few days; and in gleaning knowledge and information, I was introduced to a Slave Holder from South Carolina, who in a conversation on the subject of slavery, literally expressed his surprise that I should think Negroes "had souls like white men ;" and meeting afterwards, at the boarding house, with an intelligent gentleman from one of the slave-holding States, and expressing my surprise that slavery should exist at all in America, the first principle of whose government declares, that "all men are by nature free, equal, and independent;" he observed, that it could not be supposed that Negroes were considered or thought of as included in the expression, "all men." However persons may sophisticate as apologists for slavery, its existence is grossly inconsistent with the great charter of the nation. It is true, that England first carried slavery to the shores of America, but having thrown off their allegiance, and made the above noble declaration in the spirit of their constitution, every principle of reason, consistency, and justice, demands the freedom of more than a million of human beings, who are held in oppressive bondage within the territories of the United States. The general government have condemned its unnatural and forced cruelty, and slavery is abo lished at New York, and throughout the eastern States; yet, by an 'Imperium in imperio,' in the government of separate States, it exists from the city of Washington throughout the southern States. Its existence at all, must be considered, by every honest mind, as a national disgrace, and "forms a blot in the escutcheon of America which all the waters of the Atlantic cannot wash out." Difficulties may exist, and emancipation may be gradual, but let it be pursued both by England and America, as absolutely necessary. "I tremble for my country," said a late president of the United States, Mr. Jefferson, "I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just." Humanity may mitigate their sufferings, and habit render the slaves less sensible of their degradation, but their general state is truly pitiable, and that of severe affliction. "Hark! heard ye not that piercing cry It is a melancholy fact that they find it more advantageous to breed slaves in the western parts of Virginia and Georgia, than to raise the appropriate produce of the soil, and there are seasons when many hundreds, if not thousands, are driven down like cattle to New Orleans for sale in the markets. In the more immediate want of slaves, advertisements like the following, which I copied from a Virginia Newspaper, under date of July, 1825, are frequently to be met with. 66 CASH FOR NEGROES." "A liberal price to be paid for a few likely young Negroes, men and women," &c. &c. And one of the papers advertized for sale, "An excellent servant, 26 years old, with, or without a child, six months old.” "What is man? and what man seeing this, It is in those changes, however, which are now spreading over the globe, that we look for an alteration in the brutalizing and cruel system of slavery. A system, which England and the United States never can perpetuate. The tide of the world is happily in opposition to it; and the general wish of the people in Great Britain and America will, no doubt, by a succession of steps, at length prevail. It is only by monopoly, that the slave system can be main tained; for in the more enlightened policy of governments in fostering the rising liberties of the world, all monopolies will cease. Free labour will be brought into competition, and found far more valuable than the labour of slaves; and a free market will be opened to a fair competition in the sale of sugar, which will gradually knock off every fetter, and enfranchise millions of our fellow men, who are now enslaved under the guilt of cruelty and injustice. The city of New York is in north latitude, about 40, and situated at the mouth of one of the finest rivers in the world, called the Hudson, which opens a free communication with Albany, and many other inland towns towards Canada, and the Lakes. The streets are long and regular, and the houses good: and it claims the pre-eminence of all other cities in the United States, as the London of America, from the extent of its population, excellent markets, and yielding in tonnage and customs to the Republic, nearly one half of its revenue. Except the City Hall, there are but few public buildings worthy of particular notice. As a favourite promenade, the Battery is deservedly so, though wanting space for the numbers who resort there on summer evenings.-A beautiful Bay expands before it, presenting to the eye vessels of every description arriving and sailing with every breeze that blows.-The inhabitants of this great commercial city strike the eye of a stranger, landing immediately from the opposite shores, as generally of a consumptive habit, wanting that healthy appearance, and florid complexion, which characterize the English. Mendicity was no where to be seen. I was never arrested by the voice of the beggar in the streets; nor is the eye or ear of the public at any time offended with profligate females, as in the metropolis of the mother country. Every where you see an active, inquisitive, enterprising people, and the whole state is flourishing in her internal improvements, to an extent unparalleled in any other state in the union. Religious Societies are upon the advance, and appear to be conducted with an increasing and well-directed zeal; while the whole population of America, consisting of more than eleven millions, scattered over an extent of more than one million of square miles, is every hour becoming a more numerous, and a more reading population. The light of science and the arts is diffusing its influence through every part of the rapidly-growing Commonwealth; while every facility is afforded to the instruction of the rising generation at |