Slavery in the United States.

Introduction

. The subject of slavery; at all times one of exireme delicacjrin the United Slates, has lately assumed a vast and alarming imporiance, in consequence of the proceedings of the advocates of immediate cmancrpation, who have denounced it as utterly at war with the law of God and the rights of nature. It has become the fruitful theme of calumny, declamation, and contention ; the stalking horse of political parties and fanatical reformers.- It has produced lamentable violations of the laws, end disturbed the peace of communities and states. It menaces the disruption of our social system, and tends direcily to a separation of the Union. The institution has been assailed on one hand with violence and obloquy ; on the other defended with invincible determination. The obligations of truth have been sacrificed to unmitigated reproach, and the laws and constitution of the country attempted to be trampled under foot, in the hot pursuit of the

INTRODUCTION.

rights of humanity. The feelings and good namo of millions of our fellow-citizens have been grossly assailed, their rights invaded, their firesides and social institutions disturbed, and their lives endaU" gered without any regard to the dictates of our moral code, and religion itself made a pretext for the violation of its own benign precepts. In asserting the natural rights of one class of men, the constitutional rights of another have been denounced as violations of the law of God ; and, as if it were impossible to be sincere without becom- ' ing mad, a ferocious, unrelenting, unbrotherly warfare hias been, still ia, waging against a large portion of the good citizens of the United States, which, if continued, rhust inevitably separate this prosperous and happy Union into discorda-.it and conflicting elements, that, instea(^of co-operating in the one greatend of human happiness, will be productive only of contention and ruin.

In this state of things it is thought that a calm, dispassionate consideration of the subject, on the broad general ground of its influence on the happiness of all parties concerned, might not be without its uses at the present moment. The question ia pregnant with consequences of deeper interest than any that can occupy the attention of a citizen of the United States, for it involves the peace and in-' tegrity of the Union, the condition of millionn living,

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millions yet unborn. It is a question concerning rights and duties of the greatest magnitude, the decision of which must vitally affect the present age, as well as long ages to come. In short, it is a case in which nations are called to the bar, and the two great races of mankind are parties to the issue.

To enter on such a subject with reference to present political contests, or with party views, would disgrace any man, high or low. The success of any party, however weighty might be its consequences ; the triumph of any system of policy however salutary ; the elevation of one man or the depression of another — all these are as nolhing compared with the final disposition which may be made of this agitating question. It is to decide whether the union shall last any longer; that union which all good citizens believe to be the great palladium of their present happiness, and ihat of their posterity. To this party the writer professes allegiance, and to no other. His great principle, and one that it will be his endeavour to sustain in the following work, is. That no beneficial consequences to any class of mankind, or to the whole universe, can counterbalance the evils that will result to the people of the United States from the dissolution of the Union, and that, therefore, no project

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ought ever to he. tolerated by them which places it in jeopardy. "Whether this principle accords with the nice metaphysical subtilties or abstract dogmas of fanaticism, he neither knows nor cares.

Hitherto, almost all that has appeared on the subject has been o- one side. The horrors of sla^ very have been depicted in such glowing colour$ as to blind us to the consequences that may, and assuredly will result from attempting to get rid of it in the summary manner demanded by the advo» Gates of immediate abolition, who, one might almost be tempted to believe, consider it the only evil existing in the world. Regard to the honour of our country ; justice to a great body of as upright, honourable, and humane citizens as. any nation can boast ; respect to the laws of the land, and rev* erence for the constitution, seem to demand that the reverse of the picture should be seen ; that the mischiefs to be remedied, the cost of the remedy, and the good to be gained by its application, should be camly considered, in order that all may, if they please, see for themselves and decide for themselves, whether, in attempting to get rid of one evil, we may not inflict others of far greater magnitude ; whether, in short, by applying rash and unskilful remedies, we may not kill the patient.

It will be perceived, in the course of the following discussion, that the writer does not consider

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slavery, as it exists in the United States, an evil of such surpassing enormity as to demand the sacrifice of the harmony and consequent union of the states, followed by civil contention and servile war, to its removal. If the question were now for the first time to be decided, whether it should be permitted to ingraft itself on the institutions of the country, he would assuredly oppose it with a zeal at least equal to that with which he is about to combat the unlawful interference of the abolitionists. But inasmuch as it is now deeply rooted in our land, and inseparably intertwined with the interests, the habits, the domestic policy, and social relations of a large portion of the people of this Union ; inasmuch as it is identified with the constitutional rights, and the value of the property of millions of free citizens who will not be persuaded, and cannot be controlled ; and, above all, inasmuch as the treatment it may receive must and will deeply affect their peace, safety, and happiness, he is for leaving it to the humanity and discretion of those whom alone it concerns. If it be an evil, let those who cherish bear it. It is their business, not ours, since no duty renders it obligatory on us to go crusading about the world redressing wrongs, real or imaginary, which we" had no hand in inflicting. If i* reflects dishonour, none of it can fall to our shve, since the institution of slavery

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is guarded by constitutional barriers which cannot be overleaped or broken down, and we have done our part by abolishing it wherever it was within our jurisdiction. If it be a crime to have inherited the property of slaves ; if it be a crime to ^lecline divesting themselves of it in a manner which all rational reflecting men believe will be equally pernicious to the master and the slave ; if it be a crime to resent, resist, or counteract by every means in their power, any interference ,with a subject involving all that is dear to men, then let them meet the consequences ; but let not us, their kindred, neighbours, and countrymen, become in* etruments to scatter the firebrands of fanaticism among them, and lend a helping hand to insurrec- I tion and massacre.

Let us not forget that in our furious zeal to give freedom to the blacks, we are laying the axe to the root of the fairest plant of freedom that adorns the New or the Old World j that in our ardour to bring about a questionable good, we are provoking vast and alarming evils ; and that there is no precept of religion or morality more inflexible in its application than that which forbids doing evil that good may ensue. Where the evil is immediate and morally certain, on every ground of reason and experience, and the good remote, contingent, ftnd hypothetical, it is the part of a wise and good

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n man to shrink from thus arrogating to himself the attributes of Omniscience, and pretending to look into futurity. When mankind are gifted with a prophetic inspiration directly derived from Heaven; or when they acquire the prerogative of planning and controlling the economy of the universe, then, and not till then, should they dare to do evil in the presumptuous anticipation that the miseries they may inflict on the living, will be repaid by the happiness of those yet unborn.

New-York, jlVbr. . 1835.

SLAVERY.

. CHAPTER I.

Of the Opposition of Slavery to the Law of God.

The advocates of immediate, unconditional emancipation, having attempted to make it a religious question, by asserting the abstract principle, that slavery is contrary to the law of God,* it becomes necessary to subject this fundamental . proposition to the test of examination. If it should be found not to be sustained by those acknowledged manifestations of his will, which are the only foundations of his law, then it would seem, the whole ground of their proceedings is untenable ; since it is only by pleading the law of God, in opposition to the laws of man, that they can justify their present course. The maxim, that slavery is contrary to the law of God, and the rights of nature, has been lately revived, and sanctioned by the authority of Lord Brougham, to

* See the declaration of the "National Anti-Slavery Society."

B whom tre have seen it ascribed. But whatever may be our respect for his lordship's learning and abilities, we cannot recognise him as the interpreter of the Divine will. We look to a higher and far purer source : to the precepts of the Old and New Testaments, as the only authentic manifestations of the Divine law, and to them we shall appeal in the proper place.

It is presumed that none will deny the existence of slavery in every quarter of the known world, at the period when the law of God was promulgated from the judgment seat on Mount Sinak That it was hereditary bondage, will appear from the passages that will be presently cited< tt is frequently alluded to ; frequently recognised as a part of the social system of the nation to which the Scriptures were addressed, and never denounced as a crime or a curse by name or by description.

A reference to the Old Testament will show that the abolitionists can derive from it no authority to sustain their position, that slavery is contrary to the law of God. The only text they have been able to bring to bear directly upon the subject, is that which denounces the penalty of death to the " man-stealer;" while, on the contrary, slavery is made the subject of express regulation in the social institutions of the Jews, and this without a single expression of disapprobation on the part of

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the divine Lawgiver. It is evident, therefore, that the denunciation of death to the man-stealer is not applicable to those who hold slaves by capture in war, by purchase, or by inherittitice. Its object was unquestionably the same with that of the law of the southern states, which inflicts a heavy punishment on those who steal or entice away slaves from their rightful owners. It was a law for the security of this species of properly.

There is, however, one other passage in the Old Testament which the abolitionists have cited in support of their position, that slavery is contrary to the law of God. It is found in the fifty eighth chapter of Isaiah, and is as follows :■ —

Is not this the test that I have chosen? to let the oppressed, go free, and that ye break every yoke V

One of the great sources of those differencen in the interpretation of the Scriptures, which have confounded mankind, and produced endless controversies of the sword and the pen, is the custom of explaining isolated texts, without any attention to their connection with what precedes, or what follows, and without the least regard to the circumstances which gave rise to the precept.

The book of Isaiah is a prophetic vision,* having a single reference to the abuses, corruptions, and

* Isaiah is considered by commentators as the most difficult of all the prophets to comprehend.

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oppressions which had crept into Israel, most especially its idolatries ; and to the coming of Christ. It is thus ushered in : —

The dream of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uz^iah, Jotham, and l^ezekiah, kin[;s of Israel." It hegins by detailing the backslidings of the people.

"Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Every one loveth gifts, and foUoweth after rewards : they judge not the fatherless, nor doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

" The land is full of idols ; they worship the work of their own hands, and that which their own fingers have made."

Such are the principal evils of which he complains, and which he predicts will be cured by the mission of Christ, which all the authorities we have seen agree in saying -was exclusively devoted to the reformation of ecclesiastical abuses and the corruptions of the church. The government of the Jews was in effect a hierarchy, and the abuses he enumerated may be traced in a great degree to this source. The captions of the ditTerent chapters run as follows : —

" The prophet, for the comfort of the Gentiles, prophesieth the amplitude of the church."

" God's judgments against the enemies of the church"

« The judgments wherewith God revengeth his church"

" The prophet show jth the cursed folly of trusting to Egypt, and forsaking of God."

" Christ awakeneth the church with his calling." The glory of the church in the abundant success of the Gentiles."

The fervent desire of the prophet to confirm the church in God's promises."

The tyranny of the church is alluded to in various passages, and this consisted in the infliction of fines, confiscations, and imprisonment. Throughout the whole book of Isaiah, we have not been able to discover but one distinct allusion to slaves, and this is a charge of exacting labcur from them on fast days, which was a violation of the laws of Moses. From the whole tenour of the prophecy, it distinctly appears that the freeing of the oppressed, and the breaking of the yoke, aUudes to the bonds of wickedness, and the yoke of ecclesiastical tyranny, of which our Saviour speaks in the twenty. third chapter of Matthew. His words have an apt reference to the attempts of fanatical reformers, who are striving to make religion an intolerable burden, instead of a delightful and salutary duty. The Saviour says, speaking of the tyranny of the Jewish priesthood, " For thoy bind

B 2

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heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."

The greater number of commentators coincide with the interpretation we have given, and those who differ with them, are far from going the lengths of the abolitionists. Dr. Scott, on this passage from Isaiah, says —

" They who observed such a fast would loose the bonds of those they had iniquitously enslaved and imprisoned ; they would moderate the labours of their servants, and render their services and situations more comfortable. They would cease from usurious exactions, and remit the debts that either were contracted through fraud, or which the poor debtor was unable to discharge."

The prophecy of Isaiah, according to the chronology of the Bible, was delivered about seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, at which time the laws of Moses were in full force. It js therefore extremely improbable, to say the least, that the prophet would have attacked them in this Unceremonious manner, as they expressly recognise slavery in various passages ; not in dreams, but in express words, derived from the judgment Beat of Heaven. We shall content ourselves with quoting the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus.

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The book of Leviticus, in the words of a learned and indefatigable commentator,* " principally consists of ritual laws delivered to Moses from the mercy seat, during the first month after the taber« nacle was erected ; though moral precepts are frequently interspersed." And the chapter from which . our quotations arfe taken, is ushered in by the following sublime preamble : *' And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying — ^" Here, then, is a sanction which cannot be questioned by «- those who pretend to a belief in the authority of the Bible.

" Both thy bondmen and bondmaids which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are among you. Of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.

" Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families thai are with you, which they 6cgot in your land, and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you to inherit them by possession. They shall be your bondmen for cuer."

Here is a direct sanction of rights corresponding in all respects with those of the holders of slaves in the United States. They were originally

* Rev. Thomas Scott.

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" of the heathen" when purchased ; their posterity ■was begot in our land" and they have descended *^ as an inheritance to our children." It is difficult to conceive how, with these authorities before them, the abolitionists can persist in maintaining that slavery is contrary to the law of God ; or that the denunciation of death to the "man- stealer" has any reference whatever to the case of the holders of slaves in the United States. So to apply it, is to make the word of God a tissue of contradictions unworthy of its divine Author. If the opinions of ninnkind, the social duties, and social relations, have so changed since the age of the Bible, as to render what was then right now wrong, what was then sanctioned by the Supreme Being now contrary to the law of God, then neither the Old nor the New Teb.ament can be any longer the standard of our duties to Heaven c. to our fellow creatures, We must seek that standard in the declamations of the abolitionists, not in the pages of Holy Writ. But it is not, and cannot be true,' that what was sanctioned by the authority of the Supreme Being in one age, can be the worst of crimps, and the worst of curses in anolher. It is lielieved that the law of God is as unchangeable as its Author.

Yet ahhough the Divine law may remain the saine in its general principles, experience has

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shown that at distant periods of time, the corruptions of our nature^ or it may be, the progress of knowledge and intelligence, and the various changes tbey produce in the state of society, as well ae the relations of persons and things, render a new application of its principles necessary to the happiness of mankind. Hence we observe in the records of history, that religion as well as government has been invariably modified, not so much in fundamental principles, as in their practical application, to suit the progress of the human intellect. Savages and: barbarians can have no government but one of force, and no religion but superstition. Civilized and intelligent nations mubi have laws for the security of property, and their religion must accord with their progress in knowledge, as well as with their civil institutions. Neither the religion or thie government of enlightened nations, is fit for those which are ignorant and barbarous ; and hence it is, that all experience has hitherto exemplified the fact, that a general improvement in knowledge and civilization is indispensable to all salutary reforms in religion.

Thus the lapse of ages and the vast changes which they had produced in the state of society, the manners of nations, and the mass of their intelligence, rendered the social institutions and the code

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of practical morality of the Old Testament obsolete and inapplicable. A new dispensation therefore became necessary, not to abrogate the doctrines of the Old Testament, but to modify their operation, so as to render them applicable to anew state of things, which the course of time had produced. Such a moditication is the code of morals inculcated by the Saviour of mankind, who, though existing from all eternity, and predestined to this mission, was not sent on earth until the corruptions of mankind, and the revolutions of ages, had made new examples, and' a revision of old precepts necessary to their regeneration. Nor can it be denied that, independently of all the interests of hereafter, the mission of Christ has had, and long will have, a most beneficial and noble influence on the morals and happiness of all those who receive and practise his precepts.

The fanatics of the present times may probably argue from the foregoing premises, that the lapse of more than eighteen hundred years since the appearance of the great Redeemer and Reformer, has rendered a revision and improvement of his system in like manner necessary to the present state of human knowledge and opinions, and that they are the chosen instruments of^Heaven for bringing about a pew reformation in morals, religioil, and social institutions. If such bei their claims, let them produce their credentials. Let them demonstrate the truth of their mission^ as that of the Saviour was demonstrated. Let them heal the sick ; give sight to the blind ; raise the dead from their graves ; walk on the waves in the fury of the tempest ; offer themselves up willing sacrifices to the divinity of their faiths instead of skulking from, all responsibility; seal with their blood the sincerity of their belief, and die the death of malefactorsj amid the rending of temples, the splitting of rocks, the quaking of the earth, and the uproar of a startled world. Thenj perhaps, we may believe in their mission ; but until then their pretensions to inspiration are no better fotinded than their claims to common sense, of rational dis" cretion.

Christianity then is a revision of the code of the Old Testament, and not a new system of \-<iMfd based on contradictory principles. Let us see whether among its reforms the iftstitiition of slavery is included.

When the Christian faith tvas first propounded id mankind, "Slavery," says Archdeacon Paley, A determined opponent of the institution, and certainly as eminent a theologian as my Lord Brougham— "was a part of the civil constitution of most

S4 slaverv.

countries when Christianity appeared ; yet no passage is found in the Christian Scriptures by which it is condemned Qjr prohibited. This is true, for Christiarxity, soliciting admittance into all nations of the world, abstained, as behooved it, from meddling with the civil institutions of any. But does it follow, from the silence of the Scriptures concerning them, that all civil institutions which then prevailed were right ? or that the bad should not be exchanged- for a better ?"

This admission of a learned and eminent divine, whose work on moral philosophy has always been held in high estimation, goes to substantiate the position, that there is no authority derivable from the New Testament, which justifies the assertion that slavery is contrary to the law of God ; and let it be borne in mind, that the reason which Dr. Paiey adduces for the omission to denounce it, is not the authority of the Sav:->ur or his apostles, but an inference of their interpreter. There is no Scripture warrant for it whatever ; and it might be asked, on what^ground the doctor presumed to explain the motives for such uniform abstinence from all expression of hostility, or even disapprobation, towards an institution which the abolitionists call " the greatest curse that ever fell on the heads of mankind." The success of the Chiistian religion did not depend on men or human means.

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but on the will of the Supreme Being. It was absolutely certain to the extent of that will. Yet, according to Dr. Paley, his only Son, coming charged with his mission, clothed with his authority, partaking in his very being and identity, did not dare to denounce " the greatest curse that ever fell upon the heads of mankind," lest it should endanger the success of that mission. He temporized with it; he left it to continue almost two thousand years, and suffered it to spread over, a new world, under an impression that the Almighty power might be too weak to bring about the Almighty will. It would seem that such deductions from the silence of the New Testament are equally unworthy the mission of the Saviour as the omnipotence of God.

Again. Dr. Paley, whose- authority Is unquestionable when he states facts derived from his actual knowledge, holds the following language, in his chapter On Civil Obedience as stated in the Scriptures." He says —

" We affirm, that as to all our civil rights and obligations, Christianity hath left us where she found us ; that she hath neither altered nor ascertained them. The New Testament contains not one passage which, fairly interpreted, affords either argument or objection applicable to any conclu-

c

26 BLAVfiRT,

sions jon the subject, that are deducible from the law and religion of nature."

Until these positions are controverted, there appears no necessity to. prosecute this portion of the inquiry any further. It is sufficient for our present purpose, that the New Testament contains a complete moral code, exemplified by precepts applicable to every circumstance and situation of life j that slavery existed almost universally at, and ages before the Christian dispensation, and thai it is not even discountenanced there, much less denounced as contrary to the law of God. It was a civil institution ; and, as Dr. Paley truly ailirms on this point, " Christianity hath left us where she found us." It is difficult to account for this omission to denounce what is now denominated " the greatest curse that ever fell upon the heads of mankind," except on the ground thalt, as it existed, at that period at least, it was not considered a crime to hold slaves in bondage, or that the attempt to arrest it would then, as now, produce far greater evils than the crime itself. It seems degrading to the wisdom and omnipotence of the Supreme Being, to ascribe it to an apprehension that to denoimce it would embarrass the progress of that religion of which he was the Author. Neither does it appear at all probable, that the Saviour of ' mankind and his disciples would have shrunk

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from the consequences of such a denunciation; The former knew full well that he was at all events destined as a sacrifice for the transgression of our first parents ; and the latter, with scarcely an exception, sealed with their blood, as well the divinity of their religion, as the sincerity of their belief. But, admitting the deduction of Dr. Paley to be just — which, however, is not meant to bei done here — that this silence was prudential on the part of the Saviour, does it not seem the heiglit of impious presumption in mortals to meddle with a subject from which he scrupulously abstained ? The rash interference of the abolitionists, as will be demonstrated hereafter, is as directly at war with the civil institutions of a portion of the United States, as it would have been on the part of the propounders of the Christian faith with those of the Roman empire, and places equal obstacles in the way of the progress of Christianity among one portion at least of mankind. It already operates as a bar to its propagation among the slaves of the South, and if persisted in, will leave the master no other refuge than that of perpetuating their ignorance.

The history of mankind exhibits almost innumerable examples of the wiis^hievous consequences resulting from the interference of the church with

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the civil rights and institutions of states. It has always ended in despotism. The laws of the United States guaranty the freedom of worship and opinion to all denominations of believers ; and it would seem the least they can do, is to refrain from all interference with them, unless in matters exclusively relating to their rights as rational beings to adopt what faith they please. True religion equally disdains to war against the established rights of property, and the personal safety of citizens. It is the auxiliary, not the dictator of the laws, and alwavs acts in harmonious co-operation with the social institutions. It claims no right to transgress the bounds of perfect freedom in the exercise of its own opinions ; and never, unless in the fury of fanatical excitement, attempts by violence to impose them on others. When it steps out of its sacred sphere, to dictate to the powers of the state, or decide on the obligations of the people to obey or disobey the laws — when it erects itself into an arbiter to designate what statutes are in accordance, and what in conflict with the will of God, it departs from the example of its Founder, violates his precepts, and becomes the common disturber of the peace of mankind.

But it has been urged on the other hand, that