264 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



first inquired the name of that splendid corps of cavalry. 

 It is in my mind that at one time the dragoons were all 

 communicants in the National Church. Do you remember 

 the fact, and when it was ? Of my own country I have 

 now nothing to boast. The sway exercised by the Slave 

 States, through the recreancy and corruption of venal men 

 from the Free States, has produced the disgraceful condition 

 in which we now are. It is true, however, that a deep 

 feeling of injury and danger now swells the bosom of the 

 North and the Free States in the West, and the result is 

 appearing in our elections. I hope, however, but with fear. 

 The people in the Free States are busy with their private 

 concerns, and are not like the slaveholders, united by a 

 common bond, nor like them are they prepared to act in 

 concert, marching to the battle with a serried front, and 

 hardly missing a straggler from their ranks. I am im 

 pressed with the belief that the wanton and wicked destruc 

 tion of the Missouri Compromise, unless their steps 

 should be retraced at the next session of Congress, will 

 do away with all other compromises, and that fugitive slaves 

 will not hereafter be reclaimed in most of the Northern 

 States. It is remarkable that the slaveholders, who are so 

 fond of quoting the Jewish books for the palliation, or, as 

 they claim, justification of slavery, seem never to have 

 heard the following two verses : Deuteronomy, chap, xxiii., 

 verses 15 and 16, " Thou shalt not deliver unto his mas 

 ter the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee : 

 he shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place 

 which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh 

 him best : thou shalt not oppress him." If they would be 

 consistent, this does away entirely with the fugitive slave- 

 law 



