n,
resembling that of a funeral. I followed them hastily; and as I
approached so near as to discover that they were bound together in
pairs, some with ropes, and some with iron chains (which I had hitherto
seen used only for restraining beasts,) the involuntary successive
heavings of my bosom became irrepressible. This was, with me, an
affection perfectly peculiar to itself, which never having before
experienced, gave me some surprise. I have since heard an intelligent
gentleman, from Scotland, describe a similar symptom. He affirmed, that
on his arrival upon the coast of the United States, (in Chesapeake Bay,)
his first view of the slaves _brought his heart into his throat_. I have
also been told by a gentleman, who holds a seat in the senate of the
United States, that "a drove of manacled slaves was to him an
insupportable spectacle, which he generally endeavoured to avoid;"--and
by a representative, (since deceased,) from one of the slave states, who
was himself a possessor of slaves, "that he never could bear to see
slaves manacled and fettered with bolts and chains, nor families torn
asunder and sold to the slave-traders, and wondered how any one could be
so inhuman as to do such acts." Overtaking the caravan, just opposite to
the old Capitol (then in a state of ruins from the conflagration by the
British army,)[13] I inquired of one of the _drivers_ (of whom there
were two) what part of the country they were taking all these people to?
"To Georgia," he replied. "Have you not, said I, enough such people in
that country yet?" "Not quite enough," he said. I found myself
incapable of saying more, and was compelled to avert my eyes immediately
from the heart-rending scene! Had Sterne been present, and surveyed
(with _real_ instead of imaginary vision) this groupe of bond-men and
bond-women, and _bond-children_, with their mute sad faces veiled with
_black_ despair--"and heard the chains rattle, which encumbered their
bodies,"--and "had seen the _iron_ enter their souls"--he would again
have "_burst into tears_." I walked along some distance before them,
down Pennsylvania Avenue, and, on turning round, observed that they had
left that street, (as if the spirit of PENN had repelled the contact of
such a tragedy with his name,) and directed their course towards the
Potomac bridge. At the same moment an African passed by, driving a hack;
and beholding his brethren,

"----Trembling, weeping, captive led,"

extended his