But, apart from
this, there is our solemn declaration that the vileness of the principle
is at once exhibited in the mere notion of slavery, and the atrocities
of it are the natural and almost inevitable consequences of the
profession and exercise of absolute and irresponsible power. [Hear,
hear!] But do you doubt the fact? Look to the document. I will quote to
you from this book. I have never read any thing more strikingly
illustrative or condemnatory of the system we are here to denounce. Here
is the judgment pronounced by one of the judges in North Carolina. It is
impossible to read this judgment, however terrible the conclusion,
without feeling convinced that the man who pronounced it was a man of a
great mind, and, in spite of the law he was bound to administer, a man
of a great heart. [Hear, hear!] Hear what he says. The case was this: It
was a 'case of appeal,' in which the defendant had hired a slave woman
for a year. During this time she committed some slight offence, for
which the defendant undertook to chastise her. After doing so he shot at
her as she was running away. The question then arose, was he justified
in using that amount of coercion? and whether the privilege of shooting
was not confined to the actual proprietor? The case was argued at some
length, and the court, in pronouncing judgment, began by deploring that
any judge should ever be called upon to decide such a case, but he had
to administer the law, and not to make it. The judge said, 'With
whatever reluctance, therefore, the court is bound to express the
opinion, that the dominion over a slave in Carolina has not, as it has
been argued, any analogy with the authority of a tutor over a pupil, of
a master over an apprentice, or of a parent over a child. The court does
not recognize these applications. There is no likeness between them.
They are in opposition to each other, and there is an impassable gulf
between them. The difference is that which exists between freedom and
slavery--[Hear, hear!]--and a greater difference cannot be imagined. In
the one case, the end in view is the happiness of the youth, born to
equal rights with the tutor, whose duty it is to train the young to
usefulness by moral and intellectual instruction. If they will not
suffice, a moderate chastisement maybe administered. But with slavery it
is far otherwise.' Mark these words, for they contain the whole thing.
But with slavery it is far otherwise. The end is the profit of