but the truth is, that that power which excluded the blacks from the polls, ought to be excluded itself; which the reader of this letter, and its Appendix, will, I doubt not, be well convinced of.

Among the free blacks, it is true, there are some that are not so good and deserving as they should be. If it were not so it would be a wonder indeed, considering the example set them by the "superior race;" but, generally speaking, those that are labourers are the best and most civil labourers that are to be found in America. Many of them are industrious, careful, and honest: but the hand of the oppressor knows no distinction; and it is not possible to conceive the horrid barbarities that are at times inflicted upon them. A person cannot walk the streets of any city in the United States, without seeing some unprovoked attack made upon them. And I have seen mobs, without any alleged cause, other than that, in their opinion, the negroes ought not to be suffered to live in a free country-I have seen such mobs march in order down to that part of the city of Philadelphia, which is principally inhabited by coloured people, and deliberately set about to murder them, destroy their houses, break up their furniture, steal their money, or other valuable things that the poor creatures might possess. And, to escape the murderous hands of these infuriated and fiend-like beings, the affrighted and screaming women and children, in whatever condition they happened to be in at the time, have flown from their homes to the woods, where they have, for weeks together, slept upon leaves, and lived upon berries, or what else by chance they could get; and whither their savage pursuers, not having glutted their vengeance in the city, have followed them, till fairly tired out with what they term " hunting the Nigs." I have seen these wretches tear down forty houses at one time, in one of these riots, and it has taken them three days and nights to accomplish this. It has been done in the presence of the mayor of the city, the sheriff of the county, and all the public authorities; and the ringleaders of the riot were as well known to these authorities as I am known to my own brother. Not an individual, however, that ever I heard of, was punished for having taken such a part. Indeed, it is well understood that these atrocious deeds are encouraged by the powers that be, and their object in doing this is to please, and to keep in the good graces of the southern slave-holders, too many of whose hearts are elated at the death-screech of the negro, whether from free or slave states, or whichever wind of heaven brings it to them. These public officers, therefore, who are merchants, traders, and so on, expect for their services in this way to be favoured with the slave-holders' commands for merchandise; and when the proceedings of the Abolitionists in Philadelphia had given offence to the slave states, the merchants

and traders of the said city held a meeting, at which they unanimously resolved, that their own hearts were sound to the core in favour of slavery.

In fact, there is nothing that such men would not do to make money if they are assured they can escape with impunity. And here I cannot forbear from quoting freely from Dr. Channing's letter to senator Henry Clay, on the annexation of Texas to the United States, dated August 1, 1837. This letter describes the character of the Americans, in many respects better than I have seen it described; and coming, as it it does, from one of themselves, will, perhaps, have a tendency to ease off the odium, that a foreigner may be liable to, for having dared to speak the truth concerning the "Great Republican Nation :"

"The first grant of land in Texas to our citizens was made under the Royal Government; and, in accepting it, the obligation was expressly incurred, of submission to the civil and religious despotism which then crushed the country. It was understood that the settlers were to adopt the Catholic faith, and to conform in all other respects to the institutions of Mexico. Under the revolutionary governments, which succeeded the fall of the Spanish power, the original grant was confirmed, and new ones made, on condition of subjection to the laws of the land. The terms were very liberal, except that adherence to the Catholic religion was required as the condition of settlement. These facts will help us to understand the reasonableness of some of the complaints, under which the colonists seek to shelter their revolt.

"Mexico, on declaring her independence of the mother country, established a Republican government, and was unfortunately betrayed by her admiration of this country into the adoption of a Federal system, for which no foundation had been laid in her previous history. From this cause, added to her inexperience in self-government, and to the want of intelligence among the mass of her population, her institutions have yielded very imperfectly the fruits of freedom. The country has been rent by factions, the capital convulsed by revolutions, and the chief office of the state been secured by the military to popular chieftains. The emigrants from this country to Texas went with open eyes, with full knowledge of the unsettled state of affairs, into this region of misrule and agitation. Happily their distance from the seat of government prevented their being drawn into the whirlpool of civil contests, which threatened at times the destruction of the metropolis. Whilst the city of Mexico was pillaged or laid under martial law, Texas found security in her remoteness; and, had her colonists proved loyal citizens, this security might have been undisturbed,

ז'

"I have spoken of the Texans as a handful of people. At the breaking out of the insurrection they were about twenty thousand, including women and children. They were, of course, wholly unable to achieve or maintain national independence; so that one condition which is required to authorise revolution, namely, the ability to sustain a government to perform the duties of sovereignty, they could not pretend to fulfil. Twenty thousand men, women, and children, raising the standard of war, and proposing to dismember a mighty empire! It is very possible that there are suburbs of London containing an equal number of discontented people, who suffer under, and have reason to complain of, municipal or national injustice. And may these fly to arms, set up for a nation, and strive to break the unity of the British dominions? It should also be remembered, that the Texans were not only a drop in the bucket compared with the Mexican population, but that they were a decided minority in the particular State to which they belonged; so that their revolt may be compared to the rising of a county in Massachusetts or Virginia, for the purpose of establishing a separate sovereignty, on the ground of some real or imagined violation of right on the part of the Federal or the State government. Still more, this little knot of Texaus were far from being unanimous as to the revolt. The older and wealthier inhabitants favoured peace. There were great differences of opinion among the colonists, and even violent party dissensions. Many who were in the quiet enjoyment of their property were opposed to all these hostile movements. The first public declaration of independence was adopted, not by persons assuming to act in a representatative capacity, but by about ninety individuals, all, except two, Americans, if we may judge by their names, acting for themselves, and recommending a similar course to their fellow-citizens. That declaration furnishes proofs of the dissensions and jealousies of which we have spoken. It proves another fact, that the ancient population of the province was favourable to the new views of the government of Mexico.' In some letters, written by Col. S. T. Austin, the founder of the colony, in the year 1834, whilst imprisoned in Mexico on the charge of encouraging revolutionary movements in Texas, we have some remarkable passages, showing the aversion of the sounder part of the population to violent measures :-'I wish my friends and all Texas to adopt and firmly adhere to the motto and rule I have stated in this letter. The rule is, to discountenance, in the most unequivocal and efficient manner, all persons who are in the habit of speaking or writing in violent or disrespectful terms of the Mexican people or authorities.-I have been led into so much difficulty, and Texas has been so much jeopardized in its true and permanent interests, by inflammatory men, political fanatics, political adventurers, would-be-great men, vain talkers, and visionary

fools, that I begin to lose all confidence except in those who seek their living between the plough-handles; and, alas for them! they are too often sacrificed before they know it.-Tolerate no more violent measures, and you will prosper and obtain from the government all that reasonable men ought to ask for. It is very plain that, of this diminutive colony, the more reasonable men, had they not been overborne by the more violent, would have averted the civil war. Such was the number which set up for a nation!

Having thus considered the grievances of the Texans, I now porcéed to consider the real and great causes of the revolt. These are matters of notoriety, so as to need no minute exposition. The first great cause was the unbounded, unprincipled spirit of land speculation, which so tempting a prize as Texas easily kindled in multitudes in the United States, where this mode of gambling is too common a vice. Large grants of land in Texas were originally made to individuals, chiefly citizens of our country, who, in many cases, transferred their claims to joint-stock companies in some of our cities. A quotation will illustrate the nature of these grants and the frauds and speculations to which they gave birth. The nominal grantee is called empresario. He is considered, by the terms of the contract, merely as a trustee of the government, having no title himself to the land within the limits of his future colony, except upon condition of settling a number of families (within a given time). The settlers themselves receive a title for each family for a league square, upon the express condition of settlement and cultivation, and the payment of certain very moderate charges within a limited period. It is believed that these conditions were, by the colonization laws of Mexico, the basis of all the land titles in Texas, together with the further condition, that all right and title should be forfeited, if the grantee (or new settler) should abandon the country, or sell his land before having cultivated it. An inspection of the various maps of Texas will show how numerous have been these privileges ceded to various empresarios.-The face of the province from Neuces to Red River, and from the gulf to the mountains, is nearly covered by them. It became at last a matter of greedy speculation; and it is a notorious fact, that many of the empresarios, forgetting the contingent character of their own rights to the soil, and the conditions upon which their future colonists were to receive. allotments of land, proceeded at once to make out scrip, which has been sold in the United States to an incal· culable amount. In addition to this, we are informed, on the best authority, that the manufacture of land titles, having no foundation whatever, has been carried on as a regular business. That frauds of these different kinds have been practised on the cupidity and credulity of the people

of the United States is beyond doubt. Had the close of the presen campaign been what its opening seemed to portend, and the colonies been broken up, it would be impossible to calculate the losses that would be sustained by those who have never seen the land which they have bought. It is not hazarding too much to say, that millions have been expended in the Southern and South-western States.

"Texas, indeed, has been regarded as a prey for land speculators, within its own borders, and in the United States. To show the scale on which this kind of plunder has been carried on, it may be stated, that the Legislature of Coahuila and Texas, in open violation of the laws of Mexico, were induced by a company of land speculators, never distinctly known, to grant them, in consideration of twenty thousand dollars, the extent of four hundred square leagues of public land. This transaction was disavowed, and the grant annulled, by the Mexican Government, and led to the dispersion of the legislature, and the imprisonment of the governor Viesca. And yet this unauthorized, and perhaps corrupt, grant of public lands formed the basis of new speculation and frauds. A new scrip was formed; and according to the best information we have been able to obtain, four hundred leagues became, in the hands of speculators, as many thousands. The extent of these frauds is yet to be ascertained: for such is the blindness of cupidity, that anything which looks fair on paper, passes without scrutiny, for a land title in Texas.' The indignation excited in the Mexican Government by this enormous grant, and attempt to seize the legislators who perpetrated it, were among the immediate excitements to the revolt. In consequence of those lawless proceedings, great numbers in this country and Texas have nominal titles to land, which can only be substantiated by setting aside the authority of the General Congress of Mexico, and are of consequence directly and strongly interested in severing this province from the Mexican confederacy.-Texan independence can alone legalize the mighty frauds of the land speculator. Texas must be wrested from the country to which she owes allegiance, that her soil may pass into the hands of cheating and cheated foreigners. We have here one explanation of the zeal with which the Texan cause was embraced in the United States. From this country the great impulse has been given to the Texan revolution; and a principal motive has been the unappeasable hunger for Texan land. An interest in that soil, whether real or fictitious, has been spread over our country. Thus the general zeal for freedom,' which has stirred and armed so many of our citizens to fight for Texas, turns out to be a passion for unrighteous spoil.

"I proceed to another cause of the revolt, and this was the resolu tion to throw Texas open to slave-holders and slaves. Mexico, at the