NOTES ON AMERICA. 



dissolution of the federal union, by a separation of the free from the 

 slave-holding states, and the malignant influence which the slave system 

 must inevitably continue to exercise on the future destinies of the 

 republic. 



Many causes conspire to produce a great degree of irritation in the 

 southern provinces, towards their brethren of the north ; the principal 

 of which are, in the first place, the unmeasured and acrimonious attacks 

 which, in Congress, and in the state legislatures, are made upon their 

 laws, for the coercion of the black population : and secondly, the iniqui- 

 tous provisions of the new tariff, which press heavily upon the growers 

 of rice, cotton, and tobacco. 



The southern planter addresses the northern politician in such lan- 

 guage as this : " You know perfectly well that we did not originate 

 the slave system; that we lament its existence most deeply; are the 

 principal sufferers, from the evils which it occasions ; and would adopt 

 any feasible plan for its abolition. But, instead of producing some well 

 digested and rational scheme for our relief, you only expose your own 

 ignorance, and endanger our lives and property, by the most absurd and 

 impracticable projects, which serve to stir up insurrections among the 

 negroes, and compel us to adopt measures of security for their suppres- 

 sion, which are as abhorrent to the feelings of a grower, as a manufac- 

 turer of cotton. Then again, you pass laws for the regulation of our 

 foreign commerce, which have a direct tendency to destroy it. Your 

 tariff obliges us to purchase domestic goods (of inferior quality to those 

 we have hitherto procured from Europe) at a much greater cost ; while, 

 at the same time, it necessitates the foreign manufacturer to reduce, as 

 much as possible, the price of the raw material, which affords us our 

 only means of support. Thus, you treat us more as conquered pro- 

 vinces, than as sister states ; and we have the same grounds now for 

 dissolving our connection with you, which justified our fathers in throw- 

 ing off the domination of England : for by the very same bill which 

 taxes us for your exclusive benefit, you deprive us, in a great measure, of 

 our only resource for discharging the iniquitous duties thus imposed." 



Such was the style of language prevalent in the country south of the 

 Potomac, when I resided there. I have heard frequent attempts made 

 to answer the allegations which are here detailed j but they always ap- 

 peared to me to be very futile. To the threat of a separation, however, 

 the inhabitants of the free states were always provided with a reply, 

 brief, insulting, and conclusive, " Do if you dare/' And this leads me 

 to the consideration of the second topic mentioned above viz. the 

 future prospects of the Southern States, viewed in connection with 

 slavery: for it is the weakness engendered by this prolific source of 

 crime and misery, which enables the North thus to tyrannise over the 

 South. 



The entire population of the four principal slave-holding states, which 

 border on the Atlantic, namely, Virginia, North and South Carolina, 

 and Georgia, amounts to about three millions j of which, one million 

 three hundred thousand, that is, nearly half, are slaves. If the popu- 

 lation of the two castes continues to increase in the same relative pro- 

 portion as during the last thirty years, it is evident that the negroes 

 will, at no great distance of time, possess a numerical majority. That, 

 however, would be of comparatively small importance, provided it were 

 possible to retain them in their present degraded state. And if there 



