even the lesser evil; provided it can be done without encountering the greater. If we cannot effect a radical cure, why let us at least endeavor to alleviate the distress by assuasives, rather than increase it by irritation. The controversy in which we are now engaged, ought to be considered a friendly, a fraternal struggle, intended to benefit, and not to destroy; to propitiate, and not to aggravate; to soothe, and not to terrify. Depend upon it, the alternative is not what they would have us to believe it. Why should the asperities of the respective states be sharpened or their motives impugned? Why should they be heralded to the lists by angry disputants, armed at all points for unsparing war? It is dangerous to familiarize the mind to such unholy thoughts. They are unworthy of the cause; they are unworthy of us; they increase by indulgence, and may at length produce those evils which at first they only threatened. Evil conceits are the parents of crime; from being familiar, they at length become practical, and from being practical, they may at last appear laudable. Their encouragement is dangerous. Their expression often treasonable. Nor are our fears and forebodings more fatal to our tranquillity than threats. These breed ill blood amongst us; they exclude the genial light of reason from our councils, and enkindle in its place the devouring flame of dissension and of discord, of hatred and revenge. If they fail, the wounds of disappointment rankle in the heart; if they succeed, it is too frequently by extorting from our fears or affections what should spring only from our judgments and our justice. Let The weakness of that argument, may always fairly be suspected, that thus addresses itself to the passions, and not to the understandings of men. us, therefore, dismiss all such unsocial and improper influence from our minds, while we candidly and dispassionately investigate the merits of this question. First, then, is the abolition of slavery expedient? Morality approves it-religion approves it. These, even in every political discussion, are towers of strength; but when it shall be perceived, that, independent of both, policy sanctions it, nothing will remain to be said, our work is accomplished, and we rest from our labors. Morality and religion imply expediency, and it is, therefore, only necessary that we should look to the objections urged against it. Some of those have been already noticed; the others, which are prominent, let us briefly consider. It is said to be inexpedient, because it will produce civil war; and this is said by those who threaten such war. It would be much easier to show that the threat is inexpedient. This is to render abolition impolitic, by the mere determination to resist it; it might as well be said that our blessed religion is inexpedient, because infidels will rail and will not believe! Like the adder they will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. This is the same argument that was used against the tariff, and it was said that thousands of bayonets bristled in its support, the same argument that was used against the restrictions upon Missouri,-the same objection that is resorted to upon every question; and, allow us to observe, it is the most dangerous argument that can be adopted, because it is addressed to the fears, and not to the reason of man. Threats like these, however, from being familiar, have long since ceased to be terrible. They can excite no other feelings than those of regret, that our Southern brethren, after having been so often foiled in similar calculations, should still remain so incorrigibly weak, in spite of experience, as to dream of controlling or even influencing the free states, and the friends of freedom every where, by these air-drawn daggers. The advocates for liberty are to be reached only through their reason,--they take no counsel from their passions in national discussions. Satisfy them that the encouragement of slavery, or even its toleration, can possibly be productive of any beneficial, moral, or political result; satisfy them that it would not be, in its fairest aspect, an indelible stain upon our national character, and a daring outrage against high Heaven, and its continuance will no longer be resisted. But this gasconading system never will succeed; it never should succeed. Like all other evils, it will increase with indulgence, until, at length, every question,-whatever may be its importance, will be decided, not with a due regard to its intrinsic merits, or the general advantage of the country, but solely from a disposition to conciliate the refractory, and preserve unimpaired the tranquillity of the government. Secondly, they say that, by the articles of confederation, the property of the slaveholder in the slave was ratified and confirmed; that, like Shylock, they hold the bond for the pound of flesh. 'Twas dearly bought-'tis theirs and they will have it. Now, without contending that no legal concession is binding, whatever shape it may assume, that is opposed to the law of nature and of God, we may be allowed to remark that, if, as we are assured, paradoxical as it may seem, the South is desirous of being relieved from the curse of slavery, and the only question is as to the manner and result, we cannot understand how they can consistently contend for the continued entailment of this curse, whatever may have been its ratification. It seems, that, rather than escape from the impending horrors of a servile war, they would encounter the still greater horrors of a civil war. If they suppose we would subject them to either, they mistake us utterly; we do not ask to add to their afflictions, we pray only to be permitted to relieve them,-to relieve them in a manner most salutary and effective. We suffer in their sufferings, as co-members in the great national family,-and we shrink from, while contemplating, that wretched empyricism that directs all its efforts towards healing the skin, while the heart is in decay. They deem this sympathy obtrusive; they say, we will relieve ourselves, in our own way. Is it, then, proper that a patient, with a fever fit upon him, should be permitted to prescribe his own medicines? to abjure his physician, and to disdain the advice of his family and friends? Will you not at least listen to us? Your interests are ours-your dangers are ours-we flourish or perish together: and we here avow, whatever may be our efforts, stimulated by a sense of duty for the emancipation of the slave, we are mainly influenced by a liberal and affectionate regard for you. Do you not perceive that, if you are sincere in the professed desire to shake off this burthen, there is no time like the present?--that its weight accumulates with every hour, and that, when at last you are crushed and crippled under it, it will be entirely too late for that vigorous exertion which is essential to the removal and expulsion of the evil. We are prepared to aid you now in any rational system of emancipation. But do not delude yourselves. Self-delusion upon this subject is worse than death. Do not, like the monster-monarch, amuse yourselves with performing the captivating tune of Liberia upon your new fangled fiddles, while your Rome is burning. Instead of spending our lives in cold debate, let us, like a band of brothers, rush to the rescue of the captive, and we must succeed. Or if we fail, it is consolatory to reflect, that in great attempts 'tis glorious e'en to fail. The emancipation of slaves cannot be brought about by the free states alone. The Southern states must unite with them. The influence of the Northern states, however, will be felt. The influence of public opinion, which is as broad and general as the casing air, will also in time be acknowledged. That public opinion is at once the parent and offspring of free discussion, of an untrammelled press,-and aided and sustained by these, it must finally prevail. Almost all that is necessary, in order to insure in the result total emancipation, is, as has been said, to admit that man is not mere property. This principle lies at the very root of the evil complained of, and yet its proof neither requires, nor admits of argument; and to attempt any would be disgraceful, and almost impious. To deny it is to relinquish the charter of our own liberty. And yet our adversaries would, at least, practically affect to deny it. The slave has no civil rights. He cannot marry; the partner of his bosom, therefore, is a concubine. His children have no inheritable blood,-in technical language they are nullius filius ; and what is worse, they are the property of the master. The slave can acquire no estate, real or personal. His acquisitions are his master's. slave cannot testify: nor can slaves testify for him. Personal outrage, therefore, and even murder, may be committed, and are committed with impunity. Of course, as the sanctity of marriage is disregarded, all marital rights are despised. Amalgamation and procreation are rendered sources of profit and traffic. Education is expressly forbidden. Religious improvement is discountenanced, as at variance with the exercise of the will of the master. And yet with all these enormities existing in the very heart of our glorious republic, the merciful and bountiful Creator still lavishes his blessings upon us. man? The The rain still descends upon the evil and the good, the just and the unjust. But how long, O! my fellow citizens, shall these evils be endured? How long shall the thunders of Omnipotence be stayed? How long shall retribution be suspended? Shall we presume upon the forbearance of the Almighty? Shall we provoke the red right arm of vengeance? Is this the requital for our own deliverance from a foreign yoke? Is this the redemption of our own national pledge for the freedom and equality of Benefits are not always blessings, however: afflictions are not always curses, though they may sometimes appear so in the views of finite man. Blessings unmerited are but a reproach to their possessor. Afflictions undeserved lose half their poignancy in the consciousness of virtue. and nations are only supremely wretched, when the punishments they endure are the just reward of their transgression; when they have sinned against light and love; when by their own examples they have taught bloody instruction, which, being taught, returns to plague the monitor. Then, then, it is, that like the rebel angels, they behold "Still in the lowest deep A lower deep, that threatening to devour them, Men Justice must have sway. It is, I say, with nations, as it is with men. Truth must prevail. This nation is the nation of my birth and affection: but she has a fearful score to settle for her national iniquities. A score which should terrify into reform and repentance, while she contemplates the fate of ancient states that have flourished and perished. The oppression of the Africans, the persecution of the Indians, the violation of her pledges, the contempt of her treaties, the substitution of power for right, the utter disregard of those virtues which alike sustain men and governments: all these may be prosperous for a time, but if there be an all-wise and alljust Power, and who dare doubt it,-they must not, and they cannot come to good. I regret even incidentally to institute, in this respect, a comparison between our beloved country and the nations of Europe. Look at Great Britain, the queen of nations. Surpassing all Greek and all Roman fame; triumphing over intestine divisions and foreign foes ;-cemented, united, and per petuated by an existence of nearly one thousand years. What a glorious spectacle does she exhibit to an admiring world, by her devotion to freedom; not to her own freedom alone, but to that of mankind. In comparison with this great object, her hundreds of millions are but dust in the balance. Justice is a much surer foundation for national prosperity, than wealth. That which is unquestionably right, and which no man can deny, she resolves shall be expedient, and accordingly performs. Who can doubt. the result, if there be reliance on Heaven. If the sacred rights of man be dear in the sight of his Creator, the performance of a lofty, moral, and religious duty, like this, might almost make atonement for centuries of national crime. But not to look to the settlement upon the book of eternal life, how stands the account upon the ledger of this world? Place the hundred millions on the debit, and the thousands of liberated and grateful slaves to the credit of this great people,—and the balance in their favor, is an immortality of fame, and an eternity of hope. How is it, alas! with us? We not only withhold our treasures from a similar philanthropic scheme, we not only withhold our approbation from it,-but we daily make laws against, we impede and resist it in every aspect it presents. We forbid its discussion; we punish and destroy its advocates; and while we admit it to be a curse, we hug it to our bosoms, and console ourselves for these absurdities by proclaiming liberty to all! and vaunting that we are the only enlightened republic upon the habitable globe. Admirable consistency! Unparalleled humanity! We are told, however, that true as all this may be, Great Britain is entitled to less praise, at least for her magnanimity, and we should be liable to less censure, as slavery was introduced into this country, originally, by England herself. If unwillingly continued, this looks like an excuse. The British system of taxation was also introduced:-did we submit to it, or have we imitated it? We were able to break our own fetters, but we are unable or unwilling to break the fetters of others. We justify our vices by those of the mother country, while we refuse to emulate her virtues in the liberation of our victims. Reformation from sin is more glorious than never to have fallen; because it is easier to avoid guilt, than relieve ourselves from its toils; the honor is therefore proportioned to the difficulties encountered. Great Britain has sullied her national fame, it is true; but years of practical penitence have burnished her escutcheon, and tears of gratitude from those whom she has emancipated and relieved, have washed away the odium that stained and disgraced her history. She has made her atonement,-where is ours? If the curse of slavery were no greater than it proves to the slaveholders themselves, it were well to abolish it. If it were no greater than to produce the heart-burning and bickering which we daily witness, it would be well to abolish it. We are but one family, locally divided, but still allied by blood. Our brethren ask us why we interfere; and say they have a right to do as they please with their own. They have no such right. This is not a con federation of sovereign states. The states have a separate government, as the stars have a separate government, but they are all tributary to the great plan of the Creator; and so is it within the several states. Every man has the absolute right to his own house, but he has no right by setting fire to it, to subject the adjoining property of his neighbors to loss or to peril; and he is liable to be punished for so doing. The law gives them the right, as they say, to hold their slaves. But when it is obvious that, as the result of this privilege, the entire Union is subjected in the result to probable injury, it becomes a matter of deep concernment to us, as well as to them. And we should be wanting in duty to ourselves and brethren, did we not endeavor to avert it, by endeavoring to convince them of the impolicy of its continuance. We are told, however, this must not be. We are enthusiasts, and must not be allowed to breathe an objection against their anointed and prescriptive right. They say we are enthusiasts,-fanatics is the favorite word. What is an enthusiast? One elevated in fancy and exalted in ideas; affected by religious frenzy: we cannot either confess or retort the charge. Are we mad, because we say slavery is an evil? They admit it, and prove it daily, by their ill-disguised fears. Are we mad, because we say it should be abolished without delay? Then were Burke and Sheridan, Pitt and Fox, and Wilberforce, and all the eminent statesmen for the last century, mad-for they have proclaimed the same thing. Are we mad when we speak with indignation of the wanton imprisonment of Crandall, and the murder of Lovejoy, in terms of unmitigated horror and detestation? An impartial world joins in the sentiment, and justice and posterity will ratify it. Are we mad, when we express our determination to assemble upon our own soil and express our opinions freely, under our constitutional right, in respect to this or any other national evil. We do not threaten secession from the South, if they do not conform to our views. We do not attempt intimidating them with nullification, if they refuse to conform to our views. We do not instruct or authorize our representatives to bluster or bully them into our measures. We pursue the even and direct tenor of our way, to the great object of emancipation,―unseduced by blandishments, and undismayed by threats. We are not opposed to our Southern brethren; we desire to serve and to aid them, we desire to agree with them, but, like spoiled children, they will have the rattle, let it cost what it may; and the more we reason with them, the more they are inflamed in their desire. Fanaticism! Were our forefathers fanatics when they declared all men equally free and independent? Was Washington a fool or a fanatic, when, on his dying bed, he declared all his slaves free ? Was Jefferson a fanatic when he exclaimed, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep for ever; that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by supernatural interference. The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest?" Were the parliament of Great Britain fanatical, when they appropriated twenty million pounds sterling to the liberation of the slaves in their dependencies, and secured to themselves imperishable national glory at the expense of their treasury? If these be fanatics, how glorious is fanaticism! All reform, all improvements, have ever been thus encountered,-have ever been thus exposed and assailed. When the question is between fanaticism and impiety, we should not long hesitate which to choose. Look to the origin and course of Christianity,look to its bright dawning over a benighted world-look to its glorious struggles through seas of blood-look to its unearthly Founder, and its sainted martyrs,-what were they all? The world proclaimed them all to be fanatics, enthusiasts, incendiaries, traitors. As such they were buffeted, reproached, and reviled, condemned and crucified. It is the slang of this, as it was of that day. The very men who use it, attach no definite notion to it. It is a term of reproach-a term adopted to raise a sort of hue and cry against principles which can rationally neither be disputed nor resisted. Was Crandall a fanatic, because bad men consigned him for months to prison, without an offence? Was his sister a fanatic, because she deemed it her duty to impart instruction to her colored fellow-creatures? Were the courts and juries fanatics, by whom after long suffering, they were acquitted and |