in the United States in Fifty Years. 117 



which, though it would accelerate the increase of the slaveholding 

 population, would lessen its density ; or, should slave labour be 

 more extensively applied to manufactures, which does not seem 

 impossible, as they would incur no greater charge for superintend- 

 ence than is now incurred by agriculture ; or, should the cultiva- 

 tion of the sugar-cane be extended to meet the growing demands 

 of our increasing population, and that commodity should maintain 

 its monopoly price ; or, lastly, should new articles of culture re- 

 quiring much labour, such as silk and wine, be introduced in the 

 slaveholding States. 



But, on the other hand, should none of these events take place, 

 and should the sympathies now felt for the slave subside, or find 

 sufficient employment at home, the same liberal sentiments which 

 once prevailed in most of the slaveholding States may revive, and 

 decide on the gradual abolition of slavery, or lessen its amount by 

 colonization and private manumission. The natural multiplication 

 of the slaves, too, may be affected by a less careful and kind treat- 

 ment of them, as their value declines. Or, popular enthusiasm may 

 be excited by religion or otherwise in favour of emancipating them ; 

 or the same popular feeling, in a frenzy of fear or resentment, may 

 aim to destroy or expel them. These and other causes, not now 

 foreseen, may prolong or abridge the existence of this institution in 

 the United States, but none of them seem capable of averting its 

 ultimate destiny. We may say of it, as of man : the doom of its 

 death, though we know not the time or the mode, is certain and 

 irrevocable. 



To conclude this subject, so pregnant with matter of serious re- 

 flection to all : the citizens of the slaveholding States are persuaded 

 that emancipation will necessarily lead, first, to political equality, 

 and finally, to an amalgamation of the two races. Believing, as 

 they really do, that the negroes are physically, as well as morally 

 and intellectually, their inferiors, they regard this intermixture as a 

 contamination of their own race ; and these supposed consequences 

 constitute their most invincible objections to the liberation of their 

 slaves. Those who entertain these opinions, and who also believe 

 that the result here inferred is inevitable, or even probable, have it 

 now in their power to make some preparation for an issue so 

 fraught with mischief, and so abhorrent to their feelings. If they 

 think the number of their slaves is too great for them quietly to 

 remain, when the period of natural liberation arrives, as an inferior 

 caste, or with a qualified freedom, they ought to lessen the number 



