Page:The African Slave Trade (Clark).djvu/99

 We come now to a document that deserves our careful attention. In May, the Savannah Republican published an indignant protest of the grand jury which recently indicted parties suspected of being engaged in the slave trade. The jurymen, being under oath to find a bill according to law, state that they did so against their will. The protest concludes thus:

Heretofore, the people of the South, firm in their consciousness of right and strength, have failed to place the stamp of condemnation upon such laws as reflect upon the institution of slavery, but have permitted, unrebuked, the influence of foreign opinion to prevail in their support.

"Longer to yield to a sickly sentiment of pretended philanthropy, and diseased mental observation of higher law' fanatics, the tendency of which is to debase us in the estimation of civilized nations, is weak and unwise. They then unhesitatingly advocate the repeal of all laws which directly or indirectly condemn the institution, and think it the duty of the southern people to require their legislators to unite their efforts for the accomplishment of this object." (Signed)

This is certainly a very remarkable production. That it represents an extensive southern opinion, we will not believe without farther evidence. Its authors are alone responsible for it. We know that such sentiments are received with disgust by thousands at the South. Many