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Show 112 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. enlightened Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which "confines and compels" vagrants to earu their bread, as it is by the Legislature 0~ Vir-g1. nt. a, w h"1 c h hns taken the wise precautiOn to prevent the rise of a swarm of vagrants more destructive than the locusts of Egypt? The plain truth is, that although this notion of the "inalienable right" of all to liberty may sound very well in a declaration of indepcnd~nce, and may be most admirably adapted to stlr up the nssions of men and produce fatal commotions pin a commonwealth, yet no W.I Se na t"I On ever h as been or ever will be guided by it in the construction of her Jaws. It may be a brand of discord in the hands of the abolitionist and the demagogue. It will never be an element of light, or power, or wisdom, in the bosom of the statesman. "The gift of liberty," continues Dr. Channing, "would be a mere name, and worse than nominal, were he (the slave) to be let loose on society under circumstances driving him to commit crimes, for which he would be condemned to severer bondage than he bad escaped." If then, after all, libeety may be worse than a mere name, is it not a pity that all men should have au "inalienable right" to it? If AROl' !IENT::! 01·' ABOLTTIO~I S T S. 113 it may be a cm·se, is it not a pity that all men should be required to embrace it, and to be even ready to die for it, as an invaluable blessing? We trust that "no man," that "no rational and immoetal being," will c\•er be so ungrateful as to complain of those who havo withheld from him that which is "worse than nominal," and a curse. For if such, and such only, be his inalienable birthright, were it not most wisely exchanged for a mess of potage ? The vagrant, then, should not be consulted whether he will work or not. lie should be "con.fined and compelled" to work, says Dr. Channing. Nor should the idle and the vicious, those who cannot be induced to work by rational motives, be asked whether they will remain pests to society, or whether they will eat their bread in tho sweat of their brow. "For they, too," says Dr. Channing, "should be compelled to work." But how 1 "The slave should not have an owner," says Dr. Channing, "bnt he should have a guardian. lie needs authority, to supply the lack of that discretion which he has not yet attained; but it should be the authority of a friend, an official authority, conferred by the State, and for which there should be respon•ibility to the State." Now·, H 10• |