Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, And Rebel Ventilator

For the Knoxville Whig.
The Negro Question.

Dr. Brownlow: I have been listening for some time to what is considered, by pro-slavery men, an unanswerable argument in favor of the continuation of the institution of slavery. That negro labor will come in competition with white labor. This argument is one of the most untenable, and therefore the most unreasonable, ever made by a candid and intelligent man. The negro can only come in competition with the white man in the cultivation of the soil, and never in the arts and science, because the friends of slavery say he is an inferior race. Where has the negro been all this time? Has he not been working in competition with the agricultural white man ever since the existence of slavery? Every reflecting man says yes. Slave labor has had the long end of the lever; it has had all advantage over white labor. The slave has, and does labor, for a mere physical existence, and the excess of his labor has enabled his owner to own the best lands of his neighborhood. And thus for his owner the slave cultivates all the rich lands of the slave States, and the laboring white man, for the want of fair competition, is reduced to the sheer necessity of cultivating the poor and neglected land of the country. But let the negro ask fair wages for his labor, or be sent out of the country, which is the most desirable. In either case, the poor white man, who is the element of strength and power in our nation, can cultivate such land, or demand such wages as will enable him to make his family respectable. Just give the poor white man of East Tennessee the chance, and he will soon repair the desolated farms, and make them produce an abundance. Free the negro, and if his condition is worsened it is his own fault, and the white man will be greatly blessed. Justice and humanity demand the emancipation of the negro. Then will the weary soldier be permitted to return to home and loved ones, and enjoy peace once more under his own vine and fig tree. Let him that reads think for himself.

PLEBIAN.