bly
involves the reduction of men to chattelship, cannot, under any plea
whatever, be continued with innocence, for a single moment. If it can
be--if the plain laws of God, in respect to marriage and religious
instruction and many other blessings, of which chattelized man is
plundered, can be innocently violated--why credit any longer the
assertion of the Bible, that "sin is the transgression of the law?"--why
not get a new definition of sin?

Another reason with abolitionists in favor of immediate manumission, is,
that the slaves do not, as a body, acquire, whilst in slavery, any
"moral preparation" for freedom. To learn to swim we must be allowed the
use of water. To learn the exercises of a freeman, we must enjoy he
element of liberty. I will not say, that slaves cannot be taught, to
some extent, the duties of freemen. Some knowledge of the art of
swimming may be acquired before entering the water. I have not forgotten
what you affirm about the "progressive melioration in the condition of
slaves," and the opening of "schools of instruction" for them "prior to
the agitation of the subject of abolition;" nor, have I forgotten, that
I could not read it without feeling, that the creations of your fancy,
rather than the facts of history, supplied this information. Instances,
rare instances, of such "melioration" and of such "schools of
instruction," I doubt not there have been: but, I am confident, that the
Southern slaves have been sunk in depths of ignorance proportioned to
the profits of their labor. I have not the least belief, that the
proportion of readers amongst them is one half so great, as it was
before the invention of Whitney's cotton gin.

Permit me to call your attention to a few of the numberless evidences,
that slavery is a poor school for "moral preparation" for freedom. 1st.
Slavery turns its victims into thieves. "Who should be astonished," says
Thomas S. Clay, a very distinguished slaveholder of Georgia, "if the
negro takes from the field or corn-house the supplies necessary for his
craving appetite and then justifies his act, and denies that it is
stealing?" What debasement in the slave does the same gentleman's remedy
for theft indicate? "If," says he, "the negro is informed, that if he
does not steal, he shall receive rice as an allowance; and if he does
steal, he shall not, a motive is held out which will counteract the
temptation to pilfer." 2nd. Slavery reeks with licentiousness. Another
son of