ked, has, in a great measure, been
thus outgrown in all the European states. The third estate, formerly
hardly recognized as having an existence, is becoming the controlling
power in most of those ancient communities. The gradual improvement of
the people rendered it impossible, and undesirable to deprive them of
their just share in the government. And it is precisely in those
countries where this improvement is most advanced that the feudal
institutions are the most completely obliterated, and the general
prosperity the greatest. In like manner the gospel method of
extinguishing slavery is by improving the condition of the slave. The
grand question is, How is this to be done? The abolitionist answers, by
immediate emancipation. Perhaps he is right, perhaps he is wrong; but
whether right or wrong, it is not the practical question for the North.
Among a community which have the power to emancipate, it would be
perfectly proper to urge that measure on the ground of its being the
best means of promoting the great object of the advancement of human
happiness and virtue. But the error of the abolitionists is, that they
urge this measure from the wrong quarter, and upon the wrong ground.
They insist upon immediate abolition because slavery is a sin, and its
extinction a duty. If, however, slaveholding is not in itself sinful,
its abolition is not necessarily a duty. The question of duty depends
upon the effects of the measure, about which men may honestly differ.
Those who believe that it would advance the general good, are bound to
promote it; while those who believe the reverse, are equally bound to
resist it. The abolitionists, by insisting upon one means of
improvement, and that on untenable ground, are most effectually working
against the adoption of any other means, by destroying the disposition
and power to employ them. It is in this way that the error to which we
have referred throughout this article, is operating most
disadvantageously for the cause of human liberty and happiness. The fact
is, that the great duty of the South is not emancipation; but
improvement.[273] The former is obligatory only as a means to an end,
and, therefore, only under circumstances where it would promote that
end. In like manner the great duty of despotic governments is not the
immediate granting of free institutions, but the constant and assiduous
cultivation of the best interests (knowledge, virtue, and happiness) of
the people. Where fre