(or nearly
seventy per cent.,) than are to be found in this condition in an equal
population in these five Southern States.
The ratio of New England's _native sons_ in the poor-house is one to one
hundred and forty-three; of these five slave States one to two hundred
and thirty-four. The ratio of New England's _entire population_ in the
poor-house is one to eighty-one; the ratio of the entire population of
these five slave States is one to one hundred and seventy-one.
The Saviour asks if a good tree can bring forth evil fruit, or an evil
tree good fruit. Here is an exhibition of the _fruit_ borne by _New
England freedom_ and _Southern slavery_. The Saviour gives every man a
right to judge the tree by the fruit, and declares such to be righteous
judgment.
There is another item in the census which throws much light on the
comparative comfort and happiness of the people in these two localities.
It is neither physical destitution, criminal degradation, nor mental
suffering; but it is an effect which is known to flow from one, or the
other, or all three of these _conditions_ as causes; therefore it is an
important item in determining the amount of destitution, degradation,
and suffering, which exist in a community.
When we see effects which are known to flow from certain causes--the
causes may be concealed--yet we know that they exist by the effects we
see. With these remarks I proceed to state a fact disclosed in the
census, as it exists in New England, and as it exists in these five old
slave States.
In New England, with an equal population, we find that three thousand
eight hundred and twenty-nine of her white children have been crushed by
sufferings _of some sort_, to the condition of insanity, while in these
five old slave States there are only two thousand three hundred and
twenty-six of her white children who have been called to suffer, in
their earthly pilgrimage, a degree of anguish beyond mental endurance.
Here is a difference of more than sixty per cent. in favor of these five
States, as to conditions of suffering that are beyond endurance among
men. Very poor evidence this, of the superior happiness and comfort of
New England.
But while her white children are called to suffer over sixty per cent.
more of these crushing sorrows than those of these five States, how is
it with her black children in freedom, compared with the family here in
slavery, from which the most of them have fled, that they might
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