By the _Law of Slavery_, man, created in the image of God, fearfully and wonderfully made, with sensibilities of pleasure and pain, with sentiments of love, with aspirations for improvement, with a sense of property, and with a soul like ourselves, is despoiled of his human character, and declared to be a mere _chattel_, “to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever.” I do not stop to give at length all its odious words; you are doubtless familiar with them. The heathen idea of Aristotle is repeated,--“a tool with a soul.”[156] But in this simple definition is contained the whole incalculable wrong of Slavery; for out of it, as from an inexhaustible fountain, are derived all the unrighteous prerogatives of the master. These are five in number, and I know not which is most revolting. First, there is the pretension that _man can hold property in man_,--forgetful, that, by a law older than all human law, foremost stands the indefeasible right of every man to himself. Secondly, _the absolute nullification of the relation of husband and wife_, so that all who are called slaves are delivered over to concubinage or prostitution, it may be with each other, or it may be with their masters; but with whomsoever it may be, it is the same, for with slaves marriage is impossible, as they are merely “coupled,” never married. Thirdly, _the utter rejection of the relation of parent and child_; for the infant legally belongs, not to the mother who bore it, but to the master who bought it. Fourthly, _the complete, denial of instruction_; for the master may always, at his own rude discretion, prevent his victim from learning to read, and thus shut against him those gates of knowledge which open such vistas on earth and in heaven. Fifthly, _the wholesale robbery of the labor of another, and of all its fruits_,--forgetful, that, by the same original law under which every man has a title to himself, he has also a title to the fruits of his own labor, amounting in itself to a sacred property, which no person, howsoever called, whether despot or master, can righteously appropriate.