AGENTS FOR THE SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER. Hill & Dabney, General Agents for Virginia. Thomas Shore, P. M., Petersburg, Va. D. Bryan, Esq., P. M., Alexandria, D. C. P. K. Chamberlayne, Atty. at Law, Carrollton, Ala. B. F. Riddick, Gates County, North Carolina. Andrew Coyle, Washington City. H. B. Gwathmey, Mobile, Alabama. Robert R. Stafford, Providence, Rhode Island. FEMALE SCHOOL, AT MANSFIELD, NEAR PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA. Having opened a School at this place for the education of our daughters, we are desirous of having a few others as companions in their studies. The number, however, shall in no case exceed TWENTY, experience having taught us that much evil arises from the collection of young females into large boarding schools. We have observed that jealousies, rivalries, evil speaking, and all the wicked tempers of the heart, will arise even where there are a few together; and, to keep them down, there must be a constant and watchful supervision, which cannot be expected in large seminaries. We have no public examinations, (holding them to be deceptive, and injurious to solid improvement, and the occasions on which bold ignorance and fool-hardiness most generally outstrip and bear the palm from the best, though modest and bashful scholar,) but try to educe study from the pleasure of learning and the love of knowledge. We utterly discard the foolish and destructive practice, followed only to flatter parents, of attempting to teach every thing, even the abstrusest sciences, in a few weeks, to tender and immature minds, scarcely able to endure the labor of the plainest studies. Our object is to give a thorough and expanded instruction in the main branches of a liberal education. When this is accomplished the pupil may advance with some chance of succe and some pleasure, into the languages and higher branches of science, which we instruct them in so soon as they are prepared to attend to them. EXPENSES: (HALF IN ADVANCE--THE BALANCE AT THE END OF FIVE MONTHS,) For the scholastic year of ten months, commencing the first of October and ending the 31st of July. Board, including all expenses,. Do. month. French,. $120 00 ...... 30 00 .. 20 00 Music will be taught by a master from Petersburg, at the usual price. Use of Piano Forte $1 per HUGH A. GARLAND, Late of Mecklenburg, Va. Having placed one of my daughters the last five months with Mr. and Mrs. Garland, it affords me pleasure to embrace this opportunity of testifying to their ability and faithfulness as instructors, and to the parental care exercised over those entrusted to their charge. I paid Mansfield several visits during the session, and always found my child entirely contented. Indeed I have never seen a better regulated family. All the young ladies, (and there were ten or twelve besides Mrs. Garland's daugh ters,) seemed perfectly at home-to be as it were a family among themselves--and as cheerful and happy as they well could be. The improvement of my daughter was fully as great as I either expected or calculated on. Kichmond, Angust 23, 1838. THOMAS W. WHITE WALTERS' EXCHANGE HOTEL, West End of Main Street--Norfolk, Virginia. This well known house having been newly fitted up and greatly improved, is now occupied by the subscriber, who offers its accommodations and his own best services to travellers, whose favorable opinion of his establishment it will be the height of his ambition to secure. Families can be accommodated in a neat and comfortable style. The Mail Stage for Elizabeth City, Hertford and Edenton, leaves the Exchange Hotel every other day. September 1, 1838. B. B. WALTERS. 3. Letter from Malta, to the Editor of the Messenger. 4. The Copy-Book. No. IV. My Cousin Bob; Warwick; 609 636 ORIGINAL PAPERS-(CONTINUED.) York, with extracts from his prose and poetical writings, embracing The Little Frenchman; Woman; Lines after the Manner of the Olden Time; Rosabel; A Southern Refrain; Anniversary Hymn; Starlight Recollections; Rhyme and Reason; The Miniature; The Retort; Indian Poemn; Lines to a Poet; What can it Mean; Placide's Address, &c. &c.... PAGE 663 6. A Review of the new work (with extracts,) entitled, 12. To a Bachelor of Arts on his Marriage. By a Brother A. B. Camden, S. C.. This work is published in monthly numbers of 64 pages each, at $5 the vol. in advance: the postage on each No. for 100 miles or less, is 6 cts.-over 100 miles, 10 cts. RICHMOND, Va. T. W. WHITE, PRINTER, OPPOSITE THE BELL TAVERN. PTO CORRESPONDENTS. Our South Carolina friend will have to bear with us awhile longer. His "Sequel to the Bachelor's Death-Bed," thrilling and affecting as it is, we are obliged to postpone till our December issue. Indeed, we cannot positively promise to bring it out in that number If we can we will. Our excellent friend M., must also pardon us for again having to postpone " Popular Errors."—His contribution shall certainly appear in our forthcoming number. Recollections of the Italian Opera" in Paris,--and a most interesting paper it is,--shall also appear in our November No. "Francis Armine" will be continued in the same No.,-and, if it be possible," we will, at the same time, conclude the popular story of "Lucile," from the pen of the young, yet highly-gifted authoress of the "Curse." E. S's description of the Potomac River, and of the beautiful scenery on either side of its shores, is also most reluctantly laid over till November. A correspondent is pleased to "hope that we will review, and do justice too, to Mr. Cooper's Homeward Bound." In reply, we beg leave to say, that we will take it in hand, promising to deal with it impartially, and, at the same time, to be as lenient to Mr. C. and his Book, as he has been to the editors. "Several Members of the Richmond Lyceum" may rest assured that Mr. Heath's Address, delivered before their Society, shall "be recorded in the Messenger."-Indeed, before receiving their note, we had placed it in the hands of our Compositors. The Letter to Professor Tucker, of the University, on the Literature of Virginia, although" long time on hand," is not "laiden the shelf." It is, as we think, a most sensible paper, and shall appear at as early a day as possible. The "Musings of Napeleon" from the same pen, shall be disposed of in like manner. Our Goochland correspondent will have to bear with us for a month or two longer.-His contributions are always most welcome. We have disposed of "Mercutio's" cut-and-thrust paper, as he desired..." if we declined inserting it"-given it to the fames. By the bye, now that it is upon our mind, we will say to our legion of correspondents, that from this time henceforward, werevoke, in due form, our invitation, given out more than four years ago, that we would cheerfully pay the postage on all letters and on all commmunications addressed to us. [The postage on Mercutio's 24 pages of nonsense cost us $3.75, -and he says "it cost him three weeks hard labor to study, write and transcribe it."] We do not, even now, wish to be understood as saying, that we will pay no farther postage, but, that we do not intend hereafter, to take up any letter, the postage on which is unpaid, unless we know the hand-writing, or the letter comes endorsed with the name of the writer on it. Our postage blil alone, in the last five years, has amounted to several thousands of dollars,more than half of which has been thrown away on communications that were of as little use to us as "Mercutio's." We feel that it is high time to begin to economise in this one department of the Messenger, at least. Mr. J. S. B.'s "Lines to Niagara," which he was kind enough to forward us from Buffalo, were in the hands of the compositor, when we accidentally fell in with the "Common School Assistant," which, much to our astonishment, contained the very same article. Since that time we have also seen them extensively copied into other journals, and having numerous original poetical articles on hand, we have under these circumstances, declined publishing them in the Messenger. AUGUST NO. OF THE MESSENGER, FOR 1838-WANTED. The Publisher of the MESSENGER will pay the subscription price for ten coples of the above No. if handed to him in as good order as when sent out of the office. If the covors are soiled, they will not answer the desired purpose. He will also give $5 per volume for two copies of the first volume of the Messenger: they are wanted in numbers, each of which must be in perfect order-free from injury, with clean covers. The volumes called for, are required to be bound up with the covers on them. BLACK WOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. Volumes I, II, and IV, (being for the years 1816, 1817, and 1819,) of the above work, were loaned out some years back, by Mr. MAXWELL TROKES, to some of his friends, either in Richmond or Manchester, who have neglected to return them to him. The object of this card is, to request those who may have them in possession to leave them at the office of the "Literary Messenger.' NEW TERMS FOR REMAINDER OF THE PRESENT VOLUME ONLY. 1. In consequence of repeated applications for the MESSENGER for a period less than the entire year, the Pub lisher has consented to alter the conditions for the present year only, so far as to receive new subscribers beginning with the July No. Thus the six numbers, can be procured for $2 50. After the close of this (the fourth) volume, no subscription will be received for less than one year, and must be paid in advance. Single copies of the MESSENGER will not be sold for less than $2 50 each. 2. The risk of transmitting subscriptions by mail will be assumed by the proprietor. But every subscriber thus transmitting payment is requested (besides taking proper evidence of the fact and date of mailing) to retain a memorandum of the number and particular marks of the note sent. 3. If a subscription is not directed to be discontinued before the first number of a volume has been published, it will be taken as a continuance for another year. 4. New subscribers, wishing to commence with the FIFTH volume, (1st January,) will please forward their names as early as possible, that we may estimate and furnish the number required over our present issue. Any one enclosing a $20 current bill, at one time, with the names of FIVE NEW subscribers, shall receive FIVE copies of the MESSENGER for one year. 5. The mutual obligations of the publisher and subscriber, for the year, are fully incurred as soon as the first number of the volume is issued: and after that time, no discontinuance of a subscription will be permitted. Nor will a subscription be discontinued for any earlier notice, while anything thereon remains due, unless at the option of the editor. Richmond, Oct. 1, 1838. VOL. IV. T. W. WHITE, Editor and Proprietor. RICHMOND, OCTOBER, 1838. MEMOIR ON SLAVERY. Read before" the South Carolina Society for the Advancement of Learning." BY JUDGE HARPER, OF SOUTH CAROLINA.⭑ The institution of domestic slavery exists over far the greater portion of the inhabited earth. Until within a very few centuries, it may be said to have existed over the whole earth-at least in all those portions of it which had made any advances towards civilization. We might safely conclude then that it is deeply founded in the nature of man and the exigencies of human society. Yet, in the few countries in which it has been abolished-claiming, perhaps justly, to be farthest advanced in civilization and intelligence, but which have had the smallest opportunity of observing its true character and effects-it is denounced as the most intolerable of social and political evils. Its existence, and every hour of its continuance, is regarded as the crime of the communities in which it is found. Even by those in the countries alluded to, who regard it with the most indulgence or the least abhorrence-who attribute no criminality to the present generation-who found it in existence, and have not yet been able to devise the means of abolishing it, it is pronounced a misfortune and a curse, injurious and dangerous always, and which must be finally fatal to the societies which admit it. This is no longer regarded as a subject of argument and investigation. The opinions referred to are assumed as settled, or the truth of them as self-evident. If any No. X. FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM. voice is raised among ourselves to extenuate or to vindicate, it is unheard. The judgment is made up. We can have no hearing before the tribunal of the civilized world. Yet, on this very account, it is more important that we, the inhabitants of the slave holding states of America, insulated as we are, by this institution, and cut off, in some degree, from the communion and sympathies of the world by which we are surrounded, or with which we have intercourse, and exposed continually to their animadversions and attacks, should thoroughly understand this subject and our strength and weakness in relation to it. If it be thus criminal, dangerous and fatal; and if it be possible to devise means of freeing ourselves from it, we ought at once to set about the employing of those means. It would be the most wretched and imbecile fatuity, to shut our eyes to the impending dangers and horrors, and “drive darkling down the current of our fate," till we are overwhelmed in the final destruction. If we are tyrants, cruel, unjust, oppressive, let us humble ourselves and repent in the sight of Heaven, that the foul stain may be cleansed, and we enabled to stand erect as having common claims to humanity with our fellow-men. But if we are nothing of all this; if we commit no injustice or cruelty; if the maintenance of our institutions be essential to our prosperity, our character, our safety, and the safety of all that is dear to us, let us enlighten our minds and fortify our hearts to defend them. It is a somewhat singular evidence of the indisposition of the rest of the world to hear any thing more on this subject, that perhaps the most profound, original and We make no apology for laying before our readers this truly philosophical treatise, which has appeared withvery able paper by Judge Harper of South Carolina, which we in the time of my recollection,* seems not to have republish, with the author's corrections, from the Southern Literary Journal. Whilst we have carefully excluded from attracted the slightest attention out of the limits of the our columns all discussions of a mere party character, we are slave holding states themselves. If truth, reason and not willing to withhold a calm, powerful and argumentative ap- conclusive argument, propounded with admirable tempeal, upon a subject vitally affecting the well-being, and very existence of the republic. It is not to be disguised that an infuper and perfect candor, might be supposed to have an riated, but we hope in point of numbers at least, ar insignificant effect on the minds of men, we should think this work class of our northern brethern, have for some time past been would have put an end to agitation on the subject. employed in schemes and agitations which if not rebuked by The author has rendered inappreciable service to the the stern voice of public reprobation, may lead to the most fright-south in enlightening them on the subject of their own ful consequences. To avert them, we invoke the aid of the institutions, and turning back that monstrous tide of more liberal and enlightened of our countrymen north and east ;-for it is upon them we solemnly believe that the chief responsi- folly and madness which, if it had rolled on, would bility rests of extinguishing the wild fire of fanaticism kindled have involved his own great state along with the rest among them, which, in its destructive course, is rapidly severing of the slave holding states in a common ruin. But bethe bonds of brotherhood and turning even the milk of female yond these, he seems to have produced no effect whatever. The denouncers of slavery, with whose productions the press groans, seem to be unaware of his existence-unaware that there is reason to be encountered, or argument to be answered. They assume that the truth is known and settled, and only requires to be enforced by denunciation. kindness into the gall of bitterness. Whilst we commend to the attention of our readers the candid, philosophical, and eloquent memoir of Judge Harper, we do not wish to be understood as assenting to all his arguments and conclusions. The Judge is rather ultra in some of his views, and so, we think, are most of the South Carolina gentlemen, who have written upon the perplexing and delicate subject of slavery in the abstract. The safer and more rational course, it seems to us, would be, to treat the whole question as one of federal compact, and exclusive domestic or state regulation. Upon that ground the whole south is, and will be, unanimous in maintaining its rights; whereas there is danger of division, if we at tempt to intermingle with it principles of ethics which cannot be grasped or received by every mind.--[Ed. So. Lit. Mess. Another vindicator of the south has appeared in an individual who is among those that have done honor to American literature. With conclusive argument, and • President Dew's Review of the Virginia Debates on the subject of Slavery. Paulding on Slavery. VOL. IV-77 great force of expression he has defended slavery from | blunts the perceptions, and darkens and confuses the the charge of injustice or immorality, and shewn clearly understandings and moral feelings of men. Tell them the unspeakable cruelty and mischief which must result from any scheme of abolition. He does not live among slave holders, and it cannot be said of him as of others, that his mind is warped by interest, or his moral sense blunted by habit and familiarity with abuse. These circumstances, it might be supposed, would have secured him hearing and consideration. He seems to be equally unheeded, and the work of denunciation, disdaining argument, still goes on. President Dew has shewn that the institution of slavery is a principal cause of civilization. Perhaps nothing can be more evident than that it is the sole cause. If any thing can be predicated as universally true of uncultivated man, it is that he will not labor beyond what is absolutely necessary to maintain his existence. Labor is pain to those who are unaccustomed to it, and the nature of man is averse to pain. Even with all the training, the helps and motives of civilization, we find that this aversion cannot be overcome in many individuals of the most cultivated societies. The coercion of slavery alone is adequate to form man to habits of labor. Without it, there can be no accumulation of property, no providence for the future, no taste for comforts or elegancies, which are the characteristics and essentials of civilization. He who has obtained the command of another's labor, first begins to accumulate and provide for the future, and the foundations of civilization are laid. We find confirmed by experience that which is so evident in theory. Since the existence of man upon the earth, with no exception whatever, either of ancient or modern times, every society which has attained civilization, has advanced to it through this process. that, of necessity, in every civilized society, there must be an infinite variety of conditions and employments, from the most eminent and intellectual, to the most servile and laborious; that the negro race, from their temperament and capacity, are peculiarly suited to the situation which they occupy, and not less happy in it than any corresponding class to be found in the world; prove incontestibly that no scheme of emancipation could be carried into effect without the most intolerable mischiefs and calamities to both master and slave, or without probably throwing a large and fertile portion of the earth's surface out of the pale of civilization-and you have done nothing. They reply, that whatever may be the consequence, you are bound to do right; that man has a right to himself, and man cannot have a property in man; that if the negro race be naturally inferior in mind and character, they are not less entitled to the rights of humanity; that if they are happy in their condition, it affords but the stronger evidence of their degradation, and renders them still more objects of commiseration. They repeat, as the fundamental maxim of our civil policy, that all men are born free and equal, and quote from our Declaration of Independence, “that men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." It is not the first time that I have had occasion to observe that men may repeat with the utmost confidence, some maxim or sentimental phrase, as selfevident or admitted truth, which is either palpably false or to which, upon examination, it will be found that they attach no definite idea. Notwithstanding our respect for the important document which declared Will those who regard slavery as immoral, or crime our independence, yet if any thing be found in it, and in itself, tell us that man was not intended for civiliza-especially in what may be regarded rather as its ornation, but to roam the earth as a biped brute? That he ment than its substance-false, sophistical or unmeanwas not to raise his eyes to Heaven, or be conformed ing, that respect should not screen it from the freest in his nobler faculties to the image of his Maker? Or examination. will they say that the Judge of all the earth has done wrong in ordaining the means by which alone that end can be attained? It is true that the Creator can make the wickedness as well as the wrath of man to praise him, and bring forth the most benevolent results from the most atrocious actions. But in such cases, it is the motive of the actor alone which condemns the action. The act itself is good, if it promotes the good purposes of God, and would be approved by him, if that result only were intended. Do they not blaspheme the providence of God who denounce as wickedness and outrage, that which is rendered indispensable to his purposes in the government of the world? Or at what stage of the progress of society will they say that slavery ceases to be necessary, and its very existence becomes sin and crime? I am aware that such argument would have But we have not arrived at the profundity of the little effect on those with whom it would be degrading to maxim. This inequality is in a great measure the recontend-who pervert the inspired writings-which insult of abuses in the institutions of society. They do some parts expressly sanction slavery, and throughout indicate most clearly that it is a civil institution, with which religion has no concern-with a shallowness and presumption not less flagrant and shameless than his, who would justify murder from the text," and Phineas arose and executed judgment." All men are born free and equal. Is it not palpably nearer the truth to say that no man was ever born free, and that no two men were ever born equal? Man is born in a state of the most helpless dependence on others. He continues subject to the absolute control of others, and remains without many of the civil, and all of the political privileges of his society, until the period which the laws have fixed, as that at which he is supposed to attain the maturity of his faculties. Then inequality is further developed, and becomes infinite in every society, and under whatever form of government. Wealth and poverty, fame or obscurity, strength or weakness, knowledge or ignorance, ease or labor, power or subjection, mark the endless diversity in the condition of men. not speak of what exists, but of what ought to exist. Every one should be left at liberty to obtain all the advantages of society which he can compass, by the free exertion of his faculties, unimpeded by civil restraints. It may be said that this would not remedy the evils of society which are complained of. The inequalities to There seems to be something in this subject, which which I have referred, with the misery resulting from |