Then, Sir, there are the Abolition societies, of which I am unwilling to speak, but in regard to which I have very clear notions and opinions.  I do not think them useful.  I think their operations for the last twenty years have produced nothing good or valuable.  At the same time, I believe thousands of their members to be honest and good men, perfectly well-meaning men.  They have excited feelings; they think they must do something for the cause of liberty; and, in their sphere of action, they do not see what else they can do than to contribute to an Abolition press, or an Abolition society, or to pay an Abolition lecturer.  I do not mean to impute gross motives even to the leaders of these societies; but I am not blind to the consequences of their proceedings.  I cannot but see what mischiefs their interference with the South has produced.  And is it not plain to every man?  Let any gentleman who entertains doubts on this point recur to the debates in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832, and he will see with what freedom a proposition made by Mr. Jefferson Randolph for the gradual abolition of slavery was discussed in that body.  Every one spoke of slavery as he thought; very ignominious and disparaging names and epithets were applied to it.  The debates in the House of Delegates on that occasion, I believe, were all published.  They were read by every colored man who could read; and to those who could not read, those debates were read by others.  At that time Virginia was not unwilling or afraid to discuss this question, and to let that part of her population know as much of the discussion as they could learn.  That was in 1832.  As has been said by the honorable member from South Carolina, these Abolition societies commenced their course of action in 1835.  It is said, I do not know how true it may be, that they sent incendiary publications into the slave States; at any rate, they attempted to arouse, and did arouse, a very strong feeling; in other words, they created great agitation in the North against Southern slavery.  Well, what was the result?  The bonds of the slaves were bound more firmly than before, their rivets were more strongly fastened.  Public opinion, which in Virginia had begun to be exhibited against slavery, and was opening out for the discussion of the question, drew back and shut itself up in its castle.  I wish to know whether anybody in Virginia can now talk openly as Mr. Randolph, Governor McDowell, and others talked in 1832, and sent their remarks to the press?  We all know the fact, and we all know the cause; and every thing that these agitating people have done has been, not to enlarge, but to restrain, not to set free, but to bind faster, the slave population of the South.[18]