slaveholders of the South to declare their slaves to be "chattels
personal;" for before they could be robbed of wages, wives, children,
and friends, it was absolutely necessary to deny they were human
beings. It is wise in them, to keep them in abject ignorance, for the
strong man armed must be bound before we can spoil his house--the
powerful intellect of man must be bound down with the iron chains of
nescience before we can rob him of his rights as a man; we must reduce
him to a _thing_ before we can claim the right to set our feet upon
his neck, because it was only _all things_ which were originally _put
under the feet of man_ by the Almighty and Beneficent Father of all,
who has declared himself to be _no respecter_ of persons, whether red,
white or black.

But some have even said that Jesus Christ did not condemn slavery. To
this I reply that our Holy Redeemer lived and preached among the Jews
only. The laws which Moses had enacted fifteen hundred years previous
to his appearance among them, had never been annulled, and these laws
protected every servant in Palestine. If then He did not condemn
Jewish servitude this does not prove that he would not have condemned
such a monstrous system as that of American _slavery_, if that had
existed among them. But did not Jesus condemn slavery? Let us examine
some of his precepts. "_Whatsoever_ ye would that men should do to
you, do _ye even so to them_," Let every slaveholder apply these
queries to his own heart; Am _I_ willing to be a slave--Am _I_ willing
to see _my_ wife the slave of another--Am _I_ willing to see my mother
a slave, or my father, my sister or my brother? If _not_, then in
holding others as slaves, I am doing what I would _not_ wish to be
done to me or any relative I have; and thus have I broken this golden
rule which was given _me_ to walk by.