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 THE 
 
 A NT I- SLA VERY EXAMINER 
 
 7 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE, 
 
 BETWEEN THE 
 
 ' M^ Hon. F. H. ELMORE, 
 
 ONE OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA DELEGATION IN CONGRESS, 
 
 JAMES G. BIRNEY, 
 
 ONE OF THE SECRETARIES OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 
 
 I • 
 
 N-EW-YORK: ■ 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, 
 
 No. 143 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1838. 
 
 This periodical contains 5 sheets. — Postage under 100 miles, 7 1-2 cts. ; over 100 miles, 13 1-2 cts. 
 
 y^Flease read and circulate. JJX 
 

REMARKS IN EXPLANATION. 
 
 Anti-Slavery Office, New York, May 24, 1838. 
 
 In January, a tract entitled "Why work for the slave?" was issued 
 from this office by the agent for the Cent-a-week Societies. A copy of 
 it was transmitted to the Hon. John C. Calhoun ; — to him, because he has 
 seemed, from the first, more solicitous than the generality of Southern 
 politicians, to possess himself of accurate information about the Anti- 
 Slavery movement. A note written by me accompanied the tract, in- 
 forming Mr. Calhoun, why it was sent to him. 
 
 Not long afterward, the following letter was received from the Hon. 
 F. H. Elmore, of the House of Representatives in Congress. From this 
 and another of his letters just now received, it seems, that the Slave- 
 holding Representatives in Congress, after conferring together, appointed 
 a committee, of their own number, to obtain authentic information of the 
 intentions and progress of the Anti-Slavery associations, — and that Mr. 
 Elmore was selected, as the South Carolina member of the Committee. 
 
 Several other communications have passed between Mr. Elmore and 
 me. They relate, chiefly, however, to the ^transmission and reception 
 of Anti-slavery publications, which he requested to be sent to him,— 
 and to other matters not having any connection with the merits of the 
 main subject. It is, therefore, thought unnecessary to publish them. 
 It may be sufficient to remark of all the communications received from 
 Mr. Elmore — that thoy are characterized by exemplary courtesy and 
 good temper, and that they bear the impress of an educated, refined, 
 and liberal mind. 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 It is intended to circulate this correspondence throughout the whole 
 country. If the information it communicates be important for southern 
 Representatives in Congress, it is not less so for their constituents. 
 The Anti-slavery movement has become so important in a National 
 point of view, that no statesman can innocently remain ignorant of its 
 progress and tendencies. The facts stated in my answer may be relied 
 on, in proportion to the degree of accuracy to which they lay claim ; 
 — the arguments will, of course, be estimated according to their worth 
 
 James G. Birnet. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 Washington City, Feb. 16, 1838. 
 
 To Jas. G. Bimey, Esq., Cor. Sec. A. A. S. Soc. 
 
 Sir : — A letter from you to the Hon. John C. Calhoun, dated 29th 
 January last, has been given to me, by him, in which you say, (in refer- 
 ence to the abolitionists or Anti- Slavery Societies,) " we have nothing 
 to conceal — and should you desire any information as to our procedure, 
 it will be cheerfully communicated on [my] being apprised of your 
 wishes." The frankness of this unsolicited offer indicates a fairness 
 and honesty of purpose, which has caused the present communication, 
 and which demands the same full and frank disclosure of the views with 
 which the subjoined inquiries are proposed. 
 
 Your letter was handed to me, in consequence of a duty assigned me 
 by my delegation, and which requires me to procure all the authentic 
 information I can, as to the nature and intentions of yours and similar 
 associations, in order that we may, if we deem it advisable, lay the in- 
 formation before our people, so that they may be prepared to decide 
 understandingly, as to the course it becomes them to pursue on this all 
 important question. If you " have nothing to conceal," and it is not 
 imposing too much on, what may have been, an unguarded proft'er, I 
 will esteem your compliance as a courtesy to an opponent, and be plea- 
 sed to have an opportunity to make a suitable return. And if, on the 
 other hand, you have the least difficulty or objection, I trust you will not 
 hesitate to withhold the information sought for, as I would not have it, 
 unless as freely given, as it will, if deemed expedient, be freely used. 
 
 I am. Sir, 
 
 Your ob'd't serv't, 
 
 F. H. Elmore, of S. C. 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 Questions for J. G. Birney, Esq., Cor. Sec. A. A. S. Society. 
 
 1 How many societies, affiliated with that of which you are the 
 CorrespomlinfT Secretary, are there in the United States ? And how 
 many numbers belong to them m the aggregate ? 
 
 2. Are there any other societies similar to yours, and not affiliated 
 with it, in the United States ? and how many, and what is the aggregate 
 of their members? 
 
 3. Have you affiliation, intercourse or connection with any similar 
 societies out of the United States, and in what countries ? 
 
 4. Do your or .similar societies exist in the Colleges and other Lite- 
 rary institutions of the non-slaveholding States, and to what extent ? 
 
 5. What do you estimate the numbers of those who co-operate in 
 this matter at ? What proportion do they bear in the population of the 
 Northern states, and what in the Middle non-slaveholding states ? Are 
 the^ increasing, and at what rate ? 
 
 6. What is the object your associations aim at ? does it extend to 
 the abolition of slavery only in the District of Columbia, or in the whole 
 slave country ? 
 
 7. By what means, and under what power, do you propose to carry 
 vour views into enect? 
 
 8. What has been for three years past, the annual income of your 
 societies ? and how is it raised ? 
 
 9. In what way, and to what purposes, do you ajiply these funds? 
 
 10. How many printing presses and periodical publications have you? 
 
 11 To wliat classes of persons do you address your publications, 
 and arc- ihey addressed to the judgment, the imagination, or the feelings? 
 
 1- Do yon propagate your doctrines by any other means than oral 
 and written .liscnssions.-for instance, by prints and pictures in manu- 
 factures-say i.oc-k.'t haudlunbiefs, «fec. I'ray. state the various 
 modes ^ 
 
 rj \re your hopes and expe.-tations increased or lessened by il)e 
 events of the hist year, and, especially, by the action of this Congress ? 
 And will vour .-x.-rtions be relaxed or increased ^ 
 \\ Have you any permanent fund, and how much' 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 Anti-Slavery Offick, New York, March 8, 1838. 
 
 Hon. F. H. Elmore, 
 
 Member of Congress from S. Carolina: 
 
 Sir, — I take pleasure in furnishing the information you have so po- 
 litely asked for, in your letter of the 16th ult., in relation to the Amer- 
 ican Anti-Slavery Society ; — and trust, that this correspondence, by 
 presenting in a sober light, the objects and measures of the society, may 
 contribute to dispel, not only from your own mind, but — if it be diffused 
 throughout the South — from the minds of our fellow-citizens there gen- 
 erally, a great deal of undeserved prejudice and causeless alarm. I 
 cannot hesitate to believe, that such as enter on the examination of its 
 claims to public favour, without bias, will find that it aims intelligently, 
 not only at the promotion of the interests of the slave, but of the master, 
 —not only at the re-animation of the Republican principles of our Con- 
 stitution, but at the establishment of the Union on an enduring basis. 
 
 I shall proceed to state the several questions submitted in your letter, 
 and answer them, in the order in which they are proposed. You ask, — 
 
 "1. How many societies, affiliated with that of which you are corres- 
 ponding secretary, are there in the United States ? And how many mem- 
 bers belong to them in the aggregate ?" 
 
 Answer. — Our anniversaries are held on the second Tuesdays in 
 May. Returns of societies are made only a short time before. In 
 May, 1835, there were 225 auxiliaries reported. In May, 1836, 527. 
 In May, 1837, 1006. Returns for the anniversary in May next have 
 not come in yet. It may, however, be safely said, that the increase, 
 since last May, is not less than 400.* Of late, the multiplication of 
 societies has not kept pace with the progress of our principles. Where 
 these are well received, our agents are not so careful to organize socie- 
 ties as in former times, when our numbers were iew ; societies, now, being 
 not deemed so necessary for the advancement of our cause. The aux- 
 iliaries average not less than 80 members each ; making an aggregate 
 of 112,480. Others estimate the auxiliaries at 1500, and the average 
 of members at 100. I give you, what I believe to be the lowest 
 numbers. 
 
 " 2. Are there any other societies svnilar to yours, and nut affiliated 
 with it in the United States ? And how many, and what is the aggregate 
 of their members V 
 
 * The number reported for May was three hundred and forty, making, in the aggiegate, 1346.— 
 Report for May, 1838. 
 
( 8) 
 
 Answer. — Several societies have been formed in the Methodist con- 
 nection within the last two years, — although most of the Methodists who 
 are abohtionists, are members of societies auxiliary to the American. 
 These societies have been originated by Ministers, and others of 
 weight and influence, who think that their brethren can be more 
 easily persuaded, as a religious body, to aid in the anti-slavery move- 
 ment by this twofold action. None of the large religious denomina- 
 tions bid fairer soon to be on the side of emancipation than the Method- 
 ist. Of the number of the Methodist societies that are not auxiliary, I 
 am not informed. — The Illinois Society comes under the same class. 
 The Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, the corresponding secretary, was slain 
 by a mob, a few days after its organization. It has not held a meeting 
 since ; and I have no data for stating the number of its members. 
 It is supposed not to be large. — Neither is the Delaware Society, 
 organized, a few weeks ago, at Wilmington, auxiliary to the Ameri- 
 can. 1 have no information as to its numbers. — The Manumission 
 Society in this city, formed in 1785, with John Jay its first, and 
 Alexander Hamilton its second president, might, from its name, be 
 supposed to be aflUiated with the American. Originally, its object, so 
 far as regarded the slaves, and those illegally held in bondage in this 
 state, was, in a great measure, similar. Slavery being extinguished in 
 New-York -in 1827, as a state system, the ctlbrts of the Manumission 
 Society are li'mited now to the rescue, from kidnappers and others, 
 of such persons as are really free by the laws, but who have been 
 reduced to slavery. Of the old Abolition societies, organized in 
 the lime, and under the influence of Franklin and Rush and Jay, and 
 the most active of their coadjutors, but few remain. Their declension 
 may be ascribed to this defect, — they did not inflexibly ask for imme- 
 diate emancipation.^-The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, formed 
 in 1789, with Dr. Franklin, president, and Dr. Rush, secretary, is 
 still in existence — but unconnected with the American Society. Some 
 of the most active and benevolent members of Iwth the associations last 
 named, are members of the American Society. Besides the societies 
 already mentioned, there may be m the country a few. others of anti- 
 slavery iiuMH! ; l)ut thcv are of small note and efliciuncy, and are 
 uncouiHcicd with this. 
 
 " 3. Have you nffiliation, intercourse, or connection with ant/ similar 
 societies out of the I'intid States, miil in tchat countries ?'^ 
 
 A.\swi:k. — A fi'W societies \v,i\i' spontaneously sprung uji in Can- 
 ada. Twfi have (ieciared themselves auxiliary to the American. We 
 
{ 9 ) 
 
 have an agent — a native of the United States — in Upper Canada ; 
 not with a view to the organization of societies, but to the moral 
 and intellectual elevation of the Ten thousand colored people there ; 
 most of whom have escaped from slavery in this Republic, to enjoy 
 freedom under the protection of a Monarchy. In Great Britain there 
 are numerous Anti-slavery Societies, whose particular object, of late, 
 has been, to bring about the abolition of the Apprentice-system, as 
 established by the emancipation act in her slaveholding colonies. In 
 England, there is a society whose professed object is, to abolish slavery 
 throughout the world. Of the existence of the British societies, you 
 are, doubtless, fully aware ; as also of the fact, that, in Britain, the great 
 mass of the people are opposed to slavery as it existed, a little while 
 ago, in their own colonies, and as it exists now in the United States. — 
 In France, the " French Society for the Abolition of Slavery" 
 was founded in 1834. I shall have the pleasure of transmitting to you 
 two pamphlets, containing an account of some of its proceedings ; from 
 which you will learn, that, the Due de Broglie is its presiding officer, 
 and many of the most distinguished and influential of the public men of 
 that country are members. — In Hayti, also, " The Haytian Abolition 
 Society" was formed in May, 1836. 
 
 These are all the foreign societies of which I have knowledge. 
 They are connected with the American by no formal afliliation. The 
 only intercourse between them and it, is, that which springs up spon- 
 taneously among those of every land who sympathize Avith Humanity 
 in her conflicts with {Slavery. 
 
 " 4. Do your or similar societies exist in the Colleges and other Literary 
 institutions of the non-slaveholdivg states, and to lohat extent V 
 
 Answer. — Strenuous efforts have been made, and they are still being 
 made, by those who have the direction of most of the literary and theo- 
 logical institutions in the free states, to bar out our principles and doc- 
 trines, and prevent the formation of societies among the students. To 
 this course they have been prompted by various, and possibly, in their 
 view, good motives. One of them, I think it not uncharitable to say, 
 is, to conciliate the wealthy of the south, that they may send their sons 
 to the north, to swell the college catalogues. Neither do I think it 
 uncharitable to say, that in this we have a manifestation of that Aristo- 
 cratic pride, which, feeling itself honored by having entrusted to its 
 charge the sons of distant, opulent, and distinguished planters, fails not 
 to dull everything like sympathy for those whose unpaid toil supplies 
 the means so lavishly expended in educating southern youth at north- 
 
 2 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 ern colleges. These enbrts at suppression or restraint, on the part of 
 Faculties and Boards of Trustees, have heretofore succeeded to a con- 
 siderable extent. Anti-Slavery Societies, notwithstanding, have been 
 formed in a few of our most distinguished colleges and theological 
 seminaries. Public opinion is beginning to call for a relaxation of 
 restraints and impositions ; they are yielding to its demands ; and now, 
 for the most part, sympathy for the slave may be manifested by our 
 generous college youth, in the institution of Anti-Slavery Societies, 
 Avithout any downright prohibition by their more politic teachers. Col- 
 lege societies will probably increase more rapidly hereafter ; as, in 
 addition to the removal or relaxation of former restraints, just referred 
 to, the murder of JMr. Lovejoy, the assaults on the Freedom of speech 
 and of the press, the prostration of the Right of petition in Congress, 
 &c, &c, all believed to have been perpetrated to secure slavery from 
 the scrutiny that the intelligent world is demanding, have greatly aug- 
 mented the number of college abolitionists. They are, for the most 
 part, the diligent, the intellectual, the religious of the students. United 
 in societies, their influence is generally extensively felt in the sur- 
 rounding region ; dispersed, it seems scarcely less eflective. An 
 instance of the latter deserves particular notice. 
 
 The Trustees and Faculty of one of our theological and literary 
 institutions united for the suppression of anti-slavery action among the 
 students. The latter refused to cease pleading for the slave, as he 
 could not plead for himself. They left the institution ; were providen- 
 tially dispersf d over various parts of the country, and made useful, in a 
 remarkable manner, in advancing the cause of humanity and liberty. 
 One of the.se dismissed students, the son of a .slaveholder, brought up 
 in the midst of slavery, and well acquainted with its pecuharities, suc- 
 ceeded in persuading a pious father to emancipate his fourteen slaves. 
 After lecturing a long time with signal success — having contracted a 
 disease of the throat, which prevented him from further prosecuting his 
 labors in this way — he visited the West Indies, eighteen months ago, in 
 company with another gentleman of the most ample qualifications, to 
 note tlie operation of tin; British emancipation act. Together, they 
 collected a mass of facts — now in a course of publication — that will 
 astonish, as it ought to delight, the whole south ; for it shows, conclu- 
 sivflv, that i.MMj;niATK emancipation is the best, the safest, the most 
 protilablo, an it is the most just and honorable, of all emancipations.* 
 
 Another of these dismissed students is one of the secretaries of this 
 ?ocietv. He has, for a long time, discharged its arduous and responsi- 
 
 • See AppeniiiT, A. 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 ble duties with singular ability. To his qualitications as secretary, he 
 adds those of an able and successful lecturer. He was heard, several 
 times, before the joint committee of the Legislature of Massachusetts, a 
 year ago, prior to the report of that committee, and to the adoption, by 
 the Senate and House of Representatives, of their memorable resolu- 
 tions in favor of the Power of Congress to abolish slavery in the District 
 of Columbia, and of the Right of petition. 
 
 " 5. What do you estimate the number of those icho co-operate in the 
 matter at ? What proportion do they hear in the population of the north- 
 ern states, and what in the middle non-slaveholding states ? Are they 
 increasing, and at what rate ?" 
 
 Answer. — Those who stand ready to join our societies on the first 
 suitable occasion, may be set down as equal in number to those who 
 are now actually members. Those who are ready fully to co-operate 
 with iis in supporting the freedom of speech and the press, the right of 
 petition, &c, may be estimated at double, if not treble, the joint num- 
 bers of those who already are members, and those who are ready to 
 become members. The Recording secretary oi the Massachusetts 
 Society stated, a few weeks ago, that the abolitionists in the various 
 minor societies in that state were one in thirty of the whole population. 
 The proportion of abolitionists to the whole population is greater in 
 Massachusetts than in any other of the free states, except Vermont, — 
 where the spirit of liberty has almost entirely escaped the corruptions 
 which slavery has infused into it in most of her sister states, by means 
 of commercial and other intercourse with them. 
 
 In Maine, not much of systematic effort has, as yet, been put forth to 
 enlighten her population as to our principles and proceedings. I attend- 
 ed the anniversary of the State Society on the 31st of Januar\', at Au- 
 gusta, the seat of government. The Ministers of the large religious 
 denominations were beginning, as I was told, to unite with us — and 
 Politicians, to descry the ultimate prevalence of our principles. The 
 impression I received was, that much could, and that much would, 
 speedily be done. 
 
 In New Hampshire, more labor has been expended, and a greater 
 effect produced. Public functionaries, who have been pleased to speak 
 in contemptuous terms of the progress of abolitionism, both in Maine 
 and New Hampshire, will, it is thought, soon be made to see, through 
 a medium not at all deceptive, the grossness of their error. 
 
 In Rhode Island, our principles are fast pervading the great body 
 of the people. This, it is thought, is the only one of the free states, in 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 which the subject of abolition 1ms been fully introduced, which has not 
 been disgraced by a mob, triumphant, for the time being, over the right 
 of the people to discuss any, and every, matter in which they feel inter- 
 ested. A short time previous to the last election of members of Con- 
 gress, questions, embodying our views as to certain political measures, 
 were propounded to the several candidates. Respectful answers, 
 and, in the main, conformable with our views, were returned. I shall 
 transmit you a newspaper containing both the questions and the 
 answers.* 
 
 In Connecticut, there has not been, as yet, a great expenditure of 
 abolition effort. Although the moral tone of this state, so far as slavery 
 is concerned, has been a good deal weakened by the influence of her 
 multiform connexions with the south, yet the energies that have been 
 put forth to reanimate her ancient and lofty feelings, so far from proving 
 fruitless, have been followed by the most encouraging results. Evi- 
 dence of this is found in the faithful administration of the laws by judges 
 and juries. In May last, a slave, who had been biought from Georgia to 
 Hartford, successfully asserted her freedom under the laws of Con- 
 necticut. The cause was elaborately argued before the Supreme 
 court. The most eminent counsel were employed on both sides. 
 And it is but a few days, since two anti-abolition rioters (the onlj'' 
 ones on trial) wore convicted before the Superior court in New 
 Haven, and sentenced to pay a fine of twenty dollars each, and 
 to be imprisoned six months, the longest term authorized by the law. 
 A convention, for the organization of a State Society, was held in the 
 city of Hartford on the last day of February. It was continued three 
 days. The call for it (which I send you) was signed by nearly eighteen 
 HUNDRED of the citizcus of that state. Seventeen hundred, as I was 
 informed, are legal voters. The proceedings of the convention were 
 of the most harmonious and animating character.! 
 
 In New York, our cause is evidcmly advancing. The state is rap- 
 idly coming up to the high ground of principle, so far as universal 
 liberty is concerned, on which the aliolilionists would place her. Seve- 
 ral large Anli-Slavcry conventions have lately been held in the west- 
 ern counties. Their reports are of ili*- most encouraging character. 
 Nor is the change more remarkable in the state than in this city. Less 
 llian five years ago, a few of the citizens advertised a meeting, to be 
 
 • Since the nbovc was wrillpn, at the lusl election in this stiite for governor and lieutenant 
 governor, the abolitlonislh xntrrrn/^attd the Kt'xtleinen who stood eandidatos for the.so offices. 
 Two of thorn nnKworod roKpectfully, and conformably to the views of the abohiionists. Their 
 opponents nogloctod to answer at all. The first were elected.— See Appendix, B. 
 
 t Soo Appendix, C. 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 held in Clinton Hall, to form a City Anti-Slavery Society. A mob 
 prevented their assembling at the place appointed. They repaired, pri- 
 vately, to one of the churches. To this they were pursued by the mob, 
 and routed from it, though not before they had completed, in a hasty 
 manner, the form of organization. In the summer of 1834, some of the 
 leading political and commercial journals of the city were enabled to 
 stir up the mob against the persons and property of the abolitionists, 
 and several of the most prominent were compelled to leave the city 
 for safety ; their houses were attacked, broken into, and, in one 
 instance, the furniture publicly burnt in the street. A'oiv, things are 
 much changed. Many of the merchants and mechanics arc favorable 
 to our cause ; gentlemen of the bar, especially the younger and more 
 growing ones, are directing their attention to it ; twenty-one of our city 
 ministers are professed abolitionists ; the churches are beginninf to be 
 more accessible to us ; our meetings are held in them openly, attract 
 large numbers, are unmolested ; and the abolitionists sometimes hear 
 themselves commended in other assemblies, not only for their honest 
 intentions, but for their respectability and intelligence. 
 
 New Jersey has, as yet, no State Society, and the number of avow- 
 ed abolitionists is small. In some of the most populous and influen- 
 tial parts of the state, great solicitude exists on the subject ; and the 
 call for lecturers is beginning to be earnest, if not importunate. 
 
 Pennsylvania has advanced to our principles just in proportion to 
 the labor that has been bestowed, by means of lectures and publications, 
 in enlightening her population as to our objects, and the evils and dan- 
 gers impending over the whole country, from southern slavery. The 
 act of her late Convention, in depriving a large number of their own 
 constituents (the colored people) of the elective franchise, heretofore 
 possessed by them without any allegation of its abuse on their part, 
 would seem to prove an unpropitious state of public sentiment. We 
 would neither deny, nor elude, the force of such evidence. But when 
 this measure of the convention is brought out and unfolded in its true 
 light — shown to be a party measure to bring succor from the south — 
 a mere following in the wake of North Carolina and Tennessee, who 
 led the way, in their new constitutions, to this violation of the rights of 
 their colored citizens, that they might the more firmly compact the 
 wrongs of the enslaved — a pernicious, a profitless violation of great 
 principles — a vulgar defiance of the advancing spirit of humanity and 
 justice — a relapse into the by-gone darkness of a barbarous age — we 
 apprehend from it no serious detriment to our cause. 
 
 Ohio has been well advanced. In a short lirae, she will be found 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 among the most prominent of the states on the right side in the contest 
 now going on between the spirit of liberty embodied in tlie free insti- 
 tutions of the north, and the s]nrit of slavery pervading the south. Her 
 Constitution publishes the most honorable reprobation of slavery of 
 any other in the Union. In providing for its own revision or amend- 
 ment, it declares, that no alteration of it shall ever take place, so us to 
 introduce slavery or involuntary servitude into the state. Her Supreme 
 court is intelligent and firm. It has lately decided, virtually, against 
 the constitutionality of an act of the Legislature, made, in ellect, to 
 favor southern slavery by the persecution of the colored people within 
 her bounds. She has, already, abolitionists enough to turn the scale in 
 her elections, and an abundance of excellent material for augmenting the 
 number. 
 
 In Indiana but little has been done, except by the diflusion of our 
 publications. But even with these appliances, several auxiliary socie- 
 ties have been organized.* 
 
 In Michigan, the leaven of abolitionism pervades the whole popula- 
 tion. The cause is well sustained by a high order of talent ; and we 
 trust soon to see the influence of it in all her public acts. 
 
 In Illinois, the murder of Mr. Lovejoy has multiplied and continued 
 abolitionists, and led to the formation of many societies, which, in ali 
 probability, would not have been formed so soon, had not that event 
 taken place. 
 
 I am not possessed of sufficient data for stating, with precision, what 
 proportion the abolitionists bear in the population of the Northern and 
 Middle non-slaveholding states respectively. AVithin the last ten 
 months, I have travelled extensively in both these geographical divi- 
 sions I have had whatever advantage this, assisted by a strong inter- 
 est in the general cause, and abundant conversations with the best 
 informed abolitionists, could give, for making a fair estimate of their 
 numbers. In the Northern states I should say, they are one in ten — 
 in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, one in twenty — of the 
 whole adult population. That the abolitionists have nudtiplied, anil 
 that they are still multi])lying rapidly, no one acquainted with the sniall- 
 ness of their numbers at their first organization a few years ago, and 
 who has kept his eyes about him since, need ask. That they have not, 
 tlms far, l)cen more successful, is owing to the vastncss of the under- 
 talung, and the dillicidties with whicli tluy have had to (.•ouicnil. from 
 
 ♦ Tlif) first I.cgiNlntive movcmont against llio annexation of Tcxn-s to the Union, was made, 
 It is iK.liovt'd, ill Indiaiiu. .So early as Doccnilu'r, lH:tfi, .-i joint resolution passf<l its second read- 
 ing III Olio ur both lirttiicUuK ot the Legislature. Mow ii wum ultiuiatcly dibposcd ut, is not knuvMi. 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 comparatively limited means, for presenting their measures and objects, 
 with the proper developments and explanations, to the great mass of 
 the popular mind. The progress of their principles, under the same 
 amount of , intelligence in presenting them, and where no peculiar causes 
 of prejudice exist in the minds of the hearers, is generally proportioned 
 to the degree of religious and intellectual worth prevailing in the differ- 
 ent sections of the country where the subject is introduced. I know 
 no instance, in which any one notoriously profane or intemperate, or 
 licentious, or of openly irreligious practice, has professed, cordially to 
 have received our principles. 
 
 "6. What is the object your associations aim at? Docs it extend to 
 aholitio7i of slavery only in the District of Columbia, or in the whole slave 
 country .''" 
 
 AxswER. — This question is fully answered in the second Article of 
 the Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which is in 
 these words : — 
 
 " The object of this society is the entire abolition of slavery in the 
 United Slates. While it admits that each state, in which slavery exists, 
 has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right to 
 legislate in regard to its abolition in said state, it shall aim to convince 
 all our fellovi^-citizens, by arguments addressed to their understandings 
 and consciences, that slaveholding is a heinous crime in the sight of 
 God, and that the duty, safety, and best interests of all concerned 
 require its immediate abandonment, without expatriation. The society 
 will also endeavor, in a constitutional way, to influence Congress to put 
 an end to the domestic slave-trade, and to abolish slavery in all those 
 portions of our common country which come under its control, espe- 
 cially in the District of Columbia ; and likewise to prevent the exten- 
 sion of it to any state that may hereafter be admitted to the Union." 
 
 Other objects, accompanied by a pledge of peace, are stated in the 
 third article of the Constitution, — 
 
 " Tliis Society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the 
 people of color, by encouraging their intellectual, moral, and religious 
 iir.piovement, and by removing public prejudice, — that thus they nuiy, 
 according to their intellectual and moral worth, share an equality with 
 tlie v/hites of civil iiud religious privileges ; but this Society will never 
 in any v/ay, countenance the oppressed in vindicnting their rights by 
 resorting to physical force." 
 
 " 7. B)j what means and by what power do you propose to carry your 
 incirs into effect V 
 
( 16 ) 
 
 Answer. — Our " means" are the Truth, — the " Power' under whose 
 guidance we propose to carry our views into effect, is, the Almighty. 
 Confiding in these means, when du-ected by the spirit and wisdom of 
 Him, who has so made them as to act on the hearts of men, and so con- 
 stituted the hearts of men as to be affected by them, we expect, 1. To 
 bring the Church of this country to repentance for the sin of Oppres- 
 sion. Not only the Southern portion of it that has been the oppressor 
 — but the Northern, that has stood by, consenting, for half a century, to 
 the wrong. 2. To bring our countrymen to see, that for a nation to 
 persist in injustice is, but to rush on its own ruin ; that to do justice is 
 the highest expediency — to love mercy its noblest ornament. In other 
 countries, slavery has sometimes yielded to fortuitous circumstances, 
 or been extinguished by physical force. We strive to win for truth the 
 victory over error, and on the broken fragments of slavery to rear for 
 her a temple, that shall reach to the heavens, and toward which all na- 
 tions shall worship. It has been said, that the slaveholders of the South 
 will not yield, nor hearken to the influence of the truth on this subject. 
 We believe it not — nor give we entertainment to the slander that such 
 an unworthy defence of them implies. We believe them ?nc7i, — that 
 they have understandings that arguments will convince — consciences to 
 which the appeals of justice and mercy will not be made in vain. If 
 our principles be true — our arguments right — if slaveholders be men — 
 and God have not delivered over our guilty country to the retributions 
 of the oppressor, not only of the stranger but of the native — our 
 success is certain. 
 
 " 8. What has been for three years past, the anmtal income of your so- 
 cieties ? And how has it been raised ? 
 
 Answer. — The annual income of the societies at large, it would be 
 impossible to ascertain. The total receipts of this society, for the year 
 ending 9th of May, 1835 — leaving out odd nmnbers — was $10,000; 
 for the year ending 9th of May, 1837, S25,0U0 ; and for the year en- 
 ding 11th of May, 1836, $38,000. From the last date, up to this — not 
 quite ten months — there has been paid into the treasury the sum of 
 $30,000.' These sums are independent of what is raised by state and 
 auxiliary societies, for expenditure within their own particular bounds, 
 and for their own particular exigencies. Also, of tlie sums paid in sub- 
 scriptions fur the suj)port of newspapers, and for the printing (by auxil- 
 iaries,) of periodicals, pamphlets, and essays, either for sab; at low 
 
 * Tlie report for Mny stntcs the sum receiviil, during tlin previous yc.ir, al $44,000. 
 
( 1-^ ) 
 
 prices, or for gratuitous distribution. The moneys contributed in these 
 various modes would make an aggregate greater, perhaps, than is paid 
 into the treasury of any one of the Benevolent societies of the country. 
 Most of the wealthy contributors of former years suffered so severely in 
 the money-pressure of this, that they have been unable to contribute much 
 to our funds. This has made it necessary to call for aid on the great 
 body of abolitionists — persons, generally, in moderate circumstances. 
 They have well responded to the call, considering the hardness of the 
 times. To show you the extremes that meet at our treasury, — General 
 Sewall, of Maine, a revolutionary officer, eighty-five years old — William 
 Philbrick, a little boy near Boston, not four years old — and a colored 
 woman, who makes her subsistence by selling apples in the streets in 
 this city, lately sent in their respective sums to assist in promoting the 
 emancipation of the " poor slave." 
 
 All contributions of whatever kind are voluntary. 
 
 " 9. In what loay, and to what purposes do you apply these funds .'" 
 
 Answer. — They are used in sustainhig the society's office in this 
 city — in paying lecturers and agents of various kinds — in upholding the 
 press — in printing books, pamphlets, tracts, &c, containing expositions 
 of our principles — accounts of our progress — refutations of objections 
 — and disquisitions on points, scriptural, constitutional, political, legal, 
 economical, as they chance to arise and become important. In this 
 office three secretaries are employed in diflerent departments of duty ; 
 one editor ; one publishing agent, with an assistant, and two or three 
 young men and boys, for folding, directing, and despatching papers, exe- 
 cuting errands, &c. The business of the society has increased so much 
 of late, as to make it necessary, in order to ensure the proper despatch 
 of it, to employ additional clerks for the particular exigency. Last 
 year, the society had in its service about sixty " permanent agents." 
 This year, the number is considerably diminished, The deficiency 
 has been more than made up by creating a large number of " Local" 
 agents — so called, from the fact, that being generally Professional men, 
 lawyers or physicians in good practice, or Ministers with congregations, 
 they are confined, for the most part, to their respective neighborhoods. 
 Some of the best minds in our country are thus engaged. Their labors 
 have not only been eminently successful, but have been rendered at but 
 small charge to the society ; they receiving only their travelling expen- 
 ses, whilst employed in lecturing and forming societies. In the case of 
 a minister, there is the additional expense of supplying his pulpit while 
 absent on the business of his agency, However, in many instances, 
 
 3 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 these agents, being in easy circumstances, make no charge, even for 
 
 their expenses. 
 
 In making appointments, the executive committee have no regard to 
 party discrimination. This will be fully understood, when it is stated, 
 that on a late occasion, two of our local agents were the candidates of 
 their respective poUtical parties for the office of Secretary of State for 
 the state of Vermont. 
 
 It ought to be stated here, that two of the most effective advocates 
 of the anti-slavery cause are females— the Misses Grimke— natives of 
 South Carolina— brought up in the midst of the usages of slavery— most 
 intelligently acquainted with the merits of the system, and qualiiiod, in 
 an eminent degree, to communicate their views to others in pubhc ad- 
 dresses. They are not only the advocates of the slave at iteir own 
 charge, but they actually contribute to the funds of the societies, So 
 successfully have they recommended the cause of emancipation to the 
 crowds that attended their lectures during the last year, that they were 
 permitted on three several occasions public ally to address the joint com- 
 mittee (on slavery) of the Massachusetts Legislature, now in session, on 
 the interesting matters that occupy their attention. 
 
 "10 How many printing-presses and periodical publications have you ? 
 Answer.— We own no press. Our publications are all printed by 
 contract. The Em.^xcipator and Human Rights are the organs of 
 the Executive Committee. The first (which you have seen,) is a large 
 sheet, is published weekly, and employs almost exclusively the time of 
 the gentleman who edits it. Human Rights is a monthly sheet of smal- 
 ler size, and is edited by one of the secretaries. The increasing inter- 
 est that is fast manifesting itself in the cause of emancipation and its 
 kindred subjects will, in all probability, before long, call for the more 
 frequent publication of one or both of these papers.— The Anti-Slave- 
 ry Magazine, a quarterly, was commenced in October, 1835, and con- 
 tinued through two years. It has been iuleimitted, only to make the 
 necessary arrangements for issuing it on a more extended scale.— It is 
 proposed to give it size enough to admit the amplest discussions that 
 we or our opponents may desire, and to give t/inn a fnll share of Us 
 room— in fme, to make it, in form and merit, what the importance ot 
 the subject calls for. I send vuu a copy of the Prospectus for the new 
 series.— The Anti-Slavekv R.:(<.ki., published for three years as 
 a monthlv, has been discontinued as snr/,, and it will be issued hcre- 
 aft.r, onlv as occasion may re.piire.— TiiK Slave's Friend, a small 
 monthly tract, of neat api.earance, intended principally for children and 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 young persons, has been issued for several years. It is replete with 
 facts relating to slavery, and with accounts of the hair-breadth escapes 
 of slaves from their masters and pursuers that rarely fail to impart the 
 most thrilling interest to its little readers. — Besides these, there is the 
 Anti-Slavery Examiner, in which are published, as the times call 
 for them, our larger essays partaking of a controversial character, 
 such as Smith's reply to the Rev. Mr. Smylie — Grimk^'s letter and 
 " Wythe." By turning to page 32 of our Fourth Report (included in 
 your order for books, &c,) you will find, that in the year ending 11th 
 May, the issues from the press were — bound volumes, 7,877 — Tracts 
 and Pamphlets, 47,250 — Circulars, &c, 4,100 — Prints, 10,490 — Anti- 
 Slavery Magazine, 9000 — Slave's Friend, 131,050 — Human Rights, 
 189,400 — Emancipator, 217,000. These are the issues of the Ameri- 
 can Anti-Slavery Society, from their office in this city. Other publi- 
 cations of similar character are issued by State Societies or individuals 
 — the Liberator, in Boston; Herald of Freedom, in Concord, N. H. ; 
 Zion's Watchman and the Colored American in this city. The 
 latter is conducted in the editorial, and other departments, by colored 
 citizens. You can judge of its character, by a few numbers that I 
 send to you. Then, there is the Friend of Man, in Utica, in this 
 state. The National Enquirer, in Philadelphia;* the Christian' 
 Witness, in Pittsburgh ; the Philanthropist, in Cincinnati. — All 
 these are sustained by the friends, and devoted almost exclusively to 
 the cause, of emancipation. Many of the Religious journals that do not 
 make emancipation their main object have adopted the sentiments of 
 abolitionists, and aid in promoting them. The Alton Observer, edited 
 by the late Mr. Lovejoy, was one of these. 
 
 From the data I have, I set down the newspapers, as classed above, 
 at upwards of one hundred. Here it may also be stated, that the presses 
 which print the abolition journals above named, throw off besides, a 
 great variety of other anti-slavery matter, in the form of books, pamph- 
 lets, single sheets, &c, &c, and that, at many of the principal com- 
 mercial pohits throughout the free states, Depositories are established, 
 at which our publications of every sort are kept for sale. A large and 
 fast increasing number of the Political journals of the country have be- 
 come, within the last two years, if not the avowed supporters of our 
 cause, well inclined to it. Formerly, it was a common thing for most 
 of the leading political ;)ar«y-papers, especially in the large cities, to 
 
 *The National Enquirer, edited by Benjamin Lundy, has been converted into the Pennsyl- 
 vania Freeman, edited by John G. Whittier. Mr. Lundy proposes to Usue the Gbnius of Uni- 
 versal Emancipation, in Illinois. 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 speak of the abolitionists in terms signally disrespectful and offensive. 
 Except in rare instances, and these, it is thought, only where they are 
 largely subsidized by southern patronage, it is not so now. The deser- 
 tions that are taking place from their ranks will, in a short time, render 
 their position undesirable for any, who aspire to gain, or influence, or 
 reputation in the i\orth. 
 
 "11. To what clusx of persons do you address your publications — and 
 are they addressed to the judgment, the imagination, or the feelings ?" 
 
 Answer. — They are intended for the great mass of intelligent mind, 
 both in the free and in the slave slates. They partake, of course, of 
 the intellectual peculiarities of the diflerent authors. Jay's " Inquiry" 
 and Mrs. Child's " Appeal" abound in facts — are dispassionate, inge- 
 nious, argumentative. The " Bible against Slavery," by the most 
 careful and laborious research, has struck from slavery the prop, which 
 careless Annotators, (writing, unconscious of the influence, the prevailing 
 system of slavery throughout the Christian world exercised on their own 
 minds,) have admitted was furnished for it in the Scriptures. " Wythe" 
 by a pains-taking and lucid adjustment of facts in the history of the Gov- 
 ernment, both before and after the adoption of the Constitution, and with 
 a rigor of logic, that cannot, it is thought, be successfully encountered, 
 has put to flight forever with unbiased minds, every doubt as to the 
 " Power of Congress over the District of Columbia.'' 
 
 There are among the" abolitionists. Poets, and by the acknowledg- 
 ment of their opponents, poets of no mean name too — who, as the use 
 of poets is, do address themselves often — as John G. Whittier does 
 always — powerfully to the imagination and feelings of their readers. 
 
 Our publications cannot be classed according to any particular style 
 or quality of composition. They may characterized generally, as well 
 suited to aficct the public mind — to rouse into healthful activity the 
 conscience of this nation, stupified, torpid, almost dead, in relation to 
 Hu.MAN Rights, tlie lii,s;li tlioiiu' of which they treat! 
 
 It has often been alleged, that our writings appeal to the worst pas- 
 sions of the slaves, and that they are placed in tiieir hands with a view 
 to stir them to revolt. Neither charge has any foundation in truili to 
 rest upon. The first finds no support in the tenor of the writings them- 
 selves ; the last ought forever to be abandoned, in the absence of any 
 single well authenticated instance of their having been conveyed by 
 abolitionists to slaves, or of their having been even found in their pos- 
 session. To instigate the slaves to revolt, as the means of obtaining 
 their liberty, would prove ;i lack of wisdom and honesty that none would 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 impute to abolitionists, except such as are unacquainted with their cha- 
 racter. Revolt would be followed by the sure destruction, not only of 
 all the slaves who might be concerned in it, but of multitudes of the 
 innocent. Moreover, the abolitionists, as a class, are religious — they 
 favor peace, and stand pledged in their constitution, before the country 
 and heaven, to abide in peace, so far as a forcible vnulicatiou of the right 
 of the slaves to their freedom is concerned. Further still, no small 
 number of them deny the right of defence, either to individuals or nations, 
 even when forcibly and wrongfully attacked. This disagreement among 
 ourselves on this single point — of which our adversaries are by no 
 means ignorant, as they often throw it reproachfully in our teeth — would 
 forever prevent concert in anj^ scheme that looked to instigating servile 
 revolt. If there be, in all our ranks, one, who — personal danger out of 
 the question — would excite the slaves to insurrection and massacre, or 
 who would not be swift to reveal the earliest attempt to concoct such an 
 iniquity — I say, on my honor as a man, on my obligations as a Chris- 
 tian, he is unknown to me. 
 
 Yet it ought not to be matter of surprise to abolitionists, that the South 
 should consider them " fanatics," " incendiaries," " cut-throats," and 
 call them so too. The South has had their character reported to them 
 by the North, by those who are their neighbors, who, it was supposed, 
 knew, and would speak the truth, and the truth only, concerning them. 
 It would, 1 apprehend, be unavailing for abolitionists now to enter on 
 any formal vindication of their character from charges that can be so 
 easily repeated after every refutation. False and fraudulent as they 
 know thjm to bo, they must be content to live under them till the con- 
 summation of the work of Freedom shall prove to the master that they 
 have been Ms friends, as well as the friends of the slave. The mis- 
 chief of these charges has fallen on the South — the malice is to be 
 placed to the credit of the North. 
 
 "12. Do you propagate your doctrines hy any other means than oral and 
 written discussions — -for instance, by prints and pictures in manufactures — 
 say of pocket-handkerchief s , calicoes, <SfC ? Pray, state the various modes ?" 
 
 Answkr. — Two or three years ago, an abolitionist of this city pro- 
 cured to be manufactured, at his own charge, a small lot of children's 
 pocket-handkerchiefs, impressed with anti-slavery pictures and mot- 
 toes. I have no recollection of having seen any of them but once. 
 None such, I believe, are now to be found, or 1 would send you a sam- 
 ple. If any manufactures of the kinds mentioned, or others similar to 
 them, are in existence, they have been produced independently of the 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 agency of this society. It is thought that none such exist, unless the 
 following should be supposed to fall within the terms of the inquiry. 
 Female abolitionists often unite in sewing societies. They meet 
 together, usually once a week or fortnight, and labor through the after- 
 noon, with their own hands, to furnish means for advancing the cause 
 of the slave. One of the company reads passages from the Bible, or 
 some religious book, whilst the others are engaged at their work. The 
 articles they prepare, especially if they be of the " fancy" kind, are 
 often ornamented with handsomely executed emblems, underwritten 
 with appropriate mottoes. The picture of a slave kneeling (such as you 
 will see impressed on one of the sheets of this letter) and supplicating 
 in the words, "AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER," is an 
 example. The mottoes or sentences are, however, most generally 
 selected from the Scriptures ; either appealing to human sympathy in 
 behalf of human sulTering, or breathing forth God's tender compassion 
 for the oppressed, or proclaiming, in thunder tones, his avenging justice 
 on the oppressor. A few quotations will show their general character : — 
 
 " Blessed is he that considereth the poor." 
 
 " Defend the poor and fatherless ; do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the 
 poor and the needy ; rid him out of the hand of the wicked." 
 
 " Open thy mouth for the dumb, plead the cause of the poor and needy." 
 
 "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." 
 
 " First, be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." 
 
 "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself." 
 
 " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 " For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth ; the poor also, and him that hath no 
 helper." 
 
 " The Lord looseth the prisoners ; the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down ; the 
 Lord preserveth the strangers." 
 
 " He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive^ , 
 to set at liberty them that are bruised." 
 
 " For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith 
 the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that putVeth at him." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 "The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed." 
 
 " Rob not the ])0or beca\ise he is poor, neitlier oppress the alflicted in the gate ; for 
 the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them." 
 
 " And I will conic near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against 
 those that o|)presh tiie hireling in liis wages, the widow and llic fatlicrless, and tluii turn 
 aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of iiosts." 
 
 " Wo unto him that buiideth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by 
 wrong ; that u»eth his neighbor's servico wiiiiout wages, and giveth him not for his 
 work." 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 Fairs, for the sale of articles fabricated by the hands of female 
 abolitionists, and recommended by such pictures and sentences as 
 those quoted above, are held in many of our cities and large towns. 
 Crowds frequent them to purchase ; hundreds of dollars are thus real- 
 ized, to be appropriated to the anti-slavery cause ; and, from the cheap 
 rate at which the articles are sold, vast numbers of them are scattered 
 far and wide over the country. Besides these, if we except various 
 drawings or pictures on paper, (samples of which were put up in the 
 packages you ordered a few days ago,) such as the Slave-market in the 
 District of Columbia, with Members of congress attending it — views of 
 slavery in the South — a Lynch court in the slave-states — the scourg- 
 ing of Mr. Dresser by a vigilance committee in the public square of 
 Nashville — the plundering of the post-office in Charleston, S. C, and 
 the conflagration of part of its contents, &c, &c, I am apprised of no 
 other means of propagating our doctrines than by oral and written 
 discussions. 
 
 " 13. Are your hopes and expectations of success increased or lessened 
 by the events of the last year, and especially by the action of this Con- 
 gress 1 And will your exertions be relaxed or increased ' 
 
 Answer. — The events of the last year, including the action of the 
 present Congress, are of the same character with the events of the 
 eighteen months which immediately preceded it. In the question 
 before us, they may be regarded as one series. I would say, answer- 
 ing your interrogatory generally, that none of them, however unpropi- 
 tious to the cause of the abolitionists they may appear, to those who 
 look at the subject from an opposite point to the one they occupy, seem, 
 thus far, in any degree to have lessened their hopes and expectations. 
 The events alluded to have not come altogether unexpected. The)-" 
 are regarded as the legitimate manifestations of slavery — necessary, 
 perhaps, in the present dull and unapprehensive state of the public 
 mind as to human rights, to be brought out and spread before the people, 
 before they will sufficiently revolt against slavery itself. 
 
 1. They are seen in the church, and in the practice of its individual 
 members. The southern portion of the American church may now be 
 regarded as having admitted the dogma, that slavery is a Divine tnstitu- 
 tio7i. She has been forced by the anti-slavery discussion into this posi- 
 tion — either to cease from slaveholding, or formally to adopt the only 
 alternative, that slaveholding is right. She has chosen the alternative — 
 reluctantly, to be sure, but subslantiully, and, within the last year, almost 
 unequivocally. In defending what was dear to her, slie has been forced 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 to cast away her garments, and thus to reveal a deformity, of which 
 she herself, before, was scarcely aware, and the existence of which 
 others did not credit. So much for the action of the southern church 
 as a body. — On the part of her members, the revelation of a time-serv- 
 ing spirit, that not only yielded to the ferocity of the multitude, but fell 
 in with it, may be reckoned among the events of the last three years. 
 Instances of this may be found in the attendance of the " clerg}^ of all 
 denominations," at a tumultuous meeting of the citizens of Charleston, 
 S. C, held in August, 1835, for the purpose of reducing to system their 
 unlawful surveillance and control of the post-office and mail ; and in the 
 alacrity with which they obeyed the popular call to dissolve the Sun- 
 day-schools for the instruction of the colored people. Also in the fact, 
 that, throughout the whole South, church members are not only found on 
 the Vigilance Committees, (tribunals organized in opposition to the laws 
 of the states where they exist,) but uniting with the merciless and the 
 profligate in passing sentence, consigning to infamous and excruciating, 
 if not extreme punishment, persons, by their own acknowledgment, 
 innocent of any unlawful act. Out of sixty persons that composed the 
 vigilance committee which condemned Mr. Dresser to be scourged in 
 the public square of Nashville, twexty-seven were members of 
 churches, and one of them a professed teacher of Christianity. A 
 member of the committee stated afterward, in a newspaper of which 
 he was the editor, that Mr. D. had not laid himself liable to any punish- 
 ment known to the laws. Another instance is to be found in the conduct 
 of the Rev. Win. S. Plumer, of Virginia. Having been absent from 
 Richmond, when the ministers of the gospel assembled together formally 
 to testify their abhorrence of the abolitionists, he addressed the chair- 
 man of the committee of correspondence a note, in which he uses this 
 language : — " If abolitionists will set the country in a blaze, it is but 
 fair that they should have the first warming at tlie fire." — " Let them 
 understand, that they will be caught, if they come among us, and they 
 will take good heed to keej) out of our way." Mr. P. lias no doubtful 
 standing in the Presbyterian church with which he is connected, lie 
 has been regarded as one of its brightest ornaments.* To drive the 
 slaveholding church and its members from the equivocal, tin' neutral 
 position, from which they had so hnig successiiilly defended slavery — 
 to compel them to elevate their practice to an even height with their 
 avowed princij)les, or to degrade tluir i)riiiciples down to the level of 
 their known practice, was a preliminary, necessary in the view of abo- 
 
 • In llie diviMiin nl Hie OPiicrril Assomljly of Die rrcsliylPrian churcli, that lins just taken place, 
 Mr. riunior h«» beon elected Moderator of the " Old School" portion. 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 litionists, either for bringing that part of the church mio the common 
 action against slavery, or as a ground for treating it as confederate with 
 oppressors. So far, then, as the action of the church, or of its indi- 
 vidual members, is to be reckoned among the events of the last two or 
 three years, the abolitionists find in it nothing to lessen their hopes or 
 expectations. 
 
 2. The abolitionists believed, from the beginning, that the slaves of 
 the South were (as slaves are everywhere) unhappy, because of their 
 conditio7i. Their adversaries denied it, averring that, as a class, they 
 were " contented and happy." The abolitionists thought that the argu- 
 ment against slavery could be made good, so far as this point was 
 concerned, by either admitting or denying the assertion. 
 
 Admittino- it, thev insisted, that, nothing could demonstrate the tur- 
 pitude of any system more surely than the fact, that man — made in the 
 image of God — but a little lower than the angels — crowned with glory 
 and honor, and set over the works of God's hands — his mind sweeping 
 in an instant from planet to planet, from the sun of one system to the 
 sun of another, even to the great centre sun of them all — contemplating 
 the machinery of the universe " wheeling unshaken" in the awful and 
 mysterious grandeur of its movements " through the void immense" — 
 with a spirit delighting in upward aspirations — bounding from earth to 
 heaven — that seats itself fast by the throne of God, to drink in the 
 instructions of Infinite Wisdom, or flies to execute the commands of 
 Infinite Goodness ; — that such a being could be made " contented and 
 happy" with " enough to eat, and drink, and wear," and shelter from 
 the weather — with the base provision that satisfies the brutes, is (say 
 the abolitionists) enough to render superfluous all other arguments for 
 the instant abandonment of a system whose appropriate work is such 
 infinite wrong. 
 
 Denying that " the slaves are contented and happy," the abolitionists 
 have argued, that, from the structure of his moral nature— the laws of 
 his mind — man cannot be happy in the fact, that he is enslaved. True, 
 he may be happy in slavery, but it is not slavery that makes him so — 
 it is virtue and faith, elevating him above the afflictions of his lot. The 
 slave has a will, leading him to seek those things which the Author of 
 his nature has made conducive to its happiness. In these things, the 
 will of the master comes in collision with his will. The slave desires 
 to receive the rewards of his own labor ; the power of the master wrests 
 them from him. The slave desires to possess his wife, to whom God 
 has joined him, in afTection ; to have the superintendence, and enjoy 
 the services, of the children whom God has confided to him as a parent 
 
 4 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 to train them, by the habits of the filial relation, for the yet higher rela- 
 tion that they may sustain to him as their heavenly Father. But here 
 he is met by the opposing will of the master, pressing his claims with 
 irresistible power. The ties that heaven has sanctioned and blessed — 
 of husband and wife, of parent and child — are all sundered in a moment 
 by the master, at the prompting of avarice or luxury or lust ; and there 
 is none that can stay his ruthless hand, or say unto him, " What doest 
 thou ?" The slave thirsts for the pleasures of refined and elevated 
 intellect — the master denies to liim the humblest literary acquisition. 
 The slave pants to know something of that still higher nature that he 
 feels burning within him — of his present state, his future destiny, of 
 the Being who made him, to whose judgment-seat he is going. The 
 master's interests cry, " No !" " Such knowledge is too wonderful for 
 you ; it is high, you cannot attain unto it." To predicate happiness of a 
 class of beings, placed in circumstances where their will is everlastingly 
 defeated by an irresistible power — the abolitionists say, is to prove them 
 destitute of the sympathies of our nature — not human. It is to declare 
 with the Atheist, that man is independent of the goodness of his Crea- 
 tor for his enjoyments — that human happiness calls not for any of the 
 appliances of his bounty — that God's throne is a nullity, himself a 
 superfluity. 
 
 But, independently of any abstract reasoning drawn from the nature 
 of moral and intelligent beings, facts have been elicited in the discus- 
 sion of the jioint before us, proving slavery everywhere (especially 
 Soutliern slavery, maintained by enlightened Protestants of the nine- 
 teenth century) replete with torments and horrors — the direst form of 
 oppression that upheaves itself before the sun. These facts have beeu 
 so successfully impressed on a large portion of the intelligent mind of 
 the country, that the slaves of the South are beginning to be considered 
 as those whom God emphatically regards as the " poor," the " needy," 
 the " afilicted," the " oppressed," the " bowed down ;" and for whose 
 consolation he has said, " Now will I arise — I will set him in safety 
 from him that pufi'eth at him." 
 
 This state of the j)ublic mind has been brought about within the last 
 two or liirce years ; and it is an event which, so far from lessening, 
 greatly animates, tli(> hopes and cxix-ctations of abolitionists. 
 
 3. The abolilioiiists Ixlievcd liom the first, that the tcndencv of 
 slavery is to produce, on llic ]):iii of ilir u lutes, looseness of nnnals, dis- 
 dain of the wholesome restraints of law. and a lerocity of temper, found, 
 only in solitary instances, in those countries where slavery is unknown. 
 They were not ignorant of the fact, that this was disjiuted ; nor that 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 the " Chivalry of the South" had become a cant phrase, including 
 all that is high-minded and honorable among men ; nor, that it had been 
 formally asserted in our National legislature, that slavery, as it exists 
 in the South, " produces the highest toned, the purest, best organization 
 of society that has ever existed on the face of the earth." Nor were 
 the abolitionists unaware, that these pretensions, proving anything else 
 but their own solidity, had been echoed and re-echoed so long by the 
 unthinking and the interested of the North, that the character of the 
 South had been injuriously affected by them — till she began boldly to 
 attribute her peculiar superiority to her peculiar institution, and thus to 
 strengthen it. All this the abolitionists saw and knew. But few others 
 saw and understood it as they did. The revelations of the last three 
 years are fast dissipating the old notion, and bringing multitudes in the 
 North to see the subject as the abolitionists see it. When " Southern 
 Chivalry" and the purity of southern society are spoken of now, it is at 
 once replied, that a large number of the slaves show, by their color, their 
 indisputable claim to white paternity ; and that, notwithstanding their 
 near consanguineous relation to the whiles, they are still held and treat- 
 ed, in all respects, as slaves. Nor is it forgotten now, when the claims 
 of the South to "hospitality" are pressed, to object, because they are 
 grounded on the unpaid wages of the laborer — on the robbery of the 
 poor. When " Southern generosity" is mentioned, the old adage, " be 
 just before you are generous," furnishes the reply. It is no proof of 
 generosity (say the objector.s) to take the bread of the laborer, to lavish 
 it in banquetings on the rich. When " Southern Chivalry" is the theme 
 of its admirers, the hard-handed, but intelligent, working man of the 
 North asks, if the espionage of southern hotels, and of ships and steam- 
 boats on their arrival at southern ports ; if the prowl, by day and by 
 night, for the solitary stranger suspected of sympathizing with the 
 enslaved, that he may be delivered over to the mercies of a vigilance 
 committee, furnishes the proof of its existence , if the unlawful import- 
 ation of slaves from Africa* furnishes the proof; if the abuse, the 
 scourging, the hanging on suspicion, without law, of friendless strau- 
 
 * Mr. Mercer, of Virginia, some years ago, asserted in Congress, that " carooes" of African 
 slaves were smuggled into the southern states to a deplorable extent. Mr. Middleton, of South 
 Carolina, declared it to be his belief, that thirteen thousand Africans were annually smuggled 
 into the southern states. Mr. Wright, of Maryland, estimated the number at fifteen thousand. 
 Miss Martineau was told in 1835, by a wealthy slavehoUer of Louisiana, (who probably spoke of 
 that state alone,) that the annual importation of native Africans was from thirtee.v thousand 
 to fifteen thousand. The President of the United States, in his last Annual Message, speak- 
 ing of the Navy, says, " The large force under Commodore Dallas [on the West India staUonJ has 
 been most actively and efficiently employed in protecting our commerce, in pbbvintino thi 
 
 IMPORTATION OF SLAVES, <kC." 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 gers, furnish the proof; if the summary execution of slaves and of col- 
 ored freemen, almost by the score, without legal trial, furnishes the 
 proof; if the cruellies and tortures to wliich citizens have been exposed, 
 and the burning to death of slaves by slow fires,* furnish the proof. All 
 these things, says he, furnish any thing but proof of true hospitality, or 
 generosity, or gallantry, or purity, or chivalry. 
 
 Certain it is, that the time when southern slavery derived countenance 
 at the North, from its supposed connection with " chivalry," is rapidly 
 passing away. " Southern Chivalry" will soon be regarded as one of 
 the by-gone follies of a less intelligent and less virtuous age. It will 
 soon be cast out — giving place to the more reasonable idea, that the 
 denial of wages to the laborer, the selling of men and women, the 
 whipping of husbands and wives in each others presence, to compel 
 them to unrequited toil, the deliberate attempt to extinguish mind, and, 
 consequently, to destroy the soul — and all this for money — is among 
 the highest offences against God and man — unspeakably mean and 
 ungentlemanly. 
 
 The impression made on the minds of the people as to this matter, 
 is one of the events of the last two or three years that does not contribute 
 to lessen the hopes or expectations of abolitionists. 
 
 4. The ascendency that Slavery has acquired, and exercises, in the 
 administration of the government, and the apprehension now prevailing 
 among the sober and intelligent, irrespective of party, that it will soon 
 overmaster the Constitution itself, may be ranked among the events of 
 tho last two or three years that aflect the course of abolitionists. The^ 
 abolitionists regard the Constitution with unabated ail'ection. They 
 hold in no common veneration the memory of those who made it. They 
 would be the last to brand Franklin and King and Morris and Wilson 
 and Sherman and Hamilton with the ineffaceable infamy of attempting 
 to ingraft on the Constitution, and therefore to perpetuate, a system of 
 oppression in absolute antagonism to its high and professed objects, one 
 which their own practice condemned, — anJ this, too, when they had 
 scarcely wiped away the dust and sweat of the Revolution from their 
 brows 1 Whilst abolitionists feel and speak thqs of our Constitutional 
 fathers, they do not justify the dereliction of principle into which they 
 were betrayed, when they imparted to the work of their hands anif power 
 to contribute to the continuance of such a system. They can only palliate 
 it, by supposing, that they thought, slavery was already a waning insti- 
 tution, destined soon to pass away. In their lime, (1787) slaves were 
 
 • Witlun llio last few yi-'ars, four slaves, and ono rjtizcn of color, tiave been put to death m this 
 inaruic-r, in Alabama, Mimiissippi, Missouri, and Arkaniias 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 comparatively of little value — there being then no great slave-labor staple 
 (as cotton is now) to make them profitable to their holders* Had the 
 circumstances of the country remained as they then were, slave-labor, 
 always and every where the most expensive — would have disappeared 
 before the competition of free labour. They had seen, too, the principle 
 of universal liberty, on which the Revolution was justified, recognised 
 and embodied in most of the State Constitutions ; they had seen slavery 
 utterly forbidden in that of Vermont — instantaneously abolished in that 
 of Massachusetts — and laws enacted in the New-England States and 
 in Pennsylvania, for its gradual abolition. Well might they have anti- 
 cipated, that Justice and Humanity, now starting forth with fresh vigor, 
 would, in their march, sweep away the whole system ; more especially, 
 as freedom of speech and of the press — the legitimate abolisher not only 
 of the acknowledged vice of slavery, but of every other that time should 
 reveal in our institutions or practices — had been fully secured to the 
 people. Again ; power was conferred on Congress to put a stop to the 
 African slave-trade, without which it was thought, at that time, to be 
 impossible to maintain slavery, as a system, on this continent, — so great 
 was the havoc it committed on human life. x\uthority was also granted 
 to Congress to prevent the transfer of slaves, as articles of commerce, 
 from one State to another ; and the introduction of slavery into the terri- 
 tories. All this was crowned by the power of refusing admission into 
 the Union, to any new state, whose form of government was repugnant 
 to the principles of liberty set forth in that of the United States. 
 The faithful execution, by Congress, of these powers, it was reason- 
 ably enough supposed, would, at least, prevent the growth of slavery, 
 if it did not entirely remove it. Congress did, at the set time, execute 
 one of them — deemed, then, the most efl^ectual of the whole ; but, as it 
 has turned out, the least so. 
 
 The effect of the interdiction of the African slave-trade was, not to 
 diminish the trade itself, or greatly to mitigate its horrors ; it only 
 changed its name from African to American — transferred the seat of 
 commerce from Africa to America — its profits from African princes to 
 American farmers. Indeed, it is almost certain, if ilic African slave- 
 trade had been left unrestrained, that slavery would not have covered 
 so large a portion of our country as it does now. The cheap rate at 
 which slaves might have been imported by the planters of the south, 
 would have prevented the rearing of them for sale, by the farmers of 
 
 * The cultivation of cotton was almost unknown in the United States before 1787. It was not 
 till two years afterward that it began to be raised or exported. (See Report of the Sectetary of 
 the Treasury, Feb. 29, 1836.)— See Appendix, D. 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 Mar}'land, Virginia, and the other slave-selling states. If these states 
 should be deprived of the profits of the commerce in slaves, slavery could 
 not be supported by them for any length of time, or to any considerable 
 extent. They could not maintain it, as an economical system, under 
 the competition of free labor. It is owing to the non-user by Congress, 
 or rather to their unfaithful application of their power to the other points, 
 on which it was expected to act for the limitation or extermination of 
 slavery, that the hopes of our lathers have not been realized ; and that 
 slavery has, at length, become so audacious, as openly to challenge the 
 principles of 1776 — to trample on the most precious rights secured to 
 the citizen — to menace the integrity of the Union and the very exis- 
 tence of of the government itself. 
 
 Slavery has advanced to its present position by steps that were, at 
 first, gradual, and, for a long time, almost unnoticed ; afterv/ard, it 
 made its way by intimidating or corrupting those who ought to have 
 been forward to resist its pretensions. Up to the time of the " Missouri 
 Compromise," by which the nation was wheedled out of its honor, 
 slavery was looked on as an evil that was finally to yield to the expanding 
 and ripening influences of our Constitutional principles and regulations. 
 Why it has not yielded, we may easily see, by even a slight glance at 
 some of the incidents in our history. 
 
 It has already been said, that we have been brought into our present 
 condition by the unfaithfulness of Congress, in not exerting the power 
 vested in it, to slop the domestic slave-trade, and in the abuse of the 
 power of admitting " new states" into the Union. Kentucky made ap- 
 plication in 179^, with a slave-holding Constitution in her hand. — With 
 what a mere technicality Congress sufl'ered itself to be drugged into 
 torpor : — She was part of one of the " Original States" — and therefore 
 entitled to all their privileges. 
 
 One precedent established, it was easy to make another. Tennessee 
 was admitted in 179C, without scruple, on the same ground. 
 
 The next triumph of slavery was in 1803, in the purchase of Louisi- 
 ana, acknowledged afterward, even by Mr. Jeflerson who made it, to be 
 unauthorized bv the; Constitution — and in the estal)lishinent of slavery 
 throughout its vast limits, actually and substantially under the auspices 
 of that iiihtruMKMit which declares its only objects to be — "to form a 
 more perfect union, establish justick, insure domestic tranquii.itv, 
 provide for the couunoii defence, promote the general welfare, and 
 secure the blessings of LiiiiiRTV to ourselves ami our posterity"* 
 
 * 11 may be replied. The colored people were held as property by the laws of Louisiana previously 
 to the coision, and that Conyreiss had no right to divest the newly acquired citizens of their pro- 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 In this case, the violation of the Constitution was suffered to pass 
 with but little opposition, except from Massachusetts, because we were 
 content to receive in exchange, multiplied commercial benefits and en- 
 larged territorial limits. 
 
 The next stride that slavery made over the Constitution was in the 
 admission of the State of Louisiana into the Union. She could claim 
 no favor as part of an " Original State." At this point, it might have 
 been supposed, the friends of Freedom and of the Constitution according 
 to its original intent, would have made a stand. But no : with the 
 exception of Massachusetts, they hesitated and were persuaded to ac- 
 quiesce, because the country was just about entering into a war with 
 England, and the crisis was unpropitious for discussing questions that 
 would create divisions between diflerent sections of the Union. We 
 must wait till the country was at peace. Thus it was that Louisiana 
 was admitted without a controversy. 
 
 Next followed, in 1817 and 1820, Mississippi and Alabama— admit- 
 ted after the example of Kentucky and Tennessee, without any contest. 
 Meantime, Florida had given some uneasiness to the slaveholders of 
 the neighboring states ; and for their accommodation chiefly, a negocia- 
 tion was set on foot by the government to purchase it. 
 
 Missouri was next in order in 1821. She could plead no privilege, 
 on the score of being part of one of the original states ; the country 
 too, was relieved from the pressure of her late conflict with England ; 
 it was prosperous and quiet ; every thing seemed propitious to a calm 
 and dispassionate consideration of the claims of slaveholders to add 
 props to their system, by admitting indefinitely, new slave states to the 
 Union. Up to this time, the " evil" of slavery had been almost uni- 
 versally acknowledged and deplored by the South, and its termination 
 (apparently) sincerely hoped for.* This management of its friends 
 
 perty. This statement is evasive. It does not include, nor touch the question, which is this ;— 
 Had Congress, or the treaty-making power, a right to recognise, and, by recognising, to estabUsh, 
 in a territory that had no claim of privilege, on the ground of being part of one of tho " Onginal 
 States," a condition of things that it could not establish directly, because there was no grant in the 
 constitution of power, direct or incidental, to do so-and because, to do so, was in downright oppuv- 
 nancy to tlie principles of the Constitution itself? The question may be easily answered by 
 stating the following case :— Suppose a law had e.visted in Louisiana, previous to the cession, by 
 ■which°the children-male and female-ofaH such parents as were not owners of real estate of the 
 yearly value of $500, had been-no matter how long— held in slavery by their more wealthy land- 
 holding neighbors ;— would Congress, under the Constitution, have a right (by recognising) to estab- 
 lish, for ever, such a relation as one white person, under such a law, might hold to another t 
 Surely not. And yet no substantial difference between the two cases ran be pointed out. 
 
 * Mr. Clay, in conducting the Missouri compromise, found it necessary to argue, that the admis- 
 sion of Missouri, as a slaveholding state, would aid in bringing about tlie termination of slaveo"- 
 His argument is thus stated by Mr. Sergeant, who replied to him :-" In this long view of remote 
 and distant consequences, the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Clay) thinks he sees how Rlaver>-. 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 succeeded in blinding the confiding people of the North. They thought 
 for the most part, that the slaveholders were acting in good faith. It is 
 not intended by this remark, to make the impression, that the South had 
 all along pressed the admission of the new slave states, simply with a view 
 to the increase of its own relative power. By no means : slavery had 
 insinuated itself into favor because of its being mixed up with (other) 
 supposed benefits — and because its ultimate influence on the govern- 
 ment was neither suspected nor dreaded. But, on the Missouri question, 
 there was a fair trial of strength between the friends of Slavery and the 
 friends of the Constitution. The former triumphed, and by the prime 
 agency of one whose raiment, the remainder of his days, ought to be sack- 
 cloth and ashes, — because of the disgrace he has continued on the name 
 of his country, and the consequent injury that he has inflicted on the cause 
 of Freedom throughout the world. Although all the different Adminis- 
 trations, from the first organization of the government, had, in the indi- 
 rect manner already mentioned, favored slavery, — there had not been on 
 any previous occasion, a direct struggle between its pretensions and the 
 principles of liberty ingrafted on the Constitution. The friends of the 
 latter were induced to believe, whenever they should be arrayed against 
 each other, that theirs would be the triumph. Tremendous error ! 
 Mistake almost fatal ! The battle was fought. Slavery emerged from 
 it unhurt — her hands made gory — her bloody plume still floating in the 
 air — exultingly brandishing her dripping sword over her prostrate and 
 vanquished enemy. She had won all for which she fought. Her vic- 
 tory was complete — the Sanctio.v of the Nation was given to 
 Slavery !* 
 
 Immediately after this achievement, the slaveholding interest was 
 still more strongly fortified by the acquisition of Florida, and the estab- 
 lishment of slavery there, as it had already been in the territory of 
 Louisiana. The Missouri triumph, however, seems to have extin- 
 guished every thing like a systematic or spirited opposition, on the 
 part of the free states, to the pretensions of the slaveholding South. 
 
 Arkansas was admittf.d l)iii the ollur day, with nothing that deserves 
 to be called an (>fl'orl to jucvent it — although her Constitution attempts 
 
 when thus .spread, is at la.sl to (ind its end. U is to bo brought about by the coinliiiied operation 
 of the laws wliich regulate the price of labor, and the laws which govern population. When the 
 country shall be filled with inhabitants, and the price of labor shall have reached a minimum, (a 
 comparative niiimiium 1 suppose is meant,) free labor will be fo'ind cheaper than slave labor. 
 Slaves will then be without employment, and, of course, wilhou' the means of comfortable subsis- 
 tence, which will reduce their numbers, and (inally extirpate them. This is the argument as I 
 understand it." says Mr. Sergeant; and, certainly, one more chimerical or more Inhuman could not 
 have been ur(,'ed. 
 * Soo Appendix, E. 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 Xo perpetuate slavery, by forbidding the master to emancipate his bondmen 
 without the consent of the Legislature, and the Legislature without the 
 consent of the master. Emboldened, but not satisfied, with their success 
 in every political contest with the people of the free states, the slavehold- 
 ers are begining now to throw oft" their disguise— to brand their former 
 notions about the " eml, political and moral" of slavery, as " folly and 
 delusion,"*— and as if to "make assurance double sure," and defend 
 themselves forever, by territoral power, against the progress of Free 
 
 * Mr. Calhoun is reported, in the National Intelligencer, as having used these words in a speech 
 delivered in the Senate, the 10th day of January :— 
 
 " Many in the South once believed that it [slavery] was a moral and political evU ; that folly and 
 delusion are gone. We see it now in its true light, and regard it as the most safe and stable basis 
 for free institutions in the world." 
 
 Mr Hammond, formerly a Representative in Congress from South Carolina, delivered a speech 
 (Feb 1 1836) on the question of receiving petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
 Columbia. In answering those who objected to a slaveholding countrj-, that it was " assimilated 
 to an aristocracv," he says--' In this they are right. I accept the terms. It xs a government of the 
 best Combming all the advantages, and possessing but few of the disadvantages, of the aristo- 
 cracy of the old world-without fostering, to an unwarrantable extent, the pride, the exclusive- 
 ness the selfishness, the thirst for sway, the contempt for the rights of others, which distinguish 
 the nobihty of Europe-it gives us their education, their polish, their munificence, their high hon- 
 or their undaunted spirit. Slavery does indeed create an aristocracy-an aristocracy of talents, 
 of' virtue, of generosity, of courage. In a slave country, every freeman is an aristocrat. Be he 
 rich or poor, if he does not possess a single slave, he has been born to all the natural advantages 
 of the society in which he is placed ; and all its honors lie open before him, inviting his genius 
 and industry. Sir, I do firmly believe, that domestic slavery, regulated as ours is, produces the 
 highest toned, the purest, best organization of society, that has ever existed on the face of the 
 
 ^^That this retraxit of former follies and delusions is not confined to the mere pohtician, we have 
 
 the following proofs :— ..,.,. t. •. 
 
 The Charleston (S. C.) Union Presbytery-" Resolved, That in the opinion of this Presby- 
 tery the holdin- of slaves, so far from being a sin in the sight of God, is nowhere condemned in 
 his holy word ■ that it is in accordance with the example, or consistent with 'he precepts, of patri- 
 archs prophets, and apostles ; and that it is compatible with the most fraternal regard to the good 
 of the servants whom God has committed to our charge."-Within the last few months, as we 
 learn from a late No. of the Charleston Courier, the late Synod of the Presbyterian Church, in 
 Au-usta (Ga.) passed resolutions declaring "That slavery is a civil institution, with which 
 the^General Assembly [the highest ecclesiastical tribunal] has nothing to do." 
 
 A-ain -The Charleston Baptist Association, in a memorial to the Legislature of South 
 Carolina say-" The undersigned would further represent, that the said Association does not con- 
 sider that the Holy Scriptures have made the fact of slavery a question of morals at all." And 
 further,-" The right of masters to dispose of the time of their slaves, has been distinctly recog- 
 nised by the Creator of all things." 
 
 ^.-ain-The Edgefield (S. C.) Association-" Resolved. That the practical question of 
 slavery, in a country where the system has obtained as a part of its stated policy, is settled in the 
 Scriptures by Jesus Christ and his apostles." " Resolved, That these uniformly recognised the 
 relation of master and slave, and enjoined on both their respective duties, under a system of ser- 
 vitude more degrading and absolute than that which obtains in our counto"." 
 Again we find, in a late No. of the Charleston Courier, the lollowing :- , ^, , , . 
 
 "The Southern CHURca.-Thc Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at a 
 recent meeting in Athens, passed resolutions, declaring that slavery as it exists in '^o 1 mted 
 States, is not a moral evil, and is a civil and domestic institution, with which Christian ministers 
 have nothing to do, further than to mehorate the condition of '^e/lave by endeavonn? to impart 
 to him and his master the benign influence of the rehgion of Chnst. and aiding both on thc.r way 
 to heaven." 
 
 5 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 principles and the renovation of the Constitution, they now demand 
 openly — scorning to conceal that their object is, to advance and estab- 
 lish their political power in the country, — that Texas, a foreign state, five 
 or six times as large as all New England, with a Constitution dyed as 
 deep in slavery as that of Arkansas, shall be added to the Union. 
 
 The abolitionists feel a deep regard for the integrity and union of 
 the government, on the principles of the Constitution. Therefore it is, 
 that they look with earnest concern on the attempt now making by 
 the South, to do, what, in the view of multitudes of our citizens, would 
 amount to good cause for the separation of the free from the slave states. 
 Their concern is not mingled with any feelings of despair. The alarm 
 they sounded on the " annexation" question has penetrated the free 
 states ; it will, in all probability, be favorably responded to by every 
 one of them ; thus giving encouragement to our faith, that the admis- 
 sion of Texas will be successfully resisted, — that this additional stain 
 Avill not be impressed on our national escutcheon, nor this additional 
 peril brought upon the South.* 
 
 This, the present condition of the country, induced by a long train 
 of usurpations on the part of the South, or by unworthy concessions to 
 it by the North, may justly be regarded as one of the events of the last 
 few years affecting in some way, the measures of the abolitionists. 
 It has certainly done so. And whilst it is not to be denied, that many 
 abolitionists feel painful apprehensions for the result, it has only roused 
 them up to make more strenuous efforts for the preservation of the 
 country. 
 
 It may be replied — if the abolitionists are such firm friends of the 
 Union, why do they persist in what must end in its rupture and disso- 
 lution ? The abolitionists, let it be repeated are friends of the Union 
 that was intended by the Constitution ; but not of a Union from which 
 is eviscerated, to be trodden under foot, the right to Speak, — to Pri.nt, 
 — to Petition, — the rights of Co.n'science ; not of a Union whose lig- 
 aments are whips, where the interest of the oppressor is the great in- 
 terest, the right to oppress the paramount right. It is against the 
 distortion of the glorious Union our fathers left us into one bound with 
 despotic bands that the abolitionists are contending. In the political 
 aspect of the question, they have notliing to ask, except what the Con- 
 stitution authorizes — no change lo desire, but that the Constitution may 
 be restored tu its j)ristine republican purity. 
 
 But they have well considered the " dissolution of the Union." 
 
 * See Appendix, F. 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 There is no just ground for apprehending that such a measure will 
 ever be resorted to by the South. It is by no means intended by this, 
 to affirm, that the South, like a spoiled thild, for the first time denied 
 som6 favourite object, might not fall into sudden frenzy and do herself 
 some great harm. But knowing as I do, the intelligence and forecast of 
 the leading men of the South — and believing that they will, if ever such 
 a crisis should come, be judiciously influenced by the existing state of 
 the case, and by the consequences that would inevitably flow from an 
 act of dissolution — they would not, I am sure, deem it desirable or 
 politic. They would be brought, in their calmer moments, to coincide 
 with one who has facetiously, but not the less tnily remarked, that it 
 would be as indiscreet in the slave South to separate from the free 
 North, as for the poor, to separate from the parish that supported them. 
 In support of this opinion, I would say : 
 
 First — A dissolution of the Union by the South would, in no man- 
 ner, secure to her the object she has in view. — The leaders at the 
 South, both in the church and in the state, must, by this time, be too 
 well informed as to the nature of the anti-slavery movement, and the 
 character of those engaged in it, to entertain fears that, violence of any 
 kind will be resorted to, directly or indirectly.* The whole complaint 
 of the South is neither more nor less than this — the north talks 
 ABOUT SLAVERY. Novv, of all the means or appliances that could be 
 devised, to give greater life and publicity to the discussion of slavery, 
 none could be half so efl'ectual as the dissolution of the Union because 
 of the discussion. It would astonish the civilized world— they would 
 inquire into the cause of such a remarkable event in its history ; — the 
 result would be not only enlarged discussion of the whole subject, 
 but it would bring such a measure of contempt on the guilty movers of 
 the deed, that even with all the advantages of " their education, their 
 polish, their munificence, their high honor, their undaunted spirit," so 
 eloquently set forth by the Hon. Mr. Hammond, they would find it hard 
 to withstand its influence. It is difficult for men in a good cause, to 
 maintain their steadfastness in opposition to an extensively corrupt 
 public sentiment ; in a bad one, against public sentiment purified and 
 enlightened, next to impossible, if not quite so. 
 
 Another result would follow the dissolution :—Now, the abolitionists 
 
 * "It is not," says Mr. Calhoun, "that we expect the abolitionists will resort to arms-will 
 commence a crusade to deliver our slaves by force."-" Let me tell our friends of the SouU|. who 
 differ from us, that the war which the abolitiomsts wage against us is of a very d^o.rent charw- 
 ter, and far more effective. It is waged, not against our lives, but our character.' More correctly^ 
 Mr! C. might have said against a system, with which the slaveholders have chosen to involve their 
 characters, and which they have determined to defend, at the hazard of losmg thorn 
 
( 36 ) 
 
 find it difficult, by reason of the odium which the principal slaveholders 
 and their friends have succeeded in attaching to their name, to introduce 
 a knowledge of their principles and measures into the great mass of 
 southern mind. There are multitudes at the South who would co-ope- 
 rate with us, if they could be informed of our aim.* Now, we cannot 
 reach them — then, it would be otherwise. The united power of the 
 large slaveholders would not be able longer to keep them in ignorance. 
 If the Union were dissolved, they tcoidd know the cause, and discuss 
 it, and condemn it. 
 
 A second reason why the South will not dissolve the Union is, that 
 she would be exposed to the visitation of real incendiaries, exciting 
 her slaves to reAolt. Now, it would cover any one with infamy, who 
 would stir them up to vindicate their rights by the massacre of their 
 masters. Dissolve the Union, and the candidates for " glory" would 
 find in the plains of Carolina and Louisiana as inviting a theatre for 
 their enterprise, as their prototypes, the Houstons, the Van Rennse- 
 laers, and the Sutherlands did, in the prairies of Texas or the forests 
 of Canada. 
 
 A third reason why the South will not dissolve is, that the slaves 
 would leave their masters and take refuge in the free states. The 
 South would not be able to establish a cordon along her wide. frontier 
 sufficiently strong to prevent it. Then, the slaves could not be reclaim- 
 ed, as they now are, under the Constitution. Some may say, the free 
 states would not permit them to come in and dwell among them. — Be- 
 lieve it not. The fact of separation on the ground supposed, would 
 abolitionize the whole North. Beside this, in an economical point of 
 view, the demand for labour in the Western States would make their 
 presence welcome. At all events, a passage through the Northern 
 States to Canada would not be denied them. 
 
 A fourth reason why the South will not dissolve is, that a large num- 
 ber of her most steady and effective population would emigrate to the 
 free states. In the slave-selling states especially, there has always 
 been a class who have consented lo remain there with their families, 
 only in the hope that slavery would, in some way or other, be termina- 
 
 • Thcro is abundant evidence of this. Our limits confine us to the following;, from the first No. 
 of the SoulliiTn Literary Journal, (Charleston, S. C.) :—" There are many goud mm rvtn amongus, 
 who have begun ti> j;row limid. They lliiiik, that what the virtuous and high-iiiiiidcd men of the 
 North look upon as a criiiie and a plague-spot, cannot bo perfectly innocent or quite harmless in 
 a slaveholdliij? coinniunily." 
 
 This, also, from the North Carolina Watchman ■.— 
 
 "U (the abohuon parly) is the Krowing party at the North. Wo are inclined to believe that there 
 Is svon moro of it al llw South titaji prudence will permit to be openly avowsd." 
 
{ 37 ) 
 
 ted. I do not say they are abolitionists, for many of them are slave- 
 holders. It may be, too, that such would expect compensation for their 
 slaves, should they be ciiancipated, and also that they should be sent 
 out of the country. The particular mode of emancipation, however 
 crude it may be, that has occupied their minds, has nothing to do with 
 the point before us. They look for emancipation — in this hope theij have 
 remained, and now remain, where they are. Take away this hope, by 
 making slavery the distinctive bond of union of a new government, and 
 you drive them to the North. These persons are not among the rich, 
 the voluptuous, the effeminate, nor are they the despised, the indigent, 
 the thriftless — they are men of moderate property, of intelligence, of 
 conscience — in every way the " bone and sinew" of the South. 
 
 A fifth reason why the South will not dissolve, is her weakness. It is 
 a remarkable fact, that in modern times, and in the Christian world, all 
 slaveholding countries have been united with countries that are free. 
 Thus, the West Indian and Mexican and South American slaveholding 
 colonies were united to England, France, Spain, Portugal, and other 
 states of Europe. If England (before her Emancipation Act) and the 
 others had at any time withdrawn the protection of their power from 
 their colonies, slavery would have been extinguished almost simultane- 
 ously with the knowledge of the fact. In the West Indies there could 
 have been no doubt of this, from the disparity in numbers between the 
 whites and the slaves, from the multiplied attempts made from time to 
 time by the latter to vindicate their rights by insurrection, and from 
 the fact, that all their insurrections had to be suppressed by the force 
 of the mother country. As soon as Mexico and the South American 
 colonies dissolved their connexion with Spain, slavery was abolished 
 in every one of them. This may, I know, be attributed to the neces- 
 sity imposed on these states, by the wars in which they engaged to 
 establish their independence. However this may be — the fact still 
 remains. The i'ree states of this Union are to the slave, so far as the 
 maintenance of slavery is concerned, substantially, in the relation of 
 the European states to their slaveholding colonies. Slavery, in all pro- 
 bability, could not be maintained by the South disjoined from the North, 
 a single year. So far from there existing any reason for making the 
 South an exception, in this particular, to other slave countries, there 
 are circumstances in her condition that seem to make her depen- 
 dence more complete. Two of them are, the superior intelligence of 
 her slaves on the subject of human rights, and the geographical con- 
 nexion of the slave region in the United Slates. In the West Indies, 
 in Mexico and South America the great body of the slaves were far 
 
( 38 ) 
 
 below the slaves of this country in their intellectual and moral condi- 
 tion — and their power to act in concert was weakened by the insular 
 fragments into which they were divided. 
 
 Again, the depopulation of the South of large numbers of its white 
 inhabitants, from the cause mentioned under the fourth head, would, it 
 is apprehended, bring the two classes to something like a numerical 
 equality. Now, consider the present state of the moral sentiments of 
 the Christianized and commercial world in relation to slavery ; add to 
 it the impulse that these sentiments, acknowledged by the South already 
 to be wholly opposed to her, would naturally acquire by an act of sepa- 
 ration on her part, with a single view to the perpetuation of slavery ; 
 bring these sentiments in all their accumulation and intensify to act 
 upon a nation where one half are enslavers, the other the enslaved — 
 and what must be the effect ? From the nature of mind ; from the laws 
 of moral influence, (which are as sure in their operation, if not so well 
 understood, as the laws of physical influence,) the party "whose con- 
 science with injustice is oppressed," must become dispirited, weakened 
 in courage, and in the end unnerved and contemptible. On the other 
 hand, the sympathy that would be felt for the oppressed — the comfort 
 they would receive — the encouragement that would be given them to 
 assert their rights, would make it an impossibility, to keep them in 
 slavish peace and submission. 
 
 This state of things would be greatly aggravated by the peculiarly 
 morbid sensitiveness of the South to every thing that is supposed to 
 touch her character. Her highest distinction would then become her 
 most troublesome one. How, for instance, could her chivalrous sons 
 bear to be taunted, wherever they went, on business or for pleasure, 
 out of their own limits, with the cry " the knights of the lash !" " Go 
 home and pay your laborers !" " Cease from the scourging of husbands 
 and wives in each others presence — from attending the shambles, to 
 sell or buy as slaves those whom God has made of the same blood with 
 yourselves — your brethren — your sisters ! Cease, high minded sons of 
 the 'ancient domi.mon,' from estimating your revenue by the number 
 of children you rear, to sell in the flesh market !" " Go home and pay 
 your laborers !" " Go home and pay your laborers !" This would be 
 a trial to which ' southern chivalry" could not with patience submit. 
 Their " higli honor," their "undaunted spirit" would impel them to 
 the field — only to prove that in the " last resort" something more 
 substantial than mere "honor" and "spirit" is necessary to maintain it. 
 Suppose there should be a disagreement — as in all likelihood there 
 soon would, leading to war between the North and the South ? The 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 North would scarcely have occasion to march a squadron to the field. 
 She would have an army that could be raised up by the million, at the 
 fireside of her enemy. It has been said, that during the late war with 
 England, it was proposed to her cabinet, by some enterprising officers, 
 to land five thousand men on the coast of South Carolina and proclaim 
 liberty to the slaves. The success of the scheme was well thought of. 
 But then the example ! England herself held nearly a million of 
 slaves at no greater distance from the scene of action than the West 
 Indies. Now, a restraint of this kind on such a scheme does not exist. 
 
 It seems plain beyond the power of argument to make it plainer, that 
 a nation, under the circumstances in which the South separated from 
 the North would be placed, must be at the mercy of every free people ; 
 she would have no power to vindicate a right or avenge a wrong.* 
 
 A sixth reason why the South will not dissolve the Union, is found 
 in the difficulty of bringing about an actual separation. Preparatory to 
 such a movement, it would seem indispensable, that Union among the 
 seceding states themselves should be secured. A General Convention 
 would be necessary to adjust its terms. This would, of course, be 
 preceded hj particular conventions in the several states. To this pro- 
 cedure the same objection applies, that has been made, for the last two 
 or three years, to holding an anti-abolition convention in the South : — 
 It would give to the question such notoriety, that the object of holding 
 the convention could not be concealed from the slaves. The more 
 sagacious in the South have been opposed to a convention ; nor have 
 they been influenced solely by the consideration just mentioned — 
 which, in my view, is but of little moment — but by the apprehension, 
 that the diversity of sentiment which exists among the slave states, 
 themselves, in relation to the system, would be disclosed to the 
 country ; and that the slaveholding interest would be found deficient 
 in that harmony which, from its perfectness heretofore, has made the 
 slaveholders so successful in their action on the North. 
 
 The slaveholding region may be divided into the farming and the 
 planting — or the s\a.\e-selling and the slav e-bui/ing districts. -Maryland, 
 Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and East Tennessee constitute the first. 
 
 * Governor Ilayne, of South Carolina, spoke in high terms, a few years ago, of the ability that 
 the South would possess, in a military point of view, because her great wealth would enable her, 
 at all times, to command the services of mercenary troops. Without stopping to dispute with 
 him. as to her comparative wealth, 1 would remark, that he seemed entirely to have overlooked 
 this truth — that whenever a government is under the necessity of calling in foreign troops, to keep 
 in subjection one half of the people, the power of the government has already passed into the hands 
 of the Protectors. They can and will, of course, act with whichever party will best subserve their 
 purpose. 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 West Tennessee is somewhat equivocal. All the states south of Ten- 
 nessee belong to the slave-buying district. The first, with but few ex- 
 ceptions, have from the earliest times, felt slavery a reproach to their 
 good name — a drawback on their advancement — at some period, to be 
 cast off. This sentiment, had it been at all encouraged by the action 
 of the General Government, in accordance with the views of the con- 
 vention that formed the Constitution, would, in all probability, by this 
 time, have brought slavery in Maryland and Virginia to an end. Not- 
 withstanding the easy admission of slave states into the Union, and the 
 yielding of the free states whenever they were brought in collision with 
 the South, have had a strong tendency to persuade the farming slave 
 states to continue their system, yet the sentiment in favor of emancipa- 
 tion in some form, still exists among them. Proof, encouraging proof 
 of this, is found in the present attitude of Kentucky. Her legislature 
 has just passed a law, proposing to the people, to hold a convention to 
 alter the constitution. In the discussion of the bill, slavery as connect- 
 ed with some form of emancipation, seems to have constituted the most 
 important element. The public journals too, that are opposed to touch- 
 ing the subject at all, declare that the main object for recommending a 
 a convention was, to act on slavery in some way. 
 
 Now, it would be in vain for the planting South to expect, that Ken- 
 tucky or any other of the farming slave states would unite with her, in 
 making slavery the perpetual bond of a new political organization. If 
 they feel the inconveniences of slavery in their present condition, thev 
 could not be expected to enter on another, where these inconveniences 
 would be inconceivably multiplied and aggravated, and, by the very 
 terms of their new contract, perpetuated. 
 
 This letter is already so protracted, that I cannot stop here to develop 
 more at large this part of the subject. To one acquainted with the state 
 of public sentiment, in what I have called, the farming district, it 
 needs no further development. There is not one of these stales em- 
 braced in It, tliat would not, when brought to the test, prefer the privi- 
 leges of tlie Union to the privilege of perpetual slavcholding. And if 
 there should turn out to be a single desertion in lliis matter, the whole 
 project of secession must comu' to nought. 
 
 But laying aside all the obstacles to union among the seceding states, 
 how is it pcjssible to take the first step to actual separation ' The sepa- 
 ration, al the worst, can only be political. There will be no chasm — no 
 rent made in the earth i)etwcen tlio two sections. The natural and ideal 
 boundaries will remain unaltered. Mason and Dixon's line will not 
 become a wall of adamant that can neither be undermined nor sur- 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 mounted. The Ohio river will not be converted into flame, or into 
 another Styx, denying a passage to every living thing, 
 
 Besides this stability of natural things, the multiform interests of the 
 two sections would, in the main, continue as they are. The comph- 
 cate ties of commerce could not be suddenly unloosed. The bread- 
 stuffs, the beef, the porli, the turkies, the chickens, the woollen and 
 cotton fabrics, the hats, the shoes, the socks, the " horn flints and bark 
 nutmegs,"* the machinery, the sugar-kettles, the cotton-gins, the axes, 
 the hoes, the drawing-chains of the North, would be as much needed 
 by the South, the day after the separation as the day before. The 
 newspapers of the North — its Magazines, its Quarterlies, its Monthlies, 
 would be more sought after by the readers of the South than they now 
 are ; and the Southern journals would become doubly interesting to us. 
 There would be the same lust for our northern summers and your 
 southern winters, with all their health-giving influences ; and last, 
 though not least, the same desire of marrying and of being given in 
 marriage that now exists between the North and South. Really it 
 seems difficult to say where this long threatened separation is to begin ; 
 and if the place of beginning could be found, it would seem like a poor 
 exchange for the South, to give up all these pleasant and profitable re- 
 lations and connections for the privilege of enslaving an equal number 
 of their fellow-creatures. 
 
 Thus much for the menace, that the " union will be dissolved" 
 unless the discussion of the slavery question be stopped. 
 
 But you may reply, " Do you think the South is not in earnest in 
 her threat of dissolving the Union ?" I rejoin, by no means ; — yet she 
 pursues a perfectly reasonable course (leaving out of view the justice or 
 morality of it) — just such a course as I should expect she would pur- 
 sue, emboldened as she must be by her multiplied triumphs over the 
 North by the use of the same weapon. " We'll dissolve the Union !" 
 was the cry, " unless Missouri be admitted ! !" The North were iright- 
 ened, and Missouri was admitted with slavery engraved on her fore- 
 head. " We'll dissolve the Union !" unless the Indians be driven out 
 of the South ! ! The North forgot her treaties, parted with humanity, 
 and it is done — the defenceless Indians are forced to " consent" to be 
 driven out, or they are left, undefended, to the mercies of southern 
 land-jobbers and gold-hunters. " We'll dissolve the Union ! If the 
 Tariff" [established at her own suggestion] " be not repealed or 
 modified so that our slave-labor may compete with your free-labor." 
 
 * Senator Preston's Railroad Speech, delivered at Columbia, S. C, in 1836. 
 
 6 
 
( 42 ) 
 
 The Tariff is accordingly modified to suit the South. " We'll dissolve 
 the Union I" unless the freedom of speech and the press be put down 
 in the North!.' — With the j)romptness of commission-merchants, the 
 alternative is adopted. Public assemblies met lor deliberation are as- 
 sailed and broken up at the North ; her citizens are stoned and beaten 
 and dragged through the streets of her cities ; her presses are attacked 
 by mobs, instigated and led on by men of influence and character ; 
 whilst those concerned in conducting them are compelled to fly from 
 their homes, pursued as if they were noxious wild beasts ; or, if they 
 remain to defend, they are sacrificed to appease the southern divinity. 
 " We'll dissolve the Union" if slavery be abolished in the District of 
 of Columbia ! The North, frightened from her propriety, declares that 
 slavery ought not to be abolished there now. — " We'll dissolve the 
 Union !" if you read petitions from your constituents for its abolition, 
 or for stopping the slave-trade at the Capital, or between the states. 
 FiFTV NORTHERN REPRESENTATIVES respoud to the cry, "down, then, 
 with the RIGHT OF PETITION ! !" All these assaults have succeeded 
 because the North has been frightened by the war-cry, " We'll dis- 
 solve THE Union !" 
 
 After achieving so much by a process so simple, why should not the 
 South persist in her course when she strives for further conquests ? 
 No other course ought to be expected from her, till this has tailed. 
 And it is not at all improbable, that she will persist, till she almost per- 
 suades herself that she is serious in her menace to dissolve the Union. 
 She mav in her eagerness, even approach so near the verge of dissolu- 
 tion, that the earth may give way under her foet and she be dashed in 
 ruins in the gulf below. 
 
 Nothing will more surely arrest her fury, than the firm array of the 
 North, setting up anew the almost forgotten principles of our fathers, 
 and saying to the " dark spirit of slavery," — " thus far shalt thou go, 
 and no farther." Tliis is the best — the oiilv — inc;ins of saving the 
 South from the fruits of her own folly — folly that has been so long, and 
 so strangely encouraged by the North, that it has grown into intolerable 
 arrogance — down right presumption. 
 
 There are many other " events" of the last two or three years which 
 have, doul)tless, had their inllueiicc on the course of the abolitionists — 
 and whieh might properly be dwell lipon at considerable length, were 
 It not that this conummication is already greatly protracted beyond its 
 intended hniiis. 1 sliali, therefore, in mentioning the remaining topics, 
 do little more tlian enumerate them. 
 
 The Ijeffislature of Vermont has fnken a derided st.nnd in Oivor o( 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 anti-slavery principles and action. In the Autumn of 1836, the following 
 resolutions were passed by an almost unanimous vote in both houses : — 
 
 " Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Vermont, That neither Con- 
 gress nor the State Governments have any constitutional right to abridge the free expres- 
 sions of opinions, or the transmission of them through the medimn of the public mails." 
 
 " Resolved, That Congress do possess the power to abolish slavery in the District 
 of Columbia."' 
 
 " Resolved, That His E.^cellency, the Governor, be requested to transmit a copy of 
 the foregoing resolutions to the Executive of each of the States, and to each of our 
 Senators and Representatives in Congress." 
 
 At the session held in November last, the following joint resolutions, 
 preceded by a decisive memorial against the admission of Texas, were 
 passed by both branches — with the exception of the fifth, which was 
 passed only by the House of Representatives : — 
 
 1. Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives, That our Senators in 
 Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use their influence in 
 that body to prevent the annexation of Texas to the Union. 
 
 2. Resolved, That, representmg, as we do, the people of Vermont, we do hereby, in 
 their name, solemnly protest against such annexation in any form. 
 
 3. Resolved, That, as the Representatives of the people of Vermont, we do solemnly 
 protest against the admission, into this Union, of any state whose constitution tolerates 
 domestic slavery. 
 
 4. Resolved, That Congress have full power, by the Constitution, to abolish slavery 
 and the slave-trade in the District of Colimibia and in the territories of the United 
 States. 
 
 [5. Resolved, That Congress has the constitutional power to prohibit the slave-trade 
 between the several states of this Union, and to make such laws as shall effectually 
 prohibit such trade.] 
 
 6. Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives 
 requested, to present the foregoing Report and Resolutions to their respective Houses 
 in Congress, and use their mfluence to carry the same speedily into effect. 
 
 7. Resolved, That the Governor of this State be requested to transmit a copy of the 
 foregoing Report and Resolutions to the President of the United States, and to each 
 of our Senators and Representatives in Congress 
 
 The influence of anti-slavery principles in Massachusetts has become 
 decisive, if we are to judge from the change of sentiment in the legisla- 
 tive body. The governor of that commonwealth saw fit to introduce 
 into his inaugural speech, delivered in January, 1836, a severe censure 
 of the abolitionists, and to intimate that they were guilty of an off*ence 
 punishable at common law. This part of the speech was referred to a 
 joint committee of five, of which a member of the senate was chairman. 
 To the same committee were also referred communications which had 
 
C44 ) 
 
 been received by the governor from several of the legislatures of the 
 slaveholding states, requesting the Legislature of Massachusetts to enact 
 laws, making it penal for citizens of that state to form societies for the 
 abolition of slavery, or to speak or publish sentiments such as had been 
 uttered in anti-slavery meetings and published in anti-slavery tracts and 
 papers. The managers of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, in 
 a note addressed to the chairman of the committee, requested permission, 
 as a party whose rights were drawn in question, to appear before it. 
 This was granted. The gentlemen selected by them to appear on their 
 behalf were of unimpeachable character, and distinguished for profes- 
 sional merit and general literary and scientific intelligence. Such was 
 then the unpopularity of abolitionism, that notwithstanding the personal 
 influence of these gentlemen, they were ill — not to say rudely — treated, 
 especially by the chairman of the committee ; so much so, that respect 
 for themselves, and the cause they were deputed to defend, persuaded 
 them to desist before they had completed their remarks. A Report, 
 including Resolutions unfavorable to the abolitionists w^as made, of 
 which the following is a copy : — 
 
 The Joint Special Committee, to whom was referred so much of the governor's mes- 
 sage as related to the abolition of slavery, together with certain documents upon the 
 same subject, communicated to the Executive by the several Legislatures of Virginia, 
 North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, transmitted by his E.xcellency 
 to the Legislature, and hereunto annexed, have considered the same, and ask leave, 
 respectfully, to submit the following : — 
 
 Resolved, That this Legislature distinctly disavow any right whatever in itself, or in 
 the citizens of this commonwealth, to interfere in the institution of domestic slavery in 
 the southern states : it having existed therein before the establishment of the Constitu- 
 tion ; it having been recognised by that instrument ; and it being strictly within their 
 own keeping. 
 
 Resolved, That this Legislature, regarding the agitation of the question of domestic 
 slavery as having already interrupted the friendly relations which ought to exist between 
 the several states of this Union, and as tending permanently to injure, if not altogether 
 to subvert, the principles of the Union itself; and believing that the good effected by 
 those who c.vcite its discussion in the non-slaveholding states is, under the circum- 
 stances of the case, altogether visionar)', while the inuuediate and future evil is great 
 and certain ; does hereby express its entire disapprobation of the doctrine upon this 
 subject avowed, and the general measures pursued by such as agitate the question ; and 
 does earnestly recommend to them carefully to abstain from all such discussion, and all 
 such measures, as may tend to disturb and irritate the public mind. 
 
 The report was laid on the table, whence it was not taken up during 
 the session — its friends being afraid of a lean majority on its passage ; 
 for the alarm had ulrcadv been taken by many of the nn^mlx-rs vbo 
 otherwise would liavu favored it. From tliis time till the election in the 
 
(45 ) 
 
 succeeding autumn, the subject was much agitated in Massachusetts. 
 The abolitionists again petitioned the Legislature at its session begun 
 in January, 1837 ; especially, that it should remonstrate against the 
 resolution of Mr. Hawes, adopted by the House of Representatives in 
 Congress, by which all memorials, &c, in relation to slavery were laid, 
 and to be laid, on the table, without further action on them. The abo- 
 litionists were again heard, in behalf of their petitions, before the proper 
 committee.* The result was, the passage of the following resolutions 
 with only 16 dissenting voices to 378, in the House of Representatives, 
 and in the Senate with not more than one or two dissentients on any 
 one of them : — 
 
 " Whereas, The House of Representatives of the United States, in the month of 
 January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, did adopt 
 a resolution, whereby it was ordered that all petitions, memorials, resolutions, proposi- 
 tions, or papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of sla- 
 very, or the abolition of slavery, without being either printed or referred, should be laid 
 upon the table, and that no further action whatever should be had thereon ; and where- 
 as such a disposition of petitions, then or thereafter to be received, is a virtual denial 
 of the right itself; and whereas, by the resolution aforesaid, which is adopted as a 
 standing rule in the present House of Representatives, the petitions of a large number 
 of the people of this commonwealth, praying for the removal of a great social, moral, 
 and political evil, have been slighted and contemned : therefore, — 
 
 " Resolved, That the resolution above named is an assumption of power and author- 
 ity at variance with the spirit and intent of the Constitution of the United States, and 
 injurious to the cause of freedom and free institutions ; that it does violence to the 
 inherent, absolute, and inalienable rights of man ; and that it tends, essentially, to 
 impair those fundamental principles of natural justice and natural law which are ante- 
 cedent to any written constitutions of government, independent of them all, and essen- 
 tial to the security of freedom in a state. 
 
 " Resolved, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress, in maintaining and 
 advocating the right of petition, have entitled themselves to the cordial approbation of 
 the people of this commonwealth. 
 
 " Resolved, That Congress, having exclusive legislation in the District of Colimibia, 
 possess the right to abolish slavery in said district, and that its exercise should only be 
 restrained by a regard to the public good." 
 
 That you may judge for yourself what influence the abolition ques- 
 tion exercised in the elections in Massachusetts last autumn, I send 
 you three numbers of the Liberator containing copies of letters address- 
 ed to many of the candidates, and their respective answers. 
 
 The Legislature have passed, unanimously, at its present session, 
 resolutions (preceded by a report of great ability) protesting " earnestly 
 
 " The gentleman who had been chairman of the committee the preceding year, was supposed, 
 in consequence of the change in public opmion in relation to abolitionists, to have injured his 
 political standing too much, even to be nominated as a candidate for re-election. 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 and solemnly against the annexation of Texas to this Union ;" and declar- 
 ing that, "«o act done, or compact made, for such purpose, hy the govern- 
 ment of tlie United States, will be binding on the states or the people." 
 
 Two years ago, Governor Marcy, of this state, showed himself will- 
 ing, at the dictation of the South, to aid in passing laws for restraining 
 and punishing the abolitionists, whenever the extremity of the case 
 might call for it. Two weeks ago, at the request of the Young Men's 
 Anti-Slavery Society of Albany, the Assembly-chamber, by a A'ote of the 
 Plouse (only two dissentient) was granted to Alvan Stewart, Esq., a 
 distinguished lawyer, to lecture on the subject of abolition. 
 
 Kentucky is assuming an attitude of great interest to the friends of 
 Liberty and the Constitution. The blessings of " them that are ready 
 to perish" throughout the land, the applause of the good throughout the 
 world will be hers, if she should show moral energy enough to break 
 every yoke that she has hitherto imposed on the " poor," and by which 
 her own prosperity and true power have been hindered. 
 
 In view of the late action in the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives in Congress — adverse as they may seem, to those who think more 
 highly of the branches of the Legislature than of the source of their 
 power — the abolitionists see nothing that is cause for discouragement. 
 They find the people sound ; they know that they still cherish, as 
 their fathers did, the right of petition — the freedom of the press — the 
 freedom of speech — the rights of conscience ; that they love the liberty 
 of the North more than they love the slavery of the South. What care 
 they for Resolutions in the House, or Resolutions in the Senate, when 
 the House and the Senate are but their ministers, their servants, and 
 they know that they can discharge them at their pleasure ? It may be, 
 that Congress has yet to learn, that the people have but slight regard 
 for their restraining resolutions. They ought to have known this from 
 the history of such resolutions for the last two years. Thirtv-seven 
 THOUSAND petitioners for the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- 
 lumbia had their petitions laid on the table by the resolution of the 
 House of Representatives in May, 183G. At the succeeding session, 
 they had increased to one hundred and ten thousand. — The reso- 
 lution of Jan. 18, 1837, laid all their petitions in the same way on the 
 table. At the called, and at the i)rest'nt session, these 110,000 had 
 multiplied to five hundred thousand.* Soon, Senators and Repre- 
 sentatives will be sent from the free slates who will need no petitions 
 
 thoy will know the prayer of their constituents before they leave their 
 
 homes. 
 
 * See Appendix, U. 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 In concluding this, my answer to your 13th interrogatory, I will say 
 that I know of no event, that has transpired, either in or out of Con- 
 gress, for the last two or three years, that has had any other influence 
 on the efforts of abolitionists than to increase and stimulate them. 
 Indeed, every thing that has taken place within that period, ought to 
 excite to their utmost efforts all who are not despairing dastards. The 
 Demon of oppression in this land is tenfold more fierce and rampant 
 and relentless than he was supposed to be before roused from the quiet 
 of his lair. To every thing that is precious the abolitionists have seen 
 him lay claim. The religion of the Bible must be adulterated ; the 
 claims of Humanity must be smothered — the demands of justice must 
 be nullified, a part of our Race must be shut out from the common sym- 
 pathy of a common nature. Nor is this all : they see their own rights 
 and those of the people ; the right to speak — to write — to print — to 
 
 PUBLISH to ASSEMBLE TOGETHER tO PETITION THEIR OWN SER- 
 VANTS — all brought in peril. They feel that the final conflict between 
 Popular liberty and Aristocratic slavery has come ; that one or the other 
 must fall ; and they have made up their minds, with the blessing of 
 God on their efforts, that their adversary shall die. 
 
 " 14. Have you any permanent fund, and how much? 
 
 Answer. — We have none. The contributions are anticipated. We 
 are always in debt, and always getting out of debt. 
 
 1 have now. Sir, completed my answers to the questions proposed in 
 your letter of the 16th ult. It gives me pleasure to have had such an 
 auspicious opportunity of doing so. I cannot but hope for good to both 
 the parties concerned, where candor and civility have characterized 
 their representatives. 
 
 Part of the answer to your 13lh question may seem to wander from 
 the strict terms of the question proposed. Let it be set down to a 
 desire, on my part, to give you all the information I can, at all gerniain 
 to the inquiry. The " proffer," made in my note to Mr. Calhoun, was 
 not " unguarded ;" — nor was it singular. The information I have fur- 
 nished has been always accessible to our adversaries — even though the 
 application for it might not have been clothed in the polite and gentle- 
 manly terms which have so strongly recommended yours to the most 
 respectful consideration of 
 
 Your very obedient servant, 
 
 James G. Birney. 
 
( 48 ) 
 
 [In the Explanatory Remarks placed at the beginning of this Corres- 
 pondence, reasons were given, that were deemed sufficient, for not pub- 
 lishing more of the letters that passed between Mr. Elmore and myself 
 than the two above. Since they were in type, I have received from 
 Mr. Elmore a communication, in reply to one from me, informing him 
 that I proposed limiting the publication to the two letters just mentioned. 
 It is dated May 19. The following extract shows that he entertains a 
 different opinion from mine, and thinks that justice to him requires that 
 another of his letters should be included in the Correspondence : — 
 
 " The order you propose in the publication is proper enough ; the omission of busi- 
 ness and immaterial letters being perfectly proper, as they can interest nobody. I 
 had supposed my last letter would have formed an exception to the rule, which exclu- 
 ded immaterial papers. It explained, more fully than my first, my reasons for this cor- 
 respondence, defined the limits to which I had jrrescrihed myself, and was a proper 
 accompaniment to a publication of what / had not %vritten for publication. Allow me, 
 Sir, to say, that it will be but bare justice to me that it should be printed with the other 
 papers. I only suggest this for your own consideration, for — adhering to my former 
 opinions and decision — I a.sk nothing and complain of nothing." 
 
 It is still thought that the publication of the letter alluded to is unne- 
 cessary to the purpose of enlightening the public, as to the state, pros- 
 pects, (fee, of the anti-slavery cause. It contains no denial of the facts, 
 nor impeachment of the statements, nor answer to the arguments, 
 presented in my communication. But as Mr. Elmore is personally inte- 
 rested in this matter, and as it is intended to maintain the consistent 
 liberality which has characterized the Executive Committee in all their 
 intercourse with their opponents, the suggestion made by Mr. Elmore 
 is cheerfully complied with. The following is a copy of the letter 
 alluded to.— J. G. B.] 
 
 "Washington-, May 5, 1S38. 
 "To James G. Birxev, Esq., Cor. Sec. A. A. S. S. 
 
 " Sir, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 1st 
 instant, in whi( h you iiirnin refer to thf piibliealiou of the Coiiespon- 
 dence between us, in relation to the measures and designs of the aboli- 
 tionists. I would have certainly answered yours of the 2d iih., on the 
 same subject, more fully before tliis, had it not escajjcd my ricolloction, 
 in consc(iuenc«' [of] having been more engaged than usual in the busi- 
 ness before the House. 1 hope ilie delay has been productive of no 
 ineonveni('n<:e. 
 
 " If I correctly understand your letters almvo referred to, the control 
 of those papers, and the decision as to their publication, have passed 
 into the ' Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society ;' 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 and, from their tenor, I infer that their determination is so far made, 
 that nothing 1 could object would prevent it, if I desired to do so. 1 
 was certainly not apprised, when I entered into this Correspondence, 
 that its disposition was to depend on any other will than yours and 
 mine,— but that matters nothing now, — you had the power, and I am 
 not disposed to question the right or propriety of its exercise. I heard 
 of you as a man of intelligence, sincerity, and truth, — who, although 
 laboring in a bad cause, did it with ability, and from a mistaken convic- 
 tion of its justice. As one of the Representatives of a slave-holding 
 constituency, and one of a committee raised by the Representatives of 
 the slave-holding States, to ascertain the intentions and progress of your 
 associations, I availed myself of the opportunity offered by your char- 
 acter and situation, to propose to you inquiries as to facts, which would 
 make those developments so important to be known hy our people. My 
 inquiries were framed to draw out full and authentic details of the organ- 
 ization, numbers, resources, and designs of the abolitionists, of the 
 means they resorted to for the accomplishment of their ends, and the 
 progress made, and making, in their dangerous work, that all such in- 
 formation might be laid before the four millions and a half of white in- 
 habitants in the slave States, whose lives and property are menaced and 
 endangered by this ill-considered, misnamed, and disorganizing philan- 
 thropy. They should be informed of the full length and breadth and 
 depth of this storm which is gathering over their heads, before it breaks 
 in its desolating fury. Christians and civilized, they are now indus- 
 trious, prosperous, and happy ; but should your schemes of abolition 
 prevail, it will bring upon them overwhelming ruin, and misery unut- 
 terable. The two races cannot exist together upon terms of equality 
 — the extirpation of one and the ruin of the other would be inevitable. 
 This humanity, conceived in wrong and born in civil strife, would be 
 baptized in a people's blood. It was, that our people might know, in 
 time to guard against the mad onset, the full extent of this gigantic 
 conspiracy and crusade against their institutions ; and of necessity 
 upon their lives with which th^y must sustain them ; and their fortunes 
 and prosperity, which exist only while these institutions exist, that I was 
 induced to enter into a correspondence willi you, who by your official 
 station and intelligence were known to be well informed on these 
 points, and from your well established character for candor and fair- 
 ness, would make no statements of facts which were not known or be- 
 lieved by you to be true. To a great extent, my end has been accom- 
 plished by your replies to my inquiries. How far, or whether at all, 
 your answers have run, beyond the facts inquired for, into theories, ar- 
 
 7 
 
( bO ) 
 
 guments, and dissertations, as erroneous as mischievous, is not a matter 
 of present consideration. We differed no wider than I expected, but 
 that difference has been exhibited courteously, and has nothing to do 
 with the question of publication. Your object, or rather the object of 
 your Committee, is to publish ; and I, having no reason to desire it, as 
 you have put me in possession of the facts 1 wished, and no reason not 
 to desire it, as there is nothing to conceal, will leave yourself and the 
 Committee to take your own course, neither assenting nor dissenting, 
 in what you may finally decide to do. 
 
 Very respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 " F. H. Elmore." 
 
 [This letter of Mr. Elmore contains but little more than a reiteration 
 of alarming cries on the part of the slaveholder ; — cries that are as old 
 as the earliest attempts of philanthropy to break the fetters of the en- 
 slaved, and that have been repeated up to the present day, with a bold- 
 ness that seems to increase, as instances of emancipation multiply to 
 prove them groundless. Those who utter them seem, in their panic, 
 not only to overlook the most obvious laws of the human niind, and the 
 lights of experience, but to be almost unconscious of the great events 
 connected with slavery, that are now passing around them in the world, 
 and conspiring to bring about its early abrogation among all civilized 
 and commercial nations. 
 
 However Christian and civilized, industrious, prosperous and happy, 
 the sLAVHOLDERs of the South may be, this cannot be said of the slaves. 
 A large religious denomination of the state in which Mr. Elmore re- 
 sides, has deliberately pronounced them to be " heathex." Their 
 " industry" is seen ai the end of the lash — of " prosperity" they have 
 none, for they cannot possess any thing that is an element of prosperity 
 — their " ha])piness" they prove, by running away from their masters, 
 wljenever they think tliey can effect their escape. This is the condi- 
 tion of a large majority ol' the people in South Carolina, Mississippi 
 and Louisiana. 
 
 'I'he " two races" exist in peace in Mexico, — in all the lornier Soulli 
 Amorieaii dependencies of Spain, in Antigua, in the Bermudas, in Can- 
 ada, in Massachusetts, in Vermont, in fine, in every country where they 
 enjoy legal ei/ualifi/. It is the denial of this ih;il pioihices discontent. 
 ,Mk.\ will never be satisfied without it. JjCl the slaveholders consult 
 the irreversible l;iws of the human mind — make a full concession of 
 right to those from whom they have withhold it, and ihey will be bless- 
 
( 51 ) 
 
 ed with a peace, political, social, moral, beyond their present concep- 
 tions ; without such concessions they never can possess it. 
 
 A system that cannot withstand the assaults of truth — that replies to 
 arguments with threats — that cannot be " talked about" — that flourishes 
 in secrecy and darkness, and dies when brought forth into the light and 
 examined, must in this time of inexorable scrutiny and relentless agi- 
 tation, be a dangerous one. If justice be done, all necessity for the 
 extirpation of any part of the people will at once be removed. Bap- 
 tisms of blood are seen only when humanity has failed in her offices, 
 and the suffering discern hope only in the brute efforts of despair. 
 
 Mr. Elmore is doubtless well versed in general history. To his 
 vigorous declamation, I reply by asking, if he can produce from 
 the history of our race a single instance, where emancipation, fnll 
 and immediate, has been followed, as a legitimate consequence, by 
 insurrection or bloodshed. I may go further, and ask him for a well 
 authenticated instance, where an emancipated slave, singly has imbrued 
 his hands in his master's blood. The first record of such an act in 
 modern times, is yet to be made. 
 
 Mr. Elmore says "the while inhabitants in the slave states should 
 be informed of the full length and breadth and depth of this storm 
 which is gathering over their heads, before it breaks in its desolating 
 fury." In this sentiment there is not a reasonable man in the country, 
 be he abolitionist or not, who will not coincide with him. We rejoice 
 at the evidence we here have, in a gentleman of the influence and in- 
 telligence of Mr. Elmore, of the returning sanity of the South. How 
 wildly and mischievously has she been heretofore misled ! Whilst 
 the Governors of Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas, have 
 been repelling offers, made in respectful terms, of the fullest and iiiost 
 authentic accounts of our movements ; and whilst Governor Butler of 
 South Carolina, has not only followed the example of his guber- 
 natorial brethren just named, but is found corresponding with an 
 obscure culprit in Massachusetts — bribing him with a few dollars, the 
 sum he demanded for his fraudulent promise to aid in thwarting the 
 abolitionists* ; whilst too, Mr. Calhoun has been willing to pass laws 
 to shut out from his constituents and the South generally information 
 that concerned them more nearly than all others — we now have it from 
 the highest source, from one selected by a state delegation as its rep- 
 resentative in a general committee of the whole slaveholding delega- 
 tions, that the South ought to be " informed of the full length and breadth 
 
 'Appendix, H. 
 
( 52 ) 
 
 and depth'' of the measures, intentions, &c, of the abolitionists. At 
 this there is not an abolitionist who will not rejoice. We ask for 
 nothing but access to the popular mind of the South. We feel full con- 
 fidence in the eternal rectitude of our principles, and of their reception 
 at the South, when once they are understood. Let the conflict come, 
 let the truth of liberty fairly enter the lists with the error of slavery, 
 and we have not a doubt of a glorious triumph. 
 
 May we not, after this, expect the aid of Mr. Elmore and others of 
 equal distinction in the South, in giving to their fellow-citizens the in- 
 forinatiim that we have always believed, and that they now acknowl- 
 edge, to be so important to them ? 
 
 May 24, 1838. James G. Birney.] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Extract from an article addressed to the editor of the Christian Register and Ob- 
 server, signed W. E. C. — attributed to the Rev. Dr. Channing. 
 
 " Speaking of slavery, I wish to recommend to your readers a book just from the 
 press, entitled ' Emancipation in the West Indies,' and written by J. A. Thome and 
 J. H. Kimball, who had visited those islands to inquire into the great experiment now 
 going on there. I regard it as the most important work which has appeared among us 
 for years. No man, without reading it, should undertake to pass judgment on Eman- 
 cipation. It is something more than a report of the observation and opinions of the 
 writers. It consists, chiefly, of the opinions, conversations, letters, and other docu- 
 ments of the very inhabitants of the islands whose judgments are most trust-worthy ; 
 of the governors, special magistrates, police officers, managers, attorneys, physicians, 
 &c ; and, in most cases, the names of these individuals are given, so that we have the 
 strongest evidence of the correctness of the work. 
 
 " The results of this great experiment surpass what the most sanguine could have 
 hoped. It is hardly possible that the trial could have been made under more unfavor- 
 able circumstances. The planters on all the islands were opposed to the Act of Eman- 
 cipation, and, in most, exceedingly and riercely hostile to it, and utterly indisposed to 
 give it the best chance of success. The disproportion of the colored race to the whites 
 was fearfully great, being that of seven or eight to one ; whilst, in our slaveholding 
 states, the whites outnumber the colored people. The slaves of the West Indies were 
 less civilized than ours, and less fit to be trusted with their own support. Another 
 great evil was, that the proprietors, to a considerable extent, were absentees ; residing 
 in England, and leaving the care of their estates and slaves to managers and owners ; 
 the last people for such a trust, and utterly unfit to carry the wretched victims of their 
 tyranny through the solemn transition from slavery to freedom. To complete the 
 unhappy circumstances under which the experiment began, the Act ol Emancipation 
 was passed by a distant government, having no intimate knowledge of the subject ; and 
 the consequence was, that a system of 'Apprenticeship,' as it was called, was adopted, 
 so absurd, and betraying such ignorance of the principles of human nature, that, did we 
 not know otherwise, we might suspect its author of intending to produce a failure. It 
 was to witness the results of an experiment promising so little good, that our authors 
 visited three islands, particularly worthy of examination — Antigua, Barbadoes, and 
 Jamaica. 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 " Our authors went first to Antigua, an island which had been wise enough to fore- 
 see the mischiefs of the proposed apprenticeship, and had substituted for it immediate 
 and unquahfied emancipation. The report given of this island is most cheering. It is, 
 indeed, one of the brightest records in liistory. The account, begiiming page 143, of 
 the transition from .slavery to freedom, can hardly be read by a man of ordinan,' sensi- 
 bility without a thrill of tender and holy joy. WTiy is it not published in all our news- 
 papers as among the most interesting events of our age 1 From the accounts of Anti- 
 gua, it appears that immediate emancipation has produced only good. Its fruits are, 
 greater security, the removal of the fears which accompany slavery, better and cheaper 
 cultivation of the soil, increased value of real estate, improved morals, more frequent 
 marriages, and fewer crimes. The people proclaim, imth one voice, that emancipation 
 is a blessing, and that nothing wotdd tempt them to revert to slavery. 
 
 " Our authors proceeded next to Barbadoes, where the apprenticeship system is in 
 operation ; and if any proof were needed of the docility and good dispositions of the 
 negroes, it would be found in their acquiescence to so wonderful a degree in this unhap- 
 py arrangement. The planters on this island have been more disposed, than could have 
 been anticipated, to make the best of this system, and here, accordingly, the same 
 fruits of the Act of Emancipation are found as in Antigua, though less abundant ; and 
 a vcrj' general and strong conviction prevails of the happiness of the change. 
 
 " In Jamaica, apprenticeship manifests its worst tendencies. The planters of this 
 island were, from first to last, furious in their hostility to the act of emancipation ; and 
 the effort seems to have been, to make the apprenticeship bear as heavily as possible 
 on the colored people ; so that, instead of preparing them for complete emancipation, it 
 has rather unfitted them for this boon. Still, under all these disadvantages, there is 
 strong reason for expecting, that emancipation, when it shall come, will prove a great 
 good. At any rate, it is hardly possible for the slaves to fall into a more deplorable 
 condition, than that in which this interposition of parliament found them. 
 
 "The degree of success which has attended this experiment m the West Indies, 
 under such unfavorable auspices, makes us sure, that emancipation in this countr)', 
 accorded by the good will of the masters, would be attended with the happiest effects. 
 One thing is plain, that it would be perfectly safe. Never were the West Indies so 
 peaceful and secure as since emancipation. So far from general massacre and insur- 
 rection, not an instance is recorded or intimated of violence of any kind being offered 
 to a white man. Our authors were continually met by assurances of security on the 
 part of the planters, so that, in this respect at least, emancipation has been unspeak- 
 able gain. Tlie only obstacle to emancipation is, therefore, removed ; for nothing but 
 well grounded fears of violence and crime can authorize a man to encroach one moment 
 on another's freedom. 
 
 "The subject of this book is of great interest at the present moment. Slavery, in 
 the abstract, has been thoroughly discussed among us. We all agree that it is a great 
 wrong. Not a voice is here lifted up in defence of the system, when viewed in a 
 general lij;hl. We only differ when we come to apply our principles to a particular 
 ca.se. The only question is, whether the So\ithem states can abolish slavery consis- 
 tently wi'ih the ])ut>iic safely, order, and ])eace ] Many, very many well disposed peo- 
 ple, lioth at the North and South, are po.ssessed with vague fears of massacre and 
 univeroal miHnilc, aa the consequences of eniaiicipation. Such ought to inquire into 
 the ground of their ularin They are bound to listen to the voice o{ fads, and such are 
 given m this book None of \ik have a right to make up our minds without inquiry, or 
 
( 55 ) 
 
 to rest in opinions adopted indolently and without thought. It is a great crime to doom 
 millions of our race to brutal degradation, on the ground of unreasonable fears. The 
 power of public opinion is here irresistible, and to this power every man contributes 
 something ; so that every man, by his spirit and language, Lelps to loosen or rivet the 
 chains of the slave." 
 
 The following sentiments are expressed by Governor Everett, of Massachusetts, 
 in a letter to Edmund Quincy, Esq., dated 
 
 "Boston, April 29, 1838. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I have your favor of the 21st, accompanied with the volume containing 
 the account of the tour of Messrs. Thome and Kimball in the West Indies, for which 
 you will be pleased to accept my thanks. I have perused this highly interesting narra- 
 tive with the greatest satisfaction. From the moment of the passage of the law, mak- 
 ing provision for the immediate or prospective abolition of slavery in the British colonial 
 possessions, I have looked with the deepest solicitude for tidings of its operation. The 
 success of the measure, as it seemed to me, would afford a better hope than had before 
 existed, that a like blessing might be enjoyed by those portions of the United States 
 w?here slavery prevails. The only ground on which I had been accustomed to hear the 
 continuance of slavery defended at the South, was that of necessity, and the impossi- 
 bility of abolishing it without producing consequences of the most disastrous character 
 to both parties. The passage of a law providing for the emancipation of nearly a mil- 
 lion of slaves in the British colonies, seemed to afford full opportunity of bringing this 
 momentous question to the decisive test of experience. If the result proved satisfac- 
 tory, I have never doubted that it would seal the fate of slavery throughout the civilized 
 world. As far as the observations of Messrs. Thome and Kimball extended, the result 
 is of the most gratifying character. It appears to place beyond a doubt, that the expe- 
 rimeni, of immediate emancipation, adopted by the colonial Legislature of Antigua, has 
 fully succeeded in that island ; and the plan of apprenticeship in other portions of the 
 West Indies, as well as could have been expected from the obvious inherent vices of 
 that measure. It has given me new views of the practicability of emancipation. It has 
 been effected in Antigua, as appears from unquestionable authorities contained in the 
 work of Messrs. Thome and Kimball, not merely ivithout danger to the master, but 
 without any sacrifice of his interest. I cannot but think that the information collected 
 in the volume will have a powerful effect on public opinion, not only in the northern 
 states, but in the slaveholding states." 
 
 Governor Ellsworth, of Connecticut, writes thus to A. F. Willi.ims, Esq., of 
 tliis city : — 
 
 "New Haven, May 19, 1838. 
 
 " My Dear Sir, — Just before I left home, I received from you the Journal of Tlioine 
 and Kimball, for which token of friendship I intended to have made you my acknow- 
 ledgments before this ; but I wished first to read the book. As far as time would per- 
 mit, I have gone over most of its pages ; and let me assure you, it is jujitly calculated 
 to produce great effects, provided you can once get it into the hands of the planters. 
 Convince them that their interests, as well as their security, will be advanced by 
 employing free blacks, and emancipation will be accomplished without difficulty or 
 delay. 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 " I have looked with great interest at the startling measure of emancipation in Anti- 
 gua ; but if this book is correct, the question is settled as to that island beyond a 
 doubt, since there is such accumulated testimony from all classes, that the business and 
 real estate of the island have advanced, by reason of the emancipation, one fourth, at 
 least, in value ; while personal security, without military force, is felt by the former 
 masters, and contentment, industry, and gratitude, are seen in those who were slaves. 
 
 " The jjrcat moral example of England, in abolishing slavery in the West Indies, will 
 produce a revolution on this subject throughout the world, and put down slavery in 
 every Christian coimtry. 
 
 "With sentiments of high esteem, &c, 
 
 " W. W. Ellsworth." 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 A short time previous to the late election in Rhode Island for governor and lieu- 
 tenant-governor, a letter was addressed to each of the candidates for those offices by 
 Mr. Johnson, Corresponding Secretary of the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society, 
 embodying the views of the abolitiomsts on the several subjects it embraced, in a series 
 of queries. Their purport will appear from the answer of Mr. Sprague, (who wat 
 elected governor,) given below. The answer of Mr. Childs (elected heutenant-gover- 
 nor) is fully as direct as that of governor Sprague. 
 
 " Warwick, March 28, 1838. 
 
 "Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 19th inst. requesting of me, in conformity to a reso- 
 lution of tiie Executive Committee of the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society, an 
 expression of my opinions on certain topics, was duly received. I have no motive 
 whatever for withholding my opinions on any subject which is interesting to any por- 
 tion of my ftUow-citizens. I will, therefore, cheerfully proceed to reply to the inter- 
 rogatories proposed, and in the order in which they are submitted. 
 
 " 1. Among the powers vested by the Constitution in Congress, is the power to 
 exercise exclusive legislation, 'in all cases whatsoever,' over the District of Columbia 1 
 'All cases' must, of course, include the case of slavery and the slave-trade. I am, 
 therefore, clearly of opinion, that the Constitution does confer upon Congress the power 
 to abolish slavery and the slave-trade'in that District ; and, as they are great moral and 
 political evils, the principles of justice and humanity demand the exercise of that 
 power. 
 
 " 2. The traffic in siavps, whether foreign or domestic, is equally obnoxious to every 
 principle of justice and humanity ; and, as Congress has exercised its powers to sup- 
 presN the sla\e-trade between this country and foreign nations, it ought, as a matter of 
 conniHtcncy and justice, to exercise iht; same powers to suppress the slave-trade between 
 the «tol» M of this Union. The slave-trade witliin the states is, undoubtedly, beyond the 
 control of ('oii<fn.ss ; a.s the 'sovereignty of each state, lo legislate exclusively on the 
 ^ubJl•cl of slavery, which is loloraled within its limits,' is, I believe, universally con- 
 ceded. The CoiiKtitution unquestionably recognises the sovereign power of each state 
 to Icgiiilatv on the nubjoct within its limits ; but it impose.s on us no obligation to add 
 to the cviU of the vyHtein by countenancing the traflic between the t-tatcs. That which 
 our Uw» have xoloninly pronoiuiced to be piracy in our oreign intercour.'^e, no sophistry 
 cBii miikf honorablf or joitifiubli' in o domestic fonn For a proof of the feelings wliich 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 this traffic naturally inspires, we need but refer to the universal execration in which the 
 slave-dealer is held in those portions of the countrs' where the institution of slavery is 
 guarded with the most jealous vigilance. 
 
 '' 3. Congress has no power to abridge the right of petition. The right of the people 
 of the non-slaveholding states to petition Congress for the abohtion of slavery and the 
 slave-trade in the District of Columbia, and the traffic of human beings among the states, 
 is as undoubted as any right guarantied by the Constitution ; and I regard the Resolu- 
 tion which was adopted by the House of Representatives on the 21st of December last 
 as a virtual denial of that right, inasmuch as it disposed of all such petitions, as might 
 be presented thereafter, in advance of presentation and reception. If it was right thus 
 to dispose of petitions on otie subject, it would be equally right to dispose of them in 
 the same manner on all subjects, and thus cut of all communication, by petition, between 
 the people and their representatives. Nothing can be more clearly a violation of the 
 spirit of the Constitution, as it rendered utterly nugatory a right which was considered 
 of such vast importance as to be specially guarantied in that sacred instrument. A 
 similar Resolution passed the House of Representatives at the first session of the last 
 Congress, and as I then entertained the same views which I have now expressed, I 
 recorded my vote against it. 
 
 "4. I fully concur in the sentiment, that 'every principle of justice and humanity 
 requires, that every human being, when personal freedom is at stake, should have the 
 benefit of a jury trial ;' and I have no hesitation in saying, that the laws of this state 
 ought to secure that benefit, so far as they can, to persons claimed as fugitives from 
 ' service or labor,' without interfering with the laws of the United States. The course 
 pursued in relation to this subject by the Legislature of Massachusetts meets my 
 approbation. 
 
 " 5. I am opposed to all attempts to abridge or restram the freedom of speech and 
 the press, or to forbid any portion of the people peaceably to assemble to discuss any 
 subject — moral, political, or religious. 
 
 " 6. I am opposed to the annexation of Texas to the United States 
 
 " 7. It is undoubtedly inconsistent with the principles of a free state, professing to be 
 governed in its legislation by the principles of freedom, to sanction slaver)', in any form, 
 within its jurisdiction. If we have laws in this state which bear this construction, they 
 ought to be repealed. We should extend to our southern brethren, whenever they may 
 have occasion to come among us, all the privileges and immunities enjoyed by our own 
 citizens, and all the rights and privileges guarantied to them by the Constitution of the 
 United States ; but they cannot expect of us to depart from the fundamental principles 
 of civil liberty for the purpose of obviating any temporal inconvenience which they may 
 experience. 
 
 " These are my views upon the topics proposed for my consideration. They are the 
 views which I have always entertained, (at least ever since I have been awakened to 
 their vast importance,) and which I have always supported, so far as I could, by my 
 vote in Congress ; and if, in any respect, my answers have not been sufficiently expli- 
 cit, it will afford me pleasure to reply to any other questions which you may think 
 proper to propose. 
 
 " I am. Sir, very respectfully, 
 
 "Your friend and fellow citizen, 
 
 "William Spbagite." 
 
 Oliver Johnson, Esq , Cor Sec. R. I. A. S. Society. 
 
 8 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 The abolitionists in Connecticut petitioned the Legislature of that state at its late 
 session on several subjects deemed by them proper for legislative action. In answer to 
 these petitions — 
 
 1. The law known as the "Black Act" or the " Canterbury law'' — under which 
 Miss Crajidall was indicted and tried — was repealed, except a single provision, which 
 is not considered objectionable. 
 
 2. The right to trial by jury was secured to persons who are claimed as slaves. 
 
 3. Resolutions were passed asserting the power of Congress to abolish slavery in 
 the District of Columbia, and recommending that it be done as soon as it can be, 
 "consistently with the best good of the whole country." (?) 
 
 4. Resolutions were passed protesting against the annexation of Texas to the Union. 
 
 5. Resolutions were passed asserting the right of petition as inalienable — condemn- 
 ing Mr. Patton"s resolution of Dec. 21, 1837 as an invasion of the rights of the people, 
 and calling on the Connecticut delegation in Congress to use their efforts to have the 
 same rescinded. 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 In the year 1793 there were but 5,000,000 pounds of cotton produced in the United 
 States, and but 500,000 exported. Cotton never could have become an article of 
 much commercial importance under the old method of preparing it for market. By 
 hand-picking, or by a process strictly manual, a cultivator could not prepare for mar- 
 ket, during the year, more than from 200 to 300 pounds ; being only about one-tenth 
 of what he could cultivate to maturity in the field. In '93 Mr. \\Tiitney invented the 
 Cotton-gin now in use, by which the labor of at least one thousand hands under the old 
 system, is performed by one, in preparing the crop for market. Seven years after the 
 invention (1800) 35,000,000 pounds were raised, and 17,800,000 exported. In 1834, 
 460,000,000 were raised— 384,750,000 exported. Such was the effect of Mr. Whitney's 
 invention. It gave, at once, extraordinary value to the land in that part of the coun- 
 try where alone cotton could be raised ; and to slaves, because it was the general, the 
 almost uni.'ersal, impression that the cultivation of the South could be carried on only 
 by slaves. There being no free slate in the South, competition between free and slave 
 labor never could exist on a scale sufficiently extensive to prove the superiority of the 
 former in the production of cotton, and in the preparation of it for market. 
 
 Thus, it hus happened that Mr. Whitney has been the innocent occasion of giving to 
 slavery in this country its present importance — of magnifying it into the great interest 
 to wliich all others must yield How he was rewarded by the South — especially by the 
 planters of Georgia — the reader may see by consulting Silliman'e Journal for January, 
 1832, and the Encyclopsdia Americana, article, Whitney. 
 
 APPENDIX E, 
 
 It in impoNniblo, of cournc, to pronounce with precision, how great would iiave been 
 the effect m favor of emancipation, if the effort to resist the admission of Missouri as a 
 slaveholding state had been successful. Wc can only conjecture what it would have 
 horn, by the effect ita admission has had in fostering slavery up to its present huge 
 
( 59 ) 
 
 growth and pretensions. If the American people had shown, through their National 
 legislature, a sincere opposition to slavery by the rejection of Missouri, it is probable at, 
 least — late as it was — that the early expiration of the ' system' would, by this time, have 
 been discerned by all men. 
 
 "WTien the Constitution was formed, the state of public sentiment even in the South — 
 with the exception of South Carolina and Georgia, was favorable to emancipation. 
 Under the influence of this public sentiment was the Constitution formed. No person 
 at all versed in constitutional or legal interpretation — with his judgment unaffected by 
 interest or any of the prejudices to which the existing controversy has given birth — 
 could, it is thought, construe the Constitution, in its letter, as intending to perjjotuato 
 slavery. To come to such a conclusion with a full knowledge of what was the mind 
 of this nation in regard to slavery, when that instrument was made, demonstrates a 
 moral or intellectual flaw that makes all reasoning useless. 
 
 Although it is a fact beyond controversy in our history, that the power conferred by 
 the Constitution on Congress to " regulate commerce with foreign nations" was known 
 to include the power of abolisliing the African slave-trade — and that it was expected 
 that Congress, at the end of the period for which the exercise of that power on this 
 particular subject was restrained, would use it (as it did) with a view to the influence 
 that the cutting off of that traffic would have on the " system''' in this country — yet, 
 such has been the influence of the action of Congress on all matters with which slavery 
 has been mingled — more especially on the Missouri question, in which slavery was the 
 sole interest — that an impression has been produced on the popular mind, that the Con- 
 stitution of the United States guaranties, and consequently perpetuates, slavery to the 
 South. Most artfully, incessantly, and powerfully, has this lamentable error been 
 harped on by the slaveholders, and by their advocates in the free states. The impres- 
 sion of constitutional favor to the slaveholders would, of itself, naturally create for them 
 an undue and disproportionate influence in the control of the government ; but when to 
 this is added the arrogance that the possession of irresponsible power almost invariably 
 engenders in its possessors — their overreaching assumptions — the contempt that the 
 slaveholders entertain for the great body of the people of the North, it has almost delivered 
 over the government, bound neck and heels, into the hands of slaveholding politicians — 
 to be bound still more rigorously, or unloosed, as may seem well in their discretion. 
 
 Who can doubt that, as a nation, we should have been more honorable and influen- 
 tial abroad — more prosperous and united at home — if Kentucky, at the very outset of 
 this matter, had been refused admission to the Union until she had expunged from her 
 Constitution the covenant with oppression 1 She would not have remained out of the 
 Union a single year on that account. If the worship of Liberty had not been exchanged 
 for that of Power — if her principles had been successfully maintained in this first assault, 
 their triumph in every other would have been easy. We should not have had a state 
 less in the confederacy, and slavery would have been seen, at this time, shrimk up to 
 the most contemptible dimensions, if it had not vanished entirely away. But we have 
 furnished another instance to be added to the long and melancholy list already existing, 
 to prove that, — 
 
 " facilis descensus Avemi, 
 
 Sod revocare gradum ■ 
 
 Hoc opus hie labor est," — 
 
 if poetry is not fiction. 
 
 Success in the Missouri struggle — late as it was — would have placed the cause of 
 freedom in our country out of the reach of danger from its inexorable foe. The pHii- 
 
( 60 ) 
 
 ciples of liberty would have struck deeper root in the free states, and have derived 
 fresh vigor from such a triumph. If these principles had been honored by the govern- 
 ment from that period to the present, (as they would have been, had the free states, 
 even then, assumed their just preponderance in its administration,) we should now 
 have, in Missouri herself, a healthful and vigorous ally in the cause of freedom ; and, 
 in Arkansas, a hoe people — twice her present numbers — pressing on the confines of 
 slavery, and summoning the keepers of the southern charnel-house to open its doors, 
 that Its inmates might walk forth, in a glorious resurrection to liberty and life. Al- 
 thoutjh young, as a people, we should be, among the nations, venerable for our virtue ; 
 and we should exercise an influence on the civilized and commercial world that we 
 must despair of possessing, as long as we remain vulnerable to every shaft that malice, 
 or satire, or philanthropy may find it convenient to hurl against us.* 
 
 Instead of being thus seated on a " heaven-kissing hill," and seen of all in its pure 
 radiance ; instead of enjoying its deliglitful airs, and imparting to them the healthful 
 savor of justice, truth, mercy, magnanimity, see what a picture we present ; — our can- 
 nibal burnings of human beings — our Lynch courts — our lawless scourgings and capi- 
 tal executions, not only of slaves, but of freemen — our demoniac mobs raging through 
 the streets of our cities and large towns at midday as well as at midnight, shedding 
 innocent blood, devastating property, and applying the incendiaries' torch to edifices 
 erected and dedicated to free uiscuasiON — the known friends of order, of law, of liber- 
 ty, of the Constitution — citizens, distinguished for their worth at home, and reflecting 
 honor on their country abroad, shut out from more than half our territory, or visiting it 
 at the hazard of their lives, or of the most degrading and painful personal inflictions — 
 freedom of speech and of the press overthrown and hooted at — the right of petition 
 struck down in Congress, where, above all places, it ought to have been maintained to 
 the last — the people mocked at, and attempted to be gagged by their own servants — 
 the lime the ofiice-honored veteran, who fearlessly contended for the right, publicly 
 menaced for words spoken in his place as a representative of the people, with an indict- 
 ment by a slavcholding grand jury — in fine, the great principles of government 
 asserted by our fathers in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in our Con- 
 stitution, with wliich they won for- us the sympathy, the admiration of the world — all 
 forgotten, dishonoured, despised, trodden under foot ! And this for slavery ! ! 
 
 Horrible catalogue ! — yet by no means a complete one — for so young a nation ; 
 boasting itself, too, to be the freest on earth ! It is the ripe fruit of that chef d'auvre 
 of political skill and patriotic achievement : the Missouri Compromise. 
 
 Another such compromise — or any compromise now with slavery — and the nation 
 is undone. 
 
 • A comic piece — the production of one of the most popular of llie French writers in his way — 
 \\»fi pokKcsiiion of the Pans stage la.st winter. When one of tlie personages setarates husband 
 *.'<t> wiKB, he cries out, " Bbavo ! Tins is tub Declaration of Inukpenpence ok the Uni- 
 ted StATii'" [C'esl la Declaration (i'lndepcnilence dcx Etats Unis.) 
 
 Olio of our dtktiiiKuislicd ColleKe-profensorii, lately on a tour in Europe, had his attention called, 
 whilp pa»»iiH' ulutiK llif ^trl'et of a Coriiiiiii iity, to the pictorial representation of a white man 
 •cot'kuiNo A tun-LD'ATiNu COLORED KKMALE, With lliis ullusion uiiderwrillen :— " A speci- 
 Mtn uf Equality— KBON Republican A.MtuicA." 
 
 Truly mlKht our rountryninn havo exclaiinod m the language, if not with the generous emo- 
 tlorui ol the Trojan he: J, when he beheld the noblo deeds of his countrymen pencilled in a strange 
 
 JUMl- 
 
 " QuIr jam lorun — 
 
 QiUF regio in terrlt noitrl noii plena laborlsf" 
 
( 61 ) 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 The following is believed to be a correct exhibit of the legislative resolutions against 
 the annexation of Texas — of the times at which they were passed, and of the votes by 
 which they were passed : — 
 
 1. Vermont. 
 
 " 1. Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives, That our Senators in 
 Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use their influence in 
 that body to prevent the annexation of Texas to the Union. 
 
 " 2. Resolved, That representing, as we do, the people of Vermont, we do hereby, in 
 their name, solemnly protest against such annexation in any form." 
 
 [Passed unanimously, Nov. 1, 1837.] 
 
 2. Rhode Island. 
 
 (In General Assembly, October Session, A. D. 1837.) 
 
 " Whereas the compact of the Union between these states was entered into by the 
 people thereof in their respective states, ' in order to form a more perfect Union, esta- 
 blish justice, ensure domestic tranquilUty, provide for the common defence, promote 
 the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their poste- 
 rity ;' and, therefore, a Representative Government was instituted b)' them, with cer- 
 tain limited powers, clearly specified and defined in the Constitution — all other powers, 
 not therein expressly relinquished, being ' reserved to the states respectively, or to the 
 people.' 
 
 " And whereas this limited govenraient possesses no power to extend its jurisdiction 
 over any foreign nation, and no foreign nation, country, or people, can be admitted into 
 this Union but by the sovereign will and act of the free people of all and each of these 
 United States, nor without the formation of a new compact of Union — and another 
 frame of government radically different, in objects, principles, and powers, from thai 
 which was framed for our own self-government, and deemed to be adequate to all the 
 exigencies of our own free republic : — 
 
 "Therefore, Resolved, That we have witnessed, with deep concern, the indications 
 of a disposition to bring into this Union, as a constituent member thereof, the foreign 
 province or territory of Texas. 
 
 " Resolved, That, although we are fully aware of the consequences which must fol- 
 low the accomplishment of such a project, could it be accomplished — aware that it 
 would lead speedily to the conquest and annexation of Mexico itself, and its fourteen 
 remaining provinces or intendencies — which, together with the revolted province of 
 Texas, would furnish foreign territories and foreign people for at least twenty members of 
 the new Union ; that the government of a nation so extended and so constructed would 
 soon become radically [changed] in character, if not in form — would unavoidably become 
 a military government ; and, under the plea of necessity, would free itself from the re- 
 straints of the Constitution and from its accountability to the people. That the tics of 
 kindred, common origin and common interests, which have so long bound this people to- 
 gether, and would still continue to bind them ; these ties, which ought to be held sacred 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 by all true Americans, would be angrily dissolved, and sectional political combinations 
 would be formed with the newly admitted foreign states, unnatural and adverse to the 
 peace and prosperity of the country. The civil government, with all the arbitrary pow- 
 ers it might assume, would be unable to control the storm. The usurper would find 
 himself in his proper element ) and, after acting the patriot and the hero for a due sea- 
 son, as the only means of rescuing the country from the ruin which he had cliiefly con- 
 tributed to bring upon it, would reluctantly and modestly allow himself to be declared 
 ' Protector of the Commonwealth.' 
 
 " We are now fully aware of the deep degradation into which the republic would sink 
 itself in the eyes of the whole world, should it annex to its own vast territories other 
 and foreign territories of immense though unknown extent, for the purpose of encou- 
 raging the propagation of slavery, and giving aid to the raising of slaves within its own 
 bosom, the very bosom of freedom, to be exported and sold in those unhallowed regions. 
 Although we are fully aware of these fearful evils, and numberless others which would 
 come in their train, yet we do not here dwell upon them ; because we are here firmly 
 convinced that the free people of mdst, and we trust of all these states, will never suf- 
 fer the admission of the foreign territory of Texas into this Union as a constituent 
 member thereof — will never suffer the integrity of this Republic to be violated, either 
 by the introduction and addition to it of foreign nations or territories, one or many, or 
 by dismemberment of it by the transfer of any one or more of its members to a foreign 
 nation. The people will be aware, that should one foreign state or country be intro- 
 duced, another and another may be, without end, whether situated in South America, 
 in the West India islands, or in any other part of the world ; and that a single forejarn 
 state, thus admitted, might have in its power, by holding the balance between contend- 
 ing parties, to wrest their own government from the hands and control of the people, 
 by whom it was established for their own benefit and self-government. We arc firmly 
 convinced, that tiie free people of these states will look upon any attempt to introduce 
 the foreign territory of Texas, or any other foreign territory or nation into this Union, 
 as a constituent member or members thereof, as manifesting a willingness to prostrate 
 the Constitution and dissolve the Union. 
 
 " Resolved, That His Excellency, the Governor, be requested to forward a copy of 
 the foregoing resolutions to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, 
 and to each of the Executives of the several states, with a request that the same may 
 be laid before the rcs]jcctive Legislatures of said states." 
 
 [The Preamble and Resolutions were unanimously adopted, Nov. 3, 1837.] 
 
 3. Ohio. 
 
 " Kf solved, liij the General Axsemhiy of lite Stale of Ohio, 'J'hat in tlie iiaiiio, and 
 on b<'half of the people of the Slate of Ohio, we do hereby solemnly pkotkst against 
 the annexation of Texas to the Union of ilu^se United States. 
 
 *■* And be it further resolved, That the Clovemor he requested to transmit to each of 
 our Scnatom and |{e|)reHeiilHlivcs in CongreHs, and to the Governors of each of tlie 
 SiBtfii. a copy of the forcgouig resoluliun. with a slateiucnt of the votes by winch it 
 wan jmiiHed in each brancli of the LegiBJalure. 
 
 [PnitKod by 64 out ol 72, the whole number m llif House of Rejiresentatives — unan- 
 imoiuly m tho Senate. Feb 'Z4, 1838. j 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 4. Massachusetts. 
 
 " Resolves against the annexation of Texas to the United States- 
 
 " Whereas a proposition to admit into the United States as a constituent member 
 thereof, the foreign nation of Texas, has been recommended by the legislative resolu- 
 tions of several States, and brought before Congress for its approval and sanction ; and 
 whereas such a measure would involve great wrong to Mexico, and oiherwise be of evil 
 precedent, injurious to the interests and dishonorable to the character of this country ; 
 and whereas its avowed objects are doubly fraught with peril to the prosperity and per- 
 manence of this Union, as tending to disturb and destroy the conditions of those com- 
 promises and concessions, entered into at the formation of the Constitution, by wliich 
 the relative weights of different sections and interests were adjusted, and to strengthen 
 and extend the evils of a system which is unjust in itself, in striking contrast with the 
 theory of our institutions, and condemned by the moral sentiment of mankind ; and 
 whereas the people of these United States have not granted to any or all of the depart- 
 ments of their Government, but have retained in themselves, the only power adequate 
 to the admission of a foreign nation into this confederacy ; therefore, 
 
 " Rcsoh^ed, That we, the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court 
 assembled, do in the name of the people of Massachusetts, earnestly and solemnly 
 protest against tlie mcorporation of Texas into this Union, and declare, that no act 
 done or compact made, for such purpose by the government of the United States, will 
 be binding on the States or the People. 
 
 " Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be requested to forward a copy of 
 these resolutions and the accompanying report to the Executive of the United States, 
 and the Executive of each State and also to each of our Senators and Representatives in 
 Congress, with a request that they present the resolves to both Houses of Congress." 
 
 [Passed March 16, unanimously, in both Houses.] 
 
 5. Connecticut. 
 
 " Resolved, That we, the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assem- 
 bly convened, do, in the name of the people of this State, solemnly protest against the 
 annexation of Texas to tliis Union. 
 
 [Passed, it is believed, unanimously in both houses.] 
 
 [Those which follow were passed by but one branch of the respective Legislatures in 
 which they were introduced] 
 
 6. Pennsylvania. 
 
 Resolutions relative to the admission of Texas into the Union. 
 
 " Whereas the annexation of Texas to the United States has been advocated and 
 strongly urged by many of our fellow-citizens, particularly in the southern part of our 
 country, and tlic president of Texas has received authority to open a correspondence 
 with, and appoint, a commissioner to our government to accomplish the object ; — And 
 whereas such a measure would bring to us a dangerous extension of territory, with a 
 population generally not desirable, and would probably involve us in war ; — And where- 
 as the subject is now pressed upon and agitated in Congreas ; therefore, 
 
( 64 ) 
 
 " Resolved, <Stc, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representa- 
 tives requested, to use their influence and vote against the annexation of Texas to the 
 territory of the United States. 
 
 " Resolved, That the Governor transmit to each of our Senators and Representatives 
 a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions." 
 
 [Passed the Senate March 9, 1838, by 22 to 6. Postponed indefinitely in the House 
 of Representatives, April 13, by 41 to 39.] 
 
 7. Maine. 
 
 " Resolved, That the Legislature of the State of Maine, on behalf of the people of 
 said state, do earnestly and solemnly protest against the annexation of the Republic of 
 Texas to these United States ; and that our Senators and Representatives in Congress 
 be, and they hereby are, requested to exert their utmost influence to prevent the adop- 
 tion of a measure at once so clearly unconstitutional, and so directly calculated to dis- 
 turb our foreign relations, to destroy our domestic peace, and to dismember our blessed 
 Union." 
 
 [Passed in the House of Representatives, March 22, 1838, by 85 to 30. Senate 
 (same day) refused to concur by 11 to 10.] 
 
 8. New-York. 
 
 '•Resolved, (if the Senate concur,) That the admission of the Republic of Texas 
 into this Union would be entirely repugnant to the will of the people of this state, and 
 would endanger the union of these United States. 
 
 " Resolved, (if the Senate concur,) That this Legislature do, in the name of the peo- 
 ple of the State of New York, solemnly protest against the admission of the Republic 
 of Texas into this Union. 
 
 " Resolved, (if the Senate concur,) That his Excellency the Governor be requested 
 to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolutions to each of our Senators and Representa- 
 tives in Congress, and also to the governors of each of the United States, with a request 
 that the same be laid before their respective Legislatures." 
 
 [These resolutions passed the House of Representatives in April, by a large majo- 
 rity — the newspapers say, 83 to 13. They were indefinitely postponed in the Senate, 
 by a vote of 21 to 'J.] 
 
 9. Michigan. 
 
 [P.oih branches of the Legislature of this State passed a Resolution, preceded by a 
 well wnilcn Report, against the annexation. We have not been able to lay our hands 
 on the rc-»<iliiiioii in the fonn in which it jjassed. The following is the resolution a.-* it 
 wuH introduced. It is not known thai it underwent any alteration.] 
 
 " Br tl resiilrrd. In/ the Senate and Huutic of Representatives of the State vf Mich- 
 f(an, Thai in behiilf, and in the name of the Slate of Michigan, this I<epislaturc doth 
 hereby didscnt from, and solemnly protest against the annexation, for any purpose, to 
 thiti Union, of Texan, or of any territory or district of country, heretofore constituting a 
 pdrt of the dominion* of Spam in America, lying west or south-west of Louisiana." 
 
( 65 ) 
 
 APPENDIX G. 
 
 The number of petitioners for abolition in the District of Columbia, and on otbcr 
 subjects allied to it, have been ascertained (in the House of Representatives) to be as 
 follows : — 
 
 Men. Women. Total. 
 
 For abolition in the District, . . . . 51,366 78,882 130,248 
 
 Against the annexation of Texas, 104 973 77 419 152 392 
 
 Rescinding the gag resolution, 21,015 10,821 31^836 
 
 Against admitting any new slave state 11,770 10 391 22 161 
 
 For abolition of the slave-trade between the states, . 11,864 11,541 23 405 
 
 For abolition of slavery in the territories, .... 9129 12083 21212 
 At the extra session for rescinding the gag resolution of 
 
 Jan. 21, 1837, 3,377 33-. 
 
 '''°'*'' . 213,494 201,137 414,631 
 
 The number in the Senate is estimated to have been about two-thirds as great as 
 that in the House. 
 
 APPENDIX H. 
 
 On the 1st of December, one of the secretaries of the American Anti-Slavery Society 
 addressed a note to each of the Governors of the slave states, in which he informed 
 them, in courteous and respectful terms, that he had directed the Publishing Agent of 
 this society, thereafter regularly to transmit to them, free of charge, the periodical pub- 
 lications issued from the office of the society. To this offer the following replies were 
 received ; — 
 
 Governor Campbell's Letter. 
 
 "Richmond, Dec. 4, 1837. 
 "Sir, — I received, by yesterday's mail, your letter of the 1st instant, in which you 
 state that you had directed the publishing agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 
 hereafter, regularly to transmit, free of charge, by mail, to all the governors of the slave 
 states, the periodical publications issued from that office. 
 
 " Regarding your society as highly mischievous, I decline receiving any communica- 
 tions from it, and must rec^uest that no publications from youi- office be transmitted to me. 
 
 " I am, &c, 
 
 "David Campbell." 
 
 Governor Bagby's Letter. 
 
 "Tuscaloosa, Ja7i. 6, 1838. 
 " Sir, — I received, by due course of mail, your favor of the 1st of December, inform- 
 ing me that you had directed the publishing agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society 
 to forward to the governors of the slaveholding states the periodicals issued from that 
 office. Taking it for granted, thaf the only object which the society or yourself could 
 
 9 
 
( 66 ) 
 
 have in view, in adopting this course, is, the dissemination of the opinions and principles 
 of the society — having made up my own opinion, unalterably, in relation to the whole 
 question of slaver)*, as it exists in a portion of the United States, and feeling confident 
 that, in the correctness of this opinion, I am sustained by the entire free white popula- 
 tion of Alabama, as well as the great body of the people of this Union, I must, with the 
 greatest respect for yourself, personally — but not for the opinions or principles advo- 
 cated by the society — positively decline receiving said publications, or any others of a 
 similar character, either personally or officially. Indeed, it is presuming a little too 
 much, to expect that the chief magistrate of a free people, elected by themselves, would 
 hold correspondence or give currency to the publications of an organized society, openly 
 engaged in a scheme fraught with more mischievous consequences to their interest and 
 repose, than any that the wit or folly of mankind has heretofore devised. 
 " I am, very respectfully, 
 
 " Your ob't servant, 
 
 "A. P. Bagby" 
 James G. Birnev, Esq., New York. 
 
 Governor Cannon's Letter. 
 
 [This letter required so many alterations to bring it up to the ordinary standard of 
 epistolary, grammatical, and orthographical accuracy, that it is thought best to give it, 
 in word and letter, precisely as it was received at the office.] 
 
 " Executive Dept. 
 
 "Nashville, Dec. \2th, 1837. 
 " Sir 
 
 " I have rcc'd yours of the 1st Inst notifying me, that you had directed, your periodi- 
 cal publications, on the subject of Slavery to be sent to me free of charge &.c — and you 
 are correct, if sincere, in your views, in supposing that we widely differ, on this sub- 
 ject, we do indeed widely differ, on it, if the publications said to have emanated from 
 you, arc honest and sincere, which, I admit, is possible. 
 
 " My opinions arc fix'd and setled, and I seldom Look into or examine, the different 
 vague notions of others who write and theorise on that subject. Hence I trust you will 
 not exjM^ct me to exaniirie, what you have printed on this subject, or cause to have 
 printed, If you or any other man are influenced by feelings of humanity, and arc labor- 
 ing to relieve the sufferings, of the luimaii race, you may find objects enough imine- 
 diuttly around you, where you are, in any nonslaveholding State, to engage your, 
 attention, and ail your exertions, in that good cause. 
 
 " But if your aim in to make a (louriith on the subject, before the world, and to gain 
 yourMolf (tome notoriety, or distinction, without, doing good to any, and evil to many, 
 of the human race, you are, pursuing the course calculated to effect, Such an object, in 
 which no honcat man need envy. Your honours, thus gaind, I know there are many 
 ■uch in our country, hut would fain hope, you are not one of them. If you havu Livd, 
 ■a you ■tute forty yearn in a Slave holding State. y»u know tliat, that class of its popu- 
 Uuon, arc not Uio moiil, mmerable, degraded, or iiuhappy, either in their feelings or 
 
( 67 ) 
 
 habits, You know they are generally govemdj and provided for by men of information 
 and understanding sufficient to guard them against the most, odious vices, and hibets 
 of the country, from which, you know the slaves are in a far greater degree, exempt 
 than, are other portions of the population. That the slaves are the most happy, moral 
 and contented generally, and free from suffering of any kind, having each full confi- 
 dence, in his masters, skill means and disposition to provide well for him, knowing also 
 at the same time that it is his interest to do it, Hence in this State of Society more 
 than any other, Superior intelligence has the ascendency, in governing and provideing, 
 for the wants of those inferior, also in giveing direction to their Labour, and industry, 
 as should be the case, superior intelligence Should govern, when united with Virtue, 
 and interest, that great predominating principle in all human affairs It is my rule of 
 Life, when I see any man labouring to produce effects, at a distance from him, while 
 neglecting the objects iimnediately around him, (in doing good) to suspect his since- 
 rity, to suspect him for some selfish, or sinister motive, all is not gold that glitters, and 
 every man is not what he, endeavours to appear to be, is too well known It is the 
 duty of masters to take care of there slaves and provide for them, and this duty I believe 
 is as generally and as fully complyd with as any other duty enjoind on the human fami- 
 ly, for next to their children their own offspring, their slaves stand next foremost in 
 their care and attention, there are indeed very few instances of a contrary character. 
 
 " You can find around you, I doubt not a large number of persons intermix' d, in your 
 society, who are entirely destitute of that care, and attention, towards them, that is 
 enjoyed by our slaves, and who are destitute of that deep feeling of interest, in gusird- 
 ing their morals and habits, and directing them through Life m all things, which is here 
 enjoyd by our slaves, to those let your efforts be directed immediately around you, 
 and do not trouble with your vague speculations those who are contented and happy, 
 at a distance from you. 
 
 " Very respectfully yours, 
 
 Mr. Jas. G. Birney, Car. Sec. &c. " N. Cannon." 
 
 The letter of the Secretary to the governor of South Carolina was not answered, but 
 was so inverted and folded as to present the subscribed name of the secretary, as the 
 superscription of the same letter to be returned. The addition of New York to the 
 address brought it back to this office. 
 
 "WTulst governor Butler was thus refusing the information that was proffered to him 
 m the most respectful terms from this office, he was engaged in another affeiir, having 
 connection with the anti-slavery movement, as indiscreet, as it was unbecoming the 
 digmty of the office he holds. The following account of it is from one of the Boston 
 papers : — 
 
 "Hoaxing a Governor. — The National .-Egis says, that Hollis Parker, who was 
 sentenced to the state prison at the late term of the criminal court for Worcester coun- 
 ty, for endeavoring to extort money from governor Everett, had opened an extensive 
 correspondence, previous to his arrest, with similar intent, with other distinguished 
 men of the country. Besides several individuals in New York, governor Butler, of 
 South Carolina, was honored with his notice. A letter from that gentleman, directed 
 to Parker, was lately received at the post office in a town near Worcester, enclosing a 
 check for fifty dollars. So far as the character of Parker's letter can be inferred from 
 the reply of governor Butler, it would appear, that Parker informed the governor, that 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 the design was entertained by some of our citizens, of transmitting to South Carohna a 
 quantity of ' mcendiary publications,' and that, with the aid of a little money, he (Parker) 
 would be able to unravel the plot, and furmsh full iiil'onnation concerning it to his excel- 
 lency. The bait took, and the money was forwarded, with earnest appeals to Parker 
 to be vigilant and active in thoroughly investigating the supposed conspiracy against the 
 peace and happiness of the South. 
 
 " The --Egis has the following very just remarks touching this case : — ' Governor 
 Butler belongs to a state loud in its professions of regard for state rights and state 
 sovereignty. We, also, are sincere advocates of that good old republican doctrine. It 
 strikes us, that it would have comported better with the spirit of that doctrine, the dig- 
 nity of his own station and character, the respect and courtesy due to a sovereign and 
 independent state, if governor Butler had made the proper representation, if the subject 
 was deser\ung of such notice, to the acknowledged head and constituted authorities of 
 that state, instead of holding official correspondence with a citizen of a foreign jurisdic- 
 tion, and employing a secret agent and informer, whose very offer of such service was 
 proof of the base and irresponsible character of him who made it.' " 
 
 GovERNOE Conway's Letter. 
 
 "Executive Dep-^rtment, Little Rock, Arkansas, March 1, 1838. 
 
 u Sir, — A newspaper, headed ' The Emajicipator,' in which you are announced the 
 
 'publishing agent,' has, for some weeks past, arrived at the post office in this cit}', to 
 
 my address. Not having subscribed, or authorized any individual to give my name as 
 
 a subscriber, for that or any such paper, it is entirely gratuitous on the part of its pub- 
 
 bshers to send me a copy ; and not having a favorable opinion of the intentions of the 
 
 authors and founders of the ' American AiUi-Slavery Society,' I have to request a 
 
 discontinuance of ' The Emanci-pator.' 
 
 " Your ob't servant, 
 
 " J. S. Conway." 
 
 R. G. Williams, Esq., New York. 
 
 [Note.— The following extract of a letter, from the late Chief Justice Jay to the late venerable 
 Ehas Houdinol, dated Nov. 17, 1819, \n\%\\\. well have formed part of Appendix E. Its existence, 
 however, wa.s not known to us till it was too l.itc to insejt it in its most appropriate place. It 
 will show the view taken of the constilutional question by one of the most distinguished jurists, 
 aiid one of the purest patriots, with which our early history was illustrated. j 
 
 " Little can bo added to what has been said and written on the subject of slavery. I concur in 
 the opinion, thit it oui'iil not to bo inlroducnl, nor jiennitted in any of the new states ; and that it 
 ouKht iJ br Kraduiillv diinmislicfl, and finally, sibolishod, in all of ihcm. 
 
 " To nie llie < (niriilulwiial autliunty of llie Congress to prohibit iho migralion and importalion of 
 •Invoii into'any of the kI.iIos, does not appear qucstioimble. 
 
 "The first article of the fonstitulion specifies the Icxislativo powers committed to Consress. 
 The ninth sitIioii oI Uiiil article has these words : — 'The migralion or importalion of such persons 
 Hh any «i the noli rjislinii states shall think proper to admit, shall not bo prohibited by the Con- 
 irreKit pnur lo the year HflH — but a lax or duty may ho imposed on such importation not exceeding 
 
 Itn ilr.V.r-' ' f inrii pfr»nn.' 
 
 • I , rise nnd meaning of this clause to be. That the power of the Congress, 
 
 all ' \ib\t such miffration anj rmportaiion, was not to be exorcised with respect 
 
 I,, • ,■.», .-iiid them only, until the year IWW ; but that CoURress were at liberty 
 
 t«, I M iui to any nns ffo/e which miRhl in the mrantimc be established. And 
 
 |i:j lur (A<jf period, they were autiiohzed to make such prohibition iis tn nil 
 
 th. ■ -i-l 
 
 • ■ ' ■) The word slaves was avoided, on acroiint of the existing 
 
 \i, . iiirv with the principles of the Revolution ; and from a con- 
 
 »r: ■ those prop<isitionK in the Derlarntion of Indepeiideiiro : — 
 
 • V, iu.M, i •.. M . . ..K-nt— that all men are created uiiual— that Ihoy arc endowed 
 
 bv ' ^Mili rertain mataonablo lightK— and that, among these, are life, liberty, and tho 
 
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