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Show 82 that it shall be shaken and subverted by rule ? We bear extravagance and vehemence elsewhere, without burning down men's houses. '-'Vhy thi.s singular sensitiveness to anti-slavery vehemence, except it be, that slavery, which so many call au evil with the lips, has never come as an evil to their consciences and hearts ? But, it is said, the Abolitionists injure a g9od cause. Be it so. I think they have done it harm as well as good. But is not this the common course of human affairs? What good cause is not harmed, and sometimes thrown back, by its best friends. In the present imperfect state of our nature, men seldom take a strong hold on any great object, without falling into excess. Enthusiasm, by which I mean a disproportionate strength of feeling and emotion, such as interferes more or less with the judgment, seems almost inseparable from earnestness. The calm reason, the single idea of Right, the principle of pure love, such as it exists in God, serene and unimpassioned,- these divine impulses seldom of themselves carry men through great enterprises. Human passionateness mixes with high .. er influences. This is to be lamented, and much evil is done ; but we must endure enthusiasm with its excesses, or sink into a lifeless monotony. These excesses we ought to rebuke and discourage ; but we must not hunt them down as the greatest crimes. \Ve must take heed, lest in our war against rashness, we quench all the generous senti· ments of human nature. It is natural to desire, that evils should be removed gently, imperceptibly, without agitation; and the more of this quiet process, the better. But it is not ordinarily by such processes, that the mysterious provi· dence of God purifies society. Religion and freedom have made their way through struggles and storms. Established evils naturally oppose an iron front to reform ; and the spirit of reform, gathering new vehemence from oppositions, pours itself forth in passionate efforts. Man is not 83 go.od enough yet to join invincible courage, zeal, and struggle, with all-suffering meekness. But must conflict with evil cease, because it will be marred with human imperfection ? l\iust the burning spirit lock up its sympathieH with suffering humanity, because not sure of being always self-possessed ? Do we forgive nothing to the warmhearted ? Should we not labor to temper and guide aright excessive zeal in a virtuous cause instead of persecutin(J' it as the worst of crimes ? ' o The Abolitionists deserve rebuke ; but let it be proportioned to the offence. They do wrong in their angry denunciation of slaveholders. But is calling the slaveholder hard names a crime of unparalleled aggravation ? Is it not, at least, as great a crime to spoil a man of his rights and liberty, to make him a chattel, and trample him in the dust ? And why shall the latter offender escape with so much gentler rebuke ? I know, as well as the slaveholder, what it is to bear the burden of hard names. The South has not been sparing of its invectives in return for my poor efforts against slavery. I understand the evil of reproach; and I am compelled to pronounce it a very slight one, and not to be named, in comparison with bondage ; and why is it, that he who inflicts the former should be called to drink the cup of wrath to the very dregs, whilst he who inflicts the latter receives hardly a mild rebuke ? I say these things not as a partisan of the Abolitionists, but from a love of justice. They seem to me greatly wronged by the unparalleled persecution to which they have been exposed ; and the wronged should never want a defender. But I am not of them. In the spirit of many of them I see mu~h .to condemn. I utterly disapprove their sweeping denuncmhons. I fear that their scorn of expediency may degenerate into recklessness. I fear, that, as a natural if not ne~essary con~equcnce of their multiplied meetings held chwlly for exc1tement, their zeal must often be forced, |