The Abolitionists were, to his mind, "enemies of the human race," and the movement for immediate emancipation ought to be made a felony punishable "by death without benefit of clergy." He boldly denied that slavery was a political evil, and vaunted it instead as "_the corner stone of our republican edifice_." The legislature upon the receipt of this extraordinary message proceeded to demand of the free States the suppression, by effective legislation, of anti-slavery societies and their incendiary publications.

The burden of this demand was directly caught up by North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, and Georgia.

But there were some things which even a pro-slavery North could not do to oblige the South.

Neither party, much as both desired it, dared to undertake the violation by law of the great right of free speech and of the freedom of the press.

Not so, however, was it with sundry party leaders, notably the governors of New York and Massachusetts, who were for trying the strong arm of the law as an instrument for suppressing Abolitionism.
Edward Everett was so affected by the increasing Southern excitement and his fears for the safety of the dear Union that he must needs deliver himself in his annual message upon the Abolition agitation.