struggles of the oppressed! How many among us were ready to lay down their lives for the cause of liberty on earth! And now who cares for free institutions abroad? How seldom does the topic pass men's lips! Multitudes, discouraged by the licentiousness at home, doubt the value of popular institutions, especially in less enlightened countries; whilst greater numbers, locked up in gain, can spare no thought on the struggles of liberty, and, provided they can drive a prosperous trade with foreign nations, care little whether they are bond or free.

I may be thought inclined to draw a dark picture of our moral condition. But at home I am set down among those who hope against hope; and I have never ceased to condemn as a crime the despondence of those, who, lamenting the corruptions of the times, do not lift a finger to withstand it. I am far, very far from despair. I have no fears but such as belong to a friend of freedom. Among dark omens I see favourable influences, remedial processes, counteracting agencies. I well know, that the vicious part of our system makes more noise and show than the sound. I know, that the prophets of ruin to our institutions are to be found most frequently in the party out of power, and that many dark auguries must be set down to the account of disappointment and irritation. I am sure, too, that imminent peril would wake up the spirit of our fathers in many who slumber in these days of ease and security. It is also true, that, with all our defects, there is a wider diffusion of intelligence, moral restraint, and self-respect among us, than through any other community. Still I am compelled to acknowledge an extent of corruption among us, which menaces freedom and our dearest interests; and a policy, which will give new and enduring impulse to corruption, which will multiply indefinitely public and private crime, ought to be reprobated as the sorest calamity we can incur. Freedom is fighting her battles in the world with sufficient odds against her. Let us not give new chances to her foes.

That the cause of republicanism is suffering abroad, through the defects and crimes of our countrymen, is as true, as that it is regarded with increased scepticism among ourselves. Abroad, republicanism is identified with the United States, and it is certain that the American name has not risen of late in the world. It so happens, that, whilst writing, I have received a newspaper from England, in which Lynch law is as familiarly associated with our country, as if it were one of our establishments. We are quoted as monuments of the degrading tendencies of popular institutions. When I visited England fifteen years ago, republican sentiments were freely expressed to me. I should probably hear none now. Men's minds seem to be returning to severer principles of government; and this country is responsible for a part of this change. It is believed abroad, that property is less secure among us, order less stable, law less revered, social ties more easily broken, religion less enforced, life held less sacred than in other countries. Undoubtedly, the prejudices of foreign nations, the interests of foreign governments, have led to gross exaggeration of evils here. The least civilised parts of the country are made to re

present the whole, and occasional atrocities are construed into habits. But who does not feel that we have given cause of reproach? and shall we fix this reproach, and exasperate it into indignation and hatred, by adopting a policy against which the moral sentiments of the Christian world revolt? Shall we make the name of republic "a stench in the nostrils" of all nations, by employing our power to build up and spread slavery, by resisting the efforts of other countries for its abolition, by falling behind monarchies in reverence for the rights of men? When we look forward to the probable growth of this country; when we think of the millions of human beings who are to spread over our present territory; of the career of improvement and glory opened to this new people; of the impulse which free institutions, if prosperous, may be expected to give to philosophy, religion, science, literature, and arts; of the vast field in which the experiment is to be made of what the unfettered powers of man may achieve; of the bright page of history which our fathers have filled, and of the advantages under which their toils and virtues have placed us for carrying on their work; when we think of all this, can we help, for a moment, surrendering ourselves, to bright visions of our country's glory, before which all the glories of the past are to fade away? Is it presumption to say, that, if just to ourselves and all nations, we shall be felt through this whole continent, that we shall spread our language, institutions, and civilization through a wider space than any nation has yet filled with a like benificent influence? And are we prepared to barter these hopes, this sublime moral empire, for conquests by force? Are we prepared to sink to the level of unprincipled nations, to content ourselves with a vulgar, guilty greatness, to adopt in our youth maxims and ends which must brand our future with sordidness, oppression, and shame? This country cannot without peculiar infamy run the common race of national rapacity. Our origin, institutions, and position are peculiar, and all favour an upright, honourable course. We have not the apologies of nations hemmed in by narrow bounds or threatened by the overshadowing power of ambitious neighbours. If we surrender ourselves to a selfish policy, we shall sin almost without temptation, and forfeit opportunities of greatness vouchsafed to no other people, for a prize below contempt.

I have alluded to the want of wisdom with which we are accustomed to speak of our destiny as a people. We are destined (that is the word) to overspread North America; and, intoxicated with the idea, it matters little to us how we accomplish our fate. To spread, to supplant others, to cover a boundless space, this seems our ambition, no matter what influence we spread with us. Why cannot we rise to noble conceptions of our destiny? Why do we not feel, that our work as a nation is, to carry freedom, religion, science, and a nobler form of human nature over this continent? and why do we not remember, that to diffuse these blessings we must first cherish them in our own borders; and that whatever deeply and permanently corrupts us will make our spreading influence a curse, not a blessing, to this new world? It is a common idea in Europe, that we are destined to spread an inferior civilization over North America; that our slavery and our ab

sorption in gain and outward interests mark us out, as fated to fall behind the old world in the higher improvements of human nature, in the philosophy, the refinements, the enthusiasm of literature and the arts which throw a lustre round other countries. I am not prophet enough to read our fate. I believe, indeed, that we are to make our futurity for ourselves. I believe, that a nation's destiny lies in its character, in the principles which govern its policy and bear rule in the hearts of its citizens. I take my stand on God's moral and eternal law. A nation, renouncing and defying this, cannot be free, cannot be great.

Religious men in this community, and they are many, are peculiarly bound to read the future history of their country, not in the flattering promises of politicians, but in the warnings of conscience and in the declaration of God's word. They know and should make it known, that nations cannot consolidate free institutions, and secure a lasting prosperity by crime. They know, that retribution awaits communities as well as individuals; and they should tremble amidst their hopes, when, with this solemn truth on their minds, they look round on their country. Let them consider the clearness with which God's will is now made known, and the signal blessings of his Providence poured out on this people, with a profusion accorded to no other under heaven; and then let them consider our ingratitude for his boundless gifts, our abuse of his beneficence to sensual and selfish gratification, our unmeasured, unrighteous love of gain, our unprincipled party-spirit, and our faithless and cruel wrongs toward the Indian race; and can they help fearing, that the cup of wrath is filling for this people? Men, buried in themselves and in outward interests, atheists in heart and life, may scoff at the doctrine of national retribution, because they do not see God's hand stretched out to destroy guilty communities. But does not all history teach, that the unlicensed passions of a guilty people are more terrible ministers of punishment than miraculous inflictions? To chastise and destroy, God needs not interfere by supernatural judgments. In every community, there are elements of discord, revolution, and ruin, pent up in the human soul, which need only to be quickened and set free by a new order of events, to shake and convulse the whole social fabric. Never were the causes of disastrous change in human affairs more active than at the present moment. Society heaves and trembles, from the struggle of opposing principles, as the earth quakes through the force of central fires. This is not the

time for presumption, for defying Heaven by new crimes, for giving a new range to cupidity and ambition. Men who fear God must fear for their country, in this "day of provocation," and they will be false to their country, if they look on passively, and see without remonstrance the consummation of a great national crime, which cannot fail to bring down awful retribution.

I am aware that there are those, who, on reading these pages, will smile at my simplicity in urging moral and religious motives, disin. terested considerations, lofty aims, on a politician. The common notion is, that the course of a man embarked in public life will be shaped by the bearing of passing events on his immediate popularity; that

virtue and freedom, however they may round his periods in the senate, have little influence on his vote. But I do not believe that public life is necessarily degrading, or that a statesman is incapable of looking above himself. Public life appeals to the noblest, as well as basest principles of human nature. It holds up for pursuit enduring fame, as well as the notoriety of the passing hour. By giving opportunities of acting on the vast and permanent interests of a nation, it often creates a deep sense of responsibility, and a generous self oblivion. I have too much faith in human nature to distrust the influence of great truths and high motives on any class of men, especially on men of commanding intelligence. There is a congeniality between vast powers of thought and dignity of purpose. None are so capable of sacrificing themselves, as those who have most to sacrifice, who, in offering themselves, make the greatest offerings to humanity. With this conviction, I am not discouraged by the anticipated smiles and scoffs of those, who will think, that, in insisting on national purity as the essential condition of freedom and greatness, I have "preached" to the winds. To you, Sir, rectitude is not an empty name, nor will a measure, fraught with lasting corruption and shame to your country, seem to you anything but a fearful calamity.

I have now finished the task which I have felt myself bound to undertake. That I have escaped all error, I cannot hope. That I may have fallen into occasional exaggeration, I ought perhaps to fear, from the earnestness with which I have written. But of the essential truth of the views here communicated, I cannot doubt. It is exceedingly to be regretted, that the subject of this letter has as yet drawn little attention at the North. The unprecedented pecuniary difficulties, pressing now on the country, have absorbed the public mind. And yet these difficulties, should they be aggravated and continued far beyond what is most dreaded, would be a light national evil, compared with the annexation of Texas to the Union. I trust the people will not slumber on the edge of this precipice, till it shall be too late to reflect and provide for safety. Too much time has been given for the ripening of this unrighteous project. I doubt not, as I have said, that opposition exists to it in the Slaveholding States. This, if manifested in any strength, would immediately defeat it. The other States should raise a voice against it, like the voice of many waters. Party dissensions should be swallowed up in this vast common interest. The will of the people, too strong and fixed to be resisted, should be expressed to Congress, in remonstrances from towns, cities, counties and legislatures. Let no man who feels the greatness of the evil which threatens us, satisfy himself with unprofitable regrets; but let each embody his opposition in a form which will give incitement to his neighbours, and act on men in power.

I take it for granted, that those who differ from me will ascribe what I have written to unworthy motives. This is the common mode of parrying unwelcome truths; and it is not without influence, where the author is unknown. May I then be allowed to say, that I have strong reasons for believing, that, among the many defects of this letter, those

of unworthy intention are not to be numbered. The reluctance, with which I have written, satisfies me, that I have not been impelled by any headlong passion. Nor can I have been impelled by party-spirit. I am pledged to no party. In truth, I do not feel myself able to form a decisive opinion on the subjects, which now inflame and divide the country, and which can be very little understood except by men who have made a study of commerce and finance. As to having written from that most common motive, the desire of distinction, I may be permitted to say, that, to win the public ear, I need not engage in a controversy which will expose me to unmeasured reproach. May I add, that I have lived long enough to learn the worth of applause. Could I, indeed, admit the slightest hope of securing to myself that enduring fame, which future ages award to the lights and benefactors of their race, I could not but be stirred by the prospect. But notoriety among contemporaries, obtained by taking part in the irritating discussions of the day, I would not stretch out a hand to secure.

I cannot but fear, that the earnestness with which I have written may seem to indicate an undue excitement of mind. But I have all along felt distinctly the importance of calmness, and have seemed to myself to maintain it. I have prepared this letter, not amidst the goadings, irritations, and feverish tumults of a crowded city, but in the stillness of retirement, amid scenes of peace and beauty. Hardly an hour has passed, in which I have not sought relief from the exhaustion of writing, by walking abroad amidst God's works, which seldom fail to breathe tranquility, and which, by their harmony and beneficence, continually cheer me, as emblems and prophecies of a more harmonious and blessed state of human affairs than has yet been known. Perhaps some will object it to me, that a man, living in such retirement, unfits himself to judge of passing events, that he is prone to substitute his visions for realities, and to legislate for a world which does not exist. I acknowledge the danger of such a position. On the other hand it is equally true, that the man, who lives in a crowd and receives perpetual impulse from its prejudices and passions, who connects himself with a party and looks to it for reward, cannot easily keep his mind open to truth, or sacrifice the interests of the moment to everlasting principles and the enduring welfare of his country. Everywhere our frail nature is severely tried. All circumstances have their perils. In every condition, there are biases to wrong judgments and incitements to wrong action. Through such discipline, we are to make our way to truth and perfection. The dread of these dangers must not keep us inactive. Having sought to understand the difficulties in our respective paths, and having done what we can to learn the truth, we must commit ourselves to our convictions without fear, expressing them in word and action, and leaving results to Him, who will accept our pure purpose, and whose providence is the pledge of the ultimate triumphs of humanity and uprightness.

You and I, my dear Sir, are approaching that period of life, when the passions lose much of their force, when disappointment, bereavement, the fall of our contemporaries on the right hand and the left, and long experience of the emptiness of human favour and of the