has proposed,
and Congress has entertained, the proposition of aiding the States in
emancipation. Fremont, who has been regarded as the representative of
the emancipation feeling, has been restored to active command. And
multitudes of our people, who have hitherto considered themselves as
bound by the Constitution not to interfere with the subject, have become
open in the avowal that as slavery has been the cause of the evil, so it
must now be wiped out forever.

It would seem, therefore, as if it was inevitable that the question of
emancipation is to be thrust upon us, and we must be prepared to meet
it. It is in this view, and irrespective of the question of right and
wrong in slavery, that some considerations present themselves, which can
not be ignored.

The difference of race between the white and the negro will ever keep
them apart, and forbid their amalgamation. One or the other must
ultimately go to the wall, and it is worth our while to see what time
is doing with the question: 'Which must it be in this country?'

Hence it is important to note the progress of both the races with us.

In the course of seventy years, that is, from the census of 1790 to that
of 1860, the slave population has increased from 697,897 to 4,002,996.
So that our colored population is now six times as great as when our
Government was formed.

During the same period the free population has increased from 3,231,975
to 27,280,070, or nearly nine times as great as in 1790. Of this
increase about 3,000,000 is the result of emigration; so that the
native-born population has increased to about 24,000,000, or about eight
times as many as in the beginning of our Government. If due allowance be
made for those born of emigrant parents,[A] it would seem that the two
races have about kept pace with each other in their natural increase.

A more minute examination, however, will show that the natural increase
of the colored race has been in a greater ratio than that of the whites,
native-born to the soil.

The following tables will show how this is, both as to the colored and
the white races.

INCREASE OF SLAVE POPULATION.

Years. No. of Slaves. Increase. Per ct. of Increase.

1790, 697,897
1800, 893,041 195,144 28
1810, 1,191,364 298,323 32
1820, 1,538,064 346,700 29
1830, 2,009,031 470,967 29
1840, 2,487,855 478,324 24
1850, 3,204,313 716,958