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and that any considerable dimunition in the crop of the United States, would cause the gravest inconveniences, while the occurrence of any state of things, whereby it should be entirely cut off, would be followed by social, commercial, and political convulsions, the effects of which can scarcely be imagined.

ART. VII.—THE MIND THAT HAS RULED AND DIRECTED THE UNION.

ONE of the Republican members of Congress the other day, whose name need not be mentioned, paid a tribute to the governing capacities of the South which may encourage her people should they ever think of setting up altogether for themselves. The only ridiculous part of the remarks, is, that which refers to the non-slave-holders of the South, who are thought to be arrayed against their own hearths and homes.

"The population of the free States is over thirteen millions; of the slave States, over six millions. There have been eighteen presidential elections; twelve Presidents were slaveholders, six were not, but Northern men with Southern sentiments. The slaveholders have held the Presidency for fortyeight years-more than two-thirds of the entire period. No Northern man has ever been reëlected; five of the slaveowners have been. As far as the Presidency is concerned, the slave-owners have had more than their equal rights! There are over twenty millions of free people in the Union; the slave-owners numbered, in 1850, three hundred and fortysix thousand and forty-seven. According to numbers, they should have had the Presidency but a single year; they have had it over forty-eight!

"Since 1809, the President pro tempore of the Senate has been a slaveholder, except Mr. Southard, of New Jersey, and Mr. Bright, of Indiana, for five or six years in all! And they were zealous adherents of the slave power! A single year was all they could claim upon the principle of equal rights! "Since 1820, for thirty-eight years closing with the present Congress, slave-owners have been Speakers of the House for thirty years; and free-State men for only eight years! The Speaker, by the appointment of committees, controls the legislation of the country more than any other officer of the Government, and the committees never were appointed in so unfair and partisan a manner as in the present Congress!

"In the thirty-five Congresses, we have had twenty-two Speakers who were slave-owners, and twelve who were freeState men. What class of men have had more than their

equal rights?

"Since 1841, slave-owners have held the office of Secretary of the Navy, except two years, up to the organization of the

NON-SLAVEHOLDERS AT THE SOUTH.

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present Cabinet; and since 1849, a slave-owner has always been Secretary of War. The free States furnish most of the shipping and seamen for the navy, and most of the soldiers for the army; but slave-owners command them. Who have had more, in this, than their equal rights?

"Since 1789, up to the present Administration, the Secretary of State has been appointed fourteen times from slaveowners, and only eight times from free-State men. This is the first officer of the Cabinet, who has charge of the foreign relations of the country. What men have had more than their equal rights?

"In the Supreme Court, five of the nine judges, including the Chief Justice, have always been slave-owners, and only four from the free States, and these must be sturdy adherents of the slave power. So that one department of the Government has been forever exclusively in the hands of slave-owners. Is this giving the other citizens their equal rights? Nearly one hundred to one of the people of this country are not slaveowners, and more than three-fourths of the business of this court arises in the free States!

"There is a class of the people having more political power, than any other class of citizens-namely, the slave-owners. There are three hundred and forty-six thousand and fortyseven of them, including men, women, and children. They admit and boast that they have controlled the Government for sixty years, and do now. They own three million two hundred and four thousand two hundred and eighty-seven slaves. Three-fifths of them are counted; so that three hundred and forty-six thousand and forty-seven persons are counted as if they numbered in fact two million two hundred and sixty-eight thousand six hundred and nineteen in the scale of representation. These three hundred and forty-six thousand are counted nearly two million more than they are, because they own slaves. Instead of three Representatives in Congress, they have thirty, because they own slaves. But this is not all the political power they have. They control those States. The free whites in the slave States, not owning slaves, numbering five million eight hundred and thirty-eight thousand three hundred and fifty-seven, the great body of the people, do not seem practically to have any political power.. Who ever heard of any of them being President, a Cabinet officer, a Senator, or a member of Congress, or a judge of the Supreme Court, or filling any other important office under this Government? The slave-owners, by their property and political privileges, are made the ruling class in those States. They control the press, and force submission to their will by a system of terrorism and constrained public sentiment. We

must add to their power the nearly six million non-slave-holders in the slave States. These three hundred and forty-six thousand slave-owners, bound together by a single interest, have therefore in their hands practically the political power of about eight million people bond and free. Do they claim more than that for their equal rights?

"We find that three hundred and forty-six thousand slaveholders have had one department of the Government in their hands absolutely-the judiciary; the executive practically, and also the legislative-all; and yet they are going out of the Union if they cannot have their equal rights.

"This is no over statement. More than twenty million free people are governed by some three hundred and forty-six thousand, and have been for sixty years; and they claim more, or will go out of the Union after equal rights. All I can say is, if they were fairly out of the Union we might, after their departure, have equal rights!"

STATISTICS OF THE WAR OF 1812-'15.

THE following, which we take from the remarks of Mr. Savage, of Tennessee, on his proposal to grant a pension to the survivors of the war of 1812, will be of general interest. The compliment which the honorable gentleman pays to our statistical opinions is gratefully acknowledged.

The war of 1812, (with Great Britain.)

The whole number of officers and men in the regular service during the war cannot be given. The following statement of the numbers at different periods of the war is the nearest approximation that can be made to it:

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The militia force mustered into the service of the United States during the war was 31,210 officers, 440,412 men ; 471,622 aggregate.

Now, I have endeavored to inform myself as well as I could from the reports of former Congresses, and from all the authorities to which I have been able to obtain access, for the purpose of ascertaining, as far as possible, how many would be embraced within the provisions of this bill. There were, all told, 471,000 soldiers employed in the war of 1812, and of this number there were 168,982 who served three months, and would be entitled, if living, to the benefit of the provisions of this bill. I submit the following table, showing the number of men furnished by each State, and the time of service:

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Now, it is important, in order to ascertain how many are living to establish some sensible rule to enable us to come to some conclusion, as far as human reason will enable us. To arrive at such a rule, I have availed myself not only of my own calculations, but of those of two distinguished citizens whose opinions are entitled to as much consideration as those of any men living. I refer to Professor Tucker, of Philadelphia, and Mr. DeBow, late Superintendent of the Census, and editor of the Southern Review. I have statements from each of these gentlemen, which I will read to the House.

WASHINGTON, (D. C.,) April 8, 1858.

MY DEAR SIR: Being on the eve of leaving the city for the South, I cannot make the calculations necessary to answer your question very accurately.

If one hundred and sixty thousand soldiers were enlisted for three months during the war of 1812-1815, I do not think, having reference to their habits, dangers, ages, &c., that more than twenty thousand can now be surviving, if so many.

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Hon. Mr. SAVAGE.

Your obedient servant,

J. D. B. DE BOW.

April 10.-Since writing the above I have obtained the opinion of Professor Tucker, the distinguished American statistician, which corresponds with my own, and which I now transmit.

Yours,

J. D. B. DE BOW.

The ages supposed by Professor Tucker, were suggested by myself.

PHILADELPHIA, April 9, 1858.

DEAR SIR: To answer your inquiries, received yesterday, with scientific aceuracy, would require time and labor; I have, therefore, contented myself with an approximation which will fully answer your purpose, and the rather as the probabilities of life with the class of men in question are probably less than the average of the population generally, and for estimating the difference we have no reliable data:

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Of the above 53,333, there are probably living in 1858,..

12,500

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The above estimate is substantially conformable to the English tables, as well as to ours, and is consequently more likely to be over than under the real I am, very truly, yours,

number.

J. D. B. DE Bow, Esq., Washington.

GEORGE TUCKER.

PHILADELPHIA, April 10, 1858.

DEAR SIR: On revising my estimate, after I sent off my letter to you yesterday, I discovered a great error as to the oldest portion of the enlistments of 1812. The number of these survivors, instead of being nine hundred and twenty-five, should be three hundred and twenty-five.

Respectfully yours,

J. D. B. DE Bow, Esq., Washington.

THE SLAVE-TRADE.

GEORGE TUCKER.

CONSIDERING the course very generally pursued by the press of Virginia in regard to the slave trade, the following views of the Richmond Whig are certainly not a little remarkable.

"Some gentlemen of nervous organization see in the inportation of Africans the instant dissolution of the Union. We are unable to appreciate the force of this logic. To our thinking, it will constitute a sovereign and almost instantaneous panacea for all abolition troubles. In the first place, it will give a large and powerful portion of the Northern people a direct interest in the institution.' We allude to the shipping community, who will derive immense profits from the trade; and that, of course, will insure their good wishes and active co-operation in behalf of Southern rights. In the second place, it will give a quietus to the fugitive slave law; for the Abolitionists, instead of kidnapping negroes, or inveigling them from their masters, will be compelled to employ all their forces throughout the whole extent of their frontier, to prevent being overrun and colonized by the institution.' The South would speedily regain its lost ascendancy; for, as a negro is an over-match for an Irishman in any fair field, we might forthwith take up the line of march, recapture Kansas, perhaps Indiana, Illinois, and even Ohio, and colonize all the remaining territories of the Confederacy. We should once more be a united and harmonious people, and the sounds of disunion would never grate upon the ear."

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