period; and because the abolitionists have said to the slaveholder,
"Now is the accepted time," and because he thinks this an improper
interference, and not having the abolitionists in his power, he
inflicts his vengeance on his unoffending slave! The moral of this
story is, the slaveholder will exercise more cruelty because he is
desired to show mercy. I do not envy the senator the full benefit of
his argument. It is no doubt a true picture of the feelings and
principles which slavery engenders in the breast of the master. It is
in perfect keeping with the threat we almost daily hear; that if
petitioners do not cease their efforts in the exercise of their
constitutional rights, others will dissolve the Union. These, however,
ought to be esteemed idle assertions and idle threats.

The Senator tells us that the consequences arising from the freedom of
slaves, would be to reduce the wages of the white laborer. He has
furnished us with neither data nor fact upon which this opinion can
rest. He, however, would draw a line, on one side of which he would
place the slave labor, and on the other side free white labor; and
looking over the whole, as a general system, both would appear on a
perfect equality. I have observed, for some years past, that the
southern slaveholder has insisted that his laborers are, in point of
integrity, morality, usefulness, and comfort, equal to the laboring
population of the North. Thus endeavoring to raise the slave in public
estimation, to an equality with the free white laborer of the North;
while, on the other hand, the northern aristocrat has, in the same
manner, viz.: by comparison, endeavored to reduce his laborers to the
moral and political condition of the slaves of the South. It is for
the free white American citizens to determine whether they will permit
such degrading comparisons longer to exist. Already has this spirit
broken forth in denunciation of the right of universal suffrage. Will
free white laboring citizens take warning before it is too late?

The last, the great, the crying sin of abolitionists, in the eyes of
the Senator, is that they are opposed to colonization, and in favor of
amalgamation. It is not necessary now to enter into any of the
benefits and advantages of colonization; the Senator has pronounced it
the noblest scheme ever devised by man; he says it is powerful but
harmless. I have no knowledge of any resulting benefits from the
scheme to either race. I have not