Nobody in this country will admit, for a moment, that there can be any such thing as property in a white man.  The institution of slavery could not last for a day, if the slaves were all white.  But I do not see that because their complexions are different they are any the less men on that account.  The doctrine I hold to, and which I desired to preach in a practical way, is the doctrine of Jefferson and Madison, that there cannot be property in man,—­no, not even in black men.  And the rage exerted against me on the part of the slave-holders grew entirely out of my preaching that doctrine.  Actions, as everybody knows, speak louder than words.  By virtue of my actions proclaiming my opinion on that subject, I became at once, powerless as I otherwise was, elevated, in the minds of the slave-holders, to the same high level with Mr. Giddings and Mr. Hale, who they could not help believing must have been my secret confederates.

If I had believed, as the slave-holders do, that men can be owned; if I had really attempted, as they falsely and meanly charged me with doing, to steal; had I actually sought to appropriate men as property to my own use; had that been all, does anybody imagine that I should ever have been pursued with such persevering enmity and personal virulence?  Do they get up a debate in Congress, and a riot in the city of Washington, every time a theft is committed or attempted in the District?  It was purely because I was not a thief; because, in helping men, women and children, claimed as chattels, to escape, I bore my testimony against robbing human beings of their liberty; this was the very thing that excited the slave-holders against me, just as a strong anti-slavery speech excites them against Mr. Hale, or Mr. Giddings, or Mr. Mann, or Mr. Stunner.  Those gentlemen have words at command; they can speak, and can do good service by doing so.  As for me, it was impossible that I should ever be able to make myself heard in Congress, or by the nation at large, except in the way of action.  The opportunity occurring, I did not hesitate to improve it; nor have I ever yet seen occasion to regret having done so.