The  mighty  steamers  had  not  only  carried  silver,  gold  and
merchandise,  but  they  had  transported  humau  beings,  men,
women  and  children,  born  in  God's  image,  for  sale  and  bar-
ter, converting  them  into  chattels.  They  had  carried  hus-
bands away  from  wives,  and  wives  from  husbands ;  parents
from  children,  and  children  from  parents.  They  had  borne
manacled  runaway  slaves  back  to  the  plantation  and  the
lash ;  sometimes  had  become  the  platform  of  execution  for
hopeless  beings,  who,  in  the  desperation  of  despair,  bursting
their  bonds,  found  a  watery  grave  in  the  turbid  Missis-
sippi, to  hide  them  from  further  bondage,  or  hopeless  sepa-
ration from  wife  and  children.  These  princely  plantations
had  been  sustained  and  furnished  by  the  blood  and  sweat
of  unrequited,  scourged  labor.    Their  stately  halls  had  often


■  of  unrequited,  scourged  labc


SLAVERY  THE  CAUSE  OP  TREASON.        143

"been  polluted  with  deeds  of  cruelty.  The  only  hope  for
the  conservation  of  this  iniquitous  system,  being  the  legalized
perpetuation  of  the  ignorance  of  its  victims,  they  toiled  on,
generation  after  generation,  without  hope  of  redemption,  or
opportunity  for  improvement,  and  were  then  reproached  for
vice  and  ignorance.
