ulation of
property, no providence for the future, no tastes for comfort or
elegancies, which are the characteristics and essentials of
civilization. He who has obtained the command of another's labor, first
begins to accumulate and provide for the future, and the foundations of
civilization are laid. We find confirmed by experience that which is so
evident in theory. Since the existence of man upon the earth, with no
exception whatever, either of ancient or modern times, every society
which has attained civilization, has advanced to it through this
process.

Will those who regard slavery as immoral, or crime in itself, tell us
that man was not intended for civilization, but to roam the earth as a
biped brute? That he was not to raise his eyes to Heaven, or be
conformed in his nobler faculties to the image of his Maker? Or will
they say that the Judge of all the earth has done wrong in ordaining the
means by which alone that end can be obtained? It is true that the
Creator can make the wickedness as well as the wrath of man to praise
him, and bring forth the most benevolent results from the most atrocious
actions. But in such cases, it is the motive of the actor alone which
condemns the action. The act itself is good, if it promotes the good
purposes of God, and would be approved by him, if that result only were
intended. Do they not blaspheme the providence of God who denounce as
wickedness and outrage, that which is rendered indispensable to his
purposes in the government of the world? Or at what stage of the
progress of society will they say that slavery ceases to be necessary,
and its very existence becomes sin and crime? I am aware that such
argument would have little effect on those with whom it would be
degrading to contend--who pervert the inspired writings--which in some
parts expressly sanction slavery, and throughout indicate most clearly
that it is a civil institution, with which religion has no concern--with
a shallowness and presumption not less flagrant and shameless than his,
who would justify murder from the text, "and Phineas arose and executed
judgment."

There seems to be something in this subject which blunts the
preceptions, and darkens and confuses the understandings and moral
feelings of men. Tell them that, of necessity, in every civilized
society, there must be an infinite variety of conditions and
employments, from the most eminent and intellectual, to the most servile
and laborious; that t