If it he said, that they ever went too far, it proceeded from personal and religious tenderness towards a very large and very unhappy description of human be ings, according with the characteristic we here sug gest.
The enlightened humanity of those, who wished to arrest importation, impelled them to ex( rtions for the instruction of the blacks in scholastic knowledge, and in the useful arts and trades. In this meritorious and ne cessary service, and in the more important duty of reli gious instruction, much time, abilities, and money are constantly expended. It is considered that an emanci pated person of twenty-one is possessed of a man's body, informed often by the knowledge only of a child. This would be to produce strength unattended by rea son, dangerous even in a few individuals, but highly formidable in multitudes of persons.
Natural or the Iiorm1 PrVe of parent and child, is an amiable and precious form of humanity. It is a favourite theme, and of the highest estimation, in the judgment of the moral philosopher. It is an inva luable link in the chain of domestic and civil society. It is peremptorily enjoined by religion. In our munici pal regulations, adopted from abroad or devised at home, the people of the late North American pros inces in creased the influence of natural affection beyond the rules of the "contnu,n law" of the empire. In England, before our revolution, (and it is at this time,) the eldest son engrossed all the real property. Sisters older than he, and brothers and sisters younger, were un deprived of every building, and of every por tion of the father's land, of every perpetual ground rent, and where (as on the greater part ()I our slave estates) they were considered as real property, the sisters and younger brothers were deprived of all the slaves. Thus families bred with equal indulgence, and even the ten der sex, were sacs ificcd to the pride and inhumanity of primogeniture, as it is most improperly called. For a fit st born daughter actually has not this fancied right against a son, who is younger. Connecticut, and Pennsylvania in the greater part, did away the English common law in the time of the provinces. So probably did sonic others. Last wills were found every where to divide the lands. Since the American revolution, the law of descents has been altered in favour of natural aaction, and of the tender love of female children in all the states.
The manifest inhumanity of our old English law, in this respect, is now every where rejected in the United States. The descent of the estates of persons dying without a will, to distant relations, when the aged lather or mother remains alive and there are no children, or widow of the deceased, has been considered as a very unsound and painful rule of the common law. By that law, real estates do not ascend. Some of the state legis latures have corrected this exceptionable rule of the English, law, giving it under various circumstances, wholly or in part, to the father and mother. The pro visions respecting distribution, dower and descent to women, are rendered, in some other respects, more favourable and humane. Moral science itself appears to have been defective on the subject of the relation of husband and wife. more so, it is conceived, have been the common and the statute law. In these states, we gone so far, in the case of a son dying intestate without certain relations, as to give the whole inewne of the real estate to the mother. The situation of the wi dow has also been ameliorated in this country. Consi dering the female sex, as they truly are, unprotected by any share in the government, we may claim from these new and voluntary attentions to their helpless condition, some credit for a rijined humanity.
The American feeling is opposed, on the score of prac tical humanity, to the custom of impressment. it is awn used to force landsmen away from their connections to encounter a new element. Passengers in their way to their property or families, are exposed to this distressing operation. The young seaman, who has tried the stormy ocean to obtain bread for a widowed mother and orphan family, is cruelly torn from them at the moment of his return ; and the married aailor, on whom alone an anxi ous wife and rising family depend for education and sub sistence, is only allowed, after a long voyage, to view, at a distance, their mournful abode. The humanity of the people of these states will never allow a native press gang to erase Irom the declaration of American indepen dence the solemn assurance, that the honest sailor has the' same right, as every other citizen, to pursue his Own happiness.