I begin with the NECESSITY of the Antislavery Enterprise. In the wrong
of Slavery, _as defined by existing law_, this necessity is plainly
apparent; nor can any man within the sound of my voice, who listens
to the authentic words of the law, hesitate in my conclusion. A wrong
so grievous and unquestionable should not be allowed to continue. For
the honor of human nature, and the good of all concerned, _it must at
once cease_. On this simple statement, as corner-stone, I found the
necessity of the Antislavery Enterprise.
I do not dwell, Sir, on the many tales which come from the house
of bondage: on the bitter sorrows undergone; on the flesh galled
by manacle, or spurting blood beneath the lash; on the human form
mutilated by knife, or seared by red-hot iron; on the ferocious scent
of bloodhounds in chase of human prey; on the sale of fathers and
mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, little children,
even infants, at the auction block; on the practical prostration of all
rights, all ties, and even all hope; on the deadly injury to morals,
substituting concubinage for marriage, and changing the whole land of
Slavery into a by-word of shame, only fitly pictured by the language
of Dante, when he called his own degraded country a House of Ill
Fame;[2] and, last of all, on the pernicious influence upon master as
well as slave, showing itself too often, even by his own confession,
in rudeness of manners and character, and especially in that blindness
which renders him insensible to the wrongs he upholds. On these things
I do not dwell, although volumes are at hand of unquestionable fact,
and also of illustrative story so just and germane as to vie with fact,
out of which I might draw, until, like Macbeth, you had “supped full
with horrors.”
All these I put aside,--not because I do not regard them of moment
in exhibiting the true character of Slavery, but because I desire to
present this argument on grounds above all controversy, impeachment, or
suspicion, even from slave-masters themselves. Not on triumphant story,
not even on indisputable fact, do I now accuse Slavery, but on its
character, as revealed in its own simple definition of itself. Out of
its own mouth do I condemn it. By the _Law of Slavery_, man, created in
the image of God, is divested of the human character, and declared to
be a mere chattel. That this statement may not seem to be put forward
without precise authority, I quote the law of two different States. The
Civil Code of Louisiana thus defines a slave:--
“A slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he
belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his
industry, and his labor. He can do nothing, possess nothing,
nor acquire anything but what must belong to his master.”[3]