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influence upon each other. But this is not the state of the fact. The slaves of the United States are chiefly restricted to one quarter of the Union, which may be described with sufficient general accuracy, by a boundary, beginning with the mouth of the Potomac river, extending to its head, thence to the Ohio river, and down it and the Mississippi, to the Gulph of Mexico, and with that and the Atlantic ocean, and the Bay of Chesapeake to the beginning. Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, a part of Louisiana and Arkansas, compose the whole of the residue of the slave district of the United States. Within those limits all our slaves are concentrated; and, within a portion of them, irresistible causes tend inevitably to their further concentration. In one of the States, comprised within these limits, the slave stock had, at the last census, the superiority in numbers, whilst, in several others, the enumeration exhibits the two races in nearly equal proportions.

Time alone, which unveils every thing, permitted men to see, can disclose the consequences, now wrapt in futurity, of the state of things which I have slightly touched. But, without violating his prerogative, we may venture to catch, in anticipation, a glimpse of some of them.

The humanity of the slave States of the Union has prompted them greatly to meliorate the condition of slaves. They are protected, in all instances, by just laws, from injury extending to their lives, and in many from cruelty applied to their persons. Public opinion has done even more than the laws in elevating their condition in the scale of human existence. In this State, as well as in others, they are treated with much kindness, and abundantly supplied with substantial food of meat and bread and vegetables, and comfortable clothing, whilst they are moderately tasked in labour. But still they are subject to many civil disabilities, and there is a vast space between them and the race of freemen. Our laws continue to regard them as property, and, consequently, as instruments of labour, bound to obey the mandate of others. As a mere labourer, the slave feels that he toils or his master and not for himself; that the laws do not recognize 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 all-powerful influence of the motive of selfinterest. 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 of 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 not my purpose to speak of those particular though endearing instances of mutual regard, but of the general state of the unfortunate relation.

That labour is best, if it can be commanded, in which the labourer knows that he will derive the profits of his industry; that his employment depends upon his diligence, and his reward upon his assiduity. He has then 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; that he does not entirely depend upon another's beck and nod, 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. He feels, in a word, 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 labour, the former will be decidedly preferred, for the reasons already assigned. It is more capable, more diligent, more faithful; and, in every respect, worthy of more confidence. In the first settlement of some countries, or communities, capital may be unable to command the free labour which it wants, and it may, therefore, purchase that of slaves. Such was and yet is the condition of many parts of the United States. But there are others, and they are annually increasing in extent, in which the labour of freemen can be commanded at a rate quite as cheap as that of slaves, in States which tolerate slavery.

Although in particular States, or parts of States, the increase of the African portion of population would seem to be greater than that of the European stock, this fact is believed to be susceptible of an explanation, from the operation of causes of emigration, which would not assign to it greater prolific powers. On the contrary, all the enumerations of the people of the United States sustain clearly the position, that, contrasting the whole European race throughout the Union with the whole of the African race, bond and free, also throughout the Union, the former multiplies faster than the latter. As time elapses our numbers will augment, our deserts become peopled, and our country will become as densely popu lated as its agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial faculties will admit. In proportion to the density of population are the supply and the wages of labour. The demand for labour also increases with the aug. mentation of numbers, though probably not in the same proportion. Assuming our present population at twelve millions, when it shall be increased, as in about thirty years it will be, to twenty-four millions, we shall have double the amount of available labor that we can command at present. And there will consequently be a great, though probably not proportionate, reduction in the wages of labour. As the supply of labourers increases, a competition will arise between, not only individuals, but

classes for employment. The superior qualities which have been attributed to free labour will ensure for that the preference, wherever the alternative is presented of engaging free or slave labour, at an equal price. This competition, and the preference for white labour, are believed to be already discernable in parts of Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, and probably existed in Pennsylvania and other States north of Maryland, prior to the disappearance of slaves from among them. The march of the ascendency of free labour over slave, will proceed from the North to the South, gradually entering first the States nearest to the free region. Its progress would be more rapid, if it were not impeded by the check resulting from the repugnance of the white man to work among slaves, or where slavery is tolerated.

In proportion to the multiplication of the descendants of the European stock, and the consequent diminution of the value of slave labour, by the general diminution of wages, will there be an abatement in the force of motives to rear slaves. The master will not find an adequate indemnity in the price of the adult for the charges of maintaining and bringing up the offspring. His care and attention will relax; and he will be indifferent about incurring expenses when they are sick, and in providing for their general comfort, when he knows that he will not be ultimately compensated. There may not be numerous instances of positive violation of the duties of humanity, but every one knows the difference between a negli gence, which is not criminal, and a watchful vigilance stimulated by interest, which allows no want to be unsupplied. The effect of this relaxed attention to the offspring will be to reduce the rates of general increase of the slave portion of our population, whilst that of the other race, not subject to the same neglect, will increase and fill up the void. A still greater effect, from the diminution of the value of labour, will be that of voluntary emancipations; the master being now anxious to relieve himself from a burthen, without profit, by renouncing his right of property. facts will illustrate some of these principles. Prior to the annexation of Louisiana to the United States the supply of slaves from Africa was abundant. The price of adults was generally about $100, a price less than thie cost of raising an infant. Then it was believed that the climate of that province was unfavourable to the rearing of negro children, and comparatively few were raised. After the United States abolished the slave trade, the price of adults rose very considerably, greater attention was consequently bestowed on their children, and now no where is the African female more prolific than she is in Louisiana, and the climate of no one of the Southern States is supposed to be more favourable to rearing the offspring. The serfs of Russia possess a market value inferior to that of the African slaves of the U. States; and, although the Lord is not believed to be bound to provide for the support of his dependent, as the American

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master is for his slave, voluntary manumissions of the serf are very frequent, influenced in some degree no doubt by his inconsiderable value.

What has tended to sustain the price of slaves in the U. States has been, that very fact of the acquisition of Louisiana, but especially the increasing demand for cotton, and the consequent increase of its cultivation. ` The price of cotton, a much more extensive object of culture than sugar cane, regulates the price of slaves as unerringly as any one subject whatever is regulated by any standard. As it rises in price, they rise; as it falls, they fall. But the multiplication of slaves, by natural causes, must soon be much greater than the increase of the demand for them; to say nothing of the progressive decline which has taken place, in that great Southern staple, within a few years, and which there is no reason to believe will be permanently arrested. Whenever the demand for the cultivation of sugar and cotton comes to be fully supplied, the price of slaves will begin to decline, and as that demand cannot possibly keep pace with the supply, the price will decline more and more. Farming agriculture cannot sustain it; for it is believed that no where in the farming portion of the U. 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.

Partial causes may retard the decline in the value of slaves. The tendency of slaves is to crowd into those countries or districts, if not obstructed by the policy of States, where their labor is most profitably employed. This is the law of their nature, as it is the general law of all capital and labor. The slave trade has not yet been effectively stopt in the Island of Cuba. Whenever it is, as slaves can be there more profitably employed, on more valuable products than in the U. States, and as the supply there is much below the demand which will arise out of the susceptibilites of the island for agricultural produce, they will rise in price much higher there than in the U. S. If the laws do not forbid it, vast numbers will be exported to that island. And if they do prohibit it, many will be smuggled in, tempted by the high prices which they will bear.

But neither this, nor any other conceivable cause, can for any length of time, check the fall in the value of slaves to which they are inevitably destined. We have seen that, as slaves diminish in price, the motive of the proprietors of them to rear the offspring will abate, that consequent neglect in providing for their wants will ensue, and consequent voluntary emancipation will take place. That adult slaves will, in process of time, sink in value even below a hundred dollars each, I have not a doubt. This result may not be brought about by the termination of the first period of their duplication, but that it will come, at some subsequent, and not distant period, I think perfectly clear. Whenever the price of the adult shall be less than the cost of raising him from infancy, what inducement will the proprietor of the parent have to incur that expense? In such a state of things, it

will be in vain that the laws prohibit manumission. No laws can be enforced or will be respected, the effect of which is the ruin of those on whom they operate. In spite of all their penalties the liberation or abandonment of slaves will take place.

As the two races progressively multiply and augment the source of supply of labor, its wages will diminish, and the preference already noticed will be given of free to slave labor. But another effect will also arise. There will be not only a competition between the two races for employment, but a struggle, not perceptible perhaps to the superficial observer, for subsistence. In such a struggle the stronger and more powerful race will prevail. And as the law which regulates the state of population in any given community, is derived from the quantity of its subsistence, the further consequence would be an insensible decline in the increase of the weaker race. Pinched by want and neglected by their masters, who would regard them as a burthen, they would be stimulated to the commission of crimes, and especially those of a petty description.

When we consider the cruelty of the origin of negro slavery, its nature, the character of the free institutions of the whites, and the irresistible progress of public opinion, throughout America as well as in Europe, it is impossible not to anticipate frequent insurrections among the blacks in the United States. They are rational beings like ourselves, capable of feeling, of reflection and of judging of what naturally belongs to them as a portion of the human race. By the very condition of the relation which subsists between us, we are enemies of each other. They know well the wrongs which their ancestors suffered at the hands of our ancestors, and the wrongs which they believe they continue to endure, although they may be unable to avenge them. They are kept in subjection only by the superior intelligence and superior power of the predominant race. Their brethren have been liberated in every part of the continent of America, except in the United States and the Brazils. I have just seen an act of the President of the Republic of the United Mexican States, dated no longer ago than the 15th of September last, by which the whole of them in that Republic have been emancipated. A great effort is now making in Great Britain, which tends to the same ultimate effect, in regard to the negro slaves in the British West Indies.

Happily for us no such insurrection can ever be attended with permanent success, as long as our Union endures. It would be speedily suppressed by the all-powerful means of the United States; and, it would be the madness of despair in the blacks that should attempt it. But if attempted in some parts of the United States, what shocking scenes of carnage, rapine, and lawless violence might not be perpetrated before the arrival at the theatre of action of a competent force to quell it! And after it was put down, what other scenes of military rigor and bloody exe