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in the Slate Senate, which is not only based on the total population, but which limits New Orleans to a certain fixed number of Senators no matter what may he her population.
We have thus seen that the present Constitution is more calculated to protect and benefit the slaveholder than the other classes of our population. This is also the case with the laws of the State enacted by Legislatures elected on such a basis. Instead of developing the mechanical and manufacturing capacities and resources of the State—instead of paying Some attention to the poorer and industrious classes of our citizens—instead of giving Louisiana a name for enterprise, arts and sciences, our Legislatures have confined themselves almost exclusively to legislating for the protection of the interests of slavery. Much has been said by the admirers of slavery—those who pretend to believe it a “divine institution;” about the spirit of humanity and Christianity of our laws. I must confess I have not been able to find much of this spirit. I certainly do not see it in the statutes preventing masters from liberating their slaves; providing for the mode of trial and punishment of slaves; making it criminal to teach slaves to read and write; and allowing slave families to be broken up, and the parents and children, husbands and wives, to be separated forever in this world. If the interests of slaveholders are sacrificed in this way, it is their own fault. Let us get over the difficulty as soon as possible, by emancipating the few slaves still in our State, and apply ourselves to the duty of devising some new plan for the prosecution of the agricultural interests.
Some slaveholders erroneously imagine that when the laborers on the plantations cease to be slaves the planters will be ruined, and no reasoning can convince them to the contrary. Let us go into figures for a moment, and see if they are correct. A good field hand was worth in times of peace about fifteen hundred dollars. A fair interest on this sum in most of the Southern States was 10 per cent, per annum, making one hundred and fifty dollars, so that it may be said the planter pays, or deprives himself of, one hundred and fifty dollars a year for the services of his slave. He also runs the risk of the sickness or death of the slave, and escape from his involuntary servitude. When there is no slavery, and by adopting the “compensated labor system,” the planter can hire a negro for ten dollars a month, making one hundred and twenty dollars a year, and run none of the risks of the slave-owner, and receive a more willing and cheerful, and, therefore, more advantageous labor. Many other facts might be mentioned to show the advantage to the intelligent planter of the free labor system.
But many will say, “the negro when freed will not work.” I humbly differ with them in this regard. Stringent and effective vagrant laws can be passed by the Legislature, which will secure their labor to the State, if they do not work otherwise. Some people say. “the negro, if free, will leave the plantation at the very time his services are most needed, when the cane is to be cut and ground, or when the cotton is to be picked.” This can also be provided against. The contracts for hire can be so made as to allow the planter to retain in his hands several months’ wages until the grinding or picking season is over, and in case the laborer should violate his contract a forfeiture of wages would be the consequence. Thus it will be seen the planter would not suffer the least by the change. And if all this will not work well, then let the negroes be sent to colonies abroad where they will cease to trouble us; and let the plantations be divided into small farms and cultivated by while labor. The cry that white labor cannot be profitably employed in this latitude could easily be shown to be erroneous, did my time permit me to enter on that field.
