and help him on in his flight to the
British dominion. But can these out-gushings of a benevolent heart--the
purest impulses of a noble nature--be permitted to flow out spontaneously,
in open daylight? Alas, no! You must be quiet; make no noise, lest an
United States' Marshal wrest from you the object of your Christian
sympathy, and impose on you a heavy fine, for your daring to do to another
as you would he should do to you.

Is not the necessity of an "_under ground railroad_," a disgrace to the
laws of any country? Certainly it is; yet I thank God, that it does afford
a means of escape to many, and I pray that the blessings of Heaven may
ever rest upon those who willingly superintend its interests. Oh, my
country! When will thy laws, just and equal, supersede this humiliating
necessity!

Is my reader about to throw the blame of our nation's wrong on England,
and accuse her of first tolerating Slavery? We admit it; but did she not
repent of the evil she had done, and speedily break every yoke, and let
the oppressed go free? Certainly; no slave now breathes in England's
atmosphere. But, say you, her white poor are slaves to the aristocracy,
from which sentiment I beg leave to differ. Oppressed they may be, and
doubtless are, as the poor are apt to be in any and every country; but
they are not sold in the market, to the highest bidder, like beasts of
burden, as are the American slaves. No Englishman, however poor,
destitute, or degraded he may be, but owns himself, his wife and children;
nor does he fear that they be sold and torn from his embrace, while he is
laboring for their support. Poverty, my friend, does not comprise the
bitterness of Slavery, no more than "one swallow makes a summer,"--nor
does it consist solely in ignorance and degradation. Its bitterness arises
from a consciousness of wrong; a sense of the violation of every right God
has given to man, and the uncertainty of his future, over which he has no
control.

If the American people flatter themselves with the idea of getting rid of
the hated negro race, by colonizing them on the sickly soil of Liberia,
or any other country, they will surely find themselves mistaken. They
are Americans; allied to this country by birth and by misfortune; and here
will they remain,--not always as now, oppressed and degraded,--for all who
have any interest in the matter, well know that the free colored people,
are rapidly advancing in intelligence, and improving their