nd
government of law."

"Hi!--oh! Captain; it won't do to talk so in South Carolina. Just let a
nigger imagine himself as good as a white man, and all the seven codes
in Christendom wouldn't keep 'em under. Ah! you've got to learn a thing
or two about niggers yet," interrupted Master George, before the Colonel
had time to speak.

"I only speak from my observation of human nature; but I may become
better acquainted with your laws, if I remain among you," said the
Captain.

"As I have said before sir," replied the Colonel, "our nigger-laws are
such as to require a strict enforcement. If we allowed the prerogative
of a discretionary power, it would open the way to an endless system of
favoritism, just at the mercy and feelings of those exercising it. As it
is now, the white or black nigger, male or female, gets the same law and
the same penalty. We make no distinction even at the paddle-gallows. The
paddle-gallows is a frame with two uprights, and a wrench screw at
the top. The negro's hands are secured in iron wristlets-similar to
handcuffs; a rope is then attached to an eye in these, and passing over
the wrench, which being turned, the negro is raised in an agonizing
position until the tips of his toes scarcely touch the floor. Thus
suspended, with the skin stretched to its utmost tension, it not
unfrequently parts at the first blow of the paddle. Sometimes the feet
are secured, when the effect of this modern science of demonstrating the
tension of the human body for punishment becomes more painful under the
paddle. South Carolinians deny this mode of punishment generally, and
never allow strangers to witness it. It is not, as some writers have
stated, practised in Georgia, where, we are happy to say, that so far as
punishment is conducted in a legal manner, at the jails and prisons,
it is administered in a humane manner; and instead of turning modern
barbarity into a science, as is, done in South Carolina, a strict
regard for the criminal is observed. I will relate some singular facts
connected with the strictness with which we South Carolinians carry
out our laws. And now that we are on the spot connected with it, its
associations are more forcibly impressed on my mind. It brings with it
many painful remembrances, and, were we differently situated, I should
wish the cause to be removed. But it cannot be, and we must carry out
the law without making allowances, for in these little leniencies all
those evils which th