FARMERS' REGISTER— AGRICULTURAL REVIEW. 



45 



nowhere is the African female more prolific than she 

 is in Louisiana, and the climate of no one of the south- 

 ern states is supposed to be more favorable to the rear- 

 ingof her offspring;.' For a similarreason now, thcslaves 

 ill Virginia multiply more rapidly than in most of the 

 Nouthern states; — the Virginians can raise cheaiDcr than 

 they can buy ; in foct it is one of their greatest sources 

 of profit. In many of the other slaveholding states 

 tiiis is not the case, and consequently the same care is 

 not taken to encourage matrhnony and the rearing of 

 cliiklren. 



"But our opponents perhaps may be disposed to an- 

 swer, that this increase of slavery from the stimulus to 

 the l)lack population afforded by the colonization abroad, 

 ought not to be objected to on our own principles, since 

 each slave will be worth two hundred dollars or more. 

 This answer would be correct enough if it were not tliat 

 the increase of the blacks is effected at our expense both 

 as to wealth and numbers ; and to show this, we will 

 now proceed to point out the operation of the scheme 

 under consideration upon the white population. Mal- 

 thus has clearly shown that joopuiation depends on the 

 means of subsistence, and will, untler ordinary circum- 

 stances, increase to a level with them. Now by means 

 of subsistence, we must not only comprehend the ne- 

 cessaries of life, such as food, clothing, shelter, &c. but 

 likewise such conveniences, comforts, and even luxu- 

 ries, as the habits of the society may render it essential 

 for all to enjoy. Whatever tlicn has a tendency to de- 

 stroy the wealth and diminish tlic aggregate capital of 

 society, has the effect, as long as the standanl of com- 

 fort* remains the same, to check the progress of the \}o- 

 pulation. 



" It is sure to discourage matrimony, and cause chil- 

 dren to be less carefully attended to, and to be less 

 abundantly supplied. The heavy burthens which liave 

 hitherto been imposed on Virginia, through the opera- 

 tion of federal exactions, together with the high stan- 

 dard of comfort prevalent throughout the whole state, 

 (about which we shall by and by make a few observations) 

 have already imposed checks ujion the progress of the 

 wiiite population of the state. If not one single indi- 

 vidual were to emigrate from the state of Virginia, it 

 would be found, so inert has become the principle of in- 

 crease in the state, that the population would not ad- 

 vance with the average rapidity of the American peo- 

 ple. Now, under these circumstances, an imposition of 

 an additional burthen of 1,380,000 dollars for the pur- 

 pose of jiurchase and deportation of slaves, would add 

 so much to the taxes of the citizens — would subtract 

 so much from the capital of the state, and increase so 

 greatly the embarrassments of the whole population, 

 that fewer persons would be enabled to support fami- 

 lies, and consequently to get married. This great tax, 

 added to those we are already suffering under, would 

 weigh like an incubus upon the whole state — it would 

 operate like the blighting hand of Providence that 

 should render our soil barren and our labor unproduc- 

 tive. It would diminish the value of the fee simple of 

 Virginia, and not only check the natural increase of 

 population within the commonvx-ealtli, but would make 

 every man desirous of quitting the scenes of his home 

 and his infancy, and fleeing "from the heavy burthen 

 whicli would for ever keep him and his cliiklren buried 

 in the depths of poverty. His sale of negroes would 

 partly enable him to emigrate; and we have little doubt, 

 that whenever this wild scheme shall be seriously com- 

 menced, it will be found that more whites than negroes 

 will be banished by its operation from the state. And 

 there will be this lamentable difference between those 

 who are left behind ; a powerful stimulus will be given 

 to the procreative energies of the blacks, while those of 

 the whites will be paralyzed and destroyed. Every 

 emigrant fi-om among the whites will create a vacuum 



* By standard of comfort, we mean that ammmt of ne- 

 cessaries, conveniences, and luxuries, which the habits of 

 any people render essential to them. 



not to be supplied — every removal of a black will stimu- 

 late to the generation of another. 



' Uno avulso non deficit alter.' 



" The poverty stricken master would rejoice in the pro- 

 lificness of his female slave, but pray Heaven in its 

 kindness U) strike with barrenness his own spouse, lest 

 m the plenitude of his misfortunes, brought on by the 

 wild and Uuixotic philanthropy of his government, he 

 m]ght see around him a numerous offspring unprovided 

 for and destined to galling indigence. 



"It is almost useless to inquire whether this deporta- 

 tion of slaves to Africa would, as some seem most 

 strangely to anticipate, invite the whites of other states 

 into the commonwealth. Who would be disposed to 

 enter a state with worn ont soil and a black population 

 mortgaged to the payment of millions per annum, for 

 the i^urpose of emancipation and deportation, when in 

 the West the most luxuriant soils, unencumbered with 

 heavy exactions, could be purchased for the paltry sum 

 of gl 25 per acre? 



" Where, then, is that multitude of whites to come 

 from, which the glowing fancy of orators has sketched 

 out as flowing into and filling up the vacuum created by 

 the removal of slaves ? The fact is— throughout the 

 wliole debate in the Virginia Legislature, the" speakers 

 seemed to consider the increase of i^opulation as a sort 

 of fixed quantity, which would i-emain the same under 

 the endless cliange of circumstance, and consequently 

 that every man exported from among the blacks, les- 

 sened pro tanto exactly the black population, and that 

 the wliites, moving on witli their usual speed, would fill 

 the void ; which certainly was an erroneous supposition, 

 and manifested an almost unpardonable inattention to 

 the wonderful elasticity of the powerful spring of popu- 

 lation. The removal of inhabitants, accompanied with 

 great loss of productive labor and capital, so far from 

 leaving the residue in a belter situation, and disposing 

 them to increase and multiply, produces the directly 

 opposite effect ; it deteriorates the condition of society, 

 and deadens the sjiring of population. It is curious to 

 look to the history of the world, and see how complete- 

 ly this position is sustained by facts. Since the down- 

 fal of the Roman Emisirc, there have been three forced 

 emigrations of very considerable extent, from three of 

 the countries of Europe. The Moors were expelled 

 from Spain, the Protestants from the Netherlands, and 

 the Hugonots from France ; each of these expulsions 

 came well nigh ruining the country from which it took 

 place. We are best acquainted with the effects of the 

 expulsion of the Hugonots from France, because it hap- 

 pened nearer to our ov.n times, during the reign of 

 Louis XIV. In this case only 500,000 are supposed to 

 have left France, containing then a population of 20 or 

 25,000,000 of souls. The energies of this mighty coun- 

 try seemed at once paralyzed by this emigration, her 

 prosperity was instantly arrested, her remaining popu- 

 lation lost the vigor which characterized them as long as 

 this leaven was among them, and to this day, France 

 has not recovered from the tremendous blow. Her in- 

 feriority to England, in industry and all the useful arts, 

 is in a great measure to be traced back to this stupid in- 

 tolerance of her great monarch Louis XIV. The rea- 

 son why these expulsions were so very injurious to the 

 countries in question, was because the einic'rants were 

 the laboring classes of society, and their banishment con- 

 sequently dried up the sources of production, and lessen- 

 ed the aggregate wealth and capital of the people. Now 

 these expulsions are nothing in comparison with that 

 contemplated by our abolitionists. In France only one 

 in fifty of the po])uIation was expelled, and no ex- 

 pense was incurred in the deportation ; but in Virginia 

 the proportion to be expelled is much greater, and the 

 expense is to devolve on the government. 



" When the emigration is accomj-ianied with no loss 

 of capital to the state, and no abstraction of productive 

 labor, then the population will not be injuriously affec- 

 ted, but sometimes greatly benefitted. In the hunting 

 state, the expulsion of li'alf of the tribe would bcncfi^t 



