e moment, of an angel in the capacity of a
man-stealer--feeding his victims upon a peck of corn per week, or three
bushels of corn and a few herrings every 'quarter-day,' as a
compensation for their severe labor--flourishing a cowskin over their
heads, and applying it frequently to their naked bodies! Think of him
selling parents from children, and children from parents, at private
sale or public auction!

Many slaveholders are giving up their slaves from conscientious motives;
they cannot, they dare not longer keep them in servitude; they believe
that the law of God has a higher claim upon their obedience than the
laws of their native State. Now suppose all the owners of slaves in our
land should be suddenly and simultaneously convicted of sin, and moved
to repentance in a similar manner, and should say to their slaves, 'God
forbid that we should longer call you our property, or place you on a
level with our cattle, or defraud you of your just dues, or sell you or
your wives or children to others, or deny you the means of instruction,
or lacerate your bodies! henceforth you are free--but you want
employment, and we need laborers--go and work as freemen, and be paid as
freemen!'--suppose, I say, a case like this should happen, and a troop
of _gradualists_ should surround these penitent oppressors, and cry,
'Were the very spirit of angelic charity to pervade and fill your
hearts, it would by no means require that all your slaves should be
instantaneously liberated--your throats will be cut, your houses
pillaged, and desolation will stalk through the land, if you carry your
mad purpose into effect--emancipate by a slow, imperceptible
process!'--how would this advice sound? What should be their reply?
Clearly this: 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto
men more than unto God, judge ye.' Here would be presented a strange
spectacle indeed--one party confessing and resolving to forsake their
sins, and another urging them to disregard the admonitions of
conscience, and to leave off sinning by degrees! To be sure, a few, a
very few, would be _generously_ allowed to reform _instanter_!

Those who prophesy evil, and only evil, concerning immediate abolition,
absolutely disregard the nature and constitution of man, as also his
inalienable rights, and annihilate or reverse the causes and effects of
human action. They are continually fearful lest the slaves, in
consequence of their grievous wrongs and intolerable