NOTES ON AMERICA. 147 



a foreign government, and although the United States district judge, 

 pronounced this statute to be contrary to the law of nations, and calcu- 

 lated to bring the Americans into collision with every other civilized 

 people on the face of the earth, still his dictum was disregarded, and 

 British subjects have more than once been imprisoned under this 

 atrocious enactment. Every possible exertion is made to clear the 

 country of free coloured people. Hence, the colonization society and 

 the settlement of Liberia, of which so much has lately been said, are 

 encouraged and patronized by southerners, who, doubtless feel under 

 weighty obligations to the philanthropists of the north for their assist- 

 ance in the removal of so pregnant a source of alarm and danger. 

 Human ingenuity, indeed, could not have effected a more sagacious and 

 effective mode than this, for rivetting the chains of oppression more 

 firmly on those who are left behind. In the course of a few years there 

 will not be a free black to be found in the Carolinas or in Georgia. Of 

 course, all attempts to reason in favour of the natural and inherent rights 

 of man, with the promoters and authors of such laws as these, must be 

 worse than fruitless. The principle strenuously insisted and acted upon 

 throughout the southern states is simply this. The blacks must be 

 retained in extreme ignorance and degradation, or we cannot be safe. 

 On other subjects you may converse with a well educated planter with 

 pleasure and profit, but the discussion of this all-important one only pro- 

 duces irritation and disgust. 



I am reminded in this place of an anecdote of the celebrated Mr. 

 Randolph, of Roanoke, who is a most ardent supporter of the slave 

 system, although he thought proper, a few years ago, when in London, 

 to deliver a speech which would not have disgraced Mr. Wilberforce 

 himself. At a dinner party in Philadelphia, where Mr. Randolph was 

 present, the emancipation of the blacks was ably advocated. The infe- 

 riority of the negro intellect was denied, and their perfect right to throw 

 off the yoke of their task-masters by any means within their reach, loudly 

 insisted upon. Mr. Randolph observed, that his old and favourite black 

 servant, who waited upon him at table, listened with eager delight to the 

 conversation. When the party broke up, and he left town in his curricle, 

 he thought it necessary to counteract the pernicious effects of what had 

 passed upon the mind of the negro. He therefore ordered Cato to pull 

 up, and stand in the middle of the road, while he took the whip from 

 his hands and commenced flogging him very severely ; during the oper- 

 ation, the following dialogue passed between them : 



Mr. R. Oh, oh ! you black rascal, you believe what these idiots have 

 been saying, do you ? You are as good a man as your master, eh ? You 

 want to cut my throat, I suppose ? 



Cato, Oh ! de debble, no massa me be nutting but poor nigger 

 oh ! massa, tink me no feelin ? 



Mr. R. Then get up again you miserable devil, and thank God for 

 such a kind master ! Ill whip your notions of freedom out of you ! 



It would be difficult, certainly, for poor Cato to fancy himself anything 

 but a bondsman after this practical illustration of his master's kind feel- 

 ing towards him. 



I believe that America is the only country in the world where the best 

 informed, as well as the most polished men and women, are invariably 

 to be found among the highest classes. There, however, beyond all 

 question, such is the fact, and in the interior of the Southern States, I am 



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