o exception--no intermission.

The Southerners have long continued habit, apparent interest and dreaded
danger, to palliate the wrong they do; but we stand without excuse. They
tell us that Northern ships and Northern capital have been engaged in
this wicked business; and the reproach is true. Several fortunes in
this city have been made by the sale of negro blood. If these criminal
transactions are still carried on, they are done in silence and secrecy,
because public opinion has made them disgraceful. But if the free States
wished to cherish the system of slavery for ever, they could not take
a more direct course than they now do. Those who are kind and liberal
on all other subjects, unite with the selfish and the proud in their
unrelenting efforts to keep the colored population in the lowest state
of degradation; and the influence they unconsciously exert over children
early infuses into their innocent minds the same strong feelings of
contempt.

The intelligent and well-informed have the least share of this
prejudice; and when their minds can be brought to reflect upon it, I
have generally observed that they soon cease to have any at all. But
such a general apathy prevails and the subject is so seldom brought into
view, that few are really aware how oppressively the influence of
society is made to bear upon this injured class of the community. When
I have related facts, that came under my own observation, I have
often been listened to with surprise, which gradually increased to
indignation. In order that my readers may not be ignorant of the extent
of this tyrannical prejudice, I will as briefly as possible state the
evidence, and leave them to judge of it, as their hearts and consciences
may dictate.

In the first place, an unjust law exists in this Commonwealth, by which
marriages between persons of different color is pronounced illegal. I am
perfectly aware of the gross ridicule to which I may subject myself by
alluding to this particular; but I have lived too long, and observed
too much, to be disturbed by the world's mockery. In the first place,
the government ought not to be invested with power to control the
affections, any more than the consciences of citizens. A man has at
least as good a right to choose his wife, as he has to choose his
religion. His taste may not suit his neighbors; but so long as his
deportment is correct, they have no right to interfere with his
concerns. In the second place, this la