Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-02-07
The Past and Present Condition OF the


The New York Observer, in the course of NJ
article on slavery, says: When the ancestors
of those negroes were torn from their homes
! in Africa by the slavetraders of Old England
and New England, and placed under the infu
ence Of Christianity at the South, they were
among the most degraded and miserable Of
the human Species slaves of cruel masters,
the victims of bloody superstitions, believers
in witchcraft and worshippers of the devil.
And what now is the condition of their de-
scendants? Several years ago more than 3OO,-
900 of them were members of Protestant
evangelical churches In the slayeholding Statesl
About 10000 American negroes, trained chiefly
at the South, transplanted to Liberia, now rule
nearly 100000 natives of Africa, and through
their schools and churches are spreading the
light and love Of the Gospel in that land Of
darkness and heathenism.
1t is true that more than nine-tenths of the
negroes at the South are still slaves but is
slavery under Christian masters in America
the same evil with slavery under heather
tyrants in Africa? Degraded as these slaves
may still be, compared with the sons of the
pilgrims in New England, or even with the
mass of laborers in some of the enlightened
countries in Europe, can 100000 or l,000,-
900 negroes, bond or free, be found in any part
of the world, who can compare, for good con-
dition, physical, intellectual, and moral, with
the 3,000,0 900 slaves at the South? Has Chris
tianity, aided by all the wealth Of British Chris
tians done as much during the last twenty
years for the elevation Of the 100000 enamel
pated negroes in the West Indies, British phi,
lanthropists themselves being the judges of
what it has effected, there, as it has done dur
ing the same period for the elevation OF our
100000 American slaves?
The Trial Trip OF the First Locomotive.
Major Horatio Allan, the Engineer of the
New York and Erie railroad, in a speech made
during the recent festival occasion, gave the
following account Of the first trip made by a
locomotive on this continent:
"When was it? Who was it? And who
awakened its energies and directed its move
ments? 1t was in the year 1928, on the banks
of the Lackawaxen at the commencement of
the railroad connecting the canal of the Della
ware and Hudson Canal Company with their
coal mines-and he who addresses you was the
only person on that locomotive. The circum-
stances which led to my being alone on the en-
CINE, were these The road had been built in
the summer, the structure was of hemlock
timber, and rails of large dimensions notched
on caps placed far apart. The timber had
cracked and warped from exposure 10 the sum-
After about three hundred feet of straight line
the road crossed the Lackawaxen Creek, on
trestle work about 80 feet high, with a curve of
$50 TO 400 feet radius. The impression was
very general that this iron monster would
either break down the road or it would leave
the track at the curve and plunge into the
creek. My reply to such apprehensions was,
that it was too late to consider the probability
of such occurrences, there was no other course
but to have trial made of the strange animal
which had been brought here at great expenses
but that it was not necessary that more than
one should be involved in its fate; that | would
take the first ride alone, and the time would
come when / should look back to the incident
with great interest. As placed my hand on
the throttle valve handle, i was undecided
whether / would move slowly or with fair
degree of speed, but believing that the road
would prove safe, and preferring, if we did go
down, to go handsomely, and without any evil
dence of timidity, | started with considerable
velocity, passed the curve over the creek safely,
and was soon out of hearing of the cheers of
the vast -assemblage. At the eud of two or
three miles, reversed the valve, and returned
without accident to the place of starting, having
thus made the first railroad trip by locomotive
on the Western Hemisphere"