Our natural, God-given right of free speech, though constitutionally recognised as sacred in every part of the country, can be exercised in the slaveholding States only at the peril of our lives.
Garrison emphasizes the danger of exercising free speech in slaveholding states, where it can lead to violence.
Share
More from William Lloyd Garrison
For one church that excludes the human enslaver from its communion table, multitudes extend to him the right hand of religious fellowship.
Convince me that liberty is not the inalienable birthright of every human being, of whatever complexion or clime, and I will give that instrument to the consuming fire.
They who desire me to be dumb on the subject of Slavery, unless I will open my mouth in its defence, ask me to give the lie to my professions, to degrade my manhood, and to stain my soul.
It is, and it always has been, the absolute supremacy of the Slave Power over the whole country--nothing more.