Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising State, for other
States.'--Mr. C.F. Mercer asserted, in the Virginia Convention of 1829,
'The tables of the natural growth of the slave population demonstrate;
when compared with the increase of its numbers in the commonwealth for
twenty years past, that an annual revenue of not less than a million and
a half of dollars is derived from the exportation of a part of this
population.'"--_Judge Jay's View_, _pages_ 88, 89.]
Very soon after our arrival, we proceeded to the House of
Representatives, then sitting, and were favored, by introductions from a
member, with seats behind the Speaker's chair. The subject before the
House was, of course, peculiarly interesting to me, being the proposed
re-enactment of the "gag;" a rule of the House, by which petitions for
the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, are laid upon the
table, without being read or referred, and thus are virtually rejected.
One of the speakers, William Slade, of Vermont, who was opposed to the
"gag," told the pro-slavery members that they were greatly mistaken in
supposing that such a measure would suppress the anti-slavery feeling of
the country.
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