"
A year later Mr. Webster again spoke on one portion of this subject, and in
the same tone of deep hostility and reproach. This second instance was that
famous and much quoted passage of his Plymouth oration in which he
denounced the African slave-trade. Every one remembers the ringing words:--
"I hear the sound of the hammer, I see the smoke of the furnaces
where manacles and fetters are still forged for human limbs. I see
the visages of those who, by stealth and at midnight, labor in this
work of hell,--foul and dark as may become the artificers of such
instruments of misery and torture. Let that spot be purified, or
let it cease to be of New England. Let it be purified, or let it be
set aside from the Christian world; let it be put out of the circle
of human sympathies and human regards, and let civilized man
henceforth have no communion with it."
This is directed against the African slave-trade, the most hideous feature,
perhaps, in the system. But there was no real distinction between slavers
plying from one American port to another and those which crossed the ocean
for the same purpose.
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