devil up to “the top of their bent,” will carry them to the paradise above, to revel in eternal enjoyments there.
There are hundreds of abolitionists—I quote their own language—who are so benevolent, that they could see every slave owner butchered in cold blood by his slaves, his family ruined and beggared, and the entire south turned into a waste howling wilderness. And the parliament of England was so benevolent of late as to wring twenty millions sterling from her oppressed, starving and over-wrought population at home, to emancipate her slaves in the West Indies, which slaves labored less, and were better fed, clothed and lodged, than half the operatives of England; by which their masters were ruined, the condition of the slaves made rather worse; and the poor laborer of England must work harder, eat less, and sleep less, in order to raise those 20,000,000, by which nobody was benefited but the agents who managed this ridiculous farce. This is benevolence with a vengeance.
Time would fail me in noticing all such benevolent transactions of this age. The age of humbugs would be a more appropriate designation.
There are other features in the question of slavery that are of great importance, on which I have not touched, as they belong rather to the statesman and political economist than the divine and moralist. We have considered the question only in its moral, legal and constitutional bearing, and found ourselves sustained by the truth of God, the laws and constitution of our country. Emancipation would be the ruin of the South, and the ruin of the South would involve the ruin of the North: and the abolitionists would be ruined by the consummation of their wishes. But I apprehend no such an event. Any one who has watched the movements of the age, must have discovered that one excitement, whether political or religious, is soon run down by another. These are nothing more than “hobbies,” and be the ostensible objects what they may, political or religious, power and place are the goal for which the riders aim. But where there are so many riders, and all equally acquainted with the tricks of the turf, they jockey each other out of the course, and out of the purse: then another hobby (alias anti) of some kind, must be procured; and another race, another failure. This, to the philosophic and and close observer of human nature and human life, is cause of more amusement than alarm. For certainly it is cause of rejoicing and thanksgiving to see demagogues of any kind tripping up each other’s heels. And give me many demagogues, or give me none: one may destroy a country—many destroy each other.
In conclusion, let me urge upon you the necessity of ever viewing calmly and dispassionately all those agitating measures that distract our country. Never be led away by first appearances; nor let the magic words “benevolence, philanthropy and
