darkness even until now.' 'If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?' You have dared to stand up, even in the OLD CRADLE OF LIBERTY, hostile to human freedom; you have sought to base the pillars of your popularity upon the necks of down-trodden millions; and you have uttered sentiments, which elicit thunders of applause from all that is loathsome in impurity, hateful in revenge, base in extortion, dastardly in oppression. You are in amicable companionship and popular repute with thieves and adulterers; with slave-holders, slave-breeders, slave-dealers, slave-destroyers; with those who trample law and order beneath their feet; with the plunderers of the public mail; with ruffians who insult, pollute and lacerate helpless women; and with conspirators against the lives and liberties of New England citizens. These facts are undeniable. Talk not of more honorable associates: none are honorable, who throw the weight of their influence into the scale of oppression.

You affect to think that the abolitionists are laboring in the wrong section of the Union. You insinuate, that, while they preach the doctrine, 'We must do right, regardless of consequences,' none are more craven in spirit; and add —

They insist, that it is right that they should urge their doctrines for the conviction of the South. Ask them why they do not go and preach them there, where they most desire to make converts — they reply, Why! we should be in danger of our lives! Then they begin to think of consequences. So that the practical result of that proposition, which sounds so well in the abstract, is, that they are to go on regardless of consequences to others, but not without a due regard to themselves.'

Sir, there may be wit, but there is little truth, in the above To do right, is always to regard consequences, both to ourselves and to others. Since you are pleased to

extract.

banter us for prosecuting our labors at the North, I will take for my text the interrogation that is so constantly, either by ignorance or impudence, propounded to us. It is this: 'WHY DON'T YOU GO TO THE SOUTH?'

I proudly answer Not because we are afraid to go there. Not because we are not prepared for danger, per- . secution, outrage, and death. Not because the dungeon or the halter, the rack or the stake, appals us. Yet the question is sneeringly put, and sometimes with murder evidently in the heart, as if we were deficient in fortitude and courage, with all our seeming boldness. O, forsooth! it is very safe and convenient for Mr. Garrison to denounce the holders of slaves a thousand miles off, in Boston! A great deal of heroism is required to do this! But he is very careful to keep out of the slave States. Why don't he go to the South? Let him go there, and denounce slavery, and we will then believe that he is sincere.' This is the language which is constantly uttered by men, too, permit me to say, who have never peculiarly signalized themselves in any hazardous enterprise, whether moral or physical. I am vain enough to believe, that those who bring this charge of cowardice against me do not doubt my readiness to go wherever duty requires. Will they give me no credit for having published an anti-slavery publication in Maryland, as long as it could be sustained by a meagre patronage?-a publication in which my denunciations of slavery and slaveholders were as severe as any to be found in the Liberator. Did my spirit quail under my imprisonment in a Southern cell? Is it true, that I am hazarding nothing by my advocacy of the cause of emancipation, even in Boston? Has no endurance, no unusual courage, been required to oppose all classes of society, and to sustain the odium, derision and hatred of a slaveholding nation? Is it nothing to have large rewards offered by a Southern legislature, and by private combina

Sir, the slavehold

tions, for my seizure and destruction? ers of the South may call me a fanatic - they may call me a madman, or an incendiary, or an agitator, and believe me to be such; but to call me a coward—that is an epithet which they have too much good sense to apply to me. They regard me in any other light than that of a craven: all the trembling, and shrinking, and alarm, is felt and manifested on their part-not on mine. I may be rash-I may be obstinate but no fear of man shall deter me from a faithful discharge of my duty to the oppressed. As for mere animal courage, it is nothing to excel in it no proof of true bravery.

'WHY DON'T YOU GO TO THE SOUTH?'

Why, Sir, when we denounce the tyranny exercised over the miserable Poles, do we not go into the dominions of the Russian autocrat, and beard him to his face? Why not go to Constantinople, and protest against the oppression of the Greeks? Why assail the despotic governments of Europe here in the United States? Why, then, should we go into the slaveholding States, to assail their towering wickedness, at a time when we are sure that we should be gagged, or imprisoned, or put to death, if we went thither? Why rashly throw ourselves into the ocean, or commit ourselves to the flames, or cast ourselves into the jaws of the lion? Understand me, Sir. I do not mean to say, that even the certainty of destruction is, in itself, a valid reason for our refusing to go to the South; for we are bound to take up any cross, or incur any peril, in the discharge of our duty to God and our suffering brother. Prove to me that it is imperatively my duty, in view of all the circumstances of the case, to locate myself among slaveholders, and I will not hesitate to do so, though (to borrow the strong language of Martin Luther) every tile upon their houses were a devil. Moral courage-duty self-consecration all have

their proper limits. When He who knew no fear - the immaculate Redeemer saw that his enemies intended to cast him down from the brow of a hill, he prudently withdrew from their midst. When he sent forth his apostles, he said unto them, 'When they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another.' Was there any cowardice in this conduct, or

in this advice?

'WHY DON'T YOU GO TO THE SOUTH?'

If we should go there, and fall

should

as fall we certainly

martyrs to our zeal, our enemies would still call us, what we then should deserve to be called, fanatics and madmen. Pointing at our mangled bodies, they would commence their derisions afresh. Poor fools!' they would exclaim insane enthusiasts! thus to rush into the cage of the tiger, with the certain knowledge that he would tear them in pieces!' And this, Sir, would be the eulogy which they would pronounce over us!

'WHY DON'T YOU GO TO THE SOUTH?

Because it is essential that the beam should first be cast out of the eyes of the people of the free States, before they attempt to cast out the mote in the eyes of the people of the slave States. Because they who denounce fraud, and cruelty, and oppression, should first become honest, and merciful, and free, themselves. 'Thou that sayest, a man should not steal - dost thou steal?' Thou that preachest, a man should not be a slaveholder- art thou a slaveholder?

'WHY DON'T YOU GO TO THE SOUTH? '

Have I answered the question satisfactorily? If not, Sir,

you will help me to additional reasons for our staying here at the North, in my answer to another question, which is iterated on all occasions, as if it for ever ended the controversy - viz. :

'WHAT HAVE WE TO DO WITH SOUTHERN SLAVERY?

--

This question is put, sometimes with reference to legisla tion at other times, it refers to moral obligation. I answer, then, that WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, have legislated on the subject of slavery, and we have a right to legislate upon it, within certain limits. As to our moral obligation, it belongs to our nature, and is a part of our accountability, of which neither time nor distance, neither climate nor location, neither republican nor monarchical government, can divest us. Let there be but one slave on the face of the globe-let him stand on one extremity of the globe, and place me on the other-let every people, and tribe, and clime, and nation, stand as barriers between him and myself: still, I am bound to sympathise with himto pray, and toil, and plead for his deliverance to make known his wrongs, and vindicate his rights. It may not be in my power, it may not be my duty, directly to emancipate him; for the power rests in the hands of the tyrant who keeps him in chains, and it is his duty to break them asunder. But it matters not, except to demand an increase of zeal and activity, if every interposing tribe or nation, if the whole world is to be changed, before that solitary slave can go free. Then I will begin with him who stands next by my side, and with my associates, and with my country; and if the impulse must be sent by proxy, if every man, woman and child must be abolitionised by detail, before the captive can be disenthralled, I am nevertheless bound to commence the work, if no others will, and to co-operate with them if they have begun it. Why? Because he is my neighbor, though occupying the remotest point of the earth; and I am charged by Him, who spake as never man spake,' to love my neighbor as myself. Because he is my brother, for whom Christ died; and if Christ estimated him so highly as to die for him, then, surely, he is an object worthy of my sympathy and regard. Because by his enslavement, man is