its members, as agents of the
constitution, and guardians of the public liberty, would, without
hesitation, devise means for the restoration of those unhappy victims
of violence and avarice, to their freedom and constitutional personal
rights. The work, both from its nature and magnitude, is impracticable
to individuals, or benevolent societies; besides, it is perfectly a
national business, and claims national interference, equally with the
captivity of our sailors in Algiers."

It may indeed be said, in palliation of the internal slave-trade, that
the horrors of the _middle passage_ are avoided. But still the amount
of misery is very great. Husbands and wives, parents and children,
are rudely torn from each other;--there can be no doubt of this fact:
advertisements are very common, in which a mother and her children are
offered either in a lot, or separately, as may suit the purchaser. In
one of these advertisements, I observed it stated that the youngest
child was about a year old.[H]

[Footnote H: In Niles's Register, vol. xxxv, page 4, I find the following:
"Dealing in slaves has become a large business. Establishments are made
at several places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like
cattle. These places are strongly built, and well supplied with
thumbscrews, gags, cowskins and other whips, oftentimes bloody. But
the laws permit the traffic, and it is suffered."]

The captives are driven by the whip, through toilsome journeys, under
a burning sun; their limbs fettered; with nothing before them but the
prospect of toil more severe than that to which they have been
accustomed.[I]

[Footnote I: In the sugar-growing States the condition of the negro is
much more pitiable than where cotton is the staple commodity.]

The disgrace of such scenes in the capital of our republic cannot be
otherwise than painful to every patriotic mind; while they furnish
materials for the most pungent satire to other nations. A United
States senator declared that the sight of a drove of slaves was
so insupportable that he always avoided it when he could; and an
intelligent Scotchman said, when he first entered Chesapeake Bay,
and cast his eye along our coast, the sight of the slaves brought
his heart into his throat. How can we help feeling a sense of shame,
when we read Moore's contemptuous couplet,

"The fustian flag that proudly waves,
In splendid mockery, o'er a land of slaves?"

The lines would be harmless eno