On the other hand, slavery has been thought to beget overbearing manners, and to have an unpropi-tious influence on the temper. This opinion, which seems plausible, was adopted by Mr. Jefferson, and he has given currency to the hypothesis by the weight of his authority. Yet when we find that it is not confirmed by the touchstone of fact; and that, if our public men are regarded as fair specimens of the population of their respective States, those of the South may well compare with those of the North for mildness, clemency, and amenity, then we are bound to consider speculative opinions, which are thus forcibly opposed, as among the fallacies of ingenious theory. There could be no better refutation of this specious philosophy than Mr. Jefferson himself.

It may be further remarked that since our country contains numbers of the African race, so great as to be beyond the power of removal, and since they are universally regarded by the whites as inferior to themselves, both physically and intellectually, the Southern States are irreconcilably averse to the emancipation of their slaves. But, in the meanwhile, it may be fairly questioned whether that portion of the proscribed race who are in bondage are not as well cared for, and in fact as happy, as their brethren in the Northern States, where they are free, but where they are not treated with the same easy familiarity and kindness as by Southern gentlemen, and where the mutual affection and good will which often subsist between the white and the colored man are unknown.

These remarks are made, not to show that slavery, as some have maintained, is a positive good, but simply to indicate that here, as in all human concerns, evil and good are closely intermingled, and that, to come to just conclusions, we must make a fair estimate of both.

But an important question here presents itself - Is domestic slavery to be regarded as a permanent institution in the United States? To this I do not hesitate to return an answer in the negative; and to assert that, as serfdom, which once existed in every part of Europe, has there universally disappeared, except in Russia, where it gives indications that before long it will entirely cease, it must, from the same general causes, also terminate in the United States.

We have seen that, in the progress of society, after the more fertile lands are all occupied, the price of labor will decline with the increasing density of population. Now, long before that density has reached its maximum, the price of labor will have so fallen that the value of a slave will not repay the cost of rearing him; in which case, slavery, no longer profitable to the master, will naturally expire.

The large extent of fertile lands in the United States still unoccupied, together with the present thinness of their population, may at first lead to the supposition that the period adverted to, when our lands will be less able to furnish an easy subsistence to the people, is removed to an indefinite distance - not less than several centuries. An easy calculation will, however, lead us to a very different result. Supposing our present population to be 30,000,000 - and it is probably more; then in three duplications it will be (30 x 2 = 60 x 2 = 120 x 2 =) 240,000,000; which would give for our whole territory an average population of seventy to the square mile.

The average period of our doubling during the seventy years from 1790 to 1850 was less than twenty-four years. Let us, however, suppose that the first period from this time would be twenty-five years, the second twenty-six years, and the third twenty-seven years - making, in all, seventy-eight years, to the year 1937, when our numbers would be 240,000,000.

Though we have no certain and precise data for determining at what degree of density the value of slaves would not repay the cost of rearing them, yet it seems probable, from the condition of Europe when villainage there terminated,* that a density much less than seventy to the square mile is inconsistent with slavery. But should even a greater density be assumed as the limit, that limit, by the uncontrollable laws of human multiplication, must be eventually reached.

In 1843, in a work on the census, I hazarded the opinion, founded on such imperfect information as I possessed, that, in a period of from about sixty to eighty years, slavery would probably expire in the United States. They soon afterwards obtained an accession of territory of more than 800,000 square miles (Texas and part of Mexico), which, by lessening the density of population, would postpone the period. It would not, however, put it off for more than ten years; and, on a revision of the views then taken, I see no reason to change them, and still think that, in less than a hundred years from that time, slavery will, in all, or nearly all, of the States, die a natural and an easy death.

The subsequent rise in the price of slaves has strangely seemed to some a contradiction to the hypothesis of the spontaneous termination of slavery. But there is no inconsistency in the two facts. The price of slaves is high in consequence of the profits of their labor in making cotton, and of the peculiar fitness of the soil and climate of the Southern States for the culture of that commodity; and so long as the supply does not exceed the demand, the prices both of cotton and slaves must continue high. But those prices must be seriously affected by the further increase of slaves. By the census of 1850, their number exceeded 3,000,000. It is probably now near 4,000,000; but whatever it may be, in twenty-five years it will have doubled, in fifty years have quadrupled, and of course be able to produce four times as much cotton, tobacco, and other agricultural produce as at present. But in that time the consumers of cotton and tobacco in Europe and this country will not have doubled, and consequently the supply will be proportionally reduced. There will be no reason at that period why the making of cotton should be better rewarded than any other agricultural labor - the price of which will have undergone, from its increased supply, a general fall, and a part of it be compelled to seek employment in manufactures, as has been previously explained.

Let us now glance at some of the diversities of human labor in different countries. Man, ever compelled to more or less exertion for his subsistence, is no where so industrious as in the Temperate Zones. There, work is often a pleasure as well as a business; and active exercise, both of body and mind, is a want of his nature. In the polar regions he cannot always endure the intense cold, and, in the season when he can work, he has a very limited field for profitable employment. The chilled earth makes no return to the husbandman, and the inhabitant has little occupation but in the precarious toils of the hunter or fisherman. In the Torrid Zone, where the soil, under a heat that never intermits, is most prolific, labor is peculiarly irksome, and is fortunately little needed. There, too, man is less disposed to consume animal food, the more expensive species of aliment; and the bounty of nature furnishes so ample a store from the vegetable kingdom, that he can subsist upon the product of one-fourth, or even less, of the area required to support him in the Temperate Zones.

Besides these effects of climate on human labor, moral causes have also much influence. One of the most potent of these influences is that of government. Where the rights of property are accurately defined and efficiently protected, as they are in free countries, there men are likely to be industrious from the expectation of enjoying the fruits of their industry. This is the case in the United States, in England, and, in a less degree, in most other parts of Europe. But where a despotic and rapacious government appropriates to its own purposes most of the earnings of the people, there less will be produced, and the product will be less economically used. Such is the condition of nearly all the countries of Asia; yet the pressing wants of the dense numbers of China force the people there to a high degree of industry, by which the evils of an over-crowded population are greatly mitigated.

In Spain, Portugal, and Italy, the people are far less industrious than they are in England, France, and Germany. This inferiority may be in part ascribed to the difference of climate, and partly to the difference in the amount of civil freedom.

Education also here exerts a benignant influence. It tends to make men more moral and provident, and less prone to idleness and intemperance. The general diffusion of mental instruction throughout New England has doubtless contributed to the great and diversified industry which characterizes the people of that part of the Union.

It is by agricultural industry that much the larger part of raw produce is furnished. From this source is derived the principal portion of human aliment, both vegetable and animal. Wheat, maize, rice, rye, barley, buckwheat; every kind of pulse and potatoes, and other roots; beef, mutton, pork, and every species of poultry; wool, skins, and hides; cotton, hemp, flax, and tobacco; indigo, and other dye-stuffs. But large supplies are also furnished from mines, as coal, the ores of metals, marble, stone, and other minerals. The ocean, rivers, and lakes, likewise contribute their portion in fish and fish-oil, oysters, and other shell-fish.

In addition to the before-mentioned species of raw produce, there are many commodities important to human comfort, and extensively consumed, which are equally the product of agricultural industry and of that which we are about to consider.