opinion that the slaves are
better off in the West Indies, than they are in the United States. It
is true we hear a great deal more about West Indian cruelty than we do
about our own. English books and periodicals are continually full of
the subject; and even in the colonies, newspapers openly denounce the
hateful system, and take every opportunity to prove the amount of
wretchedness it produces. In this country, we have not, until very
recently, dared to publish any thing upon the subject. Our books, our
reviews, our newspapers, our almanacs, have all been silent, or exerted
their influence on the wrong side. The negro's crimes are repeated, but
his sufferings are never told. Even in our geographies it is taught that
the colored race _must_ always be degraded. Now and then anecdotes of
cruelties committed in the slaveholding States are told by individuals
who witnessed them; but they are almost always afraid to give their
names to the public, because the Southerners will call them "a disgrace
to the soil," and the Northerners will echo the sentiment. The
promptitude and earnestness with which New-England has aided the
slaveholders in repressing all discussions which they were desirous to
avoid, has called forth many expressions of gratitude in their public
speeches, and private conversation; and truly we have well earned
Randolph's favorite appellation, "the white slaves of the North," by
our tameness and servility with regard to a subject where good feeling
and good principle alike demand a firm and independent spirit.

We are told that the Southerners will of themselves do away slavery, and
they alone understand how to do it. But it is an obvious fact that all
their measures have tended to perpetuate the system; and even if we have
the fullest faith that they mean to do their duty, the belief by no
means absolves us from doing ours. The evil is gigantic; and its removal
requires every heart and head in the community.

It is said that our sympathies ought to be given to the masters, who are
abundantly more to be pitied than the slaves. If this be the case, the
planters are singularly disinterested not to change places with their
bondmen. Our sympathies _have_ been given to the masters--and to those
masters who seemed most desirous to remain for ever in their pitiable
condition. There are hearts at the South sincerely desirous of doing
right in this cause; but their generous impulses are checked by the
laws of their