266 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



republican system. The free States can stop the progress 

 of the deluge, if they will ; but there are so many venal 

 men among us, and there are so many interests which you 

 have so well pointed out, that are allied to the support of 

 slavery, that I look forward to the future with deep anxiety. 

 The subject cannot, however, rest ; the nation is fast ar- 

 ranging its people under two banners, that of freedom and 

 that of slavery. I feel humbled and mortified for my coun- 

 try, and can only hope that there is a Providence in this 

 case that may lead to happier results than we can now fore- 

 see. One of those results is dawning upon the world in 

 the establishment, on the coast of Africa, of enlightened 

 Christian communities of colored people, trained in the 

 habits of order and submission to law, and prompted to 

 industry by having its rewards secured to those by whom 

 they are earned. Like you, I am full of anxiety as to the 

 prospects of nations. I fully agree with you in all that you 

 say regarding that infamous usurper, and the consequences 

 of his influence in the present crisis. Surely the queenly 

 hand was polluted when it touched that of one polluted 

 by so many crimes. Waterloo was avenged, not in battle 

 indeed, but in the degradation of the English monarchy in 

 adopting such a profligate. The only consolation seems to 

 be that these two noble nations have emerged from centu- 

 ries of bloody hostility, not, indeed, to shed each other's 

 blood again, but to pour out the blood of both in the crim- 

 soned Crimea, in opposition to a nation nominally Christian, 

 and in support of one bearing an indomitable hostility to 

 the Christian name and institutions. . 



TO MR. JOHN TAYLOR. 



NEW HAVEN, November 15, 1856. 



BY this time you have heard that the slave aris- 

 tocracy have elected Mr. Buchanan. Our defeat was occa- 

 sioned by a great amount of fraudulent voting, chiefly by 



