In Smith there is something of a contrariety, or double doctrine, on justice: Much of his writing leaves us with the impression that we should use justice and its cognates to mean commutative justice, and only that. But much also authorizes the conclusion that we should embrace and talk of three...

Smith’s two-sentence rebuke of the slave trade was quoted in full four times in early anti-slavery literature. It helps us make sense of Part V of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and understand Smith’s posture toward slavery. Also, it might inform our understanding of the relationship between...