Be assured, your bullies are timid bullies; not that they are wanting in individual courage, but because they are aware that their authority rests, not on their physical strength, but on your habits of deference and obedience.
Tappan describes the cowardice of bullies who rely on the deference of others rather than their own strength.
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More from Lewis Tappan
If we turn to the new States, we find that slavery and freedom have the same influence on population as in the old.
No other cause can be assigned than slavery, which drives from your borders many of the virtuous and enterprising, and at the same time deters emigrants from other States and from foreign countries from settling among you.
You are moreover aware that the great capitalists of the South have their wealth chiefly invested in plantations and slaves, and not as with us in commerce and manufactures.
Education elevates the inferior classes of society, teaches them their rights, and points out the means of enforcing them.