It is a sorry fact, that
the "mercantile interest," in unpardonable selfishness, twice in English
history, frowned upon endeavors to suppress the atrocity of Algerine
Slavery, that it sought to baffle Wilberforce's great effort for the
abolition of the African slave-trade, and that, by a sordid compromise,
at the formation of our Constitution, it exempted the same detested,
Heaven-defying traffic from American judgment. And now representatives
of this "interest," forgetful that Commerce is born of Freedom, join in
hunting the Slave. But the great heart of the people recoils from this
enactment. It palpitates for the fugitive, and rejoices in his escape.
Sir, I am telling you facts. The literature of the age is all on his
side. Songs, more potent than laws, are for him. Poets, with voices of
melody, sing for Freedom. Who could tune for Slavery? They who make
the permanent opinion of the country, who mould our youth,whose words,
dropped into the soul, are the germs of character, supplicate for the
Slave.
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