But laws which punish “_six or eight_,” or “_eight or ten_,” or any other number of offences with death, when committed by slaves, while the same offences receive a milder penalty when committed by whites; or laws denying the benefit of clergy, (where that relic of barbarism still prevails,) to a slave, while it is granted to a white man, are surely among the greatest atrocities recorded in the history of the race. Ponder for a moment upon the accursed fact. A freeman acting under all the motives to self-respect; moved by all the incentives to good conduct; enjoying all the means of education; inspired by all the influences of the gospel; and capable of comprehending all the powerful restraints and the sublime rewards connected with a hereafter, _exonerated_ from the punishment of death; while death, in all the horrors with which ignorance and superstition can invest it, is inflicted upon men who are subjected to bondage; deprived of all motive for honorable conduct; debarred from every avenue to knowledge by cruel penalties; blinded to the light of the gospel; and, in a land of boasted Christianity, left in the darkness of heathenism! These are not the customs of a lawless banditti, of outcasts or renegades, but solemn enactments of state legislatures, devised by talent and eminence, enforced and preserved by the oligarchical few, by the virtual nobility and flower of populous communities. Such laws demand a return of five talents, under penalty of death, where only one talent had been confided; they absolve him who had received five talents, though he brings none of them back. Such laws make the Scriptures read, that the servant who knoweth his lord’s will, but doeth it not, shall be beaten with but few stripes; but the servant who did not know it, whom his very master debarred from knowing it, shall be beaten with many stripes; for unto whomsoever much is given, but little shall be required; but to whom men have committed much, of him little shall be asked. What shall be thought of a system, AND OF EXTENDING A SYSTEM, which so perverts the hearts of men, otherwise clear-headed, high-minded, and generous! What more fitting theme could be conceived, were the arch-enemy of mankind to compose a _burlesque_, in ridicule of _Republics_, to be represented in that Theatre which is all “_Pit_”? It is not, however, the _existence_ of slavery, but its _extension_, we now intend to avert. * * * * * The last paragraph in the foregoing speech gave rise to the following correspondence, which was published in the National Intelligencer:-- LETTER FROM MR. MANN.