fying no more than that it
ironically denominates the rudest sect of barbarians that ever disgraced
the hand of their Creator. We have the precepts of the gospel for the
government of our moral deportment, in violation of which, those outrageous
wrongs are committed; but they have no such meliorating influence among
them, and only adhere to the simple dictates of reason, and natural
religion, which they never violate.

Might not the inhabitants of Africa, with still greater justice on their
side, than we have on ours, cross the Atlantic, seize our citizens, carry
them into Africa, and make slaves of them, provided they were able to do
it? But should this be really the case, every corner of the globe would
reverberate with the sound of African oppression; so loud would be our
complaint, and so "feeling our appeal" to the inhabitants of the world at
large. We should represent them as a lawless, piratical set of unprincipled
robbers, plunderers and villains, who basely prostituted the superior power
and information, which God had given them for worthy purposes to the vilest
of all ends. We should not hesitate to say that they made use of those
advantages only to infringe upon every dictate of justice; to trample under
foot every suggestion of principle, and to spurn, with contempt, every
right of humanity.

The Algerines are reprobated all the world over, for their unlawful
depredations; and stigmatized as pirates, for their unreasonable exactions
from foreign nations. But, the Algerines are no greater pirates than the
Americans; nor are they a race more destructive to the happiness to
mankind. The depredations of the latter on the coast of Africa, and upon
the Indians' Territory make the truth of this assertion manifest. The
piratical depredations of the Algerines appear to be a judgment from
heaven upon the nations, to punish their perfidy and atrocious violations
of justice; and never did any people more justly merit the scourge than
Americans, on whom it seems to fall with peculiar and reiterated violence.
When they yoke our citizens to the plow, and compel them to labour in that
degraded manner, they only retaliate on us for similar barbarities. For
Algiers is a part of the same country, whose helpless inhabitants we are
accustomed to carry away. But the English and Americans cautiously avoid
engaging with a warlike people, whom they fear to attack in a manner so
base and unworthy; whilst the Algerines, more generous