War and Slavery
How is it that men who are capable of understanding the proposition, that two and two make four, are seemingly incapable of perceiving that war and slavery, under all circumstances, must be wrong? No – they argue – these are sometimes wrong, it is true; but they are sometimes right, and not only justifiable but commendable. For instance – the revolutionary war was one that Heaven could smile upon; and there are many slaveholders who are benevolent in holding slaves. But war is war, and under no circumstances can it be peace; slavery is slavery, and never can be liberty; just as wrong is wrong, and never can be right – sin is sin, and never can be holiness — let who may be the perpetrator. To say that war is sometimes lawful, is to declare that peace is sometimes criminal –which, in other words, is saying that vice is sometimes excusable, and virtue sometimes culpable. So also in regard to slavery. Men who reason in this manner confound all moral distinctions, and are prepared, ‘under certain circumstances,’ to commit the most heinous acts.
(Liberator, Dec. 8, 1848, pg 2)
