equiring a sacrifice
of all the rules of propriety, and as seeking an overthrow of the
established laws of nature! I have been thrust into prison, and amerced
in a heavy fine. Epithets, huge and unseemly, have been showered upon me
without mercy. I have been branded as a fanatic, a madman, a disturber
of the peace, an incendiary, a cutthroat, a monster, &c. &c. &c.
Assassination has been threatened me in a multitude of anonymous
letters. Private and public rewards to a very large amount, by
combinations of individuals and by legislative bodies at the south, have
been offered to any persons who shall abduct or destroy me. 'Yea, mine
own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath
lifted up his heel against me.' This malignity of opposition and
proximity of danger, however, are like oil to the fire of my zeal. I am
not deliriously enthusiastic--I do not covet to be a martyr; but I had
rather die a thousand deaths, than witness the horrible oppression under
which more than two millions of my countrymen groan, _and be silent_. No
reproaches, no dangers shall deter me. At the north or the south, at the
east or the west,--wherever Providence may call me,--my voice shall be
heard in behalf of the perishing slave, and against the claims of his
oppressor. Mine is the frank avowal of the excellent WILBERFORCE:--I can
admit of no compromise when the commands of equity and philanthropy are
so imperious. I wash my hands of the blood that may be spilled. I
protest against the system, as the most flagrant violation of every
principle of justice and humanity. I NEVER WILL DESERT THE CAUSE. In my
task it is impossible to tire: it fills my mind with complacency and
peace. At night I lie down with composure, and rise to it in the morning
with alacrity. I NEVER WILL DESIST FROM THIS BLESSED WORK.

Now that the concentrated execration of the civilized world is poured
upon those who engage in the foreign slave trade, how mild and
inefficient, comparatively speaking, seem to have been the rebukes of
Pitt, and Fox, and Wilberforce, and Clarkson! Yet these rebukes were
once deemed fanatical and outrageous by good men--yea, like flames of
fire, threatening a universal conflagration! So the denunciations which
I am now hurling against slavery and its abettors,--which seem to many
so violent and unmerited,--will be considered moderate, pertinent and
just, when this murderous, soul-destroying system shall have been
overthrow