of being guilty of direct and palpable nullification. When, where, how, were these crimes attempted? What proof is offered? Nothing, absolutely nothing, is offered but naked assertion. Is this equitable? Is it doing to others as these gentlemen would wish others to do to them?

But it is not enough that Abolitionists should be denounced at home; they must also be defamed abroad. Mr. Gurley, secretary of the American Colonization Sociev, writes a letter (1833) to Henry Ibbotson, Esq., Eng. land; and, to give it greater weight, dates it, " Office of the Colonization Society, Washington." In this letter, he undertakes to enlighten his foreign correspondent on some of the "fundamental errors" of the Abolitionists, and ranks among them the opinion, "that, in present circumstances, slavery ought to be abolished, by means not acting solely through, but, in a great degree against, and in defiance of the will of the South." Not a tittle of evidence is given, that such an opinion is held by a single individual in the United States.

Mr. Jeremiah Hubbard, clerk of the Yearly Meeting of Friends! in North-Carolina, in a letter to a friend in England, (Af. Rep. X. p. 37) declares that "the primary object" of the Abolitionists" appears to be that of producing such a revolution in public sentiment as to cause the national legislation to bear directly upon the slave holders, and to compel them to emancipate their slaves."

Now, to all these charges, and to each and every of them, the members of the Anti-Slavery Society plead NOT GUILTY, and desire to be tried by God and their country. But, alas, no trial is vouchsafed to them: judgment has already been given, and execution awarded against them, without trial, and without evidence, solely on the finding of a voluntary and irresponsible inquest. All they can now do, is to ask for a reversal of the judgment as false and illegal, cruel and oppressive.

It is, of course, difficult to disprove charges, where the counts of the indictment are utterly void of certainty, and where, from the nature of the case, none but negative testimony can be offered by the accused. We have a right to pre sume, that the treason and nullification charged on Abolitionists, have reference to their efforts to procure the

abolition of slavery in the United States. Now slavery exists under the authority of Congress, and also under the authority of State Legislatures. We will proceed in the first place to exhibit some facts relative to slavery in the former instance, and inquire how far the conduct of Abolitionists in respect to it, is treasonable and unconstitutional; and we will then make the same inquiry as to their conduct in regard to slavery in the several States.

CHAPTER V.

Slavery under the authority of Congress.

We

AT the last census, there were in the territories of Arkansas, Florida, and the District of Columbia, twentysix thousand one hundred and thirty-eight slaves. will confine our remarks at present to slavery as it is exhibited at the seat of the federal government, and in a portion of territory, over which the Constitution of the United States has given to Congress "exclusive jurisdiction." In this District of ten miles square, there are six thousand slaves; and the laws under which they are held in bondage, are among the most cruel and wicked of all the slave laws in the United States. This District, moreover, placed as it is under the immediate and absolute control of the national governmeut, is the great slave mart of the North American continent.

In 1829, Mr. Miner, a member of the House of Representatives, from Pennsylvania, introduced a resolution for the gradual abolition of slavery in the District. In his speech in support of this resolution, many appalling facts were disclosed. It appeared, that in the last five years, seven hundred and forty-two colored persons had been committed to the public prison of the city of Washington. And were these persons accused or convicted of crime? NOT ONE. Four hundred and fifty-two were lodged in the UNITED STATES PRISON by slave traders, for safe keeping prior to exportation. The residue were imprisoned on

suspicion, real or affected, of being fugitive slaves; and if not claimed as such, were by authority of Congress, to be SOLD AS SLAVES FOR LIFE, to raise money to pay their JAIL FEES!!!

Such are the facts in regard to the prison in the Capi tal of our confederate Republic; and let it be recollected, that there are other prisons besides this in the District of Columbia.

Of the practical operation of a system sanctioned by the laws of Congress, take the following sample:

"Visiting the prison," says Mr. Miner," and passing through the avenues that lead to the cells, I was struck with the appearance of a woman, having three or four chil dren with her one at the breast. She presented such an aspect of woe, that I could not help inquiring her story. It was simply this: she was a slave, but had married a man who was free. By him she had eight or nine children. Moved by natural affection, the father labored to support the children; but as they attained an age to be valuable in the MARKET, perhaps ten or twelve, the master sold them. One after another was taken away and sold to the slave dealers. She had now come to an age to be no longer profitable as a breeder, and her master had separated her from her husband, and all the associations of life, and sent her and her children to your prison for sale."

The law of the District, virtually the law of Congress, by which any colored person, without the allegation of a crime, may be seized and thrown into a cell; and unless he can there prove his freedom, or is claimed by another, is sold for life as a slave to pay his jail fees, is for unblushing injustice and atrocity utterly unrivalled by any enactment of the despots of the old world. Mr. Miner states, that in 1826-7 no less than FIVE persons were thus sold into perpetual bondage, for jail fees. In one case, the UNITED STATES MARSHAL dost his fees. Hear Mr. Miner. "In August, 1821, a black man was taken up and imprisoned as a runaway. He was kept confined until October, 1822 -four hundred and five days. In this time, vermin, dis ease, and misery had deprived him of the use of his limbs. He was rendered a cripple for life, and finally discharged as no one would buy him. Turned out upon the world a

miserable pauper, disabled by OUR means from gaining subsistence, he is sometimes supported from the poor house, sometimes receives alms in your streets."

Mr. Miner thus speaks of the AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE, as carried on in the District.

"The slave trade, as it exists and is carried on here, is marked by instances of injustice and cruelty scarcely exceeded on the coast of Africa. It is a mistake to suppose it is a mere purchase and sale of acknowledged slaves. The District is full of complaints on the subject, and the evil is increasing. So long ago as 1802, the extent and cruelty of the traffick, produced from a grand jury, at Alexandria, a presentment so clear, so strong, and so feelingly drawn, that I shall make no apology for reading it to the House." Mr. Miner then read the following:

"January Term, 1802.

"We the grand jury, for the body of the county of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, present as a grievance the practice of persons coming from distant parts of the United States into this District, for the purpose of purchasing slaves, where they exhibit, to our view, a scene of wretchedness and human degradation, disgraceful to our characters as citizens of a free government. True it is that these dealers, in the persons of our fellow men, collect within this District from various parts, numbers of those victims of slavery, and lodge them in some place of confinement until they have completed their numbers. They are then turned out in our streets and exposed to view, loaded with chains as though they had committed some heinous offence against our laws. We consider it a grievance that citizens from distant parts of the United States should be permitted to come within this District, and pursue a traffick fraught with so much misery, to a class of beings entitled to our protection by the laws of justice and humanity; and that the interposition of civil authority cannot be had to prevent parents being wrested from their offspring, and children from their parents, without respect to the ties of nature. We consider these grievances demanding legislative redress" that is, redress by Congress.

As illustrative of the horrors and iniquities of the traffick, Mr. Miner informed the House of an incident that had occurred during the previous Session of Congress. A free

colored man had married a slave-with the avails of his industry, he had, in the course of some years, purchased the freedom of his wife and children. He left home on business, and on his return found his house tenantless. His wife and children were missing. It was soon ascertained that they had been kidnapped by slave dealers, and confined in a private slave prison, in Alexandria; from whence they had afterwards been sent to a distant market and were for ever lost to the husband and the father.

"There is a man now in this District," continued Mr. Miner, "who was in the hands of the slave dealers, about to be sent off to the South, when he laid his hand on a block, and with an axe severed it from his arm. Can the slave trade, on the coast of Africa, be more horrible, more dreaded, or more prolific of scenes of misery? To me all this is dreadful, and I think it should not be tolerated here."

These statements were made in 1829. We will now exhibit the flourishing condition of the slave trade under the PROTECTION OF CONGRESS in 1834. The following advertisements are all taken from the same sheet, printed a few months since at the capital of the American Republic :

"CASH FOR Two Hundred Negroes.

We will give cash for two hundred likely young negroes of both sexes, families included. Persons wishing to dispose of their slaves, will do well to give us a call, as we will give higher prices in cash, than any other purchasers who are now, or may hereafter come into this MARKET. All communications will meet attention. We can at all times be found at our residence on Seventh-street, immediately South of the Centre Market-house, Washington, D. C. Joseph W. Neal & Co.

September 13, 1834.

"CASH FOR FOUR HUNDRED Negroes, Including both sexes, from twelve to twenty-five years of age. Persons having likely servants to dispose of, will find it to their interest to give us a call, as we will give higher prices in cash than any other purchaser, who is now, or may hereafter come into this MARKET.

Franklin, Armfield & Co. Alexandria, September 1st, 1834."