sufferings, should
attempt to gain their freedom by revolution; and yet they affect to be
equally fearful lest a general emancipation should produce the same
disastrous consequences. How absurd! They _know_ that oppression must
cause rebellion; and yet they pretend that a removal of the cause will
produce a bloody effect! This is to suppose an effect without a cause,
and, of course, is a contradiction in terms. Bestow upon the slaves
personal freedom, and all motives for insurrection are destroyed. Treat
them like rational beings, and you may surely expect rational treatment
in return: treat them like beasts, and they will behave in a beastly
manner.

Besides, precedent and experience make the ground of abolitionists
invulnerable. In no single instance where their principles have been
adopted, has the result been disastrous or violent, but beneficial and
peaceful even beyond their most sanguine expectations. The immediate
abolition of slavery in Mexico, in Colombia, and in St. Domingo,[O] was
eminently preservative and useful in its effects. The manumitted slaves
(numbering more than two thousand,) who were settled in Nova Scotia, at
the close of our revolutionary war, by the British government, 'led a
harmless life,' says Clarkson, 'and gained the character of an
industrious and honest people from their white neighbors.' A large
number who were located at Trinidad, as free laborers, at the close of
our last war, 'are now,' according to the same authority, 'earning their
own livelihood, and with so much industry and good conduct, that the
calumnies originally spread against them have entirely died away.'
According to the Anti-Slavery Reporter for January, 1832, three thousand
prize negroes at the Cape of Good Hope had received their freedom--four
hundred in one day; 'but not the least difficulty or disorder occurred:
servants found masters, masters hired servants--all gained homes, and at
night scarcely an idler was to be seen.'

These and many other similar facts show conclusively the safety of
immediate abolition. Gradualists can present, in abatement of them,
nothing but groundless apprehensions and criminal distrust. The argument
is irresistible.

FOOTNOTES:

[N] The slaves, they say, are their _property_. Once admit this, and all
your arguments for interference are vain, and all your plans for
amelioration are fruitless. The whole question may be said to hang upon
this point. If the slaves are not property, t