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of emancipation suppose their argument against the unrighteousness of the slave system at all weakened thereby. If I have done what I purposed to do, I look upon it as taking from the force of their reasoning a minus quantity, leaving what remains increased, not diminished. It amounts to removing from their side a breaking reed.
I have never taken up an emancipation document, purposely addressed to our understanding, but what these sophisms were set forth as the basis of the reasoning; and being disgusted with them, though I hardly knew all the time for what, except from their inappreciability; I have cast away the emancipation logic with a full conviction, that a superstructure raised upon such foundations was calculated for no purpose but to fall upon its builders. I would not put my faith in it, because I would not hazard what I valued. It appeared more foregone, so to do, than putting trust in the shadow of Egypt.
But when I applied myself "by searching to find out wisdom," and discovered that these pretended truths, were no truths—that those who used them were deceived, and that those who were deceived thereby were not wise; moreover and besides, that the document in which they are placed, would be greatly increased in value by their subtraction; it occurred to me that other productions where they were used, might be benefitted by a similar process. Accordingly when I contemplated the subject of emancipation divested of these treacherous additions, I found the remainder so increased in force, as to be sufficient to carry conviction to every mind, endowed with adequate powers to distinguish right from wrong. The argument for emancipation, divested of its treacherous allies, leads to the full conviction, that the institution of slavery, as it exists in this country, is neither more or less than one stupendous fraud. The system, is a strong-hold of iniquity, and it is useless for any other purpose. It would be well for those who have purposed to pull down that strong-hold, to take counsel of the men of this world, who are said to be wiser in their day and generation than the children of light, namely, to consider what is the method of those men, when they succeed in reducing a fortress of the first class, with a strong garrison within for its defense.
