Read it through once

I am not yet done with the obligations of masters to their slaves. I cannot hastily dismiss the subject. In it I feel an intense interest. Bear with me, my beloved friends and fellow citizens of the South. For I assure you, that if I know anything of my own heart, I am prompted to write by the best of motives and the kindest of feelings. To many of you I am personally known; and I flatter myself, that those who know me best, will not suspect me of improper motives or feelings. I have for you the highest respect, and for you I entertain the kindest feelings. I long resided in your midst, and was treated with kindness by you, in all the relations of life, whether private or public; and I feel myself bound to you by ties of gratitude, which neither time nor space can separate; by all those tender and endearing associations and relations in life, which must necessarily grow out of a long residence in the midst of a generous, humane and hospitable people. My regard and solicitude for my Southern friends is now a thousand fold greater than at any previous period of my life. And my anxiety for your peace, happiness, and permanent prosperity, becomes more and more ardent. But I must come directly to the point under investigation.