1. Increase of Population. 2. State of Education. 3. State of Industry and Enterprise. 4. Feeling towards the Laboring Classes. 5. State of Religion. 6. State of Morals. 7. Disregard for Human Life. 8. Disregard for Constitutional Obligations. 9. Liberty of Speech. 10. Liberty of the Press. 11. Military Weakness.
The ratio of increase of population, especially in this country, is one of the surest tests of public prosperity. Let us then again listen to the impartial testimony of the late census. From this we learn that the increase of population in the free States from 1830 to 1840, was at the rate of 38 per cent., while the increase of the _free_ population in the slave States was only 23 per cent. Why this difference of 15 in the two ratios? No other cause can be assigned than slavery, which drives from your borders many of the virtuous and enterprising, and at the same time deters emigrants from other States and from foreign countries from settling among you.
The influence of slavery on population is strikingly illustrated by a comparison between Kentucky and Ohio. These two States are of nearly equal areas, Kentucky however having about 3000 square miles more than the other.[3] They are separated only by a river, and are both remarkable for the fertility of their soil; but one has, from the beginning, been cursed with slavery, and the other blessed with freedom. Now mark their respective careers.
In 1792, Kentucky was erected into a State, and Ohio in 1802.
Free population of Kentucky. Free population of Ohio.
1790 61,227, a wilderness. 1800 180,612, 45,365 1810 325,950, 230,760 1820 437,585, 581,434 1830 522,704, 937,903 1840 597,570, 1,519,467
The representation of the two States in Congress, has been as follows:
1802, Kentucky 6, Ohio 1, 1812, " 9, " 6, 1822, " 12, " 14, 1832, " 13, " 19, 1842, " 10, " 21,
The value of land, other things being equal, is in proportion to the density of the population. Now the population of Ohio is 38.8 to a square mile, while the free population of Kentucky is but 14.2 to a square mile--and probably the price of land in the two States is much in the same proportion. You are told, much of the wealth is invested in negroes--yet it obviously is a wealth that impoverishes; and no stronger evidence of the truth of this assertion is needed, than the comparative price of land in the free and slave States. The two principal cities of Kentucky and Ohio are Louisville and Cincinnati; the former with a population of 21,210, the latter with a population of 46,338. Why this difference? The question is answered by the _Louisville Journal_. The editor, speaking of the two rival cities, remarks, "The most potent cause of the more rapid advancement of Cincinnati than Louisville is the ABSENCE OF SLAVERY. The same influences which made Ohio the young giant of the West, and is advancing Indiana to a grade higher than Kentucky, have operated in the _Queen_ City. They have no _dead weight to carry_, and consequently have the advantage in the race."