being
made to begin this same system, by first operating on the poor black
laborer. For shame! let us cease from attempts of this kind.

The Senator informs us that the question was asked fifty years ago
that is now asked, Can the negro be continued forever in bondage? Yes;
and it will continue to be asked, in still louder and louder tones.
But, says the Senator, we are yet a prosperous and happy nation. Pray,
sir, in what part of your country do you find this prosperity and
happiness? In the slave States? No! no! There all is weakness gloom,
and despair; while, in the free States, all is light, business, and
activity. What has created the astonishing difference between the
gentleman's State and mine--between Kentucky and Ohio? Slavery, the
withering curse of slavery, is upon Kentucky, while Ohio is free.
Kentucky, the garden of the West, almost the land of promise,
possessing all the natural advantages, and more than is possessed by
Ohio, is vastly behind in population and wealth. Sir, I can see from
the windows of my upper chamber, in the city of Cincinnati, lands in
Kentucky, which, I am told, can be purchased from ten to fifty dollars
per acre; while lands of the same quality, under the same
improvements, and the same distance from me in Ohio, would probably
sell from one to five hundred dollars per acre. I was told by a
friend, a few days before I left home, who had formerly resided in the
county of Bourbon, Kentucky--a most excellent county of lands
adjoining, I believe, the county in which the Senator resides--that
the white population of that county was more than four hundred less
than it was five years since. Will the Senator contend, after a
knowledge of these facts, that slavery in this country has been the
cause of our prosperity and happiness? No, he cannot. It is because
slavery has been excluded and driven from a large proportion of our
country, that we are a prosperous and happy people. But its late
attempts to force its influence and power into the free States, and
deprive our citizens of their unquestionable rights, has been the
moving cause of all the riots, burnings, and murders that have taken
place on account of abolitionism; and it has, in some degree, even in
the free States, caused mourning, lamentation, and woe. Remove
slavery, and the country, the whole country, will recover its natural
vigor, and our peace and future prosperity will be placed on a more
extensive, safe, and sure foundation. I