Fond youth! her lips are near to thine: Ah! pause, rash boy! bethink thee yet; Oh! he has kissed Calliroë's lips! He pressed her heart: no pulse was there. -"These lips are mine; the spells have won them, "Which round and round thy soul I twine; "And be the kiss I print upon them "Poison to all lips but mine!" "Oh, thou art dead, my love!"—he cried, The beauteous maiden from his side Beneath the swiftly-closing night [To be concluded in the July No.] P. 408 REFLECTIONS ON THE CENSUS OF 1840. We hope that the length of the subjoined article, from the pen of a vigorous and comprehensive mind, will not deter the readers of the Messenger from giving it an atten tive perusal.-Ed. Mess. The census of 1840, affords many proofs of a nation increasing in numbers, and in all the essential elements of strength. Perhaps no people were ever so blessed in an ample supply of the means indispensable for human comfort. Food, the want of which produces so much misery in many parts of Europe, exists with us to an extent far beyond our wants. We are removed from the vicinity of powerful and ambitious nations, and are relieved from the necessity of maintaining large standing armies. At first view it would seem we had little to do, but to enjoy the blessings a bounteous providence has showered upon us. But there are some dark shades in a picture apparently so prepossessing. Conflicting opinions, engendering fierce passions, come in to disturb the serenity of the scene; and pecuniary embarrassments pour many drops of bitterness into the cup of life. The human mind, too often gives way, and the census exhibits 3 startling amount of insanity among our people. Whatever are the causes, they act as powerful disturbers of happiness, where their whole weight is felt. Our attention has for some years been painfully called to the latter subject, in Virginia, by finding that although liberal appropriations had been made toward the erection of asylums for the unfortunate portion of our people, who labored under insanity, yet the applications for admission into them, always exceeded their means of accommodation. It was still necessary to use the jails for the confinement of those who could not be received there. In his last report to the Legislature, the Auditor says: "I suggest whether some better mode could not be devised for maintaining lunatics, who are unable to obtain admission in the hospitals, than that which is now pursued, by confinement in the county jails, at the expense of the commonwealth. It is a remarkable fact that the liberal appropriations made by the Legislature, from time to time, for enlarging the hospitals, seem to have had but little effect in diminishing the number annually committed to the jails-and from past experience, it would seem to be a difficult problem to decide what extent of accommodation, at the two State | relief, commonly terminates in fatuity, for most of institutions, will be sufficient for the reception of the purposes of statistical calculation, it is a matter all that unfortunate class of our population." of little importance. The census informs us that many other States But if we are startled at the number of insane, of the Union are in a worse situation than we are, among the white population, what are we to think in this respect. According to that document, the of the free colored, who have one insane or idiotinumber of insane and idiots, in the white popula-cal in every 43 in Massachusetts, and in Maine 1 tion of Virginia, are 1 in 707; whilst in New in 14? We have prepared a table, with the aid of Hampshire it rises as high as 1 in 584, and in the compendium of the census of 1840, and the Rhode Island to 1 in 520. In this classification tables of the American Almanac, which presents no distinction is made between insane and idiots, the relative condition, of the white, free colored but none are inserted who do not require to be and slave population of the different States and taken care of by others-and as insanity, after territories in this respect. continuing for a longer or shorter period, without I From the foregoing table, it appears there are should be added the territories of Iowa and Wis14,189,709 white inhabitants in the States and ter-consin, containing 300,000 square miles more. ritories of the Union, and 14,507 white insane and idiots-affording one of the latter class in 978 of the first. There are 2,788,573 slaves and free colored in the slave States and territory, containing 1,737 insane and idiots. That is 1 in 1,605. There are 170,720 colored in the free States and territories, containing 1,189 insane and idiots. That is 1 in every 143. The extraordinary contrast here exhibited, between the colored classes of the slave and free States, exists with little variation throughout their whole extent. The slave States and territory of Florida extend from the northern line of Delaware to Cape Sable, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the western limits of Missouri, from latitude 25° north, to latitude 40°, and over twenty degrees of longitude. The States containing 548,150 square miles, and the territory 45,000. The difference in the surfaces of the country, under opposite institutions, is not greater than the extent of a single State; and never was there an experiment on human affairs made under circumstances better qualified to test their efficacy. The returns from this vast surface are made by The free States extend from the northern extre- officers of the respective States and territories, mity of Maine to the southern extremity of Illi-acting under similar instructions, and between nois-from latitude 37° north to latitude 48-and stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the western limits of Illinois, over twenty-two degrees of longitude, and contain 352,918 square miles; to which whom no collusion or previous understanding could be suspected. The uniformity of the results too, from these multiplied sources, attests the accuracy with which the inquiry was made. Insanity arises from moral and physical causes; | arising from moral causes, and 414 from physical. but we think most frequently from moral causes, But 255 of these are merely described as arising acting on physical predisposition. from ill-health; so that in truth, there are only 159 cases in the whole, in which, causes merely physical seem to preponderate. It is known to be greatly increased in times of public distress. The statistics of Germany show how much it increased in that country during the campaigns of the French armies there, subsequent to the French revolution. That it is the most dreadful of human afflictions, may be understood from the fact, that whilst men bear other diseases with comparative patience, In England, the Edinburgh Review (for August, this and its kindred grades often prompt them to 1817,) states, the increase of insanity was some- terminate their suffering by self-destruction. The what greater than in the proportion of 2 to 8, for a pangs of Gout, Stone, Scrofula, and Cancer, are period of five years, from 1810 inclusive, and adds, borne, until they finish their course. But the "The moral circumstances, probably connected scorpion lash, which a diseased imagination applies with this great change, might be a subject of in- to irritated nerves, is insupportable, and the wretch structive reflection." It should be remembered that this period was one of the most anxious of British history. ed victim often becomes a suicide. But, whatever doubt may arise in particular cases, whether the origin of insanity is physical or moral, Public distress has produced the same results in the circumstances that exist in relation to the coFrance, as appears from the evidence of Mr. Ben-lored population of the slave and non-slave-holding nett, before a committee of the House of Commons States, remove all doubt with respect to them. If in England, in relation to the celebrated Hospital the extent of insanity among the free colored of for Lunatics, at Paris, named the Salpetrère. He the extreme northern States, be supposed to origistates, "The annual number of admissions was nate from climate, we ask reference to States preabout 280, but the number always increased in pro-senting opposite results, with a similarity of cliportion to the popular feelings that were excited. mate and soil. Ohio, Indiana and Illinois lie nearly Thus the Allies coming to Paris, sent many patients to the Hospital." We have a statement before us of the patients in three Hospitals, viz: The Hospital at Worcester, Massachusetts; the Ohio Lunatic Asylum, and the Western Lunatic Asylum of Virginia.1 The cases of 1,284 patients are given-among whom, the in the same parallels of latitude as Virginia and Maryland. The average amount of insane, in the three first named States, is 1 in 88 of the free colored population. The average amount of insane, in the colored population of Virginia and Maryland, is 1 in 1,299. If it be supposed that the westera position of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, has any causes of 367 are traced to vicious practices, 255 agency in this matter, we refer to Missouri, which are described by the term ill-health, which explains is more western still, and is divided from Illinois nothing, and 151 are referred to epilepsy, puerpe-only by the Mississippi river. In Illinois, the areral disease and injuries of the head. But when it rage is 1 in 45, in Missouri, 1 in 879. is recollected how extremely difficult it is, in many instances, to trace the causes of insanity, from the inability of the patient himself to explain, and 2 from the ignorance of those who have been about him, before he was brought to the Hospital, it is not surprising that many are classed by a vague term. The disease is known to be hereditary, but from the wandering character of our population, that may often be the cause, without its being possible to ascertain it. 503 cases are mentioned as No man, who has the least acquaintance with the uniformity of the laws of nature, will suppose, that they act up to the line of a non-slave-holding State, and suspend their force that moment the lice instance where a State of the one description is is crossed to a slave-holding State, and that in every bounded by a State of the other: For, the rule applies in every such instance. If this were the case, it would be one of the having arisen from distressing affections of the most decisive miracles the world has ever seen. mind-as domestic affliction, religious feeling, The controlling causes, then, of this extraordigrief for loss of property, fright, disappointed affec-nary contrast, must be moral; and they produce tion, and jealousy. These are called the moral effects in the New England States unparalleled, we causes; but as 367 of the first class are traced to think, in the history of the human race. vicious habits, the principal cause in them is moral. If then we add these to the 503 cases, from moral causes just mentioned, there will be 879 in 1,284, 1 American Almanac, for 1843, p. 171. 2 It is an indisputable fact, that the offspring of insane persons are more liable to be affected with insanity, than those whose parents enjoy sound minds; which shews that a predisposition to the disease may be entailed by either parent. Thomas' Practice, p. 349. In Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, ar! Vermont, the average number of insane and idiots is 1 in 34 of the colored population. If the proportion was as great in the white population et these States, there would be 53,080 of that unfortunate class. We here insert a table from the Annual Report of the Court of Directors of thre Western Lunatic Asylum, to the Legislature of Virginia, made in 1842, which shows the cost of erecting ten Hospitals, for Lunatics, in the United | was 2-4 per cent. In New Hampshire 23-1 per States, and the number of patients accommodated. cent. From 1830 to 1840, the decline in Vermont was 17-1 per cent. In New Hampshire 11 per Name of Asylum. State. Bloomingdale Asylum New York No. of Cost of patients ac- construction cominoda- including ted. land, &c. 150 ab't. $219,000 325,000 *State do. Do. 1,000 Pennsylvania Hospital for insane Penn. 210 Friend's Asylum Do. 65 Insane Hospital M'Lean Asylum Stale 103,000 cent. In Massachusetts, from 1800 to 1830, a period of thirty years, the increase in this class of persons, was between nine and ten per cent.; at which rate it would require more than three hundred years to double their number. The white population of that State, in the same period, increased 44-7 per cent. The white population of Massachusetts is within a few thousands the same as that of Virginia. If her black population was as great, she would have 11,600 insane, who, for Lunatic AsyThe aggregate cost of the buildings, is 1,959,000. lums, would require $9,280,000, and for annual The number of patients that can be accommo- support, $1,740,000. Looking to the condition of dated, 2,300. Cost of accommodation for each her white insane poor, we may imagine the fate of patient, $851 73. The annual support of each the black. It is probable, however, in the event patient cannot be safely estimated at less than 150 we have supposed, she would have at least one per annum. Estimating then the cost of build-insane in 14, as in Maine; which would give her ings, in round numbers, at $800, for each patient, 35,630. The sum then necessary for hospitals, and 150 per annum for maintenance; if there would be $28,504,000, and for annual support, were as many lunatics among the white population $5,344,500, notwithstanding the emigration from of these States, in proportion to number, as there are among the black, it would require forty-two millions four hundred and sixty-four thousand dollars for hospitals, and an annual appropriation of seven millions nine hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars for their maintenance. Without assistance of this kind there can be no relief. If the disease is neglected, it becomes incurable, and the patient is doomed to insanity for the remainder of his wretched life. Whether the resources of these States would admit such appropriations, we leave to them to determine. But the misery that would require them, presents a prospect at which humanity shudders. thence was so excessive, as to leave there a surplus of females, varying from seven to thirteen thousand. In the same period the slaves of the Union increased 124 per cent. During the last ten years, since the abolition spirit has been raging in Massachusetts, the increase in the free colored class has been 23 per cent. In Maine, during the latter decade, it has also increased 13-8 per cent., although every fourteenth is an idiot or maniac. The difference between Maine and Massachusetts, and New Hampshire and Vermont, probably arises from the latter States being less accessible to fugitives from the South. New Hampshire has Although we know people often increase in num-only twenty miles of sea coast, and but 452 of her ber, under great distress, yet one would suppose that a wretchedness, which produces one insane in every thirty-four, would prevent it; and there seems to be a decline in the colored population of most of these States. In New Hampshire, from 1810 to 1820, the diminution was 18-9 per cent. In Vermont 20-4 per cent. From 1820 to 1830, the decline in Vermont * Appropriation by Legislature-building not completed. 'From 1810 to 1823, the annual expense of each patient in the Hospital at Williamsburg, Virginia, was 186 dollars. Each pauper patient, in the Western Lunatic Asylum, cost in 1841, $117. See Reports to the Legislature. In EngI land the expense has varied from £29, 10s. 6d. to £19, 9s. M, in different institutions.-Edinburgh Review, vol. 28th. "Of the hundreds and thousands who have been con"fined in prison, nobody ever knew or heard of more than three instances of recovery from insanity, during the confinement of a person in a jail or house of correction." First Report of the Trustees of the New Hampshire Asylum. For the dreadful state of destitution and suffering of the white insane poor of Massachusetts, at this time, see an article signed Samuel G. Howe and R. C. Waterson, in the United States Gazette, of Feb'y 11, 1843. people employed in the navigation of the ocean. Vermont has no sea coast. Massachusetts has 27,153 of her population employed in the navigation of the ocean, and Maine has 10,091; each with an extensive sea coast, with coasting vessels entering every creek and inlet of the South; and offering every facility and encouragement to the elopement of slaves. Immigration into Maine and Massachusetts, from the South, are known to have been considerable, and the harboring fugitives there, has been a subject of public controversy with both Georgia and Virginia. But notwithstanding the apparent increase in Maine, there is reason to believe the native free colored population there has actually declined. If the children under ten years of age are taken as the basis of calculation, among whom immigrants are least likely to be found, there appears to have been a decline of 4-7 per cent. The actual decline may have been considerably more-for, the abolitionists carry off negroes of various ages. We quote the following statement from the Virginian, 1 66 of Jan'y 16th, 1843, derived from the annual report it has been extinguished more than half a century. of the Vigilance Committee of Abolitionists, at In New Hampshire and Vermont, there have not Albany. They state that they have added about been more than eight slaves, at any time, within 350 runaway negroes since the opening of naviga- the last forty years; and throughout this region tion last spring. Of these fugitives, about 150 the amount of insane in the colored class is 1 in 34. were men, 150 women, and 50 children. Most of We have already shown that the difference bethem came from Virginia, Maryland, and the Dis-tween the slaveholding and the free States arises trict of Columbia, and nearly or quite a hundred from moral-not physical causes; and we will add, came from Washington and Georgetown. These that cold, as a mere physical agent, is not injurious fugitives have chiefly gone to Canada, and the sum of 500 dollars has been expended for their board, passage, and other expenses." to the race of African descent. When furnished with the ordinary necessaries of life, they enjoy as good health in cold climates as other people; but when left to provide for themselves, their habitual idleness, want of forethought, and dissolute prac tices, expose them to suffer more, in a rigorous climate, than in a mild one. Dreadful indeed are the evils, from whatever causes, that produce a maniac in every 34 of a population! In Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, there were fewer children, according to the census, under ten years of age, in 1840, than in 1830-shewing a regular decline in the native free colored population of each of these States. But, according to the tables, which include the whole population, there has been an in- In the States south of Massachusetts to Delacrease in Connecticut, in the last twenty years, of ware, their condition appears better. The number 1-8 per cent., at which rate it would require some- of insane varying from 1 in 184, as in Connecticut thing more than a thousand years to double their to 1 in 297 as in New Jersey. But it is worthy number. In Rhode Island, there has been a dimi- of remark, that there are still in New Jersey 674 nution in the same period, of 8-9 per cent., a rate slaves. Delaware is the first of those called slavethat would require about two hundred and twenty holding States, having, when the census was taken, years to extinguish them. But, in both Rhode 2,605 slaves. Here we at once see a marked difIsland and Connecticut, there have been some ference, there being in Delaware only one insane slaves in the progress of emancipation; and it is in 696 of the colored population. In Maryland. obvious this must have added to the number of the free colored, otherwise the decrease would have appeared larger. If it be supposed that emigration from these States has produced these results, we observe that emigration, however extensive, has never prevented the white population of any State in the Union from increasing; and the black race are less inclined to emigrate than the white. the proportion is still smaller, being 1 in 1,076, and in Virginia, it is 1 in 1,299. Throughout the slave region, after leaving Delaware, the largest number found anywhere are in Missouri and Kentucky; the smallest in Louisiana. But the contrast be tween Missouri and Kentucky, and the free States adjoining, is very impressive. Whilst the insane in Missouri are 1 in 879, and in Kentucky 1 m 1,053, in Ohio the proportion is 1 in 105, in Indiana 1 in 95, and in Illinois 1 in 45. In New York, Pennsylvania and Jersey, it is difficult to arrive at any conclusion in this matter. The free colored population of the slave States, Their slaves, in larger numbers, have been in the are in a better condition than that class in the free process of emancipation, and in Pennsylvania and States. If there were as many insane in the New York, many slaves from the South have found 49,872 free colored in Virginia, in proportion to refuge. We are led to believe from the number of number, as there are in the 17,342 of Ohio, there insane in these States, reported by the census, and would be 475, which are 91 more than there are in from other causes to be mentioned hereafter, that if the whole colored population, slave and free, all ingress to the colored population of the South amounting to 498,857. If there were as many inwas closed, there would be a constant decline in sane among the free colored in Maryland, as there the number of these people in all the States north are in the same class in Ohio, in proportion to numof Delaware. ber, there would be 590. But there are actually only 141 in the whole State, of slaves and free, amounting to 151,815. It is a remarkable fact, that where slavery has been longest extinguished, the condition of the colored race is worse. In Massachusetts and Maine We select Ohio as an object of comparison, beIt is quite as probable they have gone to a slave market, cause it gives the utmost advantage to the other as some of the northern people are still engaged in the slave- side of the question; the condition of the free trade. A vessel, lately from New York, touched at Mon- colored, tried by this rule, seeming far better there rovia, professing to have come for the purchase of cam- than in Indiana and Illinois. If then emancipation wood and palm-oil. Soon after leaving that place she took was extended at once to the whole negro race of in a cargo of 250 slaves, and put immediately to sea. See the slave States, we might form some idea of the letter of J. J. Roberts, August 11th, 1842, to the Executive Committee American Colonization Society, in the African extent of insanity that would ensue. But the Repository, for January 1843. amount of felonies should also be taken into const |