This was the case in the early history of the colonies; and
experience proved that an appeal to moral rectitude was unheard in
Carolina when rice had become a great crop, and in Massachusetts when
the rum-slave-traffic was paying a profit of 100%. That the various
abolition societies and anti-slavery movements did heroic work in
rousing the national conscience is certainly true; unfortunately,
however, these movements were weakest at the most critical times. When,
in 1774 and 1804, the material advantages of the slave-trade and the
institution of slavery were least, it seemed possible that moral suasion
might accomplish the abolition of both. A fatal spirit of temporizing,
however, seized the nation at these points; and although the slave-trade
was, largely for political reasons, forbidden, slavery was left
untouched. Beyond this point, as years rolled by, it was found well-nigh
impossible to rouse the moral sense of the nation. Even in the matter of
enforcing its own laws and co-operating with the civilized world, a
lethargy seized the country, and it did not awake until slavery was
about to destroy it. Even then, after a long and earnest crusade, the
national sense of right did not rise to the entire abolition of
slavery. It was only a peculiar and almost fortuitous commingling of
moral, political, and economic motives that eventually crushed African
slavery and its handmaid, the slave-trade in America.
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