Slavery Question in Oregon. 327 who in all the relations of life— joyous in our joys, sorrowing in our sorrows, partaking with us uncomplainingly of what- ever vicissitudes — none were nearer or dearer to us, who, true to our antecedents as they were to theirs, looked upon them as specimens of the moral paradox. But in all this, there if is nothing enigmatical, for it is in entire accordance with natural law, that human beings take the color of their environ- ment, subject to the modifications which varying hereditary qualities bring to bear, producing all shades and hues of conduct from dark to light— exhibiting under the social en- vironment of slavery, the Shelbys, St. Clairs and LeGrees ; under the social environment of free institutions, the broader fraternal spirit approximating the thesis "the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. ' ' So, there is no wisdom or justice in estimating the character of human beings without taking into account the social soil which produced them. Neither is there wisdom in railing at and inflicting pain upon them with the expectation that thereby their nature will be modified to any considerable extent, for, as we have seen, opinion and conduct are the results of conditions into which they were born and over much of which they have but little control. As one philosopher says, morals are habits," and everybody knows that society is the mother of habits. Wilber- force says that the way to virtue is by withdrawing from temptation. There is another consideration to be noted before leaving this topic, viz. : that very few, if any, who favored the intro- duction of slavery, had ever held slaves, and therefore, had not been perverted by the practices accompanying such a relation. They had never experienced the intoxicating con- scieusness of unlimited power over the lives and fortunes of their fellow creatures— a consciousness that the restraints of law and society were removed, and the human chattels leit to the doubtful contest between the passions and the conscience of the master; in truth an unequal contest, as experience proves, of the still small voice against the two monster pas- sions of human nature, avarice and sensuality. So, those
