The barbarous and unwise regulations in some of the planting states, _which prohibit the slaves from being taught to read_, are a serious impediment to the moral and religious instruction of that numerous and unfortunate class. Such laws display on the part of the law makers, little knowledge of human nature and the real tendency of things. To keep _slaves_ entirely ignorant of the rights of man, in this spirit-stirring age, is utterly impossible. Seek out the remotest and darkest corner of Louisiana, and plant every guard that is possible around the negro quarters, and the light of truth will penetrate. Slaves will find out, for they already know it, that they possess rights as men. And here is the fatal mistake now committed in the southern slaveholding states--legislating against the instruction of their slaves--to keep them from knowing their rights. They will obtain some loose, vague, and undefined notion of the doctrine of human rights, and the unrighteousness of oppression in this republican country. Being kept from all the moral and religious instruction which Sabbath schools, the Bible, and other good books are calculated to impart, and with those undefined notions of liberty, and without any moral principle, they are prepared to enter into the first insurrectionary movement proposed by some artful and talented leader. The same notion prevailed in the West Indies half a century since, and many of the planters resisted and persecuted the benevolent Moravians, who went there to instruct the blacks in the principles and duties of religion. A few of the planters reasoned justly. They invited these benevolent men on their plantations, and gave them full liberty on the Sabbath, and at other suitable seasons, to instruct their slaves. The happiest effects followed. On these plantations, where riot, misrule, and threatened insurrections, had once spread a panic through the colony, order, quietness and submission followed. Such would be the effects if the southern planter would invite the minister of the gospel and the Sunday school teacher to visit his plantation, allow his slaves to be instructed to read, and each to be furnished with a copy of the Scriptures. The southern planter hourly lives under the most terrific apprehensions. It is in vain to disguise the fact. As Mr. Randolph once significantly said in Congress, "_when the night bell rings, the mother hugs her infant closer to her breast_." Slavery, under any circumstances, is a bitter draught--equally bitter to him who tenders the cup, and to him who drinks it. But in all the northern slaveholding states, it is comparatively mild. Its condition would be much alleviated, and the planter might sleep securely if he would abolish his barbarous laws, more congenial with Asiatic despotism than American republicanism, and provide for his slaves the benefits of wholesome instruction. Philanthropy and interest unite in their demands upon every southern planter to provide Sunday school instruction for his slaves.