s credibly informed, was shot, his head cut off, and
carried in a bag by the perpetrators of the murder, who received the
reward, which was said to be $200, continental currency, and that his
head was stuck on a coal house at an iron works in Virginia--and this
for going to visit his wife at a distance. Crawford gives an account
of a man being gibbetted alive in South Carolina, and the buzzards
came and picked out his eyes. Another was burnt to death at a stake in
Charleston, surrounded by a multitude of spectators, some of whom were
people of the _first rank_; ... the poor object was heard to cry, as
long as he could breathe, 'not guilty--not guilty.'"

The following is an illustration of the 'public opinion' of South
Carolina about fifty years ago. It is taken from Judge Stroud's Sketch
of the Slave Laws, page 39.

"I find in the case of 'the State vs. M'Gee,' I Bay's Reports, 164, it
is said incidentally by Messrs. Pinckney and Ford, counsel for the
state (of S.C.), 'that the _frequency_ of the offence (_wilful_ murder
of a slave) was owing to the _nature of the punishment_', &c.... This
remark was made in 1791, when the above trial took place. It was made
in a public place--a courthouse--and by men of great personal
respectability. There can be, therefore, no question as to its
_truth_, and as little of its _notoriety_."

In 1791 the Grand Jury for the district of Cheraw, S.C. made a
_presentment_, from which the following is an extract.

"We, the Grand Jurors of and for the district of Cheraw, do present
the INEFFICACY of the present punishment for killing negroes, as a
great defect in the legal system of this state: and we do earnestly
recommend to the attention of the legislature, that clause of the
negro act, which confines the penalty for killing slaves to fine and
imprisonment only: in full confidence, that they will provide some
other _more effectual_ measures to prevent the FREQUENCY of crimes of
this nature."--_Matthew Carey's American Museum, for Feb.
1791_.--Appendix, p. 10.

The following is a specimen of the 'public opinion' of Georgia twelve
years since. We give it in the strong words of COLONEL STONE, Editor
of the New York Commercial Advertiser. We take it from that paper of
June 8, 1827.

"HUNTING MEN WITH DOGS.-A negro who had absconded from his master, and
for whom a reward of $100 was offered, has been apprehended and
committed to prison in Savannah. The editor, who states the fact,
adds,