It is a social condition ordained from the beginning of the world for the wisest purposes, benevolent and disciplinary, by Divine Wisdom.
The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having _per se_ nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler, but is moral or unmoral as the duties of the relation of master, parent, employer or ruler are rightly used or abused.

The subject in a national view belongs not, therefore, to the department of Morals, and is transferred to that of Politics to be politically regulated.
"The accidents of the relation of master and slave, like the accidents of other social relations, are to be praised or condemned as such individually and in accordance with the circumstances of every case, and, whether adjudged good or bad, do not affect the character of the relation itself." On the subject of foreign immigration he was most outspoken, and replying to an enquiry of one of his political friends concerning his attitude towards the so-called "Know Nothings," he says:-- "So far as I can gather from the public papers, the object of this society would seem to be to resist the aggression of foreign influence and its insidious and dangerous assaults upon all that Americans hold dear, politically and religiously.

It appears to be to prevent injury to the Republic from the ill-timed and, I may say, unbecoming tamperings with the laws, and habits, and deeply sacred sentiments of Americans by those whose position, alike dictated by modesty and safety, to them as well as to us, is that of minors in training for American, not European, liberty.
"I have not, at this late day, to make up an opinion on this subject.

My sentiments 'On the dangers to the free institutions of the United States from foreign immigration' are the same now that I have ever entertained, and these same have been promulgated from Maine to Louisiana for more than twenty years.
"This subject involves questions which, in my estimation, make all others insignificant in the comparison, for they affect all others.

To the disturbing influence of foreign action in our midst upon the political and religious questions of the day may be attributed in a great degree the present disorganization in all parts of the land.
"So far as the Society you speak of is acting against this great evil it, of course, meets with my hearty concurrence.