These sympathies,
thus called into existence, have been useful in the preservation of a
national virtue. For any thing we know, they may have contributed greatly
to form a counteracting balance against the malignant spirit, generated by
our almost incessant wars during this period, so as to have preserved us
from barbarism.

It has been useful also in the discrimination of moral character. In
private life it has enabled us to distinguish the virtuous from the more
vicious part of the community[A]. It has shown the general philanthropist.
It has unmasked the vicious in spite of his pretension to virtue. It has
afforded us the same knowledge in public life. It has separated the moral
statesman from the wicked politician. It has shown us who, in the
legislative and executive offices of our country are fit to save, and who
to destroy, a nation.

[Footnote A: I have had occasion to know many thousand persons in the
course of my travels on this subject; and I can truly say, that the part,
which these took on this great question, was always a true criterion of
their moral character. Some indeed opposed the abolition, who seemed to be
so respectable, that it was difficult to account for their conduct; but it
invariably turned out in a course of time, either that they had been
influenced by interested motives, or that they were not men of steady moral
principle. In the year 1792, when the national enthusiasm was so great, the
good were as distinguishable from the bad, according to their disposition
to this great cause, as if the divine Being had marked them; or, as a
friend of mine the other day observed, as we may suppose the sheep to be
from the goats on the day of judgment.]

It has furnished us also with important lessons. It has proved what a
creature man is! how devoted he is to his own interest! to what a length of
atrocity he can go, unless fortified by religious principle! But as if this
part of the prospect would be too afflicting, it has proved to us, on the
other hand, what a glorious instrument he may become in the hands of his
Maker; and that a little virtue, when properly leavened, is made capable of
counteracting the effects of a mass of vice!

With respect to the end obtained by this contest, or the great measure of
the abolition of the Slave-trade as it has now passed, I know not how to
appreciate its importance. To our own country, indeed, it is invaluable. We
have lived, in consequence of it, to see the d