Read it through once

There is yet another evil growing out of slavery which I must notice before I bring my remarks to a close on this topic. I allude to the degraded condition of a portion of the white population in the slave States. There are, throughout the slave States, a class of the white population who are so debased by ignorance and vice, that the slaves are in many respects their superiors. They are about on a par with the free negroes. About the larger cities in the North, a similar class may be found, a majority of whom are free negroes and foreigners. The poverty, vice, ignorance and degradation of this class of persons, in the South, is a sore evil, and demands the attention of every Christian philanthropist in the Southern States. This, I conceive, has originated partly from the competition of slave and free labor, but mainly, I presume, from the association of this class with the African population. There are other agencies, no doubt, which have contributed to debase and brutalize this class of the white population, but I judge, that the causes above indicated, are the principal ones. Some will, no doubt, attribute this in part to the disparity between the lower classes in the South, and what they choose to term the slaveholding aristocracy. They will contend, that the vast difference between the higher and lower classes in the South, results in the deterioration of the latter. There is some plausibility in the argument, and it may be that there is some truth in it, but such individuals have forgotten that the same agency is in active operation in the free as well as the slave States. I am aware that men of wealth do not feel themselves under any obligation to associate with their less fortunate neighbors, the world over. It is one of the characteristics of human nature. But men of wealth in the Southern part of the United States, are not more haughty, distant and overbearing, than the same class in other parts of the Union. On the contrary, there is an urbanity about Southern slaveholders, that enables the lower classes to approach them with less embarrassment than they feel when they attempt to approach the frigid, stiff, and less polite Northerner. Gentlemen and ladies, in the Southern part of the United States, are accustomed to treat every one that approaches them, rich or poor, with a degree of civility and courteous ease, that is unknown among the same class in any other part of the civilized world. Their blandness and kindness cannot fail to make the poor man feel happier and better. If he is forced to approach them for the purpose of soliciting aid, he is seldom turned away empty. They are universally liberal and hospitable. Having practiced medicine among them twenty years, I have no recollection of a solitary instance in which any of them made a long face, when I made out a long bill for services. I will here relate some anecdotes which will serve to illustrate Southern character. Being pressed at a certain time for two hundred dollars, and not having time at my disposal to collect it, and having rendered important services for a wealthy citizen near the town in which I resided; I seated myself at my table, with an intention of making out a bill against him that would liquidate the claim against myself. With considerable difficulty, I at length screwed up the bill to two hundred dollars, and off I posted to his house. I found him at home and presented the bill; not without some misgivings, that perchance he might take exceptions to the amount charged for services. But I was disappointed, for after looking over the bill a few moments, he remarked, "why sir, you have not charged me half enough; you ought to have charged me five hundred dollars." He paid the bill, made me a present of fifty dollars, and told me that if I needed money at any time to "call and get it." At another time I was employed by a gentleman to attend his son, who had been, for several years previous to that time, subject to epileptic attacks. The fee, per visit, was stipulated at the outset, and I was paid for each visit before leaving the house, according to contract. I attended the young gentleman near two years, and during the time was pressed for money and borrowed one hundred dollars of the old gentleman, and executed my note for that amount. Some years after I had dismissed my patient, I called for my note, and presented the amount, principal and interest. The gentleman handed me the note, but refused to receive the money, and when I pressed him to take it, he replied, "No sir, I shall not receive the money, I always intended to give it to you, provided that you cured my son, and I presume he is well."