American Institutions and Their Influence Part 43

[232] This does not prevent them from promising in the most solemn manner to do so. See the letter of the president addressed to the Creek Indians, 23d March, 1829. ("Proceedings of the Indian Board, in the City of New York," p. 5.) "Beyond the great river Mississippi, where a part of your nation has gone, your father has provided a country large enough for all of you, and he advises you to remove to it. There your white brothers will not trouble you; they will have no claim to the land, and you can live upon it, you and all your children, as long as the gra.s.s grows or the water runs, in peace and plenty. _It will be yours for ever_."

The secretary of war, in a letter written to the Cherokees, April 18th, 1829 (see the same work, page 6), declares to them that they cannot expect to retain possession of the land, at the time occupied by them, but gives them the most positive a.s.surance of uninterrupted peace if they would remove beyond the Mississippi: as if the power which could not grant them protection then, would be able to afford it them hereafter!

[233] To obtain a correct idea of the policy pursued by the several states and the Union with respect to the Indians, it is necessary to consult, 1st, "The laws of the colonial and state governments relating to the Indian inhabitants." (See the legislative doc.u.ments, 21st congress, No. 319.) 2d, "The laws of the Union on the same subject, and especially that of March 20th, 1802." (See Story's Laws of the United States.) 3d, "The report of Mr. Ca.s.s, secretary of war, relative to Indian affairs, November 29th, 1823".

[234] December 18th, 1829.

[235] The honor of this result is, however, by no means due to the Spaniards. If the Indian tribes had not been tillers of the ground at the time of the arrival of the Europeans, they would unquestionably have been destroyed in South as well as in North America.

[236] See among other doc.u.ments, the report made by Mr. Bell in the name of the committee on Indian affairs, Feb. 24th, 1830, in which it is most logically established and most learnedly proved, that "the fundamental principle, that the Indians had no right by virtue of their ancient possession either of will or sovereignty, has never been abandoned either expressly or by implication."

In perusing this report, which is evidently drawn up by an able hand, one is astonished at the facility with which the author gets rid of all arguments founded upon reason and natural right, which he designates as abstract and theoretical principles. The more I contemplate the difference between civilized and uncivilized man with regard to the principles of justice, the more I observe that the former contests the justice of those rights, which the latter simply violates.

[237] It is well known that several of the most distinguished authors of antiquity, and among them aesop and Terence, were or had been slaves.

Slaves were not always taken from barbarous nations, and the chances of war reduced highly civilized men to servitude.

[238] To induce the whites to abandon the opinion they have conceived of the moral and intellectual inferiority of their former slaves, the negroes must change; but as long as this opinion subsists, to change is impossible.

[239] See Beverley's History of Virginia. See also in Jefferson's Memoirs some curious details concerning the introduction of negroes into Virginia, and the first act which prohibited the importation of them in 1778.

[240] The number of slaves was less considerable in the north, but the advantages resulting from slavery were not more contested there than in the south. In 1740, the legislature of the state of New York declared that the direct importation of slaves ought to be encouraged as much as possible, and smuggling severely punished, in order not to discourage the fair trader. (Kent's Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 206.) Curious researches, by Belknap, upon slavery in New England, are to be found in the Historical Collections of Ma.s.sachusetts, vol. iv., p. 193.

It appears that negroes were introduced there in 1630, but that the legislation and manners of the people were opposed to slavery from the first; see also, in the same work, the manner in which public opinion, and afterward the laws, finally put an end to slavery.

[241] Not only is slavery prohibited in Ohio, but no free negroes are allowed to enter the territory of that state, or to hold property in it.

See the statutes of Ohio.

[242] The activity of Ohio is not confined to individuals, but the undertakings of the state are surprisingly great: a ca.n.a.l has been established between Lake Erie and the Ohio, by means of which the valley of the Mississippi communicates with the river of the north, and the European commodities with arrive at New York, may be forwarded by water to New Orleans across five hundred leagues of continent.

[243] The exact numbers given by the census of 1830 were: Kentucky, 588,844; Ohio, 937,679. [In 1840 the census gave, Kentucky 779,828; Ohio 1,519,467.]

[244] Independently of these causes which, wherever free workmen abound, render their labor more productive and more economical than that of slaves, another cause may be pointed out which is peculiar to the United States: the sugar-cane has. .h.i.therto been cultivated with success only upon the banks of the Mississippi, near the mouth of that river in the gulf of Mexico. In Louisiana the cultivation of the sugar-cane is exceedingly lucrative; nowhere does a laborer earn so much by his work: and, as there is always a certain relation between the cost of production and the value of the produce, the price of slaves is very high in Louisiana. But Louisiana is one of the confederate states, and slaves may be carried thither from all parts of the Union; the price given for slaves in New Orleans consequently raises the value of slaves in all the other markets. The consequence of this is, that in the countries where the land is less productive, the cost of slave labor is still very considerable, which gives an additional advantage to the compet.i.tion of free labor.

[245] A peculiar reason contributes to detach the two last-mentioned states from the cause of slavery. The former wealth of this part of the Union was princ.i.p.ally derived from the cultivation of tobacco. This cultivation is specially carried on by slaves; but within the last few years the market-price of tobacco has diminished, while the value of the slaves remains the same. Thus the ratio between the cost of production and the value of the produce is changed. The natives of Maryland and Virginia are therefore more disposed than they were thirty years ago, to give up slave labor in the cultivation of tobacco, or to give up slavery and tobacco at the same time.

[246] The states in which slavery is abolished usually do what they can to render their territory disagreeable to the negroes as a place of residence; and as a kind of emulation exists between the different states in this respect, the unhappy blacks can only choose the least of the evils which beset them.

[247] There is a very great difference between the mortality of the blacks and of the whites in the states in which slavery is abolished; from 1820 to 1831 only one out of forty-two individuals of the white population died in Philadelphia; but one negro out of twenty-one individuals of the black population died in the same s.p.a.ce of time.

The mortality is by no means so great among the negroes who are still slaves. (See Emmerson's Medical Statistics, p. 28.)

[248] This is true of the spots in which rice is cultivated; rice-grounds, which are unwholesome in all countries, are particularly dangerous in those regions which are exposed to the beams of a tropical sun. Europeans would not find it easy to cultivate the soil in that part of the New World if it must necessarily be made to produce rice: but may they not subsist without rice-grounds?

[249] These states are nearer to the equator than Italy and Spain, but the temperature of the continent of America is very much lower than that of Europe.

[250] The Spanish government formerly caused a certain number of peasants from the Azores to be transported into a district of Louisiana called Attakapas, by way of experiment. These settlers still cultivate the soil without the a.s.sistance of slaves, but their industry is so languid as scarcely to supply their most necessary wants.

[251] We find it a.s.serted in an American work, ent.i.tled, "Letters on the Colonization Society," by Mr. Carey, 1833, that "for the last forty years the black race has increased more rapidly than the white race in the state of South Carolina; and that if we take the average population of the five states of the south into which slaves were first introduced, viz., Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, we shall find that from 1790 to 1830, the whites have augmented in the proportion of 80 to 100, and the blacks in that of 112 to 100."

In the United States, 1830, the population of the two races stood as follows:--

States where slavery is abolished, 6,565,434 whites; 120,520 blacks.

Slave states, 3,960,814 whites; 2,208,112 blacks.

[By the census of 1840, the population of the two races was as follows: States where slavery is abolished, 9,556,065 whites; 171,854 blacks.

Slave states, 4,633,153 whites; 2,581,688 blacks.]

[252] This opinion is sanctioned by authorities infinitely weightier than anything that I can say; thus, for instance, it is stated in the Memoirs of Jefferson (as collected by M. Conseil), "Nothing is more clearly written in the book of destiny than the emanc.i.p.ation of the blacks; and it is equally certain that the two races will never live in a state of equal freedom under the same government, so insurmountable are the barriers which nature, habit, and opinions, have established between them."

[253] If the British West India planters had governed themselves, they would a.s.suredly not have pa.s.sed the slave emanc.i.p.ation bill which the mother country has recently imposed upon them.

[254] This society a.s.sumed the name "The Society for the Colonization of the Blacks." See its annual reports; and more particularly the fifteenth. See also the pamphlet, to which allusion has already been made, ent.i.tled "Letters on the Colonization Society, and on its probable results," by Mr. Carey, Philadelphia, April, 1833.

[255] This last regulation was laid down by the founders of the settlement; they apprehended that a state of things might arise in Africa, similar to that which exists on the frontiers of the United States, and that if the negroes, like the Indians, were brought into collision with a people more enlightened than themselves, they would be destroyed before they could be civilized.

[256] Nor would these be the only difficulties attendant upon the undertaking; if the Union undertook to buy up the negroes now in America, in order to transport them to Africa, the price of slaves, increasing with their scarcity, would soon become enormous.

[257] In the original, "Voulant la servitude, il se sont laisse entrainer, malgre eux ou a leur insu, vers la liberte."

"Desiring servitude, they have suffered themselves, involuntarily or ignorantly, to be drawn toward liberty."--_Reviser_.

[258] See the conduct of the northern states in the war of 1812. "During that war," said Jefferson, in a letter to General Lafayette, "four of the eastern states were only attached to the Union, like so many inanimate bodies to living men."

[259] The profound peace of the Union affords no pretext for a standing army; and without a standing army a government is not prepared to profit by a favorable opportunity to conquer resistance, and take the sovereign power by surprise.

[260] Thus the province of Holland in the republic of the Low Countries, and the emperor in the Germanic Confederation, have sometimes put themselves in the place of the Union, and have employed the federal authority to their own advantage.

[261] See Darby's View of the United States, pp. 64, 79.

[262] See Darby's View of the United States, p. 435.

[In Carey & Lea's Geography of America, the United States are said to form an area of 2,076,400 square miles.--_Translator's Note._]

[The discrepancy between Darby's estimate of the area of the United States given by the author, and that stated by the translator, is not easily accounted for. In Bradford's comprehensive Atlas, a work generally of great accuracy, it is said that "as claimed by this country, the territory of the United States extends from 25 to 54 north lat.i.tude, and from 65 49' to 125 west longitude, over an area of about 2,200,000 square miles."--_American Editor._]

[263] It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that by the expression _Anglo-Americans_, I only mean to designate the great majority of the nation; for a certain number of isolated individuals are of course to be met with holding very different opinions.

[264] Census of 1790........ 3,929,328. do 1830........12,856,165.

[do. 1840........17,068,666.]

[265] This indeed is only a temporary danger. I have no doubt that in time society will a.s.sume as much stability and regularity in the west, as it has already done upon the coast of the Atlantic ocean.

[266] Pennsylvania contained 431,373 inhabitants in 1790.

[267] The area of the state of New York is about 46,000 square miles.

See Carey & Lea's American Geography, p. 142.

[268] If the population continues to double every twenty-two years, as it has done for the last two hundred years, the number of inhabitants in the United States in 1852, will be twenty millions: in 1874, forty-eight millions; and in 1896, ninety-six millions. This may still be the case even if the lands on the western slope of the Rocky mountains should be found to be unfit for cultivation. The territory which is already occupied can easily contain this number of inhabitants. One hundred millions of men disseminated over the surface of the twenty-four states, and the three dependencies, which const.i.tute the Union, would give only 702 inhabitants to the square league: this would be far below the mean population of France, which is 1,003 to the square league; or of England, which is 1,457; and it would even be below the population of Switzerland, for that country, notwithstanding its lakes and mountains, contains 783 inhabitants to the square league. (See Maltebrun, vol. vi., p. 92.)

[269] See Legislative Doc.u.ments, 20th congress, No. 117, p. 105.