four millions of our colored subjects who
have no king or chief, nor in fact any government that can
secure to them the simplest natural rights. They can not
even be entered into treaty stipulations with and deported
to the east, as our Indian tribes have been to the west.
They have no right to the mediation of a justice of the
peace or jury between them and chains and lashes. They have
no right to wages for their labor; no right to the Sabbath;
no right to the institution of marriage; no right to letters
or to self-defense. A small class of owners, rendered
unfeeling, and even unconscious and unreflecting by habit,
and a large part of them ignorant and vicious, stand between
them and their government, destroying its sovereignty. This
government has not the power even to regulate the number of
lashes that its subjects may receive. It can not say that
they shall receive thirty-nine instead of forty. To a large
and growing class of its subjects it can secure neither
justice, moderation, nor the advantages of Christian
religion; and if it can not protect _all_ its subjects, it
can protect none, either black or white.

"It is nearly a hundred years since our people first
declared to the nations of the world that all men are born
free; and still we have not made our declaration good.
Highly revolutionary measures have since then been adopted
by the admission of Missouri and the annexation of Texas in
favor of slavery by the barest majorities of votes, while
the highly conservative vote of two-thirds has at length
been attained against slavery, and still slavery
exists--even, moreover, although two-thirds of the blood in
the veins of our slaves is fast becoming from our own race.
If we wait for a larger vote, or until our slaves' blood
becomes more consanguined still with our own, the danger of
a violent revolution, over which we can have no control,
must become more imminent every day. By a course of
undecided action, determined by no policy but the vague will
of a war-distracted people, we run the risk of precipitating
that very revolutionary violence which we seem seeking to
avoid.

"Let us regard for a moment the elements of such a
revolution.

[Illustration: WASHING IN CAMP]

"Many of the slaves here have been sold a