ISCOURSE

On the Day of the National Fast.

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G a t l e m a :-I have received your request for a copy of the sermon I

publication, which I delivered on the. day of the National Fast, and if you think it will do good, it ia at your service.

Respectfully yours H. HUMPHREY.

-OUR NATION;

PSALMS 147 ; 00.

"HE HATH NOT' DEALT SO WITH ANY NATLTION.~'~ ;*-

, .I have been called to preach a great many times on days 04 fasting and prayer, in peace and in war, bst never un- dw,alilch national perils as to-day. I see many gray heads

. i here like my,$wn, but you never saw such a day of per- . ; plexity, t$e sea and the waves roaring-men's hearts fail- ing them for fear, and for looking aftei those things that ate coming upon the nation." War indeed has once in rq o&r day, thundered upon our seaboard, burnt our capitol, blazed on our northern frontier, and crimsoned the w a k s .

'we met under the brightest galaxy that &er shone my land ; star after star being added to the cluste nm& till now, to miss one. Still less, to see half the group kindling into a blazing conflagration. a

Under these circumstances of peril a&dismay, when . - ' .- the truest patriots and the wisest statesmen are brought to

r wits' end, our chief Magistrate has met the crisis, as $t iuler of a ehristian nation should, by appoirhing a

* Rational fast, and asking, as he does, in his egcellent proc- . kmui&km8;-" in this hour of peril and calamity, to whom

shalT we resort for relief, but to the God of our fathers ? His wni'potent arm alone can save us from the awfuL ef- fee& of' our crimes and follies :-our own ingratitude and

, guilt towards our Heavenly Father. *. a?

'. M o u r fdvent prayers ascend to His throne, that he =$ would not desert us in this hour of 'extreme peril, but-re- member u s p he did oh-fathers, in the darkest days of the Re~olution, a@ preserve our constitution and our Qnion, . the'$ork of their hands, for ages to come.

An Omnipotent Providence may overrule existing evils * for permanent g o d . He can make the wrath of man to

. praise him, and the remainder of wrath he can restrain. Let me invoke every individual, in whatever sphere of life .

- he may be $laced, to feel a personal responsibility to God and his country, for: keeping this day holy, and for con- tributing all in his poyer, to remove our iag calamities."

,What true patritt's heart, will not re P f - . rempmendation. I would that every place of business in

re closed, and every factqry suspended, an3 . rail car stopped, andball the chmches fill

between tkB & w h and the altar, and let them say, spwe the people, 0 Lord, and give not thine heritage tg reproof."

us, heal our djvisions, and save us. h d now, brethren, we a red l here present before Gd,"

,- . hot to hear what is commanded me of God, for I have no direct mission from Him. He has not told me what to say to you, though I never felt the need so much. I feel entirely incompetent to meet the dewnds of the crisis. I invoke your fervent ejaculations to God, that he will be

i ' pleased to help my infirmities. It may be@,-that some of you thia morning, hope,

&hers fear, that I shall avail'myself, for once, of the oppor- danity to preach on politi&, and inquire on which side the blameLEes, that has brought us to the verge of the yaw$.p-eg-vl@ the hopeless dismeiberment of obr glori-

t$.' But if so, you wip be disappointed. I ch thing. I am no politician,and if I were, this

the time nor, the place. There is more than enough cus and club-rooms, and everywhere else.

4, mis-rimember; d r . Jefferson said, in his day, a We are all Bemocrats, we are all Federalists." So I will venture to say, that touching, the present national crisis, we are all Democrats and all Republicans. Indeed, no man can be one, without being the other. We are all for the Union as it is.

I Under the Federd Constitution, two political parties have always existed, earnestly.striving for the mastery, once in every four years, sometimes one of them gaining it, and sometimes the other; but always under the aegis of the Constitution, without shaking one of its strong pillars. But now, there are sappers and miners beneath the fonnda- tio.ns. T4e four years periodical elections, after roughen- ing the surface a little more or little less, have left the waters-as placid as before. But now the audacious divers are plunging in headlong, and striving with all their might

% to break up the fountains of the great deep, to over-

, :- whelm I.& all in one com

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The question now is, not who shall hdd the reins of govement under the constitution for the ihort period of

I four :ears when, if the high trust is abused, the power may' be' taken away, an& put into other hands; but whether these U. S. A., shall any longer remain, one and indivisible, with 4. PPlzbus Unzlm, shining in golden capitals upon all *

her banners. Give me any one of the politicafparty names h e a democritt, call me a republican, oal l

ny thing you will, but a disunionist, a lawless seceder- y friends, do you care, till the question

r the'" foundations " are to be preserved, q er%berty or slavery is to overspread and

preliminaries will not j e thought out of tion with the words of. my text, He hat& not

so 'wilh any nutiom. . !&is grateful'burst of raise, was uied forth 'from thk lips of the Psalmist, with reference God's dealing.with the ngtion of Israel, and-of course,

our first glance must be at the sacred Histmy, by which th text is sustaihed, beforg w'e inquire, h6w far it is appropn ate to the history of our country. A rapid glance, is a1 tbat the time will allow. t

~ i e nation of Israel, sprung from Abrsbam,the friend of. Goil and the father of the hthf* Constrained by famine, and invited by Joseph, Jacob with all his numer-

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ous family went down from Canaan to Egypt, where in spite of their hard bondage, they multiplied rapidly, and, 4 became a, nation, of something like 2,000,000 of ~ouls . ln&,

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process of time, God brought them out with a high hand :

and ah outstretched arm ; and fed them with manna, and 9:

gaye them water from the rbck, forty years in the wildee- ness, and the law from mount Sinai, and went %ll the wty before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and &re b2

4 iight ; and gave them the victory over all who opposed tliei~ '. @ogress, and put them i&possession of the 'promised laird';

driving out nations mightier than they ;-a gl6riom landj "flowing with milk and honey," buttressed on the nor&, by that goodly mountain and Lebanoa; looking out me& ward upon the great sea ; refreshing the hills and the valleys with the upper springs, and the nether spring;;

i loading the trees with the fruits of every clime ; filling the .I garners with all manner of store ; making their oxen strong

ta labor, and causing their sheep to bring forth by thou- sands and ten thousands in the streets. The whole land

: 6f Canaan was then a .garden, which the Lord had planted '-, ,. for his chosen and promised to be a .wall 6f fire

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about them and a glory in the midst of them; so' long

:.?> ey should 'keep his comma~dments. ' Verily, God had ' not dealt so with any nation. .E

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'e - Hear with what rapturous praise the Psalmist acknowli ' -- , edges itj in the preceding stanzas. "Praise the Lord, 0

Jerusalem ; praise thy God, 0 Zion. Por He hath strength- ened the bars of thy gates; He hath bless&d thy children

' within'theb: He maketh pace in thy borders and filleth I: .6 thee with the finest of the wheat. He showeth his word. P .

ndto3acob, his statutes and his judgments unto ~srael. B .: '.; k t h rtM deaid scr GIh my naliopi, and as for His judgment$ i:*f they have not linown them. Praise ye the Iiord.U - Grs&& @! %;-, th&6 all their-othefbleksings,God had given thern his writ: @ , \ ten-1atfr;a"Bd established his worship among tliern, 6ith seal$ 2 - ' and ordinances ; a id in this respec d tliem infinitely .> '. :p above all the nations of the earth, . . + . -.Ibthe reign of David, and that of Solomon, they were

1 - - a th6mbst prosperous and powerful of all the nations round . r

' abozff;.' God had put the fear of them upon all, far and C. . a

. near. . Thh w?s the culminating point in their history. . .

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But the their f dlegiance to Him, who hab thus blessed, protected and-exalted them ; nor fro& fatal divisions' among theni- s$vei. . At the very beginning of the reign-of .Rehoboam, mire than half the cahfederated tribes seceded under Jero- boam, and never returned. Bloody intestine wars, and for- eign invasions soon followed. The glory of the kingdom departed. God delivered them into the hands of the kings of Assyria. Then the Babylonians came, ravgged the country, burnt the temples, broke down the wall6 QP Jerusalem, and carrigd away the remnant of the nation into the seventy years captivity: And finally, when they had filled up the measure of their iniq6ty, God sent the Ro- man legions to make an utter end of them, by sword famine, and captivity and dispersion among all nati where '#hey remain to this day, despised, oppressed and hated, as the offscouring of all things. And thee, for. seL enteen hundred years and mote, has stood the naked, roc], -?y

skereton, of what was once the glory of all lands, as a bea- con tb warn the proudest natibns to beware how they abuse

utter- .r their privileges,till wrath coMs upon them to 1 most. $%=

A B ~ now; to leive that far off land; ipeics~k&&g at the head of the nations, undec the smiles of Geaven, and come home to our own country, can me say with the Psalmist,

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"God hath not dealt so with any nation." Ha spoke of the. past, and of the then present. He did not say,God neve will so signally bless and prosper any other mation ; but He never h d 'done it.' Now then, let us glance at his dealings with us as a nation, and see if he has not done even *ore for us, than.he did for the tribes of Israel. -Both had a pious ancestry. -!Z'hq dated back to Abraham; we t& tl6e

tans ' of like'precious faith,' who soon followed them to tak possession of this new continent. In the purpose of God, i t was more to them and their posterity, than Canaan mas to the children of Israel, though they knew i t not.

They were oppressed in Egypt, and came out under the symbols of God's presence and power. Our fathers were oppressed and persecuted for conscience sake, in England, and under the same protection, were brought over to this western Canaan, vastly more extensive than the eastern. They were met upon the shore by savage tribes, as Israel was by the Canaanites, and but for the special protection of heaven, would have been driven back into the sea. Such were their perils on the frozen edge of the wilderness, only a little more than two hundred years ago. And what hath God wrought? Upon the savage, rock-bound and ice-bound shore of Massachusetts Bay, our fathers, under His protection who brought them over, laid the foundations of a free government, from which bome of the best things in the Constitution of the United States were copied a century and a half later. Next sprang up the church, and the school house hard by, within hearing of the war dance and the war whoop.

As the little colonies grew, and began to turn the wil- derness into fruitful fields, the great red dragon, gendered in the apostacy of anti-christ, cast his fiery glance across the ocean upon them, and not deeming it quite politic to attack them in front, caused a chain of forts to be thrown around them, from Lewisburgh to St. Louis, that he might gradually tighten his convolutions, and crush them at his leisure. But God did not allow the stratagem to prosper.

Next came the revolutionary war of seven years, bring- ing over fleets and armies, which it seemed impossible for our fathers t,o resist ; but God carried them through and

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brougl$xnem q t of it,.under the Declaration'of Independ:

3 1.; ence, stronger thau when they entered it. The colonies d

- ? . ." became separate, independent states, for all ordinary legis- %ation; but for mutual protection, thirteen united states,

under the Constitution yhich still waves its banngr over us. Thus entering upon their high weer , they have gone . on &nd prospered for three quarters of ,a century, as no ". other nation ever did: "A little one has become a thousand, &$

"$ imd the small one a strong nation.'? From 3,000,000 in f5g '36, we have grown up to more than 30,@00,0QO.~.~ What . x< . ?. hath God wrought !" And besides this unpardled increase .

;, , of population, in these United Stades, what shall we say of $, , *.her commerce, whitening evep.y sea, aud lake, and lowing P I the waters of a hundred rivers ;'-what of the surplus of anr

t sgricul+ure, enough to feed half as illany more millions, as

- ' we count in the present census;-what of our manufac- t u r e ' s , ~ ~ fast crowding out those of tbeold nations abroad ;-' what of our rapid advance in arts, in improvements, in dis- coveries ;-what of more than a hundred colleges, what of

--? our professional seminaries; of our high schools and free .. ' ' ' sehod, numbered by more then ten thousand in agingle

state ;-what of our hospitals for the sick, of our mtreats for the iqane, the.de"af, and the blind ;-whit shall y e say of our thirty or forty t.houtagd churches, planted so ihick- l y over our vast national domain.

And fially, to crown d l , what shall we say of the glori- ous revivals, which %have come down like rain upon the lllomn grass, and showers, that water the earth ;" filling so many thousand gardens of the Lord, with the plants of right- oea&ess, to bo &nsplanted, in due timc, to the Eden above.

This is a mere outline of what God has clone for us, and may me not say, He lzafh not dealt so with cany nation; no,.. aot pith his ancient ~ov~~an t ' peop le . , Let ue pause for a

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think of it. We have the freest and best gov- re eSer was ih the world ; securing to us all

the blessings of law and order ; qf civil and reiigioua lib- . erty, with taxation so li&t for the support of B e govern- . ment t,hat no man feels it. We travq, (or lately did,) $kt

where we please, through the length and breadth ;f' half a continent, without a scrap in our pockets, to teil lhno w?

,.. are, where we come from, or what our business is. Wat which comes the nearest to it is, the questi& sometimes

- asked, f' Stranger, may I be SO bold as to ask 14here you hail fco*tg ;" Andsthat, said only to satisfy en inndcent . curi- osity, or to introduce pleasant conversation ; nothing more.

.tell yon', my friends, there .isb nothing like it under the un. Why, you. may travel every where, for weeks or onths, wit.hout once thinking tHat there is any govern- ent to control or protect you. lt ' is an'invisible, omni- esent powerj always ready to spring up, as@ were, out

f the ground, the moment it is wanted. Yon may send our daughter alone, from Pittsfield to the rocky moun- .

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i :; ins, ahd she will be as safe as if you were ' with her, not ,..

their small sea girt island.

it for gra?ted, that .you, will pass quietly along, withput I

distyrbing anybody ; but commit some crime, and then see, @the law4 do not spring up, and pounce upon you with a

..&asR of p n , from whicb there 8 no escape." Such is ' our government at home. And it extends its protection lo ; the ends of the earth.. Let any man from the united States, d e n iQ the greatest peril, say, !'I a& an American ~citken,'' a n p ' t h e stars and stripes over his head, and nobody,

'- wha has ever !heard of us, will dare .to touch him, for fear of the tlpnder and lightning of some arienging war-ship.

Such are ou; national resources and countless ble&ings ; such is the Federal Government, under which we have

. lived threequarters of a century and prospered beyond all example. *:

And now h a % are the startling tidings, that come, ma- mentarily flashing along the wires, fium our southern border? Like Job's Wsengers, while one i s yet speaking, another cometh.witb newer news,and still more startling. One of the driginal states of the Union has already broken vio- lently away,and several okers are preparingmadly to follow. . The tidings haye crossed the.ocean. The desppt- ~ g : !

.I.$. . isms of the old world have been prophesying,, , eaqri: gnce our republicim govement wag established, thatit could not shnd ; and now they are dnging over i h a t t- count th&lfillment of their predictions, in its impgp&g

/. downfall. CtSee," they are ready exultingly to congratu- . ' 4 I

late one another, the ' experiment of a republican kog~!@ ernment has been . tried under the most favorable*e -@, : cumstances and has hopelessly failed. . One , of. the stars of ! ! I - '

their boasted con.steU,ation, has suddenly vani&ed. in the smoke of spon\aneous combustion, and half that remain, A are just ready t o explode indike maxiner, and disappear fo{ever!' So they fill. the air with their rejoicings . . over-dur

c&soluti(l.. B u t w e woulld advise those b a r y headed guhking dynasties to wait a little.. We may yet out-live

em all. a Very differently will the tidings of our threatened dis- - memberment be received by thafriends of civil and relig-

; ious liberty throughout the whole continent of Europe. I n their atruggles they have been encouraged to persevere,

, by our great example. And now, if mc fai1,all theb hopes , will be crushed. So disastrous abroad, as wellgs at home, ' : would be the'overthrow of our proud and hithefto yros-

K - perous republic. 6 But the crisis is upon us. The southern heavens gather

T * blackness, ,and groy blacker every day. What has sopud- - denly charged thembith these rumbling thunders? ' Why i%&,.f at we are brought to the brink o b bloody revolu-

- Ah, my friends, we have brought it upon ourselves, . by our pride, by our boasting, by u waxing fat, forgetting the God that made us, and lightly esteeming the rock of our salvation." He h& seen it all, and is angry with us. .Whatever the secondary causes may be, by which guilty nation! are punished and destroyed, whether by sword, or $::'-:" famine, or estilence, or intestine bloody strife, His aveng- ,;$ ing hand i&n i t He sends the judgment, tu show men $;, that '' tee heavens do rule." This is unmistakablyldeclarg@ ---,

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in His word. " Shall a trum8et be blown in the city;a6d t k , p o p l e not berfraid 7,' * Shrlll there be evil in a ' city and t b L w d hath not dom it ?" I-form light and create darkness; I make peaGe and'create evil, 1-the Lord do all these things." Scores of other passages to ihe same emct

. might be cited, were it necessary. ]ti; impossible to read tbhis tory of God's dealings wi& Egypt, with Babylon, with the Jews and other ancient nations, and riot to see, tha@e elaims it as &s prerogative, to plant; to build up

many+~f t&e mo& .powUTerful kingdoms has He oventhrown* in Bis'mrath and to "make: .His power known, throughout all the earth." I t would dmost seem, as if He had beel#, trying for thousands of yt%~s, to see if he could not e s t ab lish a nation somewhere, with institutions and privilege3 that would secure their permanent allegiance, without the necessitiy ofhc~astising or plucking them up. .Bur the ex- pwiments, ypder the most favorable circumstances have a11 failed. The earth is paved with the bones & pires and dynasties, cast down and forgotten, all along tJiz* traik of revolving ages, because they wodd not have Go4 to r&gn over them. The mquments of Bxibylon, of Nin- eveh, of Tyre, where and what are they ? The nwrass, the mzm& of rrzibbish, 4yld the bare rocks, for fishermen to spread their nets upon! These are all. What will be our daom, who can tell ? If nations, no less than individ forget God, are punished in proportion to their what reason have we, above all othas, to trekble &*fear of his judgments, "except wewepent and do works meet for repentance !" Profanedess, intemperance, sab ing, licentiousness, a,nd slaver#, have con$ribut share of guilt and prwocation, to bring dawn .

#nishmehts upon us. crj. mightily unto God kt:' withold his ohastizing is now hanging over us. Let u i confess our sins aild tak sins of our nation, humb ltng,ourselves under His might7 hand, and who can tell, but - that he will rebuke the madness of the consgiratdq k; answer to the &nitent cry of his people, a ~ ~ & a # h ~ peo- ple, 0 Lord, and givemot thy heritage to reproach." He hath bent his bow, He ha tb~nade ready his arrows." W1 have great reason to fear, that the decree hasbgone forth. B u t to keep us from despair, we r e a d , a ~ t what instanit I

,; shallspeak conqrning a nation and concerning a kingd ,..., estroy ; if that nation,

. against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I , 4 will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them."

Turn us, 0 God, and we shall be turned, at thin

ubbreak, which now convulses the Union9 from one end to the other, and whi6h d m s at- nothing less than 'the o~eithrow of the Federal

: Governpent. 'It is not of recent' origin. The seed mas, '"lrtnlted, even before the revoWon. It took root a d yvas

nurtured under the &gk of th6 Constitution. Thus pro- t&&,-it grew and sjruck its'roots deeper and deeper, till %he&artling re beblioa of nuZZ~~calion, thirty years ago, in South Carolina.

Since then, disaffection to the Union has been covertly w i n g and spreading in a few gf the other houthern states, tiP?khas broken out in actual secession, and defiance of all the power of the government. And I hazard nothing in saying, that negro slavery is a t the bottom of it, whatever other causes have helped to dwelope it. Had there been no slavery, there would have been no secession ; n6 state

e treasonable thought. een entwining itself tho social and politi- ,

ing their blood, and stunting their growth, till it &as become not only a power

..in the state, but the po&r, which overshadows and has &t the mastery of the mast& as well as the slaves, and corn- pls t h w to do i@ biddini, tq th6 infinite damage of the . Comm0'~wedth.' Yes, 1 retract nothink ; i t is the growth

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and despotism of slavery, which has brougu us to the vdrge of a bloody revolution. I s

But while I say this, I have no sympathy with those, who denounce the present slave-holders as men-stealers and murderers. ! b y did not bring the slaves into this country. Theirifathers did not commence that infernal traffic in the bodies and souls of men. The curse was forced upon them in their'colonial state by the mother country, and I grieve

.t'-'q to add, was dfterwards abetted by New.England cupidity, continuing the trafic. A dark page in our early history. No, I pity the present slave-holders with all my heart ; and .instead of railing at them, would help them if I could. To a great extent, it is a condition not of theik own choice, but forced upon them by the hereditary laws of the states.

- What should we do were we placed in just such circum- stances ? "Are we better than they.?. No, in no wise.'" Qur human nature, is no better than their human n a t u r c very unreliable a t best. They say, that the hardest of all masters, on the plantations are emigrants from .the north ; md, to out shame be it spoken, I am afraid it is true, We know how to get* more work out 0f.a servant than they db? Thousands of therd, I have no doubt, ~ o ~ & e - ~ ~ l r r d ~ to emancipate their slaves if t h y knew w h % l%ozdd become of the'poor creatures under the stringent laws that hem them in. Take the la rs of the state of Kentucky as an example.

Eleven years ago when I spent a winter there, a C o n ~ n - ~ tion wm called to amend the Constitutidn. An effort A s made by a large class of the 'citizens, with Mr.' Clay at the head, to introduce a section for grcra$d emam@tion. It not only failed, in the Convention, but l& the slaves in a worse condition than they were before. Up to that time they might be emancipated; and remain in the state; their a

uld they become a public charge. Under the new clause, which was adopted as a substitute, they may still be emancipate but they must leave the state, within a certain number days, and if they remain they are liable to be taken up, an sold into everlasting bondage, to some prowling slave-trade from the South ; and now what can they do, placed as they& are between two fires ? Not permitted to stay, and not allowed by the laws of Ohio, to cross over the river and find a resting place for the soles of their feet. The more humane and pious the masters, the more reluctant must they be to expose their slaves to a far worse condition, un- der the laws of emancipation, than they are now in. Would you not be "in a strait betwixt two," under such circum- stances ? I am sure I should. And this is a fair example of the way in which both masters and slaves are ed by the laws in most of the other slave states.

And having made these apologies for a lar of slave-holders, because the curse is upon them and they don't know how to get rid of it, this is the proper place to r: that I have no sympathy and never had, with the raaia abolitionists. I think they have done a great deal of hurt by putting further off the day of emancipation, instead of hastening it.

My quarrel is not with the masters, but with the system of slavery, as nearly as possible in the abstract, that I have a right, so to consider and treat it.

The Constitution of the U. S. A., is the central orb, of the most perfect governmental system, that human wisdo has ever devised, around which, if I may be allowed to ca out the figure, the stars of our escutcheon have hither harmoniously revolved.

Negro chattel slavery, in like manner, is a system, whic 3

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has a central controling power, that has become so all pervtld- ing and strong, as to over-master the masters them- selves, as I shall show in the indictment, which I intend presently to bring against it., Willing or unwilling, they must submit to it, till some means can be devised, for throw- ing it off. I know the system cannot be dealt with as a perfect abstraction. I wish i t could. Slavery must have slave-holders of course ; but being once firmly established in a state, i t can maintain its ground, in spite of the great mass who are suffering under it. A few master spirits, can sustain it, t o the infinite damage of the state. Chastise them with the stripes, as severely as they deserve, if you can. I t is with the system per se, which is evil, only evil, and that continually, that I intend to grapple, as I never did before, and as I had not contemplated, when I began this sermon. The heavens are insulted with the lurid flashes of rebellion from our southern border. I can hold my peace no longer, when the citadel which my fathers, with unre- quited toil, and loss of life, helped to build, is now so ruthlessly assaulted, by men, who had sworn to defend it with their lives and sacred honor.

Born in '79, and now eight years older than the Gov- ernment, which they have conspired to overthrow, I have very little personal interest in its preservation.

But I love my country. I love my children, who I , hope will outlive me. We have a dear bought family

interest in the United States Government, which is now so madly assailed.% My father was a soldier in the war which gained our independence. He was a poor man, and

'1 - - '- ya.s paid in s o ~ ~ d notes, which were good for nothing, but

for us children to play with, when we wanted the bread ' , ; - which they could not buy.iYMy grandfather was a Captain

of a compaQy of Minete Men, in one of the hill towns of

Connecticut. "The alarm," as it was tahen called, came from the Colonel of the regiment, when he was ploughing in t:he field, preparing for a summer's crop ; ordering him ,

to collect his company, and hasten as soon as possible to *qq the defense of Ncm York. If e left his plow in the furrow, F'?

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and the next morning, bidding a hasty farewell to-his wXe, . ,; and s family of ten. young children, almost wholly depend- q.' .:

ent on his labor upon a rough farm for their support, he ?'' hastened with his men to the defense of his country. That was in '76. He never returned, but died on Harlem Heights,

. - and there lies buried in an unknown grave. -- . ! , --

- And now, when instigated by the demon Slavery, ~rattbss ms$otting for the overthrow the government, mag I

what I think in this presence ? I shall not be &,- . My heart is full nf the matter. Every drop of #;

my old blood is quickened. I will not denounce anylqdy ; '?:> but I will meet the system of slavery, the embodiment of:

4 d q p r e s s i o n and crime, face to face, as the instigator of * ; thp present insane attack upon the confederation, which P ' oudathers established and bequeathed to us, as the palla- .-

m - dium of the temple of Freedom, not only for us;6ut, as :. they hoped, for our children forever. It is slavery; which :

has been gnawing a t the vitals of the body politic, and : : bringing on this tremendous out-break for more than thirty pears. If there had been no slavery, there' @U+~&e bemi no secession. No star would have rnad%y rushd horn its orbit,wad~ plunged 4 swallowed up so many tions.

.It is the system of negro slavery, dPhich I 'now, on this 3, , : ,.j-: fouM day of January, in the year of our Lord, 18431, ar- - $3- ., .+

raiga;. as guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors." But in tkwbarges which I -am abut ; to bring, I iatent'io~ally

ah&&Ir th&.p~w to get rid of it. I d m t chde class a t all. They are entitled to our

u t I have many and griev- t against slavery, as a bind

I charge i t mith the atrocious crime, of stealing the child- --of Africa, bringing them over to this country, forcing d@-b receive them, and dooming them to a cruel and hope- less bondage. I chrge slavery, with perpetuating and endorsing the

guilt, from generation to generation ; by buying and sell- ing men, women, and children, endowed %vith intel1igen.t aud Pnimortal minds ; doing all in its power to divest them of their.humanity, and reduce them to mere animals, mith the mules on the plantations. " .I charge &very, with oppressing and robbing its ofi everything but their miserable identity, by whic ma$ bevknown and reclaimed, when they t ry to escape from their hard bondage.

I c h r g e slavery, with nullifying the sacred o r d i n a n ~ ' d marriage, allowing no man to have -a lawful we m woian%a husband, no child a father .and

Icharge slavery, with breaking up families, such as t ~ 6 ~ , are; s'elling the father to one slave-holder, the mother to

mother, the son, to go and labor, and be scourged, and die iilr s m e cottomfield 'or rice swamp, and the breedthncy daughter, to be sold to some lec of a mdley, harem. I charge &w$, with branding qlzd kc@rati~glthe mked

bodies of men and women, because-their skim $re bla&, Eea~ing themSlm Ikope of redress Eoz, the most s h o a 6 g r P r d ~ which~brutal task-masters may choose to inflM *

+churg& fhe s p k m of slavery, with withholding the "key of knowledge " from four millions of intelligent and immor- tal minds, by laws forbidding their being taughk. to read, and- thhs shutting out the teachings and consolations of the blessed Bible from their cabins, forever.

Icharye slavery, with tarring and feathering, and lymhing men and women from the North, who happen to 1ig~'or travel at the South, without a shadow of evidence agaiipat them. I

Here let me quote a short paragraph from a dissuasive apped.of a union man of high charaoter and legal stand- ing in the state of Kentucky, whose charge under -ti&

!..oount) goes far beyond .mine...+ ,.. - With what proprieky can South Carolina, or u I k 8 h h s

anmp3ain of obstructions to the reGovery of ~fa$tives by hobs of free negroes and the dregs of Nomthern Stnteq.~when she, and those of her neighbors, allow mobs, underithe coun- tenance of the most respectable members of t&&r society, 44x1 insult and maltred northern men, and depkim them of >

8 (.

their constitutional rights ? The instances are very nuaer- 6 i* ous, when northern men of respectability, h a w ~19ithut *. ::

other than that of their northern residence; be? mm - to leave unfinished business and depart from t b s e .

states, d e r the threat o£-lynch I . . >L 3. b y e been sebtled in those states w ?

&$en compelled, so to leave, for no oa i birl@~~:pelihaps .in addition, b e a u they would not admit that slaverjr i Bow many have been actually murdered, for no other cause, is e dark secret which will never be fully disclosed. It is

cted, that there have been nearly as many .of such ,

m d e r s a there have been of owners obsbucbd in .the recow~3p%.d -fugitives. , Tha instances of the litter, are emc

tainly nm one in twenty, perhaps hot one in fifty; when cornpiwed with the instances in which northern men and women have been causelessly driven from the extreme ewthern etates, in contempt, and despite of the express, sonstitutional guarantee of their right to be there, I charge slavery, with violently seizing free citizens Crom

the free states, engaged in their liltvful business, and sliut- ting them up in prison, and Peeping them there, at its pleasure, in direct violation of, and in defiance of', the laws of the United States in such cases made and provided. I chrge slavery, with violently driving away the poor

-

C.hrolcees. and Choctaws from their lands, and from the graves of their fathers, solemnly secured to them by almost half a score of treaties. Their tears and entreaties could' availnothing. Slavery wanted their fertile and beautiful country, and go they must, in defiance of all the laws of heaven and earth, for their protection. I thank God that& was permitted, at the time, to put forth my feeble remon- strances, against this enormous robbery, which had some cirrtu-lation, though they availed nothing. I might nm ply these counts in the first bill of indictments of nc &very in this country. But I will add only one mora

3 charge the iysiern of slavery, with blod$;nnd pe sistent efforts, to force itself - q o n Kansas, in spite of th resistance, even unto imprisonment, and death of the peo p"lc& It was there, that John Brown, jeopnrded his life i n many* fight for freedom. It was there, that one of sons was'sh~t dead in cold blood, and another was man%: and driven t a ! ~ y 4 n chains, thirty miles to prigon; uabr a burning sun, which heated his brain to raving destrabtim And i t was there, under those cruel wrongs, the burning s o d and deranged brain of the father, were 'nerve that deplorable enterprise in which he lost his life.

-- 7 wv+-.-** - - -= . -.

Would that I could dismiss the painful subject here. But I have another bill to present in behalf of the stave ,, ; holders themselves, and the *hole white population of the slave states, who are, in some respects, even more to be . *p

pitied, than the slaves on the plantations. Tht me go over . i; " :, xy some of the counts of this indictment. ti .-

r!? Imprimis, Icharge slavey, with encroaching upon the holy . s , %>

sanctuary of household chastity, and bringing mixed blood . .r .*

isto a thousand families, debauching the sons, and depriv- ,,, < ing the lovely daughters of safe and pure betro I charge slavery, with compelling masters, when-

into decay, to sell their own flesh and blood ; their ow and daughters, by wrong mathers, or if not dri till they come to absolute bankruptcy, then to stand by the auction block, and see them struck off as prime stook, to . . - ' , -- the highest bidder.

. -- ,;" .&I " 5

, -'. . Icharge slavery, with imposing burdens upon masters and .. J 3

mistresses too grievous to be borne. For a man to take " , .,

18h.s general oversight of a large gang of slaves, provide f r > ~ . -V

6&lmpport, even the coarsest fare, and clothing; to g m d against their stealing from his hog pasture and poultry yard, which they consider no crime, to keep them steadily ' ; at work, for which they receive no pay ; to see that they ard all in their cabins every, night by a certain hour, and watch against their stealing the horse5 qn&.mi-.their &ape ; to do all these things and make any thing by it, is rr ba~dea too heavy to carry. He is himself the greatest

- dave of all, and he can't help it. Many an owner of a : large plantation would tell yon, that with all his toil and

k2 Qare, he finds it difficult to make the two ends of the year and that he wishes with all his heart he could get rid

ofeye~y slave he owns; or rather, he might almost say, that

think of his p m wife--what a doomtrd shve ed with a bundle of keys like a keeper ,&a

prison-obliged, besides taking care of her children;, @&seeing to the end -of everything in her own family, to p m d e a d oversee the making up clothing for the slnveq visit them in their quarters and take care of them in sick-: rims, as very few of them will take care of one another, and often, when she needs nursing more than they do. Tell mq is she not a bond-servant of servants. And have I not a 1:ight to charge it all upon the cruel system of slavery P Bit to proceed : I charge slauery, with sending men to Congress, so edu.

caked by domineering at home, as of all others to be most ready to browbbeat and cudgel, and challenge, whoever pa- happen to oppose them. w A: sLk

I@arge slazwy, with compelling the masters to keep out strong patrols, and bar their doors, and sleep every n4M upon their arms, if they can sleep, for fear of insurrectionsi and to save their families from massacre. It is absolutely frightful a t this distance, a i d nothing but the system of =EL. '

slavery could ever have done it. I would not, if I might, ga with my family into one of those infe sojourn for six months, and sleep every night w under my pillow and a loaded rifle for all that "king cotton " isworth I chrge the system, with inflicting grievous

the laboring classes of t.he white population states, for rendering it disreputable for them slaves do; and more especially, by bri competition, in the matter of wages, with of adult slave?, who receive no wages a t dl, to say nothing -c&tbe cruel injustice to the slaves tliernselves, how can the laboring whites even, rise to thrift, independence and iw- ence under such a system ?

2 5

Would that I could stop here ; but there are some other counts in the indictment of the criminal, which I must not withhold.

I charge the system of slavery, with crippling the energies up the resources, and being irreconcilably hostile t great interests of the states which i t rules and o p

it that ever since the Revolution; they& 1, ,.

drying all the presses. ' Why is i -- have been so rapidly falling behind the free states in uhtion, in agriculture, in manufactures, in commerce, almost every thing, which constitutes the strength and p perity of a people. The south ought to have'been'as p perous, as enterprising, as rich,-as the nofih. Why no She has as much territory ; she has a more productive she has as fine harbors ' and sites for large commerckl cities ;' she has inexhaustible water power. Why is it, that she fidls so much behind her northern sister, a t every cen- sus? There must be reasons for it ; there must be some great pudizing cause. And if i t is not slavery, can any body tell mwbat it is ?

' Take Virginia as an illustration, and compare her with New York. She has more territory, a finer climate, a better soil, a more central location, a more ample bay and hatb,or, richer mineral wealth ; in short, superior natural ad- vantages, in almost everything ; and why has the s c ~ t s e departed from Virginia, so long the empire state, anit gone o<exito New York. Why has she so fallen off, as to be onl$i[skthsr seventh power, in the .confederation ? What is it, that has worn out and tukned her best lands into pine barrens, and compelled her to resort to the raising of chat tels for the southern shambles? If not the system of sl'ivery, what is it,'that has brought snch blight upon the mother of Btates and of Presidents ? If continued, what will the end be? Tell me, mill not the indictment stand 9

4

i&tIgtess, d ~ f i n g the lest 80 yea*, gdd &d%hg: fl?M% il'r"blood, and doing more to alienate the northem &&hem metbng frond each other, aud belging to bfing bh the present state of thing$ thafi dl oth& dBturbiilk dausi~s put together. There have bean a good many do'hi- promisei tried, each of which has wideaed, rather €&SI Waled the breach; till I believe the conviptiotr is grow'irig deeper on both sides, tliat compr&ise;rr am worn out. My own belief, at least, is, that it will be imposdble f& committees thst now have them in charge to agree. '&MI 8' they eould, they would'not 1 8 t ha far handing 't&& aver ta be adbp'ted and settled by CdfibtiktiU6mcl inknts, it appearst6 nie perfestly idle. Iln order to succeah, khdy would &st have ta pass by two~thirds totes, in Cbn- gresa, and then be referred toill the aspr%te s t s k fin adob~ 'ticin, where a-$ate of thew-fdurthis; w thee to m$ muld b8 is@ired. In the present state OF feeling w batrh ifd'e+ it would be impossible. I t would only keep up aad.iircr6as.e the irritation. I don't say where the blame lies, but 'And whatever other causes of alienation have been &e igdic%tnerut which I biing agzliilst da;v@ty ,

he cities, upon the plantations, vpon all t@ educational, moral, social, palitical, and religipqs f our sister states, how c& I, as a patriot,,q@ B

knught us hto. ,&his mpdition ? I boldly ~fls9m& h~ ,$he system ,of nego ~kn%ry, which bas bgoome a c ~ ~ t r q j k ing power in the -Gulf states. The a peculiar ins t i tuG~~/ has maddened them to desperation. Vow else can it be accounted for, that .a small state with only about 30QS0 whitepopultxkion and 400,000 s l a~es to keep under, h g ac bually gone oat, declared her independence, and put hersel in the attitude of defiance to the whole power of the B'edergiJm4 ~yernment . What else but such madness, as the ,defence of slavery alone could inflict upon a state, having dl & elepeq@ of insurrectjon in her midst, to be y.atched day agd night, a n h a ~ e possessed ,them. Yea, slavery is et t& &#om @it all; and if it shopld -result in a pivil war, and .twepts of blood .showld dr,gwnZhalf the land, slavery, wi@- out which no such revolutionary madness could haveaccured, ~ i l $ be answerable for all its hd(nrors.

But what can we do to arrest this Juggernaut car of ~ecessi.on, or to help deliver our brethren from the daspqt- ism of davery, with their four tgi&" of vassals? We m'$ go into the slave states, to volunteer our services. We have so right to interfere. They must be left t o wotk ~ q t their own emancipation in the best way they can, and d pay God to .help them before it is too late. Were I[ among them, in bhia fearful crisis, I would sooner lose imy <life and have ;my [bones therd, ihnn say one ward .to &&&9 ~ ~ r e c t i o n among thealaves. ; Bwkirr .wiew iaf the snorng9.w auib whiaF?the @$&tern h4s jnflictid upon the sunny south, the faireit portion of bur filorious national heritage-upan [the daves, upon the mas-

&degt&ain from hrotesting with all my powers, agaimt +hg&tension of the system, with dl its blight and waes, m i c u r s e s i n o t h e r mod of free territory? How oan eny one who loves his country, his whole country, and l o o h at the system as it is, and considers what it baa? done, is doing, and may further do, and not fervently pray, that God of His infinibe meroy will stay the sprea" ~f the plague ?

The present outbreak, is the third rebellion since the sdoption of the Federal Constitution. , . .. <

. The first was the whiskey rebellion in the state of P d n - sylvania. It looked formidable when it suddenly broke out, but as soon as General Washington appeared among them, upon his old war horse, the rebels fled and hid them- .selves behind their distilleries

The second rebellion, under the name of nullification, brdke out some thirty years ago in South Carolina. fhp era1 Jackson was then a t the head of the government. And how did he deal with i t ? He brought down his foowc I take the -responsibility," afid with the aid of our great Webster, as his amanuensis, he crushed it in the bud. o~ .

The pwsmt, third revolutionary movement, is kneh 3

more extended and alarming. It is an audacious defiance of the whole power of the Fedeial Government. Whabit will come to, God only knows. It seems as if such mad- ness could not break out, and drive its victims on to self destruction, anywhere in the world ; but it is no new thing. . :*

When God has' determined sorely to punish cir d e s t r q guilty nations, he has often done it by such a w h l epi- demics. The history of the world records many such. I >have room for only three. N first, was the drowning of Pharaoh and all-%s

. . t.--

tnigl~ty host, in the Red Sea. After witnessing the *

cles by which God had just desolated the land of Eg nothidg but absolute judicial madness could have induck

,them to rnn'rch into the deep after their slaves. The second example, we have in the destwction of Jmu-

salern by the Romans, as recorded by Josephus. 'That more than a million of Jews should suffer themselves to be shut up by rt victorious army in one city, there to hold oat and perish by famine, and by falling into factions, and butchering one another, cannot be accounted for in any other way, than by ascrib~ng i t to a judicial madness through which the wrath of God mas poured out upon them -to the uttermost.

The amazing atrocities of the French revolution, furnish fhe third example ; that reign of terror, when no man &or. woman was safe, and under which the government rand the governed perished in their own blood together. It was an epidemic, and contagious madness, seiz5ng alike upon the rulers and the people, and hurrying them alter- &t@y as victims and executioners to the all-devoulriq guillotine. - '

:, I cannot help looking upon it as a maddening':ep1demk of the same kind, (though, thank God, infinitely less malig- -. - nant in degree, as yet,) that has driven one of our weakest . states to open and defiant rebellion. It is downright mad- 4 3 % ~ ; it can be nothing less. If i t cannot be averted, it mag, by k sweep of its terrible vortex, draw in the border states, up to aeon and Dixon's line ; and then where are we ?

4!wo dislocated fragments of one great united republic, so lately the hope of liberty, and the terror of tyrants in other

"ra%&s.- Let us continue in fervent prsyer to the God of 'our fathers, that He will rebuke the madness of tho people

: and save us. But should He as a punishmel~t for our 'sia

s.l, p r m i t i& let us still hope that herein, .'EEe will cause &e wrgth., of .man to praise Him, and the remai~der r h i n .

That such a $ d i n g ,of t-he Union may sooner or later ipke law, bqg long been slnbicipated by some of the most f@r-qeeirg patr i~ts and statesmen of the country. &re ihm twenty ye&m .ago, the venerable John Quincy Ad+p~e said in a discourse before the New York Historical So- ciety :

"In the calm hours of self"-possession, the right of a 9- ,

to nullify an act of Congress, is too absurd for argumept, and too odious for discussio~. me rtght of a state to swe& from the Union, is equally, disowned, by the principles of the Declaration of Independence. If the day should ever --+:

oome, (may Heaven avert it,) when the affections of the people of the 8tates shall be alienated from ea&* other yben the fraternal spirit shall give way to cold indifferens orcollisions of interest shall foster into batred, the bands of political wsociation will not long hold together parties no longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated interesks k-- and kindly sympathies ; far better will it be for the pe.ogb d the disw~bd chks to part in friepdship wihb, each -ot;bm, thaa to h M d together by mnsbiat. - Thep wilI. +,: ibe the time to f ~ r m a g a i ~ a more perfect ~nion , by d i s s ~ b r ing that which could no h n g w bind, and to leave the s e p .arated parts, to bs .rs-united9 by 4be 'Faw $.of political gwi& . , ,tation to the ccnter," d G- . Nr. Clay has somewhere sxpressed nearly the same w - j,iments. It i,s evident that ;bath those great statesmen -

~pprehended .the rtime would oome. Without the m d l & @retensions to such pokikical .sagacity, I have long thou@ 6% and said so, i.ho~-@ I hoped the separation would ;a& .dm -ip.my day, ;and 5 @ill dug tr, kbe h o p . P

* And ghmld it ~ Q I B Z wh~t , id! s h e e d yem, ~9&$& tlfe condition of the two races 'n0 the South 'l Will e v ~ mist, $0 as to become one great a ~ d united pmpl$ td &fieif masters at3dd slaves have done, in many countries ? ht, this question to the masters theie, and they w5l sdmt the idea with infinite scorn. Nor is,this unconqnerabfe mb pugnance all. It takes but a few generations for white &cea to amalgamate, as was the case with our British a& mtors ; but I believe there is no instance on record where the same amalgamati n has taken place between the white 9 aild the black races. A mysteriouh bn forbids ith Any albtknpt to force it, would, I "beliew, rapidly deterioriaM both races, if it did not run them oat. . .

Indeed, libetty and slavery co-existing for a few genm $&oq4%tween an;). two mees, am such hostile and repd- 'f& principles, that one or the other must prevail, and take

,)& possession of the whole ground, ax in Hayti. They may #hive tmingle, during longer or shorter peziods, like the M g g l e c of twilight, neither light nor da~k ; but orre must e'~e'long inevitably yield to the other. The great law will have its way -,, .

-a:?;,& q ' Possibly, if all the southem slave states should go ont, 3&4

?%?? 3% Z'.! -..

sad establish an independent government, they will see the necessity of adopting some effectual system of gradnd mamipation, as they are not !ikely to doj aa&mg as key remain with! With 4,000,0QOf:~~aves now to take dafe'sf, rtind so fmt h&&whg that they amble in - a Iittte more than twenty years, even without the fo*

trade, how can they, if not left to absolute ma$r&s this colossal idol, fail to see that the day of emancib

or ruin must come ? 16,000,000 sf sltives in half s g fr6rd this day f It is absolutely appailihg ; but it

ik b&r@ th&n ti, grapple with alone, if they dissolve

U n i a " If.we could be sure of a peaceful separation, and tb-6 would thereafter be no collision on the linen, no border wars between us, we might, perhaps, however reluc- tantly, consent to part with them ; but if wars shodd break . . %~t, and I can see no hope of preventing them, what would 'he t6e condition of the ~outhern half, in a few years ?

Though such a frontier war would be bloody on our side, it might not expose us much to invasions from the South, @a long as t h q lhve millions of slaves to leave behind. But in case OF-such a war, how would i t be with them+?; I shudder to think of i t for a moment. We, having 19,000,- 000 on our side of the line, and no slaves to keep under, rend they, only seven m eiyhf nzilliona, with four millions of slaves in their midst. As human nature is, how long would i t be before the North, if attacked, would carry the war far over the border-then, how long, if they found it necessary, before they would free and arm the slaves+ and then, it is too horrible to think of! May God, in His infinite mercy, never suffer i t to come to wading in this sea of brothers' blood !

My soul is sick ! But, 0 Lord, are thy mercies c l e d gone forever ! Should the plowshare of this fratricidal re- belli6n 5e driven on from state to stat&, till half of them are torn away, must we -then despair of the CommoliL wealth ? ' S h o u l d we have no free United States of Amcr- ica left ? I turn from tho dark side of the picture to look back again upon a11 the way in which God has led us hihh- erto. I see the Mayflower, sounding her laborious wa?; two hundred and forty years ago, into Plymouth harbdr. I see her spars loaded with ice, on a savage and unknown coast. I see the worn-out pilgrims for conscience sake, landing and looking round, mournfully, upon naught but the wintry desolation. I see them digging the frozexi

ying half their little sta

cou:d not long be hemmed in by the unbroken mildernesz

%,.;#npp~sg Scotland and Ireland were to secede e British crown, would that break up the govern-

w q t . ? Would they no longer have any Parliament, any &@a and Commons, to meet at Westminster and legislate $p the Empire ? Suppose the three counties west of the Cannecticut River, should secede from the old Bay State, would that break up the government ? Couldn't Massa- chusetts hold together and prosper without us? I f we had fifty thousand slaves, spread over these hills and ~g l l i eg she would be better off without us than with us.

So if d l the South should actuallysecede and go off in a, body, woulii that necessarily break up the Union and . compel us to* organize a new government as best we could ? I am almost ashamed to ask the question, in this enlight- ened presence. We should indeed, lose 8,000,000 of whites, who are as free as the system will allow, together withhalf as many million of African slaves. It would be a gma4 loss upon the general census. But if you will excuse the solecism, we should be a t least 4,000,000 stronger than we are now.

Notwithstanding such a vast and motley stampede, Re q''&4p&kve a great and ponrerft~l nation of free United States left, to wave the star-spangled banner over ua, Verily, let what will come out of the madness which rules the hour," in the cotton states, this is no time to despair of @e Union. Why, just look at the stars still shining in our northern hemisphere. Counting one by one, there .m&Q be eighteen left, sparkling as bright as ever, if not:brighter, ypm our national escutcheon-jzye more than the original n,u~ber. when we wcre all together ! Does this look like a failure ? Does this look like an abortive South Ameri-. q a , ~ w~erirnent ?

- T#bmcgl;r fathers hewed out their independence sith-

free states a h a , 'more than l9,OOO,OOO, s k times as many ! And what more ? Twenty, if not jfty times, more wealth and other physical resources, than they had, when they ex-

obntinstitutions of every name, such as Hosbitals, Retreah; :Asylpms, m d the thousand smaller Associations for the relief

' " +

, of sicktiess, poverty, and all " the ills that flesh is heir to ;"- - when I consider all these resources and blessings, bestowed wpon the free states, and prospectively to be enjoyed by all *,yast regions beyond ;-above all, when I find, that God has poured down more glorious Revivals of religion upoa the

. rArrlerican churches, than he his done upon any other l a a 4 & % a d when I lookat the precious fmib of these tines&* - - . .I I.

torted their emancipation from one of the most powe~ful nations of the world. And yet agxin, we have vastly larger free territory, stretching from ocean to ocean-room enough for more than twenty new states, as large as New York--mom enough for a hundred and$f/y million of peo- ple,&without being more than half as densely settled as Massachusetts now is, with plenty of room for more- with no slaves to watch, and flog, and nightly bar their doow against. And then, once more, our vast and increasing commerce, with all the world ; -our soil, rich enough and enough of it, to sustain half the present population of thef globe. When I think of our fifty thousand free schools, and more, increasing by hundreds annually, and keeping up with the marvellous vanguard of peaceful Crusaders, stretching along, for 2000 miles front, as they pass OK&&=

ards the rising sun, beyond the great sea ;-when I: our Colleges, Professional Seminaries, Academies, mdHigk Schools for both sexes, which, if I could count thd teday, we might hear of more tomorrow ;-and then ofL the b e n e ~

fresbtng," the millions whom they have brought into the churches, and besides what they are doing a t home, which is a mighty work of evangelization ; when I think of their great Foreign Missionary enterprises, consecrating their sons and daughters, in such increasing numbers, to " go far hence," and plant and water christian churches, in all the great howling wilderness of this apostate morld ; and think of the signal success, with which God is crowning these labors ;-I say, when I think of all these remarkable proofs of his approb~tion, and yet how "much land yet remains to be possessed," how can I despair of m y country, dis- tracted as a part of i t now is, and chastised for our sins as we m y be? Would I-Tc have brought us hither, and giv- en us so much work in prospect fcr bringing on the millen- ninm, if he h;ul intended to pluck us up, just as we are entering upon tho wmk. The analogies of His Providence nre egirinst it. ->

Every nation has a mission for gpod' 'or for evil, to the rest of the morld ; to bless or to curse other n:ltions. This last was the terrible mission of the Assyrian and Babylon- ish empires ; and when they had fulfilled it, they were in turn osst down and blotted out.

Ours, blessed be God, i s manifestly a very different mis- sion. Whether all the tribes remain with us or not, I can't divest myself of the persuasion, that the Ulzited States, be the'numbcr greater or less, are to Bear a very conspicuous p a r r i n the conversion of the world. Though all who threaten to go wt should leave us, we should still be a great and powerful nation, with all the advantages of rapid growth a t home, and the most ample resources, with which to "overflow 'and pass over," for the rescue of other lands, from the dominion of the prince of the power of the air, by whom the most populous nations of the world, are held in bondage, even until now.

sun ? I t is the brightness of " the Suti of righteousness," rising upon d l the heathen l:~nds, with healing in his wings. And, now, I seem to bchold a mighty angcl, stilndilig on the highest crest of our i\Iountnins, with the gospel trumpet in his hand, and looking eastw;~rcl, and ~ e s t ~ i ~ r t l , mid nort.hmard, and southmnrd, t ~ n d sounding out those g1;~tI tidings of great joy to all people ?-'' Tho bingcloms c ~ f ' this world are become &he kingdotus of our Lord and IIis Christ, and He shi~ll reign forever and ever."

When that time comes, mill borid-men and bond-women still groan in hard bondage in our land ? Will the song die away, as soon as it reaches Mason & Dixorts line? Whether our neighbors on the other side, go or stay with us, the abolition of slavery, sooner or later, is a foregone conclusion. If in no other way, it will work out ik own enlancipation by the great lam of natural increase in num- bers and physical power. Persisted in, and suflered to go on, geometrically adding its millions to its millions, it will one day break its fetters, and rouse itself to irresistible defiance. What sane Inan can doubt i t ? I prity God, that it may be a peaceful emancipation. And however the present generation of inasters UlilY cling to Ihe sys- tem, t8heir children, I cannot allow myself to d o u b t mill in some way, throw off the burden and the curse, and cor- dially unite with our children in their jubilnadi rejoicings that the whole land is free.