right of suffrage as to resist the
extension of slavery beyond its present limits. I say nothing here of
the political question of State rights, or of interfering with slavery
in States where it now exists. The question of authorizing by law the
extension of slavery into new States and Territories, or of admitting
new States with pro-slavery constitutions, is another and very different
thing from that of disturbing the compact in relation to slavery entered
into by the founders of this republic. The concessions in relation to
the slave interest which our fathers made by no means oblige us to make
further concessions, by consenting that slavery shall overstep her
present geographical limits. I know not what others may think; but, for
one, I feel constrained, by a sense of duty to God and my country, so to
vote as to have my votes tell against the spread of slavery. I must
carry my Christian principles of love and humanity to the ballot-box, as
well as elsewhere. Though long identified with one of the political
parties, I have of late felt myself bound, as a voter, to ignore the
ancient party lines, and even to ignore all other questions, compared
with the one great and absorbing one, Shall slavery be allowed to have
more territory, in which to breed and expand itself? In my deliberate
judgment, all Christian patriots should, so far as their votes can
speak, say to the system of bondage existing in our midst, "Hitherto
shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be
stayed." This becomes now a moral and a religious duty.

3. In our visits to the throne of grace, we ought, with more frequency
and fervor, "to remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them."
Assured that all hearts and events are at God's disposal, that he abhors
oppression, and that prayer is the Christian's mode of taking hold of
God's strength, we must make full proof of this as a weapon with which
to effect the subversion of slavery. It may be that importunate,
persevering prayer will effect more in behalf of the enslaved than all
other instrumentalities. It is, at least, quite certain that other means
will prove inefficacious, if this be not superadded.

But the question we are considering has a negative as well as positive
side; and we will next inquire, what we anti-slavery Christians ought to
refrain from doing.

1. We must not, in our efforts to subvert slavery, indulge in an
unchristian spirit, or in language adapted needl