But the aggregate circulation of the Northern press, as compared with that of the Southern States, still further evinces the superiority of the former. The following table gives the circulation of the various periodicals in the Slave districts during the year 1849-50, on authority of the United States Census Commissioners:

The gross circulation of the Northern press during the same year was 334,244,049; the single State of

New York exceeding the entire South by upwards of

23 millions of copies.

REASONS WHY THE SOUTH HAS HITHERTO

DOMINATED THE UNION.

After an examination of these various returns, the inquiry will naturally present itself "How is it possible that the North, so much and so long the superior of the South in wealth, civilization, and numbers, can have allowed itself thus to be dominated by the minority?" The answer lies in the fact, that whilst the Northern States have been engaged in the different branches of commerce, the South has had but one object in view-the preservation and extension of its peculiar institution.

Until lately, only two political parties existed in the Union-the Federalists, or Whigs, whose aim was centralization; and the Democratic, or States' rights party, who maintained that power was derived from the States alone. To all intents and purposes, the Whigs represented the conservative element, the Democrats the liberal. But, in process of time, new issues presented themselves. The Northern States became over-crowded; whilst the land in the South became exhausted, by the peculiarity of its cultiva

tion. Emigration was the only alternative for the people of both sections, and the unoccupied terriritories of the Confederation offered themselves alike to Free and Slave labour. The fathers of the Republic, at an early period, recognized the fact that the two systems could not long exist together, and from the first Congress of the Union until Mr. Fillmore's elevation to the presidency, the policy of the country was in favour of the curtailment of Slavery.

The Slave-trade was denounced by Congress as early as 1774, the colonies being pledged to disclaim any connection whatever with it. Ten years subsequently, within three months of the evacuation of the British army, the leaders of the revolution sought to rid their new-born country of a blight fixed upon them, not of their own seeking, but entirely against their wishes. It was not, however, possible to rid the Southern States of their Slaves by a simple ordinance, or to forthwith substitute free for forced labour. But it was perfectly feasible to prevent the future growth of Slavery, by forbidding its extension into new territory; and this the far-seeing statesmen of the Republic hastened to effect.

One of the final acts of the Continental Congress was the passing, in 1787, of the Ordinance for the governing of the North-west Territory. This terri

tory consisted of land beyond the Ohio, ceded by the different States to the Federal Government, free of all conditions whatever. It was resolved by the Congress, in behalf of the whole Confederation, that involuntary servitude, except for crime, should for ever be excluded from this territory. We shall, hereafter, see how the South evaded this Ordinance.

On the 1st of March, 1784, Thomas Jefferson had brought into Congress the report of the Committee on Territories, a majority of this committee being representatives of Southern States. This report, which is known as the "Jeffersonian Ordinance of 1784," declared as follows:

:

"Resolved,―That the territory ceded, or to be ceded, by individual States to the United States, whensoever the same shall have been purchased of the Indian inhabitants and offered for sale by the United States, shall be formed into additional States, bounded in the following manner (states the boundary lines). Then follow resolutions as to settlers in the territory forming temporary governments, previous to their admission into the Union as States, and the mode of such admission, concluding with the following proviso:-" Provided, that both the temporary and permanent governments be established on these principles as their basis:

“1. That they shall for ever remain a part of the United States of America.

"2. That in their persons, property, and territory, they.

shall be subject to the Government of the United States in Congress assembled, and to the Articles of Confederation in all those cases in which the original States shall be so subject.

"3. That they shall be subject to pay a part of the Federal debts, contracted or to be contracted, to be appropriated on them by Congress, according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other States.

"4. That their respective governments shall be in republican forms, and shall admit no person to be a citizen who holds any hereditary title.

"5. That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there shall be neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty," &c. &c.

This latter clause was finally lost, the majority not being sufficient to carry it into law; but its very proposal by Mr. Jefferson, the father of the constitution of the United States, and the citizen of a Slave State, proves what ideas were held upon this subject by the founders of the Republic.

Washington, born and bred amongst the Slaveholding hierarchy, recognized the injustice and impolicy of the system, and stamped the seal of his disapprobation upon it by finally freeing all his Slaves. In his speeches and correspondence, he frequently