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 thought 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 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. If the situation of the Africans was as
happy as servitude could make them, he could not consent to the enormous
crime of selling man to man; nor permit a practice to continue, which
put an entire bar to the civilization of one quarter of the globe.
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