The Southern slave would obey God in respect to marriage, and also to the reading and studying of His word. But this, as we have seen, is forbidden him.
It, sometimes, suits the slaveholders to claim, that their slavery is an exclusively State concern; and that the North has, therefore, nothing to do with it.
Let us tell our legislators in advance, that this is a right, restraints on which, we will not, cannot bear; and that every attempt to restrain it is a palpable wrong on God and man.
My rights all spring front an infinitely nobler source - from favor and grace of God.
Our concern, however, is with slavery as it is, and not with any theory of it.
Our political and constitutional rights, so called, are but the natural and inherent rights of man, asserted, carried out, and secured by modes of human contrivance.
The only ground on which a neutral State can claim respect at the hands of belligerents is, that, so far as she is concerned, their rights are protected.
There is one class of men, whom it especially behoves to be tenacious of the right of free discussion. I mean the poor.
There is room in our ranks for the old and decrepit, as well as the young and vigorous.
To no human charter am I indebted for my rights.
True, permanent peace can never be restored, until slavery, the occasion of the war, has ceased.
When a good man lends himself to the advocacy of slavery, he must, at least for a time, feel himself to be any where but at home, amongst his new thoughts, doctrines, and modes of reasoning.
