48 
[ Bep. No. 564. ] 
The practicability of cultivating tropical productions in general, he has 
manifested with the facts that the peculiar climate of the tropics extends 
beyond the astronomical boundary, several degrees north, into our penin¬ 
sular territory; and that the best plants of the tropics are actually flourish¬ 
ing in the southern portion of that peninsula, at Cape Florida, He has not 
only shown that below 28 ° southern Florida enjoys the dry warm winter; 
the wet refreshing summer; the breeze by day from the sea, and by night 
from the land, and the trade winds from the east, which are common to 
tropical countries in general; but he has also proved, by its narrow level 
surface stretching southeastwardly, by the hot ocean river running north¬ 
westwardly along its eastern shores, and by the greater steadiness of the 
westwardly wind in those latitudes, that tropical Florida is even superior 
to the elevated islands of the West Indies and to the broad peninsula of 
Yucatan, in ihaX uniformity of temperature which is most favorable for 
vegetable growths, animal health, and physical enjoyment. He has, more¬ 
over, not merely shown that in this superior climate of the tropics are al¬ 
ready growing various common vegetables of the tropics, but he has further 
announced the flourishing condition of the tenderest, and yet most pro¬ 
ductive plants of the torrid zone—^the banana plant and the cocoa-palm— ^ 
which are universally pronounced to be the greatest blessings of Provi¬ 
dence to man. And it may, hence, be considered experimentally demon¬ 
strated that it is practicable to cultivate all tropical productions in the soil 
of the southern portion of the peninsula of East Florida. 
The necessity oi cultivating tropical productions for home consumption, 
is'shown by the facts, that the voluntary labor of the many millions of 
the colored races, spread over the extremely great surface of the whole 
torrid zone, does not create scarcely any cultivated tropical productions 
for extra-tropical consumption; that the forced labor of the few millions 
of the black race, on an extremely small surface of the West India islands, 
does create nearly all the cultivated staples for exportation ; and that the , 
forced labor of this black race, with its essential auxiliaries, the skill and 
capital of the white race^ is becoming greatly reduced by the recent eman¬ 
cipating act of the British Parliament. 
According to Crawford, the friend and author of “ Sugar without Sla¬ 
very,’’ the free labor of all the natives in the immense belt of the world 
between 30° north and 20° south latitude, supplies an annual exportation of 
about 61,500 tons of sugar; a quantity which is not equal to the biennial 
crop of the slave labor of the few negroes in a little district of Louisiana ! 
Indeed, the greatly superior productiveness of the forced labor of the col¬ 
ored natives in hot climates, over the voluntary labor of those races in 
those climates, is doubted only by distant theorists, on the false data ob¬ 
tained from the voluntary labor of the white natives of cold climates, and 
from the unphilosophical supposition of the equality or sameness of the 
different species of mankind. Yet, while this undeniable fact unequivo¬ 
cally shows the relative advantage of employing our existing slaves in the (. 
cultivation of tropical staples, it is not cited to prove either the positive 
propriety or the political expediency of the perpetual continuance of our 
negro slavery. On the contrary, it is expressly admitted that the free labor 
of the white race is so much more productive than either the forced or 
free labor of the black race, that on this account alone it will in time be¬ 
come desirable to transfer all the colored species to their original Africa, 
