ous. And indeed Christianity only abolished slavery
by advocating the claims of the slave; at the present time it may be
attacked in the name of the master, and, upon this point, interest is
reconciled with morality.

As these truths became apparent in the United States, slavery receded
before the progress of experience. Servitude had begun in the South, and
had thence spread towards the North; but it now retires again. Freedom,
which started from the North, now descends uninterruptedly towards
the South. Amongst the great States, Pennsylvania now constitutes the
extreme limit of slavery to the North: but even within those limits
the slave system is shaken: Maryland, which is immediately below
Pennsylvania, is preparing for its abolition; and Virginia, which comes
next to Maryland, is already discussing its utility and its dangers. *l

[Footnote l: A peculiar reason contributes to detach the two
last-mentioned States from the cause of slavery. The former wealth of
this part of the Union was principally derived from the cultivation of
tobacco. This cultivation is specially carried on by slaves; but within
the last few years the market-price of tobacco has diminished, whilst
the value of the slaves remains the same. Thus the ratio between the
cost of production and the value of the produce is changed. The natives
of Maryland and Virginia are therefore more disposed than they were
thirty years ago, to give up slave labor in the cultivation of tobacco,
or to give up slavery and tobacco at the same time.]

No great change takes place in human institutions without involving
amongst its causes the law of inheritance. When the law of primogeniture
obtained in the South, each family was represented by a wealthy
individual, who was neither compelled nor induced to labor; and he was
surrounded, as by parasitic plants, by the other members of his family
who were then excluded by law from sharing the common inheritance,
and who led the same kind of life as himself. The very same thing
then occurred in all the families of the South as still happens in the
wealthy families of some countries in Europe, namely, that the younger
sons remain in the same state of idleness as their elder brother,
without being as rich as he is. This identical result seems to be
produced in Europe and in America by wholly analogous causes. In
the South of the United States the whole race of whites formed an
aristocratic body, which was headed by a certain