regarded slavery in America.

* * * * *

It was a system of which it may be truly said, that it was twice
cursed. It cursed him who served, and it cursed him that owned
the slave. (Hear, hear.) When we recollect the insuperable
temptations which that system held out to maintain in a state of
degradation and ignorance a whole race of mankind; the horrors
of the internal slave-trade, more widely demoralizing, in my
opinion, than the foreign slave-trade itself; the violence which
was done to the sanctities of domestic life; the corrupting
effect which it was having upon the very churches of
Christianity, when we recollect all these things, we can fully
estimate the evil from which my distinguished friend and his
coadjutors have at last redeemed their country. (Cheers.) It was
not only the Slave states which were concerned in the guilt of
slavery; it had struck its roots deep in the free States of
North America. * * *

We honor Mr. Garrison, in the first place, for the immense pluck
and courage he displayed. (Cheers.) Sir, you have truly said
that there is no comparison between the contests in which he had
to fight and the most bitter contests of our own public life. In
looking back, no doubt, to the contest which was maintained in
this country some thirty-five years ago against slavery in our
colonies, we may recollect that Clarkson and Wilberforce were
denounced as fanatics, and had to encounter much opprobrium; but
it must not be forgotten that, so far as regards the entwining
of the roots of slavery into the social system, in the opinions
and interests of mankind, there was no comparison whatever
between the circumstances of that contest here and those which
attended it in America. (Hear, hear.) The number of persons who
in this country were enlisted on the side of slavery by personal
interest was always comparatively few; whilst, in attacking
slavery at its head-quarters in the United States, Mr. Garrison
had to encounter the fiercest passions which could be roused. *
* * *

Thank God, Mr. Garrison appears before us as the representative
of the United States; freedom is now the policy of the
government and the assured policy of the country, and we can
to-day accept and welcome Mr. Garrison, not merely as the
liberator