oot back to the soil whence it had been stolen;
now, the keels of many nations combined would scarce suffice to move the
rapid growth.

But, while at England's door lies the original guilt, America has since
put the solemn seal of her paternity upon it; every foot of land which,
in the rapid career of her aggrandisement, has been sullied with the
footsteps of the slave for the first time, mars the beauty of the cap
of liberty, and plants a slave-trader's star in the banner of the
nation. She is only doing a century later what we wickedly did a century
before--viz., planting slavery on a soil hitherto free, and enlarging
the market for the sale of flesh and blood. The futile excuse sometimes
offered, that they were merely moved from one part to another of the
same country, cannot be admitted; or, if it be, upon the same principle
all the Free States might return again to slavery. If it be no sin to
introduce slavery into a free Sovereign State, then was England not so
guilty in the first instance, for she sent slaves from a land of
ignorance, cruelty, and idolatry, to an enlightened and Christian
colony. It is in vain for either England or the United States to shirk
the guilty responsibility of introducing slaves on free soil. England
has the additional guilt of having acted against the wishes of the
colonists; the United States has the additional guilt of increasing
slave territory a century later, and when the philanthropists of every
country were busied in endeavours to solve the problem, "How can slavery
be abolished?"

Without dwelling further upon respective guilt, I will at once proceed
to review the crusades which have been made against the institution, and
the hopes of the slave under it; after which, I will offer for
consideration such proposals as appear to me worthy the attention of all
the true friends of the negro, whether owners or not. While thus
treating the subject, I beg to observe that I fully recognise each
individual State as possessing plenipotentiary powers within the limits
of that constitution by which they are all bound together: and I trust
that, in any observations I may make, no one expression will be so
misconstrued as to give offence; for I know full well the stupendous
difficulties with which the whole question is surrounded, and I feel it
is one which should be approached only in a true spirit of charity and
kindness towards the much-maligned gentlemen of the South.

I open the questi