It appears from the above named States, that in 1845, about one-fortieth of the entire population in the free States were colored persons; and yet about one-fourth of the convicts were free negroes; but notwithstanding that the colored and the white population are very nearly balanced in the slave States, I do not suppose that one in a hundred of the convicts are negroes! But there is another fact with regard to free negroes North, that is still more remarkable! Few, comparatively, very few, are members of any branch of the church—probably not one in twenty of the entire adult population. But, on the contrary, in the slave States, I think it probable that at least three-fourths of the entire adult slave population are church members; and I presume, that near one-half of the African professors of the Christian religion, in the slave States, are attached to the Methodist Episcopal Church South; and strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that in the very hot-bed of abolitionism, viz., in the extensive territory of New England, Providence, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire Conferences, there was not a solitary free negro in connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church! Is not this a remarkable fact? Here, we have a territory of vast extent; embracing something more than a half dozen states, and containing within its limits multiplied thousands of free negroes; and not one! No! not a solitary free negro is found in the bosom of the Methodist Episcopal Church! Many of them left pious and humane masters in the South, and were withal pious themselves when they left their masters; or, otherwise, they were stolen from good men in the South by pseudo Christians of the North, and taken to that free and happy land! the land of their dear friends, and consigned to poverty, vice, degradation and the devil!!!

What does all this mean? How does it happen that the free blacks of the North are so little benefitted by the Christian ministry—particularly in those sections where a large portion of the ministers belong to the abolition faction? How does it happen that the African population are so little benefitted or influenced by them? Is it true, that the negroes have discernment enough to see, that their wordy benefactors have done nothing for either their souls or their bodies—that conscience and religious principle have but little to do with all this slavery agitation? It must be so! Hence, we can understand why it is, that the African population have more confidence in a slaveholding ministry in the South, than they have in an abolition ministry in the North.

My engagements are such, that I shall be forced for the present to pass over the argument mainly relied on by abolitionists of every grade, to prove the sinfulness of American slavery; or at least, I can give it but a cursory notice. I understand that a celebrated D.D., has published a work, in which, he labors hard to prove the sinfulness of American slavery from its evils. It was the design of the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, to prove the sinfulness of slavery from its evils; or otherwise, its abuses. If this mode of reasoning is allowable in one case, it is so in another, and by this mode of reasoning I can prove the sinfulness of every institution beneath the sun, social, civil and religions. It is in fact the argument principally relied on by skeptics to invalidate the Christian religion. They will all point to its abuses, or in other words, to the evils growing out of its abuses. Every institution, social, civil and religious is subject to abuse—may be prostituted to the worst of purposes—the institution of Christianity not excepted. But it does not necessarily follow, because an institution is subject to abuse—because it is prostituted to vile purposes, that there is any thing wrong about the institution. The evil consists in the abuse or improper use, and not in the institution. Cupidity inhumanity, and the gratification of the animal passions and propensities, have incited slaveholders to the worst of crimes. But this does not prove that the holding of slaves is sinful, per se, under all circumstances. I have shown in the last chapter of this work, (Chap 13,) that men are too often prompted from selfish motives to attach themselves to churches, and that many of them are prostituting a Christian profession to the worst of purposes. But this does not prove that there is anything defective or wrong about the Christian religion. No, by no means. If clergymen descend from their sacred vocation to dabble with politics, and a thousand other things that a minister of Christ should not touch; or to use their ministerial influence to accomplish the most diabolical purposes, and thereby bring reproach on the Christian name, and a grievous curse on the nation—then assuredly, the institution of Christianity is not to blame for it; for its Author, both by precept and example taught the contrary. It was but a few days ago, that a skeptic remarked to me, "that the inconsistent conduct of professors of religion satisfied him that there was no truth in the Bible; or at all events, that there was something wrong about it." I must hasten to a close, as I cannot extend my remarks on this subject.

There now lies before me a paper, containing the following remarks: "There is, however, one admitted feature in American slavery of a character so shameful as to justify almost anything that can be said or imagined of the institution. Men live with their female slaves in a state of concubinage, beget children, raise them in their families with a perfect knowledge of their origin, and sell them or leave them to be sold by others in case of decease or reverses." It is strange that those who indulge in such opprobrious remarks about southern slaveholders, do not look after their own white bastards which are scattered over this entire country, east, west, north and south. Men are everywhere, (with a few exceptions,) the world over, utterly devoid of all parental affections for their illegitimate children; and the Southern man, no doubt, has fully as much concern about his mulatto bastards as the Northern man has about his white bastards. What is the Southern man to do with his brood of mulatto children? Suppose he liberates them, their condition is but little improved thereby, unless he sends them out of the country. It is, however, clearly his duty to educate and manumit such children; but what is the duty of the Northern man surrounded by a score of his illegitimate progeny? The condition of the children of the white concubines of the North are not a whit better, than that of the colored concubines of the South; and the Northern man who suffers his children to become the victims of poverty and vice—to sink into the very lowest depths of degradation!—hopelessly, irretrievably lost, is no better than the Southern man who suffers his mulatto children to be sold. One thing is clear; the Northerner can do much more to ameliorate the condition of his unfortunate offspring than the Southerner; and for this reason, he is probably the worst man of the two.



CHAPTER I.

While I was preparing the following work for the press, a friend called on me, and with apparent solicitude, inquired, "Which side of the question are you on, Sir?" I answered him, that I was on the side of truth, or at least, that I wished to be found on that side. Calling at a book-store, I purchased a work on slavery, returned immediately to my room, and was anxiously looking over its pages; a friend tapped at my door, "Come in, Sir; take a seat." He had scarcely seated himself, before he inquired, "What book are you reading, Sir?" A work on slavery, was my answer. "Which side of the question is it on?" It was but a short time before I purchased two other volumes on the same subject, and laid them on my table. A gentleman called on business, and observing the books, inquired what kind of books they were? I laughingly answered that they were novels. "Why," replied he, "I thought you did not read novels." I remarked (in substance), that they were novels on the subject of slavery, and that I had been for some time engaged in an investigation of the subject, and that it had produced in my mind a desire to consult some writers on slavery; and it appeared, that recent writers, preferred that their views upon it, should appear before the public in a fictitious garb. I have no doubt, that the first inquiry of most of those into whose hands this volume may chance to fall, will be, "Which side of the question is it on?" Thus, it appears that the question of African slavery has two sides; and that either interest, ignorance, or prejudice; or what is worse, a vain glorious desire on the part of some to be considered the champions of liberty, the guardians of the rights of man, has arrayed a large portion of this nation on one side, or the other. I utterly despair—I have no hope that my labors will meet the approbation of ultraists, North, or South. But there is yet another class in our country—a class of persons who are conservative in their views, honest in their intentions, and patriotic in their feelings; who are prepared to listen to the voice of reason, and the injunctions, admonitions and warnings of Divine Revelation. It is to them I appeal. Thank God, I believe that they constitute a large majority of the nation.

I have long beheld with regret and astonishment, the efforts that have been made by a certain class of writers, to disseminate erroneous views in the Northern section of the United States, with regard to Southern slavery.[2] The recent publication by Mrs. Stowe, entitled "Uncle Tom's Cabin," is a work of that class. I have no wish to write anything harsh or unkind; for however ill-timed, ill-advised, or ill-judged the work may be, if her object was the alleviation of human woe, I can but respect the motive that prompted her to write, though I may differ with her in opinion as to the means most likely to accomplish the proposed object. The fair authoress may have meant well. I shall leave that, however, to the "Searcher of all hearts;" but I frankly confess that I fear that the book will result "in evil, and only evil." I cannot avoid here, quoting the language that she puts in the mouth of Chloe, the wife of Uncle Tom, who is the hero of her tale: "Wal any way, that's wrong about it somewhar, I can't jest make out whar it is, but thar's wrong somewhar." We all admit that there are wrongs, it is clear to every one, neither do we differ much as to what those wrongs are, nor yet as to their causes and effects; but unfortunately for us, we differ widely, when we undertake to propose remedies for the evil complained of. We have all need of that charity "which suffereth long and is kind; that thinketh no evil." It is as unreasonable and as wicked, to treat each other unkindly, because we differ in opinion, as it would be to treat each, other unkindly, because there is a difference in the features of our faces, and the expression of our countenances. The Author of our existence, for wise purposes, made us to differ mentally, as well as physically. The structures of our minds are different. The great Architect willed that it should be thus; why, we presume not to know, but so it is. And then moreover, our physical training, mental, moral and religious culture; together with climate and a variety of other external and internal causes, have all contributed more or less in shaping our opinions, and giving a peculiar cast to our minds. Thus it is, that we are all looking through different glasses, and it is no wonder that we do not all see objects just alike. Objects must necessarily present themselves to us, in different hues and colors. Some are so accustomed to view all objects through a microscope, that they have no just conception of the real magnitude of any body. Exaggeration is their forte—in this they excel. Their towering minds soar above common comprehension and common sense, and their fertile imaginations are ever ready to conjure up spectres, ghosts and hobgoblins; or otherwise, where others see a mouse, they behold an elephant; and to their distorted visions, a mole-hill is magnified into a mountain. We look in vain to such writers for a plain, unvarnished, common sense statement of facts, for sound arguments, or logical deductions. Such authors have nothing to do with facts, or things as they exist among us. Their imaginations are ever ready to furnish facts, on which to base their preconceived inferences and conclusions. They were cast in a fictitious mould, and works of fiction they have read, until their minds can run in no other channel. Their mental vision seizes an object, and they pursue it with an enthusiasm that borders on insanity. Onward, and upward their flight; blind and deaf—utterly insensible to all surrounding objects. The object of pursuit is their "all in all;" and every thing must be sacrificed for its attainment. In their view, there is no other object or interest worthy of a moment's consideration in earth, or heaven. Their religion too, is of a peculiar cast. They are frequently very religious in their own way. In their estimation, the very essence of piety, the sum total of all religion consists in the advancement of some one benevolent object. Above, beneath, beyond the attainment of this, there is no religion, no virtue. Every thing must not only be brought into requisition, in order to its attainment; but the end must be attained in their own way, and according to their own notions; or otherwise it might as well be left undone. In nine eases out of ten, though the object of pursuit is a laudable one, yet so ill-judged and injudicious are their plans, that if carried out, they will result in more evil than good. The plainest and most obvious declarations of the Bible, if they contravene their favorite theories or doctrines, are to them unmeaning twaddle; though they are always ready to press the good book into their service, so far as they are able by forced constructions of detached passages, to give plausibility to their own visionary opinions and projects.

[2] I had read but a few pages of Uncle Tom's Cabin, when the following sentences were written. Before I had passed through the work, my opinions underwent a change as to the merit of the work and the designs of the writer in bringing it before the public. The present chapter contains my first reflections on the subject of slavery, after I determined to write on the subject.

It is a dire calamity that this class of writers have taken hold of the subject of slavery. It is a misfortune that slavery should be presented in a fictitious garb. I fear the consequences. It portends no good to the nation. Slavery is among us, it is a solemn reality, and if we expect to get rid of it, we must look it full in the face; see it as it is, and treat it as a matter of fact business. We know that it is an evil—a deplorable evil; but what shall we do with it? The plague is on us—about us—in our midst. Where? Oh! where, shall we find a remedy? The great work is before us; who is competent to the task? Statesmen as wise and patriotic as any the world ever produced, have shrunk from the task, confounded and abashed. Where is Clay! Where is Webster? All that was earthly of them, is no more. Long did they grapple with the monster slavery, and by their wise councils, through many a dark and stormy period, did they safely conduct the ship of State. But they are gone, and shall we now confide the interests of this great nation, to the keeping of a few sickly sentimentalists? No, heaven forbid that we should be led blindfold to ruin! I entreat you, my fellow countrymen, to open your eyes and look around you, and be not deceived. Your all is at stake. Arise in your strength and crush the monster abolitionism, that threatens your blood-bought liberties.

Mrs. Stowe tells us that the object of her book is to awaken sympathy for the African race. If that, and that alone was her object, she probably had better not have written on the subject. Sympathy for the African race is right and proper, provided that it is properly directed; but blindfold sympathy in the North, is not likely to result in any good to the slaves of the South. The kindest and best feelings of the human heart, unless they are directed and controlled by prudence and discretion, frequently result in no good to the possessor, and too often in positive injury to the object of his solicitude. An excess of sympathy some times dethrones the judgment. Sympathy for the slave may prompt us to act in the right direction; but unless judgment and justice illumine our paths, and direct our steps, all our efforts to ameliorate his condition, will prove worse than useless. The slaves of the South are proper objects of our sympathy, and so are their masters, and so is every living and sensitive being in God's creation. Everything that lives and breathes upon the face of the earth, has demands upon our sympathies; and it would be well for us to provide ourselves with a large stock of it; but we should be careful in meting it out, to give every one his due. It is a gross error in the dispensation of our sympathies, to direct our attention solely to some one object, regardless of the wants and rights of others.

In order to accomplish anything for the benefit of the slave, we must have a Southern audience; to them we must speak, and for them we must write. With them we must reason, as brother holding familiar converse with brother. Mrs. Stowe's book is not likely to be generally read in the South; and provided it should be, it can excite no other than feelings of indignation and defiance in Southern minds. Hence the work can result in no good, and may possibly, unless its baneful influence is counteracted, originate much evil.

If we take the institution of slavery in the United States, as a whole, and view it correctly, Uncle Tom's Cabin is a gross misrepresentation. The book has placed the people of this country in a false position; in a ridiculous attitude before the world. There may be some truth in her statements—barely enough to give them plausibility among the thoughtless, inconsiderate and uninformed; and those whose minds are warped by prejudice. Horrid and revolting occurrences, such as are detailed in her book, have sometimes occurred among slaveholders, but they have been rare, and are now more rare than formerly. They are but exceptions to general rules; why then present them to the world under circumstances, and in a style and manner, that will make an impression on the minds of a majority of uninformed readers, that they are every day occurrences; that a large portion, if not a majority of the slaveholders are involved in the charges specified. How does such a procedure, on the part of Mrs. Stowe, comport with the great principles of truth and justice; which should have been her guide while writing on so grave a subject! Wherever man possesses power over his fellow man, throughout the length and breadth of the habitable globe, there are occasional instances of brutality and barbarism, too shocking for recital; and that deeds dark, dolorous and infamous, should sometimes be perpetrated by American slaveholders, is nothing strange. But is it just, is it right, for her to present slaveholders in the United States, en masse, to the whole civilized world, as a set of God-forsaken, heaven-daring, hell-deserving barbarians? That Uncle Tom's Cabin will make this impression on the minds of most of its readers, who are uninformed as to the institution of slavery in this country, is obvious to any one who will carefully read it. I resided in the slave States forty-four years, and can testify that few, comparatively very few, were guilty of separating wives and husbands, parents and children, and that a majority—yes a very large majority of slaves were treated kindly; and generally there existed between slaves and their possessors kind feelings, and strong attachments. It is this attachment of slaves to their masters, that has frequently frustrated the evil designs set on foot by intermeddling, philanthropic cut-throats, alias abolitionists.

Mrs. Stowe will probably learn when it is too late, that she cannot work out the salvation of the slave population by misrepresenting slaveholders,—by exciting sympathy in the North, and by arousing feelings of wrath and defiance in the South. "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." She may inculcate disobedience and open resistance to the laws of her country; but so did not Jesus Christ; so did not St. Paul. Go, woman, to your Bible and learn your duty to your Creator and your fellow creatures, before you write another book. They, (Jesus Christ and St. Paul,) enforced obedience to the ruling authorities, "Render unto Caesar, the things that are Caesars; and let every soul be subject to the higher powers;" is the language of Divine Inspiration. Mrs. Stowe belongs to that faction in the North, long known as the abolition party, and would not scruple to bring about the emancipation of the slaves by any means, regardless of consequences. She would not, I suppose, hesitate to force emancipation on the South, at the point of the bayonet, regardless of the murders, rapines, rapes—the indiscriminate butchery of unoffending women and children—the overthrow of the Union, and the introduction of lasting hates and civil wars, and the ultimate massacre and extinction of the entire African race!! Great God, what atrocious crimes have been perpetrated in the name of liberty!!! She does not, however, openly advocate these extreme measures in her book, but there is, nevertheless, a squinting in that direction in several places. In inculcating resistance to the laws of her country, she is virtually advocating a dissolution of the Union, with all its attendant consequences, results and horrors. For whenever we cease to observe the solemn compact that binds us together, then the Union must necessarily be dissolved, and civil wars, with all its calamities, must follow!! Mrs. Stowe will pardon me if I should perchance, inferentialy saddle on her some things, that will make the vital fluid curdle in her veins; unless she is dead to all those emotions of soul which characterize her sex. As I find her in bad company, I am forced in the absence of better testimony, to judge her from the company in which I find her. The old Spanish proverb is as true as Holy Writ, viz., "Show me the company you keep, and I will tell you who you are." If she chooses to write novels, and bring grave charges against others by insinuation and innuendo, in order to evade the responsibility of defining her position clearly and openly, she will not, I hope, take offense if I define it for her.

Mrs. Stowe asserts that there are no laws in slave States to protect slaves, and to punish the cruel and brutal outrages of masters. That masters can cruelly beat their slaves, and also murder them with impunity! This is untrue—nothing could be more false. In the eye of the law, there is no difference between the man that murders his slave, and the man that murders his neighbor; and the laws not only punish men for cruel and unnecessary punishment inflicted on slaves, but there are penal statutes against the unnecessary and barbarous abuse and destruction of horses, and other species of property. She may tell us that the penal statutes, so far as slaves are concerned, are a dead letter; that they are inoperative; that they have no force or effect whatever. This also, I know to be untrue, from personal observation. I admit that slaveholders often evade the punishment due their crimes, and so do men everywhere. The crimes of men of wealth and influence too often go unpunished, not only in the slave States, but wherever the foot of man has trodden the soil. All will admit, that as a general rule, so far as free men are concerned, the laws are based on principles of justice and equality, and yet, the wealthy, the influential and the powerful, in many instances, find but little difficulty in evading the law, and perverting justice whenever they come in contact with the indigent and ignorant. From a superiority of knowledge, wealth and station, men derive advantages in legal transactions as well as in everything else. It is but one of the misfortunes incident to poverty and ignorance.

Much has been said, and much has been written about the harsh and cruel treatment of Southern slaves; but there is a vast deal of error and misconception among those unacquainted with the facts, and too much misrepresentation among those, who are, or ought to be better informed. The Southern slave is not amenable to the civil laws for his conduct, except in a qualified sense, and under certain circumstances. He is accountable to his master, and his master is amenable to the civil laws. If suit is instituted for damages, in consequence of depredations committed by a slave, it is brought against the master, and not against the slave. Hence, when a slave is guilty of a misdemeanor, the authority to punish is vested in the master, and not in the legal authorities. I do not pretend to say, that this is the exact letter of the law, but this I know, by common consent, is the practice in the South. The right to punish being vested in the master, he inflicts the punishment in his own way, and to some extent, at his own discretion. The master is judge, juror, and executioner. Whipping is the ordinary punishment inflicted on slaves for crime. Whether it is the punishment most likely to deter them from the commission of it, I know not; but I think it is probable, that under the circumstances, they can find no punishment better adapted to the proposed object. Be it as it may; custom has decided that it shall be the punishment of the slave. Theft is the most common crime among slaves, and for this they are whipped by their masters, and no further notice is taken of the crime. A slave is simply whipped for an offense, which would imprison a white man for several months, and then confine him in the State penitentiary for several years. The master may, if he chooses, surrender the offending slave to the legal authorities; but supposing that he does, the punishment is the same; he is simply whipped and sent back to his master. The crime may be theft, destruction of property, assault and battery; it matters but little what, if we except murder, rape and arson, the punishment is whipping; whether inflicted by the master or the legal authorities. Thus, we see, that the punishment of slaves is much more lenient, than the punishment of free white men for similar crimes. Hence, slaves escape punishment under circumstances, and for crimes, for which white men would be severely punished. Slaves are viewed, for certain reasons, to some extent, as irresponsible beings. "Oh! he is a poor negro, and knows no better," is an expression common in the South. The crimes of free negroes in the slave States, unless they are of the most flagrant kind, are seldom punished. I have known repeated instances, where stolen goods were found in their possession, and they were suffered to escape unpunished; no one appearing willing to enforce the law against them. On the contrary, their crimes were winked at and tolerated, for the reason that they were considered a poor, unfortunate, depraved and ignorant class.

Transportation of slaves from Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, to the extreme Southern States, as a punishment for crime, is not an unfrequent occurrence. I believe that in most cases, where families have been separated, it has been in consequence of vile conduct on the part of slaves. Much of the selling of negroes to traders—the parting of wives and husbands, parents and children, which we hear and read of in Northern publications, had its origin in crime on the part of the slaves. They are frequently transported for crimes which would hang a white man; or otherwise confine him in the penitentiary for a series of years, or for life time. Negroes are frequently whipped and then transported to the extreme Southern States for murder; and that too, under circumstances, where the crime is one of a very aggravated character; for premeditated murder—murder committed with malice prepense. But in the eyes of abolitionists, it is dreadful to whip a slave for so small an offense; and yet they would stand by, and with exquisite pleasure see a white man hanged for the same crime. Kind souls! what a pity that white men could not come in for a share of their sympathies; but they have none for them; it is all for the woolly heads. But really, I should like to know what becomes of their sympathies, when some poor free negro is taken sick in their midst, and starves, and dies, and rots in his filth! Ah! don't touch my purse. No, by no means! We all know that it won't do to touch your purses. Your sympathies never leak out in that way. You are too shrewd for that. Fie! Fie! it is all wind, and it costs you but little to blow it out.

Slaveholders are called murderers, because in a few rare instances, a slave may have been worked to death; and they denounced as cruel and oppressive task-masters, because probably one in five hundred, under peculiar circumstances, may have been guilty of cruelty to his slaves. The same thing occurs everywhere, the world over. And it occurs as frequently in Yankeedom, the hot-bed of abolitionism, infidelity, and wooden nutmegs, as anywhere else, There are more white men and white women worked to death in the North, than there are slaves worked to death in the South. Oh! but, says an objector, those white people are free. Nobody forces them to work beyond their capabilities of endurance. The objection is without foundation, for indigence and liberty, never resided together in the same hovel or hut. Hunger and cold are hard masters, far worse than Southern slaveholders; and the penurious Yankee who inadequately pays the laborer, and thus suffers him to starve or freeze to death, is morally as bad as the man who whips his slave to death. If the latter is a murderer, so is the former. The generality of slaves are better paid for their labor, than the poorer classes of people North or South. They at least receive more in return for their labor. They are better fed, better clothed, and better housed. Most of them are happy and well provided for. Their appearance, their health, cheerfulness and fondness for music, give the lie to Northern representations. Masters are responsible for the maintenance of their slaves under all circumstances; in infancy and old age, in sickness as well as in health. But as soon, as Northern white slaves become incapacitated for labor, they are suffered to lie down in their filth and starve and die. Where then, are their lords and masters, who have grown wealthy from the proceeds of their labor?

Mrs. Stowe may write about slavery to her heart's content; but has she, or any one else, pointed out to us, any fair, open, practicable system of emancipation? No, they have not, and until that is done, they should be a little more modest in their denunciations of slaveholders. Suppose the South should manumit their slaves, will the North receive and educate them? No, by no means; and however ignorant Mrs. Stowe may be in relation to Southern slavery, she must be well aware of the universal prejudice in the North against free negroes. A very large majority of the blacks in the North, are in an impoverished and degraded condition; and there is no sympathy with them, or for them, among Northern men. Northern prejudice is much stronger than Southern prejudice, against these unfortunate creatures.

The whites cannot, and will not make equals of them any where. They are at the bottom of the social ladder, and there they must and will remain, so long as they are among the whites. They can never enjoy the blessings of freedom in the United States. The liberty of the free blacks is but nominal; they have no more rights and fewer comforts, as free men, (so called), than they have as slaves in the South. White freedom is one thing, and colored freedom is another. Most of the Northern states treat the African worse now, than they did a half century ago! They are in the North virtually slaves, without masters. The half starved, ill-clad free negro will soon have no foot hold in the North; for Irish and German laborers will supersede them; or otherwise Northern men will legislate them out of the free states. Pennsylvania has already taken from them the privilege of voting, and Indiana and Illinois will not suffer them to enter their borders; and I judge from present indications, that Ohio will soon follow the example of her younger sisters; and moreover, I venture to predict, that in less than twenty years from the present time; a free negro will not be suffered to enter a free state in this Union. This prejudice never can be removed. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" If he could, then might we have hope; till then, there is none for the poor African while he remains in the midst of the Anglo-Saxon race. Behold the negro quarters about the larger cities in the North; think of the riots and burning of African churches, &c., that have occurred within the last dozen years, and tell me, where is the hope of the African! Not in the United States. The African race in the United States, are not yet prepared for emancipation; they must first be educated; otherwise there is danger that they will sink into their original barbarism. England emancipated the West India slaves, and Lord Brougham tells us, that they are rapidly declining into barbarism.



CHAPTER II.

It is no part of my design to offer apologies for, or by any means to conceal the faults of Southern slaveholders. But the reading of Uncle Tom's Cabin, has indelibly fixed the impression on my mind that Mrs. Stowe's narrative is false. The question is, whether such, or similar occurrences, are common among Southern slaveholders. If they had been rare, she had no right to make the impression on the whole civilized world, that they are every-day occurrences. Nor had she any right unless she had been an eye witness of the leading facts detailed in her story, to publish a book which presents her country in such an ignoble attitude before the world; she had no right to base such calumnious charges on heresay, rumor, or common report. I shall proceed to show that her tale is improbable, and that it is likely that no such transactions as are detailed in her story, ever have transpired among Southern slaveholders.

It is doubtful whether one hundreth part of what hag been published in abolition papers, during the last fifty years, in regard to Southern slavery, is true; and those who have received their impressions of African slavery in the South, from that source, are utterly incapable of expressing correct opinions on the subject. It was never the intention of abolition writers, to publish the truth on any subject, having reference to the Southern section of the United States. Their object was to make false impressions on the minds of Northern men, and thereby to originate and sustain a party, from whom, they expected to derive certain benefits. They worked for pay. Many years ago, I stepped into a court-house, in a small town in Tennessee, and immediately after I had seated myself, a lawyer arose, and made a very vehement speech in favor of some scape-gallows who was arraigned before the court. After he had taken his seat, another gentleman of the bar arose, and replied to him. The two gentlemen alternately speechified the judge and jury for several hours; after which the judge passed sentence on the culprit, and the two lawyers left the court-house. As they passed on in the direction of their residences, I overheard one remark to the other, "in the name of ——, how can a man stand up before the court, and lie as you did to-day." "Oh!" said the gentleman in reply, "I was well paid, I received a large fee, and could afford to lie." Some of the abolition editors, I presume, are well paid for their services. But to return to Uncle Tom's Cabin. No other mental culture is necessary, in order to qualify an individual to write such a book as Uncle Tom's Cabin, except the reading of novels and abolition papers. Mrs. Stowe, I have no doubt, is well read in both. And she has performed her task in a manner that has excited the wonder, and elicited the admiration and applause of millions! Volumes of eulogiums have been lavished upon her! She is now the wonder and admiration of America, and a goddess in England; and woe to him who refuses to do her homage! This rare production bids fair to supplant the Bible in Sabbath Schools in some parts of our country! What next? This is an age of wonders and humbugs. For aught we know, Jo. Smith's Bible, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the spiritual rappers, may yet revolutionize our world. It is, however, difficult to tell, what is in the womb of the future; for many new wonders and marvelous revelations may yet spring up in the land of Yankeedom! Nothing is too hard for them. The word impossible, has no place in their vocabulary.

Having remarked, that I considered the narrative of Mrs. Stowe untrue; it now devolves on me to show the improbability of some of her statements. An old negro man, whom she calls Uncle Tom, is the hero of her tale. Uncle Tom was the servant of a gentlemen, by name Shelby, who resided in Kentucky. She represents this old negro, Uncle Tom, as a very remarkable character. She tells us that Tom was pious and honest; not simply so, indulgent reader, in the ordinary acceptation of these terms, but that he was really and truly a God-fearing man—a man of unimpeachable veracity, strict honesty, and ardent piety; above suspicion—above crime—a perfect man—a man of almost angelic purity. We, moreover, learn from her narrative, that good old Tom, (God bless his soul and preserve his dust), was a kind of overseer on Shelby's farm; that to him was committed the oversight and supervision, of whatever pertained to Shelby's farming operations and interests. And as a proof of Shelby's implicit confidence in him, she states, that he sent Tom alone at one time, to Cincinnati on business, and that he returned home with five hundred dollars in his pocket. Tom, according to her account, was a great favorite, not only with his master, but also with his mistress and the entire family. Shelby's son George was devotedly attached to him.

We learn also from the narrative, that Tom was an old man, not less than forty-five, and probably fifty years of age. She tells us that Shelby had a son, by name George, who was thirteen years of age; and that Tom was seven years older than his master Shelby. Supposing that Shelby was twenty-five years of age when his son George was born; and that George was thirteen years of age, and that Tom was seven years older than his master, it stands thus: seven added to twenty-five make thirty-two, and thirteen added to thirty-two, make forty-five. But supposing that Shelby was thirty, when George was born, the result would be fifty.

From the narrative, we infer, that Shelby was in possession of many slaves; for Mrs. Stowe speaks of a dozen black children perched on the veranda railings at one time; and it is not presumable, that all the little boys and girls in his possession, would happen to be perched on the veranda railings at the same time; and these children must have had fathers and mothers, and many of them of course, brothers and sisters, who were men and women. She also tells us, that there were various negro cabins on the place; each cabin must have contained one family of negroes at least, if not more. She speaks of a couple of negro men who went with Haley, the trader, in search of Eliza and her child.

The labor on Shelby's farm was performed by slaves, and it is a fair supposition, that there were from fifty to seventy-five slaves on the farm. This is common through the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, and farther South it is no uncommon occurrence, to find from one hundred to five hundred slaves on the same farm, or otherwise in the possession of the same man.

Hence, we learn that Tom was an old man; that he nursed Shelby when an infant; that he was a trusty servant; that he had charge of everything about the place; that he was a pious man, and that Shelby entertained for him the kindest feelings; and that Mrs. Shelby was warmly attached to him; and that their son George's attachment to the good old servant knew no bounds; and that he was the husband of Aunt Chloe, the old cook; who, (by the by,) is always a great favorite in a Southern family. But strange as it may appear to those who have never read Uncle Tom's Cabin, Mrs. Stowe tells us, notwithstanding, that Shelby sold good old Tom to a negro trader; and that he was again sold to a gentleman in New Orleans, and that after the death of this gentleman, he was purchased by an inhumane wretch by the name of Legree.

This man Shelby, nevertheless, according to her tale, was a very gentlemanly, humane man. I suppose that she would have us to understand, that he was altogether a pretty fair character for the South.

I believe the statements of Mrs. Stowe to be untrue, for the following reasons. First, because Shelby had a number of slaves from whom he could select; and I know from personal observation, that it is a universal practice among slaveholders to sell their most worthless and vicious slaves to negro traders. If they are forced to sell such a negro as she represents Tom to be, some neighbor who is acquainted with the slave, will give a higher price for him than a negro trader will. A negro trader will give as much for a negro who is a rogue, as he will for one who is an honest man. The negro trader pays no attention to the character of a negro; for the very good reason that the character of the negro is unknown to those to whom he expects to sell. No representation or recommendation whatever, can have any influence with those to whom they sell. They know nothing about the character of the negroes whom they purchase, and they have no reliable means of learning anything about them. Tom was purchased in Kentucky and sold in New Orleans. Therefore, Haley, the negro trader, would not have given one dime more for Tom on account of his good qualities. But Mrs. Stowe tells us, that Shelby was indebted to Haley, and that he preferred to purchase Tom on account of his good qualities; and that Shelby expected a high price from him on that account. Haley would have given several hundred dollars more for a man who was about twenty-five years of age, than he would have given for poor old Tom; though the young man might have been as vile a rogue, as ever went unhung. No man of common sense can fail for one moment, to discover the truth and justness of the above reasoning. Thus we see that falsehood is indelibly stamped on Mrs. Stowe's narrative at the very outset. What is it that enhances the value of negroes in the estimation of the negro trader? And what is it that recommends them, or enhances their value in market? First, the age of the slave is taken into consideration. Nobody will give as much for an old negro as he will for a young one in the prime of life. Tom was an old man, and Shelby had in his possession a number of young negroes. These facts alone stamp falsehood on the face of Mrs. Stowe's tale. Secondly, the physical force or power of the negro, and his apparent health, are taken into consideration. The purchaser, if he knows nothing about the qualities of negroes, will give the highest price for those (judging from appearances) that can perform the most labor. Now, is it reasonable to suppose, that a purchaser would have given as much for poor old Tom, as he would have given for a negro who was twenty-five or thirty years of age? There are from twenty to twenty-five years difference in the ages of the negroes, and there is a proportionate difference in their values. Reader, what do you suppose is the value of twenty years' labor in dollars and cents? Well, whatever it is, poor old Tom was precisely that amount less valuable, than many other negroes in the possession of Shelby; and yet Mrs. Stowe tells us that Shelby sold Tom, because he could get a higher price for him than any other negro in his possession. Why? Because of his good qualities. I have clearly and indisputably shown that Tom's good qualities did not enhance his value one cent with Haley. And at the same time, Tom was worth more to Shelby than any half dozen negroes on the farm. How absurd! Was a more barefaced, palpable, glaring and malicious falsehood ever fabricated? I am sorry that justice to my countrymen, my friends and my relatives, requires at my hands, an expose of this low, scurrilous production, entitled "Uncle Tom's Cabin." This is a fair sample of abolitionism. But I am not done with Uncle Tom. Mrs. Stowe tells us that he was a great favorite with Mrs. Shelby, and Shelby knew of course that it would almost break his wife's heart, and that young master George would almost go beside himself; yet he sells poor old Tom to this infamous negro trader, notwithstanding! Ah! "murder will out," and falsehood will out, likewise. The statements of Mrs. Stowe are inconsistent; they are sheer fabrications: the figments of a diseased brain.

I will again remark, that strictly honest, upright negroes, those remarkable for their good qualities, and those who are withal, negroes of more than ordinary value, are never sold to negro traders. The statement that Shelby was guilty of such an act, under the circumstances, as detailed in the preceding pages, is too absurd, too futile, too foolish to deceive or mislead any one who knows anything about the institution of slavery in the South; or the customs, habits, or manners of slaveholders. The work, however, was prepared for those whoso minds were warped by prejudice, whose judgments were beclouded and perverted by sectional hatred and bigotry, and whose imaginations were bewildered and distempered by the reading of abolition publications and novels. To such it has proved a treat, yea, they have read it with avidity and delight.

Mrs. Stowe, presuming on the gullibility of her readers, has made other statements that I will notice. The wife of this very kind-hearted, humane and gentlemanly man, Shelby, had a maid-servant, by name Eliza; and Eliza had an only child; a very remarkable boy indeed! probably about five or six years of age; if there is any truth in her tale. Eliza was a delicate bright mulatto girl; a great favorite with her mistress; and her child of course a great favorite with the entire family. But, as if determined to break his wife's heart, Shelby sells Eliza's child also, to the negro trader, Haley. Here is another, to say the least of it, very improbable statement. If Shelby was the man that she represents him, he would have sold the entire dozen woolly heads that were perched on the veranda railings, on the morning after the transaction, before he would have sold the only child of his wife's maid-servant. The estimation in which maid-servants and their children are held by Southern ladies, is probably unknown to most of my Northern readers. Unless driven to it by dire necessity, a Southern gentleman would almost as soon part with his own children, as with his wife's maid-servant, or her children, except for crime. Eliza is represented by Mrs. Stowe as all perfection and beauty, and her darling boy as a little angel. Maid-servants occupy a position in Southern families far above that of any other class of servants; but little below the white members of the family. I resided forty-four years in the Southern States, and it is with pride that I record the fact, that a Southern gentleman would dispose of anything—everything—carriages, horses, stocks, tenements and lands, before he would dispose of such servants as Uncle Tom, and his wife's maid-servant's child, and thereby break his wife's heart. No! far be it from Southern men; their wives are their all; and far be it from them, to say or do aught in opposition to the will of their wives, anything that will deeply mortify or afflict them. A man would be hooted from genteel society in the Southern States, for such an ignoble act. Whatever the faults of Southern men may be, they feel themselves bound to treat their wives with consideration, respect and kindness. But I must return to Eliza and her boy. Eliza, overhearing the conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, on the night after the interview between Shelby and Haley, she cautiously and quietly takes her boy out of the bed, and elopes. She hastens with all possible speed to the State of Ohio. Haley returns to Shelby's on the succeeding morning for the purpose of taking possession of Tom, and Eliza's child; but Eliza having decamped with the child, he and a couple of Shelby's negro men go in pursuit of her. They overtook her at the river; and Mrs. Stowe tells us, that she fled precipitately across the river on floating fragments of ice, with her boy in her arms! She tells us, that the ice was floating, and that a boat was expected to pass over the river that night. Was ever a more glaring falsehood penned. As well might she have told us, that Eliza walked over the river on the water, with a boy who was probably five or six years of age, in her arms! How inconsistent! How foolish! How superlatively ridiculous are such tales!! It is enough; I need not wade through the entire work, in order to show the falsity of Mrs. Stowe's tale.

She has calumniated her countrymen, and the slander has gone with electric speed on the pinions of the press, to the ends of the earth. Her country lies bleeding at her feet; its institutions totter. But ah! if she can but luxuriate in her ill-gotten gains, but little does she care what becomes of her country. She, truly, has been well paid for her services. She has received a "large fee," and all this was done under the pretense of serving the cause of liberty! Yes, truly, she is serving the cause of liberty with a vengeance. Had all the despots of earth leagued themselves together, for the purpose of crushing civil liberty, they could not have given it such a shock, as has been done by the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Well may the friends of republican institutions bow their heads with shame and regret. The moral influence of the great American republic is destroyed. The friends of liberty throughout the world, mourn the disaster.

Mrs. Stowe is the modern Eve. Old mother Eve said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Mrs. Stowe may say, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did write." Yes, she did write. The daughter of a clergyman and the wife of a clergyman did write a novel; and other clergymen seem to think it a fit substitute for the Bible in Sabbath schools; and ere long, other clergymen will, I have no doubt, read their text from it in the pulpit. God preserve the world, from clerical knaves and fools. Of all the curses, that ever were permitted by Almighty God to fall on wicked and deluded nations, there are none so much to be dreaded, as corrupt, bigoted, fanatical clergymen. A clergyman—a minister of God—a minister of the gospel of peace and glad tidings to all—who with his eyes open, will countenance, aid, or abet, any thing that destroys the peace and harmony of this nation, or that threatens to result in disunion and civil war, ought to be hurled forty leagues deep into perdition.

I entreat you my fellow citizens, to open your eyes and look around you! Behold hydra-headed infidelity stalking over New England, in clerical robes. Behold others, who have so far lost sight of their calling, and the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that they are opposing the execution of the laws of our common country! Sowing dissentions and exciting feelings of envy, jealousy and hatred among our citizens. Be not deceived by their clerical robes and assumed sanctity; it is all lighter than a feather in the balance. My friends, there is danger ahead. Beware lest you be led blindfold to ruin by canting hypocrites. These are the men that endanger our liberties. Stand aloof, give no support to religious bigotry and fanaticism. I call on you as Christians, as patriots, "to touch not, taste not, handle not the unclean thing."

Pardon me, my countrymen; I am an American citizen, and as such, I speak and write. I know that I shall incur the displeasure of many by the expression of such sentiments as the above; but shall the fear of man deter me from warning you of your danger? No! heaven forbid! My country is my pride; my country is my boast; my country is my all; and woe to him, that would dissolve this glorious and heaven favored Union, and stain her fair fields with the blood of her own citizens. He that rebels against the laws of his country, or bids defiance to the solemn compact which binds together these States, is a traitor to his country—a traitor to his God. He that would destroy the Constitution, which was framed by our revolutionary sires, let him be accursed of God, and driven forth from the habitations of civilized man. Let every Christian—every friend of our beloved country, respond, a hearty Amen.

Mrs. Stowe has slandered her countrymen; hence, the great popularity of her book! We listen with pleasure to a recital, of the vices of our neighbors; we roll it as a sweet morsel under our tongues; but oh! I don't tell us anything about their virtues; we don't want to hear them spoken of! Friend, speak evil only of your neighbors, or else, be silent! We don't wish to hear you speak well of any one. We have no taste for eulogy, but give us slander, by wholesale and retail, and we will gulph it down!

This is a dark picture of the human heart, but I believe a tolerably correct one!



CHAPTER III.

Having in the preceding chapter dismissed Mrs. Stowe's narrative; I shall in the following pages, confine my remarks, so far as they refer to "Uncle Tom's Cabin," to its evident design and manifest tendency.

It was about thirty-five years ago, that the great abolition excitement broke out in the North. The subject of course, was agitated previous to that time, but there must have been then, some additional, or new excitement, for it was at that memorable period, that the South took the alarm. Previous to that period, as far back as I can recollect, the subject of slavery was freely discussed in the Southern States, by clergymen and politicians in public; and it was withal, a common topic of conversation in the social circle. Throughout the slave states, at that time, the necessity of enlightening the minds, and ameliorating the conditions of the slaves was generally seen, felt, and acknowledged. It was then enforced on church members as a duty, by ministers of all denominations; and the ministers of the Gospel rebuked, (sometimes with great severity), harshness, cruelty, or unkindness to slaves.

A spirit of emancipation was then common among slaveholders; many slaves were set at liberty, and Christians, and philanthropists, were anxiously looking forward to a period of universal emancipation. A gentleman, by name Benjamin Lundy, published at that time an anti-slavery paper in Greenville, East Tennessee; which paper had an extensive circulation. About that time, I gathered up my anti-slavery juvenile doggerel, corrected it, as well as I could,—selected poems from Cowper and others, on the subject; forwarded the manuscript to the aforesaid B. Lundy, and the result was, a little volume of anti-slavery poems. But the abolition excitement broke out in the North, and the South took the alarm. The mouths of clergymen were closed in the pulpit; for it was deemed inadvisable, in consequence of Northern interference, to discuss the subject of slavery in the pulpit, social circle, or under any circumstances, whatever. It was thus, we see, through the intermeddling of Northern abolitionists, that discussion was cut off in the South. Rigid laws were then enacted by the state Legislatures, for the suppression of public discussion; and there were also enactments which threw obstacles in the way of emancipation; and thus, the fetters of slavery have been drawn tighter, and tighter, from that day, to the present time.

A short time after the excitement commenced in the South, a committee of panic-stricken citizens called on Mr. Lundy, after expressing for him personally the highest regard, they politely requested him to discontinue his paper; expressing the opinion, at the time, that its publication was no longer consistent with public safety. Mr. Lundy complied with their request, and it was rumored, whether true or false, I know not, that he remarked, that it was a great pity that the Yankees could not mind their own business. Mr. Lundy, I believe, was a Yankee himself, but was said to be a gentlemanly, humane man. Some are no doubt ready to ask, Why was it, that the abolition excitement in the North, produced such a panic in the South? It was the revolting and shocking doctrines, which they openly promulgated. It was their notorious disregard of the laws of God and man, and all those ties which bind us together as one great nation; their denial of the right of the South to hold slave property, notwithstanding that right had been guaranteed to them by the Federal Constitution; their advocacy of the right of the slave to arise in the night and cut his master's throat; or, else, burn his house over his head; their advocacy of the right of the North to force emancipation on the South, at the point of the bayonet, &c.

It was these monstrous doctrines and assumptions, which were then, and are to the present day, avowed and defended by abolition orators, that alarmed the Southern people. It was not long before Northern abolitionists were detected in circulating through the South, exciting and incendiary publications, on the subject of slavery, and in some instances, intermeddling with slaves, and trying to incite insurrections among them. These things inflamed the public mind more and more in the South. Legislatures met, and enacted laws still more stringent for the punishment of such offenders; for the suppression of public discussion; and they, withal, threw so many restrictions around those who held slaves that in most of the states, emancipation became exceedingly difficult, and in some of them, absolutely impracticable. These are historical facts, and they are worth more than a volume of any man's speculations on the subject of slavery. They speak for themselves, and require but little comment from me. Who was it that crushed in embryo, the reform which was in progress thirty-five years ago? It was the abolitionists, and every one is aware of it, who is informed on the subject; and intelligent men among the abolitionists know it, as well as any one else. The officious inter-meddling of abolitionists with Southern slavery, never has, and never can effect anything for the slave; it has served but to retard emancipation, and to rivet the chains of slavery. This opinion has been expressed a thousand times, by the wisest and best men, that our nation has ever produced—men, who enjoyed the best opportunities for forming correct opinions on the subject. Henry Clay said, in a letter, written in 1845, "I firmly believe that the cause of the extinction of negro slavery, far from being advanced, has been retarded by the agitation of the subject at the North."

I believe slavery to be an individual and a national evil—a dire calamity—and would rejoice to see it extinguished by any means compatible with the safety, peace and prosperity of the nation, the best interests of master and slave; and in the fear of God Almighty, before whose bar I know that I must shortly appear, I sincerely, firmly and solemnly believe, that if the free states had stood aloof, and left the discussion and disposition of it entirely to the slave states, several states which are now slave states, and are likely to remain so, would have long since made provisions for the emancipation of their slaves. And I moreover believe, that if the North would now desist from all interference with it, the evil would be eradicated from the United States, some hundreds of years sooner than it will be, provided she persists in her present course. This is a legitimate conclusion from the foregoing historical facts. Abolitionists can do nothing, and men of intelligence well know it, that will mitigate the evils of slavery, or eradicate it from the South. It is entirely beyond their reach, they cannot control it; and if the object of intelligent men in the North was the abolition of slavery, they would cease to agitate the subject. But that is not their object. I allude to the leaders of that party—the politicians, and not the common people, for they are sincere. What then is their object? It is to produce a dissolution of the Union; a separation of the Northern and Southern sections of the United States, civil war, blood-shed, the sacking and burning of cities, devastations, brother imbruing his hands in the blood of brother, the father shedding the blood of his son, and the son that of the father! Yea, and ten thousand other evils and calamities, of which they, themselves, have never dreamed. Is this abolitionism? Great God! what a picture—and the half has not been told! From whence did it spring? "By whom begot?" It is an offspring of New England infidelity. It was born in fanaticism, and nurtured in violence and disorder. It opposes and violates the commands of God, and is full of strife and pride. Its course is unchristian, impolitic and hypocritical; it is alike hostile to religion and republicanism; it rejects the Bible and the constitution of our country, and under the pretense of higher law, it abrogates all law! This is abolitionism, but all is not yet told. Be patient, reader, and perhaps before I bring this essay to a close, I shall succeed in disclosing its anti-christian and anti-republican tendencies; its seditious spirit; its self will, pride and contumacy; its duplicity and hypocrisy; its cruelties, horrors and woes.

Should they succeed in dissolving the Union, what would they accomplish thereby? Would they by dissolving the Union emancipate a solitary slave in the South? No, not one. The South would then set up for itself, and the North for itself.

We would then have a Southern confederacy, and a Northern confederacy; each separate and independent of the other. The North would then have no more control or influence over the South; nor yet the South over the North, than England has over America, or America over England. But what has now become of the institution of slavery in the South? There it is, just as it was, before the dissolution of the Union was accomplished. And the Northern portion of the Union has lost all her control—all her influence over the South; which influence, she might have exerted for the benefit of the slave, if the Union had not been dissolved, and her course towards the South had been kind, conciliatory and pacific. It is all very plain—so clear, that it requires but a little common sense to comprehend the whole matter. It is clear then—clear as the noon-day sun, that the object of the leaders of the abolition party is not the abolition of slavery. Office, is the god they worship. Elevation to office, and self aggrandizement, is their ultimate object. If they can strengthen their party, and agitate the subject of slavery, until they bring about a dissolution of the Union, then Hale will be president of the Northern confederacy, Julian, vice-president, and Giddings, I suppose, prime minister. Would not Joshua cut a sorry figure, in that high and responsible office! Prince John, I suppose, would be attorney general. The little magician, John's daddy, would be thrown overboard, for no party, I think, will ever trust him again.

But only once let them get snugly fixed in their fat offices, and we shall then hear nothing more about Southern slavery from them, for the very good reason, that they care nothing about it. They have tried various expedients, and fallen upon various plans, in order to accomplish their diabolical purposes, but they have made the discovery, that either the whig, or the democratic party must be dissolved—annihilated; before they can possibly succeed. They base this conclusion on the supposition, that the fragments of the demolished party will unite with them. Well, one of the two great parties must be dissolved; but the democratic party being strong, and well organized, it was vain for them to expect aid from that quarter; but, it was otherwise with the whig party; and from this source they had reason to hope for aid. Hence, they labored hard in the recent presidential canvass, to defeat the whig nominee; believing that it was at least probable, that if General Scott was defeated, the whig party would in that event dissolve, and a large majority of the voters belonging to that party would fall into their ranks. If the whig party should hang together, and God grant they may, if for no other reason, to avert a calamity so awful, then are they again destined to meet with defeat and discomfiture, as heretofore. It is true that the whig party may not have entire confidence in their rivals, the democratic party; they may doubt the propriety of some of the measures advocated by them—the purity of the motives of some of their leaders. They may raise many objections to the democratic party, but I assure you, my whig friends, that there is more patriotism in Col. Benton's or Gen. Cass's little finger, as well as some others of the same party, whom I could name, than there is in every abolition politician on this continent. If you must leave your own party, I pray you go over to the democratic ranks, or else, stand neutral; but for God's sake, and for the sake of our common country, never be found in the abolition ranks. Keep clear of them—stand aloof—come not near them—have nothing to do with them. I am not advising the whig party to disband; on the contrary, I believe that the interests of the country will be subserved by their hanging together as a band of brothers. It is only on the supposition, that you must and will bolt, that I give you this advice.

The formation and organization of parties must and will take place, in all governments; and under these circumstances, it becomes our duty to guard against those moral and political evils, which are generated or brought about by selfish or corrupt partisans. I think it probable, that the present organization of parties into whig and democratic, is the best and safest that we could have; and for this reason, I have no wish to see either party dissolved. I am well aware, that when party prejudices and prepossessions are carried to excess, a vast deal of evil may grow out of them; but keep party spirit within clue bounds, and parties exert a salutary influence on government.

It is true, that such men as Hale, Julian and Giddings, would be likely to receive office from the hands of any party to which they might choose to attach themselves; but it is not less true, that ambitious men are rarely satisfied, unless there is a prospect of their reaching the pinnacle of fame. Elect such men to a State legislature, and they fix their eyes on the lower house of Congress, elect them to the lower house of Congress, and they fix their eyes on the United States Senate; elect them to the upper house of Congress, and they fix their eyes on the presidency; elect them to the presidency, and they are not yet satisfied—yea, they would then dethrone the Eternal, if possible.

I will close my remarks for the present on abolitionism, with a summary of my leading objections to it. I am opposed to it, because it proposes to abolish slavery by any means, and at any cost, be the consequences what they may. Because it would abolish slavery at any cost, and at any hazard; though it plunges us into a thousand evils, infinitely worse than African slavery.

I am opposed to the abolitionists, because they trample under foot the Constitution and laws of their country. The following sentiment is found in a report, offered to an abolition convention, recently in session, in Boston: "Anti-slavery shall sweep over the ruins of the Constitution and the Union, when a fairer edifice, than our lathers knew how to build, shall rise."

I am opposed to them, because they have in some instances made attempts to foment insurrections, and to incite the slaves to indiscriminate murder and rapine.

I am opposed to them, because they have decoyed away slaves from their masters, and have at the same time encouraged slaves to steal from their masters and others.

I am opposed to them, because of their utter and notorious disregard of truth, in their representations of Southern slavery.

I am opposed to them, because they reject the Bible, and profess to be under the guidance of a higher law. I was at a loss for some time to know from what source they derived their higher law; but looking over a Cincinnati paper a few days since, I read as follows: "The infidels celebrated the birth-day of Thomas Paine on the night," &c. A gentleman remarked, "that it was through the spread of Paine's opinions, that he expected to see the colored race elevated, and through this instrumentality alone." Vain hope!

I am opposed to them, because their plans, so far from bringing about the abolition of slavery, will but rivet the chains on the slave, and bring disaster on both master and slave. Because it strews the paths of both master and slave with difficulties and dangers. Because their interference makes slaves more impertinent and unhappy, frequently subjecting them to harsh and cruel treatment.

I am opposed to their theories and views, because they are illogical, and because so far as there is any truth in them, it is abstract truth, and not real truth, as modified by circumstances. Because they refuse to view things as they are, but rather as they should be, and are utterly reckless as to results and consequences.

And finally, I am opposed to them, because there is no fairness, justice, truth, or righteousness in them. The following is from the Detroit Free Press; and I shall give it without comment. It is headed "THE MORALITY OF NEGRO-STEALING."

"A novice might suppose, in witnessing the chuckle of satisfaction that has been noticeable among a certain class of people hereabouts within a few days back, that stealing is a virtue, and that the receiver of stolen goods is, par excellence, a model Christian. And even a man of some experience in the world might doubt the morality of the precept "to do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you," in view of the effrontery and impudence of those who regard negro stealing as a Christian duty.

"A paper in this city, which professes that the free soil party do not aim to attack the institution of slavery in those states where it exists, unblushingly published a few days since the proceedings of a meeting of free negroes, held on the occasion of the arrival here of a quantity of runaway negroes from some of the Southern States. We say, unblushingly, because more than usual prominence was given to the proceedings in its columns.

"Now, there is no difference, under the Constitution and laws, between stealing negroes from Kentucky and stealing horses from Kentucky. The Constitution of the United States and the laws of Kentucky hold one not less criminal than the other; and a paper in this city would be just precisely as justifiable in publishing the proceedings of a horse stealing society as the proceedings of a negro stealing society. There is not less guilt involved in the one than the other.

"For our own part we are disposed to call things by their right names. We believe that he who would be guilty of aiding and abetting the escape of a negro from his master, would not hesitate to steal any other property if he could do it with equal safety to himself. The fact that slaveholding is a sin does not change the nature of the offense, because the Bible doctrine of submission to the powers that be, is a plain and unequivocal duty. Negro stealing is as much a violation of the law of God as of the law of a Southern State.

"But we have not much faith in the Christianity of those abolitionists who steal negroes. And the receiver of stolen goods is equally guilty with the thief. Tom Corwin was not far out of the way (and it must be conceded that Mr. Corwin has had abundant opportunities to know) when he declared that 'they (the abolitionists) are a whining, canting, praying set of fellows who keep regular books of debit and credit with the Almighty.' 'They will,' he says, 'lie and cheat all the week, and pray off their sins on Sunday. If they steal a negro, that makes a very large entry to their credit, and will cover a multitude of peccadilloes and frauds. This kind of entry they are always glad to make, because it costs them nothing.' 'But,' adds Mr. Corwin, and this is the severest cut of all, 'when they cannot steal a negro they give something in charity for the extension of the gospel, and then commence a system of fraud and cheating, till they think they have balanced accounts with their God.' For once we believe Mr. Corwin has told the truth."



CHAPTER IV.

Would the condition of the slaves be ameliorated by emancipation, under existing circumstances; supposing they continue, either in the slave, or free States? This is a grave question, and so far as I am capable, I shall endeavor to give it a candid and impartial answer. Having resided both in slave and free States, I presume that I have had as good an opportunity of forming a correct opinion on the subject as most of others. It has long been my settled conviction, that the condition of the slaves in the United States, would be in no respect bettered by emancipation in their present condition, under existing circumstances; supposing that they continue residents of the United States. It is in my view, no longer problematical; for I consider it a settled question, that their condition would in no respect be improved by emancipation; but on the contrary, I contend, that the condition of the free negroes in both the slave and free States, is far worse than that of the Southern slave. I shall again appeal to historical facts—past experience—and universal observation. Throughout the slave States, ever since slavery has existed on this continent, conscientious and benevolent persons have, from time to time emancipated slaves; and that too, in many instances, under the most favorable circumstances. And what was the result? In nine cases out of ten, and I think it probable, that in ninety-nine out of a hundred, their conditions were evidently made worse thereby. This is an indisputable fact, well known throughout the South. I resided forty-four years in the slave States, and had as favorable opportunities as any man living, for forming correct opinions on the subject, and I do here most solemnly aver, that of the hundreds of manumitted slaves, that came under my immediate observation, few, comparatively very few, appeared to be benefited by the change. The condition of a large majority of the free blacks in Tennessee and Virginia, who fell under my observation, was deplorable, and farther South, I suppose, that it was still worse. I practiced medicine among them for twenty years, and conversed freely with them; in some instances on the subject of their emancipation, and they frequently admitted, that they were in a more comfortable condition while they were slaves.

A majority of the slaves in the Southern States are professedly pious; the free negroes more rarely so. A majority of the slaves appear to be honest; a majority of the free blacks are petty thieves, drunkards, liars and gamblers. I have frequently known slaves set at liberty on account of their piety and other good qualities, and within a few years most of them would undergo a change for the worse—frequently, in fact, become vicious in the extreme. One instance I will here record. A gentleman in Western Virginia, by name Carter, held a slave, Absalom by name. Absalom became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He began praying in public a short time after his admission into the church. Soon he was licensed to exhort, next to preach. All this occurred, I believe, within less than eighteen mouths. He was powerful in prayer, and eloquent in exhortation. No one doubted his piety. He was prospectively liberated by a will. Carter, however, told him verbally, about this time, that he had made provisions in his will for his liberation, and that henceforth he could go where he chose, and do as he pleased. That he was a free man. What was the consequence? It was not long before a young lady belonging to a respectable family, was delivered of a mulatto child. On being questioned as to the child's paternity, she stated that it was parson Absalom's. Those interested, immediately called on him, and he frankly confessed that he was the father of the child. Poor Absalom, he was promoted by the church, set at liberty by his master; caressed and eulogized by the white brethren—it was too much for him—he could not bear it—until finally, he was "lifted up with pride," and "fell into the condemnation of the devil." Then might the church mourn, "O Absalom, my son! how art thou fallen." This is not an isolated case; many similar ones fell under my observation, but I cannot stop here to record them. In the city of Knoxville, East Tennessee, where I last resided while in the South; there were several hundred free negroes, and I could readily distinguish a free negro from a slave when I met him in the street. The slaves, to use Southern parlance, looked fat, saucy, happy and contented, while the free blacks, with a few exceptions, had a miserable and dejected appearance. When slaves are liberated in the South they immediately become stupid, indolent and improvident, though they were previous to their liberation, industrious and economical. If previous to their liberation they were pious, they frequently become vicious; if temperate while slaves, they often become drunkards, after they obtain their freedom; if honest, thieves; if truthful, liars. There are exceptions, I admit, and they are but few exceptions. These are undeniable facts—melancholy truths—would to God that it had fallen to the lot of some one else to record them.

I have endeavored, in the preceding pages, to show that the condition of the slaves of the South; so far from being improved; is made worse by emancipation under existing circumstances. Free negroes meet with but little sympathy in the South, and with still less in the North. A residence of a few years in the slave and also in the free States, will satisfy anyone of the truth of this remark. Free negroes are more odious to Northern than to Southern people. In all the varied and multifarious relations of social life, they are told to stand aside. Under no circumstances, social, civil or religious, can the white man and the African, meet on terms of equality and reciprocity. They are debarred from social intercourse with the whites. They are not suffered to become, so far as I know, members of any secret society, association or organization, whatever. Beside the white man at the hospitable board, they cannot, they dare not sit; and to a seat in the white man's parlor, and social converse, they dare not aspire. The carpet of the white man was not spread for them, and around his cheerful hearth, before his crackling fire, there is no place for them. They are not suffered to participate in any of the festivities or amusements of their more highly favored white brethren. If they are admitted into the same crowd, they must not commingle with the whites; they are required to stand to one side. If they are admitted into the same house, a separate apartment is assigned to them, and if to the same table, they are taught to wait in patience until the white man is satiated; and then to be content with the fragments and crumbs. If they enter the same church, a separate bench, or a separate apartment in the church is allotted to them; for beside the white man they dare not sit, while engaged in devotional exercises. The black man's children are not gathered together in the same school room, with the white man's. They are denied in free, as well as in slave States, the right of suffrage, or any participation, whatever, in civil affairs. All this is true of free, as well as slave States, with a few exceptions. The free negro in no respect betters his condition, by taking up his residence in a free State. In some respects it is made worse by the change. They are offcasts from society—loathed and despised, wherever they go. Nature has interposed an impassable barrier, between the white and the black man. It is not alone tho black skin, and the woolly hair of the African that render him so odious to the Anglo-Saxon. The two races are diverse, mentally and morally—in their social qualities, habits, tastes and feelings. I shall not stop here to draw a contrast in detail, but after a few remarks I shall pass on.

The African differs from the Anglo-Saxon in his physical conformation, by his black skin, his curly hair, his flat nose and broad flat foot. Nor is he less distinctly marked by his mental characteristics. Content to repose on the bosom of his mother terra firma, he is not disturbed by dreams of honor, wealth or fame. He does not with the white man possess that towering ambition, that soars aloft in climes ethereal. There is with the African no motive to spur him to action; no incentive to the acquisition of wealth; no aspiration for power; no desire for honor or fame. Self reliance and enterprise, are the peculiar characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon race; on the contrary, the African in his native state, is content with his hut and his palm-leaf shade, and he is now what he was centuries ago; there is no improvement or change whatever. The African under no circumstances, in any part of the habitable globe, has ever attained a high degree of civilization. "For centuries on centuries, Africa has remained stationary, and at the very lowest stage of civilization, but one remove indeed above brutishness." "Back to that merely animal existence too, the Jamaica blacks are fast retrograding." The African is constitutionally indolent and improvident. Work he will not, so far as he is able to avoid it, nor will he economize what falls into his hands, I do them no injustice. I appeal to facts. Look at the condition of the free negroes, North and South! Look at Africa—behold the African race the world over, and then tell me from whence come their universal poverty, ignorance and degradation. The African possesses none of that sensitiveness—that acuteness of sensibility—that delicacy and refinement of taste, which characterize the white race. There is with the African a predominance of the animal propensities, and with him, their gratification, constitutes the sum total of life and all its enjoyments. He knows no other enjoyment, he has no higher object, or aim. It is therefore, very clear, that abolitionists are contending for an impracticability; that the two races cannot amalgamate and become one people, and enjoy equal rights and privileges; that they cannot live together on terms of perfect equality. The white man has the pre-eminence; it is the gift of God; and the African is doomed to servitude, until he is removed beyond the white man's reach. The African is not fully prepared for the enjoyment of liberty. Hence, the universal emancipation of the race, supposing that they were colonized, would be very likely to throw them back into their original barbarism; and the idea of liberating the entire slave population of the Southern States, and letting them loose upon us, is so ridiculous, that it scarcely deserves notice. It would be to us as a moral pestilence; a plague, far worse than all the plagues of Egypt! Yes, far worse, than frogs and lice, and locusts, and flies, and murrain of beasts, and biles on man, and darkness all combined. Free negroes would then deluge the great Northern cities. It would be as tornadoes and volcanoes let loose upon us. Our country is already deluged with as many vagrants, as she is able to jog along with.



CHAPTER V.

I consider slavery an evil, an individual evil, a national calamity; but I believe that the evil falls more heavily on the master, than on the slave. In order to understand this subject correctly, we must contemplate the African in his native ignorance and destitution; his brutal barbarism and his savage ferocity. We need but contrast the African in his original state, with the well housed, well clothed, and well fed slave of the United States. I am well aware, that an objection will be urged against this view of the subject, on the ground, that when brought to this country they were deprived of their liberty; and this with some persons is proof positive, that their individual happiness was curtailed thereby. The argument then resolves itself into this; is the happiness of individuals, under all circumstances, diminished by depriving them of their liberty? I have already attempted to prove, that the happiness of slaves in this country is diminished by attempting to restore them to liberty, and I may again recur to this subject before I close this essay. For this reason, I shall waive, at the present time, the refutation of what I conceive a gross error, unless the objector is satisfied with a few general remarks on the subject. I assert, without fear of successful contradiction, that neither the happiness of individuals, nor yet of nations, is always augmented by what is sometimes falsely called liberty. It depends wholly on the virtue and intelligence of individuals, and nations, as to whether liberty or servitude will conduce to their happiness and general welfare. We have no doubt, that the condition of the Mexican Republic would be greatly bettered at this time, by placing over them, a humane and politic king. Whoever is incompetent to take care of himself, is fortunate indeed, when he finds a competent individual, who, will perform that office for him. Show me a nation who are so debased by vice and ignorance, that they are incapable of self-government, and you show me a nation who ought to be ruled by a king or an emperor. Show me an individual, who is incompetent to provide for, and take care of himself, and you show me an individual whose happiness would be augmented by subjecting him to a humane man. Abolitionists, propagandists, and filibusters, would do well to bear these facts in mind. Servitude is sometimes a grievous calamity to the unfortunate slave, for the cruelty and brutality of some masters, better entitle them to the appellation of demons than men. There are, and ever have been, and ever will be such, but I am happy to believe, that there are comparatively few such monsters among the slaveholders at the present time. I am well aware that but few masters, in the treatment of their slaves, have complied with the requisitions of Divine revelation, but cruelty to slaves is by no means common among slaveholders at the present time.

I have said that I regarded the evils of slavery as falling most heavily on the slaveholders; in other words, on the white population. Slavery begets idleness; idleness begets vice; and vice plunges individuals into-wretchedness, degradation and infamy. In some of the slave States, the slaves perform most of the labor, consequently children are brought up in idleness. The inevitable consequence is, that a large majority of them, long before they arrive to adult age, are deplorably vicious. It is in the extreme Southern States, that this evil is most apparent.

The demoralizing influence of slavery is not so great in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Western Virginia. The evil falls mostly on the male population; females not being exposed to the same temptations.

The boy is let loose at an early age, and runs into all manner of excesses; not so with the girl; for from childhood to adult age, she is ever under the eye of her mother; and I do not suppose, that for intelligence, beauty and refinement, the world can produce a set of females superior to the Southern ladies; though, the manner in which they are brought up, their habits and modes of life, too often incapacitate them for the active duties incumbent on mothers.

It has been stated as one of the effects of slavery, that it renders men proud, haughty and tyrannical. There may be some truth in the remark, but I am well satisfied, that there is not so much as some suppose. In contrasting the character of the white population in the slave and free states, it is somewhat difficult to ascertain the precise influence of the institution of slavery, in moulding and shaping Southern character. We must, in an investigation of the subject, take into consideration the influence of climate North and South, and various other influences less obvious, though not less certain to leave their impress on human character. I have neither time, nor space, for a thorough examination of the subject, and must, therefore, after stating some facts, leave the reader to arrive at his own conclusions. Southern people are proverbially liberal and hospitable. No Southerner can fail, after a short residence in the North, to observe opposite traits of character in Northern people; and the Southerner, after emigrating to the North, is soon forced, in self defence, or rather prompted by the laws of self preservation, to close up the avenues of his liberality, and assume an attitude, or rather take a position in society, unknown to him while a resident of a Southern clime. The liberality of Southern people too often leads them into recklessness in the management of their pecuniary transactions, which frequently results in embarrassment and ruin. A Southerner to his friend, never says no. He promptly and cheerfully complies with his request, and, truly, the giver, if not more "blessed," appears to be more happy than the receiver. Whatever they do, they seem to do it cheerfully. They act as if they esteemed it a singular favor, to have it in their power to relieve a friend. A Southern man will part with his last dime to aid a friend, though, he may be forced, in less than twenty four hours, to borrow money himself. I long lived among them, embarrassed by a series of unprecedented misfortunes, and their generosity I shall never forget. I shall carry the recollection of it to my grave; it will, no doubt, soothe me on my dying bed. Dear friends of the sunny South, in an evil hour I was separated from you, and what I have suffered since both in body and mind, God only knows. Ah! I could tell a tale, but I forbear. There is a marked contrast in the manner in which strangers are treated North and South. Every stranger in the South is presumed to be an honest man, until he proves himself to be a rogue. Every stranger in the North, is presumed to be a rogue, until he proves himself an honest man. Another Southern peculiarity is, that no one can attack the character of another, without incurring the risk of loosing his life. The slanderer in the South is an outlaw, and the injured party incurs but little more risk in stabbing, or shooting him, than he would in shooting a mad dog; for public opinion justifies the deed, and a jury of his fellow citizens will acquit him. This is literally and emphatically true, if the female is the injured party. In the latter case, any relation or friend is at liberty, to silence forever the tongue of the slanderer. If he that slanders a female is in danger, he that seduces her runs a risk tenfold. A few days previous to my leaving the city of Knoxville, Tenn., an old man, by name M., walked into the court-house, (court in session) and deliberately shot down a gentleman, by name N. He lived after the discharge of thirty-six buckshot into his body, but a few minutes. N. was an official character, and one of the most popular men in the county, and though I remained in the city but a few days after the perpetration of the atrocious act, I discovered that nine-tenths of the community justified him in the horrible deed. It was not long before I received information, that the murderer of N. was acquitted. The crime of N. was seduction. Similar occurrences are frequent in the South.