ven-born and immaculate word White! No, no, never, never; this beautiful and salutary monosyllable (one of the best terms recorded in the annals of time, one of the most elegant and sublime vocables of the English language) must be preserved in full vigor and force as the palladium of an elevated and progressive American manhood. Rather than that the sorry-witted and recreant members of the Black Congress should busy themselves in the base attempt to strike from the archives of their country the pure and precious word White, infinitely better would it be if, at once, they would but take service in striking from themselves their own duncical and degraded heads!

Countless ages ago, God was pleased to create the Toxodon, the Mylodon, the Glyptodon, and numerous other gigantic quadrupeds, not a single representative of which can now anywhere be found, save only in fossil form. Previously, or subsequently, or at the same time, he also created a certain species of black bipeds, of the genus homo, to whom he allotted, as the proper period of their aggregate existence upon the earth, a fixed number of centuries, the last of which is now rapidly approaching (if, indeed, it be not the one now actually drawing to a close) and with the last day of which will inevitably pass away, forever, the last servile and slothful scion of the House of Ebony-a most slavish and shabby scion, fitted finally, and from the first, like all of his fugitive and forgotten forefathers, only for fossilization!

CHAPTER IV.

THE SERVILE BASENESS AND BEGGARY OF THE BLACKS.

There has never been the slightest danger of an insurrection of the slaves. The real victim of slavery is the white man. Whatever little good there is in the system, the black man has had; while most of the evil has fallen to the white man's share.-Parton's Gen. Butler in New Orleans, page 99.

What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.-POPE.

Who so base as be a slave?

The coward slave! we pass him by.-BURNS.

WHEN the negro, in Africa, in the year 1620, fastening anew upon both himself and his posterity the condition of perpetual bondage, allowed himself, as a guarantee of his passive and prodigious dastardy, to be brought in chains all the way across the Atlantic-it was then that, for the first time, was reached the uttermost depth of human degradation. That the negro had, and has, always been a slave in his own country or elsewhere, according to the habitat or journeyings of his master, is well known; but it was only when, as the cringing tool of the meaner sort of white men, he came to America, that his obsequiousness and pusillanimity began to assume monstrous proportions.

Of all the miscreants and outcasts who have brought irreparable disgrace upon mankind, the slave is at once the most despicable and the most infamous. To be a slave of the white man, yet, if possible to be a slave exempt from the necessity of labor, has always been the ruling ambition of the negro-not less so now than it was four thousand years ago, and not less so then than

it is now. Does the reader demand proofs of these astoundingly disgusting facts? Proofs of one part of the statement are already too notorious to require repetition; proofs of the other part are here adduced.

Under date of July 3, 1858, the Frontier (Texas) News said:

"While in attendance on the District Court, in Tarrant County, one day of the previous week, we witnessed the ceremonies on the occasion of a free negro, named Jerry, voluntarily going into slavery. He came into court cheerfully, and there stated, in answer to questions propounded by the court, that he knew the consequence of the act that he had selected as his master W. M. Robinson, without any compulsion or persuasion, but of his own free will and accord. Two gentlemen came in and stated under oath that they had signed his petition at his request, and that the gentleman he had selected as his master, was a good citizen and an honorable man. Jerry is a fine looking negro, some forty years of age, and appears to be smart."

The following legal notice was duly advertised in Rogersville, Tennessee, at the time indicated in the advertisement itself.

"PETITION FOR VOLUNTARY ENSLAVEMENT.-In Chancery at Rogersville, Tennessee.-BEN, A MAN OF COLOR, AND WILLIAM MILLER, ESQ.—— Notice is hereby given that Ben, a man of color, has this day filed his Petition in our said Court, asking to become the slave of the said Miller, under an act of the General Assembly of said State, passed the 8th of March, 1858.

66

May 29th, 1858."

R. C. FAIN,
Clerk and Master in Chancery."

In a paragraph headed " Departure of Emancipated Negroes-Don't Want to Leave," the Lynchburgh (Virginia) Republican, only a little while before the outbreak of the great rebellion, said:

"On Sunday last, a crowd of not less than one thousand negroes assembled on the basin to take leave of the negroes belonging to the

estate of the late Mr. Francis B. Shackleford, of Amherst County, who, in accordance with the will of the deceased, were about to depart, by way of the canal, for a free State. The whole number set free was forty-four, men, women, and children, but only thirty-seven left, the balance preferring to remain in servitude in Old Virginia, rather than enjoy their freedom elsewhere. Some of those who did leave were thrown on the boat by main force, so much opposed were they to leaving, and many expressed their determination of returning to Virginia as soon as an opportunity offered.”

During the proceedings of the Legislature of Virginia, in the early part of 1856,

"Mr. Seddon presented the petition of Critty, a free negro, emancipated by the will of Elizabeth Woodson, late of Powhatan. Critty is tired of freedom, and wants to become a slave again.”

"Mr. Renold presented the petition of Frank Harman for his voluntary enslavement."

"Mr. White presented the petition of Jesse Spencer, a free negro, to be allowed to enslave himself."

The Richmond Enquirer, of June, 1855, informed us that,

"About three years ago, Miss Anne W. Taliaferro, of King William County, Virginia, emancipated 40 negroes, giving each $150. They were placed in a Quaker settlement in Ohio, by E. W. Scott, executor of the estate. A few weeks since, Mr. Scott had occasion to visit them on business, and found them in a wretched condition, almost starving. One of the children had been stolen, and several had died for want of attention and the necessaries of life. They begged Mr. Scott to allow them to return with him to Virginia and go into slavery."

In 1858, the Louisville Courier, in an article headed "Returning to Slavery," said

"By the will of the late David Glass, of this city, his negroes who desired to go to Liberia were ordered to be set free upon arriving at the age of 18 years. In accordance with the provisions of this will, two of the negro men were manumitted by the County Court, and delivered to Mr. Cowan, the agent of the Kentucky Colonization Society. Mr. C. started with them a few days ago. When they reached Lex

ington, they expressed a wish to see one of their young mistresses who resided there. Mr. Cowan readily acceded to this request, but they did not return. Mr. C. went after them, when they positively refused to go to Liberia. They have returned to this city, and the executor of Mr. Glass's estate has taken charge of them. They will fall back on the heirs and probably be sold."

The New Orleans Picayune of February, 1859, said:

"In the Mississippi Legislature, on the 1st inst., Mr. Suratt, from the Committee on Propositions and Grievances, to whom was referred the petition of William Webster, a free negro, to be permitted to become the slave of Dr. Athnald Ball, of Charleston, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, reported the same back to the House with a bill recommending that the same become a law. Received and agreed to. Bill passed."

According to the Nashville Banner, of March, 1859,

"William Bass, a free person of color, residing in the District of Marlborough, has petitioned the General Assembly of South Carolina, praying to become a slave."

The Memphis Bulletin, of September, 1858, said:

"About thirteen months ago, a bright mulatto girl belonging to Mrs. J. P. Pryor, ran off from Memphis and went to Cincinnati, where she remained for over a year. About two days ago she voluntarily returned to this city and delivered herself up to Mr. J. W. Wilkinson, a friend of the family, requesting him to write to Mr. R. H. Parkham, who lives near La Grange, and is the father of Mrs. Prior, and who reared the girl, to come down to Memphis and receive her again into slavery, as she preferred slavery to Cincinnati freedom. The girl is named Emily, and is well known in this city. She says she had a hard time in Cincinnati-that she was sick a good deal and found a great difference in having a master and mistress to take care of her when sick, and having to take care of herself. She says she ran away from Memphis, and had to run away from Cincinnati to get back. The foregoing facts may be relied on as authentic. By reference to our Chancery advertisements, there will be found another instance of voluntarily seeking to return to slavery, in the case of a girl named Hannah, with the facts of which we are not acquainted." In a paragraph headed "Preferred Slavery to Free