Mr. Boardman directed his address especially to ladies, and we should think not without effect. He said: “In slavery, marriage is unknown. Men and women live together: but the tie is not formally sanctioned. There is no minister, no magistrate, to give religious or civil authority to the relation. It is a system of concubinage. And this state of things is encouraged, or rather marriage is discouraged, because it throws an obstacle in the way of the sale of these _human chattels_. Notwithstanding, the ties of affection are not less strong on account of the absence of legal or religious sanction. Indeed, the fellowship of suffering binds still stronger the hearts of husband and wife. It is the only channel of affection. The children of the slave are not his own――they are not subject to his authority, and they may be torn from him without a moment’s warning. Pent up in every other direction, the affections of husband and wife naturally centre entirely upon each other. Yet, even this tie is rudely severed. A slave in the west, who had a wife belonging to another master, learned, to his great grief, that his wife had been sold for the southern market. He went to his master, and requested that he might be sold, so as not to be separated from his wife. In order to dissuade him from it, his master described the hardships to which he would be exposed in the south; but he was firm to his purpose, choosing the severe servitude of the sugar plantations of the south, in preference to a separation from the wife of his bosom. His master then offered him money to satisfy him; but no, he said he could not leave his wife. ‘O,’ says his master, ‘You can get another!’ ‘Why, massa, don’t you think I am a man!’ “Another case, I will mention, to show the legitimate effects of slavery upon the relations of life. A colored man, who was a member of the church, and who had been living with a woman, according to the customs of the slaves, went to his master, who was an _elder in the_ Presbyterian church, and told him that he did not feel right to be living so, and requested permission to be lawfully married. And, how do you suppose this reasonable request was received? Although it was a request from one Christian brother to another to be permitted to cease from sin, yet it was received with a laugh, and positively denied.