yet makes to one class of its opponents. Nor is it altogether
unsuccessful. Many active and benevolent men are now with us, who, but
for this Society, would have been working on their own more questionable
projects, and vainly attempting what, perhaps, can scarcely be pursued,
with safety to the peace and happiness of the country.

"And may we not appeal also to our brethren of the South--and ask their
fair consideration of the two propositions I have suggested? If feeling,
discussion, and action, in reference to a subject upon which they are
so sensitive, cannot be extinguished, is it not wise to endeavor to
moderate and restrain them? May they not, if they cannot give their
approbation to our Society, as good in itself, at least bring themselves
to tolerate it as the preventive of greater evils? May it not be wise
for those who must know that there are schemes more alarming to their
interests than colonization, to suffer us to enlarge our sphere of
action, and bring those who would otherwise be engaged in dangerous and
injudicious projects, to unite in our safer labors? May we not claim at
least this merit for our labors:--that they are safe? May we not appeal
to the experience of eleven years, to show that the work in which we
are engaged can be conducted without excitement or alarm? And who are
we, we may be permitted to ask, to whose hands this charge has been
committed? We have the same interests in this subject with our Southern
brethren--the same opportunity of understanding it, and of knowing with
what care and prudence it should be approached. What greater pledge
can we give for the moderation and safety of our measures than our own
interests as slaveholders, and the ties that bind us to the slaveholding
communities to which we belong?

"I hope I may be excused if I add that the subject which engages us, is
one in which it is our right to act--as much our right to act, as it is
the right of those who differ with us not to act. If we believe in the
existence of a great moral and political evil amongst us, and that duty,
honor and interest call upon us to prepare the way for its removal, we
must act. All that can be asked of us is, that we act discreetly--with
a just regard to the rights and feelings of others;--that we make due
allowances for those who differ with us; receive their opposition with
patience, and overcome it by the fruits that a favoring Providence, to
which we look, may enable us to present fro