The next proposal I have to make is one which I cannot but hope that all Americans will fell the propriety of, inasmuch as the present system is, in my estimation, one of the blackest features of the institution we are considering.  I allude to the slavery of Americans themselves.  In nearly every civilized nation in the world, blood is considered to run in the father’s line, and although illegitimacy forfeits inheritance, it never forfeits citizenship.  How is it in the United States? There the white man’s offspring is to be seen in fetters—­the blood of the free in the market of the slave. No one can have travelled in the Southern States without having this sad fact forced upon his observation.  Over and over again have I seen features, dark if you will, but which showed unmistakeably the white man’s share in their parentage.  Nay, more—­I have seen slaves that in Europe would pass for German blondes.  Can anything be imagined more horrible than a free nation trafficking in the blood of its co-citizens?  Is it not a diabolical premium on iniquity, that the fruit of sin can be sold for the benefit of the sinner?  Though the bare idea may well nauseate the kind and benevolent among the Southerners, the proof of parentage is stamped by Providence on the features of the victims, and their slavery is incontrovertible evidence that the offspring of Columbia’s sons may be sold at human shambles.  Even in Mussulman law, the offspring of the slave girl by her master is declared free; and shall it be said that the followers of Christ are, in any point of mercy, behind the followers of the false prophet?  My proposition, then, is, that every slave who is not of pure African blood, and who has reached, or shall reach, the age of thirty, be apprenticed to some trade for five years, and then become free; and that all who shall subsequently be so born, be free from their birth, and of course, that the mother who is proved thus to have been the victim of the white man’s passion be manumitted as well as her child.

I make no proposal about the spiritual instruction of the slave, as I believe that as much is given at present as any legislative enactment would be likely to procure; but I have one more suggestion to make, and it is one without which I fear any number of acts which might be passed for the benefit of the slave would lose the greater portion of their value.  That suggestion is, the appointment of a sufficient number of officers, selected from persons known to be friendly to the slave, to whom the duty of seeing the enactments strictly carried out should be delegated.

While ruminating on the foregoing pages, a kind of vision passed before my mind.  I beheld a deputation of Republicans—­among whom was one lady—­approaching me.  Having stated that they had read my remarks upon Slavery, I immediately became impressed in their favour, and could not refuse the audience they requested.  I soon found the deputation consisted of people of totally different views, and consequently each addressed me separately.