It matters not to me what meaning ‘Dictionaries or standard writers’ may give to immediate emancipation. My Dictionary is the Bible; my standard authors, prophets and apostles. When Jehovah commanded Pharaoh to ‘let the people go,’ he meant that they should be _immediately emancipated_. I read his meaning in the judgments which terribly rebuked Pharaoh’s repeated and obstinate refusal to ‘let the people go.’ I read it in the _universal_ emancipation of near 3,000,000 of Israelites in _one awful night_. When the prophet Isaiah commanded the Jews ‘to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke,’ he taught no gradual or partial emancipation, but _immediate, universal emancipation_. When Jeremiah said, ‘Execute judgment in the MORNING, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor,’ he commanded _immediate_ deliverance. And so also with Paul, when he exhorted masters to render unto their servants that which is just and equal. Obedience to this command would _immediately_ overturn the whole system of American Slavery; for liberty is justly _due_ to every American citizen, according to the laws of God and the Constitution of our country; and a fair recompense for his labor is the right of every man. Slaveholders know this is just as well as we do. John C. Calhoun said in Congress, in 1833--‘He who _earns_ the money--who _digs it out of the earth_ with the sweat of his brow, has a _just title_ to it against the Universe. _No one_ has a right to touch it _without his consent_, except his government, and _it only_ to the extent of its _legitimate_ wants: to take more is _robbery_.’ If our fundamental principle is right, that no man can rightfully hold his fellow man as _property_, then it follows, of course, that he is bound _immediately_ to cease holding him as such, and that, too, in _violation of the immoral and unconstitutional laws_ which have been framed for the express purpose of ‘turning aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of the people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless.’ Every slaveholder is bound to cease to do evil _now_, to emancipate his slaves _now_. Dost thou ask what I mean by emancipation? I will explain myself in a few words. 1. It is ‘to reject with indignation, the wild and guilty phantasy, that man can hold _property_ in man.’ 2. To pay the laborer his hire, for he is worthy of it. 3. No longer to deny him the right of marriage, but to ‘let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband,’ as saith the apostle. 4. To let parents have their own children, for they are the gift of the Lord to _them_, and no one else has any right to them. 5. No longer to withhold the advantages of education and the privilege of reading the Bible. 6. To put the slave under the protection of equitable laws.