The voice of freedom. [volume], May 11, 1839, Image 1

About The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848

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THE
OF
ALLEN & POLAND, Publishers.
Published under the sanction of the Vermont Anti-Slavery Society.
CHAUNCEY L. KNAPP, Editor.
VOLUME I.
MONTPELIEK, VERMONT, MAY 11, 1839.
NUMtZEK 19.
To the Manufacturers, Mechanics, and Labor
ers of the United States.
Fellow Citizens :
We solicit your attention to. the consideration
a subject, which we believe to be of vital impor-
tance; and one in wllich, we trust, we shall be
able to show, your interest and comfort are deepl
concerned.
That we may enter upon the discussion under
fitandingly, it may not be improper to state, briefly
pome few self-evident truths, assumed by political
economists, ana such as your own reflection w
readily recognize, deducing such conclusions as
we trust will commend themselves to the under
standing of those who ' think' as well as" 'toil
1st. Wealth is said to consist in an abundant
supply pf food, clothing, shelter, and whatever
else contributes to the comfort and enjoyment
life. Money is not wealth, strictly speaking, be
cause it is not adapted to the purposes of food
clotnmg, shelter, or any of those enioyments
is the evidence that the community owes the hold
ers of it. A certain amount of wealth a kind
of admission ticket, if you please, that entitles th
holder to enter upon and enjoy a greater amount
ot wealth, provided the hand ol industry has pro
duced it, tor it there vva3 no lood or clothing, &c
money Could not nrocurfi them. Thfl tnntprinls n
wealth are in the first instance furnished by the be
nevolent hand of Creative Intelligence, these Tire
a fertile soil, luxuriant forests, the infinite variety
of plants and animals, that grow and feed upon
the sunace ol the earth, as well as the exhaustles:
mineral treasures beneath it. These being deve
oped, fashioned and .variously combined by the
hand of man, constitute substantial wealth.
It follows then, that the fanner, mechanic, an
laboring men who take these materials, as the
- r. . i - i i r .i - . 1,
come iroin me nanu 01 me creator mould an
change them into the thousands and tens of thou
sands of different forms, which render them not
only useful but in many cases indispensable t
the existence and happiness of the human race
are its benelactors, its supporters. I hat their pro
lession should not be esteemed the most honorabl
is an essential element in the social system. ' I
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread' is th
indispensable law of man's physical nature, a con
dition of his existence as salutary and beneficial to
his health and happiness, as it is unavoidable.
The man who produces nothing either by men
tal or corporeal labor, essential to his support, re
quires no less than lie who labors, his food, hi
clothing and his shelter ; and though he may by
the aid of fortuitous circumstances, or the exercise
of cunning, of fraud or of force, avail himself of
profusion of wealth seldom enjoyed by the produ
cers ot it ; he is still dependent upon them, not on
ly for the necessaries of life but his luxuries. He
is still but a splendid pauper fed at a separate ta
Lie, prepared by the industrious classes, who clothe
feed and shelter the whole human family.
Society haslet up a false standard of respecta
bility, ' a fine coat and a life of idleness, and we
the-producers ol the wealth, have too much acnui
csced in its unjust decision. Respectability should
consist in a virtuous aud cultivated mind, and skil
ful and industrious hands. Upon our own shoul
ders rest, in a great measure, the responsibility o
naving erected tnis laise standard ; and we are
destined at no very distant day to feel the effects
of its galling yoke, unless wc exercise the powers
vet lelt at our disposal to avert them.
2d. Whatever causes operate to augment the
numbers of the idle, or diminish those ol the in-
dustrious classes, must necessarily increase thei
burdens, and degrade them in their own esti-
malion and that of the world. The means of
mental cultivation must then be sacrificed to
the more pressing demands of their physical na
ture, and the education of their offspring neglect
ed ; until generation after generation, sinks deep-
er and deeper in ignorance and degradation ; and
the squalid wretchedness that presents itself among
the operatives ot many parts ol monarchial JiiU
rope, be released in this country, notwithstanding
all the superior advantages ot which we boast, in
the form of our government.
If the general diffusion of the means of procur
ing the necessaries and comforts of life character
ize a nation as prosperous and happy, and render
it pre-eminent in virtue and intelligence, it be
hoves the friends of man the well-wishers of
the race, to guard with unceasing vigilance the
liberties, rights and interests ol the producing clas
ees.
In an especial manner does it behove those clas
ses themselves, in whose hands are placed the des
tinies of unborn millions, not to abuse the sacred
trust not to slumber at their post, while causes
obvious to their senses, and within their control
are continually at work, sapping the foundations of
their liberty, prosperity and happiness.
To awaken attention to a point of the citadel
now assailed by the enemy, is the object of the
present address.
3d. The successful prosecution of every branch
ot human industry, where the requisite assiduity
and skill are employed, depends solely upon the ex
istmg demand for their respective products. These
being consumable articles, more or less perishable
in the using, are required only in proportion to the
number of persons placed in a condition to procure,
enjoy and consume them.
So true is this in regard to the mechanical
branches, that no man, be he ever so skilful and
industrious, could supply his own wants if no one
needed : or, needing, could not procure the prod
uct of his labor. ' So intimately connected are de
mand and supply, that the latter cannot exist with
out the former. It is the demand or market for a
certain commodity that produces, and continues its
production, and thus enables the producer ol it, by
various exchanges to avail himself of the products
ol others, needful to his com fact. When this de
mand is great, and is caused by increased yet prti-
dent consumption, business is said to be brisk, is
good, the laborer is well rewarded, is prosperous,
unu reuiues me maximum ot enjoyment so far as
it is made to depend upon ' a competency of this
world's goods. He consumes his share, and thus
contributes to the general blessing, .of which he
partakes. ' ' '
Dut what Is our present situation? What our
future prospects ? What is the real condition,
this moment, of a large proportion of the produc
ing classes ? of two and a half millions of our
fellow laborers at the South? are they compensa
ted for their toil ? Do they enjoy the comforts o
life? Are they enabled to consume their just-share
ot wealth, the product of our mint labor ? Ar
they not degraded, and sunk almost below the sym
pathies of their lellow producers in this as
yet
more happy portion of our republic ? Are not ou
interests in some measure identified ? And is
not
the ignorance of the connection existing between
their welfare and our own, implied by our lack
sympathy, itself a fearful harbinger of approac
ing degradation to ourselves ?
In short, what is American slavery ? What are
its eflects upon general industry ? What upon civ-
ll and political liberty ?
These are important enquiries which it is
cumbent upon us to meet, to examine and discuss
lully and fearlessly.
First. The cruelty and oppression of the system
What is the real condition ol the slave as pre
sented in the existing laws of the Southern State
made hereditary and perpetual to the last moment
of his existence, and to all his descendants after
him? His labor is compulsory and uncompensated
no contract is entered into, no wages paid him
His food and his clothing, both as to quantity and
quality, depend entirely on his master s discretion
He is a personal chattel, may be sold at public or
private sale, and separated from his wife and lam
ily for ever can hold no property cannot be
witness against any iree white man in any court
of justice, however atrocious the crimes he may
have committed may be punished himself with
out trial at the master's discretion, whether his
offence be real or imaginary. He is not allowe'
to resist, or defend himself when assaulted, or h
wife, or his daughter, when assailed by brutal vio
lence, under pain of death. He is entirely un
protected in his domestic relations cannot redeem
himself or change his master when cruelly treated
What is a trilling fault in the white man, is con
sidered highly criminal in the slave, and punisha-
ble with death. In short, the whole power of the
laws is exerted to keep him in ignorance and ab
ject dependence. These are a few, and but a few
of the horrid features of slavery, as exhibited by
its suffering victims.
But if we could banish from our bosoms all th
kindlier impulses of humanity, if we could be
come callous to the wrongs the grievous oppres-
sion of the down-trodden slave if we could be
moved by no other motives than those exclusiv
and selfish, still we shall find abundant reason to
regard the institution of the South, as one of the
greatest evils a country can suffer, not only as re-
gards its effects upon general industry, but upon
its moral and political institutions. The graphic
description given by a member of Congress from
Uhio, can never be successfully gainsayed by the
most zealous defenders of the patriarchal institu
tion.
' Cross,' says he, 1 the line that separates the free
Iroin the slave state, or stand upon it and look
across the former, you will see, comparatively all
ue, all happiness, all prosperity, both public and
private; but turn your eyes upon the Jatter and
survey it, every thing material, (except a few ol
the wealthy proprietors) bearing the impress of
poverty and dilapidation ; all look as if-pestilen.ee
and famine had been making their sad innovations,
The anger of God and the vengeance of heaven
seem to rest upon every thing which you can cas
your eyes. Every prospect seems to be withered
and wilted by the frown and disapprobation
avenging justice and violated humanity. In short
almost every institution, every prosperity, public
and private, seems to be sickening and dying from
the corroding etiects ot slavery.'
cut we are not compelled to rely upon the
statements of travellers, or of persons resident in
the free States, for proofs ; they are abundantly
furnished by slaveholders themselves, by states
men and men of influence and observation, who
have grown up in the midst of it.
During the famous debate in the Virginia Leg-
islature, in the winter of 1832, M r. Brodnax made
the following remark :
' That slavery in Virginia is an evil, and a tran
scendant evil, it would be more than idle for any
human being to doubt or deny. It is a mildew
which has blighted every region it has touched
from the creation of the world. Illustrations from
the history of other countries and other times
might be instructive and profitable, had we the
time to review them ; but we have evidence tend
ing to the same conviction, nearer at hand, and ac
cessible to daily observation, in the short histories
of the different States of this Confederacy, which
are impressive in their admonitions and conclusive
n their character.
During the same session, Mr. Faulkner said
' If there be one who concurs with the gentle
man from Brunswick (Mr. Gholson) in the harm
ess character of this institution, let me request
lim to compare the condition of the slaveholding
portion ol this commonwealth, barren, desolate,
seared as it were by the avenging hand of heaven,
with the descriptions which we have of this
same country from those who first broke its virgin
oil.
' To what is this change ascribable ? Alone to
the withering and blasting eflects of slavery. If
this does not satisfy him, let me request him to ex
tend his travels to the INorthern States of this
Union and beg him to contrast the happiness and
contentment which prevails throughout the coun
try. The busy and cheerful sounds of industry,
the rapid and swelling growth of their population,
their means and institutions ot education then-
skill and proficiency in the useful arts their en
terprise and public spirit the monuments of their
commercial and manulacturing industry, and
above all, their devoted attachment to the govern
ment from which they derive their protection ; with
the division, discontent, indolence and poverty of
the Southern country. To what sin is all this as-
cribable ? To that vice in the organization of so
ciety, by which one-half of its inhabitants are ar
rayed in interest and feeling against the other
half to that unforlun'ato state of society in which
freemen regard labor as disgraceful, and slaves
hrmk from it as a burden tyrannically imposed
pon them to that condition of things in which
alf a million of your population can fcolno sym-l
pathy with the society in the prosperity of which
they are forbidden to participate, and no attach
ment to a government at whose hands they re
ceive nothing but injustice.
If this should not be sufficient, and the curious
and incredulous inquirer should suggest that the
contrast which has been adverted to, and is so man
ifest, might be traced to a difference of climate, or
other causes distinct from slavery itself, permit me
to refer him to the two States of Kentucky and
Ohio. No difference of soil no diversity of cli
mate no diversity in the original settlement of
those two States, can account for the remarkable
disproportion in their national advancement. Sep
arated by a river alone, they seem to have been
purposely and providentially designed to exhibit in
their future histories, the difference which neces
sarily results from a country free from, and a coun
try afflicted with, the curse of slavery. 1 he same
may be said of the two States of Missouri and II
linois.
Slavery, it is admitted is an evil it is an in
stitution which presses heavily against the best in
terest of the State. It ba?iishcs free labor. It ex
terminates the mechanic the artizan the manu
facturer. It deprives them of occupation. It de
pnves them of bread. It converts the energy of
a community into indolence its power into imbe
cility its efficiency into weakness. Shall socie
ty suffer, that the slaveholder may continue to ga
ther his vigintial crop of human flesh ? What is
his mere pecuniary claim, compared with the great
interest of the common weal ? Must the country
languish and die that the slaveholder may flourish?
Shall all interests be subservient to one ? All rights
subordinate to those of the slaveholder ? has not
the mechanic have not the middle classes their
rights ? rights incompatible with the existence of
slavery t
Henry Clay, in his address before the Coloniza
tion Society of Kentucky, has given a view of
slavery, as remarkable for its completeness as its
brevity. i
As a mere laborer,' says he, ' the slave feels
that he toils for his master, and not for himself;
that the laws do not recognize his capacity to ac
quire and hold property, which depends altogeth
er upon the pleasure of his proprietor, and that all
the Iruits ol his exertion are reaped by others.
And again : That labor is best, in which the la
borer knows that he will derive the profits of his
industry, that his employment depends upon his
diligence, and his reward upon his assiduity. He
then has every motive to excite him to exertion
and to animate him to perseverance : he knows
that if he is treated badly ho can exchange his
employer for one who will better estimate his ser
vices ; and that whatever he earns is his, to be dis
tributed by himself as he pleases, amongst his
wife and children, and friends, or enioyed by him
self.' ' - - - -.
Much more might be quoted to the same pur
port did our limits permit.
Secondly. The bearings of Slavery upon North
ern Industry.
It has been estimated by political economists
and practical men, that the average consumption
of that class of operatives denominated journey
men and laborers in -the free States, will amount,
including the disbursements for their families, to
at least three hundred dollars per annum.
1 he annual expense for food and clothing ol
the slaves in the South, we have been assured by
extensive slaveholders, did not exceed an average
of 12 dollars we have seen estimates made for
field hands that did not exceed 11 dollars ; we will,
however, take a higher sum than either of them,
suppose we say 15 dollars. What would be the
effect upon our industry if the 2,800,000 slaves
were restored to their natural rights, employed as
free laborers, and adequately compensated ? Is
there any good reason to believe, that with their
increasing capacity to enjoy the comforts and con
veniences of life, the annual consumption of their
families would fall very far short of that allotted
to Northern laborers ? But suppose that not more
than one-half of them should rise to the condition
of efficient producers and consequently consumers
and allowing an average of 4 persons to a family
we have still left, as shown by the use of a few fig
ures, an increased consumption, and consequently
nome market lor our products, amounting to up
wards of one million per annum. It is scarcely
possible to conceive the immense impulse that
such an event as their emancipation would give to
every branch of industry, excepting, perhaps, the
manufacturer of whips and handcuffs, and other
implements of coercion and restraint, disgraceful
in any country and under any government, except
ing republican America. The South is the natu
ral market of the North, and would require under
uch circumstances, a power double that of its
present labor-saving machinery and productive in
ustry to supply.
Again : The slaveholding States with an extent
of territory nearly double to that of the non-slave-
olding, exhibit a population ol but half their
umbers. With a soil originally more productive,
and equally susceptible of improvement a climate
tor the most part equally salubrious extensive
water power, and other facilities for manufactur-
ngpurposes numerous seaports and inducements
for the profitable investment of capital. W hat an
extensive field of enterprise would thus be opened
to the industry and ingenuity of our citizens. La
bor could not but be esteemed honorable its de
mand greatly increased and adequately remunera
ted. The Southern States, instead of falling short
in the aggregate amount of their productive indus
try that of Massachusetts alone, instead of pre
senting the apalling contrast acknowledged and
eprecated as the legitimate offspring of slavery,
by all their best men, would lend their ellicient aid
in filling up the measure of our country's glory,
and present the spectacle of a whole people, nu
merous, happy, and prosperous beyond example in
the histories of ancient or modem time.
So far from emancipation producing an efllux
of laborers detrimental to the North, as has been
A singular exhibition of the extent to which this idea
carried, was furnished me by a friend. A slave who was
vertakcri, trudgine along over a rough road, barefooted.
and carrying a pair of shoes in his hands, was llius accost
ed by a passenger: " Why, you fool, why don't yoii wear
your shoes instead of carrying them ?" "Not quite such
a fool, naider de shoes my own, my fuel's my master's,"
was the reply.
sometimes pretended by the advocates of slavery
a reverse action will be the inevitable consequence
for many reasons; a few only of them is all that
our limits will allow.
1. Labor, like any commodity produced by it
naturally flows to that point, where it is most de
manded or will procure the highest market. At
this moment almost every branch of mechanica
business, commands much higher wages in the
Southern than in the Northern Slates, and but for
the obstacles placed in their way by an institution
that degrades them to the level ot slaves, mechan
ics and laborers would emigrate thither. If sue
a demand can exist under the present dilapidate
condition of her agriculture and the depressed
state ot arts and manulactures, as exhibited in
meagre population of eighteen to a square mile
what would it not become, when by a rapid an
natural increase, ner population snouid approxi
i- i , i.
mate to that of some of the New England States
All the laborers they have, and more than all
would be required to develope a tythe of the re
sources which emancipation would place at the
disposal of her planters and capitalists. Witness
the result in the British West Indies.
2. " They are there. And the trouble, expense
distance to be travelled, time necessary for the
journey, &c. would forever dissuade the main
body from migration to the North.
3. There is far more room for them in the
slaveholding portions of the United States than in
the non-slaveholding. In the former there is on
third more territory and one- third less population
than in the latter.
4. The climate of the South
is congenial
them, that of the North uncongenial
5. There is far less prejudice against the col
ored man there than at the North
6. They are remarkable for their local attach
merits. This i3 one of their peculiarities every
where wherever they are to be found, their aver
sion to a change ol residence, especially to a dis
tant removal, is proverbial. All travellers in Af
rica unite in this testimony. Edward's History of
the West Indies Walsh s Sketches of Brazil
Matheson's ' Notices of Jamaica' Dr. Dickson';
' Mitigation of Slavery' Sturge and Harvey'
' West Indies in 1S37' Thome and Kimball's ' Si
months in Antigua, Barbados and Jamaica,' abound
with testimony to this trait.
We insert from the latter work, a few. testimo
nies of ex-slaveholders in Antigua. ' The ne
groes are not disposed to leave the estates on whicl:
they have lived, unless they are forced away by
bad treatment.' II. Armstrong, Esq.
' Nothing but bad treatment on the part of th
planters has ever caused the negroes to leave the
estates on which they were accustomed to live.
5. Bourne, Esq.
, ' The negroes are remarkably attached to their
home.' James Howell, Esq.
' The neeroes are peculiar for their attachment
to their homes. S. Barnard, Esq.
Love of home is very remarkable m the ne-
trroes. It isavassionwith them. Ur. Uanieit,
Member of the Council.
An aged planter said : ' 1 hey have very strong
local attachments. They love their little hut, and
will endure almost any hardship before they will
desert that spot.'
Messrs. lliorne and Kimball say : ouch are
the sentiments of West India planters ; expres
sed m the majority ol cases, spontaneously, find
mostly in illustration of other statements. W
did not hear a word that implied an opposite sen
tnnent. Une' gentleman observed that it was a
very common saying, with the negroes ' Me neb
ber leave mubornin ground.'1 i. e. birth place.'
7. lhe slaves rarely run away Irom mild mas
ters now. When they become their own. masters
and are protected by just laws, why should they
leave their native region to roam among strangers
in an uncongenial clime?
S. Slaves, when emancipated in the South, slay
there unless driven out. '
There were, in 1830, 41,000 more free colored
people in the slave stntes than in the free states
and this notwithstanding all the barbarous laws o
the slave states, made expressly to oppress and
drive them out. From 1820 to 1330, the free col
ored population of the slave states increased 35.1
per cent, while the colored population of the free
slates increased only 19.1 per cent, but little more
than half as fast, and this in spite of expulsion
laws, and notwithstanding the removal by the
Colonization Society of 1008 from the slave states,
and only 155 from the Iree stntes
The "utter aversion of the slaves, when free, to
migrate from the State, was asserted by General
Broadnax, nn advocate of colonization, in hif
speech in the Virginia Legislature, in 1S32, in fa
vor of a bill for the forcible removal of free color
ed people. He said : ' It is idle to talk about not
resorting to FORCE. They must be
COMPELLED to go. ALL OF US
LOOK TO FORCE, OF SOME KIND.' An
other member, Mr. Fisher said : ' If we wait until
the free negroes consent to leave the State, we
shall wait till time is no more.'
If they are reluctant to leave now, while slave-
holding laws crush them to the dust, will they be
more disposed to leave when slavery is abolished,
and with it that blood)- code against the'free col
ored people which slavery made necessary ?'
Further. When the slaves are emanciprueu,
the present masters would choose to employ them
as hired laborers in preference to any oilier class.
Then have always been accustomed to them.
Many of the slaveholders in the West Indies, en
raged at the passage of the Emancipation Act,
and in hot haste to verify '.heir own predictions of
ruin, imported white laborers to supply the places
of their emancipated slaves. But a brief experi
ment let off their zeal; meanwhile the importa
tion came to a stand, their wrath got cold enough
to swallow ; and'inslead of paying a hundred per
cent premium for the reputation ot prophets, and
after all having their labor and losing their cash
for their pains, they turned their foreign laborers
adrift, and were glad to hire those to whom they
had always been a'ccii: turned.
2. The slaves are acquainted with all lands of
plantation labor, lhe raising of the Southern
staples, preparations of the soil, getting in the
crops, modes of cultivation,, curing for market,
with the times and seasons of all, the causes af
fecting them, &c. Any other class of laborers
would have all these things to Icarn.anA It would
take some years fully to get the run of them.
Thus, for a time, at least, they would be much less
profilable laborers than those who had been all
their lives engaged in this kind of labor.
Concluded next ivech.
Our Foreign Negotiations:
i . -u i 11 . .1 f . i
Oui
rcaueis win, peniups ruconeci me Iact that
certain American vessels laden with slaves for the
southern market were several years since wrecked
on their passage to New Orleans. , The crews and
cargoes were saved and carried into some of the
British West India Islands, where, in conformity
to the British laws, which like those of Massachu
setts, do not acknowledge men as things, the car
goes Were set free and suffered to dispose of them
selves according to their own pleasure.
Ever since the occurrence of the first of these,
cases, which happened in 1831, the Federal Gov
ernment at Washington has been so urgent in its
zeal and labor to recover from the British Govern
ment these liberated slaves, as to have lost sight of
all other interests and questions whatever. The
matter has been followed up with great spirit and
pertinacity. Immediately after the loss of the first
vessel, the Comet, instructions were sent from
Washington to our minister, to demand of the
British Government, the value of the cargo. In
1832, another despatch was forwarded on the sub
ject. The instructions were again renewed in,
1833 ; the Secretary of State remarking that this
case ' must be brought to a conclusion the doc-
trine that would justify the liberation of our slaves,
is dangerous to a large section of bur country to.
be tolerated.'
In 1834, fresh instructions were sent, and a de
mand ordered to be made for the value of the
slaves in the Encomium.
In 1835, similar instructions were sent relative
to the Enterprise.
In 1S36, the instructions were renewe.d J the.
Secretary observing to Mr. Stevenson, ' In the
present state of our diplomatic relations with the
Government of his Britannic Majesty, the most
immediately pressing of the matters with which
the United States' legation at London is now
charged, is the claim of certain American citizens
against Great Britain for a number of slaves, the
cargoes of three vessels wrecked in the British Isl
ands in the Atlantic'
We beg leave to call the attention of the citi
zens of New England, and of the Northern States
generally, to these last quoted instructions of the
Secretary of State to our minister near the British
Court. ' In the present state,' he says of our di
plomatic relations with Great Britain, the most,
immediately tkessing, mark that, the most imme
dialely pressing of the matters with which the
United States' legation at London is now charged,
is, the claim of certain American citizens for cer
tain slaves, &c.' The claim of the State of Main'q
for ten thousand square miles of her territory, and
for divers of her citizens arrested and imprisoned
by the authorities of New Brunswick, this claim,
involving the question of the integrity of our ter
ritories; the rights and jurisdiction of a sovereign
State of the Union, to say nothing of the interest
of Massachusetts, as well as of Maine, in the prop-'
erty of the disputed territory, this great claim,
which has lately threatened to involve the coun
tries in a ruhious and destructive war, is pronounc
ed by Mr. Secretary Forsyth in his instructions to
Mr. Ambassador Stevenson, to be quite a second
ary matter in comparison with that most immedi
ately pressing affair, of 'a number of slaves, the
cargoes of three vessels wrecked in the British
Islands in the Atlantic !'
This most immediately pressing matter waii
accordingly pressed by Mr. Stevenson with great
urgency, and finding that the British government
had no inclination to act the part of tip staves and
drivers to the American slave traders, Mr. Ste
venson at length proceeded so far as to intimate
the probability of a u-ar, if these demands were
not acceded to. In a letter to Lord Palmerston of
December 1st, 1836, he expresses a hope that the
British Government would 'not longer consent to
postpone the decision of a subject which had been
for so many years under its consideration ; aru(
the effect of which can be none other than to throw-
not only additional impediments in the way of an
adjustment, and increase those feelings of dissat
isfaction and irritation which have already been
excited ; but by possibility tend to disturb and
weaken the kind and amicable relations which now
so happily subsist between the two countries ; and
on the preservaion of which essentially depends
the interests and happiness of both.'
We find that this correspondence is exciting no
small degree of interest at the South. The Charles
ton (S. C.) Mercury says :
We have never read any thing more calculated
to excite the indignation of every Southern reader.
md of every American who feels for the honor of
liis country, than the letters of Lord Palmerston.'
He scarcely condescends to argue for the right of
his Government to refuse compensation ; an argu
ment which if he had attempted, must have been
n the teeth of decisions ol the most eminent ju
dicial authorities of his own country ; but he vir
tually claims for his Government the right to ab-
ogatc the law of nations! J lo'consepts to make
ompensalion in the cases of the Encomium and
Comet, because they put into British ports, before
the Uritish Liovernment had changed lhe lawoj nc
tions, by passing her Emancipation Bill ; though
he dissents from the terms of settlement on which
Mr. Stevenson insists ; but in the case of lhe Ei.
tcrprise, which happened to lose the protection of
international law, by coining within tjin reach of.
British hospit.ility, after Great Britain, the author
of the Slave Trade, had in a fit of humanity and
morality thought proper to reform her Wesi India
Colonies, Lord Palmerston, in the name of 1ms
Government refuses compensation altogether. '
He takes the ground that slaves cannot now and
hereafter bo recognised lis property in any part of
the British dominions, and this whether they br
in the hands of citizens of a friendly power, oi
of British subjects. He thus assumes for his Gov
ernment the right to determine the tpntie by which
we hold our properly to determine what shall h'
or not, property in this country.' n.
It
is necessary to abolish slavery for the sake oi
our jurisprudence, and our christian character