for the special benefit of the men of his class. The population of
the Free States is now about eighteen millions; of the Slave States,
eight millions. The slaves number about four millions, who are held
as property by only 347,545 persons, men, women and children. This
number, small as it is, constituting about one sixth part of the
United States, have thus far controlled the legislation of the
country. How this power has been acquired is easily understood when
we examine the false ideas respecting slavery which are everywhere
prevalent; such as the weakness of the public conscience, in the
absence of a practical and experimental knowledge of the truth of
God's word--in the atheistic notion, prevailing even in the Church
and in the ministry, that the unrighteous enactments of wicked me are
paramount in authority to the commandments of the Great Jehovah.
Hundreds of clergymen, in all parts of the Union, profess to believe
that the Bible sanctions American slavery,--a system which, of
necessity, cannot exist without a continual violation of every
commandment of the Decalogue.

If the Bible sanctions slavery, (as many profess to believe,) why
does not the God of the Bible sanction it? In other words, if slavery
is sanctioned by the revealed will of God, why are not the
dispensations of his providence in accordance with that will? Could
it be fairly proved that slavery is in accordance with the will of
God, it must necessarily follow that obedience to his will is not
only highly advantageous, but perfectly safe; for, surely, no
Christian can, for a moment, believe that the providence of God ever
militates against the precepts of his word. As, however, the
consequences of slavery have been, in all cases, when not averted by
timely repentance, disastrous in the extreme, it is therefore
undeniably evident that slavery is in direct opposition to the
revealed will of God, and, consequently, that those who so violently
oppose the abolition of slavery, for fear of supposed dangerous
consequences, may truly be said "to know not what they do." The truth
on this subject is so plain, and the facts so abundant, that he who
runs may read, and know to a certainty the entire safety of immediate
emancipation; and that danger arises from liberty withheld, and not
from liberty granted. The general opinion seems to be, that the
moment you proclaim "liberty to the captive," and make the slave a
freeman, be the conditions and restrictions w