a morbid appetite for horrors by gathering
together under one view all the various tales of woe and misery which I
have heard of, known, or seen. I think I have said enough to prove to
any unprejudiced person that such things do and must ever exist under
the institution of slavery; and that, although the statements of rabid
abolitionists are often the most unwarranted exaggerations, the all but
total denial of their occurrence by the slave-owners is also not
correct. The conviction forced upon my own mind, after much thought and
inquiry on this most interesting topic is, that there are many dark
clouds of cruelty in a sky which is bright with much of the truest and
kindest sympathy for the poor slave.

I now propose to take a short review of the progress and real state of
slavery, and I will commence by giving _in extenso_ an enactment which
materially affects the negro, and, as I have before observed, has more
than once threatened the Republic with disunion:--

Section 2.--Privileges of Citizens.--Clause 3. "No person held to
service or labour in one state under the laws thereof, escaping to
another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be
discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on
claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due."

Of course the word "slave" would have read strangely among a community
who set themselves up as the champions of the "equal rights of man;" but
it is clear that, according to this clause in the constitution which
binds the Republic together, every free state is compelled to assist in
the recapture of a fugitive slave.

What was the exact number of slaves at the date of this law being passed
I have not the means of ascertaining: at the beginning of this century
it was under 900,000; in the Census of 1850 they had increased to
3,200,000.[BT] There were originally 13 States. At present there are
31, besides territory not yet incorporated into States. The Slave States
are 15, or nearly half. Thus much for increase of slaves and the slave
soil. But, it will naturally be asked, how did it happen that, as the
additional soil was incorporated, the sable workmen appeared as if by
magic? The answer is very simple. The demand regulated the supply, and
slave breeding became a most important feature in the system: thus the
wants of the more southern States became regularly lessened by large
drafts from Maryland, Kentucky, and Virginia. Anybody de