OCR Text |
Show INTRODUCTORY REl\IARKS. THE following tract grew almost insensibly out of the strong impressions received from recent accounts of the emancipated British Islands. Joseph John Gurney, well known among us as a member and minister of the Q uaker denomination, was so kind as to visit me after his return from the West I ndies, and then transmitted to me his "Familiar L etters to Henry Clay,"* describing a winter in those regions. The satisfaction which I felt was so great, that I could not confine it to myself. I began to write, as a man begins to talk after hearing good news. 1\Iany thoughts, connected with the topic, rushed successively into my mind ; and gradually, and with little labor, this slight work took the form it now wears. l am encomnged to hope that it is of some little value from the spontaneousness of its growth. This tract was prepared fo1· the press some time ago, and should have been published immediately after the appearance of Mr. Gurney's letters. But I was discouraged by the preoccupation of the minds of the whole community with the politics of the day. I was obliged to wait lor the storm to pass ; and I now send it forth in the hope, that some at least |