the chief and primary ground, and the one on which we should always, and under all circumstances, insist.  With regard to the work which has created so much excitement, the great excellence of it morally is, that it holds up fully and emphatically the extreme wrongfulness of the system, while at the same time showing an entire Christian and forgiving spirit towards those involved in it; and it is these two characteristics which, in my opinion, have given it its great power.  Till I read that book, I had never seen any extensive work that satisfied me on those points.  It does show, in the most striking manner, the horrible wrongfulness of the system, and, at the same time, it displays no bitterness, no unfairness, no unkindness, to those involved in it.  It is that which gives the work the greater power, for where there is unfairness, those assailed take refuge behind it; while here they have no such refuge.  We should always aim, in assailing the system of slavery, to awaken the consciences of those involved in it; for among slaveholders there are all kinds of moral development, as among every other class of people in the world.  There are men of tender conscience, as well as men of blunted conscience; men with moral sense, and men with no moral sense whatever; some who have come into the system involuntarily, born in it, and others who have come into it voluntarily.  There is a moral nature in every man, more or less developed; and according as it is developed we can, by showing the wrong of a thing, bring one to abhor it.  We have the testimony of Christian clergymen in slave holding states, that the greater portion of the Christian people there, and even many slaveholders, believe the system is wrong; and it is only a matter of time, a question of delay, as to when they shall perform their whole duty, and bring it to an end.[I] One would believe that when they saw a thing to be wrong, they would at once do right; but prejudice, habit, interest, education, and a variety of influences check their aspirations to what is right; but let us keep on pressing it upon their consciences, and I believe their consciences will at length respond.  Public sentiment is more powerful than force, and it may be excited in many ways.  Conversation, the press, the platform, and the pulpit may all be used to awaken the feeling of the people, and bring it to bear on this question.  I refer especially to the pulpit; for, if the church and the ministry are silent, who is to speak for the dumb and the oppressed?  The thing that has borne on my mind with the most melancholy weight, and caused me most sorrow, is the apparent apathy, the comparative silence, of the church on this subject for the last twenty or five and twenty years in the United States.  Previous to that period it did speak, and with words of power; but, unfortunately, it has not followed out those words by acts.  The influence of the system has come upon it, and brought it, for a long time, almost to entire silence; but I hope we are beginning