribed,  but  ascertained  from  experience. 
In  this  country  we  shall  soon  have  two  constitu- 
tions, that  a  priori  thing  which  nobody  regards, 
and  that  practical  constitution  deduced  from  ob- 
servation of  the  workings  of  our  institutions. — 
Whisrs  disregard  our  written  constitution,  when 
banks,  tariffs  or  internal  improvements  are  in 
question ;  Democrats  respect  it  not  when  there 
is  a  chance  to  get  more  territory ;  and  Young 
America,  the  dominant  party  of  the  clay,  will 
jump  through  its  paper  obstructions  with  as  much 
dexterity  as  harlequin  does  through  the  hoop. 
State  governments,  and  senators,  and  represen- 
tatives, and  militia,  and  cities,  and  churches,  and 
colleges,  and  universities,  and  landed  property, 
are  institutions.  Things  of  flesh  and  blood,  that 
know  their  rights,  "and  knowing  dare  maintain 
them."  We  should  cherish  them.  They  will  give 
permanence  to  government,  and  security  to  State 
Rights.  But  the  abstract  doctrines  of  nullification 
and    secession,   the    general  principles   laid    down 


AXD    VIRGINIA    BILL    OF    RIGHTS.  189 

in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Bill  of 
Rights,  and  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
afford  no  protection  of  rights,  no  valid  limita- 
tions of  power,  no  security  to  State  Rights.  The 
power  to  construe  them,  is  the  power  to  nullify 
them.  Mere  paper  guarantees,  like  the  constitu- 
tions of  Abbe  Sieves,  are  as  worthless  as  the 
paper  on  which  they  are  written. 

Our  institutions,  founded  on  such  generalities 
and  abstractions  as  those  of  which  we  are  treat- 
ing, are  like  a  splendid  edifice  built  upon  kegs  of 
gunpowder.  The  abolitionists  are  trying  to  apply 
the  match  to  the  explosive  materials  under  our 
Parliament  House ;  we  are  endeavoring  to  anti- 
cipate them  by  drenching  those  materials  with  ridi- 
cule. No  body  deems  them  worth  the  trouble  of 
argument,  or  the  labor  of  removal.  They  will 
soon  become  incombustible  and  innocuous. 

Property  is  too  old  and  well-tried  an  institution, 
too  much  interwoven  with  the  feelings,  interests, 
prejudices  and  affections  of  man,  to  be  shaken  by 
the  speculations  of  philosophers.  It  is  only  its 
mal-administration  that  can  endanger  it.  So  far 
from  wishing  to  shake  or  undermine  property,  we 
would,  for  the  public  good,  give  it  more  perma- 
nence. "We  do  not  like  the  Western  Homestead 
provision  of  forty  acres,  because  that  entails  on 
families  poverty  and  ignorance,  and  tends  to  de- 
press civilization.     We  do   not  like  the  large  en- 


190  DECLARATION    OF    INDEPENDENCE 

tails  of  England,  because  they  beget  an  idle, 
useless  and  vicious  aristocracy.  But  lands  do 
not  breed  as  men  do,  and  we  can  see  no  good  pub- 
lic reason  for  cutting  up  small  farms,  at  the  end 
of  each  generation,  and  thus  preventing  good  and 
permanent  improvements,  and  incurring  the  oft-re- 
peated labor  of  making  new  enclosures,  and  new  but 
slight  buildings.  For  public  good,  and  property 
ought  to  be  administered  for  public  good,  it  would 
be  better  to  have  some  law  of  primogeniture  where 
the  lands  were  of  a  convenient  size  to  keep  to- 
gether. A  law  entailing  farms  of  such  amount 
as  would  educate  families  well,  without  putting 
them  above  the  necessity  of  industry  and  exer- 
tion, would  add  much  to  national  wealth,  in  en- 
couraging good  and  permanent  improvements, 
and  would  improve  national  character  and  intel- 
ligence, by  securing  a  class  of  well  educated  men, 
attached  to  the  soil  and  the  country.  We  need 
not  fear  the  mad  dog  cry  of  aristocracy ;  a  man 
with  an  entailed  estate  of  five  hundred  acres,  and 
a  coat  of  arms  to  boot,  would  not  be  a  very  dan- 
gerous character.  Whilst  men  with  twenty  thou- 
sand acres  of  illy  cultivated  lands  and  five  hun- 
dred idle  negroes,  or  bankers  wielding  five  mil- 
lions, all  of  which  they  may  entail  or  settle  in  their 
families  for  generations  to  come,  are  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  as  good  aristocrats  as  any  German 
Princes.     We   have  the  things,   exclusive  heredi- 


AND    VIRGINIA    BILL    OF    RIGHTS.  191 

tary  privileges  and  aristocracy,  amongst  us,  in 
their  utmost  intensity ;  let  us  not  be  frightened  at 
the  names ;  but  so  mould  our  institutions,  regard- 
less of  prejudices,  technicalities,  names,  or  titles, 
as  will  best  promote,  "the  greatest  good  of  the 
greatest  number." 

Too  much  insecurity  of  property  invites  to  ex- 
travagance and  speculation,  and  prevents  refine- 
ment and  continued  progress.  Property  should 
remain  several  generations  in  a  family  to  beget 
learning,  skill,  and  high  moral  qualifications. 

Lands  divided  minutely,  depress  all  pursuits ; 
for  small  farms  want  only  coarse  and  cheap  arti- 
cles, quack  doctors,  illiterate  parsons,  and  igno- 
rant attorneys.  When  farms  are  too  large,  they 
occasion  a  sparse  population,  absenteeism  of  the 
rich,  and  a  sort  of  colonial  or  plantation  life. 
Either  extreme  is  equally  to  be  avoided,  and, 
therefore,  the  State  should  determine  the  amount 
of  land  subject  to  the  laws  of  primogeniture  and 
entail.  Such  laws  might  be  enacted  without  any 
shock  to  existing  titles,  and  would  vastly  enhance 
the  value  of  our  lands.  People  who  are  tired, 
(and  half  the  world  is,)  of  the  too  frequent  ups 
and  downs  of  American  life,  would  rush  to  Vir- 
ginia to  invest  their  money.  If  other  States  did 
not  follow  our  example,  Virginia  would,  in  five 
years,  be  the  first  State  in  wealth  and  intelli- 
gence in  the  Union.     If  such  arrangement  be  best 


192  DECLARATION    OF   INDEPENDENCE 

for  all  society,  then  it  is  the  most  democratic 
arrangement,  for  it  is  the  essence  of  democracy 
to  consult  the  good  of  the  whole.  Landed  pro- 
perty thus  held,  would  become  an  institution  at- 
taching its  owners  to  our  government.  Patriotism 
and  love  of  country,  virtues  now  unknown  at  the 
South,  would  prevail,  and  give  permanence  and 
security  to  society. 

No  great  advantages  accrue  to  society,  either 
in  wealth,  morals,  or  intelligence,  by  the  frequent 
change  of  property  from  hand  to  hand,  and  from 
family  to  family.  Lands  would  become  useless,  if 
minutely  divided  between  all  the  members  of  the 
community.  The  law  now  devolves  lands  in  case 
of  intestacy  on  all  a  man's  children.  The  laws 
of  most  countries  have  devolved  them  on  the 
male  children,  or  on  one  child.  None  have  a 
natural  right  to  them.  If  it  be  expedient  that 
they  should  descend  to  one  child,  and  be  con- 
tinued in  the  family,  there  is  nothing  in  natural 
justice  or  equity  to  oppose  the  arrangement. 
Five  hundred  acres  of  land  and  thuty  negroes, 
would  suffice  to  educate  all  the  younger  members 
of  the  family,  and  make  useful  citizens  of  them. 
Primogeniture  and  entails  have  had  this  good  ef- 
fect in  England.  The  younger  sons  have  filled 
the  professions,  the  church,  the  army,  and  the 
navy,  with  able,  ambitious  men.  It  has  furnished 
London  and  Liverpool  with  the  best  merchants  in 


DECLARATION    OF    INDEPENDENCE,    AC.  193 

the  world,  and  made  trade  one   of  the  most  hon- 
orable professions. 

It  is  pleasing  to  see  the  poor  acquiring  lands, 
but  the  pleasure  is  more  than  balanced,  with  all 
save  the  malicious,  by  seeing  the  rich  stripped  of 
them.  Those  accustomed  to  poverty,  suffer  little 
from  it.  Those  who  have  been  rich,  are  misera- 
ble when  they  become  poor. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

THE   MARRIAGE   RELATION. 

The  Roman  dwelling  was  a  holy  and  sacred 
place ;  a  temple  of  the  gods,  over  which  Manes, 
and  Lares,  and  Penates  watched  and  hovered. 
Each  hearthstone  was  an  altar  on  which  daily 
sacrifice  was  offered.  The  family  was  hedged  all 
round  with  divinities,  with  departed  ancestry  puri- 
fied and  apotheosised,  who  with  kindly  interest 
guarded  and  guided  the  household.  Roman  ele- 
vation of  sentiment  and  of  character  is  easily 
accounted  for,  when  we  reflect  that  they  felt 
themselves  ever  in  the  presence  of  deities.  That 
pure  religious  sentiment  was  associated  with 
these  deities,  a  single  passage  from  Virgil  will 
prove.  iEneas,  on  that  night  that  Troy  was 
sacked,  forced  at  length  to  fly  with  his  family, 
does  not  forget  in  his  haste  and  confusion,  the 
family  gods. 

Tu,  genitor,  cape  pacra  manu,  patriosque  Penates. 
Me,  bello   e  tanto  digressurn,  et  cascle  recenti 
Attrectare  nefas .    donee  me  flumine  vivo 
Abluero. 

The  Catholic  Church  did  much  to  preserve  the 
sanctity  and  purity  of  the  family  circle,  by  making 


THE    MARRIAGE    RELATION.  195 

marriage  a  religious  sacrament ;  the  Episcopal 
Church  something  in  making  it  a  holy  ordinance  ; 
and  in  its  ritual,  which  reminded  the  parties  of 
the  solemn  and  sacred  engagements  into  which 
they  were  about  to  enter.  But  as  liberty,  equality 
and  fraternity  adranced,  it  was  reduced,  at  the 
free  North,  to  a  mere  civil  contract,  entered  into 
with  no  more  thought,  ceremony  or  solemnity  than 
the  bargain  for  a  horse.  "We  shall  not  sully  our 
sheet  with  descriptions  of  the  marriage  relation 
as  it  often  presents  itself  now,  even  in  good  society 
in  free  Europe  and  in  free  America.  Shakers, 
and  Oneida  Perfectionists  and  Mormons,  are  the 
legitimate  fruits  of  modern  progress.  Surely 
women  ought  to  be  free  as  well  as  negroes.  In 
Utah,  (the  highest  and  latest  result  of  liberty, 
equality,  and  fraternity,)  the  family  dwelling, 
which  in  heathen  Rome  was  a  temple  of  the 
Gods,  has  been  converted  into  a  den  of  prosti- 
tutes. What  a  rise,  from  pious  and  pagan 
iEneas,  to  Brigham  Young  the  Yankee  Christian 
of  the  latest  cut  and  newest  fashion ! 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE    MORALS    OF   FREE    SOCIETY. 

Let  heav'n  kiss  earth  !     Now  let  not  nature's  hand 
Keep  the  wild  flood  confin'd  !  let  order  die  ! 
And  let  this  world  no  longer  he  a  stage, 
To  feed  contention  in  a  lingering  act; 
But  let  one  spirit  of  the  first-horn  Cain 
Reign  in  all  bosoms,  that  each  heart  being  set 
On  bloody  courses,  the  rude  scene  may  end 
And  darkness  be  the  burier  of  the  dead  ! 

Second  Part  op  King  Henry  IV. 

"Liberty,  Equality  and  Fraternity,"  is  the 
motto  and  watchword  of  Frenchmen  when  they 
turn  out  to  murder  each  other  wholesale.  They 
are  an  epigramatic  people,  and  have  a  happy  way 
of  condensing  into  a  phrase  or  maxim,  a  whole 
code  of  philosophy.  The  same  idea  had  been 
floating  in  men's  minds  ever  since  the  Reformation 

"What  oft  was  thought,  but  ne'er  so  well  expressed." 

It  had  borne,  too,  everywhere  the  same  fruits. 
The  seventy  years'  wars  in  Germany  are  further 
off  in  time  and  distance  than  the  French  Revo- 
lution, but  were  quite  as  prolific  of  murder,  rape 
and  rapine,  as  those  amiable  events  themselves. 
They  were  the  first  exhibitions  on  a  large  scale, 
of   the    new  philosophy  of   Liberty,  Equality  and 


THE   MORALS    OF   FREE   SOCIETY.  197 

Fraternity.  The  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nan- 
tes, and  the  Vespers  of  St.  Bartholemew,  were 
small  events  compared  to  the  days  of  the  Guillo- 
tine ;  but  nevertheless,  they  were  highly  respec- 
table and  intense  expressions  of  that  fraternity 
which  nascent  liberty  was  begetting.  The  Gun- 
powder plot,  too,  but  for  an  unlucky  contre  temps, 
would  have  resulted  in  a  very  strong  expression 
of  the  affectionate  brotherly  interest  which  men 
feel  for  one  another's  well  being,  both  in  this 
world  and  the  world  to  come.  Shortly  thereafter, 
when  liberty  openly  reared  her  standard,  and 
Cromwell  burnt  houses,  and  Sir  Thomas  Lunsford 
ate  babies,  men  began  to  believe  that  the  world 
was  really  blessed  with  the  millenial  advent  of 
Liberty,  Equality  and  Fraternity.  Charles  and 
Jeffries  put  a  stop  to  it  for  a  while:  yet  to- 
wards the  later  part  of  his  reign,  Charles  wisely 
resolved  to  give  a  holy  day,  and  indulge  his  people 
with  a  bloody  carnival.  The  little  Titus  Oates 
affair  that  followed,  showed  that  men's  affections 
for  each  other  had  not  at  all  abated,  and  were 
ready  to  exhibit  themselves  in  the  most  passionate 
manner,  whenever  the  restraints  of  government 
were  removed. 

Our  Pilgrim  fathers  being  denied  the  opportu- 
nity of  practicing  to  its  full  extent  the  divine 
precept — "Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself" — re- 
moved to  America,  and  here  proved  to  the  world 


198  THE   MORALS   OF   FREE    SOCIETY. 

that  they  had  not  degenerated  since  the  unctuous 
days  of  Knox  and  of  Cromwell.  Many  tokens 
of  their  zeal  and  affection  were  soon  seen  pendant 
from  the  elms  of  New  England ;  and  with  a  deli- 
cate discrimination,  that  affection  selected  the 
ugliest  and  oldest  of  the  weaker  sex,  on  whom  to 
lavish  its  embraces. 

Has  the  world  "  supped  full  with  horrors,"  or 
a  mere  caprice  of  fashion  brought  about  new 
modes  of  manifesting  attachment  ?  Frenchmen 
kiss  and  hug,  Americans  shake  hands,  and  Eng- 
lishmen scowl  and  bow;  yet  they  all  mean  the 
same  thing — 'tis  fashion  rules  the  hour.  So  it 
may  be  that  cheating  and  starving  our  fellow 
beings  is  now  the  rage,  instead  of  shooting  and 
burning  them.  Those  three  hundred  thousand 
starved  in  Ireland,  show  clearly  enough  that  Lib- 
erty, Equality  and  Fraternity  have  lost  none  of 
their  energy,  however  much  they  may  have  quieted 
their  manners.  "  Nil  admirari"  is  the  perfection 
of  good  breeding  in  England,  and  a  real  gentleman 
would  sooner  cheat  in  a  horse  trade  than  express 
sympathy  for  the  millions  who  are  pining  with 
hunger  and  nakedness  in  the  fields  and  factories 
and  mines  of  old  England. 

We  should  do  gross  injustice  to  our  own  fellow 
countrymen  if  we  failed  to  notice  a  little  "  Love 
Eeast "  that  occurred  a  few  days  ago  in  St.  Louis. 
The  killed  and  wounded  would  have  been  a  trifle 


THE    MORALS    OF    FREE    SOCIETY.  199 

in  Paris,  but  did  pretty  well  for  new  beginners.  It 
was  a  genteel  and  select  affair,  for  not  a  negro 
was  permitted  to  fraternise.  Generally,  these  af- 
fairs are  decidedly  vulgar  in  America,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  great  love  of  the  Northern  folk  for 
the  negroes.  In  Philadelphia  and  Cincinnati,  some 
little  Love  Feasts  have  been  enacted  for  the  benefit 
of  our  black  brethren,  who,  when  the  feasts  were 
over,  found  themselves  stript  of  clothes  and  trow- 
sers — sans  eyes,  sans  ears,  sans  teeth,  sans  every 
thing.  These,  and  other  striking  evidences  of 
brotherly  interest,  such  as  brick-bats  and  glass 
bottles,  leave  Sambo  no  room  to  doubt  that  he  is 
a  peculiar  favorite, — yet  Sambo,  who  is  a  quiet 
body,  is  getting  heartily  tired  of  such  rough  romp- 
ing and  hard  love-licks. 

Liberty,  Equality  and  Fraternity,  culminated 
when  the  Goddess  of  Reason  usurped  the  seat 
and  the  sceptre  of  Deity,  and  sent  forth  her  high 
priests,  Danton,  Marat,  St.  Just  and  Robespierre, 
"to  deal  damnation  round  the  land!"  The  de- 
monstration was  then  complete.  Man  without 
government,  without  order,  without  subordination, 
without  religion,  without  slavery  in  its  every  form, 
from  the  prison  house,  the  straight  jacket,  the 
army,  the  navy,  serfdom,  up  to  the  slavery  of 
mere  subjection  to  law,  without  all  those  restraints 
which  his  peculiar  wants  and  capacities  required, 
was  the  cruellest  and  wildest  beast  of   the  field. 


200  THE   MORALS   OF   FREE   SOCIETY. 

It  proved  that  a  state  of  nature  was  not  a  state 
of  liberty,  for  a  state  of  liberty  is  a  state  of  ex- 
terminating warfare.  It  proved  that  neither  re- 
ligion nor  morality  could  exist  without  enough  of 
government  to  enforce  the  performance  of  duty 
on  each  member  of  society. 

We  have  attempted,  elsewhere,  to  show,  that 
there  cannot  be  enough  of  such  government 
without  domestic  slavery,  because,  in  its  absence, 
men  are  placed  in  competitive  and  antagonistic 
positions  toward  each  other.  This  separation  of 
interest  and  antagonism  begets  continual  rivalry, 
hatred,  and  intense  discord  and  war,  which  politi- 
cal economy  exasperates  and  increases,  by  en- 
couraging exclusive  devotion  to  men's  self-interest. 
A  celebrated  Socialist  properly  calls  it  "  the  phi- 
losophy of  self  interest." 

But  political  economy  is  the  necessary  result 
of  Free  Society — it  is  the  only  moral  code  which 
it  can  inculcate — and  yet  all  its  precepts  are  at 
war  with  morality.  But  for  Christianity,  Free 
Society  would  be  a  wilderness  of  crime;  and 
Christianity  has  not  fair  play  and  a  proper  field 
of  action,  where  government  has  failed  to  institute 
the  peace-begetting  and  protective  influence  of 
domestic  slavery.  It  is  one  of  the  necessary 
parts  of  government,  without  which  men  become 
enemies  instead  of  brethren.  There  is  no  love 
between   equals,   and   the  divine   precept,    "  Love 


THE   MORALS   OF  FREE   SOCIETY.  ^201 

thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"   is  thundered  vainly  in 
the  ears  of  men  straining  for  the  same  object. 

The  maxim,  "every  man  for  himself,"  em- 
braces the  whole  moral  code  of  Free  Society ; 
and  Miss  Bremer,  and  all  the  other  philanthropists 
in  the  world,  with  their  thousand  schemes  and 
institutions,  will  never  be  able  to  neutralise  the 
immoral  and  death  dealing  tendency  of  that 
maxim,  and  of  the  antagonism  and  social  war 
that   it  generates. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

SMALL     NATIONALITIES. 

Almost  the  only  secret  of  high  civilization  and 
national  greatness  consists  in  narrow  and  confined 
territorial  limits.  Beget  the  necessity  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  all  the  functions  of  government,  all  the 
mechanic  and  artistic  arts,  for  the  cultivation  of 
all  the  sciences,  and  for  the  pursuit  of  all  the  avo- 
cations of  civilized  life  by  a  small  population,  and 
intense  enlightenment  and  universal  education  are 
the  immediate  result.  History,  ancient  and  mod- 
ern, teaches  but  one  lesson  on  this  subject.  Little 
Phoenicia  and  little  Carthage,  the  hundred  little 
states  of  Greece,  and  Rome,  whilst  her  dominion 
was  confined  to  Italy,  were  truly  great.  When 
Alexander  had  conquered  Egypt  and  Persia,  and 
died  for  want  of  other  worlds  to  conquer,  Greece 
fell  to  rise  no  more,  and  in  her  fall  involved  the 
conquered  nations  in  one  common  ruin.  Rome 
conquered  the  world,  and  forthwith  Cimmerian 
darkness  began  to  cover  her  empire.  England, 
under  the  Plantagenets,  ere  Scotland  or  Ireland 
were  annexed,  crowned  her  King  in  Paris.  Now, 
whilst  the  beat  of  her  drum  circles  the  globe,  she 
trembles  at  the  threat  of  French  invasion. 


SMALL   NATIONALITIES.  203 

Little  Prussia,  little  Venice,  little  Holland,  and 
little  Portugal,  have  each,  in  turn,  controlled  the 
destines  of  Europe.  Even  little  Sweden,  under 
Charles  XII.,  whipped  all  the  Russias  till  she 
taught  Peter  how  to  fight.  Overgrown  nations, 
like  overgrown  men,  want  energy,  activity  and 
intelligence. 

We  should  learn  from  these  instances  in  history 
to  prize  and  guard  State  Rights.  We  should,  as 
far  as  consistent  with  the  Constitution,  make  each 
State  independent  of  the  rest  of  the  world  ;  create 
a  necessity  for  the  exercise  of  all  the  arts,  scien- 
ces, trades,  professions  and  other  pursuits  that 
pertain  to  separate  nationality  ;  and  endeavor  to 
counteract  the  centralizing  tendency  of  modern 
improvements  in  locomotion  and  intercommunica- 
tion, which  naturally  rob  the  extremities  to  enrich 
the  centres  of  Power  and  of  Trade.  We  live  in 
critical  times,  for  the  tendency  to  centralization  is 
stronger  than  ever  before.  Trade  very  easily  ef- 
fects now  what  conquest  did  formerly.  Let  the 
States  of  the  South  look  to  this  matter.  Are  they 
willing  to  remain  mere  colonies  and  plantations  for 
the  centres  of  trade,  or  will  they  preserve  their 
separate  nationality  ? 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE   HIGHER   LAW. 

In  framing  and  revising  the  institutions  and 
government  of  a  nation,  and  in  enacting  its  laws, 
sensible  and  prudent  statesmen  study  carefully  the 
will  of  God  and  designs  of  Providence,  as  revealed 
in  Holy  Writ,  or  as  gathered  from  history  and  ex- 
perience. "  Truth  is  mighty,  and  will  prevail," 
and  laws  in  contravention  of  the  great  truths  de- 
ducible  from  these  sources,  will  become  nugatory 
and  inefficient.  Yet  whilst  the  law  is  on  the  stat- 
ute book,  every  citizen  is  bound  to  respect  and 
obey  it,  or  else  ta\e  the  consequences  of  trespass, 
felony  or  treason.  He  may  discuss  the  question, 
"  Does  the  law  coincide  with  the  '  Higher  Law  '  ?  " 
but  he  may  not  act  on  his  conclusions  if  they  be 
against  the  law. 

Does  slavery  violate  the  Higher  Law  ?  Cer- 
tainly not,  if  that  Higher  Law  is  to  be  found  only 
in  the  Bible.  Certainly  not,  if  you  throw  aside  the 
Bible,  and  infer  what  is  right,  proper,  and  natural, 
from  the  course  of  nature,  the  lessons  of  history? 
or  the  voice  of  experience.  But  consult  the  same 
sources  for  your  Higher  Law,  and  as  certainly  is 
free  society  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  Nature  and 
the  revealed  will  of  God. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

INFIDELITY    AND     ABOLITIONISM. 

Every  one  who  reads  the  newspapers  must  have 
observed  that  open-mouthed  infidelity  is  never  seen 
or  heard  in  this  country  except  in  abolition  meet- 
ings and  conventions,  and  in  women's  rights  con- 
venticles. On  such  occasions  some  woman  unsexes 
herself,  and  with  Gorgon  head  and  Harpy  tongue 
pours  out  false  and  foul  execrations  against  slavery 
and  the  Bible,  aided  by  men  with  sharper  tongues 
and  duller  courage  than  the  women  themselves. 
To  this  there  is  a  single  exception.  One  pulpit  in 
Boston  is  on  the  Sabbath  made  a  rostrum  whence 
an  abolitionist  fulminates  contention  and  discord, 
and  stirs  up  to  bloodshed  and  murder. 

Liberty,  infidelity,  and  abolition,  are  three 
words  conveying  but  one  idea.  Infidels  who  dis- 
pute the  authority  of  God  will  not  respect  or  obey 
the  government  of  man.  Abolitionists,  who  make 
war  upon  slavery,  instituted  by  God  and  approved 
by  Holy  Writ,  are  in  a  fair  way  to  denounce  the 
Bible  that  stands  in  the  way  of  the  attainment  of 
their  purpose.  Marriage  is  too  much  like  slavery 
not  to  be  involved  in  its  fate  ;  and  the  obedience 
of  wives  which  the  Bible  inculcates,  furnishes  a 


206  INFIDELITY    AND   ABOLITIONISM. 

new  theine  for  infidelity  in  petticoats  or  in  Bloom- 
ers to  harp  on.  Slavery,  marriage,  religion,  are 
the  pillars  of  the  social  fabric.  France  felled  them 
at  a  blow,  and  Paris  and  St.  Domingo  were  crushed 
beneath  the  ruins  of  the  edifice  which  they  sup- 
ported. 

Frenchmen  and  Germans  are  generally  infidels, 
agrarians  and  abolitionists.  An  Irish  infidel,  an 
Irish  agrarian,  or  an  Irish  abolitionist,  is  scarcely 
to  be  found.  No  Irish  woman  ever  disgraces  her, 
own  sex,  or  affects  the  dress  and  manners  of  the 
opposite  sex.  The  men  of  Erin  are  all  brave,  pa- 
triotic and  religious  ;  her  women  are 

"  Chaste  as  the  icicle 
That's  curdled  by  the  frost  of  purest  snow, 
And  hangs  on  Dian's  temple." 

This  intimate  connexion  and  dependence,  of 
slavery,  marriage  and  religion,  we  suggest  as  a 
subject  for  the  investigation  and  reflection  of  the 
reader.  If  ever  the  abolitionists  succeed  in  thor- 
oughly imbuing  the  world  with  their  doctrines  and 
opinions,  all  religion,  all  government,  all  order, 
will  be  slowly  but  surely  subverted  and  destroyed. 
Society  can  linger  on  for  centuries  without  slavery ; 
it  cannot  exist  a  day  without  religion.  As  an 
institution  of  government,  religion  is  strictly  within 
the  scope  of  our  work,  and  as  such  we  treat  of  it. 

For  fear  assaults  upon  us  may  weaken  the  force 
of  our  facts  and  arguments,  we  will  take  occasion 


INFIDELITY   AND   ABOLITIONISM.  207 

more  strictly  to  define  our  opinions  as  to  govern- 
ment. We  have  ever,  and  still  do  belong  to  the 
Democratic  party ; — not,  however,  to  the  M  let 
alone  "  and  "largest  liberty"  wing  of  that  party. 
We  believe  in  the  capacity  of  the  people  to  govern, 
and  would  not  deny  them  the  opportunity  to  exer- 
cise that  capacity.  We  think  there  is  no  danger 
from  too  much  or  too  popular  government,  provided 
we  avoid  centralization,  and  distribute  as  much  as 
possible  to  small  localities  powers  of  police  and 
legislation.  We  would  cherish  and  preserve  all  our 
institutions  as  they  are,  adding  to  them  probably 
larger  separate  governmental  powers  to  be  vested 
in  the  people  of  each  county.  The  cause  of  pop- 
ular government  is  on  the  advance.  The  printing 
press,  railroads,  steamships  and  the  telegraph 
afford  opportunities  for  information,  consultation 
and  combination.  But  these  agencies,  which  will 
make  governments  more  popular,  will  at  the  same 
time  render  them  more  efficient,  all-pervading,  rigid 
and  exact.  Ancient  Republicanism  will  supplant 
Laissez-faire  Republicanism  ;— ^-and  ancient  Repub- 
licanism we  admire  and  prefer.     . 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

KEVOLUTIONS   AND   REFOKMATIONS. 

Reformations  always  do  good,  revolutions  always 
harm.  All  old  institutions  in  time  become  in- 
crusted  with  error  and  abuse,  and  frequent  reforms 
are  required  to  keep  them  in  good  working  order, 
and  to  adapt  them  to  the  gradually  changing  cir- 
cumstances of  mankind.  This  is  equally  true  of 
religious  institutions  as  of  political  ones,  for  there 
is  much  in  the  machinery  and  external  manifesta- 
tions of  the  former,  that  is  of  mere  human  origin 
and  contrivance, — and  everything  human  is  liable 
to  imperfection  and  decay. 

Total  changes,  which  revolutions  propose,  are 
never  wise  or  practicable,  because  most  of  the  insti- 
tutions of  every  country  are  adapted  to  the  man- 
ners, morals  and  sentiments  of  the  people.  In- 
deed, the  people  have  been  moulded  in  character 
by  those  institutions,  and  they  cannot  be  torn 
asunder  and  others  substituted,  for  none  others  will 
fit.  Hence  reforms  result  in  permanent  change 
and  improvement.  Revolutions,  after  a  great  waste 
of  blood  and  treasure,  leave  things  to  return  soon 
to  the  "  status  quo  ante  bellum."  English  states- 
men, fully  alive  to  these  great  truths,  have  for  cen- 


REVOLUTIONS    AND    REFORMATIONS.  209 

turies  past  anticipated  and  prevented  revolutions, 
by  granting  timely  reforms.  Mr.  Jefferson,  when 
we  separated  from  Great  Britain,  wished  to  effect 
a  total  revolution,  "  laying  its  foundations  on  such 
principles,  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  forms, 
as,"  &c.  Fortunately  for  us,  the  practical  men 
who  framed  our  government  saw  the  wisdom  and 
necessity  of  adopting  English  institutions  (to  which 
we  had  been  accustomed),  with  very  slight  modifi- 
cations, to  adapt  them  to  our  circumstances.  Our 
separation  from  England  was  a  great  and  salutary 
reform,  not  a  revolution.  Scotland  is  now  attempt- 
ing a  reform  less  in  degree,  but  the  same  in  char- 
acter— she  is  trying  to  get  back  her  parliament 
and  to  establish  a  separate  nationality.  We  have 
no  doubt  it  would  redound  to  the  strength  and  the 
glory  of  Great  Britain,  if  both  Scotland  and  Ire- 
land had  separate  parliaments. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 


THE    SLAVE    TRADE. 


From  several  quarters  propositions  have  of  late 
been  made  for  the  revival  of  the  African  slave 
trade.  The  South  has  generally  been  opposed  to 
this  trade,  the  North  favorable  to  it.  Such  is 
likely  to  be  the  case  again  ;  for  the  North  would 
make  much  money  by  conducting  the  trade  ;  the 
settled  states  of  the  South  lose  much  by  the  de- 
preciation of  their  negroes.  The  extreme  inhu- 
manity of  this  trade  is  enough  to  condemn  it,  but 
men's  interests  blind  their  eyes  and  steel  their 
hearts  against  considerations  of  humanity.  Be- 
sides, the  argument  will  be  most  successfully  em- 
ployed in  its  behalf,  that  it  will  but  take  the  place 
of  another  kind  of  slave  trade,  that  is  still  more  in- 
human. The  importation  of  apprentices  or  tempo- 
rary slaves  is  now  actively  conducted  by  England 
from  Africa  and  various  parts  of  Asia.  These 
apprentices,  if  not  worked  to  death  before  their 
terms  of  service  expire,  are  left  to  starve  after- 
wards, and  new  ones  imported  in  their  place.  They 
are  treated  with  less  humanity  than  slaves,  because 
the  master  has  little  interest  in  their  lives.  Vastly 
larger  numbers  must   be   imported   to  supply  the 


THE    SLAVE   TRADE.  211 

demand  for  labor,  because  their  children  are  not 
slaves,  and  they  themselves  but  for  a  time.  After 
liberation  they  will  become  a  nuisance  to  the  coun- 
try that  imports  them. 

The  fact  that,  despite  of  the  enormous  annual 
importation  of  slaves  to  Cuba,  the  number  of 
whites  is  greater  than  that  of  blacks  in  that  island, 
proves  clearly  enough  that  where  it  is  cheaper  to 
buy  African  slaves  than  to  rear  them,  men  will 
work  these  poor  natives  to  death,  regardless  of 
humanity.  Besides,  the  natural  antipathy  between 
the  savage  and  the  civilized  man,  not  only  prevents 
the  influence  of  domestic  affection  on  the  heart  of 
the  master,  but  indurates  his  feelings  and  degrades 
his  morals.  Our  slaves  are  treated  far  better  than 
they  were  forty  years  ago,  because  they  have  im- 
proved in  mind  and  morals,  approached  nearer  to 
the  master's  state  of  civilization,  and  thus  elicited 
more  of  his  interest  and  attachment.  Slavery  with 
us  is  becoming  milder  every  day ;  were  the  slave 
trade  revived,  it  would  resume  its  pristine  cruelty. 
The  slaves  we  now  hold  would  become  less  valuable, 
and  we  should  take  less  care  of  them.  In  justice 
to  them  let  us  protest  against  the  renewal  of  this 
infamous  traffic.  Slavery  originating  from  the 
conquest  of  a  country  is  beneficent  even  in  its 
origin,  for  it  preserves  the  slaves  or  serfs  who  are 
parcelled  out  to  the  conquering  chiefs  from  the 
waste,  pillage,  cruelty  and  oppression  of  the  com- 


212  THE    SLAVE   TRADE. 

mon  soldiers  of  the  conquering  army, — but  slavery 
brought  about  by  hunting  and  catching  Africans 
like  beasts,  and  then  exposing  them  to  the  horrors 
of  the  middle  passage,  is  quite  a  different  thing. 

We  think  it  would  be  both  wise  and  humane  to 
subject  the  free  negroes  in  America  to  some  mod- 
ification of  slavery.  Competition  with  the  whites 
is  killing  them  out.  They  are  neither  so  moral,  so 
happy,  nor  half  so  well  provided  as  the  slaves.  Let 
them  select  their  masters,  and  this  would  be  an- 
other instance  of  slavery  originating  without  vio- 
lence or  cruelty — another  instance  in  which  slavery 
would  redress  much  greater  evils  than  it  occa- 
sioned. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

woman's   rights. 

Slender. — I  came  yonder  at  Eton  to  marry  mistress  Anne  Page, 
and  she's  a  great  lubberly  boy.  If  it  had  not  been  i'  the  church,  I 
would  have  swinged  him,  or  he  should  have  swinged  me.  If  I 
did  not  think  it  had  been  Anne  Page,  would  I  might  never  stir, 
and  'tis  a  post-master's  boy. — Merry    Wives  of    Windsor. 

Nothing  in  the  signs  of  the  times  exhibits  in 
stronger  relief  the  fact,  that  free  society  is  in  a 
state  "of  dissolution  and  thaw,"  of  demoraliza- 
tion and  transition,  than  the  stir  about  woman's 
rights.  And  jet  it  is  time  to  work.  Northern 
newspapers  are  filled  with  the  sufferings  of  poor 
widowed  needlewomen,  and  the  murders  of  wives 
by  their  husbands.  Woman  there  is  in  a  false 
position.  Be  she  white,  or  be  she  black,  she  is 
treated  with  kindness  and  humanity  in  the  slave- 
holding  South.  In  Asia,  she  ever  has  been  and  is 
now  an  idol,  secluded  from  the  vulgar  gaze,  and 
exempted  from  the  hard  and  coarse  labors  of  man. 
The  Turks  and  the  Chinese  imprison  her,  but 
worship  her.  Her  veiled  face  and  cramped  feet, 
unfit  her  for  work,  condemn  her  to  seclusion,  but 
secure  to  her  protection.  She  is  a  slave,  but  is 
idle,  honored  and   caressed.     The  Romans  girded 


214  woman's  rights. 

up  the  toga,  when  about  to  engage  in  labor.  If 
American  women  wish  to  participate  in  the  hard 
labor  of  men,  they  are  right  to  curtail  the  petti- 
coat. Queens  wear  the  longest  trains,  because 
they  have  least  occasion  to  labor.  The  broom 
girls  of  Bavaria  have  to  work  hard  for  a  living, 
and  find  it  necessary  to  amputate  the  nether  im- 
pediments. In  France,  woman  draws  the  plough 
and  the  canal  boat.  She  will  be  condemned  to 
like  labors  in  America,  so  soon  as  her  dress,  her 
education  and  coarse  sentiments  fit  her  for  such 
labors.  Let  her  exhibit  strength  and  hardihood, 
and  man,  her  master,  will  make  her  a  beast  of 
burden.  So  long  as  she  is  nervous,  fickle,  capri- 
cious, delicate,  diffident  and  dependent,  man  will 
worship  and  adore  her.  Her  weakness  is  her 
strength,  and  her  true  art  is  to  cultivate  and  im- 
prove that  weakness.  Woman  naturally  shrinks 
from  public  gaze,  and  from  the  struggle  and  com- 
petition of  life.  Free  society  has  thrown  her  into 
the  arena  of  industrial  war,  robbed  her  of  the 
softness  of  her  own  sex,  without  conferring  on 
her  the  strength  of  ours.  In  truth,  woman,  like 
children,  has  but  one  right,  and  that  is  the  right 
to  protection.  The  right  to  protection  involves 
the  obligation  to  obey.  A  husband,  a  lord  and 
master,  whom  she  should  love,  honor  and  obey, 
nature  designed  for  every  woman, — for  the  num- 
ber of  males  and  females   is  the  same.     If  she  be 


woman's  rights.  215 

obedient,  she  is  in  little  danger  of  inal-treatment ; 
if  she  stands  upon  her  rights,  is  coarse  and  mas- 
culine, man  loathes  and  despises  her,  and  ends  by 
abusing  her.  Law,  however  well  intended,  can 
do  little  in  her  behalf.  True  womanly  art  will 
give  her  an  empire  and  a  sway  far  greater  than 
she  deserves.  The  best  women  have  been  dis- 
tasteful to  men,  and  unpopular  with  their  own  sex, 
simply  for  betraying,  or  seeming  to  betray,  some- 
thing masculine  in  their  characters.  Catherine 
Parr,  Miss  Edgeworth,  Mrs.  Fry,  Miss  Martineau, 
and  Madame  De  Stael,  are  not  loveable  charac- 
ters. On  the  other  hand,  men  have  adored  the 
worst  women,  merely  for  their  feminine  charms 
and  arts.  Rhodope  and  Aspasia,  Delilah,  Cleo- 
patra, Mary  Stuart,  Ninon  D'Enclos,  Maria  Antoi- 
nette, Herodias  and  Lola  Montez,  ruled  men  as 
they  pleased,  by  the  exercise  of  all  the  charms, 
and  more  than  the  wiles  and  weakness  of  their 
sex.  Mrs.  Stowe,  in  the  characters  of  Aunt 
Phebe  and  Mrs.  St.  Clair,  beautifully  illustrates 
and  enforces  this  idea.  Bad  as  Mrs.  St.  Clair  is, 
we  feel  that  we  might  love  her,  but  good  Aunt 
Phebe  is  a  she-man,  continually  boring  and  el- 
bowing us  with  her  rectangular  virtues.  Yet  Mrs. 
Stowe  would  have  women  preach.  If  she  sets 
them  to  preaching  to-day,  we  men  will  put  them 
to  the  plough  to-morrow.     Women  would   do  well 


216  woman's  eights. 

to  disguise  strength  of  mind  or  body,  if  they 
possess  it,  if  they  would  retain  their  empire. 

The  people  of  our  Northern  States,  who  hold 
that  domestic  slavery  is  unjust  and  iniquitous,  are 
consistent  in  their  attempts  to  modify  or  abolish 
the  marriage  relation.  Marriages,  in  many  places 
there,  are  contracted  with  as  little  formality  as 
jumping  over  a  broom,  and  are  dissolved  with  equal 
facility  by  courts  and  legislatures.  It  is  pro- 
posed by  many  to  grant  divorces  at  all  times,  when 
the  parties  mutually  consent.  The  Socialists 
suggest  that  the  relation  should  be  abolished,  pri- 
vate family  establishments  broken  up,  and  women 
and  children  converted  into  joint  stock.  The 
ladies  are  promoting  these  movements  by  women's 
right's  conventions.  The  prospects  of  these  agi- 
tators are  quite  hopeful,  because  they  have  no 
conservative  South  to  oppose  them.  It  is  their 
own  affair,  and  we  will  not  interfere  with  its  re- 
gulation. 

We  shall  deplore  the  day  when  marriage  and 
Christianity  are  abolished  anywhere,  but  will  not 
interfere  in  the  social  and  domestic  matters  of 
other  people. 

The  men  of  the  South  take  care  of  the  women 
of  the  South,  the  men  of  slaveholding  Asia 
guard  and  protect  their  women  too.  The  gener- 
ous sentiments  of  slaveholders  are  sufficient  guar- 
antee of  the  rights  of  woman,  all  the  world  over. 


woman's  rights.  217 

But  there  is  something  wrong  in  her  condition 
in  free  society,  and  that  condition  is  daily  be- 
coming worse. 

Give  us  woman  with  all  her  frailties  and  infirm- 
ities, varium  et  mutabalile  semper. 

"  Like  the  uncertain  glory  of  an  April  day 
Which  now  shows  all  the  beauty  of   sun, 
And  bye  and  bye  a  cloud  takes  all  away  I" 

We  like  not  that — 


Beauty,  forever  unchangingly  bright, 


*  Like  the  long  sunny  lapse  of  a  summer's  day  light, 
Shining  on,  shining  on,  by  no  shadow  made  tender, 
Till  love  falls  asleep'  in  its  sameness  of  splendor." 

We  would  infinitely  prefer  to  nurse  a  sickly 
woman,  to  being  led  about  by  a  masculine  blue 
stocking.  Mrs.  Boswell  complained  that  her  hus- 
band, following  Dr.  Johnson,  resembled  a  man  led 
about  by  a  bear.  We  would  rather  be  led  by  a 
bear  than  a  woman.  He  looks  more  formidable 
and  master-like. 

To  the  husbands  of  pedantic,  masculine  women, 
the  lines  of  Byron  may  be  well  applied — 

u  But  oh  !    ye  Lords  of  ladies  intellectual, 

Inform  us  truly,  have  they  not  hen-pecked  you  all." 

As  we  are  in  the  poetic  vein,  and  this  chapter 
is  intended  solely  for  the  eyes  of  the  ladies,  all 
of  whom  love  poetry,    (though    none  of  them  can 

K 


218  W©MA»'S   RIGHTS. 

write  it,)  we  will  quote  a  whole  ode  of  Schiller, 
which  expresses  our  thoughts  on  this  subject  far 
better  than  we  can  express  them  ourselves.  Poe- 
try and  painting  require  boldness,  originality  and 
inventiveness.  The  ladies  are  too  modest  to  prac- 
tise these  qualities,  and  only  become  coarse  when 
they  attempt  to  be  bold.  Sappho  is  an  exception, 
but  Sappho,  we  suspect,  was  a  Myth  or  a  man. 
We  offer  this  beautiful  ode  to  the  ladies  as  a  pro- 
pitiation for  all  the  wicked    things  we   have    said 

about  them: 

» 

HONOR    TO    WOMAN. 

Honor  to  Woman  !     To  her  it  is  given 

To  guard  the  earth  with  the  roses  of  heaven  ! 

All  blessed,  she  linketh  the  Loves  in  their  choir; 
In  the  veil  of  the  Graces  her  beauty  concealing, 
She  tends  on  each  altar  that's  hallowed  to  Feeling 

And  keeps  ever  living  the  fire  ! 

From  the  bounds  of  truth  careering, 

Man's  strong  spirit  wildly  sweeps, 
With  each  hasty  impulse  veering 

Down  to  Passion's  troubled  deeps. 
And  his  heart  contented  never, 

Goads  to  grapple  with  the  far, 
Chasing  his  own  dream  forever, 

On  through  many  a  distant  star ! 

But  Woman,  with  looks  that  can  charm  and  enchair,, 
Lureth  back  at  her  beck  the  wild  truant  again, 

By  the  spell  of  her  presence  beguiled  ; 
In  the  home  of  the  mother,  her  modest  abode, 
And  modest  the  manners  by  Nature  bestowed 

On  Nature's  most  exquisite  child  1 


woman's  rights.  219 

Bruised  and  worn,  but  fiercely  breasting, 

Foe  to  foe,  the  angry  strife; 
Man,  the  wild  one,  never  resting, 

Braves  along  the  troubled  life  ; 
What  he  plannetb,  still  pursuing  ; 

Vainly  as  the  hydra  bleeds. 
Crest  the  severed  crest  renewing — 

Wish  to  withered  wish  succeeds. 

But  woman,  at  pea.ce  with  all  being,  reposes, 
And  seeks  from  the  moment  to  gather  the  roses, 

Whose  sweets  to  her  culture  belong. 
Ah  !  richer  than  he,  though  his  soul  reigneth  o'er 
The  mighty  dominion  of   Genius   and  Love, 

And  the  infinite  Circle  of  Song. 

Strong  and  proud  and  self- depending, 

Man's  cold  bosom  beats  alone; 
Heart  with  heart  divinely  blending 

In  the  love  that  gods  have  known, 
Soul's  sweet  interchange  of  feeling. 

Melting  tears — he  never  knows. 
Each  hard  sense,  the  hard  one  steeling, 

Arms  against  a  world  of  foes. 

Alive,  as  the  wind  harp,  how  lightly  soever 
If  woo'd  by  the  Zephyr,  to  music  will  quiver, 

Is  woman  to  Hope  and  to  Fear  ; 
Ah  !  tender  one  !    still  at  the  shadow  of  grieving, 
How  quiver  the  chords — how  thy  bosom  is  heaving — 

How  trembles  thy  glance  through  the  tear  ! 

Man's  dominion,  war  and  labor: 

Might  to  right  the  statute  gave  ; 
Laws  are  in  the  Scythian'.-  sabre ; 

Where  the  Mede  reign'd — see  the  slave  ! 
Peace  and  meekness  grimly  routing, 

Prowl's  the  War-lust,  rude  and  wild  ; 
Eris  rages,  hoarsely  shouting, 

Where  the  vanished  Graces  smiled. 


220  woman's  rights. 

But  Woman,  the  Soft  One,  persuasively  prayeth, 

Of  the  life  that  she  charnieth,  the  sceptre  she  swayeth  ; 

She  lulls,  as  she  looks  from  above, 
The  Discord  whose  hell  for  its  victims  is  gaping, 
And  blending  awhile,  then  forever  escaping, 

Whispers  Hate  to  the  image  of  Love! 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

THE    SUMMING    UP. 

"  Why,  my  dear  Lucifer,  would  you  abuse 
My  call  for  witnesses  ?     I  did  not  mean 
That  you  should  half  of  earth,  and  hell  produce  ; 
'Tis  even  superfluous,  since  two  honest,  clean, 
True  testimonies  are  enough  :    We  live 
Our  time,  nay,  our  eternity,  between 
The  accusation  and  defence  :  if  we 
Hear  both,  'twill  stretch  our  immortality." 

The  Vision  of  Judgment. 

We  did  not  intend  to  write  the  history  of 
slavery,  or  to  treat  of  it  in  all  its  aspects.  It  has 
been  so  interwoven  with  all  the  relations  and  his- 
tory of  human  kind,  that  to  do  so  would  require  a 
Moral  Cosmos  and  a  history  of  the  world.  Our 
chief  object  has  been  to  prove  the  failure  of  free 
society.  We  knew  if  we  succeeded  in  that,  the 
various  theories  propounded  in  this  work  on  other 
subjects  would  be  found,  when  closely  examined, 
necessary  results,  or  legitimate  sequences. 

In  order  to  enable  the  reader  fully  to  compre- 
hend our  argument,  and  to  furnish  a  fair  field  for 
its  refutation,  if  false,  we  will  now  sum  up  the 
chief  points  which  we  have  made,  and  on  which 
we  rely. 


222  THE   SUMMING    UP. 

First.  Free  society  is  theoretically  impracti- 
cable, because  its  friends  admit  that  "  in  all  old 
countries  the  supply  of  labor  exceeds  the  demand." 
Hence  a  part  of  the  laboring  class  must  be  out  of 
employment  and  starving,  and  in  their  struggle  to 
get  employment,  reducing  those  next  above  them 
to  the  minimum  that  will  support  human  existence. 

Secondly.  The  late  invention  and  use  of  the 
word  Sociology  in  free  society,  and  of  the  science 
of  which  it  treats,  and  the  absence  of  such  word 
and  science  in  slave  society,  shows  that  the  former 
is  afflicted  with  disease,  the  latter  healthy. 

Thirdly.  We  prove  the  failure,  from  history 
and  statistics. 

Fourthly.  We  prove  it  from  the  exodus  now 
going  on  from  Western  Europe  with  all  the  reck- 
less panic  and  trepidation  of  a  "  Sauve  que  peut  !  " 

And,  lastly,  we  prove  it  from  the  universal  ad- 
mission of  all  writers  who  have  of  late  years 
treated  of  the  subject  of  society  in  Free  Europe. 

For  thirty  years  the  South  has  been  a  field  on 
which  abolitionists,  foreign  and  domestic,  have 
carried  on  offensive  warfare.  Let  us  now,  in  turn, 
act  on  the  offensive,  transfer  the  seat  of  war,  and 
invade  the  enemy's  territory. 


APPENDIX 


2X9 


APPENDIX. 


Our  little  work  has  by  untoward  circumstances 
been  delayed  in  its  publication.  Ten  years  ago  we 
became  satisfied  that  slavery,  black  or  white,  was 
right  and  necessary.  We  advocated  this  doctrine 
in  very  many  essays  ;  sometimes  editorially  and 
sometimes  as  a  communicant.  The  Fredericksburg 
Recorder  and  Richmond  Examiner  will  testify  to 
this  fact.  We  republish  in  this  Appendix  a  series 
of  essays  that  first  appeared  in  the  Democratic 
Recorder,  of  Fredericksburg,  in  1849,  1850,  and 
1851. 

Few  papers  in  the  Union  then  had  the  stern 
courage  and  integrity  to  admit  such  articles  into 
their  columns.  We  then  published  them  in  pam- 
phlet form,  for  a  few  friends.  We  now  re-publish 
them,  because,  whatever  "  bad  eminence  "  we  may 
attain  from  being  the  first  to  write  the  Justification 
and  Philosophy  of  Slavery,  we  prefer  that  position 
to  being  considered  the  mere  follower  in  the  wake 
of  evil  doers.  We  believe  we  are  morally  and 
religiously  right.  We  know  that  if  wrong,  we  can 
be  easilv  confuted. 


SLAVERY    JUSTIFIED. 

LIBERTY    AND    EQUALITY SOCIALISM — YOUNG   ENG- 
LAND  DOMESTIC    SLAVERY. 

Liberty  and  equality  are  new  things  under  the  sun. 
The  free  states  of  antiquity  abounded  with  slaves. 
The  feudal  system  that  supplanted  Roman  institutions 
changed  the  form  of  slavery,  but  brought  with  it  neither 
liberty  nor  equality.  France  and  the  Northern  States  of 
our  Union  have  alone  fully  and  fairly  tried  the  experi- 
ment of  a  social  organization  founded  upon  universal 
liberty  and  equality  of  rights.  England  has  only  ap- 
proximated to  this  condition  in  her  commercial  and 
manufacturing  cities.  The  examples  of  small  commu- 
nities in  Europe  are  not  fit  exponents  of  the  working  of 
the  system.  In  France  and  in  our  Northern  States  the 
experiment  has  already  failed,  if  we  are  to  form  our 
opinions  from  the  discontent  of  the  masses,  or  to  believe 
the  evidence  of  the  Socialists,  Communists,  Anti-Renters, 
and  a  thousand  other  agrarian  sects  that  have  arisen 
in  these  countries,  and  threaten  to  subvert  the  whole  so- 
cial fabric.  The  leaders  of  these  sects,  at  least  in  France, 
comprise  within  their  ranks  the  greater  number  of  the 
most  cultivated  and  profound  minds  in  the  nation,  who 
have  made  government  their  study.  Add  to  the  evidence 
of  these  social  philosophers,  who,  watching  closely  the 
working  of  the  system,  have  proclaimed  to  the  world  its 
total  failure,  the  condition  of  the  working  classes,  and  we 


APPENDIX.  227 

have  conclusive  proof  that  liberty  and  equality  have  not 
conduced  to  enhance  the  comfort  or  the  happiness  of  the 
people.  Crime  and  pauperism  have  increased.  Riots, 
trades  unions,  strikes  for  higher  wages,  discontent  break- 
ing out  into  revolution,  are  things  of  daily  occurrence, 
and  show  that  the  poor  see  and  feel  quite  as  clearly  as  the 
philosophers,  that  their  condition  is  far  worse  under  the 
new  than  under  the  old  order  of  things.  Radicalism 
and  Chartism  in  England  owe  their  birth  to  the  free  and 
equal  institutions  of  her  commercial  and  manufacturing 
districts,  and  are  little  heard  of  in  the  quiet  farming  dis- 
tricts, where  remnants  of  feudalism  still  exist  in  the  rela- 
tion of  landlord  and  tenant,  and  in  the  laws  of  entail 
and  primogeniture. 

So  much  for  experiment.  We  will  now  endeavor  to 
treat  the  subject  theoretically,  and  to  show  that  the  sys- 
tem is  on  its  face  self-destructive  and  impracticable. 
When  we  look  to  the  vegetable,  animal  and  human 
kingdoms,  we  discover  in  them  all  a  constant  conflict, 
war,  or  race  of  competition,  the  result  of  which  is,  that ' 
the  weaker  or  less  healthy  genera,  species  and  individ- 
uals are  continually  displaced  and  exterminated  by  the 
stronger  and  more  hardy.  It  is  a  means  by  which  some 
contend  Nature  is  perfecting  her  own  work.  We,  how- 
ever, witness  the  war,  but  do  not  see  the  improvement. 
Although  from  the  earliest  date  of  recorded  history,  one 
race  of  plants  has  been  eating  out  and  taking  the  place 
of  another,  the  stronger  or  more  cunning  animals  been  « 
destroying  the  feebler,  and  man  exterminating  and  sup- 
planting his  fellow,  still  the  plants,  the  animals  and  the 
men  of  to-day  seem  not  at  all   superior,  even  in   those 


228  APPENDIX. 

qualities  of  strength  and  hardihood  to  which  they  owe 
their  continued  existence,  to  those  of  thousands  of  years 
ago.  To  this  propensity  of  the  strong  to  oppress  and 
destroy  the  weak,  government  owes  its  existence.  So 
strong  is  this  propensity,  and  so  destructive  to  human 
existence,  that  man  has  never  yet  been  found  so  savage 
as  to  be  without  government.  Forgetful  of  this  impor- 
tant fact,  which  is  the  origin  of  all  governments,  the 
political  economists  and  the  advocates  of  liberty  and 
equality  propose  to  enhance  the  well  being  of  man  by 
trammeling  his  conduct  as  little  as  possible,  and  encour- 
aging what  they  call  Free  Competition.  Now,  free 
competition  is  but  another  name  for  liberty  and  equality, 
and  we  must  acquire  precise  and  accurate  notions  about 
it  in  order  to  ascertain  how  free  institutions  will  work. 
It  is,  then,  that  war  or  conflict  to  which  Nature  impels 
her  creatures,  and  which  government  was  intended  to 
restrict.  It  is  true,  it  is  that  war  somewhat  modified  and 
restricted,  for  the  warmest  friends  of  freedom  would 
have  some  government.  The  question  is,  whether  the 
proposed  restrictions  are  sufficient  to  neutralize  the  self- 
destructive  tendencies  which  nature  impresses  on  society. 
We  proceed  to  show  that  the  war  of  the  wits,  of  mind 
with  mind,  which  free  competition  or  liberty  and  equality 
beget  and  encourage,  is  quite  as  oppressive,  cruel  and  ex- 
terminating, as  the  war  of  the  sword,  of  theft,  robbery, 
and  murder,  which  it  forbids.  It  is  only  substituting 
strength  of  mind  for  strength  of  body.  Men  are  told 
it  is  their  ■  duty  to  compete,  to  endeavor  to  get  ahead 
of  and  supplant  their  fellow  men,  by  the  exercise  of 
all    the    intellectual    and    moral    strength   with    which 


APPENDIX.  229 

nature  and  education  have  endowed  them.  "  Might 
makes  right/'  is  the  order  of  creatiou,  and  this  law  of 
nature,  so  far  as  mental  might  is  concerned,  is  restored 
by  liberty  to  man.  The  struggle  to  better  one's  condi- 
tion, to  pull  others  down  or  supplant  them,  is  the  great 
organic  law  of  free  society.  All  men  being  equal,  all 
aspire  to  the  highest  honors  and  the  largest  posses- 
sions. Good  men  and  bad  men  teach  their  children  one 
and  the  same  lesson — "  Go  ahead,  push  your  way  in  the 
world."  In  such  society,  virtue,  if  virtue  there  be,  loses 
all  her  loveliness  because  of  her  selfish  aims.  Xone  but 
the  selfish  virtues  are  encouraged,  because  none  other 
aid  a  man  in  the  race  of  free  competition.  Good  men 
and  bad  men  have  the  same  end  in  view,  are  in  pursuit 
of  the  same  object — self-promotion,  self-elevation.  The 
good  man  is  prudent,  cautious,  and  cunning  of  fence  ; 
he  knows  well  the  arts  (the  virtues,  if  you  please,) 
which  will  advance  his  fortunes  and  enable  him  to  de- 
press and  supplant  others ;  he  bides  his  time,  takes  ad- 
vantage of  the  follies,  the  improvidence,  and  vices  of 
others,  and  makes  his  fortune  out  of  the  misfortunes  of 
his  fellow  men.  The  bad  man  is  rash,  hasty,  and  un- 
skillful. He  is  equally  selfish,  but  not  half  so  cunning. 
Selfishness  is  almost  the  only  motive  of  human  conduct 
with  good  and  bad  in  free  society,  where  every  man  is 
taught  that  he  may  change  and  better  his  condition.  A 
vulgar  adage,  u  Every  man  for  himself,  and  devil  take 
the  hindmost,"  is  the  moral  which  liberty  and  free 
competition  inculcate.  Now,  there  are  no  more  honors 
and  wealth  in  proportion  to  numbers,  in  this  generation, 
than    in   the  one  which  preceded   it ;    population   fully 


230  APPENDIX. 

keeps  pace  with  the  means  of  subsistence ;  hence,  these 
who  better  their  condition  or  rise  to  higher  places  in  so- 
ciety, do  so  generally  by  pulling  down  others  or  pushing 
them  from  their  places.  Where  men  of  strong  minds, 
of  strong  wills,  and  of  great  self-control,  come  into  free 
competition  with  the  weak  and  improvident,  the  latter 
soon  become  the  inmates  of  jails  and  penitentiaries. 

The  statistics  .of  France,  England  and  America  show 
that  pauperism  and  crime  advance  pari  passu  with  lib- 
erty and  equality.  How  can  it  be  otherwise,  when  all 
society  is  combined  to  oppress  the  poor  and  weak  mind- 
ed ?  The  rich  man,  however  good  he  may  be,  employs 
the  laborer  who  will  work  for  the  least  wages.  If 
he  be  a  good  man,  his  punctuality  enables  him  to 
cheapen  the  wages  of  the  poor  man.  The  poor  war 
with  one  another  in  the  race  of  competition,  in  order 
to  get  employment,  by  underbidding ;  for  laborers  are 
more  abundant  than  employers.  Population  increases 
faster  than  capital.  Look  to  the  situation  of  woman 
when  she  is  thrown  into  this  war  of  competition,  and  has 
to  support  herself  by  her  daily  wages.  For  the  same  or 
equally  valuable  services  she  gets  not  half  the  pay  that 
man  does,  simply  because  the  modesty  of  her  sex  pre- 
vents her  from  resorting  to  all  the  arts  and  means  of 
competition  which  men  employ.  He  who  would  eman- 
cipate woman,  unless  he  could  make  her  as  coarse  and 
strong  in  mind  and  body  as  man,  would  be  her  worst  en- 
emy j  her  subservience  to  and  dependence  on  man,  is  ne- 
cessary to  her  very  existence.  She  is  not  a  soldier  fitted 
to  enlist  in  the  war  of  free  competition.  We  do  not  set 
children  and  women  free  because  they  are  not  capable  of 


APPEXDIX.  231 

taking  care  of  themselves,  not  equal  to  the  constant 
struggle  of  society.  To  set  theui  free  would  be  to  give 
the  lamb  to  the  wolf  to  take  care  of.  Society  would 
quickly  devour  them.  If  the  children  of  ten  years  of 
age  were  remitted  to  ail  the  rights  of  person  and  property 
which  men  enjoy,  all  can  perceive  how  soon  ruin  and 
penury  would  overtake  them.  But  half  of  mankind  are 
but  grown-up  children,  and  liberty  is  as  fatal  to  them  as 
it  would  be  to  children. 

We  will  cite  another  familiar  instance  to  prove  and 
illustrate  the  destructive  effects  of  liberty  or  free  compe- 
tition. It  is  that  where  two  races  of  men  of  different 
capacity  are  brought  into  juxtaposition.  It  is  the  boast 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  that  by  the  arts  of  peace  under  the 
influence  of  free  trade  he  can  march  to  universal  con- 
quest. However  true  this  may  be,  all  know  that  if  Eng- 
lishmen or  Americans  settle  among  inferior  races,  they 
soon  become  the  owners  of  the  soil,  and  gradually  extir- 
pate or  reduce  to  poverty  the  original  owners.  They  are 
the  wire-grass  of  nations.  The  same  law  of  nature 
which  enables  and  impels  the  stronger  race  to  oppress 
and  exterminate  the  weaker,  is  constantly  at  work  in  the 
bosom  of  every  society,  between  its  stronger  and  weaker 
members.  Liberty  and  equality  rather  encourage  than 
restrict  this  law  in  its  deadly  operation.  A  Northern 
gentleman,  who  was  both  statesman  and  philosopher, 
once  told  us,  that  his  only  objection  to  domestic  slavery 
was,  that  it  would  perpetuate  an  inferior  race,  who,  under 
the  influence  of  free  trade  and  free  competition,  would 
otherwise  disappear  from  the  earth.     China  and  Japan 


232  APPENDIX. 

acted  wisely  to  anticipate  this  new  philosophy  and   ex- 
clude Europeans.* 

One  step  more,  and  that  the  most  difficult  in  this  pro- 
cess of  reasoning  and  illustration,  and  we  have  done  with 
this  part  of  our  subject.  Liberty  and  equality  throw 
the  whole  weight  of  society  on  its  weakest  members ; 
they  combine  all  men  in  oppressing  precisely  that  part  of 
mankind  who  most  need  sympathy,  aid  and  protection. 
The  very  astute  and  avaricious  man,  when  left  free  to 
exercise  his  faculties,  is  injured  by  no  one  in  the  field  of 
competition,  but  levies  a  tax  on  all  with  whom  he  deals. 
The  sensible  and  prudent,  but  less  astute  man,  is  seldom 
worsted  in  competing  with  his  fellow  men,  and  generally 
benefited.  The  very  simple  and  improvident  man  is  the 
prey  of  every  body.  The  simple  man  represents  a  class, 
the  common  day  laborers.  The  employer  cheapens  their 
wages,  and  the  retail  dealer  takes  advantage  of  their  igno- 
rance, their  inability  to  visit  other  markets,  and  their 
want  of  credit,  to  charge  them  enormous  profits.  They 
bear  the  whole  weight  of  society  on  their  shoulders ; 
they  are  the  producers  and  artificers  of  all  the  necessa- 
ries, the  comforts,  the  luxuries,  the  pomp  and  splendor 
of  the  world ;  they  create  it  all,  and  enjoy  none  of  it ; 
they  are  the  muzzled  ox  that  treadeth  out  the  straw ; 
they  are  at  constant  war  with  those  above  them,  asking 
higher  wages  but  getting  lower ;  for  they  are  also  at  war 
with  each  other,  underbidding  to  get  employment.  This 
process  of  underbidding  never  ceases  so  long  as  employ- 

*  But  free  trade   has  conquered.      Chinese   are  shipped  off   as 
slaves,  and  Japan  tremhles  as  she  hears  the  knocking  at  her  door. 


APPENDIX.  233 

ers  want  profits  or  laborers  want  employment.  It  ends 
when  wages  are  reduced  too  low  to  afford  subsistence,  in 
filling  poor-houses,  and  jails,  and  graves.  It  has  reached 
that  point  already  in  France,  England  and  Ireland.  A 
half  million  died  of  hunger  in  one  year  in  Ireland — 
they  died  because  in  the  eye  of  the  law  they  were  the 
equals,  and  liberty  had  made  them  the  enemies,  of  their 
landlords  and  employers.  Had  they  been  vassals  or 
serfs,  they  would  have  been  beloved,  cherished  and  taken 
care  of  by  those  same  landlords  and  employers.  Slaves 
never  die  of  hunger,  scarcely  ever  feel  want. 

The  bestowing  upon  men  equality  of  rights,  is  but 
giving  license  to  the  strong  to  oppress  the  weak.  It  be- 
gets the  grossest  inequalities  of  condition.  Menials  and 
day  laborers  are  and  must  be  as  numerous  as  in  a  land  of 
slavery.  And  these  menials  and  laborers  are  only  taken 
care  of  while  young,  strong  and  healthy.  If  the  la- 
borer gets  sick,  his  wages  cease  just  as  his  demands  are 
greatest.  If  two  of  the  poor  get  married3  who  being 
young  and  healthy,  are  getting  good  wages,  in  a  few 
years  they  may  have  four  children.  Their  wants  have 
increased,  but  the  mother  has  enough  to  do  to  nurse  the 
four  children,  and  the  wages  of  the  husband  must  sup- 
port six.  There  is  no  equality,  except  in  theory,  in  such 
society,  and  there  is  no  liberty.  The  men  of  property, 
those  who  own  lands  and  money,  are  masters  of  the  poor; 
masters,  with  none  of  the  feelings,  interests  or  sympa- 
thies of  masters  ;  they  employ  them  when  they  please, 
and  for  what  they  please,  and  may  leave  them  to  die  in 
the  highway,  for  it  is  the  only  home  to  which  the  poor  in 
free  countries  are  entitled.     They  (the  property  holders) 


234  APPENDIX. 

beheaded  Charles  Stuart  and  Louis  Capet,  because  these 
kings  asserted  a  divine  right  to  govern  wrong,  and  forgot 
that  office  was  a  trust  to  be  exercised  for  the  benefit  of 
the  governed ;  and  yet  they  seem  to  think  that  property 
is  of  divine  right,  and  that  they  may  abuse  its  possession 
to  the  detriment  of  the  rest  of  society,  as  much  as  they 
please.  A  pretty  exchange  the  world  would  make,  to 
get  rid  of  kings  who  often  love  and  protect  the  poor,  and 
get  in  their  place  a  million  of  pelting,  petty  officers  in 
the  garb  of  money-changers  and  land-owners,  who  think 
that  as  they  own  all  the  property,  the  rest  of  mankind 
have  no  right  to  a  living,  except  on  the  conditions  they 
may  prescribe.  "  'Tis  bettter  to  fall  before  the  lion  than 
the  wolf,"  and  modern  liberty  has  substituted  a  thousand 
wolves  for  a  few  lions.  The  vulgar  landlords,  capitalists 
and  employers  of  to-day,  have  the  liberties  and  lives  of 
the  people  more  completely  in  their  hands,  than  had  the 
kings,  barons  and  gentlemen  of  former  times ;  and  they 
hate  and  oppress  the  people  as  cordially  as  the  people 
despise  them.  But  these  vulgar  parvenus,  these  psalm- 
singing  regicides,  these  worshipers  of  mammon,  "  have 
but  taught  bloody  instructions,  which  being  taught,  re- 
turn to  plague  the  inventor."  The  king's  office  was  a 
trust,  so  are  your  lands,  houses  and  money.  Society  per. 
mits  you  to  hold  them,  because  private  property  well 
administered  conduces  to  the  good  of  all  society.  This 
is  your  only  title  ;  you  lose  your  right  to  your  property, 
as  the  king  did  to  his  crown,  so  soon  as  you  cease  faith- 
fully to  execute  your  trust ;  you  can't  make  commons 
and  forests  of  your  lands  and  starve  mankind ;  you  must 
manage  your  lands  to  produce  the  most  food  and  raiment 


APPENDIX.  235 

for  mankind,  or  you  forfeit  your  title ;  you  may  not  un- 
derstand this  philosophy,  but  you  feel  that  it  is  true,  and 
are  trembling  in  your  seats  as  you  hear  the  murmurings 
and  threats  of  the  starving  poor. 

The  moral  effect  of  free  society  is  to  banish  Christian 
virtue,  that  virtue  which  bids  us  love  our  neighbor  as 
ourself,  and  to  substitute  the  very  equivocal  virtues  pro- 
ceeding from  mere  selfishness.  The  intense  struggle  to 
better  each  one's  pecuniary  condition,  the  rivalries,  the 
jealousies,  the  hostilities  which  it  begets,  leave  neither 
time  nor  inclination  to  cultivate  the  heart  or  the  head. 
Every  finer  feeling  of  our  nature  is  chilled  and  benumbed 
by  its  selfish  atmosphere ;  affection  is  under  the  ban, 
because  affection  makes  us  less  regardful  of  mere  self; 
hospitality  is  considered  criminal  waste,  chivalry  a  stum- 
bling-block, and  the  code  of  honor  foolishness ;  taste, 
sentiment,  imagination,  are  forbidden  ground,  because 
no  money  is  to  be  made  by  them.  Gorgeous  pageantry 
and  sensual  luxury  are  the  only  pleasures  indulged  in, 
because  they  alone  are  understood  and  appreciated,  and 
they  are  appreciated  just  for  what  they  cost  in  dollars 
and  cents.  What  makes  money,  and  what  costs  money, 
are  alone  desired.  Temperance,  frugality,  thrift,  atten- 
tion to  business,  industry,  and  skill  in  making  bargains) 
are  virtues  in  high  repute,  because  they  enable  us  to  sup- 
plant others  and  increase  our  own  wealth.  The  charac- 
ter of  our  Northern  brethren,  and  of  the  Dutch,  is  proof 
enough  of  the  justice  of  these  reflections.  The  Puritan 
fathers  had  lived  in  Holland,  and  probably  imported 
Norway  rats  and  Dutch  morality  in  the  Mayflower. 


236  APPENDIX. 

Liberty  and  equality  are  not  only  destructive  to  the 
morals,  but  to  the  happiness  of  society.  Foreigners  have 
all  remarked  on  the  care-worn,  thoughtful,  unhappy 
countenances  of  our  people,  and  the  remark  only  applies 
to  the  North,  for  travellers  see  little  of  us  at  the  South, 
who  live  far  from  highways  and  cities,  in  contentment  on 
our  farms. 

The  facility  with  which  men  may  improve  their  con- 
dition would,  indeed,  be  a  consideration  much  in  favor  of 
free  society,  if  it  did  not  involve  as  a  necessary  conse- 
quence the  equal  facility  and  liability  to  lose  grade  and 
fortune.  As  many  fall  as  rise.  The  wealth  of  society 
hardly  keeps  pace  with  its  numbers.  All  cannot  be 
rich.  The  rich  and  the  poor  change  places  oftener  than 
where  there  are  fixed  hereditary  distinctions ;  so  often, 
that  the  sense  of  insecurity  makes  every  one  unhappy  j 
so  often,  that  we  see  men  clutching  at  security  through 
means  of  Odd  Fellows,  Temperance  Societies,  &c,  which 
provide  for  members  when  sick,  and  for  the  families  of 
deceased  members ;  so  often,  that  almost  every  State  in 
the  Union  has  of  late  years  enacted  laws  or  countenanced 
decisions  giving  more  permanency  to  property.  Entails 
and  primogeniture  are  as  odious  to  us  as  kings  were  to  the 
Romans ;  but  their  object — to  keep  property  in  our  fami- 
lies— is  as  dear  to  us  as  to  any  people  on  earth,  because 
we  love  our  families  as  much.  Hence  laws  to  exempt 
small  amounts  of  personal  property  from  liability  to  debt 
are  daily  enacted,  and  hence  Iowa  or  Wisconsin  has  a 
provision  in  her  constitution,  that  the  homestead  of  some 
forty  acres  shall  be  exempt  from  execution.  Hence, 
also,   the  mighty  impulse   of  late  in   favor  of  woman's 


APPENDIX.  237 

rights.  Legislatures  and  courts  are  yieing  with  each 
other  which  shall  do  most  to  secure  married  women's 
rights  to  them.  The  ruin  of  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  families  in  the  revulsion  of  1837,  taught  the  necessity 
of  this  new  species  of  entail,  this  new  way  of  keeping 
property  in  the  family.  The  ups  and  downs  of  life  be- 
came too  rapid  to  be  agreeable  to  any  who  had  property 
to  lose  or  a  family  to  provide  for.  We  have  not  yet 
quite  cooled  down  from  the  fervor  of  the  Ke volution. 
We  have  been  looking  to  one  side  only  of  our  institu- 
tions. We  begin  to  feel,  however,  that  there  is  another 
and  a  dark  side, — a  side  where  all  are  seen  going  down 
the  hill  of  fortune.  Let  us  look  closely  and  fearlessly  at 
this  feature  of  free  society,  so  much  lauded  and  so  little 
understood.  What  object  more  laudable,  what  so  dear 
to  a  man's  heart,  as  to  continue  a  competency  of  prop- 
erty, refinement  of  mind  and  morals,  to  his  posterity  ? 
What  nobler  incentive  to  virtuous  conduct,  than  the  be- 
lief that  such  conduct  will  redound  to  the  advantage  of 
our  descendants  ?  What  reflection  so  calculated  to  make 
men  reckless,  wretched  and  immoral,  as  the  conviction 
that  the  means  ihey  employ  to  improve  the  moral,  men- 
tal and  pecuniary  condition  of  their  offspring,  are,  in 
this  land  of  ups  and  downs,  the  very  means  to  make 
them  the  prey  of  the  cunning,  avaricious  and  unprin- 
cipled, who  have  been  taught  in  the  school  of  adversity 
and  poverty  ?  We  constantly  boast  that  the  wealthy  and 
powerful  of  to-day  are  the  sons  of  the  weak,  ignorant 
and  destitute  of  yesterday.  It  is  the  other  side  of  the 
picture  that  we  want  moral  courage  to  look  at.  We  are 
dealing  now  with  figures  of  arithmetic,  not  of  rhetoric. 


238  APPENDIX. 

Those  who  rise,  pull  down  a  class  as  numerous,  and  often 
more  worthy  than  themselves,  to  the  abyss  of  misery  and 
penury.  Painful  as  it  may  be,  the  reader  shall  look  with 
us  at  this  dark  side  of  the  picture  j  he  shall  view  the 
vanquished  as  well  as  the  victors  on  this  battle-ground 
of  competition ;  he  shall  see  those  who  were  delicately 
reared,  taught  no  tricks  of  trade,  no  shifts  of  thrifty  ava- 
rice, spurned,  insulted,  down-trodden  by  the  coarse  and 
vulgar,  whose  wits  and  whose  appetites  had  been  sharp- 
ened by  necessity.  If  he  can  sympathize  with  fallen 
virtue  or  detest  successful  vice,  he  will  see  nothing  in 
this  picture  to  admire. 

The  wide  fields  of  the  newly  rich  will  cease  to  excite 
pleasure  in  the  contemplation ;  they  will  look  like  G-ol- 
gothas  covered  with  human  bones.  Their  coarse  and 
boisterous  joys,  while  they  revel  in  their  spoils,  will  not 
help  to  relieve  the  painful  sympathies  for  their  victims. 

But  these  parvenus  are  men  with  all  the  feelings  of 
men,  though  somewhat  blunted  by  the  race  for  wealth ; 
they  love  their  children,  and  would  have  them  unlike 
themselves,  moral,  refined,  and  educated — above  the  ne- 
cessities and  tricks  of  their  parents.  They  rear  them  as 
gentlemen,  to  become  the  victims  in  their  turn  of  the 
children  of  fallen  gentlemen  of  a  past  generation — these 
latter  having  learned  in  the  school  of  adversity  the  path 
to  fortune.  In  Heaven's  name,  what  is  human  life  worth 
with  such  prospects  ahead  ?  Who  would  not  rather  lie 
down  and  die  than  exert  himself  to  educate  and  make 
fortunes  for  his  children,  when  he  has  reason  to  fear  that 
by  so  doing  he  is  to  heap  coals  of  fire  on  their  heads. 
And  yet   this   is  an  exact  picture  of  the  prospect  which 


APPENDIX.  239 

universal  liberty  holds  out  to  its  votaries.  It  is  true  it 
hides  with  a  veil  the  agonies  of  the  vanquished,  and 
only  exhibits  the  vulgar  mirth  of  the  victors.  We  have 
lifted  the  veil. 

In  Boston,  a  city  filmed  for  its  wealth  and  the  pru- 
dence of  its  inhabitants,  nine-tenths  of  the  men  in  busi- 
ness fail.  In  the  slaveholding  South,  except  in  new  set- 
tlements, failures  are  extremely  rare;  small  properties 
descend  from  generation  to  generation  in  the  same  fam- 
ily ;  there  is  as  much  stability  and  permanency  of  prop- 
erty as  is  compatible  with  energy  and  activity  in  society ; 
fortunes  are  made  rather  by  virtuous  industry  than  by 
tricks,  cunning  and  speculation. 

We  have  thus  attempted  to  prove  from  theory  and 
from  actual  experiment,  that  a  society  of  universal  lib- 
erty and  equality  is  absurd  and  impracticable.  We  have 
performed  our  task,  we  know,  indifferently,  but  hope  we 
have  furnished  suggestions  that  may  be  profitably  used 
by  those  more  accustomed  to  authorship. 

We  now  come  in  the  order  of  our  subject  to  treat  of 
the  various  new  sects  of  philosophers  that  have  appeared 
of  late  years  in  France  and  in  our  free  States,  who,  dis- 
gusted with  society  as  it  exists,  propose  to  re-organize  it 
on  entirely  new  principles.  We  have  never  heard  of  a 
convert  to  any  of  these  theories  in  the  slave  States.  If 
we  are  not  all  contented,  still  none  see  evils  of  such  mag- 
nitude in  society  as  to  require  its  entire  subversion  and 
reconstruction/  We  shall  group  all  these  sects  together, 
because  they  all  concur  in  the  great  truth  that  Free  Com- 
petition is  the  bane  of  free  society ;  they  all  concur,  too, 
in  modifying  or  wholly  destroying  the  institution  of  pri- 


210  APPENDIX. 

vate  property.  Many  of  them,  seeing  that  property  en- 
ables its  owners  to  exercise  a  more  grinding  oppression 
than  kings  ever  did,  would  destroy  its  tenure  altogether. 
In  France,  especially,  these  sects  are  headed  by  men  of 
great  ability,  who  saw  the  experiment  of  liberty  and 
equality  fairly  tested  in  France  after  the  revolution  of 
1792.  They  saw,  as  all  the  world  did,  that  it  failed  to 
promote  human  happiness  or  well-being. 

France  found  the  Consulate  and  the  Empire  havens  of 
bliss  compared  with  the  stormy  ocean  of  liberty  and 
equality  on  which  she  had  been  tossed.  Wise,  however, 
as  these  Socialists  and  Communists  of  France  are,  they 
cannot  create  a  man,  a  tree,  or  a  new  system  of  society ; 
these  are  God's  works,  which  man  may  train,  trim  and 
modify,  but  cannot  create.  The  attempt  to  establish 
government  on  purely  theoretical  abstract  speculation, 
regardless  of  circumstance  and  experience,  has  always 
failed  j  never  more  signally  than  with  the  Socialists. 

The  frequent  experience  cf  the  Abbe  Sieye's  paper 
structures  of  government,  which  lasted  so  short  a  time, 
should  have  taught  them  caution ;  but  they  were  bolder 
reformers  than  he ;  they  had  a  fair  field  for  their  experi- 
ment after  the  expulsion  of  Louis  Phillippe ;  they  tried 
it,  and  their  failure  was  complete  and  ridiculous.  The 
Abbe's  structures  were  adamant  compared  to  theirs. 
The  rule  of  the  weak  Louis  Napoleon  was  welcomed  as  a 
fortunate  escape  from  their  schemes  of  universal  benevo- 
lence, which  issued  in  universal  bankruptcy. 

The  sufferings  of  the  Irish,  and  the  complaints  of  the 
Radicals  and  Chartists,  have  given  birth  to  a  new  party 
in   England,  called  Young  England.     This  party  saw  in 


APPENDIX.  241 

the  estrangement  and  hostility  of  classes,  and  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  poor,  the  same  evils  of  free  competition  that 
had  given  rise  to  Socialism  in  France ;  though  less  tal- 
ented than  the  Socialists,  they  came  much  nearer  discov- 
ering the  remedy  for  these  evils. 

Young  England  belongs  to  the  most  conservative  wing 
of  the  tory  party ;  he  inculcates  strict  subordination  of 
rank  j  would  have  the  employer  kind,  attentive  and  pa. 
ternal,  in  his  treatment  of  the  operative.  The  operative, 
humble,  affectionate  and  obedient  to  his  employer.  He 
is  young,  and  sentimental,  and  would  spread  his  doctrines 
in  tracts,  sonnets  and  novels  ;  but  society  must  be  ruled 
by  sterner  stuff  than  sentiment.  Self-interest  makes  the 
employer  and  free  laborer  enemies.  The  one  prefers  to 
pay  low  wages,  the  other  needs  high  wages.  War,  con- 
stant war,  is  the  result,  in  which  the  operative  perishes, 
but  is  not  vanquished  j  he  is  hydra-headed,  and  when  he 
dies  two  take  his  place.  But  numbers  diminish  his 
strength.  The  competition  among  laborers  to  get  em. 
ployment  begets  an  intestine  war,  more  destructive  than 
the  war  from  above.  There  is  but  one  remedy  for  this 
evil,  so  inherent  in  free  society,  and  that  is,  to  identify 
the  interests  of  the  weak  and  the  strong,  the  poor  and 
the  rich.  Domestic  Slavery  does  this  far  better  than 
any  other  institution.  Feudalism  only  answered  the 
purpose  in  so  far  as  Feudalism  retained  the  features  of 
slavery.  To  it  (slavery)  Greece  and  Rome,  Egypt  and 
Judea,  and  all  the  other  distinguished  States  of  antiqui- 
ty, were  indebted  for  their  great  prosperity  and  high 
civilization  j  a  prosperity  and  a  civilization  which  appear 
almost  miraculous,  when  we  look  to  their  ignorance  of 

L 


242  APPENDIX. 

the  physical  sciences.  In  the  moral  sciences  they  were 
our  equals,  in  the  fine  arts  vastly  our  superiors.  Their 
poetry,  their  painting,  their  sculpture,  their  drama,  their 
elocution,  and  their  architecture,  are  models  which  we 
imitate,  but  never  equal.  In  the  science  of  government 
and  of  morals,  in  pure  metaphysics,  and  in  all  the  walks 
of  intellectual  philosophy,  we  have  been  beating  the  air 
with  our  wings  or  revolving  in  circles,  but  have  not  ad- 
vanced an  inch.  Kant  is  not  ahead  of  Aristotle — and 
Juvenal  has  expressed  in  little  more  than  a  line  the  mod- 
ern utilitarian  morality — 

Quis  enim  virtutem  amplectitur  ipsam 
Proemia  si  tollas  ? 

Terence,  himself  a  slave,  with  a  heart  no  doubt  filled 
with  the  kindly  affections  which  the  relation  of  master 
and  slave  begets,  uttered  the  loftiest  sentiment  that  ever 
emanated  from  uninspired  man  : 

Homo  sum  ;  humani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto.* 

But  this  high  civilization  and  domestic  slavery  did  not 
merely  co-exist,  they  were  cause  and  effect.  Every 
scholar  whose  mind  is  at  all  imbued  with  ancient  history 
and  literature,  sees  that  G-reece  and  Rome  were  indebted 
to  this  institution  alone  for  the  taste,  the  leisure  and  the 
means  to  cultivate  their  heads  and  their  hearts ;  had  they 
been  tied  down  to  Yankee  notions  of  thrift,  they  might 
have  produced  a  Franklin,  with  his  "  penny  saved  is  a 
penny  gained ; "  they  might  have  had  utilitarian  philos- 

*  The  line  and  a  half  from  Juvenal  expresses  the  philosophy  and 
morale  of  free  society  :  that  from  Terence  the  moral  of  slave  so- 
ciety. 


APPENDIX.  243 

ophers  and  invented  the  spinning  jenny,  but  they  never 
would  have  produced  a  poet,  an  orator,  a  sculptor  or 
an  architect ;  they  would  never  have  uttered  a  lofty 
sentiment,  achieved  a  glorious  feat  in  war,  or  created  a 
single  work  of  art. 

A  modern  Yankee,  or  a  Dutchman,  is  the  fair  result 
of  liberty  and  equality.  French  character  has  not  yet 
been  subdued  and  tamed  into  insignificance  by  their 
new  institutions ;  and  besides,  the  pursuit  of  arms  ele- 
vates and  purifies  the  sentiments  of  Frenchmen.  In 
what  is  the  Yankee  or  Dutchman  comparable  to  the 
Roman,  Athenian  or  Spartan  ?  In  nothing  save  his 
care  of  his  pelf  and  his  skill  in  driving  a  bargain. 
The  ruins  of  Thebes,  of  Nineveh,  and  of  Balbec,  the 
obelisks  and  pyramids  of  Egypt,  the  lovely  and  time- 
defying  relics  of  Ptoman  and  Grecian  art,  the  Doric 
column  and  the  Gothic  spire,  alike  attest  the  taste,  the 
genius  and  the  energy  of  society  where  slavery  existed. 

Quis  locus, 
Quoe  regio  in  terris  non  nostri  plena  laboris? 

And  now  Equality  where  are  thy  monuments  ?  And 
Echo  answers  where  !  Echo  deep,  deep,  from  the  bow- 
els of  the  earth,  where  women  and  children  drag  out 
their  lives  in  darkness,  harnessed  like  horses  to  heavy 
cars  loaded  with  ore.  Or,  perhaps,  it  is  an  echo  from 
some  grand,  gloomy  and  monotonous  factory,  where  pal- 
lid children  work  fourteen  hours  a  day,  and  go  home  at 
night  to  sleep  in  damp  cellars.  It  may  be  too,  this  cel- 
lar contains  aged  parents  too  old  to  work,  and  cast  off 
by  their  employer  to  die.  G-reat  railroads  and  mighty 
steamships  too,  thou  mayest  boast,  but  still  the  opera- 


244  APPENDIX. 

tives  who  construct  tTiern  are  beings  destined  to  poverty 
and  neglect.  Not  a  vestige  of  art  canst  thou  boast; 
not  a  ray  of  genius  illumes  thy  handiwork.  The  sordid 
spirit  of  mammon  presides  o'er  all,  and  from  all  pro" 
ceed  the  sighs  and  groans  of  the  oppressed. 

Domestic  slavery  in  the  Southern  States  has  pro- 
duced the  same  results  in  elevating  the  character  of  the 
master  that  it  did  in  Greece  and  Rome.  He  is  lofty 
and  independent  in  his  sentiments,  generous,  affection- 
ate, brave  and  eloquent;  he  is  superior  to  the  North- 
erner in  every  thing  but  the  arts  of  thrift.  History 
proves  this.  A  Yankee  sometimes  gets  hold  of  the 
reins  of  State,  attempts  Apollo,  but  acts  Phaeton. 
Scipio  and  Aristides,  Calhoun  and  Washington,  are  the 
noble  results  of  domestic  slavery.  Like  Egyptian  obe- 
lisks 'raid  the  waste  of  time — simple,  severe,  sublime, — 
they  point  ever  heavenward,  and  lift  the  soul  by  their 
examples.  Adams  and  Yan  Buren,  cunning,  complex 
and  tortuous,  are  fit  exponents  of  the  selfish  system  of 
universal  liberty.*  Coriolanus,  marching  to  the  gates 
of  Rome  with  dire  hate  and  deadly  indignation,  is 
grand  and  noble  in  his  revenge.  Adams  and  Yan 
Buren,  insidiously  striking  with  reptile  fangs  at  the 
South,  excite  in  ail  bosoms  hatred  and  contempt; 
but  we  will  not  indulge  in  sweeping  denuncia- 
tion. In  public  and  in  private  life,  the  North 
has     many    noble    and   generous    souls.       Men    who, 

*The  North  was  pushing  the  Wiltot  Proviso  -when  this  was 
written.  "We  wrote  under  angry  excitement.  We  did  Mr. 
Van  Buren  injustice  and  the  North  injustice.  We  believe  Mr. 
Van  Buren  thoroughly  patriotic,  though  wrong  on  the  Proviso ; 
and  we  think  Northerners  more  fanatical  than  selfish. 


APPENDIX.  245 

like  Webster  and  Cass,  Dickinson  and  Winthrop,* 
can  soar  in  lofty  eloquence  beyond  the  narrow  preju- 
dices of  time  and  place,  see  man  in  all  his  relations, 
and  contemn  the  narrow  morality  which  makes  the  per- 
formance of  one  duty  the  excuse  for  a  thousand  crimes. 
"We  speak  only  of  the  usual  and  common  effects  of 
slavery  and  of  equality.  The  Turk,  half  civilized  as 
he  is,  exhibits  the  manly,  noble  and  generous  traits  of 
character  peculiar  to  the  slave  owner ;  he  is  hospitable, 
generous,  truthful,  brave,  and  strictly  honest.  In  many 
respects,  he  is  the  finest  specimen  of  humanity  to  be 
found  in  the  world. 

But  the  chief  and  far  most  important  enquiry  is, 
how  does  slavery  affect  the  condition  of  the  slave  ?  One 
of  the  wildest  sects  of  Communists  in  France  proposes 
not  only  to  hold  all  property  in  common,  but  to  divide 
the  profits,  not  according  to  each  man's  in-put  and  la- 
bor, but  according  to  each  man's  wants.  Now  this  is 
precisely  the  system  of  domestic  slavery  with  us.  We 
provide  for  each  slave,  in  old  age  and  in  infancy,  in 
sickness  and  in  health,  not  according  to  his  labor,  but 
according  to  his  wants.  The  master's  wants  are  more 
costly  and  refined,  and  he  therefore  gets  a  larger  share 
of  the  profits.  A  Southern  farm  is  the  beau  ideal  of 
Communism;  it  is  a  joint  concern,  in  which  the  slave 
consumes  more  than  the  master,  of  the  coarse  products, 
and  is  far  happier,  because  although  the  concern  may 
fail,  he  is  always  sure  of  a  support  j  he  is  only  transfer- 
red to  another   master  to    participate  in  the  profits  of 

*We  had  not  seen  Mr.  "Winthrop's  late  speech   when   this  was 
written. 


246  APPENDIX. 

another  concern;  he  marries  when  he  pleases,  because 
he  knows  he  will  have  to  work  no  more  with  a  family 
than  without  one,  and  whether  he  live  or  die,  that  family 
will  be  taken  care  of;  he  exhibits  all  the  pride  of  own- 
ership, despises  a  partner  in  a  smaller  concern,  "a 
poor  man's  negro/'  boasts  of  "our  crops,  horses, 
fields  and  cattle ;"  and  is  as  happy  as  a  human  being 
can  be.  And  why  should  he  not? — he  enjoys  as  much 
of  the  fruits  of  the  farm  as  he  is  capable  of  doing,  and 
the  wealthiest  can  do  no  more.  Great  wealth  brings 
many  additional  cares,  but  few  additional  enjoyments. 
Our  stomachs  do  not  increase  in  capacity  with  our  for- 
tunes. We  want  no  more  clothing  to  keep  us  warm. 
We  may  create  new  wants,  but  we  cannot  create  new 
pleasures.  The  intellectual  enjoyments  which  wealth 
affords  are  probably  balanced  by  the  new  cares  it  brings 
along  with  it. 

There  is  no  rivalry,  no  competition  to  get  employment 
among  slaves,  as  among  free  laborers.  Nor  is  there  a 
war  between  master  and  slave.  The  master's  interest 
prevents  his  reducing  the  slave's  allowance  or  wages  in 
infancy  or  sickness,  for  he  might  lose  the  slave  by  so 
doing.  His  feeling  for  his  slave  never  permits  him  to 
stint  him  in  old  age.  The  slaves  are  all  well  fed,  well 
clad,  have  plenty  of  fuel,  and  are  happy.  They  have 
no  dread  of  the  future — no  fear  of  want.  A  state  of 
dependence  is  the  only  condition  in  which  reciprocal 
affection  can  exist  among  human  beings — the  only 
situation  in  which  the  war  of  competition  ceases,  and 
peace,  amity  and  good  will  arise.  A  state  of  indepen- 
dence always  begets  more  or  less  of  jealous  rivalry  and 
hostility.     A  man  loves  his  children  because  they  are 


APPEHMi^ir  247 


weak;  helpless  and  dependenfrfp^pf  Wyqb  his  wife  for 
similar  reasons.  When  his  chilWen  grow  up  and  as- 
sert their  independence,  he  is  apt  to  transfer  his  affec- 
tion to  his  grand-children.  He  ceases  to  love  his  wife 
when  she  becomes  masculine  or  rebellious;  but  slaves 
are  always  dependent,  never  the  rivals  of  their  master. 
Hence,  though  men  are  often  found  at  variance  with 
wife  or  children,  we  never  saw  one  who  did  not  like  his 
slaves,  and  rarely  a  slave  who  was  not  devoted  to  his 
master.  "  I  am  thy  servant  V  disarms  me  of  the 
power  of  master.  Every  man  feels  the  beauty,  force 
and  truth  of  this  sentiment  of  Sterne.  But  he  who 
acknowledges  its  truth,  tacitly  admits  that  dependence 
is  a  tie  of  aifection,  that  the  relation  of  master  and 
slave  is  one  of  mutual  good  will.  Volumes  written  on 
the  subject  would  not  prove  as  much  as  this  single  sen- 
timent. It  has  found  its  way  to  the  heart  of  every 
reader,  and  carried  conviction  along  with  it.  The  slave- 
holder is  like  other  men ;  he  will  not  tread  on  the  worm 
nor  break  the  bruised  reed.  The  ready  submission  of 
the  slave,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  disarms  his  wrath  even 
when  the  slave  has  offended.  The  habit  of  command 
may  make  him  imperious  and  fit  him  for  rule ;  but  he 
is  only  imperious  when  thwarted  or  crossed  by  his 
equals ;  he  would  scorn  to  put  on  airs  of  command 
among  blacks,  whether  slaves  or  free  j  he  always  speaks 
to  them  in  a  kind  and  subdued  tone.  We  go  farther, 
and  say  the  slave-holder  is  better  than  others — because 
he  has  greater  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  the  affec- 
tions. His  whole  life  is  spent  in  providing  for  the 
minutest  wants  of  others,  in  taking  care  of  them  in  sick- 


248  APPENDIX. 

ness  and  in  health.  Hence  he  is  the  least  selfish  of 
men.  Is  not  the  old  bachelor  who  retires  to  seclusion, 
always  selfish  ?  Is  not  the  head  of  a  large  family  al- 
most always  kind  and  benevolent?  And  is  not  the 
slave-holder  the  head  of  the  largest  family  ?  Nature 
compels  master  and  slave  to  be  friends ;  nature  makes 
employers  and  free  laborers  enemies. 

The  institution  of  slavery  gives  full  development  and 
full  play  to  the  affections.  Free  society  chills,  stints 
and  eradicates  them.  In  a  homely  way  the  farm  will 
support  all,  and  we  are  not  in  a  hurry  to  send  our  chil- 
dren into  the  world,  to  push  their  way  and  make  their 
fortunes,  with  a  capital  of  knavish  maxims.  We  are 
better  husbands,  better  fathers,  better  friends,  and  bet- 
ter neighbors  than  our  Northern  brethren.  The  tie  of 
kindred  to  the  fifth  degree  is  often  a  tie  of  affection 
with  us.  First  cousins  are  scarcely  acknowledged  at 
the  North,  and  even  children  are  prematurely  pushed 
off  into  the  world.  Love  for  others  is  the  organic  law 
of  our  society,  as  self-love  is   of  theirs. 

Every  social  structure  must  have  its  substratum. 
In  free  society  this  substratum,  the  weak,  poor  and 
ignorant,  is  borne  down  upon  and  oppressed  with  con- 
tinually increasing  weight  by  all  above.  We  have 
solved  the  problem  of  relieving  this  substratum  from 
the  pressure  from  above.  The  slaves  are  the  substra- 
tum, and  the  master's  feelings  and  interests  alike  pre- 
vent him  from  bearing  down  upon  and  oppresaing 
them.  With  us  the  pressure  on  society  is  like  that 
of  air  or  water,  so  equally  diffused  as  not  any  where 
to  be  felt.     With  them  it  is  the   pressure  of  the  enor- 


APPENDIX.  249 

mous  screw,  never  yielding,  continually  increasing. 
Free  laborers  are  little  better  than  trespassers  on  tbis 
earth  given  by  G-od  to  all  mankind.  The  birds  of  the 
air  have  nests,  and  the  foxes  have  holes,  but  they  have 
not  where  to  lay  their  heads.  They  are  driven  to  cities 
to  dwell  in  damp  and  crowded  cellars,  and  thousands 
are  even  forced  to  lie  in  the  open  air.  This  accounts 
for  the  rapid  growth  of  Northern  cities.  The  feudal 
Barons  were  more  generous  and  hospitable  and  less 
tyrannical  than  the  petty  land-holders  of  modern  times. 
Besides,  each  inhabitant  of  the  barony  was  considered 
as  having  some  right  of  residence,  some  claim  to  pro- 
tection from  the  Lord  of  the  Manor.  A  few  of  them 
escaped  to  the  municipalities  for  purposes  of  trade,  and 
to  enjoy  a  larger  liberty.  Now  penury  and  the  want  of 
a  home  drive  thousands  to  towns.  The  slave  always 
has  a  home,  always  an  interest  in  the  proceeds  of  the 
soil. 

An  intelligent  New  Englander,  who  was  much  op- 
posed to  negro  slavery,  boasting  of  his  own  country, 
told  us  that  native  New  Englanders  rarely  occupied 
the  place  of  domestic  or  body  servants,  or  that  of  hired 
day  laborers  on  public  works.  Emigrants  alone  served 
as  menials,  cleansed  the  streets,  and  worked  on  rail- 
roads and  canals.  New  England  is  busy  importing 
white  free  laborers  for  the  home  market,  and  catching 
negroes  in  Africa  for  the  Brazilian  market  Some  of 
the  negroes  die  on  the  passage,  but  few  after  they 
arrive  in  Brazil.  The  masters  can't  afford  to  neglect 
them.  Many  of  the  white  laborers  die  on  the  passage 
of  cholera  and  other   diseases   occasioned  by  filth   and 


250  APPENDIX. 

crowding — a  fourth  of  them  probably  in  the  first  year 
after  they  arrive,  for  the  want  of  employment  or  the 
neglect  of  employers.  The  horrors  of  the  middle  pas- 
sage are  nothing  to  the  horrors  of  a  deck  passage  up 
the  Mississippi  when  cholera  prevails,  or  the  want, 
penury  and  exposure  that  emigrants  are  subjected  to 
in  our  large  cities.  England,  too,  has  a  tender  con- 
science about  slavery,  but  she  is  importing  captured 
African  slaves  into  her  colonies  to  serve  as  apprentices, 
and  extending  this  new  species  of  slave  trade  even  to 
Asia.  "Expel  nature  with  a  fork,  she  will  soon  re- 
turn." Slavery  is  natural  and  necessary,  and  will  in 
some  form  insinuate  itself  into  all  civilized  society. — ■ 
The  domestic  slave  trade  is  complained  of,  and  justly 
too,  because  it  severs  family  ties.  It  is  one  of  the 
evils  of  slavery,  and  no  institution  is  without  its  evils. 
But  how  is  it  with  New  England  ?  Are  none  of  the 
free,  the  delicately  reared  and  enlightened  forced  to  quit 
the  domestic  hearth  and  all  its  endearments,  to  seek  a 
living  among  strangers  ?  Delicacy  forbids  our  dwelling 
on  this  painful  topic.  The  instances  are  before  our 
eyes.  What  would  induce  a  "Virginian,  rich  or  poor, 
to  launch  such  members  of  his  family  unattended  on 
the  cold  world. 

More  than  half  of  the  white  citizens  of  the  North  are 
common  laborers,  either  in  the  field,  or  as  body  or  house 
servants.  They  perform  the  same  services  that  our 
slaves  do.  They  serve  their  employers  for  hire;  they 
have  quite  as  little  option  whether  they  shall  so  serve, 
or  not,  as  our  slaves,  for  they  cannot  live  without  their 
wages.     Their  hire  or  wages,    except  with  the  healthy 


APPENDIX.  251 

and  able-bodied,  are  not  half  what  we  allow  our  slaves, 
for  it  is  wholly  insufficient  for  their  comfortable  main- 
tenance, whilst  we  always  keep  our  slaves  in  comfort,  in 
return  for  their  past,  present,  or  expected  labor.  The 
socialists  say  wages  is  slavery.  It  is  a  gross  libel  on 
slavery.  Wages  are  given  in  time  of  vigorous  health 
and  strength,  and  denied  when  most  needed,  when  sick- 
ness or  old  age  has  overtaken  us.  The  slave  is  never 
without  a  master  to  maintain  him.  The  free  laborer, 
though  willing  to  work,  cannot  always  find  an  employer. 
He  is  then  without  a  home  and  without  wages  !  In  a 
densely  peopled  country,  where  the  supply  of  laborers 
exceeds  the  demand,  wages  is  worse  than  slavery.  Oh  ! 
Liberty  and  Equality,  to  what  a  sad  pass  do  you  bring 
your  votaries !  This  is  the  exact  condition  to  which 
the  mass  of  society  is  reduced  in  France  and  England, 
and  to  which  it  is  rapidly  approximating  in  our  North- 
ern States.  This  state  of  things  brought  about  the 
late  revolution  in  France.  The  Socialist  rulers  un- 
dertook to  find  employment,  put  the  laborers  of  Paris 
to  work,  transplanting  trees  and  digging  the  earth. 
This  experiment  worked  admirably  in  all  but  one  re- 
spect. The  government  could  find  employment,  but 
could  not  find  wages.  The  Right  to  Employment  ! 
Frenchmen  deluged  Paris  with  fraternal  gore  to  vindi- 
cate this  right.  The  right  to  live  when  you  are  strong- 
enough  to  work,  for  it  is  then  only  you  want  employ- 
ment. Poor  as  this  boon  would  be,  it  is  one  which 
Liberty  and  Equality  cannot  confer.  If  it  were  con- 
ferred, the  free  laborer's  condition  would  still  be  below 


252  APPENDIX. 

the  slave's,  for  the  wages  of  the  slave  are   paid  whether 
he  is  fit  for  employment  or  not. 

Oh  carry,  carry  me  back  to  old  Virginia  shore, 
For  I  am  old  and  feeble  grown, 
And  cannot  work  any  more. 

Liberty  and  Equality,  thou  art  humble  in  thy  preten- 
sions; thou  askest  little.  But  that  little  inexorable 
fate  denies  thee.  Literally  and  truly,  "  darkness, 
death  and  black  despair   surround  thee." 

In  France,  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland,  the  ge- 
nius of  famine  hovers  o'er  the  land.  Emigrants,  like  a 
flock  of  hungry  pigeons  or  Egyptian  locusts,  are  aligni- 
ng on  the  North.  Every  green  thing  will  soon  be 
iconsumed.  The  hollow,  bloated  prosperity  which  she 
now  enjoys  is  destined  soon  to  pass  away.  Her  wealth 
does  not  increase  with  her  numbers ;  she  is  dependent 
for  the  very  necessaries  of  life  on  the  slaveholding 
States.  If  those  States  cut  off  commercial  intercourse 
with  her,  as  they  certainly  will  do  if  she  does  not 
speedily  cease  interference  with  slavery,  she  will  be 
without  food  or  clothing  for  her  overgrown  population. 
She  is  already  threatened  with  a  social  revolution.  The 
right  to  separate  property  in  land  is  not  only  questioned 
by  many,  but  has  been  successfully  denied  in  the  case 
of  the  Anti-Renters.  Judges  and  Governors  are  elected 
upon  pledges  that  they  will  sustain  those  who  deny  this 
right  and  defy  the  law.  The  editor  of  the  most  influ- 
ential paper  in  the  North,  lately  a  member  of  Congress, 
is  carrying  on  open  war,  not  only  against  the  right  of 
property,  but   against   every  institution  held  sacred  by 


APPENDIX.  253 

society.  A  people  who  can  countenance  and  patronise 
such  doctrines,  are  almost  ripe  to  carry  those  doctrines 
into  practice.  An  insurrection  of  the  poor  against  the 
rich  may  happen  speedily  among  them.  Should  it  oc- 
cur, they  have  no  means  of  suppressing  it.  No  stand- 
ing army,  no  efficient  militia,  no  strength  in  their  State 
governments.  Society  is  hurrying  on  to  the  gulf  of 
agrarianisni,  and  no  port  of  safety  is  in  sight;  no 
remedy  for  the  evils  with  which  it  is  beset  has  been 
suggested,  save  the  remedies  of  the  Socialists ;  reme- 
dies tried  in  France  and  proved  to  be  worthless.  Pop- 
ulation is  too  dense  to  introduce  negro  slaves.  White 
men  will  not  submit  to  be  slaves,  and  are  not  fitted  for 
slavery  if  they  would.  To  the  European  race  some  de- 
gree of  liberty  is  necessary,  though  famine  stare  them 
in  the  face.  We  are  informed  in  Holy  Writ,  that  God 
ordained  certain  races  of  men  for  slaves.  The  wisest 
philosopher  of  ancient  times,  with  the  experience  of 
slavery  before  his  eyes,  proclaimed  the  same  truth. 
Modern  Abolitionists,  wiser  than  Moses  and  Aristotle, 
have  discovered  that  all  men  should  be  free.  They 
have  yet  to  discover  the  means  of  sustaining  their  lives 
in  a  state  of  freedom. 

At  the  slaveholding  South  all  is  peace,  quiet,  plenty 
and  contentment.  We  have  no  mobs,  no  trades  unions, 
no  strikes  for  higher  wages,  no  armed  resistance  to  the 
law,  but  little  jealousy  of  the  rich  by  the  poor.  We 
have  but  few  in  our  jails,  and  fewer  in  our  poor  houses. 
We  produce  enough  of  the  comforts  and  necessaries  of 
life  for  a  population  three  or  four  times  as  numerous  as 
ours.     We  are  wholly  exempt  from  the  torrent  of  pau- 


254  APPENDIX. 

perism,  crime,  agrarianisni,  and  infidelity  which  Eu- 
rope is  pouring  from  her  jails  and  alms  houses  on  the 
already  crowded  North.  Population  increases  slowly, 
wealth  rapidly.  In  the  tide  water  region  of  Eastern 
Virginia,  as  far  as  our  experience  extends,  the  crops 
have  doubled  in  fifteen  years,  whilst  the  population  has 
been  almost  stationary.  In  the  same  period  the  lands, 
owing  to  improvements  of  the  soil  and  the  many  fine 
houses  erected  in  the  country,  have  nearly  doubled  in 
value.  This  ratio  of  improvement  has  been  approxi- 
mated or  exceeded  wherever  in  the  South  slaves  are 
numerous.  We  have  enough  for  the  present,  and  no 
Malthusian  spectres  frightening  us  for  the  future. 
Wealth  is  more  equally  distributed  than  at  the  North, 
where  a  few  millionaires  own  most  of  the  property  of 
the  country.  (These  millionaires  are  men  of  cold  hearts 
and  weak  minds;  they  know  how  to  make  money,  but 
not  how  to  use  it,  either  for  the  benefit  of  themselves 
or  of  others.)  High  intellectual  and  moral  attainments, 
refinement  of  head  and  heart,  give  standing  to  a  man 
in  the  South,  however  poor  he  may  be.  Money  is, 
with  few  exceptions,  the  only  thing  that  ennobles  at 
the  North.  We  have  poor  among  us,  but  none  who 
are  over- worked  and  under-fed.  We  do  not  crowd  cities 
because  lands  are  abundant  and  their  owners  kind, 
merciful  and  hospitable.  The  poor  are  as  hospitable 
as  the  rich,  the  negro  as  the  white  man.  Nobody 
dreams  of  turning  a  friend,  a  relative,  or  a  stranger 
from  his  door.  The  very  negro  who  deems  it  no  crime 
to  steal,  would  scorn  to  sell  his  hospitality.  We  have 
no  loafers,  because  the  poor  relative  or  friend  who  bor- 


APPENDIX.  255 

rows  our  horse,  or  spends  a  week  under  our  roof,  is  a 
welcome  guest.  The  loose  economy,  the  wasteful  mode 
of  living  at  the  South,  is  a  blessing  when  rightly  con- 
sidered; it  keeps  want,  scarcity  and  famine  at  a  dis- 
tance, because  it  leaves  room  for  retrenchment.  The 
nice,  accurate  economy  of  France,  England  and  New 
England,  keeps  society  always  on  the  verge  of  famine, 
because  it  leaves  no  room  to  retrench,  that  is  to  live 
on  a  part  only  of  what  they  now  consume.  Our  so- 
ciety exhibits  no  appearance  of  precocity,  no  symptoms 
of  decay.  A  long  course  of  continuing  improvement  is 
in  prospect  before  us,  with  no  limits  which  human 
foresight  can  descry.  Actual  liberty  and  equality  with 
our  white  population  has  been  approached  much  nearer 
than  in  the  free  States.  Few  of  our  whites  ever  work 
as  day  laborers,  none  as  cooks,  scullions,  ostlers,  body 
servants,  or  in  other  menial  capacities.  One  free  citi- 
zen does  not  lord  it  over  another;  hence  that  feeling 
of  independence  and  equality  that  distinguishes  us; 
hence  that  pride  of  character,  that  self-respect,  that' 
gives  us  ascendancy  when  we  come  in  contact  with 
Northerners.  It  is  a  distinction  to  be  a  Southerner,  as 
it  was  once  to  be  a  Roman  citizen. 

In  Virginia  we  are  about  to  reform  our  constitution. 
A  fair  opportunity  will  be  afforded  to  draw  a  wider  line 
of  distinction  between  freemen  and  slaves,  to  elevate 
higher  the  condition  of  the  citizen,  to  inspire  every 
white  man  with  pride  of  rank  and  position.  We  should 
do  more  for  education.  We  have  to  educate  but  half 
of  society,  at  the  North  they  attempt  to  educate  all. 
Besides,  here  all  men  have  time  for  self-education,  for 


256  APPENDIX. 

reading  and  reflection.  Nobody  works  long  hours. 
We  should  prohibit  the  exercise  of  mechanic  arts  to 
slaves  (except  on  their  master's  farm)  and  to  free  ne- 
groes. We  should  extend  the  right  of  sufferage  to  all 
native  Virginians,  and  to  Southerners  who  move  to 
Virginia,  over  twenty-one  years  of  age.  We  should 
permit  no  foreigner  and  no  Northerner,  who  shall  here- 
after remove  to  the  State,  to  vote  in  elections.  We 
should  have  a  small,  well  drilled,  paid  militia,  to  take 
the  place  of  the  patrol  and  the  present  useless  militia 
system.  All  men  of  good  character  should  serve  on 
juries  without  regard  to  property  qualification.  Thus 
we  should  furnish  honorable  occupation  to  all  our  citi- 
zens, whilst  we  cultivated  and  improved  their  minds 
by  requiring  them  all  to  take  part  in  the  administration 
of  justice  and  of  government.  We  should  thus  make 
poverty  as  honorable  as  it  was  in  Greece  and  Rome; 
for  to  be  a  Virginian  would  be  a  higher  distinction 
than  wealth  or  title  could  bestow.  We  should  cease  to 
be  a  bye-word  and  reproach  among  nations  for  our 
love  of  the  almighty  dollar.  We  should  be  happy  in 
the  confidence  that  our  posterity  would  never  occupy 
the  place  of  slaves,  as  half  mankind  must  ever  do  in 
free  society.  Until  the  last  fifteen  years,  our  great 
error  was  to  imitate  Northern  habits,  customs  and  in- 
stitutions. Our  circumstances  are  so  opposite  to  theirs, 
that  whatever  suits  them  is  almost  sure  not  to  suit  us. 
Until  that  time,  in  truth,  we  distrusted  our  social  sys- 
tem. We  thought  slavery  morally  wrong,  we  thought 
it  would  not  last,  we  thought  it  unprofitable.  The  Abo- 
litionists  assailed  us ;    we  looked  more  closely  into  our 


APPENDIX.  257 

circumstances )  became  satisfied  that  slavery  was  morally 
right,  that  it  would  continue  ever  to  exist,  that  it  was  as 
profitable  as  it  was  humane.  This  begat  self-confidence, 
self-reliance.  Since  then  our  improvement  has  been  rapid. 
Now  we  may  safely  say,  that  we  are  the  happiest,  most 
contented  and  prosperous  people  on  earth.  The  inter- 
meddling of  foreign  pseudo-philanthopists  in  our  affairs, 
though  it  has  occasioned  great  irritation  and  indigna- 
tion, has  been  of  inestimable  advantage  in  teaching  us 
to  form  a  right  estimate  of  our  condition.  This  inter- 
meddling will  soon  cease ;  the  poor  at  home  in  thunder 
tones  demand  their  whole  attention  and  all  their  charity. 
Self-preservation  will  compel  them  to  listen  to  their  de- 
mands. Moreover,  light  is  breaking  in  upon  us  from 
abroad.  All  parties  in  England  now  agree  that  the 
attempt  to  put  down  the  slave  trade  has  greatly  aggrava- 
ted its  horrors,  without  at  all  diminishing  the  trade  itself. 
It  is  proposed  to  withdraw  her  fleet  from  the  African 
coast.  France  has  already  given  notice  that  she  will 
withdraw  hers.  America  will  follow  the  example.  The 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  in  the  "West  Indies  is  ad- 
mitted to  have  been  a  failure  in  all  respects.  The  late 
masters  have  been  ruined,  the  liberated  slaves  refuse  to 
work,  and  are  fast  returning  to  the  savage  state,  and 
England  herself  has  sustained  a  severe  blow  in  the 
present  diminution  and  prospective  annihilation  of 
the  once  enormous  imports  from  her  West  Indian 
colonies. 

In  conclusion,  we  will  repeat  the  propositions,  in 
somewhat  different  phraseology,  with  which  we  set  out. 
First — That  Liberty  and  Equality,  with  their  concomi- 


258  APPENDIX. 

tant  Free  Competition,  beget  a  war  in  society  that  is 
as  destructive  to  its  weaker  members  as  the  custom  of 
exposing  the  deformed  and  crippled  children.  Sec- 
ondly— That  slavery  protects  the  weaker  members  of 
society  just  as  do  the  relations  of  parent,  guardian  and 
husband,  and  is  as  necessary,  as  natural,  and  almost  as 
universal  as  those  relations.  Is  our  demonstration  im- 
perfect ?  Does  universal  experience  sustain  our  theory  ? 
Should  the  conclusions  to  which  we  have  arrived  ap- 
pear strange  and  startling,  let  them  therefore  not  be  re- 
jected without  examination.  The  world  has  had  but 
little  opportunity  to  contrast  the  working  of  Liberty  and 
Equality  with  the  old  order  of  things,  which  always  par- 
took more  or  less  of  the  character  of  domestic  slavery. 
The  strong  prepossession  in  the  public  mind  in  favor  of 
the  new  system,  makes  it  reluctant  to  attribute  the  evil 
phenomena  which  it  exhibits,  to  defects  inherent  in  the 
system  itself.  That  these  defects  should  not  have  been 
foreseen  and  pointed  out  by  any  process  of  a  priori 
reasoning,  is  but  another  proof  of  the  fallibility  of  hu- 
man sagacity  and  foresight  when  attempting  to  foretell 
the  operation  of  new  institutions.  It  is  as  much  as  hu- 
man reason  can  do,  when  examining  the  complex  frame 
of  society,  to  trace  effects  back  to  their  causes — much 
more  than  it  can  do,  to  foresee  what  effects  new  causes 
will  produce.     We  invite  investigation. 


WHAT  SHALL   BE   DONE 

VTITH 

THE    FREE    NEGROES? 


Nearly  one  half  the  civilized  world  is  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  solution  of  this  question — but  especially 
France,  England  and  America.  Already  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  blacks  has  occasioned  many  evils,  and 
been  productive  of  no  ostensible  good  to  themselves  or 
to  the  whites.  In  the  West  Indian  dominions  of  France 
and  England,  all  industry  is  paralyzed,  and  the  most 
fertile  islands  in  the  world  threaten  soon  to  become 
desert  wastes,  infested  with  lawless  savages.  The  blacks 
so  far  outnumber  the  whites,  that  the  latter  will  remove, 
or  remain  to  witness  the  acting  over  again  the  tragedy 
of  St.  Domingo.  The  crusades  occasioned  less  human 
suffering  than  has  ensued  or  is  certain  to  ensue  from 
the  emancipation  of  the  blacks  in  the  West  Indies. 
The  crusades,  with  all  their  iniquities,  gave  the  first 
great  impulse  to  civilization.  West  Indian  emancipa- 
tion has  expelled  civilization  and  veiled  those  lovely 
Isles  with  the  thick  curtain  of  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion. The  masters  have  been  robbed  of  their  farms 
and  of  their  slaves,  with  more  millions  than  even  Croe- 
sus dreampt  of — yet  their  loss  is  as  nothing  compared  to 
the  loss  the  slaves  have  sustained  in  being  deprived  of 
the  tutelary  guardianship  of  those  masters.     The  mas- 


260  APPENDIX. 

ters  may  return  to  a  civilized  land — a  land  of  law  and 
order — there  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  civilized  life,  per- 
haps to  retrieve  their  ruined  fortunes — or  better  still, 
to  learn  resignation  to  their  fate  at  the  altar  of  the 
Christian  God.  The  emancipated  negroes  do  not  work, 
and  hunger  will  soon  drive  them  to  every  sort  of  crime. 
The  light  of  Christianity,  which  was  fast  spreading 
amongst  them,  is  destined  to  speedy  extinction,  and  vile 
superstisions  will  supply  its  place.  It  is  hardly  too 
bold  a  figure  to  say  that  in  losing  his  master,  the  negro 
has  lost  all  hope  here  and  hereafter.  The  civilized 
world  has  sustained  a  great  loss  in  the  diminution  of 
the  products  of  those  Isles,  which  products  have  be- 
come the  common  food  of  half  of  mankind.  But  it  is 
needless  to  enumerate  the  many  evils  that  short-sighted 
philanthropy  has  inflicted  on  the  West  Indies  and  on 
the  world  at  large,  by  emancipation,  and  equally  need- 
less to  speculate  about  the  remedy :  there  is  no  remedy, 
and  it  is  not  our  business  to  propose  it  if  there  were. 

In  the  United  States  the  situation  of  the  free  blacks 
is  becoming  worse  every  day.  The  silly  attempts  of 
the  Abolitionists  to  put  ^theni  on  a  footing  of  equality 
with  the  white?,  has  exasperated  the  laboring  whites  at 
the  North,  and  excited  odium  and  suspicion  against 
them  at  the  South.  The  natural  antipathies  of  race 
have  been  fanned  into  such  a  degree  of  excitement,  that 
the  free  negro  is  bandied  from  pillar  to  post — from 
North  to  South  and  from  South  to  North,  till  not  a  ray 
of  hope  is  left  him  of  a  quiet,  permanent  residence  any 
where,  so  long  as  he  remains  free.  Illinois  and  Cali- 
fornia will  not  permit  him  to  enter  their  dominions — 


1  APPENDIX.  261 

Ohio  places  him  under  severe  conditions,  and  is  now 
moving  to  expel  him  altogether,  and  Virginia  also  pro- 
poses to  send  him  back  to  Africa.  Mobs  in  our  North- 
ern  cities  drive  him  from  his  home  and  hunt  him 
like  a  wild  beast.  Two  great  movements,  or  rather  one 
great  and  one  very  small  movement,  may  be  observed 
in  constant  and  busy  operation  as  to  the  negro  race. 
The  small  movement  is  that  of  the  fanatical  Abolition- 
ists, who  would  free  the  whole  race  and  put  them  on  a 
social  and  political  equality  with  the  whites.  The  great 
movement  is  that  proceeding  from  hostility  of  race,  and 
proposes  to  get  rid  of  the  negroes  altogether,  not  to 
free  them.  This  movement  is  not  confined  to  the  North. 
Thousands,  we  regret  to  say,  at  the  South,  who  think 
slavery  a  blessing  to  the  negro,  believe  the  negro  a  curse 
to  the  country.  So  far  as  the  slaves  are  concerned,  this 
opinion  is  fast  changing.  Men  begin  to  look  more 
closely  at  what  the  slaveholders  have  been  doing  since 
our  Revolution,  and  find  that  they  have  been  exceeded 
in  skill,  enterprise  and  industry,  by  no  people  under 
the  sun.  They  have  settled  a  vast  territory  from  the 
Alleghany  to  the  La  Platte — from  the  Rio  Grande  to 
the  Ohio,  contending  all  the  while  with  blood-thirsty 
savages  and  a  climate  more  to  be  dreaded  than  even 
those  savages  themselves — and  are  already  producing  a 
greater  agricultural  surplus  than  any  people  in  the 
world.  They  see,  too,  that  the  condition  of  the  white 
man  is  elevated  and  equalized,  for  the  blacks  perform 
all  menial  duties  and  occupy  the  place  of  servants. 
The  white  laborers  of  the  North  think  the  existence  of 
negroes  at  the  North  as  free,  or  at  the  South  as  slaves, 


262  APPENDIX. 

injurious  to  themselves.  They  do  not  like  the  compe- 
tition of  human  beings  who  have  all  the  physical  pow- 
ers of  men,  with  the  wants  only  of  brutes.  Free  Soil- 
ism  pretty  well  represents  and  embodies  this  feeling. 
It  is  universal  at  the  North,  because  the  hostility  to 
negroes — the  wish  to  get  rid  of  their  competition  is  uni- 
versal there.  It  excludes  free  negroes  from  California 
as  well  as  slaves,  showing  that  the  Wilmot  Proviso  is 
directed  against  the  negro  race — not  against  slavery. 
This  great  movement,  which  proposes  to  get  rid  of  ne- 
groes, rather  than  of  slavery,  is  gathering  strength  every 
day,  and  so  far  as  the  free  negroes  are  concerned  it 
must  soon  sweep  them  away;  for  neither  the  feel- 
ings nor  the  interests  of  any  part  of  the  community, 
except  of  a  few  crazy  Abolitionists,  can  be  enlisted  in 
their  behalf.  The  slaves  have  masters  to  guard  and 
protect  them — and  guard,  protect  and  hold  them  they 
will,  cost  what  it  may. 

The  free  negroes  are  no  doubt  an  intolerable  nui- 
sance. They  blight  the  prosperity  of  every  village  and 
of  every  country  neighborhood  where  they  settle.  They 
are  thieves  from  necessity,  for  nature  has  made  them  so 
improvident  they  cannot  in  health  provide  for  ^sickness, 
in  youth  for  old  age,  nor  in  summer  for  winter.  Na- 
ture formed  them  for  a  climate  where  all  their"  wants 
were  supplied  abundantly  by  her  liberal  hand  at  every 
season.  We  knew  their  natures  when  we  set  them  free. 
Should  we  blame  them,  or  censure  ourselves  ?  We  knew 
they  were  not  fitted  for  liberty,  and  yet  conferred  lib- 
erty on  them.  Our  wiser  ancestors  made  them  slaves, 
because  as  slaves  they  might  be  made  civilized,  useful 


APPENDIX.  263 

and  christian  beings.  We  subject  children  till  twenty- 
one  years  of  age  to  the  control  of  their  parents,  or  ap- 
point guardians  for  them.  We  subject  wives  to  the 
dominion  of  their  husbands — apprentices  to  their  mas- 
ters. We  permit  sailors  and  soldiers  to  sell  their  liber- 
ties for  terms  of  years.  We  send  criminals  to  jails 
and  penitentiaries,  and  lunatics  to  hospitals.  In  all 
these  cases,  we  take  away  the  liberties  of  the  whites, 
either  for  the  benefit  of  individuals  or  for  the  good  of 
society.  We  act  upon  the  principle  that  no  one  is  en- 
titled to  liberty  who  will  abuse  it  to  the  detriment  of 
himself  or  of  others.  The  law  curtails  and  restricts 
the  freedom  of  the  wisest  and  the  best; — the  straight 
jacket  and  manacles  of  iron  are  applied  to  the  weakest 
and  most  wicked.  There  is  no  perfect  liberty  with  the 
whites,  but  every  degree  of  slavery,  from  law  to  straight 
jackets.  The  free  blacks,  who  most  need  the  control 
of  masters,  guardians,  curators  or  committees  are  left 
to  the  enjoyment  of  the  largest  liberty.  Law  alone  is 
expected  to  control  and  regulate  their  conduct.  We 
had  as  well  publish  laws  to  our  herds  and  flocks.  Men, 
to  be  governed  by  mere  law,  must  possess  great  intel- 
ligence, and  have  acquired  habits  of  self-control  and 
self-denial.  The  whites  from  15  to  21  years  of  age 
lack  not  intelligence,  but  habits  of  self-control,  to  fit 
them  for  government  by  law  alone.  The  arbitrary  will 
of  the  parent  or  guardian  must  be  superadded  to  the 
mandates  of  the  law,  to  save  them  from  the  indiscre- 
tions into  which  their  feelings  and  their  passions  would 
lead  them.  The  free  negroes  as  a  class,  have  less  in- 
telligence and  less  self-control,  than  the  whites  over  15 


264  APPENDIX. 

years  of  age.  A  good  government  graduates  as  nicely 
as  is  practicable,  each  man's  liberty  to  bis  capacity  for 
its  enjoyment — it  is  obliged,  however,  to  establish  gen- 
eral rules,  and  thus  occasions  many  cases  of  individ- 
ual hardship.  The  white  male  adults,  over  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  are  presumed  to  possess  enough  of  virtue, 
intelligence  and  self-control,  to  be  left  with  no  other 
control  than  that  of  the  law — yet  of  those  we  meet 
with  thousands  who  from  habitual  drunkenness,  from 
excessive  improvidence  and  extravagance,  or  from  strong 
criminal  propensities,  are  wholly  unfitted  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  mere  law,  and  stand  in  need  of  the  will  of 
a  superior  to  control  their  conduct,  and  save  them  from 
ruining  themselves,  their  friends  and  families.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  find  many  instances  of  wisdom  and  pru- 
dence among  whites  under  21  years  of  age,  whom  the 
law,  nevertheless,  subjects  to  the  control  of  guardians 
and  parents  often  less  wise,  less  virtuous,  and  less  pru- 
dent than  themselves.  In  subjecting  the  free  blacks 
to  the  will  of  white  masters,  fewer  instances  of  injustice 
of  this  kind  would  occur,  than  now  occur  with  the 
whites,  because  as  a  class  they  are  less  fitted  for  self- 
government  than  the  whites  between  the  ages  of  15 
and  21.  A  free  negro  !  Why,  the  very  term  seems 
an  absurdity.  It  is  our  daily  boast,  and  experience  veri- 
fies it,  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  America  are  the  only 
people  in  the  world  fitted  for  freedom  The  negro's  is 
not  human  freedom,  but  the  wild  and  vicious  license  of 
the  fox,  the  wolf  or  the  hawk.  He  is,  from  the  neces- 
sity of  his  nature,  a  very  Ishmaelite,  whose  hand  is 
against   every   man,  and  every   man's    hand    is  against 


APPENDIX.  265 

him.  It  is  as  much  the  duty  of  government  to  take 
away  liberty  from  those  who  abuse  it,  as  to  confer  it 
on  those  who  use  it  properly.  It  practises  every  day, 
as  we  have  shewn,  on  this  principle,  in  its  treatment  of 
the  whites,  and  why  should  it  hesitate  to  do  so  in  re- 
gard to  the  blacks  ?  It  is  the  object  and  duty  of  gov- 
ernment to  protect  men,  not  merely  from  wrong  and  in- 
justice from  others,  but  from  the  consequences  of  their 
own  vices,  imprudence  and  improvidence.  The  hum- 
blest member  of  society,  no  matter  what  the  color  of  his 
skin,  has  a  right  to  this  protection.  The  experience  of 
all  ages,  and  of  all  countries,  shows  that  this  protec- 
tion to  a  weaker  race  like  the  negro,  living  among  a  su- 
perior race,  can  only  be  given  by  bestowing  on  him  a 
master  whose  will  shall  be  the  law  of  his  conduct, 
whose  skill  and  foresight  shall  amass  and  provide  for 
him  in  sickness  and  in  old  age,  and  whose  power  shall 
shield  him  from  the  consequences  of  his  own  improvi- 
dence. The  vassalage  and  serfdom  of  Europe,  the 
slavery  of  America,  and  the  peonage  of  Mexico,  alike 
point  to  this  as  the  natural  and  proper  method  of  gov- 
erning free  negroes.  The  wisdom  of  the  common  law, 
and  indeed  of  all  ancient  codes,  distinctly  teaches  the 
same  truth;  for  guardians,  parents,  husbands,  commit- 
tees, and  various  officers,  are  but  masters  by  another 
name.  They  are  all  intended  to  supply,  in  more  or 
less  degree,  that  want  of  self-control  which  unfits  large 
classes  of  the  whites  for  self-government.  But  there  is 
a  peculiar  necessity  for  some  measure  of  this  kind,  with 
regard  to  the  blacks,  growing  out  of  the  antipathies  of 
race.  They  are  threatened  with  violent  extermination. 
M 


266  APPENDIX. 

The  fate  of  the  Indians  shows  that  they  will  be  exter- 
minated, if  they  continue  so  useless  and  so  troublesome. 
Had  the  Indian  been  useful  as  a  slave,  he  would  have 
survived  and  become  a  civilized  and  christian  being; 
but  he  was  found  as  useless,  as  troublesome,  and  as  in- 
tractable as  a  beast  of  prey,  and  has  shared  the  fate  of 
a  beast  of  prey.  The  negro,  in  the  condition  of  slavery, 
is  a  happy,  contented,  and  useful  being.  It  is  the 
state  for  which  nature  intended,  and  to  which  our  an- 
cestors, quite  as  wise  and  virtuous  as  ourselves,  con- 
signed him.  We  have  fully  and  fairly  tried  the  ex- 
periment of  freeing  him ;  we  have  witnessed  its  uni- 
versal and  deplorable  failure,  and  it  is  now  our  right 
and  our  duty,  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  wisdom  and  ex- 
perience, and  re-consign  him  to  the  only  condition  for 
which  he  is  suited. 

There  is  another  and  an  urgent  reason  why  his  very 
existence  requires  that  he  should  be  subjected  to  some 
modification  of  slavery.  His  lot  is  cast  among  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  and  what  people  can  stand  free  com- 
petition with  that  race  ?  The  Romans  conquered  Eng- 
land, and  the  ancient  Britons  flourished  and  became 
civilized  under  their  rule.  The  Saxon,  Dane  and  Nor- 
man came,  and  nothing  remains  to  tell  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Britons  but  the  names  of  a  few  rivers. 
The  Indian  is  exterminated  from  Maine  to  Georgia, 
the  Hindoos  are  perishing  under  British  rule  by  mil- 
lions, the  Spaniard  is  hardly  heard  of  in  Florida,  and 
Peonage  alone  can  save  the  Mexican  from  annihilation. 
From  the  days  of  Hengist  and  Horsa,  to  those  of  Hous- 
ton,   the    same    adventurous,     rapacious,    exterminating 


APPENDIX.  267 

spirit  has  characterised  the  race.  Can  the  negro  live 
with  all  his  reckless  improvidence  under  the  shade  of 
this  Upas  tree,  whose  deadly  poison  spares  no  other 
race  ?  Is  he  fitted  to  compete  with  a  people  who,  in 
the  struggle  of  life,  have  outstripped  and  exterminated 
all  other  nations  with  whom  they  have  come  in  con- 
tact? No.  Throwing  out  of  view  the  signs  of  the 
times,  pregnant  with  growing  hate  and  hostility  to  the 
free  negro,  the  experience  of  the  past  shows  that  his 
present  condition  is  hopeless  j  but  make  him  property, 
and  this  same  Anglo-Saxon  will  protect,  guard  and 
cherish  him,  for  no  people  on  earth  love  property 
more,  will  go  greater  lengths,  so  far  as  danger  is  con- 
cerned, to  obtain  it,  or  take  better  care  of  it  after  it  is 
obtained. 

We  will  not  undertake  to  decide  what  degree  or  modi- 
fication of  servitude  shall  be  adopted,  but  will  suggest 
that  peonage,  which  is  probably  one  of  its  mildest  forms, 
might  be  instituted.  To  attain  this,  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  repeal  so  much  of  the  common  law  as  prevents 
a  man's  parting  with  his  personal  liberty.  Indeed,  the 
common  law,  in  the  cases  of  soldiers  and  sailors,  per- 
mits even  white  men  to  sell  themselves  and  bind  their 
persons  for  a  term  of  years.  Grant  the  same  privilege 
to  the  free  negro  at  all  times,  and  we  think  there  will 
be  few  of  them  left  free  in  ten  years  to  come.  They 
cannot  now,  we  know  from  experience,  obtain  much 
more  than  half  the  yearly  hire  of  slaves,|  because  the 
hirer  has  no  security  that  they  will  remain  till  the  end 
of  the  year.  Their  improvidence,  and  their  desire  to 
obtain  the   protection  of  some  white  man,  would    drive 


268  APPENDIX. 

them  all  into  contracts  of  this  kind.  The  nuisance 
would  thus  be  abated,  and  in  its  place  we  should  ac- 
quire a  class  of  strong,  healthy  laborers.  If  this  plan 
did  not  work  well,  the  State  authorities  should,  at  the 
beginning  of  each  year,  hire  all  those  out  who  owned 
not  enough  property  to  support  themselves.  Part  of  the 
hires  might  be  paid  over  to  them,  and  the  balance  re- 
tained as  a  fund  to  support  the  infants,  the  aged,  and  in- 
firm here,  or  used  as  a  means  to  send  them  all  to  Africa. 
If  experience  showed  that  nothing  short  of  absolute 
slavery  would  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  case,  then  give 
them  a  year's  notice  to  quit  the  State,  or  be  sold  into  un- 
conditional slavery.  This  last  alternative  would  still  place 
them  in  a  situation  of  much  greater  security  and  comfort 
than  they  now  any  where  enjoy,  or  can  ever  probably  en- 
joy, in  a  state  of  unlimited  freedom.  We  think  it  a  more 
humane  measure,  and  a  more  politic  one,  than  to  send 
them  to  Africa.  If  it  be  necessary,  it  must  be  right. 
Reducing  men  to  slavery  has  been  practised  through- 
out all  time,  and  by  men  as  good,  and  as  wise  as  our- 
selves. Practised  too,  continually,  upon  men  much  bet- 
ter, much  wiser,  and  much  more  suited  for  freedom 
than  the  negro.  There  is  more  of  selfishness,  less  of 
exalted,  chivalrous  disinterested  virtue  in  this  utilitarian 
age,  than  in  most  of  those  with  which  we  are  acquainted, 
that  have  preceded  it.     We  only 

Compound  for  sins  we  are  inclined  to, 
By  damning  those  ice  have  no  mind  to. 

Liberty  is  the  great  hobby  of  this  money-making  age, 
and  the  over-ruling  argument  in  its  favor  is  borrowed 
from  the  arithmetic.  "  Free  labor  is  more  productive 
than    slave   labor.      It  is   cheaper   to  hire   the  laborer, 


APPENDIX.  269 

when  you  want  him,  and  turn  him  out  to  starve  when 
you  have  done  with  him,  than  to  buy  a  slave  and  sup- 
port him  through  all  the  seasons  of  the  year,  and 
through  all  the  periods  of  his  life.  Besides,  the  free 
man  whose  very  life  depends  on  it,  will  work  harder 
than  the  slave,  who  is  sure  of  a  support,  whether  he 
works  or  not."  Since  the  slave-trade  is  abolished,  which 
was  a  lucrative  and  favorite  pursuit  of  the  Yankees  and 
English,  those  gentry  have,  from  the  above  interested 
calculations,  turned  abolitionists.  Our  Southern  pa- 
triots, at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  finding  negroes 
expensive  and  useless,  became  warm  anti-slavery  men. 
We,  their  wiser  sons,  having  learned  to  make  cotton 
and  sugar,  find  slavery  very  useful  and  profitable,  and 
think  it  a  most  excellent  institution.  "We  of  the  South 
advocate  slavery,  no  doubt,  from  just  as  selfish  motives 
as  induce  the  Yankees  and  English  to  deprecate  it. 
"We  have,  however,  almost  all  human  and  divine  author- 
ity on  our  side  of  the  argument.  The  Bible  no  where 
condemns,  and  throughout  recognises  slavery.  Slavery 
has  been  so  universal  in  the  civilized  world,  and  so  lit- 
tle, if  at  all  known  among  savages,  that  its  occasional 
absence  of  late  years  in  civilized  nations,  seems  to  in- 
dicate something  wrong  or  rotten  in  their  condition. 
The  starving  state  of  the  poor  in  all  such  countries, 
furnishes  the  solution  of  the  difficulty,  and  indicates  the 
character  of  the  disease  under  which  society  is  suffer- 
ing. They  have  become  too  poor  to  have  slaves,  whom 
the  law  would  oblige  them  to  support.  "We  have  never 
met  with  a  Southern  man,  of  late  years,  who  did  not 
think  slavery  a  blessing  to  the  negro  race.     We  have 


2T0  APPENDIX. 

never  heard  a  single  white  man  maintain  that  this  race 
was  qualified  for  freedom,  nor  met  with  one  who  did  not 
complain  of  the  free  negroes  as  a  nuisance.  Now,  how 
strange  and  inconsistent  in  us  to  permit  men  to  remain 
free,  whose  freedom  is  a  curse  to  themselves  and  a  nui- 
sance to  society.  How  cruel  and  unwise  in  us  not  to 
extend  the  blessings  of  slavery  to  the  free  negroes, 
which  work  so  well  with  the  slaves.  Humanity,  self- 
interest,  consistency,  all  require  that  we  should  enslave 
the  free  negro.  We  enslave  the  whites  whenever  the 
good  of  the  individual,  or  of  society  requires  it,  in  the 
many  instances  we  have  cited,  and  leave  the  free  negro 
to  roam  at  large  in  liberty  as  untrammelled  and  un- 
constrained as  that  of  the  beasts  of  the  field  or  birds  of 
the  air.  They  are  restrained  neither  by  the  convention- 
alities of  society,  the  bonds  of  religion,  the  laws  of  mo- 
rality, the  chain  of  marriage,  the  authority  of  parents 
or  guardians,  nor  by  the  power  of  a  master.  They 
who  are  least  fitted  for  liberty  are  scarcely  subjected  to 
any  governmental  control  whatever. 

But  if  they  be  qualified  for  liberty,  so  are  our  slaves, 
and  we  are  acting  morally  wrong  in  retaining  in  bond- 
age beings  who  would  be  better  off  as  freemen.  The 
slave,  if  set  free,  would  be  just  what  the  free  negroes 
now  are,  and  if  that  be  a  desirable  condition,  one  bet- 
ter for  them  and  for  society,  than  that  they  are  now  in, 
we  ought  to  set  about  making  free  negroes  of  them. 
Both  cases  are  before  us,  we  have  ample  experience  of 
the  working  of  both.  It  is  not  only  our  right,  but 
our   duty  to    cherish   and    encourage   that   condition    of 


APPENDIX.  271 

the  negro  race  which  works  well — to  abolish  that  which 
works  badly. 

The  free  negroes  corrupt  our  slaves  and  make  them 
less  contented  with  their  situation.  Their  competition 
is  injurious  to  our  white  laboring  citizens.  Their  wants 
are  so  few  and  simple,  that  when  they  do  work,  they 
will  take  lower  wages  than  the  white  man  can  afford 
to  receive ;  besides,  it  is  as  well  the  policy  as  the  duty 
of  the  State  to  elevate  the  condition  of  her  citizens, 
not  to  send  them  in  the  labor  market  with  negroes  for 
competitors.  Let  the  negro  always  occupy  a  situation 
subordinate  to  the  white  man.  North  and  South,  every 
deviation  from  this  policy  leads  to  violence,  in  which 
the  blacks  are  the  sufferers.  The  law  cannot  make  ne- 
groes free  if  it  would,  because  society  will  not  tolerate 
it.  The  signs  of  the  times,  North  and  South,  clearly 
show  that  the  free  negroes  will  be  borne  with  no  lon- 
ger by  society.  If  the  subject  be  promptly  attended  to 
by  State  governments,  some  disposition  of  them  may  be 
made  consistent  with  humanity.  If  legislative  action 
be  delayed,  the  people  in  their  primary  capacity,  in 
vulgar  parlance  mobs,  will  take  the  case  in  hand.  We 
heard  but  recently,  that  the  people  in  one  of  our  coun- 
ties had  given  them  notice  to  quit.  Quit !  and  go 
where  ?  To  be  turned  out  and  hunted  like  the  bagged 
fox. 


272  APPENDIX. 


II. 

Is  there  any  good  reason  why  men  should  not  be 
allowed  to  sell  their  liberty?  Is  it  wise,  politic  or  hu- 
mane, to  prevent  the  man,  who  sees  his  family  starving 
around  him,  from  hiring  himself  so  as  to  bind  his  per- 
son, even  for  a  day,  a  week,  or  a  month,  to  save  himself 
and  family  from  death  ?  Could  the  poor  Irish  sell 
themselves  and  families  for  a  term  of  years,  to  the 
farmers  of  our  Northwestern  States,  in  order  to  pay 
their  passage  to  this  country,  and  secure  them  from  want 
on  their  arrival,  would  there  be  any  thing  unwise  or 
unmerciful  in  the  laws  which  permitted  it?  The  law 
did  once  permit  it,  for  Virginia  was  in  great  part  settled 
by  indented  servants,  and  by  the  descendants  of  girls 
bought  up  in  London  and  sold  to  the  planters  here  for 
wives.  Indeed,  all  women  literally  sell  their  liberties 
when  they  marry,  and  very  few  repent  of  the  bargain. 
Among  the  civilized  States  of  antiquity,  the  right  to  sell 
one's  liberty,  we  believe,  was  universal.  Is  it  not  a 
curtailment  of  liberty  to  deny  the  right  ?  The  starving 
poor  would  often  think  so.  To  the  victim  of  intempe- 
rance who  has  just  recovered  from  an  attack  of  delirium 
tremens,  such  a  right  would  be  worth  all  the  temperance 
societies  in  the  world.  His  enervated  will  can  no  longer 
control  him,  and  the  law  will  not  permit  him  to  adopt 
the  will  of  another.  The  law  thus  murders  thousands 
annually,  pretending  all  the  while  to  guard  and  protect 
their  rights.  The  army,  the  navy  and  the  merchant 
service  are  filled  with  men  of  this  description.  It  is  the 
only  refuge  the  law  allows  them.     Those  who  were  fitted 


APPENDIX.  273 

for  liberty  would  not  sell  it,  or  if  in  some  moment  of 
misfortune  they  did,  they  would  buy  that  liberty  again 
by  the  exercise  of  great  economy  and  industry.  The 
right  to  purchase  their  own  liberty  has,  in  other  coun- 
tries, been  a  common  privilege  of  slaves.  We  mean  that 
white  men  sold  into  slavery  would,  if  worthy  of  liberty, 
purchase  their  freedom.  We  do  not  advocate  any  change 
of  the  law  that  would  permit  them  to  part,  even  for  a 
day,  with  their  personal  liberty.  One  of  the  objects  in 
granting  such  privilege  to  free  negroes,  would  be  to  draw 
a  wider  line  of  distinction  between  the  negroes  and  our 
white  citizens.  But  in  countries  where  there  are  no 
negroes,  we  can  see  no  reason  why  the  whites  in  all 
cases  might  not  be  allowed  to  sell  their  persons  for  short 
periods.  Soldiers  and  sailors  are  allowed  to  do  so  for 
the  defence  of  the  nation  and  the  benefit  of  commerce. 
Domestic  servants  and  farm  hands  would  be  benefited 
themselves,  and  their  employers  also  benefited,  could 
they  be  hired  by  the  year  j  at  all  events,  every  govern- 
ment that  denies  this  privilege  of  selling  one's  self,  is 
bound  to  provide  for  its  poor  citizens,  as  well  as  masters 
provide  for  their  slaves.  But  all  governments  permit 
thousands  of  the  poor  to  starve — in  truth,  every  body 
seems  to  have  taken  it  for  granted  that  this  provision  of 
the  law  is  right,  without  having  taken  the  trouble  to 
examine  into  the  reasons  on  which  it  is  founded.  The 
reasons  assigned  by  Blackstone  in  his  Commentaries,  are 
so  false  and  puerile,  as  to  show  that  he  had  given  no  con- 
sideration to  the  subject.  The  objection  that  a  man  may 
not  sell  himself,  because  slavery  puts  his  life  in  his  mas- 
ter's hands,  is  false  as  to  modern  slavery  in  all  civilized 


274  APPENDIX. 

countries,  and  'tis  with  this  slavery  we  and  he  too  had  to 
deal.  The  other  objection,  that  the  slave's  property  be- 
longs to  the  master,  is  not  a  necessary  or  universal  feature 
of  slavery.  We  would  not  have  it  so  in  the  case  of  the 
free  negroes,  when  placed,  as  we  hope  they  will  be,  in 
some  modified  condition  of  slavery.  His  third  objection, 
that  the  consideration  accrues  to  the  master,  is  only  true 
when  the  slave  can  hold  no  separate  property.  In  most 
cases,  no  consideration  would  be  paid,  other  than  protec- 
tion and  support.  Justice  will  compel  us,  in  some  cases, 
to  pay  hire  for  the  free  negroes,  but  we  know  from  expe- 
rience that  morality  forbids  it.  We  hire  a  free  negro  by 
the  year — we  feed  and  clothe  him,  and  he  is  anxious  to 
continue  with  us  another  year.  We  know  that  he  spends 
almost  every  cent  of  his  hire  in  vice  and  debauchery,  yet 
he  is  superior  to  his  race  generally,  for  he  is  honest  and 
industrious.  We  pay  him  a  third  less  hire  than  we 
would  give  for  him  had  he  the  right  to  bind  his  person. 
Free  negroes  generally  hire  for  little  more  than  half  what 
slaves  do  :  liberty  costs  them  dear.  Whilst  on  this  sub- 
ject, we  would  call  attention  to  a  new  kind  of  African 
slave-trade  that  prevails  in  our  neighborhood ;  the  free 
negro  women  hire  out  their  children,  and  bask  in  the 
sun  idle  and  unemployed  themselves.  We  tried  to  per- 
suade, some  days  since,  a  young  negro  man,  who,  with 
his  young  wife,  were  desperately  poor,  that  he  would  be 
better  off  as  a  slave,  as  he  might  expect  soon  to  have  a 
large  family  to  support,  and  could  now  scarce  support 
himself.  He  quaintly  replied,  "  that  he  then  would  hire 
out  his  children  and  live  easy." 

Blackstone,  treating  of  the  relative  position  of  master 
and  servant,  employs  the  following  language  :  "  The  first 


APPENDIX.  275 

sort  of  servants,  therefore,  acknowledged  by  the  laws  of 
England,  are  menial  servants,  so  called  from  being  intra 
mamia,  or  domestics.  The  contract  between  them  and 
their  masters  arises  upon  the  hiring.  If  the  hiring  be 
general,  without  any  particular  time  limited,  the  law 
considers  it  to  be  a  hiring  for  a  year,  upon  a  principle  of 
natural  equity  that  the  servant  shall  serve  and  the  master 
maintain  him  throughout  all  the  revolutions  of  the  re- 
spective seasons,  as  well  when  there  is  work  to  be  done 
as  when  there  is  not — but  the  contract  may  be  made  for 
any  longer  or  smaller  term.  All  single  men,  between 
twelve  years  old  and  sixty,  and  married  ones  under  thirty 
years  of  age — and  all  single  women  between  twelve  and 
forty,  not  having  any  visible  livelihood,  are  compellable 
by  two  justices  to  go  out  to  service  in  husbandry  or  other 
specific  trades  for  the  promotion  of  honest  industry,  and 
no  master  can  put  away  his  servant,  or  servant  leave  his 
master,  after  being  so  retained,  either  before  or  at  the 
end  of  his  term,  without  a  quarter's  warning;  unless 
upon  reasonable  cause,  to  be  allowed  by  a  justice  of  the 
peace ;  but  they  may  part  by  consent,  or  make  a  special 
bargain." 

Now,  a  statute  in  our  State,  with  regard  to  free  negroes 
which  should  attain  the  ends  contemplated  by  this  Eng- 
lish statute,  would  rid  us  of  the  nuisance.  To  attain 
those  ends,  the  contract  of  hiring  should  be  for  a  year  or 
longer  period,  and  should  bind  the  person. 

The  Roman  history  contains  a  remarkable  proof  of 
the  kindly  and  friendly  relations  which  subordination  of 
rank  begets.  The  Plebeians  all  became  the  clients  or 
vassals  of  some  Patrician,  who   was   bound   to   advise, 


276  APPENDIX. 

counsel  and  protect  them.  In  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
Republic,  during  a  lapse  of  six  hundred  years,  we  are 
told  that  not  a  single  instance  occurred  of  faithlessness 
to  this  tie  of  inferior  and  superior.  The  attachment  be- 
tween client  and  patron  descended  from  father  to  son, 
and  made  one  family  of  the  protector  and  protected. 
How  much  more  does  the  free  negro  need  a  patron  than 
did  the  Roman.  Curious  speculators  on  society,  seeing 
that  hereditary  distinctions  of  rank  gradually  disappear 
in  nations,  have  concluded  that  these  distinctions  were 
all  induced  by  conquest  and  difference  of  race.  No 
length  of  time  will  wear  out  the  distinction  between 
blacks  and  whites  j  but  proper  subordination  of  the  black 
to  the  white  man  will  be  sure  to  produce  the  usual  at- 
tachment between  lord  and  vassal,  master  and  slave,  pro- 
tector and  protected.  The  fate  of  the  Gripsey  race  in 
England  shows  the  impossibility  of  governing  half-civil- 
ized beings  by  mere  law.  The  laws  against  them  were 
numerous  and  bloody,  and  influenced  their  conduct  no 
more  than  laws  passed  against  crows  and  blackbirds. 
They  heeded  not  the  precepts  and  admonitions  of  the 
law,  and  have  been  exterminated  by  the  avenging  sword 
of  the  law.  Such  has  been  the  fate  of  the  Indians,  and 
such  will  be  the  fate  of  the  free  negroes,  if  mobs,  to  the 
eternal  disgrace  of  our  country,  do  not  anticipate  the 
law.  History  furnishes  but  a  single  instance  where  ne- 
groes have  been  well  governed  without  masters,  and  in 
that  instance  the  rule  was  ten  times  more  rigorous  than 
that  of  the  master.  Tousaint,  the  president  of  Hayti, 
by  a  strict  military  surveillance,  kept  them  at  work  on 
separate  farms,  and  punished  them  capitally  for  the  third 


APPENDIX.  277 

offence  of  quitting  the  farm  without  a  written  permit. 
Succeeding  administrations  have  relaxed  the  government 
till  the  whole  island  is  in  a  state  of  savage  anarchy  which 
invites  and  would  justify  another  conquest  and  reduction 
of  the  inhabitants  to  that  state  of  slavery  for  which  alone 
they  are  fitted,  and  from  which  they  so  wickedly  escaped. 

The  great  mortality,  the  vice  and  ignorance  that  pre- 
vail at  the  British  colony  of  Sierra  Leone,  show  that 
this  attempt  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  negro  has 
resulted  in  consequences  infinitely  worse  than  slavery. 
Better  governments  at  Liberia  and  Cape  Palmas  have 
prevented,  so  far,  the  exhibition  of  so  much  gross  vice 
and  ignorance ;  but  even  in  those  colonies  the  mortality 
is  so  great  as  to  deter  those  who  value  human  life  as  th& 
greatest  of  human  blessings  from  encouraging  emigration 
to  them.  But  if  almost  certain  death  from  the  climate 
did  not  await  the  emigrant  negroes,  they  must  be  extir- 
pated by  the  savages,  or  extirpate  the  savages  to  make 
room  for  themselves.  No  habitable  part  of  Africa  is 
unsettled,  and  the  free  blacks  who  go  there  in  numbers 
must  make  room  for  themselves,  sword  in  hand,  as  the 
whites  did  in  America.  We  who  maintain  that  it  was  a 
blessing  to  the  negro  to  be  brought  from  Africa  and 
made  a  slave  and  a  Christian,  are  estopped  from  con- 
tending that  it  is  also  a  blessing  to  set  him  free  and  send 
him  back  to  become  a  savage  and  a  Pagan.  Between 
the  two  blessings,  the  middle  passage  on  the  inward  trip 
and  the  climate  of  the  coast  on  the  return,  few  would 
survive  to  tell  of  their  happiness. 

Let  us  try  the  experiment  of  hiring  them  by  the  year, 
and  if  that  fail,  sell  them   into  unconditional   slavery. 


278  APPENDIX. 

Slavery  is  a  blessing  to  the  negro — at  all  events,  it  is 
better  than  the  tender  mercies  of  an  American  mob  or 
an  African  cannibal,  the  Scylla  and  Charybdis  which 
now  threaten  him.  Slavery  is  too  costly,  too  humane 
and  merciful  an  institution  for  France,  England  or  New 
England.  The  free  competition  of  labor  and  capital  in 
those  countries  where  labor  is  redundant,  is  certain  to 
bring  the  wages  of  labor  down  to  the  minimum  amount 
that  will  support  human  life.  The  employers  of  free 
laborers,  like  the  riders  of  hired  horses,  try  to  get  the 
most  possible  work  out  of  them,  for  the  least  hire.  They 
boast  of  the  low  rates  at  which  they  procure  labor,  and 
still  hold  up  their  heads  in  society  uncensured  and  unre- 
proved.  No  slaveholder  was  ever  so  brutal  as  to  boast  of 
the  low  wages  he  paid  his  slaves,  to  pride  himself  on 
feeding  and  clothing  them  badly — neglecting  the  young, 
the  aged,  the  sick  and  infirm;  such  a  man  would  bo 
hooted  from  society  as  a  monster.  Society  hardly  tole- 
rates inhumanity  to  horses,  much  less  to  slaves.  But 
disguise  the  process  a  little,  and  it  is  a  popular  virtue  to 
oppress  free  white  poor  people.  G-et  the  labor  of  the 
able-bodied  husband  as  cheap  as  you  can,  and  leave  his 
wife,  children  and  aged  parents  to  starve,  and  you  are 
the  beau  ideal  of  a  man  in  England  and  New  England. 
Public  opinion,  as  well  as  natural  feeling,  requires  a  man 
to  pay  his  slave  high  wages ;  the  same  public  opinion 
commends  your  cleverness  in  paying  low  wages  to  free 
laborers,  and  nature  and  conscience  oppose  no  obstacles 
to  the  screwing  process. 

King  Lear. Take  physic,  pomp ; 

Expose  thyself  to  feel  what  wretches  feel, 
That  thou  mayest  shake  the  superflux  to  them, 
And  show  the  heavens  more  just. 


APPENDIX.  279 


III, 


To  say  that  free  labor  is  cheaper  than  slave  labor,  is 
to  say  that  the  slave  is  better  off,  so  far  as  physical 
comfort  is  concerned,  than  the  free  laborer.  The  wages 
of  the  free  laborer  exactly  represent  all  the  physical 
material  comforts  he  and  his  family  can  enjoy — the 
cost  of  slave  labor  consists  (after  the  slaves  are  pur- 
chased) entirely  of  the  comforts  of  life  which  the 
master  gives  to  his  slaves.  The  hirer  of  free  laborers 
maintains  the  families  of  those  laborers,  in  sickness  and 
in  health,  in  infancy  and  in  old  age,  precisely  as  does 
the  master  his  slaves — the  only  difference  being  that 
the  free  laborer  expends  the  hire  himself  for  those  pur- 
poses, whilst  the  master  expends  it  for  the  slave.  If 
free  labor  be  cheapest,  it  is  because  it  costs  the  employer 
less  to  support  the  free  laborer  and  his  family,  than  it 
does  the  master  to  support  his  slaves.  Price  is  the 
measure  of  things  useful  to  man.  If  the  slave's  labor 
costs  more  than  the  free  man's,  he  gets  a  larger  measure 
of  things  useful  to  mankind.  Now  this  is  exact  or  de- 
monstrative reasoning,  because  it  treats  of  quantities 
of  things  physical  or  material,  which  admit  of  ad- 
measurement. Mathematical  certainty  is  attainable  by 
argument  of  this  kind.  We  think,  (granting  our  prem- 
ises, that  free  labor  is  cheaper  than  slave  labor,)  we 
have  attained  this  degree  of  certainty.  We  add  as  a 
corollary,  that  the  slave's  physical  condition  is  exactly 
so  much  better  than  the  free  laborer's,  as  the  cost  of 
slave  labor  exceeds  that  of  free  labor.  Now,  as  to  the 
relative  moral  condition  of  the  slave  and  the  free  laborer, 


280  APPENDIX. 

reasoning  of  this  kind  cannot  be  employed  at  all,  be- 
cause we  have  to  deal  with  things  moral  and  metaphys- 
ical, in  which  there  are  no  ascertainable  quantities — 
no  standard  of  admeasurement  to  appeal  to.  We  can 
measure  the  physical  comforts  of  life — such  as  food, 
raiment,  &c,  in  various  ways;  but  all  of  them,  by  the 
common,  agreed  standard  of  price — the  amount  of  dol- 
lars and  cents  which  they  cost — but  we  cannot  measure 
morality,  virtue,  hope,  happiness,  despair,  &c.  To  il- 
lustrate, the  slave  feels  secure  for  himself  and  family, 
of  future  comfortable  maintenance,  but  hopeless  as  to 
bettering  his  condition.  The  free  laborer  is  harrowed 
with  fears  and  apprehensions  of  the  future,  but  along 
with  these  fears  and  apprehensions,  entertains  the  hope 
of  changing  and  improving  his  condition.  In  these 
cases  we  can  get  at  no  precise  quantities — appeal  to  no 
standard  of  measure,  to  determine  whether  the  attri- 
butes of  slavery,  or  those  of  liberty  are  of  greater 
quantity  or  value.  Wo  launch  on  a  sea  of  moral  or 
speculative  reasoning,  where  we  cannot  approximate  any 
thing  like  proof — each  man's  taste  will  be  the  only 
arbiter,  and  de  gustibus  non  est  disputandum.  We 
have  inverted,  intentionally,  the  correct  order  of  reason- 
ing. We  come  in  the  last  place  to  prove  our  premises; 
we  knew  the  reader  would  admit  them  till  he  saw  the 
conclusions  to  which  they  infallibly  led — then  many  a 
reader  will  revolt  at -those  premises,  because  they  lead 
to  what  are,  in  his  mind,  revolting  conclusions.  First, 
then,  free  labor  is  cheaper  than  slave  labor,  in  a  thickly 
settled  country,  else  the  European  nations  who  sent 
slaves  to  America  would  have  also  employed  them  at 


APPENDIX. 


. 


home ;  for  it  is  notorious  that  as  a  general,  almost  an 
universal  rule,  farmers  and  other  capitalists  employ 
that  labor  which  is  cheapest. 

Secondly.  The  slave-holding  South  is  supplied  by 
the  North  and  other  non-slaveholding  countries,  with 
all  articles  that  can  be  made  as  well  at  the  North  as  at 
the  South — which  proves  that  it  is  cheaper  to  employ 
free  labor  to  make  those  articles  and  pay  the  expenses 
of  transportation,  than  to  have  them  made  by  slaves  at 
home. 

Thirdly.  In  all  old  countries  there  is  a  superfluity 
of  laborers,  and  they,  in  competing  to  get  employment, 
under-bid  each  other,  till  wages  reach  the  lowest  point, 
that  will  support  human  existence ;  but  the  master  is 
afraid  so  to  depress  the  wages  of  his  slave,  else  he 
might  lose  the  slave. 

Fourthly.  The  Puritan  fathers  and  their  immediate 
descendants  were  active  slave-traders  and  slave-holders — 
their  later  posterity,  neither  more  pious  nor  moral  than 
their  ancestors  or  their  Southern  neighbors,  liberated 
their  slaves,  we  may  fairly  infer,  because  they  found 
free  labor  cheaper. 

Fifthly.  It  has  been  generally  admitted  by  the  op- 
ponents of  slavery  that  free  labor  is  cheaper. 

Having  demonstrated  that  the  physical  condition  of 
the  slave  is  better  than  that  of  the  free  laborer,  it  re- 
mains only  that  we  should  apply  this  conclusion  to  the 
free  negroes  whom  we  propose  to  enslave.  Their  phys- 
ical condition  would  be  improved  by  slavery,  and  their 
moral  condition  could  not  be  made  worse,  for,  unlike 
the  white   man,   they   have  no   hope  of   changing  and 


282  APPENDIX. 

improving  their  condition  whilst  free.  They  cannot 
escape  from  the  class  of  common  laborers.  The  whites 
above  them  oppose  an  insuperable  barrier  to  their  ele- 
vation. It  is  certainly  better  to  be  a  slave  than  a  free 
laborer,  without  hope  of   improving  one's  condition. 

[Note. — We  have  left  out  the  original  cost  of  the 
slaves,  in  estimating  the  relative  cheapness  of  slave 
and  free,  because  formerly  African  slaves  cost  so  little 
as  not  to  have  seriously  influenced  the  preference  given 
to  free  labor  in  Europe,  and  more  recently  our  Northern 
States,  after  incurring  that  cost,  found  it  cheaper  to 
liberate  the  slaves  and  employ  free  labor.] 


IV. 

Has  the  State  the  right  to  enslave  them  ?  Slavery 
is  but  a  form  of  government,  and  we  have  shewn  it  is 
the  duty  and  practice  of  every  State  to  adopt  the  de- 
gree of  control  and  form  of  government  as  near  as 
practicable  to  the  capacity  and  necessity  of  each  indi- 
vidual. Guardians  are  provided  for  children,  masters 
for  apprentices,  captains  for  sailors  and  soldiers,  dark 
cells  and  hard  work  for  convicts,  and  straight  jackets 
for  lunatics.  No  one  doubts  that  it  is  as  well  the  right 
as  the  duty  of  government  to  make  these  provisions, 
and  abridge  or  take  away  liberty  from  all  white  citizens 
who  are  not  qualified  to  enjoy  it.  Every  other  form 
of  government  than  that  of  slavery  has  signally  failed 
in  the  case  of  the  negro.  He  is  an  enemy  to  himself, 
and  an  intolerable  pest  and  nuisance  to  society,  where 
ever  among  the  whites  he  is  free.  The  Abolitionists 
failing   in   their   efforts   to   free   the   slaves,    have   sue. 


APPENDIX.  283 

ceeded  wonderfully  in  aggravating  and  embittering  the 
natural  hostility  of  the  white  and  black  race.  They 
have  prompted  the  free  negroes  to  assert  their  equality 
with  the  whites,  and  in  return  for  their  insolence,  the 
whites  are  ready  to  expel  them  from  the  land.  But 
expulsion  is  now,  at  least,  impracticable.  If  it  ever 
succeeds,  it  will  require  ages  to  complete  it.  In  the 
meantime,  it  is  the  right  and  duty  of  the  State  to  en- 
slave them,  because  experience  has  clearly  proved  that 
it  is  the  only  practicable  mode  of  governing  them. 
We  deprive  them  of  no  right,  because  no  one,  black 
or  white,  has  a  right  to  liberty  who  abuses  it  to  the 
detriment  of  himself  or  of  society.  They  have  the 
right  to  the  protection  and  care  of  masters,  but  the 
law  denies  them  the  exercise  of  that  right  in  not  per- 
mitting them  to  hire  or  sell  themselves.  The  common 
notion  that  liberty  is  good  for  man,  is  one  of  the  most 
false  and  foolish  that  ever  entered  the  human  mind. 
None  but  brutes  and  savages  desire  entire  liberty. 
The  only  free  people  in  the  world  are  the  Digger  In- 
dians of  the  Valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  and  the 
Australians  of  New  Holland  j  they  know  nothing  of 
government,  of  society,  of  castes,  of  classes,  or  of  sub- 
ordination of  rank ;  each  man  digs  for  worms  and 
climbs  for  birds'  eggs  on  his  own  hook ;  they  are  per- 
fectly free,  famished  and  degraded.  We  admire  and 
love  liberty,  coupled  with  happiness,  as  much  as  any 
one.  "We  pine  with  the  caged  bird,  and  rejoice  with 
the  free  warblers  of  the  grove  and  the  forest.  The 
sportive  gambols  of  the  colt  fill  us  with  pleasure. 

Quae  velut  latis  eqaa  trima  campia 
Ludit  exultim  metuit  que  tangi. 


284  APPENDIX. 

Nature  has  fitted  such  creatures  for  liberty  j  but  of 
cold,  shivering,  naked,  houseless,  starving  liberty,  the 
liberty  of  the  prodigal  son  and  the  free  negro,  we 
entertain  much  the  same  opinion  that  Falstaff  did  of 
honor: — ""What  is  honor?  A  word.  What  is  in  that 
word  honor  ?  What  is  that  honor  ?  Air.  A  trim 
reckoning  ! — \V  ho  hath  it  ?  He  who  died  o'  Wednes- 
day. Doth  he  feel  it?  No.  Doth  he  hear  it?  No. 
Is  it  insensible  then  ?  Yea,  to  the  dead.  But  it  will 
not  live  with  the  living — therefore  I'll  none  of  it. 
Honor  is  a  mere  scutcheon,  and  so  ends  my  catechism." 
As  civilization  advances  liberty  recedes.  The  Cossacks 
of  Russia  are  a  thousand  times  more  free  than  the  en- 
lightened inhabitants  of  the  city  of  New  York.  The 
Cossacks,  living  far  from  government,  and  having  little 
property,  are  scarcely  aware  that  a  government  exists. 
The  enlightened  citizen  of  New  York  daily  feels  the 
operation  of  the  laws  of  the  Union,  the  laws  of  the 
State,  and  the  laws  of  the  corporation;  he  is  probably 
a  member  of  a  church,  a  club,  of  a  Masonic  society, 
and  of  a  board  of  trade — he  is  controlled  in  his  conduct 
by  the  rules,  regulations  and  laws  of  all  these  institu- 
tions; besides,  he  is  the  slave  of  fashion,  and  cannot, 
like  the  savage,  dress  and  appear  as  he  pleases  :  he 
has  a  wife  and  children  to  attend  to  and  provide  for, 
and  all  his  spare  moments  must  be  devoted  to  them. 
Does  such  a  man  enjoy  one  moment  of  liberty?  No; 
every  moment  has  its  appropriate  duties,  which  he 
must  slavishly  perform,  or  he  is  a  disgraced  man.  It 
is  true,  his  slavery  is  self-imposed  in  a  great  measure. 
This    only   shews   that    civilized    man   does   not   desire 


APPENDIX.  285 

liberty.  "Was  there  ever  a  white  savage — we  mean 
one  of  the  Caucasian  race — except  the  wild  Boy  of 
Hanover?  The  Greeks  and  Romans  were  very  lavish 
of  the  term  barbarian,  but  we  doubt  whether  they 
ever  saw  a  savage.  Herodotus  treats  of  men  without 
heads  and  with  eyes  in  their  breasts,  in  Africa,  but 
says  not  a  word  of  men  with  black  skins  and  woolly 
heads.  His  learning,  which  embraces  on  this  subject 
all  known  by  his  countrymen,  only  extended  to  the 
limits  of  civilization.  Have  the  whites  been  civilized 
in  some  degree  from  the  days  of  Noah,  or  did  civ- 
ilization in  the  middle  ages  spread  with  electric  speed 
through  Norway,  Sweden,  Lapland  and  Russia?  It 
matters  not  which  proposition  be  true.  The  white 
race  has  either  been  always  civilized,  or  has  evinced  a 
remarkable  aptitude  to  adopt  civilization ;  they  required 
no  missionaries  and  colonization  societies  to  civilize 
them. 

Alexander  Everett,  a  Northern  gentleman,  in  a  work 
on  America,  contends  that  civilization  had  its  birth  with 
the  negroes,  and  that  the  rest  of  the  world  derived  it 
from  them.  In  locating  the  birth-place  of  civilization, 
he  very  nearly  concurs  with  a  majority  of  the  learned. 
The  records  of  history  and  the  remains  of  art  alike  de- 
signate the  banks  of  the  lower  Nile  as  the  cradle  of  civil- 
ization. For  four  thousand  years,  certainly,  the  negro 
race  has  been  in  immediate  contact  with  civilization.  A 
dense  population,  without  interruption  or  interval,  for 
ages  before  the  time  of  Pharaoh  and  Moses,  extended 
along  the  Nile  from  the  Pyramids  and  Thebais  to  the 
negroes  along   the    white   Nile.     Between   Thebais   and 


286  APPENDIX. 

the  negroes,  an  interval  of  a  few  hundred  miles  was  set- 
tled by  people  of  Arabic  descent — a  people  from  the 
days  of  Abraham  always  more  or  less  civilized.  Yet 
with  all  the  advantage  of  contact  with  civilization  for 
four  thousand  years,  not  a  single  negro  was  ever  re- 
claimed from  his  savage  state  till  he  was  caught,  tied, 
tamed  and  domesticated  like  the  wild  ox  or  the  wild 
horse.  Talk  of  sending  missionaries  to  such  a  people ! 
Why,  millions  of  missionaries  have  been  side  by  side 
with  them  for  four  thousand  years,  and  none  but  the 
slave-dealer  ever  made  a  convert.  War,  pestilence  and 
famine  are  the  best  missionaries  to  teach  civilization,  (ex- 
cept the  conjunction  of  a  thin  skin  and  a  hard  frost,)  for 
necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,  civilization  but  ac- 
cumulated invention,  and  war,  pestilence  and  famine  the 
great  necessities  which  prompt  men  to  invent,  and  teach 
them  to  remember  and  improve  what  they  invent.  A 
people  so  imbecile  in  intellect,  or  so  improvident  as  not 
to  be  civilized  by  these  great  necessities,  can  only  be 
civilized  by  slavery.  The  horse  and  ox  will  not  willingly 
submit  to  the  yoke  to  provide  for  the  exigencies  of  winter, 
however  eloquently  you  discourse  to  them  on  the  necessity 
and  propriety  of  such  conduct ;  no  more  will  the  negro. 
A  crazy  poet  or  an  Irish  orator  (in  love  with  universal 
emancipation,)  would  permit  the  horse  and  the  negro  to 
luxuriate  in  liberty  in  the  summer  and  starve  in  winter. 
Not  so  a  sensible  Englishman  and  profound  philosopher 
like  Carlyle,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  this  illustra- 
tion. He  thinks  the  liberated  negroes  in  the  West  In- 
dies are  no  more  operated  on  in  the  regulation  of  their 
lives,  by  reason,  than  the  horse  or  the  ox.     But  like  the 


APPENDIX.  287 

ox  and  ass,  the  negro  may  be  domesticated;  he  is  not 
like  the  Indian  of  America,  an  animal  ferce  naturae. 
The  Indian,  like  the  savage  races  of  Canaan,  is  doomed 
to  extermination,  and  those  who  most  sympathize  with 
his  fate  would  be  the  first  to  shoot  him  if  they  lived  on 
the  frontier.  God  did  not  direct  his  chosen  people  to 
exterminate  all  races;  such  as  were  fit  for  slaves  they 
were  ordered  to  make  slaves  of.  Despite  the  mawkish 
sensibility  of  the  age,  practical  men  are,  without  the  aid 
of  immediate  revelation,  pursuing  the  same  course;  they 
slay  the  Indians  hip  and  thigh,  as  in  the  days  of  Moses 
and  Joshua,  and  enslave  the  negroes.  "  There  is  nothing 
new  under  the  sun."  This  is  all  right,  because  it  is 
necessary.  Father  Bacchus  (when  drunk,  no  doubt,) 
and  the  last  exhibitor  of  wild  beasts  in  New  York,  (Quid 
non  mortaliq  pectora  cogis,  auri  sacra  fames,')  drove 
lions  to  their  cars ;  yet  lions  to-day  are  as  useless  and 
ferocious  as  in  the  days  of  Bacchus ;  and  the  Indian  of 
to-day  is  as  fierce  and  wild  as  those  who  met  Columbus 
on  the  beach. 

"  Like  the  fox, 
"Who,  ever  so  tame,  so  cherished  and  locked  up, 
Will  have  a  wild  trick  of  his  ancestors." 

In  his  proper  sphere,  we  love  and  respect  the  negro. 
He  is  eminently  docile,  imitative  and  parasitical.  He 
will  not  go  to  Liberia,  nor  to  the  West  Indies,  because 
he  has  too  much  good  sense  to  trust  his  fate  to  a  commu- 
nity of  negroes.  He  knows  he  is  the  ivy,  and  would 
cling  to  the  white  oak,  not  to  the  ivy,  for  support.  He 
respects,  as  we  do,  some  of  the  Abolitionists,  because 
many  of  them  are  men  who  will  make  any  sacrifice  of 


288  .  APPENDIX. 

their  time  and  money  to  achieve  what  they  think  right. 
They  are  crazy  Quixotes,  no  doubt,  but  their  high  aims 
and  lofty  disinterestedness  make  them  far  more  respect- 
able than  they  would  be  as  plain,  plodding  farmers  of 
La  Mancha.  Don  Quixote  mad,  is  the  noblest,  because 
the  most  chivalrous  and  disinterested  of  all  the  heroes  of 
Epic  poetry ;  he  is  but  a  drivelling,  penitent  dotard  when 
he  recovers.  We  would  as  soon  stop  a  crusader  or  a 
fox-hunter  in  mid  career,  and  prove  to  him  the  folly  of 
his  pursuit,  as  cure  these  Abolitionists  of  their  madness. 
Such  illusions  afford  so  much  higher  pleasure  than  the 
sober  realities  of  life,  that  it  is  the  part  of  true  philos- 
ophy to  cherish,  not  dispel  them.  Much  the  larger  por- 
tion of  the  abolitionists  are,  however,  men  of  very  dif- 
ferent characters — Catilines  and  Jack  Cades,  men  of  des- 
perate fortunes  and  desperate  morals,  who  make  as  fierce 
war  on  landed  property  at  home  as  they  do  on  slavery 
abroad.  The  negroes  despise  the  Clay  clique  of  Coloni- 
zationists,  because,  believing  slavery  morally  wrong,  they 
have  not  the  courage  to  say  so,  nor  the  justice  to  give 
the  slave  up.  If  slavery  be  wrong,  the  abolitionists  are 
right.  We  say  to  the  colonizationists,  you  cannot  send 
the  free  negroes  away.  They  have  felt  the  coming  storm, 
they  have  intermarried  with  the  slaves,  they  have  hired 
themselves  to  the  farmers,  and  cling  and  cluster  about 
the  penates  at  the  very  horns  of  the  domestic  altar. 

Hie  Hecuba,  et  natse  necquiquam  altaria  circum 
Precipites  atra,  ceu  tempestate  Columbae 
Condensse,  et  Divum  amplexse  semulacra  tenebant. 

No  ruthless   Pyrrhus  shall  tear  them  thence.     They 
are   the   guests   of  the   farmer,  and   the  Turk  holds  not 


APPENDIX.  289 

hospitality  half  so  sacred  as  the  Southern  fanner.  His 
Louse  is  his  castle,  which  he  will  defend  to  the  last 
extremity  against  all  intrusion.  The  barons  of  Ituni- 
mede  have  their  exact  prototype  in  the  Southern  farmer. 
Better  beard  the  lion  in  his  den  than  touch  any  thing 
that  has  entered  the  sacred  precinct  of  his  farm. 

But  the  free  negro  is  not  only  the  guest ;  he  is,  for 
the  time,  the  property  of  the  farmer;  and  Shakspeare 
has  well  expressed  the  English  sense  of  property,  from 
the  lips  of  an  Italian  speaking  of  his  wife  : 

Petrttchio. — I  will  be  master  of  what  is  iny  own  ; 
She  is  my  goods,  my  chattels ;  she  is  my  house, 
My  household  stuff,  my  field,  my  barn, 
My  horse,  my  ox,  my  ass,  my  any  thing, 
And  here  she  stands  ;  touch  her  whoever  dare. 

Thus  will  the  farmer  defend  the  free  negro  who  has 
selected  him  for  his  patron  and  master.  Whilst  on  the 
subject  of  Shakspeare,  we  would  invite  those  who  think 
that  slavery  degrades  the  character  of  the  slave,  to  read 
the  play  of  "  As  you  like  it."  They  will  find  old  Adam 
a  more  elevated  character  than  any  anti-slavery  man  that 
ever  lived — and  the  character  is  true  to  nature. 

"Adam. — Master,  go  on,  and  I  will  follow  thee 
To  the  last  gasp,  with  truth  and  loyalty." 

Equality  begets  universal  envy,  meanness  and  unchari- 
tableness — slavery  elevates  and  purifies  the  sentiments  of 
master  and  slave. 

To  return  from  this  digression — very  many  of  the  free 

negroes,  alarmed  by  the  portentous  signs  of  the  times, 

threatening  them  with  extermination  or  expulsion,  have 

attached  themselves  to  white  masters.     Will  our  legis- 

N 


200  APPENDIX. 

lators  sanction  and  encourage  these  contracts,  or  will 
they  send  them  all  to  Africa?  Suppose  the  project  suc- 
ceeds, and  all  the  free  negroes  are  shipped  off — how  long- 
will  it  be  before  we  are  called  to  send  off  our  slaves  also  ? 

Northern  abolition  quieted  and  the  free  negroes  sent 
off,  may  not  gradual  emancipation  rear  its  head  and  prove 
a  worse  enemy,  because  a  domestic  one,  than  any  with 
which  we  have  had  to  contend  ?  But  a  small  portion 
of  the  Southern  press  even  now  undertakes  to  justify 
slavery,  to  maintain  that  it  is  right  in  the  abstract, 
morally  right ;  that  it  is  expedient  or  profitable.  Will 
not  this  press,  when  foreign  interference  is  quieted,  and 
the  free  negroes  removed,  become  the  advocate  of  grad- 
ual emancipation?  .As  they  say  not  a  word  to  justify 
slavery,  we  presume  they  think  it  wrong;  and  if  so,  it  is 
their  duty,  as  conscientious  men,  to  embrace  the  first  safe 
occasion  to  get  rid  of  it. 

The  Abolitionists  themselves  furnish  the  most  conclu. 
sive  evidence  that  slavery  must  exist  in  every  society 
until  human  nature  itself  is  changed,  Nay,  they  pro- 
pose to  change  all  man's  nature,  in  order  to  fit  him  for 
that  social  equality,  that  community  of  property,  and  of 
other  things  more  sacred  than  property,  which  they 
would  erect  on  the  ruins  of  our  present  system  of  societj^. 
The  Ohio  ladies  hate  slavery,  and  seeing  that  marriage 
brings  about  one  of  the  forms  of  slavery,  to  be  consis- 
tent, they  will  have  no  more  marriages  after  the  old 
fashion.  Separate  property,  too,  gives  power  to  those 
who  hold  property  to  command  the  labor  of  those  who 
hold  none.  "  Property,"  say  they,  "is  a  thief!"  and 
must  be  abolished.     The  Bible  commands  wives  to  obey 


APPENDIX.  291 

their  husbands,  and  slaves  their  masters ;  the  Bible  must 
be  cast  into  the  flames  !  Christianity  and  Socialism  are 
deadly  enemies.  But  after  all  the  institutions  of  society 
are  destroyed,  families  abolished,  churches  demolished, 
the  Bible  burnt,  and  property  held  in  common,  still  they 
have  the  candor  to  admit  that  the  selfishness  of  human 
nature  would  for  a  time  disturb  the  harmonious  working 
of  their  system.  They  promise  us,  however,  that  a  few 
generations  would  change  and  perfect  man's  nature,  and 
then  Socialism  would  work  admirably.  At  the  end  of 
the  time  we  suspect  they  would  become  converts  to  the 
sage  reflection  of  Christopher  North  :  "  There  is  a  great 
deal  of  human  nature  in  man  V  We  treat  the  Abolition- 
ists and  Socialists  as  identical,  because  they  are  noto- 
riously the  same  people,  employing  the  same  arguments 
and  bent  on  the  same  schemes.  Abolition  is  the  first 
step  in  Socialism ;  the  former  proposes  to  abolish  negro 
slavery,  the  latter  all  kinds  of  slavery — religion,  govern- 
ment, marriage,  families,  property — nay,  human  nature 
itself.  Yet  the  former  contains  the  germ  of  the  latter, 
and  very  soon  ripens  into  it )  Abolition  is  Socialism  in 
its  infancy.  Ladies  of  Ohio  !  Horace  Greely !  Socialists 
of  France  !  Is  it  not  so  ? 


SLAVERY    JUSTIFIED. 

THE     SUBJECT    CONTINUED. 

Alton  Locke,  Tailor  and  Poet:  an  Auto-biography:  has 

recently  "been  the  subject  of  review  in  the  Edinburgh, 
the  North  British,  and  Blackwood.  Each  of  these 
able  Reviews  admits  that  Alton  Locke,  in  the  main, 
gives  a  fair  picture  of  the  state  of  the  poor  in  England, 
and  that  their  condition  is  intolerable,  and  daily  grow- 
ing worse.  Blackwood  and  the  North  British  Review 
farther  admit,  with  the  Socialists,  that  this  desperate 
condition  of  the  poor  is  owing  to  free  competition,  or 
liberty ;  and  even  the  Edinburgh,  with  all  its  love  for 
political  economy,  distinctly  alleges  that  a  cure  for  the 
sufferings  of  the  working  classes  may  be  found  by  re- 
curring to  the  old  order  of  things  : — feudalism,  vassal- 
age and  serfdom.  It  further  appears  from  these  Re- 
views, that  socialism,  with  thinking  men,  is  almost  uni- 
versal in  England.  Except  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and 
a  little  clique  that  adhere  to  it,  all  men  agree  that  free 
competition  has  brought  on  the  evils  under  which  the 
Empire  is  suffering,  and  that  free  competition  must  be 
checked  and  corrected,  or  the  Empire  be  subverted. 
Now  free  competition  is  nothing  in  the  world  but  the 
absence  of  domestic  slavery;  and  these  Reviews,  ail 
though  afraid  to  use  the  word,  do  in  effect  distinctly 
admit  that  the  intolerable  condition  of  the  working 
classes  is  owinu  to  the  absence  of  that  form  of  domestic 


APPENDIX.  293 

slavery  which  afforded  support  and  protection  to  the 
poor  in  feudal  times.  Experience  has  universally 
shown,  that  the  slavery  of  the  working  classes  to  the 
rich,  which  grows  out  of  liberty  and  equality,  or  free 
competition,  is  ten  times  more  onerous  and  exacting 
than  domestic  slavery.  The  bathos  of  human  misery  is 
to  be  a  slave  without  a  master.  Such  is  the  condition  of 
the  poor  in  the  free  States  of  Europe ;  they  are  slaves 
without  masters.  They  have  no  houses,  no  property, 
none  to  protect  them,  none  to  care  for  them.  In  the 
fierce  competition  for  employment,  the  intense  struggle 
to  get  a  livelihood,  and  the  ruinous  underbidding  it  oc- 
casions, we  see  the  rich  devouring  the  poor,  and  the 
poor  devouring  one  another.  This  process  is  well  de- 
scribed by  the  Chartist,  Crossthwaite,  in   Alton  Locke  : 

"  It  is  a  sin  to  add  our  weight  to  the  crowd  of  arti- 
sans who  are  now  choking  and  strangling  each  other  to 
death,  as  the  prisoners  did  in  the  black  hole  of  Cal- 
cutta. Let  those  who  will,  turn  beasts  of  prey  and  feed 
upon  their  fellows;  but  let  us  at  least  keep  ourselves 
pure.  It  may  be  the  law  of  political  civilization,  that 
the  rich  should  eat  up  the  poor,  and  the  poor  eat  up 
each  other.  Then,  I  here  rise  and  curse  that  law,  that 
civilization,  that  nature.  Either  I  will  destroy  them  or 
they  shall  destroy  me.  As  a  slave,  as  an  increased 
burden  on  my  fellow-sufferers,  I  will  not  live.  So  help 
me  G-od  !  I  will  take  no  more  work  to  my  house,  and  I 
call  upon  all  to  sign  a  protest  to  that  effect." 

England  is  a  Garden  of  EJcn,  in  which  the  birds  of 
the  air,  the  fishes  of  the  sea,  and  the  beasts  of  the  field 
participate   equally  with   the  owners  of  the   soil  in  the 


294  APPENDIX. 

fruits  of  the  earth.  The  working  man  alone,  who  has 
made  this  garden  to  blossom  like  the  rose,  is  excluded 
from  its  enjoyment.  Hiatus,  valde  deflendus!  And 
he  is  excluded  simply  because  he  is  not  like  the  horse 
and  the  ox,  and  the  sheep,  the  fish  in  the  pond  and 
the  game  in  the  preserves,  the  property  of  the  owner  of 
the  soil.  Make  him  also  property,  and  he  would  be 
better  fed  and  cared  for  than  the  brutes,  for  he  is  more 
valuable  property;  and  besides,  it  is  more  natural  for 
man  to  love  his  fellow  man,  provided  that  fellow  man 
be  his  dependant  or  his  master,  than  it  is  to  love  brute 
creatures.  God,  when  he  created  the  world,  established 
a  community  of  goods,  not  only  between  men,  but  also 
let  in  the  brute  creation  to  their  full  share  of  enjoy- 
ment of  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  An  attempt  has  been 
made  in  Southern  and  middle  Europe,  for  the  last 
century  or  two,  to  establish  a  new  order  of  things  on 
the  ruins  of  feudalism,  which  was  a  modification  of  the 
old  order.  This  attempt  has  signally  failed,  as  is  at- 
tested by  almost  daily  revolutions,  the  starving  condi- 
tion of  the  working  classes,  and  the  general  prevalence 
of  socialist  doctrines,  which  doctrines  propose  the  total 
subversion  and  re-construction  of  the  social  fabric. 
We  entirely  agree  with  the  socialists,  that  free  compe- 
tition is  the  bane  of  modern  society.  We  also  agree 
with  them,  that  it  is  right  and  necessary  to  establish  in 
some  modified  degree,  a  community  of  property.  We 
agree  with  them  in  the  end  they  propose  to  attain,  and 
only  differ  as  to  the  means. 

We  do  not  believe  that  any  new  discoveries  have  been 
made  in  moral  science  for  the  last  four  thousand  years, 


APPENDIX.  295 

or  that  any  will  hereafter  be  made.  In  the  remotest 
antiquity,  men  had  the  same  lights  of  experience  be- 
fore them  that  we  have  to-day,  and  they  were  wiser  men 
and  profounder  thinkers  than  we,  because  their  atten- 
tion was  not  divided  and  frittered  away,  by  a  thousand 
objects,  wants  and  pursuits,  as  ours  is,  in  consequence 
of  the  many  discoveries  in  physical  science.  The  an- 
cients led  simpler  lives,  were  harrassed  by  fewer  cares, 
had  their  minds  exercised  on  fewer  subjects,  and  were 
therefore  wiser  men  than  we.  Their  works  are  imper- 
ishable, and  have  a  reputation  as  wide  as  the  world. 
The  fame  of  the  best  of  ours  is  ephemeral  and  local. 
It  is  to  them  we  should  recur  for  lessons  in  government, 
rather  than  look  to  our  cotemporaries  or  indulge  in  rash 
experiment.  Thousands  of  years  before  the  days  of 
Moses  and  Numa,  Solon  and  Lycurgus,  the  field  of  ex- 
periment had  been  exhausted,  and  they  no  doubt  were 
aware  of  the  results  of  those  experiments,  and  profited 
by  them. 

So  little  has  human  nature  changed,  that  we  find  the 
men  of  to-day,  with  all  their  virtues  and  vices,  passions 
and  peculiarities,  more  exactly  and  faithfully  portrayed 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  by  the  Greek  and  Latin 
poets,  than  by  any  English  or  American  author  of  the 
present  day.  It  is  with  human  nature  that-  govern- 
ment has  to  deal,  and  we  should  look  back  to  th  os 
who  understood  it  best,  to  learn  how  to  deal  with  it. 
The  Socialists  expect  to  organise  society  on  entirely  new 
principles.  Society  every  where  is  much  alike  and  of 
gradual  growth.  It  is  the  result  of  the  passions,  the 
motives,    the   affections,    and   the   selfishness   of  human 


296  APPENDIX. 

nature.  These  are  much  the  same  in  all  ages  and  in 
all  countries.  What  madness  and  folly,  at  this  late 
clay,  to  form  society  for  human  beings  regardless  of  hu- 
man nature.  Yet  the  Socialists  are  guilty  of  this  folly, 
and  gravely  propose  to  change  man's  nature  to  fit  him 
for  their  new  institutions.  How  much  more  wise,  pru- 
dent and  philosophical  it  would  be  to  recur  to  some  old 
tried  forms  of  society,  especially  as  we  shall  presently 
show  that  such  forms  of  society  have  existed,  and  do 
now  exist,  as  will  remove  all  the  evils  they  complain  of, 
and  attain  all  the  ends  they  propose. 

A  community  of  property,  in  some  modified  degree, 
existed  in  all  the  states  of  antiquity,  whether  savage  or 
civilized,  and  continued  to  exist  under  the  form  of  feu- 
dalism throughout  the  dark  ages.  This  community  of 
property  existed  in  two  forms.  The  one  form,  universal 
among  savages,  is  where  the  lands  belong  to  the  State 
and  the  individuals  composing  the  State  have  a  com- 
mon right  of  enjoyment  in  those  lands.  Society  may 
get  along  very  happily  under  this  order  of  things.  Nor, 
indeed,  is  it  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  advance  of 
civilization.  Every  one  recollects  the  example  of  Sparta, 
when  there  was  no  separate  property  in  lands,  and  in 
modern  times  the  Peruvian  Indians,  the  most  civilized 
in  America,  held  their  lands  in  common.  The  few  in- 
stances, however,  of  this  kind  of  community  of  pro- 
perty among  civilized  nations,  shows  that  it  is  adapted 
only  to  the  savage  state.  The  other  kind  of  community 
of  property,  which  is  at  least  as  old  as  civilization  itself, 
will  require  some  pains  to  explain,  because  we  are  the  first 
who  have  treated  it  in  this  light.     No  doubt  the  same  re- 


APPENDIX.  297 

flections  are  daily  passing  through  thousands  of  minds, 
that  now  pass  through  ours,  and  we  but  give  a  new 
name  to  an  old  thought.  This  latter  kind  of  commu- 
nity of  property  exists  where  separate  ownership  hav- 
ing been  acquired  in  all  the  soil  of  a  State,  those  who 
own  that  soil  own  also  those  individuals  who  cultivate 
it.  A  beautiful  example  and  illustration  of  this  kind 
of  communism,  is  found  in  the  instance  of  the  Patri- 
arch Abraham.  His  wives  and  his  children,  his  men 
servants  and  his  maid  servants,  his  camels  and  his  cat- 
tle, were  all  equally  his  property.  He  could  sacrifice 
Isaac  or  a  ram,  just  as  he  pleased.  He  loved  and  pro- 
tected all,  and  all  shared,  if  not  equally,  at  least  fairly, 
in  the  products  of  their  light  labor.  T\rho  would  not 
desire  to  have  been  a  slave  of  that  old  Patriarch,  stern 
and  despotic  as  he  was  ?  How  quick  he  would  have 
beheaded  a  Yankee  abolitionist  who  had  abused  his 
open  hospitality  to  entice  away  his  slaves.  Poor  Ha- 
gar !  wert  thou  deluded  by  some  vender  of  quack  medi- 
cines and  wooden  nutmegs  ?  How  many  Hagars,  starv- 
ing in  the  wilderness,  may  now  be  found  at  the  North  ? 
Nay,  it  is  worse  than  a  wilderness  to  them,  for  they  are 
surrounded  by  luxuries  which  they  cannot  taste,  and 
by  fellow  beings  whose  hideous  scowl  of  hate  aggra- 
vates their  woes.  Pride,  affection,  self-interest,  moved 
Abraham  to  protect,  love  and  take  care  of  his  slaves. 
The  same  motives  operate  on  all  masters,  and  secure 
comfort,  competency  and  "protection  to  the  slave.  A 
man's  wife  and  children  are  his  slaves,  and  do  they  not 
enjoy,  in  common  with  himself,  his  property  ?  As  he 
advances  in   age  and  his  wants  become  fewer,  his  chil- 


298  APPENDIX. 

dren  most  always  get  the  lion's  share.  Look  to  a  well 
ordered  farm  and  see  whether  the  cattle,  the  horses,  the 
sheep,  and  the  hogs,  do  not  enjoy  their  full  proportion 
of  the  proceeds  of  the  farm.  Would  you  emancipate 
them  too?  Why  not?  Liberty  and  idleness  are  as 
natural  and  agreeable  to  them  as  to  slaves. 

Men  love  the  brute  creatures  that  belong  to  them. 
It  is  the  law  of  God  impressed  on  the  heart  of  man 
that  secures  good  and  kind  treatment  to  the  brutes,  far 
more  effectually  than  all  human  law  can  do.  The  same 
law  of  God  makes  man  love  his  slaves  far  more  than 
he  does  his  horse.  The  affection  which  all  men  feel 
for  what  belongs  to  them,  and  for  what  is  dependent 
on  them,  is  Nature's  magna  charta,  which  shields,  pro- 
tects and  provides  for  wives,  children  and  slaves.  The 
selfishness  of  man's  nature,  which  occasions  all  the 
oppression  of  the  weak  by  the  powerful,  the  poor  by 
the  rich,  in  free  society,  is  the  very  instrument  which 
Providence  in  his  wisdom  has  chosen  to  protect  the 
weak  and  the  poor  in  a  natural  and  healthy  state  of 
society — that  is  in  a  society  where  domestic  slavery  ex- 
ists. Ye  meddlesome,  profane,  presumptuous  abolition- 
its  !  think  ye  that  Grod  has  done  his  work  imperfectly 
and  needs  your  aid  ?  He  that  takes  account  of  the 
sparrow,  has  he  no  care  for  the  slave  ?  Is  he  waiting, 
and  has  he  waited  for  four  thousand  years,  for  you  to 
do  his  work  ?  Must  you  steal  the  negro  before  he 
can  save  his  soul  ?  Are  not  the  negroes  whom  you 
have  stolen  and  freed,  ten  times  more  vicious  than  our 
slaves?  Has  Grod  permitted  slavery  to  exist  so  long 
and    so  generally,    because  he  knew   no  better,    or  be- 


APPENDIX.  299 

cause  he  was  afraid  to  denounce  it,  or  was  he  waiting 
for  you  to  help  hi  in  ? 

In  the  February  No.  of  the  North  British  Review, 
in  a  critique  on  Sir  Charles  Lyell's  Travels  in  North 
America,  we  find  the  following  singular  and  contra- 
dictory language.  "We  say  contradictory,  for  if  "  self- 
interest  and  domestic  feeling  combine  to  surround  the 
slave  with  every  blessing,"  what  becomes  of  the 
"cruelty  and  injustice,"  the  "  sound  of  the  whip  and 
the  clank  of  the  chain?"  Does  domestic  feeling  ex- 
hibit itself  in  this  way  ? 

"  Could  we  look  at  the  slave  in  his  simple  humanity, 
without  regarding  him  as  a  being  of  the  future,  we 
should  view  him  as  the  inmate  of  a  luxurious  house, 
with  all  the  blessings  with  which  self-interest  and  do- 
mestic feeling  combine  to  surround  him.  Under  this 
bright  phase,  and  in  striking  contrast  with  the  in-dwel- 
ler  of  the  work-house,  or  the  laborer  in  the  factory,  we 
are  disposed  to  forget  the  horrors  of  the  middle  passage, 
and  shut  our  ears  to  the  sound  of  the  whip  and  the 
clank  of  the  chain.  But  when  the  mind's  eye  rests 
upon  the  precious  jewel — the  white  soul  which  the  clay 
cask  encloses — eternal  truth  recoils  from  the  sight  of  a 
spirit  in  shackles,  and  immortal  affection  clasps  in  her 
warmest  embrace  the  victims  of  cruelty  and  injustice." 

We  suppose  the  writer  thinks  there  are  no  slaves  in 
heaven,  but  plenty  of  savages,  cannibals  and  free  ne- 
groes. "  The  Devil  can  quote  scripture  for  his  pur- 
pose," but  we  think  this  would  puzzle  him. 

If  any  doubt  our  theory,  that  domestic  slavery  doe3 
establish  a   fair   community  of  goods,  we  cite  them  to 


300  APPENDIX. 

the  facts.  Look  to  the  old  Patriarchs  and  their  slaves, 
to  the  feudal  lords  and  their  vassals,  or  come  to  the 
South  and  see  our  farms.  See  the  aged  and  infirm, 
the  women  and  children,  on  every  farm,  more  tenderly 
watched  over  and  better  provided  for,  than  the  sturdy 
and  laborious.  Grod  intended,  no  doubt,  that  those  who 
most  needed  sympathy,  assistance  and  attention,  should 
have  most  of  it.  Put  your  own  house  in  order,  ye  abo- 
litionists? When  the  women  and  children,  the  sick 
and  the  aged,  in  your  laboring  class,  are  secure  of  the 
same  ample  provision,  sympathy  and  attention  as  our 
slaves,  then,  and  not  till  then,  offer  your  advice  to  us. 
But  we  have  said  the  slave  is  secure  of  a  fair  pro- 
portion of  the  profits  in  the  community  of  property 
which  grows  out  of  the  institution  of  domestic  slavery. 
We  will  explain  how  this  happens,  and  cite  facts  to 
prove  that  it  is  so.  As  man  rises  in  the  scale  of  civi- 
lization his  wants  increase,  his  skill  and  capacity  for 
production  increase  pari  passu.  As  a  slave,  he  needs 
more  and  is  entitled  to  more,  of  the  products  of  the 
joint  concern,  than  the  mere  newly  imported  savage. 
As  he  assimilates  himself  to  his  master,  his  master's 
attachment  to  him  increases ;  he  is  made  a  mechanic,  a 
dining-room  or  body  servant,  and  is  treated  very  differ- 
ently from  what  we  call  "  out  hands."  Each,  however, 
has  his  wants  supplied.  The  negroes  first  imported  to 
this  country  were  badly  clad  j  clothes  to  them  were  an 
irksome  incumbrance.  Our  male  field  hands  even  now 
generally  prefer  a  bench  by  the  fire  and  a  blanket,  to 
the  finest  feather  bed  in  the  world.  They  are  but  grad- 
ually learning  to  like  plank  floors  to  their  houses.     The 


ArPENDIX.  301 

masters  are  more  ready  to  supply  their  wants  than  they 
are  to  acquire  them. 

There  is  another  law  of  our  nature  that  secures  to 
the  slave  his  right.  Place  men  in  the  relation  of 
master  and  slave,  and  the  wiser  and  more  strong 
willed  invariably  rules.  It  is  so  in  the  case  of  man 
and  wife,  father  and  child,  and  slaves  have  of- 
ten been  "  a  power  behind  the  throne  greater  than 
the  throne  itself/ '  and  thus  ruled  empires.  Negroes 
do  not  rule  their  masters,  because  of  the  inferiority  of 
race,  but  they  are  better  treated  as  they  advance  in 
morality  and  intelligence. 

Besides  that  domestic  slavery  does  away  with  com- 
petition, so  ruinous  to  the  working  classes  in  free 
countries,  and  occasions  a  community  of  profits  if  not 
of  property — it  supplies  another  great  desideratum 
of  the  socialists,  and,  indeed,  of  the  political  econ- 
omists too :  it  brings  about  the  Association  of 
Labor.  This  result,  too,  is  obtained  in  a  better  form 
than  any  we  have  seen  suggested  by  the  Socialists. 
They  propose  only  to  associate  men  of  the  same  trade. 
Domestic  slavery  profitably  associates  men,  women  and 
children,  mechanics  and  common  laborers.  On  a  farm, 
under  the  supervision  of  one  master,  who  supplies  the 
skill  and  capital,  all  ages  and  sexes  can  find  appropriate 
and  profitable  employment.  Set  the  slaves  on  a  farm 
free,  and  leave  each  to  get  employment,  and  however 
disposed  to  work,  the  products  of  their  labor  would  not 
sit  half  what  they  we»e  before.  Much  time  must  be 
lost  in  looking  for  work,  and  they  would  rarely  find 
beuations  where  all  the  members  of  a  large  family  could 


302  APPENDIX. 

get  employment.  Much  loss  would  ensue  from  the  want 
of  one  common  head  to  find  them  work  and  give  skill- 
ful direction  to  their  labor,  and  still  more  from  the  fact 
that  each  one  buying  for  himself,  their  wants  would  be 
supplied  at  retail  instead  of  wholesale  prices. 

This  association  of  labor  and  capital,  by  means  of 
dome&tio  slavery,  would  remove  another  evil  that  be- 
wilders, staggers  and  confounds  Malthusians,  Economists 
and  Socialists  alike.  This  is  the  evil  of  excessive  pop- 
ulation, an  evil  sorely  felt  through  half  of  Europe,  and 
irremediable  because  confined  to  the  most  indigent  who 
have  no  means  of  emigrating.  If  they  were  slaves, 
their  masters  would  send  them  at  once  to  countries 
where  population  was  sparse  and  labor  dear;  and  they 
would  be  sent  off  in  families,  not  separated  as  free  peo- 
ple generally  are  when  they  remove.  Thus  is  slavery 
the  simple  and  adequate  remedy  for  the  greatest  evil 
with  which  mankind  is  afflicted  at  present  or  threat- 
ened for  the  future. 

We  cannot  believe  that  the  Socialists  do  not  see  that 
domestic  slavery  is  the  only  practicable  form  of  social- 
ism— they  are  afraid  yet  to  pronounce  the  word. 

An  admirable  proof  and  illustration  of  our  doctrine, 
that  slavery  is  communism,  might  be  had  by  making  all 
the  working-men  in  England  slaves  to  the  land-holders, 
and  requiring  by  law  the  land-holders  to  support  them 
as  we  do  our  slaves.  Would  not,  in  such  case,  the 
working-men  be  joint  owners  of  the  farm  ?  If  the  land- 
holders were  also  permitted  to  sell  them,  or  remove  them 
to  the  colonies  where  labor  is  scarce  and  dear,  it  would 
be  an  excellent  bargain  on  both  sides.     Labor  and  capi- 


-. 


APPENDIX.  303 

tal  would  thus  be  beneficially  associated.  They  do  sell 
white  men  now  in  England,  and  remove  them  to  dis- 
tant colonies,  but  require  as  a  perquisite  to  the  boon, 
that  a  man  should  first  steal  a  turnip  or  shoot  a  hare- 
Many  take  the  boon  even  on  these  harsh  terms,  rather 
than  starve ;  they  steal  in  order  to  be  shipped  to  New 
Holland  and  sold  as  slaves.  They  are  willing  to  en- 
counter the  disgrace  of  crime,  and  be  torn  from  every 
tie  of  friendship  and  affection,  rather  than  remain  in 
England  and  starve.  Could  the  poor  of  England  sell 
themselves  and  families  for  terms  of  years,  or  for  life, 
or  in  perpetuity,  they  would  at  once  have  the  means  of 
certain  and  comfortable  support.  Removed  to  new 
colonies,  they  might  by  extra  work  and  frugality,  soon 
purchase  their  liberty  again.  The  situation  of  the  slave 
is  a  good  one  to  amass  money,  because  he  may  save  all 
he  makes,  the  master  supplying  all  his  wants. 

We  have  often  been  reminded  of  the  abcurdity  of 
the  law  which  prevents  a  man's  selling  himself,  or  to 
speak  more  accurately,  which  refuses  to  enforce  perform- 
ance of  the  contract,  whilst  observing  the  character  of 
the  emigration  to  California.  No  poor  man  could  get  to 
the  mines,  except  by  deserting  the  army,  the  navy,  or 
the  merchant  service.  The  law  permitted  him  to  sell 
his  liberty  for  five  years,  and  subject  himself  to  hard 
fare  and  harsh  treatment,  and  low  wages,  provided  he 
would  enter  either  of  those  services.  He  might  sell 
himself  for  eight  dollars  a  month,  and  have  the  cat 
applied  to  his  back  gratis  once  a  quarter,  but  he  might 
not  sell  himself  for  fifty  dollars  per  month  to  work  in 
the  mines  and  be  well  treated.     The  law,  we   know,  i3 


304  APPENDIX. 

the  perfection  of  reason,  and  liberty  the  greatest  good, 
yet  we  can't  help  thinking,  when  a  strong  young  fellow 
finds  his  whole  capital  reduced  to  his  own  person, 
it  would  be  as  well  to  let  him  pawn  that  or  sell  it,  "  to 
make  a  raise."  It  is  the  only  way  a  poor  fellow  can 
get  a  start  in  life  sometimes,  and  it  seems  hard  to  pro- 
hibit his  using,  in  the  way  of  trade,  the  only  capital  he 
has  left.  We  wonder  it  never  occurred  to  the  econo- 
mists, who  so  much  admire  free  trade  and  free  compe- 
tition, that  the  denial  of  this  right  was  part  of  the  re- 
strictive and  protective  system.  Laissez  nous  faire  ! 
Let  us  sell  ourselves  if  we  please  ! 

That  the  condition  of  working  men,  in  all  old  coun- 
tries where  population  is  dense,  is  a  thousand  times 
worse  than  that  of  our  slaves,  is  a  fact  that  no  one  will 
dispute.  This  fact  is  worth  all  the  theories  in  the  world, 
and  shows  conclusively  that  the  common  laborers  should 
be  slaves,  in  old  countries.  It  is  hard  for  us  Ameri- 
cans to  understand  why  this  must  ever  be  so,  for  here 
population  is  generally  sparse,  and  working  men  scarce ; 
so  that  working  men  are  in  demand  and  can  get  just 
such  wages  as  they  choose  to  demand.  Mrs.  Trollope, 
by  far  the  most  philosophical  traveller  who  has  visited 
America,  very  justly  remarked,  that  the  difficulty  of 
retaining  a  servant  in  Cincinnati,  showed  that  there 
the  master  or  employer  was  under  obligations  to  the 
servant.  The  servant  might  work  one  day  in  the  week 
and  get  enough  wages  to  live  on  all  the  week ;  the  mas- 
ter needed  a  servant  every  day  and  could  with  difficulty 
get  one,  because  masters  were  more  numerous  than 
servants.     The  competition  was  among  masters  to  get 


APPENDIX.  305 

servants,  not  among  servants  to  get  places.  This  com- 
petition of  course  continually  increased  the  wages  of 
servants.  We  will  venture  the  assertion,  based  upon 
mere  theory,  that  this  state  of  things  is  already  changed 
in  Ohio — servants  have  become  more  numerous  than 
employers.  There  is  already  competition  and  under- 
bidding to  get  places,  because  population  is  dense ;  and 
we  will  stake  our  reputation,  that  the  white  servants  in 
Cincinnati  are  not  as  well  paid  as  our  negro  slaves. 
We  mean  that  their  wages  are  not  sufficient  to  secure 
to  them  and  their  families  the  same  comforts  in  all  sea- 
sons of  the  year,  in  health,  and  in  sickness,  as  we  allow 
our  slaves.  In  a  newly  and  partially  settled  country 
like  California,  working  men  have  greatly  the  advan- 
tage over  mere  moneyed  men,  and  slavery  is  not  neces- 
sary for  their  protection.  Competition  in  such  countries 
is  attended  with  no  evils,  and  greatly  promotes  the 
rapid  development  of  its  resources.  In  settling  a  new 
country,  free  labor  is  better  than  slave  labor,  because 
competition  stimulates  industry,  without  impairing  the 
condition  of  the  laborer.  In  old  countries,  every  stim- 
ulant to  increased  industry  is  an  injury  to  the  laboring 
class,  for  thereby  a  few  do  the  work  that  should  employ 
many,  and  thus  leave  the  many  to  starve.  In  old  coun- 
tries, human  wisdom  can  devise  no  effectual  means  to 
provide  for  the  poor,  where  lands  have  become  separate 
property,  except  by  making  slaves  of  those  who  hold  no 
property  to  those  who  have  property,  and  thus  in  fact, 
if  not  in  form,  establishing  a  community  of  property. 
The  history  of  the  free  States  of  Europe,  for  the  last 
sixty   years,  and   the   present  condition  of  the   poor  in 


306  APPENDIX. 

those  States,  we  tliink  conclusively  proves  this.  All 
parties  admit  that  society  there  requires  radical  change. 
They  must  go  back  to  domestic  slavery.  Civilized  so- 
ciety cannot  long  exist  without  it.  In  conclusion,  we 
will  sum  up  the  evidence  that  establishes  this  truth  be- 
yond doubt,  independent  of  all  theory.  In  the  slave 
States  of  this  Union  all  classes  of  society  are  satisfied 
with  government  as  it  is ;  famine  is  neither  known  nor 
apprehended,  and  there  is  no  complaint  that  the  wages 
of  the  working  class  are  inadequate  to  their  comforta- 
ble support.  In  the  whole  South  there  is  not  one  So. 
cialist,  not  one  man,  rich  or  poor,  proposing  to  subvert 
and  re-construct  society.  Society  is  in  a  natural, 
healthy  and  contented  state.  Such  was  very  much  the 
condition  of  society  in  middle  and  southern  Europe 
two  centuries  ago,  before  feudalism  disappeared  and 
liberty  and  equality  were  established.  Now,  in  these 
latter  countries,  famine  and  revolutions  are  daily  occur- 
rences; the  poor  are  discontented,  riotous  and  insur- 
rectionary, and  the  rich,  from  mere  sympathy  with  the 
sufferings  of  the  poor,  have  become  young  English  men, 
Chartists  and  Socialists,  and  admit  that  the  organiza- 
tion of  society  is  wholly  wrong,  and  the  sufferings  of 
the  poor  intolerable.  "What  more  proof  is  needed,  that 
the  diseases  that  afflict  society  with  them  are  occasioned 
by  the  absence  of  domestic  slavery,  and  what  remedy 
so  obvious  as  to  remove  the  cause  of  those  diseases  by 
restoring  that  institution  ? 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER     I. 

Free  Trade, page  7 

CHAPTER    II. 

Failure  of  Free  Society  and  Rise  of  Socialism,  3  i 

CHAPTER    III. 

Subject  continued,      .....  73 

CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Two  Philosophies,       ....  80 

CHAPTER     V. 

Negro  Slavery,  ......  82 

CHAPTER     VI. 

Scriptural  Authority  for  Slavery,         .         .  96 

CHAPTER     VII. 

Domestic  Affection, 105 


308  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    VIII. 
Religion, page  109 

CHAPTER   IX. 

The  Balance  of  Trade,       ....  118 

C  HAPTER    X. 

Banks, 125 

CHAPTER    XI. 

Usury, 133 

CHAPTER    XII. 

Towns,  Rivers    and  Roads,  .         .         .  13G 

CHAPTER     XIII. 

Education, 144 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

Exclusive  Agriculture,        ....  149 

CHAPTER     XV. 

The  Association  of  Labor,  .         .         .  161 

CHAPTER     XVI. 

The  Free  Laborer's  Cares  and  Anxieties,  . 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

Liberty  and  Free  Trade,     ....  169 


CONTENTS.  309 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 
Head-Work  and  Hand- Work,      .         .         .      page  172 

CHAPTER    XIX. 

Declaration  of  Independence  and  Virginia  Bill  of 

Rights, 175 

CHAPTER     XX. 

The  Marriage  Relation,      ....  194 

CHAPTER    XXI. 

Morals  of  Free  Society,      ....  196 

CHAPTER    XXII. 

Small  Nationalities,    .....  202 

CHAPTER     XXIII. 

The  Higher  Law, 201 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 

Infidelity  and  Abolitionism,         .         .         .  205 

C  H  APTER    XXV. 

Revolutions  and  Reformations,    ...  208 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 

The  Slave  Trade, 210 

CHAPTER     XXVII. 

Woman's  Rights, 213 


310  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER     XXVIII. 

The  Summing  Up, page  221 


APPENDIX. 

Slavery  Justified — 

Liberty  and  Equality — Socialism — Young  Eng- 
land— Domestic  Slavery,       .         .         .      page  226 


What  shall  he  done  with  the  Free  Negroes  ? 

No.  I, 

259 

No.  ii, 

272 

No.  in, 

279 

No.  iv, 

282 

Slavery  Justified — 

The  subject  continued,    ....  293 


H.lOQS.O^    001S*