ies more heartfelt, or of more benignant influence, than
those which mutually bind the master and the slave, under our ancient
system, handed down from the father of Israel. The unholy purpose of the
abolitionists is, to destroy by defiling it; to infuse into it the gall
and bitterness which rankle in their own envenomed bosoms; to poison the
minds of the master and the servant; turn love to hatred, array _"force"
against force_, and hurl all

"With hideous rain and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition."

You think it a great "crime" that we do not pay our slaves "wages," and
on this account pronounce us "robbers." In my former letter, I showed
that the labor of our slaves was not without great cost to us, and that
in fact they themselves receive more in return for it than your
hirelings do for theirs. For what purpose do men labor, but to support
themselves and their families in what comfort they are able? The efforts
of mere physical labor seldom suffice to provide more than a livelihood.
And it is a well known and shocking fact, that while few operatives in
Great Britain succeed in securing a comfortable living, the greater part
drag out a miserable existence, and sink at last under absolute want.
Of what avail is it that you go through the form of paying them a
pittance of what you call "wages," when you do not, in return for their
services, allow them what alone they ask--and have a just right to
demand--enough to feed, clothe and lodge them, in health and sickness,
with reasonable comfort. Though we do not give "wages" _in money_, we do
this for _our slaves_, and they are therefore better rewarded than
_yours_. It is the prevailing vice and error of the age, and one from
which the abolitionists, with all their saintly pretensions, are far
from being free, to bring every thing to the standard of money. You make
gold and silver the great test of happiness. The American slave must be
wretched indeed, because he is not compensated for his services _in
cash_. It is altogether praiseworthy to pay the laborer a shilling a
day, and let him starve on it. To supply all his wants abundantly, and
at all times, yet withhold from him _money_, is among "the most
reprobated crimes." The fact can not be denied, that the mere laborer is
now, and always has been, everywhere that barbarism has ceased,
enslaved. Among the innovations of modern times, following "the decay of
villeinage," has been the creation o