jurisdiction, to take on board, receive, or transport in any vessel from the coast of Africa, or any other foreign country, or from sea, any negro, mulatto, or person of color, not an inhabitant of, or held to service in the United States, for the purpose of holding, selling, or disposing of such person as a slave, or to be held to service or labor.

It is also made an offence for any person within our jurisdiction, to hold, purchase, sell, or otherwise dispose of any negro, mulatto, or person of color for a slave, or to be held to service or labor, who shall have been imported into the United States in violation of our laws-and in general the prohibitions in these cases extend to all persons who shall abet or aid in these illegal designs. These offences are visited as well with severe pecuniary and personal penalties, as with the forfeiture of the vessel and equipments, which have been employed in the furtherance of these illegal projects; and in general, a moiety of the pecuniary penalties and forfeitures is given to any person who shall inform against the offenders and prosecute them to conviction. 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 such circumstances, it might well be supposed that the slave-trade 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 coasts 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.

And, gentlemen, how can we justify ourselves or apologize for an indifference to this subject? Our constitutions of government have declared that all men are born free and equal, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are the right of enjoying their lives,

liberties, and property, and of seeking and obtaining their own safety and happiness. May not the miserable African ask, “Am I not a man and a brother?" We boast of our noble struggle against the encroachments of tyranny, but do we forget that it assumed the mildest form in which authority ever assailed the rights of its subjects, and yet that there are men among us who think it no wrong to condemn the shivering negro to perpetual slavery?

We believe in the Christian religion. It commands us to have good will to all men; to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to do unto all men as we would they should do unto us. It declares our accountability to the Supreme God for all our actions, and holds out to us a state of future rewards and punishments as the sanction by which our conduct is to be regulated. And yet there are men calling themselves Christians, who degrade the negro by ignorance to a level with the brutes, and deprive him of all the consolations of religion. He alone, of all the rational creation, they seem to think, is to be at once accountable for his actions, and yet his actions are not to be at his own disposal; but his mind, his body, and his feelings are to be sold to perpetual bondage. To me it appears perfectly clear that the slave-trade is equally repugnant to the dictates of reason and religion, and is an offence equally against the laws of God and man. Yet strange to tell, one of the pretences upon which the modern slavery of the Africans was justified, was the "duty of converting the heathen." * * I forbear to trace the subsequent scenes of their miserable lives, worn out in toils from which they can receive no profit, and oppressed with wrongs from which they can hope for no relief.

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*

The scenes which I have described are almost literally copied from the most authentic and unquestionable narrative, published under the highest authority. They present a picture of human wretchedness and human depravity, which the boldest imagination would hardly have dared to portray, and from which (one should think) the most abandoned profligate would shrink with horror. Let it be considered that this wretchedness does not arise from the awful visitation of Providence in the shape of plagues, famines, or earthquakes, the natural scourges of mankind; but is inflicted by man on man from the accursed love of gold. May we not justly dread the displeasure of that Almighty Being who is the common father of us all, if we do not by all means within our power, endeavor to suppress such infamous cruelties. If we cannot, like the good Samaritan, bind up the wounds and soothe the miseries of the friendless Africans, let us not, like the Levite, pass with sullen indifference on the other side. What sight can be more acceptable in the eyes of heaven than of a good man struggling in the cause of oppressed humanity? What consolation can be more sweet in a dying hour, than the recollection, that at least one human being may have been saved from sacrifice by our vigilance in enforcing the law?-From Judge Story's Charge to the Grand Jury of the U. S. Circuit Court, in Portsmouth, N. H., May Term, 1820.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

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DANIEL WEBSTER.

Important as I deem it, to discuss on all proper occasions, the policy of the measures at present pursued, it is still more important to maintain the right of such discussion, in its full and just extent. Sentiments lately sprung up, and now growing fashionable, make it necessary to be explicit on this point. The more I perceive a disposition to check the freedom of inquiry by extravagant and unconstitutional pretences, the firmer shall be the tone, in which I shall assert, and the freer the manner, in which I shall exercise it. It is the ancient and undoubted prerogative of this people to canvass public measures, and the merits of public men. It is a "home-bred right;" a fireside privilege. It hath ever been enjoyed in every house, cottage, and cabin in the nation. It is not to be drawn into the controversy. It is as undoubted as the right of breathing the air, or walking on the earth. Belonging to private life as a right, it belongs to public life as a duty; and it is the last duty, which those, whose representative I am, shall find me to abandon. Aiming at all times to be courteous and temperate in its use, except when the right itself shall be questioned; I shall then carry it to its extent. I shall place myself on the extreme boundary of my rights, and bid defiance to any arm, that would move me from my ground. This high constitutional privilege I shall defend and exercise within this house, and without this house, and in all places, in time of war, in time of peace, and at all times. Living, I shall assert it; dying, I shall assert it; and should I leave no other inheritance to my children, by the blessing of God, I will still leave them the inheritance of free principles, and the example of a manly, independent, and conscientious discharge of them.-Speech in Congress, 1814.

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

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N. Y. LEGISLATURE-WILLIAM WIRT-JOHN RANDOLPH.

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 that 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 admission 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 race-always 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 of it, 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, and the blood-stained cowhide! What man is worse received in society for being a hard master? Who denies the hand of a sister or daughter to such monsters ?—nay, they have even appeared in "the

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abused shape of the vilest of women." I say nothing of India, or Amboyna of Cortes, or Pizarro.-Southern Literary Messenger.

[In March, 1816, John Randolph submitted the following resolution to the House of Representatives:] "Resolved, That a committee be appointed, to inquire into the existence of an inhuman and illegal traffic of slaves, carried on in and through the District of Columbia, and to report whether any, and what measures are necessary for putting a stop to the same."

Virginia is so impoverished by the system of slavery, that the tables will sooner or later be turned, and the slaves will advertise for runaway masters."

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Sir, I neither envy the head nor the heart of that man from the North, who rises here to defend slavery upon principle."-Rebuke of Edward Everett, in Congress, 1820.

The General Court has decided that the will of Mr. Randolph, dated in December, 1821, with its codicil annexed, the codicil of 1826, the four codicils of 1828, and the codicil of 1831, written in London, should be admitted to probate as the last will and testament of that extraordinary man. The effect of these instruments is to liberate his slaves, and provide for their removal to one of the states or territories. The Court was nearly unanimous, one Judge only dissenting. An appeal, we understand, was taken to the Court of Appeals.-Rich. Eng.

"In the name of God, amen. I, John Randolph, of Roanoke, in the county of Charlotte, do ordain this writing, written with my own hand, this fourth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, to be my last will and testament, hereby revoking all others whatsoever.

“I give to my slaves their freedom, to which my conscience tells me they are justly entitled. It has a long time been a matter of the deepest regret to me, that the circumstances under which I inherited them, and the obstacles thrown in the way by the laws of the land, have prevented my emancipating them in my lifetime, which it is my full intention to do in case I can accomplish it.

"All the rest and residue of my estate, (with exceptions hereinafter made,) whether real or personal, I bequeath to William Leigh, Esq., of Halifax, Attorney at Law-to the Rev. William Meade, of Frederick, and to Francis Scott Key, Esq., of Georgetown, District of Columbia, in trust, for the following uses and purposes, viz: 1st. To provide one or more tracts of land in any of the states or territories, not exceeding, in the whole, four thousand acres, nor less than two thousand acres to be partitioned and proportioned by them, in such a manner as to them may seem best, among the said slaves. 2d. To pay the expense of their removal, and of furnishing them with necessary cabins, clothes and utensils. 3d. To pay the expenses, not exceeding four hundred dollars per annum, of the education of John Randolph Clay, until he shall arrive at the age of twenty-three -leaving with him my injunction, to scorn to eat the bread of idleness or dependence.