same ceremonies either by a minister of their own, or, as very often occurs, by a white clergyman. But here they diverge. The negro does not and can not constitute a part or portion of that mighty fabric we term society. He has no social interests, no property to guard or to devise, for though he receives and enjoys a larger portion of the proceeds of his labor than any mere laborer in Europe, every thing legally belongs to the master. There are no family interests for which to provide, no reputation or character to protect, no social duties to perform, or rights to defend in his case; in short, he has no connection whatever with that vast and complicated machinery which we call society. Marriage, therefore, from our stand-point—that legal formula and social pledge so vital to the very existence of social order—is obviously absurd and impossible in the case of negroes. The natural affinity, the union of affection, the perfect adaptation so essential to a true marriage in our race, is substantially imitated and substantially similar in the case of negroes at the South, but to seek to force the negro beyond this—to force upon him the social responsibilities that attach to white people; or, in other words, to make marriage a legal contract in the case of negroes, would be as absurd as to force him to vote at an election, or to perform any other high social duties, and which are evidently impossible. In regard to his own wants, the well-being of his offspring, every thing connected with the best welfare and highest happiness that his race is capable of, he now enjoys, and any attempt to force him to marry as white people marry—that is, to make marriage a civil or legal contract—is not merely impossible, but it would be a crime and a monstrous outrage upon the nature God has given him. The Almighty has endowed the negro with wonderful imitative powers: of course, it is impossible for him to imitate all our higher qualities—he can only approximate to them—but when the master has presented him with a proper example, in this respect as well as in other respects, as parents and guardians are expected to do in the case of children, they have fulfilled their duties to these “slaves,” and generally the negro is restrained and governed by these examples. But the feeble and capricious affections of the negro give their masters much annoyance, and perhaps the greatest trouble they experience with these people is their faithlessness to their marital obligations. The ignorant “anti-slavery” lecturer at the North has distressing tales to tell of cruel masters who separate wives and husbands, and break up families; but while such things have doubtless happened, it is quite certain that masters have interfered a hundred times to keep them together to one instance to the contrary, or to sell them apart. Such things happen occasionally, when estates are to be settled and property divided; but the instincts of the whites and the happiness of the whites