1818. Illinois admitted into the Union. SLAVE STATES. 1607. Virginia first settled by the English. In the course of an exceedingly interesting article on the early settlements in America, R. K. Browne, formerly editor and proprietor of the San Francisco Evening Journal, says: "Many people seem to think that the Pilgrim Fathers were the first who settled upon our shores, and therefore that they ought to be entitled, in a particular manner, to our remembrance and esteem. This is not the case, and we herewith present to our readers a list of settlements made in the present United States, prior to that of Plymouth : P 1564. A Colony of French Protestants under Ribault, settled in Florida. 1565. St. Augustine* founded by Pedro Melendez. 1584. Sir Walter Raleigh obtains a patent and sends two vessels to the American coast, which receives the name of Virginia. 1607. The first effectual settlement made at Jamestown, Va., by the London Company. 1614. A fort erected by the Dutch upon the site of New-York. FREEDOM AND SLAVERY AT THE FAIR. WHAT FREEDOM DID. At an Agricultural Fair held at Watertown, in the State of New-York, on the 2d day of October, 1856, two hundred and twenty premiums, ranging from three to fifty dollars. each, were awarded to successful competitors-the aggregate amount of said premiums being $2,396, or an average of $10.89 each. From the proceedings of the Awarding Committee we make the following extracts : 1 George Parish, A. Blunt, Best Horse Colt, Best Brood Mare, Best Bull, Best Heifer, Best Cow, Best Stall-fed Beef, Best sample Wheat, Aggregate amount of twelve premiums, *The oldest town in the United States. Wm. Johnson, A. M. Rogers, J. W. Taylor, $25.00 20.00 25.00 25.00 20.00 25.00 10.00 5.00 3.00 3.00 50.00 3.00 $214.00 WHAT SLAVERY DID. At the Rowan County Agricultural Fair, held at Mineral Springs, in North Carolina, on the 13th day of November, 1856, thirty premiums, ranging from twenty-five cents to two dollars each, were awarded to successful competitors -the aggregate amount of said premiums being $42, or an average of $1.40 each. From the proceedings of the Awarding Committee we make the following extracts: Besides the two hundred and twenty premiums, amounting in the aggregate to $2,396, freedom granted several diplomas and silver medals; besides the thirty premiums amounting in the aggregate to $42, slavery granted none -nothing. While examining these figures, it should be recollected that agriculture is the peculiar province of the slave States. If commerce or manufactures had been the subject of the fair, the result might have shown even a greater disproportion in favor of freedom, and yet there would have been some excuse for slavery, for it makes no pretensions to either the one or the other; but as agriculture was the subject, slavery can have no excuse whatever, but must bear all the shame of its niggardly and revolting impotence; this it must do for the reason that agriculture is its special and almost only pursuit. THE REPORTS of the Comptrollers of the States of New York and North Carolina, for the year 1856, are now before us. From each report we have gleaned a single item, which, when compared, the one with the other, speaks volumes in favor of freedom and against slavery. We refer to the average value per acre of lands in the two States; let slavocrats read, reflect, and repent. In 1856, there were assessed for taxation in the State of In 1856, there were assessed for taxation in the State of NORTH CAROLINA, 30,080,000 $1,112,133,136 $36.97 It is difficult for us to make any remarks on the official facts above. Our indignation is struck almost dumb at this astounding and revolting display of the awful wreck that slavery is leaving behind it in the South. We will, however, go into a calculation for the purpose of ascer taining as nearly as possible, in this one particular, how much North Carolina has lost by the retention of slavery. As we have already seen, the average value per acre of land in the State of New York is $36.97; in North Carolina it is only $3.06; why is it so much less, or even any less, in the latter than in the former? The answer is, slavery. In soil, in climate, in minerals, in water-power for manufactural purposes, and in area of territory, North Carolina has the advantage of New York, and, with the exception of slavery, no plausible reason can possibly be assigned why land should not be at least as valuable in the valley of the Yadkin as it is along the banks of the Genesee. The difference between $36.97 and $3.06 is $33.91, which, multiplied by the whole number of acres of land in North Carolina, will show, in this one particular, the enor mous loss that Freedom has sustained on account of Slavery in the Old North State. Thus : 32,450,560 acres a $33,91....$1,100,398,489. Let it be indelibly impressed on the mind, however, that this amount, large as it is, is only a moity of the sum that it has cost to maintain slavery in North Carolina. From time to time, hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars have left the State, either in search of profitable, permanent investment abroad, or in the shape of profits to Northern merchants and manufactures, who have become the moneyed aristocracy of the country by supplying to the South such articles of necessity, utility, and adornment, as would have been produced at home but for the pernicious presence of the peculiar institution. |