tly made themselves slaves of
one powerful chief to shield themselves from the incessant oppression of
twenty."

Now all this is excellent sense. One might almost imagine that the
author had been reading Aristotle, or Montesquieu, or Burke. It is
certain he was not thinking of equal rights. It is equally certain that
his eyes were turned away from the South; for he could see how even
"independent landholders" might rightfully make slaves of themselves.
After such concessions, one would think that all this clamor about
inherent and _inalienable_ rights ought to cease.

In a certain sense, or to a certain extent, all men have equal rights.
All men have an equal right to the air and light of heaven; to the same
air and the same light. In like manner, all men have an equal right to
food and raiment, though not to the same food and raiment. That is, all
men have an equal right to food and raiment, provided they will earn
them. And if they will not earn them, choosing to remain idle,
improvident, or nuisances to society, then they should be placed under a
government of force, and compelled to earn them.

Again, all men have an equal right to serve God according to the
dictates of their own consciences. The poorest slave on earth possesses
this right--this inherent and inalienable right; and he possesses it as
completely as the proudest monarch on his throne. He may choose his own
religion, and worship his own God according to his own conscience,
provided always he seek not in such service to interfere with the rights
of others. But neither the slave nor the freeman has any right to
murder, or instigate others to murder, the master, even though he should
be ever so firmly persuaded that such is a part of his religious duty.
He has, however, the most absolute and perfect right to worship the
Creator of all men in all ways not inconsistent with the moral law. And
wo be to the man by whom such right is denied or set at naught! Such a
one we have never known; but whosoever he may be, or wheresoever he may
be found, let all the abolitionists, we say, hunt him down. He is not
fit to be a man, much less a Christian master.

But, it will be said, the slave has also a right to religious
instruction, as well as to food and raiment. So plain a proposition no
one doubts. But is this right regarded at the South? No more, we fear,
than in many other portions of the so-called Christian world. Our
children, too, and our poor, destitute ne