cultivation in cotton less than 6,000,000 (an area scarcely larger than
the little State of Massachusetts); they have less than two slave
laborers to the square mile; and their only opposition to the re-opening
of the African slave-trade is upon the ground that an increase of
laborers will but reduce the price of cotton, give the planters a great
deal more trouble and less profit, and only benefit their enemies in New
and Old England.

Have not the manufacturer, the consumer, the business man, the farmer,
the soldier, every free man, every friend of the poor whites of the
South who are not yet free men, a right and an interest in claiming that
this monopoly of 100,000 cotton planters shall cease, their estates be
confiscated for their treason, and divided among our soldiers, to repay
them for their sacrifices in the cause of their country? First of all,
however, let us claim the 100,000,000 acres, not the property of any
individual, but fought for and paid for by the United States, and then
given to that most ungrateful of all the rebel States, Texas--the great
'Cotton State.'

Upon these fertile lands, and in this most profitable branch of
agriculture, let us find the bounty for our soldiers, the reward for
their sacrifices, and our own security for the future good order of the
state.

By so doing we shall silence the outcry of the South that ours is a war
of conquest (since the right of the government to the public lands of
Texas is unquestionable), and, at the same time, furnish a powerful
incentive to the zeal of our soldiers.

I have compiled a few facts and statements in regard to the soil and