Page:The cotton kingdom (Volume 1).djvu/271

 out of business, many of the old retailers, and engaging in an unlawful trade with the simple negroes, which is found very profitable.

The law which prevents the reception of the evidence of a negro in courts, here strikes back, with a most annoying force, upon the dominant power itself. In the mischief thus arising, we see a striking illustration of the danger which stands before the South, whenever its prosperity shall invite extensive immigration, and lead what would otherwise be a healthy competition to flow through its channels of industry.

This injury to slave property, from grog-shops, furnishes the grand argument for the Maine Law at the South. *