ill, that the
brethren for whose sake you are asked to make this sacrifice are weak
brethren, and their consciences weak. Your obligation to make it is none
the less on that account; for the principle just adverted to
contemplates cases of this very sort. Since the practice which grieves
these weak brethren is one that you can probably abandon without
wounding your own conscience, are you at liberty to undervalue their
conscience by persisting in that which grieves them?

But how much weightier does this argument become, when it is remembered
that the opposers of slavery, besides being exceedingly numerous, have,
many of them, been eminent,--not merely for a conscientious piety, but
for talent, for research, for scholarship, for broad and comprehensive
views of things;--and that the list embraces distinguished southern, as
well as northern men; and men of celebrity in both church and state.
There have been found in the anti-slavery ranks, presidents and noble
men, jurists and legislators, statesmen and divines, scholars and
authors, poets and orators. And, still further to enhance the dignity of
the cause, it should be remembered that several General Assemblies of
the Presbyterian Church of the United States, together with numerous
lesser ecclesiastical bodies, have lifted up their voice in opposition
to slavery, and proclaimed substantially the same views which this
humble Essay has aimed to exhibit. Now if, as we have seen, a
deferential regard should be had to the conscience of aggrieved
Christian brethren, even when they are few and feeble-minded, how much
more, when the aggrieved ones are counted in hundreds of thousands? when
theirs is an intelligent piety and an enlightened conscience? and when,
too, their remonstrance is backed up by a public sentiment that is
wellnigh unanimous through all christendom?

If now, in spite of all these considerations, I still have readers that
say in their hearts, slavery must be perpetuated, they will pardon me
for lingering no longer in the hope of changing their views. I would be
indulged, however, in one parting interrogation. Has it never occurred
to you, brethren, that yours is, on some accounts, a very unfavorable
stand-point from which to form just and disinterested views of slavery;
and that your very position as slave-holders, and your long familiarity
with the system and its evils, may have blinded you to the magnitude of
those evils, and to the great desirableness of