A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery

slavery and liberty. But it is in the District of Columbia, and under the shadow of the proud Capitol, that the action of the Federal Government in behalf of slavery, is exhibited in its most odious and disgusting forms. We shall have occasion presently to exhibit the seat of the National Government, as the great slave mart of the North American Continent, " furnished with all appliances and means to boot." The old slave laws of Virginia and Maryland, marked by the barbarity of other days, form by Act of Congress, the slave code of the District. Of this code, a single sample will suffice. A slave convicted of setting fire to a building, shall have his head cut off, and his body divided into quarters, and the parts set up in the most public places! But let it not be supposed that Congress has not itself legislated directly on the subject of slavery. An Act of 15th May, 1820, gives the Corporation of Washington, powerto "punish corporeally any Slave for a breach of any of their ordinances." Happy would it have been for the honour of our country, if the sympathies of its rulers in behalf of slavery, had been exhibited only on the national domain; but they pervade every portion of the confederacy, as is but too apparent in The INTERFERENCE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE RECOVERY OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. The federal constitution contains the following clause: " No person held to service or labour in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in co...