every throb of his life, in every glance of his eye, in the breeze that
soothes, and in the thunder that startles, would be waked up an accuser,
whose cause is, "Thou art, verily, guilty concerning thy brother."

THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. Extracts from a Lecture before Various
Anti-Slavery Bodies, in the Winter of 1855.

A grand movement on the part of mankind, in any direction, or for any
purpose, moral or political, is an interesting fact, fit and proper to
be studied. It is such, not only for those who eagerly participate in
it, but also for those who stand aloof from it--even for those by whom
it is opposed. I take the anti-slavery movement to be such an one, and
a movement as sublime and glorious in its character, as it is holy and
beneficent in the ends it aims to accomplish. At this moment, I deem it
safe to say, it is properly engrossing more minds in this country than
any other subject now before the American people. The late John C.
Calhoun--one of the mightiest men that ever stood up in the American
senate--did not deem it beneath him; and he probably studied it as
deeply, though not as honestly, as Gerrit Smith, or William Lloyd
Garrison. He evinced the greatest familiarity with the subject; and the
greatest efforts of his last years in the senate had direct reference
to this movement. His eagle eye watched every new development connected
with it; and he was ever prompt to inform the south of every important
step in its progress. He never allowed himself to make light of it; but
always spoke of it and treated it as a matter of grave import; and in
this he showed himself a master of the mental, moral, and religious
constitution of human society. Daniel Webster, too, in the better days
of his life, before he gave his assent to the fugitive slave bill, and
trampled upon all his earlier and better convictions--when his eye was
yet single--he clearly comprehended the nature of the elements involved
in this movement; and in his own majestic eloquence, warned the south,
and the country, to have a care how they attempted to put it down. He is
an illustration that it is easier to give, than to take, good advice.
To these two men--the greatest men to whom the nation has yet given
birth--may be traced the two great facts of the present--the south
triumphant, and the north humbled.{364} Their names may stand
thus--Calhoun and domination--Webster and degradation. Yet again. If
to the enemies of liberty this su