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It is almost fifteen years since the following Lecture was delivered. Previous to its delivery I had resided several years in Florida where I had ample opportunities of seeing and judging of the Institution of Slavery and of the condition, character and treatment of the slaves. On my return to Pennsylvania, my native State, at the time when the question of Slavery was producing a high degree of excitement in Church and State, I was called upon by many, in both departments, for my opinions on the subject. And having, while in the South, given the question a thorough examination in its relation to and connexion with the word of God in the Old and New Testaments, which all Protestants profess to take for their sole and exclusive guides, on all great questions of religion and morality, I announced to the public, that I would, on a certain day, give, what I clearly believed to be the instructions of the Bible upon this subject. This was done, and a copy of the Lecture was called for publication. This was the first time, to my knowledge, of a public defence of the Institution of Slavery on the word of God.

A few years after, I published a second edition, by request, and since then I have received frequent solicitations from many sections of our country for another.

The defence is brief, simple and concise. The arguments are purely scriptural, not forced constructions from the sacred texts; but the true and unaltered texts themselves, arranged in their just and logical order—from the authority of “The Higher Law,” being in direct contradiction in this respect, to such production as