He said that a curse attended this trade even in the mode of defending it.  By a certain fatality, none but the vilest arguments were brought forward, which corrupted the very persons who used them.  Every one of these was built on the narrow ground of interest—­of pecuniary profit—­of sordid gain—­in opposition to every high consideration—­to every motive that had reference to humanity, justice, and religion—­or to that great principle which comprehended them all.  Place only before the most determined advocate of this odious traffic the exact image of himself in the garb and harness of a slave, dragged and whipped about like a beast; place this image also before him, and paint it as that of one without a ray of hope to cheer him; and you would extort from him the reluctant confession, that he would not endure for an hour the misery to which he condemned his fellow-man for life.  How dared he, then, to use this selfish plea of interest against the voice of the generous sympathies of his nature?  But even upon this narrow ground, the advocates for the traffic had been defeated.  If the unhallowed argument of expediency was worth anything when opposed to moral rectitude, or if it were to supercede precepts of Christianity, where was a man to stop, on what was he to draw?  For anything he knew, it might be physically true, that human blood was the best manure for the land; but who ought to shed it on that account?  True expediency, however, was, where it ever would be found, on the side of that system which was most merciful and just.  He asked how it happened, that sugar could be imported cheaper from the East Indies than from the West, notwithstanding the vast difference of the length of the voyages, but on account of the impolicy of slavery; or that it was made in the former case by the industry of free men, and in the latter by the languid drudgery of slaves.

As he had had occasion to advert to the Eastern part of the world, he would make an observation upon an argument, which had been collected from that quarter.  The condition of the Negroes in the West Indies had been lately compared with that of the Hindoos.  But he would observe that the Hindoo, miserable as his hovel was, had sources of pride and happiness, to which not only the West Indian slave, but even his master, was a stranger.  He was to be sure a peasant; and his industry was subservient to the gratifications of an European lord; but he was, in his own belief, vastly superior to him.  He viewed him as one of the lowest cast.  He would not on any consideration eat from the same plate.  He would not suffer his son to marry the daughter of his master, even if she could bring him all the West Indies as her portion.  He would observe, too, that the Hindoo peasant drank his water from his native well; that, if his meal were scanty, he received it from the hand of her, who was most dear to him; that, when he laboured, he laboured for her and his offspring.  His daily task being finished, he reposed with his family.