A Visit to the United States in 1841 Part 10

"The present policy of restricting the traffic with America so closely to cotton, gives a deceitful appearance to the stated imports and exports. From these statements there should, in fairness, be deducted the value of all the raw cotton which is returned to America; and, in fact, if the true exchange trade would be seen, all should be deducted that is exported from England. That portion of cotton goods which is of English origin, that is, their value above the raw material out of which they were made, is, in fact, the only real part of English export. Before exclusive importance was bestowed on cotton, the exchange with America was in a large proportion of articles not to be returned. It would be so again if trade were free."

Again:

"To one effect which would be produced in America by the repeal of the corn and provision laws, no party or cla.s.s in England can profess indifference, and that is, _its effect on slavery in the United States_. At the present time, England gives a premium to American slavery by admitting, at low duties, the cotton of the slave-holder, which is his staple production, and refusing corn, which is mostly the produce of free labor. The slave-holding States, to the productions of which Great Britain confines her American trade, are less populous and less wealthy than the free; yet of their produce England received in 1839, according to the American estimates, 11,600,000, while of that of the free States she received less than 500,000."

"It should be remembered that the labor of the slave States, is almost wholly expended in agriculture, under the stimulus of a good market, while a large part of that of the free States is otherwise employed, for the want of such market. The effective laborers of the free States are double the number of those in the slave States; and were an opportunity given them, they would export in as great a proportion. Thus England, by her laws, fosters an odious inst.i.tution abroad, which, in words, she loudly condemns, and spends millions to rid the world of; whilst she rejects more honorable, profitable, and wealthy customers, the fruits of whose free and active industry are in effect made contraband in England by law.

"Not only would England escape this inconsistency and reproach, by repealing the corn law, but she would strike a most effectual blow at the existence of slavery in the United States. Cotton, at present, from being made by the corn law the princ.i.p.al exchangeable article in the American trade, a.s.sumes an undue and unnatural importance in American commerce, legislation, and home industry. The slave-owner drives his slaves in its production, and purchases supplies of the northern freeman, whose interests are thus identified with those of the cotton grower, and the slave-holding interest becomes predominant in the country. From their habits, the people of the slave-holding States are constantly contracting more debts in the free States than they have the means of paying; so that, under the present system of intercourse, the slaveholders exercise over the free population of the north, the same control which an insolvent debtor frequently has over his creditor, by threatening to break and ruin him, if not allowed his own way. A repeal of the corn laws would release the free States from their present commercial and consequent political va.s.salage to the southern slave-holders, and thereby take from American slavery, the great citadel of its strength, and insure its overthrow by the influences which would arise to a.s.sail it from all quarters.

"But as free trade, in destroying the odious monopoly of the haughty slave-holder, would benefit and not injure him, so would its effects be found universally. It would give peace and plenty to England and the world,--it would enlarge and secure trade, bind the spreading branches of the Anglo-saxon race by natural affinity to England as their acknowledged head, and promote the liberty and civilization of the human family at large."

In view of the whole spirit of this discussion of one of the most important questions bearing upon human interests, I would simply add, that a wise Providence has bound the duty and the interest, both of individual and social man, firmly together, but for the trial of his virtue the bands are concealed.

On the 31st, I took my luggage on board the steam packet "Caledonia,"

for Liverpool, via Halifax, which was to sail the day following, although it was the first day of the week. The proprietors of the packets are bound in a heavy fine to sail on the appointed days, whether those fall on the first day of the week or not. By this arrangement the religious feelings of the people of Boston are offended, which is the more inexcusable, on the part of the British Government, as it does not suffer its own mails to depart, either from London or Halifax, on that day. Some gentlemen, who were interested in the subject, placed in my hands a memorial addressed to the Lords of the Admiralty in Great Britain, praying for such an alteration of the arrangements as would prevent this periodical violation of the first day of the week. A gentleman, who was active in getting it signed, a.s.sured me it was received with universal favor. The signatures, obtained on very short notice, are those of the most influential men in their respective stations in the city of Boston, and include the names of the mayor of the city, an ex-lieutenant governor of the State of Ma.s.sachusetts, one bishop, upwards of forty ministers of religion, of different denominations, nine gentleman, upwards of one hundred and twenty merchants, seventeen presidents of insurance companies, the post-master of Boston, five physicians, seven members of the legal profession, and two editors of newspapers. After my arrival in this country, I presented this doc.u.ment, through the Secretary of the Admiralty, to the authorities to whom it is addressed, but regret to state that the request was not complied with. The memorial, and the reply of the Lords of the Admiralty are given in the Appendix[A]

[Footnote A: .See Appendix L.]

On leaving the sh.o.r.es of the United States, I left the following letter for publication:--

"_To the Friends of Immediate Emanc.i.p.ation in the United States_.

"Having visited your country as an humble fellow-laborer in the great cause in which you are engaged, and which, through trials and difficulties a stranger can scarcely appreciate, you have so zealously maintained, I have had a pleasing and satisfactory interview with many of you, with reference to future exertions, in cooperation with those of other lands, who unite with you in regarding slave-holding and slave-trading as a heinous sin in the sight of G.o.d, which should be immediately abolished. It is the especial privilege of those who are laboring in such a cause, to feel that 'every country is their country, and every man their brother,' and to live above the atmosphere of sectional jealousy and national hostility; and hence I feel an a.s.surance, that you will receive with kindness a few lines from me on the eve of my departure to my native land.

"You concur generally in opinion, that in endeavoring to obtain the great object we have in view, it is very important that the friends of the cause should be united, not only in principle, but, as far as may be, in the character of the measures which they pursue; and I have been much encouraged in finding that you have generally adopted the sentiment so rapidly spreading on the other side of the Atlantic,--'That there is no reasonable hope of abolis.h.i.+ng the slave-trade, but, by the abolition of slavery, and that no measures should be pursued for its attainment, but those which are of a moral, religious, and pacific character.'

The progress of emanc.i.p.ation in Europe has been, beyond a doubt, greatly r.e.t.a.r.ded by leaving slavery and the slave-holder unmarked by public reprobation, and concentrating all the energies of philanthropy upon a fruitless effort to abolish the slave-trade. And in this country the Colonization scheme, with its delusive promise of good to Africa, and its vague antic.i.p.ations of putting an end to the slave-trade by armed colonies on the coast of that ill-fated continent, has been the means of obstructing emanc.i.p.ation at home, of unprofitably absorbing the energies and blinding the judgment of many sincere friends of the slave, and of strengthening the unchristian prejudice against color. The abolitionists of Europe, with few exceptions, have seen the error of their former course of action, and are now striking directly at the root, instead of lopping the branches of slavery; and if further evidence of the evil tendency and character of colonization is needed in the United States, the recent proceeding of a meeting of the Maryland Society at Baltimore, must convince all who are friendly to the true interests of the people of color, that it is a scheme deserving only the support of the enemies of freedom.[A]

[Footnote A: "The following resolution was pa.s.sed at the meeting of the Maryland Society above alluded to:--'That while it is most earnestly hoped that the free colored people of Maryland may see that their best and most permanent interests will be consulted by their emigration from this State; and while this Convention would deprecate any departure from the principle which makes colonization dependent upon the voluntary action of the free colored people themselves--yet, if, regardless of what has been done to provide them with an asylum, they continue to persist in remaining in Maryland, in the hope of enjoying here an equality of social and political rights, they ought to be solemnly warned, that, in the opinion of this Convention, a day must arrive when circ.u.mstances that cannot be controlled, and which are now maturing, will deprive them of choice, and leave them no alternative but removal,'"]

"The rapid progress of public opinion, as to the iniquity of slavery, and the entire safety, as well as advantage, of its immediate abolition--the attention which has been awakened to it in all parts of the civilized world--the movements in France, Spain, Brazil, and Denmark, and other countries with slave-holding dependencies, all indicating that the days of slavery are numbered, should serve to encourage and stimulate us to increased exertions; and while it is a cause of profound regret, that any thing should have disturbed the harmony and unity of the real friends of emanc.i.p.ation in this country--the hardest battle field of our moral warfare--I am not without hope, that, in future, those who,--from a conscientious difference of opinion, not as to the object, but the precise mode of obtaining it,--cannot act in one united band, will laudably emulate each other in the promotion of our common cause, and in Christian forbearance upon points of disagreement; and that, where they cannot praise, they will be careful not to censure those, who, by a different road, are earnestly pursuing the same end. Without entering into the controversies which have divided our friends on this side the water, I believe it would be nothing more than a simple act of justice for me to state, on my return to Europe, my conviction that a large portion of the abolitionists of the United States, who approve of the proceedings of the late General Anti-Slavery Convention, and are desirous of acting in unity with the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, from the general ident.i.ty of their practice, as well as principles, with those of the British and Foreign Society, are ent.i.tled to the sympathies, and deserving of the confidence and co-operation of the abolitionists of Great Britain. It has been my pleasure to meet, in a kindly interchange of opinion, many valuable and devoted friends of emanc.i.p.ation; who, while dissenting from the cla.s.s above-mentioned in some respects, are nevertheless disposed to cultivate feelings of charity and good will towards all who are sincerely laboring for the slaves. And in this connection I may state, that neither on behalf of myself, or of my esteemed coadjutors in Great Britain, am I disposed to recriminate upon another cla.s.s of abolitionists, who, on some points, have so far differed from the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Committee, and the great majority of the Convention above mentioned, as to sustain their representatives in refusing to act with that Convention, and in protesting against its proceedings; and who have seen fit to censure the committee in their public meetings and newspapers in this country, as 'arbitrary and despotic,' and their conduct as 'unworthy of men claiming the character of abolitionists.'

"As a corresponding member of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Committee, and intimately acquainted with its proceedings, I am persuaded that its members have acted wisely, and consulted the best interest of the cause in which they were engaged, in generally leaving unnoticed any censures that have been cast upon them while in the prosecution of their labors.

Yet, before leaving this country, I deem it right to bear my testimony to the great anxiety of that committee faithfully to discharge the duties committed to their trust; and to state that it has never been my privilege to be united to any body more desirous of keeping simply to the one great object of their a.s.sociation--the total and immediate abolition of slavery and the slave-trade. I am persuaded that all candid minds, making due allowance for the imperfection pertaining to human a.s.sociations, will feel their confidence in the future integrity of that committee increased in proportion as they closely investigate their past acts; and that, even when the wisdom of their course may have been questioned, they will accord to them a scrupulous honesty of purpose.

"The first public suggestion of a General Anti-Slavery Convention, like the one held last year in London, originated, I believe, on this side of the Atlantic, although the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society took upon themselves the heavy responsibility of convening it. At its close, they invited an expression of the opinion of the delegates, as to the desirableness of again summoning such an a.s.sembly. The expression was generally in the affirmative; and, after discussion, a resolution was pa.s.sed, leaving it to the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, after consulting with the friends of the cause in other parts of the world, to decide this important question, as well as the time and place of its meeting, should another Convention be resolved upon.

"Since I have been in the United States, I have found those abolitionists who approved the principles and proceedings of the late Convention so generally in favor of another, and of London as its place of meeting, that the only question seemed to be whether it should be held in 1842 or 1843. This expression of opinion is, I know, so generally in accordance with the views of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Committee, and of many other prominent abolitionists in Europe, that I have little doubt they will feel encouraged to act upon it, probably at the latter period. There is abundant and increasing evidence of the powerfully beneficial influence of the late Convention upon almost every part of the world where slavery is still tolerated; and we are encouraged to hope that the one in antic.i.p.ation will be still more efficient for the promotion of universal liberty.

"Painful as has been to me the spectacle of many of the leading influences of the ecclesiastical bodies in this country, either placed in direct hostility to, or acting as a drag upon, the wheel of the anti-slavery enterprise--and of the manifest preponderance of a slave-holding influence in the councils of the State--I am not one of those who despair of a healthful renovation of public sentiment which shall purify Church as well as State from this abomination. There are decided indications that all efforts of councils and synods to unite 'pure religion and undefiled,' with a slave-trading and slave-holding counterfeit of Christianity, must ere long utterly fail. And it is to me a matter of joy, as it must be to every friend of impartial liberty and free inst.i.tutions, that the citizens of this republic are more and more feeling that the plague-spot of slavery, as with the increased facilities of communication its horrors and deformity become more apparent in the eyes of the world, is fixing a deep disgrace upon the character of their country, and paralyzing the beneficial influence which might otherwise flow from it as an example of a well-regulated free government. May each American citizen who is desirous of was.h.i.+ng away this disgrace, to whatever division of the anti-slavery host he may attach himself, ever bear in mind that the cause is of too tremendous and pressing a nature to admit of his wasting his time in censuring and impeding the progress of those who may array themselves under a somewhat different standard from his own; and that any energies thus wasted, which belong to the one great object, so far as human instrumentality is concerned, is not only deferring the day of freedom to two and a half millions of his countrymen, but inasmuch as the fall of American slavery must be the death-blow to the horrid system, wherever it exists, the result of the struggle here involves the slavery or freedom of millions in other parts of the world, as well as the continuance or suppression of that slave-trade, to the foreign branch of which alone more than _one thousand victims are daily sacrificed_; and in reference to which it has justly been said, 'that all that has been borne to Africa of the boasted improvements of civilized life, is a masterly skill in the contrivance, and an unhesitating daring in the commission of crimes, which the mind of the savage was too simple to devise, and his heart too gentle to execute.' There are no doubtful indications that it is the will of Him, who has the hearts of all at His disposal, that, either in judgment or in mercy, this dreadful system shall ere long cease. It is not for us to say why, in His inscrutable wisdom, He has thus far permitted one portion of His creatures so cruelly to oppress another; or by what instrumentality He will at length redress the wrongs of the poor, and the oppression of the needy; but should the worst fears of one of your most distinguished citizens, who in view of this subject, acknowledged that he 'trembled for his country, when he remembered that G.o.d was just,' be finally realized, may each one of you feel that no exertions on his part have been wanting to avert the Divine displeasure, and preserve your land from those calamities which, in all ages, have rebuked the crimes of nations.

"Your sincere friend,

"JOSEPH STURGE.

"Boston, Seventh Month 31st, 1841."

My dear friend John G. Whittier, whose pleasant company and invaluable aid I had enjoyed, as much as his health would permit, during my stay in the United States, kindly accompanied me on board. Had he been less closely identified with the transactions of which the present volume is a record, I should have felt it due to his station among the earliest and most distinguished advocates of the anti-slavery cause in America, to attempt some delineation, however imperfect, of that rare and consecrated union of consistent Christian character, fine talents, and sound and impartial judgment, which give him so much weight in the councils of his fellow-laborers. We set sail about noon on the 1st of the Eighth month, (August,) and arrived off Liverpool about eleven o'clock, P.M. on the 13th, which interval included ten hours delay at Halifax. We had about ninety pa.s.sengers from Halifax to Liverpool, and with the exception of a severe gale on the 10th, almost amounting to a hurricane, we had a very favorable voyage. The time from Halifax to within sight of the light house off the south coast of Ireland was announced to be only nine days and thirteen minutes.

One of my fellow pa.s.sengers had recently been traveling in the southern States, and showed me a letter given to him as a curiosity at the post office at Charleston, South Carolina, which was addressed by a slave to her husband, but from insufficient direction had never reached its destination. It was to convey the tidings that she was about to be sold to the South, and begging him, in simple and affecting terms, to come and see her, as they would never meet again. Another of the pa.s.sengers, who had also been a fellow voyager with my friend Joseph John Gurney, had recently travelled in Texas. He was strongly impressed with the evils likely to result from the proposed recognition of that government by Great Britain. In consequence of the promising aspect of these negotiations between General Hamilton and Lord Palmerston in favor of Texas, the paper money issued by that piratical government, and which had not been previously negotiable for more than one tenth of its nominal value, rapidly rose. The Texas republic, in his opinion, could not secure a permanence without British recognition.

Many planters, with their slaves, have emigrated thither to escape their creditors from the border States, and the republic has been lavish of grants of land to men of capital and influence, to induce them to settle within its limits. My informant considered the state of society to be as bad as it well could be, and continue to exist. The white inhabitants are living not only in fear of hostile Indians, but in fear of each other.

From a late letter of a friend in America, I make the following extract relative to the present condition of Texas.

"To give thee some adequate idea of the importance of that beautiful republic of Texas, which Lord Palmerston and the late Whig government of England took under their especial protection, I will just refer to the statistics of the late election of its President. The successful candidate, General Houston, a man notorious for his open contempt for all the decencies of civilized society,--brutal, brawling, profane, and licentious,--received somewhat rising five thousand votes: his compet.i.tor, Judge Burnet, between two and three thousand,--a vote smaller by thousands than that of our little county of Ess.e.x, in Ma.s.sachusetts. Late accounts from Texas inform us that gangs of organized desperadoes, under the names of moderators and regulators, are traversing its territory, perpetrating the most brutal outrages. In one instance they seized a respectable citizen who dared to express his dissatisfaction with their proceedings, hurried him into the forest, and deliberately dug his grave before his eyes, _intending to bury him alive_! The miserable victim, horrified by the prospect of such a fate, broke away from his tormentors, and attempted to escape, but was shot down and instantly killed! Such a congregation as Texas presents was never, I suspect, known, save in that city into which the Macedonian monarch gathered and garnered, in one scoundrel community, the vagabond rascality of his kingdom.

"Thou would'st be amused to read an article, which has made its appearance in the _Houston Telegraph_--a Texian paper--in which the editor says, 'that while we deeply commiserate the situation of our sister republic, in regard to the political scourge of abolitionism, it is pleasing to reflect that our country enjoys a _complete immunity from its effects_. Indeed we may with safety declare, that throughout the whole extent of our country, not a single abolitionist can be found.' He goes on to say that this induces many of the southern planters to emigrate to Texas, who, he remarks, '_will necessarily look to Texas, as the Hebrews did to the promised land, for a refuge and home_.' It will thus be seen that Texas is the promised land of the patriarchal slave-holders of the southern States. When hunted from every other quarter of the globe by the inexorable spirit of abolition, when even Cuba and Brazil cease to afford them an asylum--when slave-holding shall be every where else as odious and detestable as midnight larceny, or highway robbery,--Texas alone, uninfected and secure, is to open its gates of refuge to the persecuted Calhouns and McDuffies, and their northern allies in church and state--the San Marino of slavery, dissevered from the world's fanaticism--isolated and apart, like the floating air-island of Dean Swift."

The following extract from a recent New York paper gives an equally deplorable representation of the society in Texas.

"The pestilent influence of the recent horrible murders on the Arkansas, and other United States' rivers, has caused the practice of lynching to break forth with renewed fury in Texas, where it had apparently slept for the previous year. And we find recorded in the Texas papers nearly a dozen of these murders that have occurred, and undoubtedly there have been more than as many more. In Shelby county two citizens have been shot down, and several houses burned by a party of outlaws. In Red River two men have been hanged as horse-thieves, without judge or jury. In Was.h.i.+ngton county one man has been shot down, under the pretence that he was a murderer. In Austin county two men were killed, and two hostile parties were in arms for several days, taking the law into their own hands. In Jefferson county two men have been killed, and the house of one of them burnt to the ground by a party of self-styled 'regulators.' And all this in the s.p.a.ce of a year."

Several of my fellow-pa.s.sengers were from Cuba, and some of them slave-holders by their own admission. With one or two of those who could speak English, I had much conversation on the abolition of slavery. They concurred with apparent sincerity in the desire that the slave trade might be effectually suppressed. They seemed to consider that this trade was promoted by the mother country as one means of preventing the colony from aspiring to independence. They admitted the abstract injustice of slavery, and one remarked, that a difference of the color of the skin was a misfortune, not a crime. They were not, however, disposed to entertain a thought of emanc.i.p.ation, without being fully compensated for their slaves.

I had again the pleasure of observing on this voyage, the benefits of the change of system with regard to the supply of wines and spirits, each pa.s.senger paying for what he consumes, instead of his fare including the privilege of drinking _ad libitum_. One of the stewards told me the quant.i.ty consumed was little more than one-tenth as much as under the former system.

I cannot conclude my narrative more gratefully to my own feelings than by a tribute to the upright and conscientious officer who commanded the vessel. On the first day of the week, the only one we spent at sea, the pa.s.sengers, and as many of the servants as could conveniently attend, a.s.sembled morning and evening in the saloon, for the purpose of religious wors.h.i.+p. Lord Frederick Fitzclarence, one of the pa.s.sengers, officiating as a minister of the English Establishment; and every evening a similar opportunity was offered in the fore cabin to all who were inclined to be present. The captain firmly resisted the introduction of cards on the first day of the week, and in his whole conduct manifested an anxiety not only for the temporal comfort and safety, but for the spiritual interests of those under his care. Would that all captains of vessels, invested as they are with such authority and influence over the pa.s.sengers and crews, were like-minded with my friend Captain McKellar.

I disembarked at Liverpool early in the morning on the 14th of Eighth month, (August,) 1841.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

The reader who has accompanied me thus far, will not need to be informed that I have designedly omitted many of those remarks on scenery, manners, and inst.i.tutions, which were naturally suggested to my own mind by a retrospect of my sojourn in the United States. On various subjects of great interest and importance, it would be difficult for me to add anything new or valuable to the information contained in other and well known works; while on those points to which my attention was chiefly directed, I have endeavored, as far as practicable, to incorporate the results of my inquiries in the preceding narrative. There remain, however, a few observations, for which, having found no appropriate place, I would bespeak attention in a concluding chapter.

In the Northern States, education, in the common acceptation of the term, may be considered as universal; in ill.u.s.tration of which it may be mentioned, that on the occasion of the late census, not a single American adult in the State of Connecticut, was returned as unable to read or write. Funds for education are raised by munic.i.p.al taxation in each town or district, to such an amount as the male adults may decide.

Their public schools are universally admitted to be well conducted and efficient, and combine every requisite for affording a sound, practical, elementary education to the children of the less affluent portion of the community. I need scarcely add that in a republican government, this important advantage being conceded, the road to wealth and distinction, or to eminence of whatever kind, is thrown open to all of every cla.s.s without partiality--the colored alone excepted.

The following extract from a letter received since my return from a respected member of the Society of Friends, residing in Worcester, Ma.s.sachusetts, will give a lively idea of the general diffusion and practical character of education in the New England States.

"The public schools of the place, like those throughout the State, are supported by a tax, levied on the people by themselves, in their primary a.s.semblies or town meetings, and they are of so excellent a character as to have driven other schools almost entirely out from among us. They are so numerous as to accommodate amply all the children, of suitable age to attend. They are graduated from the infant school, where the A B C is taught, up to the high school for the languages and mathematics, where boys are fitted for the University, and advanced so far, if they choose, as to enter the University one or two years ahead. These schools are attended by the children of the whole population promiscuously; and, in the same cla.s.s we find the children of the governor and ex-governor of the State, and those of their day-laborers, and of parents who are so poor that their children are provided with books and stationery from the school fund. Under this system, we have no children who do not acquire sufficient school learning to qualify them for transacting all the business which is necessary in the ordinary pursuits of life. A child growing up without school learning would be an anomaly with us. All standing thus on a level, as to advantages, talent is developed, wherever it happens to be; and neither wealth nor ancestral honors give any advantage in the even-handed contest which may here be waged for distinction. It is thus that we find, almost uniformly, that our first men, either in government or the professions, are the sons of comparatively poor and obscure persons. In places where the wealthier portion of the community have placed their children in select schools, they are found much less likely to excel, than when placed in contact and collision with the ma.s.s, where they are compelled to come in compet.i.tion with those whose physical condition prepares them for mental labor, and whose situation in society holds forth every inducement to their exertions. To this system, which is co-eval with the foundation of the State, I attribute, in a great degree, that wonderful energy of character which distinguishes the people of New England, and which has filled the world with the evidences of their enterprise."

The preceding statements refer to New England, the oldest portion of the free States. The more recently settled Northern and Western States are necessarily less advanced, yet their educational statistics would probably bear comparison with any country in the world, except the most favored portion of their own. In the slave States the aspect of things affords a striking contrast. Not only is the slave population, with but few exceptions, in a condition of heathen barbarism, a condition which it is the express object of those laws of the slave States, forbidding, under the heaviest penalties, the instruction of the slaves, to perpetuate; but the want of common elementary education among large numbers of the privileged cla.s.s is notorious. Compare Virginia with Ma.s.sachusetts,--"The American Almanac for the year 1841, states, (page 210) there are supposed to be hardly fewer than 30,000 adult white persons in Virginia who cannot read and write!" An able writer gives the following facts.

"No one of the slave States has probably so much general education as Virginia. It is the oldest of them--has furnished one half of the Presidents of the United States--has expended more upon her University than any State in the Union has done during the same time upon its colleges--sent to Europe nearly twenty years since for her most learned professors; and in fine, has far surpa.s.sed every other slave State in her efforts to disseminate education among her citizens; and yet, the Governor of Virginia in his message to the legislature, (Jan. 7, 1839) says, that of four thousand six hundred and fourteen adult males in that State, who applied to the county clerks for marriage licences in the year 1837, one thousand and forty seven were unable to write their names." The governor adds, "these statements, it will be remembered are confined to one s.e.x: the education of females, it is to be feared, is in a condition of _much greater neglect_."--The editor of the Virginia Times published at Wheeling, in his paper of January 23d, 1839, says,--"We have every reason to suppose that one fourth of the people of the State cannot write their names, and they have not of course any other species of education."[A]