But this Society is even more criminal than these invaders of Canada, because it has first violated the laws of the United States by the erection of a systematic and unlawful polity, an unconstitutional and powerful machinery, the plans and scope of which, if not abandoned or suppressed, are adequate to protract, perpetuate, and forever to augment the illegal and destructive powers they have set in operation, till they shall upset the Government, and desolate the South; whereas the invasion of Canada is nothing more than the mad enterprise of a few deluded individuals. Had they followed the example of the American Anti-Slavery Society,--which, doubtless, they had an equal right to do--and set up a like political organization, under like immunities, and with like strength of preparation, they would inevitably have involved this country in a war with Great Britain. What sufferance, therefore, has been practised towards this Society! And what protracted injuries have the Southern States been compelled to endure! As remarked in the previous chapter, it is the perfectly anomalous character of this enterprise, which has so long embarrassed the public mind. All not engaged in it, have felt it to be wrong; the wide spread indignation, and the popular outbreaks it has occasioned in rebuke of its designs and operations, show that it involves some great and vitally important principle in our social fabric; but its distinct and definite character, and its exact political position and relations, have not heretofore been evolved and so exhibited, as to enable the public to see it clearly, and to know how to treat it. It was the suddenness and novelty of the movement, as a grand and unlawful political transaction, that astounded the public mind, and threw it from the balance of its wonted composure; but the agitation and disturbance it occasioned are prima facie evidence of its aberration from right principles--of its criminality. That cannot be regarded, by sober minds, other than a highly responsible operation in society, which breaks its peace, and puts in peril its political existence; and we dare to aver, that the common impression of its criminality cannot be without good reason. Even if no law had been violated, other than a common and implied obligation of all good citizens to keep the peace, and sustain the tranquil operation of our Constitution and laws, that is enough to authorize a verdict of guilty against this Society on the _general_ charge of a public nuisance. But in all points of view we find there is recognised and written law for the case, and the common feeling of the public mind is honored and sustained by the investigation. We might fairly presume it impossible for this feeling to be wrong, as it springs up spontaneously in the bosom of a community where slavery is not only disapproved, but abhorred.