of an inferior grade in society, is a reason for being
especially cautious in intercepting the just severity of the law. This
class of our population are subjected to us as well for their protection
as our advantage. Our rights, in regard to them, are not more
imperative than their duties; and the institutions, which for wise and
necessary ends have rendered them peculiarly dependent, at least pledge
the law to be to them peculiarly a friend and a protector.

"The prayer of the petition is not granted.

"Pierce M Butler."

In the western states, comprehending Missouri, Louisiana, Arkansas,
Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama, the negroes are, with the exception
perhaps of the two latter States, in a worse condition than they ever
were in the West India islands. This may be easily imagined, when the
character of the white people who inhabit the larger portion of these
states is considered a class of people, the majority of whom are without
feelings of honour, reckless in their habits, intemperate, unprincipled,
and lawless, many of them having fled from the eastern states, as
fraudulent bankrupts, swindlers, or committers of other crimes, which
have subjected them to the penitentiaries--miscreants defying the
climate, so that they can defy the laws. Still this representation of
the character of the people inhabiting these states must, from the
chaotic state of society in America, be received with many exceptions.
In the city of New Orleans, for instance, and in Natchez and its
vicinity, and also among the planters, there are many most honourable
exceptions. I have said the majority: for we must look to the _mass_--
the exceptions do but prove the rule. It is evident that slaves, under
such masters, can have but little chance of good treatment, and stories
are told of them at which humanity shudders.

It appears, then, that the slaves, with the rest of the population of
America, are _working their way west_, and the question may now be
asked:--Allowing that slavery will be soon abolished in the eastern
states, what prospect is there of its ultimate abolition and total
extinction in America?

I can see no prospect of exchanging slave labour for free in the western
states, as, with the exception of Missouri, I do not think it possible
that white labour could be substituted, the extreme heat and
unhealthiness of the climate being a bar to any such attempt. The
cultivation of the land must be carried on by a negro