" The acquisition of a respectable position in
the scale of wealth appears so difficult, that they
decline the hopeless pursuit; and many of them
settle down in habits of idleness, and become
the almost passive subjects of all its conse-
quences. And I lament to say, that I have
observed of late years that an evident deterior-
ation is taking place in this part of the popula-
tion ; the younger portion of it being less



BLACKS AND WHITES. 147

educated, less industrious, and in every point
of view, less respectable than their ancestors."

One more witness I must bring upon the
stand. It is William Gregg, of South-Carolina,
who, in the following words, addressed the
South-Carolina Institute in the year 1851.
" From the best estimates that I have been
able to make, I put down the white people who
ought to work and who do not, or who are so
employed as to be wholly unproductive to the
State, at one hundred and twenty-five thousand.
Any man, who is an observer of things, could
hardly pass through our country without being
struck with the fact, that all the capital, enter-
prise, and intelligence, is employed in directing
slave-labor ; and the consequence is, that a large
portion of our poor white people are suffered
to while away an existence in a state but one
step in advance of the Indian of the forest.
""We have collected, at Graniteville, about
eight hundred people, and as likely a set of
country-girls as may be found, but deplorably
ignorant ; three fourths of the adults not being



148 SOUTH AND NORTH.
