expostulation, entreaty, rebuke, against that crime of crimes,--making
man the property of his fellow-man! O, how accursed is that system,
which entombs the godlike mind of man, defaces the divine image, reduces
those who by creation were crowned with glory and honor to a level with
four-footed beasts, and exalts the dealer in human flesh above all that
is called God! Why should its existence be prolonged one hour? Is it not
evil, only evil, and that continually? What does its presence imply but
the absence of all fear of God, all regard for man, on the part of the
people of the United States? Heaven speed its eternal overthrow!

So profoundly ignorant of the nature of slavery are many persons, that
they are stubbornly incredulous whenever they read or listen to any
recital of the cruelties which are daily inflicted on its victims. They
do not deny that the slaves are held as property; but that terrible
fact seems to convey to their minds no idea of injustice, exposure
to outrage, or savage barbarity. Tell them of cruel scourgings, of
mutilations and brandings, of scenes of pollution and blood, of the
banishment of all light and knowledge, and they affect to be greatly
indignant at such enormous exaggerations, such wholesale misstatements,
such abominable libels on the character of the southern planters! As if
all these direful outrages were not the natural results of slavery!
As if it were less cruel to reduce a human being to the condition of
a thing, than to give him a severe flagellation, or to deprive him of
necessary food and clothing! As if whips, chains, thumb-screws, paddles,
blood-hounds, overseers, drivers, patrols, were not all indispensable
to keep the slaves down, and to give protection to their ruthless
oppressors! As if, when the marriage institution is abolished,
concubinage, adultery, and incest, must not necessarily abound; when all
the rights of humanity are annihilated, any barrier remains to protect
the victim from the fury of the spoiler; when absolute power is assumed