ld the reason
why; he knew, however, that such a revelation would have been awful.
He knew that pious men, advocates of the cause of abolition had been
hanged, butchered, their backs ploughed up by Presbyterian elders; and
if such had been done towards natives of New England, what could a
stranger such as he have expected? He (Mr. T.) had, it seems, got all
at second hand. He would tell the meeting where he had obtained some
of his information. From Mr. Breckinridge himself; and he must say,
that sounder or juster views respecting slavery--or a more complete
justification of the mission in which he (Mr. T.) had been so lately
engaged, could scarcely be met with. This was evidence which he had no
fear could be ruled out of court. It was that of the friend and
defender of America. Mr. T. then read the following passage from a
speech delivered by Mr. Breckinridge:--

What, then, is slavery? for the question relates to the
action of certain principles on it, and to its probable and
proper results; what is slavery as it exists among us? We
reply, it is that condition enforced by the laws of one half
of the states of this confederacy, in which one portion of
the community, called masters, is allowed such power over
another portion called slaves; as

1. To deprive them of the entire earnings of their own labor,
except only so much as is necessary to continue labor itself,
by continuing healthful existence, thus committing clear
robbery.

2. To reduce them to the necessity of universal concubinage,
by denying to them the civil rights of marriage; thus
breaking up the dearest relations of life, and encouraging
universal prostitution.

3. To deprive them of the means and opportunities of moral
and intellectual culture, in many states making it a high
penal offence to teach them to read; thus perpetuating
whatever of evil there is that proceeds from ignorance.

4. To set up between parents and their children an authority
higher than the impulse of nature and the laws of God; which
breaks up the authority of the father over his own
offspring, and, at pleasure, separates the mother at a
returnless distance from her child; thus abrogating the
clearest laws of nature; thus outraging all decency and
justice, and degrading and oppressing thousands upon
thousands of beings, created like themselves, in the image of
the