influence of anti-slavery
principles and practice; and the laws which have oppressed the
free colored citizen are rapidly yielding to the persevering
action of the abolitionists. Dr. Channing has not over-stated
the fact, that the provision in the Federal Constitution,
relative to the reclaiming of fugitive slaves, has been silently
but effectually repealed by the force of public opinion, and the
interposition of jury trial, in many of the free States. In
Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, and New York, with the exception
of its slavery-ridden commercial emporium, the recovery of a
slave by legalized kidnappers is entirely out of the question.
In any one of these States, it would, to use the language of a
New York mechanic, be exceedingly difficult to prove, to the
satisfaction of a jury of honest freemen, that a man had been
born 'contrary to the Declaration of Independence.' The
frontiers of slavery are every where very much exposed, and all
along the line of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Virginia, and
Missouri, the tide of self-emancipated men and women is pouring
in upon the free States. I cannot give a better idea of the
extent of this peculiar emigration, than by copying extracts
from the _Centreville Times_, a paper published in Maryland:--

"'_Free Negroes and Slaves_.--When it is too late, the
people of Maryland will begin to look for the means of
protection in their slave property. We still say slave
property; although, notwithstanding slaves are
recognized as property by the constitution, without
which recognition this confederation never would have
been formed: yet such has been the effect of fanaticism
and emancipation, of the intermeddling machinations of
abolitionists, and the mischievous agency of free
negroes--that _the very owners of this species of
property seem to begin to doubt whether slaves are
property or not_; and so much has its value become
impaired, in the possession of those who reside
contiguous to the non-slaveholding States, that the
question has been raised, whether they are, in fact,
worth keeping. Either discipline must be so much
relaxed, as that the labor of the slave will scarcely
pay for his support; or, if forced to labor no more than
is even necessar