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Show 298 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. this race amoug us is now nearer to the 1·.. ingdom of heaven than we ourselves nrc, how dare he assert-as he so often bas done-that our slavery has "degraded them into brutes?" If, indeed, they had not been elevated-both physically and morally-by their servitude in America, it would have been beyond the power of even Dr. Channing to pronounce such a eulogy upon them. We say, then, that he knew better when he asserted that we have degraded them into brutes. IIe spoke, not from his better knowledge and his conscience, but from blind, unreflecting passion. For he knew-if he knew any thing-that the blacks have been elevated and improved by their contact with the whites of this enlightened portion of the globe. The truth is, the abolitionist can make the slave a brute or a saint, just as it may happen to suit the exigency of his argument. If slavery degrades its subjects into brutes, then one would suppose that slaves are brutes. But the moment you speak of selling a slave, he is no longer a brute,-he is a civilized man, with all the most tender affections, with all the most generous emotions. If the object be to excite indignation against slavery, then it ARGUMENT FROM 'l'IIE PUDJ,IC GOOD. 299 n.lways transforms its subjects into brutes; but if it be to excite indignation against the slaveholder, then he holds, not brutes, but a George IIarris-or an Eliza-or an Uncle Tom-in bondage. Any thing, and every thing, except fair and impartial statement, are the materials with which he works. No fact is plainer than that the blacks have been elevated and improved by their servitude in this country. We cannot possibly conceive, indeed, how Divine Providence could have placed them in a better school of correction. If the abolitionists can conceive a better method for their enlightenment and religious improvement, we should rejoice to sec them carry their plan into execution. They need not seek to rend asunder our Union, on account of the three millions of blacks among us, while there are fifty millions of the same race on the continent of Mrica, calling aloud for their sympathy, and appealing to their Christian benevolence. Let them look to that continent. Let them rouse the real, active, self-sacrificing benevolence of the whole Christian world in behalf of that most degraded portion of the human family; and, |