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Show 60 given to alarm, and very much on the ground, on which the rich fear most about property. The greatness of our blessings makes us timid. As far as my knowledge of this community extends, the Union is most dear. It may be said of this, as of other social ties, that its strength cannot be fully known, till we are seriously called to dissolve it. But, it is said, the South is passionate, and threatens to secede, if we agitate this subject of slavery. Is this no cause of alarm ? To this argument I would offer two answers. First, the South, passionate as it may be, is not insane. Does not the South know, that, in abandoning us on the ground of slavery, it would take the surest step towards converting the free States to intense and overwhelming abolitionism ? Would not slavery become from that moment the grand distin ctive idea of the Southern Republic ? And would not its Northern rival, by instinct and necessity, found itself on the antagonist principle ? In such an event, there would be no need of anti-slavery societies, of abolition .agitations, to convert the North. The blow that would sever the Union for this cause, would produce an instantaneous explosion to shake the whole land. The moral sentiment against slavery, now kept down by the interests and duties which grow out of union, would burst its fetters, and be reinforced by the whole strength of the patriotic principle, as well as by all the prejudices and local passions which would follow disunion. Does not the South see that our exemption from the taint of slavery, would, in this case, become our main boast ? That we should cast the reproach of this institution into her teeth·, in very different language from what is now used ? That what is now tolerated in sister States, would be intensely hated in separate, rival commu:Jities ? L.et disunion on this ground take place, and then the North may become truly dangerous to the South. Then, real incendiaries, very different from those who now bear the name, might spring 6! up among us. Then, fanaticism would borrow force and prot~ction from national feeling. Then, in the unfriendly relations between the two communities, which would soon be created, and in the self-regarding policy which we should adopt, we should take into account the weakness which a servile population would bring on our adversaries. We should feel, that we have an ally in our rival's bosom, nor would that ally forget to look Northward for liberation. I say the South is not insane. Nothing but a palpable necessity could induce it to break off from the free States on the ground of slavery. This leads me to observe in the next place, that there is, and _can be, no ldnd of necessity or warrant for separation furnished to the South, by the discussion of slavery at the North. This topic will indeed be agitated, and more and more freely; but no discussion, no agitation of slavery, no form of abolition, can produce such an excitement on the subject in the free States, as will furnish the slave States '~ith any ~otive. to encounter the terrible evils of separation. Thts subJect deserves some consideration. Abolitionism may be viewed in two lights ; first, as the organized array of societies against slavery ; and next, as an individual sentiment, scattered through the whole population. In neather vtew, can it drive the South to disunion at least for a long time to. come.. R egarded as an org;nized body, A~ohtwmsm _wtll substst and will influence opinion, but it wt~l never gam an ascendency in the free States. On this p~mt . my mind has never wavered. It nowhere carries with It the mass of the people, or the weight of opinion. It has brought no religious or political body under its inlluenc~ .. Fasluon, wealth, sectarian prejudice, and political ambitiOn, are, for the most part, opposed to it. That the South should be driven by it to desperation, is impossible. Many of the obstacles to the ascendency of this first form of Abolitionism will naturally be presented in my views of 6 |