nly for
the sake of argument,) still, sir, you will have the critical hazard of
this doubt pressing, in no very doubtful way, upon your declining years,
as you descend the long and tedious hill of life.

Would it not seem to be exceedingly undesirable to close an eventful
probation of seventy or eighty years, and leave your reputation among
posterity suspended upon so doubtful an issue? But what, my dear sir,
is a reputation among posterity, who are but worms, compared with a
destiny in the world of spirits? And it is in light of that destiny that
I would now have you look at this subject. You and I, and all that you
claim as your slaves, are in a state of probation; our great business is
to serve God under His righteous moral government. Master and slave are
the subjects of that government, bound by its immutable requirements,
and liable to its sanctions in the next world, though enjoying its
forbearance in this. You will pardon me then for pressing this point in
earnest good faith. You should, at this stage, review your life without
political bias, or adherence to long cherished prejudices, and remember
that you are soon to meet those whom you have held, and do hold in
slavery, at the awful bar of the impartial Judge of all who doeth right.
Then what will become of your own doubtful claims? What will be done
with those doubts that agitated your mind years ago; will you answer for
threatening, swearing, and using the cowhide among your slaves?

What will become of those long groans and unsatisfied complaints of your
slaves, for vexing them with insulting words, placing them in the power
of dogish and abusive overseers, or under your stripling, misguided,
hot-headed son, to drive and whip at pleasure, and for selling parts or
whole families to Georgia? They will all meet you at that bar. Uncle
James True, Charles Cooper, Aunt Jenny, and the native Africans;
Jeremiah, London, and Donmore, have already gone a-head, and only wait
your arrival--Sir, I shall meet you there. The account between us for
the first twenty years of my life, will have a definite character upon
which one or the other will be able to make out a case.

Upon such a review as this, sir, you will, I am quite sure, see the need
of seriousness. I assure you that the thought of meeting you in
eternity, and before the dread tribunal of God, with a complaint in my
mouth against you, is to