come the instruments of terror, desolation, and death, throughout our
borders.

It was the sage of the Old Dominion that said--while speaking of the
possibility of a conflict between the slaves and the slaveholders--"God
has no attribute that could take sides with the oppressor in such a
contest. I tremble for my country when I reflect that God _is just_,
and that his justice cannot sleep forever." Such is the warning voice of
Thomas Jefferson; and every day's experience since its utterance until
now, confirms its wisdom, and commends its truth.

WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?. Extract from an Oration, at
Rochester, July 5, 1852

Fellow-Citizens--Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon
to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your
national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom
and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence,
extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble
offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express
devout gratitude for the blessings, resulting from your independence to
us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer
could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be
light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that
a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to
the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such
priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his
voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains
of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case
like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an
hart."

But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the
disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious
anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable
distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice,
are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty,
prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by
you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has
brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is _yours_, not
mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the
grand illuminated{350} temp