'fear of man which bringeth a snare;' in being willing to be made of no reputation, and to suffer the loss of all things, for righteousness' sake.

Consider, now, the actual condition of the colored population of this country; despised, shunned, insulted, outraged, enslaved, by common consent, with deliberate purpose, systematically and perseveringly, by all that is respectable, wealthy, and powerful-by all that is vulgar, brutal, and fiendish! They are universally treated as a leprous race on account of their complexion; so that to such of them as are nominally free, every avenue to political and social equality, to wealth and station, to learning and improvement, is closed; and it is deemed ridiculous and impudent for them to aspire to be any thing else than hewers of wood and drawers of water for their white contemners. The great body of them registered with cattle and swine, and stripped of all their rights as human beings, to interpose for their deliverance is to come into collision with a spirit more unrelenting, murderous and God-defying than any other that ever assumed the despotic form, and which rules this whole nation with a rod of iron.'

Again, consider the degradation, helplessness, and utter destitution of these oppressed millions. They are ignorant, and cannot read; in a hopeless minority as to physical strength; cut off from all correspondence, even with those who desire to befriend them; without any thing in the world that they may call their own; hence the espousal of their cause requires rare disinterestedness, as well as great moral courage.

Consider, moreover, that in the immediate presence of the Slave Power, no one can demand the liberation of its victims, or enter his protest against their enslavement, except at the imminent peril of his life. So dreadful is that power, that, of a thousand pulpits on its soil, not one has the martyr.

spirit to confront it—of a thousand churches, whether Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, or Methodist, not one has the courage to unchristianize it. No meetings can be held to discuss the question of human rights, in relation to the slave population; no press is tolerated to speak out boldly and uncompromisingly against making man the property of man; a dead silence is everywhere enforced, a gag is put into every mouth, except when slavery is to be defended, or the friends of impartial liberty are to be denounced.. Not only are there the severest legal penalties to be incurred by agitating the subject, but outrage and death in their most appalling forms, by what is called the lynch' process. No parallel to this state of society can be found in any despotic government on earth.

Consider, finally, that by its professed expounders and teachers in this country, generally, Christianity has been made to sanction the right to 'trade in slaves and the souls of men,' to any extent! Yes, in the Law given by Moses,, in the Gospel as promulgated by Christ, they maintain that divine authority is given to one portion of the human family to enslave another! Hence to own a thousand slaves is no barrier to religious fellowship, no stain upon the Christian profession, no cause for church discipline. Hence it is common for ministers and church members at the South to be slaveholders; and none are more angry than they at any proposition for emancipation, or more ready to instigate to the infliction of summary and cruel punishment on any one suspected of being an abolitionist.

It is under such circumstances, that slavery must be assailed-with the certainty of no reward on the part of its victims, as they have nothing to give, and know not when or by whom their claims are advocated—with the certainty of being derided, caricatured, hated, calumniated, in the North, and tarred and feathered, or hung, at the South-with the

certainty of being branded with 'infidelity,' and charged with rejecting the Bible, in all parts of the country!

Now, then, when was it ever known that bad men became the advocates of suffering humanity, in the midst of fiery trials like these? Never! If an unfaltering faith in the promises of God—the deepest sympathy with Christ, and love for his character- were ever demanded or exemplified, it has been in the prosecution of the Anti-Slavery movement, from its commencement to the present hour. As, on the other side of the Atlantic, in the struggle for the abolition of British West India slavery, the purest, the most disinterested, the most philanthropic, the most truly pious, rallied together; so, on this side, the same elements have mingled for the deliverance of a much larger number from bondage, but through tribulation and peril unknown abroad. The men and the women whom God has inspired to demand liberty for the enslaved in this land are worthy of the apostolic age. They need no defence. The position which they serenely maintain in the midst of a scoffing and merciless nation; feared, abhorred, proscribed by the pharisaical, the powerful, and the despotic; howled at and hunted by the lewd, the profane, and the riotous; honored and blest by the suf fering and the oppressed, is their noblest eulogy. They are neither fanatical nor mad, neither foolish nor ignorant, neither violent nor impracticable, but speak the words of truth and soberness,' plainly and unequivocally. They ask nothing more than that liberty may be 'proclaimed throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.' As friends, neighbors, citizens, in all the relations and duties of life, they have no cause to shrink from a comparison with their traducers. In their company, the ungodly take no delight. It is their aim to keep their consciences void of offence towards God and towards man. Nor is the abolition of slavery the only enterprise in which their sympathies are enlisted. The tem

perance cause has no more thorough and reliable supporters; they constitute the backbone of the peace enterprise, in its radical form; in all the reform movements of the age, they feel a friendly interest. For the last twenty years, they have been a spectacle to angels and to men'-but where is the evidence of their misconduct to be found, except in opening their mouths for the suffering and the dumb? The cry of 'fanaticism' and 'infidelity' against them is raised to divert attention from the true issue, to excite popular odium, and to hide conscious guilt. Their fanaticism is all embraced in the American Declaration of Independence; they are infidel to the Slave Power, and will not bow down to a corrupt public sentiment. What motive, but reverence for God and love for man, could have induced them to take their position by the side of the imbruted slave? Were they not connected with the various religious sects and political parties-clinging to these with characteristic tenacity, and highly esteemed for their zeal and fidelity? And what have they not yielded to their convictions of duty, their regard for principle, their love of right? The ties of sect and of party, reputation, the hope of worldly preferment, pecuniary interest, personal safety, in some instances, life itself. They are intelligently and deeply religious, without cant or pretence; but neither expect nor desire any recognition of their Christian character on the part of a people whose feet run to evil, and who make haste to shed innocent blood.'

When, therefore, Mr. Webster, thirteen years ago, confessed that the subject of slavery had taken strong hold on the consciences of men,' and 'arrested the religious feeling of the country,' his vision was clear, his understanding sound, his testimony true; when he admonished those who listened to him, that a feeling of this kind was not to be trifled with or despised,' but would assuredly cause itself

6

to be respected,' he uttered a sentiment which cannot be too deeply impressed upon the public mind, and especially upon the legislation of the country, at the present time; when he declared, as his conviction, that to coerce it into silence, to endeavor to restrain its free expression, to seek to repress and confine it, there is nothing even in the Constitution, or in the Union itself, which would not be endangered by the explosion that might follow,' he evinced a familiar acquaintance with the martyr-history of the ages, and showed a deep insight into human nature. For as the Anti-Slavery movement rests on an eternal basis, and challenges the support of all those who fear God, it is sure in the end to triumph; and in proportion to the resistance made against it will be the convulsion attending its irresistible progress. Nothing can overturn it; nothing hold it back. Governmental edicts for its suppression will be as chaff before the whirlwind; compromises and combinations to deceive or crush it will all be in vain. If American slavery can be perpetuated, then there is no essential difference between a man and a beast ; then every form of despotism may continue to the end of time; then Christ has died in vain ; then the Creator is weaker than the creature whom he has made.

Within the last twelve months, a radical change appears to have taken place in the feelings and sentiments of Mr. Webster on the subject of slavery. No case of apostacy is comparable to it since the days of Judas Iscariot. In view of it, conscientious and enlightened men of all sects and parties are filled with sadness and amazement. There is nothing to mitigate its turpitude-no assignable cause for it, except the desperate hope of filling the Presidential Chair as the reward of the blackest treachery to the cause of Liberty.

On the 7th of March, 1850, in his place in the Senate of