liest times, but
that it had existed without right, only by the power of might, not
sanctioned by reason and natural justice, and that in its train a
myriad of coincident evils, crimes, and immoralities had taken
birth and flourished, blasting both master and slave and the land
they inhabited, and that God's just and retributive judgment has
universally been visited on all nations and peoples continuing to
maintain and perpetuate it.

Murder has existed in the world since Cain and Abel met by the
altar of God, yet no sane person for that reason justifies it. So
slavery has stalked down the long line of centuries, cursing and
destroying millions with its damning power, but time has not
sanctioned it into a right. The longer it existed the more foul
became the blot upon history's pages, and the deeper the damnation
upon humanity it wrought.

When all the civilized nations of Europe, as well as the nations
and even tribes of Asia, had either abolished slavery and taken
steps effectually to do so, it remained for the _United States_ to
stand alone upholding it in its direst form.

The nations of the ancient world either shook off slavery in attempts
to wash away its bloody stain, or slavery wiped them from the powers
of the earth. So of the more modern nations.

Our Republic, boastful of its free institutions, of its constitutional
liberty, of its free schools and churches, of its glories in the
cause of humanity, its patriotism, resplendent history, inventive
genius, wealth, industry, civilization, and Christianity, maintained
slavery until it was only saved from its common doom of slave
nations by the atoning sacrifice of its best blood and the mercy
of an offended God.

More than two centuries (1562) before Lord Mansfield judicially
announced _freedom_ to be the universal law of England, Sir John
Hawkins acquired the infamous distinction of being the first
Englishman to embark in the slave trade, and the depravity of public
sentiment in England then approved his action. He then seized, on
the African coast, and transported a large cargo of negroes to
Hispaniola and bartered them for sugar, ginger, and pearls, at
great profit.( 5) Here commenced a traffic in human beings by
English-speaking people (scarcely yet ceased) that involved murder,
arson, theft, and all the cruelty and crimes incident to the capture,
transportation, and subjection of human beings to the lust, avarice,
and power of man.

Sir John Ha