) I 
 i I 
 
THE NATION'S 
 
 SIN AND PUNISHMENT; 
 
 OK, 
 
 HE HAND OF GOD 
 
 VISIBLE IN THE 
 
 uj 5 OYqfiLTHROW OF SLAY 
 l9k W ^— 
 
 APLAIN OF THE U. S. 
 
 has been, thirty years, a resident of the Slave States. 
 
 '^i f tb .. Jyf^'Cf^-''^-*^^* 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 M. DOOLADY, Agent, 49 WALKER ST. 
 
 AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, 121 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 K. CEAIGHEAD, Peintee. 
 
 1864. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1864, by 
 
 STEPHEN A. HODGMAN. 
 
 In the Qerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
 
 Souihern District of New York. 
 
 ,|^ 
 
 By transfer 
 OtC 80 1915 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 stereotyped by VINCENT DILL, 
 
 No. 24 Beekman St., N. Y. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Dedication. . , . . . . . . 5 
 
 Author's Introduction. , . . , .7 
 
 I. — "Wars — Just or Unjust. .... 11 
 
 II.— What is Slavery. . . . . .22 
 
 III. — Origin cf African Slavery. ... 30 
 
 IV. — Early Opposition to Slavery. . . .35 
 
 V. — The Middle Passage. .... 44 
 
 VI. — The last Crime of Slavery. . . .63 
 
 VII. — The Expiation. . . . . .76 
 
 VIQ. — The " Malum in se " Theory. . . .94 
 
 IX. — Christianity versus Slavery. . . .114 
 
 X. — The Voice of Blood. .... 133 
 
 XI. — Rachel's Lamentation. .... 146 
 
 Xn. — Enslavement of the mind. .... 166 
 
 XIII. — Breeding Slaves for Market. . . .176 
 
 XIV. — The Marriage Altar thrown down. . . 185 
 
 XV. — The Proclamation. . . . . 198 
 
 XVI. — How to dispose of the liberated slaves. . 207 
 
 XVii. — Religious Character of the Negro. . . 218 
 
 XV ill. — The Colored Regiments. . . . .228 
 
 XIX. — Author's Experience among the Rebels. . 242 
 XX. — Conclusion — Three Parties. .... 258 
 
To the Christian people of this great and 
 free land, this little volume is affectionately 
 dedicated. We have not, as we should have 
 done, recognized the hand of our God, in the 
 terrible judgments that have come on our 
 Nation. The design of this little volume 
 is, to trace those judgments to their legiti- 
 mate and just cause, and to view, in its re- 
 ligious aspect, the sanguinary strife, through 
 which we are now passing. As a Nation, 
 we are guilty^ in having tolerated and up- 
 held for a long series of years, the most 
 matured system of iniquity and oppression, 
 that devDs or wicked men ever yet devised. 
 The wonder is, that, the Divine judgments 
 did not descend upon us long ago. But our 
 eyes have been opened at length, and we 
 are thankful, that our land is to be cleans- 
 ed from its pollutions. 
 
 The Author. 
 
 In CaoTvp^ November^ 1863. 
 
^ RECEIVED* 
 
 JUN 8 1897 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The writer of this fugitive Essay, lias no 
 apology to make, for this Introduction of 
 himself to the Public, but he deems it pro- 
 per to remark, that, having received a North- 
 ern birth and education, he has spent the 
 last thirty-two years of his life in the Slave 
 States. He thinks, therefore, that he can 
 say, without the charge of vanity, he feels 
 competent, from his own j^ersonal hnoivledge^ 
 to give, correctly, the characteristics of Sla- 
 very, and of Slave-holders. He would also 
 further remark, that he is not now, and that 
 he never has been an Abolitionist^ of the 
 radical school. He has always been an anti- 
 slavery man. But from the very hour when 
 the Rebels opened their batteries on Fort 
 Sumter, he has been an earnest and practi- 
 
8 THE authok's introduction. 
 
 cal Emancipationist; for he tlien became 
 assured that the downfall of slavery had 
 been decreed of Heaven, and he knew that 
 it would be only madness to be found in op- 
 position to the Will or God, as revealed in 
 the terrible dispensations of his Providence. 
 He had always endeavored to stand, on conr 
 eervative ground, acting in the spirit of con- 
 ciliation and compromise, in which spirit the 
 nation had grown up as a unity, and had 
 advanced to a degree of unexampled pros- 
 perity. He belonged to that branch of the 
 Church, which entirely ignored the right of 
 Ecclesiastical bodies, to legislate on the sub- 
 ject of slavery. His motive, as well as that 
 of the brethren of the same Church, who 
 acted in this conservative spirit, was to pre- 
 vent, if possible, the dismemberment of the 
 Church, and the dissolution of the States' 
 Union. 
 
 But we have been disappointed. Our pol- 
 icy was wrong. This confession does not 
 imply that we had adopted a wrong policy, 
 
THE author's introduction. 9 
 
 intentionally, to accomplisli a laudable pur- 
 pose. The Union has been dissolved, to be 
 reconstructed, we doubt not, on a better, 
 and surer foundation. The Church has been 
 rent asunder, notwithstanding all our con- 
 servatism. Slavery has done the mischief. 
 Conservatism could not prevent it. We 
 were only mistaken as to what the Almigh- 
 ty had willed. The Abolitionists were but 
 instruments who had a special agency to 
 perform in the work. But no thanks to 
 them! the war had become necessary. A 
 wdse and just Providence has directed all 
 the steps. The writer exults in the belief, 
 that the revolution will be most glorious, 
 in its results, to the Nation at large, and to 
 the interests of the universal Church Mili- 
 tant. 
 
?jC 
 
 Ay\^ 
 
 I. 
 
 WARS— JUST OR UNJUST. 
 
 I HAVE somewhere read, in history, of two 
 brothers, who quarreled for the possession of a 
 throne. The contest became so fierce, that each 
 decided to raise an army, and to settle their 
 claims on the field of blood. When the combat 
 was over, the two brothers were found, side by 
 side, in the embrace of death. Their mutual ani- 
 mosity had been so violent, that they had sought 
 and encountered one another, in single combat, 
 and had fallen, on the same spot, each pierced by 
 the other's sword. This was a war between two 
 brothers. — 
 
 The war now desolating this' once prosperous 
 and happy country, is a war between brothers! 
 
 Tell me, ye people of America, who boast of 
 your Christianity, how, think you, a Holy God 
 must look down, from his glorious habitation, on 
 such a strife between brothers! How must the 
 
^ 
 
 \ 
 
 12. • * WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 
 
 / 
 
 lessed and holy angels view sucli a contest as 
 this ! With what sentiments must every truly 
 devout and Christian philanthropist throughout 
 the world, regard this grand display of rage and 
 hellish passions! Can it be imagined, that pure 
 and holy beings, either in heaven or upon earth, 
 can look on such a contest with emotions of sat- 
 isfaction or complacency? Does the exhibition of 
 such demoniacal wrath, indicate that man was, 
 originally, endowed with reason and a moral con- 
 science ? that the image of Deity was instamped 
 on his heart? and that he was made, in form and 
 soul, erect, and superior to savage beasts whose 
 nature thirsts for blood ? 
 
 The existence of war proves that man is a 
 fallen being. He fell from his allegiance to a 
 Holy God. This is the reason, and no other can 
 be assigned, why he is ever made willing to imbrue 
 his hand in the blood of his brother man. If it 
 were not so, this earth would never have become 
 the theater of wars, and deadly strifes ; but the 
 whole family of Adam had remained united to- 
 gether, in the bonds of love and a sacred brother- 
 hood. 
 
 What a terrible thing sin is ! It sowed the first 
 seeds of discord ! It first caused the tocsin of 
 
WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 13 
 
 war to be sounded in the peaceful realms of the 
 new and green earth, which God created and de- 
 signed as the abode of man ! It has strewn every 
 battle-field with the dead and mangled corpses of 
 earth's children ! 
 
 What a frightful thing sin is ! No wonder a 
 Holy God hates sin, with an infinite and eternal 
 hatred ! 
 
 View war, in its inception and in its progress 
 — what are its paraphernalia, and its accompani- 
 ments ? Human ingenuity has been taxed to the 
 utmost extent — science has been laid under con- 
 tribution, to furnish the most deadly and destruct- 
 ive implements of death that could be invented. 
 
 See the opposing hosts drawn up in battle 
 array ; they are members of the same common 
 family of God, who have fallen out with one an- 
 other, and are met to settle the controversy. The 
 weapons of death gleam in their hands. The pas- 
 sions of hell rage and burn in their hearts. The 
 trumpet sounds ! Wild and savage yells are 
 heard ! It is the signal for the commencement 
 of the slaughter — the battle begins ! There is a 
 deafening roar of artillery — the plains are envel- 
 oped in clouds of smoke — the ground is strewn 
 with the dead — the air is rent with the groans 
 
1\ 
 
 WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 
 
 of the dying ! This is war I aye, this is honor- 
 able and christian warfare ! And this is the 
 mode in which brethren choose to settle the dif- 
 ferences that arise between them ! Can a right- 
 eous God approve of such horrible carnage ? 
 
 It has been represented that war is a necessary 
 evil. It is so, only to the extent that sin abounds 
 — for every war is the effect of sin. 
 
 Defensive wars are justifiable. The present 
 civil war, as undertaken to defend and maintain 
 the Government of the country, and to perpetuate 
 the glorious inheritance of civil and religious lib- 
 erty, bequeathed to us by our ancestors, is a 
 necessary, and, therefore, a just war. But, as 
 undertaken by the Rebels, to break up the Gov- 
 ernment, it is not a just war, but a horrible 
 revolt against God, and against human rights. 
 There was no imperative and absolute necessity, 
 that forced them to engage in this war. They 
 did it voluntarily, and without a just cause. 
 Therefore, there is no palliation for their guilt, 
 and the vengeance of a just God, is inflicted, 
 and must be inflicted on them. 
 
 Notwithstanding that all wars are the result 
 of sin, yet, as I have already intimated, some 
 wars are just and necessary. And, it may be 
 
WARS— JUST OR UNJUST. 15 
 
 said, that, as permitted by the Supreme Being, 
 all wars resuU in good to the human family. 
 We cannot always tell what good, but some- 
 times we can. 
 
 We are sure that the war of our Independence, 
 which laid the foundations of the greatest nation, 
 and the best government on earth, effected an 
 amount of good which it is scarcely possible for 
 the human intellect to estimate. 
 
 The Mexican war was overruled for good, in- 
 asmuch as it resulted in wresting, from a state of 
 anarchy and misrule, a large portion of this con- 
 tinent, and bringing it under the empire of free- 
 dom. It does not require the spirit of vaticination 
 to foresee, at this late hour of the day, that the 
 whole of this New World, discovered by Colum- 
 bus, is destined to be brought under that Empire 
 
 of Freedom. 
 ^ And who does not believe that this present great 
 civil war, will be, in its results, as glorious for 
 the family of man at large, as any that has ever 
 preceded it, in the history of nations ? 
 
 In the first place, it will be the overthrow of 
 Slavery, which has so long been a withering and 
 blighting curse to the richest and most beautiful 
 section of our wide domain. If that should be 
 
16 WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 
 
 the only result, it will be worth all the blood 
 and treasure expended in the achievement of so 
 desirable an end. In all my reading, I must 
 say, I have never read of a more matured system 
 of fraud, and wholesale murder and oppression, 
 than this system of slavery, which has been so 
 long tolerated under the auspices of our, so 
 called, free government. For one, I rejoice for 
 my country, that it is to be blotted out forever. 
 In the second place, the effect of this war, 
 will be, to cement and strengthen the. bonds of 
 the Union. There is little probability that we 
 shall ever see another civil war in this land. If 
 eleven powerful States, combining their resour- 
 ces and strength, could not succeed in breaking 
 up the Government, but have been so severely 
 punished for their mad undertaking, what likeli- 
 hood is there, that any other States will ever, 
 hereafter, venture upon a similar experiment? 
 No, we believe that all our sectional disputes and 
 differences that may hereafter arise, will be set- 
 tled by ballots, and not by bullets. There will 
 never be another appeal to arms to decide polit- 
 ical questions and local disputes. It is some- 
 thing, surely, to have attained a purpose so de- 
 sirable as this. 
 
WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 17 
 
 In tlie last place, this war has served to de- 
 velope the fact, that the people of this country 
 have a government which can maintain itself, 
 not only against foreign enemies, but against do- 
 mestic foes, and traitors at home. The fact has 
 been illustrated, that there is, in the heart of the 
 masses of the people, a love for the Union, even 
 stronger than love for life itself, which would 
 cause them to rally to the defence of that Union, 
 when endangered, under any and all circumstan- 
 ces. If this civil war were ended to-day, we 
 should have no fears in regard to the perpetu- 
 ity of the Union, not even if the Nations of 
 Europe should conspire together, for its destruc- 
 tion. In view of the future of our country, which 
 was also the country of Washington and of 
 Franklin, we can say, esto pcrpetua, in the full 
 belief, that the ejaculation is not uttered in vain. 
 
 We see , therefore , how it is , that the Almighty 
 sends war, and overrules it, for the accomplish- 
 ment of great good to the nations. Doubtless, 
 all the wars that have ever occurred in the world, 
 have resulted in some good, although shortsighted 
 mortals might not be able to discover it, at the 
 moment. 
 
 The Lord hath said, in his word, that, he wiU 
 
18 WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 
 
 (yverturn, and overturn, and overturn, till he shall 
 reign, whose right it is, and he will give him the 
 kingdom. The most obvious meaning of this lan- 
 guage is, that revolution shall succeed revolution 
 among the nations, until the reign of Jesus Christ 
 is established, and then, there shall be peace on 
 earth. 
 
 All the wars that have been waged of late 
 years, and all the changes that are now taking 
 place, in the condition of nations, seem ordained 
 to prepare the way for the reign of Jesus Christ. 
 The two last wars in Europe, the Crimean and 
 the Italian, broke the power of the two most for- 
 midable despotisms in the old world. And this 
 great American war, is destined to subvert and 
 destroy Slavery, in the new world. 
 
 The reign of Jesus Christ, will be one of 
 universal peace and freedom. Previous to the 
 birth of Christianity, Slavery prevailed generally 
 throughout the world. But it has been gradu- 
 ally retreating, as the Cross has advanced in 
 triumph, till now. I believe there are but two 
 countries under the influence of the Christian 
 Keligion, where slavery exists, viz ; the Spanish 
 West Indies, and Brazil, in South America. And 
 it is known, that, it is but an imperfect form 
 
WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 19 
 
 of Christianity that exists in those countries. 
 But we may rest assured, that, it will not be 
 many years before they will be fully redeemed 
 from the curse, and the shackles shall fall from 
 the limbs of every slave. 
 
 There are many • signs which clearly indicate, 
 that we are approaching the Millennial age of 
 the world. Who can enumerate the discoveries 
 and improvements in Science and Art, of the 
 last fifty years, including the Steam Engine, the 
 Eail Road, the Magnetic Telegraph, and a thou- 
 sand other things, all of which are calculated 
 to bring the scattered race of Adam nearer to- 
 gether, as one family, in the bonds of brother- 
 hood and charity. And who can speak, in ade- 
 quate terms, of the operations of the Press, in 
 the diffusion of knowledge? The Bible has been 
 translated into almost every spoken language, 
 and millions of copies have been put into cir- 
 culation. 
 
 Under this belief, of the near approach of the 
 Millennium, I am willing to see revolution suc- 
 ceed revolution, in the affairs of nations. I re- 
 joice to witness the great stoppings of the Al- 
 mighty on the theater of the world. Nor do 
 I feel dismayed, at the fearful overturnings and 
 
20 WARS — JUST OR UNJUST. 
 
 earthquakes, by which one gigantic system of 
 tyranny after another is overthrown. I believe 
 that we shall still hear of wars, and rumors of 
 wars, according to the word of Jesus Christ. 
 But, from the signs of the times, I believe these 
 wars will speedily take place, and it will not 
 be very long before the last battle shall be 
 fought. 
 
 England, Spain, and perhaps some other nations 
 have debts of long standing to be settled, which, 
 I think, will be exacted of them before very 
 long, in blood. If I know what justice is, and, 
 if I can read aright, there must be such debts 
 standing charged against them, in the Book of 
 the Most High, and when the hour for settle- 
 ment comes, as come it will, they must meet the 
 account. 
 
 God does punish the nations for their sins! 
 Our nation, to day, in sackcloth and ashes, attests 
 the truth of this declaration. And if this favored 
 land has been so severely judged, will He, can 
 He, consistently with the principles of Eternal 
 Justice, let other nations escape? As sure as 
 God reigns on his throne in Heaven, he will not. 
 The innocent blood shed by them, will be ex- 
 acted of them, in turn. 
 
WARS — ^JUST OR UNJUST. 21 
 
 There may be some now living, who, though 
 not very young, may be permitted to see the last 
 bloody conflict, which is to precede the dawning 
 of the millennial day, when the olive branch of 
 peace shall be seen throughout the world. The 
 best commentators are of the opinion, that, the 
 prophecies are nearly fulfilled, and that the com- 
 mencement of that wished for, golden age of the 
 world, is near at hand. 
 
22 
 
 II. 
 
 WHAT IS SLAVERY? 
 
 « 
 To a conscience, humanized by the influences 
 
 of a christian civilization, as well as to an en- 
 lightened reason, there is something repugnant in 
 the theory, that one-half, or any portion, of the 
 children of Adam, were born to be slaves and 
 drudges for the other half. If the theory were 
 true, one would suppose that men should come 
 into the world, with some distinctive marks upon 
 them, indicating to what destiny they were born. 
 We receive the Bible account of the creation 
 of man ; and, placing implicit confidence in the 
 authenticity of that account, we cannot, for a mo- 
 ment, entertain the notion, that, during the first 
 generation of man, even in the life-time of Adam, 
 some of his sons and daughters were enslaved 
 by the others, and bought and sold by them, as 
 merchandise. But why not, if slavery is an Insti- 
 tution of Divine origin ? Surely, we have a right 
 
WHAT IS SLAVERY? 23 
 
 to suppose that every institution of a Divine na- 
 ture — as marriage, and others which God estab- 
 lished — must have flourished in the garden of 
 Eden, and during the earlier ages, when the world 
 was far more free from the eflects of sin, than it 
 has been at any subsequent period ; yet there is 
 nothing said of the existence of slavery in the 
 garden of Eden, and, in the Mosaic account of the 
 creation, there is no mention made of any such 
 institution. 
 
 We have learned men and eminent theologians 
 in our day, proclaiming the Divine origin of 
 slavery. They are, at this hour, edifying their 
 brethren throughout the Southern Confederacy, by 
 teaching that this new government has been or- 
 dained of God, for the purpose of conserving and 
 perpetuating the peculiar and Divine institution. 
 I am acquainted with one of these reverend lec- 
 turers. An Englishman by birth, he settled first 
 in Syracuse, N. Y., where he distinguished him- 
 self as an earnest and zealous advocate for aboli- 
 tion. Afterwards, he removed to the Soivth^and 
 soon became equally earnest and zealous for the 
 divine right of slavery, and, months before the 
 war commenced, openly avowed and preached Se- 
 cession from his pulpit. 
 
24 WHAT IS SLAVERY? 
 
 Another lecturer, Dr. Palmer, is entitled to be 
 considered as a leader in this class of divines. 
 But he was born in South Carolina, and some 
 allowance may be made for him, on account of 
 the peculiar training and education he received 
 in his youth. He asserted in a public discourse, 
 in New Orleans, that the cause of the Confeder- 
 acy was a more just and sacred cause, than that 
 for which Washington and the Revolutionary 
 fathers fought. He also declared publicly, that, 
 he should lose his confidence in God, as a God 
 of truth and justice, if he should give success to 
 the arms of the North. How strikingly we see 
 verified, in such cases, the old heathen adage, 
 " Quern Deus vult perde7'e, prius dementatJ^ 
 
 No, the most that can be said in &vor of 
 slavery is, that, like war and many other evils 
 that afflict the world, it was engendered by sin. 
 It belongs to the same family of ills that were 
 let loose, when Pandora's box was opened, to 
 scourge humanity. To say that it was ever de- 
 signed as a blessing to the human family, would 
 be, in effect to affirm that the curse which Noah 
 pronounced on Canaan, was a blessing ! It would 
 be to put darkness for light ; to call evil good. 
 And to assert that slaverv is a Christian Insti- 
 
WHAT IS SLAVERY? 25 
 
 tution, would be tantamount to saying, that Christ 
 did not come into the world to redeem men from 
 under the curse of sin. But, to teach that the ob- 
 ject of his Heavenly Mission to the earth, was 
 to rivet the fetters of bondage on the slave, in- 
 stead of breaking every yoke, is a piece of im- 
 piety bold enough to bring the blush of shame on 
 the very cheeks of damnation. 
 
 No one, who makes any pretensions to piety, 
 will controvert the position that slavery, as it ex- 
 ists, and as it has existed for long ages in the 
 world, was originally produced by sin. It is one 
 of the works of the Devil. But Christ came into 
 the world to destroy the works of the Devil. 
 
 The principle that might makes right, is the 
 principle that has practically governed the world, 
 during Satan's dominion over it. It is the prin- 
 ciple that has made slaves of one part of the 
 family of man, and tyrants of another part of the 
 same family. 
 
 The first slaves, as it is generally supposed, 
 were captives taken in war, sold or distributed 
 among the conquerors, and afterwards held by 
 them as bondmen. 
 
 What would be thought by the civilized world, 
 of any christian nation, who should sell the prison- 
 
26 WHAT IS SLAVERY ? 
 
 ers taken in war to be held as slaves for life, 
 and their posterity? What would the philanthro- 
 pists of England say, if our Government should 
 cause the Confederate prisoners, taken in this war, 
 to be sold into perpetual slavery ? Yet, if slavery 
 is a Divine Institution, and if it was just in its 
 origin, we ought to do this ; and certainly, no one 
 could complain of the injustice, without finding 
 fault with an ordinance of God ! As a measure of 
 retaliation, it might be viewed as an act of retri- 
 butive justice, for their enslavement of the Africans. 
 And we know that the law of retaliation is strictly 
 just, although militating againt a dispensation of 
 mercy, like that under which we have been brought 
 by the Gospel. Dr. Palmer and his fellow labor- 
 ers in preaching their new gospel, could not com- 
 plain of our Government, if they should sell every 
 rebel captured, himself included in the number, to 
 be forever hereafter held as slaves. 
 
 But instead of fighting for such a principle, we 
 make war against it, and it is nothing but oppo- 
 sition to this new and diabolical theory, that has 
 involved us in this terrible civil strife, and clothed 
 our nation in sackcloth. 
 
 What is slavery? Analyze the thing — Let its 
 foul and corrupt carcass be dissected, and if any 
 
WHAT IS SLAVERY? 27 
 
 one can see in it, aught but sin, he must look 
 through a medium strangely distorted. 
 
 What is slavery? Man puts a chain on the 
 limbs of his brother man, — deprives him of his 
 freedom — calls him his slave — and compels him, 
 with whip in hand, to do his bidding! This is 
 slavery ! 
 
 Laws are enacted, legalizing the act, and giving 
 him the right to hold his victim as a slave. Laws 
 are enacted by the stronger party — the miserable 
 slave has no voice in enacting the law, and is 
 powerless to resist it — He is not now his own 
 man — He belongs to another. He cannot use his 
 feet any longer to walk whither soever he will. 
 He is not at liberty to employ his hands to do 
 whatsoever he will — He is not free to exercise 
 his reason to choose and determine for himself, 
 what actions are right — He has no right to the use 
 of speech, to utter what words he may think most 
 suitable — but every member, and every faculty of 
 his mind and body, belongs to another ; and he 
 can only employ them, as instruments, to do the 
 pleasure of another, whom he must call, master. 
 This is Slavery. To say, that the Merciful Father 
 willed it, — to call it a Divine Institution, may justly 
 be considered as evidence of a perverted Intellect. 
 
28 WHAT IS SLAVERY? 
 
 Has the wretched slave a wife now ? Has he 
 a child ? Has he a father, or a mother ? Has he 
 a legal right to cherish and protect his wife? 
 Can he live with, and support her, according to 
 God's Institution ? Can he educate his child, and 
 train it in the way he should go, according to 
 God's Command? Can he comfort and support 
 his aged and infirm parents, as the dictates of 
 natural affection, and the duties of religion re- 
 quire ? 
 
 No ! he has no right to his own wife — no right 
 to his child — no right even to visit his old mother ! 
 • — His wife has been sold and is the slave, or the 
 mistress of another — His child belongs to another 
 master, and has been transported to a distant state, 
 and he shall never see that child again. This is 
 slavery I To call it a Divine Institution would 
 be to give utterance to that which would be no- 
 thing short of the boldest blasphemy. 
 
 Yet, this is the glorious Institution, for which 
 the Southern people made war against their breth- 
 ren. For the inestimable privilege of holding a 
 portion of God's children in bondage, and carrying 
 on a traffic in the bodies and souls of men, they 
 rebelled against the ordinance of God, refusing to 
 " be subject to the powers that beJ^ 
 
WHAT IS SLAVERY? 29 
 
 They were prosperous and happy under the best 
 Government the wisdom of man ever devised, but 
 they were not content. They wished to carry 
 chains and slavery into new Territory, and to pro- 
 pagate the curse, where it had never existed. 
 And because they could not obtain a guaranty, 
 from the Government, of immunity and protection, 
 in the accomplishment of the damnable purpose, 
 they stained their souls with the crime of Treason. 
 This is one of the fruits of Slavery ! " Every tree 
 shall be known by its fruit." 
 
30 
 
 III. 
 
 ORIGIN OF AFEICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 If we may place any credence in the records of 
 History, the first cargo of African Slaves was 
 landed and sold in the island of Hispaniola, or St. 
 Domingo. A severe retribution, as written in the 
 subsequent history of that island, followed this in- 
 vasion of the natural rights of man. Bancroft, in 
 his inimitable work, remarks ; " Hayti, the first 
 spot in America, that received African Slaves, was 
 the first to set the example of African Liberty." 
 For years, they have possessed and ruled the isl- 
 and, an enterprising and independent people. The 
 tyrants, who held them in bondage, were put to 
 death, or driven into exile, a significant display of 
 the stern justice of Heaven I 
 
 The first slaves sold in the United States, then 
 English Colonies, were brought from Africa, in a 
 Dutch Man of War, which entered the mouth of 
 James river, in the year 1620, four months before 
 the landing of the Puritan pilgrims, on the rock of 
 
ORIGIN OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 31 
 
 Plymouth. So that, by a singular coincidence, tho 
 vessels of the same country, Holland, brought both 
 the pilgrims and the slaves, to our shores, in the 
 course of the same memorable year. 
 
 If we would fully comprehend the origin of 
 slavery, in our land, it will be necessary to follow 
 the kidnappers to Africa, and understand the man- 
 ner by which they originally established their right 
 of property in the bodies of African men and 
 women. We must not forget that the claim of a 
 divine right has been set up, in this age of progress 
 and reform. 
 
 If the kidnapper had a Divine warrant, or a 
 special commission from Heaven, to alight on the 
 shores of Africa, to murder and capture the de- 
 fenceless inhabitants, and transport them to dis- 
 tant shores, as slaves, and if they could produce 
 unquestionable evidence that they had such a com- 
 mission, as the Jews could, when commanded by 
 God to occupy the land of Canaan, we should be 
 bound to pay some respect to the claim set up 
 by the modern advocates of slavery. But I have 
 never yet heard of any slave-pirate or kidnapper^ 
 who even pretended that he had such a warrant 
 or commission from God Almighty, to steal the 
 children of Africa, and sell them into bondage I 
 
32 ORIGIN OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 I have, however, heard of one Johnny Hawkins, 
 a Sir knight, and a notable person in his day, 
 who was the first Englishman who engaged in the 
 traffic, and enlisted Queen Elizabeth to protect 
 him in the same, and to share in the profits. But 
 how did he obtain his right and title? He tells 
 his own story. He does not intimate that he had 
 any commission from Heaven. He went to an 
 African village of eight thousand inhabitants. 
 The huts were covered with dry palm leaves, 
 very combustible. He set fire to these, which 
 were, soon, all in a blaze. In the midst of the 
 terror and confusion that ensued, he captured two 
 hundred and fifty of the innocent natives, and had 
 them conveyed, in chains, on board of his ship. 
 This was his first cargo to Hispaniola, from which 
 he realized a rich return, in sugar, ginger, and 
 pearls. The profits were so immense, that, the 
 government of the English nation resolved to en- 
 gage in the trade. Bancroft says that the Sover- 
 eign of England, " participated in the hazards, the 
 profits, and the crimes, and became at once a 
 smuggler and a slave merchant." The whole sys- 
 tem had its foundation in crime and cupidity. 
 
 The slaveholders in our Southern States, ob- 
 tained their right to own and hold these captured 
 
ORIGIN OP AFRICAN SLAVERY. 33 
 
 Africans, as slaves, from Sir Johnny Hawkins, and 
 others, who, like him, stole them from their native 
 country. If the original kidnappers had no divine 
 right to this species of property, it is a question, 
 how those who purchased it from them, have come 
 into the possession of such a right. If a thief has 
 no valid right or title to the property, stolen by 
 him, has the man who buys it of him, knowing it 
 to be stolen property, a valid right or title to the 
 same ? 
 
 I know that, as late as the year 1860, slaves 
 were sold in Texas, Florida, and, perhaps, other 
 Southern States, brought by kidnappers in pirate 
 ships, direct from Africa, and, that some of these 
 advocates for the Divine right of slavery, were 
 the purchasers. I am not able to prefer any ac- 
 cusation against Dr. Palmer, as having been one 
 of the number. But here is a question for him, 
 and all of the same school of divinity, to con- 
 sider : If the slaves owned by them at present, or 
 at the time of Secession, were the children or the 
 grand-children of those who were kidnapped in 
 Africa, and to whom the kidnappers had no other 
 claim thd.n a thiefs title, on what foundation do 
 they now set up the claim of a Divine right? 
 God shall judge these whited sepulchres I They 
 
34 ORIGIN OF AFEICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 find their brother guilty of a skin not colored 
 like their own, and they claim authority from 
 King Jesus, to put a yoke of bondage on his neck, 
 an iron chain on his ankle, and to make him their 
 slave for life I 
 
35 
 
 IV. 
 
 EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 
 
 We must do justice to the Church of Rome, to 
 say, that it has ever and persistently opposed the 
 institution of slavery. Soon after the discovery 
 of the New World, by Columbus, the Sovereign 
 PontilBfs were repeatedly importuned to give their 
 sanction, not only to the enslavement of Africans, 
 but also, of the aboriginal inhabitants of America. 
 But they never yielded to these importunities. 
 Even as early as the twelfth century, when Ma- 
 hometans enslaved Christians, and Christians, in 
 turn, enslaved Mahometans, and slavery was all 
 but universal. Pope Alexander III., in the genu- 
 ine spirit of Christianity, wrote, in one of his 
 bulls, '^Mature having made no Slaves, all men have 
 an equal right to Liberty." And after him. Pope 
 Leo X. declared that, " not the Christian religion 
 only, but nature herself cries out against the state 
 qf Slavery, ^^ Another Pontiff, Paul III., even went 
 
36 EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 
 
 SO far, as to imprecate tlie curse of God, on Euro- 
 peans who should enslave Indians, or any other 
 class of men. These are facts which ought to be 
 borne in mind, especially by slave-holding Catho- 
 lics in America. 
 
 The first ship which sailed from New England 
 for the coast of Guinea, to trade for negroes, be- 
 longed to two men of Boston, whose names were 
 Thomas Keyser, and James Smith ; but there was 
 such a cry of indignation, raised against them, 
 throughout the country, that they were arrested, 
 and brought before a civil magistrate, as male- 
 factors and murderers. The cargo of Africans, 
 was ordered to be sent back to their native 
 country, at the public expense, with a letter, ex- 
 pressing the indignation of the General Court, at 
 Iheir wrongs. 
 
 There was no slavery in Georgia, for years 
 after it was first settled, and after it had been 
 introduced into the neighboring state of South 
 Carolina. It was excluded, during the life-time 
 of General Oglethorpe, the first governor, because 
 of the earnest and determined opposition of that 
 wise and good man. By the third regulation, 
 adopted for the government of the colony, under 
 his superintendence, slavery was absolutely pro- 
 
EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVEET. 37 
 
 scribed. Oglethorpe himself wrote, " Slavery is 
 against the Gospel, as well as against the funda- 
 mental law of England. We refused to make a law^ 
 ■permitting such a horrid crime." 
 
 Many of the settlers earnestly requested, that 
 the introduction of negroes might be allowed ; 
 and many even prepared to desert the colony, de- 
 claring that success was impossible without them. 
 Notwithstanding, he sternly rejected their applica- 
 tions, saying, that he would have nothing further 
 to do with the colony, if negroes should be intro- 
 duced into Georgia. There is not a purer and 
 more unblemished character, than that of Ogle- 
 thorpe, among all those who had any thing to do 
 with the settlement of the English colonies in 
 America. 
 
 The name which stands highest on the roll of our 
 Country's fame, is that of Washington. He has 
 been claimed, as among the friends and patrons of 
 the Institution of Slavery. It is true, it was his 
 lot to have been born in a slave State, and to be 
 involved in a connection with the Institution, by 
 circumstances over which, perhaps, he had no con- 
 trol. His last will and Testament, shows how sin- 
 cerely he desired the termination of slavery, in this 
 country. In that will, this paragraph is contained, 
 
38 EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 
 
 "upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and 
 desire, that all the slaves whom I hold in my own 
 right, shall receive their freedom." The Will pro- 
 ceeds to specify, what provision should be made for 
 them, both before, and subsequent to the period of 
 their manumission ; and he further enjoins on his 
 executors, to see to it, that this clause, respecting 
 his slaves, be religiously fulfilled at the epoch, at 
 which it was directed to take place, "without eva- 
 sion, neglect or delay." 
 
 If Washington was a defender of the Institution, 
 we have only to say it would have been a glorious 
 thing for our country, if all the planters in the 
 Southern States, had been such defenders and pa- 
 trons of slavery, as he was, and had followed his 
 bright example. There would have been no divi- 
 sion between the North and the South. There 
 would have been no civil war. 
 
 It is known that Thomas Jefferson was also a 
 slaveholder. But I am not aware that he has ever 
 been claimed as an advocate for the Institution. 
 He uttered prophetic words, when on one occasion, 
 speaking of slavery, he said, "I tremble for my 
 country, when I remember that God is just I " If it 
 was a prediction how fearfully it has been accom- 
 plished I 
 
EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 39 
 
 Jefferson penned the immortal document, which 
 contains the declaration of our National Independ- 
 ence, and, we may suppose, that he expresses his 
 own honest convictions, on the subject of slavery, 
 in that complaint against the British Government, 
 in which he says : " He [the King of England] has 
 waged cruel war against human nature, violating 
 its most sacred rights of life and liberty, in the per- 
 sons of a distant people, who never offended him, 
 captivating and carrying them into slavery in an- 
 other hemisphere, or to incur a miserable death in 
 their transportation thither. This piratical war- 
 fare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the war- 
 fare of the Christian King of Great Britain, to keep 
 open a market where men should be bought and 
 sold." 
 
 Jefferson did not profess to be a Christian ; yet, 
 if he had written under the influence of Inspiration, 
 we know not whether he could have drawn a more 
 vivid picture of the horrors of the slave trade. The 
 same eminent statesman, also wrote to the planters 
 of the south, saying, that they must emancipate their 
 slaves, or " that something worse would follow." 
 
 It is known that he drew up the plan of a consti- 
 tution for his native state, providing for the grad- 
 ual extinction of slavery, but it was never adopted. 
 
40 EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 
 
 He was not a Christian, but he was a patriot, and 
 he has been called the " Father of the American 
 Democracy." He had studied deeply the principles 
 of human jurisprudence, and the essential laws of 
 right and wrong, and viewing slavery from that 
 stand-point alone, he saw and pronounced it a cruel 
 warfare against human nature itself, and a viola- 
 tion of its most sacred rights. 
 
 I will here, adduce the testimony of another emi- 
 nent son of Virginia, against the institution of 
 slavery, viz., John Randolph, of Roanoke. It was 
 not the influence of Christianity, which made him 
 strike the fetters from the limbs of four hundred 
 bondmen, and put them in posession of the sweets 
 of liberty. But, he felt himself constrained to this 
 act of Justice, by that innate sense of justice, which, I 
 believe the Lord of the Universe, has implanted in 
 every heart. And though he performed this act of 
 justice, only when he was about to leave the world, 
 and had deferred, for a time, the doing of so just a 
 deed, yet the fact that he had deliberately made up 
 his mind to do it at all, and at last carried out the 
 intention, tells, more unequivocally than any words 
 he could have made use of, in what light he 
 viewed slavery. What is the reason the people 
 of Virginia have never paid any attention to the 
 
EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 41 
 
 lesson taught by his example?-^ They feel a just 
 pride in the memory of their Washingtons, their 
 Jeffersons, their Clays, and their Eandolphs ; but 
 ah ! they heed not the voice of their words, nor the 
 lesson of their example, no more than if they had 
 been the most ordinary among men. 
 
 In vain, we search the records of the early his- 
 tory of our country, to find the name of one, 
 among those who stood high as patriots, philan- 
 thropists, or statesmen, who was known, or was 
 willing to be known, as the champion of slavery. 
 
 The first sentence in that incomparable docu- 
 ment, the Declaration of American Independence, 
 asserts this great and universal truth, "that God 
 created all men free and equal, and endowed them 
 with certain inalienable rights, among which are 
 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This 
 acknowledged truth, is the main pillar that sup- 
 ports, and will support the temple of our Ameri- 
 can freedom. It is because we did not understand 
 this principle, as our forefathers understood it, 
 that discord has reigned, of late, and that glori- 
 ous temple has been shaken to its deep founda- 
 tions, and well nigh overwhelmed in a mass of 
 ruins. 
 
 We thank the authors and framers of that boast- 
 
42 EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 
 
 ed Constitution, under which we have so long lived 
 and flourished, as a nation, for not inserting the 
 terms, " slaves" and ^^ Slavery," in that great magna 
 charta of human liberty. In shaping and perfect- 
 ing that noble instrument, why did they avoid the 
 use of the term, Slavery? Evidently, because the 
 thing itself signified by the term, was perceived, 
 by them, to be utterly repugnant to the principles 
 of a free government. Freedom and slavery are 
 antagonistic ideas, and the logical mind, that has 
 fully comprehended and embraced the one, must 
 reject the other. They had a conscience, and that 
 conscience revolted at the thought of taking the 
 hideous form of slavery within their embrace, under 
 the assumed name of freedom. They had a pre- 
 sentiment that the enlightened nations of the 
 world would hiss at them, for affecting to lay the 
 foundations of the most free and republican gov- 
 ernment on earth, and yet, denying to a portion 
 of the inhabitants, every natural and political right 
 of man. And, though they found the evil exist- 
 ing, and felt compelled to make concessions in 
 favor of those who held men as property, they 
 were not willing to let that great charter of a 
 nation's rights be marred or deformed by the 
 word slavery. And again, we thank them, for 
 
EARLY OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY. 43 
 
 not permitting any such blot on that paper, which 
 they drew up and signed, as the guarantee of all 
 our rights and freedom, in all time to come. The 
 American Constitution cannot be said to recog- 
 nize slavery. The authors of it, cautiously and 
 designedly kept the word out ; and, as words are 
 the signs of ideas, they kept out, and meant to 
 keep out the thing signified by it. 
 
 Still, we are ready to admit, that, for the sake 
 of harmony, the framers of that document, did 
 enter into a kind of tacit compromise, in favor 
 of the accursed institution. And, God in Heaven 
 knows, that, if they were living now, they would 
 shed bitter, scalding tears, at the recollection of 
 the deed. The Almighty himself cancels the deed, 
 and the disgrace of it is wiped out in a nation's 
 blood I 
 
44 
 
 V. 
 
 THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 
 
 It has been estimated, that, during the three 
 hundred years of the existence of slavery, more 
 than forty millions of the children of Africa, have 
 been brought, in slave-ships, to the shores of the 
 new world, and sold into bondage. This does not 
 include the number of those who were murdered 
 in the capture, or died in the passage across the 
 ocean. It has been said by those who had the 
 means of knowing, that the latter number exceeds 
 the former. But, supposing the numbers to be 
 equal, Africa has lost eighty millions of her peo- 
 ple, who have been made an offering on the altar 
 of the slave-god. Of these eighty millions, ten 
 millions, or one-eighth of the whole, are all that 
 remain in existence. To this waste of human life, 
 should be added the loss of the natural increase, 
 under the rigors of bondage. It is known that 
 the race is prolific, and under a mild system, 
 
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 45 
 
 founded on the natural principles of humanity, the 
 forty millions transported to this country, ought 
 to have doubled itself two or three times in the 
 course of three centuries. If the laws of in- 
 crease, from ordinary generation, had been in no 
 wise hindered or checked, by the cruelty of the 
 slave system, instead of ten millions, there must 
 have been on this continent, at the present mo- 
 ment, in round numbers, a population of at least 
 one hundred millions of Africans ! It is fair, 
 therefore, to put down the one hundred millions, 
 as the sacrifice of human life that has been made 
 to this infernal system ! Think of this, ye 
 christians of the Free States! who are pleading 
 with the Government, and pleading, in your hearts, 
 with God Almighty, to spare the system, and who 
 are bitterly denouncing the Government, because 
 they have interfered with this social and domestic 
 institution of their Southern brethren I 
 
 A few years ago, Lord Palmerston in the House 
 of Lords, said : 
 
 '•According to the report of Messrs. Yender- 
 welt and Buxton, from 120,000 to 150,000 slaves 
 are landed annually in America. It is calculated, 
 that, of three negroes, seized in the interior of 
 Africa, to be sent into slavery, but one reaches 
 
46 THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 
 
 his destination, the two others die in the course 
 of the operations of the slave-trade. Whatever 
 may be the number transported, we must triple 
 it to obtain the true number of human beings, 
 whom this detestable traffic kidnaps every year 
 from Africa. 
 
 " Indeed, the negroes destined for the slave- 
 trade, are not taken from the neighborhood, where 
 they are embarked. A great number come from 
 the interior. Many are captives, made in wars 
 excited by thirst for the gain procured by the 
 sale of the prisoners. But the greatest number 
 arise from kidnapping expeditions, and an organ- 
 ized system of man-stealing, in the interior of 
 Africa. When the time approaches to set out 
 with the slave caravans for the coast, the kidnap- 
 pers surround a peaceful village at midnight, set 
 it on fire, and seize on the inhabitants, killing all 
 who resist. If the village attacked, is situated 
 on a mountain, offering greater facilities for flight, 
 and the inhabitants take refuge in the caverns, 
 the kidnappers kindle large fires at the entrance, 
 and those who are sheltered there, placed between 
 death by suffocation and slavery, are forced to 
 give themselves up. If the fugitive take refuge 
 on the heights, the assailants render themselves 
 
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 47 
 
 masters of all the springs and wells, and the un- 
 fortunates, devoured by thirst, return to truckle 
 their liberty for life. The prisoners made, they 
 proceed to the choice. The robust individuals of 
 both sexes, and the children from six to seven 
 years old, are set aside to form part of the cara- 
 van which is to be driven to the sea-shore. They 
 rid themselves of the children under six years 
 of age, by killing them on the spot, and aban- 
 don the aged and infirm, thus condemning them 
 to die of hunger. The caravan sets out, men, 
 women and children traverse the burning sands, 
 and rocky defiles of the mountains of Africa, 
 barefoot, and almost naked. The feeble are stim- 
 ulated by the whip, the strong are secured by 
 chaining them together, or by placing them under 
 a yoke. Many fall from exhaustion on the road, 
 and die, or become the prey of wild beasts. On 
 reaching the sea-shore, they are penned up and 
 crowded together in buildings, called barracoons, 
 where they fall a prey to epidemics. Death has 
 often cruelly thinned their ranks before the arri- 
 val of a slave-trader. The first who appears 
 takes his choice, setting aside the sick and fee- 
 ble, and taking care always to take one-third or, 
 at least, one-fourth more *han his vessel can hold, 
 
48 THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 
 
 and this, according to a mathematical calculation, 
 for the same reason, that casks are put into a 
 vessel loaded with wine, designed to compensate 
 for the loss which will result from evaporation, 
 or leakage ; for the captain knows perfectly well, 
 that a large number of the negroes of his cargo 
 will perish, some from grief, others from the change 
 of diet, and many from Asphyxia. 
 
 " They do not, always, wait until the dying are 
 dead, to cast them into the sea, but sometimes 
 throw them overboard, as soon as they are hope- 
 less." 
 
 Lord Palmerston then gives an incident of the 
 kind which happened in 1738. " A man, named 
 Collingwood was carrying slaves to Jamaica ; the 
 ship took a wrong course, and water and pro- 
 visions became scanty. Knowing, that, if the 
 negroes died of famine, the owners would lose 
 the insurance on them, while they would be en- 
 titled to this premium, if it were proved, that 
 he had been compelled, by the perils of the sea, 
 to sacrifice the cargo, the captain did not hesi- 
 tate to precipitate one hundred and thirty-two 
 living beings into the waves." 
 
 The distinguished orator then draws a descrip- 
 tion of a negro slave-siiip, and quotes the words 
 
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 49 
 
 of a man who had seen one of these vessels, " a 
 negro has not as much room in them as a corpse 
 in a coffin." 
 
 From all these things, the noble lord draws 
 the conclusion, that, if one hundred and fifty 
 thousand slaves land annually in America, the 
 slave-trade carries away from Africa, three or 
 four hundred thousands souls. According to him, 
 " all the crimes of the human race, from the crea- 
 tion of the world, to our days, do not exceed 
 those which have been caused by the slave- 
 trade." 
 
 Bancroft, one of the most impartial historians, 
 says, of the middle passage: "The horrors of 
 the passage, corresponded with the infamy of 
 the trade. Small vessels, of little more than 
 two hundred tons burden, were prepared for the 
 traffic, for these could most easily penetrate the 
 bays and rivers of the coast, and quickly ob- 
 taining a lading, could soonest hurry away from 
 the deadly air of Western Africa. In such a 
 bark, five hundred negroes and more have been 
 stowed, exciting wonder that men could have 
 lived, within the tropics, cribbed in so few 
 inches of room. The inequality of force be- 
 tween the crew and the cargo led to the use 
 
50 THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 
 
 of manacles ; the hands of the stronger men, 
 were made fast together, and the right leg of 
 one was chained to the left of another. The 
 avarice of the trader was a partial guarantee 
 of the security of life, as far as it depended on 
 him ; but death hovered always over the slave 
 ship. The negroes, as they came from the higher 
 level to the sea-side, poorly fed on the sad pil- 
 grimage, sleeping at night on the damp earth, 
 without covering, and often reaching the coast at 
 unfavorable seasons, imbibed the seeds of disease, 
 which confinement on board ship quickened into 
 feverish activity. There have been examples 
 where one half of them, it has been said, even, 
 where two-thirds of them, perished on the pas- 
 sage ! " 
 
 The heart is made sick in reading such recitals I 
 Can it be that those who claim to be called chris- 
 tians, approve and sanction such a trade? which 
 Jefferson did not hesitate to stigmatize as " an 
 execrable commerce" " a piratical warfare," " the 
 opprobrium of infidel powers" and " an assemblage 
 of horrors"! Yea, some of the most learned 
 divines among our Southern brethren, (!) pre- 
 tend to have a celestial warrant to hold their 
 colored brethren in chains, to keep open a mar- 
 
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 61 
 
 ket for the sale and purchase of slaves, and to 
 send the pirate ships annually on their dark way^ 
 to rob poor Africa, and obtain more victims ! 
 
 I have never read a complete journal of any 
 slave-ship, with her cargo, across the Atlantic. 
 It has been said that no such journal has ever 
 been published. If such a record had been kept 
 and published, in all its details, it would, doubt- 
 less, have been a record of instructive interest, 
 especially to the friends of the cause of slavery. 
 
 I can imagine that human genius would fail, 
 in the attempt to give a just and vivid concep- 
 tion of the whole panorama on board of such 
 a vessel, during the middle passage. It would 
 take a pen, self-endowed with the mysterious and 
 magical property of painting life-like pictures. 
 Suppose they are heathens or savages, who are 
 chained and crammed together in the hold of 
 the ship, without sufficient light and air, naked 
 and almost suffocated in the stench of human 
 ordure and dead bodies ; they are still human 
 beings, endowed with the feelings of humanity. 
 They had a country, and they have been torn 
 away from that country. They had human affec- 
 tions, and they have been rudely separated from 
 the embrace of all they loved. They are going 
 
62 THE MIDDLE PASSAGE. 
 
 to be slaves in a country they never saw — their 
 hearts are broke! 
 
 Many die from grief, many from suffocation, 
 many from disease caused by the noisome atmos- 
 phere. They are human beings, and, of neces- 
 sity, many must perish. Could feeble humanity 
 bear up under such accumulated sufferings, and 
 yet survive? They die! the more sensitive and 
 nervously constituted, fortunately for them I Hap- 
 py they! whom the sea opens its friendly bosom 
 to receive, and afford them repose from the 
 tyranny and cruelty of man! Happy they! who 
 die of a broken heart, murdered by men pro- 
 fessing to be civilized ! Millions are thus slum- 
 bering in their watery beds. The great and 
 beneficent Father of all, has their broken hearts 
 safe in His keeping. The sea will disclose its 
 dead, and those innocent and outraged children 
 [of our common Father, will meet the slave- ty- 
 rants at the last, face to face! I believe it! 
 I am thankful for this christian faith! If there 
 is not a hell, there ought to be one ! 
 
63 
 
 YI. 
 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 
 
 At the lowest estimate which can be made, 
 this civil war, by the time it shall be ended, 
 will have cost the whole country. North and 
 South, four thousand millions of money, one mil- 
 lion of valuable lives, and a badge of mourning 
 hung on nearly half the dwellings in the land. 
 These are some of the fruits of the grand rebel- 
 lion — and the cause of all is slavery ! 
 
 There are copperhead patriots — thanks to him 
 who first suggested a name so appropriate — who 
 set themselves up as the apologists of slavery, 
 and ascribe the war to the agitations of aboli- 
 tionists, and other causes. I would make no 
 appeal to their reason. I desire no discussion 
 with them. There are none so blind as those 
 who will not see. They are traitors at heart, 
 less excusable than armed rebels at the South, 
 and deserving of a severer punishment. They 
 
54 THE LAST CRIME OP SLAVERY. 
 
 are not the friends of the Union. They appre- 
 ciate not the blessings of a republican form of 
 government. They cannot prize the advantages 
 and the benign institutions of civil liberty, for 
 the sake of what liberty is, intrinsically, in it- 
 self — and let them continue to bow down, and 
 demean, as they have done, their pitiful souls, at 
 the shrine of a low and contemptible personal 
 ambition. The Yallandighams and Seymours of 
 the North will get their reward, in the execra- 
 tions of their children, in the next generation, 
 if not sooner. 
 
 Look at that strutting congressman from South 
 Carolina, the land of chivalry, par excellence. 
 He thinks he can frighten and awe into submis- 
 sive silence, by his blustering and bravado, half 
 the numbers from the free States. He grew up 
 from childhood with that disposition. The spirit 
 began to run in his hot blood very early, and 
 was quickened into a wonderful degree of ce- 
 lerity, by the training which he received. 
 
 That congressman was a slave-driver, with a 
 whip in his hand, from the time he was four 
 years of age. This is the way, and there is no 
 mystery about it, that the children of all masters 
 become bold and brave, and very chivalrous in- 
 
THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 65 
 
 deed. You will see young masters on nearly 
 every plantation, who, from the time they begin 
 to wear trowsers, strut about with whip in hand, 
 a terror to all the young darkies on the lordly 
 domain. If any should come in his way, crack 
 goes the whip, and away go the young negroes, 
 panic-stricken, and young master is already a 
 young hero. This is the training they receive. 
 And why should they not grow up to be knights 
 of chivalry of the first order? A man is what 
 he is made to be, whether he is made right or 
 wrong. We all know the truth of the poetic 
 maxim, 
 
 " 'Tis education forms the common mind, 
 Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." 
 
 The young scions of chivalry are trained to 
 be slave-drivers — and, tyrants by nature, this in- 
 nate disposition is strengthened and developed 
 by the whole course of training which they re- 
 ceive in early life — and how can they depart 
 from it, when they are old ? How can they be 
 any thing else but tyrants, when they become 
 grown men and women? 
 
 I have seen these young shoots of aristocracy 
 in the common school, and I have seen them in 
 
66 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 
 
 colleges at the North and at the South, and 
 every teacher has to deplore the fact, that, as 
 a class, they lack the spirit of subordination, and, 
 with rare exceptions, exhibit a domineering dispo- 
 sition, which may be said to be peculiar to the 
 boys of the South. 
 
 There is hardly a faculty of any college in 
 the free States, where there are ten or twenty 
 young men from the South, who would not testify, 
 if called on, that the management and control 
 of these ten or twenty sons of chivalry, gives 
 them more trouble than all the rest of the stu- 
 dents in college. But still, they are the sons of 
 wealthy planters, and usually bring a good deal 
 of spending money, and they must bear some 
 with their freaks and waywardness. 
 
 This is the beginning of that demoralizing in- 
 fluence, which slavery has on every mind, that 
 comes in contact with it. The children are edu- 
 cated and trained up to be tyrants, and the 
 effects are visible in every department and sphere 
 of life, where they are called to act. In the 
 national congress, their members bully and brow- 
 beat the members from the free States, and, as 
 long as they can domineer over them, and con- 
 trol the action of congress, they are content to 
 
THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 67 
 
 stay in the Union. But the very moment they 
 are outvoted, and lose the ascendency in the halls 
 of congress, they refuse to be any longer subject 
 to the Government, and resolve to set up another 
 Government, which they can manage or control 
 for themselves. In short, wherever a body of 
 slave-holders is to be found, they must be the 
 ruling power. And it would be just as absurd 
 to expect them to submit to the voice of the 
 majority in a free Government, when that voice 
 is pronounced by the people at large, as to ex- 
 pect them to relinquish their mastership over 
 their own slaves, and submit to be governed by 
 those slaves in turn. 
 
 But the demoralizing effect of slavery on the 
 Southern mind, does not terminate here. The 
 lordly master looks down, as it were, from an 
 eminence, on the laboring classes as a servile and 
 inferior population. Labor is, in itself, a badge 
 of servility and inferiority. I do most positively 
 afiirm, after a residence of thirty years in the 
 slave-States, that this is the light in which labor 
 is regarded. The troops of General Butler had 
 not been a week in New Orleans, before it was 
 quite common for these young sprigs of aris- 
 
68 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 
 
 tocracy, male and female, to taunt the Yankee 
 soldiers with their plebeian origin. 
 
 Negroes must work. They were made for 
 that. They are fit for nothing else. They are 
 an inferior race. This is the mode in which 
 masters reason, and the inference is unavoida- 
 ble — labor is a sign of degradation. 
 
 The son of a slave-holder does not labor, and 
 he would think himself degraded indeed, if he 
 were reduced to the necessity of having to work 
 for his living. 
 
 The son of a planter might be an overseer, or 
 a negro-driver, and he would not be degraded ; 
 but if he should learn a mechanical trade, and 
 should work at that trade to earn a livelihood, 
 he would be inevitably excluded from the upper 
 class of society. They occupy a position so pre- 
 eminently exalted above that of the slaves, that 
 they cannot consent to be placed, in any sense, 
 on a level with them. But to do, from necessity, 
 the work of common laborers, is to put them- 
 selves in a condition so similar to that of the 
 slaves, that they look on it as a state of degra- 
 dation. 
 
 To give a clear and just conception of the pre- 
 vailing sentiment, at the South, on this subject, I 
 
THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 59 
 
 deem it expedient to quote a few sentences from 
 several of their standard authors. Chancellor 
 Harper says : 
 
 " In our own country, look at the lower valley 
 of the Mississippi, which is capable of being 
 made a far greater Egypt. In our own state, 
 there are extensive tracts of the most fertile 
 soil, which are capable of being made to swarm 
 with life. These are, at present, pestilential 
 swamps, and valueless, because there is abun- 
 dance of other soil in more favorable situations, 
 which demand all, and more than all the labor 
 which our country can supply. Are these re- 
 gions of fertility to be abandoned at once, and 
 forever, to the alligator and tortoise — with here 
 and there perhaps, a miserable, shivering, crouch- 
 ing, free black savage? Does not the finger of 
 Heaven itself point to a race of men, not to be 
 enslaved by us, but already enslaved, and who 
 will be in every way benefitted by the change 
 of masters — to whom such climate is not uncon- 
 genial, who, though disposed to indolence, are yet 
 patient, and capable of labor, on whose whole 
 features, mind and character, nature has indel- 
 ibly written — slave — and indicate that we should 
 avail ourselves of these, in fulfilling the first 
 
60 THE LAST CRIME OP SLAVERY. 
 
 great command to subdue and replenish the 
 earth." 
 
 The last line in the above paragraph is an at- 
 tempt to quote scripture, but it is both misquoted 
 and misapplied. The sentence pronounced on 
 man, was, " In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou j! 
 eat bread till thou return unto the ground ; for 
 out of it wast thou taken ; for dust thou art, and 
 unto dust shalt thou return. Therefore the Lord 
 God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to 
 till the ground from whence he was taken." 
 
 Now, whom did the Lord send forth, to till the 
 ground? Was it the slave, or was it the slave's 
 master? Inspiration teaches that it was the man. 
 Who is meant by the man? The advocates of 
 slavery are scarcely willing to admit that the 
 slave is a man. We ought therefore to conclude 
 that it was the slave's master who was doomed, 
 when driven from paradise, to eat his bread in 
 the sweat of his face. 
 
 Chancellor Harper would have expressed his 
 meaning better, if he had said that the first 
 great command was to subdue and enslave a 
 portion of Adam's children, that we might avail 
 ourselves of their labor, to subdue and replenish 
 the swampy districts abandoned to the alligator 
 
THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 61 
 
 and tortoise. Thus the slave would fulfil the 
 curse, but the master would escape it. Was this 
 the intention of Infinite Wisdom, when the sen- 
 tence was uttered? If so, what fate, may we 
 infer, was in reserve for the master? Let us 
 hear what the same writer says on this point: 
 
 *'The agriculturist or tiller of the soil, who 
 can command no labor but that of his own 
 hands, or that of his family, must remain com- 
 paratively poor and rude. He who acquires 
 wealth by the labor of slaves, has the means of 
 improvement for himself and his children. He 
 may have a more extended intercourse, and, con- 
 sequently, means of information and refinement, 
 and may seek education for his children, where 
 it may be found." 
 
 Now let us look at the plain, unvarnished 
 meaning of this brief passage. The slave-holder 
 is not to labor — not to till the ground with his 
 own hands. He is to acquire his wealth by the 
 labor of slaves — that he may have the means of 
 iinprovement for himself and children — that he 
 may have the means of information and refine- 
 ment — and may be able to educate his children 
 in the schools of Europe, or wherever education 
 may be found. This was to be the employment 
 
62 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 
 
 of the master and his children — not to toil — not 
 to earn his bread in the sweat of his face ! But 
 here is a passage still more explicit, from tho 
 same distinguished writer. 
 
 "It is by the existence of slavery, exempting 
 so large a portion of our citizens from the ne- 
 cessity of bodily labor, that we have a greater 
 proportion than any other people, who have leisure 
 for intellectual pursuits, and the means of obtain- 
 ing a liberal education." Aye, they were exempt- 
 ed from the necessity of bodily labor, but it was 
 done in contravention of the fiat of the Al- 
 mighty. 
 
 Again, the same author observes — "It is bet- 
 ter that a part should be fully and highly cul- 
 tivated, and the rest utterly ignorant J^ It is diffi- 
 cult to imagine that even one of South Carolina's 
 most gifted sons, should ever have penned such 
 a sentence. But here is still another choice par- 
 agraph from the same pen. 
 
 " We must avail ourselves of such labor as 
 we can command. The slave must labor, and is 
 inured to it ; while the necessity of energy in 
 his government, of watchfulness, and of prepara- 
 tion and power to suppress insurrection, added 
 to the moral force derived from the habit of com- 
 
THE LAST CRIME OP SLAVERY. 63 
 
 mand, may help to prevent the degeneracy of the 
 master." 
 
 What a lofty mission is assigned to the mas- 
 ter! It is his to watch the slave— to be ever 
 ready to suppress insurrections. And he must ac- 
 quire the habit of command, and, therefore, he can- 
 not degenerate for want of employment. What 
 a noble mission is his I He can well afford to 
 look down from his high position, on the com- 
 mon herd of drivelling laborers, and tillers of the 
 gi'ound. 
 
 Governor Hammond, of the same illustrious State, 
 says ; " It is impossible to suppose that slavery is 
 contrary to the will of God." "I think, then, 
 I may safely conclude, and I firmly believe that 
 American slavery is not only not a sin, but es- 
 pecially commanded by God, through Moses, and 
 approved by Christ, through His apostles." "I 
 endorse, without reserve, that much-abused senti- 
 ment of Governor McDuffie, that slavery is the 
 corner-stone of our republican edifice, while I re- 
 pudiate, as ridiculously absurd, that much-lauded, 
 but nowhere accredited, dogma of Mr. Jefferson, 
 that " all men are born equal." And here is what 
 the same distinguished orator says about the la- 
 boring classes in free countries : 
 
64 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 
 
 "I affirm, that, in Great Britain, the poor and 
 laboring classes of your race and color, not only 
 your fellow beings, but your fellow citizens, are 
 more miserable and degraded, morally and physi- 
 cally, than our slaves ; to be elevated to the 
 actul condition of whom, would be, to these, your 
 fellow citizens, a most glorious act of emancipa- 
 tion." 
 
 By this, he intended to say, that, if these la- 
 boring classes of Britain, could be sold to South- 
 ern slave-holders, and compelled to, labor, under 
 task-masters, like Southern slaves, their condition, 
 moral and physical, would be so greatly improved, 
 that it would be, as it were, a most glorious act 
 of emancipation to them. He then asserts that 
 the poor and laboring classes in the Northern 
 Free States, are in a condition but a little more 
 enviable than that of the laboring classes of Eng- 
 land — that is, according to this authority, they are 
 in a condition more miserable and degraded, phy- 
 sically and morally, than their African slaves. 
 
 We see, from these brief quotations, in what es- 
 timation, labor and an honest laboring population 
 are held, and have been held, by these lordly and 
 insolent nabobs of the South. Can it be said 
 that slavery has not perverted their intellect, a^d 
 
THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 65 
 
 blinded their eyes ? "Was there ever a more strik- 
 ing verification of the old heathen philosopher's 
 saying, " Whom the Lord intends to destroy, he 
 first deprives of reason." 
 
 Once more, the baneful and corrupting influence 
 of slavery on the mind and soul of man, is seen 
 in the intense and almost fiendish hatred which 
 it engendered, in the Southern heart, against the 
 entire population of the North. I can say, that 
 hatred exceeded in virulence and malignity, any 
 thing I have ever known. The war was the un- 
 avoidable result. It was impossible that any peo- 
 ple so thoroughly alienated from another, and ani- 
 mated by such a phrenzy of madness against them, 
 should continue to live under the same government 
 with them. 
 
 Two hundred men, according to the testimony 
 of the Hon. A. J. Hamilton, were hung in the 
 State of Texas alone, during the year 1860, for 
 no other crime than that of having been born at 
 the North. This was some months before the 
 State had seceded, and before it was known there 
 would be war. 
 
 The writer of these pages, would state, that, 
 during the same year, while traveling in the 
 same State about sixty miles from the place of 
 
66 THE LAST CRIME OP SLAVERY. 
 
 his residence, lie was seized by a mob and would 
 undoubtedly have been hung, had he not been 
 able to procure certificates from some of the 
 most influential men in the State, that he had 
 resided thirty years in the South, and that he 
 had never been known to be an abolitionist., I 
 must here say, that, up to the moment of the 
 bombardment of Fort Sumter, I had always been 
 a conservative, and always conscientiously op- 
 posed to the agitation of slavery by the abo- 
 litionists. Gov. Hammond, in his work, "Sla- 
 very in the light of Political Science ," said ; " the 
 only thing that can create a mob here, (as you 
 might call it) is the appearance of an abolition- 
 ist, whom the people assemble to chastise; and 
 this is no more of a mob, than a rally of shep- 
 herds to chase a wolf out of their pastures would 
 be one." 
 
 Thus, we see that the people of the South had 
 arrayed themselves against universal mankind. 
 They bade defiance to the opinion of the civil- 
 ized world. In their judgment, there was but 
 one institution — slavery. That was the ultimatum 
 of human hope and desire. And to that, every 
 other institution and interest must succumb — 
 Hear the same writer again : " you are stirring 
 
THE LAST CRIME OF ^SLAVERY. 67 
 
 up mankind to overthrow our Heaven-ordained 
 system of servitude, surrounded by innumerable 
 checks, designed and planted deep in the human 
 heart by God and nature, to substitute the abso- 
 lute rule of this spirit reprobate, whose proper 
 place was hell." " Come what may, we are firmly 
 resolved that our system of domestic slavery shall 
 
 stand." 
 
 The eloquent Dr. Palmer, of New Orleans, just 
 before the State seceded, preached a discourse, 
 afterward published in pamphlet form, in which he 
 elaborated the proposition, that God had raised 
 up the Southern people to conserve and perpetu- 
 ate the institution of slavery ; and on this ground 
 he urged and advised secession. 
 
 0, there is no more melancholy spectacle, than 
 to see a nation or an individual, thus poised on a 
 giddy eminence, on their own narrow pedestal, and 
 setting at defiance, the friendly warnings and the 
 advice of the whole christian world ! It is, and 
 must ever be the sure precursor of a terrible and 
 sudden overthrow. Where is Dr. Palmer now? 
 Poising and trembling over the very abyss of 
 atheism ! He was known to declare publicly, be- 
 fore he fled from the presence of the Yankee 
 troops in New Orleans, that, if the Almighty 
 
68 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 
 
 should favor the cause of the Yankees, he should 
 lose his confidence in him as a God of truth and 
 justice I We cannot avoid the conclusion, that 
 blindness of mind as well as a judicial hardness 
 of heart, hath taken possession of the people of 
 the South. 
 
 They were fully prepared to perpetrate the 
 crime of treason. Slavery had schooled and pre- 
 pared all their faculties of mind and soul for it, 
 and all they awaited was a fitting occasion. This 
 occurred on the announcement of the election of 
 President Lincoln, the first President ever elect- 
 ed without the Southern vote. They even prac- 
 tised fraud and treachery to secure the election 
 of Mr. Lincoln, that they might be furnished an 
 opportunity for dissolving the Union. Their lead- 
 ing politicians knew, that, if Mr. Douglass were 
 the nominee of the Charleston Convention, he 
 would in all probability be elected, in which 
 event, the Slave States, generally, would not fol- 
 low South Carolina, in an attempt to dissolve the 
 Union. Therefore, they determined to prevent 
 the nomination of Douglass, so as to secure the 
 election of Lincoln. I think that every intelli- 
 gent man in the country, must know this state- 
 
 \ 
 
THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 69 
 
 [tnent to be correct. But I will here introduce 
 one fact in evidence. 
 
 ; In the State Convention of Alabama, which 
 imet in Montgomery, to choose delegates to the 
 Charleston Convention, an exciting debate arose, 
 on the resolutions of instruction introduced, for 
 ithe guidance of those delegates, when they should 
 (take their seats in that Convention. By those 
 iresolutions, they were required to vote for a 
 'clause in the Democratic platform to be adopted, 
 ipermitting every slave-holder to carry his slave- 
 iproperty to any part of the vacant territory of 
 the United States, where he might choose to set- 
 tle. Judge Hitchcock, of Mobile, one of the 
 jmembers of the Convention, arose in his place, 
 land protested earnestly against the adoption of 
 such a resolution. He told them, it was asking 
 too much of their Northern Democratic friends, 
 to require them to vote for carrying slavery into 
 1 all the vacant territory of the United States, and 
 Lore than the Northern Democracy were pre- 
 I pared to concede. He warned them, that, to in- 
 i sist on inserting such a clause in their platform, 
 I would lead to a rupture in the Convention, and 
 ■ probably to a dissolution of the Union. And, in 
 closing his remarks, he told his friends, the mem- 
 
70 THE LAST CRIME OP SLAVERY. 
 
 bers of that Montgomery Convention, that they 
 were on the verge of a precipice, and exhorted 
 them to pause and consider, before they leaped, 
 madly and blindly, into the abyss yawning before 
 them. 
 
 They paid no attention to the words of warn- 
 ing which he uttered. William L. Yancey sprang 
 to his feet, and exclaimed that he did not wish 
 any gentleman to be deceived — that as for him- 
 self, he wanted it distinctly understood, that he 
 was for a dissolution of the Union, " with or with- 
 out caused 
 
 The resolutions of instruction were passed 
 almost unanimously, there being but six votes 
 against them, including that of Judge Hitchcock. 
 The honorable gentleman was afterwards a refu- 
 gee from his state for opinion's sake, and is now 
 a presiding Judge in one of the Courts of New 
 Orleans. Thus all things were made ready. 
 
 "We come now to the final act in the drama. The 
 lightning courier has carried the news throughout 
 the length and breadth of the land, that Mr. Lin- 
 coln has been, duly and constitutionally, elected 
 President for the next term of four years. What 
 anathemas dire are poured forth from the press, 
 and in every crowd and private circle throughout 
 
THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 71 
 
 the Southern States I as if the cursing demon had 
 been let loose from pandemonium I Liberal bets 
 are offered that he would never be inaugurated. 
 Threats are made that he never should be! The 
 flag of the country is dishonored. It is hauled 
 down from the towers and domes, in many a town 
 and city, where it had ever proudly floated in the 
 favoring breezes of heaven. That noble flag, the 
 star spangled banner is trailed in the dust, by the 
 maddened populace I 
 
 What terrible national calamity has wrought 
 their passions to such a pitch of fury? What 
 crime had Mr. Lincoln ever committed, or what 
 Southern right had he ever assailed, or even 
 threatened to assail? Not one. A man of un- 
 blemished reputation, he stands, and has ever stood 
 by the constitution of his country, pledged by 
 previous promises, and those promises renewed, 
 and reaffirmed in the oath of office when he was 
 inaugurated, sacredly to observe all the provisions 
 of that constitution, and to guard and protect all 
 the interests of the South, as all his predecessors 
 had done. Why then did they secede ? Why did 
 they frantically disrupt the bonds of the best 
 government ever enjoyed by man ? Why did they 
 venture to hurl themselves on the perils of a most 
 
72 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 
 
 bloody and fratricidal war? Can they assign any 
 plausible reason? Let one of their own most dis- 
 tinguished statesmen answer. 
 
 "Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment, 
 what reasons you can give to your fellow sufferers, 
 in the calamity that it will bring upon us. What 
 reasons can you give to the nations of the earth, 
 to justify it ? They will be the calm and deliber- 
 ate judges in the case, and to what cause, or one 
 overt act can you name or point, on which to rest 
 the plea of justification? What right has the 
 North assailed? What interest of the South has 
 been invaded? What justice has been denied, 
 and what claim founded in justice and right, has 
 been withheld? Can either of you, to-day, name 
 one governmental act of wrong, deliberately and 
 purposely done by the Government of Washing- 
 ton, of which the South has a right to complain ? 
 I challenge the answer! Now, for you to at- 
 tempt to overthrow such a government as this, 
 under which we have lived for more than three- 
 quarters of a century — in which we have gained 
 our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domes- 
 tic safety, while the elements of peril are around 
 us, with peace and tranquillity, accompanied with 
 unbounded prosperity, and rights unassailed — is 
 
THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 73 
 
 the height of madness, folly, and wickedness, to 
 which I can neither lend my sanction nor my 
 vote." 
 
 The questions of Mr. Stephens have never been 
 answered — they cannot be I Nevertheless, the 
 work of demolition is begun. The temple of a 
 world's freedom, reared three-quarters of a cen- 
 tury ago, must be destroyed. It is nothing that 
 George Washington laid the corner-stone in the 
 glorious structure, it must be razed to the dust I 
 
 They begin to muster the hosts of their chival- 
 ric Southern legions. The din and clangor of re- 
 sounding arms begins to be heard, and warlike 
 movements and preparations are s^een on every 
 hand. They have counted the cost, and the die 
 is cast. They seize upon forts, arsenals, revenue 
 cutters, and other property belonging to the Gov- 
 ernment at Washington. They take possession of 
 custom houses, mints, and government funds, in- 
 tended for the pay of the soldiers who had been 
 employed to defend their own frontiers, from the 
 depredations of hostile Indians. And the traitor, 
 Twiggs, even endeavored to force these faithful 
 soldiers into the service of the rebels. 
 
 Slowly, the government functionaries begin to 
 wake up, and to take measures to defend the 
 
74 THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 
 
 citadel of liberty. But they had slumbered a 
 little too long. The torch of the incendiaries 
 had already been applied. The flames were al- 
 ready kindled — and the mighty conflagration is 
 not yet extinguished I 
 
 "When we review the whole matter, we are over- 
 whelmed with amazement, amd penetrated with 
 the deepest sorrow, to know that there should be 
 found concentrated so many of the elements of 
 depravity, and in such strength, in the hearts of 
 a whole people. They will never be able, here- 
 after, to assign to their consciences, or to their 
 children, a single satisfactory reason, for this mad 
 rebellion, against the legitimate and ordained gov- 
 ernments of Heaven and earth. They cannot 
 plead, that it was because their institutions were 
 insecure, or were threatened. The earnest and 
 eloquent voice of their own Stephens, would be a 
 refutation of any such plea. 
 
 Long ago, the great statesmen, John Q. Adams, 
 conjuted them to adhere to the Union, as the 
 only means of maintaining their cherished insti- 
 tution of slavery. The compromise ingrafted on 
 the constitution, unfortunately for the whole coun- 
 try, was their guarantee of safety, as to that in- 
 stitution. The national congress never would, 
 
THE LAST CRIME OF SLAVERY. 75 
 
 never could have interfered with slavery in the 
 States where it exists, so long as that constitu- 
 tion remains unchanged. And there was not the 
 slightest probability of any such change being 
 made, at least for half a century to come. 
 
 The rebels knew, moreover, that even should 
 they succeed, as they had little reason to expect, 
 in effecting a permanent dissolution of the Union, 
 and establishing their separate independence, their 
 slave property could not be half so secure, as 
 under the old Union — that all fugitive slave laws 
 would be repealed, and that there would be a 
 Canada frontier erected on every side of them. 
 
 What, then, did they hope for — what could they 
 have hoped for, from a change ? They were spell- 
 bound I They were under the influence of an awful 
 delusion ! We must believe that the vengeance of 
 a justly offended Deity was suspended over them, 
 which made it necessary that the accumulated 
 crimes of slavery, should be expiated in their 
 blood! The time, decreed in the secret purpose 
 of God, had come, and the bitter cup which they 
 had prepared for their own lips, they must drink ; 
 aye, to the lowest dregs I 
 
76 
 
 VII. 
 THE EXPIATION. 
 
 There is an established connection between sin 
 and suffering. I believe it is a necessary and 
 universal law, ordained by God Himself. This 
 nation has been severely judged. The judgment 
 has been brought on us directly by slavery, and, 
 therefore, they stand related, the one to the other, 
 as cause and effect. By this rule, we may determine 
 in what light the system of slavery is regarded by 
 the Supreme Being. Let us contemplate and fairly 
 comprehend this important and fixed law of His 
 Providence. 
 
 We believe that nations, as well as individuals, 
 are punished for their crimes. And we believe, 
 further, that they are not punished, except for 
 crimes committed against His law. And if we 
 believe this, we cannot be in doubt, as to what is 
 the Divine verdict in reference to slavery. 
 
 All men, and all nations, which are not atheists, 
 
THE EXPIATION. 
 
 77 
 
 act with implicit confidence in the truth of the 
 belief, just stated. It has been the practice of 
 nations, from time immemorial, in seasons of gen- 
 eral calamity, and under the reverses of war, to 
 humble themselves for supposed national sins, and 
 to appeal to their deities, to avert from them the 
 calamities, actual or threatened. Would this be 
 the case, universally, amongst heathen as well as 
 Christian nations, if there were not, in the minds 
 of all, a general belief that there is a connection 
 between the judgments with which nations are 
 visited, and the sins for which they are thus vis- 
 ited, in the Divine displeasure ? Ye, who profess 
 to be civilized and Christian freemen, how long 
 will ye ignore this universal belief, and this knowl- 
 edge of the laws of the Divine Providence, accord- 
 ing to which he deals with nations, and blesses 
 them, or curses them, in the just ratio of their 
 
 deserts ! 
 
 We know that the system of domestic slavery 
 in the South, brought this war upon the country. 
 Have we yet learned to regard the war in the 
 light of a national punishment, inflicted on the na- 
 tion for the crime of slavery? Has there ever 
 been a day appointed for national humiliation, 
 fasting and prayer, on account of this sin? Never 1 
 
78 THE EXPIATION. 
 
 Has an order ever gone forth to the army to abolish 
 slavery in the conquered districts, on the ground 
 of the moral turpitude and sin of the system? 
 Never I Has the nation, as such, ever repented, 
 or even professed the necessity of repentance for 
 this gigantic national crime ? Never ! 
 
 Many of the politicians at the North, even some 
 of their hypocritical preachers, and a large por- 
 tion of the citizens in all the States, are still dis- 
 posed to be the apologists of this masterpiece of 
 hell's workmanship, and would gladly take back 
 their Southern brethren into their loving em- 
 brace, with this darling sin still clinging to them, 
 if the Lord would permit them. 
 
 The judgments may be expected to continue till 
 the nation is humbled, and repents of that great 
 crime for which it is punished. They, therefore, 
 who put themselves forward as apologists for the 
 sin, are the real enemies of the country, and are 
 standing in the way, between us and pardon, and 
 reconciliation with the offended Deity. We shall 
 never have peace, till slavery is abolished. The 
 Lord is chastising us as a people for this sin, and 
 we cannot repent of the evil, without putting it 
 away. 
 
 We shall see, that, if anything is accomplished 
 
THE EXPIATION. 79 
 
 by this war, it will be the destruction of slavery. 
 The nation will be corrected — the country will be 
 purged — and we do not expect to see the termin- 
 ation of this war, till that great end, for which 
 the war was sent, is accomplished. If we had 
 understood this at the beginning, the war could 
 have been terminated in six months. If the proc- 
 lamation of emancipation had gone forth at the 
 very commencement, and if the commanding gene- 
 rals of the army had been permitted to muster 
 the enslaved into the army, to assist in the cause 
 of emancipation, the South could never have or- 
 ganized a powerful army at all. The sons of 
 chivalry would have been kept at home, to defend 
 their own hearth-stones from domestic insurrec- 
 tion. The Southern people have always stood in 
 dread of their slaves. It was their weak point. 
 But the North seemed entirely to ignore the fact, 
 and the Government refused to aim a decisive 
 blow against that weak-point. They resolved, at 
 first, to crush the rebellion, and yet spare the pe- 
 culiar institution. They tried the experiment, but 
 made a failure. They had yet to learn that they 
 had grappled with a monster. 
 
 The first call was for seventy-five thousand 
 men. The second call was for an army of half 
 
80 THE EXPIATION. 
 
 a million. They saw the flower of this army 
 swept away. A thousand millions of treasure 
 had been expended, and the Government saw 
 they were no nearer the accomplishment of their 
 object than when they began. At last, from very 
 necessity, they adopted the policy of emancipation, 
 compelled thereto by an overruling Providence ! 
 
 Now, who has stood in the way of victory? 
 Is it the Government, or is it the people ? 
 
 Suppose the proclamation of freedom had come 
 out at the very beginning of the war, what a 
 storm of indignation would have been raised by 
 the Northern people against the President! They 
 -did not desire the overthrow of slavery. — They 
 were not prepared for the measure — and the 
 Government dared not to move too fast. But I 
 ween that by the time the nation has bled 
 enough, they will have become quite orthodox on 
 the question of slavery. 
 
 I think I have shown, with sufiBcient clear- 
 ness, that this war was caused by slavery — that 
 it is the fruit of slavery. We ought to be able 
 to judge of a tree by its fruit. But more on 
 this point anon. 
 
 History teaches us that nations are punished 
 for their sins. A profound Christian faith con- 
 
THE EXPIATION. 81 
 
 vinces us, that no nation can violate the laws 
 of Heaven and of eternal justice, with impunity. 
 I need not cite examples from history, for I 
 should have to instance all the nations, whose 
 history is known, which have been scourged ; 
 which have been desolated by fire and sword ; 
 which have been brought to the verge of ex- 
 termination, time and again ; and show that in 
 every case, it was because of their national wick- 
 edness in the sight of Heaven, and their disre- 
 gard of the rights of justice and humanity. 
 
 The connection between national crime and 
 national calamity, is better traced in the history 
 of the Jewish nation, than any other, because 
 the pen of Inspiration has pointed out the con- 
 nection. But we may not suppose that other 
 nations, offending against the laws of the uni- 
 verse, have been dealt with, by a different rule. 
 If some inspired pen had been provided to write 
 the tragical history of the nations that have 
 passed away, or that are existing still, in a lan- 
 guishing and broken condition, pointing out, in 
 every case, the causes of the desolation of one ; 
 the convulsion of another; the severing into frag- 
 ments of a third ; the utter blotting out of a 
 fourth, etc., as the inspired writers have done in 
 
82 THE EXPIATION. 
 
 the case of the Jewish nation, we should be in 
 possession, for our guidance, of an ever present 
 mentor, to whose voice, if we were indifferent 
 and inattentive, we should deserve to forfeit our 
 national prestige and glory, and even to have our 
 name blotted out. 
 
 But, as a nation, professing to be Christian, it 
 is enough for us to know that war is the red 
 hand of the Almighty, with which he punishes 
 and scourges the nations for their iniquities. And 
 we ought to know that we are now suffering 
 the vengeance of Heaven, on account of slavery. 
 This can be made evident by several considera- 
 tions : 
 
 1. Slavery was the cause of the war. This was 
 the point insisted on in the preceding chapter. 
 It is no longer a debateable question. We sup- 
 pose that there is no well informed person in the 
 land, who would deny the fact. Slavery was the 
 original and primary cause of the war. If then 
 there had been no slavery, there had been no 
 war. For the cause ceasing to exist, the effect 
 ceases, of course. 
 
 But slavery exists, and it has produced the war. 
 It is the most fearful calamity that has ever 
 fallen on the nation. It has clothed the land in 
 
THE EXPIATION. 83 
 
 mourning. It flouts on its blood stained banners, 
 unmistakable signs of God's anger against us as 
 a people. The crimson tide of life, from sons and 
 brothers, has moistened many fertile plains and 
 valleys. We are threatened with the loss of our 
 nationality, and our national glory — all, all be- 
 cause of slavery ! Can it be that so much of evil 
 and suffering to a whole people, should have its 
 origin directly and solely in a cause, in itself, just, 
 holy and good? Would this be in accordance 
 with the principles of the Divine Government? 
 To maintain the affirmative would be impious. 
 The character of the effect, shows the character 
 of the cause. And by this rule, slavery is con- 
 demned. By the same rule, we learn what is the 
 verdict of the great monarch of the universe con- 
 cerning it. 
 
 2. The final and only important result of this 
 war, will be the destruction of slavery. If the 
 nation is successful in the struggle to maintain its 
 very existence, this end will be inevitably attained, 
 although not originally intended or designed, by 
 either of the contending parties. The cherished 
 institution of the South will be blotted out. Can 
 we think of any other important and radical 
 change, that will be made in our constitution and 
 
84 THE EXPIATION. 
 
 our government, but this ? All our other civil and 
 religious institutions, founded in wisdom and piety, 
 will remain to us unimpaired. Commerce and 
 trade, and all the arts of a great and Christian 
 people, will receive a new impetus, and flourish 
 as formerly. Our free schools, a free church, and 
 a free press will be continued, still to bless and 
 enlighten the millions of freemen, who shall be 
 raised up to inhabit this goodly land. The na^ 
 tion, by its recuperative, self-inherent energies, will 
 soon recover from the effects of the mighty shock, 
 and settle down again on its former basis of un- 
 exampled prosperity. There will be no visible 
 change. But slavery will have passed away. 
 And there may be an alteration in the constitu- 
 tion adapted to this new state of things. Can we 
 discern nothing in this, indicative of the will and 
 intentions of that overruling Providence that con- 
 trols all events ? Or can we suppose that the 
 God of this nation will not do all his pleasure ? 
 3. The evils of this war, viewed in the light 
 of a national punishment, fall heaviest on those 
 guilty of the sin of slavery. This is another mani- 
 fest indication, as to what is the Divine intention 
 concerning it. Where punishment is inflicted, jus- 
 tice requires that it fall on the guilty. 
 
THE EXPIATION. 85 
 
 In the first place, the theatre of war has been 
 mainly in the Slave States. It is their fields 
 which have been desolated, and drenched in blood. 
 It is there, where the poor slave has so long 
 clanked his chains, that the once rich and cul- 
 tivated tracts have been devastated ; that towns 
 and villages have been sacked and burned ; that 
 thousands of once happy homes have been forsaken, 
 and tens of thousands of delicate wives and daugh-' 
 ters of planters, have been reduced to a state of 
 starvation, and of the utmost destitution, by the 
 accidents of war. 
 
 Again, we may safely estimate, that the sacrifice 
 of human life, will amount, by the time the war 
 is closed, in round numbers, to one million of 
 men, divided about equally, between the North 
 and the South, who have fallen in the field, or 
 by diseases caused by exposure and privation in 
 the service. It is known that many entire regi- 
 ments, in the rebel army, were reduced to one-half 
 their original number, before the end of the first 
 winter campaign. This is a fearful waste of human 
 life. The loss of half a million, out of a popula- 
 tion of seven million white inhabitants, would be 
 fully one-half of their able-bodied fighting men ; 
 whereas, the same number deducted from the twen- 
 
86 THE EXPIATION. 
 
 ty-one millions of the Northern States, would be 
 equal to but one in six, who have fallen victims 
 to the war. How unequally has the punishment 
 fallen 1 The Slave States have lost half their men, 
 who were able to bear arms ; the Free States 
 have lost one-sixth part. There is a Providence 
 in it, to whose voice we may not turn a deaf ear, 
 if we would. 
 
 In the third place, the fortunes of the Southern 
 people have been swept away, as chaff blown by 
 the wind ; while the people of the Free States, 
 with few exceptions, have been as prosperous 
 and thriving, as at any former period in the his- 
 tory of the country. It is melancholy to con- 
 template the change which a few brief months 
 have wrought in the condition of the whole South, 
 and its inhabitants. 
 
 Many, who, a short time ago, were millionaires, 
 will be made beggars. The exactions of Jeff. 
 Davis, to carry on the war, and maintain his au- 
 thority, have already stripped the most of them 
 bare. Their wives and daughters, who had been 
 accustomed to ride in elegant carriages, and flaunt 
 their silks and jewelry, are reduced to rags. In 
 many cases, their children, the offspring of aris- 
 tocracy, cry for bread, to appease their hunger. It 
 
THE EXPIATION. 87 
 
 is known that the armies at Yieksburg, and at 
 Port Hudson, for some days before they surren- 
 dered, had no meat but mules' flesh ; and that the 
 latter army, under General Gardiner, did not sur- 
 render till they had eat the last mule. 
 
 Now, if we suppose that there is a Providence 
 in all this, how terrible is the doom that has fallen 
 on the heads of the slave-holders ! At the close 
 of the war, they will find that their slave prop- 
 erty, on account of which they made the war, 
 is gone. The little remnant of their property, 
 which Jeff. Davis had not extorted from them, 
 will be confiscated on account of their treason. 
 Their families, who had never labored, and had 
 been brought up to despise labor, will be in a 
 condition utterly destitute and helpless. I can 
 think of no other instance of the Divine displeas- 
 ure, which affords any analogy to this, but that 
 of the ancient Egyptians, whose first-born were 
 slain by the destroying angel ; whose cattle were 
 destroyed by the plagues ; whose army was over- 
 whelmed in the Red Sea, on account of the sin 
 of oppression. 
 
 In the last place, perhaps, the bitterest ingre- 
 dient in the cup of retribution, hereafter, will be 
 the reflection, " we brought the ruin on ourselves I" 
 
88 THE EXPIATION. 
 
 I believe that the madness of the hour will 
 pass away. I believe that reason will again ex- 
 ercise her wonted sway, when there will come a 
 bitter, but unavailing repentance. Then they will 
 recall to their recollections, the advice and faith- 
 ful warnings of their Alexander H. Stephens, 
 their Crittenden, their A. J. Hamilton, and even 
 their Sam Houston, and a few other wise states- 
 men, who truly and clearly pointed out, what 
 would be the consequences of their rebellion. 
 They will be compelled to remember how pros- 
 perous and happy they had always, been, under 
 the old government — that no rights of theirs had 
 over been invaded by that government — that the 
 old constitution had always protected them in 
 the possession of their slave-property, and would 
 still have afforded them protection, if they had 
 not madly and wickedly chosen to put themselves 
 forever beyond that protection. If any of them ■ 
 go into exile in other lands hereafter, these will 
 be their reflections — that they had a country 
 whose flag was honored in every land ; that they 
 had wealth and friends ; that they were prosper- 
 ous and happy ; that they had not known what 
 oppression was. And will not such thoughts as 
 these, be intensified even to agony, when they 
 
THE EXPIATION. 89 
 
 shall see that well known flag at the mast head 
 of American vessels, in the ports of the different 
 countries, where they may be exiles, still honored 
 and respected, by all men, as the symbol of free- 
 dom? How fearful, but just are the retributions 
 of thy Providence, to the wicked, God ! 
 
 But why should the innocent suffer with the 
 guilty ? For it cannot be denied that the inhabi- 
 tants of the States in which slavery did not exist, 
 have already suffered, and must still suffer from 
 this war. Why are they made to share in the 
 punishment due to the sins of others? The an- 
 swer is, the nation is responsible for the exist- 
 ence of the system of slavery, and the expiation 
 of the guilt thereof, is justly required from the 
 whole nation. 
 
 It is true, the body of the people in the North- 
 ern States, years ago, saw and deplored the evils 
 of the system, and emancipated all their own 
 slaves. So far, they did well. But still, the 
 institution of slavery at the South, with all its 
 peculiarities and enormities, has grown up and 
 flourished under the auspices and shadow of the 
 great American tree of liberty. A recognition of 
 the system was engrafted upon the Constitution, 
 and it kas been recognized and protected by the 
 
90 THE EXPIATION. 
 
 American Congress. Therefore, it may be said 
 that the Sovereign Ruler of nations, justly holds 
 our Grovernment responsible for the existence of 
 the evil. Who, then, shall complain, that the na- 
 tion feels the rod of chastisement, lifted for the 
 correction of the whole people. 
 
 Not only was the Government a guilty party, 
 in entering into a compromise or treaty, recog- 
 nizing the system, and incorporating it into the 
 body politic, but the entire people of the North, 
 have liberally patronized and encouraged the in- 
 stitution, in purchasing cotton and sugar, the pro- 
 ducts of slave-labor. These articles, it may be 
 affirmed, were the sweat and blood of African 
 slaves, extracted from them by the lash of task^ 
 masters, who were utterly destitute of the feeling 
 of humanity! And yet the Christian people of 
 the North, and the people of England, protesting 
 all the while against the barbarities of the sys- 
 tem, would purchase these articles. 
 
 Let England continue, hypocritically, to protest 
 against slavery, the world knows that her im- 
 mense commerce and trade, is, in great part, main- 
 tained by the toil of slaves. She is the most 
 liberal patron of the system, and, if she dared, she 
 would, to day, recognize the Southern Confederacy, 
 
THE EXPIATION. 91 
 
 and aid in laying the foundations of a slave-re>- 
 public, for the sake of a monopoly of the trade 
 of that republic. Sngland, tremble in view of 
 the fate that surely awaits thee ! God is just, and 
 there are many sins laid to thy charge, yet una- 
 toned for ! 
 
 I have endeavored to ascertain the purpose of 
 the Divine will, so far as that purpose can be 
 known by the dispensations of his Providence in 
 the present war ;, and, according to my honest 
 convictions, there seems to be but one conclusion 
 to which every good man and christian must come, 
 viz : that it was intended as a righteous and just 
 judgment for the sin of slavery. 
 
 If I am wrong in this conclusion, I would des- 
 pair of ever being able to read aright any lesson, 
 taught by the dispensations of the Divine Provi- 
 dence, in the management of human affairs. 
 
 If I am right in the conclusion to which I have 
 arrived, what is our duty, as a people ? Mani- 
 festly, it is to confess and repent of this sin, as a 
 nation! We have not yet done this. It is true, 
 that days for fasting and humiliation have been 
 appointed. But this has been, pro forma, and 
 from custom, rather than from any deep conviction 
 of the great guilt of that peculiar system of ini- 
 
92 THE EXPIATION. 
 
 quity, on account of which the nation is scourged. 
 Can that repentance be acceptable in the sight of 
 heaven, in which there is not even an acknowl- 
 edgement of sin? 
 
 It is true, that individual christians have long 
 deplored the existence of the evil, and made con- 
 fessions on behalf of the Government. But when 
 has the Government itself ever taken this posi- 
 tion ? Never 1 If our rulers will not get down 
 in dust and ashes to humble themselves before 
 the Almighty for this sin, let the people set them 
 the example. Let petitions, signed by thousands, 
 be at once addressed to the President, praying 
 him to appoint a day, to be observed as a day of 
 humiliation and prayer by the nation at large, 
 calling on them especially to make confession and 
 repent of that particular form of sin, for which 
 the nation is judged, viz : the sin of slavery, if by 
 any means, they may be able to avert the just 
 anger of heaven. 
 
 If a proclamation like this were to emanate 
 from the White House at Washington, it would 
 be as welcome to millions of pious hearts, as the 
 rising of the star of hope, or as the dawning of 
 the day of salvation to our distressed and bleed- 
 ing country I We should begin to think that tho 
 
THE EXPIATION. 93 
 
 Lord's anger was already appeased, and that He 
 was just about to return to its sheath again, the 
 sword drunk with the blood of nearly a million 
 of lives I 
 
H 
 
 VIII. 
 THE "MALUM IN SE" THEORY. 
 
 A STATE of ignorance may be said to be the 
 normal condition of the human mind. And yet 
 all the guides and teachers which the Author of 
 our being has ordained for the instruction of man, 
 teach the way of truth without error. All the 
 voices of nature, not less than the voice of Revela- 
 tion, incessantly proclaim to him, where the tem- 
 ple of truth is situated, and may be regarded as 
 so many indices, pointing him in the road that 
 leads thither. 
 
 Truth rests upon a firm and immovable basis. 
 There is not a truth, that is not as clear as the 
 sunlight. There is not an error in the world, 
 that has any firm support for its foundation. But 
 every error is an illusion, the result of false ap- 
 pearances, and maintained by false arguments and 
 testimony. 
 
 Why, then, does man — why do all men so eager- 
 
THE MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 95 
 
 ly embrace error, rather than truth? Alas! the 
 intellect is clouded by sin, and to that extent, 
 the natural understanding has been brought in 
 subjection to the power of sin. The philosophy 
 of the whole subject, is best explained in those 
 inspired words, "Men love darkness rather than 
 light," — that is, error rather than truth — " because 
 their deeds are evil." If the hearts of men were 
 not evil, they would not hate truth — they would 
 not be averse to the light, and they could not 
 love darkness more than the light. But their 
 hearts are evil, and to evil inclined — and this 
 affords the only true solution in the case. 
 
 Look at the thousands of creeds, and systems, 
 and theories that have, at one time or another, 
 prevailed in the world. One system, one theory, 
 one creed after another passes away, only to 
 give place to other systems, and creeds, and 
 theories, which, in like manner, soon explode, 
 and prove to be no more real or substantial 
 than a bubble, on the surface of the waves. 
 
 Where is the system of religion in the world, 
 that does not contain in it, a hundred errors to 
 one truth, except the system taught in the Book 
 of books? Where is the system of human phi- 
 losophy, that has stood the test of time, or that 
 
« tri T TTiir TXT cri >' 
 
 96 THE "malum in se" theory. 
 
 was not erected on a foundation of falsehood? 
 Where is the theory of human government, that 
 has not proved defective, and soon been changed 
 for some other theory ? Where is the book, writ- 
 ten by uninspired man, worthy of attention at all, 
 that has not inculcated a vast deal, nay, a thou- 
 sand times more of error than of truth? Do we 
 not know that the philosophies of men are as 
 ephemeral and short-lived as their authors? The 
 philosophies of one age, give place to those of 
 the succeeding, which are substituted in their room, 
 and these again are overturned by still newer sys- 
 tems, which spring up in the next age. And so 
 the world wags on. 
 
 How crooked and diverse are the paths of error I 
 Men are continually changing! The man of to- 
 day, can hardly be said to be the man of yester- 
 day ! But Truth never changes I Truth is eter- 
 nal I This sentiment cannot be too deeply in- 
 scribed on our heart and memory. 
 
 How comes it, that, while one, self-erected into 
 a philosopher or teacher of mankind, pronounces 
 all slavery a sin— a sin per se — and the very re- 
 lationship between master and servant to be sinful ; 
 another, equally as wise in his own conceit, and 
 confident in his ability to instruct and enlighten 
 
THE " MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 97 
 
 his fellow-men, pronounces the institution of slavery 
 to be one of Divine appointment, designed for the 
 highest good of our race, and intended to be per- 
 petuated to the end of time? Can both theories 
 be true? Can either of them be true? No fact 
 can be better established than that both are alike 
 founded in error. And yet, it was the conflict be- 
 tween these two opposing theories, that has involved 
 our unhappy country in this dreadful civil war. 
 
 I cannot now say that I blame the abolition- 
 ist, for the instrumentality he has had, in aliena- 
 ting the people of the South, and plunging the 
 country into a war. For, I think, I see now, that 
 he was but an instrument in the hand of the 
 higher Power. 
 
 The war might have been averted— perhaps, I 
 may say the war would never occurred, but for 
 the conflict between these opposing theories, of 
 which I have spoken. In fact, all wars result 
 from the conflict of opinions amongst men. It is 
 the way in which such disputes, when they as- 
 sume a national character, are usually settled. 
 
 Perhaps, the war might have been averted. 
 But then, how would the Most High have exe- 
 cuted his decree of vengeance ? For, that He had 
 formed such a decree, to punish this nation for 
 
98 THE "malum in se" theory. 
 
 all the crimes and bloodshed of which they had 
 been guilty in perpetrating the horrors of the 
 African slave trade, and in patronizing and up- 
 holding the accursed system, for so many years, I 
 iDclieve as firmly as that He occupies the throne 
 of universal dominion. Still, while I make this 
 declaration, I at the same time freely admit, I feel 
 no regret, that it was the abolitionist and not 
 myself, who was employed as the instrument in 
 bringing to pass the accomplishment of that de- 
 cree of wrath, at the fulfilment of which the na- 
 tions of the earth stand aghast. 
 
 If the abolitionist had been content simply to 
 denounce the African slave-trade — If he had only 
 warred against the system of slavery existing in 
 the Southern States, as, in many of its features, and 
 under the existing . laws and regulations of those 
 States subversive of the rights of humanity, and con- 
 trary to the principles of the Divine will, as made 
 known in his word, I for one should never have had 
 any cause of disagreement with him, provided ho 
 had conducted the controversy in a christian spirit. 
 
 But when he went beyond, this, and began to 
 teach a new philosophy, advocating the malum in 
 se, theory, in reference to slavery, he assumed a 
 position from which he was compelled to draw a 
 
THE "malum in SE" THEORY. 99 
 
 line, even through the church of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, excommunicating in a body, all slave- 
 holding christians, with whom fraternal and chris- 
 tian communion had been maintained, ever since 
 there has been a church on earth. He introduced 
 a new test of christian character, which neither 
 Christ nor his apostles had ever instituted, as a 
 necessary qualification for the communion of the 
 church ; and had he lived in the days of the apos- 
 tles, he would have excluded many from the 
 church, whom they retained in it. For it is not 
 denied, that, among the various communities, to 
 whom Paul, and the other apostles addressed 
 their epistles, there were slave-holding christians. 
 But no where, in any of their epistles, do we find 
 any intimation, that they were to reiiounce all 
 connection with slavery, or, in other words, to 
 liberate their servants or bondmen, as a neces- 
 sary qualification for the communion of the church. 
 There is not a sentence in any of those epistles, 
 from which the inference can be logically drawn, 
 that all slavery is a sin, which must, therefore, be 
 classed with murder, theft, adultery, drunkenness, 
 and other such like abominations, which are sins 
 at all times, no matter under what circumstances 
 committed. 
 
100 THE "malum in SE" THEORY. 
 
 Further, this new and extraordinary dogma, 
 would have excluded from the favor of God, and 
 from the hope of salvation, the ancient patriarchs, 
 and founders of the Jewish Church, Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, who, we know from the Divine 
 Record, were the proprietors of immense numbers 
 of servants, both of those whom they had raised, 
 and whom they had bought with their money. 
 Nay, the same theory necessarily arraigns the wis- 
 dom of the Divine Legislation, in establishing 
 slavery, by express command, among the Hebrews, 
 in the land of Canaan, after the original inhabit- 
 ants had been dispossessed and subdued. For 
 these and other reasons, I never did, and I do 
 not now, adopt or endorse that theory. 
 
 Let us look, for a moment, at the effects of the 
 promulgation of that dogma. It cannot be de- 
 nied that ecclesiastical bodies have been rent 
 asunder and divided, Northern christians refusing 
 all fellowship and communion with Southern chris- 
 tians, because of the sin of slavery. And if the 
 unity of the body of Christ was destroyed, under the 
 effects of this preaching, was it reasonable to ex- 
 pect, or to hope, that the body politic could re- 
 main one and indivisible ? 
 
 As soon as the abolitionist had adopted the 
 
»-»r.TTTir T>r OT^ '' 
 
 THE '* MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 101 
 
 malum in se theory, and had made himself sure 
 of the truth of it, that moment, he lost all fra- 
 ternal and charitable sentiments towards South- 
 ern christians, or those involved in a connection 
 with slavery. He began to regard them as 
 heathen and as sinners. The very fact of their 
 owning a slave, was sufficient proof to him, that 
 they were still in an unchristian state — still "in 
 the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity " Of 
 course, he felt himself justifiable in denouncing 
 them as ^^ kidnappers " ^' man-stealers,^^ ^^ robber s,^^ as 
 men ^'in covenant with hell and in league with 
 death," etc., etc. Prior to the date of the pro- 
 mulgation of that dogma. Christian charity for- 
 bade that any class of communicants should be 
 thus denounced. But as soon as the abolitionist 
 had got in possession of a principle, which ex- 
 cluded this class all from the church, he might, 
 without any great inconsistency, begin to employ 
 harsh and bitter words, and to treat as heathens, 
 those made such by his own philosophy. 
 
 The legitimate fruit of these bitter denuncia- 
 tions, and this altered style of address, towards 
 the South, was soon apparent. As might have 
 been anticipated, it caused irritation. A feeling 
 of alienation between the two sections of North 
 
102 THE "malum in SE" THEORY. 
 
 and South was engendered. That alienation has 
 increased and strengthened, from the first mo- 
 ment, up to the present time. Hatred against 
 the abolitionists has become the passion of the 
 Southern people — an intense hatred, which I can 
 only describe as fiendish! 
 
 Of course, no one would undertake to justify 
 the people of the South for thus having the worst 
 passions of their nature aroused, and giving them- 
 selves up, on so slight a provocation, to the ab- 
 solute possession of such vindictive passions. I 
 am speaking of the results that followed from the 
 propagation of the'' malum in 5e" theory. Neither 
 would I assert, that, it was the aim of the abo- 
 litionist, to produce these results. It might have 
 been — it probably was, his design, &imply, by ad- 
 monition, by warning, by rebuke, to point out to 
 slave-holders, the enormity of their guilt, and 
 lead them to put away the sin of slavery. ^ 
 
 If this was all the abolitionist designed, the 
 design was honorable and upright. But it is 
 quite certain that he erred, in the use of the lan- 
 guage and manner employed, for the accomplish- 
 ment of his design. Human nature is the same 
 the world over. Men may be persuaded — they 
 can even endure the language of remonstrance 
 
THE "malum in SE" THEORY. 103 
 
 and rebuke, when spoken in kindness. But they 
 cannot bo driven to any measures of reform, no 
 matter how necessary. And they rebel and turn 
 upon their assailants, when attacked by opprobri- 
 ous and insulting epithets. 
 
 Another effect, which followed the violent course 
 of the abolitionists, was to put slave-holders in an 
 attitude of self-defense, in regard to their peculiar 
 institution. They began to use weapons and ar- 
 guments which they had not previously employed. 
 Not only did they close their eyes and their ears 
 to all appeals and all arguments coming from a 
 Northern source, but they set themselves diligently 
 to study the arguments on their own side of the 
 question, and soon began to acquire a wonderful 
 facility in converting even the shallowest sophisms 
 into the most convincing arguments, for the Di- 
 vine origin of slavery. 
 
 Parson Smiley, of Mississippi, was the first, T 
 believe, who attempted to defend the institution, 
 upon Bible authority. He brought out his pam- 
 phlet in the year 1837. I was residing in Natchez, 
 at the time, and I remember well, what were my 
 own sensations, and how other ministers among 
 Ms brethren, seemed to be grieved by the boldness 
 of this attempt to sustain such an institutioi^ by 
 
104 THE " MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 
 
 an appeal to the word of God. The impression 
 seemed to be, that, it would seriously and injuri- 
 ously affect the whole Church, especially in the 
 South. But the pamphlet had its influence. Peo- 
 ple read it — the quotations, arguments, and infer- 
 ences, all seemed to be plausible and apposite. 
 And soon there were not a few among the more 
 intelligent and wealthy of the population, who 
 were willing to accord to Mr. Smiley, the honor 
 of having written an unanswerable defense of their 
 cherished institution. From time to time, since, 
 other productions of a similar nature have been 
 published, till now, there is scarcely any gentle- 
 man's library in the South, that is not well-stocked 
 with volumes, advocating the Divine origin of 
 slavery. Not one slave-holder, perhaps, in a hund- 
 red, could be found who would presume to ques- 
 tion the Divine right, or the morality of the insti- 
 tution. Such, and so great is the change, that has 
 taken place in the public sentiment at the South, 
 on this exciting topic, within a period of less than 
 thirty years. 
 
 I cannot say that I am prepared to affirm, that 
 this sudden and rapid change, on a subject of 
 such absorbing interest, was wholly a reaction- 
 ary result, produced by the measures adopted by 
 
THE " MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 105 
 
 the extreme abolition party in the North. I only 
 state, what appear to me to have been, the facts 
 in the case. One thing, however, I will affirm ; 
 and it is, that, up to the date above mentioned, 
 there were few pious men in the Church at the 
 South, or even among the more intelligent plant- 
 ers, who did not freely admit that slavery is an evil. 
 They usually qualified the admission, however, by 
 saying that it is a necessary evil, and unavoidable 
 in certain conditions of society. 
 
 Thus, the conflict between opinions. North and 
 South, was initiated. Churches have been divided 
 by lines running parallel with Mason's and Dixon's 
 line. A spirit of irreconcilable enmity has been 
 engendered, between the people of the two sections. 
 And now, we behold this once and long favored 
 land, desolated with fire and sword, and drenched 
 in fraternal blood. ''Behold how great a matter, a 
 littte fire kindleth .'" 
 
 Can we suppose that such direful calamities to 
 Church and State, could have befallen this nation, 
 unless the way had been prepared by this con- 
 flict between false opinions? Suppose the aboli- 
 tionist had remained quiet ; suppose he had never 
 put forth his dogma, the ''malum in ^e" theory, 
 which, with all respect, I would say, is not to be 
 
106 THE " MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 
 
 found in the Bible ; suppose he had refrained from 
 all agitation on the subject of slavery, and just 
 consented that the people of the Slave States, 
 should manage their own institution, in their own 
 way ; suppose, further, that, instead of being an 
 agitator, he had become a missionary to the South, 
 (it was an inviting field,) and labored for the con- 
 version of masters, conversing and mingling with 
 them freely ; endeavoring, in the spirit of that 
 charity, inculcated in the Gospel, to convince them 
 of their errors, whilst, at the same time, he had 
 access to the slaves, both to preach to them, and 
 to instruct them in Sabbath-schools — suppose these 
 things, and we have a right to suppose them ; what 
 then? 
 
 That universal and bitter hatred, which possesses 
 the hearts of the Southern against the Northern 
 people, would have had no existence now — for it 
 arose against abolitionists ! The Churches had 
 not been distracted and divided ! Harmony and 
 concord had still reigned, as in former years, from 
 one extremity to the other of this great republic. 
 And, above all, the process of gradual emancipa- 
 tion might have been going forward still, as for- 
 merly. 
 
 It was as late as the year 1808 that the Afri- 
 
THE "malum in SE" THEORY. 107 
 
 can slave trade was abolished in this country. 
 This was a triumph, which, as I must think, was 
 achieved by Christianity. Since that period, several 
 of the States in which slavery had existed, have 
 abolished the institution. New York became a 
 free State as late, I believe, as the year 1827, just 
 a short time before the ultra abolitionists began 
 their efforts at agitation. And, at the very mo- 
 ment, when those efforts were commenced ; and 
 the new dogma was announced, memorials were 
 circulating in the State of Kentucky, to which 
 thousands of signatures had been obtained, pray- 
 ing the Legislature so to change the constitution, 
 as to provide for the gradual extinction of slavery 
 in the State. But these memorials were with- 
 drawn in consequence of those efforts, and the 
 work of emancipation was stopped. There has 
 been no advance since, till this war was initiated. 
 Emancipation is accomplished now, with a ven- 
 geance ! 
 
 I confess myself among the number of those 
 who believe, that, there is an inherent moral 
 power in Christianity, adequate to the complete 
 regeneration of the world, and the suppression of 
 all those evils which afllict human society. Under 
 its benign auspices, emancipation might have pro- 
 
108 THE "MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 
 
 gressed, till there had not been found one slave 
 in Christendom. The unity of the churches might 
 have been preserved. The friendly relations be- 
 tween the inhabitants of the different sections of 
 the Union, might have been maintained. And we 
 might have been spared the pain of witnessing 
 the horrors of this cruel war. But, the Infinite 
 Ruler of the universe had willed otherwise, and 
 he raised up the instruments to execute the pur- 
 pose of his will. 
 
 I will, here, take the liberty to introduce a 
 short extract from an article in the Princeton Re- 
 view, published several years before the beginning 
 of our national troubles. It is a very able and 
 lucid dissertation on the subject of slavery. In 
 it, the author, supposed to be Dr. Hodge, plainly 
 forewarned the country of what would inevitably 
 be the consequences of a persistent effort, on the 
 part of abolitionists, to maintain the " malum in 
 se^' theory. What he foretold as a necessary and 
 logical consequence of that theory, we see, now, 
 to be an accomplished fact. 
 
 "The assumption that slave-holding is itself a 
 crime, is not only an error, but it is an error 
 fraught with evil consequences. It not merely 
 brings its advocates into conflict with the Scrip- 
 
THE " MALUM IN SE " THEORY. 109 
 
 tures, but it does much to retard the progress of 
 freedom ; it embitters, and divides the biembers of 
 the community, and distracts the christian church. 
 Its operation in retarding the progress of free- 
 dom, is obvious and manifold. In the first place, 
 it directs the battery of the enemies of slavery to 
 the wrong point. It might be easy for them to 
 establish the injustice or cruelty of certain slave 
 laws, where it is not in their power to establish 
 the sinfulness of slavery itself. They, therefore, 
 waste their strength. Nor, is this the least evil. 
 They promote the cause of their opponents. If 
 they do not discriminate between slave-holding 
 and the slave-laws, it gives the slave-holder, not 
 merely an excuse, but an occasion, and a reason 
 for making no such distinction. He is thus led to 
 feel the same conviction in the propriety of the 
 one, that he does in that of the other. His mind 
 and conscience may be satisfied, that the mere act 
 of holding slaves is not a crime. This is the 
 point, however, to which the abolitionist directs 
 his attention. He examines their arguments, and 
 becomes convinced of their inconclusiveness, and 
 is not only thus rendered impervious to their at- 
 tacks, but is exasperated by what he considers 
 their unmerited abuse. In the mean time, his at- 
 
"^r.TTTTir TXT OT7. '' 
 
 110 THE "malum in SE" THEORY. 
 
 tention is withdrawn from far more important 
 points ; the manner in which he treats his slaves, 
 and the laws enacted for the security of his poses- 
 sion. These are points on which his judgment 
 might be much more readily convinced of error, 
 and his conscience of sin. 
 
 "Again, the opinion, that slave-holding is, it- 
 self a crime, must operate to -produce the disunion 
 of the States, and the division of all the ecclesiastical 
 societies in this country. The feelings of the peo- 
 ple may be excited violently for a time, but the 
 transport soon passes away. But if the conscience 
 is enlisted in the cause, and becomes the control- 
 ling principle, the alienation between the North 
 and the South, must become permanent. The op- 
 position to Southern institutions will become calm, 
 constant and unappeasable. Just so far as this 
 opinion operates, it will lead those who entertain 
 it, to submit to any sacrifices to carry it out, and 
 give it effect. We shall become two nations^ in feel- 
 ing, which must soon render us two nations in fact. 
 With regard to the church, its operation will 
 be more summary. If slave-holding is a heinous 
 crime, slave-holders must be excluded from the church. 
 Several of our judicatories have already taken 
 this position. Should the General Assembly 
 
THE "MALUM IN BE " THEORY. Ill 
 
 adopt it, the church is, ipso facto divided. If the 
 opinion in question is correct, it must be main- 
 tained, whatever are the consequences. We are 
 no advocates of expediency in morals. We have 
 no more right to teach error, in order to prevent 
 evil, than we have a right to do evil, to promote 
 good. On the other hand, if the opinion is in- 
 correct, its evil consequences render it a duty to 
 prove and exhibit its unsoundness. It is under 
 the deep impression that, the primary assumption 
 of the abolitionists is an error, that its adoption 
 tends to the distraction of the country, and the di- 
 vision of the church ; and that it will lead to the 
 longer continuance and greater severity of slavery, 
 that we have felt constrained to do what little 
 we could, towards its correction." 
 
 Now, the above paragraphs, let it be remem- 
 bered, were penned months and years before the 
 logical and necessary tendency of this fundamental 
 doctrine of the abolitionists, had been fully devel- 
 oped. But, being able to perceive the connection 
 between a cause and its effects, the writer fore- 
 saw clearly, and predicted what must be the con- 
 sequences of that system. And now, we have to 
 record those consequences as accomplished facts — 
 
112 THE "malum in SE" THEORY. 
 
 in every particular, except in regard to the state- 
 ment in the last sentence, where the writer says : 
 "it will lead to the longer continuance of sla- 
 very." It has led to the sudden and immediate 
 downfall of slavery in this country. But, as I 
 stated before, the result was decreed by the Power 
 that rules over all. 
 
 Henceforward, I am an abolitionist. I have 
 been one, from the day of the bombardment of 
 Fort Sumter. I was then, as well convinced that 
 God had purposed the immediate and utter over- 
 throw of the institution, as I was, when President 
 Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Emancipation. 
 I will not, knowingly, be found in the ranks of 
 those who resist, or fight against that overruling 
 Providence. I am in favor of immediate and en- 
 tire emancipation, and shall co-operate cordially, 
 and with all my energies, with abolitionists and 
 all others who labor for the accomplishment of 
 this end. Though I have ever believed that sla- 
 very is an evil, yet I do not now, and never did 
 accord in the sentiment, that all slavery is a sin. 
 But, in regard to the system of African slavery, 
 as it prevailed in the South, I am free to express 
 my opinion that it is a system of iniquity and a 
 
THE "MALUM ;i; SE" THEORY. 113 
 
 compound of horrors. If I have not already suf- 
 ficiently made known the reasons for this opinion, 
 I shall endeavor to do so, in the subsequent pages 
 of this work. 
 
114 
 
 IX. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 
 
 Does Christianity sanction or tolerate slavery? 
 It has been argued by many, who profess to be 
 Christians, that it does, and many books have 
 been written to prove it. But here is what the. 
 Divine Author of Christianity says ; " The Spirit 
 of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed 
 me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; He hath 
 sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
 deliverance to the captives, and recovering of 
 sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them that 
 are bound ; to preach the acceptable year of the 
 Lord." The acceptable year of the Lord is sup- 
 posed to refer to the year of jubilee, which was 
 the year, when, under the old Jewish dispensation, 
 all the prisoners and captives were set at liberty. 
 
 The Son of God proclaims that the words of 
 this prophecy were to be fulfilled by his mission 
 into the world. Now I design to show that He 
 
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 115 
 
 is acting in accordance with what he said was the 
 design of his mission to this earth. He is freeing 
 the captive from his chains. He is bringing lib- 
 erty to them that were bound. He is so mana- 
 ging and directing, by his mighty Providence, the 
 affairs of this world, as to hasten and bring about 
 a grand jubilee to the whole earth, when all shall 
 be free. 
 
 We know, that, before the dawn of the Chris- 
 tian era, slavery existed, and had existed, from 
 time immemorial, almost throughout the world. It 
 existed in Egypt. It existed in Persia. It exist- 
 ed among the Jews. It existed among the Greeks. 
 It prevailed in the Roman Empire. It existed in 
 nearly all the countries of modern Europe. 
 
 Not only did Turks sell christians, and white 
 men sell black men, but white men sold slaves of 
 their own color and race. Even our ancestors in 
 England, sold their own brethren, of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race, into the most ignominious bondage. 
 These are facts, well known to every student of 
 history. And yet, no voice, has ever been lifted 
 up, in condemnation of the universal practice, save 
 the voice of Christianity. 
 
 But how stands the case now? Slavery has 
 been blotted out, from every country, where the 
 
116 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 
 
 christian is the prevailing religion, except Brazil, 
 the Spanish West Indies, and our Southern States ; 
 and in the last named, we see, that, under the 
 effect of the stores of Divine vengeance, which 
 have descended on the heads of those who upheld 
 the accursed system, it is just now in the agonies 
 of dissolution. 
 
 The selling of human beings as slaves, is no 
 longer tolerated or practised in any of the coun- 
 tries of Europe. It is extremely doubtful whether 
 the system can survive ten years longer in Cuba 
 or Brazil. And when it shall receive its death 
 blow there, it will cease forever to have any ex- 
 istence in the new world. 
 
 This is what Christianity has done, and is doing, 
 for the cause of freedom. The march of the 
 latter, is co-extensiye with the progress of the 
 former. 
 
 Let there be none in the ranks of the church- 
 militant, who deny to Jesus Christ, the honor of 
 these glorious triumphs of the gospel, in favor of 
 human liberty. Let no one be heard to make the 
 objection, that the African slave trade was origin- 
 ated, and carried on, under the auspices and pat- 
 ronage of christian countries. Those countries 
 were nominally christian, it is true, but, really and 
 
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 117 
 
 emphatically, they were infidel. "What was France, 
 but an infidel country? Spain was no better. 
 And England was quite as much given up to li- 
 centiousness and free thinking, as either. Read 
 the chronicles of those days, and you will be satis- 
 fied, that, as late as only one hundred years ago, 
 at least nine out of ten of all the men who had 
 any political influence or power in England, as 
 well as in France and other countries, were open 
 and avowed infidels. 
 
 The same thing may be said concerning the 
 state of religious and moral sentiment, in our 
 own country, some eighty or one hundred years 
 ago. Men, in the highest position, were in the 
 habit of making a boast of their infidel opinions. 
 The writings of Tom Paine and Voltaire, were 
 far more popular than the sacred Scriptures. 
 
 One member of Congress was known to address 
 another member, in a letter, in which he asserted 
 that they ought to begin to deal with preachers 
 and priests as they were doing in France. This 
 was while the guillotine was in operation. An- 
 other member of Congress called at a book-store 
 in Philadelphia, to purchase a Bible. The book- 
 seller told him that they kept no Bibles for sale. 
 "No Bibles?"— inquiringly responded the Congress- 
 
118 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 
 
 man — "No, sir" — returned the merchant, and 
 added, "we begin to think that the time is near, 
 when the Bible will be neither read nor sold in 
 Philadelphia." The statesman, who happened to 
 be a believer in the truth of Revelation, though 
 not a church member, was indignant at this re- 
 mark, and administered a severe but just rebuke ; 
 " sir, the Bible will be read and sold in Philadel- 
 phia, a thousand years after you have been roast- 
 ing in hell!" 
 
 I have mentioned these incidents, simply for the 
 purpose of conveying a faint conception of the 
 deplorable state of morals and religion in these 
 several countries, at the period, when the bloody 
 traffic in the bodies and souls of men, was in the 
 height of its glory. It may truly be said, that 
 the voice of Christianity was silent, so far as leg- 
 islation in civil affairs was concerned, during all 
 those years. Indeed, to attribute this cruel and 
 nefarious traffic to any christian influence or 
 power, as its origin and source, would be a libel 
 against God himself. 
 
 A great change has taken place in the aspect 
 of things, since the dawn of the present century. 
 Christianity is beginning to achieve her destined 
 triumphs, and, as soon as she gains the ascend- 
 
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 119 
 
 ency in any country, the fetters immediately fall 
 from the limbs of the enslaved and oppressed. 
 To the persevering efforts of Wilberforce, Clark- 
 son and other distinguished philanthropists and 
 statesmen, we justly ascribe the triumph of the 
 principles of justice and humanity, which resulted 
 in the suppression of the African slave-trade. Few 
 men, whose names are emblazoned in history, have 
 done more for their race. We believe that they 
 were divinely fitted and raised up, for the work 
 which they accomplished. In portraying, in the 
 British Parliament, the wrongs of bleeding hu- 
 manity, we believe that it was the voice of Jesus 
 Christ which spoke through them. 
 
 Why should slavery disappear, and retreat be- 
 fore the successful and triumphant progress of 
 Christianity? The answer is not obscure or diffi- 
 cult. It is, essentially, a system of cruelty, where- 
 as, Christianity is a system of mercy! They are 
 antagonistic systems, and cannot, by any possibil- 
 ity, be combined, or made to coalesce. The most 
 zealous advocate of African slavery, would be 
 compelled, if he were candid, to admit that it is 
 a system of cruelty, oppression, and murder ! 
 
 Look at slavery, in its origin. It robbed Af- 
 rica of forty millions of her children, who were 
 
120 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 
 
 carried in chains, and sold in distant countries. 
 In the enslavement of these, a like number per- 
 ished, who were murdered outright, or died un- 
 der the barbarities inflicted by kidnappers. Is 
 it not a system of cruelty — a very combination 
 of horrors — as Thomas Jefferson called it? Can 
 we refuse to believe that it was the purpose of 
 Christ's mission into the world, to destroy all 
 such iniquitous systems? 
 
 Again, look at slavery in its more matured state, 
 and in its full-grown developments, as it has 
 existed in our Southern States — " What are the 
 fruits of the system during the last fifty years?" 
 More than one hundred thousand murders, com- 
 mitted by blows and other injuries, inflicted by 
 overseers and masters, for which no legal process 
 was ever instituted — from four to five millions of 
 men, women, and children, sold by domestic slave- 
 traders, and carried into distant States, thus de- 
 prived of all hope of ever seeing wife, husband, 
 children, or parents again — at least half a million 
 of slave-children, sacrificed in infancy, whose death 
 was caused by cruelty to their mothers, at a period 
 when they required to be treated with tenderness 
 and care — laws enacted, putting fetters on the 
 mind itself, binding it down in ignorance, and 
 
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 121 
 
 debarring it from all access to that knowledge, 
 which ought to be as free as the air we breathe 
 — thousands of aristocratic families, reveling in 
 luxuries and wealth, the fruits of slave-breeding, 
 which has been a legitimate and creditable occu- 
 pation in several of the States. These are some 
 of the fruits of slavery, during the last half-cen- 
 tury. Is it any thing else but a system of cruelty 
 and murder? When darkness can dwell with 
 light, or exist under the brightness of the noon- 
 day sun, then may this system of iniquity, be 
 brought into a- state of harmony with God^s system 
 of mercy. 
 
 The spirit of Christianity breathes " peace on earth 
 and good will to man." This was the proclamation 
 with which its birth was announced. But good 
 unll to universal man, cannot mean that some men, 
 may bind others, of their fellow-men, in chains, 
 and sell them as slaves. 
 
 The Divine Redeemer of the world, proclaimed 
 that he came to destroy the works of the devil, and 
 to deliver those who, all their lives, were held in 
 bondage. But we are sure, he did not intend to 
 teach that those whom he had delivered from the 
 power of their master, the devil, and made the 
 Lord's freedmen, should be held still as captives 
 
122 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 
 
 and slaves by any of the devil's confederates. 
 "Where he has lost his authority, they certainly 
 can have no right to lord it over God's children. 
 
 The very essence of Christianity is love — love 
 to God and love for man. " Love is the fulfilling 
 of the law." " Thou shalt love thy neighbor, as 
 thyself." " By this shall ye know that ye are my 
 disciples, that ye love one another." " If any 
 man say that he loves God, whom he hath not 
 seen, and hateth his brother, whom he hath seen, 
 he is a liar." 
 
 All the disciples of Christ, are called brethren. 
 Can a man love his brother as himself, and yet 
 claim the right to sell him — to sell his wife and 
 children — to cut and mark Jiis body with stripes 
 — to deprive him of all means of knowledge — to 
 exact his toil with sweat and stripes and allow 
 him no wages ! Is this what is meant by the 
 new command Christ gave to his disciples, to 
 love one another? 
 
 But this question is not a novel one. Very 
 soon after the introduction of African slavery into 
 this country, the question arose, whether Christian- 
 ity does not enfranchise its converts. " The 
 Christian world" — I now quote from Bancroft's | i 
 History — " The christian world of that day, almost 
 
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 123 
 
 universally, revered in Christ, the impersonation 
 of the Divine wisdom. Could an intelligent being, 
 who, tlirough the Mediator, had participated in the 
 Spirit of God, and, by his own inward experience, 
 had become conscious of a supreme existence, and 
 of relations between that existence and humanity 
 be rightfully held in bondage ? From New Eng- 
 land to Carolina, the notion prevailed, that, ' being 
 baptized is inconsistent with a state of slavery ; ' 
 and this early apprehension proved a main obsta- 
 cle to the culture and conversion of these poor 
 people. The sentiment was so deep and general, 
 that South Carolina, in 1712, Maryland in 1715, 
 Virginia repeatedly, from 1667 to 1748, gave a 
 negative to it by special enactments." 
 
 This is, certainly, a very curious and instructive 
 passage of history. What was the notion which 
 prevailed "from New England to Carolina," and 
 was '^ so deep and generalj^ as to cause masters to 
 deprive their slaves of all means of religious in- 
 struction and conversion, lest they should lose 
 their right of ownership in them? It was the 
 notion, that, if they should be converted, and re- 
 ceived into the Church by the holy ordinance of 
 baptism, they could no longer be rightfully held 
 in a state of slavery. Under the influence of this 
 
124 CHRISTIANITY TERSUS SLAVERY. 
 
 general and deep religious conviction, the conver- 
 sion of a slave, if he belonged to a Christian 
 master, necessarily secured his manumission. 
 
 From what source, did the Christians of that 
 early day, obtain this deep and almost universal 
 religious impression? Let the modern advocates 
 of slavery, who claim to belong to the Chris- 
 tian brotherhood, answer. 
 
 But the prevalence of this sentiment, was an 
 obstacle in the way of the religious instruction 
 and conversion of the poor slaves. For, as, in 
 the case of a majority of the planters, their cupid- 
 ity and avarice preponderated over their religious 
 convictions, they adopted measures to keep these 
 Africans in ignorance, and to prevent their con- 
 version, lest they should lose their right of prop- 
 erty in them, as slaves. The State legislatures 
 had to take up the subject, and enact special laws, 
 urging and enforcing on masters the observance 
 of those duties, in the treatment of their slaves, 
 which every dictate of reason, as well as religion, 
 required. But these enactments failed to have 
 the desired effect, as the love of lucre was stronger 
 than piety in the hearts of the masters, and they 
 were not willing to let their slaves be converted, 
 till the legislatures had solemnly declared, by a 
 
CHRISTIAJflTY VERSUS SLAVERY. 125 
 
 legislative act, that a converted and baptized slave, 
 might be lawfully and consistently held in a state 
 of bondage. But, so strong and deep was the 
 general religious conviction to the contrary of 
 this, that one single legislative decision was not 
 sufficient. The enactment had to be repeated again 
 and again, and by different legislatures, before the 
 conscience of those Christian masters had become 
 schooled up to the point of permitting them, to 
 keep and hold a Christian brother or sister as a 
 slave. 
 
 This, to say the least, was rather an anomalous 
 proceeding ; politicians, worldly-minded and selfish 
 men, many of whom were, doubtless, infidels, meet- 
 ing in solemn deliberation, to settle a point in 
 religious morals ; and, by a legislative enactment, 
 declaring that to be right and moral, which Chris- 
 tians generally, on their understanding of what 
 Christ had enacted in his word, had believed to 
 be wrong. - 
 
 But they settled the question. And this fact in 
 history, is to be remembered by the advocates of 
 slavery. The Assembly of South Carolina, and 
 other assemblies, mere secular bodies, who had no 
 authority to legislate in matters of religious faith, 
 established the morality of holding a Christian 
 
126 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 
 
 man or woman in bondage, in opposition to the 
 universal sentiment of the Church in those days. 
 
 And now, let us see what the Apostle Paul has 
 said and written on this identical subject, the 
 holding of christian brethren in a state of slavery. 
 
 " Masters, give unto your servants, that which 
 is just and equal, knowing that ye, also, have a 
 master in Heaven." 
 
 Here is a law, an enactment, ordained by the 
 highest authority, which, if universally observed, 
 would lead to universal emancipation, in every 
 country where christian law prevails. The duty 
 of the master is stated, with the motive to its per- 
 formance. Give to your servants, that which jus- 
 tice and equity require. This is the duty, stated in 
 terms so clear, as not to be misunderstood, except 
 wilfully. And the motive to the performance of 
 this duty, is, the knowledge the master has, that 
 he is himself a servant — that Christ is his Master, 
 and he must, therefore, do unto his servant as he 
 would have Christ his master in Heaven, do unto 
 him. 
 
 Under the operation of such a law as this, no 
 service rendered, could be without its just reward. 
 It would insure to the slave all the education and 
 training essential to his happiness in this world, 
 
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 127 
 
 and his preparation for another. It would afford 
 a sure guarantee against being forcibly separated 
 from his wife — against having his children sold, 
 or being sold liimself to some merciless tyrant. 
 In short, such a law, if generally observed, would 
 abolish slavery throughout the world. 
 
 Admit that there are precepts which seem to 
 sanction slavery, as one of the institutions existing 
 at the time, when Christianity was born. They 
 sanction it, only in such a negative manner, as to 
 prohibit christians from putting themselves in ar- 
 ray against existing governments, and such politi- 
 cal and social institutions as had originated under 
 those governments. 
 
 " Let as many servants, as are under the yoke, 
 count their own masters worthy of all honor: 
 "Why is this precept given? The reason is im- 
 mediately annexed — " that the name of God and 
 his doctrine be not blasphemed," — that is to say, 
 that the heathen powers that rule be not pro- 
 voked to deny Christ and to make war upon the 
 infant church. 
 
 We know, that, if the apostles had put them- 
 selves in opposition to the civil or political insti- 
 tutions of their day ; if, for example, they had 
 commanded masters to liberate their slaves on the 
 
128 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 
 
 ground that all slavery is a sin ; or, if they had 
 exhorted servants to desert their masters, for the 
 reason that they liad no right to hold them in 
 bondage, every political power of that age, and 
 the whole heathen world would have conspired 
 for the destruction of the church. Therefore, sub- 
 mission was inculcated, even to the enforcement 
 of unjust and unrighteous laws. Hear the great 
 apostle once more ; 
 
 " Submit yourselves to every Ordinance of man, 
 for the Lord's sake. For so is the will of God, 
 that with well-doing, ye may put to silence, the 
 ignorance of foolish men ; as free, and not using 
 your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as 
 the servants of God. Honor all men. Love the 
 brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Ser- 
 vants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not 
 only to the good and gentle, but also to the fro- 
 war d. For this is thank- worthy, if a man for 
 conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering 
 wrongfully." 
 
 Have the advocates of opposition, pondered 
 these significant words? "It is thank-worthy" — 
 that is, it is commendable, that a Christian, who 
 is, at the same time, a slave, " endure grief, suffer- 
 ing wrongfully'^ for conscience towards God ; or, 
 
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 129 
 
 because God requires him, in the present emer- 
 gency, to be patient, and submit to every ordi- 
 nance of man. Does such language imply any 
 approbation of the system of wrong, under which 
 the slave thus endures grief, and pines away in 
 useless sighs for freedom? 
 
 The Apostle Paul assumed the responsibility 
 of emancipating a slave, who belonged not to 
 himself, but to another. Perhaps this statement 
 is rather too strong ; and I qualify it, by saying, 
 that he wrote such a letter to Philemon, in be- 
 half of Onesimus, that it had been impossible for 
 Philemon longer to have kept him in involuntary 
 servitude. I will quote the passage entire : 
 
 "Wherefore, though I might be much bold in 
 Christ, to inform thee that which is convenient, 
 yet, for love's sake, I rather beseech thee, being 
 such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a 
 prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beseech thee for my 
 son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my 
 bonds, which in time past, was to thee unprofit- 
 able, but now, profitable to thee and to me; 
 whom I have sent again ; thou therefore receive 
 him, that is, mine own bowels ; whom I would 
 have retained with me, that, in thy stead, he 
 might have ministered unto me in the bonds of 
 
130 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 
 
 the Gospel ; but without thy mind, would I do 
 nothing, that thy benefit should not be, as it 
 were, of necessity, but willingly. For, perhaps, 
 he therefore departed for a season, that thou 
 shouldst receive him forever ; not now as a 
 servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, 
 especially to me, but how much more unto thee, 
 both in the flesh, and in the Lord? If thou 
 count me, therefore, a partner, receive him as my- 
 self. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth aught, 
 put that on mine account ; I Paul have written 
 it with mine own hand, I will repay it ; albeit 
 I do not say to thee, how thou owest unto me 
 even thine own self besides. Yea, brother, let 
 me have joy of thee in the Lord ; refresh my 
 bowels in the Lord. Having confidence in thy 
 obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou 
 wilt also do more than I say.'' 
 
 What a tender and loving appeal is this whole 
 letter — though he might have used the language 
 of command, yet, for love's sake, he chose to em- 
 ploy the language of entreaty, in behalf of Onesi- 
 mus — I beseech thee for my son Onesiinus. He 
 speaks of him as his son, his own bowels — and 
 exhorts Philemon to receive him as himself, that 
 is, with all the marks of esteem and brotherly 
 
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 131 
 
 love, with which he would have received the 
 great Apostle. He exhorts him, to receive him, 
 710^ as a slave, or servant, but above a servant — as 
 a brother beloved, both in the flesh, and in tJie Lord. 
 Does not this imply a command to Philemon, to 
 liberate his slave, to set Onesimus free, since he 
 is now a brother beloved in the Lord ? 
 
 He intimates that he would have retained 
 Onesimus with him, as he had a right, but he 
 sends him back, not to be a slave again, but that 
 he, Philemon, might perform the favor or benefit 
 which he solicited, willingly, or voluntarily, and 
 not from necessity or constraint. 
 
 Paul knew that Philemon would do what he 
 requested — " having confidence in thy obedience, I 
 wrote unto thee, knoioing that thou wilt also do 
 more than I say^ 
 
 And what was the result? Onesimus was 
 emancipated. He was never held in bondage 
 another day. And we may believe that a brother 
 in Christ, so highly commended as Philemon, re- 
 garded as an occasion for devout gratitude, the 
 privilege of performing an act of kindness, at 
 once so just and so consonant to the Spirit of 
 Christ. 
 
 We afterwards find Onesimus as a fellow-laborer 
 
132 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SLAVERY. 
 
 with Paul, in the bonds of the Gospel, and em- 
 ployed by him as a messenger to the churches. 
 He finally settled at Ephesus, and became its 
 bishop as we are informed by St. Ignatius, and 
 his memory is cherished by many, as one of the 
 martyrs of the church. 
 
 Now, in this case, I confess that I see an act 
 of emancipation, based solely on the ground, that 
 the enslaved had become, spiritually, the son, and 
 therefore the equal of Paul himself — had become 
 the brother, and therefore the equal of Philemon 
 tlie master, and beloved in the Lord. It was on 
 this ground alone, that his freedom was solicited, 
 and that it was granted. 
 
 The case may, or may not, furnish a general 
 rule or principle, which may apply to all similar 
 cases. I undertake not to determine. But I may 
 be allowed to say that I feel truly grateful that 
 though I have lived so many years in the midst 
 of the evils of slavery, I have never claimed the 
 right of ownership or property, in one of Christ's 
 brethren. 
 
133 
 
 X. 
 
 THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 
 
 Murder is a crime that never goes unpunished I 
 "We may not know what mark was branded on 
 the first murderer, Cain ; but we do know the 
 malediction of the Most High fell on him, and 
 he became a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. 
 And, doubtless, the complaint which fell from his 
 lips, " my punishment is greater than I can hear J'' has 
 found an echo, in the heart of every one, who in 
 any age or country since, has imbrued his hands 
 in the blood of a fellow-being. 
 
 Let the murderer go where he will, he feels that 
 he is but a fugitive and a vagabond. The anger 
 of God has burned his guilt deep into his con- 
 science. 
 
 He may escape the penalty affixed to his crime 
 by the laws of the land. He may conceal his 
 crime from the knowledge of men, but he can- 
 not hide it from himself, nor from the all-seeing 
 
134 THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 
 
 eye of his Maker. Wherever he goes, in whatever 
 country he may seek to be unknown, the curse 
 goes with him, the voice of his brother's blood 
 seeming, every where, to rise out of the very 
 ground, on which he treads, and crying for ven- 
 geance. He may shift from one scene of revelry 
 and merriment, to another, to drown thought. 
 But ^tis all in vain ; he is not, and he cannot be, 
 a happy man. The curse of the Almighty is rest- 
 ing on him. The uneasy and anxious counte- 
 nance, and the restless eye, betray a soul ill at 
 ease. 
 
 0, have you ever known one who had the guilt 
 of murder on his conscience ! He can hardly trust 
 himself alone, and yet, he seems as if he would 
 avoid all intercourse with his fellow-men. He is 
 afraid his dreadful secret will be disclosed, and 
 yet, it is with difficulty, he can keep from betray- 
 ing that secret himself. He bears in his own 
 bosom, the punishment of his crime, which he 
 would fain expiate on the scaffold, if only he 
 dared to brave public sentiment, and bring dis- 
 grace on his family by letting the world know, 
 that he bears the mark of Cain on his forehead. 
 Yea, the curse of the Almighty pursues the mur- 
 derer I 
 
THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 135 
 
 No decree can be more just than that which 
 was long ago enacted ; " Whoso sheddeth man's 
 blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Not 
 only does the felon, who deprives another of exist- 
 ence, take away that which he cannot restore, 
 but, if we can understand the inspired declaration 
 • — " for 171 the image of God created he him]^ — he 
 mars that Divine image, as originally impressed 
 on the soul of man. And from the connection in 
 which that declaration stands recorded, we may 
 fairly infer that there is no crime which trans- 
 cends this. 
 
 I acknowledge, I am one of those who believe 
 that " no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." 
 It may be wrong, but still, I cannot banish from 
 my mind the doubt, whether one, who has, delib- 
 erately, and with malice aforethought, stained his 
 soul with the crime of murder, can be pardoned, 
 either in this world, or the next. "He has not 
 only deprived his victim of life, but, it may be, 
 has sent that victim, unprepared, to the doom of 
 a miserable eternity ! And it revolts our sense 
 of justice, to suppose that he is pardoned, and 
 enjoys the favor of God, through a blissful eter- 
 nity, while his victim is suffering the vengeance 
 of God. 
 
136 THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 
 
 I have been with a condemned criminal, in 
 his prison. I knew that he had a murderer's 
 heart. Moved by the spirit of revenge, he had 
 sought his victim, and, at the dark hour of mid- 
 night, had deliberately shot him through the heart. 
 I did not feel prompted by a sense of Chris- 
 tian duty, to kneel down and offer up a prayer 
 for his pardon. The conviction was so strong 
 in my mind, that there could be no pardon for 
 him, that I dared not do it. And I left the cell, 
 without even making the attempt. I may have 
 been wrong, but I could not resist my convictions, 
 nor act contrary to them. I had known the vic- 
 tim of his revenge, and had reason to believe 
 that, though a better man than the murderer, he 
 was quite unprepared for his sudden and unex- 
 pected exit to worlds unknown. 
 
 I have said that African slavery was a system 
 of wholesale murder. At whose hand, is the 
 blood of the millions slain by it, now required? 
 The Decree of Justice^ against the crime of murder, 
 has never been repealed. And the Eternal, we 
 may be sure, will take care for the inviolability of 
 His own law. The execution of that law may be 
 sometimes, and often is, long delayed, yet the 
 wicked shall not, for that reason, go unpunished. 
 
THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 137 
 
 Retributive justice must, soon or late, overtake 
 the guilty. 
 
 In the book of God's remembrance, the system 
 ^ of African slavery, is charged with the guilt of 
 the murder of many millions of his children, 
 formed originally in his own image. Eigid jus- 
 tice demands an atonement. And, unless the De- 
 cree, quoted above, has been repealed, an atone- 
 ment will be exacted in blood. And because this 
 shed blood has been crying so long unavenged, 
 must we suppose, either that God does not hear, 
 or that he will not attend to that cry at last ? 
 
 Historical writers have told us, that, for the 
 forty millions of the inhabitants of Africa, torn 
 from their native country, and made slaves in 
 America, an equal number were cruelly put to 
 death, in various ways, by those emissaries of hell, 
 who were employed in the infernal trade. Will 
 there be no final reckoning for this? — no party, 
 who will be held accountable at the bar of the 
 Great Judge, for this lavish waste of human life ? 
 And here, it may be proper to note this strik- 
 ing and essential difference between African sla- 
 very, and every other form of slavery ever known 
 in the world. Can we suppose, that, even Abra- 
 ham would have been guiltless in the sight of 
 
138 THE VOICE OP BLOOD. 
 
 God, if he had imported his slaves thousands of 
 miles, from another continent, in dark and sus- 
 picious looking vessels, manned by pirates, at a 
 cost of, at least, one murder committed for every 
 slave obtained ? Would the ancient Hebrews 
 have been sinless, in the matter of slavery, if they 
 had been guilty of the same nefarious practice? 
 Their bondmen were natives of the soil. But yet, 
 the Jews made no attempt to enslave them, till 
 they had received an express coitimand from their 
 Divine Legislator, to do so. Even the heathen 
 nations, of the Roman Empire, who held slaves, 
 had at least the shadow of justice in the title, by 
 which they held them ; as they had been taken as 
 captives in the wars with neighboring States, or 
 had been sold to them for debt. In short, this 
 system of modern slavery, considered simply with 
 reference to its origin, is as much blacker than 
 those ancient forms of bondage, as the age of 
 Christianity, exceeds in brightness, the ages of 
 darkness, when those ancient forms of slavery pre- 
 vailed. 
 
 The question still recurs, who will be held to a 
 rigid account, for all this bloodshed ? Suppose 
 that they were tender and helpless babes, whose 
 brains were dashed out against the ti^unk of a 
 
THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 139 
 
 tree — Suppose that they were aged and infirm 
 men and women, valueless as slaves, and unable 
 to endure the fatigues of the march to the coast, 
 who were therefore shot down, or stabbed, and 
 left weltering in their blood — Suppose that others 
 were consumed in the fire of their own dwellings — 
 Suppose that many perished, from fatigue and ex- 
 haustion, in the hurried march, naked and bare- 
 foot, over burning sands, to the coast — Suppose 
 that many more died of a broken heart, or of fever 
 and other diseases contracted from the foul and 
 pestilential air, in the confined hold of the ship — 
 or, suppose that, sick and dying, they were thrown 
 overboard, to feed the sharks ; who is responsible 
 for so many millions of murders, committed under 
 the full blaze and light of the sun of heaven? 
 
 It avails naught, to say that nobody will be 
 held responsible. Nor, is it a satisfactory an- 
 swer, to say, that the guilt belongs solely to the 
 kidnappers, or the persons immediately engaged in 
 the slave-trade. What were they, but the mere 
 instruments or agents of others? Would they 
 have robbed Africa, if there had not been a 
 market for the spoils? The people who kept 
 that market open, were the people who tempted 
 the kidnappers to engage in the traffic — who 
 
140 THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 
 
 paid them for ii>— and, in fact, employed them 
 as their agents, while thus carrying on a trade, 
 marked, at every step, by rapine and bloodshed ! 
 
 If the colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas 
 had acted as did the colony of Georgia, under 
 Oglethorpe's administration, — or as did the peo- 
 ple of New England, when the first cargo of Af- 
 ricans was landed on their coast ; who raised 
 such a cry of indignation, against the owners of 
 the ship, that they were arrested as malefactors 
 and murderers, and the cargo of slaves were sent 
 back to their native country, at the public ex- 
 pense. If those colonies had acted in this spirit, 
 and persisted in such a course, there would have 
 been no slavery in this country. The kidnappers 
 would have had no patrons, and for the want of 
 patronage, would have been compelled to betake 
 themselves to some useful occupation. 
 
 Those colonists must have known what they 
 were doing, when they created the slave mark^, 
 and threw its doors wide open, inviting the kid- 
 nappers to enter upon their hellish trade. They 
 knew that every slave imported was the purchase 
 of blood and crime. They knew tlmt every slave- 
 ship which arrived on the coast, had buried its 
 scores of murdered victims, in the depths of the 
 
THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 141 
 
 ocean. They were not ignorant of the cruelties 
 and horrors of the slave-trade. 
 
 We are driven, therefore, to the conclusion, 
 that the states which kept the market, and encour- 
 aged and rewarded the kidnappers, while carry- 
 ing on the diabolical trafiSc, are, really, the guilty 
 and responsible parties. 
 
 It is now two hundred and forty-three years, 
 since the first cargo of slaves was landed on our 
 shores. And what does the history of the pecu- 
 liar institution exhibit, as it has existed in these 
 states, during that period ? I do not exaggerate, 
 when I say, that the blood of not less than two 
 hundred thousand slaves, is crying to heaven for 
 vengeance, from this soil of freedom, whose death 
 was caused by blows and wounds inflicted, in the 
 severity of punishment, by the inhumanity of mas- 
 ters and overseers. There has been no reckoning, 
 no atonement. The law of man did not even 
 demand a legal investigation. Their life was 
 crushed out of them, by a crime, but no notice 
 was taken thereof. May we suppose, or can we 
 believe that the Divine Legislator, will, in like 
 manner, ignore the existence of his law against 
 crime, and pass by this numerous class of offend- 
 ers and murderers, without the least notice. Will 
 
142 THE YOICE OF BLOOD. 
 
 He also turn a deaf ear to those unavailing cries 
 for mercy, which those murdered slaves poured 
 in vain in the ears of the tyrants, when sinking 
 under the hand of violence, into death? 
 
 No ! His law is perfect, and so rigidly just, that, 
 not the slightest infraction thereof, can go unno- 
 ticed ! We believe this — we must believe it, if we 
 believe in His existence at all ! 
 
 About the year 1832, I spent a few months 
 in Greene County, in the State of Alabama. 
 It was the first year of my residence in the 
 Slave States. In the immediate neighborhood, 
 where I sojourned, there was a lady, the wife 
 of a planter, who beat a young servant girl, 
 aged about twelve years, in such a cruel man- 
 ner, as to cause her death. She had struck her 
 a number of times with a heavy stick, or blud- 
 geon, and, perhaps, in a state of excitement and 
 anger, inflicted blows of such a nature, as that she 
 died soon after. But no notice was ever taken 
 of the matter, further than to cause a little talk 
 in the immediate neighborhood, at the time. 
 
 I knew a wealthy planter, who resided in an- 
 other State, some years ago. He was a native 
 Southron, who had led a very dissolute and in- 
 temperate life. On one occasion, as if in sheer 
 
THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 143 
 
 sport, ho caught up one of his negro children by 
 the feet, and swinging it around violently, in the 
 air, dashed its head against a horse-block, in the 
 yard, so that the blood spurted from its nostrils 
 and mouth, causing its death, almost instantane- 
 ously. The body was buried, of course ; and, if 
 it had a soul, as I presume it had, it passed away 
 to eternity and to God, and, for aught we know 
 to the contrary, was permitted to rehearse to the 
 Universal Father, the circumstances by which it 
 was so unceremoniously hurried home. But no 
 charge was ever preferred against the planter. 
 No jury was impanneled to try his case. No 
 legal action whatever was ever taken. He was 
 a wealthy man, and the child was his own prop- 
 erty. 
 
 Another wealthy planter, on the coast, not far 
 from New Orleans, was tried by a court, for the 
 murder of a slave, one of his own, a small boy, 
 six or seven years old. But he had money, and 
 he was easily acquitted. To punish one of his 
 female domestics, a handsome mulatto woman, for 
 her obstinacy in not yielding to his unlawful 
 desires, he put her little son in the bake-oven, and 
 caused it to be heated to such a degree, that he 
 lived but a few minutes, after being extricated. 
 
144 THE VOICE OF BLOOD. 
 
 That planter is still living ; but as he is a rebel, 
 and has gone beyond the lines, into the Confed- 
 eracy, I presume his large property has been, or 
 will be confiscated. 
 
 A soldier in the regiment, with which I am 
 connected, relates that he has been twice cap- 
 tured, as a runaway, by bloodhounds. I am not 
 aware that any law has ever been enacted, in any 
 Slave State, to put a stop to this savage prac- 
 tice. There are men who keep hounds, and make 
 a business of catching runaways, and are paid so 
 much per head. The same soldier mentions the 
 case of a slave he knew, who was so lacerated 
 and torn by these ferocious animals, before the 
 owners could come up with them, that he actu- 
 ally died. He himself escaped the same horrible 
 fate, only by ascending into a tree, when he found 
 that he was about to be caught. Perhaps this 
 was not strictly a case of murder, as the killing 
 was done by the bloodhounds. But will the 
 Author of life hold the bloodhounds responsible, 
 for the loss of life in such a case, instead of the 
 owners ? Or can the State be considered as guilt- 
 less, that tolerates and allows of such a practice? 
 
 I might easily fill up a volume, by detailing in- 
 cidents and facts of this kind. But this is not 
 
THE VOICil OF BLOOD. 145 
 
 my design, although I would do so, if I considered 
 it necessary to aid the cause of humanity, giving 
 facts and dates, with the names of parties and 
 witnesses. But my purpose has been simply to 
 show that the lives of slaves have been almost 
 absolutely at the disposal of their owners, and 
 the merciless task-masters who had charge of 
 them, and that the State legislatures have not af- 
 forded them that protection, to which, as subjects 
 of God's Government, and a part of the great 
 family of man, they were entitled. 
 
 The miserable tyrants are aware of this. They 
 know that the African slaves have not been dealt 
 with, as if they were men. And, therefore, they 
 have adopted a theory in accordance with their 
 practice. They affect to believe that they are an 
 inferior race of beings, altogether different from 
 the white or European race, and not many de- 
 grees removed from the baboon tribes, and to be, 
 accordingly, treated as other irrational animals. 
 This theory was designed as an apology and ex- 
 cuse for their inhumanity to their slaves. 
 
 The day of retribution has come at last ! The 
 innocent blood that has been shed in this land, 
 has not cried so long to Heaven for vengeance, 
 in vain 1 
 
146 
 
 XI. 
 
 RACHEL'S LAMENTATION. 
 
 Haek ! what voice was that, heard in Rama ? 
 "The voice of lamentation, and weeping, and 
 great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, 
 and would not be comforted, because they are 
 not." 
 
 Herod, that monster of iniquity, than whom a 
 more cruel tyrant never sat on a throne, finding 
 that he had been mocked of the wise men, who 
 came from the East to worship the Infant Jesus, 
 issued a decree that all the children of Bethle- 
 hem, and the coasts round about, should be put to 
 death. Under this bloody edict, some hundreds, 
 perhaps several thousands of tender and helpless 
 babes, were torn from their mothers' embrace, 
 and cruelly slaughtered. 
 
 The intention of the decree, was, to cut off the 
 infant Saviour, whose advent to the world had 
 been proclaimed by angels. I presume not to 
 
Rachel's lamentation. 147 
 
 decide what share this event may have had in the 
 fearful retribution which fell upon the guilty city 
 and capital of the nation, from which that edict 
 was issued, seventy years afterwards. But history 
 tells us that more than a million of the inhabit- 
 ants perished miserably, who were put to the 
 sword, or died of famine. During the siege, deli- 
 cate females fed on the flesh of their own babes, 
 to appease the gnawings of their hunger. 
 
 There is another similar record in history, still 
 more ancient, of the wholesale slaughter of young 
 children, with the retribution which followed, but 
 stated in such terms as to leave no doubt as to 
 the connection between the crime and the punish- 
 ment. 
 
 The Jiing of Egypt, in order to prevent the too 
 rapid increase of the Hebrews, ordered that all 
 their male children, should be strangled at their 
 birth. How just and striking was the retribution, 
 that was visited on the whole land of Egypt! 
 The Lord sent a destroying angel, which passed 
 over the land, and slew the first-born in every house 
 of the Egyptians, from the first-born of the king 
 that was heir to the throne, to the first-born of 
 the humblest peasant. Here was blood for blood f 
 
 If the slave-holders in this country, had not, 
 
148 Rachel's lamentation. 
 
 every year, destroyed the infant children of their 
 slaves, thereby preventing their rapid increase, the 
 Africans, would, long ago, have been the ruling 
 power in America. The forty millions transported 
 from Africa, and brought hither, would certainly 
 have outnumbered, two to one, the whole number 
 of Europeans who have emigrated to this conti- 
 nent. They are known to be a prolific race, and 
 I see no reason, why the forty millions should not 
 have doubled, at least once, in the course of two 
 or three centuries which would have given a popu- 
 lation of eighty millions at the present time. But 
 instead of this number, there are not over ten 
 millions of Africans in all America. Where are 
 the seventy millions? What is the cause of this 
 extraordinary decrease ? 
 
 I affirm that a system of infanticide has pre- 
 vailed, by which their infants have been annually 
 offered up, by tens of thousands, as victims on the 
 altar of the slave-god ! 
 
 I know that this is a grave charge, to bring 
 against slave-holders, and the states that have up- 
 held and supported the institution. But I make 
 the charge under a full sense of my responsibility, 
 and proceed to the proof. 
 
 Every one, who knows any thing of the statis- 
 
RACHEL^S LAMENTATION. 149 
 
 tics of slavery, is aware that in every country, in 
 which it has prevailed, the number of deaths have 
 exceeded the number of births, among the slave- 
 population, except, perhaps, the United States. 
 M. Cochin, a French author, asserts, that "it is a 
 law of nature, that, in all slave countries, the 
 deaths exceed the births." This is a fact, well 
 established, both by official documents and foreign 
 statistics. 
 
 At Surinam, from 1839 to 1843, a period of four 
 years, five thousand nine hundred slaves were 
 born, whilst there were ten thousand four hundred 
 who died, or nearly two to one, during the same 
 period. 
 
 In the year 1825, the slave-population of Cuba, 
 amounted to two hundred and fifty-six thousand. 
 But if we accept the calculation of Baron Hum- 
 boldt, the whole number of slaves, which had 
 been imported into the island from Africa, from 
 the beginning of tlie slave-trade was four hundred 
 thirteen thousand five-hundred, so that the number 
 of deaths, during that period, exceeded the births 
 by one hundred and fifty-seven thousand five hund- 
 red. Any country would soon be without an in- 
 habitant, at this rate of depopulation. 
 
 It is computed, that, during the last century, 
 
150 . KACHEL^S LAMENTATION. 
 
 six hundred thousand slaves were imported into 
 Jamaica, yet it is known, that, at the end of that 
 century, the slave-population of the whole island, 
 amounted to but little more than half the num- 
 ber. The deaths exceeded the births by nearly 
 three hundred thousand. 
 
 If a census had been taken annually, in our 
 own Southern States, showing, not only the in- 
 crease in population, white and black, but how 
 many slaves had been introduced into each state 
 by importation, I would be able to prove, that, 
 for the past forty years, in the States of Ala- 
 bama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, the 
 deaths, among the slaves, have exceeded the 
 births, by at least one-third. 
 
 Now, what is the cause of this extraordinary 
 mortality? This is no insignificant inquiry. — It 
 demands our most serious consideration. — The 
 great Judge Himself will require an answer, in 
 the Day of final Reckoning — What is the cause? 
 For nothing can be more certain, than that there 
 is a cause. 
 
 There is a natural and original law of in- 
 crease, by which the populations of states and 
 countries, are increased in a steady ratio. That 
 law was established when God said to the seed 
 
Rachel's lamentation. 151 
 
 of Adam, " Be fruitful, and multiply, and replen- 
 ish the earth." That law is never suspended or 
 relaxed by any natural cause. 
 
 We see that the African race is prolific and 
 fruitful, in their own native country. We see 
 that, in every kingdom and state of Europe, the 
 population is steadily advancing in numbers, not- 
 withstanding the loss of so many thousands, by 
 emigration to other countries. We observe how 
 rapidly the white race is multiplying in the sev- 
 eral divisions of America. I repeat it, that origi- 
 nal law of our Maker, is never reversed nor 
 suspended by natural causes. What is the un- 
 natural cause, which has reversed it, in the case 
 of the slave-population in this country? What 
 is it which has killed so many millions of human 
 beings, and sent them, prematurely, from time into 
 eternity? There is a cause — my God! thou 
 knowest what it is! 
 
 It cannot be ascribed to the influence of cli- 
 mate. For, how often have slave-holders them- 
 selves said that the sultry regions of the South 
 belong to the slave — that it is the climate most 
 congenial and adapted to his nature. One of 
 their principal arguments in defense of slavery, 
 is founded on this assumption. They assert that 
 
152 Rachel's lamentation. 
 
 this fair and sunny realm of the South, so rich 
 and productive, must be cultivated by the labor 
 of negroes, as the white man cannot live here, 
 and labor. It cannot, therefore, be pretended, 
 that this extraordinary mortality is the effect of 
 climate. The climate is more fatal to the white 
 race than to the blacks ; yet everywhere, even in 
 the South, the whites have increased in population. 
 The cause is not, that, as a race, they have 
 lost their virility, or power to propagate, and are 
 hence beginning to decay and die out. For it 
 has ever been contended that there is not, on 
 the face of the earth, a more prolific people, or 
 a generation that multiplies faster. The testi- 
 mony, on this point, is unanimous. A distin- 
 guished judge, in the Georgia Legislature, said 
 several years ago, in a speech : 
 
 " You may take any single slave-holding county 
 in the Southern states, in which the great staples 
 of cotton and sugar are cultivated to any extent, 
 and confine the present slave-population within 
 the limits of that county. Such is the rapid 
 natural increase of the slaves, and the rapid ex- 
 haustion of the soil in the cultivation of those 
 crops (which add so much to the commercial 
 wealth of the country) that, in a few years, it 
 
Rachel's lamentation. 153 
 
 would be impossible to support them within the 
 limits of such county." 
 
 Look at the single fact, that, during the last 
 fifteen or twenty years, the great State of Vir- 
 ginia has been able to supply not less than twenty- 
 five or thirty thousand slaves annually, for the 
 market in the cotton and sugar growing regions 
 of the South, and yet there has been no diminution 
 of her slave-population at home, but a regular 
 and constant increase all the while. Do such facts 
 seem to indicate that they are a feeble and de- 
 caying race ? 
 
 If then, they have increased and multiplied 
 rapidly in their own native land ; if, in the State 
 of Virginia, where slavery exists in its mildest 
 form, and its rigors are not known, the race has 
 been obedient to the great law of nature, originally 
 given to man for the propagation of the species, 
 what cause has interrupted the natural order of 
 things, causing their decrease in Louisiana, Missis- 
 sippi, Jamaica, Barbadoes, and other countries, 
 where slavery has prevailed, in its more rigid 
 forms? I will here quote a short extract from 
 the works of the celebrated Dr. Samuel Cart- 
 wrio-ht, one of the most enthusiastic admirers and 
 defenders of Southern slavery, who ever raised a 
 
151 rachael's lamentation. 
 
 pen in defense of it. Indeed he had become so 
 wedded to the system, and blinded by his preju- 
 dices in favor of it, that he could hardly see any 
 thing else but arguments in favor of it, and the 
 inferiority of the negro race, in any book or sub- 
 ject that he studied. His recent death in the rebel 
 army, raised for the purpose of battling for the 
 institution, proves, at least, the sincerity of his 
 zeal in the cause. The quotation is as follows : 
 
 " Nature is no law unto them. They let their 
 children suffer and die, or unmercifully abuse them, 
 unless the white man or woman prescribe rules iu 
 the nursery for them to go by." But why should 
 nature be no law unto them ? Are there white 
 females in Africa, where they do multiply, to pre- 
 scribe rules in the nursery for them to go by? 
 Even the she wolf, and every other creature has 
 been endowed wilh an instinctive affection for its 
 own young. And does the writer pretend to give 
 a single fact to prove that the negro mother is 
 the only exception to this universal law ? But 
 further, he says : 
 
 " Whenever the white woman superintends the 
 nursery, whether the climate be cold or hot, They 
 increase faster than any other people on the face of 
 the globe ; but, on large plantatiom, remote from her 
 
Rachel's lamentation. 155 
 
 influence, the negro population invariably diminishes^ 
 unless the overseer take upon himself those duties, 
 in the lying in and nursery department, which, on 
 small estates, are attended to by the mistress. 
 She often sits up at night with sick children, 
 and administers to their wants, when their own 
 mothers are nodding by them, and would he sound 
 asleep, if it were not for her presence. The care 
 that white women bestow on the nursery, is one 
 of the principal causes, why three hundred thous- 
 and Africans, originally imported into the terri- 
 tory of the United States, have increased to four 
 millions ; while, in the British West Indies, the 
 number imported, exceeded, by several millions, 
 the actual population. It is also the cause, why 
 the small proprietors of negro property in Mary- 
 land, Virginia, Kentucky and lilissouri, are able to 
 supply the loss, on the Southern plantations, which 
 aro cut off from the happy influence of the presid- 
 ing genious over civilization, mo^'ality and popu- 
 lation — the white woman." 
 
 Now, this brief extract, contains two or three 
 admissions, inadvertently made by the writer, 
 which go far to account for the rapid decrease 
 of the slave-population in certain States and 
 countries. 
 
156 * Rachel's lamentation. 
 
 In the first place, it is admitted that, if the 
 nursery is properly attended to, the race does 
 increase, whether the climate be hot or cold, 
 "faster than any other people on the face of the 
 globe." 
 
 Secondly, that, if the nursery is neglected, as 
 in the British West Indies, and on large South- 
 ern plantations, there is a rapid decrease of the 
 population. 
 
 Thirdly, that there is, every year, a loss on 
 the large plantations in the South, owing to this 
 cause, and that this loss is constantly supplied 
 by fresh importations from the more Northern 
 Slave States, where the business is followed of 
 breeding slaves to supply this waste of life. 
 
 I agree with this earnest and bigoted zealot 
 for slavery, as to the cause of this destruction 
 of human life, viz. ; the absence of that tender 
 care and influence over the nursery, without 
 which the human offspring is not, and cannot 
 be reared to maturity. But I cannot agree with 
 him, in assigning to the white woman, the sphere 
 which the Creator has given the African mother, 
 in nursing and rearing her own child. No one 
 can properly supply the place, to the helpless in- 
 fant, of its own natural mother, notwithstanding 
 
Rachel's lamentation. 157 
 
 what the writer so grandiloquently says about 
 the happy influence of the white woman, as " the 
 presiding genius^ over civilization, morality and 
 population." 
 
 That the slave mother is, tyrannically and cruelly, 
 denied the privilege of acting the 'part of a nurse to 
 her young and delicate babe, on the large plantafi&nSf 
 is what I shall now endeavor to establish. 
 
 It is not true that she is wanting in natural 
 affection for her offspring. But she has to be in 
 the field, with the other hands, under the overseer, 
 almost up to the very moment when she becomes 
 a mother. And then again, by the time her babe 
 is three weeks old, she has to resume her place 
 among the field-hands, and work with the rest 
 of the gang, without any interval or respite, ex- 
 cept what is allowed her, about twice in the day, 
 to return to the quarters to give her infant the 
 breast. Has she any chance, under such circum- 
 stances, to discharge the duties of maternity? 
 Does she receive the tenderness and care her 
 own delicate situation demands? Is there any 
 probability that a young and tender babe can 
 grow up to maturity, with so little nursing and 
 attention ? 
 
 I have heard the remark made, in these States, 
 
158 Rachel's lamentation. 
 
 a hundred times, if not oftener, that it is almost 
 impossible to bring up young negroes, on the lar- 
 ger plantations, which are left exclusively to the 
 management of overseers. And I know the re- 
 mark to be true, for I have lived many years in 
 these States, and have been much on large planta- 
 tions in Mississippi, in Louisiana, and in Texas ; 
 and I can tell the reasons why the remark is true. 
 
 These large plantations belong to men of wealth. 
 They are located, generally, along the margins of 
 rivers and bayous, and in the rich and alluvial 
 districts, once covered by swamps. There are 
 proprietors who own two, three, five, and often as 
 many as six or eight of these large plantations 
 each, but they do not reside on them with their 
 families. They live in Mobile, or Montgomery, or 
 Nashville, or Natchez, or some other gay metropo- 
 lis, where aristocracy can be seen in all its pomp. 
 The plantations, from whence they derive the 
 means of spending their days in splendid idleness 
 and pleasure, are left solely to the management of 
 overseers. 
 
 The business of overseeing, has been at the 
 South, a regular and established trade or calling, 
 as much so as that of the lawyer, the physician, 
 or any other established vocation. The overseer 
 
RACHEL'S LAMENTATION. 159 
 
 must, of course, have a reputation for proficiency 
 in the business for which he is engaged. And his 
 reputation depends on his ability to obtain, from 
 the slaves under his management, the largest 
 amount of labor possible ! The test of this, is the 
 number of bales of cotton or hogsheads of sugar 
 he can make in a season, to the hand. There is 
 no overseer, who is willing to be surpassed, in this 
 respect, by the neighboring overseers. Hence, 
 there is a rivalry among them, every season, who 
 shall raise the highest number of hogsheads or 
 bales, for the force employed. Will they be spar- 
 ing in the use of the lash? Can we suppose that 
 they would not begin the labor of the day, early 
 in the morning, or that they would not leave off 
 late in the evening? Seldom does the plantation 
 bell ring the signal for turning out for the toils 
 of the day, after the first dawn of light, often an 
 hour sooner ; and the labor is continued till dark, 
 and frequently till nine or ten o'clock in the night. 
 Is it probable that the overseer would be likely, 
 under such circumstances, to have much regard 
 or sympathy for a female slave, in a delicate situa- 
 tion? She would scarcely dare to complain to 
 him, and if she did, perhaps, she would only be 
 driven awav to her work, with a kick or a blow, 
 
\ 
 
 160 Rachel's lamentation. 
 
 by which the womb becomes the grave of her un- 
 born child! 
 
 A regular finished overseer, is one who has not 
 in his heart, a particle of feeling or humanity for 
 a negro. This assertion is based on what I have, 
 myself, seen and observed everywhere in the 
 South. The whip is the badge of their profession 
 and the symbol of their office. They have used it 
 so long, and excoriated the backs of so many sup- 
 pliant men and women, that it is no marvel they 
 have become callous, and lost the capacity to feel 
 for one who has a dark skin. It is no unusual 
 thing, when these overseers are together, to hear 
 them boast of their new and improved modes of 
 torture and punishment, for runaways, and other 
 delinquents. In brief, I do affirm that there is 
 not a humane person, in the free States, who would 
 not entertain a supreme loathing for the wretch, 
 who should manifest as little compassion for his 
 dumb ox or his horse, as the majority of these 
 overseers entertain for the negro. 
 
 And now, what may be supposed to be the state 
 of things, on the large plantations, left solely to 
 the management of these men? The proprietor, 
 with his family, is a hundred, it may be, a thou- 
 sand miles away ; and on the plantation, contain- 
 
Rachel's lamentation. 161 
 
 ing a population, varying from one to five hun- 
 dred human beings, there is not a white person, 
 save the overseer. Over that population, he is 
 an absolute despot, and rules with a rod of iron. 
 They fear him as a tyrant. His word is law to 
 them, and from his decision there is no appeal- 
 not to the law of the land, of course— not even 
 to their own master, for any wrong or outrage 
 he may inflict. 0, it is sad to think, that such a 
 state of things should exist in a free country- 
 should exist in this land of boasted light and 
 liberty ! But it has existed long, nevertheless. 
 
 Contemplate, for a moment, this petty tyrant, 
 the overseer, in the exercise of the unbounded 
 authority committed to him. He knows by what 
 tenure he holds his office, and on what the next 
 year's salary and employment will depend. The 
 main purpose, therefore, by which he is actuated, 
 is, to get as much work done as possible, without 
 a moment's thought for the comfort or welfare, of 
 the miserable slaves. They are divided into two 
 or three gangs, and a driver, with whip in hand, 
 is stationed to watch each gang. No one is per- 
 mitted to lag behind, or to look up from his 
 work. They are driven from daylight till after 
 dark. The females enceinte, and the mothers with 
 
162 Rachel's lamentation. 
 
 suckling babes, are put in the gangs, and worked 
 with the rest. Is it not a system of infanticide ? 
 Ought it to be considered as a matter of surprise 
 that it has been so often remarked, it is impos- 
 sible to raise slave children on the large planta- 
 tions ! 
 
 In the cotton picking season, they are out in 
 the morning, often in the cold dews, when there 
 is not a dry rag of clothing on them, till the 
 hot sun comes out towards noon, and dries it. 
 
 At Christmas time, it is usual, after the year's 
 crop has been gathered and disposed of, to clear 
 up and open a new field out of the swamp, and 
 get it ready for planting, in the coming spring. 
 This is the wet season of the year in the South. 
 No matter if it blows rain and sleet, a week at 
 a time — no matter if the ground is covered with 
 water, ankle or knee deep — the work must go 
 on, for it has to be finished within a given 
 time. During the planting season, there is no 
 time to clear a new field, and it must be done 
 in the interval between the gathering of one 
 crop, and the planting of another. And this is 
 the winter season, the most inclement of the 
 year, when no white man would think of going 
 into the swamp or marshes, and chopping timber 
 
Rachel's lamentation. 163 
 
 for weeks together, in the water and rain. He 
 would choose the summer season for the purpose, 
 when the sun has dried the earth, and there is 
 no exposure, consequently, of life and health. But 
 this is the busiest season of the year, when the 
 slaves are in the crop, and cannot be spared for 
 clearing new lands. This fact may serve to 
 throw light on the mysterious cause of negro 
 consumption, so prevalent in some districts, and 
 also, explain why it is, that, on nearly every large 
 plantation, there may be found, at any time, a 
 number of the helpless and hopeless victims of 
 rheumatism, unable to walk or drag their slow 
 limbs along, who must just linger on a few more 
 miserable days, and then die. The women go 
 into the swamp, and chop and clear away the 
 timber, the same as the men. There is no distinc- 
 tion in this respect. Can we feel surprise that 
 their babes perish in the womb, or as soon as they 
 have seen the light ? The question ought to come 
 home to the conscience of this enlightened nation, 
 could it be expected that females, treated thus, 
 anywhere in the world, should be mothers— should 
 bear children, and not bury them ! 
 
 The advocate of the system, may find a salvo 
 for his conscience, and frame a falsehood with 
 
164 RACHEL^S LAMENTATION. 
 
 his lips, by saying, in palliation of his guilt, that 
 the African mother has no natural affection for 
 her own offspring. But this would be only to 
 place the blame at the door of the Great Crea- 
 tor Himself. If she is destitute of natural affec- 
 tion, it is because it has been crushed out of her 
 heart by oppression ; for it is a natural instinct 
 with which God has endowed all females for 
 their young, for the preservation of the species. 
 
 The Parliament of England, after long years, 
 aroused by the appeals of some of her philan- 
 thropic statesmen, saw the horrors of the system 
 and abolished it, in her West India colonies. 
 Would it not have been a glorious thing if these 
 United States had been included, for the moment, 
 in the number of her colonies? At least, we 
 should have been spared the horrors of this frat- 
 ricidal war I 
 
 And now I ask, have I not established the 
 charge, stated near the commencement of this 
 chapter, viz. : that the principal cause of the rapid 
 decrease of the slave-population, in all countries 
 where slavery has existed in its rigors, was ow- 
 ing to the fact, that their infant children have 
 been sacrificed annually, by tens of thousands, on 
 the altar of the slave-god? True, the tyrants did 
 
Rachel's lamentation. 165 
 
 not order them to be strangled, at their birth. 
 True, they were not, under the influence of pagan 
 superstition, cast into the Ganges, or some other 
 sacred stream, to feed the hungry crocodile. But, 
 sacrificed under a system not less cruel and re- 
 volting than that ancient system of Paganism, 
 their miniature graves are scattered, by hundreds 
 of thousands, along the margins of the Mississippi, 
 the Arkansas, the Brazos, and other streams now 
 become as sacred as the Ganges. A great monu- 
 ment will be erected over those graves. At all 
 events, a page will be written in history showing 
 that their slaughter was avenged by the armies of 
 the Republic, employed and commissioned as God's 
 destroying angel, in the destruction of the First- 
 born of the oppressors ! 
 
 If there be a future life, how will these latter, 
 confront the myriads of souls thus wronged and 
 cheated out of existence? 0, is there not a cry 
 that has been going up to Heaven from those 
 millions of little graves, scattered all over the 
 South, against the nation that permitted this system 
 of wrong I Can we wonder that the hour of 
 atonement has come! God is Just! "Great and 
 marvellous are thy works ; just and true are thy 
 ways, thou King of Saints!" 
 
166 
 
 XII. 
 J]NSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 
 
 Slave-holders have ofeen protested against the 
 charge, which stands at the head of this chapter. 
 But all their protests and arguments can avail 
 nothing, so long as stubborn facts confront them, 
 which remain unanswered. 
 
 It would indeed be difficult, nay, impossible to 
 imagine a state of the total enslavement of the 
 body, which should not involve the enslavement of 
 the soul or intellect. And all the arguments 
 employed to prove the contrary, are utterly futile 
 and void. 
 
 For one man to assert a claim of property — 
 of absolute ownership in the very soul and intel- 
 lect of another, is so revolting to universal reason, 
 that even the stanchest advocate of slavery, stag- 
 gers appalled at the thought of such treason 
 against Heaven, and makes a feeble but ineffectual 
 attempt, to repel the charge. 
 
 The system of slavery that has prevailed at the 
 
ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 167 
 
 South, debased the soul of man, and fettered the 
 intellect, at the same time that it bound and fet- 
 tered his limbs. To meet and obviate this objec- 
 tion, the more recent defenders of the system, 
 have taken the milder position — that, of the 
 right of property in the life-time service of the 
 slave ; whilst they disclaim the right of property 
 in his soul, or his person. This, however, is a 
 mere subterfuge, designed to remove from it, the 
 odium inseparable from the idea of one man's 
 holding his fellow-man as his property. 
 
 Let us look at the claim of the slave-holder, 
 as stated in this milder form of expression. The 
 Declaration of Independence, penned by the im- 
 mortal Jefferson, asserts that " all men are created 
 free and equal." It asserts, moreover, that all 
 men were endowed with " certain inalienable 
 rights, among which are life, liberty and the pur- 
 suit of happiness." 
 
 If this declaration is true, then the pursuit of 
 happiness is one of the inalienable rights of all 
 men. If the African is a man, the "pursuit of 
 happiness" is a natural and ^^inalienable right,'' 
 which belongs to him as well as to all other men. 
 If he is not a man, it devolves on the advocates 
 of slavery, to prove that he is not. 
 
168 ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 
 
 But the slave-holder claims an absolute right 
 of property in the life-time service of the slave. 
 Now, the two rights, that of the master, and that 
 of the slave, are irreconcilably in conflict, the one 
 with the other. The one destroys the other. 
 
 For example, suppose that the inalienable right 
 of the slave to the pursuit of happiness, should 
 prompt him to put himself under a teacher, a few 
 hours each day, for the purpose of being able to 
 read the great and Blessed Volume of God's Truth, 
 and of improving himself in knowledge generally ; 
 would not the master be compelled to relinquish 
 his absolute right to the service of that slave, at 
 least for the time thus daily spent by him in the 
 pursuit of knowledge, and the improvement of his 
 mind? 
 
 Or, suppose again, that, in the exercise of this 
 " inalienable right^^ " the pursuit of happiness,^' the 
 slave should express a desire to dwell with his own 
 wife and family — If this right is acknowledged 
 and maintained, what becomes of the master's 
 right to sell him, or any of his family, thus separa- 
 ting them, perhaps, for life ? 
 
 We see, therefore, that the right set up by the 
 slave-holder, when expressed in its very mildest 
 form, is totally opposed to the exercise of that 
 
 _r-, 
 
ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 169 
 
 " inalienable right, the pursuit of happiness," which 
 Jefferson asserted, is the gift and birthright of all 
 men. 
 
 We must, therefore, conclude, either that the 
 African is not a man, or, that the statement in 
 that memorable Declaration is not true, or, that 
 the claim of the slave-holder is a fallacy. Which 
 shall we conclude ? 
 
 We cannot, certainly, conclude that the African 
 is not a man, at least, till some advocate of slav- 
 ery, bolder than his fellows, shall undertake se- 
 riously to prove that he is not a man. This, I 
 believe, has never yet been done. And while they 
 admit, without dissent, that the slave is a man, 
 though with a dark skin, we may rest safe in the 
 conclusion that he is a man. 
 
 In the next place, we may not, and further I 
 say, we dare not conclude that the Author of our 
 existence ever created any man without designing 
 his happiness, and endowing him with an inaliena- 
 ble right to seek his happiness. This proposition 
 is so clear that I have never known any slave- 
 holder, or any advocate of the system to deny it. 
 It is not only an inalienable right that belongs to 
 all men, but is placed by Jefferson among the 
 truths which are self-evident. To deny it, there- 
 
170 ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 
 
 fore, would be, in fact to insult the reason, and 
 the enlightened conscience of universal mankind. 
 
 There is out one conclusion remaining, and that 
 is, that the right of property to the life-long ser- 
 vice of the slave, is a fallacy, having no founda- 
 tion whatever in the eternal principles of right 
 and rectitude ; since, as we have seen, this claim 
 destroys the inalienable right of the slave to the 
 pursuit of happiness, and is wholly in conflict with 
 it. 
 
 But now, let us examine this pretended claim of 
 the slave-holder. He claims the right — the abso- 
 lute right of property in the service of his slave, 
 as long as he lives ; but this claim, he argues, 
 does not necessarily involve the enslavement of 
 his soul, or his intellect. But this reasoning is 
 self-contradictory and absurd, — let us see : 
 
 The services of a slave would be worthless to 
 the master, without a sound and healthy body, 
 able to render service. Besides, no service could 
 be obtained from the sound and healthy body of 
 the slave, without the consent and co-operation of 
 the mind or soul, that controls all the motions 
 and actions of his own body. It is vain to speak 
 of separating the soul and body of a man, until 
 death has effected a separation. They are so^ 
 
ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 171 
 
 united, that they are a unit in this life, at least, 
 and the body cannot act without the soul, nor the 
 soul without the body. The master, who controls 
 the body of his slave, in exacting service from 
 him, does, so far control his soul, or his intellect. 
 And he can exact no service from his slave, till 
 the latter has first abandoned all freedom of tvill. 
 His will must be so far brought into subjection to 
 the will of the master, as to consent to be governed 
 by him — to imll what he wills — and to move all the 
 muscles and limbs of his own body, as he, the 
 master shall dictate. Is there no enslavement of 
 the mind, — the soul in this? Can a more misera- 
 ble and abject state of bondage be conceived of? 
 But let us see how the theory operates when 
 carried out into practice. — The master has a cot- 
 ton plantation, and it is his pleasure that the 
 slave shall till and work that plantation, in the 
 growth of cotton. Has the slave any freedom or 
 liberty of choice ? Though he should prefer some 
 other employment — some other mode of life — 
 though he should judge a life spent in a cotton 
 field, and in clearing swamps, to be destructive 
 of life and health, and subversive of all his 
 hopes of pleasure and happiness in this world, 
 has he any option? Must he not bend his will, 
 
\ 
 
 172 ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 
 
 however reluctantly, into absolute submission to the 
 will of his lord? Yea, he must go, and sweat, 
 and toil, and die at last, on the cotton farm, be- 
 cause the master willed it! 
 
 I might continue this chain of thought, almost 
 indefinitely ; but there is not space, nor do I find 
 any necessity. There is, however, one phase, in 
 this mental enthralment, which I must not, and 
 will not omit to notice in this connection. I 
 refer now to the Legislation, in most of the states 
 and countries, where slavery has existed, for the 
 express purpose of preventing the intellectual im- 
 provement of their slaves, and of keeping them 
 down in a state of mental darkness and igno- 
 rance. This is a feature in African slavery,, 
 which, for blackness of guilt, finds no parallel in 
 any ancient form of slavery the world has known. 
 
 If, to resolve that your slave sliall be kept in 
 ignorance — If, to enact laws for the purpose of 
 keeping him in ignorance — And if, to exercise 
 vigilance in the execution of those laws, does not 
 involve the absolute and utter enslavement of the 
 soul, then tell me what is meant by the enslave- 
 ment of the mind of man, or how it would be 
 possible to fetter and bind a human soul I 
 
 But has the God of the spirits of all flesh, 
 
ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 173 
 
 ever delegated authority to any Immau being, 
 thus to impose shackles on the immortal mind, 
 and to bind it down in chains of darkness? 
 
 Go, visit one of the large plantations, up the 
 Red River, or the Arkansas, with a population of 
 two or three hundred slaves. Search every hut, 
 and you will not find a book, a pamphlet, or 
 even a newspaper — not a single trace or sign 
 of education in one of them. Not one of them 
 ^an read a single letter in the book. There is 
 no Holy Bible, no Testament, not even a religious 
 tract in any of their dwellings. That plantation 
 is, in fact, a dungeon of darkness, and its occu- 
 pants are prisoners of darkness! The chains on 
 their souls, have been rivetted by law 1 Now, if 
 God has endowed man with intellectual faculties, 
 for the purpose of being improved in obtaining 
 the knowledge of Himself, through his works, and 
 through his Word, who has the right to say to 
 his fellow-man, that he shall not employ those 
 faculties as God designed they should be em- 
 ployed ? 
 
 Look again, on that plantation, and into that 
 dungeon of darkness. — You will there see two or 
 three hundred souls, with noble intellects, it is 
 true, and faculties of a high order, such as God 
 
174 ENSLAVEMENT OP THE MIND. 
 
 endowed them with. But have those intellects 
 been expanded, and improved, and developed by- 
 education? Have they been permitted to know 
 God, by the diligent study of his works and of 
 his Word ? Have they had any chance or oppor- 
 tunity, to receive that mental culture and train- 
 ing, so essential to the highest happiness of man, 
 and which, we may say, was the end for which 
 every man was created? 
 
 Suppose I should ask the Christian master, do 
 you believe that your slave is a man ? — that he 
 is endowed with intellectual faculties ? — that he 
 has a soul ? He would be compelled to answer 
 in the affirmative. Do you believe that the cul- 
 ture and improvement of those faculties, by edu- 
 cation, is essential to the highest dignity and hap- 
 piness of man? He would likewise be compelled 
 to answer, yea. And further, do you believe that, 
 when the Creator thus endowed man with such 
 noble powers, it was with the intention, that he 
 sliould exercise and improve those gifts, and 
 aspire to the highest dignity, and the highest 
 degree of happiness of which his nature is capa- 
 ble ? Could he say, nay ? 
 
 But what has slavery done ? It has taken away 
 the key of knowledge — it has suppressed every 
 
ENSLAVEMENT OF THE MIND. 175 
 
 high and noble aspiration of the soul — it has, 
 by legislative enactments, stationed armed senti- 
 nels at the gates of the temple of science, to pre- 
 vent the slave-man from entering therein ; lest he 
 should attain to that state of intellectual dignity 
 and excellence, which is the ultimate end for 
 which God created him, for His own glory ! 
 
 Yea, this is the kind of legislation which has 
 been tolerated in this Christian land — this land 
 of boasted freedom, education, and equality I 
 Surely, it was time that this state of things 
 should have a termination. The end has come, 
 but not in the way that we looked for! God's 
 ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as 
 our thoughts ! 
 
XIII. 
 BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 
 
 To assert that, during the last twenty years, 
 two millions of slaves have been imported and 
 sold in the sugar and cotton-growing States, from 
 the more Northern Slave States, would be rather 
 under than over a correct estimate. It may truly 
 be said, that, the passion for buying negroes, 
 amounted to a mania. It might be called the 
 JYiggermania. It was, in fact, a disease — And I 
 have never known a disease, that was more con- 
 tagious in its nature, or that prevailed to such 
 an alarming extent. But there is nothing sur- 
 prising in this circumstance, when it is known 
 that almost every man's political and social stand- 
 ing in the community, was estimated by the num- 
 ber of slaves which he owned. 
 
 The planters of the South have acquired an un- 
 enviable reputation, as it is well known, for run- 
 ning headlong into debt. The reason of this was, 
 
BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 177 
 
 that every plantor was willing, not only to ex- 
 pend his whole income, over and above the actual 
 expenses of his plantation, in the purchase of 
 slaves, but to buy as many more, in addition, as 
 he could obtain on credit. For example, if a 
 small planter, with a force of ten or twelve hands, 
 his cotton crop would probably net him (I speak 
 of the times just before the war) about five thou- 
 sand dollars, of which sum, the actual cash ex- 
 pense of his plantation, if he were economical, 
 would not be over fifteen hundred dollars. The 
 balance he would be sure to lay out in the pur- 
 chase of negroes. Thirty-five hundred dollars 
 would, in those times, now past and gone to re- 
 turn not again, purchase three or four likely- 
 negroes. But, in addition, he would be sure to 
 purchase two or three more, on credit, relying on 
 the proceeds of the next crop, to make the pay- 
 ment. Thus, every thing they could make, was 
 expended in the purchase of negroes. The major- 
 ity of them, even lived poor, and stinted them- 
 selves and their families, in many of the com- 
 forts of life, that they might have the more money 
 to buy negroes. And still they were always in 
 debt for the purchase of negroes. They raised 
 cotton, and they raised sugar, but only as a 
 
178 BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 
 
 means to enable them to buy negroes — more ne- 
 groes. They never could buy enough of them. 
 
 To meet this great and ever increasing demand 
 for negroes, there was not a town, of any size, and 
 hardly a village, in any of these states, where 
 there was not a slave-mart, open day and night, 
 at all seasons of the year. At these marts, scores 
 and hundreds of men, women, and children of all 
 colors, from a jet black, to the lightest complexion, 
 that could hardly be distinguished from the fairest 
 Circassian, were kept constantly on hand, for sale. 
 Almost every day, gentlemen, from the city and 
 country, and sometimes from other states, visited 
 these markets for the purpose of examining the 
 stock of animals for sale, with a view to purchase. 
 Not unfrequently, old bachelor planters and mer- 
 chants visited these marts, to purchase a wife or a 
 mistress, provided they could find one to please 
 them. Every one, who is at all familiar with the 
 working of the system, is aware, that, some of the 
 most beautiful women, and young girls, have been 
 thus exposed to sale, at these numerous marts, and 
 for the purpose designated ; many of whom, on 
 account of their light complexion, could scarcely 
 have been distinguished from the white Creole girls 
 of Louisiana, but for the clear, dark, and lustrous 
 
BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 179 
 
 eye, denoting the taint of African blood in their 
 veins* 
 
 Out of this state of things, an important traffic 
 grew up, denominated the domestic slave-trade. In 
 carrying on this traffic, negro-traders were the 
 merchants. Owing to the great and increasing 
 demand for slave-property, this traffic soon attained 
 to a high degree of importance. A numerous class 
 of men applied themselves diligently to the busi- 
 ness for years, as their sole occupation, and none 
 made fortunes more rapidly than they. Not a few 
 of them became millionaires. I have in my mind 
 now, one who thus acquired a property of nearly 
 two millions, and then when he was fifty, married 
 one of the most beautiful and accomplished young 
 ladies in Tennessee, the daughter of a clergyman ; 
 which shows that the character of a negro-trader, 
 was not held in quite so much odium at the South, 
 as in other, perhaps, less civilized districts. 
 
 The greater number of the slaves, thus trans- 
 ported, from year to year, from one to another 
 distant State, and sold to new masters, were fur- 
 nished by Virginia, and the two Carolinas. Mary- 
 land, Kentucky and Missouri each furnished a 
 few, but not the tithe of what were furnished 
 by the first three named, which may therefore, 
 
180 BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 
 
 without any injustice, be termed slave-breeding- 
 States. 
 
 Much of the land in those States had become 
 almost valueless, from long tillage by slave labor. 
 This is one of the effects of slavery. The soil 
 itself seems to experience the curse. The land 
 gradually wears out in a few years, and becomes 
 utterly worthless. The traveler, journeying through 
 any of those older States, may often see extensive 
 fields turned out, as waste and barren lands, so 
 naked and bare of soil, and so exhausted, that 
 not even weeds will grow on them. , 
 
 There is many a planter in South Carolina and 
 Georgia, who does not make over one or two 
 bales of cotton to the hand, on account of the 
 exhausted state of the soil ; whereas, if he were 
 in Mississippi or Texas, he could raise ten or 
 twelve bales per hand. Slave property was, 
 therefore, becoming almost valueless, for agricul- 
 tural purposes, in several of the States ; and the 
 owners of slaves had either to emigrate to some 
 new State, or turn their attention to some new 
 enterprise. The Domestic Slave Trade sprung up 
 just at the favorable juncture, to meet this ne- 
 cessity. And many of those who did not choose 
 to emigrate to the newer States, taking their slave 
 
BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 181 
 
 property with them, at once entered on this new 
 and lucrative business of breeding slaves for 
 market. 
 
 The great State of Virginia stands first and 
 uppermost, in the list of slave-breeding States — 
 "Virginia, a name become venerable with sacred 
 memories, as the mother of Presidents, — as the 
 birth-place of Washington, Jefferson, and other 
 eminent statesmen and orators, the noblest bene- 
 factors of the country. What a stain upon the 
 bright record that might have been hers! How 
 severely has the scourge of God come down on 
 her soil, for her iniquity ! 
 
 One of the wisest and most profound European 
 statesmen of modern times, expressed his opinion 
 of the practice of breeding slaves for sale, in 
 the following strong and characteristic language: 
 " The breeding of slaves for sale is, probably, the 
 most immoral and debasing practice ever known 
 in the world. It is a crime of the most hideous 
 kind, and if there were no other crime committed 
 by the Americans, this alone would place the ad- 
 vocates and supporters of American slavery, in 
 the lowest grade of criminals." 
 
 Thus wrote Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish 
 patriot, far excellence, a man of a towering Intel- 
 
182 BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 
 
 lect, and commanding genius, whose very name 
 adds lustre to his country. He was in a position 
 where he could view slavery from a stand-point, 
 uninfluenced by self-interest and the prejudices of 
 education ; and, therefore, his opinion outweighs 
 all that Southern writers and Southern divines 
 have said and written on the other side. 
 
 It is not to be denied that this horrid prac- 
 tice has caused our whole nation to be despised 
 by the civilized world. Another foreign writer, 
 M. Cochin, a Frenchman, uses the following lan- 
 guage in reference to the practice of breeding 
 slaves, for sale : " What shall we say of that 
 abominable fact, — negro-raising ? It is well known 
 that, among horses and cows, a fine stallion suffices 
 for a drove. Some slave-holders have, in the same 
 manner, one sire to several mothers ; and the 
 methods for raising the bovine and equine races 
 are now brought into use for the human race, on 
 the soil of liberty." 
 
 Such charges made against a great and Chris- 
 tian nation, by some of the most enlightened for- 
 eigners and journalists, cannot be answered by a 
 witticism or a contemptuous sneer. There is so 
 much of truth and justice in the charges pre- 
 ferred, that, unfortunately, we cannot vindicate 
 
BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 183 
 
 the honor of the nation, against those who make 
 them. 
 
 Some of the best families, in the older slave- 
 states, revel in all the luxuries of wealth and 
 affluence, from the profits derived from slave-breed- 
 ing ! They keep the young and healthy breeding 
 women, and men enough to suffice for the purpose 
 of sires, and sell the rest to the traders, who con- 
 stantly traverse those states to buy up that spe- 
 cies of property, with a view to transport them 
 to another market. The process is very like that 
 of the farmers in Kentucky and Tennessee, who 
 raise mules and horses, to be sold in the states 
 further South. The practice must strike every 
 reflecting mind, on the very first blush, as revolt- 
 ing to every dictate of humanity, as demoralizing, 
 in its effects, both on the slave and white popu- 
 lations, and as a crime against God. 
 
 To speak only of its effect, in sundering the 
 ties of consanguinity, as the last writer quoted, 
 truly says : " the husband is thus wrested, from 
 his wife, the mother from her infant, the aged 
 father from his son ! This montrous, daily, inevit- 
 able consequence, the separation of the family, is, 
 in itself alone, to every man of heart, the con- 
 demnation beyond appeal of slavery. Ah! our 
 
184 
 
 BREEDING SLAVES FOR MARKET. 
 
 hearts are rent with the thought that death may 
 suddenly snatch us from our wife or child 1 
 What would it be, if it were necessary, every 
 morning, to ask, is my child sold ? Has my wife 
 been carried away ? The stories of Mrs. Stowe, 
 are only the skillful and touching delineations of 
 these separations, the threat of which, always sus- 
 pended, weighs on all the joys of the unhappy 
 
 ncffro. 
 
 >j 
 
185 
 
 XIY. 
 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 
 
 The marriage relationship was originally es- 
 tablished by God. There is no diversity of views 
 on this subject, at least, in the christian world, 
 whatever differences of opinion may exist in re- 
 gard to slavery. 
 
 The union that exists between husband and 
 wife, was ordained in the beginning, by the Great 
 Author of our being, and is, therefore, to all in- 
 tents and purposes, a sacred and indissoluble 
 relationship. All doubts on this point, if there 
 could be any, is taken away by that inspired and 
 authoritative declaration, " whom God hath joined 
 together, let not man put asunder." 
 
 The intimacy and closeness of this relationship, 
 is expressed, in that original ordinance, when 
 marriage was instituted, contained in the 2nd. 
 Chapter of Genesis, "Therefore, shall a man 
 leave his father and his mother, and cleave unto 
 his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh." 
 
186 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 
 
 The law of marriage is palpably written in the 
 physical constitution of man, and in the deep-felt 
 necessities of his nature. In the same connection 
 where it is written, " God created man in his own 
 image, in the image of God, created he him " — 
 we find it also written ; " male and female created 
 he themy 
 
 In all ages of the church, the saints have re- 
 garded the marriage institution as of divine ap- 
 pointment, and the obligations, growing out of it, 
 as possessing a sacred and religious character. 
 " Let the same he she that thou hast appointed for 
 thy servant Isaac.'^ This was the prayer of the 
 venerable and pious servant of Abraham, whom 
 he had made ruler over all that he had, when he 
 was sent to obtain, from among Abraham's kin- 
 dred, a wife for his son Isaac. This is explicit 
 testimony as to what was the opinion held by the 
 saints of patriarchal times. 
 
 Though this divine law of marriage, like every 
 other law of God, has been violated, and corrupt- 
 ed, and trampled down in many ways, yet, it 
 is wonderful to observe how a mysterious and 
 special Providence has been exercised, in every 
 age and country, to maintain and perpetuate that 
 law. For it has not been blotted out. It could 
 
THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN., 187 
 
 not be, without the destruction of man's physical 
 and social being. He was originally created 
 " mak and female.''^ They are born into the world 
 ^^ male and female^'' still. The man cannot do 
 without the woman, nor the woman without the 
 man. 
 
 There is an exact equality of the sexes born. 
 This is a curious physiological fact, in the history 
 of the race. We know of no physical necessity 
 in the constitution of man, by which this gen- 
 eral result should be secured. It is certain, that, 
 while in some families, all the births are males, 
 in others again, all the births are females. And 
 we can assign no reason or necessary cause, why 
 it might not happen that all the births in a whole 
 nation, should be, either all males, or all females, 
 as well as in individual families. But, if such a 
 contingency should ever happen, the existence of 
 that nation would, of course, be suddenly ter- 
 minated. Or, if in any nation or country, the 
 sexes were born in disproportionate numbers — if, 
 for example, in Utah Territory, or any other king- 
 dom or territory, only a fourth part of the births 
 were males, and the other three-fourths were fe- 
 males, we should conclude that it was the Will 
 of the Divine Being, that polygamy should pre- 
 
188 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 
 
 vail in that kingdom or country, inasmuch as 
 nature had provided only one husband for three 
 women. But, as there is born, in every king- 
 dom and country throughout the whole world, 
 just an equal number of males and females, we 
 are impressed with the belief, that there is a 
 Special and Overruling Providence, which has 
 maintained and preserved this remarkable equal- 
 ity between the sexes, thus securing to every man 
 his wife, and to every woman her husband, and 
 making the original creation of male and female^ 
 a perpetual and ever renewed creation. 
 
 So much for the divinity and sacred character 
 of the marriage relationship. It is, further, essen- 
 tial to human felicity. The cup of man's earthly 
 bliss would lose one-half its sweetness, if this in- 
 gredient were wanting. Even the joy of Eden 
 was not perfect, till God had formed a help-meet 
 for man. The Creator saw, and he said, that, 
 "it is not good that the man should be aloneJ^ 
 And we may suppose, that, when Adam awaked 
 out of his sleep to find a female form, of angelic 
 loveliness, as a bosom companion nestling by his 
 side, he felt that the measure of his happiness 
 was complete. 
 
 In the present state of the world, the pilgrim- 
 
THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 189 
 
 age of man on earth, would be sad and dreary 
 indeed, were it not that sin has not entirely 
 thrown down the marriage altar, nor made utter- 
 ly desolate the family circle. Universal as are 
 the ruins of the fall, and as much as the beauty 
 of creation has been marred by sin, there is still 
 something of domestic bliss left to man. The 
 purest, and the most unalloyed pleasure which 
 has come down from Eden, is that which is 
 found in the union between two congenial 
 hearts, whom God has formed for each other, 
 and which have been united together, in a life- 
 long destiny. The world may seem cold and 
 cheerless — adversity may be his lot — but still the 
 man who is thus blest, may find a ray of com- 
 fort around his own family altar, in the society 
 of the sympathetic and loving being, whom God 
 has given him to double the joys of life, and 
 divide its sorrows. 
 
 African slavery is in direct opposition to this 
 law of Heaven. It has thrown down the marriage 
 altar ! It has introduced a system of promiscuous 
 concubinage, and wide spread fornication in the 
 place of it, in all the States where it has pre- 
 vailed. 
 
 I am aware, that the upholders of the system 
 
190 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 
 
 manifest some sensitiveness under this charge. 
 But they scarcely undertake to make any self- 
 defense against it. The most they attempt, is, to 
 retort on those who make the charge, by point- 
 ing to the lax state of morals in the Free States ; 
 as if the crimes of individuals, in any country, 
 could be offered in extenuation of a legalized 
 system of iniquity, on the part of a whole State. 
 The domestic slave-trade, which has been sanc- 
 tioned and legalized in most of the Southern 
 States, resulted, as it might have been foreseen, 
 in a state of concubinage and whoredom so gene- 
 ral, and I may even say, so popular, that custom 
 has established it as a peculiar system of the 
 South, as much so as slavery itself! For I do 
 not believe that there is any other civilized coun- 
 try, at least where the female is not looked upon 
 as a degraded and fallen creature, who has lost 
 her virtue. But there is no colored woman in 
 the Slave-States, who thinks less of herself, or is 
 less esteemed by others, because of the want of 
 female virtue. But, on the contrary, if she is the 
 mistress of a white man, she thinks herself ele- 
 vated by the connection, and is envied by her 
 female friends. Nor is the fine and polished gen- 
 tleman of the South, who keeps his colored mis- 
 
THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 191 
 
 tress, degraded in the eyes of his acquaintances, 
 either male or female, nor his name cast out. It 
 is notorious, that we once had a Yice President, 
 
 from the South, who kept his colored mistress 
 
 but that circumstance did not injure his popular- 
 ity at home. 
 
 Let me not be considered as a defamer of 
 Southern institutions. I speak concerning a state 
 of things which I know to exist. For the pur- 
 pose of corroborating my testimony, I will here 
 quote an extract from the writings of Chancellor 
 Harper, whose testimony will be received as un- 
 questionable ; for he was a Southern gentleman, 
 a native of South Carolina, and one of their 
 ablest defenders of slavery. He says : 
 
 " She is not less a useful member of society, 
 than before. If shame be attached to her conduct, 
 it is such shame as would, elsewhere, be regarded 
 as a venial impropriety — She has not impaired 
 lier means of support, nor materially impaired her 
 character, or lowered her station in society ; for 
 she has done no great injury to herself, or any 
 other human being. Her offspring is not a bur- 
 den, but an acquisition to her owner ; her support 
 is provided for, and he is brought up to useful- 
 ness ; if the fruit of intercourse with a free man, 
 
192 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 
 
 his condition is, perhaps, raised somewhat above 
 that of his mother. Under these circumstances, 
 with imperfect knowledge, tempted by the stron- 
 gest of human passions, unrestrained by the mo- 
 tives which operate to restrain, but which are so 
 often found insufficient to restrain the conduct of 
 females elsewhere, can it be a matter of surprise, 
 that she should so often yield to the temptation? 
 Is not the evil less in itself, and in reference to 
 society — much less in the sight of God and man? 
 As was said of theft, the want of chastity, which, 
 among females of other countries, is sometimes 
 vice, sometimes crime — among the free of our own, 
 much more aggravated — among slaves, hardly de- 
 serves a harsher term than that of weakness." 
 
 Here, we have a shameless and unblushing 
 apology for this almost universal and even popular 
 system of prostitution, among the slave popula- 
 tion of these States, by one of the most distin- 
 guished writers of South Carolina, and a firm 
 defender of slavery. He admits that the female 
 slave, who has parted with her chastity, has but, 
 at most, committed a ^'venial impropriety, '^ which 
 hardly deserves a harsher term than that of 
 " weakness " — that she has not injured " herself nor 
 any other human being " — that she has " not ma- 
 
193 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 
 
 terially impaired her character, nor lowered her 
 station in society " — that her offspring is " an ac- 
 quisition to her owner," who will be provided for, 
 and if the fruit of intercourse with a free man, 
 his condition will be raised " somewhat above that 
 of his mother," &c. The facts are all just as the 
 writer admits — And this is the state of public sen- 
 timent, and the state of morals that exists, and 
 that has existed throughout the South. But, that 
 which may well excite our astonishment, is the 
 fact, that there should be found, even at the South, 
 an intelligent and educated gentleman, willing to 
 justify this state of things. 
 
 But it cannot be helped. It is a condition in- 
 separable from slavery. It has been forced upon the 
 enslaved and helpless population, and they have 
 not the power to resist it. The laws of slavery, 
 and the laws of the States that legalize it, have 
 forced it upon them. 
 
 In the first place, they have done this by 
 legalizing the Domestic Slave-Track, whereby the 
 rights and obligations of the marriage relationship 
 are annulled, and husbands are forcibly separated 
 from their wives, and wives from their husbands. 
 See how the system works in a Slave-breeding 
 State, where, on many a plantation, may be found, 
 
194 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 
 
 perhaps twenty or thirty young and healthy slave 
 women, kept to breed and raise children for the 
 market — but in all probability, there are not over 
 five or six slave men on the same plantation. It 
 would be out of the question for the master who 
 follows slave-breeding, to afford a husband for 
 each woman. And, of course, it would be im- 
 possible for each woman to have a husband. Is 
 not the marriage altar thrown down ? Is it 
 rational to suppose that the enslaved, kept in ig- 
 norance under such a system, should be able to 
 recognize the sacredness of the obligations grow- 
 ing out of the institution ? 
 
 The traffic in slaves, in the second place, has 
 annulled the ordinance of God, by taking away 
 from the slave, the only incentive existing, that 
 could induce him to assume the obligations im- 
 posed by that ordinance. He may be separated 
 from his wife, the very next day after marriage, 
 and so may the slave-woman be separated from 
 her husband, never to meet again. They are liable 
 to be sold and separated, at any moment. And 
 would they be disposed to enter into such sacred 
 relationships — would they form such endearing and 
 tender ties, — only to experience the pain of hav- 
 ing them sundered again, so suddenly and ruth- 
 
THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 195 
 
 lessly ? There is no people on earth, who would 
 do it, under the same circumstances. The mar- 
 riage altar would necessarily fall into disrepute. 
 But the crime belongs to Slavery, 
 
 Another way, in which slavery has im- 
 paired the obligations of the marriage relation- 
 ship at the South, is, in the facilities it has 
 afforded to corrupt men, for indulging their un- 
 bridled passions. A licentious planter, or over- 
 seer, might buy a mistress, at any time. She 
 must go to his home. She is his property. — 
 She is unprotected, and entirely in his power. 
 — She has not the disposal of her own body 
 or person. The fact is, it was just as easy to 
 have a harem on a large Southern plantation, 
 or even in a city like New Orleans or Charles- 
 ton, as to have one in Turkey, provided the 
 old rake of a planter or merchant, took a 
 fancy to have two or three, or more beautiful 
 and bright-eyed mulattos, about his bachelor 
 establishment. Indeed, it might be said that, 
 as a general rule, the female part of the pop- 
 ulation on a plantation, constituted the harem 
 of the overseer. For no one would dare to 
 resist his importunity. And that, as a general 
 
196 THE MARRIAGE ALTAR THROWN DOWN. 
 
 thing, the overseers at the South, did take 
 advantage of their situation, and make "ac^wm- 
 tions^^ to their employers, is apparent from the 
 many living proofs, which may be seen on almost 
 every plantation. 
 
 Need any thing more be added, to set forth 
 'the horrors of slavery ? In utterly casting down 
 the marriage altar, it made war upon one of 
 the institutions of Heaven, and that, too, the 
 one in which nearly all the heart-felt sympathies 
 and endearments of life, which this world affords, 
 were concentrated. 
 
 Christian philanthropists will have a work 
 before them, when this war is over, and slavery 
 shall have passed away, in restoring that altar 
 to its primeval place, and in erecting the 
 standard of a pure morality among the slave 
 population. This will be a work of time. It 
 cannot be accomplished in a day. The social 
 habits and sentiments of a numerous popula- 
 tion cannot be suddenly changed. But this de- 
 sirable reformation can be effected, by a proper 
 effort, in a very few years. For there is not 
 a more docile people on the face of the earth, 
 than the colored race, nor one, apparently, more 
 
THE MARRIAGE ALTAfl THROWN DOWN. 197 
 
 willing and even anxious to make improvement, 
 in all that pertains to tlieir spiritual and moral 
 welfare. It is to be hoped, that this wide field 
 for missionary enterprise, now thrown open, may 
 be speedily and thoroughly occupied. 
 
198 
 
 XY. 
 
 THE PROCLAMATION. 
 
 There has been no Presidential term of four 
 years, since this nation became a Republic, that 
 will be so distinguished in future history, by great 
 and memorable events, as the first four years of 
 Mr. Lincoln's Presidential Supremacy. But the 
 great act of his life, will be that, in which he 
 subscribed his name to the document which loosed 
 the chains of slavery, and gave liberty to millions 
 who were held in bondage. That act not only 
 gave freedom to four millions of the enslaved 
 children of Africa, but it cleared away from the 
 escutcheon of our nation's proud fame, the only 
 dark spot that had rested upon it, and assigned, 
 at once, to the great Republic, that position in 
 the fore-front of nations, to which it was justly 
 entitled, and which will be maintained, under the 
 guidance and smiles of a propitious Providence, 
 through all the coming years. That great hin- 
 
THE PROCLAMATION. 199 
 
 drance to our national prosperity having been 
 removed, we may expect the country from this 
 date, not only to advance in a career of uninter- 
 rupted prosperity, but to have the distinguished 
 honor of being the pioneer nation in the cause 
 of freedom and humanity, to all other nations. 
 She could not fairly, lay claim to this enviable 
 distinction, which, nevertheless, fate had willed to 
 her, while so many of her people were held in a 
 state of bondage. Now, she can assert her claim, 
 and now, go forward, without let or hindrance, in 
 the fulfillment of her grand mission. 
 
 From this day, the soil of America, is a soil 
 consecrated to freedom. A soil baptized, again 
 and again, with the blood of the free, should be 
 the home of the free, and the free alone. No 
 more, ! no more, let the turf once reddened by 
 freedom's costly offering, be pressed by the foot of 
 a slave ! Never more, in this land, now and for- 
 ever redeemed, let the cry of a slave be heard, as 
 he looks forth from the cell of his captivity, and 
 utters his fruitless sighs for freedom ! Country- 
 men of Washington ! Descendents of the pil- 
 grims ! let us, without a dissenting voice, approach 
 our country's altar, and there record our vows that 
 we will be true and loyal to freedom's cause ! 
 
200 THE PROCLAMATION. 
 
 The first day of January, 1863, will be cele- 
 brated by posterity, as the day when the sun of 
 America, first shone forth with an unclouded splen- 
 dor. That sun arose amid the storms of the 
 Revolutionary struggle — but it arose behind a 
 dark and portentous cloud. The whole political 
 heavens have been overcast and darkened by that 
 cloud, threatening, ever and anon, to burst in a 
 storm of destructive wrath over the whole land. 
 It did burst at last, and descend in a flood of deso- 
 lating vengeance. But, God be praised ! the coun- 
 try is safe once more — the heavens have been puri- 
 fied — the threatening and portentous cloud has 
 passed away, and the sun of our freedom begins to 
 shine forth, with a full-orbed glory, shedding an 
 effulgence that shall radiate and lighten distant 
 lands. 
 
 So far as human instrumentality is entitled to 
 any honor, for doing what God decreed should be 
 done, in reference to the Act of Emancipation, 
 that honor must redound to the name of Presi- 
 dent Abraham Lincoln — a name, now rendered 
 immortal^ and which will stand second only to 
 that of Washington. His hand it was that laid 
 the cap-stone in the completion of our Temple of 
 Freedom. The foundations of that glorious struc- 
 
THE PROCLAMATION. 201 
 
 ture, were laid by our fathers, under the guidance 
 of Washington, but we must say, they left it in an 
 unfinished state. It is true, they saw and they 
 proclaimed the great truth, which none others 
 had ever seen or proclaimed before them, that " all 
 men are created free and equal," but still, they 
 permitted some to continue in a state of bondao-e 
 and the work which they commenced, was left 
 unfinished ! It was scarcely possible that so per- 
 fect and magnificent a structure, should be the 
 work of a single generation. They gave us the 
 theory and the constitution of a free government, 
 almost perfect— with only a single defect. That 
 defect is now removed, and we stand before the 
 world, an example of the wisdom of the theory, 
 announced by them. 
 
 We are wont to believe, that, when a great 
 revolution or change is to be wrought, vitally con- 
 nected with the destiny and happiness of whole 
 nations, suitable agents and instruments are spe- 
 cially raised up to accomplish the work. Thus, 
 we believe that our Washington was raised up, 
 and that he was guided and sustained by a Spe- 
 cial Providence, to fulfill the purpose of that 
 Providence, in laying the foundations of this Em- 
 pire of Freedom. 
 
202 THE PROCLAMATION. 
 
 In the same manner, we must believe that 
 President Lincoln was the man designated and 
 raised up by the same protecting and overruling 
 Power, to conduct this Nation through the gloomi- 
 est period of her history. There has not been 
 a darker day in our National history, than the 
 day when he took the helm of State. We 
 thought the Union was irrecoverably gone ! The 
 ablest and wisest statesmen, both North and 
 South, had exhausted all their efforts and coun- 
 sels, at compromise and conciliation, but to no 
 purpose. A cloud of gloom and despondency, 
 seemed to cover all faces. But there was one 
 man who did not despair of the Union, and 
 whose mind was made up — and that was the Pres- 
 ident. 
 
 He summoned the Governors of the States to- 
 gether for consultation. He spoke : 
 
 *' Gentlemen, the machinery of the nation is out 
 of order. We must run it as we find it. Its in- 
 telligent wheels, its rods, its belts are separated, 
 but the boiler seems to be perfect. We must re- 
 pair the workvwith such skill and ingenuity as 
 we possess. There is wisdom in counsel, and, 
 therefore I have called you, that we may reason 
 together. What shall we do, that we may crush 
 
THE PROCLAMATION. 203 
 
 this foul rebellion, and preserve the country from 
 wreck? I have made up my mind, with implicit 
 confidence in an Overruling Providence, to meet 
 all emergencies that may arise. It is time to 
 work. What shall I do about issuing a procla- 
 mation to the people?" 
 
 Here was firmness of purpose, and decision of 
 character, which showed that the right man stood 
 at the wheel, in the Pilot-house. Had he wavered 
 then, and vacillated between hope and fear, as if 
 he knew not whether to move forward or back- 
 ward, the country would have been lost. Had 
 he possessed the weak and cowering will of his 
 predecessor, nothing could have saved the State. 
 
 The Governors seemed undecided, hardly know- 
 ing what counsel to give. They were noble, brave, 
 patriotic men, but even they seemed fearful, and 
 appalled at that solemn crisis, when the nation's 
 destiny trembled in the balance. After some mo- 
 ments, during which a profound silence reigned, 
 the President addressed Gov. Curtin personally — 
 " What will Pennsylvania do, if I issue my proc- 
 lamation?" There was another deep and solemn 
 pause. But at length, the Governor, as if he had 
 caught inspiration from the President, having read 
 the firm resolve which flashed from his eye, and 
 
204 THE PROCLAMATION. 
 
 the confidence and hope which inspired his whole 
 manner, energetically and nobly answered — " Sir, 
 if you will issue your proclamation, Pennsylvania 
 will furnish you a hundred thousand men, in a week J' 
 The President grasped the hand of the Governor 
 convulsively, and ejaculated " thank God for that 
 noble reply — I will, at once, issue my proclamation." 
 And he did issue it. 
 
 The " nick of time,'^ that comes in the affairs of 
 nations, had now come, and was past-— The crisis 
 was past, and the nation was saved from that 
 hour. It is said that the President of the great 
 American Nation, shed tears of joy, which mingled 
 with those that suffused the cheeks of the patriot 
 Governor of the Key-stone State. The -gloom 
 that enshrouded that conclave of men, passed 
 away like the morning mist before the power of 
 the summer sun ; hope revived their drooping 
 spirits, and joy took the place of sorrow. 
 
 Never, since this nation sprung into existence, 
 has there been a man placed in so responsible 
 and critical a position, as President Lincoln at 
 that very nick of time. And never was there a 
 man who met the crisis and the responsibility, 
 with a more manly and becoming spirit. If he 
 has political enemies now, we have no fear that 
 
THE PROCLAMATION. 205 
 
 posterity will not do him justice. His name will 
 descend to history, as the Second Saviour of his 
 country. But even if he had done nothing else 
 during his presidential term, the ^d of Emanci- 
 pation, alone, would insure immortality to his 
 memory. 
 
 It were greatly to be wished, that, it could be 
 recorded by the impartial historian, that the Act 
 of Emancipation, which gave freedom to four 
 millions of human beings, who had been cruelly 
 oppressed, had been a measure demanded by the 
 united voice of the people, as an act of justice 
 and humanity — and that the proclamation had 
 been issued in answer to that demand. We may 
 suppose that Heaven would have looked down, 
 with a smile of complacency, at beholding the 
 deed, and would have blessed our land ! 
 
 But that proclamation was issued on the ground 
 of MILITARY NECESSITY. We wcrc made willing 
 to open the doors of the prisoner, and to let the 
 oppressed go free, because the measure was neces- 
 sary to save ourselves, and to maintain the govern- 
 ment. We regret that we are compelled to in- 
 dulge the reflection that if our own salvation had 
 not imperatively required the measure, the poor 
 African slave might still have hugged his chains, 
 
206 THE PROCLAMATION. 
 
 and still have sighed in vain for freedom, under 
 the very shadow of the temple of freedom I 
 
 We have, as a nation, done what was right, but 
 not because it was right. We have performed a 
 great and glorious act of justice, but not because 
 it was justice. We have freed the slave from his 
 abject and degrading state of bondage, but not 
 because prompted by sentiments of pity and 
 humanity. But, nevertheless, since the act of 
 Justice, and right, and humanity has been passed, 
 and there is an end of slavery, we will say that 
 we are satisfied — that we are thankful ! 
 
 The African people, will remember the house of 
 their bondage, from which they were redeemed, 
 with so many signs and terrible judgments. They 
 will not forget the day, when they were proclaimed 
 free. The first day of January will be thdr great 
 anniversary, the annual return of which, will be 
 celebrated by joyful acclamations and hymns of 
 praise from a grateful people, down to the latest 
 times. And while they give to the Great Creator, 
 all the glory of their deliverance and their salva- 
 tion, they will cherish the name of Abraham Lin- 
 coln, who was the chosen instrument in His hand, 
 in accomplishing their deliverance. 
 
207 
 
 XVI. 
 
 HOW TO DISPOSE OF THE LIBERATED 
 
 SLAVES. 
 
 "Take no thought for the morrow, for the 
 morrow shall take thought for the things of itself," 
 is a wise and judicious saying, which may be com- 
 mended, as worthy of attention, to that numerous 
 class of philanthropists, who manifest so much 
 concern about the future of the emancipated slave. 
 One would almost conclude, from the unusual anx- 
 iety which they seem to feel lest these poor Afri- 
 cans should be starved to death among us, or be 
 unable to find a home in this broad land, that 
 they had been appointed as the guardians of the 
 colored race, and were solely responsible for their 
 future welfare, and their good conduct. 
 
 Now, it may be sufficient to remind all such 
 charitably disposed persons, that they may con- 
 sider themselves as relieved from all such respon- 
 sibility, as the Divine Being is, " de natura rerum,'^ 
 
208 HOW TO DISPOSE OP 
 
 the Guardian of the race. He took care of them, 
 when they were in bondage — He brought them 
 out of a state of Slavery — And he can provide for 
 them in a state of freedom. 
 
 If we did not know that it is written, " The 
 poor are God's heritage," and that it is His special 
 prerogative to take care of His own, we might 
 believe these whining and sickly sentimentalists 
 were in earnest, and meant something, when they 
 utter so much cant, as to the future starvation and 
 wretchedness in store for the Africans, as the con- 
 sequence of their emancipation. 
 
 Of one thing we may rest well assured, and 
 that is, the burden of caring, for, and providing 
 for their temporal support, will not fall on the 
 Northern States. The South will be their future 
 home, both because it is their native land, and the 
 clime congenial to their nature. The apprehen- 
 sion that a tide of emigration will begin to flow 
 towards the North, by which every town and 
 county in the Northern States, will be overrun 
 and burdened by hordes of vagrant and idle ne- 
 groes, is altogether an imaginary evil, which, if it 
 should happen, would be in direct contravention 
 of all the known laws of nature. 
 
 The A fricans are a gregarious or clannish, people, 
 
THE LIBERATED SLAVES. 209 
 
 as much so as the Germans, the Irish, the Japanese, 
 or any other distinct nationality or race. They 
 prefer the society of their own people, when they 
 can find it. The free blacks scattered through 
 the Canadas and in the free States, are those, who 
 escaped thither, at least the majority, to avoid op- 
 pression in the South. But when slavery is abol- 
 ished, and when they can live in the South, and 
 enjoy the rights and privileges of freemen, instead 
 of there being a rush of this population to the 
 North, the tide of emigration will set the other 
 way, and many of those who had been shivering 
 with cold, and freezing at the North, will be glad 
 to seek their own congenial and native clime. Of 
 course, from a variety of accidental and contin- 
 gent causes, there will always be individuals of 
 this race, as of every other race, scattered over the 
 world. But I do not think, that, in ten or twenty 
 years hence, when the new social order, conse- 
 quent on this rebellion, shall be settled on a sure 
 basis, there will be a larger proportion of the 
 colored population in the Northern States, than 
 at present. The great body of them will be 
 massed together in the States bordering on the 
 Gulf. 
 As for the idea of colonizing so many millions — 
 
210 HOW TO DISPOSE OF 
 
 it is a Utopian sclieme. In reference to the neces- 
 sity or utility of the plan, we might ask, cui bono ? 
 Has the scheme ever been found practicable ? 
 The States of South America emancipated their 
 slaves — Mexico emancipated her slaves. And 
 many of the Northern States emancipated their 
 slaves, years ago. But, in no instance was coloni- 
 zation attempted, nor, that I am aware of, even 
 thought desirable. 
 
 What evil has ever resulted from the fact 
 that they were permitted to remain in the States 
 where they were born? There have never been 
 any collisions between them and the white popu- 
 lation. They have never betrayed a spirit of in- 
 subordination to the laws of the country. And, 
 I believe, that the first case of insurrection, 
 against those by whom they were liberated, has 
 yet to be recorded. Under all circumstances, as 
 their history shows, they have evinced a spirit of 
 forbearance, patience, and uncomplaining meek- 
 ness, such as no other people have ever exhib- 
 ited. Now, wherefore should a whole nation be 
 transported, at incredible expense, from the homes 
 of their birth, to another and distant continent? 
 The idea is absurd. It cannot be done — It will 
 not be done. There is no necessity, and no 
 
THE LIBERATED SLAVES. 211 
 
 reason in the world, why such a measure should 
 be attempted. 
 
 Moreover, they can be made a useful popula- 
 tion in this country. Indeed, their labor and 
 services could not well be dispensed with. It 
 would be like the amputation of a right arm, or 
 severing a sinew that supports the body, for the 
 nation voluntarily to deprive itself, of such an 
 amount of useful and productive labor. A more 
 egregious piece of folly could not well be con- 
 ceived of. Rice, sugar, and cotton, are staple 
 productions, and indispensable in all the markets 
 of -the world. And how are we going to do with- 
 out them? The negroes are habituated to the 
 culture of these staples. It is their occupation. 
 And shall we deprive them of their occupation, 
 and ourselves, at the same time, of these neces- 
 sary and valuable productions, or become depend- 
 ent on other countries for a supply of them? 
 
 Interest, then — the reciprocal interest of them- 
 selves and the white population, imperatively de- 
 mands that they shall remain in the country, and 
 apply themselves to the pursuits which they have 
 so thoroughly learned, thereby gaining an honest 
 livelihood for themselves, besides bringing a large 
 revenue into the national treasury. 
 
212 HOW TO DISPOSE OP 
 
 But will they not relapse into idleness and 
 barbarism, after they are freed? The lying 
 slander has been repeated a thousand times, by 
 slave-holders, and the abettors of the system, that 
 the negro will not work unless he is compelled 
 by the lash ; and that the only way to keep him 
 from running back into his original barbarism, is, 
 to keep him in Slavery. I aver, after long ob- 
 servation, that the only industrious and laboring 
 population in the Southern States, is the negro : 
 race. If there shall be any starvation, resulting 
 from idleness, after the Act of Emancipation shall 
 have gone into effect in all the States, it will 
 not be among the once enslaved race, but among 
 those who were formerly their masters. They 
 never did work — They are not accustomed to it 
 — They despised labor — They passed their days 
 in indolence — And it will be no surprising thing, 
 if many of them should come to want and beg- 
 gary, or be supported by charity. It is to be 
 hoped their sympathizing friends in the Northern 
 States, will lend a gracious ear to their appeals, 
 when they shall be made. 
 
 There never has been any substantial proof 
 adduced, in support of the oft-repeated falsehood, 
 that the negro-race arc naturally more indolent 
 
THE LIBERATED SLATES. 213 
 
 than any other race, and that they will not work, ' 
 unless compelled by the lash. A thorough investi- 
 gation, in the West Indies, whence the slander 
 was fiist started, has shown that they have never 
 refused to work, when they obtained a reasonable 
 compensation for their labor. 
 
 Let the officers of our army be called on, for 
 testimony on this point, who have required their 
 services at Vioksburg, and other places, in digging 
 ditches and trenches, and in erecting fortifications. 
 In all these Southern States, where the war has 
 racred, they have been hewers of wood and draw- 
 ers of water-in fact, they have been drudges and 
 shves for our army. But have they ever refused 
 their services, when asked, in the first instance? 
 Never! Whenever, and wherever it has been sig- 
 nified that work was required to be done by them, 
 they have thrown themselves into it with an en- 
 ergy and good will, which ought to put to silence 
 the lying calumny, at least, in the minds of all 
 our military commanders. 
 
 The thousands of contrabands, who came into 
 camp when General Butler's army took possession 
 of the Lafourch district, above New Orleans, were 
 willing to return to work, every man and woman, 
 upon the assurance that they were under the pro- 
 
214 HOW TO DISPOSE OF 
 
 tection of our Government, and should not be 
 left absolutely at the mercy of their former mas- 
 ters. And they have been working industriously 
 ever since, for a bare nominal pay of two or 
 three dollars per month. 
 
 No, it is not true, that the negro will not work. 
 He has always been used to labor — And he has 
 no aversion to it. And our Government could 
 not commit a greater blunder, than to transport 
 such a population out of the country. 
 
 But after all, there is an insuperable prejudice 
 against the African race, in the minds of many, 
 and they have got the idea, some how, into their 
 heads, that the two races cannot, and ought not 
 to dwell together, in the same country. 
 
 It is the merest folly to attempt seriously, to 
 combat a weak and silly prejudice. But I would 
 advise all those who have such a dislike to a 
 dark skin, and to the peculiar odor of an African, 
 as not to be willing to live in the same country, 
 to emigrate to Europe, and leave America to the 
 colored race, and to those who are willing to 
 dwell on the same continent with them. In the 
 Providence of God, they were brought to America, 
 and it is just as much their country as it is that 
 of the white man. And if there is a white man, 
 
THE LIBERATED SLAVES. 215 
 
 who cannot live with the black man, let him leave 
 the country, and return to the land of his fathers, 
 and not demand that the black man be driven 
 away, who has an equal right here with him- 
 self. 
 
 But there is no necessity — there is room enough 
 in this country for all. Let those who have this 
 peculiar dislike to the color of an African, remain 
 in the Northern States. He will not often see an 
 African there, to offend his sight, or his olfactory 
 nerve. He is not compelled, by any necessity, to 
 remove South, where the Africans will be princi- 
 pally congregated. 
 
 But now, seriously, I would ask, if the white 
 and black populations could mix together, and 
 associations, as to all the social relationships and 
 duties of domestic life, were not so very disagree- 
 able and irksome, when the latter were held in a 
 state of slavery, what will render the same or 
 similar associations so very repugnant and offen- 
 sive, when they shall become intelligent and edu- 
 cated freemen ? Some of the very elite of Ameri- 
 can Society, the aristocrats of the land, the 
 educated, the fashionable, and the refined, have 
 been able, not only to dwell with them in the 
 same country, and to tolerate their dark color 
 
216 HOW TO DISPOSE OP 
 
 and their African odor, but they even had such a 
 partiality and afifection for them, that they could 
 not do without their presence in the nursery, in 
 the kitchen, in the parlor, and in every other 
 department of domestic life. They could hardly 
 relish their food, unless prepared by the hand of 
 some negro cook. In short, the African was con- 
 sidered as an essential element in the constitution 
 of a 'perfect social system. And we may conclude, 
 that, there will be multitudes who will be able to 
 abide still on this continent, although the negro- 
 race should not be compelled to leave it. 
 
 Let them reman in the land of their birth. 
 Let them continue to cultivate the fertile rice 
 districts of South Carolina, and the lowlands of 
 Florida, Louisiana, and the Mississippi and Gulf 
 coasts, in sugar and cotton. We shall need these 
 staples, and none can produce them so well as 
 they. We can give them churches and schools. 
 And Providence can work out the problem, that, 
 the African can be developed into the highest 
 type of man. It is the destiny, which, beyond a 
 peradventure, awaits them. Another age may see, 
 that, though the different families of man, are 
 distinguished by certain peculiarities of language 
 and climate, yet they are but one family, after all, 
 
THE LIBERAllLD SLAVES. 217 
 
 and can dwell together in harmony and peace, in 
 the same country, and under a common govern- 
 ment. This is the lesson we ought to learn. That 
 it is the design of the Great and Supreme Father, 
 we should understand it. there can be no doubt. 
 
218 
 
 XYII. 
 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 
 
 There is one element in the native African 
 character, which proves, at least, that they are 
 endowed with immortal souls, and that is, the 
 strong and original tendency, in their minds, to 
 religious devotion. Materialistic writers have en- 
 deavored to create doubts, whether there be any 
 such thing as mind or spirit, as distinct from 
 man's corporeal being, and- capable of an exis- 
 tence, separate from, and independent of the 
 body. 
 
 I have never bestowed any thought on such - 
 writers, believing their speculations to be utterly 
 unworthy of notice. If the creation of a man, 
 proves the existence of an intelligent Creator, so 
 does the creation of man as a religious being, prove 
 the fact of his accountability — and if he is accoun- 
 table to his God, he must be immortal, and the 
 proof of this, is inscribed on his physical being. 
 
RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 219 
 
 by the finger of Jehovah, notwithstanding all that 
 infidels have said. 
 
 There is no other religious animal in the world, 
 that we know of, but man. Man is, by his nature 
 and original constitution, a religious being. And 
 if this proves him to be immortal, the argument 
 is conclusive to prove that Africans have souls. 
 I make this observation, on account of the many 
 puerile and ridiculous attempts to prove the in- 
 feriority of the negro race. It is true, none of 
 them had the hardihood to avow that negroes 
 have not souls. But the whole drift and tendency 
 of the speculations of some of them looked in that 
 direction, and indicated plainly enough, that, it 
 was just what they would have avowed, if they 
 had not feared the effect of such an avowal. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Cartwright styled the negro race, 
 the ^^Prognathous race^ He says "the typical 
 negroes of adult age, are proved to belong to a 
 different species, from the man of Europe or Asia, 
 because the head and face are, anatomically, con- 
 structed more after the fashion of the Simiadiae 
 (monkeys) and the brute creation, than the Cau- 
 casian and Mongolian species of mankind, their 
 mouth and jaws projecting beyond the forehead 
 containing the anterior lobes of the brain. More- 
 
220 EELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 
 
 over, their faces are, proportionally, larger than 
 their crania, instead of smaller, as in the other 
 two species of the genus man. Young monkeys 
 and young negroes, however, are not prognathous, 
 like their parents, but become so, as they grow 
 older." 
 
 Here is another brief quotation from the same 
 essay of the learned Doctor : " On another point, 
 of much importance, there is no practical differ- 
 ence, between the Rev. Missionary (Mr. Bowen) 
 and that clear-headed, bold and eccentric old 
 Methodist. Dr. McFarlane. Both believe that the 
 Bible can do ignorant, sensual savages no good ; 
 both believe that nothing but compulsatory power 
 can restrain uncivilized barbarians from Polygamy, 
 inebriety, and other sinful practices." This con- 
 clusion of the Doctor, if they are as near akin to 
 the monkey tribes as to the genus man, is natural 
 and legitimate. 
 
 The Baptist Missionary Bowen had been to 
 Africa, sent thither by a society in Charleston. 
 He had been brought up in Georgia, and all his 
 prejudices were in favor of slavery. He found the 
 natives of Africa in a condition so far inferior to 
 that of the slaves of his own native State, that, he 
 hastily, and I will add, wickedly concluded, that 
 
RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 221 
 
 the only way to christianize the Africans was to 
 enslave them. Dr. Cartwright seizes the conclu- 
 sion, but too well predisposed by his theory, and 
 makes a bold and rash attack on the Bible, as an 
 instrumentality, inadequate to the conversion or 
 civilization of savages. Adopting his theory and 
 conclusions, we should never have attempted the 
 conversion of the natives of the Sandwich Islands ; 
 but we ought to have sent pirate ships thither to 
 bring them away in chains, and then to have sold 
 them into slavery, before we attempted their con- 
 version. Nay more, we should first have enslaved 
 the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians, resident in 
 the Southern States, before we tried to christianize 
 them. We remember very distinctly, that, when 
 the attempt was first undertaken, with the Bible 
 to convert and civilize them, there were many 
 who, like Dr. Cartwright, believed it could not be 
 
 done. 
 
 It is to be lamented that such a writer should 
 be able to quote the opinion of a Christian minis- 
 ter, in favor of the infidel sentiment. It is not 
 only a slur on the Bible ; but it is an inversion 
 of the order of things ordained by God, to say, 
 that the Bible can do no good, till '' compuJsatory 
 power,'^ or slavery, has restrained uncivilized bar- 
 
222 EELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 
 
 bariaTis, from polygamy and other sinful practices. 
 The Bible is God's great moral lever, to move the 
 moral world — the only lever that has ever moved 
 it, the only one that can move it. Nothing else 
 has ever curbed and restrained the sinful passions 
 of men, and produced morality in the world. The 
 most reckless infidel would hardly presume to cite 
 us, to any instance of a nation, with a pure sys- 
 tem of morality, without the Bible. 
 
 I hazard the remark, that, if one quarter of 
 the sum expended in fitting out ships during the 
 last two or three centuries to rob Africa of her 
 children, and in carrying on the Slave-Trade, had 
 been expended in sending Bibles to Africa, and 
 missionaries to instruct the natives to read it, 
 there would not have been a barbarian, on the 
 whole continent of Africa to-day. 
 
 They are just as religious by nature, if any- 
 thing more so, than the Indian,*or the native of 
 the South Sea Islands. And, as to their intel- 
 lectual character, if there is any difference be- 
 tween the African, and the Asiatic or the Indian, 
 every capable and impartial observer will give it, 
 without the least hesitation, in favor of the former. 
 There is a certain sprightliness of character and 
 genius, belonging to the negro, which does not 
 
EELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 223 
 
 belong to the Asiatic or the Indian. Physically, 
 he is altogether the superior man. 
 
 Having spent many years in ministerial labors, 
 both among the white and black populations, at 
 the South, I am prepared to express the opinion, 
 that there is a far greater amount of genuine re- 
 ligious piety, among the latter than among the 
 former. The religious statistics of different com- 
 munities would confirm this statement. There 
 are as many colored church members in the Prot- 
 estant churches of New Orleans, as there are 
 white communicants, although the white popula- 
 tion is more than twice as great as the colored. 
 Take the city of Eichmond, and the same thing is 
 true. There are more colored than white com- 
 municants. There is a single African Church in 
 that city, numbering over two thousand members, 
 which is more than the whole number of white 
 communicants in all the churches, although there 
 are two white inhabitants for every colored per- 
 son in the city. Could these things be so, if the 
 negro were naturally, more depraved than other 
 men, and insusceptible to religious and moral in- 
 fluences? Do not such facts prove that Africans 
 have, even more of the religious element in their 
 nature, than the whites? 
 
224 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 
 
 I would not assert, that, throughout the South- 
 ern States, these relative proportions in the num- 
 bers of the pious, would be kept up between the 
 two populations. For very obvious reasons, there 
 would be found to t)e. considerable variations. 
 And one principal reason is, that the two classes 
 do not enjoy, and never have enjoyed the same or 
 equal religious privileges. There is many a large 
 district or region, where the slaves have no means 
 of grace. I could name a single planter, who 
 owns, at least, a thousand negroes, who, I suppose, 
 would not give a dime to pay a minister of the 
 Gospel to preach to them, to save them all from 
 eternal perdition. For he is a wicked old sin- 
 ner, and does not believe in the Gospel. Where 
 they are denied the means of grace, it is not to 
 be expected that they should become religious. 
 But give them the same advantages with the 
 whites, and I am strongly inclined to the belief 
 that, everywhere, they will be the more Christian 
 people. I ofifer no reason for this opinion, only, 
 that so far as my observation has extended, every- 
 where, it is so. 
 
 I am aware that there are many, very refined 
 and elegant people, who do not place a very 
 high estimate on a negro's piety. They think 
 
RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 225 
 
 him a superstitious rather than a religious being, 
 and his piety is taken for superstition rather 
 than religion. I know that there is, generally. 
 a fervor that characterizes the religious devo- 
 tions of the African, not often to be found in 
 the worship of white congregations. But we can- 
 not think the Father Supreme will deem their 
 humble sacrifice as less worthy of his notice, be- 
 cause their whole heart is in it. True, they may 
 not be permitted to worship in temples of gothic 
 structure, built by art, and richly decorated — 
 Their ministers may not be the most graceful 
 and polished in their manner, and may not be 
 able to round each sentence in their sermons, ac- 
 cording to the most classical and elegant model 
 — And they may have no deep-toned organs to 
 accompany their loud and clear voices in hymn- 
 ing Jehovah's praises. But still, they generally 
 sing with a fervor and spirit, not always found 
 in our more fashionable congregations, where the 
 music is made, not by the worshippers, but by 
 hired substitutes. 
 
 I remember that, on one occasion, during the 
 year 1847, I heard the sublimest strains of church 
 music I ever listened to, in that grand African 
 church in Richmond. Indeed, I may say, I never 
 
226 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 
 
 expect to hear such church music again, on this 
 side of Jordan ; for really I know of no fitter 
 words, to convey a proper idea of its effect on 
 my mind at the time. The church edifice occu- 
 pies the site of the old theater, that was burned 
 some years ago. They have a large choir, who 
 are instructed in the science of music. But, I 
 can say that some of their voices sounded to me 
 more melodious and musical than the sweetest- 
 toned instruments. Church-organ music is nothing 
 compared to it. It would be difficult to persuade 
 me that the Africans cannot, as a general rule, 
 sing better than the whites. But the most in- 
 teresting feature in their music is, that, it always 
 seems to come from the heart. 
 
 It is true, this may be all mere superstition, 
 or religious enthusiasm. And I may be consid- 
 ered, by some, as tinctured with the same sort 
 of enthusiasm myself, for the expression of such 
 sentiments. But I cannot help it. I am bound 
 to think that the Supreme Father must have a 
 special regard to that people, who have so large 
 a share of the divine or religious element in their 
 natural character. 
 
 If there is any principle in ' a human being 
 that may be called divine, it certainly is the reli- 
 
RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE NEGRO. 227 
 
 gious element of his nature. And we have a right 
 to conclude that the nation or people which have 
 this principle developed in the highest degree, 
 must have a high and noble destiny in reserve 
 for them. 
 
 Here, I must borrow one of Emerson's early- 
 lisms, for it well expresses my meaning : 
 
 "I esteem the occasion of this jubilee (West 
 Indian emancipation), to be the proud discovery 
 that the black race can contend with the white ; 
 that, in the great anthem which we call history, 
 a piece of many parts, and vast compass, after 
 playing a long time, a very low and subdued 
 accompaniment, they perceive the time arrived 
 when they can strike in with effect, and take a 
 master's part in the music. The civility of the 
 world has reached that pitch, that their more 
 moral genius is becoming indispensable, and the 
 quality of this race is to be honored for itself. 
 For this, they have been preserved in sandy 
 deserts, in rice swamps, in kitchens and shoe- 
 shops, so long ; now let them emerge, clothed, 
 and in their own form." 
 
228 
 
 XYIII. 
 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 
 
 At a late hour, the Government has determined 
 to call in the aid of the African, for the purpose 
 of putting down this mighty Rebellion. After 
 having tried, in vain, for two years, the experi- 
 ment of subjugating the South, without permit- 
 ting a single colored man to become a soldier, 
 and even after having refused their services when 
 voluntarily offered, in the common cause, they 
 have at last -been compelled, reluctantly, to arm 
 the negro to save the Union I 
 
 If this policy had been adopted at the very 
 beginning of the struggle, it would have been 
 ended months agone. But a decree had gone 
 forth, which no policy of man could counteract or 
 circumvent, that the victims required as sacrifices 
 on the bloody altar, in this war, must be of the 
 white, not the black race. And tho consequence 
 is, that, we have offered up our own sons and 
 
THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 229 
 
 brothers by the hundred thousand. To preserve 
 our own soldiers from utter extirpation, and to 
 preserve our National existence, we have at last, 
 magnanimously, consented to let the negro bear 
 an honorable part, in the effort to maintain the 
 substance of Republican Liberty. 
 
 Tell me, in the name of reason, why it is that 
 a great and enlightened people, in a war for 
 liberty, and for the preservation of free institu- 
 tions, has ignored the very existence, except as 
 chattels and slaves, of an army of more than half 
 a million of men, able-bodied, patriotic and brave, 
 but as unfitted by the very fact of their deep 
 oppression and enslavement, to take any active 
 part in the struggle for freedom ? There was a 
 fatuity in it! There is no other answer. 
 
 It was not because they were lacking in patriot- 
 ism, or attachment to the Union-cause — for that 
 has never been doubted. It was not because 
 they were deficient in physical courage, and could 
 not fight as soldiers — for every intelligent person, 
 who has any knowledge of the African character, 
 knows the very reverse to be true. The African 
 is the best type of the physical man, in all South- 
 ern latitudes. Even the veriest advocate of 
 slavery, who has always lived at the South, and 
 
230 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 
 
 known the African character, has been willing to 
 concede to them the possession of physical cour- 
 age. Chancellor Harper, one of their best au- 
 thorities, says : 
 
 " They are, by no means, wanting in physical 
 strength of nerve. They are excitable by praise, 
 and, directed by those in whom they have confi- 
 dence, would rush fearlessly and unquestioning, 
 upon any sort of danger. With white officers, 
 and accompanied with a strong white cavalry, 
 there are no troops in the world, from whom 
 there would be so little reason to apprehend 
 insubordination or mutiny." He further, adds : 
 
 " If, at any time, we should be engaged in hos- 
 tilities with our neighbors, and it were thought 
 advisable to send such an army abroad to 
 conquer settlements for themselves, the invaded 
 regions might have occasion to think, that, the 
 scourge of God was again let loose to afflict the 
 earth." 
 
 These sentences indicate, clearly, that this highly 
 educated Southern gentleman entertained no ordi- 
 nary opinion of the physical bravery and capa- 
 cities of the negro race. 
 
 All who have read the accounts of the San 
 Domingo Revolution, must know something about 
 
THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 231 
 
 the fiery enthusiasm of the African in the tumult 
 of battle. The very same quality of his nature, 
 has, more than once, been proved, since this san- 
 guinary contest was commenced. Colonel Higgin- 
 son, commanding the first regiment of colored 
 troops in South Carolina, as we remember, testi- 
 fied that he had never read nor heard of any- 
 thing to equal the fierceness and fiery ardor of 
 their attacks, except in the history of the French 
 Zouaves. A similar record will go down to his- 
 tory, in honor of the Kansas Colored Regiment. 
 In a late battle in Arkansas, the commanding 
 General reported, that, they fought against three 
 times their number of Texans, for hours, with an 
 obstinacy never surpassed, and finally routed them. 
 Another battle-field, fought in the same State, near 
 Helena, where about one thousand of our troops 
 contended against more than twice that number 
 of the enemy, according to tlie reports published 
 at the time, was saved entirely by the valor of 
 the colored troops that belonged to the corps— 
 they were determined not to surrender— victory 
 or death was their watch-word— and, though some 
 of their white officers basely fled, they fought and 
 held the enemy, till reinforcements came to their 
 relief. Such records as these speak volumes. 
 
232 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 
 
 In the Gulf Department, the African regiments 
 have had no opportunity to test their fighting 
 qualities. They have been stationed at Forts 
 Jackson, Pike, St. Philip, Ship Island and other 
 places, to do garrison duty. In June last, when 
 there was a lack of men to press the siege at 
 Port Hudson, and to make the contemplated as- 
 sault, a portion of two or three of the regiments 
 of Native Guards, (colored), were ordered to be 
 transferred thither, and took a part in the bloodi- 
 est engagement fought during that siege. They 
 were ordered to take a certain battery, in posses- 
 sion of the enemy — they took it, though in doing 
 so, some hundreds of their number fell, of the 
 wounded and killed. It was said, at the time, 
 that they would have held the battery, if they had 
 been sustained by the white troops — but, that, not 
 being sustained, they were compelled to fall back 
 from the position they had gained, under the con- 
 centrated fire and numbers of the enemy. But 
 they had proved their courage, and the command- 
 ing General thought it not improper, in an elo- 
 quent address, to pay them a deserved and just 
 tribute, at the time, for the valor displayed by 
 them. 
 
 It was in* that assault, that Captain Kieux, of 
 
THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 233 
 
 the First Regiment, was killed. No braver man, 
 ever lived. He was as black as the ace of spades. 
 Yet he was an accomplished gentleman, and every 
 officer who knew, loved and respected him. He 
 was indeed worthy to be called a countryman of 
 the brave and illustrious Toussant. I shall not 
 soon forget his expressive countenance, and the 
 impression made on me by his bland, and easy, 
 and gentlemanly manners. 
 
 I will not say that our own soldiers have not 
 fought well, and done their whole duty, on every 
 battle-field ; but, I must say, that, if any compar- 
 ison is made between them and the black troops, 
 as to the courage and other soldierly qualities 
 of each respectively, the palm cannot yet be 
 awarded to the former. 
 
 If Gen. Butler had organized fifteen or twenty 
 of these regiments of black Native Guards, instead 
 of three, only, in the fall of 1862, as he probably 
 would have done, had he remained in that depart- 
 ment, they would have been able, under the lead 
 of officers only as brave as themselves, to march 
 through western Louisiana, and into the very 
 heart of Texas ; and no force which the rebels 
 had in the field, could have successfully opposed 
 their progress. But, instead of carrying out the 
 
234 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 
 
 policy, so wisely commenced, of arming the slave 
 population, the work was suspended for some 
 months, and the contrabands, fugitives from slav- 
 ery, who came within our lines for protection 
 and liberty, were remanded back to the planta- 
 tions, to work, many of them, for their old rebel 
 masters, for a nominal pay of two or three dol- 
 lars per month, instead of being transformed into 
 freemen and soldiers of the Republic, as brave 
 and efficient as any the world ever saw. 
 
 Let no reader suppose that I indulge in exag- 
 gerated statements. Many of the best military 
 judges, who have visited the camps of the Louis- 
 iana Native Guards (colored), and seen them on 
 dress parade, have acknowledged them to be 
 fully equal to any other regiments. As for the 
 Second Regiment, stationed on Ship Island, I 
 can say, that, of the scores of officers, who have 
 visited that station, many of them fully prepos- 
 sessed against the blacks, and against the policy 
 of arming them, I have not known one who has 
 gone away without being made a sincere and 
 genuine convert to the system. Many of tliese 
 military gentlemen have expressed the opinion, 
 that this colored regiment is, in drill and dis- 
 cipline, in manly and robust form and appear- 
 
THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 235 
 
 ance, and all that constitutes an efficient military 
 corps, quite equal to any other regiment or corps 
 they ever saw on parade. Of course, this is say- 
 ing much, but I am not giving my own opinion, 
 as I do not profess to be a critic in such mat- 
 ters ; but I am giving the expressed opinion of 
 others, who are judges. But I can say, that, they 
 march better than any other soldiers I have ever 
 seen. They march to the music — with a step so 
 uniform and simultaneous, that, one would almost 
 be inclined to believe that the whole army moved 
 with one set of joints. No one can see a whole 
 regiment in motion, with their neat uniforms and 
 furbished arms, without a thrill of pleasure and 
 pride. 
 
 One reason, perhaps, why they appear to an 
 advantage, as compared even with some of our 
 white regiments, is, that they feel a sort of 
 ambition, and think there is something of glory 
 in belonging to the great Army of the Repub- 
 lic, battling for the cause of Freedom. They feel 
 that they have been elevated in the scale of hu- 
 manity. And it is but natural that they should 
 desire to show themselves worthy of the honor 
 conferred on them, and the confidence reposed in 
 them. 
 
236 THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 
 
 The Africans, as a race, have more enthusiastic 
 fervor in their nature, and are more governed by 
 impulse and sympathy, than any other people with 
 whonl I am acquainted. It is for this reason, that, 
 if we go into their religious assemblies, we always 
 witness a display of far more earnest devotion and 
 fervor, than is ever seen in our more phlegmatic 
 and formal white assemblies. The same principle 
 in their nature, would fire a whole army of them 
 in the field of battle, and fill them with an enthu- 
 siasm which would render them invincible, and 
 utterly reckless of danger. This is the true ex- 
 planation of the fact, that, as proved in the wars 
 of San Domingo, and wherever else their courage 
 has been tested, they have been found more daring, 
 if not better disciplined, than any other soldiers. 
 
 The negroes, not only have an ardent tempera- 
 ment, or enthusiastic nature, which is the very first 
 and most essential element to make a good soldier, 
 but here, in the South, they possess powers of en- 
 durance, beyond any other class of the inhabitants. 
 This fact is so generally known and admitted, that 
 no additional testimony can be needed on this 
 point. Indeed, the learned Dr. Cartwright has 
 asserted, in his writings, that ' it is impossible to 
 work a negro beyond the point of his powers of 
 
THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 237 
 
 endurance, so as to injure his constitution, or cause 
 his death. The assertion is, upon the face of it, 
 absurd and wholly untrue. But still, it is certain 
 that their power of endurance, under exhausting 
 fatigue and labor, is a marked feature in the char- 
 acter of the race. 
 
 It is not an easy matter to speak of the value 
 of the aid, which Providence made accessible to 
 us, and which we have rejected and despised, in 
 the conduct of this murderous and destructive 
 war. Was it necessary to spare the blood of the 
 Africans in our midst, and to pour out our own ? 
 Did we set a higher value on the lives of the 
 negroes, than we did on those of our brothers and 
 sons? There was a fatuity in this, as before 
 stated I 
 
 There was, what we may call a judicial blind- 
 ness, which had happened to the nation, because 
 it seemed to be necessary, as a condition of Justice, 
 that the expiation for the guilt of the nation, 
 should be made, not in the blood of the guiltless, 
 but of the guilty. We shall see in the end, per- 
 haps, that, of those who had not sinned, but were 
 sinned against, not more victims will be offered 
 on the red altar of war, than will barely suffice 
 to teach us, of what service they might have 
 
238 THE COLOEED REGIMENTS. 
 
 been, if we had been wise enough to employ 
 them. 
 
 We did not prosper in the war, so long as we 
 let slavery alone, and resolved to spare it as a 
 veneraole institution. For nearly two years, a 
 series of bloody disasters and defeats attended our 
 arms. But scarcely had our President uttered his 
 solemn threat to the rebels, that unless within a 
 specified time they laid down their arms, and re- 
 turned to their allegiance, he would deprive them 
 of their idol, the god which they had worshipped, 
 when the victory of Antietam was announced, 
 which sent a thrill of joy throughout the nation — 
 as if the God of nations had even deigned to put 
 the seal of his approval upon what was nothing 
 more, in fact, than a simple threat or promise to 
 do right — to do justice, in a certain contingency. 
 
 Well, the rebels would not lay down their arms, 
 nor submit to the Government, and the President 
 was necessitated to issue the threatened Proclama- 
 tion. It was done reluctantly. And after all, it 
 was but a partial act of emancipation, as it left 
 many still in a state of bondage, whose chains 
 might have been struck off, by the same blow, and 
 at the same instant. 
 
 I would again repeat my most solemn convic- 
 
THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 239 
 
 tion, that the war will be protracted, and we 
 shall suffer, till we are thoroughly corrected, as a 
 nation. 
 
 If we had, at this moment, and we might have 
 had, a compact army of one hundred thousand of 
 these Africans, well disciplined, and under brave 
 leaders, they would subdue the rebellion. The 
 South could not raise an army that would dare to 
 face such a host of well-armed and impetuous 
 negro-soldiers. I feel almost as sure of this as 
 I do of my own existence. They would put an 
 end to slavery every where, as they marched 
 through the country, thus depriving the Rebel- 
 lion of its main prop and pillar, and obtaining 
 almost a bloodless victory. The people of the 
 South, if thus threatened and invaded, would 
 speedily come to terms and ask for quarter. For, 
 that they could muster an army, consisting of the 
 sons of planters, and others thoroughly acquainted 
 with the ardent and fiery nature of the African, 
 who could be induced to encounter such a host in 
 hostile array, upon equal te?'ms, is a thought that 
 has never entered into my conceptions. And 
 there is no intelligent person, who could, for a 
 moment, entertain such an idea. 
 
 In the first place, their pride, and all their early 
 
 k 
 
240 THE COLOKED REGIMENTS. 
 
 prejudices, and the notions instilled into them by 
 education, would cause them to shrink Irom a con- 
 test, with an army of negroes, upon terms of 
 equality. In the «econd place, they would know, 
 wjiat every one else must feel well assured of, 
 that the army of negro soldiers would be able to 
 endure, or to hold oat in a fight, at least twice as 
 long as themselves. And in the last place, they 
 would have a conviction, that, in such a contest, 
 fighting not only for freedom, but for their very 
 existence, and armed by despair, such an army 
 would have inscribed upon their banners, victory 
 or death, and they could never hope to conquer 
 them. 
 
 Thus, we see what might have been done. But 
 I venture to predict, that, we shall not have such 
 an army in the field, of these fiery, sable sons of 
 Africa, until just about the period when the war 
 is ended. 
 
 And then, we shall need their help, not to 
 crush the rebellion, but to keep the rebels in 
 subjection, after they have been subdued. ~ The 
 Government intends to put them in forts and 
 garrisons, and other exposed places, for the pur- 
 pose of guarding and securing the citadel of our 
 freedom, after it shall have been re-established. 
 
THE COLORED REGIMENTS. 241 
 
 Thus, in the Providence of God, they are to be 
 appointed to act as patrols or sentinels, to watch 
 and keep down those, by whom they had been 
 so long watched and kept down. They are to 
 be the masteis, in turn, where they had been the 
 slaves. There is something like a stern but just 
 retribution in this. Fiat voluntas Dei, 
 
242 
 
 XIX. 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S EXPERIENCE AMONG 
 THE REBELS. 
 
 My life, since I have been a man, acting on 
 my own account, has been spent in the South, 
 in the midst of Slavery. No sentiment or opin- 
 ion, therefore, contained in the foregoing pages, 
 has been received by me second-handed, but is 
 the result of my own personal experience and 
 observation. I know what I have written about. 
 I know the people of the South, and their in- 
 stitutions, thoroughly. I have looked at slavery 
 in all its phases. 
 
 I acknowledge that I never did believe slavery 
 to be the very summum honum of all human bless- 
 ings. When I left Ohio, in 1831, and came South, 
 and ever since I have been in the South, I have 
 had but the one opinion in regard to slavery, and 
 that is the opinion so often expressed by Jeffer- 
 son, and other distinguished statesmen, that it is 
 
AMONG THE REBELS. 243 
 
 a violation of the natural rights of man, con- 
 trary to the letter and spirit of the sentiments 
 contained in our Declaration of Independence, 
 and opposed to that sense of natural justice, 
 forming a part of the universal conscience of 
 man, which is, therefore, rightly considered as 
 an exponent of what is the Will of God, on 
 the subject. I never did, I never could believe 
 slavery to be right, in the abstract. 
 
 A sincere believer in the Bible, I have been 
 looking forward to a better age, the promised 
 Millennial age of the world, when, I firmly be- 
 lieved that slavery, and war, and every other form 
 of evil, will have been purged out, and when, ac- 
 cording to the promise, " there shall be nothing to 
 hurt nor destroy, in God's holy mountain." 
 
 How this moral reformation of the world was 
 to be brought about, it is not necessary now to 
 inquire. But I believed it was to be done by 
 moral means, and the circulation of the Bible, 
 that great moral lever, which God has put into 
 the hands of the Church. I was rather inclined 
 to believe, that slavery, in this land, would come 
 to an end, in the same way. But I have dis- 
 covered, that, in this, I was mistaken. God had 
 a controversy with our nation, which could not 
 
244 THE author's experience 
 
 be settled in this way. There were past torongs 
 which could not thus be rectified and redressed. 
 I see my mistake now. I see and own God's 
 justice. As a nation, we had lost sight of this 
 eternal principle, written in His Word, and in- 
 scribed on the very Heavens, " Justice and Judg- 
 ment are the habitation of Thy Throne.^' 
 
 I acknowledge that my first impressions of 
 slavery, on coming South, were not of a kind to 
 strengthen even if I had possessed any early pre- 
 judices in favor of the institution. 
 
 I passed the first year in Greene county, Ala- 
 bama, and boarded in the family of a respectable 
 planter, a member of the Baptist Church, and the 
 owner of about twenty-five slaves. One circum- 
 stance that was novel to me, as I had never been 
 accustomed to any thiijg of the kind, was, to be 
 awakened every morning, or nearly every morning 
 at day-break, by the sound of the overseer's lash. 
 And as I knew that every stroke cut the skin and 
 the flesh of the naked back of a slave, it made me 
 feel Tiervous, before I had got used to it. This was 
 the morning bitters, administered to each slave who 
 had not performed a given task, or picked so 
 many pounds of cotton the day previous. 
 
 I might have remonstrated with the master, 
 
AMONG THE REBELS. 245 
 
 against the cruelty of the practice, but I was then 
 a young man, and a stranger in the country, and 
 I knew it would do no good, but might get myself 
 into a serious difficulty. I have seen the same 
 proprietor and master, on several occasions, use a 
 raw-hide on the person of his house-servant, a deli- 
 cate looking woman, about half white, and desist 
 from the whipping, only when he was actually 
 exhausted, and could indulge his wrath no longer. 
 I remember, that, it occurred to me, on one occa- 
 sion, to count how many more stripes he would 
 inflict, after I supposed he had already inflicted, 
 at least one hundred and fifty, and appeared almost 
 exhausted with his effort, and I counted one hun- 
 dred and fifty more, making fully three hundred 
 stripes that poor woman received, at one time. 
 Of course, there was no part of her body that was 
 not marked, and her garment was so stained, that, 
 it would have been difficult to say whether crim- 
 son or purple were not the original color. At first, 
 she uttered loud and piercing cries — but these 
 grew fainter and fainter, till, at last, they subsided 
 into a low, moaning sound, hardly audible, as if 
 she were engaged in a prayer, — but whether it 
 was addressed to her master, or to her master^s 
 Master^ I could not decide. 
 
246 THE AUTHOR S EXPERIENCE 
 
 And yet, that man was a member of the church 
 in good standing. Whether the victim of his 
 wrath, was a member of the church with him or 
 not, I cannot tell. He was an acting justice of 
 the peace, at the time, and, in all respects, stood 
 high in that community. I have no reason for 
 thinking that he was more cruel to his slaves 
 than other masters. So far from it, he was a 
 humane and kind master as compared with many — 
 perhaps, I may say, a majority of the slave-holders 
 at the South. I am speaking of a state of things 
 which I noticed, on first going South, and of what 
 seemed to be the ordinary and established state of 
 discipline for the slaves, in that community. No 
 body appeared to suspect there was any moral 
 wrong in inflicting one hundred, three hundred, or 
 even five hundred stripes on the back of one's 
 own slave, whenever he might take it into his head, 
 thus to indulge his humor. For this was the 
 common custom of the country, and there seemed 
 to be no law against it. But, as it struck me at 
 the time, the system appeared to be one of cruelty. 
 And I am, now, more than ever established in the 
 opinion, previously expressed in these pages, that, 
 the system was not only founded in cruelty and 
 blood, but, that it has been upheld by the same 
 
AMONG THE REBELS. 247 
 
 means, so that a righteous Jehovah could not toler- 
 ate its existence any longer in this land. 
 
 The following year I went to Mississippi, and 
 boarded in a family where the regime observed in 
 the government of the slaves, was about the same 
 as in the family with whom I had lived in Ala- 
 bama. However, I had an opportunity, while in 
 this family, to learn something of the modes of 
 torture, or their manner of dealing with runaway 
 slaves, so as to cure them of that propensity. 
 
 The man who was to be punished, was a young 
 man, apparently about twenty years of age, fully 
 six feet in height, and a bright mulatto, nearly 
 as white as myself — so near a white man, in fact, 
 and so intelligent looking withal, that, I could 
 not help feeling a strong sympathy for him, al- 
 though I dared not to express it. He was staked 
 to the ground, face downwards ; and burning 
 wisps of straw were passed over his naked back 
 and loins, till he was covered with blisters. The 
 pain, of course, was excruciating at the time, but 
 not calculated, permanently, to injure or maim 
 the slave. I record the circumstance, merely to 
 show how ingenious is cruelty, in devising the 
 means of inflicting torture and pain. I had read 
 of many ways of torturing victims and criminals, 
 
248 THE author's experience 
 
 but I had never read nor heard of this particu- 
 lar mode. But if I should proceed to relate all 
 similar circumstances and facts that have come 
 to my personal knowledge, directly or indirectly, 
 I should have to write another book, instead of a 
 short chapter, which it is not my intention to do, 
 at present. 
 
 For several years, before the public sentiment 
 of the South, growing out of slavery, culminated 
 and broke out in the Rebellion, I had come to 
 the conclusion, that, liberty in those States, was 
 at an end. 
 
 The terms, yankee, and abolitionist, had come to 
 mean nearly the same thing — and two more op- 
 probrious epithets could hardly be conceived of, 
 in the dialect of a Southerner. If a man hap- 
 pened to have been born at the North, he had to 
 show very clean papers to avoid being branded 
 as an abolitionist ; and with that brand once 
 fixed upon him, there was no safety, any where 
 in the country. He was liable to be hung up, 
 without judge or jury, on any post-oak or black- 
 jack, where he might happen to fall into the 
 hands of a mob. 
 
 In the year 1860, I was residing in the State of 
 Texas, in a village called Hempstead, fifty miles 
 
AMONG THE REBELS. 
 
 249 
 
 from Houston, on the railroad leading from that 
 city to the northern limits of the State. In the 
 month of November, before the State had as yet 
 seceded, and before any vote had been taken on 
 that question, our National flag had been dishon- 
 ored, and trailed in the dust of the streets, by 
 the rabble. As secessim was the great topic of 
 the day, and all classes of people were discussing 
 it, some opposed, but the greater part in favor of it, 
 I also, thinking myself a pretty good Southerner, 
 ventured to have an opinion on the subject, and 
 to express it, not dreaming of any danger or vio- 
 lence to myself, from doing so. I happened to 
 remark, in a private conversation, that, if the 
 South should secede from the Union, there would 
 be war ; and that, in the event of a war between 
 the North and the South, the institution of slavery 
 would be overthrown. This I said, not from any 
 unfriendly feeling to the South or to Slavery— 
 but I intended it merely as an argument, why 
 the South ought not to secede, but to adhere 
 to the Union. I also further remarked, that 
 in such a contest, the North would have every 
 advantage over the South, as they had the navy, 
 and in numerical force, were three times as 
 strong as the South. 
 
250 THE author's experience 
 
 I should have remembered, that, in expressing 
 these opinions, I was not a slave-holder, and, there- 
 fore, not one of the privileged class. I was 
 waited on the next morning, while at breakfast, 
 by five of the most prominent citizens of the town, 
 who informed me, that, as it was understood, I 
 had expressed opinions at variance with the views 
 and feelings of the resident population, my pres- 
 ence was desired at a public meeting, which would 
 be immediately convened. 
 
 I will confess that I felt some misgivings at 
 first, knowing that hundreds of men had, during 
 the past few months, fallen victims and been hung 
 by the blood-thirsty and brutal mob of the State ; 
 and that I had myself narrowly escaped out of 
 their hands only two months before — so narrowly 
 indeed, that my name had actually been inserted 
 among those who had been hung, in several news- 
 papers of the state. 
 
 The meeting was called, at once, and there was 
 some excitement. But I had several friends at 
 that meeting, who knew that I was not an abo- 
 litionist. Fortunately, Colonel Wash. Crawford, 
 an eloquent lawyer from the neighboring town of 
 Washington, and the most influential man in four 
 counties around, was there. He arose, and, unex- 
 
AMONG THE REBELS. 251 
 
 pectedly by all, made such a speech in my defense, 
 as shamed even those who had accused me. He 
 had known me for several years, and my own 
 conscience acquitted me of the charge of abolition- 
 ism. If any body had called me an abolitionist 
 at that time, I should have considered it a gross 
 personal insult. 
 
 I was released, and, of course, I was free once 
 more, but not to express my opinions without re- 
 serve. I was taught, that, from that day, I must 
 observe caution. But I have, ever since, con- 
 sidered myself indebted to Colonel Crawford, for 
 my rescue out of the hands of a lawless rabble. 
 
 I did not feel safe, and could not breathe freely 
 in Texas, from that day ; and, although all the 
 interests I had in this world, lay in that State, 
 I began to think seriously of leaving it. As soon 
 as I could make the necessary arrangments, I did 
 leave, and found myself in New Orleans, in the 
 following April. 
 
 On the 12th of, that month, the rebel batteries 
 were opened on Fort Sumter. I had, till then, 
 cherished the vain hope, that, somehow, or in some 
 way, the dreaded crisis might be avoided. But 
 now, all hope of the kind, was gone, and my mind 
 was decided. I was convinced that God had 
 
252 THE author's experience 
 
 made the Southern people mad, in order that they 
 might bring ruin and judgment on themselves, and 
 I said in my heart — Amen — So let it be — since 
 they will have it so. There is no reflecting mind 
 in the country, but must accord in the sentiment 
 of General Ilamilton, expressed in one of his late 
 speeches — " The veriest skeptic^ one who never before 
 believed in a God, cannot but recognize in this war, 
 the hand of the Almighty. Slavery has been permit- 
 ted to perform its mission, and its career is ended.^^ 
 
 As I was necessarily detained, for several 
 months, in New Orleans, endeavoring to transact, 
 through an agent, some unsettled business in Tex- 
 as, I again, suddenly and unexpectedly found my- 
 self in limbo. I was summoned before his honor, 
 Mayor John T. Monroe, to answer to the charge 
 of having expressed Union sentiments. The in- 
 formants against me were Messrs. Smith and 
 Rucker, certain horse traders, who had been stop- 
 ping a few days at the same boarding-house with 
 myself. The substance of their complaint against 
 me was, that I had said, I was for the Union. 
 In this, however, they falsified, for they had never 
 heard me make use of any such remark. I had 
 endeavored to be guarded in my words. It was 
 however, perhaps, a fair inference from remarks I 
 
AMONG THE REBELS. 263 
 
 had made use of, in a casual conversation with 
 one of them. 
 
 In speaking of the state of affairs in Missouri, 
 I did incidentally remark that the majority of 
 the people in the State, ought to rule — and that 
 Gov. Jackson ought to be governed by the action 
 of the Convention, which was the only medium, 
 through which, the voice of the people could be 
 heard. He dissented from the view expressed by 
 me, and the next day I had a citation to appear 
 before the Mayor, to answer for my words. I had 
 never had the slightest personal altercation or 
 difficulty with either of the above named ac- 
 cusers. I had never wronged them, and I can 
 think of no motive which could have actuated 
 them, thus, voluntarily and gratuitovMy, to become 
 my accusers, only their hostility to the Union. I 
 have not been able to learn what- became of 
 Smith, as I lay in durance vile for nine months. 
 But I do know that Rucker, several months 
 prior to the arrival of General Butler to the 
 city, went, on a cattle speculation, into Texas. 
 He had obtained the cattle, a very large herd, 
 and he would have made a fortune by the specu- 
 lation, for beef was then selling in the city for 
 twenty-five to fifty-cents per pound. But unluck- 
 
254 THE author's experience 
 
 ily for him, the cattle were on the coast, above 
 the city, just as Admiral Farragutt passed up 
 with his victorious fleet, and he captured the 
 whole drove. Rucker afterwards appealed to 
 General Butler, and whether by taking the oath, 
 ox by some other process I cannot say, obtained 
 damages to the amount of some hundred-thous- 
 and dollars, less or more. As he is still in the 
 city of New Orleans, enjoying his otium cum 
 dignitate, I trust this matter will be more thor- 
 oughly sifted, as it can be reduced to a demon- 
 stration that he was a thorough rebel, and that 
 he intended the cattle for the Confederates, and 
 not for the Federal Army. 
 
 The Mayor turned me over to the care and 
 guardianship of Harry Mitchell, keeper of the City 
 Work House, who had acquired such distinction 
 as a recruiting officer for the rebel army, that 
 even Russell, of the London Times, heard of his 
 fame, and had to pay him a compliment in his 
 journal, while on his visit to the city. He says : 
 " The New Orleans papers are facetious over 
 their new mode of securing unanimity, and high- 
 ly laud what they call the course of instruction 
 in the humafte institution for the amelioration of 
 the condition of Northern barbarians, and aboli- 
 
 J 
 
AMONG THE REBELS. 255 
 
 tion fanatics, presided over by Professor Henry 
 Mitchell, who, in other words, is the jailer of 
 the Work House Reformatory." 
 
 That course of instruction, over which the papers 
 were so facetious, was usually not very long, but 
 it was most thorough. I should suppose that 
 the Professor sent not less than a thousand men 
 into the rebel army. I will not dv^ell on the 
 means employed by him to get soldiers to enlist, 
 but will give a single case, which may serve to 
 convey some general idea. 
 
 Three Irishmen had been brought into the 
 Work House, at one time. They said that they 
 had been arrested, for no other ofifense, only that 
 they had refused to enlist as soldiers in the 
 Confederate Army. Whether they stated the 
 truth or not, as to the cause of their arrest 
 and incarceration, it is certain, that, on the 
 very next day after, they were called on by 
 Professor Mitchell, with a recruiting officer, and 
 asked, whether they would enlist, on condition 
 of being released from the Work House, which 
 all three of them promptly declined to do. The 
 Professor and the recruiting officer went away; 
 but, the day after, those three men were loaded 
 with irons, and set at work breaking rock, with 
 
256 THE author's experience 
 
 heavy sledges. A negro, perhaps, might stand it 
 to break rock all day long, in the hot sun, with 
 a twenty pound sledge, and irons weighing sixty 
 or seventy pounds chafing his ancles, but no Irish- 
 man can stand it, and, at the end of the first day, 
 the three men signified their willingness to enlist 
 in the rebel army ; and accordingly, the Professor 
 turned them over to the recruiting officer. 
 
 Perhaps, I might not have given the Professor 
 a notice, so much more extended than Mr. Russell 
 thought it necessary to bestow on him, but for the 
 fact, that, I am under greater obligations than 
 Mr. Russell for personal attentions received from 
 the Professor. And besides, as he still presides 
 over the same " humane institution,^^ under the aus- 
 pices of the Federal Government, it is no more 
 than simple justice to let the public know, that he 
 is a faithful servant to those who employ him, at 
 one hundred and fifty dollars per month, with the 
 perquisites of office, amounting to as much more. 
 
 I cannot speak of what I suffered in that Work- 
 House. I could wish that the nine months of 
 cruel penance there for Liberty's and conscience' 
 sake, could be blotted from my memory. Invol- 
 untarily, sometimes, as thought recurs to that dark 
 period, I find my hand pressing my forehead, as 
 
AMONG THE REBELS. 257 
 
 if I would press back the thought, and relieve 
 myself of such melancholy recollections. 
 
 How varied are the scenes of this life ! What 
 a world of tribulation we live in ! There may be 
 those who receive their portion of good things 
 here ; but tlie christian should ever bear in mind, 
 that, if he would wear the crown at last, he must 
 first learn to endure the cross — according to the 
 saying of one of the best saints that ever lived, — 
 " no cross, no crown" 
 
258 
 
 XX. 
 
 CONCLUSION.^THREE PARTIES. 
 
 The stern and inflexible justice of Jehovah, 
 in superintending and directing the affairs of po- 
 litical Startes and kingdoms, is the great and 
 practical lesson, which we have learned from 
 this war. Slavery was a great evil — -just as 
 great as has been represented, and as has been 
 proved, by facts which cannot be controverted — 
 but it was not too great an evil for the Genius 
 of Christianity to conquer and destroy. It was 
 a system that must have crumbled and disap- 
 peared gradually, before the moral power of 
 truth and righteousness, as the Gospel gained 
 sway. It would be a stigma upon our Divine 
 system of religion, to say, that there is not a 
 moral energy in the Gospel, adequate to the final 
 overthrow of slavery. To deny to Christianity 
 the possession of this moral power, would be a 
 concession to infidelity, which we are not willing 
 
CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 259 
 
 to make. It is the power, by which, the com- 
 plete moral renovation of the world is to be 
 effected, and the consummation of the Millennial 
 age to be achieved. 
 
 Christianity has, more than once, demonstrated 
 its power, to grapple with and vanquish the 
 monster. Slavery^ with the weapons of spiritual, 
 instead of carnal and bloody warfare. For, it 
 was nothing else but the voice of Christianity, 
 as has been before insisted, speaking through 
 some of her noblest sons, which led to the sup- 
 pression of the African Slave Trade, and the 
 emancipation of the slaves in the British West 
 Id dies, without blood. With multiplied proofs of 
 this kind, as to the power of the Gospel, it 
 would betray the most inexcusable ignorance, or 
 something worse, to assert that the redemption of 
 our own land from the curse of slavery, might not 
 have been effected in the same peaceful and blood- 
 less manner. 
 
 But there was an insurmountable barrier in 
 the way, and that was the law of Jehovah's 
 Throne, requiring that JVational crimes shall be 
 corrected by JVational judgments. So much inno- 
 cent blood had been shed, that, an atonement, 
 by blood, had become indispensable, to vindicate 
 
260 CONCLUSION. — thuee parties. 
 
 the justice of the Divine Law. Here was Jus- 
 tice arrayed against Mercy, in a case, where it 
 was necessary that the latter should yield to the 
 former. Many good men and statesmen, besides 
 Mr. Jefferson, predicted, long ago. that the claims 
 of justice would yet be vindicated, against the 
 slave-tyranny. 
 
 The Secessionists of the South, or the Pro- 
 Slavery party, are directly responsible for the 
 war, and all its consequences. 
 
 The radical Abolition party, in the Free States, 
 must have the credit, by their agitation of the 
 subject of slavery, and their violent and offen 
 sive manner of conducting the controversy, of 
 having alienated the Southern people, and driven 
 them to that suicidal act, by which they rushed 
 on their own destruction. The collision between 
 these two parties, led to the awful tragedy, of 
 which this great land is, at present, the theater. 
 If there had been no Abolitionists, there would 
 have been no Secessionists, and, of course, no 
 civil war. But now, since the consummation has 
 been reached, we have no fault to find with the 
 means, since it was brought about, in the Divine 
 Purpose, to scourge and correct the nation. 
 
 It would be unjust, however, not to discriminate 
 
CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 261 
 
 between this radical Abolition party, and the true, 
 loyal Anti-slavery party of the country, who, in- 
 deed, constitute the mass of the intelligent and 
 honest citizens. This loyaJ, Anti-slavery party 
 — that was the Conservative party before the 
 rebellion — had no part, and no instrumentality 
 whatever, in the horrible deed of initiating the 
 war. They endeavored to prevent it. They were 
 always in favor of conciliation and compromise ; 
 and, if their counsels had prevailed, there would 
 have been no war. 
 
 President Lincoln is, to-day, at the head of that 
 party, and he represents them ; but he is not an 
 abolitionist. Secretary Chase is another noble 
 and patriotic representative of the same party. 
 And we may say of nearly every great and lead- 
 ing mind in the country, who has anything to do 
 with the Government or the Army, that they be- 
 long to this loyal, Anti-slavery party. It was the 
 party to which Washington once belonged, and 
 Jefferson, and the Adamses, and Madison, and Ben- 
 jamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton, and the 
 peerless Webster, and the eloquent Henry Clay. 
 For every one of them believed slavery to be an 
 evil, and deplored its existence. But it would 
 be an insult to the memory of any of them to 
 
262 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 
 
 say, that they were Abolitionists, of the Wendell 
 Philips and Garrison school. 
 
 And can we believe — would it be possible to 
 persuade us, that, with the whole moral power and 
 spirit of Christianity, in opposition to slavery, and 
 the sentiments of all these great statesmen and 
 philanthropists, whether now living, or dead, ar- 
 rayed against the horrible system, it could have 
 prolonged its existence beyond the close of the 
 present century, if the Abolitionists had not sprung 
 up, and interfered with the work which they had 
 begun, of bringing about a reformation by mild 
 and peaceful measures which are so much more 
 in harmony with the laws of Divine Charity ? But 
 I reiterate what has been already remarked, that, 
 crimes of such a nature had been committed 
 against the rights of humanity, in the name of 
 Liberty, that Heaven must have suspended its or- 
 dinary laws, not to have exacted a terrible retri- 
 bution from this Nation. Hence the Abolitionists 
 had a mission to perform. 
 
 The party has been in existence over thirty 
 years, and what have they accomplished in that 
 time? They did not convince slave-holders of 
 their error, but, rather drove them, in self-defense, 
 to adopt the divine-right principle in favor of 
 
CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 263 
 
 slavery — a principle which, never before, had been 
 asserted. They did not lighten the oppression of 
 the slave, but rivetted tighter the chains of his 
 bondage, as thousands who have lived at the South 
 could readily testify. And finally, to them be- 
 longs the honor of having been employed as the 
 instruments to bring this war upon the country, to 
 the end that it might be purged and redeemed. 
 
 In speaking of the Radical Abolition party, I 
 would be understood as referring to those, only, 
 who advocated the " Malum in se " theory. This 
 was the JVew Gospel, which caused the division of 
 churches, founded under the preaching of the Old 
 Gospel, and which existed together, in harmony 
 and love for ages. It was this JVew Gospel which 
 taught slaves to run away from their masters ; 
 whereas, the Gospel preached by Paul had taught 
 them to be '' obedient '[ to their masters, and even 
 to " endure grief, suffering wrongfully.'' This JYew 
 Gospel taught slaves, that, in effecting their escape 
 from bondage, they might steal whatever articles 
 they should consider necessary, to speed them in 
 their flight to a land of freedom ; which was con- 
 trary to the Moral law contained in the table of 
 the ten commandments, which forbids theft. This 
 JYew Gospel required its expounders and advo- 
 
264 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 
 
 cates, to apply such kind and ft-aternal epithets, as 
 man stealers kidnappers, thieves, etc., to all their 
 Southern bi ethren involved in the evil of slavery ; 
 which was contrary to the Gospel of Christ, who, 
 * when reviled, reviled not again, nor returned 
 railing for railing." In fine, this JYew Gospel, 
 openly, inculcated treason against the Government, 
 by denouncing the Union as a curse, a compact with 
 hell, etc. ; and by disallowing, for years past, its 
 leading defenders either to vote, or have anything 
 else to do with a Government so corrupt. It is 
 certain that if they had had the power, they would 
 have destroyed the present Government and dis- 
 solved the Union, thirty years ago. Their work 
 is at length accomplished, and now their mission 
 ends. 
 
 But I do not intend by this to say that they 
 have accomplished the destruction of the Union, 
 although some of them have said, and are still 
 saying that they donH want the old Union. I trust 
 that old Union will be as lasting and firm as the 
 mountains and hills of the great continent, over 
 which it stretches. We would not acknowledge 
 the mighty struggle in which we have been en- 
 gaged, to maintain that old and glorious Union, 
 formed by the wisdom and cemented by the blood 
 
CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 265 
 
 of our ancestors, a failure, by saying that we shall 
 have a new and better Union. A better Union 
 it may be, but not a new one. If there was any 
 dross, with that which before was gold, and that 
 dross is separated or consumed by the fire through 
 which we are passing, that is not to say that the 
 gold itself is consumed. If there was a dangerous 
 cancer or sore on the old body politic, and that 
 sore has been probed and cut away by the scalpel 
 which the war has applied to it, that is not to say 
 that the body itself has been destroyed. 
 
 Let us not dishonor the memory of the great 
 and good men who were specially raised up, for 
 the purpose of forming the best Government ever 
 yet enjoyed by any nation, under which we have 
 so long lived and prospered, by saying that the 
 work which they accomplished is a failure, and 
 we must organize a new government/ Shall we 
 give up that grand old Eepublican form of 
 Government which Washington and his compeers 
 bequeathed to us? Never! Never! ! If, from 
 time to time, any defect or imperfection is found 
 to exist, it may be remedied. If, in the Union 
 itself, any weakness is discovered, even that may 
 be remedied. This civil war will make the Union 
 stronger than it ever was before. There may be 
 
266 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 
 
 fewer States, or more after the war, but it will be 
 the same Union. There were but thirteen States 
 when that Union was formed, but many States 
 have been added to it since. Yet we do not say 
 there is a new Union formed, every time a new 
 State comes into it. It is the same old Union. 
 Even so, if any State should drop out of the 
 Union, it would not thereby be destroyed ; it 
 would be the same Union still. 
 
 It is a suggestive fact, that the loyal Anti-slavery 
 party — it was the Conservative party before the 
 war — we would call it the Constitutional party — 
 some call it the Republican party, — and certainly, 
 no one who is a Republican, ought to object to 
 the 7iame — but whatever name it may be known 
 by, it is the party to whom that gracious Provi- 
 dence which has ever watched over the destiny of 
 the nation, has specially entrusted the maintenance 
 of the Union, and the preservation ' of the Govern- 
 ment, in the terrible and fiery ordeal through 
 which we are passing. The two parties, the Pro- 
 slavery and radical- Abolition — which sought to 
 destroy the Union and brought the wiir wpon the 
 country, have been left out — Provideiu^e scorns to 
 allow them no part in administering the Govern- 
 ment in the present crisis. It is a suggestive fact. 
 
CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 267 
 
 There is another party, which occupies rather 
 an anomalous position at present — which can 
 hardly be said to be a party, but a fragment of 
 the old Democratic party — the Peace-party — the 
 Copperhead-party — who live in the Free States, but 
 whose sympathies and hearts are with the rebels 
 at the South — who are in favor of a reconstruc- 
 tion of the Union, with the institution of slavery 
 intact — and this too, when they must see and 
 know, that the horrors of slavery have reached 
 their climax in the perpetration of the blackest 
 treason against both Heaven and earth, ever yet 
 committed by devils and wicked men ! This Peace- 
 party should not live in the Free States, but they 
 ought to take up their abode among their seces- 
 sion friends at the South, where they properly 
 belong. They may struggle on a little longer, 
 as a drowning man catching at straws, to keep 
 from sinking ; but it will be a vain struggle. The 
 power of the party for good or for evil, is at an 
 end. 
 
 The loyal Anti-slavery or Constitutional party, 
 have ever been as much opposed, in sentiment, to 
 slavery, as the radical Abolitionists themselves, 
 and have ever believed that it was an evil of 
 such a nature, as must necessarily come to an end, 
 
'268- CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 
 
 in the progress of events. But they were not 
 willing to scatter firebrands, arrows and death, 
 and to involve their country in the conflagration 
 of a civil war, in order to destroy an Institution 
 which they had no hand in creating. They were 
 willing that the people in the States where it ex- 
 isted, and that Wise Providence over them, that 
 controls and disposes, finally, of all such ques- 
 tions, should have the entire management of an 
 affair, that had been placed beyond their own 
 control. And now, when the people of those 
 states have appealed to arms, and the Lord has 
 permitted the madness, to seal the doom of Slavery, 
 what could we do, but accept the issue forced 
 upon us ? The time for conciliation and compro- 
 mise expired, when this issue was joined. It is 
 vain to talk of Conservatism now. 
 
 It is, perhaps, worthy of notice, how guarded 
 and cautious our President has been, in striking 
 down slavery, not to trample under foot at the 
 same time, the Constitution which he was sworn 
 to observe. "While the Pro-slavery party have 
 anathematized him for interfering with the Insti- 
 tution at all, the radical Abolitionists have vili- 
 fied and denounced him for not striking a more 
 effective blow. They would have had him eman- 
 
CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES! 269 
 
 cipate the slaves in the Loyal as well as in the 
 disloyal States ; when they know he had no 
 power to do so under the Constitution. It was 
 only the War-power which gave him the right to 
 emancipate the slaves of rebels — but it gave him 
 no right to interfere with slavery in the loyal 
 States. He has pursued a wise and prudent 
 course ; and every loyal man in the country must 
 honor and respect him for having confined him- 
 self, strictly, within the limits of Constitutional 
 authority. When slavery is dead in the rebel 
 states, it will soon die a natural death, in the 
 loyal districts where it has been left remaining. 
 Public sentiment at the South against the Insti- 
 tution, from present indications, will soon be so 
 potent, and, almost overwhelming, that no man 
 who thinks any thing of his own honor, will be 
 willing to be known as a slave-holder, and they 
 will voluntarily emancipate their slaves. The few 
 who might be unwilling to do this, will find how 
 utterly vain will be the attempt to hold their 
 slaves still in bondage, when the slaves all 
 around have obtained their freedom. It would 
 be contrary to the instincts of humanity, to sup- 
 pose that these millions of emancipated slaves, 
 who have just begun to taste the sweets of 
 
270 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 
 
 liberty, would feel no sympathy for their breth- 
 ren still held in bondage, and make no efforts 
 for their liberation. Yes, slavery is dead — the 
 temple of the huge and decrepit old idol is de- 
 molished. The wheels of his bloody car had 
 crushed more victims into the earth, than ever 
 did that of Juggernaut. But, I venture to pre- 
 dict, that, in ten years more, our American soil, 
 thrice hallowed and consecrated with blood, will 
 not be pressed by the foot of a single slave. 
 
 And to whom will the honor of this victory 
 be due? To the Pro-slavery party? Just as 
 much due to them as to the radical Abolitionists. 
 They made the war, and the war has destroyed 
 Slavery. But they did not aim at this result? — 
 they made the war to maintain and perpetuate 
 slavery. Will the honor be due to the radical 
 Abolition party ? The party has ever been very 
 small and insignificant. They have never had 
 control of the National Government. They did 
 not send forth the proclamation of freedom to 
 the slaves — and they have never brought liberty 
 to a single slave, except perhaps to a few scores, 
 whom they may have aided to run away from 
 their masters. If their leaders could have suc- 
 ceeded in their designs they would have dissolved 
 
CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 271 
 
 the Union long ago, and erected two Republics 
 out of the old one, viz : a free and a slave-Re- 
 Republic ; separated from one another only by 
 Mason's and Dixon's line, but giving to the latter 
 the richest and fairest portion of the American 
 Continent, over which to extend and propagate 
 the curse of slavery, perhaps for centuries to come. 
 No, a Wise Providence has conferred on the 
 loyal, Anti-slavery party, the honor of terminating 
 the existence of this evil in our land. President 
 Lincoln, acting as executioner, held the axe in his 
 hand, by which the head of the old Dagon was 
 severed from his body. 
 
 In conclusion, the christian reader will not fail 
 to see most palpable proofs of the guidance and 
 leadings of that Wise Providence, in all the re- 
 markable vicissitudes through which, as a people, 
 we have been made to pass. It was not because 
 the Lord abhorred us as a people, but because 
 of his great favor towards us, that he hath purged 
 us, as gold is purified in a furnace. We have a 
 great mission to perform, and there is a bright 
 destiny before us, in the future ; and it was 
 necessary that we should receive a discipline to 
 prepare us for both. It was designed that we 
 should be not only a great, but an upright people. 
 
272 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 
 
 Who can doubt, that, when this war is over we 
 shall be a greater and a more liberty-loving peo- 
 ple than ever before? Onr mission is to give to 
 the nations of the earth, a practical demonstra- 
 tion of the great problem, never before solved, 
 that, man is capable of self government. It is to be 
 our destiny, to teach all tyrants and oppressors, 
 that their days are numbered. We are to be a 
 city set on a hill, whose light cannot be hid. 
 With what fond anticipations, and earnest, kind- 
 ling hopes, the eyes of millions, are, at this mo- 
 ment, turned towards this land ! We should be 
 recreant to the trust committed to us by our 
 Heavenly King, if we should disappoint them. 
 But He will not permit us. I have come to 
 believe, that. He has guarded and brought us on 
 so far, He has us under hisyspecial guardianship. 
 We know that all earthly blessings are prized, 
 according to their cost. Why is it that the peo- 
 ple of this country, value liberty and a free Gov- 
 ernment, beyond all other posse^ssions, except that 
 they are the children of those, who passed the 
 ordeal of a seven years' bloody war, under the 
 most trying and painful circumstances, in order to 
 obtain that boon ? If that war had had no other 
 effect, than to generate in the whole American 
 
CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 273 
 
 heart, an invincible and undying love foi^ freedom, 
 it were an inheritance well worth all the cost. 
 
 So, if we have been chastised with another three 
 years' war, on account of Slavery ; if we have 
 been humbled to the dust, and made to drink our 
 own tears, for having connived at oppression, un- 
 der our free government ; and, if we have been 
 compelled to loosen the fetters of every slave, after 
 having sacrificed hundreds of thousands of our 
 brave sons and brothers, what else can we expect, 
 but, that it will serve still to strengthen our at- 
 tachment to the cause of liberty and free govern- 
 ment? Is it probable that, hereafter, we shall 
 have any sympathies on the side of tyranny, in 
 any of its forms ? All the discipline and training 
 we have had, as a nationality, in the school of 
 past experience, are of a nature to make us the 
 devoted and perpetual friends of freedom. We 
 have been educated and brought up in the school 
 of independence. The words of the " Declaration 
 of Independence," with us, will have a meaning, 
 hereafter. There will be found neither knaves 
 nor fools, who will attempt to fritter and explain 
 away their significant import, as has so often been 
 done, in the past. We have pretty thoroughly 
 and practically learned the lesson of freedom, 
 
274 
 
 CONCLUSION. — THREE PARTIES. 
 
 which it was the intention of the Divine Teacher 
 that we should understand. 
 
 I repeat my most sincere and honest conviction, 
 that, it is not for naught, our nation, as yet com- 
 paratively in its infancy, and far from having at- 
 tained its manhood, has been so violently rocked 
 in the cradle of Liberty. We have a mission to 
 perform. Onward then, my grand, noble, free 
 country ! God speed thee onward, to the achieve- 
 ment of the wonderful destiny before thee! Me- 
 thinks, I see in thy extended horizon, on every 
 side, the dawning of a glorious morning. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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