The Non-slaveholders

Auülilionibts have often been a?ked how they eouldexpect success ir, briliging the influence of tïïe National Government to bent agninst BJQVeiy, whilc ouo half the Union ■xvould bc a solid phalnnx of slaveiioldinr State?, immovable and indivisible. Suppose all the citizens of the Nortli lübe ihürcugli abolitioliistSjit isaskcdj'vvliat itnportnnt meosure can you carry in Conrress while ene hulf'ilc Senate is composi-d ofslaveholdeFs? This inquiry is bascd on the supjiosition that the entire wliite population of the Scuth are sJaveholderP5 or very deeply iuterSHted in its perpetuntion. A few consideralions will ehow that this opinión, howevcr common, is ontirely erroneous. Froir. some statements iti the A ntUShvcry Reporter, we learn that the propovlion of nonslaveholders to síaveholders isas three to one. Articks of convcnienoe and !imiry,likc slaves, that cost from four bundred to a thousand dollars each, are not generally to befound in ihecabina oí the poor. In tho planting States, the greater pirt of the slaves are congregated in masses, uuder the control of masters whose wealth, powiT, and number of retainers rnjght remind one of' the feudal lords of ancient Europe. The Reporter say?, í It bas been repcatedly stated that Mr. Carrol, of Baltimore, tl;e fonrer president of the Colonization Society, was the tnvDer of 1,000 slaves. The newspapers, in announc'ng the deatli of Mr. Pollock, of Norlh Carolina, ícnmrkeJ that he liad left 1,500 slaves. In tho account of Mr. Madison's funeral, it was mentioned that he wasfollowed to the gravo by 100 of na slaves, and it iá probable hat the women and childrcli were not included. The foliowing article from the Gospel Mespenger for August, 184,gives lis some idea of the feudal vnssalage prevailingon the estates ofsomc ordly planters. 'A noble dekd. Dr..Mercer, of Adams county, Mississippi, has lately erected, at his ovvn expense and for the advantage of his vast plantation, and the people on u's lands, a neat church and parsonago house at the cosí of over $30,000. He paye the salary of the minister, $1,200 a year, besides his msatand bread. On Bishop Otey's late visit o that congregation, he and Mr. Deacon, the ncumbent, baptised in one day ons hvndred md elght children and ten aduItSj all belongng to the plantatioir"At the North, the employer hires as many men as Lis woik requires: at the Soulb, he must purchaee the vvoraen and ehiJdrcn also; for they are property, and must be owñéd by somebody. Thus it' a blaveholder would crnploy three men, he must also, on an average, be the owncr of three women and six children. Henee it is safe to say that the slaveholders average ten slaves each: andas the munber of slaves is 2,407,113, the number of slnveholders cannot exceed L43,711. According to the census, The number ofivhile males over L0 years oj age n the Slave States and Territories is 1.016,307' Deduct the Síaveholders, viz: 243,711 ! The number of Non-Slaveholders is 767;S0G or only one sluveholder to thrce non slaveIiolders. It is believed there is not a State or Territory in the Union in which there is not an overwhelming majority of ïion-slaveholders, and the majority is probably greatest in thot e States whcre the slaves are the most numerous, because in such they are chiefly concen trated on large plantations. The Non Slaveholders are fonnd thiougli a!i parts f the South - in some d'stricts composing a vcry largo majority of Ihe people; in other sections the number of slaves predoininates. In Georgetown District, S. C. thcre are 7 slaves to each white man, jyoman, jjnd child, and the average number of slaves to each slavcholder prob'ibly exceeds n ljundred. In other places, the slaves are few. Look at a few instances. The whites are k the slaves in Brook Coimiy, Virginia, as L5 to 1 In Yancy co. N. Car., 22 to 1 In Union co. Georgia, 35 to I In De Kalb co. Alabama, 1G to 1 In Fcntrcss co. Tenn. 43 ;o 1 In Morgan co. Kentacky, 71 to 1 In Taiioy co. Missouri, 80 to 1 In Searcy co. Arkansus, 311 lo 1 The interest of the non-slavcholders is directly opposed to that of the owners of slaves. Tiie latter are the principal landdolderi-, They constitule an aristocracy which mouopolizes most of the wealth knowlcdge and political power of the Siaies. The laws are mado to suit them. The value of the lab-r of poor white men is diminislied by being brought into competttion with that of slaves. They are looked down upou with contempt by the idle slavcholder. They can have no social equnhty with him. Their children are deprived of the advanlagosof schoolí-, and can have but little hopo of attaining political distinction. Such being the relative condition of tho two classes, it is obvioiis that Ihe poor wliite laborers, being far the most numeroup, can. if they will, acquire the nscendency in the Slave States ovor the lordly lundholders and slavcowners. The extreme ignorance of the poorer classes of whites at the South mpy dclay such a resalí, but the general couire öf legislation, the tendency of the uge, and the spirit of the Gospel arebringiug influences to bearupon the masses of men, which shall yct teachthem the. political cquality of the human rece - that 'a man is a man,' and has rights as such, independently of the adventitious circumstances by which he may besurrounded. Th e contest between the Slaveholdeis and [STon-Slaveho Iders has already cornmenced in ceveral states,ïn wagingwar upon the oíd ques ion of rights of persons&i of propcrty,iu regardto the onjoyment of political power. In this coniest the many ore sure to vanqui&h the few, wlien they understand tlieir strength, con and fairly bring it tobear. The Democracy üftlie Sou! bern Sta fes are, in reality, the pioncers of the Anti-Slavery cause. They proclaim tire E]iial Rights of all men - meapingj of course, of all while men; but in woffing their war witii tlie Slavociac}', and cpñt'enátgg foj1 their own rights in opposition to the oppresson of aristocrate, thcy are learning whiuthösc rihts are, and are preparing the vvay for theii full recognition in others, Thelaw of Congrcss requiring the States to he dislricted, has brought up the queslion whether the district shall be determinad hy the white population only, or wilether five slavessiiail count as tlirce white persons, n? has been the rase hitherto. This queátion was discussed last year in South Carolina, and has been rcently debaled in the Legislature of Alabama. In the Senate of that State, the 'groum! was taken that property sliould not berepref-ented, that it was onti-rcpnblican, andson-.c speakrrs directly attackcd the threefifth clanse in the Constitution. A Mr. Phülips made a speech on the side of the sJavebolders, in which be attributed tbis move to the Democracy of Nurth Alabama. líe Süid the people of that part cf the State sustoineil it to a rúan'; and the reason wasliat fsortü AJabnma had but 56,000 slaves, while South Alabama had 197,402. He conidered this doctrine tbat property [in slaves] oiijjlitnot tp bc represcnted as dangcroas and dcmagoguicoli aiKi highly encouraginig to the abolitionists, uho would parade that verv íliícussion in thcir journals. Ia the üfnïse, some members were for postponinn- the,dcusson until all other business had been despatched, as it would inevitably produce so much angcr and excitement (hat no business could be properly done afíerwards. It sccnis that the Dcmocra cy triumphed in this caso, and the apportionment was niado on thcvl ite ba-is,b;r' which Nortli Alsbomagains one mernber, and the influence of the nons-iaveholücrs in the Southern part of the State is largely increased. Tliis question is one of immense importance to the Slave States, and where the battle has been once commenced by Numbers ngiinst Aristocracy, it wiil not be gïven np till the Democratie principie shall be victorious.A careful consideration oftho relative numbers and characler of the different classes of population at the South wilt convinco any one tliut there are ampie anti fit tnaterials for an anti-slavery organization. That lliese materiais sliouhl be oceupied primarily in overthrowing the polilical power of the slaveholders, raílicr thun in a direct attempt to cmancipate the slaves, is a circumstarce that may. perhaps, be favoraWe rather thari otherwise. As in the natural, so in the political world, the uiaterinls and machinery forgreat and enuring changes cannot be congvegated aiui arranged for execution in a moment. There must be a succession of causes and consej quencesi, edapted to produce a common resul t. We see also Trom these faots how short sighted are tho&c who aniicipate that the principies of the Liberty party will bre bounded by j the lines of the frec States. The slaveholden (arc of a di-Terent opinión. Thcir legislation, their speeches, their messagep, and their utter inability to devise any mcans of stopping the progress of anti-slavery feeling, aflord decisivo indications that tue more intelligent portion of them already look npon their institution as doomed to ultímate destruction, and their present situation may bo regarded as similar to that of the demons in the time of our Suviour, who were well apprised that thcir facilitlcs for committing evil were ubout to be laken away, end their greatest anxiety was that the hand of justice should not be laid upon them before the appointed time.