Objections classified--Popular views discussed--“All men are
born free and equal”--“All men are created equal”--“All men in
a state of nature are free and equal”--And the particular form
in which Dr. Wayland expresses the popular idea, viz., “The
relation in which men stand to each other is the relation of
_equality_; not equality of condition, but equality of
_right_”--Remarks on Dr. Wayland’s course--His treatise on
Moral Science as a text-book.
It is now appropriate to consider some of the speculations in Moral
Science which may be supposed to invalidate the position discussed in
the preceding lecture. As far as they have come under my notice, they
all belong to one class. The general objection may be thus stated:
_Slavery is an abridgment of rights to which the enslaved are entitled
by nature; or, more logically, slavery is an abridgment of inalienable
rights_. This doctrine is expressed in different forms of language,
but is essentially the same in meaning. It is with the popular view
of this subject that I propose to deal in this lecture. Hence I shall
restrict my remarks, in the first place, to the objection as it
usually _exists in thought_, and notice several popular forms of
expression: