I Saw This Braggart On Several Occasions Afterwards, But He Evidently Kept Aloof, And Was Disinclined To Venture In The Part Of The Room I Occupied.

I ascertained that he kept a dry goods store in King-street, and was a boisterous fellow, often involved in quarrels.

The discussion on amalgamation, which is a very vexed one, was again introduced on a subsequent occasion; a planter from the north of the state having (as is sometimes the case) sold off everything he possessed, and removed to the State of Maine, taking with him a young quadroon woman, with the intention of making her his lawful wife, and living there retired. After the expression of a variety of opinions as to what this man deserved, some being of opinion that the subject ought to be mooted in the legislature at Washington - others, that his whole effects ought to be escheated, for the benefit of the public treasury - and by far the greater number that he ought to be summarily dealt with at the hands of the so-considered outraged citizens, which, in other language, meant "lynched," - it was stated, by a very loquacious Yankee-looking fellow present, who made himself prominent in the discussion, that it was the opinion of the company, that any man marrying a woman with negro blood in her veins, should be hanged, as a traitor to southern interests and a bad citizen. This sentiment was loudly applauded, and, had the unfortunate subject of it been in Charleston or near it, he would, in all probability, have been called to account. To me it appeared remarkable, that men, who are always boasting of the well-ordered institutions of their country (slavery being a very important one, be it remembered), should be ever ready to set aside all law, and, as it were, by _ex parte_ evidence alone, inflict summary vengeance on the offender; I was, however, always of opinion, when amongst them, that four-fifths of the men would rejoice if all law were abrogated, and the passions of the people allowed to govern the country, thus constituting themselves judges in their own case, and trampling under foot every semblance of justice, equity, and common propriety. As it is, in many parts of the Union, the judges and magistrates are notoriously awed by the people, and the most perfidious wretches are suffered to escape the hands of justice. A full confirmation of this is to be found in the frequent outrages against law and order reported in the newspapers, and which there elicit little regard.

Walking for a stroll, a day or two after, in the vicinity of the Marine-promenade, I saw a strange-looking cavalcade approaching. Two armed overseers were escorting five negroes, recently captured, to the city gaol. The poor creatures were so heavily shackled, that they could walk but slowly, and their brutal conductors kept urging them on, chiefly by coarse language and oaths, now and then accompanied by a severe stroke with a slave-whip carried by one of them.

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