ambition and lust; and the whole system is at war, in systematic organization, against both private and public benevolence. Besides, the members which it furnishes for society, according to the excuse of the slaveholders, are "stupid, ignorant, and vicious persons," who are just prepared to "disturb the peace and permanency of the community." Nothing good in itself, or tending to good, will ever restrain the full exercise of benevolence; nor will it make men stupid, ignorant, vicious, nor disturb the peace of society. And as slavery, in its restraints on emancipation, seems compelled to pursue such evil measures, the whole system should be abandoned by a general emancipation, in the best, the safest, and shortest way possible to accomplish the object.

The long list of wrongs inflicted by slavery, under the items comprised in this single chapter, stamps it with a degree of sinfulness which, of itself, is sufficient to condemn it in the sight of all good men. And, indeed, the wisest and best of men have deliberately decided, that the wrongs included under this list alone attach to slavery the character of the highest felony, which, according to the principles of justice, would condemn the felons as guilty of high criminal character, and worthy of suitable punishment.

CHAPTER I.

EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE.

In the preceding chapters, except the first, we took a survey of the rights of which slavery deprives men. We will now consider its wrongs; for slavery is a system of injuries which inflicts wrongs on innocent persons.

The primary objects of just laws are the establishment of rights and the prohibition of wrongs. Injuries or wrongs, for the most part, convey to us an idea merely negative, or being nothing else than a privation of right. The contemplation of what is just, or right, is necessarily prior to what may be termed injuria, injuries or wrongs; and the definition of fas, right, precedes that of nefas, wrong. Wrongs, according to Blackstone, book iii, 2, are divisible into two sorts or species-private wrongs and public wrongs. Private wrongs are an infringement or privation of the private or civil rights belonging to individuals, considered as individuals, and are mostly termed civil injuries. Public wrongs are a breach and violation of public rights and duties, which affect the whole community, and are distinguished by the harsher names of crimes and misdemeanors.

Wrongs, or injuries, whether private or public-whether inflicted by individuals or communities-by laws or individual interference-are contrary to the word of God, and expressly forbidden in holy Scripture in the plainest manner, and under the most awful sanctions. Nothing is plainer than the following: "Thou shalt not kill;" "Thou shalt not steal;" "Though shalt not bear false witness;" "Thou shalt not covet." Oppression, injury, and wrong, are as expressly forbidden as any thing else in Scripture. And the wrongs inflicted on slaves by the slave laws, by the judicial decisions supporting and explaining these laws, by the general practice under the laws, and the no less powerful

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customs growing out of the decisions and enactments, are clearly forbidden in the word of God, and point out the sinfulness of slavery as clearly as that theft, murder, perjury, and covetousness, are sinful and wrong.

It will now be our task to specify some of the leading wrongs or injuries of slavery, which demonstrate its sinfulness. This will appear from the penalties and wrongs inflicted on the slaves by the laws in the civil courts. The principal of these will be comprehended under the following heads:

1. The slave is subjected to an extensive system of cruel

enactments.

Parts of this system apply to the slave alone; and for every breach of law a severe punishment is demanded. And punishments of much greater severity are inflicted or the slaves than upon the whites for those offenses for which whites and slaves are amenable. Besides, with very few exceptions, the penal laws to which slaves alone are subject, relate, not to violation of the moral or divine law, but to mere human enactments or requirements, in themselves of no moral import.

In South Carolina and Georgia, if a slave be found beyond the limits of the town in which he lives, or off the plantation where he is usually employed, without the company of a white person, or a written permission from his master or employer, any person may apprehend and punish him, "with whipping on the bare back, not exceeding twenty lashes." In Mississippi there is a similar punishment by the direction of a justice; and in Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, at the discretion of the justice, both as to the imposition of the punishment and the number of stripes. (Stroud, p. 100.)

In South Carolina and Georgia, if a slave be out of the house, etc., or off the plantation, etc., of his master, without