am one of the animalcules.

I agree, and I disagree, with you. I harmonize in your words,--"The
present is eminently a time when the views of every man on the subject of
slavery should be uttered in unambiguous tones." I agree with you in this
affirmation; because the subject has yet to be fully understood; because,
when understood, if THE BIBLE does _not_ sanction the system, the MASTER
must cease to be the master. The SLAVE must cease to be the slave. He must
be _free_, AND EQUAL IN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE. _That_ is your
"_unambiguous tone_". Let it be heard, if _that_ is the word of God.

But if THE BIBLE _does_ sanction the system, then _that_ "unambiguous
tone" will silence abolitionists who admit the Scriptures; it will satisfy
all good men, and give peace to the country. That is the "_tone_" I want
men to hear. Listen to it in the past and present speech of providence.
The time was when _you_ had the very _public sentiment_ you are now trying
to form. From Maine to Louisiana, the American mind was softly yielding to
the impress of emancipation, in some hope, however vague and imaginary.
Southern as well as Northern men, in the church and out of it, not having
sufficiently studied the word of God, and, under our own and French
revolutionary excitement, looking only at the evils of slavery, wished it
away from the land. It was a _mistaken_ public sentiment. Yet, such as it
was, you had it, and it was doing your work. It was Quaker-like, mild and
affectionate. It did not, however, work fast enough for you. You thought
that the negro, with his superior attributes of body and mind and higher
advantages of the nineteenth century, might reach, in a day, the liberty
and equality which the Anglo-American had attained after the struggle of
his ancestors during a thousand years! You got up the agitation. You got
it up in the Church and State. You got it up over the length and breadth
of this whole land. Let me show you some things you have secured, as the