ken of with exultation by Abolitionists, as what are
among the chief means of promoting their cause. It is not so much by
exciting feelings of pity and humanity, and Christian love, towards the
oppressed, as it is by awakening indignation at the treatment of
Abolitionists themselves, that their cause has prospered. How many men
have declared or implied, that in joining the ranks of Abolition, they
were influenced, not by their arguments, or by the wisdom of their
course, but because the violence of opposers had identified that cause
with the question of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and civil
liberty.

But when I say that many have supposed that it was the deliberate
intention of the Abolitionists to foment illegal acts and violence, I
would by no means justify a supposition, which is contrary to the
dictates of justice and charity. The leaders of the Abolition Society
disclaim all such wishes or intentions; they only act apparently on the
assumption that they are exercising just rights, which they are not
bound to give up, because other men will act unreasonably and wickedly.

Another measure of Abolitionists, calculated to awaken evil feelings,
has been the treatment of those who objected to their proceedings.

A large majority of the philanthropic and pious, who hold common views
with the Abolitionists, as to the sin and evils of slavery, and the duty
of using all appropriate means to bring it to an end, have opposed their
measures, because they have believed them not calculated to promote, but
rather to retard the end proposed to be accomplished by them. The
peaceful and Christian method of encountering such opposition, would
have been to allow the opponents full credit for purity and integrity of
motive, to have avoided all harsh and censorious language, and to have
employed facts, arguments and persuasions, in a kind and respectful way
with the hope of modifying their views and allaying their fears. Instead
of this, the wise and good who opposed Abolition measures, have been
treated as though they were the friends and defenders of slavery, or as
those who, from a guilty, timid, time-serving policy, refused to take
the course which duty demanded. They have been addressed either as if it
were necessary to convince them that slavery is wrong and ought to be
abandoned, or else, as if they needed to be exhorted to give up their
timidity and selfish interest, and to perform a manifest duty, which
they were