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property without indemnity, and without compensation to the owners,—that is property, which the law declares to be property. Two hundred years of legislation have sanctified and sanctioned Negro Slaves as property." It follows, that Slaveholding is identified with chattelhood. In this argument the Slaveholders confide; the nation consents, and, therefore, Slavery exists with all its evils. One of the sublime lessons of Christianity teaches the Slaveholder, to "do unto others, as he would have others do unto him." He never dreams that the degraded Slave is within the pale of the holy canon. Two hundred years' legislation has sanctified, or purified Slavery. Legality is by no means morally legal; legal legislation can never rectify a moral wrong. "Cease to do evil and it shall go well with thee." We may justify polygamy on the same principle. An African king has a hundred wives; shall we count that right because it has been legal in his dominions for two hundred years? No legislative enactments are paramount to the holy laws of God, which he gave to Israel from the lofty summit of Mount Sinai, in the midst of thunder, storm, fire, and smoke. "He that stealeth a man, and selleth him; or, if he be found in his hand, he shall be put to death." This legislative act is still more ancient and binding than any that man is capable of enacting.
