binding and the number of pages would have been much greater, but the value and the effect of the contents would have been far less. From the first, our leading motive has been to convince our fellow-citizens of the South, nonslaveholders and slaveholders, that slavery, whether considered in all its bearings, or, setting aside the moral aspect of the question, and looking at it in only a pecuniary point of view, is impolitic, unprofitable, and degrading; how well, thus far, we have succeeded in our undertaking, time will, perhaps, fully disclose. In the words of a contemporaneous German writer, whose language we readily and heartily endorse, "It is the shame of our age that argument is needed against slavery." Taking things as they are, however, argument being needed, we have offered it; but we have offered it from such sources as will, in our honest opinion, confound the devil and his incarnate confederates. These testimonies, culled from the accumulated wisdom of nearly six thousand centuries, beginning with the great and good men of our own time, and running back through distant ages to Saint Paul, Saint John, and Saint Luke, to Cicero, Plato, and Socrates, to David, Solomon, and Moses, and even to the Deity himself, are the pillars of strength and beauty upon which the popularity of our work will, in all probability, be principally based. If the ablest writers of the Old Testament; if the eloquent prophets of old; if the renowned philosophers of Greece and Rome; if the heavenly-minded authors and compilers of the New Testament; if the illustrious poets and prosewriters, heroes, statesmen, sages of all nations, ancient and modern; if God himself and the hosts of learned ministers whom he has commissioned to proclaim his word-if all these are wrong, then we are wrong; on the other hand, however, if they are right, we are right; for, in effect, we only repeat and endeavor to enforce their precepts. If we are in error, we desire to be corrected; and, if it is not asking too much, we respectfully request the advocates of slavery to favor us with an exposé of what they, in their one-sided view of things, conceive to be the advantages of their favorite and peculiar institution. Such an exposé, if skillfully executed, would doubtless be regarded as the funniest novel of the times-a fit production, if not too immoral in its tendencies, to be incorporated into the next edition of D'Israeli's curiosities of literature. CHAPTER VIII. FREE FIGURES AND SLAVE. UNDER this heading we propose to introduce the remainder of the more important statistics of the Free and of the Slave States;-especially those that relate to Commerce, Manufactures, Internal Improvements, Education and Religion. Originally it was our intention to devote a separate chapter to each of the industrial and moral interests above-named: but other considerations have so greatly encroached on our space, that we are compelled to modify our design. To the thoughtful and discriminating reader, however, the chief statistics which follow will be none the less interesting for not being the subjects of annotations. At present, all we ask of pro-slavery men, no matter in what part of the world they may reside, is to look these figures fairly in the face. We wish them to do it, in the first instance, not on the platforms of public debate, where the exercise of eloquence is too often characterized by violent passion and subterfuge, but in their own private apartments, where no eye save that of the All-seeing One will rest upon them, and where, in considering the relations which they sustain to the past, the present, and the future, an opportunity will be afforded them of securing that most valuable of all possessions attainable on earth, a conscience void of offence toward God and man. Each separate table or particular compilation of statistics will afford food for at least an hour's profitable reflec tion; indeed, the more these figures are studied, and the better they are understood, the sooner will the author's object be accomplished, the sooner will the genius of Universal Liberty dispel the dark clouds of slavery. |