THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



355 



planting States have increased 33 per cent. In 

 the absence of other causes to account for these 

 facts, they establish, that the institution of 

 slavery, so far from diminishing the ratio of 

 increase in the Southern States, has augmented 

 it. 



The increase of population in the Southern 

 States has been almost exclusively the result 

 of natural causes, while the Northern States 

 have had their numbers greatly increased by a 

 tide of foreign immigration unparelleled in our 

 history. 



I will not trouble you with details. A fact 

 or two will suffice. 



By the census of 1850 it appears that Mas- 

 sachusetts, with a population of 994,514, con- 

 tained, of those bom in foreign countries, 

 163,590, while Virginia, with a population of 

 2,421,661, contained of those born in foreign 

 countries but 22,505. In Virginia the ratio of 

 emigration of her native citizens has amounted 

 to 26 per cent, of the whole; while that of 

 Connecticut and Vermont have amounted to 

 25 per cent, of their native citizens, " and 

 would, if the number of slaves in the Southern 

 States were admitted into the calculation, per- 

 haps exceed any of them" — that is, would ex- 

 ceed 36 per cent. 



Our white population in Virginia have not 

 emigrated to avoid the slave, nor have they 

 emigrated in as large a ratio as in other por- 

 tions of the Union in which slavery does not 

 exist. The increase of our entire population 

 in Virginia during the last decade, is at the 

 ratio of 14.66 per cent. Of that of our white 

 population at 20 per cent. Our slaves 5 per 

 cent. 



The increase in our white population when 

 compared with Vermont, is 20 to 7 ; with New 

 Hampshire 20 to 11; Connecticut, 20 to 19; 

 with Maine, 20 to 16 — an increase greater 

 than any of the New England States, Massa- 

 chusetts and Rhode Island excepted. Causes 

 that are plain and obvious account for these 

 exceptions. 



And hence the error of the assertion that 

 the existence of slavery has stimulated the re- 

 moval of our white population. 



At the period of the census of 1840, the 

 ratio of our increase for the previous ten years 

 had fallen to the low point of 2 per cent. Then 

 it was that the note of fanaticism began to ele- 

 vate its frantic tones. Then it was that the 

 slowness of increase in our population disclosed 

 the weakness of our institutions, and the argu- 

 ment brought, as they supposed, to the unerring 

 test of facts and figures. Then the Northern 

 States became the standard by which prosperity 

 and progress were alone to be tried. 

 12 m 



By the census of 1840, the increase in our 

 population was found to be 2 per cent. By 

 the census of 1850, it is 14.66 per cent. With 

 a larger slave population during the latter than 

 the former period, the increase has been seventy- 

 fold greater — the cause assigned for our slow 

 increase still existing, and in greater force, but 

 with results entirely different. 



The small increase of our numbers up to 

 1840 was the result of causes which every 

 where in America affect this question of in- 

 crease in. population. From the beginning of 

 this century the ratio of increase in Virginia 

 had been regularly declining, with a single ex- 

 ception, till the year 1840, having never been 

 above 17 per cent., while New York and Penn- 

 sylvania, beginning respectively at 72 and 36 

 per cent., had also diminished till they stood, 

 in 1840, at 28 and 27 per cent. Then began 

 that great improvement in the old Atlantic 

 States which, with a single exception, has 

 marked the progress of all. 



For the ten years previous to 1850, the ratio 

 of increase in the population of Virginia, com- 

 pared with the ratio of her increase in the ten 

 years previous, had been greater than any of 

 the New England States, or the middle States 

 of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 

 on a similar comparison. And when compared 

 with our own progress, it had been absolutely 

 greater than in any equal period within the 

 century. 



The conclusion, gentlemen, from all these 

 facts is, not that the vital energies of our State 

 are overwhelmed and merged in a wicked and 

 unprofitable institution ; not that we are " sick," 

 and, therefore, invite aggression and outrage, 

 but that there is life, and health, and youth, 

 the recuperative power of a self-relying, self- 

 sustaining energy among us. 



It then appears that the emigration from our 

 State was not the result of our slave institu- 

 tion. It was the result of other and very dif- 

 ferent causes, upon which it is not my inten- 

 tion to dwell in detail. 



I propose briefly to point out some of the 

 reasons that induce me to believe and hope 

 that those causes are not permanent in their 

 character, that they are temporary and limited 

 in their duration, that in the future they will 

 operate with diminished force; while the coun- 

 tervailing influences that have already checked 

 the progress of emigration, will continue stea- 

 dily and uniformly to increase in force and effi- 

 cacy, so as, at a period, not remote, to arrest 

 the progress of a current which has borne away 

 so much of the vital elements of agricultural 

 success and prosperity. 



What is it then that has produced this change? 



