Autographs so diverse, and
collected from sources so various, have seldom been found in
juxtaposition. They remain at this day a silent witness of a most
singular tide of feeling which at that time swept over the British
community and _made_ for itself an expression, even at the risk
of offending the sensibilities of an equal and powerful nation.
No reply to that address, in any such tangible and monumental form,
has ever been possible. It was impossible to canvass our vast
territories with the zealous and indefatigable industry with which
England was canvassed for signatures. In America, those possessed of
the spirit which led to this efficient action had no leisure for it.
All their time and energies were already absorbed in direct efforts to
remove the great evil, concerning which the minds of their English
sisters had been newly aroused, and their only answer was the silent
continuance of these efforts.
From the slaveholding States, however, as was to be expected, came a
flood of indignant recrimination and rebuke. No one act, perhaps, ever
produced more frantic irritation, or called out more unsparing abuse.
It came with the whole united weight of the British aristocracy and
commonalty on the most diseased and sensitive part of our national
life; and it stimulated that fierce excitement which was working
before, and has worked since, till it has broken out into open war.
Pages:
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421