They say that the first step in raising the slave from his degradation should be that of making him a proper subject of law, by putting him in possession of himself.

This position they rest on the ground both of justice and expediency, which indeed they believe to be inseparable.

With exceptions too trifling to affect the question, they believe the laborer who feels no stimulus but that of wages and no restraint but that of law, is the most _profitable_, not only to himself and society at large, but to any employer other than a brutal tyrant.
The benefit of this role they claim for every man and woman living within this republic, till on fair trial the proper tribunal shall have judged them unworthy of it.

They deny both the justice and expediency of permitting any degree of ignorance or debasement to work the forfeiture of self-ownership, and pronounce slavery continued for such a cause the worst of all, inasmuch as it is the _robbery of the poor because he is poor_.
What light was thrown upon this doctrine by the process of abolition in the British West Indies from the 1st of August 1834 to the 1st of June 1837, may be seen in the work of Messrs.

Thome and Kimball entitled, "Emancipation in the West Indies." That light continues to shine.
Bermuda and Antigua, in which the slaves passed instantaneously out of absolute slavery into full freedom, are living witnesses of the blessing of heaven upon immediate emancipation.