slaves, nor deprive them of personal liberty! This is
abolition--_immediate abolition_. It is simply declaring that slave
owners are bound to fulfil--now, without any reluctance or delays--the
golden rule, namely, to do as they would be done by; and that, as the
right to be free is inherent and inalienable in the slaves, there ought
now to be a disposition on the part of the people to break their
fetters. All the horrid spectres which are conjured up, on this subject,
arise from a confusion of the brain, as much as from a corruption of the
heart.

I utterly reject, as delusive and dangerous in the extreme, every plea
which justifies a procrastinated and an indefinite emancipation, or
which concedes to a slave owner the right to hold his slaves as
_property_ for any limited period, or which contends for the gradual
preparation of the slaves for freedom; believing all such pretexts to be
a fatal departure from the high road of justice into the bogs of
expediency, a surrender of the great principles of equity, an
indefensible prolongation of the curse of slavery, a concession which
places the guilt upon any but those who incur it, and directly
calculated to perpetuate the thraldom of our species.

Immediate abolition does not mean that the slaves shall immediately
exercise the right of suffrage, or be eligible to any office, or be
emancipated from law, or be free from the benevolent restraints of
guardianship. We contend for the immediate personal freedom of the
slaves, for their exemption from punishment except where law has been
violated, for their employment and reward as free laborers, for their
exclusive right to their own bodies and those of their own children, for
their instruction and subsequent admission to all the trusts, offices,
honors and emoluments of intelligent freemen. Emancipation will increase
and not destroy the value of their labor; it will also increase the
demand for it. Holding out the stimulus of good treatment and an
adequate reward, it will induce the slaves to toil with a hundred fold
more assiduity and faithfulness. Who is so blind as not to perceive the
peaceful and beneficial results of such a change? The slaves, if freed,
will come under the watchful cognizance of law; they will not be idle,
but _avariciously_ industrious; they will not rush through the country,
firing dwellings and murdering the inhabitants; for freedom is all they
ask--all they desire--the obtainment of which will transfo