Henry Clay.

To the Editor:

My Dear SirーHenry Clay's letter to Richard Pindell, Esq., richly deserves, I think to be bottled in spirits, and exhibited as a curious specimen of pro-slavery morality,ーas a counterfeit for philanthropy,ーto call it by no harsher name. The coolness with which the writer proposes to banish the negroes of Kentucky, of a future generation, at their own expense;ーthe wise provision that he makes, that he himself, and those of his own generation, shall sustain no loss, or even inconvenience, but that the sinners of the next generation only shall suffer, and that the greater proportion of the penalty, even in their case, shall be borne by those against whom they have sinned:ーthe tenderness with which he deals with the prejudices of those 'respectable persons who believe that slavery is a blessing, that the institution ought to exist in every well-organized society, and that it is even favorable to the preservation of liberty;'ーthe modest reluctance, which he manifests, to force his ideas of right and wrong on the unprepared minds of the Kentuckians;ーthe magnanimity with which he professes his willingness to fall back on the approbation of conscience, should they reject his disinterested advice;ーand, finally, the beautiful consistency which appears between his admissionーthat our duty to God requires us 'not to subjugate, or deal unjustly by our fellow-men, who are less blessed than we are, but to instruct, to improve, and to enlighten them;' and his proposed proviso, that 'until the commencement of his system,' that is, not improbably, during the whole life of himself and his comtemporaries, 'all the legal rights of the proprietors of slaves, in [illegible] extent, ought to remain unimpaired and unrestricted;'ーthese various beauties of this remarkable document seem to me to render it worthy of a place in the anatomical museum of the human heart,ーin that department of it which is reserved for its monstrosities.

I remain, my dear sir, faithfully yours,

Joseph HuttonHutton, Joseph (1790-1860)

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