which would have checked every noble enterprise which has been
undertaken since the world began. It would have strangled Wilberforce,
and checked the very Exodus itself from the house of bondage in Egypt.
[Hear, hear!] Out on all such craven talk! [Cheers.] Slavery is a
mystery, and so is all sin, and we must fight against it; and, by the
blessing of God, we will. [Loud cheers.] We must pray to Almighty God,
that we and our American brethren--who seem now to be the sole
depositories of the Protestant truth, and of civil and religious
liberty, may be as one. [Cheers.] We are feeble, if hostile; but, if
united, we are the arbiters of the world. [Cheers.] Let us join together
for the temporal and spiritual good of our race."

PROFESSOR STOWE then came forward, and was received with unbounded
demonstrations of applause. When the cheering had subsided, he said "he
felt utterly exhausted by the heat and excitement of the meeting, and
should therefore be glad to be excused from saying a single word;
however, he would utter a few thoughts. The following was the resolution
which he had to submit to the meeting: 'That with a view to the
correction of public sentiment on this subject in slaveholding
communities, it is of the first importance that those who are earnest in
condemnation of slavery should observe consistency; and, therefore, that
it is their duty to encourage the development of the natural resources
of countries where slavery does not exist, and the soil of which is
adapted to the growth of products--especially of cotton--now partially
or chiefly raised by slave labor; and though the extinction of slavery
is less to be expected from a diminished demand for slave produce than
from the moral effects of a steadfast abhorrence of slavery itself, and
from an unwavering and consistent opposition to it, this meeting would
earnestly recommend, that in all cases where it is practicable, a
decided preference should be given to the products of free labor, by all
who enter their protest against slavery, so that at least they
themselves may be clear of any participation in the guilt of the system,
and be thus morally strengthened in their condemnation of it.' At the
close of the revolutionary war, all the states of America were
slaveholding states. In Massachusetts, some benevolent white man caused
a slave to try an action for wages in a court of justice. He succeeded,
and the consequence was, that slavery fell in Massachusetts. I