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ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 inhabitants nf Hem Mum ana California, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 OMISSION BY CONGRESS TO PMVIDE THEM WITH 
 
 TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENTS, 
 
 AND ON 
 
 THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EYILS OF SLAVERY. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AM. & FOR. ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, 
 
 WILLIAM HARNED, AGENT, NO. 61 JOHN STREET. 
 
 1849. 
 

TO THE INHABITANTS 
 
 OF 
 
 NEW MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Friends and Fellow-Countrymen : 
 
 A number of citizens interested in your welfare, and anxious to 
 promote your prosperity, have deputed us to address you in the 
 present crisis of your affairs. It may be in our power to com- 
 municate to you facts with which you are not familiar, and to 
 offer you considerations deserving your reflection. We therefore 
 solicit your patient and dispassionate attention. 
 
 You complain that since your annexation to the United States, 
 you have been denied the protection and advantages of civil 
 government. Your complaint is well-founded, and the solemn 
 promises made to you in the name of the Federal Government 
 have been most flagrantly violated. Pains have been and will be 
 taken to deceive you as to the persons who have, in denying you 
 a government, been regardless alike of your rights and your in- 
 terests. Permit us first to remind you of the solemn and official 
 pledges made to you, and then to show you by whom, and from 
 what motives, those pledges have been broken. 
 
 On the 7th July, 1846, Commodore Sloat landed at Monterey, 
 and taking possession of California by right of conquest, declared 
 in his proclamation addressed to the inhabitants, " Henceforth 
 California will be a portion of the United States, and its peace- 
 able inhabitants will enjoy the same rights and privileges as the 
 citizens of any other portion of that territory, with all the rights. 
 and privileges they now enjoy, together with the privilege of 
 choosing their own magistrates and other officers, for the adminis- 
 tration of justice among themselves." 
 
 On the 17th August of the same year, R. F. Stockton, " Gov- 
 
eraor of the fcerrnc *fiforai& vianiAiioa thus con- 
 
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territorial government for that territory, and in compliance with 
 the wish of the inhabitants inserted in it a clause securing: them 
 forever from the curse of slavery. This bill became a law at the 
 end of the Session, but the President on affixing his signature to 
 it, made a declaration in writing that he would have vetoed a 
 similar bill for you! Regardless of this insulting announcement, 
 the House of Representatives early the next Session prepared 
 two separate bills, giving a territorial government to New Mexico 
 and California, in conformity with the previous pledges, and simi- 
 lar in its provisions to that given to Oregon, and protecting the 
 two territories from slavery. For want of time, only the bill for 
 California was passed. It was sent to the Senate, and that body 
 by a formal vote refused even to take it into consideration ! On 
 the 13th December, the Petition from the people of New Mexico, 
 praying for a territorial government, and to be protected from 
 slavery, was presented to the Senate. Mr. Calhoun, the leader 
 of the slaveholders, instantly denounced it as " disrespectful and 
 most insolent," and the petitioners were spoken of as*" a con- 
 quered people." 
 
 At the close of the Session the usual appropriation bill pro- 
 viding for the expenses of the Federal Government was passed by 
 the House of Representatives. The Slaveholders now thought 
 they had an opportunity of coercing your friends into a sacrifice of 
 your interests. A clause was added to the bill extending theConsti- 
 tution and laws of the United States over the two Territories, and 
 vesting in the President unlimited powers of government, and the 
 appointment of officers at his discretion. It mattered not that all 
 this was in contemptuous violation of the pledges given you. A 
 purpose was to be served. By the acknowledged laws of nations, 
 a conquered people retain their own laws till altered by the new 
 sovereign. Your laws prohibiting Slavery had not been repealed 
 by the conquest. It was contended that the extension of the 
 constitution and laws of the United States over the two terri- 
 tories would virtually repeal the existing laws, and thus open 
 the door for the establishment of negro slavery among you. The 
 loss of the appropriation bill would throw the whole fiscal 
 affairs of the goverment into confusion. The debts due to in- 
 dividuals would be suspended. Salaries would remain unpaid, 
 &c, <fec. It was hoped your friends would shrink from the re- 
 sponsibility of causing such wide-spread disorder by rejecting the 
 bill on account of the obnoxious clause outraging your rights. 
 Yet your interests required that some government should be es- 
 tablished for you, and almost any temporary government was bet- 
 
ter than none. The House had in vain attempted to give you a 
 proper one, and to preserve you from anarchy, they accepted th<- 
 miserable substitute provided by the slaveholders, but defeated 
 the object for which that substitute had been contrived, by ad 
 ding a clause recognizing and continuing in force your existing 
 laws. On this the Senate abandoned their plan, passed the ap 
 propriation bill securing their own pay, and adjourned, leavin 
 you a prey to anarchy. 
 
 Soon after the adjournment, Mr. Foote, one of the Scnatoj 
 devoted to the extension of Slavery, published an article declaring 
 that he was " authorized to say" that if the amendment recogniz- 
 ing your existing laws had been agreed to, " it would inevitably 
 have defeated the civil and diplomatic appropriation bill, as Pres- 
 ident Polk had already in part prepared his veto to the bill /" 
 
 The Slave power has resolved that you shall have no govern- 
 ment but such as shall establish the dominion of the Whip. From 
 a dominion so loathsome and blighting, your northern friends have 
 hitherto rescued you, and to explain their motives, and to invite 
 your earnest cooperation, we now proceed to lay before you a 
 statement of some of the moral and political evils experienced in 
 the United States from the same accursed institution with which 
 you are threatened. * IS ever have the comparative influences of 
 free and slave labor on public prosperity and happiness been more 
 fairly tested, or more certainly decided than in this country. Of 
 the thirty States composing our Union, fifteen maintain and en- 
 force, and fifteen reject and abhor the principle of property in 
 men, women and children. By pondering the facts we are about 
 to present, you will be enabled to judge whether your northern 
 friends in the course they have pursued have consulted or sacri- 
 ficed your true interests. 
 
 Slavery is an institution exclusively for the rich. We might 
 as well talk of poor men owning herds of cattle and studs of 
 horses, as gangs of negroes. When an infant will bring^ an 
 hundred, a women four or five hundred, and a man from eight 
 hundred to a thousand dollars, slaves are not commodities to 
 be found in the cabins of the poor. There is also a peculiarity in 
 slave labor that necessarily confines it to the wealthy. The wo- 
 men and children, being properly, must be owned together with 
 the male laborers. Hence it is almost impossible to find a mas- 
 ter who is the possessor of only a single slave. Our last census 
 shows that the two sexes among the slaves are about equal in 
 number, and that there are two children under ten years of age 
 for every male above that age. Hence if a planter owns three 
 
8 
 
 men, we may take it for granted that his slave family consists of 
 at least twelve persons, viz. : three men, three women, and six 
 children. It has been well ascertained by various statistics that 
 the whole number of slaveholders in the United States is proba- 
 bly less than 248,000, not one-third of the adult white male pop- 
 ulation of the United States. Yet this small body of men en- 
 gross the greater portion of the land and wealth of the slave 
 region, forming in fact a powerful feudal aristocracy, possessing 
 nearly three millions of serfs, and governing and oppressing at 
 pleasure the rest of the population. They are always banded to- 
 gether for the preservation and extension of their own power, 
 and always, for obvious reasons, endeavoring to identify their 
 private interests with the public welfare. In what manner that 
 welfare is promoted by their guardianship, we will now show you. 
 
 I. INCREASE OF POPULATION. 
 
 The ratio of increase of population, especially in this country, 
 is one of the surest tests of public prosperity. Let us then 
 here examine the impartial testimony of the late census. From 
 this we learn that the increase of population in the free States 
 from 1830 to 1840, was at the rate of 3 8* per cent., while the 
 increase of the free population in the slave States was only 23 per 
 cent. Why this difference of 15 in the two ratios ? No other 
 cause can be assigned than slavery, which drives from their bor- 
 ders many of the virtuous and enterprising, and at the same time 
 deters emigrants from other States and from foreign countries 
 from settling among them. 
 
 The influence of slavery on population is strikingly illustrated 
 by a comparison between Kentucky and Ohio. These two States 
 are of nearly equal areas, Kentucky however having about 3000 
 square miles more than the other.* They are separated only by 
 a river, and are both remarkable for the fertility of their soil; but 
 one has, from the beginning, been cursed with slavery, and the 
 other blessed with freedom. Now mark their respective careers. 
 
 In 1*792, Kentucky was erected into a State, and Ohio in 1802. 
 
 Free population of Kentucky. Free population of Ohio. 
 
 1790 61,227.. a wilderness. 
 
 1800 180,612, 45,365 
 
 1810 325,950, 230,760 
 
 1820 437,585, 581,434 
 
 1830 522,704, 937,903 
 
 1840 597,570, 1,519,467 
 
 * American Almanac for 1843, p. 206 
 
9 
 
 The representation of the two States in Congress, has been as 
 follows : 
 
 1802, Kentucky 6, Ohio 1, 
 
 1812, " 9, " 6, 
 
 1822, " 12, " 14, 
 
 1832, " 13, " 19, m 
 
 1842, " 10, " 21, F 
 
 The value of land, other things being equal, is in proportion to 
 the density of the population. Now the population of Ohio is 
 38.8 to a square mile, while the free population of Kentucky is 
 but 14.2 to a square mile — and probably the price of land in the 
 two States is much in the same proportion. We are told, much 
 of the wealth is invested in negroes — yet it obviously is a wealth 
 that impoverishes ; and no stronger evidence of the truth of this 
 assertion is needed, than the comparative price of land in the free 
 and slave States. The two principal cities of Kentucky and Ohio 
 are Louisville arid Cincinnati ; the former with a population of 
 21,210, the latter with a population of 46,338. Why this differ- 
 ence ? The question is answered by the Louisville Journal. The 
 editor, speaking of the two rival cities, remarks, "The most po- 
 tent cause of the more rapid advancement of Cincinnati than 
 Louisville is the absence of slavery. The same influences 
 which made Ohio the young giant of the West, and is advancing 
 Indiana to a grade higher than Kentucky, have operated in the 
 Queen City. They have no dead weight to carry, and conse- 
 quently have the advantage in the race." 
 
 In 1840, Mr. C. M. Clay, a member of the Kentucky Legisla- 
 ture, published a pamphlet against the repeal of the law prohibit- 
 ing the importation of slaves from the other States. We extract 
 the following : 
 
 " The world is teeming with improved machinery, the combined 
 development of science and art. To us it is all lost ; we are com- 
 paratively living in centuries that are gone ; loe cannot make it, we 
 cannot use it when made. Ohio is many years younger, and pos- 
 sessed of fewer advantages than our State. Cincinnati has manu- 
 factories to sustain her ; last year she put up one thousand 
 houses. Louisville, with superior natural advantages, as all the 
 world knows, wrote ' to rent,' upon many of her houses. Ohio 
 is a free State, Kentucky a slave State." 
 
 Mr. Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky, in a pamphlet published 
 the same year, and on the same subject, draws the following 
 comparison between Virginia and New York : 
 
 " In 1*790, Virginia, with *70,000 square miles of territory, 
 
10 
 
 contained a population of 749,308. New York, upon a surface 
 of 45,658 square miles, contained a population of 344,120. 
 This statement exhibits in favor of Virginia a difference of 24,242 
 square miles of territory, and 408,188 in population, which is the 
 double of New York, and 68,600 more. In 1830, after a race of 
 forty years, Virginia is found to contain 1,211,405 souls, and New 
 York 1,918,608, which exhibits a difference in favor of New 
 York of 607,203. The increase on the part of Virginia will be 
 perceived to be 463,187, starting from a basis more than double 
 as large as that of New York. The increase of New York, upon 
 a basis of 340,120, has been 1,578,391 human beings. Virginia 
 has increased in a ratio of 61 per cent., and New York in that of 
 566 per cent. 
 
 "The total amount of property in Virginia under the assess- 
 ment of 1838, was $21 1,930,508. The aggregate value of real and 
 personal property in New York, in 1839, was $654,000,000, ex- 
 hibiting an excess in New York over Virginia of capital of $442,- 
 069,492. 
 
 " Statesmen may differ about policy, or the means to be em- 
 ployed in the promotion of the public good, but surely they 
 ought to be agreed as to what prosperity means. I think there 
 can be no dispute that New York is a greater, richer, a more 
 prosperous and powerful State than Virginia. What has occa- 
 sioned the difference ? There is but one explana- 
 tion of the facts I have shown. The clog that has stayed the 
 march of her people, the incubus that has weighed down her 
 enterprise, strangled her commerce, kept sealed her exhaustless 
 fountains of mineral wealth, and paralyzed her arts, manufactures 
 and improvement, is NEGRO SLAVERY." 
 
 These statements were made before the results of the last 
 census were known. By the census of 1840, it appears that in 
 the ten preceding years, 
 
 The population of Virginia has increased 28,392 
 
 In the same time the population of N. Y. increased 710,413 
 The rate of increase in Virginia was 2.3 per cent. 
 
 " " New York, 33.7 " 
 
 Virginia has 12.5 free inhabitants to a square mile. 
 New York 52.7 " " « « 
 
 In 1790, Massachusetts, with Maine, had but 378,717 inhabitants. 
 
 Maryland, 319,728 " 
 
 In 1840, Massachusetts alone, 737,699 " 
 
 " Maryland, 469,232 " 
 
 Now let it be recollected that Maryland is nearly double the 
 
11 
 
 size of Massachusetts. In the last there are 08.3 free inhabitant! 
 to the square mile ; in the former only 27. 2. 
 
 If we turn to the new States, we find that slavery and freedom 
 have the same influence on population as in the old. Take, for 
 instance, Michigan and Arkansas. They came into the Union 
 about the same time — 
 
 In 1830, the population of Arkansas was 30,388 
 
 In 1840, " " 97,574 
 
 In 1830, " Michigan, 31,639 
 
 In 1840, " " 212,267 
 
 The ratio of increase of white inhabitants, for the last ten 
 years, has been in Arkansas as 200 per cent; in Michigan, 574 
 per cent. In both instances the increase has been chiefly owing 
 to immigration ; but the ratio shows the influence of slavery in 
 retarding immigration. Compare also Alabama and Illinois — 
 
 In 1830, the free population of Alabama, was 191,975 
 
 Illinois, 157,455 
 
 Excess in favor of Alabama 34,520 
 
 In 1840, free population of Illinois, 476,183 
 
 " " ' " Alabama, 337,224 
 
 Excess in favor of Illinois, 138,959 
 
 We surely need not detain you with farther details on this head, 
 to convince you what an enormous sacrifice of happiness and 
 prosperity is now offered on the altar of slavery. But of the 
 character and extent of this sacrifice you have as yet had only 
 a partial glimpse. Let us proceed to examine 
 
 II. THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN THE SLAVE 
 
 STATES. 
 
 The maxim that " Knowledge is power," has ever more or less 
 influenced the conduct of aristocracies. Education elevates the 
 inferior classes of society, teaches them their rights, and points 
 out the means of enforcing them. Of course, it tends to diminish 
 the influence of wealth, birth, and rank. In 1671, Sir William 
 Berkley, then Governor of Virginia, in his answer to the inquiries 
 of the Committee of the Colonies, remarked, " I thank God that 
 there are no free schools nor printing presses, and I hope we 
 shall not have them these hundred years." The spirit of Sir 
 William seems still to preside in the councils of his own Virginia, 
 and to actuate those of the other slave States. 
 
 The power of the slaveholders, as we have already showed 
 
12 
 
 you, depends on the acquiescence of the major part of the white 
 inhabitants in their domination. It cannot be, therefore, the in- 
 terest or the inclination of the sagacious and reflecting among 
 them, to promote the intellectual improvement of the inferior 
 class. 
 
 In the free States, on the contrary, where there is no caste an- 
 swering to your slaveholders — where the People literally partake 
 in the government, mighty efforts are made for general education ; 
 and in most instances, elementary instruction is, through the public 
 liberality, brought within the reach of the children of the poor. 
 Lamentable experience proves that such is not the case where 
 slaveholders bear rule. 
 
 The last census gives us the number of white persons over 
 twenty years of age in each State, who cannot read and write. 
 It appears that these persons are to the whole white population 
 in the several States as follows, viz. : 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 1 to 
 
 every 
 
 568 
 
 Louisiana, 
 
 1 to 
 
 every 
 
 38£ 
 
 Vermont, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 473 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 27 
 
 N. Hamp., 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 310 
 
 Mississippi, 
 
 1 
 
 <( 
 
 20 
 
 Mass., 
 
 1 
 
 <( 
 
 166 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 18 
 
 Maine, 
 
 1 
 
 « 
 
 108 
 
 S. Carolina, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 17 
 
 Michigan, 
 
 1 
 
 t* 
 
 97 
 
 Missouri, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 16 
 
 R. Island, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 67 
 
 Alabama, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 15 
 
 New Jersey, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 58 
 
 Kentucky, 
 
 1 
 
 ti 
 
 13£ 
 
 New York, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 56 
 
 Georgia, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 13 
 
 Penn., 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 50 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 124 
 
 Ohio, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 43 
 
 Arkansas, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 Hi 
 
 Indiana, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 18 
 
 Tennessee, 
 
 1 
 
 t< 
 
 11 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 17 
 
 N. Carolina, 
 
 1 
 
 tt 
 
 h* 
 
 It will be observed by looking at this table, that Indiana and 
 Illinois are the only free States, which in point of education are 
 surpassed by any of the slave States : for this disgraceful cir- 
 cumstance three causes may- be assigned, viz., their recent settle 
 ment, the influx of foreigners, and emigration from the slave 
 States. The returns from New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey 
 and Pennsylvania, are greatly affected by the vast number of 
 foreigners congregated" in their cities, and employed in their 
 manufactories and on their public works. In Ohio, also, there is 
 
 * This summary from the return of the census, is copied from the 
 Richmond (Va.) Compiler. 
 
13 
 
 a large foreign population ; and it is well known that comparatively 
 few emigrants from Europe seek a residence in the slave States, 
 where there is little or no employment to invite them. But what 
 a commentary on slavery and slaveholders is afforded by the gross 
 ignorance prevailing in the old States of South Carolina, Virginia, 
 and North Carolina 1 But let us proceed. The census gives a 
 return of '' scholars at public charge." 
 
 Of these, there are in the free States, 432,173 
 
 slave States, 35,580 
 
 Ohio alone has 51,812 such scholars, — more than are to be 
 found in the 13 slave States ! Her neighbor Kentucky has 
 429 ! ! Let us compare in this particular the largest and the 
 smallest State in the Union. 
 
 Virginia has scholars at public charge 9,791 
 
 Rhode IslanS 10,912* 
 
 But we have some official confessions, which give a still more 
 deplorable account of Southern ignorance. In 1837, Governor 
 Clarke, in his message to the Kentucky Legislature, remarked, 
 " By the computation of those most familiar with the subject, one 
 
 THIRD OF THE ADULT POPULATION OF THE STATE ARE UNABLE 
 TO WRITE THEIR NAMES." 
 
 Governor Campbell reported to the Virginia Legislature, that 
 from the returns of 98 clerks, it appeared that of 4614 applica- 
 tions for marriage licenses in 1837, no less than 1047 were made 
 by men unable to write. 
 
 These details will enable you to estimate the impudence of the 
 following plea in behalf of slavery : 
 
 " It is by the existence of slavery, exempting so large a portion 
 of our citizens from the necessity of bodily labor, that we have 
 leisure for intellectual pursuits, and the means of attaining a liberal 
 education." — Chancellor Harper of South Carolina on Slavery. 
 — Southern Literary Messenger, Oct. 1838. 
 
 Whatever may be the leisure enjoyed by the slaveholders, they 
 are careful not to afford the means of literary improvement to 
 their fellow-citizens who are too poor to possess slaves, and who 
 are, by their very ignorance, rendered more fit instruments for 
 doing the will, and guarding the human property of the wealthier 
 class. 
 
 See American Almanac for 1842, page 226. 
 
14 
 
 III. INDUSTRY AND ENTERPRISE. 
 
 In a community so unenlightened as that of the slave States, 
 it is a matter of course that the arts and sciences must languish, 
 and the industry and enterprise of the country be oppressed by 
 a general torpor. Hence multitudes will be without regular and 
 profitable employment, and be condemned to poverty and num- 
 berless privations. The very advertisements in the newspapers 
 show that, for a vast proportion of the comforts and conveniences 
 of life, the} 7- are dependent on Northern manufactures and me- 
 chanics. Slavery has rendered labor disgraceful ; and where 
 this is the case, industry is necessarily discouraged. The great 
 staple of the South is cotton ; and Ave have no desire to 
 undervalue its importance. It is, however, worthy of re- 
 mark, that its cultivation affords a livelihood to only a 
 small proportion of the free inhabitants ; and tcarcely to any 
 of those we are now addressing. Cotton is the product of slave 
 labor, and its profits at home are confined almost exclusively to 
 the slaveholders. Yet on account of this article, we hear frequent 
 vaunts of the agricultural riches of the South. With the ex- 
 ception of cotton, it is difficult to distinguish your agricultural pro- 
 ducts arising from slaves, and from free labor. But admitting, 
 what we know is not the fact, that all the other productions of 
 the soil are raised exclusively by free labor, we learn from the 
 census, that the agricultural products of the North exceed those 
 of the South, cotton excepted, 8226,219,714. Here then we 
 have an appalling proof of the paralyzing influence of slavery on 
 the industry of the whites. 
 
 In every community a large portion of the inhabitants are de- 
 barred from drawing their maintenance directly from the cultiva- 
 tion of the earth. Other and lucrative employments are reserved 
 for them. If the slaveholders chiefly engross the soil, let us see 
 how you are compensated by the encouragement afforded to 
 mechanical skill and industry. 
 
 In 1839 the Secretary of the Treasury reported to Congress, 
 that the tonnage of vessels built in the United States was 120,988 
 Built in the slave States and Territories 23,600 
 
 Or less than one-fifth of the whole ! But the difference is still 
 more striking, when we take into consideration the comparative 
 value of the shipping built in the two regions: 
 
 In the free States the value is $6,311,805 
 
 In the slave do. 704,291* 
 
 See Amer-ican Almanac for 1843, page 153. 
 
15 
 
 It would be tedious and unprofitable to compare tbe results of 
 the different branches of manufacture carried on at the North 
 and the South. It is sufficient to state that, according to the 
 census, the value of the manufactures 
 
 In the free States are $334,139,690 
 
 In the slave States 83,935,742 
 
 Having already compared Ohio and Kentucky in reference to 
 population and education, we will pursue the comparison as to 
 agricultural and mechanical industry. On account of contiguity, 
 and similarity of extent, soil and climate, no two States can per- 
 haps be so aptly contrasted for the purpose of illustrating the 
 influence of slavery. It should also be borne in mind that Ken- 
 tucky can scarcely be called a cotton State, having in 1840 
 raised only 607,456 lbs. of that article. Hence the deficiency of 
 agriculture and other products in Kentucky arises, not from a 
 peculiar species of cultivation, but solely from the withering effects 
 of slavery. 
 
 Ohio. Kentucky. 
 
 Wool > 3,685,315 lbs. 1,786,842 
 
 Wheat, 16,571,661 bushels 4,803,152 
 
 Ha y> 1,022,037 tons 88,306 
 
 Fulling mills, 205 5 
 
 Printing-offices, 159 34 
 
 Tanneries, 862 387 
 Commercial houses ] 
 
 in foreign trade, j 5 
 
 Value of machinery ) * \ 
 
 manufactured, | $ 8 ^,731 $46,074 
 
 In one species of manufacture the South apparently excels the 
 North, but unquestionably it is in appearance only. Of 9657 dis- 
 tilleries in the United States, no less than 7665 were found in the 
 slave States and Territories; but for want of skill and capital 
 these yield 1992 gallons less than the other. 
 
 Where there is so much ignorance and idleness, we may well 
 suppose that the inventive faculties will be but little exercised ; 
 and accordingly we find that of the 545 patents granted for new 
 inventions in 1846, only 80 were received by the citizens of the 
 slave States. We have thus offered to our readers the tes- 
 timony of figures, as to the different state of society under freedom 
 and slavery; suffer us now to present you pictures of the two 
 regions, drawn not by abolitionists, but by Southern artists, in 
 unguarded hours. Mr. Clowney, of South Carolina, thus por- 
 trayed his native State, in the ardor of debate on the floor of 
 Congress : 
 
16 
 
 " Look at South Carolina now, with her houses deserted and 
 fallino- to decay ; her once fruitful fields worn out and abandoned 
 for want of timely improvement or skilful cultivation; and her 
 thousands of acres of inexhaustible lands, still promising an abun- 
 dant harvest to the industrious husbandman, lying idle and ne- 
 glected In the interior of the State where I was born, and 
 where I now live, although a country possessing all the advan- 
 tages of soil, climate and health, abounding in arable land, unre- 
 claimed from the first rude state of nature, there can now be 
 found many neighborhoods where the population is too sparse to 
 support a common elementary school for children. Such is the 
 deplorable condition of one of the oldest members of this Union, 
 that dates back its settlement more than a century and a half, 
 while other States, born as it were but yesterday, already sur- 
 pass what Carolina is or ever has been, in the happiest and 
 proudest day of her prosperity." 
 
 This gentleman chose to attribute the decline of South Caro- 
 lina to the tariff; rather than to the obvious cause, that one-half 
 of the people of South Carolina are poor, ignorant, degraded 
 slaves, and the other half suffering in all their faculties and ener- 
 gies, from a moral pestilence which they insanely regard as a 
 blessing and not a curse. Surely it is not owing to the tariff that 
 this ancient member of the Union has 20,615 white citizens 
 over twenty years of age who do not know their letters ; while 
 Maine, with double her population, has only 3,241. 
 
 Now look upon a very different picture. Mr. Preston, of bouth 
 Carolina, not long since delivered a speech at Columbia m refer- 
 ence to a proposed rail-road. In this speech, in order to stimu- 
 late the efforts of the friends of the road, he indulged m the 
 following strain : 
 
 "No Southern man can journey (as he had lately done) 
 through the Northern States, and witness the prosperity, the 
 industry, the public spirit which they exhibit— the sedulous cul- 
 tivation of all those arts by which life is rendered comfortable 
 and respectable— without feelings of deep sadness and shame as 
 he remembers his oivn neglected and desolate home. There, no 
 dwelling is to be seen abandoned— not a farm uncultivated. 
 Every person and every thing performs a part towards the grand 
 result ; and the whole land is covered with fertile fields, with 
 manufactories, and canals, and rail-roads, and edifices, and towns, 
 and cities. We of the South are mistaken in the character of 
 these people, when we think of them only as pedlars in horn flints 
 and bark nutmegs. Their energy and enterprise are directed to 
 *li objects great and small within their reach. The number of 
 
rail-roads and other modes of expeditious intercommunication knft 
 the whole country into a closely compacted mass, through which 
 the productions of commerce and of the press, the comforts of 
 life, and the means of knowledge, are universally diffused ; while 
 the close intercourse of travel and of business makes all neigh- 
 bors, and promotes a common interest and a common sympathy. 
 How different the condition of these things in the South ! Here 
 the face of the country wears the aspect of premature old age 
 and decay. No improvement is seen going on, nothing is done 
 for posterity. No man thinks of anything beyond the present 
 moment." 
 
 Yet this same Mr. Preston, thus sensitively alive to the supe- 
 perior happiness and prosperity of the free States, declared in 
 the United States Senate, " Let an abolitionist come within the 
 borders of South Carolina, if we can catch him we will try him, 
 and notwithstanding all the interference of all the governments of 
 the earth, including the Federal Government, we will hang 
 him."* In other words, the slaveholders, rather than part with 
 their slaves, are ready to murder, with all the formalities of law, 
 the very men who are laboring to confer on them the envied 
 blessings of the North. 
 
 IV. FEELINGS OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS TOWARDS 
 THE LABORING CLASSES. 
 
 Whenever the great mass of the laboring population of a 
 country are reduced to beasts of burden, and toil under the lash, 
 " bodily labor," as Chancellor Harper expresses it, must be dis- 
 reputable, from the mere influence of association. Hence it is 
 that white laborers at the South are styled " mean whites." At 
 the North, on the contrary, labor is regarded as the proper and 
 commendable means of acquiring wealth ; and our most influential 
 men would in no degree suffer in, public estimation, for holding 
 the plough, or even repairing the highways. Hence no poor man 
 is deterred from seeking a livelihood by honest labor from a dread 
 of personal degradation. The different light hi which labor is 
 viewed at the North and the South is one cause of the depression 
 of industry in the latter. 
 
 Another cause is the ever- wakeful jealousy of the aristocracy. 
 They fear the people ; they are alarmed at the very idea of 
 power and influence being possessed by any portion of the com- 
 
 * We are well aware that Mr. Preston has denied, what no one_ as- 
 serted, that he had said an abolitionist, if he came into South Carolina, 
 would be executed by Lynch law. He used the words we have quoted 
 (See "New York Journal of Commerce," Jan. 6th, 1838). 
 
18 
 
 munity not directly interested in slave property. Visions of 
 emancipation, of agrarianism, and of popular resistance to their 
 authority, are ever floating in their distempered and excited ima- 
 ginations. They know their own weakness, and are afraid you 
 should know it also. Hence it is their policy to keep down the 
 " mean whites." Hence their philippics against the lower classes. 
 Hence their constant comparison of the laborers of the North, 
 with their own slaves ; and hence, in no small degree, the absence 
 amongthemof those institutions which confer upon the poor that 
 knowledge which is power. Do you deem these assertions un- 
 charitable ? Listen to their own declarations : 
 
 " We believe the servitude which prevails in the South far 
 preferable to that of the North, or in Europe. Slavery will exist 
 in all communities. There is a class which may be nominally 
 free, but they will be virtually Slaves."— Mississijopian, July 6th, 
 1838. 
 
 " Those who depend on their daily labor for their daily sub- 
 sistence can never enter into political affairs ; they never do, never 
 will, never can." — B. W. Leigh in Virginia Convention, 1829. 
 
 " All society settles down into a classification of capitalists and 
 laborers. The former will own the latter, either collectively 
 through the government, or individually in a state of domestic 
 servitude, as exists in the Southern States of this confederacy. If 
 laborers ever obtain the political power of a country, it is in 
 fact in a state of revolution. The capitalists north of Mason and 
 Dixon's line, have precisely the same interest in the labor of the 
 country, that the capitalists of England ha-\e in their labor. 
 Hence it is that they must have a strong federal government (!) 
 to control the labor of the nation. But it is precisely the reverse 
 with us. We have already not only a right to the proceeds of 
 our laborers, but we own a class of laborers themselves. But let 
 me say to gentlemen who represent the great class of capitalists 
 in the North — beware that you do not drive us into a separate 
 system ; for if you do, as certain as the decrees of heaven, you 
 will be compelled to appeal to the sword to maintain yourselves 
 at home. It may not come in your day ; but your children's 
 children will be covered with the blood of domestic factions, and 
 will see a plundering mob contending for power and conquest." — 
 Mr. Pickens, of South Carolina, in Congress, 21st Jan., 183G. 
 
 So the way to prevent plundering mobs, is to enslave the 
 poor ! We shall see presently, how far this expedient has been 
 successful in preventing murdering mobs. 
 
 " In the very nature of things there must be classes of persona 
 
10 
 
 to discharge all the different offices of society, from the highest 
 to the lowest. Some of these offices are regarded as degrading, 
 although they must and will be performed. Hence those mani- 
 fest forms of dependent servitude which produce a sense of supe- 
 riority in the masters or employers, and of inferiority on the part 
 of the servants. Where these offices are performed by members 
 of the political community, a dangerous element is obviously 
 introduced into the body politic. Hence the alarming tendency 
 to violate the rights of property by agrarian legislation, which is 
 beginning to be manifest in the older States, where universal suf- 
 frage prevails without domestic slavery. 
 
 " In a word, the institution of domestic slavery supersedes the 
 necessity of an order of nobility, and all the other apfex- 
 
 DAGES OF A HEREDITARY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT." Governor 
 
 M' Duffies Message to the South Carolina Legislature, 1836. 
 
 "We regard slavery as the most safe and stable basis for free 
 institutions in the world. It is impossible with us, that the con- 
 flict can take place between labor and capital, which makes it so 
 difficult to establish and maintain free institutions in all wealthy 
 and highly civilized nations where such institutions do not exist. 
 Every plantation is a little community with the master at its 
 head, who concentrates in himself the united interests of capital 
 and labor, of which he is the common representative." — (Mr. Cal- 
 houn, of South Carolina, in the U. S. Senate, Jan. 10th, 1840.) 
 
 " We of the South have cause now, and shall soon have great- 
 er, to congratulate ourselves on the existence of a population 
 among us, which excludes the Populace which in effect rules 
 some of our Northern neighbors, and is rapidly gaining strength 
 wherever slavery does not exist — a populace made up of the 
 dregs of Europe, and the most worthless portion of the native 
 population." — [Richmond Whig, 1837.) 
 
 " Would you do a benefit to the horse or the ox by giving him 
 a cultivated understanding, a fine feeling ? So far as the mere 
 laborer has the pride, the knowledge, or the aspiration of a free- 
 man, he is unfitted for his situation. If there are sordid, servile, 
 laborious offices to be performed, is it not better that there should 
 be sordid, servile, laborious beings to perform them ? 
 
 " Odium has been cast upon our legislation, on account of its 
 forbidding the elements of education being communicated to 
 slaves. But in truth what injury is done them by this ? He who 
 works during the day with his hands, does not read in the inter- 
 vals of leisure for his amusement, or the improvement of his 
 mind, or the exception is so very rare as scarcely to need the be- 
 ing provided for." — (Chancellor Harper of South Carolina.— 
 Southern Literary Messenger.) 
 
20 
 
 This same gentleman delivered an oration on the 4th of July, 
 1840, reviewing the principles of the two great political parties, 
 and although he supported Mr. Van Buren's administration, in 
 consideration of its devotion to the slave interest, he frankly in- 
 quires : — 
 
 " Is there anything in the principles and opinions of the 
 great democratic rabble, as it has been justly called, which 
 should induce us to identify ourselves with that ? Here you 
 may find every possible grade and hue of opinion which has 
 ever existed in the country. Here you may find loafer, and loco 
 foco, and agrarian, and all the rabble of the city of New York, 
 the most corrupt and depraved of rabbles, and which controls, in 
 a great degree, the city itself, and through that, as being the 
 commercial metropolis, exercises much influence over the State 
 at large. 
 
 " What are the essential principles of democracy as distinguish- 
 ed from republicanism ? The first consists in the dogma, so 
 portentous to us, of the natural equality and unalienable right to 
 liberty of every human being. Our allies (!) no doubt, are will- 
 ing 1 at present to modify the doctrine in our favor. But ^he spirit 
 of democracy at large makes no such exceptions, nor will these 
 (our allies, the Northern democrats) continue to make it, longer 
 than necessity or interest may require. The second consists in 
 the doctrine of the divine right of majorities ; a doctrine not less 
 false, and slavish, and absurd, than the ancient doctrine of the di- 
 vine right of kings." 
 
 Mr. Robert Wickliffe, of Kentucky, in a speech published in 
 the Louisville Advertiser, in opposition to those who were adverse 
 to the importation of slaves from the Sta/tes, thus discourseth : 
 
 " Gentlemen wanted to drive out the black population, that 
 they may obtain white negroes in their place. White negroes 
 have this advantage over black negroes, they can be converted 
 into voters ; and the men who live upon the sweat of their brow, 
 and pay them but a dependent and scanty subsistence, can, if able 
 to keep ten thousand of them in employment, come up to the 
 polls and change the destiny of the country. 
 
 " How improved will be our condition when we have such 
 white negroes as perform the servile labors of Europe, of Old 
 England, and he would add now of JVeio England ; when our 
 body servants and our cart drivers and our street sweepers are 
 white negroes instead of black. Where will be the independence, 
 the proud spirit, and the chivalry of Kcntuckians then ?" 
 
 Had the gentleman looked across the river, he might have 
 
21 
 
 found an answer to his question, in the wealth, power, intelligence 
 and happiness of Ohio. 
 
 In reading the foregoing extracts, it is amusing to observe how 
 adroitly the slaveholders avoid all recognition of any other classes 
 among them than masters and slaves. Who would suspect from 
 their language, that they were themselves, a small minority of the 
 white inhabitants, and that their own "white negroes " could, if 
 united and so disposed, outvote them at the polls ? It is worthy 
 of remark that in their denunciations of the -populace, the rabble, 
 those who ivork with their hands, they refer not to complexion, but 
 to condition ; not to slaves, but to the poor and laborious of their 
 own color. 
 
 Slavery, although considered by Mr. Calhoun " the most stable 
 basis of free institutions in the world," has, as we shall presently 
 show you, in fact, led to grosser outrages in the social compact, to 
 more alarming violations of constitutional liberty, to more bold 
 and reckless assaults upon " free institutions," than have ever 
 been even attempted by the much-dreaded agrarianism of the 
 North. 
 
 V. STATE OF RELIGION. 
 
 The deplorable ignorance and want of industry at the South, 
 together with the disrepute in which honest industry is held, can- 
 not but exercise, in connection with other causes, a most unhap- 
 py influence on the morals of the inhabitants. There are be- 
 tween two and three millions of slaves, who are kept by law in 
 brutal ignorance, and who, with few exceptions, are virtually 
 heathens.* 
 
 There are also among them more than 200,000 free negroes, 
 thus described by Mr. Clay : — " Contaminated themselves, they 
 extend their vices to all around them."f 
 
 If evil communications corrupt good manners, the intimate in- 
 tercourse of the whites with these people must be depraving : nor 
 can the exercise of despotic power by the masters, their wives 
 
 * " From long continued and close observation, we believe that their 
 (the slaves') moral and religious condition is such that they may justly 
 be considered the Heathen of this Christian country, and will bear 
 comparison with heathen in any country in the world. The negroes 
 are destitute of the Gospel, and ever will be binder the present state of 
 things." — Report published by the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, 
 Dec. 3, 1833. 
 
 t Speech before the Amerirqn Colonization Society. 
 
92 
 
 ring that there are numerous and honorable exceptions. For 
 oeral truth of our assertion, we appeal to the authorities 
 and the facte we have already laid before you, and to those we 
 arc about t" offer. 
 
 \ a have already seen that the pro-slavery press has recom- 
 mended the murder of such northern abolitionists as may be 
 caught in the South ; we now ask vour attention to the efforts made 
 by the slaveholders to get prominent abolitionists into their power. 
 
 In 1831, a citizen of Massachusetts established a newspaper 
 at Beaton, called the Liberator, and devoted to the cause of negro 
 emancipation. The undertaking was perfectly legal, and he him- 
 Belf, having never been in Georgia, had of course violated none 
 of her laws. The legislature, however, forthwith passed a law, 
 offering a bribe of $5000 to any person who would arrest and 
 and bring to trial and conviction, in Georgia, the editor and pub- 
 lisher of the Boston paper. This most atrocious law was " ap- 
 proved" on the 26th Dec, 1831, by William Lumpkin, the 
 Governor. The object of the bribe could have been no other 
 than the' abduction and murder of the conductor of the paper — 
 his trial and conviction under Georgia laws being a mere pretence : 
 the Georgia courts have as much jurisdiction over the Press in 
 Pari- as in Boston. A Lynch court was the only one that could 
 have taken cognizance of the offence, and its proceedings would 
 undoubtedly have been both summary and sanguinary. 
 
 The horrible example thus set by the Georgia Legislature was 
 DOt without its followers. 
 
 At a meeting of slaveholders at Sterling, Sept. 4, 1835, it was 
 formally recommended to the Governor to issue a proclamation, 
 offering the 16000 appropriated by the Act of 1831, as a reward 
 for the apprehension of cither of ten persons named in the reso- 
 lution, citizens of New York and Massachusetts, and one a sub- 
 j , • , ' I of (neat Britain; not one of whom it was even pretended 
 had ever Bel his foot on the soil of Georgia. 
 
 The Mi/lctlficville \Ga.] Federal Union, of Feb. 1, 183G, con- 
 tained an offer of 110,000 for kidnapping A. A. Phelps, a cler- 
 gyman residing in the city of New York. 
 
 The Committee of Vigilance of the Parish of East Feliciana, 
 "1 in the Louisiana Journal of 15th Oct., 1835, #50,000 to 
 any person who would deliver into their hands Arthur Tappan, a 
 York merchant. 
 
 At a public meeting of the citizens of Mount Meigs, Alabama, 
 13th August, 1836, the Honorable [!] Bedford Ginress in the 
 ohair, b reward of $50,000 was offered for the apprehension of 
 Arthur Tappan, or Le Roy Sunderland, a clergyman of the 
 M"thodist Church residing in New York. 
 
33 
 
 Let us now witness the practical operation of that murderous 
 spirit which dictated the foregoing villainous bribes. We have 
 already seen the conduct of the slave-holding community to negro 
 offenders ; we are now to notice its tender mercies to men of its 
 own color. 
 
 In 1835, there was a real or affected apprehension of a 
 servile insurrection in the State of Mississippi. The slaveholders, 
 as usual on such occasions, were exceedingly frightened, and 
 were exceedingly cruel. A pamphlet was afterwards pub- 
 lished, entitled " Proceedings of the Citizens of Madison County, 
 Miss., at Livingston, in July, 1835, in relation to the trial 
 and 'punishment of several individuals implicated in a con- 
 templated insurrection in this State. — Prepared by Thomas 
 Shuckelford, Esquire. Printed at Jackson, Miss." This pamph- 
 let, then, is the Southern account of the affair ; and while it is 
 more minute in its details than the narratives published in the 
 newspapers at the time, Ave are not aware that it contradicts 
 them. It may be regarded as a sort of semi-official report put 
 forth by the slaveholders, and published under their implied sanc- 
 tion. It appears, from this account, that in -consequence of " ru- 
 mors" that the slaves meditated an insurrection — that a colored 
 girl had been heard to say that " she was tired of waiting on the 
 white folks — wanted to be her own mistress for the balance of 
 her days, and clean up her own house, &c," a meeting was held 
 at which resolutions were signed, organizing a committee, and 
 authorizing them "to bring before them any person or persons, 
 either ivhite or black, and try in a summary manner any person 
 brought before them, with power to hang or whip, being always 
 governed by the laivs of the land, so far only as they shall be ap- 
 plicable to the case in question ; otherwise to act as in their discretion 
 shall seem best for the benefit of the country and the protection of 
 its citizens." 
 
 This was certainly a most novel mode of erecting and commis- 
 sioning a Court of judicature, with the power of life and death, ex- 
 pressly authorized to act independently of " the laws of the land." 
 The Constitution of the State of Mississippi, which no doubt 
 many of the honorable Judges of the Court had on other occa- 
 sions taken an oath to support, contains the following clause : — 
 " No person shall be accused, arrested or detained, except in 
 cases ascertained by law, and according to the forms which the 
 same has prescribed ; aud no person shall be punished, but in vir- 
 tue of a law established and promulgated prior to the offence, 
 and legally applied." 
 
 Previous to the organization of this Court, five slaves had al- 
 ready been hung by the people. The Court, or rather, as it was 
 
 2* 
 
24 
 
 sible of violating any principle of courtesy or delicacy ; we touch 
 not their private character or their private acts ; we refer to their 
 language and sentiments, merely as one indication of the standard 
 of morals among their constituents, not as conclusive proof apart 
 from other evidence. 
 
 On the 15th February, 1837, R. M. Whitney was arraigned 
 before the House of Representatives for contempt in refusing to 
 attend when required before a Committee. His apology was that 
 he was afraid of his life, and he called, as a witness in his behalf, 
 one of the Committee, Mr. Fairfield, since Governor of the State 
 of Maine. It appeared that in the Committee, Mr. Peyton of 
 Virginia had put some interrogatory to Whitney, who had re- 
 turned a written answer which was deemed offensive. On this, 
 as Mr. Fairfield testified, Peyton addressed the Chairman in these 
 terms, " Mr. Chairman, I wish you to inform this witness, that he 
 is not to insult me in his answers : if he does, God damn him ! I 
 will take his life on the spot !" Whitney rose and said he claimed 
 the protection of the Committee, on which Peyton exclaimed, 
 " God damn you, you shan't speak, you shan't say one word 
 while you are in this room, if you do I will put you to death !" 
 Soon after, Peyton observing that Whitney was looking at him, 
 cried out, " Damn him, his eyes are on me — God damn him, he is 
 looking at me — he shan't do it — damn him, he shan't look at me !" 
 
 The newspaper reports of the proceedings of Congress, a 
 few years since, informed us that Mr. Dawson, a member from 
 Louisiana, went up to Mr. Arnold, another member, and said 
 to him, "If you attempt to speak, or rise from your seat, sir, 
 by God I'll cut your throat !" 
 
 In a debate on the Florida war, Mr. Cooper having taken of- 
 fence at Mr. Giddings of Ohio, for some remarks relative to 
 slavery, said in his reply, " If the gentleman from Ohio will come 
 among my constituents and promulgate his doctrines there, he will 
 find that Lynch law will be inflicted, and that the gentleman will 
 reach an elevation Which belittle dreams of." 
 
 In the session of 1841, Mr. Payne, of Alabama, in debate, 
 alluding to the abolitionists, among whom he insisted the Post- 
 master-General ought to be included, declared that he would pro- 
 scribe all abolitionists, he " would put the brand of Cain upon 
 them — yes, the mark of Hell, and if they came to the South he 
 
 WOuld HANG THEM LIKE DOGS !" 
 
 Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, at an earlier period thus 
 expressed himself in the House : "I warn the abolitionists, 
 ignorant, infatuated barbarians as they are, that if chance shall 
 throw any of them into our hands, they may expect a felon's 
 death !" 
 
25 
 
 In 1848, Mr. Hale, a Senator from New Hampshire, introduced 
 a bill for the protection of property in the District of Columbia, 
 attempts having been made to destroy an anti-Slavery press. Mr. 
 Foote, a Senator from Mississippi, thus expressed himself in 
 reply: "I invite him (Mr. H.) to the State of Mississippi, and 
 will tell him before-hand, in all honesty, that he could not go ten 
 miles into the interior, before he would grace one of the tallest 
 trees of the forest, with a rope around his neck, with the appro- 
 bation of every virtuous and patriotic citizen, and that, if neces- 
 sary, I SHOULD MYSELF ASSIST IN THE OPERATION." 
 
 And now, do these honorable gentlemen with all their profanity 
 and vulgarity, breathing out threatenings and slaughter, represent 
 the feelings, and manners, and morals of the slaveholding com- 
 munity ? We have seen no evidence that they have lost a parti- 
 cle of popular favor in consequence of their ferocious violence. 
 Alas ! their language has been re-echoed again and again by pub- 
 lic meetings in the slave States ; and we proceed to lay before 
 you overwhelming proof that in the expression of their murder- 
 ous feelings towards the abolitionists, they have faithfully repre- 
 sented the sentiments of their constituents. 
 
 VII. DISREGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE. 
 
 We have already seen that one of the blessings which the 
 slaveholders attribute to their favorite institution, is exemption 
 from popular tumults, and from encroachments by the democracy 
 upon the rights of property. Their argument is, that political 
 power in the hands of the poor and laboring classes is always attend- 
 ed with danger, and that this danger is averted when these classes 
 are kept in bondage. With these gentlemen, life and liberty seem 
 to be accounted as the small dust of the balance, when weighed 
 against slavery and plantations ; hence, to preserve the latter 
 they are ever ready to sacrifice the former, in utter defiance of 
 laws and constitutions. ^ 
 
 We have already noticed the murderous proposition in relation 
 to abolitionists, made by Governor M'Duffie to the South Carolina 
 Legislature in 1835 : " It is my deliberate opinion that the /a?w 
 of 'every community should punish this species of interference, 
 by death without benefit of clergy." In an address to a legis- 
 lative assembly, Governor M'Duffie refrained from the indecency 
 of recommending illegal murder ; but we will soon find that the 
 public sentiment of the South by no means requires that aboli- 
 tionists shall be put to death with legal formalities ; but on the 
 contrary, the slaveholders are ready, in the language of Mr. Payne, 
 to " hang them like dogs." 
 
26 
 
 We hazard little in the assertion, that in no civilized Christian 
 community on earth is human life less protected by law, or more 
 frequently taken with impunity, than in the slave States of the 
 Federal Union. We wish to impress upon you the danger and 
 corruption to which you and your children are exposed from the 
 institution, which, as we have shown you, exists by your suffer- 
 ance. But you have been taught to respect this institution ; 
 and hence it becomes necessary to enter into details, however 
 painful, and to present you with authorities which you cannot re- 
 ject. What we have just said of the insecurity of human life, 
 will probably be deemed by you and others as abolition slander. 
 Listen, then, to slaveholders themselves. 
 
 " We long to see the day," said the Governor of Kentucky in 
 his message to the Legislature, 1837, "when the law will assert 
 its majesty, and stop the wanton destruction of life which almost 
 daily occurs within the jurisdiction of this commonwealth. Men 
 
 SLAUGHTER EACH OTHER WITH ALMOST PERFECT IMPUNITY. A 
 
 species of common law has grown up in Kentucky, which, were it 
 written down, would, in all civilized countries, cause her to be 
 re-christened, in derision, the land of blood." 
 
 The present Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Kentucky* a 
 few years since, published an article on the murders in that State. 
 He states that some with whom he had conversed, estimated 
 them at 80 per annum ; but that he had rated them at about 
 30 ; and that he had ascertained that for the last three years, 
 there had not been " an instance of capital punishment in any 
 white offender." "It is believed," says he, " there are more 
 homicides on an average of two years in any of our more popu- 
 lous counties, than in the whole of several of our States of equal, 
 or nearly equal, population to Kentucky."' 
 
 Governor McVay, of Alabama, in his message to the Legisla- 
 ture, November 15, 1S37, thus speaks, "We hear of homicides 
 in different parts of the State continually, and yet have few con- 
 victions and still fewer executions ! Why do we hear of stab- 
 bings and shootings almost daily in some part or other of our 
 State ?" 
 
 " Death by Violence. — The moral atmosphere in our State 
 appears to be in a deleterious and sanguinary condition. Almost 
 every exchange paper which reaches us, contains some inhuman 
 and revolting case of murder, or death by violence. JVot less than 
 fifteen deaths by violence have occurred, to our certain know- 
 ledge, within the past three months." — Grand Gulf Miss. Ad- 
 vertiser, 21th June, 1837. 
 
 * It is believed this gentleman is not a slaveholder 
 
27 
 
 Contempt of Human Life. — In view of the crimes which are 
 daily committed, we are led to inquire whether it is owing to the 
 
 inefficiencv of our laws, or to the manner in which these laws are 
 administered, that this frightful deluge of human blood 
 
 FLOWS THROUGH OUR STREETS AND OUR PLACES OF PUBLIC RESORT. 
 
 — ' New Orleans Bee, 23d May, 1838. 
 
 At the opening of the Criminal Court in New Orleans, Novem- 
 ber 4th, 1837, Judge Lansuque delivered an address, in which, 
 speaking of the prevalence of violence, he used the following lan- 
 guage : 
 
 "As a Louisiana parent, I reflect with terror, that our be- 
 loved children, reared to become one day honorable and useful 
 citizens, may be the victims of these votaries of vice and licen- 
 tiousness. Without some powerful and certain remedy, our 
 streets will become butcheries, overflowing with the blood cf 
 our citizens !■" 
 
 While the slaveholders are terrified at the idea of the " great 
 democratic rabble," and rejoice in human bondage as superseding 
 the necessity of " an order of nobility, and all the appendages of 
 a hereditary government," they have established a reign of terror, 
 as insurrectionary and as sanguinary in principle, as that created 
 by the sans culottes of the French revolution. We indulge in no 
 idle declamation, but speak the words of truth and soberness. 
 
 A public meeting, convened in the church ! ! in the town of 
 Clinton, Mississippi, 5th September, 1835 — 
 
 Resolved, " That it is our decided opinion, that any individual 
 who dares to circulate, with a view to effectuate the designs of 
 the abolitionists, any of the incendiary tracts or newspapers now 
 in the course of transmission to this country, is justly worthy, in 
 the sight of God and man, of immediate death ; and we doubt 
 not that such would be the punishment of any such offender, in 
 any part of the State of Mississippi where he may be found." 
 
 It would be tedious to copy the numerous resolutions of similar 
 import, passed by public meetings in almost every slave State. 
 It is well known that the promoters of those lawless and san- 
 guinary proceedings, did not belong to the "rabble" — they 
 were not " mean whites," but rich, influential slaveholders. A 
 meeting was held in 1835 at Williamsburgh, Virginia, which was 
 harangued by no less a personage than John Tyler, once 
 Governor of the State, and since President of the United States : 
 under this gentleman's auspices, and after his address, the meet- 
 ing resolved — 
 
2S 
 
 " That we regard the printing and circulating within our limits, of 
 incendiary publications, tending to excite our slaves to insurrection 
 and rebellion, as treasonable acts of the most alarming character, 
 and that when we detect offenders in the act, we will inflict 
 upon them condign punishment, without resorting to any other 
 tribunal." 
 
 The profligacy of this resolution needs no comment. Mr. Ty- 
 ler well knew that the laws of Virginia, and every other State 
 were abundantly sufficient to punish crime : but he and his fellow 
 lynchers wished to deter the people from receiving and reading 
 anything adverse to slavery ; and hence, with their usual audaci- 
 ty, they determined to usurp the prerogative of courts and juries, 
 and throw down all the bulwarks which the law has erected for 
 the protection of innocence. 
 
 Newspapers are regarded as the mirrors of public opinion. 
 Let us see what opinions are reflected in those of the South. 
 
 The Charleston Courier, 11th August, 1835, declared that 
 " the gallows and the stake " awaited the abolitionists who should 
 dare to "appear in person among us." 
 
 " The cry of the whole South should be death, instant death 
 to the abolitionist, wherever he is caught." — Augusta (Geo.) 
 Chronicle. 
 
 " Let us declare through the public journals of our country, 
 that the question of slavery is not and shall not be open to dis- 
 cussion ; that the system is too deep-rooted among us, and must 
 remain for ever ; that the very moment any private individual at- 
 tempts to lecture us upon its evils and immorality, and the neces- 
 sity of putting means in operation to secure us from them, in the 
 same moment his tongue shall be cut out and cast upon the 
 dunghill." — Columbia (S.C.) Telescope. 
 
 This, it will be noticed, is a threat addressed, not to the Northern 
 abolitionists, but to the great majority of the white inhabitants of 
 the South ; and they are warned not to express an opinion offen- 
 sive to the aristocracy. 
 
 "Awful but Just Punishment. — We learn, by the arrival of 
 the steamboat Kentucky last evening from Richmond, that Robin- 
 son, the Englishman mentioned in the Beacon of Saturday, as be- 
 ing in the vicinity of Lynchburg, was taken about fifteen miles 
 from that (own, and hanged on the spot, for exciting the slaves 
 to insurrection." — Norfolk (Va.) Beacon, 10th August, 1835. 
 
 " We can assure the Bostonians, one and all, who have em- 
 barked in the nefarious scheme of abolishing slavery at the South, 
 
29 
 
 that lashes will hereafter be spared the backs of their emissaries. 
 Let them send out their men to Louisiana ; they will never return 
 to tell their sufferings, but they shall expiate the crime of inter- 
 fering with our domestic institutions, by being burned at the 
 stake." — New- Orleans True American. 
 
 " Abolition editors in slave States will not dare to avow their 
 opinions. It would be instant death to them." — Missouri Argus. 
 
 Here, again, is a threat directed against any person, who may 
 happen to have the command of types and printer's ink. 
 
 Now, we ask what must be the state of society, where the 
 public journals thus justify and stimulate the public thirst for 
 blood ? The very idea of trial is scouted, and the mob, or rather 
 the slaveholders themselves, are acknowledged to be the arbiters 
 of life and death. The question we put to you as to the state of 
 society, has been already answered by the official declarations of 
 the Governors of Kentucky and Alabama, and of Judge Lansu- 
 que, of New Orleans ; as well as by the extracts we have given 
 you from some of the southern journals, relative to the frequency 
 of murders among them. We could farther answer it, by filling 
 sheets with accounts of fearful atrocities. But we purposely re- 
 frain from referring to assassinations and private crimes ; for such, 
 as already remarked, occur in a greater or less degree in every 
 community, and do not necessarily form a test of the standard 
 of morals. But we ask your attention to a test which cannot be 
 questioned. We will present for your consideration a series of 
 atrocities, perpetrated, not by individuals in secret, but in open 
 day by the slaveholding populace. 
 
 We have seen that two of the Southern papers we have quoted, 
 threaten abolitionists with the stake. This awful and horrible 
 punishment has been banished, by the progress of civilization, 
 from the whole of Christendom, with the single exception of the 
 American Slave States. It is scarcely necessary to say, that 
 even in them, it is unknown to the laws, although familiar to the 
 people. It is also deserving of remark, that the two journals 
 which have made this atrocious threat were published, not among 
 the rude borderers of our frontier settlements, but in the popu- 
 lous cities of Charleston and New-Orleans, the very centres of 
 Southern refinement. 
 
 "Tuscaloosa (Alab.) June 20,1827. The negro [one who 
 had killed a Mr. M'Neilly] was taken before a Justice of the 
 Peace, who waived his authority, perhaps through fear, as a 
 crowd of persons had collected, to the number of seventy or 
 eighty, near Mr. People's [the Justice] house. He acted as Pre- 
 
30 
 
 sident of the mo}), and put the vote, when it was decided that he 
 should be immediately executed by being burned to death. The 
 sable culprit was led to a tree and tied to it, and a large quantity 
 of pine knots collected and placed around him, and the fatal torch 
 applied to the pile, even against the remonstrances of several 
 gentlemen who were present, and the miserable being was in a 
 short time burned to ashes. This is the second negro who has been 
 thus put to death, without judge or jury in this country." 
 
 On the 28th of April, 1836, a free negro was arrested in St. 
 Louis (Missouri) and committed to jail on a charge of murder. 
 A mob assembled and demanded him of the jailor, who surren- 
 dered him. The negro was then chained to a tree a short dis- 
 tance from the Court House, and burned to death. 
 
 " After the flames had surrounded their prey, and when his 
 clothes were in a blaze all over him, his eyes burnt out of his 
 head, and his mouth seemingly parched to a cinder, some one in 
 the crowd, more compassionate than the rest, proposed to put an 
 end to his misery by shooting him, when it was replied that it 
 would be of no use, since he was already out of his pain. ' No,' 
 said the wretch, ' I am not, I am suffering as much as ever ; shoot 
 me, shoot me.' ' No, no,' said one of the fiends who was stand- 
 ing about the sacrifice they were roasting, ' he shall not be shot, 
 I would sooner slacken the fire, if that would increase his misery ;' 
 and the man who said this was, we understand, an officer of jus- 
 tice." — Alton Telegraph. 
 
 " We have been Wormed that the slave William, who murdered 
 his master (Huskey) some weeks since, was taken by a party a 
 few days since from the Sheriff oi Hot Spring, and burned alive! 
 yes, tied up to the limb of a tree and a fire built under him, and 
 consumed in a slow lingering torture." — Arkansas Gazette, Oct. 
 29. 1836. 
 
 The Natchez Free Trader, 16th June, 1842, gives a horrible 
 account of the execution of the negro, Joseph, on the 5th of that 
 month for murder. 
 
 " The body," says that paper, " was taken and chained to a tree 
 immediately on the bank of the Mississippi, on what is called 
 Union Point. The torches were lighted and placed in the pile. 
 He watched unmoved the curling ilame as it grew, until it began 
 to entwine rteelf around and feed upon his body ; then he sent 
 forth cries of agony painful to the ear, begging some one to blow 
 his brains out ; at the same time surging with almost superhuman 
 strength, until the staple with which the chain was fastened to 
 the tree, not being well secured, drew out, and he leaped from 
 
31 
 
 the burning pile. At that moment the sharp ring of several 
 rifles was heard, and the body of the negro fell a corpse to the 
 ground. He was picked up by two or three, and again thrown 
 into the fire and consumed." 
 
 "Another Negro Burned. — We learn from the clerk of the 
 Highlander that, while wooding a short distance below the mouth 
 of Red river, they were invited to stop a short time and see ano- 
 ther negro burned"— N. 0. Bulletin. 
 
 Thus we see that burning negroes alive is treated as a specta- 
 cle, and strangers .are invited to witness it. The victim of this 
 exhibition was the negro Enoch, said to have been an accomplice 
 of Joseph, and was burned a few r days after the other. 
 
 We have thus given you no less than six instances of human 
 beings publicly burned alive in four slave States, and in each case 
 with entire impunity to the miscreants engaged in the horrible 
 murder. But these were cases which happened to be reported in 
 the newspapers, and with which we happened to become ac- 
 quainted. There is reason to believe that these executions are 
 not of rare occurrence, and that many of them, either through 
 indifference or policy, are not noticed in the Southern papers. 
 
 A recent traveller remarks, " Just before I reached Mobile, two 
 men were burned alive there in a slow fire in the open air, in the 
 presence of the gentlemen of the city. No word was breathed of 
 the transaction in the newspapers. " -Martineaii s Society in 
 America, vol. i., p. 373. 
 
 But the murderous spirit deplored by the Governors of Ken- 
 tucky and Alabama, and the " frightful deluge of human blood" 
 complained of by the New Orleans editor, had no reference to the 
 murder of negroes. Men who can enjoy the sight of negroes 
 writhing in flames, and are permitted by the civil authorities to 
 indulge in such exhibitions, will not be very scrupulous in taking 
 the lives of each other. It is well known how incessantly the 
 work of human slaughter is going on among them; and no reader 
 of their public journals can be ignorant of the frequent occurrence 
 of their deadly street fights. But, for the reason already given, 
 we meddle not with these. We charge the slaveholding commu- 
 nity, as such, with sanctioning murder, and protecting the perpe- 
 trators, and setting the laws at defiance. This we know is a 
 grievous charge, and most grievous the proof of it. But mistake 
 not our meaning. God forbid we should deny that many of the 
 community to which we refer, utterly abhor the atrocities we arc 
 about to detail. We speak of the murderous feelings of the 
 slaveholding community, just as we speak of the politics, the 
 manners, and the morals of any other community, freely acknow- 
 
32 
 
 ledging that there are numerous and honorable exceptions. For 
 the general truth of our assertion, we appeal to the authorities 
 and the facts we have already laid before you, and to those we 
 are about to offer. 
 
 You have already seen that the pro-slavery press has recom- 
 mended the murder of such northern abolitionists as may be 
 caught in the South ; we now ask your attention to the efforts made 
 by the slaveholders to get prominent abolitionists into their power. 
 
 In 1831, a citizen of Massachusetts established a newspaper 
 at Boston, called the Liberator, and devoted to the cause of negro 
 emancipation. The undertaking was perfectly legal, and he him- 
 self, having never been in Georgia, had of course violated none 
 of her laws. The legislature, however, forthwith passed a law, 
 offering a bribe of $5000 to any person who would arrest and 
 and bring to trial and conviction, in Georgia, the editor and pub- 
 lisher of the Boston paper. This most atrocious law was " ap- 
 proved" on the 26th Dec, 1831, by William Lumpkin, the 
 Governor. The object of the bribe could have been no other 
 than the abduction and murder of the conductor of the paper — 
 his trial and conviction under Georgia laws being a mere pretence : 
 the Georgia courts have as much jurisdiction over the Press in 
 Paris as in Boston. A Lynch court was the only one that could 
 have taken cognizance of the offence, and its proceedings would 
 undoubtedly have been both summary and sanguinary. 
 
 The horrible example thus set by the Georgia Legislature was 
 not without its followers. 
 
 At a meeting of slaveholders at Sterling, Sept. 4, 1835, it was 
 formally recommended to the Governor to issue a proclamation, 
 offering the $5000 appropriated by the Act of 1831, as a reward 
 for the apprehension of either of ten persons named in the reso- 
 lution, citizens of New York and Massachusetts, and one a sub- 
 ject of Great Britain ; not one of whom it was even pretended 
 had ever set his foot on the soil of Georgia. 
 
 The Milledgeville [Ga.] Federal Union, of Feb. 1, 1836, con- 
 tained an offer of $10,000 for kidnapping A. A. Phelps, a cler- 
 gyman residing in the city of New York. 
 
 The Committee of Vigilance of the Parish of East Feliciana, 
 offered in the Louisiana Journal of 15th Oct., 1835, $50,000 to 
 any person who would deliver into their hands Arthur Tappan, a 
 New York merchant. 
 
 At a public meeting of the citizens of Mount Meigs, Alabama, 
 13th August, 1836, the Honorable [!] Bedford Ginress in the 
 chair, a reward of $50,000 was offered for the apprehension of 
 Arthur Tappan, or Le Roy Sunderland, a clergyman of the 
 Methodist Church residing in New York. 
 
33 
 
 Let us now witness the practical operation of that murderous 
 spirit which dictated the foregoing villainous bribes. We have 
 already seen the conduct of the slave-holding community to neyro 
 offenders ; we are now to notice its tender mercies to men of its 
 own color. 
 
 In 1835, there was a real or affected apprehension of a 
 servile insurrection in the State of Mississippi. The slaveholders, 
 as usual on such occasions, were exceedingly frightened, and 
 were exceedingly cruel. A pamphlet was afterwards pub- 
 lished, entitled " Proceedings of the Citizens of Madison County, 
 Miss., at Livingston, in July, 1835, in relation to the trial 
 and punishment of several individuals implicated in a con- 
 templated insurrection in this State. — Prepared by Thomas 
 Shuckelford, Esquire. Printed at Jackson, Miss." This pamph- 
 let, then, is the Southern account of the affair ; and while it is 
 more minute in its details than the narratives published in the 
 newspapers at the time, we are not aware that it contradicts 
 them. It may be regarded as a sort of semi-official report put 
 forth by the slaveholders, and published under their implied sanc- 
 tion. It appears, from this account, that in consequence of " ru- 
 mors" that the slaves meditated an insurrection — that a colored 
 girl had been heard to say that " she was tired of waiting on the 
 white folks — wanted to be her own mistress for the balance of 
 her days, and clean up her own house, &c," a meeting was held 
 at which resolutions were signed, organizing a committee, and 
 authorizing them " to bring before than any person or persons, 
 either white or black, and try in a summary manner any person 
 brought before them, with power to hang or whip, being always 
 governed by the laws of the land, so far only as they shall be ap- 
 plicable to the case in question ; otherwise to act as in their discretion 
 shall seem best for the benefit of the country and the protection of 
 its citizens." 
 
 This was certainly a most novel mode of erecting and commis- 
 sioning a Court of judicature, with the power of life and death, ex- 
 pressly authorized to act independently of " the laws of the land." 
 The Constitution of the State of Mississippi, which no doubt 
 many of the honorable Judges of the Court had on other occa- 
 sions taken an oath to support, contains the following clause :— - 
 '* No person shall be accused, arrested or detained, except in 
 cases ascertained by law, and according to the forms which the 
 same has prescribed ; aud no person shall be punished, but in vir- 
 tue of a law established and promulgated prior to the offence, 
 and legally applied." 
 
 Previous to the organization of this Court, five slaves had al- 
 ready been hung by the people. The Court, or rather, as it was 
 
 2* 
 
31 
 
 modestly called by the meeting who erected it, " the committee," 
 proceeded to try Dr. Joshua Cotton, of New England. It was 
 proved to the satisfaction of the committee that he had been de- 
 tected in many low tricks — that he was deficient in feeling and af- 
 fection for his second wife — that he had traded with negroes — 
 that he had asked a negro boy whether the slaves were whipped 
 much, how he would like to be free ? &c. It is stated that Cotton 
 made a confession that he had been aiming to bring about a con- 
 spiracy. The committee condemned him to be hanged in an 
 
 HOUR AFTER SENTENCE. 
 
 William Saunders, a native of Tennessee, was next tried. He 
 was convicted " of being often out at night, and giving no satis- 
 factory explanation for so doing" — of equivocal conduct — of be- 
 ing intimate with Cotton, &c. Whereupon, by a unanimous vote, 
 he was found guilty and sentenced to be hung. He was exe- 
 cuted with Cotton on the 4th of July. 
 
 Albe Dean, of Connecticut, was next tried. He was convicted 
 of being a lazy, indolent man, having very little jwetensions to 
 honesty — of " pretending to make a living by constructing wash- 
 ing machines" — of " often coming to the owners of runaways, to 
 intercede with the masters to save them from a whipping." He 
 was sentenced to be hung, and was executed. 
 
 A. L. Dona van, of Kentucky, was then put on his trial. He 
 was suspected of having traded with the negroes — of being found 
 in their cabins, and enjoying himself in their Society. It was 
 proved that " at one time he actually undertook to release a 
 negro who was tied, which negro afterwards implicated him," 
 and that he once told an overseer " it was cruel work to be 
 whipping the poor negroes as he was obliged to do." The com- 
 mittee were satisfied, from the evidence before them, that Dona- 
 van was an emissary of those deluded fanatics of the North, 
 the abolitionists. He was condemned to be hung, and suffered 
 accordingly. 
 
 Ruel Blake was next tried, condemned and hung. " He pro- 
 tested his innocence to the last, and said his life was sworn 
 away." 
 
 Here we have a record of no less than ten men, five black 
 and five white, probably all innocent of the crime alleged against 
 them, deliberately and publicly put to death by the slaveholders, 
 without the shadow of legal authority. 
 
 The Maysville, Ken. Gazette, in announcing Donavan's mur- 
 der, says, " he formerly belonged to Maysville, and was a much 
 respected citizen." 
 
 A letter from Donavan to his wife, written just before his 
 execution, and published in the Maysville paper, says, "I am 
 
35 
 
 doomed to die to-morrow at 12 o' clock, on a charge of having 
 been concerned in a negro insurrection, in this State, among 
 many other whites. We are not tried by a regular jury, but 
 by a committee of planters appointed for the purpose, who have 
 
 not time to wait on a person for evidence Now I must 
 
 close by saying, before my Maker and Judge, that I go into his 
 presence as innocent of this charge as when I was born .... 
 I must bid you a final farewell, hoping that the God of the 
 widow and the fatherless will give you grace to bear this most 
 awful sentence." 
 
 And now, did these butcheries by the Mississippi planters 
 excite the indignation of the slaveholding communities ? Receive 
 the answer from an editor of the Ancient Dominion, replying to 
 the comments of a Northern newspaper. "The Journal may 
 depend upon it that the Cottons and the Saunders, men con- 
 fessing themselves guilty of inciting and plotting insurrection, 
 will be hanged up wherever caught, and that without the forma- 
 lity of a legal trial. Northern or Southern, such will be their 
 inevitable doom. For our part, we applaud the transaction, and 
 none in our opinion can condemn it, who have not a secret sym- 
 pathy with the Garrison sect. If Northern sympathy and effort 
 are to be cooled and extinguished by such cases, it proves but 
 this, that the South ought to feel little confidence in the profes- 
 sions it receives from that quarter." — Richmond Whig. 
 
 About the time of the massacre in Clinton County, another 
 awful tragedy was performed at Vicksburg in the same State. 
 Five men, said to be gamblers, were hanged by the mob on the 
 5th July, in open day. 
 
 The Louisiana Advertiser, of 13th July, says, " These unfortu- 
 nate men claimed to the last, the privilege of American citizens, the 
 trial by Jury, and professed themselves willing to submit to any- 
 thing their country would legally inflict upon them : but we , are 
 sorry to say, their petition was in vain. The black musicians 
 were ordered to strike up, and the voices of the supplicants were 
 drowned by the fife and drum. Mr. Riddle, the Cashier of the 
 Planters'' Bank, ordered them to play Yankee Doodle. The 
 unhappy sufferers frequently implored a drink of water, but they 
 were refused.'" 
 ■ The sympathy of the Louisiana editor, so different from his 
 brother of Richmond, was probably owing to the fact, that the 
 murdered men were accused of being gamblers, and not aboli- 
 tionists. 
 
 When we said these five men were hung by the mob, we did 
 not mean what Chancellor Harper calls " the democratic rabble." 
 It seems the Cashier of a Bank, a man to whom the slaveholders 
 
36 
 
 entrust the custody of their money, officiated on the occasion as 
 Master of Ceremonies. 
 
 A few days after the murders at Vicksburg, a negro named 
 Vincent was sentenced by a Lynch club at Clinton, Miss., to 
 receive 300 lashes, for an alleged participation in an intended 
 insurrection. We copy from the Clinton Gazette. 
 
 " On Wednesday evening Vincent was carried out to receive 
 his stripes, but the assembled multitude were in favor of hang- 
 ing him. A vote was accordingly fairly taken, and the hanging 
 party had it by an overwhelming majority, as the politicians say. 
 He was remanded to prison. On the day of execution a still 
 larger crowd was assembled, and fearing that the public sentiment 
 might have changed in regard to his fate, after everything favor- 
 able to the culprit was alleged which could be said, the vote was 
 taken, and his death was demanded by the people. In pursuance of 
 this sentiment, so unequivocally expressed", he was led to a black 
 jack and suspended to one of its branches — we approve en- 
 tirely OF THE PROCEEDINGS ; THE PEOPLE HAVE ACTED PRO- 
 PERLY." 
 
 Thus, sixteen human beings were deliberately and publicly 
 murdered, by assembled crowds, in different parts of the State of 
 Mississippi, within little more than one week, in open defiance of 
 the laws and Constitution of the State. 
 
 And now we ask, what notice did the chief magistrate 
 of Mississippi, sworn to support her Constitution, sworn to execute 
 her laws — what notice, we ask, did he take of these horrible 
 massacres ? Why, at the next session of the Legislature, Gov- 
 ernor Lynch, addressing them in reference ..o abolition, remarked, 
 " Mississippi has given a practical demonstration of feeling on 
 this exciting subject, that may serve as an impressive admonition 
 to offenders ; and however we may regret the occasion, we are 
 constrained to admit, that necessity will sometimes prompt a sum- 
 mary mode of trial and punishment unknown to the law." 
 
 The iniquity and utter falsehood of this declaration, as applied 
 to the transactions alluded to, are palpable. If the victims were 
 innocent, no necessity required their murder. If guilty, no ne- 
 cessity required their execution contrary to law. There was no 
 difficulty in securing their persons, and bringing them to trial. 
 
 In 1841, an unsuccessful attempt was made in Kentucky to 
 murder a man. The assailants were arrested and lodged in jail 
 for trial. Their fate is thus related in a letter by an eye-witness, 
 published in the Cincinnati Gazette : — 
 
3V 
 
 " Williamstown, Ky., July 11, 1841. 
 " The unfortunate men, Lyman Couch and Smith Maythe, wert 
 taken out of jail on Saturday about 12 o'clock, and taken to the 
 ground where they committed the horrid 'deed on Utterback, and 
 at 4 o'clock were hung on the tree where Utterback lay when 
 his throat was cut. The jail was opened by force. I suppo e 
 there were from four to seven hundred people engaged in it. 
 Resistance was all in vain. There were three speeches made to 
 the mob, but all in vain. They allowed the prisoners the privi- 
 lege of clergy for about five hours, and then observed that they 
 had made their peace with God, and they deserved to die. The 
 mob was conducted with coolness and order, more so than I ever 
 heard of on such occasions. But such a day was never wit- 
 nessed in our little village, and I hope never will be again." 
 
 The fact that this atrocity was perpetrated in "our lit lie vil- 
 lage," and by a rural population, affords an emphatic and horrible 
 indication of the state of morals in one of the oldest and best of 
 our slave States. 
 
 Would that we could here close these fearful narratives ; but 
 another and more recent instance of that ferocious lawlessness which 
 slavery has engendered, must still be added. The following facts 
 are gathered from the Norfolk (Va.) Beacon of 19th Nov., 18 12. 
 
 George W. Lore was, in April, 1842, convicted in Alabama, 
 on circumstantial evidence, of the crime of murder. The Supreme 
 Court granted a new trial, remarking, as is stated in another 
 paper, that the testimony on which he was convicted was " unfit 
 to be received by any court of justice recognized among civilized 
 nations." In the mean time, Lore escaped from jail, and was 
 afterwards arrested. He was seized by a mob, who put it to 
 vote, whether he should be surrendered to the civil authority or 
 be hung. Of 132 votes, 130 were for immediate death, and he 
 was accordingly hung at Spring Hill, Bourbon County, on the 
 4th November. 
 
 And now, what think you of Mr. Calhoun's " most safe and 
 stable basis for free institutions ?" Do you number trial by 
 jury among free institutions? You see on what basis it 
 rests — the will of the slaveholders. In New York we are 
 told by high Southern authority, "you may find loafer, and 
 loco-foco, and agrarian, and the most corrupt and depraved 
 of rabbles." But we ask you, where would your life be most 
 secure if charged with crime, amid the rabble of New York, 
 or that of Clinton, Vicksburg, and Williamstown ? We think 
 we have fully proved our assertion respecting the disregard 
 
38 
 
 of human life felt by the slaveholding community ; and of course 
 their contempt for those legal barriers which are erected for its 
 protection. Let us now inquire more particularly how far slavery 
 is indeed a stable basis', on which free institutions may securely 
 rest. 
 
 VIII. DISREGARD FOR CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGA- 
 TIONS. 
 
 Governor McDuffie, in his speech of 1834 to the South Caro- 
 lina Legislature, characterized the Federal Constitution as "that 
 miserable mockery of blurred, and obliterated, and tattered 
 parchment." Judging from their conduct, the slaveholders, 
 while fully concurring with the Governor in his contempt for the 
 national parchment, have quite as little respect for their own 
 State Constitution and Laws. 
 
 The " tattered parchment" of which Mr. McDuffie speaks, de- 
 clares that " the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the 
 privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States." Art. 
 IV. Sec. 2. Notwithstanding this express provison, there are in 
 almost every slave State, if not in all, laws for seizing, imprison- 
 ing, and then selling as slaves for life, citizens having black or 
 yellow complexions, entering within their borders. This is done 
 under pretence that the individuals are supposed to be fugitives 
 from bondage. When circumstances forbid such a supposition, 
 other devices are adopted, for nullifying the provision we have 
 quoted. By a law of Louisiana, every free negro or mulatto, 
 arriving on board any vessel as a mariner or passenger, shall be 
 immediately imprisoned till the departure of the vessel, when he 
 is to be compelled to depart in her. [f such free negro or mu- 
 latto returns to the State, he is to be imprisoned for five years. 
 
 The jailor of Savannah some time since reported ten stewards 
 as being in his custody. These were free citizens of other States, 
 deprived of their liberty solely on account of the complexion 
 their Maker had given them, and in direct violation of the express 
 language of the Federal Constitution. If any free negro or 
 mulatto enters the State of Mississippi, for any cause however 
 urgent, any white citizen may cause him to be punished by the 
 Sheriff with thirty -nine lashes, and if he does not immediately 
 thereafter leave the State, he is sold as a slave. 
 
 Id Mar] land, a free negro or mulatto, coming into the State, is 
 fined 120, and if he returns he is fined $500, and on default of 
 payment, is sold &s i slate. Truly indeed have the slaveholders' 
 rendered the Constitution a blurred, obliterated, and tattered 
 parchment Bu1 whenever this same Constitution can, by the 
 
39 
 
 grossest perversion, be made instrumental in upholding and per- 
 petuating human bondage, then it acquires, for the time, a mar- 
 vellous sanctity in their eyes, and they are seized with a holy 
 indignation at the very suspicion of its profanation. 
 
 The readiness with which Southern Governors prefer the most 
 false and audacious claims, under color of Constitutional autho- 
 rity, exhibits a state of society in which truth and honor are but 
 little respected. 
 
 In 1833, seventeen slaves effected their escape from Virginia 
 in a boat, and finally reached New York. To recover their slaves 
 as suck, a judicial investigation in New York would be necessary, 
 and the various claimants would be required to prove their pro- 
 perty. A more convenient mode presented itself. The Governor 
 of Virginia made a requisition on the Executive of New York for 
 them as fugitive felons, and on this requisition, a warrant was is- 
 sued for their arrest and surrender. The pretended felony was 
 stealing the boat in which they had escaped. 
 
 In 1839, a slave escaped from Virginia on board of a vessel 
 bound to New York. It was suspected, but without a particle of 
 proof, that some of the crew had favored his escape ; and imme- 
 diately the master made oath that three of the sailors, naming 
 them, had feloniously stolen the slave ; and the Governor, well 
 knowing there was no slave-market in New York, and that no 
 man could there be held in slavery, had the hardihood to de- 
 mand the surrender of the mariners, on the charge of grand lar- 
 ceny ; and, in his correspondence with the Governor of New 
 York, declared the slave was worth six or seven hundred dollars, 
 and remarked that stealing was " recognized as a crime by all 
 laws, human and divine." 
 
 In 1841, a female slave, belonging to a man named Flournoy, 
 in Georgia, was discovered on board a vessel about to sail for 
 New York, and was recovered by her master. It was afterwards 
 supposed, from the woman's story, that she had been induced by 
 one of the passengers to attempt her escape. Whereupon Flour- 
 noy made oath that John Greenman did feloniously steal his 
 slave. But the Governor of New York had already refused to 
 surrender citizens of his State, on a charge so palpably false and 
 absurd. It was therefore deemed necessary to trump up a very 
 different charge against the accused ; anoL hence Flournoy made 
 a second affidavit, that John Greenman did feloniously steal and 
 take away three blankets, two shaivls, three frocks, one pair of ear- 
 rings, and two finger-rings, the property of deponent. Armed with 
 these affidavits, the Governor demanded the surrender of Green- 
 man under the Constitution. Not an intimation was given by His 
 Excellency, when he made the demand, of the real facts of the 
 
case, which, in a subsequent correspondence, he was compelled 
 to admit. It turned out that the woman, instead of being stolen, 
 went voluntarily, and no doubt joyfully, on board the vessel ; and 
 that the wearing apparel, etc.. were the clothes and ornaments 
 worn by her ; nor was there a pretence that Greenman had ever 
 touched them, or ever had them in his possession. 
 
 We have said that the slaveholders hold their own laws and 
 Constitutions in the same contempt as those of the Federal Go- 
 vernment, whenever they conflict with the security and perma- 
 nency of slavery. One of the most inestimable of constitutional 
 privileges is trial by jury ; and this, as we have seen, is tram- 
 pled under foot with impunity, at the mandate of the slave- 
 holders. Even John Tyler, as it appears, is for inflicting 
 summary punishment on abolitionists, by a Lynch club, " with- 
 out resorting to any other tribunal." 
 
 We now proceed to inquire how far they respect the liberty of 
 speech and of the press. 
 
 IX. LIBERTY OF SPEECH. 
 
 The whole nation witnessed the long successful efforts of the 
 slaveholders in Congress, by their various gag resolutions, and 
 through the aid of recreant Northern politicians, to destroy all 
 freedom of debate adverse to "the peculiar institution." They 
 w. re themselves ready to dwell, in debate, on the charms of human 
 Lge : but when a member took the other side of the question, 
 then, indeed, he was out ol order, the constitution was out raged, and 
 the Onion endangered. We all know the violent threats which 
 have been used, to intimidate the friends of human rights from 
 expressing their sentiments in the national legislature. "As 
 long," says Governor Mc Duffle to the South Carolina Legislature, 
 long as tli.' halls of Congress shall he open to the discussion 
 of fchis question, we can have neither peace nor security." The 
 Charleston Mercury is, od (hi- subject, very high authority; and 
 ia L 837 its editor announced that " Public opinion in the South 
 would now, we are sure, justify an immediate resort to force by 
 tin- Southern delegation, even on the floor of Congress, were 
 ihey forthwith to seize and drag from the hall any man who 
 dared to insult them, as that eccentric old showman, John Quincy 
 Adams has dared to do." 
 
 When BO much malignity is manifested against the freedom of 
 speech, in the very sanctuary of American liberty, it is not to be 
 supposed that it will be tolerated in the house of bondage. We 
 have already quoted a Southern paper, which declares that the 
 moment " any private individual attempts to lecture us on the 
 
41 
 
 evils and immorality of slavery, that very moment his tongue 
 shall be cut out and cast upon the dunghill." 
 
 In Marion College, Missouri, there appeared some symptoms 
 of anti-slavery feeling among the students. A Lynch club as- 
 sembled, and the Rev. Dr. Ely, one of the professors, appeared 
 before them, and denounced abolition, and submitted a series of 
 resolutions passed by the faculty, and among them the following : 
 " We do hereby forbid all discussions and public meetings among 
 the students upon the subject of domestic slavery." The Lynch- 
 ers were pacified, and neither tore down the college nor hung up 
 the professors ; but before separating they resolved that they would 
 oppose the elevation to office of any man entertaining abolition 
 sentiments, and would withhold their countenance and support 
 from every such member of the community. Indeed, it is obvious 
 to any person attentive to the movements of the South, that the 
 slaveholders dread domestic far more than foreign interference 
 with their darling system. 
 
 X. LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. 
 
 The Constitutions of all the slave States guarantee, in the most 
 solemn and explicit terms, the Liberty of the Press ; but it is 
 well understood that there is one exception to its otherwise un- 
 bounded license — Property in human flesh is too sacred to be as- 
 sailed by the press. The attributes of the Deity may be dis- 
 cussed, but not the rights of the master. The characters of 
 public, and even of private men, may be vilified at pleasure, 
 provided no reproach is flung upon the slaveholder. Every 
 abuse in Church or State may be ferreted out and exposed, ex- 
 cept the cruelties practiced upon the slaves, unless when they 
 happen to exceed the ordinary standard of cruelty established 
 by general usage. Every measure of policy may be advocated, 
 except that of free labor ; every question of right may be ex- 
 amined, except that of a man to himself ; every dogma in the- 
 ology may be propagated, except that of the sinfulness of the 
 slave code. The very instant the press ventures beyond its pre- 
 scribed limits, the constitutional barriers erected for its protection 
 sink into the dust, and a censorship, the more stern and vindictive 
 from being illegal, crushes it into submission. The midnight 
 burglary perpetrated upon the Charleston Post-office, and the 
 conflagration of the anti-slavery papers found in it, are well 
 known. These' papers had been sent to distinguished citizens, 
 but it was deemed inexpedient to permit them to read facts and 
 
m ■ 
 
 arguments against slavery. Vast pains have been taken to keep 
 slaveholders as well as others ignorant of every fact and argu- 
 ment that militates against the system. Hence Mr. Calhoun's 
 famous bill, authorizing every Southern post-master to abstract 
 from the mails every paper relating to slavery. Hence the insane 
 efforts constantly made to expurgate the literature of the world 
 of all recognition of the rights of black men. Novels, annuals, 
 poems, and histories, containing sentiments hostile to human 
 bondage, are proscribed at the South, and Northern publishers 
 have had the extreme baseness to publish mutilated editions for 
 the Southern market.* 
 
 In some of the slave States laws have been passed establishing 
 a censorship of the press, for the exclusive and special benefit of 
 the slaveholders. Some time since an anti-slavery pamphlet was 
 mailed at New York, directed to a gentleman in Virginia. Pre- 
 sently a letter was received from William Wilson, post-master at 
 Lexington, Va., saying — 
 
 " I have to advise you that a law passed at the last session of 
 the Legislature of this State, which took effect on the first day 
 of this month, makes it the duty of the post-masters or their 
 assistants to report to some magistrate (under penalty of from 
 $50 to $200), the receipt of all such publications at his office ; 
 and if, on examination, the magistrate is of opinion they come 
 under the provision of the law, it is his duty to have them 'burnt 
 in his presence — which operation toas performed on the above men- 
 tioned pamphlet this morning? 1 
 
 The Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, a well-known zealous oppo- 
 nent of abolition, edited, in 1835, "The Baltimore Religious 
 Magazine." A number of this magazine contained an article 
 from a correspondent, entitled "Bible-Slavery." The tone of 
 this article not suiting the slave-breeders of Petersburg (Virg.), 
 the subscribers were deprived of the numbers forwarded to them 
 through the post-office of that town. The magazines were taken 
 from i!m- Office, and on the 8th May, 1838, were burnt in the 
 Btreet, before the door of the public reading-room, in the presence 
 and by the direction of the Mayor and Recorder! ! 
 
 It is surely unnecessary to remark, that this Virginia law is in 
 
 * The Earners, of New York, in reply to a letter from the South, com. 
 plaining of the anti-slavery sentiments in a book they had recently pub- 
 lishe i. stated, "since the receipt of your letter we have published an 
 edition of the ' Woods and Fields,' in which the offensive matter has been 
 omitted." 
 
43 
 
 contemptuous violation of the Constitution of Virginia, and of the 
 authority of the Federal Government. The act of Congress 
 requires each post-master to deliver the papers which come to his 
 office to the persons to whom they are directed, and they require 
 him to take an oath to fulfil his duty. The Virginia law imposes 
 duties on an officer over whom they have no control, utterly at 
 variance with his oath, and the obligations under which he as- 
 sumed the office. If the postmaster must select, under a heavy 
 penalty, for a public bonfire, all papers bearing on slavery, why 
 may he not be hereafter required to select, for the same fate, all 
 papers hostile to Popery ? Yet similar laws are now in force in 
 various slave States. 
 
 Not only is this espionage exercised over the mail, but mea- 
 sures are taken to keep the community in ignorance of what is 
 passing abroad in relation to slavery, and what opinions are else- 
 where held respecting it. 
 
 On the 1st of August, 1842, an interesting address was deli- 
 vered in Massachusetts, by the late Dr. Channing, in relation to 
 West India emancipation, embracing, as was natural and proper, 
 reflections on American slavery. This address w T as copied into a 
 New York weekly paper, and the number containing it was of- 
 fered for sale, as usual, by the agent of the periodical at Charles- 
 ton. Instantly the agent was prosecuted by the South Carolina 
 Association, and was held to bail in the sum of 81,000, to answer 
 for his crime. Presently after, this same agent received for sale 
 a supply of " Dickens' Notes on the United States," but having 
 before his eyes the fear of the slaveholders, he gave notice in the 
 newspapers, that the book would " be submitted to highly intelli- 
 gent members of the South Carolina Association for inspection, 
 and IF the sale is approved by them, it will be for sale — if not, 
 not." And so the population of one of the largest cities of the 
 slave region were not permitted to read a book they were all 
 burning with impatience to see, till the volume had been first in- 
 spected by a self-constituted board of censors ! The slaveholders, 
 however, were in this instance afraid to put their power to the 
 test — the people might have rebelled if forbidden to read the 
 "Notes," and hence one of the most powerful, effective anti- 
 slavery tracts yet issued from the press was permitted to be cir- 
 culated, because people ivould read what Dickens had written. 
 Surely, you will not accuse us of slander, when we say that the 
 slaveholders have abolished the liberty of the press. Remember 
 the assertion of the editor of the Missouri Argus : " Abolition 
 editors in the slave States will not dare to avow their opinions: 
 it would be instant death to them." 
 
44 
 
 XL MILITARY WEAKNESS. 
 
 A distinguished foreigner, after traveling in the Southern 
 Slates, remarked that the very aspect of the country bore testi- 
 mony that, defenceless and exposed as they are, it would be 
 madness to hazard a civil war ; and surely no people in, the 
 world have more cause to shrink from an appeal to arms. We. 
 find at the South no one element of military strength. Slavery, 
 as we have seen, checks the progress of population, of the arts, 
 of enterprise, and of industry. But above all, the laboring class, 
 which in other countries affords the materials of which armies are 
 composed, is regarded at the South as a most deadly foe ; and 
 the siirht of a thousand negroes with arms in their hands, would 
 send a thrill of terror through the stoutest hearts, and excite a 
 panic which no number of the veteran troops of Europe could 
 produce. Even now, laws are in force to keep arms out of the 
 hands of a population which ought to be a reliance in danger, but 
 which is dreaded by day and night, in peace and war. 
 
 During our revolutionary war, when the idea of negro emanci- 
 pation had scarcely entered the imagination of any of our citizens 
 — when there were no "fanatic abolitionists," no "incendiary 
 publications," no " treasonable " anti-slavery associations ; in 
 those palmy days of slavery, no small portion of the Southern 
 militia were withdrawn from the defence of the country to pro- 
 tect the slaveholders from the vengeance of their own bondmen ! 
 This you would be assured was abolition slander, were not the 
 fact recorded in the national archives. The Secret Journal of 
 Congress (Vol. L, p. 105) contains the following remarkable and 
 instructive record : — 
 
 "March 20th, 1779. — The Committee appointed to take into 
 uonsideration the circumstances of the Southern States, and the 
 ways and means for their safety and defence, report, That the 
 State of South Carolina (as represented by the delegates of the 
 said State, and by Mr. linger, who has come hither at the re- 
 quest of the Governor of said State, on purpose to explain the 
 particular circumstances thereof,) is unable to make any effectual 
 efforts with militia, by reason of the great proportion of citizens 
 necessary to remain at home, to prevent insurrection among the 
 negroes, and to prevent the desertion of them to the enemy. 
 Thai the state of the country, and the great number of these 
 people among them, expose the inhabitants to great danger, from 
 the endeavors of the enemy to excite them to revolt or desert." 
 
 At the first census, in 1790, eleven years after this report, and 
 
45 
 
 when the slaves had unquestionably greatly increased their num- 
 bers, they were only 107,094 fewer than the whites. If, then, 
 these slaves exposed their masters " to great danger," and the 
 militia of South Carolina were obliged to stay at home to protebt 
 their families, not from the foreign invaders, but the domestic 
 enemies, what would be the condition of the Jittle blustering nul- 
 lifying State, with a foreign army on her shores, and 335,000 
 slaves ready to aid it, while her own white population, militia 
 and all, is but as two whites to three blacks ? 
 
 Slaveholders, in answer to the abolitionists, are wont to boast 
 of the fidelity and attachment of their slaves ; among themselves 
 they freely avow their dread of these same faithful and attached 
 slaves, and are fertile in expedients to guard against their ven- 
 geance. 
 
 It is natural that we should fear those whom we are conscious 
 of having deeply injured, and all history and experience testify 
 that fear is a cruel passion. Hence the shocking seventy with 
 which, in all slave countries, attempts to shake oft" an unrighteous 
 yoke are punished. So late even as 1822, certain slaves in 
 Charleston were suspected of an intention to rise and assert their 
 freedom. No overt act was committed, but certain blacks were 
 found who professed to testify against their fellows, and some, it 
 is said, confessed their intentions. 
 
 On this ensued one of the most horrible judicial butcheries on 
 record. It is not deemed necessary, in the chivalrous Palmetto 
 State, to give grand and petit juries the trouble of indicting and 
 trying slaves, even when their lives are at stake. A court, con- 
 sisting of two Justices of the Peace and five freeholders, was con- 
 vened for the trial of the accused, and the following were the 
 results of their labors : — 
 
 July 2 6 hanged, 
 
 "12 2 " 
 
 "26 22 " 
 
 "30 4 " 
 
 August 9 1 " 
 
 Total 35 
 
 Now, let it be remembered, that this sacrifice of human life 
 was made by one of the lowest tribunals in the State ; a tribunal 
 consisting of two petty magistrates and five freeholders, appointed 
 for the occasion, not possessing a judicial rank, nor professing to 
 be learned in the law ; in short, a tribuual which would not be 
 trusted to decide the title to an acre of ground — we refer not to 
 the individuals composing the court, but to the court itself ; — a 
 
46 
 
 court which has not power to take away the land of a white man, 
 hangs black men by dozens ! 
 
 Listen to the confessions of the slaveholders with regard to 
 their happy dependents ; the men who are so contented under 
 the patriarchia! system, and whose condition might well excite 
 the envy of northern laborers, " the great democratic rabble." 
 
 Governor Hayne, in his message of 1833, warned the South 
 Carolina Legislature, that "a state of military preparation must 
 always be with us a state of perfect domestic security. A pro- 
 found peace, and consequent apathy, may expose us to the dan- 
 ger of domestic insurrection" So it seems the happy slaves are 
 to be kept from insurrection by a state of military preparation. 
 We have seen that, during the revolutionary war, the Carolina 
 militia were kept at home watchiag the slaves, instead of meeting 
 the British in the field ; but now it seems the same task awaits 
 the militia in a season of profound peace. Another South Caro - 
 linian* admonishes his. countrymen thus : " Let it never be for- 
 gotten that our negroes are truly the Jacobins of the country ; 
 that they are the anarchists, and the domestic enemy, the com- 
 mon ENEMY OF CIVILIZED SOCIETY, AND THE BARBARIANS WHO 
 WOULD, IF THEY COULD, BECOME THE DESTROYERS OF OUR RACE." 
 
 Again, " Hatred to the whites, with the exception, in some 
 cases, of attachment to the person and family of the master, is 
 nearly universal among the black population. We have then a 
 foe, cherished in our very bosoms — a foe willing to draw our 
 life-blood whenever the opportunity is offered ; in the mean 
 time intent on doing us all the mischief in his power." — Southern 
 Religious Telegraph. 
 
 In a debate in the Kentucky Legislature, in 1841, Mr. Harding, 
 opposing the repeal of the law prohibiting the importation of 
 slaves from other States, and looking forward to the time when 
 the blacks would greatly out-number the whites, exclaimed : 
 
 " In such a state of things, suppose an insurrection of the slaves 
 to take place. The master has become timid and fearful, the 
 slave bold and daring — the white men, overpowered with a sense 
 of superior numbers on the part of the slaves, cannot be embo- 
 died together ; every man must guard his own hearth and fo'eside. 
 No man would even dare for an hour to leave his own habitation ; 
 if he did, he would expect on his return to find his wife and 
 children massacred. But the slaves, with but little more than 
 
 * The author of " A Refutation of the Calumnies inculcated against 
 the Southern and Western States." 
 
47 
 
 the shadow of opposition before them, armed with ti, 
 riess of superior force and superior numbers on their side, ani- 
 mated with the hope of liberty, and maddened with the spirit of 
 revenge, embody themselves in every neighborhood, and furiously 
 march over the country, visiting every neighborhood with all the 
 horrors of civil war and bloodshed. And thus the yoke would 
 be transferred from the black to the white man, and the master 
 fall a bleeding victim to his own slave." 
 
 Such are the terrific visions which are constantly presenting 
 themselves to the affrighted imaginations of the slaveholders ; 
 such the character which, among themselves, they attribute to 
 their own domestics. 
 
 Attend to one more, and that one an extraordinary confession : 
 
 " We, of the South, are emphatically surrounded by a danger- 
 ous class of beings — degraded and stupid savages, who, if they 
 could but once entertain the idea, that immediate and uncondi- 
 tional death would not be their portion, would re-act the St. Do- 
 mingo tragedy. But a consciousness, with all their stupidity, that 
 a ten-fold force, superior in discipline, if not in barbarity, would 
 gather from the four corners of the United States, and slaughter 
 them, keeps them in subjection. But to the non-slaveholding 
 States particularly, are we indebted for a permanent safeguard 
 against insurrection. Without their assistance, the whit? popula- 
 tion of the South would be too weak to quitt the innate desire for 
 liberty, which is ever ready to act itself out with every rational 
 creature." — Maysmlle In telligencer. 
 
 And now we ask you, if all these declarations and confessions 
 be true — and who can doubt it — what must be their inevitable 
 condition, should their soil be invaded by a foreign foe, bearing 
 the standard of emancipation ? 
 
 In perfect accordance with the above confession, that to the 
 non-slaveholding States the South is indebted for a permanent 
 safeguard against insurrection, Mr. Underwood, of Kentucky, 
 uttered these pregnant words in a debate, in 1842, in Congress, 
 " The dissolution of the Union will be the dissolution of 
 
 SLAVERY." 
 
 The action of the Federal Government is, we know, controlled 
 by the slave interest ; and what testimony_does that action bear 
 to the military weakness of the South ? Let the reports of its 
 hio;h functionaries answer. 
 
 "The Secretary of War, in his report for 1S42, remarked, "The 
 Avorks intended for the more remote Southern portion of our terri- 
 tory, particularly require attention. Indications are already made of 
 
46 
 
 _ ns of the worst character against that region, in the event of 
 
 ities from a certain quarter, to which we cannot be insensi- 
 ble." The Secretary's fears had been evidently excited by the 
 organization of black regiments in the British West Indies, and 
 the threats of certain English writers, that a war between the 
 two countries would result in the liberation of the slaves. The 
 report from the Quarter-Master, General Jessup, a Southern man, 
 betravs the same anxiety, and in less am _ - terms : u In the 
 event of a war," says he, " with either of the great European 
 powers possessing the West Indies, there will be dan- 
 
 ger of the peninsula of Florida being occupied by BLACKS from 
 the Islands. A proper regard for the security of our Southern 
 States requires, that prompt and efficient measures be adopted to 
 prevent such a state of thir _ The Secretary of the Nary, a 
 
 slaveholder, hints his fears in cautious circumlocution. Speaking 
 of the event of a war with any considerable maritime power, he 
 
 •' It would be a war of incursions aimed at revolution. The 
 r - blow would be struck at us through our institutions ;" he 
 means, of course, M the peculiar institution." He then proceeds 
 to show that the enemy would seek success " in arraying, what 
 are supposed to be, the hostile elements of our social system 
 against each other ;" and he admits, that " even in the best event, 
 war on our own soil would be the more expensive, the more em- 
 barrassing, and the more horrible in it^ effects, by compelling us 
 at the same time to oppose an enemy in the field, and to guard 
 against all attempts to subvert our social system'' In plain lan- 
 a e, an invading enemv would strike the first blow at the slave 
 - m, and thus aim at revolution, — a revolution that would give 
 liberty to two and a half millions of human beings : and that such 
 a war would be verv embarrassing to the slaveholders, and the 
 more horrible, because, as formerly in South Carolina, a large 
 share of their military force would necessarily be employed, not 
 in fighting the enemv, but in guarding the social, that is, the 
 " patriarch .1." 
 
 N persons are more sensible of their hazardous situation than 
 
 the slaveholders themselves, and hence, as is common with 
 
 people who are us of their own weakness, they 
 
 apt to supply the want of strensrth by a bullying insolence, 
 
 hoping to effect by intimidation what they well know can be ef- 
 
 1 in no other way. This game has long been played, and 
 with _ in Congress. It has been attempted in our 
 
 - with Great Britain, and has signally failed. 
 
 . slaveholders whatever may be their vaunts, are conscious 
 of their military weakness, and shrink from any contest which 
 may cause a foreign army to plant the standard of emancipation 
 
49 
 
 upon their soil. The very idea of an armed negro startles their 
 fearful imaginations. This is disclosed on innumerable occasions, 
 but was conspicuously manifested in a debate in the Senate. In 
 July, 1842, a Bill to regulate enlistments in the naval service be- 
 ing under consideration, Mr. Calhoun proposed an amendment, 
 that neoroes should be enlisted only as cooks and stewards. He 
 thought it a matter of great consequence not to admit blacks into 
 our vessels of national defence. Mr. Benton thought all arms, 
 whether on land or sea, ought to be borne by the white race. 
 
 Mr. Bagby. " In the Southern portion of the Union, the great 
 object was to keep amis and a knowledge of arms out of the hands 
 of the blacks. The subject addressed itself to every Southern 
 heart. Self-preservation was the first law of nature, and the 
 South must look to that." 
 
 On the motion of Mr. Preston, the bill was so amended as to 
 include the army. 
 
 And think you that men, thus in awe of their own dependents, 
 shuddering at a musket in the hands of a black, and with a popu- 
 lation of two millions and a half of these dreaded slaves, will 
 expose themselves to the tremendous consequences of a union 
 between their domestic and foreign enemies ? Of the four who 
 voted against the British treaty, probably not one would have 
 given the vote he did, had he not known to a certainty that the 
 treaty would be ratified. 
 
 Think not we are disposed to ridicule the fears of the slave- 
 holders, or to question their personal courage. God knows their 
 perils are real, and not imaginary : and who can question, that 
 with a hostile British army in the heart of Virginia or Alabama, 
 the whole slave region would presently become one vast scene of 
 horror and desolation ? Heretofore the invaders of our soil were 
 themselves interested in slave property : now they would be zea- 
 lous emancipationists, and they would be accompanied by the 
 most terrific vision which could meet the eye of a slaveholder, 
 regiments of black troops, fully equipped and disciplined. Surely 
 such a state of things might well appal the bravest heart, and 
 palsy the stoutest arm. . 
 
 We have called your attention to the practical influence ot 
 slavery on various points deeply affecting the public prosperity 
 and happiness. These are : 
 
 1. Increase of population. 7. Disregard for tart 
 
 2 State of education. 8. Disregard for constitutional 
 
 3. Industry and enterprise. obligations. 
 
 4 Feeling toward the laboring 9. Liberty of speech. 
 
 " c i a c S eg 10. Liberty of the press. 
 
 5. State of' religion. 11. Military weakness. 
 
 6. State of morals. 
 
 You will surely agree with us, that in many of these particu- 
 
 o 
 
50 
 
 lars, the Southern States are sunk far below the ordinary con- 
 dition of civilized nations. 
 
 Let us inquire -whether the inferior and unhappy condition of 
 the slave States can be ascribed to any natural disadvantage, or 
 to any partial or unjust legislation by the Federal Government? 
 
 In the first place?, the slave States cannot pretend that they 
 have not received their full share of the national domain, and that 
 the narrowness of their territorial limits has retarded the de- 
 velopment of their enterprise and resources. The area of the 
 slave States is nearly double that of the free. New York has 
 acquired the title of the Empire State ; yet she is inferior in size 
 to Virginia, Missouri, Georgia, Louisiana, or North Carolina. 
 
 Nor can it be maintained that the free States are in advance of 
 the slave States, because from an earlier settlement they had the 
 start in the race of improvement. Virginia is not only the largest, 
 but the oldest settled State in the confederacy. She, together 
 with Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina, 
 were all settled before Pennsylvania. 
 
 Nor will any slaveholder admit, that Providence has scattered 
 his gifts with a more sparing hand at the South than at the 
 the North. The richness of their soil, the salubrity of their 
 climate, the number and magnitude of their rivers, are themes on 
 which they delight to dwell. Hence the moral difference between 
 the two sections of our republic must arise from other than natu- 
 ral causes. It appears also that this difference is becoming 
 wider and wider. Of this fact we could give various proofs ; 
 but let one suffice. 
 
 At the first census in 1790, the free population of the present free States and 
 
 Territories was 1,930,125 
 
 " of the slave States and Territories, 1.394.847 
 
 Difference, 535 278 
 
 By the last census, 1S40. the same population in the free States and Territo- 
 ries was 9 7go 4 j 5 
 In the slave States and Territories, 4.793.738 
 
 Difference, 4,988,677 
 
 Thus it appears that in 1790 the free population of the South 
 was 72 per cent, of that of the North, and that in 1840 it was 
 pnlj 49 per cent.; while the difference in 1840 is more than 
 mm times a- greal as it was in 1790. 
 
 Fifty years have given the North an increased preponderance 
 <>1 about lour and a half millions of free citizens. Another fifty 
 years will increase this preponderance in a vastly augmented 
 ratio. And now we ask you, why this downward course? 
 Is it because the interests of the slaveholders are not repre- 
 sented m the national councils? Let us see. We have al- 
 ready shown you that the free population is only 49 per cent, 
 ot that of the Northern States; that is, the inhabitants 
 
51 
 
 of the free States are more than double the free inhabitants of 
 the slave States. Now, what is the proportion of members of 
 Congress from the two sections ? 
 
 In the Senate, the slave States have precisely as many as the 
 free ; and in the lower House, their members are 65 per cent, of 
 those from the free States.* 
 
 The Senate has a veto on every law ; and as one half of that 
 body are slaveholders, it follows, of course, that no law can be 
 passed without their consent. Nor has any bill passed the Sen- 
 ate, since the organization of the government, but by the votes of 
 slaveholders. It is idle, therefore, for them to impute their de- 
 pressed condition to unjust and partial legislation, since they have 
 from the very first controlled the action of Congress. Not a law 
 has been passed, not a treaty ratified, but by their votes. 
 
 Nor is this all. Appointments under the federal government 
 are made by the President, with the consent of the Senate, and 
 of course the slaveholders have, and always have had, a veto on 
 every appointment. There is not an officer of the federal gov- 
 ernment to whose appointment slaveholding members of the 
 Senate have not consented. Yet all this gives but an inadequate 
 idea of the political influence exercised by the people of the slave 
 States in the election of President, and consequently over the policy 
 of his administration. In consequence of the peculiar apportion- 
 ment of Presidential Electors among the States, and the opera- 
 tion of the rule of federal numbers — whereby, for the purpose of 
 estimating the representative population, five slaves are counted 
 as three white men — most extraordinary results are exhibited at 
 every election of President. In the election of 1848, the Electors 
 chosen were 290 : of these 169 were from the free, and 121 
 from the slave States. 
 
 The popular vote in the free States was 2,029,551 
 
 or one elector to 12,00V voters. 
 The popular vote in the slave States was 845,050 
 
 or one elector to 7,545 voters. | 
 
 Even this disproportion, enormous as it is, is greatly aggra- 
 vated in regard to particular States. 
 
 * 135 from the free and 88 members from the slave States. Accord- 
 ing to free population, the South would have only 66 members. 
 
 t South Carolina had 9 electors, chosen by the Legislature. These 
 are deducted in the calculation. 
 
New York ga nd had 36 electors. 
 
 Virginia i 
 
 Maryland - gave 242,547 " " 36 
 
 N. Carolina i 
 
 Ohio ' gave 328,489 " 28 " 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Alabama J>gave 237,811 " M 38 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Florida 
 
 Texas 
 
 These facts address themselves to the understanding of all, 
 and prove, beyond cavil, that the slave States have a most unfair 
 and unreasonable representation in Congress, and a very dispro- 
 portionate share in the election of President. 
 
 2sor can these States complain that they are stinted in the 
 distribution of the patronage of the national government. The 
 rule of federal numbers, confined by the Constitution to the 
 apportionment of representatives, has been extended, by the influ- 
 ence of the slaveholders, to other and very different subjects. 
 Thus, the distribution among the States of the surplus revenue, 
 and of the proceeds of the public lands, was made according to 
 this same iniquitous rule. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the slaveholders have failed to 
 avail themselves of their influence in the federal government. A 
 very brief statement will convince you, that if the)' are now feeble 
 and emaciated, it is not because they have been deprived of their 
 share of the loaves and fish 
 
 By law, midshipmen and cadets, at West Point, are appointed 
 according to the Federal ratio ; thus have the slaveholders secured 
 to themselves an additional number of officers in the Army and 
 Isavy, on account of their sla-v 
 
 3ect for a moment on the vast patronage wielded by the 
 
 President of the United States, and then recollect, that should 
 
 the present incumbent (General Taylor) serve his full term, the 
 
 office will have been filled no less" than fifty -two years out of 
 
 -four by slaveholders !* 
 
 Of 21 Secretaries of State, appointed up to 5th March, 1849, 
 only six have been taken from the free States. 
 
 an out of 60, the chair of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives has been filled and its Committees appointed by slave- 
 holders. 
 
 • Except one month by General Harrison 
 
53 
 
 Of the Judges of the Supreme Court, 18 have been taken 
 from the slave, and but U from the free States. 
 
 In 1842, the United States were represented at forty n Courts 
 by 19 Ministers and Charges d' Affaires. Of these tat Offices, 
 no less than 13 were assigned to slaveholders ! 
 
 Surely, surely, if the South be wanting in every element o\ 
 prosperity— if ignorance, barbarity and poverty be her character- 
 's \t is not because she has not exercised her due influence in 
 the general government, or received her share of its honors and 
 emoluments. 
 
 PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE. 
 If then with all the natural and political advantages we 
 have en— d, the progress of the slave States £ s - 
 ward and has been so, compared with the othei sections 
 he count, v since the first organization of the Government what 
 "e the an icipa ions of the distant future, which sober reflection 
 authorize u to form ? The causes which now retard he m- 
 SSSTrf their population must continue to operate, so long as 
 slavery ass Emigrants from the North, and from foreign 
 otntrUwdhas af present avoid their border -tlnn M 
 no attractions will be found for virtue and . radu "' ,',"",. _^ 
 other hand many of the young and enterprising will ft i horn 
 
 he lassitude, tlfe anarchy, ^.^T^ZSSmJS. 
 slavery, and seek their fortunes inlands where law atto.ds pi 
 
 w ni n conrinrtotcrease P in a ratio far beyond the whites, and wdl 
 
 den for a few lordly planters . a es wu i increase 
 
 that the number and ^^^^^i^^T 
 in a much greater ratio than that of their masters. 
 
54 
 
 In 1790 the whites in N, Carolina were to the slaves as 
 
 2.80 to 1, now as 1.97 to 1 
 S. Carolina, " 1.31 to 1, « 79 to 1 
 
 Georgia, » 1.76 to 1, « 1.44 to 1 
 
 Tennessee, " 13.35 to 1, " 3.49 to 1 
 Kentucky, » 5.16 to 1, « 3.23 to 1 
 
 Maryland and Virginia, the great breeding States, have re- 
 duced then; stock within the last few years, having been tempted, 
 by high prices, to ship off thousands and tens of thousands to the 
 markets of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. But these 
 markets are already glutted, and human flesh has fallen in value 
 from t 50 to 75 per cent. Nor is it probable that the great staple 
 of Virginia and Maryland will hereafter afford a bSunty on its 
 production. In these States slave labor is unprofitable, and the 
 bondman is of but little value, save as an article of exportation, 
 lhe cotton cultivation in the East Indies, by cheapening the arti- 
 cle, wil 1 close the markets in the South, and thus it guarantees 
 the abolition 01 slavery in the breeding States. When~it shall be 
 found no longer profitable to raise slaves for the market, the 
 stock on hand will be driven South and sold for what it may 
 fetch and free labor substituted in its place. This process will 
 be attended with results disastrous to the cotton States. To 
 Virginia and Maryland, it will open a new era of industry, pros- 
 perity and wealth ; and the industrious poor, the "mean whites" 
 of the South, will remove within their borders, thus leaving the 
 slaveholders more defenceless than ever. 
 
 And what will be the condition of such of the poor whites as 
 shall then remain in the slave States ? The change to which we 
 have referred will necessarily aggravate every present evil Ig- 
 norance, vice, idleness, lawless violence, dread of insurrection 
 anarchy, and a haughty and vindictive aristocracy will all com- 
 bine with augmented energy in crushing them to the earth 
 And from what quarter can they look for redemption ? Think 
 you the planting nobility will ever grant freedom to their serfs 
 from sentiments of piety or patriotism ? Remember that the 
 clergy of all sects and ranks, many of them "Christian brokers 
 m the trade of blood," unite in bestowing their benediction on 
 the system as a Christian institution, and in teaching the slave- 
 holders that they wield the whip as European monarchs the 
 sceptre, "by the grace of God." Remember that the boautiful 
 and affecting contrast between the prosperitv of the North and 
 the desolation of the South, already presented to you, was drawn 
 by W. C. Preston, of lianging notoriety. The great slaveholders 
 
55 
 
 have no idea of surrendering the personal importance and the 
 political influence they derive from their slaves. The Calhoun^, 
 Footes, and Prestons, all go for everlasting slavery. 
 
 Unquestionably there are many of the smaller slaveholders 
 who would embrace abolition sentiments, were they permitted 
 to examine the subject ; but at present they are kept in ignorance. 
 T f then the fetters of the slave are not to be broken by the master, 
 by whom is he to be liberated ? In the course of time, a hostile 
 army, invited by the weakness or the arrogance of the South, 
 may land on her shores. Then, indeed, emancipation will be 
 given, but the gift may be bathed in the blood of the whites and 
 of their children. Or the People — for they will be the People 
 — may resolve to be free, and the dearest interests of thousands 
 may be sacrificed in the contest. 
 
 Such, inhabitants of ISTew Mexico and California, is the detest- 
 able institution which a few haughty and selfish men are endeav- 
 oring to force upon you in order to augment their own political 
 power, and to open new markets for their human cattle ; and 
 such are the calamities which their success will entail upon you 
 and your posterity for ages to come. Every dictate of patriot- 
 ism and of Christian benevolence impels us to resist to the utter- 
 most the extension of this abomination of desolation over the 
 new, fair and vast addition recently made to our Federal Union. 
 Much as we may prize this splendid acquisition, may it be for- 
 ever lost to us rather than it should be converted by the Amer- 
 ican people into a region of ignorance, vice, misery and degrada- 
 tion by the establishment of human bondage. We wish you to 
 be a free and happy portion of our great Republic, but it the 
 condition of your union with us be your submission to the man- 
 dates of the "slaveholders, we counsel you, we implore you by 
 all your obligations to your God, yourselves, your children, and 
 to the opinions of the world, to spurn the loathsome, the sinful 
 condition. Yon have all the elements essential to the creation of 
 a great, prosperous and independent empire. If you cannot be 
 free, happy and virtuous in union with us, be free, happy and vir- 
 tuous under a government of your own. But you are not reduced 
 to such an alternative. The slaveholders have refused you a terri- 
 torial government — form one for yourselves, and declare that no 
 slave shall taint the air you breathe. Let no feudal lord with 
 his hosts of serfs come among you to rob you of your equal 
 share of the rich deposits of your soil— tolerate no servile 
 caste kept in ignorance and degradation, to minister to the power 
 and wealth of an oppressive aristocracy. Be firm and resolute 
 in declaring for independence, unless exempted, from the curse 
 of slavery, and the whole North will rally in your behalf. The 
 
56 
 
 slaveholders are losing their influence, and are divided a mono 
 themselves, while their northern allies, withering under the 
 scorn of public opinion, are daily deserting their standard. Be 
 true to yourselves, and your northern friends will be true to you. 
 and ere long you will be received into the Union on the same 
 liberal, safe and honorable terms on which your neighbors of 
 Oregon have already been admitted. A glorious future of p:r.v 
 er, opulence and happiness opens before you. Up, quit your- 
 selves like men, and may the favor of God and the blessings of 
 generations to come rest upon you. 
 
 William Jay, Christopher Rush, 
 
 Arthur Tappan, William Lillie, 
 
 Simeon S. Jocelyn, S. W. Benedict, 
 
 Samuel E. Cornish, George Whipple, 
 
 W t illiam E. Whiting, William Johnston, 
 
 Joshua Leavitt, J. Warner, 
 
 J. W. C. Pennington, Charles B. Ray, 
 
 Lewis Tappan, Austin F. Williams, 
 
 Arnold Buffum, Thomas Ritter, M. D., 
 
 Luther Lee, Alexander Macdonald, 
 Hiram P. Crozier. 
 
 New York, August, 1 8 
 
 54 « 
 
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