ay, probably seven hundred thousand of human beings
were rescued from bondage to full, unqualified freedom. The
consciousness of wrongs, in so many breasts, was exchanged into
rapturous, grateful joy. What shouts of thanksgiving broke forth from
those liberated crowds! What new sanctity and strength were added to the
domestic ties! What new hopes opened on future generations! The crowning
glory of this day was the fact that the work of emancipation was wholly
due to the principles of Christianity. The West Indies were freed, not
by force, or human policy, but by the reverence of a great people for
justice and humanity. The men who began and carried on this cause were
Christian philanthropists; and they prevailed by spreading their own
spirit through a nation. In this respect, the emancipation of the West
Indies was a grander work than the redemption of the Israelites from
bondage. This was accomplished by force, by outward miracles, by the
violence of the elements. That was achieved by love, by moral power, by
God, working, not in the stormy seas, but in the depths of the human
heart. And how was this day of emancipation--one of the most blessed
days that ever dawned upon the earth--received in this country? While in
distant England a thrill of gratitude and joy pervaded thousands and
millions, we, the neighbors of the West Indies, and who boast of our
love of liberty, saw the sun of that day rise and set with hardly a
thought of the scenes on which it was pouring its joyful light. The
greater part of our newspapers did not refer to the event. The great
majority of the people had forgotten it. Such was the testimony we gave
to our concern for the poor slave; and is it from discussions of slavery
among such a people that the country is to be overturned?"

Such were the glowing expectations of the abolitionists. It now remains
to be seen whether they were true prophets, or merely "blind leaders of
the blind." Be that as it may, for the present we cannot agree with Dr.
Channing, that the good people of the free States were insincere in
boasting of their "love of liberty," because they did not go into
raptures over so fearful an experiment before they had some little time
to see how it would work. They did, no doubt, most truly and profoundly
love liberty. But then they had some reason to suspect, perhaps, that
liberty may be one thing, and abolitionism quite another. Liberty, they
knew, was a thing of light and love; but as