“As to the remaining part of your question, let me ask, What nation or tribes are capable of such bondage as the Africans at home inflict and bear?  We never had a right to go and steal them, nor to encourage their captors in their pillage and violent seizure of the defenceless creatures; nor do I think that all the blessings which multitudes of them have received, for both worlds, in consequence of their transportation from Africa, lessens the guilt of slave-traders; nor are these benefits any justification of the trade, nor do they afford ground for its continuance.  Nothing can justify it.  Such is the voice of the human conscience everywhere except where covetousness or controversy prevail.

“But finding these colored people here, the question upon which you and I differ, is, What is our duty with regard to them?

“You say, Set them all free.  I reply, The relation of ownership on our part toward them is best for all concerned.  You say, It is wrong in itself.  To say this, I think, is to be more righteous than God.”

“Then you maintain,” said he, “that the Most High, in the Bible, countenances all the atrocities of American slavery.”

“What a strange way,” said I, “of arguing, do we very generally find among anti-slavery men, when their feelings are enlisted, as they are so apt to be.  They take unwarrantable, extreme inferences from what we say, and oppose these as logical answers to a statement or argument.  ’Auction block’ and ‘Bunker Hill,’ are sufficient answers with them to most of our reasoning on this subject.  But let us look at this point in a dispassionate manner.

“But,” said I, “before I begin I wish to be distinctly understood as holding this doctrine; namely, The Bible does not justify us in reducing men to bondage at our will.  God might appoint that certain tribes should be slaves to others; but before we proceed to reduce men to slavery, our warrant for it must be clear.

“If, however, slavery is found by a certain generation among them, and it is not right and just nor expedient to abolish it, may we not safely ask, How did the Most High legislate concerning slavery among the people to whom he gave a code of laws from his own lips?

“Learning this, we must then consider whether circumstances in our day warrant, or require, different rules and regulations.

“But our inquiry into the divine legislation respecting slavery, will disclose some things which draw largely upon one’s implicit faith in the divine goodness; and if a man is disposed to be a sceptic and his anti-slavery feelings are strong, here is a stone on which, if that anti-slavery man falls, he shall be broken, but if it falls on him, it shall grind him to powder.

“You will acknowledge this, if you will allow me to speak further on this subject.