"free soil" in distant and unknown states, to freedom in our fertile neighbors!

These details, in relation to the chief production of the slave states, and that on which so many other interests depend, indicate the general fact of the instability of the cotton culture; that the position of planters is such as to induce continued change in order to sustain existence; and that credit and new fertile lands, at nominal prices, have been necessary to maintain the blacks in the "right to labor." The same general facts indicate the process by which the institution must ultimately fall to pieces. The true philosopher and the true patriot should be anxious that the dissolution should be so gradual as not to disturb, in any degree, the political relations of the Union, and to form, pari passu, such social circumstances, as may make the ultimate freedom of the blacks less disastrous to themselves and burdensome to the white population. There are two errors industriously propagated by the political intriguers both of the Clay and Van Buren branches of the Barnburner faction; the one is, that the old states breed slaves for sale in the new, and the other, that white labor will not co-exist with black. In relation to the first matter, it is sufficient to say, that the blacks do not breed any faster in consequence of the export of young ones from old states to new. the other hand, the aggregate increase of slaves per cent. is less than that of the whites. Thus in the ten years, ending with 1840, the increase of whites in the slave states was 26 per cent., and of slaves 23.8 per cent. only, showing that the natural increase of the latter was nearly 3 per cent. less than the former. This alleged breeding process is, therefore, a chimera, and no less so is the statement, that whites do not migrate into slave states. In Virginia, the proportion of whites increased from 57.4 per cent. of the whole population in 1830, to 59.8 per cent. in 1840, arising from export of blacks, and the increase of white settlers, mostly farmers from northern states into western Virginia.

On

It is well-known that the immigration of free whites into Texas is very large, probably in the proportion of 50 whites to 1 black. As an indication of the practical fact in relation to the co-existence of white with black labor, we may compare the progress of Illinois with Missouri, which became a state in 1821. The progress of the population is as follows:

The admission of Missouri as a slave state was attended by an excitement that threatened the stability of the Union, and the cry was then as now, that the presence of slaves would keep out free setlers. The result shows how false was that cry. The proportion of the white population to the whole number of inhabitants was in 1830, 81.7 per cent.; in 1840, 84.4; in 1844, 86.4 per cent.; showing a constant increase in the advance of the white or free population, and convicting of gross falsehood the assertion that the presence of slaves keeps out white labor. The true reason that white labor does not increase faster in more southern states, is the physical impossibility. An unacclimated person cannot labor without imminent risk of death from sickness. It usually requires five years' residence to become acclimated so as to labor there with the impunity with which a white native may. A negro does not require to remain a day, or a week, to enable him to labor in those parts of the South without fear of the diseases of the climate. Indeed, the white man, whether born on the spot or elsewhere, is

always far more subject to disease from the action of malaria and the heat of the sun, than the negro who has just arrived. As few white laborers can afford to devote five years to becoming acclimated, a very limited number are tempted by the much higher wages, or other return paid, (than at the North,) to get their living by agriculture in such quarters. This is a good and sufficient reason why the more fertile portions of the South have failed to receive a due share of Northern and foreign emigration.

In North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, &c., where white men may labor with impunity, the market facilities are by no means as good as everywhere in the North-west, which is better supplied with navigable waters than any other interior country on the face of the globe. The vacant lands of Virginia and other Southern states, lie at points from whence produce must be wagoned up hill and down dale from one hundred to three hundred miles, to reach what may fairly be termed the market, in the heart of an abundant country.

When the nature of the country permits the ingress of white labor, as in the case of Missouri, it goes there without reference to the presence of slaves.

The legal slavery which exists at the South is a hardship for owners, more so than for the blacks, whose physical comforts are promoted by their 'right to labor," a right which brings with it its disabilities, but which is nevertheless sought to be established by European philanthropists, as well as by some branches of the "free-soil" faction among us. The political disabilities which it imposes on Southern blacks, are somewhat greater than those which the same race labor under at the North, where they have not the right to labor. In the latter section they have no vote, and in some states not the right to settle, and in state legislatures no representation; in addition to this, they labor under social disabilities to an extent greater than at the South. In illustration of this, we may relate an anecdote, that within a few weeks passed under our own immediate observation. As usual with the families of many planters, the lady of a Southern gentleman came North to spend the summer at the "Springs." She brought with her her mulatto waiting maid, an intelligent, trustworthy servant. On reaching Cincinnati, the lady addressing her maid, informed her that she was now free, at liberty to come and go, when and where she would. Mary expressed her thanks and attended to her duties. On the following morning she informed her mistress that a white lady had called upon her, and asked her to go to a lawyer well-known in Cincinnati, who would put her in a way to assert her freedom. Mary was grateful for such disinterested kindness, but informed her visitor that she was already free. She did not therefore fall into the snare set for comely Creoles by disinterested agents, under pretence of giving them freedom. On arriving at New-York, her mistress said one morning, "well, Mary, we are now in the great city; as I suppose you want to see the shows, you can have the day to yourself." Being attracted by the flaming signs of the Museum, Mary made up her mind to go there. She accordingly ascended the flight of stairs and asked the price. "Price! for what?" said the door-keeper. "To go in," said Mary. "We don't admit niggers." "That's very strange, at home I can go to any show if I pay." "Don't know about that; you can't go in here; just step aside, you're in the way of persons coming up." Mary, rather chap-fallen, and withal fatigued by walking in a warm sun, called an omnibus to go home. Jehu cracked his whip, and informed her "niggers could not ride." This new instance of freedom rather increased her disappointment, and she being thirsty, walked into the corner and asked for a glass of soda water. "Don't sell soda

to niggers," was the response, and Mary returned to her mistress, hoping soon to return to the South where "niggers are free."

This unconquerable aversion of the North to social intercourse with blacks, except in the capacity of servants, is a disadvantage that probably counterbalances to a very great extent the political condition of the same race; and it is felt by blacks who have lived at the North to be by far a greater, and more constant evil, than the fancied ones arising from their political condition in slave states. Their physicel condition in the latter section is so superior to that of the lower classes in all other countries, resulting from the " right to labor," as to make amends for a deprivation of the right of voting. That there are some instances of cruel treatment on plantations is doubtless the case, but they are rare exceptions, and occur always on the estates of those who, living at the North, entrust the management to an overseer, whose passions are not restrained by the necessity of preserving property. Where the planter himself lives upon his estate, not only does he care heedfully for the health and comfort of his people, but the family naturally become exceedingly attached to those about them, and brought up with them.*

The institution of slavery being from the operation of economical causes, necessarily temporary, and its evils as well as its advantages and political responsibilities confined to the people among whom it exists and who choose to adopt it, the gratuitous malevolence of those who seek to distract the democratic party, and loosen the bonds of our federal union for the purpose of forcing upon a free people local laws that may be adverse to their wishes, becomes more marked. That imperial England should practice such a policy in relation to her dependencies, or that the old federalist party should advocate it in this country, would not be matter of surprise in this age of the world; but how great is our astonishment, when we find not only self-styled democrats, but of all former members of that party Martin Van Buren, becoming the instrument of this anti-republican treason. That he, of all other men, should make an oppressive interference with the local rights of a distant people the means of again forcing himself before the people as a candidate for office, affords a solemn warning to the people how they place confidence in men. How have the democratic party clung to and honored that man! How have credulous and trusting men reposed confidence in his honor and faith in his statements, and how miserably have they been deceived! As an indication of the position occupied by Mr. Van Buren, we extract from the columns of this Review, soon after the Convention of 1844:

Mr. Van Buren's career as a statesman is now, therefore closed; to use his own emphatic though melancholy word, 'forever.' Nor, indeed (strongly as we

*The following touching note would scarcely be imagined to be the description of the death of a slave, by the owner of hundreds, and a most estimable lady:

From a Southern Mother to her Daughter.

Well, my darling, I wrote you a cheerful letter yesterday, because I could not bear to pain your kind heart. But evil tidings take "the wings of the wind," and as you will hear them, I think it's best to tell you myself.

On Tuesday we buried our boy Nelson; you can well imagine my sorrow and distress. It has been a deep and bitter trial to me. God has given me strength to support it. On Friday, there was a fire, and he worked at the engine, became exhausted and convulsed from drinking cold water, it was supposed,

He had every aid of the best physicians, and all that care and kindness could bestow. But alas, it was of no avail. The poor fellow breathed his last breath at eleven, free from pain. The physicians made a post mortem examination, and found he had ruptured a blood-vessel which had caused his death. If they had consulted me, I could not have given permission. But it was fortunate, perhaps, they did so, for no human aid, we now know, could have saved him. Oh! my child, this has been a great affliction to your poor mother, and it was more dreadful because you were not here to comfort me.

would desire to deprecate the resolution he has himself avowed)—is it likely that in any form or capacity he will ever allow himself to be again drawn forth from a retirement amply provided with all the elements of domestic happiness, into any further active participation in political affairs. Posterity may be said to have now began for him, even while yet in the prime of powers abundant to earn for their possessor another fame, no less honorable than that which a life of patriotic public service has already made his. All truth may now be spoken of him, alike by friend and foe. To the latter he is no longer an object of dread or of partizan animosity.

"Some of Mr. Van Buren's opponents have urged against him the charge of pressing forward upon the democratic party for its re- nomination. On such judges his Missouri letter, which we know to have expressed the sincerest sentiments of his heart, disavowing any such desire, and declaring his determination not to allow his name to be made any occasion of discord in his party, is wholly thrown away. Yet never was imputation more unjust. Most of our readers-all indeed but a very few-will now receive the intelligence for the first time, that after his defeat in 1840, he was only prevented by the earnest remonstrances of his friends, from making a similar positive and final withdrawal as he has now made.

But enough. It is time now to turn over the leaf in the book of events, on which we confess that we have found a grateful but melancholy satisfaction in thus for a brief while lingering. It is time to say "Good Night to Marmion!" We take leave of Mr. Van Buren from the stage of political affairs, with emotions which shrink from public utterance. Others may hasten to the mountain-tops to wait in eager impatience for the first ray of the morning's dawn; we are reluctant to withdraw our gaze of reverential homage and admiration, from the glories streaming over the departure of the sinking, the sunken sun of the day now forever past."

Such were the universal sentiments indulged by those trusting men who came in personal contact with Mr. Van Buren, who regarded him as the honored of the American people. These views in regard to Mr. Van Buren were entertained in common with the following sentiments in relation to free soil, contained in the same number of this Review:

"If, on the other hand, that experiment (annexation of new soil) shall not prove successful, so as to disprove the asserted possibility of the co-existence of the two races and two colors, side by side, on the same soil, in a relation of freedom and equality of rights, how can any of the friends of either desire to keep them forcibly pent up within the limits where every day is tending faster and faster to ferment the discordant elements into a result which threatens to be the desolation of both-instead of opening this safety valve by which the noxious vapor may pass off harmlessly and insensibly?

"Crowd, then, your population into the Southern states as you may, rapidly and without fear. Texas will open before it as an outlet, and slavery, retiring from the Middle and Southern States of the present confederacy, will find for a time a resting place there. But only for a time. For the irreversible law of population, which decrees that in a densely peopled region slavery shall cease to exist, will emancipate Texas in her turn, and the negro will then pass to a land of political freedom and social dignity under a genial sky. He will pass without civil convulsion, and leaving no domestic ruin in his path. As his labor becomes less and less valuable, emancipation, a gradual, progressive, at last universal, will pass him over the southern border to his more appropriate home in Mexico and the states beyond."

What now do we find after a lapse of four little years. This Mr. Van Buren, the honored of the democratic party, whom no circumstances were ever again to draw forth in the political arena " in any form or capacity," is become the leader of a joint section of whigs and disunionists to oppose this very plan of " passing slaves into new territories" that his warmest supporters here advocated! What a lesson is here of political honesty! How have we, the people, to lament that men so trusted should become so treacherous; that the possession of power should leave a desire so ungovernable,

that no consideration, social, political, or patriotic, can restrain the badly ambitious from again attempting to grasp even at its shadow. Mr. Van Buren again thrusts himself forward even on the ground of a geographical division of party, of all others the least effective for popular triumph, and the most dangerous to our federal union.

The policy of those who seek to create geographical division in the party is precisely that which Washington indicated would be that of badly ambi

"In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern, that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discrimination; northern and southern, Atlantic and western, whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is, to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts."

When Mr. Van Buren, in his "spirit of revenge" against the American people, sought to promote disunion, his agents and organs pursued that identical policy of "misrepresenting the opinion and aims of other districts." The daily press is filled with denunciation of the fancied attempts of slave holders to "keep freemen out of the territory," and numberless other fabrications not worthy of being recounted. It is to be observed that this union of whiggery with Van Burenism is by no means a new one, nor is Mr. Van Buren its originator; he has not even the merit of originating the treason he is prosecuting. In 1804, Thomas Jefferson, writing to Gideon Granger, described, with a pencil of light, the party and its frauds, which Mr. Van Buren has now revived for the gratification of his own malevo lence-as follows:

I say

"In our last conversation you mentioned a federal scheme afloat, of forming a coalition between the federalists and republicans, of what they call the seven eastern states. The idea was new to me, and after time for reflection I had no opportunity of conversing with you again. The federalists know that eo nomine they are gone forever. Their object, therefore, is how to return to power under some other form. Undoubtedly they have but one means, which is to divide the republicans, join the minority, and barter with them for the cloak of their name. join the minority, because the majority of the republicans, not needing them, will not buy them. The minority, having no other means of ruling the majority, will give a price for auxiliaries, and that price must be principle. It is true, that the federalists, needing their numbers also, must also give a price, and principle is the coin they must pay in. Thus a bastard system of federo-republicanism will rise on the ruins of the true principles of our revolution. And when this party is formed-who will constitute the majority of it, which majority is then to dictate? Certainly, the federalists. Thus their proposition of putting themselves into gear with the republican minority, is exactly like Roger Sherman's proposition to add Connecticut to Rhode Island. The idea of forming seven eastern states is, moreover, clearly to form the basis of a separation of the Union. Is it possible that real republicans can be gulled by such a bait ? And for what? What do they wish that they have not? Federal measures? That is impossible. Republican measures? Have they them not? Can any one deny, that in all-important questions of principle, republicanism prevails? BUT DO THEY WANT THAT THEIR INDIVIDUAL WILL SHALL GOVERN THE MAJORITY? They may purchase the gratification of this unjust wish, for a little time, at a great price; but the federali ts must not have the passions of other men, if, after getting thus into the seat of power, they suffer themselves to be governed by their minority. This minority may say, that whenever they relapse into their own principles, they will quit them, and draw the seat from under them. They may quit them, indeed; but in the meantime, all the venal will have become associated with them, and will give them a majority sufficient to keep them in place, and to enable them to reject the heterogeneous