n capital,
that of Massachusetts was 35 per cent., and of Maryland 17 per cent.
Such is the progressive advance (more than two to one) of free as
compared with slave labor. The same law obtains in comparing all the
Free with all the Slave States. But the proof is still more complete.
Thus, Delaware and Missouri (alone of all the Slave States) were ahead
of Maryland in this rate of profit, because both had comparatively fewer
slaves; and all the other Slave States, whose servile population was
relatively larger than that of Maryland, were below her in the rate of
profit. The law extends to _counties_, those having comparatively fewest
slaves increasing far more rapidly in wealth and population. This, then,
is the formula as to the rate of profit on capital. First, the Free
States; next, the States and counties of the same State having the
fewest relative number of slaves. The Census, then, is an evangel
against slavery, and its tables are revelations proclaiming laws as
divine as those written by the finger of God at Mount Sinai on the
tables of stone.

For seventy years we have had these Census Tables, announcing these
great truths more and more clearly at each decade. They are the records
of the nation's movement and condition, the decennial monuments marking
her steps in the path of empire, the oracles of her destiny. They are
prophecies, for each decade fulfils the predictions of its predecessor.
They announce laws, not made by man, but the irrevocable ordinances of
the Almighty. We cannot, with impunity, refuse to obey these laws. For
every violation, they enforce their own penalties. From these there is
no escape in the present or the past, nor for the future, except in
conformity to their demands. These laws condemn slavery; and the
punishment for disobedience is recorded in the result of every Census,
and finally culminated in the rebellion. Slavery and freedom are
antagonistic and discordant elements: the conflict between them is upon
us; it admits of no neutrality or compromise, and one or the other
system must perish.

We have seen that slavery is hostile to the progress of wealth and
population: let us now ascertain its influence on moral and intellectual
development.

By Table 15 of the Census of 1860, the result for that year was as
follows: In Massachusetts, value of books printed, $397,500; jobs,
$529,347; newspapers, $1,979,069; total, $2,905,916. Same year in
Maryland, books printed, $58,000; jobs,