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Show ON THE SLAVERY AND CoMMERCE Do you call them obfiinate then, becaufe they refufe your favours ? Do you call them ungrateful, becaufe they make you this return ? How much rather ought you rccei vers to blulh! How much rather ought you ·receivers to be conlidered as abandoned and execrable; who, when you ufurp the dominion over thofe, who are as free and independent as yourfelves, break the lirfl: law of j ufiice, which ordains, " that no perfon ~· lhall do harm to another, without a pre• " vious provocation;" who offend againil: the diCtates of nature, which commands, " that no juil: man i11all be given or received " into ilavery againil: his own confent ;" and who violate the very laws of the empire that you alfum.e, by conligning your fubjeCI: s to mifery. Now, as a famous Beathen philofopher obferves, from whofe mouth you /hall be conviCted, *" there is a conliderable difference, whether an injury is done, during any perturbation of mind, which is generally lhort and momentary; OJ;" whether • Cicero de Officiis. L. •· C. 8. " it OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. IIS it is done with any previous meditation and delign; for, thofe crimes, which proceed from any [udden commotion of the mind, are lefs than thofe, which are fl:udied and prepared," how great and enormous are your crimes to be conlidered, who plan your African voyages at a time, when your reafon is found, and your fenfes are awake; who coolly and deliberately equip your velfels; and who fpend years, and even lives, in the traffick of human liberty. But if the arguments of thofe, who fill or deliver men into ilavery, (as we have lhewn before) and of thofe, wbo receive or purchqft them, (as we have now i11ewn) are wholly falfe; it is evident that this commerce, is not only beyond the poffibility of defence, but is jull:ly to be accounted wicked, and jufily impious, Iince it is contrary to the principles of law and governmmt, the diCtates of reqfon, the common maxims of equity, the laws of nature, the admonitions of conji:ience, and, in lhort, the whole doctrine of natural religion, H 2 PART |
