Page:An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.djvu/201

Rh Then let the slave-holder no longer apologize for himself by urging the stupidity and sensuality of negroes. It is upon the system, which thus transforms men into beasts, that the reproach rests in all its strength and bitterness. And even if the negroes were, beyond all doubt, our inferiors in intellect, this would form no excuse for oppression, or contempt. The use of law and public opinion is to protect the weak against the strong; and the government, which perverts these blessings into means of tyranny, resembles the priest, who, administered poison with the Holy Sacrament.

Is there an American willing that the intellectual and the learned should bear despotic sway over the simple and the ignorant? If there be such an one, he may consistently vindicate our treatment of the Africans.