e; being under the supreme local government of Congress, it
presents almost the only tangible point for the political efforts of
those hostile to slavery. Against slavery in any but their own States,
the abolitionists have neither the power nor the wish to exert that
constitutional interference which they rightfully employ in the States
of which they are citizens; but with respect to the District of
Columbia, they are, in common with the whole republic, responsible for
the exercise of political influence for the abolition of slavery within
its limits. Hence this is the grand point of attack. They have
experienced a succession of repulses, but their eventual success is
certain; the political influence of the slave-holding interest, which is
now paramount, and which controls and dictates the entire policy of the
general Government will be destroyed. Then will the abolition of
American slavery be speedily consummated.

[Footnote A: "Human flesh is now the great staple of Virginia, In the
legislature of this State, in 1833, Thomas Jefferson Randolph declared
that Virginia had been converted into 'one grand menagerie, where men
are reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles.' This same
gentleman thus compared the foreign with the domestic traffic: 'The
trader (African) receives the slave, a stranger in aspect, language and
manner, from the merchant who brought him from the interior. But _here_,
sir, individuals whom the master has known from infancy,--whom he has
seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood,--who have been
accustomed to look to him for protection,--he tears from the mother's
arms, exiles into a foreign country, among a strange people, subject to
cruel task-masters. In my opinion, it is much worse.'--Mr. Gholson, of
Virginia, in his speech in the legislature of that State, January 18,
1831, says: 'The master forgoes the service of the female slave, has her
nursed and attended during the period of her gestation, and raises the
helpless and infant offspring. The value of the property justifies the
expense; and I do not hesitate to say, that in its increase consists
much of our wealth.'--Professor Dew, now President of the College of
William and Mary, Virginia, in his review of the debate in the Virginia
legislature, 1831-3, speaking of the revenue arising from the trade,
says: 'A full equivalent being thus left in the place of the slave, this
emigration becomes an advantage to the State, and does no