SLAVERY IN MARYLAND. 
 
 AN 
 
 ANTI-SLAVERY REVIEW. 
 
 BY A VIRGINIAN. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 
 SATURDAY VISITER ESTABLISHMENT, NO. 19 NORTH STREET. 
 
 1846. 
 
SLAVERY IN MARYLAND.' 
 
 The appearance of these publicatioi 
 the city of Baltimore, during the past 
 is one of the most enc 
 the times. The dead silence that In 
 long prevailed in the Slave States, it 
 lation to this momentous question, was 
 ken only a few years ago, by the , 
 and correspondents of the ‘•Baltimore 
 urdav Visiter,” and since then, slid 
 been the advance of public sentiment, 
 there are now two papers in Virgini; 
 two in Kentucky, whose columns are 
 for its discussion. All that the ad' o 
 
 the people, for Truth needs no conce; 
 ment, fears no discussion, and in order 
 gain the victory, requires nothing but 
 be confronted with Error. 
 
 Doctor R. S. Steuart’s first “letter to 
 L. Carey, Esq. Baltimore,” which serves 
 an introduction to his pamphlet, is a pr 
 ductionthat does equal credit to his he 
 and his heart. Standing as he does in t 
 relation of a Slaveholder, and knowing t 
 prejudices he would have to encounti 
 his course has been manly and patriot 
 Although he may have fallen under re 
 
 is approaching when his motives will 
 
 appreciated, for in relate 
 
 the full tide of public se 
 
 in upon us from all quarl 
 
 ed world, and it cannot long be re.-istt 
 
 ♦Slavery in Maryland,briefly considered, by Jc 
 L. Carey, Baltimore : John Murphy, 1S45. 
 
 A letter on Slavery, addressed to John L. b’art 
 by Dr. R. S. Steuarl. Baltimore Saturday Visit 
 
 n'jiitu'ion will receive a check that will be 
 grateful to all lovers of peace and order. 
 Firmly convinced that such a course will 
 
ba displeasing to but few, and that it may 
 promote the general welfare of Maryland, 
 I beg leave to propose to you the estalish- 
 ment of a paper devoted to the cause of 
 Emancipation in our State, on the princi¬ 
 ples of policy,'humanity, and self-inte¬ 
 rest.” 
 
 The proposition contained in the last 
 clause ofthis quotation was not acceded to 
 by the gentleman to whom it was address¬ 
 ed, but in induced him to commit to wri¬ 
 ting his views on Slavery in Maryland, 
 and gave rise to the pamphlet now’ before 
 us, which is characterized by a considerable 
 degree of philosophical acumen, and writ¬ 
 ten in a graceful and vigorous style, that 
 keeps alive the interest of the reader. The 
 manner in which he exhibits the paraliz- 
 ing effects of slave labor upon the • entpr- 
 rise and industry of the State, depriving 
 er of population, dimishing the produc¬ 
 tions of agriculture, and retarding the pro¬ 
 gress of the useful arts, must lead every 
 unprejudiced mind to the conclusion that 
 the time has come when some efficient 
 measures must be taken to arrest the pro¬ 
 gress of decay. 
 
 There are, however, some views brought 
 forward, from which I totally dissent. 
 These I shall take the liberty to examine 
 in a future number, and I desire to do it 
 with that freedom and candour which are 
 alike demanded by the importance of the 
 subject and the ability of the author whose 
 work I am reviewing. He disapproves 
 of the plan proposed by Dr. S., to estab¬ 
 lish a newspaper in the city of Baltimore, 
 devoted to emancipation, and assigns as his 
 reasons that it would produce excitement, 
 and “would be regarded as the herald of 
 abolition, and the whole body of ultra fa¬ 
 natics at the North would seek to connect 
 themselves wdth the movement.” Al¬ 
 though I am not disposed to indulge in the 
 denunciations now so common' in the 
 Southern States against “northern fanati¬ 
 cism,” because I think it is in bad taste, 
 and engenders unkind feelings, yet I con¬ 
 cur in the opinion that this movement 
 should not be connected U’ith the anti¬ 
 slavery organizations of the free states. 
 If persons who live in the slaveholding 
 states could only be aroused to the necess¬ 
 ity of taking up the question in earnest and 
 discussing it with a sincere desire to do the 
 best in- our power, we should accomplish 
 the object much better than those who are 
 
 further removed from the scene of action. 
 It cannot be investigated effectually with¬ 
 out some organ of public communication 
 by which information may be diffused and 
 the various plans brought forward, and 
 fully discussed before the people. It, how¬ 
 ever, appears to me that a newspaper de¬ 
 voted to this especial object, would not 
 effect so much as the introduction of suit¬ 
 able essays into the columns of papers al¬ 
 ready established. A paper devoted to 
 emancipation would probably have but a 
 limited circulatiou in the South, and that 
 chiefly among persons already convinced, 
 whereas papers of a political, literary or 
 miscellaneous character will find their 
 way into almost every family. 
 
 Taking these considerations into view, 
 it appears to me that the friends of human 
 progress ought to use their exertions and 
 influence to increase the circulation and 
 enrich the columns of such papers as the 
 Saturday Visiter, which is already enlist¬ 
 ed in the cause of humanity, and gallantly 
 marching forward under the banner ot 
 Reform. 
 
 Having, so far, dwelt chiefly upon Dr. 
 Steuart’s interesting letter which forms the 
 introduction to the pamphlet under review, 
 I shall, in my second section, proceed to 
 notice the work itself which contains many 
 excellent views well expressed, but ming¬ 
 led with some sentiments which I cannot 
 approve. And yet on a question involv¬ 
 ing so many interests and predjudices, it 
 cannot be expected that all persons should 
 see alike, either, as to the nature of the dis¬ 
 ease under examination, or the remedies 
 required—therefore I feel disposed* while 
 expressing my own sentiments with can¬ 
 dor and freedom, to extend a charitable 
 toleration to the views of others, especially 
 when they are accompanied, as in this 
 case, by patriotic and honorable feelings. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Our author has devoted several pages of 
 his pamphlet, to the consideration of fol¬ 
 lowing points. 1st “Slavery itself is a 
 social institution.” 2nd. “Ofrights.” 
 
 I shall not attempt to follow him 
 through all his arguments under these 
 heads, some of which I think are rather 
 too metaphysical; but I will remark that, 
 while reading them, I was forcibly re¬ 
 minded of Bunyan’s comparison of the 
 
5 
 
 boatman who looks one way atid rows t 
 another! Under the. 1st head he sets out t 
 with the following proposition: i 
 
 “If Slavery be regarded as Ihe subjec- t 
 tion of one man by force, to the will of s 
 another, all other considerations being left 1 
 out of view, it must appear to be the most t 
 cruel outrage to which humanity is lia- 1 
 ble. But the control of one man over an- c 
 other, of some men over other men, of in- i 
 dividuals over masses, may exist without 
 implying outrage or wrong.” : 
 
 This he illustrates by reference to Na- t 
 poleon, in the earlier part of his career, : 
 when the nation required “the energy of < 
 action and singleness of purpose of an in- 1 
 dividual mind.” He says, however, that I 
 •“Slavery, if it implies the degradation of < 
 equal, or the subjugation, by brute force, of t 
 a superior—what is it but a shocking atro- 1 
 city, most monstrous to think of! When / 
 we read of the enslaving of Christians, re- t 
 fined and intelligent persons, by the cor- : 
 sairs of Algiers, as used in former times to : 
 to happen, the mind revolts at such viola- I 
 lions of right and justice. i 
 
 It is usual, when one speaks of Slavery, 1 
 lo imagine himself in the condition of ser- i 
 vitude, and thence to form his conceptions j 
 of the injustice of that relation, and to ex- 1 
 press his indignation accordingly. But I 
 this is to take a very partial view of the < 
 matter..” i 
 
 After adverting to the condition of serf- 1 
 ■dom in Europe, and the condition of the i 
 half starved English operative, “with free- < 
 dom only to choose whether he shall be a < 
 drudge or a pauper,” he concludes this f 
 section with the following remarks: i 
 
 “The relation of master and slave im- < 
 plies the extreme of control on the one < 
 hand, and obedience on the other; some in- : 
 termediate forms of which extend through- < 
 out all society. Whether the relaton be t 
 proper or not, must depend mainly on the i 
 greater or less disparity between the two f 
 classes, and the circumstances which mark i 
 their connection. If the masters be of one 1 
 race, and the slaves of another; if they be < 
 of different complexions; if the former be ] 
 characterized by great strength of will and I 
 capacity of understanding, while the lat- s 
 ter are weak in both; it is inevitable, if < 
 these two races must dwell together in i 
 one community, that the one should occu- ( 
 py the positron of masters and the other i 
 that of slaves. They could not hold in- c 
 
 tercourse together on any other terms. If 
 the inferior race should prove fierce and 
 intractable, like our aborisrinal Indians, 
 they must disappear as the master power 
 approaches; if they are docile and gentle, 
 like the negroes, the}' may live in domes¬ 
 tic servitude, and thrive in that condition. 
 It may be remarked that the negro is the 
 only race that has ever been able abide to 
 in contact with the Anglo-Saxon.” 
 
 From these views it would appear that 
 although the subjection of one man hy force 
 to the will of another “all other consider¬ 
 ation being left out of view, is the most 
 cruel outrage to which humanity is lia¬ 
 ble,” and although the enslaver}' of Chris¬ 
 tians, refined and intelligent persons,by the 
 corsairs of Algiers “is a revolting viola¬ 
 tion of right and justice,” yet if the mas¬ 
 ters be of one race and the slaves of ano¬ 
 ther, if they be of different completions, if 
 the former be characterized by great 
 strength of will and capacity of under¬ 
 standing, while the latter are weak in 
 both; “it is inevitable if these two races 
 must dwell together in one community, 
 that the one should occupy the position 
 of master’s and the other that of slaves.” 
 From the concluding remarks wc gather 
 that the Anglo-Saxon race in this country 
 have this strength of will and capacity 
 of understanding, in which the African 
 race are supposed to-be deficient, and there 
 being no doubt the difference of complex¬ 
 ion, it follows, of course, that the blacks 
 ought to be slaves. Such a chain of reas¬ 
 oning as this, in a work that was intended 
 to set forth the evils of Slaver}', and the 
 necessity of a change in our system of 
 domestic policy, seems to me to be very 
 extraordinary, and unworthy of the acute 
 and intelligent mind from which it emanat¬ 
 ed! I can attribute it to nothing else than 
 the effect of early prejudices, or a desire to 
 conciliate that powerful slave-holding in¬ 
 terest which lias borne such unlimited sway- 
 in this country, that the mightiest intel¬ 
 lects have succumbed beneath it, and the 
 dearest rights of man, as well as the purest 
 principles of religion, have been sacrificed 
 before it. In order to test this conclu¬ 
 sion, let us suppose that the Corsairs, who 
 captured American seamen, were Moors, 
 with complexions as dark as the natives of 
 Guinea, and that they were as refined and 
 intelligent, and possessed of as indomitable 
 courage as their ancestors of the Alhambra; 
 
and let us further suppose that the sea¬ 
 men were their inferiors in allthese qual¬ 
 ities; .would the Moors have.been justifia T 
 hie in reducing these American citizens to 
 abject slavery—exposing them' to public 
 sale—driving them to a distant market,— 
 rending asunder all the endearing ties ol 
 domestic life—excluding them from the 
 benefits of knowledge, and even forbidding 
 them to learn to read the Alcoran, which 
 they consider the volume of inspiration 1 
 Perhaps it may be said that some of the at¬ 
 rocities here alluded to are only the con¬ 
 comitants,and not the essential elements, 
 qf slavery. I answer that they are among 
 the elements of the system in this country. 
 Every slaveholder has the power of sub¬ 
 jecting his slaves to all these hardships, 
 and it is a power that no human being 
 ought to possess over another. Although 
 there are thousands of masters whose be¬ 
 nevolent feelings would revolt at the 
 .thought of exercising their power in this 
 manner, yet they are all liable to be pla¬ 
 ced, under circumstances in which credi¬ 
 tors may seize, and sheriffs expose to sale, 
 a'species of property that always finds a 
 ■ready, market. There are thousands of 
 ■white men in this country who are not 
 fitted for. ; self-government—some from 
 habits of intoxication—some from igno¬ 
 rance or vice-r“and others from natural 
 imbecility. Shall these be subjected to 
 .personal,bondage, and set up for sale to 
 the. highest bidder ? It appears to me that 
 this .course would be consistent with our 
 author’s: reasoning, provided masters can 
 befound for them, who are. characterized 
 by great strength of will and capacity of 
 understanding, and have, moreover, a dif¬ 
 ferent complexion! 
 
 ...Let us now consider this question as 
 brought before us under the head “of 
 rights.” On the tenth page we find the 
 following passage: 
 
 “It may be asked, have not all enslaved 
 people a right to freedom ? To which it 
 may be answered that rights are connected 
 with duties; or, to go back to the other 
 definition, the will and the understanding 
 of a man, the strength of the one and the 
 capacity of the other, combined together, 
 constitute the measure of his rights, inas¬ 
 much as they are the measure of the sphere 
 which he fills.” 
 
 • If I understand this reasoning, it conveys 
 the idea that men have no inherent rights, 
 
 and consequently the authors of the-Dec¬ 
 laration of Independence were under'a de¬ 
 lusion when they asserted that “all men 
 are created equal—that they are endow¬ 
 ed by their creator with certain unaliena¬ 
 ble rights—that among these are life, lib¬ 
 erty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In¬ 
 deed, I must conclude from what follows, 
 that our author concurs with the eccentric 
 John Randolph in considering that cele¬ 
 brated document a “farrago of abstrac¬ 
 tions,” for he says: “If we go to talking of 
 abstract rights, we shall discourse very 
 vaguely and to little purpose. The phrase 
 itself is unmeaning; for rights can be con¬ 
 sidered only as pertaining to persons. 
 Thus they can not be abstract,at all. Nor 
 will it do to assume the position of the e- 
 quality of all men, and to reason from it 
 on this subject. Men are not equal. They 
 are not born so;, they do not become so; 
 they can not be made equal. Neither in 
 physical endowments, in stature, nor in 
 the gifts of intellect are they upon an e- 
 quality.” 
 
 Now, it appears to me,that human rights, 
 as well as any other properties that per¬ 
 tain to man, cun be considered in the ab¬ 
 stract,—that is, without reference to indi¬ 
 viduals. No person of common sense can 
 suppose that our Declaration of Indepen¬ 
 dence was intended to convey the idea, 
 that all men are born with equal intellects, 
 equal physical strength, or equal property; 
 but that they are endowed with equal 
 rights to the exercise of intellect and phy¬ 
 sical strength, the acquisition of property, 
 and the enjoyment of happiness. . To hold 
 a man in slavery manifestly abridges his 
 natural rights; and these being inalienable, 
 no circumstances of birth or parentage, 
 can affect their validity. 
 
 Every human soul is born in possession 
 of a body which is evidently designed by 
 the Creator, for its use, and placed under 
 the dominion of its will; and for another 
 human being to usurp the control over 
 that body, to make its limbs and muscles 
 work for his advantage, to cause it to bend 
 under his burdens, or to pour out its sweat 
 while' toiling for his benefit, is manifestly 
 contrary to the Divine intention, and the 
 greatest wrong that can be inflicted off a 
 fellow creature. To deprive a man of 
 the property he has acquired, is a grievous 
 wrong, but to take from him the use of his 
 own body and the right to acquire and hold 
 
7- 
 
 property, is infinitely worse! The first di- A further analogy may be stated: that 
 vests him of the fruit of his past labours,— as the control of parental authority, pro- 
 the second takes from him and his posleri- per over the child, would be improper af- 
 tyi the reward which sweetens labour, and ter the child has become a man, so the 
 the strongest incentive to industry. These condition of servitude, rightly to be regar- 
 truths are so obvious, that they must be ad- ded as one of tutelage, and proper only in 
 mitted by every unprejudiced mind, that view, must after a time, cease to be 
 We have only to make the case our own, just, because incompatible with progress 
 and to appeal to our own unbiassed feel- after a certain point. It can not be sup- 
 
 mgSj.in order to be convinced tnat slavery 
 is an infringement of human rights and 
 consequently a violation of the moral law, 
 that must be attended with the most inju¬ 
 rious consequences to both the master and 
 the slave. The question then arises, is 
 slaveholding in all cases a sin ? May not a 
 man continue to hold slaves, when he sees 
 no way to get rid of them, without impair¬ 
 ing their comfort and happiness? May he 
 not hold them, because he thinks them not 
 fitted for freedom ? 
 
 . To these questions it may be answered, 
 that sin is an offence against God, and 
 consists in violating his law written in the 
 heart. Whatsover we do to impair the 
 happiness of a fellow creature, or to ob¬ 
 struct his advancement in knowledge and 
 virtue, we know to be contrary to this law. 
 But, if we hold Slaves with their own con¬ 
 sent, and for the sole purpose of promoting 
 their happiness, this charges the nature of 
 the relation, for it is no longer involuntary 
 servitude. I apprehend, however, that 
 there. are few .such cases as this; nor can 
 we suppose that their unfitness for freedom 
 will be an avoidable excuse, unless every 
 effort is being made to prepare them for 
 self-government. 
 
 , The concluding part of this section I 
 will quote, entire, as it gives a more favor¬ 
 able view of the author’s sentiments: 
 
 “The authority of a parent over the 
 child is as absolute as that of the master 
 over the slave, so far as the power to en¬ 
 force obedience goes. The first, however, 
 is mingled with parental affection, which 
 gives assurance of kindness and the ten- 
 derest care. But it may be abused, and 
 often is. , 
 
 ; There is no such assurance that the au¬ 
 thority-,of .the master will be tempered and 
 regulated by kindness and solicitude. 
 Hence in due time come the evils of the 
 
 posed-that any race of men, the most hum¬ 
 ble in the grade of civilization, are destined 
 
 In the 3d section of his work our author 
 treats “of Slavery as ii relates to the Negro 
 in the United States” in which he endeav¬ 
 ours to show that they “have derived great 
 benefits from their condition of servitude.” 
 He says “Let us have done with the wail¬ 
 ings of weak sympathizers who know not 
 what they would be at. No African has 
 | come as a slave to this country who was 
 not a slave before. The exchange of mas¬ 
 ters, which transferred the service of the 
 negro from a barbarous owner in Africa to 
 a civilized proprietor in’America, is likely 
 to prove the salvation of the race. From 
 time immemorial slavery has prevailed in 
 Airica. The characteristics of slavery 
 there, so terrible, so abominable, that any 
 condition of existence would seem prefer¬ 
 able—how utterly are they forgotten by 
 those who delight to dwell upon the 
 “wrongs of the negro!” In the United 
 States the negro has attained the Fisgah 
 height from which he can look forward 
 into a land of promise, rich in blessings. 
 No event has happened in the history of 
 Africa, since her degradation, so likely to 
 result in good to her as the residence of 
 Africans in this country.” 
 
 Although he disclaims all intention ol 
 justifying the African slave-trade, this pa¬ 
 ragraph has an “awful squinting” towards 
 it. 11 no slaves are brought from Africa 
 except those who were slaves before, and 
 their transportation to this country “is 
 likely to prove the salvation of the race,” 
 it may readily be supposed that there are 
 ■ men enough in the United States who 
 ; would be willing to aid in this work ol 
 
 relation—the master forgetting the obliga- j Christian charity,especially when there is 
 tions of his position, and looking upon his ja prospect of being suddenly enriched by 
 servants as so many chattels fit only to ! ill But, to treat the subject seriously, let 
 minister to his avarice or his pleasure. I us consider the undeniable fact that the 
 
most horrible and devastating wars have 
 loong been waged in Africa, instigated by 
 Europeans and Americans,in order to sup¬ 
 ply this neiarious traffic, and we must per¬ 
 ceive that the Slave trade has had a demor¬ 
 alizing influence that is beyond all calcu¬ 
 lation. 
 
 In order to show what was the condition 
 of the Africans, when this trade commen¬ 
 ced, I will quote a few passages from a 
 tract written by that eminently pious man 
 John Wesley, and published by him in 
 the year 1774. They are from his 
 “Thoughts on Slavery,”a work that ought 
 to be in the hands .of every Methodist in 
 this country, who desires to know what 
 genuine Methodism requires in relation to 
 Slavery. He gives as his authority the 
 writings of “Monsieur Allanson and Mr. 
 Bruce” both of whom resided in Africa, 
 and fhe former, a correspondent of the 
 Royal Academy of Science, at Paris from 
 1749 to 1753. “He says the inhabitants 
 of the Grain and Ivory coast are represen¬ 
 ted as sensible, courteous and the fairest 
 dealers on the coast of Guinea, they rarely 
 drink'to'excess; if any do,they are severe¬ 
 ly punished by the king’s order. They 
 are seldom troubled with war; if a differ¬ 
 ence happens between two nations, they 
 commonly end the dispute amicably.” 
 “The inhabitants of the Gold and Slave 
 coast likewise, when they are not artfully 
 incensed against each other, live in great 
 union arid friendship, being generally well 
 tempered, civil, tractable, and ready to 
 help 1 any that need it. In particular the 
 natives of Widnah are civil, kind and oblig¬ 
 ing to strangers, and they are the most 
 gentiemari-like of all the negroes, abound¬ 
 ing in good manners towards each other. 
 The inferiors pay the utmost respect to 
 their superiors; so wives to their husbands, 
 children unto their parents. And they 
 are remarkably industrious-, all are incess¬ 
 antly employed, the men in agriculture, 
 the wofnen in spinning and weaving cot¬ 
 ton.” All the natives of this coast,though 
 heathens; believe in one God, the author 
 of them arid of all things. 
 
 They appear likewise to have a confus¬ 
 ed apprehension of a future state. And 
 accordingly every town and village has 
 a place of public worship. He sums up 
 this part of his argument by saying “upon 
 the whole, therefore, the negroes who in¬ 
 habit the coast of Africa, from the river 
 
 Senegal to the Southern bounds of Angola, 
 are so far from being the stupid, senseless, 
 brutish, barbarous, lazy, the fierce, cruel, 
 perfidious savages they have been descri¬ 
 bed; that on the contrary they are repre¬ 
 sented by those who had no motive to flat¬ 
 ter them, as remarkably sensible, consider¬ 
 ing the few advantages they have for im¬ 
 proving their understanding; as industri¬ 
 ous in the highest degree, perhaps more 
 so than any other natives of so warm a cli¬ 
 mate; as fair, just and honest, in all their 
 dealings, unless where white men have 
 taught them to he otherwise; as far more 
 mild, friendly and kind to strangers, than 
 any of our forefathers were. Our fore¬ 
 fathers! Where shall we find at this day, 
 among the fair-faced natives of Europe, a 
 nation generally practising the mercy and 
 truth, which are found among these poor 
 Africans ? Suppose the preceding accounts, 
 are true, (which I see no reason or pre¬ 
 tence to doubt) and we may leave England 
 or France to seek genuine honesty in Ber¬ 
 lin, Congo and Angla.” 
 
 Wesley next proceeds to show the 
 means employed by Europeans, to obtain 
 slaves on the coast of Africa. Part ofthero 
 by fraud. “Captains of ships from time 
 to time, have invited negroes to come on 
 board, and then carried them away. But 
 far more have been procured by force. 
 The Christians landing upon their coasts, 
 sieze as many at they find, men, women 
 and children, and transport them to 
 America. In 1556 Sir John Hawkins 
 sailed with two ships to Cape Verd, where 
 he sent 80 men on shore to catch negroes. 
 But the natives flying, they fell further 
 down, and there set the men on shore, to 
 burn their towns and take the inhabitants. 
 It was some time before the Europeans 
 found a more commodious way of procur¬ 
 ing African slaves, by prevailing upon 
 them to make war upon each other, and 
 sell their prisoners. Till then they seldom 
 had any wars, but were in general quiet 
 and peaceable. But the white men first 
 taught them drunkenness, and then hired 
 them to sell one another. Nay, by this 
 means even their king’s were induced to 
 sell their own subjects.” 
 
 He quotes from Anderson’s History of 
 Trade and Commerce the following pas¬ 
 sage. “England supplies her American 
 colonies with Negro Slaves amounting in 
 numbers to about a hundred thousand every 
 
year—that Is so many are taken on board 
 our ships; but at least ten thousand of them 
 dieon the voyage; about a fourth part more 
 die at the different islands, in what is cal¬ 
 led seasoning. So that at an average in 
 the passage and seasoning together,30,000 
 die, that is, properly speaking, murdered. 
 
 0 earth! Osea! cover not thou tkeir 
 
 I have chosen to give these extracts 
 from Weslev, because he is an author 
 whose careful research and strict veracity 
 cannot be doubted. 
 
 He not only argues against the slave 
 trade, but goes to the root of the matter, 
 by shewing that slavery is unjust. He! 
 says, “I strike at the root of this compli¬ 
 cated villiany. I absolutely deny all 
 slaveholding to be consistent with any de¬ 
 gree of natural justice.” If the condition 
 of the Africans, now in their native land, 
 is as bad as represented by the author of 
 the pamphlet under review, there can be 
 no doubt they have been made so by the 
 avarice and cruelty of the whites, in order 
 to supply victims for the slave trade—and 
 when we take into consideration Hie im- 
 1 mense numbers, amounting to many mil¬ 
 lions, who have been torn from their 
 i country—the large proportion who died 
 on the passage, or in the seasoning, and 
 the multitudes who sunk to an untimely 
 grave under the grievous burdens of sla¬ 
 very—we shall find no benefits accruing 
 from the system, at all commensurate with 
 such a vast amount of evil. 
 
 Generation after generation has passed 
 away, and left nothing behind them but 
 the record of their wrongs; they bent fo 
 their toil with no hope of reward to stim¬ 
 ulate and sustain them; their minds were 
 shrouded in ignorance, their feelings 
 crushed by oppression, and their conju¬ 
 gal and paternal relations entirely depen¬ 
 dent on the will or caprice of their mas¬ 
 ters. 
 
 Was this a state of “pupilage,” the best 
 that could be devised to elevate and im¬ 
 prove so “docile and tractable” a race ? 
 Could Christian philanthropy find no other 
 way to introduce the heathen into the 
 knowledge of divine truth and the bene¬ 
 fits of civilization 1 
 
 Ask the missionaries who have so suc¬ 
 cessfully laboured among the Islanders of 
 the Pacific, whether a docile and gentle 
 race of men may not be redeemed from 
 
 the superstitions and vices of savage life 
 without transporting them from their na¬ 
 tive shores and subjecting them to bon¬ 
 dage in a foreign land. Yet our author, 
 speaking of Slavery in Maryland, says, 
 “Is it not clear that in a position like this, 
 so well adapted to the growth of good 
 affections, a docile, mild, yet rude and 
 simple people, might find tlie elements of 
 improvement, might find themselves in 
 circumstances beautifully suited to their 
 state ? What Idler school could there be 
 for such a people, in which to learn the 
 elements of civilization V’ Mow it seems 
 to me that a tobacco plantation in Mary¬ 
 land or Virginians not so admirably adapt¬ 
 ed to develope and improve the intellectu¬ 
 al and moral faculties of man! To any 
 one who is familiar with the discipline 
 which prevails in a large “quarter” of 
 slaves, under the charge of a rigid over¬ 
 seer, the proposition is utterly preposter¬ 
 ous. Let me ask what measures arc em¬ 
 ployed to promote “the growth of the good 
 affections,” or to furnish the children of 
 slaves with the elements of improvement 1 
 Does the overseer exercise a inild and pa¬ 
 ternal sway for the purpose of promoting 
 the intellectual and moral advancement of 
 the slaves ? Does he take care to have 
 their children sent to school and instruct¬ 
 ed in the rudiments of knowledge ? Why, 
 if such a course were recommended to o- 
 verseers or owners, they would scout it as 
 monstrous and absurd. They are accus¬ 
 tomed to govern by force and they regard 
 ignorance as the strongest link in the fet¬ 
 ters of the slave. 
 
 It is useless to disguise the matter: we 
 must acknowledge that the love of gain a- 
 lone prompted our ancestors to purchase 
 slaves, and the same principle is still the 
 “root of all evil.” and the main spring of 
 slavery. There is no doubt, however, that 
 slavery has ceased to be profitable in Ma¬ 
 ryland and Virginia, except to those who 
 can bring their minds to the revolting bu¬ 
 siness of rearing human beings for sale, in 
 order to supply the demands of a traffic 
 with the Southern States, which is fully as 
 wicked as, if not more so than the African 
 slave trade. 
 
 There are many who hold slaves because 
 they have been accustomed to regard them 
 as property, and although they are not 
 profitable, they feel unwilling to relinquish 
 so large a portion of their estates. They 
 
conceive that this kind of property increas¬ 
 es their importance and respectability, 
 which induces them to smother their con¬ 
 victions of duty; but, let public sentiment 
 only become rectified, and they will find 
 no such inducement to continue a relation 
 that is injurious to both the master and the 
 slave. The responsibility of continuing 
 this wretched system, devolves upon the 
 present generation, and every one who 
 gives it countenance, whether he be a 
 slaveholder or not, is involved in the 
 uilt. The language of Wm. Pinckney, 
 elivered in the House of Delegates of 
 Maryland, in 1789, is clear upon this 
 point, “Wherefore,” says he, “shouldwe 
 confine the edge of censure to our ances¬ 
 tors, or those from whom they purchased ? 
 Are we not equally guilty ? They strew¬ 
 ed the seeds of slavery, we cherish and 
 sustain the growth. They introduced the 
 system; we enlarge, invigorate, and con¬ 
 firm it. Its continuance is as shameful as 
 its origin. By the eternal principles of 
 natural justice, no master in the state has 
 a right to hold his slave in bondage for a 
 single hour. Sir, the thing is impolitic; 
 never will its agriculture, its commerce, 
 or its manufactures flourish so long as they 
 depend upon reluctant bondmen j'or their 
 progress.” What a contrast is presented 
 between these noble sentiments of a Rev¬ 
 olutionary patriot, and some that have re¬ 
 cently been uttered in the same legislative 
 hall, where an attempt has been made to 
 strike down the liberty of the Press, which 
 is the safeguard of the free, and formidable 
 only to tyrants! 
 
 Yet the author of the work now under 
 review, in speaking of the relation of mas¬ 
 ter and slave says, “this relationship is one 
 for which Paul has given precepts, and 
 thus recognized,—which Christianity has 
 embraced as one of the varied features of 
 social organization, bearing with it its pe¬ 
 culiar obligations and duties.” p. 15. So 
 far from this beibg the case, the word slave 
 is not found in the New Testament, except 
 in one passage of the Apocalypse,and there 
 it is used prophetically in relation to the 
 merchants of Babylon, i. e. a mercenary 
 priesthood Who, in subsequent times,would 
 make merchandise “of slaves, 'and of the 
 souls of men.” The Greek word translat¬ 
 ed servant ; In the New' Testament, does 
 not necessarily irriply a slave, but merely 
 one who is under the government of ano¬ 
 
 ther; it is applied to the disciples.of Christ> 
 the subjects of princes, and those who were 
 hired to perform voluntary labor. Some 
 of the early Christians may have been 
 slaves to pagan masters, and while they 
 were in that condition, it was perfectly 
 consistent with their profession, that they 
 should befaithlul and obedient as became 
 the disciples of the meek and non-resisting 
 Saviour. For the same reason they were 
 required to “be subject to principalities 
 and powers,” and “to obey magistrates,” 
 but who can suppose that this injunction 
 was intended to recognize and perpetuate 
 the oppressive despotism of the Roman 
 Emperors. The whole character of A- 
 merican slavery is so inconsistent with the 
 mild and benevolent spirit of Christianity, 
 that arguments drawn from the scriptures 
 to justify or excuse it, seem hardly worthy, 
 of a serious refutation. Such reasonings 
 may suffice to lull a conscience that is en¬ 
 deavoring to serve both God and Mam¬ 
 mon, but they will never eradicate from 
 the sincere heart, the firm and abiding 
 conviction that liberty is the natural right 
 of every man, and essential to his happi¬ 
 ness. 
 
 Having quoted from Wesley, to shew 
 the former condition of the Africans in 
 their own country, I will now quote from 
 a very different man, (although a Metho¬ 
 dist,) in order to shew the present condi¬ 
 tion of their descendants in the Southern 
 States. In a letter from Bishop Andrew, 
 published in the S. W. Christian Advo¬ 
 cate, in 184*1, he says: “Oh! what a 
 work is this! Thousands and tens of thou¬ 
 sands of immortal souls living in this land 
 vision, who know little more of God or 
 heaven, than their sable brethren in the 
 interior of Africa, for whose souls no man 
 careth, while with the avails of their 
 sweat and toil, the Southern church has 
 been contributing her thousands to send 
 the Bible and missionaries to perishing 
 pagans beyond the seas.” 
 
 Think of this, you who profess .the 
 Christian name, and remember .that every 
 man who in any way gives liis counten¬ 
 ance to the system of slavery, is so far, im¬ 
 plicated in the guilt of its continuance. ; 
 
 SECTION rv. '• 
 
 , Having in my former numbers express¬ 
 ed my dissent from some of /our author’s 
 
I -views, I now proceed to the more grateful 
 J task of reviewing sentiments less repug- 
 ; riant to my own, His 4th section relates 
 j to the inquiry “How Slavery is to be re- 
 garded as an institution, whether perma¬ 
 nent or not,” and his sentiments on this 
 head may be gathered from the following 
 quotations: 
 
 “The uses of Slavery are those of tute- 
 i lage; in other words, Slavery is beneficial 
 | and proper only in so far as it is a species 
 i of tutelage. But a state of tutelage must 
 have an end; the child in due time grows 
 beyond it. So of a race in servitude—for 
 . it is as a race that we are considering the 
 ' negro and his position. But what need is 
 • there of argument or illustration on so 
 plain a point ? Is it not palpable to the 
 perception of every one that the idea of 
 Slavery is utterly repunant to the attain¬ 
 ment by man, of his due stature and pro¬ 
 portions in the world of moral and civil 
 action ? The ascendency which superior 
 intelligence gives may be used to control 
 the less enlightened, if it is found that con¬ 
 trol is necessary to the latter, from the 
 circumstances of their position and their 
 inability to govern themselves. But the 
 ascendancy of superior intelligence should 
 be itself controlled by superior benevo¬ 
 lence and justice; it should not be made 
 the mere instrumeut of selfish ends. Sla¬ 
 very, let it be repeated, when right and 
 proper, is a species of guardianship—afonn 
 of tutelage. In this view, a good thing, it 
 becomes, like other good things, when per¬ 
 verted; a pernicious evil. I arn aware that 
 some distinguished gentlemen at the south 
 maintain the doctrine that Slavery, as a 
 manent institution, is no evil; and they 
 contend ‘that, as a mode of organizing la¬ 
 bor, it is better than the English system 
 which makes the operatives by the mass 
 the slaves of a social organization, which, 
 cutting them off from the domestic sympa¬ 
 thies of their employers, leaves them to a 
 cold isolation and to the slender resources 
 of a pittance, in the shape of scanty wages, 
 and to the poor rates, contributed by a 
 calculating cupidity, and reduced to the 
 lowest minimum on this side of starvation. 
 It wdhld not be to the purpose to enter 
 into a! comparison of these two systems. It 
 is enough to know that neither can be per¬ 
 manent; because both are incompatible with 
 the'prdgress of mankind.” 
 
 ’ This conclusion appears to be just, and 
 
 it necessarily follows, if we admit man is 
 an immortal being placed here for the 
 purpose of developing his intellectual and 
 moral powers. It is evident that a state of 
 slavery, such as now exists in this country, 
 is not adapted to this purpose, nor is the 
 condition of the laboring classes in Eng¬ 
 land such as to satisfy the requirements of 
 the friends of humanity. There are, how¬ 
 ever, some points in this comparison which 
 have been too much ove rlooked by Ameri¬ 
 can writers. 
 
 The poor in England are compelled to 
 labor for their daily bread for themselves 
 and their families,—the slaves in America 
 are held in bondage by physical force, and 
 induced to labor by the dread of punish¬ 
 ment. In the former case a man is acted 
 upon by motives which appeal loliis mor¬ 
 al nature. He works for himself and his 
 family; he is impelled not onlv by his own 
 wants, but by the tender feelings ol affec¬ 
 tion and the highest sense of duty. There 
 is nothing degrading in this, nothing that 
 impairs the dignity of his nature; for al¬ 
 though he may he poor, and even pinched 
 by want, he can stand up in the presence 
 of his fellow men and feel himself a man. 
 But the case of the slave is widely differ¬ 
 ent. He is degraded by the infliction or the 
 fear of corporal punishment; the masters 
 will is his highest rule of action: he is re¬ 
 quired to assume the most servile behavior; 
 his intellectual improvement is not only 
 neglected but forbidden by law; he can 
 hold no property nor make any contract; 
 he cannot even contract matrimony, for 
 there is no legal marriage for slaves; he 
 lives in a state of concubinage liable at any 
 time to be abrogated by bis master’s will; 
 he rears children, but cannot exercise the 
 authority of a parent; and he suffers 
 stripes and imprisonment without the pri¬ 
 vilege of legal redress. Can we conceive 
 of a situation more hopeless than this— 
 more completely adapted to break down 
 the spirit of a man 1 To look forward to 
 long years ot unrequited and reluctant toil, 
 to sec the d-arest objects ol affection torn 
 from him, and the cords of the heart bro¬ 
 ken one by one, to pass through the jour¬ 
 ney ot life without an object of pursuit to 
 rouse the slumbering faculties of the mind, 
 to expend his strength in the service of o- 
 thers, and then in his declining years to be 
 considered, like a worn-out horse, a bur¬ 
 den to the estate! Such is the condition 
 
of the American Slave in a large majority 
 of cases, even when well-fed, comfortably 
 clothed, and not overtasked. 
 
 And yet there are men professing to be 
 ministers of the gospel,who would fain per¬ 
 suade us that this revolting system is sanc¬ 
 tioned by the religion of the meek and 
 lowly Jesus who was anointed to preach 
 the gospel to the poor,—who “was sent 
 to heal the broken hearted, to preach de¬ 
 liverance to the captives, and to set at 
 liberty them that are bound.” 
 
 But it is cheering to believe that this 
 condition cannot be permanent;—it is in- 
 compatable with the spirit of the age, and 
 the progress of our race,—it is an incubus 
 that weighs down the energies of every 
 .State in which it is established—and the 
 public mind needs only to be enlightened 
 and aroused, in order to insure its effec¬ 
 tual overthrow. 
 
 The 5th Section of this work treats of 
 “Slavery in Maryland.” After glancing 
 at the causes of its abolition in the Northern 
 States, which he attributes to its becoming 
 unprofitable, he comes to the conclusion 
 that similar causes will bring about its abo¬ 
 lition in Maryland. His views on this 
 point are clear and forcible. He says: 
 
 “In the long run, Slavery is always un¬ 
 profitable. It can be applied only to one 
 sort of labor—agriculture; and to that in 
 its simplest forms. Its tendency is to ex¬ 
 haust the soil without providing for its re¬ 
 suscitation ; because wherever Slavery is, 
 there labor is regarded as drudgery, and 
 the intelligence of the community, which 
 resides wjth he masters, is not directed 
 towards labor. Hence there are no im 
 provements in the modes of labor; no well 
 regulated system of economy; no fore¬ 
 sight. The masters want to enjoy at once 
 the proceeds of their plantations, for their 
 business is mainly to enjoy; they live for 
 the present; they leave all concerns of 
 industry to their overseers, who are not 
 likely to carry out systematic plans for the 
 improvement of lands, when the owners 
 of the estates are regardless of such things, 
 and would not be disposed to forego im¬ 
 mediate profits for the future benefit of 
 such improvements. A thoughtful indus¬ 
 try will wait some years for the fruition of 
 its hopes, stinting itself in the meantime. 
 It will vest in the. soil the profits of the 
 year, looking to be repaid abundantly 
 hereafter. But with a system of Slavery 
 these things can not be expected. 
 
 “As a general remark, then, it may be 
 observed that, whenever lroni circumstan¬ 
 ces of soil, climate, and production, there 
 is need of economy, skill, and careful in¬ 
 dustry in the cultivation of the ground; 
 wherever nature, not yielding her fruits 
 to indolent hands, has to be overcome by 
 sturdy efforts, by labor directed by intelli¬ 
 gence and aided at every turn by the ap¬ 
 pliances of art which inventive genius has 
 discovered and adapted to use—'there Sla¬ 
 very can not permanently, exist, because 
 it is incompatible with such conditions. 
 
 “In this view it may be seen how it has 
 happened that Slavery, once adopted in 
 the northern States, failed to flourish 
 there—how it was cast out as an uncon¬ 
 genial element. In this same' view it may 
 be seen also that Slavery must, by and by, 
 cease to exist in Maryland. It has brought 
 sterility already upon whole districts; it 
 rests like a paralysing spell upon the en¬ 
 terprise and the active energies of the. 
 commonwealth. Of this, more as we pro¬ 
 ceed. ■ 
 
 “In the sugar and cotton growing States 
 the products of the soil are so rich and 
 abundant, that Slavery can exist in spite 
 of the slovenly and wasteful manner in 
 which its agency is employed. Yet even 
 under these circumstances its profits are 
 for the most part fallacious. No portion 
 of the United States suffered so severely 
 under the commercial revulsion of lS37 
 as the cotton and sugar growing region. 
 The statistics of bankruptcies in Jamaica, 
 as exhibited in reports to Parliament, from 
 time to time, show the same fact. 
 
 “The same general observations will ap¬ 
 ply to our slaveholding sections in Mary¬ 
 land, and to many parts of eastern Virgin¬ 
 ia too, ii it were necessary to pursue the 
 investigation further. Emigration to the 
 west has kept pace with the impoverish¬ 
 ment of our lands. Large tracts have come 
 into the hands of a few proprietors—too 
 large to be improved, and too much ex¬ 
 hausted to be productive. But this is not 
 the worst. The traveller, as he journeys 
 through these districts, smitten, with pre¬ 
 mature barrenness as with,a curse, beholds 
 fields, once enclosed and subject to tillage, 
 now abandoned and waste,and covered with 
 straggling pines or scrubby thickets, which 
 are fast overgrowing the waning vestiges of 
 former cultivation. From, swamps and 
 undrained morasses malaria .exhales,land 
 
like a pestilence infects the country. The | 
 inhabitants become a sallow race; the cur¬ 
 rent of life stagnates; energy fails; the 
 spirits droop. Over the whole region a I 
 melancholy aspect broods. There are ev¬ 
 ery where, signs of dilapidation, irom the 
 mansion of the planter with its windows 
 hall-glazed, its doors half-hinged, its lawn 
 trampled by domestic animals that have 
 ingress and egress through the broken en¬ 
 closures, to the ragged roadside house, 
 where thriftless Poverty finds its abode. 
 No neat cottages with gardens and flowers 
 giving life to the landscape; no beautiful 
 villages where cultivated taste blends with 
 rustic simplicity, enriching and beautify¬ 
 ing; no flourishing towns, alive with the 
 bustle of industry—none of those are seen; 
 no, nor any diversified succession of well 
 cultivated farms with their substantial 
 homesteads and capacious barns; no well 
 constructed bridges, no well-conditioned 
 roads. Neglect, the harbinger of decay, 
 has stamped her impress every where. 
 Slavery, bringing with it from its African 
 home its characteristic accompaniments, 
 seems to have breathed over its resting 
 places here, the same desolating breath 
 which made Sahara a desert. 
 
 “No one,whohas passed from aregionof 
 free labor to a slaveholding district, can 
 have failed to notice the contrast present¬ 
 ed by the change.” 
 
 His views concerning West India em¬ 
 ancipation I shall pass over with the sin¬ 
 gle remark, that recent information from 
 the Islands, shews increasing prosperity 
 and public spirit, and there is no doubt that 
 the condition of all classes has been bene- 
 fitted by the abolition of slavery. In re¬ 
 lation to manufactures in the slave states, 
 he observes: 
 
 “The newspapers tell us, from time to 
 tinje,of the establishment of manufacturing 
 works in the south. In the western por¬ 
 tions of North Carolina, South Carolina, 
 and Georgia, where the country is hilly 
 and water power abundant, cotton facto¬ 
 ries are beginning to spring up. Men of 
 enterprise from the north go thither and 
 embark in these undertakings, which are 
 said, for the most part, to promise well. 
 In many places in Virginia, manufactures 
 have taken root firmly. In proportion as 
 this movement goes on and prospers, in 
 such proportion will Slavery recede; in 
 such proportion will its hold at the south 
 be loosened. 
 
 “For let it be remembered that the blen¬ 
 ding of the mind of the community, with 
 the labor of the community, implies ne¬ 
 cessarily freedom, to the extent of such 
 combination. 
 
 “Look at the diversified forms in which 
 the mind of the north finds development; 
 behold its manifold workings. What ex¬ 
 hibitions of ingenuity! What variety of 
 invention! What astonishing results!*Lo¬ 
 well and Patterson and Pittsburg, each a 
 living trophy of the achievements of man 
 over the powers of nature, or rather of 
 his achievements in alliance with the 
 powers of nature. Yet what are these 
 three illustrations! The number of such 
 is innumerable. Look at the whole state 
 of Ohio, the growing, gigantic embodi¬ 
 ment of practical, intellectual energy ap¬ 
 plied to the arts of industry. 
 
 “Nor can any limits be assigned to this 
 progression, nor any restrictions be put 
 upon the variety of its developments. 
 The whole world of material things lies 
 subject to the controlling hand ol man, 
 when his inquiring mind has discovered 
 the laws of nature; and what can hold 
 back the free spirit from its incessant in¬ 
 vestigations 1 
 
 “Put in a slaveholding community there 
 ir no such progression, no such variety. 
 The mind of the community is directed to 
 other things than labor; nay, labor falls in¬ 
 to contempt and is looked upon as deroga¬ 
 tory, for it is servile to labor. How can 
 society, undersuch circumstances, advance 
 in the practical arts ? Its industry is con¬ 
 fined to one pursuit, and in that there can 
 be no excellence attained, because slave 
 labor is not imbued with intelligence.” 
 
 Our author truly remarks that there is 
 but one element in the agriculture of Ma¬ 
 ryland, with which slave-labor has any af¬ 
 finity, and that is the tobacco culture; but 
 he should remember that even this is suc¬ 
 cessfully and largely cultivated in Ohio, 
 by free labor. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 The following statistics arc worthy of 
 attention: 
 
 “In nine counties in Maryland the 
 white population has diminished since 
 1790. These are the counties: Mont¬ 
 gomery, Prince George, St. Mary’s, Cal¬ 
 vert, Charles, Kent, Caroline, Talbot and 
 
14 
 
 . Queen Anne’s. . The aggregate white pop¬ 
 ulation of those counties in 1790 was 73,- 
 .352; in 1840 it was 35,408. Here is a fall¬ 
 ing off of nearly 20,000;' if the account 
 were carried to the present year the fall¬ 
 ing off would be more than 20,000. 
 
 “These nine counties include the chief 
 slaveholding sections of the State. In five 
 of them taken together, via., Montgomery, 
 Prince George, St. Mary’s, Calvert, and 
 Charles, the number of slaves exceeds that 
 of the white population. These are chief¬ 
 ly the tobacco growing counties, together 
 with the county of Frederick.. . 
 
 “Another remarkable result exhibited by 
 the statistics of Maryland since 1790, is 
 the increase of the free colored population, 
 in contrast with the diminution of slaves. 
 .The slave population of our State amount¬ 
 ed in 1790 to 103,036; in 1810 it reached 
 111,5.02, its maxium. Since 1810 it has 
 fallen to 89,619. The free coloured pop- 
 , ulation,on the other hand, which, in 1790 
 was only 8,043, has increased to 61,093. 
 In a few years it must exceed the slave 
 population, for the one is increasing while 
 the other decreases—a double process 
 .which must soon annihilate the difference, 
 of some twenty-five thousand.” . “The 
 number of manumissions reported to the 
 Commissioners, of the State Colonination 
 fund .from 18.31 to 1845, was 2,98S. I 
 am not suredjiat this exhibits all the man- 
 missions, it is enough however to show 
 the tendency.of things. . With all the re¬ 
 strictions legislation has. imposed upon 
 manumissions, they still go on. : It may be 
 taken for certain that they will go on, that 
 nothing can stop them, Year after. year 
 the scruples of slaveholders.in some parts 
 of the State prompt to manumission.- The 
 death-beds of many afford the occasion of 
 giving these scruples force. It is useless 
 to reason. about a thing; of this sort.— 
 Emancipation in Maryland must go on.” 
 
 In. addition to these statistics, extracted 
 from the work under review, I shall in a 
 succeeding number bring forward another 
 remarkable fact which appears to have es¬ 
 caped our author’s attention, which is that 
 the whites have increased in number where 
 the largest proportion of' the: coloured 
 population has been set free, and; have di¬ 
 minished where there are the most slaves— 
 
 ' shewing that it is slavery, and not the pre¬ 
 sence of a free.coloured population, which 
 diminish.,the strength and prosperity of a 
 
 State. -. This section of the work is closed 
 •with the following judicious remarks: ’■ 
 “In our own State, where we do not 
 grow , cotton, sugar, or rice, and where 
 there are no new lands to present'a'fresh 
 soil to the plough, and to invite settlers 
 from a distance, the increase of popula¬ 
 tion in our chief slaveholding counties^ has 
 been nothing at all. There has been a 
 decrease, and a very marked one. How 
 has this decrease happened, but by a pro¬ 
 cess similar to that which rendered deso¬ 
 late three hundred thousand acres- in the 
 champagne of Naples, in the days of Sla¬ 
 very among the Romans—which made 
 Italy itself almost one wilderness,' rein¬ 
 habited by wild boars and other-animals, 
 before a single, barbarian had crossed the 
 Alps! . •: 
 
 “Let us not conceal the truth from our¬ 
 selves. Slavery in Maryland is no longer 
 compatible - with progress; it is a dead 
 weight and worse; it has become a wast¬ 
 ing disease, weakening the vital powers— 
 a leprousdistilment into the life blood of 
 the commonwealth. Yet we will have 
 no quacks to prescribe for our malady.— 
 It is only necessary that we should be¬ 
 come aware of our true condition; there 
 are restorative energies in abundance, it 
 rightly directed, to retrieve the State from 
 every-disorder to which she is subject:” • 
 In this sentiment I fully- concur,—a 
 wasting pestilence has swept over * the 
 slave holding portion of this confederacy.- 
 It was brought upon us by the unhallow¬ 
 ed, love of gain, combined with injustice 
 and: cruelty—its deadly ravages 1 are, still 
 going on, and how is its progress to be 
 stayed? 
 
 Must it not be by resorting to princi¬ 
 ples-of action, the antagonists of those 
 from which it originated ? . ■ ■ 
 
 If it sprang from injustice and cruelty, 
 must we not seek for a-remedy injustice 
 and mercy? " "" 
 
 Let there be no empiricism where the 
 eternal happiness of millions is involved v 
 no procrastinating expedients—no pallia¬ 
 tive prescriptions; but let the-friends of 
 human progress'strike at the root of - the 
 disease and adopt the language of the ven¬ 
 erable Wesley, when he said “I absolutely 
 deny all slaveholding to be consistent with 
 any degree of natural justice.” " ■ •>: ’■ 
 
 The 5th division of this work is headed 
 ^Emancipation; in’ Maryland—its dilficul- 
 
ties,” The first and principal difficulty is sta¬ 
 ted thus.: “the negroes amongst us, wheth¬ 
 er emancipated dr slaves, must remain a 
 distinct class, a servile class, separated from 
 the whites by differences of color, race, 
 and civilization.” 
 
 “In Rome the sons of freedom were ci¬ 
 tizens,—Europe could alter her system of 
 slayery which existed in the middle ages,” 
 she “could admit her serfs to some of the 
 rights of citizens, though still withholding 
 many of those rights. She could do this 
 without danger, because serfs and lords 
 were, of one complexion and of one race. 
 But when a servile population emancipa¬ 
 ted stands marked by its peculiarity ol 
 race and color, so that it cannot be drawn 
 into the social and political sphere, its po¬ 
 sition inevitably becomes hostile. In the: 
 midst,of the community, but not of it—the 
 old bond of connexion ruptured, with no 
 basis whatever, upon which anew one can 
 he established, what but feelings of suspi¬ 
 cion, of distrust,of aversion and repugnance 
 can prevail between the two classes, so far 
 removed and so entirely dissimilar. Nor 
 * can any thing be done by the superior 
 class, to elevate the condition of the other, 
 because that would be to strengthen an ad¬ 
 verse power.’.’ 
 
 , , Now, if it be admitted that emancipated 
 blacks must remain a distinct class, in the 
 community, not mingling their blood with 
 purs, which I think is far more likely to 
 be the case in a state of freedom than in 
 their, present condition,still it by no means 
 follows that they must be a hostile class; 
 nor is, there any thing to prevent our fol¬ 
 lowing the example of Europe in the mid¬ 
 dle ages, by admitting them to some of 
 the■ rights of citizens, and withholding o- 
 theis. Peculiarities of race and color will 
 prevent intermarriage, but they will not 
 preyent the intercourse which business re¬ 
 quires; nor should they interfere with those 
 kind offices, which good neighbors are ac¬ 
 customed to render to each other. In 
 proof of this, we need go no further than 
 the. .city of Baltimore. Is there any re¬ 
 pugnance on the part of the most refined 
 ^and sensitive white gentleman, to be shav¬ 
 ed by a, black barber, to employ a black 
 porter, or to enter a colored man’s estab¬ 
 lishment, and purchase his goods? None 
 whatever. We can deal with them as we 
 .do >vith ;white men, and when they con- 
 -.ducY themselves in a becoming manner, 
 
 they are entitled to our respect, and wil 
 receive it from all who are influenced by- 
 proper feelings. Let those whose stand¬ 
 ing in the community enablesthemtogive 
 tone to public sentiment, only extend to 
 the free colored man a degree of counte¬ 
 nance and support commensurate with his 
 endeavors to improve his mind and fulfil 
 his duties, and then we should see the low¬ 
 er class of whites imitating the example, 
 and all those jealousies which are so much 
 deprecated will pass away. It is to be re¬ 
 gretted that men like our author, who 
 have influence in society, should stamp 
 with their approbation those ignoble pre¬ 
 judices and groundleas jealousies which 
 are current in the community, and are 
 unworthy of a refined and Christian peo- 
 
 Bul, in order to examine this question 
 further, let us inquire whether distinct ra¬ 
 ces of men have not before existed in a 
 community, without intermarriage, and 
 without those dreadful consequences which 
 some persons apprehend ! Take, for ex¬ 
 ample the Jews, who in some parts of Eu¬ 
 rope are placed under civil disabilities, 
 who are easily distinguished by their phy¬ 
 siognomy—who seldom intermarry with 
 Christians, and associate chiefly with their 
 own class. Notwithstanding the absurd 
 prejudices entertained by the vulgar, and 
 too often countenanced by religious big¬ 
 otry, they arc still pursuing the even ten¬ 
 or of their way, increasing in numbers, 
 accumulating riches,and gaining influence. 
 The unjust laws, formerly enacted against 
 them in England and in this country,have 
 been relaxed, and in proportion as justice 
 has been extended towards them, their 
 usefulness as citizens, has been augmented. 
 Yet this class was expelled from Spain in 
 the fifteenth century, on the absurd plea 
 that they absorbed the wealth and kept in 
 their hands the commerce of the kingdom. 
 It is stated by hislarians that 150,000 of 
 them were forced to leave their native 
 land and seek for homes in foreign coun¬ 
 tries, which exposed them to great suffer¬ 
 ing, inflicted a severe blow upon the pros¬ 
 perity of Spain, and has fixed a mark ot 
 infamy upon the instigators of the deed 
 that can never be effaced. The expulsion 
 of the Moors was another instance of the 
 same intolerant and vicious policy. Af¬ 
 ter the conquest of Grenada, those of the 
 vanquished who remained,continued to be 
 
16 
 
 industrious and useful people, cliiefly en¬ 
 gaged in agriculture and manufactures; but 
 in the seign of Philip HI. an edict was is¬ 
 sued for them to leave the kingdom in 
 thirty days, under pain of death. The 
 plea lor this inhuman order was that “they 
 were Mahomedans in i heir hearts,although 
 (from compulsion) they conformed out¬ 
 wardly to the rites ol Christianity. It is 
 remarlied by Russel, in his history of Mod¬ 
 ern Europe, “that by this violent and im¬ 
 politic measure, Spain lost near a million 
 of industrious inhabitants: and as that 
 kingdom was already depopulated by long 
 and bloody foreign wars, by repeated emi¬ 
 grations to the new world,and enervated by 
 luxury, it now sunk into a state of langour, 
 out of which it has never since fully re¬ 
 covered.” 
 
 Now let me ask whether the forcible ex¬ 
 pulsion of the free colored people from 
 Maryland and Virginia, would not be as 
 barbarous a measure as the expulsion of the 
 Jews and Moors from Spain? Nay, would 
 it not be more cruel and disgracceful, in¬ 
 asmuch as the Africans were brought here 
 without their consent, and their descend¬ 
 ants now among us have embraced the 
 Christian religion, and are just as much 
 Americans by birth as we who are de¬ 
 scended from a different stock? Unhappi¬ 
 ly this subject is not received by our le¬ 
 gislators and political economists, as a 
 question ot Christian morals, but merely as 
 a question of expediency. They appear 
 to think that every thing must give way 
 to the interests of the Anglo-Saxon race; 
 and no matter how revolting the policy, 
 the end justifies the means! For my part 
 I feel assured that no policy which is 
 wrong in principle, can in the long run 
 prove beneficial in practice. The old ad¬ 
 age that “honesty is the best policy,” ap¬ 
 plies to communities as well as individu¬ 
 als, for the laws of morality established by 
 Infinite Wisdom, are as essential to the 
 harmony ol the world ot mind, as are the 
 physical laws to the world of matter. 
 
 But viewing the subject only as a ques¬ 
 tion of expediency, let me ask how would 
 the agricultural interests of Maryland and 
 Virginia be affected by the abstraction of 
 all the colored laborers? Would not the 
 scarcity of labor prevent the cultivation of 
 the soil, and consequently all those me¬ 
 chanics and tradesmen, who depend on 
 country custom,would suffer in their busi¬ 
 
 ness ? Land would be without cultivators 
 —capital without employment—and me¬ 
 chanics without business. 
 
 Perhaps it may be said,we must emanci¬ 
 pate and expel the blacks gradually, in or- . 
 der that white laborers from the free states 
 and from Europe may come in. But 
 white laborers will not come here in any 
 considerable numbers, while slavery re¬ 
 mains; they are not willing to settle in a 
 state where labor is held in disrepute. , 
 Why do they not come now? Is there 
 not waste land enough in Maryland ? We 
 know that there are immense tracts in the 
 lower part of the state, reduced by slave¬ 
 ry to a state of desolation. Some of this 
 land may possibly be bought up by capi¬ 
 talists from the North, or by small farmers, 
 as has been the case to some extent in Fair¬ 
 fax county, Va.; hut they will require la¬ 
 borers to assist them in tilling it, and if 
 the laboring population should be driven 
 away, the capitalist will not come. In 
 his last message,Gov. Thomas of Maryland 
 said, “No matter how Widely extended our 
 territory, where slave labor is preferred, 
 may become, its population must be sparse : 
 when compared with other divisions of the 
 confederacy. Emigrants from Great Bri¬ 
 tain and from Continental Europe, whence 
 we receive much the greatest portion of 
 our increasing population, naturally pre¬ 
 fer to become citizens of those states where 
 there are none others than free laborers. 
 Our northern states send forth every year 
 tides of emigrants seeking new homes in | 
 the west; and they also give preference to 
 communities, where the white man and 
 I the red man and the African are free to 
 ! chose their pursuits in life.” 
 
 We see then that there is very little 
 hope of filling up the waste places with a 
 white population,while slavery continues; 
 and is it good policy to send away from 
 the state a large portion of its laboring 
 population, merely on account of the col¬ 
 or that their creator has been pleased to 
 give them? The fact is that the white 
 proprietors in Maryland and Virginia have 
 been so long dependent upon the blacks 
 for a supply of laborers and domestics, that 
 the present generation cannot do without 
 them; but this is no excuse for keeping 
 them in slavery, for their services would 
 be more useful as hired laborers. 
 
 I Do the West India planters wish to ex¬ 
 patriate the emancipated blacks 1 So far 
 
17 
 
 from it,—we are informed that the colo-’ 
 nial authorities of the densely peopled Bar- 
 badoes wished to pass laws to prevent 
 them from leaving the island, and we 
 know, that the planters of Trinidad,which 
 has a sparse population,offered, a few years 
 ago, to pay the passage of free colored 
 people from Baltimore. This policy has 
 arisen from the- increased activity given 
 to all kinds of business by the act of eman¬ 
 cipation, coupled with a desire on the part 
 of the planters to reduce the price of Ia- 
 , hour. If slavery were abolished in it Id. 
 we.should hear of no more propositions in 
 her Legislature, to expel the free blacks 
 • and to subject them to the rigor of perse¬ 
 cuting laws, for the whole of this policy- 
 springs from the slave-holding interest.— 
 Witness the revolting proposition lately 
 made by Reeder of Charles county, “to 
 sell the free blacks and appropriate the 
 proceeds to the paymentof the State debt 5 ' 
 —and the speech made by Clagelt of 
 Prince George’s, against the Editor of the 
 Saturday Visiter, because he has dared to 
 vindicate the character of this injured 
 race! 
 
 Remember the proceedings of the no¬ 
 torious slave-holders convention at An¬ 
 napolis,some years ago,—and the meeting 
 held recently under the “Big oak tree” in 
 Anne Arundel,for the purpose of denoun¬ 
 cing Doct. Steuart’s letter published by 
 John L. Carey, and then compare these 
 facts with the astounding declaration of 
 our author, that “the slaveholding interest 
 is the bulwark of the whole colored race— 
 it stands between them and destruction.” 
 Verily, if this be their friendship, the col¬ 
 ored race may well adopt the language 
 “save us from our friends.” 
 
 I freely admit that there are some slave¬ 
 holders in Md. and Va., who really desire 
 the moral improvement and happiness of 
 the coloured race, but we have only to 
 look at the statute books of Md. and other 
 southern States, to be convinced that this 
 cannot be said of the slave-holding inter¬ 
 est in general; and if those among them 
 who desire to promote the intellectual 
 and moral advancement of the slave, did 
 but examine the subject impartially, they 
 would find that slavery is utterly incom¬ 
 patible with progress. 
 
 It has been said that the degree of civil¬ 
 ization to which a nation has attained may 
 
 be known by studying her code of laws. 
 If this be true, what will be the judgment 
 of future ages in relation to the “Black- 
 Laws” of Maryland, Virginia, and the Ca- 
 rolinas ? Will they not conclude that this 
 generation had not emerged from the dark¬ 
 ness of barbarism, and were strangers to 
 the gospel of Christ 1 
 
 The following extract will shew that, 
 notwitslanding our author’s contempt fur 
 “the wailings of weak sympathizers,” he 
 occasionally falls into the same vein and 
 expends the tender sympathies of his na¬ 
 ture in bewailing imaginary woes: 
 
 “If we should rush precipitately upon 
 emancipation, and rest with that as though 
 it were every thing—let us see what would 
 come of that. One hundred and fifty 
 theusand black people, deprived of the 
 I guardianship and control of masters, the 
 bonds of domestic relationship which uni¬ 
 ted them with the community, being rent 
 asunder, and that identity of interest gone 
 which secured them a definite and harmo¬ 
 nious, though humble, sphere in the social 
 organism—shall they be left to the mercy 
 of stringent laws and police restrictions, 
 and have the life worried out of them by 
 the incessant fretting of petty persecu¬ 
 tions? Poor unfortunates! thrust forth 
 out of the pale of communion, to maintain 
 a separate existence, with no foundation to 
 rest it upon, with no element of social or 
 political lile wherewith to nourish it, with 
 notiiing to cling to, nothing to lie engraft¬ 
 ed upon, an existence without entity, mis¬ 
 erable, forlorn, who could he so unfeeling 
 as not to commiserate their condition !” 
 
 I now come to the last subject treated of 
 in this work, which is CoJonizalion, and I 
 shall consider our authors views on this 
 question in connexion with those of Doct. 
 R. S. Steuart, as slated in his second letter 
 published in - the Balt. Saturday Visiter, 
 some months ago. Before 1 proceed,how¬ 
 ever, I must briefly refer fo some remark¬ 
 able facts disclosed by the statistics of 
 Charles and Anne Arundel counties: 
 
 AeArundelco.mnM.W.lM jl.^.1 
 
 Prom this table it appears that within 
 50 years Charles county has lost nearly 
 half of its white population, while the 
 slaves have diminished only S05 and the 
 
ll 
 
 free blacks only 413. In Anne Arundel 
 the white population has increased more 
 than 25 pr. ct., the slaves have diminish¬ 
 ed only 314, and the free coloured people 
 have' increased from 804 to 5120. How 
 shall we account for this remarkable dif¬ 
 ference 1 In Charles county, the natural 
 increase of the slaves has been sold or em¬ 
 igrated with their masters, whereas in 
 Anne Arundel, it has been set free and 
 remained to cultivate the soil. The whites 
 have fled from slavery and slave-trading, 
 but remained and increased where emanci¬ 
 pation has been going forward. In Balti¬ 
 more city, during the same period the 
 slaves have increased only 1,957, whereas 
 the free coloured have increased 17,657 
 and the whites 69,396—showing that the 
 presence of a large free colored population 
 is not an insuperable barrier to improve¬ 
 ment, nor is the “slave holding interest” 
 necessary to protect them from “destruc¬ 
 tion.” The following table of the pro¬ 
 duce and manufacturers of Charles and 
 Anne Arundel counties, as exhibited by 
 the census of 1S40, affords a striking ex¬ 
 ample of the blighting influence of slave- 
 
 Anne Arundel. Charles county. 
 
 exchanged for goods from abroad; but it is 
 reasonable to suppose that a handsome sur¬ 
 plus remained. The same calculation ap¬ 
 plied to Charles county, gives only about 
 six hundred and twenty six thousand dol¬ 
 lars, being about thirty nine dollars for 
 each inhabitant. To bring up the produce 
 of Charles county to §70 pqr bead, would 
 require' nearly half a million of dollars, 
 and in order to raise this sum a thousand 
 human chattels must be sold every year, 
 if we estimate their average value at five, 
 hundred dollars per head. But it is im¬ 
 possible to sell more than a third of this 
 number without diminishing the stock— 
 so we see that slave-breeding is not so pro¬ 
 fitable after all. 
 
 On cxaming these statistics, how shall 
 we account for the prodigious disparity 
 in the aggregate value of productions ?— 
 Must it not be owing to the fact that Anne 
 Arundel has a much larger number of 
 free labourers, and although a considera¬ 
 ble proportion of them are free coloured 
 people, is it not evident that they con^ 
 tribute their share towards the general 
 
 I shall now proceed to examine our au¬ 
 thor’s views on Colonization, of which he- 
 appears to be a decided advocate. 
 
 He says “colonization proposes to con¬ 
 vey to the western coast of Africa, and to 
 establish there, on territory procured for 
 the purpose, the free coloured people ot 
 
 “ Carriages, &c. §6,800 
 
 “ Manf's of Mills §154,643 
 
 " Buildings erected §66,962 
 
 ,r Cotton goods §100,000 
 
 On making a rough estimate at current 
 prices, throwing off the odd numbers, and 
 leaving out the horses, mules and sheep, I. 
 find the annual produce of Anne Arundel 
 county, was about two millions of dollars, 
 being seventy dollars per head of each in¬ 
 habitant. A large proportion of this must 
 have been consumed in the county or ex- 
 
 Maryland, with their own consent .”— 
 Well—suppose they" do not wish to go, 
 what is to be done then 1 This question 
 may be answered by reference to the 
 “black laws” of Maryland, and the records 
 of the Slave-holders Convention. If they 
 will not go of their own accord, they must 
 be coerced by a regular systematic and 
 legalized course of persecution'. And all 
 this is at least connived at by their professed 
 friends, who draw such glowing pictures 
 of the fine climate and the fertile soil of 
 Africa, and of the freedom and happiness 
 of the colonists at Cape Palmas, which the 
 blacks are so stupid, as not to believe!— 
 How can colonizationists expect to gain 
 the confidence of the free people of colour, 
 while they uphold those oppressive laws,or 
 at'least do nothing to promote their repeal ? 
 If it is really intended to colonize Them 
 with their .own consent, let all appear¬ 
 ances of coercion and all obstructions to 
 
19 
 
 emancipation be removed, and then you] America there arc few, if any avenues 
 way effect something. But does Coloni- open to those for whom colonization ta¬ 
 xation really propose to remove all the hors. 
 
 coloured people of the U. S. to the coast “The object of colonization, therefore, 
 ■of Africa ? If its originators ever had this said Mr. Latt-oiif., may be slated as the 
 in view, the prospect appears to be aban- preparation of a home in Africa, for the 
 doned, as may be learned from the follow- free colored people of the Slate, to which 
 ing quotation: '■ they may remove when the advantages 
 
 “Now, if we look merely at what colo- which it offers, and, above all, the pres- 
 ■nization has done in the way of removing sure irresistible circumstances in this 
 the colored population from Maryland, it coun ‘ r )’ s * la 'l excite them to emigrate. 5 ’ 
 would seem to be an utterly hopeless pro- If this “pressure of irresistible circum- 
 ject. But let us see what colonization stances” were not brought about by enfor- 
 really proposes; and for this purpose I cing oppressive laws and exciting popular 
 quote the language of Mr. Lathohe, under prejudices, there would be far less objec- 
 whose able superintendence, as President tion to themeasuresof Colonization. There 
 of the Colonization Board, the affairs of is, however, one more oijection, and not 
 the colony have so wonderfully prospered: the least formidable. 
 
 “If colonization proposed by any pro- ^ bis scheme, which if it ever succeeds, 
 bable means at its command, even with must take centuries for its accomplishment, 
 the most munificent assistance of Congress, has been the.means of lulling the consci- 
 State Legislatures'and individuals, to re- cnees of many benevolent persons, and in¬ 
 move the whole colored population of the ducin g lllem ‘° rf!il q u »<-ily under the sys- 
 Uniled States to Africa, it would well de- lem of slavery, which is inimical to the 
 serve to be considered visionary, as idle moral improvement of the colored race, 
 indeed as to attempt to ladle Lake Erie and ruinous to_the interests of the State, 
 dry. No means that could be obtained They satisfy themselves with what they 
 would be competent to this end. But the consider a work of charity, but which, ac- 
 means, scant as they were, continued Mr. cording to their own shewing, can only be 
 L., were ample to establish colonies on the accomplished by future generations, while 
 coast of Africa, capable of self-support and tlle present generation of staves and their 
 self-government—moral and religious com- 3' 0un S children, who are now coming for- 
 munities, where wealth and station would ward ! are left in hopeless ignorance and 
 be offered to the colored man as the in- moral degradation, and every obstacle 
 centives and rewards of labor—colonies tlirown in tlle wa J of benevolent masters 
 that would be attractive to him as America who desire to manumit them! Let all Ir¬ 
 is to’the European. In 1832 the immi- gal restraints to manumission be removed, 
 gration to America was said to he up- and measures for emancipation be under- 
 wards of two hundred thousand, more than taken b J' the Slate - and ‘ben there can be 
 double, nearly treble the annual increase 110 reasonable objection to providing a 
 of the entire colored population of the home m Africa or elsewhere, for such as 
 Union. These immigrants, with few ex- arc filing to remove, 
 options, came at their own expense. In Tllls hrin S s 1Tlt ‘ io ^ consideration of 
 point of means they were in no way su- *? r " Sleuarl’s second letter, whose proposi- 
 perior to the corresponding class of free tion is stated as follows: 
 colored people in the United States—they “It seems to me the time jias now come 
 
 came because America presented attrac- for restoring things to wiiere they were 
 tions which their home did not. It is in some twelve or fifteen years ago—that is, 
 the power of colonization to invest Africa to allow emancipation to progress by the 
 with the same attractions for the colored natural course ot circumstances. 1 mean at 
 ' immigrant, that America presents to the the pleasured the slaveholder,unrestrain- 
 white one. Where the tatter has one in- ed by legislative enactments or by popu- 
 ducement to remove, the former hasten, tar prejudice, excepting alwaysthat degree 
 In Europe there are few avenues to world- of restraint which police government may 
 ly honor which are closed to those, who render necessary. At first I fear this prn- 
 neyerthaless, leave them all behind. In position will startle some of our good citi- 
 
zens, and they will exclaim against it; but 
 I beg them to pause and consider camly the 
 reasons and motives of this suggestion— 
 
 ' policy, humanity, andself-interest.” 
 
 This proposition he maintains upon con¬ 
 siderations of political economy, and shews 
 that the colored race increase faster in a 
 state of slavery, when well treated, than 
 they do in a state of freedom; therefore, 
 he would rather encourage manumission; 
 and this course of procedure, he says, “in 
 connection with renewed and . extended 
 efforts at colonization, will, in all human 
 probability, and at no very distant period, 
 secure the removal of the great body of the 
 African people from our State.” He adds, 
 “In proposing to countenance a gradual e- 
 mancipation in Maryland, I propose noth¬ 
 ing new, but merely a return to the ancient 
 and time-honored custom of our land; I 
 propose it not only for the ultimate good 
 it may, and I trust will, at some future day, 
 accomplish for the negroes themselves, but 
 especially to promote the freedom and in¬ 
 dependence of our own color. For who 
 does not know that the slaveholder who 
 does his duty to himself, to the negro, and 
 to his community,' is almost as much a 
 slave as the slave himself. He certainly 
 has far more care and anxiety than the ne¬ 
 gro, who seldom looks forward to the mor¬ 
 row. 
 
 “Nevertheless, I would at this time ask 
 for no more than to sanction, by more dis¬ 
 tinct authority, that which almost daily 
 takes place, as you show by the statement 
 made to the commissioners .of the State 
 Colonization Fund, by which it appears 
 nearly 3000 manumissions have taken 
 place in the last thirteen years, notwith¬ 
 standing all the difficulties thrown in the 
 way by legislative enactments. I would 
 . merely ask that each and every slavehold¬ 
 er be permitted to exercise his own free 
 will and pleasure in the matter, without 
 fear on his part, or dread on that of the 
 manumittee, of any existence of power to 
 compel him to leave the State, but that it 
 may be left to time and natural circum¬ 
 stances to force this issue.” 
 
 V This proposition appears to me to be 
 just and reasonable; and I have been led, 
 by considerations entirely, different, to ad¬ 
 vocate the same, measure. 
 
 • In the examination of a great question 
 like this, among a people who profess to 
 
 be governed by Christian principles, the 
 first effort should be to view its moral as¬ 
 pect. The inquiry proposed to ourselves 
 should not be, is it expedient? but, is it 
 right ? And, believing.as we do, that the 
 moral laws impressed universally on the 
 human mind, were placed there by Infi¬ 
 nite Wisdom, we may follow their dictates 
 with the most unhesitating confidence that 
 they will lead nations as well as individu¬ 
 als in the paths of happiness and peace. '■ 
 
 If our fathers purchased Africans from : 
 those who wrongfully held them, and have 
 transmitted to us the pernicious inherit¬ 
 ance,. shall we continue to follow in their 
 footsteps by prolonging this unhappy rela- : 
 tion ? If the first link of the connexion 
 was wrong, at what portion of the chain ; 
 did it become right ? It avails not to plead ; 
 the precedents of good men in former ages, - 
 for the same excuse may be pleaded for 
 polygamy, divorce, persecution, and many 
 other evils. We live in an age that has 
 been wonderfully advanced by tfife re- j 
 searches of science and the investigation 
 of moral truth, and shall we go back to the 
 dark ages of antiquity,for examples to guide 
 us in our civil relations ? • 
 
 Whether one man can of right exercisej! 
 unlimited and irresponsible sway over an-'i 
 other—whether he may “chain him, and- 
 task him, and exact his sweat” for the pur¬ 
 pose of acquiring pecuniary gain,—is no? 
 longer a question with enlightened and; 
 unprejudiced minds; it has been settled in ! 
 favor of personal liberty, by the verdict o:'j 
 the civilized world. 
 
 It is in vain for the advocates of slaver;:] 
 to throw themselves into the breach tha'. 
 has been made in their, bulwarks; their 
 efforts will be powerless to arrest the pro. 
 gress of liberal opinions. They may at¬ 
 tempt to overthrow the liberty , of the presj 
 —they may strive to put a gag in tb(j 
 mouths of the free—but these efforts of ex' 
 piring Despotism will recoil upon theitfl 
 selves. § 
 
 It is no longer a contest merely on bid 
 half of the slave, but. the question is no-| 
 to be settled, whether the libeti es of tHi 
 Anglo-Saxon race are to be preserved! 
 Throughout a large portion of the Southel 
 States the non-slaveholding whites are I 
 longer free; a padlock has been placed | 
 their mouths, the freedom of the. press! 
 i subverted, and they enjoy less liberty S 
 
the expression of their opinions than the 
 subjects of many European monarchies. 
 In Kentucky, a noble-minded advocate of 
 freedom has been proscribed by a mob—in 
 Maryland, an independent and patriotic 
 editor is denounced in the Legislature. 
 During such a crisis can we be content 
 with supine indifference? Can we allow our 
 liberties to be wrested from us in order to 
 perpetuate an institution that has been a 
 blighting mildew on every land it has 
 touched from the creation of the world ? 
 With a slow and almost imperceptible pro¬ 
 gress it has overshadowed the whole land, 
 obscuring the moral vision of the people, 
 and infecting the atmosphere of mind. 
 Like the malaria that encroaches on the 
 Roman campagna, prostrating the energies 
 of the inhabitants and spreading desolation 
 and death around; unless its progress can 
 be arrested, we shall be reduced to a fee¬ 
 ble and degenerate people, crouching a- 
 mong the ruins of the mighty works erec¬ 
 ted by our fathers. 
 
 But how shall we subdue this giant 
 evil ? Shall we oppose violence by force ? 
 Shall we meet denunciation by bitter in¬ 
 
 vective ? No—the weapons of our war¬ 
 fare are truth and love, and by means of 
 these alone, we expect to subdue error and 
 hostility. 
 
 In a contest like this we should remem¬ 
 ber that we have the eternal principles of 
 Truth and Justice, on our side—we are 
 the humble instruments of Deity in wield¬ 
 ing these powerful weapons: if we succeed 
 the victory and the glory will belong to 
 Him, and His approbation will be our re¬ 
 ward. If we fail in the attempt and are 
 borne down by the violence of prejudice 
 and passion, we shall enjoy the satisfaction 
 of having done our duty, and shall retire 
 from the conflict with our moral nature 
 unscathed. 
 
 I now take leave of the author IJiavc 
 been reviewing. His work contains many 
 important truths, ably set forth, but min¬ 
 gled with erroneous sentiments that, in 
 my opinion, are calculated to mar the 
 good intended, and to frustrate the olject 
 in view, which was doubtless to promote 
 the prosperity of the state and the pro¬ 
 gress of mankind. 
 
22 
 
 appendix. 
 
 Review of Robert S. Reeder’:* report 
 
 to tiie Legislature, on the subject 
 
 of the banishment of the free color¬ 
 ed people. 
 
 We take pleasure in, transferring the 
 following article to the columns of the 
 Visiter from those of the “Port Tobacco 
 Times” a paper published in Charles 
 count}', Maryland, the home of Robert S. 
 Reeder, whose proposition to sell the free 
 colored people to pay the State debt will 
 not soon be forgotten. —Ed. Balt. Visiter. 
 
 I have seen in your paper the conclu¬ 
 sion of a Report of a Legislative Commit¬ 
 tee ralative to the Free People of Color of 
 your county, and descanting of that class 
 of community through the Stale at large. 
 The first part of said Report I have not 
 seen; and with regard to the pro-slavery 
 argument maintained in the conclusion, I 
 have nothing to say. I am, indeed, one of 
 those w’ho believe the servile institution 
 to be injurious to any community and in 
 all aspects; but at the same time I believe 
 that in this country, and foryears to come, 
 it is and will be a necessary evil, and that 
 at all events the question of its preserva¬ 
 tion or abatement rests solely w'ith the 
 holders of that description of property. 
 
 But there is in this Report a census ta¬ 
 ble of the white and free black population 
 of this state, in which the future is conjec¬ 
 tured from the past in a manner so entire¬ 
 ly extraordinary that I am desirous to make 
 it the subject of a few remarks. These re¬ 
 marks, I assure you, are prompted by no 
 desire to embarrass the action of your coun¬ 
 ty or of the State on a matter already en¬ 
 vironed by so many difficulties and perils, 
 both present and prospective. Much less 
 am I actuated by any tincture of sympathy 
 with the Abolitionists—w'hose spirit I be¬ 
 lieve to be fiendish in their leaders, and 
 blind in their honest but ignorant adherents. 
 Least of all am I impelled by feelings of 
 ill-will to the respected Delegates who 
 drew up that Report, w'ith u'hom I have 
 not even the honor of acquaintance. But 
 whenever any erroneous statement of 
 grave consequence is made public, I deem 
 it the duty of every citizen to rectify such 
 statement as publicly as it w'as made. 
 
 Now the present and future condition 
 of the slaves, and still more of the free 
 black population of Maryland, is beset 
 ivith so many hazards and hardships, in all 
 view's, that there surely is no need of.ex¬ 
 aggeration to deepen our alarm. Vet in 
 the tabular estimate, given in the aforesaid 
 Report, of the present and future compar¬ 
 ative numbers of the whites, and of -the 
 free blacks, are anticipations, which, if 
 well grounded, would be frightful and fair¬ 
 ly overwhelming. And lest some good 
 people of this State, unaccustomed to these' 
 conjectural calculations, should be scared 
 out of their senses by such awful predic¬ 
 tions, I w’ill first assert and aftenvards 
 prove that the committee, by following 
 out a fallacious principle, have unwitting¬ 
 ly led themselves and their readers immea¬ 
 surably astray, and that their anticipative 
 statements are not only inconsistent with 
 each other, but unreasonable, prima facie, 
 and in themselves alone. Now for the 
 
 First. They are prima facie and in them¬ 
 selves unreasonable. For instance, to 
 Worcester county they assign for the year 
 1940 a probable population of 874,000) 
 free blacks, and to Washington county 
 032,000. I know'not the exact superficial! 
 area of these two counties; but as the State 
 has only 14,000 square miles, I am cer¬ 
 tain that neither of these counties has 1000,, 
 or at least Worcester has not. They are, 
 then, to contain a population, the first of 
 800 too 1000, and the last of 400 to 700 
 per square mile. This is obviously next 
 to impossible. For the most fertile and 
 populous country in the world never at¬ 
 tained a density of 400 per square mile, 
 not even in China, Hindostan, or Egypt. 
 And it is probable that the most fruitful 
 region of the earth, say Hindostan, will 
 not support more than 600 per square mile, 
 even when the science of social economy 
 and the productive capacity of the soil 
 shall have been carried to their utmost 
 pitch. How 500 to 1,000 lazy, ignorant 
 negroes could maintain themselves on ev¬ 
 ery square mile in our ungenial climate, 
 passes all wonder. But again: Calvert 
 county is to have 147,000 free blacks, 
 ■ w'hile Prince George’s county, of equal 
 fertility and of more than twice the size, 
 is to have but 38,000, and your county, 
 which is neither small nor unfruitful, will 
 have only 3,000, the whites being reduced 
 
I , . ' ■ 
 
 I to zero! Poor Charles count}-! who is to 
 live there } The committee have doomed 
 her to utter desolation. Hardly were the 
 j prophets more severe on ancient Edom! 
 
 Yet again: Baltimore city in A. D. 1940 
 j is to contain 3,408,000 whites, and (what 
 ; think you!) 44,917,000 tree blacks. O,! 
 monstrous! monstrous! More than twice 
 the present population of tile United States! 
 
 I Toss in a couple ol millions of slaves, just 
 for a make-weight, (a million is nothing 
 for the committee,) and we shall have fif¬ 
 ty millions persons in one city! Brag no 
 more, Babylon ! Blush tor shame, Rome! 
 Hide your head, London!—you are all but 
 villages. London, with its 2,000,000 in¬ 
 habitants, would, if lying in a perfect 
 square,'be 6 or 7 miles in length by as 
 much in breadth. Baltimore in 1940 will 
 be 30 miles square! Wonder what will 
 be the price of city lots! But why do the 
 committee stop at 1940! Continue their 
 estimate to A. D. 1990—the time ot our 
 great-grandsons’ grandsons—and its popu¬ 
 lation will be 20,000,000 whites and 2,- 
 166,000,000 tree blacks—more than twice 
 the entire population of the globe—while 
 its site will covpr 40,000 square miles, or 
 200 miles square and S00 miles in circuit! 
 Hail to the Queen City of the world! But 
 seriously, if the rest of this table could be 
 swallowed, this Baltimore affair would 
 make one rub his eyes to know if he were 
 well awake. 
 
 Second. But furthermore, the estimates 
 of this table, which is in every respect as 
 hard to believe as the Table of the Ten 
 Commandments is hard to keep, are incon¬ 
 sistent with themselves and essentially un¬ 
 fair. It will be seen that throughout the 
 whole State, with the exception of Balti¬ 
 more city, in determining the probable in¬ 
 crease or decrease of the whites, the com¬ 
 mittee have proceeded, though somewhat 
 inaccurately, by the law of arithmetical 
 progression; while in reference to the free 
 blacks they have calculated, though very 
 carelessly still, by lh» rules of geometrical 
 progression- How, the arithmetical law 
 adds a fixed number at each successive 
 term: the geometrical multiplies at each 
 step by a, fixed number, called the ratio. 
 The former process swells but slowly; the 
 latter soon rises to an inconceivable 
 amount. Their infinite difference may be 
 aptly illustrated as follows: Suppose a 
 
 town have numbered 100 inhabitants in 
 A. D. 1S00, and that it adds 10,000 to 
 its first number in even- period of 25 years, 
 what will be its poimlation A. 11. 1900 > 
 The answer I) ) i c 
 1 in ariihmdiad profession. But the first 
 growth of said town may la-regarded in 
 another light—for an increase from lOilto 
 10,00- is an increase of one hundred fold. 
 Carrv out this law of increase to \. 1). 
 1920, and what will be the population » 
 Answer, 10,000.000,into. This is in go- 
 mdricnl progression. The ditil-rence be¬ 
 tween the two results is only the trilling 
 amount of almost ten billions! Tiies-two 
 processes, at first so seemingly alike, in tin- 
 end are as wide asunder as the pules. Now, 
 why have the committee subjected these 
 two classes of our population to two scales 
 of progress so vastly divergent 1 I do not 
 for a moment suppose that gentlemen of 
 their high and deserv.il standing have in¬ 
 tentionally erred, with the wish of exci¬ 
 ting a panic among the people, or of bur¬ 
 ning the Legislature into headlong action. 
 How then could they have fallen into a 
 mistake which a little inspection will show 
 to be not only unlair in itself, but conduct¬ 
 ing to results perfectly preposterous ? 
 The error, so far as regards the unfair¬ 
 ness of applying fwo laws to matters es¬ 
 sentially the same, originated, 1 imagine, 
 in the following manner: Jn geometrical 
 progression, and particularly in the de¬ 
 scending scale, when the ratio of increase 
 or decrease is a small fraction, the pro¬ 
 cess at first view resembles arithmetical 
 progression—that is, continued addition 
 or subtraction. Now, every where through¬ 
 out the State, excepting the city of Balti¬ 
 more, the ratio of increase or decrease 
 with the whites trom 1790 to IS40 was 
 a fraction greater or less. The free blacks, 
 on the contrary, who in 17.90 were vert- 
 lew, have in the last 50 year (if they are 
 to be calculated Iiv the geometrical law) 
 increased in high ratios,"varying from 2 
 in Charles county, to nearly 56 in Balti¬ 
 more city. The apparent identity oi geo¬ 
 metrical with progression, when the ratio 
 is fractional, lias caused the committee to 
 apply the latter rule to the white popula¬ 
 tion, while to the free blacks they applied 
 the former Jaw, though with considerable 
 looseness. But a little examination will 
 show the inaccuracy of this. 1st. I will 
 
24 
 
 take Charles county, premising that, as I 
 have not the State Census with me, I pro¬ 
 ceed every where upon the supposed cor¬ 
 rectness of' the figures as published from 
 the committee in your paper. Charles 
 county, it seems, in 1790 had 10,124 j 
 whites, and in ]840only6,022—a dimin¬ 
 ution on the arithmetical scale of 4,102, 
 and on the geometrical scale of 41,101; 
 or, disregarding minute fractions, 2-5.— 
 The free negroes, on the other hand, in 
 1790 were 401, and in 1S40, 819—an 
 increase of 415 on the arithmetical scale, 
 andot two-fold on the geometrical. Now, 
 surely it is fair that whichever scale is 
 applied to one class lie applicable to the 
 other also. If the whites are to diminish 
 every half century hv successive subtract¬ 
 ions of 4,102, let the' free negroes increase 
 by successive additions of 415. Or if the 
 other scale is to be applied to the free 
 blacks, so that the number, of one- half, 
 century is alwavs to be doubled in the 
 next, then let the existing number of 
 whites in the one half-century be only 
 
 Here the Arithmetical increase of the 
 whites was 69,222; of the free negroes 
 17,653; the geometrical ratio of increase 
 of the whites 6 4-5ths nearly ; that ol the 
 free blacks 55 2-3ds. 
 
 It will be seen that in this last table I have 
 raised the amounts a little higher than the 
 committee do, by carrying it out more ex¬ 
 actly; but the principle is the same. I 
 
 just notice th 
 1 arithmetical 
 !: of the free n 
 -trical io c 
 
 diminished by 2-5tl 
 man can dispute the propriety of this. I 
 will exemplify this by two or three in¬ 
 stances, to show that one rule will give 
 far fewer free negroes, and the other rule 
 more whites, than the committee have al¬ 
 lowed. In Charles county the average 
 decrease of the whites has been 4,102 
 the geometrical decrease 2-5ths. The 
 arithmetical increase of the free blacks. 
 415 ; geometrical increase 2. I 
 
 • ; was' 1-2 nearly; of the