"The master has an almost _absolute control_ over the body and _mind_ of his slave. The master's _will_ is the slave's _will_. All his acts, _all his sayings_, are made with a view to propitiate his master. His confessions are made, not from a love of truth, not from a sense of duty, not to speak a falsehood, but to _please his master_--and it is in vain that his master tells him to speak the truth and conceals from him how he wishes the question answered. The slave _will_ ascertain, or, which is the same thing, think that he has ascertained _the wishes of his master,_ and MOULD HIS ANSWER ACCORDINGLY. We therefore more often get the wishes of the master, or the slave's belief of his wishes, than the truth." The following extract of a letter from the Hon. SETH M. GATES, member elect of the next Congress, furnishes a clue by which to interpret the looks, actions, and protestations of slaves, when in the presence of their masters' guests, and the pains sometimes taken by slaveholders, in teaching their slaves the art of _pretending_ that they are treated well, love their masters, are happy, &c. The letter is dated Leroy, Jan. 4, 1839. "I have sent your letter to Rev. Joseph M. Sadd, Castile, Genesee county, who resided five years in a slave state, and left, disgusted with slavery. I trust he will give you some facts. I remember one fact, which his wife witnessed. A relative, where she boarded, returning to his plantation after a temporary absence, was not met by his servants with such demonstrations of joy as was their wont. He ordered his horse put out, took down his whip, ordered his servants to the barn, and gave them a most cruel beating, because they did not run out to meet him, and pretend great attachment to him. Mrs. Sadd had overheard the servants agreeing not to go out, before his return, as they said _they did not love him_--and this led her to watch his conduct to them. This man was a professor of religion!" If these northern visitors derived their information that the slaves are _not_ cruelly treated from _their own observation_, it amounts to this, _they did not see_ cruelties inflicted on the slaves. To which we reply, that the preceding pages contain testimony from hundreds of witnesses, who testify that they _did see_ the cruelties whereof they affirm. Besides this, they contain the solemn declarations of scores of slaveholders themselves, in all parts of the slave states, that the slaves are cruelly treated. These declarations are moreover fully corroborated, by the laws of slave states, by a multitude of advertisements in their newspapers, describing runaway slaves, by their scars, brands, gashes, maimings, cropped ears, iron collars, chains, &c. &c.