All these I put aside, not because they are of little moment in exhibiting the true character of Slavery, but because I desire to arraign Slavery on grounds above all controversy, impeachment, or suspicion, even from Slave-Masters…

Not on wonderful story, where the genius of woman has prevailed, not even on indisputable facts, do I now accuse Slavery, but on its character as revealed in its own simple definition of itself.

First, there is the pretension that man can hold property in man,--forgetful, that, by a law older than all human law, foremost stands the indefeasible right of every man to himself.

Thirdly, the utter rejection of the relation of parent and child; for the infant legally belongs, not to the mother who bore it, but to the master who bought it.

Fourthly, the complete, denial of instruction; for the master may always, at his own rude discretion, prevent his victim from learning to read, and thus shut against him those gates of knowledge which open such vistas on earth and in…

Look at them, and you will confess that this institution stands forth as a hateful assemblage of unquestionable wrongs under sanction of existing law.

Take away any one of these, and just to that extent Slavery ceases to exist.

But this assemblage becomes more hateful still, when its unmistakable single motive is detected, which is simply to compel labor without wages.

Obviously and unquestionably the good of all is against such a system; nor, except for the pretended property of the master, and his selfish interest, could there be any color for it.

That Slavery thus constituted can be good for the master is one of the hallucinations of the system,--something like the hallucination of the opium-eater.

Fascinating, possibly, it may be for a time, but debasing and destructive it must be in the end.

He may not suffer in worldly condition, but he must suffer in his own nature.

And the very unconsciousness in which he lives aggravates the unhappy influence.

Nor can familiarity with Slavery fail to harden the heart.

Persons become accustomed to scenes of brutality, till they witness them with indifference.

How can he show sensibility for the common rights of fellow-citizens who sacrifices daily the most sacred rights of others merely to secure labor without wages?

With him a false standard is necessarily established, bringing with it a blunted moral sense and clouded perceptions, so that, when he does something intrinsically barbarous or mean, he does not blush at the recital.

There is one frightful circumstance, unhappily of frequent occurrence, which proclaims so clearly the character of the social system bred by Slavery, that I shall be pardoned for adducing it.

I refer to the roasting of slaves alive at the stake.

One was roasted very recently,--not after public trial, according to the forms of law, as at the fires of Smithfield, but by a lawless crowd, suddenly assembled, who in this way made themselves ministers of a cruel vengeance.

Fear is a constant tyrant, with an inhumanity which does not tire or sleep, and nothing can quicken its cruelty more than the dread of vengeance for the multitudinous wrong done to the slave.

Some there are, I doubt not, of happy natures, uncorrupted by the possession of tyrannical power, who render the condition of their slaves endurable, and in private virtues emulate the graces of Civilization; but the good in these cases…

But their exceptional virtues cannot save the essential wrong which I expose.

Such, fellow-citizens, is Slavery, as manifest in its law, and also in its influence on society.

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