f
agitation by the abolitionists has proved signally unsuccessful. From
the beginning it created alarm in the considerate, and strengthened the
sympathies of the free States with the slaveholder. It made converts of
a few individuals, but alienated multitudes. Its influence at the South
has been evil without mixture.[262] It has stirred up bitter passions
and a fierce fanaticism, which have shut every ear and every heart
against its arguments and persuasions. These effects are the more to be
deplored, because the hope of freedom to the slaves lies chiefly in the
dispositions of his master. The abolitionist indeed proposed to convert
the slaveholders; and for this end he approached them with vituperation,
and exhausted on them the vocabulary of abuse! And he has reaped as he
sowed." p. 142.

Unmixed good or evil, however, in such a world as ours, is a very rare
thing. Though the course pursued by the abolitionists has produced a
great preponderance of mischief, it may incidentally occasion no little
good. It has rendered it incumbent on every man to endeavor to obtain,
and, as far as he can, to communicate definite opinions and correct
principles on the whole subject. The community are very apt to sink down
into indifference to a state of things of long continuance, and to
content themselves with vague impressions as to right and wrong on
important points, when there is no call for immediate action. From this
state the abolitionists have effectually roused the public mind. The
subject of slavery is no longer one on which men are allowed to be of no
mind at all. The question is brought up before all of our public bodies,
civil and religious. Almost every ecclesiastical society has in some
way been called to express an opinion on the subject; and these calls
are constantly repeated. Under these circumstances, it is the duty of
all in their appropriate sphere, to seek for truth, and to utter it in
love.

"The first question," says Dr. Channing, "to be proposed by a rational
being, is not what is profitable, but what is right. Duty must be
primary, prominent, most conspicuous, among the objects of human thought
and pursuit. If we cast it down from its supremacy, if we inquire first
for our interests and then for our duties we shall certainly err. We can
never see the right clearly and fully, but by making it our first
concern. . . . Right is the supreme good, and includes all other goods.
In seeking and adhering to it, we