And a little further on he observes--"Will it be said that he, who wants
to make me a slave, does me no injury; but that he only makes use of his
rights? Where are those rights? Who hath stamped upon them so sacred a
character as to silence mine?"

In the beginning of the next paragraph he speaks thus:--"He who supports
the system of slavery is the enemy of the whole human race. He divides
it into two societies of legal assassins; the oppressors, and the
oppressed. It is the same thing as proclaiming to the world, if you
would preserve your life, instantly take away mine, for I want to have
yours."

Going on two pages further, we find these words:--"But the Negroes, they
say, are a race born for slavery; their dispositions are narrow,
treacherous, and wicked; they themselves allow the superiority of our
understandings, and almost acknowledge the justice of our authority.
Yes; the minds of the Negroes are contracted, because slavery destroys
all the springs of the soul. They are wicked, but not equally so with
you. They are treacherous, because they are under no obligation to speak
truth to their tyrants. They acknowledge the superiority of our
understanding, because we have abused their ignorance. They allow the
justice of our authority, because we have abused their weakness."

"But these Negroes, it is further urged, were born slaves. Barbarians!
will you persuade me that a man can be the property of a sovereign, a
son the property of a father, a wife the property of a husband, a
domestic the property of a master, a Negro the property of a planter?"

But I have no time to follow this animated author, even by short
extracts, through the varied strains of eloquence which he displays upon