“We long to see the day when the law will assert its majesty,
and stop the wanton destruction of life which almost _daily_
occurs within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth. _Men
slaughter each other with almost perfect impunity._ A species
of Common Law has grown up in Kentucky, which, were it written
down, would, in all civilized countries, cause it to be
re-christened, in derision, _the Land of Blood_.”
Such was the official confession of a Slave-Master, Governor of
Kentucky. And here is the official confession made the same year by the
Slave-Master Governor of Alabama:--
“We hear of homicides in different parts of the State
continually, and yet have few convictions, and still fewer
executions. Why do we hear of _stabbings and shootings almost
daily_ in some part or other of our State?”
A land of blood! Stabbings and shootings almost daily! Such is official
language. It was natural that contemporary newspapers should repeat
what found utterance in high places. Here is the confession of a
newspaper in Mississippi:--
“The moral atmosphere in our State appears to be in a
_deleterious and sanguinary condition_. Almost every exchange
paper which reaches us contains _some inhuman and revolting
case of murder or death by violence_.”[83]