24 the Sla.ve had an amount valued at $1,377,199,968 at that of the only amount valued $410,754,992 an States 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 2,790,195 tons, and the Slave States, only 726,This was in 1850. But in 1855 the disproportion was 285. still greater, the Free States having 4,252,615 tons, and the States
Slave States 855,517 tons, being a difference of five to one
and the tonnage of Massachusetts alone being 970,727
amount
tons,
an
The tonnage was 528,844 tons by
larger than that of all the Slave States.
built during this year
by the Free
States
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,
Slave States, $132,067,216.
were $167,520,693
was $404,368,503
The exports of
of the
the Free States
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
and
her exports were larger also.
her imports were larger, to this testimony of
Add
Loudon, In a
figures the testimony of a Yirginian, Mr.
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, there were 13,105 miles in the Free States, and 4212 in the Slave States. Of canals there were 3,682 miles in the Free
States,
The
and 1116 Post-
in the Slave States.
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,In the Slave States the 189, leaving a deficit of $1,215,189. collected was only $1,988,050, and the expense of car-
amount
rying the mails $6,016,612, leaving the enormous
deficit
of
