LETTERS ON SLAVERY:
FROM THE
OLD WORLD:
WRITTEN DURING THE CANVASS FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF
-   THE UNITED STATES IN 1860.
TO WHICH ARE ADDED
A LETTER TO LORD BROUGHAM
ON THE JOHN BROWN RAID;
AND
A BRIEF REFERENCE TO THE RESULT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL
CONTEST, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
BY JAMES WILLIAMS,
LATE UNITED STATF MNISTER TO TURKEY.
SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE.n.:
SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUST.
1861.
<~
..1
I. I -
. I 
Entered, according to act of the Congress of the Confederate States
of America, on the 16th September, 1861, by
JAMES WILLIAMS,
In the Clerk's Office of the Middle District of Tennessee. 
CONTENTS.
Preface..................................................................... Page vii
LETTER I.
Introduction-Slavery established in North America by Great Britain
-Slavery denounced by England only after the American Revolu  tion-The New Republics obliged to adopt the existing Institution
-Causes of Antagonism between the White and Black Races-M.
De Tocqueville on Slavery in America............................ Page 9
LETTER II.
Reasons why Slavery could not be Abolished, and proofs that it
should not have been Abolished-Emancipation would make the
condition of the Slaves worse-The Abolitionists cannot accom  plish their purposes even with the assent of the Slaveholders  Slavery was abolished in the North by selling the Slaves to the
South........................................................................... 30
LETTER III.
Classification of the Adversaries of Slavery in the Southern States  The London Times on the causes of English Opposition to Slavery
-What position would England occupy towards the Belligerents, if
the Republican party should attempt to carry its measures into effect?
-Would the South hesitate about defending herself to the last ex  tremity?........................................................................ 44
LETTER IV.
Opposition to abstract Slavery resolved into opposition to Slavery. in
America, without considering the circumstances of its existence  Slavery Romances have misled the Public Mind-The manifest in  justice of crediting them as History-The attitude of the present
adversaries of Slavery in times pass-Achievements of Slavery... 61
(iii)
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CONTENTS.
LETTER V
Labor, the Foundation of the Wealth of Nations-Duties of Govern ment-Declaration of Independence, and its correct interpretation
-Classification of Rulers, and the Governed-Names do not ex press the Qualities of Objects....................... Page 73
LETTER VI.
Different systems of Labor considered-Free Labor more or less
dependent upon Capital-Southey on English Labor System-Un  happy Condition of the Factory Operatives-Products of Slave
and Free Labor Compared................................................ 86
LETTER VII.
Unfavorable results of Emancipation by England-Beneficial results
of Slave Labor in the United States-Comparison of the condition
of the Slave and Free States of the American Continent-Great
importance attached by England to tropical productions-The in terests of England and the Planting States identical............. 103
LETTER VIII.
Opposing interests combined in the Anti-Slavery Party-Causes of
disaster to Republics-Tendency of Slavery to produce equality
in the dominant race-Causes of opposition to Slavery by aristo cratic bodies-Morals of Slave and Free States-Capital and Labor
united in Slave States.................................................... 118
LETTER IX.
Influence of Public Opinion-Origin of the Anti-Slavery Sentiment
in England-Failure of schemes to destroy the value of Slave
Labor in America-Revolting Inhumanity of the systems instituted
to supersede Slave Labor-Comparison of the Slavery System with
those proposed as Substitutes-Subjugation of India by England A trial by the Moral Law................................................ 136
iv 
CONTENTS.
LETTER X.
Summary of the relative advantages of different systems of Labor  Results of the Comparison-Characteristics of Great Britain-An
Anti-Slavery Poem-Does not fairly illustrate John Bull-Reflec tions of a Philanthropist upon subjects suggested by the Poem The Institution of Slavery more humane now than formerly....p 156
LETTER XI.
Great Britain-Her interests in American Affairs-Public mind of
Europe excited by misrepresentations against the South-The Lon  don Times on Sumner's last Speech-"Republican" party of
America-Its purposes hostile to the South......................... 175
LETTER XII.
Influence of Anti-Slavery Fanaticism upon Religion-Bible Authority
on Slavery-Increase of Infidelity-Influence of the Clergy for
Good and Evil.............................................................. 189
LETTER XIII.
Present Attitude of Parties in the United States-Success of the
Republican Party will accomplish Disunion-Its Measures Ex  amined, etc.................................................................. 200
LETTER XIV.
A Confederacy could never be established which did not recognize
the equality of the States-Position of Parties illustrated-Ag  gressions of the South and North considered..................... 213
LETTER XV.
Duty of Citizens-Republican Measures are the results of unfriendly
feeling; not the cause-Spirit of the Republican Party incon  sistent with a desire to maintain the Union in its integrity...... 225
v 
CONTENTS.
LETTER XVI.
The madness of the hour-In Europe the Dissolution of the Union
is expected-A few words to Northern Enemies of the South  Conclusion............................................................ Page 234
LETTER TO LORD BROUGHAM on the John Brown raid...... 249
THE RESULT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
Interest excited abroad by the last canvass for the Presidency, and
its results-Amazement at the consequences-The South tranquilly
living under the same laws as before, while the North is in a state
of Revolution-Atrocities of the invaders-Fremont's Proclama  tion-Spectacle presented to mankind-Nature of the late compact
of Union-Reserved rights of the States-While the Monarchies
of Europe are upholding, the Lincoln Government is denying the
rights of the people to self-government-The Union of South and
North is opposed to the freedom of the former, and the happiness
of the latter, and can never be restored-Characteristic differences
between them-" Puritans," "Cavaliers "-The South will stand
higher in the estimation of the civilized world after separation  The only issue is subjection or independence-Providence smiles
upon the Southern people-Through the murky clouds the sunlight
is already visible-President Lincoln's declaration that the States
derived their powers from the General Government disproved, Note
to page 288-The nature and terms of the compact of union between
the States considered, Note to page 293............................. 277
vi 
PRE FACE.
THE following letters upon slavery in the Southern States
of the late American Union, were written at Constantinople
during the canvass for the Presidency of the United States
in 1860, and forwarded at the time for publication in a
political journal. In deference to the desire of a number
of intelligent gentlemen, they are now issued in their present
form, as a single atom in the history of that great struggle
which terminated in the election of a President by the united
votes of the Northern States, to be speedily followed by the
dismemberment of the Confederacy.
It will be necessary that the reader should bear constantly
in mind that the letters were written before, not after the
occurrence of these events. Although the anticipations of
the author have been strikingly verified, both in Europe and
in America, he does not pretend to have furnished new facts,
or to have thrown new light upon the interesting and important subjects upon which he has written. But his position abroad afforded him opportunities, which were possessed
by but few of his fellow-countrymen, for acquiring an insight
i     n      t     o the real opinions, and feelin gs, and  general public sentim     e nt                 of Europe, in regard to the contest which was then in
active progress between the North and the South; and also
of the designs of those statesmen and politicians of the Old
World, between whom and the active leaders of the anti                                                (vii) 
PREFACE.
slavery party in America there existed a coincidence and
agreement of sentiment and purpose.
In Europe, moreover, there was no attempt to conceal the
ultimate objects which the leading "Republicans" of the
North and their European allies proposed to accomplish, if
the former should succeed in obtaining the undivided control
of the General Government.
In Great Britain, as in America, the anti-slavery party was
divided into two general classes: the one comprising the
prominent statesmen, together with their less distinguished
adherents, who looked to the political, and personal, and national advantages which might follow a gradual but sure process of emancipation in the Southern planting States; the
other comprising the fanatics of one idea, and the extreme
advocates of prompt action. Between the former and the
leaders of the "Republican party," there was understood to
be a perfect accord.  Both agreed that the process of abolitionizing the South should be so gradual as not to produce
any convulsion in the commercial world, by a sudden diminution in the products of slave labor; while it should be so
cautious in its development as not to awaken any serious
alarm among the great body of the Southern people.
Under whatever vail the anti-slavery leaders in the North
may have attempted to conceal their real purpose in America,
there was no effort to disguise the fact in Europe that "the
mission of the Republican party was to effect the extinction
of slavery in the American Confederacy." This opinion was
so thoroughly implanted in the public mind, that any intimation of a doubt in regard thereto would have been received
with incredulity by the public at large, and repelled by their
European friends a, an imputation against the personal integrity of their American allies.
It is a remarkable fact that the only intelligent observers
viii 
PREFACE.
of the events which were transpiring in the United States,
who were surprised at the immediate effects of the success
of the "Republicans," were those who were themselves the
instigators or actors in that great political crusade against the
South. These seem, in their calculation of consequences, td
have ignored alike the existence of that great body of earnest
fanatics whose passions they had aroused to madness, while
invoking their necessary aid, and of that natural instinct of
self:preservation which would teach the freemen of the
South, while fathoming the hostile intent of their enemies,
that although it might be swift destruction to resist, it would
be but an ignoble life and a lingering death to submit! They
alone seemed blind to the consequences which would follow,
as a necessary sequence, upon the heels of their victory.
They alone seem not to have considered, that whilst the mul.
titude of their mad followers would not be content to postpone gathering the fruits of their victory, and would press
forward at once to reach the promised goal, the SOUTH
would, AS ONE MAN, gird on its armor for defence, and by
accepting the challenge to immediate combat, make "gradual
emancipation" for ever impossible.
While it was universally understood throughout Europe
that the only question at issue in the struggle for the presidency was that of slavery in the Southern States, and that
the result would involve the destruction of that institution,
or the dissolution of the Confederacy, in the event of the
success of the "Republican party," the greater number be lieved that the only result would be the ultimate emancipa tion of the slaves.  So active and successful have been the
enemies of the South, in misrepresenting the character and
qualities of the Southern people, there were but few who
supposed that they could offer any serious resistance to the
encroachments of their powerful neighbor. The events of
ix 
PREFACE.
the last few months have not only dispelled this delusion
from the public mind, but they have created a revulsion in
the sentiment and opinion of the civilized world, as startling
in its magnitude as it is just in its conclusions. Europe is
at length beginning to discover, as passing events are devel   oping with a rapid movement, the true merits of this life   and-death struggle for supremacy over the soil of the South;
how egregiously it has been deceived by the persistent mis  representations of the Southern people by their unscrupulous
enemies.
A That the war in which the gallant sons of the South are
/ now engaged will end in securing their independence, cannot
L be questioned; that its prosecution may be attended with
heavy sacrifices, is equally true. But amidst all the evils
which may accompany it, or the blessings which will succeed
its successful close, not the least gratifying of,the results
achieved will be the vindication of the character of the
Southern people before the civilized world, against the asper  sions and misrepresentations which have been so unjustly and
so profusely heaped upon them by those who claimed to be
their fellow-countrymen.
X 
LETTER I
Introduction-Slavery established in North America by Great Britain
-Slavery denounced by England only after the American Revolu tion-The New Republic obliged to adopt the existing Institution
-Causes of Antagonism between the White and Black Races-M.
De Tocqueville on Slavery in America.
TiIE American-born citizen, who has been called
to reside for a time in a distant country, may, after
the lapse of a few years, cease to feel any great personal solicitude in regard to the mere material out
of which a Presidential ticket is composed; yet he
is all the more deeply concerned in observing and
noting the popular impulses, the sentiments, and
the purposes which animate the electors, and which
are supposed to be represented by their respective
candidates. However intense may have been his
feelings when at home, touching the local, sectional,
or personal controversies, which are often turned
to account by ambitious men as auxiliaries to their
personal aggrandizement, they are softened by continued absence, and soon become merged into that
broad American sentiment, which embraces every
foot of territory over which floats the flag of the
UTnion! Not that he loves less the home and the
friends which he has left behind him, or that the
(9)
Bt~ttts oil 5lavtrU. 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
local attachments which have had their origin in
education or association are less strong or active,
for on the contrary these feelings which spring from
and  encircle the heart, are only intensified by
absence. But the expanded vision discovers more
clearly the magnificence of that great confederacy,
of which each particular part forms an essential
element; and in the contemplation of which the
geographical lines which define these minute
divisions, become fainter and more faint, until they
are lost in the outline-the form-the dimensions
-the aspect of that grand unit, which represents to
the nations of the world the single sovereignty of
the Great Republic.
I am sure that if these letters ever meet the eye
of those for whom they are intended, they will not
find therein the expression of a thought, or a sentiment, or a feeling, or an impulse, which is not reconcilable with that broad and comprehensive Americanism which embraces each and every member of
the federal Union.
That the writer is a Southerner by birth and
education, may be readily inferred.  That he feels
in every fibre of his heart an earnest and unchangeable attachment for the political institutions of the
State- in which he was born, which no time can
eradicate, and which neither obloquy nor misfortune
can abate, he is proud to declare; yet he trusts that
this frank avowal will not close the eyes and ears of
those who may have different local attachments,
against the truths which he may enunciate. How
10 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ever unsuccessful he may be in implanting his own
convictions in the minds of others, he only asks
that they be considered with the same frankness,
and under the influence of the same American
feeling which animates him in their utterance.
In order to arrive at just conclusions in regard to
the merits of a question, which enlists, to a greater
or less extent, the passions and prejudices, as well
as the interests of those who are arrayed upon one
side or the other, it is well to understand the
relative positions of the parties to the controversy.
A knowledge of the motives of human actions is
essential to an understanding of the merits of these
actions themselves, and we may reasonably distrust
the arguments of those who have a great personal,
selfish interest behind the ostensible object which
they propose to accomplish. The passions, the
prejudices, the interest, or the ignorance of men
often impel them to act unjustly towards their
fellow-men; and no injustice is more common
than that of condemning others for apparent or
real faults- as tested by the standard of abstract
right-without considering the circumstances of
those against whom such censures are directed. In
order to comprehend fully the true merits of the
subject of controversy between the North and the
South, upon which the respective sections have
arrayed themselves in the now pending contest for
the Presidency, it is necessary to begin at the
beginning-to commence at the foundation, and to
trace step by step the origin and progress of the
11 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
causes that have produced a conflict within the
heart of the Confederacy, which may end in disaster
to one or both. Many statesmen and wise men in
the old world, both of the friends and enemies of
the Republic, declare unreservedly their belief, that
the Chief Magistrate now in the occupancy of the
Executive Chair is the last of the line of American
Presidents who will rule over the present confederacy of States. At home and abroad the danger is
apparent, and as the writer of these letters cannot
participate personally and actively in the conflict,
he adopts this as the only means by which he may
communicate with his countrymen. For this he
offers no other apology or explanation, than that he
is an American citizen.
The first African slaves who were introduced into
what now constitutes the United States of America,
but which at that time formed the larger part of
the North American provinces of Great Britain,
were transported thither in British ships, under the
sanction and by the authority of the British Government.  The speculation was  pecuniarily  successful, and under the special patronage of this
Power, slaves were imported in such large numbers as
to alarm the European inhabitants for their personal
safety. The colonists thereupon urged the British
Government to abandon, or at least to suspend, the
farther introduction of these barbarians, and seconded their request by a detailed statement of the
evils which they believed that they had reason to
apprehend, if the system should be continued.,
12 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
But the Government of Great Britain was deaf
to their representations and to their complaints,
and the traffic in slaves was prosecuted with
increased activity and effect. The trade was valuable to England in a double sense. First, the
price paid for the slaves enriched the Britlsh
subjects, who were either directly or indirectly
interested in the traffic, while at the same time it
gave profitable employment to her ships, and added
to her power upon the ocean; and secondly, the
productions of the colonies rapidly increased, stimulated by this augmentation in the number of her
operatives.
The treatment of these captives was necessarily
harsh and cruel; for besides being savages but just
subjected to the galling and unaccustomned restraints
of servitude under civilized masters, with no other
feeling towards those by whom they had been
enslaved and held in bondage but that of hatred,
they were formidable in numbers; and when added
to the. strength of the native races who were at
enmity with the colonists, it will readily be seen
that a lack of due circumspection or vigilance
miight have been attended with fatal consequences
to the sparse population of European blood.
From that period up to the very moment when,
after a long and sanguinary and cruel war, the
American colonies achieved their independence and
became one of the family of nations, the Government of Great Britain never ceased to encourage
the importation of slaves. It constituted, up to
13 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
that epoch, a most important branch of her com merce, and  the great value which she attached
thereto may be estimated by the fact, that at the
end of a long and bloody European war, in which
she figured as one of the chief combatants, she
only claimed as her portion of the spoils of victory,
the exclusive privilege of prosecuting the slave trade.
This dearly-bought concession she exercised and
enforced with as much energy and zeal as she employed after the American Revolution, in consti.
tuting her navy into a police of the seas for the
suppression of the traffic.
It may with truth be said, that of all the nations
of the earth, Great Britain has contributed mostfirst, towards the establishment of African slavery
in America, and afterwards towards exciting against
it the prejudices of the civilized world. Having
forced the human chattels upon her reluctant subjects, that she might reap the rich harvest of their
labors in the fertile fields of the new world, she
never repented herself of the "sin of slavery"she never felt the bowels of her compassion yearning towards the "miserable captives" of her own
cupidity, until by a successful revolution these colonies threw off their allegiance and erected themselves into one of the independent family of
nations. The sceptre of the slave power thus and
then passed into the hands of a rival, and from that
period dates the conversion of Great Britain to the
doctrine of universal emancipation.
Scarcely had the American Revolution brought
14 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
about this unanticipated and disastrous phase in the
immediate and probable future condition of slavery,
and the slave trade, than the British Government
changed its tactics with most indecent haste, and
caused her navy to institute a rigorous search after
all vesseltvhich were engaged in what she then denominated the "infamous traffic in human flesh."
These, when found, were captured-carried into
British ports-condemned  as lawful prizes-the
proceeds thereof placed in the pockets of the captors-and the liberated Africans were sent to work
for a term of years, as involuntary " free laborers,"
upon the plantations of British subjects. This is a
curious but characteristic illustration of the facility
with which English philanthropy adapts itself to
the exigencies of British pecuniary interests.*
An enlightened and unprejudiced judgmentwould
decide that her sudden conversion, and her osten tatious horror of the institution of slavery, occurred
at an epoch well calculated to create doubts in re gard.to the genuineness of that philanthropy,
which, however noisy in its demonstration, was
painfully at variance with her practice, as long as
* The reader is referred to the case of the American brig Fortuna
-Dodson's Adm. Reports: vol. 1, page 95-and of the American
ship Arcadia-reported in Acton's Adm. Reports: vol. 1, page 24.
The capture of the former occurred in 1807, and of the latter at a
period somewhat later. In both instances the American vessels
were condemned as lawful prizes by the Lords of Appeal, and the
products thereof divided among the crews of the vessels which had
seized them.
15 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
she retained a controlling interest in the traffic in
slaves, and in the fruits of their labor. And we
have a right to assume that a strongly-impelling in  centive to her present active intervention in the
anti-slavery movement is, that by impaiing or de stroying, by a gradual but sure process,  Se institu tion of slavery in America, she may without a rival
become the great producer of cotton for the con sumnption of the world, by means of her vast pos sessions in India. It is for this, among other causes,
that her leading anti-slavery statesmen have misre presented the institution of slavery, which she
erected in the territory of the United States, and
have endeavored to excite against that country the
prejudices  of the  civilized  world.   Unable  to
achieve this result so readily by any other means at
their command, they have adopted the subtle method of building up a powerful party within the
Confederacy itself, and thus throwing upon American citizens the burden of working out their
policy and purposes. They have leagued themselves in America with every abominable heresy
which, under the license of unrestricted liberty, has
obtained a partial success in certain parts of the
Republic.  They are in intimate alliance with impracticable foreign-born Red Republicans-Fourierites-Agrarians-the advocates of "Free Love"
and "Woman's Rights "-Deists, and Atheists
all leagued together under the designation of the
" Anti-slavery Party."
These are your American allies, 0 haughty Eng
16 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
land! They are the leaders of these, who are feasted
and honored in your Baronial Halls, when, after an
assault of more than usual virulence against the institutions of their native land, they visit the shores
of the father-land to receive the wages of their
treachery!*
There may arrive a period when England may
regret that, in giving aid and comfort to these, she
has repulsed those who certainly are not least noble,
chivalrous, or generous among the descendants of
English ancestry in the New World.
Upon the establishment of the independence of
the United States, about one-fifth of the population,
in round numbers, were slaves, many of whom had
been but recently brought from the shores of Africa.
Thoroughly barbarous-without even the instincts
of civilization-they still formed a considerable
portion of the population; and in the formation of
the new Government, it was necessary to assign for
them a position. The questions arose: What shall
be done with these wild and uncultivated savages?
What rank shall they occupy in the State?
If these slaves had been at the time congregated
together upon the neighboring tropical islands, or
if they had been isolated from the body of the Eu ropean inhabitants in provinces more or less remote,
there would have been allowed a much wider lati  tude in determining what should be their future
condition. Their emancipation, either immediate
or prospective, would have been a mere question of
expediency, involving only a certain sum of money,
17 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
as a remuneration to the owners. Great Britain,
under like circumstances, abolished slavery in her
distant possessions, doubtless under the conviction
that she could thus assail with greater advantage
the institution of slavery in the United States, and
in the end substitute for both, the labor bf her mil lions of conquered Asiatics in India. Whether her
measures were well taken, or whether the specula tion has proven to be a profitable one, it is not my
present purpose to investigate.
But the revolted colonists found themselves in no
position in which such an alternative was presented
to them, even if it would have seemed the part of
wisdom to have adopted it. By the policy of Great
Britain in establishing these slaves upon the American Continent, they were intermingled with the
white inhabitants in the greater part of the States
of the new Confederacy. They were established
as domestics or farm laborers at almost every
domestic threshold, and hence the questions involved in deciding upon their future position were
of much graver significance, and their choice of
means was much more limited.
The new Government being a Republic, founded
upon the principle of equality of rights, was bound
in the beginning to confer upon all whom she recognized as citizens the same equality of rights under the
Constitution. From this position there was no escape. To have conferred upon one class of citizens
certain rights, which should be withheld from
another, would have been not only absurd, but in a
18 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
Republic, impossible. The primary-the essential
,onldition of a Republic is the absolute political
equality of the individual members composing it.
It certainly requires no argument to prove that
these African slaves were totally unfit, by nature,
habit, and education, to enter upon the discharge of
the responsible duties of free citizens.  To  have
created them such would, in the very act of inaugurating the Republic, have sounded its death-knell!
Every instinct, every impulse, every, feeling of the
white race would have revolted against the contaminating association, while t]e friends of the infant
Republic would have had the mortification of witnessing its destruction, even before the erection of
the corner-stone of that edifice, which now stands
in all its magnificent and complete proportions, the
pride of every American and the wonder of mankind.
Wiser counsels prevailed. The African, unsuited
to be a citizen, was continued in his condition of
slavery, and the product of his labor and that of his
descendants has enriched the world-has contributed largely towards bringing within the reach of
the great masses of mankind the essential products
of the warm latitudes; and last, though not least,
it has been a principal element in developing the
resources and increasing the power of the Great
Republic.  
Soon after the establishment of the new Government, the Congress enacted a law fixing upon a period, not remote, after which no slaves should be
19 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
introduced from abroad into any State or Territory
of the Republic. Of the nearly four millions of
slaves now held as such in the United States, not
five hundred have been introduced in contravention
of that enactment.
It is, in this connection, worthy of special remark,
that for the ancestors of the great body of Africans
at this day held as slaves, within the limits of the
American Republic, the estimated value thereof, was
paid, under the sanction and approval of the British
Government, to British subjects! For nearly every
drop of blood which flows in the veins of the slaves
of the United States, England has received the price in
gold!  And yet this England shakes her gory locks
at us, and says " the sin" is ours!!  She points to
her desolated islands, with their famishing freed
slaves, and tells us that her "skirts are clear."
Judas Iscariot betrayed his Lord and Masterfor the
paltry bribe of thirty pieces of silver; but after the act
of guilt and shame was pastrecall, reflection came, and
with it came remorse. He cast away the guilty wages
of his sin, and prayed for pardon, but his crimne was too
great for forgiveness. England, in what she now
denominiates the "unholytraffic in human flesh,"also
received the wages of her sin. She never reflected
upon the " enormity of the crime against humanity,"
until "the great marketfor human blood and sinews"
was closed against her. Then came her tardy repentance; but worse even than Judas, she has never
cast away from her, nor offered to restore the wages
of her sin; and shall she be forgiven?
20 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
If the institution of slavery in the New World has
proven to be a curse to mankind, if as is alleged by
modern philanthropy, its existence is a crime against
humanity, then, of all the nations of the globe, Great
Britain is the most to be condemned for its establishment and its perpetuation. If on the other hand, it
is a system of labor, which while conferring blessings
upon the slave, and elevating him to a rank above
that which any of his race have ever before occupied,
has at the same time contributed materially to the
happiness, the prosperity, and the civilization of the
world, impartial justice would not assign to England,
any portion of merit, for her instrumentality in the
benefits which have resulted from its establishment.
But to return again to the subject from which I
have for a moment digressed. The separate States
which had secured their independence, although ex ercising sovereignty, each within its defined limits,
delegated certain powers to a government, erected
by themselves, which should be the representative
of all. They established the Federal Union, but the
sovereignty of each State remained entire, except
wherein a limited power was surrendered specifically
to the General Government, having reference almost
exclusively to their foreign relations and to their
mutual intercourse.
The free inhabitants of the slave States, consituting
a large majority of the whole, being desirous rather
to establish a firm, and lasting, and prosperous gov  ernment, than to test in practice the merits of a
doubtful theory, adapted {heir form of government
21
I 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
to the exigencies of the circumstances by which they
were surrounded. As before stated, they recognized
in their Constitutions the political equality of all the
European races. This was but the admission of an
existing fact. But they denied to the African slaves
the rights of citizenship. These were wisely left in
the same relative position to the white races which
they had occupied while the country was under the
dominion of Great Britain. The change, therefore,
in the form of the government was not attended by
any violent changes in the habits or conditions of
the people. Had different counsels prevailed, and
had the governments of these States sought to en graft upon their Constitutions the theoretical idea
of universal equality, it must be admitted that the
governments thus established would have failed to
secure the end proposed, and would in all human
probability have resulted disastrously to the interests and the happiness of all. There would hlave
been a perpetual conflict between the two races, or
there would have been an amalgamation of them.
Either would have been alike fatal.
This departure from the theoretical doctrines of
visionary enthusiasts, who would - change even the
laws of Heaven itself, to make what they conceive
to be a perfect government, has from that period to
the present, afforded for the adherents of this
system a theme for unceasing denunciation. 
It may here be said that the adversaries of slavery,
beyond the boundaries of the slave States, ask that
something be done which is revolting to every
22 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
feeling, or sentiment, or thought, or impulse of
the dominant race. They demand that the free white
citizens should not only disregard the prejudices
of education, and the instincts of nature, but even set
at defiance the apparent will of Omnipotence, which
has marked with signs so unmistakable the distinctions between the races.
We may readily imagine a physical force competent
to the destruction of the liberties of the freemen of
the Southern States. We may conceive of a concentration of power, adequate to the purpose of
enchaining their limbs, and consigning the bodies
of the refractory and unyielding to loathsome dungeons. But in view of the feelings with which the
Africans are regarded by the European races in
America, we cannot imagine any possible exercise
of human tyranny potent enough to compel them
to admit in their hearts a political equality, or an
amalgamation with the degraded race.  however
theoretical philanthropists may refuse to recognize
in their systems of government the distinctions of
color, capacity and race, still the ineradicable pre judice exists, and the testimony of the past, as well
as the promptings of common reason, teach us that..
in establishing laws for the government of mankind,
we must not eschew the common and prevailing sen timents of the governed, except in the presence of
an overwhelming force of bayonets.
In the case we are considering, the distinctions are
so legible-the lines so ineradicable-the differences -
so indelibly stamped by nature itself, that the
23
-1 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
repugnance must be perpetual. Any withdrawal of
the legal barriers which now keep the races asunder,
would inevitably result in the destruction of one or
both.
Let not the honest and well meaning opponents
of slavery delude themselves or others into the be lief that there can be any essential modification of the
existing relations between the whites and the blacks,
while they inhabit a common territory. Let them
remember that an essential condition of a republic
is, that all who are recognized as citizens must be
invested, under any given state of circumstances,
with an equality of rights. Whenever the States of
the Confederacy or the General Government recog nize, by their Constitutions and their laws, two sets
or classes of citizens, invested with unequal privileges, and with different sets of laws for each, they
violate the fundamental principle upon which a purely
republican government is founded. In making laws
therefore to be applied to the great mass of Africans,
they must bp regarded as either slaves or citizens.
If as citizens, then must they be placed upon a political equality with the European races.
Even assuming however, that in a Republic there
could exist recognized classes of citizens, with different and unequal political rights, is it not plain that
a change which would involve only a partial degree
of liberty would render the condition of the African
worse than his present state of servitude?  Accoimplish this change and it could only be perpetuated
by an overwhelming power from without; and upon
24 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the instant when the external pressure should be
removed, that instant would the conflict between the
races commence-the one to free itself from all political inferiority, the other to reduce the African to his
former condition of servitude-without considering
te cost during its progress, this could only result in
the complete subjection of one or the other.
Whatever may be the abstract merits of slaverywhatever its evils or advantages, it is manifest that
when Great Britain introduced Africans into her
American Colonies, she designed that their enslavementshould be perpetual.  She never couldhaveconceived it possible that they would occupy any other
relation to the European races. No brazen collar
around the neck of the slave, was necessary to distinguish him from his master.  The hand of Omnipotence in characters broad, deep, and ineffaceable
had marked him, as of a different and inferior race.
The British slave dealer sought in the traffic resent
gain, but the British Government, looking to the
future, and anticipating no change in the sovereignty
of the country, sought to enlarge the produettons of
her colonies in all time to come by transplanting a
race with characteristics so widely distinct from the
Europeans, that whatever might be the desire of the
dominant race, they could not occupy towards each
other any other relation than that of Master and Slave.
In establishing African slavery therefore, the British
Government designed that it should be perpetual.
In regard to the existence of this natural repug nance, heightened by habit and education, even M.
25 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
De Tocqueville, notwithstanding his theoretical and
cultivated hostility to slavery, bears ample testimony.
Anxious as he was to discover arguments adverse to
the institution of slavery, and eagerly as he sought
for, and recorded the evils, real or imaginary, emenating therefrom, and indulging those prejudices
as he did, to the great injustice of the American
Slave States, he was constrained most reluctantly to
admit, that any material change in the relative condition of the races would result disastrously to one
or both.
M. De Tocqueville says:
The abstract and transient fact of slavery, is fatally united to the
physical and permanent fact of color. The tradition of slavery dis honors the race, and the peculiarity of the race perpetuates the
tradition of slavery.
That the negro transmits the eternal mark of his ignominy to all his
descendants; and although the law may abolish slavery, God alone
can obliterate the traces of its existence.
The modern slave differs from his master, not only in his condition,
but in his origin. You mnay set the negro free, but you cannot make
him otherwise than an alien to the European.   Nor is this all; we
scarcely acknowledge the common features of mankind in this child
of debasement whom slavery has brought among us. His physiognomy
is to our eyes hideous, his understanding weak, his tastes low; and
we are almost inclined to look upon him as a being intermediate
between man and the brutes.
If it be so difficult to root out an inequality which solely originates
in the law, how are those distinctions to be destroyed which seem to
be founded upon the immutable laws of nature herself. When I
remember the extreme difficulty with which aristocratic bodies, of
whatever nature they may be, are commingled with the mass of the
people, and the exceeding care which they take to preserve the ideal
boundaries of their caste inviolate, I despair of seeing an aristocracy
disappear which is founded upon visible and indelible signs. Those
26 
LETTER$S ON SLAVERY.
who hope that the Europeans will ever mix with the negroes, appear
to me to delude themselves.
Hitherto, whenever the whites have been the most powerful, they
have maintained the blacks in a subordinate or servile position;
wherever the negroes have been strongest they have destroyed the
whites: such has been the only course of events which has ever taken
place between the two races.
I see that in a certain portion of the territory of the United States
at the present day, the legal barrier which separated the two races
is tending to fall away; but not that which exists in the manners of
the country: slavery recedes, but the prejudice to which it has given
birth remains stationary. Whosoever has inhabited the United States,
must have perceived that in those parts of the Union in which the
negroes are no longer slaves, they have in no wise drawn near to tht
whites. On the contrary, the prejudice to the race appears to be
stronger in the States which have abolished slavery than in those
where it still exists; and nowhere is it so intolerant as in those States
where servitude has never been known.
It is true that in the North of the Union, marriages may be legally
contracted between negroes and whites, but public opinion would
stigmatize a man who should connect himself with a negress, as infamous, and it would be difficult to meet with a single instance of such
a union.
In the South, where slavery still exists, the negroes are less carefully kept apart; they sometimes share the labor and the recreations
of the whites; the whites consent to intermix with them to a certain
eitent, and although the legislation treats them more harshly, the habits of the people are more tolerant and compassionate.
In the South, the master is not afraid to raise his slave to his own
standing, because he knows that he can in a moment reduce him to
the dust at pleasure. In the North, the white man no longer distinctly perceives the barrier which separates him from the degraded
race, and he shuns the negroes with the more pertinacity, because he
fears lest they should some day be confounded together.  Thus it
is in the United States, that the prejudice which repels the negroes
seems to increase in proportion as they are emancipated, and inequality
is sanctioned by the manners, while it is effaced by the laws, of the
country.
27 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
I am obliged to confess that Ido not regard the abolition of slavery
as a means of warding off the struggle of the two races in the United
States. The negroes may long remain slaves without complaining,
but if they are once raised to the level of freemen, they will soon
revolt at being deprived of their civil rights; and as they cannot
become the equals of the whites, they will speedily declare themselves
as enemies. In the North everything contributes to facilitatethe emancipation of the slave; and slavery was abolished without placing the
free negroes in a position which could become formidable, since their
number was too small for them ever to claim the exercise of their
rights. But such is not the case in the South. The question of
slavery was a question of commerce and manufacture for the slave
owners in the North; for those of the South it is a question of life
And death.
When I contemplate the condition of the South, I can only discover two alternatives which may be adopted by the white inhabitants
of those States, viz: either to emancipate the negroes and to intermingle
with them, or remaining isolated from them, to keep them in a state of
slavery as long as possible. All intermediate measures seem to me likely
to terminate, and that shortly, in the most horrible of civil wars, and
perhaps in the extirpation of one or other of the two races.
When the Europeans chose the slaves from a race differing from
their own, which many of them considered as inferior to the other
races of mankind, and which they all repelled with horror from any
notion of intimate connection, they must have believed that slavery
would last forever, since there is no intermediate state which can be
desirable between the excessive inequality produced by servitude, and
the complete equality which originates in independence. The
Europeans did imperfectly feel this truth, but without acknowledging
it even to themselves. Whenever they have had to do with negroes,
their conduct has either been dictated by their interest and their pride,
or by their compassion. They first violated every right of humanity
by their treatment of the negro, and they afterwards informed him
those rights were precious and inviolable. They affected to open their
ranks to the slaves, but the negroes who attempted to penetrate into
the community were driven back with scorn.
If it be impossible to anticipate a period at which the Amerlcans of
the South will mingle their blood with that of the negroes, ncan they
28 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
allow their slaves to become free without compromising their own
security? And if they are obliged to keep that race in bondage in
order to save their own families, may they not be excused for availing
themselves of the means best adapted to that end?-Democracy in
America, page 388, American edition. 
These must be received as the conclusions of one
who entertaining strong prejudices against slavery,
visited the Southern States with the view of finding
proofs in corroboration of his theory. He permitted
his enlightened and comprehensive mind to be
biassed by a distorted conception of its evils, yet with
all his undisguised hostility, he is constrained notwithstanding to express his conviction, founded upon
facts, reason and observation, that any change in the
relative condition of the European and African races
in America would be fatal to both.
The prejudices of this distinguished author were
against slavery as a system of labor, not against the slave holder. Hence while his opinions in reference to the
former were moulded in conformity with these preju dices, he was not indisposed to do justice to the latter.
His inclination was without crushing the slave holder
to elevate the slave-differing in this essentiar particu lar from modern abolition philanthropy which, with out any special desire to elevate the slave, seeks only
to reduce the master to that standard.
29 
LETTER II.
Reasons why Slavery could not be Abolished and proofs that it
should not have been Abolished-Emancipation would make the
condition of the Slaves worse-The Abolitionists cannot accom plish their purposes even with the assent of the Slaveholders Slavery was Abolished in the North by selling the Slaves to the
South.
TIE institution of slavery, as we have seen, was a
legacy, whether for good or evil, left to the United
States of America by their former sovereign. As
slaves, the Africans were transferred from the kingdom of Great Britain to the new Republics, and as
slaves they were thereafter held. Whether or not
slavery is right or wrong in the abstract, the slave
States found themselves in the presence of an existing contingency, which, as before said, left them no
alternative but to adopt, and endeavor to make available to their interests, an institution which  they
might  Wisely direct, but  which  they could not
abolish.
No one who desired to witness the successful
establishment of the new Government could have
regarded with any other feeling than distrust, any
attempt to elevate these slaves to the condition of
free citizens. The instinct of self-preservation, and
a dawning perception of the sublime destiny which,
in the not distant future, would attend the development of that great country, alike forbade such an
(30) 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
unhallowed amalgamation. And the beginning of
that dawn is now before the world. The wisdom
of that decision, without even considering the
necessity which left them no other alternative, is already apparent. Where there is so much to admire;
so much for which, as a people, we have reason to
be proud, howv can the true friend of America seek
to plunge into that vortex of abolitionism from
which we could only hope to escape through disaster and a sea of blood?
Here the defender of American slavery might
pause in the presence of that necessity which allowed no' discretion or choice in regard to the continuance of slavery, and submit the question, without argument, to any unprejudiced umpire. Whatever might be the predilections of just men sitting in
judgment, however their sensibilities may have
been excited by works of fiction, by falsehood or by
caricatured truth, the decision could not be otherwise than that slavery inaugurated in the United
States by its former sovereign was perpetuated by
the Repablic under the ruling of an inexorable
necessity.
But even this impregnable fortress of defence is
weak in comparison with others which have been
erected by the dominant race upon which the duty
has devolved of directing and controlling the institution which they thus inherited.
Was slavery under British auspices a crime in its
inception, and a curse in its perpetuation? America
has converted it through the frulits of its labor into a
2
31 
LETTERS ON SLALERY.
blessing to mankind! Was slavery cruel? America
has made it merciful!  Did British cupidity drag
the unhappy African from his native land, and consign him to eternal servitude?  American practical
philanthropy has given to the involuntary exile a
home, better far than he or his ancestors had ever
known. America found in the slave which she inherited a savage, and she has civilized him!  She
found him a heathen, and she has Christianized
him! She found him naked and starving, and she
has clothed and fed him! Slave though he be, yet
in all that concerns his comfort, physical well-being,
and contentment-iin every thing save the name,
the condition of the slaves of the United States, as
admitted even by the enemies of the institution, is
far in advance of that of any similar number of
laborers following similar occupations, in any other
land under the sun.
Before proceeding to refer more in detail to facts
concerning the existing condition of the African
race in America-or before making an exhibit of
some of the chief benefits which have resulted to
mankind through the immediate instrumentality of
African slavery in America, let it, for a moment, be
assumed as granted that the abolition party has so
far achieved its purpose as to convince even the
slaveholder that slavery should cease to exist. What
measures shall be instituted to accomphish the
result?
It will be an approximation sufficiently near, to
estimate the slave population at about four millions.
32 
LETT ERS ON SLAVERY.
The present money value of slaves in the prime of
life would probably not fall short of eleven hundred
dollars each.  The average value may therefore be
set down at about five hundred dollars each. This
would make the grand total value of the entire
slave population, tIwenty hundred nmillions of dollars!
It is not pretended that of this number five hundred have been placed in that position by the present
owners, or I might say, by the present generation.
They have been bought and paid for by the present
possessors or their ancestors, under the operation
and guarantee of the laws of the land.  The slave
owner of to-day had no more instrumentality in the
enactment of these laws, than he had in the establishment of the institution of slavery. Both had
their origin at a time when the country was under
the exclusive dominion of Great Britain.
The slave-holder has thus become'possessed of
his property under all the solemn sanctions of the
law. If a wrong has been done, it dates back
to a period long anterior to his birth, and even before the existence of the Republic itself. iHe holds
his slave by virtue of the same system of laws which
entitles a citizen to the possession of any other description of property, and he cannot justly be deprived of its use without adequate compensation.
A single State in the vicinity of other slave-holding States, may enact laws fixing upon a stated period
after which slavery shall not exist.  In this manner, slavery has been already abolished in the
Northern  or colder latitudes  of the American
33 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
Union. But in every ease the slave-holder has been
able to protect himself against pecuniary loss by
transferring his slaves into States where the institution still existed. Although by this means the institition of slavery has been abolished ill many of the
States, yet the slaves themselves were transferred to a
different locality, and they and their descendants are at
this (lay in bondage.
The abolition of slavery therefore in the present
free States of the Confederacy, involved no pecuniary loss to the citizens who were their owners; nor
did it change, in the smallest degree, the position of
those who were then and there held in bondage.
They only changed their masters and their homes. But
in considering the question of the abolition of
slavery throughout the entire Confederacy, with a
view to the emancipation of the slaves, it assumes
proportions of much graver magnitude. Not a single State of the American Union which has eniacted
laws prohibiting slavery within its limits, ever contemplated that the act of emancipation would cost
its citizens a single dollar, or give freedom to a
single slave. The object of the change which it was
deemed desirable to accomplish, had reference
solely to what was regarded as the interests of the
dominant race. The rhetorical and poetical effusions which attended the discussion of the question, were of course signalized by the usual protestationls of philanthropy, humanity, and benevolence;
but the arguments of controlling potency were, that
slavery had ceased to be profitable in a pecuniary
34 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
way-that the climate was not adapted to that description of labor-that the change could be effected
without cost-anid that an act of emancipation was
in reality but the recognition of an existing fact; for
the reason that the laws of trade had already transferred the mass of the slaves to the warmer latitude
of the South. By the provisions of the law, ample
time was allowed to effect the transportation of the
slaves, as slaves, to a more congenial soil.
It may fairly be assumed that this measure did
not have for its object any vindication of the " Unalienable rights of man," or the eradieation of the
system of slave labor; else, instead of abolishing
the institution in such manner as to afford time and
opportunity to sell the slaves in a foreign market,
steps would have been taken to secure their emancipation, even at the expense of a small tax upon
the citizens. This could have been accomplished
at a comparatively trifling cost, for the self-established laws of interest, more potent even in their
moral influence that statutary enactments, had already, as before stated, caused the great body of the
Africans to be transported from the colder latitudes
of the North, to the more genial temperature of a
Southern sun. Thus, only a comparatively small
number of slaves remained to be affected by the act
of emancipation. Cheaply as the Northern States
might then have vindicated the doctrine of "equal
rights," the cost, small as it would have been, was
deemed too great.  And happy as was the conjuncture, for practically testing upon a small scale the
3b 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
capacity of the African for self-government, and the
mingling together of the two races in a common
brotherhood, the opportunity and the occasion
passed away forever.
The connection is not inopportune to ask from well
meaning and honorable citizens of the North, an
answer to some  questions which here naturally
suggest themselves.
If you would not expend hundreds of dollars, in giving freedom to your handful of slaves,
how can you now ask that the South should expend
millions, in giving freedom to her multitudes?  If
you dared not hazard the experiment of conferring
equal political rights upon only thousands of Africans,
how can you ask the Southern States to grant such
privileges to four millions of slaves? If you could
not fix upon any intermediate condition between
absolute slavery and citizenship, for a number so
small as scarcely to be estimated in the aggregate of
your population, and thus allow of their remaining
within your own States, how can you ask the South
to place all her vital interests at hazard by the semienfranchisement of slaves, equal in number to one
half of her free citizens? If by the operation of
your laws the South became the purchasers of your
slaves, how can you desire to compass her destruction for the sin of slavery? But above all, if you
found slavery "a political evil and a sin," and by the
transportation of your slaves to the Southern States
relieved yourself of that "evil," and abandoned the
practice of that "sin," how can you now require
36 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
that slavery in the South shall be perpetuated by refusing to it any outlet,? Hiow can you claim that
the descendan ts of the slaves you sold in the Southern
markets shall remain in perpetuity where you have
thus placed them? How can you deny to those who
have purchased them, the same privilege which was
accorded to you of abolishing, or rather banishing
the institution of slavery from their midst, whenever
the laws of self-interest teach them that it is not philaz.
tAropic to hold their fellow-creatures in bondage?
But to return from this digression. It is manifest
that the abolition of slavery in the United States
under existing circumstances, would involve the
entire loss of the total value of the slaves.  How
and by whom is this immense sum to be expended?
No undue proportion thereof could upon any principle of justice or morality be charged upon those who
may happen at the moment of emancipation, to be
in the legal possession of the slaves.  It cannot
therefore be compromised by permitting them to
retain an estate for life, or for a limited term of years,
in the services of the slaves or their descendants.
The laws by virtue of which they hold them as property guarantee the possession of them and their
posterity forever; and they might with equal justice
be limited to the enjoyment of an estate for life in
the land or the homestead purchased or inherited in
fee simple from their ancestors, as to be deprived of
any part of their interest in the slave.
The question then still reverts: how is the cost
value of the slave to be remunerated to the owner?
3T 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
Granting the interest of Great Britain, and seeing
that she woulcl be the greatest beneficiary from a
slow but certain system of gradual emancipation,
how much would her Government contribute to this
achievement of humanity? How much would her
factory operatives be willing to be taxed for the
accomplishment of a work, one of the. first effects
of which would be to take from their own mouths
the scanty fare which is the wages of their daily
toil?  How much would the anti-slavery aristocracy
contribute to the accomplishment of an object which
seems to fill so large a space in their bosoms?
An aristocracy which bestows the cheap tribute
of its tears upon the African in the remote wilds of
the New World, on the other side of the great
Atlantic, but which fails to see, or seeing, fails to
offer its sympathy to the suffering, half-clad, half-fed
millions at home, to whom, in recompense for their
daily toil, is eked out the miserable pittance which
is barely sufficient to supply the commonest demands
of nature.
But it would be unprofitable to occupy time in
considering the means necessary to the accomplishment of that, which a single glance suffices to show
is imnpossible. The loss could not be made up to the
owner, nor any part thereof bearing any commensurate proportion to the entire value. It becomes
necessary, therefore, in order to carry out our
hypothesis, that the slave-owner, either by force or
moral conviction, has agreed to surrender all his
pecuniary interests, and submit to the ruin which
4
38 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
would be entailed upon him by the destruction of
all his property. Having consummated the act of
emancipation by this enormous pecuniary sacrifice,
we have but entered upon the threshold of the difficulties by which, to the eye of real philanthropy, the
whole question is environed.
What must be done with these four millions of
liberated African slaves?
Honest and well-meaning persons have said, without considering of the necessary means, "Transport
them to the land from whence their ancestors were
wrested by Great Britain!" This, however, would
be physically impossible.  But even if it could be
accomplished, it would be an act of inhumanity,
involving a thousand-fold more suffering than the
worst form of slavery as now existing, to say
nothing of the violence which it would be necessary to employ in order to force the freed man from
the scenes of his formner servitude.
This scheme failing, we are left without other
alternative than to provide for their future abode in
the land where their destiny has been cast. What,
then, should be their political position in regard to
their former masters? What privileges should be
bestowed, and what withheld? Should they be admitted, either immediately or in the contemplation
of the future, to a social or political equality with
the European races?
As already declared, this could never be. The
prejudices, the instincts of the latter, are all opposed
to such an association.  Nature itself revolts agains
39 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the unnatural amalgamation, and education has rendered the antipathy ineradicable. I-eaven itself
has marked upon the brow of the African the seal
of inferiority; and no laws, however stringent-no
physical power, however great, could enforce upon
the whites the recognition of such an equality. To
believe that they could do so, is first to suppose
them already degraded.
None but an enemy to the dominant race, or an
impracticable dreamer, could wish to witness such
a consummation.   The  theory of the universal
equality of all the races of mankind is most beautiful and attractive to the merely speculative mind;
but when it is attempted to enforce it in the practical affairs of life, it is found to be a fallacy and a
delusion.
Rejecting, then, this adjustment as unwise, unnatural, unjust, and finally impossible, there remains
but one other alternative, and that is, while conferring upon them personal freedom from the restraints.of servitude, and of a master legally authorized to control them, and give direction to their
labor, to withhold from them the political rights
accorded to other citizens. We have already considered the manifest inconsistency and danger of
recognizing two sets of citizens, with unequal privileges, by a government which has for its corner-stone
the principle of entire equality for all who have a
right to be called citizens.
But would not such an enfranchisement, in its
-practical results, prove to be a most cruel kindness?
40
I 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
As a slave, he would have at least the protection of
one master interested in his welfare; as a freedman,
almost beyond the pale of governmental protection,
with no one to take care of him, of a despised and
inferior race, a stranger in a land of strangers, how
miserable would be his fate! Even if every obstacle to the consummation of such a result were removed, philanthropy might well pause before conferring the boon of freedom at such a hazard.
As a slave, he would have but one master, whose
duty and whose interest it would be to clothe, to
feed, and to protect him in youth and in old age,
in sickness and in health. As a freed African, he
would have many masters, but none who would feel
any interest in his welfare. He would live miserably
from the cradle to the grave, despised of all, and
shunned by every one; and it is impossible for the
practically benevolent mind to conceive how in any
single respect his physical, moral, or social condition
would be improved by this nominal change in his
relations towards the more powerful race.  On the
contrary, the practical reasoner cannot resist the conclusion, that in all things his condition would be
essentially worse.
It is thus discovered, by an investigation of the
subject of slavery in America, and an analysis of its
present condition, with a single eye to its abolition,
that upon every hand we are met by obstacles beyond
the power of man to obviate; and that no material
change can be effected in the present satus of the
slave, without entailing far more deplorable evils
\
41 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
than those which it would be proposed to remedy.
Even after we have arrived at the point where all
interests would acquiesce in any practicable scheme
of emancipation, it is apparent that it would be im possible.
Whether for good or for evil, the institution of
slavery exists, and will continue to exist, in some form.
or another, so long as the European and African races
occupy together the same territory, or until some
overruling power from without reduces both to a
common subjection.  Furthermore, whether or not
it will be the fate of the white race, whose destiny
has been cast with the transplanted Africans, to be
held responsible for I the existence of slavery, they
will at least bear within them the consciousness,
that for the offence, if it be one in reality, they are
wholly free from a just responsibility.
But if slavery is a thing so detestable, why should
not the friends of humanity utter their imprecations
against those who entailed it upon mankind, rather
than against the present generation of slaveowners,
who have been obliged to adapt themselves to an
existing reality, and who have only given direction
to an institution which they had no agency in
creating, and which they had not the power to
eradicate?  But, above all, how stupendous is the
wrong of those who, from motives the most sordid,
entailed slavery upon the Southern States of the
American Union, now from motives even less commenedable, thrust themselves forwaasthe great
42 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
champions of human liberty and universal emancipation!
I have only adopted this train of argument, and
have for the moment'acquiesced in the extreme
views of the Abolitionist, in order that we might,
without disagreement, follow out his schemes of
emancipation in any direction which his inclination
or his judgment might direct; and we have seen
that whatever path he follows, he encounters evils
of far greater magnitude than those which he seeks
to eradicate. But I would be doing injustice to the
Southern slaveholder-injustice to the benefits which
the system of slave labor has conferred upon mankind-injustice to that overruling Providence which
ordains all the institutions of manl, were I to rest the
defence of the Southern States of America upon any
other foundation than that of having worthily employed the means which have been placed in their
hands for the purpose of promoting the welfare and
happiness of mankind.
a
43 
LETTER III.
Clasification of the Adversaries of Slavery in the Southern States The London Times on the causes of English Opposition to Slavery
-What position would England occupy towards the Belligerents, if
the RepublicanParty should attempt to carry its measures into effect
-Would the South hesitate about defending herself to the last
extremity?
BEFORE instituting an inquiry into the advantages
and disadvantages which have resulted to mankind
from the judicious employment of slave labor in the
Southern States of the American Union, it would
be well to classify the different parties or interests,
which are at the present day banded together in hostile array against the States of the South, and which
are now combined in support of the Republican
party, each with the hope of accomplishing its own
special purpose. To know who are the parties to a
controversy, often materially assists in directing the
mind to correct conclusions in regard to the merits
of the controversy itself. If a known adversary or
rival urges me to perform an act, which he declares
will result in great benefit to me, but which I perceive will be much more likely to yield advantages
to him, I may be pardoned for'at least postponing
any action which would produce such result.
The anti-slavery party of Great Britain is conceded to be at the head of the hostile movement
directed against the planting States of the South,
(44) 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
Its partisans in America say that in this, their allies
of England are influenced solely by considerations
of philanthropy, benevolence, and an inborn love of
freedom.
The plain, out-spoken matter of fact index of
British public sentiment, the London Times, furnishes in a late number, in brief but emphatic language the key which affords an insightinto the real
motives that are thus slightly veiled under the
assumed garb of benevolence and philanthropy. In
discussing the importance of tropical productions as
an auxiliary to British wealth and power, the Times
says:
Now in England we say that the slave trade shall no longer be permitted to be carried on in any quarter of the globe, if by negotiation,
or by arms it can be repressed. In the case of the United States, indeed, we are compelled to content ourselves with the assurance that
the American cruisers will do the work. Will any one, however, say
that it is not mainly owing to the ceaseless exertions, to the philanthropic energy, to the entreaties, to the persuasions of this country, that the
anti-slavery party in the States owes its strength. Blot out England, and
English sympathies, and English power from the map of the world, and
the battle between the North and the South would be fought on the other
side of the Atlantic on very different terms.  Slavery shall not be in our
own dominions, nor the slave trade anywhere if we can help it. Could
we have gone a step farther and annihilated the peculiar institution
in all other countries, as well as in our own, the problem would, in the
main, have speedilygeceived a satisfactory solution. This, however,
way beyond'o]  power, and consequently we find ourselves in this
anomaly, that we without a slave population must compete in the markets of the world, with other countries which have slave populations,
and that with respect to tropical productions.
This brief extract from the great London organ,
disl0oses the foundation upon which rests the hos
45
. t, 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
tility of the Abolition party of England to slavery
ini America. The purpose they seek to accomplish
for their already rich and powerful country is, more
riches and more power for England, with a corresponding diminution of riches and power for the
American Confederacy. They propose, under the
broad banner of philanthropy, to strike a fatal blow
at the advan 3ing wealth and power of a nation, which,
although yet in its infancy, is the rival in both, of
the greatest among the great powers of the world.
These objects are pursued with a persistency and a
determination which never wearies nor falters.
There is no nation on earth whose inexorable
policy is more sharply defined, or more thoroughly
understood, than that of Great Britain. To subdue
the world to her will, and to make herself the arbiter
of the destinies of all; to dictate terms on which the
existence of other nations will be tolerated; to assume a general surveillance of the whole, and to interpose obstacles to the greatness and power of those
whom she may regard as rivals; all are embraced
within that comprehensive policy which she has pursued with a success as marvellous, as her efforts have
been persistent.  The measure of her zeal in the
support of any cause, is the measurqof the interests
she has involved in the issue, and any other nation
may well pause and consider of the probable consequences, which are likely to result, before accomplishing changes in its internal policy which shvmay
suggest.
It may with truth be said, that the Government
46 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
of Great Britain, while conferring upon the inhabitants of her own  "fast anchored isle," the priceless
boon of constitutional liberty has done as little
voluntarily to- promote the growth of free institutions in other lands, as any absolute despotism or
sham republic that has existed during her whole
career of greatness. With an aristocracy so enlightened, and so capable of performing from
habit and education, the high functions it is called
upon to exercise; with a population, which among
the better classes, illustrates in an emineut degree,
many of the virtues and noble qualities which adorn
human nature, and which among the masses, is
characterized by its industry in peace, and its sterling
qualities in war; the Government itself, in its practical bearing and conduct towards the rest of the
world, has seldom exhibited those characteristics
of justice and magnanimity, which so eminently
in private life distinguish her people.   The obli gations of treaties have been too often regarded as
of binding force, only so long as they were subser vient to her purposes. Countries have been con quered only to be plundered. She puts forth her
strength to stifle the growing power of other nations,
or to build up a weaker nation on the ruins or at the
expense of a formidable rival, only that her own
supremacy or relative greatness may be maintained.
Her career of conquest has been too often marked
by the tears and blood, and practical servitude
of those whom she has subjected. And in all the
catalogue of weaker powers which have fallen before
4T 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
her victorious arms, there is not an instance upon
record, out of the millions whom she has subdued,
in which she has permitted the enjoyment of that
freedom and liberty of which she so-proudly boasts
herself to be the champion and exponent.   The
vices which a sound morality condems have been
too often criminal in her eyes, only when they could
not be made available to the accomplishment of her
policy-oppression only a wrong when practiced by
others-freedom and independence, boons which
none but the inhabitants of her'own favored isle
were worthy to enjoy.
In considering the only political issue involved in
the present life-and-death struggle of the geographical sections in America-the one for political
supremacy-the other to retain the control of its
own domestic institutions-it is impossible for us to
lose sight of the ever-present reality, that the adversaries of the South are fighting the battle under the
leadership of the political anti-slavery party of Great
Britain. Although it is not to be supposed that the
object of the great body of Americans who are enlisted in that conflict is primarily to achieve a triumph of British policy in the Republic, yet such
would be the effect of a successful effort to imnpair
by degrees and finally to destroy the institution of
slavery in the Southern American States. But
whatever may be the motives by which the great
anti-slavery party of England may be governed,
however inconsistent may be their present attitude
with that which Great Britain has in times past
48 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
occupied, we are met face to face with the undeniable truth, that this party is to-day the leader of the
anti-slavery movement against the Southern States.
It is a fact, that its immense moral and social
influence has been and is still exercised with the
view to creatlnd to foster a public opinion throughout the civilized world adverse to the slave States
of the Confederacy.   And it is also true, that
mainly through its instrumentality, and under its
recognized leadership, a party has grown up hostile
to the existing institution of American slavery and
to the slaveholders, not only in Europe, but in the
Northern States of the Confederacy, formidable in
numbers, respectability, and influence. That this
anti-slavery organization in England should succeed
in attracting to its views, and in infusing prejudices
into the minds of others, where they, the unrelenting assailants, are always present, and where those
who are assailed have no available means of defence,
should not be a matter of surprise. But they even
penetrate. into the Confederacy itself, and there, as
elsewhere, infuse the poison of their principles into
the hearts of native citizens of the Republic. At
first glance this may seem strange and most un natural; but a brief consideration of facts will ex hibit the secret of that influence which preponde rates over all the incentives of personal interest, as
well as the promptings of patriotism.
The American Revolution, which destroyed the
political supremacy of Great Britain over her re volted provinces, did not wholly obliterate that
49
t 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
moral influence which she very naturally exercised
over a portion of the citizens. It would be an
error to suppose that the entire population of Ame rica desired to witness the successful accomplish ment of the Revolution.  There was during  the
entire war of independence a formidabl  party which
still adhered to its allegiance to the mother country;
and while they were forced to submit to a result
which they could not prevent, they only acquiesced
beca!use they were powerless to resist. Their poli tical allegiance was changed, but their attachment
to the government from which they had been sev ered continued. The remnant and the descendants
of this party, silent during the interval of peace
which followed the close of the Revolutionary war,
again made itself manifest in the last war between
the Republic and Great Britain.  They were still
sufficiently numerous to paralyze the strength of
the General Government in some of the New England States.  That contest concluded, they have
since been active in the effort to establish the policy
of Great Britain in reference to slavery in the
Southern States of the Confederacy.
This party may be regarded, for manifest reasons,
the most formidable of all the internal enemies of
the Southern States. It acts upon no convictions
of abstract right, but merely as the exponent of
British interests and British policy; therefore, no
facts, no arguments, however conclusive, can divert
i; from its purpose.  Its hostility is not founded
upon fanaticism, and therefore does not thwart its
50
4 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
own purposes by its madness.  Its opposition to
slavery does not grow out of any desire to establish
universal political equality, or to bring about impracticable social reforms; and hence does not excite either ridicule or contempt by its folly or its
wickedness."' Guided and directed by the single
purpose of conforming itself to the will of Great
Britain, it cannot be overcome or diverted from its
purpose by any of the ordinary methods which may
be used to convince an adversary of error. Formidable not so much in numbers as intelligence, it
artfully combines the various and incongruous elements of opposition and moulds them to itspurposes. Embracing a large proportion of literary
men-professors in colleges and other educational
institutions-this party has not only the advantage
of presenting the cause of England in its most
attractive garb, but of instilling its unpatriotic
principles in the minds of the rising generation.
In order to account for the fact that Great Britain has.been able to enlist in her interest so large
a proportion of the literary men of New England,
it must be borne in mind, that from the nature of
their pursuits, they look with a sort of reverence
upon England as the great fountain of English literature. They read English books, adopt English
ideas, become imbued with English prejudices, and 
hence regard with partial vision all which emanates
fromn that source.   As  the votaries  of Fashion
throughout the world cut their apparel, shape their
hats, adjust their hair, and tie their cravats, accord
61
i 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ing to the dictum of the miantua-makers, milliners,
and tailors of Paris, so does the class of literary
men referred to, fashion its phrases and model its
ideas according to the received standard in Great
Britain.
When we consider the secret springs of human
actions and the natural tendencies of the human
minid, we cease to be surprised, if we have enter tained such a feeling, that in a country whose political ties have been so recently severed from another, and where unrestricted liberty of opinion is
allowed to all, there should linger an attachment,
amongst at least a portion of its inhabitants, for the
institutions, the policy, the ideas of the fatherland.
It is under the intelligent direction of this class
that the crude and fanatical ideas of the ultra
schools of social reformers, which spring up through
the immunity afforded by free government, are diverted from their impracticable, general designs, to
the special purpose of swelling the power of those
who are adverse to the domestic institutions of the
Southern States.
This last class constitutes the great body of those
who desire, from perhaps honest and conscientious,
though mistaken motives of philanthropy, to subvert the institution of southern slavery, because its
existence conflicts with the Utopian principles upon
which they think that mankind should be governed.
Their ostensible aim and real purpose is the same.
However much it may be regretted that the latter
will permit themselves to be the blinded instru
52 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ments of gain-seeking men-however we may  lainent that obliquity of mental vision which would
risk the hazard of so much evil for the doubtful
prospect of achieving a little of good-still it would
be unjust to deny or to doubt the sincerity of their
convictions.
There is still another class in the Northern States
of the Federal Union who engage in the clamor
against what they denominate the " slave power,"
whose seeming opposition scarcely needs to be commented upon in enumerating the real antagonists
of the institution of slavery, -because their design is
not in reality to destroy slavery, but to acquire a poli tical supremacy over the slave States, and to share
with the planters the profits of slave labor. I refer, of
course, to the great manufacturing interests of New
England, and, I may add, Pennsylvania.  Wealtliy
beyond any other class, and employing their wealth
in such manner as to give them great political con sideration, they exercise a powerful, and, I might
say, a controlling influence in all local elections.
To a full understanding of the motives which
impel this class of citizens to seem to seek what in
reality they do not desire, a brief reference to the
industrial pursuits of the different sections is neces sary. The political power of the Confederacy may
in general terms be said to be divided into two
great classes, to wit: Manufacturers and Agricul turists. Upon any political question involving the
interests of these, the other classes range themsekes
153 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
upon the one side or the other, as their interests,
principles, or inclinations may suggest.
It has ever been the aim of the manufacturing
interests to enforce, under various pretences, the
payment of a portion of the earnings of the agri cutlturists into their coffers.  Under the popular dis guise of "protection to home productions,'" this
system for a long time prevailed; and to this day
our statute-books are disfigured by the relics of this
most unjust system of forcing one class to contri )We of their earnings to the wealth of another
class. The doctrine of "protection" became unpo pular with the agriculturists in proportion as its
true merits were discussed and understood. How ever the sacrifice they were called upon to make
might be urged by appeals to their patriotism, an
enlightened understanding could not fail to perceive that the real effect of such a system was to
take away from the gainings of their labor, in order
to add to the wealth of those who were already
much  richer  than  themselves.   The  numerical
strength in this contest was in favor of the agriculturist, and in process of time the system fell into
disfavor and into partial disuse.
For the manufacturers to wage a contest against
such superior numbers, upon the direct issue, would
be fruitless, because the combined South and West
-both alike interested in protecting agriculture
from'such an unjust burden of taxes-would be able
at all times to offer a successful resistance. The
crusade against slavery, on the part of New England
54 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
manufacturers, was designed, therefore, to detach the
great ctyricultural interests of the free States in the WVest
from their natural allies, the Southern States; and thus,
by dividing the adversaries of their favorite system,
and creating between them an irreconcilable fend
upon a collateral issue, conquer them in detail.
having wrought up the Western States to the proper pitch of enthusiasm against the existence of
"the great sin," the manufacturers say "the best
means of eradicating this evil is to build up the
North at the expense of the South, by meansof
protective tariff;" and they call upon the Wes- t"
States to "submit to a small pecuniary sacrifice,"
for the attainment of so desirable a.result. To the
South they can say: "See arrayed against you the
moral power of Great Britain, exerting its ramified
influence throughout the civilized world.  Add to
this the  overwhelming  numerical  and political
strength of the North and the West. It is not our
wish to destroy you; therefore, give us the protection we claim for our manufactures: that is, give us
two bales of cotton of livery ten you produce, and
one-fifth of your annual products of wheat, and
rice, and Indian corn, and we will find means to
allay the storm which is ready to engulf you in
irretrievable ruin."
The scheme has been, unhappily for the interests
of agriculture, but too successful.  The protectionists have succeeded in attracting to their standard a
large support in the western free States, where once
the doctrine of free trade had complete ascendency;
I
55 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
while the South, if she remains in the Union in the
face of this overwhelmingly hostile array, which
seems resolved. to compass her destruction, is
rapidly drifting to her only alternative of purchasing peace at the sacrifice demanded.
Considering the facts referred to, it would appear
to be an error to suppose that the manufacturers, as
a class, are in reality endeavoring to achieve the
destruction of the institution of slavery. They
only seek, through a protective tariff, to divide with
the planters the earnings of slave labor; and they
assail slavery with the view of making allies and
instruments of the agricultural States of the West.*
Is there not danger that, in thus "sowing the
wind, they may reap the whirlwind?"  It is easy to
stimulate, but< difficult to allay, the angry passions
of mankind. A child may kindle a conflagration
in mere wantonness, which a host may not aftelrwards be able to suppress. The voice of one gifted
demagogue may incite a listening and attentive
* Since the foregoing was written, there has occurred a striking
verification of the opinion here expressed. Almost upon the instant
of the withdrawal of a large number of Southern Representatives
and Senators from the Congress, the anti-slavery party, being thus
left in a majority, adopted the "Morrill Tariff Bill," which, for its
violation of every principle of free trade, and for its highly protective character, is unparalleled in the history of modern legislation
anywhere in the civilized world. The controlling purpose of the
political anti-slavery party which now holds possession of the General Government appears to be, to deny to the South the privilege of
commercial intercourse with any portion of the world beyond the
limits of the Northern States, and thus to monopolize the lion's
share of the profits of slave labor.
56 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
mob to deeds of violence and blood, which, once
commenced, no eloquence could arrest. May it not
be apprehended that, even in the hour of seeming
success, they may reap a harvest of disappointment?
Can the cautious, calculating leaders of the AngloRepublican alliance restrain the impetuosity and
the zeal of the fanatical masses who have been
attracted to their support by an appeal to pssions
which, in the flush of victory, are only to " gratifled by the immediate enfranchisement of the slave
and the destruction of the master? 
Upon the occurrence of any event which would
leave no room for doubt in the southern mind that
there existed a settled purpose on the part of the
powerful free North to employ her political and
numerical preponderance in destroying the institutions and the independence of the South, would the
Southern States hesitate for a single instant longer
in inaugurating prompt measures for their security
and protection?  Can it be expected that the South
would delay until her enemies should have decided
how and when the impending blow should fall?
Let not the peaceably disposed citizens of the
North delude themselves with such a hope or expectation.  Self-preservation is the strongest instinct
of man's nature; and when the moment above indicated shall have arrived, if ever, it may fairly be
assumed that the South will stand forth as a unit ir
defence of her rights, her interests, and her very
existence as a political power in the State. All
pijously existing differences will disappear, and
57 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
her united people will then and there demand that
the battle shall be fought and decided. The issue
of life or death will have been forced upon her, and
the result will be the establishment of the inde pendence of the South, or the immediate and  in conditional liberation of the slaves. The conflict
once inaugurated, what horrors may not fill up the
interval to its bloody close!
Where, then, will stand the discordant parties
and interests which have inaugurated this war upon
the South? When the battle would be fiercest, and
the issue the most doubtful, would England stretch
forth her arm to aid the North in the accomplish ment of a victory which would strike down at one
blow that system of labor upon the products of
which so many millions of her subjects are dependent for their daily bread?  This  interrogatory
may not now be answered. She may hold herself
in the position of an unfriendly neutrality towards
both; but the England of to-day would not be the
England of the past, if she permitted her sympathies or her sensibilities to divert her from the path
of her interests.
As warmly as England has espoused the cause of
the Republican party, it must not be supposed that
she desires the immediate abolition of slavery in
America, for such a consummation would find her
unprepared to meet the crisis which would follow.
IHence the British political abolitionists have thrown
their powerful influence lupon the side of the Republican party, under a tacit agreement and under
58 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
standing among the leaders of each, that the process of abolitionizing the South shall be sure but
slow; thus affording what they believe will be ample time for Indian tropical productions to be augmented, as those in the slave States of America
diminish.
From this reference to the internal and external
adversaries of the slave States of America, it will
be observed that they differ essentially in the immediate objects which they hope to accomplish when
their victory shall have been achieved; and that
there exists amongst them but a single element or
class which may be fairly presumed to be actuated
exclusively by conscientious and philanthropic convictions. This, however, is made up of the radicals, socialists, agrarians, and fanatics, both in religion and politics, to whose madness no response of
reason would be available, but whose folly would of
itself defeat their purposes but for the direction
given to them by other, and cooler, and wiser'ds.
But of all these opposing influences, it cannot be
questioned that the London Times is right in its
boastful declaration, that if we were to "blot out
England, and English  sympathies,  and  English
power from the map of the world, the battle between the North and South would be fought on
very different terms." The indirect influence of
the British anti-slavery party in moulding public
opinion without, and its direct influence within, in
giving consistency, point, and unity to the efforts
of those who, whether ignorantly or advisedly, per
59 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
form for it the services of friend and allies, render
it apparent that if the Southern States of the American ULnion can defeat the purposes of that party,
the battle against their enemies is already won.
I have thus hastily glanced at the different interests which are arrayed in hostile attitude against
the slave States, and I have referred impartially to
what may be fairly presumed to be the moving
cause of the opposition of each.  In makling these
general classifications, however, I do not mean to
say that there are not many individual exceptions,
who are actuated by motives different from those
which I have assigned as common to the party
which seeks the overthrow of slavery in the South.
But it is to be noted that all the enemies of the existing institution of slavery in the Southern States
are from without. The assaults thereon emanate
from those who live under other governmentswho are not themselves subject to the evils of which
the omplain, and who may perpetuate the exemption by remaining beyond the boundaries of its
infiuenee.
60 
ILETTER IV.
Opposition to abstract Slavery resolved into opposition to Slavery in
America, without considering the circumstances of its existence Slavery Romances have misled the Public Mind-The manifest in justice of crediting them as History-The attitude of the present
adversaries of Slavery in times past-Achievements of Slavery.
IT is a truth not to be disguised, that the predominating influence of the civilized world at the present
day is adverse to the existence of slavery. The
instincts of an enlightened humanity are undeniably opposed to that condition of society which is
supposed to exist as a necessary concomitant of
slavery, and hence many are found to condemn its
existence without duly considering that when two
races so different and so unequal as those which inhabit the Southern American States are thrown
together, there cannot be established between them
the relations which may and should exist between
different classes of the same race.
Under the lead and direction of the anti-slavery
party of Great Britain, this theoretical opposition to
abstract slavery has been resolved most unjustly
into a feeling of hostility to the institution known
under that name, now existing in the United States.
This feeling of hostility thus patronized by Great
Britain has received from time to time fresh impulse from the slanderous publications of British
tourists, who, like Dickens, have more intellect than
(61)
f# 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
honesty, and a more ardent desire to reap a harvest.
of gold by pandering to the prejudices and vices of
their readers than the meagre rewards bestowed
upon those who communicate unpalatable truths. ~
Added to these are the productions which, with
more or less of literary merit, emanate from native
Americans who desire by this means to ingratiate
themselves into the favor of the British anti-slavery
party. It is worthy here of a passing notice that
the Americans, the most honored by the hereditary
governing classes of Europe, and those for whom
the portals of their feudal mansions are always
thrown wide open, are those who have mrerited that
distinction solely by their virulent assaults upon
their native land.
A discriminating mind in estimating the value
of these productions, should remember that they
emanate only from those who are wholly unacquainted
by practical knowledge with the system they pretend to
explain. They are those whose whole ]ives have
been spent in an atmosphere of hostility and hatred
to the institution, and who have visited for a brief
period the locality where it existed, not to discover
truth, but from exaggerated and isolated facts to find
material for the support of their theory, out of which
to fashion a "selling book."
Such have been the productions of the Dickenses
of England and the Stowes of America. Professedly illustrating the workings of the institution of
slavery, all who are familiar with the subject, know
them to be slanders and libels and caricatures upon
62 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
truth.   Even  as  monstrous  exceptions  to the
general condition of the slave and his master, every
citizen of a slave State knows that they have no existence, except in the pernicious books referred to.
Every unprejudiced intelligent man who has had occasion to travel through the Southern States of
America, has had reason to be' astonished at the
gross deception practiced upon the public by these
professional horror-mongers.
But even admitting for the moment, that the
fictitious characters so happily illustrated in these
romances, whose imaginary wrongs have caused so
many tears to flow from sentimental maidens
and British philanthropists, are the representatives
of an existing reality; that they constitute exceptions to the general state of society may be inferrer
from the fact that a knowledge of their existence
remained unknown to the oldest inhabitants of the
slave States, up to the moment when they were enlightened by these productions, the authors of
which had probably never passed six months in a
slave State. How unjust to one's self, as well as to
those who are thus wronged, to estimate the moral
worth of the Southern States, or even the value of
the institution of slavery, by these admittedly
monstrous exceptions.
The gifted authoress of the most popular and most
mischievous romance which has ever been published
upon this subject, shortly after the public judgment
pronounced her work a most brilliant success,
visited England, to receive in person the reward to
3
63 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
which all acknowleaged she was justly entitled at
the hands of British abolitionists. She was feasted
and toasted in the aristocratic mansions of ennuied
Duchesses and received the homage of the most distinguished British politicians. She returned after
a season to her native land, and gave vent to her
gratitude for the brilliant reception which had been
accorded to her, by the publication of her "Sunny
Memories." Suppose that she had enteredEngland.
with the same feelings of hatred towards the aristocracy which she entertained towards the Southern
citizens of her own country, and instead of taking up
her abode in the palaces of the rich, she had entered
the prisons where the vilest criminals were colnfined, and had promenaded the streets or penetrated
into the dens of infamy and vice, which, in certain
Localities, contaminate that great city; and out of
the materials thus furnished, and with heroes and
heroines thus discovered, she had published, after
the prototype of Uncle Tom's Cabin, her "Cloudy
Memo;ies" of London, as a true picture of English life, English habits, and English morals.
Unfortunately for the cause of justice, it is from
materials even more meagre and less illustrative of
truth, that the diatribes against slavery are composed, upon which even many good men have
allowed their opinions to be formed and their prejudices to be excited.
The Southern States of the American Confederacy rest under the serious disadvantage of being the
subject of assault emanating from those who enter
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it 
LETTERS O.N SLAVERY.
tain opinions upon the subject of Government the
most widely variant,and unfortunately these extreme
classes are those who act upon convictions of right
without reference to any pecuniary interest which
may be involved in the question.
The laws which recognize the existence of
slavery, in their very nature, and upon their very
face, deny the universal equality of the races of men.
They assume that the African slave in America is
not now, uever has been, and never will be a suita* ble companion  or the equal of the white man,
either socially or politically. Here then is a dis tinct issue, and an irreconcilable difference with, and
an utter denial of one of the most cherished doc trines of agrarian or radical Democracy. Hence
the Southerni States are assailed by all the "isms" of
the old and new world. They are a target not onl
for those who advocate specifically the doctrines of
Abolitionism, but for those also who, upon the
baseless fabric of an  impossible equality,,have
erected theoretical Utopias in which the family of
man, of every clime, religion, and complexion, may
mingle together in a common brotherhood.
On the other hand, the Southern States and the
institution of slavery are no less opposed by many
of the leaders of that aristocracy in the old world
which claims to govern the masses of their own race,
by a right emanating directly from the Almighty!
In Great Britain, as well as in the more despotic
governments of the old world, the special advocates
and defenders of the "right divine," those most
D
65
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
tenacious of maintaining intact the exclusive right
to govern, which they say by the will of God has
been transmitted to them from their ancestors, are
leagued in a brotherhood of opposition to slavery
in America, with all the fanatics of the new world,
comprising  the  advocates  of "free love,"  the
"socialists,"  the  Infidels the theoretical  "Red
Republicans," and  "abolitionists,"  whose  crude
notions of liberty and impracticable conceptions of
government have contributed far more  towards
bringing discredit upon'free institutions' than in *
instilling into the minds of others the undeniable
truths on which, to a certain extent, their pernicious theories.are based. From those holding
these extreme and apparently irreconcilable opinions
in regard to the natural rights of man have emanated the most virulent assaults upon the institution of American slavery.
This seemingly incongruous combination of discordant materials would at a superficial glance
appear most unnatural, and such a unity of purpose
between them might be accounted as accidental.
A more thorough investigation of the subject of
slavery in the United States and of its practical bearing upon the social and political condition of the
inhabitants, develops at once the natural causes
which have produced this coincidence of feeling
between those who are so widely asunder in their
political principles. I will hereafter refer to these
causes in detail. At present my purpose is simply
to group together the elements and sources of that
66
4
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
opposition against which the Southern States are
called upon to defend themselves-while they
have so many and such formidable adversaries wht
have no practical knowledge in regard to the workings of the institution which they unite in condemning, who, with the single exception of Great
Britain, are in no manner responsible morally or politically for the sin, if, it be one, of slavery, and
whose motives even the most charitable will not
ask us to admit, proceed wholly from a principle of
benevolence or philanthropy-it is a truth, which
should not be without due influence, that in every
State of the Confederacy where slavery exists, there
likewise exists a unity of opinion as remarkable for
its undeviating and firm support of the existing relation between the two races as it is universal. The X
history of the world does not furnish an example of
such unanimity upon any one subject, which has
been so often and for so long a time a subject of
active and thorough, analysis and investigation.
All conditions, all professions, all religions, agree
that the institution of slavery in  the Southern
States, in consideration of all the circumstances
under which it now exists, is right morally -and politically, and that the present relations of the two
races must be maintained at all hazards, so long as
they occupy together the same territory.
When it is considered that of the European races
resident in the slave States but a comparativelvy
small number are slaveowners, this unity of sentiment and opinion should have some weight with
67
6 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
those who have themselves no practical knowledge
on the subject; and who derive their information
*chiefly from the distorted descriptions of its avowed
enemies, or from romances written by ingenious
authors to make selling books.
Before an impartial tribunal sitting in judgment
to decide the question upon its merits, it would
surely be regarded as a point worthy of considera   tion, that those who testify against slavery, as at
present existing in the Southern States, are ignto   rant from personal observation of its practical
effects, because they do not live within the sphere
of its influence.  Its great adversaries-those who
are engaged jointly in the effort to crush it by every
means within their reach-are Great Britain and
the Northern States of the Confederacy. The first,
as we have already said, established it upon the soil
of the South, and afterwards secured from the Eu   ropean powers the exclusive right to the traffic in
slaves; while the last, within the memory of those
now living, sold to the Southerners the very slaves,
or their immediate ancestors, to the very men from
whom they would now rob them. What a curious
spectacle to the eyes of disinterested observers!
How strange that these should be the leaders in
such a crusade!  But we have to deal with facts.
And these are they who assail the South for tolerat   ing the enormous sin of slavery!
On the other hand, those who would testify in
favor of the existing institution, and who will never
consent that the relations at present subsisting be
.68 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
tween the African race and themselves shall be materially changed, are the citizens in mass, and, with
scarcely an exception, whb have passed their lives,
and whose destiny has been cast, for good or for
evil, where the institution has been established.
Such as I have described them are the adversaries
and assailants- such the defenders of slavery in the
Southern States of the American Union.  To, the
success of the former, it is necessary that they
should establish-first, their right to decide what
shall be the political and domestic policy of the
States of the South; second, they must show that
the institution of slavery has made the condition
of the slaves worse than it would have been if they
had never been placed in servitude; third, they
must establish that more good than evil will result
from its abolition; and lastly, it will be conceded,
in consideration of the peculiar attitude occupied
by the chief assailants, that they must show in
what manner they can remunerate the owners for
the sacrifices they will be required to make, should
their slave property be set at liberty.
It would be asking too much to require the defenders of the Southern States to prove that their
peculiar system of labor has attained to that point
of excellence from whence there can be no improvement. All human institutions are imperfect;
and it is not pretended that this forms an exception.
That there are evils incident thereto, is not to be
questioned. It is sufficient, if it can be established,
that more good than evil has resulted, and, in all
69
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
human probability, will continue to flow from it.
That the results achieved through its instrumentality have tended materialy to promote the general
welfare of mankind, and that these same benefits
cannot be obtained under any other system of labor
which has been devised-that incidental evils may
Apring out of the system-that cruelties may be inflicted by the master upon the slave-that instances
of inhumanity have occurred, and will occur, is
necessarily incident to the relations which subsist
between master and slave, as well as between father
and child, husband and wife, master and apprentice, power and weakness; but if it can be established that such instances are only exceptional, and
that the slaves, whose condition we are considering,
are provided with more of the physical comforts of
life-that they are less often overworked, and that,
as a class, they are happier and more exempt from
the ordinary ills of life than any like number of
laborers ill thb world, of whatever race, color, or
nation, itf would seem that those who are conscientiously opposed to slavery, upon the ground of its
supposed inhumanity, should be satisfied to leave
the matter where it stands.
Furthermore, although the public sentiment of
the civilized world is averse to the existence of such
a relation between man and man as master and
slave, yet if, in addition to the manifold advantages
to mankind which result from this institution, it
can be established that the condition of the Africans, as slaves in America, is far better, in every
70
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
essential particular than that of any of tteirrace
'ever has been, from the commencement of recorded
or traditional history —that from barbarians and
cannibals they have attained to a moderate degree
of civilization-that from heathens they have become Christians-that from a condition of wretchedness and misery they have become comparatively
contented and happy-that having sprung from a
race which has never achieved any thing for the
good of mankind-whose entire history furnishes
not one single name which is associated with any
thing good-which has not in the past, in their native land, exhibited any qualities above the instincts
of brutes-they have, nevertheless, through the instrunientallty of the institution of slavery, been
made to contribute, in an important degree, to the
wants of the civilized world-it is not demanding
too much of an enlightened public sentiment to
abate somewhat of the natural feeling of repugnance to the existence of this relation between man
and man, in view of results so advantageous to the
human race, and which are attended, incidentally,
by so many blessings to those in whose cause so
much unnecessary sympathy has been expended.
That the results enumerated have followed, and
that they have been consequences of the existence
of African slavery, is susceptible of easy demonstration. Nor will they be denied by those who have
investigated the subject without prejudice, and with
the single purpose of discovering the truth. But,
unhappily, public opinion has been forestalled, to a
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
great extent, chiefly by those who have employed
this instrument, not with a view to correct error
and to propagate truth, but to gratify a feeling of
unkindness and hatred towards those under whose
auspices the products of slave labor have been made
to contribute to the wants, the luxuries, and the
comforts of the civilized world.
Instead, then, of requiring the Southern States to
prove that their system of slave labor is without
fault or blemish-instead of asking that it be tried
by an ideal standard qf abstract right, whichwill
not allow the smallest evil With the greatest goodlet us examine it simply as a human institution,
with its good and its evil arrayed upon the one side
and the other, "nothing. extenuate nor' set down
aught in malice." When we have looked into the
leading features of its history, from its origin to the
present day, and have marked out its achievements,
for good and for evil, before we resolve upon its
destruction, or even make up our minds to impair
its strength and influence, let us compare it with all
the other systems of labor which have been adopted
by mankind, with a view to the achievement of the
same results. But, above all, let us institute a comparison between this system and the " factory system," the "African-apprentice system," the "Cooly system," and the "India system" of Great Britain, the greatest and most formidable of all the
adversaries of slavery in America.
72 
LETTER V.
Labor, the Foundation of the Wealth of Nations-Duties of Govern  ment-Declaration of Independence, and its correct interpretation
-Classification of Rulers, and the Governed-Names do not ex  press the Qualities of Objects.
THE foundation of the wealth and prosperity of
civilized nations consists in labor.  It is of all the
subjects which engage the attention of Governments,
the most important. The products of physical labor
are essential to the greatness and power of any
nation, whether it be the labor of her own subjects or
citizens, or an appropriation of the labor of others
for her aggrandizement.
Politically-, there exists in every State two
classes-those who govern, and those who are governed.  When regarded in reference to all the relations which subsist between men towards each
other, the latter class may be resolved into three,
which are distinct and strongly defined in all the
various relations of life.
There are in every civilized State -first the rulers,
those upon whom are confered the right of establishing laws for the government of the great mass,
who occupy the Elation of subjects or citizens.  In
whatever manner this power is acquired, whether
by inheritance, or the free choice of the governed;
or by accidental circumstances, the duties of those
who hold this important position are the same, how                                         (78) 
LETTERS ON SLA,VERY.
ever different in practice  may be the performance.
The foundation of these duties may, in general
terms be defined to be, so to govern as to confer the
greatest sum of happiness upon those whose rights
and interests are confided to them; that is, to confer the greatest amount of good to the greatest
number, without infringing upon the natural or
legally defined rights of any portion of those who
may properly claim to be citizens. There are sacrificestowhich the minority must submitin deference
to the general good of the whole; but such sacrifices
must in all well regulated governments, be founded
upon recognized general principles, and can never
be demanded, upon an emergency not fully provided
for, unless in obedience to the universally recognized law of nature-self-preservation.
In thie erection of a free government, as well as
in the progress of its existence, the citizens have a
right to admit ox to deny to aliens or foreigners, the
full rights of citizenship. Even though the government' be founded upon the principle, that "all men
are by nature free and equal," yet in its practical
application, it could only be intended to refer to
those who were specifically designated as citizens.  If
such a principle in its- broadest sense were acceptedand adopted by a government, it would bear within
itself the elements of a speedy dissoution.  For the
peace and well-being of society, there must be-a
degree of homogeneousness amongst its several
members. Duie regard must be had even to the
prejudices of race, religion, and color, to habits and
74 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
to customs.  It must be conceded, that however
broad and comprehensive may be the principles upon
which a government may be founded, its laws are
local in their operation as to territory, and specific in
their application as to personis. The Constitution of
a free government, or the general principles on which
by express or tacit consent a nation is to be governed, whether or not founded upon the principle of
equality, is simply the article of agreement by
which the parties to the contract or arrangement are
to be governed, and is not designed to confer the
privilegesof the partnership upon any other persons.
The history of the establishment of the Government of the United States of America, illustrates
this general principle with perfect clearness. In the
very inauguration of its independent existence, it is
declared, that "all men are created equal, that they
are endowed with certain inalienable rights," that
among these are "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
It wourd be a most manifest injustice to the
intelligence, frankness, and common sense of the distinguished patriots who, in the name of the people, incorporated these declarations in their first act of
independence, to suppose that they intended them
to be understood in a literal sense. In the first
place, it cannot be said that any two men are" created
equal." One is born the inheritor'of riches, another
of poverty; one strong, another weak; one intellectual, another stupid; and from the cradle to the grave
these inequalities are perpetuated.  But if we give
75 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
to the expression a common sense signification,
namely: that all men who were then and there represented by them, and whose chosen agents they were,
and in whose name they spoke, were desirous of
establishing a Government on the basis of a perfect
equality of rights, then it is the eloquent enunciation
of a noble sentiment which the nations of the world
might adopt with benefit to their subjects. Neither
must we suppose that the authors of this famous
declaration desired to express so absurd a sentiment,
as that the rights of life and liberty conferred by thb
Creator, were literally and truly inalienable. For in
a}ll civilized nations there must be a power, not only
to aliena or to deprive a citizen of, his liberty, but
even of his life.
But the best commentary upon this sublime declaration of the general principles upon which the
revolted Colonies of Great Britain proposed to establish for themselves.a new Government, and the
surest means of arriving at a knowledge of the interpretationl placed upon them by their authors, may
be discovered in the specific laws and regulations
which they founded in illustration of the principles
thus announced.
Upon the establishment of the Constitution, those
who were represented were the free citizens'of
European blood, who had been the subjects of Great
Britain, or who had participated in securing their
independence.   The preamble to that instrument
declares that, 
76 
LE TTER S ON SLAVERY.
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for
the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty TO OURSELVES AND OUR POSTERITY, do
ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
It will thus be seen, that however general and
comprehensive may have been the principles upon
which the' Government was based, yet in the very
first act defining and applying these general principles, the specific purpose of the citizens in the formation of their Constitution is defined to be, to secure the blessings of liberty, not for mankind, butfor
themselves and their posterity.
So  far from establishing in a literal sense, the inalienable right of all men to liberty, Section 2,
Article IV. declares:
A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime,
who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on
demand of the Executive authority of the State from which he fled,
be delivered up to be'removed to the State having jurisdiction of the
crime.
No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or
regulation therein, be discharged from sfch service or labor, but
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service
or labor may be due.
Section 9, Article I, declares, that,
The migration or importation of such persons, as any of the States
now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by
the Congress prior to the year 1808, but a tax or duty may be imposed
on sueh importation, not exeeding ten dollars for such person.
The  two  last paragraphs, refer to the Africans,
who were, or might be held as slaves. From these
it will be observed, that the authors of the Decla
77 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ration of Independence, and the framers of the
Constitution, not only recognized the existence of
the institution of slavery, but authorized its expan sion by permitting the importation of more Africans
with the view of reducing them to slavery, and gave
to it a legally and constitutionally recognized ex istence by claiming the right to derive a direct
revenue from the traffic.
There is scarcely an article of the Constitution
which is not at variance with a perfectly literal
construction of the mere words promulgated in the
Declaration of Independence. Not onlylv was the
servile condition of the African race fully recognized, but to Congress was reserved the right of
declaring upon what terms foreigners, even of our
own race, might be admitted to the rights of citizenship, with full authority to exclude them altogether
from the exercise of those rights, or to dictate the
terms upon which they might be permitted to reside in the country.
If Congress should to-morrow, in obedience to
the clearly expressed will of the citizens, declare
that no person born under a foreign government
and not already a citizen, should be permitted to
enjoy the rights of citizenship, who could say that
the act would be in violation of any principle on
which our Government is founded?  The right to
define the circumstances under which aliens may be
made citizens, is an indispensable part of the sovereignty of a nation.  This right of self-protection
involves as a necessary sequence, the privilege of
78 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
total or partial exclusion, as the interests of the
citizens may require.
Those who assume that the words of the Declaration of Independence, should be construed literally,
and in their application under the Constitution
were intended to embrace all mankind, render a poor
tribute to the sagacity or honesty of the fathers of
the Republic, whose reason must have taught them
that such a government would have been impossible;
and who in effect gave their sanction to laws which
in all their parts, from the first clause of the Constitution to the last act of their illustrious lives, did
violence to such an interpretation of their meaning
and intention!
But say the more reasonable advocates of a literal
construction, "There must of course be understood
to be exceptions to the general application of these
principles." In announcing that all mankind were
born free and equal, it was not meant thereby, that
the rights secured to our own citizens were necessarily incident to foreigners or aliens who might
come amongst us. Nor was it meant, that the rights
of all men to "life" and " liberty" were, as therein
declared, literally inalienable, because it is essential
to the good of society, that there should exist a
power in the State to take away the life or the
liberty of a citizen who commits certain crimes.
This is certainly true, but if reason compels usin
justice to the authors of that work, and in obedience
to the dictates of common sense, to admit that there
are some exceptions to the universal application in
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
practice of the general principles therein enunciated,
by what rule of interpretation is it declared, that
the exceptions enumerated above are all that can be
permitted? In effect we discover by investigation,
that not only do the laws and customs of every government, admit of other exceptions than those referred to, but the constitutions and'laws of every
State of the Confederacy equally do violence to a
literal construction of the rights of man as set forth
in the instrument referred to-as an example, the
universally recognized right of a parent to the services of his offspring up to the age of twenty-one
years, and the similar right of the husband to the
services of the wife during her entire life. Thus
we find, that probably two-thirds of the citizens of
America are, by the universally'recognized laws of
the land, and without the pretence of crime, held as
"chattels" bound to service and labor, without
any fixed compensation.  Others virtually occupy
towards them in the estimation of the law the relation of master.
But tlire are still other cases in which the Constitution and laws of the United States, as well as
the laws of all other organized governments, deny
even to free born citizens of mature age, unstained by any imputation of crime, the " inalienable
right" to the enjoyment of life and liberty!  The
farmer may be taken from his plough, the mechanic
from his tools, the merchant from his desk, and all
be forced to leave family and friends, and march at
a moment's notice to face death upon the battle-field,
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
even though his judgment and inclinations may
oppose the war in which his country may be engaged.
Against his will, and in violation of his personal
interests, and without having done a crime, his inalienable rights, according to the literal phraseology
of the Declaration of Independence, are violated
Yet what sane man would not admit that this constitutes another proper occasion for the refusal to
recognize the existence of the "inalienable right"
to either "liberty" or "life."
Let us then do justice to common reason, to the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, and to
the framers of the Constitution. Let us consider
that acting in the name and as the representatives of
the revolted provinces of Great Britain, become free
by their glorious deeds, the general principles which
they enunciated were designed, in their practical
application, for those only whose agents they were,land in
whose name they spoke, namely: the-free white inhabitants of the sovereign States they represented, for
THEM andfor their POSTERITY! Then there is found to
be a sublime harmony in the principles they declared,
and in the practical application of those noble principles, worthy, in all time to come, of the admiration
of that posterity for whom were thus secured and'
consolidated the blessings of liberty.
But to resume the subject from which I have for
a brief space digressed.  The subjects or citizens of
the State may be divided in general terms into three
strongly defined classes.
Fist-Those who neither labor nor give direction,
81 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
to labor; who are possessed of the means of sup port without being obliged to resort to the drudgeries
of labor or trade, and who have come into the pos session thereof by inheritance-by superior intel lectual endowments, or by accidental circumstances.
Second-Those who give direction to labor; who
do not actually produce by their own hands, but who
make available the results of the labor of others.
These occupy the station of intermediaries between the consumers and the producers-between
those who labor and those who purchase the products
of labor.
Thirdly-The great mass of mankind, who from
necessity or choice, give sustenance to the world by
the labor of their hanlds; who cause the earth to
bring forth its fruits to feed the hungry; who produce the material to clothe the naked; who fashion
the ships to transport the products of one country
to another, and who in fine produce all that which is
employed in ministering to the physical comforts,
the convenience, and the luxuries of the human race.
Upon this last class depend not only the greatness
and wealth of empires, but the very existence of all
the other classes who go to make up the aggregate of a
nation. Production is necessary to the wealth of a
nation. Wealth is an essential element of power,
and power is indispensable to the protection of independence and liberty from external violence. Every
dollar of value added to the productive industry of
the State adds to the wealth and security of its citizens. The cotton bales produced upon the Southern
82 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
plantations by slave labor, as well as the barrels
of flour which repay the toil of the free laborers of
the West, alike contribute to the wealth of New
England.  They are soldiers, fully armed for the defence of the Republic, but powerless for harm to its
citizens.
That Government is therefore bes, without reference to its form or name, which confers the greatest
amount of happiness upon all its citizens, and which
at the same time induces the greatest amount of production. The history of the world has exhibited
that the benefits conferred by governments upon
mankind are not always indicated by the name or
the political form by which they have been known
or designated.
The free republics of Southern America, regarded
as a whole, have proven to be unworthy and incapable
of fulfilling the legitimate ends of government.
Anarchy, imbecility, and at times the most odious
tyranny, have marked their downward progress from
the date of their independent existence even up to
the present moment of time, when some of them
have almost ceased to be regarded as among the
family of nations.
The laboring classes of France, under some of her
most despotic rulers, have been left in the enjoyment
of the greatest amount of real liberty and prosperity;
while perhaps the most cruel despotism under which
thatbeautiful country has ever groaned,was during the
brief period of the first republic, when the very name
of liberty was made odious by its excesses-when the
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
blood and tears of millions of her citizens deluged
the land; and when the civilized world stood aghast
and horror stricken at the contemplation of scenes
enacted in the name of freedomn as fiercely cruel
and despotic as had ever in times past distinguished
an epoch in the career of any other civilized nation.
In the Uniteel States of America, upon the other
hand, there exists a confederated republic where ac cording to theory and practicQ, up to the present
period in its history, human liberty is happily blended
with human  progress, and where  the two have
mnarlched hand in hand together. In all its acquisitions it has conferred upon the conquered the boon
of its own, freedom, and has made them equal participants in the benefits of its institutions and in the
advantages of its growing power.
Itow can the anti-slavery American who contemplates the grand achievements of the infancy of the
republic, attempt to destroy one-of the chief elements
of its greatness, for the doubtful prospect of accomplishing even all the good they hope for?  Alas!
that the madness of sectional hatred should close
the eyes of so many worthy and patriotic citizens,
to the danger of taking even one more step in the
direction which their passions,- not their reasonis leading them.
The brief reference made to well known facts of
history illustrates simply that neither the name nor
the form of a government indicates, with posisive
distinctness, the degree of real liberty or prosperity
enjoyed by its subjects.  A despot even might con
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
fer upon his subjects all the liberty they desire, while
the citizens of a republic,.by a perversion of the principles of such a government, or an unwarrantable
exercise of power on the part of a majority, or by
the still more available despotism of a dominant eection, may be made to endure the most odious tyranny.
While this is true in affairs of State, itis equally so in
many of the affairs of life. Theorists are too apt to
draw conclusions from the names of things, rather than
from the things themselves-from the shadow'rather
than the substance. Even moralists are but too
prone to direct their anathemas against theoretical,
rather than real vices; against the garments which
might seem to indicate the presence of vice, rather
than against vice, which may'clothe itself in the
habiliments of virtue.
tie who seeks to find truth, who aspires to arrive
at just conclusions, without giving undue influence
to his own mere prejudices orthose of others, should
remember that the names of things are not always
even stfadows of the objects they profess to describe;
that the mere characters which designate a particular
object, have nothing to do in making up the qualities
of the object itself;  and that theories, beautiful
in themselves, and seemingly susceptible of the
clearest demonstration, are often wofully at fault,
when applied to thepractical affairs of life.
85
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LETTER VI.
Different systems of Labor considered-Free Labor more or less
dependent upon Capital-Southey on English Labor System-Un happy Condition of the Factory Operatives-Products of Slave
and Free Labor Compared.
SINCE on the productions of labor rest the founda tions of the wealth and power of nations, it is a
question of controlling interest for governments to
decide how, and under what form, the greatest
amount of production can be obtained, consistently
with the well-being and happiness of those who labor,
and the general prosperity of all. Although each
nation has a more direct interest in its own productions than in those of others, there is a community
of reciprocal interests as well as obligations among
the family of nations, which make the proceeds of
the labor of each, important to the others. A State
therefore should encourage and foster any particlflar branch of production in which it possesses natural
advantages, not only for its own sake, but also for
the promotion of the interests of mankind.
In general terms there may be said to be two
classes or systems of labor, namely: that which is
more or less voluntary, according to circumstances,
and which is denominated " free labor," and that
which is involuntary or forced, which is called
"slave labor."  That these titles or names aford no
clear indication of the relative happiness, comfort,
(86)
J 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
or even freedom of those who are ranked respectively under one or the other of the above designations, is susceptible of easy demonstration by
reference to past and now existing facts.
Strictly speaking, there can scarcely be said to
be such a thing as free labor, when applied to the
great mass 0of iank{nd iho are obliged to bestow
their physical services for an employer in order to
procure the bread necessary to sustain life.  Take
as an example the great body of the factory 6peratives of England. They must work or starve! They
must perform certain tasks which are placed before
them, or must submit to a deprivation of the common necessaries of life. Not only must they accomnplish these tasks at the bidding of another, but
having received the scanty wages which are said to
be their due, and having purchased therewith the
coarse fare which is necessary to appease the pangs
of hunger, they have nothing left for the morrow;
and so day by day the same alternative is presented
to themm-to do the task assigned them or to starve.
The laborer has the physical power to stay away from
the workshop, but the alternative is ever present to
him. Nature asserts its dominion, and again and
again, until life's end, he voluntarily returns to his
daily and never-ending toil. This is denominated
free labor! The illustration will not be said to be
an exaggeration. It does not even convey to the
mind a picture so sad as the reality, in the case of
more than a majority of the day laborers of Europe.
I have referred only to strong men, not helpless
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
women and children, whose necessities are all the
greater for their weakness, and whose weakness
makes them still more dependent and still oftener
the subjects of'injustice and wrong. All who have
investigated the subject know that these are the alternatives and conditions upon which free labor is
performed by a body of human beings, even in free
and enlightened England, more numerous than the
entire number of slaves in America.
I only refer to this state of things as a fact which
none will deny.  Not by way of complaint; for it
may be an unavoidable evil attendant updn aln overcrowded population. But it serves as a definition
of what is meant by "free" in contradistinction to
"slave labor."'?
It is not my purpose in these letters to adduce
specific proofs in regard to all the facts which I assume to be true. I intend to deal with the subjects
frankly, and in reference chiefly to general principles. In illustration of these principles I will adduce only such truths as will be readily admitted
by the intelligent reader.  To misstate, or even to
exaggerate these facts would be only to weaken the
cause which I defend; and to illustrate the operations of a general system of labor by its exceptions,
would be to imitate the injustice which has been so
much practiced by the writers as well as the readers
of anti-slavery romances. I neither mean to deny the
evils which are incident to the institution of slavery
upon the one hand, nor the great benefits which
have resulted to mankind from free labor upon the
88 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
other. But I do mean to say and to prove that both
systems, as mere human institutions, are attended
in their practical developments by both good and
evil. That neither one is adapted to all the wants
of man, nor to all the productions of the earth.
And that the institution of slavery in America has
produced, under the intelligent guardianship of the
present generation, more of good to mankind with
less of evil to the African or of injustice to any,
than either one of all the various systems of free
labor which have been adopted as a substitute therefor, since the termination of the American war of
Independence.
SOUTHEY fairly describes the condition of the free
laborers of England when he says:.
In no country can such riches be acquired by commerce, but it is
the one who grows rich by the labor of the hundred. The hundred
human beings like himself, as wonderfully fashioned by nature,
gifted with the like capacities, and equally made for immortality, are
sacrificed body and soul. Horrible as it must needs appear, the assertion is true to the very letter. They are deprived in childhood
of all instruction and all enjoyment of the sports in which childhood
instinctively indulges-of fresh air by day and of natural sleep by
night. Their health, physical and moral, is alike destroyed; they
die of diseases induced by unremitting task-work, by confinement in
the impure air of crowded rooms, by the particles of metallic or
vegetable dust which they are continually inhaling; or they live to
grow up without decency, without comfort and without hope-without morals, without religion, and without shame, and bring forth
slaves like themselves to tread in the same path of misery..
The English boast of their liberty, but there is no liberty in England for the poor. Wh...    en the poor are incapable of contributing any longer to their own support they are removed to the
workhouse. I cannot express the feelings of hopelessness and dread
89
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
with which all decent people look on to this wretched termination of
a life of labor....  To this society of wretchedness the laboring poor of England look as their last resting place on this side of
the grave; and rather than enter abodes so miserable they endure
the severest privations as long as it is possible to exist.
These are the unexaggerated words of an Englishman, who thoroughly understood the subject about
which he wrote. But'still it would be an error to
suppose that there is no liberty, even for the poor
in England. On the contrary, in many of the essential elements of freedom, our own Constitution
and laws are founded upon the Constitution and
laws of Great Britain. The evils to which reference
is made grow naturally out of that system of free
labor, which is a consequence of the present systems
of civilized governments throughout the world; and
though they exist to a greater extent in England,
with its overcrowded population, than in America,
still they follow, as an unavoidable sequence to
laws which recognize the rights of property.
I have before me the voluminous reports of the
Parliamentary Committee, which, a few years ago,
investigated the condition of the laboring poor of
England. Large as are the volumes which contain
the results of this inyestigation, covering thousands
of pages, each page is a record of misery, destitution, hardships, and crime, which can scarcely be
contemplated without a shudder of horror. Is there
any remedy for the evils thus detailed?  Can laws
be enacted by which they may be eradicated? Practical philanthropy must answer, that while they
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
may be ameliorated, yet so long as one man is very
rich, and five hundred are very poor, they cannot
be eradicated.  So long as the laws permit all men
to accumulate wealth, there will be five hundred
who are poor to one who is rich. What interest
has the one man in the fate of the five hundred? First,
to avail'himself of their labor at the lowest possible
remuneration; second, to obtain, in the shortest
possible space of time, the greatest possible amount
of labor. When the work is finished, or when the
laborer is physically unable to work any more, the
interest of the employer ceases. The estate of the
rich man, in the sinews of the poor, terminates, and
then the workhouse claims its prey!
But away with statistics and printed testimony.
I appeal to the judgment and common sense of
every intelligent reasoner. I appeal to the indelible record, written in ineffaceable characters upon the heart of every observant traveller in Europe
and the more civilized portions of Asia, for the exact
truth of what I am going to say.
One half of the free laborers of the so-called
free States of the world, at this very moment of
time, men, women, and children, are in a state of
moral and physical destitution. One half of these
earn a most scanty subsistence of.dry bread, by performing the tasks which are set before them by a
nominal employer, but a real master! The other
half of this unhappy class, unable to work, or to
obtain work, are driven to the practice of the most
loathsome vices, not from choice, but from an inexo
91 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
rable necessity!   One half of the free laborers,
who are in a condition something better than these,
are nevertheless obliged, by the greatest of all
tyrants, necessity, to labor and toil at the bidding
of a superior for their daily sustenance, with the
ever-present cousciousness weighing upon their
minds and spirits, that if sickness, for a single day,
intervenes, their scanty wages will be stopped.  If
their disability is of long continuance, starvation,
or the workhouse, are ver before them as alternatives.
This classification of the free laborers of the
world assumes that one-fourth are in a position of
independence, in which they may be, to a greater
or less extent, discuss with their employers the
terms upon which they will bestow the labor of
their hands. Is there an intelligent, candid observer
who will say that I have made too low an estimate
of these, or that I have exaggerated the number of
the dependent and destitute?
To the ignorant it is sometimes not well to tell the
whole truth.  A good cause is often weakened by
endeavors to force too much knowledge upon those
who are incapable of understanding. The mind naturally rejects all the testimony ini favor of any proposition, if a portion thereof seems to be an exaggeration, a misapplication, or a misstatement. The savage chieftain of a tropical island listened attentively
to the sublime truths which were taught to him by a
Christian missionary; and believed!  He credited
without difficulty the miracles which had been per
92 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
formed by the Most Hiigh, as communicated in the
sacred pages of the Holy Bible. But when the
missionary informed him that by a law of nature,
and without any direct interposition of the Almighty, there were some countries where, during a
certain season, the water became hard like stone,
he who had never known any other temperature
than such as is produced by a tropical sun, refused
to believe, and ended by rejecting all the truths
which had before been taught to himn.
But, just as surely as water becomes hard like
stone in a certain temperature, do the inequalities
recognized by the laws of all civilized nations of the
present day, in the relative wealth of the different
classes, produce that virtual slavery which, however
disguised under attractive names, is still the subjection
of one man to the will of another.
Great Britain, in many respects, stands foremost
among the great powers of the world. Of all the
governments of the old world, her Constitution
and her laws embody the noblest principles.  -The
press is free, and the complaints of any class of citizens may be spread before mankind without hindrance from any quarter. She stands foremost in
the rapid march of improvement, which has signalized the present generation. I have already said
that her governing classes, and her subjects, taken
collectively or individually, are, in many respects,
worthy of the highest respect of mankind.  It is,
therefore, fair to consider that the condition of her
free laborers is at least equal to the average of the
93 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.,
free laborers of the world. Now, when I declare
that in the estimate I have made, if I have'exaggerated at all, it has been in assuming the class of laborers which enjoys a partial freedom, as larger
than the facts would warrant, I know that I am sustained by the documentary testimony published by
Parliament, and I am sure that every enlightened
and candid Englishman, who has made himself acquainted with the subject, will not hesitate to admit
the truth of wlat I have said.
So far, then, as regards one half of the laborers
of England, free labor may be defined to be the inalienable right of the subject to starve, rather than
perform the tasks which are commanded by a master.
It is certainly a glorious privilege; but alas for the
weakness ofpoor human nature, few are found willing,
by accepting voluntarily of the alternative, to prove
themselves martyrs in the glorious cause of freedom!
We may pity them for their weakness, we mayweep
over their sad fate, but we cannot blame them for
preferring to obey the instincts of nature, rather than
the promptings of manhood.
Far be it from me to say that it.would be proper
to take away from the English laborer this glorious
birthright of liberty.  Poor as it is, at a moment
when infirmities and want are pressing upon him,
it is probably the best inheritance which has been
bequeathed to him by his ancestors. Nor do I mean
to express the opinion that the introduction of a more
humane system, such as that of the African slave
labor of America, would on the whole be desirable.
94 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
But I do mean to say, that all the different systems
of labor which are in operation throuQghout the world,
are attended with evils. If each nation would therefore endeaver with an honest purpose to remove these
from their midst, instead of seeking to reform their
neighbors, true philanthropy and benevolence would
be much the gainers.
Although it may be'assumed that in certain latitudes and under certain circumstances, (both of
which conditions are fulfilled in the Southern part of
the continent of America,) African slave labor is
the best, the mildest, and the most humane of all other
systems, yet it is not pretended that the interests of
mankind require that it should be universal. Common reason teaches that the same rule or system of
labor cannot be applied to the overcrowded continent
of Europe, and to the sparsely populated wilds of tropical America. Neither can the human race be generalized in such manner as to apply the same fixed
rules of government to all. There must be an adaptation between them; laws sufficiently stringent to
answer all the purposes of society, when applied to
certain communities, would prove wholly insufficient
under a different state of circumstances, for the protection of the weak, the peaceable, and the well-disposed, against the encroachments of the wicked and
the strong.
Free labor in England may accomplish all that
could be desired in regard to material development,
because not to labor is to starve.  But in tropical
countries such an inducement to work is wanting,
4
95 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
because a bountiful nature,.almost spontaneouslyproduces all that ien-cessary to the absolute physical
wants of man, Therefore when the alternative is
presented to a freeman to labor or not to labor, he
chooses the latter, for the very sufficient reason that
he can subsist without it. There is no fact more
clearly established, by actual experiment, than that
neither the European nor any race of freemen can
or will labor successfully in tropical climates. Even
in the more temperate latitudes of the Southern
States of the American Union, the articles of tobacco,
cotton, rice, and sugar have only been successfully
produced in large quantities, through the instrumentality of slave labor.
Should, therefore, slave labor be abolished, and
real free labor be substituted therefor, tropical productions must, to a great extent, cease to contribute
to the necessities or to the luxuries of mankind.; or
they would at least, from their limited production,
be attainable only by the wealthy classes.
The philanthropist should bear in mind that the
greater part of that soothing beverage prepared from
the coffee beanAw'hich is alike the cheap luxury of
the rich and the solace of the humble and the poor
of every land, is the product of slave labor. The cane
sugar and the syrups, which from their cheapness
have become accessible to the poor, and which may
be found in every laborer's cottage in America, and
to a great extent throughout the world, are alone
made accessible to them, through the instrumentality of slave labor!  To these may be added the
96 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
articles of rice and tobacco, the use Of which has
become almost universal among the great body of
laborers throughout the world. Cotton, by means of
which mankind is clothed, is the product of slave
labor!
From the single slave State of Brazil alone, there
is an annual importation of coffee into the United
States, of about one million of bags, valued at fifteen
millions of dollars. It is consumed by every family,
and by almost every inhabitant of the Republic.
Of the cane sugar which is exported from the
countries where it is produced, for foreign consumption, about seven hundred thousand tons are the
result of slave labor!  Less than five hundred thou- 
sand tons are the product of Asiatic and African races,
subjected to the European powers, while the entire
product of free laborers of the European races, sold in
foreign markets, would not supply the necessities of.
the city of Boston alone!
Of cotton, the product of the world offered for
sale in thp European and American markets, is now
about four and a half millions of bales; nearly
four millions of which are produced by the Southern
States of the American Confederacy; something more
than half a million by subjugated Asiatics and
Africans; while that produced and sold by free laborers ofthe European races,would notsupplyamanucturing township of Massachusetts!
He whose heart throbs with a single generous or
benevolent sentiment towards the laboring, toiling
ilions of poor, may well for an instant pause, and
0
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LETT'ERS ON SLAVERY.
ask himself ai it is the part of true philanthropy to
strike off, at one blow, so many of the few comforts
which their limited means permit them  to enjoy?
I know that it is difficult for him who has at command the ready means to purchase all that his appetite craves, without regard to cost, to imagine that
the deprivation of one or two simple articles can
amount to any great sacrifice. But such should remember, that while they may procure substitutes, the
poor have no such resource.  While they, by means
of their wealth, may still supply themselves with the
articles referred to, even at their enhanced value, they
have only been made accessible to the poor by means
of their cheapness, and their use must be abandoned
when they become dear.
Upon a memorable occasion, a number of the inhabitants of Boston, in defiance of British power and
British interests, heroically entered the English
ships which lay in their harbor, and cast into the
sea the tea of which their cargo consisted.  The
patriotic citizens refused to enjoy an article of luxury,
which tley conceived could only be procured by a
submission to an unlawful act of tyranny on the
part of their rulers.  This noble sacrifice of their!
appetites to their patriotism was noised abroad in
eyery land.  It has been the fruitful theme of the
poets' songs, and is the bright spot in the pages of
her annals, over which the historian loves to linger.
To this day, the Bostonian refers to the act of sacrifice, as the most brilliant and enduring testimony
of the patriotic devotion of his ancestors t6 the cause
.il  I
98 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
of freedom. Although the deprivation was only to
exist during a brief season, theoorld has not for
this cause abated of its admiration for the heroic 
achievement over their appetites.
The anti-slavery party of to-day demands, that the
toiling millions of mankind shall strike off for ever,
from the list of their comforts and their necessaries,
the products of slave labor. Hiow vast the differe-ce in the sacrifice made by the Bostonians and
that which they this day require from the poor of
the world!
Compare the products of slave labor, and the uses
to which they are applied, with some of the more
important achievements of so-called free labor, in
the same field.
Look into the loathsome grogshops which contaminate the cities, the towns, the villages, the crossroads, of almost every State of the American IUnion.
Cross the Atlantic, and in every country of Europe,
mark the spot from whence the reeling, bloated,
beastly inebriate emerges: penetrate into Asia, and
even into the benighted regions of Africa, and there
may be seen, marked upon the barrel-heads, which
are exposed to view as an advertisement to the consumer-both for the producer and the vender-in
large and bold characters, which  even a reeling
drunkard may read-"New England Rum!"   Alcohol never has been, and never will be a product
of slave labor.
Pass over the Pacific ocean, and enter the densely
populated territory of over-crowded CHINA. Mark
* l
g * -            *    *   *-.....
99 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
there the terrible ravages of that trade in opium
which England fced upon that unhappy country
at the cannon's mouth.  Read the remonstrance
which was a few days ago transmitted by the Secretaries of the Church, the London, and the Wesleyan
Missionary Societies, to the British Government.
The injuries inflicted upon the Chinese, (says the memorials) by
the immense quantities of opium, forced into the country against the
laws of the Empire, are appalling and incalculable; exhausting pe
means, destroying the health, and debauching the morals of the plople, to an extent that may well cause any Christian nation to shrink
from the responsibility of being instrumental, in however rem~ote and
indirect a manner, in the production of results so deplorable and revolting. The trade, as it is now conducted between India and China,
tends to lower the morality, and to degrade the character of British
merchants; and for no other object than that of reaping for themselves sordid and unhallowed gains, from what may be truly described
as a traffic in debauchery, disease, and death. It dishonors the English
nation before God and man. It would entail lasting infamy upon
the British name, if it became known that merely for selfish purposes
of revenue agd gain, we had compelled a foreign State, at the mouth
of the cannon, to introduce among its subjects a poisonous drug, the
introduction of which they have always steadily refused  on  the
ground of its pernicious and demoralizing effects upon the people;
thus exhibiting to the world a professedly Christian nation paying less
regard to moral considerations than the heathen rulers of China!
A.las for the reputation of philanthrophic England,
it is already known that she has forced this poisonous drug upon the Chinese nation, at the cannon's
mouth!
Alas for the influence of the Christian faith! In
contrast with this "act of infamy" by a great Christian power, the heathen Emperor of China, in response
to the suggestion made to him that he might derive
;*                 ~                   o
100 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
a large revenue from the trade in opium, replied:
"It is true I cannot prevent the introduction of the
flowing poison; gain-seeking and-corrupt men will,
for profit and sensuality, defeat my  wishes, but
nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from
the vice and misery of my people."
Old England develops the sublime system  of
free labor, by forcing this poisonous drug upon
untold millions of the human race.  The slave labor'
of the Southern States of the American Confederacy;
sends forth its four millions of cotton bales, to every
quarter of the globe, to clothe the naked.
New England distributes, among other of the
great productions of her free labor, throughout the
world, that liquid fire which burns out the honor,
the morals, the health, the lives of all who come
under its pernicious influence; spreading crime, and
misery, and degradation, in every land. Slave labor
offers in lieu of this hellish draught, that mild, and
soothing, and healthy beverage, which is alike the
solace of the palace and the cottage.
Far be it from me even to desire to depreciate the
magnificent results of free labor, both in Englandc
and America. In the development and expansion
of the mechanic arts, and in their application to the
wants of man;  in the vast improvements which
have been introduced into almost every employmnent of civilized nations, both are in advance of any
other, and of every age, of which history affords us
a knowledge. As an American and an Anglo-Saxon,
I am proud of these great achievements; but as a
iot 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
Southerner, born in a land to which slavery has been
transmitted as an inheritance, for good or for evil, I'
am prouder still that the products of this slave labor
have supplied raiment, and food, and other comforts
for the rich and- the poor of every land; while no
single commodity which has been sent forth to the
world has contributed, in the smallest degree, to increase
the vices or miseries of mankind.
We have been taught in the holy Book to judge
of the tree by its fruits-of men by their acts-and
may we not be allowed to judge of systems by their
results? Shall mankind be for ever fettered in its
judgment by a reverence for mere names, or by respect for mere theories?   Shall we reserve all our
anathemas against vice, for the garments in which
our fancy may clothe it? Or shall the wolf in
sheep's clothing be suffered to enter among the
flocks and herds, because we do not choose to look
beneath the garb of innocence, which guilt assumes
to hide its criminal intent? Before endeavoring to
remove the mote that is in thy brother's eye, would
it not be the part of wisdom to cast out the beam
but of thine own eye?  
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LETTER VII.
Unfavorable results of Emancipation by England-Beneficial results
of Slave Labor in the United States- Comparison of the condition
of the Slave and Free States of the American Continent-Great
importance attached by England to tropical productions-The in terests of England and the Planting States identical.
I HAVE assumed as facts-that slave labor has
supplied for the use of mankind the necessary articles of cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice, and coffee-that
free labor never has succeeded in producing them;
and I have inferred that if slave labor should be
abolished, the great mass of those for whom the
consumption thereof has become almost a necessity,
would be obliged to abandon their use altogether.
If any practical proofs are desired to establish
the want of adaptation of the European races, or
of free labor, to the purposes of production in the
tropics, it has been amply demonstrated by the results which have followed the abolition of slavery
in the Colonies of England and France, and in the
present condition of the Governments of the New
World.
In  all South America, the only Government
which has attained to any great political importance
is                    Brazil. It is the only nation which has kept
pace in its improvements with the.advancement of
the world, and it is the only independent Govern                                         (108) 
LETTERS ON. L AVERY.
ment on the American Continent, except that of
the United States, where slavery has  not Licei
abolished.
The institution of domestic slavery has existed
in the United States of America from a period long
anterior to its independent existence as a nation, up
to the present moment of time. Never in recorded
history is there evidence that any other country old
any other people have made such rapid advances t,
greatness, wealth, and power.  While it is not col,tended that this result has been wholly achieve(l
through the instrumentality of the institution of
slavery, none will deny that the productions of
slave labor have contributed powerfully and materially to its accomplishment.
This fact is fully established by the exports of
domestic produce to foreign countries. Although
the population of the free States is as about two to
one over that of the slave States, yet the exports
from the slave States during the last year (1859)
amounted in value to nearly two hundred millions
of dollars, while the entire exports of the free
States fell short of eighty millions. The value of
the cotton alone, exceeded one hundred and sixty
millions. Although these aggregate amounts will
be doubtless increased the present year, (1860,) yet
these exhibit the relative exports of the two sections. This immense sum goes to the enrichment
of the entire nation, and, in some shape or other,
finds its way into almost every county in every
State in the Confederacy. Politicians may talk
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
flippantly of sacrificing this great interest "upon
the altar of freedom," and-fanatics and vain theorists may be really ready for the sacrifice; but unless common sense be entirely banished from the
land, or lost in the mad passions excited by sectional hatred, it is still to be hoped that enough
of true Americanism is left to prevent even one
more serious movement in that direction.
These productions of the Southern States have
not only entered largely into the consumption of
the inhabitants of the earth, but they have given
employment to m,llions of laborers, whose daily
bread is dependent upon the supply of cotton.
These products of slave labor are necessary to the
happiness, the prosperity, almost the very existence
of society itself, as at present organized throughout
the civilized world.
On the other hand, look at the picture of desolation, anarchy, and thriftless imbecility which have
marked the history of the Governments of Mexico
and Central America. A fairer or a more productive clime is scarcely to be found upon the earth.
There, Nature has lavished her choicest, richest
bounties.  With a soil as productive as any in the
world-a climate, which with such a soil, produces almost spontaneously the best fruits of the
earth-from one extremity of this favored land to
the other, the eye wanders in vain in searqh of a
single spot which has been made to yield of its
abundant capacities to the wants or the luxuries
of civilized man.
105 
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These results cannot properly be attributed to
their political institutions; for upon the one hand,
we have the example of the Republic of the United
States, with a form of government similar, in all
essential particulars, to those of Central America
and Mexico; and upon the other hand, we have the
example of the Monarchy of Brazil, where, as previously stated, a comparatively rapid progress and
development have been made. Neither can the result be ascribed to the alleged degeneracy of the
Spanish-American race, for there is no evidence
that they are inferior to the Portuguese inhabitants
of Brazil. Moreover, such an assumption is proven
to be unfounded by the present condition of the
inhabitants of the Island of Cuba. These are of
the same race and of the same religion, and they
inhabit a country similar in climate, soil, and productions to that favored land occupied with suclI
fruitless results by the inhabitants of Central
America and Mexico. Under all the disadvantages
of her political condition-governed as she is and
has been' for the benefit of a foreign master,
with no special evidences of paternal fondness, the
Island of Cuba has still contributed materially to
the supply of mankind with those tropical productions, which, from being at one time luxuries attainable only by the rich, have become necessaries
all over the civilized world, for all classes of society.
This brief reference to the relative condition of
the governments of America, and the comparative
106 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
prosperity of the inhabitants, exhibits the fact that
in every portion of that great continent, where African slavery exists, without reference to the form
of the government, prosperity prevails, and the
lavish bounties of nature have been made available
to the wants of man. While, upon the other hand,
wherever the institution of slavery does not exist,
in all that region where sugar,;offee, cotton, and
rice, form the staple productions  or where slavery
has been abolished, ruin, decay, and desolation have
been the result. The fruits which a bountiful nature have placed within their grasp remain ungarnered-ungathered!  So far as the rest of mankind
are concerned, the very land itself might be blotted
from existence without material loss or regret, except for the hope that something may be hereafter
done to elevate it to that rank among the nations
of the earth wvhich nature seems to have designed
that it should occupy.
But it is not alone among the independent governments of the new world where the existence of
slave labor has been proven to be necessary in the
development of tropical productions.  England herself having abolished slavery in her provinces, with
all her re-creative power, and with all the stimulants
of pride and interest to urge her to its accomplishment, has been unable to restore life or animation
to her stricken,  palsied provinces!  Desolation
abounds where verdant fields once bloomed.  Decay
has followed where were once rife the evidences of
prosperity; and ignorance, indolence, misery and
107 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
vice, now reign supreme amongst that unhappy
class, whom the cruel philanthropy of England has
enfranchised.
These truths are scraps from history. They exist
at present as undeniable facts, which all who choose
may verify. They are spread before our eyes in
characters which cannot be misunderstood, if the
purpose  be to judge  fairly and frankly by results, in lieu of theories. Where African slave labor exists in the southern latitudes of America,
prosperity abounds, and the world is furnished with
the richness of the products of that favored clime.
Where it does not exist, there has been comparatively no progress-no production-no prosperity!
Where it has existed, but has been abolished, ruin,
decay, and imbecility have followed!
It being then an undeniable truth, that hitherto
the world has only been supplied with the productions of tropical climates through the instrumentality of slave labor, and that all attempts to secure
this resuk by free labor have been unsuccessful,
even supported by the mighty influence and power
of Great Britain, should the institution of slavery
in the Southern States be stricken down in deference to the real or affected philanthropy of those
who created it. Of those who kidnapped and transported from Africa, as in the case of Great Britain,
or sold for money in hand, as in the case of the now
so-called "free States" of the North, all of these very
slaves, or their ancestors, whom they would now
emancipate, and whose tender sensibilities were
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
never aroused in favor of the victims of their own
cupidity until they had received the full wages of
their sin, and had transported the "human chattels"
to their possessors, to be held in bondage, they and
their descendants, by them and their posterity, for ever! In view of these facts, is it not fair to pre sume that there is some moving motive of self-in terest, which has a deeper hold upon their hearts
than the philanthropic considerations by which they
profess to be governed? Whatever may be the
sentiments and feelings of that portion of the civil ized world, which is not actively engaged in this
crusade against the South upon the abstract ques tion of slavery, should they not hesitate long and
ponder deeply before they say "God speed" to the
enemies of the planting States of the Confederacy
in their present struggle?  Having satisfied them selves that the existing relations between the Afri can and European races, living upon the same soil,
cannot be changed without bringing ruin upon one
or both, let them consider of the probable conse quences to mankind, if unhappily this selfish assault
should terminate in the success of the assailants.
I have a right to suggest these considerations,
also, to those Americans who are laboring with so
much energy and zeal, ill conjunction with others
from without, to stimulate the hatred of mankind
against the Southern States, with the avowed or
* concealed purpose of reducing those States to the
degraded condition of the British tropical posses sions. There is all the greater propriety in making
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4
109 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
this appeal to Americans, because it is not claimed
that the consummation they desire would add to the
material interests of any other nation or people than
those whose interests are adverse to theirs.
Let me not be misunderstood. I know that it is the
theory of many of the wisest politicians of England,
as indicated by the London Times in the article
from which I have made a brief extract, that the
British possessions in India can only be successfully
developed by a gradual but sure process of emancipation in America, to be followed by the entire extinction of slavery. This may or may not be true,
but if I might venture to avow a difference of
opinion from those who ought to be more capable
of deciding upon the true policy and interests of
that country, I would say that the hopes which may
be founded upon such a contingency would, in
practice, prove to be a delusion. England is already
great in herself, and powerful and rich in comparison with the other leading powers of the world.
May she not, by grasping at all, lose all? Now,
the prosperity of the slave States is the prosperity
of England. A combination of circumstances, wisely directed by the indomitable energies and gallantry of her citizens, have made her one of the
ruling nations of the world, in a military sense, as
well as in commerce and manufactures.  In regard
to the latter, she stands almost without a rival- certainly without an equal. On the other hand, the 9
Southern planting States, owing to the causes before
referred to, are the greatest producers of that com
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
modity which is manufactured at such an enormous
profit by Great Britain. Would it not be better
that each should go on in the career which they are
now following, and acting upon that fundamental
principle of political economy which commands nations to develop their own resources at home, to sell
where they can realize the greatest. profit, and to
buy where they can buy the cheapest, content themselves with their present prosperity, rather than
seek a doubtful advantage from the destruction of
the prosperity of others? It may be an error of
judgment, but I cannot resist the conclusion that
England is greater and more powerful to-day than
she would be if slavery should be abolished, by even
the slow process wlich the leaders of the political
antislavery party propose to inaugurate. And in
this connection, let me add that, about which I may
speak with the confidence of one who is familiar
with the subject by a life-time experience and observation. The relations subsisting in America between the Africans and the inhabitants of European
blood can'never be materially changed by the consent of the latter: which consent would be essential
to  "a yradual" enfranchisement  of the slaves.
Slavery, under the circumstances there existing, can
only be eradicated by violence, sudden and overwhelming! The first step taken by her enemies
looking to emancipation, would arouse the entire
South to an energetic and a bloody resistance, such
as the world to this day has never witnessed! Let
no one be deceived in regard to the results which
111 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
would follow swiftly upon the heels of such a move ment! The four millions of Africans, who are now
inhabitants of the South, can only be emancipated
and left upon the soil by the extermination or the
entire subjection of eight millions of whites!
Many of the anti-slavery advocates profess to be
governed only by a desire to eradicate what they
are pleased to denominate "a great sin."  Others
insist that they only "follow the promptings of humanity," in seeking "to restore the African to his
native freedom." Others again ignore the rights of
the black man, but look with compassion upon the
white race, who have been "born under the influence of the demoralizing institution." And these
are all the more intent upon accomplishing their
mission of mercy, because those for whom their
sympathies are so much excited persistently refuse
to see the horrors of their situation. Others, we
are bound' to believe, are stimul4ated only by their
hatred of the Southern people.  But of all the hostile elements which go to make up the aggregate of
that pafty which in Europe and America seeks,
either covertly or openly, to destroy the institution
of slavery in the Southern States of the Confederacy,
it is not pretended that any human being beyond
the limits of those States will derive any-the
smallest benefit therefrom, except by that class of
politicians just referred to to.  They desire to shake
off their dependence upon that American slavelabor, which, by feeding their looms, gives bread to
their millions ofpoor! They hope, upon the ruins of
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the American plantations, to make their own country the great producer of tropical commodities. And
with all this frankness and candor, when addressing
arguments to their own people, they have the
temerity, in assuming the leadership of the political
anti-slavery party in America, to aver upon the opposite side of the ocean, that their controlling purpose is to accomplish a work of philanthropy, with
the scarcely less benevolent intent to aid in removing a stain which rests upon the reputation of
their kinsmen, and upon the fair fame of their free
institutions!
That this class of politicians do not over estimate
the enormous augmentation of wealth and power
which might come into the possession of Great
Britain, if their schemes should be realized, may not
be questioned against the judgment of such distinguished statesmen; but it is equally true that they
underrate the obstacles to their accomplishment.
Even though the entire northern section of the Confederacy shlould unite with them heartily in compassing their objects-even though they should
secure the reins of power in the general government
of the Confederacy, still the South would not consent to the self-sacrific%e and her opposition would
be fatal.  The States of the Confederacy are, inI
many essential respects sovereign, and the small
State of Delaware alone, with' her five hundred
slaves, could not under the Constitution be coerced
to emancipate them, even although the Federal
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
Government, and every other State in the UInion,
should unite in demanding it.
In illustration of the important influence which
these productions exercise over the destinies of the
civilized world; I will extract a few paragraphs from
a late publication in which Mr. McQueen, a distinguished British politician, announces the policy of
his country. The fearful struggle of Great Britain
in the long series of wars towhich Mr. McQueen
refers, is worthy of a passing notice. Never before did any other nation meet and overcome so
many and such powerful enemies. All Europe,
as it were, was combined in solid phalanx against
her. Some stimulated by a hereditary hatred; others
by jealousy and envy of her power; others by fear;
and others still by the necessities of their position,
all entered upon the struggle with the single purpose of destroying the power of that nation whose
navy was in every sea; whose flag floated over vast
possessions in every quarter of the globe; whose
armies were unsurpassed in bravery or skill; and
whose purse seemed almost inexhaustible. Still the
world in arms was arrayed against her, under the
leadership of the greatest military chieftain of
ancient or modern times. - Napoleon the Great
headed the hostile array! The result is before theworld.  The Government of Great Britain still
stands amongst the foremost powers of the earth,
illustrating still the same heroic determination, the
same energy, the same skill in maintaining her
supremacy, which has ever excited the admiration 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
and respect even of her enemies; with the same inordinate and absorbing selfishness which has ever
repelled the undoubting confidence or the love of
mankind.
During that fearful struggle [said the author referred to] of a
quarter of a century, for the existence of a nation against the power
and resources of Europe, directed against her by the most intelligent but remorseless military ambition, the command of the productios of the torrid zone, and the advantageous commerce which that
afforded, gave to Great Britain the power and the resources which enabled
her to meet, to combat, and to overcome her numerous and reckless enemies
on every battle field, whether by sea or by land throughout the world. In
her, the world saw realized the fabled giant of antiquity. With her
hundred hands she grasped her foes in every region under heaven,
and crushed them with resistless energy...    The increased
cultivation and prosperity of Foreign tropical possessions, is become
so great, and is advancing so rapidly the power and resources of other
nations, that these are embarrassing [England] in all her commercial
relations, in her pecuniary resources, and in all her political relations and negotiations....  If the cultivation of the tropical
territories of other powers be not opposed and checked by British tropical cultivation, then the INTERESTS and the POWER of such
States will rise into a preponderance over those of Great Britain, and
the power and the influence of the latter will cease to be felt, feared,
and respected "amongst the civilized and powerful nations of the
world.
When we consider that mankind generally, but more
especially the governments which are instituted by
mnen, in the very nature of things, seektheir own ag randizement, even at the expense of doing an incilental injustice to-others, the citizens of the great Republic should make some allowance for the zeal of
British abolitionism in attempting to destroy an institution, which in its operations they conceive to be
inimical to theirinterests. When England defended
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
and upheld and propagated slavery in America, it
must be remembered that the territory and the
slaves were hers; now that a revolution has deprived
her of that territory and those slaves, and the
ownership thereof has passed into other hands, it
could scarcely be expected that her policy in reference to the industrial pursuits of that country would
not undergo a radical change. That the anti-slavery
party of Great Britain in assuming the leadership
of the emancipationists of New England, and in the
announcement of its intentions, should be profuse
in its protestations of a merely benevolent and philanthropic purpose, should not be a matter of surprise; but in deciding upon the weight to which their
counsels are entitled, we should, as men, consider
the magnitude of the interests involved, and as
Americans, we should not suffer ourselves to be deceived in regard to their real sentiments and purposes, in our admiration of the outer garments with
which they have enveloped them.
In order that I may not be misunderstood, I will
here again state my own belief that the policy of
this party in assuming a hostile attitude towards
the development and the power of the planting
States of America, and by their irritating assaults
against them, perpetuating those feelings of unkindness which were enkindled by the wars in which we
l]are been engaged, is neither in accordance with
their own interests or those' of mankind.   That
England should have emancipated the slaves that
were left in her possession, after the revolution of
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her North American slave provinces, with a view
to the ultimate destruction of that great element of
future power and wealth in the revolted territory,
may be regarded as but a natural ebulition of animosity consequent upon the irritations which such
a struggle always engenders. But the speedy disappointment of such hopes, if they were in fact entertained, and the perpetual alienation of these Colonies having been long since established, England
should shape her policy in accordance with the
promptings of a more enlarged statesmanship. No
other two nations of the world have so many inducements to cultivate a sincere and enduring friendship. Every additional bale of cotton which may be
produced in the planting States, adds just in that
proportion to the material power and wealth of
Great Britain.   Nay, more than this, there are
political considerations and heart sympathies, which
when left to their own free action, impel them towards each other,and which it were wise that England
shopld consider and respect. But even though the
British anti-slavery leaders give no heed to such
considerations, they should remember, that the
friendships they cultivate in the UTnited States, having
their foundations only in a common sentiment of
hatred, are not to be relied upon in the hour of trial
and danger; while the animosities thus engendered
jive to bear fruits long after the causes which produced them have disappeared.
ilT 
LETTER VIII.
Opposing interests combined in the Anti-Slavery Party-Causes of
disaster to Republics-Tendency of Slaverv to produce equality
in the dominant race-Causes of opposition to  lavers     to     -
cratic bodies-Morals of Slave and Free States-Capital and Labor
united in Slave States.
THE superficial observer, in analyzing the compo nent parts of the great anti-slavery party, is surprised at the apparently discordant materials of
which it is composed. He discovers that the zeal
of the fanatical advocates of the equal rights of all
men, without regard to color, religion, qualifications, or education, scarcely keeps pace with that
of the champions of the divine right of kings and
nobles, in accomplishing the destruction of an institution which seems to be equally at war with the
interests and opinions of both. The most uncompromising of all the enemies of slavery in theOld
World, spring from the hereditary governing classes
-the most fanatical and vindictive in the New
World, are those who would be recognized in
Europe under the designation of "Red Republicans."  This coincidence of sentiment, however,
grows out of the antagonism of slavery to the extreme doctrines of both.
The unsuccessful efforts which have been made
in Europe to construct Republics upon the ruins of
Monarchies, have had their origin in the ignorance
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
of the masses of the populations. This ignorance
has been made use of by more enlightened demagogues to subvert the very Governments which
they professedly sought to establish. The ignorant
people were led to believe that liberty and license
were synonymous, and that freedom consisted in the
absence of the restraints of law. The calamities
which have generally followed upon the heels of
every successful effort to overthrow Monarchical
Despotisms, have been brought about by the excesses induced by such violations of the. principle
upon which a Republic should be founded. Moreover, these same ignorant classes were in turn
equally the instruments by which Despots have
been able to resume their lost power.
In the formation of the different Governments of
the American Confederacy, if the negroes had been
made citizens, they would have constituted the material out of which demagogues would soon have
produced a state of affairs that would have caused a
radical chaage in the form of the Government.
Happily, such a policy was not adopted, and hence
the slave States entered upon their career as Republics without being subjected to those dangers
which originate in the ignorance and incompetency
of its citizens. The material which has been successfully employed in the Old World to make Republics impossible did not exist. That class of
the community which elsewhere led by wicked
counsels produces revolution, was unknown in the
slave State.  The humblest white man felt that
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
there were below him, socially and politically, a
considerable portion of the population. He had all
the incentives of pride to fulfil properly the duties
which, a  a free citizen, he was called upon to per form. No matter how humble his position, he
never occupied that station in regard to the wealthier portioil of the population which would impress
upon him a feeling of inferiority. He performed
none of those menial services for others which
would degrade him in his own estimation, or which,
from the nature of his relations to his employer,
would make him but an instrument in the hands of
his superior. All these services were rendered by
slaves.
The existence of slavery thus rendered facile the
establishment of free government by the dominant
race. There was no hazard in conferring equal
political privileges upon the whites, and the natural
influence of slavery has been to create a feeling of
personal independence among the superior race,
which makes them more capable of performing the
duties o'f free citizens. These States have by this
means been exempted, in a great measure, from
those popular tumults which have been the graves
of the Republics of the Old World.  In effect,.while
the free States of New England have been overrun
by fanatics who display their'absurd and pernicious
principles under the forms of "Fourierism," "abolitionism," " atheism," "free love-ism,"  womans'
ri ghts-isin," and many others equally detes,able,
they are absolutely unknown in the slave States,
~,i
120 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
because the populations from which proselytes to
such doctrines are usually obtained, do not there
exist, and there are no materials out of which the
intelligent, but vicious or fanatical leaders, can construct a party.
The abolitionists of England, as well as of the
Northern States of the Union, without designing to
do so, confirm the facts above stated. It is often
with these a subject of mortification and complaint
that-the Southern States, as they aver, generally
select their Representatives in Ahe Congress from
among their most intelligent citizens, and retain
them for a long period in the management of their
public affairs; while in the abolition districts, scarcely
have they elected a man of ability, ere he is thrust
aside by another, who, in his turn, is superseded
almost before he has made himself familiar with
the routine of his duties, by one more radlical and
more skilled in the subtle arts of demagoguery,
This is the testimony furnished by the enemies of
slavery. In truth, however, it may be readily inferred that, from the causes which exist, such results would naturally follow.
The effect of slavery has, therefore, been to establish free institutions for the donminant race, and
upon a solid and durable foundation. That the ekxistence of the institution of slavery has a powerful
influence in establishing and preserving equality
among the different classes of the governing races,
may be readily conceived.  For example-let  us
imagine that one-third of the entire population of
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Great Britain, embracing the most ignorant of her
population, were removed, and their places supplied
by African slaves, how long would even the vene rated institutions of that loyal population with stand the determined assertion of the right to
equality on the part of the remaining Anglo Saxons?   The population whose ignorance  and
dependence would have been a perpetual bar to
the establishment of equality, would no longer
exist. The instruments which may now be used
by the governia  classes in maintaining  their
supremacy, woula have passed away, and with
them, would disappear those hereditary distinctions
which are now recognized as natural and proper,
and even necessary.  In this tendency of the institution of slavery to Democratize the dominant race,
by elevating all classes to the capacity of self-government, may be found one of the principal causes
which have contributed to array against it hereditary governing classes.  The judgmentS and the instincts pf mankind generally lead them in the direction of their interests. Those who are in the
possession  of  exclusive  privileges,  rarely give
credit to the wisdom or morality of measures
which have a tendency to curtail or to render unnecessary the exercise of such rights.
The governing class of the State is not only jealous of rivalry, but, apprehending no danger from
itself, it is always endeavoring to perpetuate, and to
increase its power. Whether it be the government
of a monarchy, or an aristocracy, or of the people,
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the same principle of human nature is always at
work- more power-and more and mnore.  On the
other hand, the governed, with more or less earnestness, desire the extension of their privileges. In
every State, therefore, there is a perpetual contest.
Though it may not find occasion for practical development, it exists in the mind, and only lies dormant for a season, awaiting a proper moment for its
manifestation.  The tendency of the institution of
lavery being opposed to hereditary distinctions of
ra,ik among members of the dominant race, very
jaturally accounts for one of the causes which have
.1)pelled the supporters of despotism to unite with
tle advocates of the most extreme agrarianism, in
opposition to the institution of slavery in America.
Upon this hypothesis only can we account for the
4,xtreme zeal of many of the governing classes of
En rope for the expulsion of slavery from the American continent, unless we attribute to them individually and collectively a loftier appreciation of human 
liberty than other classes can lay claim to.
It cannot be that they oppose slavery because this
institution conflicts with the doctrine of the universal
equality of the races of mankind; because they
maintain for themselves the right to the exercise of
exclusive privileges, which they have inherited from
their ancestors, and which they also claim the right
to transmit to their posterity. It cannot be on the
score of humanity, pure and simple, for I presume
it will scarcely be denied, that the system of slavery
in the United States is not only the mildest system
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
of labor which exists, but, by the admission of even
the most persistent and uncompromising enemies
of the slave States, the slaves are more kindly dealt
with, are better fed and cloted,'and more rarely
overworked, than any similar number of free laborers
in the world. It cannot be because of the demoralizing tendencies, or vices incident to slavery; for if
they have eyes they must see that there is more vice
and immorality, more human degradation, more unpitied misery, illustrated by the history of any one
single day of the year, in the city of London, or Paris,
or Vienna, or even New York and Boston, than a
whole year would bring forth amongst all the slaves
of America. It is true that among the slaves there
is vice, for they are human; but they are never
forced to the alternative of vice or starvaton.  They
may yield to the temptationsof a natu'ily wicked
heart, but never are they induced by necessity to
the commission of crime. The wicked imaginations
of obscene men and women picture among the families of the Southern"States, scenes of immorality
and debauchery. Who does not know, that in any
one of the cities I have namted, as well as in hundreds of others which might be enumerated, the
vices referred to are practised to a larger extent between master and servant, or "help," of the same
race, in one month, than during half a generation
in the slave States, between master and slave.  In
the one case there exists a natural repulsion, as well
as the stimulant of pride. Even these barriers, owever, are powerless to prevent altogether this species
124 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
of vice. But let any one compare in his mind, the
relative inducements, incentives, and opportunities
for the commission of the vices referred to, between
black slaves and their owners, and white hired servants and their masters, and he may decide the
question for himself, without desiring further testimony than the existing relations of the two would
furnish.
In this connection, let me refer, for an instant, to
the revolting spectacle which meets the eye in all
large cities, under the operation of what is denominated the system of free labor. Look, for example,
any evening of the year, upon the crowded streets
and avenues of London. There you behold-not
hLundreds-not thousands-but tens of thousands of
human beings, fashioned after the model of the
fairest of God's creatures, offering themselves in the
highways and by-ways, body and soul, to any pur
chaser who will give themn money, to buy bread.
They would even work for the pittance of ten cents
or twenty cents a day-the scanty wages allowed to
a free laborer of their class-but there are none to
give them employment. There is no fire in the
miserable apartment tp give warmth to its inmates.
There is no morsel of food to appease the pangs of
hunger. The tempter is present pointing to the
manner of obtaining both: the purchaser is without.
Are the victims young and well1-favored? they offer
themselves in exchange for that which will support
life, Are they old and without charms? they beg
of those whom they may encounter, in the name of
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
humanity, for something wherewithal to sustain a
little longer their miserable existence. Perhaps the
first person they encounter is a clergyman of the
abolition school. He turns coldly away from the
blandishments of the one, and the tears of the other,
and entering his study, sits down to compose an appeal to mankind, in behalf of the'suffering slaves of
America! No sentiment of pity for the misery which
ekists around him; no horror of the crimes or vices
which he cannot fail to see; no earnest effort to
amend that system which is the fruitful parent of
so much misery and vice, can move him to employ
his great intellect, or exert his great influence where
it might be availing. For him and for his class,
there is but one great sin; and that is the sin of
American slavery in a far distant land. There is
but one object of compassion; but one which calls
for the exercise -of benevolence, and that is "the
little negro baby."
This clergyman is unfortunately but the type of a
class, which for the sake of humanity, it were to be
wished;were less numerous.  Unhappily, Old England is not the only land in which they are to be
found. The example has not been without influence across the Atlantic, where it has assumed a
form even more revolting.
We may make due allowance for the injustice done
by the abolitionists of Great Britain to the planting
States of America, because they believe that they have
a great political interest in embarrassing irst, and in
overthrowing afterwards, at the proper moment, the
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
institution of slavery. We may respect the convictions of the dreame, who hopes to witness, with the
disappearance of slavery, the realization of what is
regarded by practical men, an impossible equality.
We may pardon the politician who takes advantage
of the popular excitement to secure his way to place
and power. But for the professed teacher of God's
Holy Word; for the man who claims to be a disciple
of Christ, and a follower of his, holy counsels, but
who prostitutes the pulpit to the purpose of inciting.
hatred? instead of love; who preaches for blood and
war instead of peace; who from the holy desk distributes " Sharp's rifles," and other instruments of murder, with instructions to go forth and slay; who, in effect, teaches his congregation that all the other sins of
the world are as nothing compared to the sin of
slavery-who can regard him in any other aspect,
than as the enemy-whether- innocently or otherwise, it is not my province to judge-of that meek
and lowly Jesus, whom he professes to serve.
But to resume the consideration of the opposition
made by hereditary governing classes, to American
slavery. It cannot be because of the degradation
it imposes upon the African, for no informed man
Fill be found to assert that any of his race have ever,
in any time past, occupied a position so elevated in
the scale of humanity, as that of those who are now
held as slaves within the slave States of America.
Upon this pointthere exists no contrarietyof opinion.
The ultra abolitionist, and the extreme slavery propagandist, are in regard to this fact, in perfect accord.
5
127 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
Neither can it be that this opposition arises from any
promptings of Christianity, because, though heathens
in their native land, slavery has christianized them.
Many of these philanthropists say that none can be
saved who die without a knowledge of Christ, yet,
but for the existence of African slavery,,who can believe that fifty of these four millions of slaves, would
ever according to this view have "fallen into the
way of salvation?" Would they have consigned
these people to the horrors of eternal punishment? If the doctrine to which I refer be true,
such would have been their terrible fate but for their
enslavement.
The philanthropic and benevolent, both of England
and America, send forth their Christian missionaries
to every benighted land, into which these self-exiled
teachers of our sublime faith can procure ingress.
They endure patiently hardships, dangers, and death,
in their zeal to promote the cause in which they are
engaged.  Many of these I have known well.  I
have entered their dwellings in the far away mountains of. Asia, and even in Africa I have witnessed
the operations of their good work. They are a good
providence and a treasure to the benighted lands to
which they are sent.  The influence of their example and their teachings spread blessings all around
them, even though their doctrine be rejected. They
live apart from the home-friends they love, they perform the duty which is set before them, they die in
obscurity in a foreign land, and are forgotten; but
the fruits of their good works live on forever! All
128 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
honor then to the Christian missionary, who makes
of himself a real martyrin the cause of true benevolence! Yet all the labors of all the missionaries
who have been dispatched to heathen lands from
England and America since the revolution, have not
converted # Christianity one tenth of the number
which slavery has brought into the fold of our
Saviour.
While we cannot expect that the advocates of the
Divine right of classes to govern, will, as a body,
abate anything of their hostility to an institution
which tends to eradicate the political inequalitiesof
the donant race upon wCi             eem  is
foun-i,  y-eeot  hope for a different result,
among true friends of freedom, who may have formed
erroneous opinions in regard to practical results by
following too closely the indications of their theory.
If the advocates of the universal equality of man
are really desirous, as they undoubtedly are, to witness the establishment and perpetuation of free
institutions, as now existing in the United States of
America; partial though they admittedly are, and
confined to the European races, why should they
wish to place them at so much hazard, to subject
them to so fearful on ordeal, as to insist upon the
recognition of an equality between races so far removed from each other by education and habit, so
dissimilar in all things? It they consider that the
failure or success of "the experiment" of free government, now being made in the New World, will
have an important bearing upon the fate of free
129 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
institutions for centuries yet to come, why should
they desire to stake all upon the cast of a; single die?
Why should they wish to deprive "the experiment"
now in the morning of its success, of its surest bulwark-why should they desire to hazard the interests of millions of the white race, for tle purpose
of conferring a doubtful benefit upon but comparatively a handful of Africans?-and all for no probable good, except to test in practice the proof of
a theory which the vast majority of mankind believe
to be founded in error?
There exists still another class both large and formidable, who oppose slavery upon grounds altogether
antagonistical to those we have been considering.
They profess no sentimental philanthropy, no belief
in the natural equality of the African, no sympathy
for sufferings which they say do not exist, no disposition to elevate him for his own sake to political
independence. They oppose slavery because they
say slavery is inimical to free labor.
A little practical knowledge of the facts will convince any one who investigates the subject, that
this assumption is wholly groundless. In free States
there is a perpetual conflict between capital and labor.
There may be a truce from necessity, but the war is
renewed when that necessity ceases to exist. Capital
is ever seeking to procure labor, at the minimum
amount for which it may be purchased. Labor seeks
to obtain from capital the highest reward for its services. This contest must be perpetual until all men
become laborers or all capitalists.
130 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
The terms on which this perpetually recurring
battle is fought, are most unequal. The decision is
almost always in favor of capital. The issue may be
held in abeyance for a season; a momentary success
may even give heart and courage to the laborer; but
in the efd the crowning victory has always been secured to capital. Why? because capital may exist indefinitely as to time, without eating. The laborermust
have his daily bread! Bread may only be hid for money,
and capital will only bestow that'money for labor.
Labor may fight bravely and hopefully for a day,
but it goes to bed on an empty stomach.  It may
arise in the morning refreshed by its slumbers and
courageously renew the battle, but it retires at night
oppressed with the pangs of hunger! On the third
day it may struggle against its sleepless, cautious,
passionless, heartless foe with the desperation of
despair. On the fourth day it yields itself as vanquished, or perishes. In either event capital is the
victor.
In slave States, or at least to the extent to which
slaves are held and the general influence which it
naturally exercises, capital and labor form but a
single interest-there cannot be a conflict, because
capital is labor and labor is capital. The interests of
capital'and labor are one, because the two are identical;. The capitalist seeks by every means in his
power to enhance the value of labor, because labor
is his only capital.  If labor recedes his capital
declines. If labor advances his capital is augmented. 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
In slave States therefore, labor is always comparatively high, and free labor, as well as caitl, is the
gainer thereby. There is not a country upon earth
where the aggregate of labor, free and slave, conminands so high a price as in the slave.States of
the American Union.  And I appeal to the experience of every mechanic or laboring man, however
humble he may be, who has resided in both free alnd
slave Stated to pronounce upon the correctness of
*hat I am going to say; namely:  that there is no
other country under the sun in which labor is as
much respected, or in which the laborer is accorded
so high a social rank, as in the slave States. I know
that this statement does not accord with Abolition
theories, but I know that which I have said to be true,
so far as my own observation extends, in every part
of the world which I have visited. And I may add,
that in no other country is there as much true contentment, happiness, and comfort, or as little destitution or want as exists among the laboring popuilation of the slave States of the American Union, of
whatever  color, race,  occupation, or condition.
These are my sincere convictions founded upon
experience and observation. They may be tinctured
by my never disavowed love for the land of my birth;
but I am thusvfar sustained by the unanimous testimony of all, who like myself, have had a life-experience on the subject about which I have thus
presumed to differ with so many hmndreds who
have never placed foot upon the territory where
slavery exists.
132 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
But there is still another important consideration,
which is opposed to the enfranchisement of the slave,
even if it were possible; that is, a due regard to the
interests of the millions of the white race who now
reside, and whose destiny has been cast in the slave
States.  What would be the condition of the free
white laborers in the midst of these millions of
freed Africans who, from being capital would be
converted into competitors for the stinted pittance
which capital would bestow for labor?  The free born mechanic and farm laborer would be reduced
to the alternative of competing with the African
upon equal terms.  Suppose that which it is impossible to believe, that the free whites would submit
tranquilly to the galling and revolting association,
is there a philanthropic friend to the free laborers
of his own race who;would wish to reduce them to
a condition so humiliating? The standard value of
labor would be that which unscrupulous capital
would stipulate with the ignorant and indolent
African. Free white labor would be powerless to
defend itself against injustice, because there would
be an ever ready substitute of African labor, which
capital could employ during the rare intervals in
which intelligent labor might vainly seek to secure
a proper reward and acknowledgment for its toil.
The rich man could fly from the contaminating
association!   The poor from necessity would be
bound to the soil.  Upon the rich would fall the
present pecuniary sacrifice, but upon the poor would
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
rest the perpetual record and presence of the
wrong.
I have here assumed what I know to be an impossible contingency.  An  overwhelming military
force may liberate the slaves-armed invaders
fromn the North may destroy the value of the slave
to his owner, and to mankind-John Browns may
kindle the torch of servile insurrections; and the
Southerner may live to see his dwelling in flames
and his hearthstone made desolate; but all the
power of their enemies cannot induce the freemen
of the South, of any ranlk, condition, or occupation,
to adopt the freed Africans as their fellow-citizens,
or to tolerate any change in their relative conditions that would remove the barriers, social or political, which now separate the races.
But why should not good men consider the subject of slavery as it exists -in the Southern States
without allowing themselves to be influenced by unfounded prejudices, or sectional animosities, and
look Qnly to the results which it has achieved?
Though they may be opposed to slavery in the abstract, is it more than just that the slave States
should have the benefit of that inexorable necessity
which, without any agency on their part, left them
no alternative consistent with their safety but to
adopt and perpetuate the institution of, slavery?
This conceded, examine and decide if the Southern
States have not properly employed it in the interest
of mankind, and with a due regard to the comfort
and happiness of those who were thus placed under
134 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
their charge and direction.   If still there  exist
doubts, compare that system of labor with the systems of so called free labor, which civilized nations
have adopted in order to achiete similar results.
No friend of the slave States would fear the decision of any impartial, just, and intelligent tribunal.
135
0. 
LETTER IX.
Influence of Public Opinion-Origin of the Anti-Slavery Sentiment
in England-Failure of schemes to destroy the value of Slave
Labor in America-Revolting Inhumanity of the systems institu ted to supersede Slave Labor-Comparison of the Slavery System
with those proposed as Substitutes-Subjugation of India by
England-A trial.by the Moral Law.
THERE has been no period in the pajt when the
policies of governments have been so much moulded
by the general public sentiment of mankind as at
the present epoch. Electricity and steam have
brought countries once remote from each other into
almost immediate contact; and the commerce which
has been thus stimulated between the nations of the
earth has brought about a mutual dependence which
renders the productions of each important to the
others. The facilities offered by rapid and constant
communication are alike mediums for the transmission of truth and falsehood. Unfortunately, the
latter travels with a celerity to which the former
rarely attains. Upon the establishment of the Republic of America in the last century, with its boundless and inexhaustible resources, the adherents of
the monarchical school, especially in England, imagined that they saw danger to all'existing governments which were based on "the right divine," ifi
the experiment should prove a success. How was
this success to be averted?  The great field for the
(136) 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
production of the most important staples, with the'
labor which could alone develop them, was in possession of the Republic. JIow were these advantages
to be rendered unavailable, and these sources of
power to be destroyed?  England did not require a
Delilah to tell her in what consisted the strength of
the young Samson. She set to work to shear the
locks of the new Republic with an energy, and a
zeal, and a disregard to cost, which no other nation
than England knows how to put in practice.
Well does Britain deserve the title of Great! She
is great in all things! Great in her virtues and in
her vices; great in her physical strength; great in
her prosperity, or in her adversity; great in the sacrifices she is ever ready to make to accomplish her
poticy; but greater still in the facility with which
she can change her code of morals according to the
exigencies of her pecuniary or political interests!
Slavery was abolished in all the provinces which
remained to her after the.American revolution, and
the world from that day to this has resounded with
her denunciations of the Republic for the toleration
of that very slavery which she had established.
Fortunately for the Republic and for mankind, the
clamor against the slave States has been thus far
unavailing. America has grown, as if by enchantment, from the lowest to the highest rank in the
family of nations. The very existence of society, as
at present organized, is dependent upon the products
of that very labor which English pseudo-philanthropy has so vainly endeavored to destroy. In
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vain, too, has she sought a substitute by which this
dependence upon slave labor might be avoided. The
world seemed ready to adopt any alternative however wicked, or inhuman, or cruel, if it could only
dispense with the form of slavery existing in the
American Republic. Failure has attended all these
efforts, although some of them are still in existence.
Let us briefly examine some of the more marked
features of these substitutes for slave labor.
The British statesmen who instituted the moral
war against slavery, hoped that in abolishing the
institution, and leaving the slaves as freed men in the
provinces in which they had been held in bondage,
there would continue to result the same amount
of production. This they expected to increase by the
introduction of other Africans or Asiatics, who, instead of being slaves for life, should serve for only
a limited period-say eight years, at a small stipulated rate of wages. The amount which should be
paid to this class of laborers was of course fixed by
the British employer-the savage, or semni-savage,
as the case might be, being tpo ignorant to understand anything of the value of his labor. The Esystem Was  supposed to possess a great advantage
over that of slavery, as it did not involve the necessity of support to any who were too old or too
young for active labor.  Never perhaps did any nation have more at stake, in a pecuniarypoint of view,
in the result of any one scheme, than did Great
Britain in the issue of this experiment on a small
scale, having for its object the substitution of a
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LETTERS 0O  SLAVERY.
species of nominal free labor for that description of
labor which existed in the southern States of
America.
Upon the moment when the great English statesmen discovered that they could no longer compete
successfully with the Republic in tropical productions, under the slave labor system, they resolved,
if possible, to destroy that system, and to erect upon
its ruins another, in which England would be without a rival, even though every christianopower on
earth were combined against her. If the substitute
above referred to had been successful in achieving
its purpose, slavery would have abolished itself, because of its unprofitableness. The new system
would have destroyed the value of the slave, and
the great struggle of the European nations having
tropical possessions, would have been to develop, as
rapidly as possible, a system of labor which, while
being much cheaper, would at the same time have
been put into operation.without any violation of
the public sentiment of the world.  England, before
the year 1860,' could have thrown into her possessions, where slavery had been abolished, a number
of laborers three times as great as all the slaves in
America. These she could have taken forcibly or
otherwise, as the exigencies might have demanded,
from her vast and inexhaustible horde of subjugated Asiatics and Africans. There would still have
been left for the cultivation of her immense Indian
territory, the untold millions upon tens of millionths:
of souls who inhabit that unhappy country, which
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LETTERS 0l SLAVERY.
has been reduced by a conquering- and a superior
race from civilization to barbarism; and whose
liberties have been destroyed by the shedding
of more human blood than flows in the veins of
every enslaved African in America!
What magnificent visions of wealth and power
and grandeur must have floated through the brains
of the English statesmen, and the calculating christian philosophers, who conceived this scheme of aggrandizennt! What were a few millions of pounds
sterling in the beginning, to the results which they
hoped to achieve! It was indeed worthy of an immense sacrifice, and great was the sacrifice they
made to reach the promised, but ever receding
goal! More money has, in one form or another,
been expended by Great Britain, in this fruitless
effort to discover a substitute for slave labor in
tropical productions, than would have paid five
times over for all the slaves she liberated.
This scheme offered to its originators a double
advantage;  for while it would have been, if successful, a source of unbounded wealth to European
nations with foreign tropical possessions, its entire
want of adaptation to the peculiar circumstances of
the Republics of the new world, would have driven
the United States of America from the field of competition for the great prize. I have already explained
that it would be an act of political suicide, if nothing
worse, for these States to introduce or to tolerate in
their midst a barbarous,,or a semi-savage population
of a different race and complexion, who would oc
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0
-0 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
cupy any other relation to the European masters
than that of perpetual servitude. Nations having
provincial tropical possessions, do not rest under
any such restriction. The difference in this respect
between the relative positions of Great Britain and
the American planting States of the Confederacy,
may be more readily conceived by supposing that
the British Government were to introduce in the
United Kingdom millions of Africans, who, after
having served an apprenticeship of eight years,
should be turned loose upon society as equal participants in the benefits and blessings of the English
constitution. Although under such circumstances,
even Mr. Bright might abate somewhatin his demand
for universal suffrage, yet, though no other champions
of the equality of races should spring up to claim
for these the "rights of manhood," it will be readily
admitted that the political, moral, and social evils
which would result, would be a thousand-fold in
excess of any benefits which might be expected from
their presence. If Englishmen, who are sincerely
desirous of witnessing the abolition of slavery in
the American planting States, from pure and unselfish motives, will bring the matter home to themselves, they will readily admit that the total or even
partial enfranchisement of'four millions of black
African slaves, amongst a population of eight millions of white Europeans, living under a Constitut'etion which guarantees equality of right to its citizens,
would be an act of madness!
But to return from this digression: While man
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
kind shoulid rejoice that this scheme which would
have produced so much misery to the instruments
whom it was intended to employ in its prosecution,
has utterly failed in accomplishing the practical results hoped for, yet none can withhold from Great
Britain the tribute of their admiration, for the boldness and grandeur of the conception, and the more
than imperial profusion with which she has lavished
of her immense resources the amount necessary to
fairly test the feasibility of nurturing'lto life and
giant manhood, this British offspring of the
American revolution.
But all her sacrifices were unavailing. Too late
it was discovered that the African would not work
without a master! No stimulants of pride or ambition could move his soul to rise above the level
which it would seem that the God of nature has assigned to him. While the productions of the slave
States of America have increased in a ratio never
before equalled in any country, the possessions of
Great Britain, where this experiment was inaugurated, have been receding in the amount of their
productions, until they now bear no comparison even
to their former products. All, present to the eye of
the observer a'picture of unbounded desolation-a
monument of the thwarted schemings of ambitious
men, who hoped by this means to accomplish the
double purpose of destroying the possessions of
another, and of building for themselves a colossal
power upon their ruins.
The failure of this scheme,' which involved the im
142 
LETTERlS ON SLAVERY.
possible employment of nominallyfree African labor,
led to the inauguration of another, far more revolting to every sentiment of humanity than the most
cruel form of slavery, even in the days when Great
Britain was the patron of, or participator in all slavery
enterprises. This new scheme is known underthe
general designation of the "Cooly system," because
the greater number of those who have been subjected
to the horrors of this barbarism of the nineteenth
century, have been Chinese. All the barbarous and
semi-civilized natidns of the world, however, have
been subjected, in a greater or less degree, to
the terrors of this revolting system.  No  other
records of its enormities are necessary to convince
the intelligent mind of its true character, than a
simple detail of the plan and manner of its execution.
The Cooly broker, by means of his agents, seizes
upon his unsuspecting victims wherever they can'be
found. These, when brought into the port for shipment, are confined in the most loathsome prisons,
and are not allowed to hold any communication with
their countrymen without. Upon the arrival of a
purchaser, a paper writing is produced in the French,
the English, or the Spanish language, as the case
may be, by which these poor wretches are bound to
work for their owner for the space of eight or ten
years, at a promised rate of compengation varying
from two to four dollars per month.  The " free and
unbiased assent" of the Cooly having been thus
obtained, he is bound as a malefactor and conveyed
aboard the ship which is to convey him to his desti
143 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
nation. The ship obtains clearance, and sets sail
with her living cargo of "free laborers," crowded to
a degree of suffocation which, before the end of the
voyage, reduces their number from deaths to about
three-fourths of their original number. In many
instances, this great mortality is frightfully increased.
On board of one American ship which put into
Manilla, in 1855, out of a cargo of four hundred
and fifty souls, three hundred were smothered to
death in one night from the closeness of the quarters in which they were confined! The end of their
voyage at last arrives. Thrice happy those whose
sufferings have already ended in death, and whose
bodies have been cast into the sea.  These "free
laborers" are disposed of to the highest bidder, and
are placed upon the plantations of the purchasers.
The owner has only by contract an estate for eight
years in the sinews of the freeman. His only interest, therefore, is to concentrate all the physical
capacity of the man within that compass of time;
and rarely indeed is it that there is any substance
left in him at the expiration of his period of enslavement.  If there is, What means has he to return to
his native land? The miserable pittance allowed to
him' has in all probability been paid in such manner as to be exhausted before the period of his
freedom commences, and he must sell himself for
another term of eight years, for the doubtful prospect of again revisiting his far-off home. Mr Abbott,
who has written a valuable work upon this subject,
144 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
says in reference to the details of this inhuman
system in Cuba:
It seems to me, that human misery could sink to no lower depth.
The doom of the Coolies is vastly worse than that of the slaves.
Those wretched Chinese are lured to leave their homes upon the
promise of being fed and clothed, and receive four dollars per month.
Thus, at the end of eight years, they would possess $384. This
seems like an immense sum to a poor Chinaman, to whom a cent a
day is a very reasonable competence.  But none return! They are.
sold upon their arrival for about $400. If their owner can wear
them out in eight years, so that they die, he of course has nothing to
pays [for their wages, during their term of servitude.] If he cannot, he sends them to some distant plantation, or sells them again for
another eight years.
This system has been attended with a partial success. So far as present gains are concerned, it has
the great advantage over slavery of cheapness. It
is impossible to obtain accurate statistics in regard
to the numbers of human beings who have been
thus sacrificed, to find a substitute for the slave
system of America.   It would probably be safe to
say that the whole number, thus immolated during
the last fifteen years, does not fall short of two millions of souls.   With  the stimulant of success, it
cannot be long before the aggregate amount of those
thus employed will exceed the entire number of
slaves in the United States!
Where slumbers the philanthropy of the abolitionlist of England,while this crime against humanity,
more horrible far than the worst form which slavery
has ever assumed, is thus lawfully prosecuted in the
open face of day! Where sleeps the piety of Sharp's
rifle   rgymen of New  England, while this enor
145
6 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
mous sin is.robbing millions of semi-civilized human
beings of liberty, of hope, of life! Alas, the fountains of their sympathies have been exhausted and
absorbed by their devotion to the "little nigger baby
robbed from his mother's arms," and, as taught by
English abolitionism, so they believe that to hate
anything but the slaveholder of America would be
but an idle waste of the fire of their holy passions!
In instituting a comparison between these two
rival systems, statistics are wholly unnecessary in
arriving at just conclusions  in regard  to  their
respective merits. We may refer to practical effects
to test the truth or soundness of our judgment upon
doubtful points, but for arriving at just conclusions
upon the question here at issue, nothing more is
necessary than to examine the circumstances and
terms under which they exist.
Under the slavery system in the United States,
the slave is held as such from the cradle to the grave.
At full maturity he is worth to the owner from ten
to twelve hundred dollars. The latter has every
stimulant of gain and self-interest to bring up the
infant to manhood in the full possession of all his
natural strength and health. Hle can only do this
by sufficient food and clothing and rest from toil.
When the slave has attained to man's estate the
owner has an equal interest in preserving his health
and physical strength to as late a period of his life
as possible. This ean be done by exacting only in
a moderate degree the exercise of his ~hysical
strength.  He must be sufficiently supp'i with
146
k 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
healthy nourishment-he must be warmly clad in
winter; but above all, he must be made contented
and happy in order to retain him at his full value.
Any violation of these rules can only result in
diminishing the value of the slave and the wealth
of his owner.  He may change masters, but always
the same rules and regulations must be observed by
the new proprietors; and this is the routine of
slavery. If the slave is in full health and strength,
he makes up twelve-hundred dollars of the capital
of his owner. If he is disabled by tyranny, or by
improper or scanty nourishment, or by overwork, he
is not only valueless, but an encumbrance and an
expense; for the law compels the master to support
his own slave under all circumstances, or in case of
failure he is taken away and transferred to another.
Does a man set fire to his own house for the purpose of looking upon the conflagration? Would
he destroy the value of his property for the gratification of his spleen?
Such. are the circumstances under which the
slaves transmitted to the Southern States by Great
Britain are now held.  Englishmen should remember that there is as great a difference between the
condition of the American slave of the present day
and that of his ancestors when first kidnapped and
sent a savage into their provinces, as between the
mild government of their model Queen Victoria
and that of the tyrant Henry the Eighth. Then he
was a savage and a cannibal, while now he is civilizd and a christian. I say nothing here of the
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LETTERS ON SLALERY.
actual condition of the slaves of the South, because
I think the candid and unprejudiced mind can
arrive at just conclusions without the aid of such
testimony. Would that all the honest enemies of
slavery could visit the slave States in person and see
for themselves the workings of that system against
which cupidity, malice, prejudice, and ignorance
have erected such a mountain of calumny and
hatred.
Let us consider further and compare the morals
of the anti-slavery, or so called free labor system,
which model Christian powers have inaugurated or
tolerated as a substitute for slavery.
In the commencement, the horrors of the kidnapping and transfer of the Coolies or Africans, as
the case may be, to the place of their destination,
are the same in both; with this difference however, that comparatively few slaves are now introduced into America, and none into the Southern
States of the Confederacy. However, I propose to
consider teat both are in active operation. Once
arrived in the country where his services are to be
rendered, the Cooly's condition and that of the
captured African sent into slavery diverges.  For
eight years the Cooly is sold! for eight years he must,
as a slave, obey the commands of a master! Suppose
that the same master is the proprietor of a plantation
worker by slaves in the planting States of the Union,
and of another worked by the eight-year apprentices
in Cuba.  We  have seen what would be his incentives to good and ill treatment in the former,
148 
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how different would be his interests in regard to
the latter! Eight years constitute a long period
for ceaseless toil under a master who has no interest
left in the victim after the expiration of that period.
If he oan only be worked to death there will be
nothing to pay! Upon a reasonable calculation,
how much of life and vitality would remain after
this terrible drain of eight years, in a tropical
climate, upon his powers of physical endurance?
Could it be hoped that he would ever reach the end
of a second term, though he had passed the first
and lived?
Every truly philanthropic mind is forced to adopt
the conclusion that this "substitute" is, upon the
ground of humanity, not only more objectionable
than the slave labor which- it was intended to subvert, but that it is and, in its very nature, must forever be, under any and all circumstances, more cruel,
more atrocious, more detestable, and more productive of human misery than the most revolting form
in which slavery has ever been exhibited to mankind, even though we trace its history back to the
period when Engliiupidity and Spanish cruelty
first inaugurated the system.
If this species of traffic in human flesh is continued, as it has been prosecuted by the open sanction or secret connivance of the great powers, in
less than half a century its victims will, in all probability, be greater in number than all the slaves in
North America. Already they may'be counted by
millions, and yet no "tracts "nor" songs" have been
149 
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sent over from England to America to be read and
sung by the congregations, to stimulate fanaticism
against the foul wrong.; No pulpit, desecrated by
political parsons, has rung with maledictions
against the nations which permit the crime. No
Sharp's rifles have been subscribed by New England clergymen, to assist with powder and ball in
the extermination of the pirates who pursue this
"nefarious traffic in blood and sinews." The skin
of the Chinaman is not quite black enough to win
their sympathies.  
The anti-slavery party of England, however, has
perceived that if the judgment of mankind is averse
to the mild system of slavery which exists in the
Southern States of America, it is scarcely to be
hoped that, when the peculiar excitement of the day
shall have passed away, the "Cooly system" will
meet with even as much favor. It has, therefore,
been unremitting in its efforts, to induce the nominal freemen in the despotic governmentsof Asia, to
assist in supplying her looms with cotton. But the
return of material has scarcely surpassed in amount
the weight of the seed whic]-he has distributed.
They have penetrated every-rovince and island
embraced within the dominions of the Sultan of
Turkey; but the Bedouin and the Druse, the Maronite, the Greek and the Armenian, the Christian
and the Turk, alike refuse their tempting inducements.
The planting States of the South would cheerfully
and gladly aid them in promoting. the growth of
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cotton in other lands, because it would relieve them
from their present isolation, and would build up a
cotton interest, which would not be without its advantages to them, as well as to the consumers. No
observant man can doubt, that the demand for cotton will keep pace with the supply, even although
every field adapted to its cultivations which is accessible to European markets, were called into successful requisition.
But, hitherto, all efforts to induce free labr voluntarily to engage in this branch of agriculture has
failed, and for the British abolitionist, who is devoting himself to the work of emancipation in
America, there is no resource left but INDIA.  There
lies that magnificent possession, which has been obtained at the expense of so much crime and injustice,
and at a cost of human life, which years ago was
estimated by millions. There are the untold, uncounted millions of a subjugated race, depressed by
misfortune, exhausted in strength and physical
courage,.by their oft repeated, but fruitless efforts
to shake off their unpitying oppressor; and powerless now for further resistance against the tyranny
of an unrelenting master.
In estimating the sum of real philanthropy and
regard for the rights of man, which may be accorded
to British abolitionists for their efforts to eradicate
the sin of African slavery from America, the unbiased mind naturally institutes a comparison between their practice in regard to India, and their
151 
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precepts in regard to America.  By what right does
England hold India in subjection?  By what law
of morals can England lay claim to that extensive
territory on a far distant sea, and in another quarter
of the globe?  Has India ever menaced the integrity of the British Empire, or injured a hair of the
head of any Englishman, who had not first entered
its territory as'a master and a conquerer? Did she
make the conquest-from any feeling of benevolence
toward#the human family? She found the inhabitants in the enjoyment of a great degree of civilization, and she has reduced them to barbarism; the
African slave has been elevated from the most brutal
barbarism to civilization. England found the inhabitants of ill-fated India rich and prosperous, and
she has reduced them to beggary and want. All
Britain has been enriched by the spoils which have
been ruthlessly robbed from these helpless Asiatics.
Their bodies have not been absolutely reduced to
slavery, for that would have been not only imnpossible, but unprofitable. But she has taken away all
of their substance, and, as admitted in Parliamentary
Reports, she has, by tortures almost unheard of in
the annals of civilized nations, compelled the miserable inhabitants to pay the assessments which were
imposed upon them. What is this but the worst
and most cruel form of servitude? for the master
does not, in this case, leave even a crust of bread for
his more than slave. If the enslavement of a comparative handful of Africans in America is a crime
152 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
of such enormous magnitude, where can we find
words to express the enormity of England's wrong
to India?
But is England now to be excused by the moral
law which is invoked against America, because it
was the crime of her ancestors? No [ for she does
not surrender back to India her long lost liberties.
She still clutches with a vulture's grasp, the dry
bones of that carcass, from which she has torn the
flesh; and shall not humanity hold her amenable to
the same laws which she desires to impose upon the
slaveholder in America?
What are the means which she'has employed to
maintain and to consolidate her power over India?
The veins of every African, now a slave in the
United States, do not contain as much human blood
as has been shed: for the accomplishment of this
purpose. The English and American abolitionist is
horrified that a Southern planter should "place an
African in the cotton-field, whip in hand, to drive
his fellow slave to his toilsome task." At this very
moment of time, during a period of profound and
unbroken peace, England has nearly three hundred
thousand of the wretched inhabitants of India
armed with sword and bayonet, and musket and
cannon, paid out of the assessment upon the native
races, who are employed to shed their brothers
blood, if any resistance should be made, or murmur
escape them, which might indicate a wish to shake
off the chains in which they are bound. Is it for
humanit*s sake that Englishmen seek the eman
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
cipation of the slaves of America?'The history of
one day, according to the statements of the most
reliable British authorities, would furnish a record
of more misery, more destitution, more utter, hopeless, unpitied wretchedness, among the subjugated
inhabitants Qf India, than would the history of an
ent'ie generation of all the African slaves, which their
pseudo-philanthropy would set free. Hiere again
the "tracts" and the "songs," sent over for "the
American congregations" are silent. No moving
story, or pitying verse, recounts the cruel fate of the
poor Asiatic. No American pulpit resounds with
eloquent denunciations of the damning crime and
sin. No fierce and bloody-minded clergymen of
New England, subscribed and forwarded the famous
Sharp's rifle to the Indiamen, in their last great
struggle against the wrongdoer. Alas! here again
the unfortunate Indiaman's skin is not dark enough
to entitle him to sympathy or assistance.
I do not wish to constitute myself an arbiter or
judge between England and India.  It is not my
province even to decide whether more benefits than
evil. have resulted to mankind from the subjection
of India by England. Whatever may be the abstract rights or wrongs involved in the issue, it is a
practical fact, that to-day, as well as in all times
past, powerful nations and superior races, subject
and hold in dependence weaker nations and races;
and it may be fairly assumed that such will be the
case in all time to come. It is, and always will remain, an unsettled question, how far ciiized na
154 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
tions may go, in compelling indolent or wicked barbarians to change their brutal habits of life, and
contribute their due proportion to the necessities or
the luxuries of the civilized world. But British
emancipationists may not justly complain if they
are held amenable to the requirements of the MORAL
LAW, by which they profess to be governed, and
which they seek to enforce upon others. They may
be justly brought to trial under the rules which they
have instituted in their assaults upon the planting
States of America; and by these they stand condemned, beyond the hope of a reversal, upon an appeal to any enlightened and unprejudiced tribunal.
However this may be, India is the field this class
of British politicians hope will at the proper moment rise to increased iminportance, upon the ruins
of the American plantations. Would it be too uncharitable in "a kinsman born," to intimate the
existence of an impression upon his mind, that it is
chiefly to this cause, that the African slave in
America is indebted for their sympathies?  May it
not be that'the eager interest with which they are
now watching the progress of their battle in America,
is stimulated primarily, or at least incidentally, by
this hope of gain? Is it not possible, that behind
the profuse protestations of a purely philanthropic
interest, there may lurk a selfish purpose, which has
had its influence upon the British emancipationists,
who, according to a recent declaration of the LONDON
TIMES, "have come up to the aid of abolitionism, in the
present struggle between the North and the South?"
155
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LETTER X.
Summary of the relative advantages of different systems of Labor Results of the comparison-Characteristics of Great Britain-An
Anti-Slavery Poem-Does not fairly illustrate John Bull-Reflec tions of a Philanthropist upon subjects suggested by the Poem The institution of Slavery more Humane now than formerly.
I HAVE thus briefly glanced at all the various
systems of labor which have been proposed as substitutes for the institution of African slavery in
America. Each in its turn, has resulted in failure;
or those which have been attended by a partial success, the judgment of all enlightened philantropists
have pronounced to be, in every respect, more objectionable than the worst form of now-existing slavery.
So   far as practical results are  concerned, we stand
now precisely where we did when Wilberforce and
his followers preached their first crusade against
slavery. The confident predictions of that day,
that free African labor and the cultivation of the
rich soil of India by the subjugated natives would
entirely supersede and render valueless the institution of slavery in America, have been proven to be
idle dreams.  American slavery has goneon increasimg  in value and importance until the present moment of time, when; if we could imagine such a calamity, its sudden suppression would produce more
disasters and miseries to mankind than "war, pes       (156)
0 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
tilence, and famine." England, which is the great
purchaser of cotton, adn'ts that no other system
can successfully compete in its production with
slave labor.  But many of her leading statesmen
also insist that if the institution of slavery should
disappear, the free labor of India, and of other
tropical countries, would promptly engage in the
cultivation of those articles which are now obtained
almost exclusively from slave labor. They believe
that the large number of laborers who would under
such circumstances be added to the productive force,
would be able to approximate to nearly the same results which are now achieved under  the slavery
system.
I can discover no reason for believing that these
hopes would be realized. Still ]ess can I see any
-interest which mankind has in making the experiment even with a certain prospect of success. I
can perceive that such a consummation might possibly be serviceable in increasing the relative power
and wealth of Great Britain, but I can also see that
this increasb could only result from agreater, or at
least, a corresponding diminution in the sources of
power and wealth now in the possession of the
United States of America. I do not perceive
that even by this exchange mankind would be the
gainer in any way. But above all, I can discover
no advantages in the proposed change which ought
to induce America to strike so fatal a blow at her
own power and influence; anid unless our own folly
ormadness drives us to this act of self immolation,
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LETTERS ON S.LAVERY.
no earthly power,. having the will, possesses the
ability to deprive us of our#ontrol over that monarch
of commerce which to-day exercises its peaceful
dominion over the kingdoms of the earth.
In considering this subject, I have not only instituted a fair comparison in regard to the productiveness of "slave and free labor" in what are denominated tropical products-and, as my brief references have shown, to the advantage of the former,
but, upon the question of humanity, we have tested
American slavery by a comparison not only with
those systems which have been employed to supersede it, but with the free labor system of England in
the very heart of the empire, and under the shadow
of the throne. I am well aware that the vast majority
of those whose minds have been warped by long cultivated prejudices, will not see the advantages which
have resulted to mankind through the instrumentality of the institution of slavery,  nor the
enormities of any other system which holds out the
hope of gratifying their feelings of animosity.
They will continue to shut their eyes to evils upon
the one hand, and benefits upon the other, if these
conflict with their theories; but the prejudices, the
passions, the injustice of mankind, cannot make
truth fiction, nor change right into wrong. Laudations of the system of free labor, as illustrated by
its practical workings, not only in London, but
throughout the greater part of the world, cannot
put bread into the mouth of the starving, nor of itself
bestow a real independence upon those who labor
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
for their daily sustenance. on the other hand, the
most moving picture of the horrors of slavery cannot
destroy the existing fact that no other laborers in
the same field have as many of the comforts of life,
with as few of its troubles and trials, as have the
slaves of the Southern  States of the American
Union. Neither can any amount of calumny which
ignorance, or malevolence, or both combined, may
heap upon the slaveholder deprive him of that in ward consciousness that he has worthily employed
the power which the Almighty has placed in his
hands-that he has been instrumental in diffusing
amongst the mass of mankind comforts and necessaries which have contributed in an eminent degree
to their happiness, and that he has sent forth nothing
which has ever added to the unhappiness, or increased the vices of his fellow men! With all this,
he feels that in diffusing these blessings, and in adding to the wealth, influence, and importance df his
native land, he has gone on improving the condition
of those who have been his instruments for accomplishing so much good, until he can safely challenge
a comparison in this respect with that of'any similar
number of laborers in the world!
In my comments upon the policy of the antislavery party of England, I have done nothing more
than to test it by the rules which it has laid down
as binding upon America.  If these laws have condemned England, it is not my fault.  There may be
much that may be said in her favor, if it be admnitted or claimed that the exigencies of her situation
6
159 
LETT ERS ON SLAVERY.
did not permit her to follow that straight line which
the rigid rules of abstract right require; but many of
her statesmen do not admit that the slave States of
America shall be entitled to the benefit of such a
plea, and impartial minds will decide that she has
no right to an exemption which she is not willing to
concede to others. The abolitionists of England
have endeavored, by every means at their command,
to stimulate the prejudices of the world against the
planting States of America on account of negro
slavery. If- both were put upon their trial before a
just and intelligent tribunal, which would be condemned as the criminal most deserving of punishment? which the most worthy of the approbation of
mankind?
In my references to the English people and the
English emancipationists, I have been necessarily
obliged to regard them as a unit.  I have been constrainfed to consider the acts of the Anglo-American
abolitionists as expressive of the general sentiment
of the nation; and who will say that I have even unwittingly been guilty of an injustice in the conclusions at which I have arrived.?  Suppose that an intelligent historian were called upon to describe the
general characteristics of the British Government and
people; he would say with truth, they stand preeminent for practical good sense, clear.sighted sagacity,
self-will, self-confidence, obstinacy, contempt for the
feelings, the opinions, and the interests of others,
where they have an interest to subserve, selfishness, pride, a love of independence for them
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selves, with an overweening desire to destroy the independence of others, indomitable courage and
boldness, and, above all, a readiness at all times to
make any sacrifice for the indulgence of these propensities. But upon the other hana, who would not
smile if the historian were to add, that they are
characterized by the possession of qualities which
come under the designation of tenderness, or sensibility, or sentiment, or an unselfish regard for the
feelings or interests of others, or, in fine, that they
are distinguished as a people for the display of what
may be denominated the finer feelings of the human
heart? It is fair to conclude that the smile even of
an Englishman would degenerate into a more boisterous expression of merriment, if the said historian
were to adduce testimony in support of their claim
to the possession of these heart-sympathies,  by
quoting lines from the "tracts" or "pious songs"
composed and sent from England into America, for
the use of anti-slavery pastors, and their congregations; as for example:
"I was a helpless negro boy, 
That wandered on the shore;
Thieves stole me from my parents' arms:
I never saw them more!"
I have said that the Englishman might laugh, but
to the mind of the philanthropist, impressed by their
pictures of the horrors of slavery, these touching
lines might induce a train of reflections, which would
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
awaken emotions far different from those which produce merriment. Thtthoughts might very naturally
wander over the pages of English history which
record the tears, and blood, and desolation of India.
The ears might hear the cry of anguish which, in
times past, has but feebly expressed the horrors
which have attended the subjugation and progress of
English dominion in other lands. The peculiar
friend of sombre colors might behold, through the
mists of the past, the embarkation of Africans doomed
to hopeless and eternal servitude in Spanish mines,
or upon the North American plantations of Great
Britain. From the mast-head of the slave-ship floated
the flag of that Britannia which " ruled the waves."
Commingled with the wild shrieks of husband and
wife, father and daughter, and of that "helpless
negro boy, torn from its parents' arms," was heard
alone the words of that tongue which have been
immortalized by the writings of a Shakspeare and
a Milton. Incredulous philanthropy might refuse
to credit even the evidence of its senses, and exclaim,
"It is a pirate ship and a pirate crew, who have stolen
the livery of Heaven to serve the devil in-!"
Show your authority, commander; leave not the
incredulous to doubt about the lawfulness of your
honorable calling.  The Royal Charter is unfolded,
which reads that after a long and bloody struggle
among the Christian nations, Great Britainl being
of the victors, claimed and received as her portion
of the spoils, the exclusive right to deal in slaves,
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
and to transport the same from the coast of
Africa.*
Ihave said that the institution of slavery, nowin the
United States of America, is so much more humane
than that which existed under the rule of those who
* See the European treaties made during the wars of the Spanish
succession.
Those are curious pages in history which record that the madness
of the eighteenth century throughout the civilized world, embracing
all the Christian powers of Europe without distinction, was the es tablishment upon the American Continent, by the most cruel and in human acts of barbarity of that same African slavery, which it has
been the mania of the first half of the nineteenth century to eradi cate, and that too, after the atrocious features of the slavery which
they created had been supplanted by the mild and almost patriarchal
system which now prevails, at least throughout the planting States
of the Federal Union.
The solution of this apparent anomaly may be readily discovered
in the great revolutions that occurred between the two epochs re ferred to, which robbed Europe of the greater portion of its North
American possessions, and which promised, at no distant day, to free
the entire continent of America from European domination. The
slaves, with the territory they inhabited, thus changed masters; and
the new possessors, from the condition of vassals, became the equals
and the rivals of their former masters.
The enthusiasts who choose to imagine and to declare that this
public sentiment of the nineteenth century in Europe, had its origin
in a new revelation of the Divine will, or in some hitherto misunderstood or undiscovered law of Divine justice, and in a consequent
loftier conception of public morality than was possessed by their
ancestors, may gratify the vanity of the age by such a solution, but,
the intelligent reader of contemporaneous history will find no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion, that this revolution in public sentiment owed its origin and its development, not to moral but to political
causes.
The Assiento wasa contract or convention between the Kingof Spain
and other powers for furnishing the Spanish dominions in America 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
first inaugurated the system, as scarcely to bear any
resemblance thereto. In order not to tax the reader
with the necessity of crediting the mere statement
of a fact without proof, I beg to refer to some of the
causes which have produced this change.
with negro slaves. The Spaniards having destroyed the native Indian
races in their American Colonies, supplied the deficiency of laborers
thus created by importing negroes from the coast of Africa.   The
Genoese first undertook to supply Spain with negroes at a stipulated
price.  They were succeeded by the Portuguese, and after them, the
contract was transferred to France, and the trade yielded to that
country enormous profits;' insomuch that Great Britain coveted the
contract. By the treaty of Utrecht, Philip V, being declared King
of Spain, at the close of a bloody war in which all the great powers
were engaged, and in which England and her allies were the victors, it
was one of the articles of peace between. France and England, that
the contract referred to should be transferred from the former to the
latter. Accordingly, a new instrument was signed in May, 1713, to
last thirty years, and the furnishing of negroes to Spanish America
was committed by England to the South Sea Company, an enterprise
in which numbers of the royal family of England, the chief nobility,
and many of the leading statesmen, as well as other citizens in every
rank of life, were stockholders. In virtue of this treaty, England
agreed to furnish Spain with one hundred and forty-four thousand
African slaves, for which it was to receive pay at the same rate
which had been paid the French.  A condition was added, that during
the first twenty-five years, only one half the duty should be paid for
such as they should import beyond the stated number. By the treaty
of Madrid, concluded on the 5th October, 1750, the right of England
to this traffic for the four years not yet expired by former treaty,
was re-transferred to Spain, and all claims against the Spanish Gov ernment growing out of the same were surrendered upon the pay ment by Spain to the British South Sea Company the sum of ~1,000, 000-about five millions of dollars. For a more detailed account of
these transactions, the reader is referred to Anderson's Commerce,
Robertson's History of America, and other contemporaneous his
torians.
.1
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
Formerly the slaves were savages, and of course it
was necessary to guard them with more vigilance.
They did not speak the language of the countries to
which they were transported, and they were for the
most part, in fact altogether, distributed by the Euro pean powers throughout their colonies. The proprie tors of the plantations often resided in the mother
country, and governed their slaves by the employment
of agents. Moreover, there was but a comparatively
trifling value attached to slaves, and the loss of one
or a dozen by bad treatment was of but small
pecuniary importance.
Now, the slaves are civilized and speak the language of their masters. They may be left in the
enjoyment of almost as much freedom of action, when
unemployed, as they desire.  They reside with their
masters and form a part of the household, and their
masters are themselves the political sovereigns of
the country, in conjunction with their fellow citizens
of the same race. Each slave has a large money
value, so greet indeed, that the interest upon the
capital employed, with other incidental expenses,
makes it the most expensive labor in the world. If
free labor could be induced to cultivate the sugar
and cotton fields, slavery might possibly abolish itself
on account of its greater cost. The two races having
existed together for so long a time, it is natural that
both should now understand and adapt themselves
to their respective positions. All these causes have
produced such a modification in the practical effects
of the system by the improvement of the condition
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le 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
of the slaves, as to divest it of almost all those features
which at one time shocked the sensibilities of the
world. It would readily be conjectured that such a
result would attend the causes enumerated, without
appealing to existing facts in corrroboration thereof.
In considering the probabilities, or rather the
possibilities, of effecting the abolition of slavery in
the planting States, and the substitution of another
class of laborers, it is necessary to observe that
there are difficulties in the way which have never
attended any other scheme of emancipation in any
other country.   In the Northern  States of the
American Confederacy, when slavery became unprofitable, it was, in common parlance, abolished.
This is not, however, literally true. As I have before said, no slave was necessarily made, free by
these acts. The dominant race rid themselves of
a population which had ceased to be necessary or
profitable, by selling them, before the day of emancipation had arrived, to the neighboring slave States.
With.*England, so far as the great body of the
nation was concerned, emancipation in her colonies
was only a question of pounds sterling! The Afri cans had never been introduced into England it self, and by consequence thereof, the difficulty of
greatest magnitude was not encountered-namely,
the getting rid of the degraded population! Now,
the slave States of the South cannot, as the North ern States did, make a profit out of emancipation,
by removing them to a country where they would
be more valuable; nor can they, as England did,
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LETTERS' ON SLAVERY.
get rid of the population by the mere sacrifice of
their estimated money value. The slaves liberated
in the South, in a body, must, of course, remain
upon the soil. Supposing that,' in a pecuniary
point of view, the time should arrive when this
course would be deemed most profitable, there
arises the political difficulty that the institutions of
the country are Republican in form, and all whom
the laws recognize as citizens should have equal
rights. This fact also precludes the Southern States
from adopting the "Cooly system," or any other
which involves the employment of Asiatics or Africans, to supply the place of slave- labor.
Inasmuch, therefore, as the European races will
not, to any considerable extent, labor in the production of cotton, rice, and sugar, it follows that
with the abolition of slavery, the production of
these articles in the United States would, to a great
extent, cease. With the Governments of Europe
the case would be different. They could transport
any number of Asiatics or Africans to their colonies without any danger to their institutions, because the mother country would not be effeicted
thereby.  They could with impunity cover their
islands and distant possessions with the most barbarous tribes, and protect their property against
any threatened conversion to the use of these savages, by a few cannon. But to introduce such a
population into the United States, in the midst of
the families of the inhabitants, except under the
system of absolute slavery, would. be an act of
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
suicide.   It is not difficult to perceive that if
the'abolition of slavery in America can be accomplished, the United States, having no distant colonies, would cease from that moment to be formidable competitors in supplying the world with tropical productions.
My object in these letters, has been rather to
state admitted facts than to make arguments in
favor of, or against, any particular systems. That
I have stated them frankly and without any coloring which could pervert their true meaning or significance, will not, I think, be questioned. Whether
these facts will produce upon the minds of others
the same convictions as upon mine, will of course
be  dependent  upon  circumstances.   I am  well
aware that I have added no new light to the subjects about which I have written-the particular
truths I have stated are known to all.  My purpose,
however, has been to present these isolated facts in
a body, so that they could be considered together.
In the investigation of a subject, in order to understand it, it is necessary to consider all the facts
which bear upon it.  Partisans often select  a number of admitted facts, and by omitting another,
establish a falsehood, without having stated an untruth. Oftener, still, they start out by the assertion
of a proposition which none will deny, and leaping
over a hundred truths, arrive at false conclusions.
Never has any subject been treated so unfairly as
that of the institution of slavery in America. Its
enemies start out with the declaration that one
6
168 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
human being should not be held in slavery by an   other, and the abstract fact being generally con   ceded, they find no difficulty in concluding that
the slaves should be sat free and their masters con   signed,to eternal perdition! The slave States of
the South have been required to submit the trial of
their cause upon that single issue of abstract right.
Every system of Government that has been in   vented by man, would be overthrown under the
application of the same rule. Human institutions
will not stand the test of a trial against abstract
right! I have, therefore, chosen to examine the
peculiar circumstances in which slavery had its
origin-its progress, and its present condition. Ad   mitting its imperfections, I have compared it with
the good and evil of all other systems which have
*  been devised to supersede it.
Great Britain* as represented by those who as   sume to speak for her, being the head of the anti   slavery party, as well as one of the most enlight   ened and powerful nations of the world, the ene   mies of the. slave States of America could not ob   ject that, in trying slavery by the ordeal of a com   parison with other systems of labor, I should have
chosen those of one of the freest Governments of
Europe. They charge the Southern States of the
American Union with "the perpetuation of a crime
against humanity," and by their grand moral in    fluence, they have excited, in many parts of the
world, a feeling of unkindness against the Southern
people. They have stimulated the excitement of
169 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
party struggles in America, and have materially
contributed to enkindle a flame of sectional hatred, which threatens fatal consequences to the integrity and unity of the Repqlic.
I have therefore, in considering the defence of
the South against these charges, continued the comparison which I had instituted in regard to the differ-'
ent systems of labor, and have made it embrace also
the relative claims of the principal adversaries in
the encounter to the respect of mankind, on the
score of philanthropy and benevolence. I cannot
hope that the enemies of the Southern States will
reverse the decision which they have already made
in favor of the powerful assailant, but I trust there
will be individual instances of moral heroism in
which truth will be allowed to triumph over
prejudice, and justice be administered, despite the
clamors of malevolence or ignorance.
It is to be regretted that the systematic and ceaseless assaults of the anti-slavery party of'Great
Britain upon the Southern States should render
it necessary for them, in self-defence, to turn upon
their powerful assailant and defend themselves
by an enumeration of their own faults, vices, and
crimes. It would be much more in accordance
with the fraternal feelings which ought to animate
the two great nations of Anglo-Saxon origin to institute comparisons in regard to the benefits rather
than the evils which each have conferred or infilicted upon mankind. Nor do I doubt that there
are very many Englishmen among all classes of
170
0 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
society who deprecate these constant, and irritating,
and unfriendly assaults upon a community of States
which England has thus far known only by the
benefits which she has derived from her intercourse
with them. But however numerdus this class
may be, their power has never yet been sufficient
to change or modify the policy or the preponderating influence of the nation as a whole.
Would that the great body of the English people
could break the chains of prejudice in which they
have been bound by designing leaders, and refuse to
follow other counsels than the dictates of their own
consciencesand the promptings of their own interests! It is impossible that they can in their
hearts cherish any feeling of animosity against
those who have given such a direction to the legacy
of slavery, which they inherited from British ancestors, as to offer employment and bread, and luxuries, which were previously attainable by the rich
only, to millions of themselves and the poor of the
world!  Would that they could see in advance the
evils which will inevitably fall with a heavy hand
upon the toiling millions of their great country,
should the mal designs of their ambitious leaders
be crowned with success.
Leaving out of question that ridiculous affectation of sentimentalf philanthropy which is so peculiarly unbecoming and unsuited to the genius of the
British character, there ought to be, and but for the
influence of vain or wicked, or ambitious men, there
would be a feeling of reciprocal sympathy between
171 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
Great Britain and the planting States of America.
While neither is wholly dependent upon the other,
each contributes materially to the other's prosperity.
The planting States produce the raw material which
England fashions into shape. The planter is after
all but the overseer for Great Britain, while Great
Britain is but the factor of the planter. Without
considering the past, if there is any guilt in slavery
it is shared alike by both, for in the products of
slave labor they are joint partners. It there is moral
turpitude in holding slaves, the guilt of those who
knowingly participate in the profits accruing from
the wrong, is the same as that of the active agents.
By the moral law, as well as by the civil law, all who
participate, either as principals or accessories, in any
violation thereof are alike responsible and alike
guilty.
Let the real philanthropists of Great Britain and
her toiling millions call upon their anti-slavery propagandists to change for a season the field of their
labors.  Let them take up their abode within the
benighted regions of Africa itself, and there devote
their time and talents to the work of instilling into
the minds and hearts of the nativesthe great and
glorious principles of the British constitution.
When they shall have succeeded in elevating four
thousand-ay, four hundred of ifs sable inhabitants
-its kings and nobles included-to the same rank
and to the same condition of comfort and happiness
which  is  now  enjoyed  by the humblest  and
most unfortunate of their four  millions  of fel
172 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
low-countrymen in America, allow them to return
and enjoy, in the plaudits of the really benevolent,
the rewards to which they would then be    justly
entitled. This field would be all the more inviting,
because, even though they might fail in gathering
and garnering the tempting fruits, it would not be
necessary for them to pass through blood and strife,
and over the desolated homes of their kinsmen, to
reach the scene of their labors.
Although in the course of these letters I have
taken advantage of such circumstances as might,
even in the estimation of unprejudiced anti-slavery
men, relieve the Southern States of all responsibility for the existence of slavery, yet I would be
doing an injustice to the South and to my own convictions were I to rest her defence upon the plea of
necessity. Neither will I claim that the shortcomings of those who are their assailants should shield
the South from that just responsibility which she
owes to God and man for the faithful performance
of those duties which Providence has imposed upon
her. Though I have commended to the lips of
those who have instituted this moral war upon the
slave States, the "ingredients of the poisoned
chalice" which they had with so much skill prepared for others, it was not with the view to avert
the judgment of that' evenhanded justice,"
which would hold the South to a rigid accountability for her own acts.
It may be a delusion-it may be as charged, that
there is a fanaticism in the South as well as in the
173 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
North-it may be that the calumnies which malice
and ignorance have heaped upon the citizens of the
Southern States, and Which have penetrated every
civilized land, have blinded them to their real
faults-yet the SOUTHERNER  feels in his inmost
heart the consciousness that whatever may be the
judgment of to-day, history will record, and posterity will decide, that the slave States of the
American Confederacy have been instrumental in
diffusing among mankind as many blessings, with as
little of evil or wrong, as any population of similar
extent in this or in any other age.
174
.4 
LETTER XI.
Great Britain-Her interests in American Affairs-Public mind of
Europe excited by misrepresentations against the South-The
London Times on Sumner's last speech-" Republican" party of
America-Its purposes hostile to the South.
IN writing these letters from the old world, I have
been led naturally to discuss the subject at issue
between the North and the. South in reference bchiefly
to the attitude occupied by Europe upon the same
question.  While disagreeing in opinion with those
British statesmen who believe that British interests,
or the interests of any other nation or people on
earth, are injured'by the institution of African
slavery in America, I have not dared to suppose
that they misrepresented the opinions of the British
people. Although as a Southerner, I have much to
regret and more to resent on account of the unjust
strictures directed by them against the institutions and
the peo~ple of my native country, I have no disposition to turn to account the feeling of irritation
which this injustice has very naturally engendered
amongst my fellow-countrymein.  I haveqno desire
whatever, even if I had the power, to'disparage
the claims of Great Britain to the respect of mankind. I admire the stern and obstinate zeal which
she displays in maintaining her rank amongst the
nations of the world. But above all, I admire that
(175) 
.LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
integrity of character in all the relations of private
life which, to their honor be it said, is a distinguishing characteristic of Englishmen.  Her history, upon
the whole, is a record of great achievements of
which the annals of no other nation furnish a parallel. Her governing classes of to-day are more
distinguished for their intellectual attainments and
their natural and acquired capacities for discharging
the functions of their high position, than any other
aristocratic body that ever existed. Their Queen is
not only a model sovereign, but more than this-a
model woman. There are a thousand sympathies
and interests which are common to the two great
people of the Anglo-Saxon blood. But Americans
should never forget that an apparently dominant
party in England have announced that they have a
deep interest which is in direct antagonism with
the chief element  of wealth  and  power in the
American Confederacy. The question now at issue
between Americans themselves is, shall this element of.wealth and power be surrendered?
Although it is well known in America that the
present contest between the North and the South is
regarded by the British anti-slavery party with feelings of -the deepest solicitude, yet there are perhaps
few who are aware of the extent to which this feeling is entertained. The silliest calumnies which
are set afloat by the abolition fanatics and presses
of the United States are greedily read, republished,
and with pictorial illustrations, circulated broadcast
throughout Europe, and wherever else the English
176 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
language is read or spoken. The false impressions
thus created are' instilled into the minds of the
children in their very infancy-they are made to imbibe them with their mother's milk.  They  are
taught that the most horrible atrocities are but
matters of every day occurrence in the Southern
States; that men and women, for pastime, scourge
their African slaves to death, that the - children of
slaveholders are made to participate in these scenes
of cruelty until they become as brutal as their parents. No calumnies are too gross for utterance, or
too improbable to be believed. If their truth should
be denied, the response is always ready-" We are
bound to believe that which the Americans themselves tell us!"
The Southerner, knowing the falsehood and wickedness of these allegations, is almost tempted to
doubt the evidences of his own senses. He knows
that if there are faults in the treatment of slaves
by their masters, they are, as a rule, the reverse of
those whioh are charged by ignorant or malicious
commentators. He knows that the feelings of
kindness and affection between master and slave are
cultivated to an extent utterly unknown to the intercourse of employer and servant or apprentice in
his own or any other country. He believes that
there are fewer instances of cruelty practiced by
masters upon slaves in America than even by parents upon their own offspring in any civilized free
State of the world;  though he is also well aware
that when such instances do occur,'they are excep
17T 
178     LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
tional in both.  The Southerner who reads or listens
to the recital of these stories in h foreign land is
silenced by the very magnitude and enormity of
their falsehood! It is true that in England these
atrocities are only charged upon the South, yet
throughout Europe the geographical divisions are
in a great degree lost sight of, and even those who
originate them come in as "Americans" for a share
of that obloquy which the malice and hatred of a
senseless sectionalism seek to fasten upon a por tion of those whom  they call their fellow coun
trymen!
The political abolitionists of England, while
earnest in their efforts to impose upon the ignorance
and credulity of Europe by exaggerated and heartrending descriptions of the horrors of slavery, are
still more averse to the frenzied appeals of the abolitionists in the present contest in America between
the North and the South. They believe that the
abolition of slavery can only be accomplished by
lulling the slave States into a fancied security-that
violent denunciation reacts by placing conservative
citizens upon their guard-that the true policy is,
first to secure the power to control slavery, get
possession of the government of the Federal Union
and then they mnay, without hazard, strike down
slavery and the slave power forever.  In this view
of the question, although the defeat of Mr. Seward
before the Republican Convention was regretted because of his preeminent services in leading the
Northern mind in the direction of abolitionism, yet 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the more sagacious anti-slavery politicians of England
are satisfied that the nomination of a more obscure
man will serve more effectually to blind the masses
in regard to the ultimate designs of the Republican
party.  The late speech of Sumner, of Massachusetts, has therefore been regarded by them with
manifest tokens of displeasure.  They say that such
ebullitions of malignity from those who have been
elevated to the position of hero-martyrs are well
calculated to arouse the conservative element of the
Union to a sense of the real nature of the present
conflict, which they insist should only be futlly developed after they have succeeded in establishing
themselves in power, and that Sumner's course is
like that of an over-confident General of an army,
who sends to his enemy on the eve of the battle a full
and detailed plan of his intended operations. A
brief extract from a leading English journal will
better explain the more judicious, if less honest
programme, which is furnished for the Republican
leaders:
It is a part of the destiny of this country, that from its widespread dominions and universal interests, the concerns of no State
are indifferent to it. Perhaps the most important foreign questionfor
England is, that of American Slavery. Our relations with the United
States, through trade and community of origin, are so close that it is
impossible their moral condition should not affect our own. The
rivalry which exists between the two countries makes it difficult to
discuss any international subject without the chance of giving umbrage....  We have the greatest interest in the decay of this
mighty evil. The reputation of this country for wisdom is at stake,
for the negroes of the West India Colonies were emancipated not only
on the ground of humanity, but on the calculation that free labor was
179 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
m,oe productive than that of slaves.  These islands still lie at the
threshold of the American Republic, and if the stars and stripes
shall ever float over the walls of Mexico and Havana, the British
Antilles will be exposed to all the influence of a pro-slavery propaganda.  How important then it is for us that before these great territorial accessions, which seem inevitable, actually take place, the systern of slavery shall have been modified!...  John  Brown himself has not done more harm to the'cause of abolitionism in Virginia
than a man like Mr. Sumner, when he drives the Southern Senators
to fury by such a violent and uncalled for philippic as our American
correspondent notices to-day...   We must, in the name of
English Abolitionism, protest against these foolish and vindictive harangues. Scarcely has the frenzy caused by John Brown's outrage
begun to die away, than out comes Mr. Sumner with a speech which
will set the whole South in a flame. We can well believe that the
prospects of the Republicarn party have been already damaged by it.
Mr. Sumner is one of that class of politicians who should be muzzled
by their friends.... We may predict that the man who first
gains a victory for the cause of Abolition, will be of a very different
temper to the Senator from Massachusetts.-London Times, June 18.
The influential journal from which I have made
the foregoing extract is alike distinguished for its
ability and its remarkable versatility. It does not
represent.the opinions of one man, nor of a political
party, nor even of a class. Moreover, it never
"makes war for an idea."  Its chief ambition is, to
present itself always to the world as a reflection-a
daguerreotype, as it were, of the current public opinion of the day. If the picture taken does not seem
accurate in its general outline or details, the indefatigable operator obliterates the impression and
takes another, and if need be, another, until the
likeness is thought to be without blemish or defect.
Time, or altered circumstances, or both, may bring
180 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
about a change, in which event, like a faithful photographist, the "Times" adapts itself to the times,
tries it again, and again presents the lineaments of its
subject to the world, in the garb, and with the lights
and shadows, which will set it offto the best advantage. I will not quarrel with this most versatile operator, albeit the lineaments of the Southern features are
painted now in sombre and gloomy and repulsive colors. I will bide our time, for I am sure the day will
come when a brighter and a clearer light will shine
around the sky-light window of the mammoth daguerrean; and I have an abiding faith that the Times
will not then prove a laggard in presenting the picture to the world, in its new, and changed, and more
flattering aspect.
But it is with the present, not the future, we have now
to deal; and however much the true American may
regret, that the public opinion of even a respectable
body of Englishmen is reflected in the spirit of the
foregoing paragraph from this leading and influential journal, the subject is one worthy of his serious
consideration.  We learn from this article that the
crime of John Brown, and the bladkguardism of
Sumner, are only deserving of censure, by the moral
code of British abolitionism, because, by exposing
at too early a period the designs of the Republican
party, the success of the abolition cause, in which
England is said to have so deep an interest, will
thereby be placed in jeopardy! It is not denied that
John Brown and Sumner are both laboring earnestly
in that cause which the anti-slavery party has so
181 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
muchat heart; but they are indiscreet. They are exposing the objects of the Republicans before, instead
ofafter, the Presidential election; therefore such men
should be muzzled! England has too deep an interest in the present struggle between the North
and the South to sit by quietly, and give sanction
by silence, to such an intemperate exposure of ultimate designs, as may arouse the country to a sense
of the impending danger. England, says this
journal, "has a right to protest in the name of
English abolitionism," because not only are English
interests deeply involved in the overthrow of
American slavery, but the reputation of England for
wisdom is at stake, because the emancipation of the
negroes in the West India colonies, was not alone on
the ground of humanity, but on the calculation that
free labor was more productive than that of slaves.
There is a frank outspoken boldness in the manner in which the subject is treated for an English
audience, very different from the policy enjoined
upon the'.' Republican" leaders in the United States.
Slavery, it is true, is treated as an enormous evil
and a crime tnt should be abated, but it is frankly
admitted that the crime and the evil does not consist in its "inhumanity" but in its declared antagonlism to English interests and English dominion.
The John Browns and the Sumners are censured
not because they do not faithfully reflect the sentiments of the Republican leaders, but because such
premature disclosures are calculated to weaken; the
Republican party, before its full strength has been
-I,2 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
consolidated preparatory to the final overthrow of
the greatest of all the instruments which have contributed to the marvellous growth of the'Republic,
in all the elements of wealth, prosperity, and power.
This advice of the British abolitionists is certainly
prudent,and exhibits much sagacity; but is it honest?
If Sumner and Brown really reflect the spirit of the
anti-slavery party, why should not the issue be fairly
made up and presented to the people? If John
Brown  and Sumner have done no wrong,  why
should they be held up as objects of public censure,
as men "who ought to be muzzled by their friends?"
The Times says that British interests are too( deeply
involved in the issue of the present struggle, to allow
that the success of the Republican party shall be
placed in jeopardy by its indiscreet friends. But
does this constitute any reason why American citizens, who have so much more at stake, shall not consider the question at issue in the true light in which
it has been placed by John Brown and Sumner?
Were the mere words of Sumner as soft and gentle
as the music of the dying swan, would that change
the purpose of his party? and though John Browns
might cut the throats of their victims while praying
for the repose of their souls, or while singing hymns
of glory to the Most iHigh, and uttering exhortations
to the living to save themselves from a similar calamity, by conforming quietly to the requirements
of abolitionism, would it change the true nature of
the contest, or should it reconcile the Southern
people to the chains which are being forged for them?
183 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
True Americans should bear in mind, that the in terests represented by the anti-slavery party of
England cannot be identical with theirs. If it be
true, as they declare, that British power and wealth
are to be increased by the success of the Republican
party, Ameriean interests must suffer in a like ratio.
If, as the Times says, "the most important foreign
question for England is that of American slavery,"
it cannot be less important for America, because the
hope of the party here represented, is to build up
their own system of labor upon the ruins of the
American plantations. In no other possible manner can English interests be promoted by the success of American abolitionism, and the consequent
defeat of the party of free trade.
Is it true that England has the greatest interest in
the decay of American slavery?  If it be so, shall
it be recorded in American history that the nation
which failed to subdue three millions of our ancestors by the sword and the bayonet during a seven
years war, conquered thirty millions of their descendants by sowing amongst them the seeds of discord
without the loss of a single soldier? If it be so,
and if British abolitionists succeed in piloting the
"Republican" ship into the presidential harbor,
well may they exclaim in the fulness of their
triumph, "The defeat of our armies by a handful
of rebellious subjects, was allowed by the providence
of the Almighty, in order to prepare the way for
the complete subjection to British interests, of ten
184 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
times their number, at a later period in the world's
history!"
In one thing, the London journal above quoted,
has fallen into a grievous error. It urges prudence
upon the part of the Republican leaders, for the
sake of the great ultimate object which republican    ismn has in view.  It censures Sumner and Brown
for intemperance of acts and speech. The truth is,
but for the Browns and the Sumners, there would
be no Republican party. Blot out of existence the
vindictive spirit of such men, and there is no appeal
left to the madness of sectional fanaticism. If the
leaders of the#,orthern mind were only to cultivate
feelings of kindness and good-will towards the
Southern people, there would exist no motive suffi    ciently strong to urge the (Nothern people to a
crusade against the South. The abolition party
would be reduced to a force so small, that no place    seeking politician would endeavor through such in    fluences to attain to political honors.
I do iot believe that all the Republican politicians,
much less the Republican masses, desire to be con    sidered as endorsing either Sumner or John Brown.
Many, no doubt, hope at te proper moment to stay
the tide of sectional hatred, and after having con    quered the South by superior numbers, generously
propose, upon the fulfilment of certain conditions, to
leave them in possession of that which they already
.   occupy.  But these should remember that, in the hour
of victory, they must press forward, or be left behind in a
185 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
feeble minority, to be themselves taunted as they
have taunted others, with the appellation of "dough faces." If the Republicans are successful, he among.st
their leaders who falters in the work of destruction, will
only work his own political downfall, without being able to
arrest his comrades and followers, maddened by the
resistance which they have encountered, elated by
success, and thirsting for revenge.
For the true American citizen, who would avert
the threatened calamity, there is but one course left
open which he can follow with any well grounded
hope of success. All the parties which have nominated candidates for the Presidency, Profess to find
authority in the Constitution for all that they propose to do. Even Sumner says that the Constitution is upon his side, and that it does not confer
any rights upon the slaveholding States in regard to
slavery. But it is also a fact, that the hundreds of
thousands of abolitionists who frankly admit, that
in order to accomplish their purposes the Constitution
must be violated, and its provisions set at naught-all
the leading spirits who pronounce that sacred instrument to be "a league with death, and a covenant
with hell"-all! all! all! are arrayed upon the Republican side, and are fighting their battle under
the Republican.banner, and have adopted as their
candidates, the chosen standard-bearers of the
"Republican party."
The conservative and patriotic friends of the 
Union which is but a creature of the Constitution,
186 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
and which must perish with it, may well ask themselves if they can hope to preserve it in its purity,
with such leaders and such associates.
Beautifully rounded periods in laudation of the
Union will never save it from destruction, if that
spirit in the Northern mind which menaces its destruction is not rebuked by both the North and the
South.  All the Constitutions which could be enacted, would be powerless to hold together a confederacy of sovereign States, where the animosities
of the greater number are a constant menace against
the tranquillity, the peace, and independence of the
others. Parties *may prove what they choose by
written parchment articles of agreement, but all
such compacts will be powerless to perpetuate a
partnership that would be worth preserving, if the
members thereof are repelled by a common sentiment of hatred.  In this contest, it should be remembered that the North has no domestic interest
at stake. It is not pretended that the South desires
to interfere, in the smallest degree, in the affairs of
the Northern States. No Southern man would accept of any privileges in the' common territory,
which were not enjoyed alike by every citizen of the
Republic. The defeat of Republicanism would not
deprive the North of a single right or privilege of
sovereignty, while the success of abolitionism would
place in jeopardy the liberty, the independence, the
property, the very lives ofthe Southern people. While
the triumpli of the Republican party would seal the
187 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
bond of hatred between tho, sections upon the very
hearts of the people, too late, perhaps, its misguided
followers would find that the fruits of their victory
would be death.
188
0
6 
LETTER XII.
Influence of Anti-Slavery Fanaticism upon Religion-Bible Authority
on Slavery-Increase of Infidelity-Influence of the Clergy for
Good and Evil.
IN considering the evils which have resulted from
the unceasing agitation of the aniti-slavery question,
its active influence in producing disbelief or skepticism, in regard to the truths of the religion revealed
in the Holy Bible, cannot be overlooked, and should
not be disregarded. The fanaticism of anti-slavery
has been for many years past, of all other causes,
the most fruitful source of infidelity, wherever its
baneful influence has become a predominating passion. The philosophical mind may readily trace out
the links of the chain which connect abolitionism
with infidelity as cause and effect.
Slavery, as a political institution, or as a question
involving cprtain political rights, has been a subject
about which there has existed a variety of opinions.
An investigation in regard to its influence for good or
evil, leads us to consider the circumstances and causes
which have produced such a relation between men.
There are those, however, who condemn the continuance of such an institution without regard to the
causes which brought it into existence, and without
consideration of the results which may follow Its
abolition.  Others excuse and tolerate it in consider,:
ation of various assigned causes; while others app.:
(189) 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
of it on account of its declared advantages, not only
to those concerned, but to mankind at large. It may
be discussed as any other subject would be, involving
the rights of man, and incidentally the question in
regard to its moral influence is considered.
The theoretical principle upon which a democracy
is founded, is the absolute and unqualified political
equality of its citizens. A limited monarchy invests
a certain hereditary right in one or more persons to
govern the subjects thereof under certain restrictions.
An absolute monarchy invests one man with supreme
and unquestioned power over the lives and property
of his subjects. It does not follow that the monarch
employs this power in perpetrating deeds of cruelty
upon those over whom he is placed.  Within these
governments respectively, the inhabitants occupy
various relations in regard to each other, which relations are established bythe supreme authority of the
State. From the earliest period of recorded history,
to the present time, the relations have been those of
proprietor and tenant, noble and vassal, lord and serf,
master and slave. Men's minds, as I have said, differ
in regard to the political advantages and disadvantages of the various'relations thus establishedbetween
man and man, as well as upon the moral influences of
each. The great body of mankind live under the
most absolute and despotic forms of government,
the rulers of which, as before said, exercise unquestioned power over the lives, the personal liberty,
aSd the property of the subjects. A smaller number are subject to governments inwhich the power
190 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
of the monarch is more or less restricted, while fewer
still are citizens of democratic governments. The
ab4lute monarch exercises an authority over his
subjects far greater than that which is held by a mas ter over his slave; for in addition to the rights which
are invested in a master, the sovereign may not only
dispose of the life of his subject, but'he may qelegate
his powers to another. The master holds his slave
subject to the laws of the land, while the sovereign
is himself the fountain of all power.  Under very
many governments in which the rights of the subject
are protected by a constitution, the laws  confer
upon a creditor the right to dispose of the liberty of
his debtor, and instances have occurred even in the
history of our country, in which white citizens have
been sold for a term of years to the highest bidder.
Mankind have discussed the relative merits of
these various forms of government, from the beginning of time until the present moment, without having approached any nearer to a satisfactory solution
than in the days when the chosen people of God
by Divine command bought bondmen  and bondmaids from the heathen round about, to inherit them
as a possession for themselves and their posterity
forever; or at that interesting epoch in the world's
history, when after the terrible upheaving produced
by the French Revolution had been calmed for a
season upon the field of Waterloo, the victorious
Monarchs under the inspiration of the mystic dreams
of a courtesan, established that "holy alliance"
. A
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7 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
which was to give peace and concord to all the na tions of the earth forever.
The abolitionist of Massachusetts may bel*ve
with his whole heart that if the institution of Afri can slavery be blotted out of existence, his native
land will have touched the point of perfection in
human government; while the extreme monarchists
of the Old World may be as sincere in their convic tion that the only existing human institution, more
odious than that which is thus condemned by the
Yankee leveller, is that very democracy upon which
the American Government is founded. Yet who
may say that the existence ofany one of these dif ferent modes of government adopted by man is,
per se, a sin against God?  Has the Almighty ever
made such a revelation to man?  If so, when,
where, and to whom, has the announcement been
made?  Where has the line of sin been drawn be tween an extreme democracy and an extreme des  potism? If there is no record of any such an  nouncement of the Divine judgment, how impious
in.man ton say that he has penetrated the unfathom  able designs of Omnipotence, and has discovered
the line of demarcation? How'is it that from the
creation of the world to near the close of the
eighteenth century of the Christian era, the now ana  thematized institution of slavery has-existed, without
any discovery having been made by mankind of its
criminality or sinfulness In the sight of H:eaven?
During this period the Messiah himself has -appear  ed upon the earth, and has left. to us the record of
0 192
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
his mission of mercy, in the sublime and heavenly
precepts he has taught us; and yet, during eighteen
hundred years, his disciples and followers never
gleaned from his teachings a knowledge of the sin fuluess of slavery!
Notwithstanding this, men have been found in
this wicked age-aye! honored teachers of our holy
religion, who have presumed to announce that the
domestic institution of -African slavery in America
is, per se, a crime against the Almighty, and a sin
which, without repentance, will consign the offender
to everlasting punishment! Pulpits in England
and in America hav been employed to give effect
to this impious'doctrine.  The  deadly sins denounced in the Bible have, in effect, been held as
the most' trifling vices, compared to the great sin
of the slaveholder.  Churches have been set apart,
not for denunciations of the sins which were practiced by their respective congregations, but of that
which, if criminal at all in the sight of God, was
the crime of another people! Clergymen have
stimulated the passions and the fanaticism of their
hearers, against the -domestic institutions of a distant State, although it could not be pretended that
the "crime and the sin" which elicited theirs eloquent and frenzied denunciations had ever been,
or was likely ever to be, committed by a human
being within the sound of their voices. As Peter
the Hermit, in the days of the Crusades, preached
to all Christendom that the crime of all crimes was
to refuse to follow him to the Holy Land, to rescue
'k
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I
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the sepulchre of Christ from the hand of the Saracens, and that the virtue, the practice of which
washed away all sins, was to follow him in his holy
enterprise, so have the anti-slavery clergymen stimulated the fanaticism of their congregations against
the declared offences of another people, to an extent
which has, to say the least, blunted the perception
,of their own besetting vices and sins.
Whether or not the pulpits of the North have
produced the prevailing excitement against the
citizens of the Southern States, that it exists to a
most fanatical degree, will not be denied. That it
is the ruling and absorbing passion of multitudes
of people, is fully established by the fact that the
most sagacious, place-seeking politicians have severed their connections with old political parties, and
are now sailing' on the current of anti-slavery
frenzy, as the surest and speediest way to political preferment.
The imagination of a well'meaning man being excited by.false or exaggerated pictures of the horrors
of slavery, and filled with the belief that the existence of such an institution is a crime and a sin
against Heaven, very naturally seeks to find confirmation and authority for such belief in that great
Book, which reveals the mysteries of the Christian's
faith, and which he had been taught to believe was
a sacred emanation from on high.  Hle is startled
first, by discovering that Abraham held as bond-servants, men and women, born in his house and
bought with his money!  He turns over the pages of
9~~~~~~~~- 
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the Hol1y Book, and he reads, (Leviticus xxv. 44-46:)
"''Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which
thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are
round about' you; of them shall ye buy bondmen
and bondmaids. Moreover, of the children of the
strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall
ye buy, and of their families that are with you,
which they begat in your land: and they shall be
your possession.  And ye shall take them.as an inheritance for your children'after you, to inherit
them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen
forever."  
Finding nothing in the Old Testament to gratify
the cravings of his morbid appetite, he hopes to
find that which he seeks, in the teachings of our
Savior and his apostles-he reads, (Ephesians vi. 5,
6:)  "Servants, be obedient to them that are your
masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the
servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the
heart."
He searches farther, and finds, (1 Timothy vi. 1:)
"Let as many servants as are under the yoke count
their own masters worthy  of all honor, that the
name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed."
Again, he finds, (Titus ii. 9,10:)  "Exhort  servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and
to please them well in all things; not answering
again; not purloining, but showing all good fidel
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our
Saviour in all things."
In despair he continues his researches, iii the
desperate hope that perhaps there may still be some
words of comfort-in the little that remains for him
to read.  His eye is at length arrested by a passage,
bearing an import, which startles his very soul.
"Can it be I," he exclaims! He reads and re-reads,
(2 Peter ii. 19:)  "While they promise them liberty,
they themselves are the servants of corruption
for of whom a man is overcome, df the same is he
brought in bondage."
And when he discovers that Paul sends back
Onesimus, the runaway slave, to his master, though
with gentle words and a request, amounting alinost
to a command, that he be pardoned for having abandoned the service of his master,.and thus fully recognizing the master's right, he is tempted to exclaim, in the bitterness of his disappointment,
"the apostle of Christ a slave-catcher!"
While his researches inform him that, during the
whole period of time of which the Bible furnishes
a record, the institution of slavery existed; and
that along with the evidences of its recognition bv;
the holy teachers, whose writings adorn its pages,
there is not a line or a syllable in which. it is condemned, either by Christ or his apostles, the terrible doubt crosses his mind. There is a natural
struggle between the passion that absorbs him and
the religion which his mother taught Ami.  He enters once more, and for the last time, the sanctuary
196
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
where he had so often, in days past, listened to the
words of love which fell from the preacher's lips,
as he labored to impress upon his hearers the holy
precepts of the meek and lowly Saviour.  Alas! it
is no gentle words of charity that fall upn his listening ear! Instead, thereof, again he hears the
confirmation of his own belief: "Slavery is the
sin against God and man, which calls aloud for the
vengeance of the Almighty."
He reasons within himself: "Is not God perfection?
Is he not allwise? If he had made a revelation to
man, would it not have enumerated, clearly and distinctly, all the great sins which he condemned? If
he had appeared upon earth, would he not, with his
own lips, have pronounced a sentence of condemnation against the sin of sins which was practiced
before his eyes?"   Fanaticism triumphs!  He
throws down the Holy Book, exclaiming, "give- me
an anti-slavery Bible, and an anti-slavery God!"
These are not my words, but words whih have
fallen from the lips of an excited abplition orator,
and upoif the ears of a gratified and'approving
audience  of New Englanders.*
* " We of the North want an anti-sZlavery Constitution,  an anti8lavery Bible, and an anti-slavery God!! " The author of this rather
startling annunciation of Northern wants, has been rewarded, since
the accession of the Republican party to power, by a first-class
diplomatic mission abroad. The Government to which he was first
accredited, very properly refused to receive him, but he was subsequently appointed to another, and he now holds the rank at a foreign
cou t, of "Envoy Extrsordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of
the United States of America."
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
But how could it be otherwise than thus?  And
who can tel how deeply this feeling of infidelity,
or at least of skepticism, may have penetrated the
hearts of those with whom anti-slavery fanaticism
has becoi,  a controlling passion?  If there are
any who are ignorant of the extent to which this
sentiment of unbelief is entertained, let him acquaint himself with the proceedings of anti-slavery
anniversaries, and note the increasing numbers who
openly avow their infidelity.
There is no human engine of good or evil so potent as the clergy-those who are acknowledged as
the teachers of religion. In all ages of the world,
this influence has been a controlling element among
mankind. When it has been worthily directed towards cultivating the feelings of love, and of
charity, and forgiveness among men, society has
had reason to bless them as benefactors. But when,
as has too often been the case, even in the history
of our own religion, they have been instrumental
in producing strife, and discord, and heartburnings,
and misery, and bloodshed, society has had cause
to regret that'influence which their sacred calling
secured for them.
It is not for me to Judge of the motives of those
who have contributed so powerfully towards building up that mountain of hatred, which may be said
now to be common to a great number of the citi zens of  both sections of the American; Union.
Least of all, could I say that those motives have
not had their origin in a benevolent,purpose. The
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
zeal to do good often degenerates into a fanaticism,
which results in nothing but evil. Fanaticism begets a reverse fanaticism, and to the eye of the disinterested spectator, or to him who beholds from
a distance, that which is transpiring, the acts of all
appear as the acts of madmen.
We cannot but remember that the same sources
of discord have existed since the foundation of the
Union, and we should likewise bear in mind, that
they will exist as long as the Confederation endures! We know that good-will did once prevail
between the different members of the Confederacy,
and why may it not exist again?  If the clergymen
of the entire North would resolve that, for twelve
short months, they would preach nothing but
Christ, and teach nothing but that which he taught:
if they would, in good faith, call upon their congregations to exercise toward all mankind charity
and love: if'they would denounce, in the spirit of
the apostles, the sins which they denounced, who
can  estimate the  amount of good  which that
one year might bring forth? What a noble field is
here presented in which to exercise the duties of a
noble calling!  How much of wretchedness, and
misery, and wickedness, ay! perhaps of bitter
strife and bloodshed, they might avert! ~ 
1199 
LETTER XIII.
I
Present attitude of Parties in the United States-Success of the Re publican Party will accomplish Disunion-Its Measures examined,
etc.
In the preceding letters I have endeavored to
present a brief view of the origin, progress, and
!development of the institution of slavery in the
Southern States of the American Confederacy. Although I may not hope that the facts I have stated
will change the fixed opinions or convictions of any
one, yet I trust they will not be altogether without
influence in directing the attention of true Americans to the importance which attaces throughout
the civilized world to the productions of slave labor,
as elements in the wealth and power of nations.
I am con inc.ed that such an investigation will lead
the dispassionate observer to the conclusion that, if
the Southern States "are blinded by their passions
to thle evils of slavery," the anti-slavery party of
Great Britain is not blind to the disastrous effects
which its destructio/n would entail upon the material
prosperity of America. That there should be a
party in the United States, formidable as to numbers and respectability, co-operating with these in
the accomplishment of such a result, either by the
force of circumstances or a common sentiment, is 
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
well calculated to excite the wonder of mankind.
If it be true that this British party represent, as
they say they do, the feelings and opinions of the
English people, then are the "Republicans" fighting the battle of England far more effectively than
did the British soldiers and -lesstanmrcenaries
who contended in arms against our ancestors in the
days of the revolution. That this party should be
sufficiently formidable to present a candidate for the
presidency, with a strong probability of success
founded upon the common action of all the free
States of the Confederacy, and that' such should be*
the issue, and the only issue pending in such a contest, is a startling fact, the importance of which cannot be over-estimated, because it strikes at the very
foundation of the compact upon which the Confederacy has been erected.
The subject of slavery, as a question of morals, or
political economy, or expediency, or abstract right
and wrong, is one which like all others that affect
the interests or passions of man, may be a subject
of legitimate discussion; about  wfh   mankind
may differ, as upon other questions ill which the
interests of the human family may be involved.
The Southern States may naturally seek to remove
the prejudices against them, which artful enemies
have succeeded in exciting. They may be willing
to present their cause * the bar of an enlightened
public opinion, as an individual may seek to remove
unfounded imputations against his honor or integrity. But the South does not mean thereby to ad
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
mit that the other States of the Confederacy have
any right to vote away the political privileges which
they claim to have inherited from the founders of
the Government, and over which they retained entire sovereignty when delegating certain powers to
the General Government.
Great Britain may defend her various systems of
free labor, and endeavor to prove that, upon the
whole, they are respectively liable to fewer objections
than any others which she could substitute; but
though she might fail in leading mankind to her
$onclusions,she does not mean to intimate that,ifmankind differ from her in opinion, they have therefore a
right to change or in any manner to modify her domestic policy. America has just the same right, if
she possessed the power, to subvert the internal laws
and customs of England, as the Northern States
have to modify, or alter, or in any manner to interfe.re with the domestic institutions of the slave
States. All the citizens of the Republic beyond the
limits of the slave States, may believe that slavery
is a wrong a*d a sin in the sight of God and man.
They may believe that it was a virtue in Europe to
establish an institution which it is a crime in the
Southern States any longer to tolerate; yet whatever
may be their opinions upon the abstract merits of
the controversy, or upon the morality or expediency
of slave labor, there existsno other external authority than that of violence for any interference
with the domestic institutions of the Southern States.
This can only be accomplished by illegal means,
202 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
and would be an act of revolution, whichl would
release the South from the compact of Union.
Do a majority of the citizens of the free States
desire to dissolve the political bonds which unite
the Confederacy, or to re-organize the Union upon
a different basis from that established by its founders, in order that they may control the domestic institutions of the Southern States? and do they wish
by these peaceful meains'to declare or to accomplish
their purpose? The interrogatory seems to assume
the possible existence of a public sentiment which
at this distance seems almost beyond belief; and A
yet the dispassionate mind cannot reject the conclusion, that such a feeling or wish lies at the.foundation of'that party which has entered into the contest for the presidency under the title of Republican.
What are the facts which present themselves to
our view in investigating the causes of the present
deplorable state of feeling among the citizens of the
United States? Upon what special issues does the
Republican organization ask for the support of the
Northern States? for it does not expect or desire a
single electoral vote in the slave States. The only
issue they present-the only]upport they ask-the
only idea they illustrate is anti-slavery, pure and
simple! designedly and sedulously disembarrassed
of all or any side issues. They expect no aid from
any except anti-slavervien, and theyappeal to no
passion, but that of hatred-for the slaveholder! In
justice to that party, it must be supposed~that they
have a purpose to accomplish, and that such pur
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
pose must be inimical to the slave States. It cannot
be that the leaders would stimulate such a torrent
of vindictive passions between the sections of a
Confederacy, which in their hearts they cherish for
the mere purpose of obtaining power and place.  I
give them credit for other motives.
But suppose thig to be the true and only object of
the politicians, and that these appeals are successful
in accomplishing their designs.   What would it
signify? Could it be interpreted to mean anything
but' the expression of an abstract wish on the part
. of the majority of the Confederacy to dissolve the
Union, or to reconstruct it upon another basis,
which would leave with them the Constitutional con trol of the question of slavery in the Southerni States?
Upon the hypothesis that the RIepublican party
has no political purpose to subserve in opposition to
the rights of the Southern States, by such anl ex pression bf anti-slavery feeling, the force of its~sig nificance, as a demonstration of sentiments averse to
the longer continuance of the Union, is doubly en hanced.   Truthfully interpreted, according to the
rules of common reason, such an expression of an tipathy to the Southern States or their institutions,
conveying no intimation of a design to give a prac tical effect to their victory by any act inimical to
slavery, would mean, that Iey had ceased to regard
the Union as worth mainlining.  After the ex pression Of such a deliberate sentiment of repugnance
to the fifteen Southern States or their domestic in stitutions, would they not be driven by the force of
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
public opinion without, as well as by their own feelings, to repudiate a longer political association with
those whom they had thus formally insulted and
proniounced unworthy of respect; or to attempt their
subjugation and, if successful, hold them as vassals I
Would it not be, in effect, a virtual dissolution of
the Confederacy upon the terms previously existing?
The unbiased mind can arrive at no other conclusion, than that such a result would of itself, and in
itself, dissolve the union between the two great
geographical sections. The chain of the Confederacy would be broken.! The fragments might, for
temporary purposes, be re-united by a flaxen thread,
but its power of cohesion would be gone forever.
Conservative citizens of the Northern States should
not delude themselves into the belief, that this is the
mere expression of an idle threat on the part of the
South, for the result would be accomplished against
the wishes and in opposition to the united protest
of the Southern States!
But upon the more plausible supposition, that the
Republican party has a political purpose in thus
consolidating into one mass the anti-slavery sentiment of the North, without any admixture of
other ingredients, it. becomes important to discover
what that purpose is. Is it that this anti-slavery
party desires to secure the reins of the General Governlment in their own hinds, in order that they may
control the institution of slavery within the States?
This would involve a palpable violation of the Constitution, and could only be accomplished by violence.
205 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
The announcement of such a purpose, is of itself
an overt act of hostility to the Union, which would
be utterly inconsistent with an intention to main tain the existing Confederation:  The act of con sumimation would be revolution. Although this is the
avowed object of the extreme abolitionists, and is
doubtless the purpose of many who do not give
public utterance to their designs, yet it is fair to
presume, that those of the Republican party who
still cling to the Union and the Constitution as the
anchor of safety, have in view the accomplishment
of their anti-slavery purposes by other methods.
We read in all the Republican jouinals of the more
moderate and conservative school, the declaration of
a design to prohibit the farther extension of slavery,
by excluding it from the territories.  I presume that
I shall not be charged with representing the antislavery party unfairly, when I assume this to be the
ground on which every member thereof, embracing
every shade of opinion, is willing to stand.
If a proper degree of fraternal feeling existed on
the part of the Republican party towards the Southern States, it might be urged,. even if such a prohibition could be legally accomplished, that it would
be unkind to the white race, and cruel to the African,
to insist upon its enforcement-ungenerous to the
citizens of the South, because it would debar the
Southern States bordering* upon the Free States,
from abolishing slavery for all time to come. The
Northern States were not only permitted to rid
themselves of slavery without cost, but also of the
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
slaves, by transferring them to the adjoining slave
States. Here they were purchased by the Southern
planters, and by this simple process, these objects
were accomplished without involving the loss of a
single dollar.  The North having thus disposed of
its slaves, would it be equitable to deny to the
border slave States a similar privilege? Does there
not rest upon the North a moral obligation to leave 
open this one avenue to the consummation of the
same results, should the institution of slavery cease
to be profitable, or be rendered fromn any other cause
undesirable? But suppose the number of Africans
go on increasing in the same ratio as they have
done since the foundation of the Republic; within
the lapse of a comparatively brief period, the African
population would be equal to the present population
of the entire Union.  Wheh we add to this the natural increase of the white race, it is easy to perceive
that,no greater curse could be inflicted upon the
posterity of the Southern States, than thus to confine the Africans for ever within their present limits.
It is appalling to conten,late the tyranny which,
for the protection of the white race, it would be
necessary to exercise over such a multitude of
African slaves, confined within such narrow limits;
unless indeed, the ever menacing danger of insurrection should drive the great body of European.
races to seek a more secure asylum, and thus leave
the country in the possession of the Africans.  I
know there are those who would say that this is
the consummation they desire, but these are mad
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
*    men with whom it were folly to reason.  Let sane
men, however, who do not act upon a principle of
revenge, or blind hatred, make for themselves an
estimate founded upon data already furnished by
our history, of the probable extent of the population
of the Southern States within a given period; under
such a prohibition of emigration.  Thley will find
that like all the radical short-cut roads of abolition
philanthropy, it leads not only to evil for the master,
but is also cruel and unjust to the slave.  The
smaller the number of slaves among any given pop  ulation of the dominant race, the better is their
condition, and the more abundant their comforts;
while every increase, either in reference to territory
or population; draws more closely around them the
restraints imposed by their condition of servitude.
Intelligent practical anti-slavery philanthropy, would
seek to increase the area of slavery, when it could
be accomplished without increasing the number of
slaves, rather than by circumscribing increase its
hardships.
Thus is it ever with the schemes for the ameliora tion of the condition of the slave, which have their
origin in free States.  They are dictated, primarily,
by a feeling of animosity to the master, and all end
in disaster to the slave, for whom there is such a
noisy demonstration of sympathy.
But as I intimated in the outset, the feeling of
unkindness or hatred for the South, forms too im portant and essential an ingredient in the composi tion of the Republican party to justify any appeal
208 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
to their magnanimity, or to any sympathies they
might be supposed to entertain for the African.
The only present defenc  of the South, therefore,
against such an aggression upon her equal rights,
rests in the Conlstitutionl. So long as the Union is
maintained, that is the final arbiter of all disputes. I
know that the provisions of that instrument may beviolated-I am well aware that by a wide latitude of
construction, a false meaning may be attached to
certain phrases, yet the undeniable principle which
lies at its very foundation, is the equality of the
States, and their absolute sovereignty over their domestic affairs.
If these reserved rights were respected in good
faith by all the citizens of the Republic, ages and
ages might pass away without the occurrence of a
single act which could destroy the harmony and the
unity of the Confederation. What a magnificent
prospect and reward is thus held out to the true
patriot, to restrain within the boundaries of the
Constitution, his generous efforts to improve the
condition, or reform the vices of his neighbors!
Alas! there are those who will not brook any restraint which interposes an obstacle to the gratification of their passions or their personal ambition.
If under the Constitution, a dominant section
may appropriate for themselves all the property in
Lands, belonging to the General Government, they
may certainly make the same disposition of every
(ther species of property.  Upon the same principle
they may accumulate a surplus of money in the Trea
.009
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
sury, and divide it among the States of the same
dominant section. If the government of the United
States may, under the provisions, and according to
the true intent of the Constitution, exclude from
the territories any one article which is recognized
as property by any one State, then it may prohibit
the introduction of any species of property whatever.
Even if there were not a slave State, no statesman
in the formation of a charter of Confederation between independent States, however homogeneous
might be their internal regulations, would confer
upon Congress the power of excluding from the
common territories, any property recognized as such
by any one of the States. If it would be absurd to
suppose the existence of any such power in a Confederation of States, having similar local Constitutions, how can it be inferred that either the slave
or free States which formed the Constitution of the
United States would' have authorized the exercise
of such power by Congress?
To declare that the citizens of one State shall not
enter upon the territory of the General  Government with their property, and that the citizens of
another State may, strikes down the very cornerstone of the Constitution. It would be a violation
of every principle of common justice.  For if these
territories are common property-that is if they
have been bought by the common  purse, or the
common valor of the Confederacy-then there exists
no power, except by the exercise of brute force, to
210 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
exclude any one State from an equal participation
therein.
If this exclusion cannot lawfully be made by the
Congress of the United States, which might be supposed, at least, to represent the will not only of a
majority of the States, but of the people, much less
can any inferior power accomplish the same end.
For to suppose that a superior can delegate greater
power to a subordinate than he possesses himself, is
absurd, and not to be believed.
Neither if such unlawful power is attempted to be
exercised on the part of such inferior, can the general Government close its eyes and refuse to see or
to redress the wrong. The supreme power is bound
to prevent a wrong if within the compass of its
means; or failing in this, it must. redress the wrong;
otherwise it is not sovereign.
I am aware, that here is the great stumbling-block
for many honest citizens who, from conscientious
motives, from education, or from prejudices, do not
desire to legislate in favor of slavery; or in the language of the Republican politicians, they are opposed to the establishment by Congress "of a slave
code for the territories."
Neither does the South ask for the establishment
of a slave code, in the sense in which it is here
meant. But the Constitution confers upon them
and their property the same rights as are conferred
upon the free States and their property. The citizen
cannot protect himself, because he has transferred
that right to the Government which  having as
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
.-tlled it, is bound to perform that duty; otherwise
such citizen is an outlaw.
Government is the natural protector of all its
citizens. It is bound alike to each. This is the
tounidation upon which all its powers rest.  The
,overnlnent which from inability fails in the per/foinance of this duty, is no longer entitled to the
!eyianice of the citizen, unless there is a reasonable
'{i,t mirade to redress the wrong.   But where the
r\'clument refuses to performn this duty, it abdi -is. and is no longer the Governmrent.
It follows, therefore, that when the Government
of the United States refuses or fails to protect the
S(-)uthl in its equal rights, it abdicates its authority;
and, ceasing to be the Government of the slave States,
,ainot rightfully claim their allegiance.  By such
ai act, it becomes only the Government of the States
yhlichl it protects.
Even though the North might gain a temporary
triumnph by the abrogation of the equal rights of the
South, yet one day or other it would be made to recoil upon herself.' However that may be, no other
construction can fairly be placed tpon the Constitution; and however objectionable may be its provisions, it is the duty of good citizens to conform to
them, in letter and in spirit. When they seek to
violate or fraudulently to evade its requirements, it
is an act of revolution.  It is disunion
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LETTER XIV.
A Confederacy could never'be established which did not recognize
the equality of the States-Position of Parties illustrated-Ag gressions of the South and North considered.
WITHIN the Republican or  anti-slavery party,
there are many who are willing to:dmit the importance of the Confederacy to -the general safety
of the whole, but who detest the Constitution which
recognizes the institution of slavery, and thereby
inmposes upon the Government the necessity of giving the same protection to the slaveholder and his
property as to the Massachusetts manufacturer and
his looms. I have already referred to the absurdity
of assuming the existence of a government which
would not give full and ample protection to all its
citizens. I have said-and it will scarcely be-called
in question-that when a government refuses to
protect alluits citizens in their constitutional rights
it virtually abdiees, and is no longer entitled to
the allegiance of its citizens; and in a confederacy
like that of the United States, it is, in effect, a dissolution of the Union.
But let it be supposed that, by common consent,
and without any popular excitement or unkind feeling between the citizens of the several States, the
Union were dissolved into its original elements.
The first impulse of many who are now, perhaps,
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
unwittingly engaged in the work of destruction,
would be to re-establish some sort of union as a protection against foreign aggression. Let it be supposed that, in accordance with this sentiment, a convention should be called to settle the terms on which
the new union should be established. It assembles:
every State is represented; the organization is completed, and the President announces that all is ready
to proceed t the dispatch of the business which
called them together. Fifteen slave States and
eighteen free States are represented.
A  grave member from Massachusetts rises and
says: -"Mr. President: Before proceeding to arrange the details of the terms upon which these
thirty-three independent states may form a union,
for purposes of common defence and other great objects of interest to each, it is necessary to declare
the terms upon which new States, formed out of
the common territory of this confederacy, may be
admitted as integral parts of the proposed Union.
As I do not desire to awaken, any angry or even unkind feelings by making any special reference to
certain crimes and sins of enornous magnitude',
which are tolerated and legalized by fifteen of the
States here assembled, I propose to accomplish my
purpose in another way. The Constitution of my
native State is perfect in all its parts. It is the result of the matured wisdom of the greatest statesmen of this or any other age. Does any member of
this Convention find in that charter of our liberties
any single provision to which a rational objection
w
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ean be made?" After a pause, during which there
is a profound silence, the gentleman from Massachusetts continues:  "I do not desire, Mr. President, to force this Constitution upon any of the
States here represented; and it would be alike a departure from the great principle of liberty to insist,
absolutely, upon the adoption of this Constitution
by a new State before being admitted as-a member
of our Confederacy. I therefore propose to adopt
the following article defining the terms upon which
new States may be admitted, to-wit:  "ARTICLE I. Any territory of the United States,
having the requisite population, and complying in
other respects with the provisions of this Constitution, may be admitted into the Union as an equal
member thereof, Provided the said territory h,s
adopted for its government the Constitution of the
State of Massachusetts. But if said territory asks
for admission under a Constitution with provisions
similar to the provisions of the Constitution of North
Carolina, it shall not be lawful for such territory to
become a State of the Confederacy."
After the memlbr from Massachusetts has taken
his seat, a Republican from New York rises and
says:-" Mr. President: Though there is an entire
coincidence and agreement between the distinguished gentleman who has just addressed the Convention and myself, in regard to that sin against
God and man which is tolerated, and encouraged,
and made lawful, by fifteen States here represented,
yet, I cannot admit that the Constitution of Massa
4.
215 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
chusetts is the only one which establishes and con firms the sublime principles of equality and frater nity which are set at naught by the fifteen States
before referred to. The proposition of the gentle man ignores the existence of a North!  Like most
of his countrymen, (I say it with all proper respect,
and without designing that the remarkl shall be in terpreted in an offensive sense,) the member firom
Massachusetts can see nothing which is worthy of
admiration beyond the limits of his own State. It
is notorious that the visions of Massachusetts statesmen are bounded by the view from the summit of
Bunker IHill.  Let me tell that gentleman that there
is a North! a glorious North, proud of her achieve,nents in the past, and ready now to make any sacrifice in defence of her honor and her equal rights.
Allow me, furthermore, to declare in direct terms,
and in the outset of our proceedings, that the
Northern States will submit to no invidious distinctions!. They will enter this Union as equals, or not
at all! It is well for the gentleman to be promptly
undeceived.  Massachusetts is not the North, nor
is the North Massachusetts.  Sheqrms but a small
integral part, and to that extent he may ask consideration; but when she demands that hers shall
be the model Constitution of all new States, she insults that great North whose very existence she ignores.   This  self-exaltation may  be appropriate
enough on Boston Common or in Fanneil Hall, but
it is a species of sectional arrogance which is altogether misplaced in the halls of a Convention, as
216 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY..
* sembled to form a union between independent
States.  I therefore propose a substitute for*the
proposition before the Convention, and ask for its
adoption.  It is as follows:
"Any territory of the United States with the
requisite population, etc., etc., may be admitted as
a State into the Union, provided the said territory
has adopted for its government, a Constitution simi  lar in its provisions to the Constitution of any one
or all of the eighteen Northern States here repre  sented'. But if said territory asks for admission un  der a Constitution with provisions similar to the pro  visions of any one of the fifteen Southern States,
it shall not be lawful for such territory to become a
State of the Confederacy."
A member from Vermont rises to address the
Convention, and says: "Mr. President, I am a plain,
straightforward, out-and-out Abolitionist. I can
discover no good likely to result from mincing this
question. I have not had the opportunity in my
native mountains to acquire the art of expressing
my thoughts without calling things by their right
names. The two gentlemen who have preceded
me, deal their blows against vice and crime, with  out daring to name them, for fear of giving offense.
Now, Mr. President, I am not afraid to speak my
sentiments boldly and above board!  The crime of
all crimes, the sin of all sins, the enormity above
all enormities, the existing libel upon  humanity,
which is alike offensive to Vermont and to the Al  mighty Ruler of all things is, the crime, the sin, the
217
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
enormity of slavery, as legalized by the fifteen
Sorhern States here represented!  Our most eminent divines have already made known that before
the tribunal of Hieaven there will be no mercy for
the slaveholder. The Churches of the North have
announced for him a similar fate; then why should
we make Heaven angry, by putting on our kid
gloves when we handle the monster? I have therefore to propose in lieu of the two propositions now
before the pConvention, the following:
"The territories of the Union, being the common
property of all the States, may be lawfully occupied
by all the citizens of the free States with their property of whatever kind. But it shall not be lawful
for citizens of the slave States to reside with their
propert  upon any. of the lands which are now, or
which may hereafter come into the possession of
the Government.  No State shall ever hereafter be
admitted into the Union whose Constitution tolerates the existence of slavery."
It is unnecessary to follow up this assumed discussion, or to enumerate the arguments by which the
movers and opponents of these respective propositions would defend their proposed measures. But
we may fairly conclude that the representatives of
the slave States would propose, in lieu of the propositions referred to, something like the following:
The States forming the Confederacy are in all
respects equal. The sovereignty surrendered by
each to the General Government is the same; and
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
in all other respects the sovereignty of each State
within its own limits is supreme.. 
All territories, lands, or other property which
may come into the possession of the General Government, being alike the property of all the States,
must be held as such.  Whenever a territory shall
be opened for settlement, it shall be alike free to all
the citizens of all the States.  Immigrants from any
State of the Confederacy may lawfully take with
them anly property recognized as such by the laws
of their own States.  The  duty of protecting its
citizens being an essential condition of sovereignty,
tihe citizens of the respective States shall be fully protected bI)y the Government of the Confederacy, in all
their rights in the territories, against all aggressions
whatsoever. 
Whenever a territory having sufficient population,
etc., etc., makes its application for admission as a
State in the Union, it may be admitted as an equal
mnember of the Confederacy with whatever Constitution the citizens thereof may adopt, provided it
be republican in form.  The said Constitution may
contain any one or all of the piovisions of the Constitution of any- one of the original States cornposing the Confederacy.
It will not be denied that the first three6 propositions above considered, represent fairly the views
and opinions of the more moderate  and conservative portion of the Republican party, while the latter embraces every claim or demand that any portion of the Southern States have ever made in re
219
I 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
gard to this subject.  The South desires nothing
more than the recognition of its equal rights, and it
will be recreant to honor and liberty if it ever submits to accept of anything less.
It is scarcely necessary to discuss the probabilities of the formation of a new Confederacy upon
any terms which would accord withi the principles
of the Republican party.  Such a consumtnation
would be  simply  impossible.  The  Constitution
under which we have hitherto lived, undoubtedly
confers upon the Southern States the equal rights
which they would demand under any other which
might be proposed. It therefore follows that the
Republican party is not only founded upon the principle of opposition to the present Union, but to
any other Confederacy which it would be possible
to erect upon the ruins of that one which they now
in effect seek to overthrow.
Am I mistaken in my opinions in regard to the
intentions of the Republican party? Are there any
portion of citizens who give it their support, who
desire to maintain the present Union, upon the ternms
demanded by the Constitution? In short, do they
mean nothing in derogation of the rights of the
South, by uniting in the establishment of a great
sectional organization founded upon the single idea
of opposition to the domestic institutions of the
South?  If they propose no measure hostile to the
slave States, why do they give their countenance
to the establishment of a great political anti-slavery
party? Is there any proposition from any quarter
220 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
to reestablish slavery in the free States? Has the
South ever sought either directly or indirectly, or
does she now seek, to exercise any control over, or in
any manner to interfere with, the domestic institutions or governments of the free States? Does the
South deny the North any right which the Constitution accords? Or does she ask for herself any thing
more than the recoghition of her equality under the
great charter of confederation? If to these interrogations there can be none other than a negative
response, I repeat, why should there exist in the
United States a political anti-slavery party, if it does
not propose some change or modification of the existing institution of slavery, or involve some denial
of the rights of the slave States? Republican partisan leaders would answer, that their organization
was established to resist "the aggressions of slavery."
I must confess that I find it impossible to conceive
what particular acts are here referred to, for, of all
the institutions which exist, that of slavery is the
least aggressive. When, however, the heated partisan is obliged to furnish an illustration of the nature
of these aggressions, he refers usually to the unfortunate collision in the Senate chamber between a
Southern Representative and a Northern Senator.
This Senator was attacked and beaten by a Southerner.  It is not necessary to discuss the merits of
that affair. The act was that of one man; but if the
deed was as atrocious as it has been represented, by
what harsh epithet may we denounce the crime of
John Brown? What is there about Sumner that
221 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
should excite to a greater degree our feelings of
pity or compassion, than the helpless victims of John
Brown's brutal propensities for murder! Sumner
still lives to utter calumnies which ought to be sufficient to gratify the most morbid appetites of his followers. The victims of Johnl Brown and his confederates are in their graves. Yet, strange and startling truth, the very men and women, who, if their
power of performance had been in accordance with
the force of their will would have immolated the
whole South, to have avenged the "crime" against
Sumner, find but little to condemn in the conduct of
that monster murderer, Brown, except his indiscretion!
His "zeal," they say, "was without prudence, but
his motives were pure -and honest!"
Nothing has occurred within a quarter of a century
more significant of the unhappy state of feelings
existing in the Northern States against the South,
than the effects which the two events referred to
have produced in the public mind. And I may
add that it furnishes a fair index to the influences
which abolition propagandism has produced upon
the morals of its adherents.
I have only referred to this subject to show that
the chief aggressions complained of by the abolitionists, even admitting the propriety of classing the
cases referred to in that category, have been exceeded
a thousand fold in enormity by aggressions upon the
South. At most, they are not of sufficient magnitude to authorize or justify conservative men, in
giving their support and influence to a party, which
222' 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
cat only accomplish its openly avowed designs, by a
palpable repudiation of the Constitution by which the
Union is maintained; and which can only accomplish
its measures by the sword. If there are citizens who
are in favor of preserving the present Union, but
still propose to give their support to the RPepublican
candidates, may I ask them how they can reconcile
the two? They cannot accomplish the political object they may propose under the present constitution, then why should they give expression and form
to such abstract desire? Is it to gratify or to give
expression to a feeling of hatred against slavery?
Let them not delude themselves.  Men do not hate
vice, but the vicious. They do not hate murder, but
the murderer. Neither do men hate slavery, but the
slave-holder. Vice, murder, slavery, are mere words
which convey to the mind the idea of certain acts,
which acts must be performed or brought about by
intelligent human beings, otherwise no passion of
hatred c6uld be excited. Now let me ask the sincere friend of the Union, how he supposes the Union
can be maintained, or how he can think that the
Union ought to be maintained, when he and others
constituting a majority of all the States of one section, being a majority of the citizens of the Confederacy, dleclare thus solemnly and formally that they
have given their support to the candidate of their
choice, with the sole object of giving expression to
their feelings of hatred against the citizens of fifteen
States of the Confederacy.  Can a love of the Union
as it now exists; animate those who cultivate and
8
2.23 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
give expression to such feelings in regard to one
entire section of the Confederacy? Or can they expect to excite a feeling of love for any Union whatever, in the breasts of those against whom such all
irritating warfare is kept up, on account of the existence of a domestic institution. for the creation of
which they are not responsible, the continuation of
which has become an inexorable necessity, and the
management of which is, and of right ought to be,
under their exclusive control?
224
4 
LETTER XV.
Duty of Citizens-Republican Measures are the results of unfriend ly feeling; not the cause-Spirit of the Republican Party incon sistent with a desire to maintain the Union in its integrity.
MAN cannot engage in any work w'hich yields a
greater revenue of good than in softening the asperities of his fellow-men against each other. In
the present contest in the United States, is it the
duty of every good citizen to pause and look steadily
and calmly into the probable future of such a struggle. Let him not deceive himself by delusive hopes,
but watch the current of passing events, and see
with his own eyes in what direction we are tending.
Let him pause and listen to the roar of that cataract whose ominous mutterings can now be distinctly heard, even upon the far-away shiores of the
Bosphorus, from whence I venture to send forth
upon their uncertain errand these words of admonrition.
It should be borne in mind that there is a feature
peculiar to the present attitude of parties in the
United States which distinguishes it from all others
that have hitherto existed. In the past, parties
have been organized in support of and in opposition to certain measures of State policy, which were
sustained or opposed without any direct reference
to geographical lines.  The people naturally arrived
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY,
at different conclusions in regard to the merits of
these measures, and as their judgments or their interests dictated, they have arrayed themselves on the
one side or the other. The discussions growing out
of these differences of opinion have at times produced
more- or less of bitterness, and personal as well as
sectional unkindness. But it will be noted that
these antagonisms originated in the previously existing differences of opinion in regard to questions of public policy. Now, this state of facts is
totally reversed.. The measures advocated have
grown out of a previously existing feeling of animosity, and have no other foundation upon which
they, rest for support. The proof of the truth of
this proposition exists in every man's mind who
will consider of this one fact, namely: if every
trace of bad feeling, or hatred, or sectional animosity
were removed from the breasts of the people, the
questions which are now discussed and fiercely sustained upon the one side, and opposed upon the
other, would instantly and of themselves disappear.
Without considering the abstract merits of the
measures proposed by the anti-slavery or Republican party, if a contingency could arrive which
would remove from the minds of its adherents and
supporters, all purely personal ill will or exasperated
feeling against the Southern people, its presidential
candidate could not upon the present issues obtain
the electoral votes of three States of the Confeder acy.  It is impossible that a party in the United
States sufficiently formidable to carry a half dozen
4*
'.1 2 6 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
States, or even one State, could be formed out of citi zens who desire to maintain the Union, the inevitable
effect of whose measures would be, to take away
from the Southern States their equal rights, to
render their domestic peace insecure, and to aid the
anti-slavery party of Great Britain in their effort to
bring the Republic into disrepute, unless they
were sustained by the passions and prejudices of
the electors.  The friends of the Union in this con test should act upon this existing fact, that the
angry passions which the Republican leaders may
make available to their success are not founded
upon the measures they propose, but the measures
owe their existence to the angry passions. To ad dress these by controverting the policy, the propriety, or the justice of their measures, would be
fruitless, so long as the feeling referred to exists in
their breasts. To eradicate a disease, the physician
must go to the root of a malady. Those who would
labor effectually for the defeat of Republicanism
should direct their efforts to remove the unfounded
feeling of animosity which has been implanted in
the hearts of its supporters.  The war of the Allies
against Russia brought their armies to Sevastopol.
During the pendency of the struggle, the besiegers
and the besieged erected their fortifications and defences, and planted their batteries, to meet the
exigencies which the varying events of the siege
brought forth. Peace was finally made, and the
works of the defenders as well as of the assailants,
are now neglected and in ruins. Just as war meas
227 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ures are resorted to by nations, when an angry state
of feeling exists between them which forebodes
hostilities, so stand the parties to the present contest in the United States. The bitterness of feeling
which prevails against the South, and the fortifications which are being erected from whence to assail
the slave States, have produced counter defences.
Remove the feeling which produced them, and the
fortifications and the defences will alike tumble into
ruins. Eradicate this sentiment of animosity from
the Northern mind which, while exasperating the
South, yields no advantage to the North, and it
would be worth more than all the slave codes which
the South could ask or a united Congress  grant.
If the feeling is too deeply rooted to be obliterated,
the most stringent laws which coild be enacted
would be powerless to protect the rights of the
Southern  States.   Let then  the friends of the
Union and the adversaries of political sectionalism
deal their blows at the foundation upon which the
superstructure of the anti-slavery Republican party
has been erected.  Strike down the corner-stone of
the edifice, and the walls and domes and towers will
fall into a mass of indistinguishable ruin.   This
duty, this glorious privilege, I might say, falls unpolii
the true men of the North. Hiundreds of thou sands have, up to this hour, withstood all the ap pliances of proffered rewards upon the one hand,
and the certainty of political death upon the other.
If they should succeed in arresting the calanmity
which now threatens the Confederacy, a grateful
228 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
posterity will unite them in their hearts with the
fathers of the Republic. If they fail, the conscious ness of having discharged  their duty will be a
reward of far more value than any which would fol low their defection from the cause of their country.
Those who would labor with a reasonable hope of
success in the great contest which must now soon
be decided, should remember that the specific meas ures proposed by the Republican party are mere
outposts or decoys sent forward to draw off the at tention of their adversaries from the true point to
be assailed. These may be readily overthrown by
an appeal to the Constitution, and an exposition of
the true principles of equality, which are the foundation upon which the superstructure of the Confederacy has been erected. But of what avail would
be this?  Others would be proposed; more skirmishing parties would be sent out, which, though
driven in, would leave the main body intact, and
as strong as at the beginning. Thus would the
strength of the national party be frittered away in
fruitless contests, with insignificant bodies of the
enemy, and upon the very ground which that enemy selects.
The only hope of success for the national party
which holds out the prospect of a victory that will
be enduring in its results, consists in their ability to
eradicate, or, at least, to soften the spirit of animosity towards the Southern States, upon which the
Republican party alone relies for success. The proposal to exclude the citizens of slave States fromn
229
I 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the territories-John Brown insurrections and murders-incendiary publications and incendiary emissaries distributed among the slaves, and the countr
propositions of those who are assailed, are all effects,
not causes.  Remove the causes and the effects disappear.  Let, then, the main attack be directed
against the spirit which dictates a wish to inaugurate unfriendly legislation against the S6uth.
A citizen of the North may be conscientiously
opposed to the institution of slavery.  Be it so!  If
there should be a proposition to introduce slavery
into his State, let him oppose it. But he has no right
to assail a neighboring sovereignty Afor differing
with him in opinion, in regard to the management
of their domestic affairs. I know it is contended
that in a free country a man has a right to say what
he pleases; but the fact is, that in a firee country, of
all others, there is la moral responsibility resting
upon each citizen not to exercise that power indiscreetly. A man has the power, and he may also
have the legal right, to say and to do many things
which are very wrong; but if more evil than good
results from what he says and does, he has no moral
right to do the wrong!  There may be  a dozen
partners in trade, who have engaged each to contribute to the joint stock an equal amount, and to
share equally in the profits. Seven of the twelve
may assail the private characters of the five, and
that of their families. They may insist that for
fear of spreading the infection of their sins by their
example, the women and children shall not be per
230
40 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
mitted to leave their houses. In furtherance of
this good work they may go farther, and say that
the children of the five shall not be permitted to
occupy or enjoy the use of any of the estates or
farms, which have been purchased out of the joint
profits of the partnership. The power to make
such a proposition cannot be questioned.  The legal
right to ask that such a disposition be made, may be
also conceded. But would not such a suggestion
be equivalent to a demand that the partnership be dissolved? Can it be supposed that the five would
consent to continue the "union" upon such terms,
in the face of an agreement that they should be
equal partners? Or would a longer continuance of
the association be either desirable or proper, after
such declarations had been formally embodied and
presented, as the only terms upon which the majority would thereafter consent that the business
should be conducted?
Whether the causes which should produce this
state of feeling be regarded as real or imaginary,
would it not be the duty of the seven, in lieu of demanding a proportion of the common estate for
their own use, to which they  could not justly lay
claim, to say frankly, "We do not like you personally; we object to the manner in which you are
raising up your families; we are shocked by the
conduct of your wives and daughters; therefore we
propose that the partnership be dissolved, and thie
estate be equitably divided, according to the letter
and spirit of the terms on which it was created?"
231
40 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
So may it be said to the supporters of tlie Reptblican party: Your unfriendly and constant assaults
upon the Southern States, their institutions, and
their people, are utterly inconsistent" with the positionii you occupy to each other as partners and associates.   The language of your ceaseless tirades
against slavery and the slave States, are carefull\
collected by the enemies of the Republic in (G,et t
Britain, and disseminated in ever land where the
English language is read or spoken.  These,ire
translated into every tongue, and the world exclaims: "What horrible monsters those Reptblicaiis
must be, when, according to their own statements,
they tolerate a political union with the incarnate
fiends who perpetrate such enormities against their
fellow-creatures!" If, therefore, nothing can eradicate or soften these feelings, they should act like
men who really feel strong moral convictions, and
frankly repudiate the political bonds which unite
them to so much sin. If they do not urge this as (t
sequence, how can they expect to secure the resl,-:,
of mankind by continuing, for mere gain, that c(,ifederation which they believe to be a "covenant
with hell?"  Let every man, then, bring homne to
himself the true question.  The spirit which animates the Republican party, and the feeling of animosity, which is its prime element of strength, is
utterly inconsistent with a desire to maintain the
present Confederacy, except from the most sordid
considerations. Let this issue be fairly and honestly presented.; and why should we doubt that tens
232 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
of thousands, who have drifted into this great gulf
of sectionalism, will once more turn their faces
towards the shore, and swell the ranks of that civic
army which is now engaged in, perhaps, its last
struggle for the Union in its entirety, by the preservation of its integrity.  Remember that now is
the time for action! This occasion lost, and in all
human probability all will be lost! Sectionalism
once triumphant, no human power can restrain the
onward march of the victors towards that goal to
which their hopes have been directed.- The war of
subjugation against the South once inaugurated,
who can estimate the terrible consequences of the
conflagration which will be enkindled? Let those
in the North who believe that, from their superior
numbers, there would be an easy victory, and a
prompt surrender, remember that the South will enter upon the struggle with the conviction, that
while defeat may be annihilation, submission would be
death!
233
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f
LETTER XVI.
The madness of the hour-In Europe the Dissolution of the Union
is expected-A few words to Northern Enemies of the South Conclusion.
AMID the din of arms, and the roar of artillery,
and the smoke of battle, and the mad fury of men
excited by the contest and eager for blood, there is
small hope that the voice of one man calling upon
the combatants to lay down their arms, would be
either heard or heeded. Neither can I hope that
the words of One, whose only claim to be heard is,
that he is a fellow countryman, though for a time
resident in a distant country, will be listened to by
the excited parties to the great, perhaps the final
struggle at the btllot-box, for the union, the liberty,
and the equality of the States, which now moves
the heart of the great Republic!  It may be that
even before we are called upon again to celebrate
the anniversary birth-day of the Father of his
Country-the immortal first President of the Confederacy-opposing armies of his fellow-countrymen
may be struggling in deadly strife upon the soil of
that Virginia which gave him birth, within sight of
the 1now quiet capital on the banks of the Potomac,
which bears his name, and upon the very grave
where he lies buried! In view of the impending
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4 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
storm, the spectacle now exhibited in the United
States is indeed a sad one.
The history of the past teaches us that at times,
nations are seized with a madness which it were
even a worse madness to attempt to combat by an
appeal tot reason.  This insanity, if I may so denominate it, though it may have its beginning originally in a sentiment of philanthropy, or even love,
terminates by merging every other feeling into the
single passion of hatred!  It is vain to attempt
to deny the startling truth-such is the present
aspect of that madness which seems to pervade the people of America! If ever in the inception or progress of this contest, one single element
of love or consideration for the slave entered into
the thoughts or hearts of the principal assailants in
this sectional struggle, it has been supplanted, buried
beneath the passion of hatred,, which that contest
has engendered! WTe who are removed far from
the scene of this struggle-far from a knowledge of
the under-currents, and personal jealousies of the
mere political contest for place and power-see and
know full well, that it is not love, but hatred on which
the sectional politician relies for success; and it is
that feeling or passion, which gives to the present
unfortunate contest its vitality. There is no practical issue but that of hatred. The success or defeat
of aspirants for office depend altogether upon the
degree of hatred which their appeals may produce
in the popular mind! There'is no single element of
success, and no appeal which can secure success for
235 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the Republican party but that of hatred! Americans
should not for a moment disguise this fact.
There has been a time in the brief history of the
great Republic, when the adherents of despotism in
the old world, regarded with distrust and dread,
and the lovers of freedom, with hope and satisfaction and pride, the progress of the great experiment
in democratic government.   Now how changed!
Both look forward with a confidence, inspired by
hope upon the one hand, and by despair upon the
other, to a speedy disruption of the Confederacycivil war-exhaustion-anarchy-and then the repose
of despotism.
For myself, while I, as an American citizen, will
never admit to be true, the declaration of even moderate monarchists of the old world, that a governinent founded upon  democratic principles, bears
within itself the germ of its own dissolution-that
the turbulance of universal freedom, and the tyranny
of mere numbers, or dominant geographical sections, must end sooner or later in the destruction of
the liberties of the minority, to be followed by the
despotic rule of a single tyrant-yet I confess that
the events of the last few years, and the unnatural
struggle which they have engendered, involving in
its progress no practical issue of good to either,
except that of mere sectiqonal domination, and in
the future nothing but disaster to both, has made
me at least less hopeful of the result.
Never before in the history of any other nation,
have we  evidence of so rapid a march from the
236 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
weakness of infancy to the full development of a
hardy manhood, as has been illustrated bythe brief
3areer of the American Confederacy. It is the pride
9f Americans, at home and abroad, to direct special
Attention to this undeniable truth.  Whether that
growth ill greatness is to be checked, destroyed, or
continued, is certainly to a considerable extent involved in the final result of the present controversy.
It may or may not be, that the present struggle
between men for political power, will terminate the
contest for sectional supremacy. But whenever it
is decided that a yeographical division of the -Republic,
owing its cohesion to sectional animosity only, and its
success to mere numbers, shall triumph over its
numerically weaker but combined confederates and
equals, it were worse than madness, it were idiotcy
to suppose, that with unfettered limbs, and the liberty
of free action on the part of the oppressed, they
would not sever the political bonds which united
them to their oppressors.
It is quite true that the mere peaceful dissolution
of these constitutional bonds of union, and the establishment of smaller and more homogeneous
nations, would not of itself abrogate the principle
of liberty upon which our free institutions are
founded. But such a separation, accomplished under
auspices which would leave so much mutual bitterness in the hearts of the people, which by destroying
our unity, would leave us comparatively defenceless
as against foreign aggressions, all involving the
necessity of large standing armies,. make the pro
237 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
bability strong that our present form of freedom
could not long survive.
How can these calamities be avoided? Madmen
mnay answer, "By crushing our enemies beneath our
heels!" But it is to be hoped, that a majority of
the citizens of the Republic are not thus held in
bondage by their angry passions, and that the.voice
of reason may yet penetrate the minds of numbers
sufficiently formidable to arrest the onward march
to such a catastrophe. Let us not surrender until
to hope would be madness!
If the will exists, the means are at command to
avert such a calamity, without any surrender of political rights, and without any abandonment of matured convictions in regard to politics, morals, or religion. The citizens of the dominant section are
called upon simply to deal fairly and justly with their
fellow-citizens of the South.  They have but to do
unto others as they would that others under the circumstances should do unto them. Let patriots make
no effort to disguise from themselves or others, the
true and only questions involved, but in a frank and
manly spirit, such as would become the monarchs
of a great nation, seek only an equitable solution.
The nature, the origin, and the objects of the present
struggle, we have already considered. We have seen
what interests are involved, and who, if any, will be
the beneficiaries upon a division of the spoils among
the victors.
It will be readily conceded, that in a struggle of
parties for political supremacy inl a confederacy of
238 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
States, the result of which should be brought about
by a combination of certain States, composing a
section distinguished by geographical lines, and presenting but one single issue, and that issue being an
expression of hostility to the domestic institutions
of the weaker by the stronger section, and depending for success upon the ability of the latter to create
a feeling of hatred for the citizens of the former,
could not be regarded otherwise than a menace
against the independence and the equality of the
States thus assailed. Success under such circumstances, would of itself amount to a declaration on
the part of the majority, of the dissolution of the
Confederacy upon the terms previously existing.
That which would follow would be nothing more than
to arrange the details of separation or reconstruction.
When I say that there is no practical issue involved,
except the expression of an abstract feeling, or sentiment, or passion, I of course refer only to that portion of the Republican party, who profess that it is
not their intention or desire to curtail the equal
rights of the Southern States, nor to destroy or attempt to modify the institution of slavery within
their respective limits. If this be true, then between
them and the South there cannot be an issue, for the
most extreme Southerner neither asks nor desires
any thing more than this.  For people of the North
who really entertain these sentiments, intentions,
or opinions, to unite themselves to the Republican
party, could not have any other significance than
simply to announce an irreconcilable feeling of animo
.4.
239 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
sity against the Southern States.  Upon any other
hypothesis, why should they combine with those
whose avowed or apparent purpose is to destroy the
institution of slavery? It must be remembered that
this party is founded, by the avowal of its leaders,
upon the sole question of slavery. They must have
some object, some purpose to accomplish; and we
are bound to concludc that this purpose or object,
being supported only by men of anti-slavery opinions,
must have some practical anti-slavery design, and
that design must have reference to the slave States
of the American Union, and must contemplate some
change, or modification, or the destruction of that institution. Otherwise the existence of such a party
would be impossible; for it is absurd to suppose that
a party can exist without a purpose, at least upon
the part of its founders and leaders.
It follows, then, that if the Republican party embraces sane men amongst its leaders, it must have
a purpose. Being founded solely upon the single sentiment of anti-slavery, its purpose must be
inimical to the slave States.  Now, why should those
who have no wish to interfere with the institution
of slavery where it exists, and who do not desire to
curtail or to destroy the equal rights of the South, give
their support to the Republican party, with which
they differ, and thus withhold their support from the
opposing party between whom and themselves, on
the only practical issue, there is an tntire agreement?
Whatever may be the individual exceptions, it
240 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
must be presumed that those who give their support
to the Republican party in the present struggle, do
so for the purpose of interfering with the rights of
the slave-holding States, or with a view to give expression to a feeling of antipathy or hatred for the
people of those States. That such should be the
only issues in a great national election for the choice
of a President, should of itself awaken the earnest
attention of every citizen, who in his heart desires
the perpetuation of a Union which has been attended
with so many blessings. Let no Northern man deceive himself in regard to the results of a victory
thus obtained. If he be a high-minded, honorable
man, and will for the moment imagine himself to be
a citizen of a Southern State, he would require no
other index to the consequences that would ensue,
than the promptings of his own heart. No threat,
no declaration, no warning voice from the South,
could add to the firmness of his convictions, in regard to the feeling with which such a sentence of
condemnation would be received by those against
whom it would be directed, or the consequence which
would surely follow.
To the individual exceptions above referred to, or
rather to the large class of citizens of the North
from whence these exceptions come, the hopeful
American can only look for the means of safety from
the storm which now threatens to engulf the Republic. So far as regards mere numerical strength, the
North is unquestionably thy strongest; and if the
artful appeals of the anti-slavery party, and of other
241
it 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
enemies of the South, can accomplish a Union of
the entire North, so far as mere voting is concerned,
slavery may be considered as already abolished, and
the slave States prostrate before their more powerful
adversaries.
To you, citizens of the North, who have gained
much, both in honors and in wealth, from your intercourse with the South, and who are now found
in the ranks of her enemies, let me address a few
words at parting: You have been made rich by
the spoils you have derived from your improvident
and free-hearted neighbor. I cannot believe that
you are yourselves so mad, as with your own
hands, to destroy the goose which supplies you, day
by day and year by year, with its golden eggs;
but you are exposing it to dangers which, in a few
short months, you may be powerless to avert. The
South pours annually into your lap the tribute of
its almost boundless resources, for which you pay
nothing in return, but hard words. You confide
too much in the forbearance and long-suffering of
your benefactors. The South has proven to you
that she is willing to be fleeced-that she is willing
the proceeds of her labors shall build up your palaces, and yield you the means necessary to support
them. Be content, and do not, in uncalculating
wantonness, place the last feather upon the back of
the patient camel.
The South would lavish freely of her wealth and
the blood of her citizens to maintain and uphold
the dignity and honor of the Union, and she would
242 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
glory in its perpetuation to, the latest posterity, if
it might be preserved upon the same principles on
which it was established. But if you force upon
her the alternative of surrendering her rights,,or
of withdrawing herself from the Union, be assured
that her free citizens will, with one voice, accept
the latter, and start forward with hopeful hearts in
the new career which will open up before them.
You ought to be convinced that the South can do
without you, and that her boundless sources of
wealth would be augmented, instead of being diminished, by the separation.  It is not by  any
means sure that such a result would follow in that
North which, strange to say, seems to have
nothing so much at heart as to render a longer
union impossible!
You insultingly proclaim to the world that "the
South is a burthen" to you, and that "she herself
is so fully satisfied of her dependent condition that
she could not be kicked out of the Union "-otherwise you would be gratified if she would take the
determination to retire and leave you alone, the
glorious champions of liberty, unstained by unhallowed associations.  These are harsh words; and it
is not surprising that the hot blood of the Southerner should mount with a redder glow to his cheek
as he listens to them, and ponders to discover their
significance. But may not the words you now so
scornfully utter be but the words of the vain
boaster? When the hour of consummation would
arrive, can you not imagine that some of the golden
243 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
visions of future prosperity and wealth, which have
made tranquil the moments of ydur repose from
the cares of life, would melt away forever in the
piresence of the stern reality before you?
Be assured in time that, if you force upon the
South the issue, she can and will pursue her separate career, in whatever direction and with whatever
success may be decreed by Providence; and if you
will let her go in peace, she wvill thank you, and
will wish you God-speed, while bidding you a relucetant though an eternal farewell. If, however,
your passions, or your pride, or too tardy a
consideration of your temporal interests, should
make you seek her overthrow, though your number
b)e greater, millions of freemen, with strong arms
ail( chivalrous. hearts, will meet you with a bloody
-   colle when you cross the border.  Should the
"i C  u-icounter result in the triumph of the invader,
}   will, with one voice, pray the God of battles
lo prosper the right, and they will defend their homes
and their firesides in every city, on every mountain,
and on every plain, from the Potomac to the Rio
Grande, and the shores of the Gulf of Mexico;
and  you  will.never accomplish  your  purpose,
whether it be to emancipate the slaves or to enslave
the freemen of the South, until their last dollar
shall have been expended and their last soldier shall
have fallen before your victorious legions.
If, however, you still believe that soft words, spoken hereafter, when the crisis comes, will induce
the South to forget the past, and shut her eyes to
244 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the hard fate which is being prepared for her, do
not, let me conjure you, over-estimate your influence in the hour of victory, over the excited politicians, and the maddened, deceived masses, who are
respectively your leaders, and instruments.   Be
warned by the fate of others, who, in times past,
have fruitlessly essayed to stay the tide of popular
passions, which they themselves had artfully put
in motion.  The reflection that, in losing all yourself,
you compass the destruction of your enemy, will
not, in the hour of your affliction, be held to be a
sufficient compensation for your own downfall.
Before you drive the South away forever, remember, that although you are of the same race and
lineage, and your governments are founded upon
the same general principles, the slave States have
retained an element of conservatism in their doinestic institutions, which, however repugnant to
your prejudices may be its features, has hitherto
reacted upon the entire Confederacy, and has had a
powerful influence in preserving the whole from the
dominion of that radicalism and license which mnurders liberty while professing to fight under its banners. Remember, that however happy may be the
people who live under the protecting flag of a free
government, there lurks in the very heart of every
purely democratic republic an element which may
lie developed in the form of the most hideous despotism.  When passion, instead of reason, sits enthroned in its councils, and in the hearts of its citizens, that latent element of tyranny mray be devel
245 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
oped into acts of more unpitying atrocity than any
single despot whose foot has ever pressed upon the
necks of slavish subjects, would dare to perpetrate.
That element once aroused to action, farewell to
all your hopes of future greatness. Yon may, in
terror or in anger, direct its fury, fore a season,
against a common foe; you may make desolate their
hearthstones, and leave their dwellings in ashes, but
as sure as Iteaven's laws are always executed, it will
return to fasten its deadly fangs into your own vitals!
In concluding these desultory letters on the issue
involved in the pending contest for the presidency,
I maybe pardoned for saying, that no mere party
feeling-no wish to promote the success of this or
that individual aspirant for the preseency, on account of any personal predilections for the one, or
any unkind feelings for the other, has had the
slightest infhlence in deciding me to writb them.
Separated by oceans, and continents, and seas, from
my native land-standing, as it were, upon the outermost verge of the civilization of the Old World,
beyond which all is darkness-in the midst of decayinlg empires, whose history, for many centuries,
is crowded with the records of dazzling achievements-surrounded on every hand by the melancholy memorials of once powerful kingdoms and republics, whose greatness and whose dominion, annihilated by the sectional dissensions of. their own
citizens, have passed away forever; the splendor of
whose glorious deeds, in the day of their pride, has
only been exceeded by the magnitude of their igno
246 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ble fall; whose descendants have for ages lived, and
groaned, and died, the despised and slavish subjects
of a foreign master; I have asked myself, if the unhappy fate of subjugated and degraded Greece, is
but a prototype of that which is in store for the
great Confederacy of the New World!*
So far as the solution of this question depends
upon the preservation of the federal Union,,I admit that I am less hopeful than at any previous period of my life. I see the indications of an unswerving purpose, on the part of the North, to
obtain a triumph over the South, by means of its
numerical preponderance; and well I know the
spirit with which the South will meet the issue thus
presented.
* Only eight mnonths after thp above letter was dispatched to the
United States, the writer received a letter from a most intelligent
and accomplished Greek lady, who has devoted her life to the task
of raising up her fellow-countrymen from the degraded position they
now occupy, containing the following reference to American affairs:
"I learn that the excitement against African slavery in your country has culminated in the choice of an anti-slavery President, and I
perceive that the result has given great joy to your adversaries in
Europe. I likewise discover, through the same source, that the
South will resist, and that a great war between the opposing sections
will, in all probability, ensue. I tremble when I think of such a
catastrophe! I cannot but remember that, during the entire period
of the greatness of my native Greece, slavery existed in a form certainly much more to be deprecated than the African slavery of your
country. When Greece tumbled headlong from the pinnacle of
power to which she had ascended, it was not from without that the
terrible blow was dealt, but from the sectional dissensions and wars
between her own children, which ended by plunging them all into
irretrievable ruin."
247 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
In view of the impending calamity of a conflict,
whose beginning seems almost at hand, but whose
end is shrouded in impenetrable gloom; with a
vivid appreciation of the disasters which may soon
involve us in a common danger, if not a common
ruin; in the character of an humble citizen, whose
passions have been calmed by the startling proximity of the menacing danger, I have addressed these
words, and now send them forth to my fellow-countrynen. ThatI am a Southerner, by birth, by education, and in all my hopes for the filture, I am free
to declare; but I am also an American, protected
in a foreign land by the flag of the Union, and every day I live I appreciate more highly the value of
the great Confederacy which that star-gemmed
banner symbolizes. Priceles, indeed, compared to
the pecuniary sacrifices necessary to maintain it in
its integrity; priceless, even compared with the
blood which might be shed in defending it against
a foreign foe; but detestable as a tyrant, and valueless
to freemen, when it can only be upheld by a sacrifice of
the honor and the independence of its members.
248
.; 
L E T T E R
TO THE
RIGIIT HON. HENRY LORD BROUGHAM.
CONSTANTINOPLE, Feb., 1861.
MY LORD: Two events of recent occurrencetrifling in themselves, except when regarded in connection with the peculiar circumstances of the
times in which they occurred-have contributed
more towards the identification of your lordship's
name with the political convulsion which the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixtyone is now witnessing in America, and with the
anti- slavery movement, in which it has had its
origin, than all which you have hitherto accomplished, during your long and brilliant career as an
English statesman.
With a zeal which ha~ known no flagging-with
a resolution which was appalled by no probable or
possible consequences-with an ability which is
fully accorded by your adversaries-and with an
earnestness which would seem to preclude any
doubt of your sincerity, you have labored for the
overthrow of that institution of African slavery in
America  which has existed from a period long
(249) 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
anterior to the incorporation of the Republic in the
family of nations.
In this lifetime labor, however, you have been
identified wvith others of your compatriots, who
have exhibited the same pertinacity of purpose, and
who have probably acquired a reputation almost
equal to your own as the great exponents of English sentiment and English policy.
It has been the fortune of your lordship through
the instrumentality of the two events referred to,
to inscribe your name far above those of your fellow-laborers, in the roll of the recognized  exemplars of British sentiment and British policy.
The first of these occasions offered to your lordship  the opportunity, in an assembly- of  distinguished dignitaries from almost every nation of the
civilized world, of proclaiming, in effect, your belief in the equality of the races of man, and the
special claim of an African then present to be regarded as a worthy and fit associate for the noble
Peers Qf England.
If your lordship had been contented with the
utterance of this simple expression of opinion, it
would probably have been forgotten by those who
were your auditors, almostas soon as uttered. If,
by any accident, a representative man of the millions of Anglo-Saxon blood and Anglo-Saxon color,
who have sighed in vain to attain to that social rank
and station which you so readily accorded in that
august assemblage of princes, and nobles, and
statesmen, to this sooty African, had bestowed a
250 
LETTElRS ON SLAVERY.
passing notice upon this paragraph in your lordship's speech, the subject would doubtless have
been dismissed after a brief commentary, with the
very natural and charitable observation, that aPeer
of England had an undoibted right to choose his
own associated, and might be expected to comprehend better than another the qualifications and
characteristies of those who should be regarded as
worthy of such association.
But your lordship entertained a deeper purpose.
You desired to hold up to obloquy a great nation on
the opposite side of the Atlantic; and, in order to
startle your audience by the magnitude and the
enormity of its crimes, you proclaimed the presence
of the diplomatic representative of that nation
which held in the bonds of slavery millions of a
race of people, of which you then and there presented a faithful type, and to whom you assigned an
equality of social rank with the noble order of
which your lordship, in the estimation of your fellow-countrymen, is a faithful representative.
Your lordship's design was skilfully, and artistically, and dramatically executed. To be received
and acknowledged as a peer, in such an assembly,
was certainly, in your lordship's estimation, to be
placed upon a pinnacle of social and moral elevation which few could hope to reach; while the
doom of the slaves upon the plantations of America was a degradation beyond which there was no
lower depth.  The worthy representative of the
oppressed, and the official representative of the
251 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
hated oppressor, were both present before you.
Both were in a foreign land,,and both were
strangers, and your guests.  Disregarding these
pressing claims upon your forebearance-acting, it
may be, upon the conviction that the claims of God
and humanity were more than paramount to all
other considerations, you held them up, as it were,
to the gaze of your audience as representatives of
the victim and of the enslaver-of virtue and of
vice-of freedom and of despotism-of all that was
worthy to be loved, and of all that should be
hated.
The occasion was one which precluded reply or
explanation. The generous, the refined, the intellectual, the noble representative of a despised and
down-trodden race, stood revealed before your sympathizing audience, in all the majesty of injured
innocence; while there, too, stood the spoiler-the
embodiment of the stupendous crime of his
country.
It would probably be presumptuous in me to
question the good taste displayed by your lordship,
either in your choice of the occasion, or in your
manner of treating one of these stranger guests.
I am willing to concede tlt your lordship should
know better than I the rules of politeness and good
breeding proper to be observed in an assemblage
of nobles and high dignitaries, gathered together
in the great capital of the civilized world, and presided over by the Prince Consort of England's
noblest Queen. Upon this collateral point, I would
252 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
not dare to make up an issue with your lordship,
the more especially as your audience, by the applause with which it greeted your remarks, has
already recorded its verdict in your favor.
The main purpose of your lordship was achieved
-the contrast you suggested startled the world by
its magnitude.  The irrelevancy of the slubject to
that which your auditors had assembled to consider, gave to the incident a notoriety which was
magnified by its very isolation; while the event
has been perpetuated in the memory of the multitude by the princely character of the audience before whom the scene was so dramatically enacted.
From that moment, America has recognized in the
questionable gallantry of your achievement, the
qualities which have made you the great champion
of British abolitionism.
I will now pass to the second event, which has
served, in a still greater degree, by expanding the
field of your operation, to strengthen and to confirm you in the position which, by common consent,
had been previously assigned to you. But, before
entering directly upon the subject, allow me to refer to an incident which occurred, hot a great while
ago, at a spot more than three thousand miles distant from that great centre of civilization in which
your lordship moves.
A murderer in another continent closed a long
career of crime under the gallows! There was
nothing pecdiar in this fact, for such has been often
the fate of murderers in England, in America, and
253 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
elsewhere. But this was a villain of no ordinary
stamp. his victims were not stalwart men alone,
but defenceless women and little children. He did
not slay in the glare of the noonday sun, as a common robber at the head of his band of retainers,
but he killed in the quiet hours of the night, and
the slunimbers of innocence'were startled by the
death-shrieks of his unsuspecting victims. But his
crimes had not their beginning in those for which
he suffered an ignominious death. They extended
over a series of years; and the last, for which with
his life he paid the forfeit, was by no means the
worst. I myself have seen and known the unhappy
victims of his earlier crimes. I hiave seen and
known the- happy wife and mother- happy in the
innocence and purity of her life, though humble in
her station-and I have seen her again in all the
desolation of a childless widowhood. Dreadful, indeed, were the scenes through which  that poor
woman passed during the brief space of one short
night.. She was sleeping in fancied security when
the spoilers came to her humble log cabin, and
passed through the unbarred door to the bedsides
of her sleeping husband and children. Your lordship knows the rest, and I will be brief. They
were four when they lay down to rest, that dreadful night. The morning dawned upon the living'
woman, surrounded by the lifeless and mutilated
bodies of her husband and children.
The chief criminal in this drama ef blood, emboldened by immunity, changed the scene and en
254 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
larged the field of his operations. At Hiarper's
Ferry, he again unsheathed his bloody dagger, and
again was the hour of midnight made terrible by
the death-struggles of his unwatching victims.
Am I not right, then, in saying that John Brown
was a villain of no ordinary stamp? Sane men, in
a contemplation of the magnitude of his crimes,
have said that he was mad, while madmen have exalted the demon into a saint, and mourn for him as a
martyr in a holy cause!
It was upon the 3rd day of December, 1860, that
his friends and partisans assembled in the city of
Boston, to celebrate the first anniversary of his
martyrdom.
Previous to that time, a letter had been addressed
to your lordship by the " Committee of Managers,"
inviting you to be present upon that occasion, and
to join in that celebration.
Those who knew the fact that such an invitation
had been addressed to your lordship, were eager to
learn in what manner you would respond. The
first impression would naturally be, that your lordship would treat the missive with the dignified
silence and disdain with which a nobleman of your
lordship's exalted standing might be expected to
meet a gross and studied insult; or, that your indignation, obtaining the mastery of your better
judgment, might induce you, in that burning eloquence of words, which your lordship can so readily
command, to hurl back the insult in the faces of
your traducers; or, milder and more humane than
9
255 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
either, and, perhaps, more in consonance with the
gentle manners which might be expected to distinguish those through whose veins flows gentle blood,
you would have responded, " It is not ny sins but
your insanity, which has led you to believe that I
could hold fellowship with the partisans and admirers of an assassin. Go! you are madmen, and
I forgive you."
These thoughts, I confess, were my thoughts, and
that I give them voice here will show to your lordship that I did not rank you amongst the vicious
and blood-thirsty fanatics with whom a common sentiment, upon a single point, had served in some
measure to identify you. Besides, I will add, that
my high respect for the exalted order to which you
belong, as well as the position in which you stand
towards the occupant of a throne, induced in my
mind the belief that you would, in some manner,
exhibit your horror of thie crime of assassination,
and with such an emphasis that even madmen might
never a-gain give expression to the thought that
an English nobleman could have any sympathies
in common with either assassins or their partisans.
Pardon me, my lord, if I, in unconscious ignorance, did not estimate, at their proper value, the refined principles of that "higher law" which have
been incorporated among the doctrines of that socalled great humanitarian anti-slavery party, of which
you are so distinguished a chief.
At first view it might occasion surprise that the
"philanthropists" of Great Britain should seem to
256 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
shut their eyes to the spectacle, and their ears to the
wail of woe which rises up around them from the
millions of the unhappy, the destitute, and depressed,
of their own race and kin, who live through life a
lingering death, while they have only eyes to see,
and ears to hear, and tears to shed over the reputed
wrongs of a handful of Africans upon the far-off
shores of a continent beyond the Atlantic. But it
is necessary in charity to remember that the degradatift and wrongs of the one are familiar to them
from youth to old age. It is an oft-told tale, to which
they have become accustomed, familiar, and perhaps
indifferent from its constant repetition. They are
probably appalled by the magnitute of the evil, and
ask to forget its existence and their obligations by
the exhibition of redoubled zeal in the cause of those
whom their imaginations, excited by heart-rending
romances, picture as the victims of sorrow and oppression in a far distant land.
From this brief but not unnatural digression, I will
return to the subject of the invitation which was
given to you to participate in the celebration in
memory of John Brown, the great American murderer. Permit me to refresh your memory with the
first lines of your response to the committee in
your own language:
"SIR: I feel honored by the invitation to attend
the Boston Convention."
Upon reading these few emphatic words, I paused
and re-read the letter of invitation which had been
addressed to you, to discover if I had not, in my
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
hasty perusal thereof, misunderstood its import and
object. I beg to quote its words:
" My Lord: A number of young men, earnestly
desirous of devoting themselves to the work of eradicating slavery in the United States, respectfully invite you to meet them in a public convention to be
held in this city on Monday, the 3d day of December. * * * * * It seems to them that the anniversary of the death of John Brown, who was
killed for attempting to decide this problem in the
mode that he believed to be the most efficient, is an
occasion peculiarly appropriate for the discussion of
our duty to the race for whom he suffered. * * *
*  *  It would be a workof supererogation now to
defend John Brown, and a useless waste of time to
eulogize him. Leaving both these duties to the
coming ages, let us seek to continue his life by striving
to accomplish what he left us tofinish."
It is true,my lord, that you modified somewhat the
only legitimate interpretation of your first emphatic
endorsement.  True, as "the representative of the
anti-slavery party in England," you avowed a wide
difference of opinion between those you represented
and the promoters of the Harper's Ferry expedition.
True, you denied that John Brown was a real martyr.
True, you declared your opposition to the encouragement of negro insurrections, because "they might
prove less hurtful to the master than the slave."  True,
you intimated that the surest means of accomplishing your cherished schemes of American  negro
emancipation was under the form of law, through
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LETTERS ON S4AVERY.
the instrumentality of a recent political change in
the Government of the Republic! But preeminent
above all other considerations which are suggested
by a perusal of your letter, stands forth the declara tion that you "feel honored by the invitation to attend
the Boston Convention!"
What a spectacle is here presented, and how fruitful a theme for reflection! An English nobleman
shaking hands across the ocean and transmitting
pleasant messages to such an assemblage, convened
for such a purpose!
It is, perhaps, not unworthy of a passing thought, that
while some of your admirers have hailed your letter
as furnishing evidence of the conservatism and moderation of British abolitionism, manyhave regarded
your slight deviation from the bloody path of an extreme fanaticism as too great a concession to the dictates of an uncalculating and weakly-relenting humanity.
I confess that upon this subject there is a chasm
between us, so broad and so deep, that I have not
the hardihood to attempt to fill it up. I cannot hope
even that anything will ever occur to reduce the
breadth of this impassable gulf to smaller dimensions.
But pardon me, my lord, if I suggest the possibility that you may not have fully appreciated the
deep significance of the first sentence of your memorable letter. Did you reflect upon the powerful influence which your slightest word of encouragement
might exercise upon the furious madmen whom you
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LETTER  ON SLAVERY.
addressed? Do you believe they will fail to infer
that while you disclaim sympathy with John Brown's
plans of emancipation "because they are less likely
to result in injury to the master than the slave," you
will, nevertheless, regard it as an honor to be invited
to attend the celebrations consequent upon the death
of other martyrs in the same cause?  Do you excuse
yourself, my lord, with the thought that it is only
the assassins of slave-holders in America who are
worthy to be treated with so much kindness, respect,
and forbearance?  iHave you forgotten from whom,
and under whose auspices, American slaves were
acquired as chattels? May I be pardoned for saying
that in the family of the writer there is a slave,
bought and paid for by my ancestor from a British
subject in a British province, under the solemn sanction and approval of British laws, and who is now
held as a slave under the guarantee of a British title
deed? Should another John Brown, under the pretext of giving freedom to this slave, slay the owner
thereof,,and for his crime suffer a felon's death,
would your lordship feel honored by an invitation
to attend the anniversary celebration of his "m nartyrdom?" Yourlordship has already answered the
interrogatory in the affirmative.
The day may come, my lord, when "even-handed
justice will commend the ingredients of the poisoned
chalice to your own lips." There are more shining
marks for the assassin's dagger than the slave-owners
of America! Millions of lives stand between the
honored felon and the accomplishment of his bloody
260
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work of philanthropy; a thousand times your lord ship might have the privilege of acknowledging
the honor" of invitations to;attend and participate
in the celebration of events similar to those which
wvere enacted at Harper's Ferry, and as often might,
"English philanthropy" palliate or excuse the crimes
in which they had their origin, and still there would
be a sea of living blood coursing through the veins
of slaveholders! There are millions of the human
race who, bound in the chains of political servitude,
are ready to believe that they behold but one living
man standing between themselves and the liberty to
which they aspire! that one life less, and the fetters
would fall from their liberated limbs! You may
truly believe, my lord, that no such danger may
threaten England's Sovereign. Even madmen would
not strike at one whose noble virtues have added a
brighter gem to the British Crown than was ever
placed there by the valor of British arms. But
England's best and noblest Queen must die, and be
succeeded by sovereigns who may not imitate her
virtues. If a British nobleman, of such world-wide
reputation for statesmanship and philanthropy as
+our lordship, endeavors to instil into the public
minid the belief that it is a real honor for an honorable Fan to be invited to join in rendering homnage
to the virtues, the moral worth, and the philanthropic services of an admitted midnight assassin, whose
only rvirtue, or worth, or service in the cause of humanity, whose only claim to distinction above other
cut-throats, beyond that notoriety which always
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
attaches to the most revolting murderers, consists in
the fact that he killed ostensibly. in the cause of the
so-called great human a,rian anti-slavery movement
of the -age; you need not be surprised, if others,
who have real or imaginary wrongs to redress, may,
while rejecting your peculiar idiosyncrasy, accept
this as a means of redress. There are those who
from the depths of their bleeding hearts, and for
the redress of grievous wrongs which they themselves have suffered at the hands of their own race,
would feel and say "If this be a real honor, which
a British nobleman may covet, how much more honorable to be invited to participate in saturnalia of
nobler blood!" May Heaven grant that neither your
lordship nor any other may ever again be called
upon to acknowledge the honor of an invitation to
join in the celebration of such a feast!
But your lordship's response has satisfied me that
though you may be afanatic,, you are not a madman.
Though you may move fearlessly upon the brink of
the precipice, you will not plunge bodily into the
abyss into which you invite others to descend. You
will not place in jeopardy that which you conceive
to be the policy of England, by permitting it to be
fully identified with the crime of assassination-the
more especially as you imagine that you perceive in
recent political events a more effectual means of
accomplishing your ends, with less probability of
injury to the slave than the master.
I come now, my lord, to consider a paragraph in
your letter, which, containing, as it does, a grave
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
personal charge against myself, constitutes within itself my claim and my apology for addressing you.
Your lordship may mentally respond to this announcement, that not the most insignificant thing
alive was farther from your thoughts than the unknown writer who now demands and exercises the
privilege of repelling your unjust imputations, that
he has never once "passed between the wind and
your nobility," and that you have, therefore, never
given to him a cause of offence.
In order to refresh your lordship's memory, I beg
to refer you to the closing sentences of your response
to the Boston committee. The following is your
language:
In the elevation of your new President, all friends of America, of
its continued Union, of the final extinction of slavery, by peaceful
means, allfriends of the human race must heartily rejoice!  They will,
let us hope, find in him a powerfully ally, as his country may expect
to find an able, a consistent, and an honest ruler. I have the honor
to be, your faithful servant,                              BROUGHAM.
I have italicized that portion of the above paragraph to which I claim the right of response. While
I will not pause to consider the phenomenon which
is exhibited in your expressions of friendly regard
and sympathy for, and confidence in, an American
President; yet, I beg to say, that it at least furnishes
evidence of a wonderful change in the sentiments
of British politicians in regard to the chiefs of the
Republic. At the end of a long night of horrors
and misrule, your lordship sees bursting over the
horizon the bright and glorious sunshine, which is
263 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
hereafter to illumine the career of the Republic. By
the early light of this dawning luminary you imagine
that you behold in the not distant future, the end of
that terrible conflict between brothers and fellowcountrymen, which you hope will in its results be
less hurtful to the slave than his master. You, perhaps, imagine that in a very brief period the nation
which Great Britain failed to conquer with her
mighty sword, even in the dawn of its infant existence, will have fallen an easy victim to that subtle
policy, by which you and your co-laborers have endeavored to arm its citizens in a fratricidal war. If
the merit of a deed may be measured by its success,
I grant that your lordship, as the representative of
British policy, may boast that you are upon the
point of achieving a greater triumph by the subtle
arts of diplomacy, than has ever been won by British
arms, during a long and brilliant and bloody career.
In contemplating the possibility of such a catastrophe, one is tempted to exclaim, Was ever nation before so wooed, so won!  Your own King
Richard had less cause to hope for success, when
he sought to win the widow of the murdered Edward.   And in surveying the victory you have
achieved, you may well recall the words in which he
vaunted his victory over the weak Lady Anne, and,
with a slight change of phraseology, apply them to
your own triumph:
I'll have her, but I will not keep her long:
What! I, that killed her husband, and his father!
The bleeding witness of her hatred by,
264 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
With God, her conscience, and these bars against me,
And I, no friend to back my suit withal,
But the plain devil, and dissembling looksAnd yet to win her! all the world to nothing!
Were this communication addressed to my fellowcountrymen, instead of to your lordship, I might
beg them to remember this farewell injunction of
the Father of his Country-the immortal Washington:
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, I conjure you to
believe me, fellow-citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought to be
constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign
influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government.
I might pray them to consider that foreign nations rarely, if ever, mingle in the internal conflicts
of a rival power, for any other than selfish purposes.
I might point to the long and brilliant career of
your own great country, and demand in vain to be
informed of a solitary instance in which the-footsteps of Great Britain might be traced upon the soil
of a foreign land, except in the accomplishment of
her own agrandizement. I might say to them, and
I might prove that British anti-slavery fanaticism is
but the creature and the servant of British policy,
owing its origin and its development to what was
supposed to be a political necessity, and that though
your lordship might write as a fanatic, you have never
failed to remember that you are also a British politcian! Yes, my lord, if I thought that my voice
would be listened to in the madness of the hour, I
would appeal to my countrymen, with the earnest
265 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ness of conviction, to resist with all the energy of a
determined will, and to repel as an insult not to be
forgiven, every effort of the foreigner to embroil
them in fratricidal conflicts, even though attempted
under the garb of philanthropy. I would say to
them, that however gratifying it might be to have
the sympathies, and to win the smiles of the great
of other lands, the hopes which may be built thereon
will prove delusive; the promises of succor will, in
the day of adversity, be forgotten, and all the bright
anticipations which may have their origin in such
an association, will, like the apples of Sodom which
tempt the eye of the traveller upon the shores of thie
Dead Sea, turn to ashes on the lips!
Perhaps, though, your lordship's visions of the
future of the Republic may prove delusive. Perhaps your own unguarded words, written in tb(e
first flush of an anticipated but not yet fully ac(o()mplished victory, may of themselves induce a momentary pause in the mad career which you and
your associates have inaugurated. Perhaps, when
they read your lordship's letter, a burning though! of
days long past, when, as a band of brothers, their
fathers, by their bloody valor, conquered liberty
from their hostile invaders, may penetrate their
hearts. Perhaps the retrospect may reinaugurate
once more that feeling of fraternity which animated
their ancestors "in the days that tried men's souls."
Or, if they cannot agree to live together as brothers
in one family, that they will, in memory of a glorious
past, with all its heart-thrilling associations, in
266 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
memory of the blood of their sires, mingled together
upon many a hard-fought battle-field, consent at
least to part as friends. The end may not be yet,
my lord.  Out of the clouds may emerge a sun, more
resplendent than even that which seems to you now
to be setting in a starless night.
But your lordship, plunging into the arena of
party polities in America, hails the recent defeat of
that political organization, which has ruled and
guided the destinies of the Republie from the first
moment of its existence to the present day, as an
event in which "all friends of America-atl friends of
the human race must heartily rejoice." If your lordship
should happen to remember that, during brief intervals in the history of the Republic, parties known
by other names have obtained a temporary ascendency, I need scarcely remind you that these were
but branches of that great organization which has
just been defeated, divided as it was into three
parties, each claiming that it adhered most closely
to the distinctive principles of the old Democratic
party. All of these, therefore, go to swell the ranks
of those whom your lordship declares, in effect, to be
the enemies of America and of the human race.
This is a most harsh judgment, most harshly
enunciated-to say nothing of its implied condemnation of the statesmen and citizens who have passed
away, and whom we, their sons by blood and inhleritance, have been taught to regard as "true
friends of America." It is certainly, when considered in reference to the source from whence it
267 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
emanates, a most overwhelming condemnation of the
millions of American citizens who struggled to avert
its downfall, and who still cling to its fallen fortunes,
and to its great distinctive principles, as the sheetanchor of the hopes of the Republic. The charg6
is as sweeping as it is harsh. You will not grant
that ONE " friend of America, or of the human race,"
can feel any regret at the occurrence of the event
you commemorate.
The iHeaven-doomed city of olden time, even after
its destruction had been ordained by the fiat of Omnipotence, was allowed a respite from its terrible
fate, in answer to the prayer of one real friend of humanity, who said: "Behold, now, I have taken upon
me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and
ashes-peradventure ten righteous men shall be
found there;" and the Lord, admitting the doubt,
and ever tempering justice with mercy, delayed the
execution of his judgment with a promise that if ten
righteous men could be found in Sodom, the city
shouldoe spared for their sake.
More inexorable in your judgment, though but a
man; under the influence of your own antipathies,
and upon the testimony of their enemies alone, you
condemn unheard millions of your fellow-men, and
deny that, amongst them all, there lives one friend
of his country or of the human race, whose righteous ness might plead in behalf of his fellow-countrymen
to save them from the doom of Sodom.
While the world may give your lordship credit
for a more profound knowledge of those subjects
I
268 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
which concern the general good of the human race,
Than the unknown writer who now addresses you, I
cannot doubt that an impartial public would decide that an American citizen, whose destinv has
been cast within the limits of the Republic, ought
to understand as thoroughly, and to appreciate as
fully, the qualities which distinguish a "true friend
of America," as any British nobleman, however
high his rank, or however exalted his endowments
as a British statesman.
This consideration emboldens me to declare, in
my right as an American-born citizen, and as the
representative of a sentiment held in common by
millions of my fellow-countrymen, that it is not I,
nor they, who are the enemies of America. If it
must be that one or the other of us, my lord, is an
enemy of the Republic, it is you, who, from your
high and noble rank, disdain not to stoop to a fellowship with the openly-avowed friends and followers of assassins! It is you, who, by acknowledging yourself to be honored by an invitation to
participate in demonstrations of respect for one of
the foulest murderers whose deeds have found a
place in the records of crime, place the lighted
torch and the dagger in the hands of the incendiary! It is you, who, from your safe retreat, may
laugh to scorn the horrors of such a contest,
thus enkindle the flames of a fratricidal war in a (listaut land, and all in the prostituted name of human'ity.
There are many who do not rejoice over tl:o
event which has filled your lordship withl so imu:c]L
269 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
satisfaction. These mourn over a result which
places in imminent peril one of the noblest-pardon me if, with the old pride of an American, I
say, the noblest fabric of a government that has ever
been constructed by human intelligence.
You delude yourself, my lord, if you believe
that all "friends of America" and of the "human
race" share your sentiments of joy upon the occasion you celebrate. Millions of the downtrodden
and the oppressed of other climes now mourn over
the peril which menaces the overthrow of "the
great Republic," without knowing, or caring to
comprehend, the domestic questions which have
produced the danger. During eighty-five years, it
has been a beacon of hope to the weary and heavy
laden, and should its brightness be quenched by
that dark and clouded night, upon whose gloomy
and fitful shadows we may even, at this moment,
be gazing, believe not, my lord, that the announcement of the catastrophe will be a message of joy to
the hearts of "all the friends of the human race!"
No, my lord: you may or may not represent the
sentiments of the high and noble order to which
you belong-I would fain hope that you do notbut you do not express the sentiments of the million!
If your lordship really believes that " all friends
of the human race" are rejoiced at the overthrow
of that political organization which, commencing
with Washington, has been perpetuated in power
to the present day, descend a little, I pray you,
21-,O 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
from your elevated position in the social scale, and
seek enlightenment firomn those whom you may encounter. Ask of the wandering exile from his niative land, who, for the crime of seeking freedom
from the thraldom of despotism, has been doomed
to revisit the home of his childhood no more for
ever, if he rejoices at an event which threatens to
extinguish the brightness of that light, the contemplation of which has been to him, and to his
fellow-sufferers, a thing of joy, of life, and hope,
in the gloomiest moments of his despondency!
I would ask no nobler epitaph upon the tomb of
that party, whose defeat your lordship commemorates as an event which. should be hailed with joy
by every "friend of the human race," than to record in simple and brief words, this fragment of its
history:
"The political organization which inaugurated
the revolt of the Thirteen American Colonies of
Great Britain; which conducted the war of the Revolution to a successful close; under whose auspices
the Confederation of free States was established;
and which ruled and guided the destinies of the
Republic during the firrst eighty-five years of its
existence, perished in the year of the Christian
era one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one."
Whetherits fall was a consequence of its crimes, its
virtues, or its misfortunes, let posterity determine.
And may I be pardoned, if, in casting a glance
into the unrevealed future, I venture the prediction, that even though the Republic itself should
2 ll 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
perish to-day, the incidents of its brief, but brillianlt career will be remembered, and the grandeur
and sublimity of the great principles upon which
it was constructed will be appreciated, and the
memory of its founders and of their successors, who
ruled it, will be honored, when London, with its
Kings, and its Nobles, and its Commons, will have
been, like Egypt's ancient capital, with its monuments and its inhabitants, mingled together in undistinguishable ashes?
It would be profitless for me to indulge at greater
length in the reflections to which the two events I
have referred to, and your lordship's connection
therewith, have given birth. I am unwilling to
offer to you, my lord, any defence for the local
policy of the political party in America to which I
belong. Nor, on the other hand, will I make any
attack upon that in whose success your lordship
seems to feel so deep an interest, and whose cause
you commend with so much zeal. I do not recognize in Englishmen, or any other foreigners, the
right to interfere in those domestic questions which
concern Americans alone, and which they should
be left free to settle among themselves. I cannot
admit a foreign tribunal to judge between us, any
mnore than I would claim for America the right of
interference, under similar circumstances, in the
internal affairs of England. But, my lord, you
have invited a comparison by which I am willing
that my country shall be tested. You have, by the
energy of your assaults upon the institution of
272
a 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
African slavery in America, indirectly challenged
an examination into the manner,in which subjugated races have been ruled by your own country,
and you seem to invite scrutiny into your own connection, as a nation, with the institution of African
slavery in the past, as well as in the present era.
I, in turn, challenge an investigation and a comparison, and I am willing to accept "all friends of
the human race" as our umpires. I am willing that
both shall be tried "by the laws of God  and humanity," and that the inquiry shall have for its
object the determination of the question: Which
has so governed as to achieve -the greatest good,
with the least evil, to those over whom Providence
or cupidity has called them, respectively, to bear
sway? Every friend of the Southern States of
America is willing to stand or fall upon the result
of such an investigation and comparison.
I have a high respect, my lord, for the great
nation in which you hold so distinguished a rank.
I am satisfied that many, very many, of its noblest
citizens of all classes deprecate the officious interference of British politicians in the contests of political parties in America.  But my friendly regard
for individual citizens of your country does not
blind me to the fact that English influence has been
a principal element in the sectional troubles which
now distract my country. Chief among the leading journals of England is one which, by the common consent of all Europe, is the great exponent
of English  sentiments and English  ideas.   In
273
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
America, it is equally recognized as the unrivalled
European defamer of the Southern States and their
inhabitants. While you, my lord, in conjunction
with your associates of the same school, stand at
the head of the pseudo-religious section of the
political anti-American-slavery movement of England, the limes leads that other branch of this
formidable politico-religious organization, whose
moral principle can. only be effectually aroused to
a healthy action by means of a thorough perception
of certain concomitant temporal advantages.
To show to you, my lord, that I do not over-estimate the influence which, directly and indirectly,
you have exercised in producing the present political troubles in America, and that I have not misconceived the nature and motive of your action in
regard thereto, I beg to submit to you the following
brief but pointed extract of a leading editorial article
from the London Times:
Will any one, however, say that it is not mainly to the ceaseless exertions, to the philanthropic energy, to the entreaties, to the persuasion of this country, that the anti-slavery party in the States owes its
strength?  Blot out England, and English sympathies, and Englishpower from the map of the world, and the battle betweem the North and
the South would be fought on the other side of the Atlantic on very
different terms.  So far, then, as this, Englishmen are as one with
each other on this question.  Slavery shall not be in our own dominions-could we have gone one step farther and annihilated the
peculiar institution, in all other countries as well as in our own, the
problem would, irn the main, have speedily received a satisfactory
solution, This, however, was beyond our power, and consequently
we.find ourselves in this anomaly, that we, without a slave popula
274 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
tion, nmust compete in the markets of the world with other countries
which have slave populations, and that with respect to tropical productions.
To these few bluff words, the purport of the last
four lines of which is a key to Anglo-American,
anti-slavery philanthropy, I may add that the persistent misrepresentations  against  the Southern
American States, which have emanated from this
British party, have excited unjust and wholly unfounded prejudices against my countrymen throughout Europe. I cannot hope that in a day, or a year,
these prejudices can be removed by any exposure
of that narrow and thoroughly selfish policy which,
decked in the garb of humanity, has given tone to
the sentiments of Europe upon American affairs.
But in the Confidence that a returning sense of justice will induce your lordship to listen to the defence made by one whom you have accused as an
enemy to his country and to the human race, I propose, after the lapse of a few weeks,'Thich will be
necessarily occupied by other engagements, to do
myself the honor of again addressing you.*
I may not hope that the judge who has already
pronounced against me, in terms so emphatic, will
be induced to reverse his pre-determined judgment;
*The publication of the letters here referred to, is now superseded by those which fill the greater part of this volume. Although
they were written antecedently to my announcement to his lordship,
yet, as they cover the points at issue, I submit this volume to "the
true friends of America," as well as to "all friends of the human
race," as a redemption of my pledge.
275 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
but I will not despair of obtaining a reversal of
your sentence before a tribunal composed of the
"friends of the human race," until longer to hope
would be fanaticism.
The small grain of mustard seed, which I throw
upon the ground, may be choked by the foul weeds
amongst which it is cast, and never see the sun;
but it may be that from this little seed may grow
and "wax a great tree," and that the "fowls of the
air may lodge in the branches of it," and that beneath its shade a few, at least, of the noxious plants,
from the midst of which it grew, may wither and
perish!
I have the honor to be, most respectfully,
Your Lordship's obedient servant,
JAMES WILLIAMS.
276 
~  ~
RESULT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
I
Interest excited abroad by the last canvass for the Presidency, and
its results-Amazement at the consequences-The South tranquilly
living under the same laws as before, while the North is in a
state of Revolution-Atrocities of the invaders-Fremont's Proela  mation-Spectacle presented to mankind-Nature of'the late com  pact of Union-Reserved rights of the States-While the Mon  archies of Europe are upholding, the Lincoln Government is deny  ing the rights of the people to self-government-The Union of
South and North is opposed to the freedom of the former, and the
happiness of the latter, and can never be restored-Characteristic
differences between them-" Puritans," "Cavaliers "-The South
will stand higher in the estimation of the civilized world after
separation-The only issue is subjection or independence-Provi  dence smiles upon the Southern people —Through the murky
clouds the sunlight is already visible-President Lincoln's declara  tion that the States derived their powers from the General Govern  ment disproved, Note to page 288-The nature and terms of the
compact of union between the States considered, Note to page
293.
AT the time when the series of letters which occupy the larger portion of this volume, were writt e n, the                    South was makin g  its last appeal to the
North for justice, and was engaged in its last great
struggle at the ballot-box, against its unrelenting
adversary. When the letter to the distinguished
British statesman, which succeeds the series re                                                277)
I
i
I:; _, D
C
THE 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ferred to, was addressed to that gentleman, the re sult of the election had been already announced,
and the States which had composed the Union
were trembling in the balance, between the alter natives of a peaceful separation and a war of sub jugation against the seceding States.  It would
seem to be proper, in order to complete the connection
between the cause, the effect, and the results, that
something should be added upon the subjects indi cated at the head of this chapter, as a sequel to
that which goes before.
The result of the election for the Presidency of
the United States in 1860-during the pendency of
which the preceding series of letters were written
in the Old World, and forwarded to America for
publication-together with the immediate consequences flowing therefrom, are now events accomplished and ready for the pen of the historian.
Never before has any political contest in the New
World created so deep an interest throughout Europe, as that which terminated in the installation
of one section of the Union, embracing eighteen
States, into all the powers of the General Government, and the consequent practical exclusion of the
other section, embracing fifteen States, from all
participation in the management and control of a
Confederacy of which they formed so important a
part.
The interest excited by that struggle, in view of
the internal changes which it was thought would
be likely to follow, have been intensified and deep
278 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
ened into an absorbing passion, in presence of the
actual consequences which have succeeded swiftly
upon the heels of the Northern victory at the ballot-box.
All Christendom stands amazed-electrified, as it
were-in presence of the stupendous spectacle
which is this day presented to mankind in that
country, which, a few short months ago, was properly regarded as the living embodiment of the
principles of freedom.
Eleven of those States have withdrawn from the
old Union-have resumed their sovereign powersand in the exercise of their inalienable rights, have
formed a separate Union, under the style of the
"Confederate States of America." The four remaining slave States are ready and eager to unite
themselves with their brethren in the Confederate
States, whenever they can throw off the chains and
shackles with which they have been fettered by the
Government of the United States in the exercise
of a despotism more ruthless, cruel, and vindictive
than any which has marked the career of any civilized conquerors of modern times.
The present attitude of the respective Governments, which are now contending in arms for political dominion over the soil of the South, presents
to the philosophical and inquiring mind some curious phenomena. That portion of the late United
States, which is spoken of, by superficial observers
of passing events, as being "in a state of revolution," seceded from the late Union, and formed an
279 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
other, without any change whatever in the internal
organization of the States composing it, and without suspending, for a single instant, the operation
of the laws by which the citizens of each had been
governed. The acts accomplishing secession and
creating a new Confederacy, had no more influence
upon the status of the citizens, than the withdrawal
of France and Sardinia from a European alliarnce,
and the formation of a separate compact, would
produce upon their subjects.  In both instances, the
acts referred to might be accomplished without any
knowledge on the part of the inhabitants, so far as
it would effect their relations to their respective
Governments.
The Confederacy thus established assumed upon
the instant of its creation the powers which were
confided to it by the States composing it, and is now
firmly established, not only in the regular exercise
of its legitimate functions but in the hearts of the
people.
Utnder the benign administration of this governmenlt, the rights of its citizens have been everywhere
respected, and the laws have been faithfully executed. The liberty of the press has been maintained inviolate. No citizen held in prison for a
political offence has been deprived of his right to a
trial before the civil tribunals; and so far from arresting non-combatant subjects of the United States
who might be within the limits of the Confederacy,
a law has been enacted by the Congress at Richrnond, giving to alien enemies forty days in which
280 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
to make their preparations for departure, and offering
them free egress from the jurisdiction of the Confederate States.   These  are the circumstances  and
condition of that country which, in common parlance throughout Europe as well as the United
States, is said to be "in a state of revolution."
On the other hand, the Government of the united
States, which is said to be engaged with all its
power in putting down the attempted revolution in
the States of the South, and in suppressing "the
great rebellion," is itself in the throes of a terrible
revolution. The stupendous encroachments upon
the constitutional rights of its citizens which have
marked the administration of the Government since
the inauguration of the present President are without a parallel in the history of any other nation.
The liberty of the press has been abrogated and
many journals, both secular and religious, which
have expressed a doubt in regard to the policy of
continuing the war of subjugation against the South,
have been either suppressed by the direct orders of
the Government or destroyed by mob violence.
An inconsiderate word, uttered in the confidence
of private friendship, is employed as a pretext for
consigning the offender to a prison. Men are
arrested while engaged unsuspectingly in their private avocations-transported to distant fortresses
beyond the limits of the State in which they reside
-incarcerated in dungeons-deprived of all means
of communicating with their friends-and from first
to last are kept in utter ignorance of the cause of
281 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
their arrest and detention; and as if to complete
the parallel between the tyranny inaugurated by
Lincoln'and that which marked the career of Robespierre and Danton, even women and young girls
are arrested and incarcerated, by a simple order
from a commanding officer, and without even the
forms- of law, upon suspicion of disloyalty to the
government of Washington.   The right of the
citizen to petition Congress has been refused, and
the petitioners in New York arrested. The writ
of habeas corpus has been suspended, or rather abrogated, by the sole authority and at the discretion of
the President, as to time and place. HIe has also
delegated this usurped authority to his military
commanders. All these acts, unheard of in the
prev ious history of the country, and unparalleled
in enormity by those of any other government of
the present age, are perpetrated, not against those
who are said to be "in rebellion," but against the
citizens, and within the legal jurisdiction of "loyal
States" who profess to be as earnestly desirous of
upholding the government properly administered,
ancl-of re-uniting its dissevered elements, as the
President himself or his advisers.*
*The only justification which is attempted for these various outrages, is the plea of necessity. This might avail them with mankind if they were defending themselves against invasion, but they
are themselves the invaders against an unoffending people, for the
avowed purposes of subjugation and virtual robbery. To declare
the mere expression of an opinion adverse to the prosecution of
such a war to be "treason," is against the practice of all civilized
nations. and cannot be commended by any friend of liberty.
282 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
Such having been the conduct of the United States
Governmentwhen dealingwith the "loyal States,"the
The following are among the leading newspapers, the circulation
of which have been suppressed by order of the government: In
New York City, the Journal of Commerce, News, Day-Book, and
Freeman's Journal; in Pennsylvania, the Christian Observer; in
Missouri, the Journal, Missourian, and Herald. Those suppressed
by the mob are the Standard, (Concord, N. H.), Democrat, (Bangor,
Maine,) Farmer, (Bridgeport, Connecticut,) Sentinel, (Easton, Pa.),
and the Republican, (Westchester, Pa.) The New York Herald was
assailed by the mob, but was spared on becoming a government paper.
Nothing can more clearly illustrate the utter subjection of the
people of the North themselves to the despotism which in a few
short months has robbed them of every vestige of their former
liberty, than the following extract from the card of the editor, M. E.
Masseras, of the "Courier des Etats Unis," a French paper published in New York, on retiring by order of the Government from
the editorship of that paper. He says that in future the paper will
confine itself simply to the news of the day, as that is all which is
permitted, and that he himself will retire until the time arrives
when he will be permitted to speak his sentiments. He concludes
as follows:
" To-day as in April-still more than then-I am convinced that
war will not save the Union, and, that, on the other hand, it will
destroy the Replublic. I am satisfied that the majority of the nation
submits to a war which it does not approve, without believing in the
happy termination about which it seeks to delude the people. I am
satisfied that the war is the work of a party, who will push it to the
last extremity, without hesitating at any means to maintain its
supremacy. In all this I see nothing but oppression, ruin, then;s a
last consolation, inevitable revolution. And as the situation in
which the press is placed only leaves me the choice between blandly
praising everything or holding my tongue, I decide upon silence."
The belief on the part of the Washington government that such
extreme measures are necessary, proves conclusively that there must
be a strong feeling of disapprobation on the part of the people
against the war.
283 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
treatment administered to those which are said to be
in "a state of rebellion," or to have sympathies in
common with the Confederate States, wherever
they have been in whole or in part placed in a state
of subjection, may possibly be imagined. The occupation of that portion of the border of Virginia
which has fallen under the ruthless dominion of the
invaders, has been marked by deeds of the most
wanton cruelty, rapine, and violence. Every blade
of grass has been destroyed, whole villages and
towns have been burned to the ground, and their
inhabitants driven forth without pity. Every foot
of territory over which their armies have trodden,
presents a picture of utter desolation. Throughout
another entire State, the writ of habeas corpus has
been suspended, and the civil authorities have been
entirely superseded by military rule.   The conmmander of this military division-a vain despot, who
seems only ambitious of acquiring a wider notoriety
of infamy, than any other person engaged in the
same occupation-has issued a proclamation, declaring As forfeited, not only the property, but the
lives of all persons who may be found in arms
against the Government which he represents. *
* EXTRACT FROM FREMONT'S PROCLAMATION.-" In order, therefore,
to suppress disorders, to maintain as far as practicable, the public
peace, and to give security and protection to the persons and property of loyal citizens, I do hereby extend and declare established
martial law throughout the entire State of Missouri....All persons
who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall
be tried by court-martial, and if found guilty shall be shot.
"The property real and personal, of all persons in the State of
284 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
These acts are done within the limits of a State,
four-fifths of which would hail the advent of a Nero
as a deliverance from the despotism of that
"paternal" Government, which has, by its ruthless
deeds, banished every vestige of liberty from all
territory over which it exercises dominion!
These are not the exaggerated statements of. an
excited adversary, but facts of public notoriety,
every one of which has been derived from official
Missouri, who shall take up arms against the United States, or who
shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies
in the field, is declared confiscated to public use, and slaves, if any
they have, are hereby declared freemen.
"All persons who have been led away from their allegiance are required to return forthwith to their homes. Any such absent without
sufficient cause will be held to be presumptive evidence against
them: the object of this declaration is to place in the hands of the
military authorities the power to give effect to existing laws and to
supply such deficiencies as the conditions of war demand."
The proclamation from which the above paragraphs are extracted,
appears to be an exact copy in substance of the proclamation of
John, Earl of Dunmore, the last British Governor of Virginia. This
State paper, so celebrated in Virgina annals, must have been the
immediate source of Fremont's inspirations. It is to be regretted
that the lesson then taught to tyrants, that vindictive and ferocious
deeds, in the conduct of a war, defeat the very objects which they
were intended to accomplish, seems to have been lost upon the chief
of the present United States Government, as well as upon the tools
who are willing to be his instruments in perpetrating the barbarities
of a common vengeance. The United States Government may murder
its prisoners, and rob them of their property, as both President Lincoln and his military commanders have officially declared they would
do; but mankind would accuse the Confederate States Government of
criminal weakness, if it failed to follow the consummation of these
threats, by a terrible retribution!
The proclamation of Lord Dunmore, bearing date 17th November,
285
* 
LETTERS ON SLAVgERY.
documents which have been authoritatively published in the columns of leading Journals in the interest of the Government of the United States.
Nay more, as if the ruler of this once free people
were resolved while destroying the liberties of his
subjects, to eradicate every impediment to the exercise of his usurped authority, and to annihilate
the last and only remaining bulwark of the people
1775, by a mere change of names and dates, would be the proclamation of the Republican General, with only a trifling difference in the
mere words. Lord Dunmore says:
"To defeat such treasonable purposes, that all such traitors and
their abettors may be brought to justice, and that the peace and good
order of this colony may again be restored, which the ordinary course
of the civil law is unable to effect-I have thought fit to issue this,
my proclamation, hereby declaring, that until the aforesaid good
purposes can be obtained, I do, in virtue of the power and authority
to me given by his majesty, determine to execute martial law, and
cause the same to be executed throughout this colony; and to the
end that peace and good order may the sooner be restored, I do require every person capable of bearing arms to resort to his majesty's
standard, or be looked upon as a traitor to his crown and government,
and thereby become liable to the penalty the law inflicts upon such
offences, su(h as forfeiture of life, confiscation of lands, etc., etc.
And I do hereby further declare all indentured servants, negroes, or
others appertaining to rebels, free that are willing and able to bcar
arms; they joining his majesty's troops as soon as may be, for the
purpose of reducing this colony to a proper sense of their duty to
his majesty's crown and dignity."
The proclamation of the commanding general of the United States in
Missouri-the spirit and objects of which, have been sanctioned by the
President and his Cabinet, and applauded by the people of the North
-ought to satisfy the last lingering doubt upon the minds of all, that
the intention of the North in the formation of the Republican party
was to obtain and to exercise control over the domestic institutions
of the Southern States. That it was the original design of this
286 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
against the encroachments of a central despotism,
he has in effect abrogated the sovereign rights of
the States-reduced them to the cqondition of mere
counties or townships-and as if to add insult to
injury, he proclaims officially that tha States of the
Confederacy never had an independent existence,
and that they derive all their powers from that
party to carry out their pledges to foreign abolitionists, cannot for a
moment be questioned. If a commanding general has a right to give
freedom to the slaves, surely the right of Congress to do so cannot
be questioned. The resistance -of the South has only hastened the
denounment of a foregone conclusion. The only difference between the position which the South would have occupied if she had
remained a passive witness of her own enslavement, and her present
attitude consists in this, that in the first instance she would have been
degraded by an unresisting subjugation by the North, while now, if
she perishes, it is while nobly fighting for all that is dear to freemen;
and if she triumphs, all the proclamations of the petty despots who
have sprung up like mushrooms under the reign of terror which has
been inaugurated by Lincoln, will remain null and of no effect, except as a record of perpetual infamy, against those who have employed the authority confided to they, in attempting to crush out the
last vestige of constitutional liberty.
It were worse than folly for any one having a personal interest at
stake, to doubt hny longer in regard to the past or present intentions
of the North. If there should be any citizens in the border States
who hope to retain their property by submission or subserviency to
the North, let them also bear in mind, that they will only retain possession thereof at the pleasure of the North. If the Government
possesses the right to manumit slaves for one offence against the
Government, they can do the same thingas a punishment for another.
In short the assumption and practical exercise i  such an authority
under any circumstances; is equivalent to an entire subjection of all
Southern States which submit to the authority of the Government
of the United States-which is now nothing more than the government
of the North.
10 
28T
10
k 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
General Government of which he is the chief
ruler.*
Strange spectacle of mad ambition! The head
of a once frees powerful, and respected nation murdering not only the substance, but the very forms
of liberty among his own subjects, that he may
employ them the more readily in destroying the liberties of others!
Strange spectacle of wickedness! The President
of a once mighty Republic, deriving its powers from
the consent of the governed, hurling his armies ofmer
* EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT LINCOLNli'S WAR MESSAGE TO CONGRESS,
JULY, 1861.-The States have their status in the Union, and they have
no other legal status if they break from this. They can only do so
against law by revolution. The Union, and not themselves separately, procured their independence and their liberty by conquest or
purchase.  The Union gave each of them whatever independence and
liberty it had. The Union is older than any of the States, and
in fact it created them as States. Originally, some dependent colonies made the Union, and in turn the Union threw of their old dependence for them and made them States. Such as they are, not one
of them ever had a State Constitution independent of the Union."
President Lincoln may be an excellent rail-splitter, but it is clear
that he is not an expert at hair-splitting. He tears up sovereignties
by the roots, and casts them at his feet without deigning to show to
his faithful subjects how he had reached conclusions so adverse to
the doctrines universally acknowledged previous to his advent to
power. To say nothing of the belief entertained by the States themselves, that they were onSe sovereign, and that they only transferred
a very limited portion of that sovereignty to the General Government,
over which, in an eo  day for his codntry, he was called to preside
as the chief ruler, mankind will be curious to understand, what disposition he means to make of the, following brief extract from a document which gave to the United States, or rather the States united,
their first fully recognized legal claim to independence and oovereignty:
288 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
cenary soldiers against eight millions of freemen,
living in contented happiness under a government
of their own choice, for the purpose of coercing them
-by fire and sword, to become his dutiful subjects!
Strange spectacle of weakness! The very people
who should defend withtheir life's blood the rights
which are thus set at naught, and who are at once
his victims and instruments, rattle the chains which
despotism has placed upon their once free limbs, and
shout for the war of subjugation against the freemen
of the South! They raise their manacled hands
Extract from "Provisional Articles signed at Paris, November 30, 1782,
by the Commissioners of his Britannic Majesty, and the Commissioners
of the United States of America.'
"ARTICLE I. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said  United
States, viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay,:Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to be free, sovereign, and independent States, and
that he treats with them as such; and for himself, his heirs, and successors, relinquishes all claim to the government, propriety, and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof."
After President Lincoln shall have satisfactorily explained that this
recognition did not mean what it declares, the world has a right to
ask him how he reconciles the act of war which he has instituted,
and is prosecuting with so much ferocity, with the positions assumed
in his speech delivered in the Congress of the United State, January
12th, 1848, from which the following words are extract,viz':
"Any people whatever, being inclined and having tP jer, have
the right to rise up and shake off the existing govern:int, and form
a new one that suits them better.  This is a most valuable, a most 
sacred right.  Nor is the right confined to cases where the whole of 
an existing government may chose to exercise it.  Any portion of.
such people that can, may revolutionize and make their own, of so
much territory as they inhabit."
289 
LETTERS ON SLALERY.
towards heaven, and pray that God may prosper
their enslaver!
Strange spectacle of madness and folly! Nineteen States of a Union once embracing thirty-four
members, without the pretence of a wrong to redress,
or an insult to avenge, invade with a great army; the
territory of their former confederates, murdering
their citizens, plundering them of their property,
burning their dwellings, committing atrocious
violence upon their wives and daughters, and leaving upon the track of their sacrilegious hosts; nothing
but ruin, and desolation, and toe amongst the inhabitants, and "all to win back the alienated affections" of those whom they call their brothers!
Of a truth may it be repeated, that while the
"rebellious States" have passed without a revolution or an internal commotion, the period of transition into the new Confederacy, the "loyal States"
which still adhere to the old federal Union, are themselves in the agonies of arevolution involving changes
in the organic principles upon which the Government had been previously administered, scarcely less
startling in its magnitude than that which was inauguratd by the eloquence of a Mirabeau, in the
days of Louis  VI., which terminated by driving
the Bourbon from the throne of France forever.
So far as it may affect the result of the war in which
the two countries are now engaged, a decision confirming the right of the Southern States to withdraw
from the late Union would be unavailing. Whether
the acts of the now Confederate States be regarded
290 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
as secession by right of sovereignty, or rebellion by
authority of the people, they will maintain their in dependence by the sword, which they will never re turn to its scabbard, until the last hostile invader
shall have been driven from their borders!
Nevertheless, a due respect for the opinions of
our fellow-men, and a natural desire to justify our
acts and to secure for ourselves the respect, if not
the sympathies, of the civilized world, make it a
duty incumbent upon the citizens of the South to
show clearly the causes which impelled them, in
defence of all that they held dear, to sever the po litical bonds which united them with the States of
the North. These causes have already been fully
stated, and the opinions of disinterested men every
where have undergone a revolution, which promises,
in due time, to correct the erroneous views which
were at first entertained. The impartial historian
will declare that the circumstances under which the
Southern States resumed their independence, and
declared their determination to defend and maintain
it, by an appeal, if necessary, to the arbitrament of
arms, would have justified the adoption of that
measure, even though they had previously formed
but an integral part of a consolidated sovereignty.
But they were not thus bound to their late assoCiates. They joined them in a compact, but they
never surrendered to them their sovereignty.
They formed with them a Union for certain specified purposes, and delegated certain clearly defined
powers, but by express stipulation in the articles of
291
I 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
agreement which were concluded between them,
all the powers not specifically conferred upon the
federal Government, were reserved to the States.
There was no arbiter appointed to decide in case
of a disagreement, so that the right to determine
the sufficiency of the causes which impelled them
to a separation, was and remained with them, and
them alone. The Government of the United States
might, or might not, have been stronger and more
durable if the States had transferred to it all of
their sovereignty; but we are considering what
was, and not what might have been. The very
name by which the Government was known indi
cated unmistakably that it was not consolidated
into a single State, but was the admitted representative of several sovereignties. The causes which
induced the original States of the Union to guard
with so much care their State sovereignty, can be
readily discovered by considering the peculiar circumstances in which they were placed. The territory emb)raced an extent of country large enough
for a dozen empires, each one of which would have
rivaled the greatest Powers of Europe.  There already existed an antagonism between the Northerin
and the Southern States, and their domestic institutions were still more widely at variance. If these
Governments had been consolidated into one, slaver,
might have been abolished, or made universal
throughout the whole.  The States therefore retained their sovereignty, for the reason amongst
others, that they desired to avoid giving any pre
.292 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
text to the General Government for attempting to
control their internal affairs.*
*One is almost tempted to smile at the flippant insolence with
which the Northern people charge the Southerners with being in a
state of rebellion against them!  In America, they call it "the re  bellion of the Southern States," but in Europe, they speak of it as
"the rebellion of the Southern provinces."  There is no doubt that
the North is laboring to accomplish this end, but as it has never yet
had a beginning, the South can scarcely be said to be in rebellion
against anything, except the intentions o'f the North to enslave her.
There are those, however, who speak of'the rebellion of the South ern States against the Government of the United States, without
considering that such a thing, under existing circumstances, is
absurd and impossible. If there were a Monarch upon the throne,
there might be a rebellion among his subjects, but the people were
the sovereigns of the late United States, and to say that the people
of the South are in rebellion, is to say that the sovereign has
rebelled against himself, which is absurd. Moreover,, suppose that
the North is right in declaring that the Government of the United
States was the representative of a single sovereignty, namely, the
people of all the States. The people of the Southern States have
refused to constitute any longer a portion of the sovereignty of the
whole, and having separated themselves from all political association
with the North, it follows that the Government of the United States
is the agent of the Northern people alone; and, as the Southern
people cannot be in rebellion against themselves, if it may be said
that they are in rebellion against the Government of the United
States, and the people are the sovereign, it follows that the South
must be regarded as in rebellion against the North.  This would
assume that the Southern people were never sovereign, but that
they were subject to and owed allegiance to the North.  We do not
find this in the bond.
During the war between the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain,
Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Colonies, by which it
was provided that "the Union shall be perpetual."  Notwithstanding this, another convention subsequently assembled, which adopted
the present Constitution of the United States.  Article VII. provided
that "the ratifications of nine States shall be sufficient for the es
293 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
The only pretext upon which the Northern United
States may justify the unprovoked war which they
tablishment of this Constitution, between the States ratifying the
same." In effect, this Constitution was ratified at first by only a
portion of the States composing the previous Union, (each at different dates and in its sovereign capacity as a State.) So that the
right of secession is full'iy admitted, by the fact that the late Union
was created by States which "seceded" from the previous Union,
three of which, in their acts of ratification expressly reserved the
right to secede again. Virginia, in givihg her assent to the Constitution, said:
"We, the delegates of the people of Virginia, duly elected, etc.,
etc., do, in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and miake known that the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States, may be
resumed'by them whenever the same shall be perverted to their in jury or oppression."
The State of New York said that "the powers of Government
may be re-assumed by the people whenever it shall become necessary to their happiness." And the State of Rhode Island adopted
the same language. It is clear that when these States speak of the
people of the United States, meaning the States united, they spoke
authoritatively for the people of their own States respectively; for
when they speak of the re-assumption of power by the people, it is
manifest that they refer to the people who previously held it. Now,
what people held this power originally?  It was the people of the
States respectively whose independence had been recognized sepa rately, and by name, by George III., and not the whole people of all
the States as a unit.
Furthermore, in order that no inference might ever be drawn pre judicial tothe rights of the States, the Constitution was amended
after its ratifieation -in such manner as to state that "the powers
not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The right of secession hasteen distinctly affirmed and admitted
by almost every President, and }  turn by almost every State of the
Union, since the celebrated Resolutions of Virginia and of Kentucky
294 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
are now waging against the Southern Confederacy,
might, with equal propriety, be employed by Eng
in 1798. The former were drawn up by Mr. Madison, and the latter
by Mr. Jefferson.  The first Kentucky resolution was as follows: 
"1st Resolved, That the several States comprising the United
States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government, but that by compact under the
style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government, for special
purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers,
reserving each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their
own self-government; and that whensoever the general government
assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and
of no force; that to this compact each State acceded, as a State,
and is an integral party; that this government created by this compact, was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the
powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion
and not the Constitution the measure of its powers, but that as in all
other cases of compact among parties having no common judge,
each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.!'
This was the interpretation given to the compact of the Union by
Jefferson and Madison, and the fathers of the Union.   To come
down to the interpretation of more modern times, it may be stated
that Van Biuen, Polk, Pierce, Buchanan, and perhaps others, were
elected respectively to the office of President upon platforms embracing specifically the above recited resolution.  It will be.remembered that upon this declaration of principles, Mr. Pierce received
the votes of every State in the Union except three, and one of those
has time and again given her adhesion to the same principle.
To show how this subject and the subject of coercion was regarded
by the framers of the very Constitution under consideration, I close
with the following extracts from the debates in the federal convention for forming a Constitution, 1787:
"Mr. Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, presented a series of resolutions as a basis of a form of government. The sixth resolution
suggested, amongst other matters, that the National Legislature
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
land, or France, or Russia, if either of these powerful nations should attempt the subjugation of
all Europe, upon the ground that the existence of
ought to be empowered to'call forth the force of the Union against
any member of the Union failing to fulfil its duties under the articles thereof.' See Madison Papers, Vol. 2d, page 732.
"Mr. Madison observed, that the more he reflected on the use of
force, the more he doubted the practicability, the justice, and the
efficacy of it, when applied to people collectively, and not individually. An Union of the States containing such an ingredient, seemed
to provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a State
would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment; and would probably be considered by the party attacked
as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound.
He hoped that such a system would be framed as might render this
resource unnecessary, anti moved that the clause be postponed. This
motion was agreed to unanimously.  See Madison Papers, Vol. 2d,
page 761.
"Mr. Patterson, of New Jersey, moved a series of resolutions, as
a basis of a plan of Government. Ib., Vol. 2d, page 863 to 867.
"His sixth resolution suggested,' That if any State, or any body
of men in any State, shall oppose or prevent the carrying into execution such acts or treaties, the Federal Executive shall be authorized to call forth the power of the Confederated States, or so much
thereof as may be necessary, to enforce and compel an obedience to
such acts, or an observance of such treaties.' Mr. Patterson's
whole plan, including the sixth resolution, was voted down.
"Col. Alexander Hamilton said,' The great and essential principles necessary for the support of government, are' five in number,
which were respectively enumerated and commented on by him.
The fourth was'Force, by which,' he said'may be understood a
coercion of laws, or coercion of arms.' After commenting on a coercion of laws, he continued,'A certain portion of military force is
absolutely necessary in large communities. Massachusetts is now
feeling this necessity, and making provision for it. But how can
this force be exerted on the States collectively? It is impossible. It
amounts to a war between the parties.'  lb., Vol. 2nd, page 881.
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
other nations' upon its borders was a constant me
nace against the integrity of its own dominions.
The moral -spectacle which is exhibited to the
"Col. George Mason said,' He took this occasion to repeat that,
notwithstanding his solicitude to establish a national government, he
never would agree to abolish the State governments, or render them
absolutely insignificant. They were as necessary as the general
government, and he would be equally careful to preserve them.' Ib.,
Vol. 2nd, page 914.
"Mr. Luther Martin agreed with Col. Mason as to the importance
of State governments: he would support them at the expense of the
general government, which was instituted for the purpose of that
support.... At the separation from  the British Empire, the
people of America preferred the establishment of themselves into
thirteen separate sovereignties, instead of incorporating themselves
into one. To these they look up for the security of their lives, liberties, and properties; to these they must look up. The Federal government they formed to defend the whole against foreign nations
in time of war, and to defend the lesser States against the ambition of the larger.  They are afraid of granting powerunnecessarily,
lest they should defeat the original end of the Union; lest the
powers shonld prove dangerous to the sovereignties of the particular States which the Union was meant to support, and expose the
lesser to being swallowed up by the larger. Ib., Vol. 2nd, page 915.
"Mr. Ma4ison said,' It had been alleged (by Mr. Patterson) that
the confederation, having been formed by unanimous consent, could
be dissolved by unanimous consent only. Does this doctrine result
from the nature of compacts?  Does it arise from any particular
stipulation in the Articles of Confederation? If we consider the
Federal Union as analogous to the fundamental compact by which
individuals compose one society, and which must, in its theoretic
origin, at least, have been the unanimous act of the component members, it cannot be said that no dissolution of the compact can be
effected without unanimous consent. A breach of the fundamental
principles of the compact by a part of the society would certainly
absolve the other part from their obligations to it. If the breach of
any article by any of the parties, does not set the others at liberty, it is
297 
LETTERS ON S$LAYERY.
civilized world by the United States Government,
even apart from the bloody horrors of the desolating
war which it is now waging, is enough to arouse in
the bosom of every true lover of liberty an agony of
grief and shame. Through seven long and dreary
years, the immortal founders of that government continued in arms against a mighty foe, in defence of the
great principle that the people had a right to determine the character of the government under which
they lived. They won the victory after a long and
doubtful struggle, and forthwith proceeded to establish their own political institutions, upon the great
principle which they had proclaimed during the progress of their struggle.
Let us for a moment glance at the political condition of the nations of the earth at that turning point
in the world's history.  It was scarcely more than
three quarters of a century ago, and many who were
living then are living still. Of all the nations of the
because the contrary is implied in the compact itself, and particularly
by that law of it which gives an indefinite authority to the majority to
bind the whole in all cases. This latter circumstance shows that we
are not to consider the Federal Union as analogous to the social compact of individuals: for if it were so, a majority would have a right
to bind the rest, and even to form a constitution for the whole;
which the gentleman from New Jersey would be among the last to
admit.  If we consider the Federal Union as analogous, not to the
social compacts among individual men, but to the conventions
among individual States, what is the doctrine resulting from these
conventions?  Clearly, according to the expositors of the law of nations, that a breach of any one article Iy any one party, leaves all the
other parties at liberty to consider the w'Aole convention as dissolved."
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LETTERS  ON SLAVERY.
globe, there was not one holdiag a high rank, which
recognized the right which was thus proclaimed by
a handful of Amerioans, as inalienable to the people.
All Europe held that the source of al{-,egitimate
earthly power was the monarch, and that the monarch derived his authority from the Almighty. If
the people came into the possession of any rights,
they were indebted therefore to the gracions sovereign who conferred them. Now, how changed! England, which was the adversary of America in that
contest, big with great results, proclaims to-day from
the Throne, from the Parliament, and from the
people, its adhesion to that great principle. Prance
-that mighty France, which proclaims to the world
that she will go to war for an idea, or fight for an
abstract principle of right or justice, is ruled over
by the third and greatest Napoleon, in conformity
with the will of the people, deliberately proclaimed
at the ballot-box. Victor Emanuel is the elected
King of Italy, recognized as such by some of the
great powers of Europe, upon the specified grounds
that he was the chosen of the people. The King of
Sardinia ceded to the Emperor of the French, his
right to the sovereignty of Savoy and Nice.  These
little principalities, hid away amid the rugged and
barren slopes of the Alps, were only incorporated into
the empire of France after the question of transfer
had been submitted to the people to be effected by
the change, and ratified by their votes. And even
the Sultan of Turkey, in obedience to the demand
of the great powers of Europe, headed by the auto
299 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
crat of Russia and the Emperor of Austria, has con ceded to the people of Moldavia and Wallachia, and
other Christian principalities within his dominions,
the right to elect the prince who may rule over
them.
The people upon the various occasions referred
to, may or may not have exercised wisely or even
independently the privilege which was conceded to
them, but the principle and the right is granted and
acknowledged by the very fact of claiming to exercise authority by virtue of the sanction thus
accorded. The governments of Europe do not submit the election of their rulers to the people at stated
periods, but the great point has been gained, that
the people have an inherent rrght to be regarded as
the original fountain of power. The consequence
is that almost all the governments of Europe profess
to exercise dominion in the interests of their subjects,.
and with their approbation.
At the very moment when the enlightened public
sentiment of mankind has recognized the validity
and binding force of the sacred principle for which
the fathers of the American Republic contended
single-handed, only eighty-five years ago, against
the opinions and practice of the whole world, their
degenerate descendants are waging an exterminating
war against eight millions of freemen, in order to
compel them at the cannon's mouth to surrender
the government of their free choice, and come under
the dominion of a power which in the depths of
their hearts they abhor.  The vain pretext that the
~'300 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
armies of the Union are hurled upon the South in
order to relieve the majority of its people from the
tyranny of a minority which holds them in subjection, will~no longer avail them, since the teible
routs of Manassas Plains, and Bethel, and Oak.
The world will say with truth, whatever way itsel
sympathies may run in the contest, that there can
exist but one impulse, and one heart, amongst a nation
of eight millions of people, whose armies can successfully meet and vanquish in battle the hosts
which eighteen millions of their own race, acting
under the impulse of an undivided purpose, can direct against them.
Whatever may be the fluctuating fortunes of war,
every intelligent observer, who will calmly survey
the attitude of the two parties in the struggle, must
see that it can only terminate in the establishment
of the independence of the South., The North declares in the face of the world that it is fighting for the restoration of the old Union, a result
which, in the very nature of things, is not only improbable, but impracticable. Even though their
victorious armies should desolate every district, and
destroy every village and every city within the
limits of the Confederates States, and carry mourning into every dwelling, the consummation of such
a purpose would be still farther removed beyond
the verge of probability.  Every vestige of a Union
sentiment, upon the part of the people of the South,
has been already burned out of their hearts, and
seared over as with a red hot iron, by the vindic
301 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
tive deeds and no less atrocious designs of their
former confederates. It could never have entered
into the thoughts of those who  inaugurated this
war of subjugation, that the South would ever again
receive, as brothers, the ruthless foe, whose hands
were dripping with the blood of her murdered children.
It is absurd to attempt, by force, to compel a
people to enter or return to a political union, whose
existence can only begin, or be perpetuated, by consent. It is scarcely to be credited that any portion
of the Northern people can now look to any other
end to the present conflict, than the complete independence, or the utter enslavement and subjugation,
of the South to a military rule.*
* However it may detract from their claim to a reputation for candor, it is due to the leading spirits of the war party in the North to
say, that, in Europe, they do not pretend amongst their friends that
they have any hope, or even wish, to restore the old Union. The
writer did not leave Europe until after the war had already commenced, and having been several years Tesident in that country, he
had opportunities of becoming acquainted with the real plans of the
anti-slavery party in America, because there, they threw off the disguise, which it was still necessary to wear in America.  When "the
war for the restoration of the Union" was proclaimed in America,
the world said, in the words of Douglas, "war is eternal separation."
The representatives of the war party in Europe said&"No! it is
death to the former Union of free and equal States, but war will acquire the South for the North, and she will hold it under military
rule by right of conquest." They spoke, unreservedly, of breaking
up the old Constitution, and establishing a consolidated government
of the States of the North, and then, after the conquest of the
South, they would divide it into' military districts, and hold them as
provinces, They referred, with greatself-complacency, to historical
302 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
When such is the issue, and the only issue presented, the South knows well that, whether the war
endures for one year, or five years, or a generation,
she  must fight on until her victorious legions
establish her independence.
Any why should such'a result be deplored by any
friend of liberty?  The  old federal Union had
played its part upon the political stage-it had answered the purpose of its' creation, by sustaining
the power of the infant Government until the Republics which formed it had attained to manhood.
The great continent of North America was never
designed, by the wisdom of Omnipotence, to form
but a single, undivided, and indivisible Power.
The State of Texas, alone, embraces territory suffli
parallels, which they said established that, by a law of nature,
Southern people were always subjected, sooner or later, by Northern
invaders. It is certain that at least one of the proselytes to this
opinion was recalled from Europe, and is now holding one of the
highest positions as a military commander in the "Union" army.
His conduct, since he assumed command, proves conclusively that his
feelings andopinions upon this point have not undorgone a change.
In this connection it may not be out of place to state a fact which
may not be geherally known, namely, that the first great impulse
given to the inauguration of this war, came from certain parties in
Europe, whose anti-slavery sympathies had led them to form an intimate alliance with many of the Republican leadra in America.
When the information crossed the Atlantic that there was a small
probability of a compromise, by which the integrity of the South
would be guaranteed, and that Mr. Seward, and other prominent
Republican politicians were trembling in the balance, the frantic
violence of some of their European allies was almost equal to that
of the Northerners on the occasion of the fall of Sumter. They
taunted their American friends wish the charge of timidity and in
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6 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
cient for a vast empire. The old Union has had its
day, and it has passed away forever.  No human
agency can restore it to life.  It has perished by
the fiat of Omnipotence, and by tlie unchangeable
$   will of the people of the South.
The North and the South are of the same race,
sincerity, and told them that if their own previous statements were
to be relied upon, the South had been so completely enervated by
slavery that their subjugation could be accomplished almost without
an effort, and with but little bloodshed. They further insisted, that
whether the South was permitted to secede, or to remain in the Union
upon a new compromise, it would result in an indefinite perpetuation
of slavery; whereas, after many sacrifices and disappointments, the
North had at last made itself master of the position, and that it would
seem to be an act of folly and imbecility'to lose the present golden opportunity. So that at the very moment when theAmericans were dreaming of peace, Southerners who were in Europe did not doubt that
there would be a bloody war, for we knew a fact of which Europeans
seemed strangely ignorant, namely, that the South had the will and
the military force to offer a successful resistance.
In corroboration of the fact that the foreign Impulse referred to,
had a powerful influence in inducing a change of policy in the United
States, the reader has but to refer to the speeches and writings of the
recognized leaders of that party about the time referred to. In order
not to encumber this note with an unnecessary number of proofs
upon this point, I will extract some brief paragraphs from a journal
which has always been recognized as the leading anti-Southern paper
in the United States.
From the New York Tribune of Nov. 26, and Dec. 17,1860.
We hold with Jefferson to the inalienable right of communities to
alter -or abolish forms of government that have become oppressive
or injurious, and if the cotton States shall become satisfied that they
can do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on letting them
go in peace. The right to secede may be a revolutionary one, but it
exists nevertheless, and we do not see how one party can have a right
to do, what another party has a right to. prevent. Whenever a con
$t
304
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
speaking the same language, but they are, and
always have been, from the beginning, two peoples.
Circumstances, coupled with a once existing political necessity, for a time united them, but they never
mingled. They were as oil and water preserved for
a season in the same bottle. Confined upon every
siderable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, we
shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep it in. We hope
never to live in a Republic, whereof one section is pinned to the
residue by bayonets....  If ever seven or eight States send
agents to Washington to say "we want to get out of the Union," we
shall feel constrained by our devotion to human liberty, to say "let
them go!" And we do not see how we could take the other side,
without coming in direct conflict with those rights of man which we
hold paramount to all political arrangements, however convenient and
advantageous.
From the same, of May 1, 1861.
But, nevertheless, we mean to conquer them-[the Confederate
States] not merely to defeat, but to CONQUER, to subjugate them. But when
the rebellious traitors are overwhelmed in the field, and scattered
like leaves before an angry wind, it must not be to return to peaceful
and contented homes! They must find POVERTY at their firesides, and
see PRIVATIONin the anxious eyes of mothers, and the RtAGS of children.
The-whole coast of the South, from the Delaware to the Rio Grande,
must be a SOLITUDE, save from the presence of a blockading squadron,
so that no relief shall come in to the beleaguered people from the sea.
It is in the power of the West literally to starve her into submission.
I select from another leading organ of the party in power at Washington, the following brief extract, which is only important as exhibiting the model after which the war, or rather the massacre,
against the South is to be conducted.
From the New York Times, May 1, 1861.
How shall the United States governmtent wage the war? Whoever
has to die, it is better to die by the guillotine, than by a cancer. Then
up with the axe, and down with the head, and let the slide fall.
305
it 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
side, and shaken up with a sufficient degree of
violence, they pass through and through each other,
creating an ugly, excited compound, covered with
*   froth and filled with bubbles. But remove the exter  nal force, give both an equal chance and a moment's
quiet, and they separate upon the instant, under
the influence of a mutually irresistible repulsion.
"Puritanism"-a word of terrible significance,
both in English and in Anglo-American history-is
not developed into fanaticism by a long process of
incubation. It is born fanaticism, fully matured in
all its hideous proportions, at the very instant of its
conception. It has shown itself capable of great
achievments both for good and evil; but even in its
blandishments it strikes terror into the hearts of those
on whom it fondles. It appeared-'first in England,
in the form of a great pestilence of living men, pro  fessing to be heaven-descended.  They went forth
to battle with shaved heads, but strong arms, and
unconquerable hearts, and they varied the monotony
of killing their fellow-men, by singing psalms over
their victims.  The wickedness of England  may
have induced the All-wise Ruler of the Universe, to
visit it with this pestilence, and the result may have
been a purification, but the medicine was not the
less nauseating to the patient.  It performed its
work there, and partially disappeared; although
leaving seed which took root and which has not
even yet been eradicated. In the meantime, a suffi  cient number for a colony tooktheirflight to the
bleak and barren coasts of New England, where it
306 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
still rules and reigns without a rival. Leave it alone
to operate upon itself, and it develops great achieve ments; but whenever it is brought into contact with
others, it exhibits the same spirit which, under the
direction of Cromwell, shivered the power of his
royal rival for regal honors.  It is a pestilence which
was doubtless sent upon the earth for a wise purpose,
but a merciful Providence surely never designed
that its power should be perpetual in any one
country. Eternal punishments are only inflicted
by our benevolent Father in heaven, in the eternal
world.
The "Puritan" exiles, who established themselves
upon the cold, and rugged, and cheerless soil of New
England, and the "cavaliers," who fixed their destinies in the ever-blooming, smiling, sunny South,
did not bear with them from the mother country to
the shores of the New World any greater degree of
congeniality than existed amongst them at home,
previous to the commencement of their perpetual
exile; and. there has been but little perceptible
change in their relations since. It does not matter
which was or is the better, or which the worse.
Others may settle those points according to their
tastes, their judgments, or their prejudices, but they
are different-always have been, and always will be.
The one drowned or burned women, according to
the tastes or humors of their judges, on satisfactory
proof that they were witches, holding nightly communications with the evil one; the other would
have been charmed to make the acquaintance of
307
0
41 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
these curiously gifted ladies, and would have bestowed upon them more than a due share of their
proverbial hospitality. The one will employ force,
if necessary, to convince an adversary of his error;
the other cares but little whether his fellow-men believe as he does, if he is permitted the full and free
enjoyment of his own opinions. The one wishes to
compel every man to enter the gates of heaven by
the road which he points out as the right one; the
other does not care how his neighbor gets there, so
he himself is allowed to go in his own way. The
one will not smile when he is happy; the other will
not smile at any other time. The one would look
sternly, and ask you what you meant by calling him
a gentleman; the other would be angry if you called
him any thing else. The one will destroy the character of his adversary by cruel defamation, or by insidious speech, but he will not fight his enemy; not
from a lack of courage, but upon principle; the other
is loth to insult a gentleman by words, but he is ever
remady td take "or give satisfaction" for an insult.
The one is scrupulously observant of all the external
forms of piety; the other, if he has any religion in
his heart, does not care to make a display of it be fore the world. The one is prudent, cautious and
calculating; the other inclined to be reckless, rash,
and improvident. Each is great in his own way,
each is capable of achieving glorious results, each is
brave, each can worthily fulfil a high destiny, but in
differentfields, and upon diverging lines  What God
in his wisdom and in the exercise of his inscrutable will
308 
-LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
has put asunder, let none attempt to join together.
The New England Puritan fled from the home of
his fathers in order to enjoy unrestricted freedom of
religion upon the barren rock of Plymouth, but he
whipped the Baptists who followed after him, for
non-conformity, and drove them away into the
deeper depths of the great forest. Hie made bondmen and bondwomen from the heathen round about
him, and bought and sold them like cattle in the
market, "for the glory of God and the spread of his
holy word;" but his descendant would to-day, if he
were allowed to follow the bent of his inclinations,
adjust the rope around the neck of the Southern
slaveholder, exhort him to repentance for the sin of
holding his fellow-man in bondage, say a prayer,
sing a psalm, let fall the drop, and after being assured that his victim no longer breathed, he would
retire with the belief that he had acquired another
claim to the joys of paradise.
These contrasts indicate the adverse principles,
under the influence of which the public sentiment of
the respective sections is developed or directed, in reference to all the affairs of life.  Circumstances may
and do modify, and no doubt in many instances
change, these sectional or more properly speaking,
national characteristics. The spirit of the cavalier
has even made strong inroads upon the very soil,
and in the very temples of the descendants of the
roundheads, but the spirit of puritanism in its most
strongly defined and most aggressive features, is, and
always willbe, the predominating power from whence
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
the North will derive its inspirations, for if it were
otherwise, New England would emigrate to another
Plymouth rock, where her strong-minded men and
women could enjoy, in undisturbed quiet, that liberty
of conscience, and freedom of action, and supreme
control which they never concede to or share with
any others of their fellow-men.
On the other hand, the puritan may emigrate into
the South, and sometimes he adopts the tastes and
habits of his new associates, and is lost by being
merged into the mass by which he is surrounded;
but as a general rule, he is and remains an exotic.
The improvident prodigality of the Southerner is
an ever present temptation for him to remain a little
longer for the augmentation of his worldly stores,
but ever his eyes wander tlack under the promptings
of his heart to the land of wooden nutmegs, from
whose soil he hopes to rise, when called to enter
upon the realities of the other world.
Each ought to be, and would be all the happier
for the separation, if the Northern people could but
divest themselves of their insane ambition to govern
the South. They once possessed all they should
have desired, and might easily have retained their
hold, but in mere folly or wantonness, they madly
threw away from them forever the golden possession,
as a child breaks its toy and casts it at its feet. For
long and weary years, they have absorbed the lion's
share of the profits of slave labor, while denouncing
the South to the world as barbarians for the sin of
holding slaves,,  They have grown ric; upon the
310 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
spoils wrung from the South by means of protective
tariffs, while taunting them with their poverty.
They have denounced them to mankind as a hideous
reproach to the enlightened age in which we live,
while they have proclaimed themselves to be at the
head of the advancing columns of progress and
civilization. If they believe to be true the smallest
fractional part of what they have said, and have a
proper self-respect, they should hail the separation
as a deliverance, instead of fighting to bring them
back. It is too late. The deed is past recall. The
South can brave any danger, look death in the face
without fear, and accept with reasonable composure
any destiny which Providence may order, except
that of entering again into a political union with
those whose unkindness and injustice towards them
when they were at peace, have only been exceeded
by their atrocities in war-a war which they wantonly commenced, not because they believed they had
right, but upon a calculation by arithmetical rules that
they were the strongest; not because they had any
hope by such means to restore the departed Union
upon the terms previously existing, but as a; mere
gratification to their pride and ambition, and as a
concession to the insidious counsels of foreigners,
whose only claim upon their confidence was a common sentiment of hostility to the South.*
* In a preceding note I referred to the attitude of the extreme abolition element of England, in regard to affairs in the United States,
at a period when it seemed doubtful whether the North would attempt
the subjugation of the seceded States. The extent of this influence
.311 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
No! The chain of the old Unitn is broken, and the
links are east into a bottomless sea where no line
can ever reach them.
in turning the scales in favor of war, cannot, of course, be estimated
with accuracy, but Southerners, at that time in Europe, believed that
it would be very great. This belief was strengthened by the fact
that anti-slavery men in England were in constant correspondence
with leading abolitionists in America, and they announced with confidence, that the North would neither compromise with the South,
nor permit it to withdraw from the Union. The following extracts
from private letters, received by me from highly intelligent sources,
may not be without interest. The two first- are from an Englishman, and the third from an Italian, resident for many years in
England:
LONDON, March, 1861.
My Dear Sir:-I have been in London almost ever since I last sawv
you, which is now nearly five months ago. You remember that we
discussed the probable influence of the then pending election for the
Presidency of the United States.  You and I, of course, differed in
our estimate of the institution of slavery, for you were a Southerner
and I an Englishman. But I little thought that your apprehensions
of a collision at arms between the North and the South, was so near
at hand as it now appears to be. Such a conflict would be a public
calamity, but I am satisfied from what I see and hear, that there will
be war. Europe does not even yet credit the possibility of such an
event; but I am confident that nothing but the prompt submission of
the South can avert it.  Why?  Look for an instant into the facts.
The North has, in the election of the President, Mr. Lincoln, entered
into a moral compact with the enemies of slavery every where, to root
out that evil from the United States*The anti-slavery party proper of
Europe do not know or care whether this result is to be accomplished
in one year or fifty; in truth, the latter period would suit the views
of England much better than the former. But it does not matter
about time or circumstance; the North is pledged to the deed. The
abolitionists of the Exeter Hall school reason this way. The secession of the slave States is the perpetuation of slavery for ever; a
312 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
As distinct nations the North and the South may,
by respecting each other's rights, learn to appreciate each other's virtues-for both possess qualities
compromise to keep them in the Union, would give a new lease to
slavery indefinite in duration.
These are facts, and be assured that they are being employed upon
America, from this side of the water with a force which will be
irresistible. The truth is, I cannot see how the North can, in the
face of its implied pledges, do any thing else but resist both secession
and compromise, if they have been right in that which they have
already done. At any rate, I do not believe they can resist the
taunts which will be thrown upon them from this side of the water,
if they show a disposition to abandon ii a single moment the fruits
of twenty years of labor, at the very time, too, when they have every
thing their own way. I wish there may not be war; but I have lost
hope unless the South surrenders.....
Yours, truly,                 * * *
PARIS, March 20, 1861.
Mly Dear Sir:-I arrived here yesterday......... Be assured I
was right in my conclusion that there would be'war between the North
and the South, although the impression seems to be gaining ground,
that all will end in smoke. The anti-slavery leaders are divided in
opinion as to the proper policy of the North; but they are agreed in
one thing, that the South can be brought to terms by a display of
determination, without mnch bloodshed, and the most rabid amongst
them, are those who, by their activity, will be likely to have the greater
influence on the other side of the water.
I confess that my sympathies run with the Southerners, although
my prejudices are rather against slavery. It is clear to my mind
that the leading spirits of the North only desire to keep you all for
their own picking...... Don't neglect or disregard what I say,
if you have any arrangements to make which would depend upon
such a contingency. Submission on your part, or war, is before you.
I hope to see you in London on your return voyage to the
dis-United States......
Yours sincerely,              *
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LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
worthy of admiration-to respect each other's strong
convictions; to smile at each other's foibles, and to
LONDON, March 20, 1861.
My Dear Sir:.... Well, the die.is cast and you are going to
have a civil war. I have thought so from the moment it was announbed-that the anti-slavery party had chosen their President.  In
fact Imay say that I have thought such would be the upshot of the
abolition movement ever since my visit to America.   I have myself
suffered for liberty's sake, but I detest that maudlin sympathy for
the African, which makes men forget that millions of their own race
might be benefitted by their efforts if properly directed. But still
you have to fight, and I cannot help but wish you success. They say
in Europe that the war will prove the insufficiency of democratic institutions for a stable government-a most absurd assumption; for I
cannot see how democracy or monarchy is effected by the question
at issue.  Now I will give you reasons why I say you will have war.
First, the Northerners would be ashamed to admit to the world that
they had no right under the Constitution to interfere with slavery.
Second, the anti-slavery people everywhere would look with contempt
upon the North if they were to allow the slave States to secede, and
thus establish in permanancy the very thing which they have agreed
to destroy. Thirdly, the general impression is, that the Southerners
although quick to anger, have not the stamina to stand up against
the cool courage of the Northmen, and that one action, short and
sharp would. decide the campaign. I was never further South than
Washington, but I am convinced that this is a great mistake-how- 
ever the mistake will cost you a war, or rather it will turn the scales
in favor of war.  Now, sir, write home and tell your Southern friends
not to allow any more Fort Sumters to fall into the hands of those
who in one month from to-day will be at war with them. Let me
give you a little advice gained by experience.  If you are going to
make up an issue with an adversary, the first thing to do is to make
yourself master of the position, and then negotiate. If you can take
forts take them, and you can make a merit of giving them back if
you make peace. In your case the guns of every fort in the South,
which you leave in possession of the United States, will be loaded
with shot and shell, and turned against you..
Yours truly,                   * *
314 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
thank hIeaven mentally, from the depths of their
hearts, that they do not resemble each other! They
could only be held together hereafter, under the
same Government, by the bonds of a common des potism. No true lov;er of liberty can desire that
such should be the fate of either.  In order that
nations should be free and happy, whether they be
monarchical or democratic, there must be homoge neity amongst their respective subjects. Where this
bond of union exists, they are almost always virtu ally free and contented, whatever may be the form
of government under which they live.  The world
abuses Austria, composed of'its dozen different nationalities, speaking as many different languages,
for not conferring upon her subjects the rights, and
privileges, and guarantees of the English Constitution; whereas, if they wish to establish their point,
they should first condemn Austria for being an empire at all.  There are periods in the history of
weak nations, when it is better they should be held
together by the ligaments of a common government, in order, by their joint strength, to be able
to repel exernal enemies, and'thus avoid falling
victims, in detail, to an unscrupulous and ambitious foe-just as the North and the South have
been united, during their infancy and weakness-a
period which both have long since passed. But
whenever, and only, when a country is united together by the bonds of a common sentiment, a
common sympathy, a common interest, a common
language, and a common history, the people may
315 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
look forward, without apprehension, to a common
destiny. If ambitious men should refuse to render,
or, afterwards, should rob them of their liberties,
the people have but to bide the proper time, and, if
they are worthy to possess them,, day by day, year
by year, or generation by generation, they will recover, Or take possession of them, as the English
people have done; or they will seize upon them
suddenly, as did our forefathers, and once more
enter quietly and smoothly upon the fulfilment of
their destiny.
It is not only not necessary that nations should
be very great, or very powerful, in order to bebfree 
and happy; but it is always to be apprehended that
the possession of great strength will create a disposition to employ it, by invading the liberty of
others; which event is very naturally followed by
the loss of their own. If a people is strong enough
to osr a succes   resistance against external enemies, even though they may not have the physical
strength to make successful aggressions upon the
liberties of others, they have all the force necessary
to maintain a government which will secure their
own happiness, and the respect of mankind.
Such is precisely the attitude occupied by the
Confederate States of America at this very moment.
Never yet, in the history of any other peoples was
there so glorious a prospect of a bright and a happy
and a great future. The mind becomes dazzled by
a contemplation of the magnificent domain which
is all our own. We could receive half of Europe
316 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
into our embraces, and have more to spare. We
have a productive soil, and strong hands and arms to
work it. We have the Government of our choice,
and stout and willing hearts to maintain it; and,
with the approval of Heaven, we will maintain it at
all hazards, and at whatever cost of blood, or treasure,
or present comfort. The property and the lives of
our citizens have been offered up upon the altar of
their country, as freely as they would bestow a draft
of cold water from the sparkling fountain upon the
thirsty traveller on the way-side.  If they do not
themselves live to enjoy the ripe fruits of their
labors, they know that they will live forever in the
hearts of a grateful posterity; and whatever may
be now the public sentiment of their fellow-men,
who have been misled by the misrepresentations of
their enemies, as sure as the sun shines, mankind
will one day do justice to their motives and applaud
their deeds.
In this connection may be noted one of the
agreeable results which will immediately follow the
complete establishment of the Confederate States
Government. There exists among the people of
all civilized nations a very naturals desire to secure
the respect of their fellow-men. The South has
hitherto, from her unfortunate political associations,
been constantly and grossly misrepresented by
those who professed to be fellow-countrymen.
Whatever prejudices may have been excited abroad
against the people or the Government of the United
States, whatever insult offered by the Northern
~t;E
317 
LETTERS  ON  SLAVERY.
press which foreigners might wish to resent, they
had the ever present retort of the horrors of American slavery, as reported by those who were themselves American citizens. Thus has the South been
a target for the shafts of the world, without having
any means of defence. So in regard to suggested
aggressions upon the, territory of our neighbors.
Cuba-rich, fertile, ever-blooming Cuba-was spread
out invitingly before our eyes. Northern cupidity
would have clutched the tempting prize, and the
South would have taken in the bait of an augmentation of its political power, if Spain could have
been induced to sell.  But there' was no Southerner
of intelligence so blind as not to perceive that the
acquisition, however valuable to the North, would
have resulted in a heavy pecuniary loss to the
South, because we could not have competed with
her successfully in productions common to Doth.
The South, like a drowning man, was willing to
grasp at any straw, which would, by adding to her
political.power in the Government, have enabled
her to make a few more feeble struggles to maintain herself against that storm of sectionalism and
fanaticism by which she was at last overtaken; but
it was well known that the only beneficiary would
be the North.
These causes of irritation to European powers,
have all been charged as the "aggressions of the
slave power;" whereas, if the Southern States had
been left to themselves, and had been free from
consraint, while they would have been perfectly
318
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LBTTERS ON SLAVERY.
iniifferent to any acquisitions which Spain might
choose to make among the barbarous inhabitants
of the American islands, who have shown their
utter incapacity to govern themselves, the Island
of Cuba, however desirable as an acquisition of
political power, would have been one of the last
possessions they would have coveted. Now,, that
we are and will remain free, sovereign, and inde
pendent upon our own soil, each of us will be judged
by mankind by our own acts, and not by the interested and malicious representations of the other.
The world will be surprised to find how egregiously
it has been Unmisled in regard to the characteristics
and qualities of the people of the South.
Nevertheless in the prosecution of the war  in
which the people of the South are now  engaged,
however gratifying it might be to have the syrmpa
thies of good men everywhere, we neither seek, nor
desire, nor expect any foreign aid from any quarter
of the globe. If we cannot win our own liberties
by our owe unaided efforts, we could not maintain
them if they were bestowed upon us as a free gift.
If other nations choose to recognize our just claim
to independence, we will give them the right hand
of friendship; but we do not desire them to fight
our battles.  If they should think proper to withhold that recognition, it will not occasion us the loss
of.a man nor a single element of success which we
now hold, and we will prove to them by the result
that we are capable of maintaining ourselves single
11
819 
LETTERS ON SLAVERY.
handed and alone, now and in all time against all
our enemies. *
No people have ever had more unmistakable
evidences that they were guided and directed by an
overruling Providence, which smiled  upon their
undertaking, than have the people of the South
since the commencement of their great struggle.
To crown all, we have been blessed with the most
bountiful crops that have ever before been garnered
in recompense for the toils of the husbandman.
While our free citizens have shouldered their muskets and have gone forth to fight the battles of
their country, the African is contentedly working
in the fields.  Our usual crops of cotton,,ad tobacco, and rice will be ready in due time for any purchaser who will come and take them, or who will
bring to us in exchange the manufactures which we
require.  If none are so bold as thus to dare the
frowns of the North, we can readily convert our
*The great powers of Europe are already committed to the recognition of the Southern Confederacy by their action in regard to the
secession of Belgium from the mild and beneficent Government of th6
Netherlands.  In this case, the principle that a nation had an undeniable right to create, and live under a government which they
believed would promote their own happiness and interests, was conceded by all Europe, and Belgiulm was permitted to withdraw from
Holland by the very same Great Powers which united them together,
on the ground of a political European necessity.  One of the most
distinguished and able diplomatists of Holland stated to me that
the party which had been most opposed to the severance of the
kingdom, was now fully satisfied that the separation was an act of
wisdom, and had undeniably  added  to the prosperity of both,
while no European interest had thereby suffered detriment.
820
i 
BETTERS ON SLAVERY.
cotton plantations into grain fields, and divert a
portion of.the labor hitherto emnrployed in planting,
to the development of our great.-manufacturing resources.  Under the stimulant of a present necessity,
we can produce every thing within ourselves, which
is important to our happiness, our daily wants, and
even our luxuries.  When the war is over all things
will flow back into their old channel, or continue in
the direction which they shall have received under
the impulse of necessity.
The freemen of the South have entered upon their
great struggle with a unity of feeling and purpose,
which has struck' terror into the hearts of their
enemies, and amazed even their friends; but their
glorious work is not yet finished. The clouds are
over our heads, my fellow-countrymen, and the
storm is still raging around us, and many a heart
may yet mourn the loss of dear ones, and many a
tear of bitter anguish may fall, as the eye wanders
over the desolated track of the ruthless invader;
but behind the clouds we can see the dawning of
the bright and glorious sunlight, and above. the
roarings of the storm of battle we can hear the glad
shouts of victory! And our soldiers will come
back again to make joyous the homes which have
been wade solitary by their absence, and the tears
of grief will' be changed to tokens of rejoicings,
and through6ut our borders will ring forth the joyous cry of the people, "WpE UAVE FOUGHT, WE HAXE
CONQUERED, WE ARE FREE."
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