The slave power always laughed at the political and economic arguments against it

The slave power always laughed at the political and economic arguments against it. Calhoun the ablest defender of the system, was acute enough to see that slavery could survive only upon the ground that it was right. [William Lloyd] Garrison put aside all questions of policy or expediency, and demanded immediate and unconditional emancipation because slavery was wrong. Then the slave power knew that he had pierced the joint in its armor. The recoil from Garrison’s blow, the blind and furious rage in which the whole slavocracy rose up to demand his suppression and to put a price upon his life, was proof enough that the blow had gone home to the vital part.
~ Albert E. Pillsbury (December 11, 1905)