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Show 254 APPENDIX. I · 'fi d" by the laws of the empire and of tllC states, 1ave tt, "sancb e - to which I have now alluded. But when we treat the subject with a sole reference to the de J•U re, an<1 ta kc tl1 c dej'ure in its hioa hest sense, as relating to the · · 1 f · stice the immutable law of God, then the proposi- prmCip es o JU ·, tion tha.t man cannot hold a property in his fellow man, is neither 3 speculative abstraction, nor a f:tlsehood; hut an unquestionable and irrefragable truth. We may safely appeal to the voice of Almighty God heard in every rational bosom, when we assert that every man has a property in his own person, by the best of all possible titlcs-:the immediate gift of God; and farther, that tins property lS unahenable, and cannot be contravened by the claims of any other man, who holds his brother as a chattel, by virtue of arbitrary power, or merely human law. \Vhen a slave makes his escape from bondage, no one can with any show of reason, pretend that he thereby robs his master. For, although the master has a pro-erty in the slave under the sanction of human law, the slave's :roperty in himself rests on the unquestionably superior ground of the law of nature-that is, the law of God. The individual who restores a runaway slave to his master, contrary to the will of the slave, sacrifices the greater to the lesser right. The individual who refuses so to restore him, may be prompted by feelings of benevolence, but the only stable basis of such a line of conduct, is a preference of the claims of eternal rectitude, to those of merely human law. Henry Clay divides the friends of abolition into three classes. His first class consists of persons who "from sentiments of phi· lanthropy and humanity are conscientiously opposed to slavery, but who are no less opposed, at the same time, to any disturbance of the peace and tranquility of the Union." In this class he in· eludes the Society of Friends, "one of whose established maxims is, an abhorrence of war, in all its forms, and the cultivation of peace and good will amongst mankind." To this class I belong. ... . FREE AND FRIENDLY llEMAHKS. 255 I am utterly opposed to war in all its form I I 'I d . S. lCartl J CSirC to cultivate peace and good will amonast all k' d . b man m ; and though 1 am not an Amencan citizen I admire th o 1 1 . . . ' e ICt era muon of tins great country, and cordwlly desire its unb k . . ro en permanence, and contmued and mcreased prosperity, N evcrtheless, ] wish it to be understood that my conscientious ob;eet' 1 · . . . J ton to s avery 1s pn-manly ground.e d., not on senttmen. ts of phila11tJ1ro py an d 11 umam•t y, but on a convtctwn that slavery ts Oll(>Osed to tl 1 1 l . , . . . tc e erna ru e of rtglit. fhc questwn m my vtew, is jirst, one of justice and truth and secondly, one of mercy and kindness. ' No religious society can insist on philanthropy and beneficence in its mcmUcrs, for these arc voluntary virtues, which individuals must exercise in such a manner, and in such 3 measure, as they may deem right for themselves. But every religious society has an undoubted claim on its members for an adherence to immutable justice; and this is the ground, as I conceive, of the well known provision which has been so long enforced b the Society of Friends, that no person wl1o holds slaves may ?ctain his right of membership in the body. Thus for a long period of years, that Society has cleared itself of a participation in the sin of slavery. Would that the same harmless and unexceptionable testimony against this enormous wrong, were borne by ever denomination of Christians in this country ! Y When I speak of the eternal rule of right, I have reference to the law of God as it is universally made known to mankind, by a measure of the light of the Holy Spirit-a law which, as Cicero has well observed, is the same in all places, and at all times-incapable of being changed or abrogated-permanent and omnipresent, like the God from whom it comes.! I do not, however, forget that this divine law is plainly written in the pages of Scripture, and that its holy principles are unfolded, in all the maturity of their strength and beauty, under the 1 DE REPun.-Quotcd by Lactmll'im. |