13 North latitude.” In this vast area of upwards of 450,000 square miles, nearly a third is adapted to the growing of cotton.* Here, if any where, was the development of a geographical party with sectional politics. But at the same period, in 1850, the value of the crop of Indian corn was $456,091,491; of wheat, $156,- 786,068 ; and of hay, $254,334,316.f Cotton was smaller than each of these great staples, being only one hundred and eighteen millions. Why did no aristocracy spring from those enormous figures, whose growth is mainly Northern ? Because the men who owned the crops raised them, and therein lies the difference between a sectional party and the national life. At what period during this great development of the cotton staple would you have expected slavery to come to an end by the operation of natural laws? We used to hear a good deal about letting slavery alone that it might die out. Why, the operation of natural laws was favorable to slavery—to the protection both of slaves and cotton. We might have expected to see Northern agriculture die out as soon. The abolition of the slave-trade, in 1808, which the South regarded at the time as a hostile measure, has proved immensely favorable to slavery. It was indeed the first act of positive legislation with a tendency to nourish and protect that institution. For when annual cargoes of half-barbarous Africans are introduced into a country, local disturbances occur more frequently, the mortality among the slaves is greater, and their increase comparatively feeble, t The abolition of the trade gave * Andrews’ Report on Colonial and Lake Trade. 1852. f These figures, taken from the Agricultural Report, 1861, vary from those which had been previously given in the Census for 1850. Of wheat alone, the two States of Pennsylvania and New York, raised of course more bushels than the aggregate of all the Southern and Middle Slave States. Jin 1714, the number of slaves was 55,850; and 30,000 of these had been brought from Africa. These amount to 303,000; but the total number of native and imported slaves in 1808, was only 1,100,000, showing a feeble increase for a century. But from 1808 to 1850 the number leaped to 3,204,373. The slave-ships always landed more men than women. Between 1715 and 1750 there were imported 90,000 slaves. ll 1751 ii 1760 ll it “ 35,000 ll ll 1761 it 1770 ll ii “ 74,000 ll ll 1771 ii 1790 ll ii “ 34,000 ll ll 1790 ii 1808 ll ii “ 70,000 ll
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