Lo! the captive exile hasteth To be loosed from thrall, forever;[12] Lo! the power of tyrants wasteth, Perish soon,—recovered, never! [Signature: Wm. Goodell] CAN SLAVES RIGHTFULLY RESIST AND FIGHT? I do not answer this question. But the following facts are submitted as containing the materials for an answer. About seventy years ago, three millions of people in America thought themselves wronged by the powers ordained of God. They resolved not to endure the wrong. They published to the world a statement of grievances which justified resistance to the powers ordained of God, and deliberately revolted against the king, though explicitly commanded by God to “honour the king.” In the process of revolt, about one hundred thousand men, Europeans and Americans,—were slaughtered in battle, or slowly butchered by the sickness, imprisonments, and hardships incident to a state of war. It was distinctly maintained in 1776, that men may rightfully fight for liberty, and resist the powers ordained of God, if those powers destroyed liberty. Christian men, ministers in their pulpits, strenuously argued that it was men’s _duty_ to fight for liberty, and to kill those who opposed them. Prayer was offered to God for success in this process of resistance and blood; and good men implored and obtained help from other nations, to complete the work of resistance to oppression, and death to the oppressors. I do not say that these positions were right, or that the men of 1776 acted right. But I do say, that _if_ they were right, we are necessarily led to some startling conclusions. For there are now three millions of people of America grievously wronged by the government they live under. _If_ it was right in 1776 to resist, fight, and kill, to secure liberty,—it is right to do the same in 1852. _If_ three millions of whites might rightfully resist the powers ordained of God, then three millions of blacks may rightfully do the same. _If_ France was justified in aiding our band of revolutionists to fight for liberty, then a foreign nation may lawfully aid men now to vindicate their rights. _If_, as the men of 1776 declared, “when a long train of abuses evinces a design to reduce them _under absolute despotism_, it is their right, it is their _duty_, to throw off such government,”—then it is the duty of three millions of men in 1852 to throw off the government which reduces them to the frightful and absolute despotism of chattel slavery.