n administered.--The act very coolly
concludes thus: "and so on, for the space of _six months_, it shall be
the duty of the jailer to interrogate and whip as aforesaid."

The letter may miscarry, the owner may reside at a great distance from
the Post-Office, and thus long delays may occur--the ignorant slave may
not know his master's christian name--the jailer may not spell it
aright; but no matter--"It is the jailer's duty to interrogate and whip,
as aforesaid."

The last authorized edition of the laws of Maryland, comprises the
following: "If any slave be convicted of any petit treason, or murder,
or wilfully burning of dwelling-houses, it may be lawful for the
justices to give judgment against such slave to have the right hand cut
off, to be hanged in the usual manner, the head severed from the body,
the body divided into four quarters, and the head and quarters set up in
the most public places of the county," &c.

The laws of Tennessee and Missouri are comparatively mild; yet in
Missouri it is _death_ to prepare or administer medicine without the
master's consent, unless it can be _proved_ that there was no evil
intention. The law in Virginia is similar; it requires proof that there
was no evil intention, and that the medicine produced no bad
consequences.

To estimate fully the cruel injustice of these laws, it must be
remembered that the poor slave is without religious instruction, unable
to read, too ignorant to comprehend legislation, and holding so little
communication with any person better informed than himself, that the
chance is, he does not even know the _existence_ of half the laws by
which he suffers. This is worthy of Nero, who caused his edicts to be
placed so high that they could not be read, and then beheaded his
subjects for disobeying them.

PROP. 14.--_The laws operate oppressively on free colored people._

Free people of color, like the slaves, are excluded by law from all
means of obtaining the common elements of education.

The free colored man may at any time be taken up on suspicion, and be
condemned and imprisoned as a runaway slave, unless he can _prove_ the
contrary; and be it remembered, none but _white_ evidence, or written
documents, avail him. The common law supposes a man to be innocent until
he is proved guilty; but slave law turns this upside down. Every colored
man is _presumed_ to be a slave till it can be proved otherwise; this
rule prevails in all the slave States, exc