charity which esteems another's good as well as our own, is contrary to that second great commandment-“ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Slaveholding is a sacrificing another's interest to our own, and is a violation of the tenth commandment of the highest aggravation. Other acts of this sin may be of a partial nature, and may respect some things only; but this is a degree of covet. ousness which, as a sweeping rain, takes all. Person, liberty, property and privileges, both spiritual and temporal; we use the word property for labor, because the poor man's labor is his property as much as houses, lands, and goods, are the property of a rich man. Houses, lands, and goods, are of value to a man, not because of the materials which constitute these articles, but because of the profits which he derives from their use. So the poor man's labor is of use to him, not so much on account of the labor itself, as from the profits arising from it; so that for one man to deprive another of liberty, and by force exact his labor without a due compensation, is the highest degree of covetousness, the grossest kind of theft and robbery; and a real slaveholder ought to be viewed with the same abhorrence, and treated with the same contempt as the most atrocious thief, robber, or buccanier, that ever infested sea or land, or disgraced human nature.

THE RIGHT OF ALL MEN TO THE WORLD.

Eighteenth-The criminality of slaveholding may be proved from a prior right which all the sons and daughters of Adam have to enjoy this world and the goodness of providence, which right arises from that original grant which God gave to man in his creation of this world. Genesis i. 28: "And God blessed them and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and 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. And God said, Behold, I have given every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."

This appears to be the grand charter upon which the right of all property is founded. And if this grant or

charter be admitted as reasonable and just, it will follow as a proper conclusion that every claim set up amongst mankind, which contradicts this grant, or prevents any part of mankind from enjoying it, must be sinful, because at open war with that original charter. But slaveholding is exactly of this description of crime. As,

1st. It deprives the slaves of the right of being fruitful, multiplying and replenishing the earth, in a lawful way, by separating husbands and wives, dividing and scattering their families.

2d. It cuts them off from having dominion over the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field. So that they have no power over these creatures, nor privilege to enjoy them, but at the discretion of their ungodly masters. Slaveholding is an usurpation of that great original charter from God, of all the gifts of provi dence to all mankind, or a monopoly of the whole to the slaveholders themselves, and a robbing those that are subject to their despotical power of their lawful rights. The crime of robbery is the same, whether a man's property is taken from him, or the man is taken from his property. In the case of slavery men are taken from their property, viz., the gifts of God, which they have a right to possess and enjoy; these are by arbitrary power withheld from them, and enjoyed by their tyrants.

Again. In that great charter, God gave a grant of the whole face of the earth to all mankind, to be possessed and enjoyed; but slavery completely robs a great part of mankind of this right. It shuts them out from possessing or obtaining any part of the earth which God gave to all mankind, but this is not an insinuation that those parts of the earth or tracts of land, which have, by legal negotiation, become the private property of individuals, should be distributed gratis to those that have none; but it means that all men, in virtue of that original grant, have a moral right to possess property of their own by such ways as the moral law and the civil authority sanctions, and that slavery completely cuts off the slave from that privilege. But the horrid criminality of this species of robbery, is aggravated from the vast abundance of lands on the face of the earth, which yet remain uncultivated, the fertility

of which is an invitation to all mankind to extend their settlements, replenish the earth and subdue it; and what heightens the injustice and cruelty still more, is, that in our western states in particular, there are opportunities of possessing lands of the first quality at an easy rate, and thereby securing property for themselves and their offspring. But cruel slavery has so shut the doors of moral justice as to exclude a great part of the inhabitants of our land, from their due proportion of the gifts of God, and of their other equitable rights, and from their children after them for ever. Slaveholding is the complicated crime of avarice and robbery. Avarice, in monopolizing the land and other property of our neighbors, and robbery in doing it by violence, without the shadow of justice. Isaiah v. 8: "Woe to them that join house to house, and lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth." Micah ii. 2: "And they covet fields and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

AGAINST MERCY TO THE POOR.

Nineteenth-That practice must be criminal that supersedes and necessarily excludes the duty of shewing mercy to the poor. But slaveholding is of that description.

The Scripture makes it the indispensable duty of all, according to their abilities, to help the poor. Proverbs xiv. 21: "He that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he." Verse 31: 66 He that honoreth his Maker hath mercy on the poor." Chap. xix. 17: "He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord." That pity to the poor implies more than an inward commisseration for their distress, accompanied with mere verbal expressions of compassion, the apostle James has shewn, chap. ii. 15: "If a brother or a sister be naked, or destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not these things which are needful for the body, what doth it profit?" Isaiah lviii. 6: "Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free; and to break every yoke, to deal thy bread to the hungry, and to bring the poor that are

cast into thine house, when thou seest the wicked, that thou cover him?" These scriptures, with innumerable other texts, lay all men under strong obligations to help the poor, according to their abilities; but there is no class of poor so divested of every natural enjoyment as the slaves. And that which renders their case the more worthy of compassion is, that their extreme poverty will not admit of the common pretext for withholding acts of charity to the needy, which is, that their poverty has been occasioned by their own bad economy, but, on the contrary, it is entirely occasioned by unjust laws and arbitrary power. If, then, slaveholders are justifiable in keeping their neighbors in a state of the most abject, unmerited poverty, and thus withhold help from the poorest and most innocent of all poor, by retaining them in bondage, they can be under no obligations, by the law of God, to help the less poor and less innocent. And if slaveholders are exempted by the law of God from helping the poor in their distress, all others must be equally exempted; for one moral law equally binds all men. Therefore if slavehold

ing is lawful, it will forbid all acts of charity to the poor.

Again. The indigence of the poor is liable to be of a twofold nature. It may consist of either a want of worldly substance, or of a mental want, or both. A state of slavery gives a complete example of both, which loudly calls for the charity of all to whom God has given the means of assistance. The want of the mind is the greatest of all wants, because it affects the eternal state of its subjects; for none that are come to the years of understanding can be saved from the wrath to come, but through a knowledge of the gospel; therefore, to help the poor and needy heathen in different parts of the world, whose greatest poverty is a want of the knowledge of Christ, claims the attention of the enlightened and wealthy citizens of our country more than the poor in worldly substance. But if it is a duty in slaveholders not only to keep the blacks in their own country in a state of involuntary bondage, and in order to subserve that purpose to keep them in the most profound heathen darkness, it cannot be a duty for the same people to be at the expense to have the gospel sent to enlighten the heathen in distant parts of the world. Yea, it appears an insult to the understand

ings of slaveholders, for missionary societies to ask their gratuity for any such purpose. And it is most evident that this very absurdity is the reason why so many in the state of Kentucky, professing Christianity, are avowed enemies to the great work of sending the gospel to the heathen in Asia and Africa.

OPPOSED TO REPUBLICANISM.

Twentieth-That practice must be inconsistent with moral justice which is opposed to republican principles; but slaveholding is of that description. Therefore, slaveholding is the highest degree of despotism.

If despotical government is lawful over ten persons, it is equally lawful over one hundred, one thousand, a million, or ten million. But if it is taken for granted that a republican government is just, it is impossible that a despotical one can be just. Therefore slaveholding must be inconsistent with justice, and contradictory to the fundamental principles of our government, which recognize all men as having a natural right to freedom; and examples show that despotism is incompatible with the very existence of a republican government, every instance of which has ever been supported in opposition to despotical power, and none more so than the Federal Government of the United States of America. The revolution was commenced and established on equal rights and liberties, which were invaded by British authority. (See the Declaration of Independence.) That all men are by nature free and independent; so that it is impossible to vindicate the practice of slavery without condemning the political government of our nation, nor without vindicating every species and every degree of tyranny exemplified in the world, and at the same time will throw odium upon the authors of our revolutionary independence, and brand the names of a Franklin, a Washington, a Jay, an Adams, and a Hancock, together with all the most eminent instru. ments of the revolution, with the opprobrious names of robbers and murderers, who unjustly and cruelly wrenched from the crown of Britain its just right at the expense of many thousand lives. That this conclusion is just, will be further evident from a recapitulation of the character of a slaveholder.