Page:The Barbarism of Slavery.djvu/20

 sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth:

 that right we hold By His donation; but man over men He made not lord, such title to Himself Reserving, human left from human free.

Slavery tyrannically assumes a power which Heaven denied; while under its barbarous neeromancy, borrowed from the Sourcaof Evil, a man is changed into a chattel, a person is withered into a thing, a soul is shrunk into merchandise. Say, sir, In your madness, that you own the sun, the stars, the moon; but do not say that you own a man, endowed with a soul that shall live immortal, when sun and moon and stars have passed away.

Secondly. Slavery paints itself again in its complete abrogation of marriage, recognized as a sacrament by the church, and recognized as a contract wherever civilization prevails. Under the law of Slavery, no such sacrament is respected, and no such contract can exist. The ties that may be formed between slaves are all subject to the selfish interests or more selfish lust of the master, whose license knows no check. Natural affections, which have come together, are rudely torn asunder; nor is this all. Stripped of every defence, the chastity of a whole race is exposed to violence, while the result is recorded in the tell-tale faces of children, glowing with their master's blood, but doom-. ed for their mother's skin to Slavery, through all descending generations. The Senator from Mississippi [] is galled by the comparison between Slavery and Polygamy, and winces. I hail this sensibility as the sign of virtue. Let him reflect, and he will confess that there are many disgusting elements in Slavery, which are not present in Polygamy, while the single disgusting element of Polygamy is more than present in Slavery. By the license of Polygamy, one man may have many wives, all bound to him by the marriage-tie, and in other respects protected by law. By the license of Slavery, a whole race is delivered over to prostitution and concubinage, without the protection of any law. Sir, is not Slavery barbarous?

Thirdly. Slavery paints itself again in its complete abrogation of the parental relation, which God in his benevolence has