the African is an inferior variety of the
human race, of less elevated character, and more limited intellect, is
it not desirable that the inferior laboring class should be made up of
such, who will conform to their condition without painful aspirations
and vain struggles?

The slave is certainly liable to be sold. But, perhaps, it may be
questioned, whether this is a greater evil than the liability of the
laborer, in fully peopled countries, to be dismissed by his employer,
with the uncertainty of being able to obtain employment, or the means of
subsistence elsewhere. With us, the employer can not dismiss his laborer
without providing him with another employer. His means of subsistence
are secure, and this is a compensation for much. He is also liable to be
separated from wife and child--though not more frequently, that I am
aware of, than the exigency of their condition compels the separation of
families among the labering poor elsewhere--but from native character
and temperament, the separation is much less severely felt. And it is
one of the compensations, that he may sustain these relations, without
suffering a still severer penalty for the indulgence.

The love of liberty is a noble passion--to have the free, uncontrolled
disposition of ourselves, our words and actions. But alas! it is one in
which we know that a large portion of the human race can never be
gratified. It is mockery, to say that the laborer any where has such
disposition of himself--though there may be an approach to it in some
peculiar, and those, perhaps, not the most desirable, states of society.
But unless he be properly disciplined and prepared for its enjoyment, it
is the most fatal boon that could be conferred--fatal to himself and
others. If slaves have less freedom of action than other laborers, which
I by no means admit, they are saved in a great degree from the
responsibility of self-government, and the evils springing from their
own perverse wills. Those who have looked most closely into life, and
know how great a portion of human misery is derived from these
sources--the undecided and wavering purpose--producing ineffectual
exertion, or indolence with its thousand attendant evils--the wayward
conduct--intemperance or profligacy--will most appreciate this benefit.
The line of a slave's duty is marked out with precision, and he has no
choice but to follow it. He is saved the double difficulty, first of
determining the proper course for