There was even a satisfaction in this, for the man got
what he paid for, and was treated as if he were really a human
being. Thus, with the exception of the restriction on the man's
liberty, and that evil, which those interested in commerce would
reflect upon as a tax upon the marine interests of the port to
support a municipal police, because it imposes a tax and burdensome
annoyance upon owners for that which they have no interest in and
can derive no benefit from, the observance of the law had more
penalty in mental anxiety than bodily suffering. We have sometimes
been at a loss to account for the restriction, even as it existed in
Georgia, and especially when we consider the character of those
controlling and developing the enterprising commercial affairs of
Savannah.
But we must return to South Carolina. If we view this law as a
police regulation, it only gives us broader latitude. If a community
has that within itself which is dangerous to its well-being, it
becomes pertinent to inquire whether there is not an imperfect state
of society existing, and whether this policy is not injurious to the
well-being of the State. The evil, though it be a mortifying fact,
we are bound to say, arises from a strange notion of caste and
color, which measures sympathy according to complexion. There is no
proof that can possibly be adduced, showing that colored seamen have
made any infections among the slaves, or sought to increase the
dangers of her peculiar institution.
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