SAMUEL. L. MITCHELL

by the wise policy of our [New-York] legislature, the shackles of feudal bondage have been knocked off, and our citizens, who feel nothing of vassalage or servitude, act with the spirit of freemen.— The abrogation of the laws of entails and of primogeniture, has had the most happy effect in rendering easy the division and alienation of real property, whereby the natural right of every man to a certain part of the earth's surface, which, in former times, had been violently and unjustly wrested from the greatest part of those who had advanced much above barbaric rudeness, is restored, and with it that mediocrity of condition which hears with honest indignation the "monstrous faith of many made for one." The allodial and socage tenures of our lands, by giving free scope to purchasers, and undivided profit to cultivators, have paved the way to more virtue and happiness, than all the mines of Peru and Mexico ever have afforded. Upon calculations and estimates fairly made, it appears that the profits of plantations must be enormous to support a slave cultivation. The income of a rice, an indigo, a sugar or a tobacco estate, has been great enough in the newly cultivated lands of some of the Southern States and West India Islands, to admit of this mode of management. But at present the profits seem not so prodigious as they have heretofore been. The dearness of West India sugars, the prohibition of new importations of slaves in some places, and the introduction of the plough instead of the hoe, all indicate the decline of slavery, and all prove it to be less and less the true interest of the planters to conduct their business in the old way. Where the produce of a farm is bread-corn, flax, hemp, grass, and live stock, the profits are moderate, and the labor of free men is generally preferred, as most consistent with good economy: accordingly, in the northern states, slavery is entirely abolished. It appears from the great depreciation and frequent manumissions of slaves in this state, that our fellow citizens are becoming convinced of the same truth by experience. Upon taking a survey of the slave-holders with whom I am acquainted, I find those who have the greatest numbers to be men of considerable hereditary estates in land, or of a handsome capital acquired by marriage or bequest, but I cannot name an instance of a man of small property ever getting rich upon the profits of slave-labor. Therefore the kitchen establishments of those who keep fifteen or twenty negroes, are not to be considered as matters of revenue, but of expense, just after the manner of a stud of supernu merary horses, kept either to indulge the pride or gratify the preju dice of their owner. It is to a conviction of the impolicy and expensiveness of this kind of service, rather than to any moral or religious consideration on the subject, that the decline of slavery is principally to be attributed.-Oration before the New-York State Agricultural Society, Jan. 10. 1792.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

"In one of your gazettes, I find an association against the slavery of negroes, which seems to be worded in such a way as to give no of fence to the moderate men in the southern states. As I have ever been partial to my brethren of that color, I wish, if you are in the socie. ty, you would move, in your own name, for my being admitted on the list."-Letter to Hamilton, from La Fayette.

This association, emanating from one previously formed in Philadelphia, was composed of individuals, of whom the most active were members of the society of Friends. At its second meeting Jay was chosen president, and a committee raised, of which Hamilton was chairman, to devise a system for effecting its objects.

Believing that the influence of such an example would be auspicious, he proposed a resolution that every member of the society should manumit his own slaves.

He never owned a slave; but on the contrary, having learned that a domestic whom he had hired was about to be sold by her master, he immediately purchased her freedom.-Life by John C. Hamilton.

NATHANIEL CHIPMAN.

Notwithstanding the antiquity of Slavery, and confirmed as it is, and has been, by the civil institutions of so many countries, we can. not hesitate to say, it is supported by no right, no principle, acknow. ledged by the laws of Nature; that it is inconsistent with all natural right; the right of personal liberty, of personal security, and of private property,-all are violated or rather annihilated in the person of the slave. Not only does it violate rights and principles allowed natural, but it fails in that safe and sure test of every law of Nature, and of all civil institutions as founded in those laws, its tendency to promote the general interest and happiness of the society where it prevails, as well as of mankind in general. Its general tendency is, in every just view, directly the reverse,-so generally is this now understood, that to attempt the proof, would be as tedious as it is unnecessary.

Still there is an important distinction between this and other kinds of property. The right of the master in the slave is truly a mere civil and not a natural right. The right of the owner in the common, as we may say, natural subjects of property is a natural right and is every where respected and supported by the laws of Nature as well as of society. The right of the master ceases the moment he passes with his slave into a country or state, where there is no law or custom to support it; or unless, as in the United States, there is some provision to protect his property in the slave accompanying him. So a slave escaping into such a state becomes free, unless a provision have been made, enabling the master to reclaim him. But if a slave owner remove with his slave into a state to reside where there is no law to protect his right, it ceases at once, and the slave becomes ipso facto free; because the laws of that state protect all men alike in their natural rights.-Principles of Government.

PATRICK HENRY.-Another thing will contribute to bring general emancipation about. Slavery is detested.-We feel its fatal effects. We deplore it with all the pity of humanity. I repeat it again, that it would rejoice my very soul that every one of my fellow beings was emancipated. As we ought with gratitude to admire the decree of Heaven, which has numbered us among the free, we ought to lament and deplore the necessity of holding our fellow-men in bondage.

DANIEL D. TOMKINS.

To devise the means for the gradual and ultimate extermination from amongst us of slavery, that reproach of a free people, is a work worthy the representatives of a polished and enlightened nation.

Allow me here to observe, that the law which authorizes the transportation of slaves convicted of offences, is very generally considered impolitic and unjust. Impolitic, because it cherishes inducements in the master, to whom alone these unfortunate creatures can look for friendship and protection, to aggravate, to tempt, or to entrap the slave into an error-to operate upon his ignorance or his fears, to confess a charge, or to withhold from him the means of employing counsel for defence, or of establishing a reputation which is frequently the only shield against a criminal allegation. This inducement will be peculiarly strong, where the slave is of that description, the sale of which is prohibited; for a conviction will enable the master to evade that restriction, and to make a lucrative disposition of what might otherwise be a burthen to him. It is unjust, because transportation is added to the full sentence which may be pronounced upon others. To inflict less punishment for the crimes of those who have always breathed the air of freedom, who have been benefited by polished society, and by literary, moral, and religious instruction and example, than to the passions and frailities of the poor, untutored, unrefined, and unfortunate victims of slavery, is a palpable inversion of a precept of our blessed Redeemer. The servant "that knew not, and did commit things worhty of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes; for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required."---Speech to New York Legislature, Jan. 8, 1812.

ANDREW JACKSON.

[On December, 18, 1814, GENRAL. JACKSON issued in the French language the following.]

ADDRESS TO THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR.

Soldiers! When on the banks of the Mobile, I called you to take up arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glory of your white fellow-citizens, I expected much from you; for I was not ignorant that you possessed qualities most formidable to an invading enemy. I knew with what fortitude you could endure hunger and thirst, and all the fatigues of a campaign. I knew well how you loved your native country, and that you had, as well as ourselves, to defend what man holds most dear--bis parents, relations, wife, children, and

property. You have done more than I expected. In addition to the previous qualities I before knew you to possess, I found, moreover, among you a noble enthusiasm, which leads to the performance of great things.

Soldiers! The President of the United States shall hear how praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the Repre sentatives of the American people will, I doubt not, give you the praise your exploits entitle you to. Your general anticipates them in applauding your noble ardor.

The enemy approaches; his vessels cover our lakes; our brave citizens are united, and all contention has ceased among them. Their only dispute is who shall win the prize of valor or who the most glory, its noblest reward.

By Order.

THOMAS BUTLER, Aid-de-camp.

JOSEPH STORY.

The President of the United States, is also authorized to employ our armed vessels and revenue cutters to cruise on the seas for the purpose of arresting all vessels and persons engaged in this traffic in violation of our laws; and bounties as well as a moiety of the captured property are given to the captors to stimulate them in the discharge of their duty.

Under these circumstances, it might well be supposed that the slavetrade would in practice, be extinguished-that virtuous men would by their abhorrence, stay its polluted march, and wicked men would be overawed by its potent punishment. But unfortunately the case is far otherwise. We have but too many melancholy proofs from unquestionable sources, that it is still carried on with all the implacable ferocity and insatiable rapacity of former times. Avarice has grown more subtle in its evasion; and watches and seizes its prey with an appetite quickened, rather than suppressed, by its guilty vigils. American citizens are steeped up to their very mouths (I scarcely use too bold a figure) in this stream of iniquity. They throng the coast of Africa under the stained flags of Spain and Portugal, sometimes selling abroad "their cargoes of despair," and sometimes bringing them into some of our southern ports, and there under the forms of the law defeating the purposes of the law itself, and legalizing their inhuman but profitable adventures. I wish I could say that New England and New England men were free from this deep pollution. But there is some reason, to believe, that they who drive a loathsome traffic, "and buy the muscles and the bones of men," are to be found here also. It is to be hoped the number is small; but our cheeks may well burn with shame while a solitary case is permitted to go unpunished.-From Judge Story's Charge to the Grand Jury of the U. S. Circuit Court, in · Portsmouth, N. H., May Term, 1820.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

If there be, within the extent of our knowledge and influence, any participation in this traffic in slaves, let us pledge ourselves upon the

N. Y. LEGISLATURE-W. WIRT-J. RANDOLPH.

Rock of Plymouth, to extirpate and destroy it. It is not fit that the land of the pilgrims should bear the shame longer. Let that spot be purified, or let it be set aside from the Christian world; let it be put out of the circle of human sympathies and human regards; and let civilized men henceforth have no communion with it.

I invoke those who fill the seats of justice, and all who minister at her altar, that they exercise the wholesome and necessary severity of the law. I invoke the ministers of our religion, that they proclaim its denunciation of those crimes, and add its solemn sanction to the authority of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, whenever or wherever there may be a sinner, bloody with this guilt, within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust.

NEW YORK LEGISLATURE.

On the 20th day of January, 1820, the following preamble and resolutions were taken up in the senate (having passed the house) of the New-York Legislature, and unanimously passed. [Mr. Van Buren, who was then in the senate of that state, voted in favor of them.]

Whereas, the inhibiting the further extension of slavery in the United States, is a subject of deep concern to the people of this state: and whereas, we consider slavery as an evil much to be deplored, and that every constitutional barrier should be interposed to prevent its further extension; and the constitution of the United States clearly gives congress the right to require new states, not comprised within the original boundary of the United States, to make the prohibition of slavery a condition of their adinission into the Union: Therefore,

Resolved, (if the honorable senate concur therein) That our senators be instructed, and our members of congress be requested, to oppose the admission as a state into the Union, of any territory not comprised as aforesaid, without making the prohibition of slavery therein an indispensable condition of admission.

WILLIAM WIRT.

Slavery was contrary to the laws of nature and of nations and that the law of South Carolina, concerning seizing colored seamen, was unconstitutional. * * * Last and lowest, a feculum of beings called overseers-the most abject, degraded, unprincipled racealways cap in hand to the dons who employ them, and furnishing materials for their pride, insolence, and love of dominion.-Life of Patrick Henry.

JOHN RANDOLPH.

Dissipation, as well as power or prosperity hardens the heart, but avarice deadens it to every feeling, but the thirst for riches. Avarice alone could have produced the slave-trade. Avarice alone can drive, as it does drive, this infernal traffic, and the wretched victims, like so many posthorses, whipped to death in a mail coach. Ambition has its cover-sluts, in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war; but where are the trophies of avarice? The handcuff, the manacle,