Page:The African Slave Trade (Clark).djvu/30

26 the wrath of Heaven. It is adding a chapter to the history of this trade, the darkest, the most fearful and terrible that was ever written. "Enlightened age!" "Christian nation!" "Free America!" Let us not mock the common sense of the world by the use of these phrases, while this dark cloud is casting its shadow over us. Let us, at least, pray for deliverance from the lowest form of national hypocrisy.

We would gladly omit the details of the sufferings incident to what is called the middle passage, but we can not do justice, even to a brief survey of the traffic, without adding one or two of the many testimonies on this point. And while gazing upon a single picture, if we will multiply these by thousands, we may approximate towards a realization of a passage across the Atlantic in a slaver, and be prompted to do what lies in our power to drive this master iniquity from the face of the earth.

In a debate on the slave trade. Mr. Fox justly remarked that:

"True humanity consists not in a squeamish ear; it consists not in starting, and shrinking at such tales as these, but in a disposition of heart to relieve misery. True humanity appertains rather to the mind than the nerves, and prompts men to use real and active endeavors to execute the actions which it suggests."

Would that the emotions excited by narratives like the following, might lead to the formation of