h the same temper, and almost in the same
words, in Glasgow and in Boston, should in the one place be supported
by general applause, and in the other be ill-treated and despised, and
even made to flee for his life? This was a question which was yet to
be solved. Mr. Thompson had spoken of the Northern states as the
greatest friends of slavery, forgetting that he had formerly
represented the clergy as such. This was one of the principal reasons
of his want of success--of what might justly be called his signal
failure. He had brought unjust charges against an entire people, and
had in consequence been ill-treated. Mr. Thompson had shown the better
part of valor, discretion, in taking care never to visit any of the
slave states. He had never seen a slaveholder, except, perhaps, he had
met such an individual in a free state. At least if he had done so, it
was a circumstance which was not generally known, one of those hidden
things of which it was not permitted to read. Having made this
observation, he (Mr. B.) would proceed to state that in the
slaveholding states there was a large minority--in some, nearly one
half of the population--zealously engaged in furthering the abolition
of slavery. In Kentucky, slaveholding had been introduced only by a
small majority. When some time after, a convention canvassed the
subject, that majority was diminished, and, still at this hour in that
State, in which he had been born, one of the greatest political
questions agitated was whether slaveholding should be abolished or
retained as an element of the constitution. A law had long ago been
passed imposing a fine of six hundred dollars on whoever brought a
slave into the State for sale, and three hundred dollars on whoever
bought him. A fine of nine hundred dollars was thus made the penalty
of introducing a slave into Kentucky as merchandise. He was sorry to
have to speak of buying and selling human beings; but, to be
understood, it was absolutely necessary that he should do so. In
Virginia also, from which Kentucky had been in great measure peopled,
not many years ago a frightful insurrection had taken place, and many
cruelties had been practised--it was needless to say whether most on
the side of the blacks or the whites. The succeeding legislature of
that State took up the question of slavery in its length and
breadth--passed a law for giving $20,000 to the Colonization
Society,--and rejected only by a small majority a proposal to
appro