antages in their judgments. As
to Jefferson's oft-quoted remark, above cited, it appears to me that if
the Almighty has anywhere set the seal of his divine blessing, clear and
broad, it is on the Christian influence of our Southern friends upon
this colored race.

It is humiliating to me, in looking back to the North, to see how
injudicious and weak we are in pouring out our sympathy upon a fugitive
slave, without discrimination. The lecture before the Boston audience,
already mentioned, contains a perfect illustration of Northern credulity
in the case of fugitive slaves. The lecturer tells us that while reading
the printed report of Mr. Everett's Oration at the inauguration of the
Webster statue, a fugitive slave appeared at his door, and, baring his
breast and back, showed him the marks of the branding-iron, and the
scars from the lash. At the sight, he says, the paper dropped from his
hand. He "thought of Webster and the Fugitive Slave Law."

Now this negro was, just as likely as not, one of those characters whom
we call jail-birds. If so, and he had lived at the North, instead of
branding-iron and stripes, he might have had parti-colored pants, and
manacles, and a record of ten or twenty years in the state's prison. But
because he ran away from the South, he straightway became, as a matter
of course, a martyr and a saint. Perhaps he was, truly, a saint; and
perhaps he was not.

Looking out of the window in a hotel the other day, we saw two white
men leading up a black man with a leather bridle around his neck.

"Here, Hattie," said your Uncle, "here is slavery; now you have it in
full bloom."

The poor fellow was crying and protesting and begging to be released.
Your Uncle stepped out and spoke to a very respectable gentleman whom he
met on the piazza. He could not refrain from expressing some feeling at
the sight of a fellow-creature so literally "reduced to the level of the
brutes." I did not hear the whole of the conversation, for my attention
was diverted by two roosters who just then flew at each other and were
assailed by a troop of black urchins who tried to scare them apart,
pulling their tail-feathers and uttering ludicrous cries.

"You are from the North, sir, I take it," said the gentleman, in reply
to your Uncle.

"I am, sir," said your Uncle. "Do you often bridle your slaves in this
way, in these parts? I am seeking for information on the subject of
slavery."

"I shall be happy to give you any