CHAPTER V.

THE BLACK STOLE.

The foregoing sketch exhibits a personal trait in Mr.
Slick's character, the present a national one. In the
interview, whether real or fanciful, that he alleges to
have had with one of the Secretaries of State, he was
not disposed to give a direct reply, because his habitual
caution led him to suspect that an attempt was made to
draw him out on a particular topic without his being made
aware of the object. On the present occasion, he exhibits
that irritability, which is so common among all his
countrymen, at the absurd accounts that travellers give
of the United States in general, and the gross exaggerations
they publish of the state of slavery in particular.

That there is a party in this country, whose morbid
sensibility is pandered to on the subject of negro
emancipation there can be no doubt, as is proved by the
experiment made by Mr. Slick, recorded in this chapter.

On this subject every man has a right to his own opinions,
but any interference with the municipal regulations of
another country, is so utterly unjustifiable, that it
cannot be wondered at that the Americans resent the
conduct of the European abolishionists, in the most
unqualified and violent manner.