“It is believed that such a register of crime amongst a people professing the protestant religion and speaking the English language, is not to be found, with regard to any three-quarters of a million of people, since the downfall of the feudal system.  Compared with the records of crime in Scotland, or the eastern states, the results are ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING! It is believed there are more homicides, on an average of two years, in any of our more populous counties, than in the whole of several of our states, of equal or nearly equal white population with Kentucky.

“The victims of these affrays are not always, by any means, the most worthless of our population.

“It too often happens that the enlightened citizen, the devoted lawyer, the affectionate husband, and precious father, are thus instantaneously taken from their useful stations on earth, and hurried, all unprepared, to their final account!

“The question, is again asked, what could have brought about, and can perpetuate, this shocking state of things?”

As an illustration of the recklessness of life in Kentucky, and the terrible paralysis of public sentiment, the bishop states the following fact.

“A case of shocking homicide is remembered, where the guilty person was acquitted by a sort of acclamation, and the next day was seen in public, with two ladies hanging on his arm!”

Notwithstanding the frightful frequency of deadly affrays in Kentucky, as is certified by the above testimony of Bishop Smith, there are fewer, in proportion to the white population, than in any of the states which have passed under review, unless Tennessee may be an exception.  The present white population of Kentucky is perhaps seventy thousand more than that of Maine, and yet more public fatal affrays have taken place in the former, within the last six months, than in the latter during its entire existence as a state.

The seven slave states which we have already passed under review, are just one half of the slave states and territories, included in the American Union.  Before proceeding to consider the condition of society in the other slave states, we pause a moment to review the ground already traversed.

The present entire white population of the states already considered, is about two and a quarter millions; just about equal to the present white population of the state of New York.  If the amount of crime resulting in loss of life, which is perpetrated by the white population of those states upon the whites alone, be contrasted with the amount perpetrated in the state of New York, by all classes, upon all, we believe it will be found, that more of such crimes have been committed in these states within the last 18 months, than have occurred in the state of New York for half a century.  But perhaps we shall be told that in these seven states, there are scores of cities and large towns, and that a majority