[Footnote A: The Bible record of actions is no comment on their moral character. It vouches for them as _facts_, not as _virtues_. It records without rebuke, Noah's drunkenness, Lot's incest, and the lies of Jacob and his mother--not only single acts, but _usages_, such as polygamy and concubinage, are entered on the record without censure. Is that _silent entry_ God's _endorsement_? Because the Bible, in its catalogue of human actions, does not stamp on every crime its name and number, and write against it, _this is a crime_--does that wash out its guilt, and bleach it into a virtue?] The eighth commandment forbids the taking of _any_ part of that which belongs to another. Slavery takes the _whole_. Does the same Bible which forbids the taking of _any_ thing belonging to him, sanction the taking of _every_ thing? Is it such a medley of absurdities as to thunder wrath against him who robs his neighbor of a _cent_, while it bids God speed to him who robs his neighbor of _himself_? Slavery is the highest possible violation of the eighth commandment. To take from a man his earnings, is theft. But to take the _earner_, is compound, superlative, perpetual theft. It is to be a thief by profession. It is a trade, a life of robbery, that vaults through all the gradations of the climax at a leap--the dread, terrific, giant robbery, that towers among other robberies, a solitary horror, monarch of the realm. The eighth commandment forbids the taking away, and the _tenth_ adds, "_Thou shalt not COVET any thing that is thy neighbor's_;" thus guarding every man's right to himself and his property, by making not only the actual taking away a sin, but even that state of mind which would _tempt_ to it. Who ever made human beings slaves, or held them as slaves without _coveting_ them? Why do they take from them their time, their labor, their liberty, their right of self-preservation and improvement, their right to acquire property, to worship according to conscience, to search the Scriptures, to live with their families, and their right to their own bodies? Why do they _take_ them, if they do not _desire_ them? They COVET them for purposes of gain, convenience, lust of dominion, of sensual gratification, of pride and ostentation. _They break the tenth commandment_, and pluck down upon their heads the plagues that are written in the book. _Ten_ commandments constitute the brief compend of human duty. _Two_ of these brand slavery as sin. The giving of the law at Sinai, immediately preceded the promulgation of that body of laws and institutions, called the "Mosaic system." Over the gateway of that system, fearful words were written by the finger of God--"HE THAT STEALETH A MAN AND SELLETH HIM, OR IF HE BE FOUND IN HIS HAND, HE SHALL SURELY BE PUT TO DEATH." See Exodus, xxi. 16.