Thus Science, Literature, Freedom, Philanthropy, the Catholic Church, each and all, confess a debt to the liberated Barbary slave. May they, on this occasion, as beneficent heralds, commend the story of his wrongs, his struggles, and his triumphs! [Illustration] These preliminary remarks properly prepare the way for the subject to which I have invited your attention. In presenting it, I shall naturally be led to touch upon the _origin of slavery_, and the principles which lie at its foundation, before proceeding to exhibit the efforts for its abolition, and their final success in the Barbary States. I. The word _slave_, suggesting now so much of human abasement, has an origin which speaks of human grandeur. Its parent term, _Slava_, signifying _glory_, in the Slavonian dialects, where it first appears, was proudly assumed as the national designation of the races in the north-eastern part of the European continent, who, in the vicissitudes of war, were afterwards degraded from the condition of conquerors to that of servitude. The Slavonian bondman, retaining his national name, was known as a _Slave_, and this term--passing from a _race_ to a _class_--was afterwards applied, in the languages of modern Europe, to all in his unhappy lot, without distinction of country or color.[7] It would be difficult to mention any word which has played such opposite parts in history--now beneath the garb of servitude, concealing its early robes of pride. And yet, startling as it may seem, this word may properly be received in its primitive character, in our own day, by those among us who consider slavery essential to democratic institutions, and therefore a part of the true _glory_ of the country! [Footnote 7: Gibbon's Roman Empire, vol. x. chap. 55, p. 190.] Slavery was universally recognized by the nations of antiquity. It is said by Pliny, in a bold phrase, that the Lacedæmonians "invented slavery."[8] If this were so, the glory of Lycurgus and Leonidas would not compensate for such a blot upon their character. It is true that they recognized it, and gave it a shape of peculiar hardship. But slavery is older than Sparta. It appears in the tents of Abraham; for the three hundred and eighteen servants born to him were slaves. It appears in the story of Joseph, who was sold by his brothers to the Midianites for twenty pieces of silver.[9] It appears in the poetry of Homer, who stamps it with a reprobation which can never be forgotten, when he says,[10]-- Jove fixed it certain, that whatever day Makes man a slave takes half his worth away. [Footnote 8: Nat. Hist. lib. vii. c. 57.] [Footnote 9: Genesis xiv. 14; ibid, xxxvii. 28. By these and other texts of the Scriptures, slavery, and even the _slave trade_, have been vindicated. See Bruce's Travels in Africa, vol. ii. p. 319. After quoting these texts, the complacent traveller says he "cannot think that purchasing slaves is either cruel or unnatural."] [Footnote 10: Odyssey, book xvii.]