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THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.
right of all men to equal liberty, neither would we attempt, in this place, to point out the inconsistency of extending freedom to a part only of the human race."
Hear, also, the voice that sixty years ago was uttered by Virginia:
"Your memorialists, believing that 'righteousness exalteth a nation,' and that slavery is not only an odious degradation, but an outrageous violation of one of the most essential rights of human nature, and utterly repugnant to the precepts of the gospel, which breathes 'peace on earth, and good will to men,' lament that a practice so inconsistent with true policy, and the inalienable rights of men, should subsist in an enlightened age, and among a people professing that all man kind are by nature equally entitled to freedom."
These memorials were not only read in the House of Representatives, but were referred to a select committee.
James Monroe, in a speech pronounced in the Virginia Convention, said:
"We have found that this evil has preyed upon the very vitals of the Union, and has been prejudicial to all the States in which it has existed."
The views of Samuel Adams may be learned from the following extract:
"His principles on the subject of human rights carried him beyond the narrow limits which many loud asserters of their own liberty have prescribed to themselves, to the recognition of this right in every human being. One day the wife
