August 1, 1863 — Celebration of the 29th Anniversary of Emancipation of the British West Indies, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Abington Island Grove MA

Only those who go down into the heart of slavery can know what its horrors are. When I began to oppose slavery, I thought its abolition would be a much longer process. But the South has helped us. She has gone forward to expedite the work. She has not been willing to await the slow working of principles, the method of abolition adopted by the North, but in her rebellion had laid the axe at the root of slavery’s tree.

This, my friends, is a cause worth dying for. I have rejoiced in the length of this war. The defeats of the North have been the salvation of the nation. Not that I like war, but I know the land needs its scourgings, and in no other way can the demon of slavery, which has become to the South its God and its religion, be cast out.

Source: The Liberator, August 7, 1863, p. 2.