By the Law of Nature, all men are entitled to equal privileges, and,
although, the artificial distinctions of society may have abrogated it
in practice, they are unable to justify the destruction of a right,
which claims for the African that Freedom which the express and
implied will of the Almighty has declared to be inherent in every
individual of the human race.

The barbarous policy which sanctified the introduction of slaves into
this country, sacrificed the injunctions of Revelation to mercenary
ambition, and for temporary interest bestowed a lasting disgrace upon
posterity. Time and perseverance may eradicate the evil, which is
increasing in importance, and which not only has brought obloquy upon
our national character, but threatens to involve us in all disastrous
results of civil discord.

There is nothing in our Republic so deeply calculated to promote
sectional jealously as the existence of slavery. The conflicting
policy of slave-holding and non-slave-holding states, will increase
with its unhappy cause. We have already seen to what extent it may be
carried, and it requires no effort to imagine consequences, from
future excitement, the most dangerous to our political existence.
There is also much to be feared, in many States, from the physical
superiority of the Black population. The innate principle which so
strongly impels to the acquisition of liberty, is, in itself,
sufficient to arouse the energies of the slave; but, when the
consciousness of numerical power unites with the desire of vengeance,
arising from long oppression, the influence of example only, can be
wanting to enkindle the exterminating rapacity that usually attends
successful insurrection.

One of the strongest reasons that should induce us to exert every
power for the suppression of slavery, is the indelible disgrace it
brings upon our country. A people, enjoying the utmost limit of
rational liberty, who proudly claim the name and rights of freemen,
tolerate in their very bosom the most unnatural and cruel bondage.
This glaring inconsistency, in part, justifies the sneers which the
advocates of arbitrary power are continually casting on the boasted
liberality of our political institutions.

We are trying the great experiment, whether liberal Government is best
calculated for the happiness of man, and its opposers seize with
readiness the argument, that one portion of our population is
dependent for its luxuries, and even for its exis