"NEGROES FOR SALE.—A girl about twenty years of age, (raised in Virginia,) and her two female children, one four and the other two year old—is remarkably strong and healthy—never having had a day's sickness, with the exception of the small pox, in her life. The children are fine and healthy. She is VERY PROLIFIC IN HER GENERATING QUALITIES, and affords a rare opportunity to any person who wishes to raise a family of strong and healthy servants for their own use.

"Any person wishing to purchase will please leave their address at the Mercury office."

The Charleston Mercury, in which this advertisement appears, is the leading political paper in South Carolina, and is well known to be the political organ of Messrs. Calhoun, Rhett, Pickens, and others of the most prominent politicians in the state. Its editor, John Stewart, Esq., is a lawyer of Charleston, and of a highly respectable family. He is a brother-in-law of Hon. Robert Barnwell Rhett, the late Attorney-General, now a Member of Congress, and Hon. James Rhett, a leading member of the Senate of South Carolina; his wife is a niece of the late Governor Smith, of North Carolina, and of the late Hon. Peter Smith, Intendant (Mayor) of the city of Charleston; and a cousin of the late Hon. Thomas S. Grimke.

The circulation of the 'Mercury' among the wealthy, the literary, and the fashionable, is probably much larger than that of any other paper in the state.

These facts in connection with the preceding advertisement, are a sufficient exposition of the 'public opinion' towards slaves, prevalent in these classes of society.

The following scrap of 'public opinion' in Florida, is instructive. We take it from the Florida Herald, June 23, 1838:

Ranaway from my plantation, on Monday night, the 13th instant, a negro fellow named Ben; eighteen years of age, polite when spoken to, and speaks very good English for a negro. As I have traced him out in several places in town, I am certain he is harbored. This notice is given that I am determined, that whenever he is taken, to punish him till he informs me who has given him food and protection, and I shall apply the law of Judge Lynch to my own satisfaction, on those concerned in his concealment.

A. WATSON. June 16, 1838."

Now, who is this A. Watson, who proclaims through a newspaper, his determination to put to the torture this youth of eighteen, and to Lynch to his 'satisfaction' whoever has given a cup of cold water to the panting fugitive. Is he some low miscreant beneath public contempt? Nay, verily, he is a 'gentleman of property and standing,' one of the wealthiest planters and largest slaveholders in Florida. He resides in the vicinity of St. Augustine, and married the daughter of the late Thomas C. Morton, Esq. one of the first merchants in New York.

We may mention in this connection the well known fact, that many wealthy planters make it a rule never to employ a physician among their slaves. Hon. William Smith, Senator in Congress, from South Carolina, from 1816 to 1823, and afterwards from 1826 to 1831, is one of this number. He owns a number of large plantations in the south western states. One of these, borders upon the village of Huntsville, Alabama. The people of that village can testify that it is a part of Judge Smith's system never to employ a physician even in the most extreme cases. If the medical skill of the overseer, or of the slaves themselves, can contend successfully with the disease, they live, if not, they die. At all events, a physician is not to be called. Judge Smith was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States three years since.

The reader will recall a similar fact in the testimony of Rev. W.T. Allan, son of Rev. Dr. Allan, of Huntsville, (see p. 47,) who says that Colonel Robert H. Watkins, a wealthy planter, in Alabama, and a PRESIDENTIAL ELECTOR in 1836, who works on his plantations three hundred slaves, 'After employing a physician for some time among his negroes, he ceased to do so, alledging as the reason, that it was cheaper to lose a few negroes every year than to pay a physician.'

It is a fact perfectly notorious, that the late General Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, who was the largest slaveholder in the United States, and probably the wealthiest man south of the Potomac, was excessively cruel in the treatment of his slaves. The anecdote of him related by a clergyman, on page 29, is perfectly characteristic.

For instances of barbarous inhumanity of various kinds, and manifested by persons BELONGING TO THE MOST RESPECTABLE CIRCLES OF SOCIETY, the reader can consult the following references:—Testimony of Rev. John Graham, p. 25, near the bottom; of Mr. Poe, p. 26, middle; of Rev. J. O. Choules, p. 39, middle; of Rev. Dr. Channing, p. 41, top; of Mr. George A. Avery, p. 44, bottom; of Rev. W.T. Allan, p. 47; of Mr. John M. Nelson, p. 51, bottom; of Dr. J.C. Finley, p. 61, top; of Mr. Dustin, p. 66, bottom; of Mr. John Clarke, p. 87; of Mr. Nathan Cole, p. 89, middle; Rev. William Dickey, p. 93; Rev. Francis Hawley, p. 97; of Mr. Powell, p. 100, middle; of Rev. P. Smith p. 102.

The preceding are but a few of a large number of similar cases contained in the foregoing testimonies. The slaveholder mentioned by Mr. Ladd, p. 86, who knocked down a slave and afterwards piled brush upon his body, and consumed it, held the hand of a female slave in the fire till it was burned so as to be useless for life, and confessed to Mr. Ladd, that he had killed four slaves, had been a member of the Senate of Georgia and a clergyman. The slaveholder who whipped a female slave to death in St. Louis, in 1837, as stated by Mr. Cole, p. 69, was a Major in the United States Army. One of the physicians who was an abettor of the tragedy on the Brassos, in which a slave was tortured to death, and another so that he barely lived, (see Rev. Mr. Smith's testimony, p. 102.) was Dr. Anson Jones, a native of Connecticut, who was soon after appointed minister plenipotentiary from Texas to this government, and now resides at Washington city. The slave mistress at Lexington, Ky., who, as her husband testifies, has killed six of his slaves, (see testimony of Mr. Clarke, p. 87,) is the wife of Hon. Fielding S. Turner, late judge of the criminal court of New Orleans, and one of the wealthiest slaveholders in Kentucky. Lilburn Lewis, who deliberately chopped in pieces his slave George, with a broad-axe, (see testimony of Rev. Mr. Dickey, p. 93) was a wealthy slaveholder, and a nephew of President Jefferson. Rev. Francis Hawley, who was a general agent of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, confesses (see p. 47,) that while residing in that state he once went out with his hounds and rifle, to hunt fugitive slaves. But instead of making further reference to testimony already before the reader, we will furnish additional instances of the barbarous cruelty which is tolerated and sanctioned by the 'upper classes' of society at the south; we begin with clergymen, and other officers and members of churches.

That the reader may judge of the degree of 'protection' which slaves receive from 'public opinion,' and among the members and ministers of professed christian churches, we insert the following illustrations.

Extract from an editorial article in the "Lowell (Mass.) Observer" a religious paper edited at the time (1833) by the Rev. DANIEL S. SOUTHMAYD, who recently died in Texas.

"We have been among the slaves at the south. We took pains to make discoveries in respect to the evils of slavery. We formed our sentiments on the subject of the cruelties exercised towards the slaves from having witnessed them. We now affirm that we never saw a man, who had never been at the south, who thought as much of the cruelties practiced on the slaves, as we know to be a fact.

"A slave whom I loved for his kindness and the amiableness of his disposition, and who belonged to the family where I resided, happened to stay out fifteen minutes longer than he had permission to stay. It was a mistake—it was unintentional. But what was the penalty? He was sent to the house of correction with the order that he should have thirty lashes upon his naked body with a knotted rope!!! He was brought home and laid down in the stoop, in the back of the house, in the sun, upon the floor. And there he lay, with more the appearance of a rotten carcass than a living man, for four days before he could do more than move. And who was this inhuman being calling God's property his own, and ruing it as he would not have dared to use a beast? You may say he was a tiger—one of the more wicked sort, and that we must not judge others by him. He was a professor of that religion which will pour upon the willing slaveholder the retribution due to his sin.

"We wish to mention another fact, which our own eyes saw and our own ears heard. We were called to evening prayers. The family assembled around the altar of their accustomed devotions. There was one female slave present, who belonged to another master, but who had been hired for the day and tarried to attend family worship. The precious Bible was opened, and nearly half a chapter had been read, when the eye of the master, who was reading, observed that the new female servant, instead of being seated like his own slaves, flat upon the floor, was standing in a stooping posture upon her feet. He told her to sit down on the floor. She said it was not her custom at home. He ordered her again to do it. She replied that her master did not require it. Irritated by this answer, he repeatedly struck her upon the head with the very Bible he held in his hand. And not content with this, he seized his cane and caned her down stairs most unmercifully. He then returned to resume his profane work, but we need not say that all the family were not there. Do you ask again, who was this wicked man? He was a professor of religion!!"

Rev. HUNTINGTON LYMAN, late pastor of the Free Church in Buffalo, New York, says:—

"Walking one day in New Orleans with a professional gentleman, who was educated in Connecticut, we were met by a black man; the gentleman was greatly incensed with the black man for passing so near him, and turning upon him he pushed him with violence off walk into the street. This man was a professor of religion."

(And we add, a member, and if we mistake not an officer of the Presbyterian Church which was established there by Rev. Joel Parker, and which was then under his teachings-ED.)

Mr. EZEKIEL BIRDSEYE, a gentleman of known probity, in Cornwall, Litchfield county, Conn. gives the testimony which follows:—

"A BAPTIST CLERGYMAN in Laurens District, S.C. WHIPPED HIS SLAVE TO DEATH, whom he suspected of having stolen about sixty dollars. The slave was in the prime of life and was purchased a few weeks before for $800 of a slave trader from Virginia or Maryland. The coroner, Wm. Irby, at whose house I was then boarding, told me, that on reviewing the dead body, he found it beat to a jelly from head to foot. The master's wife discovered the money a day or two after the death of the slave. She had herself removed it from where it was placed, not knowing what it was, as it was tied up in a thick envelope. I happened to be present when the trial of this man took place, at Laurens Court House. His daughter testified that her father untied the slave, when he appeared to be failing, and gave him cold water to drink, of which he took freely. His counsel pleaded that his death might have been caused by drinking cold water in a state of excitement. The Judge charged the jury, that it would be their duty to find the defendant guilty, if they believed the death was caused by the whipping; but if they were of opinion that drinking cold water caused the death, they would find him not guilty! The jury found him—NOT GUILTY!"

Dr. JEREMIAH S. WAUGH, a physician in Somerville, Butler county, Ohio, testifies as follows:—

"In the year 1825, I boarded with the Rev. John Mushat, a Seceder minister, and principal of an academy in Iredel county, N.C. He had slaves, and was in the habit of restricting them on the Sabbath. One of his slaves, however, ventured to disobey his injunctions. The offence was he went away on Sabbath evening, and did not return till Monday morning. About the time we were called to breakfast, the Rev. gentleman was engaged in chastising him for breaking the Sabbath. He determined not to submit—attempted to escape by flight. The master immediately took down his gun and pursued him—levelled his instrument of death, and told him, if he did not stop instantly he would blow him through. The poor slave returned to the house and submitted himself to the lash; and the good master, while YET PALE WITH RAGE, sat down to the table, and with a trembling voice ASKED GOD'S BLESSING!"

The following letter was sent by Capt. JACOB DUNHAM, of New York city, to a slaveholder in Georgetown, D.C. more than twenty years since:

"Georgetown, June 13, 1815.

"Dear sir—Passing your house yesterday, I beheld a scene of cruelty seldom witnessed—that was the brutal chastisement of your negro girl, lashed to a ladder and beaten in an inhuman manner, too bad to describe. My blood chills while I contemplate the subject. This has led me to investigate your character from your neighbors; who inform me that you have caused the death of one negro man, whom you struck with a sledge for some trivial fault—that you have beaten another black girl with such severity that the splinters remained in her back for some weeks after you sold her—and many other acts of barbarity, too lengthy to enumerate. And to my great surprise, I find you are a professor of the Christian religion!

"You will naturally inquire, why I meddle with your family affairs. My answer is, the cause of humanity and a sense of my duty requires it.—these hasty remarks I leave you to reflect on the subject; but wish you to remember, that there is an all-seeing eye who knows all our faults and will reward us according to our deeds.

I remain, sir, yours, &c

JACOB DUNHAM. Master of the brig Cyrus, of N.Y."

Rev. SYLVESTER COWLES, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Fredonia, N.Y. says:—

"A young man, a member of the church in Conewango, went to Alabama last year, to reside as a clerk in an uncle's store. When he had been there about nine months, he wrote his father that he must return home. To see members of the same church sit at the communion table of our Lord one day, and the next to see one seize any weapon and knock the other down, as he had seen, he could not live there. His good father forthwith gave him permission to return home."

The following is a specimen of the shameless hardihood with which a professed minister of the Gospel, and editor of a religious paper, assumes the right to hold God's image as a chattel. It is from the Southern Christian Herald:—

"It is stated in the Georgetown Union, that a negro, supposed to have died of cholera, when that disease prevailed in Charleston, was carried to the public burying ground to be interred; but before interment signs of life appeared, and, by the use of proper means, he was restored to health. And now the man who first perceived the signs of life in the slave, and that led to his preservation, claims the property as his own, and is about bringing suit for its recovery. As well might a man who rescued his neighbor's slave, or his horse, from drowning, or who extinguished the flames that would otherwise soon have burnt down his neighbor's house, claim the property as his own."

Rev. GEORGE BOURNE, of New York city, late Editor of the "Protestant Vindicator," who was a preacher seven years in Virginia, gives the following testimony.[39]

"Benjamin Lewis, who was an elder in the Presbyterian church, engaged a carpenter to repair and enlarge his house. After some time had elapsed, Kyle, the builder, was awakened very early in the morning by a most piteous moaning and shrieking. He arose, and following the sound, discovered a colored woman nearly naked, tied to a fence, while Lewis was lacerating her. Kyle instantly commanded the slave driver to desist. Lewis maintained his jurisdiction over his slaves, and threatened Kyle that he would punish him for his interference. Finally Kyle obtained the release of the victim.

"A second and a third scene of the same kind occurred, and on the third occasion the altercation almost produced a battle between the elder and the carpenter.

"Kyle immediately arranged his affairs, packed up his tools and prepared to depart. 'Where are you going?' demanded Lewis. 'I am going home;' said Kyle. 'Then I will pay you nothing for what you have done,' retorted the slave driver, 'unless you complete your contract.' The carpenter went away with this edifying declaration, 'I will not stay here a day longer; for I expect the fire of God will come down and burn you up altogether, and I do not choose to go to hell with you.' Through hush-money and promises not to whip the women any more, I believe Kyle returned and completed his engagement.

"James Kyle of Harrisonburg, Virginia, frequently narrated that circumstance, and his son, the carpenter, confirmed it with all the minute particulars combined with his temporary residence on the Shenandoah river.

"John M'Cue of Augusta county, Virginia, a Presbyterian preacher, frequently on the Lord's day morning, tied up his slaves and whipped them; and left them bound, while he went to the meeting house and preached—and after his return home repeated his scourging. That fact, with others more heinous, was known to all persons in his congregation and around the vicinity; and so far from being censured for it, he and his brethren justified it as essential to preserve their 'domestic institutions.'

"Mrs. Pence, of Rockingham county, Virginia, used to boast,—'I am the best hand to whip a wench in the whole county.' She used to pinion the girls to a post in the yard on the Lord's day morning, scourge them, put on the 'negro plaster,' salt, pepper, and vinegar, leave them tied, and walk away to church as demure as a nun, and after service repeat her flaying, if she felt the whim. I once expostulated with her upon her cruelly. 'Mrs. Pence, how can you whip your girls so publicly and disturb your neighbors so on the Lord's day morning.' Her answer was memorable. 'If I were to whip them on any other day I should lose a day's work; but by whipping them on Sunday, their backs get well enough by Monday morning.' That woman, if alive, is doubtless a member of the church now, as then.

"Rev. Dr. Staughton, formerly of Philadelphia, often stated, that when he lived at Georgetown, S.C. he could tell the doings of one of the slaveholders of the Baptist church there by his prayers at the prayer meeting. 'If,' said he, 'that man was upon good terms with his slaves, his words were cold and heartless as frost; if he had been whipping a man, he would pray with life; but if he had left a woman whom he had been flogging, tied to a post in his cellar, with a determination to go back and torture her again, O! how he would pray!' The Rev. Cyrus P. Grosvenor of Massachusetts can confirm the above statement by Dr. Staughton.

"William Wilson, a Presbyterian preacher of Augusta county, Virginia, had a young colored girl who was constitutionally unhealthy. As no means to amend her were availing, he sold her to a member of his congregation, and in the usual style of human flesh dealers, warranted her 'sound,' &c. The fraud was instantly discovered; but he would not refund the amount. A suit was commenced, and was long continued, and finally the plaintiff recovered the money out of which he had been swindled by slave-trading with his own preacher. No Presbytery censured him, although Judge Brown, the chancellor, severely condemned the imposition.

"In the year 1811, Johab Graham, a preacher, lived with Alexander Nelson a Presbyterian elder, near Stanton, Virginia, and he informed me that a man had appeared before Nelson, who was a magistrate, and swore falsely against his slave,—that the elder ordered him thirty-nine lashes. All that wickedness was done as an excuse for his dissipated owner to obtain money. A negro trader had offered him a considerable sum for the 'boy,' and under the pretence of saving him from the punishment of the law, he was trafficked away from his woman and children to another state. The magistrate was aware of the perjury, and the whole abomination, but all the truth uttered by every colored person in the southern states would not be of any avail against the notorious false swearing of the greatest white villain who ever cursed the world. 'How,' said Johab Graham, can I preach to-morrow?' I replied, 'Very well; go and thunder the doctrine of retribution in their ears, Obadiah 15, till by the divine blessing you kill or cure them. My friends, John M. Nelson of Hillsborough, Ohio, Samuel Linn, and Robert Herron, and others of the same vicinity, could 'make both the ears of every one who heareth them tingle' with the accounts which they can give of slave-driving by professors of religion in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.

"In 1815, near Frederick, in Maryland, a most barbarous planter was killed in a fit of desperation, by four of his slaves in self-defence. It was declared by those slaves while in prison that, besides his atrocities among their female associates, he had deliberately butchered a number of his slaves. The four men were murdered by law, to appease the popular clamor. I saw them executed on the twenty-eighth day of Jan'y, 1816. The facts I received from the Rev. Patrick Davidson of Frederick, who constantly visited them during their imprisonment—and who became an abolitionist in consequence of the disclosures which he heard from those men in the jail. The name of the planter is not distinctly recollected, but it can be known by a inspection of the record of the trial in the clerk's office, Frederick.

"A minister of Virginia, still living, and whose name must not be mentioned for fear of Nero Preston and his confederate-hanging myrmidons, informed me of this fact in 1815, in his own house. 'A member of my church, said he, lately whipped a colored youth to death. What shall I do?' I answered, 'I hope you do not mean to continue him in your church.' That minister replied, 'How can we help it' We dare not call him to an account. We have no legal testimony.' Their communion season was then approaching. I addressed his wife,—'Mrs. —— do you mean to sit at the Lord's table with that murderer?'—,'Not I,' she answered: 'I would as soon commune with the devil himself.' The slave killer was equally unnoticed by the civil and ecclesiastical authority.

"John Baxter, a Presbyterian elder, the brother of that slaveholding doctor in divinity, George A. Baxter, held as a slave the wife of a Baptist colored preacher, familiarly called 'Uncle Jack.' In a late period of pregnancy he scourged her so that the lives of herself and her unborn child were considered in jeopardy. Uncle Jack was advised to obtain the liberation of his wife. Baxter finally agreed, I think, to sell the woman and her children, three of them, I believe for six hundred dollars, and an additional hundred if the unborn child survived a certain period after its birth. Uncle Jack was to pay one hundred dollars per annum for his wife and children for seven years, and Baxter held a sort of mortgage upon them for the payment. Uncle Jack showed me his back in furrows like a ploughed field. His master used to whip up the flesh, then beat it downwards, and then apply the 'negro plaster,' salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar, until all Jack's back was almost as hard and unimpressible as the bones. There is slaveholding religion! A Presbyterian elder receiving from a Baptist preacher seven hundred dollars for his wife and children. James Kyle and uncle Jack used to tell that story with great Christian sensibility; and uncle Jack would weep tears of anguish over his wife's piteous tale, and tears of ecstasy at the same moment that he was free, and that soon, by the grace of God, his wife and children, as he said, 'would be all free together.'"

Rev. JAMES NOURSE, a Presbyterian clergyman of Mifflia co. Penn., whose father is, we believe, a slaveholder in Washington City, says,—

"The Rev. Mr. M——, now of the Huntingdon Presbytery, after an absence of many months, was about visiting his old friends on what is commonly called the 'Eastern Shore.' Late in the afternoon, on his journey, he called at the house of Rev. A.C. of P——town, Md. With this brother he had been long acquainted. Just at that juncture Mr. C. was about proceeding to whip a colored female, who was his slave. She was firmly tied to a post in FRONT of his dwelling-house. The arrival of a clerical visitor at such a time, occasioned a temporary delay in the execution of Mr. C's purpose. But the delay was only temporary; for not even the presence of such a guest could destroy the bloody design. The guest interceded with all the mildness yet earnestness of a brother and new visitor. But all in vain, 'the woman had been saucy and must be punished.' The cowhide was accordingly produced, and the Rev. Mr. C., a large and very stout man, applied it 'manfully' on 'woman's' bare and 'shrinking flesh.' I say bare, because you know that the slave women generally have but three or four inches of the arm near the shoulder covered, and the neck is left entirely exposed. As the cowhide moved back and forward, striking right and left, on the head, neck and arms, at every few strokes the sympathizing guest would exclaim, 'O, brother C. desist' But brother C. pursued his brutal work, till, after inflicting about sixty lashes, the woman was found to be suffused with blood on the hinder part of her neck, and under her frock between the shoulders. Yet this Rev. gentleman is well esteemed in the church—was, three or four years since, moderator of the synod of Philadelphia, and yet walks abroad, feeling himself unrebuked by law or gospel. Ah, sir does not this narration give fearful force to the query—What has the church to do with slavery?' Comment on the facts is unnecessary, yet allow me to conclude by saying, that it is my opinion such occurrences are not rare in the south.

J.N."

REV. CHARLES STEWART RENSHAW, of Quincy, Illinois, in a recent letter, speaking of his residence, for a period, in Kentucky, says—

"In a conversation with Mr. Robert Willis, he told me that his negro girl had run away from him some time previous. He was convinced that she was lurking round, and he watched for her. He soon found the place of her concealment, drew her from it, got a rope, and tied her hands across each other, then threw the rope over a beam in the kitchen, and hoisted her up by the wrists; 'and,' said he, 'I whipped her there till I made the lint fly, I tell you.' I asked him the meaning of making 'the lint fly,' and he replied, 'till the blood flew.' I spoke of the iniquity and cruelty of slavery, and of its immediate abandonment. He confessed it an evil, but said, 'I am a colonizationist—I believe in that scheme.' Mr. Willis is a teacher of sacred music, and a member of the Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Kentucky."

Mr. R. speaking of the PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER and church where he resided, says:

"The minister and all the church members held slaves. Some were treated kindly, others harshly. There was not a shade of difference between their slaves and those of their infidel neighbors, either in their physical, intellectual, or moral state: in some cases they would suffer in the comparison.

"In the kitchen of the minister of the church, a slave man was living in open adultery with a slave woman, who was a member of the church, with an 'assured hope' of heaven—whilst the man's wife was on the minister's farm in Fayette county. The minister had to bring a cook down from his farm to the place in which he was preaching. The choice was between the wife of the man and this church member. He left the wife, and brought the church member to the adulterer's bed.

"A METHODIST PREACHER last fall took a load of produce down the river. Amongst other things he took down five slaves. He sold them at New Orleans—he came up to Natchez—bought seven there—and took them down and sold them also. Last March he came up to preach the Gospel again. A number of persons on board the steamboat (the Tuscarora.) who had seen him in the slave-shambles in Natchez and New Orleans, and now, for the first time, found him to be a preacher, had much sport at the expense of 'the fine old preacher who dealt in slaves.'

A non-professor of religion, in Campbell county, Ky. sold a female and two children to a Methodist professor, with the proviso that they should not leave that region of country. The slave-driver came, and offered $5 more for the woman than he had given, and he sold her. She is now in the lower country, and her orphan babes are in Kentucky.

"I was much shocked once, to see a Presbyterian elder's wife call a little slave to her to kiss her feet. At first the boy hesitated—but the command being repeated in tones not to be misunderstood, be approached timidly, knelt, and kissed her foot."

Rev. W.T. ALLAN, of Chatham, Illinois, gives the following in a letter dated Feb. 4, 1839:

"Mr. Peter Vanarsdale, an elder of the Presbyterian church in Carrollton, formerly from Kentucky, told me, the other day, that a Mrs. Burford, in the neighborhood of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, had separated a woman and her children from their husband and father, taking them into another state. Mrs. B. was a member of the Presbyterian Church. The bereaved husband and father was also a professor of religion.

"Mr. V. told me of a slave woman who had lost her son, separated from her by public sale. In the anguish of her soul, she gave vent to her indignation freely, and perhaps harshly. Sometime after, she wished to become a member of the church. Before they received her, she had to make humble confession for speaking as she had done. Some of the elders that received her, and required the confession, were engaged is selling the son from his mother."

The following communication from the Rev. WILLIAM BARDWELL, of Sandwich, Massachusetts, has just been published in Zion's Watchman, New York city:

Mr. Editor:—The following fact was given me last evening, from the pen of a shipmaster, who has traded in several of the principal ports in the south. He is a man of unblemished character, a member of the M.E. Church in this place, and familiarly known in this town. The facts were communicated to me last fall in a letter to his wife, with a request that she would cause them to be published. I give verbatim, as they were written from the letter by brother Perry's own hand while I was in his house.

"A Methodist preacher, Wm. Whitby by name, who married in Bucksville, S.C., and by marriage came into possession of some slaves, in July, 1838, was about moving to another station to preach, and wished, also, to move his family and slaves to Tennessee, much against the will of the slaves, one of which, to get clear from him, ran into the woods after swimming a brook. The parson took after him with his gun, which, however, got wet and missed fire, when he ran to a neighbor for another gun, with the intention, as he said, of killing him: he did not, however, catch or kill him; he chained another for fear of his running away also. The above particulars were related to me by William Whitby himself. THOMAS C. PERRY. March 3, 1839."

"I find by examining the minutes of the S.C. Conference, that there is such a preacher in the Conference, and brother Perry further stated to me that he was well acquainted with him, and if this statement was published, and if it could be known where he was since the last Conference, he wished a paper to be sent him containing the whole affair. He also stated to me, verbally, that the young man he attempted to shoot was about nineteen years of age, and had been shut up in a corn-house, and in the attempt of Mr. Whitby to chain him, he broke down the door and made his escape as above mentioned, and that Mr. W. was under the necessity of hiring him out for one year, with the risk of his employer's getting him. Brother Perry conversed with one of the slaves, who was so old that he thought it not profitable to remove so far, and had been sold; he informed him of all the above circumstances, and said, with tears, that he thought he had been so faithful as to be entitled to liberty, but instead of making him free, he had sold him to another master, besides parting one husband and wife from those ties rendered a thousand times dearer by an infant child which was torn for ever from the husband.

WILLIAM BARDWELL. Sandwich, Mass., March 4, 1839."

Mr. WILLIAM POE, till recently a slaveholder in Virginia, now an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Delhi, Ohio, gives the following testimony:—

"An elder in the Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg had a most faithful servant, whom he flogged severely and sent him to prison, and had him confined as a felon a number of days, for being saucy. Another elder of the same church, an auctioneer, habitually sold slaves at his stand—very frequently parted families—would often go into the country to sell slaves on execution and otherwise; when remonstrated with, he justified himself, saying, 'it was his business;' the church also justified him on the same ground.

"A Doctor Duval, of Lynchburg, Va. got offended with a very faithful, worthy servant, and immediately sold him to a negro trader, to be taken to New Orleans; Duval still keeping the wife of the man as his slave. This Duval was a professor of religion."

Mr. SAMUEL HALL, a teacher in Marietta College, Ohio, says, in a recent letter:—

"A student in Marietta College, from Mississippi, a professor of religion, and in every way worthy of entire confidence, made to me the following statement. [If his name were published it would probably cost him his life.]

"When I was in the family of the Rev. James Martin, of Louisville, Winston county, Mississippi, in the spring of 1838, Mrs. Martin became offended at a female slave, because she did not move faster. She commanded her to do so; the girl quickened her pace; again she was ordered to move faster, or, Mrs. M. declared, she would break the broomstick over her head. Again the slave quickened her pace; but not coming up to the maximum desired by Mrs. M. the latter declared she would see whether she (the slave) could move or not: and, going into another apartment, she brought in a raw hide, awaiting the return of her husband for its application. In this instance I know not what was the final result, but I have heard the sound of the raw-hide in at least two other instances, applied by this same reverend gentleman to the back of his female servant."

Mr. Hall adds—"The name of my informant must be suppressed, as" he says, "there are those who would cut my throat in a moment, if the information I give were to be coupled with my name." Suffice it to say that he is a professor of religion, a native of Virginia, and a student of Marietta College, whose character will bear the strictest scrutiny. He says:—

"In 1838, at Charlestown, Va. I conversed with several members of the church under the care of the Rev. Mr. Brown, of the same place. Taking occasion to speak of slavery, and of the sin of slaveholding, to one of them who was a lady, she replied, "I am a slaveholder, and I glory in it." I had a conversation, a few days after, with the pastor himself, concerning the state of religion in his church, and who were the most exemplary members in it. The pastor mentioned several of those who were of that description; the first of whom, however, was the identical lady who gloried in being a slaveholder! That church numbers nearly two hundred members.

"Another lady, who was considered as devoted a Christian as any in the same church, but who was in poor health, was accustomed to flog some of her female domestics with a raw-hide till she was exhausted, and then go and lie down till her strength was recruited, rising again and resuming the flagellation. This she considered as not at all derogatory to her Christian character."

Mr. JOEL S. BINGHAM, of Cornwall, Vermont, lately a student in Middlebury College, and a member of the Congregational Church, spent a few weeks in Kentucky, in the summer of 1838. He relates the following occurrence which took place in the neighborhood where he resided, and was a matter of perfect notoriety in the vicinity.

"Rev. Mr. Lewis, a Baptist minister in the vicinity of Frankfort, Ky. had a slave that ran away, but was retaken and brought back to his master, who threatened him with punishment for making an attempt to escape. Though terrified the slave immediately attempted to run away again. Mr. L. commanded him to stop, but he did not obey. Mr. L. then took a gun, loaded with small shot and fired at the slave, who fell; but was not killed, and afterward recovered. Mr. L. did not probably intend to kill the slave, as it was his legs which were aimed at and received the contents of the gun. The master asserted that he was driven to this necessity to maintain his authority. This took place about the first of July, 1838."

The following is given upon the authority of Rev. ORANGE SCOTT, of Lowell, Mass. for many years a presiding elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

"Rev. Joseph Hough, a Baptist minister, formerly of Springfield, Mass. now of Plainfield, N.H. while traveling in the south, a few years ago, put up one night with a Methodist family, and spent the Sabbath with them. While there, one of the female slaves did something which displeased her mistress. She took a chisel and mallet, and very deliberately cut off one of her toes!"

SLAVE BREEDING AN INDEX OF PUBLIC 'OPINION' AMONG THE 'HIGHEST CLASS OF SOCIETY' IN VIRGINIA AND OTHER NORTHERN SLAVE STATES.

But we shall be told, that 'slave-breeders' are regarded with contempt, and the business of slave breeding is looked upon as despicable; and the hot disclaimer of Mr. Stevenson, our Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of St. James, in reply to Mr. O'Connell, who had intimated that he might be a 'slave breeder,' will doubtless be quoted.[40] In reply, we need not say what every body knows, that if Mr. Stevenson is not a 'slave breeder,' he is a solitary exception among the large slaveholders of Virginia. What! Virginia slaveholders not 'slave-breeders?' the pretence is ridiculous and contemptible; it is meanness, hypocrisy, and falsehood, as is abundantly proved by the testimony which follows:—

Mr. GHOLSON, of Virginia, in his speech in the Legislature of that state, Jan. 18, 1832, (see Richmond Whig,) says:—

"It has always (perhaps erroneously) been considered by steady and old-fashioned people, that the owner of land had a reasonable right to its annual profits; the owner of orchards, to their annual fruits; the owner of brood mares, to their product; and the owner of female slaves, to their increase. We have not the fine-spun intelligence, nor legal acumen, to discover the technical distinctions drawn by gentlemen. The legal maxim of 'Partus sequitur ventrem' is coeval with the existence of the rights of property itself, and is founded in wisdom and justice. It is on the justice and inviolability of this maxim that the master foregoes the service of the female slave; has her nursed and attended during the period of her gestation, and raises the helpless and infant offspring. The value of the property justifies the expense; and I do not hesitate to say, that in its increase consists much of our wealth."

Hon. THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH, of Virginia. formerly Governor of that state, in his speech before the legislature in 1832, while speaking of the number of slaves annually sold from Virginia to the more southern slave states, said:—

"The exportation has averaged EIGHT THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED for the last twenty years. Forty years ago, the whites exceeded the colored 25,000, the colored now exceed the whites 81,000; and these results too during an exportation of near 260,000 slaves since the year 1790, now perhaps the fruitful progenitors of half a million in other states. It is a practice and an increasing practice, in parts of Virginia, to rear slaves for market. How can an honorable mind, a patriot and a lover of his country, bear to see this ancient dominion converted into one grand menagerie, where men are to be reared for market, like oxen for the shambles."

Professor DEW, now President of the University of William and Mary, Virginia, in his Review of the Debate in the Virginia Legislature, 1831-2, says, p 49.

"From all the information we can obtain, we have no hesitation in saying that upwards of six thousand [slaves] are yearly exported [from Virginia] to other states.' Again, p. 61: 'The 6000 slaves which Virginia annually sends off to the south, are a source of wealth to Virginia'—Again, p. 120: 'A full equivalent being thus left in the place of the slave, this emigration becomes an advantage to the state, and does not check the black population as much as, at first view, we might imagine—because it furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to the negroes, to ENCOURAGE BREEDING, and to cause the greatest number possible to be raised. &c."

"Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising state for other states."

Extract from the speech of MR. FAULKNER, in the Va. House of Delegates, 1832. [See Richmond Whig.]

"But he [Mr. Gholson,] has labored to show that the Abolition of Slavery, were it practicable, would be impolitic, because as the drift of this portion of his argument runs, your slaves constitute the entire wealth of the state, all the productive capacity Virginia possesses. And, sir, as things are, I believe he is correct. He says, and in this he is sustained by the gentleman from Halifax, Mr. Bruce, that the slaves constitute the entire available wealth at present, of Eastern Virginia. Is it true that for 200 years the only increase in the wealth and resources of Virginia, has been a remnant of the natural increase of this miserable race?—Can it be, that on this increase, she places her solo dependence? I had always understood that indolence and extravagance were the necessary concomitants of slavery; but, until I heard these declarations, I had not fully conceived the horrible extent of this evil. These gentlemen state the fact, which the history and present aspect of the Commowealth but too well sustain. The gentlemen's facts and argument in support of his plea of impolicy, to me, seem rather unhappy. To me, such a state of things would itself be conclusive at least, that something, even as a measure of policy, should be done. What, sir, have you lived for two hundred years, without personal effort or productive industry, in extravagance and indolence, sustained alone by the return from sales of the increase of slaves, and retaining merely such a number as your now impoverished lands can sustain, AS STOCK, depending, too, upon a most uncertain market? When that market is closed, as in the nature of things it must be, what then will become of this gentleman's hundred millions worth of slaves, AND THE ANNUAL PRODUCT?"

In the debates in the Virginia Convention, in 1829, Judge Upsher said—"The value of slaves as an article of property [and it is in that view only that they are legitimate subjects of taxation] depends much on the state of the market abroad. In this view, it is the value of land abroad, and not of land here, which furnishes the ratio. It is well known to us all, that nothing is more fluctuating than the value of slaves. A late law of Louisiana reduced their value 25 per cent, in two hours after its passage was known. IF IT SHOULD BE OUR LOT, AS I TRUST IT WILL BE, TO ACQUIRE THE COUNTRY OF TEXAS, THEIR PRICE WILL RISE AGAIN."—p. 77.

Mr. Goode, Of Virginia, in his speech before the Virginia Legislature, in Jan. 1832, [See Richmond Whig, of that date,] said:—

"The superior usefulness of the slaves in the south, will constitute an effectual demand, which will remove them from our limits. We shall send them from our state, because it will be our interest to do so. Our planters are already becoming farmers. Many who grew tobacco as their only staple, have already introduced, and commingled the wheat crop. They are already semi-farmers; and in the natural course of events, they must become more and more so.—As the greater quantity of rich western lands are appropriated to the production of the staple of our planters, that staple will become less profitable.—We shall gradually divert our lands from its production, until we shall become actual farmers.—Then will the necessity for slave labor diminish; then will the effectual demand diminish, and then will the quantity of slaves diminish, until they shall be adapted to the effectual demand.

"But gentlemen are alarmed lest the markets of other states be closed against the introduction of our slaves. Sir, the demand for slave labor MUST INCREASE through the South and West. It has been heretofore limited by the want of capital; but when emigrants shall be relieved from their embarrassments, contracted by the purchase of their lands, the annual profits of their estates, will constitute an accumulating capital, which they will seek to invest in labor. That the demand for labor must increase in proportion to the increase of capital, is one of the demonstrations of political economists; and I confess, that for the removal of slavery from Virginia, I look to the efficacy of that principle; together with the circumstance that our southern brethren are constrained to continue planters, by their position, soil and climate."

The following is from Niles' Weekly Register, published at Baltimore, Md. vol. 35, p. 4.

"Dealing in slaves has become a large business; establishments are made in several places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like cattle; these places of deposit are strongly built, and well supplied with thumb-screws and gags, and ornamented with cow-skins and other whips oftentimes bloody."

R.S. FINLEY, Esq., late General Agent of the American Colonization Society, at a meeting in New York, 27th Feb. 1833, said:

"In Virginia and other grain-growing slave states, the blacks do not support themselves, and the only profit their masters derive from them is, repulsive as the idea may justly seem, in breeding them, like other live stock for the more southern states."

Rev. Dr. GRAHAM, of Fayetteville, N.C. at a Colonization Meeting, held in that place in the fall of 1837 said:

"He had resided for 15 years in one of the largest slaveholding counties in the state, had long and anxiously considered the subject, and still it was dark. There were nearly 7000 slaves offered in New Orleans market last winter. From Virginia alone 6000 were annually sent to the south; and from Virginia and N.C. there had gone, in the same direction, in the last twenty years, 300,000 slaves. While not 4000 had gone to Africa. What it portended, he could not predict, but he felt deeply, that we must awake in these states and consider the subject."

Hon. PHILIP DODDRIDGE, of Virginia, in his speech in the Virginia Convention, in 1829, [Debates p. 89.] said:—

"The acquisition of Texas will greatly enhance the value of the property, in question, [Virginia slaves.]"

Hon C.F. MERCER, in a speech before the same Convention, in 1829, says:

"The tables of the natural growth of the slave population demonstrate, when compared with the increase of its numbers in the commonwealth for twenty years past, that an annual revenue of not less than a million and a half of dollars is derived from the exportation of a part of this population." (Debates, p. 199.)

Hon. HENRY CLAY, of Ky., in his speech before the Colonization Society, in 1829, says:

"It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United States, would slave labor be generally employed, if the proprietor were not tempted to RAISE SLAVES BY THE HIGH PRICE OF THE SOUTHERN MARKET WHICH KEEPS IT UP IN HIS OWN."

The New Orleans Courier, Feb. 15, 1839, speaking of the prohibition of the African Slave-trade, while the internal slave-trade is plied, says:

"The United States law may, and probably does, put MILLIONS into the pockets of the people living between the Roanoke, and Mason and Dixon's line; still we think it would require some casuistry to show that the present slave-trade from that quarter is a whit better than the one from Africa. One thing is certain—that its results are more menacing to the tranquillity of the people in this quarter, as there can be no comparison between the ability and inclination to do mischief, possessed by the Virginia negro, and that of the rude and ignorant African."

That the New Orleans Editor does not exaggerate in saying that the internal slave-trade puts 'millions' into the pockets of the slaveholders in Maryland and Virginia, is very clear from the following statement, made by the editor of the Virginia Times, an influential political paper, published at Wheeling, Virginia. Of the exact date of the paper we are not quite certain, it was, however, sometime in 1836, probably near the middle of the year—the file will show. The editor says:—

"We have heard intelligent men estimate the number of slaves exported from Virginia within the last twelve months, at 120,000—each slave averaging at least $600, making an aggregate at $72,000,000. Of the number of slaves exported, not more than one-third have been sold, (the others having been carried by their owners, who have removed,) which would leave in the state the SUM OF $24,000,000 ARISING FROM THE SALE OF SLAVES."

According to this estimate about FORTY THOUSAND SLAVES WERE SOLD OUT OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA IN A SINGLE YEAR, and the 'slave-breeders' who hold them, put into their pockets TWENTY-FOUR MILLION OF DOLLARS, the price of the 'souls of men.'

The New York Journal of Commerce of Oct. 12, 1835, contained a letter from a Virginian, whom the editor calls 'a very good and sensible man,' asserting that TWENTY THOUSAND SLAVES had been driven to the south from Virginia during that year, nearly one-fourth of which was then remaining.

The Maryville (Tenn.) Intelligencer, some time in the early part of 1836, (we have not the date,) says, in an article reviewing a communication of Rev. J.W. Douglass, of Fayetteville, North Carolina: "Sixty thousand slaves passed through a little western town for the southern market, during the year 1835."

The Natchez (Miss.) Courier, says "that the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, imported TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND SLAVES from the more northern slave states in the year 1836."

The Baltimore American gives the following from a Mississippi paper, of 1837:

"The report made by the committee of the citizens Of Mobile, appointed at their meeting held on the 1st instant, on the subject of the existing pecuniary pressure, states, among other things: that so large has been the return of slave labor, that purchases by Alabama of that species of property from other states since 1833, have amounted to about TEN MILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY."

FURTHER the inhumanity of a slaveholding 'public opinion' toward slaves, follows legitimately from the downright ruffianism of the slaveholding spirit in the 'highest class of society,' When roused, it tramples upon all the proprieties and courtesies, and even common decencies of life, and is held in check by none of those considerations of time, and place, and relations of station, character, law, and national honor, which are usually sufficient, even in the absence of conscientious principles, to restrain other men from outrages. Our National Legislature is a fit illustration of this. Slaveholders have converted the Congress of the United States into a very bear garden. Within the last three years some of the most prominent slaveholding members of the House, and among them the late speaker, have struck and kicked, and throttled, and seized each other by the hair, and with their fists pummelled each other's faces, on the floor of Congress. We need not publish an account of what every body knows, that during the session of the last Congress, Mr. Wise of Virginia and Mr. Bynum of North Carolina, after having called each other "liars, villains" and "damned rascals" sprung from their seats "both sufficiently armed for any desperate purpose," cursing each other as they rushed together, and would doubtless have butchered each other on the floor of Congress, if both had not been seized and held by their friends.

The New York Gazette relates the following which occurred at the close of the session of 1838.

"The House could not adjourn without another brutal and bloody row. It occurred on Sunday morning immediately at the moment of adjournment, between Messrs. Campbell and Maury, both of Tennessee. He took offence at some remarks made to him by his colleague, Mr. Campbell, and the fight followed."

The Huntsville (Ala.) Democrat of June 16, 1838, gives the particulars which follow:

"Mr. Maury is said to be badly hurt. He was near losing his life by being knocked through the window; but his adversary, it is said, saved him by clutching the hair of his head with his left hand, while he struck him with his right."

The same number of the Huntsville Democrat, contains the particulars of a fist-fight on the floor of the House of Representatives, between Mr. Bell, the late Speaker, and his colleague Mr. Turney of Tennessee. The following is an extract:

"Mr. Turney concluded his remarks in reply to Mr. Bell, in the course of which he commented upon that gentleman's course at different periods of his political career with great severity.

"He did not think his colleague [Mr. Turney,] was actuated by private malice, but was the willing voluntary instrument of others, the tool of tools.

Mr. Turney. It is false! it is false!

Mr. Stanley called Mr. TURNEY to order.

At the same moment both gentlemen were perceived in personal conflict, and blows with the fist were aimed by each at the other. Several members interfered, and suppressed the personal violence; others called order, order, and some called for the interference of the Speaker.

The Speaker hastily took the chair, and insisted upon order; but both gentlemen continued struggling, and endeavoring, notwithstanding the constraint of their friends, to strike each other."

The correspondent of the New York Gazette gives the following, which took place about the time of the preceding affrays:

"The House was much agitated last night, by the passage between Mr. Biddle, of Pittsburgh, and Mr. Downing, of Florida. Mr. D. exclaimed "do you impute falsehood to me!" at the same time catching up some missile and making a demonstration to advance upon Mr. Biddle. Mr. Biddle repeated his accusation, and meanwhile, Mr. Downing was arrested by many members."

The last three fights all occurred, if we mistake not, in the short space of one month. The fisticuffs between Messrs. Bynum and Wise occurred at the previous session of Congress. At the same session Messrs. Peyton of Tenn. and Wise of Virginia, went armed with pistols and dirks to the meeting of a committee of Congress, and threatened to shoot a witness while giving his testimony.

We begin with the first on the list. Who are Messrs. Wise and Bynum? Both slaveholders. Who are Messrs. Campbell and Maury? Both slaveholders. Who are Messrs. Bell and Turney? Both slaveholders. Who is Mr. Downing, who seized a weapon and rushed upon Mr. Biddle? A slaveholder. Who is Mr. Peyton who drew his pistol on a witness before a committee of Congress? A slaveholder of course. All these bullies were slaveholders, and they magnified their office, and slaveholding was justified of her children. We might fill a volume with similar chronicles of slaveholding brutality. But time would fail us. Suffice it to say, that since the organization of the government, a majority of the most distinguished men in the slaveholding states have gloried in strutting over the stage in the character of murderers. Look at the men whom the people delight to honor. President Jackson, Senator Benton, the late Gen. Coffee,—it is but a few years since these slaveholders shot at, and stabbed, and stamped upon each other in a tavern broil. General Jackson had previously killed Mr. Dickenson. Senator Clay of Kentucky has immortalized himself by shooting at a near relative of Chief Justice Marshall, and being wounded by him; and not long after by shooting at John Randolph of Virginia. Governor M'Duffie of South Carolina has signalized himself also, both by shooting and being shot,—so has Governor Poindexter, and Governor Rowan, and Judge M'Kinley of the U.S. Supreme Court, late senator in Congress from Alabama,—but we desist; a full catalogue would fill pages. We will only add, that a few months since, in the city of London, Governor Hamilton, of South Carolina, went armed with pistols, to the lodgings of Daniel O'Connell, 'to stop his wind' in the bullying slang of his own published boast. During the last session of Congress Messrs. Dromgoole and Wise[41] of Virginia, W. Cost Johnson and Jenifer of Maryland, Pickens and Campbell of South Carolina, and we know not how many more slaveholding members of Congress have been engaged, either as principals or seconds, in that species of murder dignified with the name of duelling. But enough; we are heart-sick. What meaneth all this? Are slaveholders worse than other men? No! but arbitrary power has wrought in them its mystery of iniquity, and poisoned their better nature with its infuriating sorcery.

Their savage ferocity toward each other when their passions are up, is the natural result of their habit of daily plundering and oppressing the slave.

The North Carolina Standard of August 30, 1837, contains the following illustration of this ferocity exhibited by two southern lawyers in settling the preliminaries of a duel.

"The following conditions were proposed by Alexander K. McClung, of Raymond, in the State of Mississippi, to H.C. Stewart, as the laws to govern a duel they were to fight near Vicksburg:

"Article 1st. The parties shall meet opposite Vicksburg, in the State of Louisiana, on Thursday the 29th inst. precisely at 4 o'clock, P.M. Agreed to.

"2d. The weapons to be used by each shall weigh one pound two and a half ounces, measuring sixteen inches and a half in length, including the handle, and one inch and three-eighths in breadth. Agreed to.

"3d. Both knives shall be sharp on one edge, and on the back shall be sharp only one inch at the point. Agreed to.

"4th. Each party shall stand at the distance of eight feet from the other, until the word is given. Agreed to.

"5th. The second of each party shall throw up, with a silver dollar, on the ground, for the word, and two best out of three shall win the word. Agreed to.

"6th. After the word is given, either party may take what advantage he can with his knife, but on throwing his knife at the other, shall be shot down by the second of his opponent. Agreed to.

"7th. Each party shall be stripped entirely naked, except one pair of linen pantaloons; one pair of socks, and boots or pumps as the party please. Acceded to.

"8th. The wrist of the left arm of each party shall be tied tight to his left thigh, and a strong cord shall be fastened around his left arm at the elbow, and then around his body. Rejected.

"9th. After the word is given, each party shall be allowed to advance or recede as he pleases, over the space of twenty acres of ground, until death ensues to one of the parties. Agreed to—the parties to be placed in the centre of the space.

"10th. The word shall be given by the winner of the same, in the following manner, viz: "Gentlemen are you ready?" Each party shall then answer, "I am!" The second giving the word shall then distinctly command—strike. Agreed to.

"If either party shall violate these rules, upon being notified by the second of either party, he may be liable to be shot down instantly. As established usage points out the duty of both parties, therefore notification is considered unnecessary."

The FAVORITE AMUSEMENTS of slaveholders, like the gladiatorial shows of Rome and the Bull Fights of Spain, reveal a public feeling insensible to suffering, and a depth of brutality in the highest degree revolting to every truly noble mind. One of their most common amusements is cock fighting. Mains of cocks, with twenty, thirty, and fifty cocks on each side, are fought for hundreds of dollars aside. The fowls are armed with steel spurs or 'gafts,' about two inches long. These 'gafts' are fastened upon the legs by sawing off the natural 'spur,' leaving only enough of it to answer the purpose of a stock for the tube of the "gafts," which are so sharp that at a stroke the fowls thrust them through each other's necks and heads, and tear each other's bodies till one or both dies, then two others are brought forward for the amusement of the multitude assembled, and this barbarous pastime is often kept up for days in succession, hundreds and thousands gathering from a distance to witness it. The following advertisements from the Raleigh Register, June 18, 1838, edited by Messrs. Gales and Son, the father and brother of Mr. Gales, editor of the National Intelligencer, and late Mayor of Washington City, reveal the public sentiment of North Carolina.

"CHATHAM AGAINST NASH, or any other county in the State. I am authorized to take a bet of any amount that may be offered, to FIGHT A MAIN OF COCKS, at any place that may be agreed upon by the parties—to be fought the ensuing spring. GIDEON ALSTON. Chatham county, June 7, 1838."

Two weeks after, this challenge was answered as follows:

"TO MR. GIDEON ALSTON, of Chatham county, N.C.

"SIR: In looking over the North Carolina Standard of the 20th inst. I discover a challenge over your signature, headed 'Chatham against Nash,' in which you state: that you are 'authorized to take a bet of any amount that may be offered, to fight a main of cocks, at any place that may be agreed upon by the parties, to be fought the ensuing spring' which challenge I ACCEPT: and do propose to meet you at Rolesville, in Wake county, N.C. on the last Wednesday in May next, the parties to show thirty-one cocks each—fight four days, and be governed by the rules as laid down in Turner's Cock Laws—which, if you think proper to accede to, you will signify through this or any other medium you may select, and then I will name the sum for which we shall fight, as that privilege was surrendered by you in your challenge.

"I am, sir, very respectfully, &c. NICHOLAS W. ARRINGTON, near Hilliardston, Nash co. North Carolina June 22nd, 1838"

The following advertisement in the Richmond Whig, of July 12, 1837, exhibits the public sentiment of Virginia.

"MAIN OF COCKS.—A large 'MAIN OF COCKS,' 21 a side, for $25 'the fight', and $500 'the odd,' will be fought between the County of Dinwiddie on one part, and the Counties of Hanover and Henrico on the other.

"The 'regular' fighting will be continued three days, and from the large number of 'game uns' on both sides and in the adjacent country, will be prolonged no doubt a fourth. To prevent confusion and promote 'sport,' the Pit will be enclosed and furnished with seats; so that those having a curiosity to witness a species of diversion originating in a better day (for they had no rag money then,) can have that very natural feeling gratified.

"The Petersburg Constellation is requested to copy."

Horse-racing too, as every body knows, is a favorite amusement of slaveholders. Every slave state has its race course, and in the older states almost every county has one on a small scale. There is hardly a day in the year, the weather permitting, in which crowds do not assemble at the south to witness this barbarous sport. Horrible cruelty is absolutely inseparable from it. Hardly a race occurs of any celebrity in which some one of the coursers is not lamed, 'broken down,' or in some way seriously injured, often for life, and not unfrequently they are killed by the rupture of some vital part in the struggle. When the heats are closely contested, the blood of the tortured animal drips from the lash and flies at every leap from the stroke of the rowel. From the breaking of girths and other accidents, their riders (mostly slaves) are often thrown and maimed or killed. Yet these amusements are attended by thousands in every part of the slave states. The wealth and fashion, the gentlemen and ladies of the 'highest circles' at the south, throng the race course.

That those who can fasten steel spurs upon the legs of dunghill fowls, and goad the poor birds to worry and tear each other to death—and those who can crowd by thousands to witness such barbarity—that those who can throng the race-course and with keen relish witness the hot pantings of the life-struggle, the lacerations and fitful spasms of the muscles, swelling through the crimsoned foam, as the tortured steeds rush in blood-welterings to the goal—that such, should look upon the sufferings of their slaves with, indifference is certainly small wonder.

Perhaps we shall be told that there are thronged race-courses at the North. True, there are a few, and they are thronged chiefly by Southerners, and 'Northern men with Southern principles,' and supported mainly by the patronage of slaveholders who summer at the North. Cock-fighting and horse-racing are "Southern institutions." The idleness, contempt of labor, dissipation, sensuality, brutality, cruelty, and meanness, engendered by the habit of making men and women work without pay, and flogging them if they demur at it, constitutes a congenial soil out of which cock-fighting and horse-racing are the spontaneous growth.

Again,—The kind treatment of the slaves is often argued from the liberal education and enlarged views of slaveholders. The facts and reasonings of the preceding pages have shown, that 'liberal education,' despotic habits and ungoverned passions work together with slight friction. And every day's observation shows that the former is often a stimulant to the latter.

But the notion so common at the north that the majority of the slaveholders are persons of education, is entirely erroneous. A very few slaveholders in each of the slave states have been men of ripe education, to whom our national literature is much indebted. A larger number may be called well educated—these reside mostly in the cities and large villages, but a majority of the slaveholders are ignorant men, thousands of them notoriously so, mere boors unable to write their names or to read the alphabet.

No one of the slave states has probably so much general education as Virginia. It is the oldest of them—has furnished one half of the presidents of the United States—has expended more upon her university than any state in the Union has done during the same time upon its colleges—sent to Europe nearly twenty years since for her most learned professors, and in fine, has far surpassed every other slave state in her efforts to disseminate education among her citizens, and yet, the Governor of Virginia in his message to the legislature (Jan. 7, 1839) says, that of four thousand six hundred and fourteen adult males in that state, who applied to the county clerks for marriage licenses in the year 1837, 'ONE THOUSAND AND FORTY SEVEN were unable to write their names.' The governor adds, 'These statements, it will be remembered, are confined to one sex: the education of females it is to be feared, is in a condition of much greater neglect.'

The Editor of the Virginia Times, published at Wheeling, in his paper of Jan. 23, 1839, says,—

"We have every reason to suppose that one-fourth of the people of the state cannot write their names, and they have not, of course, any other species of education."

Kentucky is the child of Virginia; her first settlers were some of the most distinguished citizens of the mother state; in the general diffusion of intelligence amongst her citizens Kentucky is probably in advance of all the slave states except Virginia and South Carolina; and yet Governor Clark, in his last message to the Kentucky Legislature, (Dec 5, 1838) makes the following declaration: "From the computation of those most familiar with the subject, it appears that AT LEAST ONE THIRD OF THE ADULT POPULATION OF THE STATE ARE UNABLE TO WRITE THEIR NAMES."

The following advertisement in the "Milledgeville (Geo.) Journal," Dec. 26, 1837, is another specimen from one of the 'old thirteen.'

"NOTICE.—I, Pleasant Webb, of the State of Georgia, Oglethorpe county, being an illiterate man, and not able to write my own name, and whereas it hath been represented to me that there is a certain promissory note or notes out against me that I know nothing of, and further that some man in this State holds a bill of sale for a certain negro woman named Ailsey and her increase, a part of which is now in my possession, which I also know nothing of. Now do hereby certify and declare, that I have no knowledge whatsoever of any such papers existing in my name as above stated and I hereby require all or any person or persons whatsoever holding or pretending to hold any such papers, to produce them to me within thirty days from the date hereof, shewing their authority for holding the same, or they will be considered fictitious and fraudulently obtained or raised, by some person or persons for base purposes after my death.

"Given under my hand this 2nd day of December, 1837. PLEASANT WEBB. his mark X."

FINALLY, THAT SLAVES MUST HABITUALLY SUFFER GREAT CRUELTIES, FOLLOWS INEVITABLY FROM THE BRUTAL OUTRAGES WHICH THEIR MASTERS INFLICT ON EACH OTHER.

Slaveholders, exercising from childhood irresponsible power over human beings, and in the language of President Jefferson, "giving loose to the worst of passions" in the treatment of their slaves, become in a great measure unfitted for self control in their intercourse with each other. Tempers accustomed to riot with loose reins, spurn restraints, and passions inflamed by indulgence, take fire on the least friction. We repeat it, the state of society in the slave states, the duels, and daily deadly affrays of slaveholders with each other—the fact that the most deliberate and cold-blooded murders are committed at noon day, in the presence of thousands, and the perpetrators eulogized by the community as "honorable men," reveals such a prostration of law, as gives impunity to crime—a state of society, an omnipresent public sentiment reckless of human life, taking bloody vengeance on the spot for every imaginary affront, glorying in such assassinations as the only true honor and chivalry, successfully defying the civil arm, and laughing its impotency to scorn.

When such things are done in the green tree, what will be done in the dry? When slaveholders are in the habit of caning, stabbing, and shooting each other at every supposed insult, the unspeakable enormities perpetrated by such men, with such passions, upon their defenceless slaves, must be beyond computation. To furnish the reader with an illustration of slaveholding civilization and morality, as exhibited in the unbridled fury, rage, malignant hate, jealousy, diabolical revenge, and all those infernal passions that shoot up rank in the hot-bed of arbitrary power, we will insert here a mass of testimony, detailing a large number of affrays, lynchings, assassinations, &c., &c., which have taken place in various parts of the slave states within a brief period—and to leave no room for cavil on the subject, these extracts will be made exclusively from newspapers published in the slave states, and generally in the immediate vicinity of the tragedies described. They will not be made second hand from northern papers, but from the original southern papers, which now lie on our table.

Before proceeding to furnish details of certain classes of crimes in the slave states, we advertise the reader—1st. That we shall not include in the list those crimes which are ordinarily committed in the free, as well as in the slave states. 2d. We shall not include any of the crimes perpetrated by whites upon slaves and free colored persons, who constitute a majority of the population in Mississippi and Louisiana, a large majority in South Carolina, and, on an average, two-fifths in the other slave states. 3d. Fist fights, canings, beatings, biting off noses and ears, gougings, knockings down, &c., unless they result in death, will not be included in the list, nor will ordinary murders, unless connected with circumstances that serve as a special index of public sentiment. 4th. Neither will ordinary, formal duels be included, except in such cases as just specified. 5th. The only crimes which, as the general rule, will be specified, will be deadly affrays with bowie knives, dirks, pistols. rifles, guns, or other death weapons, and lynchings. 6th. The crimes enumerated will, for the most part, be only those perpetrated openly, without attempt at concealment. 7th. We shall not attempt to give a full list of the affrays, &c., that took place in the respective states during the period selected, as the only files of southern papers to which we have access are very imperfect.

The reader will perceive, from these preliminaries, that only a small proportion of the crimes actually perpetrated in the respective slave states during the period selected, will be entered upon this list. He will also perceive, that the crimes which will be presented are of a class rarely perpetrated in the free states; and if perpetrated there at all, they are, with scarcely an exception, committed either by slaveholders, temporarily resident in them, or by persons whose passions have been inflamed by the poison of a southern contact—whose habits and characters have become perverted by living among slaveholders, and adopting the code of slaveholding morality.

We now proceed to the details, commencing with the new state of Arkansas.



ARKANSAS.

At the last session of the legislature of that state, Col. John Wilson, President of the Bank at Little Rock, the capital of the state, was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. He had been elected to that office for a number of years successively, and was one of the most influential citizens of the state. While presiding over the deliberations of the House, he took umbrage at words spoken in debate by Major Anthony, a conspicuous member, came down from the Speaker's chair, drew a large bowie knife from his bosom, and attacked Major A., who defended himself for some time, but was at last stabbed through the heart, and fell dead on the floor. Wilson deliberately wiped the blood from his knife, and returned to his seat. The following statement of the circumstances of the murder, and the trial of the murderer, is abridged from the account published in the Arkansas Gazette, a few months since—it is here taken from the Knoxville (Tennessee) Register, July 4, 1838.

"On the 14th of December last, Maj. Joseph J. Anthony, a member of the Legislature of Arkansas, was murdered, while performing his duty as a member of the House of Representatives, by John Wilson, Speaker of that House.

"The facts were these: A bill came from the Senate, commonly called the Wolf Bill. Among the amendments proposed, was one by Maj. Anthony, that the signature of the President of the Real Estate Bank should be attached to the certificate of the wolf scalp. Col. Wilson, the Speaker, asked Maj. Anthony whether he intended the remark as personal. Maj. Anthony promptly said, "No, I do not." And at that instant of time, a message was delivered from the Senate, which suspended the proceedings of the House for a few minutes. Immediately after the messenger from the Senate had retired, Maj. Anthony rose from his seat, and said he wished to explain, that he did not intend to insult the Speaker or the House; when Wilson, interrupting, peremptorily ordered him to take his seat. Maj. Anthony said, as a member, he had a right to the floor, to explain himself. Wilson said, in an angry tone, 'Sit down, or you had better;' and thrust his hand into his bosom, and drew out a large bowie knife, 10 or 11 inches in length, and descended from the Speaker's chair to the floor, with the knife drawn in a menacing manner. Maj. Anthony, seeing the danger he was placed in, by Wilson's advance on him with a drawn knife, rose from his chair, set it out of his way, stepped back a pace or two, and drew his knife. Wilson caught up a chair, and struck Anthony with it. Anthony, recovering from the blow, caught the chair in his left hand, and a fight ensued over the chair. Wilson received two wounds, one on each arm, and Anthony lost his knife, either by throwing it at Wilson, or it escaped by accident. After Anthony had lost his knife, Wilson advanced on Anthony, who was then retreating, looking over his shoulder. Seeing Wilson pursuing him, he threw a chair. Wilson still pursued, and Anthony raised another chair as high as his breast, with a view, it is supposed, of keeping Wilson off. Wilson then caught hold of the chair with his left hand, raised it up, and with his right hand deliberately thrust the knife, up to the hilt, into Anthony's heart, and as deliberately drew it out, and wiping off the blood with his thumb and finger, retired near to the Speaker's chair.

"As the knife was withdrawn from Anthony's heart, he fell a lifeless corpse on the floor, without uttering a word, or scarcely making a struggle; so true did the knife, as deliberately directed, pierce his heart.

"Three days elapsed before the constituted authorities took any notice of this horrible deed; and not then, until a relation of the murdered Anthony had demanded a warrant for the apprehension of Wilson. Several days then elapsed before he was brought before an examining court. He then, in a carriage and four, came to the place appointed for his trial. Four or five days were employed in the examination of witnesses, and never was a clearer case of murder proved than on that occasion. Notwithstanding, the court (Justice Brown dissenting) admitted Wilson to bail, and positively refused that the prosecuting attorney for the state should introduce the law, to show that it was not a bailable case, or even to hear an argument from him.

"At the time appointed for the session of the Circuit Court, Wilson appeared agreeably to his recognizance. A motion was made by Wilson's counsel for change of venue, founded on the affidavits of Wilson, and two other men. The court thereupon removed the case to Saline county, and ordered the Sheriff to take Wilson into custody, and deliver him over to the Sheriff of Saline county.

"The Sheriff of Pulaski never confined Wilson one minute, but permitted him to go where he pleased, without a guard, or any restraint imposed on him whatever. On his way to Saline, he entertained him freely at his own house, and the next day delivered him over to the Sheriff of that county, who conducted the prisoner to the debtor's room in the jail, and gave him the key, so that he and every body else had free egress and ingress at all times. Wilson invited every body to call on him, as he wished to see his friends, and his room was crowded with visitors, who called to drink grog, and laugh and talk with him. But this theatre was not sufficiently large for his purpose. He afterwards visited the dram-shops, where he freely treated all that would partake with him, and went fishing and hunting with others at pleasure, and entirely with out restraint. He also ate at the same table with the Judge, while on trial.

"When the court met at Saline, Wilson was put on his trial. Several days were occupied in examining the witnesses in the case. After the examination was closed, while Col. Taylor was engaged in a very able, lucid, and argumentative speech, on the part of the prosecution, some man collected a parcel of the rabble, and came within a few yards of the court-house door, and bawled in a loud voice, 'part them—part them!' Every body supposed there was an affray, and ran to the doors and windows to see; behold, there was nothing more than the man, and the rabble he had collected around him, for the purpose of annoying Col. Taylor while speaking. A few minutes afterwards, this same person brought a horse near the court-house door, and commenced crying the horse, as though he was for sale, and continued for ten or fifteen minutes to ride before the court-house door, crying the horse, in a loud and boisterous tone of voice. The Judge sat as a silent listener to the indignity thus offered the court and counsel by this man, without interposing his authority.

"To show the depravity of the times, and the people, after the verdict had been delivered by the jury, and the court informed Wilson that he was discharged, there was a rush toward him: some seized him by the hand, some by the arm, and there was great and loud rejoicing and exultation, directly in the presence of the court: and Wilson told the Sheriff to take the jury to a grocery, that he might treat them, and invited every body that chose to go. The house was soon filled to overflowing. The rejoicing was kept up till near supper time: but to cap the climax, soon after supper was over, a majority of the jury, together with many others, went to the rooms that had been occupied several days by the friend and relation of the murdered Anthony, and commenced a scene of the most ridiculous dancing, (as it is believed,) in triumph for Wilson, and as a triumph over the feelings of the relations of the departed Anthony. The scene did not close here. The party retired to a dram-shop, and continued their rejoicing until about half after 10 o'clock. They then collected a parcel of horns, trumpets, &c., and marched through the streets, blowing them, till near day, when one of the company rode his horse in the porch adjoining the room which was occupied by the relations of the deceased."

This case is given to the reader at length, in order fully to show, that in a community where the law sanctions the commission of every species of outrage upon one class of citizens, it fosters passions which will paralyze its power to protect the other classes. Look at the facts developed in this case, as exhibiting the state of society among slaveholders. 1st. That the members of the legislature are in the habit of wearing bowie knives. Wilson's knife was 10 or 11 inches long.[42] 2d. The murderer, Wilson, was a man of wealth, president of the bank at the capital of the state, a high military officer, and had, for many years, been Speaker of the House of Representatives, as appears from a previous statement in the Arkansas Gazette. 3d. The murder was committed in open day, before all the members of the House, and many spectators, not one of whom seems to have made the least attempt to intercept Wilson, as he advanced upon Anthony with his knife drawn, but "made way for him," as is stated in another account. 4th. Though the murder was committed in the state-house, at the capital of the state, days passed before the civil authorities moved in the matter; and they did not finally do it, until the relations of the murdered man demanded a warrant for the apprehension of the murderer. Even then, several days elapsed before he was brought before an examining court. When his trial came on, he drove to it in state, drew up before the door with "his coach and four," alighted, and strided into court like a lord among his vassals; and there, though a clearer case of deliberate murder never reeked in the face of the sun, yet he was admitted to bail, the court absolutely refusing to hear an argument from the prosecuting attorney, showing that it was not a bailable case. 5th. The sheriff of Pulaski county, who had Wilson in custody, "never confined him a moment, but permitted him to go at large wholly unrestrained." When transferred to Saline co. for trial, the sheriff of that county gave Wilson the same liberty, and he spent his time in parties of pleasure, fishing, hunting, and at houses of entertainment. 6th. Finally, to demonstrate to the world, that justice among slaveholders is consistent with itself; that authorizing man-stealing and patronising robbery, it will, of course, be the patron and associate of murder also, the judge who sat upon the case, and the murderer who was on trial for his life before him, were boon-companions together, eating and drinking at the same table throughout the trial. Then came the conclusion of the farce—the uproar round the court-house during the trial, drowning the voice of the prosecutor while pleading, without the least attempt by the court to put it down—then the charge of the judge to the jury, and their unanimous verdict of acquittal—then the rush from all quarters around the murderer with congratulations—the whole crowd in the court room shouting and cheering—then Wilson leading the way to a tavern, inviting the sheriff, and jury, and all present to "a treat"—then the bacchanalian revelry kept up all night, a majority of the jurors participating—the dancing, the triumphal procession through the streets with the blowing of horns and trumpets, and the prancing of horses through the porch of the house occupied by the relations of the murdered Anthony, adding insult and mockery to their agony.