of manumitting slaves is, to say the least, doubtful, unless
they are colonized. Every man of truth and candor, who is acquainted
with the condition of slaves and free negroes, North and South, must
admit, that the conditions of slaves is better, than that of free
negroes.

Mrs. Stowe has labored hard to prove that there are evils and abuses
in the treatment of slaves in the Southern States; but then she would
have us substitute greater evils for lesser--according to the old
proverb, "out of the frying pan into the fire." Many of the Southern
people as deeply deplore these evils, and are as fully impressed with
the necessity of removing them, as Mrs. Stowe or any one else; but
hitherto they have been unable to decide upon any plan by which these
evils could be removed--except, at least, to a very limited extent.
They knew well, that if they manumitted their slaves, it would involve
both the slaves and themselves in greater evils than African slavery
itself, as it exists in the Southern States.

I beg leave to digress for a moment from the subject under discussion.
Mrs. Stowe has told her tale about Southern slavery; and what a
wondrous story it is! Remarkable indeed! She has told of deeds, dark
and revolting! A tale of injustice and wrongs--oppression and woe! I
admit there are, and ever have been, occasional and rare instances of
acts of inhumanity and cruelty among Southern slaveholders; too
shocking for recital! But if any one will be at the trouble to spend a
few months in the Yankee States, and take for granted all that is
related to him by busy-bodies, idlers and others that have nothing
else to do but to talk about their neighbors; they will find no
difficulty in gathering up material, out of which, they could
manufacture as dark a tale as Uncle Tom's Cabin. The free negroes in
the North could furnish material for a shocking story! But, ah! it is
all a contemptibly low business; we had better quit talking about our
neighbors. There are the best of reasons why we should not give full
credence to village and neighborhood gossip, old women's stories, and
free negroes tales. What we see, feel, taste and smell, we know to be
true: and that is about all we do know. As for the remainder, it is as
the breeze which plays around us, or passes over our heads. It is
here, it is gone, and we know not from "whence it cometh, or whither
it goeth?" nor yet what pestiferous emanations might perchance float
in the current. The