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Show 124 TIIIRU DAY-RVENING ,\IE WI'INC. bear testimony against slavery. I have seen it-l have seen it. I knnw it has horrors that can never be described. 1 was brought up uJu.ler its wing: I witnessed for many years its demoralizing influences, and its destructiveness to human happiness. It is admitted by some that the slave is not happy under the wor~l forms of slavery. Hut I have never seen a happy slave. I have seen lum dance in his chains, it is true; but he was not hap~ py. There is a wiUe difl'erence between happiness and mirth. Man cannot enjoy the former while his manhood is destroyed, and that part of the be ing which is necessary to the making, and to the enjoyment of happiness, is completely bloued out. The slaves, however, may he, and sometimes arc, mirthful. \Vhen hope is extinguished, they say, "let us cat and drink, for to·morrow we die." [Just then stones were thrown at the windows,-a great noise without, and commotion within.] What is a mob? 'What would the breaking of every window be? \Vhat would the levelling or this Hall be? Any ev iden ce that we are wrong, or that slavery is a good and whole. some institution? 'Vhat if the mob should now burst in upon us, break up our meeting .and commit violence upon our persons-would this be any thing compared w1th what the slaves endure? No, no: and we do not rememLcr them "as bountl with them," if we shrink in the time of peril, or feel un· willing to s~crifice ourselves, if need be, for their sake. [Great noise.] I thank the Lord that there is yet life left enough to feel the truth, even though it rages at it-that conscience is not so completely seared as to be unmoved by the truth of the living God. · Many persons go to the South for a season, and are hos pitably entertained in the parlor anti at the table of the s lave-holder. They never enter the huts of the slaves; they know nothing of the dark side of the picture, and they return home with praises on their lips of the generous character of those with whom they had tarried. Or if they have witnessed the cruelties of slavery, by remlliuing silent spectators they have naturally become callous- an insensibility has en~ued which prepares them to apologize even for barbarity. Nothing but the corrupting influence of slavery on the hearts of the Northern people can induce them to apologize for it; and much will have been done for the destructi011 of Southern slavery when we have so reformed the North that no one here will be willing to risk his reputation by advocating or even excusing the holding of men as property. The South know it, and acknowledge that as fast as our principles prevail, the hold of the master must be relaxed. [Another outbreak of mobocratic spirit, and some confusion in the house.] How \VOnderfully constituted is the human mind! How it resists, as long as it. can, aU efforts made to reclaim from error! I feel that all this disturb· ance is but an evidence that our efl'orts are the best that could have been adopted, or else the friends of slavery would not care for what we say anti tlo. The South know what we do. I am thankful that they are reached by our efforts. Many times have l wept in the land of my birth, over the system of slavery. I knew of none who sympathized in my feelings-! was unaware that any efforts were made to deli,·er the oppresRed-no voice in the wilderness was heard calling on the people to repent and do works mef't for repentance-and my heart sickened within me. Oh, how shou ld I have rejoiced to know that such efforts as these were being made. I only wonder that I had such feelings. I wonder when I reflect under what influence [ :was brought up, that my heart is not harder than the nether millstone. Uut 111 the midst of temptation I was preserved, and my sympathy grew warmer, l'lnd my ha tred of slavery more inveterate, until at last 1 have exiled myself from my native land hecause I could no l(lng·er endure to hear the. wailing of the sbve. f flctl to the land of Penn; for here, thought T, sympathy fot' the SPEECH OF ANOEI.TNA E. 0, WELD· 125 slave will surely be found. But 1 found it not. The people were kind and ho~pitable, but the slave had no place in their thoughts. Whenever questions were put to me as to his condition, I felt that they were dictated by a11 idle curios ity, rather than by that deep feeling which would lead to effort for his rescue. I the refore shut up my grief in my own hea rt. I remembered that I was a Carolinian, from a state which framed this iniquity by law·. [ knew that throughout her territory was continual suffering, on the one part, and continua! brutality and sin on the other. Every Southern breeze wafted to me the discordant tones of weeping and wailing, shrieks and groans, mingled with prayers and blasphemous curses. l thought there was no hope; th at the wicked would go on in his wickedness, until he had destroyed both himself and his country. My heart sunk within me at the abominationg in the mid st of which I had been born and educated. ·what will it avail, c ried I in bitterness of spirit, to expose to the gaze of strange rs the horrors and pollutions of s lavery, when there is no ear to hear nor heart to feel and pray for the s lave. The language of my soul was, 11 Oh tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askclon." Hut how different dol fee l now! Animatec.l with hope, nay, with an as surance of the triumph of li berty and good will to man, I will lift up my voice like a trumpet, and show this people their transgression, their sins of omission towards the slave, and what they can do towards affecting Southern mind, and overth rowing Southern oppress ion. We may talk of occupying neutral gmund, but on tl1is subject, in its present attitude, there is no such thing as neutral ground. lie that is uot for us is ngainst us, and he that gathereth not with us, scattereth abroad. If you are on what you suppose to be neutral ground, the South look upon you as on the s ide of the oppressor. And is there one who loves his coun try willing to give his inllucnce , ·even indirectly, in favor of elavery-that curse of nations? God swept E gy pt with the besom of destruction, and punished Ju dea also with a sore puni sh ment, because of slavery. And have we any reason to believe that he is less just now ?-or that he will be more favorable to us than to his O\\o"U" peculiar people?" [Shoutiug.ii, stones thrown against the windows, &c.] There is nothing to be feared from those who would stop our mouths, but they themselves should fear and tremble. The cuuent is even now setting fast against them. If the arm of the North had not caused the Bastilc of slavery to totter to its foundation, you would not hear those cries. A few years ago, and the South felt secure, and with a contemptuous snee r asked, "Who are the abolitionists? The abolitionists are nothing ?"-Ay, in one sense they were nothing, and they are nothin~ still. Bnt in this we rejoice, that" God has chosen things that are not tu bring to nought things that are." [Mob again disturbed the meeting.] \Ve often hear the question asked," \Vhat shall we do?" Here is an op~ portunity for doing something now. E\'ery man and every woman present may do~something by showing that we fear not a mob, and, in the 111idl'lt of threatenings and revilings, by opening our mouths for the dlunb aud pleatling the cause of those who are ready to perish. To work as we shou ld in this cause, we must know what Slavery is. J .. et me urge you then to buy the books which have ~ee n wriuen. on this subject and .... read them, and then lend them to your ne1ghbors. G1ve your money no longer for things which pander to pride and lust, but aid in scattering "the living coals of truth" upon the naked heart of thi~ nation,-in circulating appea:s to the sympathies of Christians in behalf of the outraged and suffering slave. But, it is said by some, our" books and papers du not speak the truth." \.Yhy, then, do they uot contradict what we say? They |