Excerpt from The Great Battle Between Slavery and Freedom: Considered in Two Speeches Delivered Before the American Antislavery Society, at New York, May 7, 1856 Allow me to say, however, still further, by way of intro duction, that I should not weary your ears at all this morn ing, were it not that another man, your friend and mine, Mr. Phillips, lies sick at home. Remember the threefold misfortune of my position: I come after an African, after a Woman, and in the place of Wendell Phillips. I shall ask your attention to some Thoughts on the present Aspect of the Antislavery Enterprise, and the Forces which work therefor. In all great movements of mankind, there are three special works to be done, so many periods of work, and the same number of classes of persons therein engaged. First is the period of Sentiment. The business is to produce the right feeling, - a sense of lack, and a fore feeling of desire for the special thing required. The aim is to produce a sense of need, and also a feeling of want. That is the first thing. The next period is that of Ideas, where the work is to furnish the Thought of what is wanted, -a distinct, pre cise, adequate idea. The sentiment must precede the thought; for the primitive element in all human conduct is a feeling: every thing begins in a spontaneous emotion. The third is the period of Action, when the business is to make the thought a thing, to organize it into institutions. The idea must precede the action, else man begins to build, and is not able to finish: he runs before he is sent, and knows not where he is going, or the way thither. Now, these three special works go on in the antislavery movement; there are these three periods observable, and three classes of persons engaged in the various works. The first effort is to excite the antislavery Feeling; the next, to furnish the antislavery Idea; and the third is to make that thought a Thing, -to organize the idea into institutions which shall be as Wide as the idea, and fully adequate to express the feeling itself. I. The primitive thing has been, and still is, to arouse a. Sense of Humanity in the whites, which should lead us to abolish this wickedness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.