[Gutenberg 51371] • Slaveholding Weighed in the Balance of Truth, and Its Comparative Guilt Illustrated

Excerpt from Slaveholding Weighed in the Balance of Truth: And Its Comparative Guilt Illustrated

In order that we may understand the duties, which we owe to God and our fellow men, relative to the sub jcet of slavery, it is necessary that we examine the in stitution, in all its bearings upon the temporal and eter nal interests of the enslaved; and ascertain, as far as we are able to do so, the extent of the injuries which it inflicts. To aid my readers in doing this is now my object.

I do not propose however, to gauge this mammoth evil, and show you its exact dimensions I fully con fess to you in the outset, that I am not able so to do. That it is greater, in some of its bearings at least, than any other evil tha tever existed among men, and involves more guilt than any other crime ever committed by men, I fully believe, and shall endeavor to show; still the evil has a magnitude which my powers cannot describe and the guilt a blackness which can never be painted, except by a pencil dipped in the midnight of the bob tomless pit.

I am aware, that great complaint has often been made, of those, who have endeavored to rouse the in dignation of their fellow men against the wrongs inflict ed on the poor slave, that they deal in unjust severity of language. That they have at any time spoken more than the truth, I do not believe - nor can I admit that they have dealt out severity and painted rebuke, in more unmeasured terms, than they have received them from their opponents.

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