ch it is exceedingly
difficult for an honest mind to examine with calmness. Many who highly
respect his character and motives, regret his tendency to use wholesale
and unqualified expressions; but it is something to have the truth told,
even if it be not in the mildest way. Where an evil is powerfully
supported by the self-interest and prejudice of the community, none but
an ardent individual will venture to meddle with it. Luther was deemed
indiscreet even by those who liked him best; yet a more prudent man
would never have given an impetus sufficiently powerful to heave the
great mass of corruption under which the church was buried. Mr. Garrison
has certainly the merit of having first called public attention to a
neglected and very important subject.[AL] I believe whoever fairly and
dispassionately examines the question, will be more than disposed to
forgive the occasional faults of an ardent temperament, in consideration
of the difficulty of the undertaking, and the violence with which it has
been opposed.

[Footnote AL: This remark is not intended to indicate want of respect
for the early exertions of the Friends, in their numerous manumission
societies; or for the efforts of that staunch, fearless, self-sacrificing
friend of freedom--Benjamin Lundy; but Mr. Garrison was the first that
boldly attacked slavery as a sin, and Colonization as its twin sister.]

The palliator of slavery assures the abolitionists that their
benevolence is perfectly quixotic--that the negroes are happy and
contented, and have no desire to change their lot. An answer to this
may, as I have already said, be found in the Judicial Reports of
slaveholding States, in the vigilance of their laws, in advertisements
for runaway slaves, and in the details of their own newspapers. The West
India planters make the same protestations concerning the happiness of
their slaves; yet the cruelties proved by undoubted and unanswerable
testimony are enough to sicken the heart. It is said that slavery is
a great deal worse in the West Indies than in the United States; but I
believe precisely the reverse of this proposition has been true within
late years; for the English government have been earnestly trying to
atone for their guilt, by the introduction of laws expressly framed to
guard the weak and defenceless. A gentleman who has been a great deal
among the planters of both countries, and who is by no means favorable
to anti-slavery, gives it as his decided