inevitably be swept away, just as other “refuges
of lies” have been, by the irresistible torrent
of a rectified public opinion. “The
supporters
of the slave system,” says Jonathan Dymond in
his admirable work on the Principles of Morality,
“will
hereafter be regarded with the
same
public feeling, as he who was an advocate for the
slave trade
now is.” It will be,
and that very soon, clearly perceived and fully acknowledged
by all the virtuous and the candid, that in
principle
it is as sinful to hold a human being in bondage who
has been born in Carolina, as one who has been born
in Africa. All that sophistry of argument which
has been employed to prove, that although it is sinful
to send to Africa to procure men and women as slaves,
who have never been in slavery, that still, it is
not sinful to keep those in bondage who have come down
by inheritance, will be utterly overthrown. We
must come back to the good old doctrine of our forefathers
who declared to the world, “this self evident
truth that
all men are created equal, and that
they have certain
inalienable rights among
which are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.” It is even a greater absurdity
to suppose a man can be legally born a slave under
our free Republican Government, than under
the petty despotisms of barbarian Africa. If then,
we have no right to enslave an African, surely we
can have none to enslave an American; if it is a self
evident truth that
all men, every where and
of every color are born equal, and have an
inalienable
right to liberty, then it is equally true that
no man can be born a slave, and no man can
ever
rightfully be reduced to
involuntary
bondage and held as a slave, however fair may be the
claim of his master or mistress through wills and
title-deeds.
But after all, it may be said, our fathers were certainly
mistaken, for the Bible sanctions Slavery, and that
is the highest authority. Now the Bible is my
ultimate appeal in all matters of faith and practice,
and it is to this test I am anxious to bring
the subject at issue between us. Let us then
begin with Adam and examine the charter of privileges
which was given to him. “Have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the
earth.” In the eighth Psalm we have a still
fuller description of this charter which through Adam
was given to all mankind. “Thou madest him
to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou
hast put all things under his feet. All sheep
and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl
of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth
through the paths of the seas.” And after
the flood when this charter of human rights was renewed,
we find no additional power vested in man.
“And the fear of you and the dread of you shall
be upon every beast of the earth, and every fowl of
the air, and upon all that moveth upon the earth,