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Show 134 fanatically or with good intention ; for how much mischief may be wrought with good design ! They have fallen into the common errbr of enthusiasts, that of exaggerating their object, of feeling as if no evil existed but that which "they opposed, and as if no guilt could .be compared with that of countenancing or upholding it. The tone of their newspapers, as far as I have seen them, has often been fierce, bitter, and abusive. Their imaginations have fed on pictures of the cruelty to which the slave is exposed, till they have seemed to think that his abode 'was perpetually resounding with the lash, and ringing with shrieks of agony; and accordingly, the slaveholder has been held up to execration, as a monster of cruelty. I know that many of their publications have been calm, well considered, and abounding in strong reasoning. But those, which have been most widely scattered and are most adapted to act on the common mind, have had a tone unfriendly both to manners and to the spirit of our religion. I doubt not that the majority of the abolitionists condemn the coarseness and violence of which I complain. But in this, as in most associations, the many are represented and controlled by the few, and are made to sanction and become responsible for what they disapprove. One of their errors bas been the adoption of " Immediate Emancipation " as their motto. To 135 this they owe not a litt,le of their unpopularity. This phrase has contributed much to spread far and wide the belief, that they wished immediately to free the slave from all his restraints. They made explanations; but thou,.nds beard the .motto who never saw the explanation ; and it is certainly unwise for a party to choose a watchword, which can be rescued from misapprehension only by labored e~plication . It may also be doubted, whether they ever removed the objection which their language so universally raised, whether they have not always recommended a precipitate action, inconsistent with the well-being of the slave and the order of the state. Another objection to their movements is, that they have sought to accomplish their objects by a system of Agitation ; that is, by a system of affiliated societies, gathered, and held together, and extended, by passionate eloquence. This, in truth, is the common mode by which all projects are now accomplished. The age ~f individual action is gone. Truth cannot be heard unless shouted by a crowd. The weightiest argument for a doctrine is the number which adopts it. Accordingly, to gather and organize multitudes is the first care of him who would remove an abuse or spread a reform. That the expedient. is in some cases useful is not denied. But generally Jt is a showy, noisy mode of action, appealing to |