"4. But it will be said, that if a standing army of twenty or thirty thousand Spanish troops can maintain slavery in Cuba, so, also, can a no greater standing American army maintain it there. A several times greater army than this will be required to sustain the attempt to impart to Cuban slavery the absolute character of our slavery. Arouse the hostility of the free blacks, among whom are men of genius and education; combine with them the nearly half million of slaves, the very large majority of whom are from Africa, and are as barbarous, as when they left her shores; and the victory to be achieved by our standing army would be no easy one. A bloody grave for slavery did these classes of men dig in St. Domingo: and a no less bloody one may they dig for slavery in Cuba. Moreover, that grave may be capacious enough for the whole of American slavery. Let our infatuated slave power get Cuba, if it can. I greatly mistake, if when she shall have added these new elements to our population, she does not find, that she has got more than she contracted for. Ere leaving this head, I will say, that, to propose, in the event of the annexation of Cuba, a standing army for the maintenance of her slavery, is sheer nonsense. The days of our slavery, if not, indeed, of our republic will be numbered, whenever we shall adopt the policy of a standing army for upholding slavery.

“5. Havana is Cuba, as emphatically as Paris is

France. Admit

, that quietness—although, by the way, it is an ever fearful and anxious quietness——is maintained there. We should nevertheless, remember, that it is maintained only by means of such a strict and stern police, and such an iron despotism, as would be impossible, amidst the institutions and influence of our republic. Impose only republican restraints upon Havana, and anarchy would quick spread through her, and through the island.

“6. Let it not be said, that, because the slaves of Louisiana and Florida passed quietly into our political jurisdiction, the slaves of Cuba will, also. Not to speak of essential differences in their circumstances, the former slaves were but a handful, compared with the latter.

“I say no more of the annexation of Cuba. Whilst I hope, that it would help work the overthrow of slavery, without violence; I am confident, that it would help work it, in some way."

L ETTER

TO

FREDERICK DOUGLAS S.

[This letter was published by Mr. Douglass in his newspaper.]

PETERBORO, August 28, 1854. FREDERICK DOUGLASS :

My Dear Friend:-I see, in your last paper, your letter to myself. I shall take great pleasure in answering your questions, since you are of the number of those, whose wishes I am especially glad to gratify.

1. As you are aware, I went to Congress with very little hope of the peaceful termination of American slavery. I have returned with less. I still see no evidence, that the North will act effectually for such termination-for I still see no evidence, that it will act honestly for it. It is true, that I learn of anti-Nebraska indignation meetings, all over the North. But this does not greatly encourage me. It is repentance, not indignation, which the North needs to feel, and to

manifest. It becomes not the North to be

angry

with the South about the Nebraska bill, or about any other pro-slavery thing. Her duty is to confess her shame and sorrow, that her political, ecclesiastical, and commercial influence has gone to uphold slavery, and to deceive the but-too-willing-to-be-deceived South into the belief, that slavery is right, or, at least, excusable. Had there been such confession, there would have been no Nebraska bill to get angry about, or to make party capital of. Had there been such confession, the South would have no heart to extend slavery.

All her concern would have been to abolish it.

Now, for the North to be honest in the matter of slavery, is to treat it as they would any other great crime; and, therefore, to deny, that there can be a law for it. It is, in a word, to do unto others, in that matter, as they would have others do unto them, in it. Do the people of the North believe, that they would honor and obey slavery, as law, should it ever lay claim to their own necks? If they do not, then they are dishonest, in acknowledging it to be law, when others are its victims.

Is it said, that the honesty, which I here commend, would exasperate the South? I answer, that it would go far to conquer the South. Let the North say: "We have sinned against our enslaved brother, in acknowledging, that the immeasurable crime against him is capable of the obligations and sacredness of law.

We will do so no more- -whatever Constitutions and Statutes may require of us, and however great the losses we may suffer in our trade, and in our political and religious party connexions." Let the North speak such words of penitence and principle—and the South will listen. When the Northern heart begins to melt, the Southern heart, also, will begin to melt.

It is demonstrations of our honesty, not of our cunning, which are needed to influence and convert the South. The tricks, which Northern Legislatures have resorted to, or threatened to resort to, for the purpose of evading, or nullifying, the fugitive servant clause of the Constitution and the fugitive servant statutes of Congress, can have no tendency to inspire the South either with the fear of us, or the love of us. I need not say it for the ten thousandth time—that my eyes detect no slavery in the Constitution, and that I utterly deny, that the attempt to smuggle slavery into it was, at all, successful. But the great mass of the Northern people widely disagree with me, at this point; and, hence, what is required of them by the spirit of truth and the God of truth is, not to practice indirection and fraud, but frankly to acknowledge, that the South has their bond, and that so wicked is the bond, that conscience constrains them to refuse, at whatever hazard, to fulfil it.

I referred to the fact, that my hope of the bloodless termination of American slavery is less now than it