t every American citizen who retains a human being in
involuntary bondage, as his property is (according to
Scripture) a man-stealer.

That the slaves ought instantly to be set free, and brought
under the protection of law.

That if they had lived from the time of Pharaoh down to the
present period, and had been entailed through successive
generations, their right to be free could never have been
alienated, but their claims would have constantly risen in
solemnity.

That all those laws which are now in force, admitting the
right of slavery, are therefore, before God, utterly null and
void; being an audacious usurpation of the Divine
prerogative, a daring infringement on the law of nature, a
base overthrow of the very foundations of the social compact,
a complete extinction of all the relations, endearments, and
obligations of mankind, and a presumptuous transgression of
all the holy commandments--and that, therefore, they ought to
be instantly abrogated.

He would ask if there was any thing here different from what he had
read from his respected opponent? The sentiments were the same, though
not given in Mr. Breckinridge's strong and glowing language. Mr.
Breckinridge's description of slavery was even more methodical,
clearer, and better arranged; he was therefore inclined to prefer it
to the other. He would, however, ask Mr. Breckinridge not to persevere
in speaking of the violence, as he called it, of the abolitionists,
only in general terms. He hoped he would point out the instances to
which he alluded, and not take advantage of them, because they were a
handful and _odious_. They were not singular in being called odious.
Noah was called odious by the men of his day, because he pointed out
to them the wickedness of which they were guilty. Every reformer had
been called odious, and he trusted to be always among those who were
deemed odious by slaveholders and their apologists. He repeated, that
he wished Mr. Breckinridge to forsake general allegations, and to
specify time and place when he brought forward his charges. The time
was passed, when, in Glasgow, vague assertions could produce any
effect. The time was not, indeed, distant when even here the friends
of negro freedom had been deemed odious--when they were a mere
handful, met in a room in the Black Bull Inn. But from being odious
they had become respectable, and from respectable trium