inety
days, unless they could prove good characters, and obtain from the court
a certificate of the same, for which they paid three dollars; these
certificates might be revoked at the discretion of the county courts. If
such persons do not quit the State within the time specified, or if they
return to it, they may be sold for a term not exceeding five years.

In Tennessee, slaves are not allowed to be emancipated unless they leave
the State forthwith. Any free colored person emigrating into this State,
is fined from ten to fifty dollars, and hard labor in the penitentiary
from one to two years.

North Carolina has made a law subjecting any vessel with _free_ colored
persons on board to thirty days' quarantine; as if freedom were as bad
as the cholera! Any person of color coming on shore from such vessels is
seized and imprisoned, till the vessel departs; and the captain is fined
five hundred dollars; and if he refuse to take the colored seaman away,
and pay all the expenses of his imprisonment, he is fined five hundred
more. If the sailor do not depart within ten days after his captain's
refusal, he must be whipped thirty-nine lashes; and all colored persons,
bond or free, who _communicate_ with him, receive the same.

In Georgia, there is a similar enactment. The prohibition is, in both
States, confined to _merchant_ vessels, (it would be imprudent to meddle
with _vessels of war_;) and any colored person communicating with such
seaman is whipped not exceeding _thirty_ lashes. If the captain refuse
to carry away seamen thus detained, and _pay the expenses of their
imprisonment_, he shall be fined five hundred dollars, and also
imprisoned, not exceeding three months.

These State laws are a direct violation of the Laws of Nations, and our
treaties; and may involve the United States in a foreign war.

Colored seamen are often employed in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and
English vessels. These nations are bound to know the United States Laws;
but can they be expected to know the enactments of particular States and
cities? and if they know them, are they bound to observe them, if
they interfere with the established rules of nations? When Mr. Wirt
pronounced these laws unconstitutional, great excitement was produced
in South Carolina. The Governor of that State, in his Message to the
Legislature, implied that separation from the Union was the only remedy,
if the laws of the Southern States could not be enforced. They see