Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/211

Rh verify the conjecture, that nature has been leſs bountiful to them in the endowments of the head, I believe that in thoſe of the heart ſhe will be found to have done them juſtice. That diſpoſition to theft with which they have been branded, muſt be aſcribed to their ſituation, and not to any depravity of the moral ſenſe. The man, in whoſe favor no laws of property exiſt, probably feels himſelf leſs bound to reſpect thoſe made in favor of others. When arguing for ourſelves, we lay it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be juſt, must give a reciprocation of right: that, without this, they are mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in conſcience: and it is a problem which I give to the matter to ſolve, whether the religious precepts againſt the violation of property were not framed for him as well as his ſlave? And whether the ſlaves may not as juſtifiably take a little from one, who has taken all from him, as he may ſlay one who would ſlay him? That a change in the relations in which a man is placed ſhould change his ideas of moral right and wrong, is neither new, nor peculiar to the color of the blacks. Homer tells us it was ſo 2600 years ago.

But the ſlaves of which Homer ſpeaks were whites. Notwithſtanding theſe conſiderations which muſt weaken their reſpect for the laws of property, we find among them numerous inſtances of the