enjoy
the blessings of liberty? It is exceedingly interesting to see the
benefits and blessings which New England freedom and Puritan sympathy
have conferred upon them.

Here are the facts of the census upon this subject:

Among the free negroes of New England, one is deaf or dumb for every
three thousand and five; while among the slaves of these States there is
only one for every six thousand five hundred and fifty-two. In New
England one free negro is blind for every eight hundred and seventy;
while in these States there is only one blind slave for every two
thousand six hundred and forty-five. In New England there is one free
negro insane or an idiot for every nine hundred and eighty; while in
these States there is but one slave for every three thousand and eighty.

Can any man bring himself to believe, with these facts before him, that
freedom in New England has proved a blessing to this race of people, or
that slavery is to them a curse in the Southern States? In
non-slaveholding States, _money_ will be the _master of poverty_. These
facts enumerated show the fruits of such a relation the world over. The
slave of money, while nominally free, has none to care for him at those
periods, and in those conditions of his life, when he is not able to
render service or labor. Childhood, old age, and sickness, are
conditions which make sympathy indispensable. Nominal freedom, combined
with poverty, can not secure it in those conditions, because it can not
render service or labor. The slave of the South enjoys this sympathy in
all conditions from birth till death. There is a spontaneous heart-felt
flow of it, to soothe his sorrows, to supply his wants, and smooth his
passage to the grave. Interest, honor, humanity, public opinion, and the
law, all _combine_ to awaken it, and to promote its activity.

Many facts of the character here examined have been disclosed in State
statistics, and others in the Federal census; some of which I shall
hereafter notice, that show with the most unquestionable certainty, that
freedom to this race, in our country, is a curse.

The facts which we have now examined, if they prove any thing, prove
that religion has prospered more among slaveholders at the South, than
it has among free men in New England. Slaveholders have made a much more
extensive and suitable provision for the people of all classes to hear
the gospel, than has been made by the freemen of New England.
Slaveholders have almo