"Against These Sentiments, On The Other Hand, I Had To Urge That I Had
Been Designed For The Church; That
I had already advanced as far as
deacon's orders in it; that my prospects there on account of my
connections
Were then brilliant; that, by appearing to desert my
profession, my family would be dissatisfied, if not unhappy. These
thoughts pressed upon me, and rendered the conflict difficult.
"But the sacrifice of my prospects staggered me, I own, the most. When
the other objections which I have related occurred to me, my
enthusiasm instantly, like a flash of lightning, consumed them; but
this stuck to me, and troubled me. I had ambition. I had a thirst
after worldly interest and honors, and I could not extinguish it at
once. I was more than two hours in solitude under this painful
conflict. At length I yielded, not because I saw any reasonable
prospect of success in my new undertaking, - for all cool-headed and
cool-hearted men would have pronounced against it, - but in obedience,
I believe, to a higher Power. And I can say, that both on the moment
of this resolution and for some time afterwards, I had more sublime
and happy feelings than at any former period of my life."
In order to show how this enterprise was looked upon and talked of
very commonly by the majority of men in those times, we will extract
the following passage from Boswell's Life of Johnson, in which Bozzy
thus enters his solemn protest: "The wild and dangerous attempt, which
has for some time been persisted in, to obtain an act of our
legislature to abolish so very important and necessary a branch of
commercial interest, must have been crushed at once, had not the
insignificance of the zealots, who vainly took the lead in it, made
the vast body of planters, merchants, and others, whose immense
properties are involved in that trade, reasonably enough suppose that
there could be no danger. The encouragement which the attempt has
received excites my wonder and indignation; and though some men of
superior abilities have supported it, whether from a love of temporary
popularity when prosperous, or a love of general mischief when
desperate, my opinion is unshaken.
"To abolish a _status_ which in all ages God has sanctioned, and
man has continued, would not only be robbery to an innumerable class
of our fellow-subjects, but it would be extreme cruelty to the African
savages, a portion of whom it saves from massacre or intolerable
bondage in their own country, and introduces into a much happier state
of life; especially now, when their passage to the West Indies, and
their treatment there, is humanely regulated. To abolish this trade
would be to ' - shut the gates of mercy on mankind.'"
One of the first steps of Clarkson and his associates was the
formation of a committee of twelve persons, for the collection and
dissemination of information on the subject.
The contest now began in earnest, a contest as sublime as any the
world ever saw.
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