“I knelt down,” says he, “to receive the punishment, which was inflicted by Mr. Braughton, the city officer, with a HEAVY COW-SKIN.  When the infliction ceased, an involuntary thanksgiving to God, for the fortitude with which I had been enabled to endure it, arose in my soul, to which I began aloud to give utterance.  The death-like silence that prevailed for a moment was suddenly broken with loud exclamations, —­’G—­d d—­n him!  Stop his praying!’ I was raised to my feet by Mr. Braughton, and conducted by him to my lodgings, where it was thought safe for me to remain but a few moments.

“Among my triers was a great portion of the respectability of Nashville; nearly half of the whole number professors of Christianity, the reputed stay of the Church, supporters of the cause of benevolence in the form of tract and missionary societies and Sabbath-schools; several members and most of the elders of the Presbyterian Church, from whose hands but a few days before I had received the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of our blessed Saviour!”

In relating this shameful circumstance, the editor of the Georgia Chronicle, a professor of religion, said that Dresser “should have been hung up as high as Haman, to rot upon the gibbet until the wind whistled through his bones.  The cry of the whole South should be death, instant death, to the Abolitionist, wherever he is caught.”  What a great and free country!

LETTER XV.

Voyage up the Ohio (continued)—­Illinois—­Evansville—­Owensborough —­Indiana—­New Albany—­Louisville, and its Cruel Histories—­The Grave of President Harrison—­Arrival in Cincinnati—­First Impressions—­The Congregational Minister—­A Welsh Service.

The Ohio, the “beautiful river,” is a magnificent stream formed by the confluence at Pittsburg of the Allegany and Monongahela Rivers, and is 1,008 miles long, constituting the boundary of six States:  Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois on the north,—­all free States; and Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee on the south,—­all slave States.  A trip on this river, therefore, affords a fine opportunity for observing the contrast between slavery and freedom.

The Ohio is the great artery through which the inland commerce of the Eastern States flows into the valley of the Mississippi.  In ascending this river, we had first on our left the State of Illinois.  This territory, which contains an area of 60,000 square miles, was settled by the French in 1720, and was admitted into the Union in 1818.  Its population in 1810 was 12,300; in 1840, 476,180.  It is now, probably, not far short of 1,000,000!

On the 19th of February, about noon, we arrived at Evansville, on the Indiana side of the river.  This was the prettiest place we had yet seen; and its charms were enhanced by the assurance that it was free from the taint of slavery.  The rise of this little town has been rapid.  Its population is about 3,000.  Three “churches,” with their neat and graceful spires, rising above the other buildings, were conspicuous in the distance.