to prohibit the importation of slaves after the year 1808," he says, --

1

"But the gentlemen in opposition accuse this system of a crime, because it was not prohibited by them at once. I suspect these gentlemen are not acquainted with the business of the diplomatic body, or they would know that an argument might be made that did not perfectly accord with the will or pleasure of any one person. Instead of finding fault with what has been gained, I am happy to see a disposition in the United States to do so much."

He closes his remarks with these words:

"Upon the whole, sir, the law has been my study from my infancy, and my only profession. I have gone through the circle of office, in the legislature, executive, and judicial departments of government, and, from all my study, observation, and experience, I must declare that, from a full examination and due consideration of the system, it appears to be the best the world has yet

seen.

66

I congratulate you upon the fair prospect of its being adopted, and I am happy in the expectation of seeing accomplished what has been long my ardent wish, that you will hereafter have a salutary permanency in majestracy and stability in the laws." 2

These ideas might have been realized at this time, so far as we can judge, were it not for slavery. It is to this alone we can attribute the mobs, the lynchings, and the use of the bowie knife. These have been so generally made use of at the South, we are led to inquire where, south of

Elliot's Reports, vol. iii. p. 318. 2 Idem, vol. iii. p. 322.

the Potomac, has the majesty of the laws been at all maintained, if the question of slavery has been in the most remote degree involved? There is no law for the slave, or him who desires his freedom: both are beyond the protection of law; and, so far as they are concerned, the majesty of the country is but a broken reed; and, if a man should attempt. to lean on it, he would be pierced through as with a dart. The universal expression is, there is no trust to them; and yet this is called a land of liberty and of laws. In such a state of things can any thing be more untrue? it is neither one nor the other. The slave is restrained because it is said he is born a slave; the white man, because he must not question such violation of every thing that is just and true, honorable, or of good report. And, consequently, we find in all the arguments brought forward to sustain the system-if arguments there are any a most confused mixture of truth and falsehood, and such an attempt to blend liberty and slavery, that perfect nonsense, or the blending the meaning of words, is the only result; or else we come off like the platter in Mother Goose's Melodies, wiped perfectly clean:

"Jack Sprat could eat no fat,

His wife could eat no lean;

And so betwixt them both

They wiped the platter clean."

It is thus with the rights of both the white and colored man: the South will not endure the slave should possess any, and the people at the North cannot endure the white man should open his lips

to assert he has any; and so, forsooth, for the mess of pottage which it is supposed can be wrung out of the hard earnings of the slave, this whole land, this whole continent, must be delivered over into the hands of despotism; and that beautiful and satisfactory idea, that men, as a body, can govern themselves, and by the light of reason, which as a lamp is placed within the breast of every one, guided by the Spirit of God, is enough to show them in their path, and direct them in the way they should go, must give place to the horrible one that man requires a keeper; that by his Creator a large portion, at least, are made incapable of taking care of themselves, and, in consequence, there must be lords, there must be masters. Are the people of America ready to sanction this doctrine? Are they ready, after passing through the severe struggle they have, now to lay down their arms and submit unresistingly to the chains that are ready to be forged for their limbs? Do they mean to give up the contest, and recline in inglorious ease, and let the man be swallowed up in the brute? If so, let slavery be continued; let our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence be blotted from the records of the nation; let us proclaim to the world we are a debased people; that all we have heretofore said upon the subject of liberty was but a "rhetorical flourish," unmeaning sounds, and spoken only to deceive; that we all had ulterior views. It was not the good of man we sought; it was not for him we contended; but, rather, that our own selfishness might be

gratified, and that we might have increased opportunity to lord it over our brother man.

We do not yet believe the American people have so far descended in the scale of degradation that they will sanction the proceeding of those at the South who yet hold slaves, or those at the North who encourage them in it. But, rather, that they will come out and assert the purity of their motives, and in all their tribunals they will speak a voice on the side of freedom that shall not be misunderstood.

CHAPTER XII.

EXTRACTS FROM MR. WIRT'S LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY.

IN making these, and perhaps in some of our other extracts, we have not strictly followed the precise language, though we have, in all cases, we believe, kept strictly to the idea. We have advanced no thought that was not in the mind of the writer or speaker. We should have had to copy so much from this work, had we used in all cases the language of Mr. Wirt or Mr. Henry, though the language of both is extremely interesting, and is well worth perusing by every one, it would have swelled our own volume beyond what might be desirable. As we have, however, made our references when the language is the most closely followed, we hope those who are sensitive on this point will excuse us for any departure we have allowed ourselves in this particular.

In making the following extracts, we are aware it may involve us in some repetition; but, as they help to elucidate our subject, and to show the thoughts and feelings of one of the most distinguished men of the age in which he lived, the anxiety he felt for the liberties of the country, and the jealousy with which he received the adoption of the present Constitution of the United States,