The late invasion of Virginia by Capt. John Brown and his company
has, with all its concomitant circumstances, excited more attention
and aroused a more thorough spirit of inquiry on the subject of
slavery, than was ever before known. As this is pre-eminently a moral
question, and as there is no neutral ground in morals, all
intelligent men must ultimately take sides. Every such man must
either cherish and defend slavery, or oppose and condemn it, and his
vote, if he is an honest man, must accord with his belief. On a
question of so momentous importance, "Silence is crime." It demands
and will have a thorough investigation, and all attempts to stifle
discussion will only accelerate the triumph of the cause they were
designed to crush. Thus the denunciation in Congress of Mr. Helper's
book, which is in substance only an abstract of facts taken from the
last census of the United States, has operated as an extensive
advertisement, and will be the means of circulating thousands of
copies, where, without such denunciation, it would never have been
known. There is in the North, as well as the South, a class of men
who act, apparently, on the supposition that those who foresee and
foretell any calamity are as guilty as those who create it, and that
the only way to obviate any impending danger is not to see it. Such
persons not only refuse to see and hear themselves, but do what they
can to keep their neighbors in like ignorance.

It has been truly said that "the power of slavery lies in the
ignorance, the degradation, the servility of the slaves, and of the
non-slaveholding whites of the South, and of the corresponding
classes in the Free States. It is through this ignorance and servility
that the slaveholders manage to dictate to ecclesiastical bodies, to
have power to control pulpits, presses, Colleges, Theological