Slavery as a Moral Right

Under the Refuge of Oppression column, the December 31, 1858 Liberator has an extract from a message of the Governor of Florida in an address to the Legislature of that State.  He affirms the moral high ground for slavery, and urges the passing of a law which would protect the slaveholder from “molestation” .  He is “clearly of the opinion that the result of such a law would be to make hundreds of our citizens actual slave-owners who, without some such encouragement, would probably never own a slave”.