southern slaves generally, when they think themselves strong enough,

to rise and enslave or exterminate their masters, and possess their property; and that it is the duty of the stronger always to enslave the weaker; and of the intellectual and wealthy classes to enslave, if by their superior skill they can, the laboring classes. We hope that he will address his democratic brethren at the North on that subject.

Gov. H. next considers slavery in its political influences; which promote, as he thinks, the order, safety and power of the state! "I endorse," says he, "without reserve, the much abused sentiment of Gov. McDuffie, that 'slavery is the corner-stone of our republican edifice;' while I repudiate as ridiculously absurd that much lauded but no where accredited dogma of Mr. Jerfferson, that all men are born equal' "! His Excellency's mode of proving slavery to be essential to the prosperity and perpetuity of republican liberty is very amusing and very democratic. We will quote it entire, as it is brief.

"No society has ever yet existed, and I have already incidentally quoted the highest authority to show that none ever will exist, without a natural variety of classes. The most marked of these must, in a country like ours, be the rich and the poor, the educated and the igno

rant.

It will scarcely be disputed that the very poor have less leisure to prepare themselves for the proper discharge of public duties than the rich; and that the ignorant are wholly unfit for them at all. In all countries save ours, these two class es, or the poor rather, who are presumed to be necessarily ignorant, are by law expressly excluded from all participation in the management of public affairs. In a republican government this can not be done. Universal suffrage, though not essential in theory, seems to be in fact, a necessary appendage to a republican system. Where universal suffrage obtains, it is obvious that the government is in the hands of a numerical majority; and it is hardly necessary to say, that in every part of the world more than half the people are ignorant and poor. Though no one can look upon poverty as a crime, and we do not generally here regard it as any objection to a man in his individual capací

ty, still it must be admitted that it is a is administered by its most ignorant citiwretched and insecure government which

zens, and those who have the least at stake under it. Though intelligence and wealth have great influence here as every where, lightened numbers, yet it is evident to in keeping in check reckless and unenclose observers, if not to all, that these are rapidly usurping all power in the nonslaveholding states, and threaten a fearful crisis in republican institutions there at no remote period. In the slaveholding states, however, nearly one half of the whole population, and those the poorest and most ignorant, have no political influence whatever, because they are slaves. Of the other half, a large proportion are both educated and independent in their circumstances, while those who unfortunately are not so, being still elevated far above the mass, are higher toned and more deeply interested in preserving a stable and well-ordered government, than the same class in any other country. Hence, slavery is truly the corner-stone and foundation of every well-designed and durable republican edifice.'"-pp5,6.

That is to say-the poor and ignorant, who are the numerical majority in every community, are unfit to manage or to participate in the management of public affairs. These affairs can not be entrusted to them without certainty of ruin. These affairs are and must be entrusted to them by universal suffrage in the free states; therefore reupblican liberty must soon perish in the free states. But in the slave states the poor and ignorant are happily prevented from putting their dangerous hands into public affairs by being enslaved, so that the interests of republican (!) (pro bono publico) government are exclusively in the hands of the "higher classes," the educated and rich-and of those who, if " unfortu nately they are not" rich, are rendered high-minded and noble-spirited by being elevated above their rich neighbors' slaves! "Hence slavery is truly the corner-stone and foundation of every well-designed and durable republican edifice"! Beautiful, beautiful democracy this! Excellent republicanism! No aristocracy here! No want of confidence in the mass of the people! If his

Excellency had not said, "Nor have I, to tell the truth, much confidence in the details of what are called statis tics," we would stop here to ask him, what the census says about the educa. tion of the whites at the South; about the number of those in Virginia and South Carolina, and in the slave states generally, who can not read and write.* But it would be of no use; for his Excellency does not believe in statistics. And he had better not. It would greatly endanger his conclusions. And then, the inquiry is of no importance: for, what if white citizens can not read and write? 66 Being still elevated far above the mass," (i. e. the slaves,) they are higher toned "than the same class in any other country."

Reasoning on these principles, and on the lawlessness which is general and fast increasing at the North,(!) Gov. H. tells us,

"It will not be long before the '. 'free states' of this Union will be compelled to introduce the same expensive machinery to preserve order among their 'free and equal' citizens. Already has Philadelphia organized a permanent battalion for this purpose: New York, Boston and Cincinnati will soon follow her example; and then the smaller towns and densely populated counties. The intervention of the militia to repress violations of the peace is becoming a daily affair. A strong government, after some of the old fash ions-though probably with a new name -sustained by the force of armed mer

*The Cimmerian intellectual darkness of the poor whites of the slave states, is proverbial. Compared with it the intellectual condition of the free negroes at the North is effulgence itself. New Eng land, with a population of 2,234,822, has only 13,041 white persons over the age of

20 who can not read and write-while Virginia, with a population, black and white, of 1,239,797, has 58,732 white persons over 20 years of age who can not read and write. This is a fair representation of the difference in this respect between the two sections of country. It should also be remembered, that most of those who can not read and write in the free states, are foreigners. The great mass of the native colored population are capable of doing both, having had access to the public schools equally with the whites.

cenaries, is the ultimate destiny of the non-slaveholding section of this confeddistant."-p. 6. eracy, and one which may not be very

says,

While as to the slave states he and occasional patrolls in the counSmall guards in our cities known nowhere else.(!!)* try ensure us a repose and security

Gov. H. informs us that "it is a great mistake to suppose, as is generally done abroad, that in case of war, slavery would be a source of weakness."(!) The reasons which he gives for this very reasonable opinion are these-that the slaves would fight in behalf of their masters, and if any nation should be so inhuman as to "invade the country with black troops for the base and barbarous purpose of stirring up servile war," they (i. e. the slaves) would assist in reducing these black troops to slavery, and thus increase the wealth of their masters!

Gov. H. then considers slavery in its social effects. Dueling, which he paraphrases by the words, "to acknowledge a standard of honor," and which by the way he appears to think does not "tarnish the character of a community," is not owing, he informs us, to slavery!

As to mobs, "The only thing," says his Excellency, "that can create a mob here, is the appearance of an abolitionist, whom the people assemble to chastise.(!) And this is no more of a mob than a rally of shepherds to chase a wolf out of their pastures would be one." (Shepherds and their flocks!)

And as to repudiation, about which so much noise has been made,

* A friend at our elbow, who resided formerly in North Carolina, informs us that he was called out in his turn to patroll every third night-occasional patrolls! And who does not know that the citizens of the slave states all go armed, that they sleep on their arms, that the whole country is virtually garrisoned every hour? We leave it for Gov. H. to say, whether this universal bearing of arms is for the purpose of protection against the blacks or against the whites.

no people pay their debts as well as slaveholders. (!)

Respecting education, (i. e. of the white half of the people)-his Excellency says he has no confidence in statistics, but thinks the question is settled by the facts," that our presidential chair has been occupied for forty four out of fifty six years by slaveholders; that another has been recently elected to fill it for four more, over an opponent who was a slaveholder also; and that in the federal offices and both houses of Congress, considerably more than a due proportion of those acknowl. edged to stand in the front rank are from the South." We can give a very different reason for these facts.

"The piety of the South," the the Governor tells us, 66 is unobtrusive," but very safe and not at all inclining to extravagance. "So far as numbers are concerned," says he, "I believe our clergymen, when called on to make a showing, have never had occasion to blush, if comparisons were drawn between the free and slave states." (We thought he had no confidence in statistics.)

As to the charge of licentiousness, though his Excellency's modesty shrinks very much from discussing it with the abolition "clergymen and virgins," he tries to deny, but, in spite of himself, about half admits its truth respecting white men and black women: but he thinks there is ample compensation in the superior chastity of their white women! This fact (the licentiousness of the white men and the black women) we have heard slaveholders confess. This doctrine of "compensation" we have known them unblushingly avow; yea, we have seen this fact and this doctrine confessed and avowed in a published letter from a slaveholder to the New York Tribune. That is to say, the chastity of one daughter of Adam is cheap. ly purchased by the prostitution of another daughter, and by the debauchery of a son of the same origi-, nal progenitor!!

Gov. H. then proceeds to consider the economy of slavery, or the comparative expense of free and slave labor; the treatment and instruction of the slaves, their happy state, far happier than that of free laborers; the condition of English laborers; schemes of abolition; West India emancipation, and many other topics. We can not for want of space, follow his Excellency

* Our limits do not permit us to enter on the subject of the comparative condition of English laborers and American slaves.

We are very willing that Gov. H., or any one else, should speak with severity to British statesmen of the wretched state of their laboring population. It is a subject on which we think much and feel deeply. But statements on this subject addressed to Thomas Clarkson and his anti-slavery associates as an "argumentum ad hominem" are wasted powder. For the philanthropy of these noble men has reored not only to abolish West India slavegarded that subject. They have endeavry but East India oppression and slavery, and also to relieve and remove the sufferings, so complicated and difficult of remedy, which result from the aristocratic government and social life of Great Brit

ian.

There is one class of facts that can be alluded to in a word, which puts this comparative condition of English laborers and American slaves in its true light. The English laborers can learn to read. American slaves are forbidden this privilege by law. No benevolent man is molested in teaching English operatives to read. The benevolent man who teaches American slaves to read, is a criminal in the eye of the law, and receives also, in the "chivalrous and peaceful South," the tender mercies of Lynch law. Any man in England can publish a newspaper, to instruct the laboring classes in religion, or morals, in their civil rights or as to their civil wrongs, or on Owenism, or Fourierism, or any subject whatever. But who can publish a newspaper to the Southern slaves with impunity? Yea, who can publish a paper for the citizens of a slave state, advocating even a gradual emanci pation of slavery, with impunity? Let any one attempt it, and though he be like Cassius M. Clay, a nobleman by nature and education, a native of, and having all his interests in, a slaveholding state, and but recently a slaveholder himself, and his press is broken up at any hazard of property or life, by a mob of gentlemen (?) ! It is useless for Gov. H. to declaim in view of such facts as these, respecting English laborers and American slaves. The Southern slaveholders dare not let the

through all these subjects. Nor is it necessary. On many interesting points we have stated his positions; and our readers will see that their statement is their refutation. From

these specimens they can judge of the remainder.

There is one topic, however, to which we have just alluded, which we will for a few moments examine, viz. the influence of slavery on the slaves, and Gov. H.'s representations of their kind treatment and happy condition.

We do this because the superficial observation of northern persons, traveling or residing for a time in the South, and the confident assertions of such slaveholders as Gov. H., have thrown a veil over the atrocities and cruelties, which are necessarily incidental to the system; and because, also, Gov. H. confesses that on this point slaveholders are responsible to the world. We will hold him to that responsibility.

"I have admitted," says Gov. H. "without hesitation, what it would be untrue and profitless to deny, that slaveholders are responsible to the world for the humane treatment of the fellow beings whom God placed in their hands."-p. 16.

"I deny that the power of the slaveholder in America is irresponsible.' He is responsible to God. He is responsible to the world-a responsibility which abolitionists do not intend to allow him to evade-and in acknowledgment of which I write you this letter. He is responsible to the community in which he lives, and to the laws under which he enjoys his civil rights. Those laws do not permit him to kill, to maim, or to punish beyond certain limits, or to overtask, or to refuse

slaves have light. This shows the wretchedness, nay the absolute desperation in which slaveholders know that their slaves

are. Their careful exclusion of every spark of intelligence, proves that they believe themselves on a magazine which a spark may explode. The tyranny of their measures, both for the exclusion of light and for the quelling of resistance to the master's authority, or of the first symptoms of insurrection, proves the extremity of the oppression by which they crush their slaves into a condition of known desperation.

to feed and clothe his slave. In short,

they forbid him to be tyrannical or cruel."

p.11.

Still though a slaveholder, I freely acknowledge my obligations as a man; and that I am bound to treat humanely the

fellow creatures whom God has trusted to my charge. I feel, therefore, somewhat sensitive under the accusation of cruelty, and disposed to defend myself and fellow slaveholders against it. It is certainly the it is also the desire of every one of us, to interest of all, and I am convinced that treat our slaves with proper kindness. It is necessary to our deriving the greatest amount of profit from them. Of this we are all satisfied." . . . " I have no hesitation in saying that our slaveholders are as kind masters, as men usually are kind husbands, parents, and friends-as a general rule, kinder. A bad master -he who overworks his slaves, provides illy (ill) for them, or treats them with undue severity-loses the esteem and respect of his fellow citizens to as great an extent as he would for the violation of any of his social and most of his moral obligations."-p. 12.

"And to sum up all, if pleasure is correctly defined to be the absence of painwhich so far as the great body of mankind is concerned, is undoubtedly its true definition-I believe our slaves are the happiest three millions of human beings on whom the sun shines."-p. 15.

These are extraordinary declarations. Fortunately we are not dependent on the testimony of such men as Gov. H. and George McDuffie for evidence of the truth on the subjects which these declarations respect. Nor are we dependent on the testimony of northern men, which might be considered partial. It can be proved by the most irresistible evidence, direct and indirect, from slaveholders themselves, that slavery is a system of most atrocious cruelty to the slaves, against which the laws furnish really (whatever they may do ostensibly) no protection.

Let us attend first to Gov. H.'s assertion that the slaveholder is responsible to the laws for his treatment of his slaves.

The law gives to the master absolute power over the slave. The fol lowing proofs are sufficient on this "The slave is entirely subpoint. ject to the will of his master." (Louisiana Civil Code, Art. 273.)

"Slaves shall be deemed sold, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to be chattels personal, in the hands of their owners, and possessors, and their executors, administrators, and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever."-(South Carolina Law.)

"The slave must feel that there is no appeal from his master." (Decision of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. See Wheeler's Law of Slavery, p. 247.)

a

But, says Gov. Hammond, "the laws do not permit him (the slaveholder) to kill, to maim, or to punish beyond certain limits (?) . . . his slave." True, there are laws which forbid these crimes. But they are rendered wholly ineffectual by other laws, which make it impossible in ninety nine cases out of a hundred to convict a white man of those crimes-laws, which exclude slave's testimony in any case where a white man is concerned, and allow the masters to clear themselves by their own oaths. In all the slave states, except two or three, there are laws which forbid the reception of the testimony of a slave or a free negro where a white is concerned; and where there is no law on the subject, custom and the force of public opinion invariably reject it. (See Judge Stroud's Sketch of the Laws of Slavery.)

The law of South Carolina says: "If any slave shall suffer in life, limb, or member, when no white person shall be present, or being present, shall refuse to give evidence, the owner or other person who shall have the care of such slave, and in whose power such slave shall be, shall be deemed guilty of such offense, unless such owner or other person shall make the contrary appear by good and sufficient evidence, or shall by his own oath clear and exculpate himself. Which oath every court where such offenses shall be tried, is hereby empowered to administer, and to acquit the offender, if clear proof be not made by two witnesses (whites) at least."-(2 Brevard's Digest, 242.)

Now couple these two facts, viz. that slaves can not testify, and that

the master or white overseer, in the absence of the testimony of two whites, can clear himself by his own oath, with the fact that whites are rarely present on plantations to witness the maiming or murdering of a slave, and if present, would of course be avoided by one willing to maim or murder; and who will pronounce this "legal responsibility,” even for maiming and murder, any thing but the merest shadow! Ă man who would maim or kill a slave, would not scruple to take a false oath; and by that false oath he could clear himself, though an hundred slaves had seen his cruel or murderous act. Indeed the Supreme Court of Louisiana, in a case where the defendant was, not indicted for murder, (as he would have been in a free state,) but sued for the value of a slave whom he had shot and killed, expressly say, "The act charged here is one rarely committed in the presence of witnesses," (whites.)-(Law of Slavery, 249.) And Judge Ruffin of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, says in one of his judicial decisions, (see Wheeler's Law of Slavery, page 247,)—

"The slave, to remain a slave, must feel that there is no appeal from his master. No man can anticipate the provocations which the slave would give, nor the consequent wrath of the master prompting him to bloody vengeance on the turbulent traitor-a vengeance generally practiced with impunity, by reason of its privacy."

How much the laws design to protect the slave may be seen by the following decision on this point, made by the Supreme Court of South Carolina in the case of the State vs. Cheetwood. (2 Hill's Reports, 459.)

"The criminal offense of assault and battery, can not, at common law, be committed on the person of a slave. For, notwithstanding for some purposes a slave is regarded in law as a person, yet generally he is a mere chattel personal, and his right of personal protection belongs to