YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

RESIDENCE AND TOUR

UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA,

VOL, II,

G. WOODFALL, ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET, LONDON.

JOURNAL OF
A RESIDENCE AND TOUR
IN
THE UNITED STATES
OF
NORTH AMERICA,
FROM APRIL, ]833, TO OCTOBER, 1834.

BY E, S, ABDY,
FELLOW OF JESUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

' ¦ As fuj as experience raay shew errors in our establishments, we are bound to
correct them ; and, if any practices exist contrary to the principles of justice and
humanity, within the reach of our laws or our influence, we are inexcusable if we
do not exert ourselves to restrain and abolish them." — D.^EBsTBRt Disoourse at
Pit/mouth on the second centenary/ ofthe settlement of New England.
" The distinction of color is unknown in Europe."— Speech of ChanceUor Kent
in the New York State Convention.

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

LONDON :
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

MDCCCXXXV,

CONTENTS

OF VOL. II,

CHAPTER XIIL

Page
New York Elections. — Vote by Ballot  Annual Offices.
— Restricted qualification of Blacks.. — Its origin  Fire,
Firemen, and Fire-offices. — Fugitive Slaves — City Gaol,
— Ex-sheriff Parkins  Anecdote of Runaway and Master.
— Remarkable generosity in a Woman of Color, — Spanish
and American pride compared  National Abofition So
ciety. — American Quarterly Review versus the Free
Blacks  1
CHAPTER XIV,
Law-suits. — Arbitration. — Commercial Morality. — Greek
Frigates. — Tricks of Trade. — Heroism of a black Boy. —
Stage-coach Law, — Schoolboy claimed as Property. —
Sympathy of African race, — Bordentown. — American
Honesty. — Philadelphia. — Baltimore. — Whites purchased
by Blacks. — Expatriation  37
CHAPTER XV.
Washington City. — Gadsby's, — Capitol. — Two Houses of
Congress. — Interview with Cherokee Chiefs — Treatment
of Slaves by Indians. — Causes of Extermination of Abo
rigines  Indian Character misrepresented — Gold Mines,

CONTENTS.

Page

— Motive for removing Indians. — Insuperable Bar to in
corporation with the Whites, — Despotic Laws of Georgia.
— Protest against Emigration, — Religious Persecution in
Georgia  -58
CHAPTER XVI,
Slavery and Slave Trade in the District of Columbia 
Robey's Pen. — Kidnappers  Soul-drivers  State of
Morals  -Free Blacks  Country impoverished. — Princi-
,ples of Constitution  Claim for Impressed Slave  Wages
and Mileage of Members of Congress  Mr. Clay  Ju
venile Depravity. — Funeral of Member  Average Age of
Members  President's Protest  Mr. Leigh's Speech , , . . 88
CHAPTER XVIL
Bank Deposits, — System of Credit. — Mercantile Failures.
— Principle of Federal Bank. — Paper Money, — Safety
Fund of New York.— Fallacies about Bankers  Whigs
and Tories. — Mr. Van Buren ; rejected by the Senate. —
Reasons, — Senate not aristocratical, — Party feeling. — Post
Office, — Purity of Bag secured  Franking  Assaults upon
Members — Duelling  President Jackson a Soul-driver. 
Abolition of Slave-trade — Principles of Federal Union
illusory  J27
CHAPTER XVIIL
Speeches in Congress — Claims on the French  Visit to
President — Alexandria — Discontent among the Mer
chants. — Mount Vernon. — Judge Washington's Slaves 
Establishment of Slave-dealer  Slaves half starved  Vir
ginia — Depopulation. — New kind of Entail. — Stage Ad
venture, — Warrenton — Election Speeches  165

CONTENTS. VU
CHAPTER XIX, Page
System productive of Idleness  The Bench  Eastern
and -Western Virginia, — Debates in State Convention, —
Conversation with Slaves, — Schools  Beautiful Scenery.
— Odious System, — Character of Slaves, — Higher and
Lower Classes disunited. — White Labor discouraged, —
Schemes to check Emigration, — Funeral  CharlotteviUe.
— University — MonticeUo  Jefferson. — Origin and Ob
jects of Colonization Society. — Students  199
CHAPTER XX.
Wilmington  Drunkenness. — Cruelty to Slaves  Price of
Religious Slaves  Overseers  Export Trade of Human
Beings. — Destruction of Life by Hard Work, — : Richmond.
— Education in the South  Penitentiary. — Treatment of
Free Blacks. — Black Labor and White Labor. — Ultimate
Triumph of Blacks. — Slave Penal Code  Gambling , , , . 241
CHAPTER XXL
National Habits, — Stage-coach Preaching. — Winnsville. —
Character of Proprietor, — National Vanity. — Old World
and New World. — Last Home and Hope of Liberty. —
Natural Scenery. — Staunton. — Cure for Love. — Slaves in
the Valley. — Education prohibited. — Purity of Breakfast-
table. — Natural Bridge, — Whipping and Gouging. — Cus
toms of the Valley. — Honesty and Hospitality. — Soul-
drivers. — Alleghany  272
CHAPTER XXIL
Mineral Springs. — Lewisburg — Language. — Periodical
Press. — Stage Passengers.— Charleston Salt- Works.—

VIU CONTENTS. / Page
Guyandott, — Cholera, — Orthography and Orthoepy, —
School Prejudices. — National Fallacies. — Kentucky. —
Usury Laws.— Lexington. — Inquisitive Traveller. — Luna
tic Asylum.— Colored Preacher. — Stage Regulations. —
Slave System. — Planter convert to Abolition. — Character
of Kentuckians.— Frankfort.— Louisville  313

CHAPTER XXIII.
Steam-boat on the Ohio. — Madison. — Colony of Free
Blacks. — Fugitive Slave. — New Law against Slave-aliens
in the West Indies, — Indiana saddled with Slave-paupers.
— Cincinnati. — Attack on Free Blacks repulsed  Kidnap
pers  Case of Cruelty at New Orleans  Public Meeting.
— Lane Seminary. — Visits to Colored People  362

JOURNAL

RESIDENCE AND TOUR,

ETC.

CHAPTER XIII.

New York Elections  Vote by Ballot. — Annual Offices 
Restricted quaUfication of Blacks, — Its origin  Fire, Firemen,
and Fire-offices. — Fugitive Slaves  City Gaol  Ex-sheriff
Parkins  Anecdote of Runaway and Master  Remarkable
generosity in a Woman of color, — Spanish and American pride
compared  National Abolition Society  American Quarterly
Review versus the free Blacks,
NovEMBEE 5th, being the second of the three days
of election for the State and county officers, I went
round with one of the voters to the different polling
places, to see how the system " worked," We
found every where the utmost quiet and order pre
vailing ; and nothing to indicate any exception to
the ordinaiy state of things, unless it were a
national flag or two, outside the house where the
business of making law-makers was going on, and
here and there a group of persons assembled at the
entrance. In each room, set apart for the purpose,
VOL. II. B

2 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIII,
were three inspectors, and a secretary or clerk to
register the names as they were given in. In addi
tion to the choice of a senator and eleven represent
atives, as well as that of the county functionaries,
the opinion of the electors was to be taken on two
constitutional questions, in reference, one to the
election of mayor for the city, and the other to the
salt duty. There were therefore four boxes appro
priated to the State, the county, and the constitu
tion; the last having two. Each voter had sup
plied himself with small slips of paper; the subject
of his vote being printed on one side, and its
object on the other: — such, for instance, as the fol
lowing : " Proposed amendment to the constitution
of this State (Mayor) ", for the outside : " Against
electing the Mayor of the city of New Yorik by
the electors thereof," for the inside. These were
doubled up and presented to the inspectors, who
immediately deposited them in the boxes, corre
sponding to the labels. If any doubt was enter
tained of the qualification, an oath, on taking the
name, would be administered. This is occasion
ally done, at the suggestion of some fi-iend of the
candidates; for whom, when party feeling runs
high, there are generally scrutineers present; though
a friend as well as a foe may sometimes be hit by
this sharp-shooting*. Two or three Irishmen,
* In some of the States, the quidification is previously as
certained by registering the names of the voters.

CHAP, XIII,] VOTE BY BALLOT. 3
whose garb and dialect betokened the freshness of
their importation, were called upon to " smack the
calf-skin." At night the boxes are all sealed;
and when the election is over, the inspectors take
the " tottle of the whole," and reportto the Board
of Canvassers, composed of certain official person
ages, sitting at the city haU, as a sort of centre, to
which all the returns from the various wards con
verge, and from which the decision on the contest of
" the three days" ultimately emanates.
We visited at least a dozen of these polling booths ;
and I found at every one the same sentiment in
favor of the ballot — a mode of voting very general,
if not universal, throughout the middle and eastern
States. In Rhode Island it is customary, I have
been told, for the voter to write his name on the
billet, and thus defeat the object for which it was
adopted. If the boxes were so constructed (as they
are in our club-houses) that the hand, when thrust
in horizontally, could, by a turn of the vwist to the
right or tbe left, deposit a billet or a ball, for or
against the candidate, into an aperture made for the
purpose, no one would know how the vote was given.
This way of exercising the elective franchise is
considered a very simple thing. No one thinks it
more unmanly to vote in secrecy than to be shut up
in a jury-room ; or that open voting would add to
his consequence what it would take from his inde
pendence. There must have been a time when the
b2

4 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIII.
ballot was un-American, as it was not long ago
un-French, and as it is still un-English; but that
was no more admitted as a vaUd objection to its
adoption in either country, than an opposite epithet
would save it from abolition, if it proved injurious,
John Bull is more easily duped. He votes uni
formly with his landlord : — but then he votes like a
man, openly and fearlessly. He is not allowed to
have an opinion : — but then he has a voice ; and,
while he bawls out for the squire, he may boast that
he does not sneak, like a Yankee or a Frenchman, to
the ballot box.
The ballot has long been in use in North America.
Oldmixon, in his History of Pennsylvania, in 1708,
says that in the early periods of that colony, this
mode of taking the votes having been laid aside,
great inconvenience arose from its disuse. " Mr.
Penn ", says he, " had aU the laws so framed, that
no difference was made in opinion, where property
made no difference. All elections were by ballot ;
and the form of this government which, &c. , , , But
such is the weakness of human nature, that being
itself imperfect, it cannot relish perfection ; and the
nearer anything approaches to it in this world, the
more likely it is to disgust the people. This form
was too fine for the heavy intellects of some of the
gross vulgar. They valued themselves, and with
good reason in the main, on being Englishmen; and
scorned, as they said, to give their opinions and votes

CHAP. XIII,] VOTE BY BALLOT, 5
in the dark : they would do nothing which they dui-st
not own, and their foreheads and voices should always
agree with one another. Thus they clamoured against
that part of the constitution which secured the rest,
— the election by ballot ; and never gave over cla
mouring tin it was abolished, and the first order of
government broken in upon in the most essential
parts of it. Upon which factions of course com
menced, and discontents and tumults followed, to
the great distiubance and detriment of the colony."
Colonel Napier observed the same effects from the
same causes in the Ionian islands. "While the
_ ballot existed ", such are his words in his work ' On
the Colonies \ " elections passed quietly, there was
no canvassing; rough natures grew rather more civil
at such periods; the thermometer of urbanity ranged
higher : no bribes were thought of, &c. . . . But
when the open vote was established, the fiercest
passions burst forth, &c, , . Old and steady men re
gretted this disorder ; they attributed it all to the
loss of the ballot. I have often said to my acquaint
ance, * What ! are you and such a one enemies ? '
' Yes ! the accursed elections cost me his friendship.
The viva voce Colonel! — he cannot pardon my
vote ; yet, had I given it to him, men, as dear to me
as he was, would have cursed my children. We
owe that to you. Englishmen : it perhaps suits your
country ; it do'n't suit ours,"
Though the elections in New York State are an-

6 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIII.
nual, it is not found that the average period of
service is less in the case of public functionaries thus
chosen, than where a longer duration of tenure has
been conferred by the constitution. It frequently
happens in common life, that tenants at wiU hold
their fai-ms or houses longer than those who have a
lease for a term of years. It is the landlord's interest
that determines the renewal of the trust. A year
wUl hardly suffice to injure the former ; while it is
quite enough to shew a man worthy of the latter.
Some years ago, a man of the name of Samuel
Wyllis was elected, for the sixtieth time, to the
annual office of town-clerk of Hartford, (Connecticut,)
having been appointed secretary of the State for the
same number of years successively. His son suc
ceeded him in the same way for sixteen or seventeen
years. I was told of a case, where a person was
elected annually for twenty years in succession to
the office of supervisor, — the most trustworthy and
not the least honorable office in the district. His
brother, from whom I had this fact, and who was a
staunch advocate for the ballot, assured me that he
never knew an instance of influence having been
used at elections in his part of the country. He
once canvassed two of his tenants for a friend; when
they both declared that they could not, however
great their obligations to him were, vote in opposition
to what they considered their duty. If secret voting
admitted of such duplicity as its opponents impute

CHAP. XIII,] ALBANY REGENCY. 7
to it, they might easily have satisfied their landlord
and their political conscience at the same time, by
promising one way, and voting another.
As New York is the most populous city, not only
in the State, but in the Union, one would expect
that its political importance in both would bear some
proportion to its commercial ascendancy. But its
wealth is no measure of its influence in either. When
it is stated that it has not had for many years a
Senator in Congress ; that it has not a Chancellor, a
Judge of the Supreme Court, Attorney General of
the State, Comptroller, Secretary of the State,
Treasurer, Canal Commissioner, Bank Commis
sioner, nor any State officer, (to say nothing of the
Executive and his Lieutenant,) it certainly looks as
if something were "rotten in the State." The
Evening Star, from which the above remarks are
taken, ascribes this singular series of exclusions to a
junto at the seat of government, known by the name
of the Albany Regency. It would seem that politics
were a trade at Albany, and trade were politics at
New York ; for it is hardly to be imagined that any
Regency could control such a powerful body of
merchants as the latter city possesses, were it to
exert its strength.
In New York State, colored men of the qualified
age, and possessed of 250 dollars in freehold estate,
are entitled to the elective franchise. It is singular,
that, where no political privileges are connected with

8 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIII.
property, an exception should be made in favor of
those with whom vice, not vfrtue, is supposed to be
hereditary ; and that the parchment on which the
pedigree is written is the skin of the claimant.
Equality of civil rights is granted where equality of
social rights is denied ; and the same man who is
admitted to the ballot-box, is thrust out of the dining-
room. Let the " Afiican " carry off the palladium
of the constitution; but he must not disturb the
digestion of its fiiends. Plutus must be highly
esteemed, where his rod can change even a negro
into a man. If 250 dollars will perform this miracle,
what would it require to elevate a monkey to this
enviable distinction ?
In 1813 the federal party obtained the ascendancy
in the legislature, through the votes of the colored
electors. Hence it was, probably, that the quali
fication of this class was restricted by the other
party, who had the majority when the New Consti
tution was formed in 1821. Among those who dis
tinguished themselves on that occasion by the li
berality of their opinions, was R, Clarke, who repelled
with just indignation the excuse for exclusion from
voting which was found in the exclusion from military
duty. " It is haughtily asked ", said he, " who will
stand in the ranks, shoulder to shoulder, with a neoTo >
I answer, no one in time of peace : — no one when
your musters and trainings are looked upon as mere
pastimes. But when the hour of danger approaches

CHAP. XIII,] BLACK VOTERS. 9
your 'white' militia are just as willing that the
man of color should be set up as a mark to be shot
at by the enemy, as to be set up themselves. In the
war of the revolution, these people helped to fight
yomr battles by land and by sea. Some of your
States were glad to turn out corps of colored men,
and to stand ' shoulder to shoulder ' with them.
In your late war, they contributed largely towards
some of your most splendid victories. On Lakes
Erie and Champlain, where your fleets triumphed
over a foe superior in numbers, and engines of death,
they were manned in large proportion with men of
color. And in this very House, in the fall of 1814,
a BiU passed, receiving the approbation of aU the
branches of your Government, authorizing the Go
vernor to accept the services of a corps of 2000 free
people of color, . . They were not compelled to go, they
were not drafted, they were volunteers — yes. Sir, vo
lunteers to defend that very country fro'm the inroads
and ravages of a ruthless and vindictive foe, which
had treated them with insult, degradation, and sla
very," T never knew a man of color that was not
an anti-Jackson man. In fact, it was their respect
ability, and not their degradation, that was the cause
of their disfranchisement. The Albany Camarilla
limited the suffrage to the blacks, and opened it to
the Irish ; — a pretty good proof that the former were
not likely (o be their tools.
During the greater part of October and November,
b3

10 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIIL
the weather was delightful. It was what is called
the Indian summer; and certainly, if a clear sky, a
mild air, and a bright sun enter into our ideas of that
season, it was well entitled to the appellation, I ge
nerally had my vrindow open during the day ; and
frequently the whole night. On one occasion of the
latter kind, I was alarmed about one o'clock by a
strong smell of fire. On going to the window, to
find out the cause, I was met by a cloud of smoke,
accompanied by large flakes of fire. The first im
pression on my mind was that the next house was in
flames ; and that we should soon share its fate. When
we got out into the back yard, (for I immediately
called up the family,) we found that the fire was rag
ing in some outhouses, belonging to our neighbors,
and was rapidly bearing down upon us. Great, as
well may be supposed, were the consternation and
confusion: — the adjoining bouses pouxing out their
inhabitants overwhelmed with their fears and th,eir
furniture:— the church-bells ringing the alarum; and
cries of " Fire [ fire !" resounding through the streets.
Soon after, the firemen with their ladders and engines
arrived ; and, water having been speedily procured,
set to work like men who understand what they are
about. They poured in streams of water so judi
ciously and effectually upon the different houses 
for there were three or four in flames, — and directed
their efforts with such promptitude as the change of
the wind and the combustibility of the materials re-

CHAP. XIII,] FIRE AND FIREMEN, 11
quired, that, in about two hours, the enemy was subr
dued, after having destroyed one dwelling house, da
maged very considerably two others, and consumed
several wooden buildings in the rear. It was here
that the chief danger lay ; as there were many houses
constructed of mere boards at the back, running be
tween parallel streets, and presenting an unresisting
front to the increasing fury of the flames. There are
prohibitory regulations against buildings of this de
scription ; but they are not sufficiently comprehensive,
or are easily evaded by those who care more for high
profits than that their neighbors should be burned
out, because obscure plots of ground give facilities
for running up combustible tenements to be crowded
with all sorts of people from all parts of the world.
I had leisure and opportunity enough for witness
ing the zeal and courage of the New York firemen ;
and, as the house I was in was, I conceive, indebted to
them for its preservation, I feel bound, in gratitude,
to bear testimony to theii" merits. Some of them, who
had mounted the houses, were literally surrounded
by flames. It was a most wild and picturesque scene.
The windows of the opposite houses were filled
with anxious spectators. The street was lined on
each side with fiimiture that had been brought
out for safety: and the groups that had assembled
were eagerly looking on, and expressing their hopes or
apprehensions as the flames seemed to be arrested or
strengthened in their progress. There were but iew

12 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XIII.
spectators immediately in front, for barriers had been
put up at each entrance ; and the police were sta
tioned there to prevent an irruption ofthe crowd, who
might have obstructed the efforts of the firemen or
plundered the inhabitants. The whole was extremely
well organized ; and, considering the late hour and
the progress made by the fire before it was discovered,
the period was surprisingly short between the arrival
of the firemen, and the moment when all was over, and
the afirighted citizens had resumed their slumbers.
Fires are so frequent in New York, that scarcely a
night passes that its citizens are not warned of their
occurrence by the roar and rumbling of the engines
and the shouts of those who attend them through the
streets, while the church-bells are callingupon them to
hasten their march, I once saw no less than fifty or
sixty houses all inflames at the same time. No wonder
the engine-companies are expert, with such constalit
demands upon them for the exercise of their talent.
The members that compose them are all volunteers,
and serve gratuitously;— the only remuneration they
receive being exemption from military duty and from
serving on jiuies. There is a sort of rivalry and emu
lation among them, that keeps ahve the enthusiasm
which first led them to enhst in the service, and which
is sustained in full vigor and influence by the excite
ment their splendid apparatus and daring exploits
produce among the boys who follow them or assist
in dragging the machines.

CHAP. XIII.] FREQUENCY OF FIRES. 13
The advantages of this system are not without a
considerable mixture of alloy; as the young men,
who are enrolled in these companies, not only suffer
much in their health from exposure to wet and cold,
atall hours and in all seasons of the year, but are too
apt to contract bad habits and become dissipated or
irregular. The corporation has made many fruitless attempts
to discover the cause of such frequent fires. It is
supposed to be connected, in a great measure, with
the carelessness and negligence of lodgers, and the
inflammable nature of the materials, with which the
houses in the outskirts and narrow lanes of the city
are built. These accidents occur almost as frequently
by day as at night. It will be foimd, perhaps, on in
quiry, that " spoiled children " have something to do
with the matter. It is natural that the parent, on
leaving the room, should beg her children not to
touch the fire ; and equaUy natural that the children,
as soon as the mother's back is turned, should begin
to poke in the grate ; disobedience being as habitual
on one side, as want of discipline on the other. Pro
hibition is sure to encourage what it suggests, when
the penalty it threatens is never enforced. We con
stantly hear of children being burnt to death by their
clothes catching fire; sometimes the deUnquent
escapes and the house alone suffers — of course the
mother never suspects her darling, whom she brings
up in such excellent order ; — for it is a weU-known

14 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIU.
fact that those who most neglect their parental du
ties, like hen-pecked husbands, are the last to find
out what every body else knows.
The insurance offices at New York have entered
into a sort of combination against the pubUc interest
by depositing each, in a common fund, the sum of
500 dollars, to be forfeited on granting insurance
below a certain amount of premium. The person,
from whom I received this information, was about to
insure in London his property in New York. Even
with the heavy duty so injudiciously laid by our
government on this necessary species of prudence,
he. could get insured in England for half the sum it
would cost him on the other side of the water.
" Why do you not go to Boston or Philadelphia
for the purpose ? " — I asked. " Because I should
get nothing by doing so. If such a practice
were to become general, some retaliatory measure
would be adopted by our companies, and their
competitors would gain nothing by charging a
lower price." This sort of monopoly could hardly
be continued without the coUusion of the legislature
in granting charters of incoi-poration. As it is, how
ever, it seems, like bounties and other kinds of pro
tection, to carry its own punishment with it ; since
it tends, by inviting capital, to sink those profits it
promises to raise.
The average rate, indeed, is afready below what
is to be made by investments in other commercial

CHAP, XIII,] FIRE INSURANCE. 15
associations. If there were more fires, there would
probably be more applications for insurance ; as was
found to be the case when our bams and ricks were
destroyed by incendiaries. The same effect was
produced by the numerous piracies from which the
mercantUe marine of the United States suffered so
much some years back. The premium upon marine
insurance was not increased by the risk, as the ad
ditional number of poUeies indemnified the insurance
companies for any demands upon them.
The corporation of New York, wishing that the
offices, which seemed to reap all the benefit of the
fire-engines, should pay their share of the expense
attending them, applied to some of them, with the
view of entering into an arrangement upon the sub
ject. The answer to the proposal was, that so
far from contributing to the support of the esta
blishment, the insurance companies would much
rather give 10,000 doUars to the corporation if they
would lay aside their, engines altogether. The
greater the destruction of private property by fires,.
the less unwUlingness to pay for protection against
the loss they occasion.
Nov. 27, 1 went to the city gaol to see some men
who had been confined there some time as runaway
slavfes : that is, they were accused of having com
mitted the heinous crime of stealing their own
bodies. There were three of them: the fii'st, a

16 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XIII.
veiy decent good-looking man, about thirty years
of age, had been living in New York for four years;
having been in prison during the last twelve months.
His case, as well as that of the other two, was then
in course of adjudication. These poor creatures
had no means of support, but what they obtained
from casual charity or by waiting upon the other
prisoners. Whatever any of them got to eat, by their
own industry or the bounty of others, was shared
equaUy between them. Upon inquiry of the keeper,
I was told that there was no legal provision — no
allowance of any kind, made for persons under these
circumstances. This regulation reflects little credit
on the humanity of the government; — whether the
matter rest with the State or the corporation. A
horse or a cow, if seized for rent, would not be
suffered to starve; but these unhappy men, who
have committed no crime that those who thus
punish them would not themselves have committed,
and most probably not even that, must depend
upon chance — for justice has nothing to do with
the affair— for a meal. In this respect they are
worse off in the free, as they are called, than in the
slave States; since it is the interest of those who
keep them in gaol, as well as of those who claim
them, that they should be supplied with food; as,
in the event of their faUing to prove their right to
freedom, they-would be sold, to defray the expense

CHAP. XIII. J FUGITIVE SLAVES, 17
of keep — an event by no means uncommon on the
south side of the Potomac; — whereas they would
be discharged in the non-slave holding States, if de
clared innocent of self-robbery.
By an act passed in 1826 by the legislature of
Pennsylvania, a fugitive slave, when committe_d to
gaol for safe keeping, is — " there to be detained, at
the expense of the owner, agent, or attorney, for
such time as the judge (committing) shaU think
reasonable and just," &c.
The second case was that of a man who had been
within the walls sixteen weeks. He had made his
escape four years before from New Orleans, He
honestly confessed to me that he was a slave ; the
other was less frank ; and so disheartened by the
prospect before him, that he declared he would
destroy himself, if taken back to his master in Vir
ginia. The third had been confined six weeks only. His
story, though long and involved in incidents spread
over many years, was clearly and distinctly narrated.
He had purchased his freedom three or four times,
and had been as often defrauded of it. It is required
in North Carolina, to which he belonged, that a
specific declaration of " meritorious services " per
formed, shoiild be made by an owner, as a condition
of emancipation to his slave ; and as no such plea
could be urged in favor of Damon Jones, (that was
the name of the man,) these successive sales were

18 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIII,
nuU and void ; and the buyers had been most shame
fully imposed upon.
It happened, that his master, to whom I had been
particularly introduced a few days before at a party,
was then in the city ; and I determined to call and
inquire of him whether Damon's account was to be
reUed upon. I questioned aU these men closely and
separately upon the condition of the slaves; and
they concm-red in the same declaration, — that the
general treatment was most barbarous and inhuman.
One can easily see why a slave's evidence is not re
ceived in a court of justice against a white man.
The disqualification affords presumptive proof against
the law-maker, who weU knows that he would lose
more by the truth than the witness could gain by a
falsehood.
' While I was conversing with the fugitives, I was
told that ex-sheriff Parkins had been very kind to
them ; I accordingly called upon him to inquire about
them. He had a room above stairs in the gaol;
where he had been for some time incarcerated for
contempt of court for an alleged assault — having
refiised to find bail, and thereby acknowledge, as he
thought, that the charge had any foundation. He
had been unfortunate in some speculations into
which he had entered, and had lost a great deal of
moriey in a way that certainly told as much against
the fair dealing of others as his own prudence.
He could not hold land as an alien ; and yet, if I

CHAP. XIIL J EX-SHERIFF PARKINS. 19^
understood him rightly, he had been involved in
a purchase of the kind. He had been made to pay
too very severely for the Ucense he had given his
tongue, or the defamatory expressions attributed to
him *. He generaUy pleaded his own cause ; and,
whatever sort of cUent he might have as an advocate,
he undoubtedly had not a temperate advocate as a
cUent. His opponents, and their name was truly
" legion", had accused him of insanity ; but, in the
course of conversation I had with him upon different
* Not long after, a report was spread that the ex-sheriff had
assaulted a fellow-prisoner, and cut his head open with a
hatchet. It turned out, however, that the attack was made
upon, and not by, him. That he had a hatchet in his pos
session is true : for I saw it in his room both before and after
the rencontre. The unanimity with which the press gave full
credit to an ex-parte statement, adducing it as a proof of derange
ment, could hardly have originated in any honorable feeling.
I was myself witness to a piece of brutality towards this old
man, which all his abuse ofthe country and its people could not
have excused. As I took my leave of hira, he was told he
might go down stairs to see some men who were waiting for
him on business. He approached the door with the intention
of passing through ; when the turnkey stopped him, and desired
him in a harsh manner to wait. Some words passed between
them ; and the man suddenly shut the door in his face with
such violence, that had his arm been caught between it and the
post, it must have been broken. He had a narrow escape. It
was disgusting to see a young athletic man insult an old man of
seventy with a degree of violence that a stout villain would not
have required, and the greatest criminal would not have deserved.

20 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [cHAP, XIIL
topics, I could perceive no indications of any
tendency that way in his mind, except what might
be found in great volubility of language, and the
frequent use of that figure which Shenstone says
is tlie forerunner of madness. He dealt largely in the
parenthesis,— not here and there merely, — but one
w,ithin another, Uke an involution of Chinese ivory
balls. He had written several letters in behalf of his
sable cUents, and had shewn a degree of benevolence
and zeal in their behalf highly creditable to him. His
lawyer very impertinently remonstrated with him on
the imprudence of interfering in behalf of these
wretched men, " Why do you trouble yourself
about these blacks ? " said he. The reply was such
as he merited. So indignant was the warm hearted
ex-sheriff, that he afterwards dismissed him. The
man might think it imprudent to interfere in favor of
humanity — he was taught to feel that it is sometimes
impolitic to interfere against it.
The decision of the court was unfavorable to the
three prisoners. The Virginian was to be taken back
for the purpose of being exhibited to his master's
slaves, as a warning to them not to attempt their
escape. He had previously been offered ten doUars,
as an addition to a subscription he was told some
friends were raising for him ; and, when he consulted
his lawyer whether he should accept the conditions,
he was told that he must judge for himself. The ob
ject was to sell him for a distant market ; prices having

CHAP, XIII,] DAMON JONES. 21
lately risen twenty per cent. The intention was ob
vious from the terms of the agreement. He was to
have the money, providing he accompanied the donor
into Virginia, That any lawyer should hesitate about
the propriety of trusting a man, whose oath would
not be vaUd, with a stranger who could have but
one motive for giving his time and his ten dol
lars for- such a purpose, shows how completely
the blacks in the south are at the mercy of the
whites, A case occurred in this very gaol, not long before,
Ulustrative of the whole system. A negro, who had
escaped with a boat from Virginia to New York, was
reclaimed ; and was condemned, on his return, to be
hanged for stealing the boat. It was exactly as if a
man whose horse had been stolen had gone off with
the horse, and had afterwards been executed for steal
ing the bridle that happened to belong to the thief.
He had a Avife and eight or nine children in New
York, A message was sent to her that a petition had
been got up in his favor ; but there was little chance
that he would be pardoned.
There were some circumstances in the case of one
of the remaining slaves that rendered it probable he
might eventually obtain his freedom. As for the
other, Damon Jones, his story abounded in such sin
gular turns of fortune, that I took it down from his
own mouth: it is too long, however, for insertion
here. It was a good specimen of the harassing and

22 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIII,
insecure life a slave leads, even when he has friends
to assist him, and is desirous of gaining his liberty
by unremitting industry.
When I called on his old master, Mr. Gaston, who
was chosen about that time a Judge of the Supreme
Court of North CaroUna, I found the Secretary of the
Anti-Slavery Society vrith him. He had come upon
the same en-and. Mr, Gaston then repeated to me
what he had just stated to Professor Wright ; — that the
man was a worthless fellow, and had no right whatever
to his freedom. I was much struck with one observ
ation he made. He said he took great blame to
himself for having indulged his slave too much: — he
had treated him too kindly. They were nearly ofthe
same age, and had been brought up together. What
an opinion must this man have of human nature ! or
how must it be perverted by slavery, if that which
produces latitude in other men, produces estrange
ment in the slave !^-that those" " compunctious visit-
ings of remorse", which are elsewhere known to vice
and erime . alone, should be the effect of virtue and
benevolence in the breast of a slave-owner !
When informed that there were persons wiUing to
buy the man's freedom, if he could say any thing in
his favor, he answered that he could not do so con
scientiously. The Secretary and myself then tobk
our leave ; and, on returning to my lodgings a few
hours afterwards, I found that a person, at whose
house I had a few days before met Mr, Gaston, had,

CHAP. XIII.] JUDGE GASTON, 23
with another acquaintance, called, and, finding me
out, had communicated to my landlady the purport of
the visit, adding that they would caU the next morn
ing early. The next morning about nine o'clock .
one of them made his appearance, with a letter
from Mr, Gaston in his hand. The substance of what
the latter had written was merely, that some one, —
he knew not his name, — he believed he was a lawyer
— whom he had met at the house of this gentleman —
had been with him that morning about a slave. He
was sorry he could not give the man a good charac
ter. He was wiUing, however, out of former regard,
to give fifty dollars to the fynd for purchasing his
freedom. The writer (singular enough !) had totaUy
forgotten that I had been particularly introduced to
him as an Enghshman. It was but incidentally that
I had told him I should have been called to the bar,
had the state of my health been favorable. He
had forgotten, too, that it was the Secretary of the
Anti-Slavery Society, not I, who had spoken to him
about the subscription for Damon's freedom. He
was'perhaps anxious to quiet any uneasiness I might
feel on the subject; and so lost no time in writing to
his friend, who seemed to enter with great tact and
promptitude into his feelings : — as he related, during
the very short stay he made, an anecdote of a slave
who had run away, and, having obtained his freedom,
either by donation or a judicial decision, declared
that he would rather go back to his former condition

24 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [cHAP, XIIL
than remain where he was. I Vras left to infer from
this that slavery is no such bad thing after all; and,
indeed, this view of the subject may perhaps explain
why Mr. Gaston gave fifty dollars to redeem " a
worthless fellow" from bondage. Slavery was too
good for him. This piece of liberality was not quite
so intelhgible to my visitor. He earnestly asked if I
had any idea why the gift was made, and was highly
pleased at the answer he received. I understood, I
said, that the parties had been brought up together
as children. It was rather siUy in me to ask a slave
owner if his slave was to be trusted, when his own
character was concerned in the answer ; and stUl taore
so to apply to a judge of a slave-State for testimony
in support of a colored man's veracity; since the lat
ter is legally incompetent to testify against a white
man. If his word is good for anything in New York,
why is it good for nothing in North Carolina ? It
was placing the judge in a very awkward dUemma.
He must have stultified either himself or the law he
administers. How could the same person tell me to
believe a man's word, when he himself wUl not take
his oath ? I was led into this error by a letter Damon
Jones had received from a man whom Mr, Gaston ad
mitted to be respectable. It was as foUows : —
" Raleigh, 14 Nov. 1833,
" I received your letter to-day, which I ought to
have received some days ago ; and aw very sorry to

CHAP. XIII,] JUDGE GASTON. 25
find that you are in such difficulty, I write now to
say that fortune seems disposed to favor you, as Mr,
Gaston is now in New York, and wiU be willing and
able to see justice done to you, I have written to
him by this mail to let him know your situation.
You should lose no time in sending for him. To
morrow I shaU shew your letter to Mr, Gales, and
endeavour to do what is right for your rehef ; though
I presume Mr, Gaston's presence wUl supersede the
necessity of any other, " Yours,
" GEORGE E. BADGER."
Mr, Gaston's address was added at the bottom of
the letter.
When I informed Damon of Mr. Gaston's inten
tion to advance fifty doUars for his liberation, he re
plied very mildly but very firmly, — " I would rather
not accept Mr. Gaston's money. Sir ! He has used
me extremely Ul ; and I do not wish to be under any
obligation to him. If those gentlemen, who have so
kindly taken my part, wUl purchase my freedom, I
wiU work at my trade and repay them as soon as I
can do so," Subjoined is the answer Mr. Parkins
received to the application he had made in behalf of
his colored protege.
" SIR,
'' In answer to your note, which I have this mo
ment received, I hasten to say, that I would not he-
VOL, II, c

26 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIII.
sitate to comply with your request, and caU to see
Damon Jones, if I could render him any service.
My recoUection of facts, however, is, in many im
portant particulars, at s^trict variance with the state
ment which he has given you. My testimony, in
stead of supporting, would destroy the claim which
he sets up to freedom, I pity him — have on former
occasions put myself to no slight inconvenience to
help him ; but the time has gone bye dming which
I could render him aid,
" Your obedient Servant,
" WILLIAM GASTON.
" State Street, Nov, 12, 1833."
It should be observed here, that the man had not
the shadow of a claim to freedom, because the grant
was not in accordance with the law of the land,
which, as the judge himself told me, requires a formal
allegation from the owner of " meritorious services "
rendered by the slave, before he can obtain his eman
cipation. Now this aUegation Mr, Gaston could
not make. He had sold him because' he had found
him troublesome, and again bought him for the pur
pose of facihtating his escape. And yet, as we shall
see by the foUowing letter, he had received from the
poor feUow himself the price of a contract which he
weU knew was neither legal nor binding. The letter
aUuded to is one from Dr, CaldweU to Mr, Parkins,
Dr. CaldweU is President of the CoUege of Chapel

CHAP. XIII,] DR, CALDWELL. 27
HiU, in Orange County, North Carolina, and is
highly respected for his attainments and personal
character, I have omitted to state that Damon was,
when making his way to the north, advised by Mr,
Sneyd, (a nephew-in-law of Mr, Gaston,) to put him-
self under the care of a man who promised to take
him with him to Alabama in search of his wife. By
this man he was sold at Mobile in that State.
" Chapel Hill, Nov. 22, 1833,
" SIB,
" I received a letter some time ago from Professor
Denison Olmstead, of Newhaven, respecting Damon
Jones, who, it seems, was there in confinement, and
under legal process at that place *, I answered the
letter as far as it was in my power to do so, Da
mon, in a letter which he sends to me now, says he
wrote to me formerly. If he did, I never got his
letter as I can remember, I shall have to say now
the same things in answer to your inquiries as I
formerly said to Professor Olmstead,
" I am acquauited with Damon Jones, He acted
as a barber for a number of years in this State, to my
certain knowledge. Nearly about the last time I
* Damon was brought by sea to New York in chains, and
would have been carried, in that condition, into North Carolina,
had not some members of the Anti- Slavery Society interfered
for him, and brought the matter before the legal tribunals of the
country,
c 2

28 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XIII.
saw him he was at this place, and he shewed me a
paper, in which Mr, Gaston, his former master, sub
scribed a declaration made by himself, that he gave
full and entire permission to Damon Jones to go as
far north as he should wish to go. Knowing some
thing of the circumstances, I considered it as a total
and final release of Damon Jones from a state of
slavery to him Wilham Gaston *, It certainly was
intended to be so understood,
" It must now be explained, that by the laws of
this State, a slave cannot be thus emancipated. Other
conditions and forms are required by law, that the
emancipation may be legal. If Damon had taken
the paper given to him by Mr, Gaston, and travelled
directly northward, it would have serv^ed him as a
pass, by which he might have enjoyed his freedom
unmolested the remainder of his days. This, how
ever, I suppose he did not do, I heard of him after
wards, as having gone to the south-west. Being in
that part of the State, perhaps at or near Salisbury,
some man, it seems, availing himself of the power
given by the law of North Carolina, probably got out
legal process against Damon ; took him up, and sold
him again into slavery :— if, indeed, it could be said
that he could be free without the sanction of the law.
My intelhgence was, that he was conveyed away
into Alabama, perhaps to Mobile, The next thing
* This document would have been no bar to a seizure for
debt or to a sale by an executor.

CHAP, XIII.] NOTE OF HAND, 29
I heard of him was by Mr, Olmstead's letter, asking
for information, to know whether his right to free
dom could be established against the claims of any
one who had arrested him as a fugitive slave at New
haven, These are the circumstances, so far as I am
informed of them. Whether my information of the
circumstances and events after he left this place is
correct or not, I am unable to ascertain. Damon is
weU known here to all the persons he mentions in
his letters : — Mr, Mitchell, Professor of Chemistry at
this College ; Mr, Chalmers ; Judge Nash, of Hills
borough ; Judge Martin, of Salisbury ; Justice Ruf-
fin, and a multitude of others whom he might name.
These are most of them at some distance from this
place, and I cannot see them.
" Some time before Mr, Gaston gave Damon his
indefinite pass, there had been an understanding be
tween Mr, Gaston and Damon, that Damon should
go abroad, make such money as he could in his pro
fession as a barber; and, upon paying a certain sum,
his master was to make him free, Damon acted on
this understanding for some time, Mr, Gaston had
passed a note to John Lewis of this place for about
290 dollars, Damon was expected by Mr, Gaston
to pay this note ; and, should he do so within a time
probably understood between them, Damon was to
be a free man. The note was passed by Lewis to
me. Damon made payments to me at different
times. He paid me personally twenty-eight dollars.

30 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIII,
and left with Stephen Moore, of HUlsborough, sixty-
seven dollars, eighty-two cents, which I received.
It was a considerable time after this that Damon
shewed me permission from Mr. Gaston to travel
northward as far as he should choose to go. Mr.
Gaston paid the balance, and took up the note.
" I am yours, &c.
"JOS, CALDWELL,
" Mr, J, W. Parkins.
" P.S, Damon Jones has written to me a letter on
the same subject. If I write to him, I can say
nothing else, WUl you shew this letter to Damon ?
— and it will prevent the necessity of my writing to
him, " Yours, &c. "JOS. C,"
What a scene of iniquity is here opened to the
view ! As white men in the slave States consider
labor disgraceful, wages are high : — an unprincipled
master may thus avail himself of the ignorance and
creduhty of his slave ; — work his price out of him; —
and then give him an empty title of which a rascally
confederate may take advantage ; and the victim of
their villainy has no redress. The more skUful he is
as a workman, the less likely he is to obtain his free
dom legally, and the more likely is he to be plundered
of the fruits of his industry while he is endeavor
ing to gain it indirectly. Where there is no law to
restrain cruelty or protect innocence, it is evident

CHAP. XIII,] FEMALE HOMARD, 31
that cases similar to that of Damon Jones must be
of fi'equent occurrence.
The sequel of Damon's story, as it was afterwards
narrated to me by those who had watched his con
duct, confirmed the good opinion they had enter
tained of him, and gave ample corroboration to all
that he had stated of himself He was put in pos-
session of the valuable prize he had so often been
cheated of: — he became free, and was placed in a
barber's shop ; where his steady habits of industry
and good behaviour gave fair promise that he would
continue to do well. Want of health and a bad
master combined to keep him down ; and he was
unable to raise sufficient money for the liquidation
of the debt he had contracted. He had saved a
trifle ; and his benevolent friends, who never in
tended to accept any pecuniary return for their
bounty to him, were fully satisfied that he had been
calumniated because he had been injured. His
manners were very superior to what are generally
found among men of his rank in life, and his dis
position was characterised by frankness and sim
plicity — qualities which in him so far predominated,
as to render him the dupe of the designing and the
prey of the unprincipled.
A few days after this little incident, I caUed at the
house of a colored woman, who had been mentioned
to me as a most remarkable instance of generosity
and benevolence. Her name was Hester Lane ; and

32 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XIII,
her age between fifty and sixty. She was at home,
and received me without affectation or reserve. The
object of my visit was soon explained; and the re
quest I made as readily complied with. She in
formed me that she had redeemed eleven human
beings from slavery, in Maryland, having purchased
them at different times with the savings she had
made out of her hard earnings. She had never had
twenty dollars given to her, nor benefited by inherit
ance or bequest to the amount of a dollar. The
house she lived in was her own ; and the room in
which we sat was well furnished. The first pur
chased by her was a girl of eleven years of age : —
the price was 100 dollars. She had been present
when she was born, and afterwards assisted at her
marriage, at the birth of her four children, and ulti
mately at her death and her funeral. The next she
liberated was a boy of fourteen, for 200 dollars. The
third a man about thirty, for 280. The fourth
case was that of a man, his wife, and one child. As
the parents were sickly and no longer young, she
was charged but 140 dollars for the family : — the
former she had in a great measure to maintain. The
fifth case occmred about eight years previously, and
was that of a woman and three children. For these
she had to pay 550 dollars. They were bought at a
pubhc auction in Maryland, whither she went for
that purpose, having received several letters on the
subject. She aftenvards purchased the husband for

CHAP. XIII,] RESIGNATION. 33
200 doUars, with gi-eat difficulty and trouble, as
the owner insisted upon having 300, She had the
children properly educated, and instructed to gain
their own livelihood. The greater part of the pur
chase money was refunded by the objects of her
bounty, when they were enabled to repay her.
This account, which I had from her own Ups, was
confirmed to me by Mr, Curtis, of Crosby Street,
a person of great respectability, and well known
for his kind feeUngs towards the descendants of
Africa, Most of the cases he himself knew to be
as I had heard them : for the rest, he said, he would
without hesitation vouch ; as her word was as good
as any other person's oath. When I was with her,
she was teaching herself French, She was a woman
of strong religious feelings and principles. By her
own exertions, she had obtained a comfortable com
petency for herself; having been successful in dis
covering a new mode of coloring walls, by which,
and the assistance of a shop, she had realised suffi
cient to provide for her own wants, and those of her
less fortunate feUow creatures. Like all of her race,
with whom I had any communication, she was
deeply affected by the numerous humiliations to
which she was exposed. She never for a moment
doubted, she said, that the designs of Providence
were wise and good. Yet it was mysterious and af
flicting to think that whole nations and tribes should
so long have been doomed to unmitigated and un-
c 3

34 TOUR « IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIII.
merited bondage ; and when free, should still be sub
ject to contempt and reproach. Her windows looked
into the street, and it was most painful to her to
witness the savage way in which the blacks were
treated by the people, and by none worse than by
the Irish ; some of whom, not long before, would
have murdered a man of color, if some persons, who
were passing in a carriage at the tim^, had not as
sisted him to escape.
The American Quarterly Review upbraids the
Spaniards of South America for pursuing, towards the
Creoles, precisely the same conduct as its readers
still obseive towards men equally inoffensive, and
equally entitled, with themselves, to a participation
in political and personal rights, " Even as late as
1811," says the Reviewer, "they (the Creoles) were
represented in the Cortez of Cadiz as a race of
monkeys, full of vice and ignorance, and automata,
unworthy of representing or being represented." —
The Hispano-Americans were perfectly justified in
resenting the calumny : the Afiico-Americans must
submit without a murmur. The same journal, (for
June 1830,) in describing the effects of Spanish pride
in Mexico, draws a complete picture of a very large
portion of the United States, " The settlers scorned
to be placed on a level with the wretched Indian ;
their color ennobled them in their own opinion ; and
the poorest white man would have perished with
want, rather than lose caste by working in the fields.

CHAP. XIII,] CONVENTION AT PHILADELPHIA, 35
or by any other laborious occupation in which the
Indians were habituaUy employed. Thus, then, was
wanting that portion of a community which forms
the strength of a nation — a hardy and virtuous pea
santry," When power had changed hands, these silly
people were driven out ofthe country. Their neigh
bors might profit by the example, if it were possi
ble for oppression to count the cost of its gratifica
tion; or if fatuity were not the necessary pre
cursor of that destruction which tyranny brings with
it, by blinding its instruments and emboldening its
victims. The overwhelming importance of this subject, was
now beginning to force upon the pubhc attention
the deep impression it had made upon the minds of
many who could think and feel like men. A meet
ing was held in Philadelphia, on the 4th of Decem
ber, and continued by adjournment till the 6th, for
the purpose of forming a national anti-slavery so
ciety. There were delegates from ten of the States
to this convention ; and the proceedings, I was told,
(for illness prevented my attending,) were exceed
ingly solemn and affecting. Several who were pre
sent shed tears, and all were animated with one spirit
of firmness and resolution. In the declaration of sen
timents unanimously adopted on this memorable
occasion, was the following : " We further believe
and affirm, that all persons of color, who possess the

36 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XIII.
qualifications which are demanded of others, ought
to be forthwith admitted to the enjoyment of the
same privUeges, and the exercise of the same pre
rogatives, as others ; and that the paths of prefer
ment, of wealth, and of intelhgence, should be
opened as widely to them, as to persons of a white
complexion." The force of these expressions would
hardly be felt in England, The unmanly prejudice
against which they are aimed, is so deeply seated in
the public mind, that its complete eradication is an
indispensable preliminary to the abolitioji of slavery,
which is as much the offspring of this feeling, as it
is the parent of the slave trade. In striking at the
latter, whUe we left the other in full vigor, we mis
took the effect for the cause, and reversed the re
lation in which demand and supply stand to each
other. By combining these two objects, the trans
atlantic philanthropists are proceeding towards their
object in the most direct and the clearest path ; for
the negro wiU always be treated as a brute, till he is
acknowledged to be a man.

CHAP, XIV,] LAW-SUITS. 37

CHAPTER XIV,
Law-suits, — Arbitration. — Commercial Morality. — Greek Fri
gates. — Tricks of Trade, — Heroism of a black Boy, — Stage
coach Law, — Schoolboy claimed as Property. — Sympathy of
African race.— Bordentown. — American Honesty. — Philadel
phia. — Baltimore, — Whites purchased by Blacks. — Expatria
tion. It has been said, that there are more law-suits in the
United States than in England. There are some
reasons why there should be less ; — at least, in New
York and other northern States, By the laws of
the former, disputes upon money matters may be
settled by arbitration ; the parties agreeing as to the
mode of decision, — which may be put upon' record,
and become as binding as the judgement of a ju
dicial court. The chamber of commerce, by refer
ence to arbitrators chosen for the express purpose,
and paid for their services by stated fees, or so much
remuneration per day, (generaUy two dollars,) ad
justs any difference that may arise among its mem
bers. The merchants have thus a choice of judges ;
and may bring disputed claims before a lay or a
legal tribunal ; the former being empowered, if the

38 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XIV.
parties agree to comply with the necessary forms, to
settle the matter in dispute as definitively as the
latter, and much more expeditiously ahd cheaply.
This mode of adjudication is usuaUy employed by
the insurance offices, when any doubt arises with
regard to their liability.
There is little ground for the assumption, that
litigation has been encouraged by making justice
less costly and more accessible ; or that the cheap
ness of law has increased the consumption. There
is no doubt that its high price has had a contrary
efiect, and promoted fraud by checking the inclina
tion to prosecute. The costs of suit in New York
above fifty dollars, fall on the losing party. Though
this rule does not obtain in the lower courts, which
have exclusive jurisdiction in causes involving sums
below fifty dollars, yet, as either party can plead in
person, and the decision is regulated rather by prin
ciples of equity than by legal technicaHties, unjust
or vexatious claims, with the view of saddling an
opponent, though triumphant, with costs, are not
likely to occur ; — so that the low price of admission
to the temple of justice holds out little inducement
for any but those who really stand in need of her
protection, to enter.
By the Revised Statutes of New York, arbitrators
are sworn faithfully and fairly to examine and make
a just award; and witnesses may be compelled to ap
pear before them sub poena, &c.

CHAP, XIV,] COMMERCIAL MORALITY, 39
" Whenever any submission to arbitration shall be
revoked by a party thereto, before the publication of
an award, the party so revoking shaU be liable to an
action by the adverse party, to recover all the costs,
expenses, and damages which he may have incurred,
in preparing for such arbitration. But neither party
shall have power to revoke powers of the arbitrators,
after the cause shall have been finaUy submitted to
them, upon hearing of the parties, for their decision,"
—Rev, Stat, New York, ii. 541. ,
I wish I were equaUy convinced that the imputa
tions thrown upon the national character, as somewhat
lax in matters of commercial faith, were unjust ; and
that the standard of feeling in money transactions
were higher than I have reason to think it is, I was
frequently advised by the Americans to be cautious
in my pecuniary dealings with their countrymen.
Every Enghshman I conversed with on the subject
told me that he had met with repeated instances of
the same friendly warning. The universality, with
which the necessity of a prudent circumspection is
inculcated, appears to every foreigner as something
unusual and worthy of notice; — hints of a similar
kind being rarely given or received in Europe, It
would be thought a strange proceeding in an English
merchant to place a French gentleman in a clergy
man's house as a single boarder at 400/, a yeai" ; and
still more that two or three of the most respectable
members of the mercantile class in London should

40 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [cHAP, XIV,
recommend and sanction such a proceeding. Yet
this was done in New York, where the humble and
retired manner in which the clergy live makes such a
charge the more glaringly unjust. The comforts and
expenditure of the establishment could not have
bome a fair proportion to the sum demanded ; — as
the master of the house borrowed 500 doUars of his
guest, and did not return the loan, without any inter
est, for upwards of two years.
So little satisfied was our unsuspecting country
man (from whom I had the anecdote) with the bar
gain made for him by his munificent friends, that, after
three or four months had expired, he quitted the
house; having compromised the affair by paying
down 1000 dollars — half of what he had agreed to
pay for the whole year — and one quarter of what the
Governor of the State receives for his salary. None
of his Episcopalian brethren stood higher in public
estimation than this reverend rector. If public opi
nion were not anything but rigid on these matters,
the Recorder would hardly, in open court, have offi
cially palliated a fraudulent transaction which was
brought before him while I was at New York, The
party implicated was clearly convicted of having sold
goods by misrepresenting their quality. It was urged
in his favor, by the charitable judge, that no imputa
tion could be laid upon his character ; as such little
manoeuvres were commonly practised in trade. The
jury thought otherwise ; and the defendant, like the

CHAP, XIV,] GREEK FRIGATES, 41
Spartan youth, detected in theft, would learn pru
dence from the sentence, if he did not leam justice
from the pimishment. If the practice or maxims of
commercial integrity were drawn fi-om strict moral
principles, could such an affair as that of the Greek
frigates have taken place ? — or, if it had taken place,
would it have been permitted or countenanced ? In
the case aUuded to, ten per cent, was charged by the
commission merchants on the whole expenditure, —
five per cent, for disbursements, and the remainder
for responsibihty : 50,000 dollars were demanded for
the use of the ship-yards : 10,000 were paid to Cap
tain Chauncey for superintending the work : 45,000
for the arbitrators, to whom the disputed claims were
ultimately submitted, — being upwards of 78 dollars
per diem for each — nearly ten times as much as the
National Representatives in Congress receive for
their services. The arbitrators called these mercan
tile houses, " diplomatic agents in a very difficult and
delicate affair with our (the United States') govern
ment"; — though it does not appear, nor is it probable,
that the general government had anything to do with
the business, — except sharing the spoils, by pur
chasing one of the vessels at half its value ; — Con-
tostaulos, who had been dispatched to New York on
the subject by the Greek Government, having been
obliged to sell one of the frigates to 'raise money for
the purchase of the other. It was " Tros, Rutulusve "
with the federal administration. The whole trans^,_

42 TOUR IN THE tJNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIV.
action was of such a nature, as to be little creditable
to a community that could tolerate such proceedings.
Among other instances of loose moraUty which
came to my knowledge, were two that occurred to
an Enghshman, with whom I was weU acquainted.
He had written to Washington about some goods he
had imported ; and, not having received any answer,
apphed to the comptroller of the customs, who re
commended him to a lawyer, that the necessary
papers might be prepared, — naming at the same
time a professional man, as a proper person to
be employed. It came out afterwards, that the
comptroller had, at that moment, in his possession,
a letter from Washington, granting the prayer of
the very petition he suggested. The lawyer he
had recommended was his partner, or connected
in business with him. The other had unfortu
nately procured the documents in question, and
had paid for them, when he discovered the fraud
tliat had been practised upon him, A similar case
occurred to another Englishman of my acquaintance.
These, however, may be considered instances of in
dividual conduct. The other implied a more general
feeling. The former of the two just mentioned was
conversing one day vrith an American on the subject
of a factory he had just set up ; when a suggestion
was made to him that he should extend his views by
engaging in a joint-stock company, " We can
manage this matter easily among ourselves," — said

CHAP. XIV,] HEROIC BOY. 43
he? " We can have a committee of our own, and
arrange it so as to keep every thing in our own hands.
If we succeed, we can ^leclare a low dividend, and
so buy in shares for ourselves as they fall; — if things
do not go on well, we can pm-sue an opposite com'se,
and adjudge high dividends, so as to raise our stock
in the market, and keep ourselves afloat," Now this
sort of hint from a man who was nearly a stranger,
evinces an extraordinary indifference to character; —
unless that sense of honor is wanting in society,
which, however inoperative any where, is so far ad
mitted every where else, that few would dare to
propose its violation even to an intimate friend.
I was once asked, with a sarcastic smile, by an
American lady of Hibernian descent, if I had met
with any interesting blacks in the course of my tour.
The winter I passed in New York furnisljed what
this woman, with all her contempt for a race more
persecuted and less fortunate than that from which
she herself sprang, would acknowledge to be most
painfully interesting. During the frost, some ice,
on which several boys were skating, in the outskirts
of the city, gave way; and several of them were
drowned. During the confusion and terror, oc
casioned by this accident, a colored boy, whose
courage and hardihood were well known, was called
upon to render assistance. He immediately threw
himself into the water with his skates on, and suc
ceeded in saving two lads; but, while exerting

44 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIV,
himself to rescue a third, he was drawn under the
ice, and unable to extricate himself. No one would
risk his life for him. Soon after, the detaUs of this
melancholy event appeared in one of the news
papers, (the New York American,) with an offer to
receive subscriptions for the mother, who was left,
vrith a sick husband and a young famUy, deprived
of the support which she had derived from her son's
industry. As reference was made to a medical man
in Park Place, I called upon him, and received a
very favorable account both of the boy and his poor
mother, who was employed to wash for him. I im
mediately proceeded to her house, and foimd that she
had three children left; — the eldest about ten years
of age, and the youngest an infant at the breast. In
addition to these, she had undertaken the care of a
little girl, five years old, the daughter of a deceased
friend, whose husband had deserted his child, and
refused to pay anything towards her support. " I
consider her as my child," said the generous woman ;
" and, whUe I have a crust left, she shall share it
with my children," I made inqufries about the boy
she had just lost, and was told, what I had heard in
Park Place, that his conduct had always been most
exemplary ; — that he had carried to her every cent
he could save from his earnings, and had often ex
pressed a wish that he might obtain sufficient to
save her from working so hard; — her business
sometimes keeping her up nearly all night.

CHAP, XIV,J MATERNAL GRIEF. 45
Such was the history of Susannah Peterson and her
heroic boy. It was told in the most simple and natural
manner ; without any display of grief, or the slightest
attempt to exhibit feeling or excite commiseration.
There was an expression of dejection, however, in
the countenance that could not be mistaken ; and an
effort to suppress the workings of a mother's heart,
that I never saw so striking in any one. Every
thing, in the furniture of the room, the decent be
havior of the children, and the general deportment
of the parent, bespoke full as much propriety and
respectability as I ever met with in the same class
of life, whatever might be the occupation or com
plexion, Mrs, Peterson was a member of one of the
numerous societies for mutual assistance, which exist
among the colored inhabitants of New York, That,
to which she belonged, is called " The Benevolent
Daughters of Zion," and contains about 200 members.
The entrance money is one dollar, and the sub
scription money one shilling (about sixpence of our
money) per month. The benefits to be derived fiom
it are an allowance of twelve shillings a week for
six weeks during sickness ; with any addition after
that period that the state of the funds may admit of;
and, in case of death, the payment of funeral ex
penses (generally ten dollars). There is another
society, to which she once subscribed, — " The Bene
volent Assistant Society," The entrance to this is
two shillings, and the subscription four cents monthly.

46 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIV.
These contributions, with occasional donations, enable
the society to assist poor persons who do uot belong
to it, as well as its own members, when in distress.
Mrs. Peterson's brother, who is known in England
as the African Roscius, had occasionally sent her
renlittances of money, and had expressed, in one of
his letters from this country, an intention to provide
for her unfortunate boy's education.
It would hardly be credited, that attempts could
be made to send this excellent woman,— ^in bad
health herself, with an infirm husband, and a young
family, to the pestilential climate of Africa, Yet
the fact, cruel as it is, is too true, A person, under
the pretence of employing her to wash for him, had
been two or three times at her house, with the ob
ject of persuading her to emigrate to Liberia ; where
he assured her she would meet with every comfort
she could desire. Just at this time, the disgi-acefiil
manner in which the affairs of the colony had been
conducted, had transpired at the annual meeting of
the Colonization Society at Washington, when it
came out that the Society was in debt to the amount
of 40,000 doUars ; and no authentic account could
be given by the managers, of the situation of the
settlement, with respect to numbers, morals, health,
or, indeed, any details which an ordinary share of
attention or honesty might easily have obtained.
Such was the wretched prospect exhibited to all
prese^it, that it was resolved not to send out any

CHAP, XIV,] AMERICAN GRATITUDE, 47
emigrants during the ensuing year, and to use every
effort for replenishing the exhausted exchequer,
I had frequent opportunities of seeing Mrs.
Peterson ; and my respect for her character increased
with my acquaintance. When I settled a Uttle
account I had with her for washing and other work,
I had some difficulty in prevailing upon her to take
what was strictly her due ; such was her gratitude
for the few services I was enabled, with the assistance
of my friends, to render her. Three months had
elapsed since the death of young Peterson, and
not one of the relatives of either of the boys, whose
Uves he had saved at the cost of his own, had been
near his bereaved mother ; and the subscription did
not amount to 70 dollars. This, at least, was all she
had received. Two English ladies, who had been
with her six or eight weeks before, had informed her
that they had collected 20 doUars for her. When
we consider that the population of the place amounts
to more than 250,000, including Brooklyn, it is
httle to its credit that the gratitude it felt for the
preservation of two of its citizens could find no
better way to exhibit itself, than by a paltry do
nation to the self-devoted preserver's afflicted parent
of a sum scarcely exceeding one fourth of what
he might have been sold for, when living, in
the slave market at New Orleans.
On the very day that this generous act was per
formed by a poor lad of color,' another example of

48 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIV,
humanity was given by a man belonging to the same
" degraded caste," This case did not excite the
same attention, though it well deserved commemora
tion and recompense. The latter it had, in the shape
of five dollars, from the father of the boy who had
been rescued from a watery grave. The name
of the man who thus distinguished himself was
Jones. He declined receiving any remuneration ;
and the money was given to another colored man,
(Austin,) who had carried the child home with him,
put him into his own bed, and restored him to life fiom
the state of exhaustion in which he was wheu taken
out of the water. Several white men were standing
near, when the accident occurred ; but none of them
ventured to quit dry land. Two months elapsed
before the father of the boy visited the man to
whom he was indebted for the life of his son.
It is remarkable that the prejudice against these
people increases as its injustice becomes more
apparent ; one of them, on his way to Philadelphia,
about the same time, suffered so much by exposure
to the cold on board the steam-boat, that he was
detained at that city some days by severe illness.
He was not permitted, though an invalid, to go int6
the cabin. Seven or eight persons, who knew him
to be a highly respectable man, petitioned the
captain to grant him this slight indulgence in vain.
Another case, almost as bad, occurred near New York.
A man had taken his place by the Newark stage,

CHAP, XIV,] SEIZURE OF CHILD, 49
and had got inside, with the permission of the
driver; but was compeUed, after crossing the ferry,
to get out and walk nine mUes from Jersey city to
Newark, which he did not reach till some time after
dark. On his refusal to alight, he was dragged out
by force. I was acquainted with the man, and can
vouch for his respectability, and for the trath of this
story, I need not say what was his pedigree.
The matter was carried into a court of justice ; when
the judge put a leading question, " Whether a stage
proprietor or driver has or has not a right to order
his passengers to sit in or on any part of the stage,
to suit his ovm convenience." After a delay of four
days, a verdict was given for the defendant. Thus,
it appears, a stage coachman in America can " turn
out" any one from his " place," at his own will and
pleasure ; and " the man wot drives " the Andrew
Jackson, is more despotic than Andrew Jackson
himself A short time after this, a boy of color, only seven
years of age, was taken by force, in open day, from a
public school in the city, on a charge of being a
fugitive slave. As soon as the outrage was known,
< — for what, after aU that has been said about the
rights of property, was this seizure of a child, but an
outrage upon humanity? — a meeting of this ill-
treated race, consisting of seventy or eighty men,
was held ; and a subscription was raised to defray the
expenses, which the maintenance and legal defence
VOL, II, D

50 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIV.
of this poor chUd would occasion. In the mean
time, such was the sensation produced among the
chUdren, both of this school and of others, that penny
subscriptions were entered into, by the scholars of
both sexes. I was at the Anti-slavery Society's office,
when the contributions were paid in. There were two
or three deputations from the schools with their bags
of copper; one containing two dollars and three shill
ings; another thirteen shiUings: — four doUars were
obtainedfrom the school-mates ofthe poorlittlefellow,
A man who had presided at the meeting alluded
to, and who witnessed the sympathy exhibited by
these innocent victims of a prejudice, from which he
had himself suffered, and which falls on the young
and the old indiscriminately, was so much affected,
that he could not refrain from tears- — a weakness, of
which he said he felt himself ashamed, but which I
assured him, did him the highest honor. The
whole scene, connected as it was with feelings and
practices for which the people, among whom it took
place, ought to hang down their heads with shame,
was one of the most interesting I ever saw.
One of the boys, who had come with the con
tributions of his school, had one of the finest heads
and most inteUigent countenances to be seen on
human shoulders. The complexion ^as Afiican,
but the features were European. He was the
brother of a boy, whom I had examined— with
others of the same race— some months before,

CHAP, XIV,] STEAM-BOAT, 51
in Latin : — on which occasion they all acquitted
themselves beyond what the shortness of the time,
in which they had been engaged in the study of
the language, could have warranted any one to expect.
Some essays, which they had composed in English,
were read by them at the same time. A few of them
were particularly weU written ; and all of them as
deserving of praise as any compositions by persons
of the same age. I should add, that it was by mere
chance that I was present during the recitations.
It may be remarked here, that the sum advanced, on
the spur of the moment, by a few Pariahs, in a small
district, to redeem an infant brother fi-om bondage,
was about one third of what was obtained from the
most populous and wealthy city in the Union, after
the delay of several months, to relieve a poor
woman, whose son had saved the lives of two of its
favored inhabitants, and sacrificed his own in trying
to preserve that of a third.
The boy, whom I examined, was very diligent
and industrious. He would rise, in the depth of
vnnter, at four or five o'clock in the morning, to
read, before the business of the day, which began
with him at an early hour.
On the 4th of April, having a few days before taken
leave of my English fi-iends, who were then on their
way back to London, I left New York at six a.m. by
the steam-boat, for Philadelphia, and arrived there
at half past two. The distance is eighty-five miles,
d2

52 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIV,
At Amboy, twenty-three miles from the city, the
passengers left the boat, and proceeded (thirty-four
miles) by the rail-road, through an uninteresting
country, to Bprdentown, (New Jersey,) where we
again embarked for Philadelphia, twenty-eight miles
further. The accommodations and arrangements on
board were extremely good. The luggage had been
previously placed on cars made for the puipose; so
that on entering and quitting the State of New Jersey,
we were not detained five minutes ; each passenger
being directed by a ticket he received when paying
his fare, to his proper car on the rail-road, while the
luggage was removed by a crane from the vessel to
the road, and, on arriving at the end, from the road
to the vessel, without difficulty or delay.
We passed by the chateau of Count de Survilliers,
the ex-king of Spain. The former house was bumt
down about fourteen or fifteen years ago ; when the
inhabitants of the neighbourhood not only assisted
in extinguishing the flames, but exhibited a degree
of honesty that deserves to be recorded. The fol
lowing is extracted fiom a letter written by the pro
prietor to W, Snowden, judge and justice of the
peace at Bordentown. " All the furniture, statues,
pictures, money, plate, gold, jewels, linen, books,
and in short everything that was not consumed, has
been most scrupulously delivered into the hands of
the people of my house. In the night of the fire,
and dm-ing the next day, there were brought to me

CHAP. XIV,] BALTIMORE, 53
by laboring men, drawers, in which I have found
the proper quantity of pieces of money, and medals
of gold and valuable jewels, which might have been
taken away with impunity,"
I staid but one night at Philadelphia; and reached
Baltimore, partly by steam-boat and partly by rail
road, the next day, I was anxious to get on to
Washington; and had no opportunity of seeing
anything of Baltimore.
On the evening of my anival I called on Mr.
Levington, the colored preacher whom I had heard
at Boston. He was living in a wretched hovel : his
room, however, was better furnished and more com
fortable than the external appearance of his dwelling
indicated. It is disgraceful to the Episcopal Church,
that one of her most praiseworthy and disinterested
ministers should be so ill provided for. In his way
home from the East, he had preached at Peter
WilUams's church, and obtained sixty-five doUars
forty cents from his auditors; while from Christ
Church (Boston) he had received but thirty-five. As
the gallery on that occasion was nearly filled with
persons of color, some deduction must be made from
the " white " contributions ; and it may fairly be
said, that the "degraded race" to which he belongs
are twice as rich or twice as generous as the super
cilious whites. After all the trouble and anxiety he
had undergone, during an absence of six months, he
had not cleared 600 dollars. He had paid over the

54 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIV,
proceeds to the creditors of his church; and the
remaining 600 due were to be received by them in
instalments. The testimonials he had brought back
with him from the clergy in New York and New
England had in some measure compensated the
incomplete result of his mission, by conciliating the
public favor, and inducing one of his clerical brethren
to promise him the assistance of an annual sermon
in aid of his exertions to liquidate what remained of
the debt. One testimony to his worth might well
have been spared ; Elliott Cresson (the well-known
agent of the Colonization Society) offered to provide
fof his wife and children, and arrange the affairs of
his church, if he would go to Liberia, But he was
too shrewd to accept a proposal which he knew was
never made to any one from a generous motive.
When those who are likely'to do honor to themselves
and their race are uniformly selected as fit objects of
expatriation, — when solicitations and entreaties and
inducements of all sorts are held out, not to the
reprobate and ignorant, but the honest and weU-
educated, to quit the country,— suspicion is naturally
excited that a preconcerted scheme, of a very ex
tensive co-operation, has been brought into action,
with views and objects directly the reverse of those
professed by its artful agents.
The next day being Sunday, I went to Mr,
Levington's church, the congregation at which was
very smaU, but very decent in their di-ess and de-

CHAP, XIV,] CARMEN. 55
meaner: the rest of his flock having been kept away
by the weather, which was very boisterous ; the wind
and the rain seeming to vie with each other in
violence. The service M'as performed with propriety
and devotion; and the responses made with decorum
and regularity. Most part of these people at Baltimore
are of the Methodist persuasion ; and the opposition
their preachers make to Episcopacy, renders it a
matter of no small difficulty to find occupiers for
the new pews in th'e new church, in spite of the
attraction of comfortable ' seats and a handsome
building. There are a good many free blacks in Baltimore,
the merchants of which prefer them to the whites
as porters and carmen. So well known are they
for their superior honesty and civility, that the
storekeepers and tradesmen are used, as I have
been informed by more than one reputable per
son, to tell their customers that they will not be
answerable for any goods they may send out, when
entrusted to white people. No such proviso is
made in the case of a colored porter. Some of
them possess property, and the whole class is suffi
ciently numerous to have excited the jealousy of the
whites, who endeavored, some years back, to procure
a law for excluding them from some of the most lu
crative employments in the city. The attempt failed ;
for the citizens had the good sense to see that they
would be sure to suffer by the monopoly which

56 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIV.
concession would have granted to the claimants.
A very singular fact is mentioned in a work pub
lished in 1818, by a person (M. de Fiii-stenwather)
who was sent from Germany, to make inquiries
into the condition of the emigrants from that coun
try to the United States: " There arrived," he says,
" this summer a ship from Amsterdam, addressed
to Mr, Graff— one of the richest merchants in this
place. A greater part of the passengers had not
paid their freight. Two families were bought by
free negroes, of which there is a large number in
Maryland, This disgusted the Germans in Balti
more to the degree, that they, and among them
Mr, Graff himself, though consignee of the ship,
without whose knowledge the thing had taken
place, immediately re-bought them, and formed an
association to prevent the recurrence of any such
degrading abuse,"
In the session of 1830-31, the legislature of
Maryland passed an act of expatriation against the
free blacks, 20,000 dollars were voted for the
purpose; and a power of raising ten times that
sum, by loan, if necessary, was granted. Com
pulsion was to be used in the case of those who
refused to quit the State, Such wanton cmelty is
almost without an example in the annals of human
tyranny ; which in other times, and in other places,
has at least endeavored to conceal its crimes under
some sort of cover — some plea of religious or poll-

CHAP, XIV.J CITIZENS LEGALLY EXCLUDED. 57
tical expediency. Another act, of the same date,
prohibits, under the severest penalties, the intro
duction of any free negro or mulatto from other
States, An infringement of this law, the penalties
of which have fallen so severely on Levington, by
depriving him of the pupils he might have other
wise had, is visited with a fine of fifty dollars
for every week of its continuance ; and, in default
of- payment, subjects the offender to be sold for a
length of time necessary to pay' the mulct: — that
is, in fact, to perpetual slavery: for who is to pro
tect him against a further sale, and a removal to
the remote regions of the south for life ?

d3

58 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XV.

CHAPTER XV.
Washington City  Gadsby's  Capitol. — Two Houses of Con
gress. — Interview with Cherokee Chiefs — Treatment of Slaves
by Indians  Causes of Extermination of Aborigines — Indian
Character misrepresented. — Gold Mines — Motive for remov
ing Indians. — Insuperable Bar to incorporation with the
Whites  Despotic Laws of Georgia. — Protest against Emi
gration  Religious Persecution in Georgia.
In the afternoon I left Baltimore by the stage, for
Washington (thirty-eight miles). The coach was
filled with young men, who seemed to pay more
attention to their rings and brooches and gold
watches, than to the cleanliness of their hands, or
the purity of their language. It rained in torrents,
and the road was in a wretched state. About seven
in the evening we entered the capital of the great
est slave-holding nation on the face of the globe ;
I speak of commercial, not of feudal, slavery : — of a
system forced upon society, not springing naturally
from its progress : — a disease engendered by the
vices of its maturity, not an infirmity incidental to
its infancy,
I put up at Gadsby's hotel— an estabhshment

CHAP, XV,] gadsby's HOTEL. 59
Upon an immense scale : — between three and four
hundred persons having been at one time accom
modated there. At Baltimore, the bed-room doors
were locked, at the hotel ; and the guests requested
to leave their keys at the bar of the house. Here,
on the contrary, I was informed that no precaution
of the kind was necessary. As the servants at the
one were white, and at the other black, I was cu
rious to learn the cause of this difference. I asked,
therefore, one of the waiters at the breakfast-table
how many servants there were; and whether they
were free, " Sir," replied the man, " there are
seventy or eighty of us ; and not one freeman."
My heart sunk within me at this unexpected piece
of intelligence. I felt shocked beyond description at
the idea of being surrounded by slaves. " Do you be
long to the master of the house ? " I inquired, " No,"
was his reply : " my owner lives at Alexandria : — I
am let out, as many others are, to the landlord : — there
are many here who do not know each other, even
by name," The man spoke in a dejected voice, but
his language was good — much better than what I
had heard the day before in the stage. I conversed
with him some time; — as long, indeed, as I re
mained the only white in the room; — and felt deeply
convinced, by what he told me, that his feUow
bondsmen, as well as himself, were unhappy and
discontented, i
If slaves are all thieves, why does Gadsby allow

00 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XV.-
his doors to be left unlocked, and so much valuable
property exposed ? Is the whip a better preventive
of crime than the penitentiary? Or is he who is
compelled to labor more honest than the man who
is hired? Gadsby's treatment of those under his
care is, I was told, mild and considerate, — this is
the more to his credit— for he is an Enghshman,
long resident in the country; and it is generally
observed that the English slave-owners are more
cruel masters than the Americans ; and of the latter,
the southerners are less severe than those from the
north. It is well known that those habits, which
are most repugnant to our nature, are, when once
they have obtained the mastery, the least easily
subdued ; while they are more severely condemned,
from their supposed indication of innate depravity.
The rain continued to pour down as abundantly
as the preceding day ; and rendered it impossible to
explore the topography of this infant metropolis.
There was nothing going on in the Halls of Con
gress particularly interesting to a stranger. I went,
however, to the Capitol, which is situated on a com
manding eminence, and has a very imposing appear-:
ance, from the form of the edifice and the material
of which it is built. The latter is white fi'ee-
stone ; apd the approach is by three or four flights
of steps. As the decorations are of the Corinthian
order, the whole, though perhaps somewhat too
splendid for republican simplicity, is calculated to

CHAP, XV,] CAPITOL. 61
produce a strong impression on the mind of the
spectator. The rotunda, which occupies the centre of the
capitol, and is placed between the two chambers,
where the Senate and the House of Representatives
hold their sessions, is composed of marble, and
lighted from the dome above. It is a noble room.
Its various ornaments, whether in painting or in
sculpture, ai-e illustrative of those historical events
which are most interesting to the country. Near
each is placed a smaU sketch in outline, with the
names of the figures introduced in the original. As
it is drawn on paper, and intended for the hand, a
sh'anger is saved the trouble of asking for a guide,
and the still greater trouble of listening to his me
chanical explanation of the different objects before
him. In front of the paintings M'ere various wooden
boxes, that attracted my attention ; and it was some
time before I could make out what they were. They
contained some vegetable production, like mustard
and cress. Upon a closer inspection, I discovered
they were placed there for the accommodation of
those who are addicted to tobacco in its various
forms ; and who, " cum pituita molesta est," might,
for want of such conveniences, forget the sanctity of
the place, and the respect due to the departed wor
thies whose images are around them. It would be
as well, I thought, if Chantrey's beautiful statue of
Washington, in the State House at Boston, had

62 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XV.
some protection against a beastly practice, which
had so disfigured and debased the pedestal, that,
were the artist to see it, " by Jove 'twou'd male
him mad," The whole has since been railed in, and
is now out of the reach of the spitters. To attempt
a description of the disgusting habits here alluded
to, would be to sin against that delicacy which they
outrage. The very remembrance of what 1 have
seen is inexpressibly disgusting.
The Chamber of the Representatives is semi-cir
cular in its fonn, and rather gaudily furnished. The
gallery, appropriated to the public, commands a full
view of" the House " ; above which it is sufficiently
elevated to separate the members from the audience,
and afford the latter an opportunity of seeing as well
as of hearing what is going on below. Each mem
ber had his chair and desk ; and most of them were
busily employed in writing or reading, while one of
them, who was presenting a petition, was dilating
upon its contents ; — they were of a local nature, and
of no general interest. The appearance of the
members was much the same as that which our
House of Commons would present. It seemed_jB
me, however, that there were not so many young
men among them as are to be seen in the latter.
Twenty-five is the minimum age aUowed by the con
stitution. From the House of Representatives I proceed
ed to the Senate, The room in which the latter

CHAP. XV.] CHEROKEES. 63
sits is of .similar form, but smaUer and more plainly
furnished. The galleries were very full ; and, as I
could not get a seat, I staid but a short time, during
which some matters of form were going on.
While waiting to see one of the members of Con
gress, for whom I had a letter, I was accosted by a
man to whom I had been introduced the preceding
summer. He was one of the representatives from
that part of New York State where I had been stay
ing. Having informed him of my object, he very
civilly offered his services ; and, going into the
chamber, returned in the course of five or ten minutes
with the person I wanted, — Mr. Edward Everett.
The introduction was followed by a reception the
coldest and most constrained I ever experienced in
any country. The letter I put into his hand was
from a friend in London, with whom he had had, I
believe, some correspondence on the subject of the
Cherokees. I gave him my address, and told him I
should be happy to take back to England any answei-
he might vrish to send to his correspondent, who, I
knew, was particularly anxious to obtain from him
some information relative to the Indians. I neither
heard nor saw any more of Mr. Edward Everett.
Finding that some chiefs of the Cherokee tribe
were in the city, I called at their hotel, and had a
long interview with two or three of them. They
were all dressed in the same style as the whites.
They had the manners and language of weU-educated

64 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XV.
men. One of them had no mark of the Indian about
him ; and aU were of mixed blood. The former
had been imprisoned by the Georgians for a violation
of their despotic laws. Upon my asking him whether
the tribe did not hold slaves, he replied that they did
so; but that they considered and treated them rather
as free laborers *. He was himself, he said, a friend
to universal liberty, and would always use what in
fluence he had in its favor. He had lately bought a
slave, to whom he was giving wages, on condition
that he should return his master the purchase-money
as soon as he could earn enough for that purpose.
The negro was wiUing to perfonn his part of tbe
bargain ; but the whites in the neighborhood were
much displeased at the arrangement, and tried to
get the man away from him. It will be seen from.
this anecdote, as weU as from the nature of existing
circumstances, that the Indians who are settled in the
slave States could not employ the blacks as hired
* " Another trait in their character is their great indulgence
to their slaves. Though hunger and want be stronger than
even the sacra fames auri, the greatest pressure of these evils
never occasions them to impose onerous labours on the negroes,
or to dispose of them, though tempted by high offers, if the
latter are unwilling to be sold." Notices of East Florida, with
an Account of the Seminole Indians, by a recent traveller, &c.,
published at Charleston, S. CaroUna, 1822.
The description here given of the Indians, corresponds ex
actly with one I had from a Florida planter, (Mr. Kingsley,)
whom I met both in New York and at Philadelphia,

CHAP, XV,] CHEROKEE CHIEF, 65
laborers, however much they might prefer free to
forced work. The whites would not probably con
descend to be employed by them.
The Cherokee told me that his people raised a
good deal of com, and hdd plenty of cattle. Some
of them were wealthy ; and most, if not all, were
sufficiently civilized to form a quiet and respectable
society. Had it not been for the discovery of the
gold mines on their lands, they would probably
have been allowed to remain a longer time in the
State *. They were all strongly oppos;3d to the
scheme of removing beyond the Mississippi ; as
they could have no security against the recurrence
of tiiat injustice from which former treaties had been
unable to protect them. There was no rancor or
resentment perceptible in their language. It was
evident, however, from what they said, that they
had little hope of receiving, at the white man's
hand, an equitable adjudication of their claims.
After I had been with them some time, their chief,
(Ross,) who had been to the Capitol, returned ; and,
hearing the object of my visit, received me very
• The gold district, which now spreads over six or seven
States, was supposed, in 1824, to be confined to a portion of
N. Carolina. It produced in that year but 5,000 dollars ;
whereas the amount of what was obtained from it last year,
was expected to be nearly 2,000,000 in value : 868,000 dollars
in coined, and about as much in uncoined gold, having been
the product in 1833.

66 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XV,
cordially. He was a plain farmer-like looking man,
about fifty years of age, with the shrewd thinking
c(\untenance of a Scotchman : his father was from
the " land o' cakes." Both he and Mann, to whom I
have before alluded, might pass anywhere for white
men. Having left some letters with him that I had
brought from England for one of the Cherokee chiefs,
(John Ridge,) with whom he was well acquainted, I
took my leave of him.
A few days afterwards I had an interview with
some of the tribe, who had migrated to the other
side of the Mississippi, They had come on a mission
to the seat of government with the object of obtain
ing some guarantee for their present possessions;
but they entertained little i hope of succeeding in
their application. I asked them why they did not
settle in the Texas, where the Mexican government
would find it good policy to grant them an asylum.
They replied, that they should, in all probability,
adopt that measure, if the prospect before them did
not improve. The party of which John Ross was
the head, were strongly inclined to pursue the same
course ; and subsequent events must have given
further strength to the intention. The Georgians,
during their absence from home, proceeded to employ
violent means to compel their removal ; and the
plantation of Ross had, according to a statement I
saw in the pubUc papers, been taken possession of
by some one who had purchased it at an auction.

CHAP, XV.] INDI.4NS FORMERLY SLAVES, 67
From the fii'st day when the New World was dis
covered to the present, the Indians have been marked
out as a spoil and a prey to their more civilized
brethren. In a new country, where labor cannot be
had but at too high a price to leave a profit upon its
products, what respect would be paid to the rights
of those who were looked upon as doubly inferior, —
as savages and pagans? As the aborigines, however,
if reduced to a state of slavery, might run off to the
woods, they were, when convicted of crimes by men
who would never want a pretence for the accusation,
sold, in exchange, for negroes. In the Connecticut
code of 1650, "it is ordered", that those Indians
who are guUty of " vsTllfid wi'ongs and hostile prac
tises" shall be delivered up by the magistrates, when
" seized by the partye or partyes endammaged, either
to serve or to bee shipped out and exchanged for
neagers, as the case wUl justly beare," "onely women
and children to bee sparingly used, unless knowne
to bee somewhat guilty; and because it wUl be
chargeable keeping Indians in prison ; and, if they
should escape, they are Uke to prove more insolent
and dangerous after," That they were used as slaves
formerly, may be proved by aUusions in old statutes
and books. In the coUection of the New Jersey
laws is an Act of 14 March, 1798, to this effect.
" Be it enacted, &c., that every negro, Indian, mu
latto or mestee, withm this State, who, at the time
of passing this Act, is a slave for his or her hfe, shaU

68 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XV.
continue such during his or her life, unless he or
she shall be manumitted, &c., in the manner pre
scribed by law,"
Knowing how the whites have behaved towards
the colored races, most men, possessing but a com
mon share of good sense, would make considerable
deductions from any unfavorable representations
the former might make of those whom they had in
jured. Yet authors of the most recent date, when
juster notions are entertained of the value to be
placed on the evidence of interested witnesses, have
not scrupled, under the garb of science and religion,
to copy these ex-p,arte statements, and vilify their
unfortunate subjects. Lord *, in his work on " Po
pular Physiology," assures his readers, that the Ame-i
* Extract of a Letter from General Calvin Jones to the
Editor of the Raleigh Register.
" When I visited the Cherokee nation lately, I had no pre
dilections in its favor. I had known something of two tribes of
Indians, and that all attempts to civilize one of them had been
unavailing, and had every where seen the various tribes recede
and melt away at the approach of the white people. I had
always believed the enthusiastic zeal of good men led them to
expect human means would effect what had been denied by an
interdict of nature ; that there were physical as well as moral
causes which would for ever prevent the civilization of these
savages, until the capabihties of their minds were improved,
&c., by the long continued existence of their race and species.
But I have seen the nation, and have witnessed the attempts,
&c , and am no longer sceptical."

CHAP, XV,j CLASSIFICATION OF RACES. 69
rican Indians " have never learned any thing from
an approximation to civilized life, further than to
participate in its vices," With the same regard for
truth, he says of the ^vhole African race : — " The re
flecting powers seem dormant, or littie exercised,
the moral sense is weak and obscure, the animal
propensities alone seem to have reached maturitj' ;
and, under their unchained influence, the negro is
capable of the warmest attachments, the bitterest
enmities, and the most horrible revenge." He adds,
that the negroes despise the Indians, and the In
dians despise the negroes, and quotes a vulgar pro
verb among the Indians, that proves nothing but the
facility with which the aborigines borrow ideas from
their narrow-minded neighbors, " God make white
man first, then red man, then dog, and then nigger,"*
The red man is not likely to place himself second in
the scale.
The Indians feel no antipathy to persons of Afii
can exti'action ; or, if they do so, they have imbibed
the disgraceful prejudice from the whites. In the
* The classification is different in the Western States ;
where to shoot an Indian is thought by many " fair game."
Even in Kentucky, my friend, Mr. Crawford, heard the driver
of a stage call out to a ferryman (a slave) who had kfept him
waiting — " You d  d nigger, I would sooner send a ball
through you than through an Indian." The difference was in
the driver's pocket. A slave belongs to "a preserve," an In
dian is fera natures.

70 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XV.
New England Magazine, (one of the best of that
class of periodicals,) is an account of Indian habits
and manners, under the title of " Life beyond the
Frontier." It appears to be actually drawn from
nature, and to be descriptive of scenes and events
that have real existence. " There was an old co
lored woman in the village," says the writer, " whose
five sons had never heard that they were inferior
beings, either from the Indians, or the Canadian
French, Therefore, having never considered them
selves degraded, they were not degraded. On the
contrary, they were ranked with the most respect
able inhabitants ofthe place. We knew them well:
— one of them was the village blacksmith, the
others were substantial farmers. Their father was a
Frenchman, and their name was Gagnier, One of
these men owned a farm, three miles from Prairie du
Chien, where he lived with his wife, (a white wo
man,) two children, and a hired man, named Liep-
cap. Thither the Red Bird repaired, with his three
companions, sm-e of a fair reception ; for Regis
Gagnier had always been noted for his humanity
to the poor, especially the Indians,"
What sort of contempt it is the aborigines of
America feel for their darker fellow-sufferers, may be
seen by the following extract from a letter, dated
June, 1819, and written by the Indian agent at
Piqua, in the State of Ohio :^— " A great reforma
tion has taken place amongst the Wyandotts, through

CHAP. XV.] INDIANS IN FLORIDA, 71
the instrumentality of a colored preacher, named
Stewart, About sixty-one of these Indians now make
profession of Christianitj". Many more of them
appear seriously inclined ; and they all seem atten
tive, I have encouraged Stewart to open a school,
as soon as possible ; but we have no means to for
ward it. He has been three years among the Wyan
dotts ; is of the Methodist profession ; and, from
the account I received from himself, appears to have
been led to embark in this labor by a providential
intimation. He was married about nine months
ago to a woman of his own color. They are plain
people^ — very poor, and in need of almost every
thing, I think them deserving; and the Indians
have become much attached to them,"
I was assured by a Scotchman (Mr. Z. Kingsley)
of remarkable inteUigence, and one of the most be
nevolent men, though a slave-holder, I ever met
with, that there was no sort of antipathy or repug
nance observable between the black and red races in
Florida ; where, as well as in the greater part of the
Union, he had had opportunities enough to exercise
an observing and shrewd mind ; — an amicable inter
course, when circumstances admitted of it, was kept
up between them. He invited me to his plantation
in Florida, as Ross invited me to Georgia, that I
might judge for myself upon this particular point.
I regretted that I was unable to visit either at hi4
own home.

72 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XV,
It is chiefly for the sake of the gold mines, which
are said to be productive, and to spread over a great
extent of country, that the Cherokees are to be dis
possessed of their lands :^and what is the character
of the miners ? " I can hardly conceive," says a
correspondent of the New York Observer a few
years back, — " I can hardly conceive of a more im
moral community than exists around the mines.
Drunkenness, gambling, fighting, lewdness, and every
other vice, exist here to an awful extent. Many of
the men, by working three days in the week, make
several dollars ; and then devote the remaining four
to every species of vice. The colored people — slaves
— are generally the most moral," The " Observer"
is not, I may add, an abolitionist.
In 1825, at which time there were, according to
official documents, throughout the States and teiri'
tories of the Union, sixty-four tribes and remnants
of tribes of Indians — amounting to 129,266 souls,
and claiming about seventy-seven millions of acres
of land, — Mr. Elliott, Senator in Congress for Georgia,
made, as one of the committee on Indian affairs, the
following statement : — " Some of the South American
Indians, although conquered and reduced to slavery
by the Spaniards, were not destroyed. Their tribes
are still extant ; and, having commingled their blood
with that of their conquerors, they are, at this time,
an improved and powerfiil people;" — and such would
have been the case, had the aborigines been treated

CHAP, X-V,] REMOVAL OF INDIANS, 73
like men, in the North American States; but it
suited the purposes of their citizens to combine with
the superiority that civUization had given them the
accm'sed prejudice of color, and thus to crush that
tendency to assimilation which juster feelings in the
southern portion of the continent had encouraged ;
but which would have marred their base — their
aU-engrossing object, — the possession of the Indian
lands, Mr, Elliott stated to the senate that, as
it was " idle to look for any solid or extended
improvement in the Indian population within the
States," it was proposed " to purchase a tract of
country, lying between the Missouri and Arkansas
rivers, as a permanent possession for these people "
— under the protection and guardianship of the
federal government ; " all white men, except mis
sionaries, teachers, and artisans, engaged in their
instruction and improvement, to be rigidly excluded
fi-om this territory," The motive for this suggestion
comes out afterwards, " The removal of the Indians
beyond the Umits of the State, would leave us in
possession of all the lands they now occupy ; and
these, from their situation and extent, must be very
valuable. Almost all the Indian reservations have
been of the best lands ; and, suirounded as they are,
at this time, by a white population, and improved by
roads and other facilities of intercourse with the
adjacent country, they would command comparatively
a high price. But these lands form an aggregate of
VOL. II. E

74 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XV.
no less than 77,500,000 acres. Now deduct 9,500,000,
as lands belonging to Georgia, when the Indian title
shall have been extinguished ; and 144,000 in pos
session of the Catawba Indians*, but which, if
surrendered, would belong to South Carohna; — and
you wUl have 67,856,000 acres, subject to the dis
position of the United States, Suppose this immense
tract sold at only two dollars per acre ; — a fund
would be created of 135,712,000 doUars ! — which,
after reimbursing the treasuiy for all expenses in
curred in carrying into effect the provisions of this
bill, would not only be adequate to the extinction
of the national debt, but leave an immense amount
* The following is Hr copy of a petition sent, some years
ago, from an Indian ofthe Catawba tribe " to the Councils of
South Carolina."
" I am one ofthe lingering embers of an almost extinguished
race : — our graves will soon be our habitations. I am one of
the few stalks that stUl remain in the field, when the tempest
of the revolution is past. I fought against the British for your
sake  The British have disappeared, and you are free. Yet
from me the British took nothing; nor have I gained any
thing by their defeat. I pursue the deer for my subsistence :
— the deer are disappearing, and I must starve. God ordained
me for the forest ; and my habitation is the shade -. — but the
strength of my arm decays ; and my feet fail in the chace. The
hand which fought for your liberty is now open for your relief
In my youth, I bled in battle, that you might be independent.
Let not my heart, in my old age, bleed for the want of your
commiseration. " Petee Hakrxs,"

CHAP, XV,] MONROE'S OPINION, 75
at the futm-e disposal of government," After en
larging on the benefits to be derived to the whites
from the projected removal, the speaker concluded
thus : " About 130,000 souls of this unfortunate race
now await their destiny at your' hands ! Pass this
bUl (For the preservation and civiUzation of the
Indian tribes) and you elevate their character, and
impart new hopes to their future prospects. Reject
it, and you set your seal to their degradation ; although
their fate may be delayed, I consider it inevitable
as the march of time." There is no govemment in
Europe that would dare to commit such an act of
bai'e-faced iniquity.
The old world is divided into communities that
check and restrain each other in their career of guilt.
In this portion of the New there is no powerful
neighbor to awe or control the wrong-doer, what
ever scheme he may adopt to enrich or aggrandize
himself at the expense of humanity and right. There
is no pubUc opinion to which the red and the black
man may look up for protection or redress. " The
world is not " his " friend, nor the world's law." It
is only by bringing into closer communication those
nations that are separated by the Atlantic, that the
principles of religion and equity can be made to bear
upon consciences not ftdly amenable to the juris
diction of civilized society. President Monroe, in
his message to congress the year preceding, bore
testimony to the improved condition of the Indians,
e2

76 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XV,
who could have hardly undergone so rapid a process
of degeneration as that insisted upon by the Georgian
senator *, " It affords me gi'eat satisfaction " — such
are his words — " to add, that they (the Indians) are
making great advances in civilization, and the im
provement of their condition. Many of the tribes
have already made great progress in the arts of
civilized life. This desirable result has been brought
about by the humane and persevering pohcy of the
govemment ; and particularly by means of the appro
priations for the civUization of the Indians. There
have been established, under the provisions of this
act, fhirty-two schools, containing 916 scholars, who
are well instructed in several branches of hterature,
and likewise in agriculture and the ordinary arts of
life," In 1830, the Cherokee nation moved the supreme
* John Heckiwelder, (in a statement written about the year
1763, and laid before the senate of the United States in 1822
by the President,) says of those Indians who had been under
his charge at Nain in Pennsylvania : — "So much is certain,
that, during the whole of their stay in this part of the country
— in all twenty years— not one single complaint had been
brought against them, or any one of them, for any crime com
mitted, that would have come under the cognizance of a
magistrate and punishable by law. There is nothing of the kind
to be found on the docket of the magistrate who officiated
during that period, as can be seen, it being yet extant, and in
the hands of his venerable son, Joseph Horsfield, Esq., now
upwards of seventy years of age."

CHAP. XV.] INDIANS DISQUALIFIED. 77
court of the United States, for an injimction to
restrain the State of Georgia in its proceedings
against them; but the application was refused on
the ground that the court had no jurisdiction in
the case ; a mere quibble on the word " foreign "
having been employed to deprive them of aU hope
of redress. The very lands, of which it was
sought to deprive them, were allotted to them in
1787 by the commissionaries plenipotentiary of the
general government, "for their hunting grounds;"
and an act of congress in 1802 prohibited, under
penalty of fine and imprisonment, any attempt to
survey any of their lands by marking trees, &c. Yet,
in the teeth of this enactment, the legislature of
Georgia has appointed, by its sovereign authority,
surveyors to lay off this very territory into districts
and sections, Mr, Justice Johnson, in deUvering
his opinion on the case, declared that " the general
policy of the United States always looked to these
Indian lands as a certain future acquisition," Com
pared with the Punica fides of this Federal Republic,
the conduct of Russia's autocrat towards Poland is
honest and humane !
The Indians are disqualified from incorporating
with the whites under the existing laws, " The act
of Congress, (says Kent, Commentaries, Vol, I. p,
'72,) confines the description of ahens capable of
naturalization to 'free white persons,' I presume
that this excludes the inhabitants of Africa and their

78 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XV,
descendants : and it inay become a question, to what-
extent persons of mixed blood, as mulattoes, are
excluded ; and what shades and degrees of mixture
of color disqualify an alien from application for the
benefits of naturalization. Perhaps there might be
difficulties also as to the copper-colored natives of
America, or the yellow and tawny races of Asiatics ;
though I should doubt whether any of them were
white persons within the purview of the law. It is
the declared law of New York, that Indians are not
citizens ; but distinct tribes, living under the pro
tection of the govemment ; and, consequentiy, they
never can be made citizens under the act of Con
gress." The greater part of the human famUy is
thus excluded from' this " asylum of the unfortunate,"
Because Africa has been , robbed *and wronged, Asia
and America are to be insulted ; and the exiles of a
petty island in Europe are to set up their own pale
faces as the standard of exceUence for all who have
been " made in God's own image." One thing,
however, is plain : — the original owners of the soil
are systematically excluded from the privileges of
civiUzation, by the very persons who pretend that
they have endeavored to reclaim them from their
barbarous habits. They are worse treated than were
ever the Irish by our ancestors. They are driven
from their lands, and have no "pale" to flee to,
" But what can we do ? " — the whites wiU say :— " we
must not violate the constitution," Then are they

CHAP. XV,J TREATIES WITH INDIANS, 79
as much enslaved as were ever the Medes and Per
sians ; and have thrown off the yoke of " Parliament,"
to put on the chains of a " Convention." The king's
little finger has been removed to make way for the
loins of the framers of the constitution. Great
Britain declared at Ghent, that the covenant of the
United States not to purchase any more lands of the
Indians, was considered by her as a sine qua non to
the treaty. But what does such intercession amount to ?
The govemment is not bound by it, or finds some
way to evade it.
Though the State of New York will not aUow
Indians to become " its citizens, yet the federal go
vemment was more liberal in 1817, By a treaty
made that year with the Cherokees, (one of the
Commissioners being Andrew Jackson,) it was stipu
lated, by the 8th Art., — " To every head of an Indian
famUy, residing on the lands ceded by the Cherokees
in this treaty, shall be allowed a section of land, i, e,
640 acres ; provided he wishes to remain on his land,
thus ceded, and to become a citizen of the United
States, He shaU hold a life-estate, with a right of
dower to his widow ; and shall leave the land in fee
simple to his children," There was a similar pro
vision in the treaty of 1819, with the same tribe.
The treatment of the aborigines has become more
harsh and unjust as their numbers have diminished.
In a treaty, made with the usual forms, with the
Delawares, at Fort Pitt, in 1778, is inserted a clause,

80 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XV,
the purport of which, if extended to the other tribes,
andcanied fairly into effect, might have preserved
this unprotected people from extermination, " Art,
6. Whereas the enemies of the United States have
endeavoured, by every artifice in their power, to
possess the Indians in general with the opinion, that
it is the design of the States aforesaid to extirpate
the Indians, and take possession of their country.
To obviate such false suggestion, the United States
do engage to guaranty to the aforesaid nation of
Delawares, and their heirs, aU their territorial rights,
in the fuUest and most ample manner, as it hath
been bounded by former treaties, as long as they,
the said Delaware nation, shaU abide by, and hold
fast the chain of fiiendship now entered into. And
it is further agreed on between the contracting par
ties, (should it for the future be found conducive to
the mutual interest of both parties,) to invite any
other tribes, who have been fiiends to the interest of
the United States, to join the present confederation,
and to foi-m a State, whereof the Delaware nation
shall be the head, and have a representation in Con
gress." The same privUege of citizenship was held
out to the Cherokees by the treaty of Hopewell.
In reply to the charge of having formed a govem
ment of their own within the State of Georgia, (an
imperium in imperio,) the Cherokees, in their me
morial to Congress in 1830, say, " The great Wash
ington advised a plan, and afforded aid, for the

CHAP. XV.] CONDUCT OF GEORGIA. 81
general govemment of our nation in agriculture,
science, and govemment. President Jefferson fol
lowed the noble example, and concluded an address
to our delegation in language as follows : ' I sincerely
wish you may succeed in your laudable endeavours
, to save the remnant of your nation, by adopting
industrious occupations, and a govemment of regular
law. In this you may always rely on the counsel
and assistance of the United States,' "
Deserted by the general Govemment, which, down
to the last intelligence, (the President's message to
Congress,) has evinced an undeviating determination
to " expel " them ; and, left to the mercy (if such
word be not a mockery) of Georgia, the original
owners of the soil have now no hope left, nor a
certainty of retaining one rood of land throughout
the vast domains of the North American confedera
tion, from the Atiantic to the Pacific, "An Act
more effectually to provide for the govemment and
protection of the Cherokee Indians," passe^ by the
legislature of Georgia but a short time before I was
at Washington, has set the seal ' to their fate * A
• Georgia affords equal " protection " to the Indian and the
" African." An Act of her legislature in 1818 having declared
in the preamble, that "the exercise of humanity towards the
slave population " required the measure, decreed as follows :
" Every will, deed, or contract or agreement, whether written
or verbal, made for the purpose of manumitting a slave, either
directly by conferring freedom, or indirectly by giving to such
E 3

82 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XV.
few extracts from it wiU place the condition, in
which they now find themselves, in its true light.
" Sect. 3. And be it fiirther enacted, that if any
Indian, or descendant of an Indian, or white man,
the head of an Indian famUy, claiming the privUeges
of an Indian, shall employ any white or person of
color other th^n the descendant of an Indian, as
tenant, cropper or assistant in agriculture, or as
miller or millwright, they (he) shaU, for such offence,
upon the same being established by the testimony
of two respectable witnesses, forfeit aU right and
title that they (he) may have to any reservation or
occupancy within the limits of this State ; and that,
upon the certificate of the agent to be hereafter
appointed, grants may issue for the same, as if such
improvement had never been occupied by such
Indian, descendant of an Indian, or white man
having an Indian family."
It would be needless to ask what sort of witnesses
would be considered " respectable " by the agent
" to be appointed."
The 6th section is, if possible, stUl more iniquitous.
" No Indian or others having the privilege of an
slave the right of enjoying the profits of his or her labor or
skill, free from the control of the owner, is hereby declared
nuU and void; and the person, concerned in giving effect
thereto, shall be severally liable to a penalty, not exceeding
1000 dollars; and every slave, in whose behalf such agreement
shall be made, shall be sold as a slave at public sale."

CHAP. XV,] president's MESSAGE. 83
Indian, shall, under any pretence whatever, set up
any claim or demand against any member of the
same tribe, after such member shall have enrolled
his or her name for emigration, so as to detain such
emigrant from removing at tbe time stipulated," &c.
The 7th section will shew tbe value of this pro
viso: "No contract, either verbal, or written, alleged
to have been made by a white man and an Indian,
shaU be binding, except the same can be established
by the testimony of two respectable witnesses,"
The last section, Uke the postscript of a letter, con
tains the predominant feeling which dictated the
composition to which it is attached, " And be it
further enacted, that if any person shall, by threats
or menaces,' or otherwise, deter or prevent any
Indian or Indians from enrolling for emigration, he
or they shaU be held and deemed 'guilty of a mis
demeanor, upon conviction, fined not less than one
himdred dollars, nor more than five, or imprisoned
in the penitentiary, at the discretion of the court,"
Unfortunately, as this clause indicates, there are
dissensions among these people. It would be sin
gular, indeed, if there were none, when so many
would profit by fomenting them.
President Jackson, in his message of 1831 to Con
gress, says, " Time and experience have proved that
the abode of the native Indian within their limits
(the States) is dangerous to their peace, and injurious
to themselves. In accordance with my recommend-

84 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XV,
ation at a former Session of Congress, an appropri
ation of half a million of dollars was made to aid the
voluntary removal of the various tribes beyond the
limits of the States. At the last Session I had the
happiness to announce that the Chickasaws and
Choctaws had accepted the generous offer of the go
vernment, and agreed to remove beyond the Missis
sippi river,"
What is meant by the word voluntary, may be seen
in an " Address to the American People," by George
W, Harkins, chief of the Choctaw tribe. It was
written with a pencil on board the steam-boat that
conveyed these unfortunate emigrants towards the
place of their exile, and was sent to " the Natchez,"
the editor of which inserted it in the columns of that
paper, " Although your ancestors," says the writer,
" won freedom on the field of danger and glory, our
ancestors owned it as their birthright ; and we have
had to purchase it from you as the vilest slaves buy
their freedom. Yet it is said that our present move
ments are ow ozf^wwoZwwtoryacfe.- — such is not the
case. We found ourselves, like a benighted stranger,
following false guides, until he was surrounded on
every side with fire or water. The fire was certain de
struction ; and a feeble hope was left him of escaping
by water, A distant view of the opposite shore en
courages the hope : to remain would be inevitable
annihilation. Who would hesitate? or who would
say that his plunging into the water was his own vo-

CHAP. XV.] REPUBLICAN TYRANNY, 85
luntary action ? Painful indeed is the mandate of
our expulsion. We regret that it should proceed
from the mouth of onx prof essed friend, for whom our
blood was co-mingled witii that of his bravest war
riors on the field of danger and death. But such is
the instability of profession. The man who said that
he would plant a stake, and draw a line around lis
that never should be passed, was the first to say he
could not guard the line, and wiped out all traces of
the line, I wUl not conceal from you my fears that
the present grounds may be removed, I have my
foreboding. Who of us can teU, after what has been
done, what the next force may be ? I ask you, in
the name of justice, for repose for myself and my in
jured people. Let us alone. We will not harm you.
We want rest. We hope, in the name of justice,
that another outrage may never be committed against
us ; and that we may, for the fiiture, be cared for as
children, and not driven about as beasts, which are
benefitted by a change of pasture."
The Cherokees, and indeed every other tribe, are
thus left, like the slaves, to the justice of the author
ities of the State where they reside ; — the very worst
security they coidd have for their rights ; since those
who make the laws, and those who are to be bound
by them, are identified. The republican form of go
vernment affords the best check on the selfishness of
those who compose it against each other, and the

86 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XV,
worst against their dependants. The federal system
is not more protective of the citizens than it is op
pressive to the slaves and the aborigines. It is cu
rious to observe, in the treatment they have both
received, the same principles in operation, and the
same professions put forward. Under the plea of
kindness they are 'plundered of their lands and their
labor, and driven from their native country to find a
grave in the waves of the Pacific, or the pestUent
marshes of Africa, The legislature of Georgia uses
the same sort of language, when speaking of the In
dians, that the Colonization Society employs to de
scribe the descendants of Africa. " Year after year
the tribes vdthin the States have been seen to de
crease in numbers, and to sink lower and lower in
depravity and sin. The parental arm of the govem
ment has been extended to their relief; and the fe
deral and State governments have united their efforts
to remove them from their present habitations, and
locate them beyond the Mississippi : there, under the
protection of the govemment, and free alike from the
crimes and cupidity of the white man, to Uve in their
own peculiar way — the happy and lordly masters of
the forest."
The WTongs of the Cherokees excited a strong
feehng in their favor throughout the free States,— a
feeling that seems to have cooled down very much at
present. As it was not, however, accompanied with

CHAP, XV,] NORTHERN SYMPATHY, 87
any wish to restore them to their rights as men, or
dictated by a conviction of their claims to equal con
sideration with the whites, it never was of much
value. It is worse than idle to declaim against op
pression, and yet support the principle on which it
is founded.

88 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVL

CHAPTER XVI,
Slavery and Slave Trade in the District of Columbia — Robey's
Pen  Kidnappers  Soul-drivers  State of Morals. — Free
Blacks  Country impoverished. — Principles of Constitution —
Claim for Impressed Slave  Wages and Mileage of Members
of Congress  Mr. Clay  Juvenile Depravity — Funeral of
Member. — Average Age of Members  President's Protest 
Mr. Leigh's Speech,
The day after my first visit to the Cherokee chiefs I
renewed my conversation with the slave in the break
fast-room of the hotel, I asked him how it was that
he spoke English so correctly. He said that he had
travelled about a good deal with different gentlemen,
and had taken great pains to improve his language.
He regretted much that he could not read and write.
He had been married three times ; — not that he had
been twice a widower, — but such is the state of mo
rals among the slaves, that the purest and most con
stant attachment does not wait for death to dissolve
it. Connexions of this sort are necessarily but phy
sical in their motives, as they are uncertain in their

CHAP, XVI,] SLAVE WAITER, 89
duration : the most endearing ties which can bind
the parties together by tokens and objects of mutual
affection being Uable to be tom asunder at a mo
ment's warning, " If the owner of my wife," he ob
served, " should endorse a bUl, and the drawer fail,
he would perhaps sell her to obtain money; and we
should never see each other again,"
I asked him whether the slaves in the house were
aUowed to keep what they might receive as presents
from the guests ; and was glad to find that, though
legally disqualified from holding property, what was
given to them became their own. " The times," he
added, " are not so good for us as they were, I re
member when we could accumulate something : but
we are not so fortunate now." The Colonization
Society, he thought, had done them great injury, by
lessening the littie interest that was before felt for
them, and increasing the wish to get rid of them.
While conversing with me, he used the word " gen-
tieman," in what might be thought a singular man
ner, if the term were less indefinite in its meaning.
Not being able to answer a question put to him, he
pointed to another slave, and said : " that gentleman
wiU tell you better than I can." I have often known
the expression less appropriately applied. If the
idea of any thing just or honorable be associated
with the phrase ; — if it imply a disposition to render
to every man his due, I doubt not the person he re
ferred to had at least an equal claim with his master to

90 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVI.
the appeUation. Two or three persons from the free
States had been trying to convince this unfortunate
man that he w'a.s more happy as a slave than he
would be as a free man *. The reasons given in
support of this assertion, carried with them an in
delible stigma upon the national character. What
a country, where injustice lays her persecuting hand
upon those who have escaped from oppression ! —
where the brand of Infamy is stamped on the scars
that cruelty has left ; and the bond are told to find
motives for resignation in Ijie wrongs of the free !
The manner in which the parental tie is disre
garded here, is such as to render indifference to the
best feelings of a parent's heart a matter of self-
• defence. The farmers in the neighborhood of
Washington, breed slaves, as our graziers breed
cattle, for the market ; and a mother's agony for the
loss of her chUd is no more regarded than the lowing
* If so, why are free blacks, when convicted of certain crimes,
sold as slaves ? It is an odd way of preventing crime to place
the criminal in a better situation than the innocent. " Slavery,"
said Governor Giles to the legislature of Virginia, in 1827,
" must be admitted to be a punishment of the highest order;
and, according to every just rule for the apportionment of
punishment to crimes, it would seem, ought to be appUed only
to crimes of the highest order ; but, under the existing laws,
in case of free people of color only, it is extended to crimes
not involving capital punishment," " It seems," he adds,
"but an act of justice to this unfortunate degraded class of
persons, to state that the ntimber of convicts compared with

CHAP, XVI,] KIDNAPPERS, 91
of a cow for the calf that is carried off to be fattened
for the butcher. We may judge of the anguish felt
by the mothers, when they are " weeping for their
children, and wiU not be comforted," by an event
that occurred in 1828 at YorkviUe, in South Caro
lina, A negro woman was executed there for the
murder of her own chUd, " We are informed," says
' The Pioneer' of that place, " that she made a con
fession of the crime with which she was charged,
and assigned as her reason for doing so, that her
master intended to sell her," She would have been
separated, perhaps for ever, from her chUd. The
thought of this drove her to madness.
It is not sufficient for the national dishonor, that
the district marked out for the residence and imme
diate jurisdiction of the general govemment should
be poUuted by slavery. Here, under the eyes of
Congress, — in defiance of pubhc opinion, — and as if
courting the observation of assembled legislators and
ambassadors, a traffic, the most base and revolting,
is carried on by a set of ruffians, with whom it would
be the greatest injustice to compare our resurrection-
men. They are caUed slave-traders, and their occu
pation is to kidnap every colored stranger they can
lay thefr hands on. No matter whether he be free
the whole population, exceeding 35,000, is extremely small,
and would serve to shew, that even this description of our
population is less demoralized than is generally supposed."
The truth will come out occasionally.

92 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVL
or not, his papers, if he chance to have any they can
get at, are taken from him ; and he is hurried to gaol,
from whence, under pretence that the documents he
has in his possession are not satisfactory, or that he
is unable to pay the expenses of his arrest and de
tention, he is sent off to the southem market. Men,
women, and children, indiscriminately, who come to
Washington in search of employment, or to visit
their fiiends, are Uable to be carried off by these
land-sharks ; one of whom boasted to a man, from
whom I had the statement, that he had just made
forty dollars by a job. Proprietors of slaves would
be ungrateful if they did not connive at the iniquities
of the kidnapper. The net that is laid for the un-
fiiended free man is pretty sure to catch the run
away. These villains deal with the drivers and
agents, and sometimes with the planters themselves,
A poor fellow, whose claims to freedom were pro
nounced defective, was purchased by one of them,
not long ago, for a dollar, and sold the next day for
four hundred. About the same time, a colored young
woman was entering the city from the country, when
she was pursued by one of these blood-hounds ; and,
to escape, threw herself into the river, and was
drowned. No notice whatever was taken of this
horrible occurrence by the public papers, though it
was a matter of notoriety. Another woman, to save
her children, who would aU have been doomed to
slavery, if her claims to freedom had been rejected,

CHAP, XVI,] ' CRUELTY. 93
precipitated herself from the top of a house, where
she was confined, and was so dreadfully mutilated
and mangled that she was suffered to escape, be
cause she was no longer fit for sale. There was no
doubt that she was a free woman ; but she knew a
whole family of young slaves was too valuable a pro
perty not to turn the scale against her,
" Not long since," (see Niles's Reg, for July 1821,)
" a negro man, at the moment of his transfer to one
of these blood-merchants, cut his own throat on a pub
lic wharf at Baltimore ; and, a few days ago, a negro
woman, near Snow-hill in this State, (Maryland,) on
being informed that she was sold, fu'st cut the throat
of her child, and then her own, — by which both of
them immediately died,"
Another, 'in the same year, at Baltimore, having
been " sold to a dealer in human flesh for transport
ation, cut his own throat, and died at the moment
when he was about to be delivered over to the blood-
merchant through his agent, a peace-officer," — NUes.
"Many cases of extreme atrocity were related to
me. One was that of an unfortunate girl, whose
mistress, from ungrounded jealousy, employed some
of her slaves to hold her down, and then, with her
own hands, cut off the fore part of her feet. This
was done during the absence of her husband. She
was then carried bleeding into an adjoining wood,
and left there to perish. It happened to be a frosty
night, and her wounds were stanched by the cold.

94 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVI,
Her life was eventually preserved by a good Sama
ritan, who, hearing her groans, went to her and car
ried her to his own home, where she continued to
live ; — her master, who had by chance discovered the
place of her retreat, having presented her with her
freedom, — partly in consideration of her sufferings,
and partly to shield her from the resentment of his
wife, who tried every art to get her into her power
again. Were it not for the noble exertions that a
few kind-hearted men, of whom I had the happiness
to know tw^o or three, are ready to make, as they
have already made many, for the protection and de
fence of these helpless creatures, by far the greater
part would be for ever deprived of their freedom ; as
it is very difficult for them, unfriended and unpitied,
to estabUsh a claim, which so many find it their in
terest to defeat or deny. Here, as in most, if not all,
slave countries, the presumption is against liberty;
and, contrary to every principle of moral and munici
pal law, a man is pronounced guilty because he cannot
prove himself innocent. The onus is thrown upon
the accused ; and he is declared to be a slave, if he is
unable to shew that he is free.
The committee of the House of Representatives
on the district of Columbia, reported, in 1827, that
this presumption, founded on immemorial usage, and
sanctioned by judicial decisions, was so necessary
to the security of slave-property, that, " although it
may occasionally operate as a temporary hardship

CHAP. XVI,] RUNAWAYS, 95
upon free persons of color, migrating to slave-holding
States, fi-om States in the Union where there exists
no provision of law for the register of the evidences
of emancipation or of freedom, they cannot recom
mend an abrogation of this long established prin
ciple," No doubt the Arabs and Algerines, the
pirates of Cuba and Sumatra, have the same usages
and principles :, and what traveller or merchant
would be aUowed to dispute their justice, when
once they have got him into their clutches ?
Frequent petitions have been presented to congress,
praying for the aboUtion of slavery in the district of
Columbia: — nothing however has been done; and
the memorials are no more respected than the subject
or the signers. There is no part of the Union,
from which the road to Washington leads through
the temple of Liberty.
I was led, from seeing a great many advertisements
in the papers, offering rewai'ds for runaway slaves,
more particularly in the case of a woman and three
children, to infer, that with such facilities of escape,
this species of property must be of a vei-y precarious
and evanescent nature. Upon inquiry, however, I
found I had judged very erroneously ofthe vigilance
exercised in its protection. Many of those, I was
assured, for whose apprehension these rewards are
offered, have already been sold by their owners;
who have recourse to this expedient, either to escape
public censure, or, as is more probable, to conceal

96 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVI,
the distress which has compeUed them to part with
a sort of property that is not easily replaced. Nearly
aU menial services are engrossed by this portion of
the population, more especially in the hotels, w-here
the free blacks are not likely to seek or to find em
ployment. The latter are obliged to register their
names at the proper offices in the district, and to
give security for good behavior to the amount of
500 dollars. The fee for registration is one dollar
and a quarter — about five shUlings. Electors with
us pay a shilling for this form. Personal liberty
under a republic is thus five times as dear as poli
tical liberty under a limited monarchy.
Slaves on the farms are aUowed a peck of Indian
corn per week each, with the addition of a daUy
herring — a luxury which is far from being universal.
Tavern-keepers and others who hire them of their
masters, pay a certain sum per month, and feed
them ; the latter finding their clothing. One day I
went to see the " slaves' pen " — ^a wTetched hovel,
" right against " the Capitol, from which it is distant
about half a mile, with no house intervening. The
outside alone is accessible to the eye of a visitor ;
what passes within being reserved for the exclusive
observation of its owner, (a man of the name of
Robey,) and his unfortunate victims. It is sur
rounded by a wooden paling fourteen or fifteen feet
in height, with the posts outside to prevent escape,
and separated from the buUding by a space too

CHAP, XVI,] robey's PEN, 97
nan-ow to admit of a free circulation of air. At a
small window above, which was unglazed and ex
posed alike to the heat of summer and the cold of
winter, so trying to the constitution, two or three
sable faces appeared, looking out wistfully to while
away the time and catch a refreshing breeze ; the
weather being extremely hot. In this wretched
hovel, all colors, except white — the only guilty one
— both sexes, and all ages, are confined, exposed
indiscriminately to all the contamination which may
be expected in such society and under such seclusion.
The inmates of the gaol, of this class I mean, are
even worse treated ; some of them, if my informants
are to be believed, having been actually frozen to
death, during the inclement winters which often
prevail in the country. While I was in the city,
Robey had got possession of a woman, whose term
of slavery was limited to six years. It was expected
that she would be sold before the expiration of that
period, and sent away to a distance, where the
assertion of her claim would subject her to iU-usage.
Cases of this kind are very common.
There was at the time a man in the gaol, who had
been taken up on suspicion ; and, as no one claimed
him, he was to be sold to pay his fees *. On these
* By 'the following law, which prevails in the State of
Mississippi, it willbe seen that the same person, whose testimony
is rejected on the presumption of dishonesty, may be punished
VOL, II. F

98 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVL
occasions, fi'ee papers would he of little avail to "the
accused ; as the gaoler has it in his power, aiad fre-
qnentlj' takes an opportunity, to destroy them, unlesfe
some person appears personally to give evidencie ia
his favOr.
The Benevolent Society -of Alexandria stated, in
1827, that they had, in the first 'nine oi- 4en inonths
of their existence, wrested twelve "people of color
from the grasp of the slave-lrade'ts ; and 'that they
had reason to believe there were sevetal others,
entitled to their freedom, who had been sold : " If
"oh the presumption of Integrity ; and, while he is no more than
ia brute in the witness box, is, in prison, responsible as a man.
" When any slave or slaves shall be committed to ahy jail
in this State, as a runaway, &c., it shall be the duty of the
jailer, &c., to interrogate hitti, &c., as to his, &c., owner's
name, &c., and the account thus received, together with a de
scription ofthe slave, &c., the jailer shaU forthwith transmit by
mail to the owner, &c., named by the slave ; and, if the state
ment made by said slave, 'Sic, shair prove to be false, it shall
'be the duty of the jailer, withoutdelay, to give thesaid slave,
&c., twenty-five lashes, well laid on, attd interrogate him,'&c.,
anew, and transmit the intelligence obtained, together with a
description as aforesaid, to the owner, &c., again named, and
whip as before directed, if a second false account is given ; and
so on, for the space of six months, it shall be the duty of the
jailer alternately to interrogate and whip as aforesaid, whenever
thesaid skve, &c., may give a false account, &c.,"— that is,
whenever he shews he is, what the man who flogs him, tells
'you he is — not to be trusted.

CHAP, XVI,] CASE OF CRUELTY, 99
it were not," they added, " for this detestable traffic,
those who have a Urge number of slaves upon poor
land," (such is most of the soil near Washington,)
" would not long be enabled to hold them ; as it
generally takes the whole produce of their labor to
clothe and support them ; and the only profit of the
owner is derived from the sale of the young ones,"
A most flagrant instance of cruelty occurred a year
or two ago, A married woman, with a family, who
had left her free papers in charge of Judge Hooper,
of Centreville, in Maryland, was persuaded by a
man, to whom .she :had hired herself, to accompany
a feUow, who was to -assist her in procuring these
documents as a security against those outrages which
so often happeu, but who pri)ved to be a kidnapper
— a confederate of her employer. This man brought
her to Washington, on her way to New Orleans,
whea-e he intended to sell her. Here she was pur
chased by a -notorious feUow ofthe name of Simson,
and imprisoned in a room destined to such purposes
in Robey's tavem ; where :she was brutaUy flogged,
because she would not give up the name of a friend,
(a white,) who had been to see her. The person
from whom .1 had this account, the wife of one of
those benevolent men alluded ito as the friends of
the. oppressed, obtained .an interview with her; and
a letter having been dispatched to Centreville in
¦Virginia, an answer was received that no such
person was known thexe. Xt was too late when this
f2

100 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVL
mistake was rectified. A corroboration of her state
ment was sent by the postmaster of Centreville in
Maryland, on being applied to, — She was on the
road to New Orleans,
It is customary, when a sufficient number of slaves
is obtained by the traffickers in this horrid business,
to send them to the South, under the care of the
soul-drivers, as they are called, who receive so much
per head. If there are any good-looking mulatto
girls in the gang, their charges are diminished, I
need not say how they are remunerated. Lest there
should be any difficulty on the road, they themselves
qualify their victims. The person, from whom I
had these details, heard one of these wretches boast
of this expedient, as a constant practice with him.
In the district of Columbia, but one person has
suffered for a capital offence during a period of
twenty years ; and he was a colored man, for a fe
lonious attempt : the accuser being a white woman.
Absence of punishment, however, is far fi-om proving
absence of crime ; for, during that time, not a single
j^ear elapsed that did not witness the murder of one
or more slaves in the ten miles square.
Every stranger must observe a marked difference
in pubhc morals between Washington and the prin
cipal cities in the -non-slave-holding States, Dis
proportionately greater as the population is in the
latter, respect is had to extemal decency ; nor would
it be easy to know what is passing within any house

CHAP, XVI.j DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 101
in New England by the display at the -windows in
open day and in the most frequented sti-eets.
As industry is dishonored here, one of the greatest
auxiUaries to female virtue is removed where it is
most required ; — at the seat of gaiety and idleness,
the resort of the profligate, the wealthy, and the
luxurious, the great centre of attraction to the in
triguer, the place-hunter, and the political adventurer.
The consequences are such as might be expected
from a combination of influences so ruinous to un
protected youth.
As Congress is empowered to regulate commerce
between the States, and has exclusive jurisdiction
in the district of Columbia, to abolish slavery in the
latter and to prohibit the internal slave-trade, through
the federal government, are the chief political objects
of the " fanatics " in the North,
A motion lately made in the legislature of Ver
mont, to dismiss a resolution on the system of slavei-y
in Columbia, was earned by a majority of 103 to 90
only. It will probably be contended, that these
matters are to be regulated by the laws of Virginia
and Maryland, some of which are stiU in force here.
Such a principle seems to be the only way of ex
plaining an expression used some years ago by Mr.
Adams, to a deputation from Philadelphia to Wash
ington : — " You have no more right to interfere with
Columbia than I with Pennsylvania,"
At Washington, the pride of color is in full opera-

102 TOUR IN' THE uSiiteD states, [chap. Xvi,
tion. Wherever, among the objects of its scorn,
there are any who, by their talents or respectable
conduct, are sileiltly advancing those claims which
fibrce alone cau put down, the utmost efforts are
siade to draft them off to another hemisphere^ I
found thig to be invariably the case, whatever part
of the country I visited, I was in company for two
Of three hours with several of this description here ;
aiid their observations all tended to the same con
clusion. In those States where slave labor is unpfo-
fitable, (as I have before obsei-ved,) the transport-
ati«B sehenae is -Wai-mly supported, as it was at first
started ; where " great gain " is made out of the sys-
tenij it is as warmly opposed, because it tends to
keep Up tbe price of what they deal in. The buyer,
of course, says " it is naught " : the seller knows
better. The changes that impend over communitieg may
generally be seen in the expedients which those in
power have adopted to counteract or retard them.
The more absurd the plan, the more perplexed, it
may be presumed, are the schemers, and the more
certain is their discomfiture. It is the proper punisb-
liient of those who have not pursued " the best
policy ", that reason should desert those who have
deserted justice. Never was this truth more clearly
or more forcibly exempUfied than in the conduct of
Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, They are dying
under " a sore disease ", and they have recourse to a

CHAP. XVlI agricultural DISTRESS, 103
Rostrum that compels its continuance, while it holds
out the hope of its removal. They have overtraded
in iniquity, and they are mortgaging their children's
weU-being by a fresh loan of wickedness, " Why ",
says a HTiter in the Southeiji Agriculturist, "has
BMrth deserted the halls of our forefathers ? and why-
has the haUoD of boyish revelry ceased to be heard
through; the spacious walks of our country gardens J
Could those walks, speak, ox the shrubbery answer,
they would tell us it was prodigality and bad manage-r
ment : it was because our fathers neglected to plant
com, pjease, potatoesi, and pumpions. Our forefathers
had always raised euough of them on their plant-:
ationsi for all doiBaestio purposes, without sacrificing
their indigo crops to buy those essentials at an exf
orbitant price, when they were most needed ; as our
fathers often did afterwards, in bartering their cotton
for com." If they bad raised Indian corn, or any
other essential, the result would have been the same ;
whUe the allurement of a high price for the staple
they were raising was absorbing all the capital they
. could obtain into the vortex of speculation, without
the possibihty of withdrawing it. If a farmer or a
manufacturer has hired machinery, whether inanimate
or not, he can get rid of it when he can no longer
employ it with a profit to himself. If he has bought
it, he loses what it cost him, together with the in
terest, when he cannot find a purchaser. What is
he to do, if it will not work, when his eye is not

104 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVI.
upon it ; and, whether it work or not, must be fed
and clothed ?
The disastrous effects produced by forced labor
on the condition of the cultivator, were pointed out
to me, unintentionally, by a Southerner whom I met
one day at pur Ambassador's table. I was observing
to him that our law of descents, to which he said (I
thmk erroneously) we are all so much attached, and
with which he did not seem inclined to find fault,
had not, I had good reason to beUeve, secured a
longer duration of possession to our landholders than
the fai-mers of New England enjoyed. " It often
happens that one of the family takes the estate; and
the others, receiving an equivalent for their sake, go
off to the West." " It may be so in the East," was
his rep]J^ " Here the family and the estate both go
off together. After an absence of twenty years, I
found, on my rjeturn from Europe, that most of my
friends had disappeared : their property had been
sold — they were ruined,"
The framers of the American constitution seem to
have studiously avoided the use of the word " slave,"
while they took special care that the property and
political power annexed to its possession should be
secured, ¦ They retained the thing while they dis
carded the term, as if they M^ere ashamed of pro
claiming their inconsistency to the world. In the
2d Sect, ofthe 1st Ai-t, of this celebrated document,
it is said, " Representation and direct taxes shall be

CHAP, XVI,] EUPHEMISM, 105
apportioned among the several States, which may be
included within this Union, according to their re
spective numbers ; which shall be determined by
adding to the whole numbers of free persons, in
cluding those bound to service for a term of years,
and excluding Indians not taxed, three-iifths of all
other persons." Again, alluding to the slave trade,
(Sect, 9,) " The migration or importation of such
persons as any of the States now existing shall think
proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Con
gress prior to the year 1808 ; but a tax or duty may
be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten
doUars for each person," This was drawn up and
signed in 1787, Pretty well this for a people who
complain that their ancestors forced slavery upon
them ! A singular way of shewing their abhorrence
ofthe " fatal legacy entailed" upon them!
The only other allusion of the same kind is simi
larly guarded. It foi-ms part of the 2d Sect, of the
4th Art, and is as follows : " No person held to ser
vice or labor in one State, under the laws thereof,
shall be discharged from such service or labor, but
shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom
such service or labor may be due," To talk of a
slave's labor being " due" to his master, is to insult
common sense and common decency. While the
latter can coin dollars out of the sweat and tears of
his victim, he will do so. " The law allows it, and
the com-t awards it," It is this clause, however, in
F 3

106 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVI,
the constitution, which renders the free States tri
butaries to the ambition of the slave States, and ac
cessaries to all their guilt ; — makes the boasted asy
Ium of the persecuted the prison-house of the unfor
tunate, and converts the guardians of liberty into the
turnkeys of its assassins.
Such is the nature of that instrument of independ^
ence which is founded on the assertion and the re
fusal of the same equal rights ; which guarantees the
enjoyment of freedom on the condition of its viola
tion, and requires, as the price of political union, the
sacrifice of all that can make political existence ho
norable. It is UtefaUy and truly, " propter vitam,
•Vivendi perdere causas" — to build the republican
form on the destruction of the republican spirit.
The Hartford Convention, which was caUed to de
liberate on what were thought executive usurpations
during the last war with England, recommended a
revision of the constitution. Speaking of the federal
basis of representation, its report says, " It has
proved unjust and unequal in its operation. Had
this effect been foreseen, the privilege would pro
bably not have been demanded;— certainly not con
ceded. Its tendency in fiiture wUl be adverse to that
harmony and mutual confidence, which are more
conducive to the happiness and prosperity of every
confederated State, than a mere preponderance of
power— the prolific source of jealousies and conti-o-
versy— can be to any one of them. The time may

CHAP, XVI,j CLAIM FOR DAMAGES, 107
therefore arrive, when a sense of magnanimity and
justice will recommend those States to acquiesce in
a revision of this article ; especially as a fair equivar
lent would result to them in the apportionment of
taxes," A long and memorable discussion on the meaning
ofthe word " person", took place in the lower house
some seven or eight years back, A claim had been
brought before it, by one Marigny d'Auterive, for
compensation ; one of his slaves, who, with a horse
and cart, had been impressed by General Jackson at
New Orleans, having been wounded. The damages
were laid at 230 dollars, or some such sum. The
claim for the horse and cart was granted, but that for
the man refused by the committee on claims. The
house, however, decided in its favor, by a majority of
four — just the number of members from the State
of New York who voted on that side. From the
tirne occupied by this debate, which was carried on,
day after day, with extraordinary heat and perti
nacity by both parties, it may fairly be calculated
th^t it cost the nation 10,000 dollars, and probably
nearly twice that sum, to ascertain the nature and
extent of that property which can be given by hu
man laws to one man over another ! The advocates
for unmitigated and unqualified tyranny, pleading,
for eight dollars a day, before the greatest and freest
people under the sun, the right of placing a rational,
immortal b.eing, on the same level with au ox or a

108 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [cHAP. XVI.
jackass ! The southem members displayed more
than their usual sensitiveness on this occasion, Mr.
Livingston was particularly indignant at the imputed
attempt to deprive them of their most valuable
" property," " AUow the claim," he said, " and you
do no more -than justice : — reject it on these prin
ciples and you shake the Union," Mr, Gurley
said : — " Gentlemen say a master cannot kill his
slave as he can his ox. This depends entirely upon
the laws of the State in which he lives ; and in no
case can be urged against the right of property.
Gentlemen should not forget, that the civil law,
somewhat modified by statute, is the common law
of Louisiana ; and that, by the law of Rome, the
master had absolute dominion over his slave, as he
had over his child." " Slavery," -exclaimed Mr,
Mercer, " is as much a part of the constitution as
the great right of representation ; for though the
word ' slave ' is not used in that instrument, the
condition is admitted. It is clothed with rights, and
protected ; and the laws of Congress, and the deci
sions of the supreme court, are practical and living
illustrations of its being an integral part of our sys
tem of govemment,"
Some of the northem members were inclined to
" go the whole hog," as the phrase is, Mr, Everett,
who had vindicated the system of slavery on a for
mer occasion, and had, like the great enemy of hu
man liberty, shewn that he could " quote Scripture

CHAP. XVI.] COMPENSATION. 109
for his purpose," said : — " The claim is founded on
that amendment to the constitution by which it is
provided, that private property shall not be taken
for the public service, without full compensation.
If it had been suggested to introduce into this
amendment of the constitution the words, " except
slaves," it would certainly have prevented the adop
tion of the amendment, and might have proved
destructive of the constitution itself By rejecting
this claim, we virtually introduce such a qualifica
tion into the constitution," He added—" If this
ser\'ice had been hired and not impressed, would not
his owner, in letting him, have said — ' this is no
ordinary service * : I cannot consent to yield my
slave on the common terms of compensation, as if
* This cold-blooded calculation is well illustrated in the fol
lowing advertisement, which I found, among many others of the
same kind, in a southern paper.
" Five hundred laborers wanted. We will employ the above
number of laborers to work on the Muscle Shoals Canal, &c.,
at the rates of fifteen doUars per month, for twenty-six work
ing days ; or we wiU employ negroes by the year, or for a less
time, as may suit the convenience of planters. We will also
be responsible to slave-holders, who will hire their negroes to
us, for any injury or damage that may hereafter happen in
the progress of blasting rock, or the caving in of banks. For
information in regard to the health of the men, the fare, &c.,
we would refer, &c. " Heney and Kibbe.
" May 24th, 1833."
The word "hereafter ' seems to imply, that complaints had
been made, or suspicions existed, against these contractors.

110 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVI.
he were to work in a plantation or a garden. You
are going to put him in the lines — within the fire of
the enemy, where the risk of life is imminent, and
my loss is likely to be iu proportion,' Such unques
tionably would be the language of the owner ; and,
if he made the contract at all, it would be on con
dition of being indemnified for the risk," Still
stronger language was used ; — but it is sickening to
go through the details. Enough has been quoted to
make an honest man blush for his species — for that
part, at least, which, in spite of its folly and wick
edness, still calls itself civilized and Christian.
" Society,"' said one of the debaters, " has a
right to the military services of a slave ; because it
protects his life by the punishment annexed to his
murder." The tie that connects duty and right is
altogether wanting here. For whom — against
whom is the slave to fight .? The enemies of the
community are not his enemies. He has no ene
mies out of his own country, and no friend but the
Almighty, The past has no claim on his gratitude ;
and the future can excite no hope in his bosom.
The isthmus that separates them is too narrow for
a " Yankee " even to make a " notion " out of it.
The decision, to which the house came, gives, it
may be obsen^ed, a direct bonus to slave-holding ;
as the owner thus obtains for his slave that in
demnity which a master would not obtain for his
apprentice. What was the ultimate decision on D'Auterive's

CHAP, XVI,] LONG SPEECHES, 111
claim, which was returned to the committee, where
it remained, for reconsideration, during the remainder
of the session, I know not — I believe it was, sub
sequently, in its favor.
In addition to the letter with which I was
entrasted for Mr, Everett, I brought one for Mr,
Polk; who caUed on me the very day I left it
at his house, and invited me to drink tea with
him that evening, I was received with that ur
banity which I experienced from every weU-bred
American, to whom I had the slightest iutroduction.
One of his guests was the serieant-at-arms of the
senate ; and to him I -was indebted the next day for
an introduction into the house ; where I remained
listening to a discussion which a long-standing claim
of two or three hundred dollars eUcited from the
members. Whether anxiety to save the pubhc
money, or a wish to earn their wages by a com
mensurate quantity of words, were the liioving cause
of so much debating, the time spent on the question
was amply sufficient to satisfy any reasonable demand
for economy or eloquence. If so much talking were
allowed in the State legislatures, the sessior|, if pro
tracted to twelve months, would hardly suffice for
the business of the year. The federal govemment
has comparatively but littie to do ; and oratory finds
a double stimulus, which a long session produces in
the shape of fame and dollars. No wonder, therefore,
that three days are sometimes allotted to one speech.

112 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVI,
and three months to one subject ; since aU parties
have an interest in delay; and the speaker is not
more pleased with the " golden opinions " he wins,
than his listeners with the treasurer's draft for a
more solid specimen of the same metal. What
with the eight dollars a-day, and the mileage money,
thejionorable members of congress, if so disposed,
might make a " pretty thing " of their attendance at
Washington, Living is reasonable at the hotels,
and still more so at the boarding houses ; — so that
it is easy to calculate the advantages of combining
thrift with patriotism, aud serving one's self, while
one is serving one's country,
Mr, David Buel, while delegate to the New York
Convention, in 1821, declared that it had been an
object with citizens in that State to obtain a seat in
the legislature, for the purpose of making money
out of the wages received for their public services.
By changing the mode of computation, one member
of congress obtained more mileage by one half than
another, who came from the same section of the
country. In 1825, one senator from Missouri re
ceived 1700 doUars, whUe the other had 3300;
though they both came from the same part of the
State. Mr. Benton, of the senate, made a " con
structive " journey from Washington to St. Louis
and back during the night of March 3, 1825,— while
lying in bed at the former place ; and charged and
received for his mileage about 2600 dollars. Mr.

CHAP. XVI.J BOOK-JOBS. 11.3
Lyons fi-om Kentucky "bagged" 276 dollars more
than his due : — the difference arising from a charge
for journeys by steam-boats on rivers, the sinuosities
of which exceeded the usual distance by the road.
As eight dollars are allowed per day for attendance,
and the same sum for every twenty miles, which ought
to be measured by the most usual road, it will be seen
that long journeys and long speeches are equally pro
fitable; and to deviate from. the subject is as good a
job as to deviate from ,the route.
In addition to wages and mileage, there is another
source of gainful speculation for honorable legisla
tors. It is the practice, it seems, from what passed
in debate while I was at Washington, for govern
ment to favor them, occasionaUy, with a donation of
certain works for their instiuction and edification,
Mr, King said, " Being determined not to have a li
brary at the expense of the public, he had negotiated
for the purchase of a work, which had been voted to
members at the cost of 55,000 dollars. The book-
seUer offered him an order on the clerk for a copy,
which he had purchased from a member. Still
further to prove his assertion, he referred to a noto
rious instance^for there had been no concealment—
of a senator (not now a member of the house) hav
ing sold for 900 dollars, to a foreign minister, the'
books he had received in this way for a single term
of services,"
After all, the representatives are 'probably worse

114 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVI,
paid than lawyers and physicians ; as the remunera.
tion for their services is, below the ordinary profits
of professional and commercial business ; — the inter,
ruption to which ought not to be omitted in the
calculation. A few days after, I bad an opportunity of hearing
Mr. Clay speak in the Senate on presenting a pe
tition from the city of Troy, in the State of New York,
The subject was the removal from the bank of the
Union by the Secretary of the Treasury of the public
moneys. He spoke for about three quarters of an
hour in a clear and- manly voice, with much facihty
of expression and energy of manner. He had a
good head and an erect person, with no great de,
gree of dignity or grace. His style was not that of
a man who' has much imagination himself, or thinks
it worth his while to set that faculty to work in bis
hearers. I do not, indeed, remember having ever
heard so little of metaphorical or allusive language
employed under the excitement which a favorite
topic might be expected to produce, during the
same period, on an orator whose aim is persuasion
as well as conviction. It would be unfafr, however,
to judge of the orator from a specimen upon a topic
that had been worn thread-bare by frequent repeti,
tion during several months. Mr. Clay aUuded very
happily to the recent election at New York ; where
the utmost efforts of the government party had re--
suited in a majority too contemptible to claim the

CHAP, XVI,] MR. clay's SPEECH, 115
honors of a ti-iumph. Out of 35,147 voters, (a greater
number by 4621 than ever polled before,) the majority
was but 1 70', or some equally insignificant amount ; the
anti-Jackson candidate for the mayoralty having a
majority of more than 2400 in those wards where
tbe greater part of the commercial wealth to be
found in the city is situated. The Jackson ma
jority of 6000, formerly carried, had melted away.
The speaker congratulated (ironically) the president
ofthe senate (Mr. Van Buren) on the great change in
pubUc opinion indicated by the circumstances at
tending this important struggle. The people, he
said, would no longer submit to that power which
had seized the sword and the purse — the chief in
struments of despotism. One fact he mentioned
was very remarkable, and of such a nature as to sink
all party feehng in anxiety for the constitution.
Two months before congress met, the executive had
displaced the secretai-y of the treasury, (Duane,)
to make room for one more obedient to his wiU
(Taney) ; yet, though the legislature had been sitting
for four months, the appointment had not yet been
referred to the senate for their approval — an unpre
cedented omission on the part of the chief magis-
frate. In the course of the speech, what had passed
in the other house was cited; and its members were
emphatically declared to have evaded the question.
The senator grew more impassioned as he proceeded,
and exclaimed, in a voice of thunder : That he would

116 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XVI.
never confirm the appointment to office of any mem
ber of congress, till the constitution was restored;
nor of any one, however high or humble, who had
been an active partisan, or an abettor of those arbi
trary acts, under which the commerce of the coun
try had suffered so much and so long, Mr, Clay
contrasted the flourishing condition exhibited, but
a few months before, by those cities which grace
and enrich the banks of the great north river, with
the deranged and discontented state in whiph they
then were ; and alluded to the recent failure of no
less than three banks in the district, within view of
the dome, which rises above the halls of legislation,
jMr, Clay's determination with regard to official
appointments bestowed on the members of con
gress was strictly in accordance, as he stated, with
the principles professed by the president, before his
accession to office : but men in power have prover
bially short memories. The orator trusted, in con
clusion, that the house would concur with him in
excluding from office all who had lent their aid to
the wicked deeds ofthe administration.
The population of Washington, which amounted
to 13,247 in 1820, exceeded 18,000 at the last census
in 1830,
As commerce is not hkely to desert Baltimore for
the seat of the federal govemment, or encounter a
successful rival at this point of the Potomac, it wiU
be long before the original plan of the city is filled

CHAP, XVI,j JUVENILE DEPRAVITY. 117
up. Nor is it desirable that the healthy action of a
body so vast, and expanding so rapidly, should be
impeded or deranged by too great an influx to the
heart. I question whether a whole life, spent in the
crowded streets of New York or Philadelphia, would
be marked by one such occurrence as I witnessed at
the Capitol, I was conversing with a man who had
accosted me with the observation that it was a noble
building ; adding, on my assent, that there was no
thing, since the time of Solomon's temple, to be
found like it on the face of the earth. I remarked
that the edifice was suited to the people. "True!"
he replied, " we are the greatest nation under the
sun. At the revolution we were but a handful of
men: we are now as countless as the sands of the
sea," While we were talking together, two boys,
about twelve or fourteen years of age, stationed
themselves in front of us ; and one of them exhibited
a drawing that he evidently wished us to take notice
of I did not at first pay any attention to what he
was doing ; when, happening to direct my eyes to
wards him, I saw but too plainly his intention. The
subject of the painting he held was the most in
decent — the most detestable it is possible to imagine.
It cannot be described in proper terms. I remon
strated with him upon the enormity of his conduct ;
but he was so totally devoid of every feeling like
modesty or shame, that he burst out into a laugh,

118 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAR. XVI,
and withdrew with his companion, who was as de
praved as himself As for the man, he seemed to
;care very littie about the matter or not to think it of
any consequence.
There is a greater regard for decency even in Paris,
A man in that city who offered for sale to myself and
another Englishman some prints, which, from his
manner, I conceived to be of a simUar description,
pleaded in excuse, when reproved for his conduct,
that he wanted bread, or he would not be engaged
in such a trade,
I discovered, soon after the lads had left us, that
my companion had come to Washington from North
Carolina for the purpose of buying slaves. He was
about 600 miles from' home, and it would take -him
about a month, he said, to get back : at an average
jcost per head of two dollars for his " coffle ".
Soon after my rencontre with the North Caro-
linian, 1 was fortunate enough :to get admittance
into the body of the house of representatives ; where
the funeral service was performed for one of the
members ; the body being afterwards carried thence
to the burying ground, which is upwards of a mUe
from the Capitol. Temporary deafness prevented
me from deriving benefit from the prayer or the
sermon. This inconvenience had so completely
baffled the object of two or three visits I had before
made to the gallery, as to convert the eloquence 'be
low into mere gesticulation. Its partial removal,

CHAP, XVI.] AGES OT MEMBERS. 119
tmd a favorable position in the other house, enabled
me to catch distinctiy botli the tones of Mr, Clay's
sonorous voice, and much of what was said by
others. On the present occasion I had no resource
but patience.
It was about midday, when the members of the
two bouses of Congress, the President and his
" cabinet " were assembled ; the body having been
placed in front of the speaker's chair. There were
not many visitors ; an unusual number of deaths in
the legislature having deprived the ceremony of its
novelty. One of the events alluded to was the
vei-y shocking manner in which a member had
terminated his existence with his own hand, under
the inflnence of temporary derangement of mind,
brought on by habits of intemperance that had ob
tained an uncontrollable mastery over his wiU. The
greater part ofthe audience, exclusive of those vpho
attended officially. Consisted of females ; some of
whom were below, and some in the gallery appro
priated, with more Gallic than British gallantry, to
¦the fair sex. The average age of the members ap
peared to be about forty. I was tOld it was forty-
five. Taking either, or a lower number, as the cor
rect one, it shews how unnecessary it is to require
any qualification of the kind. Twenty-five is the
minimum age in the 'house of representatives, as
thirty is that in the senate. Matters of this sort are
best decided by the electors, who need not look into

120 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVI,
a man's rent-roll or registry of birth for his intellect
and integrity. Out of 126 delegates who composed
the New York Convention, there was but one under
thirty years of age : — there were forty -five between
forty and fifty ; and the same number between fifty
and sixty : while between thirty and forty, the num
ber was twenty-three only. The rest were from
sixty to eighty.
As the procession was moving off towards the
place of interment, I feUin with the serjeant-at-arms
of the Senate, and went with him to the ground in
one of the hackney coaches provided for the day.
There were about 100 of them. In the coach with
us, I recognised a lad, who had very politely given
up his seat to me a short time before. As such
marks of courtesy are not of very frequent occurrence
in the country, — I had not been fortunate enough to
see an instance of the kind before, — I took the op
portunity of expressing my acknowledgements to
him, and regretting that the rising generation were
not taught the propriety of paying more attention to
the minor duties of social life, I found he was in
the same office with this gentleman, who made it a
point to encourage the laudable habit ; I may add,
not less by example than by precept. It would b^
as well if there were more of these school-masters
abroad. After the customary rites at the grave had
been performed, the spectators and auditors dispersed.
The burying ground is neatly laid out with ever-

CHAP, XVI.] LADIES^ 121
greens and monuments. Those erected for the
members of congress are plain, and aU in the same
style. It might be seen, by the paacitr of them.
that the ceremony I had -witnessed is not often per
formed. 1
I was again attracted to the Senate by the expect
ation of hearing the renewal of an nnusuaUy animated
debate on a stiU more imusual message from the
President; who had sent a sort of protest against
the resolutions of the House on the absorbing ques
tion of the deposits : rebuking it for having, as he
asserted, gone beyond the limits of its legislative
functions ; and insisting on his own prerogatives.
The lobby and gaUeries were crowded long before
twelve o'clock, — the hour of commencing business.
There were a great many women in the former : — I
beg their pardon ! — I shoidd say, ladies*. I observed
to a lady with whom I was conversing, that I liought
the American women dressed with greater taste than
the Enghsh. Her reply reminded me of the dis
tinction I have just pointed out. I do not know
whether she understood the purport of my remark.
* A similar affectation prevails in England, There are no
women among our higher classes;— they are all "persons "; and
the men are fast disappearing in the same manner. Why do not
the Americans laugh at our follies, instead of wincing at the
exposure of their own ? A Yankee Juvenal might find more
employment for Democritus in London, than his prototype
could have found for him in Rome.
VOL, II, G

122 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XVI,
I spoke of the sex in general. , I am equally at a
loss to know whether her observations were limited
to the species, I changed my ground, and varied
the phraseology with the subject. The same word
responded to every variation, I meant nothing dis
respectful ; and if the phrase so constantly used by
my fair neighbor be more appropriate to " Nature's
last best work ", be it so : I should be the last man
to refuse the titie, while I am the first to acknowledge
the claim.
But I am forgetting President Jackson, whUe
touching upon a much more agreeable subject.
After some preliminary matters had been gone
through, Mr. Leigh, of Virginia, the expected orator
of the day, rose from his seat, within a few yards of
which I was standing, and addressed the House,
His manner was mild, but forcible ; and his person,
though plain and unpretending, commanded atten
tion. He seemed to be deeply impressed with the
importance of the subject before him ; and to be
more influenced by a sense of duty to his countiy
than by any party-feeling of hostility, or predUection,
He drew a distinction, at the commencement of his
speech, between the respectful moderation of lan
guage and the arbitrary spirit in motive and purport,
exhibited in the protest which the executive had
thought fit to make against the resolutions passed
hy the House upon his conduct in removing the
pubUc deposits from the custody appointed by Con-

CHAP, XVI,] MR. LEIGH. 1-23
gress, and declared by them to be secure. He
pointed out the inconsistency of denyiug the right
to blame him, whUe he accepted -with pleasure the
resolutions of the same body in his favor, WhUe
one House had exceeded its legislative limits, the
other was strictly within them ; though both had
passed judgment upon the chief head of the govem
ment, — the sole difference being that the latter had eu
logized and supported him. Allusion was made in
the message to some of the senators, who had voted
contrary to the instructions they had received from
their constituents. This interference with fhe pri
vUeges and duties of the House, was at once to in
fluence its deUberations and shackle its independence;
and when it was asserted that " Congress could not
take out of the hands of the executive depai-tment
the custody of the pubhc property, without an as
sumption of executive power, and a subversion of
the first principles of the constitution", the sovereign
power, if the attempt were not resisted, would be
placed in the hands of the president ; and the other
parts of the govemment would have nothing to do
but to register his edicts, and confirm his appoint
ments. Such a prerogative was never claimed by
any king of England ; and no minister would dare
to take down such a message to either House of the
British legislature. " When Dunning's memorable
resolutions were passed," exclaimed the senator,
" did the elder Pitt, — one of the proudest men that
g2

124 TOUR IN. THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVI,
ever existed, — did he come down to the House of
Commons, and teU them from his master that they
had wandered from their legislative functions, and
had condemned, vrithout an impeachment, their sove
reign.? There was no man but one who would
venture upon such a step ; and that man was Andrew
Jackson." Mr, Leigh, having very successftdly exposed the
faUacies and false principles which the document in
question contained, and its tendency to subvert the
constitution, expressed his entire concurrence in the
motion that the message should not be received.
There was something so impressive in the tone of
his voice, the unaffected order in which he arranged
his ideas and his language, the ease with which he
delivered his sentiments, and the solemn manner in
which he expressed his conviction of the great
emergency fhe nation was placed in, and his reso
lution to defend the constitution by defending the
privileges of the senate, — that my ideas of the im
portance of this branch of the legislature, and the
dignity which attends its proceedings, were much
more highly raised than by what I had heard from
Mr, Clay, or any other member.
Mr. Leigh succeeded Mr. Rives, as one of the
senators from Virginia, the latter having resigned
his seat in consequence of a declaration from the
legislature of that State in opposition to the measures
of the federal administration, Mr. Leigh, however,

CHAP. XVI.] MR. BENTON, 125
had previously declared his resolution to obey the
dictates of his own judgement as a legislator, and
not to consider himself the mere " agent and advo
cate," as Burke calls it, of those whose interests he
was to take care of.
An incident took place whUe Mr, Leigh was on
his legs, that shewed how sensitive the supporters
of the govemment are to any thing like the loss of
popularity. An aUusion made by him to the bill,
by which Mr, Clay had, for the time, pacified the
nullifiers, eUcited from the gallery the mixed sounds
of applause and disapprobation. The former, it is
to be presumed, predominated, since Mr, Benton — as
closely united by personal and poUtical friendship
to the president, as he was formerly separated from
him by the most deadly hatred — rose abruptly from
his seat, and ordering the galleries to be cleared by
the proper officer, moved that the disturbers should
be taken into custody by the serjeant-at-arms. This
was as promptly opposed ; it being impossible to
discover the offenders, and to issue a general war
rant would be an odious measure. The gallery was
cleared, not without remonstrance or resistance ; as
dirks were drawn on the occasion, and Mr. Benton
hoped he should not be represented, by the gentle
men he saw taking notes, as a friend to general war
rants. If any one present dared to throw such an
imputation upon him, he called upon him to come
forward with the charge.

126 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVI.
The senate subsequentiy refused, by a majority of
twenty-seven to sixteen, to place the President's
protest on the journals of the house. This rejected
reproof was aimed at the following condemnation of
the reprover by the Senate : — " Resolved, that the
President, in the late executive proceedings, in re
lation to'the public revenue, has assumed upon him
self authority and power not conferred by the con
stitution and laws, but in derogation of both." The
above was offered by Mr. Clay, Dec. 26, 1833, and
passed March 28, 1834, by a majority of 26 to 20,

CHAP, XVII,] UNITED STATES' BANK. 127

CHAPTER XVII.
Baak Deposits  System of Credit  Mercantile Failures.—
Principle of Federal Bank. — Paper Money  Safety Fund of
New York  Fallacies about Bankers  Whigs and Tories.—^
Mr, Van Buren ; rejected by the Senate. — Reasons — Senate
not aristocratical  Party Feeling,-^Post Office. — Purity of
Bag secured. — Franking. — Assaults upon Members — Duelling.
— President Jackson a Soul-driver. — Abolition of Slave-
trade  Principles of Federal Union illusory.
The government deposits were removed from the
custody of the Bank of the United States about the
beginning of October 1833, From that time to
April 1st, 1834, the Bank reduced its loans to the
amount of rather more than five miUions and a half of
doUars; whUe it underwent, during the same period,
a reduction of the public moneys of 7,778,403 dollars.
According to Mr, Hardin, (representative from
Kentucky,) the whole amount of deposits removed
or withheld from the bank was 11,485,525 dollars.
The " pet " banks (as those were called to which
they were transferred) had but 3,386,309 dollars in

128 TOUR IN THE UNITED* STATES, [cHAP. XVII,
specie in their vaults, while the notes they had is
sued amounted to more than ten miUions. It was ob
jected to the Bank of the United States, that there
were ten miUions of doUars lying in its vaults, at fhe
time when the removal of the public revenues took
place. It seemed as if the executive indignation
increased with the security of the treasure he wished
to protect, and could only be appeased by its de
struction. The Manhattan Bank, at New York,
which is under the influence of a foreigner, (Lord
Carmarthen,) got the largest share of the govemment
favors, though its specie was but 208,545 doUars,
whUe its notes were 468,422 — a sorry equivalent for
2,149,011 dollars, which were entrusted to its cus
tody by the guardian of the national purse.
The president, in his veto message, after declaring
that the Bank of the United States makes by its
monopoly, greater profits than any other corporate
establishment ; and that more than one-fom-tb of the
stock-holders are foreigners; infers, from the com
petition which had recently led almost to riots, in
order to obtain shares in the local banks, that there
is abundance of capital in the country, sufficient to
obtain subscriptions for two hundred miUions of
dollars to a national bank on constitutional prin
ciples. If this be the case, how comes it that Ame
rican capitalists are contented with smaUer profits
to be had from other investments ? And why should
it be said, that " it would seem expedient to pro-

CHAP. XVII.] FOREIGN CAPITAL. 129
hibit the sale of United States' bank stock to aliens
under penalty of absolute forfeiture ? " That ca
pital should be abundant in a new country, possessed
of boundless tracts of fertile land still unoccupied^
where profits ai-e high, population is increasing with
a rapidity hitherto unknown, and every brick and
every clod are mortgaged, to bring its physical
powers into immediate exercise, involves a contra
diction that implies either sinister design or extra
ordinary confusion of ideas. The appeal to vulgar
prejudices that would reject capital because it is
supplied by foreigners, is unworthy of a statesman,
who ought to know, that to deprive the lender of
the benefit he expects is to punish the borrower,
who gains, in the difference between the interest he
pays and the profit he makes, what the merchant
finds in the increased value of the goods he imports
beyond what he has given in exchange. In the one
case the foreign capital is in the money ; in the other
in the merchandize. In both it is accumulated la
bor from without, setting dormant labor to work
within, — the products being shared between the
respective proprietors. It is singular, that to lend
capital to foreigners, is thought by many as incon
sistent with true patriotism, as to borrow it of them
appears to be to the President ; as if it were not
both natural and just, that those who suffer by
having too much of a good thing, should send it to
those who suffer by having too Uttle ; — thus esta-
g3

130 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVII,
blishing a commerce of reciprocal accommodation
and relief.
The " kitchen cabinet " and the colonization so
ciety emulate each other in absurdity. The latter
would send away nearly three milUons of its best
hands, while the country is looking to Europe for
fresh importations of labor ; and the former would
refuse capital from abroad, though every one is cry
ing out that the suffering is intolerable for want
of it at home.
The business of England may be said to be car
ried on by stored labor, and that of the United
Sta!tes by contingent labor ; the one being as much
characterised by an excess of capital, as the other
by the want of it. The results in each correspond
with these peculiarities ; and the competition to
escape from low profits, is as great as that to make
high profits. The system of trading upon credit
has, in the latter country, been canied to a ruinous
extent. The facility with which bUls ai-e endorsed,
and mutual accommodation procured, has exposed
commerce to reverses and expedients unkno-wn in
tke old world ; and the tendency to erect mercantile
enterprise on the basis of borrowing, is such as to
present the spectacle of a nation, composed, in a
great degree, of individuals who have mortgaged '
their bones and muscles to the exigencies and spe
culations of the moment.
It wiU be apparent to every one, that the shghtest

CHAP. XVII,] REMOVAL OF DEPOSITS. 181
shock given to any part of such a system, would
be communicated with electric rapidity throughout
-the whole. What, then, must have been the confu
sion and constemation, when the great sensorium,
by which the action of every bank, and the move
ment of every member of the commercial body,
corporate or individual, are regulated, was suddenly
and violently attacked ? No sooner was it known
that the govemment had withdrawn its cash and its
confidence from the federal bank, than a curtaUment
of discounts, an inability to meet existing engage
ments, and an unwiUingness to afford the usual ac
commodations, produced an universal demand for
money, and a necessary enhancement of its price.
Every day announced the faU of some establish
ment or some house, that in other times might easily
have extricated itself from its difficulties. The fre
quency of faUures was such as to become the first
subject of inquiry and the chief topic of conversa
tion. The resentment of the president increased
with the indignation his conduct excited every
where, and the unflinching firmness exhibited by
the enemy. The bank would not submit to be his
tool ; and the merchants would not sacrifice them
selves to his anger and his ambition. The capi-
taUsts and shopkeepers could not see the advantages
of his great "experiment" — they did not believe
that banks grow wealthy at the expense of the com
munity — that the rich oppress the poor, and that a

132 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVII,
metaUic currency is alone suited to a young and
commercial country.
As each State has its own banking system, the in
convenience arising from the diversity of value that
difference of situation, of industry, or of prudence,
stamps upon their respective currencies, is such as
to require some common standard, the fluctuations of
which may vary with the general condition only of
the country, and not be subject, like local notes, to
a discount in one place, whUe it is at par, or at a
premium, in another.
There is some sort of analogy between the Bank
of the United States and the supreme court ; the
former performing similar functions towards the
local establishments, that the latter doe& towards the
States themselves. The paper of the one, and the
decisions of the other, are current throughout the
Union ; because the one is received in payment of
taxes, and the other admit of no appeal ; while the
banks and courts pecuUar to each member of the
confederation, put forth nothing binding, beyond
their respective limits, upon the citizens of their
common country. A superintending power is re
quired, as much to balance fluctuating values, as to
regulate conflicting claims ; and a standard, by
which the rights of all, whether political or pecu
niary, may be definitely adjusted and assimilated, is
equally indispensable. Before the present Bank of
the United States was organized, the exchanges in

CHA'P. XVII.] SAFETY FUND, 133
Philadelphia were, with Boston seventeen per cent,,
with New York nine and a half per cent,, with
Baltimore four and a half, with Washington seven,
and -with Charleston six and a half per cent.
They have since been either at par, or below one per
cent. Such was the Report of the Board of Di
rectors in 1831. An instrument better fitted to con
solidate and harmonize the jarring elements of the
commercial world could hardly have been invented ;
and the constitution wlQ be no longer worth preserv
ing, when it falls by a weapon of its own creation.
Though President Jackson and his organs of the
press, both high and low, are declared enemies of
paper money, yet his chief supporters not only
maintain the system he attacks, but derive the prin
cipal means of the strength they exert in his favor,
from a most cunningly devised scheme for the per
petuation of what he professes to detest, I allude
to the safety fund of New York ; a sort of political
lever, by which the Albany regency can move the
whole State at its pleasure. This was adopted in
1819. AU banking corporations, subsequently cre
ated or re- chartered, are obliged to contribute to it.
The amount of their aggregate capital is 22,730,264
dollars. Sixty -nine banks are subj ect to it, and ten not
so. Nearly twenty-eight millions of capital belong to
the State banks. Since these calculations, however,
were made, new estabUshments have been formed,
and the number of applications to the legislature for

'134 TOUR IN TH5 UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVIJ,
a charter seems to be increasing. Each of the tri
butary banks pays one-half per cent, on its capital,
tUl the whole contribution amounts to three per
cent,; and, in case of failure, it has a claim on
the fimd for aU its debts beyond its assets. The
interest of this fund belongs to the contributors, in
proportion to what they have advanced ; and aU de
ficiencies in the capital, arising from the discharge
of its obligations towards insolvents, are made up by
further levies, according to the former ratio. The
whole fund is about 300,000 dollars.
Of course there is much diversity of opinion with
respect to the expediency and justice of this system ;
and party feeUng is imputed alike to its advocates
and its opponents ; the latter viewing it as a danger
ous instrument in the hands of the Albany regency,
and the former representing it as a weapon of defence
against the " Mammoth " Bank of the United States,
It would require a more intimate knowledge of the
position and politics of the country, than a stranger
may be supposed to possess, to strike the balance
fixactiy between these conflicting accusations, and
decide whether Nicholas Biddle is more likely to
upset the constitution, by awing the State banks,
and corrupting the Congress, than Martin Van Bu
ren by giving charters to the one, and sending mem
bers to the other, as may best serve the objects of
his ambition. It seems, however, to be a fair ob
jection to the system, that the benefits of this " mu-

CHAP. XVII,] BANKS. 135
tual insurance " are all on one side ; — that the rich
ai'e made to pay for the poor ; and the weakest esta
blishments are supported at the expense of the
strongest. The paternal interposition of govern
ment has thus the usual effect of producing the very
evil it was intended to prevent or remedy ; by making
the protection it offers an inducement to the specula
tion it professes to limit, and checking the natural
check to over issues, which would have been found
in the fear of loss it has removed, and the jealousy
of rivals it has disarmed.
A statement made, about the time of these dis
cussions upon the bank questions, in the legislature
of Massachusetts, by one of the members, (Mr.
Cushing,) affords a sufficient answer to the assertion,
so confidently made by the Jackson party, that
banking establishments are made to enrich the
wealthy by the plunder of the poor. Out of 10,000
shares in a bank, the books of which he had him
self inspected, Mr, Cushing found that 2834 be
longed to women, trastees and guardians ;— 2247 to
pubUc institutions; — 1551 to capitalists; — and the
remaining 3360 to persons in the industrious classes
of society.
The two great parties, 1^^ which the country is
rather distiactgd than divided, are known by the
appellation of Whigs and Tories ; — to designate the
opponents and the friends of the existing adminis
tration. They are animated with as much rancor

136 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVII,
towards each other as their prototypes ; — but uot
with equal benefit to the community, who have no
privileges to gain as the price of siding with either.
The hostUity that exists between them is embit
tered by considerations of a personal nature ; more
particularly those connected with the change of
ministers that followed their declining to visit
the wife of one of them, (Mr. Eaton,) and the
refusal of the senate to confirm Mr. Van Buren's
appointment as minister to England, The in
fluence of the latter " at court " appears to have
been strengthened in both cases ; though he was but
a mediator in the one, whjle he was the principal
actor in the other. The president, no doubt, found
an additional reason for his favor and support in the
injustice which his party loudly proclaimed had
been done to his secretary on this occasion. Yet
the objections, upon which the senate's refusal was
grounded, were of such a nature as to place them
beyond the limits of mere party feeling. It was al
leged against Mr. Van Buren, that he had compro
mised the dignity of the republic, by exposing the
dissensions which existed in it, and by claiming a
sort of merit with a foreign power for the adoption
of a more conciliatory tone on the part of the go
vemment, for which he was acting, than had been
shewn by its predecessor.
In allusion to the protracted difficulties to which
the trade between the United States and our West

CHAP, XVII,] MR, VAN BUREN, 137
Indian possessions had given rise, the secretary of
state (Mr, Van Buren) had instiucted Mr. M'Lane,
the American minister at the Court of St. James's,
to comply -with the conditions proposed. The fol
lowing language was employed by him, while speak
ing of the course pursued by the former administra
tion on the subject of the colonial trade : — " Their
views upon that point have been submitted to the
people of the United States ; and the counsels by
which your conduct is now directed, are the result
of the judgment expressed by the only earthly tri
bunal to which the late administration is amenable
for its acts. It shovdd be sufficient that the claims,
set up by them, and which caused the interruption
ofthe trade in question, have been expUcitly aban
doned by those who first asserted them, and are not
revived by their successors. If Great Britain deems
it adverse to her interests to allow us to participate
in the trade with her colonies, and finds nothing, in
the extension of it to others, to induce her to apply
the same rule to us, she will, we hope, be sensible of
the propriety of placing her refusal on those grounds.
To set up the acts of the late administration as the
cause of the forfeiture of privileges which would
otherwise be extended to the- people of the United
States, would, under existing circumstances, be un
just in itself, and could not fail to excite their deepest
sensibility. The tone of feeling, which a course so
unwise and untenable is calculated to produce, would

138 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVII.
doubtiess be greatly aggravated by the consciousness
that Great Britain has, by order in council, opened
her colonial ports to Russia and France, notwith.
standing a simUar omission on their part, to accept
the terms offered by the act of July, 1825,
" You cannot press this view of the subject too
earnestly upon the consideration of the British mi
nistry. It has bearings and relations that reach be
yond the immediate question under discussion,"
In another passage the secretary says : — " I wiU add
nothing as to the impropriety of suffering any feel
ings that find their origin in the past pretensions of
this govemment, to have an adverse influence upon
the present conduct of Great Britain,"
Mr, Van Buren now presides over the deliberations
pf that very body which declared him unworthy of
representing the nation at a foreign court, and acts
as the head of an assembly, which his party have
denounced as aristocratical and arbitrary : not that
there is any ground for the imputation, but because
it stands in the way of their designs. The senate
represents the States as the . other house represents
individuals ; and the federal equality could no more
exist without it, than the constitution could be im
partially and equitably administered without a judi
ciary of ultimate appeal in the supreme court of the
federal union.
Among the resolutions which were passed by the
seventh ward of the city of New York, preparatory

CHAP, XVII,] SENATE. 139
to the charter elections, was the following : — " That
in Martin Van Buren, Vice-President of the United
States, elected by the people in rebuke to preside
over the aristocratic branch of our govemment, not
elected by the people, we place entire confidence,
and we have no fears but that the vessel of the
State," &c.
There is no analogy whatever between the Senate
of the United States and the British House of Peers ;
nor can there be a grosser imposition upon the pub
lic mind, than that which is involved in the attempt
made by the Van Burenites to convict it, whether in
its structure or its functions, of aristocratic ten
dencies. It is essential to the sfabiUty of an union
between independent repubUcs ; as, by equality of
State representation, it confers on the citizens, taken
coUectively, the same equality, which they have in
dividually through the other legislative body. With
respect to rights, the States are thus placed in the
same relation to each other, as their constituent
parts stand in among themselves : and the whole body
is balanced by the same principle that regulates and
controls its members. The mode of their elec
tion cannot confer a new nature upon the mem
bers of the senate, or convert the representatives of
democratic legislatures into aristocratic function
aries. Party feeling is the bane of the country ; and its
tools are purchased at the expense of the commu-

140 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [cHAP, XVII,
nity. Its lamentable effects may be seen in the em
barrassed state of the post office ; the appointments
to which are too often decided by political prefer
ences. "Every deputy postmaster is directed" —
such was the assertion piiblicly made by Mr, Bur-
ges, at a dinner given to him at New York, in 1831,
— " to insert in his return the titie of every news
paper received at his office for distribution," When
Mr, M'Lean, in 1829, left the department, in which
he was not thought sufficiently pliable, and was pro
moted to the bench of the supreme court, the duties
of postmaster-general, during the vacancy, which
continued a month, were performed by Mr, Brad
ley, who had been the senior-assistant for thirty
years. Mr, Bradley was displaced from his office,
without any cause being assigned, and after the no
mination of Mr, Barry to the head of the depart
ment. In a letter to the president, after his dis
missal, among other charges of prodigaUty which he
aUeged against Mr. Barry, the late assistant post
master accused him of having made an extra allow
ance to a mail-contractor without warrant of law.
The charge was retorted on the accuser; and upon
inquiry, it came out, before a sub-committee of the
Senate, that no less than thirty-six cases ofthe same
kind, involving an amount of neariy 40,000 doUars,
existed. , In all of these, erasures had been riiade in
the book of " Abstiacts of Allowance " ; and the
name of Bradley substituted for those of M'Leaii

CHAP. XVII,] POST-OFFICE, 141
and Barry, by whom the allowance had, in fact, been
made, and who had been, long before this, presented
to the president for extravagance on this very ac
count. The Senate, finding that the postmaster-ge
neral had, in answer to their call, sent them muti
lated and false documents, refused to print the re
port of the committee on the post-office department,
as it contained unfounded aspersions on the cha
racter of a public servant — Mr, M'Lean having de
clared that he had never made an allowance while
be was in the office of postmaster-general, Mr,
Clayton, a member of the post-office committee, ob
served in the Senate, last session, that the abuses in
that department were too numerous to be ever ascer
tained. The fire at the Treasury office was found
very convenient as an excuse for the non-production
of papers and documents ; though the president had
stated, in his message to congress, that none were
lost which would materially affect the public inter
est. More public functionaiies are said to have been
displaced by the present administration than by all
the preceding presidents- collectively.
The rapidity with which the post-office has ex
tended its fibres over the body politic of the Union,
and the increase of returns, which has marked its
circulation, are traly astonishing. At the commence
ment of the century, there were but 903 offices at
tached to this department. In 1833, there were

42 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVII.
10,127. At the former period, the distance travelled
over by the mails was 20,817 miles ; and the amount
of postage, 280,804 dollars, — leaving a net revenue
of 66,810 doUars. At the latter period, the number of
miles bad increased to 119,916; and the receipts to
2,616,538 dollars ;— leaving, thaiiks to the liberal ma
nagement of Mr, Barry, a balance against the Ttea-
sury of 192,135 doUars. On the 1st of July, 1833, the
whole ground annually passed over by the mail had
neariy doubled itself in four years, being 26,854,485
miles. The amount of the receipts for the year
ending with March, 1833, was, according to a
report laid before Congress by the postmaster-gene
ral, 1,701,332 dollars. Of this sum the city of New
York alone paid more than one tenth ; and the State
nearly one fourth. The number of post-offices was
9550, Congress is as suspicious and distrustful of tbe
colored people as Canterbury, The foUowing is a
copy of a letter fi-om the postmaster-general, in
1828, to one of his subordinates in Connecticut: —
" Sir, — The maU must not, in any case whatever,
be in the custody of a colored person. If a colored
person is employed to lift the mail from the stage
into the post-office, it does not pass into his custody;
but the labor is performed in the presence and under
the immediate direction ofthe white'person who has
it in custody: but if a colored person takes it from
a tavem, and carries it himself to the post-office, it

CHAP, XVII,] PATRONAGE, 143
comes into his custody during the time of carrying
it, — which is contrary to law, I am, &c, John
M'Lean," Who would believe that there existed a civilized
nation, where it is iUegal for any but a " white
person " to carry a heavy bag, locked, chained, and
studded with nails ! — Nimium ne crede colori !
WhUe the black man is prohibited from carrying
the mail, the white man plunders its contents. In
stances were fi-equently mentioned in the newspapers,
of postmasters who had been detected in embez-
zUng money from letters entrusted to their care.
No less than twelve cases, it was stated, occurred
¦within six months to the east of Portland, in the
State of Maine,
There was a deficit in the department of nearly
40,000 doHars in 1823, The postmaster attributed
it to the deUnquencies committed by the, lower func
tionaries, " It is expected," he said, in his circular
to the contractors for the mail, "that those post
masters who have appropriated the public money to
theu- own use, and have for years exhibited but little
disposition to refund it, wiU pay their respective
balances without delay." This is almost as bad as
if the unhallowed hand of an "African" had laid
bold of the bag !
The postmaster-general has , the appointment of
all the subordinate postmasters throughout the
Union. This patronage gives him immense power

144 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVII,
and influence ; and, as he is removable by the
Executive, the latter has in his hands an instrument,
which a man, who is disposed to put his own ar
bitrary spirit into the letter of his prerogative, will
not scruple to use, to stiengthen his party. These
"dovecotes" have been terribly "fluttered" under
the present administration: — a summary mode of
persuasion to " all in authority under them." A
man must have a pure skin to can-y the bag ; but
will a pure conscience keep him in the place where
it is deposited ?
Members of both Houses of Congress have, dur
ing the session, and for both the periods of six
weeks that precede and follow it, the unlimited pri
vilege of fi-anking letters ; and are, many of them,
as little scrupulous in converting what was granted
for pubUc purposes, to objects of private benefit, as
their brother legislators in England, Mr, Barry,
soon after his appointment to the office he now
holds, stated in his circular to those under him, that
it was a subject of no httie regret, to observe, on
entering upon his official duties, that much loss had
been sustained by the abuse of the fi-anking pri
vilege. Among those who feU victims to the cholera last
year at Hxu-on, in the State of Ohio, was a lawyer of
the name of Robinson, from Vermont, Among his
papers were found forty sheets of blank letter-paper,
bearing the frank of the Honorable Mr, Plummer,

CHAP. XVII,] ARGUMENTUM BACULINUM. 145
Member of Congress fi-om Mississippi, In his ti-unk
there were poUtical letters, addressed to him by va
rious correspondents, aU franked by the same honor
able member, " It was ascertained" (says the Al
bany Evening Post, Aug, 1834) "that Mr, Robinson
had put in, and taken out of, the post-office several
letters, all bearing the same frank,""
Liberty of speech can hardly be said to exist in a
legislative body, which cannot, or wiU not, protect
its members fi-om insult and outrage, whether within
or without its waUs, In the summer of 1832, the
Globe, a govemment paper, publicly accused Mr.
Poindexter, and others of the " Calhoun side of the
coalition," of having, dming the winter preceding,
sent chaUenges to their fellow members while sitting
in their places in the house, A short time before,
WiUiam Stanberry, a member of the house of repre
sentatives, was, to use his own words in his letter to
the Speaker, " waylaid in the street, near his board
ing-house, about eight o'clock, and attacked, knocked
down by a bludgeon, and severely bruised and
wounded by Samuel Houston, for words spoken in his
place in the house of representatives ; by reason of
which beating he was confined to his bed, and unable
to discharge his duties in the house, and attend to the
interests of his constituents," On investigation, it
appeared that two or three persons were present when
the assault was made ; and though the beating was
continued, with the consequent struggle, for some
VOL. II. H

146 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XVII.
time, no one interposed to separate the parties en
gaged ;' of whom the one attacked drew forth a pistol,
with which he was provided in anticipation of the
outrage, and snapped it, without effect, at his ag
gressor. The matter was laid before the house, and,
several long and adjourned discussions ensued, during.
which the accused (who had been formerly a member
of the house) was permitted to cross-examine the
witnesses upon points, bearing not only upon the
assault, but upon matters which might be presumed
to have led to it ; and the other party endeavored
to remove, by testimony, any impression that circum
stances " calculated to throw disgi-ace and ridicule"
upon him, as they were said to have occurred during
the rencontre, might have left. The whole resulted
m a reprimand from the Speaker, and a discharge
from the custody of the sergeant-at-arms, to which
the assailant had been committed. During the ex
amination, the prisoner was allowed to put the fol
lowing question from the bar of the house to one of
the witnesses, an intimate fiiend of Mr. Stanberry,
whose feelings must have been much hurt by the an
swer given : — " Did or did not Colonel Buckner re
mark to you that Mr. Stanberry behaved very cow
ardly, and begged very much ; and that he deserved
a good whipping for not making a better fight,— or
words to that effect ?— and did you not express^to
Colonel Buckner your regret at the conduct of said
Stanberry, as related by Buckner in that affair?"

CHAP. XVII,] RESPECTFUL PROTEST, 147
The following protest, from Mr, Houston, was en
tered on the journal of the house ; Mr, Archer hav
ing assured the members, before it was read, that it
contained nothing disrespectful : — '
" To the Honorable the House, &c,
" The accused, now at the bar of the House, asks
leave respectfully to state : — -
" That he understands he is now brought before
the House to receive a reprimand from the Speaker,
in execution of the sentence pronounced upon him.
Was he to submit in silence to such a sentence, it
might imply that he recognized the authority of the
House to impose it. He cannot consent that it shall
be thus implied. He considers it a mode of punish
ment unknown to our laws ; and if not forbidden
by the prohibition of fhe constitution against ' unu
sual punishments ', yet inconsistent with the spirit of
our institutions, and unfit to be inflicted upon a free
citizen. " He thinks proper to add, in making this de
claration, that he has been unwUUng to trouble the
House, That, though he believes the whole pro
ceeding against him, as well as the sentence he now
objects to, unwarranted by the constitution of his
country ; yet circumstances may exist to justify or
excuse a citizen in determining (as he has done on
this. occasion) to suffer in silent patience whatever
the House may think proper to enforce. Samuel
Houston,"
h2

148 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVII,
After this business had been disposed of, Mr,
Cooke, of Ohio, produced the following letter, which
M^as read to the House at the clerk's table.

" Hon. E. Cooke. " Brown's Hotel, May 12, 1832.
" SIR,
" During my examination before the House of Re
presentatives, in the case of General Houston, you
very impertinently asked, among other questions,
my business in this city. Whilst the trial of Ge
neral Houston was pending, I deferred calhng on
you for the explanation which I now demand through
my friend General Demitry. " I am, &c,, " E. S. DAVIS."
Mr. Arnold, of Tennessee, having said, in answer
to certain remarks ¦which this communication had
elicited, that " he believed the letter and the threat
preceding it, were intended to overawe the House,
which had, by its own act, virtually invoked insult
and outrage from every ruffian in the land ; and that
the decision in the case of Houston amounted to a
call, an invitation to all ruffians and assassins that
could be collected, and were propelled by a secret
power that was irresistible ; " Mr, Stanberry rose
and said, that " he had on a former occasion de
clared that the President of the United States had

CHAP, XVII,] ASSAULT, 149
encouraged assaults of this nature ; and there was
not a gentleman on the floor, who had ventured
to contiadict the assertion. He had then offered
to prove it : he now reiterated that offer. He was
prepared with ¦witnesses; and, in half an hour,
would have them before the house." Mr, Stan
berry wished that an inquiry into the president's
conduct should be one of the objects of the com
mittee proposed on this occasion ; but he was de
feated by a call for the previous resolution, — which,
when modified, stood thus : — " Resolved, that the
communication of the Honorable E, Cooke, a mem
ber from Ohio, be referred to a select committee,
consisting of seven members, to report the fact, and
their opinion whether, the same establish a con
tempt and breach of privilege of this house or not ;
and that said committee have power to send for per
sons and papers," This was negatived by eighty-
seven to eighty-five ; as was also, on a subsequent
day, an effort made to pass certain resolutions, of
which one was, " that a select committee should be
appointed, with instructions to inquire and report
what measures are necessary to protect the Uves and
persons of the representatives of the people in this
house, and to secure to them their constitutional
privileges of freedom of speech and deliberation."
The majority here was ninety-five to eighty-one.
On the 15th of May, Mr. Arnold was assaulted by
a man of the name of Heard, who had, a few days

ISO TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVH.
previously, accosted him and threatened to " whip"
him, for having abused his friend Mr, Houston so
severely. On his way home, according to the United
States' Telegraph, " he was assaulted by Morgan A.
Heard, who aimed a blow at his head with a large
stick. Mr. Arnold dodged the blow, and immediately
struck the stick from his adversary's hands ; where
upon Heard drew a large duelling pistol, cut down
to about eight inches in the barrel, carrying an ounce
ball ; and, after taking deliberate aim, fired ; the ball
passing through the sleeve ofthe right arm, just above
the elbow, ranging up to the shoiUder, and carrying
away part of the coat and shirt, and lacerating the
arm. Mr. Arnold, finding Heard armed with a pis
tol, followed up his blows with a light sword-cane,
until the scabbard flew off; and, having several times
knocked him down, was in the attitude of piercing
him with the sword, when his arm was arrested by
General Duncan, of Illinois."
Bills of indictment were found by the grand jury
for the county of Washington, against Houston and
Heard for assault with intent to kUl ; but what was
the result I know not.
Severe laws have been passed in the different
States against duelling; but tbey are constantiy
broken or evaded. Difficulty of procuring evidence,
or change of territory, shelters the offenders. And it
will always be so while public opinion, however
wrong, has more terrors than remorse for acknow-

CHAP, XVII,] DUELLING, 151
ledged guilt. Besides, the punishment that the law
inflicts falls on the wrong object. It is not he who
fights, but he who would condemn him for not fight
ing, that ought to be its victim. Though very com
mon in the South, duelling is scarcely ever practised
in the North, where no laurels are to be gained, and
no danger to be arrested, by an exhibition of physical
courage, ' The melancholy sacrifice of one of the best
pubhc men, by the hand of one of the worst, has not
tended to lessen the disinclination of settling disputes
by single combat, Hamilton left on record the dis
approbation he had always felt against a practice
which Burr turned into a weapon of destruction
against him. Who is to blame, if a degraded states
man seeks to wash his character in the blood of an
opponent, and picks out the most estimable citizen
as the object of his vengeance ? The world will give
him credit for personal bravery, when he has lost his
character for poUtical principle or consistency. The
distinction between public and private virtue is fatal
to both, by covering the loss of either with the sem
blance of the other. Hence it is that convicted swin
dlers become patriots, and a corruptionist blusters
about his honor, or cants about his religion.
When Mr, Clay had fought with John Randolph,
he said publicly, " I owe it to the community to
say, that, whatever heretofore I may have done, or
by inevitable circumstances may be forced to do, no
man in it holds in deeper abhorrence than I do, the

152 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVII
pemicious practice of duelling. Condemned, as it
must be, by the judgment and philosophy, to say
nothing of the religion, of every thinking man, — it is
an affair of feeling, about which we cannot, although
w^e should, reason. The true corrective will be found
when all shall unite, as all ought to unite, in its un
qualified proscription." In other words, no one will
practise it when — no one will practise it. Public
opinion will triumph then, as it does now, and for
the same reason, — because those who are falsely sup
posed to direct it vrill not dare to oppose it. To de
fer the exercise of moral courage till it is not wanted,
is to encourage the weakness, against which it should
be directed : — a weakness that will never cease while
men condemn it and yield to it at the same time,
without fear of being laughed at,
Hamilton, before he went out with Burr, who shot
him, declared that his religious and moral principles
were strongly opposed to duelling. After he had re
ceived the fatal wound, he said, " I view the late
transaction with sorrow and contrition," This cow
ardly fear of being thought cowardly, is like our vul
gar fear of being thought vulgar.
The accusation of encouraging assaults upon his
political opponents, is not the only, or perhaps the
most unfavorable, imputation upon the character of
the president ; though an expression he once used,
in speaking of these or simUar quarrels, that they
ought to be settied in " red ink," implies an atrocity

CHAP, XVII,] president's PROFESSION. 153
of disposition that may set at defiance any act of his
life, I allude to a letter which appeared in ¦ May
1828, in the National Journal of Tennessee, The
foUowing is a copy: —
" I have been charged with dealing in slaves, by
the partizans of General Jackson, They know not
on what slippery ground they tread. To them this
should have been a tender point. They did not
surely know that their own idol was himself once
engaged to a considerable extent in this tiaffic of
human flesh, — in the buying and selling of slaves for
profit. And I can say with tenfold emphasis, in their
own language, ' this charge is not lightly made,'
Deny it if he dare, " A. ERWIN."
The above letter was dated from Union Town, in
Ohio, and was foUowed in June by a repetition of
the charge, through the columns of the Nashville
Banner. These were his words : — " I now repeat
that, as soon as it is denied by General Jackson, or
any authorised person on his behalf, that he has
been concemed in the buying and selling of slaves,
I hold myself in readiness to sustain my statement
by evidence which cannot be denied ; and, to correct
false imputations as to my informant, I will further
state that the first information I ever had on the sub
ject of General Jackson's dealing in slaves, was from
himself, about the year 1811, in the town of Nash-
viUe,"
H 3

154 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVII.
In another journal, the Political Examiner, ap
peared a communication from Major M'llhen-ny,
" In the year 1811," says the Major, " I was stationed
with the troops at Washington cantonment, Missis
sippi territory. General Jackson spent three or four
days in our cantonment in quarters with Colonel
Purdy, who commanded a battalion of the 7th regi
ment of infantry fi-om Tennessee, The General was
then a militia officer ; and, during his stay, was ex
ceedingly attentive to our drills. Some time after
the visit of General Jackson to our cantonment,
being in the village of Washington, (Mississippi ter
ritory,) where the legislature had convened, and in
company with C, Meade, Speaker of the house of
delegates; Silas Dinsmore, Choctaw agent; and se
veral of my brother officers, — the good effects result
ing from an arrangement to carry passports, when
passing through the Indian nation, was spoken of
A number of deserters from the army, runaway ne
groes, kidnappers, horse-thieves, and many others,
fugitives from justice, had been arrested at the agency,
or in the nation ; and it was stated by some gentle
men present, that the members from the upper part
of the territory, who had taken their seats in the le
gislature, had carried their passports with them, in
conformity with this happy arrangement, Mr, Dins-
more then related the following anecdote of General
Jackson ; who, he said, in passing down with a drove
ofnegroes,halted at theagencyto refresh. Being aboi4

CHAP. XVII,] SLAVE-TRADE, 155
to proceed, Mr, Dinsmore observed that it was neces
sary for persons passing through the nation to shew
their passports. General Jackson replied, that " Ge
neral Jackson required no passport to travel through
the Indian nation," Mr. Dinsmore said that he did
not know General Jackson from any other man ; and
that demanding his passport was in conformity with
instiuctions from the war department. , By this
time the General, having sent forth his negroes, had
mounted his horse ; and, laying his hand upon his
pistols, significantly replied, " these are General
Jackson's passports,"
Most of the presidents have been slave -own ers : —
the present is the first slave-driver.
These facts, whUe brought forward to serve an
electioneering purpose, shew both the character of
tiie chief magistrate, and the low estimation in which
his former employment is held by the public.
The slave-trade was abolished by Congress in
1808:— on the first day of which year, the act for its
suppression came into operation. It was not, how
ever, tUl 1819, that the power previously given to
the States, into which slaves should be Ulegally in
troduced, to dispose of them according to their good
wiU and pleasure, was withdrawn ; and the presi
dent authorized and required to restore them to their
country*. As the Americans claim credit for putting
* Up to the year 1830, 252 Africans had, in pursuance ofthe
act suppressing the slave-trade, been sent to Liberia, at an ex-

156 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVII,
a stop to the traffic, it may not be amiss to ask, what
they did for the protection of its victims ? When we
find that they were placed at the mercy of the very
persons who were most interested in abusing the
tmstj we are compeUed to doubt either their good
sense or their sincerity. The act of Congress, which
prohibited the introduction of slaves from abroad
into the United States, declared that, in case of in
fraction, aU titie in the importer should be nuU and
void ; and every person thus imported, should " re
main subject to any regulation, not contravening the
provisions of this act, that the legislature ofthe se
veral States or territories (into which they shall be
introduced) at any time hereafter may make for dis
posing of such negro, mulatto, or person of color,"
The effect of this clause was such as ought to have
been foreseen. One case will be sufficient to place
its tendency in its true light. In 1817, a slave-ship
that had been sent to Africa by a Spaniard at the
pense of 264,710 dollars. Though the authority given to the
president was imited to the support of the captured slaves tiU
their return to Africa, yet it had been the practice to furnish
them with provisions, &c., during a period varying from sin to
twelve months. The navy department, however, resolved, as
the secretary stated in his report for that year, that the law
would, in future, be executed according to its restricted accept
ation ; and that every effort would be made to confine the ap
plication of the funds destined for this purpose within the pale
pf its provisions.

CHAP. XVII.J STATE DROITS, 157
Havana, of th? name of Madrazo, was returning to
Cuba with her cargo, when she was captured by an
American vessel, which had been fitted out at Balti
more, and the negroes on board were sold by Com
modore Aury to a man of the name of Bowen, By
the latter they were taken to Georgia, and delivered
over, by the custom-house officer who had seized
them, to the State govemment. And here we shall see
how these miserable beings, who had thus escaped
from the Charybdis of the middle passage, feU into
the clutches of this mercUess, murderous ScyUa, The
legislature immediately placed them at the disposal
ofthe Governor, authorizing him to sell them for the
benefit of the State, or tiansfer them on certain con
ditions to the Colonization Society. Part of them
were sold ; and the State had the benefit of 38,000
dollars by the sale. The rest, about twenty in num
ber, were claimed by the Colonization Society, Thus
stood the affair, when, at three different periods in
1820, and the following year, three appUcations were
made to the district court of the State, by the Go
vernor, Madrazo, and Bowen ; the former requesting
authority to make over the slaves that remained to
the Society, — and the two latter claiming, under
suitable pretences and allegations, their right to the
" property" thus seized and disposed of The dis
trict court having directed that the Govemor's former
acts should be confirmed, and his application granted,
¦dismissed the claims of the others. An appeal was

158 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVII.
Ihen made by the latter to the Circuit Court, which
affirmed the decree affecting Bowen's case, but re
versed that bearing upon Madrazo's, declaring him
to be entitled to the whole, — both the slaves that re
mained, and an equivalent for those that had been
sold. The matter was ultimately brought, by appeal,
before the Supreme Court of the United States;
where, after a discussion about jurisdiction, the
judgment was against both Madrazo and Bowen, —
and the " thirty pieces of silver "remained in the trea
sury ofthe commonwealth of Georgia, The decision
was in 1828,
When, in 1824, a convention was agreed on be
tween Great Britain and the United States, for the
suppression of the slave-trade, by granting a recipro
cal right of search between the vessels of the two
nations, the good faith of the latter, in their efforts
to put a stop to this piratical traffic, was fairly put to
the test. The second article of the convention pur
ported that " the commanders and commissioned of
ficers of each of the two high contracting parties,
duly authorised, &c,, to cruize on the coast of Africa,
of America, and of the West Indies, for the suppres
sion of the slave-trade, shall be empowered, &c.,to
detain, examine, captm-e, and deliver over for teial
and adjudication, by some competent tribunal, of
whichever of the two countries it shall be found, on
examination, to belong to, any ship or vessel con
cerned in the illicit traffic of slaves, and carrying the

CHAP. XVII,] ILLICIT SLAVE-TRADE, 159
flag of the other, or owned by any subjects or citi
zens of either of the two contracting parties ; except
when in the presence of a ship of war of its own na
tion," &c. The words " of America" were struck
out in the Senate by a majority of 23 to 20 ; whUe a
motion that was made to strike out the words " and
of the West Indies", was negatived by 29 to 14,
With two or three other " amendments ", the ratifica
tion of the convention was agreed to. After this al
teration, however, our Govemment declined acceding
to the treaty. It is a memorable fact, that the first
person convicted of having been engaged in the
slave-trade, which an act of Congress had declared
to be piracy, was pardoned by the president.
If the Southerners are not much belied, this exe
crable traffic is still carried on by them. It can
hardly be otherwise, considering the high price of
slaves, and the facilities afforded to smuggling by the
vicinity of Cuba. During the discussions which the
Missouri questions gave rise to, it was openly stated
in Congress, that 12,000 slaves had been brought il-
licitiy into the southem States during the course of
one year, " We have," said Mr, Justice Story, in
his charge to the grand jury, at Boston, in 1819,
" but too many melancholy proofs, from unquestion
able sources, that it (the slave-trade) is still carried
on with all the implacable ferocity and insatiable ra
pacity of former times. Avarice has grown more

160 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XVII,
subtle in its evasions, and watches and seizes its
prey with an appetite quickened rather than sup
pressed by its guilty vigUs, American citizens are
steeped to their very mouths (I scarcely use too bold
a figure) in this stream of iniquity. They throng to
the coast of Africa, under the stained flags of Spain
and Portugal ; — sometimes selling abroad ' their
cargoes of despair,' and sometimes bringing them
into some of our southem ports ; and there, under
the forms of the law, defeating the purposes of the
law itself, and legalising their inhuman, but profit
able, adventures."
The way in which this traffic is carried on, is as
follows: — An agent is despatched to Cuba or to
Africa, for the purpose of purchasing slaves for the
United States. As soon as the vessel arrives with
its cargo off the Balize, the agent proceeds to New
Orleans, and gives notice to the authorities of her
arrival with an illegal freight. Proceedings are in
stituted against ber, and, on her condemnation, the
slaves are sold by public auction at a price consider
ably below their real value. The purchaser is, by
previous agreement, the importer ; and half the pro
ceeds are pocketed by the informer ; the other be
longing to the general govemment. Not less than
10,000 were thus introduced in one year (1818), The
statement was contradicted by a writer in the " Fe
deral RepubUcan," though his admission tiiat one

CHAP. XVII,] WEAR AND TEAR, 161
sale had taken place in pursuance of the law on the
subject, at prices amounting to 1000 dollars a-head*,
fuUy justifies any suspicion with regard to the fraud
and coUusion practised. In June 1821, no less than
109 negroes, that had been captured from a slave-
ship in 1818, were held as slaves in Alabama, sub
ject to the decision ofthe Supreme Court, which had
taken recognizances from their owners to produce
them when demanded. In 1818, the collector ofthe
customs at Darien delivered over to the Governor of
Georgia 91 captured slaves; the Secretary of the
Treasury (Mr, Crawford) not having favored him
with any reply to a letter he wrote to him on the
subject. Since the law has undergone an alteration, eva
sion must find some other way to defeat its inten
tions. That the destruction of human life in the South,
whether from insufficient food, a pestilential climate,
or severe labor, is so great as to keep up a constant
demand from without, may be inferred from a state
ment in the "New Orleans Argus" of September, 1830,
In order to shew that the cost of raising sugar is
greater in Louisiana than in Cuba, the writer says,
that a slave in the latter requires little or no clothing,
and is fed for a trifle ; whereas his food and clothing
in the former cost fifty doUars per annum. He then
adds : " the loss by death in bringing slaves from a
* These prices were most likely nominal only.

16S TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVII,
¦northern climate, which our planters are under the
necessity of doing, is not less than twenty-five per
oent," If this estimate be correct, how can it be
with truth "asserted, that the slaves are happy, and
well-treated ,? If it is not correct, what credit is to
be given to any evidence from the same quarter (
Why should the planter spare his " cattle ", when
the difference between the cost of rearing and of
importing will more than cover the loss from " wear
and tear " .? Humanity has no place on the creditor
side of his ledger. He will find it some day on the
other, *
While Louisiana turns smuggler, Virginia is seek
ing new markets. " Perhaps ", says a citizen of the
latter State, in a note to the American Quarterly
Review (Sept, 1832), " one of the greatest blesisings
(if it could be reconciled to our consciences) which
could be conferred on the southern parts of the
Union, would arise, from the total abolition of tbe
African slave-trade, and the opening of the West
Indian and South American markets to our slaves.
We do not beUeve that the deportation to any other
quarter, or in any other way, can ever effect the
shghtest diminution." What a horrible suggestion.!
As for the scheme lessening the numbers, he who
recommends it must weU know, it would have a
contrary effect. They would be exported, on one
side, because the trade was profitable; and the profit
would be a bonus upon production. They would be

CHAP, XVII,] FEDERAL FORM, 168
imported, on the other, because the price of the
foreign article would be less than that of the home
grown ; and the difference would be a bonus upon
over-working. Hence destruction of life in the latter
case would be at once the effect and the cause of its
increase in the former. What a detestable circle of
crime and cruelty ! Is it possible that a system,
thus opposed to tbe best feelings of our nature, and
destructive of those principles on which the wealth
and welfare of nations depend, can much longer
continue ?
Nothing can be imagined more perfect than the
political mechanism of this republican confederation ;
whether you look at the complexity of its structure
or the simplicity of its action. Each body moves
in its own orbit, with periodical changes adapted to
its magnitude and condition; and all revolve together
round their common centre, without confusion or
coUision. The federal form seems to secure the best
check to the personal and social infirmities of man.
In his individual capacity, he is amenable to the
State ; in his coUective, to the general govemment.
An analogous development is given to his good qua
lities ; and the same virtues which, when separately
exercised, might have created discord and blood
shed, produce, in conjunction, peace and harmony.
Such is the aspect presented by'a distant and general
view. Upon a closer inspection, however, you dis
cover a principle that menaces the system with de-

164 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [cHAP, XVII,
stmction or dissolution : you see the unequal division
of Ught and liberty between the North and the South;
and approaching separation casts her gloomy shadow
before your eyes. You turn from the prospect with
the bitterest feelings of regret and disappointment.

CHAP. XVIII,] SPEECHES IN CONGRESS. 165

CHAPTER XVIIL,
Speeches in Congress  Claims on the French — Visit to Pre
sident  Alexandria  Discontent among the Merchants. —
Mount Vernon. — Judge Washington's Slaves — Estabhshment
of Slave-dealer  Slaves half starved  Virginia  Depopula
tion. — New kind of Entail. — Stage Adventure. — Warrenton.
— Election Speeches,
Mr, Leigh's speech was not published while I re
mained at Washington, If it appeared at all, it
must have been a long time after it was delivered. It
is not the custom for the reporters to take down the
speeches in Congress at length, as with the French
and ourselves. The inhabitants of Manchester or of
Rouen may read the next day the whole of what
has been said in the House of Commons or the
Chamber of Deputies ; but the good citizens of
Washington itself may wait for weeks, and even
months, before they know, unless they were present,
what has been uttered within the walls of the Capitol,
The honorable members frequently prepare their

166^ TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVIII,
own speeches for the press ; and a long time some
times elapses between the delivery and the pubUc-
ation. It happens occasionaUy that the latter takes
place without the former, as in the recent case of
Mr, Adams, the ex-president, who was prevented
from speaking, as he had intended, in the House of
Representatives, on the deposit question ; the debate
having been brought, by a manoeuvre, to a speedy
conclusion, in order, as it was said, to influence the
New York elections, by passing resolutions approving
of the measures of govemment. The very circum
stance of having had no hearers would probably,
procure more readers for Mr, Adams, The speech,,
when published, contained sentiments that would
appear to an European reader very singular in the
mouth of an ex-president against a successful com
petitor for " the throne."
" Strip Andrew Jackson and Roger B, Taney of
the little brief authority which invests them with
the privilege of slandering their feUow-citizens with'
impunity, and neither of them would dare to charge-
any of those men I have named, (the United States'
bank directors,) neither (either) before their places,
or anywhere in the presence of credible, impartial
witnesses, with dishonesty or corruption — either in
general terms or by any one specification. Neither
of them would dare to go to the city of PhUadelphia,
and there, in any possible manner, avow a charge
against any one of those men whieh could makeup

CHAP. XVni.] FRENCH CHARTER. 167
an issue for a test of character by a verdict of their
peers." The president, like his brother potentates in
Europe, seems to be less popular at the seat of go
vemment than elsewhere. The citizens of Wash
ington, having no vote, except for the cofporation,
complain that the removal, by which the present
presidept's accession to power was marked, of func
tionaries from the public service, has rendered the
tenure of office so precarious, that a spirit of pru
dent economy has succeeded to the former expendi
ture ;¦ and a proportionate diminution in the demafld,
for many things previously supplied by the tiades-
men has taken place : — while fewer houses have been
built, and other checks have been given to com
merce, in addition to the distress which the shock,
to credit, occasioned by the sudden change in the
disposal of the public revenue, has effected. They
think it hai-d to be disfranchised and inapoverished
too; — to lose the compensation which their political
insignificance received from the circulation of the
govemment money: — to have neither their birt;h-
right nor their mess of pottage.
The president appears to understand the limits of
the legislative power as fully as he observes those of
the executive ; and to be as much " at home" abroad,
as his enemies say he is " abroad" at home. He is
no less conversant with the French charter than, he

168 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVIII.
is with the constitution of his own country ; and is
equally competent to lecture the Chamber of Depu
ties and the Senate of the United States, Hence, in
bis message at the opening of the session, in aUu
sion to the difficulties that had arisen from the non
payment by France, at the stipulated time, of the
money due from her to the United States, he ex
pressed his conviction that the French legislature
would confirm what the French king had done;
though subsequent events made it appear that there
was as little coincidence of opinion between them,
as between two of the co-ordinate powers they had
to deal with; the Chamber of Deputies refusing
their sanction to the treaty in question, and the biU
drawn on the French treasury, on the faith of it,
having been protested. The following are the
words alluded to in the message : " Notwithstand
ing it has been supposed by the French ministry
that the financial stipulations of the treaty cannot
be carried into effect without an appropriation by
the Chambers, it appears to me to be not only con
sistent with the charter of France, but due to the
character of both governments, as weU as to the
rights of our citizens, to treat the convention made
and ratified, in proper form, as pledging the good
faith of the French govemment for its execution,
and as imposing upon each department an obhga
tion to fulfil it ; and I have received assurances, &c.

CHAP, XVIII,] INTRODUCTION TO PRESIDENT. 169
that the delay has not proceeded from any indispo
sition on the part of the king and his ministers to
fiUfil the treaty," &c.
Whether this dispute was preconcerted between
the Tuileries and the "white house"* to divert
public attention from what was going on at both ;
whether it was affection for Nicholas the autocrat
of Russia, or fear of Nicholas + the autocrat of the
bank ; or whether it was for the " glory and honor "
of an insulted nation and their chivalrous chief, that
the peace of the world was threatened, the excite
ment produced by this paltry claim proves the
sensitive state of the public mind in both countiies,
and the influence it may be made to exercise upon
, collateral subjects. The wily diplomatists of Wash
ington wUl pause before they drive France into a
complete acknowledgment of Haytian independence,
or an adoption of measures that may affect Cuba by
emancipating Martinique.
On the 24th of April, I left Washington ; having,
previously to my departure, been intioduced to the
president by Major Smith, to whom I had brought a
* A famihar term appUed to the president's official house,
f Nicholas Biddle, the rival president, of the Mammoth
bank ; which is destined to swaUow up the constitution, after
having bribed the members of both houses of Congress, de
luged the country with foreign gold, and bought up all the
newspapers and revie^s^s,
VOL, I. I

170 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XVIII.
letter of inteoduction from New York. The resi
dence, appropriated to the chief magistrate of the
Union, is a handsome, but not a splendid buUding,
similar, in the size and arrangements of the rooms,
to the private house of a country gentleman in Engr
land of ten or twelve thousand a year. It is fiirr
nished with much taste, and in a style sufficiently
costly for a man whose official income is little more
than five thousand pounds sterling — the same amount
of salary as it was when fixed in 1793. But the
president of the United States is not a Scotch judge-
he is not obUged to follow the fashions of the day,
and teach the worthy citizens of Washington how
to spend their money.
We found the president, on our entrance to his
sitting room, with two persons in close conversation.
He rose from his chair, and received us vdth the
usual ceremonies of the country; and, having re
quested us to be seated, resumed the discourse with
his other guests. The topic, which lasted the whole
time I remained, — about half an hour, — was entirely
political, and referred to the agitation which his
message to the senate had produced ; digressing at
intervals to the conduct of the bank party, the un
just imputations thrown but by the opposition upon
his character, and the purity of motives by which he
had been ever actuated. Though the greater part
of what was said I had frequently heard before, in

CHAP, XVIII,] COURTIERS AT WASHINGTON. 171
the shape of accusation or reply, I could not but be
interested in the recital of -svrongs, and the assertion
of principles, through which the character of the
man before me stood out in bold relief It was
plain enough, that, strong personal feeUng had been
mixed up with no small portion of what had been
pubhcly done or said ; and that any weakness con
nected ¦with either, presented vulnerable points both
to foes and friends. One or two things, during this
short interview, struck me very forcibly. I saw
clearly that a man's good opinion of himself is the
best handle by which you may lead him ; that truth
has as little chance of a famihar acquaintance with
republican presidents as with imperial potentates;
and that an American need not go to St, Peters
burgh or St, James's to find a courtier. I was, in
deed, not a little surprised at the gross flattery with
which this old man was fed ; and I much doubt,
whether Washington would have aUowed any one,
if such a person could have been found, to tell
him that his visitors had spoken of him, as pos
sessed ofthe most courteous gentlemanlike ad
dress, exhibiting the most perfect candor and good
sense, and inspired with a love of truth that must
impress every one with respect, and convert oppo
nents into friends. Such was the sort of language
used, on this occasion, by men who professed the
highest regard for their chief magistiate, while they
I 2

172 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVIII,
were doing their utmost to sink him in the estima
tion of a stranger, Oxenstiern's well known re
mark to his son recurred to my mind ; and I per
ceived that as little wisdom was required to govern
in the new as in the old world.
The president, among other things, said, that that
august body, the Senate, had disgraced itself by its
personal attack upon him ; and that Mr, Clay had
asserted what he must have known to be false, as
the expression attributed to him was never uttered.
Mr, Clay, however, did not say what was false in
fact; as he spoke merely of what had been a rumor;
adding that the credit given to it was an evidence of
public opinion, and the fears it had excited were
now realized. He alluded to what was said to have
passed between the president and Joseph Buona
parte ; to whom the former is represented as having
declared that he should take Napoleon for the model
of his govemment. It was on the occasion of
another message, a sort of postscript to the protest,
disavowing any intention on the part of the presi
dent to assume an uncontioUed power over the public
revenues, that Mr, Clay, who had been absent for a
few days, expressed himself in a manner so offensive
to the former. My companion seemed anxious to
tum the conversation ; and repeated to General
Jackson something I had said, on our way to the
house, about the state of Europe, It soon, however,

CHAP, X'VIII,] ALEXANDRIA. 173
reverted to its former channel ; and the slight inter
ruption gave greater violence to the current. For
my part, I was altogether astonished at a scene for
which I was quite unprepared. When the " rabble"
that had followed Mr, Webster was spoken of with
derision ; when the exploits at New Orleans were
adduced as a proof that there would be no yielding
to the menaces and threats that were said to have
been made : and a joke of Mrs, Gadsby was related,
that " she would head the ladies of Washington in
defence of ' old Hickory' ":^the attentive auditors
fiUed up each pause with a smUe of approval, or an
hysterical laugh, as forced as their attachment, and
as hollow as their hearts. What a subject for Lu-
cian or Le Sage ! Here were the vices of a court,
in all their deformity ; — arrogance without dignity,
and adulation without refinement — a burlesque upon
every thing exalted and manly !
In the aftemoon I left Washington by the stage
fbr Alexandria; the distance of which from the
former is six mUes,
In the evening there was no smaU degree of dis
satisfaction exhibited against the government by
several persons who had assembled at the hotel
where I put up. Had the president heard what
was said, he would have perceived how grossly he
had been imposed upon by those who told him that
the excitement, of which so much was said, was

174 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVIII.
confined to the large cities, and kept up by the worst
portion of their inhabitants. It would be no sub
ject of wonder to any one that much violence and
resentment prevailed among the mercantile classes,
as there was no remedy for their sufferings. Whether
the seizure of the pubhc revenue were right or
wrong; whether the secretary had acted constitu
tionally or not in obeying the orders of his master,
who had tumed his less pliant predecessor out of
office, and had not obtained from the senate a con
firmation of the appointment, neither censure nor
approbation could touch him. Such is the nature
of the government, that any difference or dispute,
which may exist between the two legislative cham
bers, admits of no adjustment by \he intervention of
the executive ; who can neither dissolve the one,
nor put fresh materials into the other. A conference
would have been useless between them. The mat
ter therefore must stand over tUl the next election ;
when, if the executive should obtain a majority in
the lower house, the same sort of conflict wiU be re
newed, with little chance of an harmonious action
upon a question so differently viewed by them. In
the mean time, the national patience is put to a
severe trial ; credit is slow in returning ; " and Com
merce sickens at the long delay,"
A comparison of the expenditure for two years,
under his predecessor's administration, with that for

CHAP. XVIII,] MOUNT VERNON, 175
the same period under his own, ¦will shew that Presi
dent Jackson's promises of retrenchment and reform
are yet to be performed : —
In 1827 the expenditure was 13,062,316 dollars.
In 1828  12,653,096
While in 1832 it was  16,516,389
And in 1833  22,086,064
The chief indictment against him may be seen in
certain resolutions passed at Philadelphia in 1832,
by a meeting of naturaUzed Irish, who, to the num
ber of more than 2000, had seceded from Jacksonism.
One of them was, as follows :
" That the total disregard of his solemn pledge to
serve but one term, as President ofthe United States,
and of his repeated promises not to appoint mem
bers of congress, nor to be lavish in the expenditure
of the public moneys, have so entirely shaken all
confidence in the truth of his declarations, that we
feel warranted not only in refusing credence to his
most clear and unequivocal declaration, but are
called upon to look, with a weary and a jealous eye,
upon his ambidextrous declarations in relation to
subjects such as the tariff and the bank, which
vitaUy affect the independence and interests of the
United States,"
The next day I went over from Alexandria in a
gig to Mount Vemon (about nine miles). The man
who accompanied me was the son of the hotel-keeper,

176 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVIII,
a very smart lively feUow. As his horse was very
spirited, yet docUe, I asked him how he had been
trained. He said, the whip was seldom or never
used. If a man were to beat a horse with a cudgel,
he added, he would be fined severely by a magis
trate. Soon afterwards, the conversation tumed
upon the system of farming. The laborers, he ob
served, were all slaves. Those who hire them of
their owners pay fifty or sixty doUars a year for
them, and find them in food and clothing, "Are
they industrious ?" I asked, "If they were not, we
should soon make them so : we should tie them up,
and give them a good flogging." He seemed to
think they were naturally a lazy set. If he were to
treat his horses in the same way, he would find
nature had been equaUy perverse and unkind to
them. Yet the latter are of inferior value ; as the
tax paid for them is but 6^ cents a head, whUe that
for the slave amounts to 25 cents. He had lately
purchased a boy on commission for 1100 dollars.
On our arrival at Mount Vemon, we descended,
and walked into the yard, and finding that the
famUy were at home, proceeded into that part of
the grounds which is open to the pubUc. There
was an air of neglect and loneliness about the
premises that excited a feeUng of melancholy by
no means pleasing.
The estate is at present in the possession of the

CHAP. XVIII.] JUDGE WASHINGTON. 177
widow and children of Judge Washington's nephew.
The judge was nephew to the immortal president.
The view from the portico of the house, which has
nothing remarkable about it, is very beautiftJ, As I
did not like to avaU myself of the privilege some
times conceded to foreigners, and obtrude upon the
famUy by requesting to see the house, I contented
myself with walking through the grounds and visit
ing the tomb, where I plucked a few sprigs from an
evergreen that grew over it ; and, while meditating
on the events of the preceding day, thought of
Shenstone's address to his beloved Maria: — "heu
quanto minus est cum reliquis versari quam tui
meminisse!" George Washington, President of the United
States, emancipated his slaves at his death; but
Judge Washington, President of the Colonization
Society, disposed of his during his life in a much
more summary manner, A letter, which appeared
in a Baltimore paper at the time, (1821,) explains
the plan he adopted, and the results that followed.
" I was at Mount Vemon ", says the writer, " a few
days since, and was told by some of the slaves,
whose countenances were remarkably indicative of
despondency and dejection, that more than fifty of
their companions (fifty-nine, I believe) had been
sold but a week before, to go to New Orleans, for
10,000 doUars the whole. One would have thought
that the poor creatures who were left, the aged and
I 3

178 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [cHAP, XVIII,
blind, had lost every fiiend on earth, I inquired
the reason. They answered, that husbands had been
torn from their wives and children ; and that many
relations were left behind. Take the following com
ment, I asked an old slave, if he was living at
Mount Vemon, when George Washington died. His
answer was : ' No, Sir ! — not so lucky. I should
not be a slave now if I had.' The reader ought to
know that George Washington set all his slaves free
upon his death,"
The Judge's reasons (in another Baltimore paper)
for selling these slaves, were : 1. because he lost by
their labor ; 2, because they were in a state of in
subordination, owing, as he conceived, to their
having been frequently told that their master would
set them free, or ought to do so ; and 3, because he
anticipated the escape to the Northern States of the
most valuable part of them. It had cost him, he
said, 250 doUars to recover two of them ; a third (a
valuable cook) having succeeded in baffling his pur
suers. The judge, like the man who summed lip
the twelve bad qualities of his horse with a state
ment that he was dead, might have saved "himself
the trouble of giving reasons for what he had done,
as he declared that no one had a right to demand
any. " I take the Uberty," such are his words, "on
my own behalf, and on that of my southem feUow-
citizens, to enter a solemn protest against the pro
priety of any person questioning our right, legal or

CHAP. XVIII.] ARMFIELD'S REPOSITORY, 179
moral, to dispose of property which is secm-ed to us
by sanctions equally valid with those by which we
hold every other species of property."
On our return to Alexandria, we caUed at Arm-
field's estabUshment ; where he keeps the slaves he
has purchased for sale. He himself was out. Two
of his men, however, were standing at the door ;
and as my guide was famUiarly acquainted with
them, we were admitted without difficulty. We were
ushered into a well-furnished room, and invited to
take wine, some botties of which were standing on a
side-board, for the accommodation, doubtiess, of
purchasers, I declined : my companion was less
scrupulous. We then went over the establishment ;
the delay that had occurred in the parlor, having
given time to prepare it for our inspection.
The sexes are separated by a passage, into which
the iron gratings of their doors look. These last
are doubly locked, and stiongly secured. The yards,
which are sufficiently spacious, are surrounded by
high waUs. Everything looked clean and in good
order. . There were but three men, and four or five
women, with as many children, one of whom was
nearly white, — a circumstance that elicited some
coarse jokes from my companions, in the hearing of
these poor unfortunate creatures. Both departments
were well provided with fires ; the room destined to
the inmates of each having a stove, round which, as
it was a very cold day, they were coUected. I was
assured they were well fed, — an assertion that wiU

180 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVIII.
readily obtain credit from every one who considers
that it is the interest of the seller to keep his " cattle "
in good condition ; and, as a " sulky one " is not
likely to find a buyer, everything would be done to
keep them in good humor. The owner of this pan
demonium is said to be very wealthy ; having ac
quired nearly half a million of doUars in the trade.
He bears a good character, and is considered a
charitable man.
The slave-tiaders at Washington pay 400 doUars
to the corporation of the city for a licence to carry
on their business.
I asked the man who attended us, whether we
had seen the whole estabUshment; having heard
a great deal of a dungeon, where the refractory are
confined, and where (as I had been informed by a
lady who had visited the place, and was unable to
proceed from the horror she felt at the description
given her of the thumb-screws, and other instruments
of coercion) a very different scene was to be witnessed,
I was told that there was no room of the kind. It
was not to be expected that I should be aUowed to
visit such a place ; to deny the existence of which
would be the natural consequence of having it, I
found the price of a slave had fallen considerably ;
the pressure of the times having affected this sort of
commodity as well as every other.
In the evening, while enjoying the comforts of a
good fire, I had a long conversation with an Irish*
man, who'had been many yeai-s in the country. He

CHAP. XVIII,] CANAL CONTRACTOR, 181
was a contiactor for the canal in the neighborhood.
He had been in the habit, for some time, of hiring a
^ang of sixty or seventy slaves, paying for each at
the rate of seventy-five dollars a year. He fed them
weU ; allowing them meat of the same quality with
what he had at his own table, and never flogging
them. In return for this kindness, they were very
industrious and obedient ; and so attached to him,
that he was sure there was nothing they would not
do for him ; except when the term for which they
had been hired was about to end, when the dread of
retuming to their weekly allowance of a peck of com
and a few herrings, -with the addition of the cow
hide, often drove them to seek a better fate in flight,
with all the risk of discovery and its horrors. Many
attempts were made, when first he began to employ
these " hands ", to dissuade him from what he was
told was a mad and impracticable scheme, He spoke
with much feeling of the wretched diet and cruel
tieatment which too often fall to the lot of this un
happy class. He was not aware of my sentiments
upon this subject, while he was detailing the method
he had pursued in the management of his workmen.
Speaking of the general condition of the slaves, he
assured me that they were half-starved : to use his own
words, they had hardly food enough to keep body and
sOul together. When they rob the hen-roost or the
pasture-field, it is to appease the cravings of
hunger.

182 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XVIII,
The natural results of this system are provided for
by legislative enactment in North Carolina, What
must be the monster that can have such a grinder !
" In case any slave or slaves, who shall not appear
to have been clothed and fed according to the intent
and meaning of this Act, that is to say, to have been
sufficientiy clothed, and to have constantly received
for the preceding year an allowance not less than a
quart of com per day, shall be convicted of stealing
any com, cattle, &c,, from any person not the owner
of such slave or slaves, such injured person shall
and may maintain an action of trespass against the
master, owner, or possessor of such slave, &c,, and
shaU recover his or her damages," &c,
Alexandria does not appear to derive all the ad
vantages from its situation, which it might reason
ably expect. The inhabitants would be well pleased
to be again incorporated with Virginia ; by which it
was ceded to the federal government as a part of the
district of Columbia, Washington, it is said, ob
jected to the appropriation of the latter as the seat
of an exclusive jurisdiction and residence for the
general administiation of the Union, lest it should
be supposed that he wished to favor his own estate
by the vicinity. It is thought that the Alexandrians
wiU succeed in their efforts to become again an
integral part of their parent State,
April 26, I left Alexandria at eight a,m,, and arrived
at Warrenton, in Virginia, at half past four in the

CHAP. XVIII,] CHARACTER OF SLAVES. 183
aftemoon ; the distance is about forty-four miles.
The stage passed through a country that exhibited
the effects of slavery in every part of it : — an ex
hausted soil, miserable hovels, thinly peopled vil
lages, half ploughed fields, and spontaneous vege
tation in rank fertiUty, usurping the place of healthy
and profitable crops. How different the scene from
the activity and enterprize every where visible in
the Northem States ! It seemed as if the whole
country would become
"  a wilderness again: —
Peopled with wolves, its old inhabitants."
I asked a very shrewd man, who looked like a
farmer, how long estates remained in the same
family in Virginia. " The longest period," he rephed,
" may be three or four generations, I do not think I
could point out one in possession of an estate that
belonged to it at the revolution. The poor and
industrious soon succeed to the rich and extrava
gant ; and a perpetual interchange is going on be
tween them," From the tum the conversation then
took, I could see that gambling was very common
in the State. It was spoken of as a sort of general
diversion; — Uke fox-hunting in Leicestershire, or
grouse-shooting in Scotland. Our attention was
directed to the negro huts by the side of the road.
Then- inhabitants, he said, were a happy race, — af
fectionate towards one another, and attached to their

184 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVIII.
homes. In no community on the face of the earth,
was there a less proportion of vice and crime than
among them. They were kindly treated by their
masters — ^he was a slave-owner himself — and no in
stance ever occurred of cruelty. Such was the picr
ture of slavery drawn by a man, who had just before
expatiated on the necessity of education to cm-b the
¦ evU propensities of our nature ; had given a most
correct description of the prejudices that divide the
rich and the poor ; and had assented fuUy to the
trite maxim that all political checks proved, while
they provided against, the tendency to abuse in
herent in power.
Speaking of their increasing numbers, he thought
Liberia would serve as a regulator to the velocity of
this moving mass. When reminded of the deficit in
the last year's budget, which had compeUed the co
lonization society to put a stop to this outlet for the
present, he owned that he could not see his way
clearly, or find a plan to get rid of "the evil,"
" Those d — d rascals in the north," he exclaimed,
" upbraid us for what is a misfortune, entaUed upon
us by your country : — a curse that they themselves
assisted to bring upon us by engaging so largely in
the slave-trade; which they still carry on uiider-
hand." — This notion, preposterous as it is, of " get
ting rid" of nearly three mUlions of human bemgs,
is almost universal. America has converted her
colonial vassalage into national independence. Part

CHAP. XVIII.] DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 185
of the materials, with which she has raised the su-
perstiucture, she would remove from the buUding,
because it offends her fastidious eye. It is too late.
She mistakes the foundation for the scaffolding. It
is worse than folly to lay the exclusive blame at
tached to slavery on the shoulders of the mother-
country; when those who might have easily shaken
off the burthen and the guUt, still retained the whole
weight of both upon their own. When the original
draft of the " Declaration of Independence" was
presented to the committee, to whom it had been re
ferred, the foUo^wing paragraph was struck out.
" He (George the Third) has waged war against
human nature itself; violating its most sacred rights
-of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people,
who never offended him ; captivating and carrying
them into slavei'y in another hemisphere, or to incur
miserable death, in their transportation thither.
This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel
powers, is the work of a Christian King of Great
Britain. Determined to keep an open market, where
MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted
his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt
to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.
And that this assemblage of horrors might want no
fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those
very people to rise in arms among us, and to pur
chase that liberty of which he has deprived them^
by murdering the people upon whom he also ob-

186 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVIII,
traded them ; thus paying off former crimes com
mitted against the liberties of one people, vnth.
crimes which he urges them to commit against the
lives of another,''
A striking instance of national vanity occurred
during the joumey. One of the passengers, a
young lawyer, asked me whether the Virginians
were not better received, and more highly esteemed
in England than Americans from any other State,
I replied that aU Americans were Yankees with us ;
— that few knew the difference between a Virginian
and a Vermonter ; and that our ignorance of the
country, as well as its distance, presented to our
view but one nation, I added, by way of salve to
his wounded self-love, that the stars above us ap
peared to be nearly of the same magnitude, I
might have said that all, who had ever heard how
Virginia treated her creditors, at the period of the
revolution, would feel little disposed to place her
at the head of the Union, As the supreme court
of the confederation, to which she" belonged, had
passed judgment against her legislatm-e on that
occasion, it ill became her sons to claim admiration
from the descendants of those, to whom she had
denied justice.
Just at this moment one of the passengers, who
had afforded us a fund of amusement, left the stage.
He was a little pale-faced queer-looking old man
with a wound in one of his legs, that gave him no

CHAP, XVIII.] CASE OF ABDUCTION. 187
smaU trouble to ensconce himself in the vehicle.
As soon as he was feirly seated, and before we had
left Alexandria, he broke out into a loud and pas
sionate complaint against some one who had stolen
a littie -girl from him. We were aU desirous to hear
the particulars of such an extraordinary event ; and
he was as ready to gi'atify our curiosity and his own
loquacity, by the recital of his wrongs. He com
menced his narrative by informing us that he was
an old soldier — one of the seven who were wounded
at the battle of New Orleans; when the English
troops were led, like sheep, to the slaughter. He
had been to Washington from the place where he
lived in Virginia — about seventy miles from that
city — and was retuming home with his pension of
100 dollars and the chUd in question, when the
latter was carried off, whUe he was at breakfast
-with the other passengers. He suspected a woman
of Alexandria, he said, of the abduction, as he and
his protegee had slept the night before at her
house, and she had lately lost an adopted girl in
a similar manner. This was a new sort of kid
napping ; and the history of the acquisition was as
singular as that of the loss. Having no chUdren or
relatives, he had resolved to adopt this little girl,
as a solace to his declining years, and an assistant
to his wife in the management of her household
affairs. He had appointed her his heir ; having left
-the will with a lawyer at Washington, His estate

188 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XVIII.'
consisted of upwards of a hundred acres, in addition
to his personal property; of which he had just lent
1100 dollars to a Mr, Baldwin, of Washington; —
and here he had felt the truth of the remark, that
" misfortunes come not single-handed, but in bat
talions," for the borrower had found it convenient to
have a short memory ; and, as the old man had no
proof in wiiting of the transaction, the claim on one
side was worth no more than the honor on the other.
This breach of honesty, however, gave him much
less uneasiness than the other calamity; which so
far absorbed what few ideas he had, that he could
touch upon no subject, in the wide range his tongue
took, that he did not mingle -with it the bitterest
lamentation for his darUng, and threats of ven--
geance against her ravisher. " If I had had a pis
tol with me," he exclaimed repeatedly, " I would
have shot him down with as littie scruple as An
drew Jackson ever shot an Indian with." There
was so much goodness of heart mixed up with his
resentment, and his simplicity had so many touches
of good sense in it, that we could not but feel an
interest in the veteran's story, even while we were
laughing at his oddities. When he had taken his
departure, we sought a diversion for the loss by
looking over the way-bill, and trying to recognize
our names, under the strange alterations they had
undergone. I, for one, had no reason to complain,
as I had got two or three additional letters. Indeed

CHAP. XVIII.] WARRENTON, 189
I was generaUy very fortunate in this respect ; for,
though I have no legal claim to more than four, I
sometimes found myself complimented with a large
portion of the alphabet.
On the arrival of the stage at Warrenton, the
other passengers having got out, except one, who
then took his leave of me in a very friendly way, I
was shewn, by the master of the hotel where we
stopped, into a room, in which were several per
sons. They were assembled round a blazing wood-
fire, to which an unusuaUy cold day gave irresistible
attractions ; and two or three of them immediately
rose from their seats, to make room for the steanger
— a piece of civUity, which, however common in
most countries, I had never before witnessed in the
pubUc room of an American inn, I soon got into
chat with them ; and finding there was to be an
election in the town on the following Monday, was
not sorry that I should be detained ; there being no
stage on that day,
Warrenton is the county town of Fauquier County,
and contains about 1000 inhabitants. There are
three places of worship. Episcopal, Baptist, and Me
thodist, As there was no service at the two former
on Sunday, I ,went to the last mentioned. The con
gregation was scanty, and consisted chiefly of the
middle classes. The men sat on one side, and the
women on the other, on benches. At one exteemity,
over the entrance of the meeting-house, which was

190 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XVIIIi
totally devoid of ornament and neatness, was a gal
lery for the "Africans"; and at the other end was
the pulpit, in a sort of recess, raised above the area
between them. Here sat two preachers, who com
menced the service by singing in a low and monoto
nous voice. A sermon followed, and was succeeded
by further singing and by a prayer, when the whole
concluded. Of the sermon I can say nothing, as I
had much difficrdtj' in keeping up attention to a dis
course which consisted of many words and very few
ideas, and in which there was more rapidity of utter
ance, than clearness of conception or arrangement of
matter. The preacher ranted and gesticulated in a
manner equaUy painful to the ear and the eye. There
was more earnestness in him than attention in his
hearers ; among whom might fairly be reckoned two
or three dogs, that took their station quietly at the
feet of their masters, and behaved with laudable pro
priety. Before the last prayer, two men appUed to
the congregation on both sides for their contribu
tions. The collection was made, or rather solicited
(for very little was obtained) by means of a rod, with
a black cotton bag at the end of it. It had the exact
appearance of those hand-nets which are in frequent
use with fishermen. What the bag wanted in mag
nitude, the pole made up in length ; and the bearer
of each, as he passed along the passage that sepa
rated the sexes, presented it in succession to the oc
cupants of the respective sides. I observed more

CHAP, XVIII,] COMPANY AT HOTEL, 191
ruddy cheeks and athletic forms in this small chapel
than I had ever seen in the largest churches in the
North, Such is the " bold peasantrj'" of Virginia;
but their " country's pride" is fast disappearing
under the withering blight that has brought desola
tion and sterility to the land.
In my walks through the town, I remarked, at dif
ferent places, groups of young negroes lounging about
with all the indolence of sabbath leisure, or eagerly
engaged in gambling or playing at marbles. Among
the players was a white boy, well-dressed and very
young. It is thus that the vices of the slaves are
communicated to the masters. Nor can it well be
otherwise. Nature is never robbed of her rights
¦without avenging herself upon the wrong-doer ; nor
man unjust and cruel with impunity. The moral
degradation, which forms the most disgusting fea
ture of/slavery, is reciprocated between the oppressor
and his victim, till the former has lost, in moral dig
nity, more than the latter in physical comfort. He
is, indeed, doubly criminal in the sight of Heaven : —
he is responsible for the abuse of those gifts it has
granted to himself, and for those vices which he has
occasioned in his dependants, by robbing them of all
that the same bountiful hand had bestowed to pre
vent or check them, *
In the evening there was a pleasant party, as be
fore, round the fire ; and I had no reason to com
plain that the time passed heavily. I found that

192 TOUR. IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVIII.
" gentlemen and ladies" were in as high honor at
Warrenton as at Washington, WhUe conversing
¦with a Virginian, who repeated the word ". lady"
with an emphasis that seemed to reprove me for
using a less exalted appellation, I remarked to him
that Europe would probably witness, before long,
the singular coincidence of three women contempo
raneous queens, .He at once perceived the incon
gruity of saying three "ladies" would be crowned,
and aUowed me to use a more natural mode of ex
pression. Surely if a king's daughter may be caUed
a woman, a planter's or merchant's child need not be
offended at the term. It is curious enough, that this
very man had just pointed out the vulgarity of mak
ing a smart coat or bonnet the test of a person's rank
in society. Here he could distinguish between the
shell and the kernel ; yet, while he was laughing at
the Philadelphians and New Yorkers for their atteur
tion to the toilette, he did not see that the Virginians
are doing the same thing in another way, WhUe they
are above the artificial distinction of dress, they re
tain that of words ; and adopt, as a badge of separa
tion, what is just as easily taken up by the excluded
as a mark of equality, SimpUcity of language, hke
simplicity of apparel, can no more detract from re
finement, where it exists, than its opposite can be
stow it where it is wanting. If " gentlemen" would
be contented to be known by courtesy of manners
and an amiable disposition, the example might de-

CHAP. XVIII,] ELECTION, 193
scend, and society would gain more by looking to
the end, than it now loses by confining its attention
to the means, of social inequality.
Warrenton is beautifiilly situated ; the ground on
which it is built being broken into declivities, and
the surrounding country presenting an undulating
surface, diversified with woods and fields and farm
houses. To the north-west the view is terminated,
at the distance of about twenty miles, by the Blue
Ridge, — a range of mountains which divides the
State into two sections, not less distinct in the qua
lity of the soil, than in the manners of the popula
tion by which it is cultivated. There were more
numerous traits of resemblance here to the old coun
try, particularly parts of South Wales, than at any
place I had yet seen in the Union, As I was re
tuming from an evening's stroll on the Monday, and
was admiring the beauty ofthe Icindscape, upon which
the setting sun threw its last rays, clothing the rug
ged outiine of the Ridge with varied hghts and sha
dows, the people were leaving the town at the con
clusion of the election ; and their appearance and
manner carried me back, in imagination, to old Eng
land, — An Englishman in America is somewhat sur
prised when he is saluted by the farmers and pea
santry with a bow and a touch of the hat.
The election terminated in a "tie"; one candi
date being elected on each side. There were four,
of whom two only were present, the others attend-
VOL, II. ~ K

194 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, ['CHAP, XVIII.
ing at some other precincts. The county contains
seven precincts or districts ; in each of which the
votes are taken viva voce. The electors assembled
at Warrenton in the court-house, where the sheriff
tpok the votes, by asking each elector, as he came to
the poU, for whom he voted. The business of the
day commenced with speeches from the candidates
or their friends. The first who spoke, was Mr,
Fauntleroy — a Jackson-man. He assured his feUow
citizens that the imputations cast upon his motives
and conduct were altogether unfounded; that he
neither was seeking place, nor had attempted, in his
canvass, to obtain votes by imdue influence or
promises ; and that the letter he had in his hand
would exonerate him from the charge. He had
given up his profession to estabUsh a Jackson
paper ; and, now that a change had taken place in
the politics of the State, he might, had he been so
disposed, have found or sought an indemnity for his
ruined prospects, by turning with the tide of popular
feeling, and rejoining his former friends ; whom he
had left, at the risk of being stigmatized as an apos
tate, to support a party, which he stiU thought en
titled to the confidence of the county. His ad
dress did not seem to be well received by the ma
jority of his auditors; though it was delivered in a
temperate and gentiemanly manner. When he had
concluded, another orator, on the same side, got up,
and presented himself to the notice of the electors :

CHAP. XVin.] VIRGINIAN ORATORY. 195
his style was more energetic, and his deUvery more
fluent, A great and most important crisis, accord
ing to him, had arrived, big -with the fate of unbom
millions : — a crisis, on the issue of which depended
the interests of their chUdren, the preservation of
the constitution, and the welfere of the civUized
world. My attention was riveted by an exordium, equaUy
imposing in its announcement, and decorated, in its
enunciation, with aU the flowers that a prolific
fancy, and a ready command of words, could bestow
upon it. My disappointment, however, was like
that of the Kstener to the man who cried in the
streets of Constantinople : " in the name of the
Prophet! — figs." It was the marble palace at
PhUadelphia — the Mammoth bank — the monied
monster — that menaced the citadel of vfrtue and
liberty ! The orator had dra-wn up a long bill of
indictment against this hydra-headed institution ;
and tiie counts were fUled up -with every item that
could tend to sweU the list and the enormity of the
charges. One of the greatest crimes it had com
mitted was that of its connexion with foreigners ;
who, of course, could have no possible motive for
buying shares but the wish to corrupt a free people,
and who could not be the fiiends of an establishment
of which President Biddle is the head, without being
the enemies of the constitution, of which President
Jackson is the preserver and the defender. The
k2

196 TOUR IN THE UNITED^ STATES, [CHAP, XVIII,
vessel which canies this paUadium of the Union,
by the by, is placed by the two parties, that agree
in nothing but their attachment tovit, between Scylla
and Charybdis, It must be either shipwrecked on
the bank, or swaUowed up by despotism. They
should consider that they lessen the world's respect
for their idol, in proportion as they magnify the
chances of its destruction.
To return to our orator ; whose imagination was
naturally inflamed at the mention of foreign influ
ence. " We want no English liberty here," he ex-"
claimed, — " we are not indebted to kings and empe
rors for our rights. They were earned not grantedi"
Much more of the same kind was uttered by a man
equally ignorant of the origin and nature of an
Englishman's birthright, and forgetful of his own in
relation to both. We robbed no man of his rights
when we asserted our own. We have not converted
human beings into " cattie " for personal profit, nor
reckoned our "cattle" as fractions of human beings
for political privileges.
In the course of his harangue, the speaker did not
forget the' heroes and divinities ofthe " olden time,"
I was deUghted to renew acquaintance with my
school-boy associations, and find myself again in
company with Philip of Macedon and Cassandra of
Troy. In the distribution of parts, the modesty of
the honorable gehtieman selected the latter for him
self: the former, I need not add, was intended for

CHAP, XVIII,] ANTI-JACKSON ORATOR. 197
Nicholas Biddle, When he had finished his invec
tives against the bank, which he declared with a
vehemence of voice by no means complimentary to
his countiymen, would, if not arrested in its course
of profusion and profligacy, buy up the whole nation
with its money ; a young man, after the slight ap
plause that followed had ceased, soUcited the suf
frages of the assembly in favor of the candidates who
were absent. He labored, unfortunately, under a
slight impediment of speech; but his matter and
manner were both good ; and he very ably exposed
the fallacies and illogical inferences of those who had
preceded him. He reminded his hearers that the
question was no longer "bank or no bank"; for
both its opponents and its supporters were arrayed
against the federal administration, two branches of
which had already condemned it ; and that it might
be considered defunct without a chance of its re
suscitation. The straggle for party ascendancy had
now become a contest for pubhc principle ; and aU,
who valued the constitution and commerce of the
country, had united, in defence of both against the
encroachments of arbiteary power and the exercise
of a prerogative buUt upon forced construction and
sophistical implication. The orator shewed that
neither federaUst nor republican could consistently
support the general govemment; the practice of
which was directiy at variance with the principles
professed by each.

198 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XVIII,
The polUng foUowed the harangues ; and I left
the court after two or three votes had been taken.
With the exception of a few dranken men to be
seen here and there, the whole went off very quietiy,
in spite of the efforts made by each party to have
its cause espoused by the " old dominion," as Vir
ginia is called. This election was for the House of
Delegates ; the Senate of the State being chosen for
four years, and the former but for one.
Several persons, I was told, had dechned voting
on this occasion, not v?ishing to give offence to some
of the opposite party, whose resentment they had
reason to dread. These men would probably be
glad to have the protection of the ballot, while the
greater part, who find in the open vote, whether ex
ercised by themselves or others, a reason for exult
ation or a source of profit, would as strenuously op
pose its introduction. They have not yet discovered
that the public is responsible to- the public by
choosing its own servants in the most public man
ner ; and that those who are not thought worthy of
the vote are the best judges of its exercise.

CHAP. XIX.] INDOLENCE OF WHITES. 199

CHAPTER XIX.
System productive of Idleness. — The Bench. — Eastern and
Western Virginia  Debates in State Convention. — Conversa
tion with Slaves, — Schools, — Beautiful Scenery, — Odious Sys
tem, — Character of Slaves. — Higher and lower Classes dis
united. — White Labor discouraged, — Schemes to check Emi
gration, — Funeral, — CharlottevUle, — University. — MonticeUo, —
Jefierson. — Origin and objects of Colonization Society, — Stu
dents.It was truly lamentable to see so many young men
lounging about the hotel with nothing to do ; —
dozing and yawning over the fire, and wearing life
away without any object to excite interest, or sti
mulate exertion. One youth, a mere boy, a martyr
to intemperance, was a most pitiable object — yet
happier, perhaps, than others of a more robust con
stitution, as he was fiist sinking into the grave. As
there are few employments in which whites of " good
family " can engage, the liberal professions are ne-

200 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XIX.
cessarily overstocked, and their profits reduced to
the lowest level by the competition. From the
names on the doors, it is readily seen that lawyers
and doctors abound — particularly the former, who
seem, like certain rat-catchers, to make business for
themselves, as well as for their customers. The ap
petite for Utigation seems, indeed, to "grow with
what it feeds upon " ; and supply is speedily con
verted into demand. If the source from whence I
derived my information, is to be depended upon, the
number of law-suits increases with the number of
lawyers. It is in this profession that ambition finds
a ladder to mount, and tools to work 'tvith. The in
fluence of the aristocracy derives its chief support
from the county courts, which not only appoint mi
litia officers and overseers of the poor — have juris
diction over the roads — levy the county rates with
out limit or control — and have the entire manage
ment of the county police, — but are invested with
the privilege of self-existence, by filling up vacan
cies as they occur among them, ,
Attempts were made at the State convention a
few years back, to reform the Bench, the enemies
and friends of which were the enemies and friends
of slavery. The latter prevailed; and the same
profession which affords an asylum for those who
are too proud to engage in commerce, is a tool in
the hands of a party who would perpetuate a sys-

CHAP, XIX,] MAGISTRACY. 201
tem that takes from their moral strength what it
gives to their political power.
" The juries," says Jefferson, in one of his letters,
" the judges of all fact, and of law, when they
choose it, are not selected by the people, nor
amenable to them. They are chosen by an of
ficer, named by the court and executive: — chosen,
did I say? — picked up by the sheriff from the
loungings of the court-yard, after evei-y thing re
spectable has retired from it."
One of the members of the Virginia State con
vention, in 1829, who was opposed to an unpaid
magisteacy, used the foUo^wing language: — "The
constitution gave the magisteates no reward what
ever for their services. But, in making them eligi
ble to the general assembly, it put it in their power
to provide for themselves: — as they have since
done. It is known, I presume, to every member
of this committee, that generally a quorum, and
often a majority of the house of delegates, is com
posed of magistrates, sheriffs, and their deputies.
Tradition informs us, that such a legislative body
found it easy to seize the sheriffalty, and to attach
it to their own office, or to secure it by way of an
indirect compensation for their . services — so indi
rect as not to disqualify them from being eligible
to the office of legislators, Jn this way they dis
pense justice for nothing ! In this \^ay they com-
K 3

202 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIX.
penaate themselves! But we love a cheap magis
tracy; and the justices serve for nothing! It
is trae they only divide among themselves between
fifty and sixty thousand dollars per annum, in the
way of sheriff's fees. Valuing the 105 sheriffalties
in the commonwealth at 500 dollars per annum
each, we can easUy estimate what ' serving for no
thing' means, when applied to our present system.
They are paid in the most exceptionable way; and
it is all one and the same, whether they receive the
amount of the sheriffalty in succession, or divide it
annually amongst them, accordipg to their services.
It is still in principle a compensation ; and the of
fice of justice is so far lucrative."
The State, as I have before mentioned, is divided
not less by clashing interests than by intervening
mountains; the East being as much distinguished
by the relative increase of the black, as the West
by that of the white population. In the latter, the
slave-part, from 1800 to 18 10, increased in the propor
tion of sixty-five and a-half per cent, upon the whole
amount; during the next ten years, forty-six; and
during the last decade about twenty-eight. The fol
lowing table will shew the decrease of the white popu
lation in Eastem Virginia since 1820. The first five
counties are between the 'Blue Ridge and the head
of tide-water: — ^the rest below the head of tide
water. In this section of the State the whites had.

CHAP. XIX.] DEPOPULATION, 203
in 1790, a majority over the blacks of 25,000,
They are now in a minority — the difference being
no less than 81,000*,
Whites in 1820, In 1830,
Branswick , , . , 5889 5397
Amelia  3409 3293
Goochland . . , , 3976 3857
Loudon  16,144 15,516
Mecklenburg . , , 7710 7543
Fairfax  6224 4892
James City . . , , 1556 1284
King and Queen , 5460 4714
King WiUiam , , 3449 3155
Lancaster  2388 1976
* The following table will shew the relative proportions be
tween the two races, as regards the increase of each in the
Eastern and Western sections. Eastern Section,
Whites. Slaves. Free Blacks.
1790 507,885, 291,273, 12,703,
1830 375,940. 416,259. 40,708.
Westem Section,
whites. Slaves. Free Blacks.
1790 34,230. 2,154, 63.
1830 318,505. 53,465. 6,323.
In South Carolina, the relative amounts for the correspond
ing periods were as foUows :
whites. Slaves. Free Blacks.
1790 140,178. 107,094. 801.
1830 257,878. 315,665. 7,915,

204 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XIX.
Whites in 1820. In 1830.
Northumberiand . 4134 4029
Sussex  4155 4118
Stafford  4788 4713
Warwick  620 619
A remarkable fact was stated by Mr, Leigh, in tiie
Convention, with regard to the proportion of taxes
paid by the inhabitants of the eastem and westem
portions respectively. In the former, the white po
pulation amounted to ,362,500; and that ofthe latter
to 319,300. The first pay, on an average, thirty-four
cents on the land-tax ; the second fifteen cents. The
one pays twenty-eight cents ; the other four cents of
the slave-tax ; while ofthe horse and carriage-tax, the
relative amount is nine cents and six cents per head.
Here is matter enough for synthetical reasoning
on the indissoluble connexion between self-interest
and good treatment in producing a co-operation be
tween the wUl and the physical force of man. In
the county of Loudon there were, in 1817, 359 de
faulters to the county taxes ; in 1825 there were 831 ;
while the population had increased but three-fourths
per cent, in the same period.
At this time the slave population was distributed
over the State in the following proportions : — West
of the Alleghany it was but 8f per cent, of the whole;
in the valley between the Alleghany and the Blue
Ridge it formed 17 per cent, of the inhabitants; and

CHAP, XIX,] STATE FEUDS, 205
in the eastern section, as it has been stated, it out
numbered the other portion.
It should be observed, that the preponderance of
legislative power was with the east. As this had
always been the case, Mr, Leigh inferred, from the
disproportionate amount of taxes paid by the rival
sections, that the superiority of tiie one had never
been used to benefit itself at the expense of the
other ; yet, in the same breath, he predicted that a
change in the elective fi-anchise would sacrifice it to
the other's selfishness ; as if the nature of man were
not precisely the same on both sides of the boundai-y.
The nobility of the east were "conservative", and
the commons of the west were " destructive", Mr.
Leigh would not, or could not, see the cause of the
difference. " In the language of Lord Chatham,"
he said, " the Commons of Great Britain claimed a
right to give and grant the money of the commons of
America, without allowing them any representation
at all, Oiu- western fellow-citizens only claim power
to give and grant three dollars of our money for every
dollar they give and grant of thefr own : — allow-ing
us representation indeed, but a representation not
stiong enough to refuse the grant. Suppose Great
Britain had offered us a representation in Parlia
ment proportioned to our free white population ex
clusively, — what would our fathers have said to it ? —
what I, tiieir descendant, now say to it: It is
mockery. You ask us to put ourselves in your

206 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIX,
power, bound hand and foot ; and think, because you
gild our chains with a thin leaf, that shews like golden
freedom, we shaU be so silly as to wear them,"
Throughout the whole debate, the planters shewed
that they were afraid to trust the majority in the
State with the power of legislation ; tacitly acknow
ledging that slave property is irreconcileable with
the public welfare. Each southem State is as much
divided in interest as the whole section, of which it
forms a part, from the rest of the Union — and from
the same causes. To suppose that such a state of
things can continue much longer, with or without
anti-slavery societies, is to imagine that oil and water
may be made to mix together by some new law of
affinity, or that action and reaction are neither equal
nor in opposite directions.
The same disputes which inequality in the suffrage
created between the govemment and the people, will,
in course of time, arise between the two legislative
bodies from difference of structure. Though the
elective franchise has been extended from freeholders
to householders, yet the lower house is built on what
is called the " white basis " and the upper on the " fe
deral"; the number of representatives being propor
tioned, in the first, to the white population exclusively
and, in the latter, to the white and three-fiifths of the
black. The eastem and westem portions ofthe State
wUl thus, as is generaUy the case when conflicting
claims are settled by a compromise that cicatrises the

CHAP, XIX,] POPULAR DISCONTENT, 207
wound and leaves the poison, be brought into imme
diate coUision ; and the difficulty of reconcUing repre
sentation of property with representation of person,
wUl prove as great as that which the conflict between
the hereditary and the elective principle is Ukely to oc
casion in England; — with the addition of all the
hateed and sensitiveness attached to the absence and
possession of slave labor. But the straggle will not
be confined to Virginia. The Union itself ¦wUl be
endangered by the shock which the foundation it
stands on AviU receive from this blow upon its or
ganic elements. " I knew," said Mr. Cooke in the
Convention, " that a large majority of the people of
Virginia considered themselves iniquitously held in
a state of bondage. I knew that threats had been
uttered within the last eighteen months, — that, if the
non-fi-eeholders did not obtain justice in the Con
vention then anticipated, they would no longer sub
mit to the laws and the constituted authorities ; —
that they would refuse to labor on the roads, (a rank
and palpable grievance,) — that they would refuse to
pay county levies and rates, and to perform mUitia
duty ; — that if the constituted authorities attempted
to enforce the payment of the taxes, levies, fines, and
penalties, they would resist force with force, I knew,
by the result of a private census, that in the county
of Frederick alone there were no less than 2200 of
these disfranchised citizens, — men of fuU age,  and

208 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XIX,
that they bore to the freeholders the proportion of
nearly nine to five."
Some of the language used on this occasion would
be thought somewhat singular in an assembly of
slave-holders, " No one man is bom ", exclaimed
the same orator, " with a natural right to control
any other man ; no one man comes into the world
with a mark on him, to designate him as possessing
superior rights to any other, man : neither God nor
Nature recognizes in anticipation the distinction of
bond and free, of despot and slave. These distinc
tions are artificial, are the work of man; are the
result of fraud or violence," Nothing, however, was
further from his intention than to hint even at per
sonal rights. He was speaking ot political slavery;
— a condition so unjust and unmanly, that he could
find no words to describe its enormity, but metaphors
drawn from what was practised and applauded by
all around him. The principle, to which he alluded,
was not an abstract truth, he added, but, as it was
embodied in the " declaration of rights ", replete
with practical meaning. If the authors of American
independence had put forth a "declaration of force",
their subsequent conduct woiUd have been of a piece
with their professions ; no citizen, within the limits
of the commonwealth they founded, w^ould ever have
blushed for the palpable incongruity between the
rights he claims and the rights he withholds ; an

CHAP, XIX,] YOUNG PHYSICIAN, 209
immeasurable quantity of rodomontade and nonsense
would have been spared to the disgusted world : and
the glory that the countiy has fairly won would have
been seen in its true colors.
If the population of the United States goes on
increasing at its present rate, there will be about
18,000,000 in 1840, Of this number, 10,000,000
wUl belong to the North ; and the rest to the South,
The latter will have 28 senators in Congress, and
the former 26 ; (under the term North I include all
the free States.) The number of representatives from'
the slave-States will be 145, and that from the others
286, When the important question, relative to the
admission of the Westem territories into the Union,
comes on, many members of Congress, who now
support the President in his attack on the senate,
¦will probably be unwUling to weaken a body, with
which their own interests are bound up.
Among the inmates of the hotel where I was stay
ing while at Warrenton, was a medical man, of
pleasing manners and a well-informed mind. He
shewed me great attention ; and walked out with
me to point out the beauties of the place. Speaking
of slavery, — a topic I had purposely avoided, — he
described the slaves as a happy and contented race;
and adduced, as a proof of the kind treatment they
received, that little care was taken in the town to
fasten the doors. No doubt he beheved what he
said ; and I was not disposed to question the author-

210 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XIX,
ity upon which he made a statement that he had
heard too often to doubt. He pointed out to me a
man, of whom he spoke with great abhorrence and
aversion. He w^as a "trader", employed to purchase
slaves for the southem market. So much was the
business, in which he was engaged, detested, that no
respectable person in the place would speak to him,
" If that is the case," I observed, " he must be well
paid to make up for loss of character," "He is so",
was the reply ; " he has been here a long time, and
has made a large fortune," I suspected that he was
one of Armfield's myrmidons ; and the suspicion was
shortly after confirmed by an old grey-headed negro,
who accosted me in a jocular way, when I had left
my companion, and asked me if I would buy a httie
girl that stood near him while he was at work in a neat
well-teimmed garden, " I thought ", said he, upon
my decUning his offer, "you did not look like a
trader." I found, on inquiry, that the price of such
a child (she was about six years of age) was 100
dollars, and, sometimes more, " Are such infants
often sold ? " " Very often," " And the mothers ?—
what becomes of them ? " " They remain here,
broken-hearted : but there is no help for it, I have
no children myself; but it cuts me to the heart to
see these poor little dears tom away from their
mothers," The old man was very lively and cheer-
fiil. His misteess, he told me, used him very well,
like one of the family. He had the same fare as

CHAP. XIX,] NAT TURNER, 211
herself. " When she leaves home, she teusts every
thing to me," said he, " and I take good care of the
house till she comes back. There is no one in the
town Uke her. Our people in general are very cruelly
teeated, and half-starved. We are not aUowed to
stir from the house after dark," " You are as well
off, then," I said, " as if you were free. Your mis
teess takes good care of you," " Yes : but I could
take better care of myself. What is to become of
me when she is gone ? " I had often heard before
that those slaves who are best treated are most
anxious for liberty. How can it be otherwise in crea
tures, who, Uke ourselves, find their hopes and
wishes expand with their enjoyments ?
I now thought it time to break off the conversation,
as it had already atteacted the attention of every one
who passed: but, previously, I asked whether he did
not feel attached to his good mistress, and whether
he would not defend hex in case of danger? " To be
sure I would," he replied: " I would wilUngly sacrifice
my life in her defence ; and so would any man, if he
was as well treated."
During the massacre at Southampton in this State,
a few years ago, an old man, who was unable, from
his infirmities, to make his escape from the fury of
Nat Turner and his band, owed his life entirely to
the grateful attachment of his slaves, who fought
desperately in his defence, and saved him from the

212 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIX,
slaughter which had faUen indiscriminately, to the
number of fifty-eight, on man, woman, and chUd.
The old fellow came from the lower part of the
State, where, he informed me, the slaves are most
barbarously used, I should, most probably, have
passed unnoticed by him, if he had not seen me
talking to one of his tribe,' — a poor old man, Hke
himself, with a grey head. His account of what
was going on at Warrenton corresponded perfectly
with that of the old gardener. I fear he had too
much reason to say what he did. A slight incident
exhibited the hideousness of the system under which
he was living, I begged he would sit down, as he
seemed to be tired, and I would take a seat by him
on the grass, while we conversed together, "I dare
not," he muttered, looking carefully round: "if I
was to be seen by the whites, I should suffer foi; it."
The keen and scrutinizing glance of a man, who
stopped at the moment to look at us, explained what
he meant. I thought it better to quit him, than
expose him to punishment.
Before I left the town I visited two schools, in
company with the Doctor ; — but the morning's task
had finished, and I was prevented frou; returning, as
I had intended, after dinner. There were three
schools in the place ; two of them private estabhsh-
ments, and the other destined to the poorer classes,
with an endowment ; but not, as far as I could un-

CHAP, XIX,] BLUE RIDGE, 213
derstand, assisted by the State, — though the fund for
the promotion of education amounts to nearly a mil
lion of dollars. There were more public schools, I
was told, in the State, some years back, than there
are at present.
At five in the afternoon I left Warrenton, and ar
rived for the night, at ten, at Culpeper Com-t-house,
twenty -five mUes from the former.
It was three o'clock, and the moon shone clearly
through a frosty atmosphere, when we started the next
moming ; and the road, which had almost shaken us
to pieces the preceding evening, proved less rough and
rutty. Soon after the day had dawned I got out, and
took my seat by the driver, whom I found by no
means unwUling to answer my questions, or to confine
his communications to a simple answer. I obtained
a great deal of interesting information from him, as
well as from his successor.
I was well repaid for the change I had made of an
inside place for a seat on the box, as the country
abounded in beautiftd scenery. On our right was the
Blue Ridge ; and on the left, and nearer to us, was
the South-Western, of lower elevation. Both the
soil and the mode of cultivation improved as we pro
ceeded, though the one was stiU generally poor, and
the other partially distributed. After passing Orange
Court-house, where the stage stopped to breakfast,
fresh beauties sprang up on each side. The various
shades of blue, with which the mountains, as they

214 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIX,
receded or advanced, were clothed, added an inex
pressible charm to the landscape. Large masses
were presented to the view, — now exhibiting, in the
distance, deep tints of the color from which they de
rive their name, — now imparting, to diversities of
form and magnitude, the distinctness which a nearer
view gave to the woods and enclosures, and ferm-
houses discernible on their surface. It was, indeed,
a lovely scene. The fresh air ofthe moming exhila
rated the spirits : — " each rural sight, each rural
sound," was delightful. The fluttering of the turtie-
doves and small birds across the road ; the chirping
and songs with which these " feathered tenants of
the air " saluted the rising sun ; — and, above all, the
mellow' notes of the mocking-bird, (for the barbarous
gun had not swept away the unoffending warblers,)
produced a more agreeable effect on the mind than
I ever before experienced. T^ere was one feature,
however, that closer observation discovered to mar
the prospect. The laborers in the fields were un-
¦willing machines. The slow and lifeless manner in
which they handled the hoe, or tumed the plough
share; — the uplifted looks they cast at us as we
passed ; — the furtive cessation from toil that invari
ably took place, as the overseer's eye was turned
from them ; — spoke a language that could not be
mistaken. It told of unrequited labor, of undeserved
misfortune, of blighted affections, and the destruction
of all those hopes and fears that play round the

CHAP, XIX,] INSTINCT OF SLAVES, 215
heart of man, and distinguish him from the brute
creation, I now found that the hotel, where we had break
fasted most luxuriously, was kept by a " trader";
who, so far from sharing the fate of his brother-mer
chant at Waj-renton-, had all the profits of the busi
ness without its odium ; was in high favor with vi
sitors from the South, and was not a little respected
by his neighbors. His gains from this diabolical
traffic must be enormous ; as he has been known to
make a thousand doUars in the course of a week, by
buying and selling his fellow-creatures, as bullocks
are disposed of in Smithfield-market.
While conversing about these unfortunate beings,
my companion mentioned two remarkable facts. One
was, the faculty they possess of recognizing a face,
however slight a view they may have had of it, and
however long the interval between the first impres
sion and its renewal. There is an insect in tbe
country, that sits perched on the branch of a teee,
and emits a shriU sound like that of a watchman's
rattle : — touch the teee however sUghtly, and the
littie creature, though on the highest bough, is sUent
and off in a moment. This delicacy of organization
implies that it bas^many enemies, and feeble powers
of resistance. Such is the slave's instinct, which habit,
a second nature, has given him. The other circum
stance was, that they are more severe overseers than
the whites. The master finds it good policy, if he
has a smart, trast- worthy feUow in his gang, to make

216 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XIX,
him an overseer, and allow him certain indulgences;
as he gains both in the saving of a white's sa
lary, and in the additional labor exteacted by a hand
that knows bow to get at it. The' sympathy that
unites the members of the same race and the victims
of the same oppression, is easily destroyed. He has
but to arm the human passions against each other.
When once jealousy on one side, and vindictive
feeling on the other, are excited, the object is at
tained. In addition to this, the penalty of his hu
manity or negligence will fall with double weight
upon his own back.
One of these coachmen was a native of the
State, and had been for many years a close ob
server of the blacks, with many of whom he was
personally acquainted, as I could perceive by their
mutual greetings on the road. His evidence, there
fore, is not to be hastily rejected. He assured
me, that though they were uneducated, not being
allowed to write or read*, the teaching of which is a
* By a recent act of the South Carolina legislature, any white
person teaching a slave or free person of color to write or read)
is subject to a fine of 100 dollars, and six months' imprison
ment. Any free black guilty of the same crime, is to receive
fifty lashes, and pay a fine of 50 doUars ;— while a slave who
shall dare to infringe this salutary law, will be reminded of his
duty by the infliction of fifty stripes. No colored person, whe
ther bond or free, is permitted to preach or lecture to any of
his own race. Nor can any white undertake this office, if there
be fewer than three of his complexion present. Similar regu-

CHAP, XIX,] TACT OF SLAVES. 217
penal offence by law, they are, many of them, very
shrewd and intelligent, — with the same varieties of
talent and character as are to be found among the
whites. Some of their faculties are sharpened by
constant exercise, and the absence of those exciting
causes which disteact or weaken the mental powers
of the free. Their tact in some things is extremely
fine and acute. The exigencies that demand re
serve, or permit its relaxation, are appreciated by
them with a nicety of which we can form no idea.
They conceal their knowledge as they conceal their
money, — and for the same reason, — lest it should
become an injury to themselves, by becoming a be
nefit to their owners.
This man spoke of their condition and character
with so much good sense and good feeling, that I
could hardly believe myself to be on the south side
ofthe Potomac,
lations pervade the South, The same instinctive dread of the
consequences to which knowledge is sure to lead, influenced
the pohcy of the feudal lord. The barons of Richard the Se
cond petitioned the king, that no villeyn should be permitted
to send his son to any school. The slaves in North America
teach themselves to read in a very ingenious way. Having
procured a piece of printed paper, they set some one to watch,
while they form themselves into a school of mutual instruction.
Their ftiends supply them with the necessary materials, by
wrapping up the Uttle presents they bring them in a newspaper
or the leaves of a book. They think reading must be very va
luable to them, or it would not be prohibited.
VOL. II, L

218 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XIX,
I little expected to find the same revolutionary
spirit here that exists in Europe ; and that aristo
cratical oppression had been foUowed by the same
effects. Such, however, is the fact ; and no where
is the spirit of the feudal system more effectual in
dividing society, than where its form has fled for
ever. The slave-owners are the law-makers; and
the poor whites, in the few employments that remain
to them, find themseves discouraged and dishonored.
Every attempt to abolish or mitigate slavery has
been baffled. It is the same in all the slave-States,
" In South Carolina, no person can be a member of
the legislature, unless he be a proprietor of 500 acres
of land and ten slaves," according to Judge Piatt,
one of the delegates to the New York convention.
The slave-proprietors will come to the discussion of
the abolition question with minds as free from bias,
and as open to conviction, as the honorable members
of the British House of Commons, when debating
on the policy of repealing the com laws. Such
legislative provisions, however, can no more bind
posterity, than the Lord ChanceUor's woolsack stop
the cotton miUs, or the prayer in the Dutch ritual
for " the great fishery " confine the capital of
Holland to the catching and curing of hen-ings.
Justice, with her exactions, her sophistry and
chicanery, is on the side of those who supply the
bencU writh its incumbents. The lords of the soU
wiU not seU a bit of land to any of the humbler

CHAP, XIX.] WHITE LABOR DISCOURAGED, 219
classes, who happen to have a littie money ; whUe
the latter are leaving the country, and the former are
adding to their possessions and their gangs — to fall,
in a short time, into the hands of those who have
acquired wealth in teade, or to be divided among
the children, tUl Uttie or nothing be left. The in
dustrious laborer looks with a sigh to the north;
where he sees his equal rising to a higher rank, and
rewarded for his toUs by the comfort and respect
they obtain for him. He contrasts his degraded
state with the rewards that cheer the prospects of '
the northem peasant, and curses the institutions of
his native land. So prevalent is this feeling among
the working classes, who see in the system around
them the cause of aU their calamities, that, if it were
not for the outlet afforded by the westem wilderness,
the evil would cure itself, and an explosion would
take place. There is one circumstance pecuUarly
hard upon these men — as fine a race, too, as can easily
be found any where. As farmers, hotel-keepers, and
others, find it cheaper to job than to buy their slaves,
capitalists, adapting their speculations to the altered
state of things, purchase gangs to let out ; and as
mechanical skill fetches a high price, qualify their
slaves to become carpenters, cabinet-makers, wheel
wrights, blacksmiths, or other workmen. The latter
of course displace an equal number of whites ; who
are thus doubly injured by a competition, against
which it is hopeless to contend, and by the stigma
l2

220 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XIX.
which prejudice affixes to aU employments that are
occupied by slaves, A man who had gone from:
New England to the south, was earning five doUars
a day, when he was driven away. by the jeers and
scoffs of those who could not bear to see a white;
man engaged in what tbey considered a degrading
occupation. The high rate of wages could not
induce him to remain, or others to take his place,'
Some one, however, must do the work. Who does
it, and how is he paid ? This is a question of the
utmost importance ; as the state of the southem
section and its probable destiny are involved in the
answer. This process of exclusion and debasement
is going on with increasing rapidity, not only in
Virginia, but in every State where the profits of
forced labor are decreasing ; and added to the
breeding system, which tends to shut the eyes of
those most deeply interested against the consequences
of such a course, presents to the imagination a clear
picture of what is to come. There were no less than
five acts passed by the legislature of Virginia, the
last session but one, enabling free blacks, who
would otherwise have been compelled by a most
iniquitous law to quit the State, to remain. It is
not uncharitable to suppose, that it was the ne*
cessity for their services, not humanity, that , had
pleaded in their behalf.
A person at Washington told me, that the best black
smith he ever saw, was a man who had obtained his

CHAP. XIX.] POPULAR DISCONTENT, 221
own freedom, and that of his wife and family, through
the exercise of his skiU. He had been compelled to
quit Virginia ; as the law in question was enforced
against him by men who owed him money. Such
persons cannot well be spared in remote districts,
where an interruption to the ordinary course of busi
ness is more readily felt than supplied ; and legis-
l^itive enactments will be nugatory, when those who
are to enforce them suffer the most by their infliction.
It will hence be apparent how utterly useless it is for
the white workmen to bear up against such a combin
ation of free capital and forced labor. It is im
possible; they know it; and give up all hope of
reUef. " Why," said I to the driver, " do you not
make common cause with yOur fellow workmen in
Maryland and Tennessee ? " — " Ah ! Sir," was his
reply, " w'e are separated by local jealousies*.
Those who have the wealth and power of the States
in their hands, take care to keep these feelings alive,
to prevent our acting in concert. We sacrifice our
interests to our prejudices. But this cannot last
long. A change must take place," I coxdd now
see one reason why the Southemers object so
steenuously and unitedly against the principle of in-
* The Union is strengthened by the political operation of
these jealousies. It is from hence the federal government
derives its chief support, as it derived its origin. 'While eaclx
State is striving to promote its own interests, aU are combined
against the ascendancy of any one^

222 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIX,
temal improvements, under the pretence that it is
unconstitutional. The more isolated the States are
from each other, the more secure is their internal
power. Canals and rail-roads would " let in new
light through chinks that time has made," and ex
pose the hidden deformity wdthin the building.
Every measure for improving the new States
and attracting settlers is opposed by the Southern
members of congress, who would gladly cut off aU
communication with them that may tend to facilitate
the removal of their fellow-citizens. Great indeed
mustbe their terror and embarrassment, when measures
of coercion and restriction could for a moment have
been contemplated in such a countey. The governor
of South Carolina, in his message to the legislature
of 1829, thus expressed himself. " The increase of
population has been limited, owing to emigration.
Nothing tends to retard the improvement of the
country more than the roving habits of our people.
It is natural that the New States should desire to
increase their population, and, with it, tl^eir poUtical
influence in the Union, Among other schemes to
effect this purpose, is to be ranked the gratuitous
distribution of the public lands to emigrants. How
far it may be politic to adopt some countervaiUng
measures on this subject, you will determine. The
right to set limits to emigi-ation is an original prin
ciple in the body politic. Without insisting upon
an interdict of emigration, you wUl consider how

CHAP. XIX,] BONUS TO SETTLERS. 223
far it becomes your duty to make it the interest of
the citizen to remain on his native soU." Admirable
consistency ! The same power that excludes free
citizens firom other States would detain its own.
Imagine a cordon sanitaire of blockade-men along
the whole frontier of South Carolina. A colored man
makes his appearance on one side, — " you must not
come in :" a white man approaches on the other,—-
" you must not go out."
Various "schemes" have been adopted, to pre
serve, or increase, the white population of the slave
States. Virginia, if I was rightiy informed, seUs her
lands at the price of two doUars for one hundred
acres. This expedient for attracting has the effect
of repeUing settiers. What difference is there whe
ther you cry " stinking fish !" or " fish for nothing ! "
In Tennessee there is a curious jus trium liberoram.
A law was enacted there in 1829, authorizing any
man whose wife shaU have three or more children at
one birth, to take up 200 acres of the State lands
for each of the chUdren.
Both drivers observed to me, that the country we
were passing through would be the garden of the
Union, if it were not for slavery. " I ¦wiU explain
the whole system to you," said one of them : " the
slave wiU do nothing, or do what he does in a slo
venly way, if left to himself. AU he can lay his
hands on, he keeps to himself; and, when he is found
out, he reasons thus : ' You have robbed me of my

224 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XIX.
labor, and I have a right to get back as much as I
can of what it has produced'; and he is in the right:
.—we should do the same in his place," There is
no use mincing the matter ; talk as you please about
property in man. Put power on the other side, and
who wUl listen to you .'
About forty years ago, some Americans were re
deemed fi-om slavery at Algiers, Sixteen of them
landed at Newport, in Rhode Island, A crowd soon
collected, anxious to receive from the lips of the^r
fdlow-countrymen the story of their sufferings and
their escape. Among other circumstances, they
dwelt much upon the pleasure they had felt in pil
fering, whenever they had an opportunity, from their
o^wTiers, This communication was received with
loud cheers ; and every one present applauded them
for this act of retaliation. I had this statement from
an eye-witness.
It is to the system of personal bondage that the
downfall of Rome and of the Grecian republics may
be traced, Appian's description (and a similar picture
is given by Plutarch) of ancient Italy corresponds
in many particulars to what may be seen in Virginia
and her sister communities, "The laborers and
shepherds ", he says *, " employed on the farms,
were slaves ; for freemen were liable to be called
away on militai-y service : and besides, in this mode
* See Westminster Review for Jan., 1833.

CHAP, XIX.] DEPRECIATION OF LAND, 225
of possession they derived large profits from the
chUdren of their slaves, who multiplied on accoimt
of this very exemption from service. The result of
the whole was that the nobles engrossed all the
wealth ; and slaves swarmed through the countey.
The diminution of their own numbers, on the other
hand, pressed heavUy on the ItaUans, and left them
to be ground down by poverty, taxes, and military
services. Even when a temporary remission oc-
cuired, they had no means of finding employment ;
as the rich were in possession of the land, and em
ployed slaves, to the exclusion of freemen,"
It is singular that Montesquieu, in enumerating
the causes which led to the fall of the Roman em
pire, says littie or nothing of the influence which
slavery had on the public welfare. He speaks
throughout of the people as if they were incapable
of action or reflection, beyond what their " betters"
might stimulate or supply ; and atteibutes to luxury
and vice, as primary causes, what they merely pro
duced as the consequences of that system which
equaUy dishonored and discouraged labor, by giving
all its fruits to one portion of society, and all its
toils to the other. If Rome conquered the civiUzed
world because her soldiers were citizens, was she
not conquered bythe barbarians because her subjects
were slaves ?
"As soon as the census is completed," says the
Charleston Courier, in 1830, " we shall discover to
L 3

226 TOCR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIX,
what cause the decline in the value of land is to be
attributed. By those violent characters, who wanted
to conceal the effect of their own avarice and foUy
ill introducing one family of negroes, and in driving
out two of white ; in doing all they could to keep up
the necessaries of life ; in buying up all the land
they could, (thus ensuring their own eventual ruin,)
and asking prices for it which were perfectly pro
hibitory; in buying negroes to grow cotton, and
growing cotton to buy negroes; in glutting the
cotton-market of the world ; in trying every ex
periment to discover the minimum of sustenance and
the maximum of labor (thus ensuring eventual loss
to themselves, and present misery to their servants).
By these men all was ascribed to the tariff."
The planters of the older slave States are, many of
them, reduced to the situation of bankrupt debtors
with mortgaged estates ; bearing the same relation
to the merchants of Philadelpliia, New York, and
Boston, that their West Indian brethren bear to the
capitalists of the mother countey. Slave property
carries a curse with it, wherever it is found. It
rouses the worst spirit of gambling. It stimulates
the taste for reckless speculation, while it relaxes
the springs of honest industry. The dice-box and
the cow-hide are equally fatal to all who handle
them; but the former is less poUuted, as it is stained
with the tears of the guilty, while the latter is red
with the blood of the innocent.

CHAP, XIX.] FUNERAL. 227
Mr, Mercer, speaking in the convention of the
lowland country, expressed his feeUngs in terms
that wanted nothing but fiction to make them truly
poetical, " Can we dwell ", said the orator, " but
with mournful regret, on temples of religion sinking
in ruin ; and those spacious dweUings, whose doors,
once opened by the hand of liberal hospitality, are
now faUen upon their ,portals, or closed in tenantless
silence? Except on the banks of its rivers, the
march of desolation saddens this once beautiful
counti-y. The cheerful notes of population have
ceased ; and the wolf and the wild deer, no longer
scared from their ancient haunts, have descended
from the mountains to the plains. They look on the
graves of our ancestors, and traverse their former
paths. And shall we do nothing to restore this once
lovely land ? There was a time, when the sun in his
course shone on none so fair," Mr, Mercer recom
mended that that part of the white population which
forms its bone and sinew, should be elevated : — and
what would be the result? to increase the evil. Who
wiU remain when labor is dishonorable, and the sense
of honor iu the laborer is rendered more acute ; —
when the hope of improving his condition animates
his bosom, while every avenue to his ambition is
filled with discouragement, or pre-occupied by those
he has been taught to despise ?
Between Orange Court House and CharlotteviUe,
we met several people returning fi-om a fiiaeral, Tbe

228 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIX.
body had been buried two months before. It is the
custom, in this part of the country, to let, a long
interval elapse between the burial and the funeral
service. It probably arose in the early period of the
first settlement, when a sexton was more easily found
than a clergyman ; and the practice of deferring the
ceremony for the dead has continued long after the
cause has ceased.
At one o'clock we arrived at CharlotteviUe, (forty-
nine miles from Culpeper,) where I stopped ; while
my companions resumed their seats after dinner, and
proceeded to Lynchburg, where one of them pro
posed we should meet again, and go on together to
Richmond. In the aftemoon I walked up to the
University, or College, about a mile out of the
tow^n. It was my intention to call upon Dr, Pattison,
who had filled for some time an appointment at the
Loudon University. I had, however, been misin
formed, both as to the person and the name ; though
there was some slight resemblance to the former,
and nearly an identity as to the latter. The mistake
was productive of a very agreeable acquaintance;
Dr, Patterson, to whom I addressed myself, having
shewn me as much civUity as I could have expected
to receive from the gentiemau with whom I had
confounded him, and whom I merely knew as having
met him once or twic,e at the house of a fiiend.
Having shewn me the library,— a handsome and

CHAP. XIX.] UNIVERSITY, 229
apparentiy weU-stored room, he invited me to drink
tea with him. Here I remained, till the close of the
evening, and the inteoduction of a subject which I
am apt to discuss with too much warmth and indis
cretion, warned me to retire,
I was about to take my leave, when the Doctor
inquired whether I had paid any attention to the
system of slavery, which formed so strong a feature
in the economy of the State. I replied that the
subject had interested me very much ; that I was
aware it was a question of equal importance and
delicacy : and that I thought the colored race would
go on increasing in numbers, tiU the land would fall
into their possession. To a remark from my host,
that emigration would be a check upon their increase,
I referred, in answer, to the population of Ireland ;
where the Catholics, who had descended to the low
est scale of animal life consistent ¦with freedom of
action, had nearly driven out the Protestants; had
sent forth innumerable swarms of colonists to various
parts of the globe ; and had increased their numbers
at home with a rapidity unknown in any other part
of Europe,
From these observations, and the replies that fol
lowed, the transition was natural to the treatment ofthe
slaves, who, I was assured, were well fed and happy.
" But what is to become of them, when the owner is
unable to support them?" "Oh! then he sells
them." Shocking altemative, which compels them

280 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIX.
to starve at home, or perish in the rice-grounds of
South Carolina ! What could I say in reply ? I
had already gone too far : the worthy Doctor and
his amiable lady had near relatives who were slave
holders, I rose from my seat; and, with proper
acknowledgements for the poUte attentions shewn to
a steanger, withdrew.
It is in natural philosophy that Professor Patter
son lectures. He has a weU-chosen apparatus ht
the purpose* There is a public examination for the
students at the middle and at the end of each session.
It is conducted in writing ; and the classification,
which is determined by marks previously arranged,
is into four divisions, according to the answers. The
Institution confers three degrees of honor ; a cer
tificate of proficiency, the title of graduate in any
school or faculty, aud the degree of M.A. in the
University of Virginia. To obtain the' last, the can
didate must have graduated in ancient languages,
modern languages, mathematics, natural philosophy,
chemistry, and moral phUosophy,
The next day, I set off on foot for MonticeUo, fhe
celebrated seat of the celebrated Mr, Jefferson. It
is situated on a commanding eminence, about two
miles from the town. It was unfortunately a cloudy
day, with a sort of haze that restricted the view.
Still it was a noble prospect, from the summit of the
hiU on which the house stands. Below was the
valley in which CharlotteviUe is placed; and just

CHAP, XIX.] MR. JEFFERSON, 231
below, on the right, the river Rivanna, In the dis
tance, and in front, were the Blue Mountains, rising
above each other, and running towards the N,E,, till
they were lost in the horizon.
There is nothing remarkable in the house, I did
not attempt to gain admittance, as the family, to
whom it belonged, were at home, — as far as I could
judge, from seeing a young lady at the window, who
seemed^ from the look she gave me, to say I had no
business there. There was no one about the place
who could give me any information.
The estate, consisting of seven or eight hundred
acres, was sold, some time back, for 7000 doUars ;
and the purchaser disposed of the greater part in
lots. The remainder, about 180 acres, with the house,
was purchased for 2700 dollars, a sum which wiU
probably be reduced by a few hundreds, as the
quantity of ground proves to be less than it was
repiesented to be.
Mr. Jefferson is said to have laid out sixty or
seventy thousand dollars on the house. He had
been a wealthy man ; but the profusion with which
he entertained the numerous visitors who honored
him with their company from aU parts of the world,
reduced his estate to very narrow Umits. One hears
a great deal about Southem hospitality. Like Pre
sident Jackson's spectacles, which are wittily de
scribed in Jack Downing's letters *, it seems to make
* There are two Jack Downings. The one aUuded to is
reviewed in the last Quarterly. His political sketches are ejt-

232 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XIX.
every object wear the donor's colors. If the poor
slaves could be hospitable as weU as their masters,
they would not want advocates. But they cannot
invite to tbe banquet; they can only furnish the
costly wines and savory viands *-
Jefferson's slaves (to the number of 130) were sold
by auction, after his death ; — " the most valuable
for their number ", as chronicles tell, " ever offered
at one time for sale in Virginia." An Act of Assembly
was passed, to enable his children, (there were five,)
to whom he bequeathed their freedom, to remain in
the State, One of his daughters is married, and
settled at CharlotteviUe,
Jefferson was as hostUe to the Bank of the United
States and to a paper currency, as his present suc
cessor. Paper money, he says in one of his letters,
does not make any addition to the stock or capital
ceUent ; but, though abounding in humor, he is inferior to his
prototype, as a delineator of national manners,
* " You first tax the slave who makes the money ; and then
you tax the article which the money procures," — Judge Upshur,
in the Virginia Convention.
" It is a problem, which I give to the master to solve, whether
the religious precepts against the violation of property were not
framed for him as weU as his slave ; and whether the slave may
not as justifiably take a Uttle from one who has taken aU from
him, as he may slay one who would slay him ? "  Jeflferson's
Notes on Virginia.
" It is certainly humihating to a proud master to reflect that
he depends on his slave, even for bread to eat."  Notes to a
Treatise written by a Florjda planter.

CHAP. XIX.] MR, JEFFERSON, 233
of a nation, by introducing commodities, which the
gold it has displaded brings ' from other countries,
" The coin, sent out, was worth as much, while in
the country, as the goods imported and taking its
place," If so, why was it sent out ? If no profit is
to be had, why does the merchant make " a change
of form in a part of the national capital from that of
gold and silver to other goods ? " If there is a profit,
it is so much added to the' national capital, Tbe
chief objection to paper money with Jefferson is its
supposed encouragement to luxury, which, he says,
" increases expense, without increasing production,"
Franklin's -anecdote ofthe ribbands supplies the best
answer to this assertion. All the girls in the village
set to work at straw-bonnet making, that they might
purchase the new luxury ¦with them ; and thus, while
they gratified an innocent vanity, brought wealth and
refinement into the village.
Why should the commercial interests of a whole
people depend on the nature and the number of the
"idols " with which the mind of one man is possessed ;
and the merchants be sacrificed, because the executive
thinks he knows better what is for their good than
the merchants themselves ?
It would be curious to mark how the means of
exchange are suited to the state of society, from the
hunter to the commercial state ;— from barter to
paper money : and , to fix, by an exact analysis, that
ratio between the manufacturing and the agricultural

234 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XIX.
portions of the community, which requires the sub
stitution of paper for specie.
If permission to stay be a favor, it must be a
punishment to be sent away. The colonization
scheme was first proposed by Virginia, Jefferson
says, in a letter written in 1811, "I received, on the
first year of my entering into the administration of
the general govemment, a letter from the Governor
of Virginia, consulting me, at the request of the le
gislature of the State, on the means of procuring
some asylum, to which these people might occasion
ally be sent. I proposed to him the establishment
of Siena Leone, &c,, and, if that could not be ob
tained, some of the Portuguese possessions in South
America as most desirable." Thus it appears that
the system of deportation not only originated with
the planters, but that the civiUzation of Africa formed
no part of the object ; and the emigrants were to be
left at the mercy of the Portuguese slave-owners.
So early as 1801 the question of African coloniz
ation was discussed in the Virginia legislature. The
measure seems to have been suggested by the fears
that Gabriel's insurrection had excited. Some time
after this, the House of Delegates resolved, almost
unanimously, "that the executive be requested to
correspond with the President of the United States,
for the purpose of obtaining a territory upon the
North Pacific, or at some other place, not within
any of the States, or the territorial governments of

CHAP. XIX,] ORIGIN OF COLONIZATION. 235
the United States, to serve as an asylum for such
persons of color as are now free, and may desire the
same, and for those who may hereafter be eman
cipated within this commonwealth." In accordance
with these sentiments, a meeting, in December, 1816,
was held at Washington, " to consider the propriety
and practicability of colonizing the free people of
color in the United States, and of forming an asylum
in relation to that object." Thus, neither adaptation
of climate, nor abolition of slavery, was contemplated
in the original scheme. Most of those who com
posed the meeting were planters, or connected with
them ; and the chairman (Mr. Clay) was a slave
owner. That even a slave-owner thinks it a hardship to
be sent out of one's country, may be seen in Jeffer
son's most humiliating request to the legislature of
his State. " I humbly ", such are his words in his
last wiU, " I humbly and earnestly request of the
legislature of Virginia, a confirmation of the bequests
to these servants, with permission to remain in this
State, where their famihes and connexions are, as an
additional instance of the favour, of which I have
received so many other manifestations in the course
of my life, and for which I now give them my solemn
and dutiful thanks."
The motto of this "philosopher" was, "in eo
libertas in quo spiritus." Yet he passed his whole
life in destroying the liberty of others, and disgraced

236 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XIX,
his own by asking as a favor what he ought to have
demanded as a right,
CharlotteviUe, which contains about 1500 souls,
is a neat, thriving town, surrounded by farms in a
good state of cultivation. The University brings a
good deal of money to it, ¦without receiving an equi
valent in morals. The students reside ten months in
the year. Their average age is twenty; considerably
higher than it is at Cambridge or Newhaven. Of
201 students, who attended the preceding session,
three only were from the free States, The system is
in one respect like the Geiinan and Scotch ; as the
professors receive fees, in addition to their salaries,
from their pupils, who are aUowed to select what
" faculty " they wUl study, ,
The place has a communication with the sea, by
means of flat-bottomed boats ; partly by a canal, and
partly, where navigable,* by the Rivanna, to Rich
mond. But the stimulus is wanting that would
convert the town into a city, by directing its popu
lation to the hidden riches of commerce. Those
streams, which flow from the mountains with a power
that the busy hand of free labor would employ to
give bread to thousands, continue their idle and un
profitable course to the ocean : — an emblem of many
an Ul-starred youth, whom the bUghting system of
his native State has doomed to wear away a devious
and useless existence,
I was highly pleased, in conversing with a young

CHAP, XIX,J CHARLOTTEVILLE. 237
man, a druggist^ into whose shop I happened to step,
to hear that there are some who have escaped the
contagion ofthe infected air they breathe. Speaking
of slavery, (a topic with which a stranger is sure to
be regaled,) he observed that he would rather live on
bread and water than own a slave ; — that some of
his friends were of his way of thinking : — and that,
for his part, he should be sorry to have a wdfe and
family, while he remained whete he was, as his
chUdren would be sure to be contaminated by bad
example, and habituated to exercise a despotic au
thority which would render them unworthy members
of society.
If I might form an opinion of the students frora
the little I saw of them, they are a sad lawless set*
Some of them, who were carousing at the hotel, dis
turbed the whole hoUse with the most discordant
noises. The landlord was at last obliged to shut the
bar against them. He told me the bed-rooms were
always locked up, to prevent their going into them
and annoying the lodgers ; — a precaution which my
own experience convinced me was by no means su
perfluous, I asked one of these " chivalrous " youths,
who was sitting next to me, what the contents of a
dish were upon the table before us. He retumed me
no answer, but a laugh, which was repeated by his
neighbor, and was taken up by three or four others
who sat opposite, and who continued sneering till
they had left the table, I hope they profit more by

238 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIX.
Dr. Patterson's science than they do by his good-
breeding. There are no such pubUc schools here as exist in
the north. The expenses of education ai-e defrayed
by the State, which has appointed commissioners for
the poor, whose chUdren are sent to private esta
bUshments, where they are taught with those not
under the same necessity: — an ingenious method
to keep up the most odious features of that dis
tinction which difference of wealtii will always
make. The consequences of this arrangement are
just what might have been expected. Rather than
expose them to humiliation, many parents keep their
children at home, where they receive little or no edu
cation. This feeling in the "lower orders" is im
puted to pride ; but, if it be pride, it is a feeling very
nearly allied to self-respect. These matters are not
very equitably estimated. This coUege draws annu
ally from the pubhc purse 15,000 doUars; while
45,000 are granted for the general purposes of in
struction throughout the State ; yet the cottager's son
is despised by the rich planter's boy, who is sent to
a college, built, endowed, and supported out of the
same fund that is employed for the education of the
former ; — as parish paupers in " sheep-skins and goat
skins" are objects of contempt to public paupers in
*' purple and fine linen,"
Never in any country have I met with such an
unmannerly «et of" unUcked cubs" as there were at

CHAP. XIX.] ^ COLLEGIANS, 239
dinner the day I left CharlotteviUe. The students,
of whom I have spoken, entered the hotel swagger
ing and swearing and whistiing ; and behaved, while
at table, in the most disgusting manner. Some of
them seized on the brandy-bottle ; others darted on
the dishes with an avidity that defies imitation or
description, and filled their plates and their mouths
with both hands. Every man, indeed, was ambi
dexter, and plied his knife and bis fork simultane
ously, and with equal skUl, As soon as the first
cravings of appetite were appeased, and the best
things secured, three or four who sat opposite, ob
serving a steanger present, endeavored to stare him
out of countenance; and, faUing in their attempt,
they began to whisper to one another, still fixing
their looks upon me in the most offensive manner.
I was soon relieved from thepainfid necessity of wit
nessing the spectacle of youth perverted by indul
gence and the insolence of caste. I was summoned
to the stage, and quitted CharlotteviUe, with no very
exalted idea of its academical disciphne.
These young gentlemen, I was informed, are as
famous for their " renowning" as their German bre
thren ; though their mode of attacking " the Philis
tines" is less manly and heroic. Their antipathies
are particularly directed against the tailors ; a class
of men to whom they are much indebted in more
senses than one. We generally say that one man is
a match for nine taUors ; — they hold the Converse to

240 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XIX.
be true;— for they set upon poor " snip" in parties
of ten or twelve, A lad, who was recounting these
exploits to me with a delight and glee that shewed
he would be at the same sport himself when old
enough, appeared to think it an excellent joke to
"whip a taUor half to death," — " They are so meain ! "
he observed. Whipping means beating in all its
modes and measures, — such as kicking, gouging, &c.
The meanness consists in dressing better than the
students. The latter, during college hours, wear a
sort of uniform, " consisting (according to the ndes)
of cloth of a dark grey mixture, at a price not ex
ceeding six dollars a yard." It must be galling to
them, when they doff it for a smart coat, to see a
better one on the back ofthe very person who made
it. As these embryo-statesmen usuaUy carry a dirk
or a pistol, resistance is out of the question. Some
of the townsmen have been nearly killed by these
young ruffians, and many are afraid to venture out
after dark, I am far from asserting this account to
be true of the majority; but I fear there are too many
to whom this description applies, if I am not deceived
by persons who had no apparent motive or intention
to deceive me.

CHAP, XX,] WILMINGTON, 241

CHAPTER XX,
Wilmington. — Drunkenness. — Cruelty to Slaves. — Price of Re
ligious Slaves. — Overseers. — Export Trade of Human Beings.
— Destruction of Life by Hard Work. — Richmond. — Education
in the South. — Penitentiary. — Treatment of Free Blacks 
Black Labor and White Labor. — Ultimate Triumph of Blacks.
— Slave Penal Code  Gambling.
The stage, in which there was no one but myself,
stopped for the night at Wilmington, about twenty-
five miles. The road passed through an interesting
country, with the exception of a long forest, which,
as is generally the case with such scenery, was very
tedious and monotonous.
It was a raw, cold moming, though the 4th of May,
when the stage, about five o'clock, resumed its route ;
and I tried in vain to keep myself warm ; the leather
curtains letting in the keen air to my great annoy
ance. As the day advanced it improved ; and when
we left Goochland Court-house, where we break
fasted, having come thirty mUes, the weather became
pleasant, and I got outside. Before we sat down to
breakfast, I was asked by the landlord if I would not
VOL, II, M

242 TOUR IN the united STATES, [CHAP. XX.
take a dram, — an invitation that I had never had in
the North ; in which, during my whole stay, I did
not see one half the intoxication I had met with in Vir
ginia. Six or eight men had amused themselves the
preceding night in drinking and singing and shout
ing, till two o'clock in the moming, when four of
them lay down dead drunk on some straw in a bam
adjoining the house where the driver was. They
kept him awake all night. The wages of this man
were very high. He drove forty-six miles from Wil
mington to Richmond, and was paid forty dollars a
month, in addition to board and lodging and wash
ing. Other drivers are paid in proportion to the
distance, for one stage or route, which is seldom half
the former number of miles, about fifteen dollars a
month, with the same additions. As the slaves oc
cupy so many employments, one would think that
the whites, having so little to do, would, by their
number, keep down the wages of the stage-drivers ;
but this is so far from being the case, that many of
them are from the North ; it being very difficult to
find a steady, trastworthy man who is quaUfied for
a situation that requires habits of sobriety and pra-
dence. The best part of the working-class leave the
State, One of the passengers related to me some facts he
had himself seen, that would shock any one pos-,
sessed of a spark of humanity. He had seen nearly
a thousand human beings chained together, and pass-

CHAP, XX.] CRUELTIES. 243
ing along the road to the South, under the lash of
their drivers. He had seen a man receive, not a
month before, at the whipping-post in Richmond,
before assembled hundreds, no less than one hundred
lashes from the cow-hide, for striking a white man who
had teeated him most barbarously*. He had struck the
latter, in a moment of anger, with his open hand. For
this crime his back was cut nearly to the bone, from
the nape of the neck to the loins, and presented one
continuous mass of gore. He had seen children of
three and five years of age publicly sold by the
weight ; the former at 3 J doUars, the latter at 4j per
pound, in the presence of their mothers, who were
wringing their hands in unutterable anguish.
In relating these atrocities, and others of the same
kind, — especiaUy the case of a free black, who, a
short time before, had received thirty -nine lashes for
nine successive days, for assisting a slave to escape, —
the narrator's voice faltered, and he seemed to feel
over again the horrors ofthe scenes at which he had
been present. Persons who witness these cruelties
for the first time, are affected even to tears : — the
heart seems to sink under the pressure of mental
* The law in Louisiana declares that " Free people of color
ought never to insult or strike white people, nor presume to
conceive themselvjes equal to the whites ; but, on the contrary,
they ought to yield to them on every occasion, and never speak
or answer them but with respect, under penalty of imprison
ment, according to the nature of the offence,"
M 2

244 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XX.
suffering, and sickness, often accompanied with vo
miting, ensues. The driver pointed out to me seve
ral' houses, the owners of which were noted for their
cruelty ; but none more so than a minister of the
Gospel, whose church was by the side of the road.
He added, that there were more instances of harsh
treatmept towards their slaves in that profession than
in any other.
It is not uncommon for churches to hold slaves. A
person, who was in the habit of asking the slaves to
whom they belonged, one day received the following
answer : " I belong to the congregation." On in
quiry, he found that the man was one of a gang who
had been bequeathed to a religious society for pious
uses ; and the proceeds derived from their labor were
appropriated to the repairs of tiie buUding, and othet
expenses connected with the congregation. This
species of property, like the CodriUgton plantation
in Barbadoes, would add more to the funds than the
fame of the church, and injure religion in proportion
as it enriched its professors. Another mode of rais
ing money is, where the slaves, not the masters, are
" pious," Would it be believed that such a quaUfi
cation should be advertised, to enhance the price,
and secure a ready sale ? Yet it is a fact, that, at
New Orleans, (and similar deeds have no doubt been
done elsewhere,) a large number of negroes, who had
recently arrived in the port, were to be sold by pub
Uc auction ; and the advertisement particularly stated

CHAP. XX.] OVERSEERS. 245
that there were several " pious slaves" in the lot.
Men often make gain out of godliness ; but it is no
common thing to sell another's religion, and coin
money out of a fellow-creature's piety.
Overseers are highly paid ; from 300 to 500 dol
lars a year, besides board, &c. One of them, on a
farm we passed, had 680, and ahorse found for him.
You see them, as you go along the road, standing
with their hands in their pockets, overlooking the
slaves. They generally have fire-arms or a dirk
with them, in case of " accidents " ; though it must
be desperation alone that would offer them violence.
Besides the great expense thus incurred, the only
security for the overseer's vigilance is the fear of
losing his salary and his character — a feeble restraint
in the absence of his employer *, So costiy and
niinous is this sort of farming, that the produce of
the poorer soil will not cover the expenses of culti
vation ; — the slaves hterally eat up aU the profits —
the proprietor sells at a loss, and th^ little capital he
can save, is carried off to the west. Meantime the
fields, which have been producing Indian com for
the slaves, are exhausted and abandoned, tUl the
* IVIr. Wirt, a slave-owner himself, speaking of the over
seers, caUs them, in his Ufe of Patrick Henry — " A feculum of
beings — ^the most abject, degraded, unprincipled race, — always
cap-in-hand to the Dons who employed them, and furnishing
materials for the exercise of their pride, insolence, and spirit of
domination.''

246 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XX.
pine springs up spontaneously, to give place, when
cut, to the oak ; which, after foUowing the fate of
its predecessor, leaves an improved soil for future
abandonment and renovation,
Virginia affords a fair picture of the slave States ;
some of which are now undergoing the same process
of transmutation, and all of which are destined to
share, in succession, the same fate. The poorer
class of whites is quitting North Carolina, and
Tennessee, and Kentucky, for places more congenial
to their feelings and less opposed to their physical
and moral advancement, Horace describes a simi
lar scene under similar circumstances,
" — Usque proximos
ReveUis agri terminos, et ultra
Limites cUentium
SaUs avarijs. PeUitur paternos
In sinu ferens Deos
Et uxor et vir, sordidosque natos.''
In the mean time the concentration of farms, con
sequent upon a different mode of cultivation, is
going on ; and the black population is increasing in
the same proportion, to become, at a future day, the
proprietors of that soU, from which they are now
extracting wealth for others,
" It is usual," says a^writer in the American Quarter
ly Review (1832), "to give the overseer, instead of a
salary, a share ofthe crop. The murderous effects of
this on the fertility of the soil " (and we may add 6n

CHAP. XX,] INTERNAL TRADE, 247
the laborers) '^may well be conceived. An estate,
submitted to overseers entitied to a share of the
crop, (who are changed, of course, almost yearly,)
suffers a thousand- fold more than would EngUsh
farms put on leases of one or two years to fresh
lessees." The Reviewer (a Virginian) assures us
that the whole agricultural produce of the State
does not now exceed in value the exports eighty or
ninety years ago, when it contained not one sixth of
its present population, and when not one third of
the surface was at aU occupied. How then is the
increased popijlation maintained ? By the sale of
human beings. He declares that a very large pro
portion of the landholders are contented if they
can make the profits and the expenditure balance
each other ; that the return to capital invested does.
not, when there is any, average more than one, or
one and a half per cent, ; and that many, with gangs
of fifty to one hundred slaves, cannot escape debt,
under a kind of management which would formerly -
" have been deemed very sheer economy," He ac
knowledges that 6000, half the increase, were an
nually sold, four years before, for exportation. There
are probably more than twice that number — yet he
is unwiUing to admit that this trSiffic is cherished by
any but a very few persons, " Virginia," he says,
" scoms those who resort to it," Yet he adds, that
it is a regular source of income. Those who never
had any scrapie to supply their luxuries by robbery,

248 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XX,
are ashamed to keep themselves from starving by
the same means ! In fact, the slave trade may be
considered the staple of Virginia, The Richmond
Enquirer said, not long ago, — " Slaves have faUen
in oui' market. It is partly, perhaps principaUy,
owing to some derangement in the mode of transact
ing the business. The banks at New Orleans do
not find it convenient to draw biUs on Richmond,
but at four months ; and the banks here do not buy
but at sixty days," The same paper, speculating on
what he thinks will be the result of emancipation in
our colonies, foresees the extension of sugar culti-'
vation in Louisiana and the Floridas. Hence, he
anticipates a rise in price from a greater demand for
slaves from Virginia, This will be a curious article
in the price current.
Judge Upsher said, in the Virginia Convention : —
" If it should be our lot, as I trust it wUl be, to ac
quire the country of the Texas *, the price of slaves
• It is weU known that the Southerners have fixed a co
vetous eye on the Texas. As the Mexican government have,
however, agreed, on the application of an American philan
thropist, (Lundy,) to receive 700 colored fainiUes from the
United States into the district, it is not likely that it wiU be in-
cUned to cede a territory so valuable, and so weU guarded as it
wiU be. Colonel Austin, a citizen qf the United States, is
employing every inducement that a fertile soil and a fine cU
mate can hold out to his countrymen, to settle in the colony he
has founded there. The Mexican laws on the subject of slaves

CHAP. XX,] PROFITS OF SLAVE LABOR, 249
wiU rise again." He had just before stated, that the
prohibitory law of Louisiana had lowered their
value twenty-five per cent, in two hours after its
enactment was known, Mr, Mercer stated, on the
same occasion, that the amount of revenue derived
to the State from the export of slaves, was a million
and a half of dollars. It must now be considerably
more, Louisiana has repealed her prohibitory statute,
and the teade has become more horribly brisk.
It may well be doubted, whether slave labor,
which, in a new country, is apparently the cheapest
to the cultivator, is not, on that very account, the
dearest to the community; whether what is gained
on one side, is not lost on the other ; and whether
the benefit of the agriculturist and the increase of
national wealth are necessarily identified, when the
former alone is consulted. From a statement made
in the House of Representatives, in August, 1832,
by Mr. BuUard of Louisiana, the profits of slave
labor in that State must be very high. He said
the general average of four plantations he was ac
quainted with, was, for two years, six bales and
a half of cotton, of 400 pounds, to the " hand " ;
while the average expense of each effective hand
was fi-om forty to fifty dollars. This expense in-
are evaded by the settlers, who interchange them with one
another at the expiration of the term for which they are al
lowed to hold them, — a circumstance that must add to their
desire for a junction with their native country.
m3

250 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XX.
eluded the charges of overseer, provisions, medi
cines, and clothing. He added that fifty or sixty
thousand dollars were then on their way, from a
single county, in his district, to purchase slaves in
Virginia, Hence it is evident that the planter has an in
terest in increasing the quantity of his produce, far
beyond the cost of such increase. If his slaves are
worked to death, he can always supply their place
from the slave-breeding States; and be a gainer by
the substitution. If coach proprietors could make
such profits by augmenting the speed, and doubUng
the work of their cattle, how long would their horses
remain on the road ?
A slave in Louisiana, worth 600 dollars, will, in
six years, replace, by the proceeds of his labor, the
whole purchase money with the interest, and leave a
profit that shall more than cover all the expenses of
his keep,
I have been assured by a West Indian planter
that the average duration of a newly imported gang,
while the slave teade was open, did not exceed ten
years, and; in many cases, was little more than half
that period. According to the testimony of a writer
in the Revue des Colonies, who was formerly a ma
gistrate at Guadaloupe, out of forty-four slaves im
ported into that island by a planter, not one was
alive at the end of six months.
Unremitting toU produces simUar effects in the

CHAP. XX.] INCREASE OP BLACKS. 251
BrazUian mines, where British companies * are en
couraging the slave trade which supplies their vic
tims, and in Cuba, as well as the Southem States,
where British loans are feeding the fires of Moloch.
Whether cotton, sugar, rice, or tobacco, be grown,
the temptation to over-work the slaves is irresistible,
as long as a ready supply can be obtained from the
older and worn-out slave-States ; while the drain
from the latter, under this encouragement to pro
duction, will have no influence in diminishing the
steeam which supplies it,
WhUe slave-labor was profitable, the increase in
the number of slaves in Virginia, from 1790 to 1800,
was 54,341, It then diminished, with the fall of
prices, to 45,550 in 1810, and to 32,635 in 1820.
When the supply from Africa ceased or became
more precarious, a fresh impetus was given to the
home trade, and the next decade pushed the incre
ment up to 44,571, with a deplorable tendency to
rise. Kentucky, with a fertile soil, has added, in
successive decades, from 1790 to 1830, to her num
bers, 30,914—37,217—40,171, and 44^618, exhibit-
* I hope I am in error while I state that the foUowing gold
mines in Brazil — the Imperial BraziUan, the Imperial Mocau-
bas, the St. John del Rey, and the Cata Branca — are worked
by slaves: — that the Directors of the Companies, to which
they belong, are chiefly if not entirely London merchants ; and
that the loss of life, occasioned by severe toil, is supplied by
imported Aiiicaus,

252 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XX.
ing a greater rate of interest on a smaller capital,
than Virginia, Tennessee, which had but 141,603
slaves in 1830, whUe~ Kentucky had 163,350, had,
in ten years, -added to the augment of the former
census, by no less than 61,496 ; whUe, during the
same period, the increase in North Carolina was five
times as great as it had been from 1810 to 1820,
The mind shrinks with bon-or from the contempla
tion of these facts. It sees the hand of vengeance
on the tocsin ; and hears the SicUian Vespers tolling
from the Potomac to the Mississippi !
Some time before we reached Richmond, we had
a noble view of the James river, on which it stands.
The entrance to the city is very pleasing ; the road
passing over a common on an elevated ground, pre
senting some fine views. The streets were filled
with slaves, who were amusing themselves by play
ing at marbles, walking about to exhibit their finery,
and enjoying the luxury of free air and leisure.
This is the way they generaUy pass the Sunday — an
indulgence intended doubtless to reconcile them to
their lot. These pastimes are their Satumaha, How
bitter must be the draught, when the brim of the
cup is thus sweetened !
The steeets of Richmond are very dirty, though if
possesses facilities for cleanliness that few, if any
other, cities of the Union can boast of; the greater
part of the town being below the level of the river.
There are water-works for supplying the place with

CHAP. XX.] EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 253
w^ater. The year before last, nearly 20,000 dollars
were expended upon them. The whole establish
ment had cost 102,439 doUars ; while the annual re
ceipts were but 4152, The watering committee
complained, in their report, that many of the inha
bitants had the benefit of a supply without paying
for it,
I was anxious to leam whether there were any pub
Uc schools at the seat of govemment. My questions
seemed to excite some surprise. There were none in
Virginia ; but then there were capital races. The train
ing that was denied to the children was given to the
horses ; — the breed of the one was improving, while
that of the other was degenerating. The important
question of a sound popular education is as far from
being settled now, as it was in 1822, when Jefferson
expressed himself thus to a correspondent: — " An
act of our legislature will inform you of our plan of
primary schools ; and the annual reports shew that
it is becoming completely abortive, and must be
abandoned very shortiy, after costing us, to this day,
10,000 dollars; and yet to cost us 45,000 a-year
more, until it shall be discontinued ; and if a single
boy has received the elements of a common educa
tion, it must be in some part of the country unknown
to me,"
Nothing in the poUcy of the different States is
more worthy of attention than the different manner
in which the subject of education is viewed by the

254 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XX,
two great sections which they compose, not only in
its general bearing, but in its particular application,
— shewing at once the relative influence of popular
feeling that prevails in them. When a grant was
made, in 1792, to Yale College, Connecticut, the
measure was so unpalatable to the mass of the com
munity, that many members of the House of Repre
sentatives who voted for it were not re-elected. The
proceeds of the lands in Ohio, belonging to that
State, were, after much discussion in the legislature,
appropriated exclusively, to the support of common
schools ; the destination being made perpetual by an
article in the constitution. This sum amounts to
about a miUion of doUars, Yet, when Virginia gave
to one college one-third of what she granted for fu
ture schools, the inequality of the provision met with
little or no opposition that could affect its advocates.
North Carolina has taken no steps to establish a
system of common schools; yet a richly-endowed
university flourishes there.
South Carolina has her colleges, " hberaUy pa-
teonised by the State," What number of chUdren
does she educate in her free-schools ? — 8390 in 1832.
What is the state of the schools? — An extract from
a work, entitled " Review of the Plan of Education
in South Carolina, 1821," wUl best answer the ques
tion, " I beUeve, in many instances, the teachers
that have been employed were as much in want of
instruction as the people. I have heard that in some

CHAP. XX.J COMMON SCHOOLS, 256
of the lower disteicts they have actually converted
the schools into a sort of gymnastic academies ;
where, instead of studying philosophy in the woods
and groves, as the Druids did of old, they take more
dehght in the more athletic exercise of deer and
rabbit-hunting," In North CaroUna, 250,000 dollars, (one half of
the fund destined to the purposes of education,) are
set aside for the incorporated academies, between
which the interest that arises from it is divided. The
other half is yet to be employed, as it is intended, in
educating the poor. In the new States, (such as are
non-slave-holding,) the appropriations are generaUy
in the proportion of one to five for the higher semi
naries, and for the common schools.
Congress, in 1820, made grants of land to Ala
bama, for common schools, and for a seminary of
learning. The former have either no existence or no
benefit from tiie endowment. In 1830, the latter
had received 111,712 dollars, invested in 6 per cent,
stock, out of the proceeds arising from the sale of
the lands ; the whole amount being 304,651 dollars ;
while 24,234 acres remai^ied undisposed of. The
university of Alabama was opened in 1831,
There are 12,000 white children between the ages
of five and fifteen, in Louisiana, without education.
Though the legislature has voted about 40,000 dol-
lai-s annuaUy for the purpose, 1500 only were at

256 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XX,
school two years ago. The college of Louisiana en
joys an annual grant of 7000 dollars from the State.
In Kentucky there were, in 1830, according to
official reports from seventy-eight counties, but
31,834 children at school out of a population of
139,242, between five and fifteen. ;
One county had iiot one child out of 893 at school.
There was nothing like a regular system of economy
in these estabUshments; the cost varying from 12
dollars a head to 6 dollars 67 cents. Supposing the
whole number of children, of whom retui-ns were
made, to be at school throughout the year, (a most
improbable hypothesis,) the total amount of expenses
would be 278,592 dollars ; while the literary fund,
at the disposal of the State, for the support of the
higher seminaries, was 140,000 dollars.
While the people in Virginia are thus kept in a
state of ignorance, an additional ground of disunion
¦and discontent is laid in the political dependence to
which they are subject, by the qualification and the
mode of voting. As the former can be obtained by
the possession of real estate, the samp man can have
as many votes as he has possessions in separate
counties ; whereas the poor man can havp but one.
While the poll is taken openly, too, the latter is sub
ject to all those influences which the power to re
ward or punish is seldom slow to apply. Though
the baUot, as it is conducted in America, may be, and

CHAP, XX.] STATUE OF WASHINGTON, 257
often is, abused ; yet the attempt to force a ticket
upon an elector, is such a direct interference with
the freedom of election, as must always subject the
offender to public censure. Secret influence may be
exercised by open voting ; but the violation of the
ballot must be openly done. Besides, the latter
might be so regulated as to secure the concealment
required ; and the very circumstance of its adoption
is an acknowledgment of the elector's right to an
unbiassed judgment.
At a short distance from Richmond, with its front
towards the James river, stands the State Peniten
tiary, To gain admittance, it is necessary to get an
order from the Governor of the State. For this pur
pose I went to the Capitol, which stands close to
Powhatan House, (where I was boarding,) on an
elevated spot, commanding a fine view of the river
and part ofthe city below. In the entrance-hall is
a statue of Washington, by a French artist ; — the
attitude rather too stiff for the idea we generally form
to ourselves of the great man's natural and easy man
ner. On the pedestal are the words, " Fait par
lioudon, citoyen fran^ais, 1788," I was not a. little
surprised to find a sentinel, with . fixed bayonet,
walking " his lonely round," He was placed there,
he told me, to protect the statue. Singular protec
tion, in the metropolis of his native State, for the
Father of the people !
Having waited a short time in the library, into

258 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XX.
which I had been ushered, — a handsome room, wei
furnished, and fitted for the purposes of reading and
reception, — a printed order was handed to me for the
next day.
There were, at the period of my visit to the peni
tentiary, 123 convicts; of whom seven were women.
Of the whole number, there had been but three in
the infirmary, on an average, for the last three
months : — the usual number, for the same period,
having been from eight to ten. The difference was
owing to a freer circulation of air, obtained by the
removal of a high waU at the back, (towards the
north,) at the distance of forty feet. A space of 100
more was to be added.
The plan pursued at Singsing is employed at this
prison ; the cells, however, are both larger and more
comfortable. Each convict is allowed a Bible, and a
slate with a pencil. They have plenty of air, Ught,
and space._ Opposite the door of each cell is a win
dow, opening towards the work-shops, and admitting
a complete current of air, when wanted. One week,
every three months, is passed in solitary confine
ment. The former regulations required the same
period, on entering and on quitting the prison, to be
passed in the same way by the convicts. The pre
sent arrangement, it is found, interferes less with the
labors of the establishment. There seems to be no
very cogent reason why any rule of the sort should
be enforced, or what good it can promote equivalent

CHAP. XX,] TAILORS, 259
to the loss of so much labor. Upon inquiry, I found
here, as elsewhere, that no evil or inconvenience had
resulted in the case of confirmed drunkards, from the
sudden transition to total abstinence from the vari
ous degrees of indulgence. This testimony is to be
received cum grano, as a wider experience in Eng
land does not entirely warrant an unresteicted in
ference. The work of the convicts is not done by conteact.
The price, therefore, of its products, is not regulated
by the same principles as at Auburn and the other
prisons in the north ; nor can the objections, which
those, who suffer by the competition make, be so
easily answered. In the case of shoe-making and
tailoring, the prices charged are so much less than
the honest workmen demand, that the supply is in
adequate to the demand. The " Guild" of taUors
have some reason to complain, as they are under-sold
nearly 300 per cent. The same coat, for making
which they charge eight, and even nine doUars, can
be made at the penitentiary for three. These tailors,
by the by, are better Catholics than their fraternity
at Palis or London, They have added Saint Tues
day and Saint Wednesday to the calendar. These
enormous profits sorely puzzled the indistinct no
tions I had imbibed about equaUzation. I could not
discover that there were any corporate privileges,
which would give them a sort of monopoly. Unions
and combinations would hardly suffice to keep off

260 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XX.
intruders. I could not make it out, tiU I remem
bered the " whippings " inflicted occasionally on the
craft. The mystery was then cleared up. The same
principles which regulate the amount of remunera
tion in all other occupations, are strictly applicable
to these valuable but persecuted citizens. They are
paid extra for the risk they ran. They put the
beating into the bill, as Joe Miller's landlord charged
his guests for throwing him out of the window. In
London, the j oumeymen lailors consider the ridicule
to which they are exposed, in the light of a benefit.
It keeps others out of the trade. In Virginia, tHe
cow-hide answers the same purpose. To be " whip
ped half to death" is worse, than to be called " snip"
or " the ninth' part of a man," The indemnity is in
proportion. They may kiss the rod that thus dou
bles their wages.
Slaves, who are convicted of felony, are sent to
the penitentiary for sale. The buyer gives bond
that they shall be transported beyond the limits of
the Union; — it is well kno^wn, however, that they
are carried to the South ; where they are sold at a
great profit. With what other view, indeed, would
the trader purchase them? There were five persons
of this description in the prison. It is hardly credi
ble that such an .abuse could exist; — an abuse that
violates equally the justice that is due to. the con
vict, the planter, and the community, I perhaps
misunderstood my informant, when he told me that

CHAP, XX,] COLORED CONVICTS, 261
this class of prisoners were to be sent out of the
Union, That they are sold at all under such cir
cumstances, is a disgrace to the State, Every one
must see the enormities to which the regulation must
necessarily lead, A mulatto, who had been sold as
a slave by the State for larceny, recovered his fi-ee-
dom in Alabama, where he proved that his mother
was a white woman. The law, from the penalties
of which he thus escaped, was directed against peo
ple of color.
Convict slaves are not sent to the prison, except
for sale ; because, as they would be better off than
they are on the plantations, their feUow sufferers
might be induced to commit offences, for the chance
of bettering their condition.
The disproportionate number of colored over
white convicts in the Free State prisons may fairly
be attributed to the difficulty of finding w^ork. In
Virginia, where it is more easily obtained, there
are fewer convictions for crime among that class,
than in Massachusetts; where so many depart
ments of honest industry are closed against them.
According to the Penitentiary Reports for 1829,
one-eighth of the convicts in the former State were
of the colored population, which forms one-thirtieth
of the whole ; while a simUar retum for the latter,
in 1832, shews that the same part of the commu
nity, though but one seventy-fifth of the entire popu
lation, contributed no less than one-sixth to the to
tal amount of convicted criminals.

262 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XX.
The Superintendant was at Washington; and I
was unable to procure a Report, The keeper, how*
ever, who attended, informed me that nearly one-
third of the prisoners were free colored persons.
Admitting the trath of the statement, there are rea
sons enough to account for it.
Considering the treatment they receive, one feels
more indignation at its injustice than surprise at its
results. They are deprived of every motive to good
conduct, and shut out from every path to improve
ment. They are not allowed to have any schools,
or to give evidence against a white in a court of
justice. They have no churches of their owti, and
cannot be married by a minister of their own com
plexion. If they leave the State, except as serv
ants, they cannot retum to their own homes. No
fi-ee person of color is permitted, from another town,
and still less from another State, to reside in the
city. Having no protection against insult and out
rage, and subjected to such indignities and disabih-
ties, it would be singular, if the greater part did not
become desperate, and reckless; — with no object
but the gratification of the moment, and no incent
ive but what they have in common with the irrational
part of the creation. They are degraded to the low
est state of ignorance and helplessness that the law
and the usages of society can reduce them to.
Though there was not the shghtest groimd for
believing, that they were concemed, in any way, in
the Southampton insurrection, — I never met, indeed,

CHAP. XX,] FEMALE EMIGRANTS, 263
with a man who could point out to me an instance
of a colored man assisting in an insuirection of
the slaves (in which, by the by, white men have
sometimes taken an active part) ; yet, in spite of
this uncontro verted fact in their favor, the most
crael and persecuting measures were proposed for
driving them fi-om the, country. The signers of one
petition, from Northampton coimty, pledged them
selves " to have no deaUng whatever with any free
negro in the countey ; — to rent them neither house
nor land for the future : and to warn them, as soon
as possible, to quit the premises they already oc
cupied : — and to use their influence in preventing
owners of vessels from employing them."
A wrriter in the New England Magazine, (1832,)
denies that America is as much the country of the
black as of the white natives, because their ancestors
were not voluntary emigrants to it. If this doctrine
be true, some of the latter have no business there,
according to the account of " Ould Virginia," pre
sented by Captain Smithe to the consort of the Bri
tish Solomon, He says that, in 1620, about 100
women, " young and incorrupt", were sent out to
the colony, and were disposed of at an average price
of 100 pounds of tobacco. The supply, however,
did not meet the demand; as the 100 pounds soon
became 150, Where are the descendants of these
voluntary emigrants ? The futme historian of New
HoUand, particularly if he meditate a trip to that

264 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XX,
country, will apply the same epithets to the women
we are now sending thither : but who will say that
their posterity have no right to possess the land on
which they shaU have been bom ?
Washington is more liberal than Richmond to
these people. In the former they have two socie
ties for mutual instruction, and two churches sup
ported by their own contributions. The females,
too, have formed several benevolent associations for
mutual assistance. Such things would not be tole
rated in Richmond ; where the conteast between free
dom and slavery is made to tum, as much as possi
ble, in favor of the latter, by connecting degradation
and delinquency with the former, that the chain may
feel lighter, and the lash less gaUing, A slave told
me he would rather be as he was, than lie idle about
with nothing to do ; — and a free black declared to
me that he was contented, if he could get bread for
his children; and that he was indifferent to every
thing else. In spite of these discouragements, how
ever, there are many here whose industey and pro
priety of conduct are highly useful to the commu
nity that despises and oppresses them. I conversed
with several of them on these subjects — at some risk
to both parties ; for I went to their houses by stealth,
and at night. The despondency with which they
were weighed down, was deep and disteessing ; and
it is painful to reflect that the iron which has entered
into their souls, has been driven in by men who have

CHAP. XX,] SELF EMANCIPATION. 265
English blood in their veins, and Christian profes
sions in their mouths. How and when this unna
tural and crael system is to terminate, — what may be
the result of thus substituting coercion for voluntary
action, and suppressing the best and steongest feelings
implanted in the human breast, no mortal eye can
foresee. It may be laid down, however, as a general
rule, that free-labor and slave-labor can never exist
amicably together. Each will strive to supplant the
other ; and the triumph of either will be determined
by the superior profits it offers to capital. It might
perhaps be imagined that the jobbing system, of
which I have before spoken, would tum the scale,
and present an insuperable bar to emancipation. Yet
it is not improbable that its effects will be directly
the reverse of what a first view of the subject would
lead us to expect. The owner will find his gains di
minishing, with the extension of the trade, and the
insecurity of that species of property increased, in
proportion to the risk of escape. Hence he will be
wUling to receive the whole capital from the slave,
rather than an uncertain interest from the borrower.
He will find, in the additional exertions the former
wUl make, when working out his freedom, a remu
nerating retum upon the outlay*; — the law of expa-
* In most, if not in aU the slave States, this sort of arrange
ment is prohibited, as far as the law can prohibit what those
who Uve under it find it their interest to do. Masters are
VOL, II, N

266 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XX.
triation wiU be set aside by exemption or evasion ;—
and liberty wUl ultimately be promoted by the means
employed for its restriction. If this hypothesis be
weU-founded, the deduction is obvious. The whites
wiU graduaUy lose their superiority in numbers,
wealth, and influence ; and the whole country south
of the Potomac wiU be the promised land of thos^
who are now laboring under worse than Egyptian
bondage. Immediate emancipation will but accele*
rate this euthanasia. After all, it, is a simple affair :--
luxury destroys those above, whUe industey raises
liable, in Virginia, to a fine of twenty dollars, and in Georgia
td one of thirty, if they aUow a slave tb hire himself out. The
dWner of a slave, who possesses " stock of any description" in
Mississippi, with his permission, is subject to a penalty of fifty
doUars, These enactments become more violent as they be
come inoperative. In July 1834, the grand jury of the county
of St, Louis, in Missouri, presented " the permission given by
masters to their slaves to hire their time, and to act as free per
sons," as a fit subject for the attention of the legislature. " It
is useless", they say, " to pass laws to exclude free negroes
froni the State, while slaves are permitted to enjoy the same
liberties, s i , .Such as are slaves, should be held and employed
as slaves ; and no master should be permitted, without forfeitr
ing his property, to abandon the control which the law gives
him over this property. Nor should the law permit itself to be
evaded by the pretences and subterfuges to which masters
sometimes resort,"
What a pifeture ! The master prefers freedom, ¦with its pe-
nalties, to 'slavery with its " profits".

CHAP. XX.] WHITE JUSTICE. 267
those below : but we take no notice of the change in
other countries, because they are both of the same
race. Every night, at half-past seven, when the alarum-
beU — the curfew of Richmond — has sounded, no co
lored person, whatever his condition be, is at Uberty
to be from home without a pass or papers of freedom.
The latter must be renewed annually, at the expense
of half a doUar, — the fee for registry at the proper
office. Harsher regulations have beeii enforced
against them since the Southampton massacre. It
seems to be bad policy to make them feel that they
have a common cause with the slaves, by being ex
posed to a common proscription. Unfortunately,
they are just numerous enough to be considered ene
mies, and not numerous enough to be treated as
friends, A time may come, perhaps, when self-inter
est wiU plead in their favor; and the same fear
which they now find the parent of cruelty, may be
compeUed into mildness towards them.
The chances these people have of obtaining justice
from the whites, may be estimated from the Appendix
to a work called " The Patriarchal System of So
ciety", — a defence of slavery, by a Florida Planter
of twenty-five years' standing. The writer asks,
" Has any property, left by wiU to any colored per
son, ever been honestly and fairly administered by
any white person?" His own answer is, — " Snch
n2

268 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XX,
instances might possibly have happened, — but never
to my knowledge."
There are but two capital crimes in Virginia,—
murder and arson ; — i. e, for the whites : — while the
punishment of death is affixed to more than seventy
offences of which slaves ma,y be convicted, — such as
horse-steaUng, hog-steaUng for the third time, forgeiy
in aU its branches, from the imitation or uttering of
a bank-note, to the wilful possession of false papers
of freedom. By the law of Maryland, a slave, if con
victed of murder, arson, or petty treason, is liable to
have his right arm cut off; and after being hanged,
to have his head severed from his body; the quarters
of which, together with the head, may be exposed to
pubhc view in the most frequented parts of the coun
ty where the crime was committed.
It would be an endless and a disgusting task, to
enumerate the abominations of the slave penal code,
as it prevaUs in all its varieties throughout the South
em States ; the cruelty of the enactment being in a
direct ratio with the difficulty of finding a substitute
for the penitentiary, and the conscience-steicken cow
ardice of an unprincipled legislature.
The population of Richmond, which exceeds
16,000, has not increased much since the last or the
preceding census, A line of packet-ships to Europe
has been estabhshed at Warwick, a few miles below
the city, and has already reduced the freightage from

CHAP, XX,] SLAVE SATURNALIA, 269
New York one-sixth. Still the greater part of the
country-dealers in Virginia are supplied by the
northem and eastern cities through Richmond*;
which, one would think, might more advantageously
import directiy from Europe, There is either want
of confidence in the retail dealers, or want of capital
and enterprise in the merchants of the latter place.
The superiority which the free States thus enjoy,
gives them an immediate interest in the continuance
of a system to which the advantage may be teaced.
The physicians of Madrid, some years back, would
not allow the streets to be cleared of their filth, be
cause it strengthened the constitution !
The holidays that the slaves are allowed three
times a year, occurred near the period of my visit.
They last three or four days. While they continue,
the slaves have leave to visit their friends in other
parts of the State, I was told that they seldom
availed themselves of the opportunity to escape.
Some of them meet with indulgent masters, and are
even aUowed a plot of ground to cultivate on their
own account ; the proceeds arising from the sale of
what is grown upon it being their own. The kind
ness they thus receive is not often thrown away ;

* When, a short time back, the tonnage of the United States
amounted altogether to 1,439,450 tons, nearly one half be
longed to New England, and more than one fourth to Massa
chusetts.

270 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XX,
though distrast has led to an opposite opinion, and
an opposite line of conduct*.
The spirit of gambling seems to possess a vast
number of the " higher orders" in Richmond ; whUe
the mode of exorcising it, adopted by those who are
impatient to shew their abhorrence of its excesses,
is not the best fitted to reclaim its victims, or conci-
Uate respect for the laws which exist for its suppres
sion. Seven houses — some accounts say eight —
frequented by gamblers, were lately broken into by
a mob, the fumitiire desteoyed, and the fragments
openly burned in the steeets. The mayor is reported
to have been present at the bonfire. The Norfolk
Herald, in relating the facts, used the foUowing-
words: — " To enable our readers to account for pro
ceedings, apparentiy of a character unassimUated to
a Southem population, we have copied an article of
* It seems to be thought in the South, that slaves, like wal
nut-trees, women and spaniels, are the better " the more you
beat them," " Nux, mulier, catulus, simiU sunt lege ligati : 
Haec tria nil recte faciunt, si verbera cessant,"
An old Freiieh distich says : —
" Oignez vilain, il vous poindra : 
Poignez vilain, il vous oindra ;"
— a maxim too good not to be put into monkish rhjTne.
" Quando mulcetur viUanus, pejor habetur.
Pungas villanuua, poUuet iUe manum,
Ungentem pungit, pungentem rusticus ungit,"

CHAP, XX.] GAMBLING-HOUSES. 271
some length from the Richmond CompUer; which
will shew the nature and extent of that moral pesti
lence, which it has thereby been attempted to re
move, whUe it wUl reUeve the city of Richmond from
aU discredit in the manner of accomplishing it."
At New Orleans the authorities care very Uttie
whether a vice be in good odor or not, as long as
they can foUow the Roman emperor's maxim, and
exteact' sweet lucre from it. There a gambler can
provide for his family, whUe he is pursuing his
amusements ; the Orphan Asylum in that city being
supported out of the Ucences which the houses he
frequents pay to the corporation. There are seven
or eight, if not more, of these infamous dens ; and,
as each contributes annuaUy 7000 doUars to this
fund, we may conclude that the asylum ¦wiU never
want orphans, nor the orphans an asylum, whUe the
tax on play continues.

272 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXI,

CHAPTER XXI,
National Habits  Stage-coach Preaching. — WinnsviUe — Cha
racter of Proprietor  National Vanity — Old World and New
World  Last Home and Hope of Liberty — Natural Scenery.
 Staunton  Cure for Love  Slaves in the Valley, —Educa
tion prohibited  Purity of Breakfast-table. — Natural Bridge —
Whipping and Gouging  Customs of the VaUey. — Honesty
and Hospitality. — ^oul-drivers. — AUeghany.
On Monday, the 12th, I left Richmond by the Char
lotteviUe stage. There were but two other passen
gers; one a bookseller in the former place, — the
other the book-keeper to the coach-office. The for
mer was very conversible ; the latter a good-tem
pered fellow, but sadly addicted to yawning ; a prac
tice so Uttie thought of in the country, as not to be
considered disrespectful, — and so general, as to be
almost a national habit, except that the better half
ofthe community have neither adopted it as a luxury,
nor yielded to it as an infirmity. It was some time
before I could fully comprehend this matter, I na
turally thought, when I found myself the yawnee,
that the yawner was tired of the tete-d-tete; and

CHAP, XXI.] STAGE PREACHER, 273
though the intimation was neither deUcate nor agree
able, I generally took the hint. Further experience
convinced me that 1 was in error, and that a man
might give complete expansion to his jaws, and look
you full in the face, in the midst of your narrative,
without committing a breach of good manners, any
more than by spitting on your best carpet, or loung
ing, in the presence of a stranger, with his heels
above his head.
To retum to my fellow-traveUers : we got on very
weU, till we took up a young man dressed in black,
and, soon after, some ladies at a tavern on the road.
The former proved to be a Presbyterian preacher,
who had come into the district to join in a three
days' preaching. No sooner had they taken their
seats, when he began to dilate to the mother on the
respective merits, doctiinal and moral, of his reve
rend brethren in tlje neighbourhood, and to question
the daughter on the progress she had made in the
way of salvation ; informing her he had some very
instractive and interesting tracts at her service in
his portmanteau. So zealous was he in what he
considered rehgious truth, that he gave us a long
history of a young lady's conversion at a milliner's
shop by a pious young man ; — a tedious dialogue
between an infidel and a mountaineer, the latter
using the same arguments as one Dr, Paley, but
much more pithily and pointedly; — and a dissertation
n3

274 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XXI.
upon the utter depravity of man, with a grateful ac
knowledgement of the high privilege we enjoyed to
approach the throne of grace. This was the first
instance I ever met with, in' a public conveyance, of
any one making frequent and familiar use ofthe Sa
viour's name — and I hope it will be the last. The
book-keeper looked at me and smiled; whUe tbe
bookseller preserved his gravity with a degree of
composure well suited to the theological books,
which he had for sale in his store, and which, be
fore the entrance of the lecturer, he had told us,
were getting into fashion.
After we had passed the 'place where the stage had
stopped to breakfast on its way to Richmond, one
of the passengers got out, to go by another stage to
Scottsville : and I took the opportunity of changing
the coach and the company, and teansferred myself
and my baggage to the other vehicle.
We proceeded on a very good road, and through
a fine country, the greater part uncleared forest,
about fourteen mUes to a place called Winnsville ;
where we stopped tUl the next morning at five;
when the stage took us on to ScottsvUle, a very
neat pretty town on the James river,
Winnsville derives its name from a person, to
whom the land belongs, and who has erected a few
houses and keeps a tavem, which shares his time
and attention with his farm. At his house I met

CHAP. XXI,] WINNSVILLE. 275
with the accommodations I wanted, and a reception
beyond what I should have experienced at a more
splendid hotel.
Mine host was a man highly respected ; and, if I
might judge from what I saw, most deservedly so.
He was unassuming in his manners, and civil to
every one. He had twelve children ; — the eldest
a lad of seventeen years of age, I never saw a finer
fiimily, or one whose appearance and behavior did
more credit to their parents, I could not but com
pliment the father on the good looks and good con
duct of his children. He repUed that he endea
vored to bring them up usefuUy and respectably ;
but that he was afraid his efforts were not so judi
cious as he could wish. Talking to him ofthe Rich
mond Penitentiary, I told him that our govemment
had sent a commissioner to his country, for the pur
pose of inspecting its prisons. He expressed some
surprise at the information, adding : " I thought
your prisons in Europe were much better conducted
than ours," The good sense the man exhibited in
setting an example to his famUy of modesty, instead
of filling their heads with ridiculous ideas about
American greatness and wisdom, impressed my mind
with a higher degree of respect for him. Its rarity
made it the more valuable and remarkable. If such
were the general character of his counteymen, the
ridicule of open enemies and the flattery of false
friends would be equally vain. There would be no

276 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XXI.
motive for disparagement, and no subject for satire.
Such a nation would attain greatness by decUnmg
it; convert jealousy into respect ; and make the self-
love of others tributary to its trae glory*. I am led
into these reflections by the awkward situation in
which I often found myself. The very next day I
was asked whether there was any building in Eu
rope equal to the Capitol at Washington ; whether
London or Paris possessed any houses as good as
those in New York and Philadelphia : and whether
we had any orators in England equal to Clay and
Webster. What can you say on these occasions ?
If you give a direct answer, you must either wound
another man's self-love or betray your own; — for
what is patriotism too often, but pride disguised as
a virtue, — whispering to its possessor that he loves
his country while he loves nothing but himself?
This man took me into an inner room of his hotel,
to shew me a most wonderful invention, very re-
* At a " tariflf dinner " given, in 1827, at Lexington (Ken
tucky) to the representative of that district in Congress, the
following toast was drunk by about 300 people. " Our country!
May she be always right : but right or wrong, may she always
prosper ! " Mr. Foot said, in the Senate, speaking of Mr. Van
Buren's appointment as minister to England: " Sir, it has ever
been our pride and our glory that, in all our diplomatic inter
course with foreign nations, we have never admitted our coun
try to be in the wrong ; nor has she ever been proved to be in
the wrong before the late humihating and disgraceful corre
spondence with the British government."

CHAP, XXI,] NATIONAL VANITY, 277
cently produced by au artist at Boston, It was a
cloak saturated with a composition of Indian rubber !
How completely our opinions are perverted by
false analogies and fancifiU metaphors ! With us, the
wisdom of old age is attributed to our ancestors. In
America, its decrepitude is predicated of our poste
rity. To hear the inhabitants of the latter expatiate
on its wonders, physical, political, and moral, you
would imagine that it produced at the same time,
like an orange-tree, the blossoms of spring and the
fruits of autumn ; and that the eagle it cherishes had
the steength and plumage of a full-grown bird, before
he had moulted his first feathers. It would seem
that the species, like the nations that compose it,
were divided into patrician and plebeian ; and that
the citizens of the United States of North America
bore, to the rest ofthe world, exactly the same rela
tion that the aristocracy of Europe bear to their re
spective communities, — that they were bom to great
ness, whUe others achieve it.
The national vanity may be traced to the arts of
demagogues, and the adulation of the press. Mr,
Van Buren, whUe speaking in the New York Con
vention of his countrymen, declared that " it was
the boast and the pride and the security of the Ame
rican nation, that she had in her bosom a body of
men, who, for sobriety, integrity, industry, and pa
triotism, were unequalled by the cultivators of the
earth in any part of the known world ; — nay more, —

278 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXI.
to compare them with men of similar - pursuits in
other countries, was to degrade them."
Even the republication of foreign works affords an
opportunity of reminding the people, to whom they
are addressed, of the superiority they are said to en
joy over other nations, in all that constitutes an in
teUigent and happy race. The health and vigor of
their juvenUe condition are contrasted with the op
posite characteristics of European decrepitude ; as if
the forced analogy which has been drawn between
individuals and communities were phUosophicaUy
correct ; and the infirmities of the one were neces
sarily incidental to the other. The paraUel does not
hold even in the case of societies that have emerged,
by the development of their own energies, from bar
barism to civUization, In the present instance there
is still less approximation to resemblance in the,
modes of existence thus brought into juxta-position.
The American States, — both of the Northem and
Southern continents, — are new societies made up of
old materials, with peculiarities corresponding to
such combination, without any preponderating in
fluence of either of these two elements ; and partak
ing as well of the evils as of the advantages of both.
If the whole popidation of England were suddenly
teansferred to New HoUand, (supposing adequate
preparation for its reception,) we might, with equal
propriety, call ourselves, in our new situation, a new
country. Yet, if we are to believe what the oracles

CHAP. XXI,] FATE OF OLD WORLD, 279
of Hesperian wisdom tell us, we must be prepared
to see the old world sink into the feebleness and
foolishness of old age, while the new continent will
receive the last rays that may scintillate from Science
as she expires in an exhausted society; and will
transmit to happier climes and communities the dis
coveries and improvements which shall have been
forgotten or disfigured in the land that gave birth to
the progenitors of its inhabitants,
" There must be a limit", proclaims the North
American Review, (1824,) with awful solemnity, " to
the multiplication of powerful nations ; and while
poUtical power and national wealth are increasing
with a rapidity we can hardly compute in this hemi
sphere", (meaning, through the mazes of its pro
phetic mystery, that the increase, not the computa
tion, is to be made in this hemisphere,) " it is scarcely
possible that the seeds of their decline should not be
so^wTQ in the eastem, PerUous conflicts must in time
foUow, and vast rivalries grow up ; and, in this con
dition of the world's politics, it is plain that the com
phcated enginery of the old, world must give way in
the collision with the new."
We are comforted, however, under the contempla
tion of this heavy infliction, with the assurance,
that a remnant of all that has delighted and ennobled
our species, will survive ; and that the human form
wiU emerge, from this calamity, in all its pristine
purity and beauty. " Time's noblest offspring is

280 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XXI,
the last," Civihzation wUl have crossed the ocean,
unsoiled by the swarthy embraces of the tribes
that have darkened its less fortunate islands,
" Sic tibi, cum fluctus subterlabere Sicanos,
Doris amara suam.non intermisceat undam.''
The same arrogant assumption of national supe
riority is employed, by the highest and the lowest
person in the country, as an acknowledged title to
respect and confidence throughout the civilized
world. " When an honest obsen'ance of consti
tutional compacts," says President Jackson, in his
first message to Congress, " cannot be obtained
from communities like ours, it need not be antici
pated elsewhere ; and the cause in which tiiere has
been so much martyrdom, and fi-om which so much
was expected by the friends of liberty, may be aban
doned; and the degrading truth that man is unfit
for self-government admitted," Du sublime au ri
dicule il n'y a qu'un pas. The people of the United
States vei-y properly laugh at the idea of subjecting
the happiness of a community to the will of one
man ; yet they have brought themselves to believe,
because they listen to those who, whether native or
naturalized, have an interest in deceiving them,
that the welfare of the whole human race depends
upon the experiment they are making in the art of
government. Nihil est quod credere de se non pos
set cum laudatur, may be said of the most insignifi-

CHAP. XXI,] TREASURE TROVE, 281
cant citizen of these confederated republics, as teuly
as of the autocrat of Russia, or the Grand Llama of
Tartary. After breakfasting at Scottsville, I started, at half-
past seven in the moming, in a covered wagon
with two horses, to meet the stage from Charlotte
viUe, at a place called Brookesville, twenty-six
miles distant. The countey was very beautiful, the
blue ridge forming the principal feature in the
landscape. At a pass called Israel's Gap, the view
was magnificent. In front was the blue ridge,
separated from the height we were passing by a
valley, abounding in the most lovely scenery; the
green of which formed a delightful contrast with
the tints on the mountains ; the latter, as they re
ceded from the view, diminishing in intensity, till
they were blended and lost in one common color.
On the road the driver found a bucket that had
dropped from some wagon in advance. He ob
served to me, — I was the only passenger, — that if
he did not find the owner, it would be his, by
right of discovery. We soon overtook the man to
whom it belonged; and my companion, in hand
ing it to him, claimed twelve cents for finding it.
The other gave him six ; and both seemed satisfied
with the bargain. He had just before told me that
the blacks were more generous to one another than
the whites. His assertion had all, the authority his
own conduct could give it. His account of these

282 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXI.
poor creatures was precisely the same as I had
heard from every one of his class to whom I had
spoken about them. I went into one of their log
huts that stood by the road ; and a more miserable
dog-hole I never saw. There was but one room for
the whole family. Three or four chUdren were
¦within, trying to warm themselves by a wood fire.
Part of the mud between the beams, of which the
hut was constructed, had given way, and let in the
cold wind. There was one couch with steaw, and
a blanket, — and no furniture beyond what was
necessary to cook their scanty aUowance of Indian
com. As it was so near the public road, and ac
cessible to travellers from the north, whose prying
eyes are to be guarded against, it was, probably,
not the worst of its kind.
At Brookesville, where we arrived at one o'clock,
I joined the stage, in which was my feUow teaveUer,
the preacher, with other passengers. He greeted
me very cordiaUy, and expressed a wish/ that we
might go on together to Cincinnati. I preferred the
box with its official incumbent to the fuU congre
gation he had within. Soon after I had taken my
seat, the foUowing dialogue passed between myself
and the driver : " You have a fine country here ?"
-^" Yes ! but it is much better on the other side of
the ridge : — the land is superior, and quite a dififer-
ent sort of people,"— " Do they cultivate their land
with slaves ? "— " Some of them do : but they do

CHAP. XXI.] SMART CHANCE. 283
not teeat them as they are teeated here. They
work them half to death here." " They tell me
the same story, wherever I go."^" They cannot
tell you otherwise, if they tell you the truth." My
friend, however, was not very liberal towards the
race, whose wrongs he seemed to commiserate. The
free blacks, he said, ought to be kept down and
humbled ; there were too many of them, and they
presumed too much. I soon perceived the cause of
his hostUity. " Pray," said I, pointing to a well-
dressed black, " who is that man ? Is he a slave ? "
— " Not he, indeed ! — he is better off than I am.
He is a plasterer : he gets higher wages than I do.'''
Soon after, we crossed the ridge; on ascending
which, the finest views in the greatest variety pre
sented themselves, clothed in the softest colors that
Claude or Glover ever threw on canvass, or con
ceived in imagination. From the summit, the view
on the westem side was magnificent; the north
mountains terminating the horizon. This pass is
caUed the Rock-fish Gap. At half past five in the
aftemoon, the stage reached Staunton, about twenty
miles from BrookesviUe, which we left a littie after
one o'clock. Here I stopped, and the coach proceeded
with the rest of its freight. At BrookesviUe, the
book-keeper used an expression which was quite
new to me, " Have you many passengers?" I en
quired, as I was taking my place, " We have quite
a smart chance," was his reply, I interpreted

284 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXI,
"chance" in his favor, Itwould have been "smarter"
for the passengers, if there had been fewer of them.
There are two lunatic asylums in Virginia, sup
ported by the State, one at WiUiamsburg, in the East
em section ; and the other at this place. A quarter
of a dollar is the price of admittance to the latter.
This regulation, common as it is with us, is open to
many objections. The chief check to abuse in all
charitable establishments, more particularly in those
appropriated to the reception of the insane, is to be
found in publicity ; the Umits of which are restricted
by this tax on inquiry and benevolence. Those who
have the strongest disposition to exert themselves in
favor of the unfortunate or the oppressed, are often the
least able to pay for its indulgence, A single visit would
rarely be made, where more would be requisite but
inconvenient. What may be obtained as a favor
may be withheld as a right, or clogged with conditions
too personal in their operation to be acceptable.
Hence it happens that the inmates of such institu
tions are often left at the mercy of the attendants,
who can easily conceal from the eye of an inexperi
enced or transient spectator, what would be detected
after a few visits.- As for the reasons, by which this
regulation is defended, the inhabitants of a town,
containing but fourteen or fifteen hundred souls, are
not Ukely to be more indiscreet or inquisitive than
the population of Hartford or Boston ; nor are the
evils of a free admittance to respectable persons to

CHAP. XXI,] CURE FOR LOVE. 285
be weighed against a rule which reduces the patients
of a lunatic hospital to the level of wild beasts ex
hibited for a shilling at a fair, and tends to desteoy in
their friends and neighbors all active interest in
their welfare. It is here as it is in England, The poor
are not excluded because they are troublesome : but
they are troublesome because they are excluded.
As I saw nothing of this establishment, I can give
no opinion upon it. From what I could leam, how
ever, the proportion of patients restored to health is
not very great. Coercion and depletion seem to be
the chief articles in the curative pharmacopoeia. One
case, where the latter was successfully used, was that
of a young man who had been rejected bythe goddess
of his idolatry. He had lost both the lady and his
senses. Perhaps it may be said he^never had more
of the one than of the other. However that may
be, the love-sick patient was bled, blistered, and
bread-and-watered, till he was a man again. It is
as well to know that the lancet, like poverty, drives
Love out of the window ; and that the little god, at
the sight of human blood, as
 "at the sight of human ties,
Spreads his Ught wings, and in a moment flies,"
The weather was at this time so cold, that fires
were to be found in all the houses. The winter had
been very severe, the snow having lain upwards of
two feet deep on the ground, and crashed the pines
with its weight, as I could see while passing through

286 TOUR IN THE UNITEt) STATES, [CHAP. XXI.
the woods ; whereas at New York it did not remain
at any time more than two days on the land. In
the north the weather had been unusually mild, and
unusually inclement in the south. A simUar inter
change of temperature is often experienced in Europe,
Some years ago, while we were sitting with our win
dows open in London, people were dying of cold at
Naples and Madrid.
Staunton is the county town of Augusta county.
It lies in a hoUow, surrounded by hiUsj from whence
are some very picturesque views. From an emi
nence, overlooking the Asylum, there is a most
charming landscape. A hUl, gently rising from the
valley, and clothed to its summit with woods, forms,
on each side, the screen: in the distance is a portion
of the blue ridge ; and, in the fore-ground, are farm
houses and meadows, and corn-fields and copses. It
bears some resemblance to the scenery about Berne;
with the addition of that soft and meUow coloring,
which some atmospheric peculiarity seems to have
bestowed upon this district.
The soil of the vaUey, in which this country is
chiefly placed, is very good in most parts, producing
wheat, and pasturage for cattle. Some of the farmers
are wealthy. The price of provisions is low. Beef
and veal, on an average, four cents per lb. ; mutton
three : venison about the same. Butter averages^
throughout the year, 125- cents : eggs six to eight cents
per dozen: flour, four dollars the barrel of two cwt.

CHAP. XXI.] LEARNING PROHIBITED. 287
The first settlers in the valley were Irish Pres
byterians and Dutch, — an appellation bestowed in
common upon the Germans and the emigrants from
HoUand, The slaves are much better treated on this,
than on the other side of the ridge. Many of them are
hired from persons in the eastem section, and are, of
course, reluctant to retum thither. The vicinity of
Ohio renders it a matter of policy to conciliate by
mUdness ; and facUity of escape may fairly be con
sidered as a persuasive auxiliary to humanity. No
less than 200 were disposed of, the preceding year,
to the traders, and carried off from this county alone
to the southern maiket. The free blacks, though
less harshly used than at Richmond, have, many of
them, quitted the State for Canada, We passed
three or four wagons filled with them, as we were
coming to Staunton. One of these expatriated
people, while wiiting to a friend at the latter place,
told him that he was so weU pleased with Canada,
that he would not return to his native land, if any
One would give him his weight in gold.
These men have too much reason to prefer Canada
to Virginia, One of them told me that he was de
sirous of giving his children a decent education :
that two or three years ago they were making satis
factory progi-ess at school, when he was compeUed
to remove them, and teach them himself as well as
he could, with the assistance of his wife, during his
leisure hours. Not only are the colored people for-

288 ' TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XXI,
bidden to leam reading and writing, but no white' is
permitted to instruct them. There is an ordinance
of the city of Savannah, in Georgia, by which " any
person that teaches any person of colour, slave or
free, to read or write, or causes such persons to be
so taught, is subjected to a fine of thirty dollars, or
to be imprisoned ten days and whipped thirty-nine
lashes," So much for liberty in America, where even
a white man is not free to perform a benevolent ac
tion, or to educate his own children.
No expedient is left untried to diive the eman
cipated and their descendants out of the slave
States, By a most iniquitous act, passed in 1823,
the town-councU of George-tovm are empowered
to impose and collect an annual tax on such lot
or lots, piece or pieces of land, within the hmits
of the town, as may be exclusively inhabited by a
slave or slaves, or a free person of color, &c,, not
within an enclosure upon which a white person re
sides : — provided the said annual tax shall not ex
ceed one hundred dollars on each lot or piece of
land. They may also impose and collect an annual
tax upon each and every free person of color, who
shall keep, within the limits of the town, any store
or shop, &c,, provided the tax shall not exceed one
hundred dollars. Thus are these poor creatures dis
abled from getting their bread honestiy, and then
stigmatized as depraved and debased. This is one
way of recraiting for Liberia! These legislators

CHAP, XXI,] TEMPORA MUTANTUR, 289
boast of their liberty in these exteavagant teims : —
" We believe none can say with us, — the happy
people of these United States, — that every one can
sit ' under his vine and under his fig-tree, and none
to make him afraid,' We are the only people upon
the earth that enjoy a rational, civil, and religious li
berty, and the inestimable blessing of a free and en
hghtened government,"*
It was to be expected that the severity exercised
towards the slaves would increase with their num
bers. Who would have believed, however, that
what was a civil obligation, forty years ago, should
have become a crime ; and that the very same act
which is now prohibited, should then have been
compulsory, under a heavy penalty ? Among the
statutes of the New Jersey legislature, passed in
1798, is one for the education of slaves, making it
imperative on owners to teach and instruct all
such, under the age of twenty-one years, to read,
&c,, and rendering them hable, for neglect or re
fusal, to pay a fine of thirty doUars, " to be re
covered by action of debt, with costs of suit, in any
court having cognizance thereof, by the overseers
of the poor of the township, &c,, to the use of the
poor," On the 15th, I left Staunton early in the moming.
There were two men from North CaroUna in the
* Report ofthe Committee of ReUgion in the Senate of South
CaroUna, Dec, 8, 1818.
VOL, II, O

290 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XXI,
stage : and before we had quilted the town, we took
up a black man. The cold weather supplied a
ready topic of conversation, which soon branched
off into other directions, with the usual accom
paniments of yawning and spitting out of the
window. The black was less accompUshed, or
more bashful ; for he kept his saliva to himself, and
when he could not resist the " catching " contagion,
he placed his hand before his mouth, while he drop
ped the lower jaw. I put several questions to him ;
but he handed them over to the other passengers,
and was sUent. I set him down for the slave of
one of the others.
At eleven o'clock we stopped for breakfast. After
we had remounted, we were detained a short time :
I inquired the reason, and was told we were waiting
for our sable companion, who was taking his meal by
himself I found afterwards that he was a free man
and plied with his two wagons between Baltimore
and Tennessee, to which he belonged. His teams
and wagons were worth twelve or fifteen hundred
dollars. He was possessed of considerable pro
perty; and his word (the driver, who knew him
well, assured me) would be taken as soon as any
man's in the valley. From the carrier himself I
subsequentiy learnt, that he had been so hurried
he had not had half his breakfast ; though he was
charged the same price with the other passengers,
who had been refreshing the inner man at their

CHAP, XXI,] WHITES WORK. 291
leisure, whUe he was cooUng his heels in the pas
sage, "If I were to travel often in this way,"
said the poor feUow, " I should be starved," " If I
were but once in England," he added, " nothing
should ever induce me to come back to this countey."
He could not see the natural connexion between a
spare diet and a swarthy skin. He could not un
derstand why he was to sufier, that the dignity ofthe
American animal, " iipes implume," should not be
offended. Yet, had he attempted to sit do^wn to
table with us, the landlady's gasteonomic labors
would all have been thrown away; the pig's face
would have reddened with indignation : — the eggs
would have turned rotten with horror; and the
coffee would have refiised obedience to the law of
gravity. We passed through a beautiful country;— the soil,
in many parts, exteemely good, and the farming
much superior to what is to be seen on the eastem
side of the ridge. The people are industrious and
are addicted neither to gambUng nor drinking. The
farms average abput 250 acres, and contain fine
grazing lands. The whites work with the slaves,
when there are any ; and the overseers, when such
are employed, participate in the labors of the field.
They have no need of pistols or dirks, as the slaves
are generally well treated, and shew, by the alacrity
with which they handle the plough, that example is
a better stimulus than the whip,.
02

292 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXI;
When the stage stopped to change horses, I
walked on; and, meeting a sjave on horseback, I
entered into conversation with him, I asked him
among other things, if he should like to read. " Yes,
Sir," was his reply : — " if I could but read enough
to understand the speUing-books the children use in
the schools, I would not give up my knowledge
for a thousand doUars." It was a natural feeling,
and I thought of the waterman's answer to Dr
Johnson, " What would you give to know about
the Argonauts ? " " I would give all I have. Sir,! "
He was about sixty years of age — shrewd and sensi
ble, and, as far as I could judge from some of his
observations, a very rehgious man. What he said
upon the duty of submission to his lot here, and his
reliance on Divine justice hereafter, would have done
no discredit to the best educated white,
Lexington (where we stopped to dine) is a charm
ing spot, about thirty-five ipiles from Staunton, It
contains eight or nine hundred people. Some of the
houses are good, and built in a neat and picturesque
manner. Nothing but rock and water is wanting to
make the scenery of this district perfect. With the
exception of the north fork of the James river, which
we forded, and the Buffalo creek, the view of which,
from an eminence on the promontory it forms, is
very fine, I saw Uttie or no water, I felt, from its
absence, how much beauty it adds to the land
scape.

CHAP, XXI,] RULES, FOR TRAVELLERS, 293
At four o'clock we arrived at Galbraith's tavem,
twelve miles from Lexington, and two from the cele
brated natural bridge. The roads were so rough
and hilly that I was almost knocked up ; yet I
would have gone on thirteen mUes further to Pat-
tonsburg, if the coachman had been wiUing to pass
over the bridge ; but his vehicle was in such a state
of decay, that he was afraid to venture out of his
way on a bad road. I resolved therefore to wait
tUl the next stage arrived.
The landlord of the hotel was one of the civUest
and most obliging of his tribe ; a class of men, be it
remembered, more independent than what we are
used to in Europe; as they are in these remote
regions, landholders as well as inn-keepers. He
had a farm of more than 400 acres, which he ma
naged with tbe assistance of his sons.
By this time I was tolerably well " broken in" to
and by the stages of Virginia, A few hints may be
useful to others. Every traveller of course must
take care of himself. Let him avoid the back seats,
however comfortable and alluring they may seem. If
any women are taken up on the road, he must turn
out, and content himself with any vacant -place he
can find. The " cross-bench" is the most conve
nient. If he is seated with- his back to the horses
he may console himself with the reflection that he
¦will be less shaken /there than on. either of the other
seats. Should the weather be hgt, and he wish for

294 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXI.
shade and coolness, he must study the points of the
compass ; and, having ascertained the direction in
which he is to move, he must take especial care that
the westem sun dart not his burning rays on his
head. If he dread an upset, let him study the "rule
ofthe road", — that, if the coach fall in meeting an
other, he may not faU under his feUow-passengers,
On these occasions, those who are uppermost have
some chance of saving a Umb or two among the
many that are broken. The lowest strata are sure
to be crushed between the living matter above and
the dead matter below. After aU, the box is the
best seat ; for you not only have the benefit of the
air and the prospect, and the local knowledge of fhe
driver, who is often — particiUarly in VirgLuia — a re
spectable, weU-informed man, but you have the ad
vantage of reconnoitering the road, of preparing
yourself for the stumps and holes, with which it is
" pretty considerably" sprinkled; and, by trimming,
may escape, or soften the shock ¦with which you are
threatened. With a little experience in these mat
ters, a man wiU move with the carriage, as a good
rider moves with his horse. After a long day's jour
ney, he will find he has suffered much less fatigue
on the box than the inside passengers.
Tired as I was, I could not resist the inclination
I felt to set my eyes on the bridge before I closed
them for the night, I started, therefore, on foot, to
warm myself, and gratify my curiosity.

CHAP, XXI.] NATURAL BRIDGE, 295
The bridge, which appears to have been left after
the soUd rock was broken or cut through, is, accord
ing to an estimate in an album at the adjoining
hotel, 208 feet above the stream,— 15 feet in thick
ness, at the highest point, — its span 90, and breadth
75, On each side of the bed, in which the Cedar
creek runs into the James river two mUes below,
tbe rock that incloses it rises perpendicularly. Whe
ther you look up or down the steeam, the scenery is
magnificent: large masses of mountain, of various
forms and dimensions, and clothed to their summits
in the richest verdure, rising one above another. It
is some time, however, before these beauties are ob
served. The object that absorbs attention, when the
proper station for viewing.it is reached, is the bridge
itself, I doubt whether the mind is not impressed, at
the first sight, ¦with higher ideas of Almighty Power,
than it is by its kindred wonder at Niagara. There
are no accessaries or details : the eye takes in the
whole at once. No sound, but the sighing ofthe breeze
through the surrounding forests, or the gentle mur
mur ofthe rivulet beneath, occurs to divert or disteact
attention. The mind of the spectator is overwhelmed
in admiration and astonishment at the contemplation
of that mysterious force that could thus rend the
enormous mass of rock, and leave the stupendous
work unfinished. He teembles, lest its completion
should be instantly effected. When the first emotion
has subsided, the imagination is carried back to that

296 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXL
unknown era, when the globe was shaken to its
foundation, and organized matter was, at one mo
ment, deprived of its vitaUty, to assume a durability
of existence coeval with the rock in which it was
imbedded. The flight of time, — the duration of the
w'orld, — the insignificance of man, — the omnipotence
,of the Creator, — all that can humble and ennoble, —
pass in rapid succession through the mind, and
leaves a remembraijce that will quit it but with hfe.
I retumed to the tavem in time for supper, and we
passed the evening round a blazing fire ; the cheer
ing aspect of which invited us to social chat, and
elicited from the master of the house and his family
some curious anecdotesjUlusteative of the manners of
the country. Many sanguinary histories were re-
,lated, of the way in which the peasantry settled their
.disputes ; their gougings and kickings and shoot
ings, — relics of colonial barbarism, that are every day
becoming less frequent, by becoming more disre
putable. Some of those who had figured the most
conspicuously in these exploits, had met the death
they had before inflicted. One, not many years ago,
was shot in open day by a man he had "whipped";
and his murderer was hanged. From the dehght
with which these deeds of blood were narrated and
listened to, I could see that the spirit which prompted
them had not been altogether subdued by the punish
ment it had evoked, but stiU lingered in the bosom, to
appear again in some shape less abhorrent to tiie im-

CHAP, XXI.] PRODUCE OF VALLEV, 297
proved state of pubUc feeling. The Kentuckians, it
was agreed on all hands, were still addicted to these
practices ofthe " olden time"; — an assertion that my
fiiend the driver, had he been present, would have
denied with patriotic indignation ; although he bore
about his person incontestable proofs of its truth, —
if the loss of an eye and a broken j aw are cr^ible
witnesses. According to the testimony he gave me
in the moming, no people in the Union were more
civil and obliging than his fellow-citizens, A man
might travel from one end of Kentucky to the other
without a cent in his pocket; — such w^as the hospi
tality ofthe inhabitants, " There is no State", said
he, " where there is so much hostility." Twice did
he use the same word, and with appropriate em
phasis. It was weU chosen. He believed what he
meant, and I believed what he said.
The mountain scenery, in the immediate neigh
borhood of Galbraith's tavem, is very fine. From a
hill in front of it, the most lovely prospect presents
itself on each side. No pen or pencil can do justice
to it.
The best wheat and tobacco are raised here. The
latter is planted on the declivities of the mountains,
after they have been cleared ; and, when they have
yielded two or three crops, the fields are laid down
in grass, or sown with grain. When the land is
likely to be exhausted in the lower grounds, it is
sown with clover ; which remains for tw^o or three
o3

298 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXI.
I'
years, with successive dressings of gypsum, and is
afterwards ploughed in. About one third of a plant
ation is generaUy in woodlands. A farm of three or
four hundred acres may be cultivated with three or
four hands ; and will leave a net profit of six or
seven hundred doHars a year, if managed with eco
nomy and prudence. Board and lodging may be had,
at a tavem, for a single man, for 100 dollars a year;
and, at a private house, for 75. I heard of one in
stance where a man, a teacher, paid but fifty for a
year's board and lodging. A temperance society,
that had been some time estabUshed, had produced
a sensible improvement in the valley. My landlord,
during the last five years, had sold a less quantity of
spirits than he did in the preceding three months.
Idleness and vice, are discouraged in this part of
the State ; and honest poverty is more respected
than profligate wealth. Some young men, who were
sent to the University of CharlotteviUe not long ago,
retumed with habits of dissipation Ul-suited to the
place of their birth ; where they had been brought
up in the observance of regularity and decency.
They had become confirmed drunkards ; and one or
two of them had paid for their imprudence or misr
fortune with their lives.
Large droves of bullocks and swine pass through
this district during the autumn. Some of the latter
ai-e purchased by the inhabitants ; and a singular
fact has resulted from an experiment made upon

CHAP. XXI,] CORDWAINERS. 299
these animalSj when kiUed after their journey. If a
pig, that has teavelled five or six hundred miles, be
slaughtered with another that has remained at home,
it will, though of the same weight before, be, when
salted, twenty-five per cent, heavier than the other.
An increased price is, in consequence, given for the
former. The difference, perhaps, arises from this : —
that the "tarry-at-homes" are more full of blood
and fat. than the " ti-ampers" ; and a commensurate
collapse after death, may account for the diminution
of weight. If the meat were intended for immediate
use, it would, as is well known, be injured by driving
l3ie animal, the process of putrefaction being thus
accelerated. Hence it seems, under the same cir
cumstances, that salt meat gains in quantity while
fresh meat loses in quality. Labor is highly paid
m this sequestered region. Some of the means
adopted to lessen the inconvenience are curious, as
they shew that society is not sufficientiy complicated
to admit of much division of labor. The farmers
have their shoes made at home. The leather, often
from hides of their own cattle, is dressed by tanners
in the neighborhood ; and an itinerant shoemaker is
employed in the house, to supply the wants of the
family. He has his board and lodging ; and is paid
so much for every pair of shoes he makes. It is
found that the shoes, ' thus procured, are better and
last longer than those that are purchased at the
stores.

300 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXI.
An industrious man can earn a dollar a day in this
manner : and might, if he had but common pm-
dence, easUy lay by 200 dollars a-year, and better
his condition ad, libitum. But few of them have
either economy or foresight. They are a drunken
thoughtless set, preferring a roving life to a decent
settlement, , and ruining themselves by the same
system which 'benefits their employers. It is pro
bably owing to the dissipated habits connected ¦with
this trade, that a farmer's son is never or seldom en
gaged in it ; though it is more profitable than almost
any other that he can find. It is thus that the dis
reputable character of a class perpetuates itself.
These are some of the many deductions to be made
from the happiness of the agricultural state of so
ciety. My landlord's sons were respectable young men,
possessed of good common sense, and anxious to
improve themselves. One of them was learning
Latin ; another laid out what' money he had in the
purchase of books, and was seldom, when not em
ployed on the farm or about the house, without one
of them in his hand. As for the landlady, she was
one of those who " don't Uke to be fashed," The
first night of my arrival, she indulged me, as a. favor,
¦with a cup of tea. I pleaded in vain the next day;
though I assured her that coffee never agreed with
me at night. In the moming, when the landlord
called me, he asked how I was ? — I told him, I

CHAP, XXI,] UNCLE SAM; 301
was very unweU ; the coffee having kept me awake
the greater part of the night. His only reply was
the vemacular ejaculation, "Is it possible!" I
begged hard for some tea : he made great difficulties
about it. The coffee was aU ready— some people
might like tea better nor coffee — his family never
drank any thing but coffee— stiU they would get
what I wanted, but then, there was the water to
boil, and that would take some time, I mention this
trifling circumstance, because it illustrates a striking
feature in the national character, " Uncle Sam " * is
the veriest slave of habit- in existence, and dislikes
trouble. He would rather put up with an incon
venience than put himself out of his way.
Before I left Galbraith's tavem, I renewed my visit
* This appeUation corresponds with our " John Bull "; and
is supposed to be derived from the initials, U. S. As the nation
has not yet been able to fix upon a distinctive title, perhaps
that of Caucasia would not be inappropriate. It would be ex
pressive of the nice jealousy and guardian watchfulness with
which its citizens have provided, both poUtically and socially,
for that purity of blood and beauty of external form, which,
when the old world is worn out, wiU leave, amid the wreck and
confusion of degeneracy and amalgamation in the new, a large
portion of the species distinguished from the swarthy tribes of
,S)thiopian descent. The next State admitted into the Union,
might receive the name of Circassia; which, in conjunction
with the new title assumed by the confederation, would invest
Georgia with associations peculiarly -in accordance with the
feeUngs and principles of her people.

302 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XXI.
to the Natural Bridge ; which I had hitherto seen from
the top only of tlje cUff. Not having discovered a
ready access to the gulf below, I had quitted the
spot, on my first visit, with the intention of explor
ing the passage at a future time. I found ;the view
from beneath very noble and imposing ; — ^but not, I
think, after making allowance for first impressions,
so grand as that from above. The chasm appears
less ; and the archway suggests the idea that it is
the work of art, effected by blasting or manual labor.
Large fragments of rock have fallen from the sides,
and lie dispersed around. The bridge itself is not
endangered by these successive disruptions, as they
serve merely to widen the lower part of the aperture,
without weakening the foundation, I was sitting
on one of these fragments, when a young man and
a lad approached. Finding I was from England,
the former very kindly inquired what my name might
be. I was used to this sort of compUment ; an old
man, at the tavem, a few hours before, having, to use
his own phrase, "axed me" where I was "raised." I
repaid the youth's civility with interest, and let him
see that his teade was as interestingto me as his name.
After these preliminaries, Mr, Jones, the blacksmith,
and I got on together as amicably as the shortness
of our acquaintance would admit of.
Having crossed the steeam, we all three retumed
to the road above, by another pathway; climbing
the precipice at the risk of our necks. The boy.

CHAP, XXI,] FINE MAN. 303
who had the advantage of being without shoes and
stockings, pointed out, as we were ascending, the
spot where a man, who had faUen from above, had
been dashed to pieces ; and his companion told me
not to look back. The precaution was needless: —
I knew what I was about. A rotten stump, or a
loose stone, might have betrayed the confiding hand
or foot; and my friendship with Mr. Jones would
have ended more abruptly than it began. This
extraordinary production would, in most other coun
tries, have been ascribed, not to Nature, but to her
arch enemy.
On the seventeenth I left Mr. Galbraith and his
tavem. The former fuUy deserved the title I had
heard bestowed upon him. Though short in stature
and plain in person, he was " a fine man," — what the
French caU bon enfant — a " good fellow," — a worthy
man. The phrase " brave homme" perhaps corre
sponds better to the expression, both in its meaning
and in the change it has undergone, , A great part of
Virginia was settled by CavaUer famUies, as may
be seen by the names of the counties. Bottetourt,
— Fauquier, — Albemarle, — Buckingham, — Russell,
&c. In those times it was personal show — as it was
in the feudal times, personal bravery — that consti
tuted excellence, and commanded admiration. Re
spect is now paid to different qualities ; but its lan
guage is retained, while its object is changed ; and

304 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXI,
the same appellation, which was formerly bestowed
upon frivolous accomplishments and the sterner
virtues, is now applied to that which is amiable in its
motives andusefid in its results. It is thus that modem
terms often illustrate ancient manners ; and the signs
of barbarism become the landmarks of civUization,
The stage had by this time been repaired; and
the driver would have wanted an excuse, had he
wanted- gallantry, for refusing the request of a
young lady to take the road over the bridge. The
latter was hardly more antiquated than the former ;
but, fortunately, not so dUapidated. - We were
nearly shaken to pieces : — the lady screamed, the
driver swore at his horses, and I could hardly keep
my seat on the box. The coachman had, a short
time before, been thrown off at the very spot where
we were, and confined to his bed for a fortnight, I
defy the best whip in old or new England, — whe
ther he come from Boston in Lincolnshire, or Bos
ton in Massachusetts, — whether he belong to " the
four-in-hand club," or " the people's line," to steer
safely along the road we came. The bridge alone,
though the shrubs and trees, which have sprung
from its crevices, conceal, in some degree, the
abyss below, would prove a " pons asinoi-um" to
many who are at their ease in the bustle of Broad
way, or the intricacies of Bond Street,
By eight o'clock we reached Buchanan, a smaU

.CHAP, XXI,] SHEEPSTEALERS, 305
place separated, by the James river, from Pattons-
burg, another small place ; both together containing
a population of five or six hundred souls. The
house we put up at contained few rooms, and was
crowded with people ; to whom our vehicle brought
an accession of some half dozen. Finding we must
sleep in company, and perhaps in couples, I pre
vailed upon the landlord to put a mattrass for me
on some chairs in the sitting-room. My window,
which was on the ground-floor and looked to the
pubhc road, was, as well as the front door, left open
all the night ; and some hawkers, who arrived at the
same time with ourselves, left two caravans, filled
with goods, in the public street. One of them told
me he always did so, and never lost anything,
^Many of the houses have no locks or bolts to
them. This is the case through the greater part,
if not the whole, of Western Virginia, As the
slaves are allowed to go out of a night, and are
well fed, it is but fair to conclude, from this general
exposure of valuable property, that they are not
" naturaUy thieves," as they are said to be by those
who 'starve them. There are some places, in the
East, where mutton is not to be had " for love or
money,"— because the slaves are sheep-stealers, —
When there are two ways of accounting for a fact,
a man would hardly choose that which would re
flect discredit upon himself, A stranger, especially
when he has met with hospitality, easily believes

306 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXI,
what he is told by those who have practical experi
ence; and he leaves the country, convinced that the
slave is characterised by every vice, and his owner
by every virtue, under heaven.
This said hospitahty has a wonderful effect in
sharpening the discriminating faculties of the mind.
A good dinner opens the eyes of a British officer in
Jamaica, as it opens the heart of an alderman in
London. When a man crams you with turtle-soup
and drenches you with claret, you have no doubt of
his benevolence.
There is a very perceptible difference, in point of
external manners, between the north and the south.
The people in the latter are very courteous and po
lite to steangers, and appear to take a pleasure in
rendering assistance or gloving information. Not
that there is any want of good feeUng in the former,
but that it exhibits itself less spontaneously and with
fewer marks of an obUging disposition. There is,
however, in both sections, a custom, to which a man
habituated to European usages is not soon or easily
reconciled. It is that of making him repeat what he
says. At Buchanan it was more provoking than
usual; the chief word or thing indicated in a
question being re-echoed, as if to give teouble at
the moment it was acknowledged to be unnecessary.
For example— " Pray can I have a bed in your
house to-night ? " " Bed ? " " Yes ! can I have a
bed," &c. Again: "How far is it to Fincasfle?"

CHAP, XXI,] INTERROGATIVES. 307
" Fmcastie ? " "Yes 1 how far is it to Fincastle ? "
Whether it proceed from indiilence or from a want of
that attention to the feeUngs of others, which is at
once a mark and a measure of good-breeding, I know
not ; but the practice is so general as to stamp the
national character with a peculiarity almost un
known in other countries ; where not to catch the
meaning of another's words is thought an impolite
ness that requires an apology : — " I beg your par
don," or some form of speech of that kind, intimates
that what you have said has not been comprehended.
Here, whether you are comprehended or not, and
before you have finished your sentence, you are
greeted'with " Sir ? " — a word, however weak and
diminutive, that is more variously and more fre
quently in use than any in the Enghsh vocabtilary^-
as interrogative, appellative, distinctive, &c. I once
asked an American, with whom I was in frequent
habit of conversing, if he was deaf? "Not in the
least," was his reply ; " on the contrary, not a word
escapes me." "I thought you were so," I said,
" because you make me repeat my words so often."
" Why ! as for that, the current of my ideas was
ranning another way — I was thinking of something
else," In every country men prefer their own
thoughts to another's : there are few w^here it is not
thought a breach of good manners to teU him so.
¦Whatever jargon you talk to a Frenchman, he will
rarely or never presume to correct you; while the

308 \0UR IN THE UljITED STATES, [CHAP, XXI,
very word you have used will be returned you by an
American, with his revised pronunciation. This is
one of the results that arise from two nations speak
ing the same language. I happened to say, I was
rather deaf, when I was made to repeat the wordtwo
or three times. At last I was spared further trouble
by the exclamation :, " Oh ! I understand you now—
you are deef'' If f had said I would rather heeven
would deprive me of hreeth than deprive me of hear
ing, or that I would rather be deed than deef, he
-would,, naturally have concluded that I intended to
insult him. Another day I was told I was in error,
I had no boils, as I asserted — I, was plagued with
hiles. Analogy has nothing to do ¦with these mat
ters, I had as much right to require confoimify
from either of these innovators as he from me. If it
be self-conceit that reftises the con-ection, what is it
that offers it ?
Fincastle, at which place I passed a couple of
days, contains about seven or eight hundred 'souls,
-and is a neat town, with pavement for foot-passengers
— a luxury not to be had in places of much greater
pretension. The inhabitants are remarkably civil
and courteous, bowing to, you, and yielding the wall
as they pass.
If I am to credit the account I received of the
manners that prevail among the mountaineers, they
resemble those of the Swiss and Welch, who are
placed in similar circumstances. This is a curious

CHAP, XXI,] SLAVE TRADERS, ' 309
fact for the moral physiologist. It would seem that
" the huntress Dian " has as few votaries in the se
questered vaUey as in the crowded city ; and that her
altars are deserted, whether there be too few people
to encourage virtue, or too many to resist vice.
The evening befqj-e I left Fincastle, a coach-load
of passengers, male and female, ^rived. The women
were well-dressed and well-looking, but bold and
rather too free ; while their companions made them
selves offensively conspicuous, by their swearing and
coarse manners, I found, afterwards, that they had
aU come from New Orleans, where one of the men
resided ; that they were slave-traders, and that one
of the party had been to that city with a coffle of
200 human beings. The man, whose appearance
was the least prepossessing among these repulsive
faces, had, not long before, lost his father, and had
evinced the utmost indifference and inattention to
his parent during his last moments. He had been
seen, a few days after, dancing and carousing at an
infamous house in Lewisburg, Yet this "young
gentleman" may one day soar or creep to the highest
point of the social pyramid; the same hands that
now hold the lash of the driver, may one day hold
the reins of government : and a slave-dealer mg,y again
lay the foundation of his fortune at New Orleans and
complete it at Washington,
, On the 20th I left Fincastle for Lewisburg, at
half-past four in the moming. The road was good,

310 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXI.'-,
and the scenery magnificent, as far as the Alleghany \
mountains, after which the country became less in
teresting. Having got through the pass, opposite
CaldweU's Mountain, which we had on our left, and
which presented the finest Alpine views as we
ascended and came down, we arrived at Craig's
Creek, which we forded ; and, proceeding by the side
of Barber's Creek, which rushedimpetuously through
its rocky channel, to mix with the former, and carry
their joint tribute to the James river, we stopped to
breatkfast, at Hanly's Tavem — fourteen mUes from
Fincastle — a very romantic spot. Here we found
an excellent repast prepared for us ; — fish from the
steeam at our feet, and venison from the mountains
above, with coffee that a Parisian would not have
found fault with. .
The innkeeper here contracts to feed the horses and
the driver of the stage for 350 dollars a year, in ad
dition to the profit he derives from the passengers,
who take their meals at his house. For the last six
inonths there had been 1200 registered in the books
of the proprietors. They have to pay 450 dollars a
year for tolls between Fincastle and Lewisburg— a
distance of fifty-five miles ; and as the fare is but
four dollars and a half, and the receipts uncertain in
amount, (I was the only passenger,) one would
think the estabhshment could not pay very well.
Where the contractor has not the benefit of providing
for the passengers, he is paid 500 doUars a year.

CHAP. XXI.] MOUNTAIN SCENERY, 311
About three miles further, we came to a pass of
seven miles in length, four of which were contained
in the ascent. The sky had become hazy when we
reached the top ; and the prospect, which is said to
be very grand, was, lost to us. The frees were,
many of them, in their winter garb — the dog-wood
and the sugar-maple being alone in leaf. The scen
ery was of a different description from that I had
hitherto seen. There was plenty of water; and
here and there some picturesque masses of rock.
The range of view was not so extensive ; the moun
tains were more elevated, and there were fewer signs
of cultivation. We forded many creeks, — one of
them, in passing the AUeghany, no less than twen
ty-seven times in five miles. This pass has nothing
remarkable to distinguish it ; there was no view from
the highest point, and the descent had fewer features
of beauty or grandeur than many I had seen pre
viously. Some of the mountains, particularly those
we saw in the early part of the day, were very sin
gular both in form and color. As they rose from the
valley, they were broken into ridges ; the higher
parts of which were covered ¦with pines, while the
intervening declivitjes were clothed with frees of a
lighter shade ; thus presenting a ribbed surface along
their whole length, the alternate tints running in
parallel lines, with a degree of order and regularity
at once fantastic and beautiful. The mountains,
whether radiating from a Common point, or ascend-

312 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXI,
ing in opposite lines, were separated by narrow' val
leys, embosomed in trees, and forming an uneven
but continuous mass of verdure. Nothing can be
imagined more enchanting.

CHAP. XXII.] MINERAL SPRINGS. 313

CHAPTER XXII.
Mineral Springs  Lewisburg  Language. — Periodical Press,
— Stage Passengers. — Charleston Salt- Works. — Gu3'andott, —
Cholera. — Orthography and Orthoepy. — School Prejudices. —
National FaUacies. — Kentucky  Usury Laws  Lexington 
Inquisitive Traveller  Lunatic Asylum. — Colored Preacher.
— Stage Regulations  Slave System. — Planter convert to Abo
lition. — Character of Kentucldans. — Frankfort. — Louisville.
About thirty miles from Fincastle, the stage stopped
to dinner at the Sweet Springs ; a place much fre
quented by invalids in the summer. At this time
there were none. The landlord could give me no
account of the water, except that it was used as a
tonic. It had never been analyzed, he said, though
its medicinal quaUties had long been known. I
tasted it, and found the flavor agreeable, differing
but slightly from that of good water. The well is
eight or ten feet in depth. The water contains a
great deal of gas, of which large bubbles are con
stantly rising to the surface. A quarter of a mile
beyond, we passed another spring, not covered in or
protected in any way. From the red ferraginous
VOL. II. p

314 TOUR IN THB UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXII,
appearance on the surface and tbe sides, it seemed
to be more of a chalybeate than the other. The
latter is used as a bath also. The house, which is
weU situated, is about twelve miles from the top of
the Alleghany,
Fifteen miles further, we came to the Sulphur
Springs, There were a few visitors here. Upwards
of 300 might be accommodated. There is no hotel
or tavem, but a building where the meals are taken.
The company reside in, smaU houses,, caUed cabin&
The proprietor of this establishment haS; shewn no
little ingenuity in promoting social intercourse
among his guests; frar the wretched dog-holes he
ba-s provided for them are snch, that they must ne
cessarily seek the common room, to get out of their
o^wn. On leaving the springs, we were much incom
moded by the dust, which a man in a gig before us
purposely raised in our faces. If we slackened our
pace, he drew in ; if we pushed on,, he flogged his
horse. This lasted for a considerable time — till we
arrived at the Greenbrier river, where there is a
handsome covered bridge of wood. Here he stopped,
to water his horse. I took the opportunity of re
questing he would have the goodness either " to go
a-head," or let us pass him. He offered tiie latter,
but I begged be would take the lead ; though^ t
added, we shaU probably go faster than yours,elf.
" I dpubt it," was his reply,— shewing at once that

CHAP, XXII,] LANGUAGE, 315
he might have spared us the annoyance, though he
had just denied that it was intentiouEd, He then
walked his horse through the right archway, in
strict accordance with the directions stuck up on
the bridge, vanished on the other side, and we saw
him no more.
On ahghting from the stage at Lewisburg, the
master of the hotel where we stopped desired the
waiter to shew me jnto a quiet comfortable room. I
was ushered into a small chamber, containing six or
seven beds, (I had some difficulty in counting them,)
aU likely to be fiiUy occupied; for I was at the same
time informed that there was a " smart chance " of
teaveUers on the road. As I prefer making stage
coach acquaintances by day, I contrived, with a
littie coaxing, to get a bed-room to myself.
At this place, I was again complimented on my
language ; though it was hx from being American-
proof It is no such easy matter, indeed, to get rid
of the prejudices of early education. It seems un
just that "rotatory " should be deprived of a whole
syUable to enrich " preventive " ; while " represent
ative" remains untouched: "plenty"* has work
* Most of the peculiarities adverted to (not, I trust it will
be beheved, with any iU-natured motive) are common to Ame
rica and England; with this difference, that no one in the latter
country is likely to boast of an accomplishment which he does
not possess, and which, in both countries, is as easy to a weU-
p2

316 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXII.
enough in all conscience, as a substantive, without
doing duty as an adjective; and to "leam", most
of us have good reason to know, is the business of
the pupil, and not of the master. An Enghsh ear
does not recognise afterwards as an anapaest; and
fi-ets like a heretic, though orthodoxy itself pro
nounce ISvee an iambus. It may be very conve
nient to talk of your "right", when you are under
an obligation ; and many a man's -opinion is "con
temptible " when he means it to be " contemptuous,"
For my part, I am contented with deposit and eu
phonous ; as I cannot see what claim the former can
have to another letter, or the latter to another syb
lable. The recollections of boyhood make me cherish
the quantity of my Latin as its stock diminishes;
If I were to talk of abdomen or umbilicus, I should
fancy I heard my old master bawling out — " bobby !
the word is as long as my ai-m " ; and giving me, at
the same time, the length of the latter as a measure.
I may be in error : but I can plead that I was bom
on the WTong side of the Atlantic ; that my judge is
at once plaintiff, counsel, and witness ; and that I
am not to be fried by a jury de medietate linguae..
The Americans seem to think that the omission of
the aspirate in pronunciation is a national custom in
England, If it were so, instead of being confined
educated man, as agiUty to a well- trained runner, or gracefiil'
ness to an opera-dancer.

CHAP, XXII,] ORTHOEPY, SI 7
to those whose education has been defective, it
might be defended, on the same plea which is offered
in favor of their ovm practice. Why should usage
be allowed to deprive " herb " and " humble " of
'the rights tbey enjoy with us, while the same pri
vilege is denied it w'hen applied on a large scale ?
The difference is in degree only ; and those who
have adopted the same pronunciation that, in other
instances, characterises the class alluded to, should
be the last to ridicule a practice, which, however
limited, equally distinguishes them from what are
caUed the refined portion of English society ? These
peculiarities are said to have prevailed during the
era of Swift and Addison, Be it so : that is no
reason why we should change our modes and man*
ners, in deference to times with which we have littie
, in common, and which are not to be considered as a
standard for us, because they are so for another
nation. Our mechanics and tradesmen might as
weU maintain that they merely imitate their ances
tors, when they affix or discard the aspirate, and
when they change w into v. Arguments, no doubt,
could be foimd in support of the position. It may
be said, for example, that the word " topsy-turvy ",
which is well known to be a corruption of top-side-
t'other-wffly, proves that the w was formerly pro
nounced as V now is. When our friends over the
water laugh at the cockneys for confounding these
letters, they forget that they themselves are ob-

318 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXII.
noxious to the same teeatment, for substituting z in
the place of s, &c., in several words, such as design,
consign, discern, &c., which they pronounce dezign,
conzign, diszem, &c. Yet they do not make the
same alteration in the word " sign", from which the
former are derived. This mode is necessai-y in fhe
word " resign ", to give wp, in order to distinguish it
from the word " resign ", to repeat the signature, —
a distinction which is generally observed by weU-
educated persons in England, I do not say that its
non-observance is incorrect : I merely say that they
who claim a right to deviate from an estabhshed
standard, — and it will be difficult to prove that it is
not established, at least among us, have no right to
blame others for doing the same thing. Wherever
the deviation lies, one set of men are as much en
titied to choose their own style of pronunciation as
another ; unless it be that the people are everything
on one side of the Atlantic, and nothing on the other.
And this, I am inchned to think, wiU afford the best
explanation ofthe matter. The American "people"
are to be flattered in everything; and foreigners, who
cannot speak our language correctly, teU them that
they ought to exclude English books from theii
country, lest their mother tongue should be debased
and corrupted. O rem ridiculam et inficetam !
" Some few years hence," says the United States'
Gazette, July, 1834, " the inhabitants (of England)
wiU look to the United States for a dictionary, by

CHAP, XXII,] PERIODICAL WIESS. 319
which they may read the classics of their ancestors,
Steele, Johnson, ahd Addison." In the same manner,
doubtless, the French will seek for commentators on
Mohere and Boileau in Canada ; the Spaniards visit
Mexico to understand Quevedo and Cervantes : and
the posterity of the present Americans will take a
trip to Liberia, that they may relish the polished
pa^es of the Courier and Inquirer, and study modesty
from the liberal columns of the United States' Ga
zette. It is fortunate for Europe that, as her different
communities experience the inadequacy of the lan
guage they speak to express their wants, or gratify
their literary tastes, there should be found, beyond
" the watery main," a superior race, that are sprang
fixjm the same stock, and can restore, by their exam
ple, its primitive purity and richness to their common
tongue ; — affording, by the revision of their vema
cular vocabulary, some consolation under the many
evUs which decline aad decrepitude bring -with
them. There is perhaps no country in the world, where
the periodical press is less marked by independ
ence of principle, and integrity of piirpo^, than
in the United Stateb. Sumit aut ponit arbiteio
popularis aurae. It is a mirror that reflects public
opinion in aU its changes and diversities of form and
pressure. The editors " cannot afford to keep a
conscience," amid the sfaniggles of party ifvarfare, the

320 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXIU
sneers -of opponents, and the solicitations of sub
scribers. Like 'the " condottieri" and " conducti"
of modem and ancient Italy, their joy and their sor
row belong to those who hire them ; and their hosti
lity or their sympathy is paid for.
If I am not misinformed, a joint stock fund in the
South takes off 500 copies of the Courier and In
quirer (the cost of each copy for the year being ten
dollars). These are distributed among the hotels
and places of public resort. Hence that candid
specimen of " the people's best instructor" is an ad
vocate for slavery. Its expectation of favors to
come measures its gratitude for favors received; and
its zeal in the cause attests its attachment and its
sincerity. The degraded state of the press may be
seen in the proposals and prospectuses occasionally
issued by its conductors. The assumption of exclu
sive integrity proves its rarity, while it excites a
doubt of its probability. * " Again : — ^be it under
stood," says the Aurora, on its revival last year, " that
no compromise will be made of principles for sub
scriptions or advertisements; nor any private or pub
Uc interference submitted to, incompatible with the
social interests and the freedom of the press,"
At the hotel where I lodged at Lewisburg, there
were sixteen people at breakfast, and about the
same number at table the evening before. Very
commendable patience was exhibited on both occa
sions, while waiting for the meal, tiU the second

CHAP. XXII,] VILLAGE ORACLE. 321
beU rang ; when there was a simultaneous rush to
the room and the hot rolls. No time was lost in
choosing seats or settling precedence ; not a voice
was heard. The whole passed in dumb show ; and
the same rapidity of movement marked the three
acts of the performance. It was : intrant omnes, —
edunt omnes, — exeunt omnes. At dinner the same
eagerness to commence and retire was displayed ;
and no one remained, as on the other side of the
ridge, to cool his heels and heat his head in the tap
room, I had proof here of the little that is often known
in one State of what is going on- in another. An
elderly man, who was lodging at the inn, declared in
the presence of several persons, and repeated the
assertion at least a dozen times, to as many parties,
that the neighboring State of Ohio had driven away
all its colored citizens but three, whom the governor
was about to expel, I Had at the time conclusive
evidence to the contrary in my pocket ; having
brought a letter fi-om one of this class at Washing
ton to his brother at Cincinnati, in answer to a com
munication he had received, that there were a great
Inany persons of color there, who were endeavoring
to improve their condition, I did not contradict
him, as he had just before assured the company,
that I was decidedly wrong in saying that Catholics
were admitted as members to the British House of
P 3

322 TOUR IN THB UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XXII.
Commons, He was a la^wyer, and appeared to be
the oracle of the place.
On the 22d, I left Lewisburg for Guyandott, on
the Ohio, and went as far as the Falls (sixty-four
miles). There was no one inside the stage but a
young farmer, who had never been out of Virginia,
At Mount Pleasant, where we stopped to breakfast,
ray feUow traveUer observed to me that he had paid
for his meals, during his joumey on horseback, but
half what he was now charged as a stage passenger,
I now saw how the tavern-keepers and the stage pro
prietors arrange the matter between them. The
price of the meal is enhanced as the charge at the
booking-office is diminished; and the consumer
pays, one way or another, in the fare.
We proceeded on our way with few objects aud
incidents to diversify and enUven the day. There
were scarcely any of those springs, at which during
the previous days I had drunk the most deUcious
water. The sources were less frequent and more
scanty. The Ohio has less need to draw on the
AUeghany than the James river.
Towards noon we took up a woman with a httie
girl and a boy of eight or ten years of age. As soon
as they were seated, I made a sad blunder. I asked
her if the lad was her grandson. He was her son,
I had mistaken a female of forty for an old woman
of sixty : such is the rapidity with which the fair

CHAP. XXII.] MOUOTAIN SCENERY. 823
sex too often lose every appearance of youth, at an
age when their sisters in Europe still retain no small
portion of their fireshness and beauty, I felt very
much embarrassed; and tried to " make it up" with
the good lady by taking notice of her childi-en ; and,
I believe, I succeeded pretty w^ell, as she wished
me " good aftemoon," when she left the stage : — a
piece of civUity not always observed towards each
other by traveUers ; — with whom to take leave is
often as rare as to ask it.
When we arrived ¦within fourteen ot fifteai miles
of the FaUs, the scenery improved, and there were
more signs of social life than the few log-huts we
had hitherto seen. There were farm-houses and
green fields and orchards. Seven miles fiirtiier we
came to an elevated spot, known by the name of
the " Hawk's Nest," From hence the view is truly
magnificent ; the New River winding its way below
at a depth of several hundred feet, and forming three
or four distinct curves, as the mountains, which rise
precipitously on each side, approach or recede from
its bed; from the waters of which their woody
sides are reflected. The scenery became exceed
ingly beautiful as we descended the mountain, with
the river far below on our left; each tum and every
opening of the wood, with which the sides were
profusely covered, affording us now a glimpse, now
a fiiU view, of the stream below. Such varied' and
charining combinations of water and rock, and trees

I
324 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XXII,
are to be found in few countries. Many parts bear
a striking resemblance to the banks of the Wye in
the neighborhood of Piercefield; but none can
rival Windcliff in beauty. At the foot of the moun
tain, we crossed over in a ferry, at the point of junc-r
tion between the New River and the Gauley, which
here lose their distinctive titles, and are lost in the
Kanawha — a tributary of the Ohio, At seven, p,m.,
we reached the Falls; where we remained for the
night. They are hardly worth the trouble of a
walk, though but of a quarter of a mile ; their height
not exceeding twenty feet.
We started the next moming at an early hour. The
" fiiU-orb'd moon" was reflected fromthe Kanawha;
between which and the impending rock our route
lay ; the light breeze, " the herald of the morn,"
was springing up ; and the fire-fly, as he flitted
among the trees that skirted the road; " began to
pale his ineffectual fires," As the day broke, the
scenerjf gradually unfolded itself. Light wreaths of
mist rose slowly from the sm-face of the water, and
remained suspended midway on the bosom of the
mountains. The river had now enlarged its bed, and
deepened its current ; the mountains assumed a co
nical form; and the valley, that lay between the
opposite ridges, and afforded a passage through
which the Kanawha "wanders his silver ¦winding
way," added fertUity of soil to beauty of situation.
The road continued along the banks of the river,

CHAP, XXII,] SALT WORKS, 325
through the same sort of country as we had traversed
in the morning. At eleven a,m, we arrived at Charleston,
thirty-six miles from the Falls, Here are some va
luable salt-springs, extending for ten or twelve miles
on both sides of the river. They give employment
to neariy 1500 workmen; more than one half of
whom are hired slaves from the other side of the
blue ridge. It was supposed that salt to the amount
of two mUlions of bushels would have been made
here in the year 1834, if the President's " experi
ment" had not paralysed commerce by shaking
credit, A branch which is established here of the,
Virginia Bank at Richmond, had been compelled to
curtail its discounts. Like the mimosa, it had drawn
in its leaves at the touch of the intruder. There are
few regions where Nature has been more lavish of
her gifts. The water, from which the salt is ob
tained, is found at the depth of three or four hundred
feet; and the neighboring mountains abound in
coal, which is dug out from the sides by means of
horizontal shafts. If slavery were abolished, and
more capital were invested in these works, the rate of
wages, which the difficulty of finding white laborers
who wiU work with slaves keeps up, would faU ; the
rude machinery of wooden teoughs and vats would
give way to a more profitable, though more costlj',
apparatus ; and the command of a wider market
would soon invite and remunerate specidation. Here
indeed is " the potentiality of growing rich" to any

826 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXII.
one, who with a large capital would be contented
with small profits, till the removal of those obstacleSj
which now repel enterprise or weaken its efforts,
shaU drive every competitor from the field. What
might not Charleston become with inexhaustible
sources of raw material and fuel in close neighbor*
hood, and an easy access by water to market for
their p-oducts ?
The happy results of industry are already visible
in the substantial houses, the trim gardens, and well-
tilled fields, that meet the eye of the teaveUer as he
enters the town on dther side. And such might the
whole State be, if the balance between production
and consumption were in favor of the former ; if the
physical powers of the cultivators were directed by
the will ; and labor were considered as the self-in
terested coadjutor of capital, and not a mere piece of
brutal machinery. Better would it be for the westem
section of Virginia, if it were at once to separate
from a companion, that arrests its progress and en
dangers its teanquiUity. Should the eastem part
continue its bUnd opposition to the schemes pro-
pose4 for their mutual benefit, it is not improbable
that the influence it exercises in the legislature will
induce the west to sever the tie that unites them, and
form a State by itself — to follow the example of
Kentucky, and, moving in its own orbit, cease to be
the satellite of a falling and fading planet.
Hints of this nature have often been thrown out;

CHAP, XXII.] STAGE REGULATIONS. 327
and the conflicting interests, which difference of
manners and of habits has created, are likely to sti
mulate the feelings from which they spring, into de
termined action. Should such an event be ever
reaUzed, the new State would, before long, outstrip
its rival, and take its place among the richest and
most important of the confederation.
In quitting Charleston, which communicates with
the Ohio, at sixty mUes distance, by means ofthe Ka
nawha, we crossed the river by a ferry, and proceeded
about ten miles ; when the road and the river, after
a short separation and re-union, parted company;
and we saw no more of the latter. As we approached
the Ohio, the movmtains were less elevated, and
more marks of cultivation appeared. Nothing oc
curred on the joumey, but the departure of my fel
low teaveUer, who shook me very cordiaUy by the
hand, and invited me to visit him at his house. The
former piece of civiUty I returned, — ^the other is
credited to his counti-ymen.
About six P.M. the stage arrived for the night at a
place called Morris's Tavem, sixty-four miles from the
Falls. Had not the inn at Charleston been full, I
should have remained there a day or two, and the
next stage would have taken me up. Such are the re
gulations on the road, that, when once you have taken
your place by a stage, you may stop as long as you
please by the way, and resume your joumey and
your seat at your leisure. You have a lien upon the

328 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XXII.
place you have paid for, — a kind of usufruct, of
which you may divide or delay the enjoyment. The
next moming we got to Guyandott at seven, the dis
tance being but eighteen or twenty miles. The road
was, in most parts, as good as M'Adam himself could
have made it ; and the driver, while dashing down
the mountains, shewed great dexterity in managing
one of the prettiest teams of long-taUed greys ima
ginable, Guyandott is a small place, containing two or
three hundred souls, and is situated on the banks pf
the Ohio, which lands or receives some of its nume
rous steam-boat travellers here, and gives to the vil
lage what little animation it possesses. It may boast
of a good hotel, which has not long been erected,
and is conducted with great attention to the comfort
and convenience of its guests ; who are, at times, in
such abundance, as to be obliged to sleep on the
floor, in the dining-room, and passage. It may afford
a smile or a joke to see a smaU room stuffed with
beds, and half a dozen men performing their ablu
tions with a pewter basin and a round towel : but it
should be remembered, that when the population of
a country is small and scattered, and the number as
well as the arrival of travellers uncertain, it would be
unreasonable to expect accommodations, the cost of
which could never be covered by such charges as
would be willingly paid.
' Much alarm had been felt at this place, from th§

CHAP, XXII,] CHOLERA, 329
appearance of the cholera ; of which a man, about a
fortnight before, had died at the hotel. The disease
came on after a hearty supper on board a steam
boat; and he was lauded, within eight or ten hours,
at this place. The master of the inn did himself
great honor on this melancholy occasion ; for he not
only received him into his house, when almost every
one in the vUlage kept aloof, and several of his guests
left the hotel, but he rendered the patient, both be
fore and after his death, those services which usually
fall to the lot of the nurse and the undertaker. The
only aid he could obtain in this benevolent and ge
nerous office, was from the driver of the stage, who
seconded him most nobly in his efforts to soften the
dying man's sufferings, by allowing him to rest his
feet on his breast, and derive what relief was to be
had from the pressure, to the cramps by which he
was tormented. He was a Presbyterian minister, on
his way to the general assembly at Philadelphia.
Few people in this part of the country believe in
the doctrine of contagion ; though from what took
place, both here and at other places, it would seem
that, while they are non-contagionists in -principle,
they are contagionists in practice.
As there were very few persons in the house, I
was put into a well-fumished room in front. As I
lay in bed, I could see the hiUs rising on the oppo
site side, at a short distance from the river, w-hich is
here about half a mUe across ; and the whole breadth

330 TOUR IN THB UNITED STATES. £CHAP. XXII,
ofthe Ohio was before me, rolling the united tribute
of the AUeghany and the Monongahela to the Mis-
eissippi, with a rapidity that a joumey before him of
nearly 1000 miles might seem to demand.
While I was waiting at Guyandott for a steam-
boat, I borrowed some English works of the land
lord, to amuse me. They were American editions ; and
I observed that some of the words had been adapted,
in the reprint, to the transatlantic mode of spelling,
I have frequently found this to be the case with re
publications in the United States. Thus " visitor"
is changed into "visiter"; although " conteactor",
" director", " orator", and other words with the same
termination, retain their old garb ; and " deposit"
has an e tacked to the end of it; while " teansifj
" deficit", " visit", &c,, have not had the same com-
pliment paid them as their congener. Every nation
has, of comse, a right to give currency to what sort
of language it pleases ; but it has no right to recoin
what it imports from another, and pass it off as ge
nuine. An English author may appear in an Ame
rican dress, without becoming a citizen : — he may
fairly object to letters of naturalization*.
* The year before the last, there were pubUshed, in the
United States, 274 new literary works of native growth, and
206 reprinted from foreign authors : — ^the former, in 306 vo
lumes, for 375 doUars, 47 cents ; the latter, in 303 volumes, at
216 doUars, 99 cents, European works reappear in a smaUer
type, and at a lower price. The exotics are more closely

CHAP, XXII,] PRONUNCIATION. 331
I may perhaps be pardoned for recurring to the
subject of pronunciation. If it were true, as most
people in North America suppose, that all the Eng
lish omit or employ the aspirate in a manner di
rectiy the reverse of what is practised in the former
country, it would by no means follow that the prac
tice were inelegant or incorrect. The French never
pronounce the "h", with the exception of a few
words, such as " hero", " hara", &c. Suppose their
Canadian brethren, who, by the by, boast of speak
ing a purer dialect than the people of their mother
country, were to inteoduce a different style of pro
nunciation, and employ the aspirate as we do, would
it not be extremely absurd in them to ridicule the
Parisians for a peculiarity, and call that a deviation,
which would, in fact, be the standard from which
they had themselves deviated ? If, in all languages,
custom be a guide, " Quern penes arbitrium est, et
jus et norma loquendi", why should it be sought on
the other side of the ocean ? — or, if it is to be sought
there, on which side is it to be found ? The teuth
is, the charge involves the accusation of vulgarity;
that want of refinement, which those who make the
packed : the consumption is increased in proportion. It is ri
diculous to complain that the home-grown article is discou
raged, when there is a bounty upon importation. Under such
discouragements, few men of talent wiU be contented with the
barren laurels of hterature. The rest prefer " cash " to "cre
dit", and turn their attention to more profitable employments.

832 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXII,
imputation,'are so apt to resent as an insult, or an in
justice, when made against themselves : — an attempt
to prove disqualification to judge, whUe jurisdiction
is denied:— a retaliatory plea, contra judicem coram
non judice.
The Americans are systematically taught in their
earliest years, that the diction they employ is su
perior to that in use elsewhere, " The English lan
guage," says an American writer on Geography, " is
spoken in far greater purity of idiom and intonation
with us than in Great Britain,"
As the work I have quoted is recommended to
teachers by some of the most respectable men in the
country, I shall take the liberty of citing some more
passages from it. The excellent character of the
writer wiU secure a candid reception to the remarks
I may make, as it recommends to the minds of
youth those feelings and opinions which seem to
call for them,
" Knowing that Asia," says the Author, " is sunk
in ignorance and gross superstition, the young
reader will at once discover the cause of our moral
superiority over the dull Asiatics, as well as the
great mass of their more enlightened neighbors of
the European part of the Eastem continent. It
needs scarcely to be repeated, that it is owing to the
influence of the press shedding its rays of knowledge
over the minds of a free people, and yielding in
struction to every person capable of reading : — and

CHAP, XXII,] EDUCATION. 333
who is there in this country that cannot read ? The
number is very small," and fast diminishing," * I
will say nothing of the enormous mass of ignorance
to be found among the Africo-Americans, I wUl
leave it to a writer in the American Annals of Educa
tion (Nov, 1833) to answer the above, " More than
a mUlion of free white children in the United States
are left even without a common school education.
Another million of our youth between fifteen and
twenty, find no place provided for their instruction,
beyond the mere elements of knowledge, vrhich they
may have acquired ; and a large part of these future
citizens have no means of paying for education," —
" So reckless in New England itself," says another
writer in the Register, " are the guardians of our
schools in regard to their organization and discipline,
and the character of the teachers, that large numbers
of the most respectable men in the community regatd
them as direct nurseries of evil, and refuse to com
mit their chUdren to them, even to save the tax
which they pay for them. In New York this is not
only trae, but there is reason to believe that from
50,000 to 80,000 children are destitute of aU insteuc-
tion, besides the flood of adult foreigners that inun
date this State, In New Jersey, 11,000 adults were
found unable to read and write ; and in Penn
sylvania, only 150,000 children out of 480,000
receive any insti-uction,"
* Geographical Exercises, &c., by Joseph C. Hart. New
York, 1830.

334 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXH.
Speaking of England, the author of the " Geo
graphical Exercises" calls it a nation, "that has
spent millions and sacrificed armies to entail slav
ery " on the Americans, who " have been twice
obliged to beat " it " into an acknowledgement" of
their "rights and liberties." He had just before
stated, that at New Orleans " was fought the cele
brated battle which gained for General Jackson a
great reputation,, and terminated the last war witk
Great Britain." Peace had been signed some time
previously. " It is probable," says the author,
" that Cuba (the most important of the West Indies,
but at present a harbour for pirates) will, at no dis
tant period, belong either by purchase or conquest
,to the United States." This is a singular idea to
instU into the minds of those who are one day to> be
self-govemed citizens of a nation, that bais always
repudiated aggressive wars and accession of territory
by conquest. It is somewhat remarkable that a
quaker, should " endorse " the testimonials that are
printed in front and in favor of a book containing
these and the following sentiments. They were
suggested by a narrative, from the author, of very
ateocious conduct aUeged to have been committed
by some British officers against the captain and crew
of an American brig, " These cowardly and un-
blushiug monsters deserve a brazen monument, to
give to their baseness a becoming immortality ;_ and
their names, whUe they yet live, are now recorded in
an American school-book, that American children

CHAP. XXII.] king's PREROGATIVE. 335
may leam to appreciate the superiority of their own
national character, and to apply, on proper occa
sions, —  'a whip of scorpions,
To lash the rascals naked through the world.'
If these are acts by which we are practicaUy to
judge of the boasted honor and humanity of Britons
and British officers, how greatly have we reason to
exult in the conteast of the character and conduct of
the Ainerieans, and in the bravery and feeling hearts
of our own gaUant officers and seamen."
" This people ", says the author, speaking of the
English, " are fond of rurtning after great names, and
foUowing in the train of royalty. As an evidence of
their acquiescence in the inequality of mankind, it is
a stamfeig maxim, that ' the king can do no wrong';
which signifies that he is placed above the reach ef
the civU power and the operation of law," The au
thor is not aware, that the maxim he quotes has no
more to do with natural inequality than his eountey's
declaration of rights has to do with natural equality.
It might as weU be said, we believe in the king's im
mortality, because, by a simUar legal fiction, we say,
" the king never dies ". It is this principle that se
cures us from the evUs of an interregnum, and it was
the want of the other that destroyed both the mo
narchy and the monarck The writer may see a
similar piinciple in operation nearer home. In aU

336 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXII,
civilized communities, idiots, infants, and lunatics
are irresponsible to the civU power for their actions.
In the eyes of the law they " can do no wrong ".
There is this important difference, however, that no
one is necessarily responsible for them; whereas
some one, by whom alone the executive of our go
vemment can act, is always responsible for him.
Another American teacher of youth, assures his
readers, that " the number of instructors and students
in the celebrated universities of Europe is greater
than in ours (the American), the course of instrac-
tion more extensive, and the libraries much larger ;
but far less attention is paid to the conduct and im
provement of the pupils," * ,
In another passage he says : " It is the remark of
an European writer, concerning the Uiuted States,
that ' the great body of the American people is bet
ter educated than the bulk of any European commu
nity '." The words " better educated " are printed in
italics, " In most countries of Europe," says the same
author, " vice is more prevalent among all classes,
and moraUty and piety are less regarded than in the
United States." This is, certainly, a most wonderfid
countey. There is no end of testimonies to its great
ness—present or futm-e, I must quote one more,
" It is the happiness of America, that almost every
thing in her condition invites her to look forward
* Woodbridge's Rudiments of Geography, p, 536,

CHAP. XXn.] MATIONAl GREATNESS. 337
irith lu^e. Her perfect ^feeedom, her rapid progress,
the elastic energy of her national character, the
bomidless extent of her temtory, hra: sitaation, far
from the contentions of Ewotpean nations, and safe
from the dangecs both of their friendship and of
their hostility,— all awaken and justify the confident
hope, that she is destined to reach s height of pros
perity which no other nation of ancient and modem
times has attained." — Preface to Memoir of Roger
WiUiams. The Author could hardly mean that Eu
ropeans are more prone than otitier people to cut one
another's throats; that there is no connexion be
tween national prosperity and national arrogance, —
no tenacity of possession, or desire of acquisition,
arising from extension of territory; and that man
"in learing his dear native land beWnd" for the
new worid, leaves behind him his pride and his
pugnacity. The citizens of the United States are so
often told, in fourth of July orations, in sermons,
sad speedies, and reviews, and magazines, ajid
newspapers, and prefaces to hterary works, that they
are the greatest people tmder the canopy of heaven,
that it is no wonder they beheve what is so gratify
ing to the self-love of human nature, and what is
confirmed, in their own minds, by the very ridicule
with which it is teeated by other nations. As for
the exemption flx>m war, which is here claimed .as
the pecuhar blesfiiDg of ihs country, it would per-
VOL. II, Q

338 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, ' [CHAP. XXII,
haps be nearer the truth to say, that its inflictions
are more likely to be felt in America than in Europe.
New States are naturally jealous of one another,
and where their governments are created and con
trolled by the people, are Uttle inclined to listen to
reason when aggressors, or content themselves with
remonstrance when aggrieved. If they are secure
from the craft of crowned heads, who seek in fo
reign hostUities a diversion to internal complaints,
they are deprived of the check which regal policy
often places upon national animosity, and have no
ground, in an independent administeation of pubhc
affairs, to offer or accept an excuse for injury or in
sult. The propensity of European sovereigns to war
is often counteracted by the poverty and discontent
of those from whom the means and instraments of
its gratification are to be obtained; whUe neither
the one nor the other exists among communities in
which the democratic principle increases with the
wealth it elicits and accumulates. If we add to
these considerations, that there is not a political
body throughout the whole American continent, the
West India islands,' the vast extent of Asia, and
Africa, and the Pacific, that does not find itself ex
cluded by the disqualification of many, and, in most
cases, of all its members, from those social and civil
privUeges which it extends itself to the citizens of
the United States ; it may, without exaggeration, be

CHAP, XXII,] CHOLERA, 339
said, that no nation on the face of the globe has as
sumed such an hostUe attitude as this great repub
lican empire, — none have ever given sueh cause of
offence and provocation, — and' none have adopted a
course of pohcy calculated to produce so much ex
asperation and disgust among coimtless milUons fast
emerging into refined civilization and commercial
importance *,
On the 25th I left Guyandott by a steam-boat,
that was passing down the river, and arrived at
MaysviUe, in Kentucky, in the evening. The dis
tance is about 100 mUes. The banks of the Ohio
appeared tame and uninteresting in comparison with
westem Virginia. MaysviUe is a flourishing town.
The year before it is supposed to have contained
4000 inhabitants ; when the cholera made its ap
pearance. Its number was soon reduced, by flight,
to 500 ; of whom fifty died of the disease. Lower
down the river, and twenty mUes above Cincinnati,
where, in a small district, out of three physicians,
one died of the complaint, another fled, and the
third alone remained, the greater part of the popu
lation removed, and left the care of the sick and the
* A Chinese, whom I met at Philadelphia, complained to me
of the Americans — " They insult me," he said, "because of
my skin. They will not let me be in the same room with
them." He was going back to his own country, and seemed
little Ukely when he got home to forget or forgive what he had
seen and felt on his travels,
Q2

340 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXH,
dying to a few devoted inen, who undertook to ad-
B^nister the medicines they were instructed to give.
One of these men told me^ that calomel, given in
large quantities, was the only efectual remedy of sM
that were applied. Many !pebple shut themselves
up in their houses, and others refiised io see tiiar
fiearest relatives ; but it was observed that tiie great
est number of victims was among those who gave
way to immoderate fear.
The next day I quitted MaysviUe, at nine a.m., for
Lexington ; and though the distanefe is but sixty-
four miles, the stage did not reach the latter fAanse
till half-past ten at night. About two -thirds of the
road were macadamized, and in Excellent order ; hot
the iremaander was infinitely worse tlian any I had
yet seen. When the new road, of which the con-
sfetncftiom has been undertaken l)y a turnpike com
pany, is completed, it wiU be one of tlie b^t ia the
Union. MaysviUe is prettUy situated in a hollow, c©»*
pletely surrounded by mountains ; the sole current
of air being along the river, which divides them.
The chief produce of tbe county in which it hes,
consists of hemp, of which large quantities are
grown, both for home man-afacture and for export^
ation. After passing Washington, ten miles from
MaysviUe, the soil begins to deteriorate, a,nd con
tinues of an inferior quality 4br some distance. It
improves afterwards.

CHAP. XXII.] CONSCIENTIQUS OVERSEER. 341
Our vehicle was heavily loaded with its fuU com-
plementof passengers, and an extra quantity of lug
gage. I found the Kentucky drivers, with the. ex-
ceptiion of two, who were from the free States, very
inferior to the fraternity in Virginia. One of these
men had heen a long time in the State, but bad been
unable to reeoacile himself to the people or theiT
slave-system. The other had been employed, whai
a young man, as an overseer on a plantation in
Louisiana, and had been so shocked with the cra-
eMes. he had witnessed, that the offer of a thousand
doUars a year, with a horse and a i^ave, eould not
tempt him to remain ; and he had ever since re
tained his hatred of slavery. By his account, the
women are so worn down by the toils of the fieldl,
that if it were not for importation, the race coul^
hardly be continued in many places. His employer,
when he informed him of bis intention to quit him,
asked him what he expected to lay by as a stage-
driver. " 100 dollars a year," was the reply. ITie
observation this answer elicited was very remark
able :— ** If what you tell me be true, what must
be your opinion of me ? "
There was something romantic about this man's
history. His father and mother were of English
birth. The former was poor ; and the latter, whose
family was in affluent circumstances, was too
young and affectionate to look upon his want of
wealth as a proof of want of merit. They were

342 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XXII.
married ; and paternal displeasure drove them be
yond the ocean. Here they lived contentedly for
many years, forgetting, and, as they thought, for
gotten by the world. The death of the wife's fa
ther, however, announced to them that he had not
subdued a father's feelings. He bequeathed a smaU
estate to their only child. The grandson had never
taken possession of it, as his lawyer had died before
the claim had been finaUy settled, and the claimant
had neglected to take farther steps in the business.
He was meditating a trip to England ; and, as but
seventeen or eighteen years had elapsed since the
death of his grandfather, he may stUl recover his
property. He was a prudent man, and had saved a
good deal of money, I asked him what interest he
got for it. His answer shows how high want of
capital has raised profits in this part of America ;
and how easy it is to evade enactments, which would
interfere with the equitable mode of dividing them
between the borrower and the owner of the capital,
that has produced them. " When I have saved up
fifty dollars," he said, " I take them to an hotel-
keeper, whom I can trust, and he finds me a man who
will give me for the loan of them a biU for sixty dol
lars, payable at the end of six months, and properly
endorsed. I lent a blacksmith the other day this very
sum ou these terms. He had an opportunity of get
ting some iron at a reduced price, owing to the pres
sure of the times, and he was unwilhng to raise the

CHAP. XXII.] KENTUCKIAN ANIMOSITY. 343
money by the sale of a slave, who might have been
exposed to hard teeatment in the south. This is^
the way we manage these matters ; and I would ask
you, after this, what is the use of usury laws ? "
He told me several stories of " whipping ", and
mentioned that nearly aU the Kentuckians, of what
ever rank and condition, carried pistols or dirks, and
sometimes both, with them.
One of the other drivers had all the appearance of
a ruffian of the highest order about him ; and his
language corresponded with his garb. He had left
Virginia to escape the consequences of a brawl, in
which he had been engaged, " I whipped a man
decentiy," said he, " in his own bar," " And what
became of him?" I asked, "Oh ! he recovered: but
the officers were after me ; and so I came off to
Kentuck," He wanted me to get inside, as the road
was very bad, and it was growing dark. Though he
had not been more than seven or eight months in that'
part of the country, two or three persons who were
sitting by his side had, he told me, been thrown off,
and much hurt. As he seemed to be drank, I re
mained where I was, with the hope of checking the
fiuy with which he drove. I expected every minute
to be upset, and thought myself very fortunate to
have escaped with no other loss but that of my great
coat, which slipped from under me during one of
the concussions we underwent.
A Uttie time after our arrival at Lexington, I was-

344 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CBAP, XXII.
inquiring in the hotel for my portmanteau, which I
began fo fear had shared the fate of my coat, when
a young man, whom, though one of the passengers,
I had not before observed, accosted me : " What
part of England do you come finm, if it is a fair
question ? " Having obtained a suxtable answer to
bis fair question, he proceeded: " I reckon London
is one of your largest States." " London is not a
State," I repUed, " but a dty." " Oh ! I know tiiat
well enough : — a pretty smart place, I take it :— as
large, perhaps, as Philadelphia?" " You must con
sider," said I, " that London has long been the seat
of government, and a mart for fhe most extensive
commerce in Europe. It probably contains more
than six times the population of PhUadelphia." " Is
not Liverpool near LondoM ? " was the next question.
I told him the distance. " I always thought ", he
said, "that it was only fifty mUes. You are
f oing ", he added, " to see the largest city to be
found in the interior of any country ia the world."
"What city do you mean?" "Why, Lexington."
" Is not Cincinnati larger ? " " Yes I but then Cin
cinnati is on the Ohio. I mean a city not situated
on a river." He continued running on from one
subject to another. " Your people are before us in
the arts and sciences, and are more refined; but
then, you know, we work with slaves." I disclaimed
any superiority for my country but what others nright
obtain with similar advantages ; and he betook him-

CHAP. XXn.] LUNATIC ASYLUM. 345
self to the register of arrivals, in search of my name.
Having examined the book a few minutes, he sud
denly tumed round, and addressed me abruptiy.
"¦How do you spell your name?" he ejaculated.
This was going rather beyond the limits of privi
leged curiosity; and as I thought he would be better
employed in deciphering the name than in cate
chising its owner, I took my leave, and left him the
register, I found the Eagle tavem, at which I put up, one
of the best conducted I had seen in America ; and
the proprietors as attentive to their guests as if they
were doing the honors of a private house. The
company, too, were gentiemanly in their manners,
and of an obliging disposition.
Upon my inquiring about a lunatic asylum, which
is established about a mUe from the town, Mr, Pos-
tlethwaite (one of the proprietors) very poUtely pro
cured me an order, and drove me over in his barouche,
with two ofthe directors. There are accommodations
for 150 patients; though but 71, of whom nearly
one<-half were women, were then in the house. The
sleeping chambers, of which each patient has one,
are lofty and weU-Ughted : each has a window, op-
paste to the door, over which, comm'unieating with
a spacious passage, is another ; every window in a
east-iron frame, so that no sign of coercion or con
finement is visible. Through each door is an aper
ture, with a sUde, by means of which the keepers.
q3

846 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XXII,
are enabled to see what is passing within. There
are four yards, divided equally between the sexes,
and admitting patients, according to the nature of
their case. Some of them had irons on their legs Or
arms, — a mode of punishment or restraint of very
equivocal effect any where. How it is at this place
I could not leam, as neither superintendant nor doctor
was within ; and the keeper who attended us seemed
contented with the performance of his duty, without
speculating on the best mode of combining with it
the chance of restoring health and a sound mind to
the patients. Another kind of disciphne is applied
in the shower-bath, which is said to be efficacious
in cases of violence or insubordination. There is a
garden attached to the house, with some land, where
the inmates are permitted and encouraged to work.
The directors had applied to the legislature for more
land; sufficient for the salutary purposes contem
plated not having been granted. The estabUshment,
which evinced throughout a most commendable at
tention to the comfort of the invalids, is supported
at the expense of the State, with the exception of
what is derived from those who can afford to pay for
their board, or any particular indulgence. Some of
these are sent from other States ; the rest belong ex
clusively to Kentucky.
WhUe strolling about the town, and admiring the
neatness of the houses, I fell into conversation with
a colored man, who proved to be a minister of the

CHAP, XXII,] SCHOOLMASTER, 347
Baptist persuasion, a native of Virginia, in which
State he had obtained his freedom, and had subse
quently settied at this place ; respected both by whites
and blacks. One of the former, however, actu
ated by some malicious or malevolent motive, had
endeavored to enforce the law, which prohibits free
blacks from other States from settiing in Kentucky.
Much to the credit ofthe Lexington people, a petition,
in behalf of the colored preacher, signed by many of
the most respectable whites in the town, was sent
to the legislature; and an express enactment was
passed by them, empowering him to remain, and to
enjoy aU the privileges of a white man, except the
elective franchise. He has had a church here since
1822, — the only place of worship in the State, sup
ported and managed by Afiico-Americans, and
served by one of their own race. There are about
500 of them, who are free, in Lexington, — a large
proportion, out of a population amounting, in
1830, to 6026, They had just established a school
for their children ; of whom there were thirty-two
under instruction. They were under the care of a
white man, from the State of Tennessee, who has
devoted what little remains of life, (for he is now
an old man,) to the improvement of those whom
the pride of his countrymeii has abandoned to
neglect and opprobrium. He is, perhaps, the only
white man in the town, if not in the State, who is
willing, not only to give his time and toU for the

348 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXII.
slight remuneration that the objects of his kindness
can afford, but to treat them as brethren, and as
men possessing the same rights, and entitled to the
same respect, as himself.
He told me the people of Tennessee were much
more kind to their slaves than the Kentuckians, —
while the latter are superior, in this respect, to
the Virginians. Had he beeH a Kentackian, be
would, perhaps, have reversed the order of their
demerits, I sat for some time talking with him
and the preacher, while the wife of the person with
whom he lodged, a well-diessed, pleasing woman,
was attending to a sick boy. The sitting-room was
well furnished, and might have vied with our neat
est cottages in cleanliness and comfort, I had been
struck with the decent and even elegant appearance
of the place as I passed, and longed to become
acquainted with its sable inmates, before I fell
in with their associate. The free men meet with
a certain degree of respect, if they conduct them
selves well, and though not so secure against
insult as they would be in Europe, are far bet
ter teeated at Lexington, than they would be at
PhUadelphia or New York. I believe it will be
found that, with some exceptions, the slaves in the
South have less reason to complain in the cities
and towns, than in the country districts ; while the
reverse is the case with the free blacks in the North.
I had taken my place by the stage, and had paid

CHAP. XXII.J SYSTEM OF CULTIVATION. 349
my fare for Cincinnati, when I was advised to
change my route, and visit Frankfort and Loids-
viUe. On applying at the office, the money was
immediately returned, though no sort of connexion
existed between the proprietors of the one line of
road, and those of the other. I found everywhere
a ready wish at the coach-offices to accommodate
teaveUers. The cholera, on its visit to Lexington,
swept off between five and six hundred of its in
habitants. Many of them were victims of the ex
traordinary panic it created ; having ^ven tiieni-
selves up to despair, on the first attack. The town,
as the disease spread, was almost entirely deserted.
Large doses of calomel were administered to the
patients. The consumption of brandy was very
great as a preventive, and drunkenness was often
the consequence.
The ' hiring and the breeding system prevaU in
this part of Kentucky ; but the latter is rather aux-
ihary to the former, than the consequence and cause
of exportation ; the home demand being nearly ade
quate to the supply. The smaU farmers, as in Vir
ginia, are gradually leaving the State, while pastur
age is extending its limits. The surplus labor is
chiefly absorbed by the rope and bagging factories,
which employ a vast number of slaves. It is gene
raUy as a punishment for crime, or idleness, that
transportation to the South is resorted to : — another
proof of those horrors and hardships, the " bare

350 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [cHAP, XXII,
imagination" of which often leads to the sacrifice
of the teaders by the hands of the " droves," Both
the species of traffic, however, and the condition of
its victim, will be affected by a change of circum
stances; and an exhausted soil, or a reduction of
profits, wiU place the humanity of the Kentucky
master in painful collision with his interest. It may
be expected that all the slave States will ran a simi
lar career ; and share the crisis as they have shared
the crime. There is but one altemative before
them. They must choose between coercion and
concession, — they must suffer with Hayti, or be
safe with Antigua ; for it may be proved, almost to
mathematical demonsteation, that the self-love of
man, if unchecked, leads inevitably to self-destrac-
tion : and that no society, whether its principles be
" competitive" with Pope*, or " co-operative" with
Owen, can be permanently prosperous, where the
head that speculates is to have all the profits, and
the hand that works none of the wages of the in
dustry that supports it.
What is the state of morals among the " lords of
the soil," may be seen by the number of mulattoes
upon it. The "history" of the planters may be
read " in a nation's eyes," A great change in the
policy of this State may be expected to take place
in the course of a few years. The spirit of liberty
has been for some time at work, and has recentiy re-
* " Self-love and social are the same,"— Essay on Man.

CHAP, XXII,] FREE LABOR. 351
ceived an exteaordinary impulse from the conver
sion to its doctrines of a person, distinguished by
literary attainments and high moral worth. Some
letters written by Mr. Bimey, formerly of Alabama,
in favor of emancipation, and explaining his reasons
for seceding from the colonization society, in which
he had, officially, taken an active part, have attracted
public attention to this important subject, and cre
ated a thirst for information and discussion, unex
ampled in its intensity and extension. Upwards of
sixty thousand copies of his work have been pub
lished ; and the example he has set of freeing his
slaves, (combined with his accurate knowledge of the
system, and the pure spirit of religious duty, with
which he is known to be animated,) has given them a
circulation, and an interest, that even the polished
style, and sound logic of its author would hardly
have produced. The work to be done requires a
master-mind. There are many prejudices to be
overcome, and faUacies to be exposed. Not the least
prevalent of these is the assertion that emancipation
would be ruin both to slave and master ; and that
freedom and idleness are convertible tei-ms. It is
only, however, when labor is dear, that slavery can
exist, ¦ The very circumstance which makes its con
tinuance profitable, takes away the danger of its
abolition. What is valuable to the thief, must be
doubly valuable to the rightful owner ; and the ob
stinacy with which it is "kept back" enhances the

352 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXII.
wish, as much for its employment, as for its recovery.
Widely as their conduct , and its consequences may
differ, both parties are actuated by similar motiveSr
The desire of bettering his condition wiU lead the
one to seU his physical powers, as it has led the
other to rob him of them ; and the same self-interest,
which induces the planter to refuse high wages to
his laborer will induce the latter to seek them. It
wUl be said, perhaps, that the plantation wiU want
hands, whether they be lazy or industrious ; but this
inconvenience is incidental to aU new coimtries.
Those who wiU not work must starve; and those
who save money, wiU naturally move off, and leave
their example, as well as their place, to others.
Where labor is high-priced, land is generally cheap;
but how is the latter to be obtained, except by tbe
former ? It is by industry alone that the free man
can become a proprietor ; kad they surely should be
the last to grudge him its rewards, who have grown
rich by plundering him of its fruits. Since I left
America, Mr. Birney's father has taken measures for
the ultimate emancipation of his slaves; some of
whom have already obtained their freedom, while
the rest have been placed imder the care of his son,
subject to such regulations as may best meet the
exigencies of the case.
I left Lexington for Frankfort, the seat of go
vemment, on the 28th, In quitting the town,
the stage stopped at one of the best houses to take

CHAP. XXn,] PARENTAL FEARS. 353
up two ladies, who had been " booked" the day h&^
fore. Aftra: some minuted bustie and delay, it was
announced to the agent, who had acconvponied the
coach, that the ladies had dedined going, as there
were two colored men inside. He offered to place
them on the back seats, so that (he other passengers,
who would then take the middle bench, might form
a barrier between them and the hated objects. The
proposal was not accepted ; — the sensitive fair ones
withdrew : and the stage proceeded on its joumey —
tlw agent dedaring that he would not have re
turned the fare had it been paid, and that, in fiiture
he would take care they should be accommodated
in tbe same way the next opportunity that might
present itself. This little incident shews that the
ftee blacks are too numerous and wealthy in Lexing
ton to be slighted by the stage proprietors. At
Boston or New York, they would have been ejected
without notice to quit. One of these men was
mairied and had four children. " If my boys were
like that lad," said he, pointing to the only other
white passengCT but myself, " I should be as happy
as a king." " Is not your wife free then ? " I asked.
" No," was his reply. " I wish she were. We live
together at present, and our children with us — all
bat one, whom her master has taken away." The
fact was, the owner of this poor creature had had
the meanness to saddle her husband with the cost of
maintaining the chUdren, and even aUowed him to

354 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXH.
pay the poll-tax upon them — amounting to about
a dollar and a half a year each, including the State
and the town tax. As the chUdren become valuable,
for work or sale, he will claim them ; and the father
may look in vain for " compensation." No one wiU
pay him for rearing them. I conclude he was a re
spectable man ; as the master of the hotel at Ver
sailles, where we stopped for dinner, took him very
cordially by the hand, and told me afterwards that
he shewed more attention to him than to any other
person of his race, because he was such a worthy
fellow. The country we were passing through was very
rich ; the soU being considered the best in the State.
The prices of provisions, I was informed by several
persons who answered my questions in the most
obliging manner, are very low here. Beef is but
four cents a pound ; mutton rather cheaper ; eggs
average six cents the dozen ; flour two doUars for
100 pounds, and pork two dollars three-fourths per
cwt. The Kentuckians are said to be frascible, but
geperous. The same hand, that unclasps the knife,
is equally prompt to untie the purse-strings'. An
event tha,t took place not long ago at Lexington^
affords a striking illusteation of both these qualities.
One of the students at the coUege there shot another
in open day in revenge for an imaginary aflront.
The deceased had made every concession to the

CHAP, XXII,] PENITENTIARY, 355
murderer, and had imagined that all feeling of re
sentment, or animosity had ceased. He was poor,
yet much beloved by his comrades ; and they gene
rously subscribed a sufficient sum to pay for the ex
penses of the prosecution ; while the other, who was
the spoUed chUd of a wealthy mother, made such
good use of the advantage which money gave him,
that the trial was removed to VersaiUes, where the
pubhc indignation against him was not, so strong,
A man, who had escaped punishment for a similar
crime, was placed on the jury, to starve them into a
verdict of acquittal ; and the murderer is now at
large. Several persons observed to me: "a rich
man may commit any crime against a poor man here
with impunity. Assassination is very uncommon
with those who cannot afford to bribe justice."
Several shocking cases, confirmatory of the remark,
were related to me. Most of them might be teaced
to the unbridled indulgence in every passion, created,
encouraged, and matured by the habit of command
ing where resistance, or reluctance, is unknovra, or
unpardoned, • I was unable to see the penitentiary at Frankfort,
as the agent was out, and I was to leave the town.
early next moming. The system of disciphne, I
was told, was the same with that at Aubum, At
tached to the prison is a store, where the proceeds
of the convict-work are sold — ^^at prices so much be
low the market rate as to have driven away several,

356 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XSU.
tradesruea from the place. The agent,, who has the
contract, had so far put the profit above the expeix«
diture, that he had reaiized, in the course of six or
seven years, a consideraible, fortune ; estimated^ by
one person, at 40,000 dollars, and hy another at
twice that sum. If the conteaot were open, there
VTOuld be no just cause of complaint, and no room
for such exaggeration ; as the ordinary prt^ts of tbe
place would determine tbe benefit. The State House
is a handsome building, with a dome, and a portica
supported by Ionic columns. The staircase, which
leads to the two legislative chambers, is lighted
from above, and is ornamented in a sample- and
chaste style. The one in which the Senate sits, is
a well-lighted and weU-proportioned room, with
chairs and desks for the members, and seats fbr tha
pubUc. The other is larger and has a galleiy above.
There are also two rooms for the courts of justice.
Both at this place and at XiCxington, the mastra
of the hotel went round during the meals, to inquire
if every one at table had what he wanted, and to see
that proper attention was paid to all.
Frankfort, though the capital of the State, con
tained no more than 1682 persons in 1880. It
stands, surrounded- by steep hUl$, on the Kentucky,
which is navigable for steam-boats to the Ohio, dur
ing the winter months, when the water is high
enough to admit them. For exit and enteance it has
the most execrable road to be seen at any town in

CHAP, XXII,] SHELBYVILLE, 357
the Union; and ihe bridge over the river is weU
worthy of the road which leads to it. For the first
fifteen or twenty miles there was littie or no im
provement, fhe turmpike-road, which was in pro
gress, not being practicable tiU within sixteen or
eighteen mUes of Louisville. Part of the way we
ttavelled along a creek, which contained but littie
water, and Eke the piece of fumiture descril^d by
Goldsmith, was " contrived a double debt to pay," —
bsaiig a bed for the river during the -winter, and a
road for the stage during the summer. We met and
passed a great nnmber of wagons, which were going
to LouisviUe with cotton^bagging, made of hemp, to
fee shipped for the southem market, or returning
mih a back oaargo. Twenty or -thirty of these wa
gons go every day, in the summer, alcaag fhe road
fromJ'rankfort, We passed through ttvo or three neat-loo3timg
towns. At one of them (Shdbyville) a great con
course of people had assembied for a " preaching ",
which had already lasted six days. The whole
, ^lace had the appearamee olf a feir. The windows
we*e £lJed with young damsels decked out in their
fcest «tti*e ; and the road leading to the tt»wn, ex
hibited o*thers on hotseback escorted by their cava-
liet^, and hastening to the speotade — ^a spectacle
thefflsdves. The day's j tmtst jiiwved 'a v ery pleasant
one. There were two or three good-tempered n^eny
limaers of the paai^, who were equailly disposed to

358 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXII
take a joke and to make one. The vehicle was new,
and tastefully furnished with green cloth at the top;
and soft red morocco cushions at the sides and the
seats. Our horses were young and high-spirited,
and had they not been checked by a very steady,
experienced hand, would have repeated a trick they
had played a few days before, and carried us off fiUl
gallop into the woods. The last eight miles were per
formed at a trot in forty-eight minutes.
It was the time of the races, and Louisville was
filled with company, I had no great desire to see
the one or mix with the other. One of those tragi
cal events had recently occurred, which disgrace
while they mark the manners of society; — where
worse than feudal vassalage has produced worse than
feudal ferocity ; — where one caste is exempted from
the performance of its duties, and the other excluded
from the enjoyment of its rights. The circumstance
here alluded to, was an assassination committed open
ly before thousands of spectators, — in a petty squab
ble between two young men, one of whom had run the
other through the body with a sword-stick, and
killed him on the spot. No impediment occurred to
the delinquent's escape, and no interruption to the
sports of the day. Lame-footed justice (pede poena
claudo) had not yet set out in search of the fugitive ;
and the sun shone as bright as ever over the gay city
of LouisviUe.
This is a populous and an increasing place, most

CHAP, XXII,^ CAPITAL OFFENCES, 359
of the commerce of the State passing through it.
The inhabitants, whose number was 10,341 at the
last census, are a motley set, made up of French,
and Germans, and Americans, and people from other
counteies, attracted by the advantages its situation
on the Ohio affords, A faU of twenty-two feet here
obstracts the passage of vessels, and a canal of two
mUeshas been made to facUitate the transport of
goods. By an act of the Kentucky legislature, passed two
or three yeai-s ago, " every free person and his abet
tors, who shall maliciously destroy, or attempt to
destroy, any of the locks of the Louisville and Port
land canal, or the bridge over it, or injure or attempt
to injure them, so as to obstruct the use thereof, shall,
upon conviction, be sentenced to imprisonment in
the State-gaol and penitentiary for a period of time'
not less than two, nor more than four years : if any
slave be guilty of such offence, he shaU, upon con
viction, suffer death by hanging," Whether the free
person here spoken of be white or not, it would be
difficult to justify the infliction of such different pu
nishments for the same offence *-
* " A negro, on his own confession, is to be executed at
Cahawha, on the 15th inst,, hired by a white man to assist in a
burglary. His evidence was conclusive as to himself, but not
legal as against his .companion and employer in the act." —
Niles's Register, June 1822. The coolness with which this
atrocity is recorded, shews that there was nothing extraordinary
or worthy, of remark in the occurrence.

TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. JCHAP. XXH.
I was now about to quit the slave-States, where I
bad met wifli many indications of a wish to substi
tute voluntary &r compulsory labor. But almost
everywhere the id^i of aboUtion was connected with
that of expatriation; — a scheme so utterly absurd
and impracticabte, as scarcely to desei-ve exposure
or consideration. At New Orleans, wages me as hi^
as forty, fifty, and even, in some cases, sixty daUars
a month ; owing, in a great measure, to the ri^ in
curred in an unhealthy city. These high rates are
exdnsive of board and lodging. Most of these
places are filted by colored people, who go fhither
from other States in search of employment. If these
men were to emigrate to Ldberia, wages would rise
so high that braaness would be impeded, if not en
tirely destroyed. If the mad scheme (rf sending
*aeai3y three millions of people out of the country,
CTSidd by any possibility be carried into effect, teade
and commerce would be suspended; and ihose who
are now urging their departure would be tibe fiist to
viish them back.
The state of mind which could lead to such fears
and feelings, is the same in slave-holding indivi
duals and slave-holding governments; and it can
excite no surprise that the policy of England towards
her West Indian colonies, Umited and partial as it is
in the eyes of justice, should be viewed with suspi
cion and distrust by those who haive shared the
guilt, yet refiise the repaisction ; and that CoBgress
should have adopted such seixtiaxisaxts as the fr>Ilow-

CHAP, XXII,] AMERICAN FEARS, 361
ing, from the secretary of the American navy, in his
last report: — " It may be well to reflect how justly
it may be apprehended, that new perils wUl, ere
long, await a portion of our teade, and the teanquil-
hty of part of our maritime frontier, from the opera
tions of a new course of legislation by some foreign
powers, concerning an unfortunate portion of their
population ; and against which perils, as against the
ordinary aggressions and piracies in peace, and much
of the depredations which may threaten us in war,
the navy, from the insidar situation of our countey,
as to most of the world, must always be regarded as
our safeguard," " The thief doth fear each bush an officer,"
whUe " all Europe rings from side to side " in honor
of the little we have done for humanity, America, to
shew her " decent respect for the opinions of man
kind", sees danger in granting their " inalienable
rights", and safety in withholding them, — though
there is no more connexion between peace and in
justice, than there is between cowardice and a good
conscience.

VOL. II,

362 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXIIL

CHAPTER XXIII,
Steam-boat on the Ohio. — Madison, — Colony of Free Blacks,— >
Fugitive Slave  New Law against Slave-aUens in the Wesi
Indies. — Indiana saddled with Slave-paupers, — Cincinnati 
Attack on Free Blacks repulsed, — Kidnappers. — Case of Cru-
elty at New Orleans. — Public Meeting, — Lane Seminary.^
Visits to Colored People.
On the 30th I left LouisviUe, at eleven a.m., by the
steam-boat that carries the mail, and arrived at Ma
dison, in Indiana, (fifty miles,) between four and five
in the evening.
While the passengers were at dinner, I was lying
down in one of the berths, as the coolest place I
could find. Here I had an opportunity of observing
what passed, and how. The first act was performed
in dumb show and quick action, as usual, by the
passengers ; the second in the same manner, mutatis
mutandis, by the crew; and the last by the colored
people, who took their time, and cracked their jokes,
whUe they were feasting on the good things. Seeing
they employed the tongue as weU as the teeth, and

CHAP. XXIII,] MADISON, 363
enjoyed a pun as well as the pudding, I asked one
of them, who seemed to be fuU of fun, why the whites
always ate their dinner in solemn silence. They
were all much amused with the question. He re
phed, that he could not teU the reason, " It was all
habit. In Europe people were sociable at meals, and
eating was not merely an affair of .the appetite."
WhUe I was meditating on the various ways in which
gregarious animals take their food, new light seemed
to burst upon my mind, and I discovered the im
passable and eternal barrier that it has pleased Na
ture to place between the two races that inhabit the
new world. AU animals of the " Simla tribe" chat
ter while they eat: — man (par excellence — meliore
luto, — genus American) is a " silent feeder."
The Ohio divides the slave-States from the free-
States : — a distinction without a difference, unless it
be more criminal to steal than to acknowledge a
right of theft ; and less brutal to cry " mad dog!"
than to knock him on the head. The North holds
the muzzle, while the South rivets the chain,
I had intended, when I landed at Madison, to go
on to Indianapolis, and from thence to Cincinnati ;
having been told by one of the passengers in the
boat, that there was a stage next day at ten, a good
hotel, to sleep at, and an excellent road, I found,
however, on inquiry, that the road was the very worst
in the Union ; and that, as for sleeping, I might
sleep, if I could, in the stage, as it travelled all night.
r2

364 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXIII,
The man had purposely deceived me,— why, I know
not. He was standing near me, and smUed when I
was told the truth at the hotel. The disappoint
ment, as is generally the case if we would but " wait
a wee", was productive of good, as it led to an inter
esting adventure. WhUe trying to find some kind
of conveyance, I went into a barber's shop; the mas
ter of which, in the course of conversation, told me
there was a settlement of his people (he was one of
the Pariah caste) within four miles of the place, I
immediately resolved to visit it the foUowing day, A
white neighbor soon after came in, and asked him
whether it was true, that he was about to leave the
town. He replied, that he had no intention of the
kind, though several persons were trying to get his
house. " I am very glad to hear it," said the man :
" I w^as afraid: you were going to quit us," Chan
cellor Walworth would have been utterly astonished
at the white man's want of dignity ; and still more
so if he had staid, after such a shock to his feehngs,
and witnessed the civiUty with which every one who
came into the shop treated the " degraded" barber,
I had, by this time, seen as much of one race as
of the other ; and I declare, as an honest man, that
if there was really any superiority in either, it had
been placed on the wrong side. At Louisville, a
German, whose shop I went into to get some re-
fi-eshment, assured me that the young men in his
establishment, who were all free blacks or mulattoes.

CHAP. XXIII,] BLACK COLONY, 365
were well-behaved and trastworthy ; and that one of
them, with whom I had a good deal of conversation,
was weU informed, and " beloved by all who knew
him," The next day I set off, on foot, for the co
lony — the existence of which I had never before
heard of. On arriving at the first house, which be
longed to a man of the name of Crosby, I was re
ceived with civility, but some Uttle coldness by his
wife, till I informed her that I was an Englishman,
and that I was anxious to see, as weU as to hear,
how the settlers were going on. Her countenance
then brightened up, and she begged me to sit down.
They had come from Kentucky, she said, about
thirteen years before ; and, at first, had been weU
received and well treated ; but for the last three or
four years, they had " met wdth so much scorn and
disdain," that she began to regret she had ever left
her native place, though she had been exposed there
to the risk of losing her children, many in the
neighborhood having been carried off to the south
by kidnappers. She and her husband had lately
been so much pestered and plagued by the whites
with offers, and aU sorts of inducement, to give up
their farm, and go to Liberia, that they were almost
tired out, and the poor man could not sleep of a
night for thinking of his famUy, and what was to
become of them. These importunate soUcitations,
too, were doubly galling, as they came chiefly from
the. teachers of a Sunday school, which had been

366 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXIII.
established by some whites, who thus took advant
age of the opportunity they had, while instracting
the children, to urge upon the parents the necessity
of emigrating to the promised land. I discovered
afterwards, that the whole settlement was in a state
of agitation upon this question. I overheard the
settlers repeating the arguments they had used
against a scheme, which, they said, had nothing to
recommend it, but the hope it held out of lessening
their numbers, and perpetuating their degradation.
A white boy of ten or twelve years of age, had, a
few days before, let out the whole secret, " You
must go to Afiica," said he to Crosby, " there are so
many of you ; and you increase so much faster than
we do, that you'U eat us out soon." The fact is, the
situation these people have chosen is one of the
most eligible in the State. The land is good ; — the
river, where they ship their produce, about a mUe
and a half off; and Madison, from which they are
distant but four miles, wiU, when the projected raU-
road to the meteopolis is completed, be one of the
most thriving towns in the westem country. WhUe
they were clearing their farms of the timber, they
were unmolested ; but now that they have got the
land into a good state of cultivation, and are rising
in the world, the avarice of the white man casts a
greedy eye on their luxuriant crops ; and his pride
is offended at the decent appearance of their sons
and daughters.

CHAP, XXIII,] - BLACK COLONY, 367
The settlers are from Virginia and Kentucky,
Some are liberated slaves — others have bought their
own freedom, and the rest were originally freemen,
Theu-'number amounts to 129, making eleven fami
hes, which are rapidly increasing. The colony ex
tends a mile and a half in length, and half a mile
in breadth. They grow wheat, and rye, and hemp,
and a little tobacco. Crosby has two farms, con
sisting of 137 acres, about one-fourth of which is
under cidtivation. He had raised, the year before,
300 bushels of oats aud 140 of wheat, His'stock
was composed of six milch cows, four horses, and
other animals, making in all fifteen head. There
were eight or ten hives of bees near the house. He
had eight chUdren,
While I was conversing with Mrs. Crosby, a co
lored man rode up, and having dismounted, pre
sented himself at the door. After he had taken the
seat that was offered, he said : — " It is so long since
you saw me, and I am so altered by a swelled face,
and a severe cold, that I am not surprised you do
not know me." , Having kept her curiosity in sus
pense a few minutes, he told her who he was. He
was from her native place. Nothing could exceed
the good woman's delight at the recognition. He
had come into Indiana for the purpose of buying
land, and was anxious to join the colony, if the
whites, who were making every effort to prevent its
extension, would permit him to settie there, I

368 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XXIII,
stepped out, that I might not be a resteaint upon
their conversation. Soon after, the farmer made his
appearance: — a man with an honest open counte
nance, and a manner as devoid of suspicion as of
guile. It was now their dinner hour, and I proposed to
sit down to table with them ; though they told me
they had but scanty fare, as it was a fast day. They
had eggs and bacon, and coffee ; and as they gave
me a hearty welcome, I was as weU pleased as if I
had been sitting with nobles at the most costly ban
quet. As soon as we had partaken of the ,humble repast,
we adjourned to the school-room, a few paces off,
where several of the neighbors had assembled for
religious service. I remained talking with them for
some time on various subjects, and found the elder
part inteUigent and communicative, and the younger
attentive and weU-behaved. One of them, who ap
peared to be " the head of the clan ", I took for a
white man, as it required a more practised eye than
mine to detect the " mark of the beast upon him."
This man, whose name was Fountain Thurman, I
accompanied to his house, which was close by. His
history was somewhat singular, and explained the
process by which a slave obtains his freedom through
the interest of his master. He possessed an in
teUect as shrewd and as sharp as any I ever met
with. His owner, finding him an excellent work-

CHAP. XXIII.] BLACK SETTLERS, 369
man at the different teades he had acquired, as
mason, well-digger, rock-blaster, &c,, agreed to sell
him his freedom by " instalments." It was agreed
he shonld pay him JOO doUars every year for seven
years; and as he could earn 200, in addition to
board and lodging, he not only paid down the pur
chase-money at the stipulated times, but bought a
farm, and, by good management, was enabled to
redeem his wife and his chUdren. He then crossed
the Ohio from Kentucky, and invested what remained
in the eighty acres he had in his possession when I
saw him. His land was in excellent order ; and his
mode of cultivation considered so judicious, that his
white neighbors often employed him to instruct and
assist them. He had a numerous family of children ;
and as of the three who were alone old enough to
be usefiU, two were married, and settied elsewhere,
and the other in bad health, — he had all the work of
the farm to do by himself, and was obliged to decline
many jobs that were offered him.
There is another colony of the same kind at the
distance of two miles. It consists of two famUies,
the heads of which are renters, and have been on
their farms ten or twelve years, — quite sufficient time
for the owner of the soU to ascertain whether it were
worth whUe to let his land to these "idle vagabonds."
I did not visit them ; but I should imagine they are
less likely to be molested than the others : for few
r3

370 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXIII,
men like to be tenants where all wish to be land
owners. My host had been into eleven States, and knew
more about the physical and poUtical condition of
the country than almost any person I met in it.
Our conversation was interrupted by a man whom
I had observed to fix his eyes very steadily on me,
while I was in the school-room. Entering the house
rather abruptly, he whispered something to the
owner, and they went out together immediately. On
his retum, Thurman informed me that he had just
heard, for the first time, that there w"as a female slave
in the viUage, who had escaped from a trader, and
had been concealed there a week, I begged I might
see her; and, as the log-hut where she had found an
asylum was nearly a roile off, I mounted one of the
farmer's horses, and he rode with me on another.
We passed through the woods ; and having crossed
two or three creeks, came to a narrow lane, which
skirted some enclosures, and led to the cottage of
one of the settlers, — an old man, whom I had seen
at the meeting. Within were two other men, and
three or four women,
I soon obtained from the object of my search the.
story of her misfortunes and her escape. She was
by right a free woman ; her parents, who had been
taken from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, having, by
the emancipation law of the former, ceased to be

CHAP. XXIII,] FUGITIVE SLAVE. 371
slaves at the expiration of the apprenticeship it
created. Unfortunately, they were ignorant and
dareless ; and their children, unable to establish their
claims to freedom, were sold into slavery, and dis
persed over the counti-y. My guide, who had de
clared, on our entering the cabin, that he was sure
he had seen her somewhere, asked her what part of
Kentucky she came from. Her answer converted
indistinct recoUection into complete recognition; and
he found, not only that he was weU acquainted with
her friends, but that her master's wife was his master's
niece, — a circumstance which recalled to his mind
the unhappy fate of the latter. She was shot by
her husband, while he was laboring under an iUness
from which he thought he should never recover. She
was a most beautiful woman ; and he destroyed her
lest she shorjd marry again after his death. The
brate was sentenced to be hanged for the murder ;
but he was saved fi-om execution by a mysterious
death. No one could tell what had become of him :
but it was generally believed that what was called
his death was his removal to some other part of the
country. The poor woman's account of herself was, that
she had been earned by land, with forty or fifty
others, about 400 mUes from Lexington : when she
contrived to escape, and got back to her home, in
the depth of winter, and through unheard-of diffi
culties ; having traveUed the whole way on foot, with

372 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XXllI,
the exception of fifty miles, when she rode on horse
back behind a man, who refused to accept any re
muneration. Her husband had given her some
money at parting. By the time she got back, she
had spent what she had received from him, and was
dreadfully frost-bitten. She remained at home five
weeks; when she was retaken; and having been
put into prison for a w^eek, was again carried off
towards the South ; and again, after four days' travel,
eluded the vigUance of her keeper. She wandered
about for three months, suffering from fatigue and
hunger, and worn down by anxiety of mind for her
infant children, whom she had left at the mercy of
a cruel master. She at last found her way to Ma
dison, having just money enough left to pay her fare
by a stage part of the way. It was at the log hut,
where I found her, that the man, L spoke of as
having whispered to my guide, first saw her, on a
visit from Madison, where he lived, to the woman of
the house, who washed for him. He felt so much
interested for her, that he determined to assist her
to the utmost of his power ; and as he had lately
lost his wife, and was dissatisfied with the country,
he intended to accompany her to Canada, and let
her have his wife's papers as a passport. She had
informed her husband of her second flight; and
she was in hopes he would be able to join her
with as many of her children as he could escape
with.

CHAP. XXIII,] PENALTY FOR HUMANITY, 373
It was agreed that a subscription should be raised
among the settlers for the fugitive. Her benevolent
friend told me he had ten doUars of his own for the
purpose, and he hoped to get twenty more fi-om his
acquaiutance. The gratitude of the poor creature
herself for the little assistance I was enabled to
render, and the generous sympathy expressed in her
behalf by all present — less in words than in looks —
cannot be described, " Many a time," she said, as
she grasped my hand, while the tears were rolling
down her cheeks, — " many a time have I prayed to
God that some one would come from England, and
redeem us from our cruel bondage,"
I should observe, that when I was first informed
of the slave's concealment in the settlement, I was
requested to assist her escape, by writing false
papers of freedom for her. Some documents of the
kind, properly drawn up and authenticated, were
put into my hands ; but I refused to copy them, not
only from a repugnance to do what was illegal, but
from a, conviction that they might perhaps lead to
her detection by giving her a false security. No
hint was given to me that she wanted money : nor
have I reason to think that any was expected from
me, I know not how the law stands in Indiana, In
Ohio I should have incurred a penalty of 1000 dol
lars — one half to the informer, and the other half to
the State— for this act of common humanity. In North

374 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXIII,
Carolina I might have been " hanged without bene
fit of clergy," To rescue a fugitive from justice is
punishable, by Act of Congress, with a fine of 500
dollars. Our sympathy with the person robbed is
thus thought to be half what it is with the robber ;
and it is twice as penal at Columbus to succor the
distressed, as it is at Washington to obstruct jus
tice. But what right has an Englishman to throw
blame or odium on any country, while his own has
sent out to her colonies such instructions as I am
about to quote from an Antigua paper ?
The colonial secretary, with the view of promoting
some legislative enactment, suggests to the colonial
governments, that " the intrusion into a British co
lony of foreign fugitive slaves, should be made pu
nishable, as a misdemeanor, by imprisonment with
hard labor. The sympathy we may feel for the indi
vidual ought not to render us insensible to the dan
gerous tendency of his conduct," Who is to know
that they are slaves ? (It is an insult to the English,
to talk now of foreign slaves; — there ought to be no
other any where,) Are men to be convicted on ex-
parte evidence, or upon no evidence, of an imaginary
offence ?
The second suggestion is, that as " the mere pu
nishment of the offence is not all that the case re
quires, provision should also be made for the re
moval of the offender. As an alien, he has no right

CflAP, XXIII.] NEW ALIEN LAW, 375
to' fix his abode in the king's dominions : he must
therefore be warned to depart; and if unable or un
wiUing to obey, he must be forcibly placed on board
the first vessel which may be sailing to any foreign
country where slavery does not prevail," That is,
he is to be refused an asylum, as a convicted felon*,
and transmitted, with successive precedents for cru
elty, " From realm to realm, with cross or crescent crown'd,
Where'er mankind and misery are found,"
till not a spot of earth remains for the sole of his foot
to rest on".
This abominable measure is the legitimate child
of compromise ; and the hand that signed the death-
warrant of the slave-alien is red with the blood of the
apprentice-slave. The secretary observes, (thirdly,) with a spirit of
disinterestedness worthy of the occasion and the ob-
* A boy, fifteen years of age, was condemned to death at
Martinique, in 1815, for this offence; while his mother, who
had concealed and fed him, was compelled to witness his exe
cution. British subjects, it seems, are to escape the punish
ment as well as the guilt ofthe parent. The sentence of the
court was thus worded : — " La Cour condamne Elysee (age de
15 ans) a etre pendu, et etrangle jusqu'ace que mort s'ensuive,
et son corps jete a la voirie, pour avoir voulu ravir a son maitre
le prix de sa valeur ; et Agnes, sa mere, a assister a I'execution,
pour avoir recele son fils, en lui procurant un asile, sous pre-
texte de pitie, et en fournissant a sa nourriture et entretien."

376 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XXIII.
ject, that if we were to transfer these fugitives to any
English possession, we should subject ourselves " to
the imputation of being governed by selfish motives^
and of seeking to recruit the defective population of
our colonies at the expense of our neighbours ; " —
specifying Siena Leone, — the very place yhere we
are doing what he deprecates. The only difference is^
that, in that case, " our neighbors " are on shipboard^
and, in the one supposed, on land. We are to hold,
it seems, as a teeaty-making power, for the " sup
pression of the slave-trade^', that the fountain is pure,
while the waters are polluted ; that slavery is lawful,
and the slave-trade piracy; and that man may have
property in man at Martinique, but none on the At
lantic, The circular virtually recommends that a new class
of offences should be created, distinguishing com
mon aUens from aliens who are slaves de facto or de
jure, and making color a presumption of guilt, as if
it were sought to perpetuate those prejudices which
emancipation would desteoy. " The fugitive", says
the secretary, " may deny that he was a slave," &c,
" To obtain his conviction of an unlawful intrasion,
it would be necessary that this allegation should be
disproved, which (meaning the conviction, not the
allegation) w^ould be impracticable," &c,; stUl " such
persons should, when so suspected, be removed as
aliens," and procure " securities for their departure
and intermediate good conduct ; in defaidt of which

CHAP. XXIII,] DOWNING-STREET HUMANITY, 377
(meaning the securities) they should be committed to
close custody," &c. He had just before stated, that
slaves driven on our shores by accident or shipwreck,
are not to be considered " criminal." " There is no
motive for removing such persons as ahens," Then
there is a- motive for removing others. The same
exemption is to be appUed to the victims of the
slave-teade. " They would have an inesistible claim
to hospitahty." The black has rights in Africa, but
none in Guadaloupe. The secretary says, that where
the fugitives had been held as slaves unlawfidly,
" there would be no crime to punish." The crime
therefore consists, not in coming to the colony, but
in coming as a slave, — a composite species of offence,
never known before, — a cumulative or consteuctive
delinquency, in which are mixed up " conduct" that
is " unlawftil" yet natural in a foreign country, while
it is innocent, yet dangerous, in our ovm ; and " an
act" that aUen laws, the most odious to British ears,
can alone make penal. There are other passages in
this official paper equaUy objectionable. The whole
ends with this significant hint : " You wiU commu
nicate this despatch to the legislature, conveying to
them the desire of his Majesty's Government, that to
whatever extent the law at present there may be in
adequate to give effect to these views, such further
provision may be made by law as may be necessary
for the purpose," — Dated, Downing-strfeet, 4th No
vember, 1834.

378 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXIII,
As the day was closing in, my guide offered to
conduct me to Madison in the same way we had gone
to the log-hut. We set off accordingly in the cool
of the evening, and arrived there before dark. As we
were riding together, he told me he had given three
dollars an acre for the eighty he held, and had lately
been offered 700 dollars for his bargain. A great deal
of hostility had recently been exhibited against him,
for his supposed interference with his neighbors,
whom he was accused of having dissuaded from going
to Liberia : not that his white neighbors wished him
to emigrate, as they found him too useful to be
spared ; but they had threatened him for giving ad
vice to others. Most of them, however, stood in
need of no advice ; for they saw through the whole
plan in a moment, and often put such questions to
the proposers as they were unable to answer.
We met several whites on the road, some of them
very well dressed, as they were retuming from a
prayer-meeting at Madison. Most of them spoke
famUiarly to my companion, or nodded to him as
they passed. He was a short man, with a clear,
piercing eye, and an iron fi-ame. His bearing was
frank and manly, but respectful ; and his whole ap
pearance bespoke great activity and resolution. A
slight touch of the braggart about him was not iU-
suited to the wildness of the scenery and the romantic
nature of the adventure ; and might fairly be set down
to that giddiness of mind which self-elevation from

CHAP. XXIII,] NEW SORT OF PAUPERS, 379
the most abject state is apt to produce in the strong
est heads. I learnt fi-om him that there were kidnap
pers at Madison, whom he knew well by sight. The
vicinity of the slave-States offers such facilities and
inducements to this nefarious calling, that it ought
not to be matter of surprise to find men base and
cruel enough to yield to the temptation, when neither
Boston nor New York is free from them.
The State of Indiana is burthened with a class
of people, who are sent to it from the other side of
the Ohio, in retum for its " comity" in hunting up
their run-aways. When a slave is past work and
good for nothing, his master sets him free, and
gives him a few dollars to take him across the
river. There he soon " comes upon the parish,"
and is buried at the expense of the community.
There were no less than five of this description
within the six weeks that preceded my visit, who
found a grave, as they had received their support,
in the land of thefr adoption. This may seem a
hard case ; yet it is but a part — and a very small
part — of that system by which the whole Union,
directiy or indirectly, in its domestic or its foreign
policy, is rendered subservient to the interest of the
slave-holder. There is too much reason to believe
that this practice is very common. An act was
passed in 1821, by the legislature of Pennsylvania,
to the foUowing effect : —
" Any person or persons who shall, after the pass-

380 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XXIII*
age of this act, bring or cause to be brought into
this commonwealth, any black or colored indentured
servant above the age of twenty-eight years, such
person, his or her heirs, executors, or administeators
and assigns, &c,, shall be liable to the overseers of
the poor of the city, township, &c., to which such
negro. &c,, shaU become chargeable, for such neces
sary expense, with costs of suit thereon, as such
overseers may be put to for the maintenance," &c.
It would be very easy to convert slaves into in
dentured servants. Here we see how the slave's old
age is provided for by his benevolent owner, and
how it is that the black man is " a curse and a
nuisance" to the countey. I have no doubt, from
what I heard at Philadelphia, that a " settlement"
is often gained in this way, while the pauper comes
upon the list of the charitable societies supported
by the colored people.
So much is " help" wanted in this new State,
that it is not an uncommon thing for the settlers to
purchase slaves and convert them into redemption-
ers, — that is, to make it the price of their freedom,
that they should serve their purchasers a certain
number of years. Objections have been made to
this system ; but it seems a fair bargain, if both
parties to it be voluntary agents, and observant of
its conditions. It sometimes happens that the
manumitted leave their employment, before the pe
riod of their apprenticeship has expired. It wUl pro-

CHAP, XXIII,] PORTERS. 381
bably be found, in these cases, that the arrangement
was made without their consent, or enforced in a
manner that was never stipulated. Fraud is more
likely to occur in the other party, who might take
advantage of the disqualifying statute, and seU the
unsuspecting apprentice into second slavery.
On the first of June, I left the pretty town of
Madison, at four o'clock in the aftemoon, and
reached Cincinnati, by a steam-boat, at five the
next moming ; the distance being about 100 miles.
As we entered, there were no less than eleven dou
ble decked steam-boats, and a smaUer one lying
there, on their way up or down the river.
As soon as we had reached the land, a rush of
drajTnen and porters was made upon the passengers
and the luggage, I looked out, as I invariably did
when I wanted a job done, for one of the despised
caste, and, espying three or four standing at a dis
tance, apparently unmoved and uninterested in the
result of the contest, I procured the services of one
of them, who had come in search of employment,
.which respect for decency, or fear of insult, had
restrained him from asking in the crowd of boisterous
intruders. And here I had an opportunity of see
ing how completely the lawyer at Lewisburgh had
been misiaformed, when he said there were no
blacks in Ohio,
Bratal and ungrateful as the whole Union has
shewn itself to these people, who, so far from injur-

382 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XXIII,
ing, have enriched and defended it, not one State
had dared, till lately, to push its hatred so far, as to
expel them by violence. An attempt was, however,
made at Cincinnati, to enforce a statute, that was
passedi in 1807, and had fallen into disuse. Notice
was given by the trustees or overseers, to the co
lored part of the population, that they must find
securities, to the amount of 500 dollars, for their
good behavior, — on the pretence that they might
become a burthen to the city; but in reality, to
gratify the jealousy of the working class, and break
up an asylum, which the fugitives from Kentucky,
amounting to the number of two or three hundred
every year, are sure to find there, on crossing the
river. An answer was made to this communication,
that there was neither possibility of producing the
securities required, nor intention of yielding to the
expulsion threatened ; and preparations were made
to resist, to the last drop of blood, a savage attack
meditated by some of " the baser sort," The at
tack was made by about 300; and the resistance
sustained by somewhat more than a tenth of that
number, who enteenched! themselves in their houses,
and fired on their assaUants from the windows, sal
lying out as the enemy fled, and shooting them
down with a spirit, as much superior to that on the
other side, as the cause they fought in. The result
was, that the whites gave up the contest, after two
or three had been killed, and several wounded;

CHAP, XXIII,] OHIO JUSTICE, 383
-whUe the blacks lost not a man, and received no
wounds of any consequence, but a broken arm,
which an accident, during the pursuit, occasioned
to one of their party. An authentic " retum of the
kiUed and wounded" was never published, for as
several persons engaged in this disgraceful proceed
ing belonged to respectable families, their fate was
concealed by their relatives, and it was agreed, on
all hands, to throw over the circumstances of the
defeat that veil, which could not be found for those
of the attack.
Since that period, the victors have been suffered
to reside in the place unmolested. There are nearly
3000 of them, — a larger proportion, probably, to the
whole pepulation, than their brethren in New York
bear to the inhabitants of that city. Three-fourths
out of the whole number consist of manuinitted slaves
from Virginia and Kentucky; the greaterpa,rt having
purchased their own freedom* Some of them possess
a good deal of property ; and all of them, with such
exceptions as are to be found in the other race, are
industrious in their habits, and respectable in their
conduct. Though they derive no benefit from the
school fund, are excluded from the orphan asylum,
have no pohtical privileges, and cannot, even in this
"free" State, as it is called, give evidence in any
case against a white; yet they are subject to the
same taxes. One of them had his house broken
into, a short time back, and sixteen doUars, besides

384 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP, XXIII,
several articles of clothing, stolen ; yet, though the
thief was taken, and the evidence irresistibly clear
against him, the plea put in by the prisoner's coun
sel, that the testimony , of the complainant could
not be received, because he was a colored man, pre
vailed, and the tiial resulted in an acquittal. About
the same time, one of these unfortunate men was
kiUed by a white man, in the presence of five or six
of his own race ; and the same impediment to justice
protected the murderer fi-om punishment, I had
these anecdotes from a white, who was in court
during the trial which the last case gave rise to,
A few years ago, when more than a thousand
sought an asylum in Canada to escape persecution,
a subscription to assist them, amounting to eight or
nine hundred dollars, was raised among those who
remained. Two-thirds of them are now saving what
littie they can earn by thefr labor, to redeem their
relatives and friends from the bonds they have got
rid of themselves. One of them, who had paid 800
dollars for his own freedom, had been twice to New
Orleans to buy his son, but was unable to raise so
large a sum as 1200 dollars, demanded for him by
,his misteess, " He is now in Canada," he added :
" he was here not three weeks ago, having made his
escape, I have stUl a daughter there, for whom I
feel great anxiety," This man had been employed
as a silversmith ; but the skUl which had enabled
him to obtain his Uberty, was now useless to him.

CHAP, XXIII,] BARBERS' SHOPS, 385
No one would encourage him in his business, or
work with him; and he was compelled to subsist by
the few jobs he could get, now and then, on board
the steam-boats, or in the city, I was astonished at
the acuteness of his perception, and the extent of
his information. His language and address were
both marked by a degree of propriety and conect-
ness that I seldom saw among the whites. I was
observing to one of the latter, that I had not expected
to find, in the houses of a class who are said to be
brutalized and ineclaimable, so much taste exhibited
in the selection of furniture and ornaments. " I
assure you ", he replied, " that the elegancies of life
are so weU imderstood by those who have been in
the way of acquiring or observing them, that it is a
very common thing in the south to consult them on
the disposal of draperies, and the details of the toi
lette," It was hard upon this poor feUow, that his
industry and good conduct could not secure him a
comfortable retreat for his old age in the land of his
birth. He could not remain in Vfrginia when he
became free. He spoke in high terms of Dr, Patter
son, of CharlotteviUe : he was remarkable, he said,
for his humanity and gentleness.
There are many circumstances observable in In
diana and Ohio that assimilate them to the slave
States, The barbers' shops and the coffee-houses
are filled with the same indecent prints and engrav
ings, chiefly of French manufacture, that are to be
VOL, II. s

386 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXIII.
seen stuck on the walls, to gratify the perverted
taste of the Kentuckians and Virginians, The pro
prietors of these houses excused their conformity to
these vicious practices, by declaring that they were
necessary to attract, by amusing customers. The
newspapers, too, are poUuted with advertisements
for runaway slaves, such as the following,
" One hundred doUars reward. Run away from
the subscriber, living in Bracken County, Kentucky,
on the 21st instant, a negro man, named Janet, be
tween thirty-five and forty years of age, five feet nine
or ten inches high, an active-looking fellow, rather
slender made, thin sharp visage for a negro, has a
proud lofty carriage : not very black negro. He had
some years ago a small round scar on each elbow,
also two scars on the right arm above the elbow,
and one on the right hand near the joint of the fore
finger: they may have disappeared at this time.
He is given to intoxication. Had on, when he went
away, an old fur hat, and an old blue coat. He
stabbed a negro man in the neighborhood; and,
feaiing the consequences, absconded. The above
reward wUl be given for fhe apprehension of said
negro, so that I get him, and aU reasonable expenses,
if brought to me, or I wiU give one half of him, if
bro't to me, if taken out of the State of Kentucky.
Any communication addressed to Mr, James Fle
ming, in Augusta, Bracken County, Kentucky, wiU
be promptly attended to, Elizabeth Fee."

CHAP. XXni,] JTJDGE HALL. 387
I never met with any advertisement of this kind
in tiie northem and middle States.
What sort of people inhabit the westem valley,
may be seen from the tone and style of the Western
Monthly Magazine, edited by Judge Hall, — a pub
lication that marks the character of those " it Uves
to please", by its open hostility to emancipation.
The following is an exteact from an article in the
June number, 1834, " The prejudice of color is
not confined to the white man : the negro is equally
jealous of those who differ from him in complexion,
(a singular confession — founded, , however, on what
is not true,) and will never receive the white mis
sionary -with the same confidence which will be re
posed in the civilized black emigrant. The feeUng
is mutual, because it is inherent. Nature herself
has drawn the line, and has created distinctions
between these races, so palpable as to be in
stantly obvious, whenever the respective parties
meet, to more than one of the senses. It is true
that certain young gentlemen in the neighbor
hood of this city, some of whose sayings and do
ings we noticed in our last number, have arrived at
the sage conclusion, that Nature is wrong in that
matter, and have determined, with a gallantry, which
is certainly very becoming in persons of their pro
fession, that the sable part of the softer sex shall
not continue ' to waste their fragrance on the de-
s2

TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [cHAP, XXIIL
sort air,' but shall be elevated to a moral and po
litical equaUty with other yoiing ladies, and — what
wiU be much easier — with their champions. They
have accordingly commenced leaving their cards at
the doors of the daughters of Africa, One of them
was seen a few days ago, if w-e are rightly informed,
politely escorting a black young lady through our
streets, and another has taken his lodgings in a co
lored family,
' Where blest, he wooes some black Aspasia's grace.'
In colder weather we should not be so much sur
prised at these singular freaks of monomania ; but
with the thermometer at eighty-six, we must con
fess that they seem to us to be in wretched bad
taste. We have not heard whether any practical
results have grown out of these party-colored flirta
tions ; whether any matches are talked of, or how
far these young theologians intend to cany their
tender intercourse with ' Afric's sun-brown'd daugh
ters.' We hope their intentions are honorable, &Ci"
I need not quote any further, I would not have
inserted such disgusting language, if I had not wish
ed to shew how little practical liberty there can be
in any country where the most praiseworthy and in
nocent actions are thus distorted, and their authors
pointed out to popular insult and violence. The
persons here aUuded to, are two students of Lane

CHAP, XXIII,] STUDENTS. 389
seminary, near Cincinnati, who had dedicated their
time to the benevolent task of qualifying their fel
low citizens, by instruction in the elementary
branches of science and sound principles of reli
gion, to perform their duties to themselves and their
native country. They had given up their acade
mical studies, and were boarding with some of those
whom they had made such sacrifices to benefit.
" This was the head and front of their offending."
Not contented with this indecent and unprovoked at
tack upon the privacies of domestic life, the judge
stigmatizes the whole body of students, merely be
cause they are aboUtionists, (that is, because they
prefer their own judgement to his,) as " stipend
iaries " who are " subsisting upon public charity,"
and affects to see, in the objects they are aiming at,
an attempt to " unite Church and State "—a bug
bear that has the same sort of influence over the,
American people, that the charge of trying to sepa
rate them once had in England; where the anti-
slavery society was accused of a wish to divide
the throne from the altar. Abolition doctrines must
be of a strange nature, when their tendency is to
create an ecclesiastical establishment in one coun
try, and destroy it in another. As for the other
" parties," I had, before I stumbled upon the West
em Magazine, been several times in the house of one
of them, and the only crimes that he had committed
were— that he could not " change his skin ; " that

390 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP. XXIII,
he had purchased his freedom with his own hands
for 600 dollars ; — ^that he had come to Cincinnati, a
few years before, without a dollar in his pocket, and
was then possessed of property worth 3000 doUars ;
— that he had a well-behaved decent family and a
comfortable horae to shelter them, and that he was
a friend to the distressed and an enemy to injustice,
I had a most convincing proof of that kindness
to the unfortunate which I have mentioned. At
the back of the house, where one of these students
was boarding, were some hot and cold baths, be
longing to the landlord. Here I found an elderly man
at woik, who had been in the town about five weeks.
His head was cut and disfigured by many dreadfiU
wounds, which were hardly yet cicatrized. The sight
of them was very painful. His story was soon re
lated. He had been sent from Virginia to Ohio by
his master, with a written promise that he would
give him bis freedom if he would pay him seventy-
five dollars. With this object in view, he had been
worfeing for fifteen months with his master's son ;
when he was told that he was free by the laws of
the State, To prevent the assertion of his cMm,
his employer hired three ruffians to cany him off to
tbe south — ^the mart of every thing viUainous and
diabolical. When they arrived, in the night time,
at his hut, they found he had armed himself with a
dirk, and was determined upon resistance. After
vainly attempting to seize his person by entering

CHAP. XXIII,] BARBARITIES, - 391
the door, which they had forced, they attacked hin?,
through the window with stones and other missUes,
tUl he was reduced to a state of insensibUity, by
repeated blows on the head. They- then took pos
session of his person, and carried him down the
river in chains. His wife, who was living at Cin
cinnati, heard of his arrival in the port, and with
the assistance of the person on whose premises I
saw him at work, a writ of habeas corpus was ob
tained, and he was rescued. As his evidence would
not be legaUy vaUd, this horrible outeage remains
unpunished. One of his chUdren, a girl of twdve
or thirteen years of age, was so much injui'ed by
the wounds she received while clinging to her father,
with the view of affording protection, or obtaining
mercy, that she has since died. The report of hw
medical attendant was, that her death was ca-used
by the blows inflicted upon he^ in the course of this
barbarous affair. The rest of his children' were still
in bondage, whUe the mother was toiling to purchase
their freedom,
I heard so many g.ccounts here of the frftuds aad
the cruelties exercised upon these unoffending peo^
pie, that I felt sick at heart, and disgusted with hu
man nature. Some of them are too revolting to be
detailed — men seUing their own daughters for the
vilest purposes, and women enriching themselves by
the vices and thefts of their slaves : and these enor
mities are committed by persons who have riot the

392 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXIII.
plea of poverty to urge as an excuse for their guilt.
At New Orleans, the poor creatures are turned out
into the street, of a night, with a basket of friiit or
cakes ; and they must retum with a specified sum,
or they are flogged in a most savage manner. The
whole system of iniquity was explained to me by a
man, who obtained his information from one of its
imfortunate victims. He was remonstrating with
her on the wicked life she led, when she stripped
her gown from her shoulders, and, exhibiting the
bleeding marks of the stripes she had just received
from her misteess, convinced him that vice could
have no better palliation than such a reward for vir
tue. He afterwards watched her himself, and saw
her stealing wood for her owner's kitchen. Her
sister, she told him, often stole poultry or any thing
else she could lay her hands on, and carried the booty
home to her misteess.
A most honible case of barbarity occuned last
year at New Orleans. The Mercantile Advertiser
of that city, after stating that a fire had broken out
in a house, where several slaves were supposed to
be confined in chains, adds : " the crowd rushed in
to their deliverance, and amongst others, Mr. Ca-
nonge, Judge of the criminal court, who demanded
of Mr, and Mrs. Lalaurie where these poor creatures
were kept, which they obstinately refused to dis
close, when Mr, Canonge, with a manly and praise
worthy zeal, rushed into the kitchen, which was on

CHAP, XXIII,] SCENE AT NEW ORLEANS. 393
fire, followed by two or three young men, and
brought forth a negro woman, found there chained.
She was covered with bruises ahd wounds from
severe flogging. All the apartments were then
forced open. In a room on the ground-floor, two
more were found chained, and in a deplorable con
dition. Up stairs, and in the ganet, four more
were found chained ; some so weak as to be unable
to walk, and all covered with wounds and sores.
One, a mulatto boy, declares himself to have been
chained for five months, being fed daily with only
a handful of meal, and receiving every moming the
most crael teeatment." I was informed by persons
who were there at the time, that these poor creatures
were gagged, to prevent their cries; that the per-
peteators of these enoi-mities were never punished ;
and that, when the excitement of the moment was
over, pubUc opinion threw obstacles in the way of
justice, and palliated what had been done. The
judge afterwards published a deposition, that " all
the persons present were apparently indifferent to
the result," and that Mr, Lalaurie said to him " in
an insulting tone," " that there were persons who
would do much better by remaining at home, than
visiting others to dictate to them laws in the quality
of officious friends,"
In one district of Cincinnati, property amounting
in value to 50,000 doUars, and belonging to colored
persons, is taxed for public and local purposes.
S3

394 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXIII.
When a petition was presented lately to the legis
lature, praying that the owners might be admitted
to a share in the benefits of the common school fimd,
the Committee, appointed to inquire into the sub
ject, reported against the claim, " The decision
might,'' they said, " at first view appear unnatural,
and unbecoming a charitable, high-minded, and in
teUigent community;" " but when," they added,
" we take into view that the security of our go
vemment rests and remains in the morahty, virtue,
and wisdom of our free white citizens ; and that by
the education of them, by means of a public fiind,
the govemment is only strengthening her own re
sources, and providing for her own security, honor,
and elevation, the fact wUl be readily yielded, that
the common school fund is not the offspring of the
offices of charity ; but that the principal and inter
est is amply repaid by the exercise of those func
tions which the govemment itself imposes upon aU
her free white citizens," The representatives have
certainly done tlieir duty to their constituents, A
stronger plea for educating all the " free whites"
than this jai-gon offers, could not have been made
out, I attended, while at Cincinnati, a meeting of " The
Colonization Society"; and my patience was put to
the most severe test, in listening to the nasal twai%
and monotonous voice of the speaker, that fell, witii
isochronous pauses, on the ear, like' the lugubrious

CgAP. XXIII.] LIBERIA. 895
sounds sent forth in the silent hour of the night, by
the steam-monster on the Ohio. Mr. Finley (an
agent of the Society) began by eulogizing the
principles and objects of the " benevolent institu
tion," for which he was pleading, and proceeded to
paint, in glowing colors, the flourishing state of the
colony it had planted on the benighted shores of
Africa. The last accounts that had been received of the
settlers, were of the most gratifying description.
They had a prosperous ?.nd increasing trade, were
welcomed, by the vast and numerous tribes in the
interior of that mysterious continent, as benefactors
and bearers of every thing good and holy. Kings
and chieftains from afar, whose names, like the co-
rascations of distant planets, had not yet reached
ns, had come down, by thousands, to see the won
derful strangers ;• — to cast their sceptees at their feet,
and to break the chains of their captives — past, pre
sent, and fiiture : and to implore their Christian bre
thren that they would send schoolmasters and
preachers to insteuct the rising, and civilize the
present, generation. They had embraced the new
comers with transports of joy : — they had shed tears
of gratitude over the hardships they had suffered,
and the benefits they meditated, for the unenUght-
ened descendants of their common ancestors. Al
ready had they built a church and appointed a
pastor from their own community, and with thefr own

396 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXIII.
funds. The whole history of colonization, from the
stretching of the cow-hide to the loves of Pocohon-
tas, presented nothing parallel, analogous, or com
parable, to the success which had attended this first
effort to remove the "colored population" of the
United States to their " native land." As for the
colonists themselves, the whole cunent of their
wicked and disgusting habits had been suddenly
tumed into pious and wholesome channels. The
blasphemer, while inhaling the pure air of Liberiaj
had forgotten his oaths and imprecations : the drank-
ard, in contemplating the beautiful scenery that sur
rounded him, had become temperate and abste
mious : — the waters of the Atlantic had washed away
all the impurities, and removed aU the infirmities, of
his nature; and the vile outcast of America — the
plague and curse of its virtuous and generous citizens
— had cast off the slime of his former iniquities, and
now stands erect and elated, disenthralled of his vices,
and disencumbered of his crimes. The poisonous
exotic of Virginia is now a luxuriant plant in Mon
rovia: — " Sweet to the sense, and pleasing to the eye,"
A sea captain, who had recently visited those
highly-favored shores, had declared in a letter, which
the orator read or quoted to his attentive auditors,
that no place he had ever seen presented such scenes
of contentment, good order, and happiness. No

CHAP, XXIlI.j REGENERATED EMIGRANTS, 897
where was the sabbath observed with a greater de
gree of solemnity and decorum. No where were
the churches so well attended, or the service better
performed. The foreign trade amounted to 150,000
dollars a year, and the soU was capable of producing
sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants.
The harbor was thronged with vessels, entering, un
loading, or departing ; and the docks resounded with
the hammer and the band-saw, A new tenitory
of 400 miles square had been purchased, not for
rum, but a few hard doUars. A new expedition was
about to set out ; and the unmanacled slave would
soon drive his own ploughshare over his own acres.
It was in contemplation to send out none but tem
perance people to this recently acqufred plantation ;
every emigrant was to give a pledge of abstinence
from strong drinks ; and Ohio was to witness the
miraculous influence of honor on those whom an
oath could not bind. The same man, against whose
unhappy propensity to perjury no court of justice
can be secure in Columbus or Cincinnati, will be
strictly observant in Liberia of his promise : and he,
whom neither the frown ofthe sheriff, nor the thun
ders of heaven, can now terrify, is to teemble at a
glass of toddy, and be conscience stricken at the
sight of a punch-bowl. Whatever the pretended
friend of the black man may tell him, the place,
where he is bom, is not his native country: like the
Israelite of old, he is but a sojourner in a strange

398 TOUR IN THE XJNITED STATES. [CHAP, XXIII,
land; and, as a noble minded slave once said to
Mr, Finley, " he is not a Vfrginian but an Africa^."
The orator went on to say that the proceedings of
the society had been opposed, and its motives mis
represented, by certain fanatics and enthusiasts, who
had hired agents to teaverse the country, and per
suade the colored people, that the climate of the
tonid zone was less suited to their constitutions,
and those of their chUdren, than that which they had
been breathing from their birth ; and that the pre
judice, under which they suffered, would be encou
raged by their removal and softened by their remain
ing. Much more was said to the same effect and in
the same spirit. There were some of those present
for whom the scheme of deportation had been
planned, but who had too much sagacity to be de
luded by its fallacies, and too much spirit to accept
its insulting offers. Before these men, as if in de
fiance of decency, and in scom of those rules which
every man who respects himself, and is unwiUing
to be classed with the lowest vulgar, observes, the
" hired agent " of the Colonization Society made
use of the word " nigger," an expression peculiarly
expressive of contempt and abhonence. After as
serting, with unblushing efirontery, that the free
blacks were anxious to emigrate, and that their
sympathies and affections were naturally centered
in the home of their fathers, he concluded by re-

CHAP, XXIII.] VOLUNTARY EXPATRL4TI0N, 399
minding them, that they would there escape from
the tyranny of public opinion, and enjoy those privi
leges which were denied them in America,
I did not stay to hear the next speaker — Dr,
Beecher, the President of Lane Seminary, as my
patience was down, and I had not courage enough
to wind it up again,
I was not sorry, the next day, that I had retired ;
as I found the reverend doctor, to, whom I was intrp-
duced, was so far jaundiced, that he not only admit
ted the existence of the disease, under which he, in
common with his countrymen, labor, but maintained
that it was conducive to health, and in strict accord
ance with the order of nature. He caUed it a pre
judice, yet he considered it a salutary preventive of
that amalgamation, which would confound the two
races and obliterate the teaces of their distinction :—
a result that, in the view of common sense, is neither
to be dreaded nor deprecated, as it would destroy
animosity by desteoying its causes. He did not see
why the Colonization Society shoiUd not call a
man a "free agent" and departing with his "free
consent," to whom no other alternative was offered
but Liberia or the lash. He had the choice of two
evils, and therefore he went with his free consent.
He who gives up his purse, when the urgent " sounds
salute his ear" — "Your money or your life !" gives
up his money with his free consent. It is an abuse
of words to say he is under duress. The only dif-

400 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [cHAP. XXIII.
ference between the two cases is, that the altemative
offered to the traveUer comes from the highwayman
alone; while that offered to the slave comes con
jointly from his owner and the colonizationist. Dr.
Beecher, however, advocated the cause of immediate
emancipation, .His humanity struggled with his
prejudices, and his heart pleaded in favor of liberty,
while his intellect yielded to sophistries which would
rob it of more than half its value.
While the hatred of the pseudo-Christian would
refuse to its victim a few feet of the land he has
watered with his tears, and enriched with the sweat
of his brow, a smaU number of good Samaritans,
with whom " nor numbers nor example" have
" wrought to swerve from truth," are binding up his
sores, and pouring oU into his wounds. While the
judges and clergy of Cincinnati would ship him off
for Africa to teach the arts and sciences to the hea
then, these devoted men would have him leam his
letters at home. With this unequivocal good object
in view, they have, with a zeal beyond their means,
estabUshed three schools ; one of whicfh is under the
care of the only young woman, who could be found,
in the valley of the Mississippi, to undertake an
office, that would be sure to involve her in ridicule
and misrepresentation. This young person, whose
name is Lathrop, has a sister married to an American
missionary in Ceylon, I visited her school two or
three times, and was equaUy pleased and surprised

CHAP, XXIII,] COLORED PUPILS, 401
at the progress her pupils had made in the short
space of a fortnight.
This and the two other schools are chiefly sup
ported by the students at the Lane Seminary. They
are visited every other evening by some of their young
patrons, and are under the immediate superintendence
of two from the body — of whom I have before spoken
as having incurred the displeasure of Judge Hall —
the censor morum and arbiter elegantiarum of Cin
cinnati, They contain about 100 pupils of both
sexes. Those parents who are able to do so, (there
are but thirty,) pay one doUar a quarter for their chU
dren, They were anxious to increase the sum — but
their offer was declined. The expenditure exceeds
the receipts by nearly 200 doUars, When the first
school was opened, 'in the preceding March, there
were but four or five who could read tolerably well.
As it is made a condition of admittance that a child
should know the letters of the alphabet, many were
at first rejected. The poor little things were so much
affected by the disappointment, that they cried bit
terly, and begged to be taken into the school. There
were forty or fifty in this situation. It was intended
to hfre a woman for the purpose of giving them this
shght qualification. So assiduous are the pupils in
learning then- lessons, that one of the instructors,
who had been a teacher in New Jersey and Connec
ticut, assured me, that he had never witnessed such
instances of rapid improvement. Another, who had

402 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXIII,
had a great deal of experience in Massachusetts, de
clared that an equal progress in arithmetic, after two
years' study, had never come under his observation,
' AU those who had attended these schools, as ex
aminers, were ofopinion that the supposed difference
of intellect between the two races seemed to be in
favor of that which is usuaUy classed below the
other. This may be accounted for from the addi
tional stimulus, which the hope of rising from a
galling, because an unmerited, degradation, has
given, and the greater de^ee of docility which Na-
ture or parental care has bestowed. In addition to
these schools, there are between forty and fifty adults
of both sexes, who are instracted in reading and
useful branches of knowledge in the evening. Sin
gular as it may seem, there is not, in a city containing
nearly 30,000 inhabitants, one white who has shewn
any permanent interest in these benevolent efforts to
raise tbe condition of his feUow-citizens,
Judge HaU says, in his Magazine, that when an
Englishman uses the word " singular" or " remark
able", to preface his account of any thing, he has
heard or seen in America, he is sure to teU a he, I
hope most sincerely he will be able to prove that I am
no exception to' the rale ; and it wiU add to the plea
sure I shaU have, if he be himself witness against me.
I shall feel double respect for the bench, when it
supplies both the evidence that convicts, and the
sentence that condemns.

CHAP, XXIII.] MANUAL LABOR SCHOOL, 403
The day after the meeting, I bent my solitary way
towards the enemy's quarters. On enquiring of a
young man the road to Lane Seminary, I found he
was one of the students, and was going thither.
The institution, which is situated about two miles
from the city, and is supported by the Presbyterian
church, has not existed longer than three or four
years. Attached to the house are 1 20 acres of land,
of which three or four are appropriated to the pur
poses of a garden. Of the students, forty belong to
the theological class, and between that number and
fifty to the literary : the latter being, for the most
part, destined to the former. Three hours of each
day are devoted to manual labor, rather as an
auxiUary to health, than from motives of economy;
though the cause of learning has gained as much by
the promotion of the one as by that of tbe other.
Those who are employed in mechanical pursuits,
such as stereotype printing, finishing hats and shoes,
&c., earn, upon an average, two doUars a week;
while the profits of agricultural labor amount ta
about half that sum for the same period. The
benefits and advantages of these separate occupations
are sometimes equalized by an interchange; and both
parties gain by diversifying both exercise of limbs
and acquisition of skill. The superintendant, who
manages the financial affairs of the college, deducts,
from the regular charges for board, the amount of
what each gains j and it is generaUy found, that the

404 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXIII.
proceeds of their industry are sufficient to cover this
part of their expenses.
There was not in the Academy one aboUtionist
twelve months before my visit. There were then
but three who were not so, and they were aU from
the free States, Of the rest, more than one-fifth
consisted of slave-owaiers, and all, without exception,
declared that " ci-uelty was the rule of slavery, and
kindness the exception." One professor only, out
of six, was a decided and open friend to eman
cipation. The students were nearly all men of
mature age, not mere school boys, as Judge Hall had
termed them.
WhUe I was converging with Mr. Weld, and two
or three other students in his room, the former put
into my hands a letter, written by a young man, who
had been brought, when a child, from the coast of
Afiica, and had, by working extra time, and reducing
his hours for sleep almost to the minimum required
for existence, succeeded in teaching himself to read
and write, and in purchasing his freedom. For the
latter he had paid, in the year 1833, the sum of 700
doUars, including what he had given for certain por
tions of time to work on his own account. The
writer, (James Bradley,) about twenty-seven years of
age, was absent. The paper, which was addressed
to Mrs, Child of Boston, contained the nanative of
his sufferings and his exertions. His master bore
the character of a kind and humane man towards

CHAP. XXIII.] NATIVE AFRICAN. 405
his slaves ; yet he was accustomed to knock poor
Bradley about the head so cruelly, that his hfe was
despafred of: and the whole family were equally
bratal ; for while the children were tormenting him
with sticks and pins, the father expressed a wish, in
his presence, that he was dead, as he would never
be good for anything, telling him that "he would as
soon knock him on the head as an opossum." In
his letter to Mrs. ChUd, he assures her that what is
said by travellers and others who have questioned
the slaves upon their wish for freedom, is not to be
reUed on : as it is a matter of policy with them to
affect contentment, and conceal their real sentiments
on the subject, since harsher treatment, and severe
measures to prevent escape, would be the inevitable
result of any anxiety they might shew for liberty,
" How strange is it", — such are his own words, — " that
any body should believe that a human being could
be a slave, and feel contented, I don't believe there
ever was a slave who did not long for liberty,'' The
whole letter bore the stamp of a mind elevated,
candid, and simple, to a degree that art would at
tempt in vain to imitate,
I read another, from a man in Indiana, who had,
in a simUar manner, obtained both his freedom and
a knowledge of writing, liis s.entiments and style
were of a very superior order. There were not more,
in along composition, than two or three trivial enors
of grammar, — one of them so purely idiomatic that I

406 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXIII.
have often observed it in men who profess to be weU-
educated. The hand-writing was singularly clear,
aaid even beautiful.
Two days after this visit, I caUed again at the
Seminary, and was introduced to James Bradley. It
steuck me, vrhen I first saw him, that the color of
his skin was of a deeper jet, than that which pre
vails among the Africo-Americans of equaUy pure
descent *. As he was but two or three years of age
when he was stolen from Africa, he could not re
member anything that had occurred to him in that
countey, except that he was at play in the fields
when he was carried off. The cruelties he had wit
nessed in South Carolina, whither he was taken,
* Many facts might be adduced to render it probable that
the color of the human skin is affected by climate. " India ",
says Bishop Heber, in his 'Narrative of a Journey, &c.', "has
been always, and long before the Europeans came hither, a
favourite theatre for adventurers from Persia, Greece, Tartary,
Turkey and Arabia, all white men, and all, in their turn, pos
sessing themselves of wealth and power. These circumstances
must have greatly contributed to make a fair complexion fashion
able. It is remarkable, however, to observe, how surely ail
these classes of men, in a few generations, even without any
intermarriage with the Hindoos, assume the deep olive tint,
little less dark than that of a negro, which seems natural to the
chmate. The Portuguese natives form unions among them
selves alone; or, if they can, with Europeans, Yet the Por
tuguese have, during a 300 years' residence in India, become
as black as Caffres."

C0AP, XXIII,] eENEROUS STUDENT, 407
codd not, he said, be described. The period he
had purchased, in order to work on his own account,
he passed in the Arkansas, where there are, to the
eternal disgrace of the federal govemment, which
has exclusive jurisdiction over it, a large number of
slaves, exposed to the greatest hardships. When
that territory is to be admitted into the Union, the
same discussion wliich agitated it throughout every
Umb wUl be renewed; and the world wiU again
witaess the disgusting spectacle of a free people
contending against liberty.
Dr. Beecher exhibited great UberaUty towards
James Bradley, who was absent from a tea-party he
gave to the students. He not only expressed great
regret that he had not joined the company, but de
clared, if he had foreseen what had occuned, he
would have gone himself to invite him.
Among the students was a young man, whose sole
patrimony consisted, in addition to 200 dollars, of
two slaves. When convinced of the sin of slavery
by the discussions to which I have before alluded,
he emancipated both; and, when I saw him, was
paying, out of his own pocket, the expenses of
education for one of them, I need not say that I
felt it a much higher honor to take this noble-minded
youth by the hand, than to see Andrew Jackson
snuUng on the toad-eaters and office-hunters about
him. The students from the South related to me anec-

408 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES, [CHAP, XXIII.
dotes, iUustrative of the horrid system under which
they had been brought up. One of them said, he
was sometimes asked by a slave what right his father
had to his services. There is not, indeed, among
those who are thus defrauded of their natural rights,
one Solitary being, that is not fully sensible of the
injustice, and prepared to assert his claims at the
first opportunity that the chance of escape may
offer. Though naturaUy shrewd, and possessing
what few faculties remain to them in a state of ex
treme acuteness, by frequent exercise and the con-
centeation of the mental energies on a few objects,
they are in the constant habit of feigning stupidity,
to disarm suspicion, and escape exaction. The at
tachment they evince to thefr children is very strong;
and they are seen, after the toils of the day, caressing
them on thdr knees, and listening, with parental
fondness, to thefr prattle. Their affections are warm,
and easily gained. The steongest attachment, and
unbounded gratitude, in retum for kind treatmentj
are characteristics of the whole race ; and there are
many who would not hesitate to risk their lives for
those who have endeavored to make them happy.
A student from Alabama, while detaiUng the honors
he had witnessed, mentioned the cfrcumstance of a
woman, in an advanced state of pregnancy, being
flogged by her master till she miscarried. To be
worked to death is no uncommon thing ; and. the
torture is increased by the slowness of the process.

CHAP. XXIII.J OLD MAN. 409
Severity of toil depends on the kind of cultivation ;
increasing in intensity, as the produce is cotton,
rice, or sugar. The last, on account of the night-
work, is so destructive, in its manipulations, of health
and life, that it is a custom with the slaves to pray
for cheap sugar.
Mr. Weld, and two others, one of whom was Mr,
Morgan, whom I before spoke of as the only abo
litionist among the professors, accompanied me on
my retum to the city ; and we spent the evening in
visiting some of the colored people, with one of
whom we drank tea,
I found their houses fui-nisbed in a style of com
fort and elegance much superior to what I had seen
among whites of the same rank. At one of them
was an old man of a very advanced age. From his
own statement, which was confirmed by those pre
sent, he must have been 114 years old. He had
retained his faculties, and was strong enough to walk
without assistance; though his feet were much
crippled by the sufferings he had undergone : having
been compelled, for six years, to drag a weight of
fifty-six pounds, attached by a chain to his legs,
while at work. In addition to this instrument of
wearisome annoyance, he had worn an fron collar
round his neck, fastened to his waist, and projecting
over his head, with a bell suspended from the upper
part. He was a very religious man ; and it was for
preaching to his fellow slaves, that these excruciating
VOL, II. T

'410 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXIII.
tortures were inflicted upon him. When we asked
him if he had ever been flogged, he threw his arms
up wildly, and seemed to labor under an oppressive
load of recollections. This was invariably his cus
tom, when the subject was recalled to his mind.
" Yes ! " he exclaimed, " the cow-hide was my
breakfast, and dinner, and supper," meaning that he
had been exposed to the lash at every meal. When
he had completed a century of suffering and sonow,
he resolutely declared that his task was done, and he
would work no more. His master (the brute's name
was Patterson) then brought him from Virginia to
Ohio, and left him on the banks of the river. In
spite of his years and his infirmities, poor Solomon
Scott managed to find his way to the Cincinnati
hotel; where he was earning his bread, like an honest
man, by cleaning shoes, and making himself useful
about the house ; when his owner, finding he had a
few dollars' worth of labor still left in him, sent his
brother-in-law (a " young gentleman " of the name
of Price) to bring him back. Outraged humanity,
however, at last asserted her rights. The indignation
of the by-standers protected the old man's grey
hairs : and the youth retumed to his employer, to
report the result of his unmanly enand. The bene
volent spirit of his race has now rescued him from
the misery that awaits the colored pauper in this
country, and has smoothed the little that remains of
his path to the grave. The son-in-law of the perso!^

CHAP, XXIII,] PERVERSION OP NATURE, 411
at whose house I saw him, took him from the harpies
who had conteacted to starve him, and he has at last
foimd an asylum in his decUning years. His bene
factor, who had realized five or six thousand dollars
by his industry, to which he was indebted for his
own freedom, had laid out part of his savings in pro
curing that blessing for others. He had redeemed a
young woman from servitude for 300, and a man
for 600 doUars, They were to repay him the money ¦
as soon as they had the ability.
If any thing could add to the guilt of slavei-y it
would be its effect on the female character, " Cor-
ruptio optimi Jit pessima." I asked whether wo
men were not sometimes more cruel than men. The
answer from all present was, that they were much
more so. The gross licentiousness of the men
would account for this deplorable pre-eminence in
guUt : as jealousy would not be contented with the
suffering it inflicted upon its objects, but w^oiUd
teansfer its hatred to all connected with them, and
engender a habit of savage ferocity towards the
whole race. There may be another reason for the
unkindness alluded to — an opposite feeling might
be imputed to bad motives. But this is a part of
the subject too delicate to be touched upon : and
perhaps human nature " is clad in complete steel "
in the slave States ; and Purity herself may tread in
p^fect safety the " infamous hill and perilous skndy
wilds " of the south,
t2

412 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXIII.
As the poor old man expressed himself very in-
distinctiy, the mistress of the house interpreted what
he said. An anecdote she had frequently heard
from him, and which she related to us, while he sat
by enjoying the general laugh it created, shewed'
what cunning and self-possession the slaves have.
She had before told us a very amusing story of a lad
who acted the part of Brutus so successfuUy, that,
while his master set him down for an idiot, he had
completed his preparations for a long joumey, and
started " one fine day", with his saddle-bags weU
filled, and a trusty steed, for Canada; with the route
to which he had made himself thoroughly acquaint
ed, by asking one of the sons to explain the queer
dots and lines on the map. He changed horses re
gularly as he proceeded, whenever he could do so
with safety, and dismissed them, in succession, to
find their way home. In this way he arrived at the
place " where he would be," and is now a good loyal
British subject; while his master is vowing ven
geance, and literally growing twigs, to scourge the
rebeUious boy — when he gets him again into his
power: his forgiveness of a former flight, occasioned
by his brutality, having, he declares, encouraged a
second attempt.
But 1 must not forget " uncle Solomon " and
his joke. He was, one Sunday, at a neighbor's",
house, when the mistress retumed from church, and
not finding the dinner ready, began to scold the

CHAP, XXIII,] CUTTING JOKE, 413
cook in no measured terms, " Madam," said the
woman, " you gave me no orders : and you know
you have always told me to do nothing without
orders," " True," replied the other, " but your con
science might have told you that I was not to be
starved," The cook put on a look of stupidity.
" What ! don't you understand me ? " exclaimed the
virago : " don't you understand what conscience is ?
Solomon ! you know what conscience is } " Solo
mon kept his wisdom to himself, " Why, Solomon !
you must be a fool. Conscience is something
within us that tells -us when we do wrong,"
" Where was your's then,'" said Solomon, " when
you cut that poor woman's back to pieces the
other day?" Before she could recover from her
confusion, Solomon had vanished ; having very
pradently foUowed the example of those wits who
make it a point to quit the company when they"
have said " a good thing."
I need not — I cannot repeat the shocking stories
of wanton unrelenting cruelty I heard during these
visits. This woman, and her brothers and sisters,
had been emancipated by their master, or rather
their father, who had left instractions in his wiU,
that they should be allowed sufficient time to earn
the purchase money. When the proceeds had been
divided among the family, evei-y instrument, that
fraud or force could suggest, was used, to reduce
them again to a state of bondage. Her master's

414 TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. [CHAP. XXlH.
daughter, (her half-sister,) in whose service she lived,
was remarkable for her harshness. She was in the
habit of accusing the female slaves of stealing her
trinkets and sweetmeats, whUe she had herself
secreted the one, and eaten the other ; one day her
sister, who was of a mild and amiable disposition,
discovered one of her silk gowns concealed in the
garden, and upbraided her for her conduct. It was
too late ! a poor girl, who had been falsely accused
of the crime, had lost an eye, which was tom from
the socket, by the flogging her master had inflicted
upon her. This brute of a woman would shut up
the chUdren, in the depth of winter, without fire or
furniture, in a dark room, and when they cried from
the severity of the cold, apply heated frons to their
feet. The house where we drank tea, or rather supped,
for it was a good substantial meal we partook of,
was one of those, which Judge Hall thinks so Ul
fitted to the humble foUower of Him, who taught by
his own example the humiUty he inculcated in his
precepts. The owner had completed the purchase
of his freedom about eight years before, and had
been enabled, by success in teade, to procure that of
his brother and sister. He was a carpenter, and
had five or six hands in his employment : all, but
one, whites — a memorable victory, obtained by
skill and perseverance over obstacles, that, with
most men, would have proved insuperable. His

CHAP. XXIII.J PREJUDICE VINCIBLE. 415
journeymen had been so much jeered at and in
sulted by the members of their fraternity, for work
ing with a " colored boss ", that they were obUged
to quit their lodgings. I saw them at work in his
shop, or I would not have believed that so many
men could have been found in Cincinnati, possessed
of sufficient moral courage, to bear up against the
taunts and upbraidings of their comrades. One of
them had come from New York; and, though he
had, at first, expressed great astonishment, on find
ing a colored man able to work weU, (a pretty good
proof of the repulsive feeling, that separates the in
habitants of the same city into two distinct castes,)
yet he had bound himself to work a year with him,
and renewed the agreement on the expiration of the
term, I should add that nearly all the persons,
who employed this man, were slave-owners, and not
citizens ofthe free State of Ohio, I passed a very
agreeable evening with him and his family ; and I
could not help thinking, that it would be as well if
those who abuse such men as he, in their books and
their speeches, had as much of his acuteness as they
want of his benevolence.

END OF VOL. II,

G. Woodfall, Printer, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London,

1182