“The following is an extract from the speech of Mr. T. Marshall of Fauqier County, in the Legislature of Virginia in the last session:
‘Slavery is ruinous to the whites — retards improvement — roots out industrious population, banishes the yeomanry of the country — deprives the weaver, the spinner, the smith, the carpenter of employment and support. This evil admits of no remedy – it is increasing, and will continue to increase, until the whole country will be inundated with one black wave, covering its whole extent, with a few white faces here and there floating on the surface.The master has no capital but what is invested in human flesh – the father, instead of being richer for his sons, is at a loss how to provide for them – there is no diversity of occupations, no incentive to enterprise. Labor of every species is disreputable, because performed mostly by slaves. Our towns are stationary, our villages almost everywhere declining – and the general aspect of the country marks the curse of a wasteful, idle, reckless population who have no interest in the soil, and care not how much it is impoverished. Public improvements are neglected, and the entire continent does not present a region for which nature has done so much, and art so little. If cultivated by free labor, the soil of Virginia is capable of sustaining a vast population, among whom labor would be honorable, and where ‘ the busy hum of men’ would tell that all were happy, and all were free.”
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