tionist.--The seventh fallacy of the
Abolitionist.--The eighth fallacy of the
Abolitionist.--The ninth fallacy of the
Abolitionist.--The tenth, eleventh, twelfth,
thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
fallacies of the Abolitionist; or his seven
arguments against the right of a man to hold
property in his fellow-man.--The seventeenth
fallacy of the Abolitionist; or, the Argument from
the Declaration of Independence.

HAVING in the preceding chapter discussed and defined the nature of
civil liberty, as well as laid down some of the political conditions on
which its existence depends, we shall now proceed to examine the
question of slavery. In the prosecution of this inquiry, we shall, in
the first place, consider the arguments and positions of the advocates
of immediate abolition; and, in the second, point out the reasons and
grounds on which the institution of slavery is based and its justice
vindicated. The first branch of the investigation, or that relating to
the arguments and positions of the abolitionist, will occupy the
remainder of the present chapter.

It is insisted by abolitionists that the institution of slavery is, in
all cases and under all circumstances, morally wrong, or a violation of
the law of God. Such is precisely the ground assumed by the one side and
denied by the other.

Thus says Dr. Wayland: "I have wished to make it clear that slavery, or
the holding of men in bondage, and 'obliging them to labor for our
benefit, without their contract or consent,' is always and everywhere,
or, as you well express it, _semper et ubique_, a moral wrong, a
violation of the obligations under which we are created to our
fellow-men, and a transgression of the law of our Creator."

Dr. Fuller likewise: "The simple question is, Whether it _is
necessarily, and amid all circumstances, a crime to hold men in a
condition where they labor for another without their consent or
contract_? and in settling this matter all impertinences must be
retrenched."

In one word, Dr. Wayland insists that slavery is condemned by the law of
God, by the moral law of the universe. We purpose to examine the
arguments which he has advanced in favor of this position. We select his
arguments for examination, because, as a writer on moral and political
science, he stands so high in the northern portion of the Union. His
work on these subj