submission on the other.  The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to his worst passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, can not but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities.  The man must be a prodigy, who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances.”  Such is the practical operation of a system, which puts men and cattle into the same family and treats them alike.  And must we prove, that Jesus Christ is not in favor of a school where the worst vices in their most hateful forms are systematically and efficiently taught and practiced?

[Footnote B:  Notes on Virginia.]

Is Jesus Christ in favor of American slavery?  What, in 1818, did the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church affirm respecting its nature and operation?[C] “Slavery creates a paradox in the moral system—­it exhibits rational, accountable, and immortal beings, in such circumstances as scarcely to leave them the power of moral action.  It exhibits them as dependent on the will of others, whether they shall receive religious instruction; whether they shall know and worship the true God; whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the gospel; whether they shall perform the duties and cherish the endearments of husbands and wives, parents and children, neighbors and friends; whether they shall preserve their chastity and purity, or regard the dictates of justice and humanity.  Such are some of the consequences of slavery; consequences not imaginary, but which connect themselves with its very existence.  The evils to which the slave is always exposed, often take place in their very worst degree and form; and where all of them do not take place, still the slave is deprived of his natural rights, degraded as a human being, and exposed to the danger of passing into the hands of a master who may inflict upon him all the hardships and injuries which inhumanity and avarice may suggest.”  Must we prove, that Jesus Christ is not in favor of such things?

[Footnote C:  Minutes of the General Assembly for 1818, p. 29.]

Is Jesus Christ in favor of American slavery?  It is already widely felt and openly acknowledged at the South, that they can not support slavery without sustaining the opposition of universal christendom.  And Thomas Jefferson declared, that “he trembled for his country when he reflected, that God is just; that his justice can not sleep forever; that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events; that it may become practicable by supernatural influences!  The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest."[A] And must we prove, that Jesus Christ is not in favor of what universal christendom is impelled to abhor, denounce, and oppose;—­is not in favor of what every attribute of Almighty God is armed against?