his fields with his own hands, than to pamper himself by day, and pillow his head on down at night, at the cost of a wantonly injured fellow-creature.

I know it will be said, "You would make us poor." Be poor, then, and thank God for your honest poverty. Better be poor than unjust. Better beg than steal. Better live in an almshouse, better die than trample on a fellow-creature and reduce him to a brute, for selfish gratification. What! have we yet to learn that "it profits us nothing to gain the whole world, and lose our souls?"

We

Let it not be replied, in scorn, that we of the North, notorious for love of money, and given to selfish calculations, are not the people to call others to resign their wealth. I have no desire to shield the North. We have, without doubt, a great multitude, who, were they slaveholders, would sooner die than relax their iron grasp, than yield their property in men to justice and the commands of God. have those who would fight against abolition, if by this measure the profit of their intercourse with the South should be materially impaired. The present excitement among us is, in part, the working of mercenary principles. But because the North joins hands with the South, shall iniquity go unpunished or unrebuked? Can the league of the wicked, the revolt of worlds, repeal the everlasting law of heaven and earth? Has God's throne fallen before Mammon's? Must duty find no voice, no organ, because corruption is universally diffused? Is not this a fresh motive to solemn warning, that, everywhere northward and southward, the rights of human beings are held so cheap, in comparison with worldly gain?

JAMES G. BIRNEY.

I. It would, in my judgment, produce great effect on the slaveholders, to promulgate at the North, the doctrine, that it is their duty immediately to emancipate their slaves. Many of them, doubtless, would be deaf to this admonition of Christian friendship, and repel it as officious and intermeddling; but I believe it would find access to the best consciences of the South, and that its tendency would be, still further to arouse consciences that are already a good deal agitated.

II. The most effectual mode of preserving tranquillity among the slaves of the South will be, a knowledge of the fact, that efforts of a peaceful and Christian character are making in their behalf. Just in proportion as such efforts are urged, and give hope to the slaves, that the time of their deliverance draws nigh, will be their patient continuance in their present state-lest an act of indiscretion in them defeat what has been already gained, mortify and disappoint their friends, and discourage them from making renewed exertions. I doubt not that the tranquillity of the British West Indies, so far as it was preserved for the last ten years, was secured by the influence of the philanthropists in the mother country. The slaves with whom I

have conversed on the subject of the present efforts have, without exception, looked upon their sober and peaceful demeanor as an essential contribution on their parts to their success.

III. I consider all schemes of gradual emancipation as utterly unfit to meet the present evils, and to avert the dangers which threaten from the continued existence of slavery. They are all, in the first place, inoperative on the master-they let go his conscience, by not insisting on immediate repentance for present sin. In the second place, they produce no good effect on the heart and mind of the slave. Founded on expediency, or policy, as all such plans must be from their very nature, the slave will feel no respect for the motive which originates them. He will consider that nothing has been done from a regard to his rights or his interests, but all for the advantage and benefit of the master. The master, uninfluenced by Christian principle in the act of emancipation, would not, in all probability, follow his freedman with Christian effort for his moral and intellectual improvement-the freedman feeling no respect for the motives of the master in giving him his liberty, would naturally, as it appears to me, reject his influence. Thus they would be left unbound by any tie that would lead to continued kindness on the one side, and respect and grateful recollections on the other. Any plan of emancipation, however gradual it might be, would be better than perpetual slavery ; but surely it is the great desideratum of any plan, that it leave the parties friends, as freemen. None will effect this which is not founded on Christian principle-and there can be none, so far as I am enabled to see, which so fully recognises Christian principle as its basis, as that which urges immediate emancipation.

IV. There would be no danger of personal violence to the master from emancipation, brought about by Christian benevolence. Such an apprehension is the refuge of conscious guilt. Emancipation, brought about on the principle above mentioned, I hesitate not to say, would, in most instances, where the superior intelligence of the master was acknowledged, produce on the part of the beneficiaries, the most entire and cordial reliance on his counsel and friendship. I do not believe that I have any warmer friends than my manumitted slaves-none, I am sure, if sacrifices were called for, who would more freely make them, to promote my happiness.

The injustice which the slave feels as done him in taking the avails of his labor, leads him to take clandestinely, what he persuades himself he is entitled to. He has comparatively no character to lose, no ultimate object, for the attainment of which, the building up of a good character would contribute. As a freeman, character would be essential to him—his earnings would be his; his house, his furniture, his comforts would be his-his wife, his children would be his; the apprehension of forcible separation would depart, and he would have every motive that ordinarily influences men to build up a good name for worth and honesty. The depredations on the masters' property by slaves, I should suppose, are tenfold what they would be by the same slaves made freemen.

V. The slaves, if emancipated on any terms, would be able to provide for themselves and their families. If they should be kindly treated by their former masters, and Christian benevolence should make the same efforts for their improvement, that are made in many places for the improvement of the distant heathen-they would not only provide for themselves, but with such opportunities, become good citizens. I have made frequent inquiry as to the number of paupers among the colored people of Kentucky, amounting to nearly five thousand-I have, as yet, heard of but one. I think it is a rare thing, so far as I have had opportunity of observing, in slave states, to see free colored persons arraigned in courts, to answer to criminal accusations. My own manumitted slaves, at the end of the first year of their employment on wages, will have used but half the amount they are to receive. They have not fallen into disorderly or vagrant habits; but have manifested—at least the younger ones—an increased desire for knowledge, and for attendance on the Sabbath schools, and the common ministrations of the sanctuary. To delay emancipation, in order to attain the greatest good it is believed will result from it, is, in my judgment, but to accumulate the difficulties now in the way, and to delay to a remoter period its full consummation.

VI. Having emancipated my slaves from a full conviction, that the bondage in which I was holding them was sinful, I conceive I have no greater right to ask for compensation from any quarter, than I would have in any other case, where a similar conviction would lead me to return to my neighbor any property to which he had an unquestionable right, and which I by superior power had withheld from him. The claim of "compensation," it seems to me, can be fairly sustained only on the ground, that slaveholding is not sinful. Would not the Ephesian converts, who at once abandoned their "curious arts," and burned the "books" which contained instructions in them, have been as equitably entitled to compensation as the slaveholder, who abandons a property equally condemned by God's law, and commits to the flames the charter by which he has hitherto supported his groundless claims?

VII. It has been my opinion, from the best and most impartial observation I could make, that the principles, measures, and doctrines entertained, pursued and inculcated by the advocates of "colonization," so far from having any "visible influence upon the system of slavery" for its removal, have rather tended to confirm and strengthen it. These propositions-that slavery may be innocently continued till the slaves can be removed and comfortably provided for in Africa -the danger to the colony, of removing many to it very soon-its slow growth, the great comparative increase of the slave population -have removed each particular slaveholder's duty so far in advance of him, that in the distant haze, it becomes scarcely a discernible point. Beside this, it has tended in a great degree, as I believe, to raise up and strengthen prejudice against the free colored people of our country. The whites, who are under the influence of this prejudice, think the free colored people ought to remove from the country

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of their birth, because they (the whites) wish it, and not because it is a desirable thing to those who are called upon to act.

I have thus answered, much more briefly, however, than I would under other circumstances, your several inquiries. I trust what I have done may contribute somewhat to the advancement of the great cause of humanity in which so many Christian heads and hearts are now so deeply interested. But have not you, and the particular Church of which you are members, long since purified yourselves from all participation in the sin of slaveholding? To your honor be it said, you were the first to cleanse your skirts from this foul stain. But is there nothing more for you to do? Will you, who can speak as having authority, in no wise rebuke your neighbor, but suffer sin to be upon him? Will you, who, having purified yourselves, and are, therefore, unrebukable, sit quietly by, clothed in the heavenly armor of innocence, and behold undisturbed a system shooting up into giant size, and acquiring giant power for destruction-for destruction not only of its victims, but of those who lead the victims to its bloody altars? May I not persuade myself you will not?-Reply to Queries of some Friends, 1835.

JAMES T. WOODBURY.

We can vote slavery down in Columbia and in our territories. "But," it is objected, "it will dissolve the Union." Mr. Birney says, the South never will do it, for they cannot support themselves, and we are more liable to go there and fight, to keep their slaves in subjection. The slaves, if they are freed, will not come here, their labor is wanted in the South. The South do not hate the black skin with which God has covered them, as we do. "But O they smell bad." No bad smell while they are slaves; they are about the persons of their masters and mistresses, and nurse their children, and do not scent them with the bad smell,—but as soon as they are free-bad smell.

"GENIUS OF UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION."

Much has been said by the advocates and apologists of slavery, about the danger of emancipation-that it would be accompanied or followed by insurrections, massacres, and servile war. Now no sane man desires to turn loose upon society, a horde of ignorant men, either white or black, without the salutary restraints of law. We wish to see the assumed right of property in human flesh abolished, and the laws made for the protection, as well as for the government and restraint, of every man of every nation and color. To place every man under the protection of the law, and to abolish that licentiousness and tyranny which are now tolerated, would be to restore society to

its natural order, and give every man an interest in the preservation of the peace and harmony of the community. All fear of hostility and temptations to excite insurrections, or to shed the blood of the white men, would be banished with the removal of the cause which produce them. In all cases where the experiment has been tried, [in the West Indian Islands,] our reasoning from the nature of man, and the influence which just treatment will always exert on his moral character, has been proved by incontestable facts.-Evan Lewis.

PUBLIC LEDGER.

An impressive lesson is taught to the people of the United States, by the abortive attempts of the French to become free. This lesson is that without republican organization throughout all branches of society, constitutions are of very little use; that such organization does not necessarily flow from free constitutions, but that free constitutions to endure and be practically useful, must flow from such organization. What then is the conclusion to which every reflecting American will come? That this organization is to be maintained as the very foundation of his liberties.

Is this organization in danger? We regret the necessity which proclaims us to answer in the affirmative. A few years since, and any American citizen would have pronounced any attempt to disturb or interrupt a public meeting, an act of high treason against his liberties. What is the case now? Such disturbances are of daily occurrence, and all deliberation is at the mercy of disorderly mobs. This is a subject for grave reflection, and we invite to it the serious consideration of every republican. The consequences are not limited to the interruption of the meeting disturbed. They strike deeper. They endanger our whole system. They lead to despotism.-Philadelphia, 1837.

WILLIAM LEGGETT.

The whole matter resolves itself into this plain alternative, "Either the northern states must give up the right of free discussion, or they must give up the federal compact." When the choice has really to be made between the two evils, we will not so disparage the free spirit of the people of this portion of the confederacy, as to suppose it possible they can hesitate for a moment, in making their selection. It was "to secure the blessings of liberty" we confederated; and we would rend the compact which holds the states together into a thousand pieces, and scatter them to all the carrion kites, before we would seek to preserve it for a single instant at the expense of that best privilege of freemen-the unlimited right of speech and of the press.