On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
in connexion with local and temporary circumstances . He has written for the world . And as we have now no slaves of our own , and can afford to make a virtue of condemning the Virginians and Carolinians , his generality will be the less objectionable .
It is but fair , however , to give notice to this class of readers , and to many who profess great admiration of Dr . Channing , that they may , perhaps , find themselves taken in for some consequences which they did not anticipate . The aduiission of a general principle is so often attended with inconvenience to 1 > ersons who are disinclined to " go all lengths , " that their > ackwardness to commit themselves is not at all surprising .
Let them he cautious , therefore ; even amid all their virtuous indignation against transatlantic slaveholders . The principle , the argument , or the rebuke , may rebound , and strike hard upon something nearer home . Let them still keep in reserve
some objection to the application of " abstract theory" to our peculiar circumstances which could not have been contemplated by the writer , and with which , doubtless , he can be but very imperfectly acquainted . The p lan and argument of the author are sketched by himself in the following outline :
1 . T shall show that man cannot be justly held and used as Property . 2 . I shall show that man has sacred and infallible rights , of which slavery is the infraction . 3 . I shall offer some explanations to prevent misapplication of these
principles . 4 . 1 shall unfold the evils of slavery . 5 . I shall consider the argument which the Scriptures are thought to furnish in favor of slavery . C . I shall offer some remarks on the means of removing it .
7 . I shall offer some remarks on abolitionism . 8 . I shall conclude with a faw reflections on the duties belonging to the times . It is evident from this outline that the author ' s argument is founded on the moral sense theory of morals , and not on the utilitarian . lie would else have commenced with his fourth
section , which does in fact include those which precede . Were the question of slavery still a practical one in this country , we should not be much disposed to pause at thin circumstance in our review of the work before us . We are allowed to do so by the happy circumstance that our interest in it is incidental
rather than direct . The formation of a correct moral theory is , with ue , even more important than the question of negro slavery . The latter has become only a speculation ; and the former is the most important of all speculations . Dr . Channing has embarrassed his argument , and enfeebled it by his
Untitled Article
Channing on Slavery . 195
Untitled Article
O ;>
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 195, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/3/
-