Hence their constant comparison of the laborers of the North, with their own slaves; and hence, in no small degree, the absence among you of those institutions which confer upon the poor that knowledge which is power.
Tappan critiques the Southern labor system, suggesting it lacks the educational institutions that empower the poor.
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Education elevates the inferior classes of society, teaches them their rights, and points out the means of enforcing them.
If we are permitted to apply this rule in testing the moral condition of the South, the result will not be favorable.
Slavery moreover is monopolizing in its tendency, and leads to the accumulation of property in few hands.
We know that this result is so startling and unexpected, that you will scarcely credit the testimony of figures themselves.