The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

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THE EARLE FAMILY
upon the enlightened of their own class, who may infract them know-
ingly and wilfully.
"They have systematically and by legal enactments, assisted the ;
callous-hearted and the avaricious to sunder, at their pleasure, the
ties of parental affection and of wedded love ;
thus rendering void, in
relation to us, the commands of that revelation which they profess to
believe and to obey.
"They have alleged as a pretext for their injustice, that we are
characterized by a natural inferiority, providentially designed to fit
us for slaves ;
while they have manifested their want of confidence in
this dogma, by prohibiting the exercise and perfecting of our natural
powers, under the avowed apprehension that such exercise and per-
fection would inevitably relieve us from our thraldom."
Such are the charges which might, with too much truth, be
brought against us. Such are the wrongs, correctly described by
Thomas Jefferson as more grievous in a single hour than those which
produced the American Revolution, when continued for whole ages.
Let it be borne constantly in mind that the people of all the States
of the Union are the authors or abettors of these outrages ; and that
the action of that portion of our friends who reside in the North, is
not one of interference with the internal concerns of other States, so
much as it is an effort to cease from such interference—an effort to
rid themselves of an immoral obligation, unjustly to intermeddle for
the purpose of aiding the aggressor and oppressing the innocent and
the afflicted, to which unholy purpose we have rendered our execu-
tives and our judiciaries, our treasuries and our prisons, all subservient.
In conclusion, permit me to express a hope, that while we remain
steadfast and immovable in the support of our principles, and never
abate in our abhorrence of the enormous wrongs which we have
undertaken to abolish, still we of the North shall, at the same time,
cultivate a spirit of charity and foi-bearance toward our Southern
brethren, in consideration of the circumstances of education, habit
and interest which may palliate the guilt of the actor, without lessen-
ing the enormity of the deed. Let us remember that if our brethren
of the South have erred and sinned, we have erred and sinned with
them, that we have partaken of all the wrong which we charge
against them, and that we have, certainly, as little as they, to alleg
in extenuation of our offence. Let us hope, that when the North -
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prepared to conform in action to its professions of principle—when