far it will be sustained by the Government or the people, or how far the
purpose can be carried out with a race who have been intentionally kept
in profound ignorance, is part of the great problem that we are to
solve. But not all of it, by any means. There is much more for
enlightened patriotism and wise humanity yet to do, before the task
shall be accomplished and the work begun by the Revolution shall be
finished; and to prevent a conflict of races, which can end only in the
extermination of one or the other.

The 16,000,000 of natives who were once masters of this whole continent
are now dwindled into a few insignificant tribes, 'away among the
mountains.' Is such to be the fate of the negro also? Or has the spirit
of God's charity so far progressed among us that, unlike our fathers, we
can redeem rather than destroy, can emancipate rather than enslave?

Be the answer to those questions what it may, there are other
considerations, immediately affecting ourselves as a nation and a race.

Slavery would seem to retard our advancement in both respects.

During the ten years from 1850 to 1860, the total population of our
country increased about 37 per cent.

In 1790, there were seventeen States in the Union, and of those
seventeen, eight are now slave States, and the following table of those
States will show how the increase of slavery retards the advance of the
whites:

Ratio of Ratio of
Free Whites. Increase Slaves. Increase