calling out, “Peace, peace,” however discordant the answer may be; and who, if they needs must fight, would be glad to know what they’re fighting about, fight in earnest and be done with it. To answer, then, at least one of these questions, and suggest to this rapidly increasing class precisely what the present phase of the battle is, and what hopes there are of final peace, this brief historical sketch is attempted. The purpose is not, we repeat it, to discuss the subject; the author aims not at the dignity of a disputant; he is more than satisfied with the humbler task of supplying materials for those who do,--in hopes that if rage and anger have hitherto filled the place of armorers in our battle-field, history may in future discharge the duty a little more creditably. It is proposed, then, to trace the slavery question at length, so far as it has been the source of national difficulties, embarrassments and legislation, with especial reference to its earlier history, and to the clause in the Constitution respecting fugitives, which has lately been made the subject of Congressional action. It will not be necessary to extend our inquiries to any period anterior to the revolution, or in any way to examine the peculiar causes which first established and have long perpetuated slavery amongst us. Prior to that event, it was of course a question between Great Britain and her colonies, and nice casuistry might perhaps be needed to determine the relative amount of guilt chargeable on each of the two parties. The moral value, too, of a solemn judicial decision, “that no slave could breathe the air or stand on the free soil of England,” may be a little questioned, when it is remembered that such property would of necessity be almost worthless in her climate; and that at the very moment when a reluctant Judge pronounced these boasted words, her capitalists were rolling in wealth that grew out of the sweat on negro brows in her American plantations. We have heard of high bred Southern families in which a thousand out-door slaves are never suffered to pollute the pure air of the saloons and chambers that their masters breathe, or tread the rich carpets that their toil has paid for. The custom is undoubtedly refined and agreeable, but we never heard that it boasted to rest on higher grounds than ordinary mortals venture on.