The vehicle was new,

take a joke and to make one. and tastefully furnished with green cloth at the top, and soft red morocco cushions at the sides and the seats. Our horses were young and high-spirited, and had they not been checked by a very steady, experienced hand, would have repeated a trick they had played a few days before, and carried us off full gallop into the woods. The last eight miles were performed at a trot in forty-eight minutes.

It was the time of the races, and Louisville was filled with company. I had no great desire to see the one or mix with the other. One of those tragical events had recently occurred, which disgrace while they mark the manners of society;-where worse than feudal vassalage has produced worse than feudal ferocity;-where one caste is exempted from the performance of its duties, and the other excluded from the enjoyment of its rights. The circumstance here alluded to, was an assassination committed openly before thousands of spectators,-in a petty squabble between two young men, one of whom had run the other through the body with a sword-stick, and killed him on the spot. No impediment occurred to the delinquent's escape, and no interruption to the sports of the day. Lame-footed justice (pede pœna claudo) had not yet set out in search of the fugitive; and the sun shone as bright as ever over the gay city of Louisville.

This is a populous and an increasing place, most

of the commerce of the State passing through it. The inhabitants, whose number was 10,341 at the last census, are a motley set, made up of French, and Germans, and Americans, and people from other countries, attracted by the advantages its situation on the Ohio affords. A fall of twenty-two feet here obstructs the passage of vessels, and a canal of two miles has been made to facilitate the transport of goods.

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By an act of the Kentucky legislature, passed two or three years ago, every free person and his abettors, who shall maliciously destroy, or attempt to destroy, any of the locks of the Louisville and Portland canal, or the bridge over it, or injure or attempt to injure them, so as to obstruct the use thereof, shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to imprisonment in the State-gaol and penitentiary for a period of time not less than two, nor more than four years: if any slave be guilty of such offence, he shall, upon conviction, suffer death by hanging." Whether the free person here spoken of be white or not, it would be difficult to justify the infliction of such different punishments for the same offence *.

"A negro, on his own confession, is to be executed at Cahawba, on the 15th inst., hired by a white man to assist in a burglary. His evidence was conclusive as to himself, but not legal as against his companion and employer in the act."Niles's Register, June 1822. The coolness with which this atrocity is recorded, shews that there was nothing extraordinary or worthy of remark in the occurrence.

I was now about to quit the slave-States, where I had met with many indications of a wish to substitute voluntary for compulsory labor. But almost everywhere the idea of abolition was connected with that of expatriation;—a scheme so utterly absurd and impracticable, as scarcely to deserve exposure or consideration. At New Orleans, wages are as high as forty, fifty, and even, in some cases, sixty dollars a month; owing, in a great measure, to the risk incurred in an unhealthy city. These high rates are exclusive of board and lodging. Most of these places are filled by colored people, who go thither from other States in search of employment. If these men were to emigrate to Liberia, wages would rise so high that business would be impeded, if not entirely destroyed. If the mad scheme of sending nearly three millions of people out of the country, could by any possibility be carried into effect, trade and commerce would be suspended; and those who are now urging their departure would be the first to wish them back.

The state of mind which could lead to such fears and feelings, is the same in slave-holding individuals and slave-holding governments; and it can excite no surprise that the policy of England towards her West Indian colonies, limited and partial as it is in the eyes of justice, should be viewed with suspicion and distrust by those who have shared the guilt, yet refuse the reparation; and that Congress should have adopted such sentiments as the follow

ing, from the secretary of the American navy, in his last report:-" It may be well to reflect how justly it may be apprehended, that new perils will, ere long, await a portion of our trade, and the tranquillity of part of our maritime frontier, from the operations of a new course of legislation by some foreign powers, concerning an unfortunate portion of their population; and against which perils, as against the ordinary aggressions and piracies in peace, and much of the depredations which may threaten us in war, the navy, from the insular situation of our country, as to most of the world, must always be regarded as our safeguard."

"The thief doth fear each bush an officer,"

while "all Europe rings from side to side" in honor of the little we have done for humanity, America, to shew her "decent respect for the opinions of mankind", sees danger in granting their "inalienable rights", and safety in withholding them, though there is no more connexion between peace and injustice, than there is between cowardice and a good

conscience.

VOL. II.

R

CHAPTER XXIII.

Steam-boat on the Ohio.-Madison.-Colony of Free Blacks.— Fugitive Slave.-New Law against Slave-aliens in the West Indies.-Indiana saddled with Slave-paupers.-Cincinnati.— Attack on Free Blacks repulsed.-Kidnappers.-Case of Cruelty at New Orleans.-Public Meeting.-Lane Seminary.Visits to Colored People.

ON the 30th I left Louisville, at eleven A.M., by the steam-boat that carries the mail, and arrived at Madison, in Indiana, (fifty miles,) between four and five in the evening.

While the passengers were at dinner, I was lying down in one of the berths, as the coolest place I could find. Here I had an opportunity of observing what passed, and how. The first act was performed in dumb show and quick action, as usual, by the passengers; the second in the same manner, mutatis mutandis, by the crew; and the last by the colored people, who took their time, and cracked their jokes, while they were feasting on the good things. Seeing they employed the tongue as well as the teeth, and