which turns a man into a thing--with indignation and abhorrence.
Not to cherish these feelings would be recreancy to principle. They
who desire me to be dumb on the subject of Slavery, unless I will open
my mouth in its defence, ask me to give the lie to my professions, to
degrade my manhood, and to stain my soul. I will not be a liar, a
poltroon, or a hypocrite, to accommodate any party, to gratify any
sect, to escape any odium or peril, to save any interest, to preserve
any institution, or to promote any object. Convince me that one man
may rightfully make another man his slave, and I will no longer
subscribe to the Declaration of Independence. Convince me that liberty
is not the inalienable birthright of every human being, of whatever
complexion or clime, and I will give that instrument to the consuming
fire. I do not know how to espouse freedom and slavery together. I do
not know how to worship God and Mammon at the same time. If other men
choose to go upon all-fours, I choose to stand erect, as God designed
every man to stand. If, practically falsifying its heaven-attested
principles, this nation denounces me for refusing to imitate its
example, then, adhering all the more tenaciously to those principles,
I will not cease to rebuke it for its guilty inconsistency.
Numerically, the contest may be an unequal one, for the time being;
but the Author of liberty and the Source of justice, the adorable God,
is more than multitudinous, and he will defend the right. My crime is,
that I will not go with the multitude to do evil. My singularity is,
that when I say that Freedom is of God, and Slavery is of the devil, I
mean just what I say. My fanaticism is, that I insist on the American
people abolishing Slavery, or ceasing to prate of the rights of man.
My hardihood is, in measuring them by their own standard, and
convicting them out of their own mouths.

"Woe to the rebellions children, saith the Lord, that take
counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but
not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin.

That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my
mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the
enact in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a
book, that it may be for the time to come for