Excerpt from Oration, Delivered Before the Few and Phi Gamma Socities, of Emory College It is objected that our slaves are debarred educational advantages. The objection is well taken, but is without great force their station m society makes education neither necessary nor useful, besides it comes with a bad grace from England - eight-tenths of whose pooulation have been de barred them by causes stronger than law, and if they could by any means obtain them, it is difficult to show the advantages of education to English laborers, who are doomed to toil twelve hours a day for a money compensation inadequate to supply their lowest physical wants. We are reproached that the marriage relation is neither recognised nor protected by law. This reproach is not wholly unjust, this is an evil not yet remedied by law, but marriage is not inconsistent with the institution of slavery as it exists among us, and the objection, therefore, lies rather to an incident than to the essence of the system. But even in this we have deprived the slave of no pre-existing right. We found the race without any knowledge of, or regard for the institution of marriage, and we are reproached for not having as yet, secured that and all other blessings of civilization. The separation of families is much relied on by the abolitionists in Europe and America. Some of the slaveholding states have already made partial provision against this evil, and all of them may do so; but the objection is far more formidable in theory than practice, even without legislative interposition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.