Again, he says :— "Eternal justice is the basis of all human laws." Again : "Law is not something wrought out by man's ingenuity, ner i Is a decree of the people, but it is something eternal, governing the world by the wisdom of its commands and prohibitions." Again : "Whatever is just is also the true law, nor can this true law be abrogated by any written enactments." Again: "If there be such a power in the decrees and commands of fools, that the nature of things is changed by their votes, why do they not decree that what is bad and pernicious shall be regarded as good and wholesome, or why, if the law can make wrong right, can it not make bad good ?” Again: "Those who have made pernicious and unjust decrees, have made anything rather than laws." Again : "The law of all nations forbids one man to pursue his advartage at the expense of another." LACTANTIUS Says: "Justice teaches men to know God and to love men, to love ⚫und assist one another, being all equally the children of God." LEO X. says: "Not only does the Christian religion, be: nature herself cry out against the state of slavery.” THE VOICE OF GREECE. SOCRATES says: "Slavery is a system of outrage and robbery." ARISTOTLE says: "It is neither for the good, nor is it just, seeing all men are by nature alike, and equal, that one should be lord and master over others." POLYBIUS says:— 'None but unprincipled and beastly men in society assume the mastery over their fellows, as it is among bulls, bears, and cocks." PLATO says: "Slavery is a system of the most complete injustice.” From each of the above, and from other nations, additional testimony is at hand; but, for reasons already assigned, we forbear to introduce it. Corroborative of the correctness of the position which we have assumed, even Persia has a voice, which may be easily recognized in the tones of her immortal Cyrus, who says: "To fight, in order not to be made a slave, is noble." Than Great Britain no nation has more heartily or honorably repented of the crime of slavery-no nation, on the perception of its error, has ever acted with more prompt magnanimity to its outraged and unhappy bondsmen. Entered to her credit, many precious jewels of liberty re-. main in our possession, ready to be delivered when called for; of their value some idea may be formed, when we state that they are filigreed with such is as Wilber force, Buxton, Granville, Grattan, Camden, Clarkson, Sharp, Sheridan, Sidney, Martin, and Macaulay. Virginia, the Carolinas, and other Southern States, which are provided with republican (!) forms of government, and which have abolished freedom, should learn, from the history of the monarchal governments of the Old World, if not from the example of the more liberal and enlightened portions of the New, how to abolish slavery. The lesson is before them in a variety of exceedingly interesting forms, and, sooner or later, they must learn it, either voluntarily or by compulsion. Virginia, in particular, is a spoilt child, having been the pet of the General Government for the last sixty-eight years; and like most other spoilt children, she has become froward, peevish, perverse, sulky and irreverent-not caring to know her duties, and failing to perform even those which she does know. Her superiors perceive that the abolition of sla very would be a blessing to her; she is, however, either too ignorant to understand the truth, or else, as is the more probable, her false pride and obstinacy restrain her from acknowledging it. What is to be done? Shall ignorance, or prejudice, or obduracy, or willful meanness, triumph over knowledge, and liberality, and guilelessness, and laudable enterprise? No, never! Assured that Virginia and all the other slaveholding States are doing wrong every day, it is our duty to make them do right, if we have the power; and we believe we have the power now resident within their own borders. What are the opinions, generally, of the nor slaveholding whites? Let them speak. CHAPTER VI. TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCHES. "Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. In quest of arguments against slavery, we have peru sed the works of several eminent Christian writers of different denominations, and we now proceed to lay before the reader the result of a portion of our labor. As it is the special object of this chapter to operate on, to correct and cleanse the consciences of slaveholding professors of religion, we shall adduce testimony only from the five churches to which they, in their satanic piety, mostly belong-the Presbyterian, the Episcopal, the Baptist, the Methodist, and the Roman Catholic-all of which, thank Heaven, are destined, at no distant day, to become thoroughly abolitionized. With few exceptions, all the other Christian sects are, as they should be, avowedly and inflexibly opposed to the inhuman institution of slavery. The Congregational, the Quaker, the Lutheran, the Dutch and German Reformed, the Unitarian, and the Universalist, especially, are all honorable, able, and eloquent defenders. of the natural rights of man We will begin by introducing a mass of PRESBYTERIAN TESTIMONY. The Rev. Albert Barnes, of Philadelphia, one of the most learned Presbyterian preachers and commentators of the day, says : "There is a deep and growing conviction in the minds of the mass of mankind, that slavery violates the great laws of our nature; that it is contrary to the dictates of humanity; that it is essentially unjust, oppressive, and cruel; that it invades the rights of liberty with which the Author of our being has endowed all human beings; and that, in all the forms in which it has ever existed, it has been impossible to guard it from what its friends and advocates would call 'abuses of the system.'. It is a violation of the first sentiments expressed in our Declaration of Independence, and on which our fathers founded the vindication of their own conduct in an appeal to arms. It is at war with all that a man claims for himself and for his own children; and it is opposed to all the struggles of mankind, in all ages, for freedom. The claims of humanity plead against it. The struggles for freedom everywhere in our world condemn it. The instinctive feeling in every man's own bosom in regard to himself is a condemnation of it. The noblest deeds of valor, and of patriotism in our own land, and in all lands where men have struggled for freedom, are a condemnation of the system. All that is noble in man is opposed to it; all that is base, oppressive, and crue! pleads for it. 'The spirit of the New Testament is against slavery, and the principles of the New Testament, if fairly applied, would abolish it. In the New Testament no man is commanded to purchase and own a slave; no man is commended as adding anything to the evidences of his Christian character, or as performing the appropriate duty of a Christian, for owning one. No where in the New Testament is the institution referred to as a good one, or as a desirable one. It is commonly-indeed, it is almost uni |