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Show CHAPTER VII. ABOLITIONISM. THE word ABOLITIONIST in its true meaning comprehends every man who feels himself bound to exert his influence for removing slavery. It is a name of honorable import, and was worn, not long ago, by such men as Franklin and Jay. Events, however, continually modify terms; and, of late, the word AnoLtTIONIST has been narrowed from its original import, and restricted to the members of associations formed among us to pro- ' mote Immediate Emancipation. It is not without reluctance that I give up to a small body a name which every good man ought to bear. But to make myself intelligible and to avoid circumlocution, I shall use the word in what is now its common acceptation. I approach this subject unwillingly, because it will be my duty to censure those whom at this moment I would on no account hold up to public displeasure. The persecutions, which the abolitionists have suffered and still suffer, awaken only 131 my grief and indignation, and incline me to defend them to the full extent which truth and justice will admit. To the persecuted of whatever name my sympathies are pledged, and especially to those who are persecuted in a cause substantially good. I would not foo· worlds utter a word to justify the violence recently offered to a party, composed very much of men blameless in life, and holding the doctrine of nonresistance to injuries; and of women, exemplary in their various relations, and acting, however mistakenly, from benevolent and pious impulses. Of the abolitionists I know very few; but I am bound to say of these, that I honor then• for their strength of principle, their sympathy with their fellow-creatul·es, and their active goodness. As a party, they are singularly free from political and religious sectarianism, and· have been distinguished by the absence of management, calculation, and woddly wisdom. That they have ever proposed or desired insurrection or violence among the slaves there is no reason to believe. All their principles repel the supposition. It is a remarkable fact, that, though the South and the North have been leagued to crush them, though they have been watched by a million of eyes, and though prejudice has been prepared to detect the slightest sign of corrupt communication with the slave, yet this crime has not been fastened on a |