keep my eyes upon the
picture which is painted so faithfully and life-like by the hand of the
Saviour.

Allow me to describe them. They are intelligent and well-informed, and
can never say, either before an earthly tribunal or at the bar of God,
"We knew not of ourselves what was right." They are acquainted with the
principles of the law of nations. They are proficient in the knowledge
of Constitutional law. They are teachers of common law, and frame and
execute statute law. They acknowledge that there is a just and impartial
God, and are not altogether unacquainted with the law of Christian love
and kindness. They claim for themselves the broadest freedom. Boastfully
they tell us that they have received from the court of heaven the Magna
Charta of human rights that was handed down through the clouds, and
amid the lightnings of Sinai, and given again by the Son of God on the
Mount of Beatitudes, while the glory of the Father shone around him.
They tell us that from the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution they have obtained a guaranty of their political freedom,
and from the Bible they derive their claim to all the blessings of
religious liberty. With just pride they tell us that they are descended
from the Pilgrims, who threw themselves upon the bosom of the
treacherous sea, and braved storms and tempests, that they might find in
a strange land, and among savages, free homes, where they might build
their altars that should blaze with acceptable sacrifice unto God. Yes!
they boast that their fathers heroically turned away from the precious
light of Eastern civilization, and taking their lamps with oil in their
vessels, joyfully went forth to illuminate this land, that then dwelt in
the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death. With hearts
strengthened by faith they spread out their standard to the winds of
heaven, near Plymouth rock; and whether it was stiffened in the sleet
and frosts of winter, or floated on the breeze of summer, it ever bore
the motto, "Freedom to worship God."

But others, their fellow-men, equal before the Almighty, and made by him
of the same blood, and glowing with immortality, they doom to life-long
servitude and chains. Yes, they stand in the most sacred places on
earth, and beneath the gaze of the piercing eye of Jehovah, the
universal Father of all men, and declare, "that the best possible
condition of the Negro is slavery."

In the name of the Triune God I denounce the se