As to setting them free at once and indiscriminately, it would be as unjust to them as it originally was to steal them from Africa.  So it appears to me.  What God means to do with them, no one can tell.  That He has been doing a marvellous work of mercy for the poor creatures is manifest.  They were slaves at home; they have changed their situation to their benefit.  I have made up my mind to leave this great problem—­the destiny of the blacks—­to my Maker, and, in the mean time, pray in behalf of the owners, that they may have a heart to act toward them according to the golden rule.  I am glad that I am not oppressed with the responsibility of ownership.  Those who assume it should be encouraged by us to treat their charge as a trust committed to them for a season.  I do not argue, much less plead, for the continuance of this system; it may be abolished very soon, but that is with Providence.  I have acquired no feelings toward the institution which would not lead me to rejoice in emancipation the moment that it would be for the good of the colored people.

You are looking for my letter to furnish you with details of horrors in slavery.  Wherever poor human nature is, there you will find imperfection and sin; and of course power over others is always liable to great abuses.  If I were to follow the plan of those who collect the horrors of slavery and spread them out before our Northern friends, but should gather merely the beautiful and touching incidents which I meet with, and which are related to me, I could make people think that slavery is not an evil.  But I have not seen an intelligent Southerner who, admitting all that we had said about the happiness of the slaves as a class, did not go far beyond me in declaring that the presence of a subject, abject race, cannot fail to be an evil.  There is not an ultraist at the North, whom, if he had their confidence, and were not put in antagonism to him, the Southerners could not make ashamed, and put to silence, by telling him evil things about slavery, which he had never contemplated, and by admitting most fully things which he would expect them to deny.  But they are placed in a false position by his clamor and anger, which set them against him and his doctrines.  They say, “Allowing all that the North asserts, here are the colored people on our hands; what are we to do with them?” Not one of the Northern “friends of the slave,” nor all of them together, have ever proposed a feasible plan with regard to the disposal of the slaves, which would be kind or even humane to the blacks.  Moreover, theoretical arguments against slavery, and representations of it, from many quarters, are so palpably wrong, that replies to them and refutations are counted by us at the North as defences of “oppression;” which they were never designed to be.  I am surprised at the extent and depth of real anti-slavery feeling at the South.  Sometimes I question whether Providence is not permitting the antagonism of the North and South to continue just to compel the South to hold these colored people in connection with themselves for their good, until God’s purposes of mercy for them are accomplished, and “the time, times and half a time” of their captivity is fulfilled.  If Northern resistance to slavery had ceased, perhaps the South would have rid herself of the blacks sooner than would have been for their good.