302 



FARMERS' REGISTER— REVIEW OF THE ESSEX ADDRESS. 



l!:ngland ! Could all the gold of Mexico induce you to 

 fix your domicll, and leave your children where their 

 only chance of safety was the prospect of holding a 

 population of two and a half millions, and their rapidly 

 increasing; posterity in a state of perpetual bondage ? 

 with an equal chance that tliirty years will turn the 

 scale, deluge the country in blood, and give the white 

 population only the desperate alternatives of death, 

 slavery, or exile?" — p. 12. "While our Southern 

 brethren may threaten or nullify — change the tariif or 

 perpetrate a revolution, — they will still find they have 

 not reached the cause of their depression. The ab- 

 sence of voluntary vigorous industry, is the real cause 

 of the evils of which they complain. A white popu- 

 lation ashamed to be 'seen with implements of labor 

 in their hands,' and a black population doing as little 

 labor as possible, is enough to 'nullify' the prosperity 

 of any country. Perhaps some may imagine that it 

 were easy to grow rich where men possess slaves who 

 labor without wages. But let such remember that 

 these slaves are also men, vvfho must eat or they cannot 

 ■wrork — that they must be maintained, the old and the 

 young — the sick, the 'lame and the lazy,' with the 

 taskmasters necessary to make them labor at all, before 

 any surplus can arise to support tlie luxury of the land- 

 lord." — p. 17. 



The truth of so much of the foregoing quota- 

 tions as relate to the unproductiveness of slave 

 property and slave labor is most readily admitted. 

 We have long been of opinion, that ten thousand 

 dollars vested in land and negroes will yield less 

 than the same vested in any stocks in our market, 

 nay that very frequently it is a losing business. Of 

 this Southrons are generally aware. They feel 

 the pressure heavily. And were this the time 

 and place, we think we could show how and why 

 it is so. Nor are we ever going to undertake a 

 deience of the principle of slavery which ought 

 never to gain admission into any country or govern- 

 ment. We believe that whoever founds a State 

 in wisdom excludes slavery. We believe that 

 no evil presses on our Southern country Avith 

 equal force and that "he ought to have the King's 

 daughter in marriage," who will devise anj^ just 

 and practicable method of removing it, without 

 introducing greater evils both to blacTc and white. 

 But against such statements as those just quoted 

 we must lift up our voice. One impression in- 

 tended to be made by these statements is, that there 

 is cruelty in tiie amount of labor required of slaves 

 in the South. In the vast factories of the South, 

 harvds earn from fifty cents to two dollars per week 

 by doing work beyond the tasks required of them. 

 On Souttiern plantations where labor is performed 

 by tasks, the tasks arc generally perlbrmed by 2 

 or 3 o'clock, P. M. Another thing in the para- 

 graphs quoted is offensive to us. It is the ap- 

 Earent pleasure the writer seems to take in telling 

 ow dark the prospects before the Southrons are. 

 The fact that probably in thirty years the South 

 will be deluged in blood calls from him no regret, 

 not even a note of exclamation or a prayer to the 

 throne above. But like certain preachers who say 

 much about the wrath to come, he seems to have 

 veal pleasure in his denunciations. Another im- 

 pression evidently intended to be left on the reader's 

 mind is, that slaves generally in the South are 

 under the "care of some hireling taskmaster," and 

 that the usual method of getting along is by "bran- 

 dishing the lash." Our author ought to know 

 that generally slaves arc now spoken of and re- 

 garded as a part of a man's family, and that in 

 sickness the master or mistress are the assiduous 



nurses, watching day and nightj and that not one 

 in fitly of Southern slaves is commhicd to a stew- 

 ard without the liberty of appeal and complaint and 

 reference to the proprietor. As our author docs 

 not seem to know much about modes and manners 

 in the slave holding States, we would like to read 

 him a short lecture on the subject; but we hope 

 what we have said Avill lead him to more care- 

 ful and extensive inquiry. It is not many years 

 since two men in New England killed their wives. 

 What would Dr. Spollbrd think, should one of 

 the Southern papers assert that the New Eng- 

 landers were murderers of their own wives] The 

 general impression made on our minds when our 

 author describes the South, is very much such as 

 would be made on his mind, w^ere we, who never 

 saw him, to send him his own likeness drawn by 

 ourselves. The serious objections we have to 

 such representations as those referred to are — 



First. That they are calculated to keep those 

 to whom they were made, with views as narrow, 

 and feelings as illiberal, as they had before they 

 read or heard the address; whereas no educated 

 man is excusable for not warring against preju- 

 dices and illiberal views in himself or others. 



Second. They show a want of sacred regard 

 and tender interest for the perpetuity of our Nation- 

 al Union. Such is the spirit of most of the con- 

 tents of page 17. And he who shall help to sever 

 this union, Ibrmed as it w^as, upon the full recog- 

 nition of slavery, as a matter not to be touched 

 by any but slave holders, will be spoiling the best 

 pattern ot' a free government that has ever been 

 given to the world. 



TTiird. All such representations betray an 

 amount of ignorance that we cannot pass by with- 

 out reproving. We are fully of the opinion of the 

 author when he says — 



"True these opinions would be of more weight if they 

 came from abroad, or from one who had travelled ex- 

 tensively." — p. 16. 



Why will not the doctor travel ? We ought in 

 all frankness to say to him, however, that we do 

 not suppose it would be safe for him to travel in 

 the South, except in disguise. Such statements 

 as are in his address would be very apt to be no- 

 ticed could their author be seen. The Southern 

 people are of" one mind in intending to let no man 

 interfere with their domestic relations. Men can 

 say what they please on the north side of the 

 Potomac, but having said such things there, it 

 would hardly be safe to travel in the South. The 

 reason is, we know who are apt to scatter "arrows, 

 fire brands and death." 



Fourth. We also agree with our author when 

 he says: — 



"I should consider [ought to consider] myself as crimi- 

 nal, were I to traduce the character of a country, as 

 the character of an individual." 



Oh doctor! you have traduced the characters of 

 some millions of your countrymen. Recant — re- 

 pent — reform ! 



We have not much to add. We wish to state 

 however, for the doctor's information, that Ave 

 have some good thing.=< in the South. It is true 

 Ave are rather scarce of "venemous reptiles," but 

 in the "far South" Ave have very fine alligators 

 which are equally valuable. We have also some 

 very fine swamps, Avhich fiirnish immense quan- 

 tities of timber, found profitable to us and valuable 



