st entirely frowned down the attempts of
blind-guides to corrupt the gospel, or mislead the people. Among them
organized bodies to overthrow the moral, social, and religious
institutions of society, are unknown.
If the facts already examined prove any thing, they prove that wealth,
among slaveholders, is much more equally distributed--so that very few,
compared with New England, are without homes.
The facts examined prove also, beyond question, that the unbearable
miseries which have their source in the heartless exactions of excessive
wealth, or extreme poverty, are more than sixty per cent. greater in New
England than in these States, and that one hundred and thirty-five per
cent. more of New England's toiling millions have to bear the
degradation of the poor-house, or die of want, than are to be found in
this condition in these five slave States.
The facts we have examined, prove also, that under all the disadvantages
of climate, the natural increase of the slave States is sixty per cent.
greater than it is in New England--twenty-seven per cent. of it by
increased annual births, and thirty-three per cent. of it by diminished
annual deaths. These are the most astonishing facts ever presented to
the world. They speak a language that ought to be read and studied by
all men. In the present state of our country, they ought to be
prayerfully pondered and not disregarded.
But notwithstanding all this, the aggregate wealth of New England is a
source of exultation and pride among her sons. They believe, with a
blind and stubborn tenacity, that slavery tends to poverty, and freedom
to wealth.
It cannot be denied that the aggregate earnings of the toiling
millions--when _hoarded_ by a _few_--may grow faster than it will when
these millions are allowed to take from it a daily supply, equal to
their reasonable wants. And it cannot be denied that New England has
great aggregate wealth.
The facts of the census show, however, that it is very unequally divided
among her people. The question now to be tried is, whether the _few_ in
New England have _hoarded_ this wealth, and can now _show it_, or
whether they have squandered it upon their lusts, and are unable to
_show it_.
This last and prominent boast of increased aggregate wealth in New
England, over that accumulated by slaveholders, we will now test by the
census of 1850. This is the standard adopted by our National Legislature
for its decision.
Before we examin
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