The last of these considerations was particularly disquieting in times of financial stress, for suspicion of wholesale frauds then became rife.

At the beginning of 1840, for example, the offerings of slaves from Mississippi in large numbers and at bargain prices in the New Orleans market prompted a local editor to warn the citizens against buying cheap slaves who might shortly be seized by the federal marshal at the suit of citizens in other states.

A few days afterward the same journal printed in its local news the following: "Many slaves were put up this day at the St.Louis exchange.

Few if any were sold.

It is very difficult now to find persons willing to buy slaves from Mississippi or Alabama on account of the fears entertained that such property may be already mortgaged to the banks of the above named states.