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of territory only, but of feeling, interest, national pride, a moral division.
What shook the pillars of the
Union when the
Missouri question was agitated?
What but a few months ago arrayed in arms a state against the
Union, and the
Union against a state
From
Maine to
Florida, gentlemen, the answer must be the same, slavery.
6. Because of its pernicious influence upon national wealth and prosperity.
Political economy has been the peculiar study of
Virginia.
But there are some important truths connected with this science which she has hitherto overlooked or wantonly disregarded.
Population increasing with the means of subsistence is a fair test of national wealth.
By reference to the several censuses of the
United States, it will be seen that the white population increases nearly twice as fast in states where there are few or no slaves as in the slave states.
Again, in the latter states the slave population has increased twice as fast as the white.
Let us take, for example, the period of twenty years, from 1790 to 1810, and compare the increase of the two classes in three of the
Southern states.
The causes of this disproportionate increase, so inimical to the true interests of the country, are very manifest.
A large proportion of the free inhabitants of the
