From the Gardens he visits Chelsea Hospital, where his _keen

discriminating powers_ having been sharpened by the demand for a

shilling--the chief object of which demand is to protect the pensioners

from perpetual intrusion--he bursts forth in a sublime magnifico

Kentuckyo flight of eloquence: "Sordid barbarians might degrade the

wonderful monuments of their more civilized ancestors by charging

visitors to see them; but to drag from their lowly retreat these maimed

and shattered victims of national ambition, to be stared at, and

wondered at, like caged beasts, is an outrage against humanity that even

savages would shrink from." And then, a little further on, he makes the

following profound reflection, which no doubt appears to the _American

mind_ peculiarly appropriate to Chelsea Hospital: "Cringing to the

great, obsequious to the high, the dwarfed souls of Englishmen have no

wide extending sympathy for the humble, no soothing pity for the lowly,"

&c. It would probably astonish some of the readers who have been gulled

by his book, could they but know that the sum paid by Great Britain for

the support and pension of her veterans by sea and land costs annually

nearly enough to buy, equip, and pay the whole army and navy of the

United States.[BK]

The next "sixpenny miracle" he visits is Chatsworth, which calls forth

the following _vigorous_ attack on sundry gentlemen, clothed in the

author's peculiarly _lively and racy_ language: "The showy magnificence

of Chatsworth, Blenheim, and the gloomy grandeur of Warwick and Alnwick

Castles, serve to remind us, like the glittering shell of the tortoise,

what worthless and insignificant animals often inhabit the most splendid

mansions." He follows up this general castigation of the owners of the

above properties with the infliction of a special cowhiding upon the

Duke of Devonshire, who, he says, "would, no doubt, be very reluctant

frankly to confess to the world, that although he had the vanity to

affect liberality, he was too penurious to bear the expense of it. Like

the ostrich, he sticks his head in the sand, and imagines himself in the

profoundest concealment." He then begs the reader to understand, that he

does not mean to intimate "that any portion of the large amounts

collected at the doors of Chatsworth actually goes into the pocket of

His Grace, but they are, nevertheless, remarkably convenient in

defraying the expense of a large household of servants.... The idea of a

private gentleman of wealth and rank deriving a profit from the

exhibition of his grounds must be equally revolting to all classes."

These truthful observations are followed by a description of the

gardens; and the whole is wound up in the following _chivalrous and

genuine American_ reflection: "Does it not appear extraordinary that a

man dwelling in a spot of such fairy loveliness should retain and

indulge the most grovelling instincts of human nature's lowest grade?"

What a _delightful treat_ these passages must be to the rowdy

Americans, and how the Duke must writhe under--what _The Christian

Advocate_ lauds as--the _skinning operation _of the renowned American

champion![BL]

The Press-bespattered author then proceeds to make some observations on

various subjects, in a similar vein of chaste language, lighting at last

upon the system of the sale of army commissions. His vigour is so great

upon this point, that had he only been in the House of Commons when the

subject was under consideration, his eloquence must have hurled the

"hireling ministers" headlong from the government. I can fancy them

sitting pale and trembling as the giant orator thus addressed the House:

"She speculates in glory as a petty hucksterer does in rancid cheese;

but the many who hate, and the few who despise England, cannot exult

over her baseness in selling commissions in her own army. There is a

degree of degradation which changes scorn into pity, and makes us

sincerely sympathize with those whom we most heartily despise." The

annexed extract from his observations on English writers on America is

an equally elegant specimen of _genuine American feeling:_--"When the

ability to calumniate is the only power which has survived the gradual

encroachment of bowels upon intellect in Great Britain, it would be a

pity to rob the English even of this miserable evidence of mind ... she

gloats over us with that sort of appetizing tenderness which might be

supposed to have animated a sow that had eaten her nine farrow." The

subjoined sentiment, if it rested with the author to verify, would

doubtless be true; and I suppose it is the paragraph which earned for

his work the laudations of _The Christian Advocate:_--"Mutual enmity is

the only feeling which can ever exist between the two nations.... She

gave us no assistance in our rise.... She must expect none from us in

her decline." How frightful is the contemplation of this omnipotent and

_Christian_ threat! It is worthy of the consideration of my countrymen

whether they had not better try and bribe the great Matt. Ward to use

his influence in obtaining them recognition as American territory. The

honour of being admitted as a sovereign state is too great to be hoped

for. He has already discovered signs of our decay, and therefore informs

the reader that "the weaker rival ever nurses the bitterest hate." This

information is followed by extracts from various English writers

commenting upon America, at one of whom he gets so indignant, that he

suggests as an appropriate _American_ translation of the F.R.S. which is

added to the author's name, "First Royal Scavenger."

He then gets into a fever about the remarks made by travellers upon what

they conceive to be the filthy practice of indiscriminate spitting. He

becomes quite furious because he has never found any work in which "an

upstart inlander has ever preached a crusade against the Turks because

they did not introduce knives and forks at their tables," &c. Even

Scripture--and this, be it remembered, by the sanction of _The Christian

Advocate_--is blasphemously quoted to extenuate the American practice of

expectoration. "What, after all, is there so unbearably revolting about

spitting? Our Saviour, in one of his early miracles, 'spat upon the

ground and made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind

man with the clay. And he said unto him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam.

He went his way therefore and washed, and came seeing.' I have with a

crowd of pilgrims gone down to drink from this very pool, for the water

had borrowed new virtue from the miracle." He then states his strong

inclination to learn to chew tobacco in order to show his contempt for

the opinions of travellers. What a beautiful picture to contemplate--a

popular author with a quid of Virginia before him; Nausea drawing it

back with one hand, and Vengeance bringing it forward with the other!

Suddenly a bright idea strikes him: others may do what he dare not; so

he makes the following stirring appeal to his countrymen: "Let us spit

out courageously before the whole world ... let us spit fearlessly and

profusely. Spitting on ordinary occasions may be regarded by a portion

of my countrymen as a luxury: it becomes a duty in the presence of an

Englishman. Let us spit around him--above him--beneath him--everywhere

but on him, that he may become perfectly familiar with the habit in all

its phases. I would make it the first law of hospitality to an

Englishman, that every tobacco-twist should be called into requisition,

and every spittoon be flooded, in order thoroughly to initiate him into

the mysteries of chewing. Leave no room for imagination to work. Only

spit him once into a state of friendly familiarity with the barbarous

custom," &c. What a splendid conception!--the population of a whole

continent organized under the expectorating banner of the illustrious

Matt. Ward: field-days twice a week; ammunition supplied _gratis;_

liberal prizes to the best marksmen. The imagination is perfectly

bewildered in the contemplation of so majestic an _aggregate outburst of

the great American_ mouth. I would only suggest that they should gather

round the margin of Lake Superior, lest in their hospitable

entertainment of the "upstart islanders" they destroyed the vegetation

of the whole continent.

In another chapter he informs his countrymen that the four hundred and

thirty nobles in England speak and act for the nation; his knowledge of

history, or his love of truth, ignoring that little community called the

House of Commons. Bankers and wealthy men come under the ban of his

condemnation, as having no time for "enlightened amusements;" he then,

with that truthfulness which makes him so safe a guide to his readers,

adds that "they were never known to manifest a friendship, except for

the warehouse cat; they have no time to talk, and never write except on

business; all hours are office-hours to them, except those they devote

to dinner and sleep; they know nothing, they love nothing, and hope for

nothing beyond the four walls of their counting-room; nobody knows them,

nobody loves them; they are too mean to make friends, and too silent to

make acquaintances," &c. What very interesting information this must be

for Messrs. Baring and their co-fraternity!

In another part of this volume, the author becomes suddenly impressed

with deep reverence for the holy localities of the East, and he falls

foul of Dr. Clarke for his scepticism on these points, winding up his

remarks in the following beautiful Kentucky vein:--"A monster so

atrocious could only have been a Goth or an Englishman." How fortunate

for his countryman, Dr. Robinson, that he had never heard of his three

learned tomes on the same subject! though, perhaps, scepticism in an

American, in his discriminating mind, would have been deep erudition

correcting the upstart islanders. The great interest which he evinces

for holy localities--accompanied as it is by an expression of horror at

some English traveller, who, he asserts, thought that David picked up

his pebbles in a brook between Jordan and the Dead Sea, whereas he knew

it was in an opposite direction--doubtless earned for him the patronage

of _The Christian Advocate_; and the pious indignation he expresses at

an Englishman telling him he would get a good dinner at Mount Carmel, is

a beautiful illustration of his religious feelings.

The curious part of this portion of Mr. Ward's book is, that having

previously informed his countrymen, in every variety of American

phraseology, that the English are composed of every abominable compound

which can exist in human nature, he selects them as his companions, and

courts their friendship to enjoy the pleasure of betraying it. Of

course, if one is to judge by former statements made in the volume,

which are so palpably and ridiculously false, one may reasonably

conclude that truth is equally disregarded here; but it looks to me

rather as if my countrymen had discovered his cloven hoof, as well as

his overweening vanity and pretensions, and, when he got pompously

classical, in his trip through Greece, they amused themselves at his

expense by suggesting that the Acropolis "was a capital place for

lunch;" Parnassus, "a regular sell;" Thermopylae, "great for

water-cresses." Passing on from his companions--one of whom was a fellow

of Oxford, and the other a captain in Her Majesty's service--he becomes

grandly Byronic, and consequently quite frantic at the idea of Mr. A.

Tennyson supplanting him! "Byron and Tennyson!--what an unholy alliance

of names!--what sinful juxtaposition! He who could seriously compare the

insipid effusions of Mr. Tennyson with the mighty genius of Byron, might

commit the sacrilege of likening the tricks of Professor Anderson to the

miracles of Our Saviour."

Having delivered himself of this pious burst, he proceeds to a

castigation of the English for their observations on the nasal twang of

his countrymen, and also for their criticism upon the sense in which

sundry adjectives are used; and, to show the superior purity of the

American language, he informs the reader that in England "the most

elegant and refined talk constantly of "fried 'am" ... they seem very

reluctant to _h_acknowledge this peculiarly _h_exceptionable 'abit, and

_h_insist that _h_it _h_is confined to the low and _h_ignorant of the

country." He then gets indignant that we call "stone" "stun," and

measure the gravity of flesh and blood thereby. "To unsophisticated

ears, 21 stone 6 pounds sounds infinitely less than three hundred

pounds, which weight is a fair average of the avoirdupois density of the

Sir Tunbelly Clumsies of the middle and upper classes."

From this elegant sentence he passes on to the evils of idleness, in

treating of which he supplies _The Christian Advocate_ with the true

cause of original sin. "Does any one imagine that the forbidden fruit

would ever have been tasted if Adam had been daily occupied in tilling

the earth, and Eve, like a good housewife, in darning fig-leaf aprons

for herself and her husband? Never!" The observation would lead one to

imagine that the Bible was a scarce article in Kentucky. He passes on

from Adam to the banker and merchant of the present day, and informs the

reader that they command a high respect in society, but it would be

deemed a shocking misapplication of terms to speak of any of them as

gentlemen. After which truthful statement, he enters into a long

definition of a gentleman, as though he thought his countrymen totally

ignorant on that point: he gets quite _chivalrous_ in his description:

"He ought to touch his hat to his opponent with whom he was about to

engage in mortal combat."[BM] After which remark he communicates two

pieces of information--the one as true as the other is modest:

"Politeness is deemed lessening to the position of a gentleman in

England; in America it is thought his proudest boast." Of course he only

alludes to manner; his writings prove at every page that _genuine

American feeling_ dispenses with it in language. His politeness, I

suppose, may be described in the words Junius applied to

friendship:--"The insidious smile upon the cheek should warn you of the

canker in the heart." By way of encouraging civility, he informs the

reader that an Englishman "never appears so disgusting as when he

attempts to be especially kind; ...in affecting to oblige, he becomes

insulting." He confesses, however, "I have known others in America whom

you would never suspect of being Englishmen--they were such good

fellows; but they had been early transplanted from England. If the sound

oranges be removed from a barrel in which decay has commenced, they may

be saved; but if suffered to remain, they are all soon reduced to the

same disgusting state."

His discriminating powers next penetrate some of the deep mysteries of

animal nature: he discovers that the peculiarities of the bullock and

the sheep have been gradually absorbed into the national character, as

far as conversation is concerned. "They have not become woolly, nor do

they wear horns, but the nobility are eternally bellowing forth the

astounding deeds of their ancestors, whilst the muttonish middle classes

bleat a timorous approval.... Such subjects constitute their fund of

amusing small talk," &c. From the foregoing elegant description of

conversation, he passes onwards to the subject of gentility, and

describes a young honourable, on board a steamer, who refused to shut a

window when asked by a sick and suffering lady, telling the husband, "he

could not consent to be suffocated though his wife was sick." And having

cooked up the story, he gives the following charming reason for his

conduct: "He dreaded the possibility of compromising his own position

and that of his noble family at home by obliging an ordinary person." He

afterwards touches upon English visitors to America, who, he says,

"generally come among us in the undisguised nakedness of their

vulgarity. Wholly freed from the restraints imposed upon them at home by

the different grades in society, they indolently luxuriate in the

inherent brutality of their nature. They constantly violate not only all

rules of decorum, but the laws of decency itself.... They abuse our

hospitality, insult our peculiar institutions, set at defiance all the

refinements of life, and return home, lamenting the social anarchy of

America, and retailing their own indecent conduct as the ordinary

customs of the country.... The pranks which, in a backwoods American,

would be stigmatized as shocking obscenity, become, when perpetrated by

a rich Englishman, charming evidence of sportive humour," &c.

A considerable portion of the volume is dedicated to Church matters; for

which subject the meek and lowly style which characterizes his writing

pre-eminently qualifies him, and to which, doubtless, he is indebted for

the patronage of _The Christian Advocate_. I shall only indulge the

reader with the following beautiful description of the Established

Church:--"It is a bloated, unsightly mass of formalities, hypocrisy,

bigotry, and selfishness, without a single charitable impulse or pious

aspiration." After this touching display of _genuine American feeling_,

he draws the picture of a clergyman in language so opposite, that one is

reminded of a certain mysterious personage, usually represented with

cloven feet, and who is said to be very apt at quoting Scripture.

Heraldry and ancestry succeed the Church in gaining a notice from his

pen; and his researches have gone so deep, that one is led to

imagine--despite his declarations of contempt--that he looks forward to

becoming some day The Most Noble the Duke of Arkansas and Mississippi,

with a second title of Viscount de' Tucky and Ohio;[BN] the "de"

suggestive of his descent from _The Three Continents_. One of the most

remarkable discoveries he has made, is, that "the soap-makers and the

brewers are the compounders of the great staple commodities of

consumption in Great Britain, and therefore surpass even Charles himself

in the number of their additions to the Peerage." This valuable hint

should not be lost upon those employed in these useful occupations, as

hope is calculated to stimulate zeal and ambition.

The last quotations I propose making from this _vigorous volume_ are

taken from the seventh chapter, headed, "English Devotion to Dinner." On

this subject the author seems to have had his _keen discriminating

powers_ peculiarly sharpened; and the observations made are in most

_lively and racy style_, and--according to the Press--perfectly

_courteous_. The Englishman "is never free till armed with a knife and

fork; indeed, he is never completely himself without them[BO] ... which

may he as properly considered integral portions of an Englishman, as

claws are of a cat; ... they are not original even in their gluttony;

... they owe to a foreign nation the mean privilege of bestial

indulgence; ... they make a run into Scotland for the sake of oatmeal

cakes, and sojourn amongst the wild beauties of Switzerland in order to

be convenient to goat's milk.... Like other carnivorous animals, an

Englishman is always surly over his meals. Morose at all times, he

becomes unbearably so at that interesting period of the day, when his

soul appears to cower among plates and dishes; ... though he gorges his

food with the silent deliberation of the anaconda, yet, in descanting

upon the delicacies of the last capital dinner, he makes an approach to

animation altogether unusual to him; ... when, upon such auspicious

occasions, he does go off into something like gaiety, there is such

fearful quivering of vast jelly mounds of flesh, something so

supernaturally tremendous in his efforts, that, like the recoil of an

overloaded musket, he never fails to astound those who happen to be near

him." But his _keen observation_ has discovered a practice before

dinner, which, being introduced into the centre of various censures, may

also be fairly supposed to be considered by him and his friends of the

Press as most objectionable, and as forming one of the aggregate _Items_

which constitute the English beast. "For dinner, he bathes, rubs, and

dresses." How filthy! Yet be not too hard upon him, reader, for this

observation; I have travelled in his neighbourhood, on the Mississippi

steamers, and I can, therefore, well understand how the novelty of the

operation must have struck him with astonishment, and how repugnant the

practice must have been to his habits.

Among other important facts connected with this great question, his

_discriminating_ mind has ascertained that an Englishman "makes it a

rule to enjoy a dinner at his own expense as little as possible." Armed

with this important discovery, he lets drive the following American

shell, thus shivering to atoms the whole framework of our society. The

nation may tremble as it reads these withering words of Kentucky

eloquence:--"When it is remembered that of all the vices, avarice is

most apt to corrupt the heart, and gluttony has the greatest tendency to

brutalize the mind, it no longer continues surprising that an

Englishman has become a proverb of meanness from Paris to Jerusalem. The

hatred and contempt of all classes of society as necessarily attend him

in his wanderings as his own shadow.... Equally repulsive to every grade

of society, he stands isolated and alone, a solitary monument of the

degradation of which human nature is capable."

Feeling that ordinary language is insufficient to convey his _courteous_

and _chivalrous_ sentiments, he ransacks natural history in search of a

sublime metaphor: his triumphant success he records in this beautifully

expressed sentence--"The dilating power of the anaconda and the gizzard

of the cassowary are the highest objects of his ambition." But neither

ordinary language nor metaphor can satisfy his lofty aspirations: it

requires something higher, it requires an embodiment of _genuine

American feeling, vigorous yet courteous_; his giant intellect rises

equal to the task. He warns my countrymen "to use expletives oven with

the danger of being diffuse, rather than be so blunt and so vulgar;" and

then--by way, I suppose, of showing them how to be sarcastic without

being either blunt or vulgar--he delivers himself of the following

magnificent bursts:--"If guts could perform the function of brains,

Greece's seven wise men would cease to be proverbial, for England would

present to the world twenty-seven millions of sages.... To eat, to

drink, to look greasy, and to grow fat, appear to constitute, in their

opinion, the career of a worthy British subject.... The lover never asks

his fair one if she admires Donizetti's compositions, but tenderly

inquires if she loves beef-steak pies. This sordid vice of greediness is

rapidly brutalizing natures not originally spiritual; every other

passion is sinking, oppressed by flabby folds of fat, into helplessness.

All the mental energies are crushed beneath the oily mass. Sensibility

is smothered in, the feculent steams of roast beef, and delicacy stained

by the waste drippings of porter. The brain is slowly softening into

blubber, and the liver is gradually encroaching upon the heart. All the

nobler impulses of man are yielding to those animal propensities which

must soon render Englishmen beasts in all save form alone."

I have now finished my _Elegant Extracts_ from the work of Mr. Ward. The

reader can judge for himself of Boston's "_vigorous volume_," of

Philadelphia's "_delightful treat_," of Rochester's "_chivalrous and

genuine Amercan feeling_," of The Christian Advocate's "_retort

courteous_," and of New Orleans' "_aggregate outburst of the great

American heart_," &c. These compliments from the Press derive additional

value from the following passage in the work they eulogize. Pages 96,

97, Mr. Ward writes: "It is the labour of every author so to adapt his

style and sentiments to the tastes of his readers, as most probably to

secure their approbation.... The consciousness that his success is so

wholly dependent on their approval, will make him, without his being

aware of it, adapt his ideas to theirs." And the New Orleans Press

endorses all the author's sentiments, and insults American gentlemen and

American intelligence, by asserting that it "_admirably reveals the

sentiments of the whole people, and will find sympathy in the mind of

every true son of the soil_."

Before taking a final leave of _English Items_, I owe some apology to

the reader for the length at which I have quoted from it. My only excuse

is, that I desired to show the grounds upon which I spoke disparagingly

of a portion of the Press, and of the low popular literature of the

country. I might have quoted from various works instead of one; but if I

had done so, it might fairly have been said that I selected an isolated

passage for a particular purpose; or else, had I quoted largely, I might

have been justly charged with being tedious. Besides which, to

corroborate my assertions regarding the Press, I should have been bound

to give their opinion also upon each book from which I quoted; and,

beyond all these reasons, I felt that the generality of the works of low

literature which I came across were from the pen of people with far less

education than the author I selected, who, as I have before remarked,

belongs to one of the wealthiest families in Kentucky, and for whom,

consequently, neither the want of education nor the want of

opportunities of mixing in respectable society--had he wished to do

so--can be offered as the slightest extenuation.[BP]

I feel also that I owe some apology to my American friends for dragging

such a work before the public; but I trust they will find sufficient

excuse for my doing so, in the explanation thus afforded, of the way the

mind of Young America gets poisoned, and which will also partly account

for the abuse of this country that is continually appearing in their

Press. I feel sure there is hardly a gentleman in America, whose

acquaintance I had the pleasure of making, who would read even the first

twenty pages of the book; and I am in justice hound to say, that among

all the works of a similar class which I saw, _English Items_ enjoys

unapproachable pre-eminence in misrepresentation and vulgarity, besides

being peculiarly contemptible, from the false being mixed up with many

true statements of various evils and iniquities still existing in

England, and which, being quoted from our own Press, are calculated to

give the currency of truth to the whole work, among that mass of his

countrymen who, with all their intelligence, are utterly ignorant of

England, either socially or politically.

The subsequent career of this censor of English manners and morals is

too remarkable to be passed over in silence. I therefore now proceed to

give you a short epitome of it, as a specimen of morals and manners in

Kentucky, as exhibited by him, and his trial. My information is taken

from the details of the trial published at full length, a copy of which

I obtained in consequence of the extraordinary accounts of the

transaction which I read in the papers. Professor Butler had formerly

been tutor in the family of the Wards, and was equally esteemed by them

and the public of Louisville generally. At the time of the following

occurrence the Professor was Principal of the High School in that city.

One of the boys at the school was William--brother of Mr. Matt. F. Ward:

it appears that in the opinion of the Professor the boy had been guilty

of eating nuts in the school and denying it, for which offence he was

called out and whipped, as the master told him, for telling a lie.

Whether the charge or the punishment was just is not a point of any

moment, though I must say the testimony goes far to justify both.

William goes home, complains to his brother Matt. F., not so much of the

severity of the punishment, as of being called a liar. The elder brother

becomes highly indignant, and determines to go to the Professor and

demand an apology. It must be remembered that the father was all this

time in Louisville, and of course the natural person to have made any

remonstrance with his old friend the Professor. Matt. F.'s family remind

him that he is very weakly, and that one of the masters at the school is

an enemy of his. They therefore beg of him to be calm, and to take his

intermediate brother Robert with him, in case of accidents. He consents.

He then goes to the gun-store of Messrs. Dixon and Gilmore, and

purchases of the latter, about 9 A.M., two small pocket-pistols, three

inches long in the barrel. These he gets Mr. Gilmore to load, but

purchases no further ammunition. After this he proceeds with his brother

Robert, who is armed with a bowie-knife, to the school. Not wishing to

be unjust to Mr. Matt. F. Ward, I give the statement of the subsequent

occurrence in the words of his brother Robert's evidence in court.[BQ]

"On entering the school-room,[BR] Matt. asked for Butler. He came. Matt.

remarked, I wish to have a talk with you. Butler said, Come into my

private room. Matt. said, No; here is the place. Mr. Butler nodded.

Matt. said, What are your ideas of justice? Which is the worst, the boy

who begs chestnuts, and throws the shells on the floor, and lies about

it, or my brother who gives them to him? Mr. Butler said he would not

he interrogated, putting his pencil in his pocket and buttoning up his

coat. Matt, repeated the question. Butler said, There is no such boy

here. Matt. said, That settles the matter: you called my brother a liar,

and for that I must have an apology. Butler said he had no apology to

make. Is your mind made up? said Matt. Butler said it was. Then, said

Matt., you must hear my opinion of you. You are a d----d scoundrel and

a coward. Butler then struck Matt. twice, and pushed him back against

the door. Matt. drew his pistol and fired. Butler held his hand on him

for a moment. As the pistol fired, Sturgus[BS] came to the door. I drew

my knife, and told him to stand back." Thus was Professor Butler,

Principal of the High School of Louisville, shot by the author of

_English Items_, with a pistol bought and loaded only an hour and a half

previous, in broad daylight, and in the middle of his scholars. The

Professor died during the night.

The details of the trial are quite unique as to the language employed by

jury, counsel, and evidence; but I purposely abstain from making

extracts, though I could easily quote passages sufficiently ridiculous

and amusing, and others which leave a painful impression of the state of

law in Kentucky. My reason for abstaining is, that if I quoted at all, I

ought to do so at greater length than the limits of a book of travels

would justify: suffice it that I inform you that Mr. Matthew F. Ward was

tried and acquitted.

When the result of the trial was made known, an indignation meeting was

held in Louisville, presided over by General Thomas Strange, at which

various resolutions were passed unanimously. The first was in the

following terms:--"Resolved--That the verdict of the jury, recently

rendered in the Hardin County Court, by which Matt. F. Ward was declared

innocent of any crime in the killing of William H.G. Butler, is in

opposition to all the evidence in the case, contrary to our ideas of

public justice, and subversive of the fundamental principles of personal

security guaranteed to us by the constitution of the State.

"Secondly: Resolved--That the published evidence given on the trial of

Matt. F. Ward shows, beyond all question, that a most estimable citizen,

and a most amiable, moral, and peaceable man has been wantonly and

cruelly killed while in the performance of his regular and responsible

duties as a teacher of youth; and, notwithstanding the verdict of a

corrupt and venal jury, the deliberate judgment of the heart and

conscience of this community pronounces that killing to be murder." The

committee appointed by the meeting also requested Mr. Wolfe, one of the

counsel for the prisoner, to resign his seat in the State Senate, and

the Honourable Mr. Crittenden, another counsel, to resign his place in

the Senate of the United States; effigies of the two brothers Ward were

burnt, and a public subscription opened to raise a monument to the

murdered Professor. I cannot, of course, decide how far the conclusions

of the committee are just, as I do not pretend to know Kentucky law. I

have, however, given the trial to members of the Bar in this country

accustomed to deal with such cases, and they have without hesitation

asserted that not one man in ten who has been hanged in England has been

condemned on more conclusive evidence. It is also apparent that in some

parts of the Union the same opinion prevails, as the following paragraph

from the _New York Daily Times_ will clearly show:--"The trial is

removed from the scene of the homicide, so that the prisoners shall Dot

be tried by those who knew them best, but is taken to a distant country.

The Press is forbidden, against all law and right, to publish a report

of the proceedings while the trial is in progress. Every particle of

evidence in regard to Butler's character is excluded; while a perfect

army of witnesses--clergymen, colonels, members of Congress, editors,

cabinet officers, &c., who had enjoyed the social intimacy of the

Wards--testified ostentatiously to the prisoner's mildness of temper,

declaring him, with anxious and undisguised exaggeration, to be gentle

and amiable to a fault. All these preparations, laboriously made and

steadily followed up, were for the purpose, not of determining the

truth, which is the only proper object of judicial inquiry--not of

ascertaining accurately and truly whether Matthew Ward did or did not

murder Butler--but to secure impunity for his act. This whole drama was

enacted to induce the jury to affirm a falsehood; and it has succeeded.

We do not believe John J. Crittenden entertains in his heart the shadow

of a doubt that Butler was murdered: we do not believe that a single man

on that jury believes that the man they have acquitted is innocent of

the crime laid to his charge. We regard the issue of this trial as of

the gravest importance: it proves that in one State of this Union,

wealth is stronger than justice; that Kentucky's most distinguished sons

take to their hearts and shield with all their power a murderer who has

money and social position at his command; and that under their auspices,

legal tribunals and the most solemn forms of justice have been made to

confer impunity on one of the blackest and most wanton murders which the

annals of crime record."

I add no comment, leaving the reader to make his own, deductions, and I

only hope, if the foregoing lines should ever meet the eye of a citizen

belonging to the sovereign State of Kentucky, they may stir him up to

amend the law or to purify the juries.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote BJ: The reader is requested to remember that all the words

printed in italics--while dealing with _English Items_--are so done to

show that they are quotations from the eulogies of the American press.

They are as thoroughly repudiated by me as they must be by every

American gentleman.]

[Footnote BK: Did Mr. Ward ever read any account in the gazettes of his

own country, of the poor soldiers going to "Washington to procure land

warrants, and after being detained there till they were reduced to

beggary, receiving no attention? Let me commend the following letter,

taken from the press of his own country, dated July 6, 1853, and

addressed to the President:--

"DEAR SIR,--_In the humblest tone do I implore your charity for three

cents, to enable me to procure something to eat._ Pray be so kind, and

receive the grateful thanks of your humble supplicant of Shenandoah

County, Va."]

[Footnote BL: The reader will be astonished to know that these remarks

are from the pen of a Kentucky man; in which State there is a large hole

in the ground, made by Providence, and called "The Mammoth Cave;" it is

situated on private property, and for the privilege of lionizing it, you

pay 10s. So carefully is it watched, that no one is even allowed to

make a plan of it, lest some entrance should be found available on the

adjoining property.]

[Footnote BM: I must beg the reader to remember this last sentence when

he comes to the interview between the Kentucky author and his old

friend, the schoolmaster.]

[Footnote BN: Kentucky is the State of his birth and family, Arkansas

the State of his adoption, and "The Three Continents" the fruit of his

pen.]

[Footnote BO: The reader will find that, in his interview with the

schoolmaster, his brother was "completely himself" with a bowie-knife

only.]

[Footnote BP: One other instance I must give of the coolness with which

an American writer can pen the most glaring falsehood; _vide_ "English

Traits," by R.W. Emerson. I might quote many fake impressions conveyed,

but I shall confine myself to one of his observations upon a religious

subject, where at least decency might have made him respect truth. At

page 126 I find the following sentence:--"They put up no Socratic

prayer, _much less any saintly prayer, for the Queen's mind_; ask

neither for light nor right, but say bluntly, 'grant her in health and

wealth long to live.'" Now, I will not ask whether the author of this

passage ever saw our Book of Common Prayer, because printing the words

in inverted commas is proof sufficient; nor will I go out of my way to

show the _many_ prayers put up for the bestowal of purely spiritual

blessings; but, when I find the previous sentence to the one quoted by

him to be as follows, "Endow her plenteously with heavenly gifts," what

can I say of such a writer? Either that by heavenly gifts he understands

dollars and cents, or that he has wilfully sacrificed religious truth at

the shrine of democratic popularity. Having placed him on these two

horns of a dilemma, I leave him to arrange his seat.]

[Footnote BQ: Of course the evidence of the brother is the _most

favourable_ to Mr. M.F.W. that the trial produces.]

[Footnote BR: It appears in evidence that the scene described took place

about half-past ten A.M.]

[Footnote BS: Mr. Sturgus is the master who was supposed to be

unfriendly to Mr. Matthew F. Ward.]

CHAPTER XXV.

_The Institution of Slavery._

There is one subject which no person who pretends to convey to the

reader the honest thoughts and impressions which occupied his mind

during his travels in this vast Republic, can pass over in silence; and

that subject, I need scarcely observe, is Slavery. It is an institution

which deserves most serious consideration; for while a general unity of

sentiment binds the various States together in a manner that justifies

the national motto, "_E pluribus unum_," the question of slavery hangs

fearfully over their Union; and the thread by which it is suspended is

more uncertain than the fragile hair of the sword of Damocles, for it is

dependent upon the angry passions of angry man.

So true do I feel this to be, that were I a citizen of one of the Free

States of America, I might hesitate before I committed my opinions to

the Press. I trust, however, that I may so treat the subject that no

cause for ill-blood may be given. Unquestionably, the origin of the evil

is wholly with the mother country. We entered into the diabolical

traffic of our fellow-creatures, and forced the wretched negro upon a

land which had never before received the impress of a slave's foot; and

this we did despite all the remonstrances of the outraged and indignant

colonists; and with this revolting sin upon our shoulders, it is but

natural we should feel deeply interested in the sable ivy-shoot we

planted, and which now covers the whole southern front of the stately

edifice of the Giant Republic. Time was when a Newcastle collier might

have carried the sable shoot back to the soil whence it had been stolen;

now, the keels of many nations combined would scarce suffice to move the

rapid growth.

But, while at England's door lies the original guilt, America has since

put the solemn seal of her paternity upon it; every foot of land which,

in the rapid career of her aggrandisement, has been sullied with the

footsteps of the slave for the first time, mars the beauty of the cap

of liberty, and plants a slave-trader's star in the banner of the

nation. She is only doing a century later what we wickedly did a century

before--viz., planting slavery on a soil hitherto free, and enlarging

the market for the sale of flesh and blood. The futile excuse sometimes

offered, that they were merely moved from one part to another of the

same country, cannot be admitted; or, if it be, upon the same principle

all the Free States might return again to slavery. If it be no sin to

introduce slavery into a free Sovereign State, then was England not so

guilty in the first instance, for she sent slaves from a land of

ignorance, cruelty, and idolatry, to an enlightened and Christian

colony. It is in vain for either England or the United States to shirk

the guilty responsibility of introducing slaves on free soil. England

has the additional guilt of having acted against the wishes of the

colonists; the United States has the additional guilt of increasing

slave territory a century later, and when the philanthropists of every

country were busied in endeavours to solve the problem, "How can slavery

be abolished?"

Without dwelling further upon respective guilt, I will at once proceed

to review the crusades which have been made against the institution, and

the hopes of the slave under it; after which, I will offer for

consideration such proposals as appear to me worthy the attention of all

the true friends of the negro, whether owners or not. While thus

treating the subject, I beg to observe that I fully recognise each

individual State as possessing plenipotentiary powers within the limits

of that constitution by which they are all bound together: and I trust

that, in any observations I may make, no one expression will be so

misconstrued as to give offence; for I know full well the stupendous

difficulties with which the whole question is surrounded, and I feel it

is one which should be approached only in a true spirit of charity and

kindness towards the much-maligned gentlemen of the South.

I open the question by asking--what is the meaning of the cry raised by

the fanatics of the North--the abolition crusaders? In words, it is

freedom to the slave; in fact, it is spoliation of their neighbours. Had

the proposition come from wild Arabs who live in houses they carry on

their backs, and feed on the milk of flocks that pasture at their side,

I might have comprehended the modest proposal; but coming from those

whose energy for business is proverbial, and whose acuteness in all

matters of dollars and cents is unsurpassed, if equalled, by the

shrewdest Hebrew of the Hebrews, I confess it is beyond my puny

imagination to fathom. Were it accompanied with any pecuniary offer

adequate to the sacrifice proposed, I might be able to comprehend it:

but for those, or the descendants of those, who, as they found white

labour more profitable, sold their sable brethren to their southern

neighbours, and thus easily and profitably removed slavery from their

borders,--for those, I say, to turn round and preach a crusade for the

emancipation of the negro, in homilies of contumely, with the voice of

self-righteousness, exhibits a degree of assurance that cannot be

surpassed. Had they known as much of human nature as of the laws of

profit and loss, they might have foreseen that in every epithet heaped

upon their southern countrymen, they were riveting a fresh bolt in the

slave's fetters. On what plea did the American colony rebel? Was it not,

as a broad principle, the right of self-government? Does not their

constitution allow independent action to each State, subject only to

certain obligations, binding alike on all? If those are complied with,

on what principle of patriotism or honour do individuals or societies

hurl torches of discord among their southern co-citizens?

No person who has watched or inquired into the social state of the

slaves during the present century, can fail to have observed that much

has been done to improve their condition among the respectable holders

thereof, both as regards common education and religious instruction; at

the same time, they will perceive that the first law of

nature--self-preservation--compelled them to make common education

penal, as soon as fanatical abolitionists inundated the country with

firebrand pamphlets. No American can deny, that when an oppressed people

feel their chains galling to them, they have a right to follow the

example of the colonists, and strike for freedom. This right doubtless

belongs to the negro, and these inflammable publications were calculated

to lead them on to make the effort. But what reflecting mind can fail to

foresee the horrors consequent upon such a hopeless endeavour? More

especially must it have presented itself to the mind of the

slave-masters; and could they, with sure visions before their eyes of

the fearful sacrifice of human life, the breaking-up of whatever good

feeling now exists between master and slave, and the inauguration of a

reign of terror and unmitigated severity--could they, I say, with such

consequences staring them in the face, have taken a more mild, sensible,

and merciful step than checking that education, through the

instrumentality of which, the abolitionists were hastening forward so

awful a catastrophe?

The following extract may suffice to prove the irritation produced by

the abolitionists in Virginia, though, of course, I do not pretend to

insinuate that the respectable portion of the community in that State

would endorse its barbarous ravings:--

"SLAVERY IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM.--The (American) _Richmond Examiner_, in

connexion with the recent trial of Ward of Kentucky, has the following

theory on the extinction of schoolmasters in general:--'The South has

for years been overrun with hordes of illiterate, unprincipled graduates

of the Yankee free schools (those hot-beds of self-conceit and

ignorance), who have, by dint of unblushing impudence, established

themselves as schoolmasters in our midst. So odious are some of these

"itinerant ignoramuses" to the people of the South; so full of

abolitionism and concealed incendiarism are many of this class; so full

of guile, fraud, and deceit,--that the deliberate shooting one of them

down, in the act of poisoning the minds of our slaves or our children,

we think, if regarded as homicide at all, should always be deemed

perfectly justifiable; and we imagine the propriety of shooting an

abolition schoolmaster, when caught tampering with our slaves, has never

been questioned by any intelligent Southern man. This we take to be the

unwritten common law of the South, and we deem it advisable to

promulgate the law, that it may be copied into all the abolition papers,

thundered at by the three thousand New England preachers, and read with

peculiar emphasis, and terrible upturning of eyes, by Garrison, at the

next meeting of the anti-slavery party at Faneuil Hall. We repeat, that

the shooting of itinerant abolition schoolmasters is frequently a

creditable and laudable act, entitling a respectable Southern man to, at

least, a seat in the Legislature or a place in the Common Council. Let

all Yankee schoolmasters who propose invading the South, endowed with a

strong nasal twang, a long scriptural name, and Webster's lexicographic

book of abominations, seek some more congenial land, where their own

lives will be more secure than in the "vile and homicidal Slave States."

We shall be glad if the ravings of the abolition press about the Ward

acquittal shall have this effect.'"

We now see that the abolitionists have rendered the education of the

negro, with a view to his ultimate fitness for freedom or

self-government, utterly impracticable, however anxious the slave-owner

might have otherwise been to instruct him. Thus, by their imprudent

violence, they have effectually closed the educational pathway to

emancipation. It should not either be forgotten that the Southerners may

have seen good reason to doubt the Christian sincerity of those who

clamoured so loudly for loosening the fetters of the slaves. The freed

slaves in the Northern States must have frequently been seen by them,

year after year, as they went for "the season" to the watering-places,

and could they observe much in his position there to induce the belief

that the Northerners are the friends of the negro? In some cities, he

must not drive a coach or a car; in others, he must not enter a public

conveyance; in places of amusement, he is separated from his white

friend; even in the house of that God with whom "there is no respect of

persons," he is partitioned off as if he were an unclean animal; in some

States he is not admitted at all.

With such evidences of friendship for the negro, might they not question

the honesty of Northern champions of emancipation? Could they really

place confidence in the philanthropic professions of those who treat the

negro as an outcast, and force on him a life of wretchedness instead of

striving to raise him in the social scale? If a negro had the intellect

of a Newton--if he were clothed in purple and fine linen, and if he came

fresh from an Oriental bath, and fragrant as "Araby's spices," a

Northerner would prefer sitting down with a pole-cat--he would rather

pluck a living coal from the fire than grasp the hand of the worthiest

negro that ever stepped. Whoever sees a negro in the North smile at the

approach of the white man? Who has not seen a worthy planter or

slave-owner returning from a short absence, greeted with smiles in

abundance, or perhaps receiving a broad grin of pride and pleasure as

the worthy owner gave his hand to some old faithful slave?

I think I have shown, in the foregoing remarks, that the Southern has

three solid and distinct grounds of objection to the Free States

abolitionist. First,--The natural spirit of man, which rebels against

wholesale vituperation and calumny. Secondly,--The obstacle they have

placed in the way of giving the slave simple education, by introducing

most inflammable pamphlets. Thirdly,--The questionable sincerity of

their professed sympathy for the slave, as evidenced by the antipathy

they exhibit towards the free negro, and by the palpable fact that he is

far worse off in a free than in a slave State.

The same objection cannot justly be taken against English abolitionists,

because they act and think chiefly upon the evidence furnished by

American hands; besides which, slavery in the West Indian colonies was

felt by the majority of the nation to be so dark a stain upon our

national character, that, although burdened with a debt such as the

world never before dreamt of, the sum of 20,000,000l. was readily

voted for the purposes of emancipation. Whether the method in which the

provisions of the act were carried out was very wise or painfully

faulty, we need not stop to inquire: the object was a noble one, and the

sacrifice was worthy of the object.

With all the feelings of that discussion fresh in the public mind, it is

no wonder that philanthropists, reading the accounts published by

American authors of the horrors of slavery, should band themselves

together for the purpose of urging America in a friendly tone to follow

Great Britain's noble example, and to profit by any errors she had

committed as to the method of carrying emancipation into effect. I am

quite aware a slaveholder may reply, "This is all very good; but I must

have a word with you, good gentlemen of England, as to sincerity. If you

hold slavery so damnable a sin, why do you so greedily covet the fruits

of the wages of that sin? The demand of your markets for slave produce

enhances the value of the slave, and in so doing clenches another nail

in the coffin, of his hopes." I confess I can give no reply, except the

humiliating confession which, if the feeling of the nation is to be read

in its Parliamentary acts, amounts to this--"We have removed slavery

from our own soil, and we don't care a farthing if all the rest of the

world are slaves, provided only we can get cheap cotton and sugar, &c.

Mammon! Mammon! Mammon! is ever the presiding deity of the Anglo-Saxon

race, whether in the Old or the New World.

There can be no doubt that the reception of Mrs. Beecher Stowe's work

and person in England was very galling to many a Southerner, and

naturally so; because it conveyed a tacit endorsement of all her

assertions as to the horrors of the slavery system. When I first read

_Uncle Tom_, I said, "This will rather tend to rivet than to loosen the

fetters of the slave, rousing the indignation of all the South against

her and her associates." Everything I have since seen, heard, and read,

only tends to confirm my original impression. While I would readily give

Mrs. Stowe a chaplet of laurel as a clever authoress, I could never

award her a faded leaf as the negro's friend. There can be no doubt that

Mrs. Beecher Stowe has had no small share in the abolition excitement

which has been raging in the States, and which has made Kansas the

battle-field of civil war; but the effect of this agitation has gone

farther: owing to husting speeches and other occurrences, the negro's

mind has been filled with visionary hopes of liberty; insurrections have

been planned, and, worse still, insurrections have been imagined. In

fear for life and property, torture worthy of the worst days of the

Inquisition has been resorted to, to extort confession from those who

had nothing to confess. Some died silent martyrs; others, in their

agony, accused falsely the first negro whose name came to their memory;

thus, injustice bred injustice, and it is estimated that not less than a

thousand wretched victims have closed their lives in agony. One white

man, who was found encouraging revolt, and therefore merited punishment

of the severest kind, was sentenced, in that land of equality, to 900

lashes, and died under the infliction--a sight that would have gladdened

the eyes of Bloody Jeffreys. And why all these horrors? I distinctly

say,--thanks to the rabid Abolitionists.

Let me now for a moment touch upon the treatment of slaves. The farms of

the wealthy planters, and the chapels with negro minister and negro

congregation, bear bright evidence to the fact that negroes have their

bodily and spiritual wants attended to, not forgetting also the oral

teaching they often receive from the wife of the planter. But is that

system universal? Those who would answer that question truthfully need

not travel to the Southern States for documentary evidence. Is any human

being fit to be trusted with absolute power over one of his

fellow-creatures, however deeply his public reputation and his balance

at the banker's may be benefited by the most moderate kindness to them?

If every man were a Howard or a Wilberforce, and every woman a Fry or a

Nightingale, the truth would be ever the same, and they would be the

first to acknowledge it.--Man is unfit for irresponsible power.

Now the only bar before which the proprietor of slaves is likely to be

arraigned, is the bar of public opinion; and the influence which that

knowledge will have upon his conduct is exactly in the inverse ratio to

its need; for the hardened brute, upon whom its influence is most

wanted, is the very person who, if he can escape lynching, is

indifferent to public opinion. No Southerner can be affronted, if I say

that he is not more Christian, kind-hearted, and mild-tempered than his

fellow-man in the Northern States, in France, or in England; and yet how

constantly do we find citizens of those communities evincing

unrestrained passions in the most brutal acts, and that with the

knowledge that the law is hanging over their heads, and that their

victims can give evidence against them; whereas, in the Slave States,

provided the eye of a white man is excluded, there is scarce a limit to

the torture which a savage monster may inflict upon the helpless slave,

whose word cannot be received in evidence. It is as absurd to judge of

the condition of the slave by visiting an amiable planter and his lady,

as it would be to judge of the clothing, feeding, and comfort of our

labouring population by calling at the town-house of the Duke of

Well-to-do and carefully noting the worthy who fills an arm-chair like a

sentry-box, and is yclept the porter. Look at him, with his hair

powdered and fattened down to the head; behold him as the bell rings,

using his arms as levers to force his rotundity out of its case; then

observe the pedestals on which he endeavours to walk; one might imagine

he had been tapped for the dropsy half-a-dozen times, and that all the

water had run into the calves of his legs. Is that a type of the poorer

classes?

Where, then, are we to look for true data on which to form an opinion of

the treatment of the slave?--Simply by studying human nature and

weighing human passions, and then inquiring by what laws they are held

in check. Now, as to the laws, they amount to nothing, inasmuch as slave

evidence is not admissible, and the possibility of any oppression, even

to death itself, must frequently be, without any fear of punishment, in

the hands of the owner. If law, then, affords the negro no efficient

protection from human passions, where are we to look for it in human

nature, except it be in the influences of Christianity, self-interest,

or public opinion? The last of these, we have seen, is upon a

sliding-scale of an inefficiency which increases in proportion to the

necessity for its influence, and is therefore all but impotent for good.

Let us now consider self-interest. Will any one assert that

self-interest is sufficient to restrain anger? How many a hasty word

does man utter, or how many a hasty act does man commit, under the

influence of passion he cannot or will not restrain--and that among his

equals, who may be able to resent it, or in the face of law ready to

avenge it! How prone are we all, if things go wrong from some fault of

our own, to lose our temper and try to throw the blame on others, rather

than admit the failure to be our own fault! Without dwelling upon the

serious injury people often do to themselves by unrestrained passion,

think for a moment of the treatment frequently inflicted upon the poor

animals over whom they rule absolute. Is not kindness to a horse the

interest as well as the duty of the owner? and yet how often is he the

unfortunate victim of the owner's rage or cruel disposition, while

faithfully and willingly expending all his powers in the service of his

tyrant master! If these things be so among equals, or comparative

equals, and also in man's dealings with the lower orders of the

creation, what chance has the poor slave, with the arm of legislative

justice paralysed, and an arm nerved with human passion his only hope of

mercy?--for self-defence, that first law of nature, is the highest crime

he can be guilty of: and, while considering the mercenary view of

self-interest, let it not be forgotten that an awful amount of human

suffering is quite compatible with unimpaired health, and that a slave

may be frequently under the lash and yet fully able to do his day's

work.

The last influence we have to consider is indeed the brightest and best

of all--Christianity: high on the brotherly arch of man's duty to his

fellow-man, and forming its enduring keystone, we read, traced by

Jehovah in imperishable letters, radiant with love, "Do unto others as

you would that they should do unto you;" "Love thy neighbour as

thyself." Surely it needs no words of mine to show, that a faithful

history of the most Christian country in the most Christian times the

world ever witnessed, would contain, fearful evidence of the cruelty of

man setting at nought the above blessed precept. Nay, more--I question

if, viewed in its entire fulness, there is any one single command in

Scripture more habitually disregarded. Proverbs are generally supposed

to be a condensation of facts or experiences. Whence comes "Every one

for himself, and God for us all"? or, the more vulgar one, "Go ahead,

and the d----l take the hindmost?" What are they but concentrations of

the fact that selfishness is man's ruling passion? What are most laws

made for, but to restrain men by human penalties from a broach of the

law of love? and, if these laws be needful in communities, all the

members of which are equal in the eyes of the law, and even then be

found inefficient for their purpose, as may be daily witnessed in every

country, who will say that the influence of Christianity is sufficient

protection to the poor slave?

There is only one other influence that I shall mention--that is habit;

it acts for and against the slave. Thus, the kind and good, brought up

among slaves, very often nursed by them, and grown up in the continual

presence of their gentleness and faithfulness, repay them with

unmeasured kindness, and a sympathy in all their sickness and their

sorrows, to a degree which I feel quite certain the most tender-hearted

Christian breathing could never equal, if landed among slaves, for the

first time, at years of maturity. The Christian planter's wife or

daughter may be seen sitting up at night, cooking, nursing, tending an

old sick and helpless slave, with nearly, if not quite, the same

affectionate care she would bestow upon a sick relation, the very

friendlessness of the negro stimulating the benevolent heart. This is,

indeed, the bright side of the influence of habit.--But the other side

is not less true; and there the effect is, that a coarse, brutal mind,

trained up among those it can bully with impunity, acquires a

heartlessness and indifference to the negro's wants and sufferings, that

grow with the wretched possessor's growth. This is the dark side of the

influence of habit.

Let two examples suffice, both of which I have upon the very best

authority. A faithful slave, having grown up with his master's rising

family, obtained his freedom as a reward for his fidelity, and was

entrusted with the management of the property; realizing some money, he

became the owner of slaves himself, from among whom he selected his

wife, and to all of whom he showed the greatest consideration. Some

time after, lying upon his deathbed, he made his will, in which he

bequeathed his wife and all his other negroes to his old master, giving

as his reason, that, from his own lively recollections of his master's

unvarying kindness to himself and the other slaves, he felt certain that

in so doing he was taking the best means in his power of securing their

future happiness. What stronger evidence of the growth of kindness in

the master's heart could possibly be desired? Here, then, is the effect

of habit in a benevolent owner.--Now, turn to the opposite picture. A

lady of New Orleans was accustomed to strip and flog a slave for the

pleasure of witnessing sufferings which she endeavoured to render more

acute by rubbing soft soap into the broken skin. Here you have the

effect of habit upon a brutal mind.

To the credit of New Orleans be it recorded, that the knowledge of this

atrocity having come to white ears, her house was broken open, every

article it contained pulled out in the street and burnt, and, had she

not succeeded in eluding search, the she-devil would have been most

assuredly reduced to ashes with her own goods. America became too hot

for her, and Providence alone knows the demon's cave of concealment.

Having thus passed in review the various influences bearing upon the

treatment of the slave, and seen how utterly inadequate they are to

protect him from ill-treatment, who can wonder that the tales of real or

supposed cruelty inflicted upon slaves by the Southerners are received

with indignation by both parties in the States?--the virtuous and kind

master, indignant at the thought of being included in the category of

monsters, and the real savage, if possible, still more indignant,

because his conscience brings home to his seared heart the truthfulness

of the picture, even if it be overdrawn almost to caricature. And here

it is curious to observe the different action of these two parties: the

former, in the consciousness of a kind heart and a real desire for the

negro's good, calmly states what has been done and is doing for the

negro, and throws a natural veil of doubt over horrors so utterly

repulsive to the feelings that their existence is discredited; the

latter, with a shallowness which Providence sometimes attaches to guilt,

aware that some such accusations come too painfully and truthfully

home, pronounce their own condemnation by their line of

defence--recrimination.

Take, for example, the following extract from an article in a Slave

State paper, entitled "A Sequel to Uncle Tom's Cabin," and in which

Queen Victoria, under the guidance of a "genius," has the condition of

her subjects laid bare before her. After various other paragraphs of a

similar nature comes the following:--

"The sky was obscured by the smoke of hundreds of small chimneys and

vast edifices, stretching in lines for miles and miles. The latter were

crowded with women and children, young in years, but withered in form

and feature. The countenances of the men were as colourless as the white

fabric in their looms; their eyes sparkled with intelligence, but it was

chiefly the intelligence of suffering, of privation, of keen sense of

wrong, of inability to be better, of rankling hatred against existing

institutions, and a furtive wish that some hideous calamity would bury

them all in one common, undistinguishable ruin.

"'Are these the people? groaned the Queen, as the cold damp of more than

mortal agony moistened her marble forehead.

"'Not all of them!" sounded the voice in her ear, so sharply that her

Majesty looked up eagerly, and saw written, in letters of fire, on the

palace wall:--

"'1. Every twelfth person in your dominions is a pauper, daily receiving

parochial relief.

"'2. Every twentieth person in your dominions is a destitute wanderer,

with no roof but the sky--no home but a prison. They are the Ishmaelites

of modern society; every one's hand is against them, and their hands are

against every one.

"'3. There are in Freeland 10,743,747 females; divide that number by

500,000, and you will find that every twentieth woman in your dominions

is--Oh! horror piled on horror!--a harlot!'"

Then follows the scene of a disconsolate female throwing herself over a

bridge, the whole winding up with this charming piece of information,

addressed by the genius to her Majesty:--

"In your own land, liberty, the absence of which in another is deplored,

is, in its most god-like development, but a name--unless that may be

termed liberty which practically is but vulgar license--license to work

from rosy morn to dark midnight for the most scanty pittances--license

to store up wealth in the hands and for the benefit of the few--license

to bellow lustily for rival politicians--license to send children to

ragged schools--license to sot in the ale-house--license to grow lumpish

and brutal--license to neglect the offices of religion, to swear, to

lie, to blaspheme--license to steal, to pander unchecked to the coarsest

appetites, to fawn and slaver over the little great ones of the

earth--license to creep like a worm through life, or bound through it

like a wild beast; and, last and most precious of all--for it is

untaxed--license to starve, to rot, to die, and be buried in a foetid

pauper's grave, on which the sweet-smelling flowers, sent to strew the

pathway of man and woman with beauty, love, and hope, will refuse to

grow, much less bloom."

Setting aside all exaggerations, who does not recognise in the foregoing

quotations "the galled jade wincing"? Were the writer a kind owner of

slaves, he might have replied to _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ by facts of

habitual kindness to them, sufficient to prove that the authoress had

entered into the region of romance; but in his recrimination he

unconsciously displays the cloven hoof, and leaves no doubt on the mind

that he writes under the impulse of a bitterly-accusing monitor within.

It would be wasting time to point out the difference between a system

which binds millions of its people in bondage to their fellow-man, a

master's sovereign will their only practical protection, and a system

which not only makes all its subjects equal in the eye of the law, and

free to seek their fortunes wherever they list, but which is for ever

striving to mitigate the distress that is invariably attendant upon an

overcrowded population. Even granting that his assertions were not only

true, but that they were entirely produced by tyrannical enactments,

what justification would England's sins be for America's crimes? Suppose

the House of Commons and the Lords Temporal and Spiritual obtained the

royal sanction to an act for kidnapping boys and grilling them daily for

a table-d'hôte in their respective legislative assemblies, would such an

atrocity--or any worse atrocity, if such be possible--in any respect

alter the question of right and wrong between master and slave? Let any

charge of cruelty or injustice in England be advanced on its own simple

grounds, and, wherever it comes from, it will find plenty of people, I

am proud and happy to say, ready to inquire into it and to work hard for

its removal; but when it comes in the shape of recrimination, who can

fail to recognise an accusing conscience striving to throw the cloak of

other people's sins over the abominations which that conscience is ever

ringing in the writer's ears at home.

I must, however, state that, in speaking of the sufferings or injuries

to which the slave is liable, I am not proclaiming them merely on the

authority of Northern abolitionists, or on the deductions which I have

drawn from human nature; many travellers have made similar charges. Miss

Bremer writes:--"I beheld the old slave hunted to death because he dared

to visit his wife--beheld him mangled, beaten, recaptured, fling himself

into the water of the Black River, over which he was retaken into the

power of his hard master--and the law was silent. I beheld a young woman

struck, for a hasty word, upon the temples, so that she fell down

dead!--and the law was silent. I heard the law, through its jury,

adjudicate between a white man and a black, and sentence the latter to

be flogged when the former was guilty--and they who were honest among

the jurymen in vain opposed the verdict. I beheld here on the shores of

the Mississippi, only a few months since, a young negro girl fly from

the maltreatment of her master, and he was a professor of religion, and

fling herself into the river."--_Homes of the New World._ Would Miss

Bremer write these things for the press, as occurring under her own eye,

if they were not true?

Then, again, the Press itself in the South bears witness to what every

one must admit to be an inhuman practice. How often must the reader of a

Southern States' paper see children of the tenderest age, sometimes even

under a year old, advertised for public sale! Did any one every take up

the New Orleans paper without seeing more than one such advertisement as

the following?--

150 NEGROES FOE SALE.

Just arrived, and for sale, at my old stand, No. 7, Moreau-street,

Third Municipality, one hundred and fifty young and likely NEGROES,

consisting of field-hands, house servants, and mechanics. They will be

sold on reasonable terms for good paper or cash. Persons wishing to

purchase will find it to their advantage to give me a call. [Sep.

30--6m.] Wm. F. TALBOTT.

What happiness can the slave enjoy among a community where such an

advertisement as the following can be tolerated, or, worse still, when,

as in the present instance, it is sent forth under the sanction of the

law? The advertisement is taken from a paper published at Wilmington,

North Carolina.

$225 REWARD.--STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, NEW HANOVER COUNTY.--_Whereas_,

complaint upon, oath hath this day been made to us, two of the

Justices of the Peace for the State and County aforesaid, by BENJAMIN

HALLET, of the said county, that two certain male slaves belonging to

him, named LOTT, aged about twenty-two years, five feet four or five

inches high, and black, formerly belonging to LOTT WILLIAMS, of Onslow

county; and BOB, aged about sixteen years, five feet high, and black;

have absented themselves from their said master's service, and are

supposed to be lurking about this county, committing acts of felony

and other misdeeds. These are, therefore, in the name of the State

aforesaid, to command the slaves forthwith to return home to their

masters; and we do hereby, by virtue of the Act of the General

Assembly in such cases made and provided, intimate and declare that

_if the said_ LOTT and BOB _do not return home and surrender

themselves,_ immediately after the publication of these presents, that

ANY PERSON MAY KILL AND DESTROY THE SAID SLAVES, by such means as he

or they may think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any crime

or offence for so doing, and without incurring any penalty or

forfeiture thereby.

Given under our hands and seals, this 28th day of February, 1853.

W.N. PEDEN, J.P., [Seal]

W.C. BETTENCOURT, J.P., [Seal.]

$225 REWARD.--TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS will be given for negro LOTT, EITHER

DEAD OR ALIVE; and TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS FOR BOB'S HEAD, delivered to

the subscriber in the town of Wilmington.

BENJAMIN HALLET.

March 2nd, 1853.

There is another evidence of a want of happiness among the slaves,

which, though silent and unheard, challenges contradiction: I mean the

annual escape of from one to two thousand into Canada, in spite not only

of the natural difficulties and privations of the journey, but also of

the fearful dread of the consequences of re-capture. Doubtless some of

these may be fleeing from the dread of just punishment for offences

against the law, but none can doubt that many more are endeavouring to

escape from what they feel to be cruelty, injustice, and oppression.

I do not wish to pander to a morbid appetite for horrors by gathering

together under one view all the various tales of woe and misery which I

have heard of, known, or seen. I think I have said enough to prove to

any unprejudiced person that such things do and must ever exist under

the institution of slavery; and that, although the statements of rabid

abolitionists are often the most unwarranted exaggerations, the all but

total denial of their occurrence by the slave-owners is also not

correct. The conviction forced upon my own mind, after much thought and

inquiry on this most interesting topic is, that there are many dark

clouds of cruelty in a sky which is bright with much of the truest and

kindest sympathy for the poor slave.

I now propose to take a short review of the progress and real state of

slavery, and I will commence by giving _in extenso_ an enactment which

materially affects the negro, and, as I have before observed, has more

than once threatened the Republic with disunion:--

Section 2.--Privileges of Citizens.--Clause 3. "No person held to

service or labour in one state under the laws thereof, escaping to

another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be

discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on

claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due."

Of course the word "slave" would have read strangely among a community

who set themselves up as the champions of the "equal rights of man;" but

it is clear that, according to this clause in the constitution which

binds the Republic together, every free state is compelled to assist in

the recapture of a fugitive slave.

What was the exact number of slaves at the date of this law being passed

I have not the means of ascertaining: at the beginning of this century

it was under 900,000; in the Census of 1850 they had increased to

3,200,000.[BT] There were originally 13 States. At present there are

31, besides territory not yet incorporated into States. The Slave States

are 15, or nearly half. Thus much for increase of slaves and the slave

soil. But, it will naturally be asked, how did it happen that, as the

additional soil was incorporated, the sable workmen appeared as if by

magic? The answer is very simple. The demand regulated the supply, and

slave breeding became a most important feature in the system: thus the

wants of the more southern States became regularly lessened by large

drafts from Maryland, Kentucky, and Virginia. Anybody desirous of

testing the truth of this statement will find statistical data to assist

him in an unpretending volume by Marshall Hall, M.D., &c., _On Twofold

Slavery,_ which I read with much interest, although I cannot agree with

him in everything.[BV]

I am aware that residents in these breeding States are to be found who

would scorn to utter a wilful falsehood, and who deny this propagation

of the human chattel for the flesh market; but there can be little doubt

that the unbiased seeker after truth will find that such is the case.

And why not? Why should those who make their livelihood by trafficking

in the flesh of their fellow-creatures hesitate to increase their

profits by paying attention to the breeding of them? These facts do not

come under the general traveller's eye, because, armed with letters of

introduction, he consorts more with worthy slave-owners, who, occupied

with the welfare of those around and dependent upon them, know little

of the world beyond; in the same way as in England, a Christian family

may be an example of patriarchal simplicity and of apostolic zeal and

love, and yet beyond the circle of their action, though not very far

from its circumference, the greatest distress and perhaps cruelty may

abound. How many of the dark spots on our community has the single zeal

of the Earl of Shaftesbury forced upon the public mind, of which we were

utterly ignorant, though living in the midst of them. The degraded

female drudge in a coal-pit, the agonized infant in a chimney, and the

death-wrought child in a factory--each and all bear testimony to how

much of suffering may exist while surrounded by those whose lives are

spent in Christian charity. And so it is in every community, Slave

States included. Christian hearts, pregnant with zeal and love, are

diffusing blessings around them; and, occupied with their noble work,

they know little of the dark places that hang on their borders. The

Southern planter and his lady may be filled with the love of St. John,

and radiate the beams thereof on every man, woman, and child under their

guardianship, and then, "measuring other people's corn by their own

lovely bushel," they may well hesitate to believe in the existence of a

profligate breeding Pandemonium within the precincts of their immediate

country. Yet, alas! there can be little doubt that it does exist.

Let us now fix our attention on the actual facts of the case which all

parties admit. First, we have a slave population of 3,200,000. I think,

if I estimate their marketable value at 80_l_ a head, I shall be

considerably below the truth. That gives us in human flesh,

250,000,000l. Secondly, let us take the product of their labour. The

Slave States raise annually--

Rice 215,000,000 lbs.

Tobacco 185,000,000 "

Sugar 248,000,000 "

Cotton 1,000,000,000 "

Molasses 12,000,000 gallons.

Indian Corn. 368,000,000 bushels.

Estimating these at a lower value than they have ever fallen to, you

have here represented 80,000,000l. sterling of annual produce from

the muscle and sinew of the slave.[BW] Surely the wildest enthusiast,

did he but ponder over these facts, could not fail to pause ere he

mounted the breach, shouting the rabid war-cry of abolition, which

involves a capital of 250,000,000_l_, and an annual produce of

80,000,000l.

The misery which an instantaneous deliverance of the slave would cause

by the all but certain loss of the greater portion of the products above

enumerated, must be apparent to the least reflecting mind. If any such

schemer exist, he would do well to study the history of our West India

islands from the period of their sudden emancipation, especially since

free-trade admitted slave produce on equal terms with the produce of

free labour. Complaints of utter ruin are loud and constant from the

proprietors in nearly every island; they state, and state with truth,

that it is impossible for free labour at a high price, and which can

only be got perhaps for six hours a day, to compete with the steady

slave work of twelve hours a day; and they show that slaveholding

communities have materially increased their products, which can only

have been effected by a further taxing of the slave's powers, or a vast

increase of fresh human material.[BX] But they further complain that the

negro himself is sadly retrograding. "They attend less to the

instruction of their religious teachers; they pay less attention to the

education of their children; vice and immorality are on the increase,"

&c.--_Petition to the Imperial Parliament from St. George's, Jamaica,_

July, 1852.

I might multiply such statements from nearly every island, and quote the

authority of even some of their governors to the same effect; but the

above are sufficient for my purpose. They prove three most important

facts for consideration, when treating the question of Slavery. First,

that you may ruin the planter. Secondly, that you may free--without

benefiting--the slave. Thirdly, that each State, as it becomes free,

tends to give additional value to the property of those States which

choose to hold on to slavery; and all these results may occur despite

the wisdom (?) of senators, and an indemnity of 20,000,000l.

Surely, then, the Southern planter may well assert that he sees not

sufficient inducement to follow our hasty wholesale example. But while

such convictions are forced upon him, he will be a degenerate son of

energetic sires, if he be so scared at our ill-success as to fear to

look for some better path to the same noble object; and there is one

most important consideration which should impel him, while avoiding all

rash haste, to brook no dangerous delay; that consideration is, that the

difficulty of dealing with the question is increasing with fearful

rapidity, for the slave population has nearly quadrupled itself since

the beginning of the century. The capital involved is, we have seen,

gigantic; but the question of numbers is by far the most perplexing to

deal with, in a social point of view. The white population of the Slave

States is, in rough numbers, 6,000,000; the slave population is more

than 3,000,000, and the free blacks 250,000. Does any sane man believe

that, if slavery had existed in Great Britain, and that the slaves had

constituted one-third of the population, we should have attempted to

remove the black bar from our escutcheon, by the same rapid and summary

process which we adopted to free the negro in our colonies?

An American writer on Slavery has said, and I think most justly, "that

two distinct races of people, nearly equal in numbers, and unlike in

colour, manners, habits, feelings and state of civilization to such a

degree that amalgamation is impossible, cannot dwell together in the

same community unless the one be in subjection to the other." So fully

am I convinced of the truth of this statement, and so certain am I that

every one who has been in a Slave State must be satisfied of the truth

of it, that I feel sure, if the South freed every slave to-morrow, not a

week would elapse before each State in the Union without exception would

pass stringent laws to prevent them settling within their borders; even

at this moment such a law exists in some States.

With all these difficulties constantly before them, who can wonder that

a kind-hearted planter, while gazing on the cheerful and happy faces of

his well-fed and well-housed slaves, should look distrustfully at

emancipation, and strive to justify to his conscience opposition to any

plan, however gradual, which leads thereto. Nevertheless, however

satisfied in his mind that the slaves are kindly treated, and that

harshness even is never used, he cannot contemplate the institution from

a sufficient distance to be beyond its influences, without feeling that

emancipation is the goal towards which his thoughts should ever bend,

and that in proportion as the steps towards it must be gradual, so

should they speedily commence. But how? Washington, while confessing his

most earnest desire for abolition, declares his conviction that "it can

only be effected by legislative authority."

The next chapter will detail such propositions as, in my humble opinion,

appear most worthy of the consideration of the Legislature, with a view

to the gradual removal of the black star from the striped banner.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote BT: _List of States and Territories forming the Confederation.

Those marked_ S. _are Slave-holding States._

STATES.

New Hampshire

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

Connecticut

New York

New Jersey[BU]

Pennsylvania

S. Delaware

S. Maryland

S. Virginia

S. North Carolina

S. South Carolina

S. Georgia

NEW STATES.

Vermont 1791

S. Kentucky 1792

S. Tennessee 1796

Ohio 1802

S. Louisiana 1812

Indiana 1816

S. Mississippi 1817

Illinois 1818

S. Alabama 1819

Maine 1820

S. Missouri 1821

S. Arkansas 1836

Michigan 1837

S. Florida 1845

S. Texas 1845

Iowa 1846

Wisconsin 1848

California 1850

DISTRICT.

S. Columbia 1791

TERRITORIES.

Oregon 1848

Minnesota 1849

S. Kansas 1855

S. Utah 1850

New Mexico 1850

Nebraska 1853]

[Footnote BU: I believe the last slave has been removed from New

Jersey.--H.A.M.]

[Footnote BV: Between 1810 and 1850 the slave population in Virginia has

only increased from 392,000 to 470,000, while in Tennessee it has

increased from 44,000 to 240,000; and in Louisiana, from 35,000 to

240,000.]

[Footnote BW: I take no notice of the various other valuable productions

of these States: they may fairly represent the produce of the white

man's labour.]

[Footnote BX: _Vide_ ch. xii., "The Queen of the Antilles."]

CHAPTER XXVI.

_Hints for Master--Hopes for Slave._

I will now suggest certain proposals,[BY] in the hope that while they

can do no harm, they may by chance lead to some good result. The first

proposal is a very old one, and only made by me now, because I consider

it of primary importance--I mean a "Free-Soil" bill. I advocate it upon

two distinct grounds--the one affecting the Republic, the other the

slave. The Republic sanctions and carries on the slave-trade by

introducing the institution into land hitherto free, and the slave

throughout the Union has his fetters tightened by the enhancement of his

value; but the great Channing has so fully and ably argued the truth of

these evils, when treating of the annexation of Texas, that none but the

wilfully blind can fail to be convinced; in short, if Slavery is to be

introduced into land hitherto free, it is perhaps questionable if it be

not better to send for the ill-used and degraded slave from Africa, and

leave the more elevated slave in his comparatively happy home in the Old

Slave States; the plea may be used for bettering the condition of the

former, but that plea cannot be used for the latter.

The next proposal is one which, if it came from the South, would, I

suppose, have the support of all the kind masters in those States, and

most assuredly would find no opposition in the North,--I mean the

expulsion from the Constitution of that law by which fugitive slaves are

forced to be given up. If the proposal came from the North, it would

naturally excite ill-feeling in the South, after all the angry passions

which abolition crusading has set in action; but the South might easily

propose it: and when we see the accounts of the affectionate attachment

of the slaves to their masters, and of the kindness with which they are

treated, in proportion, as such statements are correct, so will it

follow as a consequence, that none but those who are driven to it by

cruelty will wish to leave their snug homes and families, to seek for

peace in the chilly winters of the North. And surely the slaves who are

victims of cruelty, every kind-hearted slave-master would rejoice to see

escaping; it would only be the compulsory giving up of fugitives, except

for criminal offences, which would be expunged; each individual State

would be able, if desirous, to enter into any mutual arrangement with

any other State, according to their respective necessities. This

proposal has two advantages: one, that it removes a bone of bitter

contention ever ready to be thrown down between the North and the South;

and the other, that it opens a small loophole for the oppressed to

escape from the oppressor.

The next proposal I have to make, is one which, as every year makes it

more difficult, merits immediate attention,--and that is, the providing

a territory of refuge. No one for a moment can doubt that the foundation

of Liberia was an act of truly philanthropic intent, reflecting credit

upon all parties concerned in it; but it must, I fear, be acknowledged

that it is totally unequal to the object in view. No further evidence of

this need he adduced, than the simple fact, that, for every negro sent

to Liberia, nearer twenty than ten are born in the States. Dame

Partington's effort to sweep back the incoming tide with a hair-broom

promised better hopes of success; a brigade of energetic firemen would

drain off Lake Superior in a much shorter space of time than Liberian

colonization would remove one-third of the slave population. The scheme

is in the right direction, but as insufficient to overcome the

difficulty as a popgun is to breach a fortified city; the only method of

effectually enabling the system of colonization to be carried out,

is--in my humble opinion--by setting apart some portion of the

unoccupied territory of the Union as a negro colony. In making the

selection, a suitable climate should be considered, in justice to the

health of the negro, as it is clear, from the fate of those who fly from

persecution to Canada, that they are unable to resist cold; and

proximity to the ocean is desirable, as affording a cheap conveyance for

those who become manumitted: the expense of a passage to Liberia is one

great obstacle to its utility.

The quantity of land required for such a purpose would be very small;

and stringent regulations as to the negro leaving the territory so

granted, would effectually prevent any inconvenience to the neighbouring

States. I have before shown that the comparative number of whites and

blacks--whites 6,000,000, and blacks 3,000,000--renders it all but, if

not quite, impossible for the two races to live together free. I have

also shown that the Northern States either refuse to admit them, or pass

such laws respecting them, that slavery under a good master is a

paradise by comparison. I have further shown that Liberia is, from its

distance, so expensive for their removal, as to be of but little

assistance, and Canada too often proves an early grave. If, then, these

difficulties present themselves with a population of 3,000,000 slaves,

and if they are increasing their numbers rapidly--which statistics fully

prove to be the case--it is clear that these difficulties must augment

in a corresponding ratio, until at last they will become insurmountable.

I therefore come to the conclusion, either that territory must be set

apart in America itself for the negro's home, or that the black bar of

slavery must deface the escutcheon of the Republic for ever.

I now propose to make a few remarks on the treatment of slaves. As to

the nature of that treatment, I have already given my calm and unbiased

opinion. My present observations refer to corporal punishment, and the

implements for the infliction thereof. Of the latter I have seen four;

of course there may be many others; I speak only of those that have come

under my own eye. The four I have seen are first, the common

hunting-whip, which is too well known to require description. Secondly,

the cowhide--its name expresses its substance--when wet, it is rolled up

tightly and allowed to dry, by which process it becomes as hard as the

raw hide commonly seen in this country; its shape is that of a

racing-whip, and its length from four to five feet. Thirdly, the strap,

i.e., a piece off the end of a stiff heavy horse's trace, and about

three or three-and-a-half feet in length. Fourthly, the paddle; i.e.,

a piece of white oak about an inch thick all through, the handle about

two inches broad, and rather more than two feet long, the blade about

nine inches long by four and a quarter broad. The two latter implements

I found, upon inquiry, were of modern date, and the reason of their

introduction was, that the marks of the punishment inflicted thereby

became more speedily effaced; and as upon the sale of a slave, if, when

examined, marks of punishment are clearly developed, his price suffers

from the impression of his being obstreperous, the above-named articles

of punishment came into favour.

The foregoing observations--without entering into the respective merits

of the four instruments--are sufficient to prove that no one definite

implement for corporal punishment is established by law, and,

consequently, that any enactment appointing a limit to the number of

stripes which may he given is an absurdity, however well intended. Forty

stripes, is, I believe, the authorized number. A certain number of

blows, if given with a dog-whip, would inflict no injury beyond the

momentary pain, whereas the same number inflicted with a heavy

walking-stick might lame a man for life. Again, I know of no law in the

States prohibiting the corporal punishment of any slave, of whatever age

or sex; at all events, grown-up girls and mothers of families are doomed

to have their persons exposed to receive its infliction. Of this latter

fact, I am positive, though I cannot say whether the practice is general

or of rare occurrence.

I have entered rather fully into a description of the implements of

punishment, to show the grounds upon which I make the following

proposals:--First, that a proper instrument for flogging be authorized

by law, and that the employment of any other be severely punished.

Secondly, that the number of lashes a master may inflict, or order to be

inflicted, be reduced to a minimum, and that while a greater number of

lashes are permitted for grave offences, they be only administered on

the authority of a jury or a given number of magistrates. Thirdly, that

common decency be no longer outraged by any girl above fifteen receiving

corporal punishment.[BZ] Fourthly, that by State enactment--as it now

sometimes is by municipal regulation--no master in any town be permitted

to inflict corporal punishment on a slave above fifteen; those who have

passed that age to be sent to the jail, or some authorized place, to

receive their punishment, a faithful record whereof, including slave and

owner's names, to be kept. My reasons for this proposal are, that a man

will frequently punish on the spur of the moment, when a little

reflection would subdue his anger, and save the culprit. Also, that it

is my firm conviction that a great portion of the cruelty of which

slaves are the victims, is caused by half-educated owners of one or two

slaves, who are chiefly to be found in towns, and upon whom such a law

might operate as a wholesome check. Such a law would doubtless be good

in all cases, but the distances of plantations from towns would render

it impossible to be carried out; and I am sorry to say, I have no

suggestion to make by which the slaves on plantations might be

protected, in those cases where the absence of the owners leaves them

entirely at the mercy of the driver, which I believe the cause of by far

the greatest amount of suffering they endure, though I trust many

drivers are just and merciful. Fifthly, that the law by which negroes

can hold slaves should immediately be abolished. The white man holding a

slave is bad enough, but nothing can justify the toleration of the negro

holding his own flesh and blood in fetters, especially when the door of

Education is hermetically sealed against him.

In addition to the foregoing suggestions for the regulation of

punishment, I would propose that any master proved guilty of inflicting

or tolerating gross cruelty upon a slave, should forfeit every slave he

may possess to the State, and be rendered incapable of again holding

them, and that copies of such decisions be sent to each county in the

State. In connexion with this subject, there is another point of

considerable importance--viz., the testimony of slaves. As matters now

stand, or are likely to stand for some time to come, there appear

insuperable objections to the testimony of a slave being received on a

par with that of a white man, and this constitutes one of the greatest

difficulties in enabling the negro to obtain justice for any injury he

may have sustained. It appears to me, however, that a considerable

portion of this difficulty might he removed by admitting a certain

number of slaves--say three--to constitute one witness.

Cross-examination would easily detect either combination or falsehood,

and a severe punishment attached to such an offence would act as a

powerful antidote to its commission. Until some system is arranged for

receiving negro evidence in some shape, he must continue the hopeless

victim of frequent injustice.

The next subject I propose to consider is a legalized system, having

for its object the freedom of the slave. To accomplish this, I would

suggest that the State should fix a fair scale of prices, at which the

slave might purchase his freedom, one price for males and another for

females under twenty, and a similar arrangement of price between the

ages of twenty and fifty, after which age the slave to be free, and

receive some fixed assistance, either from the State or the master, as

might be thought most just and expedient. To enable the slave to take

advantage of the privilege of purchasing his freedom, it would be

requisite that the State should have banks appointed in which he might

deposit his savings at fair interest; but to enable him to have

something to deposit, it is also requisite that some law should be

passed compelling owners to allow a slave certain portions of time to

work out for himself, or if preferred, to work for the master, receiving

the ordinary wages for the time so employed, and this, of course, in

addition to the Sunday. As, however, among so many masters, some will be

cruel and do their utmost to negative any merciful laws which the State

may enact, I would for the protection of the slave propose that, if he

feel discontented with the treatment of his master, he be allowed to

claim the right of being publicly sold, upon giving a certain number of

days' warning of such desire on his part; or if he can find any

slave-owner who will give the price fixed by law--as before

suggested--and is willing to take him, his master to be bound to deliver

him up. With regard to the sale of slaves, I think humanity will justify

me in proposing that no slave under fifteen years of ago be sold or

transferred to another owner without the parents also; and secondly,

that husband and wife be never sold or transferred separately, except it

be by their own consent. However rarely such separations may take place

at present, there is no law to prevent the cruel act, and I have every

reason to believe it takes place much oftener than many of my

kind-hearted plantation friends would he ready to admit.

Looking forward to the gradual, but ultimately total abolition of

slavery, I would next suggest that, after a certain date--say ten

years--every slave, upon reaching thirty years of age, be apprenticed by

his master to some trade or occupation for five years, at the expiration

of which time he be free; after another fixed period--say ten

years--all slaves above twenty years of age be similarly treated; and

after a third period, I would propose that the United States should

follow the noble example long since set them by _Peru_, and make it an

integral part of their constitution that "_no one is born a slave in the

Republic."_

The next proposal I have to make is one which I cannot but hope that all

Americans will fell the propriety of, inasmuch as the present system is,

in my estimation, one of the blackest features of the institution we are

considering. I allude to the slavery of Americans themselves. In nearly

every civilized nation in the world, blood is considered to run in the

father's line, and although illegitimacy forfeits inheritance, it never

forfeits citizenship. How is it in the United States? _There the white

man's offspring is to be seen in fetters--the blood of the free in the

market of the slave._ No one can have travelled in the Southern States

without having this sad fact forced upon his observation. Over and over

again have I seen features, dark if you will, but which showed

unmistakeably the white man's share in their parentage. Nay, more--I

have seen slaves that in Europe would pass for German blondes. Can

anything be imagined more horrible than a free nation trafficking in the

blood of its co-citizens? Is it not a diabolical premium on iniquity,

that the fruit of sin can be sold for the benefit of the sinner? Though

the bare idea may well nauseate the kind and benevolent among the

Southerners, the proof of parentage is stamped by Providence on the

features of the victims, and their slavery is incontrovertible evidence

that the offspring of Columbia's sons may be sold at human shambles.

Even in Mussulman law, the offspring of the slave girl by her master is

declared free; and shall it be said that the followers of Christ are, in

any point of mercy, behind the followers of the false prophet? My

proposition, then, is, that every slave who is not of pure African

blood, and who has reached, or shall reach, the age of thirty, be

apprenticed to some trade for five years, and then become free; and that

all who shall subsequently be so born, be free from their birth, and of

course, that the mother who is proved thus to have been the victim of

the white man's passion be manumitted as well as her child.

I make no proposal about the spiritual instruction of the slave, as I

believe that as much is given at present as any legislative enactment

would be likely to procure; but I have one more suggestion to make, and

it is one without which I fear any number of acts which might be passed

for the benefit of the slave would lose the greater portion of their

value. That suggestion is, the appointment of a sufficient number of

officers, selected from persons known to be friendly to the slave, to

whom the duty of seeing the enactments strictly carried out should be

delegated.

While ruminating on the foregoing pages, a kind of vision passed before

my mind. I beheld a deputation of Republicans--among whom was one

lady--approaching me. Having stated that they had read my remarks upon

Slavery, I immediately became impressed in their favour, and could not

refuse the audience they requested. I soon found the deputation

consisted of people of totally different views, and consequently each

addressed me separately.

The first was an old gentleman, and a determined advocate of the

institution. He said, "Your remarks are all bosh; the African race were

born slaves, and have been so for centuries, and are fit for nothing

else."--I replied, "I am quite aware of the effect of breeding; we have

a race of dog in England which, from their progenitors of many

successive generations having had their tails cut off in puppyhood, now

breed their species without tails; nay, more--what are all our sporting

dogs, but evidence of the same fact? A pointer puppy stands

instinctively at game, and a young hound will run a fox; take the

trouble, for many generations, to teach the hound to point and the

pointer to run, and their two instincts will become entirely changed.

The fact, sir, is that the African having been bred a slave for so many

generations is one great cause of his lower order of intellect; breed

him free and educate him, and you will find the same result in him as in

the dog."--He was about to reply when another of the deputation rose and

reminded him they had agreed to make but one observation each, and to

receive one answer. I rejoiced at this arrangement, as it saved me

trouble and gave me the last word.

A very touchy little slaveholder next addressed me, saying, "Pray, sir,

why can't you leave us alone, and mind your own business?"--I replied,

"As for leaving you alone, I am quite ready to do so when you have left

the negro alone; but as for exclusively attending to my own business,

that would be far too dull; besides, it is human nature to interfere

with other people's affairs, and I can't go against nature."--He

retired, biting his lip, and as the door closed, I thought I heard the

words "Meddling ass!"--but I wont be sure.

Next came a swaggering bully of a slave-driver, evidently bred in the

North. He said, "This, sir, is a free country; why mayn't every master

wallop his own nigger?"--I thought it best to cut him short; so I said,

"Because, if freedom is perfect, such a permission would involve its

opposite--viz., that every nigger may wallop his own master; and your

antecedents, I guess, might make such a law peculiarly objectionable to

you personally."--He retired, eyeing first me and then his cowhide in a

very significant manner.

The next spokesman was a clerical slaveholder, with a very stiff and

very white neckcloth, hair straight and long, and a sanctified,

reproof-ful voice. "Sir," said he, "why endeavour to disturb an

institution that Scripture sanctions, and which provides so large a

field for the ministrations of kindness and sympathy--two of the most

tender Christian virtues?" A crocodile tear dropped like a full stop to

finish his sentence. Irascibility and astonishment were struggling

within me, when I heard his speech; but memory brought St. Paul to my

aid, who reminded me he had before written certain words to the

Corinthian Church--"Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light;

therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed,"

&e. Thereupon I became calmer, and replied, "Sir, you are perfectly

aware that our Saviour's mission was to the heart of man, and not to the

institutions of man. Did He not instruct his subjugated countrymen to

pay tribute to Caesar? and did He not set the example in his own person?

Did He not instruct his disciples in the same breath, 'Fear God! honour

the king?'--and is it not elsewhere written, 'But I say unto you, that

ye resist not evil?' You are also perfectly aware that the American

colonies refused to pay tribute to their Caesar, refused to honour their

king, and did resist the evil. Now, sir, these things being so, you are

compelled to admit one of two alternatives--either the whole of your

countrymen are rebels against the Most High, and therefore aliens from

God, or else, as I before said, the mission of the Gospel is to the

hearts and not to the institutions of man. I see, sir, by the way you

winced under the term 'rebel,' that you accept the latter alternative.

If, then, it be addressed to the heart of man, it is through that

channel--as it becomes enlarged by those virtues of which you spoke,

kindness and sympathy--that human institutions are to become modified to

suit the growing intelligence and growing wants of the human race, the

golden rule for man's guidance being, Do as you would be done by. Be

kind enough, sir, to look at Mr. Sambo Caesar working under the lash in

a Carolina rice swamp; behold Mrs. Sambo Caesar torn from his bosom, and

working under the same coercive banner in Maryland; and little Master

Pompey, the only pledge of their affections, on his way to Texas. Is not

this a beautiful comment on the Divine command, 'Love thy neighbour as

thyself?' Permit me, sir, with all due respect, to urge you not to rest

satisfied with preaching Christian resignation to the slave, and

Christian kindness to the owner, but to seize every opportunity of

fearlessly asserting that slavery is at variance with the spirit of the

Gospel, and therefore that it behoves all Christians so to modify and

change the laws respecting it, as gradually to lead to its total

extinction. Good morning."--The reverend gentleman, who during the

latter part of my observations had buried his hands in the bottom of his

tail pockets, no sooner saw that I had finished my remarks, than he

hastily withdrew his hands, exhibiting in one a Testament, in the other

a Concordance; he evidently was rampant for controversy, but the next

deputy, who thought I had already devoted an unfair proportion of time

to the minister, reminded him of the regulations, and he was obliged to

retire, another deputy opening the door for him, as both his hands were

full.

The deputy who next rose to address me was accompanied by the lady,

whom, of course, I begged to be seated. The husband--for such he proved

to be--then spoke as follows:--"Sir, my wife and I have been in

possession of a plantation for nearly twenty years. During all that

period the rod has scarcely ever been used, except occasionally to some

turbulent little boy. We have built cottages for our slaves; we allow

them to breed poultry, which we purchase from them; old slaves are

carefully nurtured and exempt from labour; the sick have the best of

medical attendance, and are in many cases ministered to by my wife and

daughter; the practical truths of Christianity are regularly taught to

them; and every slave, I am sure, looks upon me and my family as his

truest friends. This happy state, this patriarchal relationship, your

proposals, if carried out, would completely overthrow." He was then

silent, and his wife bowed an assent to the observations he had made. My

heart was touched with the picture of the little negro paradise which he

had given, and I replied, as mildly as possible, "The sketch you have so

admirably drawn, and every word of which I fully believe, is indeed one

which might dispose me to abandon my proposals for change, did any one

which I had made interfere with the continuance of your benevolent rule,

as long as slavery exists; but I must call your attention to an

important fact which you, I fear, have quite overlooked during your

twenty years of kind rule. To be brief--the cheerful homes of your happy

negro families can afford no possible consolation to the less fortunate

negroes whose wives and children are torn from their bosoms and sold in

separate lots to different parts of the Union; nor will the knowledge

that on your plantation the rod only falls occasionally on some

turbulent child, be any comfort to grown-up negroes and negresses while

writhing under thirty or forty stripes from the cowhide or paddle.

Continue, most excellent people, your present merciful rule; strive to

secure to every negro the same treatment; and if you find that

impossible, join the honourable ranks of the temperate and gradual

abolitionist and colonizer." They listened patiently to my observations,

smiled quietly at the vanity which they thought the last sentence

exhibited, and retired.