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pictures shall cause the knees of the base pirates | wonderfully endowed, the fact that they have emwho congregate in the den of iniquity, to smite to-ployed their talents in upholding a system which gether.

Known to God only, is the dreadful amount of human agony and suffering, which, from this slave-jail, has sent its cry, unheard or unheeded of man, up to His ear. The mother weeping for her child-the wife separated from her husband, breaking the night silence with the shriek of breaking hearts! | Now and then an appalling fact shed light upon the secret horrors of the prison house. In the winter of 1838, a poor colored man, overcome with horror at being sold to the South, put an end to his life by cutting his throat.

crushes and kills the minds of millions. But here in the slave prison, I saw them in another light.— The fascinations of genius, which, like the silver veil of the Eastern Prophet, had covered them, fell off, and left only the deformity of tyranny. I looked upon the one as the high priest of slavery, ministering at its altar, and scowling defiance to the religion and philanthropy of christendom-the fitting champion of that southern-democracy, whose appropriate emblem is the SLAVE-WHIP, with the negro at one end, and an overseer at the other. And with God's immortal children, converted into mer

.

From the private establishment we next proceed-chandize, I thought of Henry Clay's declaration : ed to the old city prison-built by the people of the "That is property which the law makes property," United States-the common property of the nation. and that "two hundred years had sanctioned and It is a damp, dark, loathsome building. We passed sanctified slavery." I saw the intibetween two ranges of small stone cells, filled with mate and complete connection between the planter blacks. We noticed five or six in a single cell which who raises the slave for market, the dealer who seemed scarcely large enough for a solitary tenant. buys him, the legislator who sustains and legalizes The heat was suffocating. In rainy weather, the the traffic, and the northern freemen, who by his vote keeper told us that the prison was uncomfortably places that legislator in power. In the silence of my wet. In winter, there could be no fire in these cells. soul, I pledged myself anew to liberty; and felt at The keeper, with some reluctance, admitted that he that moment the baptism of a new life-long consereceived slaves from the traders, and kept them until cration to the cause. God helping me, the resoluthey were sold, at thirty-four cents per day. Mention which I then formed, shall be fulfilled to the of the North! it was your money which helped pile the granite of these cells, and forge the massy iron doors, for the benefit of slave traders! It is your property which is thus perverted!

But to me this prison had a painful and peculiar interest. It was here that Dr. Crandall, of New York, was confined for several months. His health was completely broken down, and he was released only to find a grave. Do you ask what was his crime? He had circulated among some members of his profession, at Washington, a copy of a pamphlet written by myself, on the subject of slavery, and in favor of freedom! Here in darkness, dampness, and silence, his warm, generous heart died within him. And this was in Washington-in the metropolis of our free country-in the nineteenth century.

Scarcely an hour before my visit to the prison, I had been in the senate chamber of the United States. I had seen the firm lip, the broad, full brow, and beaming eye of Calhoun, the stern repose of a face written over with thought, and irradiated with the deep, still fires of genius. I had conversed with Henry Clay, once the object of my boyish enthusiasm, and encountered the fascination of his smile, and winning voice, as he playfully reproached me for deserting an old friend. I had there, in spite of my knowledge of its gross perversion to the support of wrong, felt something of that respect and reverence which is always extorted by intellectual power. For the moment I half forgot, in my appreciations of the gifts of genius with which these men have been so

uttermost!

I left that prison with mingled feelings of shame, sorrow, and indignation. Before me was the great dome of the capitol; our national representatives were passing and re-passing on the marble stairsover all, the stripes and stars fluttered in the breeze which swept down the Potomac. I was thus compelled to realize the fact, that the abominations I had looked upon, were in the District of Columbia-the chosen home of our republic-the hearthstone of our national honor-that the representatives of the nations of Europe here looked, at one and the same glance, upon the capitol and the slave jail. Not long before, a friend had placed in my hand, a letter from Seidensticker, one of the leaders of the patriotic movement in behalf of German liberty in 1831. It was written from the prison of Celle, where he has been for eleven years a living martyr to the cause of freedom. In this letter, the noble German expresses his indignant astonishment at the speeches of Calhoun and others in Congress on the subject of slavery, and deplores the sad influence which our slave system is exerting upon the freedom of Europe. I could thus estimate in some degree the blighting effects of our union of liberty and slavery, upon the cause of political reform in the old world, strengthening the hands of the Peels and Metter. nichs, and deepening around the martyrs and confessors of European freedom the cold shadow of their prisons. All that I had said or done for the cause of emancipation heretofore, seemed cold and trifling at that moment, and even now, when I am

disposed to blame the ardor and enthusiasm of some of my friends, and censure their harsh denunciations of slavery and its abettors, I think of the slave jails of the District of Columbia, and am constrained to exclaim with Jonathan Edwards, when, in his day, he was accused of fanaticism; "If these things be enthusiasms, and the fruits of a distempered imagi. nation, let me still ever more possess them." It is a very easy thing, at our comfortable northern firesides, to condemn and deplore the zeal and extravagance of abolitionists, and to reach the conclusion that slavery is a trifling matter, in comparison to the great questions of banks and sub-treasuries; but he who can visit the SLAVE MARKETS of the DISTRICT, without feeling his whole nature aroused in indignation, must be more or less than a

man.

Amesbury, 30th of 10th mo., 1843.

Shall scenes like these the dance inspire,
Or wake th' enlivening notes of mirth?
No! shiver'd be the recreant lyre

That gave this dark idea birth!
Other sounds, I ween, were there,
Other music rent the air,
Other waltz the warriors knew,
When they closed on Waterloo.

Forbear, till time, with lenient hand,

Has sooth'd the pangs of recent sorrow, And let the picture distant stand, The softening hue of years to borrow. When our race have passed away, Hands unborn may wake the layYet mournfully should ages view The horrid deeds at Waterloo !

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What sought they thus afar?

Bright jewels of the mine?—

The wealth of seas?-the spoils of war?—

They sought a faith's pure shrine !

Ay, call it holy ground,

The soil where first they trod!

monster that springs into existence in the increasing consumption of tea and coffee. When men dashed from their lips the wine-cup, they felt sensibly the absence of the usual stimulus, and thoughtlessly deemed that health demanded a substitute. But the appetite was morbid and artificial; and true wisdom, instead of gratifying it with opium, tobacco, tea or

They have left unstained what there they found; coffee, would dictate the entire disuse of every anFreedom to worship God.

DIETETIC REFORM.

BY JAMES SELLERS, JR.

create most of the endless stir around us.".

natural stimulant. The castor has supplanted the decanter, and is faithfully nursing an appetite which may gather such strength of importunity, that men shall forget their vows and fall back to their low estate of sensuality. Individual reform does not pause. If we cease to progress, we are gradually swept back by a strong current of animality to that abyss from which we have emerged. How important, then, is the relinquishment of those fiery condiments which foster every animal passion of our nature, and disturb the equable manifestation of the loftiest sentiments of the human soul.

"A few nerves hardly visible on the surface of the tongue, DR. W. E. CHANNING. It is not essential to our view of this subject, that we consider the perfection of the physical frame the sole object of life. Either they who discard the idea that soul and body are separate entities, or they who look upon the outward man as the mere taber- It cannot be expected that any partial reform shall nacle of the spirit, must upon proper scrutiny admit secure to us that exemption from the appeals of our the superior claims of this reform, or call in question lower nature which is the gift only of perfect obetruths which they have been wont to style self-dience. Subserviency to one appetite perpetually endangers the freedom of the noblest soul.

evident.

The

Science and general truth through all their stages sword of the warrior will not be sheathed before the of development have tended to confirm the intuitive-knife of the butcher: and men who look complaly-perceived fact of intimate relationship and de-cently upon the death-struggle of the lamb or the ox pendence between body and mind. And now, when will scarcely shrink from the gallows, or the murthe particular branches of Physiology, Anatomy, derous scenes of war. In the refined circles of sociand Phrenology are enveloped in clustering revela-ety how many freely partake of that flesh whose tions of the same great truth, the importance of the subject under consideration is becoming more distinct. Then as a mere instrument for superior mental conception and labor, the physical frame should be regulated with an eye to the highest degree of purity and perfection.

hideousness the cook has partially concealed; and
yet did necessity impose upon them the slaughter
and preparation of the carcase, would well nigh faint
at the bare thought of the task.
To such we sug-
gest that what we do by another is essentially the
act of our own hands-that the blade of the carving-

vein of the struggling victim, It is said, by sensitive ones, to be vulgar and indelicate to mention these things. So said the slave-holder when reminded of his lust and concubinage. But the true soul shrinks not from the utterance of truth, however it may jar upon the sensual ear. If the social arrangements are such that we cannot see the work of our own hands, some friendly arm is needed to withdraw the veil which shrouds the action from the actor. Intellect recedes before the fattened herd, and morality grows faint beside the meat-block, while human

Yet, however evident this fact may be to the en-knife is dyed as deeply as that which opens the quiring mind, few as yet have felt and acknowledged the defects of the present dietetic habits of the race. With all the apparent ignorance which prevails upon this vital matter, it is a little singular that the presentation of truth concerning it, almost invariably awakens at least a partial response in the breast of the hearer. Thus when the standard of abstinence from alcohol was reared in this wine-bibbing nation, despite the fact of its enthronement upon the dining table, the sideboard, in the dancing saloon, the select meeting, and even on the altar of the Church, the wine-cup was felt to be the den of a serpent as dead-sympathy sickens and dies upon the threshhold of ly in its sting, as sly in its approaches; and the faithful note of warning from the earnest advocate of this cause, seemed to fall upon ears not entirely insensible to the presence of danger. The same re-tims of our lust and sensuality. To the purified mark is true of the kindred but more prevalent draughts of tea and coffee. These dishes daily steam upon the table of the veteran tee-totaler. And the Washingtonian, dealing his resistless blows upon the hydra-head of alcohol, fails to observe the double

the slaughter-house. How vain then will be our appeals on behalf of defenceless humanity, when the earth is deluged with the blood of the innocent vic

palate it is a source of surprise that men do not turn from the revolting diet of animal flesh and secretions, to the sweet feast of fruits and grains, which Nature has lavished upon her great board around which we are all permitted to gather. What!-says

the high-liver-would you cut us off from the generous pleasures of the table? Alas! he is indeed a short-sighted epicure who lives to eat. Only he who takes his unleavened cake to keep warm the blood in his veins, knows ought of table-pleasures in their largest sense. His is an appetite that never palls-a debauch followed by no morning aches, and bringing no ghosts of misspent hours and squandered funds.

One of the beauties of the Temperance reformation is, that upon which the changes have been much rung, and with no little justice-its wealth-giving power. The rum-bottle and the ragged-elbow are wont to be thought inseparable companious. "Many loaves of wholesome and nourishing bread cannot be reduced to a pint of poison," says the tempérance economist, "without diminishing actual wealth."

mass from a state of perpetual delving to one of comparative leisure and freedom from toil.

Now, there is a great truth in thus banding together more closely the interests and labours of the race, yet if men will gratify their lusts by the sacrifice of the highest attainments of intelligence and morality, associated action will free them, in the pursuit of these gratifications, from a vast amount of necessary drudgery. Hence the tendency of this accumulated power will only be to pander more successfully to sensuality, unless preceded or accompanied by Dietetic Reform.

As it is an act fraught with danger to the bystanders to place in the hands of a fettered maniac the file or the saw, so may association prove a curse by placing within the reach of the sensualist superior facilities for vice than present society confers. Nothing then, can be more obvious than the fact that human progression has for its basis bodily

Six acres of soil, any one of which would give the bread of life to three human beings, cannot exhaust their produce upon the ox that scarce sustains | purification. the gross existence of one flesh consumer, without robbing the individual and the race of that mental and moral culture which is their birth-right.

Female loveliness, cultivation and accomplishment shall be utter strangers to the farm, while dairy-slavery imposes its shackles upon our maidens, stripping them of those moments which are their inalienable right by virtue of the graces given to improve therein.

Complaint has been uttered that woman has failed to contribute her just proportion to the general treasury of science and literature; but until the crucible supplants the cream-jug, and the butter-print is relinquished for the pen, it will be folly to hope for other results. The great fact stares us in the face, that in this particular, as elsewhere, 'tis Eve that proffers the forbidden fruit to Adam. It is no cause of surprise that refined men and women shrink from labor when so much of it lies in cattle-stalls, and cow-yards. Labor, when redeemed from these and other excrescences, will be viewed as the legitimate sphere of the divine man. Woman shall then find her highest attributes dependent upon exertion, and shall throw off the doll now imposed by society, that she may assume more readily her divine character. Health and virtue both call for physical exercise, for as the humours of the system stagnate, and the muscles grow weak in a state of bodily torpidity— so a life on the productions of another's labor destroys the force of conscience, and lowers the moral standard. It may be urged that society has no further claim upon him who throws into the common treasury a quota of intellect. This may be true of society, but false when applied to the individual member, for nothing short of the divine right to labor can satisfy his claims.

Much eloquence and logic has been spent latterly upon a variety of projects for that associated action whose economies shall abolish poverty, and lift the

If the philanthropist would witness the overthrow of slavery, the cessation of war, the abolition of the gallows, or the triumph of temperance, let him withhold from his table carcases and condiment, and all that shall prove a snare to the pure young souls that gather around his board. And if he be an ardent lover of his race his efforts will not cease here, but his testimony will be a beacon-light upon every point of Eternity's coast the shifting waves of Time may cast him.

THOUGHTS IN A LIBRARY.

BY ANNE C. LYNCH.

Speak low-tread softly through these halls!
Here genius lives enshrined,
Here reign in silent majesty

The monarchs of the mind.
A mighty spirit-host they come

From every age and clime,—
Above the buried wrecks of years

They breast the tide of Time.
And in their presence chamber here
They hold their regal state,
And round them throng a noble train,

The gifted and the great.

Oh! child of toil! when round thy path
The storms of life arise!
And when thy brothers pass thee by

With stern unloving eyes!

Here shall the Poets chant for thee

Their sweetest, loftiest lays,
And Prophets wait to guide thy steps
In wisdom's pleasant ways.
Come, with these God-anointed kings
Be thou companion here;
And in the mighty realm of mind
Thou shalt go forth a Peer.

LETTER FROM C. C. BURLEIGH

To an Anti-Slavery Convention, for Eastern Pennsylvania, held at Norristown, Eighth-month 1, 1842.

importunate appeals, may reach the hearts and awak en the consciences of all. Douglas, as a living witness of the secrets of slavery's prison house, may speak that he doth know, and testify that he hath MONTPELIER, Seventh-month 28, 1842. seen of its cruelties and abominations. He may reThough, as you are well aware, I cannot be with veal the foul hypocrisy and daring blasphemy of its you in person at your grand gathering in Norristown priestly defenders; may show in his sarcastic iminext week, yet neither can I consent to be wholly tations, how, with sanctimonious looks and whining absent. Fain would I, that you and all my beloved tones of pretended piety, they impiously charge fellow-laborers there assembled, should think of me upon God the making of one man to be a slave, and not as now a stranger or a foreigner;-as one re-another to be a slave owner; and how, with cool efmoved from among you, and belonging to another frontery, pointing to those physical and mental difscene of action. Let me still be counted as one of ferences which slavery, and its hard toil and enyou. Let my place be kept for me, as if I had but forced ignorance on the one hand, and slaveholding stepped aside for a moment, soon to be in it again. | luxury and pride on the other, have wrought, they It is hardly needful to assure you that I shall be with you in spirit, and that, separated as we are for a time, I still feel a lively interest in whatever concerns our common cause, in that-so long my own-field of labor. So long! nay, still my own; for so I regard it, and look forward with glad anticipation to the time, as not far distant, when we shall be once more together; and, shoulder to shoulder in the same rank of the anti-slavery host, press forward in the arduous struggle wherein you have so often aided and cheered me on. My heart is with you now, and words cannot speak the joy it would give me to be at your meeting, to celebrate with you the glorious jubilee of the West India slave; to plan with you the future toils which are to win a still more glori-port, and in the face of opposition as bitter as sectaous jubilee for the captives of our own land; to kindle anew each other's zeal, infuse into each other's souls fresh energy and resolution, re-nerving them for the conflicts we have yet to meet; and once more unite with you in solemnly pledging to the cause, our time, our strength, our talents, our substance, and whatsoever it be wherewith the Lord our God has blessed us," as means for being co-workers with him in delivering the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor.

I know you need not my admonition, to remind you of your duty, nor my voice to arouse you to do it, nor my words of cheer to encourage you onward in the good work. Nor is it only because others will be there to stir you up to action, that you need no word from me. Not merely because Collins will be with you, and Douglas—a brand plucked from the burning-and the veteran Hopper. That these are to be present I am glad to hear. That they will help to pour into your souls new life, and awaken new activity, and animate you with a more devoted spirit of self-denial, and quicken your zeal and inspire you with a greater energy and perseverance, I rejoice to believe. Collins, with his vehement and scorching rebukes, may make pro-slavery writhe, may startle the indifferent, and goad the indolent to action; with his spirit-kindling battle-cry may give increased alacrity to those who have risen and girded them for the moral fight; and with his earnest,

call them tokens of His design, that one should serve and the other command; proofs of His wisdom and goodness in fitting each for the lot assigned him. And the tried old veteran, with his undimmed eye and unabated natural strength, his resolute look, and calm, determined manner, before which the blustering kidnapper and the self-important oppres sor have so often quailed :—with his tales of oppres sion baffled, and freedom gained by many a flying bondman; with the scars of a hundred battles, and the wreaths of a hundred victories, in this glorious warfare; with his example of a half a century's active service in the holy cause, and his still faithful adherence to it through evil as well as good re

rian bigotry can stir up-may show that persecution cannot bow the head which seventy winters could not blanch, nor the terror of excommunication chill the heart in which age could not freeze the kindly flow of warm philanthropy. But it was not the remembrance of these which led me to say you need no voice of mine to summon you to duty. The voice which calls you is louder than ever swelled up from human lips. It is pouring ever its thrilling tones into your ears, and into your souls-from the cotton field, from the rice swamp, from the sugar plantation, from the man-market of your nation's capital, from the desolate huts of the bereaved-bereaved by a stroke more terrible than death,-from the slaveship's hold, and from the dusty highway, where chained coffles drag wearily along their mournful march. It speaks in the clank of fetters, the crack of brandished whips, and the harsh words and angry oaths of drivers and overseers. It rings out from the auction hammer as it falls to sunder human hearts, and is heard in the auctioneer's call, "who bids" for imbruted manhood. All sounds of wo blend in that mighty voice;-all sighs of sorrow heaved by broken hearts; all cries of anguish in its many notes, from the infant's scream and mother's piercing shriek, as they are rudely torn apart, to that deep groan which speaks the strong man's agony at the loss of loved ones dearer than his life; whatever tells the still night air and the watching stars of

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