in conscience; and it is a problem which I give to the master to solve, whether the religious precepts against the violation of property were not framed for him as well
as his slave,--and whether the slave may not as justifiably take a little from one who has taken all from him as he may slay one who would slay him. That a change in the relations in which a man is placed should change his ideas of moral right and wrong is neither new, nor peculiar to the color of the blacks." Here Jefferson puts forth that very idea for which Gerrit Smith, a few years ago, was threatened with the penalties of treason. But to quote further from the same source:-- "Notwithstanding these considerations, which must weaken their respect for the laws of property, we find among them numerous instances of the most rigid integrity, and as many as among their instructed masters, of benevolence, gratitude, and unshaken fidelity. The opinion that they are inferior in the faculties of reason and imagination must be hazarded with great diffidence." The old hot thought blazes forth again in the chapter on "Particular Manners and Customs." Can men speak against the proclamations of Abolition Conventions after such fiery words from Jefferson? "The whole [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/octet-stream which had a name of fantasizer.jpg]
