n the time of my recollection,[233] seems not to have
attracted the slightest attention out of the limits of the slaveholding
States themselves. If truth, reason, and conclusive argument, propounded
with admirable temper and perfect candor, might be supposed to have an
effect on the minds of men, we should think this work would have put an
end to agitation on the subject. The author has rendered inappreciable
service to the South in enlightening them on the subject of their own
institutions, and turning back that monstrous tide of folly and madness
which, if it had rolled on, would have involved his own great State
along with the rest of the slaveholding States in a common ruin. But
beyond these, he seems to have produced no effect whatever. The
denouncers of slavery, with whose production the press groans, seems to
be unaware of his existence--unaware that there is a reason to be
encountered or argument to be answered. They assume that the truth is
known and settled, and only requires to be enforced by denunciation.

Another vindicator of the South has appeared in an individual who is
among those that have done honor to American literature.[234] With
conclusive argument, and great force of expression, he has defended
slavery from the charge of injustice or immorality, and shown clearly
the unspeakable cruelty and mischief which must result from any scheme
of abolition. He does not live among slaveholders, and it can not be
said of him, as of others, that his mind is warped by interest, or his
moral sense blunted by habit and familiarity with abuse. These
circumstances, it might be supposed, would have secured him hearing and
consideration. He seems to be equally unheeded, and the work of
denunciation, disdaining argument, still goes on.

President Dew has shown that the institution of slavery is a principal
cause of civilization. Perhaps nothing can be more evident than that it
is the sole cause. If any thing can be predicated as universally true of
uncultivated man, it is that he will not labor beyond what is absolutely
necessary to maintain his existence. Labor is pain to those who are
unaccustomed to it, and the nature of man is averse to pain. Even with
all the training, the helps, and motives of civilization, we find that
this aversion can not be overcome in many individuals of the most
cultivated societies. The coercion of slavery alone is adequate to form
man to habits of labor. Without it, there can be no accum