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Show 32 exasperate the owner or overseer. Under such circumstances more cruelty might be expected than exists. Afier all the instances of barbarity we hear from the South, the patience of the slaveholder is more to be wondered at than his severity. The relation he sustains is the last for a good man to covet. It is, of all others, most fitted to nourish the passions, against which, religion calls us to watch. l-Ie who would not be "led into temptation," should cast away with dread irresponsible power over his fellow-creatures. That, under such circumstances, selfishness, the passion for dominion, avarice, anger, impatience, lust, should break out into fearful excesses, is as necessary, as that the stone should fall, or the fire destroy. One instance of cruelty at the South has lately found its way into some of our papers, and that is, the employment of blood-hounds in parts of the new States, for the recovery, or, if this be resisted, for the destruction, of the fugitive slaves. This statement has been questioned or denied, by those who incline to favorable views of the whole subject, as an atrocity too monstrous for belief. I have not inquired into its authenticity. But that one breed of bloodhounds exists at the South, we know ; a breed, not armed with fangs, but rifles, and who shoot down. the fugitive when no other way is lefi for arresting his flight. And where lies the difference between tearing his flesh by teeth, or sending bullets through his heart, skull, or Jwwels. My humanity can draw no lines between these infernal modes of despatching a fellow-creature, guilty of no offence, but that of asserting one of the primary, inalienable rights of his nature. It is bad enough to oppress a man; but, when he escapes from oppression, to pursue him with mortal weapons, to shatter his bones, to mutilate him, and thus send him from a weary life with an agonizing, bloody death, is murder in an aggravated form. The laws which s~nction the shooting of the flying slave, are, to my mind, 33 attempts to legalize murder. They who uphold them do, however unconsciously, uphold murder. It is vain to say, that this is an accompaniment of slavery, which cannot be avoided. The accompaniment proves the character of the system. It is a fearful Jaw of our condition, that crimes cannot stand alone. Slavery and murder go hand in hand. Having taken the first step in a system of cruelty and wrong, we can set no bounds to our career. Still I do not charge cruelty on slavery as its worst evil. The great evil is, the contempt and violation of human rights, the injustice which treats a man as a brute, and which breaks his spirit to make him a human tool. It is the injustice, which denies him the means of improvement, which denies him scope for his powers, which dooms him to an unchangeable lot, which robs him of the primitive right of human nature, that of bettering his outward and inward state. It is the injustice, which converts his social connexions into a curse. Here, perhaps, the influence of slavery is most blighting. Our social conncxions are intended by God to be among our chief means of improvement and happiness ; and a system, which wars with these, is the most cruel outrage on our nature. Other men's chief relations are to wife and children, to brother and sister, to beings endeared by nature, and who awaken the heart to tenderness and faithful love. The slave's chief relation is to his owner, to the man who wrongs him. This it is, which above all thincrs determines his lot and this infuses poison into all hi; other social conne;ions. This destroys the foundation of domestic happiness by sullying female purity, by extinguishing in woman the sense of honor. This violates the sanctity of the marriage bond. This tears the wife from the husband, or condemns her to insult, perhaps, laceration in his sight. This takes from the parent his children. His children belon" to another, and are disposed of for another's gain. Thus |