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Show 86 wrongs, without thought. The degraded state of the slave may induce in the master a mode of treatment essentially inhuman and insulting, but which he never dreams to be cruel. Tho influence of slavery in indurating the moral feeling and blinding men to wrongs is one of its worst evils. But suppose the master to be ever so humane. Still, he is not always watching over his slave. He has his pleasures to attend to. He is often absent. His terrible power must be delegated. And to whom is it delegated l To men prepared to govern others, by having learned to govern themselves l To men having a deep interest in the slaves? To wise men, instructed in human nature? To Christians, trained to purity and love l Who does not know, that the office of Overseer is among the last, which an enlightened, philanthropic, selfrespecting man would choose l Who does not know, how often the overseer pollutes the plantation by his licentiousness, as well as scourges it by his severity l In the hands of such a man the lash is placed. To such a man is committed the most fearful trust on earth! For his cruelties the master must answer, as truly as if they were his own. Nor is this all. The master does more than delegate his power to the overseer. How often does he part with it wholly to the slave-dealer! And has he weighed the responsibility of such a transfer l Does he not know, that, in selling his slaves into meroiless 87 hands, he is merciless himself, and must give an account to God for every barbarity of which they become the victims l The notorious cruelty of the slave-dealers can be no false report, for it belongs to their vocation. These are the men, who throng and defile our Seat of Government, whose slavemarkets and slave-dungeons turn to mockery the language of freedom in the halls of Congress, and who make us justly the by-word and the scorn of the nations. Is there no cruelty in putting slaves under the bloody lash of the slave-dealer, to be driven like herds of cattle to distant regions, and there to pass into the hands of strangers, without a pledge of their finding justice or mercy l What heart, not seared by custom, would not recoil from such barbarity l · It has been seen that I do not ground my argument at all on cases of excessive cruelty. I should attach less importance to these than do most persons, even were they more frequent. They form a very, very small amount of suffering, compared with what is inflicted by abuses of power too minute for notice. Blows, insults, privations, which make~ no noise, and leave no scar, are incomparably more destructive of happiness than a few brutal violences which move general indignation. A weak, despised being, having no means of defence or redress, living in a community armed against his rights, regarde<l as 'property, aPd as bQuQd Ill entire, |
