C. Edwards Lester, Life and public services of Charles Sumner: Born Jan. 6, 1811. Died March 11, 1874.

‘ [243] or military stores, but we were few in number, and likely to be entangled with our domestics, in case the enemy invaded us.’—Annals of Congress, 1789, 1791, vol. II. p. 1484.

Similar testimony to the weakness engendered by Slavery was also borne by Mr. Madison, in open debate in Congress:

‘Every addition they (Georgia and South Carolina) receive to their number of slaves, tends to weaken them, and render them less capable of self-defence.’—Annals of Congress, vol. i. p. 340.

The historian of South Carolina, Dr. Ramsay, a contemporary observer of the very scenes which he describes, also exposes this weakness:—

‘The forces under the command of General Provost marched through the richest settlements of the State, where are the fewest white inhabitants in proportion to the number of slaves. The hapless Africans, allured with the hope of Freedom, forsook their owners, and repaired in great numbers to the royal army. They endeavored to recommend themselves to their new masters by discovering where their owners had concealed their property, and were assisting in carrying it off.’— History of South Carolina, vol. i. p. 312.

And the same candid historian, describing the invasion of the next year, says:—

‘The slaves a second time flocked to the British army.’—Vol. i. p. 336.

And at a still later day, Mr. Justice Johnson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, and a citizen of South Carolina, in his elaborate Life of General Greene, speaking of negro slaves, makes the same unhappy admission. He says:—

‘But the number dispersed through these (Southern) States was very great; so great, as to render it impossible for the citizens to muster freemen enough to withstand the pressure of the British arms.’—Vol. II. p. 472.