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Show 1~0 LIBERTY AND SLAVER~ and, in a suitable moral condition, it may be wholly so. For beings who are willing to govern themselves by moral principles, there can be no doubt that a government relying upon moral principle is the true form of government. There is no reason why a man should be oppressed by taxation and subjected to fear who is willing to govern himself by the law of reciprocity. It is surely better for rtn intelligent and moral being to do right from his own will, than to pay anotlw· to force him to do right. And yet, as it is better that he should do right than wrong, even though he be forced to do it, it is well that he should pay others to force him, if there be no other way of insuring his good conduct. God has rendered the blessing of free- 1om inseparable from moral restraint to the individual; and hence it is vain for a people to expect to be free unless they arc first willing to be virtuous." Again, "There is no self-sustaining power in any form of social organization. The only self-sustaining power is in individual virtue. "And the form of a government will always adjust itself to the moral condition of a people. A virtuous people will, by their own moral power, frown away oppression, and, under any I ARGUMENTS OF ABOLITIONISTS. 121 form of constitution, become essentially free. A people surrendered up to their own licentious passions must be held in subjection by force; for every one will find that fo1·ce alone can protect him from his neighbors; and he will submit to be oppressed, if he can only be protected. Thus, in the feudal ages, the small independent landholders frequently made themselves slaves of one powerful chief to shield themselves from the incessant oppression of twenty." Now all this is excellent sense. One might almost imagine that the author had been reading .Aristotle, or Montesquieu, or Burke. It is certain he was not thinking of equal rights. It is equally certain that his eyes were turned away from the South; for he could see how even "independent landholde1'S" might rightfully make "slaves" of themscl ,·es. .After such concessions, one would think that <til this clamor about inherent and inalienable rights ought to cease. In a certain sense, or to a certain extent, all men have equal rights. .All men have an equal right to the air and light of heaven; to ihe same air and the same light. In like manncr, all men have an equal right to food and raiment, though not to the •nme food ,tnd II |