God,
who made us of one blood, has fixed the bounds of our habitations. I
love these Southerners as I never loved new acquaintances before. But I
prefer a state of society free from slavery: yet this makes me love
those to whom God has given a South country, and imposed upon it a
necessity, at present at least, to employ the African race as
cultivators of the soil. It has often disturbed my feelings to hear some
people inveigh reproachfully against the Southern country, as comparing
unfavorably with neighboring free states. Going up the Ohio River one
day, a Northern gentleman pointed to some poor-looking lands in Kentucky
on the one hand, and some flourishing fields of Ohio on the other.
"There, ladies and gentlemen," said he, "is slavery," pointing to
Kentucky, "and there," turning to the other side, "is freedom."
"Now," said an intelligent Ohioan, "if you will excuse me for saying
it, I regard that as clear humbug. What is cultivated on either side?
The products of Kentucky, if raised in Ohio, would give the same look to
her lands. It is not slavery and freedom that make the difference; it is
the difference between large staples sown over large territories, and
smaller staples raised on smaller fields.
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