sixty years since, and continually placing this great
question in points of view, which could scarcely occur to the most
consummate intellect even a quarter of a century ago: and which may not
have occurred yet to those whose previous convictions, prejudices, and
habits of thought, have thoroughly and permanently biased them to one
fixed way of looking at the matter: while there are peculiarities in the
operation of every social system, and special local as well as moral
causes materially affecting it, which no one, placed at the distance you
are from us, can fully comprehend or properly appreciate. Besides, it
may be possibly, a novelty to you to encounter one who conscientiously
believes the domestic slavery of these States to be not only an
inexorable necessity for the present, but a moral and humane
institution, productive of the greatest political and social advantages,
and who is disposed, as I am, to defend it on these grounds.

I do not propose, however, to defend the African slave trade. That is no
longer a question. Doubtless great evils arise from it as it has been,
and is now conducted: unnecessary wars and cruel kidnapping in Africa:
the most shocking barbarities in the middle passage: and perhaps a less
humane system of slavery in countries continually supplied with fresh
laborers at a cheap rate. The evils of it, however, it may be fairly
presumed, are greatly exaggerated. And if I might judge of the truth of
transactions stated as occurring in this trade, by that of those
reported as transpiring among us, I should not hesitate to say, that a
large proportion of the stories in circulation are unfounded, and most
of the remainder highly colored.

On the passage of the Act of Parliament prohibiting this trade to
British subjects rests, what you esteem, the glory of your life. It
required twenty years of arduous agitation, and the intervening
extraordinary political events, to convince your countrymen, and among
the rest your pious king, of the expediency of the measure: and it is
but just to say, that no one individual rendered more esessential
service to the cause than you did. In reflecting on the subject, you can
not but often ask yourself: What, after all, has been accomplished; how
much human suffering has been averted; how many human beings have been
rescued from transatlantic slavery? And on the answers you can give
these questions, must in a great measure, I presume, depend the
happiness of your l