dopted indolently
and without thought. It is a great crime to doom millions of our
race to brutal degradation, on the ground of unreasonable fears. The
power of public opinion is here irresistible, and to this power
every man contributes something; so that every man, by his spirit
and language, helps to loosen or rivet the chains of the slave."

* * * * *

The following sentiments are expressed by GOVERNOR EVERETT, of
Massachusetts, in a letter to EDMUND QUINCY, Esq., dated

"Boston, April 29, 1838.

DEAR SIR,--I have your favor of the 21st, accompanied with the
volume containing the account of the tour of Messrs. Thome and
Kimball in the West Indies, for which you will be pleased to accept
my thanks. I have perused this highly interesting narrative with the
greatest satisfaction. From the moment of the passage of the law,
making provision for the immediate or prospective abolition of
slavery in the British colonial possessions, I have looked with the
deepest solicitude for tidings of its operation. The success of the
measure, as it seemed to me, would afford a better hope than had
before existed, that a like blessing might be enjoyed by those
portions of the United States where slavery prevails. The only
ground on which I had been accustomed to hear the continuance of
slavery defended at the South, was that of necessity, and the
impossibility of abolishing it without producing consequences of the
most disastrous character to both parties. The passage of a law
providing for the emancipation of nearly a million of slaves in the
British colonies, seemed to afford full opportunity of bringing this
momentous question to the decisive test of experience. _If the
result proved satisfactory, I have never doubted that it would seal
the fate of slavery throughout the civilised world_. As far as the
observations of Messrs. Thome and Kimball extended, the result is of
the most gratifying character. It appears to place beyond a doubt,
that the experiment of immediate emancipation, adopted by the
colonial Legislature of Antigua, has fully succeeded in that island;
and the plan of apprenticeship in other portions of the West Indies,
as well as could have been expected from the obvious inherent vices
of that measure. _It has given me new views of the practicability of