Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-01-09
PERSONAL LIBERTY AND SLAVERY

BY J. J. AMPERE.

! Free will is what constitutes personality. PER-
sonal liberty derives sentally from our nature.
10 refuse 1t to human being is to claim the right
Of annihilating the essence of humanity, and of
killing in man what constitutes his very manhood
itself But all personal liberty cannot be auni-
hilated in man. To declare that a free being is
not free is as absurd to declare that a stone IS
! free. Hence the Soics maintained that man may
| be free even in chains since he Gun always will
freely, and it is impossible for him to will in
any other way.
But, though il is impossible to strike down free
! will in man. the outward manifestation of it may
be prevented; therefore, to treat free being as
/ if he were is not an absurdity, but crime.
In virtue OF my personality, my soul aud body
! belong to me it is my right 10 dispose Of them
az my will but slavery ro5s mo Of body and
soul
The origin Of slavery is force. Now force is
not IA right there is right in slavery
Purchase creates no right; for no one can sell
what never belonged to him. Property, as has
been well said, is 10 unled on the act OF taking
possession, by a free person, Of a thing which is
! not free. Now, mau is /, ee being III hts case
| there can then be 40 taknS possession. The
slave belongs neither to the master WHO sells hm
nor to the master who buys him. It imposef
be, therefore, to cite the right Of property III Ia
! yur of slavery, since this right is the UOnGenha
ton Of the master, who deprses the slave OF ne
most incpntestbie Of all property--the ownership
ul himself
This result flows from the essential nature of
things from the impossibity under which man
lies Of changing it Of causing thing to be other
than it is.
i Tbore ex;sts no law of nower 10 violnte this
law. .e-.-
! ru:-.:;I o,Ll;.hoI Lot no soo ,vbo+ Slo
very has been ana Il blush to say) what it still is
/ in tho world
| Slavery, in ITSELF is always monrtrous, yet Il
word still stronger is needed. We call monstrou'
i tLot in bo;,,,7 which differs from the REGULAR
inrn but slavery ia cuntrary to the very essence
of human nature itself The thing il SO horrible
that the word REQUISITE to express it does not
lex,st
i Ttot ,.,or rore,,ors j.; ;tsa,r has hecn Mt
t;yars e,n.hs nd onrr ,tiaaren, nn,inns more or
lass nr,ol chanaos ,,nsh;n,, of ;,s nature A.,
,,hh ,,,v 10 50 q nr ,a.1 s.o,r,a of humanity
uiararr n!ar 10 MIA 80 oro m,ni,Iiss 20 e.;g
80 Thss pIan,,o ond ,La cbolsra hoys nnt ni
.5 averrvyyLoro ti,s s,I,e intsnsitv rs--
i -, ,s.t,-f ,"srsL.,7 ~,---l,..i -, ~,
in tne ,"'I, Nr,,JI nao on'',r;es tho sio,e
| 49, one tnnws makes mart of the family !,
and he NAV chance to marry his masters duugh-
ter, ami rise to the highest Offices. Despotsm is
the rule almost without execution. in Eastern
climes and there is no very great difference he
tween the condition of the master and that Of the
slave; whence il follows that the fate of the lat.
ter is more toerable, the master no, being able 10
de spise a condition 50 near his own and it il,
laIoye all things, contempt which hardeus the
t heart The distinction hetween the slave and the
master is now here more marked than in free cou...
, tries. because nowhere is the Distance between
!, them SO great.
T,o ,e,,,o,.ss Of t,e Albanian cbaroctor tenn.
- ~ i"p S S,,, I,, - tto soror;,, ~ Io,
. "''iS io po,tra., ~ ,La tn.1 o,rJ;, =.
p"' III ;.Iic j., Ill ;,s ,;,nr and in the Pan,IJi,
i .:m ',ae,i -, ,'a ~, Eira Tho Grs ~,
' ,""'o ,"h" h or,nnL ,hn nro,octinn - s,anes
: ,, ~ :, ,,'iS ~, ror-tha Emncr,r Clordins
WIS al i'"P
4 In the United States contempt ior the slave Is
pushed t" tho last extremity ana ~ Is 'he priue