The adjoining and
once fertile and beautiful States of Virginia and Maryland, are now
blasted with sterility, and ever-encroaching desolation. The curse of
the first murderer rests upon the planters, and the ground will no
longer yield to them her strength. The impoverished proprietors find now
their chief source of revenue in what one of themselves expressly
termed, their "crop of human flesh." Hence the slave-holding region is
now divided into the "slave-breeding," and "slave-consuming" States.
From its locality, and, from its importance as the centre of public
affairs, the District of Columbia has become the focus of this dreadful
traffic, which almost vies with the African slave trade itself in extent
and cruelty, besides possessing aggravations peculiarly its own.[A] Its
victims are marched to the south in chained coffles, overland, in the
face of day, and by vessels coastwise. Those who protest against these
abominations are the abolitionists; a body whose opinions are so
unpopular that no term of reproach is deemed vile enough for their
desert; yet if these should hold their peace, the very stones would
surely cry out.
Pages:
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146