wn
by the official American Census of 1860, that the product that year,
_per capita_, of Massachusetts was $235; _per capita_, Maryland $96; and
of South Carolina $56. Massachusetts had no slaves; Maryland, 87,189;
and South Carolina, 402,406. Thus we see the annual value of the
products of labor decreased in proportion to the number of slaves. In
further proof of the position assumed in that letter, that the progress
of wealth, of population, and education in the United States, was most
injuriously affected by slavery, I now present other official facts from
our Census of 1860. My first comparison will be that of the Free State
of New York with slaveholding Virginia.

By the Census, the population of Virginia in 1790 was 748,308, and in
1860, 1,596,318, making the ratio of increase 113.32 per cent. In 1790
New York numbered 340,120, and in 1860, 3,880,735, the ratio of increase
being 1,040.99. (Table 1, Prelim. Census Rep., p. 132.) Thus, the rate
of increase in New York exceeded that of Virginia more than nine to one.

In 1790, the population of Virginia was largely more than double that of
New York. In 1860, the population of New York was very largely more than
double that of Virginia. In 1790, Virginia, in population, ranked first
of all the States, and New York the fifth. In 1860, they had reversed
their positions, and New York was the first, and Virginia the fifth.
(Rep. p. 120.) At the same rate of progress, from 1860 to 1900, as from
1790 to 1860, Virginia, retaining slavery, would have sunk from the
first to the twenty-first State, and would still continue, at each
succeeding decade, descending the inclined plane toward the lowest
position of all the States. Such has been, and still continues to be,
the effect of slavery, in dragging down that once great State from the
first toward the last in rank in the Union. But if, as in the absence of
slavery must have been the case, Virginia had increased from 1790 to
1860 in the same ratio as New York, her population in 1860 would have
been 7,789,141, and she must always have remained the first in rank of
all the States.

AREA.--The natural advantages of Virginia far exceed those of
New York. The area of Virginia is 61,352 square miles, and that of New
York 47,000. The population of Virginia per square mile in 1790 was
12.19, and in 1860, 26.02. That of New York, in 1790, was 7.83, and in
1860, 84.36. Now, if New York, with her present numbers per square mile,
had th