our system of African servitude, and insist that some other term
shall be used. The true definition of the term, as applicable to the
domestic institution in the Southern States, is as follows: Slavery is
the duty and obligation of the slave to labor for the mutual benefit of
both master and slave, under a warrant to the slave of protection, and a
comfortable subsistence, under all circumstances. The person of the
slave is not property, no matter what the fictions of the law may say;
but the right to his labor is property, and may be transferred like any
other property, or as the right to the services of a minor or an
apprentice may be transferred. Nor is the labor of the slave solely for
the benefit of the master, but for the benefit of all concerned; for
himself, to repay the advances made for his support in childhood, for
present subsistence, and for guardianship and protection, and to
accumulate a fund for sickness, disability, and old age. The master, as
the head of the system, has a right to the obedience and labor of the
slave, but the slave has also his mutual rights in the master; the right
of protection, the right of counsel and guidance, the right of
subsistence, the right of care and attention in sickness and old age. He
has also a right in his master as the sole arbiter in all his wrongs and
difficulties, and as a merciful judge and dispenser of law to award the
penalty of his misdeeds. Such is American slavery, or as Mr. Henry
Hughes happily terms it, "Warranteeism."

In order that the subject of American slavery may be thoroughly
discussed, we have availed ourselves of the labors of several of the
ablest writers in the Union. These have been taken, not from one section
only, but from both sections of our country. It is true, most of them
are citizens of the Southern States, and for this there is a good and
obvious reason; no one can correctly discuss this subject, or any other,
who is practically unacquainted with it. This was the error of the
French nation, when they undertook to legislate the African savages of
St. Domingo into free citizens of the model republic; of the English
nation when they undertook to interfere in the internal affairs of
their colonies; and thus must it always be, when men undertake to think
or write, or act, in reference to any subject, of whose fundamental
truths, they are profoundly ignorant. It is true, that in every part of
the civilized world there are noble minds, rising s