remarks a correspondent of the London Times,[1] "The more northern States abolished slavery—all of them by gradual emancipation—and the process was going on with healthful progress, until a faction arose, which demanded the immediate emancipation of the Southern slaves. This it was impossible to achieve, and consequently folly to demand." The effect of this unwise course, on the part of a portion of the citizens of the Free States (urged on, too, with equal inconsiderateness, by societies and public meetings in Great Britain) has been to put a dead stop, in the Slave States, to all movements in reference to the abolition of slavery. Formerly—before this violence commenced—public meetings were held from time to time in Virginia, Kentucky, and other Slave States, for the purpose of devising some means for the removal of slavery within their respective limits, and bills providing for gradual emancipation were even introduced into the Legislatures. A bill to this effect, it is understood, brought into the Legislature of Kentucky, lost its passage by only one vote, and in all probability would in a year or two have actually passed; but the system of violent attack and denunciation having in the meantime sprung up, the favorable movement was checked at once, and at length completely stopped. Any one who knows human nature might have predicted this result. Men were not disposed to be driven and scourged to their duty; they did not need to have such an influence brought to bear upon them, and
- ↑ Of June 21, 1858.
