within them; they began to realize their nature, and, though it was a realization, in many instances, of its lower forms, the way was, nevertheless, opened for higher and nobler manifestations. Amid these circumstances-the world within, where principles, sentiments and passions, hold their sway and demand their gratification, and the world without, where unexplored lands held valuable treasures and exuberant soils awaited tillage-that series of wonders commenced on the western continent, which, in our day, is progressing toward such magnitude and grandeur. Here, one race after another has struggled for ascendency. Here, northern and southern Europe has repeated the ancient rivalry for preeminence. Here, all that is designated by talent, courage, skill and perseverance, has spread itself over a field, in which the very vastness of mountain ranges, and the wide-spread plains, seem to have been ordained as the witnesses of that loftier sublimity of mind and enterprise, of which they are the fainter symbols. Among the earlier historic names of our country, De Soto holds a prominent place, as well from the fame which he brought to the continent with him, as from the incidents of his remarkable career among the Indians of Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Tracing the life of this heroic man, from his services under Pizarro until his death on the Mississippi, we witness one continued exemplification of that strength of character, and capacity for effort, which a high purpose and a powerful passion are able to produce. The experience of military life, in Peru, had been sufficient to develop a soldier's spirit, and fix a soldier's taste within him; while its natural scenery, and supposed wealth, had amply sufficed to give him a habit of imaginativeness, in all that respected material objects. To be as great in conquest as Pizarro, seems to have been an absorbing idea with him; and, to realize it, he was willing to endure the suffering and brave the perils of the wilderness; in a word, he was ready to pay the price of such distinction. Obtaining a commission from Charles V, to conquer Florida, he sailed from Cuba, in 1539, and, with six hundred soldiers, landed, in May, on its soil. The gilded shadow he was pursuing was not there. Allured by his own passions, as well as deluded by the natives, he continued his search, and, though disappointment succeeded disappointment, he persevered in penetrating forests, and marching over large tracts of country, cultivating the friendship, or subduing the hostility, of the Indians. The march was through the country, at present divided between the States of Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. It has been accurately traced, by Colonel Pickett, who, in this, as in other things, evinces the minuteness and precision which are so admirable in the work of a historian. De Soto discovered the Mississippi, in 1541. The fact, and its subsequent connections, are thus presented by our author: "The Spaniards reached the Mississippi river in May, 1541, and were the first to discover it, unless Cabacca de Vaca crossed it twelve years before, in wandering to Mexico, with his four companions-which is not probable from the evidence afforded by his journal. De Soto consumed a year in marching over Arkansas, and returned to the 'Father of Waters' at the town of Guachaya, below the mouth of the Arkansas river, the last of May, 1542. He here engaged in the construction of two brigantines, to communicate with Cuba. That great man, whose spirits had long forsaken him, who had met with nothing but disappointments, and who had, in the most perilous wanderings, discovered no country like Peru and Mexico, became sick, with a slow and malignant fever. He appointed Moscoso to the command, bid his officers and soldiers farewell, exhorted them to keep together, in order to reach that country which he was destined never to see, and then closed his eyes in death! Thus died Ferdinand de Soto, one of the most distinguished captains of that or any age! To conceal his death, and protect his body from Indian brutalities, it was placed in an oaken trough, and silently plunged into the middle of the Mississippi, on a dark and gloomy night! Long did the muddy waters wash the bones of one of the noblest sons of Spain! He was the first to behold that river, the first to close his eyes in death upon it, and the first to find a grave in its deep and turbid channel!" We take great pleasure in calling public attention to this interesting and important work. It comprises the history of Alabama, from 1540 until 1820, and is written with great care and research. Whatever his enthusiasm, study and scholarship, could do toward this object, Colonel Pickett has faithfully done. No means have been spared, and no labor avoided, that were requisite in the production of a work, which is, obviously, the favorite object of his life. If any man should have an exemption from the liabilities that so emphatically and universally beset the candidate for public honor, and the aspirant for public fame, it is the hard-working historian; and we cannot but hope, that, in this instance, such industry, zeal and talent, as exhibited by Colonel Pickett, will receive a generous response in the hearts of his countrymen. . ART. IV.-REVIEW OF DR. CHANNING ON SLAVERY. BY JOHN FLETCHER, A. M., OF NATCHEZ, MISS. J. WORKS OF WM. ELLERY CHANNING, D. D., IN SIX VOLUMES. TENTH EDITION. 2. STUDIES ON SLAVERY, BY JOHN FLETCHER, A. M., OF CONCORDIA PARISH, LOUISIANA. (IN MANUSCRIPT, p. 128.) THE style of Dr. Channing is easy, flowing and persuasive. The language is generally clear, often elevated, sometimes sublime. Few can read Channing's writings and not feel the impression, whatever may be the error of his doctrine, that the author added to his literary eminence a purity of intention. Such writings must always make a deep impression on the reader; and this fact of their moral power prompts the present essay. It may, indeed, be said of Channing, what Channing said of Fenelon: "He needs to be read with caution, as do own deeply-excited minds. He needs to be and explanations. all who write from their received with deductions We fear that the very Admiration prepares excellencies of Fenelon may shield his errors. Dr. Channing's sympathies for every appearance of human suffering for every grade of human imperfection-gave a peculiar phasis, perhaps most amiable, to his intellect, religion and writings. He sought perfection for himself: he was ardent to behold it universal. Heaven must forever be the home of such a spirit, but the scenes of earth gave agitation and grief. Limited, in his earthly associations, to the habits of the North, the very purity of his heart led him to attack what he deemed the most wicked sin of the South. His politics were formed upon the model of his mind. Religion lifted him on her golden wing, and science aided in the extent and elevation of his mind. But O! Thou, being God eternal, why not this earth made heaven! Why thy most perfect work imperfection! Why thy child, clothed with holiness or shod with the gospel, run truant to thy law, thy providence and government! But, lo! we are not of thy council. We were not called when the foundations of eternity were laid! We are truly all very small be NOTE. The editor arknowledges his indebtedness to Mr. Forbes, long connected with the Free Trader, of Natchez, Miss., for the manuscripts now, for the first time, committed to print. ings. Our very virtues, even purity, may direct to error; and may not our best intentions lead down to woe? Read again from Channing: "It is a fact worthy of serious thought and full of solemn instruction, that many of the worst errors have grown out of the religious tendency of the mind. So necessary is it to keep watch over our whole nature-to subject the highest sentiments to the calm, conscientious reason. Men, starting from the idea of God, have been so dazzled by it as to forget or misinterpret the universe."-Channing, vol. 1, p. 14. [After reading Mr. Fletcher's introductory approach to his subject, and the generous, if not strictly just, appreciation of Channing's noble and enthusiastic and pure character, the warmest friend of the latter cannot fear ungenerous treatment from Mr. Fletcher, toward the fame or the principles of the great ethical writer, whose volumes will descend to posterity among the richest in our language. In the second volume of his writings, Dr. Channing lays down, at page fourteen, eight propositions : 1. Man cannot be justly held and used as property. 2. Man has sacred rights, the gift of God, and inseparable from human nature, of which slavery is the infraction. 3. Offer explanations to prevent misapplication of these principles. 4. Unfold the evils of slavery. 5. Consider the argument which the Scriptures are thought to furnish in favor of slavery. 6. Offer remarks on the means of removing it. 7. Offer remarks on abolition. 8. Reflections on the duties belonging to the times. In the commencement of his "Studies on Slavery," Mr. Fletcher assails the foregoing assumptions of Dr. Channing. He contends that God alone, and not man, is possessed of indestructible rights. He impugns Channing's views of the sovereignty and infallibility of conscience; notes the eloquent Doctor's surrender of his own doctrine on the moral consciousness; gives the Scriptural proof, at large, of the right of property in man, to be held by his fellow man, and, finally, elaborates a brilliant argument, that the declared economy of the government of God requires the existence of slavery, until the close of the probationary state of mankind. Mr. Fletcher's knowledge of the Hebrew language, and the power and accuracy of his exegesis, make this part of his argu ment unanswerably convincing. In extracting from the manuscript before us, we shall take a continuous portion, commencing at the thirty-fifth page, and devoted to the consideration of Dr. Channing's second proposition, to wit: "Man has sacred rights, the gifts of God, and inseparable from human nature, of which slavery is the infraction."} "In proof of this," Dr. Channing writes (p. 32, vol. ii), "Man's rights belong to him as a moral being, as capable of perceiving moral distinctions, a subject of moral obligations. As soon as he becomes conscious of a duty, a kindred consciousness springs up, that he has a right to do what the sense of duty enjoins, and that no foreign will or power can obstruct his moral action without crime." Suppose a man has rights as described; suppose he feels conscious, as Dr. Channing says, does that give him a right to do wrong, because his sense of duty enjoins him to do so? May he not be prevented from so doing? and is it, indeed, a crime to prevent him? Was it a crime, in the Almighty, to turn the counsel of Ahitophel into foolishness? In the same volume of Channing, page 33, he says: "That same inward principle which teaches a man what he is bound to do to others, teaches, equally and at the same instant, what others are bound to do to him." Suppose a few Africans, on an excursion to capture slaves, find that this "inward principle" teaches them that they are bound to make a slave of Dr. Channing, if they can; does he mean that, therefore, he is -bound to make slaves of them? From the same page in Channing, we extract the following: "The sense of duty is the fountain of human rights. In other words, the same inward principle which teaches the former, bears witness to the latter." If the African's sense of duty gives the right to make the Doctor a slave, we do not see why he should complain, since, by the Doctor's rule, the African's sense of duty proves him to possess the right which his sense of duty covets. 66 Having shown the foundation of human rights in human nature, it may be asked, what they are. They may all be comprised in the right, which belongs to every rational being, to exercise his powers for the promotion of his own and others' happiness and virtue. His ability for this work is a sacred trust from God-the greatest of all trusts. He must answer for the waste or abuse of it. He, consequently, suffers an unspeakable wrong, when stripped of it by others, or forbidden to employ it for the ends for which it is given."-Page 34. We regret to say, that we feel objections to the Doctor's argument and mode of reasoning, for their want of definiteness and precision. If what he says on the subject of slavery was merely intended as eloquent declamation, addressed to the sympathies and impulses of his party, we should not have been disposed to make such an objection. But his work is urged on the world as sound logic, and as of sufficient force to open the eyes of every slaveholder to the wickedness of the act, and to force all such, through the medium of their "moral sense," instantly to set free their slaves. A moral action must not only be the voluntary offspring of the actor, but must also be performed to be judged by laws which shall determine it to be good or bad. These laws, man being the moral agent, we say, are the laws of God; by them man is to measure his |