SLAVERY IN MISSOURI.

MR. F. DOUGLASS, ESQ.:—Dear Sir:—As I
have been traveling for some months past in
the South and South-west, I found it conven
ient to make a trip or two through Missouri.
As I left Lawrence, Kansas Territory, for St.
Louis, I took the route by way of Kansas
City, Independence, Lexington, Boonville,
&c., to Tipton, thence by Pacific Railroad to
St. Louis, stopping by the way at Jefferson
City. In taking this route it gave me an op
portunity to ascertain (in a measure) the con
dition of slavery in that State. Much excite
ment seems to prevail throughout the State.
The free Negro Bill was before the Senate
when I arrived at Jefferson City. On the 15th
December instant, the Bill passed that body,
and doubtless will pass in the House, also re
ceive the signature of the Governor. The
question naturally arises, will it be enforced if
it becomes a law? Judging from what I
could learn, it never will! This question came
up at the City Hotel where I stopped after the
bill passed the Senate. I took the ground
that it was unconstitutional, and soon found
plenty of backers to sustain me in my posi
tion. Some excitement seemed to prevail at
first, but when I showed them by their own
constitution that they had no right to pass an
law, and also that this law must
certainly come under that head, they began to
back. Thousands of colored men have been
made citizens of this State under the laws
thereof, and many at present own thousands
of dollars worth of property in the State.
Now, can they be uncitizenized, and driven out
of the State, for no other crime than having
a black, yellow, or almost white skin? Certainly not. One man said he would spend
one-half of his fortune, before he would see
one negro driven out the State that he
had freed. Others seemed to manifest the
same feeling. Much anti-slavery feeling ex
ists in Missouri. It is generally admitted, that
Missouri will become a free State in from five to
ten years. The Harper's Ferry affair, and the

execution of John Brown, are subjects of much
discussion both in Missouri and Kansas Terri
tory. One old patriotic lady in Missouri said,
'that one or two more Harper's Ferry af
fairs would spoil all of the niggers;' says she,
'some how, the niggers have heard that John
Brown was hung in order that the slaves
might be freed. They think they are to be
free soon.' Said she could not manage her
slaves half as well as she could before Brown
was hung. Said, she dare not strike one of
her niggers no more than she would her fa
ther. Said she had not a nigger, but what
would knock her down the instant she should
attempt to strike them. She said if the
Union was dissolved, the niggers would rise
and kill off all of their masters and mistress
es. 'She did not believe that if the North
knew how much trouble it made the South
they would say so much about dissolving
the Union. We are really more slaves to
the niggers than the niggers are to us. We
live in fear all the time. We do not
know what this Harper's Ferry affair will
amount to. She hoped I would tell the
people North when I got home just what
condition it would place the South in if they
dissolved the Union. She loved the Union
and the liberties our fathers fought for, and
if the Union was dissolved, all our liberties
would be lost.' I gave her encouragement
that I would attend to the matter when I
got home. So she seemed to be very much
relieved. About one-half of the country peo
ple of Missouri compares well with this old
lady, about as ignorant as hat-blocks, yet there
is more truth than poetry in what some of them
say. There is but few smart men in the Mis
souri Legislature, most of them, however, can
write their names. About every train that
comes down on the Pacific Railroad brings as
many as one car load of slaves, composed of
all grades and conditions, some black, some
yellow, and some almost as white as the An
glo-Saxon can make them. Some crying,
some smiling, some dressed in rags, some in

silks and jewelry. Upon the whole, slave prop
erty in Missouri is considered not very safe.
Thus to save themselves, they sell them South.
While the slave goes South; it all tends to the
making of Missouri a free State, but wo to the
poor slave that is taken South in order to
bring this state of things about.

ETHAN LAMPHEAR.

ST. LOUIS, MO., Dec. 17th, 1859.