slaveholding prophet cries out, Away ye profane! a more than masonic mystery lies there, which none but a slaveholder can unfold! Now there have been in the ranks of the abolitionists those who have once been slaveholders; those whose age is not below Mr. Underwood's, and whose opportunities of well knowing all the secrets, if there be any, of the "peculiar system," have at least been equal, and perhaps a little superior, to his. They, in order to defend themselves and justify their course, told the most horrible things of Slavery, as it was natural they should; that it abounded in enormities and cruelties, and that, in fine, it was the complication, the consummation, the end, the "sum of all villanies"; that whilst there was no mystery about it—whilst it was open to the examination of every one, yet the passions of men would, every now and then, vent themselves on their victims in some new and unheard of manner; that whilst the degeneracy, the still further deg radation of the slave, occasioned confusion, bred distraction, caused the deepest unhappiness in families, it rarely failed in its work of deadening the moral feelings, infecting the character and destroying the self-respect, either of the master, or of some important member of the family; for thus is seduction of others into vice, in the long run, repaid!

Now, according to our judgment, one of the best opportu nities we have ever known was here presented to correct errors and give information, which the whole people, especially those of the North, needed. It would be relieved, too, from the objection that it would be attended with no practical results; because it is supposed, and feared, by the slaveholders, that Congress intend to decide the question of Slavery on their present imperfect information. No place could be more suitable than the Senate of the United States, where error is most certainly yet tenderly exposed, and an account of whose daily proceedings is sent into every part of the land. No person could be more properly selected to publish a revelation of importance enough to reverse the wheels of the government, than a wise, experienced, and impartial Senator. Yet, notwithstanding all these advantages, the disclosure is not made by Mr. Underwood or by any other Senator, on this subject. But Mr. Underwood contents himself with petulantly saying, as had been petulantly said hundreds of times before, that the abolitionists did not understand the subject of Slavery. Even now, before this question is fully determined by Congress, - especially if we are to judge from the acquiescent and tame spirit

with which the expulsion of Mr. Hoar and Mr. Hubbard from South Carolina and Louisiana was received by the state which despatched them on their equally constitutional and humane errand, we hazard nothing in saying, that, even at this late hour, any important disclosure will not be disregarded, but have its proper influence. But let it be precise, and apply to points on which slavery turns, and not on its mere circumstances. Let us not be told, that we are mistaken as to the amount, the slave, the laboring man, of the South receives for his work. It will be no answer, to say, that the master gives good clothes and good food to his "house servants," and, now and then, throws to a favorite field-hand a bundle of old duds that a Jewish clothes-broker of London or Paris would almost disdain to pick up and add to his store:- rather let us be told, that we are mistaken in having supposed, that they who cultivate the fields and "wait" on the owners of them, have no unrestricted legal resort to recover their wages, when withheld from them. Let us not be told that we are mistaken as to the number of slaves, in any particular district, that can read; or that they prefer continuous labor to the improvement of the facilities that God has given them:—rather let us be told that they can go to school and improve their faculties as they list. Let us not be told, that we have been misinformed as to the manner of feeding the slaves at the South-that they are not fed like pigs, in troughs, and guzzle down whatever is thrown in to them but rather let us be told, that they are fed at tables, like dècent people, and on sufficient and wholesome food.* Let us not be told, we are mistaken as to the number of families that are separated and broken up by sale, rather let us hear that no man can sell a fellow-being, or forcibly separate a family. Let us not be told that we are mistaken as to the number of Bibles distributed among the slaves, and as to the amount of the hindrance or prohibition of their reading them, or having them explained by persons of their own choice: rather say, they are encouraged, and have every opportunity to prepare for eternal life.

These things, and others of a similar character-bad enough,

* Some of the Slave states are farming, or slave-selling; others, planting, or slave-consuming. Whenever provisions or the materials for clothes are grown at home, as is most generally the case in the former, the slaves are, comparatively, pretty well fed and clothed. But when they are bought, as they are in general in the planting states, the slaves, for the most part, are poorly fed and scantily clothed.

The

to be sure are but the circumstances, the aggravation, of the system, but they are not the system. They are the bitter waters of the fountain, and they may be made more or less bitter, according to the temper of the slaveholder, after they have issued from it; but they are not the fountain. On these circumstances we have never made the question of Slavery to turn, but on the unlimited power which one man, subject to human passions, with these passions nourished and strengthened by such power, especially with his thirst for gain to prompt him to oppression and wrong, has over the body, and the mental and spiritual improvement of his brother. exact number of stripes which the Senator, or his proxy, the overseer, inflicts on his slaves; the character of the food he gives them, whether meat and savory viands, or some cheap refuse, rendered palatable to a long trained appetite by the hopelessness of getting any thing better-these things may not be accurately known, even to his nearest neighbours. How naturally, then, may distant persons be expected to make mistakes about them! Besides, as Slavery with us covers such a vast extent of country, and as its productions are so various, what, with perfect truth and propriety, may apply to one part, is taken up and denied by another, as untrue when applied to the system throughout the land.

But we would do Mr. Underwood no injustice. Being a slaveholder" and to the manner born," he has from his youth gradually and unconsciously succeeded in quelling the finer feelings of his nature toward his fellow-man; particularly to the most helpless part of them, the slaves. He, no doubt, views the slaves as, in some measure, made for their present condition; thinks they ought to behave well, be reconciled to their enslavement, and in his sense, be treated well. We think it altogether likely, that when there is an outbreak among them to regain their liberty, most generally an injudicious one, from their ignorance and incapacity for combination,he looks on the acts perpetrated by the whites to restrain them as cruel, bloody, merciless. No doubt they are, for the majority of men rather act from what they feel they deserve at the hands of the slaves, from the horrors that an awakened conscience presents, than from a sober contemplation of the undisciplined, scattered, and unarmed force with which they have to contend. But we take Mr. Underwood not to be of this sort. With him, fear and conscience do not keep nature from asserting her claims. In his heart, if not in his mouth, he will palliate,

in some measure, the unwise struggle of the slaves for their rights, rights to which, as human beings, he knows they are entitled; rights which we acknowledge are "self-evident," whilst, doubtless, he is shocked at the sanguinary deeds, thought necessary to keep them as slaves. But extraordinary instances aside, he is "disgusted and incensed" that the people of the Free states have not succeeded, as well as he has, in dulling and putting asleep their good feelings for the slaves. But Mr. Underwood must know, that, in the evil day when slavery was temporarily allowed to the South, and we fully believe that this allowance was only temporary,- that there were persons in the Free states who could feel for the slaves; who could view them as their brethren- their wronged and suffering brethren; whose opposition to Slavery would grow with their growth and strengthen with their strength, and to whom laws and constitutions, no matter how solemnly enacted, requiring them to behave meanly and inhumanly, would be as bands of burnt flax to the strong man. Let him know, that these persons, when they see the South faithless to its promises attempting to convert these temporary provisions into permanent ones; when they see that the government of the Union is controlled by slaveholders who seek to use that very government for advancing and establishing slavery rather than liberty, and openly to extend the curse of slavery to climes that may be said never to have known it, let him learn, we say, that these persons look with abhorrence and detestation on laws and constitutions so perverted; and that these laws and constitutions never can be steadily enforced, unless it be by a tyranny too rigid, a despotism too unlimited, to be quietly borne by us here."

Now, after Senator Underwood has sung this "Io Triumphe," and, with becoming modesty, has told the abolitionists of the North that they do not understand the subject of Slavery, about which they write and speak so much,-and all this, too, without the slightest attempt, on his part, to enlighten them, it turns out, a good deal to our surprise, we acknowl

*The surprising want of accurate knowledge, possessed even by slaveholding Senators, in regard to legislation by the Free states inflicting penalties on their own officers for aiding in retaking fugitive slaves, a business confined by the Constitution of the United States, as interpreted by a judicial decision, to officers of the United States, was fully shown in the debate in the Senate, Jan. 22nd, 1849, on the presentation of the resolutions by the Legislature of New York.

edge, that he avows himself "no advocate for the institution of Slavery." Not he; and why is he not as credible in this matter," for he is an honorable man," though he hold his fellow-being in slavery, as was our late President, who is represented as a "peace man," though he invaded Mexico, and tried his best to subdue it by arms; or as the duellist, who says he is opposed to fighting, and who fights, not for the love of it, because there is too much risk of life in fighting, but only when he thinks it necessary? We see, then, no reason, judging by this standard, - a standard which, in spite of all acts to the contrary, takes the culprit's testimony in his own behalf to acquit him, why we should not set down Senator Underwood as no advocate of Slavery. But it is on the condition of colonization. His plan is a short one; it has, at least, that good quality, if no other, and therefore we will give it:

"Let a future day be fixed," says he, "after which every slave child born shall be the property of the State; [for instance, Kentucky;] place the children, when weaned, in the hands of those who will raise them-females till they are eighteen years of age, and males till they are twenty-four or twenty-five, and upon their reaching these ages, send them to Africa. These, in a few words, are the whole scheme."

This project of emancipation was broached by Mr. Underwood, perhaps, fifteen or sixteen years ago, in an address delivered by him to the Kentucky Colonization Society. We believe it has found but few to favor it. But we have no more doubt of its proving effectual, if it can be carried out, than we have that the most destructive fire can be extinguished by pouring enough water on it. But the difficulty is, always has been, always will be, how the water shall be obtained, conveyed, and applied to it. The Senator's scheme has one defect, which all others of similar character have, and which gives it but few supporters: it is intended to put an end to Slavery. A plan to remove free colored persons to a distant land, to build up with them there a great empire, has about it a good deal of the romantic to attract men. But when you propose to take the slaves, at the most valuable period of their lives, out of the hands of their masters, on whose plantations they may have been born, with a view of removing them to Africa, the country to which they are going all at once becomes sickly; the colony is already over-crowded;