s that measures of illegal violence would
ensue. And when the evil was perpetrated, and a mob destroyed the press,
then those who had urged on these measures of temptation, turned upon
those who had advised and remonstrated, as the guilty authors of the
violence, because, in a season of excitement, the measures adopted to
restrain and control the mob, were not such as were deemed suitable and
right.

Now, in all the above cases, I would by no means justify the wrong or
the injudicious measures that may have been pursued, under this course
of provocation. The greatness of temptation does by no means release men
from obligation; but Christians are bound to remember that it is a
certain consequence of throwing men into strong excitement, that they
will act unwisely and wrong, and that the tempter as well as the tempted
are held responsible, both by God and man. In all these cases, it cannot
but appear that the good aimed at might have been accomplished in a
quiet, peaceable, and christian way, and that this was not the way which
was chosen.

The whole system of Abolition measures seems to leave entirely out of
view, the obligation of Christians to save their fellow men from all
needless temptations. If the thing to be done is only lawful and right,
it does not appear to have been a matter of effort to do it in such a
way as would not provoke and irritate; but often, if the chief aim had
been to do the good in the most injurious and offensive way, no more
certain and appropriate methods could have been devised.

So much has this been the character of Abolition movements, that many
have supposed it to be a deliberate and systematized plan of the leaders
to do nothing but what was strictly a _right_ guaranteed by law, and
yet, in such a manner, as to provoke men to anger, so that unjust and
illegal acts might ensue, knowing, that as a consequence, the opposers
of Abolition would be thrown into the wrong, and sympathy be aroused for
Abolitionists as injured and persecuted men. It is a fact, that
Abolitionists have taken the course most calculated to awaken illegal
acts of violence, and that when they have ensued, they have seemed to
rejoice in them, as calculated to advance and strengthen their cause.
The violence of mobs, the denunciations and unreasonable requirements of
the South, the denial of the right of petition, the restrictions
attempted to be laid upon freedom of speech, and freedom of the press,
are generally spo