The encouragement which the attempt has
received excites my wonder and indignation; and though some men of
superior abilities have supported it, whether from a love of temporary
popularity when prosperous, or a love of general mischief when
desperate, my opinion is unshaken.
"To abolish a _status_ which in all ages God has sanctioned, and
man has continued, would not only be robbery to an innumerable class
of our fellow-subjects, but it would be extreme cruelty to the African
savages, a portion of whom it saves from massacre or intolerable
bondage in their own country, and introduces into a much happier state
of life; especially now, when their passage to the West Indies, and
their treatment there, is humanely regulated. To abolish this trade
would be to '--shut the gates of mercy on mankind.'"
One of the first steps of Clarkson and his associates was the
formation of a committee of twelve persons, for the collection and
dissemination of information on the subject.
The contest now began in earnest, a contest as sublime as any the
world ever saw.
The abolition controversy more fully aroused the virtue, the talent,
and the religion of the great English nation, than any other event or
crisis which ever occurred.
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