Hillsdale (MI) Daily News, April 22, 1856

   The friends of slavery in this country are truly unfortunate in all their attempts to protect and bolster up their favorite institution. The Fugitive Slave Law, instead of protecting their runaway property, has only accelerated the slave stampede to Canada. 

   And so will every effort end that attempts by obnoxious and objectionable means to sustain, in this enlightened age, an institution at war with equal rights, but which under the constitution, we are honorably bound to tolerate within its present limits. And now, the chivalrous legislature of Virginia has just passed an act to provide for the more effectual protection of "slave property," the object of which is to prevent that abduction of slaves by means of northern vessels navigating the streams tributary to the Chesapeake Bay; but whether it will have any other tendency than to ruin the already limited commerce of the State remains to be seen. The pilots are required by it to search every vessel outward bound to ascertain whether any fugitive slaves are on board, and for making this search they are to exact a fee of $5 from the vessel, whether there be any thing wrong or not! Poor, short-sighted Virginia! To sustain an institution that impoverishes her soil, destroys enterprise and paralyzes industry, the old mother of statesmen is now driving trade and commerce from her borders! How are the mighty fallen! But all such attempts are futile, and only show the weakness of that power which requires them. Slavery must fall, and with its fall the old Dominion will rise to become one of the first States of the Confederacy. Her climate, soil and natural advantages all invite the intelligent and enterprising to her soil; but slavery drives them away from it. 

   It is an encouraging sign that so many in the south see and feel the disadvantages of slavery, and are asking the question, "How can we get rid of it with safety to ourselves?" Let the South and North unitedly aid the Colonization scheme with half the zeal, but with far more sincerity, than they now use to discuss the question for mere party purposes, and slavery would yield to their philanthropy and benighted Africa soon be blest with Christianity and civilization.