owever, until the
last year or two, when the number of abolitionists had become
considerable, and their hope of producing an impression on the Elections
proportionately strong, that many of them were seen bringing their
abolition principles to the "ballot-box." Nor was it until the Elections
of the last Autumn, that abolition action at "the ballot-box" had become
so extensive, as to apprise the Nation, that it is a principle with
abolitionists to "remember" in one place as well as in another--at the
polls as well as in the closet--"them that are in bonds." The fact that,
at the last State Election, there were three or four hundred abolition
votes given in the County in which I reside, is no more real because of
its wide spread interest, than the comparatively unheard of fact, that
about one hundred such votes were given the year before. By the way,
when I hear complaints of abolition action at the "ballot-box," I can
hardly refrain from believing, that they are made ironically. When I
hear complaints, that the abolitionists of this State rallied, as such,
at the last State Election, I cannot easily avoid suspecting, that the
purpose of such complaints is the malicious one of reviving in our
breasts the truly stinging and shame-filling recollection, that some
five-sixths of the voters in our ranks, either openly apostatized from
our principles, or took it into their heads, that the better way to vote
for the slave and the anti-slavery cause was to vote for their
respective political parties. You would be less afraid of the
abolitionists, if I should tell you that more than ten thousand of them
in this State voted at the last State Election, for candidates for law
makers, who were openly in favor of the law of this State, which creates
slavery, and of other laws, which countenance and uphold it. And you
would owe me for one of your heartiest laughs, were I to tell you, that
there are abolitionists--professed abolitionists--yes, actual members of
the Anti-Slavery Society--who, carrying out this delusion of helping the
slave by helping their "party," say, that they would vote even for a
slaveholder, if their party should nominate him. Let me remark, however,
that I am happy to be able to inform you, that this delusion--at least
in my own State--is fast passing away; and that thousands of the
abolitionists who, in voting last Autumn for Gov. Marey or Gov. Seward,
took the first step in the way, that leads to voting for the sla