as entrusted with no power to punish, in any
manner whatever. It was expressly required that the masters should
furnish every servant with suitable means of religious and intellectual
instruction.

A Vermont gentleman, who had been a slaveholder in Mississippi, and
afterward resident at Matamoras, in Mexico, speaks with enthusiasm of
the beneficial effects of these regulations, and thinks the example
highly important to the United States. He declares that the value of the
plantations was soon increased by the introduction of free labor. "No
one was made poor by it. It gave property to the servant, and increased
the riches of the master."

The republics of Buenos Ayres, Chili, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala
and Monte Video, likewise took steps for the abolition of slavery, soon
after they themselves came into possession of freedom. In some of these
States, means were taken for the instruction of young slaves, who were
all enfranchised by law, on arriving at a certain age; in others,
universal emancipation is to take place after a certain date, fixed
by the laws. The empire of Brazil, and the United States are the only
American nations, that have taken no measures to destroy this most
pestilent system; and I have recently been assured by intelligent
Brazilians, that public opinion in that country is now so strongly
opposed to slavery that something effectual will be done toward
abolition, at the very next meeting of the Cortes. If this _should_ take
place, the United States will stand alone in most hideous pre-eminence.

When Necker wrote his famous book on French finances, he suggested a
universal compact of nations to suppress the slave trade. The exertions
of England alone have since nearly realized his generous plan, though
avarice and cunning do still manage to elude her vigilance and power.
She has obtained from Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, and Denmark, a
mutual right to search all vessels suspected of being engaged in this
wicked traffic.[X] I believe I am correct in saying that ours is now the
_only_ flag, which can protect this iniquity from the just indignation
of England. When a mutual right of search was proposed to us, a strong
effort was made to blind the people with their own prejudices, by urging
the old complaint of the impressment of seamen; and alas, when has an
unsuccessful appeal been made to passion and prejudice? It is evident
that nothing on earth ought to prevent co-operation in a cause