s rule. At this time,
1820, the admission of Missouri into the Union gave rise to the
agitation of the extension of slavery. This was a sweet morsel under
and on his tongue. He at once commenced the indulgence of his
persecuting spirit, in the abuse of slavery, and slave owners. His own
immediate people had committed no sin in the importation of the
African, and the money accumulated in the traffic was not blood-money.
The institution had been wiped out in New England, not by
enfranchisement, but by sale to the people of the South, when no longer
useful or valuable at home; and all the sin of slavery had followed the
slave, to barbarize and degrade the people of the South. The fertility
of his imagination could suggest a thousand evils growing from slavery,
which concentrating in the character of those possessing them, made
them demons upon earth, and fit heritors of hell, deserving the wrath
of God and man.

It was palpable to the scrutinizing observer, that it was not the sin
of slavery which actuated the zeal of Beecher. The South had held
control of the Government almost from its inception. The Northern, or
Federal party, had been repudiated for the talents and energy of the
South. Its principles and their professors were odious--the conduct of
its leading representatives, during the late war, had tainted New
England, and she was offensive to the nostrils of patriotism
everywhere. Her people were restless and dissatisfied under the
disgrace. They were anxious for power, not to control for the public
good the destinies of the country; but for revenge upon those who had
triumphed in their overthrow. Their people had spread over the West,
and carried with them their religion and hatred--they were ambitious of
more territory, over which to propagate their race and creed; yet
preparatory to the great end of their aims, and the agitation necessary
to the education of their people upon this subject, they must commence
in the pulpit to abolish some cursing sin which stood in their way.
They had found it, and a fit instrument, too, in Lyman Beecher, to
commence the work. It was the sin of slavery. It stood in the way of
New England progress and New England civilization. New England religion
must come to the rescue. There was nothing good which could come from
the South; all was tainted with this crying sin. New England purity,
through New England Puritanism, must permeate all the land, and effect
the good work--and none so