itish to be Catholics, and
worshippers of the Virgin Mary, he could point to the west of Ireland,
where were one thousand worshippers of the Virgin Mary for every one
in America who did not wish slavery abolished. If he were to return to
America, and get up public meetings, and address them about British
idolatry, because the Indians were Idolaters, or on British
Catholicism, because many of the Irish worshipped the Virgin Mary,
would not the world at once see the absurdity and maliciousness of the
charge; and if he heaped upon Britain every libellous epithet he could
invent--if he got the wise, the good, and the fair, to applaud him,
would not the world see at once the grossness of the absurdity. And
where, then, lay the difference? The United States Government have no
power to abolish slavery in South Carolina--Britain can abolish
idolatry throughout its dominions. It was absurd to say it was an
American question. America, as a nation, was not responsible, either
in the sight of God or man, for the existence of slavery within
certain portions of the Union. As a nation, it had done every thing
within its power. The half hour having now expired, Mr. B. sat down;
and

* * * * *

MR. THOMPSON rose. He said he did not stand on the platform this
evening to explain to them his views in reference to slavery. He would
occupy no portion of their time by an exposition of any of the
principles or views entertained by himself on the subject of slavery
as it has existed in our own dependencies, or as it exists in America
at the present moment, or in other portions of the globe. He stood
there to justify that policy which in a distant land he had deemed it
right to pursue; he stood there to justify the policy which had been
adopted and pursued, and was still pursued by certain individuals in
the United States, whether many or few, whether a handful or a
multitude, who were known by the name of the abolitionists of the
United States of America. He stood there to justify himself and them
in the act of fearlessly, constantly, unceasingly, and universally, to
every class and color on the face of the habitable globe, enunciating
the great principles of equal justice and equal rights--of enunciating
this great truth that slaveholding is a crime in the sight of God, and
should be immediately and totally abolished. That God had in no
instance given to man a discretionary power to hold property in his
fellow