no
affinity with each other, and which cannot permanently exist together.
They chain the living and vigorous to the diseased and dying; and the
former will assuredly perish in the infected neighborhood.

The universal introduction of free labor is the surest way to
consolidate the Union, and enable us to live together in harmony and
peace. If a history is ever written entitled "The Decay and Dissolution
of the North American Republic," its author will distinctly trace our
downfall to the existence of slavery among us.

There is hardly any thing bad, in politics or religion, that has not
been sanctioned or tolerated by a suffering community, because certain
powerful individuals were able to identify the evil with some other
principle long consecrated to the hearts and consciences of men.

Under all circumstances, there is but one honest course; and that is to
do right, and trust the consequences to Divine Providence. "Duties are
ours; events are God's." Policy, with all her cunning, can devise no
rule so safe, salutary, and effective, as this simple maxim.

We cannot too cautiously examine arguments and excuses brought forward
by those whose interest or convenience is connected with keeping their
fellow-creatures in a state of ignorance and brutality; and such we
shall find in abundance, at the North as well as the South. I have heard
the abolition of slavery condemned on the ground that New-England
vessels would not be employed to export the produce of the South, if
they had free laborers of their own. This objection is so utterly bad
in its spirit, that it hardly deserves an answer. Assuredly it is a
righteous plan to retard the progress of liberal principles, and "keep
human nature for ever in the stocks," that some individuals may make a
few hundred dollars more per annum! Besides the experience of the world
abundantly proves that all such forced expedients are unwise. The
increased prosperity of one country, or of one section of a country,
always contributes, in some form or other, to the prosperity of other
states. To "love our neighbor as ourselves," is, after all, the
shrewdest way of doing business.

In England, the abolition of the _traffic_ was long and stoutly
resisted, in the same spirit, and by the same arguments, that
characterize the defence of the _system_ here; but it would now be
difficult to find a man so reckless, that he would not be ashamed of
being called a slave-dealer. Public opinion has n