“American slavery,” though having no existence in fact, is a phrase which, for the last forty years, has been oftener heard than _American democracy_; yet the latter is one of the great powers of the earth, and destined, in the course of time, to revolutionize the world. But in this prominence of an _abstraction_, and indifference, or apparent indifference, to the grandest _fact_ of modern times, is witnessed the wide-spread and almost despotic influence of the European over the American mind. What is here termed “American slavery,” is the _status_ of the negro in American society—the social relation of the negro to the white man—which, being in accord with the natural relations of the races, springs spontaneously from the necessities of human society. The white citizen is superior, the negro inferior; and, therefore, whenever or wherever they happen to be in juxtaposition, the human law should accord, as it does accord in the South, with these relations thus inherent in their organizations, and thus fixed forever by the hand of God. And were America isolated from Europe—did that sea of fire, which Mr. Jefferson once wished for, really divide the Old World and the New, and thus separate us from the mental obliquities and moral perversities of the former—then any other relation than that now common to the South, would be an impossible conception to the American mind. The words “slave” and “slavery” were scarcely heard a hundred years ago, as indeed they will be unheard a hundred years hence; and prior to the Revolution of 1776, the people of America were quite unconscious of that mighty “evil,” now so oppressive to many otherwise sensible minds, though this imaginary slavery then spread over the whole continent. All new communities are distinguished by a certain advance in civilization over the elder ones, however rude the former may appear in some respects, or whatever may be the over-refinement, or seeming refinement, of the latter. Truth lives forever—“the eternal years of God are hers;” and all real knowledge, all true progress made by the race, is treasured up, and carried with it in all its wanderings, whether from the Nile to the Tiber, or from the Thames to the Hudson; while the errors, the foolish traditions and vicious habits, mental and moral, that gather about it, and weaken, and sometimes so overlie and conceal the truth as to render it useless, are left behind. We see this even in our own energetic and progressive society. The younger States are the most enlightened States; and the West, whatever may be its wants, or supposed wants among a certain class, is really more civilized than the East. That community which is the most prosperous—where there is the greatest amount of happiness—where there is relatively the greatest number of independent citizens—is per se and of necessity the most civilized; for the end of existence, the object of the All-wise and beneficent