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Show 166 it is said, they deserve. Undoubtedly the respectable portion of the slavcholding communities are not answerable for these measures. But does not policy, as well as principl e', require such men steadily to discountenance them? At prc~cnt, the free States ha\'C stronger sympathies with the South tlwn ever before. But can it be supposed that they will s uflCr their citizens to be s tolen , exposed to violence, and munlcred, by other States ? \Vould not such an outrage rouse them to feel ami act as one man ? ' iVould it not identify the abolitionists with our mo:-;t sacred rights? One kidnapped, murdered abolitionist wotdd do more for the violent rlcstruction of slavery than a thousand societies. His name would he sai nted. The day of his death would be set apart for solcllln henrt-stirring comh1emoration. His blood would cry through the land\\ ith a thrilling voice, would pierce every dwelling,. and find a response in every bcart. Do men, under the light of the prc~;cnt day, need to he told, that enthusia.srn is not a flame to be quenched with blood ? On this point, good and wi..;e men, and the friends of the coumry at the North and South, cnn hold hut one opinion ; and if the prc;o0s, whirh, I grieve to say, has kept an ominous !":ilence amid:-;t 1hc violations of law and rights, would but speak plainly and strong!_\', the danger \\Ould be past. Since "riting- the preceding chapter..;, I IW\'C seen in a Ncwspapf'r some notiec of a meeting of 1ninistcri' in one of the Southern States, in which slm'ery was. spoken of as ~in fu l. If the account was correct, the liberty of speech is not every where Uonied to the degree whic.h I had ~upposed. I have only to add, thut I alone am responsible for what I have now written. I represent no society, no 167 body of men, no part of the country. I have written by no one's instigation, and with no one's encouragement, but solely from my own convictions. If oflCncc is given, I alone ought to bear it, UU |
