sinking--his voice grew weak
and tremulous--yet he continued to _curse_! In the midst of his oaths
he uttered broken sentences--'I did'nt steal the meat--I did'nt
steal--my master lives--master--master lives up the river--(his voice
began to gurgle in his throat, and he was so chilled that his teeth
chattered audibly)--I did'nt--steal--I did'nt steal--my--my
master--my--I want to see my master--I didn't--no--my mas--you
want--you want to kill me--I didn't steal the'--His last words could
just be heard as be sunk under the water.

"During this indescribable scene, _not one of the hundred that stood
around made any effort to save the man until he was apparently
drowned_. He was then dragged out and stretched on the bow of the
boat, and soon sufficient means were used for his recovery. The brutal
captain ordered him to be taken off his boat--declaring, with an oath,
that he would throw him into the river again, if he was not
immediately removed. I withdrew, sick and horrified with this
appalling exhibition of wickedness.

"Upon inquiry, I learned that the colored man lived some fifty miles
up the Mississippi; that he had been charged with stealing some
article from the wharf; was fired upon with a pistol, and pursued by
the mob.

"In reflecting upon this unmingled cruelty--this insensibility to
suffering and disregard of life--I exclaimed,

'Is there no flesh in man's obdurate heart?'

"One poor man, chased like a wolf by a hundred blood hounds, yelling,
howling, and gnashing their teeth upon him--plunges into the cold
river to seek protection! A crowd of spectators witness the scene,
with all the composure with which a Roman populace would look upon a
gladiatorial show. Not a voice heard in the sufferer's behalf. At
length the powers of nature give way; the blood flows back to the
heart--the teeth chatter--the voice trembles and dies, while the
victim drops down into his grave.

"What an atrocious system is that which leaves two millions of souls,
friendless and powerless--hunted and chased--afflicted and tortured
and driven to death, without the means of redress.--Yet such is the
system of slavery."

The 'public opinion' of slaveholders is illustrated by scores of
announcements in southern papers, like the following, from the
Raleigh, (N.C.) Register, August 20, 1838. Joseph Gale and Son,
editors and proprietors--the father and brother of the editor of the
National Intelligence, Washington city, D.C.

"O