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,