how long do you suppose a slave would remain on
his plantation? The case only needs to be stated; it carries its own
refutation with it.

Absolute and arbitrary power can never be maintained by one man over the
body and soul of another man, without brutal chastisement and enormous
cruelty.

To talk of _kindness_ entering into a relation in which one party is
robbed of wife, of children, of his hard earnings, of home, of friends,
of society, of knowledge, and of all that makes this life desirable, is
most absurd, wicked, and preposterous.

I have shown that slavery is wicked--wicked, in that it violates the
great law of liberty, written on every human heart--wicked, in that it
violates the first command of the decalogue--wicked, in that it
fosters the most disgusting licentiousness--wicked, in that it mars
and defaces{345} the image of God by cruel and barbarous
inflictions--wicked, in that it contravenes the laws of eternal justice,
and tramples in the dust all the humane and heavenly precepts of the New
Testament.

The evils resulting from this huge system of iniquity are not confined
to the states south of Mason and Dixon's line. Its noxious influence can
easily be traced throughout our northern borders. It comes even as
far north as the state of New York. Traces of it may be seen even in
Rochester; and travelers have told me it casts its gloomy shadows across
the lake, approaching the very shores of Queen Victoria's dominions.

The presence of slavery may be explained by--as it is the explanation
of--the mobocratic violence which lately disgraced New York, and
which still more recently disgraced the city of Boston. These violent
demonstrations, these outrageous invasions of human rights, faintly
indicate the presence and power of slavery here. It is a significant
fact, that while meetings for almost any purpose under heaven may be
held unmolested in the city of Boston, that in the same city, a meeting
cannot be peaceably held for the purpose of preaching the doctrine of
the American Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created
equal." The pestiferous breath of slavery taints the whole moral
atmosphere of the north, and enervates the moral energies of the whole
people.

The moment a foreigner ventures upon our soil, and utters a natural
repugnance to oppression, that moment he is made to feel that there is
little sympathy in this land for him. If he were greeted with smiles
before, he meets with frow