whereby was added the vast territory of Texas; and then it was the
intention to make California a slave state; but, I am happy to say, it
has been received into the Union as a free state, and God grant it may
continue so. [Hear, hear!] What has been the effect of this expansion of
slave territory? It has doubled the value of slaves. Since I can
remember, a strong slave man would sell for about four hundred or six
hundred dollars--that is, about one hundred pounds; but now, during the
present season, I have known instances in which a slave man has been
sold for two hundred and thirty pounds. There are more slaves raised in
Virginia and Maryland than they can use in those states in labor, and,
therefore, they sell them at one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred
pounds, as the case may be, for cash. All that Mrs. Tyler intimates in
that letter about slavery in America, and the impression it is
calculated and intended to convey, that they treat their slaves so well,
and do not separate their families, and so forth, is all mere humbug.
[Laughter and cheers.] It is well known that Virginia has more profit
from selling negroes than from any other source. The great sources of
profit are tobacco and negroes, and they derive more from the sale of
negroes than tobacco. You see the temptation this gives to avarice.
Suppose there is a man with no property, except fifteen or twenty negro
men, whom he can sell, each one for two hundred pounds, cash; and he has
as many negro women, whom he can sell for one hundred and fifty pounds,
cash, and the children for one hundred pounds each: here is a temptation
to avarice; and it is calculated to silence the voice of conscience; and
it is the expansion of the slave territory, and the immense mercantile
value of the cotton, that has brought so powerful an influence to bear
on the United States in favor of slavery. [Hear, hear.] Now, as to free
labor coming into competition with slave labor: You will see, that when
the price of slaves is so enormous, it requires an immense outlay to
stock a plantation. A good plantation would take two hundred, or three