The year of jubilee; but not to Africans a discourse, delivered July 4th, 1825, being the 49th anniversary of American independence

Man, considered as a rational and social being, occupies a variety of important relations in the universe of God. In the first place he stands related to that great and glorious Being who gave him existence, and he is under the most solemn and indissoluble obligations, to the exercise of eternal reverence, love and gratitude. However indifferent he may feel, in his present fallen state, to the demands of heaven, and however negligent he may be of the duties which result from those demands, it is an incontrovertible truth, that the service of God has the first and highest claim. Hence, the first and greatest commandment of the law is declared, by the divine Saviour to be this; “_Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength._” Mark xii. 30. An immediate and constant compliance with this precept should be the first object of every human being.

But although this is the first, it is not the only duty of man. He occupies other relations, and, of course, is subjected to the authority of other duties. Passing over all the other subordinate connexions of man, as foreign from our present purpose, I shall here notice only his relation to his own species, and the obligations which result from that relation. All men are formed by the same hand, born into the same world, under the same circumstances, and are bound by considerations both of duty and interest to respect each other’s rights, and to promote each other’s happiness. These duties are next in importance to those which relate to God. Therefore, our blessed Lord, after declaring the precept already quoted to be the first commandment of the law, adds, “And the second is like” to it, “_Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself_.” He then declares, with respect to both, “There is no commandment greater than these.” Here then we have a concise, but complete exposition of man’s duty in relation to his own species. It is applicable to all the possible circumstances of life; and at the same time, so plain, that the smallest share of intellect is sufficient to understand and apply it. It accords precisely with that golden rule which the Saviour delivered, in his sermon on the mount; “_All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets._” Matthew vii. 12. That is, all the duties which God has ever required of man in relation to his own species, either in the law or the prophets, are comprehended in this single precept, Do to others just as you would wish them to do to you. Did this principle regulate the conduct of all men, the earth would instantly resume the first bloom of Eden. Not only would war, and murder and rapine cease to desolate the earth, but animosities and contention and oppression of every kind and degree would instantly disappear. Adventitious circumstances might still produce distinctions in the relative situations of men; but pride, that fiend of hell and enemy of happiness, would be banished from the human breast; and one more prospered of heaven than his fellows, would look down upon them, not to despise their poverty, nor to rejoice in their misery, nor to deprive them of their liberty; (the last earthly blessing that man can lose;) but to compassionate their necessities, to console them under adversity, and to administer to their relief. The whole human family would be bound together by the sense of a common nature, and the bonds of sincere affection: in a word, they would feel that they were bone of each other’s bone; and flesh of each other’s flesh; and in all cases, and under all circumstances, they would act like brethren.

From these remarks, you will perceive that the words of my text, although they are not a part of the inspired volume, contain sentiments in perfect accordance with the divine declarations. This consideration therefore is sufficient to entitle them to the highest respect. But, in this favoured land, they do not need this argument to give them authority. They are the words of our fathers; not spoken by the fireside, or in the closet, while they rested quietly in the midst of their domestick circles, without a witness of their declarations; but proclaimed and published to the whole world, while they stood in jeopardy of their lives and all that they held dear on earth; and with a solemn appeal to the SUPREME JUDGE of the world for the rectitude of [their] intentions. Nay, more; some of them sealed this declaration with their own blood, and voluntarily laid down their lives, to deliver their posterity from tyranny and oppression, and to procure for them the blessings of liberty and self-government. Confining ourselves to this view of the subject, we should pronounce that native American unworthy of his parentage and the name which he bears, who would not revere the words of his father, uttered under such circumstances. Nay, that man, let him be who he will, and let his circumstances be what they may, is unworthy to tread American soil and breathe American air, who does not cheerfully and sincerely adopt the words of my text, as containing the sentiments of his heart, “_All men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness._”

When this declaration, particularly this clause of it, was reported in heaven, (and I presume to believe that the sun had not set on the fourth of July, 1776, before the transactions of the American Congress were published to the celestial hosts,) what think you were the expectations of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect, with respect to the state of things which would succeed in this nation? Doubtless, the former, in whose respective ranks liberty and equality are not only professed but practised, expected, upon their first mission to this lower world, to see the American people, without distinction of complexion or circumstances, enjoying the blessings of freedom. And with equal probability may we imagine, that those happy souls who had been redeemed from the earth, and who had here witnessed, with their own eyes, the oppressions of man exercised upon his own species; some of whom had, perhaps, themselves been personally guilty in this matter, and had found, from their own experience, that the last pollution, from which a Saviour’s blood can wash the human soul, is the sweat or blood of a black man’s body; I say, we may safely imagine, that, among these, there was one universal shout of joy. They rejoiced to hear, that, in one nation at least of this fallen world, after the lapse of almost 6000 years, THE RIGHTS OF MAN were at last understood, and a solemn resolution to respect them had been unanimously adopted: that universal emancipation had been proclaimed to three millions of the human family.

In view of these considerations, could angels and redeemed souls have reasonably expected or believed, if there is any sincerity in man, that from the benefits of this solemn declaration, adopted under all the solemn circumstances just mentioned, and with the most solemn appeal to heaven, every sixth man was excluded, and doomed to perpetual slavery; and that, for no other reason, than because the God of nature had caused them to be born in a torrid clime, where the sun had burnt their skin and crisped their hair, and they had been transported against their will, to a land inhabited by white men?