On the record
The rule of federal numbers, confined by the Constitution to the apportionment of representatives, has been extended, by the influence of the slaveholders, to other and very different subjects.
Said by
Lewis Tappan
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gutenberg.orgLewis Tappan: “The rule of federal numbers, confined by the Constitution to the apportionment of representatives, has been extended, by…”
Editor's note · Context
Tappan claims that the influence of slaveholders extends beyond representation to other areas of governance, distorting federal practices.
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More from Lewis Tappan
No other cause can be assigned than slavery, which drives from your borders many of the virtuous and enterprising, and at the same time deters emigrants from other States and from foreign countries from settling among you.
You are told, much of the wealth is invested in negroes--yet it obviously is a wealth that impoverishes; and no stronger evidence of the truth of this assertion is needed, than the comparative price of land in the free and slave States.
The very advertisements in your newspapers show that, for a vast proportion of the comforts and conveniences of life, you are dependent on Northern manufacturers and mechanics.
You both know and feel that slavery has rendered labor disgraceful among you; and where this is the case, industry is necessarily discouraged.