"has on hand a likely parcel of Virginia negroes and receives new supplies every fifteen days."

And what are the pecuniary results of this commerce? Mr. Mercer, as we have seen, esti. mated the annual revenue to Virginia from the export of human flesh, at one million and a half of dollars. But this was in 1829, before the trade had reached its present palmy state. "The Virginia Times," in 1836, in an article on the importance of increasing the banking capital of the Commonwealth, estimates the number of slaves exported for sale the "last twelve months," at FORTY THOUSAND; each slave averaging six hundred dollars, and thus yielding a capital of TWENTY-FOUR MILLIONS, of which the Editor thinks, at least thirteen millions might be contributed for banking purposes. *

Let us now visit the "Metropolis of the Nation," the very heart of this mighty commerce in the bodies and souls of men. The District of Columbia, from its relative situation to the breeding States, forms a convenient depôt for the negroes, previous to their exportation; and the non-interference of Congress, gives the traders "under the exclusive jurisdiction" of the Federal Government, as unlimited power over the treatment and

* Niles's Register.

stowage of their human cargoes, as their brethren enjoy, on the coast of Guinea.

Hence large establishments have grown up upon the national domain, provided with prisons for the safe-keeping of the negroes till a full cargo is procured; and should at any time the factory prisons be insufficient, the public ones, erected by Congress, are at the service of the dealers, and the United States Marshal becomes the agent of the slave trader!

It must be admitted, that the following pictures of the scenes witnessed in the District of Columbia, are drawn by impartial hands. So long ago as 1802, the grand jury of Alexandria complaining of the trade, remarked: "These dealers in the persons of our fellow-men, collect within this district from various parts, numbers of these victims of slavery, and lodge them in some place of confinement until they have completed their numbers. They are then turned out into our streets, and exposed to view loaded with chains, as though they had committed some heinous offence against our laws. We consider it as a grievance that citizens from a distant part of the United States, should be permitted to come within the District, and pursue a traffic fraught with so much misery to a class of beings entitled to our protection, by the

laws of justice and humanity; and that the interposition of civil authority cannot be had to prevent parents being wrested from their offspring, and children from their parents, without respect to the ties of nature. We consider these grievances demanding legislative redress:"- that is, redress by Congress.

In 1816, Judge Morell of the Circuit Court of the United States, in his charge to the grand jury of Washington, observed, speaking of the slave trade: "The frequency with which the streets of the city had been crowded with manacled captives, sometimes on the Sabbath, could not fail to shock the feelings of all humane persons."

The same year, JOHN RANDOLPH moved in the House of Representatives for a committee "to inquire into the existence of an inhuman and illegal traffic of slaves carried on, in, and through the District of Columbia, and report whether any or what measures are necessary for putting a stop to the same." The motion was adopted; had it been made twenty years later, it would under the rules of the House, have been laid on the table. "and no further action had thereon."

The Alexandria Gazette of June 22nd, 1827, thus describes the scenes sanctioned by our professedly republican and Christian Legislature :

"Scarcely a week passes without some of these wretched creatures being driven through our streets. After having been confined, and sometimes manacled in a loathsome prison, they are turned out in public view to take their departure for the South. The children and some of the women are generally crowded into a cart or wagon, while others follow on foot, not unfrequently handcuffed and chained together. Here you may behold fathers and brothers leaving behind them the dearest objects of affection, and moving slowly along in the mute agony of despair - there the young mother sobbing over the infant whose innocent smiles seem but to increase her misery. From some you will hear the burst of bitter lamentation, while from others, the loud hysteric laugh breaks forth, denoting still deeper agony.'

In 1828, a petition for the suppression of this trade was presented to Congress, signed by more than one thousand inhabitants of this District.

In 1829, the Grand Jury of Washington made a communication to Congress, in which they say, "Provision ought to be made to prevent purchasers for the purpose of removal and transportation, from making the cities of the District, depôts for the imprisonment of the slaves they collect. The manner in which they are brought and con

fined in these places, and carried through our streets, is necessarily such as to excite the most painful feelings. It is believed that the whole community would be gratified by the interference of Congress for the suppression of these receptacles, and the exclusion of this disgusting traffic from the District."

In 1830, the "Washington Spectator" thus gave vent to its indignation.

"The slave trade in the Capital.- Let it be known to the citizens of America, that at the very time when the procession which contained the President of the United States and his Cabinet was marching in triumph to the Capitol, another kind of procession was marching another way; and that consisted of coloured human beings, hand-cuffed in pairs, and driven along by what had the appearance of a man on horseback! A similar scene was repeated on Saturday last; a drove consisting of males and females, chained in couples, starting from Roly's tavern on foot for Alexandria, where with others they are to embark on board a slave ship in waiting to convey them to the South. Where is the O'Connell in this Republic that will plead for the emancipation of the District of Columbia ?"

The advertisements of the dealers, indicate the