Deny this right, and you put no bounds to human
slavery. Pardon me, but looking in your eyes and those of these
ladies, I can see that I should become a slave instantly if you had
your way. Unconsciously and inevitably you would make me one, for it
is your strongest impulse to make me agree with you, to see things
exactly as you do. The fact that you sincerely believe you are right
would make no difference if I just as sincerely believed you were
wrong. If I could not think and act for myself I should be a slave.
You might say, 'We KNOW we are right, that what we believe has the
Divine sanction.' That is what the tormentors of the Inquisition
said and believed; that is what my Puritan and persecuting
forefathers said and believed; what does history say now? The world
is growing wise enough to understand that God has no slaves. He
endows men and women with a conscience. The supreme obligation is to
be true to this. When any one who has passed the bounds of childhood
says to us, 'I don't think this is right,' we take an awful
responsibility, we probably are guilty of usurpation, if we
substitute our will for his.
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