Page:A Chapter on Slavery.djvu/141

 least probability that she would have been able, all at once, to make so vital and radical a change as this? If not, then she should be sparing of her reproaches against America, for this is just her difficulty.

But, in truth, moreover, due credit has never been given to America for the serious and, to a considerable extent, successful efforts which she has already made to rid herself of this evil. Very early, and while yet in her colonial state, did she, from her own religious sense of justice, make these efforts — taking the lead, in fact, of all the world in this respect. In the first place, she opposed at the outset the introduction of the slaves whom the mother-country for her own selfish ends would thrust upon her, and she strove by various means to stop or check. the infamous trade. The