happy climate, could have enabled us to support.

We have been far

outstripped by states, to whom nature has been far less bountiful. It is painful to consider what might have been, under other circumstances, the amount of general wealth in Virginia, or the whole sum of comfortable subsistence and happiness possessed by all her inhabitants.-Address to the Legislature of Virginia, in 1820.

MR. BRODNAX.

That slavery in Virginia is an evil, and a transcendant evil, it would be more than idle for any human being to doubt or deny. It is a mildew, which has blighted every region it has touched, from the creation of the world. Illustrations from the history of other countries and other times might be instructive; but we have evidence nearer at hand, in the short histories of the different states of this great confederacy, which are impressive in their admonitions, and conclusive in their character.-Speech in the Virginia Legislature,

1832.

MR. CUSTIS.

The prosperity and aggrandizement of a state is to be seen in its increase of inhabitants, and consequent progress in industry and wealth. Of the vast tide of emigration, which now rushes like a cataract to the West, not even a trickling rill wends its way to the ancient dominion. Of the multitude of foreigners, who daily seek an asylum and home in the empire of liberty, how many turn their steps to the region of the slave? None. No, not one. There is a malaria in the atmosphere of those regions, which the new comer shuns, as being deleterious to his views and habits. See the wide spreading ruin which the avarice of our ancestral government has produced in the South, as witnessed in a sparse population of freemen, deserted habitations, and fields without culture.

Strange to tell, even the wolf, driven back long since by the approach of man, now returns, after the lapse of an hundred years, to howl over the desolations of slavery.

MR. FAULKNER.

I am gratified to perceive that no gentleman has yet risen in this hall the avowed advocate of slavery. The day has gone by, when such a voice could be listened to with patience, or even forbearance. I even regret, sir, that we should find one among us, who enters the

lists as its apologist, except on the ground of uncontrollable necessity. If there be one who concurs with the gentleman from Brunswick (Mr. Gholson) in the harmless character of this institution, let me request him to compare the condition of the slaveholding portion of this Commonwealth-barren, desolate, and seared as it were by the avenging hand of Heaven, with the descriptions which we have of this same country from those, who first broke its virgin soil. To what is this change ascribable? Alone to the withering and blasting effects of slavery. If this does not satisfy him, let me request him to extend his travels to the northern states of this Union, and beg him to contrast the happiness and contentment which prevails throughout the country-the busy and cheerful sound of industry-the rapid and swelling growth of their population-the means and institutions of education-their skill and proficiency in the useful arts—their enterprise and public spirit-the monuments of their commercial and manufacturing industry;-and above all, their devoted attachment to the government from which they derive their protection, with the division, discontent, indolence, and poverty of the southern country. To what, sir, is all this ascribable? To that vice in the organization of society, by which one half of its inhabitants are arrayed in interest and feeling against the other half-to that unfortunate state of society in which freemen regard labor as disgraceful, and slaves shrink from it as a burden tyrannically imposed upon them-to that condition of things, in which half a million of your population can feel no sympathy with the society, and in the prosperity of which they are forbidden to participate-no attachment to a government at whose hands they receive nothing but injustice.

MR. SUMMERS.

Sir, the evils of this system cannot be enumerated. It were unnecessary to attempt it. They glare upon us at every step. When the owner looks to his wasted estate, he knows and feels them. When the statesman examines the condition of his country, and finds her moral influence gone, her physical strength diminished, her political power waning, he sees and must confess them. Will gentlemen inform us when this subject will become less delicate, when it will be attended with fewer difficulties than at present-and at what period we shall be better enabled to meet them? Shall we be more adequate to the end proposed, after the resources of the state have been yet longer paralyzed by the withering, desolating influence of our present system? Sir, every year's delay but augments the difficulties of this great business, and weakens our ability to compass it. Like silly children, we endeavor to postpone the work, which we know must be performed.-Speeches in the Virginia Legislature, 1832.

HENRY CLAY.

As a mere laborer, the slave feels that he toils for his master, and not for himself; that the laws do not recognise his capacity to acquire and hold property, which depends altogether upon the pleasure of his proprietor, and that all the fruits of his exertions are reaped by others. He knows that, whether sick or well, in times of scarcity or abundance, his master is bound to provide for him by the allpowerful influence of self-interest. He is generally, therefore, indifferent to the adverse or prosperous fortunes of his master, being contented if he can escape his displeasure or chastisement, by a careless and slovenly performance of his duties.

This is the state of the relation between master and slave, prescribed by the law of its nature, and founded in the reason of things. There are undoubtedly many exceptions, in which the slave dedicates himself to his master with a zealous and generous devotion, and the master to the slave with a parental and affectionate attachment. But it is my purpose to speak of the general state of this unfortunate relation.

That labor is best, in which the laborer knows that he will derive the profits of his industry, that his employment depends upon his diligence, and his reward upon this assiduity. He then has every motive to excite him to exertion, and to animate him in perseverance. He knows that if he is treated badly, he can exchange his employer for one who will better estimate his service; and that whatever he earns is his, to be distributed by himself as he pleases, among his wife and children, and friends, or enjoyed by himself. In a word, he feels that he is a free agent, with rights, and privileges, and sensibilities.

Wherever the option exists to employ, at an equal hire, free or slave labor, the former will be decidedly preferred, for the reasons already assigned. It is more capable, more diligent, more faithful, and in every respect more worthy of confidence.

It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United States would slave labor be generally employed, if the proprietor were not tempted to raise slaves by the high price of the southern market, which keeps it up in his own.

[Speaking of an attempt more than thirty-five years ago, to adopt gradual emancipation in Kentucky, Mr. Clay says:]

We were overpowered by numbers, and submitted to the decision of the majority, with the grace which the minority, in a republic, should ever yield to such a decision. I have nevertheless never ceased, and never shall cease, to regret a decision, the effects of which have been, to place us in the rear of our neighbors, who are exempt from slavery, in the state of agriculture, the progress of manufactures, the advance of improvement, and the general prosperity of society.—Address before the Colonization Society.

JOHN Q. ADAMS.

Not three days since, Mr. Clayton, of Georgia, called that species of population (viz. slaves) the machinery of the South. Now that machinery had twenty odd representatives* in that hall,—not elected by the machinery, but by those who owned it. And if he should go back to the history of this government from its foundation, it would be easy to prove that its decisions had been affected, in general, by less majorities than that. Nay, he might go further, and insist that that very representation had ever been, in fact, the ruling power of this government.

The history of the Union has afforded a continual proof that this representation of property, which they enjoy, as well in the election of President and Vice President of the United States, as upon the floor of the House of Representatives, has secured to the slaveholding states the entire control of the national policy, and, almost without exception, the possession of the highest executive office of the Union. Always united in the purpose of regulating the affairs of the whole Union by the standard of the slaveholding interest, their disproportionate numbers in the electoral colleges have enabled them, in ten out of twelve quadrennial elections, to confer the Chief Magistracy upon one of their own citizens. Their suffrages at every election, without exception, have been almost exclusively confined to a candidate of their own caste. Availing themselves of the divisions which, from the nature of man, always prevail in communities entirely free, they have sought and found auxiliaries in the other quarters of the Union, by associating the passions of parties, and the ambition of individuals, with their own purposes, to establish and maintain throughout the confederated nation the slaveholding policy. The office of Vice President, a station of high dignity, but of little other than contingent power, had been usually, by their indulgence, conceded to a citizen of the other section; but even this political courtesy was superseded at the election before the last, and both the offices of President and Vice President of the United States were, by the preponderancy of slaveholding votes, bestowed upon citizens of two adjoining and both slaveholding states. At this moment, the President of the United States, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Chief Justice of the United States, are all citizens of that favored portion of the united republic. The last of these offices, being under the constitution held by the tenure of good behaviour, has been honored and dignified by the occupation of the present incumbent upwards of thirty years. An overruling sense of the high responsibilities under which it is held, has effectually guarded him from permitting the sectional slaveholding spirit to ascend the tribunal of justice; and it is not difficult to discern, in this inflexible impartiality, the source of the obloquy [* There are now twenty-five odd representatives—that is, representatives of slaves.]

which that same spirit has not been inactive in attempting to excite against the Supreme Court of the United States itself: and of the insuperable aversion of the votaries of nullification to encounter or abide by the decision of that tribunal, the true and legitimate umpire of constitutional, controverted law.-Speech in Congress, Feb. 4, 1833.

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

The great body of the Roman citizens were impoverished. Instead of little farms studding the country with their pleasant aspect, and nursing an independent race, there were seen nearly all the lands of Italy engrossed by large proprietors, and the plough was in the hands of slaves. In the early period of the state, agriculture and war had been the labor and the office of freemen; but the great mass of the Roman citizens had now, by the institution of bondmen, and its necessary tendency to accumulate all possessions in the hands of a few, been excluded from employment; the palaces of the wealthy towered in the landscape in solitary grandeur; the freemen hid themselves in miserable hovels. Deprived of the dignity of proprietors, they could not even hope for occupation; for the opulent landholder preferred rather to make use of his slaves, whom he could not but maintain, and who constituted his family. Excepting a small number, of the immeasurably rich, and a feeble and continually decreasing class of independent husbandmen, poverty was extreme.

He (Tiberius Gracchus) found the inhabitants of the Roman state divided into three distinct classes. The few wealthy nobles; the many indigent citizens; and the still more numerous class of slaves. Reasoning correctly on the subject, he perceived that it was slavery, which crowded the poor freemen out of employment, and barred the way to his advancement. It was the aim of Gracchus, not so much to mend the condition of the slaves, as to lift the brood of idle persons into dignity; to give them land, to put the plough into their hands, to make them industrious and useful, and to repose on them the liberties of the state. He resolved to create a Roman yeomanry; instead of planters and slaves, to substitute free laborers; to plant liberty firmly in the land; to perpetuate the Commonwealth, by identifying its principles with the culture of the soil.-Art. “Slavery in Rome."

GENERAL DUFF GREEN.

We are of those who believe the South has nothing to fear from a servile war. We do not believe that the abolitionists intend, nor could they, if they would, excite the slaves to insurrection. The