What then is the just application of the Golden Rule—­that fundamental maxim of the Gospel, giving character to, and shedding light upon, all its precepts and arrangements—­to the subject of slavery?—­that we must “do to” slaves as we would be done by, AS SLAVES, the RELATION itself being justified and continued?  Surely not.  A little reflection will enable us to see, that the Golden Rule reaches farther in its demands, and strikes deeper in its influences and operations.  The natural equality of mankind lies at the very basis of this great precept.  It obviously requires every man to acknowledge another self in every other man.  With my powers and resources, and in my appropriate circumstances, I am to recognize in any child of Adam who may address me, another self in his appropriate circumstances and with his powers and resources.  This is the natural equality of mankind; and this the Golden Rule requires us to admit, defend, and maintain.

                “WHY DO YE NOT UNDERSTAND MY SPEECH;
                EVEN BECAUSE YE CANNOT HEAR MY WORD.”

They strangely misunderstand and grossly misrepresent this doctrine, who charge upon it the absurdities and mischiefs which any “levelling system" cannot but produce.  In all its bearings, tendencies, and effects, it is directly contrary and powerfully hostile to any such system.  EQUALITY OF RIGHTS, the doctrine asserts; and this necessarily opens the way for variety of condition.  In other words, every child of Adam has, from the Creator, the inalienable right of wielding, within reasonable limits, his own powers, and employing his own resources, according to his own choice;—­the right, while he respects his social relations, to promote as he will his own welfare.  But mark—­HIS OWN powers and resources, and NOT ANOTHER’S, are thus inalienably put under his control.  The Creator makes every man free, in whatever he may do, to exert HIMSELF, and not another.  Here no man may lawfully cripple or embarrass another.  The feeble may not hinder the strong, nor may the strong crush the feeble.  Every man may make the most of himself, in his own proper sphere.  Now, as in the constitutional endowments; and natural opportunities, and lawful acquisitions of mankind, infinite variety prevails, so in exerting each HIMSELF, in his own sphere, according to his own choice, the variety of human condition can be little less than infinite.  Thus equality of rights opens the way for variety of condition.

But with all this variety of make, means, and condition, considered individually, the children of Adam are bound together by strong ties which can never be dissolved.  They are mutually united by the social of their nature.  Hence mutual dependence and mutual claims.  While each is inalienably entitled to assert and enjoy his own personality as a man, each sustains to all and all to each, various relations.  While each owns and honors the individual, all are to own and honor