r was committed only to the hands of those qualified to
exercise it properly, wisely, and beneficially. What would be said in
this country, were Mr. Thompson to propose that the elective franchise
should be made universal, and that the age at which it might be
exercised should be fixed at fifteen years? He would venture to say
that the ministry who would introduce such a scheme to Parliament,
would not exist for three days. The proposal, as Mr. T. no doubt knew,
would be considered altogether revolutionary and shocking. Yet it must
be admitted that the average of the boys of Britain who are fifteen
years old, are fully as well qualified for the exercise of the elected
franchise, as the average of the slaves in the various parts of the
United States are at the age of twenty-one years. But with us, as with
you, twenty-one years is the age at which electors vote. As I have
shown, in most of our States the elective franchise is extended to
every white man, who has attained that age; while the qualifications
of a property kind, anywhere required, are so extremely moderate, that
in all our communities nine-tenths at least of the adult white males
are entitled to vote. Now let it be borne in mind, that abolitionism
requires not only instant freedom for the slave, but also instant
treatment of him, in every civil and political, as well as every
social and religious respect, as if he were white, that is, in plain
terms--if we should follow the dogmas you sent Mr. T. to teach us, and
in which we have been held up to the scorn of all good men, for
declining to receive, a revolution far more terrible and revolting
would immediately follow throughout all our slave States, than would
follow in Britain by enfranchising in a day, every boy in it fifteen
years old--even if your house of lords were substituted by an elective
senate, and your parliaments made annual! And it is in the light of
such results, that America has received with horror the enunciation of
principles which lead directly to them, while their advocates declare
"all consequences" indifferent as it regards their conduct! And can it
be the duty of any commonwealth to bring upon itself "instantly,"--or
at all--such a condition as this? The abolitionists themselves had
evidently felt that their scheme was absurd; for they had never
ventured to propose it to a slave State. Their papers were published
and their efforts all made, and their organized agitation carried on,
and a