r
public opinion justifies the deed, and a jury of his fellow citizens
will acquit him. This is literally and emphatically true, if the
female is the injured party. In the latter case, any relation or
friend is at liberty, to silence forever the tongue of the slanderer.
If he that slanders a female is in danger, he that seduces her runs a
risk tenfold. A few days previous to my leaving the city of Knoxville,
Tenn., an old man, by name M., walked into the court-house, (court in
session) and deliberately shot down a gentleman, by name N. He lived
after the discharge of thirty-six buckshot into his body, but a few
minutes. N. was an official character, and one of the most popular men
in the county, and though I remained in the city but a few days after
the perpetration of the atrocious act, I discovered that nine-tenths
of the community justified him in the horrible deed. It was not long
before I received information, that the murderer of N. was acquitted.
The crime of N. was seduction. Similar occurrences are frequent in the
South.

Swearing, gambling and drunkenness, are the most common vices among
Southern men; and slander, detraction, and a species of low detestable
swindling in business transactions, are the vices most obvious in the
North. The better part of Southern society are regulated and
controlled, to a great extent, by certain laws of honor and rules of
social etiquette. A Southerner is more likely to inquire, is it
honorable or dishonorable, than is it morally right or wrong? They
rigidly observe those rules and regulations which govern society, in
their social intercourse. I will close this chapter with some remarks
on slave labor; its effects on the agricultural interests of the
South, &c.

It is a trite remark that slave labor is unproductive, when compared
with labor performed by free white citizens; and that the agricultural
interests of the country have suffered by the introduction of slave
labor, &c.

The fact is admitted by all, but the reason is not very clear to every
one. Many cannot comprehend, why it is, that the farmer who pays his
laborers nothing, should be less prosperous than his neighbor, who
pays his laborers from ten to fifteen dollars per month. The idea that
those who work slaves, pay nothing for their labor; or in other words,
that slave labor costs a man nothing, is incorrect. If a farmer breeds
and raises slaves, it is at a cost of at least a thousand dollars per
slave. If he pu