midnight
The human mind , where it is accustomed to act freely , must be impelled by some master-passion ; and when true religion does not supply it , error stands ready to satisfy the demand . On the whole , I am persuaded that our Northern people behave full as well under the anti-slavery excitement as Southerners would if their consciences were perverted like ours , and we were the objects of their opposition . I think that a change will come over us . At the North , you have heard the wind , at midnight , after a warm rain , in winter , haul out to the north-west , and you know what a piping time we then have of it , and how the clear cold air , the next morning , and the bright sun , excite and cheer us . There has been with us for a long time at the North , in our political and religious atmosphere , a warm , foggy , unwholesome drizzle of weak , fanatical feeling , with now and then gusts of wind and scud , -- a kind of weather most abhorred by mariners . But we hope that the wind is changing , and that `` fair weather cometh out of the North . '' God will not suffer us to live long , we earnestly hope , in this condition of misunderstanding and hatred , for it would be contrary to his established laws that we should long continue to be one nation with such feelings toward each other .