THE UMTED STATES AT THE PRESENT TIME. 439 



the southern line of Georgia : " As I would not choose to be an inhabitant of 

 them myself, I ought not to say anything that would induce others to be so" — 

 doubtless he thought as he spoke ; but where in this country of ours, which is 

 fast getting to be " some," is there such a delicious climate for three-fourths of 

 the year ? so genial ! so hospitable ! And then, such a people — true descend- 

 ants of the Cavalier stock — with hearts warm and generous as their clime ; and 

 as for their women I — what lighted up so briglitly the darkest periods of the Rev- 

 olution, as the fortitude and humanity of Southern matrons ? 



So well did Washington's ablest coadjutor think of the South, after years of 

 marching and counter-marching, fighting and running and fighting again, in sun- 

 shine and in rain, that he, the " Quaker " General, Greene, chose it for his per- 

 manent residence. True, he died there ; and do not men die everywhere ? Are 

 we not told that " all flesh is as grass ?" 



The last reason assigned by Washington for the higher price of land in Penn- 

 sylvania, than in Maryland and Virginia, will not fail to attract the notice of the 

 observant reader, and is as true now as it was then : "And because there are 

 laws there for the gradual abolition of Slavery, which neither of the two States 

 above mentioned have at present, but which nothing is more certain than that 

 they must have, and at a period not remote." Such was the opinion, not only 

 of Washington, but of Marshall, of Jefferson, and Madison and Monroe, and all 

 the brightest luminaries in those brightest days of this Republic. Let the in- 

 quirer who would know why it is that his prophecies have not been fulfilled, ask 

 those fanatical reformers, who in all ages have allowed their zeal to outrun all 

 discretion. But has it not been said, time out of mind, that where God sends 

 meat, there the Devil is sure to send cooks ? 



That his anticipations in respect of the lands on the tributaries of the Chesa- 

 4)eake would have been realized, if at a time then "not remote" Slavery had 

 been removed from the State, many of the best informed of his countrymen still 

 believe ; for what portions of this Union can be compared with Delaware, Mary- 

 land and Virginia, for climate and facilities to bring forward their products in ad- 

 vance of all other places of equal contiguity to domestic markets, and open at all 

 seasons to the ocean, to take advantage of all favorable changes in the markets 

 abroad ? But the fact is, that slave-labor cannot be profitably employed in alli- 

 ance with grain staples I Where the crops are to be labored almost the entire 

 year, and where to some of its processes every species of force may be applied, 

 so that nearly every consumer is also a worker — sustenance and production thus 

 going hand in hand — the case is quite different ; and in no agricultural field is the 

 labor of a given number of operatives applied with more system, exactness, ef- 

 ficiency and prolit, than on large plantation estates. But we only meant to ex- 

 plain the " circumstances " under which this correspondence came into our pos- 

 session, and not to comment on it. The "statement" of the great founder of the 

 renowned Board of Agriculture is, we believe, both original and curious in its 

 items of history, political and biographical. But as for the idea of a perishable 

 pile of stone and mortar in memory of one whose renown is but compacted and 

 polished by the hand of Time, that destroyeth all things else, types and his- 

 tory may be safely left to do their office. While these can speak, his name will 

 be carried down with increasing admiration to posterity. The very vices of suc- 

 ceeding ages will increase its lustre. 



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