NEW-YORK LEGISLATURE.

On the 20th day of January, 1820, the following preamble and resolutions were taken up in the senate (having passed the house) of the New-York Legislature, and unanimously passed. [Mr. Van Buren, who was then in the senate of that state, voted in favor of them.]

Whereas, the inhibiting the further extension of slavery in the United States, is a subject of deep concern to the people of this state and whereas, we consider slavery as an evil much to be deplored, and that every constitutional barrier should be interposed to prevent its further extension; and that the constitution of the United States clearly gives congress the right to require new states, not comprised within the original boundary of the United States, to make the prohibition of slavery a condition of their admission into the Union: Therefore,

Resolved, (if the honorable senate concur therein) That our senators be instructed, and our members of congress be requested, to oppose the admission as a state into the Union, of any territory not comprised as aforesaid, without making the prohibition of slavery therein an indispensable condition of admission.

WILLIAM WIRT.

Slavery was contrary to the laws of nature and of nations; and that the law of South Carolina, concerning seizing colored seamen, was unconstitutional. * * * * Last and lowest, a feculum of beings called overseers-the most abject, degraded, unprincipled race-always cap in hand to the dons who employ them, and furnishing materials for their pride, insolence, and love of dominion.Life of Patrick Henry.

JOHN RANDOLPH.

Dissipation, as well as power or prosperity, hardens the heart, but avarice deadens it to every feeling but the thirst for riches. Avarice alone could have produced the slave trade. Avarice alone can drive, as it does drive, this infernal traffic, and the wretched victims of it, like so many posthorses, 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 handcuff, the manacle, and 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 ?—nay, they have even appeared in "the

abused shape of the vilest of women." I say nothing of India, or Amboyna of Cortes, or Pizarro.-Southern Literary Messenger.

[In March, 1816, John Randolph submitted the following resolution to the House of Representatives:] "Resolved, That a committee be appointed, to inquire into the existence of an inhuman and illegal traffic of slaves, carried on in and through the District of Columbia, and to report whether any, and what measures are necessary for putting a stop to the same.'

"Virginia is so impoverished by the system of slavery, that the tables will sooner or later be turned, and the slaves will advertise for runaway masters."

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Sir, I neither envy the head nor the heart of that man from the North, who rises here to defend slavery upon principle.”—Rebuke of Edward Everett, in Congress, 1820.

The General Court has decided that the will of Mr. Randolph, dated in December, 1821, with its codicil annexed, the codicil of 1826, the four codicils of 1828, and the codicil of 1831, written in London, should be admitted to probate as the last will and testament of that extraordinary man. The effect of these instruments is to liberate his slaves, and provide for their removal to one of the states or territories. The Court was nearly unanimous, one Judge only dissenting. An appeal, we understand, was taken to the Court of Appeals.-Rich. Eng.

"In the name of God, amen. I, John Randolph, of Roanoke, in the county of Charlotte, do ordain this writing, written with my own hand, this fourth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, to be my last will and testament, hereby revoking all others whatsoever.

"I give to my slaves their freedom, to which my conscience tells me they are justly entitled. It has a long time been a matter of the deepest regret to me, that the circumstances under which I inherited them, and the obstacles thrown in the way by the laws of the land, have prevented my emancipating them in my lifetime, which it is my full intention to do in case I can accomplish it.

"All the rest and residue of my estate, (with exceptions hereinafter made,) whether real or personal, I bequeath to William Leigh, Esq., of Halifax, Attorney at Law-to the Rev. William Meade, of Frederick, and to Francis Scott Key, Esq., of Georgetown, District of Columbia, in trust, for the following uses and purposes, viz: 1st. To provide one or more tracts of land in any of the states or territories, not exceeding, in the whole, four thousand acres, nor less than two thousand acres to be partitioned and proportioned by them, in such a manner as to them may seem best, among the said slaves. 2d. Το pay the expense of their removal, and of furnishing them with necessary cabins, clothes and utensils. 3d. To pay the expenses, not exceeding four hundred dollars per annum, of the education of John Randolph Clay, until he shall arrive at the age of twenty-three -leaving with him my injunction, to scorn to eat the bread of idleness or dependence.

"CODICIL. It is my will and desire, that my old servants, Essex and Hetty his wife, be made quite comfortable.

"JOHN RANDOLPH, of Roanoke." [The laws of Virginia prohibit emancipation without the removal of the emancipated from the state.]

THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH.

I agree with gentlemen in the necessity of arming the state for internal defence. I will unite with them in any effort to restore confidence to the public mind, and to conduce to the sense of the safety of our wives, and our children. Yet, sir, I must ask, upon whom is to fall the burden of this defence? not upon the lordly masters of their hundred slaves, who will never turn out except to retire with their families when danger threatens. No, sir; it is to fall upon the less wealthy class of our citizens; chiefly upon the non slaveholder. I have known patrols turned out where there was not a slaveholder among them, and this is the practice of the country. I have slept in times of alarm quietly in bed, without having a thought of care, while these individuals, owning none of this property themselves, were patrolling under a compulsory process, for a pittance of seventy-five cents per twelve hours, the very curtilage of my house, and guarding that property, which was alike dangerous to them and myself. After all, this is but an expedient. As this population becomes more numerous, it becomes less productive. Your guard must be increased, until finally its profits will not pay for the expense of its subjection. Slavery has the effect of lessening the free population of a country. The wealthy are not dependent upon the poor for those aids, and those services, compensation for which, enables the poor man to give bread to his family. The ordinary mechanic arts are all practised by slaves. In the servitude of Europe, in the middle ages, in years of famine, the poor had to barter their liberty for bread: they had to surrender their liberty to some wealthy man to save their families from the horrors of famine. The slave was sustained in sickness and in famine upon the wealth of his master, who preserved him as he would any other species of property. All the sources of the poor man's support were absorbed by him. In this country, he cannot become a slave, but he flies to some other country more congenial to his condition, and where he who supports himself by honest labor is not degraded in his caste. Those who remain, relying upon the support of casual employment, often become more degraded in their condition, than the slaves themselves.

The gentleman has spoken of the increase of the female slaves being a part of the profit; it is admitted; but no great evil can be averted, no good attained, without some inconvenience. It may be questioned, how far it is desirable to foster and encourage this branch of profit. It is a practice, and an increasing practice in parts of Vir

How can an honorable mind, a

ginia, to rear slaves for market. patriot, and a lover of his country, bear to see this ancient dominion, rendered illustrious by the noble devotion and patriotism of her sons in the cause of liberty, converted into one grand menagerie, where men are to be reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles. Is it better, is it not worse, than the slave trade; that trade which enlisted the labor of the good and wise of every creed, and every clime, to abolish it? The trader receives the slave, a stranger in language, aspect and manner, from the merchant who has brought him from the interior. The ties of father, mother, husband and child, have all been rent in twain; before he receives him, his soul has become callous. But here, sir, individuals, whom the master has known from infancy, whom he has seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood, who have been accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from the mother's arms, and sells into a strange country, among strange people, subject to cruel taskmasters.

He has attempted to justify slavery here, because it exists in Africa, and has stated that it exists all over the world. Upon the same principle, he could justify Mahometanism, with its plurality of wives, petty wars for plunder, robbery and murder, or any other of the abominations and enormities of savage tribes. Does slavery exist in any part of civilized Europe? No, sir, in no part of it. America is the only civilized Christian nation that bears the opprobrium. In every other country, where civilization and Christianity have existed together, they have erased it from their codes; they have blotted it out from the page of their history. He has attempted to reconcile us to the dangers of negro slavery, by comparison with slavery as it existed among the ancients. There is one view of this subject which has escaped the gentleman, and which I think reverses his conclusions. The slaves of the ancients were of the same species of the human race; they were of different nations it is true, taken in war, but nevertheless white, bearing no distinctive specific mark, stamped upon their countenances, which should designate them through illimitable generations as a distinct race. In the march of events their blood mingled with their masters; all varieties of dialect or language, the slight differences of aspect and countenance, became blended into one mass. These, from individual genius and assiduity, from high moral and intellectual qualities, could rise separately into higher classes. Such was Esop, Phædrus, Narses, Terence, and the father of Juvenal, who have transmitted their names to an immortal posterity, while their proud masters sleep in oblivion with the common herd. To rise by merit was practicable; there was no inducement to attempt to elevate violently a caste, with whom they had no community of interest or feeling. The ancients even forbade badges of slavery to be worn, fearing to mark them too plainly, lest they might see their own strength; and with this precaution, Italy was ravaged by servile wars. The slave Spartacus kept the field for three years in the heart of Italy, repeatedly defeating consular armies. But, sir, how different is it with the African; nature has stamped upon him the indelible

mark of his species: no lapse of time or generations, no clime or culture, can weaken or obliterate her impression from his countenance. On the burning sands of Africa, in the snowy regions of Canada, as the naked hunter of his native woods, pursuing with the poisoned dart the lion or the elephant, or here, sir, after two hundred years of culture, it remains unfaded, unchanged, and unchangeable. No matter what the grandeur of his soul, the elevation of his thought, the extent of his knowledge, or the purity of his character; he may be a Newton or a Des Cartes, a Tell or a Washington, he is chained down by adamantine fetters; he cannot rear himself from the earth without elevating his whole race with him.

The gentleman has appealed to the Christian religion in justification of slavery. I would ask him upon what part of those pure doctrines does he rely; to which of those sublime precepts does he advert, to sustain his position? Is it that which teaches charity, justice, and good-will to all? or is it that which teaches "that ye do unto others as ye would they should do unto you?”—Speech in the Virginia Legislature.

B. SWAIN.

Is it nothing to us, that seventeen hundred thousand of the people of our country, are doomed illegally to the most abject and vile slavery that was ever tolerated on the face of the earth? Are Carolinians deaf to the piercing cries of humanity? Are they insensible to the demands of justice? Let any man of spirit and feeling, for a moment cast his thoughts over the land of slavery-think of the nakedness of some, the hungry yearnings of others, the flowing tears and heaving sighs of parting relations, the wailings of lamentation and wo, the bloody cut of the keen lash, and the frightful scream that rends the very skies,—and all this to gratify ambition, lust, pride, avarice, vanity, and other depraved feelings of the human heart. Too long has our country been unfortunately lulled to sleep, feeding on the golden dreams of superficial politicians, fanciful poets, and anniversary orations. The worst is not generally known. Were all the miseries, the horrors of slavery, to burst at once into view, a peal of sevenfold thunder could scarce strike greater alarm. We cannot yet believe the condition of our country so desperate, as to forbid the judicious application of proper remedies."-Address of B. Swain of North Carolina, in 1830.

GOVERNOR RANDOLPH.

The deplorable error of our ancestors in copying a civil institution from savage Africa, has affixed upon their posterity a depressing burden, which nothing but the extraordinary benefits conferred by our