38 MR. stone's address. 



in the language of Mr. Marshall, of Virginia, " is ruinous to the 

 whites — retards improvement — roots out an industrious popu- 

 lation — banishes the yeomanry of the country — deprives the 

 spinner, the weaver, the smith, the shoemaker, the carpenter, 

 of employment and support."* I but repeat the sentiment of 

 the best minds in the North and South, when I pronounce Sla- 

 very a blighting reproach to our country. Scenes of recent oc- 

 currence, are proofs added to volumes before existing, of its 

 utter repugnance to the spirit of our republican Institutions, 

 and to the noble declaration of Jefferson, that all men are en- 

 dowed by their Creator with the inalienable rights of " life, 

 liberty^ and the pursuit of happiness." Slavery is an evil to 

 Southern agriculture, because it curses the soil with sterility. 

 The experience of two hundred years in one of the principal 

 slave States, confirms these statements.! 



*Debate in the Virginia Legislature of 1831 and '32. 



tThe following corroborative paragraphs, are from a pamphlet published in Richmond, 

 Va. in 1833, entitled" Review of the Slave Question, by a Virginian." It appeared orig- 

 inally in the American Quarterly Review, and is the calm testimony of a credible witness. 

 "It is the office of Agriculture as an art, not to impoverish, but to fertilize the soil and 

 make it more useful than in its natural state. Such is the effect of every species of agri- 

 culture which can aspire to the name of an art. It is a truth that an improving system of 

 agriculture cannot be carried on by slaves. The negligent, wasteful habits of slaves who 

 are not interested in the estate, and the exacting cupidity of transient overseers who are 

 interested in extorting from the earth the greatest amount of production, render all slave 

 agriculture invariably exhausting. How many plantations worked by slaves are there in 

 Virginia which are not perceptibly suffering the sure process of exhaustion? Pcrliaps not 

 one, except a few on tlie water courses, composed of the alluvial soils which are virtually 

 inexhaustible. The uncertainty of the profits of a crop generally deters the planters in 

 Virginia from giving standing wages to their over.*eers — indeed, it has too often 

 happened that the salary of the overseer has absorbed all the proceeds. Hence it is usual 

 to give him, instead of salary, a share of the crop. The murderous effects of this on the 

 fertility of the soil may well be conceived. An estate submitted to overseers entitled to a 

 share of the crop, (who are changed of course, almost yearly) suffers a thousandfold more 

 than would English farms put out on leases of one or two years to fresh lessees. Twenty- 

 one years is thought too short a term there. It is a fact tliat no soil but the richest, and 

 that in cfiect inexhaustible, can be profitably cultivated by slaves. In the Legislature of 

 Virginia it was repeatedly said that her lands were poor, and for that reason none but 

 slaves could be brought to work them well. On the contrary, poor lands and those of 

 moderate fertility can never repay the expense of slave labor, or bear up under the vices 

 of that slovenly system. In modern times, in most cases where slave labor prevails, it 

 has been found in plantation states and colonies. There are many obvious reasons why, 

 if profitable anywhere, it must only be there. Now, if this be the case, it would appear 

 that slavery to be profitable is essentially incompatible with a dense population — at all 



