very. This infamous monster is doomed to work out its own destruction. In aiming its deadly fangs at the nation's vitals, it has inflicted its own death wounds. Thanks to liberty, to republicanism, and the beneficent institutions transmitted to us by illustrious sires, it will thus ignominiously die, and pass from the face of the earth forever. We can but see that the 'institution' of slavery and the principles upon which our goverment is founded are antagonistic. Its constitution and laws are in direct violation of the spirit which our noble, self-sacrificing forefathers inculcated, which breathed only the aspiration of liberty and happiness to all men. We, as a State in this republican government, have departed from the principles and teachings of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, in declaring, by our constitution and laws, that all men are not created equal, and are not entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This atrocious crime of slavery assails the life of our State and nation-sows the seeds of discord and disunion, by destroying the principles of humanity, justice and good will toward men, by establishing this infamous curse, which is built upon the narrow grounds of pecuniary interest and sordid gain, embracing, in its constitution and code of laws, fraud, rapine, cruelty and bloodshed. Slavery is inconsistent with our dearest rights as a State. The Black Code of this State is a damning disgrace to our State records, and an outrage and robbery upon her citizens, and merits the contempt and detestation of all men. We ask and demand that this dead weight of human wrong be wiped from the escutcheon of our State, and that these laws and the aristocratic State constitution be destroyed, to give place

to a free and truly democratic constitution and laws, based upon the inherent and fundamental principles of freedom and justice to all men.

"To show to you, friends of freedom, how the South has degenerated and relapsed to Egyptian barbarism, I will present a synoptical view of the pertinently named Black Code of Louisiana, and I am confident you will acknowledge it only worthy a Slaveocracy, for there is no other class on God's earth so brutalized and stupid in depravity and wickedness as to defend the diabolical rules and principles it inculcates. Well, thus saith the law that Mr. Davis and his compeers would restore and establish to Louisiana and the world, if they could command the power to do so. But, thank God, they will not be permitted to build a nation upon any such iniquitous 'corner-stone.' Any slave killing or attempting to kill, whether maliciously, or in defence of his family or self, shall be hung. If a slave strikes his master, or mistress, or their children, or any white overseer, he shall be hung, or be imprisoned at hard labor for ten years. If a slave shoot or stab any person with intent to kill, he shall be hung. If any slave or free person of color shall attempt to poison any person he shall be hung. Any slave guilty of encouraging an insurrection shall be hung. Any slave or free person of color who shall attempt to burn any building or outhouse shall be hung. Any slave who shall be guilty for the third offence of striking a white person shall be hung, unless the blow was given in defence of his master, some member of his family, or person having charge of him, when the slave shall be excused. Any slave forcibly taking goods or money from any person shall be hung, or as the court shall

adjudge. Any slave who shall break into a place and attempt to steal, or commit any other crime, shall be hung. Any person cruelly treating a slave shall not be fined to exceed two hundred dollars. Any person who shall remove any iron chain or collar fastened to a slave may be imprisoned for six months. If any person shall, by words or action, advise any slave to insurrection, he shall suffer death or imprisonment. Whosoever shall attempt to produce discontent among the free colored or slave population, shall be imprisoned at hard labor, or suffer death. Any person from the bar, the bench, the stage, the pulpit, or any other place, who shall be guilty of discourses or signs tending to produce discontent among the free colored or slave population, or who shall bring into this State any paper, pamphlet or book having such tendency, may be imprisoned twenty-one years, or suffer death. Slaves accused of capital crimes shall be tried by two Justices of the Peace and ten owners of slaves. Any crime not capital shall be tried by a Justice of the Peace and four owners of slaves. One Justice and nine jurors shall constitute a quorum for the trial of slaves accused of capital offences. If a slave is convicted, the said Justice of the Peace shall sign the sentence. If the court disagree and do not convict, it shall have the power to inflict corporal punishment according to its pleasure. All slaves sentenced to death or perpetual imprisonment, shall be paid for out of the public treasury. A slave may be forced to testify against his fellow-slave, but he is not permitted to testify against a white man. Any slave accused of a capital crime in this parish shall be tried by the Judge of the First District Court and

six slaveholding jurors. No slave can leave the plantation without a written permission; and any person giving permission without authority shall be fined fifty dollars. Any person who shall mutilate a slave and render him incapable of work, shall be fined fifty dollars, and pay the master two dollars per day for every day lost; and if the slave be forever made unable to work, then the offender shall pay his value, or suffer one year's imprisonment. Any person, having been a slave, returning to this State without permission, shall be forced back to slavery. Any free person of color who may be ordered to leave the State and does not, may be imprisoned at hard labor for five years. Free persons of color are not allowed to land in the State without a legal permit. A master of a vessel must give a bond for the non-landing of free persons of color on board his vessel.

"This is the law of the chivalrous apostles of treason and rebellion; the rope, the stocks, the clog, the ballchain, the gag, the vice, the "nigger dogs," are the humanizing aids for their enforcement, and conspicuously portray the religion, humanity and civilization of the slavcocracy of the barren and ruined land under their horrid and diabolical sway. Thank God, the Moses of this people has come, and is now bravely leading the sons of Africa from the land of bondage to the glorious heritage of freedom and human rights. Yes, the crisis which involves the question whether this accursed viper shall be suffered longer to gnaw at our national vitals, to destroy and overthrow our constitutional liberty and laws, or whether the cause of the stupendous affliction now upon this promised land of liberty shall be an hilated.

erous

"There can be but one voice from the just, the good and the humane, and that voice is—perish slavery, perish its upholders, perish every power and obstacle to the disenthralment and liberty of the oppressed, whatever be his complexion or his condition. Hope beameth bright for the triumphant realization of freedom's jubilee. The battles fought, the proclamations from that best and greatest man, Abraham Lincoln-the man of liberty, of humanity, the people's man-the territory conquered, brothers reclaimed, those freed, show a future brighter and more glorious than the most genever conceived a hope for. How much more tenaciously should we cling to our dear country, now that she has been imperiled and made to weep tears of blood because of the unnumbered dead, the waste and desolation of her once fruitful fields and happy and contented culturers. Our forefathers were the instruments that have marked and explored the destiny of this land. "The disciples of Calhoun have striven, and are still striving to pervert and destroy their lofty aspirations, and these oligarchs find sympathizers in the cold and withering aristocracy of the North; but the people have spoken in their strength and declared that these cravenhearted and weak-kneed traitors shall not succeed, but with their braver friends, fighting for their treason, shall go down in ignominy together. When treason and rebellion shall be crushed, and the great people, including us, Louisianians, shall realize nature's just law, that slavery is no longer to blight and curse the civilization, morality and religion of the nation, when man will be acknowledged 'for a' that;' that color and difference in complexion may still be 'endowed with power to