continue
in the sin for the present, promise future repentance, and in the
meantime, whilst we are preparing to get ready to begin to repent, do
every thing that in us lies to extinguish every good feeling, and
cultivate and bring into action every bad feeling of the human heart.
That such is the belief, and consequent practice, to an alarming
extent, throughout our country, and that such a course is impolitic,
because it is wicked and dangerous, because it is unjust, facts
abundantly show.

Since the abolition of slavery in the British dominions, no trouble
has arisen, no danger been feared or apprehended. A thousand John
Browns, each with nineteen white men and five black men, could not
cause any tumult in any part of the British West Indies. Why is it,
then, that one John Brown and company have created so wide-spread an
alarm and consternation throughout the Slave States? The Governor of
South Carolina has sent a dispatch (Nov. 21) to Gov. Wise, tendering
any amount of _military aid to the defence of Virginia!_ Gov. Wise
had several companies of the military present on the day of the
execution of John Brown and others, and assured the Governor of South
Carolina that Virginia is able to defend herself. What causes all
this tumult and apprehension? SLAVERY! And yet, strange as it may
seem, the Virginians, with a stupidity and infatuation which no
language can describe, are seriously discussing the propriety of
enslaving the free negroes of that State. Such a proceeding would
resemble a physician who should order a dose of arsenic to cure a
patient who had taken strychnine, or attempt to extinguish a
conflagration by throwing oil on the flames.

How the consequences of abolishing slavery would be dreadful and
horrible, neither history nor experience informs us. Let us, then,
see what they tell us of the consequences of holding men in bondage.
In every instance which has fallen under my notice, insurrections
have always been projected and carried on by slaves, and never (with
the exception of Denmark Vesey in 1822, in Charleston, S. C.) by the
free blacks.

The contest between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, justice
and injustice, has always continued from the earliest ages to the
present moment. More especially is it true concerning American
slavery, that "sum of all villanies," a crime which involves the
continual violation of every one of the Ten Commandments. I propose,
therefore, to give, with other incid