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Show vi CONTENTS. SECT. IV.-Mnnufactures and Commerce in the Slave-holding , ..... SE~~-t~ _ _:__J~st~biiitY n~d ~n~rt~in.ty .of .vaiuc.s i~ tilC 'st~v~-h~Id: 132 ing Stntcs , ..... , ... , . . . . . . . . 134 SE0fT;h~~i;,~~~Fcti~~iS~a~':~rc~s ~n~ r_ros.pe~t)~ o~ tl~c ~~e ~n~ 138 CHAPTER FOURTII. PERSONAL RESULTS Ol' THE SLAVE·UOLDJNO·SYSTKM. CHAPTER FIFTH. LEGAL BASIS OF TUE SLJ. VE·IIOLDJNO SYSTEM. SECT. I. -Preliminary observations . . . . . . . . . . . IG9 SECT. IJ.-Sinvcry as a Coloninl Institution ......•. 177 SECT. HI.-Slavcry in the States and under the Fedci'Ul Constitu-tion .......•. . . .•••. ..• •• . 219 SJ.:CT. IV.-'fhc Fugitive Act of 1850 , . , . . . . . . . 253 APPENDIX . . , . , . . , . . . , . . , . . . 30< INTRODUCTION. It has been said, and is often repeated, that the United States of America arc trying a great social experiment, upon the result of which hangs the future fate not of America only, but to a certain extent, of all mankind. The consequences likely to flow from the success or failure of this experiment, are doubtless exaggerated; for those universal laws which regulate the feelings and the actions of men, will ultimately produce their necessary cflects, in spite of narrow systems of policy and morals, founded upon the success or failure of any single experiment. But whatever we may think of its probable consequences, however fancy may magnify, or reason may diminish them, the experiment itself is a great one. It is in fact far more complicated and more critical, and therefore greater and more interesting, than it is com~ monly represented. 'rhc American experiment is usually described, as purely an experiment of democracy; an attempt to establish a perfect equality of political rights; an essay towards the equal distribution among all the members of the community, of freedom, property, knowledge, social advantages, and those other good things which make up the mass of human happiness. And this experiment-as we arc assured by every writer, native, or foreign, who has touched upon the subject, owing to the peculiar circumstances of the country, is carried on to tho greatest possible advan~ |