to
do, our duty.

So far, however you distrust my philosophy, you will not doubt my
statements. That we have denounced and rebuked with unsparing fidelity
will not be denied. Have we not also addressed ourselves to that other
duty, of arguing our question thoroughly?--of using due discretion and
fair sagacity in endeavoring to promote our cause? Yes, we have. Every
statement we have made has been doubted. Every principle we have laid
down has been denied by overwhelming majorities against us. No one step
has ever been gained but by the most laborious research and the most
exhausting argument. And no question has ever, since Revolutionary days,
been so thoroughly investigated or argued here, as that of slavery. Of
that research and that argument, of the whole of it, the old-fashioned,
fanatical, crazy Garrisonian antislavery movement has been the author.
From this band of men has proceeded every important argument or idea
which has been broached on the antislavery question from 1830 to the
present time. I am well aware of the extent of the claim I make. I
recognize, as fully as any one can, the ability of the new laborers, the
eloquence and genius with which they have recommended this cause to the
nation, and flashed conviction home on the conscience of the community.
I do not mean, either, to assert that they have in every instance
borrowed from our treasury their facts and arguments. Left to
themselves, they would probably have looked up the one and originated
the other. As a matter of fact, however, they have generally made use
of the materials collected to their hands. * * * When once brought fully
into the struggle, they have found it necessary to adopt the same means,
to rely on the same arguments, to hold up the same men and the same
measures to public reprobation, with the same bold rebuke and unsparing
invective that we have used. All their conciliatory bearing, their
painstaking moderation, their constant and anxious endeavor to draw a
broad line between their camp and ours, have been thrown away. Just so
far as they have been effective laborers, they have found, as we have,
their hands against every man, and every man's hand against them. The
most experienced of them are ready to acknowledge that our plan has been
wise, our course efficient, and that our unpopularity is no fault of
ours, but flows necessarily and unavoidably from our position. "I should
suspect," says old Fuller, "that his preaching had no sa