LECTURES ON THE Philosophy and Practice OF SLAVERY, AS EXHIBITED IN THE INSTITUTION OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES: WITH THE Duties of Masters to Slaves. BY WILLIAM A. SMITH, D.D., PRESIDENT OF RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY. EDITED BY THOMAS O. SUMMERS, D.D. Nashville, Tenn.: STEVENSON AND EVANS. 1856. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by WILLIAM A. SMITH, In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY A. A. STITT, SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, NASHVILLE, TENN. Contents. PREFACE LECTURE I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE SUBJECT OF AFRICAN SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. General subject enunciated--Why this discussion may be regarded as humiliating by Southern people--Other stand-points, however, disclose an urgent necessity, at this time, for a thorough investigation of the whole subject--The results to which it is the object of these lectures to conduct the mind LECTURE II. THE ABSTRACT PRINCIPLE OF THE INSTITUTION OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY. If the system be sinful, _per se_, the sin of it must be found in the principle--Is the principle sinful?--The principle defined--Objections to the term “submission” answered--The effects of Mr. Jefferson’s doctrine upon many conscientious persons in the Southern States LECTURE III. OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. Objections classified--Popular views discussed--“All men are born free and equal”--“All men are created equal”--“All men in a state of nature are free and equal”--And the particular form in which Dr. Wayland expresses the popular idea, viz., “The relation in which men stand to each other is the relation of equality; not equality of condition, but equality of right”--Remarks on Dr. Wayland’s course--His treatise on Moral Science as a text-book. LECTURE IV. THE QUESTION OF RIGHTS DISCUSSED. Why it is necessary to define the term RIGHTS--The RIGHT in itself defined to be the GOOD--The doctrine that the will of God is the origin of the right considered--The will of God not the origin of the right, but an expression of the right which is the GOOD--Natural rights and acquired rights, each defined LECTURE V. THE DOCTRINES OF RIGHTS APPLIED TO GOVERNMENT.