pertains to the blooded breeds of brutes, may be found
on the farm of Joseph Purvis. Mr. Purvis supplies a great many farmers
with choice breeds of cattle, and it is said that he spends ten thousand
dollars annually, in the improvement of his stocks.

Robert Briges Forten, also of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, is an amateur
farmer. Mr. Forten is a gentleman of fine education, a pure, chaste
poet, and attends to farming for the love of nature. He is a valuable
member of the farming enterprise in the country.

If such evidence of industry and interest, as has been exhibited in the
various chapters on the different pursuits and engagements of colored
Americans, do not entitle them to equal rights and privileges in our
common country, then indeed, is there nothing to justify the claims of
any portion of the American people to the common inheritance of Liberty.

We proceed to another view of our condition in the United States.

XVI

NATIONAL DISFRANCHISEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE

We give below the Act of Congress, known as the "Fugitive Slave Law,"
for the benefit of the reader, as there are thousands of the American
people of all classes, who have never read the provisions of this
enactment; and consequently, have no conception of its enormity. We had
originally intended, also, to have inserted here, the Act of Congress of
1793, but since this Bill includes all the provisions of that Act, in
fact, although called a "supplement," is a substitute, _de facto_, it
would be superfluous; therefore, we insert the Bill alone, with
explanations following:--

AN ACT

TO AMEND, AND SUPPLEMENTARY TO THE ACT, ENTITLED, "AN ACT
RESPECTING FUGITIVES FROM JUSTICE, AND PERSONS ESCAPING FROM THE
SERVICE OF THEIR MASTERS," APPROVED FEBRUARY 12, 1793.

_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled_, That the persons
who have been, or may hereafter be, appointed commissioners, in
virtue of any act of Congress, by the circuit courts of the United
States, and who, in consequence of such appointment, are authorized
to exercise the powers that any justice of the peace or other
magistrate of any of the United States may exercise in respect to
offenders for any crime or offence against the United States, by
arresting, imprisoning, or bailing the same under and by virtue of
the thirty-third section of th