, your
collection is the most extensive in existence. But as to the _truth_ in
regard to slavery, there is not an adult in this region but knows more
of it than you do. _Truth_ and _fact_ are, you are aware, by no means
synonymous terms. Ninety-nine facts may constitute a falsehood: the
hundredth, added or alone, gives the truth. With all your knowledge of
facts, I undertake to say that you are entirely and grossly ignorant of
the real condition of our slaves. And from all that I can see, you are
equally ignorant of the essential principles of human association
revealed in history, both sacred and profane, on which slavery rests,
and which will perpetuate it forever in some form or other. However you
may declaim against it; however powerfully you may array atrocious
incidents; whatever appeals you may make to the heated imaginations and
tender sensibilities of mankind, believe me, your total blindness to the
_whole truth_, which alone constitutes _the truth_, incapacitates you
from ever making an impression on the sober reason and sound common
sense of the world. You may seduce thousands--you can convince no one.
Whenever and wherever you or the advocates of your cause can arouse the
passions of the weak-minded and the ignorant, and bringing to bear with
them the interests of the vicious and unprincipled, overwhelm common
sense and reason--as God sometimes permits to be done--you may triumph.
Such a triumph we have witnessed in Great Britain. But I trust it is far
distant here; nor can it, from its nature, be extensive or enduring.
Other classes of reformers, animated by the same spirit as the
abolitionists, attack the institution of marriage, and even the
established relations of parent and child. And they collect instances of
barbarous cruelty and shocking degradation, which rival, if they do not
throw into the shade, your slavery statistics. But the rights of
marriage and parental authority rests upon truths as obvious as they are
unchangeable--coming home to every human being,--self-impressed forever
on the individual mind, and can not be shaken until the whole man is
corrupted, nor subverted until civilized society becomes a putrid mass.
Domestic slavery is not so universally understood, nor can it make such
a direct appeal to individuals or society beyond its pale. Here,
prejudice and passion have room to sport at the expense of others. They
may be excited and urged to dangerous action, remote from the victims
they