many others we have furnished, that free society in the long run is an impracticable form of society. It is everywhere starving, demoralizing, and insurrectionary. Policy and humanity alike forbid the extension of the evils of free society to new people and coming generations.” Free society, according to a kindred authority, is nothing but “a conglomeration of greasy mechanics, filthy operatives, small-fisted farmers, and moonstruck theorists.”
It appears that the author of the Hebrew Law was not of this opinion. It appears from his enactments that he did not think free labour, to use the phrase of another Southern writer, “the great cancer” and “the offensive fungus” of civilized society,[1] though he was as well aware as any advocate of Slavery that the lot of the free labourer was precarious, and that the poor would be always in the land.
- ↑ “The institution of slavery operates by contrast and comparison; it elevates the tone of the superior, adds to its (sic) refinement, allows more time to cultivate the mind, exalts the standard in morals, manners, and intellectual endowments; operates as a safety valve for the evil-disposed, leaving the upper race purer, while it really preserves from degradation, in the scale of civilization, the inferior, which we see is their uniform destiny when left to themselves. The slaves constitute essentially the lowest class, and society is immeasurably benefited by having this class, which constitutes the offensive fungus, the great cancer of civilized life—a vast burden and expense to every community—under surveillance and control; and not only so, but under direction as an efficient agent to promote the general welfare and increase the wealth of the community. The history of the world furnishes no institution under similar management, where so much good actually results to the governors and the governed as this in the Southern States of North America.”—From an Address on Climatology, before the Academy of Science, by Dr. Barton of New Orleans, quoted by Mr. Olmsted, Journeys and Explorations, vol. ii., p. 277.
