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Show 5G NOTES ON za.tion, (not "all over our land,") though I doubt it; but, with .the same file of Ncwspapcra before mC, I think I might venture to produce, for every instance she brought forward, of cruelty to blacks, two instn.nccs at least, if not three, of equal or greater cruelty to whites. But, then, as has been well remarked, a black skin is a great blessing in this nineteenth century: it creates a world of sympathy. "Let it be remembered tha.t in all Southern Sta.tcs it is a principle of jurisprudence that no person of colored lineage cun testify in a suit against a white, and it will be easy," &c. (18.) This principle, as usun.l, is stated too broadly, as will be seen by turning to Appendix, E. 10. It is not true that no person of colored lineage can testify in a. suit against a white, if by persons of colored lineage be meant a person some one of ·whose ancestors, near or remote, was a. negro. 'l'he disqualification attaches, not to the lineage, but to the visible admixture of negro blood; and this is a question to be determined by tuc jury by ocular inspection. Where there is not this visible admixture, the clearest and most undoubted proof of pedigree will not disqualify. In the Spanish and French West-Indies, a more definite rule obtains, the following grades being distinguished. "11he first grade is that of the mulattoes, which is the intermixture of a. white person with a. negro; the second arc the tereerones, which arc the production of a white person and a mulatto; the third grade arc the quarteroncs, being the issue of a white person and a tcrccronc ; and the last one the quinterones, being the issue of a white person and n. 'lunrteronc. Beyond this there is no degradation of colour, [they] not being distinguishable from white persons, either by color or feature. Edwards, W. I. B. 4, cb. 1. Stephens' SJ. of the W. I. Colonies Delineated, p. 27 ." Wheeler's Law of Slavery, p. 5. Still the general rule is as our author has stated it. l.iNCL I~ TOM'S CADIN. 57 She goes on: "Fncts too shocking to be contemplated occasional1y force their way to the public car, and the comment that one often hears made on them is more shocking than the thing itself. It is sttid, 'V cry likely such cases may now and then occur, but they arc no sample of general practice.' If the laws of New England were so arranged that a master could now and then torture an apprentice to death, without a possibility of being brought to justice, would it be rccei1•ed with equal composure?" (18.) From this it appears that the author is ignorant of the laws of the very State she resides in, let alone those of the sla.c States. Her allegation against the latter is, that they arc so arranged that a master can, now and then, torture a slave to death without a possibility of being brought to justice. 'l'his allegation has exclusive reference to the disqua.lifica.tion of witnesses, and so far as that is concerned, it is true; but then, so far as that is concerned, it is true, also, of the l:l.ws of Now England. They are so arranged that a master ca.n no'W and tlten torture an apprentice to death without tho possibility, so far as testimony is concerned, of being brought to justice. He may do it in the presence of an infidel. It is but n. few days ago that "the trial of Loring Prince, of Douglass, charged with the manslttughtcr of John L. llowa.rd, was suddenly terminated at Worcester, ~lass., by the ruling out of the dying declarations of the deceased, on the ground that he was an infidel." (See Appendix, I.) In Massachusetts the dying declarn.tion of the infidel is ruled out, not because he may not tell the truth, but because he belongs to a class whose testimony it is not safe to trust. For precisely the same reason, in I.~ouisiana, the dying clecl<lratiou of Uncle 'I'om is ruled out. But the infidel is not tho only one in whose presence the mnstcr may torture his apprentice to dea.th without a possibility of being brought to justice; he may do it in tho 8 |