Diary in America Volume I Part 29

Cotton grown all over the world in the years 1821 and 1831; showing the increase in each country in ten years.

+=========================+===========+===========+ 1821 lbs. 1831 lbs.

+-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ United States 180,000,000385,000,000 +-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ Brazil 32,000,000 38,000,000 +-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ West Indies 10,000,000 9,000,000 +-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ Egypt 6,000,000 18,000,000 +-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ Rest of Africa 40,000,000 36,000,000 +-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ India 176,000.000180,000,000 +-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ Rest of Asia 185,000,000115,000,000 +-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ Mexico and South America, 44,000,000 35,000,000 +-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ except Brazil +-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ Elsewhere 8,000,000 4,000,000 +-------------------------+-----------+-----------+ In the World 630,000,000820,000,000 +=========================+===========+===========+

The increase of cotton grown all over the world in ten years is therefore 190,000,000 lbs. Brazil has only increased 6,000,000; Egypt has increased 12,000,000; India, 5,000,000. Africa, West indies, South America, Asia, have all fallen off; but the defalcation has been made good by the United States, which have increased their growth by 205,000,000 of lbs.

In the Southern portion of America there are millions of acres on which cotton can be successfully cultivated, particularly Texas, the soil of which is so congenial that they can produce 1,000 lb. to the 400 lb.

raised by the Americans; and the quality of the Texian cotton is said to be equal to the finest sea island produce. It is to Texas particularly that we must look for this produce, as it can there be raised by white labour; [see Note] and being so produced, will, as soon as its population in creases to a certain extent, be able to under sell that which is grown in America by the labour of the slave.

Increase of cotton grown in the United States, from the year 1802 to 1831.

+=====+===========+======+===========+ Yearslbs. Years.lbs.

+-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1802 55,000,000 1817130.000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1803 60,001,000 1818125,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1804 65,000,000 1819167,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1805 70,000,000 1820160,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1806 80,000,000 1821180,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1807 80,000,000 1822210,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1808 75,000,003 1823185,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1809 82,000,000 1824215,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1810 86,000,000 1825256,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1811 80,000,000 1826300,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1812 75,000,006 1827270,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1813 75,000,000 1828325,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1814 70,000,000 1829365,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1815100,000,000 1830360,000,000 +-----+-----------+------+-----------+ 1816124,000,000 1831385,000,000 +=====+===========+======+===========+

It may be asked: how is it, as Texas is so far south, that a white population can labour there? It is because Texas is a prairie country, and situated at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. A sea-breeze always blows across the whole of the country, rendering it cool, and refres.h.i.+ng it notwithstanding the power of the sun's rays. This breeze is apparently a continuation of the trade-winds following the course of the sun.

From circ.u.mstances, therefore, Texas, which but a few years since was hardly known as a country, becomes a state of the greatest importance to the civilised and moral world.

I am not in this chapter about to raise the question how Texas has been ravished from Mexico. Miss Martineau, with all her admiration of democracy, admits it to have been "the most _high-handed_ theft of modern times;" and the letter of the celebrated Dr Charming to Mr Clay has laid bare to the world the whole nefarious transaction. In this letter Dr Charming points out the cause of the seizure of Texas, and the wish to enrol it among the federal states.

"Mexico, at the moment of throwing off the Spanish yoke, gave a n.o.ble testimony of her loyalty to free principles, by decreeing 'That no person thereafter should be born a slave, or introduced as such into the Mexican states; that all slaves then held should receive stipulated wages, and be subject to no punishment but on trial and judgment by the magistrate.' The subsequent acts of the government fully carried out these const.i.tutional provisions. It is matter of deep grief and humiliation, that the emigrants from this country, while boasting of superior civilisation, refused to second this honourable policy, intended to set limits to one of the greatest of social evils. Slaves come into Texas with their masters from the neighbouring states of this country. One mode of evading the laws was, to introduce slaves under formal indentures for long periods, in some cases, it is said, for ninety-nine years; but by a decree of the state legislature of Coahuila and Texas, all indentures for a longer period than ten years were annulled, and provision was made for the freedom of children during this apprentices.h.i.+p. This settled, invincible purpose of Mexico to exclude slavery from her limits, created as strong a purpose to annihilate her authority in Texas. By this prohibition, Texas was virtually shut against emigration from the southern and western portions of this country; and it is well known that the eyes of the south and west had for some time been turned to this province as a new market for slaves, as a new field for slave labour, and as a vast accession of political power to the slave-holding states. That such views were prevalent we know; for, nefarious as they are, they found their way into the public prints. The project of dismembering a neighbouring republic, that slaveholders and slaves might overspread a region which had been consecrated to a free population, was discussed in newspapers as coolly as if it were a matter of obvious right and unquestionable humanity. A powerful interest was thus created for severing from Mexico her distant province."

The fact is this:--America, (for the government looked on and offered no interruption,) has seized upon Texas, with a view of extending the curse of slavery, and of finding a mart for the excess of her negro population: if Texas is admitted into the Union, all chance of the abolition of slavery must be thrown forward to such an indefinite period, as to be lost in the mist of futurity; if, on the contrary, Texas remains an independent province, or is restored to its legitimate owners, and in either case slavery is abolished, she then becomes, from the very circ.u.mstance of her fertility and apt.i.tude for white labour, not only the great _check to slavery_, but eventually the means of its _abolition_. Never, therefore, was there a portion of the globe upon which the moral world must look with such interest.

England may, if she acts promptly and wisely, make such terms with this young state as to raise it up as a barrier against the profligate ambition of America. Texas was a portion of Mexico, and Mexico abolished slavery; the Texians are bound (if they are _Texians_ and not Americans) to adhere to what might be considered a treaty with the whole Christian world; if not, they can make no demand upon its sympathy or protection, and it should be a _sine qua non_ with England and all other European powers previous to acknowledging or entering into commercial relations with Texas, that she should adhere to the law which was pa.s.sed at the time that she was an integral portion of Mexico, and declare herself to be a Free State--if she does not, unless the chains are broken by the negro himself, the cause and hopes of _emanc.i.p.ation_ are lost.

There certainly is one outlet for the slaves, which as they are removed thither and farther to the west will eventually be offered:--that of escaping to the Indian tribes which are spread over the western frontier, and amalgamating with them; such indeed, I think, will some future day be the result, whether they gain their liberty by desertion, insurrection, or manumission.

Of insurrection there is at present but little fear. In the eastern slave states, the negroes do not think of it, and if they did, the difficulty of combination and of procuring arms is so great, that it would be attended with very partial success. The intervention of a foreign power might indeed bring it to pa.s.s, but it is to be hoped that England, at all events, will never be the party to foment a servile war.

Let us not forget that for more than two centuries we have been _particeps criminis_, and should have been in as great a difficulty as the Americans now are, had we had the negro population on our own soil, and not on distant islands which could be legislated for without affecting the condition of the mother country. Nay, at this very moment, by taking nearly the whole of the American cotton off their hands in exchange for our manufactures, we are ourselves virtually encouraging slavery by affording the Americans such a profitable mart for their slave labour.

There is one point to which I have not yet adverted, which is, Whether the question of emanc.i.p.ation is likely to produce a separation between the Northern and Southern states? The only reply that can be given is, that it entirely depends upon whether the abolition party can be held in check by the federal government. That the federal government will do its utmost there can be no doubt, but the federal government is not so powerful as many of the societies formed in America, and especially the Abolition Society, which every day adds to its members. The interests of the North are certainly at variance with the measures of the society, yet still it gains strength. The last proceedings in congress show that the federal government is aware of its rapid extension, and are determined to do all in its power to suppress it. The following are a portion of the resolutions which were pa.s.sed last year by an overwhelming majority.

The first resolution was; "That the government is of limited powers, and that by the const.i.tution of the United States, congress has no jurisdiction whatever over the inst.i.tution of slavery in the several states of the confederacy;" the last was as follows: "Resolved, therefore, that all attempts on the part of congress to _abolish slavery_ in the district of Columbia, or the territories, or to prohibit the removal of the slaves from state to state; or to discriminate between the const.i.tution of one portions of the confederacy and another, with the views aforesaid, are in _violation_ of the const.i.tutional principles on which the _union_ of these States rests, and beyond the jurisdiction of congress; and that every pet.i.tion, memorial, resolution, proposition, or paper touching or relating in any way or to any extent whatever to slavery as aforesaid, or the abolition thereof, shall without any farther action thereon, be laid on the table, without _printing, reading, debate, or reference_." Question put, "Shall the resolutions pa.s.s?" Yeas, 198; Noes, 6--_Examiner_.

These resolutions are very firm and decided, but in England people have no idea of the fanaticism displayed and excitement created in these societies, which are a peculiar feature in the states, and arising from the nature of their inst.i.tutions. Their strength and perseverance are such that they bear down all before them, and, regardless of all consequences, they may eventually control the government.

As to the question which portion of the States will be the losers by a separation, I myself think that it will be the northern slates which will suffer. But as I always refer to American authority when I can, I had better give the reader a portion of a letter written by one of the southern gentlemen on this subject. In a letter to the editor of the _National Gazette_, Mr Cooper, after referring to a point at issue with the abolitionists, not necessary to introduce here, says--"I shall therefore briefly touch upon the subject once more; and if farther provocation is given, I may possibly enter into more details hereafter; for the present I desire to hint at some items of calculation of the value of the Union _to the North_.

"1. Mr Rhett, in his bold and honest address, has stated that the expenditures of the government for twenty years, ending 1836, have been four hundred and twenty millions of dollars; of which one hundred and thirty were dedicated to the payment of the national debt. Of the remainder, two hundred and ten millions were expended in the northern, and eighty millions in the southern states. Suppose this Union to be severed, I rather guess the government expenditure of what is now about fifteen millions a-year to the North, would be an item reluctantly spared. No people know better what to do with the 'cheese-parings and the candle-ends' than our good friends to the North.

"2. I beg permission to address New York especially. In the year 1836 our exports were one hundred and sixteen millions of dollars, and our imports one hundred and forty millions. It is not too much to a.s.sign seventy-five millions of these imports to the state of New York. The South furnishes on an average two-thirds of the whole value of the _exports_. It is fair, therefore, to say, that two-thirds of the _imports_ are consumed in the South, that is, fifty millions. The mercantile profit on fifty millions of merchandise, added to the agency and factorage of the Southern products transmitted to pay for them, will be at least twenty per cent. That is, New York is gainer by the South, of at least ten millions of dollars annually; for the traffic is not likely to decrease after the present year. No wonder 'her merchants are like princes!' Sever the Union, and what becomes of them!

"3. The army, the navy, the departments of government, are supported by a revenue obtained from the indirect taxation of custom-house entries, the most fraudulent and extravagant mode of taxation known. Of this the South pays two-thirds. What will become of the system if the South be driven away!

"4. The banking system of the Northern states is founded mainly on the traffic and custom of the South. Withdraw that for one twelve-month, and the whole banking system of the North"

-- tumbles all precipitate Down dash'd.

"Suppose even one state withdrawn from the Union, would not the pecuniary intercourse with Europe be paralysed at once?

"5. The South even now are the great consumers of New England manufactures. We take her cotton, her woollen goods, her boots and shoes. These last form an item of upwards of fourteen millions annually, manufactured at the North. Much also of her iron ware comes to the South; many other 'notions' are sent among us, greatly to the advantage of that wise people, who know better the value of small gains and small savings than we do.

"6. What supports the s.h.i.+pping of the North but her commerce; and of her commerce two-thirds is Southern commerce. Nor is her _commerce_ in any manner or degree _necessary_ to the South; _Europe_ manufactures what the _South wants_, and the _South_ raises what Europe _wants_.

Between Europe and the South there is not and cannot be any compet.i.tion, for there is no commercial or manufacturing, of territorial interference to excite jealousies between them. We want not the North. _We can do without the North_, if we separate to-morrow. We can find carriers and purchasers of _all we have to sell_, and of _all we wish to buy_, without casting one glance to the North.

"7. The North seems to have a strange inclination to quarrel with England. The late war of 1812 to 1814 was a war for Northern claims and Northern interests, now we are in jeopardy from the unjust interference in favour of the patriots of Canada; and a dispute is threatened on account of the north-eastern boundary. The manufacturing and commercial interferences of the north with Europe will always remain a possible, if not a probable, source of disputes. The _North_ raises what _Europe_ raises; commercially they need not each other--they are two of a trade, they raise not what each other wants--they are _rivals_ and _compet.i.tors_ when they go to war. Does not the South, who is not interested in it, pay most part of the expense, and is not the war expenditure applied to the benefit of the North? Sever, if you please, the Union, and the North will have to pay the whole expense of her own quarrels.

"8. Our system of domestic servitude is a great eye-sore to the fanatics of the North. But there are very many wise and honest men in the North; ay, even in Ma.s.sachusetts. I ask of these gentlemen, does not at least one-third of the labour produce of every Southern slave ultimately lodge in the purse of the North! If the South works for itself it works also for the Northern merchant, and views his prosperity without grudging.

"9. Nor is it a trifling article of gain that arises from the expenditure of southern visitors and southern travellers, who spend their summers and their money in the north. The quarrelsome rudeness of northern society is fast diminis.h.i.+ng this source of expenditure among us. Sever the Union, and we relinquish it altogether. We can go to London, Paris, or Rome, as cheaply and as pleasantly as to Saratoga or Niagara.

"Such are some of the advantages which the north derives from a continuance of that union which her fanatic population is so desirous to sever. A population with whom peace, humanity, mercy, oaths, contracts, and compacts, pa.s.s for nothing--whose promises and engagements are as chaff before the wind--to whom bloodshed, robbery, a.s.sa.s.sination, and murder, are objects of placid contemplation--whose narrow creed of bigotry supersedes all the obligations, of morality, and all the commands of positive law. With such men what valid compact can be made?

The appeal must be to those who think that a deliberate compact is mutually binding on parties of any and every religious creed. To such men I appeal, and ask, ought you not resolutely to restore peace, and give the south confidence and repose?

"I have now lived twenty years in South Carolina, and have had much intercourse with her prominent and leading men; not a man among them is ignorant how decidedly in most respects, the south would gain by a severance from the north, and how much more advantageous is this union to the north than to the south. But I am deeply, firmly persuaded that there is not one man in South Carolina that would move one step toward a separation, on account of the superior advantages the north derives from the union. No southern is actuated by these pecuniary feelings; no southern begrudges the north her prosperity. Enjoy your advantages, gentlemen of the north, and much good may they do ye, as they have hitherto. But if these unconst.i.tutional abolition attacks upon us, in utter defiance of the national compact, are to be continued, G.o.d forbid this union should last another year.

"I am, sir, your obedient servant,

"Thomas Cooper."

"Many fine looking districts were pointed out to me in Virginia, formerly rich in tobacco and Indian corn, which had been completely exhausted by the production of crops for the maintenance of the slaves.

In thickly peopled countries, where the great towns are at hand, the fertility of such soils may be recovered and even improved by manuring, but over the tracts of country I now speak of, no such advantages are within the farmer's reach."--_Captain Hall_.

"Many, very many, with whom I met, would willingly have released their slaves, but the law requires that in such cases they should leave the state; and this would mostly be not to improve their condition, but to banish them from their home, and to make them miserable outcasts. What they cannot at present remove, they are anxious to mitigate, and I have never seen kinder attention paid to any domestics than by such persons to their slaves. In defiance of the infamous laws, making it criminal for the slave to be taught to read, and difficult to a.s.semble for an act of wors.h.i.+p, they are instructed, and they are a.s.sisted to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d."--_Rev Mr Reid_.

"The law declares the children of slaves are to follow the fortunes of the mother. Hence the practice of planters selling and bequeathing their own children."--_Miss Martineau_.

The return at present is very great in these western states; the labour of a slave, after all his expenses are paid, producing on an average 300 dollars (65 pounds) per annum to his master.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FORTY THREE.

REMARKS--RELIGION IN AMERICA.

In theory nothing appears more rational than that every one should wors.h.i.+p the Deity according to his own ideas--form his own opinion as to his attributes, and draw his own conclusions as to hereafter. An established Church _appears_ to be a species of coercion, not that you are obliged to believe in, or follow that form of wors.h.i.+p, but that, if you do not, you lose your portion of certain advantages attending that form of religion, which has been accepted by the majority and adopted by the government. In religion, to think for yourself wears the semblance of a luxury, and like other luxuries, it is proportionably taxed.

And yet it would appear as if it never were intended that the ma.s.s should think for themselves, as everything goes on so quietly when other people think for them, and everything goes so wrong when they do think for themselves: in the first instance where a portion of the people think for the ma.s.s, all are of one opinion; whereas in the second, they divide and split into many molecules, that they resemble the globules of water when expanded by heat, and like them are in a state of restlessness and excitement.

That the partiality shown to an established church creates some bitterness of feeling is most true, but being established by law, is it not the partiality shown for the legitimate over the illegitimate? All who choose may enter into its portals, and if the people will remain out of doors of their own accord, ought they to complain that they have no house over their heads. They certainly have a right to remain out of doors if they please, but whether they are justified in complaining afterward is another question. Perhaps the unreasonableness of the demands of the dissenters in our own country will be better brought home to them by my pointing out the effects of the voluntary system in the United States.

In America every one wors.h.i.+ps the Deity after his own fas.h.i.+on; not only the mode of wors.h.i.+p, but even the Deity itself, varies. Some wors.h.i.+p G.o.d, some Mammon; some admit, some deny, Christ; some deny both G.o.d and Christ; some are saved by living prophets only; some go to heaven by water, while some dance their way upwards. Numerous as are the sects, still are the sects much subdivided. Unitarians are not in unity as to the portion of divinity they shall admit to our Saviour; flap-fists, as to the precise quant.i.ty of water necessary to salvation; even the Quakers have split into controversy, and the men of peace are at open war in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

The following is the table of the religious denominations of the United States, from the American Almanac of 1838:

TABLE OF THE RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES