The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-03-24
such canaot rightfully be seized as prop
erty by a fellow-ereature.

as property, because he has Rights
What these rights are, whether few OF
many, or whether all men have the same,
are questions for future discussion. All
that is assumed now is, that every human
being has SOME rights. This truth can
not be denied, but by denying to a por-
/ ton of the race that moral nature which
is the sure and only foundation of rights.
This truth has never, l believe, been dis
puted. It is even recognized in the very
codes of slave legislation, which, while
they strip man of liberty, affirm his
fright to life, and threaten his murderer
with punishment Now, saysa being
having rights, cannot justly be made
property; for this claim over him vir-
tuaIiy annuls all his rights. 1t strips
him of all power to collect them. 1t
makes it crime to assert them. The
Very essence of slavery is, to put man
defenseless into the hands of another
The ght claimed by the master, to task,
to force, to imprison, to whip, and to
punish the slave at discretion, and espe-
cialiy to prevent the least resistance to
his will, is a virtual denial and subver-
sion of all the rights of the victim of his
power. The two cannot stand together.
Can we. doubt which of them ought to
fall?
3. Another argument against proper
| ty is to be found in the Essential Equality
OF men. I know that this doctrine, so
venerable in the eyes of our fathers, has
lately been denied. Verbal logicians
have told us that men are '.born equal''
only iu the sense of being equally born.
They have asked whether all are equally
tall, strong, or beautiful; or whether ma
tire, Proerustes-like, reduces all her
children to one standard of intellect and
virtue. By such arguments tits attempt
ed to set aside the principle of equality,
on which the soundest moralists have
reared the structure of social duty; and
id these ways the old foundations of des-
potic power, which our fathers in their
| simplicity thought they had subverted,
are laid again by their sons.
ltis freely granted that there are in-
Vulnerable diyersities among men; butbe
it remembered, they are ordained to bind
men together, and not to subdue one to
the other; ordained to give means and
occasions of mutual aid, and to carry for
ward each and all, so that the good of all
is equally intended in this distribution of
various gifts Be it also remembered,
that these diversities among men are as
nothing in comparison with the attributes
in which they agree and it is this which
constitutes their essential equality. All
men have the same rational nature and
the same power of conscience, and altar
equally made for indefinite Improvement
fof these divine faculties, and for the hap
piness to be found in their ,virtuous use.
Who, that comprehends these gifts, does
not see that the divelsities of the race
vanish before them? Let it be added,
that the natural advantages, which distin-
guish one man from another, are so be-
slowed as to ceunterbalance one another,
and bestowed without regard to rank or
condition in life. Whoever surpasses in
! one endowment is inferior in others
Even genius, the greatest gift, is found
in union with. strange infrmities, and of
ten places Its possessors below ordinary
men ia the conduct of life. Great learn
ing is often put to shame by the mother
} wit and keen good sense of uneducated
men. Nature, indeed, pays no heed to
; birth or condition in bestowing her ia
; vors. The noblest spirits sometimes grow
. up in the obscurest spheres. Thus equal
are men; and among these equals, who
, can substantiate his claim to make others
! his property, his tools, the mere instru-
; ments of his private interest and grati6.
cation? Lei this claim begin, and where
will it stop? If one may assert it, why
: not all Among these partakers of the
: same rational and moral nature, who can
: make good a right over Others, which
I others may not establish over himself?-
Does he insist on superior strength Of
bodyormind? Who of us has no superior
! in one or the other of these endowments
/ Is it sure that the slave may not sur.
7 pass his master in Intellectual energy,
or in moral worth Has nature conferred
distinctions, which tell us plainly who
4 shall be owners and who be owned?-
J Who ofus can unblushingIy lift his head
and say, that God has written =. Master
5 there? ?orwhecanshow the word "Slave'
] engrayen on his brothers brow? The
S equality ofnature makes slavery wrong
, Natures seal is affixed to no instruu,en
4 by which property in single human be,
4 ing is conveyed.
: A. That a human being cannot BIZ
, justly held and used as property, is ap
7 parent from the very nature of properly
e Property is m exclusive right. 1t shut.
: out all claim but that of the possesser--
e What one man owns, cannot belong tC
: another. What, then, is the consequence
: of holding human being as properly
e Plainly this: He can have no right b
: himself. His limbs are, In truth, not NOR
: ally his own He has not right to hi
a own strength. 1t belongs to another.
His will, intellect, and muscles, all tn,
t powers of body and mind which are ex
!, lercised in labor, he Is bound 10 regard a
+ another's. Now, if there be property ii
r anything, it is that of man in hi
r own person, mind, and strength. AL
: other rights are weak, unmeaning, com
4 pared with this, and, in denying this, al
: right isfienied. Its true. tl,atan individ
e aal may forfeit By crime his right 10th,
: useof his limbs, perhaps to his limbs, anc
!. even to life. Butthe very idea of forfeit
I ure implies, that the right was originall,
a possessed. Its true, that q man nav b
: sentract give to another limited right o
q his strength. But he gives only becaus1
: he possesses ii, and gives i for consider
ations which he deems beneficial to him
self; and the right conferred ceases a
( once on violation of the conditions o.
which 1t was bestowed. To deny th
. right OF a human being to himself, 10 hi
own limbs and faculties. to his energy o
$ body and mind, Is an absarsiity too gros
9 to beconfnsed by anything but q simpl
q statement. Enthusiastically Is inyoiret
= 10 the ides Of his belonging 70 Oanother. :