will yet own that he did a
true man's work in relighting the rapidly dying-out fire of true
republicanism in the American heart, and be ashamed of the treatment he
met at her hands. Coming generations in this country will applaud the
spirit of this much abused republican friend of freedom. There were
others of note seated on the platform, who would gladly ingraft upon
English institutions all that is purely republican in the institutions
of America. Nothing, therefore, must be set down against this speech
on the score that it was delivered in the presence of those who
cannot appreciate the many excellent things belonging to our system
of government, and with a view to stir up prejudice against republican
institutions.

Again, let it also be remembered--for it is the simple truth--that
neither in this speech, nor in any other which I delivered in England,
did I ever allow myself to address Englishmen as against Americans.
I took my stand on the high ground of human brotherhood, and spoke to
Englishmen as men, in behalf of men. Slavery is a crime, not against
Englishmen, but against God, and all the members of the human family;
and it belongs to the whole human family to seek its suppression. In a
letter to Mr. Greeley, of the New York Tribune, written while abroad, I
said:

I am, nevertheless aware that the wisdom of exposing the sins of one
nation in the ear of another, has been seriously questioned by good and
clear-sighted people, both on this and on your side of the Atlantic. And
the{294} thought is not without weight on my own mind. I am satisfied
that there are many evils which can be best removed by confining our
efforts to the immediate locality where such evils exist. This, however,
is by no means the case with the system of slavery. It is such a giant
sin--such a monstrous aggregation of iniquity--so hardening to the human
heart--so destructive to the moral sense, and so well calculated
to beget a character, in every one around it, favorable to its own
continuance,--that I feel not only at liberty, but abundantly justified,
in appealing to the whole world to aid in its removal.

But, even if I had--as has been often charged--labored to bring American
institutions generally into disrepute, and had not confined my labors
strictly within the limits of humanity and morality, I should not have
been without illustrious examples to support me. Driven into semi-exile
by civil and barbarous laws, and by a system