He saw clearly that a system like Slavery could not find home under the British Constitution, which nowhere mentions the name Slave; and yet he shrank from the sublime conclusion.

And when at last the case could not be arrested by any device, or be longer postponed,--when judgment was inevitable,--he came to the work, not warmly or generously, but in trembling obedience to the Truth, which waited to be declared.

With little expansion, it says openly: To every man his natural rights; justice to all, without distinction of person, without abridgment, and without compromise.

Let justice be done, though it drags down the pillars of the sky.

Shakespeare gives expression to similar truth, when he says, "Be just and fear not.

He declared, that, tracing Slavery to natural principles, it can never be supported: that is to say, Slavery is a violation of the great law of Nature, established by God himself, coextensive in space and time with the Universe.

I catch its last words, already resounding through the ages, with the voice of deliverance to an enslaved people.

Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free: They touch our country, and their shackles fall.

Spread it, then, And let it circulate through every vein Of all your Empire, that, where Britain's power Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too.

I speak in the spirit of the British law, which makes Liberty commensurate with and inseparable from British soil,--which proclaims even to the stranger and sojourner, the moment he sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on…

I deny the right,--I acknowledge not the property.

The principles, the feelings of our common nature rise in rebellion against it.

The advocate of the slave in London was naturally the advocate of liberty for all everywhere.

But no modesty could check his valiant soul in conflict with wrong.

It is vain to suppose that any human ordinance, whether from King, Parliament, or Judicial Tribunal, can vary our moral responsibilities, or release us from obedience to God.

And since no man can stand between us and God, it belongs to each conscience for itself to determine its final obligations, and where pressed to an unrighteous act,--as if to slay, or, what is equally bad, to enslave, a fellow-man charged…

I know not that the powerful religious denomination befriended by him in its infancy has ever sympathized with the great effort by which his name is exalted; but they should at least repel the weak imputation, so often levelled against all…

The portals of that great Temple of Honor, where are treasured England's glories, swung open at the name of England's earliest Abolitionist.

As the Muses themselves did not disdain to watch over the grave of one who had done well on earth, so do the poets of England keep watch over the monument of Granville Sharp.

The poet is simply creator; and he who was inspired to create freemen out of slaves was poet of the loftiest style.

I have spoken to you frankly and faithfully, trusting that you would frankly and faithfully hearken to me.

And now, in the benison once bestowed upon the youthful Knight, I take my leave: "Go forth! be brave, loyal, and successful!

The owner may insure his ship, and also his freight, so that he may lose nothing but the premium he pays; but the sailor is not allowed to protect himself by insurance from loss of wages: his loss is literally total.

It has outlived the circumstances and excuses of its origin, and now survives to vex, oppress, and disappoint the most needy, if not the most meritorious, of all concerned in the business of the seas.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.