OCR Text |
Show 38 this be the instinct of a rational moral creature of God, who can attain by such freedom alone to the proper strength and enjoyment of his nature. The rights of property or reputation are poor compared with this. Of what worth would be the products of the universe to a man forbidden to use his limbs, or shut up in a prison ? To be deprived of that freedom of action which consists with others' freedom ; to be forbidden to exert our faculties for our own good ; to be cut off from enterprise; to have a narrow circle drawn round us and to be kept within it by a spy and a lash ; to meet an iron barrier in another's selfish will, let impulse or desire turn where it may ; to be systematically denied the means of cultivating the powers which distinguish us from the brute ;-this is to be wounded not only in the dearest earthly interests, but in the very life of the soul. Our humanity pines and dies rather than lives in this unnatural restraint. Now it is the very essence of slavery to prostrate this right of action, of self-motion, not indirectly or uncertainly, but immediately and without disguise; and is this right to be weighed in the scales against sugar and coffee ? and are eight hundred thousand human beings to be robbed of it to increase the luxuries of the world? What matters it, that the staples of the West Indies are diminished? Do the people there starve? ' , 39 Are they driven by want to robbery ? H as the negro passed from the bands of the overseer into those of the hangman? We learn from Mr. Gurney that the prophecies of ruin to the West Indies are fulfi lled chiefly in regard to the prisons. T hese are in some places falling to decay and every where have fewer inmates. And what makes this result more striking is, that, since E mancipation, many offences, formerly punished summarily by the master on the plantation, now fall under the cognizance of the magistrate, and are of course punishable by imprisonment. Do the fi·eed slaves want clothing? Do rags form the standard of Emancipation? We hear not only of decent apparel, but are told that negro vanity, hardly su1·passed by that of the white dandy, suffers nothing fur want of decoration or fashionable attire. T here is not a sign, that the people fare the worse for freedom. E nough is produced to give subsistence to an improved.and cheerful population, and what more can we desire? In our sympathy with the rich proprietor, shall we complain of a change, which bas secured to every man his rights, and to thousands, once trodden under foot, the comforts of life and the means of intellectual and moral progress ? Is it nothing that the old unfurnished hut of the slave is in many spots giving place to the comfortable cottage ? Is it nothing, that in these cottages marriage is an indissoluble tie? that the |