The battle has been
fought in Kansas, and, after a long and terrible struggle, Kansas
has come out of the fight as a free State. Kansas is in the same
parallel of latitude as Virginia, and stretches west as far as the
Rocky Mountains,
When the census of the population of Missouri was taken in 1860, the
slaves amounted to ten per cent. of the whole number. In the Gulf
States the slave population is about forty-five per cent. of the
whole. In the three border States of Kentucky, Virginia, and
Maryland, the slaves amount to thirty per cent. of the whole
population. From these figures it will be seen that Missouri, which
is comparatively a new slave State, has not gone ahead with slavery
as the old slave States have done, although from its position and
climate, lying as far south as Virginia, it might seem to have had
the same reasons for doing so. I think there is every reason to
believe that slavery will die out in Missouri. The institution is
not popular with the people generally; and as white labor becomes
abundant - and before the war it was becoming abundant - men recognize
the fact that the white man's labor is the more profitable. The
heat in this State, in midsummer, is very great, especially in the
valleys of the rivers. At St. Louis, on the Mississippi, it reaches
commonly to ninety degrees, and very frequently goes above that.
The nights, moreover, are nearly as hot as the days; but this great
heat does not last for any very long period, and it seems that white
men are able to work throughout the year.
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