metimes they obtained only the
inferior liberty, being called _dedititii_: such were slaves who had
been condemned as criminals, and afterwards obtained manumission through
the indulgence of their masters: their conditions was equalled with that
of conquered revolters, whom the Romans called, in reproach, _dedititii,
quia se suaque omnia dediderunt_: but all these distinctions were
abolished by Justinian [Inst. lib. 1. tit. 5. s. 3.], by whom all freed
men in general were made citizens of Rome, without regard to the form of
manumission.--In England, the presenting the villein with _free arms_,
seems to have been the symbol of his restoration to all the rights which
a feudatory was entitled to. With us, we have seen that emancipation
does not confer the rights of citizenship on the person emancipated; on
the contrary, both he and his posterity, of the same complexion with
himself, must always labour under many civil incapacities. If he is
absolved from personal restraint, or corporal punishment, by a master,
yet the laws restrain his actions in many instances, where there is none
upon a free white man. If he can maintain a suit, he cannot be a
witness, a juror, or a judge in any controversy between one of his own
complexion and a white person. If he can acquire property in lands, he
cannot exercise the right of suffrage, which such a property would
confer on his former master; much less can he assist in making those
laws by which he is bound. Yet, even under these disabilities, his
present condition bears an enviable pre-eminence over his former state.
Possessing the liberty of loco-motion, which was formerly denied him, it
is in his choice to submit to that civil inferiority, inseparably
attached to his condition in this country, or seek some more favourable
climate, where all distinctions between men are either totally
abolished, or less regarded than in this.

The extirpation of slavery from the United States, is a task equally
arduous and momentous. To restore the blessings of liberty to near a
million[20] of oppressed individuals, who have groaned under the yoke of
bondage, and to their descendants, is an object, which those who trust
in Providence, will be convinced would not be unaided by the divine
Author of our being, should we invoke his blessing upon our endeavours.
Yet human prudence forbids that we should precipitately engage in a work
of such hazard as a general and simultaneous emancipation. The mind of
ma