the various branches of it, which have
already been examined. For, to take the counterpart of the evil in the
first of these, can we say that no moral turpitude is to be placed to
the account of those, who, living on the continent of Africa, give birth
to the enormities, which take place in consequence of the prosecution of
this trade? Is not that man made morally worse, who is induced to become
a tiger to his species, or who, instigated by avarice, lies in wait in
the thicket to get possession of his fellow-man? Is no injustice
manifest in the land, where the prince, unfaithful to his duty, seizes
his innocent subjects, and sells them for slaves? Are no moral evils
produced among those communities, which make war upon other communities
for the sake of plunder, and without any previous provocation or
offence? Does no crime attach to those, who accuse others falsely, or
who multiply and divide crimes for the sake of the profit of the
punishment, and who for the same reason continue the use of barbarous
and absurd ordeals as a test of innocence or guilt?

In the second of these branches, the counterpart of the evil is to be
seen in the conduct of those who purchase the miserable natives in their
own country, and convey them to distant lands. And here questions,
similar to the former, may be asked. Do they experience no corruption of
their nature, or become chargeable with no violation of right, who, when
they go with their ships to this continent, know the enormities which
their visits there will occasion, who buy their fellow-creature man, and
this, knowing the way in which he comes into their hands, and who chain,
and imprison, and scourge him? Do the moral feelings of those persons
escape without injury, whose hearts are hardened? And can the hearts of
those be otherwise than hardened, who are familiar with the tears and
groans of innocent strangers forcibly torn away from every thing that is
dear to them in life, who are accustomed to see them on board their
vessels in a state of suffocation and in the agonies of despair, and who
are themselves in the habit of the cruel use of arbitrary power?

The counterpart of the evil in its third branch is to be seen in the
conduct of those, who, when these miserable people have been landed,
purchase and carry them to their respective homes. And let us see
whether a mass of wickedness is not generated also in the present case.
Can those have nothing to answer for, who separate th