SUBDIVISION OF OLD ESTATES. 227 



In this fact we see one reason why the southerners 

 are not so much enriched, as a whole, by the abundant 

 yield of their fertile lands as they ought to be. Their 

 own carrying trade, a great element of power, is entirely 

 lost to them ; and, what is perhaps more provoking to 

 them, their own timber now builds many of the ships by 

 which that power is conveyed to others. 



And the cause for the decline of some of these states, 

 and a natural source of complaint among the planting 

 aristocracy, is to be found in the gradual subdivision of the 

 large estates of the old planters among the children of the 

 successive generations who have inherited them. While the 

 ancient style of living has been retained, the means of sup 

 porting the expense it entails have been gradually and con 

 stantly diminishing. Not to speak of the exhaustion of the 

 soil as a cause, therefore, this subdivision of the old proper 

 ties must alone gradually revolutionise society, and exer 

 cise a powerful influence upon every southern institution. 



Among these, slavery is a very prominent one, which 

 the lessening of estates must affect very much. And one 

 can very well understand how a planter, who feels him 

 self confined in a small property, and his consequence 

 lessened, should desire to sell his small, but reckoned 

 by the acre much more valuable estate, and to move 

 farther west, where a large estate, which he can work 

 \vith his negroes in the ancient style, can be purchased 

 for a smaller sum ; and why also the planters, as a 

 class, should desire to have a wide field before them into 

 which such migrations may be made. 



And with so close a dependence of these northern 

 States upon the southern, one cannot wonder that there 

 should exist very many in the more populous parts of 

 New England who sympathise with the people of the 

 south, and very many more who would make a very 

 yielding compromise, rather than drive them to extremi 

 ties. Looking at the question fairly and candidly, it is 



