's self, can by the law of
nature and reason reduce the parent to slavery, _much less_ can they
reduce the offspring." Thus by the most clear, manly, and convincing
reasoning does this excellent author refute every claim upon which the
practice of slavery is founded, or by which it has been supposed to be
justified, at least, in modern times.[7] But were we even to admit, that
a captive taken in a _just war_, might by his conqueror be reduced to a
state of slavery, this could not justify the claim of Europeans to
reduce the natives of Africa to that state: it is a melancholy, though
well-known fact, that in order to furnish supplies of these unhappy
people for the purposes of the slave trade, the Europeans have
constantly, by the most insidious (I had almost said infernal) arts,
fomented a kind of perpetual warfare among the ignorant and miserable
people of Africa; and instances have not been wanting, where, by the
most shameful breach of faith, they have trepanned end made slaves of
the _sellers_ as well as the _sold_.[8] That such horrid practices have
been sanctioned by a civilized nation; that a nation ardent in the cause
of liberty, and enjoying its blessings in the fullest extent, can
continue to vindicate a right established upon such a foundation; that a
people who have declared, "That _all men =are by nature= equally[Bill of
Rights, art. 1.]-free =and= independent_", and have made this
declaration the first article in the foundation of their government,
should in defiance of so sacred a truth, recognized by themselves in so
solemn a manner, and on so important an occasion, tolerate a practice
incompatible therewith, is such an evidence of the weakness and
inconsistency of human nature, as every man who hath a spark of
patriotic fire in his bosom must wish to see removed from his own
country. If ever there was a cause, if ever an occasion, in which all
hearts should be united, every nerve strained, and every power exerted,
surely the restoration of human nature to its inalienable right is such:
Whatever obstacles, therefore, may hitherto have retarded the attempt,
he that can appreciate the honour and happiness of his country, will
think it time that we should attempt to surmount them.

[Footnote 7: These arguments are, in fact, borrowed from the Spirit of
Laws.]

[Footnote 8: "About the same time (the reign of queen Elizabeth) a
traffic in the human species, called Negroes, was introduced into
England, which