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AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE.

and since the mind of man has become more liberal and enlightened, but more especially, since the passing of the act of the British legislature in relation to the slaves of her West India and other colonies, become a subject of fearful import to the United States; where, to the national disgrace, this inhuman traffic is still carried on, under the direct sanction of the Federal Government--in contravention of the declared principles on which it is based, and in direct violation of the asserted truths, put forth in their memorable declaration of national independence.

By this solemn ordinance, the American people have proclaimed, that "All men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

It is from the spirit and context of this far-famed document-this eloquent asserter of the rights of man, that foreigners are generally apt to form their opinions of the new world, and the extent of liberty secured to its population. But this is a fallacious -an erring standard, one by which the United States should never be judged; for, notwithstanding the loud and ostentatious boast of these modern sticklers for universal freedom-notwithstanding the fulsome and sickly declamation in which the nation has indulged to its full repletion, we nevertheless find, nearly one-sixth of the entire population, or about 2,700,000 fellow beings in a state of the most servile and abject slavery-the bondsmen of a severe

SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

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and merciless set of task-masters, who claim a legal and prescriptive right in the flesh and sinew of their fellow man, and under the sanction of the very instrument that has bound each State in solemn compact with the other, and forms the basis of the Constitution they so much delight to reverence.

This dark spot on the national escutcheon is kept as much as possible out of view of every stranger. It is seldom permitted to form a subject of public discussion, or of social or private conversation; all allusion to it heretofore, being strictly prohibited, by the general assent and influence, it is true, of public opinion in the north, which is tolerably well concentrated on this point, and by more positive legal enactment in the south. The man, who, under the impulse of a kindly nature, possessing more of philanthropy and Christian benevolence, than, perhaps, of discretion or worldly prudence, in his composition, ventures to raise his voice in any mixed society or assemblage of his fellow citizens, in decrying this staple and inhuman traffic, is at once denounced-charged as an incendiary and an enemy to the public weal, and at war with the best interests of the Republic.

Americans sometimes endeavour to remove from their immediate responsibility the odium of abetting slavery, and continuing this degrading practice in the heart and centre of their country, from the fact, of its having been first and early introduced amongst them, whilst a colony of Great Britain; and point out to an act of the Federal Government, so far back as the year 1787, prohibiting slavery in the

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SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

immense territory north-west of the Ohio, where the extensive states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, have since sprung up, as evidencing a desire to check the practice in its incipient and early growth amongst them; as far, at least, as the legislative power of doing so, could accomplish this end. They point out as their excuse, the many difficulties with which the measure is beset-the inviolability with which the original compact, made between the several States of the Confederacy should be preserved, reserving to each separate intersection the sole control and arbitrament of this important question, within its immediate limit. But they take especial care while doing so, to hide or pass by the fact, that it is now some sixty odd years, since the nation has been freed from the control of English legislation, and left to its own guidance in all such matters-that it is only about thirty years, since that the African Slave trade was carried on from the Atlantic ports of the Republic, and that so late as the year 1807, no less than fifty-nine vessels, engaged in this brutalizing traffic, were alone sent out from the little state of Rhode Island; at that time scarcely numbering a population of 70,000 inhabitants :-as well the equally important truth, that in the district of Columbia, under the tutelage and sole controlling power of the General Government of the country, where no compact can possibly restrain or influence its measures, this iniquitous system is not only carried on-preserved in all its most abhorrent features, and in its original freshness and deformity, but that Washington, the

CENTRE MART AT WASHINGTON.

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seat of the Executive Government of the country, is, in fact, the centre-mart of this legalised trade in human flesh, carried on under the very walls of the Capitol, and within the positive view and hearing of the sage legislators of this model Republic, who, notwithstanding, are increasing in their plaudits, and dose you, ad nauseam, with the same eternal theme of the matchless beauty and excellence of their free institutions. "How very frequently have the Members of this House," declares the Hon. Mr. Geddings, Member of Congress for Ohio, in his speech in the Hall of Representatives, February 13th, 1839, "been compelled to turn aside from the path leading to the Capitol, to permit a coffle of slaves, male and female, chained to each other by their necks, to pass on their way to this national slave market." Yet such is the melancholy and uncontroverted truth, while scarcely a week intervenes without a considerable number of these unfortunate beings being dragged from their early homes, and shipped, either from this port (Washington), or the port of Alexandria, in the vicinity, for some one of the southern states; where they are consigned to unremitting labour and an early and premature grave. It is told by Dr. Torry, in his published account of the American Slave trade (page 64), and on the authority of a Member of the House of Representatives (Mr. Aldgate), that during a late session of Congress, as several members were standing in the street near the Capitol, a drove of manacled coloured people were passing by, and

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SUPPORTED BY THE

when just opposite, one of them, elevating his manacles as high as he could reach, commenced singing the favourite national song--" Hail Columbia, Happy land!"-What a commentary does this incident carry with it-what a rebuke from this wretched slave to an entire people; affecting an overweening love of freedom, while steeped in the iniquity of manifold guilt, that in its duplicity and wickedness, vainly essays a parallel with any modern civilised nation of the world.

It is contended that the powers of the Federal Government, being merely secondary instead of original, and possessing an authority only, such as was delegated to it by the several states, under the Articles of Confederation of 1788, and Amended Constitution of 1789, to which it is strictly confined, it is of itself unable to control, or abolish slavery within the general limit of the Republic:-that its hands are tied-its power altogether circumscribed in this respect.

It is very true that slavery was not mentioned in the wording of the original Constitution, in which there was no provision made for its continuance, any more than for its suppression at a future day. The central Government, on this account, has found many apologists for its supineness, and excuses are readily offered for its assumed apathetic indifference -its quiescence on this subject. But it should be judged, not alone by these parchment records, arranged and put together at a time, when the working of this new system of government-its