Under the _second_ head we shall naturally consider (1) Slave-Masters as shown in the Law of Slavery; (2) Slave-Masters in their relations with slaves, here glancing at their three brutal instruments; (3) Slave-Masters in their relations with each other, with society, and with Government; and (4) Slave-Masters in their unconsciousness. The way will then be prepared for the consideration of the assumption of Constitutional Law. I. In presenting the CHARACTER OF SLAVERY, there is little for me, except to make Slavery paint itself. When this is done, the picture will need no explanatory words. (1.) I begin with the _Law of Slavery and its Origin_; and here this Barbarism sketches itself in its own chosen definition. It is simply this: Man, created in the image of God, is divested of the human character, and declared to be a “chattel,”--that is, a beast, a thing, or article of property. That this statement may not seem made without precise authority, I quote the statutes of three different States, beginning with South Carolina, whose voice for Slavery has always unerring distinctiveness. According to the definition supplied by this State, slaves “shall be deemed, held, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to be _chattels personal_ in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever.”[35] And here is the definition supplied by the Civil Code of Louisiana:-- “A slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, and his labor. He can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but what must belong to his master.”[36] In similar spirit the law of Maryland thus indirectly defines a slave as an _article_:-- “In case the personal property of a ward shall consist of specific _articles, such as slaves_, working beasts, animals of any kind, … the court, if it shall deem it advantageous for the ward, may at any time pass an order for the sale thereof.”[37] Not to occupy time unnecessarily, I present a summary of the pretended law defining Slavery in all the Slave States, as made by a careful writer, Judge Stroud, in a work of juridical as well as philanthropic merit:-- “The cardinal principle of Slavery--that the slave is not to be ranked among _sentient_ beings, but among _things_, is an article of property, a chattel personal--obtains as undoubted law in all of these [Slave] States.”[38] Out of this definition, as from a solitary germ, which in its pettiness might be crushed by the hand, towers our Upas Tree and all its gigantic poison. Study it, and you will comprehend the whole monstrous growth.