314 HILLS AND LAKES. 



most populous State in the Union, at the close of the 

 Revolutionary War, has fallen behind a good many 

 other States now ? The reason of it 'can't be found in 

 her climate, for that, I'm told, is about the finest in 

 the world. It can't be found in the nater of her soil, 

 for I'm told it was once the richest in this country. It 

 isn't because she hasn't any ocean harbors, nor because 

 there ain't any streams or rivers, that come down over 

 precipices and steep places, to make great water-wheels 

 roll round, and set machinery in motion, for people 

 that pretended to know, have told me that there's 

 plenty of all these. The truth is, that slavery and 

 slave labor spiles a people. It makes the master ex- 

 travagani. and proud, and above work ; and there ain't 

 much encouragement for the slave to be smart, when 

 it don't make him any richer or more respectable. It 

 comes over a country like a great' blight and a mildew, 

 that takes away the enterprise and the energy of a 

 people, and dries up the go ahead principle, that would 

 otherwise make 'em push along, and keep movin' : and 

 because it does all this, Pm agin' it. 



" Then there's the great moral sin of slavery. 

 "What right has one man, I should like to know, to 

 buy and sell another man, made by the same God, 



