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A Collection From the Miscellaneous Writings of Nathaniel Peabody Rogers
A Collection From the Miscellaneous Writings of Nathaniel Peabody Rogers Author:Nathaniel Peabody Rogers General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1849 Original Publisher: W. H. Fisk Subjects: Slavery United States New England History / United States / General Literary Criticism / General Social Science / Slavery Travel / United States / Northeast / New England Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint... more » of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CONSTITUTIONALITY OF SLAVERY [From the Herald of Freedom of Sept. 8, 1838.] The second " unprovided-for difficulty" of the Keene Sentinel, in the way of the anti-slavery movement is, that " slaves are property." We deny that they are property, or that they can be made, so. We will not argue this, for it is self-evident. A man cannot be a subject of human ownership ; neither can he be the owner of humanity. There is a clear and eternal incompetenoy on both sides, -- on the one to own man, and on the other to be owned by man. A man cannot alienate his right to liberty and to himself, -- still less can it be taken from him. He cannot part with his duty to be free -- his obligation to liberty, any more than his right He is under obligation to God and humanity and his own immortality, to retain his manhood and to exercise it. He cannot become the property of another, any more than he can part with his human nature. It would be utterly repugnant to all the purposes of his creation. He is bound to perform a part, which is totally incompatible with his being owned by any body but himself; which requires that he keep himself free. He can't be property, any more than he can be a horse, or a literal ass. We commend our brethren of the Sentinel to the eighth Psalm, as a divine authority touching the nature and destination of man. He can't be property -- he can't be appropriated. His mighty nature...« less