In the 10th Report of the American Sunday School Union [p. 50] is a table showing the number of Sunday School scholars in each State for the year 1834. From this table we learn that There were in the free States 504,835 scholars. " " slave " 82,532 " The single State of New York had 161,768 " about twice as many as in the thirteen slave States! And is it possible that the literary and religious destitution you are suffering, together with the vicious habits of your colored population, should have no effect on the moral character of the whites? We entreat your patient and dispassionate attention to the remarks and facts we are about to submit to you on the next subject of inquiry. VI. STATE OF MORALS. Christianity, by controlling the malignant passions of our nature, and exciting its benevolent affections, gives a sacredness to the rights of others, and especially does it guard human life. But where her blessed influence is withdrawn, or greatly impaired, the passions resume their sway, and violence and cruelty become the characteristics of every community in which the civil authority is too feeble to afford protection. No society is free from vices and crime, and we well know that human depravity springs from another source than slavery. It will not, however, be denied that circumstances and institutions may check those evil propensities to which we are all prone; and it will, we presume, be admitted that in forming an opinion of the moral condition and advancement of any community, we are to be guided in our judgment, not by insulated facts, but by the _tone of public opinion_. Atrocities occur in the best regulated and most virtuous States, but in such they excite indignation and are visited with punishment; while in vicious communities they are treated with levity and impunity. In a country where suffrage is universal, the representatives will but reflect the general character of their constituents. If we are permitted to apply this rule in testing the moral condition of the South, the result will not be favorable. In noticing the public conduct of public men, we are not sensible of violating any principle of courtesy or delicacy; we touch not their private character or their private acts; we refer to their language and sentiments, merely as one indication of the standard of morals among their constituents, not as conclusive proof apart from other evidence.