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Show 70 plication of unutterable cruelties, because our fathers brought the African here to make him a Christian. The great truth, now insisted on, that evil is evil, no matter at whose door it lies, and that men acting from conscience and religion may do nefarious deeds, needs to be better understood, that we may not shelter ourselves or our institutions under the names of the great or the good who have passed away. It shows us, that in good company we may do the work of fiends. It teaches us, how important is the culture of our whole moral and rational nature, how dangerous to rest on the old and the established without habitually and honestly seeking the truth. With these views, I believe at once that slavery is an atrocious wrong, and yet that among its upholders may be found good and pious people. I do not look on a slave country as one of the provinces of Hell. There, as elsewhere, the human spirit may hold communion with God·, and it may ascend thence to Heaven. Still slavery does not lay aside its horrible nature because of the character of some of its supporters. Persecution is a cruel outrage, no matter by whom carried on, and so slavery, no· matter by whom maintained, works fearful evil to bond and free. It breathes a moral taint, contaminates ~ng . ,, and old, prostrates the dearest nghts, and strength-ens the cupidity, pride, love of power, and selfish sloth on which it is founded. I readily grant, that 71 among slave-holders are to be fonnd upright, religious men, and especially pious, gentle, disinterested, noble- minded women, who sincerely labor to be the guardians and benefactors of the slaves, and under whose kind control much comfort may be enjoyed. But we must not on this account shut our eyes on the evils of the institution or forbear to expose them. On the contrary, this is the very reason for lifting up our voices against it; for slavery rests mainly on the virtues of its upholders. Without the sanction of good and great names it would soon die. "V ere it left as a monopoly to the selfish, cruel, unprincipled, it could not stand a year. It would become in men's view as infamous as the slave trade, and be ranked among felonies. It is a solemn duty to speak plainly of wrongs, which good men perpetrate. It is very easy to cry out against crimes which the laws punish, and which popular opinion has branded with infamy. What is especially demanded of the Christian is, a faithful, honest, generous testimony against enormities which are sanctioned by numbers, and fashion, and wealth, and especially by great and honored names, and which, thus sustained, lift up their heads to Heaven, and repay rebuke with menace and indignation. I know that there are those who consider all acknowledgement of the virtues of slave-holders as treachery to the cause of freedom. But truth is |