them, there were many loose, floating
notions among us, as well as among themselves, respecting the nature of
liberty, which were at variance with the institution of slavery. But
since this agitation began, we have looked more narrowly into the
grounds of slavery, as well as into the character of the arguments by
which it is assailed, and we have found the first as solid as adamant,
the last as unsubstantial as moonshine. If Mr. Jefferson had lived till
the present day, there can be no doubt, we think, that he would have
been on the same side of this great question with the Calhouns, the
Clays, and the Websters of the country. We have known many who, at one
time, fully concurred with Mr. Jefferson on this subject, but are now
firm believers in the perfect justice and humanity of negro slavery.

Sec. IX. _The ninth fallacy of the abolitionist._

We have already seen that the abolitionist argues the question of
slavery as if Southerners were proposing to catch freemen and reduce
them to bondage. He habitually overlooks the fact, that slavery results,
not from the action of the individual, but from an ordinance of the
State. He forgets that it is a civil institution, and proceeds to argue
as if it were founded in individual wrong. And even when he rises--as he
sometimes does--to a contemplation of the real question in dispute, he
generally takes a most narrow and one-sided view of the subject. For he
generally takes it for granted that the legislation which ordains the
institution of slavery is _intended_ solely and exclusively for the
benefit of the master, without the least regard to the interests of the
slave.

Thus says Dr. Wayland: "Domestic slavery proceeds upon the principle
that the master has a right to control the actions--physical and
intellectual--of the slave for his own (that is, the master's)
individual benefit,"[154] etc. And again: "It supposes that the Creator
intended one human being to govern the physical, intellectual, and moral
actions of as many other human beings as, by purchase, he can bring
within his physical power; and that _one human being may thus acquire a
right to sacrifice the happiness of any number of other human beings,
for the purpose of promoting his own_."[155] Now, surely, if this
representation be just, then the institution of slavery should be held
in infinite abhorrence by every man in Christendom.

But we can assure Dr. Wayland that, however ignorant or heathenish he
may b