poor, he was above the slave, and was stimulated with the pride of position as contrasted with that of the slave; his political, legal, and social rights were unrestrained and equal with those of the wealthiest.  This was the only distinction between him and the wealthiest in the land, and this wealth conferred no exclusive privilege, and its acquisition was open to his energy and enterprise, and he gloried in his independence.  He could acquire and enjoy without dependence, and his pride and ambition were alike stimulated to the emulation of those who shared most fortune’s favors.

The beneficial influences of the institution of African slavery were not only apparent in the independent and honorable bearing and conduct of the Southern people, growing from the habit of command, and involuntary contrast of condition, but upon the material advancement and progress of the country.  The product of slave labor, when directed by a higher intelligence than his own, is enormous, and was the basis of the extended and wealth-creating commerce of the entire country.  These products could be obtained in no other manner, and without this labor, are lost to the world.  The African negro, in osseous and muscular developments, and in all the essentials for labor, is quite equal to those of the white race; in his cerebral, greatly inferior.  The capacities of his brain are limited and incapable of cultivation beyond a certain point.  His moral man is as feeble and unteachable as his mental.  He cannot be educated to the capacity of self-government, nor to the formation and conducting of civil government to the extent of humanizing and controlling by salutary laws a people aggregated into communities.  He learns by example which he imitates, so long as the exampler is present before him; but this imitation never hardens to fixed views or habits, indicating the design of Providence, that these physical capacities should be directed and appropriated for good, by an intelligence beyond the mental reach of the negro.

Why is this so?  In the wisdom and economy of creation every created thing represents a design for a use.  The soil and climate of the tropical and semi-tropical regions of the earth produce and mature all, or very nearly all of the necessaries and luxuries of human life.  But human beings of different races and different capacities fill up the whole earth.  The capacity to build a fire and fabricate clothing is given only to man.  Was the element of fire and the material for clothing given for any but man’s use?  This enables him to inhabit every clime.  But the capacity to produce all the necessaries and luxuries of life is given only to a certain portion of the earth’s surface; and its peculiar motions give the fructifying influences of the sun only to the middle belt of the planet.  The use of this organization is evidenced in the production of this belt, and these productions must be the result of intelligently directed labor.