ed all their Councils, and inspired all their law givers and law makers, were expressly permitted the use of slavery, although they were restricted in its application to the services of any but the Heathen. The authorities upon the subject are numerous and were read by Mr. Smith in the Senate of the United States, in his Speech upon the "Bill for recovering fugitive slaves from labor." "We all know," said Mr. Smith, "that Ham sinned against his God and against his father, for which, Noah, the inspired patriarch, cursed Canan, the son of Ham, and said " a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." NEWTON, who was perhaps as great a Divine as any in New-England, and as profound a scholar, in a book of great celebrity, called his Prophecies, in which he endeavors to prove the divinity of the bible, by the many prophecies that are now fulfilling, says that this very African race are the descendants of Canan, and have been the slaves of various nations, and are still expiating, in bondage, the curse upon themselves and their progenitors. But it may be said that this is only an opinion of Mr. Newton, and that we can see no reason in it. If the gentleman was unwilling to believe Mr. Newton, he would surely believe Moses and the Prophets; and if the Senate would indulge him, he would show from the bible itself that slavery was permitted by divine authority, and for purpose he would open the XXV chap. of Leviticus, and read as follows. "And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, and said, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them &c. (39.) If thy brother that dwelleth by thee, be waxen poor, and sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant, (40) but as a hired servant and as a so journer he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee

that

until the year of Jubilee: (44) both thy bond-men an bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the hea then that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids. (45) Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land and they shall be your possession, (46) and ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children, after you to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bond-men for ever." This, Mr. President, is the word of God, as given to us in the holy bible, delivered by the Lord himself to his chosen servant, Moses. It might be hoped this would satisfy the scruples of all who believe in the divinity of the bible, as the Honorable gentleman from NewHampshire (Mr. Morrill) certainly does, as he has referred to that sacred volume for his creed. It might satisfy the scruples of Mr. Kenric,* and the Divines who appear to be so shocked at seeing a father dispose of his slaves to his children by his last will and testament; as they will perceive the scriptures direct them to go as an inheritance. The Honorable gentleman says he speaks not only his own, but the universal sentiments of all those he represents. If he and his friends of New-Hampshire have not turned aside after strange gods, it is hoped the authority I have quoted might satisfy them."

As to the particular question in relation to the convenience of the slave-holding States, it is much more easily decided than our opponents have been willing to admit. It is no longer a subject of problematical inquiry, whether the white population of

* The author of an inflammatory pamphlet entitled the "Horrors of Slavery," and laid upon the desk of each Senator during the discussion of the Bilk

the SOUTHERN States, more especially South-Carolina and Georgia, are capable, from their local situation and climate, and perhaps we might add to this, some peculiarity in their constitutional economy, of cultivating the soil upon which they live. The climate, in the first place, is inconceivably hostile to the white constitution, and the experience of more than a century has shown that this opinion is a correct one. Those who know any thing of the geographical situation of these States, and of their general surface, know that the very portions, from the cultivation of which the Planter derives most of his wealth, present a succession of deep flats and low bottoms, covered for the greater part of the year with extensive basins or reservoirs of stagnant water, which, under the influence of a tropical sun, throw out nothing but pestilence and disease. In breathing this pestilential atmosphere, the negro, whose constitution seems better adapted to it, subjects himself to the introduction of none of those fatal distempers, to which the white man falls a sure and certain victim. "He is more tolerant of heat," says Mr. Jefferson, "than the white man, because of his greater transpiration, and less so of cold. Perhaps too a difference of structure in the pulmonary apparatus, which a late ingenious experimentalist (Crawford) has discovered to be the principal regulator of animal heat, may have disabled him from extricating in the act of inspiration, so much of that fluid from the outer air, or obliged him in expiration to part with more of it." Whatever physical or anatomical difficulty, however, there may be in accounting for the aptitude of the one, or the inaptitude of the constitution of the other, to the climate, one fact is certain, that there is this difference between the two,

that the same season of the year which carries on its wings the blessings of health to the negro, gives an early warning to the Planter to quit his estates and flee from the destruction that awaits him. We need not advert but to one solitary instance of the truth of this observation. It is well known to all who have ever been beyond the smoke of our city, that the poorer classes of our people, in those belts of land which are denominated the middle and low country, who are compelled to remain on their little farms, together with the Overseers, who, from duty to their employers' interests, must necessarily be upon their plantations during what are called the sickly months, are annually afflicted with the most distressing fevers, while the negroes, generally speaking, enjoy an uninterrupted exemption from them. Let those who, upon the return of frost, visit their country residences, testify what hundreds of pale and emaciated creatures, worn down by fevers and agues, and other diseases of which the country is so productive, meet them on their way and pass like shadows before them.

These remarks apply with double force and energy, when we take into consideration the tremendous exposures to which the cultivation of our great staple commodities, Cotton and Rice, necessarily subjects the laborer, particularly in the latter. The rich low lands and swamps which are so providentially calculated to furnish us with sources of food and riches, would have forever remained unredeemed, and where golden harvests now meet the eye of the grateful proprietor of the soil, nothing but dark and dismal swamps would have been seen. "With the introduction of Rice Planting," says Hewitt, who by the way, was abhorrent in the last degree, of slavery, "into

this country, (Carolina) and the fixing upon it as a staple commodity, the necessity of employing Africans for the purpose of cultivation, was doubled. The low lands of Carolina, which are unquestionably the richest in the country, must have long remained a wilderness, had not Africans, whose natural constitutions were suited to the clime and work, been employed in cultivating this useful article of food and commerce."

Here then is a candid acknowledgment from one of the most scrupulous writers upon the subject of slavery, and who never touches upon it but with feelings of bitter and determined hostility, even while he admits its necessity, under some circumstances. The same reasons urged by him at the period when he wrote as to the necessity, therefore, of the use of Africans in the cultivation of this valuable staple, may now be urged with redoubled force. The country owes almost all its wealth and prosperity, and the revenue of the Union an immense increase in its fund, to the labor of this strong and hardy race.

There is another revolting part of our subject to which we cannot turn but with mingled feelings of indignation and surprise. We refer to the charges made against us of the general inhumanity of slaveholders in their intercourse with them, and the total disregard which is commonly paid to their physical comforts and general happiness. We shall make it our especial duty to rebut this foul slander, indignant that it should have been preferred, yet proud that the refutation will be as full as it will be conclusive. The people of the slave-holding States are as high-minded, intelligent, humane and generous as those of any section of the Union, and they would disdain a system of discipline in relation to their domestics that would