d upon
the colonies by the arbitrary and despotic rule of Great Britain, and
that, too, against the earnest remonstrances of our ancestors. The thing
has been done. The past is beyond our control. It is fixed and
unalterable. The only inquiry which remains for us now is, whether the
slavery which was thus forced upon our ancestors shall be continued, or
whether it shall be abolished? The question is not what Virginia, or
Kentucky, or any other slave State, _might_ have been, but what they
would be in case slavery were abolished. If abolitionists would speak to
the point, then let them show us some country in which slavery has been
abolished, and we will abide by the experiment. Fortunately for us, we
need not look far for such an experiment;--an experiment which has been
made, not upon mere chattels or brutes, but upon the social and moral
well-being of more than a million of human beings. We refer, of course,
to the emancipation of the slaves in the British colonies. This work, as
every one knows, was the great vaunted achievement of British
abolitionists. Here, then, we may see their philosophy--if philosophy it
may be called--"teaching by example." Here we may see and taste the
fruits of abolitionism, ere we conclude to grow them upon our own soil.

Sec. II. _Emancipation in the British Colonies._

It is scarcely in the power of human language to describe the
enthusiastic delight with which the abolitionists, both in England and
in America, were inspired by the spectacle of West India Emancipation.
We might easily adduce a hundred illustrations of the almost frantic joy
with which it intoxicated their brains. We shall, however, for the sake
of brevity, confine our attention to a single example,--which will, at
the same time, serve to show, not only how wild the abolitionist himself
was, but also how indignant he became that others were not equally
disposed to part with their sober senses. "The prevalent state of
feeling," said Dr. Channing in 1840, "in the free States in regard to
slavery is indifference--an indifference strengthened by the notion of
great difficulties attending the subject. The fact is painful, but the
truth should be spoken. The majority of the people, even yet, care
little about the matter. A painful proof of this insensibility was
furnished about a year and a half ago, when the English West Indies were
emancipated. An event surpassing this in moral grandeur is not recorded
in history. In one d