Here shone his glory.

Here REASON manifests its laws.

Here the WILL puts forth its volitions.

Here is the crown of IMMORTALITY.

Why such endowments?
Thus furnished--the image of Jehovah--is he not capable of self-government?
And is he not to be so treated?
_Within the sphere where the laws of reason place him_, may he not act according to his choice--carry out his own volitions ?--may he not enjoy life, exult in freedom and pursue as he will the path of blessedness?
If not, why was he so created and endowed?
Why the mysterious, awful attribute of will?
To be a source, profound as the depths of hell, of exquisite misery, of keen anguish, of insufferable torment! Was man formed "according to the image of Jehovah," to be crossed, thwarted, counteracted; to be forced in upon himself; to be the sport of endless contradictions; to be driven back and forth forever between mutually repellant forces; and all, all "_at the discretion of another!"_[A] How can men be treated according to his nature, as endowed with reason or will, if excluded from the powers and privileges of self government ?--if "despotism" be let loose upon him, to "deprive him of personal liberty, oblige him to serve at the discretion of another," and with the power of "transferring" such "authority" over him and such claim upon him, to "another master ?" If "thousands of enlightened and good men" can so easily be found, who are forward to support "despotism" as "of all governments the best and most acceptable to God," we need not wonder at the testimony of universal history, that "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." Groans and travail-pangs must continue to be the order of the day throughout "the whole creation," till the rod of despotism be broken, and man be treated as man--as capable of, and entitled to, self-government.
[Footnote A: Pittsburgh pamphlet, p.12] But what is the despotism whose horrid features our smooth professor tries to hide beneath an array of cunningly-selected words and nicely-adjusted sentences?
It is the despotism of American slavery--which crushes the very life of humanity out of its victims, and transforms them to cattle! At its touch, they sink from men to things! "Slaves," with Prof.Stuart, "were _property_ in Greece and Rome.