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States had an amount valued at $1,877,199,968; the Slave States an amount valued only at $410,754,999; that of the persons engaged in trade, the Free States had 136,856, and the Slave States, 52,622; and that of the tonnage employed, the Free States had 27 90,195 tons, and the Slave States, only 726,285. This was in 1850. But in 1855 the disproportion was still greater, the Free States having 4,252,615 tons, and the Slave States 855,517 tons, being a difference of five to one; and the tonnage of Massachusetts alone being 970,727 tons, an amount larger than that of all the Slave States. The tonnage built during this year by the Free States was 528,844 tons; by the Slaves States, 52,959 tons. Maine alone built 215,905 tons, or more than four times the whole built in the Slave States.
The foreign commerce, as indicated by the exports and imports in 1855, of the Free States, was $404,368,503; of the Slave States, $132,067,216. The exports of the Free States were $167,520,698; of the Slave States, including the vaunted cotton crop, $132,007,216. The imports of the Free States were $236,847,810; of the Slave States, $24,586,528. The foreign commerce of New-York alone was more than twice as large as that of all the Slave States; her imports were larger, and her exports were larger also. Add to this testimony of figures the testimony of a Virginian, Mr. Loudon, in a letter written just before the sitting of a Southern Commercial Convention. Thus he complains and testifies:
“There are not half a dozen vessels engaged in our own trade that are owned in Virginia; and I have been unable to find a vessel at Liverpool loading for Virginia within three years, during the height of our busy season."
Railroads and canals are the avenues of commerce; and here again the Free States excel. Of railroads in operation in 1854, were were 12,105 miles in the Free States, and 4212 in the Slave States. Of canals there were 3,682 miles in the Free States, and 1116 in the Slave States.
The Post-Office, which is not only the agent of commerce, but of civilization, joins in the uniform testimony. According to the tables for 1859, the postage collected in the Free States was $5,532,999, and the expense of carrying the mails $6,748,189, leaving a deficit of $1,215,189. In the Slave States the amount collected was only $1,988,050, and the expense of carrying the mails $6,016,612, leaving the enormous deficit of
