“Upon inquiry, I learned that the colored man lived some fifty miles up the Mississippi; that he had been charged with stealing some article from the wharf; was fired upon with a pistol, and pursued by the mob.

“In reflecting upon this unmingled cruelty—­this insensibility to suffering and disregard of life—­I exclaimed,

‘Is there no flesh in man’s obdurate heart?’

“One poor man, chased like a wolf by a hundred blood hounds, yelling, howling, and gnashing their teeth upon him—­plunges into the cold river to seek protection!  A crowd of spectators witness the scene, with all the composure with which a Roman populace would look upon a gladiatorial show.  Not a voice heard in the sufferer’s behalf.  At length the powers of nature give way; the blood flows back to the heart—­the teeth chatter—­the voice trembles and dies, while the victim drops down into his grave.

“What an atrocious system is that which leaves two millions of souls, friendless and powerless—­hunted and chased—­afflicted and tortured and driven to death, without the means of redress.—­Yet such is the system of slavery.”

The ‘public opinion’ of slaveholders is illustrated by scores of announcements in southern papers, like the following, from the Raleigh, (N.C.) Register, August 20, 1838.  Joseph Gale and Son, editors and proprietors—­the father and brother of the editor of the National Intelligence, Washington city, D.C.

“On Saturday night, Mr. George Holmes, of this county, and some of his friends, were in pursuit of a runaway slave (the property of Mr. Holmes) and fell in with him in attempting to make his escape.  Mr. H. discharged a gun at his legs, for the purpose of disabling him; but unfortunately, the slave stumbled, and the shot struck him near the small of the back, of which wound he died in a short time.  The slave continued to run some distance after he was shot, until overtaken by one of the party.  We are satisfied, from all that we can learn, that Mr. H. had no intention of inflicting a mortal wound.”

Oh! the gentleman, it seems, only shot at his legs, merely to ’disable’—­and it must be expected that every gentleman will amuse himself in shooting at his own property whenever the notion takes him, and if he should happen to hit a little higher and go through the small of the back instead of the legs, why every body says it is ‘unfortunate,’ and the whole of the editorial corps, instead of branding him as a barbarous wretch for shooting at his slave, whatever part be aimed at, join with the oldest editor in North Carolina, in complacently exonerating Mr. Holmes by saying, “We are satisfied that Mr. H. had no intention of inflicting a mortal wound.”  And so ’public opinion’ wraps it up!

The Franklin (La.) Republican, August 19, 1837, has the following: 

“NEGROES TAKEN.—­Four gentlemen of this vicinity, went out yesterday for the purpose of finding the camp of some noted runaways, supposed to be near this place; the camp was discovered about 11 o’clock, the negroes four in number, three men and one woman, finding they were discovered, tried to make their escape through the cane; two of them were fired on, one of which made his escape; the other one fell after running a short distance, his wounds are not supposed to be dangerous; the other man was taken without any hurt; the woman also made her escape.”