ee." 8. "Their simultaneous liberation would be attended with
great danger." 9. "Any interference in their behalf will excite the
ill-will of the South, and thus seriously affect Northern trade and
commerce." 10. "The Union can be preserved only by letting Slavery
alone, and that is of paramount importance." 11. "Slavery is a lawful
and constitutional system, and therefore not a crime." 12. "Slavery is
sanctioned by the Bible; the Bible is the word of God; therefore God
sanctions Slavery, and the Abolitionists are wise above what is
written."

Here, then, are twelve reasons which are popularly urged in all parts
of the country, as conclusive against the right of a man to himself.
If they are valid, in any instance, what becomes of the Declaration of
Independence? On what ground can the revolutionary war, can any
struggle for liberty, be justified? Nay, cannot all the despotisms of
the earth take shelter under them? If they are valid, then why is not
the jesuitical doctrine, that the end sanctifies them, and that it is
right to do evil that good may come, morally sound? If they are valid,
then how does it appear that God is no respecter of persons? or how
can he say, "All souls are mine"? or what is to be done with Christ's
injunction, "Call no man master"? or with what justice can the same
duties and the same obligations (such as are embodied in the Decalogue
and the gospel of Christ) be exacted of chattels as of men? But they
are not valid. They are the logic of Bedlam, the morality of the
pirate ship, the diabolism of the pit. They insult the common sense
and shock the moral nature of mankind. Take them to Europe, and see
with what scorn they will be universally treated! Go, first, to
England, and gravely propound them there; and the universal response
will proudly be, in the thrilling lines of Cowper,

"Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Inhale our air, that moment they are free!
They touch our country, and their shackles fall!"

Every Briton, indignant at the monstrous claim, will answer, in the
emphatic words of Brougham: "Tell me not of rights; talk not of the
property of the planter in his slaves! I deny the right--I acknowledge
not the property! The principles, the feelings of our nature, rise in
rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding or to
the heart, the sentence is the same that rejects it." And Curran, in
words of burning eloquence, shall reply: "I speak in