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Show 2 for happiness from wrong doing is as insane as to seek health and prosperity by rebelling against the laws of nature, by smving our seed on the ocean, or making poison our common food. There is but one unfailing good ; and that is, fidelity to the Everlasting Law written on the heart, and rewritten and republished in God's Word. " ' !wever places this faith in the everlasting law of rectitude must of course regard the question of slavery first and chiefly as a moral question. All other considerations will weigh little with him, compared with its moral character and moral i nftuences. The following remarks, therefore, are designed to aid the reader in forming a just moral judgment of slavery. Great truths, inalienable rights, everlasting duties, these will form the chief subjects of this discussion. There are times when the assertion of great principles is the best service a man can rende1· society. The present is a moment of bewildering excitement, when men's minds are stormed and darkened by strong passions and fierce conflicts ; and also a moment of absorbing 1mrldliness, wben the moral law is made to bow to expediency, and its high and strict requirements are decried or dismissed as metaphysical abstractions, or impracticable theories. At such a season, to utter great principles without passion, and in the spirit of unfeigned and universal good-will, and to engrave them deeply 3 and durably on men's minds, is to do more for the world, than to open mines of wealth, or to Ji·ame the most successful schemes of policy. Of late our country has been convulsed by the question of slavery; and the people, in proportion as they have felt vehemently, have thought superficially, or hardly thougbt at all; and we see the results in a singular want of well defined principles, in a strange vagueness and inconsistency of opinion, and in tile proneness to excess which belongs to unsettled minds. The multitude have been called, now to contemplate the horrors of slavery, and now to shudder at the ruin and bloodshed wbich must follow emancipation. The word Massacre has resounded through the land, striking terror into strong as well as tender hearts, and awakening indignation against whatever may seem to threaten such a consummation. The consequence is, that not a few dread all discussion of the subject, and if not reconciled to the continuance of slavery, at least believe that they have no duty to perform, no testimony to bear, no influence to exert, no sentiments to cherish and spread, in relation to this evil. vVhat is still worse, opinions either favoring or extenuating it are heard \l'ith little or no disapprobation. Concessions are made to it which would once have shocked the community ; whilst to assail it is pronounced unwise and perilous. No stronger reason for a calm exposition |