Such being the feelings of the writer, he rejoiced to see attention turned to the subject of slavery, and combined efforts making for its removal. And, though he deeply regretted the harshness and severity with which opposers of abolition movements, and even those who did not engage in them, were treated, yet he was willing to countenance the cause of abolition, hoping that this, in his view, very exceptionable manner, would be gradually corrected. But, as it respects many of the Abolitionists, he is sorry to say, his hopes have been disappointed. Being, therefore, fully persuaded that the course alluded to is injuring the cause both of religion and abolition, he ventures to point out what he believes the word of God teaches to be “a more excellent way.” And he will endeavor to do it kindly, and not needlessly to wound the feelings of any, hoping to be guided by that wisdom which is from above, and “is profitable to direct,” and which “is pure, and peaceable, and gentle, and is without partiality, and without hypocrisy,” and to present the subject as it will appear in the light of the great day. And he requests the reader impartially to weigh what is offered in “the balances of the sanctuary,” and to regard it so far only as it corresponds with the teachings of the divine oracles. THE CHARACTER OF AMERICAN SLAVERY. The subject of American slavery, if rightly considered, must be to every Christian, and every true patriot, a deeply interesting and painful subject. That our country--which solemnly declared before God and the world, that it is “self-evident” that “all men are created equal, and are endowed with certain inalienable rights, as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and which claims to be the freest on earth, and the asylum of the oppressed--should, nevertheless, hold in abject bondage millions of its own people, is a deep stain on our national character. The holding of these unoffending fellow beings under the rod of oppression is a great political and moral evil. It is a flagrant violation of our professed principles of equal rights, and manifestly inconsistent with the principles of our holy religion. No one would be willing to be a slave himself, and, therefore, if he loved others as himself, or was willing to do to others as he would have others do to him, he could not hold others in involuntary slavery. Slaves are held as _property_, at the disposal of their master, and possess, strictly speaking, no legal rights, civil or religious, and, if ever so much abused, can seek no redress in any court of justice. They are in a great measure kept without the means of intellectual, moral and spiritual improvement. And by sale and the removal of the purchased slaves to a distant part of the country, the most endearing ties are liable continually to be severed, and the nearest relatives, husbands and wives, parents and children, and brothers and sisters, to be torn from each other, and forever separated.