No one pretends to deny that there are in the South, _some_ cruel, irreligious--inhuman--slave-holders--and who will have the hardihood to deny that there are also in the North, _thousands_ of cruel, irreligious and inhuman, masters, husbands, and fathers! Would the latter fact be a justifiable reason for branding _all_ the masters, husbands, and fathers, in the North, as a set of cruel, irreligious, inhuman monsters? Ah, but says the Abolitionist, they do not use the lash in the North.--Don't they? If not, it is only because many prefer the cudgel, which they use liberally on the head, back, and limbs of their unfortunate _white_ slaves! How many think you (in this religious city of Philadelphia) white masters, and white husbands, and white fathers, are annually bound over or punished for cruelty to their _white_ apprentices--white wives--and white children? And how many more are they, whose barbarity never comes to light, or whose wealth shelters them? Methinks the effects of the cruelty of a husband or of a father, would be just as sore on the back or head of a wife, or of a child, as if they were the effects of the cruelty of a slave-holder: a rose smells as sweet by any other name! You reply they cannot _sell_ them here; I answer, it would be far to the advantage of many if they could. But now to the matter of this chapter: it is constantly published and circulated by Abolitionists that so hard-hearted, brutal, and inhuman are all the slave-holders in the South, that they all desire slavery, are all inimical to freedom, and revel in their iniquity. So far from this being the case, I reply that the vast majority of them, regret the necessity of holding slaves--are anxious to have them emancipated, and would hail with delight any plan by means of which they could emancipate them, with safety to themselves, and with safety to their slaves. Let us hear the testimony of a few of them on the subject, recollecting that according to the principles of common justice, as established in all civilized nations, _it is not lawful to consider a man unworthy of credit till he is first proved to be a liar_. Patrick Henry says,-- "I repeat it again, that it would rejoice my very soul that _every one_ of my fellow beings was _emancipated_. As we ought with gratitude to admire that decree of heaven which has numbered us among the _free_, we ought to _lament and deplore_ the necessity of holding our fellow men in bondage."--_Debates in Virginia Convention._ Zachariah Johnson says,-- "Slavery has been the foundation of that impiety and dissipation which have been so much disseminated among our countrymen. If it were _totally abolished_, it would do much good." _Ibid._ Judge Tucker says,--