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Show 232 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. ther they were true prophets, or merely "blind leaders of the blind." Be that as it may, for the present we cannot agree with Dr. Channing, that the good people of the free States were insincere in boasting of their" love of liberty," because they did not go into raptures over so fearful au c>.-periment before they had some little time to sec how it would work. They did, no doubt, most truly and profoundly love liberty. But then they had some reason to suspect, perhaps, that liberty may be one thing, and abolitionism quite another. Liberty, they knew, was a thing of light and love; but as for abolitionism, it was, for all they knew, a demon of destruction. lienee they would wait, and see. We do well to rejoice at once, exclaims Dr. Channing. If a man-child is born into the world, says he, do we wait to read his futuro life ere we rejoice at his birth? Ah, no! But then, p·erhaps, this oftBpring of abolitionism is no man-child at all. It may, for aught we know, be an abortion of night and darkness merely. lienee, we shall wait, and mark his future course, ere we rend the air with shouts that he is born at last. This man-child, or this monster, is now seventeen years and four months old. Ilis character AROU~rt;NT FROM TJIE PUBLIC GOOD. 233 is uO\·cloped, am! fixed for life. We may now read his history, written hy imparlinl men, and determine for ourselves, wbctbcr it justifies tbc bt·ight and boundless hopes of the abolitionjsts, or the "cold indifference," nay, the suspicions and the fears, of the good people of the free States. We shall begin with Jamaica, which is by far the largest and most valuable of the British West Indies. The very first year after the complete emancipation of the slaves of this islund, its prosperity began to manifest symptoms of decay. As long as it was possible, however, to find or invent ttn explttnation of these fearful signs, the abolitionists remained absolutely blind to the real course of events. In 1839, the first ycttr of complete emancipation, it appeared that the crop of sugar exported from the island had fallen oft" no less tban eight thousand four hundred and sixty-si.."< hogsheads. But, then, it was discovered that the hogsheads had been larger this year than the preceding! It is true, there was not exactly any proof that larger hogsheads had been usecl all over the island, but it was rumored; and the rumor was, of course, eagerly swallowed by the abolitionists. 20• |