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Show 78 Offences against manners are wisely left to the scourge of public opinion, which proves itself, in such cases, a m~re effectual as well as more merciful discipline than burnmg or the gallows. If ridicule and indignation will not pu1t down supposed misdemeanors of this class, what Wl.l force avail ? - May I be here allowed to counsel my fmr abolitionist friends, (if they have really fallen into the " unpardonable transgression" laid to thctr charge,) t.o respect hereafter the usages of society in r~gard. to thetr communications with the other sex. If thmr antt-slavery zeal compels them to bear testimony against the prejudice, which excludes the colored people from the society of the whites let them choose for their associates the women of the dc~pised caste. With less defiance of opinion, they will thus give equal expression to their interest in the _wronge~. I believe, however, that the less conspicuous thetr zeal m this and other public movements, the better. There are none, for whom I feel a deeper and more affectionate sol~citude, than for the young of the other sex; and when I tlunk of their inexperience, and of the strength of their sensibility, and then consider how exposed they are, on occasions of struggle and excitement, to unconscious imprudences, whi?h may throw a shade over their characters not soon t.o .be dtspellcd, and which, in their calmer hours, may v1stt them with secret upbraidings, or with fears of having started from the proper path, I cannot but desire, that, whilst they open their hearts to all generous sympathies, they should postpone the public manifestation of their zeal to a riper age. The violence, which was offered the Abohtwmsts for their reception of the colored people to freer social inter· course, was the more aggravated, because, if they erred in the matter, their motive was n generous one, not got up for the occasion, but proved to be sincere by their whole conduct. They say, that the colored race, ground as they have been in the dust by long tyranny, and still suffering 79 under prejudices which forbid their elevation, are entitled to peculiar regard from the disciples of him who came to raise the fallen, " to seek and save the lost." They look on this people with peculiar sympathy, because subjected to peculiar hardships. With this view, they are anxious to break down the distinction, or at least, to diminish the distance, between the black man and the white, believing that in this way only the degrading influences of the injuries of years can be overcome. Allow this to be an error ; is it not a generous one ? Is there nothing holy in sympathy with the wronged ? Are feelings of benevolent concern, for whatever portion of our race, to be insulted, and to bring dow1~ violence on our heads, because they transgress convenhonal rules and the forms of" good society" ? That ignorant and coarse people should treat the motives of the Abolitionists with scorn, cannot surprise us ; but that any, who belong to what is called the respectable and refined class, should join the fierce multitude in persecuting men of worth and humanity, admits no excuse. Docs it not show, that the line of separation between the high and low ts not as broad as we sometimes imagine ; that much which passes for refinement is mere gloss ; and that when the passions are stirred up by the concurrence of numbers "the friends of order " can set laws at defiance as bold!; as the multitude ? This outrage, if viewed in its political aspects, deserves severe reprobation. Mob-law, in this country, ought always to be frowned down. It is an invasion of the fundamental principle of our institutions, of the sovereignty of the people, and the more dangerous, because it seems to the multitude to be an assertion of the principle which it overthrows. The sovereignty of the people has here but one mode of manifestation, and that is, the laws. It can ~xpres~ itself in no other way ; and, consequently, a mob, Ill forctbly suspending the laws, and in substituting its own |