ading with slaves, and leading them to plunder
for their benefit."

The opinions already quoted from many of the wise men of the South go
far to demonstrate that the gentleman from Mississippi is entirely
mistaken. There is, however, another test by which we can try the
accuracy of what the gentleman has said about the non-slaveholders of
the South. The census report of 1850 shows this important fact: that of
the white men in the slave States over twenty-one years of age, there is
about one in every twelve that cannot read and write; while in the free
States there is only one out of every forty-five. It must also be
remembered, that a very large number of those in the free States who
cannot read, came originally from the slave States. Take, for instance,
Massachusetts, where there are but very few persons from the slave
States, if any, and there is only one in seven hundred and seventy-eight
that cannot read and write. Take Indiana and Illinois--States that have
large populations from the slave States--Indiana, one in every fourteen
cannot read; in Illinois, one in every twenty-one and a half; and if any
one will take the trouble to examine, it will no doubt be found that
this ignorance exists almost entirely where the population from the
slave States largely predominates. I will venture the assertion, that
there can scarcely be a man found in the State of Ohio, that was born
there, who possesses intellect capable of cultivation, that cannot read;
while a very large portion of those ignorant men in the slave States
were "to the manor born."

It must also be borne in mind that, in making the estimate of the free
States, the men that perform all the labor are included. In the slave
States, the men who do nearly all the work are not included. I do not
know that any great good can come of making these comparisons. But when
the gentleman tells us that the non-slaveholders in his State are the
most prosperous and the most elevated of mankind, the inquiry is at
once presented to the mind, how elevated in the scale of existence can a
man be who can neither read nor write?

I have shown that slavery was regarded as a political, moral, and social
evil, by the founders of this Republic, and by able Southern statesmen
within thirty years; that their anxious query has been, "what is to be
done with it?" We are now asked to discredit those men, and give ear to
a modern creed, that slavery is not only necessary, but beneficent--a
d