ugh, if they were false; the sting lies
in their truth.

Finally, I have described some of the horrors of the slave-trade,
because when our constitution was formed, the government pledged itself
not to abolish this traffic until 1808. We began our career of freedom
by granting a twenty years' lease of iniquity--twenty years of allowed
invasion of other men's rights--twenty years of bloodshed, violence, and
fraud! And this will be told in our annals--this will be heard of to the
end of time!

While the slave-trade was allowed, the South could use it to advance
their views in various ways. In their representation to Congress, five
slaves counted the same as three freemen; of course, every fresh cargo
was not only an increase of property, but an increase of _political
power_. Ample time was allowed to lay in a stock of slaves to supply
the new slave states and territories that might grow up; and when this
was effected, the prohibition of foreign commerce in human flesh,
operated as a complete _tariff_, to protect the domestic supply.

Every man who buys a slave promotes this traffic, by raising the value
of the article; every man who owns a slave, indirectly countenances
it; every man who allows that slavery is a lamentable _necessity_,
contributes his share to support it; and he who votes for admitting
a slave-holding State into the Union, fearfully augments the amount of
this crime.

CHAPTER II.

COMPARATIVE VIEW OF SLAVERY, IN DIFFERENT AGES AND NATIONS.

"E'en from my tongue some heartfelt truths may fall;
And outraged Nature claims the care of all.
These wrongs in _any_ place would force a tear;
But call for stronger, deeper feeling _here_."

"Oh, sons of freedom! equalize your laws--
Be all consistent--plead the negro's cause--
Then all the nations in your code may see,
That, black or white, Americans are free."

Between ancient and modern slavery there is this remarkable
distinction--the former originated in motives of humanity; the latter is
dictated solely by avarice. The ancients made slaves of captives taken
in war, as an amelioration of the original custom of indiscriminate
slaughter; the moderns attack defenceless people, without any
provocation, and steal them, for the express purpose of making them
slaves.

Modern slavery, indeed, in all its particulars, is more odious than the
ancient; and it is worthy of remark that the condition of slaves has
always been worse just in