SLAVERY.
BY
WILLIAM E. CHANNING.
BOSTON:
JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY.
M DCCC XXXV.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by James
Munroe & Co., in the Clerk's office of the District Court ofMassachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE PRESS:
METCALF, TORRY, AND BALLOU.
CONTENTS.
| Page | |
| Introduction | 1 |
| CHAPTER I. | |
| Property | 13 |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| Rights | 30 |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| Explanations | 54 |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| The Evils of Slavery | 65 |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| Scripture | 108 |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| Means of Removing Slavery | 116 |
| CHAPTER VII. | |
| Abolitionism | 130 |
| CHAPTER VIII. | |
| Duties | 149 |
| Notes | 161 |
INTRODUCTION.
The first question to be proposed by a rational being is, not what isprofitable, but what is Right. Duty must be primary, prominent, mostconspicuous, among the objects of human thought and pursuit. If we castit down from its supremacy, if we inquire first for our interests andthen for our duties, we shall certainly err. We can never see the Rightclearly and fully, but by making it our first concern. No judgment canbe just or wise, but that which is built on the conviction of theparamount worth and importance of Duty. This is the fundamental truth,the supreme law of reason; and the mind, which does not start from thisin its inquiries into human affairs, is doomed to great, perhaps fatal error.
The Right is the supreme good, and includes all other goods. In seekingand adhering to it, we secure our true and only happiness. Allprosperity, not founded on it, is built on sand. If human affairs arecontrolled, as we believe, by Almighty Rectitude and Impartial Goodness,then to hope[Pg 2] for happiness from wrong doing is as insane as to seekhealth and prosperity by rebelling against the laws of nature, by sowingour seed on the ocean, or making poison our common food. There is butone unfailing good; and that is, fidelity to the Everlasting Law writtenon the heart, and rewri