ctures and commerce--the controlling element. As the overthrow of
American slavery, with the consequent suspension of the motion of the
spindles and looms of Europe, would bring ruin upon millions of its
population; so the dropping of the negro question, in American politics,
would at once destroy the prospects of thousands of aspirants to office.
In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the clamor against slavery is
made only for effect; and there is not now, nor has there been at any
other period, any intention on the part of political agitators to wage
actual war against the slave States themselves. But while the author
believes that no intention of exciting to insurrection ever existed
among leading politicians at the North, he must express the opinion that
evil has grown out of the policy they have pursued, as it has excited
the free negro to attempts at insurrection, by leading him to believe
that they were in earnest in their professions of prosecuting the
"irrepressible conflict," between freedom and slavery, to a termination
destructive to the South; and, lured by this hope, he has been led to
consider it his duty, as a man, to stand prepared for Mr Jefferson's
crisis, in which Omnipotence would be arrayed upon his side. This stand
he has been induced to take from principles of honor, instead of seeking
new fields of enterprise in which to better his condition.

But there is another evil to the colored man, which has grown out of
northern agitation on the question of slavery. The controversy is one of
such a peculiar nature, that any needed modification of it can be made,
by politicians, to suit whatever emergency may arise. The Burns' case
convinced them that many men, white and black, were then prepared for
treason. This was a step, however, that voters at large disapproved;
and, not only was it unpopular to advocate the forcing of emancipation
upon the slave States, but it seemed equally repugnant to the people to
have the North filled with free negroes. The free colored man was,
therefore, given to understand, that slavery was not to be disturbed in
the States where it had been already established. But this was not all.
He had to have another lesson in the philosophy of _dissolving scenes_,
as exhibited in the great political magic lantern. Nearly all the
Western States had denied him an equality with the white man, in the
adoption or modification of their constitutions. He looked to Kansas for
justice, and lo