By doing this, we should procure a better
treatment for the Slaves there; and when this happy change of system should
have taken place, we might depend on them for the defence of the islands as
much as on the Whites themselves.
Upon the whole, he would give his opinion of this traffic in a few words.
He believed it to be impolitic--he knew it to be inhuman--he was certain it
was unjust--he though it so inhuman and unjust, that, if the colonies could
not be cultivated without it, they ought not to be cultivated at all. It
would be much better for us to be without them, than not abolish the
Slave-trade. He hoped therefore that members would this night act the part
which would do them honour. He declared, that, whether he should vote in a
large minority or a small one, he would never give up the cause. Whether in
the House of Parliament or out of it, in whatever situation he might ever
be, as long as he had a voice to speak, this question should never be at
rest. Believing the trade to be of the nature of crimes and pollutions,
which stained the honour of the country, he would never relax his efforts.
It was his duty to prevent man from preying upon man; and if he and his
friends should die before they had attained their glorious object, he hoped
there would never be wanting men alive to their duty, who would continue to
labour till the evil should be wholly done away.
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