THE PRESENT ASPECT OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA, AND THE IMMEDIATE DUTY OF THE NORTH.
A SPEECH
DELIVERED IN THE HALL OF THE STATE HOUSE, BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1858.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:— I shall not hold you long to-night. There are others to speak after me who have better claims to your attention—the one (Mr. Remond) for his race, the other (Mr. Phillips) for the personal attributes of eloquence which, in America, have never reached a higher height, or exhibited themselves in so fair a form. The hand of the dial shall pass round once, and I leave this spot, to be filled more worthily. During these sixty minutes, I ask your attention to some thoughts on the "Present Aspect of Slavery in America, and the immediate Duty of the North."
Mr. Guizot—one of the most learned and humane of the European statesmen—prefaced one edition of his History of Representative Government, by stating that the conditions of national welfare were far more difficult than the too sanguine hopes of mankind had ever led them to expect. If that were so m Europe, where centuries of bitter experience have taught men to be cautious in their hopes, how much truer it is in America, where we think liberty is so natural to the soil and congenial to man, that it needs no support from the people, but will thrive of its own sweet accord!
In some respects, our experiment is simpler than the great attempts at freedom made before us in the Old World; in some others it is more complex and difficult. All the old
