The Book of Abraham in effect crystallized Joseph’s hitherto vacillating position on the Negro problem. Soon he published a statement in his church newspaper attacking the abolitionist position as one “calculated to lay waste the fair states of the South, and let loose upon the world a community of people, who might, peradventure, overrun our society, and violate the most sacred principles of human society, chastity and virtue.” “. . . we have no right,” he concluded, “to interfere with slaves, contrary to the mind and will of their masters.”
