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Show 286 LillERTY AND ST~AVERY. passions arc so furiom=~, that his mind no sooner comes into contact with any branch of the subject of slavery, than instantly, as if by a flash of lightning, his opinion is formed, and he begins to declai]U and denounce as if reason should have nothing to do with the question. lie does not even allow himself time for a single moment's serious reflection. Nay, resenting the opinion of the most sagacious of our statesmen as an insult to his understanding, he deems it beneath his dignity even to make an attempt to look beneath the surface of the great problem on which be condescends to pour the illuminations of his genius. Ere we accept his oracles as inspired, we beg leave to think a little, and consider their intrinsic value. Twelve hundred millions of dollars extorted by unrighteous force! What enormous robbery! Now, let it be borne in mind, that this is the language of a man who, as we have seen, has--in one of his lucid intervals-admitted that it is right to apply force to compel those to work who will not labor from rational motives. Such is precisely the application of the force which now moves his righteous indignation ! This force, so justly applied, has created this enormous value of twelve hundred millions of ARGUMENT FllOM TITE PUBLIC GOOD. 287 dollars. It has neither seized, nor extorted this vast amount from others; it has simply created it out of that which, but for such force, would have been utterly valueless. And if cxpericnco teaches any thing, then, no sooner shall this force be withdrawn, than the great value in question will disappear. It will not be restored; it will be annihilated. The slaves-now worth so many hundred millions of dollars-would become worthless to themselves, and nuisances to society. No free State iri the Union would be willing to receive them-or a considerable portion of them-into her dominions. They would be regarded as pests, and, if possible, everywhere expelled from the empires of freemen. Our lands, like those of the British West IIidies, would become almost valueless for tho want of laborers to cultivate them. The most beautiful garden-spots of the sunny South would, in the course of a few years, be turned into a jungle, with only here and there a forlorn plantation. Poverty and distress, bankruptcy and ruin, would everywhere be seen. In one word, the condition of the Southern States would, in all material respects, be like that of the once flourishing British colonies in |