Communication: Are Slaveholders Pirates?: For The Signal Of ...

Messrs. Editors: - It is desirabïe to demónstrate the tmth in relat ion to every important subject thaat ffects the interests of the whole commtmity, and it often roquires the labor of many men for many years to establish a single truth in the minds of the peopleof a whole nation. - Thus many years of labor were expended by the Philanthropists of Britain in convkicing the natioa that slarery was criminal, and in every respect opposed to the ïnterests öfthepeople; the result of their labor is seenm the emancipation of many millions of slaves. My present purpose is to cali the attention of yotrr readers to the fact, that there are but 250,000 slaveholders in the United" States, who, as is now generally admitted, have chiefly controlled the political affairs of the nation for many years; that in these 250,000 slaveholders are embodied a greater amount of practical crime and wickedness than can be found to exist in an equal number of persons selected frornany civilized nation, who are not slaveholders, or engaged ín the slavc trado. - They are the greatest crimináis against natural right and moral justice that can bc found on the earth. I believe Ihis to be a truth that will vet be recognized by the people of this nation, and in that day slavery will be abolished, unless it shall sooner vanish from other causes. Our political exisíence as a nation is based on the fact that men inherit rights from the Creator of the Universe, which cannot be rightfully invaded or molested, by any power, except that of Almighty God. It is not necessery to prove that this principie is in accor'dance with all the laws of nature and the revelations of God; it is an admitted truih, and consequently its violatijnust necessarily be an admitted crime. Then, if the act of depriving a man of his natural rights be a crime, he who commits the act is the criminal. If it be alleged that a man's ignorance of the nature of right and wrong should be an excuse for his crimes; then. the prominent siaveholders of this country surely stand in no enviable position in this respect. Many of them both in Church and Stafe, are among the most talented men of the nation; they have had all the advanfages of education, of infiuence and station; they know the val7 ue of Liberty to' themselves and to all men; they not onlv enslave their fellov men themselves, but exert their knowledge and infiuence for the enslavement of millions for all time to come, by opposing every effort made by others for emancipation. while they adopt no measures of their own for that purpose. If it be a crime to injure a man wrongfully, it mustbe a greater cnme to do hima greater injury, and if it be a crime to do wrong t&% ' one, it must be a greater crime to do wrong to many; and what greater wrong can be done to a man than. to deprive him of alibis righfs, ofall property, of all social relations with his fellow beings, even of the nearest and dearest of all, his wife and his children: and then under the torture of the lash and the prison, to compel him to serve }'ou at your will without compensation. If this be the greatest amount of wrong tbat is inflicted by any chss of men upon their fellow beings,. then the . infliction of it constitutes tho greatest crime, and consequently they who in fl iet it are the greatest crimináis. Therefore I say that the learned, the well informed, the influential slaveholoers whose effbrts are constantly exerted against every form of emanciparon, like those of Calhoun. McDuffie, Clay, Wise, and many others that might be named, both in State and Church, constilute a class of the greatest crimináis against Natural Right and Moral Jusiicc known to earth or Scaven. It is the influence of these men that sustains slavery; their support constitutes its very heart and soul. It would not exist a single year without the influence of this class of well informed and influential slaveholders. Therefore I desire to dó what I can to impress this truth upon the public mind, and excite the deep and deserved indignation of an injured Public against the influence of these men. I would not injure their persons or deprive them of their property further than it consists of slaves; 1 would not have the blood of one of them even return for that of Lovejoy; but I would have the public mind estímate them as they rcally are, the EXEMIES OF THE HUMAN RACE. By the laws they themselves havo made, every man who trafiles in slaves from África to America, is decmed a Pírate; in other words an enemy of mankind, liablo to bc captured by the ships, and condemned by the courts of every nation; vet this very class of men sustain the Slare Trade at home, which floats its thousaoda along the Atlantic Ocean evory yer