Note 89:A — Chapter VII · COLONIZATION AND ABOLITIONISM CONTRASTED!
Reading edition
Letter from W. Rawle, Esq. (formerly President of the Anti-Slavery Society) to ——, Esq.
"My dear Sir—
"The conduct and proceedings of the General Anti-Slavery Society have not met with my entire approbation. The members appear to me to be actuated by a blind and injudicious zeal, productive of measures, the effect of which will be to awaken alarm, create a determined opposition among the slave-holders, and delay the progress of conscientious emancipation.
"That day—the day of general emancipation—will, I trust and believe, hereafter arrive: but I fear it will be delayed by the institution of societies so warm and so imprudent.
"June 27, 1834."
"I regret extremely the agitation of the question of immediate abolition. Without impugning the motives of those who are concerned in it—indeed with great respect for some of them, I must say in all sincerity, that I do believe it is attended with unmixed mischief. It does no good, but harm to the slave; it engenders bad feelings and prejudices between different parts of the Union, and it injures the very cause which it professes to espouse. Instead of advancing, I believe that it has thrown back to an indefinite time the cause of gradual emancipation—the only mode of getting rid of slavery that has been ever thought to be safe, prudent or wise in any of the States in which slavery now exists.
"Hoping that you will excuse the delay which has occurred in my transmission of an answer to your letter, I am gentlemen,
With great respect, your ob't servant,
Henry Clay."