Capt. Marryatt, Part I [pp. 253-276]

1~1. Cat ara ndh-Day 6
ly to enforce the penalties denounced against offenders by!
existing laws, will, at once, put a stop to these atrocities,
and restore the reign of good order. The very excess of
the evil is, we believe, working its own cure, and the ap proach of anarchy has awakened all reflecting men in that
country to the necessity of applying vigorous and effective
remedies to a disease, which threatens the very existence
of the body politic. A great and beneficial change, we are
assured is at hand, and indeed has already commenced,
which will rescue that fertile land from the dominion of
those bold and reckless adventurers, by whom its destinies
have been heretofore directed. It must not be supposed
that the population of the south-western states is composed
altogether of a set of lawless and ferocious ruffians. Such
an impression would certainly be made on the reader of
Capt. Marryatt's Diary; but nothing can be farther from
the truth. The great bulk of the emigrants to that dis trict of the Union, are men of substance and standing from
the Atlantic States, who, from their education and habits,
are averse to disorder and violence, and who escape the
attention of the superficial observer, because they are
quietly engaged in the mranagemtnent of their estates. A
set of resolute and desperate men, whose hardihood, enter prize and capacity have thrust them into the van of society,
and enabled therm to seize on all its honors and rewards,
are, in truth, the authors of all the tumult and bloodshed,
the accounts of which fill the columns of the press in that
quarter.
On the subject of duelling, our author has recorded some
errors of fact and reasoning, which we shall briefly notice.
Duels at sight, and street rencontres seldom occur in Vir ginia, and when they do, are always made the subject of
prosecution. In Kenttucky, we believe, such affairs hap pen occasionally, though as society advances in population
and wealth, they are becoming more rare. Capt. Marryatt
remarks, (1st series, vol. 1, p. 171,) "that duelling always
has been, and always will be one of the evils of democracy,"
and that "for one American who would prevent a duel,
there are ten who would urge the parties on to the conflict."
We would require no more striking example of thie rash ness and futility of our author's general conclusions, than
is supplied by the passages just cited. What estimate
should be put on the accuracy of such a writer, when it is
notorious that duels are almost unknown north of the Ohio
and the Chesapeake, and are very rare in Maryland, Vir ginia and North Carolina? Our author is very much scandalized at the public honors paid to the remains of Mr.
Cilley, a member of Congress, who fell in a duel. If we
mistake not, the ceremonial, witnessed by him on that occasion, is observed in the interment of all members of
Congress, wiho die at Washington, and was, therefore, not
designed as a peculiar tribute to the memory of Mr. Cilley.
All our author's humane and sagacious reflections on the
immorality of a nation's testifying such unprecedented
respect for a man, " who was a murderer in his heart," are,
then, a mniere fanfsronade-a very superfluous display of
sentimental indignation.
On the subject of slavery, we must do our author the
justice to say, that he does not seem so much blinded by
fanatical prejudices, as the majority of his countrymen who
have visited America. He has not forgotten what we know
on the authority of distinguished English writers, that
"England, beyond all other nations, has most extensively
pursued, and oost solemnly authorised the slave trade;"
and, consequently, has most largely contributed to the propagation of slavery. Though it is notorious, that this infant
country took the most active and vigorous measures for the
suppression of that disgraceful trade, years before the English acts of abolition received the sanction of parliament,
yet Englishmen seem disposed to arrogate the exclusive
merit of the prohibition, and, rushing into the opposite ex
treme with the intemperate zeal of new converts, upbraid
as, because we have not imitated her rash and premature
efforts, for the extirpation of negro slavery. We say negro
slavery, because with all her clamorous abhorrence of that
institution, it will appear that slavery is still tolerated, if
not authorized, in some of the dominions of Britain. Yet,
on this subject, all parties, in that country, seem to have
been wrought into a fever of fanatical excitement, and, while
they withhold relief, or render tardy and reluctant justice
to the suffering millions who groan under the abuses of
their own sway, are perpetually taunting us with the appa rent inconsistencyv between our domestic slavery, and our
cardinal principle of the natural equality of man. From
the bitterness of sarcasm, and vehemence of exaggeration,
with which her travellers and political writers enlarge on
this theme, one would imagine that England had always
been, and was now, the champion of human rights through out the world; that African bondage in this country, was
uniformly marked by the most atrocious anid unexampled
circumstances of cruelty; and that no difficulties obstruct ed the removal of an institution, interwoven with the very
frame of society, and involving such great and complicated
interests. It is an undoubted fact, admitted by our author,
that every exertion was made by the colonists, before the
revolution, to prevent the introduction of slavery into Ame rica, and it was literally forced upon them by the overruling
authority and selfish policy of the mother country. It is
equally indisputable, that, as soon as we had thrown off the
yoke of British supremacy, the slave trade was forthwith
abolished by Virginia, and all the states north of her; that,
from the third Congress until this time, our federal legisla ture has evinced its abhorrence of this detestable traffic,
by a series of the severest enactments; and that the im portation of slaves was prohibited throughout the United
States by law, four years before the vaunted abolition of
England was enforced.
But, says Capt. Marryatt, echoing the cuckoo-song of the
English abolitionists, "there was nothing to prevent im mediate manumission at the time of the acknowledg
ment of our independence by Great Britain. We pro "nounced in our Declaration, that all men were equal, and
yet in the face of this declaration and our solemn invoca "tion to the Deity, the negroes in their fetters pleaded to us
"in vain." (First series, second vol., page 101.) The prin (iple, asserted by us, was that all men are by nature free
and equal; nor do we suppose, that any, but a disciple of
Sir Robert Filmer, would dispute the abstract truth of the
proplosition. In that sense, it must command the assent of
the most bigotted conservative; and, if the bare recognition
of such a doctrine, as our author contends, imposes the duty
of pursuing it to its extreme results, in the constitution of
society, how will he defend the institution of privileged
orders; the limitation of the right of suffrage; and the per mission of domestic slavery in British India, and at the
Cape of Good Hope? These political abuses and arrange ments, sanctioned as they are by the constitution and poli cy of Britain, not to mention many others, are unques tionably as gross a departure from the principle in question,
as the toleration of African bondage in America. But, our
author will say, theory must yield to considerations of
policy, and expediency to the modifications demanded by
the good of society; and no maxim can be adhered to
under all circirmstances without defeating the main design
of the social compact-the safety and happiness of its
members. True! And we ask whether, in the inception
of our government, there were no considerations of policy,
expediency and safety, to forbid the application of the doctrine of human equality to our African population? to
deter the American people from turning loose ill ttie bosom
of their society a degraded class, without education or-moral
training; from exposing themselves to the hazard of a con
Capt. Marryatt and his Diary.
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