Never was the word "right" so prostituted, not even when The Rights of Man were talked of, as when the right to trade in man's blood was asserted by the members of an enlightened assembly.

Never was the right of importing these labourers worse defended than when the antiquity of the Slave-trade, and its foundation on antient acts of parliament, were brought forward in its support.

We had been cautioned not to lay our unhallowed hands on the antient institution of the Slave-trade; nor to subvert a fabric, raised by the wisdom of our ancestors, and consecrated by a lapse of ages.

But on what principles did we usually respect the institutions of antiquity?
We respected them when we saw some shadow of departed worth and usefulness; or some memorial of what had been creditable to mankind.

But was this the case with the Slave-trade?
Had it begun in principles of justice or national honour, which the changes of the world alone had impaired?
had it to plead former services and glories in behalf of its present disgrace?
In looking at it we saw nothing but crimes and sufferings from the beginning--nothing but what wounded and convulsed our feelings--nothing but what excited indignation and horror.