YSTEM OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY SHALL STAND. The fate of the Union,
then--but, thank God, not of republican government--rests mainly in the
hands of the people to whom your letter is addressed--the "professing
Christians of the Northern States having no concern with slaveholding,"
and whom with incendiary zeal you are endeavoring to stir up to
strife--without which fanaticism can neither live, move, nor have any
being.

We have often been taunted for our sensitiveness in regard to the
discussion of slavery. Do not suppose it is because we have any doubts
of our rights, or scruples about asserting them. There was a time when
such doubts and scruples were entertained. Our ancestors opposed the
introduction of slaves into this country, and a feeling adverse to it
was handed down from them. The enthusiastic love of liberty fostered by
our Revolution strengthened this feeling. And before the commencement of
the abolition agitation here, it was the common sentiment that it was
desirable to get rid of slavery. Many thought it our duty to do so. When
that agitation arose, we were driven to a close examination of the
subject in all its bearings, and the result has been an _universal
conviction_ that in holding slaves we violate no law of God,--inflict no
injustice on any of his creatures--while the terrible consequences of
emancipation to all parties and the world at large, clearly revealed to
us, make us shudder at the bare thought of it. The slaveholders are,
therefore, indebted to the abolitionists for perfect ease of conscience,
and the satisfaction of a settled and unanimous determination in
reference to this matter. And could their agitation cease now, I
believe, after all, the good would preponderate over the evil of it in
this country. On the contrary, however, it is urged on with frantic
violence, and the abolitionists, reasoning in the abstract, as if it
were a mere moral or metaphysical speculation, or a minor question in
politics, profess to be surprised at our exasperation. In their
ignorance and recklessness, they seem to be unable to comprehend our
feelings or position. The subversion of our rights, the destruction of
our property, the disturbance of our peace and the peace of the world,
are matters which do not appear to arrest their consideration. When
revolutionary France proclaimed "hatred to kings and unity to the
republic," and inscribed on her banners "France risen against tyrants,"
she professed to be only worsh