If the reader, after perusing the preceding facts, testimony, and arguments, still insists that the ‘public opinion’ of the slave states protects the slave from outrages, and alleges, as proof of it, that cruel masters are frowned upon and shunned by the community generally, and regarded as monsters, we reply by presenting the following facts and testimony.

“Col.  MEANS, of Manchester, Ohio, says, that when he resided in South Carolina, his neighbor, a physician, became enraged with his slave, and sentenced him to receive two hundred lashes.  After having received one hundred and forty, he fainted.  After inflicting the full number of lashes, the cords with which he was bound were loosed.  When he revived, he staggered to the house, and sat down in the sun.  Being faint and thirsty, he begged for some water to drink.  The master went to the well, and procured some water but instead of giving him to drink, he threw the whole bucket-full in his face.  Nature could not stand the shock—­he sunk to rise no more.  For this crime, the physician was bound over to Court, and tried, and acquitted—­and THE NEXT YEAR HE WAS ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE!”

Testimony of Hon. JOHN RANDOLPH, of Virginia

“In one of his Congressional speeches, Mr. R. says:  Avarice alone can drive, as it does drive, this infernal traffic, and the wretched victims of it, like so many post horses, whipped to death in a mail coach.  Ambition has its cover-sluts in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war; but where are the trophies of avarice?  The hand cuff, the manacle, the blood-stained cowhide!  WHAT MAN IS WORSE RECEIVED IN SOCIETY FOR BEING A HARD MASTER?  WHO DENIES THE HAND OF A SISTER OR DAUGHTER TO SUCH MONSTERS?”

Mr. GEORGE A. AVERY, of Rochester, New York, who resided four years in Virginia, testifies as follows: 

“I know a local Methodist minister, a man of talents, and popular as a preacher, who took his negro girl into his barn, in order to whip her—­and she was brought out a corpse!  His friends seemed to think this of so little importance to his ministerial standing, that although I lived near him about three years, I do not recollect to have heard them apologize for the deed, though I recollect having heard ONE of his neighbors allege this fact as a reason why he did not wish to hear him preach.”

Notwithstanding the mass of testimony which has been presented establishing the fact that in the ‘public opinion’ of the South the slaves find no protection, some may still claim that the ’public opinion’ exhibited by the preceding facts is not that of the highest class of society at the South, and in proof of this assertion, refer to the fact, that ‘Negro Brokers,’ Negro Speculators, Negro Auctioneers, and Negro Breeders, &c., are by that class universally despised and avoided, as are all who treat their slaves with cruelty.