ad
been carried on quite extensively for a long time back, and that there
had been more Slaves imported into the southern States, during the last
year, than had ever been imported before in any one year, even when the
Slave-trade was legal. It was his confident belief, that over fifteen
thousand Slaves had been brought into this country during the past year
[1859.] He had seen, with his own eyes, three hundred of those
recently-imported, miserable beings, in a Slave-pen in Vicksburg, Miss.,
and also large numbers at Memphis, Tenn."[51] It was currently reported
that depots for these slaves existed in over twenty large cities and
towns in the South, and an interested person boasted to a senator, about
1860, that "twelve vessels would discharge their living freight upon our
shores within ninety days from the 1st of June last," and that between
sixty and seventy cargoes had been successfully introduced in the last
eighteen months.[52] The New York _Tribune_ doubted the statement; but
John C. Underwood, formerly of Virginia, wrote to the paper saying that
he was satisfied that the correspondent was correct. "I have," he said,
"had ample evidences of the fact, that reopening the African Slave-trade
is a thing already accomplished, and the traffic is brisk, and rapidly
increasing. In fact, the most vital question of the day is not the
opening of this trade, but its suppression. The arrival of cargoes of
negroes, fresh from Africa, in our southern ports, is an event of
frequent occurrence."[53]

Negroes, newly landed, were openly advertised for sale in the public
press, and bids for additional importations made. In reply to one of
these, the Mobile _Mercury_ facetiously remarks: "Some negroes who never
learned to talk English, went up the railroad the other day."[54]
Congressmen declared on the floor of the House: "The slave trade may
therefore be regarded as practically re-established;"[55] and petitions
like that from the American Missionary Society recited the fact that
"this piratical and illegal trade--this inhuman invasion of the rights
of men,--this outrage on civilization and Christianity--this violation
of the laws of God and man--is openly countenanced and encouraged by a
portion of the citizens of some of the States of this Union."[56]

From such evidence it seems clear that the slave-trade laws, in spite of
the efforts of the government, in spite even of much opposition to these
extra-legal methods in the South it