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are from the Compendium of the Census of 1850, by J. D. B. De Bow, and from the Postmaster General's report accompanying the President's annual message, made at the commencement of this Congress. These statistics will show the "actual results" of freedom and slavery, respectively, upon the prosperity of the States; their material growth, their educational and moral condition. I challenge gentlemen to show a single fact incorrectly taken from the documents alluded to. I will first take the States of New York and Virginia. The former adopted the "theories and abstractions" of the "able and distinguished men and patriots" of Virginia, and treated slavery, as they regarded it, "more to be deplored than to be fostered," and consequently got rid of it; while the latter repudiated these teachings, and regarded African bondage "a blessing to both races; one to be encouraged, cherished, and fostered;" and, consequently, has continued it to the present time, and now defends it as a wise and beneficent institution; and one of her representatives [Mr. Pryor] upon this floor, at this session, declared it to be "the highest type of civilization." New York contains an area of 47,000 square miles, and Virginia 61,352 square miles. In soil, climate, and natural advantages, Virginia is equal, if not superior, to New York. At the taking of the first census, 1770, the population of these States was as follows: Virginia, 748,308; New York, 340,320. In the year 1850 the population was as follows: Virginia, 1,421,661; New York, 3,097,394. The value of real estate in those States, in 1850, was: in Virginia, $252,105,824; in New York, $564,649,649. The value of personal and real estate was: in Virginia, $391,646,438; in N. York, $1,080,309,216. The value of church property was: in Virginia, $2,902,220; in New York, $21,539,561. Virginia had 2,930 public schools, with 67,353 pupils; New York has 11,580 public schools, with 675,221 pupils. The annual income of the school fund, in Virginia, was $314,625; in New York, $1,472,657. The post office statistics of any country afford good evidence of its business activity, intelligence, and educational progress. Total annual transportation of mails for the year ending June 30, 1859, in Virginia, 4,006,725 miles, at an annual cost of $378,872; and in New York, 6,686,488 miles, at an annual cost of $462,806. The Government expended, for the year ending June 30, 1859, for postal service in Virginia, $510,801.03; and received during the same period, $255,075.70; being an excess of expenditures over receipts of $255,725.33. The Government expended, during the same period, and for the same purpose, in the State of New York, $1,107,886.79, and received $1,553,680.34; being an excess of receipts over expenditures of $445,793.55. Will the Representatives of Virginia explain the cause of the difference between that State and New York upon any other basis than the superiority of free over slave labor? I submit to the judg- |
ment of the American people of all sections, that it is owing solely to the cause that Virginia, against the opinion of her early statesmen, has encouraged and fostered the curse of human slavery; while New York, in accordance with that opinion, and in the spirit of the Revolution, has abolished it. For the purpose of showing that, in comparison with freedom, slavery affects injuriously the prosperity of a State, I will institute a comparison between fourteen free States and fourteen slave States, namely: free States—Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont; slave States—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. These free States have an area of 402,693 square miles, and the slave States have 849,328. In soil, climate, and natural advantages, these fourteen slave States are equal to the fourteen free States named, and I think, in some respects, better. In 1850, the population of the free States named was 13,036,934; and of the slave States, 9,521,237. The value of real estate in the free States was $2,408,309,987; in the slave States, $1,416,102,421. The moral, social, and educational condition of the same States compare as follows: value of churches in the free States, $66,972,525; in the slave States, $21,234,226. Public schools in the free States, 61,008, with 2,711,035 pupils; public schools in the slave States, 18,313, with 572,891 pupils. The annual income of public schools in the free States, $6,663,603; in the slave States, $2,676,173. The white population at the same period was: in the free States, 12,842,279; in the slave States, 6,113,308. The number of scholars in colleges, academies, and public schools, was: In the free States, $2,878,291; and in the slave States only 687,891. The number of free white persons, over the age of twenty-one, at this period, who could not read or write, was: in the free States, 411,036; in the slave States, 508,346. The Postmaster General's report of this year, to which I have before referred, shows the following facts: total annual transportation of mails in these free States, 38,773,154 miles, at an annual cost of $3,127,060; in these slave States, 37,017,511, at an annual cost of $4,745,329—being carried in the free States 1,765,643 miles further, at a cost of $1,618,269 less than in the slave States. The postal expenditures for the same period were as follows: in the free States, $5,513,169.68; and in the slave States, $5,942,092.65; and receipts as follows: in the free States, $5,052,958.14; in the slave States, $1,908,037.98—the expenditures in the slave States being $428,932.97 more than in the free States, and the receipts $3,144,920.16 |
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