Men who can enjoy the sight of negroes writhing in flames, and are permitted by the civil authorities to indulge in such exhibitions, will not be very scrupulous in taking the lives of each other.
Tappan condemns the moral decay of a society that allows public spectacles of violence against enslaved people, suggesting a broader societal issue.
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Do you pant for liberty and equality, more substantial than such as is now found only in your obliterated and tattered bills of right?
The institution which oppresses you is suffering from the decrepitude of age, and is the scorn and loathing of the world.
Out of the slave region, patriots and philanthropists, and Christians of every name and sect abhor and execrate it.
Unite then, we beseech you, with one heart and one mind, for the legal, constitutional abolition of slavery.