The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1843-08-17
A N AID D R S s

Delivered at Manchester, Vermont, Aug.
list, 1913, In commemOration OF Eman-
cipatiOn in the British West Indies, by
DANIEL ROBERTS, Jr.
We are met to commemorate the most
remarkable event which has transpired in
the worlds history during the last hall
century. It is true, that during that peri.
cd kingdoms have been built up of the
fragments Of others broken in pieces, states
have been enguIphed in larger empires,
sceptres have been broken or changed
hands, and they who bore them have
pinned aud died in exile. 1t is no such
event that We celebrate such were not
new occurrences or scarce remarkable
events in this evershifting and changeful
world; they were but the ~re-enacting of
cen older than the food manifestations
for the most part of the brute clemens of
mans nature among the Nimrods, the
mighty hunters of the earth. But never
in the known history of mankind did it
happen until the first day of August, A.. d.
1888, that so large a people, numbering
eight hundred thousand, before that time
held in bitter bondage, were, in obedience
10 the behesls of simple justice and the
p~romptings of a ph;lanthropic sentiment,
against the prejudices of centuries, the
heartlessness of %avarice and the tyranny
Of custom and of fashion, by the free will
of their former task masters, raised in a
day from the degradation of personal
slavery 10 the condition of freedom. flow
rich a trophy this Of the Christian reli-
gion. How glorious a coming Of Christ
in these last days.
Emancipation in the British West In
dies was remarkable, among other things,
for the greatness of the change effected
for the mode in which it was bret about,
and for the happy and successful results
thereof.
In order clearly to comprehend the
greatness of this change, we must see
clearly what it is to be a slave - what il,
was to be a West India slave. For n
man to be Il slave then, is to be held as
the property Of another. From this evil
root grows the whole Upas tree, trunk,
branch and leaf.
am touched and awed when con
template the exalla,icn & dignity Of mans
nature. Thou madest him." says Da-
vid, "a little lower lhan the angels, and
crowuedst him with glory" 1t is remark
able that in the account of the creation,
after the material heavens and earth with
all their inhabitants, save one, had sprung
into existence at the mere word of Jeho-
yah, He, the Omniscient One, as it were,
land l speak it reverently,) pauscs and
retires within himself for counsel and
deliberation. Hear the spoken conclus.
ion of the Eternal Mind, Let us make
man in our image, afer our likeness 4;
and let them have dominion "-over what2
lover the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth. SO God created man in
his own image, in the image Of God Gre
ated he him; male and female created he
them. And God blessed them. and God
said unto them, be fruitful and multiply
and replenish the earth and subdue it, and
have dominion"-not over thy fellow, but
I" over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that movelh upon the earth" Man
was Jehovah's only handy work, as tho