majorities than that. Nay, he might go further, and insist that that very representation had ever been, in fact, the ruling power of this government.

The history of the Union has afforded a continual proof that this representation of property, which they enjoy, as well in the election of President and Vice President of the United States, as upon the floor of the House of Representatives, has secured to the slaveholding states the entire control of the national policy, and, almost without exception, the possession of the highest executive office of the Union. Always united in the purpose of regulating the affairs of the whole Union by the standard of the slaveholding interest, their disproportionate numbers in the electoral colleges have enabled them, in ten out of twelve quadriennial elections, to confer the Chief Magistracy upon one of their own citizens. Their suffrages at every election, without exception, have been almost exclusively confined to a candidate of their own caste.-Speech in Congress, Feb. 4, 1833.

GENERAL DUFF GREEN.

We are of those who believe the South has nothing to fear from a servile war. We do not believe that the abolitionists intend, nor could they, if they would, excite the slaves to insurrection. The danger of this is remote. We believe that we have most to fear from the organized action upon the consciences and fears of slaveholders themselves; from the insinuations of their dangerous heresies into our schools, our pulpits, and our domestic circles. It is only by alarming the consciences of the weak and feeble, and diffusing among our own people a morbid sensibility on the question of slavery, that the abolitionists can accomplish their object. Preparatory to this, they are now laboring to saturate the non-slaveholding states with the belief that slavery is a sin against God; that the "national compact" involves the non-slaveholders in that sin; and that it is their duty to toil and suffer, that our country may be delivered from what they term its blackest stain, its foulest reproach, its deadliest curse.-Southern Review.

JOSEPH RITNER.

Last, but worst of all, came the base bowing of the knee to the dark spirit of slavery.

For the preservation of this last and most cherished article of our national political creed, the sacrifice of which has not yet been completed, it is our duty to make all possible effort.

To ascertain what have been, nay, what are the doctrines of the people of this state, on the subject of domestic slavery, reference need only be made to the statute book and journals of the legislature. They will be found imprinted in letters of light upon almost every page. In 1, Smith's Laws, 493, is found an "act for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania," with a preamble which should be printed in letters of gold. This is the first act of the kind passed in any part of the Union, and was nobly put forth to the world, in the year 1780,

in the midst of the struggle for national freedom. This just doctrine was, through a long course of years, adhered to and perfected, till slavery ceased in our state. And finally, in 1827, the following open avowal of the state doctrine, was prefaced to the act " to prevent certain abuses of the laws relative to fugitives from labor." "The traffic in slaves, now abhorred by all the civilized world, ought not in the slightest degree to be tolerated in the state of Pennsylvania."-Pamphlet Laws, page 485.

Not only has Pennsylvania thus expelled the evil from her own bor ders, but she has on all proper occasions, endeavored to guard her younger sisters from the pollution. On the 19th of December, 1819, the following language was unanimously made use of by the legisla ture, and approved of by the governor, on the question of admitting new states into the Union, with the right of holding slaves.

"That the senators and representatives of this state, in the congress of the United States, be, and they are hereby requested to vote against the admission of any territory as a state into the Union, unless the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be prohibited, and all children born within the said territory after its admission into the Union as a state, shall be free, but may be held to service until the age of twenty-five years."

The preamble to this resolution, too long to be cited at large, is worthy of all consideration at the present juncture.

On the much discussed question of slavery in the District of Columbia, there never has been any thing like hesitation. On the 23d of January, 1819, the legislature passed a resolution instructing our representatives in congress to advocate the passage of a law for its abolition; and the voice of public opinion, as expressed through the press, at meetings, and in pctitions, has been unchanging on the subject.

These tenets, then, viz: opposition to slavery at home, which, by the blessing of Providence, has been rendered effectual; opposition to the admission into the Union of new slaveholding states; and opposition to slavery in the District of Columbia, the very hearth and domestic abode of the national honor-have ever been, and are the cherished doctrines of our state. Let us fellow-citizens, stand by and maintain them unshrinkingly and fearlessly. While we admit and scrupulously respect the constitutional rights of other states, on this momentous subject, let us not, either by fear or interest, be driven from aught of that spirit of independence and veneration for freedom, which has ever characterized our commonwealth.

Above all, let us never yield up the right of free discussion of any evil which may arise in the land or any part of it; convinced that the moment we do so, the bond of union is broken. For the union being a voluntary compact to continue together for certain specified purposes, the instant one portion of it succeeds in imposing terms and dictating conditions upon another, not found in the contract, the relation between them changes, and that which was union becomes subjection.-Message to Pennsylvania Legislature, 1836.

CHARLES SIMMONS.

If no more than one in ten of the 1,244,000 slaves who are sup posed to be "merchantable" should be crushed annually under the horrid system, and be cut off from no more than ten years upon an average, and if we suppose this time to be worth no more than 25 cents each working day, or 78 dollars a year, it amounts to a pecuniary loss of over $97,000,000 annually. But it is quite possible that this estimate of one in ten is too low by half; for we can scarcely conceive any thing more crushing to both body and mind, than slavery, with its shocking cruelties.

The impoverishing, evil tendency and effects of slavery are to be seen in the wide spread bankruptcy, the diminished value of estates, the worn out plantations, the prostration of the currencies, the misc. rable state of society, and other evils which are now severely expe rienced in slave states, and others, according to the nature and extent of their governmental and commercial connections with them. It is said the slave states of this union are now indebted to the people of the state of New-York alone, about $100,000,000-a large majority of which will probably remain forever unpaid. Verily the robbery of the wicked shall destroy them. Should any think the above estimate of the impoverishing tendency and effects of slavery exaggerated, I ask them to read over Mr. Preston's speech, delivered a few years since at Baltimore, on his return from his northern tour, in which he contrasted the state of the north with the south. I ask them to cast an eye to the present contrast between New-York and Virginia-or Ohio and Kentucky.

Thus it appears, that without calculating the congressional expenses occasioned by slavery-its baneful influence upon the morals and manners of the nation-the loss of the time of slaves while in jail, or in recovering from horrid scourgings, and without reckoning the gain on estates by emancipation, we have an annual loss by means of slavery, of over $167,000,000.-—Annual cost of Slavery.

CHARLES RIDLEY

"By his last will and testament, he emancipated all his slaves. The number is variously estimated at, from two hundred and fifty to upwards of four hundred!! It is understood, that all of them, who have attained the age of twenty-eight years, are to be free immediate. ly-such as are over forty-five, to have some provision made for their support, out of his estate. Those of the younger class are to be free, the males at twenty-eight years of age, and the females at twentyfive.

Taking all things into view, we consider it one of the most praise.

worthy deeds that we can recóllect, of the kind, in the annals of our country. Gen. Ridgely has long been known as a very influential character in Maryland. For several years, he acted as governor of the state; and few men have taken upon themselves a greater share of the burthen of public business than he has done.

He was often heard to express his uneasiness at the circumstance of keeping so many of his fellow-creatures in unlimited and hered; tary bondage; and, we have good grounds to suppose that it was a sense of religious, as well as moral and political duty, that prompted him to the performance of this just, humane, and pious deed."—G. U. E. Aug. 1829.

JOHN BLACK,

Surely the writer must deserve well of slave-holders, who has endeavored to wipe off their reproach, and reconcile slavery with christianity. But if he has actually succeeded, will not the Bible be the loser? Will not deists triumph? Sensible deists and bible defenders have heretofore agreed on some first principles. That there is such a thing as moral justice-that there is such a thing as virtue, and that there is an eternal and irreconcilable difference between moral right and wrong. That whatever subverts or destroys these principles cannot be a revelation from God. I confess, much as I love the Bible, and if I know my own heart, I love it, my faith in its being the revealed will of God, would be sorely shaken if I believed that it approved of slavery, tyranny, despotism, or the destruction of the rights of man. Certain I am, that in language clear as noon day, it condemns all these.

THEODORE SEDGWICK.

I have ever thought the protestations of the southern people against a free discussion of the subject of slavery, as being an improper interference with their "peculiar institutions" as wholly destitute of foundation in law, in the constitution, or in proper practices of a free government. And as I take this right to be unquestionable, and the opposition to it as slavish and odious; in my own person I shall ever defend it, and I will here take the liberty of stating the grounds upon which, in my opinion, the defence ought to be put a subject which I fear is not thoroughly understood. The constitution is a charter of freedom; the freedom of the press, and of speech, are the great pillars upon which the whole fabric rests. But this is not all. The constitution in providing for its amendment, has by that act alone guarantied the fullest discussion of every principle contained in it-for, how can any thing be amended without being considered, and how can anything be considered without being discussed?

It is not true, that slavery is the "peculiar institution" of the south; it is our institution also, we have allowed it; we have con sented that slave property shall be represented; that it shall in part choose our representatives, senators, and president; it is a part of the compact. But it is a part, an article of the constitution that

may be amended; and it is clear, that every attempt to abolish slavery is virtually an endeavor to amend the constitution. Abolition meetings, therefore, can have no other design than to induce the slave-holding states to consent for our mutual benefit to abolish this part of the compact, and thus ensure emancipation. There are other grounds upon which it is impossible to consider the discussion of American slavery as unconstitutional, or opposed to the principles which bind us together. Slavery in every form is anti-democratic, not, to be sure, according to the creeds or slang of party, but according to those eternal principles, which will survive all party. And I must confess, that I long since hoped, that this question might have been so treated, as to be removed from all party influence, and committed to that great mass of democratic citizens of all parties, in whose hearts the fire of liberty is ever burning, however much their judgments may for a while be confounded by party intrigue, attachments, and appeals. Nor do I believe that abolition doctrines will make any sure progress, till this can be effected-till slavery is considered in its true light, as an old poison left in the veins; as fostering the worst principles of aristocracy, of pride, and aversion to labor; as therefore the natural enemy of the poor man, the oppressed man, the laboring man. In this sense, it is not a fanciful question about the equality of the black and white races, never perhaps to be settled to the satisfaction of all, but whether absolute dominion over any creature in the image of a man, be a wholesome power in a free country; whether this be a school in which to train the young republican mind; whether slave blood and free blood can course healthily together in the same body politic. With the true lovers of freedom, therefore, of democratic government, of the race of man, rich or poor, high or low, and the sincere haters of oppression, and of every degree of privileged inequality and cruelty, there can be no question about the right to discuss slavery. Whatever may be present appearances, and by whatever names party may choose to call things, this question must finally be settled by the democracy of the country. It is plain to me, therefore, that the subject ought for the present at least to be transferred from congress to the great body of the people, on account of their superior purity, disinterestedness, and reasonableness, great a solecism as that may appear; and treated with that reason, moderation, and generosity which is due to our southern brethren, in the unhappy predicament in which they are placed; and in such a way, that the pestilent spirit of party, which in the United States is poisoning the minds of the people, perverting their judgments, and degrading the nation in the eyes of the whole civilized world, may not touch it.