friend, Mrs. G.; and I have been in the habit of visiting her house ever since I camé south. The whole aim of this excellent lady seems to be to make others happy. I do not believe she ever thinks of herself. She is growing old, but her parlour is constantly thronged with the young and gay, attracted by her cheerful and never-failing kindness. There are two large families from the city staying here; and every day some ten or a dozen transient guests. Mint-juleps in the morning are sent to our rooms, and then follows a delightful breakfast in the open verandah. We hunt, ride, fish, pay morning visits, play chess, read or lounge until dinner, which is served at 2 P.M., in great variety, and most delicately cooked in what is here called Creole style-very rich, and many made or mixed dishes. In two hours afterwards, everybody, white and black, has disappeared. The whole household is asleep-the siesta of the Italians. The ladies retire to their apartments, and the gentlemen on sofas, settees, benches, hammocks, and often gipsy-fashion, on the grass under the spreading oaks. Here, too, in fine weather, the tea-table is always set before sunset; and then, until bedtime, we stroll, sing, play whist, or coquet. It is an indolent, yet charming life, and one quits thinking, and takes to dreaming.

"This excellent lady is not rich, merely independent; but by thrifty housewifery, and a good dairy and garden, she contrives to dispense the most liberal hospitality. Her slaves appear to be, in a manner, free, yet are obedient and polite, and the farm is well worked. With all her gaiety of disposition, and fondness for the young, she is truly pious; and in her own apartment, every night, she has family prayer with her slaves; one or more of them being often called on to sing and pray. When a minister visits the house, which happens very frequently, prayers night and morning are always said; and on these occasions the whole household and the guests assemble in the parlour : chairs are provided for the servants. They are married by a clergyman of their own colour; and a sumptuous supper is always prepared. On public holidays they have dinners equal to an Ohio barbecué; and Christmas, for a week or ten days, is a protracted festival for the blacks. They are a happy, careless, unreflecting, good-natured race; who, left to themselves, would degenerate into drones or brutes; but, subjected to wholesome restraint and stimulus, become the best and most contented of labourers. They are strongly attached to 'old massa,' and 'old missus; but their devotion to 'young massa,' and 'young missus,'

amounts to enthusiasm. They have great family pride, and are the most arrant coxcombs and aristocrats in the world. At a wedding I witnessed here last Saturday evening, where some 150 negroes were assembled-many being invited guests-I heard a number of them addressed as governors, generals, judges, and doctors (the titles of their masters); and a spruce, tight-set darkey, who waits on me in town, was called 'Major Quitman.' The 'coloured ladies,' are invariably Miss Joneses, Miss Smiths, or some such title. They are exceedingly pompous and ceremonious; gloved and highly perfumed. The 'gentlemen' sport canes, ruffles, and jewellery; wear boots and spurs; affect crape on their hats, and carry huge cigars. The belles wear gaudy colours; 'tote' their fans with the air of Spanish senoritas; and never stir out, though black as the ace of spades, without their parasols. In short, these 'niggers,' as you call them, are the happiest people I have ever seen; and some of them in form, features, and movements, are real sultanas. So far from being fed on 'salted cotton-seed,' as we used to believe in Ohio; they are oily, sleek, bountifully fed, well clothed, well taken care of; and one hears them at all times whistling and singing cheerily at their work. They have an extraordinary facility for sleeping. A negro is a great night-walker. He will, after labouring all day in the burning sun, walk ten miles to a frolic, or to see his 'Dinah ;' and be at home and at his work by daylight next morning. This would knock up a white man or an Indian. But a negro will sleep during the day-sleep at his work-sleep on the carriagebox-sleep standing up; and I have often seen them sitting bareheaded in the sun on a high rail-fence, sleeping as securely as though lying in bed. They never lose their equipoise; and will carry their cotton-baskets, or their water-vessels, filled to the brim, poised on their heads, walking carelessly and at a rapid rate, without spilling a drop. The very weight of such burdens would crush a white man's brains into apoplexy. Compared with the ague-smitten and suffering settlers that you and I have seen in Ohio; or the sickly and starved operatives we read of in factories and in mines, these southern slaves are indeed to be envied. They are treated with great humanity and kindness.”

CHAPTER XVII.

State of Slavery at the Formation of the Government; Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, and its History; Obligation of the States to Deliver up Fugitive Slaves; the Law of 1850.

STATE OF SLAVERY IN 1793.

IN 1789, when the constitutional government was organised, with Washington as president, there were slaves in all the colonial states except Massachusetts. This species of property was recognised; and, in every department of the government, care was taken by the officials to observe the rights of the owner. There were no abolitionists in those days; but there was an almost unanimous anti-slavery sentiment throughout the whole country. The government officials, members of Congress, and the people, were all alike imbued with a patriotic zeal to promote the common good, in preference to their own private gain. Slavery was a fixed institution, and every necessary provision was made in the constitution, and by acts of Congress, to protect the rights of the owner to his slave. The constitution of the United States, as unanimously adopted in the convention of 1787, declares

"No person held to service or labour in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due."

X

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW OF 1793.

In the month of January, 1793, the senate passed the first Fugitive Slave Bill. On the 5th of February, the House of Representatives passed the Senate Bill, by a vote of 48 against 7. It was approved by President Washington, and became law on the 12th of February. This act of Congress was styled " An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping from the Service of their Masters." Sections 1 and 2 referred to fugitives from justice. Sections 3 and 4 were as follows:

:

"Section 3. That when a person held to labour in any of the United States, or in either of the territories on the north-west or south of the river Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any other of the said states or territory, the person to whom such labour or service may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or arrest such fugitive from labour, and to take him or her before any judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States, residing or being within the state, or before any magistrate of a county, city, or town corporate wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made; and upon proof, to the satisfaction of such judge or magistrate, either by oral testimony or affidavit taken before and certified by a magistrate of any such state or territory, that the person so seized or arrested doth, under the laws of the state or territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labour to the person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge or magistrate to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said fugitive from labour, to the state or territory from which he or she fled.

"Section 4. That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent or attorney, in so seizing or arresting such fugitive from labour, or shall rescue such fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney, when so arrested, pursuant to the authority herein given or declared; or shall harbour or conceal such person after notice that he or she was a

fugitive from labour as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and pay the sum of 500 dollars, which penalty may be recovered by and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt in any court proper to try the same; saving, moreover, to the person claiming such labour or service, his right of action for or on account of the said injuries, or either of them.”

HISTORY OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.

On reference to senator Benton's Congressional Debates, we learn that the foregoing bill originated in the senate, and was passed by the house without debate, and almost without division, there being but seven votes cast against it; and two of the seven were from slaveholding states-one from Maryland, and the other from Virginia. The remaining five were-one from each of the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and New York. There were, at that time, in Congress seven representatives from Massachusetts, the only non-slaveholding state; from New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania-the northern slave states-there were twentyseven representatives; and from the states of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky, the southern slaveholding states, there were twenty-five representatives.

The reasons why the seven votes were cast against the bill are unknown. The fugitive slave clauses were added to a bill which was introduced after the reception of a message from President Washington, founded on a communication from the governor of Pennsylvania in relation to a fugitive from justice, who had taken refuge in Vir