Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

108 LETTERS.
tional obligation in South Carolina, when Massachusetts sent the Hon. Mr. Hoar there as an envoy, on a
purely legal errand? Mr. Hedrick, Professor of Political Economy in the University of North Carolina,
had a constitutional right to reside in that State.
What regard was paid to that right, when he was
driven from his home merely for declaring that he
considered slavery an impolitic system, injurious to
the prosperity of States? What respect for constitutional rights was manifested by Alabama, when a
bookseller in Mobile was compelled to flee for his life,
because he had, at the special request of some of the
citizens, imported a few copies of a novel that everybody was curious to read? Your own citizen, Mr.
Underwood, had a constitutional right to live in Virginia and vote for whomsoever he pleased. What
regard was paid to his rights, when he was driven
from your State for declaring himself in favor of the
election of Fremont? With these and a multitude
of other examples before your eyes, it would seem as
if the less that was said about respect for constitutional obligations at the South, the better. Slavery
is, in fact, an infringement of all law, and adheres to
no law, save for its own purposes of oppression.
You accuse Captain John Brown of " whetting
knives of butchery for the mothers, sisters, daughters,
and babes " of Virginia; and you inform me of the
well-known fact, that he is " arraigned for the crimes
of murder, robbery, and treason." I will not here stop
to explain why I believe that old hero to be no criminal, but a martyr to righteous principles which he
sought to advance by methods sanctioned by his own
religious views, though not by mine. Allowing that
Captain Brown did attempt a scheme in which mur