Slavery is a bloody Touch-Me-Not, and everywhere in sight now blooms the bloody flower.

Idolatry has been exposed in the presence of idolaters, and hypocrisy chastised in the presence of Scribes and Pharisees.

Slavery can be painted only in sternest colors; nor can I forget that Nature’s sternest painter has been called the best.

THE BARBARISM OF SLAVERY appears, first, in the character of Slavery, and, secondly, in the character of Slave-Masters.

It is simply this: Man, created in the image of God, is divested of the human character, and declared to be a “chattel,”--that is, a beast, a thing, or article of property.

Out of this definition, as from a solitary germ, which in its pettiness might be crushed by the hand, towers our Upas Tree and all its gigantic poison.

Study it, and you will comprehend the whole monstrous growth.

Nor is there anything, within the limit of life, inflicted on a beast, which may not be inflicted on the slave.

He may be marked like a hog, branded like a mule, yoked like an ox, hobbled like a horse, driven like an ass, sheared like a sheep, maimed like a cur, and constantly beaten like a brute,--all according to law.

Thus in its Law does Slavery paint itself; but it is only when we look at details, and detect its essential elements, five in number, all inspired by a single motive, that its character becomes completely manifest.

According to the Law of Nature, written by the same hand that placed the planets in their orbits, and, like them, constituting part of the eternal system of the Universe, every human being has complete title to himself direct from the…

Naked he is born; but this birthright is inseparable from the human form.

A man may be poor in this world’s goods; but he owns himself.

No war or robbery, ancient or recent,--no capture--no middle passage,--no change of clime,--no purchase-money,--no transmission from hand to hand, no matter how many times, and no matter at what price, can defeat this indefeasible…

And a divine mandate, strong as that which guards Life, guards Liberty also.

Even at the very morning of Creation, when God said, “Let there be Light,”--earlier than the malediction against murder,--he set the everlasting difference between man and chattel, giving to man “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over…

Slavery tyrannically assumes power which Heaven denied,--while, under its barbarous necromancy, borrowed from the Source of Evil, a man is changed into a chattel, a person is withered into a thing, a soul is shrunk into merchandise.

Say, Sir, in lofty madness, that you own the sun, the stars, the moon; but do not say that you own a man, endowed with soul to live immortal, when sun and moon and stars have passed away.

Slavery paints itself again in its complete abrogation of marriage, recognized as a sacrament by the Church, and as a contract by the civil power, wherever civilization prevails.

Under the Law of Slavery no such sacrament is respected, and no such contract can exist.

The ties formed between slaves are all subject to the selfish interests or more selfish lust of the master, whose license knows no check.

Stripped of every defence, the chastity of a whole race is exposed to violence, while the result is recorded in tell-tale faces of children, glowing with a master’s blood, but doomed for their mother’s skin to Slavery through descending…

Let him reflect, and he will confess that there are many disgusting elements in Slavery, not present in Polygamy, while the single disgusting element of Polygamy is more than present in Slavery.

By license of Slavery, a whole race is delivered over to prostitution and concubinage, without the protection of any law.

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