Her black children have sucked her so dry, that now, for a long time past, she has not milk enough for her offspring, either black or white.

He that chooses to employ a sort of labor that yields only half as much to the hand as another sort would yield, makes a choice that is not only unprofitable, but deeply injurious to his interest.

The general system of slaveholding farmers and planters, in all times and places, has been, and now is, and ever will be, to cultivate much land, badly, for present gain,--in short, to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

They cannot do otherwise with laborers who work by compulsion, for the benefit only of their masters, and whose sole interest in the matter is to do as little and to consume as much as possible.

This ruinous system of large farms cultivated by slaves showed its effects in Italy, eighteen hundred years ago, when the Roman empire was at the height of its grandeur.

Of all the states in this Union, not one has on the whole such various and abundant resources for manufacturing as our own Virginia, both East and West.

Or, to enlarge the scope of the question: What must you think has caused Virginians in general to neglect their superlative advantages for manufacturing industry?--to disregard the evident suggestions of nature, pointing out to them this…

Answer: She is in a country in which slavery is established by law.

Cast it off, West Virginians, whilst yet you have the power; for if you let it descend unbroken to your children, it will have grown to a mountain of misery upon their heads.

Is there not one spot where we can stand side by side, as friends, sympathize with each other, and act together in harmony?

Has the fact never yet come to the knowledge of the magistrates of the District of Columbia, that the constitution of the United States declares that “excessive bail shall not be required”?

Under such a practice with regard to indictments, coupled with such a practice in regard to bail, an accusation would be as fatal as crime itself, however innocent the accused might be.

Did the law ever contemplate so cruel and revengeful a proceeding?

Behind these forty-one indictments for stealing stand drawn up, in battle array, against this same prisoner, seventy-four other indictments for transporting the very slaves whom he is charged to have stolen.

Without civil society, each man would have a right to preserve his own rights and to redress his own wrongs.

And, therefore, even if a guilty person does sometimes escape, all we can say is that civil society has not done its work infallibly.

Now, gentlemen, I maintain that, at most, nothing but the offence of “transporting” has been proved against this prisoner.

There are white men in this city hostile to the institution of slavery, and desiring the freedom of all slaves.

Here, too, are thousands of free negroes, or colored persons, in this District, with whom the slaves are in daily and open communication.

Could they not have infused into the mind of these slaves the idea of liberty?

As human beings, could not the desire of escape from their master’s possession have originated with themselves?--prompted by the inward and instinctive longings for liberty, which spring perennial in the human breast.

As he saw a handful of money paid to his master every week, or every month, for his own earnings, think you he never asked himself, why that money could not be his?

In all places slaves hear something, but in this place they hear much, of what is said in behalf of human liberty and of human rights.

Thus the seeds of freedom have emanated from the tree of our liberties.

So far from facilitating the increase of individual or national wealth, slavery retards both.