46 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
pensive as that of corn or hemp. If we couW get $1 per 
gallon for wine ready for market, or 50 cents at the p’ ess, 
what a source of wealth it would be. Only think of 100 
acres in vineyard, the products at 50 cents per gallon, 
amounts to S20,000 per annum. A man having five acres, 
which he could manure himself, would find them more 
profitable than a Kentucky farm of 200 acres, with three 
negroes to cultivate it.” 
All this is very conclusive as to the profits of Grape 
Culture, and here we rest the question for the present. — 
Eds. So. Cult. 
LETTER FROM RR. TERRELL, TO THE EXECUTIVE 
COMMITTEE OF THE SOUTHERN CENTRAL 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
[PublLsbed by order of the Society.] 
Gentlemen : — As my health is so very bad that it is 
not possible for me to meet you at the Fair, and as I fear 
it is not likely to be any better, I think it my duty to offer 
you my resignation as a member of your body. 
Gentlemen, I pray you never to give up the earnest 
prosecution of your noble enterprise — “The Improvemrnt 
of Southern Agriculture.” There are not seven millions 
of people who live, or ever did live, that may exert such 
an influence on the affairs of the world, by peaceful means, 
as the inhabitants of the Southern States. The labor of 
their work-people produces an annual surplus of one 
hundred and twenty millions worth of exchangeable pro- 
ducts, which furnishes the means of the great commercial 
operations of the United States. 
It is your interest, it is your duty, and ought to be your 
pride, to take care of such a patrimony as that left you by 
your revolutionary ancestors. Then, let the Southern peo- 
ple, as one great family, never halt in this common enter- 
prise, until they have not only put their lands in a condi- 
tion to be preserved, but improved by cultivation. The 
above address being directed to the Southern States, might 
seem to be of a sectional character, and intended to dis- 
turb the harmony of the Union ; such, however, is not the 
fact, but directly the contrary. If the Cotton, Rice, and 
Tobacco-growing States should so improve the present 
cultivated lands, as to increase their products even ten 
per cent., will it not be perceived by everybody that the 
resources of the country will be, to that extent increased, 
and that the means of Commerce, Agriculture, and all the 
Industrial Arts, which constitute the wealth of natiocis, 
will equally share the benefit; and so in proporuon as you 
increase your surplus exportable products will your wealth 
and power increase. 
A political economist, who may attempt to give direc- 
tion to the leading policy of a nation, and who fails to un- 
derstand the permanent sources of its wealth, whether ag- 
ricultural, manufacturing, or commercial, cannot possi- 
bly succeed in giving it its greatest security, or the best 
means to its inhabitants of providing for their necessities 
and comforts. 
That we may understand something of the position 
which the Uuited States occupy, in regard to the perma- 
nent sources of her wealth, we will refer in a general way 
to the five leading powers of Europe, probably the most 
stable, and certainly the most powerful. In France the 
sources of permanent wealth are wine, silk, oil, wheat 
and other grains. England, the productions of her cotton, 
linen, wool and iron manufactories. Austria, chiefly ag- 
ricultural. Prussia, agricultural. Russia, all descriptions 
of agricultural products — wheat and other grains, hemp, 
flax, &c. In the United States, besides Indian Corn and 
other breadstuffs, we have, as before observed, one hun- 
dred and twenty millions worth of products available for 
exporter exchange; and here, let it be remembered, once 
for all, that the single article of Cotton, of which it is be- 
lieved that three millions of bales will be required by the 
markets of the world, to be furnished from the United 
States, cannot be obtained anywhere else. This single 
article, and the business connected with its manufacture, 
furnish the means of life to many thousands in England 
and other parts of Europe, who would otherwise perish. 
But we are charged with producing these articles, cot- 
ton, rice, and tobacco, (of such great value and indispen- 
sable importance to an advancing civilization,) by slave 
labor. 
We admit it to be in part true, for notwithstanding the 
three millions of slaves, much white labor is appropriated 
to the production of cotton and tobacco. But the great 
charge of compulsory labor, against the institution of 
American Slavery, upon which our foreign and domestic 
enemies delight to dwell, we do not attempt to palliate ; 
but, indeed, boast, that with the descendants of a race of 
barbarians, whom the English bought with rum and cali- 
co, on the coast of Africa, or captured by armed bands 
and brought as slaves to their (then) colonies, or which 
were obtained by the same means, in the same country, 
and sold to us by the people of Salem, Boston, Providence, 
New Fork and Philadelphia, after the revolution — we 
have made good laborers and good Christians ; a race 
whose ancestors, for twenty-five centuries, were barbarians 
and contributed nothing to the promotion of civilization 
or Christianity, But we are told that since their labor 
is so valuable, we should set them free without lands, or 
houses, or food, and pay them for their labor; this is all 
absurd — the African man does not voluntarily work 
steadily or continuously at anything, nor ever did, as is 
proven by his present barbarous condition and the histo- 
ry of his race for twenty-five centuries. 
But we are moreover told that free is cheaper than 
slave labor ; let us inquire, for a moment, how the case 
stands between the free labor of Europe and slave labor 
of the Southern States, and whether it is not that the slave 
is better paid for his labor, than the free laborer in Europe. 
The price of labor in Europe in the different currencies, 
differs a good deal, but the result is about the same. 
From the daily wages of the laborer, he must save enough 
to buy his clothes — he must have something like bedding 
— a place to lodge — and he must have his clothes washed 
and mended, which leav^es him enough, and only enough 
to buy him from a pound to a pound and a-half of bread 
a day, and sometimes a mug of ale; this is all he expects, 
and as a rule, all he receives. Now the slave must have, 
at least, half a pound of meat a day, and a pound and a 
half of bread, to which may be added sweet potatoes, peas,, 
turnips, collards and milk; he must have his house, his 
clothes, bedding, fire-wood, physician and nurse in case 
of sickness, sugar, coffee, &c., while sick; he must have 
a small allotment of land to make something for himself, 
or instead his master makes him a gratuity in money at 
the end of the year. Pie would, indeed, be a costly labor- 
er, if the things he consumes were bought in market, but 
the slaves, besides the staple crop, make their own bread 
and meat, and whatever vegetables may be needed. 
The slaveholder has been so constantly misrepresented 
and so grossly abused, that it is bejieved it may be useful 
to give a minute statement of the general condition of 
slaves, that ignorance may no longer be an excuse for 
misrepresentation. It is often asked, by way of reproach, 
do you mean to perpetuate slavery in the United States'? 
This is a question upon which we can make no sensible 
answer, and have nothing to say. We mean at present 
to keep them in a state of servitude, and to provide for 
their wants. Whenever the time comes that their labor is 
not needed, or may be superseded by other labor. He who 
permitted their introduction among us will provide for 
their removal, and use the ways and means best suited to 
His great purpose. The populations in all Europe are 
