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Title: Facts for the People of the Free States
Author: Society, Foreign Anti-Slavery, American Tract Society
Language: English
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STATES ***
Liberty Tract. No. 2.
FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE
OF THE
FREE STATES.
[Illustration: PRIVATE SLAVE-PRISON AT WASHINGTON.]
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM HARNED,
FOR THE
AMERICAN AND FOREIGN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY,
22 Spruce Street.
$1 PER 100, $8 PER 1000.
SOUTHERN SCENES IN 1846.
[Illustration]
Murder of Slaves.
The Abbeville (S. C.) Banner states, that two of Gov.
McDuffie's slaves were killed on Friday, Feb. 13th, by two
other slaves, acting in the capacity of _drivers_! They were
killed by what the law terms "moderate correction!"
A Slave Woman attempting Suicide at Baltimore.
In June, 1846, the Baltimore Sun gave an account of a woman who
"jumped out of the window of the place in which her owner had
confined her, and immediately took the nearest route to throw
herself into the water." She was rescued. But, says the Sun,
"Upon being taken upon the deck of the vessel, she begged the
by-standers to let her drown herself, stating, that she would
'sooner be dead, than go back again _to be beaten as she had
been_!'"
A Slave Suicide effected at Richmond, Va.
A correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer, July 25, 1846,
wrote from Richmond, as follows:--"An unpleasant occurrence
took place in this city yesterday. A man, who has a number
of negroes in his employment, was proceeding, for a slight
offence, to punish one of them by whipping, when the poor
wretch, knowing his master's unmerciful nature, implored that
he might be _hung_ at once, instead of whipped. This of course
would not answer, and on tying the negro's hands behind him
in the usual manner, the employer went into another room to
procure a cowhide, when the negro, taking advantage of his
master's absence, rushed from the room, jumped into the river,
and was drowned."
Slave Suicide and Slave Hunting in Louisiana.
In June, 1846, the New Orleans Commercial Times said--"We
learn that a few days since a negro man, belonging to Captain
Newport, of East Baton Rouge, while closely pursued by the dogs
of Mr. Roark, of this Parish, ascended a tree and hung himself.
Mr. Roark, with Captain Newport's son-in-law and overseer,
were in pursuit of a runaway slave. They did not know that
this negro was out, and were surprised upon their arrival, a
few minutes in the rear of the dogs, to find him suspended by
his neck, with his feet dangling only a foot or two from the
earth. Every effort was made to restore animation, but without
success, although on their coming up the body was still warm.
The act was one, it would seem, of resolute predetermination,
as the slave was well provided with cords, which he made use of
to perpetrate his suicidal purpose."
More Murders of Slaves.
The Palmyra (Mo.) Courier, in August, 1846, says:--"We
understand that a gentleman, living in Macon county, while
out hunting with his rifle, last week, came suddenly upon
two fugitive slaves, who gave him battle. He shot one, and
split the other's skull with the barrel of his gun. He then
started for home, but before reaching it he met a man in the
road, who inquired if he had seen or heard of two runaway
negroes--describing them. The gentleman replied, that he had
just killed two, and related the circumstance. On proceeding to
the spot, the stranger identified them as his slaves."
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE.
[Illustration]
A Slave Hunter Killed.
The following is from the Washington (Pa.) Patriot of 1846:
"We learn that a few days ago, a fugitive slave from Maryland
was pursued and overtaken in Somerset county, in this State
by a man named Holland, a wagoner from Ohio, who was tempted
to the task by the reward offered, $150. When they reached
McCarty's tavern the slave attempted to escape, but was caught
by Holland while in the act of climbing a fence. The slave drew
a long knife, which he had concealed about his person, and
plunged it into Holland's heart, causing his death instantly.
He made good his escape, immediately pursued by the people of
the neighborhood, who at nightfall, had surrounded him, but in
the darkness of the night he eluded their vigilance, and is now
beyond their reach."
The Rights of the Fugitive.
The Hon. J. R. Giddings, in a speech in the House of
Representatives, at Washington, Feb. 18, 1846, said--"In regard
to arresting slaves, we [of the free States] owe no duties to
the master; on the contrary, all our sympathies, our feelings,
and our moral duties, beyond what I have stated, are with the
slave. We will neither arrest him for the master, nor will
we assist the master in making such arrest. I am aware that
the third clause of the second section of the first article
of the Constitution was once believed, by some, to impose
upon the people of these free States the duty of arresting
fugitive slaves. But it is now judicially settled that no such
obligation rests upon us. Indeed a proposition to impose upon
us such a duty, at the time of framing the Constitution, was
rejected, without a division, by the Convention. We, therefore,
leave the master to arrest the slave if he can; and we leave
the slave to defend himself against the master if he can. We do
not interfere between them. The slave possesses as perfect a
right to defend his person and his liberty against the master
as any citizen of our State. Our laws protect him against every
other person, except the master or his agent, but they leave
him to protect himself against them. If he, while defending
himself, slays the master, our laws do not interfere to punish
him in any way, further than they would any other person who
should slay a man in actual self-defence. The laws of the slave
State cannot reach him, nor is there any law, of God or man,
that condemns him. On the contrary, our reason, our judgment,
our humanity approves the act; and we admire the courage and
firmness with which he defends the "inalienable rights with
which the God of Nature has endowed him." We regard him as a
hero worthy of imitation; and we place his name in the same
category with that of Madison Washington, who, on board the
Creole, boldly maintained his God-given rights, against those
inhuman pirates who were carrying him and his fellow-servants
to a worse than savage slave-market."
* * * * *
ANOTHER SLAVE SUICIDE. "The slave of a farmer in an adjoining
county, (Jefferson,) having been jumped upon and stamped by his
master, _with spurs on_, so as to cruelly lacerate his face as
well as his body, he was found, next morning, in an adjacent
pond or stream of water--having tied a stone to his own neck,
(as it is said,) and plunged in, for the successful purpose of
drowning himself, under the feelings of desperation caused by
the fiendish treatment of his master!"--_Balt. Sat. Visiter,
Aug., 1846._
PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES.
---+---------------+--------+-----+---------+------+-------+-------------+------
No.| Name. | Native |Born.|Installed|Age at| Years | Died. | Age
| | State. | | into | that |in the | |at his
| | | | office. | time.|office.| |death.
---+---------------+--------+-----+---------+------+-------+-------------+------
1.|Geo. Washington|Virginia|1732 | 1789 | 57 | 8 |Dec. 14, 1799| 68
2.|John Adams |Mass. |1735 | 1796 | 62 | 4 |July 4, 1826| 91
3.|Thos. Jefferson|Virginia|1743 | 1801 | 52 | 8 |July 4, 1826| 83
4.|James Madison |Virginia|1751 | 1809 | 58 | 8 |June 28, 1836| 85
5.|James Monroe |Virginia|1758 | 1817 | 58 | 8 |July 4, 1831| 72
6.|John Q. Adams |Mass. |1767 | 1825 | 58 | 4 | |
7.|Andrew Jackson |Virginia|1767 | 1829 | 62 | 8 |June 8, 1845| 78
8.|M. Van Buren |N. York |1782 | 1837 | 55 | 4 | |
9.|Wm. H. Harrison|Virginia|1773 | 1841 | 68 | -- |April 4, 1841| 68
10.|John Tyler |Virginia|1790 | 1841 | 51 | 4 | |
11.|James K. Polk |N. Car. |1795 | 1845 | 49 | | |
PRESIDENTIAL TESTIMONIES.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.--"I never mean, unless some
particular circumstance should compel me to it, to possess
another slave by purchase: _it being among my first wishes to
see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be
abolished by law_."--_Letter to John F. Mercer._
"There is not a man living, who wishes more sincerely than I
do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it (Slavery);
but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can
be accomplished, and that is, by the legislative authority;
and this, _as far as my suffrage will go, will not be
wanting_."--_Letter to Robert Morris._
JOHN ADAMS.--"Great is truth--great is liberty--great is
humanity; and they must and will prevail."
THOMAS JEFFERSON.--"The rightful _power_ of all legislation is
to declare and enforce _only_ our NATURAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES,
and _take none of them from us_. No man has a natural right
to _commit aggressions on the equal rights of another_, and
this is ALL from which the law ought to _restrain him_. Every
man is under a natural duty of contributing to the necessities
of society, and this is all the law should enforce upon him.
When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have
fulfilled their functions."--"The idea is quite unfounded, that
on entering into society, _we give up any natural right_."
"The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual
exercise of the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting
despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the
other. * * And with what execration should the statesman be
loaded, who, permitting one-half the citizens thus to trample
on the rights of the others, transforms those into despots, and
these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and
the love of country of the other. For, if a slave can have a
country in this world, it must be any other in preference to
that in which he is born to live and labor for another. * * And
can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have
removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the
people, that these liberties are the gift of God; that they are
not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my
country when I reflect that God is just; and that his justice
cannot sleep forever. * * When the measure of the slaves' tears
shall be full; when their tears shall have involved heaven
itself in darkness; doubtless a God of justice will awaken to
their distress, and by diffusing light and liberality among
their oppressors, or, at length by his exterminating thunder,
manifest his attention to things of the world, and that they
are not left to the guidance of blind fatality."--_Notes on
Virginia._
JAMES MADISON.--"It seemed now to be pretty well understood,
that the real difference of interests lay, not between the
large and small, but between the Northern and Southern States.
The institution of slavery, and its consequences, formed the
line of discrimination."--_Speech in the Convention for the
formation of the Federal Constitution._
JAMES MONROE.--"We have found that this evil (slavery)
has preyed upon the very vitals of the Union; and has
been prejudicial to all the States in which it has
existed."--_Speech in the Virginia Convention._
JOHN Q. ADAMS.--"Nay, I may go further, and insist that that
(the slave) representation has ever been, in fact, _the
ruling power of this government._ The history of the Union
has afforded a continual proof that this representation of
property, which they enjoy, has secured to the slaveholding
States the control of the national policy, and, almost without
exception, the possession of the highest executive office of
the Union."--_Speech in Congress, Feb. 4, 1833._
"Fellow citizens: The numbers of freemen constituting your
nation are much greater than those of the slaveholding States,
bond and free. You have at least three-fifths of the whole
population of the Union. Your influence on the legislation and
the administration of the government ought to be in proportion
of three to two. But how stands the fact? * * * By means of the
double representation, the minority command the whole, and a
_knot of slaveholders give the law and prescribe the policy of
the country_."--_Speech at North Bridgewater, Nov. 6, 1844._
JAMES K. POLK.--On the 12th of May, 1841, a resolution was
introduced in Congress, to the effect, "That the President of
the United States be requested to renew, and to prosecute,
from time to time, such negotiations with the several maritime
powers of Europe and America, as he may deem expedient _for
the effectual abolition of the African Slave Trade_, and its
ultimate denunciation as _piracy_ under the law of nations,
by the consent of the civilized world." The vote on this
resolution was 118 ayes and 32 nays; _James K. Polk voting
in the negative_. (Cong. Deb. vol. 7., p. 850). Mr. Polk,
since occupying the presidency, has pardoned two individuals,
convicted in the courts of having been engaged in this trade.
BURDENS OF SLAVERY ON THE FREE.
The Presidency.
Of the fourteen presidential terms, now expired since the
formation of the government, eleven have been filled by
slaveholders, one by a "Northern man with Southern principles,"
and only two by Northern men. The present incumbent is a
slaveholder, sworn fully to do his utmost to uphold, and even
extend the abomination; and most terribly he is fulfilling his
vow, in the surrender of free territory in Oregon, and in a
war of conquest for slavery in Mexico, at a cost of millions
of dollars and thousands of lives. By holding the Presidency,
slavery controls the cabinet, the diplomacy, the army, and the
navy of the country. The power that controls the Presidency
controls the nation. No Northern President has been allowed to
serve more than one term.
The Vice Presidency.
The President exercises much of his power by and with the
Senate. The Vice President is, ex-officio, President of the
Senate. As such, he has the casting vote in all questions
before that body. For the last twenty years, with one
exception, _he has been a slaveholder_. From the adoption of
the Constitution up to June 1842, there were 76 elections, in
the Senate, of President pro. tem. Of these the slave States
had 60 and the free States 16. Most of the 16 were in the
earlier periods of the government. Mr. Southard was elected
in 1842. Previous to that, no Northern man had received
the appointment for _thirty_ years! so careful were the
slaveholders to watch their interests by securing the casting
vote.
Senate.
For a long series of years the Senate has been equally divided
between the free and the slave States. In this condition of
it, it was a great point with the slaveholders to secure the
casting vote of the Vice Presidency, and right carefully have
they done it. This vote is of less importance now, since, by
the admission of Texas, the balance of power is broken up, and
"The Valley of Rascals," on any tie vote, now rules the Senate
and the nation.
Department of State.
The Office of Secretary of State is the most important of any,
perhaps, in the cabinet of the President. As it is the duty
of this officer to direct the correspondence with foreign
courts, instruct our foreign ministers, negotiate treaties,
&c.; his station is second only, in importance, to that of
the Presidency itself. Of the 15, who had filled this office
up to 1845, the slave States have had 10; the free States 5.
The whole number of officers in this department at Washington,
in 1846, is 86. Of these Virginia has 6 and the District of
Columbia 45.
The War Department.
In 1846, there are, at Washington, 98 officers in this
department. Of these, the District of Columbia has 49--exactly
one half, and Virginia and Maryland have the balance.
The free States generally have furnished the seamen and the
soldiers; the men to do the fighting and endure the hard
knocks, _but slavery has taken care to furnish Southern men for
officers_. Thus, of 1054 naval officers, New England has only
172; of the 68 commanders, New England has only 11; of the 328
lieutenants, New England has only 59; of the 562 midshipmen,
New England has only 82; and New England owns nearly half the
tonnage of the country. Of all the officers in the navy in
1844, whether in service or waiting orders, Pennsylvania, with
a free population more than double that of Virginia, had but
177, while Virginia had 224. In 1842, under Mr. Upshur, of 191
naval appointments, the slave States had 117; the free States
only 73.
Post Office.
The greatest opposition to cheap postage is from the South. The
reason is obvious. As multitudes of their Post-routes do not
pay for themselves, they must be paid for, through a system of
high postage, by the North, or be given up. Thus in 1842, the
deficit in the Post Office department from the slave States
was $571,000, while the excess over the expenditures in the
free States was $600,000. This went of course to make up the
deficiency of the South. So that in 1842 alone the North paid
all its own postage, and $571,000 of postage for the South. Nor
was this all. The whole number of miles of mail transportation
for 1842, was 34,835,991, at an expense of $3,087,796. Of
these miles, the mail was carried 20,331,461, at a cost of
$1,508,413, in the free States; and 14,504,530 miles, at a cost
of $1,579,383 in the slave States; that is, it cost $70,970
more to carry the mail in the slave States than in the free,
while it ran 5,826,931 miles less. Under the new system, from
official returns, presenting a comparative view of the postage
received at forty-two offices, North and South, during the
third quarter of 1844 and 1845, it appears that while the
falling off at the offices in the free States has not been one
third, that at the offices in the slave States has been more
than one half.
Civil, Diplomatic and Consular Agencies.
That most of the "spoils" of office, in these departments go to
the slaveholders is well known. The following is the Diplomatic
Agency of 1846.
FULL MINISTERS. To _Great Britain_, Louis McLane; _France_,
William R. King; _Spain_, Romulus M. Saunders; _Turkey_,
Dabney S. Carr; _Mexico_, John Slidell; _Brazil_, Henry A.
Wise;--all from slave States; and _Russia_, R. I. Ingersoll
from Connecticut.
CHARGES. _Austria_, William A. Stiles; _Holland_, Auguste
Davezac; _Belgium_, Thomas G. Glenson; _The two Sicilies_,
William H. Polk; _Sardinia_, Robert Wickliffe; _Portugal_,
Abraham Rencher; _Venezuela_, Benjamin G. Shields; _Buenos
Ayres_, George Harris; _Chili_, William Crump, all from the
slave states, and from the free States only _Denmark_, William
W. Irwin; _Sweden_, H. W. Ellsworth; _Central America_, B. W.
Bidlack; and _Peru_, A. G. Jewett.
Thus, of the seven full ministers six are from the slave
States; and of the thirteen Charges, _nine_ are from the
same; and the four given to Northern men are among the most
insignificant governments in the world. And this favoritism of
the South has been the policy for years. The civil and consular
agencies are dispensed with a like injustice to the free
States. The following, prepared by Prof. Cleveland, gives the
number of persons employed in 1845, in these several agencies,
from a few States, with their salaries, and the number of free
white inhabitants in the same.
Free States. | Free Pop. | Persons | Salaries | Slave States | Free Pop. | Persons | Salaries |
---------------+------------+---------+----------+--------------+-----------+---------+----------+
New York, | 2,378,890 | 37 | $63,250 | Virginia, | 740,968 | 114 | $200,395
Pennsylvania, | 1,676,115 | 90 | 123,790 | Maryland, | 318,204 | 133 | 170,305
Massachusetts, | 729,030 | 43 | 86,215 | Dist. Colum.,| 30,657 | 99 | 77,455
Ohio, | 1,502,122 | 6 | 4,400 | Kentucky, | 590,253 | 7 | 34,150
Presidential Electors.
During the twenty years, ending in 1832, there were six
presidential elections. In these, the South cast 608 electoral
votes, but only 41 of them for Northern candidates. During the
twenty years, ending in 1835, there were five presidential
elections, in which the South cast 515 electoral votes, only 11
of which were for Northern candidates.
In the presidential election of 1844, _thirteen_ free States
had 161 electors, and gave 1,890,884 votes--_one_ elector to
11,739 votes; while _twelve_ slave States had 105 electors and
gave 798,848 votes--_one_ elector to 6,608 votes. In other
terms; _six_ slave State votes counted as much in choice of
President and Vice President as _eleven_ free State votes. In
the same election, Michigan had 5 electors and gave 56,222
votes, or _one_ elector to 11,244 votes; while Louisiana had
6 electors and gave 26,865 votes, or _one_ elector to 4,447
votes--that is, _four_ slaveholding Louisiana votes were equal
to _eleven_ free Michigan votes.
Federal Representation.
The present number of the House of Representatives, including
Texas is 228. Of these 21 represent slave property. In fixing
the ratio of representation, after the last census, the
House adopted that of 50,179. This would have given a House
of 306 members, and the free States a majority of 68. But
a small majority is more easily managed than a large. The
Senate rejected that ratio and sent back the bill with the
ratio of 70,680. This reduced the House to 223 and brought
down the majority of the free States to the more manageable
number of 47. The effect of the odd number, 680, was to
deprive the four great States of the north, Massachusetts,
New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, of one member each, with
no corresponding disadvantage to any slave State. Of this
proceeding, even the correspondent of the New York Herald
said,--"The Senate apportionment has robbed the North of at
least one quarter of its practical influence in the Union, when
regarded in its full extent; and the members of the free States
who voted for it, have thus surrendered the rights of their
constituents, and violated their trusts."
The House of Representatives.
The Speaker of the House has the appointment of all committees,
and of course exerts an immense influence in this, as well as
other ways, in the legislation of the country. During 31 of the
34 years, from 1811 to 1845, the speakers were all slaveholders.
Judiciary.
The Supreme Court of the United States is the court of
highest appeal in the nation. Its decision on all questions
coming before it is final. Of the 30 judges of this court,
the slave States have had 17; the free States 13. The
circuits and salaries are still more unequal and unjust.
Vermont, Connecticut, and New York, with 42 representatives
in Congress, and a free population of over _three millions_,
constitute but one circuit; while Alabama and Louisiana, with
but 11 representatives and a free population of but _half_
a _million_, constitute another. So of other circuits.
Louisiana, with a free population of 183,959, has one judge
at a salary of $3,000; Ohio, with a population of 1,519,461,
more than eight times as great as that of Louisiana, has only
one judge, at a salary of $1,000: that is, with eight times as
many people to do business for, he receives one-third as much
pay. Arkansas, with a free population of 77,639, has one judge
at a salary of $2,000; New Hampshire, with a population of
284,573, has but one judge, at a salary of $1,000. Mississippi,
with a free population of 180,440, has one judge, at a salary
of $2,500; Indiana, with a population of 685,863, has but one
judge, at a salary of $1,000--that is, two-fifths as much pay
for doing more than three times the work!
Surplus Revenue.
The Surplus Revenue, distributed by the Act of 1836, amounted
to 37,468,859 dollars. The slaveholders managed to have it
distributed, not, as it should have been, on the basis of
free population, but that of federal representation. Thereby
the South, with a free population of 3,823,289, received
$16,058,082,85, while the North, with a free population of
7,008,451, received but $21,410,777,12. So that for each
inhabitant of the _free_ North, there was received but $3,06;
while for each _free_ person in the South, there was received
$4,20; or $1,14 more for each free person in the South, than
for each free person in the North. The South, by this operation
alone, received for her slave representation in Congress,
$4,358,549!
Revolutionary War.
In this war,--New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania,--seven
States--furnished 172,436 troops and were paid for services,
$61,971,167. Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Georgia--six States--furnished 59,335
troops, and received $52,438,130. In other terms, the Northern
States furnished about three times the number of troops and
received less than one fifth more pay. In particular States the
inequality was far greater.
The War of 1812.
The Slaveholders envied the commercial prosperity of the
North, and, to crush it, decreed the war of 1812, under the
pretence of defending "free trade and sailor's rights;" and
one hundred and thirty-seven millions of dollars were wasted
in its prosecution, and $200,000,000 more were lost on sea
and land by Northern merchants and farmers, and then, leaving
"free trade and sailor's rights" where they were before, they
made peace, and demanded a National Bank and Protective Tariff.
And in the prosecution of the war, says ALVAN STEWART, Esq,
(Address to Abolitionists Aug. 1846)--"The South placed Major
General Smyth at Buffalo, a slaveholding lawyer of Virginia;
Major General Winder, a slaveholding lawyer of Maryland, at
Forty Mile Creek, on the side of Lake Ontario; Major General
Wilkinson, a Louisiana slaveholder, at the Cedars and Rapids
of the St. Lawrence; and Major General Wade Hampton, the great
sugar boiler of Louisiana, and the largest slaveholder in the
United States, (having over 5000 crushed human beings bowing to
this monster and tyrant), was located at Burlington, Vermont,
four slaveholding Generals with their four armies, were
stretched out on our northern frontier, not to _take_ Canada,
but to prevent its being taken, by the men of New England and
New York, in 1812, '13 and '14; lest we should make some six or
eight free States from Canada, if conquered. This was treason
against Northern interests, blood and honor. This horrid
revelation could have been proved by General John Armstrong,
then Secretary of War, after he and Mr. Madison quarreled."
Florida, Florida War, Removal of the Indians.
While Florida was in possession of Spain it furnished an
asylum for slaves escaping from the contiguous States. It was
therefore bought, at the dictation of the slaveholders, at an
expense of $5,000,000. For the same purpose, and at the same
dictation the late Florida War was waged, and the native Indian
exiled. Of this, the Hon. J. R. GIDDINGS, 1845, said,--"They
(the army) captured 460 negroes, who were adjudged slaves by
staff officers of the army, to whom the duty was assigned, and
who delivered them over to interminable bondage. [See House
Doc. 52, 3d Sess. 27th Congress.] We have no means by which
we can determine the number of lives sacrificed in that war;
but it may be safely asserted, that the capture of each slave
cost the lives of two white men, and at least $80,000 in cash,
the most of which was drawn from the pockets of the people of
the free States. The whole expense of the war is estimated at
$40,000,000. The moral guilt incurred, and the sacrifice of
national character cannot be estimated. Perhaps I ought to
add, on the authority of Gen. Jessup, that bloodhounds were
also purchased to act as auxiliaries to our army, and that
bloodhounds, and soldiers, and officers, marched together under
the star-spangled banner, in pursuit of the panting fugitives
who had fled from Southern oppression. [House Doc. 125, 3d
Sess. 25th Congress.] And blood hounds, and soldiers, and
officers were paid for from the avails of Northern industry;
while our people were not permitted to petition their servants
to be relieved from such degradation." One R. Fitzpatrick was
employed to get the blood hounds. He obtained thirty-three,
and the cost, including expenses of bringing to Florida, was
$5000. The removal of the Indians from the several slave States
was merely to make room for slavery; and it has cost at least
$50,000,000, and of all these millions the North has had to pay
the largest share.
Texas and the Mexican War.
Everybody knows that Texas was annexed and that the war is
waged to extend and strengthen Slavery. The cost of these
measures is yet to be ascertained. There is little doubt that
it will exceed rather than fall short of one hundred millions.
Bank, Tariff, Southern Bankruptcy, &c.
The South originated the Bank and the Tariff. When they ceased
to work for its interests, the South abolished both. The sums
filched from the North by these changes of national polity and
by Southern bankrupts, seem almost incredible. $27,000,000, of
the capital of the United States Bank was sunk at the South.
$500,000,000, it is estimated, would not more than meet the
losses of the North, in sixty years, from Southern bankruptcy.
In fine, there is no end to these burdens--this side-wise
plunder of the free, by those whose entire life is a wholesale
plunder of the Slave. How long will freemen bear it?
"We have a weapon firmer set
And better than the bayonet:--
A weapon that comes down, as still
As snow-flakes fall upon the sod,
But executes a freeman's will
As lightning does the will of God;
And from its force, nor doors nor locks
Can shield you:--tis THE BALLOT-BOX."
SLAVEHOLDING RELIGION.
Maintaining Theological Seminaries.
The following is the conclusion of an advertisement in the
Savannah Republican of March 23, 1845:--
"Also, at the same time and place, the following negro slaves,
to wit: Charles, Peggy, Antonet, Davy, September, Maria, Jenny,
and Isaac, levied as the property of HENRY T. HALL, to satisfy
a mortgage _fi. fa._, issued out of the Supreme Court, in favor
of the _Board of Directors_ of the _Theological Seminary_ of
the SYNOD OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA, vs. said Henry T.
Hall. Conditions, Cash.
C. O'NEAL, Sheriff M. C."
Buying Church Furniture.
A runaway slave, in 1841, assigned the following as his reason
for not communing with the church to which he belonged at
the South. "The church," said he, "had silver furniture for
the administration of the Lord's Supper, to procure which,
they _sold my brother_! and I could not bear the feelings it
produced, to go forward and receive the sacrament from the
vessels which were the purchase of my brother's blood."
Supporting Churches by Slave Jobbing.
The Rev. J. Cable, of Indiana, May 20, 1846, in a letter to the
Mercer Luminary, says:--"I have lived eight years in a slave
State, (Va.)--received my Theological education at the Union
Theological Seminary, near Hampden Sydney College. Those who
know anything about slavery, know the worst kind is jobbing
slavery--that is, the hiring out of slaves from year to year,
while the master is not present to protect them. It is the
interest of the one who hires them, to get the worth of his
money of them, and the loss is the master's if they die. What
shocked me more than anything else, was the church engaged in
this jobbing of slaves. The college church which I attended,
and which was attended by all the students of Hampden Sydney
College and Union Theological Seminary, held slaves enough to
pay their pastor, Mr. Stanton, ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS a year, of
which the church members did not pay a cent (so I understood
it). The slaves, who had been left to the church by some pious
mother in Israel, had increased so as to be a large and still
increasing fund. These were hired out on Christmas day of
each year, the day in which they celebrate the birth of our
blessed Savior, to the highest bidder. These worked hard the
whole year to pay the pastor his $1000 a year, and it was left
to the caprice of their employers whether they ever heard one
sermon for which they toiled hard the whole year to procure.
This was the church in which the professors of the seminary
and the college often officiated. Since the abolitionists have
made so much noise about the connection of the church with
slavery, the Rev. Elisha Balenter informed me the church had
sold this _property_ and put the money in _other stock_. There
were four churches near the college church, that were in the
same situation with this, when I was in that country, that
supported the pastor, in whole or in part, in the same way,
viz: Cumberland church, John Kirkpatrick, pastor; Briny church,
William Plummer, pastor, (since Dr. P. of Richmond;) Buffalo
church, Mr. Cochran, pastor; Pisga church, near the peaks of
Otter, J. Mitchell, pastor."
Selling Ministers as Slaves.
At the great Convention, at Cincinnati, in June 1845, Mr.
Needham of Louisville, Ky., said:--"Sir, in 1844, a Methodist
preacher, with regular license and certificate, was placed in
the Louisville jail, as a slave on sale. He preached in the
jail sermons which would have done credit to any white preacher
of the town. He kept a little memorandum in his pocket, in
which he marked the number of persons hopefully converted under
his preaching. I represented his case to leading Methodists in
Louisville, and showed them a copy of his papers which I had
taken. _Not one of them visited him in his prison._ He said he
forgave those who had imprisoned him and were about to sell
him. He was sold down the river, which was the last time I saw
him."
A Slaveholding D. D. whipping his "b--h" on Sabbath morning
preparatory to preaching.
March 28, 1843, in a public address at Cincinnati, the Rev.
Edward Smith, True Wesleyan, of Pittsburgh, stated that he
had lived in slave states thirty-two years; and, speaking
of a certain D. D. of his acquaintance, he adds:--"He was a
slaveholder, and a severe one, too, and often, with his own
hands, he applied the cowhide to the naked backs of his slaves.
On one occasion, a woman that served in the house, committed,
on Sabbath morning, an offence of too great magnitude to go
unpunished until Monday morning. The Dr. took his woman into
the cellar, and as is usual in such cases, stripped her from
her waist up, and then applied the lash. The woman writhed and
winced under each stroke, and cried, '_Oh Lord!_ OH LORD!!
OH LORD!!!' The Doctor stopped, and his hands fell to his
side as though struck with palsy, gazed on the woman with
astonishment, and thus addressed her, (the congregation must
pardon me for repeating his words), 'Hush, you b--h, will you
take the name of the Lord in vain on the Sabbath day?' When he
had stopped the woman from the gross profanity of crying to God
on the Sabbath day, he finished whipping her, and then went
and essayed to preach that gospel to his congregation, which
proclaims liberty to the captive and the opening of the prison
doors to them who are bound."
The Greatest Impediment.
"We are about to make an announcement," says the True American,
"which must sound very strange to those whose field of
observation is unlike our own: The greatest impediment to the
success of the Anti-Slavery movement in the slave States is,
the opposition to it of those men who profess to have been
commissioned by high Heaven to go abroad and use their efforts
for the mitigation of human misery and the extirpation of human
wrong! This assertion, which appears so monstrous, will not
surprise any one who lives among slaveholders. Our conviction
of its truth has been confirmed by extensive observation."
RELIGIOUS TESTIMONIES.
ARCHBISHOP POTTER. Some of our wise ones will have it that
_doulos_ means slave. Archbishop Potter, than whom no man was
more learned in Grecian antiquities, in his work on them,
published years ago, says, chap. 10, "Slaves, as long as they
were under the government of a master, were called _oiketdi_;
but _after their freedom_ was granted them, they were _douloi_,
not being like the former, a part of their master's estate,
but only obliged to some grateful acknowledgments and small
services, such as were required of the _Metoikoi_, to whom they
were in some few things inferior."
* * * * *
THE YOUNGER EDWARDS, (Pastor of a church in New Haven, and
afterwards President of Union College)--"Every man who cannot
show, that his negro hath by his voluntary conduct, forfeited
his liberty, is obligated _immediately to manumit him_. And to
hold [such an one] in a state of slavery, is to be every day
guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of _man-stealing_--and
fifty years from this time (1791) it will be as _shameful for a
man to hold a negro slave, as to be guilty of common robbery or
theft_."
* * * * *
DR. ADAM CLARKE. "Among Christians slavery is an _enormity_,
and a _crime_ for which _perdition_ has scarcely an adequate
state of punishment."
* * * * *
REV. ALBERT BARNES. "From the whole train of reasoning which
I have pursued, I trust it will not be considered as improper
to regard it as a position clearly demonstrated, that the fair
influence of the Christian religion would everywhere abolish
slavery. Let its principles be acted out; let its maxims
prevail and rule in the hearts of all men, and the system,
in the language of the Princeton Repertory, 'would SPEEDILY
come to an end.' In what way this is to be brought about, and
in what manner the influence of the church may be made to
bear upon it, are points on which there may be differences of
opinion. But there is one method which is obvious, and which,
if everywhere practised, would certainly lead to this result.
It is, _for the Christian church to cease all connection with
slavery_."
* * * * *
REV. S. H. COX, D. D. "The cause of human rights is only the
converse of the cause of human duties; and how pious, or how
orthodox, or how heroic, I should like to know, is he, for
whose higher evangelical refinement of sensibility, this
subject of righteousness is too 'delicate' to be theologized
into our ethics, our creed, or our prayers? Away with such
nauseating and hypocritical affectation, in high places, and
low ones, too."--_Letter to S. J. May, Auburn, May 5, 1835._
ANTI-SLAVERY DEPOSITORY,
PUBLICATION OFFICE,
AND
FREE READING ROOM;
NO. 22 SPRUCE STREET,
(3rd door east of NASSAU STREET,)
NEW YORK.
William Harned, Publishing Agent of the American and Foreign
Anti-Slavery Society, invites the attention of the friends of
the cause in every part of the country, to the new Depository
and Publishing Office, which is centrally and pleasantly
located, and designed to afford every attainable facility for
promoting the great objects of the Society.
THE AMERICAN AND FOREIGN ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, edited by Rev.
A. A. Phelps, is published monthly, at 50 cents per annum, with
a material reduction to those who take several copies.
THE READING ROOM, _free to all_, is furnished with files of all
the Anti-Slavery papers and periodicals published in this country;
together with a good selection of religious, literary, and political
papers. It is also intended to establish an extensive Library of all
works on the subject of Slavery, so far as they can be obtained.
A DEPOSITORY for the sale of Anti-Slavery Publications has been
established; from which it is intended that all the standard works on
Slavery may be obtained, at wholesale and retail. In addition to such
of the publications of the American Anti-Slavery Society as are yet in
print, we have now on sale the following new and popular works, viz.:--
Memoirs and Writings of Charles T. Torrey,
Barnes on American Slavery,
Bacon " " "
Debate between Rice and Blanchard,
Discussion between Wayland and Fuller,
Whittier's Poems, 4th and complete edition,
Home, by Rev, Charles T. Torrey,
Clarke's Liberty Minstrel, last edition,
Narrative of Lewis and Milton Clarke,
" " Frederic Douglass,
The Slave: or, Memoirs of Archy Moore,
Poems, by William H. Burleigh,
Winona, the Brown Maid of the South,
Unconstitutionality of Slavery, by Spooner, both editions,
Sinfulness of Slavery, by James G. Birney,
Slavery, and the Slaveholders' Religion, by Brooke,
A Reproof of the American Church,
Condensed Bible Argument, by a Virginian,
Alvan Stewart's Legal Argument,
Address of the Cincinnati Liberty Convention,
An Appeal for the Bondwoman, a Poem by E. Lloyd,
The American Board and Slaveholding, by Rev. W. W. Patton,
German Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1847, &c. &c.
---> Address all orders for the Reporter, Books, &c. postpaid,
to
WILLIAM HARNED, 5 Spruce Street, New York.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Obvious printer's errors corrected, including unambiguous
typos, spellings corrected to match standard spelling at time
of publication, missing but implied quote marks, and the like.
On the final page, a small finger pointing to the right has
been replaced with "--->".
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully
as possible, including non-standard punctuation, inconsistently
hyphenated words, and other inconsistencies.
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