The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-15 00:00:00

AN AMERICAN ON SLAVERY

In the year of the Exhibition a young and intelligent
American visited the metropolis, and, after exploring the
Chrystal Palace, wandered on foot through a great part of
the old country—from London to the Land of Burns. In
1852 he sailed from Liverpool for his native land, where
he arrived in safety towards the fall of the year. Some
months subsequently he wrote to a friend in Liverpool,
and from his letter we cull a brief passage on the subject
of slavery :

" I became so deeply interested in our presidential can-
didates, that I could find no time to devote to correspon-
dents ; but the election is over, and the man in whom my
hopes were fixed has been beaten in almost every State of
the Union. The political world is now enjoying a " bliss-
ful quietude," and there is no lamentation, rejoicing, or
contention ; but the whole country seems to be in a state
of prosperity that bespeaks the general satisfaction of the
people. Only one source of discontent is left to harass
our minds, and hinder our upward flight, and that is ' the
curse of slavery.' We in the north are not satisfied with
the conduct of our brethren in the south in relation to
this subject. We not only deplore the existence of that
institution, but we are left to groan beneath the weight of
the heavy burthens that it imposes upon us. You in the
old country sympathise with the poor slave (a commend-
able sympathy) ; but we forget these wrongs towards the
men of toil, because of the injustice towards ourselves.
Our laws require that I, and every northern man, should
shut our eyes to the palpable crime oft eslavery, and arrest
every refugee, and send him back to h robber,. who stole
us, so deeply criminal in the
him from his father's fireside. But do you imagine we do
anything so wromr, not that kind
of men.'
eyes of God ? Oh, no help them money, and them on, and
We give themth
and determined adherence to the ' higher
so heineoare
God speed to the land of freedom. This 'violation of thee
s into collision with our southern brethren,
are kept constantly in a broil concerning the
us
law institutions
principleof then t
isloeut h
northon tohne
tohneeoltilaine
rd
;, andbut thebn
a` law,'nlodw eh
bangsawwe 'u
t`hheigcnliner.
sequences what they may, we are determined that our
means shall not be lent to the interests of slavery. Our
southern brothers are very immoderate in their language.
and threaten disunion and reprisal ; but we talk less, and
adhere the more firmly to our determinations. We only
laugh at their threats of disunion, for we know very well
that without the north slavery could not exist a single
day. Our free labour system brings us prosperity, and
their system of slavery reduces them below a capacity to
pay their own expenses, while our excess of receipts must
be thrown into the scale to cover their excess of expendi-
ture. We are not so unmindful of our own wrongs as of
the wrongs of the slave. But the worst has not come yet
with relation to this matter. The incoming administra-
tion has an eye to Cuba, and what will be the result of an
attempt
mto add that slave territory' to this Union ?
from the task of describing it. for already I
Delivere
can see streams of blood pouring from the veins of many
nations, and mingling into one vast flood, absorbing
countless treasures of gold, and casting a withering blight
over the happiness of many social circles. But let us hope
that reason will encompass the throne of authority."