n of the South in 1859 had
been equal _per capita_ during the same year to that of the Free States,
the additional value of the Southern products would have been
$1,531,631,000 in 1859, and in the aggregate of the decade from 1859 to
1869, $17,873,539,511, exclusive of the addition from the annual
reinvestment of capital. The addition, then, to the value of the
products of the South in a single year, caused by the substitution of
free for slave labor, would be nearly equal to our whole present
national debt, while in the aggregate of the ten years succeeding it
would be nearly ten times greater than the whole national debt, thus
leaving us far richer after the next census, as a consequence of
increased production, notwithstanding the national debt, than if the
rebellion had never occurred. Thus is it that the ways of Providence are
justified to man, and that Slavery chastises its own advocates, while
its overthrow brings increased wealth and safety and honor and happiness
and prosperity to the country. While I do not advocate, then, the
abolition of Slavery in defiance of the Constitution, because it would
make us more wealthy and powerful, more honored, happy, and prosperous,
yet I rejoice that in supporting emancipation, as Mr. Lincoln does, as a
Union and as a war measure, the overthrow of this accursed institution
will be attended with countless benefits to my country and mankind.
Suppress the rebellion by the overthrow of the Southern armies, and
re-establish the Government throughout all our wide domain upon the
broad and eternal foundations of freedom, truth, and justice, then
neither domestic traitors nor foreign despots will ever dash against its
adamantine base. There it will stand, and stand forever, the mighty
continental breakwater between the continents of Asia and of Europe,
against which the breakers of internal faction, and the waves of
despotic power would dash in vain. To that home of the oppressed, to
that asylum of genuine and universal freedom, millions from the Old
World would then come, and unite with us in strengthening and
maintaining a Government based upon the rights of humanity, and
sustained by the affections of the people. While our physical force and
accumulating wealth would thus be rapidly and vastly augmented, our
moral power would be increased in a still grander ratio. Then the cry of
tyrants, that self-government is a phantom, and republics a failure,
would cease to oppress the listen