a. There
were present, also, delegates from Georgia, and I believe from other
States. It was a meeting of the association for the improvement, moral
and religious, of the slave population. The venerable Judge Huger
presided. Having been appointed to address that large and noble
audience, I did not hesitate to speak my whole mind: appealing to
masters to imitate the Antonines and other magnanimous Roman Emperors,
to become the guardians of their slaves, to have laws enacted protecting
them in their relations as husbands and wives and parents; to recognize
the rights which the Gospel asserts for servants as well as masters. In
a word, I pressed upon them the solemn obligations which their power
over these human beings imposed upon them--obligations only the more
sacred, because their power was so irresponsible.

"That august assembly not only honored me with their attention, but
expressed their approval, the presiding officer concurring most
emphatically in the views submitted.

"I need scarcely tell you that no such address would be regarded as wise
or prudent at this time. It is not that masters are less engaged in
seeking to promote the moral and religious well-being of their servants;
but measures which once could have been adopted most beneficially would
now only expose master and servant to the baneful influence of fanatical
intermeddling.

"If any thing is certain, it is that the Gospel does not recognise
hatred, abuse, violence and blood as the means by which good is to be
done. The Gospel is a system of love. It assails no established social
relations, but it infuses love into the hearts of those who are bound
together, and thus unites them in affection."

Again he says:

"I think I speak accurately when I say, that hitherto every sacrifice
for the emancipation of slaves has been made by Southern men; and many
hundred thousand dollars have been expended in such liberations. The
North has wasted large sums for abolition books and lectures; for
addresses calculated to inflame the imaginations of women and children,
and to mislead multitudes of men--most excellent and pious--but utterly
ignorant as to the condition of things at the South. We now find,
indeed, that money has been contributed even for the purchase of deadly
weapons to be employed against the South, and to enlist the most
ferocious passions in secret crusades, compared with which an open
invasion by foreign enemies would be a blessing. I believe,