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Show 58 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY . . he forthwith abolished; but closes its eyes upon the fact that its abolition may be a still greater injury, lest this foregone conclusion should be called in question ! Has moral philosophy, then, an eye only for the facts which lie one side of the question it proposes to decide? Slavery is an injury, says Dr. Wayland, and therefore it should be immediately abolished. But its abolition would be a still greater injury, replies the objector. This may be true, saya Dr. Wayland : it is highly probable; but then this question of injury is one of fact, which it is not in the province of moral philosophy to decide! So much for the consistency and evenhanded justice of the author. The position assumed by him, that questions of fact are not within the province of moral philosophy, is one of so great importance that it deserves a separate and distinct notice. Though se1dom openly avowed, yet is it so often tacitly assumed in the arguments and declamations of abolitionists, that it shall be more fully considered in the following section. § V. The fifth fallacy of the abolitionist. "Suppose that A has a right to use the body of B according. to his-that is, A' s-will. Now ARGUMENTS OF ABOLITIONISTS. 59 if this be true, it is true universally; and hence, A has the control over the body of B, and B has control over the body of C, C of D, &c., and Z again over the body of A : that is, every separate will has the right of control over some oth~r body besides its own, and has no right of control over its own body or intellect."* Now, if men were cut out of pasteboard, all exactly alike, and distinguished from each other only by tlw letters of the alphabet, then the reasoning of the author would be excellent. But it happens that men are not cut out of pasteboard. They are distinguished by differences of character, by diverse habits and propensities, which render the reasonings of the political philosopher rather more difficult than if he had merely to deal with or arrange the letters of the alphabet. In one, for example, the intellectual and moral part is almost wholly eclipsed by the brute; while, in another, reason and religion have gained the ascendancy, so as to maintain a steady empire over the whole ~~n. The first, as the author himself admits, IS Incompetent to self-government, and should therefore be held by the law of society in a state * Moral Science, Part ii. cho.p, i. sec. 2. |