ing in a cathedral, side by side, on the same piece of cloth.1

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The negroes in La Plata are more numerous. modore Stewart saw more than one thousand negro washerwomen at one time on the shores of the river. In the late Revolution the negroes were offered their liberty, without compensation to their masters, on condition of enlisting as soldiers for the war. Many availed themselves of this privilege.

1 Wilkes's Exp. Exp. vol. i, 257; vol. ix, Races of Man, by Dr. Picker. ing.

2 Brazil and La Plata, by C. S. Stewart.

CHAPTER XVII.

SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

NEGRO slavery continues to exist in fifteen of the United States of America. In Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, attempts have been made to bring about emancipation by the State governments; it being admitted by all that the Federal Government has no power to interfere with or seek to regulate the institution within the States. In 1787, the first abolition society was formed, since which time they have greatly increased, their object being to bring to bear upon the slaveholding States the powerful public sentiment of the other States; to bring into action the powers of Congress, wherever legitimately to be exercised, against the continuance of the institution, and thus indirectly to effect what could not be done directly. The infatuated zeal of many fanatics has carried them farther, and induced them to endeavor, by incendiary publications and agents, to excite insurrections among the slaves, and in other ways to force the masters to consent to their emancipation. In later years, some of the more excited have inveighed against the Constitution of the United States, as a "league with hell," because its provisions limited the powers of the general government on this subject. In fact, the history of abolitionism in the United States has been the history of fanaticism everywhere, whose later deeds are not even shadowed forth in its earlier years; and with whom obstacles and impediments, the more insurmountable they are in fact,

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but feed the flame of zeal, and more effectually dethrone the reason. This class of abolitionists, however, have ever been comparatively few in number; while those who sympathize with the objects above-mentioned (the legitimate use of means to extinguish slavery), have ever been, in the non-slaveholding States, numerous and respectable. The points of conflict in our national assemblies, upon which difficulties have arisen between the advocates of these doctrines and their opponents, are based upon the question, what powers were given by the Constitution to Congress, and at what time and in what way they could be exercised? Such have been the questions as to the admission of new States into the Union, where slavery was recognized; the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, and in the forts and arsenals, and other public property belonging to the United States, and situated within the slaveholding States; the prohibition of slavery within the territories of the United States, before their application for admission as States, and the regulation of the domestic slavetrade between the slaveholding States.

It is not my purpose to extend this sketch, by giving the history of the conflicts upon each of these questions. They have threatened, seriously, the existence of the government. Suffice it to say, that the right of each State to regulate for itself its domestic relations, so far as this question is concerned, seems now to be acknowledged by the statesmen of the country; and that, hence, the existence of slavery in a State is no ground for rejecting its admission into the Union. The slave-trade in the District of Columbia has been properly abolished; and slavery therein, and in the public forts, &c., is left, as required by good faith, to abide the fate of the institution in the adjacent States by which they were ceded. The right to prohibit slavery in the territories of the United States has been denied by the Supreme Court, in

a late and most elaborate decision.' And the same Court long since decided, that an attempt to regulate the domestic slave-trade between the States, would give virtually to Congress the right to abolish or establish slavery in every State of the Union. That these questions may be allowed here to rest, and be no longer used as hobbies by interested demagogues to excite sectional strifes for personal advancement, should be the sincere wish of every true American citizen.3

Having been generally well-treated, the slaves have never exhibited that disposition to revolt so frequently seen in the West Indies. No Maroons have infested our mountains; no wars of the Maroons stain our annals. But one insurrection, worthy the name, has ever occurred, and that was in Virginia in the year 1800. The plot (as all others will be) was made known by faithful slaves to their masters, and effectual measures taken for its suppression. Several negroes, leaders in the rebellion, were tried and executed. The evidence on their trial showed that they were instigated by a white man, and that their whole plans manifested a weakness in conception unequalled except by the history of the negro.1

Cases of individual manumission have been frequent in all the States. In many of them, the idle and lazy habits of the free negroes, and the continual agitation of the question of abolition by Northern fanatics, have

'Dred Scott v. Sandford, 19 Howard. The other and interesting question decided in this case, whether a negro can become a citizen of the United States, will be considered at another place.

2 Groves v. Slaughter, 15 Peters, 449.

3 M. Levavasseur exposes, in a masterly manner, the policy of Great Britain, in fomenting the abolition excitement in the United States; hoping thereby, to retard their march towards universal empire on the American Continent. I would that every citizen of the Union could read the remarks of this disinterested philosopher. Esclavage de la race noire, p. 31, et suiv.

See the documents, respecting the insurrection, published in the Richmond Recorder, April 3d, 6th, and 9th, 1803.

induced the legislatures to prohibit domestic emancipation, and thereby compelled masters, thus disposed, to send their slaves either to other States or to Africa in order to receive their freedom. This influx of free negroes has not been acceptable to the non-slaveholding States, especially the new States of the West, to which they were principally sent. Hence most, if not all of them, some by their constitution, and some by legislative acts, have prohibited the introduction of free negroes into their territory. Liberia is therefore left as the only home of the emancipated negro. Africa gave birth to the negro. Africa alone offers him, as a freeman, a grave.

The work to which this sketch is an introduction, is intended to exhibit the exact status of the slave in the United States; a repetition here upon these points would be inappropriate. That their bondage has been mild is evidenced by their great and rapid increase. For about 333,000 slaves imported, there are now more than 4,000,000. Their physical development is unquestionably much superior to that of the negro in his native country. Their longevity is remarkable. Their mental development has advanced very considerably, still retaining, however, the negro characteristics, except in the case of the mulattoes, where the traits of the white parents are sometimes developed. But above all, their moral improvement is most evident. Though still inclined to superstition, they are frequently exemplary Christians, and generally inclined to be religious. An avowed infidel is a rara avis among the negroes. The statistics of the different churches in the slaveholding States show a greater number of negroes converted and admitted into the Church than all the conversions which have crowned the missionary efforts of the world. The improved negro, however, exhibits still the moral weakuesses of the native Ebo; his sins, if any, are theft, lust, and falsehood.