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Show 82 SECUND DAY-EVENING SE:::iSION. against a white man. l-Iang that fact up before the natio~1 a.nd the world. Add to it, that by the slave code. no marriage can be bmdn1g b:tw.ccn a slave and his wife, but may be tllssolvcd at any moment. by the .lrbttr?ry will of the master. Then, again, the parent has no authonty over the cl_uld, to train or govern him according to the law of God. Hang th~t up to VICW. Go on, now, and make a full synopsis of these laws. You will find, how. ever that they have made provision for hanging the m<ln who shaH murder a sl;ve. Now, then, let the committee summon. all the clerks of ~he counties throughout the slave region: to bring. thctr recor~s, and certify whether there has ever been a single mstance of a master b~mg hanged ~or the murder of a slave. Yet, in North Carolina, not ion~ swce, two wlute men were hung for merely coaxing a _slave. away from Ius master. And, [ suppose, a single sheet would con tam a ll~t of a~l. th~ c~ses. on record, ~f punishments inflicted on masters for cruelties or tnjnnes mfhctetl. on the1r slaves. · d 4. Next, I would have the committee of Congress call.up ten e":p.enencc planters from each of the slave states, to testify, what IS the pohucal ceo· nomy of slavery. I would requir~ them to state, as honest. me_n, whether the question has not been often (hscussed among them, whtch ~s the most profitable, to work slaves to death in five years, w~1en cotton IS fourteen cents per pound, or to work tl_1em twenty yea~s, w1th cotton at ten cents. Inquire of them whether one-tlurd of the plantatiOn slaves are not let out to tenants, whose 011ly interest is to get out of ~hose poor creatures ~he greatest possible amount of labor with the least possible expense for subststcnce and comfort. And yet we have men among us, who have rolled through the South in the public conveyances, and seen the well-fed servants at lhe hotels, and who tell you they know all about ~lavc~y, for they have been there and the slaves arc the happiest class of bemgs m the world. 5. 'Next, I would send for some men of a class that I_ believe it is P_atrick Henry describes as the feculum of creation, the scrapmgs of humamty,the slave drivers, Northern men, who have sold themselves, body and soul, to carry on this dreadful busines~ in the detail. I ~v~mld inte:rogate them as to the various modes of subdumg a refractory sptnt, of findmg out whether a slave is sick or feigns sickness, and all the various. expedients of cruelty by which :u1 overseer tries to build up the reputatiOn of a greal labor-getter. 6. Let our Congressional committee then send for a hundred free me_n from the slave states, who have never owned a slave themselves, nor thea relations, and let them tell what they know about the cruelties and the pollutions incident to the system of slavery. 7. Then I would send for a hundred free colored men, who should be allowed for the first time, under the security of the strong arm oi the natio_n, to te::1tify of their wrongs. Let each one tell how often and by what ha_lrbreadth escapes he has avoided being kidnapped into slavery. Let lum turn to that law which allows the magistrate to exile a free colored man from his country, on ten day's notice, unheard, untried, _without cau.se, without compensation, as passion or caprice may dictate, With c?nfis~atwn of his estate; and if he refuses to go, to be sold as a slave, and his cluldren after him for ever. . . 8. Then I would have them call for a hundred of the ten thousand fug•llve slaves, that have found a refuge in Canada, under the governm~nt _of a hereditary monarch, from the tender mercies of our republican inslltutl~n~Let them tell of hopes crushed and hearts broken, of what they endured m slavery, and of the sufferings and anxieties through which they have passed while in the pursuit of JibeL·Iy. SPimCH OF AI.ANSO~ ~'f. CI.AlR. 83 9. Then I would have brought up before the committee a hundred s)a\'es from the cotton-fields and the sugar-houses, who should give ocular llemons tration of what ela\·ery is. [ woulll have them freed, and protected by a strong force, and then they shoulll show their persons abused, their limbs mutilated, their brands and gashes, their backs cut from the shoulders to the heels with republican stripes. \Vhen the committee have gathered all the information in their power,let it be embodied in a report. It would make a volume of a thousand pages. Then send that report through the lanfl. I.et the mails burst and the stages groan with the mighty load, telling the naked truth on this subject, in an oflieial and authentic form ;-and [ tell you, slavery never lifts its abominable head again. All that the nation wants is to have a case once made out to their conviction, that slavery is what abolitionists charge it to be, and our work is done. This mountain of iniquity would. then stand before every honest mind in all its dreadful prominence. The people, horror-struck, would cry out against it. 'fhc foundations of the great deep of crime, as yet unfathomed, would be broken up. As yet who hath believed our report, as abolitionists! But this would be moral demonstration. It would be taken on the oath of the people of the dark and sullen regions of slavery.-Yes, with this report, the nation would pronounce their everlasting condemnation and overthrow of sl:lvery, and all would be FREE. S PEE C H OF ALAN S 0 N ST. C L A I R. Mn. PRESIDENT :-It will not be expected, after the long and extremely interesling speeches of the two gentlemen who have addressed this meeting, that I should add any interest, if, indeed, it will be possible for me, for any length of time, to keep them in the Hall. The time to which I am limited is short-too short to do any justice to the subject on which I had Uesigned to speak; and had I not been urged by gentlemen in whose judgment I confide more than in my own, [should not have consented to open my mouth this evening. Sir, there is, in New England, a numerous class of men who are abolitionists- firm, very firm-" as much as any body, but"-. Nor from what I have seen and heard in this city can I doubt that you are blessed, in Phila~ delphia, with the same class of friends to the poor slave. They believe our doctrines to be true-heartily espouse our principles, but disapprove our measures. These they regard as extremely imprudent and injudicious, if not anti-christian and ferocious. \Vith regard to the subject of emancipation, they have never done any thing but merely to open their mouths, and never opened their mouths but to find fault with those who are laboring with all their might to bring it about; having nlways stood aloof from abolitionists, carpc:d at all their well meant but persecuted endeavors, pointed out their minutest faults and defects, and sagely admonished them to listen to the warning voice of instruction, to abandon their present modus ope'fandi, and to adopt and pursue such measures as their opponents can approve. Sir, [culled these gentlemen abolitionists. The fact that they are, they do not wish to remain at all dubious. No man ever puts the question but they answer with emphasis in the aflirmative, and, lest it should be doubted, they go on to re-affirm: "Yes, [am as much of an abolitionist as you or any other man-1 hate ~lavery as bad :J.S any body-T have been an aboli- |