Some object, that the abolition of Slavery _on our plan_, without compensation to the masters, _would be taking away the bread of poor widows and orphans_. We have no plan. We say only, that Slavery is wrong, and ought forthwith to be abandoned. The South will adopt and prosecute her own plan. When her Legislatures abolish Slavery, they can, if they will, provide for widows and children, who are left destitute by that act. If they will not do it, we will raise contributions for their relief; for we deem the claims of _charity_, nearly as imperative as the claims of justice. But we can never sanction the _principle_ of Slavery, by saying, that slave-holders have a _right_ to compensation for restoring to the slaves their stolen rights. We must always consider it a greater hardship to be unjustly held as a slave, than to be made poor by freeing such slave. It is a sad blunder in morals, that this man may make that man, perhaps fifty other men, poor for life, lest he himself should be a pauper; that this man may make that man poor by _dishonesty_, lest he himself should become poor by _being honest_. No objection to our measures is more senseless, or more common, than an _alleged tendency to dissolve the Union_. Which had we better surrender, the Union or our liberties? The Union is a curse instead of a blessing, if we must surrender for it, _freedom of speech and personal protection in any part of the country_. And if Slavery continues to be protected by public sentiment, and by popular violence, how long could the Union last, even were _all_ the abolitionists this day laid in their graves? Slavery endangers the integrity of the Union, more than all other enemies; and unless soon destroyed, will be the destroyer both of it and us. If we love the Union, we should labor to overthrow Slavery. Wesley somewhere defines fanaticism, to be the expectation of accomplishing ends without the use of means. Let us not hope for the peaceable destruction of Slavery, by such a fanatical course. Let us do _something_; and if we do any thing, what can be done which the abolitionists are not attempting? In doing this we shall not peril the Union, but preserve it. The South will never venture on the mad experiment of secession, _because_ the North is opposed to Slavery. Such an act would be suicidal. It would encourage the slaves to revolt. It would leave her defenceless against the invasion of a foreign foe. It would release us from the constitutional obligation to suppress domestic violence, and to restore fugitives from service. It would open several thousand miles of frontier, over which her slaves would escape into a land of liberty. It would make the south “a good country to emigrate from,” and she would find herself losing her best citizens, and her condition becoming more and more exposed and perilous. She would be ruined. She knows it. Were our legislators in Congress to retort her stereotyped threat to dissolve the Union, with a challenge to do it,