own voluntary choice. Away with all whips, all chains, all compulsion. Be gentle toward all men, and see that you invariably do to every one as you would he should do to you." CHAPTER I. DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS-NATURAL RIGHTS-PERSONAL LIBERTY-PERSONAL SECURITY-RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 1. ACCORDING to Blackstone-book i, ch. 1-the primary and principal objects of law are JURA, Rights, and INJURIÆ, WRONGS. Rights are either the rights of persons, which concern, and are annexed to, the persons of men; or they are rights of things, or such as a man may acquire over external objects, or things connected with his person. Wrongs also are, first, private wrongs, which, being an infringement merely of particular rights, concern individuals only, and in law are called civil injuries; and secondly, public wrongs, which, being a branch of general or public rights, affect the whole community, and in law are called crimes and misdemeanors. Slavery requires, in its very nature, acts of injustice, which infringe on the inalienable rights of mankind; while it also inflicts injuries which form a large class of great wrongs to the slave. So that slavery is a deprivation of just, inalienable rights; and also inflicts great wrongs or injuries on the innocent. We will first go through the leading acts of injustice of which it is chargeable, and next consider the principal wrongs with which it is justly accused. 2. Personal rights are either absolute or relative. Absolute rights are such as appertain to men as individuals; relative rights are those which belong to men as members of society. The absolute rights of individuals are such as belong to their persons merely in a state of nature, and which every man is entitled to enjoy, whether out of society or in it. The ABSOLUTE RIGHTS of man are usually summed up in one general appellation, and denominated the NATURAL LIBERTY OF MANKIND. This natural liberty consists properly in a power of acting as one thinks fit, 103 without any consent or control, unless by the law of nature; being a right inherent in us by birth, and one of the gifts of God to man at his creation. And this natural liberty can not be justly restrained by human laws, any farther than is necessary for the general advantage of the public. According to Blackstone-book i, p. 130—the absolute natural rights are three in number; namely, 1. The right of PERSONAL SECURITY; 2. The right of PERSONAL LIBERTY; and, 3. The right of PRIVATE PROPERTY. All these three great rights are the gift of God himself to every human being, as is clear from the Bible, and as the law of nature, as discovered by natural indications, plainly demonstrates. No one can alienate these rights from himself or others, or destroy or infringe them, without committing a crime against God's laws. Nor can they be lawfully taken from any human being, except as a punishment for the commission of crime. Nor can they be lawfully subjected to any human check or control, except so far as to prevent their exercise interfering with their use by others. The first absolute right, or that of personal security, consists, according to Blackstone, in a person's legal and uninterrupted enjoyment of his life, his limbs, his body, his health, and his reputation. The second absolute right, or that of personal liberty, consists in the free and uninterrupted privilege of locomotion, or of going, staying, returning, whither, where, when, and as we please. The third absolute right, or that of private property, consists in the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his acquisitions, without any control or diminution. These three great absolute natural rights belong equally to all mankind, whatever their circumstances, ages, or conditions may be. The RELATIVE RIGHTS-vide Blackstone, book i, pp. 123, 422-which concern the relations that men sustain to each |