more powerful in its nature, and more injurious in its effects; it is that which arises from love of gain, and has a most blinding influence upon the mind-with thousands it is heavier than sand, while the strongest arguments are lighter than feathers. The love of gain is the polluted fountain whence issue all the dreadful evils that pervade our world-it gives energy to the tyrant's sword, it drenches the earth with blood, and binds whole nations in chains-from it every argument is drawn in favor of cruel injustice, it is the nauseous source of every hateful crime. The love of gain first introduced slavery into the world, and has been its constant support in every age. It was the love of gain that first enslaved the African race, and it now invents every possible argument against their emancipation. This is equally manifested in the social circle, and on the legislative floor-individuals and states will argue in favor of slavery in proportion as they view their interest at stake. And no doubt they often argue according to what they suppose to be right; though naturally honest as other men, they are pressed to the side of injustice by the weight of interest. And thus we often see the love of gain weighing down the finest feelings of the soul, blunting the most acute powers of perception, crushing the strongest faculty of judgment, breaking the most powerful ties of humanity, falling upon the unhappy African, and binding him in chains of perpetual bondage! When once it takes full possession of the heart, the strongest faculties yield to its influence-it triumphs alike over the polished statesman, the courageous general, the accomplished gentleman, and the humble peasant-Its principle power lies in concealment ; it operates under a thousand

different masks: unperceived, it obtrudes itself upon every order, it pervades the bar, finds its way to the hearts of judge and jury, it even enters the sanctuary, and climbs the altar. The best of men are liable to yield too far to the love of gain, especially when large sacrifices must attend a right decision. And you, my dear brother, have considerable at stake; you must wade through much loss, if you would come to a right conclusion, and obey the imperious voice of justice— But remember, that loss will be temporal, and from it may spring eternal gain. Therefore it is better to lose for the sake of doing justice, than to gain by oppression. Hence I intreat you let temporal interest have no influence upon your mind, divest yourself of every prejudice, throw open all the faculties of the soul for a fair and full investigation of the subject under consideration, and let an ardent desire to know the very truth be the governing principle, and you shall not wander long in the maze of error, nor stray far from the path of truth. Give me, I pray you, a candid ear while I plead with you for a poor, dejected, and despised people, who dare not plead for themselves, and for whom, alas! too few will either lift the tongue or move a pen. Let not their color, their degradation, nor the predominating principle of self-interest bias your mind against them. Let their miseries excite your pity, and incline you to justice.

In my next I will endeavor to prove from the nature of the Africans that they were not created for slavery. FROM YOUr Brother.

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LETTER II.

LOVING BROTHER:

I hope, by this time, your mind is divested of every prejudice against the Africans, and that you have opened a candid ear to their plea for liberty. Inspired by this hope I now proceed, according to promise made in my last, to prove from the nature of the Africans, that they were not created for slavery.

The Creator is infinitely wise, and consequently must have created every being in his universe for occupying some particular station in the scale of created existence -To suppose him to create, without design, is to suppose him unwise. Again, if he has created every being to occupy a particular station in the scale of existence, he must have adapted the nature of every being to the station for which it was intended. To create for a particular purpose, and not adapt the thing created to that purpose, would argue the greatest want of wisdom. Hence we conclude that if the creator formed the Africans for slavery, he has suited their nature to the design of their creation, and that they are incapacitated for freedom. This would be according to the whole analogy of creation, in which every creature has a nature suited to the station for which it was intended. But we find that the Africans are rational creatures, are of the human species, possess all the original properties of human nature, and consequently are capacitated for freedom; and such capacity shows the design of their creation. It is most absurd to imagine that beings created with capacity for liberty were designed for bondage.

Did the capacity for freedom stand alone, it might itself be considered an argument sufficient to establish our point; but it stands not alone; it combines with it all the original properties of human nature-with it all these unite as so many heralds, sent by the Almighty to declare that man never was formed for involuntary slavery. Every man, who possesses all the original properties of humanity, desires to obtain knowledge, wealth, reputation, liberty, and a vast variety of other objects which are necessary to complete his happiness. Now who does not see how inconsistent slavery is with the acquirement and enjoyment of all these objects of desire, and how directly it is opposed to the happiness of man?. It obstructs the natural channels in which all his passions were designed to flow, contracts the whole sphere of mental operation, and offers violence to the strongest propensities of his nature. Does he desire to enter the delightful paths of science, and store his mind with such knowledge as is calculated to expand the noble powers of the soul, and raise man to the dignified station for which he was designed? This is forbidden, an indignant master frowns upon him, and drives him back into the shades of ignorance and hopeless toil. Does he wish to acquire such property as may be necessary to render him comfortable in his passage through life? Even this is denied him, he is doomed to labor all his days in heaping up treasure for another; and to death, fraught with terrors as it is, he must look for deliverance, and to the gloomy grave he must go as his only asylum from his sufferings and toils. Does he incline to move in the honorable and useful spheres of civil society? It is considered a crime for him to aspire above the rank of the grovel

ling beast: he must content himself with being bought, and sold, and driven in chains from State to State, as a capricious avarice may dictate. Does he desire to enter the conjugal state, and partake of hymenial enjoyment? The pleasure of any unfeeling master may forbid the object of his choice, and cause him to languish beneath the ravages of disappointed affection. Or is he a tender hearted husband? He must see the object of his warmest affection bleeding beneath the torturing lash-her cries and her tears penetrate the inmost recesses of his heart, and seem ready to burst the tender fibres that twine around the seat of life; floods of tenderness roll from his eyes, but his sympathies connot stay the cruel hand of the vengeful tyrant, nor heal the wounds inflicted by his malice. He dare not even attempt to console her grief by the language of tenderness, nor to wipe away her tears with the soft hand of compassion. I cannot conceive how flesh and blood can bear so much! You, brother, once sustained the relation of husband, and doubtless possessed all the tenderness of that endearing relation, and though the object of your warmest embraces now lies cold and silent in the grave, yet her very dust is dear to you, and her memory awakes the liveliest emotions in your heart; and how dreadful was the hour of final separation, when cruel death closed her youthful eyes that beamed upon you with such innocence and love as banished the sorrows and cares of life! And how cruel was that shroud which enclosed from your sight the beauteous form that so often enraptured your heart! Tell me, dear brother, how could you have endured to see her tender frame bleed beneath the lacerating whip? Could you have witnessed her innocent tears and cries,