is an evil; that slavery is a curse; that slavery
is a hardship, and that it ought to be extinguished. I admit it; but
this is not the question. On this head I have no controversy with
them. The question is, whether their course of procedure is ever
likely to remove or mitigate the evils of slavery. Are we prepared, in
our efforts to remove the evils of slavery, to incur the risk of
subjecting ourselves to calamities infinitely worse that African
slavery itself? Or rather, is there the remotest probability,
supposing the plans and schemes of abolitionists should be carried
out, the Union dissolved, and the country plunged into civil war, that
slavery would thereby be abolished in the southern States?

These are the questions at issue between the abolition party and the
writer; and these are among the prominent questions discussed in the
following pages. It is true that I have hastily glanced at slavery in
all its bearings, but it was the fell spirit of abolitionism which
first attracted my attention, and induced me to investigate the
subject. It was its revolutionary designs and tendencies, its contempt
of all law, human and Divine, that first impressed my mind with the
necessity of prompt and efficient action on the part of the friends of
our country. It was the unparalleled circulation of Uncle Tom's Cabin
that aroused my fears, and excited in my mind apprehensions of danger.
If such productions as Uncle Tom's Cabin are to give tone to public
sentiment in the North, then assuredly are we in danger. Should Mrs.
Stowe's vile aspersion of southern character, and her loose, reckless
and wicked misrepresentations of the institution of slavery in the
southern States ever become accredited in the northern section of the
Union I fear the consequence. I sometimes survey the condition of my
country with consternation and dismay, and tremble in prospect of what
may yet occur. History records the rise and fall of nations. We read
of revolutions, butcheries, and blood. We have flattered ourselves
that our beloved country for ages to come, and probably forever, is
destined to escape these calamities. But, O God! how mortifying the
reflection that there are now, in our midst, religious fanatics and
political demagogues, who for a little paltry gain or notoriety would
plunge us into all these evils!

I have repeatedly, in the following pages charged the abolition
faction with revolutionary designs and tendencies. Some may doubt the