libel--this
taunting us with the torch of the negro at our threshold, and his knife
at our throats--this fiendish allusion to the _beauty_ and chivalry
of the South; it displays cool and demoniac malignity! Mr. K. then
alluded to the pictures, saying that they could be meant only for the
illiterate, and tended only to insurrection and violence. Mr. K.
animadverted upon the speeches and opinions of eminent Southern men,
quoted by the traverser's counsel, to show that their objects were
different from those of the abolitionists. Mr. Key remarked, with great
severity, on the abstract proposition of the sinfulness of slavery, and
the declaration in the libels of the "South being awakened from their
snoring by the thunder of the Southampton massacre." He contended that
Crandall admitted, in his examinations at the jail, that all the papers
he had were sent from New York, and came in a box; and said nothing
about having received two parcels; and that he also admitted, that he
had all the papers sent, but twelve or thirteen, and argued that those
twelve or thirteen were circulated here, amongst improper persons: that
if otherwise, the traverser might and could prove to him, to whom they
were delivered.

He adverted to the slander contained in the libels, that a free person
of color might be sold here for jail fees when apprehended as a runaway
slave. He commented on the evidence of Mr. Austin, and argued that it
was far from showing that the packages were not broken by Dr. Crandall,
and part of them taken out and distributed. He also argued that
Dr. Crandall took no pains to have the pamphlet returned to him, which
he delivered to Mr. King, and did not destroy those he had after hearing
that there was an excitement on the subject, and that none of these
libels and picture books were used by him, as the other newspapers were,
to preserve his plants, thereby proving his disposition to preserve and
circulate them. Mr. Key also referred, in corroboration of what C.'s
views were, to his declarations to Jeffers' favorable to the
amalgamation of the blacks and whites, and also those to Colclazier and
Tippet, "that slavery brought the slaveholder and slave into promiscuous
sensual intercourse," "and that he was willing that the North and the
South should be arrayed against each other." Mr. Key added: This is a
subject to us not of indifference. It has been one of much excitement,
and we are bound to act in self-defence. If in your con