and sound argument,"
said he, "but when a man comes at me with a sledge hammer, I cannot help
dodging." This is a specimen of their private manner of dealing. In
public, the enterprise was attacked as a plan for promoting the selfish
interests and prejudices of the whites, at the expense of the coloured
population; and in many cases, it was assumed that the conductors of
this association were aware of this, and accessory to it. And the style
in which the thing was done was at once offensive, inflammatory, and
exasperating. Denunciation, sneers, and public rebuke, were bestowed
indiscriminately upon the conductors of the enterprise, and of course
they fell upon many sincere, upright, and conscientious men, whose
feelings were harrowed by a sense of the injustice, the indecorum, and
the unchristian treatment, they received. And when a temporary
impression was made on the public mind, and its opponents supposed they
had succeeded in crushing this society, the most public and triumphant
exultation was not repressed. Compare this method of carrying a point,
with that adopted by Wilberforce and his compeers, and I think you will
allow that there was a way that was peaceful and christian, and that
this was not the way which was chosen.

The next measure of Abolitionism was an attempt to remove the prejudices
of the whites against the blacks, on account of natural peculiarities.
Now, prejudice is an _unreasonable_ and _groundless_ dislike of persons
or things. Of course, as it is unreasonable, it is the most difficult of
all things to conquer, and the worst and most irritating method that
could be attempted would be, to attack a man as guilty of sin, as
unreasonable, as ungenerous, or as proud, for allowing a certain
prejudice.

This is the sure way to produce anger, self-justification, and an
increase of the strength of prejudice, against that which has caused him
this rebuke and irritation.

The best way to make a person like a thing which is disagreeable, is to
try in some way to make it agreeable; and if a certain class of persons
is the subject of unreasonable prejudice, the peaceful and christian way
of removing it would be to endeavour to render the unfortunate persons
who compose this class, so useful, so humble and unassuming, so kind in
their feelings, and so full of love and good works, that prejudice would
be supplanted by complacency in their goodness, and pity and sympathy
for their disabilities. If the friend