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Table of Contents:
Lecture
VI
: the abstract principle of slavery discussed on
Scripture grounds
, and misrepresentations of the principle examined.
[131]
destruction of all rights, by the annihilation of all civilization.
And again we ask, How does it follow that the domestic slavery of the negro in America is an abridgment of his inalienable rights?
Certainly not from the fact that he is placed under an absolute form of control, for we have seen that, in certain conditions of humanity, that is the only form of government that will secure any freedom at all: as in the case of all minors, and the case of an uncivilized race that may chance to be diffused among the mass of a civilized people.
If, then, his government be an oppression at all, it is because his state of civilization, and the relative circumstances of his condition, have acquired for him the rights of social equality and the rights of political sovereignty.
These are questions of fact that will be considered in their proper place.
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