244] "The wild savage is the child of passion, unaided
by one ray of religion or morality to direct his course, in consequence
of which his existence is stained with every crime that can debase human
nature to a level with the brute creation. Who can say that the slaves
in our colonies are such? Are they not, by comparison with their still
savage brethren, enlightened beings? Is not the West Indian negro,
therefore, greatly indebted to his master for making him what he is--for
having raised him from the state of debasement in which he was born, and
placed him in a scale of civilized society? How can he repay him? He is
possessed of nothing--the only return in his power is his servitude. The
man who has seen the wild African, roaming in his native woods, and the
well fed, happy looking negro of the West Indies, may, perhaps, be able
to judge of their comparative happiness; the former, I strongly suspect,
would be glad to change his state of boasted freedom, starvation, and
disease, to become the slave of sinners, and the commiseration of
saints."[245] It was a useful and beneficent work, approaching the
heroic, to tame the wild horse, and subdue him to the use of man; how
much more to tame the nobler animal that is capable of reason, and
subdue him to usefulness?

We believe that the tendency of slavery is to elevate the character of
the master. No doubt the character--especially of youth--has sometimes
received a taint and premature knowledge of vice, from the contact and
association with ignorant and servile beings of gross manners and
morals. Yet still we believe that the entire tendency is to inspire
disgust and aversion toward their peculiar vices. It was not without a
knowledge of nature, that the Spartans exhibited the vices of slaves by
way of negative example to their children. We flatter ourselves that the
view of this degradation, mitigated as it is, has the effect of making
probity more strict, the pride of character more high, the sense of
honor more strong, than is commonly found where this institution does
not exist. Whatever may be the prevailing faults or vices of the masters
of slaves, they have not commonly been understood to be those of
dishonesty, cowardice, meanness, or falsehood. And so most
unquestionably it ought to be. Our institutions would indeed be
intolerable in the sight of God and man, if, condemning one portion of
society to hopeless ignorance and comparative degradation, they should
make