The effects of the book so far have been, I think, these: 1st. To
soften and moderate the bitterness of feeling in _extreme
abolitionists_. 2d. To convert to abolitionist views many whom this
same bitterness had repelled. 3d. To inspire the free colored people
with self-respect, hope, and confidence. 4th. To inspire universally
through the country a kindlier feeling toward the negro race.
It was unfortunate for the cause of freedom that the first agitators
of this subject were of that class which your lordship describes in
your note as "well-meaning men." I speak sadly of their faults, for
they were men of noble hearts. "But oppression maketh a wise man mad"
and they spoke and did many things in the frenzy of outraged humanity
that repelled sympathy and threw multitudes off to a hopeless
distance. It is mournful to think of all the absurdities that have
been said and done in the name and for the sake of this holy cause,
that have so long and so fatally retarded it.
I confess that I expected for myself nothing but abuse from extreme
abolitionists, especially as I dared to name a forbidden shibboleth,
"Liberia," and the fact that the wildest and extremest abolitionists
united with the coldest conservatives, at first, to welcome and
advance the book is a thing that I have never ceased to wonder at.
I have written this long letter because I am extremely desirous that
some leading minds in England should know how _we_ stand.
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