American Slavery, like every other form of wickedness, has a strong desire just to be left alone; and slaveholders, above all other preachers, to whom we ever listened, insist most strongly on the duty of every man's minding his own business. They are sure that to drag slavery out of its natural darkness, will only rivet the fetters more firmly on their slaves; still, they have very strong reasons against coming to the light. "Let us declare," said a Carolina journal, some years ago, "that the subject of slavery is not and shall not be open to discussion within our borders—that the moment any preacher or private citizen shall attempt to enlighten us on that subject, his tongue shall be cut out and cast upon a dung hill?" Unlike Ajax, the cry is, give us but darkness, and slavery asks no more. "Mind your own business," said the late Mr. Clay to Mr. Mendenhall. "Look at home," said the amiable Mrs. Julia Gardner Ex-President John Tyler, of Virginia, to the Duchess of Sutherland. Well, there is a good deal in the idea of one's minding his own business; and we are not sure that, if that idea were fully carried out, it would not abolish slavery.—Suppose every slaveholder should some day resolve to mind his own business, take care of his own concerns, be at the pains and industry of providing for his own wants with his own hands, or with the money obtained by his own energies—and suppose he should say to his slaves, "follow my example, mind your own business, don't look after mine, but look after your own business in your own way"—why, just here would be the end of slavery. Slaveholders preach to others this doctrine while they are themselves most grossly and scandalously intermeddling with the business of others to the utter neglect of their own.

  It is noticeable, too, that the complaint of interference is never preferred against any of our sainted priesthood who bulwark the system with the gospel. These holy Doctors are held to be very properly employed. It is only your hot-headed men who think a "nigger" has rights as well as a white man—that a slave is as good as his master—who are supposed to need counsel to mind their own business.

  But to return. Slavery dreads exposure. The light, which strengthens other systems, weakens slavery; and slaveholders know this very well. The wonder is, that, knowing it so well, they do not more skilfully manage their affairs. It is surprising that they allow such fiendish advertisements to find their way into their public journals—permit such bloody enactments to stain their statute books—and, publicly, commit such shocking atrocities as fill the pages of the "Thousand Witnesses," and swell the volume of the "Key" to "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Some one should call attention to this unguarded point. How would it do, instead of advertising in the everywhere circulating newspaper for "blood-hounds to hunt slaves," "cash for negroes," &c.;, to use small hand-bills for the purpose? These would not come North, telling their tales of misery on the one hand, and of deep wickedness on the other. Then, too, would it not be well to repeal most of the laws regulating the whipping, branding, ironing, shooting, stabbing, hanging and quartering, of slaves? Could not all these ends be attained without their being provided for in the statute book? Could not "the spirit" be retained without "the letter?" For it is "the letter" which, in this instance, is deadly—while "the spirit" of these laws is the life of the system of slavery. We should not be surprised if some such suggestions prevailed at the South; for slavery cannot bear to be looked at. The slaveholder must become a madman, and forget the eyes of just men and of a just God, when he burns his name into the flesh of a woman.

  Bold and incorrigible as slaveholders, generally, are, they are, nevertheless, far from being indifferent to the good opinions of their fellow-men. They are seldom found willing to acknowledge themselves cruel, or wanting at all in the sentiments of humanity. On the contrary, none are more anxious than they to be regarded as kind and humane. Hence, they are ever anticipating objections to the slave system, by asserting the mildness of the treatment of their slaves, the excellency of their condition and the quiet of their minds. The best of them, however, would find the presence, for any considerable time, of a Northern man of anti-slavery principles on their plantations, watching the intercourse between themselves and their contented and happy, unpaid laborers, very inconvenient and irksome! No. Masters should be seen apart from their slaves. They find it easier to commend slavery in its absence, than when confronted by its ugly features.

  Willingly enough are these slaveholding gentlemen and ladies to be seen at Saratoga Springs, at Niagara, where they are arrayed in purple and fine linen, and are covered with silks, satins and broadcloth—their hands shining with gold, and their bosoms sparkling with diamonds. Their manner is so genteel— their conversation so winning—their smiles are full of kindness, that they easily make their way, win friends, and conceal their abominations. But bring them out from their hiding place—tear off the gold with which their sin is plated, and they stand out, by all the deductions of reason, morality, and religion, naked pirates before God and man, guilty of cruelty which might make a devil blush. Concealment, then, is the constant care of slaveholders. To see a slave speaking to a Northern man throws them into agony. So anxious are they to retain the secrets of the slave prison, that they denounce death against any in their midst who undertakes to reveal them.

  But all efforts to conceal the enormity of slavery fail. The most unwise thing which, perhaps, was ever done by slaveholders, in order to hide the ugly features of slavery, was the calling in question, and denying the truthfulness of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." They had better have owned the "soft impeachment" therein contained—for the "KEY" not only proves the correctness of every essential part of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," but proves more and worse things against the murderous system than are alleged in that great book. Since the publication of that repository of human [illegible]—"The Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses"—there has not been an exposure of slavery so terrible as the Key to "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Let it be circulated far and wide, at home and abroad; let young and old read it, think of it, and learn from it to hate slavery with unappeasible intensity. The book, then, will be not only a Key to "Uncle Tom's Cabin," but a key to unlock the prison-house for the deliverance of millions who are now pining in chains, crying, "How LONG! HOW LONG! O LORD GOD [illegible]! HOW LONG SHALL THESE THINGS BE?"