ntrast unpleasant to the mind of the slaveholder. He knew that the
fact was 'world--wide,' that slaveholders had always controlled the
policy of Southern legislation. He was aware that slaveholders had made
themselves responsible for this neglect of the children of the South;
and knew also that public opinion would visit the blame where it
legitimately belonged. Pro-slavery sagacity was quick-sighted in its
apprehensions that it could not dodge the inquiry, 'Whence comes this
disparity?'

The statistics of the two sections presented a still more obnoxious
comparison to the pro-slavery sensibilities, as it respects the physical
condition of the respective populations. The cotton States have mostly
been the advocates of '_free trade_,' some of them tenaciously so. They
deemed it impossible to introduce manufacturing, to much extent, into
sections where the yearly surpluses in production were wholly absorbed
by investment in land and negroes. The consequence has been, want of
diversified industry and want of profitable occupation for the poorer
classes. In the Northern and in some of the Border States, a different
industrial policy has been pursued. Diversified occupation has raised up
skilled labor in nearly every branch of industry. Notwithstanding the
greater rigor of climate, adult labor on the average, under full and
compensated employment, performs nearly three hundred solid days' work
in the year. The eight millions of white population in the South, in
consequence of this want of profitable occupation, perform much less,
perhaps not one hundred and fifty days' work on the average. The
following table, published in 1856-1857, by Mr. Guthrie, then Secretary
of the Treasury, discloses a condition of things very remarkable; but no
wise astonishing to those who have investigated the causes of the
disparity. The ratio of annual _per capita_ production to each man,
woman, and child, white and black, in the respective States, exclusive
of the gains or earnings of commerce, stood as follows:

-------------------------------------------------------
Massachusetts, $166 60 | Indiana, $69 12
Rhode-Island, 164 61 | Wisconsin, 63 41
Connecticut, 156 05 | Mississippi, 67 50
California, 149 60 | Iowa, 65 47
New-Jersey, 120 82 | Louisiana, 65 30
New-Hampshire, 117 17 | Tennessee, 63 10
New-York, 112 00 | Georgia, 61