God, that the
following pages will prove an efficient antidote.

Southern people have their faults; they err in many things: and far be
it from me, under such circumstances, to become their apologist. It is
not as a defender of the South I appear before the public, but in
defense of my country, North and South. We are all brethren; we are
all citizens of the same heaven-favored country; and how residents of
one part of it can spend their lives in vilifying, traducing, and
misrepresenting those of another portion of it, is, to me,
unaccountable. It is strange, indeed! I entreat my countrymen to
reflect soberly on these things; and in the name of all that is sacred
I entreat you, my abolition friends, to pause a while, in your mad
career, and review the whole ground. It may be that some of you may
yet see the error of your course. I cannot give you all up. I trust in
God that you are not all given over to "hardness of heart and
reprobacy of mind." A word to the reader. Pass on--hear me
through--never mind my harsh expressions and uncouth language. Truth
is not very palatable, to any of us, at all times. Crack the nut; it
may be that you will find a kernel within that will reward you for
your trouble.

False impressions have been made, and continue to be made by the
writers alluded to above; sectional hatred is engendered, North and
South; and if this incessant warfare continues, it will, at no very
distant day, produce a dissolution of this Union. This result is
inevitable if the present state of things continues. Has the agitation
and discussion of the question of African slavery, in the free States,
resulted in any good, or is it ever likely to result in any? I flatter
myself that I have clearly shown, in the following pages, that
hitherto its consequences have been evil and only evil, and that
nothing but evil can grow out of it in future. I think that I have
adduced historical facts which clearly and indisputably prove that
northern agitation has served but to rivet the chains of slavery; that
it has retarded emancipation; that it has augmented the evils and
hardships of slavery; that it has inflicted injury on both masters and
servants; that it has engendered sectional hatred which endangers the
peace, prosperity, and perpetuity of the Union. Why, then, will
abolitionists persist in a course so inconsistent; so contrary to
reason; so opposed to truth, righteousness, and justice? They need not
tell me that slavery