Can you not, my friends, understand the signs of the times; do you not see the sword of retributive justice hanging over the South, or are you still slumbering at your posts?--Are there no Shiphrahs, no Puahs among you, who will dare in Christian firmness and Christian meekness, to refuse to obey the _wicked laws_ which require _woman to enslave, to degrade and to brutalize woman?_ Are there no Miriams, who would rejoice to lead out the captive daughters of the Southern States to liberty and light? Are there no Huldahs there who will dare to _speak the truth_ concerning the sins of the people and those judgments, which it requires no prophet's eye to see, must follow if repentance is not speedily sought? Is there no Esther among you who will plead for the poor devoted slave? Read the history of this Persian queen, it is full of instruction; she at first refused to plead for the Jews; but, hear the words of Mordecai, "Think not within thyself, that _thou_ shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews, for _if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time_, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but _thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed._" Listen, too, to her magnanimous reply to this powerful appeal; "_I will go_ in unto the king, which is not according to law, and if I perish. I perish." Yes! if there were but _one_ Esther at the South, she _might_ save her country from ruin; but let the Christian women there arise, as the Christian women of Great Britain did, in the majesty of moral power, and that salvation is certain. Let them embody themselves in societies, and send petitions up to their different legislatures, entreating their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, to abolish the institution of slavery; no longer to subject _woman_ to the scourge and the chain, to mental darkness and moral degradation; no longer to tear husbands from their wives, and children from their parents; no longer to make men, women, and children, work _without wages;_ no longer to make their lives bitter in hard bondage; no longer to reduce _American citizens_ to the abject condition of _slaves_, of "chattels personal;" no longer to barter the _image of God_ in human shambles for corruptible things such as silver and gold.