But the planters denied this assertion; and they were the best judges of the subject.
He condemned the resolution as a libel upon the wisdom of the law of the land, and upon the conduct of their ancestors.

He condemned it also, because, if followed up, it would lead to the abolition of the trade, and the abolition of the trade to the emancipation of the slaves in our colonies.
The Bishop of St.Asaph (Dr.Horsley) said, that, allowing the slaves in the West Indies even to be pampered with delicacies, or to be put to rest on a bed of roses, they could not be happy, for--a slave would be still a slave.

The question, however, was not concerning the alteration of their condition, but whether we should abolish the practice, by which they were put in that condition?
Whether it was humane, just, and politic in us so to place them?
This question was easily answered; for he found it difficult to form any one notion of humanity, which did not include a desire of promoting the happiness of others; and he knew of no other justice than that, which was founded on the principle of doing to others, as we should wish they should do to us.

And these principles of humanity and justice were so clear, that he found it difficult to make them clearer.

Perhaps no difficulty was greater than that of arguing a self-evident proposition, and such he took to be the character of the proposition, that the Slave-trade was inhuman and unjust.
It had been said, that slavery had existed from the beginning of the world.
He would allow it.