in their operation, if not so well
understood, as the laws of physical influence,) the party "whose
conscience with injustice is oppressed," must become dispirited,
weakened in courage, and in the end unnerved and contemptible. On the
other hand, the sympathy that would be felt for the oppressed--the
comfort they would receive--the encouragement that would be given them
to assert their rights, would make it an impossibility, to keep them in
slavish peace and submission.

This state of things would be greatly aggravated by the peculiarly
morbid sensitiveness of the South to every thing that is supposed to
touch her _character_. Her highest distinction would then become her
most troublesome one. How, for instance, could her chivalrous sons bear
to be taunted, wherever they went, on business or for pleasure, out of
their own limits, with the cry "the knights of the lash!" "Go home and
pay your laborers!" "Cease from the scourging of husbands and wives in
each others presence--from attending the shambles, to sell or buy as
slaves those whom God has made of the same blood with yourselves--your
brethren--your sisters! Cease, high minded sons of the 'ANCIENT
DOMINION,' from estimating your revenue by the number of children you
rear, to sell in the flesh market!" "Go home and pay your laborers!" "Go
home and pay your laborers!" This would be a trial to which "southern
chivalry" could not patiently submit. Their "high honor," their
"undaunted spirit" would impel them to the field--only to prove that the
"last resort" requires something more substantial than mere "honor" and
"spirit" to maintain it. Suppose there should be a disagreement--as in
all likelihood there soon would, leading to war between the North and
the South? The North would scarcely have occasion to march a squadron to
the field. She would have an army that could be raised up by the
million, at the fireside of her enemy. It has been said, that during the
late war with England, it was proposed to her cabinet, by some
enterprising officers, to land five thousand men on the coast of South
Carolina and proclaim liberty to the slates. The success of the scheme
was well thought of. But then the example! England herself held nearly a
million of slaves at no greater distance from the scene of action than
the West Indies. _Now_, a restraint of this kind on such a scheme does
not exist.

It seems plain beyond the power of argument to make it plainer, that a
slaveholding