ible consolation to the less fortunate
negroes whose wives and children are torn from their bosoms and sold in
separate lots to different parts of the Union; nor will the knowledge
that on your plantation the rod only falls occasionally on some
turbulent child, be any comfort to grown-up negroes and negresses while
writhing under thirty or forty stripes from the cowhide or paddle.
Continue, most excellent people, your present merciful rule; strive to
secure to every negro the same treatment; and if you find that
impossible, join the honourable ranks of the temperate and gradual
abolitionist and colonizer." They listened patiently to my observations,
smiled quietly at the vanity which they thought the last sentence
exhibited, and retired.

Scarce had the last charming couple disappeared, when a deputy arose,
the antipodes of the last speaker; his manner was so arrogant, I
instantly suspected his ignorance, and his observations showed such
painful sensitiveness, that they were evidently the production of an
accusing conscience. His parentage I could not ascertain accurately;
but, being a slight judge of horseflesh, I should suspect he was by
"Slave-bully" out of "Kantankerousina,"--a breed by no means rare in
America, but thought very little of by the knowing ones. On referring to
the list, I found he was entered as "Recriminator," and that the rest of
the deputation had refused to give him a warranty. He sprang up with
angry activity; he placed his left hand on his breast, the right hand he
extended with cataleptic rigidity, and with an expression of countenance
which I can only compare to that of an injured female of spotless
virtue, he began, "You, sir--yes, I say, you, sir--you presume to speak
of the slave--you, sir, who come from a nation of slaves, whose rampant
aristocrats feed on the blood of their serfs, where title is another
word for villany, and treads honesty beneath its iron heel! You, sir,
you offer suggestions for the benefit of a country whose prosperity
excites your jealousy, and whose institutions arouse mingled feelings of
hatred and fear! Go home, sir--go home! no more of your canting
hypocrisy about the lusty negro! go home, sir, I say! enrich your own
poor, clothe your naked, and feed your own starving--the negro here is
better off than most of them! Imitate the example of this free and
enlightened nation, where every citizen is an independent sovereign;
send your royalty and, aristocracy to all mi