the fundamental laws of right and wrong as he
learned them from his mother's lips, his father's Bible, and pronounce
the abject enslavement of a race to the interests and caprices of
another essentially just and universally beneficent. That a Northern man
visiting the South commercially should suppress his convictions adverse
to 'the peculiar institution,' and profess to regard it with approval
and satisfaction, was a part of the common law of trade--if one were
hostile to Slavery, what right had he to be currying favor with planters
and their factors, and seeking gain from the products of slave-labor? So
queried 'the South;' and, if any answer were possible, that answer would
not be heard. 'Love slavery or quit the South,' was the inexorable rule;
and the resulting hypocrisy has wrought deep injury to the Northern
character. As manufacturers, as traders, as teachers, as clerks, as
political aspirants, most of our active, enterprising, leading classes
have been suitors in some form for Southern favor, and the consequence
has been a prevalent deference to Southern ideas and a constant
sacrifice of moral convictions to hopes of material advantage.

It has pleased God to bring this demoralizing commerce to a sudden and
sanguinary close. Henceforth North and South will meet as equals,
neither finding or fancying in their intimate relations any reason for
imposing a profession of faith on the other. The Southron visiting the
North and finding here any law, usage, or institution revolting to his
sense of justice, will never dream of offending by frankly avowing and
justifying the impression it has made upon him: and so with the Northman
visiting the South. It is conscious wrong alone that shrinks from
impartial observation and repels unfavorable criticism as hostility. We
freely proffer our farms, our factories, our warehouses, common-schools,
alms-houses, inns, and whatever else may be deemed peculiar among us, to
our visitors' scrutiny and comment: we know they are not perfect, and
welcome any hint that may conduce to their improvement. So in the broad,
free West. The South alone resents any criticism on her peculiarities,
and repels as enmity any attempt to convince her that her forced labor
is her vital weakness and her greatest peril.

This is about to pass away. Slavery, having appealed to the sword for
justification, is to be condemned at her chosen tribunal and to fall on
the weapon she has aimed at the heart of the R