Think not we are disposed to ridicule the fears of the slaveholders, or to question their personal courage. God knows their perils are real, and not imaginary: and who can question, that with a hostile _British_ army in the heart of Virginia or Alabama, the whole slave region would presently become one vast scene of horror and desolation? Heretofore the invaders of our soil were themselves interested in slave property: _now_ they would be zealous emancipationists, and they would be accompanied by the most terrific vision which could meet the eye of a slaveholder, regiments of _black troops_, fully equipped and disciplined. Surely such a state of things might well appal the bravest heart, and palsy the stoutest arm. But, fellow-citizens, what, in such a catastrophe, would be your condition? Your fate and that of your wives and children would then be linked to that of your lordly neighbors. One indiscriminate ruin would await you all. But _you_ may avert these accumulated horrors. You may change two and a half millions of domestic and implacable enemies into faithful friends and generous protectors. No sooner shall the negroes cease to be oppressed, than they will cease to hate. The planters of Jamaica were formerly as much afraid of their slaves, as your planters now are of theirs. But the Jamaica slaves, now freemen, are no long dreaded; on the contrary, they form the chief military force of the island; and should a foreign foe attack it, would be found its willing and devoted defenders. It rests with _you_ to relieve your country of its most dangerous enemy, to render it invulnerable to foreign assaults, and to dissipate that fearful anticipation of wrath and tribulation, which now broods over and oppresses the mind of every white who resides in a slave country. We have called your attention to the practical influence of slavery on various points deeply affecting your prosperity and happiness. These are: 1. Increase of population. 2. State of education. 3. Industry and enterprise. 4. Feeling toward the laboring classes. 5. State of religion. 6. State of morals. 7. Disregard for human life. 8. Disregard for constitutional obligations. 9. Liberty of speech. 10. Liberty of the press. 11. Military weakness. You will surely agree with us, that in many of these particulars, the States to which you belong are sunk far below the ordinary condition of civilized nations. The slaveholders, in their listlessness and idleness, in their contempt for the laws, in their submission to illegal and ferocious violence, in their voluntary surrender of their constitutional rights, and above all in their disregard for human life, and their cruelty in taking it, are, as a civilized and professedly a Christian community, without a parallel, unless possibly among some of the anarchical States of South America.