OCR Text |
Show 276 APPENDIX. rison, as evincing the true nature and character of that which is called by this statesman, the removal ~f slaves: The fact of the case Utldonbtcdly is, that this removal IS as stnctly and properly a traffic-a branch of the commerce among the states of this Union -as is the "removal" of live stock from Ohio to Pennsylvania or Maryland. In both cases, the living creatures which form the article of traffic, are first raised, or bred, by the land-owner or farmer; secondly, sold to the merchant or jobber; thirdly, driven under his orders to their place of destination, and fourthly, resold to the user or consumer. It is impossible to conceive of any thing more regularly a traffic, than is this " rc~oval" of oxen from Ohio, and of "slaves" from Maryland. It IS a trade in the animal productions of the earth, precisely analogous, in its several stages, to a trade in cotton. The planter raises the cotton; he sells it to the merchant; the merchant ships it to its place of destination ; and there it is resold to the consumer. Every humane and generous mind must revolt at the notion of breeding human beings for sale ; and the term itself is scarcely tolerable to polite cars. But that they arc actually bred for sale, in some of the slave states of North America, is a fact which, I fear, cannot be denied. I confess I feel some compassion for the slave-holder of Virginia, who, seated in his old and gcntlcmanlikc mansion, surveys the wide demesnes which have descended to him from his ancestors. His lands, long since exhausted by slavelabor, present to his eye a brown and dreary aspect, except where they have become overgrown by a miserable forest of pine~ His black people have multiplied around him, and he scarcely knows how to feed them. His family necessities arc perpetually calling for money. The slave jobber is prowling about the neighborhood, with his tempting offers of five hundred dollars for a lad or girl, or one thousand dollars for an adult person. The temptation soon becomes irresistible, and slave after slave supphes the southern market. By degrees he discovers that by far the most profitable article which his estate produces, is the slave; Fll.EE AND l''RIENDLY REMAJtKS. 277 and, instead of the old fashioned cultivator of the soil, he becomes, by slow degrees and almost insensibly to himself, a slave breedet. But, whether this be, or be not, the true trade and profession of the slaveholder, it is all one to the slave. He is sold to the merchant, torn from his wife and family, lodged in some negro jail, at Baltimore, Winchester, or Washington, and finally driven, as one of a handcuffed gang, to Alabama or LouisiaJia,- thcre to be sold, with an enormous profit for the jobber, to the planter of cotton, rice, or sugar. All this is no exaggeration, as the Senator of Kentucky must be fully aware, of the character of this nefarious traffic; nor can it be questioned that it is a traffic carried on to an enonnous extent. I learn, on good authority, that two thirds of the funds of a principal .state bank, were last year invested in loans to slave merchants; and there cannot be the least question of the fact, that the yearly commerce of Virginia and North Carolina, in human beings, amouuts to many millions of dollars. Would it not be safe to say that it is the largest article of commerce known in those states ? That it is also an extensive branch of trade in Maryland, and some other parts of the Union, is beyond all doubt. But, allowing that this is the truth of the case, Henry Clay would persuade his hearers that Congress canuot touch the question, because its power over the commerce between the states, is a power to regulate only, not to destroy. It is matter of surprise that the very obvious fallacy of this plea, should not have been perceived by the experienced statesman who urged it. Who can fail to remark that in the article of the constitution, which applies to the subject, the word "commerce'' is used in a wide and general sense? And who does not know that in the due regulation of commerce, in this comprehensive meaning, the prohibitiml of a trade in particular articles is li:equently involved? The celebrated tariff of North America was, I presume, intended at least to impede the introduction of certain articles of British |