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THE GOYERNma RACE 



A. BOOK 



THE TIME, AND FOE ALL TIMES, 



By H. 0. R. 



'God Bhall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan 
shall be his servant." — Genesis, 9 : 27. 



^ 



WASHINOTON : 

THOMAS McGILL, PRINTER. 
1860. 



ko. i 



hi -I. 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

THOMAS McGILL, 

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the District of 
Columbia. 



THE GOYERNL\G RACE. 



PART I. 

IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY THE OLD TESTAMENT ? 

The furious controversy concerning Negro Slavery, now raging 
throughout our land, is no longer a mere political question. 
Both parties have appealed to the Bible. 

Those who sustain or vindicate the slavery of the negro race 
in the United States justify themselves by asserting that " this 
institution is just, wise, and beneficent ;" that " it is ordained by 
Nature, and is a necessity of both races." — Speech of 3Ir. O'Connor, 

They also declare that " this social institution (slavery) is 
founded entirely on the revealed laws of God ; the Bible is the 
source of all our laws as well social as civil, and hence reverence 
and worship of its Divine Author are more general among 
southern slaveholders than almost any other people." — Be Bow a 
Review^ Vol. 3, No. 1, January., 1860, jp. 12. 

Furthermore : " That slavery is a great moral, social, and 
political blessing — a blessing to the master, and a blessing to 
the slave." — Speech of Senator Brown^ of Mississippi. 

The abolitionists, on the other hand, assert (of slavery) that 
" God has forbidden it." — Br. Cheever's Speech, at the Cooper 
Institute. 

" Slavery is founded on principles of injustice, extortion and 
oppression, manslaughter and robbery ; slavery is the foster- 
parent of inhumanity and murder." — Sermon hy Rev. Br. Mat- 
tison. 

" American slavery is the sum of all villanies, and a combina- 
tion of all cruelties, crimes, and robberies, of murder, piracy, 
and adultery, and whatever else is impure, unholy, and accursed." 
— Resolution of the Anti-Slavery Convention, Buffalo. January 
10, 1860. 



4 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

From the above expressions of the anti-slavery party — and 
volumes might be filled with the like bitter invectives against 
the system — it must be plain to every reflecting mind that this 
fierce and agitating controversy cannot be settled by compro- 
mises. It is a question between right and wrong, morally, not 
politically considered ; it is, therefore, taken out of the reach of 
expediency altogether. 

Even the most upright and patriotic statesmen, were they 
wise and self-sacrificing as those who won our independence and 
framed the Constitution, could not settle this now vexed question. 
Those who deny the right of man to hold another man in the 
bondage of slavery spurn the authority of the Constitution and 
the laws of Congress ; they appeal to a " higher law." 

There must, then, be found somewhere moral power to compel 
obedience to the Constitution of the United States, or the Union 
will be dissolved, or resort had to physical force. 

The law of God is the rule directing and compelling a rational 
creature in moral and religious actions. There is no moral law- 
giver save the Lord God. There is no code of His divine law 
save that contained in the Bible. 

Let us, then, people of the United States, take up this momen- 
tous question in the true spirit of Christian obedience to God's 
law ; seeking, reverently, to understand what is set forth in the 
Old and New Testaments concerning slavery, and submitting 
ourselves to the authority of the Bible as the only unerring 
standard of truth and righteousness. 

The Bible gives us three notable instances of laws in which 
our Creator imposed certain specified penalties for sin on certain 
classes of the human race. 

The first was God's sentence on Adam for eating the forbidden 
fruit. " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." The 
ground was cursed for his sake, (or sin,) and all his sons, to the 
end of time, were subjected to the same hard necessity of labor. 

Will any Christian say that this sentence of God was unjust? 
AVill any man of right reason contend that this judgment ever 
has been set aside without worse evils to the human race than 
hard labor being the result ? 

When the penalty for disobedience — death — was for a time 
remitted to fallen man, was not hard labor the best condition in 
which he could be placed for his repentance and reformation ? 
If Adam and all his descendants had submitted to the punish- 
ment, and had " done well" their work, would they not have 
been accepted of the Lord ? Have not the most dreadful crimes 
against God and man resulted from the selfish attempts made, 
by individuals and classes of men, to escape this universal doom 



THE OLD TESTAMENT ? 5 

of labor,: and to impose their own tasks on others, while those 
selfish rulers of the people live on the bread earned by the sweat 
and blood of the laboring classes ? 

Do we not feel that God's law, in this penalty of hard labor, 
is founded in mercy as well as righteousness, and that its failure 
to reclaim man arises from his own sins against this righteous 
ordinance ? 

So, too, of the second penalty : God's sentence on Eve. She 
was subjected to increased sorrows in maternity, and to that 
dependence on her husband which placed her under his personal 
control ; and this doom for her transgression was to be and is 
imposed on all her daughters, and will be on them to the end of 
time. 

Will any Christian say that the sentence was unjust ? Will 
any man assert that this law should be abrogated, and the wife 
cease to " reverence her husband" as " the saviour of the body ?" 
Would it be well for humanity to have this penalty set aside, and 
the wife, spurning dependence upon her husband, and leaving 
the duties of home and the care of their little children, push 
forward in the conflicts of public life, and engage in the hard 
labor that wins bread ? 

The third instance of these special judgments for particular 
sins was that given against the posterity of Ham. The earth 
was recovering from the curse of the flood, which the " corruption 
of all flesh" had rendered inevitable. Noah and his three sons, 
and the children born to them after the flood, were beginning to 
enjoy the fruits of their labor when the awful scene occurred. 

A class of persons, descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham, 
was doomed to a state of servitude, of menial labor and depend- 
ence for their improvement on their brethren, the descendants of 
Shem and Japheth. 

We will give the text, because it is not always convenient for 
the reader to seek out references, and this text is very import- 
ant : 



" And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. 

" And he drank of the wine, and was drunken ; and he was uncovered within 
his tent. 

" And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told 
his two brethren without. 

" And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, 
and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father : and their faces 
were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. 

" And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done 
unto him. 

" And he said, Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto 
his brethren. 



b IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

" And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shetn ; and Canaan shall be his 
servant. 

God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; and 
Canaan shall be his servant. 

[See Genesis, 9th chapter, verses 20 to 28, inclusive. 

Such is the brief record of holy writ. The import cannot be 
mistaken, nor the penalty of the transgressor misunderstood. A 
class of persons, descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham. were 
sentenced to perpetual servitude or inferiority, and the descend- 
ants of Shem and Japheth — the latter more especially designated 
as superior — should be masters. 

Let us pause here and examine the nature of the sin which 
could justify Noah in passing such a sentence of degradation on 
his " younger son." 

Obedience to the law of God is the first duty of man. This 
divine law settles the destiny of the human race. 

It was this law which governed Adam in Eden, and " disobe- 
dience" was the sin that " brought death into the world, and all 
our woe." Next to obedience of man to God, our heavenly 
Father, comes the duty of obedience of children to their human 
parents. 

This is proven, because such obedience is made the first com- 
mandment of the second table, thus showing it to be the root and 
foundation of moral requirements in the laws that govern society. 
Obedience to parents establishes in their children the habit of 
obedience to law, and also sanctifies the religious principle in 
human nature, by giving honor to that condition of life which 
represents the relation of man to his God. 

So important for human improvement is this obedience of 
children to their parents, that the merciful God, condescending 
to the weakness of our fallen nature, offered a reioard, the prom- 
ise of long life, to those who honored their parents. No other 
commandment in the decalogue has a promise annexed. 

But were the laws of the decalogue in force when Ham sinned? 

Assuredly ; because these moral laws are righteous, and right- 
eousness is eternal. 

Disobedience to parents was not and is not sin because forbid- 
den in the fifth commandment, but because it was and is a sin 
of itself; therefore it was and is forbidden. 

Noah, the " the preacher of righteousness," understood the 
requirements of God's moral law. He knew, as well as we do, 
that murder was sin. Had not Cain been condemned by this law ? 

He knew that adultery was sin ; and all the myriad corrup- 
tions that flow from disobedience to the moral law. Had not 
those sins been punished by the awful judgment of the Flood ? 



THE OLD TESTAMENT ? 7 

Sin is, in its own nature, a disturber and disorganizer. It 
debases before it destroys. It is disobedience to God, and ad- 
herence to the devil: — as manifested by our first parents. 

The sin of Ham, that of dishonoring his father, was aggra- 
vated in the highest degree by the relation which Noah held to 
the future of our fallen race. He was the head of humanity on 
earth. He was prophet, priest, and king. He represented the 
judgment and the mercy of God and man. He embodied, in his 
experience and wisdom, the laws, precepts, and knowledge which 
were to guide his posterity in the better way. 

It is no excuse for Ham to say that his father had done wrong ; 
that he had debased^ himself by drunkenness. 

We do not seek to palliate the transgression of Noah. In 
yielding the reins to appetite, and thus dethroning reason, he 
had committed a grievous sin against the natural laws of God. 
Was he not most grievously punished for his fault when " he 
awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done 
unto him ?" 

Think of the old man, the loving father, who had seen the 
world of transgressors swept from off the earth because of their 
wicked lusts and corrupt imaginations : and then to find the 
poison of the same polluting depravity in his own family — the 
little group spared from the general destruction. 

What was the anguish of the Roman Brutus, passing sentence 
of death on his own sons for treason against the State, compared 
with the sorrow of Noah, dooming his " younger son," for treason 
against nature and rebellion against God, to that condition of 
perpetual inferiority which, like a brand of shame, would mark 
a portion of his (Noah's) descendants forever ! 

As in the case of Adam and Eve, it was sin that brought the 
curse and the punishment. The sentence is proof of the guilt of 
the sinner. The doom was not from Noah, but from the justice 
of a righteous God. 

Ham had shown, by his conduct, that he loved iniquity. His 
sin was more wicked in its inception, more polluting in its nature 
than the fratricide of Cain. The brother struck at the natural 
life of his brother ; the son claimed to overthrow and destroy the 
moral life of mankind by the dishonor of his father. Had Ham's 
sin gone unpunished, all fear and love of God, all reverence and 
obedience for His laws, must have perished, because only through 
and by the parental relation was religious duty then taught and 
exemplified. 

He who commits sin is the servant of sin. Ham had, by his 
own wicked carnality, sold himself to the power of evil; he was 
in the bonds of corruption. The penalty of his awful crime was 



O IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

death ! There was only misery and destruction before him and 
his till the sentence was pronounced. 

Then we see how mercy preponderated. Ham was reprieved 
from direct personal punishment, and only one of his four sons 
was subjected to the penalty of servitude. Even to Canaan 
there was mercy shown. He was to live and not die. His 
brethren were his keepers, his task-masters, and in the special 
promises made them and their posterity he and his were in- 
cluded. 

Why was Canaan, the youngest son of Ham, singled out for this 
doom of servitude? Commentators and expounders of scripture 
have conjectured that this son was with his. father and joined 
him in mocking Noah. But what God has not revealed concern- 
ing this transaction, human reason can never discover. 

We know, however, if we believe the Bible to be divine rev- 
elation, that "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether. (Ps., 10 : 9.) We know that " the curse causeless 
shall not come." [Prov., 26 : 2.) 

There is no recognition of any original inequality between the 
three brothers, causing the differences in their destinies. It 
was the natural propensities, exhibited in this transaction, which 
decided their condition. 

Had the brothers of Ham listened greedily when he " mocked 
at his father," had they yielded to his wicked temptation of dishon- 
oring him by indulging in pithy imaginations concerning their 
father, they, too, would have been accursed. Their chaste reve- 
rence and filial obedience were accepted and rewarded, and thus 
the good gained its first great triumph over the evil in our fallen 
world. 

" Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 
" Blessed be the Lord God of Sheni; and Canaan shall be his servant. 
" God shall enlarge Japlieth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; and 
Canaan shall be his servant." — Genesis, chap, 'd, verses 25-6-7. 

Has not this announcement of the destiny of the three tribes 
or races of men, descended from Noah, come true, according to 
the Word ? 

Does not history, secular as well as sacred, confirm the truth 
of this prophecy in the past ? 

Is it not true at this moment that the posterity of Japheth 
dwell in the tents of Shem, and that the posterity of Canaan are 
in servitude to the posterity of Japheth ? 

We have not time now to spare to go into details here, or to 
quote authorities; but no person acquainted with ancient annals 
can deny that one race, the black, a branch of the Hametic stock, 



THE OLD TESTAMENT ? 9 

has, SO far as is known, always been in a state of servitude, either 
to tyrants of their own color, or to masters of the other two 
races. 

The hieroglyphical records of the oldest monuments of old 
Egypt show the black man then a slave. Nearly the whole con- 
tinent of Africa is now a place of black slaves. If some few of 
these men, as rulers, have liberty to destroy or sell others of 
their own race, the women, one-half the population, are without 
exception slaves to the physical force and brutal lusts of the male 
descendants of Ham. From the ferocious king of the Ashantees, 
whose ornaments and monuments are the skulls and bones of his 
slave victims ; to the Yorubas of Central Africa, whose govern- 
ment is a "perfect despotism," and on to the Makololos of the 
South, described by Rev. Dr. Livingstone, where the negro man 
is supported by the labor of his slave wives, we find two condi- 
tions of life, polygamy and slavery, everywhere. Till the first is 
overcome it is in vain to talk of freedom or improvement for the 
black race. 

The whole negro population of Africa, some eighty or a hun- 
dred millions, with the exception of those belonging to Liberia, 
and, perhaps, some few tribes improved a little under British 
rule at Sierra Leone, now manifest in their low animal propen- 
sities, the same utter lack of reverence for duty, the disregard of 
decency, and the insensibility to shame, which characterized the 
conduct of Ham towards his father Noah, more than four thou- 
sand years ago. 

These sensual propensities, when predominating, mark the 
lowest type of human beings, whatever may be the color, or in 
whatever caste, country, or condition they may be found. 

We know that such people never improve when living together, 
without care or coercion, or both, from persons of better devel- 
opments. We can understand that such a race must be degraded, 
would degrade themselves, and that only by divine miracle, or 
by the natural means of subjection to, and training by, a higher 
class of minds, a better organized race, could the lower type be 
influenced, instructed, and finally improved. 

Was it not merciful, as well as righteous, for the wise and 
good God to place such a race under tutelage or subjection, that 
they might be saved from themselves ? 

" A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethreti." 
Was God's sentence on Canaan, by the mouth of Noah, an 
unjust judgment ? It was the punishment of a great sin, 
not the arbitrary decree of an ofi"ended father ; it was from the 
Lord. 

A state of human servitude or slavery is then compatible loith 



10 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

divine justice, with the perfect righteousness of God's laws, as 
surely as the necessity of hard labor in order to gain bread is for 
man, or the sufferings of women in childbirth and the subjection 
of the wife to her husband are compatible with His righteous- 
ness. 

The aim of just punishment is to make those that suffer it 
better, and not worse. When it has the latter effect, it is through 
the perversion of the law by the criminal himself, or through the 
sins of other criminals ; not by the penalty he suffers. 

Now, let us see what were the regulations given in the Bible 
concerning slavery ; let us see if these are not framed so as to 
make the servitude of the condemned race a blessing, and not a 
curse. 

Abraham* is the first slaveholder on record ; yet from the 
tenor of the divine history there can be no doubt of the preva- 
lence of slavery among all nations before that era. When the 
covenant of God was established with the patriarch, all his ser- 
vants were admitted to the rite of circumcision, all were made 
members of the church, and thus given the opportunity of know- 
ing and serving the true God. 

Was not this a blessed privilege to those born idolaters ? Was 
it not better to be a servant or slave of Abraham than a free 
citizen of Sodom ? 

From the time of this patriarch till the giving of the law on 
Mount Sinai, there are few direct allusions to slaves or bond 
servants among the chosen people. 

But let us dwell a moment on the memorable narrative of 
Joseph's enslavement; His brethren " hated him," seized him 
by violence, " sold him to the Egyptians." Were they as wicked 
as murderers ? They committed a heinous crime ; but was it as 
"accursed" as the sin they had proposed, when they said: 



*It has been urged by those who denounce slavery as sin, that Abraham 
was drawn into polygamy by having bond women in his household, and 
that the two institutions are, therefore, coincident and equally iniquitous. 
No conclusion could be more erroneous. The connection between Abraham 
and Hagar was not marriage. He never considered the bond woman as his 
wife, never defended her conduct, never protected her from the anger of her 
mistress and his wife, Sarah. Hagar Avas the slave always, and her son was 
not the true heir, as St. Paul bears witness. The whole history of that miser- 
able attempt to bring about the purposes of divine wisdom by human devices, 
wicked in their inception, because contrary to God's holy law of marriage — 
one man with one woman, the twain made one — as established at the creation, 
shows the folly as well as sinfulness into which those persons who are really 
ceeking to do good will fall, if they set aside the laws of God, or interpret His 
statutes to suit their own selfish purposes. 



THE OLD TESTAMENT ? H 

"Come, let us slay him?" [aen., chap. 37, verse 20.) Were 
they punished as God punished Cain ? — as he punished Ham ? 
Let these questions be well considered before we brand slavery 
as ^Hhe sum of all villanies." 

Joseph was sold a slave in Egypt, and his example is a model 
for all in his condition. He feared God and kept his command- 
ments, and was faithful in all his duties to those whom he served. 
God blessed Joseph in his bondage ; and so will He bless good- 
ness in every condition of life. Did the servile condition of 
Joseph disgrace him, or prevent his final exaltation ? Nay, 
more : was it not the direct means to his promotion in honor and 
usefulness ? Could a sinful condition have done this ? 

Did either of his masters suffer because of buying and holding 
him in slavery ? Did not each party, master and servant, gain 
good by the connection ? Could this result have been reached 
if slavery is sin, like disobedience to 2Jarents, murder, aldidtery, 
theft, false witness, covetousness ? 

The seed of Jacob were destined to become slaves in Egypt. 
The manner by which they were reduced to servitude was unjust 
and wicked ; their taskmasters were cruel. For this cruelty and 
injustice the Egyptians were punished. 

If slavery is sin, would it not have been rebuked in this in- 
stance, because here was a flagrant breach of the law of servi- 
tude for sin, as established in the case of Canaan ? The Hebrews 
were of the race of Shem, consequently were not subjected by 
that law to the inferior race of Ham. Yet not a word of con- 
demnation against slavery itself is to be found in the Mosaic 
history ; all the denunciations are against its abuses. 

Nor were the Hebrews encouraged to seek their own liberation, 
or permitted to avenge their own wrongs. Even Moses, when he 
killed the cruel Egyptian tormentor, was severely punished by 
the ingratitude of those he sought to aid, and by his own self- 
banishment for forty years ; and his crime brought additional 
severity of bondage on his brethren in Egypt. God did not in- 
struct His people to " take their liberty at all hazards." 

When Moses was sent to free the Hebrews they were not in- 
cited to any act of violence, any deed of sin. They were to 
obey all the laws of God, and through His providence look for 
deliverance. [Exodus, chapters Zd, 4th, 5th, 1th to 15th.) 

Will American abolitionism take this Bible pattern of eman- 
cipation for its rule ? Will it keep God's laws ? 

At length Israel was emancipated and brought out from Egypt, 
not as independent individuals, who had, each one, the ''^inalien- 
able right to personal liberty," but as servants of Jehovah, the 
only living and true God ; a condition that every son and daugh- 



12 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

ter of Adam inherits : all are equal here — all are bound to obey 
the laws of God. 

Did the laws of God establish slavery in the Hebrew nation ? 
Did the decalogue sanction slavery by its injunctions ? 

Let us carefully examine these questions. 

When the Hebrews stood before Mount Sinai they were just 
freed from Egyptian bondage. Probably there was not a slave 
in the congregation. What an opportunity was here to impress 
on this chosen people of God the sinfulness of slavery — if it 
had been sin. 

If slavery — the property of man in man — had been the "sum 
of all villanies," "the mother of all crimes," would not God, by 
the Son He gave, have prohibited it as strictly, at least, as He 
prohibited murder, adultery, theft? 

Yet we find that the Lord God in Uvo of the ten command- 
ments, which were to be the standard of all morality in the civil 
as well as religious codes of mankind, did provide for the condi- 
tion of personal servitude. 

The fourth commandment provides that the blessing of the 
Sabbath shall be on the servant or bondman, as well as on the 
master. Rest from labor one-seventh portion of time is the 
privilege of the slave; thus showing that God cares for all 
men equally, and has so framed His statutes that all may serve 
Him acceptably, in whatever condition of life He has placed 
them. 

Thus we see that the law of the first table secures the right 
of the slave to worship God. The law of the second table se- 
cures as surely the right of the master to hold his servant. 

In the tenth commandment "Thou shalt not covet thy neigh- 
bor's man servant, nor his maid servant," is as peremptory a pro- 
hibition as that which forbids theft. The desire, even, to take 
away the servant from his master is sin. 

That the condition thus recognized and regulated by the laws 
of the Almighty was righteous as well as wise no true believer 
in the Bible will dare deny. And that this condition was, or in- 
cluded, that we now call slavery — the right of man to hold prop- 
erty in man — is proven by the special laws of Moses,^ which 
were, in all cases, conformable to the law of Mount Sinai. 

The first statute, promulgated by the Hebrew lawgiver to the 
people, concerned slavery. Hebrew servitude was established 
by statute. This was the law of the man servant : 

"Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. 
" If thou buy au Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve : and in the seventh 
he shall go out free for nothing. 



THE OLD TESTAMENT ? 13 

" If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, 
then his wife shall go out with him. 

" If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daugh- 
ters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by 
himself. 

" And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my 
children ; I will not go out free : 

"Then his master shall bring him unto the judges: he shall also bring him 
to the door, or unto the door-post ; and his master shall bore his ear through 
with an awl ; and he shall serve him forever. — Exodus, chap. 21, verses 2 to 7. 

In the second clause, the rule concerning children born in 
slavery of these Hebrew parents, the mother being free, is left 
unexplained. But in a recapitulation of these laws this ambiguity 
is entirely removed. After providing that the Hebrew man may 
be sold as a slave even to a stranger, but must be well treated, 
not as a bond servant but as a hired servant, and at the jubilee, 
the fiftieth year, then — 

" Shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him." — Leviticus, 
chap. 25, 41. 

These laws in Exodus and Leviticus show three things or con- 
ditions : 

First. A Hebrew man could sell himself, or be sold as a slave 
or servant, for six years, or till the jubilee ; and if he had a wife 
and children they shared his lot and his liberation ; but the 
daughters were never considered slaves. 

Second. He could have but one wife, thus establishing mono- 
gamy as the law of marriage in slavery. If he had none when 
he became a slave, his master might give him a wife ; and if there 
were children born, the wife and children continued with the 
master. 

Third. The Hebrew man had a right to make himself a slave 
for life ; the Hebrew woman was never permitted to become a 
slave. The Hebrew father reduced to poverty, who sold himself 
and family, could only sell his daughter to become a wife — either 
the wife of her master, or, if he were married, of his son. She 
was considered as betrothed, and was to be cared for as a daugh- 
ter of the house. If the condition — honorable marriage — was 
not fulfilled, then the Hebrew maiden must be maintained like a 
daughter, or provided for in marriage with another man, or go 
out free. The Hebrew, who bought her, could not re-sell her. — 
[Ex.., chap. 21, verses 7 — 11.) 

Now, remember that these ordinances were from God, and for 
His chosen people. Were the laws unjust ? unrighteous ? Will 
you contend with the Almighty ? Are you Aviser than He ? 
Will you say, as some of the advocates for " human freedom" 



14 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

do, that " liberty is the inalienable right of men, and cannot be 
abrogated even by the consent of the individual who would be- 
come a slave?" 

Why, those who assert this really abridge human liberty. The 
right to his time, after he comes of age, is surely one of the ele- 
mentary rights of the freeman. If he has the right to engage, 
that is, sell himself or his services for six months, has he not the 
same right to sell himself for six years ? or to make the contract 
during life ? This last condition was strictly guarded in the law. 
The Hebrew man could not make a surrender of himself at once. 
Time was given, six years, wherein to test his master, who 
was also his brother Israelite. If then the Hebrew servant 
wished to become a slave for life, he was at liberty to choose his 
lot. 

You may say the man who did this was a mean, miserable 
wretch : probably so ; that makes the state he had chosen best 
for him. And you deprive him of this resource for comfort and 
improvement. 

There was another class of slaves permitted the Hebrews. 
The law reads thus : 

'•Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be 
of the heathen that are round about 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 that are with you, which they begat 
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 for a possession ; they shall be your bondmen for ever : but over 
your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule one over another with 
rigor." — Leviticus, chap. 25, verses 44, 47. 

These heathen were the direct descendants of Ham, through 
Canaan, the accursed. This race, the people of the land, had 
become utterly corrupt. Like Sodom, the whole population of 
Canaan, and the part of Syria given to the Israelites, was doomed. 
The country was ripe for destruction. Death by the sword, or 
slavery under the conquering race, was the merited punishment 
of these depraved human beings, who had sunk so low in their 
bestial sensualities and heaven-daring crimes that they could not 
be reformed. 

What greater mercy could be bestowed on them than per- 
petual servitude, under masters who had the knowledge of the 
true God, and were bound, by the laws He had given them, to 
admit those slaves into the religious privileges of their own holy 
worship ? 

At the great feast of rejoicing, the " men-servants and the 
me id-servants" were to have place with the sons and daughters 



THE OLD TESTAMENT ? 15 

of the Hebrew congregation ; "while no stranger or hired servant, 
not Hebrew, was permitted to come nigh. — Deut. 12, 12. 

The priests, to whom a portion of the holy offerings pertained 
as food, were under a strict law on this score. 

" There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing : a sojourner of the priest, 
or an hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing. 

" But if the priest buy any soul with his money, he shall eat of it, and he 
that is born in his house (of these slaves:) they shall eat of his meat." — 
Leviticus, 22 : 10, 11. 

Here we are taught how closely the slave was identified with 
all the religious privileges of his master. The former could not 
fail of being instructed in the laws of God. 

So, too, in the marriage relation ; the law of monogamy was 
carefully guarded for the man-servant, as we have shown ; it was 
the same with the maid-servant. If a Hebrew, among his cap- 
tives, found a beautiful woman that he wished to have, he was 
allowed, after certain preliminaries, to marry her ; he could not 
take her as a concubine ; but if, after marriage, she did not 
please him, he could put her away by giving her freedom. He 
was not permitted to sell her, nor to make her a slave if she had 
been his wife. — Deuteronomy, 21 : 11, 15. 

In short, slavery to Hebrew masters, who were admonished 
by Moses to remember " that they had been bondmen in Egypt," 
was the best condition in which the surrounding heathen people 
could be placed. 

All these careful regulations, however, prove the fact, that 
personal servitude was clearly established under the Mosaic 
laws ; the persons subjected to the penalty "forever" were the 
descendants of Ham or Canaan. 

Burke defines law as " beneficence acting by rule." Moral 
law, God-given law, must accord with this definition. But every 
law, whether divine or human, that establishes duties must have 
penalties. Obedience is the good to be obtained ; and the pun- 
ishments for disobedience to divine laws are and must be exactly 
proportioned to the necessity for obedience, in order to work out 
the good which the command is intended to effect. 

Death is the greatest penalty the Mosaic laws inflict. No 
tortures were permitted. Death was the punishment for idola- 
try, disobedience (continued and obstinate) to parents, murder, 
adultery, and manstealing. This last statute referred to and 
confirmed the rights of the master and the rights of freemen. 

That servitude, as established in the Hebrew commonwealth, 
was a beneficent institution for both servant and master, there 
can be no doubt, because God willed it. The laws promulgated 
for its regulation must also have been righteous, and the best 



16 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

that could be framed and made effectual, in that period of the 
world, for the suppression of evil and the promotion of good. 
Let us read them from the divine record : 

" And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under 
his hand, he shall be surely punished. 

" Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished; 
for he is his money. 

" And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it 
perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. 

"And if he smite out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth, 
he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake." 

"If the ox shall push a man-servant, or a maid-servant; he shall give unto 
their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned." — [Exodus, 
chap. 21, verses 20, 21—26, 27—32. 

These were laws for the government of the heathen servants 
whose bondage was to be " forever." Were the laws cruel ? 
unjust ? 

Bear in mind that these slaves were of the race of Ham,* and 



* In the record of Noah's sons the posterity of Canaan is thus enunciated : 

" And Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth. 

" And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite. 

" And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite. 

" And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite : and afterward 
were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. 

" And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, 
unto Gaza ; as thou goest unto Sodom and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, 
even unto Lasha." — Gen., chap. 10, verses 15 to 20. 

Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for their wickedness in the time of 
Abraham. That the inhabitants of the land given to the Hebrews were utterly 
corrupt and doomed to die, Moses thus declares : 

"But thou Shalt utterly destroy them, namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, 
the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the Lord 
thy God hath commanded thee : 

" That they teach you not to do after all their abominations which they have 
done unto their gods ; so should ye sin against the Lord your God." — Deuter- 
onomy, chap. 20, verse 17. 

Joshua alludes several times to these different tribes, descendants of Canaan, 
who were to be destroyed or driven out, or made slaves. In his farewell speech 
to the Hebrew people, he thus enumerates the enemies they had overcome, as 
though speaking for the Lord God : 

" And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho : and the men of Jericho 
fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and 
the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I delivered 
them into your hand." — Josh., chap. 24, ver. 11. 

Thus surely does the Bible authority settle the question that the posterity of 
Canaan were despei'ately wicked, and must be either destroyed from the face 
of the earth or placed under the control of another race, descendants of Shem 
or Japheth. 



THE OLD TESTAMENT ? 17 

only escaped utter destruction through this bondage. They had 
filled the land with wicked abominations, and were unfit to live ; 
they must be controlled in order to be reformed. 

Whoever will carefully and candidly examine the statutes of 
Moses cannot fail to see that the sentiment of kindness and mercy 
is constantly mingled with the just judgment against sins and 
crimes. It was forbidden to " muzzle the ox that treadeth out 
the corn ;" or to " take the mother bird with its young in the nest ;" 
or " seethe the kid in its mother's milk." It was sin to " curse 
the deaf;" or "lay a stumbling block before the blind," or in 
any way to wrong or " oppress the widow and the fatherless." 

The Hebrews were enjoined to do no unrighteousness in judg- 
ment : 

" Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the 
mighty ; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighboi*. 

"Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people ; neither 
stand against the blood of thy neighbor. 

" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." — (See Leviticus, chapter 19 ; 
Deuteronomy, chapters 22 and -i.) 

Did the holy God, who inspired all these wise, merciful, and 
harmonizing injunctions for the government of His chosen people — 
did he allow wrong to be done or sin committed by His laws of 
slavery ? 

In the name of American Christians, we answer. No. The sys- 
tem of servitude or slavery, established by Moses, was right and 
good ; the laws that regulated it were wise and righteous. 

And here we would call attention to one point in these laws, 
namely, that the property of the master in his bond-servant is 
not only acknowledged, but it is shown that this oivnership is a 
great safeguard to the slave against cruelty and injustice. The 
loss of the servant falls on the master as a punishment. — [See 
Exodus, chap. 19, verse 21.) 

The Hebrew servant was not subjected to these penalties. He 
was to be treated like a. " hired servant," or " sojourner."* The 
period of his service was limited ; his ultimate freedom secured. 
He was sold and bought because he was poor and could not main- 

* " And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto 
thee ; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant : 

" But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner he shall be with thee, and shall 
serve thee unto the year of jubilee : 

"And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and 
shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall 
he return. 

"For they are my servants which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt ; 
they shall not not be sold as bond-men. 

" Thou shalt not rule over Mm with rigor, but shalt fear God." — Leviticm, 
25 : 39 to 43. 
2 



18 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

tain himself, but he escaped imprisonment for debt, or the de- 
basement of the almshouse. And when his time of freedom (the 
seventh year, or the jubilee) came, he took his former place in 
all his relations of life. These facts show that slavery, of itself, 
is not sin, nor crime, nor wrong ; but that it was imposed as a 
penalty by Moses to prevent or punish sin and crime and wrong. 

The laws of Moses did not allow those monstrous evils of 
modern Christian civilization — pauperism, and penitentiaries. 
Yet his legislation provided for the employment of both free and 
slave labor. Both were made legal for the tribes ; both kinds 
were brought together and maintained under all the changes of 
the Hebrew government, throughout the whole period of Jewish 
nationality, from the great Lawgiver to the greater Law 
Expounder, and never a word of rebuke or an accusation of evil 
results is recorded in the Bible against this system of free and 
slave labor. 

As another proof showing the care taken to prevent wrong to 
masters, to servants, and to free citizens, we will cite the law 
concerning man-stealing : 

" He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he 
shall surely be put to death." {Ex. chap. 21, verse 16.) 

This statute was promulgated immediately after that of Hebrew 
servitude, showing that there was then established the relation 
of master or otvner, and bought servant or property. The man 
taken away must be in this condition, or liable to it, otherwise 
he could not have been stolen. A hired servant would not be 
thus guarded. 

That the law was good and worked well, we have the testimony 
of Moses. Forty years after its enactment he thus reiterates it : 

"If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, 
and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him ; then that thief shall die ; 
and thou shalt put evil away from among you." — Deut., chap. 24, verse 7. 

The punishment of death is not, by the laws of Moses, imposed 
for any theft except this of stealing a Hebrew, either from his 
master, or to sell. The rights of the servant to his freedom on the 
seventh year, or at the jubilee, were guarded by this severe law ; 
also, the right of the master to the services of his servant for 
the specified period were as strictly guarded. 

Whether the death punishment was inflicted for stealing a 
heathen servant, whose bondage was fixed and "forever," we are 
not told ; but as the right of property in them was complete, it 
is not probable that the theft was made a capital crime. The 
relation between the Hebrew master and servant, being exalted 



THE OLD TESTAMENT ? 19 

by the ties of blood and religious faith, was more sacred than 
bond service. It came next after the nearest family relationship. 
The Israelites were the servants of God. The posterity of 
Canaan, the son of Ham, were to be drawn to God through their 
servitude to the posterity of Shem and Japheth. Hence these 
slaves were unspeakably benefited by being sold from their hea- 
then to their Hebrew masters. Hence we find immunities guar- 
antied to the slaves who, escaping from heathen masters, threw 
themselves on the charity of God's people. 

" Thou slialt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from 
his master unto thee : 

"He shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place which he shall 
choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him best." — Deuteronomy, chap. 1^8, 
verses 15, IG. 

No Biblical commentator nor honest expositor has ever inter- 
preted this statute as having any bearing on the bondmen of the 
Hebrews, encouraging those to run from one tribe to another, in 
order to be free. 

Moses had settled the law of heathen servitude and reafiirmed 
the right of the Hebrew master to hold those " bought with his 
money" in bondage "forever." He would not thus stultify his 
own enactments, nor destroy the internal harmony of the tribes. 
If he had done this, the history of his people would be sure to 
show the turmoil it raised. 

But it was merciful thus to protect, by solemn pledge, those 
who, as strangers, voluntarily came to place themselves under 
the Hebrew government. The law making man-stealing a capi- 
tal crime was also needed to protect these and other exiles in 
their freedom ; because the Hebrew commonwealth was slave- 
holding. 

Thus surely and unequivocally was servitude, both Hebrew and 
heathen, established and regulated by the laws of Moses, and 
never revoked by any subsequent statute, nor set aside by any 
usage or declaration recorded in the Old Testament. 

We meet references to this domestic institution in all the sacred 
books, from Genesis to Malachi, and never a censure or reproof 
of the system of slavery itself, and but very rarely any rebuke 
of those particular sins which might be ascribed to, or be devel- 
oped by, this state of society. 

The wrongs against the poor working classes, forbidden by the 
laws of Moses, and condemned by inspired prophecy, were those 
committed against hired servants and other classes of the poor 
who have none to care for them, such as widows, orphans, cap- 
tives, and strangers. The slave or bondman, among the He- 
brews, had always a protector in his master. 



20 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

In nearly every case where heathen bondage is alluded to, the 
glimpses given ns show it to have been good both for master and 
servant. Let us read over a few of these brief sketches from 
the oracles of divine truth ; it may serve to calm the feelings 
and enlighten the mind of many a true Christian now seeking 
for light on the exciting subject of slavery in our own country. 
Is it not a duty to study well the Bible record before we con- 
demn as sin what God has ordained and justified ? 

Job, who must have been a very large slaveholder, and who 
reckons it among his great sorrows that he had lost them — " I 
called my servant, and he gave no answer;" see chap. 19, verse 
16 — thus urges that kindness and justice to servants were con- 
sidered the distinguishing virtues of a good man : 

" If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant, yfhen 
they contended with me ; 

"What then shall I do "when God riseth up? and -when he visiteth, what 
shall I answer him ? 

'• Did not he that made me in the womb make him ? and did not one fashion 
us in the womb ?"' — Job, chap. 31, verses 13, \i, 15. [Read the lohole chapter.) 

Yet Job says nothing against slaveholding ; he only shows 
that having bond-servants, like power, wealth, and other dis- 
tinctions which a man may lawfully hold, he is answerable for 
the manner in which he uses all these blessings. 

David thus pictures the trust of the slave in the kindness and 
power of the slaveholder : 

"Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and 
as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon 
the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. — Psalm 123, verse 2. 

What a wonderful ascription of praise to the love and tender- 
ness of the good master and mistress ! 

In Proverbs many allusions are made to servants, showing how 
the system of domestic slavery was inwoven with the whole 
Jewish polity ; yet not a single reproach is launched against 
slaveholding, which, as Solomon's precepts are eminently prac- 
tical, and must be wise and true, because inspired, proves that 
the institution was neither wrong nor injurious to the Hebrew 
nation. 

"He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoreth 
himself, and lacketh bread." — Proverbs, chap. 12, verse 9. 

"A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall 
have part of the inheritance among the brethren." — Chap. 17 : 2. 

" A servant will not be corrected by words : for though he understand he 
will not answer. 



THE OLD TESTAMENT? 21 

" He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him 
become his son at the length." — Chapter 29, verses 19, 21. 

" Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found 
guilty."— C/iO/j. 30: 10. 

" For a servant -when he reigneth, the earth is disquieted." — Chapter 30, 
verses 21, 22. 

Malachi, the last of the prophets, thus bears testimony to the 
good influences that pervade the household where servitude is a 
permanent state, like the relation of parent and child : 

" A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master ; if then I be a father, 
■where is mine honor ? and if I be a master, where is my fear ? saith the Lokd 
of hosts unto you, priests, that despise my name." — Malachi, chap. 1, v. 6. 

There is still another proof that slavery cannot be sin of itself 
any more than poverty, sickness, degradation, and other penal- 
ties, physical and moral, that the crimes and vices of men bring 
on themselves and their posterity. 

The Hebrew people, for their national sins, were, by their 
law, doomed to terrible evils and suflferings ; one of these pun- 
ishments was servitude to heathen masters. Surely and sorely 
was this sentence fulfilled. From their first bondage, about 
sixty years after the death of Joshua, when " the Lord sold them 
into the hand of the king of Mesopotamia, and they served him 
eight years,"* until the Hebrew polity was broken up, and the 
king and people of Judea carried into Babylonish servitude, (the 
kingdom of Israel had been enslaved previously.) The whole 
history of this rebellious race is filled with their sins and punish- 
ments ; the ultimate result of their idolatries and disobedience 
to God's law was bondage to heathen masters. 

And it is very apparent that this bondage or slavery, more 
than any other punishment, brought those rebellious Hebrews to 
repentance and reformation. It did them good and not evil. 
It was the discipline they needed. It acted precisely as just 
judgment on the criminal is now intended to act. The criminal 
must be subjected to the penalty of the statute he has violated, 
or he will have no respect for the majesty of law, and would 
never reform ; and he must be placed in a condition that not 
only restrains him from committing the crime for which he is 
punished, but allows him opportunity of repentance, or he would 
have no hope for the future. 

Is it " horribly wrong" that human law should punish men for 



* See Judges 3 : 8. The Hebrews were servants of the Lord ; and " the Lord 
sold them" into slavery ! iMark the language, and the punishment for sin. 



22 IS SLAVEKY SANCTIONED BY 

sins and crimes bj sending them into servitude in penitentiaries, 
penal settlements, prisons ? Do we say of these abridgments of 
"human freedom," often for life, that they are "damnably 
Avrong ?" 

And has not God, who created man and gave him Avhatever 
of "rights and liberties" he enjoys, the just right to abridge the 
freedom of any portion of his creatures, or take it away entirely, 
if He sees that the righteousness of His holy laAv demands this 
punishment for their sins ? 

" Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall fie be unto his brethren" 

While that sentence stands on the Bible record as the revealed 
judgment of the Lord God against a race of sinners ; and while 
this sentence is corroborated by the requirements of His Moral 
Law, and carried into effect by the statutes He inspired for the 
government of His chosen people, the charge that " slavery is 
sin," "the sum of all villanies," "damnably wrong," is no 
other than denouncing the righteousness of God, and charging 
Him with injustice and sin. 

That the institution of slavery was established in the Hebrew 
Commonwealth no Christian can deny ; that it was continued, 
under all the changes of Government and nationality till the 
end of the Old Testament, we have conclusively shown. Nor is 
there in this long history of the moral and civil life of the people 
for eleven hundred years, a single record that denounces slavery 
as evil, or that charges the wickedness of the people to this 
source, or that threatens them with punishment for sins imputed 
to this institution. Two instances only occur, where the law of 
Hebrew slavery, which was incidental and limited, had been vio- 
lated ; and these are severely condemned. 

The first instance is related in the Book of Nehemiah, chapter 5. 
The second is found in Jeremiah, chapter 34 ; verses 8 to the end. 
But slavery is not condemned. On the contrary, the bondage 
of the heathen to their Hebrew masters is constantly brought 
out by the sacred writers, ahvays without rebuke, and often in a 
manner that shows it to have been good for both master and 
servant. 

This result every Christian is compelled to believe, because no 
man nor woman can be a Christian yfho rejects the divine author- 
ity of the Scriptures or imputes unrighteousness to God. 

The question, then, is settled. Personal servitude, an institu- 



THE OLD TESTAMENT ? 23 

tion of involuntary bondage, where the servant was the property'^ 
of his master, coukl be bought and sold, and held as " a posses- 
sion forever:" as "an inheritance for your children after you" — 
such slavery for the heathen Canaanites was and is sanctioned 
by the authority of the Old Testament. 

Was this law of personal servitude condemned, reversed, set 
aside, by the later authority of the New Testament ? 

Let us examine the Gospel. 



* Property is lield by many tenures. This right of property in persons was 
the right of the master to the services of his bondsmen, and held by and from 
the appointment of the Most Highest. The law should be productive of good to 
both parties. 



24 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 



PART II. 

IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT? 

In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, American abolitionists, who 
profess to believe the Bible, insist that the revocation of the 
Mosaic statutes concerning slavery, may be found. 

Where ? 

The Gospel brought " peace on earth, and good will to the 
children of men ;" that is, it brought the announcement, the 
hope, the light, and the way for these glorious blessings : but 
not a word is said of "personal freedom," of "human rights," 
of "political privileges." 

The whole scope of our Lord's teachings w^as to convince men, 
all men, of sin, and bring all to repentance. Christ never med- 
dled with secular authorities. He freed men from the bondage 
of Satan, from the chains of sin, from the prison-house of wicked 
delusions, where in darkness and despair they were lying bound, 
bruised, starving, naked, and loathsome with the festering soul 
and body diseases of sickness and of death, eternal, as well as 
temporal. 

If the Saviour had been sent to open, literally, the prison 
doors to those placed there by human authority, why did He not 
free John the Baptist, who was unjustly confined ? 

" My kingdom is not of this world," was His declaration. 

Had Jesus Christ accepted the governments of all the earth, 
which the devil urged upon Him, then He would doubtless have 
rectified what was wrong ; but He would not accept. 

He went about preaching the Gospel of personal repentance 
and eternal salvation by the Son of God, doing good, all the 
while, to the poor, the oppressed, and aflilicted ; but never coun- 
seling them to demand from men the redress of their grievances. 

He had disciples in all ranks, though most among the lowly. 
He did not alter the personal condition of a single believer. He 
sought only to purify the heart, exalt the hope, and set men free 
from sin. He never interfered with the civil government, nor 
with questions pertaining to the public relations of his hearers. 
He dealt with the individual man in his conjugal, parental, fam- 
ily, and neighborly feelings and interests ; in each and all of 



THE NEAY TESTAMEXT ? 25 

these He urged the law of holiness and love. " Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thy- 
self." 

"Ah, yes !" cries the abolitionist, " that is the very matter ! 
The slaveholder would not be a slave himself, therefore he should 
free all his slaves. He should do as he would bo done by." 

Are you sure you have given the right interpretation ? You 
have a hundred thousand dollars ; you are rich. Here is your 
poor hired servant, who wants half your money. You would not 
be a poor hired servant. Will you give him one-half of your 
gold, and equalize your conditions ? If he was in your place 
and you in his, would you desire him to give you one-half of his 
money ? Would you think it unchristian if he did not ? 

The explanation of this duty to our neighbor is given by the 
Saviour himself, in the parable of the man that fell among 
thieves.* It is to help those that need, and to have pity upon 
the ajBlicted, as you would hope to be helped, if you, like them, 
were in trouble. It does not teach the relinquishment of our 
just rights, or the giving up what belongs to us. The good 
Samaritan did not leave his "beast" to the poor man. nor buy 
him any raiment, nor divide his purse with him. He simply 
"had compassion" on the wounded traveler, and helped him for 
the time, and left a pledge that he would do more if it were 
needed ; but he had the right to expect that the wounded man 
would exert himself to the utmost not to be chargeable to his 
benefactor. That was the neighborly duty of the man who had 
been helped. 

I have dwelt at length on this parable of our Saviour, because 
it is the only portion of His teachings which has any bearing 



*"A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among 
thieves, wliich stripped liim of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, 
leaving him half dead. 

"And by chance there came down a certain priest that way ; and when he 
saw him, he passed by on the other side. 

"And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, 
and passed by on the other side. 

"But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when 
he saw him, he had compassion on him, 

" And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and 
set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 

'•'And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave 
them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him: and whatsoever thou 
spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 

"Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell 
among the thieves ? 

"And he said. He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him. 
Go, and do thou likewise." — Lule, chap. lO, verses 30 — 37. 



26 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

on the argument that slavery was abrogated by the Gospel. 
Servitude, or slavery, is no more abrogated than was the kingly 
government, or the civil institutions, or municipal rights, or offi- 
cial dignities. The Gospel was offered equally to all men. Who- 
ever accepted was released from the bonds of sin, made free in 
the spirit, united in the brotherhood of all true believers, was 
entitled to a heavenly inheritance, and had, over his redeemed 
soul, no master save Christ. Yet he might have been one of the 
poorest and most abject of all the dwellers at Jerusalem. His 
social position mattered not. The slave of a Pharisee, if con- 
verted by the teachings of the Saviour, would have been an heir 
of eternal glory in the life to come, but in this life would have 
remained the bond-servant of his earthly master. 

No person who has read the New Testament will assert that 
the Saviour ever openly rebuked the masters of slaves; and these 
must often have been present at His teachings. He never, by 
precept or parable, classed slavery — the right of one man to hold 
another man as i^ersonal 'property, which the Jewish laiv alloived — 
among the sins of the rich, covetous, selfish, unrighteous men 
whom He condemned for the specified sins of licentiousness, 
cruelty, hypocrisy, and oppression. 

Was not this very strange, if slavery be " the sum of all vil- 
lanies ?" 

Ought not He, who knew the heart of man and the importance 
of all the just restraints of moral law, ought He not to have 
warned the world against this system, if it be " utterly incom- 
patible with Christianity?" 

Not only did Jesus Christ not do this, but He has left His 
own holy approval of the good slaveholder on record. He has 
drawn a picture of slavery which shows not only its lawfulness, 
but its righteousness, and exemplifies the manner in which it 
should be conducted. 

There are two important parables in the Gospel of St. 
Matthew, which have never, as we believe, been considered in 
their application to earthly duties as well as to heavenly hopes. 
The " parable of the vineyard" is one of these. It was given to 
illustrate the justice and the free grace of God. It does so, and 
moreover, it teaches the rights and duties of property holders 
and " free" or hired laborers. We will give the text, because 
we can never study the sacred Word too carefully : 

" For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, 
which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. 

" And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them 
into his vineyard. 

" And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the 
market-place, 



THE NEW TESTAMENT ? 27 

" And said unto them : Go ye also into the vineyard, and ■whatsoever is 
right I will give you. And they went their way. 

" Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 

"And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, 
and saith unto them, AVhy stand ye here all the day idle? 

" They say unto him, IJecause no man hath hired us. He saith unto them. 
Go ye also into the vineyard ; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. 

" So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, 
Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the 
first. 

" And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received 
every man a penny. 

" But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received 
more ; and they likewise received every man a penny. 

" And when they had received it, they murmured against the good man of 
the house, 

"Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them 
equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. 

"But he answered one of them, and said. Friend, I do thee no wrong; 
didst thou not agree with me for a penny ? 

" Take that thine is, and go thy way ; I will give unto this last, even as unto 
thee. 

"Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own ? Is thine eye evil, 
because I am good ? 

"So the last shall be first, and the first last; for many be called, but few 
chosen." — >S'^ Mattluio, chap. 20, verses 1 to 17. 

Does not this parable condemn the fallacy of all agrarian 
theories, and show the wickedness of that communist philosophy 
which is based on the robbery of the I'ich in order to endow the 
poor, so that human conditions may be equalized ? 

Jesus Christ taught the responsibility of each individual to do 
justly, no matter what was his condition. The poor hired 
laborer in the vineyard was as surely bound by this law to be 
content with his penny, for which he had agreed — the market 
price — as the rich householder was to pay him the penny. The 
conditions of justice are equal. 

We are required by the Gospel to love our neighbor as our- 
selves ; but we are not required, as this parable shows, to meas- 
ure that love by our neighbor's standard of wants or demands. 
Because those poor hired servants wanted more than their just 
due, it did not follow that the rich householder was wrong in 
resisting their demands. True, he had the means of giving; and 
he was responsible to God for the manner in which he used his 
talents or wealth. Charity must be free, otherwise it is not 
mercy. He acted freely. 

Here, then, is the standard for employers and hired servants : 
" to deal justly'' always. This is the duty of both parties. The 
rich employer must do more ; he has more ; he must " love 
merey ;" while to '•'■ walk humbly with God" is the duty of all 
men. 



ZS IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

The other parable which we shall quote shows the rights and 
duties of master and bond-servant. We entreat our readers to 
study its teachings with attention and reverence : 

" Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which 
would take account of his servants. 

" And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed 
him ten thousand talents. 

" But forasmuch as he had not to paj', his lord commanded him to be sold, 
and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to l)e made. 

" The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying. Lord, have 
patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 

"Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, 
and forgave him the debt. 

" But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, which 
owed him a hundred pence : and he laid hands on him, and took him by the 
throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. 

'•And his fellow-servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying. 
Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 

" And he would not : but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay 
the debt. 

" So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were very sor>'y, and 
came and told unto their lord all that was done. 

"Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, thou wicked 
servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me : 

" Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even 
as I had pity on thee ? 

" And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should 
pay all that was due unto him. 

" Jo likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your 
hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." — ^S*;. Matthew, chap. 
18, verse 23 to close. 

This parable, given by the Saviour to teach the duty of for- 
giveness among Christian brethren — as God, their king and 
master forgives them — is exemplified by that of an earthly 
master who owned his servants — in other words, a slaveJiolder, 
having the right of selling his people. If this king, (or master, 
one tvho has sovereign power, that of oivnership is the meaning of 
the Greek,) could righteously sell his servant, then to bui/ must 
have been equally just as well as legal. 

Now bond-service in domestic life was an institution in the 
Hebrew polity, familiar from the time of Abraham, sanctioned 
by the moral law, incorporated into the Mosaic code, and its law- 
fulness or expediency had never been questioned. 

Did not Jesus Christ know well the meaning of the language 
He used ? He knew the human heart. Did He not know that 
His words, fairly interpreted, mean that a true believer in Christ, 
a Christian, in the highest sense of that holy term, may righteously 
hold slaves, and order their earthly destiny, subject only to that 
'' higher law" — or rather Law of the Most Highest, which 



THE NEW TESTAMENT ? 29 

enjoins justice always, and mercy and forgiveness, as we hope for 
Heaven ? 

This iving (or slaveholder) is represented as a man faultless 
towards his servants. He had granted this very servant (or 
slave) many and great privileges, even forgiving him (or cancel- 
ing) a large debt ; but he had not made him free. Does not 
the result show us that that " wicked servant" was not fit for free- 
dom ? That he must be subjected to the authority of a master^ 
or he would injure and destroy his equals — his fellow-servants ? 

If " slavery is a sin against God and man, founded on injustice 
and cruelty," is it not passing strange that Jesus Christ should 
have chosen this system of master and bond-servant as repre- 
senting the relation subsisting between God the Father and those 
who are forgiven and accepted of Him ? Can we see no resem- 
blance, no analogy ? Are not believers the servants of God ? — ■ 
" bought Avith a price" — even the precious blood of His Son, 
whose "obedience unto death" was required to free them from 
slavery to sin ? Does not our divine Master grant us privileges, 
that glorious one of being called after His name — Christians ? 
These Christians are bound to obey His laws, or they must, 
assuredly, sufier punishment. 

It was thus that the disciples of Christ were instructed to 
understand this parable. They could never have inferred that 
"slavery was the sin to be throttled;" they would feel that 
good servants were in danger of hQmg .throttled, were '"''taken 
hy the throat,'' when wicked servants had power. 

This parable settles two important questions bearing on negro 
slavery in the United States, namely : that in bondage the mar- 
riage relation should be held sacred ; and that families should 
be sold together. 

" He commanded him to be sold, and liis wife and children. " — Matthew, 18 : 25. 

We learn also from this parable, as well as from other teach- 
ings of Christ and His apostles, that bond-service was a condi- 
tion which brought master and servant into nearer domestic 
intimacy of dependence and protection, than hired service ever 
can do. This protection to an inferior race is a high privilege, 
and may be made, to both master and servant, the means of 
great blessings, temporal and spiritual. 

As if to body forth this idea to His followers, and teach them 
that the lowest menial services did not degrade the soul, nor 
hinder the grace of God, but rather offered opportunity of spirit- 
ual improvement, Christ not only took " on Him the form of a 
servant," but He performed the lowest office of a slave, when 



30 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

" He girded Himself with a towel" and " washed the feet of His 
disciples." 

It should be always borne in mind that the Bible nowhere 
represents slavery as sinful ; but as a condition resulting from 
sin, as did the condition of hard labor, poverty, disease, and all 
the evils that flesh is heir to, even death itself, result from sin. 
Those who are born in the condition of slaves or of slaveholders 
are neither of them responsible for the place they hold in the 
world, but only for the manner in wliich they fulfil its duties. 
This is conclusively taught by the parable of the talents.* 

Here again our blessed Lord represents the " kingdom of 
heaven" by a master and bond-servants — his " own servants ;" 
they belonged to their lord ; he couid command them, reward 



* " For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who 
called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 

"And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one ; to 
every man according to his several ability ; and straightway took his journey. 

" Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, 
and made them other five talents. 

" And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. 

" But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his 
lord's money. 

" After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with 
them. 

" And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, 
saying. Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained 
beside them five talents more. 

"His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou 
hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things ; 
enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 

" He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliv- 
eredst unto me two talents; behold, I have gained two other talents beside 
them. 

"His lord said unto him. Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast 
been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things ; enter 
thou into the joy of thy lord. 

" Then he which had received the one talent came and said. Lord, I knew 
thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering 
where thou hast not strewed ; 

" And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth ; lo, there thou 
hast that is thine. 

" His lord answered and said unto him. Thou wicked and slothful servant, 
thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not 
strewed ; 

" Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then 
at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. 

" Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten 
talents. 

" For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance ; 
but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. 

" And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness ; there shall be 
weeping and gnashing of teeth." — St. Matthew, chap. 25, verses 14 to 30. 



THE NEW TESTAMENT ? 31 

them, punish them, as he saw fit. To one he gave ten talents ; 
to another five ; to another one. Each must improve what he 
receives ; all are accountable in proportion. Such is the equal- 
ity the Gospel sets forth. 

The liberty the Gospel proclaimed was freedom from the 
bondage of Satan ; but the disciple must always bear the yoke 
of Christ. Nowhere does He preach or teach what is now called 
" personal freedom" — that is, the right to disobey laws, either 
of God or man, if they do not suit us. Christ's example, the 
yoke His followers must wear, was always obedience to law, even 
unto death. 

The apostles, who certainly knew how to expound the princi- 
ples of the Gospel as truly as any man, be he priest or layman, 
can do it at this day, are all agreed on this point. "Bringing 
every thought to the obedience of Christ" was the proof of 
repentance unto salvation that Paul pressed on his Gentile con- 
verts. The condition of master and bond-servant, or slave, 
then prevailed throughout the world ; it was an institution, like 
our own, inwoven into the domestic relations of society in every 
nation on earth, and Paul must have met with it everywhere that 
he taught and established churches. 

Would not Paul, who was so zealous in his Master's cause, 
have rebuked slavery, if it had been sin ? He has brought the 
subject before two churches and two bishops. Let us read what 
he has written ; and first, to the Church of the Ephesians : 

"Servants, be obedient to tliem that are your masters according to the flesh, 
with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; 

" Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but as the servants of Christ, doing 
the will of God from the lieart ; 

" With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men : 

" Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he 
receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. 

"And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: 
knowing tliat your Master also is in heaven ; neither is there respect of persons 
with him." — Ephesians, chap. G, ver. 5 — 10. 

These are Paul's counsels to the Colossians : 

" Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh ; not with 
eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but in singleness of heart, fearing God : 

"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to tlie Lord, and not unto men : 

"Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance ; 
for ye serve the Lord Christ. 

"But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done : 
and there is no respect of persons. 

" Mastei's, give unto your servants that which is just and equal ; knowing 
that ye also have a Master in heaven." — Colos., chap. 3, verse 22 — 25 ; chap. 4, 
verse 1. 

Thus Paul instructed the churches. Is there any abolition of 



32 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

slavery in his teachings ? Any appeal to the slaves to " take 
their freedom at all hazards ?" Any hint to the masters that to 
hold a fellow Christian in bondage is a " damnable wrong ?" 
Strange that Paul did not give one word of censure to the slave- 
holder, if his household was arranged on sinful principles. And 
still more strange that in his charge to the young bishop, Timo- 
thy, whom Paul, loving him as his own son, ought to have guided 
into the way of righteousness and love, the great Apostle has 
given commands concerning this "peculiar institution" which 
place it among the conditions of life that Timothy was zealously 
to watch over and sustain. 

" Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters ■worthy 
of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blaspliemed. 

"And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because 
they are brethren ; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and 
beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exliort. 

" If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even 
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to 
godliness ; 

"He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of 
words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 

"Perverse disputings of men of corrujjt minds, and destitute of the truth, 
supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself." — 1st Timothy, 
clutp G, verses 1 — G. 

In the Epistle to Titus, bishop of the Church of the Cretians, 
similar directions are enforced with that earnestness which shows 
Paul had no scruple concerning the righteousness of the relation 
between master and bond-servant ; that the latter, in doing his 
duty faithfully, was serving God ; obedience to the master was 
Christian duty : 

"Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them 
well in all things ; not answering again ; 

" Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity ; that they may adorn the 
doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. 

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 

"Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live 
sobei'ly, righteously, and godlj' in tliis present world; 

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God 
and our Saviovir Jesus Christ ; 

"Who gave liimself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 

" These things speak and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no 
man despise thee." — Titus, cheijj. 2: 9 — 15. 

Nor did the teachings of Paul end here. His whole epistle 
to Philemon was called forth by this subject of slavery. Paul 
had converted a runaway slave belonging to Philemon, a member 
of the Church at Ephesus. Tradition records that Philemon was 
a man of high birth, rich and powerful, whom St. Paul had con- 



THE NEW TESTAMENT ? 33 

verted to the Christian faith. Onesimus, the slave of this rich 
Ephesian, had escaped from bondage and fled to Rome ; there 
Paul, while a prisoner himself, converted this fugitive ; and 
then — what ? 

Did Paul tell Onesimus that personal slavery was a degrading 
service, contrary to God's law, and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ ? 
that all slaves had the "inalienable right of liberty," and should 
gain it if they had to commit all the crimes of the decalogue ? 
What did Paul do ? 

He persuaded the fugitive slave, now an humble Christian, to 
return to his Christian master ; he, Paul, writing, as he says, 
" with mine own hand," a tender letter to Philemon, to beg him 
to forgive, receive, and treat kindly the returned servant ; and 
Onesimus was bearer of the letter ! * 

The doctrine of St, Peter is, if possible, more decisive on this 
subject of the duty of servants than that of St. Paul. The former 
does not lay any injunction on masters ; and his epistle is gen- 
eral for all churches. 

" Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear ; not only to the good 
and gentle, but also to the froward. 

"For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, 
suffering wrongfully. 

" For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it 
patiently ? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this 
is acceptable with God. 

" For even hereunto were ye called : because Christ also suffered for us, 
leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps : 

" Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth : 

" Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threat- 
ened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 

" Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being 
dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 

" For ye were as sheep going astray ; but are now returned unto the Shep- 
herd and Bishop of your souls." — 1 Pet., 2 : 18. 



■* Because St. Paul has, in many places, alluded to his own "bonds," it has 
been attempted to identify these expressions with the bonds of the slave. But 
this is utterly untenable. "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with 
them;" " Others had trials of bofids and imprisonments;" "AVherein I suffer 
trouble, e\en to bonds ;" "Ye had compassion of me in my bonds;" " For> 
which I am in bonds," and similar expressions of his sufferings in the cause of 
Christ abound in the epistles ; but will any true believer in the Bible say that 
these refer to bond-service — the holding of men in slavery — and condemn it ? 
The apostle was alluding to his own imprisonments, unjust persecutions for 
his religious belief; and mark it well, ye who attempt to justify, by false 
witness against your southern brethren, robbery, rebellion, murder, because 
St. Paul asked the kindly sympathy of his Christian friends — not their inter- 
ference to annoy or destroy those he complained of; — mark it well, he has 
commanded, by the inspiration of God : " Servants, be obedient to them that 
are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness 
of heart, as unto Christ." 

3 



34 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED T.Y 

I have given the commands and reasons of the apostles in full, 
because few persons will take the trouble to look out a passage 
in the Bible from the mere reference. 

It is well to know, truly, what was taught as Gospel by the 
apostles. Did they teach abolition or anti-slavery in the man- 
ner now so popular among certain sects of Christians, so called ? 

Do those denunciators of American slavery find in the Word 
of God examples or doctrines to sustain and justify their violent 
invectives ? Can they find Bible authority for this ? or Bible 
authority, when they insist on placing polygamy and slavery on 
the same ground of opposition to the laws of God ? or rather 
affirming the two conditions to have been treated in the same 
ambiguous manner by the inspired writers ? 

We affirm that such assertions are false, both to the letter and 
the spirit of God's laws. 

Slavery was inflicted as a curse for sin on a certain portion of 
mankind. 

Monogamy, the marriage of one man with one woman, was the 
blessing for the race that made Eden a paradise. 

iSlavery was never in any way, nor by any Avord, forbidden in 
God's laws ; it was recognized in the law on3Iount Sinai; pro- 
vided for and perpetuated by the Mosiac code ; never prohibited 
in the teachings of Jesus Christ, either in parable or precept, but 
justified and enforced; and it was acknowledged and made con- 
sonant with Christian duty by the apostles. 

On the other hand, polygamy was utterly prohibited by the 
marriage law of Eden, that made the wedded pair 07ie; it was 
absolutely forbidden on Mount Sinai, in the seventh command- 
ment ; most scathingly rebuked by the teachings of Jesus Christ, 
who reaffirmed the marriage law of Eden in a manner that shows 
it was never set aside, that it could not have been set aside 
without breaking the seventh commandment ; and polygamy was 
authoritatively forbidden by the apostles to their Gentile converts. 
The Hebrews knew that the laws of Moses were made for a 
people whose usages in marriages were one man with one woman,* 
like our own, after the example of Isaac and Rebecca. 

The two systems, therefore, had not the same origin, nor can 
they be classed together in a single result. 

If slavery, the bond-service that makes one man the property 



* This is proven by the Law of Moses, ■which required the marriage of a child- 
less widow to her deceased Lusbnnd's brother. The law supposes that a maa 
caa leave only one widoic : which could never be counted on in a nation of 
polygamists. 



THE NEW TESTAMENT ? 35 

of another, be thus sanctioned by God's Word, both in the Old 
and New Testaments, is it to continue till the end of time? Is 
it to be in the millennium ? 

We cannot answer that question from the Bible, except so far 
as this : while men are subjected to the penalty of hard labor for 
bread, and women to the penalty of obedience, each wife to her 
own husband, we do not see why the penalty that subjected the 
posterity of Ham to slavery should be remitted. 

'• Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto 
his brethren" — is peremptory, and as unlimited respecting time 
as the sentence on our first parents. In Revelation, chap 6, 
ver. 15, " bondmati and freeman' flee together from the wrath 
of God ; both are sinners. 

In the prophetic books, where allusions are made to the mil- 
lennium, God's chosen people are represented as having servants, 
who perform the duties of bohid-service. 

"For the Lord -will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set 
them in their own land; and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they 
shall cleave to the house of Jacob. 

"And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place ; and the 
house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and 
handmaids ; and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were ; and 
they shall rule over their oppressors." — Isaiah, chap. 14, verses 1, 2. 

We thus learn that Israel, when restored at the millennium, 
will have the rigkt to hold bond-servants, and that they will 
hold them. The holy prophet does not tell the people of God 
to give the strangers that follow them equal rights and privi- 
leges with themselves. Now, if thus to hold even their enemies 
in bondage had been '' sin of itself," "the sum of all villanies," 
would it have been thus prophetically, or symbolically, if you 
please, accorded to God's people as a privilege ?*as a sign of the 
Lord's mercy ? The like privileges and blessings are promised 
to Israel, in chapters 60, verse 10, and 61, verse 5 — Isaiah : 

"And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall 
minister unto thee." 

" And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien 
shall be your ploughmen and your vine-dressers." 

We might quote a multitude of other texts which show that 
domestic slavery was an established condition of social life, rec- 
ognized throughout the whole period of Bible history, and never, 
in a single instance, condemned as wrong in itself, as a sin, 
per se. Therefore we do not know how any Christian can deny 
this proposition : Slavery/ is sanctioned by the Bible. 

But how shall we reconcile this difference of condition amonc 
men with the doctrine of " equal rights" which our political 
teachers enunciate ? 



36 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

The Bible settles it all. The parable of the talents is the true 
code of the Christian. Equal duties for equal privileges. St. 
Paul illustrates this Bible Bill of Rights in his first epistle to the 
Corinthians, twelfth chapter.* Bead it every word, and learn 



* " Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 

" And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 

"And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which 
worketh all in alL 

" But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 

" For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the word 
of knowledge by the same Spirit ; 

" To another faith by the same Spirit ; to another the gifts of healing by the 
same Spirit ; 

" To another the working of miracles ; to another prophecy ; to another dis- 
cerning of spirits ; to another divers kinds of tongues ; to another the inter- 
pretation of tongues : 

"But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every 
man severally as he will. 

"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of 
that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 

" For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews 
or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into 
one Spirit. 

" For the body is not one member, but many. 

"If the foot shall say. Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is 
it therefore not of the body ? 

" And if the ear shall say. Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body ; 
is it therefore not of the body ? 

" If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing ? If the whole 
were hearing, where were the smelling ? 

" But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it 
hath pleased him. 

" And if they were all one member, where were the body? 

" But now are they many members, yet but one body. 

" And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee ; nor again 
the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 

" Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, 
are necessary ; 

" And those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon 
these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more 
abundant comeliness. 

" For our comely parts have no need ; but God hath tempered the body 
together, having given moi'e abundant honor to that part which lacked ; 

" That there should be no schism in the body ; but that the members should 
have the same care one for another. 

" And whether one member sufi'er, all the members suffer with it ; or one 
member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. 

" Now, ye are the body of Chritit, and members in particular. 

" And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, 
thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, 
diversities of tongues. 

"Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of 
miracles ? 

" Have all the gifts of healing ? do all speak with tongues ? do all interpret? 

" But covet earnestly the best gifts : and yet show I unto you a more excel- 
lent way" — (which was charity, as Paul explained in the next chapter.) 



THE NEW TESTAMENT ? 37 

the justice and the mercy of God in giving us such knowledge of 
the truth, and such assurance of the hjve of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

The apostle also instructs servants in their rights and duties 
in a manner that cannot, except willfully, be misunderstood. If 
they are called of the Lord, their soul service must be given to 
God ; but this does not emancipate them from their secular 
duties, nor change their earthly condition. 

" Let CYery man abide in tlie same calling wherein he was called. 

"Art thou called being a servant? care not for ic ; but if thou mayest be 
made free, use it rather. 

"For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord'a freeman ; 
likewise .also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. 

" Ye are bought with a price ; be not ye the servants of men. 

" Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God." — 
1 Corinthians, chap. 7, verse 20 — 25. 

Thus was settled the Christian polity : no meddling with the 
question of political or civil freedom, which belongs to human 
authority to regulate. It is spiritual freedom only that the 
Gospel brought to light. The Bible guarantees to men Ubert)/ 
of conscience to loorship the true God as they feel to be right. 
It does not give to any man, or body of men, church, or bishop, 
or minister, the right to compel unbelievers to embrace the true 
faith ; therefore persecution, even though it were intended to do 
good for those coerced, is a sin, and liberty of conscience is the 
inalienable right of every human being; because God has 
willed it. 

Any slaveholder who should deprive his servants of this libertv 
would commit sin. And the Bible lays on the master the duty of 
giving religious instruction and religious privileges to his servants. 
To keep holy the Sabbath day, and know his duty to God and 
his neighbor, are indispensable requirements for human well- 
being in every station of life. 

We come, then, to these three propositions : 

Slavery is not a sin : 

It does not violate the law of God as revealed in the Scrip- 
tures of the Old and New Testament; but conforms to it. 

Slavery is not a crime : 

It does not violate the Constitution of the United States, the 
highest law of our republic ; but conforms to it. 

Slavery is not a wrong : 

It does not violate the law of nature, which has assigned to 
one race of the human family certain gifts of mind and moral 
endowments superior in degree, power, and usefulness to those 
of another race ; thus creating natural differences and inequali- 



38 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

ties, inherent in race compared with race, that cannot, by human 
art or means, be overcome. And that the superior must control 
and direct the inferior race, in order to bring out and secure the 
highest good of humanity, is as necessary and just as that the 
higher faculties of man's nature should control and harmonize 
his lower appetites and propensities in order to reach his noblest 
elevation of character and condition, of moral improvement, and 
material prosperity. 

The philosophy of Christianity, drawn from the parable of the 
talents, and every doctrine of Jesus Christ, teaches equality of 
responsibility, but not equality of condition. Brotherhood and 
charity — which is love — must work out the perfecting of the 
Christian character. Nor was this perfection to entitle the good 
man to worldly success, prosperity, ease, health, or freedom. 

Was Lazarus, because he was a good man and in want of all 
things, entitled to demand a share in the riches of Dives ? Who 
does not feel that this beggar at the gate, over whom angels 
watched, was immeasurably exalted above the rich man, arrayed 
in purple and fine linen — for whom the devil Avaited ? Yet while 
Lazarus lived he must remain poor. 

Thus the pious slave may, in the sight of God, be immeasura- 
bly exalted above his profligate master; yet the former must 
continue faithfully to do the duties of the condition '' wherein 
he was called." 

The divine Saviour always measures the standard of man's 
worth by the heavenly inheritance, not by earthly station. Obe- 
dience, faith, humility, love, these were the requisites for his 
followers ; nor did their services, however faithfully performed, 
ever entitle them to demand salvation. That was the free gift 
of God. 

♦' But which of you, having a servant ploughing or feeding cattle, will say 
unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat ? 

" And will not rather say unto him. Make ready wherewith I may sup, and 
gird thyself and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken ; and afterward thou 
shalt eat and drink ? 

"Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded 
him ? I trow not. 

"So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are com- 
manded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was 
our duty to do." — St. Luke, chap. 17, verses 7 — 10. 

Christ does not teach that master and servant are equal; but 
that both are equally subject to God. He has the right to ap- 
point the lot of all ; He has made men to differ ; but His right- 
eousness is clear as the sun at noonday, because all these 
differences are taken into account when He settles with His ser- 
vants. 



THE NEW TESTAMENT ? 30 

Equality of condition is not, then, the law of revelation. Is 
it the law of nature ? Look at the faithful apple-tree. How 
many blasted buds and abortive blossoms, how much withered, 
worm-eaten fruit fall from the tree, before, on the topmost bough, 
perhaps, or, oftener, out from among the thick leaves of one of 
the lower branches, the full-formed apple appears, in perfect 
development of beauty and flavor, shining like gold and coral as 
it crowns its mother tree with the perfection of its kind. 

Is it not thus that the history of the human tree symbolizes 
a race ? Take the British oak planted in India. How many 
strong, brave men, in the bud, blossom, and ripening of their 
earthly ambition, have been trampled doAvn, crushed out, withered 
by disease, wasted by disappointment, destroyed and laid in the 
dust, before the lion banner of Great Britain, waving above the 
top of India's tallest palm, dominated the land from the ocean 
to the Himalaya ! On that banner one name only — Havelock — 
flashes out with the perfect light of Christian glory, confirming 
the right of the British people to their eastern empire ; because, 
by the light of Havelock's glory, we read a higher destiny for 
the dark-skinned tribes of Shem and Ham, through the agency 
of their white masters. 

Christianity, planted in India, is the tree of life whose fruit 
will equally heal all sin-sick souls that rest beneath its shadow 
of faith and love, making all who believe equal inheritors of the 
heavenly hope ; but it will not, it cannot, equalize the earthly 
conditions of men. 

" God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents 
of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant,"* 

Would the British Government be justified by the Christians 
of England, or by the voice of humanity, should it throw off the 
responsibility of ruling that great eastern empire, and leave the 
poor, miserable, ignorant, degraded heathen natives to their 
own inventions ? 

Would American masters, as Christians, deal righteously with 
humanity, and obey the laws of God, should they throw off the 



* Ethnology, as well as Scripture, testifies that Ham peopled Egypt. The 
native name Egypt is Chami, the black. The race of Ham includes Egypt and 
all the black tribes beyond. In the north Caucasian regions the race of Japheth 
spread widely ; and in central Asia the race of Shem. These general positious 
have been proved by the ethnologists, Pritchard and Bunsen, and are confirmed 
by the most reliable archaeologists, as well as by the leading physiologists of the 
world, Morton, Cuvier, and Blumenbach. 

Dr. Barth, in his " xifrican Discoveries," states expressly, that he has suffi- 
cient evidences that negroes are descendants of Ham. In character they assim- 
ilate with the Canaanites of old. 



40 IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY 

responsibilities of their negro servants, and leave them to their 
own devices. 

Color has always been significant of character and condition. 
The white or light-skinned races are superior to the darker colored. 
Thus was Japheth distinguished above his brethren ; and Jacob, 
who was fair, was ordained to rule over his red brother, Esau. 
The race of Jacob are to this day distinguished, from the other 
descendants of Shera, by the lighter skin, w^hich makes the Jcav 
Japhetic in color. This is a natural distinction ; the darker the 
color the lower is the standard of mind and moral perception, 
and more degraded the condition. Exceptions may be found ; 
but the rule has always existed, so far as we can learn, in the 
past. It holds good this day over the whole world. 

The abstract philosophy of human rights may denounce these 
differences of condition as unjust, but where is the remedy ? 
•' Can the Ethiopian change his skin ?" " Can those who are 
accustomed to do evil learn (of themselves) to do well ?" " If you 
bray a fool in a mortar among w^heat with a pestle," will he be- 
come wise ? 

Men must learn and acknowledge that God's wisdom is above 
human philosophy ; that the finite cannot measure the infinite ; 
that the law of the Creator will regulate created beings in spite 
of all " declarations of independence," " equality, and inalienable 
rights" made by men. 

This subjection of all mankind to the laws of God is shown to 
be righteous, because He requires no more of each race or indi- 
vidual than the just use of what He gives. The servant, to whom 
is entrusted but one talent or five, is never made responsible for 
the use of ten. The black African and the brown Asiatic, de- 
scendants of Shem and Ham, are not required to equal the white 
European and American descendants of Japheth in knowledge 
of the true God, or in power of disseminating the truth as it 
in Jesus, because these talents have never been entrusted to them. 

The descendants of Japheth, who have this knowledge and 
this power, are responsible to God, and must hold the mastery 
given them for the common good, as leaders and teachers, using 
their ten talents for the improvement and happiness of their 
brethren of inferior condition, in equal proportion with their 
own advancement in civilization and Christianity. Then the 
Word of God will have power over the hearts of all men, and 
*• the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the 
waters cover the sea." 

The axiom of human equality, as urged by those who would 
place all races and nations of men on a level of natural rights, 
independent of the will of God, if it could be carried out, would 
ii not beggar the world, and bring down the life of man to his 



THE' NEW TESTAMENT ? 41 

lowest instincts and appetites ? Stagnant waters always become 
corrupt, and the creatures they nourish are ugly, imperfect, mon- 
strous. Perfect equality in nature would be destructive of all 
that is beautiful and beneficent in the visible creation. The sea 
would have no tides ; the earth no changes of season ; the sky 
no sun, moon, and planetary systems, " where one star differeth 
from another star in glory." 

So, too, with mankind. If perfect equality of rights and uni- 
formity of conditions could be established, all would be moveless 
mediocrity or repulsive repetition ; an eternal treadmill of cus- 
tom, where no advancement could be made ; an endless turmoil 
of mind, where the locomotive of thought would be compelled to 
travel on and on through the dead level of the dark ages forever. 

Thanks be to God, who has not left the destiny of men to be 
settled by theories of philosophical or political abstractionists. 
God has given us His revealed will to guide our imperfect rea- 
son, and we know from this inspired Word that the " Most High- 
est ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever 
He will." 

Jesus Christ declares — " The poor ye shall always have with 
you, and when ye will ye may do them good." 

The apostle says — " We that are strong ought to bear the in- 
firmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." All power 
comes from God : the differences of human character and con- 
dition are means of discipline and opportunities of duty, which the 
fallen nature of man requires in its upward struggle after the good. 

But are there no points of resemblance in the three divisions 
of the human family, no stages of equality where the brother- 
hoods, "made of one blood," rest on common ground in their 
desires and in their destinies, however much they may differ in 
complexion, in character, and in condition? 

Yes, many, and these of paramount importance, far exceeding 
the highest earthly interests of which human philosophy takes 
cognizance, and seeks to equalize. 

We might say that all are born and all die, alike helpless and 
powerless ; but the circumstances attending these events are 
widely different, as all conditions in this world vary in form and 
consequences. 

It is when we come to the relations of man with his Creator 
that human conditions are equalized. All souls belong to God, 
and all are immortal. All mankind are sinners before Him, and 
need a Saviour. All are offered salvation through repentance and 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. All will be raised from the dead 
at the last day, and stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 

All will be judged, "every man according to their works." — 
Rev., chap. 20, ver. 13. 



42 THE GOVP]RNING RACE. 



PART III. 

THE REPUBLICS OF THE WORLD. 

History, the glass that reflects the images of the past, shows us, 
in every land where man has ruled, the form of hum^m slavery. 

We will pass by royal governments, so called. These were 
founded by the enslavement, or, what is the same, subjection of 
the people to their masters, either kings or nobles, or both. In 
all these nations, so far as w^e can learn, a lower class than sub- 
jects were found, even " servants of servants." 

But in republics, those governments where freedom was, to a 
certain extent, enjoyed by all citizens, plebeian and patrician, 
publican and pharisee, w\as slavery mingled with freedom. Did 
the " peculiar institution" stand side by side with hberty in 
ancient Greece, that nursery of heroes, from whom were formed 
their gods ; that mother of artists, poets, philosophers, who were 
better and more glorious than their gods ? 

Yes ! Athens, the crowned queen of genius, where human intel- 
lect attained its highest triumphs of reason, unassisted by divine 
revelation — the city of Athens was, pre-eminently, the place of 
slaves. In numbers they far exceeded the free citizens. There 
was in the city a regular slave market — the Kuklos. A house- 
hold was not considered complete without a slave. Aristotle 
calls these servants " working tools and possessions." The father 
of Demosthenes was a large slaveholder, and left these slaves to 
his son, the orator and friend of liberty. The slaves were of 
two kinds, those taken in war and those bought with money ; 
and this system was universal throughout Greece. It was uni- 
versal in all free governments. 

History tells us that from the time of Moses to our own Wash- 
ington, from the Theocratic to the Federal Republic, there has 
never been the formation of a government for free citizens where 
bond servants were not included and allowed. Search the records 
of every republic — Hebrew, Greek, Roman, Carthagenian, Goth, 
Venetian, Italian, Dutch, American — in all there will be found 
this class of servile dependents ; "persons held to labor ;" ser- 
vants of free citizens ; slaves of free masters. 

It is worthy of note, also, that none of the nations descended 



IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED IN HISTORY ? 43 

from Ham have, so far as we can learn, ever formed for them- 
selves a free or republican government,* (Carthage, in north- 
ern Africa, was a Phoenician colon}^ Japhetic in origin,) or 
borne the title of citizen. All have been ruled despotically as 
slaves, serfs, or dependents. The same is true of the descend- 
ants of Sbem, with the single exception of the Hebrew Common- 
wealth, whose people were made free citizens by laws heaven- 
given ; and yet they rejected this constitution, this citizenship of 
Israel, and would have " a king to rule over them :" — thus, they 
became subjects and Jeivs ! 

The capacity for true liberty requires that man shall govern 
himself by the best moral instincts of his nature, which, en- 
lightening his reason, enable him to discern his duty towards 
other men, and do it accordingly. This capacity for freedom 
and civilization conjoined seems inherent only in the Japhetic 
peoples, the White Race. 

Does not this indicate, decisively, that the ivhite race must 
lead, if not rule, in the march of human improvement ? That if 
the highest civilization, freedom of conscience, obedience to con- 
stitutional law, and the knowledge of the true God — which is the 
key to all excellence — be ever attained by the dark-colored races 
of IShem and of Ham, they must be taught, influenced, and guided 
by the white race ? 

There is another grand instinct of morality and sentiment of 
social justice, without which the human becomes brutish, that has 
always distinguished the white race — it has been obedient to the 
Eden law of marriage. A plurality of wives has never been 
allowed in Japhetic nations ; and there has never been a repub- 
lican government that has pernfiitted 'polygamy I 

This important fact should be carefully studied and earnestly 
brought out in the controversy now raging in our land. An 
attempt has been made to identify negro slavery, as legalized 
under our Constitution, with the polygamy of Brigham Young's 
colony in Utah, styling these two " the twin relics of barbarism." 



* The Republic of Liberia is not taken into this account. Its rise and progress 
are remarkable evidences of the beneficial effect which slavery in our southern 
States has had on the African negroes trained under it. "We shall prove this 
by and by. But Liberia is no exception to the rule that black men have never 
established for themselves a free republican government, since that was organ- 
ized by white men. Americans, northern pro-slavery philanthropists, and south- 
ern slaveholders — all, in works, Christian — together purchased the domain in 
Africa, and have ever been the sustaining power, under God, to build up that 
republic of refuge for the negro, where fanatics, let us hope, will never hinder 
him from the good he may enjoy and do, because he cannot reach, with one 
talent, all the duties and dignities that ten talents might be able to attain. 



44 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

The friends of " the Constitution as it was framed, and the 
Union as it is," should never, for a moment, permit these false 
assumptions to go uncontradicted. The tendency of falsehood is 
always to evil, and in this case it would most assuredly be dis- 
astrous and destructive. Slavery is not a relic of barbarism. It 
has been the means of civilization to ignorant barbarians ; the 
means of enlightenment and salvation to heathen idolaters ; the 
means of freedom and improvement to those nations that worship 
the true God. It has been the rule of all republican govern- 
ments, and it has been the practice in all the civilized and Chris- 
tian nations of the world. The learning of Greece, the laws of 
Rome, the liturgies of the church, the life of commerce, the lib- 
erty of the Japhetic peoples, are all based on, and bound up in, 
that prophetic utterance of Noah, wliich gave the leadership to 
the white race. And all events have been developed in accord- 
ance with the destiny of his three sons, which he predicted or 
pronounced. 

Through the race of Shem came the knowledge of the true 
God ; the Saviour was in the flesh of this grand race ; and the 
divine revelation was made through its sons. "Salvation is of 
the Jews." "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan 
shall be his servant." Truly, Shem was blessed. But the mas- 
tership was given to Japheth. It is his now ; and his descendants 
have always led in the improvement of material good and mental 
power. Since "the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles," they 
have also led in moral enlightenment and religious truth. 

That the Japhetic nations had gained and kept this mastership 
over other races, by the subjection of the sensual to the moral, 
in their own nature, is proven by history, sacred as well as sec- 
ular. They had, intuitively, perceived the right in regard to 
marriage, that primal rule and fountain of all good in domestic 
and social life. They saw that no system, save monogamy could 
be just among men, even if the rights and happiness of woman 
were thrown out of the account. But as woman is the root of 
humanity, the right of the child to freedom must rest on the con- 
dition of the mother. This, the legislators of Greece and Rome 
saAV by the light of reason, and established their laws in accord- 
ance with the truth of nature, which always agrees with the 
truth of revelation. 

This agreement of all free States, heathen as well as worship- 
ers of the true God, in guarding the right of the free woman 
to her own husband, as sacredly as the right of the free man to 
his own wife, is a remarkable fact, when we take into considera- 
tion the other established fact, tliat all these free States were 
slaveJiolding. 



SLAVERY IX REPUBLICS. 45 

We find, then, that republican freedom and domestic servi- 
tude have, in history, always been found together ; but republi- 
can freedom and polygamy never, in any age or nation, have been 
united. Those persons who assert the contrary, should look over 
their historical lessons more carefully. Thus we come to the re- 
sult : the white race had, in its natural characteristics, the moral 
virtues that conserve the well-being and improvement of society, 
and aid men to the right understanding of the laws of God. St. 
Paul, in his wonderful epistle to his Roman converts, alludes to 
these characteristics, when laying down the following proposi- 
tions : 

" For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law ; 
and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. 

(For not the hearers of the law ore just before God, but the doers of the law 
shall be justified. 

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things con- 
tained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves. 

Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience 
also bearing witness, and tlu-ir thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else ex- 
cusing one another ; ) 

In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, accord- 
ing to my gospel." — Romans, 2: 12 to 16. 

Here we are taught that Gentiles, heathen men, may be " doers 
of the law" of God, because it has been " written in their hearts ;" 
therefore, without such special revelation as had, on Mount Si- 
nai, been given to the Hebrews, the Roman people might have 
obeyed God, acceptably, because they could " do by nature the 
things contained in the law." 

Now, these propositions must have had reference chieflj to the 
laws of the second table, called moral laws, or, the duties of men 
to each other ; because all knowledge of the true God was utterly 
lost, and idolatry had, like Egyptian darkness, settled over the 
nations of the earth. The Romans, when St. Paul thus addressed 
them, worshipped thirty thousand acknowledged divinities. They 
could have had no idea, no conception of the " Lord God" — "God 
alone" — " God, and not man, the holy one." Nor could they, 
without a divine revelation, ever have attained to the knowledge 
of their duty towards God, as laid down in the first table of the 
decalogue. 

But the Greeks, the Romans, and all Japhetic peoples, so far 
as we know from history, had embodied in their laws and customs 
the identical enactments, or their equivalents, of the laws of the 
second table, which Paul thus sums up in this very epistle : 

" Render therefore to all their dues ; tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom 
to whom custom ; fear to whom fear ; honor to whom honor. 



46 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

" Owe no man anything, but to love one another : for he that loveth another 
hath fulfilled the law. 

" For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt 
not steal, Thou shalt not bearfnise witness. Thou shalt not covet ; and if there 
be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namel3', 
Thou shalt love thy neighbor jis thyself. 

'•Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the 
law." — Romans, 13 : 7 — 10. 

Obedience to parents was enforced in Roman law by the death 
penalty ; murder, adultery, theft, false ivitness, were crimes of 
the deepest obliquity, and severely punished. But slavery — 
" bondage ; the state of entire subjection of one person to the 
will of another." [Webster;) ^'•slavery, the obligation to labor 
for the benefit of the master without the contract or consent of 
the servant," [Paley :) — this slavery, in its most rigorous form, 
had been legalized and practiced by the Romans from their 
first gathering on Mount Palatine till the end of the republic, 
a period of more than seven hundred years. Neither was slavery 
ever accounted as evil in the republic, or as causing evil to their 
liberties. 

Then onward, during the empire, till its final overthrow, and 
through the long ages of Gothic rule and papal power, while 
(,'hristianity was gaining its first converts under St. Paul and St. 
Peter, and its great triumphs under their successors, St. Augustine, 
St. Chrysostom, and all the " Fathers" — this institution of bond- 
service for certain classes of persons, either as slaves or serfs, 
was the rule in every part of Christian Europe, Asia, and Africa ; 
it was never questioned as a right by any legislator, nor con- 
demned as a sin or a wrong by any ethical or religious writer for 
more than a thousand years after the Christian era. 

True, the expediency (that is, profitableness) of holding wliitc 
men in slavery began to be questioned at an earlier period. Cap- 
tives taken in war were allowed to ransom themselves or be ex- 
changed, and the suppression of Feudalism in Europe, or rather 
in France, by Louis XI, who virtually freed the serfs from their 
masters by making all his subjects vassals, and reducing princes 
and peasants to the condition of slaves — these changes had taken 
place. But that negro slavery was wrong, " damnably wrong" — 
" the sum of all villanies," was never thought of. Would the 
English government have made the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, 
and agreed " to furnish the Spanish colonies with 4,000 negroes 
annually for a term of thirty years," if this servitude had ever 
been branded as sin? — " a sin^^er se?'' — a sin so revolting that 
"■ no slaveholder could be considered a Christian?" 

"Was this universal sanction of slavery wrong ? Was the agree- 
ment of the most moral and best civilized nations among heathen, 



SLAVERY IN BRITAIN, 



47 



on this point, a sin ? If so, why has not the Word of God speci- 
fied slavehohling as among the sins of men, so that -when the 
Japhetic race became Christians, they might have broken up the 
slave marts as they did the shrines and images of idohitry ? as 
they did polygamy among those who had a plurality of wives ? 

It is certain that the Christian Fathers, the successors of the 
apostles, the holy men who planted the Christian faith in 
heathen lands, like St. Augustine among the Britons, held the 
Bible as sufficient authority on this point. They read the sen- 
tence on Canaan, and believed that God had the right to doom 
a portion of the race of Ham to servitude. They studied the 
statutes of Moses, and the requirements of the moral law, and 
found that to hold this race in bondage was made righteous for 
the Hebrews ; and even that, in certain cases, the Hebrew man 
might become a bond-servant. Therefore, to buy and sell bond- 
servants was not wrong by the laws of God. 

And the Gospel, instead of reversing, sanctioned these laws 
and usages. Therefore, St. Augustine never urged on the Britons 
the abolition of slavery, or serfdom, and Britain was one of the 
great exporters of slaves, sending large numbers of men and 
women, her own children, to be sold on the continent and in 
Ireland. '• The practice was continued even after the Norman 
conquest," says a late waiter. Nor was it till 1102 that, at a 
council of the Church, held in London, this canon was adopted : 
" Let no one for henceforth presume to carry on that wicked traffic 
by which men in England have hitherto been sold like brute 
beasts." 

This canon was not pointed against the institution of slavery 
or serfdom at home, but to prevent the foreign traffic in native- 
born Britons. It (the canon) was never enforced against the 
British trade in African slaves, which was eagerly entered on 
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and, for nearly three hun- 
dred years, prosecuted with great energy and activity, and with 
the commercial success that British capacity so generally obtains. 
The British government sanctioned and the nobility and priest- 
hood shared the pecuniary advantages of this trade in Africans. 
Probably no Christian nation, not even the Portuguese, has 
trafficed so largely in slaves as Great Britain. This continued 
till the numbers of black people torn from Africa and sold in 
the West Indies were computed to be nearly 60,000 annually, 
when the " orders in Council prohibited the slave trade with con- 
quered colonies." This was in 1805, and the "colonies" those 
taken in the West Indies from the Dutch and French. It was not 
till 1811 that the slave-trade with Africa was, by the British Par- 
liament, made punishable as a crime, and then not capital crime. 



48 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

The slave-trade with Africa had been prohibited by our Amer- 
ican Congress in IbOS, and was, by American legislation, made 
jjiraey, punishable with death, in 1820. 

There is no European nation, excepting Spain, now openly 
permitting the slave-trade with Africa ; and not a government 
on the American continent permits it. Cuba, a Spanish island, 
under British protection, in the American waters, is the only 
Christian market in the world now open for slave ships. That 
this foreign traffic in negroes should be suppressed, every sound 
statesman, every patriotic politician, every denomination of 
Christians in our land are agreed. 

The slavei'y of the white race in Europe has also ceased, ex- 
cept in the Russian empire, where efforts are now making to 
effect the emancipation of the serfs. But it is a historical fact, 
that this freedom of the Japhetic peoples has not been, in a single 
instance, brought about by Christian effort or Bible authority. 
No European government has set the slave or serf free because 
to hold man as the property of man was sin, or so considered. 
It is the emperor, not the priesthood ; expediency, not religion ; 
the ukase, not the Bible, that will free the slaves of Russia. 

The personal freedom of the white race — no other race has 
this freedom — results from the nature of the people. They are 
worth more to their rulers thus far made free, because they them- 
selves best develop their own energies ; they do not need task- 
masters ; their natural faculties and desires prompt them to 
action, invention, improvement, supremacy. They are the think- 
ers for and the teachers of the other races. Even as workers, the 
Japhetic people lead the world. The dark races must be their 
followers, imitators, dependents, servants. God has ordained it. 

And now let us come home, and look to our rule and responsi- 
bility over the negro race, as its history is connected with our 
own government. 

Is slavery in our free republic right or wrong ? a blessing or 
a curse to mankind ? 

Whatever it is, one thing is sure : the American people are 
not responsible for its origin. They never designed it, never 
desired it, never even consented to it. The system was forced 
upon them by British authority and power. This should never 
be forgotten when we deal Avith the subject. 

In 1620 the first negro slaves were brought to Virginia, then 
settled but thirteen years, a little colony of Great Britain. For 
one hundred and fifty years, or more, British vessels brought their 
cargoes of slaves ; British authority tore these Africans from 
their homes and forced them on the then British people of Amer- 
ica. All the responsibility of the slave trade rests on the Brit- 



SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 49 

ish Government ; all the gains of tlie traffic were the exclusive 
monopolj of British merchants. If there was blame or shame 
or sin or suffering in those transactions, the curse rests upon the 
British nation, not upon us Americans, while colonists. 

There is a period of twenty years, from 1788 to 1808, when, 
by American legislation, the slave trade was legalized for our 
nation, and negroes of Africa were brought in American ships, 
under the American flag, into our ports, and openly sold into 
slavery. Those twenty years are the sum of our complicity in 
the slave trade. For that we must answer. Of this, in another 
place. 

And now, let us try to form some estimate of the effect of ne- 
gro slavery in our land ; let us look calmly but searchingly into 
its depths, and seek to understand its influence, both for good 
and for evil, on the world. 

Its evils on Africa were apparently great, and seemed for a 
long time without hope or help. Although it is true that the 
whole negro race were hopeless and abject slaves in their own 
land, yet, having become accustomed to their fetters, they did not 
feel the weight. Idolators, polygamists, ignorant^ lazy and bru- 
tish, their minds had lost the knowledge of liberty, truth, and 
goodness. They embraced evil as their good, and were content. 
All they wanted was animal enjoyment, or the gratification of 
evil passions. Their social life was of the lowest type.* 

To tear such a race from their idols of sloth and lust, must 
have seemed to them the height of cruelty, even had mercy done 
the deed. Alas ! it was no heavenly messenger, but the callous, 
rapacious, unrelenting grasp of the British mammon of trade. 
The wars, woes, and wickedness, resulting from the traffic in 



*In a great proportion of these black tribes, their improvement in civiliza- 
tion seems no farther above the brute than the instinct of human wants is above 
the animal. Reason seems never to have been cultivated. There is not a trace 
of art, science, invention, or concentrated industrial effort, eminating from na- 
tive negroes, that shows the power of genius and thought to be found in all 
Africa. Nor have any of the native Africans an idea of duty or moral obliga- 
tion, except it has been taught them by the superior races. 

In religion, all negroes are pagans of the grossest sort, excepting those tribes 
converted to Mahometanism. All are polygamists, all slaves. Indolence and ig- 
norance, violence and blood, mark the history of all. The ferocious character 
of the inhabitants of Dahomey, women as well as men, is well authenticated. 
On the death of the late King Guzo, his son and successor put to death eight 
hundred captives and tu'o hundred of the favorite wives of the old King, as sac- 
rifices. Cannibalism is practiced in some, if not many portions of tbis dark 
continent, where the powers of evil seem always to have had sway over this 
black and brutish race. These facts are stated, more or less circumstantially, 
by every writer on Africa, who has given his own knowledge and experience 
among them. 

4 



50 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

negroes were dreadful. From the first bargain of tlie " Honor- 
able London Company trading to Africa," with the black king, 
who held all bis subjects as his slaves, till the slave ship reached 
Virginia, the amount of outrage, misery, and foul wrong would 
make a sum of evil only known to the recording angel above. 
Then, add to this the sum total of all the sins and evils of the 
one hundred and fifty years that British traders in slaves fol- 
lowed up the first successful speculation. 

The chiefs that then ruled in western Africa, were always 
fighting each other, like the Indian tribes of our own land, but 
with far bloodier hate. Still the slave trade with Europeans 
greatly augmented these wars. Not, however, to make them 
more destructive, as it changed the aim from killing enemies to 
taking captives. 

And those who escaped the slave hunts were left desolate in- 
deed. Mourning and woe was the lot of western Africa during; 
the European trade in slaves. All Christian governments, more 
or less, partook of the spoil ; but Protestant England, as has 
ever been her wont, grasped the lion's share. The trafiic was 
evil ; if not all evil, the bad greatly preponderated. It should 
he condemned. 

But the holding of these negroes and their descendants, in 
the servitude to which the British government consigned them 
in America, is a very different matter. 

The slave merchant looked only to his own gains ; the Amer- 
ican slaveholder, if by nature equally as selfish, was compelled, 
by the exigencies of the case, to take more thought for the good 
of his servants. Their hearth must be cared for, and their hap- 
piness too, or their master, unless he was a very devil, could not 
live his own life happily, surrounded with such misery as the 
English slave captain could endure while crossing the Atlantic. 

The Virginia colonist, who purchased negroes, was obliged to 
support, govern, teach, and care for his slaves during life. The 
master was also responsible that no harm came to the Christian 
community from these ignorant, heathen savages. 

Hence the laws concerning slaves had their origin, not to op- 
press the servant, but to protect him, by compelling his white 
master to be accountable for the good conduct of the black slave. 

To improve the morals of these heathen servants the Christian 
religion must be taught them. Even if masters and mistresses 
had been themselves careless on this point, they were compelled 
to the work. The negro must learn the English language, or he 
could not know his master's will ; be taught the knowledge of the 
true God, or he could not be improved as a responsible human 
being. And thus the American slaves were instructed and 



SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 51 

brought to share in the religious privileges of their masters. 
The rest of the Sabbath, the attendance at church, the religious 
teachings and services of the family, are, in our land, as they 
were ordered to be by the laws of Moses — the privilege of the 
"men servants, and of the maid servants" — in every household 
of the South. 

There is at this moment more piety of spirit, more faith in 
God, a deeper reverence for the Bible, among the slaveholders of 
the South than can be found among the descendants of the pil- 
grims in New England, where the religious public seems chiefly 
intent on novelty of doctrine and self-canonization. 

Is not this difference attributable, in a great measure, to the 
ever pressing need of teaching to the slave the elementary truths 
of the Bible — of the Gospel ? This keeps those truths before 
the Christian families of the South ; and the divine doctrine of 
salvation by the blood of Jesus Christ is the foundation of all 
real soul improvement. 

The women of the South are, as a class, remarkable for their 
religious steadfastness. Their warm faith finds, in the thoughts 
and tendance they are obliged to give their servants, directing 
their labors, watching over their conduct, and relieving their 
sorrows and sicknesses, a constant incentive to duty and devotion. 
In truth, we may challenge the world to show such an example 
of chaste, lovely womanhood, bravely and serenely doing the 
noblest work of humanity — civilizing and christianizing one of 
the most degraded races of heathen barbarians — as the white 
women of the southern States have done for the last two hun- 
dred years. 

And the black race in America — how has this been employed ? 
What have the slaves done to repay the more than kindness, the 
real tenderness and love that southern families, in the large ma- 
jority of cases, bestow on their negroes? 

We put by the article of tobacco ; the world would have been 
better without it, as it has hitherto been used ; and rice — that 
might have been produced elsewhere. 

But cotton ! the great staple of all manufacturing interests — 
what should we do or be without cotton ? And where, except 
in the southern States of America, and by slave labor, could it 
have been cultivated to meet the past wants and the present de- 
mands of the world ? 

Compelled, as we may say, to purchase the poor negro that the 
government of Great Britain sent from Africa hither, the south- 
ern colonist was obliged to find employment for his servants ; 
and behold, the cotton culture has become a POWER to awe even 
the British Lion ! 



52 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

Let us pause here a moment, and consider what influence this 
little plant has had already on the destinies of men. 

Without cotton, without a supply such as our southern States 
have afforded for the last eighty years, neither manufactures, 
commerce, nor international communication could have progressed 
more rapidly, during this time, than they had done in the previous 
half century. The influence of the United States on the Old 
World would have been scarcely felt at all. 

To cotton we owe the invention of the '' spinning jenny," and 
all the great manufacturing inventions of Arkwright and others 
that now fill England with the wealth of the spindle and the loom. 

To the increased commerce that cotton has developed, more 
than any other material agency, we owe, if not the discovery of 
the steam power, its application to locomotion on sea and land. 
If cotton had not been abundantly produced in our southern 
States, as it has not been and could tiot have been in any other 
country in the world, neither the cotton gin nor the steam engine 
would have been known. 

And if these had not been known, and had not been urged 
onward by the continually-increasing supply of cotton, thus keep- 
ing up the industrial capacity of all civilized nations to the height 
that drove commerce almost frantic in the hot haste of business 
and competition, should we have had that crowning triumph of 
invention and science, of art and industry — the Magnetic 
Telegraph ? 

The material prosperity of New England, and the national life 
of Old England, are suspended on the fate of cotton. Beware 
how you trifle with that great interest of civilization !* 

And what of the negroes — the poor black slaves ? Have 
thej' benefited by their captivity ? Have they gained anything 
while being the instruments of such benefits to the white race ? 
Have their numbers increased? Are they better instructed — 



* " The cotton crop, from 35,000 bales in 1800, valued at $5,726,000, has risen 
to 4,500.000 bales, vnlued at $225,000,000, and this underlies the industry of 
5,000,000 cotton manufacturers in England and western Europe. It is not, how- 
ever, as a cotton-producinfr section alone that the South is eminently successful, 
but it excels in other agricultural productions. 

The South produces more food per head than either of the other sections, and 
its surplus feeds the noithern manufacturers. The absurdity of the statements 
about the northern hny product is made manifest by the simple fact that the 
South supports 13,475,G89 head of cattle, and makes but 1,138,784 tons of hay, 
while the North is required to make 9,473,603 tons to keep 5,460,820 heiid. In 
other words, the expense of cattle at the North is thirty times greater than at 
the South. The surplus of the South pours northward in an immense stream, 
vivifying every branch of trade. These products form the basis of all northera 
trafiBc." — Southern Wealth and Northern Profits, by Thomas P. Kettell. 



SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 53 

more improved — raised by Christian hope to a higher type of 
manhood and womanhood, than their kindred race, the negroes 
of Africa ? 

The number of negro slaves brought to the American colonies 
by British authority was about 75,000. The number brought 
by American legislation about 20,000. These have now in- 
creased to nearly or quite 4,500,000, of which about four mil- 
liorjs are slaves, and one-half million free, but not citizens of the 
United States. 

The increase of the slaves has fully kept pace with that of 
their white masters, thus proving that the negroes have, in the 
main, been well cared for physically. They have been trained 
to steady industry, to habits of temperance and obedience to law; 
and to the observance of their Christian duties. 
■ They have been taught the English tongue, imperfectly, it is 
true ; but the foundation is laid, the key is given them to all the 
treasures of moral wisdom and intellectual improvement that this 
language of power affords. 

They have been taught the saving truths of the Gospel. It 
is no argument against this assertion to say that the slaves are 
not taught to read, and cannot read the Bible. How did the 
apostles teach the Gospel ? How was it taught for nearly fif- 
teen hundred years, before there was a printed Bible ? and if there 
had been a Bible, before any of the people could have read it ? 
Even now, more than one-half the people of Christian Europe can- 
not read, and have no Bibles. How are they taught the Gospel ? 

And Protestant England — free England, where no slave treads 
the soil, as the boast is — can the people read ? Have they 
Bibles ? 

Look at the last British census, and the marriage registers : 
you will find that nearly ten millions of the people cannot read ; 
and if Bibles were given them, would sell these, most probably, 
for strong drink. Our slaves are not drunkards ! 

The truth is, that in familiar, oral teaching, when this is done 
by persons who have a deep individual interest in giving right 
instruction, and the higher motive of conscientious duty as Chris- 
tians, the things pertaining to salvation are best made known to 
the ignorant as well as to the infant mind. 

The Lord Jesus Christ himself declares that all men must be 
as "little children," if they would learn the Gospel. Heathen, 
ignorant, degraded heathen, could never learn the Gospel, except 
it were taught in this humble, patient, simple way of oral instruc- 
tion. Then, the art of reading and all the resources of educa- 
tion are advantages to be prized, nor are the colored people 
of America deprived of these. A far greater number of slaves 



54 THE GOVERNINa RACE. 

are taught to read than is generally believed, because abolitionism 
has distorted or denied all the good that slavery has done for 
the negro. 

The half million of free colored people in America have better 
advantages of education than any of the working classes of Europe, 
in the same menial class of life. Two college institutions are 
now established for colored young men. One is at Oxford, Penn- 
sylvania ; the other, the Wilberforce college, at Xenia, Ohio, has 
already nearly fifty colored students ; some twelve of them are 
emancipated and sent from the South for the purpose, their ex- 
penses being paid by their southern friends. 

In short, if the four millions of colored people in America, 
descendants of the ignorant savages brought hither from Africa, 
could, to-morrow, be gathered together before the assembled 
world, and a million pounds of gold were offered as the premium 
to be taken or paid either by us or by the European monarch, 
who, from the most menial classes of his or her subjects — our 
free negroes are nearly all servants — could bring four millions of 
men, women, and children, as well conditioned physically, as 
well clothed, as free from drunkenness, as well taught in the 
gospel truths of salvation as our four millions of colored people 
are ; — why, we should take the gold. 

Is it not of the highest importance to the black man, and to 
humanity, that this elementary improvement of character should 
be made ? Remember that these negroes are the descendants of 
Ham, of Canaan, and that there can be no hope of permanently 
benefiting the race, except they can be made Christians. That 
the teachers must have power of some kind over them, is self- 
evident. 

And now we ask, in all soberness of reason, has not slavery in 
America done these negroes good and not evil ? Compare their 
condition with that of the heathen negroes in Africa, even as 
British travelers now describe them, and answer. 

And yet another boon has been bestowed by American slave- 
holders on their servants — a boon so great that no people save 
Americans could have given it — a boon that places the eman- 
cipated negro slave, who has toiled on American soil, on equality 
with the nations of Europe. 

We Americans have given these negro slaves freedom, a coun- 
try ^and a government. The free republic of Liberia is the legiti- 
mate result of negro slavery in the free republic of America. 
Allow us here to quote from the best American authorities. The 
facts are too well known to require proof. 

" Already there stretches along the western coast of Africa, for 700 miles, a 



SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 55 

republic, recognized by many of ^ the most powerful govei-nments. In agricul- 
ture, commerce, arts, and sciences, as well as in morals, she will compare 
favorably with the early colonial history of this or any other country. And all 
this has been done by the American Colonization Society. 

" About twelve thousand people of color have left our shores for Africa. More 
than half of them were emancipated for the purpose. In and around the re- 
public of Liberia, native tribes, numbering about two hundred thousand souls, 
have acknowledged the government, thus opening an inviting field for the civil- 
ization and evangelization of native Africans. 

"The republic of Liberia has been recognized by Great Britain, France, 
Prussia, Belgium, and Brazil. During the past year, treaties of amity and com- 
merce have been ratified with the Free Hanseatic Towns of Lubec, Bremen, and 
Hamburg. 

" Two receptacles have been prepared and sent to Liberia for the use of emi- 
grants. They are named ' Tracy' and ' Brewster.' the latter in honor of a 
liberal citizen of Pennsylvania. The cost was $12,000. 

"An interior settlement has been established, fifty miles from Monrovia, 
under most favorable circumstances. 

" Materials have been shipped from Boston for the erection of the Liberia Col- 
lege edifice. It will cost about twenty thousand dollars. 

" A monthly line of steamers leaves London for Liberia and other portions of 
the coast. 

" During the past year a noble ship has been built, for the use of the Ameri- 
can Colonization Society, at a cost of about '^42,000, towards which Mr. John 
Stevens, of Talbot county, Maryland, gave $36,000. 

"Of 130 vessels which have been sent direct to Liberia by the Colonization 
Society since 1820, all have arrived safe, without having to make any claim on 
the insurance office for damage. 

" The republic of Liberia stands as a beacon light on the shores of Africa. 
Cheered by God's blessing upon our past efforts, we confidently labor. Our 
motto shall ever be 'Peace on Earth and good will to men.' ^lay the day 
speedily come, when the flag of the 'United States of Africa' may float in every 
port." ******* 

And here is the opinion of the London Quarterly : 

"The achievements of colonization on the west coast of Africa can hardly 
be exaggerated. There we find a national policy, municipal institutions. 
Christian churches, and Christian ministers ; schools, and a sound system of 
education ; a public press, rising towns and villages, a productive agriculture, 
and a growing commerce. Under its rule about two hundred and fifty thousand 
human beings are found living together in harmony, enjoying all the advan- 
tages of social and political life, and submitting to all the restraints which 
government and religious principle demand. Means are found to harmonize 
the habits and interests of the colonists, their descendants, the native-born 
Liberians, and the aborigines of the coast. As the creation and achievement 
of less than forty years, we insist that this is without parallel in the history of 
the world." 

And then compare these results of negro slavery in our south- 
ern States with the results of polygamy in Utah. 

The first, elevating the African idolatrous slave to freedom, 
patriotism, and Christianity ; the latter, degrading the free 
white Christian women of Europe and America into slaves, har- 
lots, and idolators. 

If slavery be a sin, fer se, why should the southern system 



56 THE GOVERNIiJJG RACE. 

have developed so much of real good ? of Christian progress ? 
of civilized improvement ? 

If polygamy be not a sin, per se, forbidden by God, why should 
it develop evil, and only evil ? Can you show, from Scripture or 
history, that it ever has done any good ? that it ever improved a 
single human being, morally ? or elevated a people, socially and 
politically ? 

But, you will say, all the evils of American slavery have not 
been told — the dissensions between the North and the South ; 
the strife of political parties ; the severance of the Christian 
churches ; the bad effects of slavery on the masters, etc. 

Many, indeed far the larger portion, of these evils have been 
caused by other sins, not born of slavery, but of and from the 
wicked heart of man : envy, selfishness, lust of power, pride, re- 
venge, hypocrisy, and their kindred passions, have moved and 
led in this warfare. These bold, bad guides have been followed 
by a multitude of honest minds and benevolent hearts, on both 
sides of the Atlantic. These ignorant partisans, zealous to do 
good, are nevertheless working in the dark, or by the deceptive 
light of a false philanthropy. They have never considered the 
subject of negro slavery in its broad relations of the best good of 
humanity ; nor have they turned to the Holy Book for guidance 
in their perplexity. The fierce leaders of abolitionism in Amer- 
ica are nearly all of them unbelievers in the Bible, or in divine 
revelation. 

A popular champion in this anti-slavery cause has well said, 
that " the two great parties now dividing the country w^ere based, 
the one upon a system of slavery, the other upon an idea, a 
principle, the recognition of human rights," etc. 

Now, if the system of negro slavery in the United States is 
based on the law of God, it will most assuredly vindicate its own 
righteousness, and overcome the false idea of the unbeliever — 
that " all men are born free and equal." Christians will be 
brought to feel and acknowledge that all created beings are 
amenable to the laws of the Creator, and are entitled to no free- 
dom, no "inalienable rights," which He has not bestowed; that 
the differences of outward condition, of natural gifts, are all 
made even in that righteous revelation of the will of the Most 
Highest — that all shall be judged aceordiiig to the measure they 
have received. 

The mightiest leader of Japhetic line is no more entitled 
to demand salvation than the meanest son of Canaan ; but the 
former has, in this life, the right and the duty of mastership, 
either by example, tutelage, subjection, or bondage, over the sons 
of Canaan. With the right comes the responsibility of the supe- 



SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 57 

rior race to deal righteously with the inferior, laboring earnestly 
to improve the character and elevate the mind and condition of 
those "whom God has intrusted to Japheth. What nation or 
people have done so much to improve the character of the negroes 
and elevate their condition as the slave owners of the United 
States ? 

" If American slavery be the horrid system of cruelty, ignorance, and wick- 
edness represented by some writers of fiction and paid defamers of our institu- 
tions, how happens it that those who have been reared in its midst, when freed 
and planted in Africa, at once exhibit such capacity for self-government and 
self-education, and set such examples of good morals ? 

Have the negroes under British care at Sierra LeoLe made similar progress 
in improvement? Do the free colored subjects of Britain in the West Indies 
show the capacity, industry, and intelligence manifested by the Liberiant^, 
whose training was in the school of American servitude ? Nor have the best 
specimens of this tutelage been sent out. Thousands and tens of thousands of 
colored servants in the southern States are church members, instructed iu their 
duties by faithful Christian teachers, and the children are trained in the fear 
and love of God." 

The Rev. Dr. Gumming, in his remarkable work, " The Great 
Tribulation," etc., thus vindicates the right of Brititsh conquest 
and rule in India ; in one of these lectures he says : 

"You recollect the old prediction in Genesis, that 'Japheth shall dwell in the 
tents of Shem, and Ham shall be a bondsman of bondsmen.' That was a curse 
mingled with a blessing pronounced on three races. Now it is not a doubtful 
question at all what these represent. Shem represents the Asiatic ; Japheth the 
European ; and Ham, or Canaan, the African. I do not enter into the proofs. 
But if you turn to the facts of the case as set before us at this moment, Japheth 
now dwells in the tents of Shem. England is at this moment the mistress of 
all India — the most magnificent of the tents of Shem. And it is from this pre- 
diction that I believe England will not lose India ; for the prediction is that it 
is to be hers. And again, we read in another passage that Ham is to be a bonds- 
man of bondsmen. Now, what is the existing fact ? The African is a slave 
still. / avi not justifying the people that make him a slave ; but it is the fact in 
the southern States of America ; it is the fact, too, in other districts of the 
tropical climates ; and a fact that we cannot get rid of, and that even all eiforts 
to prevent have only ended in promoting — that the children of Canaan, or of 
Ham, are bondsmen of bondsmen." 

Now, this eminent Scotch divine could vindicate the bloody 
conquest of India, rejoice that the " tents of Shem" Avere in 
England's grasp, and believe she will hold them. Of course he 
thinks this conquest and occupation right ; and yet he is care- 
ful not to uphold the " bondage of Canaan" in the United States, 
although confessing that it has the same Bible authority. Is this 
Christian charity ? Is it doing to his American brethren, the 
southern slaveholders, as he would expect, as he has the right 
to expect they will do by his countrymen, that is, interpret the 
Bible by the same rule for both Anglo-Saxon nations ? 

If this good Christian minister sees the justice and the mercy 



58 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

of God in placing India under British control, and feels it right 
that two hundred millions of native Asiatics should be kept in 
subjection by British bayonets, because such was the prediction 
of inspired wisdom ; will he affirm that negro slavery in the Uni- 
ted States is sin, when this doom of servitude was pronounced 
on the race now in bondage to us ? and both contingencies are in 
the same sentence of God's Word, and both" are to be blessings ? 
Did the all-merciful God decree and legislate for an institution 
that is " inhuman, pernicious in its character, disastrous to the 
interests of free labor, terrible in its consequences to the bonds- 
man?" 

But many iniquities and wrongs grow out of slavery ? 

Certainly ; wrongs, sins, suiferings, and evils grow out of all 
human institutions, or rather institutions for human beings, be- 
cause men are themselves wrong and sinful. Yet sin is not in 
the condition or relation that human beings, by God's appoint- 
ment, sustain to each other. It is not where men are placed in 
the social scale, but what they do in their place, that makes the 
good or evil in the world. 

Does the systematic degradation, pollution, and oppression of 
the female sex in heathen nations result from the dependent 
condition of woman as wife and mother ? Because this condition 
imposes on her duties different from those of man, and, by the 
ordering of Providence, leaves her to his care and control, does 
he have license for injustice and cruelty towards her ? Is it not 
from man's own depraved nature and the temptations of the 
devil that wickedness springs forth, and not because he has 
duties devolved upon him towards his family ? These duties 
should make him better, and not worse. 

Thus with master and servant, whether hired or bond ; their 
mutual wants and interests should be channels of kindness and 
gratitude towards each other. If bad passions and selfish pro- 
pensities destroy the good in this relation, it is not from the con- 
dition God appointed, but from human selfishness, waywardness, 
and folly. 

But is the free, hired laborer of Great Britain more sure of 
life-long support and comfort, of protection and kindly care, than 
our southern negroes ? Are there not millions of poor, toiling 
slaves in England — ivhite, to be sure, but still slaves of that 
stern master, Want, who grinds heaviest on those least able to 
bear his hard, crushing millstone of pauperism, in that land of 
rank and caste, and wealth and learning — and religion ? Let us 
quote British authorities. 

In England, as we know, there has never been any legislative 
provision for national education. The people — that is, the servile 
class — are doomed to a life of mental darkness, in addition to hard 



THE WORKING PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 59 

labor. The fifty-sixth volume of the " Foreign Quarterly and 
Westminster Review, " page 81, has the following plain statement : 

" In England, one-half of the people can neither read nor write ; and in 
many of our agricultural districts, studded with churches, the peasantry are as 
savage, superstitious, and illiterate as those of Campagna or the Basque prov- 
inces of Spain." 

The descriptions given by Henry Mayhew and Dr. Southwood 
Smith of the abodes and condition of the " London poor" — that 
great Babylon, where the wealth of the world is garnered, and 
'■^ not a slave treads the soiV — are to this import, according to 
Mayhew : 

" Thousands on^ thousands drag out existence — it cannot be called life — in 
utter destitution, worse even than heathenism ; never having heard of the 
Christian's God; caring nothing for the 'sanctity of marriage,' nor heeding 
any ' obligations' the Bible, which they never see, and could not read, enjoins." 

Dr. Southwood Smith says of the abodes of these poor peo- 
ple — we omit his most shocking details : — 

" The result is the same as if twenty or thirty thousand of tbese people were 
annually taken out of these wretched dwellings and put to death. I am now 
speaking of what silently and surely takes place in the metropolis alone, and 
do not include in this estimate the numbers that perish from these causes in the 
other great cities and towns and villages of this kingdom. It has been stated 
that the annual slaughter in England and Wales, from preventable causes of 
typhus fever, which attacks persons in the vigor of life, is double the amount 
of what was suffered in the allied armies in the battle of Waterloo. This is no 
exaggerated statement; this great battle against our people is fought and won 
every year; and yet/ezy take account of it, because it takes place every year."' 

The " Commissioners' Report on the employment of children 
in the Iron Trade," etc., gives the following facts: 

"Their thin hands, toiling at the vice for fourteen, sixteen, and some more 
hours of the twenty-four, yet, with all their toil, clothed in rags, shivering with 
cold, half starved, or fed on offal; beaten, kicked, abused, struck with locks, 
bars, hammers, or other heavy tools; burnt with showers of sparks from red- 
hot irons ; pulled by the hair and ears till the blood runs down, in vain implor- 
ing mercy !" 

Lord Ashley, in his speech in Parliament, thus completes the 
picture of childhood misery among England's poor : 

" You engage children from their earliest years in long, painful, and distress- 
ing employments. When they have approached to manhood, they have out- 
grown their employments. They are turned upon the world, without moral or 
professional education — the business they have learned, pin-making, for in- 
stance, avails them nothing — at fourteen or fifteen. To procure an honest 
livelihood becomes almost impossible. The governors of prisons will tell you, 
the relieving of&cers will tell you, that the vicious resort to plunder and prosti- 
tution ; the rest sink down into hopeless pauperism." 

Such are the results of the " free-labor system" in the only 



60 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

country, England, where " free institutions" are claimed as the 
rule of government. If it be urged that "reforms" have been 
effected since the above reports were made, we might cite from 
British writers hundreds of passages showing the present condi- 
tion of their poor working classes is that of destitution, degrada- 
tion, and distress, far below the standard of life-long comfort 
and security which American slaves are entitled to and actually 
enjoy. The slave has enough to eat ; a home ; tendance when 
sick ; a decent burial. The "• free "laborer" of England cannot, 
by toiling fifteen hours a day, obtain food enough to satisfy 
hunger, nor insure a home where he is cared for in sickness, nor 
have a place of burial, except in a pauper grave. The statistics 
of London mortality show that in 1858 one out of every five of 
deaths in that great city took place in the hospitals and work- 
houses. 

The London "Weekly Dispatch, 1859, in recording the evi- 
dence of the oppressions of "free labor" among the stocking 
weavers, shows that the average rate of wages paid a good 
weaver, Avorking fifteen hours a day, is about $1 50 a week, 
[twenty-five cents a day ;) and the editor very considerately adds : 
" How is it possible that families can be supported on such a 
pittance ? What horrible scenes of destitution are hidden in 
the cellars and garrets of Leicestershire ?" 

In the Edinburgh Review, April, 185^, it is stated that the 
" wages of housemaids ia five or six pounds a year ;" on an ave- 
rage, $25 a year. There are 40,000 of these poor white slaves 
in free Great Britain, nearly all of whom die in the almshouse. 

In 1859 the Rev. Mr. Pillington, chaplain to Walsingham, 
Bridewell, in the county of Norfolk, records that " 240 prisoners 
were committed to the Bridewell, and of these 121 could not 
read a letter in a book, 157 could not write their names, 57 
could not say a word of the Lord's prayer, and 84 could say it 
but very imperfectly ; 61 could not tell who Jesus Christ was, 
or mention how or for what purpose he died, and were, to all 
intents and purposes, heathens." He then draws, as well he 
may, a gloomy picture of " the awful, almost incredible igno- 
rance of the agricultural classes in this district of Norfolk." 

We have not called up these images of woe and wickedness, 
nor sought out these evidences of the evils and miseries of " free 
labor" in the only "free country" of Europe, to palliate or ex- 
cuse any of the evils or miseries in our own land. We seek only 
to illustrate this solemn truth of history and present experience 
— that where slavery is not, by statute or name, permitted, and 
negroes are not found, even there " inevitable circumstances," or 
"free competition," or abuses of power will bring, aye, have 



FREE AND SLAVE LABOR. 61 

brought and now keep, a certain class of ivJiite persons, the 
poorest, most abject and helpless of the people, in bondage to 
MASTERS of their oivn color and race ; and that " free labor," so 
called, has modes of subjugation which keep its servants in igno- 
rance and inferiority, in want and wretchedness, in servility and 
sin, far, far more aggravated, absolute, and unrelenting than any 
of the forms of evil and oppression which negro slavery, in its 
worst abuses of power, has, as yet, developed in the United 
States. 

This would necessarily be the result, if the Creator and Ruler 
of all men has appointed, as the Bible declares, the white race to 
lead or govern, and the black race to subjection and tutelage ; 
then the latter would be benefited and elevated by a state of life 
which would deteriorate, which does deteriorate, (when com- 
pelled,) and degrade the former. 

And yet no degradation can beat down the Japhetic soul to a 
level with the other races. The Anglo-Saxon stock of the white 
race has this instinct of superior power most perfectly developed 
of any people, and never more distinctly shown than by English- 
men in India. 

Let us take an individual daguerreotype — a real John Bull of 
the people. He may be one of the most degraded of his type — 
an ignorant, brutal rulEan ; he may have been reared in the dark, 
dirty dwelling of starvation and sin ; seen his drunken father 
beat and bruise his more drunken mother ; and worse, he may 
have abused and beaten his own good wife, his little helpless 
children, and finally deserted them all ; — which shows a man of 
the white race in his lowest state of animal selfishness, of moral 
degradation. But there is a lower depth even for him — the lack 
of knowledge of the true God. This poor soldier has never been 
taught to read, never instructed in the love of the Saviour ; he 
has grown up heathenlike in the darkness of his soul, never 
taking the name of Christ on his lips but in derision and blas- 
phemy ; he is " living without God and without hope in the 
world." 

Bat he has been taught obedience to martial law, respect for 
superior knowledge, reverence for the Bible, and love and loyalty 
to his queen and country. He is true to the flag. He believes 
in British right to India. He has faith that his race are to im- 
prove, teach, and govern other races, either by the sword or the 
ship, by the plow or the pen ; and this birthright makes him 
brave in action, strong in labor, enduring in hardship, persever- 
ing in purpose. He is ready to obey his rightful leader, to meet 
the foe, to mount the breach ; and though his pay is but a shil- 
ling a day, and his name will never be heard of, yet he fights — 



62 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

and lie would fall — with a shout of victory, like a hero. He is 
an Anglo-Saxon. 

Now, place that poor, ignorant soldier face to face with the 
dark-skinned man of India, no matter of what rank — a Brahmin 
of the highest caste, of the greatest learning, clothed in the most 
gorgeous apparel, wearing all the medals of merit and badges of 
official dignity that can be hung upon him. The white Briton 
would look down with contempt on the black Brahmin, and count 
him an inferior. 

Is not the soldier right in his conclusions, if not in his feel- 
ino-s ? Compare the Anglo-Saxon with the Hindoo. As well 
compare the lordly lion with the creeping jackal, the war-horse, 
"his neck clothed with thunder," and the servile ass, " crouching 
down between two burdens." 

" God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents 
of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant." 

What, then, becomes of that much-abused abstraction — "all 
men are born free and equal?" Let us consider it in the next 
part. 



THE DOGMA AND ITS RESULTS. 63 



PART IV. 

THE DOGMA AND ITS RESULTS. 

" We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created 
EQUAL ; that they "weke endowed by their Creator with certain inalien- 
able rights ; THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAP- 
PINESS." 

This dogma is copied from the Declaration of Independence, 
framed and hung up in the Old Hall, at Philadelphia, where the 
Congress of " Seventy-six" held its sessions. 

The " Declaration" was written by one of the earnest patriots 
of that patriotic time, whose loyalty to his country was sincere 
and self-sacrificing ; it was acceded to by the wise and brave 
" signers" of that potent parchment which boldly threw down 
the gauntlet before the then most powerful king and government 
on earth, and, appealing to " the opinions of mankind" for the 
justice of their cause, with " a firm reliance on Divine Provi- 
dence," led the people of the British colonies of North America 
to independence and nationality. 

There is no question of the wisdom, the truth, or the justice 
of the " Declaration of Independence" in all its specifications of 
facts and deductions of consequences ; nor do we controvert its 
great political importance, nor its mighty agency in the cause of 
human freedom. It rung the knell of tyranny ; it kindled the 
torch of liberty ; it gave hope to the hopeless, and opened the 
way of progress for the people. 

But the beginning of the second paragraph has one sentence, 
containing thirty-five w^ords, woven into a tissue of philosophical 
dogmas, that we wish to consider candidly and solemnly, as their 
importance on the destiny of our own country, the destiny of the 
world, indeed, is great and solemn. 

First dogma : " All men are created {or horn) equal." 

Is this true ? Is there a person who ever believed it ? ever 
acted upon it ? ever could act upon it ? Those men who sub- 
scribed to it certainly did not. This dogma has no place in the 
Constitution of the United States, adopted twelve years after 
the " Declaration" was subscribed. The Constitution was framed 
for "free persons;" the right to hold "other persons" (mean- 
ing negroes, and all born slaves) in servitude is fully, fairly, and 



64 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

unequivocally acknowledged and provided for ; and free citizens 
are, themselves, placed under conditions that show all men were 
not considered " equal." For instance, in article 11, clause 5, 
it is provided — thus : " No person, except a natural-horn citizen, 
or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of 
this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President, etc.;" 
and every article of the Constitution has similar instances of 
restrictions, qualifications, and conditions on this dogma of 
equality. 

So, also, has the constitution of every State in the Union 
restrictions and conditions proving that all mankind are not 
created equal, in the opinion of any legislators who have as yet 
framed the fundamental institutions of our government. 

The women of the Republic, one-half of the people, free citi- 
zens, free white citizens, the women of these United States, have 
never, by any constitution-maker or legislator, been considered 
"equal" with men; entitled to the same political rights; to an 
equal share in the government ; nor has any sane man, in any 
country, age, or nation, ever advocated such measure of equality 
for the sexes. 

In the preceding parts of this work, we have shown that Bible 
authority has settled this question, giving man — not woman — 
the right to rule ; that this Bible authority has, far more ex- 
plicitly and decidedly, given one race of men the right to rule 
over and hold in subjection another race of men ; also, that his- 
torical authority justifies this right through and by the laws and 
customs of every nation. Every free people, where republican 
governments have been established, and man has attained his 
highest development, have held slaves. 

JEquality of conditions among men, therefore, is not necessary 
to civil freedom and human progress in this life ; nor is it made, 
by Divine Wisdom, which is the supreme law for all created 
beings, necessary to moral goodness and the salvation of the 
soul in the life to come. 

The common sense and common faith of the Anglo-Saxon 
race were like reins of brass and hooks of steel, holding the car 
of popular sovereignty in our Republic true to its course of civil 
and religious liberty, in conformity to the charter of Divine 
Wisdom ; that ten talents are worth more than one talent, and 
require more in return ; that the Creator " made men to differ ;" 
that " there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit ;" in 
short, that the rational as well as divine principle of human per- 
fectibility is this : Unity in diversity ; not equality in uni- 
formity. 

Why, then, was not this dogma of the " Declaration" in har- 



THE DOGMA AND ITS RESULTS. '65 

mony with tliese truths ? Because the man who wrote that im- 
portant paper was a philanthropist ; not a believer in the Word 
of God ; not a Christian, but a disciple of the French philosophy 
of the eighteenth century. He wrote and desired to legislate 
for his order. 

The idea that abolishing kings, priests, and prescriptive au- 
thorities would remedy the sore evils, abuses, and miseries of 
society and of the people was deeply cherished and, we doubt 
not, honestly advocated by the then most acute intellect of 
Europe ; men of the most daring and dazzling genius promul- 
gated the idea ; men of the keenest wit and most profound 
learning were among its earnest expounders. 

Man in his primal state was their ideal ; man in his natural 
rights ; amenable to none ; a law to himself ; a king over nature ; 
— these were the dreams of that philosophy which, under the 
dark eclipse of popish superstition, had never enjoyed the living 
light of Bible truth, which shows the only way of man to liberty 
is through obedience to the laws of God, and the only way of 
happiness is the way of righteousness. 

The author of the "Declaration of Independence" had had 
this Bible source of knowledge around him ; its light had not 
warmed his heart to love religious truth, but it had modified his 
philosophical opinions. He did not, like Voltaire, hate the 
Bible ; he only disbelieved it. Mr. Jefferson was not an infidel, 
not an atheist ; he acknowledged the Creator, but did not need 
the Bedeemer. Man could not create, but, according to this 
theory of equal independence, he could sustain himself, and direct 
his own way. 

To be " equal is to be alike in all things ; not superior or in- 
ferior to another, having the same or a similar age, rank, station, 
office, talents, strength," etc. ; this is the definition of the lexi- 
cographers. 

-Now, were there ever two human beings created, or born, (only 
two persons were created ; these certainly were " not alike in all 
things;" not even the most liberal philosopher would hazard such 
an assertion,) who were "alike in all things," or equal, exactly 
equal, in anything ? We need bring no arguments to prove this ; 
common sense and universal experience show diversities, varie- 
ties, inequalities, differences among men of the same race, and 
all more broadly marked among the three great races. Nor 
would equal modes of training, or equal political rights, or equal 
privileges of any or of all kinds, ever make men alike or equal. 
Take the endowment of physical strength for an example, as 
this is obvious to all. We put women out of the question on 
this test, as they seem to have been overlooked in the dogma. 
5 



66 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

Are men equal in physical strength ? This quality has always 
been found absolutely necessary to sustain human rights, which 
must rest on force or power of some sort. Physical force is that 
power which, among men, has been and must be evoked when 
other sorts fail. One obvious sign of this power is size. " Are 
all men created equal" in size? Some invention more powerful 
than the bed of Procrustes to establish this equality would be 
required before the Laplander and the Patagonian would be 
equal. 

Second dogma : " All men are endowed by their Creator 
with certain inalienable rights." Inalienable means " that which 
cannot be legally or justly taken away or transferred to 
another." 

Is there any evidence that man has such rights ? — rights which 
cannot be forfeited justly, as the life of a murderer would be ? — 
rights which cannot lawfully be transferred to another, as mar- 
riage transfers them ? — rights independent of God's will, which 
He cannot lawfully and justly take away ? If man has such 
rights, or any one of them ; if, for instance, he can keep his own 
life by his own volition, then, in that exercise of his " inalienable 
right" he is equal with God. Will any sane person attempt to 
sustain such a dogma by proof? 

Third dogma : " Men have an inalienable rigid to life." 

Where is the evidence of this right or gift, and what is its 
worth as man possesses it ? Can he lengthen his own life beyond 
the term of God's appointment, or change the day of his doom ? 
Why, then, does the span so vary, from one second of time to a 
hundred or more years ? Would not the majority of men prefer 
long life ? 

But, you say, " this is not the meaning of the philosopher ; 
he meant that life should not be unjustly taken away by human 
authority or custom ; that human life should be held sacred." 
Very good ; all this had been settled and secured, by Bible au- 
thority, in the charter given to Noah, and in the decalogue 
written four thousand years before the "Declaration" was 
penned. The sixth commandment is worth a shipload of philo- 
sophical dogmas in preventing murder. 

Fourth dogma: " 3Ia7i has an inalienable right to liberty." 

What is the nature of this liberty? and when can he have it ? 
Certainly not when first entering on existence. He is met there 
by his own utter helplessness, and the soft shield of his mother's 
love — both more fettering than gaoler or handcuffs. They bind 
him in swaddling clothes and long clothes ; then comes the au- 
thority of nurse, doctor, schoolmaster, tutor, professor, all exer- 



THE DOGMA AND ITS RESULTS. 67 

cising temporary rule over the man-child, whose parents have 
heaven-delegated authority to control his will and compel his 
obedience. 

Mr. Jefferson did not intend to annul this divine law of pa- 
rental right, founded on responsibility, to rule over the household, 
holding the son in subjection while teaching him his duty to God 
and showing him the right way. Nature also teaches that man 
should not be wholl}^ responsible for his own acts till he reaches 
his full physical growth, and is able to support himself. This age 
the experience and wisdom of Christian men have fixed at twenty- 
one years. Is he then free ? Does he clothe himself in his 
" inalienable right to liberty," as the young Roman put on the 
toga, and go forth to do what and as he pleases ? 

Suppose a young man should believe in this dogma, and com- 
mence to act accordingly, — will he find a free field, a wide scope 
in which to test these theories ? Would he not be met at every 
step of his progress, and controlled, too, by laws and statutes he 
never voted for ; customs he despises, and never helped to form ; 
restrictions on his personal freedom, prohibitions on his desires, 
vetoes on his cherished plans ? Will he not find his wishes 
thwarted, his hopes dashed with doubts, ay, his right to enter- 
tain such hopes questioned or denied by others, " inalienable- 
right-to-liberty" men, who hold similar dogma patents with his, 
because uniformity is the badge of equality ? 

Who shall decide between these rivals ? No law of God can 
interfere if man has an inalienable right to do as he pleases. 
Nature, if honestly interpreted, would settle the question ; still she 
is a dumb oracle that, as each worshiper usually understands, 
has decided in his ow^n favor. 

But every sane person knows that he must, when enjoying the 
benefits and blessings of domestic, social, and civil institutions, 
submit to a diminution of solitary liberty, of personal freedom. 

Then why ever put forth the false dogma of " an inalienable 
right to liberty ?" — a right of which it is even pretended a man 
cannot divest himself if he would ; he may take his own life by 
suicide, but he cannot sell his personal services for life to another 
man ; this would be slavery. So he must keep his personal 
liberty, though it should prove a very bottle imp to him, as all 
fallacies do trouble and torment those who hold them. 

Why not say that a man's right to civil liberty, and all other 
rights, are based on conditions ; that rights always have corre- 
sponding responsibilities ; that the possession of ten talents im- 
poses the obligation to use these well, and gain more than would 
he required of him who possessed five talents ? 



08 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

Fifth dogma : There is another inalienable right — " the pur- 
suit of happiness." 

Can men catch it ? is the real question. What is the worth 
of our right to run after a rainbow ? Is happiness to be caught 
like the butterfly ? or rather, must it not be developed in the 
disposition, nurtured by wise instruction and patient self-culture, 
then perfected by faith in the good and resistance against the 
evil in and around us ; as the oak gathers strength by wrestling 
with the storm, and is then perfected by heaven-sent blessings 
of dews and sunbeams ? 

There lives not an Anglo-Saxon man worthy of his lineage 
who does not place happiness in character and conduct rather 
than in condition and class. There is not a good purpose of the 
heart, nor a grand hope of the soul, nor a great thought of the 
mind, but witnesses to these truths of Holy Writ : " Godliness 
is profitable unto all things ;" and " sin is a reproach to any 
people." Therefore the doing of duty makes the man, ay more, 
makes the hero or the saint, and must make the happiness of 
rational, responsible men. There is no other way. If we do 
our duty we shall have our share of happiness. Duty often lies 
in low places, but Heaven is nearest us when we most feel the 
need of God's help. 

That men, fallible, mortal, sinful men have " an inalienable 
right to the pursuit of happiness," is not true, because it would 
be impossible for all to act upon it without doing evil in the 
competition. No individual man, nor class of men, nor nation 
of men, have the unqualified, "inalienable right" to the pursuit 
of any purpose or object, if such pursuit violates the rights and 
destroys the happiness of other men. There must, somewhere, 
be found power to restrain injustice and punish crimes, or the 
race would perish. 

Let us take an example. There is a class of men peculiarly 
fond of warmth and idleness. To bask in the sunshine through 
the day, and sleep with heads near the fire through the night ; 
no task, no care, no purpose in life, except sensuous enjoyment ; 
these ideas seem as yet to make up their sum of happiness. Nor 
is the class small. It numbers, perhaps, one hundred millions 
of people; they fill a continent — they form a race. 

Now, if this race has an " inalienable right to liberty," which 
neither man nor even God can abridge, and " an inalienable 
right" to pursue happiness in this way of idleness, it follows, 
under the equal rights system, that all men have a similar privi- 
lege of being idle, if they choose. Should they do this, would 
not the earth become again a waste wilderness, and men heathen 
savaces; and die out, (like the free negroes in Canada and the 



THE DOGxMA AND ITS RESULTS. 69 

northern States,) except in tropical climates, where nature sup- 
plies food, on which human life can be sustained, " cheap as 
beasts," without care or culture? 

Take an individual man : has he an " inalienable right to the 
pursuit of happiness?" should his notion of it lead him into con- 
duct that would destroy the happiness of his parents ? of his 
wife and children ? put in peril the happiness, that is the safety, 
of his country and his fellow-citizens ? Has a white man the 
right to live in idleness when able to work, and throw the burden 
of maintaining his family on the public? on other laboring men ? 
The world is sustained by hard work, civilized by hard work, 
and it must be hard work that shall make our portion, our glo- 
rious heritage, fit to be called the land of Washington. 

"Subdue the world and reign over it," was the command of 
Jehovah to man. 

" If any will not work, neither shall he eat," was the in- 
junction of the apostle to the Christian believer. 

" Work — you have strength, reason, feeling ; work, and obey 
the whispers of conscience, if you want the good" — is the voice 
of nature to those who will hear her. 

Man has never been left at liberty to mark out his own way, 
to pursue his own devices. If he were thus left, his own destruc- 
tion would inevitably follow. His utter foolishness, wherever he 
attempts to play the god, is shown in the palpable absurdity of 
the dogmas we have been considering, none of which have ever 
been proven nor even practiced, nor can they ever be proven or 
practiced while " the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." 

We come then to the only conclusion that reason, experience, 
and revelation justifies. 

What God has appointed is best for humanity. He has defined 
the rights and prescribed the duties of each and all men ; none 
save the Creator has the inalienable right to make absolute rules 
for mankind ; and there is no evidence in nature or revelation 
showing that He ever endowed man with an " inalienable right 
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." All these good gifts 
depend, day by day, on God's will, as the earth depends on the 
sun for light and warmth. 

Therefore, the dogmas we have quoted do not contain " self- 
evident truths," but specious falsities. Any attempt to prove 
the first assertion, "that all men are created or born equal," 
would have shown its shallowness ; as it stands without a reason, 
it seemed deep, as dark waters do, because they have not been 
fathomed. The other sequences, flowing from this dark, wave- 
less pool, passed unquestioned, all partaking of the same char- 
acteristics — unbelief in the God of the Bible ; man omnipotent, 
or sufficient for himself. 



70 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

Yet strange to say, this infidel philosophy — liberal they call it 
now — had no influence in the organic formation of the general 
government, nor any place in the hearts or minds of the people 
in whose name the Constitution was ordained and established. 

Thus reads the preamble : 

" We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure doinestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro- 
mote the general tcelfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of 
America.^' 

Here "union," "justice," "domestic tranquillity," "common 
defence," " general welfare," are all enumerated, before the 
" blessings of liberty" are even named ; and then liberty is not 
claimed as an inalienable right, but "to be secured" as a Messing. 
From what source do blessings come ? From one's self? or from 
the "Most Highest?" 

" The people of the United States" were the men and women 
who owned the property of the country, and had, by their own 
efforts and sujBferings and the blessing of God, won, in each 
State, their own independence ; and then, by their own chosen 
representatives, united in forming the Constitution, as " the 
people" — thus making a nation of ivhite free men and white 
free tvomen. 

No black person was a citizen of any State. Neither the right 
nor the justice to hold property in negroes had been questioned, 
though its expediency had been doubted by Mr. Jeiferson and 
some of his philosophical friends ; but that slavery was a sin, 
per se, had never been even suggested. 

There was not then, probably, a man in New England but 
would have agreed with us that the only way to arrive at the 
true knowledge of human wisdom, applied to govern men, and 
its worth, is to compare it with divine wisdom, as revealed to us 
in the Bible. The decalogue and the special moral statutes of 
the Old Testament, with the precepts, parables, examples, and 
doctrines of the New, are the primal source and only sure founda- 
tion of equal justice between man and man, and the only true 
guide for legislators, jurists, and executive authority. 

Whenever laws made by men, heathen as well as Christian, 
approximate to this divine standard of moral law — the nearer the 
better — they are good and wise. Such laws are found in heathen 
codes. Greek, Koman, Chinese, Mahometan have each one, 
made by the light of nature, righteous enactments, agreeing 
with God's laws, which have borne good fruit, producing what- 
ever is, or has been, beneficial to the people living under them. 



THE CONSTITUTION. 71 

The laws, that is the fundamental status, of all Christian 
governments are, ostensibly, based on the authority of God's 
Word. Obedience to law is one of the pillars of divine truth, 
and just judgment is the condition that sustains power. 

The Constitution of the United States is, however, the 
most perfectly Biblical of any government ever framed by men. 
Our republic is based on the moral laws of the Hebrew common- 
wealth, and, moreover, draws its life and power of living from 
the Gospel. 

"-Do unto others as ye would they should, do unto you.'''^ 

This is the only principle of popular rights that can be perma- 
nent in justice, and thus sustain republican institutions as the hent 
government for rational, responsible men. 

'■''Render unto Oxsar the things that are Ceesars." 

This is the only principle of authority that can be consistently 
and safely acted upon in a republican government like our own, 
where power is moral, not military ; representative, not personal. 
No man among us is born to official station. No pomp exalts 
power. No public service nor office claims immunity from public 
censure. Therefore the people, by their prompt obedience to 
the Constitution, and the laws in accordance with it, must dig- 
nify their government, and, by giving honor to the Chief Magis- 
trate, confer honor on their country and on themselves. 

^^ Mender U7ito God the things that are Grod's." 

Here is the secret of our wonderful progress as a nation — the 
source from whence we must continue to draw our future great- 
ness. All subjects look up to their monarch, as their mentor, 
protector, and guide. We, free citizens of the United States, 
who allow no arbitrary distinctions of rank or of office to become 
settled and hereditary, must have some higher standard of great- 
ness. We must, if we look up at all, see the clear light of God's 
goodness ; for no dazzling crown of man's workmanship turns 
the eye away from heaven. We must worship God ! As a 
people we have worshiped the true God, for the Bible has been 
the People's Book. 

" Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the hand of 
peace.'' 

" To form a more perfect union'' was the great object of the 
framers of the Constitution. They did form it, uniting, as it 



* If this command of the Saviour is to be interpreted to mean that the master 
should free his slave because the master would not like to be a slave, then it 
must equalize all other conditions of life. It must mean communism. The rich 
man must give up his gold ; every distinction must be leveled. Does the precept 
mean this ? Answer, ye rich abolitionists. 



72 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

does, the three elements of power to produce the greatest good 
to humanity, exactly analogous to the pattern of the same powers 
or activities in the secular government and union of the Hebrew 
people. 

They, like us, were a free people, a working people. They 
had, as we have, heathen slave laborers, descendants of Canaan, 
at the base of their social system ; then came free Hebrew 
laborers and office-holders, belonging to the same class, and 
chosen by the people, as ours are ; then the priesthood, an order 
of divine appointment, interpreters of the law of God, standing 
to that chosen race as the Bible stands to us. " The Gospel 
brought life and immortality to light," teaching all men to be- 
lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, and not in sacrifices 
made at altars of stone by human hands. Therefore the Bible 
is now in the place of the High Priest, to make known the law 
of God. 

The Constitution of the United States, providing, as it does, 
for the Union, not only of all the States that formed it, but for 
all that may ever desire to unite under its conditions, is the most 
wonderful monument of human wisdom, righteously exerted for 
human happiness, that the history of man exhibits. It is mod- 
elled after the pattern of divine justice, truth, and love drawn 
from God's works and word, and made practicable in personal 
rights, State sovereignties, and national authority. 

The Constitution secures to the American people motives 
and opportunities for every good work. It places before every 
individual under its sway better means of happiness and im- 
provement than can be found united or attainable under any 
other form of government. It is the exponent of the plan of the 
Creator, unity in diversity, harmony in unity. 

But, as the universe is upheld and controlled by laws that 
must be obeyed, or the whole course of nature would be broken, 
and the planets, rushing from their orbits, in the furious onset of 
unbridled disobedience, be hurled together in fierce conflict and 
destroyed ; so the conditions of our Constitution must be 
obeyed, or the Union will be broken up, and whirlwinds of an- 
archy and fires of evil passions will sweep over and desolate our 
now beautiful and blessed land. 

There is but one pretext offered by the rebellious to justify 
their war on the Constitution, namely, that it does injustice to 
the black race by permitting slavery. 

We have proven, as every true believer in the Bible must ac- 
knowledge, that this condition of the black race is the appoint- 
ment of the Creator. The only question to solve is this : Does 
the Constitution injure the negro? 



THE CONSTITUTION. 73 

In the preceding pages we have shown how greatly the slave 
from Africa — all negroes, except the Liberians, are slaves there — 
was benefited bj being transferred to this country, even under 
colonial rule; but the Constitution essentially elevated the con- 
dition of the slave by elevating the condition of the master from 
subject to free citizen, and giving 'white masters the right to vote 
for their colored servants. If these had ever been considered 
property, in the "chattel" meaning of the term, this clause in 
the Constitution lifted them at once to the rank of persons, 
gave them political weight, and brought them into that condition 
of improvement which free institutions confer on all living under 
them — as the Gospel brings its light and brotherhood wherever 
it is taught.* 

But the Gospel did not abolish slavery. Is it to be expected 
that our Constitution should prohibit a condition of life which 
Jesus Christ allowed, aye, justified ? He pictures the good 
master as ordering the " wicked bond-servant to be sold, with 
his wife and children." Did not He, who sees the end from the 
beginning, know that, within eighteen hundred years from the 
day he put forth that parable, there would be urged an " irre- 
pressible conflict" between belief and unbelief, between good and 
evil, in which this very question of personal servitude would 
dominate, and on it be suspended the earthly destiny of mil- 
lions, aye, hundreds of millions, of human beings ? If slavery 
had been a wrong or a sin, would not Jesus Christ have rebuked 
it? 

We need nothing more. The Bible settles the question. Free 
labor and slave labor have been placed, side by side, in the same 
community, by the authority of the Creator. Both classes of men 
were then benefited by this arrangement. Those demagogues 
who deny this, deny the truth of the Bible, or the wisdom of 
God. When and wherever the institution of slavery is arranged 
after the letter and spirit of the Bible, then and there it will 



* Slavery in the United States is not of the kind described in Webster's 
Dictionary as involuntary — ^'^ a person placed under the absolute command of an- 
other, without his own consent." It may be a true definition of Roman slavery, 
to say its power was " absolute ;" but neither Hebrew bond service nor Ameri- 
can negro servitude ever had or ever exercised this absolute power of mastership 
over the persons owned as slaves. 

The religious power, the omnipotent Jehovah, who declares "all souls are 
mine," has regulated the service of -the bondman. The slave is to have rest 
on holy days, and instruction in his duties to God and man ; and the master is 
boun(J to fulfill his own duties to God and man — in which category his own 
servants are included. Evei-y definition or description of slavery is untrue, so 
far as regards the institution in the United States, which represents it as un- 
qualified tyranny, or the absolute rule of one person over another person. 



74 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

benefit both races, the white as well as the black. We must admit 
this, or give up the Bible as truth, or else charge God with fool- 
ishness?* The more civilized and better educated the free 
laborers of a State are, the more the slave population will im- 
prove, if the conditions of each class shall be justly, kindly, and 
strictly maintained. 

Two lessons of Bible truth must be prominently set forth in 
these conflicts of political parties. If we can convince those who 
have been led astray by the sophistries of infidel, alias liberal 
philosophy, that they are accusing God's law of injustice, of 
wickedness, when denouncing slavery as sin, then this strife of 
Christian brethren will cease, and our country will be safe. 

The Christians of America can save the Constitution and the 
Union ; therefore, we reiterate these truths, and place them in 
different lights that the diversity of minds renders necessary. 
All have not equal powers of vision for truth any more than for 
natural objects. So we will set forth our two additional lessons 
of truth : 

1st. The Japhetic race was appointed master, not servant ; 
therefore, no portion of the race can suffer servitude without in- 
jury to the whole race. This is the reason or principle that has 
freed white slaves all the world over, and is now setting free the 
serfs of Russia. The white man was designed for freedom ; as 
we have before said, is worth most when free. 

2d. The Hametic race was doomed to inferiority, a portion of 
this race to bond-service ; therefore, the Almighty designed the 
black man should be improved by a state of life in which the 
white man would deteriorate. 



•* " In the free labor system of social organization, the family is the unit — 
the family, composed of parent and children. In the slaveholding system of 
organization, the household is the unit — the household being composed of the 
family and of the slaves, who are united to the head of that family by the obli- 
gations of ownership, and the yet gentler ties of constant intercourse and 
familiar association. In the free States, these families are divided into two 
classes — the capitalists and the laboring class. The laboring class sells its ser- 
vices for a limited period to the capital class for the means of subsistence. 
That bargain is hard or easy, in proportion as the supply of labor is greater 
or less, in proportion to the demand for it, on the part of capital ; and in periods 
of scarcity and of commercial pressure, the bargain on the part of the laborer 
is often hard indeed — it giving him frequently not enough for comfortable sub- 
sistence, and sometimes starving him out altogether. In the southern system 
of society, no such difficulty can occur. There the laborer is sure of shelter, of 
raiment, and of food ; for, if the profits of the master do not enable him to give 
him these, the master must use his capital; and if neither his profits nor his 
capital will allow him to do it, then he must transfer him to some one else; who 
is able to provide him with these comforts ; and thus, in any event, the laborer 
is assured of the physical comforts and necessaries of life." — Speech of Senator 
Hunter. 



THE PRINCIPLES OF "SEVENTY-SIX." 75 

Let man's philosophy do what it may to hinder, yet God's 
purpose will stand and be accomplished. One branch of Japheth 
now dwells in the tents of Shem : the descendants of Canaan are 
" servants of servants" to another branch of Japheth. 

Is this the result of chance ? or the ordering of Divine Provi- 
dence ? Is it a " compact with the devil" or the wisdom of 

God which has placed the negro slaves in the United States ? 

prospering the work of their hands, blessing them with the light 
of the Gospel, changing them from wicked idolaters to happy 
worshipers of the true God, from idle, ignorant, barbarians, 
slaves to barbarians, into useful, respectable servants of Christian 
masters, whose interest and duty are both imperatively compel- 
ling them to " do those things which are just and equal" towards 
their dependant people ? 

It is not then equality^ hut unity in diversity, that is the 
principle to be fixed and acted on in our political dogmas, if 
we would deal justly, and secure the greatest happiness of 'the 
greatest number. None, save the Almighty, can make the hap- 
piness of all. 

To show more clearly the difference between the dogmas of 
Mr. Jefferson and the principles that guided the men of " seventy- 
six," and formed the basis of our National as well as State Gov- 
ernments, let us eliminate from the laws and constitutions 
made by those men a true formula to supply the place of his 
dogmas. 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all mankind are born 

UNDER conditions ; THAT ALL ARE EQUAL UNDER THE SAME CONDITIONS ; THAT 

THE Creator has given to all certain natural rights : among which are 

LIFE, liberty of CONSCIENCE, AND INSTRUCTION THAT SHALL FIT THEM FOR FREE- 
DOM AND THE ENJOYMENT OF HAPPINESS." 

First proposition: All mankind are created or horn under 
conditions. 

^ A finite being must, of necessity, be thus created and con- 
tinued. None: save the Infinite can be unconditioned. 

Second : All mankind are equal under the same conditions. 

The woman was created for the man, to form together, in the 
union of marriage, one complete humanity. No differences of 
rights Avere predicated between the sexes by the Creator ; but, 
after the fall, the subjection of the wife to her husband was 
promulgated. Thus was established imity in diversity and har- 
mony in unity as the law of this humanity, which represented 
all mankind. 

The man, under his condition, has the right to love, reverence, 
and obedience from his wife ; the wife, under her condition, has 
the right to love, honor, and protection from her husband. All 



76 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

husbands have equal rights ; all wives have equal rights. It is 
their coudition of marriage. Will any Christian legislator con- 
trovert these axioms, or desire to have them subverted ?_ Would 
it be more conducive to human happiness and the real improve- 
ment of mankind if man and woman were placed equal in all 
rio-hts ? We say, no ! What God has ordained is best for hu- 
manity. 

The child, under its condition, has the right to love, nurture, 
instruction. All children have, by the law of nature, which is 
the voice of God, this equal right. But have children the right 
to fix the condition and manner of their life ? Or have legis- 
lators authority to decree that all children shall be treated and 
trained exactly alike ? made equal \n q\\ things? None save a 
godless socialist ever entertained such an impossible plan, such 
a destructive idea. 

3Iaster and servant {or slave) are conditions of two classes of 
men ; conditions imposed by the Most Highest as surely as 
the conditions of marriage and of the household are fixed by His 
authority. 

The condition of the master is to give employment, support, 
and protection to his servant, to rule over him in justice and 
mercy, and teach him knowledge that is good for him.* The 
condition of the servant is obedience, service, and faithfulness. 
The servant has the equal right to claim fulfillment of duties from 
his master that the master has to claim duties of his servant, 
whether bond or free. Unity in benefiting each other ; diversity 
in the manner and the opportunities ; these are the conditions of 
improvement for both classes. Both are responsible to God. 

This second proposition is very important : — " All men are 
equal under the same conditions." From this was drawn the 
principle that justified the revolt of "the British colonies in 
North America," and gave them the right to "independence." 
The American colonists were born British subjects, entitled to 
all the rights and immunities of this condition, liable to no other 
duties or impositions. To these the colonists willingly submitted. 

The false dogmas that all " men are born equal," and have 
" an inalienable right to liberty" had never been dreamed of, 
except by infidel philosophers, never put forth by any patriot or 
statesman, or people ; nor did the colonists of America believe in 
them. Every British subject then, as now, bowed to the supre- 
macy of Parliament and the majesty of law ; but the House of 
Commons only could levy taxes on the people, and the people 



* The servant has always the right to liberty of conscience, and the master 
who does not teach or cause others to teach his servants their duties to God as 
the Bible sets these forth, is foolish as well as sinful. The Bible is the Book 
for all. 



THE DOGMAS. 77 

had the right to be represented in the House of Commons, This 
was the condition, viohited towards his subjects in North Amer- 
ica, which put George III. in the category of a tyrant when he 
sanctioned the tax of three pence per pound on tea ; and it was 
the viohition of this condition that sustained the right of rebel- 
lion for the revolted colonies and the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. 

Read over that important document, and search if you can 
find any grievances set forth, or causes for the separation of the 
colonies urged, which have reference to that portion of the pre- 
amble, (we have styled dogmas,) enunciated as ''^self-evident.'' 
You will search in vain. 

These dogmas, then, did not aid the cause of the colonies in 
their struggle for independence ; nor did they aid in framing our 
national Government. We have shown that not one of these was 
incorporated in the Constitution. The false cannot aid the true ; 
whatever eifect it has is to weaken the right and mar the o-ood. 

It was so with these dogmas. They blinded their author, clear- 
minded as he was, patriot as he was, truly as he loved his coun- 
try and loved liberty, he was so blinded by their sophistry, that 
he stumbled over without heeding the great foundation rock or 
principle of civil liberty which, fully enjoyed under divine sanc- 
tion, effectually secures equal justice and progressive improve- 
ment to all mankind. This God-given principle is " liberty of 
conscience." 

So completely was the idea of this principle lost sight of by Mr. 
Jefferson, that in his " Declaration" not a trace appears ; nor 
was it recognized in the Constitution as submitted to the people ; 
but when their voice was heard demanding this right, then it 
was added as an after thought, and what should have been the 
head became tail. 

Secure this right — "liberty of conscience" — to a people; then 
secure the right of " instruction that shall fit them for freedom 
and the enjoyment of happiness." Place the Bible in their 
hands, and they will work out their own best improvement, ac- 
cording to condition and character. 

We include in this liberty of conscience the knowledge of the 
true God, as the Bible discloses it. No other system of religion 
gives this liberty ; no other system harmonizes with republican 
freedom. We must have the Bible, or we cannot understand the 
nature and limits of this liberty, any more than a blind man can 
comprehend what is light. 

Give this liberty of conscience to the people of Europe, and 
how long would the Pope dominate in Rome, or Austria's despo- 
tism be endured, or other forms of absolutism have rule ? Give 



78 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

these same weapons of divine power to the intelligent Japanese, 
how long would their " government continue a complete tyranny?" 
Everywhere the good fruits of these principles would be manifest 
in good for humanity. 

Not so with the dogmas of Mr. Jefferson. They stood on our 
" Bill of Rights" like the circle of Stonehenge, that nobody 
knows wdiat to do with ; the stones support nothing, but they are 
massive, and have been a temple of worship. The dogmas gave 
no support to any known truth; but they enur^ciated strength in 
man. Their vagueness, moreover, gave scope to imagination on 
which to build a magnificent temple of worship to the Goddess 
OF Reason. Man must worship somewhere. 

They did build such a temple. Not in our land ; we had the 
open Bible ; the true God was worshipped here. But France, 
revolutionary France, where the ideas originated, accepted the 
dogmas with a yell of delight, a shout of triumph, that made 
Europe tremble, and every king in Christendom put his hand on 
his crown. 

As the eye, gazing for a long time intently on scarlet, takes 
that hue into the sight, as it were, until every object looked upon 
becomes red, so the minds of a certain class of persons, by 
dwelling on these undefined dogmas, became so imbued with the 
vague ideas of '•'•Liberty^ Equality^ Frateniity," that they could 
see no hope for man, no justice for the people, but in the de- 
structiveness that should sweep all obstacles, all tyrants — mean- 
ing those who did not accept these ideas — from the earth. 

Marat, Robespierre, Danton, the terrible Jacobins, and the 
ferocious sansculottes and poissoinnierres, were the natural out- 
growth of the unbridled passions of men, set free from respon- 
sibility to God, each individual having " equal and inalienable 
right to liberty," and every other good thing he could get in the 
mad ^'pursuit of happiness.''' History tells the result. 

We shall not attempt to describe the terrible tyranny, the 
monstrous massacres, of those French apostles of Mr. Jefferson's 
great ideas, when they tested the worth of his dogmas of equality 
and liberty by the persuasive arguments of bludgeon, pike, and 
guillotine, till the stones of the streets were softened in the blood 
of the best and noblest men and women of France, and Paris be- 
came the city of death. Then was gained the legitimate triumph 
of the dogmas — the open acknowledgment of unbelief in the 
Bible, the establishment of the reign of terror, and the worship 
of the goddess of reason. 

Following this terrible experiment, and incited by the same 
dogmas, came the horrible insurrection of the slaves in St. 
Domingo, Avhen, under the leadership and counsel of that "black 



THE REIGN OF TERROK. 79 

hero," Toussaint, the negroes butchered, indiscriminately, all 
white men, women, and children, good masters, as eagerly as 
those who had been cruel, using poison, fire, sword, till the 
devils of the lowest hell seemed holding carnival in that beautiful 
island ! 

Here we may reasonably ask the fierce inciters to such insur- 
rections — if all men have an alienable right to life as well as to 
liberty, and both are equally secured — why has the slave any 
warrant from these dogmas to take away life in pursuit of liberty ? 
But, as the worshippers of the "goddess" rarely trouble them- 
selves about such Bible nonsense as "conscience," or such meta- 
physical quibble as consistency, they would probably suggest 
that the murders and rapine were committed in the " inalienable 
pursuit of happiness." 

The terrors of the French revolution, its concomitants, and its 
results, effectually sobered the minds of the leaders of unbelief 
in our own land. Mr. Jefferson, whatever may have been his 
religious opinions, nevermore put forth theories ; and all experi- 
ments for testing in our republic the equality of races were, and 
are, with the farty that sustained his administration, and noiu 
support " the Constitution as it was made, and the Union as it 
is," utterly repudiated and given up! 

In Europe the reign of terror, that is, of atheism and anarchy, 
led to such disgust of the terms ''liberty," "equality," "repub- 
lic" — that the empire, with the most stringent absolutism, is 
now blessed and sustained, not only by the conservative classes 
in France, but the masses — the people are nearly unanimous in 
its favor. "^ 



* We have the testimony of one of the autocrats of American progressive 
liberalism on this subject. Rev. Theodore Parker thus writes from Home: 

" I dislike much that Napoleon has done, but must confess an honest admi- 
ration for his efforts to liberate Italy, and to advance the industrial interests 
of France. After all, it is probably true that his nation deserves no better rule 
than he gives it, and is not capable of more liberal institutions. Those Celtic 
people have got equality ; the old aristocratic regime is perished utterly ; all 
depends on universal suffrage ; liberty is something they care little about. A 
strange people are the French — with so much military courage and no civil 
courage at all. I don't see how they could live under a republican govern- 
ment — one like ours, I am sure, would be impossible." 

Here are some curious opinions. Equality is defined as " universal suf- 
frage.'^ The right to deposit a vote under the surveillance of military police in 
pay of the Government, is — " equality .'" The French people have got it ! Then 
" the Celtic people are not capable of liberal institutions;" — " they could not 
live under a republican government like ours." Yet this same gentleman, a 
profound scholar, a man of distinguished ability, argues that the negro slaves 
in our land are tit for liberty, capable of becoming American citizens, equals 
with Anglo-Saxons ! Truly the Celtic people must be in a miserable condition 
if they are thus inferior to the negroes. And what becomes of the dogma — 
" all men are born equal'' — if the Celt is so inferior to the negro ? 



80 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

Still the dogmas stood on our Declavation of Independence, 
and our republic was successful. We bad contributed the creed 
for the worship of the goddess of reason, and although her temple 
in Paris had been overthrown, crushed, and was held in abhor- 
rence, yet the idea of an unqualified right to liberty had left its 
impress on many ardent minds, especially among the young men 
of Germany and Great Britain. 

These could not fail of seeing the glaring inconsistency of the 
creed of man's unconditioned equality and inalienable right to 
freedom, which Americans professed to hold, and their practice 
of retaining in bondage millions of the black race. And although 
the African slave trade had been relinquished, and in 1808 was 
sternly prohibited by the American Government, with the death 
penalty as punishment, yet the inter-State traffic "in persons 
held to service" was carried on, openly and lawfully sanctioned 
by the Constitution. 

The horrible cruelties practiced on board British slave ships 
had, towards the close of the last century, awakened serious sor- 
row in the minds of Christians in that country, and earnest men 
were seeking to find the right way of abolishing that evil traffic. 
The efforts of one man had the most marked effect, and deserves 
particular attention. 

Thomas Clarkson, a j'oung Englishman, was a student at St. 
John's College, Cambridge, 1784, when the subject given for the 
prize essay was — 

" Is it right to make slaves against their will?" 

He took the negative side, which he sustained by the theory of 
the natural laws that all men are born equal, and have an inalien- 
able right to liberty, etc., and so triumphantly, that he won the 
prize, was applauded greatly, and became, from that time to his 
death, the ardent champion of abolitionism of the slave, trade, 
and then of negro slavery in every form. 

That he was a sincere philanthropist in his heart there can be 
no doubt. He deserves high honor for his efforts in suppressing 
the slave trade. The question is — was he right in denouncing 
slavery itself — the bond-service of the black race, in the West 
Indies and the United States, as unrighteous and sinful ? 

What God has established shall man condemn as sin ? The 
Bible and Thomas Clarkson are in conflict. Which is right ? 

We have proved, in the preceding pages, that the Bible sanc- 
tions slavery ; that Japheth was to rule, and Canaan to serve ; 
that the white race was appointed master, and the black race 
subordinate ; that the Creator settled these conditions of the sons 
of Noah, and that the fiat of human law cannot alter them. 



THE QUAKER'S PHILANTHROPY. 81 

We have shown that the Bible fully and fairly meets these 
questions, providing, by its laws, usages, precepts, examples, 
injunctions, and doctrines, both of the New as well as the Old 
Testament, for the conditions of servant and master, as surely 
as it provides for the conditions of husband and wife, parents 
and children. 

There is no way of escaping these conclusions, except by 
boldly denying, as unbelievers do, the Bible to be the Word 
of God, or denying the authority of God as the Bible reveals 
Him. The last mode is that usually practiced in Christian 
countries by persons who are not real Christians. These do not 
reject, ostensibly, the Bible, but they put their own reason above 
its authority, and prefer their own dark lantern of natural con- 
science to the solar light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Such a philanthropist was Thomas Clarkson. He belonged 
to the Society of Quakers or Friends. Are these Christians ? 
The Saviour says, " Follow me ;" " Do this in remembrance of 
me ;" " Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." 
The Saviour left ordinances to be obeyed. He instituted a 
Church to be continued after His example and precepts. 

Is yonder gathering of people a church after Christ's example 
and ordinances ? The men keep silence and the women speak ; 
the voice of humble, contrite prayer is never heard ; the song 
of praise and thanksgiving, the strains of sorrow and penitence, 
never awaken the careless to the thought of God, or kindle joy 
in the believing soul. The baptism by water, which was to mark 
the disciples of Jesus Christ, as followers of His example and be 
the emblems of regeneration by the Holy Ghost, is utterly re- 
jected. The holy sacrament of the bread and wine, symbols of 
the body and blood of our crucified Lord, given for the sins of the 
world — this sacred ordinance that He exemplified as His last and 
loving ordinance for His disciples, is put aside as unnecessary. 

Are they Christians who do this ? The Quakers do not claim 
the title, nor have they any right to it while rejecting baptism 
and the Lord's Supper. They are Friends — nothing more. 
" Friends" — which means that they take excellent care of them- 
selves and of their own people in all material things, and have, 
as they believe, the "inward light" to discern spiritual truth 
sufficient for themselves and their order. 

That they are not Christians, had not, and have not the true 
faith and true life in Jesus Christ, is proven by this : they have 
only been sustained by outward pressure, as it were, such as pe- 
culiar modes of speech and dress, compelled by their rules ; or 
by persecutions from other denominations ; or some extraneous 
effort of benevolent philanthropy, like this anti-slavery excite- 
6 



82 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

ment. Whenever these modes of effort and excitement fail or 
decrease their numbers decrease.* There is no living element in 
their religion. The sect is literally dying out ; starving for lack 
of the true bread of life ; withering away because the living 
waters of divine truth are not contained in their broken cisterns, 
and have never been permitted to flow into and refresh their bar- 
ren souls. 

Rejecting the Bible as the rule of faith, they set up the 
'^ inward light"t as their idol, and this assumption would natu- 
rally and inevitably lead them to embrace the dogmas of Mr. 
Jefferson, because these were in harmony with their own belief, 
and materially strengthened their own position. The Quakers 
would obey no law except it harmonized wuth " inward convic- 
tions." This was " personal liberty" in its spiritual form ; not 
merely liberty of conscience to worship God as they thought 
right, but liberty to refuse the usual modes of respect to magis- 
trates and obedience to civil ordinances when these did not agree 
with their peculiar " inward impressions" of duty. 

It is, therefore, no wonder that the order of Friends or Quakers 
in England and America eagerly followed the lead of Thomas 
Clarkson, and became abolitionists. They wanted an active 
principle or object of duty. The negro slave was, accordingly, 
placed as the central light (or darkness) of their philanthropical 
ideas, and emancipation became their gospel of salvation for the" 
world. 

Thus, the Goddess of Reason was set up in England to be 
worshiped as the Supreme Good, none the less blindly or idola- 
trously than in Paris, because she now was clothed decently, and 
had gifted men and pious w^omen kneeling before her shrine. 

The Christians of Great Britain followed, slowly, but they 
followed the example of the Quakers, and subscribed to their 
creed of worship. 

First came the Presbyterians, disciples of Calvin and Knox, 
believers in the covenants of the Old Testament, which distin- 



* There are not now (1860) iu Great Britain and Ireland more than 26,000 
professing Friends. In 1690 there were sixty or seventy thousand, more than 
double the present number. Quakerism has nearly disappeared from the con- 
tinent. It is fast diminishing in the United States. — Sec Quakerism, Past and 
Present; by J. S. Browntree. London: Smith & Elder, 1859. 

f Fox complained that " the faith of the sects stands on a man who died sixteen 
hundred years ago ;" and wanting '^ a deliverer for that year, for that hour, a 
light for every moment.'" This deliverer, this light, was in man himself; neither 
conditioned by time, place, creed, occupation, character, age, or sex ; and 
opposed only by sin and self-willed darkness. What was this doctrine, if itdid 
not set up man as his own saviour, a god, who had not only an inalienable right 
to personal freedom, but also to personal righteousness, if he so willed ? 



THE "WORSHIP OF THE GODDESS OF REASON. 83 

guishes some men above other men ; taking the covenant made 
with Abraham as the seal of faith for their little ones, and holy 
Noah and the patriarchs, with Moses, Joshua, Job — all slave- 
holders and teachers of the laws of God, appointing bondage as 
the lot of the race of Canaan, — the Presbyterians, exalting the 
doctrines of Paul, because of their sound reason and boldness in 
truth, though he declared over and over, again and again, the 
righteousness of that obedience which bond-servants owe their 
own masters, — the Presbyterians bowed low before the goddess 
of Quaker worship, and confessed that " all men are horn ecjual, 
and slavery/ is sin /" 

The Baptists, warm-souled, self-sacrificing Christians as they 
are, so loving the Saviour that they follow His footsteps into the 
waters of baptism, believing they rise with Him in newness of 
soul life — the Baptists, who should have felt that they were dis- 
honoring their Divine Master, as He, in His Gospel, clearly sets 
forth that to hold slaves and sell a wicked servant " with his wife 
and children" is perfectly compatible with Christian duty — the 
Baptists kneeled down before the goddess of Quaker worship, 
and cried, " all men are equal, and slavery is sin /" 

The Methodists, those earnest, cross-bearing Christians, who 
hold pious Wesley and fervent Whitefield as patterns of pious 
excellence, and these admitted slaveholders into their churches, 
not without scruple certainly, but because constrained by the 
text — as no word in the Bible could be found condemning, but 
very many ordinances and examples sustaining the institution 
by order of the Most Highest* — the Methodists, though they 
imitate the unquenchable ardor of Peter, and, as he enjoined, 
" have purified their souls in obeying the truth through the 
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren ;" yet forgetting that 
the same apostle has left this command, " Servants, be subject 
to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, 
but also to the froward" — the good Methodists fell prostrate 
before the goddess of Quaker worship, shouting, " all men are 
equal, and slavery is sin!" 



* The following copy of the instructions given hy the Wesleyan connection of 
England to their missionaries in Jamaica shows the opinions of Mr. AVesley on 
this subject: 

" As iu the colonies in which you are called to labor, a great proportion of 
the inhabitants are in a state of slavery, the committee must strongly call to 
your recollection what was so fully stated to you when you were accepted as 
missionaries to the West Indies, viz : tliat your only business is to promote the 
moral and religious improvement of the slaves to whom you may have access, 
without in the least degree, in public or private, interfering with their civil 
condition." 



84 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

The Episcopalians of the English national church, whose foun- 
dation is claimed to be on the prophets and apostles, Jesus 
Christ being the chief corner-stone — the Episcopalians, hold- 
ing "apostolic succession," and tracing back the founder of 
their church to the sainted Augustine, who, more than twelve 
hundred years ago, as archbishop of Canterbury, was primate 
of all England, and had always been in the midst of slavery 
without ever rebuking; it as sin ; nor had his successors, learned 

1 • 7 \ 

and pious men, holding that high seat, {till the present incumbent,) 
ever hinted that slaveholders should he considered as guilty of 
sin: how could they? when the two most eminent apostles had 
enjoined the duties of masters and bond-servants on their con- 
verts, and urged such teachings on the bishops they ordained, 
thus sanctioning the Gospel right to masters as well as servants ; 
— the Episcopalians, who listen every holy day to the command- 
ments, two of which particularly sanction slavery ; yet they 
yielded — reluctantly, we hope — but they yielded to " the delu- 
sions of the devil," and joined the throng of British abolition- 
ists around the altar of the goddess of Quaker worship, acknowl- 
edging that " all 711671 are born equal, and slavery is sin /" 

And so the tide of fanatical falsehood rose higher and stronger 
till it beat down Bible truth and human experience, common 
sense and equal justice, and swept over the public mind, com- 
pelling the British government to do that act of foolishness, in- 
justice, and wickedness, setting free the colored slaves of the 
West Indies, who were not able to sustain themselves without 
direction, but would sink down into listless idleness, and fall back 
into savagery and heathenism, unless continually sustained and 
fostered by special legislation. This has been awarded them, 
while the poor white population of England, born British sub- 
jects, free. Christian fellow-subjects, were and are kept in hea- 
then ignorance, in worse than West India bondage, subjected to 
the most grinding toil, uncared for and unrelieved under the 
most abject poverty. 

Let us take a few specifications and illustrations. 

The British government paid to the British owners of black 
slaves one hundred millions of dollars. 

This large amount was drawn from the white people of Great 
Britain, the poor, hard-working classes being taxed for the greater 
proportion of this immense sum. 

To the honor of that people be it recorded here, that not a 
partisan of emancipation ever dreamed of " throttling slavery" 
by stealing the slaves, exciting insurrections, or murdering the 
masters. The British abolitionists were willing to be taxed for 
money to buy the freedom of the slaves. These abolitionists 



BRITISH ABOLITIONISTS 



85 



were sincere men and women ; but were they not mistaken in 
their manner of doincf good to the descendants of Ham or 
Canaan ? 

Let us look at the results. 

The British possessions in the West Indies, financially, indus- 
trially, and morally, were, for both races, irreparably injured by 
emancipation. We have the strongest testimony, that of anti- 
slavery British writers, to these melancholy facts of the decay 
of Christianity and the ruin of civilization, by the ruin of indus- 
try and the 'withdrawal of all the Europeans who could possibly 
get away from the islands when the blacks were made free. No 
white families remained in Jamaica because they choose to live 
among black people, as equal fellow-subjects. The negroes 
gained no friends by emancipation, but enemies and oppressors. 
They were and are more to be pitied that when they had masters, 
because they need masters, as surely as white men, when residing 
in tropical climates, need servants. The master is the natural 
jjrotector of his oivn slave. 

The negroes in the West Indies, indolent, dependent, and im- 
itative, needing a model, a support, a director, in the great effort 
and change of rising from barbarism to civilized life, were 
thrown, by emancipation, on themselves. The downward ten- 
dency of the great majority has been rapid and inevitable. 
They are lazy, and will not work. That once beautiful island 
has become a desolation. To prevent utter ruin, laborers must 
be brought from India and China. Thus the abolition of negro 
slavery has led to the Cooley apprentice system, more iniquitous 
and horrible in its injustice and cruelty than ever the African 
slave trade was, even in its worst aspects. 

Here we have three results, all evil, already developed by 
British abolitionism. 

1. The Cooley trade and its wickedness. 

2. The injustice of taxing the poor white toiling millions of 
Great Britain to free the black slaves of the West Indies, and 
then permitting those emancipated negroes to live in idleness, 
exempt from all care and all State taxation, while still the poor 
ignorant white population of Great Britain has to bear heavier 
burdens of taxation because the West Indies are impoverished 
and ruined. 

3. The foolishness of lavishing a hundred millions of dollars 
(twent}* millions of pounds sterling) in the vain attempt to make 
less than a million of black slaves equal with white British sub- 
jects, while refusing a dollar to found national schools for the 
benefit of ten millions or more of their free, native-born, white 
population, v/ho are perishing for the lack of knowledge — is not 
this an evil ? 



86 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

We might fill pages with British testimonies of the miseries, 
ignorance, and degradation of the hard-working population, 
the free, white peasantry of their own race, for whom no means 
of instruction have been provided, no opportunities of bettering 
their condition allowed, no sympathy for their sufferings mani- 
fested. 

The author of "Alton Locke" thus sums up the condition of 
the poorest classes of England : 

" Savages, without the resources of a savage; slaves, without the protection 
of a master; to whom the cart-whip and the rice swamp would be a change for 
the better — for there, at least, are food and shelter." 

Mr. Roebuck lately said, in his place in Parliament, (the ques- 
tion was the barbarous treatment of children in the English 
factories :) 

"I have it in this book that children's hands are often blistered, and the skill 
torn off their feet, and yet they are thus obliged to work — the persons toho overlook 
them being sometimes forced to keep them awake by beating on the table with large 
boards." 

The last words of Mr. Justice Talfourd were — 

" That the great cause of crime and prostitution in England, was the want 
of sympathy by the rich for the poor." 

And yet it is claimed that Christian benevolence freed the 
slaves in the West Indies ! Is this true, when the results of that 
fanatical generosity to the poor black servants has superseded 
Christian justice even to the poor white servants ? and both 
classes and all parties have suffered injury by this departure 
from that irrevocable sentence of the all-wise and righteous 
Creator : " God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the 
tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant ?" 

Now, no Christian will deny that obedience to God's law is the 
duty of man. God's law is the life of the universe. Apart from 
His law, existence is a contradiction, and only in perfect sub- 
mission -to the will of God is the freedom of man attainable, be- 
cause God only is free. The devil can go further than the length 
of his chain. How can he give freedom to his slave when he is 
under sentence of condemnation ? All his promises of equality 
and freedom are false, and bring evil and only evil. 

The Creator never gave man absolute freedom. It luas free- 
dom to do right that was given. While acting in conformity with 
the laws of God, natural and revealed, man is free to choose his 
own way, and work in whatever manner best suits his particular 
desires. Cain might have kept sheep, had he chosen ; but he 
•was not free to kill his brother when he chose. Every good 



BRITISH ABOLITIONISTS. 87 

work is acceptable ; every evil work is punished. This is the 
freedom that God has given to mankind. 

And these principles of eternal justice furnish the rules of 
common justice that govern in human life. The good father 
gives his children liberty to do well ; their evil deeds are never 
sanctioned. All penal laws are founded on this truth : that men 
have no liberty to commit evil deeds. If they do, they are to be 
punished. Thus Ham was punished for sin, and the law of sla- 
very for that race is a righteous sentence, or the Word of God 
is not true. 

Hence we see why the emancipation of the West India negroes, 
in opposition to the law of God, has worked evil for the servant 
as well as for the master, and evil for the country also. While 
the Avhite English laborer is compelled to work from 10 to 18 
hours per day for a mere pittance that scarcely supports life, 
and young children toil till their soft bones are crippled by the 
hard work, and old age is bowed down in misery, and dies in the 
poorhouse, the negroes, under British rule, may lie in the sun, 
and are free to waste and destroy one of the fairest and richest 
colonies of the world ; yet this wicked license is sinking them 
into savagery as surely as it destroys the civilization of Jamaica.* 



* " As far as Jamaica is concerned, what is there to tempt the Englishman ? 
It is a fact that half the sugar estates, and more than half the coffee plantations 
have gone back into a state of bush, and a great portion of those who are noio grow- 
ing canes in Jamaica are persons icho have lately bought the estates '■jor the value 
of the copper in the sugar boilers and of the metal in the rum stills.' 

* * * * " * * * 

" Floods of pathetic eloquence and long years of parliamentary struggling have 
taught us to imagine that the ivorld ivas made for Sambo, and that the sole use of 
sugar is to sweeten Sambo's existence. The negro is. no doubt, a very amusing and 
a very amiable fellow, and we ought to wish him well ; but he is also a lazy animal, 
without any foresight, and therefore requiring to be led and compelled. We must 
not judge him by ourselves. That he is capable of improvement everybody admits, 
but, in the meantime, he is decidedly inferior — he is but little raised above a mere 
animal. The negroes know this themselves. They have no idea of country, and no 
pride of race. They despise themselves. They know nothing of Africa, except 
that it is a term of reproach, and the name which offends them most is that of 
a nigger. So little confidence have they in any being who has an admixture 
of their blood that no negro will serve a mulatto when he can serve a European 
or a white Creole. 

******** 

" A servile race, peculiarly fitted by nature for the hardest physical work 
in a burning climate, the negro has no desire for property strong enough to induce 
him to labor ivith sustained power. He lives from hand to mouth. In order that 
he may have his dinner, and some small finery, he will ivork a little, but after that 
he is content to lie in the sun. This in Jamaica he can very easily do, for emanci- 
pation and free trade have combined to throw enormous tracts of land out of culti- 
vation, and on these the negro squats, getting all that he wants with very little 
trouble, and sinking in the most resolute fashion back to the savagestate." — London 
Times, January 6, 1860. 



00 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

There can be no Christianity where there is no industry, because 
God has ordained that man shall work. 

Now, is there not a great mistake in the reasoning of any 
philanthropist when his plans injure all whom they influence ? 
In this case the falsity was in the application of the prize essay 
to African slavery, as though the negroes loere made slaves hy 
those tvho bought them. 

" Is it right to make slaves against their will ?" 

Yes, it was right for God to doom this race to a state of bond- 
age against their will. What punishment for sin was ever in- 
flicted by divine or human law which was agreeable to the will, 
the depraved nature of man ? The proposition would, if ad- 
mitted as a general axiom or moral truth, that no man shall be 
coerced into doing what is contrary to his own will, break up 
every government, destroy every plan of improvement for hu- 
manity, and make the world like an opened menagerie of gentle 
animals and ferocious beasts. Coercion to authority, subjection 
to law, is, from the cradle to the grave, the lot of fallen man. 

Is not work, hard labor, the punishment of disobedience to 
God's law ? Why not frame a thesis thus — Is it right to make 
men work against their will F Would any philanthropist 
attempt to prove that work is wrong, because men, having " an 
inalienable right to liberty," should, in " the pursuit of happi- 
ness" — also an " inalienable right" — be free to do as they please 
with their own time ; and hard work must, therefore, be abol- 
ished, or those who choose to do it must maintain those who 
prefer idleness ? 

This proposition would be scouted as absurd and impossible, 
because labor of some sort is the real basis of order, the only 
way of developing human powers and securing the progressive 
improvement of the race. 

True, because God's laws have so fixed man's condition, he 
must work. Just as certainly do the laAvs of God fix the condi- 
tion of the African or black race to be that of servitude or de- 
pendence on the white race, because the last is the superior ; 
they work. 

The English slave-trader did not " make men slaves against 
their will." The negroes* in their own country were slaves. 



* Mr. Du Chaillu, who has spent four years in Africa, part of the time among 
cannibals, thus describes the people : 

" The trade of these savages, he said, seemed to be confined to an exchange 
of dead bodies on which to feed. Human bones were found in large quantities, 
everywhere around their villages. He was never in danger among th^m, inas- 
much as he was regarded as a magician, and they were afraid of him. The 



BRITISH ABOLITIONISTS. 89 

always had been slaves, and knew no better condition. The 
white slave-trader bought black heathen slaves of black heathen 
masters, both of the same ignorant, degraded race, where no 
improvement of condition could ever take place, unless aid from 
a superior source intervened. The white trader brought these 
black slaves to the country of the highest European civilization, 
and sold them to white Christian masters, who could not help 
but aid, by instruction in the arts of labor and of moral conduct, 
these savage heathen in better knowledge than they could have 
possibly gained in Africa. 

Now, the true question to be propounded was — Is it rigid for 
ivhite Christian men to hold black heathen men slaves ? 

The cruelties of the slave-trade could have been quite as forci- 
bly urged by Mr. Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson under this 
thesis, and its abolition secured. Then the whole subject of 
slavery should have been tried by the laws of God — to whom all 
men owe obedience — by the interpretations of Scripture, and the 
common usages of all Christian nations : whether to return these 
black slaves to their own land of hopeless heathen bondage, or 
hold them in servitude in a Christian country till they had 
learned to labor and do their duties like responsible men, and 
" not to be chargeable to others;" or set them free in their ig- 
norance, indolence, and poverty, to be a burden on the State, a 
nuisance to white people, and a clog on Christian civilization. 

Had the British government, forty years ago, when the utter 
failure of emancipation to improve the negroes of the French 
West Indies was thoroughly proven, decided to hold their own 
colonies as they were, subject only to the means which public 
justice and private benevolence might provide for testing the 
character of the black man and his fitness for personal freedom, 
and then appropriated one-fifth, say, of the sum they afterwards 
squandered in setting the slaves free to this good purpose ; ex- 
pending the other eighty millions of dollars in their own country, 
educating and benefiting the white servile classes of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland ; raising them from ignorance and pau- 
perism, and making them intelligent and thrifty work people — 
what a glorious march in the cause of humanity might have been 



tribes of negroes in Central Africa, other than the cannibals, ■were numerous. 
He had visited thirty-five of them, but found, notwithstanding, that the coun- 
try was very sparsely populated. Owing to polygamy, the slave-trade, and 
general belief in witchcraft, many of the tribes were disappearing. When a 
king died, fifty or sixty people would be accused of witchcraft, in causing his 
demise, and themselves put to death. The foreign slave-trade was calculated 
on as a principal source of revenue, and slaves were regularly provided as a 
marketable commodity." 



90 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

gained ! Avhat perplexed questions of political economy and Gos- 
pel philanthropy might have been solved ! 

The last forty years : what bitter strifes and burning passions 
have been kindled and excited in our own land during the last 
forty years, under these delusive and destructive dogmas that 
"all men are born equal," and all have an inalienable right to 
liberty — thus attempting to force down the Anglo-Saxon to the 
level of the African, make the black servant a peer to his white 
master, and prove that the Word of God is false when it declares 
that there is a race of men who "shall be servants of servants" 
to another race of men ! 

Has anything save evil resulted from these religious and polit- 
ical agitations ? Can any changes make the black man equal Avith 
the white man ? As well might a lapidary attempt to make a 
kohinoor out of coal. Chemists tell us that diamond and carbon 
are the same in elements, yet how unhke in appearance, use, and 
value. Thus the Anglo-Saxon and the negro are of the same 
blood, inherit the same blessed promises of salvation by and 
through a common Redeemer ; but in this life their destiny is 
not similar, their duties are not exchangeable. When placed to- 
gether, the white race will and should rule, because the righteous 
Creator has so willed and directed in His Word. 

The black race is made better and happier by service under 
white Christian masters ; and if the Christians of America and 
Great Britain really intend to do good to Africa and her chil- 
dren they must take the Bible standard of measurement as to 
the capacity and fitness of the race of Canaan for improvement 
and freedom, and work by that standard. The only real im- 
provement in the negro as a ojian is found in Liberia ; hence the 
good influence of our southern institution of bond service for the 
black race is proven. Why, then, are such violent attempts 
made to break up and destroy this useful, this Bible institution? 

When we read the violent denunciations of the British press 
against " slavery in America," and the reports of speeches made 
by their clergymen against ''the sin of slavery," it really seems 
as if those intelligent Christians and learned writers believed 
that the idea of '■'•holding one 7nan as the property of another 
man' had lately been invented in the lower regions, and that 
the prince of darkness had sold out the patent for the exclusive 
benefit of American slaveholders in our southern States. 

Is there no Scotch clergyman who reads HebreAV, and believes 
that God meant what His servants were inspired to record in 
Gen. 9 : 25, 27— Ex. :20 : 10, 17— Lev. 22 : 10—21 : 41, 45, 
46 ? Is there no searcher of the Pauline doctrines in the churches 
of Great .Britain, who has faith in the Word ? Paul, in many 



ABOLITION AGITATIONS. 91 

of his epistles, is as absolute and pointed in his instructions to 
master and servant, touching their relative duties, as he is to the 
husband and wife, or the parent and child. See Ephesians, chap. 
6, V. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ; Colossians, chap. 3, v. 22, 23, 24 : 1 Tim., 
chap. 6, V. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ; Titus, chap. 2, v. 9, 10. Peter, 
also, is most explicit — 1 Peter, chap. 2, v. 18. In all these 
passages the relation of master and servant is as definite as 
lann;uao;e can make it. Not a •word in all these instructions 
about running away or refusing to obey; on the contrary, fidelity 
to the master, whether the eye of the master was on the servant 
or not. See Ephesians, chap. 6, v. 6, 7, 8. And as a cheering 
encouragement to the faithful servant, Paul, in his glowing lan- 
guage, says, V. 8, ''^Knowing that whatsoever good any man 
doeth, the same shall he receive from the Lord, whether he be 
bond or free." 

The clergy of Great Britain have much to answer for before 
God, in the course they have taken to foment discord in the 
American churches respecting slavery. Had it not been for their 
mistaken views regarding this institution, which led to West In- 
dia emancipation, thus destroying the best means of improvement 
for their own colored slaves ; and then stirring up and intensify- 
ing the same fanatical spirit — the worship of the French God- 
dess of Reason in the place of Jehovah — among the churches of 
America, the fearful storm of political agitation, threatening 
disunion, anarchy, and blood, would not now be sweeping over 
our United States. 

It is said that Queen Victoria, when a foreign ambassador 
wondered at England's greatness, placed in his hands a Bible, 
saying, " This is the secret of Britain's prosperity : this is the 
code of laws by which we are governed." 

Does not Queen Victoria base her claim to hold India on this 
Bible code that gives Japheth the right to dwell in the tents of 
Shem ? And does not the Bible sanction as surely the right of 
Japheth to hold the posterity of Canaan in bondage ? 

If the Christians of Great Britain would shrink from the pro- 
posal to abandon the heathen of India to themselves, now that God 
has given the power over them into the keeping of the Anglo- 
Saxons, who have the open Bible in their hands, and are dispen- 
sing its light-giving knowledge through the dark places of Hin- 
doo superstitions and falsities — its soul-saving love into the black 
depths of heathen cruelty and wickedness — so should they shrink 
from the God-defying doctrine that " all men are born equal, and 
have an inalienable right to liberty ;" and therefore the negro 
bond-servant, the descendant of Ham, shall be made free, and 
be left to his own devices in the darkest cavern of heathenism. 



92 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

See to what wickedness this assumption is tending. The Brit- 
ish now seek to colonize Africa with Coolies. Negro slavery 
must not be recognized as lawful in Africa, though it has been 
an irrevocable institution there since that land was inhabited ; so 
the race of Shem, never doomed to he servayits hy the laiv of Gfod, 
are torn away from their own land, deceived into a worse than 
slave bondage ; and these miserable Hindoos, more difficult to 
convert, because entangled in the crafty meshes of subtle, sys- 
tematized superstitions, are to mingle Avith the child-like, igno- 
rant, heathen negroes, and make their conversion to Christianity 
seemingly impossible. 

If the West India negroes had not been freed in 1838, but 
rightly taught, and, with true Christian care and love, prepared 
for their duties, hundreds, ay, thousands would have been by this 
time educated and qualified to go out to Africa, their own father- 
land, as assistants to establish British centres of civilization and 
Christian missions in the interior of Africa, in the only way 
which can be beneficial to all parties and do wrong to none. 

Moreover, there are thousands on thousands of free negroes 
in America who are not wanted here, but woiild be of incalculable 
benefit to the British in establishing their colonies in Africa. 
Had no root of bitterness been allowed to spring up between 
the two branches of the Anglo Saxon race concerning this ques- 
tion of negro slavery, these free negroes and emancipated slaves 
might become, under British direction and protection, the pio- 
neei-s of industry, arts, and improvements, such as must be in- 
troduced before the Gospel can be successfully preached to the 
native African on his own soil. 

It should never be forgotten that " God is no respecter of per- 
sons :" master and slave, the white man and the black man, are 
equally subject to His laws ; each bound to use the talents, be 
these one or ten, that He has given, and each is rewarded ac- 
cording to faithfulness. No fiction of man's personal liberty can 
supersede the fiat of the Creator. " I care not for fifty thou- 
sand aphorisms, God's Word against man's any day," says the 
eloquent Spurgeon. Can he show, from this word of God, a 
word condemning slaveholders or denouncing slavery as sin ? 
And is it not strictly forbidden in God's Word " to do evil that 
good may come ? 

Now, robbery, false witness, disobedience to law, destruction 
of property, and murder of white men and women by poison, 
sword, fire and rapine, have all been commended as right against 
slaveholders, if done to free negro slaves.* Nay, these crimes 

*" Resolved, That they should i-ejoice in a successful slave insurrection in the 
South, and that in killing a slaveholder to obtain freedom, the slave is guilty 



ENGLISH CLAIM TO INDIA. 93 

have all been committed in our land, and, so far as fanatical ab- 
olitionism could prevail, have been not onlj unpunished, but 
highly applauded. 

From what source comes this spirit of demoniacal vengeance 
against slaveholders ? Comes it from the Word of God ? or from 
the suggestions of the devil ? Its echo certainly comes to us 
from Exeter Hall and Liverpool, and from the Glasgow gather- 
ings of abolitionists, where men, styling themselves Christian 
ministers, charged on the slaveholding system of America all 
manner of wickedness, evil influences, and unbelief. If these 
gentlemen Avould only take the trouble to search for the truth 
before yielding their minds to destructive errors, they would find 
that they are entirely wrong in their conclusions. It is in the 
ranks of the abolition agitators in the free States, and particu- 
larly among the clerical as well as lay leaders, that every spe- 
cies of fanaticism and delusion can be found, German mysti- 
cism, rationalism, deism, atheism, spiritualism, and all other 
isms pervade this class through and through. It is among this 
body of men, the leading abolitionists in America, that these 
very abominations which the clergy of Scotland denounce, find 
their most cherished abiding places. 

" We want an anti-slavery Constitution, an anti-slavery Bible, 
and an anti-slavery God," exclaimed one of these leaders, now 
a republican member of Congress. Truly, they must have a 
new Bible, and a new God, before they can bring any divine 
testimony to condemn slaveholding as a sin or a wrong. 

The South is now the conservative power of Bible Christianity 
in our land. Not an ism has taken root there. The religious 
culture of the negro slaves proves this. The earnest piety of 
these ignorant Africans could never have been kindled where 
isms are the fashionable modes of faith. The Bible must be 
believed; where its teachings have a hold on the heart, that makes 
men obey its injunctions. Unbelief, on the other hand, is al- 
ways rebellious, inciting to selfishness, confusion, discord, and 
every evil work. 

In our land this fierce and bloody-minded abolitionism has 
wrought evil, and only evil. All classes and conditions are suf- 
ferers from its false dogmas and pernicious experiments. 

It has violated the Constitution, divided our churches, dese- 
crated our pulpits, estranged Christian brethren, organized re- 



of no crime ; that the slaveholder sJwuId be made to dream of death in his sleep, 
and to apprehend death in his dish and teapot — that fire should meet him in 
HIS BED, AND POISON SHOULD MBET HI5I AT HIS TABLE." — Resolution offered by 
Fred. Douglas. 



94 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

bellion against the laws of Congress, warred upon great public 
interests, destroyed the peace of neighborhoods, kindled sectional 
hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, instigated to robber}'-, 
arson, murder, treason, and endeavored to stir up insurrections 
and civil warfare. 

It has irreparably injured the negroes, by exciting false ideas 
of their own condition among them, leading them into acts of 
disobedience to law, as tools and victims of selfish demagogues, 
who seduce or steal these poor servants from a genial climate and 
indulgent masters, and send them to suffer or perish, in the cold 
Canadas, or to drag out a miserable, often criminal, existence in 
the struggle of free labor in the free States. 

We said "indulgent masters" — for this is the true character of 
nearly all the southern slaveholders. We will not urge the usual 
and true reasons for this kindness — that of early impressions, 
where negresses are the loving nurses of white children, who are 
to have rule over them ; and the two races, mingling together in 
childhood's plays, learn to love each other as protector and de- 
pendent should, as hired labor never yet has learned. We will 
only take what matter-of-fact calculation can understand — the 
money price of negroes. This now ranges from eight hundred 
to three thousand dollars for an individual " person held to ser- 
vice," of either sex ! Might not a Yankee or a Scotchman be 
trusted for care and kindness to such valuable "chattels ?" 

If this abolition excitement is to be continued till insurrections 
are fomented at the South, and the union of the States is broken 
up, then the benefits of slave labor will be destroyed, and, in 
their fierce outrages, these negroes, now pious, happy, and useful 
members of Christian families, must inevitably be dispersed or 
destroyed. The abolitionists will never make a St. Domingo of 
the South. 

Do the statesmen and Christian leaders of the British people 
ever consider what would be the natural result of this awful 
catastrophe — the breaking up of the American Union — on their 
own country, on Protestantism, on the true interests of constitu- 
tional liberty and human progress ? The London Cotton Supply 
Reporter, February 3d, 1860, has the following statement : 

*' The amount of actual capital invested in the cotton trade of this kingdom is 
estimated to be between £60,000,000 and £70,000,000 sterling. 

"The quantity of cotton imported into this country in 1859 was l,181f mil- 
lion pounds' weight, the value of which, at Gd. per lb., is equal to £30,000,000 
sterling. Out of 2,820,110 bales of cotton imported into Great Britain, Amer- 
ica has supplied us with 2,086,341, that is five-sevenths of the whole. In other 
words, out of every 7 lb. imported from all countries into Great Britain, America 
has supplied 5 lb. 

" Great Britain alone consumes annually £24,000,000 worth of cotton goods. 
Two conclusions, therefore, may safely be drawn from the facts and figures now 



THE HIRED LABORER. 95 

cited — first, that the interests of every cotton-worker are bound up with a 
gigantic trade which Iceeps in motion an enormous mass of capital, and this 
capita], machinery, and labor depend for five-sevenths of its employment upon the 
slave States of America for prosperity and continuance ; secondly, that if a war 
should at any time break out between England and America, a general insurrection 
take place among the slaves, disease sweep off those slaves by death, or the cotton 
crop fall short in quantity, whether from severe frosts, disease of the plant, or 
other possible causes, our mills would be stopped for want of cotton, employers 
7could be ruined, and famine would stalk abroid among the hundreds and thousands 
of work people who are at present fortunately well employed. 

" Calculate the consequences for yourself. Imagine a dearth of cotton, and 
you may picture the horrors ot such a calamity from the scenes you may pos- 
sibly have witnessed when the mills have only run on " short time." Count up 
all the trades that are kept going out of the wages of the working classes, 
independent of builders, mechanics, engineers, colliers, &c., employed by the 
mill ownei's. Railways would cease to pay, and our ships would lie rotting in 
their ports, should a scarcity of the raw material for manufacture overtake us." 

All these material interests are to be hazarded, in order to 
give three or four millions of negroes the liberty of being hired 
laborers, instead of slave laborers ! Is the condition of the for- 
mer so much better that it should be forced on the South at such 
fearful risk ? We have proven from the Word of God that both 
conditions of labor have been appointed by the Creator. In 
denying this, infidelity rejects the Bible, appeals to its three 
Thomases — Paine, Jefferson, Clarkson — as apostles of personal 
freedom, for the "inalienable right" of the posterity of Ham to 
freedom. Will the Christians of Britain bow down to this wor- 
ship of man's reason, and insist on liberty and equality for the 
two races ? This is the true question. 

Under both modes of labor there are hardships, wrongs, and 
suffering?? that should be redressed ; but that the southern black 
slave is far better cared for and more comfortable in his condi- 
tion than the white hired slaves of Britain, is a fact that no Brit- 
ish writer who valued truth would attempt to controvert. 

Abolition clergymen, so furious in denouncing their Christian 
brethren in America who hold slaves, must see, in their own land, 
multitudes of half-starved, hired laborers, and more -wretched 
because starving laborers, who cannot get work.* Reports of 



■^ "In the sale of slaves (in America) nothing but labor is transferred. It 
passes from master to master, as it passes, in countries of hired labor, from 
employer to employer. The mode in which the transfer is made diflPers in the two 
systems of labor. The slave laborer is never compelled to hunt for work and 
starve till he finds it. Is this an evil to the laborer? Would it be thought an 
evil, by the hired man in Europe, that his employer should be obliged, by law, 
to find him another employer before dismissing him from service? 

" But, it is said, the slave is too much exposed to the masters abuse of 
power ; he is liable to wrongs without a remedy ; and, so far, his condition is 
below that of the hired laborer. 

" If this be true at all, it is true as regards the able-bodied hired man only. 



96 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

the pauper and outcast population of Glasgow alone shows such 
degradation and misery as would seem to demand all the sym- 
pathies and charities of the Christians of Scotland. Even those 
pious, respectable laborers, who do not sink into pauperism, have 
a fierce struggle to make against the wants and woes of life, as 
Scotia's greatest poet has drawn the picture from his own heart 
sorrows : 

'• See yonder poor, o'er-labored wight, 

So abject, mean, and vile, 
Who begs a brother of the earth 

To give him leave to toil ; 
And see his lordly fellow-worm 

The poor petition spurn, 
Unmindful, though a weeping wife, 

And helpless offspring mourn I" 

The fat, well-fed negro slave of the South, .who goes to his 
own cabin after his day's task is done, and takes down his fiddle 
for amusement, or puts on his best coat to go to the prayer meet- 
ing, would feel himself insulted by a comparison with the poor 
Scotch laborer. 

And yet British Christians, turning coldly from the sufferings 
of free subjects, their own pauper brethren, would wish us to be- 
lieve they feel a tender sympathy for the slaves of America, who 
are living year in and year out, from infancy to old age, in such 
plenty and freedom from care as many pauper-born free subjects 
of Britain never enjoyed for a single day in their lives. 

They know not what they do, these British abolitionists, nor 
whither their course is tending. If what they, with the Ameri- 



But take into the account children and women, those for example, that work 
naked in coal mines, or wives whose sufferings from the brutal treatment of 
husbands daily till the reports of police courts ; take these into the reckoning, 
and the difference in the consequences of abused power will be very small. The 
negro slave is as thoroughly protected as any laborer in Europe. He is pro- 
tected from every other man's wrong-doing by the ready interference of his 
master ; he is guarded from the master's abuse by the laws of the land, and a 
vigilant, earnest public opinion. Let all cruelty be punished ; let all abuse of 
power be restrained ; but to abolish the relation of master and slave, because 
there are bad masters and ill-treated slaves, would not be a whit wiser than to 
abolish marriage, because there are brutal husbands and murdered wives. 

" Yet, surely, it will be said, it must be admitted, after all, that slavery is an 
evil. Yes, certainly, it is an evil ; but in the same sense only in which servi- 
tude or hired labor is an evil. To gain one's bread by the sweat of one's brow, 
is a curse. But it is a curse attended with a blessing. It is an evil that shuts 
out a greater evil. Labor for wages, labor for subsistence, and subjection to the 
authority of employer or master, are the conditions on which alone the laboring 
masses, white or black, can live with advantage to themselves and to society." — 
From De Bow's Review, January, 1860, pages 56 and bl. 



AMERICA AND ENGLAND. 97 

can abolitionists, are working for: and seeking to bring about — 
the triumph of the party of emancipation for the negro slaves — 
is gained, the result will be the dissolution of the Union, and all 
the monstrous evils and frightful convulsions which such a revo- 
lution must bring on the whole Anglo-Saxon race. We shall 
not suifer alone. 

The British nation would lose something besides cotton. 
They would lose their only natural ally and friend, and would 
gain, instead, an implacable, inexorable enemy. 

All parties in America, however much they might hate and 
harm each other, would all join in hating and harming England, 
and its aristocracy as the real agitators of evil against us, which 
they have been, and the instigators of destruction to our insti- 
tutions. 

The tortuous and hypocritical policy of their government in 
relation to Spain and the slave trade, allowing, ay, assisting that 
weak kingdom to keep up the trade for Cuba, while denouncing 
our government to the world as slaveholding ; all the mean shifts 
to cast odium on us, and prevent our acquisition of Cuba,* which, 
if we had acquired, would at once and forever have put an end 
to the slave-trade, and all need of the fleets on the African 
station — these things, and hundreds of other provocations, will 
be brought out, like the writing on the wall, and the cry of ven- 
geance on England would ring through our land like the clarion 
of battle. 

Nor would the people of America, even when denationalized, 
be a weak foe. We should be a nation o^ fillihusters, as there 
would be no power in the Constitution to control the people, or 
stop offences when the Union was once broken. Two millions 
of natural born warriors, in whose hands the rifle and revolver 
are familiar as playthings of childhood, who love excitement and 
glory, and are possessed with the idea that they shall lead the 
world ; stop such a people, in their full, steam-impelled career of 
prosperity and development, by a stumbling block that shall 
break their march, humble their pride, cloud their sky, and rend 
their banner of stars into shreds of motley, and then cry to 
them, "Peace! peace! be still!" As easily might we stop the 



* It is truly lamentable that Great Britain and the United States should be 
obliged to expend such a vast amount of blood and treasure for the suppression 
of the African slave trade ; and this when the only portions of the civilized 
world where it is tolerated and encouraged are the Spanish islands of Cuba and 
Porto Rico. 

JAMES BUCHANAN. 

WASHiNaTON, May 19, 1860. 

7 



98 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

eruption of Vesuvius bj waving a feather fan, or calm the 
stormy sea by singing " Hail Columbia." 

No, no! those who are working to open the flood-gates of 
disunion and the waters of strife in our miast need look Avell to 
their footing, lest the cataract overwhelm them in its furious 
rapids or in its fearful fall. 

Occasions will not be wanting. England is envied or hated 
by all the world, except America. We are her only true ally. 
If she make us her foe, she would indeed be isolated. The Czar 
of the North may wish to make a long arm over China and strike 
at British power in India ; American volunteers would be ready. 
The " radical emperor" may like to try his experiment of 
"equality" — universal suffrage — in England; thousands on 
thousands of volunteers from the humbled republic of the west 
would rejoice to join in crushing and humbling that arrogant 
oligarchy which had, by its machinations, always sought to dis- 
grace our institutions before the world, and work our ruin. 

The Irish element in America has now an hereditary and dis- 
tinctive hatred towards England, that time and distance does not 
seem to eradicate. But this is like latent heat compared with 
the lightning's red bolt to the hot whirlwind of rage that would, 
if our Union was destroyed, impel American enmity towards 
England. 

The result of Mr. Jefferson's dogmas, if carried out, in letter 
and spirit, is the leveling of society down to the lowest strata. 
This was exemplified by the French Jacobins of 1792. In our 
republic we had no privileged orders, therefore no war was insti- 
tuted on classes. Our motto was, build upivard. This tendency 
raised all; and while the 'Constitution was sacredly adhered to, 
all was safety and prosperity and progressive improvement. 
But as soon as this compact of justice between the States was 
undermined and violated by the anti-slavery faction, drawing its 
doctrines from these dogmas, their destructive tendency was 
manifested. The great prosperity of the South, and the ease in 
which the rich planters are supposed to live, have had much in- 
fluence in bringing out the bitter abolition spirit of envy at the 
North, which loves to style the slaveholders " aristocrats,'' whom 
it is right to put down and destroy. A popular leader* has the 
following sentiments in one of his late speeches. He was argu- 
insr the riszht of the nesiro slave to be set free at once, even by 
violence, if necessary, and complaining that it was only color 
which restrained this vengeance — it could be done : 



Wendell Phillips. 



BLACK REPUBLICANS. 99 

'* If you will give me four millions of white slaves, and let me argue their case 
to the democrats of the northern States, because there is, rightfully or not, 
such a hatred of iceallh, such a hatred of ari.'i/ocraci/, in the Saxon of the northeru 
democrat, that there is nothing he would like better than to strangle them both 
in his right hand and his left. Put a rich corporation before a jury of poor 
men, and no matter whether the corporation has justice on its side or not. they 
will have no verdict. Vvith that element we could kill the system, if it were 
not for the hatred of the negro." 

These sentiments were applauded by his abolition hearers, 
thus showing that no sense of justice governs their doctrines. 

Another leader, a republican member of Congress from Mas- 
sachusetts, thus enunciated his ideas : 

"When we shall have elected a President, as we will, who will not be the 
President of a party, nor of a section, but the Tribune of the people, and after 
we have exterminated a few more miserable doughfaces from the North, then, 
if the slave Senate will not <jioe ivay, ice icill grind it between the ujiper and nether 
millstones of our poicer." 

Observe, it is power, not right, that these agitators want ; and 
then destruction is to begin. The destruction of the black slave 
as surely as that of his white master is in the anticipated result 
of this forced abolition. The eminent New York Senator"^- has 
said : 

" The interests of the ichitc race demand the ultimate emancipation of all men. 
AVhether that consummation shall be allowed to take effect with needful and 
wise precautions against sudden change and disaster, or be hurried on by vio- 
lence, is all that remains for you [his anti-slavery supporters] to decide." 

The republican Legislature of Minnesota wanted to prohibit 
free negroes from emigrating into that State. The principal 
abolition paper of Minnesota says : 

"If the South desire to drive away their free negroes, let other asylums be 
sought for them than this State. The free negro population of the North 
numbers about 250,000, and a more worthless class, one less capable of benefit- 
ing either itself or the community, unless compelled to labor, does not exist on 
the continent." 

Now, while really hating the negro, as we have shown, and 
having no purpose of doing him good, these worshipers of the 
dogmas are urging on their followers to break up and destroy 
those just and conservative conditions of our Constitution which 
preserve our national Union. Would they hesitate to level or 
destroy every institution that stood in the way of their ^^ power" 
or " interest" or ambition? 

" We have got money, aristocracy, negrophobia — that is, the slave power. It 
is the organized government of the Union; against it you have got the public 



* William H. Seward. 



100 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

opinion. Well, two centuries ago, New England struck off from Old England, 
with certain ideas of the Puritans — leveling ideas of universal suiTrage, and so 
forth. We have gone ahead until to-day with Massachusetts a free State. 
England remains with the same ideas, and with the aristocracy, wealth, titles, 
institutions, the House of Lords, the Church; and she is about a hundred ijears 
behind Massachusetts."* 

The abolitionists of Old England are zealously aiding the abo- 
litionists of New England. In return, the latter may, by and 
by, help the ten millions of white slaves in the former coun- 
try to such equality as shall be equivalent to negro emancipation 
here. Revolutions are not harmless playthings. To equalize 
Old England and Massachusetts would require a revolution. 

We come, then, to the conclusion. The clergy of America, 
as well as those of Britain, have not done their duty, or such 
false ideas respecting the relations of master and servant or 
slave would never have become popular in the churches. The 
Bible, if read and taught in its clear commands, its plain state- 
ments of facts and duties, Avould have exposed those false assump- 
tions of infidel philosophy! and transcendental philanthropy, 
which have darkened the mind and now lead astray many earnest 
Christians. 

Unbelievers could never have broken up parishes, divided re- 
ligious societies, destroyed the usefulness of so many pastors, by 
inducing them to leave the preaching of the Gospel for the 
struggle of political abolitionism. These evils have come upon 
our country because Christians have not done their duty. 



* Wendell Phillips. 

I The real aim of this abolition philosophy is disobedience to all law, divine 
and human, as disclosed in the conventions of these disciples of the dogmas. 
At the " Woman's Plights Convention," held in New York city, May 11th, 1860, 
the following resolutions, among others, unfit for publication here, were oflfered 
by one of the progressive members : 

" Ee.'ioh'ed, That all men are created equal ; and all women, in their natural 
rights, are the equals of men, and endowed by their Creator with the same 
inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. 

'^Resolved, That any constitution, compact, or covenant between human 
beings, or even between God and human beings, that failed to produce or pro- 
mote human happiness, could not, in the nature of things, be of any force or 
authority ; and it would be not only a right but a duty to abolish it." 

Wm. Lloyd Garri-^on, the original leader and great apostle of abolitionism, 
not only supported the resolutions — which were adopted — but he ofl'ered the 
following, to strengthen the doctrine of personal independence. God has no 
right to make laws for an abolitionist, according to this resolution. 

*' Resolved, That the rights of woman are co-equal and co-eternal with the 
rights of man, being based upon human nature, and, therefore, not to be 
determined nor circumscribed by an appeal to any book in the world, however 
excc-lleut that book may be." 



THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION. 101 

Is it too late ? None can limit the uercy of God. Our re- 
public lias seemed chosen as an instrument in promoting the 
advent of the "good time" when "righteousness and peace shall 
meet together." The poor and oppressed of all Japhetic peo- 
ples have here found welcome, safety, improvement, and citizen- 
ship. The negro savage, an ignorant slave from the land of 
Ham, has here been protected, taught, and christianized, and has 
increased from thousands to millions ; doing good wherever he 
is held in his capacity of servant^ as God ordained, and thus 
being fitted to do good to his black slave brethren when the time 
shall come for his work in his own heathen land. 

But we can never reach the goal by running the wrong way ; 
nor can we make midnight morning by putting forward the 
clock. 

If the negroes here and in Africa are ultimately to be freed, 
then God, in His own good time, will open the way. There is no 
need that white men should do the work of devils in maligning 
and murdering their own brothers, according to race, in order to 
hasten the day of negro emancipation. 

Hitherto the greatest advantages enjoyed by the black race 
have resulted from slavery in America, as exemplified in the com- 
parison of Liberia and its president with Dahomey and its king. 

Let us, then, take the Bible as our guide, in this conflict of 
sectional strife. It is the only platform of principles that will 
withstand the shock of all selfish combinations. Let us sustain 
the Constitution, as it was made, in good faith and equal justice 
to every section, and the Union as it is — -a compact that demands 
strict obedience to the requirements of the Constitution from 
each and every State, or there can be no Federal Union. 

May we not trust that there are enough good men, conserva- 
tive, patriotic, Christian men, in our land, who love their country, 
and "their whole country," to save us from the dangers of that 
sectionalism against which the warning voice of Washington is 
yet sounding in our ears ? 

Every man who believes his Bible and loves his country should 
now come forward, and, by voice and vote, by pen and prayer, 
work for the Constitution and the Union. The sentiment of our 
national poet is the true gauge of American patriotism : 

" Thou too sail on, Ship of State, 
Sail on, Union, strong and great ! 
Humanity, with all its fears, 
With all the hopes of future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 
We know ivhat Master laid thy keel, 



102 THE GOVERNING RACE. 

What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 

Who made each mast and sail and rope, 

What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 

In what a forge and what a heat. 

Were shaped the anchors of thy Hope! 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 

^ Tis of the tvave, and not the rode, 

'Tis but the flapping of the sail. 

And not a rent made by the gale. 

In spite of rock and tempest roar, 

In sjiitr of false lights on the shore. 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! " 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee. 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears. 

Are all with thee — are all with thee !" 



Nor 8,1861 



THE GOYERNING RACE: 



A. BOOK 



N ^ 



FOR 



THE TIME, AND FOR ALL TIMES. 



By H. 0. R. 



"God shall enlarge Japheth, ami he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan 
shall be his servant." — Genesis, 9: 27. 



1^1 



WASHINGTON : 

THOMAS McGILL, PRINTER. 
1860. 



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