To the believer in liberty and equality, slavery and the slave-trade are instances of war against human nature.
No one attempted to justify slavery or to reconcile it with the principles of free government.

Slavery was accepted as an inheritance for which others were to blame.

Colonists at first blamed Great Britain; later apologists for slavery blamed New England for her share in the continuance of the slave-trade.
The fact should be clearly comprehended that the sentiments which led to the American Revolution, and later to the French Revolution in Europe, were as broad in their application as the human race itself--that there were no limitations nor exceptions.

These new principles involved a complete revolution in the previously recognized principles of government.

The French sought to make a master-stroke at immediate achievement and they incurred counterrevolutions and delays.