urge, the boatswain's mate, who is generally selected for his
strength, after stripping off his jacket, that he may strike the
harder, lashes this _young man_, on his delicate skin, until his back
is cut from his shoulders to his waist! Few men, of ordinary feelings
of humanity, could bear to see, without great emotion, even a thief,
or a robber, so severely punished. But what must be the feelings of an
American, to see such a cruel operation upon the body of his
countryman, of his mess-mate and companion? We will venture to say,
that if a dog, or an horse, were tied fast to a post, in any street of
any town in America, and lashed with such an heavy knotted whip, swung
by the strong arm of a vigorous man, although their skins were covered
and defended by their hair, or fur, we do not believe that the
inhabitants would see it inflicted on the poor beast, without carrying
the whipper before a magistrate, to answer for his cruelty. Yet what
is the whipping of a beast, devoid of reason, and covered with fur, to
this severe operation upon the delicate skin and flesh of one of our
young men? And all, for what? For nobly maintaining and upholding the
first and great principle of our nature. Yet has this heroism of our
enslaved seamen been overlooked; and even derided by the federal
merchant and the federal politician, and the federal member of
congress, and the federal clergyman! Some of our brave fellows have
been brought upon deck, every punishing day, and undergone this horrid
punishment, three or four times over, until the crews of the men of
war were disposed to cry out shame, upon their own officers! Some of
our poor fellows could not sustain these repeated tortures, which is
not to be wondered at, and have finally gone to work as soon as they
recovered from their barbarous usage. Others, of firmer frames and
firmer minds, have wearied out their persecutors, whose infernal
dispositions they have defied, and triumphed over; such have been sent
out of the ship into our prison-ships; and here they are, to tell
their own story, to show to their countrymen the everlasting marks of
their tormentors, the British navy officers. With what indignation,
rage and horror, have I seen our brave fellows actuated, while one of
these heroes of national rights, and national character, has been
relating his sufferings, and showing his degrading scars, made on his
body by the accursed whip of a boatswain's mate, by order of an
infamous capta