203 EVILS OF EMANCIPATION. 



butlers, &c., and a general system of petty theft would 

 be carried on in every city where they would establish 

 themselves. They would become objects of derision and 

 hatred to the white population ; and the few who would 

 amass wealth would only be the cause of greater tempta- 

 tion to the rest to flock into cities. However, the more 

 ignorant might remain in the districts and cultivate these 

 articles mentioned ; but they never would do so to the 

 extent of their wants ; and then thefts would be the only 

 way left to obtain means. The negro is naturally indo- 

 lent, and as a hired laborer would be employed with 

 reluctance ; and as no planter could depend on getting 

 him to labor at the necessary times, the planter would 

 not run the risk of planting where there was no certainty 

 of his being able to save his crop ; and the slave's chance 

 to get employment would be but poor. The emanci- 

 pated negro, under the circumstances, would become a 

 nuisance in these States, and would, in course of time, 

 be cut off from the land. But allowing that negroes would 

 render themselves happy, and that they would take care 

 of themselves ; still cotton and rice planting in the South 

 solely depends on the preservation of the present state of 

 things ; for raise the scale of labor to the height that it 

 necessarily would be after emancipation, the cost of pro- 

 ducing the above articles would be as stated, at lowest, 

 12i5 cents per Ib. In some parts it is even now 6 to 7 cts. 

 per Ib., with slave labor; therefore, cotton would cease 

 to be planted. Rice, too, would not only be unprofit- 

 able, but I fear the constitution of the whites could not 

 endure the unhealthy exhalations from the paddy lauds. 

 I doubt even if the negro, who never had been accus- 

 tomed to rice planting, would not suffer greatly from its 

 bad effects. 



