fugitive slaves are known to have occurred in this generation in Massachusetts; but, except one, their number and their history are uncertain; that one took place in Boston twelve or fifteen years ago; and in that case some charitably disposed persons offered the owner a sum of money which he regarded as less than half the value of the slave, but which he agreed to accept, and the negro was discharged.

"If this be a true account of all that has happened in New England, within the last thirty years, respecting the arrest of fugitive slaves, what is there to justify the passionate appeals, the vehement and empty declamations, the wild and fantastic conduct, of both men and women, which have so long disturbed and so much disgraced the country? What is there especially that should induce public men to break loose from all just restraint, fall themselves into the merest vagaries, and fan, with what they call eloquence, the fires, ever ready to kindle, of popular prejudice and popular excitement? I suspect all this to be the effect of that wandering and vagrant philanthropy which disturbs and annoys all that is present, in time or place, by heating the imagination on subjects distant, remote, and uncertain.

"It is admitted, on all hands, that the necessity for any legal provision for the reclaiming of fugitive slaves is a misfortune and an evil; as it is admitted by nearly all that slavery itself is a misfortune and an evil. And there are States in which the evil attending these reclamations is particularly felt. But where the evil really exists, there is comparatively little complaint, and no excitement.

"Does not every sober-minded and patriotic man see the necessity, and feel the duty, of rebuking that spirit of faction and disunion, that spirit of discord, and of crimination and recrimination, that spirit that loves angry controversy, and loves it, most especially, when evils are imaginary and dangers unreal, which has been so actively employed in doing mischief, and which, it is to be lamented, has received countenance and encouragement in quarters whence better things were looked for?"

It is unreasonable now to attempt an arbitrary reformation. This evil was compromised for by the Constitution; and whether the North like or dislike it, they have agreed to submit to it.

Under this bargain, it is said that the interests of the South

have increased in value to the amount of sixteen hundred millions of dollars in slaves.

There is no interest to this extent in stocks, manufactories, or commerce, or anything else held by the North, the menace of which by the South would not instantly rouse the whole North to arms.

REMEDY.

1st. The Wilmot Proviso, and all similar projects, should be abandoned. They are inexpedient and unnecessary, and will be superseded by events that will do more for the cause of freedom than was ever dreamed of by abolitionists and free soilers.

2d. All petitions, motions, and speeches about slavery in the District of Columbia, except to stop its exposure in chains and at auction, should be stopped; and all attempts to agitate these subjects should be silenced by a resolution of Congress.

3d. In order to establish a uniform rule of action for all the States against fugitive slaves, and to supersede the want of the will or the power of the individual States to carry out this constitutional pledge about fugitive slaves, Congress should pass a law, containing the most explicit and efficient remedy for the capture and return of runaway slaves by the judicial, and, if necessary, the military power of the General Government. Both are constantly used to enforce the collection of duties upon foreign importations for the benefit of all the States; and why not use them for the benefit and protection of the acknowledged and constitutional rights of the individual States?

The owners of fugitive slaves cannot carry the power of their own States into another State. If they are to submit to this wrong, this deliberate breach of the national compact, without indemnity, they might as well surrender any other or all their rights. The refusal to do them justice in this respect is a sufficient moral and legal ground of resistance, as much as were the causes that began the revolt of the old colonies.

CHAPTER XIV.

CITIES.

Extracts-Poverty-Crime-Banks-Corporations-Monopolies - News

papers-Morals-Origin-Draymen-Examples-Prisons-Conspiracies -Luxury-Dress-Chances-Tricks-Hypocrisy-Adventurers-Banks -Courts-Corruption-Arrogance-Gambling-Stock-jobbing - Cases - Dram-shops - Slave-pen - Pillory-Whipping-post - Labor - Husbandry-Cities dangerous-To be watched-Farms-Rural life-Peace -Liberty.

"THE race always deteriorates in cities-distinguished families disappear in a few generations; and but for continual supplies of the elements of the physical, intellectual, and moral character from the country, would soon sink to the lowest effeminacy, and the easy conquest of any savage horde."-Tracts for the People.

"There are now (July, 1849) in Paris 95,179 persons in absolute misery from poverty, and 299,387 receiving relief from the government, making nearly 400,000 persons in Paris in a destitute condition."

ARISTOCRACY OF TRADE-PRONENESS OF TRADESMEN TO DIS

AFFECTION.

"Great capital cities, when rebellion is upon pretence of grievances, must needs be of the rebel party, because the grievances are but taxes, to which citizens, that is, merchants, whose profession is their private gain, are naturally mortal enemies; their only glory being to grow excessively rich by buying and selling.

"B. But they are said to be of all callings the most beneficial to the commonwealth, by setting the poorer sort of people to work.

"A. That is to say, by making poor people sell their labor to them at their own prices. So that poor people, for the most part, might get a better living by working in Bridewell, than by spinning, weaving, and other such labor as they can

do; saving that by working slightly they may help themselves a little, to the disgrace of our manufacture. And as most commonly they are the first encouragers of rebellion, presuming of their strength, so also are they, for the most part, the first to repent, deceived by them that command their strength.”. HOBBES, Behemoth.

Cities are the hotbeds of crime, poverty, physical and moral degeneration; the nurseries of arrogant and brutal aristocracies, where the combined skill of the worst men is concentrated for legalizing plots and schemes for plunder.

It is a sphere where they can, with impunity, form conspiracies, and give each other employment, countenance, and shelter.

And it is a question of much doubt, whether any of the demonstrations peculiar to cities offered results of substantial utility.

Their conventions, banks, trade, and newspapers present gigantic displays of grandeur to the uninitiated beholder; but they are all got up by sinister combinations to dazzle and deceive.

Their convocations, ostensibly benevolent, are generally masks and subterfuges for intrigue and corruption.

Their banks and corporations gilded screens for cunning rogues and reckless knaves.

Their commerce, a pompous system of vulgar jobbing, by sordid and ignorant hucksters.

And their newspapers have become so profligate that no dependence can be placed upon their publications.

Foreign, local, legislative, judicial, and other news is carefully suppressed and maliciously perverted, if sinister motives unite; while ignorance, cowardice, treachery, and brutal violence teem like a smoking pestilence from their degraded columns.

There are a few refreshing exceptions to this just condemnation of the city newspapers; and those not included, with very many country papers, and other respectable periodicals, pour out upon the people floods of living waters from the pure fountains of knowledge and intellect.

In every city there is one or more scurrilous and obscene vehicles, in which the names, families, and pursuits of respectable persons are paragraphed with the most insolent and auda cious familiarity.

Hundreds of ignorant and base-born miscreants, under pre

tence of obtaining useful information, prowl about, spy and pimp for, and catch up trifling incidents, from which to make and publish the most detestable and brutal calumnies.

The toleration given to the press by the law is infamously and boldly prostituted to the vilest purposes of abuse and libel; these scandalous and polluted sheets seldom outlive the brief impulses for existence of their debauched and beggarly authors.

In 1788, Dr. Rush wrote a letter to Mr. Brown, the editor of the Federal Union, giving him directions how to conduct a newspaper in such a manner as to make it innocent, useful, and entertaining, viz. :

"Never suffer your paper to be a vehicle of private scandal or of personal disputes. If the faults of public officers are exposed, let it be done with decency. No man has a right to attack the vices or follies of private citizens in a newspaper. Should you, under a false idea of preserving the liberty of the press, lay open the secrets of families, and thereby wound female honor and delicacy, I hope our legislature will repeal the law that relates to assault and battery, and that the liberty of the bludgeon will be as sacred and universal in Pennsylvania as your liberty of the press.

"Never publish an article in your paper that you would not wish your wife or daughter (if you have any) should read or understand.

"The less you publish about yourself the better. What have your readers to do with the neglects or insults that are offered to you by your fellow-citizens? If a printer offends you, attack him in your paper, because he can defend himself with the same weapons with which you wound him. Туре against type is fair play!" Dr. Rush enlarges upon this, and then says: "If you had been in twenty Bunker's Hill battles, instead of one, and had fought forty duels into the bargain, and were afterwards to revenge an affront upon a man who was not a printer, in a newspaper, I would not believe that you possessed a particle of true courage.

"Let the advancement of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce be the principal objects of your paper. A receipt to destroy the insects that feed upon turnips, or to prevent the rot in sheep, will be more useful, in America, than all the inventions for destroying the human species, which so often fill the columns of European newspapers."