CHAPTER XX.

The Fugitive Slave Bill-Public Meeting at New York-The Abolitionists in America-Insurrection of Slaves in Virginia in 1831-Horrible massacre of the Whites-Capture and Execution of all the Insurgents— Nat. Turner's Confession-Authority of Scripture in favour of the legality of the Fugitive Slave Bill-Reasons for not allowing Slaves to be educated-Extent of Sexual intercourse on Slave Plantations- The celebrated Scottish Chieftain, the Laird of MacNab.

THE Fugitive Slave Bill for facilitating the re-capture of slaves, which came into operation in 1850, excited some little commotion throughout the Union. A public meeting was called at New York in October 1850, during my residence there, in support of this bill, which was attended by 8000 people, having been held in Castle Garden, at the Battery, where Jenny Lind first performed. This meeting was attended by all the most influential people in New York, who were unanimous in supporting this bill. The speeches delivered were of the most eloquent description, and filled several pages of their journals.

The chairman, George Wood, Esq., expatiated on the folly of immediate emancipation without reference to the consequences; and though he admitted that slavery was an evil, yet he considered it one from which they could not escape without encountering others infinitely more. appalling. That the slave States must be left to deal with this institution as they thought proper; that it was a

legacy left them by the mother country, which, however, in the course of time and progress of society, may be abolished. Mr Wood, and indeed all the subsequent speakers, referred particularly to the signal failure of emancipation in the British West Indian Colonies, which he said had blighted their prosperity and destroyed them ; and thus concludes:- "Are we to subject the Southern States to such consequences as they apprehend, and as we have reason to believe would ensue, if we undertook to carry into effect such an absurd doctrine ?" (Cries of no! no! no! from all parts of the house.)

James W. Gerard, Esq., who next addressed the multitude, when alluding to slavery, said, "It was entailed on us by our British ancestors. It is their misfortune and

not a crime that it exists in the Southern States; an evil of which they would willingly rid themselves, could they do so without ruin to themselves and their country." (Vociferous cheering.)

This bill was by most people in this country supposed to have been the enacting of a new law in regard to fugitive slaves, whereas it was more properly the revival of an old law, or the law of 1793, which had fallen, in some measure, into desuetude. Indeed the expense and trouble attending the recapture of slaves under the old law, was such as to render it, in some measure, inoperative, so that slaves, when they succeeded in reaching the free States, may have been said to have escaped with impunity, nearly as much so as if they had taken refuge in the British dominions in Canada.

The 2d section of the 4th article of the constitution of the year 1793, runs thus:

"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation

therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."

By "person held to service," is here meant a slave; and the provision is intended to enable the masters of slaves to recover them if they escape into other States.

The framers of the American constitution seem to have studiously avoided the use of the word "slave" though they took special care that the property and political power annexed to its possession should be secured. They retained the thing while they discarded the term, as if they were ashamed of proclaiming their inconsistency to the world. This was a truly pitiful and unworthy subterfuge for an enlightened nation. Even the great Henry Clay, I observe, in the 7th of his compromise resolutions, submitted to Senate on 29th January 1850, uses these words, "that more effectual provision ought to be made by law for the restitution and delivery of persons bound to service or labor in any State, who may escape," &c.

The emancipists, however, in America, supported as they were, and as may naturally be supposed, by the whole of the free-colored population, who are a numerous body, amounting to half-a-million, availed themselves of this opportunity of creating a sensation throughout the States, in favour of their apparently laudable, though it may be mistaken, efforts in the cause of humanity. And when I mention that the abolitionists now testify against compensation as a sin, and even denounce gradual abolition as a sin, the word "mistaken" must surely be considered a mild epithet when applied to such absurd, unjust, and dangerous doctrines; not to mention the injury which sudden emancipation would entail on the slaves themselves. The conduct of the abolitionists in the north has, in fact, had no other effect hitherto but exasperating the slave-owners

of the south, and thereby perpetuating the continuance of slavery, if possible, to a still more indefinite period.

The cry of the abolitionists, both in this country and America, who, be it always remembered, have nothing earthly to loose, is, "give them up, give them up without money and without price, we cannot wait, slavery is sinful, therefore we can have no delay; and being sinful, deserves no compensation." Were this silly and idiotical cry responded to by the more sensible and rational portion of the citizens of the United States, they would extinguish in one moment, and by, as it were, a blast from their nostrils, property to the value of 1500 millions of dollars, upwards of three hundred millions sterling, which had been accumulating for ages. The British nation never dreamt of so glaring an act of injustice as this, in regard to her slave-owners. The value of the slaves in the British dominions, in the year 1832, was computed at upwards of 40 millions sterling, so that by awarding them 20 millions, we made some approximation, at all events, to justice. Would the citizens of the great republic, think you, submit to have themselves taxed, in order to raise a hundred and fifty millions sterling, or half their value, in order to pay for the emancipation of their slaves? I expect not. Luckily the slave-owners in the United States have nothing to fear on this head, as it is wisely provided by the constitution of that country, that private property shall not be taken for the public service, without full compensation.

There is only one thing on which I am inclined to differ from all the speakers at the great meeting at New York, and that is the apprehension which they entertain that the lives and property of the planters might be endangered by emancipation. It has been generally thought that the abolition of slavery must of necessity endanger the

safety of a community, because it sets loose a class of people who are supposed to be incensed by aggravated wrongs, and, at the same time, to be without the restraints. of moral principle. What, it is asked, will prevent such a people from sating there revenge on the blood and plunder of their former oppressors ? The experiment,

however, in the West Indies, has proved to demonstration that this opinion is an erroneous one, and that emancipation, instead of promoting a spirit of insurrection, is the surest means of eradicating it. Even in Hayti or St Domingo the effect of the abolition of slavery was to soothe the minds of the slaves, and the destruction of life and property was occasioned by an attempt of the French, under Le Clerc, several years afterwards, to reestablish it. The free negroes now in the West Indies manifest, as I said before, the most peaceful tendencies, and feel grateful for the new privileges into which they have been admitted.

Besides, we must bear in mind that the slaves in the United States are not only better treated than they were in the West Indies, but that, excepting in two of the States, viz. South Carolina and Mississippi, as will be seen on referring to the population returns, the free population outnumber the slave. In the West Indies, on the contrary, the slaves preponderated in the proportion of nearly fifty to one. Indeed, there has been only one insurrection among the slaves in the United States, namely that which broke out on 21st August 1831 in the county of Southampton and State of Virginia. This was organized and headed by a fanatic slave of the name of Nat Turner, who considered himself impelled by the belief that he was divinely called to be the deliverer of his oppressed countrymen. Nothing is more dangerous than a religious enthusiast. Having enlisted his fellow-slaves