Southern States of the Union is invested with a sort of domestic
dictatorship, from his earliest years; the first notion he
acquires in life is that he is born to command, and the first
habit which he contracts is that of being obeyed without
resistance. His education tends, then, to give him the character
of a supercilious and a hasty man; irascible, violent, and ardent
in his desires, impatient of obstacles, but easily discouraged if
he cannot succeed upon his first attempt.
The American of the Northern States is surrounded by no
slaves in his childhood; he is even unattended by free servants,
and is usually obliged to provide for his own wants. No sooner
does he enter the world than the idea of necessity assails him on
every side: he soon learns to know exactly the natural limit of
his authority; he never expects to subdue those who withstand
him, by force; and he knows that the surest means of obtaining
the support of his fellow-creatures, is to win their favor. He
therefore becomes patient, reflecting, tolerant, slow to act, and
persevering in his designs.
In the Southern States the more immediate wants of life are
always supplied; the inhabitants of those parts are not busied in
the material cares of life, which are always provided for by
others; and their imagination is diverted to more captivating and
less definite objects. The American of the South is fond of
grandeur, luxury, and renown, of gayety, of pleasure, and above
all of idleness; nothing obliges him to exert himself in order to
subsist; and as he has no necessary occupations, he gives way to
indolence, and does not even attempt what would be useful.
But the equality of fortunes, and the absence of slavery in
the North, plunge the inhabitants in those same cares of daily
life which are disdained by the white population of the South.
They are taught from infancy to combat want, and to place comfort
above all the pleasures of the intellect or the heart. The
imagination is extinguished by the trivial details of life, and
the ideas become less numerous and less general, but far more
practical and more precise. As prosperity is the sole aim of
exertion, it is excellently well attained; nature and mankind are
turned to the best pecuniary advantage, and society is
dexterously made to contribute to the welfare of each of its
members, whilst individual egotism is the source of general
happiness.
The citizen of the North has not only experience, but
knowledge: nevertheless he sets but little value upon the
pleasures of knowledge; he esteems it as the means of attaining a
certain end, and he is only anxious to seize its more lucrative
applications. The citizen of the South is more given to act upon
impulse; he is more clever, more frank, more generous, more
intellectual, and more brilliant. The former, with a greater
degree of activity, of common-sense, of information, and of
general aptitude, has the characteristic good and evil qualities
of the middle classes. The latter has the tastes, the
prejudices, the weaknesses, and the magnanimity of all
aristocracies. If two men are united in society, who have the
same interests, and to a certain extent the same opinions, but
different characters, different acquirements, and a different
style of civilization, it is probable that these men will not
agree. The same remark is applicable to a society of nations.
Slavery, then, does not attack the American Union directly in its
interests, but indirectly in its manners.
[Footnote e: Census of 1790, 3,929,328; 1830, 12,856,165; 1860,
31,443,321; 1870, 38,555,983; 1890, 62,831,900.]
The States which gave their assent to the federal contract
in 1790 were thirteen in number; the Union now consists of
thirty-four members. The population, which amounted to nearly