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Show 300 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. after all, if they will show us on the continent of Africa, or elsewhere, three millions of blacks in as good a conditionphysically and morally- as our slaves, then will we most cheerfully admit that all other Christian nations, combined, have accomplished as much for the Mrican race, as has been clone by the Southern States of the Union. TilE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 801 CIIAPTER V. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. WE have, under our present Union, advanced in prosperity and greatness beyond all former example in the history of nations. We no sooner begin to reason from the past to the future, than we are lost in amazement at the prospect before us. We behold the United States, and that too at no very distant period, the first power among the nations of the earth. But such reasoning is not always to be relied on. Whether, in the present instance, it points to a reality, or to a magnificent dream merely, will of course depend on the wisdom, tho integrity, and the moderation, of our rulers. It cannot be disguised that the Union, with all its unspeakable advantages and blessings, is in danger. It is the Fugitive Slave Law against which the waves of abolitionism have dashed with their utmost force and raged with an almost bonnclless fury. On the other hand, 26 |