12 jf the aversion to Slavery which is aroused /in the Slave States. i. The second aspect is furnished by the tractor of the region on the border line be- ;en Freedom and Slavery. In general, the ue of lands in Slave States adjoining Free- n is advanced, while the value of corres- iding lands in Free States is diminished, e effects of Freedom and Slavery are recipro- , Slavery is a bad neighbor. Freedom is ;ood neighbor. In Virginia, lands naturally ir are, by their nearness to Freedom, worth 2.98 an acre, while richer lands in other cts of the State are worth only $8.42. In [nois, lands bordering upon Slavery are worth ly $4.54 an acre, while other lands in Illinois » worth $8.05. As in the value of lands so all other influences is Slavery felt for evil, 1 Freedom felt for good; and thus is it clearly )wn to be for the interest of the Slave States be surrounded by a circle of Free States. Thus, at every point is the character of Slave- more and more manifest, rising and dilating to an overshadowing Barbarism, darkening i whole land. Through its influence, popu- lion, values of all kinds, manufactures, com- irce, railroads, canals, charities, the post of- e, colleges, professional schools, academies, blic schools, newspapers, periodicals, books, thorship, inventions, are all stunted, and, ider a Government which professes to be unded on the intelligence of the people, one i twelve of the white adults in the region of avery is officially reported as unable to read id write. Never was the saying of Montes- peu more triumphantly verified, that coun- ies are not cultivated by reason of their fer- Lity, but by reason of their liberty. To this uth the Slave States constantly testify by every assible voice. Liberty is the powerful agent hich drives the plow, the spindle, and the keel; hich opens avenues of all kinds; which insires charity; which awakens a love of knowl- ige, and supplies the means of gratifying it. liberty is the first of schoolmasters. Unerring and passionless figures thus far iave been our witnesses. But their testimony dll be enhanced by a final glance at the geo- raphical character of the Slave States; and ere there is a singular and instructive parcel. Jefferson described Virginia as fast sinking to le “the Barbary of the Union”—meaning, of ourse, the Barbary of his day, which had not ret turned against Slavery. In this allusion he vas wiser than he knew. Though on different lides of the Atlantic and on different continents, mr Slave States and the original Barbary States occupy nearly the same parallels of latitude ; occupy nearly the same extent of longitude; embrace nearly the same number of square miles; enjoy kindred advantages of climate, being equally removed from the cold of the North and the burning heat of the tropics; and also enjoy kindred boundaries of land and water, with kindred advantages of ocean and sea, with this difference, that the boundaries of the two regions are precisely reversed, so that where is land in one case is water in the other, while in both cases there is the same extent of ocean and the same extent of sea. Nor is this all. Algiers, for a long time- the most obnoxious place in the Barbary States of Africa, once branded by an indignant chronicler as “the wall of the barbarian world,” is situated near the parallel of 36° 30z north latitude, being the line of the Missouri compromise, which once marked the “wall” of Slavery in our country west of the Mississippi, while Morocco, the chief present seat of Slavery in the African Barbary, is on the parallel of Charleston. There are no two spaces on the surface of the globe, equal in extent, (and an examination of the map will verify what ,1 am about to, state,) which present .so many distinctive features of resemblance; whether we consider the common parallels of latitude on which they lie, the common nature of their boundaries, their common productions, their common climate, or the common "Barbarism which sought shelter in both. I do not stop to inquire why Slavery—banished at last from Europe, banished also from that part of this hemisphere which corresponds in latitude to Europe—should'have entrenched itself in both hemispheres between the same parallels of latitude, so that Virginia, Carolina, Mississippi, and Missouri, should be the American complement to Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis. But there is one important point in the parallel which remains "to be fulfilled. The barbarous Emperor of Morocco, in the words of a Treaty, has expressed his desire that Slavery might pass from the memory of men, while Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, after cherishing Slavery with a tenacity equalled only by the tenacity of South Carolina, have successively renounced it and delivered it over to the indignation of mankind. In following this example the parallel will be complete, and our Barbary will become the complement in Freedom to the African Barbary, as it has already been its complement in Slavery, and is unquestionably its complement in geographical character. II. From the consideration of Slavery in its practical results, illustrated by the contrast between the Free States and Slave States, I pass now to another stage of the argument, and proceed to exhibit Slavery in its influence on the Character of Slave-masters. Nothing could I undertake more painful, and yet there is nothing which is more essential to the discussion, especially in response to the pretensions of Senators on this floor, nor is there any point on which the evidence is more complete. It is in the Character of Slavery itself that we are to find the Character of Slave-masters; but I need not go back to the golden lips of Chrysostom to learn that “ Slavery is the fruit of covetousness, of extravagance, of insatiable
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=