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    ABOLITION A SEDITION.

    BY A NORTHERN MAN.

    PHILADELPHIA:

    GEO. W. DONOHUE,

    NO. 22, SOUTH FOURTH STREET.

    MDCCCXXXIX.


    Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the
    year 1839, by GEO. W. DONOHUE, in the Clerk's
    Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.


    +---------------------------------------------+
    | Transcriber's Notes:                        |
    |                                             |
    | 1. Obvious printer and typographical errors |
    |    silently corrected.                      |
    | 2. Archaic and inconsistent spelling and    |
    |    punctuation retained.                    |
    +---------------------------------------------+




CONTENTS.


            CHAPTER I.
    The character of the Abolition organization


            CHAPTER II.
    The American Anti-slavery Society a seditious organization


            CHAPTER III.
    The seditious character of the Annual Report of the American
    Anti-slavery Society, of 1838


            CHAPTER IV.
    The seditious character of the American Anti-slavery Society
    farther considered


            CHAPTER V.
    Violent reforms, and their connexion with Abolitionism


            CHAPTER VI.
    The Abolition organization borrowed from the religious world


            CHAPTER VII.
    The anarchical principles of Abolitionism


            CHAPTER VIII.
    The incendiary doctrines of Abolitionism


            CHAPTER IX.
    Political responsibility in regard to slavery


            CHAPTER X.
    The romance of Abolitionism


            CHAPTER XI.
    Every man mind his own business


            CHAPTER XII.
    Perfectionism


            CHAPTER XIII.
    Liberty and Equality


            CHAPTER XIV.
    Social and political effects of Abolitionism


            CHAPTER XV.
    The bad effects of Abolitionism on the free <DW52> population,
    and on the condition and prospects of the slaves


            CHAPTER XVI.
    A hypothetical view of Abolitionism


            CHAPTER XVII.
    Abolitionism considered as proposing no compensation for slave
    property


            CHAPTER XVIII.
    The condition of American slaves as compared with other portions
    of the African race


            CHAPTER XIX.
    The example of the Quakers, or Society of Friends


            CHAPTER XX.
    The South have done with argument


            CHAPTER XXI.
    Reasons why the Abolition movement, under its present
    organization, will overthrow the Government


            CHAPTER XXII.
    The Abolition organization destructive of republican liberty




PREFACE.


We trust it will be obvious to all, that it was impossible to treat
Abolitionism according to its merits, or to exhibit its true
character, without regarding it as a RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. There are two
prominent features of the moral and religious history of our country,
with which we have been compelled to come in contact. We, therefore,
take this opportunity so far to explain, as to bar the accident of
being misapprehended. First, then, we have averred the philosophical
connexion of antecedent and consequence between _Abolitionism_ and
_violent reforms_. It is proper, therefore, that we should state how
much we are willing to be understood as meaning by this couplet of
terms, having such a relation to the subject of this work. We say,
then, that by _violent reforms_, we mean those religious and moral
agitations of our country, which have proved alike unfriendly to
religious and social order, which are generally disapproved by sober
Christians, and we believe by the great majority of Christians, of
all, or nearly all, denominations. It is possible, that on a single
point we have hit hard a cherished opinion of many persons, for whom
we have the greatest respect; but as it relates merely to a _mode_ of
action, we must claim to be indulged in our own opinion in that
matter, as we allow the same privilege to others.

In the next place, we have found it necessary, in the _exhibit_ we
have made of the political machinery of the Abolition movement, to
enquire into its origin; and it will be manifest to all, that it was
brought from the religious world. The fact, that the model of the
American Anti-slavery Society was borrowed from the Religious and
Benevolent Society system, could not implicate those institutions, in
the estimation of the public, unless they should see fit to follow the
same example, and so far as they might do it, by going over from the
religious and moral, into the political sphere; which, we trust, they
will be wise enough not to do. It was necessary to describe the
machinery of those Societies in order to give the true picture of the
one under particular consideration; but we have taken care at the same
time to state, that the American Anti-slavery Society has betrayed
and violated the principles of the Religious and Benevolent Society
system, by first assuming its model, and then passing over into the
field of political action. That all these machineries are well adapted
to political ends, whenever they may be perverted and applied in that
direction, it is unnecessary to say; and the only way to escape the
charge, is to avoid the fault. The Abolition Society has gone openly
into that field, on which account we have considered it fair and
exactly true to represent it as a _political organization_, and as
being necessarily such from the work it has taken in hand.

Having, therefore, explained on these two points, we submit the work,
without farther comment, to speak for itself.

  _January 1, 1839._




CHAPTER I.

THE CHARACTER OF THE ABOLITION ORGANIZATION.


There seems to have been a uniform impression among the great majority
of the citizens of the United States, that the Abolition movement in
this country is wrong, as it stands related to our political fabric;
but the exact character and extent of this wrong have not been so well
defined in the public mind, as to enable the people to see how a
remedy can be applied to arrest and control the mischief that appears
to be growing out of this agitation. Every reflecting person in the
land sees and feels, that it threatens to break asunder the American
Union; and few doubt, that such will be the result, if it is permitted
to go on. We take for granted, that the almost unanimous voice of the
whole country would concur in the opinion, that a violent dissolution
of the American Republic would be the greatest calamity that could
happen in this Western world. Can it be, then, that there is no
Constitutional power to suppress an organization, the rise and course
of which tend so directly and so inevitably to the disruption and
demolition of the Federal Government? Certainly, it would be a great
and notable defect in the political structure of the United States,
if there were to be found in it no principle of conservation against
such a danger, and if the people of this country were compelled to see
an enemy start up among themselves, and march directly to the
overthrow of the Government, without any power to resist. Doubtless,
in a last resort, the Union is too dear to the American people
generally to allow it to be sacrificed without an attempt to maintain
it, even if there should prove to be no provision in the Constitution
and laws. The necessity and importance of the case would create a law
for the occasion. The people would feel, that they have a better