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Show 180 TOIL AND TRUST. conservatives, has done more to put them into serious danger, than the acts of all others combined during the present century. Any man who relies upon a good government to sustain acknowledged evil, docs much to modify the notions of goodness which honest and conscientious men have entertained respecting that government. lie furnishes an entering wedge for doubt and distrust, which, if not removed, will grow into aversion. Anti-slavery men reason differently. They separate slavery from the Constitu· tion and the Union, and, by seeking to destroy the former, desire to perpetuate the latter. They hold, that against the concentrated moral sentiment of the whole country, acting through its legitimate public channels, and aided by the prayers and the hopes of all the civilized world, it would be much more difficult to maintain slavery in the States, than if the dangers of general misgovernment and disunion were to come in to distract the public _attention, and open up social disasters of a worse kind than those which they seek to remedy. 3. The spirit of this reform is denunciatory, violent, and proscriptive. It is inevitable that all movements directed against ToiL AND TRUST. 131 the established errors of communities originate with men more or less fanatical in spirit. None but they have the necessary clements of character to advance at all. But, as others become convinced of the fun· damental truths which they utter, the tendency of their association is to modify and soften the tone, and make it more nearly approximate the correct sentiment. At this period, there is quite as much of liberality among anti-slavery men as is consistent with a determined maintenance of their general purpose. Though disposed to be just to all who conscientiously differ with them in opinion, they cannot overlook the fact that many honest persons are too indifferent, and more are too compromising in their views of slavery. 'ro rouse the one, and alarm the other class into a conviction of their responsibility for their apathy, is one of the most imperative duties. It may be that this is not always done in the most courtly or the choicest terms. Some allowances must be made for the spirit of liberty. 'l'hcse cases form, however, the exception, and not the rule, among anti-slavery men. 'l'he great majority well comprehend that the greatest results will follow efforts made without bitterness of temper. They remember that whilst the Saviour |