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TABLE NO. VII.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE FREE STATES—1850.

States.	Flaxseed, bushels.	Val. of Garden products.	Val. of Orchard products.
California		$75,275	$17,700
Connecticut	703	196,874	175,118
Illinois	10,787	127,494	446,049
Indiana	36,888	72,864	324,940
Iowa	1,959	8,848	8,434
Maine	580	122,387	342,865
Massachusetts	72	600,020	463,995
Michigan	519	14,738	132,650
New Hampshire	189	56,810	248,560
New Jersey	16,525	475,242	607,268
New York	57,963	912,047	1,761,950
Ohio	188,880	214,004	695,921
Pennsylvania	41,728	688,714	723,389
Rhode Island		98,298	63,994
Vermont	939	18,853	315,255
Wisconsin	1,191	32,142	4,823
	358,923	$3,714,605	$6,332,914

TABLE NO. VIII.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES—1850.

States.	Flaxseed, bushels.	Val. of Garden products.	Val. of Orchard products.
Alabama	69	$84,821	$15,408
Arkansas	321	17,150	40,141
Delaware	904	12,714	46,574
Florida		8,721	1,280
Georgia	622	76,500	92,776
Kentucky	75,801	303,120	106,230
Louisiana		148,329	22,259
Maryland	2,446	200,869	164,051
Mississippi	26	46,250	50,405
Missouri	13,696	99,454	514,711
North Carolina	38,196	39,462	34,348
South Carolina	55	47,286	35,108
Tennessee	18,904	97,183	52,894
Texas	26	12,354	12,505
Virginia	52,318	183,047	177,137
	203,484	$1,377,260	$1,355,827

RECAPITULATION—FREE STATES.

Wheat	72,157,486	bush.	@	1.50	$108,236,229
Oats	96,590,371	"	"	40	38,636,148
Indian Corn	242,618,650	"	"	60	145,571,190
Potatoes (I. & S.)	59,033,170	"	"	38	22,432,604
Rye	12,574,623	"	"	1.00	12,574,623
Barley	5,002,013	"	"	90	4,501,811
Buckwheat	8,550,245	"	"	50	4,275,122
Beans & Peas	1,542,295	"	"	1.75	2,699,015
Clov. & Grass seeds	762,265	"	"	3.00	2,286,795
Flax Seeds	358,923	"	"	1.25	448,647
Garden Products		3,714,605
Orchard Products			6,332,914
Total	499,190,041	bushels,	valued	as above, at	$351,709,703

RECAPITULATION—SLAVE STATES.

Wheat	27,904,476	bush.	@	1.50	$41,856,714
Oats	49,882,799	"	"	40	19,953,191
Indian Corn	348,992,282	"	"	60	209,395,369
Potatoes (I. & S.)	44,847,420	"	"	38	17,042,019
Rye	1,608,240	"	"	1.00	1,608,240
Barley	161,907	"	"	90	145,716
Buckwheat	405,357	"	"	50	202,678
Beans & Peas	7,637,227	"	"	1.75	13,365,147
Clov. & Grass seeds	123,517	"	"	3.00	370,551
Flax Seeds	203,484	"	"	1.25	254,355
Garden Products		1,377,260
Orchard Products			1,355,827
Total	481,766,889	bushels,	valued	as above, at	$306,927,067

TOTAL DIFFERENCE—BUSHEL-MEASURE PRODUCTS.

	Bushels.		Value.
Free States	499,190,041		$351,709,703
Slave States	481,766,889		306,927,067
Balance in bushels	17,423,152	Difference in value	$44,782,636

So much for the boasted agricultural superiority of the South! Mark well the balance in bushels, and the difference in value! Is either in favor of the South? No! Are both in favor of the North? Yes! Here we have unquestionable proof that of all the bushel-measure products of the nation, the free states produce far more than one-half; and it is worthy of particular mention, that the excess of Northern products is of the most valuable kind. The account shows a balance against the South, in favor of the North, of seventeen million four hundred and twenty-three thousand one hundred and fifty-two bushels, and a difference in value of forty-four million seven hundred and eighty-two thousand six hundred and thirty-six dollars. Please bear these facts in mind, for, in order to show positively how the free and slave States do stand upon the great and important subject of rural economy, we intend to take an account of all the other products of the soil, of the live-stock upon farms, of the animals slaughtered, and, in fact, of every item of husbandry of the two sections; and if, in bringing our tabular exercises to a close, we find slavery gaining upon freedom—a thing it has never yet been known to do—we shall, as a matter of course, see that the above amount is transferred to the credit of the side to which it of right belongs.

In making up these tables we have two objects in view; the first is to open the eyes of the non-slaveholders of the South, to the system of deception, that has so long been practiced upon them, and the second is to show slaveholders themselves—we have reference only to those who are not too perverse, or ignorant, to perceive naked truths—that free labor is far more respectable, profitable, and productive, than slave labor. In the South, unfortunately, no kind of labor is either free or respectable. Every white man who is under the necessity of earning his bread, by the sweat of his brow, or by manual labor, in any capacity, no matter how unassuming in deportment, or exemplary in morals, is treated as if he was a loathsome beast, and shunned with the utmost disdain. His soul may be the very seat of honor and integrity, yet without slaves—himself a slave—he is accounted as nobody, and would be deemed intolerably presumptuous, if he dared to open his mouth, even so wide as to give faint utterance to a three-lettered monosyllable, like yea or nay, in the presence of an august knight of the whip and the lash.

There are few Southerners who will not be astonished at the disclosures of these statistical comparisons, between the free and the slave States. That the astonishment of the more intelligent and patriotic non-slaveholders will be mingled with indignation, is no more than we anticipate. We confess our own surprise, and deep chagrin, at the result of our investigations. Until we examined into the matter, we thought and hoped the South was really ahead of the North in one particular, that of agriculture; but our thoughts have been changed, and our hopes frustrated, for instead of finding ourselves the possessors of a single advantage, we behold our dear native South stripped of every laurel, and sinking deeper and deeper in the depths of poverty and shame; while, at the same time, we see the North, our successful rival, extracting and absorbing the few elements of wealth yet remaining amongst us, and rising higher and higher in the scale of fame, fortune, and invulnerable power. Thus our disappointment gives way to a feeling of intense mortification, and our soul involuntarily, but justly, we believe, cries out for retribution against the treacherous, slave-driving legislators, who have so basely and unpatriotically neglected the interests of their poor white constituents and bargained away the rights of posterity. Notwithstanding the fact that the white non-slaveholders of the South, are in the majority, as five to one, they have never yet had any part or lot in framing the laws under which they live. There is no legislation except for the benefit of slavery, and slaveholders. As a general rule, poor white persons are regarded with less esteem and attention than negroes, and though the condition of the latter is wretched beyond description, vast numbers of the former are infinitely worse off. A cunningly devised mockery of freedom is guarantied to them, and that is all. To all intents and purposes they are disfranchised, and outlawed, and the only privilege extended to them, is a shallow and circumscribed participation in the political movements that usher slaveholders into office.

We have not breathed away seven and twenty years in the South, without becoming acquainted with the demagogical manœuverings of the oligarchy. Their intrigues and tricks of legerdemain are as familiar to us as household words; in vain might the world be ransacked for a more precious junto of flatterers and cajolers. It is amusing to ignorance, amazing to credulity, and insulting to intelligence, to hear them in their blattering efforts to mystify and pervert the sacred principles of liberty, and turn the curse of slavery into a blessing. To the illiterate poor whites—made poor and ignorant by the system of slavery—they hold out the idea that slavery is the very bulwark of our liberties, and the foundation of American independence! For hours at a time, day after day, will they expatiate upon the inexpressible beauties and excellencies of this great, free and independent nation; and finally, with the most extravagant gesticulations and rhetorical flourishes, conclude their nonsensical ravings, by attributing all the glory and prosperity of the country, from Maine to Texas, and from Georgia to California, to the “invaluable institutions of the South!” With what patience we could command, we have frequently listened to the incoherent and truth-murdering declamations of these champions of slavery, and, in the absence of a more politic method of giving vent to our disgust and indignation, have involuntarily bit our lips into blisters.

The lords of the lash are not only absolute masters of the blacks, who are bought and sold, and driven about like so many cattle, but they are also the oracles and arbiters of all non-slaveholding whites, whose freedom is merely nominal, and whose unparalleled illiteracy and degradation is purposely and fiendishly perpetuated. How little the “poor white trash,” the great majority of the Southern people, know of the real condition of the country is, indeed, sadly astonishing. The truth is, they know nothing of public measures, and little of private affairs, except what their imperious masters, the slave-drivers, condescend to tell, and that is but precious little, and even that little, always garbled and one-sided, is never told except in public harangues; for the haughty cavaliers of shackles and handcuffs will not degrade themselves by holding private converse with those who have neither dimes nor hereditary rights in human flesh.

Whenever it pleases, and to the extent it pleases, a slaveholder to become communicative, poor whites may hear with fear and trembling, but not speak. They must be as mum as dumb brutes, and stand in awe of their august superiors, or be crushed with stern rebukes, cruel oppressions, or downright violence. If they dare to think for themselves, their thoughts must be forever concealed. The expression of any sentiment at all conflicting with the gospel of slavery, dooms them at once in the community in which they live, and then, whether willing or unwilling, they are obliged to become heroes, martyrs, or exiles. They may thirst for knowledge, but there is no Moses among them to smite it out of the rocks of Horeb. The black veil, through whose almost impenetrable meshes light seldom gleams, has long been pendent over their eyes, and there, with fiendish jealousy, the slave-driving ruffians sedulously guard it. Non-slaveholders are not only kept in ignorance of what is transpiring at the North, but they are continually misinformed of what is going on even in the South. Never were the poorer classes of a people, and those classes so largely in the majority, and all inhabiting the same country, so basely duped, so adroitly swindled, or so damnably outraged.

It is expected that the stupid and sequacious masses, the white victims of slavery, will believe, and, as a general thing, they do believe, whatever the slaveholders tell them; and thus it is that they are cajoled into the notion that they are the freest, happiest and most intelligent people in the world, and are taught to look with prejudice and disapprobation upon every new principle or progressive movement. Thus it is that the South, woefully inert and inventionless, has lagged behind the North, and is now weltering in the cesspool of ignorance and degradation.

We have already intimated that the opinion is prevalent throughout the South that the free States are quite sterile and unproductive, and that they are mainly dependent on us for breadstuffs and other provisions. So far as the cereals, fruits, garden vegetables and esculent roots are concerned, we have, in the preceding tables, shown the utter falsity of this opinion; and we now propose to show that it is equally erroneous in other particulars, and very far from the truth in the general reckoning. We can prove, and we intend to prove, from facts in our possession, that the hay crop of the free States is worth considerably more in dollars and cents than all the cotton, tobacco, rice, hay and hemp produced in the fifteen slave States. This statement may strike some of our readers with amazement, and others may, for the moment, regard it as quite incredible; but it is true, nevertheless, and we shall soon proceed to confirm it. The single free State of New-York produces more than three times the quantity of hay that is produced in all the slave States. Ohio produces a larger number of tons than all the Southern and Southwestern States, and so does Pennsylvania. Vermont, little and unpretending as she is, does the same thing, with the exception of Virginia. Look at the facts as presented in the tables, and let your own eyes, physical and intellectual, confirm you in the truth.

And yet, forsooth, the slave-driving oligarchy would whip us into the belief that agriculture is not one of the leading and lucrative pursuits of the free States, that the soil there is an uninterrupted barren waste, and that our Northern brethren, having the advantage in nothing except wealth, population, inland and foreign commerce, manufactures, mechanism, inventions, literature, the arts and sciences, and their concomitant branches of profitable industry,—miserable objects of charity—are dependent on us for the necessaries of life.

Next to Virginia, Maryland is the greatest Southern hay-producing State; and yet, it is the opinion of several of the most extensive hay and grain dealers in Baltimore, with whom we have conversed on the subject, that the domestic crop is scarcely equal to one-third the demand, and that the balance required for home consumption, about two-thirds, is chiefly brought from New-York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. At this rate, Maryland receives and consumes not less than three hundred and fifteen thousand tons of Northern hay every year; and this, as we are informed by the dealers above-mentioned, at an average cost to the last purchaser, by the time it is stowed in the mow, of at least twenty-five dollars per ton; it would thus appear that this most popular and valuable provender, one of the staple commodities of the North, commands a market in a single slave State, to the amount of seven million eight hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars per annum.

In this same State of Maryland, less than one million of dollar’s worth of cotton finds a market, the whole number of bales sold here in 1850 amounting to only twenty-three thousand three hundred and twenty-five, valued at seven hundred and forty-six thousand four hundred dollars. Briefly, then, and in round numbers, we may state the case thus: Maryland buys annually seven millions of dollars worth of hay from the North, and one million of dollars worth of cotton from the South. Let slaveholders and their fawning defenders read, ponder and compare.

The exact quantities of Northern hay, rye, and buckwheat flour, Irish potatoes, fruits, clover and grass seeds, and other products of the soil, received and consumed in all the slaveholding States, we have no means of ascertaining; but for all practical purposes, we can arrive sufficiently near to the amount by inference from the above data, and from what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears wherever we go. Food from the North for man or for beast, or for both, is for sale in every market in the South. Even in the most insignificant little villages in the interior of the slave States, where books, newspapers and other mediums of intelligence are unknown, where the poor whites and the negroes are alike bowed down in heathenish ignorance and barbarism, and where the news is received but once a week, and then only in a Northern-built stage-coach, drawn by horses in Northern harness, in charge of a driver dressed cap-a-pie in Northern habiliments, and with a Northern whip in his hand,—the agricultural products of the North, either crude, prepared, pickled or preserved, are ever to be found.

Mortifying as the acknowledgment of the fact is to us, it is our unbiased opinion—an opinion which will, we believe, be endorsed by every intelligent person who goes into a careful examination and comparison of all the facts in the case—that the profits arising to the North from the sale of provender and provisions to the South, are far greater than those arising to the South from the sale of cotton, tobacco and breadstuffs to the North. It follows, then, that the agricultural interests of the North being not only equal but actually superior to those of the South, the hundreds of millions of dollars which the commerce and manufactures of the former annually yield, is just so much clear and independent gain over the latter. It follows, also, from a corresponding train or system of deduction, and with all the foregoing facts in view, that the difference between freedom and slavery is simply the difference between sense and nonsense, wisdom and folly, good and evil, right and wrong.

Any observant American, from whatever point of the compass he may hail, who will take the trouble to pass through the Southern markets, both great and small, as we have done, and inquire where this article, that and the other came from, will be utterly astonished at the variety and quantity of Northern agricultural productions kept for sale. And this state of things is growing worse and worse every year. Exclusively agricultural as the South is in her industrial pursuits, she is barely able to support her sparse and degenerate population. Her men and her domestic animals, both dwarfed into shabby objects of commiseration under the blighting effects of slavery, are constantly feeding on the multifarious products of Northern soil. And if the whole truth must be told, we may here add, that these products, like all other articles of merchandize purchased at the North, are generally bought on a credit, and, in a great number of instances, by far too many, never paid for—not, as a general rule, because the purchasers are dishonest or unwilling to pay, but because they are impoverished and depressed by the retrogressive and deadening operations of slavery, that most unprofitable and pernicious institution under which they live.

To show how well we are sustained in our remarks upon hay and other special products of the soil, as well as to give circulation to other facts of equal significance, we quote a single passage from an address by Paul C. Cameron, before the Agricultural Society of Orange County, North Carolina. This production is, in the main, so powerfully conceived, so correct and plausible in its statements and conclusions, and so well calculated, though, perhaps, not intended, to arouse the old North State to a sense of her natural greatness and acquired shame, that we could wish to see it published in pamphlet form, and circulated throughout the length and breadth of that unfortunate and degraded heritage of slavery. Mr. Cameron says:

“I know not when I have been more humiliated, as a North Carolina farmer, than when, a few weeks ago, at a railroad depot at the very doors of our State capital, I saw wagons drawn by Kentucky mules, loading with Northern hay, for the supply not only of the town, but to be taken to the country. Such a sight at the capital of a State whose population is almost exclusively devoted to agriculture, is a most humiliating exhibition. Let us cease to use every thing, as far as it is practicable, that is not the product of our own soil and workshops—not an axe, or a broom, or bucket, from Connecticut. By every consideration of self-preservation, we are called to make better efforts to expel the Northern grocer from the State with his butter, and the Ohio and Kentucky horse, mule and hog driver, from our county at least. It is a reproach on us as farmers, and no little deduction from our wealth, that we suffer the population of our towns and villages to supply themselves with butter from another Orange County in New-York.”

We have promised to prove that the hay crop of the free states is worth considerably more than all the cotton, tobacco, rice, hay and hemp produced in the fifteen slave States. The compilers of the last census, as we learn from Prof. De Bow, the able and courteous superintendent, in making up the hay-tables, allowed two thousand two hundred and forty pounds to the ton. The price per ton at which we should estimate its value has puzzled us to some extent. Dealers in the article in Baltimore think it will average twenty-five dollars, in their market. Four or five months ago they sold it at thirty dollars per ton. At the very time we write, though there is less activity in the article than usual, we learn, from an examination of sundry prices-current and commercial journals, that hay is selling in Savannah at $33 per ton; in Mobile and New Orleans at $26; in Charleston at $25; in Louisville at $24; and in Cincinnati at $23. The average of these prices is twenty-six dollars sixteen and two-third cents; and we suppose it would be fair to employ the figures which would indicate this amount, the net value of a single ton, in calculating the total market value of the entire crop. Were we to do this—and, with the foregoing facts in view, we submit to intelligent men whether we would not be justifiable in doing it,—the hay crop of the free states, 12,690,982 tons, in 1850, would amount in valuation to the enormous sum of $331,081,695—more than four times the value of all the cotton produced in the United States during the same period!

But we shall not make the calculation at what we have found to be the average value per ton throughout the country. What rate, then, shall be agreed upon as a basis of comparison between the value of the hay crop of the North and that of the South, and as a means of testing the truth of our declaration—that the former exceeds the aggregate value of all the cotton, tobacco, rice, hay and hemp produced in the fifteen slave States? Suppose we take $13,08⅓—just half the average value—as the multiplier in this arithmetical exercise. This we can well afford to do; indeed, we might reduce the amount per ton to much less than half the average value, and still have a large margin left for triumphant demonstration. It is not our purpose, however, to make an overwhelming display of the incomparable greatness of the free States.

In estimating the value of the various agricultural products of the two great sections of the country, we have been guided by prices emanating from the Bureau of Agriculture in Washington; and in a catalogue of those prices now before us, we perceive that the average value of hay throughout the nation is supposed to be not more than half a cent per pound—$11.20 per ton—which, as we have seen above, is considerably less than half the present market value;—and this, too, in the face of the fact that prices generally rule higher than they do just now. It will be admitted on all sides, however, that the prices fixed upon by the Bureau of Agriculture, taken as a whole, are as fair for one section of the country as for the other, and that we cannot blamelessly deviate from them in one particular without deviating from them in another. Eleven dollars and twenty cents ($11.20) per ton shall therefore be the price; and, notwithstanding these greatly reduced figures, we now renew, with an addendum, our declaration and promise, that—We can prove, and we shall now proceed to prove, that the annual hay crop of the free States is worth considerably more in dollars and cents than all the cotton, tobacco, rice, hay, hemp and cane sugar annually produced in the fifteen slave States.

HAY CROP OF THE FREE STATES—1850.

12,690,982 tons a 11,20

$142,138,998

SUNDRY PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES—1850.

Cotton	2,445,779 bales	a	32,00	$78,264,928
Tobacco	185,023,906 lbs.	"	10	18,502,390
Rice (rough)	215,313,497 lbs.	"	4	8,612,539
Hay	1,137,784 tons	"	11,20	12,743,180
Hemp	34,673 tons	"	112,00	3,883,376
Cane Sugar	237,133,000 lbs.	"	7	16,599,310
	$138,605,723

RECAPITULATION.

Hay crop of the free States		$142,138,998
Sundry products of the slave States		138,605,723
Balance in favor of the free States		$3,533,275

There is the account; look at it, and let it stand in attestation of the exalted virtues and surpassing powers of freedom. Scan it well, Messieurs lords of the lash, and learn from it new lessons of the utter inefficiency, and despicable imbecility of slavery. Examine it minutely, liberty-loving patriots of the North, and behold in it additional evidences of the beauty, grandeur, and super-excellence of free institutions. Treasure it up in your minds, outraged friends and non-slaveholders of the South, and let the recollection of it arouse you to an inflexible determination to extirpate the monstrous enemy that stalks abroad in your land, and to recover the inalienable rights and liberties, which have been filched from you by an unprincipled oligarchy.

In deference to truth, decency and good sense, it is to be hoped that negro-driving politicians will never more have the effrontery to open their mouths in extolling the agricultural achievements of slave labor. Especially is it desirable, that, as a simple act of justice to a basely deceived populace, they may cease their stale and senseless harangues on the importance of cotton. The value of cotton to the South, to the North, to the nation, and to the world, has been so grossly exaggerated, and so extensive have been the evils which have resulted in consequence of the extraordinary misrepresentations concerning it, that we should feel constrained to reproach ourself for remissness of duty, if we failed to make an attempt to explode the popular error. The figures above show what it is, and what it is not. Recur to them, and learn the facts.

So hyperbolically has the importance of cotton been magnified by certain pro-slavery politicians of the South, that the person who would give credence to all their fustian and bombast, would be under the necessity of believing that the very existence of almost everything, in the heaven above, in the earth beneath, and in the water under the earth, depended on it. The truth is, however, that the cotton crop is of but little value to the South. New England and Old England, by their superior enterprise and sagacity, turn it chiefly to their own advantage. It is carried in their ships, spun in their factories, woven in their looms, insured in their offices, returned again in their own vessels, and, with double freight and cost of manufacturing added, purchased by the South at a high premium. Of all the parties engaged or interested in its transportation and manufacture, the South is the only one that does not make a profit. Nor does she, as a general thing, make a profit by producing it.

We are credibly informed that many of the farmers in the immediate vicinity of Baltimore, where we now write, have turned their attention exclusively to hay, and that from one acre they frequently gather two tons, for which they receive fifty dollars. Let us now inquire how many dollars may be expected from an acre planted in cotton. Mr. Cameron, from whose able address before the Agricultural Society of Orange County, North Carolina, we have already gleaned some interesting particulars, informs us, that the cotton planters in his part of the country, “have contented themselves with a crop yielding only ten or twelve dollars per acre,” and that “the summing up of a large surface gives but a living result.” An intelligent resident of the Palmetto State, writing in De Bow’s Review, not long since, advances the opinion that the cotton planters of South Carolina are not realizing more than one per cent. on the amount of capital they have invested. While in Virginia, very recently, an elderly slaveholder, whose religious walk and conversation had recommended and promoted him to an eldership in the Presbyterian church, and who supports himself and family by raising niggers and tobacco, told us that, for the last eight or ten years, aside from the increase of his human chattels, he felt quite confident he had not cleared as much even as one per cent. per annum on the amount of his investment. The real and personal property of this aged Christian consists chiefly in a large tract of land and about thirty negroes, most of whom, according to his own confession, are more expensive than profitable. The proceeds arising from the sale of the tobacco they produce, are all absorbed in the purchase of meat and bread for home consumption, and when the crop is stunted by drought, frost, or otherwise cut short, one of the negroes must be sold to raise funds for the support of the others. Such are the agricultural achievements of slave labor; such are the results of “the sum of all villainies.” The diabolical institution subsists on its own flesh. At one time children are sold to procure food for the parents, at another, parents are sold to procure food for the children. Within its pestilential atmosphere, nothing succeeds; progress and prosperity are unknown; inanition and slothfulness ensue; everything becomes dull, dismal and unprofitable; wretchedness and desolation run riot throughout the land; an aspect of most melancholy inactivity and dilapidation broods over every city and town; ignorance and prejudice sit enthroned over the minds of the people; usurping despots wield the sceptre of power; everywhere, and in everything, between Delaware Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, are the multitudinous evils of slavery apparent.

The soil itself soon sickens and dies beneath the unnatural tread of the slave. Hear what the Hon. C. C. Clay, of Alabama, has to say upon the subject. His testimony is eminently suggestive, well-timed, and truthful; and we heartily commend it to the careful consideration of every spirited Southron who loves his country, and desires to see it rescued from the fatal grasp of “the mother of harlots.” Says he:

“I can show you, with sorrow, in the older portions of Alabama, and in my native county of Madison, the sad memorials of the artless and exhausting culture of cotton. Our small planters, after taking the cream off their lands, unable to restore them by rest, manures, or otherwise, are going further West and South, in search of other virgin lands, which they may and will despoil and impoverish in like manner. Our wealthier planters, with greater means and no more skill, are buying out their poorer neighbors, extending their plantations, and adding to their slave force. The wealthy few, who are able to live on smaller profits, and to give their blasted fields some rest, are thus pushing off the many who are merely independent. Of the $20,000,000 annually realized from the sales of the cotton crop of Alabama, nearly all not expended in supporting the producers, is re-invested in land and negroes. Thus the white population has decreased and the slave increased almost pari passu in several counties of our State. In 1825, Madison county cast about 3,000 votes; now, she cannot cast exceeding 2,300. In traversing that county, one will discover numerous farm-houses, once the abode of industrious and intelligent freemen, now occupied by slaves, or tenantless, deserted and dilapidated; he will observe fields, once fertile, now unfenced, abandoned, and covered with those evil harbingers, fox-tail and broomsedge; he will see the moss growing on the mouldering walls of once thrifty villages, and will find ‘one only master grasps the whole domain,’ that once furnished happy homes for a dozen white families. Indeed, a country in its infancy, where fifty years ago scarce a forest tree had been felled by the axe of the pioneer, is already exhibiting the painful signs of senility and decay, apparent in Virginia and the Carolinas.”

Some one has said that “an honest confession is good for the soul,” and if the adage be true, as we have no doubt it is, we think Mr. C. C. Clay is entitled to a quiet conscience on one score at least. In the extract quoted above, he gives us a graphic description of the ruinous operations and influences of slavery in the Southwest; and we, as a native of Carolina, and a traveler through Virginia, are ready to bear testimony to the fitness of his remarks when he referred to those States as examples of senility and decay. With equal propriety, however, he might have stopped nearer home for a subject of comparison. Either of the States bordering upon Alabama, or, indeed, any other slave States, would have answered his purpose quite as well as Virginia and the Carolinas. Wherever slavery exists there he may find parallels to the destruction that is sweeping with such deadly influence over his own unfortunate State.

As for examples of vigorous, industrious and thrifty communities, they can be found anywhere beyond the Upas-shadow of slavery—nowhere else. New-York and Massachusetts, which, by nature, are confessedly far inferior to Virginia and the Carolinas, have, by the more liberal and equitable policy which they have pursued, in substituting liberty for slavery, attained a degree of eminence and prosperity altogether unknown in the slave States.

Amidst all the hyperbole and cajolery of slave-driving politicians, who, as we have already seen, are ‘the books, the arts, the academies, that show, contain, and govern all the South,’ we are rejoiced to see that Mr. Clay, Mr. Cameron, and a few others, have had the boldness and honesty to step forward and proclaim the truth. All such frank admissions are to be hailed as good omens for the South. Nothing good can come from any attempt to conceal the unconcealable evidences of poverty and desolation everywhere trailing in the wake of slavery. Let the truth be told on all occasions, of the North as well as of the South, and the people will soon begin to discover the egregiousness of their errors, to draw just comparisons, to inquire into cause and effect, and to adopt the more utile measures, manners and customs of their wiser cotemporaries.

In wilfully traducing and decrying everything North of Mason and Dixon’s line, and in excessively magnifying the importance of everything South of it, the oligarchy have, in the eyes of all liberal and intelligent men, only made an exhibition of their uncommon folly and dishonesty. For a long time, it is true, they have succeeded in deceiving the people, in keeping them humbled in the murky sloughs of poverty and ignorance, and in instilling into their untutored minds passions and prejudices expressly calculated to strengthen and protect the accursed institution of slavery; but, thanks to heaven, their inglorious reign is fast drawing to a close; with irresistible brilliancy, and in spite of the interdict of tyrants, light from the pure fountain of knowledge is now streaming over the dark places of our land, and, ere long—mark our words—there will ascend from Delaware, and from Texas, and from all the intermediate States, a huzza for Freedom and for Equal Rights, that will utterly confound the friends of despotism, set at defiance the authority of usurpers, and carry consternation to the heart of every slavery-propagandist.

To undeceive the people of the South, to bring them to a knowledge of the inferior and disreputable position which they occupy as a component part of the Union, and to give prominence and popularity to those plans which, if adopted, will elevate us to an equality, socially, morally, intellectually, industrially, politically, and financially, with the most flourishing and refined nation in the world, and, if possible, to place us in the van of even that, is the object of this work. Slaveholders, either from ignorance or from a wilful disposition to propagate error, contend that the South has nothing to be ashamed of, that slavery has proved a blessing to her, and that her superiority over the North in an agricultural point of view makes amends for all her shortcomings in other respects. On the other hand, we contend that many years of continual blushing and severe penance would not suffice to cancel or annul the shame and disgrace that justly attaches to the South in consequence of slavery—the direst evil that e’er befell the land—that the South bears nothing like even a respectable approximation to the North in navigation, commerce, or manufactures, and that, contrary to the opinion entertained by ninety-nine hundredths of her people, she is far behind the free States in the only thing of which she has ever dared to boast—agriculture. We submit the question to the arbitration of figures, which, it is said, do not lie. With regard to the bushel-measure products of the soil, of which we have already taken an inventory, we have seen that there is a balance against the South in favor of the North of seventeen million four hundred and twenty-three thousand one hundred and fifty-two bushels, and a difference in the value of the same, also in favor of the North, of forty-four million seven hundred and eighty-two thousand six hundred and thirty-six dollars. It is certainly a most novel kind of agricultural superiority that the South claims on that score!

Our attention shall now be directed to the twelve principal pound-measure products of the free and of the slave States—hay, cotton, butter and cheese, tobacco, cane, sugar, wool, rice, hemp, maple sugar, beeswax and honey, flax, and hops—and in taking an account of them, we shall, in order to show the exact quantity produced in each State, and for the convenience of future reference, pursue the same plan as that adopted in the preceding tables. Whether slavery will appear to better advantage on the scales than it did in the half-bushel, remains to be seen. It is possible that the rickety monster may make a better show on a new track; if it makes a more ridiculous display, we shall not be surprised. A careful examination of its precedents, has taught us the folly of expecting anything good to issue from it in any manner whatever. It has no disposition to emulate the magnanimity of its betters, and as for a laudable ambition to excel, that is a characteristic altogether foreign to its nature. Languor and inertia are the insalutary viands upon which it delights to satiate its morbid appetite; and “from bad to worse” is the ill-omened motto under which, in all its feeble efforts and achievements, it ekes out a most miserable and deleterious existence.

TABLE NO. IX.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE FREE STATES—1850.

States.	Hay, tons	Hemp, tons	Hops, lbs
California	2,038
Connecticut	516,131		554
Illinois	601,952		3,551
Indiana	403,230		92,796
Iowa	89,055		8,242
Maine	755,889		40,120
Massachusetts	651,807		121,595
Michigan	404,934		10,663
New Hampshire	598,854		257,174
New Jersey	435,950		2,133
New York	3,728,797	4	2,536,299
Ohio	1,443,142	150	63,731
Pennsylvania	1,842,970	44	22,088
Rhode Island	74,418		277
Vermont	866,153		288,023
Wisconsin	275,662		15,930
	12,690,982	198	3,463,176

TABLE NO. X.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES—1850.

States.	Hay, tons	Hemp, tons	Hops, lbs
Alabama	32,685		276
Arkansas	3,976	15	157
Delaware	30,159		348
Florida	2,510		14
Georgia	23,449		261
Kentucky	113,747	17,787	4,309
Louisiana	25,752		125
Maryland	157,956	63	1,870
Mississippi	12,504	7	473
Missouri	116,925	16,028	4,130
North Carolina	145,653	39	9,246
South Carolina	20,925		26
Tennessee	74,091	595	1,032
Texas	8,354		7
Virginia	369,098	139	11,506
	1,137,784	34,673	33,780

TABLE NO. XI.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE FREE STATES—1850.

States.	Flax, lbs.	Maple Sugar lbs.	Tobacco lbs.
California			1,000
Connecticut	17,928	50,796	1,267,624
Illinois	160,063	248,904	841,394
Indiana	584,469	2,921,192	1,044,620
Iowa	62,660	78,407	6,041
Maine	17,081	93,542
Massachusetts	1,162	795,525	138,246
Michigan	7,152	2,439,794	1,245
New Hampshire	7,652	1,298,863	50
New Jersey	182,965	2,197	310
New York	940,577	10,357,484	83,189
Ohio	446,932	4,588,209	10,454,449
Pennsylvania	530,307	2,326,525	912,651
Rhode Island	85	28
Vermont	20,852	6,349,357
Wisconsin	68,393	610,976	1,268
	3,048,278	32,161,799	14,752,087

TABLE NO. XII.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES—1850.

States.	Flax, lbs.	Maple Sugar lbs.	Tobacco lbs.
Alabama	3,921	643	164,990
Arkansas	12,291	9,330	218,936
Delaware	17,174
Florida	50		998,614
Georgia	5,387	50	423,924
Kentucky	2,100,116	437,405	55,501,196
Louisiana		255	26,878
Maryland	35,686	47,740	21,407,497
Mississippi	665		49,960
Missouri	627,160	178,910	17,113,784
North Carolina	593,796	27,932	11,984,786
South Carolina	333	200	74,285
Tennessee	368,131	158,557	20,148,932
Texas	1,048		66,897
Virginia	1,000,450	1,227,665	56,803,227
	4,766,198	2,088,687	185,023,906

TABLE NO. XIII.

ANIMAL PRODUCTS OF THE FREE STATES—1850.

States.	Wool, lbs.	Butter and Cheese, lbs.	Beeswax and Honey, lbs.
California	5,520	855
Connecticut	497,454	11,861,396	93,304
Illinois	2,150,113	13,804,768	869,444
Indiana	2,610,287	13,506,099	935,329
Iowa	373,898	2,381,028	321,711
Maine	1,864,034	11,678,265	189,618
Massachusetts	585,136	15,159,512	59,508
Michigan	2,043,283	8,077,390	359,232
New Hampshire	1,108,476	10,173,619	117,140
New Jersey	375,396	9,852,966	156,694
New York	10,071,301	129,507,507	1,755,830
Ohio	10,196,371	55,268,921	804,275
Pennsylvania	4,481,570	42,383,452	839,509
Rhode Island	129,692	1,312,178	6,347
Vermont	3,400,717	20,858,814	249,422
Wisconsin	253,963	4,034,033	131,005
	39,647,211	349,860,783	6,888,368

TABLE NO. XIV.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES—1850.

States.	Wool, lbs.	Butter and Cheese, lbs.	Beeswax and Honey, lbs.
Alabama	657,118	4,040,223	897,021
Arkansas	182,595	1,884,327	192,338
Delaware	57,768	1,058,495	41,248
Florida	23,247	389,513	18,971
Georgia	990,019	4,687,535	732,514
Kentucky	2,297,433	10,161,477	1,158,019
Louisiana	109,897	685,026	96,701
Maryland	477,438	3,810,135	74,802
Mississippi	559,619	4,367,425	397,460
Missouri	1,627,164	8,037,931	1,328,972
North Carolina	970,738	4,242,211	512,289
South Carolina	487,233	2,986,820	216,281
Tennessee	1,364,378	8,317,266	1,036,572
Texas	131,917	2,440,199	380,825
Virginia	2,869,765	11,525,651	880,767
	12,797,329	68,634,224	7,964,760

TABLE NO. XV.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES—1850.

States.	Cotton, bales of 400 lbs.	Cane Sugar, hhds. 1000lbs.	Rough Rice, lbs.
Alabama	564,429	87	2,312,252
Arkansas	65,344		63,179
Delaware
Florida	45,131	2,750	1,075,090
Georgia	499,091	846	38,950,691
Kentucky	758	10	5,688
Louisiana	178,737	226,001	4,425,349
Maryland
Mississippi	484,292	8	2,719,856
Missouri			700
North Carolina	50,545		5,465,868
South Carolina	300,901	77	159,930,613
Tennessee	194,532	3	258,854
Texas	58,072	7,351	88,203
Virginia	3,947		17,154
	2,445,779	237,133	215,313,497

RECAPITULATION—FREE STATES.

Hay	28,427,799,680	lbs.	@	½	c.	$142,138,998
Hemp	443,520	"	"	5	"	22,176
Hops	3,463,176	"	"	15	"	519,476
Flax	3,048,278	"	"	10	"	304,827
Maple Sugar	32,161,799	"	"	8	"	2,572,943
Tobacco	14,752,087	"	"	10	"	1,475,208
Wool	39,647,211	"	"	35	"	13,876,523
Butter and Cheese	349,860,783	"	"	15	"	52,479,117
Beeswax and Honey	6,888,368	"	"	15	"	1,033,255
Total	28,878,064,902	lbs.,	valued	as	above,	$214,422,523

RECAPITULATION—SLAVE STATES.

Hay	2,548,636,160	lbs.	@	½	c.	$12,743,180
Hemp	77,667,520	"	"	5	"	3,883,376
Hops	33,780	"	"	15	"	5,067
Flax	4,766,198	"	"	10	"	476,619
Maple Sugar	2,088,687	"	"	8	"	167,094
Tobacco	185,023,906	"	"	10	"	18,502,390
Wool	12,797,329	"	"	35	"	4,479,065
Butter and Cheese	68,634,224	"	"	15	"	10,295,133
Beeswax and Honey	7,964,760	"	"	15	"	1,194,714
Cotton	978,311,600	"	"	8	"	78,264,928
Cane Sugar	237,133,000	"	"	7	"	16,599,310
Rice (rough)	215,313,497	"	"	4	"	8,612,539
Total	4,338,370,661	lbs.,	valued	as	above, at	$155,223,415