the following passage, expresses the sentiments of a numerous and increasing body :—

"I have been constrained to withdraw my confidence and co-operation from this scheme. It is a scheme in which I was once deeply interested. I have spoken, and preached, and written, and taken contributions in its behalf. I did not then understand the real nature and tendency of the scheme. I meant well in espousing it; but I now see my error and my sin; and though it was a sin of ignorance, I desire to repent of it."

Almost daily do we hear of Colonizationists awaking as from a dream, and expressing their astonishment and regret at the delusion into which they had fallen.

To the Christian members of the Society we would now address ourselves, and ask, have we not proved enough to induce you to pause, to examine, and to pray, before you longer lend your names and contribute your funds to the purposes of Colonization? Do no secret misgivings of conscience now trouble you? and are you perfectly sure that in supporting the Society you are influenced by the precepts of the Gospel, and not by prejudice against an unhappy portion of the human family? If, on a full investigation of the subject, you discover that Colonization is not what you believed and hoped it was, remember that it is your duty to obviate, as far as possible, by a frank and open declaration of your opinion, the evil your example has done. Be not ashamed--be not slow to follow Wilberforce -in entering your protest against the Society. If that Society leads to the degradation and oppression of the poor coloured man-if it resists every effort to free the slave-if it misleads the conscience of the slave holder, you are bound, your God requires you, to oppose it, not in secret, but before the world. Soon will you stand at the judgmentseat of Christ; there will you meet the free negro, the slave, and the master-take care, lest they all appear as witnesses against you.

PART II.

AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

CHAPTER I.

Principles of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Character of American Slavery.

THE principles professed by the American Anti-Slavery Society are set forth in the following articles of its constitution, viz. :—

"ARTICLE 2. The object of this Society is the entire abolition of slavery in the United States. While it admits that each State in which slavery exists has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right to legislate in regard to its abolition in that State, it shall aim to convince all our fellow citizens, by arguments addressed to their understandings and consciences, that slave-holding is a heinous crime in the sight of God; and that the duty, safety, and best interest of all concerned, require its immediate abandonment, without expatriation. The Society will also endeavour, in a constitutional way, to influence Congress to put an end to the domestic slave trade; and to abolish slavery in all those portions of our common country which come under its control, especially in the district of Columbia, and likewise to prevent the extension of it to any State that may hereafter be admitted to the Union.

"ART. 3. This Society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the people of colour, by encouraging their intellectual, moral, and religious improvement, and by removing public prejudice; that thus they may, according to their intellectual and moral worth, share an equality with the whites of civil and religious privileges; but the So

ciety will never in any way countenance the oppressed in vindicating their rights, by resorting to physical force.

"ART. 4. Any person who consents to the principles of this Constitution, who contributes to the funds of this Society, and is not a slave holder, may be a member of this Society, and shall be entitled to vote at its meetings."

Here we have great moral principles frankly and unequivocally avowed; the objects to be pursued are distinctly stated; and none are permitted to join in the pursuit of these objects without assenting to the principles which avowedly render their attainment desirable. The whole structure of the Society therefore is totally different from the Colonization society: this being founded on principle, that on expediency: this availing itself only of certain professed motives, that inviting the co-operation of motives of all sorts, however contradictory.

In order to judge of the fitness of the objects contemplated by the Society, we must first inquire into the soundness of the principles by which they are recommended.

The first great principle of the Society, and indeed the one from which all the others are deduced, is the sinfulness of slavery. To determine whether slavery as it exists in the United States is sinful we must know what it is. Where an institution is unavoidably liable to great abuses, those abuses may fairly be taken in account in estimating its true character; but in order to avoid all captious objections, we will now inquire, what are the lawful, or rather legal, features of American slavery, and we will leave wholly out of view all acts of oppression and cruelty not expressly sanctioned by law. The following definitions of American slavery are, it will be perceived, from high authority :

:

"A slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, his labour; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire any thing but which must belong to his master." Louisiana Code, Art. 3.

"Slaves shall be deemed, taken, reputed, and adjudged to be chattels personal in the hands of their masters and possessors, to all intents and purposes whatsoever." of South-Carolina-Brevard's Digest, 229.

Laws

inflicted on slaves for acts not criminal, and which it is utterly impossible they should generally know are forbidden by law.

Let us now view the laws of the slave States in relation to crimes, and we shall find that their severity towards blacks and whites is in inverse ratio to the moral guilt of the offenders.

In Virginia the laws have recently been revised; and by the revised code there are seventy-one offences for which the penalty is DEATH when committed by slaves, and imprisonment when by whites*.

In Mississippi the number of these offences are thirtyeight, or rather many of them are not punishable at all, when committed by whites: as, for instance, attempting to burn out-buildings, to commit forgery, to steal a horse, &c. &c.

Imprisonment of a slave as a punishment for crime, except in Louisiana, is utterly unknown in the slave States. To shut him up in prison would be depriving his master of his labour, and burdening the public with his maintenance; it is, therefore, more economical to flog him for trifles, and to hang him for serious offences.

Where human life is held so cheap, and human suffering so little regarded, it is not to be expected that the dispensers of slave justice will submit to be troubled with all those forms and ceremonies which the common law has devised for the protection of innocence. We have seen that, in many instances, any white person may instanter discharge the functions of judge, jury, and executioner. In innumerable instances all these functions are united in a single justice of the peace; and in South-Carolina, Virginia, and Louisiana, LIFE may be taken, according to law, without the intervention of grand or petit jurors. In other States, a trial by jury is granted in capital cases; but in no one State, it is believed, is it thought worth while to trouble a grand jury with presenting a slave. In most of the slave States, the ordinary tribunal for the trial of slaves charged with offences not capital is composed of justices and free

* An enumeration of these offences, together with references to the statutes alluded to in this work, may be found in "Stroud's Sketch of the Slave Laws."