FARMERS' REGISTER 



719 



submission and flattery of a spaniel. It is tlie 

 eubmisslon and flattery of equals, wiiich fills men 

 vviih ilie impudent and wicked wich lo dictate, 

 and an iiTi[)aiieiire of Tree opinion and lair di^cus- 

 Bion. This reprehensible temper is a sound ob- 

 jection a^i^ainst any species of iiuman policy, 

 which frenerates it, and applies most forcibly 

 against that corilerring on an individual a power, 

 60 to dispense money and honors, as to procure 

 submission and flattery (rom the hijjiiest raidis and 

 conditions in society, a thousand limes more <ie- 

 nial lo pride, than tiie sul)mission and flatter}' ol' a 

 poor slave; and ten thousand limes more perni- 

 cious to nations. 



Virtue and vice are naturally and unavoidably 

 co-existent in the moral world, as beauty and de- 

 ((jriniiy are in the animal ; one is the only mirror 

 in which the other can be seen, and t'lerelore in 

 the f)resenl stale ol' man, one cannot be destroyed 

 without the other. It may be ihus that personal 

 slavery has constantly reflected the strongest rays 

 ol" civil liberty and patriotism. Perhaps it is suf- 

 fered by ilie Deity to perform an office wiilioui 

 which these rays are gradually obscured and final- 

 ly obliterated by characters and partial laws. 

 Perhaps the sight oC slavery and its vices may in- 

 spire the mind with sn afl'ection lor liberty and 

 virtue, just as the climates and deserts of Arabia, 

 would make it think Italy a paradise. 



Let ii not be ^upposed that I approve of slavery, 

 because I do not aggravate its evils, or prefer a 

 policy which must terminate in a war oi' exter- 

 mination. The chapter on the manners ol" slave- 

 holders l)efbre quoted, concludes with an intima- 

 tion, that the consent of the masters to a general 

 emancipation, or iheir own extir[)ation, were the 

 Biteriiatives between which they had to choose. 

 Such a hint from a profound mind is awful. It 

 admits an atiility in the blacks, ihouizh shackled by 

 slavery, to extirpate the whites, and proposes to 

 increase this ability by knocking olF their shackles. 

 Such a hint adds Ibrce to the recommendation in 

 the previous essay lor separating the enslaved and 

 free blacks, as some security against the prognos- 

 ticated extirpation. And afier such a hint, " with 

 what execration should the statesman be loaded" 

 who thus forewarned, should produce the destruc- 

 tion of the most civilized portion of" society, and 

 rcpeople half the world with savages. It' Eng- 

 land and America would erect and foster a settle- 

 ment of free negroes in some lertile part of Africa, 

 it would soon subsist by its own energies. Slavery 

 mishi then be gradually re-exported, and philan- 

 throphy gratified hy a slow reanimation of the vir- 

 tue, religion and liberty of the negroes, instead of 

 being again afflicted with the effects of her own 

 rash attempts suddenly lo change human na- 

 ture. (Note B.) 



OVERSEKR3. 



So far from having a system ol" agriculture 

 among us, very few have even taken ilie trouble 

 to discover or provide any basis ibv one. Had 

 Archimedes proposed to move the earth without 

 any thing for himself or his mechanism to stand 

 on, or an architect lo erect a city without a fiaun- 

 dation, such projects would have been equivalent 

 lo ours for erecting a system of agriculture upon 



the basis of the impoverishment of the land. Of 

 what avail is any rotation of crops, the best con- 

 trived implements of husbandry, or the most per- 

 lect use of those inif)lements, applied to a bafren 

 soil 7 Could a physician correctly call the regu- 

 lar administraiion of a slow poison a syslem of 

 medicine, because he used the best constructed 

 lancets, caudle cups, eyiinges and glysier pipes in 

 killing his patient ? 



It is absurd to taMc of a system of agriculture, 

 without havinif discovered, ihat every such sys- 

 tem, good lor any thing, must be bottomed upon 

 lenility. Bef^KC, therelbre, we launch into any 

 system, we must learn how to enrich our lands, 

 'rhe soil of the Untied States upon the Atlantic 

 Ocean is naturally thin, and exceedingly impo- 

 verished. It produces, however, good crops, when 

 madericli, almost under any species of cultivation. 

 To make it rich therefore ought lo be the first ob- 

 ject of our efforts, as without effecting this, all 

 oiher agricultural objects, beneficial to ourselves 

 or our country, must fail. Instead of" this, for one 

 acre enriched, at least twenty are impoverished. 



The dis[)osiiion of our soil and climate to reward 

 husbandry bountifully, is disclosed in the great re- 

 turns bestowed upon bad culture, by ihe very mode- 

 rate deifree of natural lertility, possessed by the for- 

 mer. The climate is beyond our power, but the pro- 

 ductiveness of the soil without the help of art, is an 

 encouragement lor us to recollect how impiously 

 we have neglected the cultivation ol" a deity so 

 propitious. But this deity has a rival demon, 

 called ignorance, for whose worship the slave 

 states have erected an established church, with a 

 n)inistry, entitled overseers, fed, clothed and paid 

 lo suppress every effort for introducing the worship 

 of its divine adversary. This necessary class of 

 men are bribed by agriculiurists, not to improve, 

 but lo impoverish their land, by a share of the 

 crop for one year; an ingenious contrivance for 

 placing the lands in these states under an annual 

 rack rent, and a removing tenant. The farm, 

 from several gradations to an unlimited extent, is 

 surrendered to the transient overseer, whose sala- 

 ry is increased in proportion as he can impoverish 

 the land. Tlie greatest annual crop, and not the 

 most judicious culture, advances his interest and 

 establishes his character; and the lees of these 

 land doctors are much higher for killing than lor 

 curing. It is common (or an industrious overseer, 

 after a few years, to quit a farm on account of the 

 barrenness, occasioned by his own industry ; and 

 frequent changes of these itinerant managers of 

 agriculture, each striving lo extract the remnant of 

 Itirtiliiy left by his predecessor, combine with our 

 agricidtural ignorance, lo (brm the complelest sys- 

 tem of impoverishment, of which any other coun- 

 try can boast. 



I mean not to speak disrespectfully of overseers; 

 they are as good as other people ; nor is it their 

 fault if their employers have made their wealth 

 and subsistence to depend on the impoverishment 

 of half a continent. The most which the laud 

 can yield, and seldom or never improvement with 

 a view to future profit, is a point ol' common con- 

 sent and mutual need between the agriculturist 

 and his overseer ; and they generally unite in erap- 

 lying ihe cup of leriiliiv to the dregs. 



II is discovered in England from experience, 

 dial short leases were the worst enemies lo agri- 

 culiure. Those of tweniy-one years are found by 



