Despots and aristocrats have, in all ages, been afraid of "turning loose" the people, no matter of what hue was their complexion. You have seen that your own McDuffie does not scruple to intimate, that, were not the Southern laborers already shackled, an order of nobility would be required to keep them in subjection; and a shudder seizes Chancellor Harper, when he reflects that the Northern allies of the slaveholders are democrats and agrarians.
A glorious career opens before you. In the place of your present contempt, and degradation, and misery, honor, and wealth, and happiness court your acceptance. By abolishing slavery you will become the architects of your own fortune, and of your country's greatness. The times are propitious for the great achievement. You will be cheered by the approbation of your own consciences, and by the plaudits of mankind. The institution which oppresses you is suffering from the decrepitude of age, and is the scorn and loathing of the world. Out of the slave region, patriots and philanthropists, and Christians of every name and sect abhor and execrate it. Do you pant for liberty and equality, more substantial than such as is now found only in your obliterated and tattered bills of right? Do you ask that your children may be rescued from the ignorance and irreligion to which they are now doomed, and that avenues may be opened for you and for them to honest and profitable employment? Unite then, we beseech you, with one heart and one mind, for the legal, constitutional abolition of slavery. The enemy is waxing faint and losing his courage. He is terrified by the echo of his own threats, and the very proposal to dissolve the Union and leave him to his fate, throws him into paroxysms. The North, so long submissive to his mandates, and awed by his insolence, laughs at his impotent rage; and all his hopes now rest upon a few profligate politicians whom he purchases with his votes, while their baseness excites his contempt, and their principles his fears. Now is the time, fellow-citizens, to assail the foe. Up—quit yourselves like men: and may Almighty God direct and bless your efforts!
Transcriber's Notes:
Errors in punctuation and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected unless otherwise noted. The punctuation of the mid-nineteenth century was very different to that of today; with commas, periods, and colons sometimes appearing to be used interchangeably. Such variations in punctuation were kept as-is.
The tables sometimes have ditto marks, whose meaning are somewhat ambiguous. Those ditto marks are kept as-is.
On page 5, a period was placed after "p. 206".
On page 14, "supeperior" was replaced with "superior".
On page 23, a period was added after "not a slaveholder".
On page 29, "and and" was replaced with "and".