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TVVO LETTERS

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SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES

ADDRESSED TO THOMAS CLARKSON, ES<2'

BY J. H. HAMMOND
LATE GOV. OV SOUTH CAROUWA,

FROM THE SOUTH CAROLINIAN,
1845.

TWO LETTERS

ON

SOUTHERN SLAVSMY
ADDRESSED TO THOMAS CLARKSON, Esq.

SHiVEB. BLTJPP, South. CaroUna, >
January 28, 1845. J
Sir: — I received, a short time ago, a letter from the Rev. Willoughby
M. Dickinson, dated at your residence, " Playford Hall, near Ipswich, 26th
Nov., 1844," in which was inclosed a copy of your Circular Letter address
ed to professing Christians . ia our Nothern States, having no concern with
Slavery, and to others there. I presume that Mr. Dickinson's letter was
written with your knowledge, and the document inclosed with your consent
and approbation. I therefore feel that there is no impropriety in rey address
ing my reply directly to yourself, especiafly as there is nothing in Mr. Dick
inson's communication requiring serious notice. Having abundant leisure,
it will be a recreation to me to devote a portion of it to an examination and free
discussion of the question of Slavery as it exists in our Southern States: and
since you have thrown down the ganntlet to me, I do not hesitate to take it up.
Familiar as you have been with the discussions of this subject in all its as
pects, and under all the excitements it has occasioned for sixty years past, I
may not be able to present much that will be new to you. IS' or ought 1 to in
dulge the hope of materially afTecting the opinions j'ou have so long cherished,
and zealously promulgated. Still, time and experience have developed facts,
constantly furnishingfresh tests to opinions formed sixty years since, and continual
ly placing this great question in points of viewjwhich could scarcely occur to the
most consummate intellect even a quarter of a century ago : And which may
not have occurred yet to those whose previous convictions, prejudices and habits
of thought have thoroughly and permanently biassed them to one fixed way of
looking at the matter ; VVhile there are peculiarities in the operation of every
social system, and special local as well as moral causes materially afiecting
it, which no one, placed at the distance you are from us, can fully comprehend
or properly appreciate. Besides, it may be possibly, a novelty to you to en
counter one who conscientiously believes the Domestic Slaverj- of these States
to be not only an inexorable necessity for the present, but a moral and humane
institution, productive of the greatest political and social advantages, and who
is disposed, as I am, to defend it on these grounds.

I do not propose, however, to defend the African Slave Trade. That is no
longer a question. Doubtless great evils arise from it as it has been, and is
now conducted : unnecessary wars and cruel kidnapping in Africa : the most
shocking barbarities in the Middle Passage ; and perhaps a less humane system
of slavery in countries continually supplied with fresh laborers at a cheap rate.
The evils of it, however, it may be fairly presumed, are greatly exaggerated.
And iff might judge of the truth of transactions stated as occurring in this trade,
by that of those reported as transpiring among us, I should not hesitate to say,
that a large proportion of the stories in circulation are unfounded, and most of
the remainder highly colored.
On the passage of the Act of Parliament prohibiting this trade to British sub
jects rests what you esteem the glory of your life. It required twenty years of
arduous agitation, and the intervening extraordinary political events, to con
vince your countrymen, and among the rest your pious King, of the expediency
of this measure : and it is but just to say, that no one individual rendered more
essential service to the cause than you did. In reflecting on the subject, you
must often ask yourself: What after all has been accomplished ; how much
human suffering has been averted ; how many human beings have been rescued
from transatlantic slavery ? And on the answers you can give these questions,
must in a great measure, I presume, depend the happiness of your life. In
firaming them, how frequently must you be reminded of the remark of Mr.
Grosvemor, in one of the early debates upon the subject, which I believe you
have yourself recorded, " that he had twenty objections to the abolition of the
Slave .Trade: ihe fiist -wzs, that it was irnpossible — the rest he need not give."
Can you say to yourself, or to the world, that this first objection to Mr. Gros-
v£N0R has been yet coiifuted ? It was estimated at the commencement of your
agitation in 1787, that forty-five thousand Africans, were annually transported
to America and the West Indies. And the mortality of the Middle Passsage,
computed by some at 5, is now admitted not to have exceeded 9 per cent.
IN'otwithstanding your Act of Parliament, the previous abolition by the United
States, and that all the powers in the world have subsequently prohibited this
trade — some of the greatest of them declaring it piracy, and covering the Afri
can seas with armed vessels to prevent it — Sir Thomas Fowel Buxton, a
f.oadjutor of yours, declared in 1840, thatthe number of Africans now annually
3otd into slavery beyond the sea, amount, at the very least, to one hundred and
fifty thousand souls ; while the mortality of the Middle Passage has increased,
in conseqi-ience of the measures taken to suppress the trade, to 25 or 30 per
cent. And of the one hundred and fifty thousand slaves who have been cap
tured and liberated by British Meu of War since the passage of your Act, Judge
Jay, an American Abolitionist, asserts that one hundred thousand, or two-
thirds, have perished between their capture and liberation, Does it not really
peem that Mr. Grosvenob was a Prophet .' That though nearly all the " im-
possbilities" of 17S7 have vanished, and become as familiar /acis as our house
hold customs, under the magic influence of Steam, Cotton and universal peace,
yet this wonderful prophecy still stands, defying time and the energy and genius
of mankind. Thousands of valuable lives and fifty millions of pounds sterling
have been thrown away by your Government in fruitless attempts to overturn
it. I hope you have not lived too long for your own happiness, though you
have been spared to see that in spite of all your toils and these of your fellow
laborers, and the accomplishment of all that human agency could do, the Afri
can Slave Trade has increased three-fold under your own eyes — more rapidly,
perhaps, than any other ancient branch of commerce — and that your efforts to
puppress it have effected nothing more than a three-fold increase of its horrors.
There is a God who rules this world — All powerful — FiU'-seeing; He does not

permit His creatures to foil His designs. It is He who, for His allwise, though
to us often inscrutable purposes, throws " impossibilities" in the way of our
fondest hopes and strenuous exertions. Can you doubt this .'
Experience having settled the point, that this Trade cannot be abolished by
the use of force, and that blockading squadrons serve only to make it more pro
fitable and more cruel, I am surprised that the attempt is persisted in, unless it
^rves as a cloak to some other purposes. It would be far better than it now
is, for the African, if the trade was free from all restrictions, and left to the
mitigation and decay which time and competition would surely bring about.
If kidnapping, both secretly and by war made for the purpose, could be by any
means prevented in Africa, the next greatest blessing you could bes*ow upon that
country would be to transport its actual slaves in comfditable vessels across the
Atlantic. Though they might be perpetual bondsmen, still, they would emerge
from darkness into light — from barbarism to civilization — from idolatry to Chris
tianity — in short from death to life.
But let us leave the African slave trade, which has so signally defeated the
Philanthropy of the world, and turn to American slavery to which you have
now directed your attention, and against which a crusade has been preached as
enthusiastic and ferocious as that of Peter the Hermit — destined, 1 believe, to
be about as successful. And here let me say, there is a vast difference between
the two, though you may not acknowledge it. The wisdom of ages has con
curred in the justice and expediency of establishing rights by prescriptive use,
however tortuous in their origin they may have been. You would deem
a man insane, whose keen sense of equity would lead him to denounce
your right to the lands you hold, and which perhaps you inherited from a long
line of ancestry, because your title was derived from a Saxon or Norman con
queror, and your lands were originally wrested by violence from the vanquish
ed Britons. And so would the New England Abolitionist regard any one who
would insist that he should restore his farm to the descendants of the slaugh
tered red men to whom God had as clearly given it as he gave life and freedom
to the kidnapped African. That time does not consecrate wrong, is a fallacy
which all history exposes ; and which the best and wisest men of all ages and
professions of religious faith have practically denied. The means, therefore,
whatever they may have been, by which the African race now in this country
have been reduced to slavery, cannot affect us, since they are our property, as
your land is yours, by inheritance or purchase and prescriptive right. You will
say that man cannot hold property in man. Thp an.swer is, that he can and
actually does hold property in his fellow all the world over, in a variety of forms,
and Aas always done so. I will show presently his authority for doing it.
If you were to ask me whether I was aa advocate of slavery in the abstract,
I should probably answer, that I am not, according to my understanding of the
question. I do not like to deal in abstractions. It seldom leads to any useful
ends. There are few universal truths. I do not now remember any single
moral truth universally acknowledged. We have no assurance that it is given
to our finite understanding to comprehend abstract, moral truth. Apart from
Revelation and Inspired Writings, what ideas should we have even of God,
Salvation and Immortality ? Let tbe Heathen answer. Justice itself is im
palpable as an abstraction, and abstract liberty the merest phantasy that ever
amused the imagination. This world wa.s made for man, and man for the
world as it is. Ourselves, our relations with one another and all matter are
real, not ideal. I might say that I am no more in favor of slavery in the ab
stract, than I am of poverty, disease, deformity, idiocy or any other inequality in
the condition of the human family ; that I love perfection, and think I should
enjoy a Millenium such as God has promised. But what would it amount to ?

A pledge that I would join you to set about eradicating those apparently in
evitable evils of our nature, in equalizing the condition of all mankind, con
summating the perfection of our race, and introducing the Millenium ? By no
means. To effect these things, belongs exclusively to a Higher Power. A'^'^
it would be well for us to leave the Almighty to perfect His own works and
fulfil His own Covenants. Especially, as the history of the past shows how
entirely futile all human efforts have proved, when made for the purpose of
aiding Him in carrying out even his revealed designs, and how invariably he
has accomplished them by unconscious instruments, and in the face of human
expectation. Nay more, that every attempt which has been made by fallible
man to extort from the world obedience to his "abstract " notions of right and
wrong, has been invariably attended with calamities, dire and extended just in
proportion to the breadth and vigor of the movement. On slavery in the ab
stract, then, it would not be amiss to have as little as possible to say. Let us
contemplate it as it is. And thus contemplating it, the first question we have
to ask ourselves is, whether it is contrary to the Will of God, as revealed to us
in His Holy Scriptures — t.l7e only certain means given us to ascertain His Will.
If it is, then slavery is a sin. And I admit at once that every man is bound
to set his face against it, and to emancipate his slaves should he hold any.
Let us open these Holy Scriptures. In the twentieth chapter of Exodus,
seventeenth verse, I find the following words : " Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant
nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's"
-^which is the Tenth of those commandments that declare the essential prin
ciples of the Great Moral Law delivered to Moses by God himself. Now, dis
carding all technical and verbal quibbling as wholly unworthy to be used in in
terpreting the Word of God, what is the plain meaning, undoubted intent, and
true spirit of this commandment ? Does it not emphatically and explicitly for
bid you to disturb your neighbor in the enjoyment of his property ; and more
especially of that which is here specifically mentioned as being lawfully and by
this comm.andment made sacredly his ? Prominent in the catalogue stands his
" man-servant and his maid-servant," who are thus distinctly consecrated as his
property and guaranteed to him for his exclusive bi-nefit in the most solemn
manner. You attempt to avert the otherwise irresistible conclusion, that slavery
was thus ordained by God, by declaring that the word "slave" is not used
here, and is not to be found in the Bible. And I have seen many learned dis
sertations on this point from.Abolition pens. It is well known that both the
Hebrew and Greek words translated " servant" in the Scriptures, mean also
and most usually " slave." The use of the one word instead of the ohter was
a mere matter of taste with the Translators of the Bible, as it has been with all
t.He commentators and religious writers, the latter of whom have, I believe, for
the most part adopted the term " slave," or used both terms indiscriminately.
If, then, these Hebrew and Greek Words include the idea of both systems of
servitude, the conditional and unconditional, they should, as the major includes
the minor proposition, be always translated " slave" unless the sense of the
whole text forbids it. The real question, then is, what idea is intended to be
conveyed by the words used in the commandment quoted .' Aud it is clear to
my mind that as no lJmit,iiion is affixed to them, and the express inten.ion was
to secure to mankind the peaceful enjoyment of every species of property, that
the terms " Men servants and Maid servants" include all classes of servants,
and establish a lawful, exclusive and indefeasible interest equally in the "He
brew Brother who shall go out in the seventh year" and " the yearly hired ser-
¦"taat," and those " purchased from the Heathen round about," who were to be
¦ lioadmen forever," as the properly of their fellow man.

You cannot deny that there were among the Hebrews " Bornl-men for
ever " You cannot deny that God especially authorized his chosen people to
purchase " Bond-men forever" from the Heathen, as recorded in the 25th chap.
of Leviticus, and that they are there designated by the very Hebrev.' word used
in the Tenth commandment. Nor can you deny that a Bond-man forlveu"
is a " Slave ;" yet you endeavor to hang an argument of immortal consequence
upon the wretched subterfuge, that the precise word " slave" is not to be found
in the translation of the Bible. As it the Translators were canonical expound
ers otthe Holy Scriptures, and their words, not God's meaning, must be regard
ed as His Revelation,
It is in vain to look to Christ or any of his Apostles to justify such blasphe
mous perversions of the word of God. Although slavery in its most revolting
form was every where visible around them, no visionary notions ot piety or
philanthropy ever tempted them to gainsay the Law, even to mitigate the cruel
severity of the existing system. On the contrary, regarding slavery as an es
tablished as well as inevitable condition of human society, they never hinted at
such a thing as its termination on earth, any more than that " the poor may
cease out of the land," which God affirms to Moses shall never be : and they
exhort " all servants under the yoke" to " count their masters as worthy of all
honor : " to obey them in all things accordings to the flesh ; not with eye-ser
vice as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God :" "not only the good
and gentle, but also tbe froward :" " for what glory is it if when ye are buffetted
for your faults ye shall take it patiently ? but if when ye do well and suffer for
it ye take it patiently, this is acceptable of God." St. Paul actually appre
hended a runaway slave and sent him to his master ! Instead of deriving from
the Gospel any sanction for the work you have undertaken,it would be difficuU
to imagine sentiments and conduct more strikingly in contrast than those of tha
Apostles and the Abolitionists,
It is impossible therefore to suppose that slavery is contrary to the Will of
God, It is equally absurd to say that American slavery differs in form or prin
ciple from that of the chosen People. We accept ihe Bible terms as the defini
tion of our slavery, and its precepts as the guide of our conduct. We desire no
thing more. Even the right to " buffet," which is esteemed so shocking, finds
its express license in the Gospel. 1 Peter ii. 20. Nay, what is more, God
directs the Hebrews to " bore holes in the ears of their brothers" to mark them,
¦when under certain circumstances they become perpetual slaves : Ex. xxi. 6.
I think, then I may safely con-lude, and I firmly believe, that American
slavery is not only not a sin, but especially commanded by God through
Moses, and approved by Christ through his Apostles. And here 1 might close
its defence ; for what God ordains and Christ sanctifies should surely command
the respect and toleration of Man. But I fear there has grown up in our time
a Transcendental Religion, which is throwing even Transcendental Philosophy
into the shade — a Religion too pure and elevated for the Bible ; which seeks
to erect among men a higher standard of Morals than the Almighty has re
vealed or our Saviour preached ; and which is probably destined to do more to
impede the extension of God's Kingdom on earth than all the infidels who have
ever lived. Error is error. It is as dangerous to deviate to the right hand as
the left. And when men, professing to be holy men, and who are by numbers
so regarded, declare those things to be sinful, which our Creator has expressly
authorized and instituted, they do more to destroy His authority among man
kind, than the most wicked can effect by proclaiming that to be innocent which
He has forbidden. To this self-righteous and self-exalted class belong all the
Abolitionists whose writings I have read. With them it is no end of tbe ar
gument to prove your propositions by text of the Bible, interpreted according

8
to its p'ain and palpable meaning, and as understood by all mankind, for three*
hundred years before their time. They are more ingenious at construing- aim
interpolating ro accommodate it to their new-fangled and etherial code of morals,
th.an ever were Voltaire or Hume in picking it to pieces to free the world from
what they considered a delusion. When the Abolitionists proclaim ""man-'
itealing" to be a sin, and show me that it is so written down by God, I admit
them to be right, and shudder at the idea of such a crime. But when 1 show
them that lo hold ' ' bond-men for ever" is ordained by God, they deny the Bible
and stl up in its place a Law oJ their own making. I must then cease to- reason'
with them on this branch of the question. Our religion diflers as widely as
our manners. The Great Judge in our day of final account must decide be
tween lis.
Turni.ngfrom the consideration of slave-holding in its relations to man as aa
accountable being, let us examine it in its influence on his political and social
state. Though, being foreigners to us, you are in no wise entitled to interfere'
with the civil institutions of this country, it has become quite common for your
countrymen to decry slavery as au enormous political evil to us, and even to
declare that our Northern States ought to withdraw from the Confederacy,
rather than continue to be contaminated by it. The American -Abolitionists
appear to concur fully in these sentiments, and a portion at least of them, are
incessantly threatening to dissolve the Union. Nor should I be at all surprised
if they succeeded. It would not be difficult, in my opinion, to conjecture which
region, the North or South, would sufier most hy such an event. For one I
should not object, by any means, to cast my lot in a confederacy of States-
whose citizens might all be slave-holders.
I indorse, without reserve, the much-abused sentiment of Gov. M'DuFrifiy
that " slavery is the corner stone ofour Republican edifice ;" while I repudiate,-
as ridiculously absurd, that much-lauded but no where accredited dogma of Mr.-
Jefferso!«, that " ail men are born equal." No Society has ever yet existed^
End I have already incidentally quoted the highest authority to show that none
ever will exist, witht)ut a natural ¦variety of classes. The most marked of these
must in a country like ours, be the rich and the poor, the educated and the igno-«-
rint. It will scarcely be disputed that the very poor have less leisuiie to pre
pare themselves for the proper discharge of public duties than ihe rich ,. and
that the igaorant are wholly unfit for them at all. In all countries save oues-
these two classes, or the poor rather, who are presumed to be necessarily igno
rant, are by law expressly excluded firom all participation iu the management of
public affairs, la a Republican Government this cannot be done. Universal
sufrrage, though nc-t essential in theory, seems to be in fact a necessary ajjpen-
dage to a Rep'iblicaa system. Where universal suffrage exits, it is obvious
thit the government is in the handb of a numerical majority ; and it is hardly
necessary to say that in every part of the world more than half the people are
ignorant and poor. Though no one can look upon poverty as a criiEne, and we
tlo not generally here regard it as any objection to a man in his individual- capaci
ty, StiU it must be admitted that it is a wretched and insecure government
which is administered by its most ignorant citizens, and those whwhave tha
lea.3t at stake under it. Though intelligence and wealth have great iijfluence
here as everywhere in keeping in check reckless and unenlightened numbers,
yet it is evident to close observers, if not to all, that these are rapidly usurpinw
all power in the non-slave-holding States, and threaten a fearful crisis in Re
publican Insiitutions there at no remote period. In the slave-holding States
however, nearlj- one-half of the whale population and those the poorest and
most ignorant, have no political influence whatever, because they are slaves-
Of the other half, a large proportion are both educated and independent in their

circumstances, while those who unfortunatelj' are not so, being still elevated
far above the mass, are higher toned and more deeply interested in preserving
a stable and well ordered Government, than the same class in any other coun
try. Hence, slavery is truly the " corner stone " and foundation of every well
designed and durable " Republican edifice."
VVith us every citizen is concerned in the maintenance of order, and in pro
moting honesty and industry among those of the lowest class who are our slaves ;
and our habitual vigilance renders standing armies, whether of Soldiers or Po
licemen, entirely unnecessary. Small guards in our cities, and occasional pa
trols in the country, ensure us a repose and security known no where else.
You cannot be ignorant that, excepting the United States, there is no country
in the world whose existing Government would not he overturned in a month,
but for its standing armies, maintained at an enormous and destructive cost to
those whom they are destined to overawe — so rampant and combative is the
spirit of discontent wherever nominal Free labor prevails, with its ostensive
privileges and its dismal servitude. Nor will it be long before the " Free Slates "
of this Union will be compelled to introduce the same expensive machinery to
preserve order among their " free and equal " citizens. Already has Philadel
phia organized a permanent BattaUon for this purpose; New York, Boston and
Cincinnati will soon follow her example ; and then the smaller towns and
densely populated counties. The intervention of their mihtia to repress viola
tions of the peace is becoming a daily affair, A strong Government, after some
of the old fashions — though probably with a new name — sustained by the force
of armed mercenaries, is the ultimate destiny of the non-slaveholding section
of this confederacy, and one which may not be very distant.
It is a great mistake to suppose, as is generally done abroad, that in case of
war slavery would be a source of weakness. It did not weaken Rome, nor
Athens, nor Sparta, though their slaves were comparatively far more numerous
than ours, of the same color for the most part with themselves, and large num
bers of them familiar with the use of arms. I have no apprehension that our
slaves would seize such an opportunity to revolt. The piesent generation of
them, born among us, would never think of such a thing at any- time, unless
instigated to it by others. Against such instigations we are always on our
guard. In time of war we should he more watchful and better prepared to put
down insurrections than at any other periods. Should any foreign nation be so
lost to every sentiment of civilized humanity as to attempt to erect among us
the standard of revolt, or to invade us with Black Troops for the base and bar
barous purpose of stirring up servile war, their efiorts would be signally re
buked. Our slaves could not be easily seduced, nor would anything delight
them more than to assist in stripping Cuffee of his regimentals to put him in the
cotton field, which would be the fate of most black invaders, without any very
prolix form of " apprenticeship." If, as I am satisfied would be the case, cur
slaves remained peacefully on our plantations, and cultivated them in time of
war under the superintendance of a limited number of our citizens, it is obvi
ous that we could put forth more strength in such an emergency, at less sacri
fice, than any other people of the same numbers. And thus we should iu every
point of view, " out of this nettle danger, pluck the flower safety."
How far slavery may be an advantage or disadvantage to those not owning
slaves, yet united with us in political association, is a question for their sole
consideration. It is true that our Representation in Congress is increased by
it. But so are our Taxes ; and the non-slaveholding States being the majority,
divide among themselves far the greater portion of tbe amount levied by the
Federal Government. Aud 1 doubt not that when it comes to a close calcula-"
2

10
tion, they will not be slow in finding out that the balance of profit arising from
the connection is vastly in their favor.
In 2. social [joint of view, the Abolitionists pronounce slavery to be a mon
strous evil. If it was so, it would be our own peculiar concern, and superflu
ous benevolence in them to lament over it. Seeing their bitter hostility to us,
they ii!i-:;ht leave us to cope with our own calamities. But they make war upon
us out ot' excess of charity, and attempt to purify by covering us with calumny.
You have read and assisted to circulate a great deal about afirays, duels and
murders occurring here, and all attributed to the terrible demoralization of sla
very. Not a sir.gle event of this sort takes place among us, but it is caught up
by the AboUiionilts and paraded over the world with endless comments, varia
tions and exago-erations. You should not take what reaches you as a mere
sample, and infer that there is a vast deal more you never hear. You hear all,
and more than all, the truth.
It is true that tbe point of honor is recognized throughout the slave region,
and that disputes of certain classes are frequently referred for adjustment to the
" trial bv combat." It would not be appropriate for me to enter, in this letter,
into a defence of the practice of duelling, nor to maintain at length that it does
not tarnish the character of a people to acknowledge a standard of honor.
Whatever evils may arise from it, however, they cannot be attributed to sla
very, since the same custom prevails both in France and England. Few of
your Prime Ministers, of the last half century even, have escaped the conta
gion, I believe. The affrays, of which so much is said, and in which rifles,
bowie-knives and pistols are so prominent, occur mostly in the frontier States
of the South-West. They are naturally incidental to the condition of society
as it e.'cists in many sections of these recently settled countries, and will as
naturally cease in due time. Adventurers from the older States and frpm Eu
rope, as desperate in character as they are in fortune, congregate iii these wild
regions, jostling oue another and often forcing the peaceable and honest into
rencontres in self-defence. Slavery has nothing to do with these things. Sta
bility and peace are tbe first desires of every slave-holder, and the true ten
dency of the system. It could not possibly exist amid the eternal anarchy and
civil broils of the ancient Spanish dominions in America. And for this very
reason, domestic slavery has ceased there. So far from encouraging strife, such
scenes of riot and bloodshed as have within the last few yeard disgraced our
Northern cities, and as you have lately witnessed in Birmingham and Bri.stol
and Wales, not only never have occurred, but I will venture to say never will
occur in our slave-holding States. The only thing that can create a mob (as
you might call it) here, is the appearance of an Abolitionist whom the people
assemble to chastise. And this is no more of a mob, than a rally of shepherds
to chase a wolf out of their pastures, would be one.
But we are swindlers and repudiators I Pennsylvania is not a slave State. A
majority of the States whicli have failed to meet their obligations punctually
art nori-sldveholding; and two-thirds of the debt said to be repudiated is owed
by these Stares. Many of the States of this Union are heavily encumbered
with debt — ¦-¦jone so hopelessly as England. Pennsylvania owes $22 for each
inhabitani — England $222, counting her paupers in. Nor has there been any
repudi-ition definite and final, of a lawful debt, that I am aware of. A few
States have failed to pay some instalments of interest. The extraordinary finan
cial difucuUiss which occurred a few years ago account for it. Time will set
all things right again. Every dollar of both principal and interest owed by any
State, North or South, will be ultimately paid, unless the abolition of slavery
overwhelms u.i all in one common ruin. But have no other nations failed to pay f

11
When were the French Assignats redeemed .' How much interest did your
National Bank pay on its immense circulation from 1797 to 1821, during which
period that circulation w;is inconvertible, and for the time repudiated f How
much of your National Debt has been incurred for money borrowed to meet
the interest on it, thus avoiding delinquency in detail, by insuring inevitable
bankruptcy and repudiation in the end.' And what sort of operation was that
by which your present Ministry recently expunged a handsome amount of that
debt by substituting, through a process just not compulsory, one species of secu
rity for another ? 1 am well aware that the faults of others do not excuse our
own, but when failings are charged to slaverj^, which are shown to occur to
equal extent where it does not exist, surely jjlavery must be acquitted of the
accusation. It is roundly asserted, that we are not so well educated nor so religious here
as elsewhere. I will not go into tedious statistical statements on these subjects.
Nor have I, to tell the truth, much confidence in the details of what are com
monly set forth as statistics. As to education, you will probably admit that
slave-holders should have more leisure for mental culture than most people.
And I believe it is charged against them that they are peculiarly fond of power,
and ambitious of honors. If this be so, as all the power and honors of this
country are won mainly by intellectual superiority, it might be fairly presumed
that slave-holders would not be neglectful of education. In proof of the accu
racy of this presumption I point you to the facts, that our Presidential chair has
been occupied for forty-four out of fifty-six years by slave-holders ; that another
has been recently elected to fill it for four more, over an opponent who was a
slave-holder also ; and that in the Federal offices and both Houses of Congress
considerably more than a due proportion of those acknowledged to stand in the
first rank are from the South. In this arena the intellects of the free and slave
States meet in full and fair competition. Nature must have been unusually
bountiful to us, or we have been at least reasonably assiduous in the cultivation
of such gifts as she has bestowed — unless indeed you refer our superiority to
moral qualities, which I am sure you will not. Jlore wealthy we are not ; nor
would mere wealth avail in such rivalry.
The piety of the South is unobtrusive. We think 't proves but little, though
it is a confident thing for a man to claim that he stands higher in the estimation
of his Creator, and is less a sinner, than his neighbor. If vociferation is to
carry the question of religion, the North and probably the Scotch have it. Our
sects are few, harmonious, pretty much united among themselves, and pursue
their avocations in humble peace. In fact, our professors of Religion seem to
think — whether correctly or not — that it is their duty " to do good in secret "
and to carry their holy comforts to the heart of each individual, without refer
ence to class or color, for his special enjoyment, and not with a view to exhibit
their zeal before the world. So far as numbers are concerned, I believe oui
clergymen, when called on to make a showing, have never had occasion to
blush, if comparisons were drawn between the free and slave States. And
although our presses do not teem with controversial pamphlets, nor our pulpits
shake with excommunicating thunders, ihe daily walk of our religious com
municants furnishes apparently as little food food for gossip as is to be found in
most other regions. It may be regarded as a mark of our want of excitability
— though that is a quality accredited to us in an eminent degree — that few of
the remarkable religious isms of the present day have taken root among us. We
have been so irreverent as to laugh at Mormonism and Millerism, \^ hich have
created such commotions farther North ; and modern Prophets have no honor
in our country. Shakers, Rappists, Dunksrs, Socialists, Fourierists, and the
like, keep themselves afar off. Even Puseyism has not yet moved us. You

12
may attribute this to our Domestic Slavery if you choose. I believe you
would do so justly. There is no material here for such characters to operate
upon. But vour o-rand charge is that licentiousness in intercourse between the sexes
is a prominent trait ofour social system, and that it necessarily arises from sla
very. This is a favorite theme with the Abolitionists, male and female. Folios
have been written on it. It is a common observation, that there is no subject
on which ladies of eminent virtue so much delight to dwell, and on which, in
especial, learned old maids like Miss Martineau linger witb such an insatiable
relish. They expose it in the slave States with the most minute obser-vance
and endless iteration. Miss Martineau, with peculiar gust, relates a series of
scandalous stories which would have made Boccacio jealous of her pen, but
which are so ridiculously false as to leave no doubt that some wicked wag,
knowing she would write a book, has furnished her materials — a game too often
played on Tourists in this country. The constant recurrence of the female
Abolitionists to this topic, and their bitterness in regard to it, cannot fail to sug
gest to even the most charitable mind, that
" Such rage without betrays the fires within."
Nor are their immaculate coadjutors of the other sex, though perhaps less spe
cific in their charges, less violent in their denunciations. But recently in your
Island a clergyman has, at a public meeting, stigmatised the whole Slave region
as a " Brothel," Do these people thus cast stones being " without sin " ? Or
do they only " Compound for sins they are inclined to
By damning those they have no mind to,"
Alas that David and Solomon should be allowed to repose in peace — that Leo
should her almost canonized, and Luther more than sainted — that in our own
day courtezans should be formally licensed in Paris, and tenements in London
rented for years to worpen of the town for the benefit of the Church, with the
knowledge of the Bishop — and the poor slave States of America alone poun
ced upon and offered up as a holocaust on the Altar of Immaculateness to atone
for the abuse of natural instinct by all mankind ; and if not actually consumed,
at least exposed, anathematized and held up to scorn, by those who
" wriie
Or with a Rival's or an Eunuch's spite."
But I do not intend to admit that this charge is just or true. Without mean
ing to profess uncomm.on modesty, I will say that I wish the topic could be
avoided. I am of opinion, and I doubt not every right-minded man will con
cur, that the public exposure and discussion of this vice, even to rebuke, inva
riably does more harm than good ; and that if it cannot be checked by instilling
pure and virtuous sentiments, it is far worse than useless to attempt to do it, by
exhibiting its deformities. I may not, however, pass it over; nor ought I to
feel any delicacy in examining a question to which the Slave-holder is invited
and challenged by Clergymen and Virgins. So far from allowing, then, that
licentiousness pervades this region, I broadly assert, and I refer to the records
of our Courts, to the public press, and to the knowledge of all who have ever
lived here, that among our white population, there are fewer cases of divorce,
separation, crim con, seduction, rape and bastardy, than among any other five
millions of people on the civilized earth. And this fact I believe will be con
ceded by tbe Abolitionists of this country themselves. I am almost willing to
refer it to them, and submit to their decisiop on it. I would not hesitate to do
so if I thought them capable of an impartial judgment on any matter where
Slavery is in question. But it is said that the licentiousness consists in the

13
constant intercourse between white males nnd colored funales. One of your
heavy charges against us has been that we regard and treat these people as
brutes ; you now charge us with habitually taking them to our liosoms. I -will
not comment on the inconsistency of these accusations. I will not deny that
some intercourse of the sort does take place. Its character and extent, how
ever, are grossly and atrociously exaggerated. No authority, divine or human
has yet been found sufficient to arrest all such irregularities an;ong men. But
it is a known fact, that they are perpetrated here, for the most part, in the cities.
Very few mulattoes are reared on our plantations. In the cities a lar"-e pro
portion of the inhabitants do not own slaves. A still larger proportion are na
tives of the North or foreigners. They should share, and justly, too, an equal
part in this sin with the Slave-holders. Facts cannot be ascertained, or I doubt
not it would appear that they are the chiet offenders. If the truth be other
wise, then persons from abroad have stronger prejudices aoainst the African
race than we have. Be this as it may, it is well known that this intercourse
is regarded in our society as highly disreputable. If carried on habitually it
seriously affects a man's standing, so far as it is known ; and he who takes a
colored mistress — with rare and extraordinary exceptions — loses caste at once.
You will say that one exception should damn our whole country. How much
less criminal is it to take a white mistress .' In your eyes it should be at least
an equal offence. Yet look around you at home, from the cottage to the throne,
and count how many mistresses are kept in unblushing notoriety, without any
loss of caste. Such cases are almost unknown here, and down even to the
lowest walks of life, it is almost invariably fatal to a man's position and pros
pects to keep a mistress openly, whether white or black. What Miss Marti
neau relates of a young man's purchasing a colored concubine from a lady and
avowing his designs, is too absurd even for contradiction. No person would
dare to allude to such a subject, in such a manner, to any decent female in this
country. If he did, he would be lynched — doubtless with your approbation.
After all, however, the number of the mixed breed in proportion to that of
the black is infinitely small, and out of the towns next to nothing. And when
it is considered that the African race has been among us for two hundred years,
and that those of the mixed breed continually intermarry — often rearing large
families — it is a decided proof of our continence that so few comparatively are
to be found. Our misfortunes are two-fold. From tbe prolific propagation of
these mongrels among themselves, we are liable to be charged by tourists with
delinquencies where none have been committed, while, where one has been, it
cannot be concealed. Color marks indelibly the offence, and reveals it to every
eye. Conceive that, even in your virtuous and polished country, if every bas
tard through all the circles of your social system was thus branded by nature,
and known to all, what shocking developments might there not be I How lit
tle indignation might your saints have to spare for the licentiousness of the slave
region. But I have done wilh this disgusting topic. And 1 think I may justly
conclude, after all the ."jcandalous charges which tea-table gossip, and long- gown
ed hj'pocrisy have brought against the slave-holders, that a people whose men
are proverbially brave, intellectual and hospitable, and whose women are unaf
fectedly chaste, devoted to domestic life and happy in it, can neither be degra
ded nor demoralized, whatever their institutions may be- My decided opinion
is, that our system of Slavery contributes largely to the development and cul
ture of these high and noble qualities.
In an economical point of view — which I will not omit — Slavery presents
some difficulties. As a general rule, I agree it must be admitted, that free
labor is cheaper than Slave labor. It is a fallacy to suppose that ours is unpaid
labor. The slave himself must be paid for, and thus his labor is all purchased

14

at once, and for no trifling sum. His price was in tbe first place paid mostly
to your countrymen, and assisted in building up some of those colossal English
fortunes since Illustrated by patents of nobility, and splendid piles of architec
ture, st.iined and cemented, if you like the expression, with the blood of kid
napped innocents ; but loaded with no heavier curses than Abolition and its
begotten fanaticisms have brought upon your land — some of them fulfiUed,
some yet to be. But besides tbe first cost of the slave, he must be fed and
clothed — well (ed and well clothed, if not for humanity's sake, that he may do
good work, retain health and life, and rear a family to supply his place. When
old or sick he is a clear expense, and so is the helpless portion of his family.
No poor law provides for him when unable to work, or brings up bis children
for our service when we need them. These are all heavy charges on slave
labor. Hence, in all countries where the denseness of the population has re
duced it to a matter of perfect certainty that labor can be obtained whenever
wanted, and the laborer be forced by sheer necessity to hire for the smallest
pittance that will keep soul and body together, and rags upon his back while in
actual employment — dependent at all other times on alms or poor rates — in all
such countries it is found cheaper to pay this pittance, than to clothe, feed,
nurse, support through childhood, and pension in old age, a race of slaves. In
deed, the advantage is so great as speedily to compensate for the loss of the
value of the slave. And 1 have no hesitation in saying that if I could cultivate
my lands on these terms I would without a word, resign my slaves, provided
they could be properly disposed of. But the question is, whether free or slave
labor is cheapest to us in this country at this time, situated as we are. And it
is decided at once by the fact that we cannot avail ourselves of any other than
slave labor. We neither have nor can we procure other labor to any extent,
or on anything like the terms mentioned. We must therefore content ourselves
with our dear labor, under the consoling reflection that what is lost to us, is
gained to humanity ; and that inasmuch as our slave costs us more than your
free man costs you, by so much is he better off. You will promptly say,
emancipate your slaves, and then you will have free labor on suitable terms.
That might be if there were five hundred where there now is one, and the con
tinent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was as densely populated as your Island.
But until that comes to pass, no labor can be procured in America on the terms
you have it.
While I thus freely admit, that to the individual proprietor, slave labor is
dearer than free, I do not mean to admit it as equally clear that it is dearer to
the community and to the State. Though it is certain that the slave is a far
greater consumer than your laborer the year round, yet your pauper system is
costly and wasteful. Supported by your community at large, it is not adminis
tered bj^ your hired agents with that interested care and economy — not to speak
of humanity — which mark the management of ours by each proprietor for his
own non-eflectlves ; and is both more expensive to those who pay, and less
beneficial to those who receive its bounties. Besides this, Slavery is rapidly
filling up our country with a hardy and healthy race peculiarly adapted to our
climate and productions, and conferring signal political and social advantages
on us as a people, to which I have alieady referred.
I have yet to reply to the main ground cn which you and your coadjutors
rely for the overthrow of oiu system of slavery. Failing in all your attempts
to prove that it is sinful in its nature, immoral in its eflects, a political evil,
and profitless to those who maintain it, you appeal to tha sympathies of man
kind, and attempt to arouse the world against us by the most shocking charges
of tyranny and cruelty. You begin by a vehement denunciation of " the irre
sponsible power of one man over his fellow men." The question of the re-

15
sponsibility of power is a vast one. It is the great political question of modern
times. VVhole nations divide o(l" upon it, and establish ditFcreni fundamentaJ
systems of government. That " responsibility," which to one set of millions-
seems amply sufficient to check the gavernm-;int, to the support of which they
devote their lives and fortunes, appears to another set of millions a mere mock
ery of restraint. And accordingly as the opinions of these millions differ, they
honor each other with the epithets of " Serfs" or " Anarchists." It is ridicu
lous to introduce such an idea as this into the discussion of a mere Domestic
Institution. But since you have introduced it, I deny that the power of the
slave-holder in America is " irresponsible." He is responsible to God. He
is responsible to the world — a responsibility which Abolitionists do not intend
to allow him to evade — and in acknowledgment of which 1 write you this letter.
He is responsible to tbe community in which he lives, and to the laws under
which he enjoys his civil rights. Those laws do not permit him to kill, to
maim, or to punish beyond certain limits, or to overtask, or to refuse to feed
and clothe his slave. In short, they forbid him to be tyrannical or cruel. If
any of these laws have grown obsolete, it is because they are so seldom viola
ted that they are forgotten. You have disinterred one of them from a compi
lation by some Judge Stroud of Philadelphia, to stigmatize its inadequate
penalties for killing, maiming, &c. Y'our object appears to be — you can have
no other — to produce the impression that it must be often violated on account
of its insufficiency. You say as much, and that it marks our estimate of the
slave. You forget to state that this law was enacted by Englishmen, and only
indicates their opinion of the reparation due for these offences. Ours is proved
by the fact, though perhaps unknown to Judge Stroub or yourself, that we
have essentially altered this law ; and the murder of a slave has for many
years been punishable with death, in this State. And so it is, I believe, in most
or all the slave States. You seem well aware, however, that laws have
been recently passed in all these States making it penal to teach slaves to read.
Do you know, what occasioned their passage, and renders their stringent en
forcement necessary .' I can tell you. It was the Abolition agitation. If the
slave is not allowed lo read his Bible, the sin rests upon the Abolitionists ; for
they stand prepared to furnish him with a Key to it, which would make it,
not a Book of hope, and love, and peace, but of despair, hatred and blood;
which -would convert the reader, not into a Christian, but a Demon. To pre
serve him from such a horrid destiny, it is a sacred duty which we owe to our
slaves, not less than to ourselves, to interpose the most decisive means. If the
Catholics deem it wrong to trust the Bible to the hands of ignorance, shall we
be excommunicated because we will not give it, and with it the corrupt and
fatal commentaries of the Abolitionists, to our slaves .' Allow our slaves to
read your pamphlets, stimulating them to cut our throats ! Can you believe
us to be such unspeakable fools ?
I do not know that I can subscribe in full to the sentiment so often quoted
by the Abolitionists, and by Mr. Dickinson in his letter to me : '¦'¦Homo sum
et nihil humanum a me alienum pulo," as translated and practically illustrated
by them. Such a doctrine would give wide authority to every one for the most
dangerous intermeddling with the affairs of others. It will do in poetry — per
haps in some sorts of Philosophy — but the attempt to make it a household
maxim, and introduce it into the daily wallis of life, has caused many an "Ho
mo" a broken crown; and probably will continue to do it. StiU, though a
slave holder, [ freely acknowledge my obligations as a man ; and that 1 am
bound to treat humanely the fellow creatures whom God has entrusted to my
charge. , I feel, therefore, somewhat sensitive under the accusation of cruelty,
and disposed to defend myself and feUow slave-holders against it. It is cer-

le
tainly the interest of all, and I am convinced that it is also the desire of every
one of us, to treat our slaves with proper kindness. It is necessary to our de
riving the grtatest amount of profit from them. Of this we are all satisfied.
And you snatch Irom us the only ccnsol-.Uion we Americans could derive from
the opprobrious imputation of being wholly devoted to making money, which
your disinterested and golu-dcspising countrymen delight to cast upon us, when
yoa nevertlialess declare that we are ready to sacrifice it for the pleasure of
being iiihuman. You remember that Mr. Pitt could never get over the idea
that self-interest would insure kind treatment to slaves, until you told him
your woful stories of the Middle Passage. Mr. Pitt was right in the first
instance, and erred, under your tuition, in not perceiving the difference between
a temporary and permanent ownership of them. Slave-holders are no more per
fect than other men. They have passions. Some of them, as you may sup
pose, do not at all times restrain them. Neither do husbands, parents and
friends. And in each of these relations as serious sufferings as frequently
arise from uncontrolled passions, as ever does in that of Master and Slave, and
with as little chance of indemnity. Yet you would not on that account break
them up. 1 have no hesitation in saying that our slave-holders are as kind
masters, as men usually are kind husbands, parents and friends — as a general
rule, kinder. A bad master — he who overvvorks his slaves, provides ill for
them, or treats them with undue severity — loses the esteem and respect of his
fellow-citizens to as great an extent, as he would for the violation of any^_of his
social and most of his moral obligations. What the most perfect plan of man
agement would be is a problem hard to solve. From the commencement of
Slavery in this country, this subject has occupied the minds of all slave-holders,
as much as the improvement of the general condition of mankind has those of
the most ardent Philanthropists ; and the greatest progressive amelioration of
the Sj-stem has been effected. You yourself acknowledge that in the early
part of your career you v/ere exceedinirly anxious for the immediate abolition
of the Sla-ye Trade, lest those engaged in it should so mitigate its evils as to
destroy the force of your arguments and facts. The improvement you then.
dreadedhsiS gone on steadily here, and would doubtless have taken place in the
Slav-e Trade but for the measures adopted to suppress it.
Of late } ears we have been not only annoyed, bwt greatly embarrassed in this
matter, by the Abolitionists, We have been compelled to curtail some privi
leges ; we have been debarred from granting new ones. In the face of dis
cussions which aim at loc-euing all ties between master and slave, we have
in some measure to abandon our efforts to attach them to us, and control them
through their affections and pride. We have to rely more and more on the
po-.ver of fear. We must, in all cur intercourse with them, cssert and main
tain strict m.asteiy, and impress it on them that they are Slaves. This is
painful to us, aud certainly no present advantage to them. But it is the direct
consequence of the Abolition agitation. We are determined to continue Mas
ters, and to do so we have to draw the rein tighter and tighter day by day, to
be assured that we hold them in complete check. How far this process will
go on, depends wholly and solely on the Abolitionists, When they desist, we
can relax. We may not before. I do not mean by aU this, to say that we are
in a state of actual alarm and fear of our slaves, but under existing circum
stances, we should be inefiably stupid not to increase our vio-ilance and
strengthen our hands. You see some of the fruits of your labors. I speak
freely and candidly— not as a colonist, who, though a slaveholder, has a mas
ter ; but as a free white man, holding, under God, and resolved to hold, my
fate in my own hands , and I assure you that my sentiments, and feelings' and
determinations, are those of every slaveholder in this country.

17
The research and ingenuity of the Abolitionists, aided by the invention of
runaway slaves — in which faculty, so far as improvising falsehood goes, the
African race is without a rival — have succeeded in shocking the world with a
small number of pretended instances ol our b;irbarity. The only 's\onderis,
that, considering the extent of our country, the variety of our population, its
fluctuating character, and the publicity of all our transactions, the number of
cases collected is so small. It speak.s well for us. Yet of the.-e, many ine
false, all highly colored, some occurring half a century, most ot them, many
years ago; and no doubt a large propoition of them perpetrated by foreigners.
With a few rare exceptions, ihe emigrant Scotch aud I'^iigiish are. the worst
masters among us, and next to them oui Northern fellou -citizens, slave
holders born aud bred here, arc always more humane to slaves, and those who
have grown up to a large inheritance of them, the most so of any — show in?
clearly that the effect of the system is to foster kindly feelings. I do not
mean so much to impute innate inhumanity to foreigners, as tu show that they
come here with false notions of the treatment usual and ueccisary for slaves,
and that newly acquired power here, as every where else, is apt to be abused.
I cannot enter into a detailed examination of the cases stated by the Abolition
ists. It would be disgusting, and of little avail. 1 know nothing of them.
I have seen nothing like them, though born and bred here, and have rarely
heard of anything at all to be compared with them. Permit me to say that 1
think most of your facts must have been drawn from the We.st Indies, where,
undoubtedly, slaves were treated much more harshly than with us. This
was owing to a variety of causes, v/hich might, if necessary, be stated. One
was, that they had at first to deal more extensively' with barbarians fresh from
the wilds of Africa ; another, and a leading one, the absenteeism of Proprietors.
Agents are always more unfeeling than owners, whether placed over West In
dian or American slaves, or Irish Tenantry. We feel this evil greatly even
here. You describe the use of thumb screws, as one mode of punishment
among us. I doubt ifa thumb screw can be found in America. 1 never sav.-
or heard of one in this country. Stocks are rarely used by private individuals,
and confinement still more seldom, though both are common punishment for
whites, all the world over, 1 think they .should be more frequently resorted
to with slaves, as substitutes for flogging, which 1 consider the most injurious
and least efficacious mode of punishing them for serious oflences. It is not
degrading, and unless excessive, occasions little pain. You may be a little
astonished, after all the flourishes that have been made about " cart whips,"
&c., when 1 say flogging is not the most degraditig punishment in the world.
It may be so to a while man, in rnosl countries, but how is it to a white bo}' .•'
That necessary coadjutor of the school-master, the " birch," is never thought
to have rendered infamous the unfortunate victim of pedagogue ire; nor did
Solomon, in his wisdom, dream that he -w^as counselling parents to debase
their offspring, when he exhorted them not to spoil the child by sparing ths
rod. Pardon me for recurring to the now exploded ethics of the Bible. Cus
tom, which you will perhaps agree, makes uiost things in this world good or
evil, has removed all infamy from the punishment of the lash to the slave.
Your blood boils at the recital of stripes inflicted on a ni.an ; and you think ycu
should be i"renzied to see your own child floi^ged. Yet see how completely
this is ideal, arising from the fashions of society^ You doubtless submitted to
the rod yourself, in other years, when the smart was perhaps as .severe as it
would be now ; and you have never been guilty of the folly of revenging
yourself on the Preceptor, who, in the plenitude of his " irres|)on.sible power,"
thought proper to chastise your son. So it is with the negro, and the negro
father, 3

As to chains andirons, they are rarely used ; never, I beheve, except in
cases of running away. You must admir, that if we pretend to ov/n slaves,
they must not be permitted to abscond whenever they see fit ; and that it
nothing eir-e viili prevent it, these means must be resorted to. See the inhu
manity necessarily arising from slavery, you will exclaim. Are such restiaints
imposed on no other class of peop giving no more offence .' Look to your
army - and n9vy. If your soameii, r.prftssed from their peaceful occupations,
aud your soldiers, recruited at the gin shops— both of them as much kidnapped
a-2 the ri.ost unsuspecting victim of "the Slave Trade, and doomed to a far more
wretched fate— if these men manifest a propensity to desert, the heaviest
manacles are their mildest punishment : it is most commonly death, afler sum-
I'-^.ary trial. But armies and navies you say, are indispensable, and must be
kept up at every sacrifice. I answer that they are no more indispensable than
slavery is to us — and io yon; for you have enough of it in your country,
though the form and name differ from ours.
Depend upon it that many things, and in regard to our slaves, most things
which appear revolting at a distance, and to slight reflection, would on a near
er view and impartial comparison with the customs and conduct of the rest of
mankind, strike you in a very different hght. Remember that on our estates
we dispense with the v^rhole machinery of public police and public Courts of
Justice, Thus we try, decide and execute the sentences, in thousands of cases,
which in oiher countries would go into the Courts. Hence, most of the acts
of our alleged cruelty, which have any foundation in truth. Whether our Pa
triarchal mode ot administering justice is less humane than the Assizes, can only
be determined by careful inquiry and comparison. But this is never done by
the Abolitionists. A!! our punishments are Ihc outrages of " irresponsible pow
er." Ifa man steals a pig in England he is transported — torn from wife, chil
dren, parents and sent to the Antipodes, infamous, and an outcast forever,
though perhaps he took from the superabundance of his neighbor to save the
lives of his famishing little ones. If one ofour well-fed negroes, merely for the
sake of fresh meat, steals a pig, he gets perhaps forty stripes. If one of your
Cottagers breaks into another's house, he is hung for burglary. If a slave does
the same here, a few lashes, or perhaps a few hours in the stocks, settle.s the mat
ter. Are out Couri..^ or yours the most humane .' If slavery were not in question
;r-ou would doubtless say ours is mistaken lenity. Perhaps it often is ; and
slaves too lightly dealt with sometimes grow daring. Occasionally, though
rarely, and almost always in consequence of excessive indulgence, an individual
rebels. This is the highest crime he can commit. It is treason. It strikes at
the root of our whole system. His life is justly forfeited, though it is never
intentionally taken, unless after trial in our Public Courts. Sometimes, how
ever, in capturing, or in self-defence, he is unfortunately kflled. A legal inves
tigation always follows. But, terminate as it may, the Abolitionists raise a
hae and cry and another " shocking case" is held up to the indignation of the
world by tender-hearted male and female Philanthropists, who would have
thought all right had the master's throat been cut, and would have triumphed
at it.
I cannot go into a detailed comparison between the penalties inflicted on a
slave in our Patriarchal Courts, and those of the Courts of Sessions to which
freemen are sentenced in all civilized nations ; but I know well that if there is
any fault in our criminal code, it is that of excessive mildness.
Perhaps a few general facts will best illustrate the treatment this race re
ceives at our hands. It is acknowledged that it increases at least as rapidly as
the white. I believe it is an established principle, that population thrives in
proportion to its comforts. But when it is considered that these people are not

10
recruited by immigration from abroad as the whites are, and that they are usual
ly settled in our richest and least healthy lands, the fact of their equal compa
rative increase and greater longevity, outweighs a thousand Abolition falsehoods,
in favor of the leniency and providence ofour management of them. It is also
admitted that there are incomparably fewer cases of insanity and suicide amono-
them than among the whiles. The fact is, that among the slaves of the African
race these things are almost wholly unknown. However frequent suicide may-
have been among those brought from Africa, I can say that in my time I can
not remember to have known or heard of a single instance of deliberate self-de
struction, and but of one of suicide at aU. As to insanity, I have seen but one
permanent case of it, and that twenty years ago. It cannot be doubted that
among three millions of people there must be some insane and some suicides ;
but I will venture to say that more cases of both occur annually among every
hundred thousand of the population of Great Britain than among all our slaves.
Can it be possible, then, that they exist in that state of abject misery, goaded
by constant injuries, outraged in their affections and worn down with hardships,
which the abolitionists depict, and so manj' ignorant and thoughtless persons
religiously believe .'
With regard to the separation of husbands and wives, parents and children,
nothing can be more untrue than the inferences drawn from what is so con
stantly harped on by Abolitionists Some painful instances perhaps may occur.
Very few that can be prevented. It is and it always has been au object of
prime consideration with our slave-holders to keep families together. Negroes
are themselves both perverse and comparatively indifferent about this matter.
It is a singular trait, that they almost invariably prefer forming connexions with
slaves belonging fo other masters, and at some distance. It is therefore impos
sible to prevent separations sometimes, by the removal of one owner, his death,
or failure, and dispersion of his property. In all such cases, however, every
reasonable effort is made to keep the parties together, if they desire it. And the
negroes forming these connexions, knowing the chances of their premature dis
solution, rarely complain more than we all do of the inevitable strokes of fate.
Sometimes it happens that a negro prefers to give up his family rather than
separate from his master. I have known such instances. As to. willfully sel
ling off a husband, or wife or child, I believe it is rarely, very rarely done, ex
cept when some offence has been committed demanding "transportation." At
sales of Estates and even at Sheriffs' sales, they are always, if possible, sold in
families. On the whole, notwithstanding the migratory character ofour popu
lation, I believe there are more families among our slaves, viho have lived and
died together without losing a single member from their circle, except by the
process of nature, and in the enjoyment of constant, uninterrupted communion,
than have flourished in the same space of time and among the same number
of civilized people in modern times. And to sum up all, if pleasure is correct
ly defined to be the absence of pain — which so far as the great body of mankind
is concerned, is undoubtedly its true definition — I believe our slaves are the hap
piest three millions of human beings on whom the sun shines. Into their Eden
is coming Satan in the guise of an Abolitionist.
As regards their religious condition, it is well known that a majority of the
communicants of the Methodist and Baptist churches of the South are colored-
Almost everywhere they have precisely the same opportunities of attending
worship that the whites have, and besides, special occasions for themselves ex
clusively, which they prefer. In many places not so accessible to clergymen
in ordinary, Missonaries are sent, and mainly supported by their masters, for
the particular benefit of the slaves. There are none I imagine who may not,
if they like, hear the Gospel preached at least once a month — most of them

20
twice a month, and verv many every week. In our thinly settled country the
whites fare no better. But iii addition to this, on plantations of any size Ihe
slaves who have joined the church are formed into a class, at the head of which
is placed one of their number, acting as deacon or leader, who is also sometimes
a licensed preacher. This class assembles for religious exercises weekly, semi-
v.-eekly, or oftener, if tbe members choose. In some parts also Sunday schools
for blacks are established, and Bible classes are orally instructed by discreet
and pious persons. Now where will you find a laboring population possessed
of greater religious advantages than these ? Not in London, I am sure, where
it is known that your Churches, Chapels and Rehgious Meeting Houses, of all
sorts, cannot contain one-half of the inhabitants.
I have admitted, without hesitation, what it would be untrue and profitless
to deny, that slave-holders are responsible to the world for the humane treat
ment of the fellow-beings whom God has placed in their hands, I think it
would be only fair for you to admit, what is e-^ually undeniable, that every man
in independent circumstances, all the world over, and every Government, is to
the same extent responsible to the whole human family, for the condition of the
poor and laboring classes in their own country and around them, wherever they
may be placed, to whom God has denied the advantages he has given them
selves. If so, it would naturally seem the duty of true humanity and rational
philanthropy to devote their time and labor, their thoughts, writings and charity,
first to the objects placed as it were under their own immediate charge. And
it must be regarded as a clear evasion and sinful neglect of this cardinal duty,
to pass from those whose destitute situation they can plainly see, minutely ex
amine and efficiently relieve, to enquire after the condition of others in no ¦way
entrusted to their care, to exaggerate evils of which they cannot be cognizant,
to expend all their sympathies and exhaust all their energies on these remote
objects of their unnatural, not to say dangerous, benevolence ; and finally, to
calumniate, denounce and endeavor to excite the indignation of the world
against their unoffending fellow- creatures for not hastening under their dicta
tion to redress wrongs which are stoutly and truthfully denied, while they
themselves go but little farther in alleviating those chargeable on them than
openly aud unblushingly to acknowledge them. There may be indeed a sort
of merit in doing so much as to make such an acknowledgment, but it must
be very modest if it expects appreciation.
Now I affirm that in Great Britain the poor and laboring classes of your own
race and color, not cnly your fellow-beings, but your fellow-citizens, are more
miserable and degraded, morally and physically, than our slaves ; to be eleva
ted *o the actual condition of whom, would be to these your felloiv-citizens a
most glorious act of emancipation. And I also affirm, that the poor and labor
ing classes of our Free States would not be in a much more enviable condition
but for our slavery. One of their own Senators has declared in the United
States Senate, " that the repeal of the Tariff would reduce New Englan to a
howling wilderness." And the American Tariff is neither more nor less than.
a system by which the slave States are plundered for the benefit of those States
which do not tolerate slavery.
To prove what I say of Great Britain to he true, I make the following ex
tracts from the Reports of Commissioners appointed by Parliament, and pub
lished by order of the House of Commons. I can make but few and short ones.
But similar quotations might be made to any extent, and I defy you to deny
that these specimens exhibit the real condition of your operatives in every
blanch of your industry. There is of course a variety in their sufferings. But
the same incredible amount of toil, frightful destitution, and utter want of
morals, characterize the lot of every class of them.

21
Collieries. " I wish to call the attention of the Board to the pits about Bramp
ton. Tire seams arc .so thin that several of them have only two feet head-way"
to all the working. They are worked altogether by boys from 8 to 12 years
of age, on all-fours, with a dog-belt and chain. The passages being neither
ironed nor wooded, and often an inch or two thick witb mud. In Mr, Barnes'
pit these poor boys have to drag the barrows with one cwt. of coal or slack 60
times a day, 60 y-ards, and the empty barrows back, without once straightening
their backs, unless they choose to stand under the shaft and run the risk of
having their heads broken by a falling coal." — litp. on Mines, 1842, p. 71.
" In Shropshire the seams are no more than IS or 20 inches." — Ibid, p. 67.
" At the Booth pit," says Mr. Scriven, " I walked, rode and crept IS'.IO yards
to one of the nearest faces." — Ibid. " Chokedamp," " Firedamp," " Wild fire,"
" Sulphur " and " Water " at all times mjnacs instant death to the laborers in
these mines." " Robert North, aged 16 : Went into the pit at 7 years of age,
to fill up skips. I drew about 12 months. When I drew by the girdle and
chain my skin was broken, and ths blood ran down. 1 durst not say anything.
If we said anything the butty, and ths reeve, who works under him, would
take a stick and beat us." — Ibid. " The usual punishment for theft is to place
the culprit's head between the legs of one of the biggest boys, and each boy
in the pit — somstinies there -are 20 — in'licts 12 lashes on the back and lurap
with a cat." — I'lid. " Instances occur in which children are taken into these
mines to work as early as 4 years of aga, somjtimas at 5, not unfrequently at
6 and 7, while from 8 lo 9 is the ordinary age at which these employments
commence. "--/6icf. The wages paid at these mines is from $2,.50 to $7,.o0
per month for laborers, ac-;ording to age and ability, and out of this they must
support themselves. They work 12 hours a day. — Ibid.
In Calico printing. " It is by no means uncommon in all tbe districts for
children o or 6 years old to be kept at work 14 to 16 hours consecutively." —
Rep. on Children, 1842, p. 59.
I could furnish extracts similar to these in regard to every branch of your
Manufactures, but I will not multiply them. Every body knows that your
operatives habitually labor from 12 to 16 hours, men, women and children,
and the men occasionally 20 hours per day. In lace making, says the last
quoted Report, children sometimes commence work at 2 years of age. _
Destitution. — It is stated by your Commissioners that 40,000 persons in Liv
erpool, and 15,000 in Manchester, Uve in ceUars ; while 22,000 in England
pass the night in barns, tents, or the open air. " There have been found such
occurrences, as 7-j^ and 10 persons in one cottage, I cannot say for one day,
but for' whole days, without a morsel of food. They have remained on their
beds of straw for two successive days, under the impression that in a recum
bent posture the pangs of hunger were less felt." Lord Brougham'' s Speech,
11 July, 1843. A volume of frightful scenes might be quoted to corroborate
the inferences to be necessarily drawn from the facts here stated. I will not
add more, but pass on to the important inquiry as to
Morals and Education. — '¦'¦Elizabeth Barrett, aged 14 — I always work with
out stockino-s, s^oes or trowsers. I wear nothing but a shift. I have to go up
to the headino's with the men. They are all naked there. I am got used to
that." Report on Mines. "As to illicit sexual intercouise it seems lo prevail
universally and from an early period of life." " The evidence might have been
doubled which. attest the early commencement of sexual and promiscuous in
tercourse amono- boys and giris." "A lower condition of morals, in the fullest
sense of the term, could not I think be found. I do not mean by this that
there are many more prominent vices among them, but that moral feelings and
sentiments do not exist. They have no morals!" "Then: appearance, man-

22
ners and moral natures — so far as the word moral can be applied to them — are
in accordance with their half-civilized condition." Rep. on Children. "More
than half a dozen instances occurred in Manchester, where a man, his wife,
and his wifes's grown up sister, habitually occupied the same bed," — Rep on
Sanitary Condition. Robert Cruchihw, sxged 16: " I don't know anything of
Moses — never heard of France. I don't know what America is. Never heard
of Scotland or Ireland, Cant tell how many weeks there are in a year. There
are 12 pence in a shilling, and 20 shillings in a pound. There are eight pints
in a gallon of ale," — Rlcp. on Mines. Ann Eggly, agediS: "I walk about
and get fresh air on Sundays. I never go to Church or Chapel. I never heard
of Christ at aU," Ibid. 0/Aers ; "The Lord sent Adam and Eve on earth
to save sinners." " I don't know who made the world, I never heard about
God," " I don't know Jesus Christ — I never saw him — but I have seen Fos
ter who prays about him." Employer : " You have expressed surprise at
Thomas Mitchel's not hearing of God. I judge there are few Colliers here
about that have," Ibid. I will quote no more. It is shocking beyond en
durance to turn over your Records in which the condition of your laboring
classes is but too faithfully depicted. Could our slaves hut see it, they would
join us in Lynching Abolitionists, which, by the hy, they would not now be
loth to do. We never think of imposing on them such labor, either in amount
or kind. We never put them to any work under ten, more generally at twelve
years of age, and then the very lightest. Destitution is absolutely unknown —
never did a slave starve in America ; while in moral sentiments and feelings,
in religious information), and even in general intelligence, they are infinitely the
superiors of your operatives. When you look around you how dare you talk
to us before the world of slavery .' For the condition of your wretched laborers,
you, and every Briton, who is not one of them, are responsible before God and
Man. If you are really humane, phUanthropic and charitable, here are obji.-cts
for you. Relieve them. Emancipate them. Raise them from the condition
of brutes to the level of human beings — <if American slaves, at least. Do
no; for au instant suppose that the name of being freemen is the slightest
com.fort to them, situated as they are, or that the bombastic boast that " who
ever touches British soil stands redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled," can
meet with anything but the ridicule and contempt of mankind, while that
soil swarms, both on and under its service, with the most abject and degraded
wretches that ever bowed beneath the oppressor's yoke.
I have said that slavery is an established and inevitable condition to human
society. I do not speak of the name, but the /ac/. The Marquis of Norman-
by has lately declared your operatives to be " in effect, slaves.'" Can it be de-
denied ,' Probably, for such Philanthropists as your Abolitionists care nothing
for facts, - They deal in terms and fictions. It is the word "slavery" which
shocks their tender sensibilities ; and their imaginations associate it with " hy
dras and chimeras dire " The thing itself, in its most hideous reality, passes
daily under their view unheeded — a familiar face, touching no chord of
shame, sympathy or indignation. Yet so brutalizing is your iron bondage, that
the English operative is a by-word through the world. When^avoring fortune
enables him to escape his prison house, both in Europe and America he is
shunned. VVith all the skifl which 14 hours of daily labor from the tenderest
age has ground into him, his discontent, V7hich habit has made second nature,
and bis depraved propensities, running riot when freed from his wonted fetters,
prevent his employment whenever it is not a matter of necessity. If we de
rived no other benefit from African slavery in the Southem States than that it
deterred yoar freedmen from coming hither, I should regard it as an inestimable
blessing;.

23
And how unaccountable is that philanthrophy, which closes its eyes ujion
such a state of things as you have at home, and turns its blurred vision to our
affairs beyond the Atlantic, meddling with matters which no way concern them
— presiding, as you have lately done, at meetings to denounce the " iniquity of
our laws" and '.' the atrocity ofour practices," and to sympathi.se with infamous
vvretches imprisoned here for violating decrees promulgated both bj- God and
man. Is this doing the work of " your Father which is in Heaven," or is it
seeking only " that you may have glory of man."' Do you renieniber the de
nunciation ofour Saviour : " Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees ; Hypocrites !
for ye make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within they are full of
extortion and excess." *
But after all, supposing everything you say of slavery be true, and its aboli
tion a matter of the last necessity, how do you expect lo effir-ct enwncipation,
and what do you calculate will be the result of its accomplishment ? As to the
means to be used, the Abolitionists, I believe, affect to ditler, a large proportion
of them pretending that their sole purpose is to apply " moral suasion" to the
Slave-holders themselves. As a matter of curiosity, I should like to know
what their idea of this " moral suasion" is. Their discourses — yours is no ex
ception — are all tirade.'', the exordium, argument and peroration, turning on the
epithets " tyrants," " thieves," " murderers," addressed to us. They revile us
as " atrocious monsters," " violators of the laws of nature, God and man," our
homes the abode of every iniquity, our land a " brothel." We retort that they
are " incendiaries" and "assassins." Delightful arg-ument ! Sweet, potent
" moral suasion !" What slave has it freed — what proselyte can it ever make ?
But if your course was wholly different — if you distilled nectar from your lips,
and discoursed sweetest music, could you reasonably indulge the hope of
accomplishing your object by such means .' Nay, supposing that we were all
convinced, and thought of slavery precisely as you do, at what era of " moral
suasion" do you imagine you could prevafl on us to give up a thousand millions
of dollars in the value ofour slaves, and a thousand millions of dollars more in
the depreciation ofour lands, in consequence of the want of laborers to cultivate
them ? Consider : were ever any people, civilized or savage, persuaded by any
argument. Human or Divine, to surrender voluntarily two thousand miUions of
dollars .' Would you think of asking five millions of Englishmen to contribute
either at once or gradually four hundred and fifty millions of pounds sterling to
the cause of Philanthropy, even if the purpose to be accomplished was not of
doubtful goodness.^ If you are prepared to undertake such a scheme, try it at
home. Collect your fund — purchase our slaves, and do with them as you like.
Be all the glory yours, fairly and honestly won. But you see the absurdity of
such an idea. Away, then, with your pretended "moral suasion." You
know it is mere nonsense. The Abolitionists have no faith in it themselves.
Those who expect to accomplish anything count on means a. together different.
They aim first to alarm us : that failing, to compel us by force to emancipate
our slaves at our own risk and cost. To these purposes they obviously direct
all their enero-ies. Our Northern Liberty men have endeavored to disseminate
their destructive doctrines among our slaves, and excite ihtm to insuirection.
But we have put an end to that, and stricken terror into them. They dare not
show their faces here. Then they declared they would dissolve the Union.
Let them do it. The North would repent it far more than the South. We are
iiot alarmed at the idea. We are well content to give up the Union sooner
than sacrifice two thousand millions of dollars, and with them all the rights we

* For a graphic and authentic account of the condition of the " Operatives" in England,
see the recent interesting and momentous work by B. D'Israeli, Esq., Member of Parlia
ment, entitled "Sybil, or the Two Nations."

24
prize. Y'ou may take it for granted that it is impos.sible to persuade or alarm
us into emancipation, or to making the first step towards it. Nothing, then,
is left to try, but sheer force. If the Abolitionists are prepared to expend
their own treasure and shed their own blood as freely as they ask us to do ours,
let them come. We do not court the conflict ; but we will not. and we cannot
shrink from it. If they are not ready to go so far : if, as I expect, their philan
thropy recoils from it : if they are looking only for cheap glory, let them turn
their thoughls elsewhere, and leave us in peace. Be the sin, the danger and
the evils of slavery all our own. We compel, we ask none to share them with
us. I am well aware that a notable scheme has been set on foot to achieve abo
lition by making what is by courtesy called " free " labor so much cheaper
than slave labor, as to force the abandonment of the latter. Though we are
beginning to manufacture with slaves, I do not think you wUl attempt to pinch
your operatives closer in Great Britain. You cannot curtail tbe rags with
which they vainly attempt to cover their nakedness, nor reduce the porridge
which barely, and not always, keeps those who have employment from perish-
ino' of famine. When you can do this, we will consider whether our slaves
rday not dispense with a pound or two of bacon per week, or a few'garnnents
annually. Your aim, however, is to cheapen labor in the tropics. The idea
of doing this by exporting your " bold yeomanry " is, I presume, given up.
Cromwell tried it when he sold the captured followers of Charles into West
Indian slavery, where they speedily found graves. Nor have your recent experi
ments on British and even Dutch constitutions succeeded belter. Have you
still faith in carrying thither your Coolies from Hindostan ,' Doubtless that once
wild robber race, whose highest eulogium was, that they did not murder merely
for the love of blood, have been tamed down, and are perhaps " keen for im
migration,'' for since your civilization has reached it, plunder has grown scarce
in Guzerat. But what i^ the result of the experiment thus far ? Have the
Coolies, ceasing to handle arms, learned to handle spades, and proved hardy
and profitable laborers .' On the contrary, broken in spirit and stricken with
disease at home, the wretched victims whom you have hitherto kidnapped for
a bounty, confined in depots, put under hatches and carried across the ocean —
forced into " voluntary immigration," have done little but lie down and die on
the pseudo soil of freedom. At the end of five years two-thirds, in some colo
nies a larger proportion, are no more! Humane and pious contrivance ! To
alleviate the fancied sufferings of the accursed posterity of Ham, you sacrifice
by a cruel death two-thirds of the children of the blessed Sheni — and demand
the applause of Christians — the blessing of Heaven ! If this " experiment "
is to go on, in God's name try your hand upon the Thugs. That other species
of " immigration " to which you are resorting I will consider presently.
But what do you calculate will be the result of emancipation, by whatever
means accomplished .' You will probably point me, by way of answer to the
West Indies — doubtless to Antigua, the great boast of abolition. Admitting
that it has succeeded there— ^which I will do for the sake of argument — do you
know the reason of it ? The true and only causes of whatever success has
attended it in Antigua are, that the population was before crowded, and all or
nearly all the arable land in cultivation. The emancipated negroes could not,
many of them, get away if they desired ; and knew not where lo go, in case
they did. They had practically no alternative but to remain on the spot; and
remaining, they must work on the terms of the proprietors, or perish — the
strong arm of the Mother Country forbidding all hope of seizing the Land for
themselves. The Proprietors, weU knowing that they could thus command
labor for the merest necessities of life, which was much cheaper than maintain-

25
ing the non-efl'ective, as well as effective slaves in a style which decency and
interest, if not humanity, required, willingly accepted half their value, and at
once realized far more than the interest on the other half in the diminution of
their expenses, and the reduced comforts of the fnemen. One of vour most
illustrious Judges, who was also a profound and philosophical Historian, has
said "that Villeinage was not abolished, but went into decay in En_'iand."
This was the process. This has been tbe process wherever (the nanjeof)
Villeinage or Slavery has been successfully abandoned. Slavery in fact •¦ went
into decay " in Antigua. I have admitted that under similar circumstances it
might profitably cease here — that is, profitably to the individual Proprietors.
Give me half the value of my slaves, and compel them tu remain and laLor ou
my plantation at 10 to 11 cents a day, as they do in Antigua, supportina: them
selves and families, and you shall have them to-inoriow, and if you like dub
them " free." Not to stickle, I would surrender them without price. No  f
recall my words : my humanity revolts at the idea. I am attached to mv
slaves, and would not have art or part in reducing them lo such a condition. I
deny, however, that Antigua, as a community, is or ever will be as prosperous
under present circumstances, as she was before abolition, though fully ripe for
it. The fact is well known. The reason is that the African, if not a distinct,
is an inferior race, and never will effect, as it never has eflected, as much in
any other condition as that of slavery.
I know of no Slave-holder who has visited the West Indies since slaverv was
abolished, and published his views of it. All our facts and opinions come
through the friends of the experiment, or at least those not opposed to it. Ta
king these, even without allowance, to be triae as stated, I do not see where the
Abolitionists find cause for exultation. The tables of exports, which are the
best evidences of the condition of a people, exhibit a woful falling off — excused,
it is true, by unprecedented droughts and hurricanes, to which their free labor
seems unaccountably more subject than slave labor used to be. I wiU not go
into detail. It is well known that a large proportion of British legislation and
expenditure, and that proportion still constantly increasing, is most anxiously
devoted to repairing the monstrous error of emancipation. You are actually
galvanizing your expiring Colonies. The truth, deduced from all the facts, was
thus pithly stated by the London Quarterly Review, as long ago as 1S40:
" None of the benefits anticipated by mistaken good intentions have been real
ized, while every evil wished for by knaves, and foreseen b3'the wise, has been
painfully verified. The wild rashness of fanaticism has made the emancipation
of the slaves equivalent to the loss of one half of the West Indies, and yet put
hack the chance of negro civilization." {Art. Ld- Di'.dley''s Letters.) Such
are the real fruits of your never-to-be-too-much-glorified abolitioii, and the
valuable dividend of your twenty miUions of pounds sterling invested therein.*
If any farther proof was wanted of the utter and well known, though not
yet openly avowed, failure of West Indian emancipation, it would be furnished
by the startling fact, that the African Slave 'fRADE has been- actually
REVIVED UNDER THE AUSPICES AND PROTECTION OF THE BriTISH GOVERNMENT.
Under the spe :ious guise of " Immigration " they are replenishing those Islands
with slaves from the coast of Africa. Your colony of Sierra Leone, founded
on that coast to prevent the Slave Trade, and peopled by the bye, in the first
instance by nso-roes stolen from these States during the Revolutionary War, is

• An able article in the "Foreign Quarterly Review," for July, 1S41, on "The Recent
Revolutions in Hayti," gives a full and faithful account of the hcrrible state of things at
present existing in that Island, and traces it to the same sure cause that produced theflrat
revolution— hatred between the blacks und mulattoes,
4

26
the depot where captives taken from slavers by your armed vessels are trans
ported. I mio-ht say returned, since nearly half the Africans carried across the
Atlantic are understood to be embarked in this vicinity. The m retched survi
vors, who are there set at liberty, are immediately sed'uced to " immigrate " to
the West Indies. The business is systematic ally carried on by black " Dele
gates," sent expressly from the West Indies, whereon arrival the " immigrants"
are sold into slavery for twenty-one years, under conditions ridiculously trivial
and wickedly void, since few or none will ever be able to derive any advantage
from them. The whole prime of life thus passed in bondage, it is contempla
ted, and doubtless it will be carried into effect, to turn them out in their old
age to shift for themselves, and to supply their places with fresh and vigorous
"immigrants." Was ever a system of slavery so barbarous, devised before ?
Can you think of comparing it with ours .' Even your own Religious Mission
aries at Sierra Leone denounce it " as worse than the slave state in Africa."
And your Black Delegates, fearful of the influence of these Missionaries, as
well as on account of the inadequate supply of captives, are now preparing to
procure the able bodied and comparatively industrious Kroomen of the interior,
by purchasing from their Headmen the privilege of inveigling them to the West
India market ! So ends the magnificent farce — perhaps I should say tragedy,
of West India Abolition ! I will not harrow your feelings by asking you to
review the labors of your life, and tell me what you and your brother Enthu
siasts have accomplished for " injured Africa ;" but while agreeing with Lord
Stowell, that " Villeinage decayed," and admitting that slavery might do so
also, I think F am fully justified by passed and passing events in saying, as Mr.
Grosvenor said of the Slave Trade, that its abolition is " impossible"
You are greatly mistaken, however, if you think that the consequences of
emancipation here, would be similar and no more injurious than those which
followed from it in your little sea-girt West India Islands, where nearly all were
blacks. The system of slavery is not in "decay " with us. It flourishes in
full and growing vigor. Our country is boundless in extent. Dolled here and
there with villages and fields, it is for the most part covered with immense for
ests and swamps of almost unknown size. In such a country, with a people
so restless as ours, communicating of course some of that spirit to their domes
tics, c^n you conceive that anything short of the power of the master over the
slave, could confine the African race, notoriously idle and improvident, to labor
on our plantations.' Break this bond, but for a day, and these plantations will
be solitudes. The negro loves change, novelty and sensual excitements of all
kinds, when awake. " Reason and order," of which Mr. Wilberforce said
" liberty was the child," do not characterize him. Released from his present
obligations, his first impulse would be lo go somewhere. And here no natural
boundaries would restrain him. At first they would all seek the towns, and
rapidly accumulate in squalid groups upon their outskirts. Driven thence by the
" armed police " which would immediately spring into existence, they would
scatter in all directions. Some bodies of them might wander towards the
" free " States, or to the western wUderness, marking their tracks hy their de
predations and their corpses. Many would roam wUd in our " big woods."
Many more would seek the recesses of our swamps for secure covert. Vew
very few of them, could be prevailed on to do a stroke of work, none to labor
continuously, whUe a head of cattle, sheep or swine couldbe found in our rang
es, or an ear of corn nodded in our abandoned fields. These exhausted oi r
folds and poultry yards, barns and store-houses would become their prey. Fi
nally, our scattered dweUings would be plundered, perhaps fired, and the in
mates murdered. How long do you suppose that we could bear these things .'
How long would it be before we should sleep with rifles at our bedsides and

never move without one in our hands .' This work once begun, let the story
ofour British ancestors and the aborigines of this country tell the sequel. Far
more rapid, however, would bs tlie catastrophe. " Ere many moons went by,"
the African race would be exterminated, or reduced again to slavery, their ranks
recruited, after your example, by fresh " emigrants " fiom their father land.
Is timely preparation and gradual emancipation suggested to avert Itiese hor
rible consequences .' 1 thought your experience in tbe \Vest Indies had at least
done so much as to explode that idea. If it failed there, much more would it
fail here, where the two races, approximating to equality in numbers, are daily
and hourly in the closest contact. Give room for but a single spark of real
jealousy to be kindled between them, and the explosion would be instantaneous
and universal. It is the most fatal of all fallacies to suppose that these two
races can exist together, after any length of time, or any process of preparation,
on terms at all approaching to equality. Of this, both of them are finally and
fixedly convinced. They differ essentially, in all the leading traits which cha
racterize the varieties of the human species, and color draws an indelible and
insuperable line of separation between them. Every scheme founded upon the
idea that the}" can remain together on the same .soil, beyond the briefest period,
in any other relation than precisely that which now subsists between them, is
not only preposterous, but fraught with the deepest danger. If there was no
alternative but to try the " experiment " here, reason and humanity dictate that
the sufferings of "gradualism" should he saved and tbe catastrophe of " im
mediate abolition," enacted as rapidly as possible. Are you impatient for the
performance to commence .-' Do you long to gloat over the scenes I have sug
gested, but could not hold the pen to portray r In your long life many such
have passed under your review. You know that they are not " impossible.'''
Can they be to your taste .' Do you believe that in laboring to bring them about
the Abolitionists are doing the will of God .' No ! God is not there. It is
the work of Satan. The Arch-fiend, under specious guises, has found his way
into their souls, and with false appeals to philanthropy, and foul insinuations to
ambition, instigates them to rush headlong to the accomplishment of his diabol
ical designs.
We live in a wonderful age. The events of the last three-quarters of a cen
tury appear to have revolutionized the human mind Enterprise and ambi
tion are only limited in their purposes by the horizon of the imsgination. It
is the transcendental era. In philosophy, religion, government, science, arts,
commerce, nothing that has been is to be allowed to be. Conservatism in any
form is scoffed at. The slightest taint of it is fatal. Where will all this end.' If
you can tolerate one ancient maxim let it be that the best criterion of the Fu
ture is the Past. That, if anything, will give a clue. And, looking back only
through your time, what was the earliest teat of this same Transcendentalism .'
The rays of the new Moral Drummond Light were first concentrated to a focus
at Paris, to illuminate the Universe. In a twinkling it consumed the political,
religious, and social systems of France. It could not be extinguished there
until literally drowned in blood. And then from its ashes arose that superna
tural man, who, for twenty years kept affrighted Europe in convulsions. Since
that time its scattered beams, refracted by broader surfaces, have nevertheless
continued to scathe wherever they have fallen. What political structure, what
relio^ious creed, but has felt the galvanic shock, and even trembles to its foun
dations .' Mankind, still horror-.stricken by the catastrophe of France, have
shrunk from rash experiments upon social systems. But they have been prac-
tisina; in the East, around the Mediterranean, and through the West India
Islands. And growing confident, a portion of them seem de.sperately bent on
kindlino' the all-devouring flame in the bosom of our land. Let it once attain

28
blaze up to hravpn and another cycle of blood and devastation will dawn upon
the world. F.ir our sake, and for the sake of those infrtuated men who are
madly drivin:; on the conilagraticn ; for the sake of human nature, we- are
called Oil to snain every nerve to arrest it. And be assured our efforts wUl he
bounded only with our bein?. Nor do 1 doubt that five millions of people,
brave, intelligent, united, and prepared to hazard every thing, wfll, in such a
cause, with the blessing of God, sustain themselves. At all events, come what
mav. it is ours to rneel il.
We are well av/are of the light estimation in which the Abolitionists, and
those who are taught by them, profess to hold us. We have seen the attempt
of a portion of the Free Church of Scotland to reject our alms, on the ground
that we are " Slavs- Drivers," after sending missionaries to solicit them. And
we have seen Mr. O'Connell, the " irresponsible master" of millions of ragged
serfs, from whom, poverty-stricken as they are, he contrives to wring a splendid
privy purse, throw back with contumely the "tribute" of his own countrymen
frcm this land of " miscreants." These people may exhaust their slang and
make black-guards of themselves, but they cannot defile us. And as for the
suggestion to exclude slave-holders from your London clubs, we scout it. —
M.iny of us, indeed, do go to London, and we have seen your breed of gawky
Jjords, both there and here, but it never entered into our conceptions to look
on them as better than ourselves. Nor can we be annoyed by the ridiculous
airs of such upstarts as your O'Connells, Ritchies, Macaulays, and the like.
The American slave-holders, collectively or individually, ask no favors of any
man or race who tread the earth. In none of the attributes of men, mental
or physical, do thej acknowledge or fear superiority elsewhere. They stand
in the broadest light of the knowledge, civilization and improvement of the
age, as much favored of Heaven as any of the sons of Adam. Exacting noth
ing undue, they yield nothing but justice and courtesy, even to royal blood. —
They can neither be flattered, duped, nor bullied cut of their rights or their
propriety. They .^mile with contempt at scurrillity and vapouring beycnd the
seas, and they turn their backs upon it where il is " irresponsible ;" but inso
lence that ventures to look them in the face, will never fail to be chastised.
I think 1 may trust you will not regard this letter as intrusive. I should
never lave entertained an idea of writing it, had you not opened the correspon
dence. If you think anything in it harsh, review your own — which I regret
that I lost soon after it was received — and you will probably find that you have
taken your revenge beforehand. If you have not, transfer an equitable share
of V. hat you deem severe to the account of the Abolitionists at large. They
have accumulated against the slaveholders a balance of invective, which, with
all our efforts, we shall not be able to liquidate much short of the era in which
your National debt will be paid. At all events, 1 have no desire to offend you
personally, and, with the best wishes for your continued health, I have the
honor to be. Your obedient servant,
J. H. HAMMOND.
Thos. Clarkson, Esq,

29

Silver Bluff, S. C, March 24, 1S45.
Sir : — In my letter to you of tbe 2Stli January — which 1 trust you have re
ceived ere this — I mentioned that I had lost your circular letter soon after it
had come to hand. It was, I am glad to say," only mislaid, and has v/ithin ii
few days been recovered. A second perusal of it induces me to resume my
pen. Unwilling to trust my recollections from a single reading, I did not in
my last communication attempt to follow the course of your argument, and
meet directly the poin'^^s made and the terms used. I thought it belter to take
a general view of the subject which could not fail lo traverse your most mate
rial charges. I am well aware, however, that, for fear of being tedious, I omit
ted many interesting topics altogetiitr, and ab.siained from a complete discus
sion of some of those introduced. I do not propose now to exhaust the subject;
which it would require volumes* to do ; but without waiting to learn — which I
may never do — your opinion of what I have already said, I sit down to supply
some of the deficiencies of my letter of January, and, wilh your circular before
me, to reply to such parts of it as have not been fully answered.
It is, I perceive, addressed among others to '¦• such as have never visited the
Southern States" of this confederacy, and professes to enlighten their ignorance
of the actual " condition of the poor slave in their own country." I cannot
help thinking you would have displayed prudence in confining the circulation
of your letter altogether to such persons. You might then have indulaed with
impunity in giving, as you have done, a picture of slavery drawn from your
own excited imagination, or from those impure fountains, the Martineaus, Mar-
ryatl's, Trollopes, and Dickenses, who have jnofited by catering, at cur ex
pense, to the jealous sensibilities and debauched tastes of your countrymen.
Admitting that you are familiar with the history of slavery and the past dis
cussions of it, as I did, I now think rather broadly, in my former letter, what
can you know of the true condition of the " poor slave" here .' I am not aware
that you have ever visited this country, or even the West Indies. Can you
suppose that because you have devoted your life to the investigation of the
subject — commencing it under the influence of an enthusiasm so melancholy
at first and so volcanic afterwards, as to be nothing short of hallucination — pur
suing it as men of one idea do everything, with the single purpose of establish-
ino- your own view of it — gathering your information fiom discharged seamen,
disappointed speculators, factious politicians, visionary reformers, and scurri
lous tourists — opening your ears lo every species of complaint, exaggeration,
and falsehood that interested ingenuity could invent, and never for a moment
questioning the truth of anything that could make for your cause — can you
suppose that all this can qualify you, living the while in England, lo form o?
approx'imate towards the formation of a correct opinion of the condition of
slaves among us .' I know the power of self-delusion. I have not tbe least
doubt that you think yourself the very best informed man alive on this subject,
and that many think so likewise. So far as facts go, even after deducting from
your list a "¦real deal that is not fact, I wiU not deny that probably your collec
tion is the most extensive in existence. But as to the truth in regard to slavery,
there is not an adult in this region but knows more of it than you do. Truth

• A work on " Slavery in the United States," by J. K, Paulding, published by the Har
pers in 1836, contains much useful information, -with rational and sound vieivs on this, iJie
ereat question of the age. It is now out of print, and the author would confer a benefit on
the public by issuing a new edition at a juncture when the newly aroused interest on tbe
subject would insure^it extensive circulation.

30
and fact are, you are aware, by no means synonymous terms. Ninety-nine facts
may constitute a falsehood : tho hundrelh, added or alone, gives the truth.
With all your knowledge of facts, 1 undertake to say that you are entirely and
grossly ignorant of thereal condition of our .slaves. And from all that I can
.see, you" are equ^dlly ignorant of the essential | rinciples of human association
revealed in history, both sacred and profane, on which slavery rests, and which
will perpetuate it forever in some form or other. However you may declaim
ao-ainst it; however poweiiul you may trray atrocious incidents; whatever
appeals you may make to the heated imaginations and tender sensibilities of
mankind, believe me, your total blindness to the whole truth, which alone con
stitutes the truth, incapacitates you from ever making an impression on the
sober reason and sound common sense of the world. You may seduce thou
sands — you can convince no one. Whenever and wherever you, and the advo
cates of your cause, can arouse the passions of the weak minded and the igno-
raat, and bringing lo bear with them the interests of the vicious and unprinci
pled, overwhelm common sense and reason — as God sometimes permit* to be
done — you may triumph. Such a triumph we have witnessed in Great Bri
tain. But I trust it is far distant here : Nor can it, from its nature, he extensive
or enduring. Other classes of Refoimers, animated by the same spirit as the
Abolitionists, attack the institution of marriage, and even the established rela
tions of Parent and Child. And they collect instances of barbarous cruelly
and hocking degradation which rival, if they do not throw in the shade, your
slavery statistics. But the rights of marriage and parental authority rest upon
truths as obvious as they are unchangeable — coming home to every human
being — self-impressed forever on the individual mind, and cannot be shaken
until the whole man is corrupted, nor subverted until civilized society becomes
a putrid mass, i-cmestic slavery is not so universally understood, nor can it
make such a direct appeal to individuals or society beyond its pale. Here,
prejudice and passion have room lo sport at the expense of others. They may
be excited and urged lo dangerous action, remote from the victims they maik
out. They may, as they have done, eflect great mischief, but they cannot be
made to maintain, in the long run, dominion over reason and common sense,
nor ultinia'eiy put down what God has ordained.
Yoa df ny, l-.owever, that slavery is sanctioned by God, and your chief argu
ment is thai when he gave lo Adam dominion over the fruits of the earth and
the animal creation, he stopped there. " He never gave him any further light
over his fellow men." You restrict the descendants of Adam to a very short
list of rights and powers, duties and responsibilities, if you limit them solely to
those conferred and enjoined in the first chapter of Genesis. It is very obvious
that in this narrative of the creation Moses did not have it in view to record any
part of the Law intended for the government of man in his social or political
stale. Eve was not yet created ; the expulsion had not yet taken place ; Cain
was unborn ; and no allusion whatever is made to the manifold decrees of God
to which these events gave rise. The only serious answer this argument de
serves is lo say, what is so manifestly true, that God's not expressly giving to
Adam " any right over bis fellow men" by no means excluded Him from con
ferring that right on his descendants ; which he in fact did. We know that
Abraham, the chosen one of God, exercised it and held properly in his fellow
man, even anterior to the period when property in land was acknowleged. We
might infer that God had authorized it. But we are not reduced to inference or
conjecture. At the hazard of fatiguing you by repetition, I will again referyou
to the ordinances of the scriptures. Innumerable instances might be quoted
where God has given and commanded men to assume dominion over their fel
low men. But one will suffice. In the 25th chapter of Leviticus you will find

31
Do'nestic Slavery — precisely such as is mniiii'iined at this day in these Suites —
ordained and established by God, in language which I defy you to pervei t so as to
If ave a doubt on any honest mind that this institution was founded by Him, and de
creed to be perpetual. I quote the words :
Leviticus, 25 ch. 44 V. : "Both thy Bondmen and thy Bondmaids which
thou shalt have, shall be of tbe Heathen [Africans] that are round about you :
of them ye shall bay Bondmen and Bondmaids.
45: Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you,
of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are vnth you which they begat in
your land [descendants of Africans .'] and they shall be your possession."
46 : " And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your ch'ddren after you, to
inherit themfoi a possession. Thev shall be your Bondmen forever."
What human Legislature could make a decree more full and explicit than
this .' W^hat court of Law or Chancery could defeat a title to a slave couched
in terms so clear and complete as this .' And this is the Lnw of God, whom you
pretend to worship, while you denounce and traduce us for respecting it.
It seems scarcely credible, but the fact is so, that you deny this Law so
plainly written, and in theface of it, have the hardihood to declare that "though
slavery is not specifically, yet it is viilualhj forbidden in the scriptures, because
all the crimes which necessarily arise out of slavery, and which can rise from no
other source, are reprobated there and threatened with divine vensreance."
Such an unworthy subterfuge is scarce entitled lo consideration. But its gross
absurdity may be exposed in a few words. I do not know what crimes you
particularly allude to as arising from slavery. But you will perhaps admit —
not because they are denounced in the decalogue, which the Abolitionists respect
only so far as they choose, but because it is the immediate interest of most men
to admit — that disobedience to parents, adultery, and steahng are crimes. Yet
these crimes " necessarily arise from" the relations of parent and child, marriage,
and the possession of private property ; at least they " can arise from no other
sources." Then, according to your argument, it is " virtually forbidden" to
marry, to beget children, and to hold private property ! Nay, it is forbidden to
live, since murder can only be perpetrated on living subjects. You add that
*' in the same way the gladiatorial shows of old, and other barbarous customs,
were not specifically forbidden in the New Testament, and yet Christianity was
the sole means of their suppression." This is very true- But theseshows and
barbarous customs thus suppressed, were not authorized by God. They were
not ordained and commanded by God for the benefit of His chosen people and
mankind, as the purchase and holding of Bondmen and Bondmaids were. Had
they been, they never would have been "suppressed by Christianity" any more
than slavery can be by your party. Although Christ came " not to destroy but
fulfil the Law" he nevertheless did formally abrogate some of the ordinances
promulgated by Moses, and all such as were at war with his mission of" peace
and good will on earth." He " specifically" annuls, for instance, one " barbar
ous cu torn" sanctioned by those otdinances, where he says: " ye have heard
that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth ; but I say unto
you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek
turn to him the other, also." Now, in the time of Christ it was usual for mas
ters to put their slaves to death on the slightest provocation. They even killed
and cut them up to feed their fishes. He was undoubtedly aware of these
tbino's as well as of the Law and Commandment I have quoted. He could
only have been restrained from denouncing them, as he did the " Zex tilionis,"
because he knew that in despite of these baibarities the institution of slavery
-was at the bottom a sound and wholesome as well as lawful one. Certain it is,
that in His wisdom and purity he did not see proper to interfere with it. In
your wisdom, however, you make the sacrilegous attempt to overthrow it.

32
You quote the denunciation of Tyre and Sidon, and say that " the chief reason
given by the Prophet Joel for their destruction, was, that they were notorious,
beyond all others for carrying on the Slave Trade." I am afraid you think we
have no Bibles in the Slave States, or that we are unable to read them. I can
not otherwiss account for your making this reference, unless indeed your own
readin'' is confined to an expurgated edition, prepared for the use of Abolition
ists, in which every thing relating to slavery that militates against their view
of il is left out. The Prophet Joel denounces the Tyrians and Sidonians
because " The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have
ye sold unto the Grecians " And what is the divine vengeance for this
" notorious slave tradin;;."' Hear it. "And I will sell your sons and daughters
into the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them lo the Sabe-
ans, to a people far off; for the Lord hath spoken it." Do you call this a con
demnation of slave-trading .' The Prophet makes God Himself a participator
in the crime if that be one. " The Lord hath spoken it," he says that the
Tyrians and Sidonians shall be sold into slavery to strangers. Their real of
fence was in enslaving the Chosen People ; and their sentence was a repetition
of the old Command, to make slaves of the " Heathen round about."
I have dwelt upon your scriptural argument, because you profess to believe
the Bible; because a large proportion of the Abolitionists profess to do the
same, and to act under its sanction ; because your Circular is addressed in part
to " professing Christians ;" and because it is from that class mainly that you '
expect to seduce converts by your anti-chrislian, I may say infidel doctrines.
It would be wholly unnecessary to answer you to any one who reads the scrip
tures for himself, and construes them according lo any other formula than that
•which the Abolitionists are wickedly endeavoring to impose upon the world. The
scriptural sanction of slavery is in fact so palpable, and so strong, that both
wings of your party are beginning to acknowledge it. The more sensible and
moderate admit, as the organ of the Free Church of Scotland, the North Bri
tish Review, has lately done, that they " •:re precluded by the statements and
conduct of the Apostles from regarding mere slave-holding as essentially sinful,^''
while the desperate and reckless, who are bent on keeping up the agitation at
every hazard, declare, as has been done in the Anti-Slavery Record, " If our
inquiry turns out in favor of slavery, it is the Bible that must fall, and
NOT the rights OF HUMAN NATURE." You caunot, I am satisfied, much longer
maintain before the world, the Christian platform from which lo wage war
upon our institutions. Driven from it, you must abandon ths contest, or,
repudiating Revelation, rush into the horrors of Natural Religion.
You next complain, that our slaves are kept in bondage by the " Law of
force." In what country or condition of mankind do you see human affairs
regulated merely by the law of love ? Unless I am greatly mistaken you will,
if you look over the world, find nearly all certain and permanent rights, civil,
social, and I may even add religious, resting on and ultimately secured by the
" law of force" The power of majorities — of aristocracie.? — of Kings —
nay of priests, for the most part, anil of property, resolves itself at lasl into
" force," and could not otherwise be long maintained. Thus, in every turn of
your argument against our system of slavery, you advance, whether conscious
of it or not, radical and revolutionary doctrines calculated to change the whole
face of the world, to overthrow all government, disorganize society, and re
duce man to a stale of nature — red with blood, and shrouded once more in
barbaric ignorance. But you greatly err, if you suppose, because we rely on
force in the last resort to maintain our supremacy over our slaves, ihat ours is
a stern and unfeeling domination at all to be compared in hard-hearted severity
to that exercised, not over the mere laborer only, but hy the higher over each

33
lower order, wherever the British sway Is acknowledged. You say, that if
those you address were " to spend one day in the South they would return
home with impressions against slavery never to be erased." But the fact is
universally the reverse. I have known numerous instances, and 1 never
knew a single one, where there was no other cause of offence and no object
to promote by falsehood, that individuals from the non-slave-holding State.s
did not, after residing among us long enough to understand the subject, " re
turn home" to defend our slavery. It is matter of n-gret, thiit you have ne\'er tried
the experiment yourself. I do not doubt you would have been converted, for
I give you credit for an honest though perverted mind. You would have seen
how weak and futile is all abstract reasoning about thi.j matter, a-id th.it, as a
building may not be less elegant in its proportions, or tasteful in its ornaments,
or virtuous in its uses, for being based upon granite, so a system of human go
vernment, though founded on force, may develops and cultivate the teiiderrst
and purest sentiments of the human heart. And our patriaichal scheme of do
mestic servitude is, indeed, well calculated to awaken the higher and finer feel
ings of our nature. It is not wanting in its enthusiasm and its poetry. The
relations of the most beloved and honored chief, and the most faithful and ad
miring subjects, which from tbe rime of Homer have been the theme of song,
are frigid and unfelt compared with those existing between the master and his
slaves — who served his father, and rocked his cradle, or have been born in his
house-hold, and look forward to serve his children — who have been through
life the props of his fortune, and the objects of his care — who have partaken of
his griefs, and looked to him for comfort in their own — whose sickness he has
so often watched over and relieved — whose holidays he has so often made
joyous by his bounties and his presence : for whose welfare when absent hi.s
anxious solicitude never ceases, and whose hearty and affectionate greetings never
fail to welcome him home. In this cold, calculating, ambitious world of ours,
there are few ties more heartfelt, or of more bsnigaant influence, than those
which mutually bind the master and the slave, under our ancient system,
handed down from the Father of Israel. The unholy purpose of the Abolition
ists is to destroy by defiling it , to infuse into it the gall and bitterness which
rankle in their own envenomed bosoms ; to poison the minds of the master and
the servant ; turn love to hatred, array '^ force" against force, and hurl all,
'¦' "With hideous ruin and combustiun, down
To bottomless perdition."
You think it a great " crime" that we do not pay our slaves " wages," and on
this account pronounce us " robbers." In my former letter 1 showed that the
labor of our slaves was not without great cost to us, and that in fact they them
selves receive more in return for it than your hirelings do for theirs. For what
purpose do msn labor, but to support themselves and their families in v/hat com
fort they are able .' The efforts of mere physical labor seldom suffice to provide
more than a livelihood. And it is a weU known and shocking fact, that while ,
few operatives in Great Britain succeed in securing a comfortable living, the
oreater part drag out a miserable existence, and sink at last under absolute want.
VVhat avaU is it°tbat you go through the form of paying them a pittance of what
call " wao-es," when you do not, in return for their services, allow them
what alone they ask— and have a just right to demand — enough to feed, clothe
and lod^e them, in health and sickness, with reasonable comfort. Though we
do not <nve "wages" in money, we do this for our slaves, and they are therefore
better rewarded than yours. It is the prevailing vice and error of the age, and
one from which the Abolitionists, with all their saintly pretensions, are far from
being free to bring everything to the standard of money. You make gold and
silver the "real test of happiness. The American slave must be wretched in-
5

.34
deed, because he is not compensated for his services in cash. It is altogether
praiseworthy to pay the laborer a shilling a day and let him starve on it. To
supply all his wants abundantly, and at all times, yet withhold from him money,
is among " the most reprobated crimes" The fact cannot be denied, that the
mere laborer is now and always has been, everywhere that barbarism has ceased
enslaved. Among the innovations of modem times following " the decay of
villainage," has been the creation of a new system of slavery. The
primitive and patriarchal, which may also be called the sacred and natural
sy.stem, in which the laborer is under the personal control of a fellow
being endowed with the sentiments and sympathies of humanity, exists
among us. It has been almost everywhere else superceded by the modern ar
tificial ?)ionei/ power system, in which man — his thews and sinews, his hopes and
affections, his very being, are all subjected to the dominion of Capital — a mon
ster without a heart — cold, stern, arithmetical — sticking to the bond — taking
ever the pound of flesh" — working up human life wilh Engines, and retailing
it out by weight and measure. His name of old was " Mammon, the least
erected spirit that fell from Heaven." And it is to extend his Empire, that
you and your deluded coadjutors dedicate your lives. You are stirring up man
kind to overthrow our Heaven-ordained system of servitude, surrounded by in
numerable checks, designed and planted deep in the human heart by God and
nature, lo substitute the absolute rule of this " Spirit Reprobate'' whose proper
place was Hell.
You charge us with looking on our slaves "as chattels or brutes," and enter
into a somewhat elaborate argument to prove that they have " human forms,"
" talk," and even " think." Now the fact is that, however you may indulge
in this strain for effect, it is the Abolitionists, and not the Slave-holders, who
practically, and in the most important point of view, regard our slaves as "chat
tels or brutes." In your calculations of the consequences of emancipation, you
pass over entirely those which must prove most serious, and which arise from
the fact of their be'mg persons. You appear to think that we might abstain from
'the use of them as readily as if they were machines to be laid aside, or cattle
that might be turned out to find pasturage for themselves. I have heretofore
glanced at some of the results that would follow from breaking the bonds of so
many human beings now peacefully and happily linked into our social system.
The tragic horrors, the decay and ruin that would for yeais, perhaps for ages,
brood over our land, if it could be accomplished, I will not attempt to portray.
But do you fancy the blight would, in such an event, come to us alone .' The di
minution of the sugar crop of the West Indies affected Great Britain only, and
there chiefly the poor. It was a matter of no moment to Capital, that Labor
should have one comfort less. Yet it has forced a reduction of the British duty
on sugar. Who can estimate the consequences that must follow the annhila-
tion of the cotton crop of the slave-holding States .' I do not undervalue the im
portance of other articles of commerce, but no calamity could befall the world
at all comparable to the sudden loss of two millions of bales of cotton annually.
From the deserts of Africa to the Siberian wflds — from Greenland to the Chinese
Wall, there is not a spot of earth but wou d feel the sensasion. The Factories
of Europe would fall with a concussion that would shake down castles, pa
laces, and even thrones ; while the " purse-proud, elbowing insolence" of our
Northern monopolists would disappear forever under tbe smooth speech of the
¦ Pedlar, scouring our frontiers for a livelihood, or the bluff vulgarity of the South
sea whaler, following the harpoon amid storms and shoals. Doubtless the Abo
litionists think we could grow cotton without slaves, or that at worst, the re
duction of the crop would be moderate and temporary. Such gross delusions
show how profoundly ignorant they are ofour condition here.

35
You declare that "tho character of the people of the South ba.s long been
that of hardened Infidels, who fear not God, and have no regard tor religion."
I will not repeat what I said in my former letter on this point. I only notice it
to ask you how you could possibly reconcile il lo your prol'ession of a Chris
tian spirit, to make such a malicious charge — to defile your soul with such a
calumny against an unoffending people i " You are old ;
Nature in you stands on the very ver^c
Of her confine. You should be ruled and led
By some discretion." —
May God forgive you.
Akin to this is the wanton and furious assault made on us by ^vfr. M.\c.\u-
lat, in his late speech on the Sugar duties, in the House of Commons, which
has just reached me. His denunciations are wholly without measuie, and
among other things he asserts " that Slavery in the United States wears its
worst form ; that, boasting of our civilization and freedom, and frequenting
Christian Churches, we breed up slaves, nay, beget children for slaves, and
sell them al so much a bead." Air. Macaulav is a Reviewer, and he knows
that he is " nothing if not critical." The practice of his trade has given him
the command of all the slashing and vituperative phrases of our language, and
the turn of his mind leads him lo the habitual use of them. He is an author,
and as no copy-right law secures for him from this country a consideration for
his writino-s, he is not only independent of us, but naturally hates everything
American. He is the Representative of Edinburgh : it is his cue to decry
our slavery, and in doing so he may safely indulge the malignity of his temper,
his indit'nation against us, and his capacity for raUing. He has suilered once,
for being in advance of his time in favor of Abolition, and he does not intend
that it shall be forgotten, or his claim passed over to any crumb which may
now be thrown to the vociferators in the cause. If he does not know that the
statements he has made respecting the slaveholders of this country are vile and
atrocious falsehoods, it is because he does not think it worth his whUe to be
sure he speaks the truth, so that he speaks to his own purpose.
" Hie niger est, hunc tu, Romane caveto."
Such exhibitions as he has made may draw the applause of a British House
of Commons, but among the sound and high-minded thinkers of the worid
they can only excite contempt and disgust.
But you are not content with depriving us of aU religious feeling. You
assert that our slavery has also " demoralized the Northern States," and charge
upon it not only every common violation of good order there, but the " Mor
mon murders," the " Philadelphia riots," and all « tbe exterminating wars
ao-ainst the Indians." 1 wonder that you did not increase the hst by adding
that it had caused the recent inundation of the Mississippi, and the hurricane
in the VYest Indies— perhaps the insurrection of Rebecca, and the war in
Scinde You refer to tbe law prohibiting the transmission of Abolition peti
tions throu-b the mail as proof of general corruption ! \ ou could not do so,
however, without noticing the late delected espionage over the British Post
Office by a Minister of State. It Is true, as you say, it " occasioned a general
outburst of National feeling"-from the opposition ; and a "Parliamentary
inquiry was instituted"— that is moved, but treated qmte cavahsriy^ .\t all
events, though the fact was admitted, Sir James Graham yet retains tne Home
Departmentf For one, I do not undertake to condemn him Such th:ngs are
not against the laws and usages of your country. I do not know fully what

36
reasons of State may have influenced him and justified his conduct. But I do
know that there is a vast ditierence in point of " national morality'' between
the discretionary power residing in your Government to open any letter in the
public post office, and a well defined and limited law to prevent the circulation
of certain specified incendiary writings by means of the United States Mail.
Havinc now referred to everything like argument on the subject of Slavery
that is worthy of notice in your letter, permit me to remark on its tone and
style, and very extraordinary bearing upon other Institutions of this country.
You commence by addressing certain classes of our people as belonging to "a
nation whose character is now so low in the estimation of the civilized world ;"
and throughout you maintain this tone. Did the Americans who were " under
your roof last summer" inform you that such language would be gratifying to
their fellow-citizens " having no practical concern wilh slaveholding .'" Or do
the infamous libels on America which you read in our Abolition papers induce
you lo believe that all that class of people are, like the Abolitionists them
selves, totally destitute of patriotism .or pride of country ? Let me tell you
that you are grossly deceived. And although your stock brokers and other
speculators, who have been bitten in American ventures, may have raised a
stunning " cry" against us in England, there is a vast body of people here be
sides slaveholders, who justly
" Deem tlieir own land of every land the pride.
Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside."
And who know that at this moment we rank among the First Powers of the
world — a position which we not only claim, but are always ready and able to
maintain. The style you assume in addressing your Northern friends is in perfect keep
ing with your apparent estimation of them. Though I should be the last, per
haps, to criticise mere style, I could not- but be struck wilh the extremely
simple manner of your letter. You seem to have thought you were writing a
Tract for benighted Heathens, and telling wonders never before suggested to
their iniaginaiiop, and so far above their untutored comprehension as to require
to bs related in the primitive language of " the child's own book." Ihis is suf
ficiently amusing ; and would be more so but for the coarse and bitter epithets
you continually apply to the poor slave-holders — epithets which appear to be
stereotyped for the use of Abolitionists, and which form a large and material
part of all their arguments.
But perhaps the most extraordinary part of your letter is your bold denun
ciation of "//le shameful compromises'^ of our Constitution, and your earnest
recommendation to those you address to overthrow or revolutionize it. In so
many words you say to them, " you must either separate yourselves from all po
litical connexion wilh the South, and make your own laws; or if you do not
choose such a separation, you must break up the political ascendancy which the
Southern have had for so long a time over the Northern Stales. The italics in
this, as in all other quotations, are your own. It is well for those who circu
late your letter here, that the Constitution you denounce requires an overt act
to constitute Treason. It may be tolerated for an American by birth, to use on
his own sod the freedom of speaking and -writing, which is guaranteed to him,
and abuse our Constitution, our Union, and our people. But that a Foreigner
should use sueh seditious language, in a Circular Letter addressed lo a portion
of the American people, is a presumption well calculated to excite the indig
nation of all. The paity known in this country as the Abolition Party has
long since avowed the sentiments you express, and adopted the policy you en
join. At the recent Presidential Election they gave over 62,000 votes for their

37
own candidate, and held the balance of power in two of the largest States —
wanting but little of doing it in several others. In the last four years their vote
has quadrupled. Should tbe infatuation continue, and their vote incn-ase in
the same ratio in the next lour years, it will be as large as the actual slave
holders o( the Union. Such a prospect Is, doubtless, extremely gratifying to
you. It gives hope of a contest on such terms as may insure the downfall of
Slavery or our Constitution. The South venerates the Constitution, and is
prepared to stand by it forever, such as it come from the hands of onr fathers ;
to risk everything lo defend and maintain it in its integrity. But the South is
under no such delusion as to believe that it derives any peculiar protection trom
the Union. On the contrary, il is well known we incur peculiar danger and
that we bear far more than our proportion of the burdens. The apprehension
is also fast fading away that any of the dreadful consequences commonly pre
dicted, will necessarily result from a separation of the States. And come what
may, we are firmly resolved that our system of Domestic Slavery shall
STAND. The fate of the Union then — but thank God not of Republican Gov
ernment — rests mainly in the bands of the people to whom your letter is ad
dressed — the " professing Christians of the Northern Slates having no concern
with slave-holding," and whom with incendiary zeal you are endeavoring to stir
up to strife — without which fanaticism can neither live, move, nor have any
being. VVe have often been taunted for our sensitiveness in regard to the discussion
of Slavery. Do not suppose It is because we have any doubts of our rights, or
scruples about asserting them. There was a time when such doubts and scru
ples were entertained. Our ancestors opposed the introduction of Slaves Into
this country, and a feeling adverse lo it was handed down from them. The
enthusiastic love of liberty fostered by our Revolution, strengthened this feel-
ino-. And before the commencement of the Abolition agitation here, it was the
common sentiment that it was desirable to gel rid of Slavery. Many thought
it our duty to do so. When that agitation arose, we were driven to a close
examination of the subject in all its bearings, and the result has been an univer
sal conviction that in holding Slaves we violate no law of God — inflict no in
justice on any of his creatures — while the terrible consequences of emancipa
tion, to all parties and the world at large, clearly revealed lo us, make us shud
der at the bare thought of it. The slave-holders are therefore Indebted to the
Abolitionists for perfect ease of conscience, and the satisfaction of a settled and
unanimous determination in reference to this matter. And could their agita
tion cease now, I believe, after all, the good would preponderate over the evil
of it in this country. On the contrary, however, it is urged on with frantic
violence, and the Abolitionists, reasoning in the abstract, as If it were a mere
moral or' metaphysical speculation, or a minor question In politics, profess to be
surprised at our exasperation. In their ignorance and recklessness they seem
to be unable to comprehend our feelings or position. The subver.sion of our
rights, the destruction of our property, the disturbance of our peace and the
peace of the worid, are matters which do not appear to arrest their considera
tion. When revolutionary France proclaimed " Hatred to Kings artd unity to
the Republic," and inscribed on her banners " France risen against Tyrants,"
sheprofessed to be only worshipping "Abstract Rights." And if there can be such
thino-s perhaps she was. Yet aU Europe rose to put her sublime theories down.
Thev declared' her an enemy to the common peace; that her doctrines alone
violated the " Law of Neighborbrod," and, as Mr. Burke said, justly entitled
them to anticipate tbe " damnum nondum factum " of ihe civil law. Danto.n-,
Barrere, and the rest, were apparently astonished that umbrage should be

38
taken. The parallel between them and the Abolitionists holds good in all
respects. The rise nnd progress of this Fanaticism is one of the phenomena of the
age in which we live. I do not intend to repeat what I have already said, or
to trace its career more minutely at present. But the Legislature of Great
Britain will make it historical, and doubtless you must feel some curiosity to
know how il will figure on the page of the Annalist. I think 1 can tell you.
Though I have accorded and do accord to you and your party great influence
in bringing aho-.it the Piirliameutary action of your country, you must not ex
pect to go down to posterity as the only cause of it. Though you trace the
progenitors of Abolition from 1516 through a long stream wilh divers branches
down to the period of Its triumph in your country, it has not escaped con-
tempor.iries, and will not ('seape posterity, that England, without much effort,
sustained the storm of its scoffs and threats until the moment arrived when she
thought her colonies fully supplied with Africans ; and declared against the
Slave Trade only when she deemed it unnecessary to her, and when her colo
nies, full of Slaves, would have great advantages over others not so well fur
nished. Nor did she agree to West India emancipation until, discovering the
er-or of her previous calculation, it became an object to have Slaves free
throughout ih-.^ Western world, and, on the ruins of the Sugar and Cotton
growers of America and the Islands, to build up her great Slave Empire In
the East : while her Indefatigable exertions stUl continued to engraft the Right
of Seaich upon the Law of .Rations, on the plea of putting an end to the for
ever increasing Slave Trade, are well understood to have chiefly in view the
complete establishment of her supremacy at Sea. On these points let me
recommend you to consult a very able Elssay on the Slave Trade and Right
of Search by M. Jollivet, recently published; and as you say, since writing
your Circular Letter, that yoi " burn to try your hand on another little Essay

if a subject could be found,"'
tion, put by M. Jollivet to

I propose to you to " try" to answer this ques-
England : " Pourquoi sa philantkropie n'a pas
daigne,jusqu'' a present, doubter le cap de Bonne-EsperanceV Nor must you
flatter yourself that your party will derive historic dignity from the names of
the illustrious British statesmen who have acted with It. Their country's ends
were theirs. They have stooped to u.se you, as the most illustrious men will
sometimes use the vilest instruments, to accomplish their own purposes. A
k\v philanthropic common places and rhetorical flourishes, "in the abstract,"
have -iCcured tbsm your " sweet voices," and your influence over the tribe of
luavvkish sentimentalists. Wihierfokce may have been yours, but what was
he besides, but a wealthy county member .' You must, therefore, expect to
stand on your own merits alone before posterity, or rather that portion of it
that may be curious to trace the history of the Delusions which, from time to
timj, pass over the surface of human affairs, and who may trouble themselves
to look through the ramifications of Transcendentalism in this era of extrava
gances. And how do you expect to appear in their eyes.' As Christians,
piously endeavoring to enforce the will of God and carry out the principles of
Christianity .' Certainly not, since you .deny or pervert the Scriptures in the
doctrines you advance ; and in your conduct furnish a glaring contrast to the
examples of Christ and the Apostles. As Philanthropists, devoting your-
s.?lves to the cause of humanity, relieving the needy, comforting the afflicted,
creating peace and gladness and plenty round about you.' Certainly not •
since you turn from the needy, the afflicted ; from strife, sorrow, and starvation
v-hich surround you ; close your eyes and hands upon them ; shut out from
your thoughts and feelings the human misery which is real, tangible and within

39
your reach, to indulge your morbid imagination in conjuring uj) woes imkI wants
among a strange people In distant lands, and oftiiring them succor in ihe sbjpe
of costless denunciations of their best friends, or by scaU( ring aiKun? ihtin
" firebrands, arrows, and death." Such folly and iiiadiie.-> — sueli wild
mockery and base imposture, can never win for you, iu the sober jurif^^ment ot
future times, the name of Philanthropists. Will you even be rcL^.uded as
worthy citizens ? Scarcely, when the purposes you have in view can only be
achieved by revolutionizing governments and overturning social systems, aud
¦when you do not hesitate zealously and earnestly to recommend such measures.
Be assured, then, that posterity will not regard the AboUtionists as Christians,
Philanthropists, or virtuous citizens. It will, I have no doubt, look upon the
mass of the parly as silly enthusiasts, led away by designing characters, as in
the case with all parties that break from the great acknowledged tiisvhii-h
bind civilized man in fellowship. The leaders themselves will be regarded as
¦mere ambitious men; not taking rank with those whose ambition is " eagle-
winged and sky-aspiring," but belonging lo that mean and selfish class who are
instigated by " rival-haling envy," and whose base thirst is for Notor'iely ; who
cloak their designs under vile and impious hypocrisies, and, unable lo shine in
higher spheres, devote themselves to Fan.iticism, as a trade. And it will be
perceived that, even in that they shunned the highest walk. Religious Jr'ana-
ticism was an old established vocation inwhich something brilliant was required
to attract attention. They could not be Georoe Foxes, nor Jo.-\nna South-
coTES, nor even Joe Smiths. But the dullest pretender could discourse a jum
ble of pious pigotry, natural rights, and drivelling philanthropy. And, adiiress-
ino- himself to aged folly and youthful vanity, to ancient women, to iil-gotten
wealth, to the reckless of all classes who love excitement nnd change, oher all
the cheapest and the safest glory In the market. Hence, their numbers ; and,
from number and clamor, what impression they have made on the world.
Such I am persuaded is the light in which the Abolitionists will be viewed
by the posterity their history may reach. L''uless, indeed — which God forbid —
circumstances should so favor as to enable them to produce a convulsion which
may elevate them higher on the " bad eminence" where they have placed
themselves. 1 have the honor to be
Your obedient servant,
J. H. HAMMOND.
Thomas Clarkson, Esq.

j^o.i.j,  ^The foregoing Letters were not originally intended for publication. In prepar-
inz them for the press they have been revised. The alterations and corrections made how
ever have been mostly verbal. Had the writer felt at liberty to condense the two letters
into'one and bring up the history of Abolition to tho period of publication, he might have
Dresented a more concise and perfect argument, and illustrated his views more forcibly by
reference to facts recently developed. For example since wriung the first the letter of
Mr Ci.^rb:so«, as President of the British Anti-Shiveiy Society, to .'^ir Kobert Peel,
iiL„nr'mp- the whole schsmeof " Immigration," has reached him ; and after he had fur-
Sd hf laslhe saw it stated .hat m/ci.a.kso. hod as hte as the first part of April,
warueu lu , -. » j-^j, and declared that all efforts to suppress the African
lutTrade^af loVfaiM " may be confidently expected that it will be ere long an
nounced from the same quarter, that the " experiment" of West-India ^.mancipation has
also Droved a complete abortion.
Should the terms which have been applied to the Abolitionists appear fo any as unduly
bnouia /."'I '"" , . that the direct aim of these people is to destroy us by the most
severe, let it be r^'^^'"""*"?". " wing a large port on of the civilized world for their
shocking -.1^1'9^'^^ll^'fJ^^ll^^^^ upo/us'.he vilest calumnies and most unmiti-
"afer^STuse'^'Symeily a'le their Bi'ble^ and Females unsex themselves ,o carry .u
this horrid warfare against Slave-holders.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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