I claim, also, that its course has been marked by a
cheerful surrender of all individual claims to merit or leadership,--the
most cordial welcoming of the slightest effort, of every honest attempt,
to lighten or to break the chain of the slave. I need not waste time by
repeating the superfluous confession that we are men, and therefore do
not claim to be perfect. Neither would I be understood as denying that
we use denunciation, and ridicule, and every other weapon that the human
mind knows. We must plead guilty, if there be guilt in not knowing
how to separate the sin from the sinner. With all the fondness for
abstractions attributed to us, we are not yet capable of that. We are
fighting a momentous battle at desperate odds,--one against a thousand.
Every weapon that ability or ignorance, wit, wealth, prejudice, or
fashion can command, is pointed against us. The guns are shotted to
their lips. The arrows are poisoned. Fighting against such an array, we
cannot afford to confine ourselves to any one weapon.
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