When these resolutions were passed, he was
from home; but on his return, he lost no time in communicating to the
"Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence" his entire concurrence
with what had been done,--and here are extracts from his letter:--
"I have carefully watched this matter from its earliest existence; and
everything I have seen or heard of its character, both from its patrons
and its enemies, has confirmed me beyond repentance in the belief,
that, let the character of the Abolitionists be what it may in the
sight of the Judge of all the earth, this is the most meddlesome,
impudent, reckless, fierce, and wicked excitement I ever saw.
"If Abolitionists will set the country in a blaze, it is but right that
they should receive the _first warming at the fire_.
"Let it be proclaimed throughout the nation, that every movement made
by the fanatics (so far as it has any effect in the South) does but
rivet every fetter of the bondman, and diminish the probability of
anything being successfully undertaken for making him either fit for
freedom or likely to obtain it. We have the authority of Montesquieu,
Burke, and Coleridge, three eminent masters of the science of human
nature, that, of all men, slave-holders are the most jealous of their
liberties.
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