In
the one case, his life and property are his own; in the other, they
depend upon the pleasure of a master. It is easy to discern which of the
two states is preferable. No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing
to be free rather than slave.... Were not the disadvantages of slavery
too obvious to stand in need of it, I might enumerate and describe the
tedious train of calamities inseparable from it. I might show that it is
fatal to religion and morality; that it tends to debase the mind, and
corrupt its noblest springs of action. I might show that it relaxes the
sinews of industry and clips the wings of commerce, and works misery and
indigence in every shape."--HAMILTON, _Works_, vol. 2, pp. 3, 9.
"That you will be pleased to countenance the restoration of _liberty_ to
those unhappy _men_, who, alone in this land of freedom, are degraded
into perpetual bondage, and who, amidst the general joy of surrounding
freemen, are groaning in servile subjection; that you will devise means
for removing this inconsistency from the character of the American
people; that you will promote mercy and _justice_ toward this distressed
race; and that you will step to the _very verge_ of the power vested in
you for discouraging every species of traffic in the persons of our
fellow-men.
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