public attention should never for a moment be withdrawn.

Such, in my opinion, is the condition of the world now. Carthage and
Rome had no place on earth together. Republican America and
all-overwhelming Russian absolutism cannot much longer subsist together
on earth. Russia active--America passive--there is an immense danger in
that fact; it is like the avalanche in the Alps, which the noise of a
bird's wing may move and thrust down with irresistible force, growing
every moment. I cannot but believe it were highly time to do as old Cato
did, and finish every speech with these words--"_However, the law of
nations should be maintained, and absolutism not permitted to become
omnipotent._"

It is however a consolation to me to know, that the _chief_
difficulty with which I have to contend,--viz. the overpowering
influence of domestic questions with you,--is neither lasting, nor in
any way an argument against the justice of our cause.

Another difficulty which I encounter is rather curious. Many a man has
told me that if I had only not fallen into the hands of
_abolitionists_ and _free soilers_, they would have supported
me; and had I landed somewhere in the South, instead of at New York, I
should have met quite different things from that quarter; but being
supported by the free-soilers, of course I must be opposed by the South.
On the other side, I received a letter, from which I beg leave to quote
a few lines:--

"You are silent on the subject of slavery. Surrounded as you have been
by slaveholders ever since you put your foot on English soil, if not
during your whole voyage from Constantinople, and ever since you have
been in this country surrounded by them, whose threats, promises, and
flattery made the stoutest hearts succumb, your position has put me in
mind of a scene described by the apostle of Jesus Christ, when the devil
took him up into a high mountain," &c.

Now, gentlemen, thus being charged from one side with being in the hands
of abolitionists, and from the other side with being in the hands of
slaveholders, I indeed am at a loss what course to take, if these very
contradictory charges were not giving me the satisfaction to feel that I
stand just where it is my duty to stand--on a truly American ground.

And oh, have I not enough upon these poor shoulders, that I am desired
yet to take up additional cares? If the cause I plead be just, if it is
worthy of your sympathy, and at the same time consistent wi