814 Hills and Lakes. 



most populous State in the Union, at the close of the 

 Eevolutionarj war, has fallen behind a good many 

 other States now ? The reason of it can't be found in 

 her climate, far that,- I'm told, is about the linest in 

 the world. It can't be found in the nater of her soil, 

 for Tm told it was once the richest in this country. It 

 isn't because ©he hasn't any ocean harbors, nor because 

 there ain't any streams or rivers, that come down over 

 precipices and steep places, to make great water-wheels 

 roll roundy and set machinery in motion, for people 

 that pretended to kixow,. have tald me that there's 

 plenty of all these. The truth is, that slavery an(^ 

 slave labor spiles a people. It m^akes the master ex^ 

 travagant, and proud, and above work,- and there ain't 

 much encouragement for the slave to be smart, when 

 it don't make him any richer or more respectable. It 

 comes over a country like a great blight and a mildew,^ 

 that takes away the enterprise and the energy of a 

 people, and dries up the go ahead principle, that would 

 otherwise make ^em push along and keep movin' ; and 

 because it does all this, I'm agin' it. 



*'Then there's the great moral sin of slavery. 

 What right has one man, I should like to know, to 

 buy and sell another man, made by the same God, 



