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THE 
NO.  VI.— For  January,  1837. 

The  ballot-box  is  not  an  abolition  argument.  Hence  the 
political  parties  wasted  breath  last  year  in  charging  aboli- 
tionism upon  each  other  as  a  crime  ;  and  they  will  equally 
waste  breath  next  year  in  claiming  it  is  a  virtue.  Abolition- 
ism knows  nothins:  of  parties.  It  attacks  all  men  as  men, 
without  inquiring  for  whom  they  vote.  It  opens  its  batteries 
upon  the  mind  and  conscience  of  our  common  nature,  and 
Avill  play  away  till  the  man  who  goes  into  office,  of  whatever 
party,  will,  on  this  subject,  have  as  little  desire  as  he  has 
couraofe  to  do  otherwise  than  right. 

Abolitionists  have  but  one  work, — it  is  not  to  put  any 
body  into  office  or  out  of  it,  but  to  set  right  those  who  make 
officers.  It  is  not  an  action  upon  state  or  church,  but  upon 
the  materials  of  both.  Success  will  certainly  develope  itself 
both  through  those  who  make  human  laws  and  those  who 
interpret  the  divine.  But  it  would  seem  the  natural  order 
that  it  should  show  itself  first  through  the  latter.  The  in- 
terpreters of  divine  law  are,  in  fact,  the  chief  sinners.  They 
have  given  license  ad  libitum  to  manstealing,  and  it  can- 
not be  expected  that  the  statutes  of  a  state  should  be  better 
than  its  religion. 

Hence,  abolitionists  will  enter  carefully  upon  the  inquiry 
whether  or  not  the  christian  Scriptures  countenance  the 
doctrine  that  human  beings  are  or  may  be  fit  subjects  for 
the  right  of  property.  Taking  it  for  granted  that  these 
Scriptures,  as  contained  in  the  Bible  of  the  old  and  new 
testaments,  are  a  harmonious  whole,  they  either  do  or  they 
do  not  countenance  that  doctrine.  If  they  do,  the  believers 
in  a  certain  "  self-evident"  truth  must  fall  in  with  the  infi- 
dels.    If  they  do  not,  the  visible  church,  to  a  great  extent, 

15 


114  ANTI-SLAVERY    MAGAZINE. 

must  fall  in  with  Satan.  How  every  other  controversy 
dwindles  to  vanity  and  nothingness  in  the  comparison  ! 
Here  is  the  question  of  all  questions.  And  it  is  a  question 
that  can  be  solved.  A  fair  investigation  will  enable  any 
man  to  decide  with  absolute  certainty  whether  the  Bible 
does  or  does  not  teach  the  doctrine  referred  to. 

For  ourselves,  we  are  ready  to  stake  the  cause  we  plead 
on  the  position  that  the  Bible  is  irreconcilably  at  war  with 
every  manner  and  form  of  slavery — that  it  both  saw  and 
foresaw  the  sin,  and  laid  the  axe  eternally  at  its  root.  Were 
the  wisest  of  men,  with  the  best  light  of  this  marvellous  age, 
to  take  advantage  of  the  enthusiasm  of  a  people  just  rescued 
from  the  yoke  of  bondage,  in  framing  a  civil  polity  whereby 
all  kinds  of  slavery  should  be  forever  excluded,  and  the 
manifold  tendencies  of  riches  to  the  oppression  of  the  poor 
should  be  everlastingly  held  in  check,  we  unhesitatingly 
affirm  that  he  could  not  excel  the  polity  which  God  gave 
to  his  ancient  people  by  Moses — a  polity  steeped  in  anti- 
slavery,  drenched  and  overtiowing  with  kind  regard  for  the 
poor,  the  stranger,  and  the  helpless. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  new  dispensation,  of  which 
the  Mosaic  polity  was  confessedly  but  the  type  and  forerun- 
ner ?  It  is  one  blaze  of  abolitionism— a  fire  which  at  its 
kindling  burnt  up  yokes  and  melted  chains.  Its  doctrines, 
carried  out  in  the  humility  and  universal  benevolence  of  its 
first  converts,  made  any  special  attack  upon  slavery  as  use- 
less as  a  candle  in  the  noontide  sun. 

If  we  have  not  overstrained  the  limits  of  a  fair  and  candid 
interpretation  in  getting  at  these  conclusions,  what  abomi- 
nable rottenness  must  be  garnered  up  within  the  palings  of 
our  most  ambitious  sects  !  Real  Christianity  must — and  she 
will  be  disenthralled  from  the  putrid  carcase  to  which  she 
has  been  bound.  She  will  then  again  breathe  freely  and 
go  about  her  work.  AVe  shall  see,  after  she  gets  abroad, 
what  will  become  of  laws  declaring  men  to  be  "  chattels 
personal." 


THE 


QUARTERLY 

ANTI-SLAVERY    MAGAZINE. 

yOL.  11.  JANUARY,  1837  NO.  2. 

SLAVERY,   AND   THE    BIBLICAL  REPERTORY. 

EY  BEV.  SAMUEL  CROTHERS,  PASTOR  OF  THE  PHESBYTEBIAN  CHURCH,  GREENFIELD, 

OHIO. 

An  examination  of  the  Scripture  proof  that  "the  Mosaic  institutions  recognize  the 
lawfulness  of  slavery,"  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "View  of  the  subject  of  Slavery 
contained  in  the  Biblical  Repertory,  for  April,  1836,  in  ichich  the  Scripture 
arsunient  it  is  believed,  is  very  clearly  and  justly  exhibited.  Pittsburgh, 
1836.     F'or  gratuitous  distribution." 

The  article  in  the  Repertory,  of  which  this  pamphlet 
purports  to  be  a  reprint,  is  ascribed  by  current,  uncontra- 
dicted fame  to  the  Professor  of  Biblical  Literature  in  the 
Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton.  The  circumstances  in 
which  it  made  its  appearance  at  Pittsburgh,  and  the  ground 
which  the  author  assumes,  indicate  a  change  in  three  re- 
spects, within  the  last  year,  for  which  the  friends  of  human 
rights  ought  to  thank  God  and  take  courage. 

1.  Slaveholding  ministers  and  their  apologists  have 
generally  resolved  that  they  will  he  silent ;  and  that  the 


Professors  in  Theological  Seminaries  only.,  shall  discuss 
the  subject  ivith  the  abolitiotiists.  This  pamphlet  was  pub- 
lished during  the  sessions  of  the  General  Assembly  at  Pitts- 
burgh ;  and  was  industriously  circulated  by  those  members 
who  declared  that,  in  accordance  with  instructions  from  the 
South,  they  would  take  no  part  in  the  discussion  of  slavery ; 
and  if  the  Assembly  permitted  the  subject  to  be  agitated, 
they  would  leave  the  house  and  abandon  the  Presbyterian 
church.  It  would  seem  from  their  zeal  in  circulating  the 
arguments  from  Princeton,  that  they  were  not  opposed  to 
having  their  views  defended  provided  it  could  be  done  by 


I  1-6  SLAVERY,  AND  THE  [JANUARY, 

one  whom  they  considered  competent.  About  the  same 
time,  at  the  instance  of  the  members  of  the  Synod  of  Vir- 
ginia, the  Professors  of  Union  Theological  Seminary  took 
the  field.  In  future  the  adv^ocates  for  universal  liberty  will 
have  to  fight  with  neither  small  nor  great,  save  only  with 
theological  professors. 

2.  Our  opponents  have  changed  their  ground.  Dr. 
Baxter,  and  the  author  of  the  pamphlet  before  us,  declare  in 
substance  that  if  slaveholding  be  a  sin,  it  ought  not  to  be 
tolerated  in  the  church  for  an  hour.  But  they  contend  that, 
in  itself,  it  is  right,  according  to  the  word  of  God.  The 
former  declared,  in  his  speech  before  the  Virginia  Synod, 
that  you  can  never  cope  with  the  abolitionists  while  you 
admit  that  slavery  is  a  sin.  The  latter  assigns  a  more  chris- 
tian-like  reason  for  the  position  he  has  taken,  viz :  to  admit 
that  slaveholding  is  a  sm,  and  in  the  mean  time,  contend 
that  it  was  authorized  by  the  Mosaic  institutions,  "  would 
bring  them  into  conflict  with  the  eternal  principles  of  morals, 
and  our  faith  in  the  divine  orisfin  of  one  or  the  other  must 
be  given  up."  Hitherto  the  argument  has  been,  "  We  are 
as  much  opposed  to  slavery  as  you.  We  admit  that,  in 
principle,  it  is  sinful,  and  that  its  influence  is  ruinous.  But 
it  has  been  entailed  upon  us,  and  Moses  allowed  the  Jews 
to  have  slaves,*'  &c.  Slc.  But  by  the  sword  of  the  spirit 
they  have  been  driven  from  their  entrenchments  and  com- 
pelled to  take  the  open  field.  This  is  cheering.  We  are  to 
have  no  more  whining  about  our  consciences  and  our  un- 
fortunate situation.     The  public  mind  is  no  more  to  be 

shocked  by  attempts  to  prove  that  we  ought  to  live  in  sin. 
The  man  who  persuades  our  children  that  one  part  of  God's 
word  is  at  war  with  another,  or  with  the  "  eternal  principles 
of  morals"  is  to  be  classed  with  infidels.  Our  professors 
with  a  chivalry  peculiar  to  theological  professors,  or  with  a 
confidence  peculiar  to  those  who  are  just  girding  on  the 
harness,  have  proclaimed  that  they  will  meet  the  abolition- 
ists, not  behind  those  miserable  refuges  where  their  prede- 
cessors had  concealed  themselves  for  four  hundred  years, 
but  on  the  open  plain,  prepared  to  decide  the  matter  by  the 
final  appeal.     This  is  manly. 

3.  The  character  of  the  contest  is  changed.  It  is  no 
longer  merely  an  effort  to  put  down  the  abolitionists,  and  to 
rivet  the  chain  on  millions  of  t?ie  oppressed.    It  is  open  war 


1837.]  BIBLICAL    REPERTORY.  117 

with  the  God  of  Heaven.  Those  who  have  retired  from  the 
discussion  used  to  admit,  that  although  slavery  was  tolerated 
in  the  Jewish  church,  yet  the  Scriptures  in  many  places 
condemn  it ;  and  all  the  perfections  of  the  Almig-hty  are  in 
favor  of  universal  liberty  and  opposed  to  oppression  in  every 
degree  and  form.  But  those  who  have  taken  their  places 
are  not  going  to  spoil  their  arguments  by  any  weak  ad- 
missions. They  are  going  to  prove  that  although  the  most 
High  glories  in  the  title,  the  God  that  executeth  judgtnent 
for  all  that  are  oipjnessed  ;  notwithstanding  his  threaten- 
ings  against  the  sin  of  oppression,  and  his  many  and  sore 
judgments  on  oppressors,  he  is  himself  the  patron  of  slave- 
holding.  And  they  are  going  to  prove  it  before  the  uni- 
verse from  his  own  word.  The  matter  now  to  be  decided 
is  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  question,  What  god  shall 
we  and  our  children  worship  ?  And  if  the  angel  cursed 
those  who  held  back  when  the  trumpet  summoned  them  to 
the  help  of  the  Lord  in  putting  down  the  worship  of  Baal, 
let  those  Christians  see  to  it  who  stand  aloof  from  the  present 
struggle. 

The  fore  front  of  the  battle  has  been  assigned  to  our  the- 
ological professors,  from  the  belief  that  as  their  time  is  de- 
voted to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  and  training  young  men 
for  the  ministry,  they  must  be  in  possession  of  all  the  Scrip- 
ture arguments.  We  are  glad  that  they  have  undertaken  it. 
They  will  either  soon  overwhelm  the  abolitionists,  or  an- 
nounce that  they  too  are  opposed  to  discussion.  In  the 
latter  event,  slaveholders  will  perceive  that  their  cause  is 
indefensible,  and  that  they  must  either  turn  infidels  or  break 
the  yoke  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free. 

We  shall  notice  but  one  paragraph  in  the  pamphlet  before 
us — that  which  points  out  five  ways  in  which  the  author 
assures  us  the  law  of  Moses  allowed  men  to  be  made  slaves, 
with  the  list  of  texts  adduced  as  Scripture  proof. 

"  It  is  not  denied  that  slavery  was  tolerated  among  the 
ancient  people  of  C4od.  Abraham  had  servants  in  his  family, 
who  were  bought  with  his  money,  Gen.  xvii.  13.  Abime- 
lech  took  sheep  and  oxen,  and  men  servants  and  maid  ser- 
vants, and  gave  them  to  Abraham.  Moses  finding  this  in- 
stitution among  the  Hebrews  and  all  surrounding  nations, 
did  not  abolish  it.  He  enacted  laws  directing  how  slaves 
were  to  be  treated,  on  what  conditions  they  were  to  be  lib- 


118  SLAVERY,    AND    THE  [JaNUARY, 

erated,  under  what  circumstances  they  might  and  might  not 
be  sold,  he  recognizes  tlie  distinctions  between  slaves  and 
hired  servants,  (Deut.  xv.  18.)  he  speaks  of  the  way  by  which 
these  bondmen  might  be  procured,  as  hy  war,  by  purchase^ 
hy  the  right  of  credltorship,  by  the  sentence  of  a  judge  ; 
but  not  by  siezing  those  who  were  free,  an  offence  punished 
by  death.*  The  fact  that  the  Mosaic  institutions  recognized 
the  lawfulness  of  slavery,  is  a  point  too  plain  to  need  proof, 
and  is  almost  universally  admitted.  Our  argument  from 
this  acknowledged  fact  is,  that  if  God  allowed  slavery  to 
exist,  if  he  directed  how  slaves  might  be  lawfully  acquired, 
and  how  they  were  to  be  treated,  it  is  in  vain  to  contend 
that  slaveholding  is  a  sin,  and  yet  profess  reverence  for  the 
Scriptures.  Every  one  must  feel  that  if  perjury,  murder  or 
idolatry  had  been  thus  authorized,  it  would  bring  the  Mosaic 
institutions  into  conflict  with  the  eternal  principles  of  morals, 
and  that  our  faith  in  the  divine  origin  of  one  or  the  other 
must  be  given  up." 

We  thank  the  author  for  the  unequivocal  acknowledg- 
ment that  the  Mosaic  institutions  are  in  harmony  with  the 
"  eternal  principles  of  morals ;"  of  course  any  exposition 
which  would  bring  them  in  conflict  must  be  false.  But  we 
feel  pretty  confident  he  will  abandon  this  principle  or  cease 
to  defend  slavery.  We  also  cheerfully  admit  that  if  "  God 
regulated  slavery  it  is  in  vain  to  contend  that  it  is  a  sin, 
and  yet  profess  reverence  for  the  Scriptures."  God  never 
regulated  sin,  nor  showed  his  people  liow  they  might  law- 
fully practice  it.  We  wish  we  could  say  as  much  for 
some  ecclesiastical  judicatories  who  professed  to  act  in  his 
name  and  by  his  authority.  Abolitionists  have  labored  to 
convince  their  opponents  that  these  are  correct  principles  ; 
and  for  saying  that  those  who  take  contrary  ground,  slan- 
der the  word  of  God,  and  propagate  infidelity,  we  have  been 
charofed  with  bitterness  and  fanaticism.  Before  we  notice 
the  list  of  texts,  let  us  analyze  the  five  ways  of  slave  ma- 
king. 

"  By  war,  by  jmrchase,  by  the  right  of  creditorship,  by 

*  "On  the  manner  in  which  slaves  were  acquired,  compare  Deut.  xx.  14,  and 
xxi.  10,  11 ;  Exodus,  xxii.  3;  Neh.  iv.  4.  5;  Gen.  xiv.  14,  and  xv.  3,  and  xvii.  23 ; 
Numbers,  xxxi.  9,  35;  Lev.  xxv.  44,  46." 

"As  to  the  manner  in  which  they  were  to  be  treated,  see  Lev.  xxv.  39 — 53 ;  Ex. 
XX.  10,  and  xxi.  2— S ;  Lev.  xxv.  4 — 6." 


1837.]  BIBLICAL    REPERTORY.  110 


the  sentence  of  a  judge,  hy  hirtJh  hut  not  by  seizing  those 
who  were  free,  4*c-" 

This  with  some  .verbal  alteration,  is  the  stereotyped 
account  of  the  law  ol  Moses,  by  the  Jesuits,  when  the  Pope 
piped  "  all  hands"  to  his  defence  in  making  the  African 
slave  trade  a  divine  institution.  It  is  evidently  taken  from 
Jahn  on  Archeology,  a  favorite  author  in  our  seminaries,  a 
thorough  Papist,  in  whose  writings  are  to  be  found  the  sub- 
stance of  nearly  all  the  Scripture  arguments  advanced  in 
favor  of  slavery  by  pope's  and  protestant  divines,  during  the 
last  four  hundred  years.  We  do  not  mention  this  as  proof, 
or  even  presumption  that  the  five  ways  are  founded  on  a 
false  exposition  of  the  law  of  Moses.  Bat  in  the  prospect 
of  being  shortly  constrained  to  renounce  fellowship  with 
Congregationalists,  and  some  Presbyterians,  to  preserve  our 
faith  aiid  morals  in  their  purity  ;  it  is  important  the  church- 
es whom  we  wish  to  take  with  us,  should  know  that  there 
are  others  of  different  names  and  on  different  continents, 
with  whom  we  agree.  Mr.  Jahn"s  ways  of  slaveholding  are 
as  follows. 

1.  By  captivity  in  war.  2.  Debts.  3.  Thefts.  4. 
Manstealing.  5.  Children  of  slaves.  6.  By  purchase. 
He  insists  that  the  laws  against  manstealing  were  restricted 
in  their  operations  to  those  who  made  slaves  of  Hebrews. 

We  can  hardly  believe  that  Mr.  Jahn  and  the  Jesuits  who 
preceded  him,  adopted  these  five  loays  of  turning  human 
beings  into  property,  as  the  result  of  prayerful  and  success- 
ful study  of  the  Word  of  God  :  foi  it  seems  they  had  just 
enough  of  Bible  knowledge  to  spend  their  hours  of  devo- 
tion in  counting  beads  and  worshipping  the  Virgin  Mary  ! 
The  truth  is,  they  are  just  so  many  props  invented  originally 
for  the  special  purpose  of  supporting  the  African  slave  trade  ; 
and  handed  down  to  us  as  holy  institutions  given  to  the 
church  at  Mount  Sinai.  And  we  are  indebted  for  them  to 
the  same  kind  of  men  who  used  to  sell  quills  out  of  the 
wings  of  the  angel  Gabriel.  As  proof,  we  need  only  men- 
tion the  fact  that  no  exposition  ever  gave  such  a  view  of 
the  law  of  Moses,  prior  to  the  commencement  of  the  slave 
trade. 

If  this  pamphlet  be  a  fair  sample  of  the  instruction  which 
our  young  men  receive  at  Princeton  ;  so  far  as  servitude  and 
human  rights  are  concerned,  they  are  not  a  hair's  breadth 


120  slavp:ry,  and  the  [January, 

in  advance  of  the  morality  which  prevails  on  the  coast  of 
Guinea,  and  in  all  those  petty  kingdoms  and  hordes  in  Af- 
rica where  the  slave  trade  is  in  operation.  No  one  will  ask 
for  the  proof  that  in  those  regions,  they  enslave  captives, 
and  those  who  are  born  of  slave  parents.  But  there  may 
be  sceptics  as  to  the  other  three  ways.  With  all  that  we 
have  heard  of  the  brutalized  condition  of  Africa,  we  may 
not  all  be  prepared  to  believe  that  the  poor  man  who  cannot 
pay  his  debts,  and  he  who  has  committed  a  crime  and  he 
whose  neighbor  is  mean  and  wicked  enough  to  sell  him, 
are  all  punished  with  slavery.  Any  full  history  of  Africa 
or  the  slave  trade  will  furnish  the  proof  In  the  Edinburgh 
Encyclopedia,  in  the  articles  Ardrah,  Dahomy,  Angola,  and 
Guinea,  we  find  the  following  accounts. — "  Persons  who  are 
insolvent  are  sold  at  the  pleasure  of  their  creditors — ^When 
a  man  is  accused  of  crime  he  is  condemned  to  slavery.^ 
During  the  continuance  of  the  slave  trade,  the  most  trifling 
offences  were  every  where  examined  with  the  utmost  strict- 
ness, and  almost  every  punishment  was  commuted  into  sla- 
very.— In  all  ages,  and  in  all  countries,  slavery  has  been  as 
fatal  to  virtue,  as  liberty  is  friendly  to  it. — The  day,  says 
Homer,  that  makes  a  man  a  slave,  takes  away  half  his  vir- 
tue.— Husbands  sell  their  wives,  parents  their  children  ; 
friends  and  neighbors  are  tempted  to  betray  each  other  for 
the  trifling  reward  of  a  little  brandy,  or  for  a  mere  bauble. 
Not  only  do  the  avaricious  governors  exact,  with  the  utmost 
rapacity,  the  severest  tribute  from  the  poor  natives,  but  even 
make  their  inability  to  pay,  a  pretext  for  condemning  the 
richest  families  to  slavery." 

How  shall  we  account  for  it,  that  the  untutored  savages  of 
Guinea  have  attained  to  the  same  perfection  in  the  moral 
system  of  turning  bodies  and  souls  into  property,  as  the 
Professors  in  our  Theological  seminaries  with  all  the  aids  of 
revelation  and  science.  Shall  we  ascribe  it  to  the  superiori- 
ty of  African  intellect?  No;  our  professors  say  they  ob- 
tained theirs  by  diligently  studying  the  Word  of  God.  The 
Africans  obtained  theirs  by  intercourse  with  some  worthless 
foreigners  who  taught  them  to  make  money  by  setting  up  a 
traffick  in  human  bodies  ;  and  then  the  jive  iDciys  became 
as  necessary  to  its  support  as  air  is  to  breathing. 

We  have  one  question  to  ask  of  the  author  of  the  "  view 
of  slavery" ;  and  unless  it  can  be  answered  satisfactorily  to 


1837.]  BIBLICAL    KEPliRTORY.  121 

the  churches  it  requires  no  spirit  of  prophecy  to  say,  that 
the  days  of  Princeton  seminary  are  numbered.  Does  the 
Professor  of  Bibhcal  Literature  beheve  that  these  five  ways 
of  makins:  men  slaves  are  a  part  of  tlie  ivhole  counsel  of 
God  as  revealed  in  the  law  of  God  by  Moses,  and  are  they 
a  part  of  the  Biblical  instruction  by  which  he  is  preparing 
our  Missionaries  for  foreign  lands  ?  If  so — we  may  expect 
to  hear  that  through  their  labors,  the  slave  trade  in  Africa 
is  reviving — that  "the  missionary  and  his  wife  are  trading 
with  kidnappers,  and  storming  the  towns  and  hamlets  a- 
round  them,  in  imitation  of  what  they  tell  us  was  the  exam- 
ple of  Abraham  and  Sarah  in  Haran,  when  preparing  to  go 
to  the  promised  land.  We  may  soon  hear  that  he  is  at  the 
head  of  his  318  slaves,  armed  and  trained  to  war,  bidding 
defiance  to  the  petty  kings  around  him,  and  occasionally 
pursuing  and  slaughtering  them  for  practicing  the  divine 
principle  of  slavery  by  captivity.  But  perhaps  these  jive 
ways  are  not  taught  in  the  seminary  as  a  part  of  the  word 
God.  Perhaps  their  publication  was  only  a  prudent  maneu- 
vre  for  the  purpose  of  abashing  the  abolitionists,  and  pre- 
serving the  union  of  northern  and  southern  supporters  of 
the  institution-  This  is  the  most  charitable  supposition  we 
can  make.  If  so — how  long  will  the  Head  of  the  church 
smile  on  a  seminary  which  resorts  to  such  measures  to  se- 
cure popularity.  Let  us  examine  these  ways  of  making 
slaves. 

1.  By  captivity.  It  is  passing  strange  that  men  devoted 
to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  should  be  so  far  in  the  rear 
as  to  imagine  that  making  slaves  of  captives  in  war,  was  li- 
censed in  the  Jewish  church  ;  and  that  such  a  license  should 
be  placed  among  the  institutions  in  harmony  with  the  "eter- 
nal principles  of  morals."  The  Jews  were  not  permitted  to 
make  prisoners  of  any  of  the  seven  nations  whose  land  was 
given  them  for  a  possession  "  Of  the  cities  of  these  people 
which  the  Lord  thy  God  doth  give  thee  for  an  inheritance, 
thou  shalt  save  alive  nothing  that  breatheth ;  but  thou  shalt 
utterly  destroy  them :  namely  the  Hitlites  and  the  Amorites, 
&c."  beut.  XX.  16.  Fond  as  some  men  are  of  slaves,  they 
would  not  have  such  as  could  not  breathe.  The  remaining 
question  is,  how  were  they  to  treat  the  other  nations  called 
the  "  nations  round  about"  and  the  "  nations  afar  off"."  When 
they  came  nigh  to  a  city  they  were  to  proclaim  jyeace  to  it.- 

IG 


122  SLAVERY,    AND    THE  [JANUARY, 

If  peace  were  accepted,  they  were  to  serve  Israel  as  tributa- 
ries. If  not  they  were  to  smite  every  7nale  thereof  with  the 
edge  of  the  sword,  and  take  home  the  women  and  little  ones. 
Deut.  XX,  10,  11.  It  was  to  blast  in  the  bud  everything 
like  a  disposition  to  enslave  them,  that  God  said,  "  Ye  shall 
not  afflict  any  widow  or  fatherless  child.  If  thou  afflict 
them  in  any  wise,  and  they  cry  at  all  unto  me,  I  will  surely 
hear  their  cry ;  and  my  wrath  shall  wax  hot,  and  I  will  kill 
you  with  the  sword  ;  and  your  wives  shall  be  widows,  and 
your  children  fatherless."  From  the  simple  fact  that  they 
might  take  home  those  widows  and  children,  some  theolo- 
logians  infer  that  they  were  to  be  slaves.  The  inference 
supposes  that  in  a  land  governed  by  a  divine  law,  where 
God  himself  is  the  chief  magistrate,  there  can  be  no  alter- 
native for  the  widow  and  her  fatherless  children,  but  star- 
vation or  slavery !  It  also  betrays  gross  ignorance  of  the 
laws  of  Moses.  We  can  hardly  excuse  a  professor  ol  Bib- 
lical literature  for  not  knowing  that  a  tythe  was  taken  up 
every  third  year  for  their  relief  and  the  support  of  the  Le- 
vites ;  and  the  gleanings  of  every  harvest  and  vintage, 
and  the  privilege  of  going  into  any  field  or  vineyard  to  eat 
when  hungry,  were  secured  to  them  expressly  by  law. 

But  the  question  is  expressly  decided  by  two  inspired 
men,  one  under  the  old  dispensation,  the  other  under  the 
new.  When  Obed,  a  prophet  of  the  Lord,  heard  that  the 
Israelites  were  bringing  home  captives  for  slaves,  he  met 
them  and  convinced  them  that  it  was  such  a  flagrant  viola 
tion  of  the  law  as  would  unquestionably  bring  the  wrath  of 
Heaven  upon  them.  And  with  all  the  wickedness  of  these 
apostate  ten  tribes,  they  were  stricken  with  remorse,  and 
after  clothing  and  treating  the  persons  most  kindly,  they  sent 
them  home  to  their  brethren,  2  Chron.  xxviii.  8 — 15.  Tell 
us  not  that  the  captives  in  this  instance  were  their  brethren, 
and  that  if  they  had  been  strangers  God  would  have  ap- 
proved it.  That  maxim — the  heathen  arc  nobody — is  the 
chief  corner  stone  on  which  the  Pope  built  the  African  slave 
trade  ;  but  it  is  equally  at  war  with  humanity  and  those  ter- 
rible threatenings  of  the  law  against  those  who  vex  the 
stranger.  The  other  decision  is  by  the  apostle  Paul.  The 
name,  in  Xenophon  and  other  Greek  writers,  for  the  slave 
by  captivity  is  Andrapodon.  Of  course,  andrapodistes  is 
the  name  of  the  enslaver.     But  the  apostle  classes  the  an- 


1837.]  BIBLICAL     REPERTORY.  123 

drapodistes  (translated  manstealer)  with  murderers  of  fathers, 
and  murderers  of  mothers  and  others,  for  whose  punishment 
the  law  of  Moses  expressly  provides,  1  Tim.  i.  10. 

Let  no  one  say  that  although  the  Jews  could  not  take 
captives  and  enslave  them  without  sinning,  they  might  hire 
their  neighbors  to  do  it  for  them.  Our  professors  are  not 
prepared  to  defend  such  morality,  even  when  they  find  it  in 
Jahn.  It  would  suit  the  meridian  of  Madrid,  where  no 
gentleman  need  keep  a  stiletto  because  he  can  at  any  time 
hire  an  assassin  to  take  a  neighbor's  life  for  a  mere  bauble. 
Besides,  if  the  slave,  while  the  bargain  was  in  making, 
should  raise  the  cry  for  help,  the  whole  nation  was  bound 
to  protect  him  against  his  master,  (Deut.  xxiii.  15,)  and  see 
to  his  freedom.  It  is  evident  also  that  the  statute  which  re- 
cjuired  every  servant  bought  with  money  to  be  circumcised 
and  admitted  to  the  passover,  (C4en.  xvii.  13 ;  Ex.  xii.  44,) 
never  contemplated  the  erection  of  shambles  in  the  Holy 
Land  for  the  sale  of  heathens  who  had  experienced  no  con- 
version to  fit  them  for  holy  ordinances,  excepting  that  of 
being  beaten  in  a  military  fight. 

This  slavery  hy  captivity  is  as  shocking  to  humanity  and 
common  sense,  as  it  is  contrary  to  the  word  of  God.  It  is 
admitted  in  the  paragraph  under  consideration  that  "  seizing 
on  those  who  were  free  was  an  oftence  punished  with  death." 
Suppose  then  that  the  two  parties  are  equally  free  when 
they  join  battle;  and  the  strong  man,  of  course,  overpowers 
the  weak.  Now  what  wizard  influence  is  there,  in  such  a 
process,  which  strips  the  weak  man  of  his  inalienable  rights, 
and  justifies  the  other  in  doing  that  for  which,  one  hour 
before,  he  would  have  been  condemned  by  the  laws  of  both 
God  and  men  to  be  hanged  by  the  neck  till  he  was  dead  ? 
Unless  we  can  find  a  command  of  God  for  it,  we  must  pro- 
nounce it  absurd.  Have  any  of  the  nations  of  Europe  acted 
on  this  principle  in  their  wars  during  the  century  past  ? 
The  truth  is,  there  is  not  a  christian  on  earth  who  ever  pre- 
tends to  believe  it  to  be  right,  excepting  when  the  freedom 
of  the  African  is  opposed. 

Let  us  apply  the  principle  to  a  case  during  our  revolu- 
tinoary  war,  of  which,  the  following  is  believed  to  be  in  sub- 
stance a  correct  history.  Our  venerable  President  Andrew 
Jackson  was  taken  prisoner  at  the  battle  of  King's  mouii' 


121  SLAVERY,    AND    THE  [JaNUART, 

tain,  but  owing  to  his  extreme  youth,  he  was  permitted  to  go . 
where  he  pleased  without  being  exchanged  or  released.  Is 
it  true  that  we  have  exahed  to  the  presidency,  not  a  free- 
man, but  an  Englishman's  slave  ?  Suppose  the  soldier 
who  took  him  prisoner  should  recognize  him  in  the  streets 
of  Washington,  and  yoke  him  as  his  property,  to  some  of 
the  coffles  that  are  driven  by  the  capitol  daily,  to  the  tune  of 
"  Hail  Columbia."  Would  the  word  of  God,  and  the  "  eter- 
nal principles  of  morals"  bear  him  through  ?  It  seems  our 
seminaries  are  furnished  with  long  lists  of  texts  to  defend 
such  morality. 

When  we  examine  the  moral  tendency  of  a  license  to  en- 
slave captives  we  are  equally  puzzled  to  see  why  it  should 
be  given,  unless  we  admit,  as  we  are  told  in  this  pamphlet, 
that  the  existence  of  "  this  institution  (slavery)  among  the 
surrounding  nations,"  induced  Moses  not  to  abolish  it.  If 
the  author  of  the  Sinai  Covenant  was  under  the  necessity  of 
consulting  the  tastes  of  these  pagan  nations,  the  permission 
to  enslave  as  many  of  them  as  they  could  capture,  was  well 
calculated  to  reconcile  them  to  the  existence  of  such  a  peo- 
ple, and  such  a  religion  in  their  neighborhood.  And  as  the 
obvious  tendency  would  be,  to  make  the  Hebrews  fight  des- 
perately, it  would  go  far  towards  recommending  them  to  the 
favor  of  the  pagan  gods.  Mars,  the  god  of  war,  was  sup- 
posed to  look  with  supreme  delight  on  the  bully  who  could 
fight  like  a  tiger.  But  we  are  sorry  to  see  our  author  so 
soon  abandon  the  ground  that  we  must  not  "  bring  the  Mo- 
saic institutions  into  conflict  with  the  eternal  principles  of 
morals." 

2.  By  purchase.  One  would  think,  the  lawfulness  of 
holding  men  by  purchase  would  depend  on  the  question — 
who  sold  them,  and  what  right  had  he  to  do  it?  Our  laws 
allow  us  to  hold  horses  by  purchase.  But  the  man  who 
buys  a  horse  knowing  him  to  be  stolen,  is,  by  the  court  of 
heaven,  and  by  every  court  under  heaven,  classed  with  the 
thief  A  minister  who  would  preach  that  it  is  right  to  own 
bought  horses,  irrespective  of  the  manner  in  which  the  seller 
obtained  them,  would  soon  find  himself  in  want  of  a  place. 
A  congregation  of  horse-thieves  would  not  employ  him ;  for 
though  they  might  be  willing  to  be  villains  themselves,  they 
would  insist  upon  it,  that  the  minister  ought  to  be  a  decent 


1837.]  BIBLICAL    REPERTORY.  '  125 

man.     The  punishment,  by  the  law  of  Moses,  for  him  who 
made  property  of  a  man,  was  death. 

It  is  sometimes  troublesome  to  prove  a  negative.  Our  au- 
thor has  given  a  list  of  texts,  not  one  of  which,  has  any  con- 
nexion with  slave  selling.  A  thief  could  be  sold  by  the  sen- 
tence of  a  judge,  but  that  is  the  fourth  way  of  slave  making, 
and  must  not  be  confounded  with  this  second  way  hy  pur- 
chase. It  is  admitted  that  a  father  could  sell  his  daughter 
to  the  man  who  betrothed  her  for  a  wife ;  that  a  Hebrew  could 
sell  himself  for  six  years;  and  a  pious  stranger  could  sell 
himself  until  the  jubilee.  But  this  is  nothing  to  the  purpose. 
Abolitionists  have  in  vain  challenged  the  host  of  their  op- 
posers  to  produce  the  text  which  authorizes  one  man  to  sell 
another  as  a  slave.  It  is  insulting  the  understanding  of 
the  community  by  a  most  pitiful  shuffle,  to  point  to  texts 
which  authorized  men  A^ohmtarily  to  sell  their  own  services 
for  a  limited  time.  Such  sales  take  place  in  every  free  coun- 
try, and  have  been  pronounced  lawful  without  a  dissenting 
voice  from  time  immemorial.  We  have  German  servants 
in  Ohio,  at  this  moment,  where  slavery  and  involuntary  ser- 
vitude are  not  tolerated.  Such  servants,  from  Britain,  bought 
with  money,  were  to  be  found  in  all  our  states  until  slavery 
made  such  servitude  disreputable.  We  take  for  granted, 
that,  by  slavery,  our  author  does  not  mean  voluntary  and 
limited  and  requited  servitude.  This  would  be  as  unfor- 
tunate a  blunder  as  that  of  the  hero  who  fought  with 
windmills  and  fulling  mills,  under  the  notion  that  he  was 
battleing  with  giants. 

We  are  willing  to  prove  a  neg-ative.  We  shall  show  that 
it  was  contrary  to  the  law  of  God  by  Moses,  for  one  man  to 
sell  another  as  a  slave.  We  shall  not  do  it  by  an  endless 
hst  of  those  texts  which  are  utterly  irreconcilable  with 
such  iniquity.  Happily  for  our  purpose  God  has  recorded, 
with  the  proper  judgment,  a  case  which  brings  the  principle 
fairly  before  us.  We  might  search  in  vain  the  whole  histo- 
ry of  the  traffic  in  human  bodies,  for  a  case  conducted  more 
fairly  and  honorably  on  both  sides,  than  the  sale  of  Joseph. 
The  sellers  were  reasonable  as  to  the  price.  He  was  a  goodly 
child,  yet  they  asked  but  twenty  pieces  of  silver.  They  con- 
cealed none  of  his  faults,  not  even  his  ugly  habit  of  dreaming, 
The  purchaser  paid  the  money  down.  And  as  to  apologies, 
they  swarmed  like  the  lice  in  iEgypt.     If  being  professors  of 


126  SLAVEEY,    AND    THE  [JANUARY, 

religion,  and  descended  of  pious  parents,  must  screen  the 
sellers  from  the  charge  of  manstealing — if  saving  the  person 
sold  from  hardships,  and  even  death,  will  excuse  the  pur- 
chasers— if  the  fact  that  God  overrules  the  whole  transac- 
tion to  the  advancement  of  his  glory,  and  the  ultimate  good 
of  many  will  canonize  the  deed,  the  sale  of  Joseph  was  a 
very  pious  aifair.  But  Joseph  says — Indeed  Iivas  stoleii. 
And  God  has  recorded  that  judgment  in  his  book,  that  he 
wJlo  reads  7nay  understand  1 

But  let  us  take  a  case  still  more  favorable  to  our  oppo- 
nents. Our  missionaries  tell  us  of  a  region  in  India  where 
parents  in  a  time  of  famine  sold  their  children.  The  pious 
English  families,  to  save  them  from  destruction,  bought 
them  and  established  schools  and  hired  teachers  to  instruct 
them  in  literature  and  religion.  Suppose  the  next  ship 
should  bring  us  news  that  missionaries,  initiated  into  the 
Jive  wai/s,  had  convinced  those  benevolent  families  that 
making  slaves  bp  purchase  is  according  to  the  word  of  God, 
and  that  they  have  resolved  to  hold  these  children  as  their 
property.  A  burst  of  indignation  from  the  whole  civilized 
world  would  be  the  result.  Every  church  on  earth,  from 
which  the  glory  has  not  departed,  would  pray  with  uplifted 
hands — "  From  all  theological  seminaries  and  from  all  mis- 
sionaries who  teach,  we  are  taught  to  believe,  that  making 
slaves  by  purchase  is  right  in  the  sight  of  Heaven,  the  good 
Lord  deliver  us."  Tlie  Professors  in  the  Seminary  at 
Princeton  would  be  the  foremost  to  pronounce  the  report  a 
base  slander.  And  they  would  do  it  in  the  absence  of  all 
proof  excepting  the  known  piety  of  the  missionaries.  That 
is,  they  would  say  the  young  men  had  too  much  sense  and 
piety  to  believe  the  instructions  they  had  received  from  their 
teachers.  Until  those  Professors  shall  announce  that  they 
are  able  to  believe  their  own  expositions  of  the  word  of  God, 
when  fairly  applied,  they  must  excuse  us  for  not  believing. 

3.  By  the  right  of  creditorship.  In  other  words,  if  a 
poor  man,  or  widow,  or  fatherless  child  were,  through  im- 
prudence or  affliction,  involved  in  debt  and  unable  to  pay, 
it  was  the  privilege  of  the  creditor  to  sieze  and  enslave  that 
poor  man,  or  widow,  or  fatherless  child.  To  the  honor  of 
the  author,  we  notice  that  he  has  quoted  no  text  as  proof; 
but  we  think  it  would  have  been  still  more  to  his  credit  had 
he  omitted  the  doctrine  itself.    As  it  is  taken,  however,  from 


1837.]  BIBLICAL    REPERTORY.  127 

Jahn,  who  has  quoted  two  texts  as  proof,  we  feel  bound  to 
examine  them. 

Mr.  Jahn,  and  the  Jesuits  who  preceded  him,  quote  2 
Kings,  iv.  1 — a  case  which  occurred  among  the  apostate 
ten  tribes  under  the  reign  of  Ahab  and  Jezebel.  A  pious 
prophet,  who  had  been  driven  from  his  post  to  make  way 
for  more  convenient  tools  in  wickedness,  had  died  in  debt. 
And  just  as  Elisha  arrived  at  the  house  of  his  widow,  direct- 
ed thither  by  the  unseen  hand  of  God,  in  perfect  keeping 
Avith  the  spirit  of  those  ungodly  times,  the  creditor  arrived 
to  tear  from  her  two  fatherless  cliildren  to  doom  them  to 
slavery.  Could  Jezebel  have  found  a  professor  of  Biblical 
literature  willing  to  hold  up  such  diabolical  cruelty,  as  a 
sample  of  the  law  of  Moses,  she  would  have  established 
seminaries  in  every  corner  of  the  land,  and  entertained  the 
professors  by  the  thousand  at  her  own  table.  The  other 
text  quoted  is  Matt,  xviii.  25.  Our  Saviour  alludes  for 
illustration,  not  to  the  law  of  Moses,  but  to  the  conduct  of  a 
certain  king  who  commnded  a  poor  creditor  to  he  sold,  and 
his  wife  and  children  and  all  tJiat  he  had.  To  make  it 
bear  on  the  law  of  Moses  it  is  assumed  that  those  characters 
to  whom  our  Saviour  alludes  for  illustration,  must  be  such 
as  the  law  approves  !  in  face  of  the  fact  that  he  sometimes 
quotes  for  illustration,  a  steward  who  was  unjust,  and  a 
judge  ivho  feared  not  God  neither  regarded  man.  And 
the  doctrine  which  they  wish  thus  to  establish  is  one  which 
no  righteous  man  can  think  of  without  horror.  Historians 
say  that  such  morality,  in  reference  to  poor  creditors,  is 
considered  infamous  on  the  coast  of  Guinea.  "  Another 
oppressive  law  peculiar  to  the  Fantee  country  deserves  to 
be  noticed  as  demonstratino-  the  baneful  effect  of  the  same 
odious  trade  in  human  beings.  If  a  person  became  involved 
in  debt,  and  either  unable  or  unwilling  to  pay,  the  creditor 
was  at  liberty  to  '  panyar ;'  that  is,  to  sieze  and  confine  any 
person  or  persons  belonging  to  the  family,  or  the  town,  or 
even  the  country  of  the  debtor ;  and  these  captives,  if  op- 
portunity offered,  were  sold  as  slaves  without  any  delay  or 
ceremony." — Encyclo.  Art.  Guinea.  Should  our  mission- 
aries be  trained  to  believe  in  slavenj  by  the  right  of  credit- 
orship,  such  a  custom  will  not  long  be  peculiar  to  Fantee. 

Had  any  intelligent  farmer  asserted,  as  the  result  of  his 
examination  of  the  law  of  iMoses.  that  it  licensed  making; 


128  SLAVERY,  AND  THE  JaNUAHY, 

slaves  of  poor  men  because  they  were  unable  to  pay  their 
debts,  we  should  not  have  known  how  to  excuse  him.  But 
we  have  learned  to  make  great  allowance  for  professors  in 
theological  seminaries.  The  truth  is,  they  are  so  busily 
engaged  in  teaching  the  young  men  theology,  that  they  have 
not  tniie  to  study  their  Bibles.  On  no  other  principle  can 
we  account  for  the  ignorance  betrayed  in  this  pamphlet,  of 
the  following  regulations,  by  the  law  of  Moses,  all  of  which 
are  utterly  irreconcilable  with  distressing  a  poor  creditor. 
Every  seventh  year  the  atonement  released  all  the  poor, 
foreigners  excepted,  from  debt,  Deut.  xv.  1 — 12.  If  a 
brother,  yea  tliougli  he  he  a  stranger,  had  fallen  into  decay, 
the  nation  were  required  to  relieve  him  with  money  and 
victuals  without  increase,  Lev.  xxv.  35 — 39.  Under  pain 
of  God's  displeasure,  they  were  forbidden  to  refuse  lending 
through  fear  of  havino-  to  forofive  the  debt  in  the  seventh 
year.  "  Beware  that  there  be  not  a  thought  in  thy  wicked 
heart  saying,  the  seventh  year,  the  year  of  release  is  at 
hand,"  ttc.  Deut.  xv.  9,  10. 

AV^e  have  only  to  apply  the  principle,  in  question,  to  be 
frightened  with  it.  Suppose  that  the  present  war  by  our 
theological  professors  on  the  abolitionists,  contrary  to  all  cal- 
culation, should  be  unsuccessful,  and  that  the  funds  of  semi 
naries  should  fail,  and  the  professors  become  unable  to  pay 
their  debts,  would  it  harmonize  with  "the  eternal  principles 
of  morals''  to  seize  them  as  property  ?  We  question  whether 
it  would  be  possible  to  conduct  a  drove  of  them  through  the 
state  of  Virginia  without  an  insurrection.  Even  the  slaves 
of  Southampton  would  rise  again  at  the  sight  of  such  in- 
justice and  cruelty.  Again,  suppose  that  some  of  our  mis- 
sionaries educated  at  Princeton,  should  write  home  that 
they  are  acting  on  the  principle  oi  slavery  hy  right  of  cred-  . 
itorship  :  and  that  in  consequence  of  many  of  their  neigh- 
bors being  unable  to  pay  for  food  and  clothing  obtained  in 
a  time  of  great  scarcity,  they  have  become  the  owners  of 
many  slaves.  Would  our  professors  be*^illing  to  own  it 
as  the  fruit  of  their  instructions  ?  Would  they  not  say  that 
such  conduct  was  at  war  with  the  eternal  principles  of  rec- 
titude as  revealed  in  the  word  of  God? 

4.  By  the  sentence  of  a  judge.  This  phrase  seems  to  say 
that  men  for  several  crimes  were  doomed  to  slavery  :  and 
that,  so  far,  the  holy  land  was  like  the  coast  of  Guinea. 


1837.]  BIBLICAL    REPERTORY.  129 


The  fact,  however,  is,  that  the  only  man  who  was  doomed 
to  labor  for  another  on  accomit  of  crime,  was  the  thief  who 
was  too  poor  to  make  restitution,  Ex.  xxii.  3.  We  have  often 
wondered  that  discerning-  and  honest  men  could  quote  this 
as  proof  that  the  law  of  God  approved  slavery.  With  equal' 
propriety  they  might  quote  the  constitution  and  laws  of 
Ohio  as  proof  that  they  legalize  slaveholding.  It  is  a  funda- 
mental article  in  our  constitution  that  no  slavery  or  invol- 
untary servitude  shall  be  tolerated.  Yet  in  our  penitentiary 
we  have  hundreds  of  criminals  doomed  by  our  laws  and  the 
sentence  of  the  judge,  to  hard  labor  as  punishment  for  theft, 
and  other  crimes.  Suppose  another  British  Fiddler  or  Trol- 
lope  were  to  pass  through  our  land,  and  report  this  fact  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Would  any  but  such  a  logi- 
cian as  Hamlet's  grave  digger  infer  that  the  state  of  Ohio  is 
a  slave  state  l  Yet  the  premises  in  regard  to  the  state  of 
Ohio  and  the  holy  land  are  much  alike. 

This  text  is  certainly  an  unfortunate  one  for  the  slave- 
holder. 1st.  It  proves  that  appropriating  to  one's  own  use 
a  sheep  or  an  ox  belonging  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  to  a  neigh- 
bor, is  in  equity  punished  by  the  judges.  Much  more  does 
it  prove,  that  appropriating  to  our  own  use,  the  body  and 
soul  of  a  neighbor  who  has  not  forfeited  the  right  to  his  owii 
person  by  crime,  is  in  equity  to  be  punished  by  the  judges. 
2.  It  proves  that  dooming  a  man  to  labor  for  another  is,  in 
God's  estimation  a  punishment — a  sufficient  punishment  for 
a  thief — and  a  punishment  sufficient  to  deter  others  from 
stealing.  It,  therefore,  proves  that  slaveholders  are  inflicting' 
oxi  innocent  men  and  women  the  thief's  punishment ;  and 
that  those  who  say  that  the  Africans  are  happy  under  it,  and 
that  it  is  favorable  to  their  literary  and  religious  improve- 
ment, profess  to  understand  the  matter  better  than  their  Ma- 
ker. If  the  masters,  however,  are  sure  thatthe'aulhorof  the 
law  of  Moses  was  mistaken,  and  that  they  are  right,  we 
would  advise  them  to  put  their  slaves  through  some  of  the 
higher  grades  of  punishment,  omitting  hanging,  except  in' 
cases  where  it  seemed  to  be  necessary  to  give  the  finish  to  their 
religious  and  literary  education. 

4.  By  birth.  In  other  words,  it  was  a  part  of  tTie  will  of 
God  that  if  the  parents  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  thieves,- 
and  had  chains  on  them  when  the  children  were  born,  the 
children  ought  to  be  slaves.     We  object  to  this,  because  it 

17 


130  SLAVERY,    AND    THE  [JANUARY, 

would  follow  that  all  who  were  born  under  the  political 
slavery  against  which  our  fathers  rose  in  1775,  ought  to 
have  continued  under  it ;  because  it  is  at  war  with  the 
principle  on  which  we  claim  our  own  freedom,  viz  : — that 
all  men  are  created  free  and  equal — and  that  the  right  to 
liberty  is  universal  and  inalienable  ;  and  because  it  would 
follow  that  those  persons  to  whom  the  law  of  Moses  was 
given,  having  been  born  of  slave  parents,  were  Pharaoh's 
lawful  property,  and  that  the  Lord  punished  him  for  holding 
that  which  was  his  own  according  to  ''  the  eternal  principles 
of  morals."  If  the  wrath  of  God  and  man  awaits  the  villain 
who  breaks  into  an  African  village,  and  seizes  men  and  wo- 
men, are  there  no  stones  in  Heaven  or  earth  for  the  wretch 
who  breaks  into  the  hut  of  a  poor  slave  mother,  and  seizes 
her  little  babe  before  it  opens  its  eyes  ? 

In  the  name  of  all  who  feel  an  interest  in  the  instruction 
of  our  future  ministers  and  missionaries,  we  ask — do  our 
professors  believe  that  these  ^i;e  ways  of  slave  making  are  a 
part  of  God's  revealed  will  ?  That  they  do  propogate  such 
principles  when  contending  with  the  abolitionists  seems  un- 
questionable. But  that  they  consider  them  worthy  of  God, 
and  therefore  a  part  of  his  word,  is  not  even  probable.  On 
the  contrary  the  mind  of  the  author  of  the  pamphlet  seems 
to  have  revolted  at  such  a  frightful  picture  of  the  law  of 
Moses,  and  he  thus  apologizes,  not  for  himself,  but  for  his 
Maker. 

"  Moses  finding  this  institution  (slavery)  among  the  He- 
brews and  all  surrounding  nations,  did  not  abolish  it.  He 
enacted  laws  directing  how  slaves  were  to  be  treated,  &c.  &c." 

This,  with  some  slight  alteration,  is  taken  from  Jabn  ;  it 
is  the  same  story  by  which  the  Jesuits  defended  the  African 
slave  trade,  long  ago.  To  persuade  the  world  that  the  law 
of  Moses  harmonizes,  in  point  of  morality,  with  that  nefari- 
ous traffic,  they  represented  it  as  not  being  a  pure  law,  but 
the  result  of  a  compromise  between  Moses  and  some  Hebrew 
and  pagan  slaveholders.  We  almost  rejoice  that  our  author 
has  copied  so  closely  from  Jahn,  as  scarcely  to  mention  the 
name  of  God  as  concerned  in  the  making  of  the  Sinai  cove- 
nant ;  it  seems  to  have  been  all  the  work  of  Moses.  But 
we  can  scarcely  conceive  how  a  Protestant  divine  could 
gravely  give  us  this  story,  without  supposing  that  in  his 
admiration  of  the  writings  of  the  Jesuits,  he  had  swallowed 


1837.]  BIBLICAL    REPERTORY.  131 

that  favorite  dogma — shyness  of  (he  Scriptures  is  favorable 
to  devotion.     Let  us  analyze  it. 

1.  Slaveholding  was  among  the  surrounding  nations. 
This  we  can  readily  beheve.  Of  course  they  would  not 
easily  consent  to  the  existence  of  a  system,  in  their  neigh- 
borhood, calculated  to  excite  discontent  and  insurrection 
among  their  slaves.  They  had  heard  that  the  Lord  was 
angry  with  Pharaoh  for  the  sin  of  enslaving  ;  that  he  had 
executed  judgment  upon  all  the  gods  of  Egypt ;  that  he  had 
emancipated  his  people  by  "  showing  signs  and  wonders, 
great  and  sore  upon  Egypt,  upon  Pharaoh  and  upon  all  his 
household,"  and  that  he  had  given  to  the  Hebrews  that  pass- 
over  as  the  pledge  that  his  right  arm,  in  all  generations, 
should  be  made  bare  for  all  that  are  oppressed.  If  an  abo- 
lition meeting,  at  a  thousand  miles  distance,  throws  our 
slave  states  into  confusion  and  alarm,  what  must  have  been 
the  consternation  of  these  nations  when  they  heard  that 
these  emancipated  slaves  had  reached  Mount  Sinai,  and 
that  the  great  and  terrible  God  was  about  to  give  them  a 
law  which  would  be  a  transcript  of  his  own  perfections,  and 
in  harmony  with  eternal  principles.  But  the  God  of  Israel 
quiets  their  fears  of  any  interference  with  their  domesticin- 
stitutio7is,  by  making  slaveholding  part  of  the  religion  of 
his  own  people.  And  he  legalizes  five  ways  of  makino- 
slaves  ! — more  ways,  perhaps,  than  some  of  the  pagans  had 
ever  heard  of.  Let  the  young  gentlemen  remember  this 
when  making  sermons  for  the  South. 

2.  Slavery  existed  among  the  Hebrews.  Now  our  chil- 
dren in  the  Sabbath  school  know  that  the  Israelites  received 
the  law  fifty  days  after  they  had  celebrated  the  passover. 
They  reached  Mount  Sinai  in  about  forty-seven  days  after 
they  had  left  Egypt,  escaping  from  slavery,  and  a  part  of 
the  time  hotly  pursued  by  their  masters.  But  our  young 
men  must  believe  that  they  had  been  so  successful  in  steal- 
ing children  by  the  way,  or  in  trading  with  kidnappers,  that 
when  they  stood  before  the  Mount  to  receive  the  law,  they 
were  such  inveterate  slaveholders  that  the  holy  God  con- 
sidered it  imprudent  to  abolish  that  institution.  And  to 
satisfy  them  that  nothing  serious  against  the  sin  of  slavery 
was  meant  by  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  and  that  in  the  many 
threatenings  of  his  law  against  oppression,  more  was  said 
than  was  seriously  intended.     He  declared  it  to  be  his  holy 


132  SLAVERY,    ETC.  [jANUARVy 

will  that  slaveholding  and  slavemaking  should  be  continued 
in  five  ways  !  His  people  had  sufficient  experience  of  that 
domestic  institution  in  the  country  they  had  just  left ;  and 
the  prospect  which  was  to  cheer  up  their  spirits  under  all 
the  hardships  of  the  wilderness,  was  that  of  soon  being  in  a 
land  where  they  could  have  as  many  slaves  as  Pharaoh 
had  ;  or  become  slaves  themselves  in  five  ways — whereas, 
in  Egypt  they  had  enjoyed  but  one  way,  by  birth.* 

Seriously,  we  ask,  is  it  not  high  time  for  all  the  churches 
to  arise  and  put  away  a  sin  which  cannot  be  defended  with- 
out such  blasphemy  of  God  and  his  word  ?  Is  it  not  pass- 
ing strange  that  with  the  approbation  of  those  who  are  most 
loud  in  the  cry  against  error  and  heresy,  sentiments  should 
be  uttered  from  our  high  places,  of  such  infidel  and  corrupt- 
ing tendency,  leaving  out  of  view  the  dishonor  done  to  the 
name  of  God.  Were  a  Presbyterian  minister,  intentionally, 
to  prepare  his  sermons  so  as  to  accord  with  the  existing 
morals  of  a  corrupt  church,  and  the  vicious  tastes  and  hab- 
its of  their  ungodly  neighbors,  he  would  be  solemnly  deposed 
as  unworthy  of  the  ministerial  office,  and  as  a  scandal  to  the 
Presbyterian  church.  What  then  should  we  think  of  im- 
puting such  iniquity  to  the  most  high  God  7  The  truth 
is — defending  slavery  is  a  levelling  business.  Let  any  man 
employ  himself  in  degrading  to  a  level  with  the  brutes  his 
fellow  men,  including  some  whom  the  Son  of  God  is  tiot 
ashamed  to  ccdl  his  brethren,  and  he  can  soon  impute  to  his 
Maker  things  which  he  would  be  very  unwilling  himself  to 
bear.  But  we  do  not  charge  the  author  of  this  pamphlet 
with  any  intentional  impropriety.     There  is  this  apolosry 

*  Just  at  the  time  this  pamphlet  made  its  appearance  in  Pittsburgh,  a  company 
of  slaves  arrived  there  on  their  way  to  Liberia.  Varioua  reasons  have  been  as- 
signed for  the  elopement  of  a  number  of  them  during  the  night.  Some  ascribed 
it  to  their  having  imbibed  abolition  principles  from  some  of  the  members  of  the 
Assembly.  Perhaps  some  of  the  opposite  party  had  been  reading  this  pamphlet 
to  them.  If  any  of  them  had  taken  up  the  idea  that  these  five  ways  would  be 
considered  sound  Biblical  literature  in  Liberia,  it  is  not  surprising  that  fourteen  of 
.them  decamped  during  the  night.  The  wonder  is  that  a  single  soul  was  remain- 
ing by  the  morning  light,  excepting  the  poor  old  blind  woman  who  could  tell 
nothing  about  her  age,  only  that  she  was  sixteen  years  old  when  Braddock  was 
defeated.  We  can  clear  the  manager,  who  had  the  care  of  them,  of  all  know- 
ledge of  their  having  seen  this  defence  of  slavery.  He  would  have  considered  it 
in  vain  to  terrify  the  community  with  the  threat  that  they  should  be  ferrettcd  out, 
and  sent  back  to  end  their  days  in  slavery.  For  he  must  have  known  that,  after 
such  a  fright,  the  most  expert  man-hunter  in  Mississippi,  with  his  best  pack  of 
'bloodhounds,  could  not  catch  them  till  they  reached  Canada. 


1837.]  ABOLITION,  A  RELIGIOUS  ENTERPRISE.  133 

for  which  he  will  not  thank  us — to  write  a  book  to  prove 
that  slaveholding  is  justified  by  the  Bible,  without  blasphe- 
ming God  and  his  word,  is  among  the  impossibilities. 

In  our  next,  we  propose  to  examine  the  author's  list  pi 
lexts. 

[To  be  continued.] 


ABOLITION,    A   RELIGIOUS    ENTERPRISE. 

''    BY    BEV.    HENHY   COWLES,    PROFESSOR   OF   LANGUAGES    IN   OBEELIN    COLLEGIATE 

INSTITUTE,    OHIO. 

The  abolition  of  slavery  has  a  legitimate  claim  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  great  religious  enterprise.  It  savors  not  of 
fanaticism  or  intolerance  ;  and  the  effort  to  brand  it  as  if  it 
.did,  is  extremely  misguided  and  unjust.  It  savors  not  of 
the  selfishness  and  ambition  of  a  political  party  scheme — it 
has  no  sympathy  with  such  motives — it  disdains  such  mea- 
sures, and  partakes  not  at  all  of  that  spirit.  Nor  does  it  hold 
communion  with  the  wildness  of  maniac  folly  or  of  reckless 
desperation.  It  seeks  to  accomplish  a  great  religious  object 
purely  by  religious  and  moral  means.  It  has,  of  course,  a  right- 
eous claim  to  be  regarded  as  a  great  religious  entesprise,  and 
ought  to  have  a  place  amongst  the  most  purely  Christian  and 
Godlike  enterprises  that  have  ever  called  forth  the  sympa- 
thies and  energies  of  the  people  of  God.  This  may  seem  to 
some  like  bare  and  bold  assertion.  Such  are  invited  to  the 
proof     It  lies — 

1.  In  the  fact  that  American  Slavery  is  sin.  The  sys- 
tem of  American  Slavery  is  fraught  with  sin  against  God 
and  against  man.  This  sin  is  not  merely  incidental  to  it, 
happening  occasionally  as  an  unfortunate  perversion  of  a 
tlnng  good  enough  in  itself,  but  it  is  inwrought  into  its  very 
nature;- — American  Slavery  cannot  exist  without  sin. — 
What  is  slavery  ?  Not  merely  involuntary  servitude,— a 
thing  which  the  law  of  God  may  in  some  circumstances  tol- 
erate ; — but  something  far  beyond  this.  It  is  unmaking  man 
hurling  an  immortal  being  from  his  high  rank  as  man  down 
to  the  rank  of  a  brufe,  a  thing— a  mere  article  of  sale  and 


134  ABOLITION,    A  [JaNUARY, 


use.  This  is  American  Slavery,  and  this,  if  any  thing  can 
be,  is  a  sin  against  God  and  man.  Does  that  man  sin  against 
himself  who  prostitutes  his  powers  to  vicious  indulgence, 
sinks  himself  into  pollution,  and  makes  a  covenant  with  de- 
gradation ?  Does  he  wrong  his  own  soul  who  scorns  im- 
mortal life  and  chooses  death  ?  And  does  not  that  man  sin 
against  his  fellow  who  drags  him  down  from  being  man, 
and  so  far  as  he  can,  makes  him  a  brute, — who  locks  up 
from  him  the  Bible — ^plunders  without  mercy  his  domestic 
and  social  blessings— tears  away  his  civil  rights,  and  robs 
him  of  that  impulse  toward  improvement  and  virtue  which 
only  can  raise  man  to  his  true  dignity?  Is  not  this  sin  ? 
Is  it  not  sin  to  make  like  brutes  those  whom  God  made  like 
himself  and  like  angels — to  doom  to  ignorance  those  whom 
God  sent  his  Bible  to  enlighten,  to  repel  from  our  sympathies 
as  men  those  whom  Christ  died  to  save  ?  Is  not  this  high- 
handed rebellion  against  God  an  impious  attempt  to  defeat 
his  plans  of  gracious  benevolence  7  I  speak  not  now  of 
the  robbery  of  that  poor  man's  wages,  of  the  cruelty  of  that 
lash,  of  the  toil  unrequited  and  exhausting  on  the  plantation 
nor  of  the  tearing  asunder  the  dearest  domestic  ties  ;  I  pass 
these  things,  because,  though  most  horrid  and  but  too  com- 
mon, it  may  yet  be  said  that  they  are  not  universal.  I  dwell 
not,  therefore,  on  these  things.  They  do  pertain,  however, 
to  the  system  of  American  slavery,  and  wherever  you  make 
man  a  thing,  and  consign  him  to  the  will  of  an  owner,  such 
results  will  follow.  And  a  system  which  produces  such 
results,  and  is  always  liable  to  produce  them ;  nay  more, 
which  tempts  man's  selfish  nature  and  strongly  draws  it  to- 
ward such  results  is  surely  a  horrid  sin.  Of  course  the  ef- 
fort to  abolish  sin  is  a  religious  enterprise.  But  the  subject 
demands  more  detail,     I  specify  then 

2.  That  American  slavery  takes  away  the  key  of  know- 
ledge from  two  and  a  half  millions  of  our  countrymen  and 
consigns  them  either  to  a  doubtful  and  imbecile  piety,  or 
more  comtnonly  to  vicious  degradatiofi  and  eternal  ruin. 
The  proof  of  this  position  is  furnished  amply  by  our  south- 
ern brethren.  In  regard  to  the  first  and  fundamental  fact, 
that  they  take  away  the  key  of  knowledge,  their  laws  both 
create  and  prove  it.  And  what  is  still  worse,  the  law  is  an 
index  of  the  people's  will,  and  proves  therefore  that  at  least 
a  majority  heartily  concur  in  the  measure,  and  will  faith- 


1S37.J  RELIGIOUS    ENTERPRISE.  135 

fully  carry  it  out  in  practice.  Of  course,  slaves  must  live 
and  die  in  gross  ignorance.  That  their  piety  is  generally 
doubtful,  and  always  imbecile,  requires  no  labored  proof — 
Of  course,  piety  combined  with  ignorance  is  imbecile — it  can 
neither  have  much  power  over  the  individual  himself,  nor' 
over  others.  And  in  such  a  case,  piety  can  hardly  fail  to 
be  doubtful.  How  can  his  piety  be  sure  who  knows  little  of 
himself  and  less  of  God,  of  Christ,  and  of  the  way  of  salva- 
tion ?  Besides,  the  whole  system  under  which  he  comes  up 
has  trained  him  to  deceive,  and  may  he  not  deceive,  not  his 
Christian  teachers  only,  but  himself?  The  declaration  of 
Dr.  Nelson,*  has  much  natural  probability.  He  says  : — "  1 
have  heard  hundreds  make  such  professions  of  love  to  God 
and  trust  in  a  Saviour,  that  the  church  did  not  feel  at  liberty , 
to  refuse  them  membersliip.  I  have  reason  to  believe  they 
were  poor,  deluded,  mistaken  creatures.  The  concentrated 
recollection  of  thirty  years  furnishes  me  with  three  instances 
only  where  1  could  say  I  have  reason  from  the  known  walk 
of  that  slave  to  believe  him  or  her  to  be  a  sincere  Christian^ 

Consider  also  what  multitudes  are  repelled  from  the  gos- 
pel because  it  comes  to  them  through  the  hands  of  their 
oppressors— how  many  sink  down  in  ignorance  and  despon- 
dency to  die  in  appearance  like  the  brutes  that  perish,  and 
how  many  others  are  s wollowed  up  in  the  vortex  of  those 
vices  which  are  incident  to  slavery.  All  these  things  enti- 
tle slavery  to  the  character  of  the  murderer  of  souls.  And 
is  not  its  utter  abolition  then  a  religious  enterprise  ? 

3.  A"  third  fact  challenges  our  regard.     In  the  case  of 
those  who  support  it,  this  system  cherishes passioyis  vjhich 
are  exceedingly  uncongenial  to  the  gospel  spirit.     Is  it  too 
much  to  say,  that  pride,  revenge,  barbarity  and  lust  are  the 
natural  products  of  slavery  in  its  eifect  upon  those  who  hold 
the  power  ?     I  do  not  say  that  every  slaveholder  becomes 
thus  vicious,  or  is  necessarily  affected  by  these  influences  ; 
but  the  fact  is  regarded  as  undeniable  that  these  are  the" 
natural  and  the  very  common  results  of  the  system  upon 
the  slaveholding  community.     The  testimony  of  Jefferson 
on  this  point  will  be  remembered.     The  results  also  are 
sufficiently  manifest.     The  pride  of  aristocracy,  the  spirit  of* 
duelling,  the  heart  that  can  lacerate  with  the  scourge,  and 
tear  families  asunder  in  cold  blood,  and  an  illegitimate  off  - 

•SeeNew'York  Evangelist,  for  May  9,  \836. 


1>36  ABOLITION,    A  [JANUARY, 

spring  like  grasshoppers  for  multitude — these  things  are 
not  olten  found  where  slavery  has  not  been.  They  are 
traceable  to  this  cause  mainly,  and  not  exclusively  to  any 
other.  Now  these  things  are  most  uncongenial  to  the  gos- 
pel spirit.  They  hold  no  fellowship  together.  The  gospel 
must  make  war  against  them  even  to  extermination.  And 
this  war  I  deem  a  great  religious  enterprise. 

4.  The  system  of  American  slavery  involves  'principles 
and  practices  which  are  bitterly  hostile  not  only  to  piety, 
bat  to  evei'y  benevolent  enterprise;  and  therefore  it  must 
be  deemed  the  natural  foe  of  them  all. 

Among  these  I  specify  the  following.  (1.)  That  it  is 
right  for  us  to  practice  our  fathers''  sins.  This  is  one  of  the 
fundamental  props  of  the  system.  "  Our  fathers  entailed  it 
upon  us — it  is  our  inheritance,  and  what  they  left  us  we 
have  of  course  a  right  to  keep.  If  they  sinned  in  it,  that  sin 
is  their  own,  and  for  us  to  perpetuate  the  system  under  such 
circumstances  cannot  be  wrong." 

(2.)  That  because  we  have  the  poiver,  we  may  rob  the 
jwor  of  his  wages  and  of  all  legal  right  to  claim  them. 

Adherinof  evermore  to 


J? 


the  good  old  rule,  the  simple  plan, 


That  they  should  take  who  have  the  power,  and  they  should  keep  who  can." 

(3.)  That  we  inay  shut  out  the  light  of  heaven,  even  the 
word  of  God  from  a  class  of  felloio  beings,  for  the  sake  of 
making  them  better  .servants  to  our  lusts. 

(4.)  In  order  that  the  community  may  endure  and  sus- 
tain this  system  of  legalized  oppression,  we  may  exclude 
from  our  sympathies  and  benevolent  regards  a  M'^hole  race 
whom  God  has  made  our  fellow  creatures  in  his  own  image, 
and  for  whom  as  for  us  Christ  has  died  ;  and  all  this  we 
may  do  on  no  other  grounds  than  these,  that  they  have  a 
darker  skin  than  ours,  that  we  found  them  and  have  kept 
them  exceedingly  degraded,  and  that  their  great  forefather  in 
the  days  of  the  flood  was  cursed  to  "  be  a  servant  of  servants 
unto  his  brethren." 

Now  if  we  may  hate  one  brother  for  our  convenience,  why 
may  we  not  another  ?  If  we  may  neglect  the  improvement 
of  one  race  because  of  their  degradation,  why  may  we  not 
of  another,  and  of  the  wliole  human  family,  and  leave  the 
heathen  to  perish  forever  ?     "What  principle  can  be  more- 


1S37.]  RELIGIOUS    ENTERPRISE.  137 


subversive  of  every  great  scheme  of  benevolence,  nay  of 
benevolence  itself? 

(5.)  That /or  oitr  pecuninry  benefit-,  we  may  anuiliihile 
the  marriage  relation,  and  tear  asunder  husbands  and 
wives,  parents  and  children  at  our  pleasure.  Can  virtue 
ever  flourish  on  the  ruins  of  the  domestic  constitution  'I  Can 
it  flourish  where  Christian  men  can  ruthlessly  break  up  this 
constitution,  and  fatten  themselves  on  the  price  of  its  sacri- 
fice ?  Can  real  benevolence,  enlarged  and  pure  as  that  of 
Christ  f  jr  ruined  men,  find  place  in  ^uch  hearts  ] 

(G.)  That  to  secure  our  own  gratification  the  more  effec- 
tually we  may  strip  of  all  civil  protection  those  who  by  na- 
tural right,  and  all  right  law,  have  the  best  claim  to  such 
protection. 

That  the  colored  race  under  slave  laws  are  really  not  pro- 
tected I  need  not  stand  to  show.  The  master's  property  is 
protected,  but  the  rights  and  well  being  of  the  men  whom 
he  holds,  are  not  at  all.  The  law  which  rejects  their  testi- 
mony against  their  constituted  enemies  annihilates  their  civil 
protection,  and  public  sentiment  sustains  the  spirit  of  that 
law-  But  who  does  not  know  that  they,  of  all  others,  have 
the  highest  claim,  in  reason  and  right  to  be  protected  7  Of 
what  use  is  lavv^  but  to  protect  the  weak  against  the  more 
powerful,  and  secure  protection  especially  there  where  it 
is  most  needed  ']  This  principle  therefore  stands  in  deadly 
hostility  against  God's  law,  and  against  the  spirit  of  be- 
nevolence. 

Now  these  principles  of  slavery  are  all  carried  out  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  into  their  legitimate  and  correspondino- 
practice,  and  in  our  system  of  slavery  they  always  will  be. 
And  can  this  system— such  being  its  fruits,  consist  with  th& 

spirit  and  labors  of  Christian  benevolence?     Impossible. 

Then  the  system  is  the  natural  and  mighty  enemy  of  benev- 
olent enterprise,  and  one  of  the  first  great  benevolent  enter- 
prises before  the  Christian  world  is  to  slay  this  enemy. 

5.  Our  main  position  is  sustained  also  by  the  fact  that 
Ainericcui  slavery  is  not  onhj  a  sin,  but  a  sin  of  sri ant  mag- 
nitude and  strength.  By  this  I  mean  not  merely  that  in 
the  number  and  extent  of  its  evil  consequences'  and  self- 
created  iniquities  its  name  is  Legion  :  I  allude  not  merely 
to  its  prolific  offspring  of  oppressions,  cruelties,  degradation, 
ignorance  and  lust ;  but  also  to  other  facts  which  give  it  a 

18 


138  ABOLITION,    A  [JANUARY, 

giant  power  of  resistance.  It  is  nursed  by  the  strongest 
passions  of  tlie  human  heart,  love  of  power,  indolence,  ava- 
rice and  sensuaUty.  1  need  not  stop  to  show  that  each  of 
these  base  passions  is  fed  and  fattened  on  American  slavery. 
Nor  is  the  inference  doubtful  that  some  men  will  struggle 
long  and  desperately  before  they  relinquish  so  sweet  and 
rich  a  gratification.  But  this  is  not  all.  The  system  has 
the  energy  and  compactness  of  mature  years,  if  not  the  ven- 
erableness  of  advanced  age.  It  pleads  the  names  of  men 
whom  the  nation  venerates.  It  has  moulded  into  its  own  im- 
age the  customs,  habits,  laws  and  prejudices  of  a  vast  peo- 
ple. And,  finally,  it  has  fortified  itself  in  the  very  citadel  of 
our  republic,  and  claims  to  have  taken  refuge  in  the  temple 
of  our  Constitution.  It  will  not  be  vanquished  without  a  strug- 
gle. The  contest  will  be  hard  fought,  and  "  the  weapons  of 
our  warfare  must  be  mighty  through  God."  A  struggle  of 
this  sort  deserves  the  name  of  a  great  religious  enterprise. 
The  conversion  of  a  nation  is  not  a  oreater  work,  nor  more 
worthy  to  be  regarded  as  a  mighty  enterprise  of  Christian 
benevolence. 

6.  Another  fact  as  painful  as  it  is  pertinent,  is  that  this 
system  of  legalized  oppression  is  not  onli/  ])7-actu-ed  in  the 
church,  and  tolerated  by  tJie  chnrch,  hut  is  in  fact  so  sus- 
tained by  the  church  that  it  lives  mainly  by  her  indtdgence, 
and  her  example.  This  specification  contains  two  parts. 
(1.)  That  the  church  as  such  does  justify  the  present  con- 
tinuance of  slavery,  and,  (2.)  That  her  justification  of  it  does 
in  fact  sustain  the  system,  while  her  universal  and  decided 
condemnation  would  destroy  it. 

The  church  as  such  justifies  slavery  inasmuch  as  her 
members  and  ministers  speak  and  write,  preach  and  practice 
in  its  defence.  Excepted,  are  three  or  four  denominations, 
less  numerous  but  not  less  worthy,  but  the  great  leading  de- 
nominations stand  firm  in  justification  of  slaveholding  for 
the  present.  True  they  do  not  justify  slavery  in  the  abstract, 
and  there  is  no  need  that  they  should.  Nobody  asks  that 
of  them  in  order  to  hold  slaves  with  a  quiet  conscience. — 
Until  recently  it  has  been  supposed  that  few,  even  of  the 
most  devoted  advocates  of  slavery  have  justified  the  abstract 
principle.  The  defence  of  that  is  a  hard  case,  and  by  a  lit- 
tle metaphysical  subtlety  they  have  managed  to  condemn 
the  whole  thing  in  the  abstract  most  unceremoniously,  and 


1837.]  RELIGIOUS    ENTERPRISE.  139 

yet  justify  it  most  decidedly  in  practice.  And  in  this  man- 
ner the  church  gives  slavery  her  sanction  and  yet  thinks  to 
save  her  -conscience.  In  proof  of  the  fact  1  appeal  to  the 
action  of  the  last  Presbyterian  General  Assembly,  of  the  last 
Methodist  General  Conference,  and  to  the  recent  communi- 
cations of  the  Baptists  witli  the  English  brethren.  The 
church  then  as  a  body  justifies  slavery. 

Now  this  justification  by  the  church  in  fact  sustains  tlie 
system.  In  several  of  the  states,  the  vote  of  the  church 
thrown  into  the  scale  of  emancipation  would  renovate  the 
laws  and  abolish  slavery.  In  all,  the  decided  influence  of 
the  church  would  rouse  and  correct  the  public  conscience, 
and  in  the  language  of  a  southern  member  of  Congress, 
"  make  slavery  so  disreputable  that  no  respectable  man  can 
hold  slaves."  The  fact  is  that  the  human  conscience  is  nat- 
urally galled  and  troubled  sorely  with  slavery.  The  whole 
system  makes  sad  war  against  both  the  common  sense  and 
the  moral  sense  of  mankind,  and  could  not  live  without  the 
holy  sanction  of  the  church.  Yes — -slavery  in  a  Christian 
land  never  can  live  without  the  sanction  of  the  church. 
There  is  too  much  conscience,  and  conscience  rebels  against 
slavery  too  obstinately  to  allow  the  latter  to  live  an  hour 
after  the  church  shall  have  condemned  it  with  her  whole 
heart  and  voice  and  example. 

Does  not  the  church  then  need  reform  ?  And  whose  bu- 
siness is  it  to  effect  this  reform?  Whose,  but  her  own? 
This,  then,  is  a  great  religious  enterprise.  Yet  more  appa- 
rent is  this  as  we  contemplate  our  next  position. 

7.  That  this  sanction  tohich  the  American  church  g;ives 
to  slavery  does  greatly  if  not  utterly  paralyze  her  inorul 
■power.  How  can  she  plead  the  cause  of  righteousness  with 
the  wages  of  unrighteousness  in  her  hands, — or  the  cause  of 
the  poor  with  two  and  a  half  millions  of  her  own  poor  under 
her  feet, — or  the  cause  of  the  heathen  while  she  is  making 
heathen  of  her  laborers,  nay,  of  her  own  sons  and  daughters? 
How  can  she  push  forward  the  principles  of  civil  liberty 
with  the  practical  lie  of  slavery  on  her  very  front, — or  spread 
the  light  of  knowledge  and  education  while  she  tolerates  cmd 
virtually  makes  laws  to  prohibit  some  millions  of  her  own 
people  from  reading  even  the  Bible  ?  '^  O  consistency  thou 
art  a  jewel :"  and  a  jewel  not  only  most  lovely  in  beauty  but 
most  indispensible  to  the  character  and  efficiency  of  the 


140  ABOLITION,    A  [JANUARY, 


church.  Let  that  man  preach  repentance  to  his  neighbors 
who  defrauds  them  as  his  business  every  day,  and  what 
avails  it  ?  And  what  can  the  preaching  and  influence  of 
tlie  church  avail,  while  she  tolerates  in  her  very  bosom  this 
sin  of  hydra  form  and  giant  power  ?  What  sort  of  conscience 
can  she  have,  while  it  is  cultivated  under  such  a  regimen, 
and  what  sort  of  influence  in  rebuking  sin  and  recommend- 
ing holiness  7  How  much  of  the  blessifig  of  Christ  can  she 
have  while  she  thus  prostitutes  his  name,  and  renounces  his 
spirit?  Oh!  my  heart  sickens  under  the  conviction  that 
the  church  is  dead  and  must  rot  in  her  moral  grave,  until 
she  shall  wake  to  the  life  and  power  of  righteousness  in  re- 
gard to  this  great  sin.  This  etfort  to  resuscitate  the  church 
I  must  regard  therefore  as  a  great  religious  enterprise,  vital 
to  her  moral  energy  and  action. 

S.  I  take  my  last  position  on  this  point.  American  sla- 
very  is  a  mighty  harrier  against  the  success  of  the  gospel. 
The  American  church  has  promised  much  and  sustains  vast 
responsibilities.  The  name,  American — ^her  commerce 
opening  every  land  to  her  access — her  wealth,  princely  and 
competent  to  the  work,  her  resources  of  men  and  mind  fully 
adequate — all  concur  to  fix  the  eyes  ef  men  and  of  angels  on 
her  as  the  instrument  under  God  for  the  conversion  of  the 
world.  And  wall  she  do  it  ?  Is  she  girding  herself  to  the 
work  ?  Ah  !  can  she  do  it,  with  the  pollutions  of  slavery  on 
her  hands— with  the  price  of  blood  in  her  olierings — with 
the  paralysis  of  slavery  upon  her  conscience  and  with  its  lie 
against  all  righteousness  and  benevolence  in  her  example  ? 
Impossible.  However  much  Christians  beyond  the  waters 
may  do,  and  those  in  our  land  who  have  come  out  from  the 
midst  of  slavery  and  washed  their  hands  of  its  participation, 
the  barrier  ^ret  remains.  The  drawing  back  of  the  Ameri- 
can church,  which  ought  to  be  first  and  foremost,  throws  a 
heavy  chill  over  the  spirit  of  practical  benevolence.  The 
church  thus  casts  herself  as  a  vast  stumbling  block  across 
the  high  way  of  the  Lord,  and  her  prophets  cry  "  cast  ye 
up,  cast  ye  up,  prepare  the  way,  take  up  the  stumbling  block 
out  of  the  way  of  my  people."  And  this  is  a  great  religions 
enterprise.  Who  can  deny  it?  Who  can  fail  to  see  and 
feel  it  ? 

II.     Having  thus  rather  stated,  than  fully  illustrated  cer- 
taiji  facts  as  proof  of  my  first  position,  I  pass  to  another  view 


1837.]  RELIGIOUS    ENTERPRISE.  141 

of  the  subject,  and  take  the  ground  that  the  friends  of  the 
cause  of  abolition  ought  to  jjrosecute  it  as  a  religious  en- 
terprise. 

I  am  aware  that  to  no  small  extent  this  has  been  done. 
This  enterprise  originated  in  Christian  benevolence.  Its 
corner  stone  was  laid  with  faith  and  prayer.  Many,  yea 
most  of  its  advocates  have  warmed  and  sustained  their  hearts 
with  the  spirit  and  the  faith  of  Christ,  as  they  have  toiled 
on  amidst  suspicion  and  rebuke,  against  insensibility  and 
opposition.  Yet  there  has  been  some  party  feeling  and  some 
asperity.  Possibly  it  may  have  been,  for  the  moment,  for- 
gotten that  this  cause  is  the  cause  of  God — is  really  a  great 
religious  enterprise,  and  ought  to  be  prosecuted  as  such  and 
as  nothing  else.  Be  this  as  it  may,  my  brethren  will  bear 
with  me  in  a  word  of  exhortation  touching  this  point,  in 
giving  which  I  would  not  be  understood  to  assume  that  they 
are  especially  guilty  of  departing  from  the  course  recom- 
mended. 

I  take  the  ground  that  the  friends  of  this  cause  ought  to 
prosecute  it  as  a  religious  enterprise 

1.  Because  it  is  such  in  its  nature,  and  ought  to  he  treated 
according  to  what  it  is.  Its  nature  has  been  sufficiently 
shown.  If  we  would  bring  forward  this  cause  with  strength, 
it  must  be  in  its  o^vn  true  character.  It  must  stand  on  its 
real  merits.  The  nation  must  see  it  as  it  is.  And  they 
ought  to  see  it  as  it  is.  We  as  honest  men  are  bound  to 
show  them.  And  we  have  no  occasion  for  concealment. 
No  ;  let  the  southern  people  and  the  world  know  that  this 
is  a  religious  enterprise ;  that  our  religious  principles  de- 
mand it  of  us  ;  that  for  the  love  we  bear  to  Christ  and  to  the 
souls  of  the  oppressed,  we  cannot  hold  our  peace.  Yet 
further.  Here  lies  the  strength  of  our  cause.  It  is  a  con- 
troversy against  sin.  and  never  can  succeed  except  by  the 
power  of  truth  and  holiness.  Then  let  us  clothe  it  with 
this  power,  and  hold  it  forth  before  the  world  as  it  is. 

2.  Alloio  me  to  suggest  that  in  prosecuting  the  cause 
in  this  way,  we  shall  more  siirehj  and  more  easily  keep  our 
hearts  in  that  humble,  tender  frame  which  is  always  re- 
quisite in  the  reprovers  of  sin.  It  is  obvious  that  reproof 
is  rarely  effectual  unless  given  with  great  meekness  and 
tenderness  of  spirit.  The  reprover  must  not  feel  himself 
to  be  without  sin  and  above  all  condemnation.     Rather  let 


142  ABOLITION,    A  [JaNUARY, 

him  regard  himself  as  deeply  guilty,  if  not  of  the  sin  which 
he  reproves,  yet  of  many  others  perhaps  not  less  odious  be- 
fore God.  This  conviction  may  save  him  from  censorious- 
ness  and  pride  in  exposing  the  sins  of  others. 

Again,  we  are  creatures  of  sympathy,  especially  in  regard 
to  that  ill  feeling  of  resistcmce.  Resisted  ourselves  with 
harshness,  we  are  exceedingly  prone  to  catch  the  same 
spirit.  We  see  human  nature  developed  thus  in  the  num- 
berless quarrels  and  disputes  that  occur  in  the  every  day 
business  of  life.  So  that  abolitionists  must  be  more  than 
men,  if,  before  this  omnipresent  temptation,  they  never  fall. 
The  grand  preservation  against  falling  is,  doubtless,  to  leel 
that  you  are  doing  the  work  of  Christ,  and  must  hy  all 
means  do  it  in  his  spirit.  You  are  not  fighting  a  political 
warfare,  nor  contending  for  victory.  You  seek  only  to  do 
away  a  great  sin  so  that  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  may  have  free 
course,  and  God  be  glorified  in  saving  a  multitude  from 
ignorance,  vice  and  hell.  Imbue  your  mind  with  this  object, 
go  forth  with  much  prayer  and  faith,  and  you  may  be  kept 
in  safety. 

Another  circumstance  in  this  case  enhances  the  difficulty 
of  giving  reproof.  The  sin  itself  is  so  heinous  in  many 
points  of  view,  as  to  wake  up  feelings  of  perfect  indignation. 
This  we  are  in  danger  of  transferring  unconsciously  from 
the  sin  itself  to  the  person  of  the  guilty.  Now  do  not  sus- 
pect me  of  holding  the  strange  doctrine  that  sin  is  a  sort  of 
abstraction  which  can  be  condemned  and  punished  while 
the  sinner  goes  free — but  I  say  these  two  things  :  that  we 
may  have  indignation  against  a  sin  and  pity  for  the  sinner, 
for  Christ  has  :  and  second,  that  we  may  condemn  a  sin 
unsparingly,  without  condemninsf  whole  classes  of  men  in- 
discriminately. The  least  appearance  of  injustice,  on  our 
part,  is  magnified  and  blazoned  against  us  as  if  there  were 
no  other  means  of  defending  slavery.  Against  these  dangers 
the  spirit  of  Christ  is  the  best  antidote.  Let  us  feel  that  our 
object  is  to  abolish  sin  by  convincing  and  reclaiming  the 
offender,  and  that  we  ought  to  pity  him  and,  by  all  means, 
never  exaggerate  his  offence.  This  is  laboring  in  the  right 
spirit,  and  it  affords  great  liope  of  success. 

3.  We  shall  thus  secure  the  co-operation  of  most,  if  not 
all,  the  real  piety  in  the  land.  I  will  not  disguise  the  fact 
that  some  have  been,  for  a  season,  repelled  from  sympathy 


1837.]  RELIGIOUS    ENTERPRISE.  145 

and  union  with  the  abohtionists  by  the  asperity,  real  or 
imaginary,  which  they  have  been  supposed  to  exhibit.  Now 
any  occasion  of  this  nature  is  deeply  to  be  deplored.  It 
ought  not  to  be — it  need  not  be.  Only  let  the  benevolence 
of  the  Gospel  sway  our  hearts,  and  love  and  compassion 
would  soften  our  reproofs  and  denunciations  of  even  this 
enormous  sin.  Let  it  be  made  purely  a  religious  enterprise, 
and  no  real  Christian,  walking  in  the  spirit  of  his  Master, 
could  be  repelled.  No  ;  such  would  rally  at  once  when  the 
standard  of  the  cross  was  lifted  up.  Let  them  see  that  this 
is  the  work  of  Christ,  the  cause  of  his  kingdom,  and  you 
appeal  to  all  they  hold  most  near  and  dear.  They  will  see 
this  to  be  their  own  work.  They  will  recognize  it  as  the 
very  thing  for  which  they  have  long  prayed,  and  long  de- 
sired Avithout  knownig  how  to  do  it,  or  even  find  it.  The 
great  cause  of  abolition  will  stand  forth  before  them  in  a  new 
light,  and  they  will  hail  it  as  their  own.  Let  me  allude  to 
a  fact.  Thousands  have  been  made  abolitionists  by  the 
mobs.  How?  Partly  through  sympathy  for  the  persecuted 
which  led  them  first  to  examine  and  then  embrace  ;  but 
mainly  because  they  saw  all  their  civil  and  social  rights  in 
jeopardy.  The  appeal  was  made  to  their  spirit  of  liberty, 
and  they  could  not  resist  it.  The  cause  of  abolition  stood 
forth  before  them  as  the  cause  of  human  rights — the  cause 
of  freedom  against  slavery,  and  of  law  against  anarchy  ; 
and  their  election  was  soon  made.  Now  let  the  cause  of 
abolition  stand  out  before  a  Christian  in  its  own  true  light, 
as  a  religious  enterprise,  and  you  make  a  similar  appeal  to 
him.  As  he  loves  Christ  and  the  cause  of  Christ,  he  cannot 
resist  it.  He  comes  with  all  his  heart.  His  piety  draws 
him.  He  neither  would,  nor  can  refuse.  Happy  the  day 
when  the  strength  of  American  piety  shall  be  enlisted  in 
this  great  Avork.  It  can  be  done — and  it  will  be.  Then, 
and  not  before,  the  great  question  will  be  carried — the  great 
and  good  cause  will  triumph. 

4.  No  poive?'  hilt  that  of  God  and  of  his  truth  can  ever 
accoinpUsh  the  u-ork.  So  I  believe  most  firmly.  Political 
economy  is  too  weak  to  contend  against  the  giant  passions 
which  sustain  slavery.  So  is  the  principle  of  fear.  The 
spirit  and  power  of  faction  can  never  avail — abolitionists  will 
never  try  it.  The  providences  and  judgment  of  heaven 
may  wash  the  stains  of  this  sin  from  our  soil  with  blood — 
but  against  this  we  pray  most  fervently.     God  grant  it  may 


144  ABOLITION,    ETC.  [JANUARY, 


never  be.  The  only  mode  then  in  which  we  wish  to  have 
the  work  accomplished  is  that  which  alone  is  feasible,  name- 
ly,— by  the  power  of  God  and  of  the  truth.  Let  Christians 
see  that  slavery  is  sin  and  renounce  it.  Let  the  public  con- 
science be  enlightened  and  quickened.  Let  the  energy  of 
the  gospel  of  love  be  felt.  Let  the  glorious  efficacy  of  reli- 
gion in  promoting  human  happiness  and  protecting  human 
rights  be  really  seen;  and  the  developement  would  honor 
God,  and  his  truth  inconceivably.  This  object  alone — 
apart  from  the  accessions  which  would  be  made  directly  to 
human  happiness,  would  be  worthy  of  a  great  religious  en- 
terprise. To  honor  God  as  the  God  of  the  oppressed,  and 
his  truth  as  the  salvation  of  our  race,  the  great  antidote  for 
every  evil  and  curse  which  men  bring  on  themselves  and 
on  each  other,  would  be  a  glorious  achievement.  For  such 
a  developement  of  God  and  of  his  truth,  the  world  has  long 
waited  in  vain.  "  The  whole  creation  has  been  o-roanino- 
and  travailing  in  pain  together  for  it  until  now." 

But  deliverance  is  at  hand.  God's  kingdom  shall  at  length 
come,  and  Satan's  throne  shall  fall.  That  power  by  which 
the  prince  of  darkness  has  so  long  chained  down  the  millions 
of  Africa  in  bondage,  physical  and  moral,  must  cease. — 
The  sons  of  'Ethiopia  are  soon  to  shake  ofi'  their  mana- 
cles, and  stretch  forth  their  freed  hands  to  God.  And  the 
oppressor  too  shall  come  bending  to  the  Saviour's  feet,  and 
his  hard  heart  shall  melt  before  the  cross  for  his  sins  against 
his  despised  brother.  His  pride  of  power,  and  avarice  and 
selfishness  cannot  stand  before  the  subduing  power  of  Jesus, 
As  truly  as  Jehovah  lives,  the  nations  are  giving  to  his  Son, 
and  his  truth  and  grace  shall  bow  their  hearts,  abolish  their 
sins  and  soften  their  spirits  into  the  sweet  simplicity  and 
tenderness  of  the  gospel.  Then  slavery  will  have  ceased. 
Its  last  groan  will  be  over — its  last  tear  will  liave  fallen — its 
last  bitter  cup  will  have  been  dashed  forever.  O  what  a 
Jubilee  !  But  I  may  not  give  vent  to  the  feelings  of  my 
heart.  Yet  one  thing  I  must  say.  To  the  friends  of  the 
oppressed  throughout  the  nation,  if  my  voice  could  reach 
I  would  cry. — Be  men  of  God  and  mighty  in  prayer,  and  the 
cause  of  God  will  triumph.  Make  this  a  great  religious  en- 
terprise— make  it  such  in  spirit,  in  argument,  in  appeal — 
make  it  such  in  all  your  measures  and  operations,  and  you 
cannot  fail  of  success.  So  Jehovah  will  be  with  you — yea, 
be  himself  will  be  your  strength  and  victory. 


1837.]  THE    CONSTITUTION.  145 


THE   CONSTITUTION. 

BY  N.    I-.    ROGERS,'  ESQ. 


Among  the  lions  in  the  way  of  the  "  progress  "  of  north- 
ern pro-slavery  towards  the  desirable  overthrow  of  our  re- 
pubhcan  slaveholdino;-,  one  of  the  grimest,  most  roarious-  , 
growhng  and  dismaying  is  the  glorious  constitution. 
You   cannot  advance  in   direction  of  the   castle   of  this  , 
pet-monster  of  the  republic — slavery — even  to  reconnoitre,  - 
from  a  distance,  its  "sublime   mysteries,"— but  your  ears 
are   assailed  from  every  quarter,   with   cries    of,  "Com- 
pact"— ^"  Pledges  to  our  Southern    brethren" — "  Guaranty 
of  their  pecuhar  institutions" — "  The  great  compromise." 
By  the  way,  we  of  the  North,  have  nothing  to  do  with  sla- 
very— absolutely  nothing  at   all — it  is  a  southern  afiair 
wholly — we    have    nothing    (compact)  to    do    (guaranty) 
with  slavery  (compromise.)     Why  do  you  come  here  to  ac- 
cuse us  (have  pledged  ourselves)  who  are  opposed  to  Sla- 
very, &c.  &c.     But  the  absurdities,  which  grow  on  every 
bush,  by  the  anti-abolition  wayside,  must  not  tempt  us  from 
our  brief  purpose — to  write  a  rambhng,  post  haste  notice  of 
the  constitutionality  of  United  States'  Slavery.     We  draw 
bow  at  the  uncouth  monster  at  venture — currente,  volante, 
no  pausing  to  sight, — no  solicitous  adjustment  of  shaft  to 
bow-string  as  if  the  beast  might  be  missed.     Our  light  ar- 
row must  hit  him  "  stretched  out  many  a  rood" — and  that 
between  joints  of  his  gaping  and  unguarding  harness. — 
Imprimis  then.    Is  the  Constitution  of  these  Federate  States 
pro-slavery  ?  So  they  say,  and  that  it  barricades  it  about  with 
impregnable  and  perpetual  barriers.     If  it  be  so — if  it  sanc- 
tions the  oppression  of  the  colored  people  of  this  country, 
directly  or  indirectly  ever  so  remotely,— why  it  is  the  most 
nefarious  document  ever  perpetrated  by  the  hand  of  human 
depravity.      And   those  revolutionary  fathers  of  ours — if 
they  did  (as  their  hopeful  descendants  unblushingly  avow) 
enter  into  solemn  league  and  covenant  to  enslave  the  inno- 
cent colored  people, — were,  we  indignantly  proclaim,  the 
most  ferocious  miscreants  that  have  profaned   the   earth 
since  Cain  !      What !     They — reeking  hot  from   a   revo- 
lution, kindled  for  universal  liberty — malienable — the  in- 

19 


146  THE   CONSTITUTION.  [JaNUARY, 

defeasible  birthright  and  incident  to  every  body  under  the 
round  cope  of  heaven, — a  right  so  grossly  self-evident  that 
they  would  not  argue  it  but  with  the  naked  bayonet, — they 
— tile  daring  hypocrites,  when  God  had  given  them  victory 
for  the  justice  of  their  principles — sealed  with  the  blood  of 
the  colored  as  well  as  the  colorless  man, — with  Te  Deum 
on  their  breaths,  assemble  deliberately  and  solemnly  and  en- 
slave their  fellow  men  ! — Are  these  the  ancestors  we, bluster 
about  4th  July's  !  Then  indeed  "  has  our  ignoble  blood 
"  crept  through"  at  least  one  generation  of  Scoundrels. 
Why  a  charter  so  diabolical  should  have  been  writ  out  in 
man's  blood  and  on  human  parchments,  and  executed 
amidst  accursed  incantations  around  the  "  charmed  pot."  A 
Constitution,  by  republicans,  for  the  enslavement  of  men  ! 
An  Algerine  Divan  would  not  have  been  caught  at  it. 
There  is  but  one  imaginable  assemblage  that  would  be  "up 
to  it," — a  pandemonium,  styled,  instead  of  a  convention, — 
and  even  with  Satan  himself  and  his  despairing  peers, 
it  would  have  raised  a  laugh  to  see  men  attempt  it  on 
the  earth — a  league  to  subject  man  to  the  boundless 
caprice  of  his  fallen  fellow !  Oh !  it  would  have  transcended 
all  their  expectations  of  depraved  human  service — it  were  a 
piece  of  supererogation  disgusting  to  their  extremity  of 
wickedness.  But  it  is  contended  that  our  ancestors  did  it. 
It  is  possible  they  conceived  it  in  their  hearts.  Why  else 
did  they  not  demand  the  abolition  of  slavery  as  the  sine-qua- 
non  condition  of  confederation  ?  And  why  did  they  ex- 
pressly protect  the  infernal  slave  trade  from  the  interference 
of  their  own  Congress  ?  Ah  !  they  were  embarrassed  and 
the  South  would  not  unite.  But  were  they  not  embarassed 
when  Great  Britain  would  not  unite  ?  They  plunged  to 
the  neck  in  revolution  for  an  abstract  right.  They  waged 
war  to  the  knife  against  a  mere  nominal  oppression.  But 
it  was  for  their  own  white  selves.  Rights  were  not  so 
"  abstract"  but  they  could  fight  for  them  when  they  were 
their  oini.  But  when  the  life  and  soul  of  their  unoffend- 
ing and  most  deserving  colored  brothers  were  at  stake — why, 
forsooth,  tiiey  were  embarrassed  and  must  ^-  cof?ipromise  T 
But  they  did'  not  succeed  in  reducing  their  compromise  to 
writing.  If  they  conceived  it  in  their  treachery,  they  did 
not  get  it  down  upon  the  deed ;  God  did  not  vouchsafe 
them  the  art  to  do  it.     They  were  after  securing  their  own 


1S37.]  THE    CONSTITUTION.  147 

personal  liberties  and  it  was  utterly  past  all  their  scholar- 
craft  to  pen  the  security  and  leave  the  colored  man  a  slave. 
The  written  Constitution  is  a  warrantee  deed  of  universal 
liberty, — equal  and  absolute  freedom  to  every  mortal  man 
who  comes  within  its  outmost  protection  and  territorial 
limit.  Slavery  is  unconstitutional.  It  has  been  perpetuated 
in  defiance  of  the  old  charter  every  moment  since  its  adop- 
tion. A  flying  consideration  or  two  in  support  of  this  fa- 
naticism— premising  that  we  harbor  not  a  spark  of  care  to 
convince  a  solitary  republican.  So  we  can  help  summon 
the  stupid  public  attention  to  the  nohile  par.  Slavery  and  The 
Constitution,  we  care  not  how  the  public  holds — constitu- 
tional or  unconstitutional — the  sight  is  one  the  nation  can- 
not bear. 

Will  they  travel  beyond  the  deed  for  intents  and  purposes? 
If  they  do,  we  point  them  to  that  "flourishing"  piece  of 
"  rhetoric,"'  the  famous  '•  Declaration,"  and  to  the  state  Bills 
of  Rights,  as  indications  of  the  quo  animo  of  the  times — con- 
comitant or  precedent  acts  these,  and  anti-slavery  to  ultra- 
ism.  But  we  hold  them  to  the  deed.  To  this  the  Declara- 
tion was  the  preliminary  "flourish."  Let  us  see  how  the 
sages  followed  it  up.  First,  the  preamble.  We  may  gather 
some  inklings  of  their  intent  from  the  preamble^ — ^some 
means  of  conjecturing  their  purpose.  "  We,  the  people," — 
not  five  sixths,  but  the  whole — the  people.  And  what  goes 
to  make  the  constituent  parts  of  that  we  call  people  1  a 
pointed  nose?  a  thin,  termagant  lip  ?  a  larger  curling  of  the 
hair?  a  pallid  complexion,  unburned  by  the  vertical  sun? 
We  call  on  pro-slavery  for  a  definition  of  people.  "In 
order  to  form  a  more  perfect  union."  Union  of  what  ? 
Fire  and  water  ?  wolf  and  sheep  ?  fox  and  poultry  ?  Union  ! 
Slavery  is  as  big  with  discord  as  a  volcano  is  of  combusti- 
bility and  eructation.  But  patience — and  look  a  little  fur- 
ther. "  To  esta.h\\sh  justice.'''  Not  come  to  the  slavery  yet. 
Henry  Clay,  in  a  slaveholding  speech  before  a  Colonization 
Society,  seems  to  justify  it.  The  American  Union*  thinks 
it  has  discovered  that  it  is,  as  it  were,  a  '•  wrong." 
But  further,  "to  secure  domestic  tranquility,"  among  the 
masters  ?  "  What  makes  the  mother  hug  her  infant  closer 
to  her  breast  as  she  hears  the  midnight  bell  at  Richmond," 

♦Theiiom  deg;uerre  of  Colonizationists),  in  and  about  Boston.— Ed. 


148  THE    COiNSTITUTION.  [JANUARY, 

cried  the  mad  Rsiidolph,  as  he  disclosed  the  tranquihzing  in- 
fluences of  negro  insurrections.  Domestic  tranquihty  !  The 
war  whoop,  as  the  old  settlers  used  to  tell,  scared  the  frontier 
mothers  as,  sharp  and  quick,  it  "broke  the  sleep  of  the 
cradle."  But  what  is  dread  of  Indians  to  the  dismay  of  the 
heartless  woman  of  the  South,  when  she  hears  the  alarm  of 
a  slave  rising  1  What  imagination  can  conceive  the  con- 
sternation of  the  planter?  It  scares  him  like  the  bursting 
scenes  of  the  judgment  day,  which  it  images  forth  to  his 
guilty,  coward  soul.  It  cannot  be  the  master'' s  tranquility — 
but  peace  among  the  sovereign  states  and  the  sections  of  the 
Union.  How  naturally  it  springs  from  the  deadly  collisions 
of  free  and  slave  interests,  habits,  feelings  and  labor  ! — 
Surely  slavery  is  a  tranquility-breeder  among  the  states 
and  sections  !  "  To  provide  for  the  common  defence^ 
What  defence  does  a  pro-slavery  Constitution  afibrd  the 
colored  millions  of  the  country — or  are  they  not  a  portion  of 
the  commonalty.  Is  the  constitutional  enslavement  of  one 
sixth  of  the  people  " cowmo/i  defence?"  Defence  against 
what '}  Colored  people  have  become  quite  common  in  the 
land,  but  slavery  is  no  defence  to  them.  Defence  against 
foreign  enemies  perhaps.  Gen.  Hayne  regards  slavery  as 
the  very  essence  of  national  military  strength.  It  leaves  the 
white  chivalry  at  leisure  to  hunt  and  fight,  while  agricul- 
ture is  kept  up  at  home  by  the  slave.  The  soundness  of 
this  will  not  here  be  questioned.  But  "  to  promote  the 
general  ivelfare,''^  viz.  oppressing,  degrading,  treading  under 
foot,  unmanning,  unsouling,  imbruting,  transforming,  dis- 
mounting of  soul  and  spirit,  extinguishing — we  want  words  ! 
here  is  an  unlooked-for  and  unprovided-for  occasion  of 
words  of  terrible  significancy  !  Slavery  demands  a  nom- 
enclature for  her  own  use  !  "  General  welfare  !"  General 
to  a  frightful  extent.  Let  the  slave  speak  as  to  the  welfare, 
^o  general  has  the  system  come  to  work,  that  it  will  augment 
itself  to  its  own  and  the  nation's  catastrophe,  unless  anti- 
slavery  makes  haste  to  the  rescue.  But  we  come  to  it  at 
length.  The  genius  of  thraldom  at  last  speaks  out  for  itself, 
"And  secure,"  mark  the  phrase,  "the  blessings  of  liberty 
to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this 
Constitution."  'Liberty  to  be  sure,'  cries  pro-slavery,  'but  for 
whom,  not  for  the  nigger,  but  for  ^^  ourselves  and  our  pos- 
terity,"— strongly,  by  unplication,  excluding  the  black  folks 


1837.]  THE    CONSTITUTION.  149 


from  sharing- it.     ^^  Ourselves'''  were  the  enslaving  pream- 
blers.'    But  "posterity"  is  a  httle  too  general.    They  should 
have  added  legitimate  by  way  of  limitation,  if  legitimacy- 
can  be  predicated  of  that  brothel,  a  slaveholding  community. 
White  posterity — not  comprehensive  enough,  for  many  a 
whiter  than  some  of   the  preamblers,   pines  in  bondage. 
Who  are  "  posterity  ?"      Go  to  the  gloomy  gang  that  drag 
the  heavy  foot  to  the  toils  of  the  plantation.      "  Posterity" 
linger  there  rank   and  file.     Go  to  your  federal  city  and 
there  see  the  posterity  of  these  constitution-mongers  gracing 
the  coffle^  (that  word' of  sweet  import  to  republican  ears,)  as 
it  parades  the  avenues  of  the  capital,  to  the  tune  of  Hail 
Columbia,  marching  to  a  more  summary  servitude  at  the 
prosperous  and  fertile  south-west.     Let  that  word  "  coffle'^ 
sound  in  the  ear  of  the  northern  freeman.    Let  it  ring  upon 
the  soul  of  the  Church  of  this  republic.     Those  for  whom 
the  Lord  died  are  chained  in  that  hideous  phalanx.     His 
professed,  perhaps  his  own  real  disciples  are  fettered  there. 
There  are  the  posterity  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution — of 
this  same  "ourselves,"  and  these  are  the  blessings  of  liberty 
secured  to  them  by  the  Constitution  if  it  sanctions  slavery. 
But  to  the  compact  proper,  section  and  article.     The  sec- 
ond section  speaks  of  the  whole  number  of  free  persons,  and 
of  "  three  fifths  of  all  other  persons," — other  than  free  must 
be  slaves,  and  thus  the  Constitution  recognizes  slavery. 
There  was  slavery  at  the  time,  and  the  valiant  formers  of 
the  compact  do  allude  to  it  in  regulating  taxation  and  repre- 
sentation.    They  speak  of  it  as  an  existence,  but  do  not  pro- 
vide it  or  enact  it.    So  they  speak,  in  section  Sth,  of  "  piracies 
and  felonies  on  the  high  seas,"  but  not  by  way  of  institution 
or  guaranty — though  they  might  have  done  both  with  com- 
parative consistency  and  innocency.     Section  Sth  provides 
that  Congress  may  call  out  the  mihtia  "to  suppress  insur- 
rection."    Insurrection  is  a  forcible  resistance  to  the  laws 
of  the  land.     Against  what  law  does  any  man  rise  in  vin- 
dication of  his  just  rights?     A  rising  against  oppression  is 
justifiable  self-defence,  and  is  no  "  insurrection."*     An  uni- 
versal bursting  of  the  fetters  of  slavery  from  Washington  to 
the  hopeful  regions  of  Texas,  were  no  insurrection.    If  there 
be  any  insurrection  connected  with  slavery,  it  is  the  rising 

.♦  Our  correspondent  here  epeaks  as  a  sound  lawyer,  not  as  an  abolitionist.— Ed. 


•J 


150  THE    CONSTITUTION.  [JANUARY, 

of  the  slaveholders  against  humanity,  the  law  of  the  land 
and  Almighty  God.  But  this  is  fanaticism.  Section  9th  is 
pro-slavery.  It  protects  from  Congress  a  commerce  known, 
and  hunted  on  the  highway  of  nations,  by  name  of  the 
slave  trade.  It  is  styled  '•  migration  or  importation  of  such 
persons,"  &c. — good  republican  words  and  fitly  spoken. 
Reader,  art  thou  acquainted  with  that  sort  of  migration  ? 
It  is  peculiar,  like  the  "  institutions"  in  this  country  which 
sustain  it.  There  is  an  account  of  it  by  one  Thomas 
Clarkson,  detailing  it  from  the  seizure  of  the  "  emigrant " 
through  that  branch  of  it  styled  "middle  passage,"  and 
on  to  his  delivery  over  to  final  Christian  bondage.  Our 
puritan  pilgrim  fathers  called  it  "  migration."  The  shark  at- 
tends it  over  the  deep — fit  attendant  he — crudest  of  sea 
monsters,  and  of  mariners  most  abhorred.  He  instinctively 
scents  out  and  waits  on  the  emigrant  ship.  The  pecu- 
liarities of  the  emigration  strongly  induce  him  to  become 
party  to  the  voyage.  Shadow  does  not  follow  substance 
more  industriously  and  faithfully  than  this  sea-cannibal  the 
importer  ship.  Happy  the  emigrant — thrice  happy  and 
flivored  of  Providence — who  falls  to  the  lot  of  this  subma- 
rine partner  in  trade.  But  this  protecting  clause  was  limited 
to  1808,  and  has  expired.  Indeed  Congress  has  since 
that  styled  the  emigration  by  a  different  title,  and  has  given 
it  a  different  legal  effect — prohibiting  it,  in  favor,  doubtless, 
(for  it  is  a  protective  Congress)  of  the  home  market— a  kind 
of  "American  System"  to  promote  the  domestic  manufacture 
of  slaves. 

Sec.  2d,  Art.  IV.  arrests  the  fugitive  slave  and  remands 
him  to  his  prison-house.  What  says  it?  "  No  person  held 
to  service  or  labor  in  any  state,  under  the  laivs  thereof, 
escaping  into  another,"  &c.  Any  person  lawfully  held  to 
service,  ought  to  be  arrested,  if  he  escape.  There  is  no 
pro-slavery  in  this,  we  deny  that  slave  service  or  labor  is 
lawful,  even  in  Carolma.  First,  we  dare  question,  if  the 
nullifying  little  state  can  show  a  statute  on  her  books,  that 
provides  for  the  enslavement  of  any  human  beings.  She 
may  have  statutes  regulating  the  condition  of  the  enslaved 
in  fact,  and  againsi  law.  But  their  enslavement  is  not  by 
law,  even  in  Carolina— or  if  she  has  enacted  such  a  statute, 
it  is  contrary  to  her  own  Constitution,  which  is  republican 
and  so  void  and  no  law.     Or  if  not  against  hers,  against 


1837.]  THE    CONSTITUTION,  151 

our  Constitution,  and  is  no  law.  Our  Constitution,  Art.  V. 
of  the  amendments,  expressly  declares  against  the  taking  of 
any  man's  life,  liberty  or  property,  but  by  legal  process.  But 
of  that  anon.  Slave  service  is  unlawful  any  where  this  side 
the  infernal  regions.  There  it  is  lawful.  There  it  is  con- 
stitutional and  according  to  first  principles, — but  no  where 
short  of  there.  BySec.2d,  Art.lV.a  man  flying  from  slavery, 
can  no  more  be  arrested  than  if  he  were  escaping  a  pirate 
or  a  boa  constrictor.  Let  "  persons"  that  are  fugitive  from 
labor  that  they  owe,  be  stopped  and  remanded,  and  it  is  lib- 
erty and  not  slavery.  "  The  United  States  shall  guaranty 
to  every  state  a  republican  form  of  government."  What  is 
this  but  a  government  by  a  majority  of  the  people  ?  The 
majority  in  South  Carolina  are  violently  and  forcibly  en- 
slaved by  the  minority.  Is  this  republican  government  ac- 
cording to  the  Constitution  .^  "  The  citizens  of  each  state  ;" 
but  stay — we  forgot  the  Black  Act  of  Connecticut,  which 
decrees  that  a  citizen  must  be  white,  or  he  is  no  citizen.  So  ^ 
at  least  Justice  Daggett  decides, — a  second  Daniel  come 
to  judgment. 

Article  V.  of  the  amendments.  As  we  cannot  amend  this, 
we  here  after  a  remark  or  two  close  our  excursion,  bidding, 
as  we  do  so,  slavery  and  its  apologists,  welcome  to  all  the 
consolations  of  the  Constitution,  The  people  finding  in 
their  state  and  sectional  controversies  they  had  overlooked 
individual  and  personal  rights,  adopt  amendments  to  the 
Constitution.  First,  they  guard  against  abridgment  of  the 
freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  and  the  right  peaceably 
to  assemble,  and  the  right  of  petition.  Now  whether  this 
be  directly  anti-slavery  or  not,  we  aver  that  the  exercise  of 
these  rights,  will  abolish  slavery  and  that  the  toleration  of 
slavery,  will,  and  has  well  nigh  abolished  these.  Mobs  in  the 
service  of  slavery,  have  violated  the  rights  that  the  Consti- 
tution protected  from  the  interference  of  Congress,  and  Con- 
gress has  presumptuously  trampled  under  foot  the  sacred 
right  of  petition,  for  love  of  slavery  and  fear  of  slaveholders, 
"The  rights  of  the  people  to  be  secure  in  their  persons  against 
unreasonable  seizures,"  would  seem  to  be  anti-kidnapping — 
but  pro-slavery  explains,  by  saying  that  pouncing  upon  the 
black  man  is  one  of  the  most  reasonable  "  seizures"  in  the 
world,  and  therefore  constitutional  to  an  eminent  degree. 
We  give  it  up.    But  upon  article  V,  we  fasten  and  shall 


152  THE    CONSTITUTION.  [JANUARY, 

hang  on  upon  the  habeas  corpus  of  the  colored  man  under 
it,  as  the  Greeks  did  upon  the  body  of  Patroclus.  <'No  per- 
son shall  be  deprived  of  his  life,  liberty  ox  property  but  by 
due  process  of  law."  Ajax  Telamon  could  not  spread  a 
broader  or  more  multifold  shield  over  the  corse  of  Achilles' 
friend,  than  this  broad  explicit  and  absolute  clause  of  the 
Constitution.  We  heave  it  m  front  of  the  victim  of  slave- 
holding.  You  can't  take  his  property — even  his  old  hoe 
with  which  he  delves  his  rice  plat  between  sun  set  and  dark 
a  Sundays — you  can't  plunder  him  of  that,  without  the 
solemn  legal  process  it  takes  to  arrest  the  body  of  your  Gen. 
Jackson  for  a  thousand  pound  debt.  You  must  have  due 
process  of  law.  That  process  by  which  free  men  may  be 
divested  of  their  goods,  chattels  or  personal  hberty  or  life. — 
You  can't  construe  it  away  or  sneer  it  away.  You  can  as 
well  argue  John  Hancock's  sturdy  signature  from  the  old 
"  Rhetorical  Flourish."  "  No  person." — Judge  Daggett  may 
deny  citizenship  to  the  black  man,  but  he  would  pause  at 
denying  him  personality.  If  the  negro  be  not  a  person,  and 
the  enslaved  negro  too,  then  slaves  and  negro  people  are 
not  alluded  to  throughout  the  Constitution.  "  Three  fifths 
of  all  other  ;:)er5on5,''—"  the  migration  of  such  persons," — 
"no  person  held  to  service," (fee.  "No  person  shall  be  depri- 
ved of  property." — If  a  black  man  "  labor"  for  another,  is  he 
not  "  worthy  of"  and  entitled  to  "his"  equitable  "  hire?"— 
Are  not  his  justly  earned  wages,  quantum  meruit,  his  own, 
his  property,  as  absolutely  as  a  man  oan  acquire  any  thing 
by  Irtbor  7  We  scorn  to  answer  the  knavish  objections  that 
will  be  made  to  this  simple  statement  of  the  enslaved  negro's 
right  of  property.  Every  cent  he  earns  is  his  by  paramount 
right,  and  he  who  denies  it  to  him  is  a  thief— or  worse. — 
Away  with  your  paltry  quibbles  about  purchasing  and  inher- 
iting men  and  their  wages  and  all  that  palpable  particeps 
cririiinis  with  kidnappers  and  pirates.  The  negro  man's 
wages  are  his  property  before  God  and  man,  and  he  who 
lays  a  finger  on  a  farthing  to  withhold  it,  the  curse  of  God 
will  rest  upon  him,  and  it  will  eat  his  flesh  "  as  it  were  fire." 
Does  not  slavery  deprive  of  property  without  legal  process? 
a  brief  word  presently  upon  process.  It  isn't  kidnapping  by 
the  way.  "  Of  life."  '  Does  slavery  deprive  a  person  of  life  ? 
To  say  nothing  of  the  partial  and  abominable  slave  laws 
(not  slavery  laws)  which  make  acts  penal  and  capital  in 


1837.]  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  153 

the  black  man  which  are  no  offence  in  the  white,  of  "  mod- 
erate" slave  correction  which  takes  life,  of  exclusion  of  the 
black  man  from  the  stand  of  the  witness  against  the  white 
man — wiiat  takes  life  if  slave  service  does  not  ?  What  con- 
sumes life  with  a  prodigality  enough  to  sicken  the  strong 
nerves  of  a  Wade  Hampton  ?^u  Slavery.  But  it  undoubtedly 
takes  '-'liberty,"  and  is  it  by  "  due  process  of  law  .^"  No, 
no.  Ev'Cry  body  living  in  a  county  where  there  is  a  court 
house  knows  what  is  due  process  of  law,  and  that  it  is  the 
court's  forms  of  administering  remedies,  your  writs  and  what 
not.  Enslaving  and  slaveholding  have  a  very  different  pro- 
cess from  all  this,  and  allow  us  now  with  all  deference  to 
Messrs.  Franklin  and  Armfield,  Governor  George  McDuffiCj 
the  whilom  "  star  of  Carolina,"  Austin  Woolfblk,  and  the 
whole  pro-slavery  fraternity  in  its  infinite  departments,  to  ven- 
ture the  doctrine,  here  within  a  summer  day's  ride  of  Can- 
ada,— that  our  republican  slaveholding  is  contrary  to  the 
Constitution  of  these  United  States. 


ON    THE   USE  OF    SLAVE    PRODUCE.* 

*  BY    CHARLES    STUABT. 

This  question  is  here  presented,  not'as  theoretical  or  sci" 
enfific,  but  as  a  practical  one — not  as  relating  to  other  na- 
tions, but  to  ourselves ! 

The  articles  embraced  in  this  view,  are,  Sugar,  Molasses 
and  Rum — Cotton,  Rice,  Tobacco, — the  Indigo  which  is 
raised  in  the  slave  states,  the  flour  which  we  receive  from 
slaves  states,  &c. 

Why  do  we  call  these  things,  slave  'produce  ? 

•  Though  not  exactly  agreeing  with  our  valued  correspondent  in  some  of  hia 
conclusions,  much  less  in  the  logic  by  which  he  arrives  at  them,  we  cheerfully  ac- 
knowledge that  he  sheds  light  as  well  as  heat  on  his  subject;  albeit,  the  former 
seems  to  us  more  refracted  than  the  latter.  We  shall  find  room  for  a  few  para- 
graphs of  comment  at  the  close  of  the  article,  to  which,  and  to  the  article  at  page 
393  of  the  first  volume,  we  would  refer  the  reader  as  containing  about  all  we  have 
to  say.  There  seems  more  need  just  now  of  exposing  the  sinfulness  of  slave- 
holdmj:^,  than  the  innocence  of  buying  some  sorts  of  slave  produce. — Ed, 

20 


154  ON  THE  V&E  OF  SLAVE  PRODICE.  [JaKUARY, 

Because  they  are  produced  by  slave  labor — that  is,  by 
forced  and  rmrequited  toil :  because  from  the  j^oor,  by 
whose  labor  they  are  obtained,  their  bodies  are  stolen — their 
time  is  stolen  ;  ihe\x  wages  are  stolen  ;  their  liberty  is  stolen; 
their  right  to  their  wives  and  children,  is  stolen  ;  their  right 
to  cultivate  their  minds,  and  to  worship  God  as  they  please, 
is  stolen  ;  their  reputation  is  stolen  ;  hope  is  stolen,  and  all 
virtuous  motives  are  taken  away,  by  a  legalized  system  of 
most  merciless  and  consummate  iniquity.  Such  is  the  expense 
at  which  articles  produced  by  slave  labor,  are  obtained — • 
they  are  always  heavy  with  the  groans,  and  often  wet  with 
the  blood,  of  the  guiltless  and  suffering  poor. 

It  will  be  perceived,  that  by  slave  produce,  articles,  obtain- 
ed, viciously  hy  free  and  hired  labor,  are  not  meant.  A  mer- 
chant may  impose  upon  you,  in  the  quality,  &c.,  of  his 
goods ;  a  farmer  oihis  produce  ;  a  shoe-maker  oihis  leather  ; 
a  tailor,  of  his  work  ;  a  lawyer  maj  flatter  or  betray  yon— 
and  a  minister  may  leave  yon  at  peace  in  your  sins — and 
all  these  are  abomniable  things — but  they  are  not  slave  pro- 
duce!  If  you  deal /a/r/y/ with  the  merchant,  and  the  far- 
mer, and  the  shoe-maker,  and  the  tailor,  and  the  lawyer,  and 
the  minister,  &c.,  their  guilt  is  on  their  own  heads ;  you 
do  not  compel  it ;  you  do  not  sustain  others  in  compeUing 
it;  it  is  all  their  own.  -'You  must  needs  go  out  of  the 
world,"  1.  Cor.  v.  10,  if  you  would  avoid  all  commingling 
with  such  things.  The  occupations  themselvts,  together 
with  the  articles  which  they  supply,  are  lawful  and  right. 
But  it  is  not  so,  with  slave-produce.  The  business  of  hold- 
ing slaves,  is,  in  itself,  eminently  felonious  ;  and  sugar,  mo- 
lasses, rum,  (fcc.  &,c.,  wrung  by  force  out  of  the  unrequited 
toil  of  the  outraged  poor,  are  stolen  goods,  obtained  by  the 
worst  species  of  fraud.  The  occupation  is  the  most  crimi- 
nal on  earth  ;  and  the  articles  which  it  supplies,  are,  of  all 
others  the  most  loaded  with  robbery  and  wrong. 

I  affirm,  that  it  is  a  transgression  of  the  divine  law,  to  pur- 
chase or  consume  such  articles,  without  a  strict  necessity  : 
and  my  reasons  are  the  following. 

Slaveholders  generally  hold  slaves,  in  order  to  make 
money  by  their  labor.  Some,  I  know,  hold  slaves,  especial- 
ly domestic  slaves,  for  purposes  baser  still ;  and  some,  I  am 
willing  to  suppose,  hold  slaves  temporarily,  for  better  pur- 
poses ;  but  generally,  and  so  far  only,  my  argument  goes — 


1837.]  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  155 


slaveholders  hold  slaves,  in  order  to  make  money  by  their 
labor.  For  this  purpose,  the  skives  are  put  to  cultivate  the 
caue,  cotton,  rice,  tobacco,  indigo,  &.C.,  and  sugar,  mo- 
lasses, rum,  cotton,  rice,  tobacco  and  indigo  are  brought 
by  these  nefarious  means  into  the  market. 

Yonder  then  are  the  hogsheads  of  sugar  and  molasses  ; 
yonder  are  the  puncheons  of  rum :  yonder  are  the  bales  of 
cotton  ;  and  yonder,  the  rice  and  the  tobacco  and  the  in- 
digo !  Now  suppose  that  no  one  would  buy  them,  because 
obtained  by  robbery.  Suppose  that  the  cry  of  our  brothers 
wrongs,  goiuij;  up  to  heaven  against  their  oppresors  were  to 
turn  our  hearts  within  us  ;  loe^  feeling  lor  the  down-trodden 
sufferers  as  we  would  wish  thetn  to  feel  for  us,  were  our  sit- 
uations exchanged,  what  would  become  of  the  sugar  mo- 
lasses, rum,  &c.  &.C. ! !  No  one  buys  them.  No  one  con- 
sumes t\\e\\\—iwt  because  they  are  not  wanted  ;  for  they  are 
loanted;  but  because  the  curse  of  the  suffering  and  out- 
raged poor  is  upon  them;  tJiere  they  lie,  mouldering,  putre- 
fying !  Will  the  masters  go  on  to  raise  another  crop,  by  the 
same  nefarious  means  :  the  former  still  mouldering  and  pu- 
trefying on  their  hands.  Certainly  not,  if  the  principle 
stand  firm  against  their  tear-bedewed,  their  groan-burthened, 
their  curse-commingled,  their  blood-polluted  produce  !  and 
as  certainly,  all  men  wanting  these  things,  and  being  eagej- 
to  purchase  them  as  soon  as  they  can  be  honestly  obtained, 
would  not  these  same  slaveholders,  idolizing  mone3r  and  its 
accommodations  as  they  do,  procure  these  same  things  for 
us,  by  honest  and  manly  means,  as  they  may  do,  whenever 
ihey  please,  rather  than  ruin  themselves,  out  of  their  love 
for  "fruitless  tyranny  ?  They  indeed  love  tyranny,  as  all  men 
love  power,  no  doubt  for  its  own  sake — but  they  love  it  ten 
times  as  much  for  the  sake  of  its  golden  fruit.  Throw  its 
golden  fruit  into  the  opposite  scale,  and  the /air  rig-hts  of 
men,  instead  of  the  nefarious  rights  of  tyrants,  would  quick- 
ly become  their  choice. 

What  prevents  this  result  ? 

It  is  not  power,  nor  the  love  of  power — for  neither  of  these 
could  be  sustained  in  civilized  society,  without  money  !  It 
is  not  exclusively  the  wickedness  of  the  slaveholder,  or  of 
the  slave  trader,  for  as  both  of  these  are  too  lazy  to  work, 
and  too  proud  to  beg,  they  would  soon  perish  with  their  pu- 
trid and  unsaleable  goods,  unless  they  would  so  far  relax 
their  wickedness  as  to  bring  to  us  honestly-gotteU;  instead 


15G 


ON  THE  USE  OP  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  [JANUARY 


of  atrociously  stolen  goods !  goods  in  obtaining  which  the 
laborer  had  been  treated  like  a  man,  instead  of  being  plun- 
dered of  all  that  is  most  dear  to  man,  of  all  that  most  power- 
fully conduces  to  make  man,  man  ! 

But  what  is  it  that  prevents  the  result  above  mentioned? 
What  is  it,  which  causes  the  slaveholder  still  to  hug  to  his 
bosom,  the  nefarious  system,  and  to  rave  like  a  goaded  bull, 
whenever  it  is  assailed  ? 

It  is  simply  and  eminently  the  purchase  and  consumption 
of  slave  produce  !  The  purchasers  and  consumers  of  slave 
produce,  have  slavery  completely  and  despotically  in  their 
hands.  They  can  crush  it,  lawfully,  peaceably  and  eifectu- 
ally  whenever  they  please,  without  a  petition — without  a 
remonstrance — without  a  lecture — without  a  paper  a  pam- 
phlet or  a  pen,  they  can  themselves  abolish  it.  Let  them 
refuse  the  purchase  and  consumption  of  its  productions,  and 
it  is  gone— and  the  slave  converted  into  a  free  laborer, 
will  pour  into  the  market,  in  return  for  his  wages  duly 
received,  the  articles  which  they  covet,  into  the  employer's 
pocket,  the  money  which  he  worships,  then  obtained  by 
him  by  honest  enterprise. 

The  whole  matter  is  comprised  in  this.  The  slaveholder 
for  some  reason  or  other  (and  his  reasons  are  various)  wants 
money — and  finds  or  thinks  he  finds  his  most  conve- 
nient way  to  be,  buying  and  driving  to  labor  like  beasts, 
his  guiltless  fellow  men.  The  abolitionist,  for  some 
reason  or  other  (and  his  reasons  too,  are  various,) 
wants  sugar,  molasses,  rum,  cotton,  tobacco,  rice,  (fcc, 
and  finds  that  he  can  most  conveniently  supply  himself  by 
buying  from  the  slaveholder,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  the 
sugar,  molasses,  &c.  &c.,  of  which  the  slaveholder  has  be- 
come proprietor  by  the  most  deliberate,  atrocious  and  com^ 
plicated  villainy.  Both  are  satisfied— and  both  equally  at 
the  expense  of  the  outraged  and  guiltless  poor.  The  slave- 
holder is  the  hireling.  The  abolitionist,  is  the  hirer.  If 
there  were  no  slaveholders  (no  hirelings  of  this  description) 
there  would  be  no  slaves.  And  if  there  were  no  purchasers 
and  consumers  of  slave  produce,  there  Avould  be  no  slave- 
holders. Human  wants  call  for  these  articles.  "  I  will  sup- 
ply you"  cries  free  labor.  "  But  I,"  cries  slave  labor,  "  will 
more  cheaply  and  conveniendy  supply  you,"  love  and  equity 
interfere,  and  exclaim,  "  yes,  slave  labor  will  supply  you  ; 
"but  it  will  beat  the  expense  of  a  system  ol  iniquity,  at 


1837.]  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  157 


"  which  human  nature  shudders  ;  which  is  essentially  un- 
"der  the  divine  curse — and  asfainst  which  truth  is  lifting  up 
"  her  holy  and  trumpet  voice."  "  Yes,  slave  labor  will  sup- 
"ply  you,"  groans  the  slave,  "  but  it  will  be  at  the  expense  of 
"  my  tears  and  of  my  blood  ;  it  will  be  at  the  expense  of  blot- 
"  ting  me  as  far  as  possible  out  of  being  as  a  man,  and  of  con- 
"  signing  me  to  ignorance,  pollution,  disgrace,  bondage,  suf- 
"  fering  and  despair."  "  Who  will  supply  me  most  conve- 
"  niently  and  cheaply,"  cries  human  want.  "I,"  vociferates 
"  slave  labor.  "  Then  from  you  will  I  buy,"  replies  the  other, 
'•I  indeed  pity  the  slave,  condemn  the  slaveholder,  and 
"  abhor  slavery  ;  but  sugar,  &c.,  1  want — and  sugar  I  will 
"  have  ;  and  who  don't  see  that  it  would  be  a  greater  evil  for 
"  me  to  pay  two  or  three  cents  a  pound  more  for  it,  than  it 
"  is  for  the  slave  to  suifer  the  loss  of  all  things  in  being  driven 
"like  a  beast  to  procure  it  for  me." 

But  plain  and  solemn  as  these  things  undeniably  are — and 
imperative  as  is  the  soul  trying  duty  which  they  involve, 
still  difficulties  are  made.  I  proceed  to  notice  some  of  them 
from  a  person,  whose  general  principles  and  conduct,  I  ad- 
mire and  love,  as  much  as  I  detest  and  lament  the  opinions 
which  he  asserts  on  this  subject.  I  mean  the  editor  of  the 
Quarterly  Anti-Slavery  Magazine,  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  page  393. 
'•  On  abstinence  from  the  products  of  slave  labor."  I  cordi- 
ally yield  him  the  credit  of  sincerely  intending  right — so, 
I  should,  as  cordially,  to  many  a  slaveholder  !  but  the  5m- 
cere  delusion  of  neither  one  nor  the  other,  could  sanction  in 
my  eyes,  the  pernicious  principles  or  practices  which  they 
sustained. 

"  To  help  to  a  right  decision,"  says  my  friend,  "  we  some- 
times meet  with  an  argument  which  may  be  comprised  in 
the  following  syllogism.  If  slave-holding  is  a  heinous  crime 
in  the  sight  of  God,  all  participation  in  it,  must  be  also  crim- 
inal. But  using  the  products  of  slave  labor,  is  a  partici- 
pation in  slaveholding.  Therefore  using  the  products 
of  slave  labor,  must  be  criminal."  To  the  minor  pro- 
position of  this  syllogism,  viz  : — '*  that  using  the  pro- 
ducts of  slave-labor,  is  a  participation  in  slaveholding," 
ing,"  my  friend  demurs.  Yet  what  can  be  a  more  self-evi- 
dent fact  ?  the  fact  the  same,  whether  we  do  it,  consciously 
or  unconsciously.  Ignorantly  I  may  poison  a  man — igno- 
rantly  I  may  abet  another  in  a  thousand  crimes  ;  but  my 


158  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  [JaNUARY, 


ignorance^  neither  renders  poison  healthful,  nor  crime  inno- 
cent, nor  does  it  at  all  alter  the  fact  of  my  participation.  If 
my  ignorance  was  fairly  excusable^  then  am  I  innocent — 
this  is  a  fundamental  difference,  in  the  morality  of  the  act, 
if  my  ignorance  was  not  fairly  excusable,  then  am  I  guilty  ; 
the  participation  as  a  matter  of  fact  being  the  same  in  both 
cases  ;  but  differina^  in  its  morality- — in  the  one  case  beins' 
innocent,  in  the  other,  crmrmal !  1  fully  agree  with  my 
friend  that  very  little  sugar  or  cotton,  &,c..  is  consumed  Avith 
the  intention  of  thereby  maintaining  the  bondage  of  the 
slave — -and  whenever  excusable  ignorance  exists  of  the  fact, 
that  such  consumption  does  actually  and  powerfully 
maintain  the  bondage,  I  entirely  believe  that  there  is  no 
crime.  But  I  as  decidedly,  aver,  that  that  consumption  does 
maintain  that  bondage,  and  that  it  is  criminal,  whenever  the 
fact  might  have  been  known.  Nothing  can  be  more  unde- 
niable, than  that  if  the  products  of  slave  labor  were  not  con- 
sumed, they  would  not  be  bought,  if  they  were  not  bought, 
they  would  not  be  raised,  if  they  were  not  raised,  slaves 
would  not  be  wanted — and  if  slaves  were  not  wanted,  there 
would  be  no  slaves — but  we  should  have  the  same  articles, 
by  honest  enterprise,  and  by  willing  and  requited  labor,  free 
from  the  tears  and  the  blood  of  the  innocent  and  outraged  poor  ! 

But,  says  my  friend — "  In  order  to  show  that  our  use  of 
"  these  or  other  products  does  actually  have  the  effect,  to  aid 
'•  and  encourage  the  slaveholder  to  continue  his  sin,  it  must 
"be  shown  that  our  abstinence  will  prev^ent,  or  at  least  tend  to 
"prevent  his  continuance.  And  this  cannot  be  done,  without 
"  shovvitig  a  reasonable  probability,  that  our  abstinence  will 
"  produce  a  sensible  elfect  upon  the  market." 

Surely  my  friend,  when  he  penned  the  above,  must  have 
forgotten  Mark  xii.  41.44.  How  much  did  the  two  mites 
of  our  blessed  sister  of  old  tend  to  the  preservation  of  ^//e 
temple  I  And  what  probability  was  there,  that  if  she  had 
kept  her  two  mites  in  her  own  pocket,  her  parsimony,  would 
have  produced  any  sensible  ellect  upon  its  magnificence  '} 
Her  two  mites  were  in  value,  about  one  cent.  Estimate 
the  temple  and  its  revenue  at  $500,000,  and  her  share  would 
be  1-50,000,000  (one  fifty  millionth  part.)  Her  two  mites 
then  tended  one  fifty  millionth  part,  towards  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  temple  ;  if  she  had  withheld  them,  1-50,000,000 
part  would  have  been  withheld  ;  but  how  difficult  it  would 


1837.]  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  159 

have  been  to  have  shown  to  a  carnal  eye  the  sensible  influ- 
ence of  such  a  lack  upon  the  temple  !  !  Yet  God  who  saw 
the  minuteness  of  her  contribution  towards  the  preservation 
of  the  temple,  and  how  inscusible  the  effect  upon  its  mag- 
niticence  would  have  been,  if  she  had  withheld  it,  pronoun- 
ced it  more  than  all  the  rich  and  mighty  gave.  The  error  of  my 
brother  here,  I  think,  is,  in  looking  iiitheresidt  as  man  sees 
it,  instead  of  looking  at  the  principle,  connected  with  its 
result,  as  God  sees  it, — viewed  in  the  former  light,  nothing 
could  appear  more  contemptible  than  the  widow's  mites — - 
viewed  in  the  latter,  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  wealthy  sunk 
into  insignificance  compared  with  them.  The  consumers 
of  slave  produce,  as  connected  with  slavery  in  these  states, 
may  be  50,000,000 — supposing  this  estimate  correct,  each 
individual  of  these  50,000.000,  has  just  about  as  much  to  do 
with  slavery,  as  the  widow  had  with  the  temple.  By  con- 
summg  slave  produce,  they  as  powerfully  and  as  effectually 
sustain  A'/ai;ery,  as  the  widow  did  the  temple;  and  if  the 
curse  of  supporting  transgression  be  equivalent  to  the  bles- 
sings of  sustaining  righteousness,  as  her  blessing  was  great, 
how  great  will  the  curse  be  .?  The  money  given  for  slave 
produce,  as  undeniably  and  as  directly  goes  to  sustain  slave- 
ry, as  the  widow's  mites  went  to  support  the  temple.  The 
withholding  of  her  mites,  would  not  have  destroyed  the  tem- 
ple, would  not  have  deranged  one  of  its  massy  blocks  ;  nay, 
would  scarcely  have  been  felt  by  a  particle  of  dust  on  its 
walls.  As  little  would  the  abstaining  from  slave  produce 
by  a  single  person  affect  slavery  ;  but  there  is  something 
antecedent  to  the  effect  produced  upon  slavery,  which  it 
would  infinitely  affect ;  that  is,  God's  appreciation  of  the 
moral  aspect  of  the  action.  He  would  see,  that  the  individ- 
ual, did  what  he  could  in  that  particidar.,  to  sustain  the  most 
ferocious  and  impure  iniquity,  and  although  the  support 
yielded,  was  but  the  50,000,000  part,  yet  has  He  not  told  us, 
that  "  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet  offend 
in  one  point,  is  guilty  of  all."     James  ii.  10. 

But  here  my  friend  goes  over  to  the  difficulties  of  the 
case ;  he  shows  us,  that  slave  cotton  is  mixed  with 
almost  every  thing  :  that,  industry  and  enterprise  would  be 
blighted  ;  travelling  arrested, clothing  made  extensively  im- 
practicable, printing  and  correspondence  abolished,  reforma- 
tion crushed,  and  anti-slavery  societies  themselves  put  to  a 
stop  without  it. 


NN  hat  i\  ^i\\\)i  oi  \\\\\\s  !  \N  \\o  iloos  xw[  sU\\\\o  tt(  iIumm  ' 
•Siuvly  Nuoh  iiiYiu{f'»t  «N»WsVY>/Mfw«Y»v must  .vbi^lish  tho  ilivitio 
uvluuot^vmvS,  »*  Ntnthor  U^  \\i\ni\kvv  ol"  otIuM'  inouV  siiuV' 
I.  Tun.  \\  \^^i.  *''riu»\»  sh«U  not  tMlow  a  luultmulo  to  do 
<>v»l,"  I'Aodus  x\iu>  ^^,  aiui  must  iiMhlov  iho  iln  mo  wainmn'. 
INnluv  I,  IvS^^fuouo  etIWt 

l»iU  ts  it  «  Uw\^  oitho>'  iiuhvuio  or  human  lojv»sl«tuMi,  that 
in.'^-Hy        '   >Uthv'uhioN  itMhh  inn'  .•' 

«■  (^  VI  tho  sSc^hh^Uh  day  to  Ktv|>  it  holy,  v^o.."  says 

U\h\,  liwnlttJf  XX,  8,  Vol  tho  s<uuo  i  »\hI  vloclai>\^  to  u>i, "  that 
oti  tho  Si^hKvth  vlavs.  tho  prttvsts  tu  tho  totuplc  iMVtano  tho 
SaM^th,  auvl  ai\^  hlauu^Uvvs,"  Matthow  \u,  A, 

i<v>  h^^vul  aud  his  toUvnvots,  wht^u  tl\OY  xvoiv  tatuishutij, 
«?t\ltu^Hl  itUo  th<>  tt[MUj>U\  nttvldid  <c>^»t  tl\o  s)unv  ImviuI,  whvoh 
U  \v«5*  vmliuiwily  Kn\vt\tl  tor  t\w  |xn<\^ts  u/oh«*  lv»  <hU,  Ms^tthow 
xii,  L  Auvl  o»»r  M<\s,v^hI  I. out  j^ud  his  a\HVJtU\s,  i\i  jv  suuilav 
vvimit,  ou  a  J^ahlMth  day .  j^vhurlvvH.1  tho  t^u^  ^xl'  iHvru  «ud  idUvyx^l 
tht»ir  Ivut^^vr,  Matthow  xii,  t 

Was  thoivtoiv  tho  Irtw  ol'tho  ?N*hlv»th  {^boUslunl  /  l»v  »io 
\\H\'vus !  How  thou  ^vuM  tho>v  thiuii>i  Nv'  Thoy  jvviv 
\uotvlY  «'.«\Y^»<'«*w«,v  i^i  Mf  Ut¥,\  {U»d  oxcoutious  do  t\v">t  aU^Udi 

U\V\  tKoY  \X»  tho  vNXUtmrV  JVU»VX^  »t,  t'orU  thoiV  Wx-Tx^  »0  hf¥^ 

thovt^svlt'<'Vulot\iily  v\>«KI  K>  tto  oxwptivxu?!!, 

\ Unx^ apjv«t~s  to uhn tv> K^ tho  t"uudauKM\tal ormv ot  i\iy  ti und, 
Tho  vim  ot"  tho  v>hi<vtiv»usv  shuts  hts  t\u-?5  tv>  tho  doivunnds 
v>t"tho  Iv^w.  Tho  \»hhvtvous  st«rt  t^  into  ijiauts  IvtiMV  hu»v, 
»uvl  tho  Iv^w  \rtt>isiw\^  t\\xtu  hi?^^\«i^«,  Uo  ilt\n>i»vs tho  law  alv 
V\x^at<;Hl,  UvausK^  tho  ol^itvtuxus  atv  ii»-x\U. 

Viv.'  -  '>K\  ,v^(,i<Y  K\>is<>Hs  that  usvwttvxu  K">tlo\v\;xl  wuh  tht? 
tt^K^s  .  .»VY  wUh  tho  iiuv\us  wt'  tho  outVs\^\\i  ttud  ^^uU- 

h^jiss  j>sxM\  IS  tx^MvUv  iutovttutiiiH<xl  with  »  vast  vnrioty  i>t' 
vHtr  UKvst  tu\tNs;^^vy  avtkUv^  sAud  our  du    '    '  uativx*  is 

'./   ■  s  •  •  .'.....   ^y,^  j^^  ^v\moi|v;\to  w  vN,v,-.,,..,,- i,  s.UYvry» 

\  ivtx^Y,  oh^Av^y  tv>  )rv»i!^t^\  t>KMtk  t  wth^tt  thojr  »n% 

A"  >wv»/C'i/«^4'\  N\f;\-K*t?t)kK\  tv>  usd''  tho.m>  as 

a  .-.                           .  '^^  -.   ^^^^  Wv    ^.       _.   .■,;<> 

UWv      '^'»        •,  sA  UlsAU  hiASJWtt  A>  ^Hlt  t\>  5^tarYv\  «r  tid 

W*0  S-Uxx^  U»>NAd      *H>  iSi  -.0  K>  Uak'tXiw'            ■    V;^> 

VV'\    ■   ■■■■■■<■'■'     •■'  ■' ' ' .      -^t. 

Attd  tho  ttiihl^t  o>t\xUn*^v^i  huumutVv  *r  le»  \t5*  !si*vv  co«tv>tt,. 


IKi? 


ON  ■nil,  iMi',  III"  HI, A VI''.  \'it(>t)\\<:p.j 


li'.l 


(he  Ihc'kI  iiikI  IIh>  rottnn  iimst  ho  used,  IhiI  llicy  tniist  ]i(-.  used 
as  «':i:rtp/iiiiis,  (illr.\tiit<>-,\\u\  itnrlininii'..;  ill"'  law.  'V\t('.  niii 
<tl'  Hsi/ii;-  //iciji,  iiiiii.cccss(iri/i/  Mwu'iw^ih*-  same;  hcciiiiB)!  in 
iisiii;,''  llicin  tfnHf'rr.ssf/.ri/'i/,t\\('  in  iii's\n\('ry  is  imtmrvssarih/ 
Niistiiiiu'l.  Davifl.'iinl  In:;  lol|f)\vcrs,i()i;f'llicr  willi  IIk- piinslH 
ill  iIk;  toiiiplf,  wniild  iuiA  r;  .sidiifd  in  doiiiL''  as  tlicy  did  wilJioiil, 
llin ///v,v.'.v.v/7;y  wliicli  n-iidcird  llirm  \>\u\t\t'\cy.H  in  doinv;  sn. 
'rinil  \\i'VA'Hs\\)i  ilhl  ndidcr  llnin  Maiiiclcss,  liiil  llml  iiivcKsUy 
loiichcd  iKit  llic  iiilc'iilv  <>i  dif  law.  Tlic  Sahhalli  icni'Mn 
C'd  (iod.s  da,y  (tl'  rr;,l  an  niiicli  as  cvfi  and  di<;  sIh'W  ImcjkI 
remained,  as  iniicli  as  (iver,  llie  iieciiliar  iKiilion  ul  die 
jiiiesls.  So,  ////'  nrrf's.si/f/  inv  iisiii;,''  slave!  eoiion,  vvliere  llinl, 
llOCOSsily  tfor.s  irtilii/  r./is/,  wlllle,  /'//  sin/i  rr/.vr.v,  ll  IciukrH 
llie  iis(!  oC  slave  e.oilon  hlanuiless,  loiielies  mil  die  inle<(nly 
of  llie  ffeiieral  proliiliilion.  "  INeillier  Ik^  [lartaker  of  oilier 
nii;n's  sins"  iciiiaiiis  a  (JiviiK;  injnnelion,  tr  hiiii  Jnr  our  i(ni,- 
dance,  (is  mncli  .t;  if  no  excofilion  lo  ii  had  tivctr  existed  ; 
find  slill  il  I'einains  u  erime  us  truly  as  livor,  when  wa  mo  a 
ifiir'f  lo  consent  with  him. 

jjiit,  exelamis  my  hrollier,  "  VV*;  say  eon(i<lenlly,  ihat  a 
triaii  nnt'!/  buy  and  use  any  |»ro<liiet  o(  slave  l,d)or,  wliieh  is 
in  ilsjiir  |»r(i|)er  lo  Iw  il.sed,  without  at  all  j)a.iiiei))n,ti(i^r  m  iIk; 
erime  wliieh  alleiided  iIk!  prodiieiioii/' 

l>ilt,  I  asl<,  wlK'i'f!  is  (lull  inixliicl  oT  slave  lahor  whieli  /.v, 
in  itsdf\  proper  lo  he  Il.sed  7  lirotnl,  lei  ns  rernexihcr,  and 
pnifioned  brand  are  two  dilliicnt  iliin;(«  no  anj  SHfrnr  and 
.sld'in;  siffjyir  ;  ro/fon  and  .s/.niw  cnlioii  ;  rirc.  and  slave,  vine, 
Hcd.  IJread,  in  itsell',  is  very  |)ro|)er  to  he  nsed  ,so  aresiii'^'ar, 
cotton  and  rie,(!  hut  hrjs'uj  poisoned,  irtUt  nrsfuric;  and  sii^air, 
cotton  and  liee  poisoned  lei/h  shive.rij;  wilfi  the  jrnili  o(  the 
o|t|»r<'s,sor,  ;i,iid  the  (ears  and  hlood  of  the  ojifires.serl,  nre  (|iiite 
dillereiit  things.  ///  tlieniselvi s  tli(;y  are  alway.**  nmsl  im- 
proper l(»  h(!  nsed  ;  and  nothinir  hut  a  strict  n^'fosHJly,  sijcli 

as    dial    adveiled    lo,  e.'Oi    ever    render    llieil     n  :<•     hIaineh.'SH. 

'I'Ins  limdameiilal  diH'ereiu'e  is,  I  think,  yciKMally  lost  si<.rht 
of  hy  my  hr(;ther  ahohtionisl.s :  they  ihink  and  speak  of 
slave  |)roduC(!  as  7'/' there  were  uu  slavery  in  ii  as  //'slave 
siiLjar  werr!,  snirar  and  slave  rice,  r/w-  and  slave;  cotton, 
r.o/foii.  'They  mifrht  niiieli  hotter  think  and  say,  that  a  fal- 
low e.niidle  was  a  s()ormac(!li  oiar  ;  or  [toisoned  hread,  was 
bread.  It  is  time  lor  them  to  learn  atid  rememhor,  that 
there  is  poison  in  il ;  tlio  poi.ton  of  the  masters'  tyranny  and 


164  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  [JaNUARY, 

Jar  to  that  of  condemniDg  the  dishonesty  of  the  slaveholder, 
and  yet  purchasing  and  consuming  his  nefariously  gotten 
goods.     But  are  the  cases  similar? 

The  miller's  business  is  a  lawful  business.  The  slave^ 
holder's  business,  however  legalized  by  wickedness  for  a 
time,  is  always  eminently  unlawful !  The  miller  works  for 
you  himself,  or  pays  a  fair  equivalent  for  the  work  which 
he  gets  performed  for  you.  The  slaveholder  in  order  to 
supply  yoUj  is  guilty  of  the  most  atrocious  robbery  :  he  gets 
sugar  for  you  at  the  expense  of  bereaving  your  guiltless 
brother  of  all  that  is  most  dear  to  man  !  and  he  does  not  do 
this  incidentally:  hwi  fundamentally,  ^?.  an  inherent  and 
essential  part  of  his  system,  so  that  remaining  a  slaveholder 
he  can  no  more  supply  you,  without  thus  horribly  robbing 
your  brother,  than  he  could  live  witliout  breathing  ;  this 
atrocious  felony  committed  against  his  down-trodden  brother, 
being  as  inseparable  ixom  forced  servitude,  dshxenxh.  is  from 
life.  In  rebuking  the  miller  for  his  dishonesty,  you  obey 
the  divine  commandment.  Lev.  xix.  17.  In  continuing  to 
deal  with  the  miller,  (I  mean  in  any  ordinary  case,  such  as 
I  doubt  not  my  friend  intended,)  you  suit  your  own  lawful 
convenience  :  •'  You  cannot  disentangle  yourself  from  con- 
nexions of  this  kind  without  sfoing  out  of  the  world,"  1  Cor. 
V.  10.  But  were  the  miller  a  thief,  and  you  knew  it !  when- 
ever you  took  your  grist  to  his  mill,  were  he  to  go  out 
amongst  his  neighbors,  and,  with  the  lash  suspended  over 
them,  were  he,  to  your  knoivledge,  to  drive  them  like  beasts 
to  grind  your  grain,  and  then  to  dismiss  them  without  wages, 
merely  giving  them  some  pittance  in  order  to  preserve  their 
strength  for  another  similar  occasion,  could  you  t/ien,  as  a 
kind  and  honest  man,  send  your  grist  to  him,  or  purchase 
his  grist  thus  obtained  by  violence  and  fraud,  or  if  you  did 
do  so,  would  you  not  plainly  be  a  partaker  in  his  sin :  a 
tempter  and  a  sustainer  of  his  iniquity  '/ 

But  to  me  the  most  grievous  part  of  my  brother's  argu- 
ment is,  his  representation  of  abstinence  from  slave  produce, 
as  a  physical  expedient ;  and  when  he  inveighs  against  it 
as  a  physical  expedient  arresting  moral  evil.  What 
does  he  mean  by  a  physical  expedient  in  an  objectionable 
sense  l  Does  he  mean  that  when  I  know  a  tradesman  to 
be  an  idler  or  a  drunkard,  or  a  lawyer  a  villain,  or  a  profes- 
sor of  religion  a  hypocrite  and  a  cheat,  and  therefore  reluse 


1837.]  ON  THE  USE  of  slave  produce..  165 

to  employ  them,  that  I  am  ofiiilty  of  an  objectionable  physi- 
cal expedient?  or  that  regard  for  God's  law  and  for  human 
virtue  and  happiness,  does  not  prohibit  my  giving  them 
countenance  m  their  iniquity  ?  Does  he  mean,  that  when 
I  know  intoxicating  drinks  to  be  the  direct  and  dreadful 
source  of  such  a  vast  accumulation  of  vice  and  misery  as  is 
pouring  over  the  land,  my  refusing  to  buy  or  use  the  liquid 
poison,  is  an  objectonable  physical  expedient?  or  that  holy 
love  does  not  require  me  neither  to  touch,  or  taste,  or  handle 
the  polluting  and  accursed  thing?  Yet  if  he  do  not  mean 
such  things  as  these,  how  can  he  fancy  that  refraining  from 
slave  produce  is  an  objectionable  physical  expedient?  I 
will  not  deal  with  an  idle  and  drunken  mechanic ;  I  will 
not  deal  with  a  treacherous  lawyer  ;  I  will  not  support  a 
religious  professor  who  is  a  hypocrite  and  a  cheat ;  and  my 
brother,  I  suppose,  approves  of  my  prudence  and  my  benev- 
olence. But  do  I  do  a  more  grievous  wrong  to  the  law  of 
God  or  to  human  virtue  and  happiness,  by  countenancing 
a  drunken  mechanic,  or  a  roguish  lawyer,  or  a  professor  of 
religion  who  is  a  hypocrite  and  a  cheat,  than  I  do  by  coun- 
tenancing a  slaveholder?  or,  which  is  the  most  destructive 
character  in  society  :  and  which  does  holy  love  most  loudly 
call  upon  us  to  discountenance,  the  poor,  idle,  drunken  la- 
borer ?  or  the  treacherous  lawyer?  or  the  hypocritical  pro- 
fessor ?  or  the  deliberate  and  imbending  plunderer  under  a 
sj^stem  of  complicated  mischief  framed  by  law,  of  all  that  is 
dear  on  earth  to  his  guiltless  brother  ?  And  if  because  in- 
toxicating liquors  are  pouring  vice  and  misery  over  the  land, 
I  rightfully  and  benevolently  refuse  to  deal  in  them,  with 
their  makers  and  venders,  and  users — why  should  it  be  an 
objectionable  physical  expedient  for  me  to  refuse  to  deal  in 
slave  produce,  with  its  perpetrators  or  venders,  or  users,  be- 
cause it  sustains  a  system  of  vice  and  misery  more  deep  and 
deadly  than  even  that  which  flows  from  intoxicating  drinks  7 
Intoxicating  liquors  are  fhysicaUy  poisonous,  and  therefore 
should  not  be  used;  slave  produce  is  replete  with  moral 
poison,  should  it  be  used  ?  or,  am  I  bound  to  be  more  care- 
ful of  my  body  than  of  my  soul  ?  or,  of  the  virtue  and  safety 
oi  the  freeman^  who,  in  this  coimtrij,  is  always  more  or  less 
able,  if  willing,  to  take  care  of  himself,  than  of  the  guiltless 
and  writhing  slave^  who  is  dumb  ?  whose  soul  is  scathed, 
and  whose  mouth  is  sealed  by  desperate  oppression?  or  is 


166 


ox  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  [JaNUARY, 


drunkenness  a  greater  enemy  to  God  and  man,  than  tyranny? 
Which  are  doing  most  evil  to  this  nation,  drunkards  or 
slave  masters  ?  which  yield  the  most  mighty  and  horrible 
power  1  which  produce  most  mobs  ?  which  practice  most 
lyjiching  7  which  threaten  the  Union  most  ?  which  are  the 
proudest,  the  most  irascible,  imprudent,  factious,  rebellious, 
untameable,  cruel,  impure  and  unjust  ?  Are  they  not  mates, 
alike  immense,  misshapen,  destructive  and  portentous  !  and 
can  we  then  rightfully  and  benevolently  encourage  and  sus- 
tain one,  while  we  are  doing,  and  are  bound  by  duty  to  do, 
all  that  we  can  to  bring  the  other  to  repentance  ?  Can  we 
lawfully  take  from  drunkenness  its  meat  and  drink,  yet  nur- 
ture slavery  with  the  choice  food  on  which  it  revels  and 
destroys?  Take  away  intoxicating  liquors,  and  drunken- 
ness is  gone  !  Take  away  slave  produce,  and  slavery  is 
extirpated  !  Shall  we  call  it  a  righteously  moral  mean's  to 
refrain  from  the  aliment  of  drunkenness,  and  an  objection- 
ably physical  expedient,  to  refrain  from  the  aliment  of  sla- 
very ?  Shall  we  deem  it  love^  to  starve  the  one  and  to  nour- 
ish the  other  ?  Can  we  with  righteous  consistency  come 
over  at  the  cry  of  his  misery  to  tlie  help  of  the  drunkard, 
yet  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  wail  of  the  slave  ? 

"  Ah,"  said  a  young  slave  in  Jamacia,  a  few  years  ago 
within  the  hearing  of  one  my  of  acquaintances,  as  with  his 
fellow  slaves,  he  was  rolling  a  hogshead  of  sugar  to  the 
shore,  "  if  the  people  in  England  knew  how  much  of  our 
blood,  and  how  brutally,  has  been  shed  to  make  the  sugar  in 
this  hogshead,  there  is  not  a  kind  heart  amonsrst  them  that 
would  ever  taste  a  grain  of  it."  A  friend  of  mine  returned 
from  the  same  island  about  three  years  ago.  I  visited  him 
just  before  I  last  left  England.  "  A  short  time  before  I 
started,"  he  said  to  me — "  I  was  conversing  \vtih  a  very  in- 
telligent slave  on  a  sugar  plantation  and  asked  him,  if  it  was 
really  true  that  they  suffered  as  much  as  Avas  reported.  I 
found  it  difficult  to  persuade  him  that  I  was  in  earnest,  but 
when  at  length  satisfied  that  my  question  was  serious,  he 
exclaimed  with  every  gesture  of  surprise  and  pain.  "  They 
masse,  dem  not  know,  dat  kill  me  ?"  In  other  words.  What 
sin  !  don't  every  body  know  that  it  kills  us  ?  Many  years 
have  not  elapsed,  since  the  moral  expedient  of  starving  out 
drunkenness,  by  abstaining  from  the  food  on  which  its  ex- 
istence is  dependant,  appeared  as  chimerical,  as  now  appears 


1837.]  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE,  167 

the  equally  moral  expedient  of  starving  out  slavery  by  ab- 
staining from  tlie  food,  by  which  alone  it  lives.  But  should 
this  last  expedient,  notwitlistanding  its  sound  and  sacred 
Qnorality,  prove  at  last  chimerical,  what  will  be  the  reason  7 
Will  it  be  want  ofpoiver  in  the  consumers  of  slave  produce 
thus  to  extirpate  slavery  ?  Certainly  not,  for  no  proposition  in 
mathematics  is  more  plain  or  more  undeniable,  than  that  they 
have  the  absolute  poioer,  whenever  they  please  to  extirpate 
it.  All  that  is  wanting,  is  the  will,  and  if  the  will  be  want- 
ing, whose  fault  is  it  ?  Is  it  not  the  fault  of  every  individual 
who  does  not  do  his  share,  icithout  waiting  for  any  body  ) 
Is  it  not  yours,  and  yours,  and  mine,  brother,  who 
look  more  to  human  concurrence,  than  to  the  divine  law  1 
Who  vnll  not  do  our  part,  which  we  can  do  whenever  we 
please,  because  we  cannot  get  others  to  do  their  parts  1  But 
if  so  we  live,  and  if  so  we  die,  will  not  our  brothers'  blood  be 
found  in  our  skirts  ? 

My  dear  brother  is  unwilling  that  the  Anti-Slavery  So- 
ciety should  also  become  an  anti-slave  produce  society.  So 
am  I — but  on  grounds  different  from  his.  I  am  unwilling 
on  the  same  grounds,  on  which  I  am  unwilling,  that  the 
Sunday  School  Society,  or  the  Temperance  Society,  &c.  &c., 
should  become  also,  an  Anti-Slavery  Society.  Those  socie- 
ties sin,  I  think  grievously  by  rejecting  Anti-Slavery  facts  and 
Anti-Slavery  principles,  so  much  as  they  do,  from  their  mea- 
sures and  their  publications— in  this  respect,  they  are  guilty 
I  think,  of  a  base  and  criminal  subserviency  to  public  wick^ 
edness.  Noble  and  lovely,  and  beloved  as  they  are,  yet  bet- 
ter in  my  opinion  were  it,  that  they  should,  cease  to  be,  than 
that  they  should  thus  compromise  God's  law  and  their  out- 
raged brother's  cause.  But  yet,  I  would  by  no  means  have 
them  become  anti-slavery  societies.  Their  appropriate 
cause  is  already  marked  out,  and  it  is  a  glorious  one.  They 
have  enough  to  do,  each  in  its  own  department.  No  im- 
portant work  can  be  accomplished  efficiently,  without  a  wise 
division  of  labor.  The  little  pin  is  made  and  afforded  so 
abundantly  and  so  beneficially,  by-  twenty  different  and  dis- 
tinct trades,  working  separately  and  appropriately  at  it.  The 
body  wants  toes  and  feet,  as  well  as  fingers  and  hands  and 
head  and  heart.  So  the  glorious  work  of  love  through 
Christ  flourishes,  by  the  various  associations,  which  conduct 
its  different  parts.     Bible  societies,  must  not  become  Sunday 


108  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  [JANUARY, 

school  societies — nor  Sunday  school  societies,  temperance 
societies— nor  temperance  societies,  anti-slavery  societies  — 
nor  anti-slavery  societies,  anti-slave  produce  societies,  any 
more  than  feet  must  become  fingers,  or  fingers,  brains. — 
Hands  atid  feet  and  eyes  and  ears  are  bound  indeed  to  serve 
one  another  ;  and  so  are  benevolent  societies,  and  they  sin 
when  they  do  not — but  still  they  must  not  be  confounded — - 
each  must  retain  its  own  distinctive  character.  The  Bible 
Society  is  bound  to  sustain  the  Temperance  Society  ;  and  the 
anti-slavery  society,  is  bound  to  urge  and  sustain  abstinence 
from  slave  produce.  But  each  of  these  departments,  in  order 
to  be  cojiducted  beneficially,  needs  a  distinct  and  appropri- 
ate organization — and  they  can  no  more  be  rightfully  con- 
founded together,  than  they  can  rightfully  stand  aloof  from 
one  another,  whatever  be  the  motive,  or  whatever  the  influ- 
ence when  they  do  stand  aloof  from  one  another,  they  are 
recreants  in  that 'particular,  from  the  common  cause.  They 
prefer  their  own  parts  to  the  whole.  They  seek  partial,  not 
universal  righteousness,  they  are  Sectarian,  not  Christian, 

One  other  position  of  my  brother,  I  feel  bound  to  combat. 
He  says,  "  suppose  the  whole  world,"  (one  twentieth  part  of 
it  would  suffice.)  "should  abstain  from  these  products,  and 
"  the  slave  states  should  thereby  be  compelled  formally  to 
"  abolish  slavery.  So  far  as  the  abolition  was  produced  by 
'•these  means,  it  would  rest  on  no  principle  but  necessity,  it 
"  would  be  a  slavish  act.  The  sin  would  be  unrepented  of, 
"  and  the  chance  is,  that  the  reformation  Vv^ould  be  rather 
"  nominal  than  real.  For  there  could  not  be,  in  the  southern 
"  states,  as  in  the  West  Indies,  hosts  of  special  justices,  to 
"  watch  the  unwihing  benefactors,  and  secure  the  rights  of 
"  the  weaker  party." 

But  does  my  dear  brother  mean,  that  the  rescue  of  suf- 
ferers from  suffering,  is  not  desirable,  unless  the  infiictors  of 
suffering  repent  ?  Would  he  leave  his  neighbor's  house  to 
burn,  until  he  could  prevail  upon  the  incendiaries  to  be 
heartily  sorry  ?  Would  he  leave  slaves  perishing,  until 
slaveholders  are  brought  to  repentance  ?  If,  in  traversing 
the  ocean,  he  should  be  cast  away  on  the  shores  of  Morocco, 
and  reduced  to  slavery  there,  woulrl  he  reject  the  rescue, 
and  a  restoration  to  his  native  country,  until  his  Arab  mas- 
ter, could  be  convicted  of  sin  and  brought  to  Christ  ? — 
Would  he  reply,  "  no  !  my  master's  releasing  me  under  these 


1837.]  ON  THE  USE  OP  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  169 

circumstances  would  be  a  slavish  act,  aiid  I  will  remain  a 
slav^e,  until  he  releases  me  holily  I  Or  does  he  forget,  that 
on  the  supposition  which  he  makes,  the  emancipation  would 
be  quite  voluntary  on  the  master's  part,  and  enacted  strictly 
by  himself,  out  of  regard  to  his  own  interests  ;  however  much 
he  might  despair  or  abhor  \k\Q  fanaticism  ^\\\c\\  urged  him 
to  it/  By  my  dear  brother's  supposition,  «// the  consumers 
of  slave  produce  refrain  from  it,  because  it  is  slave  j)roduce, 
not  because  they  do  not  want  sugar  and  molasses  and  cotton 
and  rice,  &c.,  for  they  do  love  these  things,  and  want  them 
greatly — but  because  tliey  love  their  God,  and  their  brother 
more !  because  they  will  deny  themselves  these  desirable 
articles,  racher  than  participate  in  the  slaveholder's  guilt,  or 
aid  in  the  misery  and  degradation  of  the  guiltless  slave  ! — • 
Does  he  not  perceive,  that  as  soon  as  the  slaveholders  were 
satisfied  that  they  could  never  sell  another  pound  of  sugar, 
(fcc,  wrung  by  force  and  fraud  out  of  the  outraged  slave, 
but  that  they  would  be  sure  of  an  abundant  market  for  the 
same  ihrngs  fairly  obtained  by  hired  and  voluntary  labor, 
they  would  be  as  eager  for  immediate  and  thorough  eman- 
cipation, at  home,  under  law,  as  the  abolitionists  now  are, 
and  that  in  this  awakened  and  dominant  sense  of  their  own 
interest,  benevolence  would  have  a  better  security  for 
the  new  liberty  on  these  principles  bestowed,  than  all  the 
special  justices  in  the  world  could  yield  ?  We  have  a  stri- 
king instance  of  this  in  Antigua.  I  know  of  no  ground  what- 
ever for  believing  that  the  former  slaveholders  of  that  island 
have  repented  of  their  sin.  It  was  policy,  not  righteousness, 
interest,  not  benevolence,  which  prompted  them  somewhat 
upwards  of  two  years  ago,  to  the  immediate  and  thorough 
emancipation  of  their  slaves  on  the  spot,  it  was,  in  my  dear 
brother's  sense,  a  slavish  act,  and  I  have  no  doubt,  that  in 
God's  sight  it  was  so.  Yet  it  was  a  perfectly  voluntary 
act,  properly  speaking,  their  own  act,  in  view  of  exactly  the 
same  influences,  as  all  the  world's  abstaining  from  slave  pro- 
duce, would  exercise  universally  upon  slaveholders  ;  and 
the  same  sense  of  interest  which  piompted  them  to  the  act 
has  been  found  ten  thousand  times  more  efficient  than  any 
extraneous  superintendance,  could  possibly  have  been,  in 
securing  the  rights  of  the  weaker  party,  the  fact  is,  that  in 
such  cases,  the  power  which  rules,  is  not  physical,  as  my 
brother  supposes  it,  but  is  moral,  exercising  its  might  not 

22 


170  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  [JANUARY, 

upon  the  body,  Lut  upon  the  mind — not  by  physical  penal- 
ties, but  by  moral  persuasion — not  by  force,  but  by  motives, 
the  person  thus  governed,  yielding  not  by  compulsion,  but 
by  choice,  the  choice  of  good  instead  of  evil,  of  riglit  instead 
of  wrong,  of  liberty  instead  of  slavery,  of  honesty  instead  of 
theft,  of  justice  and  kindness  instead  of  violence  and  fraud, 
of  interest  in  some  measure  wholesome,  instead  of  their 
tyranny  and  pride. 

I  remark  in  conclusion,  that  ti'vili  is  eternally  the  same. 
That  it  is  not  strengthened  by  human  attestation,  nor  en- 
feebled by  human  denial.  Slavery  is  hi^h  treason  against 
Ood  and  against  human  virtue  and  happiness,  whatever 
slaveholders  or  their  apologists  may  think  or  say  ;  and  alike 
whether  tiie  slave  is  kindly  or  cruelly  treated  ;  alike  in  fact, 
though  dilFering  in  amount :  and  it  is  equally,  and  as  obvi- 
ously  true,  that  the  iise  of  slave  produce,  sustains  slavery 
more  directly  and  powerfully  tlian  does  any  other  thing, 
guillUy  if  the  use  be  not  strictly  and  fairly  speaking  necessa- 
ry,  blamelessly,  if  strictly  and  fairly  speaking  it  be  indispen- 
sable. The  Anti-Slavery  Society  and  any  other  society,  my 
dear  and  honored  brother,  the  editor  of  A.  S.  Quarterly,  or 
any  other  person  friend  or  foe,  may  deny  this,  if  they  please,  or 
admitting  it,  may  refuse  to  advocate  the  conduct  which  it 
requires.  But  the  truth  remains  the  same,  unchanged  by 
their  assent  or  denial;  and  by  God"s  unchangeable  truth, 
must  every  man  stand  or  fall.  Every  moment  that  slavery 
continues,  God's  law  is  outraged,  and  the  most  dear  and  sacred 
of  human  rights,  are  trampled  in  tlie  dust.  Every  atom, 
of  slave  produce  which  is  used,  actually  and  directly  sus- 
tains slavery  as  far  as  it  goes,  for  slavery  could  no  more  ex- 
ist without  the  consumption  of  its  products,  than  life  could 
be  preserved  without  food  ;  the  consumption  of  these  pro- 
ducts hein^  criminal  where  unnecessary — blameless  where 
indispensable  ;  and  every  individual  who  uses  slave  pro- 
duce, does  all  that  ho  can  in  that  particular  to  support  sla- 
very. He  is  not  the  ffty  million,  and  what  the  fifty  million 
can  do  therefore,  he  is  not  required  to  do — but  he  is  the  one, 
and  what  07ie  can  do,  is  rcrjuired  of  hm\ !  If  he  unnecessa- 
rily sustain  slavery,  he  is  partaker  in  the  guilt  of  tyrants. 
If  he  do  it  necessarily  the  necessity  pleads  his  excuse.  God 
who  makes  the  law,  sees  and  recognizes  the  exception. 
No  precept  of  scripture  is  more  absolute  than  that  against 


1837.]  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  171 

theft.  Yet  the  thief  is  excused,  when  hinis^er  compels  him. 
"  Men  do  not  despise  a  thief,  if  he  steals  to  satisfy  his  soul 
when  he  is  hungry,''  Prov.  vi.  30.  So  the  abolitionist  who 
resides  where  he  cannot  sustain  life  without  using  slave 
produce,  is  excusable  in  using  slave  produce,  as  far  as  it  is 
really  necessary  lor  liis  life  and  health.  A  compensation 
indeed  may  be  required  of  him.  "  But  if  he  be  foinid,  he 
shall  restore  seven  fold,  he  shall  give  all  the  substance  of  his 
house,"  Prov.  vi.  31.  This  compensation,  the  abolitionist 
richly  pays,  when  being  unable  to  travel,  or  speak,  or  cor- 
respond efhciently  against  slavery,  without  the  use  of  slave 
cotton,  he  buys  and  employs  it,  for  the  extirpation  of  slavery. 
This  is  one  of  the  ways  in  which  God  takes,  "  the  wise"  (the 
worldly  wise)  "in  their  own  craftiness,"  1.  Cor.  iii.  19.  The 
slaveholder  raises  cotton  for  the  support  of  slavery.  The 
abolitionist  buys  the  cotton  and  pulls  slavery  down.  The 
starving  man,  compelled  bi/  hunger  uses  food  rvithout  blame, 
which  would  otherwise  be  unlawful.  The  abolitionist 
compelled  by  an  impulse  mightier  far,  even  by  love,  "thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  seeing  his  guiltless 
brother  in  bondage,  and  realizing  what  he  would  justly 
wish,  were  situations  altered,  uses  for  his  brother^ s  deliver- 
ance, what  he  could  not  use  without  guilt  for  his  ovm  con- 
venience. Just  as  the  Temperance  Society  man  will  not 
hesitate  to  give  alcohol  to  his  neighbor,  if  alcohol  be  really 
necessary  for  his  neighbor's  life  or  health,  but  without  that 
necessity,  would  rather  lose  his  right  hand,  than  put  alcohol 
within  his  neighbors  reach. 

We  may  observe,  that  the  whole  apparent  difficulty  of 
this  solemn  question,  relates  to  cotton.  The  other  articles 
of  slave  labor,  iu  our  market,  sugar,  molasses,  rum,  tobacco, 
rice,  indigo,  &ic.,  are  clearly  unnecessary,  and  therefore  never 
can  be  laiijful,  except  in  strictly  medical  cases.  Besides, 
with  very  little  trouble  perhaps,  and  a  small  additional  ex- 
pense, sugar,  molasses,  and  indigo  produced  by  free  labor 
can  always  be  obtained.  Rum  and  tobacco,  should  never 
be  used  except  as  medicines,  and  rice  can  be  dispensed  with 
till  it  can  be  gotten  undefiled  by  the  pollution  of  tyranny — 
unmoistened  by  the  tears  and  unbedewed  with  the  blood  of 
the  guiltless  and  down  trodden  poor.  Situated  as  we  are, 
and  with  the  whole  world,  excepting  afeivultra  abolitionists 
to  sustain  us,  it  is  very  easy  now  to  make  light  of  these 


172  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCfi.  [JANUARY, 

-eternal  truths.  But  will  it  be  as  ea?7  to  give  a  satisfactory 
ansiver  to  God,  when  He  shall  make  inquisition  for  our  bro- 
thers' blood,  and  require  to  know,  why  we  aided  in  shed- 
ding it  1    Consumers  of  slave  produce,  look  well  to  it. 

My  dear  brother's  principle,  "  of  doing  to  others,  as  we 
would  have  them  do  to  us,  of  remembering  them  that  are  in 
bonds,  as  bound  with  them,"  is  dear  to  my  whole  heart,  but 
with  my  whole  heart,  I  reject  the  preservatioii  of  my  ivfin- 
e7ice,  as  the  rule  of  this  principle.  The  clear  and  thrilling 
claims  of  my  God's  law,  and  of  my  perishing  brother's  rights 
and  blood,  are  my  rule  ;  and  when  the  preservation  of  my 
influence,  comes  up  against  this  rule,  or  as  a  snbstifnte  for 
it,  1  cast  it  from  me,  as  I  should  cast  from  me  a  venemous 
■serpent  that  would  otherwise  sting  me  to  death. 

God  demands  that  every  man  should  do  his  duty,  his  own 
diity,  without  waiting  for  any  body,  and  without  depending 
upon  any  body.  AVhat  ought  to  be  done,  can  be  done. — 
Nothing  but  a  corrupt  icill  prevents  it.  And  amidst  all  the 
ez/Zoo-ia  which  have  crowned  with  praise  the  glorious  spirits 
that  have  adorned  the  world,  all  others  sink  into  insignifi- 
cance compared  with  Mark  xiv.  S,  "  she  hath  done,  what 
she  could."  c.  stuart. 

Whitesboro\  Nov.  lUh,  1835. 


Our  correspondent  afiirms  that  buying  slave  produce  is 
a  violation  of  the  divine  law.  His  chapter  and  verse  for  the 
why  and  v)Jierefore  are  developed  on  the  155th  page,  and 
amount  to  this.  If  no  body  would  buy  the  products,  slave- 
holders would  abandon  their  wicked  system.  Hence,  we 
are  bound  to  abstain  as  a  means  of  bringing  slavery  to  an 
end — as  furnishing  a  grand  and  irresistible  argument  ad 
crnmenam.  Now,  granting  for  the  arguments'  sake,  and 
that  only,  that  it  would  be  irresistible,  if  all  non-slaveholders 
would  unite,  does  it  certainly  follow  that  we  ought  to  pre- 
fer this  means  to  every  other  ?  Slavery  would  cease  as  soon, 
ifiiW  non-slaveholders  would  unite  in  a  purely  moral  rebuke 
of  it — if,  denouncing  it  as  piracy,  they  would  withdraw  from 
it  the  props  of  their  '  compacts'  and  '  compromises'  and 
mealy-mouthed  engagements  to  restore  fugitives.  The  di- 
vine law  surely  binds  me  to  extinguish,  if  I  can,  the  fire 


1837.]  ON  THE  USE  OP  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  173 

that  threatens  to  devour  my  neighbor's  house,  but  it  does  not 
bind  me  to  do  it  by  stopping  off  the  supporter  of  combustion 
with  blankets,  when  I  think  I  can  better  gain  the  end  by 
throwing  on  water. 

But  if  there  is  no  probabihty  of  enough  uniting  in  absti- 
nence sensibly  to  affect  the  market,  or  rather  to  make  slave- 
holding  a  losing  business,  the  argument  ad  crnmenam  is 
with  things  unborn— it  is  less  than  nothing  and  vanity. 

Oar  correspondent  refers  to  the  widow,  who  for  giving 
two  mites  received  the  divine  commendation.  Did  that 
commendation  apply  to  her  object^  or  to  her  tiiotives  7  Now 
the  question  is  not  about  the  motives  of  the  abstinent  from 
slave  produce,  but  about  the  obligation  to  abstain.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  the  Lord  might  have  commended  the 
widow's  act,  while  he  considered  giving  for  the  support  of 
the  temple  of  no  moral  obligation.  He  was  looking,  not  at 
the  support  of  the  temple,  but  at  the  motives  of  the  sup- 
porters. We  are  looking  at  the  overtlirow  of  slavery,  and 
not  at  the  motives  of  any  body.  And  we  apprehend  our 
friend's  argument  goes  legitimately  to  commend  the  m,otives 
of  those  who  abstain  from  its  products,  with  a  sincere  inten- 
tion, however  inethcient  the  means,  to  overthrow  slavery, 
and  to  condemn  the  motives  of  him  who  buys  even  an  ounce 
of  cotton,  consenting  to  the  robbery  by  which  it  was  raised  ; 
but  no  further.  Now,  our  correspondent,  if  we  understand 
him,  holds  that  the  buyer  of  an  ounce  of  cotton  does,  to  a 
certain  fraction,  be  his  motives  what  they  may,  either  igno- 
rantly  or  knowingly  support  slavery.  We  say.  no — not  ne- 
cessarily, any  more  than  we  support  the  odious,  and  dishon- 
est bank  monopolies  whose  notes  we  pass  while  we  are  using 
all  our  power  as  a  free  citizen  to  put  them  down.  He  does 
not  necessarily,  for  our  correspondent  has  failed  to  show  that 
his  abstinence  would  be  either  the  means  or  a  means  of 
abolishing  slavery.  But  does  not  the  buyer  furnish  to  the 
slaveholder  both  the  motive  to  tyrannize  and  the  means  of 
surrounding  himself  with  the  instruments  and  safe-guards 
of  tyranny  'i  Yes,  but  both  tlie  cotton  and  the  money  are 
bona  in  se  and  fit  objects  of  barter,  and  the  buyer  of  the  cot- 
ton is  no  more  responsible  for  the  use  which  the  other  shall 
make  of  the  money,  than  the  buyer  of  the  money  is  respon- 
sible for  the  use  the  other  shall  make  of  the  cotton.  It  may 
be  said  that  the  common  law  holds  the  buyer  of  stolen  goods 


174  ON  THE  USE  OF  SLAVE  PRODUCE.  [JANUARY, 

to  be  pai-ticeps  criminis  to  the  theft.  Granting  that  slave 
products  are  stolen  goods,  which  we  have  not  much  disposi- 
tion to  deny,  the  question  is  not  one  of  legal  technics  but  of 
morality.  The  buyer  is  certainly  particeps  if  his  motive  be 
thievish — if  he  consents  to  the  theft  or  silently  enjoys  its 
profits.  But  let  us  put  a  case  sufficiently  near  the  parallel 
for  the  purpose  of  illustration.  A  man  offers  to  sell  me  wheat 
which  I  know  to  have  been  stolen  from  one  who  keeps  it  for 
sale.  Suppose  there  is  no  law  or  public  sentiment  by  which 
I  can  compel  him  to  restore,  or  bring  him  to  justice,  and 
suppose  my  refusing  to  buy  will  not  in  any  considerable  de- 
gree spoil  his  market.  Here  is  a  case  substantially  like  the 
slaveholder's.  Were  I  to  buy  the  wheat  silently  I  should  be 
a  particeps.  But  I  say  to  the  seller,  You  stole  this  wheat, 
and  were  1  to  take  it  without  paying  a  cent,  I  should  serve 
you  no  worse  than  you  served  the  owner.  But  as  I  know 
the  owner  wants  the  money,  and  I  want  the  wheat,  I  pay  you 
a  fair  price  for  it — go  and  hand  the  money  to  the  owner,  and 
know  that  if  there  is  an  honest  man  above  ground  he  shall 
hear  of  the  transaction.  Am  I  a  particeps  ?  I  spend  more 
to  bring  the  thief  to  justice  than  the  profits  on  the  bargain. 
Am  I  to  be  considered  a  particeps  ?  There  is  a  point  some- 
where at  which  I  stop  being  responsible  for  other  men's 
wickedness.  If  non-intercourse  were  the  appropriate  cure 
of  common  avarice,  overreaching  and  dishonesty,  we  should 
be  bound  to  use  it  with  many  of  our  neighbors,  but  our  cor- 
respondent himself  confesses  that  it  is  not,  and  it  is  difficult 
to  see  how  the  mere  enormity  of  slavery  excepts  it  from  the 
same  rule. 

From  these  considerations  we  think  that  our  correspon- 
dent in  showing  that  the  purchase  or  consumption  of  slave 
produce  is  "  a  transgression  of  the  divine  law,"  has  been  obli- 
ged to  rely  solely  on  his  reason,  and  his  reason  has  failed  him. 
Still,  though  we  differ  from  him  altogether  as  to  the  reason 
for  abstinence,  we  do  not  probably  differ  much  as  to  the 
practice.  He  admits  in  his  exception  of  "  necessity"  as  much 
license  in  the  purchase  and  use  as  our  rule  would  allow. — 
The  difterence  is  this.  We  hold  the  purchase  or  use  of  any 
slave  products  to  be  no  wrong  in  itself,  but  perfectly 
right  unless  it  appears  that  abstinence  would  so  much  bene- 
fit the  slave  as  to  be  required  by  the  divine  ride  of  doing  to 
others  as  we  would  be  done  by.     And  we  do  regard  every 


1837.]  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  175 

sacrifice  of  these  things  which  can  be  made  without  materi- 
ally impairino;  our  usefulness,  of  which  conscience  must 
judge,  to  be  a  duty  we  owe  to  the  slave,  simply  as  a  test'i- 
oiiony  of  our  sympathy  ivith  his  sufferings  and  remem- 
brance of  his  lorongs.  This  rule  will  certainly  exclude 
slave  sugar  and  molasses,  to  say  nothing  of  rum  and  tobacco 
which  outrht  to  be  tabu  as  'inala  in  se.  And  it  will  gfive 
a  decided  preference  for  linen  and  free  labor  cotton  over  fa- 
brics which  are  partly,  though  in  very  small  part,  the  pro- 
ducts of  slave  labor. 

Our  correspondent  thinks  the  purchase  or  use  of  any  pro- 
ducts of  slave  labor  to  be  sin,  except  where  a  "  strict  neces- 
sity'''' requires  the  use.  This  rule,  after  all,  gives  as  much 
plaj?"  to  the  conscience  as  ours.  What  is  a  strict,  actual  ne- 
cessity ?  It  would  seem  from  our  correspondent's  own 
interpretation  that  it  includes  much  more  than  merely  saving 
hfe — some  degree  of  usefulness  and  comfort  must  be  saved. 
And  how  is  conscience  to  decide  the  hoiv  m.uch  any  more 
surely  under  his  rule  than  ours  ?  We  leave  the  candid 
reader  to  judge. 

Slaveholding  is  a  tnalum  in  se,  which  no  circumstances 
or  consequences  can  convert  into  a  bonum.  The  use  of 
some  of  the  products  of  slave  labor  is  a  bonum  in  se,  which 
may  and  often  does  become  a  m,alum,  per  consequentia. 

The  Editor. 


CASTE  IN  THE   UNITED    STATES:   A   REVIEW. 

BY   THE    EDITOR. 

Marie  ou  L'  Esclavage  aux  Etats-Unis,  Tableau  de  moeurs  Americaines  ; 
par  Gustave  de  Beaumokt,  1'  un  des  auteurs  de  I'  ouvrage  intitule  ;  Du  Sys- 
l^.rac  Pfinetentiaire  aux  Etats-Unis.     Bruxelles,  1835. 

[Mahia  or  Slavery  in  the  United  States,  a  Picture  of  American  manners  ; 
by  Gustavus  de  Beaumont,  one  of  the  authors  of  the  work  entitled  :  Of  the  Pen- 
itentiary system  of  ihe  United  States.    2  vols.  12  mo.] 

In  our  country  religious  tyranny  and  toleration  are  equally 
unknown.  All  sects  are  quite  at  home  here.  None  have  a 
monopoly  of  power.     None  live  by  sufferance.     Hence  a 


176  CASTE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES  .     [jANUARY, 


common  feeling  of  patriotism  is  to  be  found  in  all.  Indeed,  we 
may  say,  the  more  singular  and  extravagant  a  man's  creed, 
the  more  does  he  love  the  country  which  protects  him  in  the 
full  enjoyment  of  it.     We  think  it  will  be  found  on  exami- 
nation that  none  are  more  devotedly  attached  to  American 
institutions  than  the  members  of  the  weaker  sects,  or  indeed, 
than  the  insulated  and  unbelieving  dissentients  from  all 
sects.     Now  we  presume  that  any  scholar  who  has  mas- 
tered the  A  B  C  of  American  politics  will  say  that  our  coun- 
try owes  much  of  her  quietness  and  safety  to  her  not  re- 
specting creeds,  to  her  looking  at  what  a  man  does  and  not 
at  what  he  believes,  to  her  not  having  a  favorite  church. 
Here  are  men  whose  doxies  are  at  everlasting  war,  and  yet 
the  men  themselves  live  together  in  tolerable  peace  under 
the  same  orovernment — simply  because,  with  their  doxies 
the  government  has  nothing  to  do.     And  our  scholar  need 
be  little  more  profound  to  ^discover  that  the  whole  charm 
would  be  broken  by  putting  any  one  sect,  however  small, 
under  the  ban  of  the  government,  or  what  would  amount 
to  the  same,  under  the  trampling  feet  of  popular  proscrip- 
tion.    Tlie  moment  the  governing  power  begins  to  measure 
men's  rights  by  their  creeds,  liberty  of  conscience  is  over- 
board with  a  millstone  around  her  neck. 

Here  a  practical  inquiry  meets  us.     How  comes  it  that  a 
government  which  never  cares  for  the  color  of  a  man's 

creed  should  take  him  to  do  for  the  color  of  his coat  7 

Is  it  that  a  man's  religious  belief  has  less  to  do  with  the 
well  being  of  society  than  the  tint  of  his  broadcloth  ?     Lest 
the  o-overning  power  should  excuse  itself  by  saying  that  be- 
lief fs  involuntary,  while  the  color  of  a  coat  may  be  changed 
at  pleasure,  we  will  just  suppose  that  in  spite  of  drapers  and 
tailors  a  man's  vestments,  by  a  sort  of  anti-chameleon  pro- 
perty, are  infallibly  assimilated  to  a  certain  dingy  hue,  which 
is  fated  to  stick  to  him  as  tight  as  the  skin  in  which  he  was 
born.     Where  would  be  the  righteousness  or  the  good  policy 
of  teazing  and  worrying  this  individual  to  dress  in  orthodox 
blue,  when  it  is  out  of  his  power  to  wear  any  thing  but  brown, 
be  his  desires  what  they  may  7     Now  the  folly  and  wicked- 
ness of  such  tyranny,  bating  that  our  supposition  should 
have  been  carried  a  little  deeper,  to  wit, — .^A-m-deep,  is  pre- 
cisely that  of  which  the  governing  power  in  our  republic  is 
deeply  guilty.    It  would  be  thought  downright  injustice  to 


1837.]  -  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  177 


make  a  man  ineligible  to  office  for  want  of  belief  in  the  trinity, 
and  monstrous  bigotry,  to  exclude  one  from  a  table,  or  a 
pew,  or  a  coach,  or  a  steamboat-cabin  for  a  belief  in  transnb- 
stantiation.     Such  crimes  are  unheard  of     Yet  it  is  thought 
no  injustice  nor  bigotry,  but  a  very  just  and  proper  and  poli- 
tic thing  to  proscribe  a  man  for  wearing  the  skin  which  his 
Maker  gave  him.     It  would  be  thought  a  very  barbarous 
thing  for  men  of  learning  and  talent  to  stigmatize  and  con- 
temn all  people  of  slender  intellect,  and  a  very  impoHtic  thing 
for  the  rich  to  make  enemies  of  the  poor,  and  a  very  unpa- 
triotic thing  for  any  body  to  increase  the  temptations  of  the 
vicious  ;  but  so  common,  nay,  universal  a  thing  is  it  to  stig- 
matize and  maltreat  persons  of  a  certain  color,  or  rather  who 
are  not  of  a  certain  color,  that  some  who  in  their  hearts 
abhor  it,  feel  compelled,  as  they  love  their  daily  bread,  to 
do  it ;  and  those  who,  following  their  hearts,  refuse  to  follow 
custom,  are  thought  to  injure,  by  their  ultraism,  the  very 
cause  they  love.     Yes,  let  a  ipJiite  man  invite  a  colored  one 
to  sit  with  him  in  his  pew  or  in  his  parlor,  and  he  can  hardly 
expect  to  be  able  afterwards  either  to  rent  or  purchase  a 
pew  or  a  house  without  being  called  upon  to  pledge  himself 
never  to  repeat  the  act.     If  he  had  declared  open  war  upon 
decency  and  spurned  Irom  his  house  the  very  mother  that 
bore  hini;  the  white  public  would  not  shrink  from  him  with 
more  pious  horror,  than  they  now  profess  to  feel.  Pray,  what 
is  the  matter  ?  we  ask  of  a  generous   and  enlightened  pub- 
lic.     The  reply  is  couched  with  quaking  apprehension, 
in  the  appalling  interrogatory  ;  would  you  have  yovr  daugh- 
ter marry  a  negro  ?     And  the  utter  slavery  to  which  this 
tyrant  prejudice   has  reduced  every  thing  that  is  noble  and 
good  in  the  land,  is  evinced  by  nothing  more  clearly  than  by 
the  pains  taking  of  even   abolitionists  to  show  that  colored 
men  maybe  enfranchised  and  elevated  without  bringing  on 
the  dreaded   consequence.      Not  a  word  to  vindicate  your 
daughter's  sacred  right  to  the  disposal  of  her  own  affections  ! 
Not  a  word  for  the  equally  sacred  right  of  the  colored  brother 
to   win  affection  where   he  can  !     But  a  tacit,  crouching, 
slavish  assent  to  the  terribleness  of  the  bug-bear. 

From  such   slavery,  we  humbly  pray,  good  Lord  de- 
liver us. 

Call  submission  to  it  policy  or  what   you  will,  it  is  too 
much  in  the  line  with  the  driving  of  the  tyrant  we  oppose 

23 


178  CASTE  IN  THE  "UNtTED  STATES.         [JANUARY, 

for  US  to  have  any  complacency  in  it.  We  must  fling  off"  the 
last  fetter  before  we  can  breathe  freely.  We  have  a  mind 
to  let  the  public  know  that  they  may  as  well  attempt  to 
scare  us  from  common  civility  to  the  professors  of  a  different 
creed  by  asking — would  you  have  your  daughter  marry  a 
heretic  ? — as  to  choke  our  friendship  for  the  deserving  col- 
ored man,  by  the  other  question.  If  the  immaculate  advo- 
cates oijmre  Mood  deem  this  a  punishable  heresy,  let  them 
come  upon  us  where  we  sit,  with  tar — apt  emblem  of  their 
own  virtue — and  feathers  of  the  goose,  and  work  their  will, 
but  we  beg  of  them  not  to  commit  any  more  of  those  das- 
tardly assaults  upon  the  innocent  colored  people. 

Being  sure  that  this  caste  of  color,  skulking  among  our 
free  institutions  like  the  devil  in  paradise,  is  the  natural  off"- 
spring  and  prime  minister  of  slavery,  and  lives  nowhere  apart 
from  its  parent  abomination,  we  were  not  at  all  surprised  at 
the  book  which  we  have  placed  at  the  head  of  this  article. 
A  refined  Frenchman,  who  had  never  learned  to  curl  the 
hp  at  his  Maker's  taste  in  tinging  some  of  His  roses  and  vio- 
lets of  a  darker  hue  than  the  rest,  could  hardly  resist  the 
temptation  to  entertain  the  Parisians  with  the  incidents  to 
which  the  courtship  and  marriage  of  a  colored  damsel  by 
a  white  gentleman  would  lead  in  the  United  States.  The 
object  of  M.  de  Beaumont  is  to  paint  the  manners  of  our  peo- 
ple, especially  as  they  stand  related  to  slavery. 

We  will  glance  at  the  tale  on  which  he  has  seen  fit  to 
build  his  remarks,  premising  that  he  was  associated  with  M. 
de  Tocqueville,  as  a  deputation  from  the  French  govern- 
ment to  examine  our  penitentiary  system,  after  despatching 
which  jointly,  in  a  luminous  report,  M.  de  Tocqueville  has 
taken  up  in  scientific  style  our  democratic  institutions,  while 
M.  de  Beaumont  has  served  up  our  manners.  Here  is  the 
story.  A  Frenchman,  disgusted  with  his  country,  where  his 
political  predilections  were  on  the  popular  side,  while  his 
family  connections  were  with  the  aristocracy,  betakes  him- 
self to  America.  From  New-York  he  follows  the  current 
of  emigration  up  the  majestic  Hudson,  traverses  the  grand 
canal  and  the  lakes  till  he  finds  himself  in  Michigan  on  the 
borders  of  the  Saginaw.  On  this  outmost  wave  of  civiliza- 
tion the  traveller  discovers  among  the  rare  indications  of  hu- 
man labor  which  begin  to  disturb  the  primitive  wilderness, 
a  remarkable  structure,  a  cottage,  whose  elegance  of  form  is 


1837.]  CASTE  IN   THE  UNITED.  STATES.  179 

Strongly  contrasted  with  the  rudeness  of  its  materials.  A 
beautilul  lakelet  whose  tlowery  margin  hides  the  light  ca- 
noe, is  spread  before  it,  and  nature  on  either  side  owns  the 
taste  and  skill  of  the  possessor.  But  who  the  possessor  can 
be,  the  nearer  the  stranger  approaches  the  more  does  he 
marvel.  A  solitary  man  is  at  length  discovered, — a  brother 
Frenchman,  who  hospitably  entertains  the  new-comer,  not 
in  the  mysterious  cottage,  but  in  a  simpler  cabin  near  it. — 
This  man  of  the  wilderness  is  named  l^udovic,  and  the  cu- 
riosty  of  the  traveler  elicits  from  him  the  sad  tale  which 
illustrates  American  manners, — a  tale  which  greatly  allays 
his  admiration  for  America  and  sends  him  back  to  the  coun- 
try from  which  he  came,  never  to  quit  it. 

Ludovic's  ambition  had  made  him  the  football  of  fortune 
in  his  own  country  till  he  was  tired  of  life.  America  was 
his  resort.  He  was  received  by  Daniel  Nelson  a  distinguish- 
ed citizen  of  Baltimore,  who  was  under  obligations  for  cer- 
tain favors  received  from  Ludovic's  family.  This  Daniel 
Nelson  was  one  of  the  cool-headed,  sharp-sighted  sons  of 
New  England,  who  had  commenced  making  a  fortune  in 
New  Orleans,  but  for  reasons  disclosed  in  the  sequel  had 
retired  to  spend  his  days  in  quiet  seclusion  in  Baltimore. — 
He  had  a  lofty  national  pride  ;  was  a  hater  of  the  English; 
an  ardent  Presbyterian,  of  which  sect  he  had  become  a 
preacher  ;  a  distinguished  promoter  of  Temperance,  Bible, 
Missionary,  and  Colonization  Societies, — and  though  not  a 
slaveholder  was  a  believer  in  the  invincibility  of  prejudice 
against  the  people  of  color.  His  family  consisted  of  two 
motherless  children, — George  and  Maria  of  the  ages  of 
twenty  and  eighteen,  respectively  as  brave  and  as  beautiful 
as  the  necessities  of  novel-writing  require  her  brother  and 
the  heroine  to  be.  It  is  needless  to  say,  and  to  say  where- 
about, the  tender  passion  was  in  due  time  hatched.  It  grew 
vigorously,  and,  if  we  are  to  credit  the  author,  the  food  it 
fed  on  was  quite  ambrosial.  The  crisis  of  its  full  revelation 
to  the  damsel  revealed  a  inystery  to  the  lover.  Indeed  the 
enigmatical  foretokenings  of  this  had  made  part  of  the  ali- 
ment of  love.  Maria  was  not  only  as  interesting  in  herself 
as  such  a  character  should  be,  but  there  was  something  as 
interesting  as  it  was  unaccountable  in  her  ways.  She  saw 
no  company ;  with  all  the  accomplishments  of  the  world,  she 
was  out  of  the  world.     Her  amusements  were  not  in  the 


180  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.         [JANUARY, 


ball  room  nor  the  theatre,  but  in  the  Alms  House.  With  an- 
gelic innocence  she  shrunk  from  observation  like  a  criminal. 
With  more  social  affections  thau  her  heart  could  hold,  she 
lived  a  recluse.  When  the  Frenchman  told  his  love,  "  a  ray 
of  joy  sparkled  in  her  fine  eye,  but  a  cloud  of  sadness  veiled 
it  the  next  moment."     What  was  the  matter  1 

The  mystery  which  it  cost  the  enamored  Frenchman,  long; 
time  and  pains  and  well  nigh  despair  to  penetrate,  we  will 
despatch  with  a  word.     Maria  was  colored !    Not  chroniati- 
calli/,  reader,  hut  g-enealogically.     Nelson  had  married  in 
New  Orleans  a  young  Creole,  not  less  distinguished  for  her 
beauty  than   for  her  modesty  and  piety,  named  Theresa 
Spencer.     George  and  Maria  were  the  blessing  on  this  union. 
But  among  the  discarded  suitors  of  Theresa's  youth,  was 
Fernando  d'Almanza  whose  disappointment  suffered  his  re- 
veno-e  only  to  sleep.     In  process  of  time  it  awaked  for  mis- 
chiel".     D'Almanza  possessed  a  secret  more  terrible  in  Ame- 
rica than  a  thunderbolt.     He  divulged  and  proved  that 
Theresa's  great-grandmother  was  a  mulatto  !     The  line 
goutte  de  sang  noir  sunk  into  the  family  peace  like  the 
leaden  bullet  of  the  hunter.     The  cclataate  blanchenr,  like 
the  hly,  of  Theresa's  complexion  was  no  charm  against  the 
destroyer.     She  withered  under  the  public  scorn  and  died  of 
a  broken  heart.     Nelson  forsook  New  Orleans  and  found  for 
a  while  a  refuge  for  his  motherless  babes  in  Baltimore.  They 
profited  by  the  ignorance  of  their  new  acquaintances,  and 
only  "  felt  the  trouble  in  their  souls' 

This  revelation  was  far  from  being  a  death-blow  to  the 
passion  of  the  generous  Ludovic.  He  heard  it  from  the  lips 
of  Nelson  himself  in  reply  to  his  request  for  the  hand^  of 
Maria,  and  it  gave  increased  importunity  to  his  suit.  Nel- 
son foresaw  the  perils  of  the  match,  and  with  his  charac- 
teristic prudence  and  firmness  dissuaded  the  applicant. — 
"  When  he  saw  our  emotions  a  little  calmed,  he  said  to  me: — 
«  Enthusiasm  misleads  you,  my  friend  ;  beware  of  yielding 
"to  a  generous  passion.  Alas  !  if  you  look  with  an  unpre- 
«' judiced  eye  at  the  sad  reality,  the  sight  will  be  more  than 
«fyou  can  sustain,  and  you  will  perceive  that  it  is  impossible 
"  for  a  white  to  be  united  to  a  woman  of  color." 

"I  cannot  describe  to  you,"  continues  Ludovic,  "the 
"  trouble  which  these  words  threw  into  my  soul.  What  a 
"  strange  situation !    at  the  mornent  when  Nelson  spoke 


■\ 


i3o*.J  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  181 


"  them,  I  saw  near  me  Maria,  whose  complexion    surpassed 
"  in  whiteness  the  swans  oi"  tlie  great  lakes." 

The  Frenchman  uttered  in  no  measured  terms  his  indig- 
nation against  prejudices  so  much  at  war  with  our  national 
professions,  and  Nelson  entered  into  a  labored  explanation  of 
the  origin  and  nature  of  these  prejudices,  tracing  them  to 
the  fountain-head  of  slavery.  After  having  discussed  the 
treatment  of  the  slaves,  the  dialogue  ot  Nelson  and  Ludovic 
proceeds  as  follows  : — 

"  Ludovic.  But  whence  comes  it  that  you  brand  with 
"  so  much  disgrace,  those  to  whom  you  have  given  liberty  ? 

"  Nelson.  The  black  who  is  no  longer  a  slave  7vas  one, 
"  and,  if  he  was  born  free,  it  is  known  that  his  father  was 
"  not. 

•'  Ludovic.  I  understand  the  reprobation  which  befalls 
"  the  negro  and  the  mulatto  even  after  their  enfranchisement, 
"  for  their  color  refers  incessantly  to  their  servitude ;  but 
"  what  I  do  not  comprehend  is,  that  the  same  brand  should 
"  attach  to  the  people  of  color  who  have  become  ichite,  and 
"  whose  whole  crime  is  to  count  a  black  or  mulatto  among 
"  their  ancestors. 

"  Nelson.  This  rigor  of  pubhc  opinion  is  doubtless  un- 
"  just ;  but  it  appertains  to  the  very  dignity  of  the  American 
"  people.  Placed  before  two  races  different  from  his  own, 
"the  Indians  and  the  Negroes,  the  American  has  mingled 
"  himself  with  neither.  He  has  kept  pure  the  blood  of  his 
"  ftithers.  To  prevent  all  contact  with  those  nations,  he  has 
"  branded  them  in  public  opinion.  The  brand  rests  upon 
"  the  race,  when  the  color  no  longer  exists. 

"Ludovic.  In  the  present  state  of  your  customs  and 
"  your  laws,  you  do  not  recognize  an  hereditary  nobility? 

"  Nelson.  Certainly  not.  Reason  rejects  all  distinction 
"  accorded  to  birth  and  not  to  personal  merit. 

"Ludovic.  If  your  manners  do  not  admit  the  transmis- 
"  sion  of  honors  by  blood,  wherefore  do  they  sanction  the  en- 
"  tail  of  infamy  ?  A  man  is  not  born  noble,  but  he  is  born 
"  infamous !  This  is,  to  speak  the  truth,  an  odious  pre- 
"judice.  But  still,  a  white  could,  if  such  were  his  choice, 
"  marry  a  free  woman  of  color  ? 

"  Nelson.     No  my  friend  you  deceive  yourself. 

"  Ludovic.     What  power  would  prevent  him? 

"  Nelson.  The  law.  It  contains  an  express  prohibition, 
"  and  declares  such  a  marriasre  void. 


182  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  [JaNUARY, 


"  LuDovic.  What  an  odious  law !  Such  a  law  I  shall 
"  brave. 

"  Nelson.  There  is  an  obstacle  graver  than  the  law,  it 
"  is  custom.  You  are  ignorant  of  the  condition  of  colored 
"  females  in  American  society. 

"  Understand  (I  blush  for  "the  shame  of  my  country)  that 
"  in  Louisiana  the  highest  condition  of  free  colored  females 
"  is  that  of  prostitution  to  the  whites. 

"  New  Orleans  is  peopled  in  a  great  part  by  Americans 
"  from  the  North,  who  come  to  enrich  themselves,  and  go 
"  when  their  fortunes  are  made.  It  is  rare  that  these  tran- 
"  sient  inhabitants  marry,  and  here  is  the  obstacle  which  pre- 
"  vents  it. 

"  Every  year  during  the  summer  New  Orleans  is  ravaged 

"by  the  yellow  fever."    At  this  time,  all  to  whom  a  removal 

"  is  possible  quit  the  city,  ascend  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio, 

"  and  seek  in  the  central  or  northern  states,  in  Philadelphia 

"  or  Boston,  a  climate  more  salubrious.     When  the  hot  sea- 

"  son  is  past,  they  return  to  the  south  and  resume   their 

"places  in  the  counting  house.     These   annual  migrations 

"  are  no  trouble  to  a  bachelor,  but  they  would  be  incom- 

"  modious  for  a  whole  family.     The  American  avoids  all 

"embarrassment  by  going  without  a  wife  and  taking  an  ille- 

"gitimate  companion— he  chooses  her  always  among  the  free 

"  women  of  color — he  gives  her  a  sort  of  dowry,  and  the  young 

"  woman  finds  herself  honored  by  a  union  which  connects 

"  her  with  a  white  man  ;  she  knows  she  cannot  be  his  wife— 

"  it  is  much  in  her  eyes  that  she  is  loved  by  him.     She 

"  could,  according  to  our  laws,  have  married  a  mulatto,  but 

"  such  an  alliance  would  not  have  raised  her  from  her  class. 

"  The  mulatto,  besides,  would  have  had  no  power  to  protect 

"  her.    In  becoming  the  wife  of  the  man  of  color,  she  would 

"have  perpetuated  her  degradation';  in  prostituting  herself 

"  to  the  white  she  elevates  herself.     All  the  young  women 

"  of  color  are  educated  in  these  prejudices,  and  from  the  ten- 

"derestage,  their  parents  fashion  them  for  corruption. — 

"  There  is  a  species  of  public  balls  where  only  white  men 

"and  females  of  color  are  admitted  ;  the  husbands  and  bro- 

"  thers  of  the  latter  are  by  no  means  received,  the  mothers 

"  themselves  are  accustomed  to  be  present :  they  are  witnesses 

"  of  the  homage  addressed  to  their  daughters,  they  encour- 

"  age  and  rejoice  in  it.     When  an  American  is  smitten  with 


1837.]  CASTE  IN  THI<:  UNITED  STATES.  183 


"a  girl,  it  is  of  her  mother  that  he  demands  her  ;  she  makes 
"  the  best  bargain  she  can,  and  exacts  a  greater  or  less  price 
"  according  to  the  freshness  of  her  daughter.  All  this  passes 
''  without  mystery ;  these  monstrous  unions  have  not  even 
''the  reserve  of  vice  which  conceals  itself  from  shame  as 
•'  virtue  does  from  modesty  :  they  expose  themselves  openly 
"  to  all  eyes  without  any  infamy  or  blame  attaching  to  +he 
"  men  who  have  formed  them.  When  the  American  of  the 
"  North  has  made  his  fortune,  he  has  attained  his  end.  The 
'•'day  has  come  in  which  he  quits  New  Orleans,  never  to 
"  return.  His  children,  and  she  who  for  ten  years  has  lived 
"  as  his  wife,  are  no  longer  any  thing  to  him.  The  woman 
"of  color  then  sells  herself  to  another.  Such  is  the  lot  of 
"females  of  the  African  race  in  Louisiana." 

This  raking  open  of  the  kennels  of  American  shame  did  not 
reconcile  Ludovic  to  the  prejudice,  nor  inspire  him  with  a 
particle  of  submission.  He  proposed  if  Maria  would  join 
her  lot  to  his,  to  leave  the  land  of  "  odious  prejudices,"  and 
go  to  that  land  of  "  light  and  liberty,"  New  England. — 
"  Alas,"  replied  Nelson,  "  the  prejudices  against  the  people 
"  of  color,  it  is  true,  are  less  powerful  in  Boston  than  in  New 
'■'  Orleans,  but  they  are  no  where  dead."  "  Well,"  I  replied,  "  I 
"  detest  these  prejudices  and  know  how  to  brave  them  :  it  is 
"  infamous  baseness  to  forsake  the  victim  of  undeserved  re- 
"  proach." 

The  young  lady  herself  made  no  concealments.  She  frank- 
ly apprized  the  foreigner  what  he  had  to  expect  and  in  terms 
worthy  to  be  remembered.  "  Do  you  know,"  said  she  to  me^ 
"  how  you  dishonor  yourself  in  speaking  to  me  ?  If  you 
"  were  to  be  seen  with  me  in  a  public  place,  it  would  be  said — 
"  that  man  has  parted  with  decency — he  is  in  company  with 
"  a  colored  woman." 

"  Ah !  Ludovic,  look  at  the  sad  reality  coolly :  to 
"  associate  your  life  with  a  poor  creature  like  me,  is  to  em- 
"  brace  a  condition  worse  than  death. 

"  Never  doubt  it,"  she  added  with  a  voice  of  inspiration, 
"  it  is  God  himself  who  has  separated  the  blacks  from  the 
'■  whites.  This  separation  is  found  every  where  :  i?i  the 
"  hospitals  where  Jiumanity  svffers  ;  in  the  churches  where 
"  it  prays  ;  in  the  priso7is  icJiere  it  repents  ;  in  the  grave- 
"  yard  where  it  sleeps  the  eternal  sleep  f 

"  What,  I  cried,  even  in  the  day  of  death  T 


184  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.         [JANUARY, 

''  Yes,"  she  answered  with  a  serious  and  melancholy  ac- 
cent ;  "  when  I  die,  men  will  remember  that  a  hundred 
'•  years  ago  there  was  a  mulatto  in  my  family,  and  should  my 
"body  be  borne  to  the  burial  ground,  it  will  be  rejected,  for 
<'  fear  its  contact  would  soil  the  bones  of  a  privileged  race. 
"  Alas,  my  friend,  our  mortal  remains  must  not  mingle  on 
"  earth,  is  not  that  a  sign  that  our  souls  will  not  be  united  in 
"  heaven  ?" 

But  we  will  not  dwell  on  the  story.  Nelson  insisted  that 
Ludovic,  before  he  "  braved"  the  monster  prejudice,  should 
fairly  reconnoitre  him— that  he  should  spend  six  months  in 
traversing  the  United  States,  and  observing  the  manners  of 
the  people,  and  especially  the  relations  of  the  whites  to  the 
colored.  The  "  epreuve'^  was  fruitful  of  discoveries. — 
In  the  city  of  New- York,  to  which  he  first  directed  his  steps, 
the  court  of  sessions,  the  prisons,  the  hospitals,  the  schools 
and  the  churches,  furnished  places  and  occasions  in  which 
he  saw  the  most  cruel  insult  heaped  upon  the  blacks. 

From  a  theatre  which  he  visited  in  company  with  George 
Nelson,  the  latter  was  brutally  thrust  out  for  being  a  colored 
man,  and  the  officers  of  the  peace  refused  to  give  any  redress. 
Before  the  third  part  of  his  probation  was  gone  he  had  obtain- 
ed a  sufficiently  deep  insight  into  the  matter  of  prejudice, 
and  the  more  he  saw  of  it,  the  more  he  clung  to  the  unfor- 
tunate. An  unexpected  event  hastened  matters.  The 
sameFenando  d'Almanza  who  had  driven  Nelson  fromNew 
Orleans,  now  routed  him  from  Baltimore,  and  by  the  same 
means.  He  repaired  with  his  daughter  to  New- York.  It 
was  ao-reed  that  the  knot  of  Hymen  should  be  tied,  and  as 
the  bridegroom  and  bride  were  Catholic  and  Presbyterian, — 
it  should  be  doubly  tied  according  to  the  ceremonials  of  each 
church.  At  the  date  of  this  conclusion  an  anti-abolition 
mob  had  broken  out  in  the  city,  and  was  making  havoc  of 
the  humble  dwellings  of  the  colored  people.  This,  however, 
did  not  disconcert  the  contracting  parties  as  they  supposed 
the  secret  of  Maria's  African  blood  safely  concealed  in  her 
veins.  But  the  same  satanic  d'Almanza,  who  it  seems  had 
pointed  out  George  in  the  theatre  as  well  as  routed  the  family 
from  Baltimore  was  preparing  mischief  for  them  here. 
They  repaired  to  the  church  for  the  performance  of  the  nup- 
tials, the  Catholic  priest  commenced  ;  a  rabid  and  blasphe- 
mino-  mob  rushed  upon  them ;  the  priest  dropped  the  ring 


1S37.J  CASTE  IN  TIIK  LMTED    STATES.  185 

and,  re  uifecta,  the  parties  were  obliged  to  fly  for  their  lives. 
Those  who  in  sober  fact  witnessed  the  scenes  of  July,  1834, 
will  appreciate  the  resolution  which  was  now  taken  to  post- 
pone tlie  ceremony  till  it  could  be  performed  in  the  wilds  of 
Michigan,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  urbane  and  courteous 
mobocrats  of  our  exalted  white  race.  Thither  Nelson,  his 
daughter  and  Ludovic  proceeded,  in  company  with  a  tribe 
of  emigrating  Indians  to  which  Nelson  was  to  act  as  mis- 
sionary. At  Detroit  they  separated,  Nelson  proceeding 
up  the  lakes  with  the  Indians,  and  Ludovic  and  a  servant 
tarrying  with  Maria  till  she  should  recruit  from  the  fatigue 
of  the  voyage.  This  she  soon  did.  but  for  the  want  of  a 
vessel  the  party  left  behind  were  obliged  to  proceed  to  their 
destination  on  the  Saginaw  by  land — following  through  the 
forest  an  Indian  trail.  Weary,  they  arrived  there,  but  did 
not  meet  Nelson.  His  vessel  had  not  been  heard  of  They 
were  hospitably  accommodated  in  the  cabin  of  a  hunter,  till 
they  could  build  their  own — that  mysterious  cottage  on  the 
border  of  that  little  flov/er  encircled  lake.  It  was  completed 
only  to  be  the  tomb  of  Maria  !  Her  father  arrived  to  see 
his  daughter  lifeless,  and  to  hear  that  his  son  George, 
who  had  been  left  behind,  had  fallen,  in  endeavoring  to  ex- 
cite an  insurrection  of  the  slaves  in  Carolina.  Such  is  a 
very  bare  outline  of  a  story  which  M.  de  Beaumont  has  filled 
up  for  the  entertainment  and  instruction  of  his  countrymen 
with  vastly  more  fact  and  philosphy  than  fiction. 

Here  it  occurs  to  us  that  some  cunning  colonizationist 
(chromatologist),  catching  us  in  the  talk,  will  ask.  If  Gus- 
tavus  de  Beaumont  honestly  wished  to  illustrate  the  wick- 
edness of  this  prejudice,  for  the  benefit  of  the  world,  why 
did  he  not  show  himself  above  it  by  selecting  a  heroine  of 
the  genuine  black  ?  Why  must  the  Dulcinea  be,  after  all, 
Hke  the  "  swans  of  the  great  lakes,"  if  there  is  not  really  a 
foundation  for  the  prejudice  in  nature^  which  the  French- 
man had  not  the  frankness  to  confess,  nor  the  art  to  conceal  ? 
But  the  ingenious  inquirer  must  not  thus  escape  the  edge  of 
the  author's  argument  both  against  the  absurdity  of  the  pre- 
judice and  the  baseness  of  its  origin.  A  word  for  M.  de  Beau- 
mont, by  and  by.  In  the  mean  time  the  consequences 
which  he  has  attributed  to  the  une  goutte  de  sang  noir — 
•'^the  single  drop  of  African  blood" — are  not  exaggerated. — 
And  they  show,  first,  that  our  prejudices  are  altogether  and 

21 


186  CASTE   IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  [JaNI'ARYj 

in  themselves  inexpressible  absurdities.  We  dislike  certain 
people  because  they  are  black — but  take  away  the  black, 
and  make  every  thing  very  nearly  or  quite  as  it  should  be, 
and,  like  spoiled  children,  we  still  dislike  them,  \ause. — 
Nay,  it  seems  to  be  an  aggravation  that  the  rascally  "  one 
drop,"'  should  be  able  to  course  the  arteries  unbetrayed  but 
by  the  pedigree.  The  consequences  of  "the  one  drop" 
prove,  in  the  second  place,  that  we  of  the  North  are  the 
most  convenient  possible  tools  of  the  slaveholders.  It  is  one 
of  the  perquisites  of  slaveholding,  whicli  the  masters  exceed- 
ingly value,  to  mix  the  blood.  Now,  were  the  mongrel  otf- 
spring  to  approach  the  high  prerogatives  of  the  exalted  white 
race,  pari  passu  with  their  approach  to  the  complexion,  it 
would  operate  completely  to  let  down  the  bars  of  the  slave 
system.  The  captives  would  march  out  of  their  prison 
house  in  a  very  few  generations.  The  slaveholders  under- 
stand the  matter,  and  wisely  resist  beginnings.  They  hide 
themselves  from  their  own  flesh  when  they  see  it  in  mix- 
ture, and  give  it  no  sort  of  countenance.  All  this,  however, 
would  be  in  vain,  but  for  our  own  theory  of  the  "  one  drop." 
Most  opportunely  we  stand  by  and  stop  the  leaks  and  hold 
down  the  cover  for  the  slaveholder,  so  that  the  amount  of 
population  he  has  to  operate  upon  in  the  great  cauldron, 
shall  not,  in  consequence  of  his  mixing  himself  with  it,  leak 
out  or  boil  over  into  the  white  race.  That  we  do  not  over- 
state nor  misapprehend  this  charming  and  useful  theory  we 
quote  it  as  enunciated  by  a  Connecticut  divine.  "  In  every 
"  part  of  the  United  States  there  is  a  broad  and  impassible 
"  line  of  demarcation  between  every  man  who  has  one  drop 
"  of  African  blood  in  his  veins  and  every  other  class  in  the 
"community.  The  habits,  the  feelings,  all  the  prejudices 
"of  society — prejudices  which  neither  refinement,  nor  argu- 
"ment,  nor  education,  nor  religion  itself  can  subdue — mark 
"  the  people  of  color,  whether  bond  or  free,  as  the  subjects  of 
'•  a  degradation  inevitable  and  incurable.  The  African  in 
"this  country  belongs  by  birth  to  the  very  lowest  station  in 
"society;  and  from  that  station  he  can  never  rise,  be  his 
"  talents^  his  enterprise,  his  virtves  what  they  may.  *  * 
"  *  *  *  They  constitute  a  class  by  themselves,  a  class 
"  out  of  whicli  no  individual  can  be  elevated,  and  belouy 
''  which  none  can  be  depressed.''^*     What  turns  "  African 

*  Address  tothe  Conn.  Colonization  Society.  See  Af.  Repository,  Vol.  IV.  p.  113. 


1S37.J  CASTE   IN  THE   I:NITEI)  STATES.  187 

blood"  into  a  poison  so  unconscionably  strong  that  dilution 
will  not  weaken  it, — but  a  single  drop  will  kill  no  matter 
what  "talents,  and  enterprise,  and  virtues,"  as  a  drop  of 
prussic  acid  kills  a  dog?  We  need  not  say,  it  is  slavery. — 
The  necessities  of  slavery  require  that  this  theory  of  the 
non-dilubility  of  the  African  blood  should  be  co-extensive 
with  the  United  States.  The  pious  deprecrants  of  amalga- 
mation are  laboring  to  extend  it,  and  well  they  may  be,  for 
truly,  if  it  be  true,  never  did  theory  do  so  much  for  its  be- 
lievers. It  makes  amalgamation  an  impossibility,  inasmuch 
as  by  it  the  mongrel  is  no  mongrel,  but  a  true  African,  on 
the  otherside  of  a  line  harder  to  pass  than  the  bile-heavino- 
Atlantic.  What  boots  it  to  colonize  when  we  have  such  a 
line — impasssible  and  eternal !     But  we  digress. 

Thirdly,  the  consequences  of  the  '•  one  drop,"  prove  the 
insincerity  of  the  common  zeal  in  behalf  of  our  An- 
glo-Saxon blood — ^for  the  love  of  slavery,  rivers  of  it  are 
given  up  to  the  downright  tyranny  of  the  sanffuoir.  There 
is  already  in  servile  arteries  enough  of  the  "  best  blood"  of 
our  glorious  ancestors  to  float  a  tolerable  navy,  yet  if  it  should 
swell  and  whiten  all  the  millions  in  bondage,  it  would  still 
be  under  the  dominion  of  the  '-one  drop,"  and  slav^ery, 
though  of  whites,  would  still  be  African.  See  here  the  curi- 
ous process  by  which  the  descendants  of  Europeans  by  be- 
ing born  in  America  become  Africans — by  which  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood,  by  flowing  through  the  veins  of  chivalric  slave- 
masters,  becomes  enslaved  ! 

We  undertook  to  say  a  word  for  M.  de  Beaumont,  on  the 
question  whether  he  is  himself  free  from  the  prejudice  which 
he  holds  up  to  scorn.  It  is  common  for  us,  the  enlight- 
ened people  of  the  United  States,  to  feel  that  in  our  prejudices 
all  enlightened  and  refined  people  must  sympathize,  and  we 
can  hardly  believe  thai  in  France  or  England  a  black  face 
and  wooly  hair  are  no  bar  to  a  man's  being  received  in  o-ood 
society.  We  shall  not  enter  upon  the  question  whether  or 
not  prejudice  against  color  is  known  in  Europe.  It  is  ob- 
vious from  the  work  before  us,  not  to  mention  a  cloud  of 
other  witnesses,  that  multitudes  of  not  the  meanest  people 
feel  no  repugnance  to  the  society  of  colored  persons  and  no 
horror  even  of  intermarriages.  So  little  out  of  the  way  did 
M.  de  Beaumont  think  the  latter  enormity,  that  he  gravely 
took  for  granted  the  truth  of  the  stories  set  afloat  by  the 


n 


ISS  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  [JaNL'ARY, 

newspapers  for  the  sake  of  raising  mobs   against  the  aboli- 
tionists— which  charged  them  with  having   united  colored 
and  white  in  holy  wedlock.     Of  the  copious  notes,  in  which 
he  details  matters  of  fact,  one  is  devoted  to  the  New-York  ri- 
ots of  July  1834.  He  thus  speaks  of  the  abolitionists,  "  They 
"  are  called  am al g amists  beca^nse.  by  means  ofintermar- 
"  riao-es,  they  wish  to  effect  the  mixture  of  the  two  races. 
"  They  have  organized  a  society  under  the  title  of  the  Anti- 
"  Slavery  Society,  dec. — This  body^  has  the  energy,  which  is 
"  imparted  by  profound  conviction,  an  honorable  end,  [but 
"  honnete)    and  generous  sympathies,   but  it  is  not  numer- 
"ous."'     Couple  this  with  his  noble  and  enthusiastic  admi- 
ration of  our  really  free  institutions  and  it  can  leave  no  doubt 
that  M.  de  Beaumont  is  perfectly   sincere  in  his  abhorrence 
of  our  prejudice.     It  seems  never  to  have  entered  his  mind 
that  there  was  any  thing  improper  in  marriages  across  the 
cord  of  caste,  the  parties  being  left  to  their  choice.     Indeed 
he  frankly  expresses  his  opinion  that  "  intermarriages  are 
"  certainly  the  better,  if  not  the  only  means  of  a  harmonious 
"  union  oi"  the  black  and  white  races.     They  are  also  the 
"  most  manifest  index  of  equality  ;  for  this  two  fold  reason 
"  the  marriages  of  this  sort  provoke  the  irritability  of  Aineri- 
"  cans  more  than  any  thing  else."     He  then  relates,  giving 
credit  to  the  most  respectable  daily  papers,  stories  of  which 
the  following  is  an  example.     "  About  the  commencement 
"  of  the  year  1834,  a  minister  of  religion,  the  Reverend  Doctor 
"  Beriah  Green,  having  celebrated  at  Utica  the  marriage  of 
"  a  negro  with  a  young  lady  of  white  complexion,  there  was 
"  in  that  city  a  sort  of  popular  insurrection,  in  the  upshot  of 
"  which  the  Reverend  was  hung  in  effigy  over  the  public 
"  street."     The  enemies  of  the  abolitionists  may  now  con- 
sole themselves  that,  admitting  the  truth  of  their  heaviest 
charges,  the  verdict  of  the  world  is  against  them.    The  very- 
acts  which  they  sold  their  consciences  to  fasten  on  the  aboli- 
tionists as  crimes,  by  the  unprejudiced  are  accounted  praise- 
worthy.    And  so  unable  is  our  author  to  perceive  even  the 
indiscretion  in  the  face  of  American  prejudice,  of  such  acts 
as  were  charged  to  the  abolitionists,  that  he  took  the  dis- 
claimer of  any  design  to  encourage  and  promote  intermar- 
riages,  published  by  some  of  the  abolitionists  during  the 
reign  of  the  mob,  as  an  instance  of  yielding  to  the  tyranny 
of  public  sentiment.     After  quoting  the   "Disclaimer,"  he 


1837.]  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  189 


adds,  "All  this  proves  that  in  the  United  States,  there  is, 
"  under  the  rule  of  popular  sovereignty,  a  majority  whose 
"  movements  are  irresistible,  and  which  crushes,  grinds  to 
"  powder,  and  annihilates  every  thing  which  opposes  its 
"  power  and  restrains  its  passions." 

We  will  here  beg  the  reader's  attention  to  the  comments 
of  this  high-minded  and  courteous  foreigner,  on  the  cause 
and  tendency  of  the  mob. 

"  Those  who  were  not  so  severe  against  the  partizans  of 
"  the  blacks,  were,  at  least,  very  indulgent  towards  their  ene- 
"  mies.  The  press  wonderfully  seconded  these  dispositions, 
"  and  furnished  arguments  to  those  who  had  only  passion. 

"  The  true  cause  of  the  hostility  to  the  negroes,  was,  as 
"  I  have  said  before,  the  pride  of  the  whites  wounded  by 
"  the  pretensions  of  equality  set  up  by  the  people  of  color. 
"  Now,  a  feeling  of  pride  does  not  justify  hatred  and  revenge. 
"  The  Americans  would  not  have  had  justice  on  their  side 
"  in  saying,  '  We  have  let  the  negroes  be  beaten  in  our 
"  '  cities,— we  have  suffered  their  private  houses  to  be  torn 
"  '  down,  their  sacred  temples  to  be  profaned  and  demolished, 
"  '  because  they  had  the  audacity  to  wish  to  equal  us.'  This, 
"  which  would  have  been  the  language  of  truth,  would 
"  have  been  a  litUe  too  barefaced. 

"  Observe  how  the  press  relieved  the  Americans  from  this 
"  embarrassment : — 

"  '  The  partisans  of  the  negroes,  who  wish  the  people  of 
"  '  color  to  be  equal  to  the  whites,  demand  the  abolition  of 
"  '  slavery  throughout  the  Union  ; — now  this  is  to  demand  a 
"  '  thing  contrary  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  : 
"  'in  effect,  this  constitution  guaranties  to  the  slave  states 
"  'the  preservation  of  slavery  so  long  as  they  shall  please  to 
"  '  continue  it.  The  North  and  the  South  have  distinct  in- 
"  'terests.  Those  of  the  South  depend  upon  slavery.  If 
"  '  the  North  labors  to  destroy  slavery  in  the  South,  it  does 
"  '  a  thing  hostile  and  contrary  to  the  union  of  the  states. 
"  '  Therefore,  to  be  a  friend  to  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
"  '  negroes,  is  to  be  an  enemy  of  the  Union.' 

"  The  natural  consequence  of  this  reasoning,  is,  that 
"  every  good  man  in  the  United  States,  ought  to  advocate 
"  the  slavery  of  the  blacks,  and  that  the  real  enemies  of  the 
"  country  are  those  who  oppose  it.  The  factious,  who 
"  gave  themselves  up  for  three  days  to  the  commission  of  the 


190  CASTK  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.        [JaNUARY. 


"  most  iniquitous  outrages,  and  the  most  impious,  were,  at 
"  least,  animated  with  a  good  sentiment,  whilst  those  who, 
"  by  their  philanthropy  for  an  unfortunate  race,  had  excited 
"  the  just  indignation  of  the  whites,  were  traitors  to  their 
"  country.     Such  are  the  consequences  of  a  sophism. 

"  Doubtless  the  southern  states  alone  can  abolish  their 
"  own  slavery  ;  but  how  long  since  the  citizens  of  the  North 
"  lost  the  right  of  pointing  out  the  faults  of  a  bad  law  ?  They 
"  have  destroyed  slavery  among  themselves,  shall  they  be 
"  forbidden  to  desire  its  destruction  in  a  neighboring  coun- 
•'  try  ?  They  make  no  law  :  they  express  a  wish  ; — if  this 
"  wish  is  criminal,  what  becomes  of  the  right  of  discussion, 
"  the  liberty  to  think  and  write  '!  Shall  this  rio-ht  cease  be- 
"  cause  it  is  used  to  attack  the  most  monstrous  of  institu- 
"  tions  ?  The  Americans  permit  the  vilest  pamphleteer  to 
"  write  publicly  that  their  president  is  a  scoundrel,  a  swin- 
"  dler,  an  assassin  ;  yet  an  honorable  man,  filled  with  the 
"  deepest  conviction,  shall  not  be  able  to  say  to  his  fellow- 
"  citizens  that  he  is  sorry  to  see  a  whole  race  devoted  to 
"  slavery ;  that  his  nature  revolts  at  seeing  the  child  torn 
"  from  the  bosom  of  its  mother,  the  husband  separated  from 
'•  the  wife,  man  beaten  and  torn  by  man,  and  all  this  in  the 
"  name  of  law  !  Finally,  because  there  are  still  slaves  at 
"  the  South,  must  the  free  negro,  who,  at  the  North,  aspires 
•'  to  the  rights  of  a  free  man,  be  crushed  without  pity  ?" 

But  why  do  loe  meddle  with  the  subject  of  caste?  Our 
object  is  the  abolition  of  slavery.  Were  this  accomplished, 
the  cord  of  caste  would  soon  fall  to  pieces  itself  So 
would  we  let  it  perish,  were  it  not  inseparably  connected  with 
slavery  itself,  so  that  the  latter  cannot  be  successfully  at- 
tacked without  breaking  through  the  former.  It  was  the 
conviction  that  our  attack  upon  slavery  was  honest,  that 
raised  the  cry  of  amalgamation.  It  is  the  verdict  of  com- 
mon sense,  that  if  slavery  be  opposed  on  the  ground  that  a 
man  cannot  righteously  be  made  matter  of  property,  then  a 
man  must  not  any  where  be  treated  as  if  he  were  a  dog. 
It  was  not  the  amalgamation  of  intermarriage,  nor  of  social 
intercourse  that  was  feared,  but  the  amalgamation  of  rights, 
interests,  means  of  acquiring  wealth,  and  respectability,  and 
power.  Grant  the  negro  the  same  rights  as  any  other  citi- 
zen, admit  him  to  the  same  facilities  of  prosecuting  his  for- 
tune, and  the  public  would  not  care  a  rush  about  intermar- 


1S37.]  CASTE   IN  Tilt;  UNITEL)  STATES.  191 

riages.     It  is  the  substantial  equality  they   hate,  not  the 
"  index"  of  it. 

Nor  do  they  hate  the  color,  nor  the  hair,  nor  the  acute- 
ness  of  the  facial  angle,  nor  the  size  of  the  lips,  nor  the  pro- 
trusion of  the  heel,  nor  any  other,  if  there  be  other,  physical 
peculiarity.  We  are  told  the  blacks  may  thank  the  aboli- 
tionists for  all  the  persecution  they  have  suffered  ;  that  be- 
fore the  abolitionists  taught  them  to  aspire  to  equality  with 
the  whites,  they  were  kindly  treated.  So  it  is  the  equality 
which  is  hated — not  the  color.  The  abolitionists  have  not 
made  them  blacker,  but  have  got  them  out  of  their  places. 
And  the  very  places  that  many  of  them  occupy,  show  that 
their  persons  are  not  the  objects  of  disgust.  Why  are  they 
admitted,  as  musicians  and  waiters,  to  the  most  brilliant  and 
tasteful  assemblies,  where  no  expense  is  spared  to  have  every 
thing  that  can  please  and  nothing  to  disgust.  Why  does 
the  wealthy  citizen  place  two  negroes  on  his  splendid  coach, 
one  of  whom  is  to  have  the  honor  of  handing  in  and  out 
his  delicate  wife  and  daughters  ?  Individual  deformities 
may  be  avoided  in  the  selection  in  these  cases  ;  but  the 
race  is  honored, — as  mere  animals,  the  negro  men  and  wo- 
men are  greatly  rejoiced  in. 

The  people  who  indulge  what  is  called  the  prejudice 
against  color,  but  which  is  truly  the  prejudice  of  caste,  may 
be  divided  into  two  classes.  First  come  the  violent  negro- 
haters.  They  not  only  hate  colored  people,  (we  do  not  say 
despise,  for  there  seems  to  be  a  suspicion  about  them  that, 
with  fair  play,  the  colored  man  would  be  their  superior,) 
but  they  are  determined  others  shall  hate  them  too.  They 
would  thrust  their  negro-hatred  down  our  throats.  They 
are  not  only  resolved  that  we  shall  not  bring  negro-equality 
between  the  wind  and  their  nobility,  that  we  shall  not  dis- 
turb their  devotions  in  the  house  of  God  by  seating  negroes 
in  our  pews,  but  we  shall  not  seat  them  in  our  own  parlors. 
They  take  it  upon  them  to  say,  that  we  shall  not  choose 
our  familiar  friends  except  from  the  orthodox  color.  They 
take  upon  themselves  the  care  of  our  tables  and  our  daugh- 
ters, to  see  that  we  conform  to  the  true  Brahniinical  code. 
Kind  souls  ! — they  beg  us  not  to  put  them  to  the  trouble  of 
breaking  the  riot  act,  profaning  churches,  pulling  down 
houses,  and  makingr  the  condition  of  the  "wretched  neofroes" 
worse  than  it  was  before.     These  worthies  are  mightily  dis- 


19iJ  CASTE   IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.        [JANUARY, 


tressed  for  the  peace  and  good  order  of  society.     They  ab- 
hor slavery,  many  of  them,  but  are  so  troubled  with  the 
"  anomalous  condition"  of  the  free  blacks,  that  they  think 
they  would  be  better  off  either  in  slavery  or  in  Liberia,  They 
are  sure  that,  if  the  abolitionists  succeed  in  elevating  the 
colored  people  to  an  equality  with  the  whites,  civil  war  will 
be  the  consequence, — hence  how  justifiable  a  little  rioting- 
and  blood-shed  by  way  of  prevention  !     If  any  inquire  why 
these  valiant  defenders  of  the  white  blood  cannot  bear  that 
abolitionists  should  associate  with  colored  people,  the  reply 
is  easy.     The  abolitionists  have  stood  in  society  upon  an 
equaf  footing  with  themselves,  and  if  they  now  place  them- 
selves upon  an  equality  with  colored  men,  the  whole  world 
are  mathematicians  enough  to  see,  that,  things  which  are 
equal  to  the  same  being  equal  to  one  another,  the  negroes 
are  equal  to  the  negro-haters.     And  what  an  insult   tbis 
would  be  to  their  "  brethren  of  the  South  I"     Negroes  in 
the  condition  of  chattels,  in  one  part  of  the  Union,  and  in 
another,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  equal  to  white  citizens  ! 
The  nominal  freedom  of  brutes,  semi-homines,  turned  into 
real  liberty  and  honorable  regard  !     The  class  of  which  we 
are  speaking,  cannot  bear  to  allow  such  an  insult  to  be  given 
to  the  dignity  of  slaveholders— whether  from  a  natural  sym- 
pathy, or  from  a  desire  to  be  slaveholders  themselves,  we 
will  not  undertake  to  decide. 

These  are  the  men  who  scorn  intermeddling  with  other 
men"s  matters,  interfering  with  other  people's  "domestic" 
affairs,  yet  they  are  pleased  to  dictate  to  their  neighbors  in 
regard  to  their  social  arrangements,  and  especially  to  direct 
them  as  to  the  marriage  of  their  children.  These  are  the 
men  who  have  installed  the  Fear  of  Amalgamation  into 
the  office  of  Pontlfex  morum,  and  wo  to  the  man  or  woman 
who  shall  not  make  pilgrimage  and  kiss  His  Hohness' 
great  toe. 

The  second  class  of  the  prejudiced  seem  to  bear  to  the 
other  somewhat  the  relation  of  dupes  to  deceivers.  They 
would  not  dictate  to  others,  nor  drive  the  colored  people  out 
of  the  country.  They  wish  to  have  them  rise  and  do  well, 
but  they  do  not  like  to  associate  with  them.  They  think 
there  is  after  all  some  foundation  in  nature  for  separate 
tables,  and  corner  pews — an  amicable  sort  of  caste.  It  must 
not  be  supposed  that  they  have  no  substantial  benevolence 


1  ■%■ 

1837.]        CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.         193 


towards  the  colored  people.  Many  of  them  have  not  a  little. 
Their  hearts  overflow  with  kindness  for  all  flesh.  Would 
that  wc  possessed  a  tythe  of  it.  Their  prejudices  are  Lamb- 
like,  after  the  pattern  of  the  author  o(  Elia,  who  says  in  his 
felicitous  way,  "  In  the  negro  countenance  you  will  often 
"  meet  with  strong  traits  of  benignity.  I  have  felt  yearnings 
"of  tenderness  towards  some  of  these  faces — or  rather 
"  masks — that  have  looked  out  kindly  upon  one  in  casual 
"  encounters  in  the  streets  and  highways.  I  love  what 
"  Fuller  beautifully  calls,  these  'images  of  God  cut  in  ebo- 
"  ny.'  But  I  should  not  like  to  associate  with  them,  to  share 
"  my  meals  and  my  good-nights  with  them — hecmise  they 
are  black.''''  We  would  respectfully  inquire  whether  Mr. 
Lamb  settled  his  likes  and  dislikes  by  "  casual  encounters 
in  the  streets  and  highways."  If  he  did,  he  is  a  very  good 
prototype  of  the  class  we  are  describing.  The  established 
customs  of  society  prevent  any  nearer  approaches  than  these 
'•'  casual  encounters,"  and  it  is  very  natural  that  they  should 
not  wish  any  nearer.  A  child  thinks  he  shall  never  like  to 
sit  in  the  lap  of  a  man  with  shaggy  eyebrows,  or  a  long 
nose,  but  a  few  candies  and  trials  change  his  opinion.  Mr. 
Lamb  was  delighted  to  meet  black  people  in  the  street— 
because  he  had  often  met  them  there.  Perhaps  if  he  had 
seen  them  only  in  Africa,  he  would  have  said,  'I  have  had 
'  yearnings  of  tenderness  towards  some  of  those  faces,  but  I 
'  would  not  like  to  meet  them  in  London,  because  they  are 
'  black.''  Perhaps,  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  had  often  met 
their  kind  looks,  connected  with  due  proprieties  of  dress  and 
behavior,  in  social  circles,  he  would  have  admired  their 
very  blackness.  Somebody  says  we  are  a  bundle  of  habits. 
There  are  a  great  many  good  things  that  we  are  quite  averse 
to,  till  we  have  given  them  a  fair  trial.  Now  be  it  remem- 
bered that  we  do  not  wish,  as  has  been  a  thousand  times 
foolishly  and  falsely  said  of  us,  to  force  social  intercourse  with 
colored  people  down  the  throat,  either  of  the  public,  or  of  in- 
dividuals ;  there  is  a  sacredness  oi  free- choice  belonging  to 
every  individual  which  we  neither  dare  nor  wish  to  violate  ; 
but  we  affirm  that  a  white  person  does  injustice  to  the  peo- 
ple of  color,  as  a  class,  by  proclaiming,  that  he  does  not  like 
to  eat  with  them,  till  he  has  made  a  fair  trial.  The  question 
to  bo  decided  is,  whether  a  man  is  necessarily  a  disagrec.-thle 
companion  to  a  white  man,  '-because  he  is  black' --not  be- 

25 


194  CASTE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.       [JanUARY, 

cause  he  is  ill-mannered,  or  slovenly,  or  selfish,  or  vain,  or 
stupid,  or  contentious — but  because  he  is  black ;"— it  is  to  be 
decided  how  far  the  physical  peculiarities  which  God  him- 
self has  stamped  upon  the  colored  man,  form  an  anti-social 
wall  of  partition.  What  right  has  any  man  to  dispose  of 
this  problem,  pregnant  with  human  destiny,  by  his  baseless, 
question-begging  prejudices'?  It  would  certainly  seem  to 
be  the  duty  of  a  philanthropic  white  person,  in  view  of  the 
enormous  evils  of  caste,  to  seek  out  proper  cases,  where,  be- 
sides the  "  African'^  characteristics,  as  few  preventives  as 
possible  shall  stand  in  the  way  of  social  intercourse,  and  see, 
by  a  sufficient  number  of  trials,  whether  individuals  of  the 
two  castes  can  pleasantly  "  share  their  meals  and  their  good 
nights  together."  This,  not  to  broach  the  question  whether 
the  intercourse  between  what  are  called  the  upper  and  lower 
classes  of  society  needs  reform,  would  seem  to  be  the  least 
that  even  patriotism  could  accept  of  any  one  professing  to 
be  her  votary. 

And  suppose  the  trial  to  have  been  fairly  made,  and  to 
have  resulted,  as  when  fair! i/  made  it  always  will,  against 
the  cord  of  caste,  shall  a  man,  out  of  regard  to  custom,  re- 
frain from  intercourse  with  the  colored,  shall  he  abandon 
the  fruits  of  his  discovery?     The  tyrant  custom  has  been 
tried,  and  brought  in  guilty ;  is  he  to  retain  his  throne  ? 
And  will  reasonable  third  parties — mere  lookers-on,  though 
not  uninterested,  object  to  an  intercourse  which  is  not  only 
agreeable  to  the  directly  concerned,  but  wliich  tends  to  heal 
that  wound  of  society  hitherto  considered  immedicable? 
Will  those  who  wish  for  peace  and  harmony,  seek  to  elec- 
trify all  others  with  their  own  repellencies  ?     We  believe 
they  will  not.     We  shall  be  disappointed  if  there  is  not 
found  to  be  a  large  class,  who,  when  they  are  made  to  see 
the  intimate  connection  of  caste  with  slavery,  will  refuse  to 
recognize  the  distinction  on  which  it  is  based.     We  do  not 
think  so  meanly  either  of  the  science,  or  humanity,  or  re- 
ligion of  our  countrymen,  as  to  believe  that  they  will  alicays 
mistake  the  color  of  the  skin  for  the  criterion  of  the  soul,  or 
prove  themseh'es  brutal  by  denying  the  manhood  of  others, 
or  seal  their  own  hypocrisy  by  preaching  against  caste  in 
Hindostan  while  they  cherish  it  at  home.    When  the  mighty 
delusion  which  has  repressed  the  benevolent  tendencies, 
both  native  and  christianized,  of  the- human  heart  is  disp'ill- 


1837.]        CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  195 

ed,  there  will  be  a  reaction.  We  shall  no  longer  fear  to 
show  common  kindness  to  the  man  who  has  fallen  among 
thieves,  lest  we  should  be  taunted  with  being  about  to  adopt 
a  despised  Samaritan  into  our  family  circle ; — we  shall  no 
longer  fear  to  cultivate  friendship  with  the  colored,  lest,  per 
adventure,  it  should  lead  the  willing  parties  somewhat  fur- 
ther !  Far  from  us  be  the  wish,  ///,  the  abstract ^  to  spoil 
any  of  our  fellow-citizens  of  that  choice  store  of  witty,  and 
wise  jests,  and  gestures  whereby  they  seek  to  maintain  that 
honorable  distinction  which  they  owe  to  the  color  of  tlieir 
outer  integuments — let  them  use  their  iokes  while  the  wit  is 
in  them — but  we  look  for  the  day  when  it  will  not  only  be 
less  creditable  to  control  individual  free  agency  by  brute 
force,  but  when  it  will  take  a  great  deal  more  wit  to  do  it 
by  ridicule. 

It  is  no  part  of  our  present  purpose  to  show  that  the 
negro  is  a  man.  He  is  in  truth  admitted  to  be  so,  by  the 
very  laws  which  hold  him  in  bondage — by  the  very  customs 
which  consign  him  to  an  inferior  caste.  Nor  is  it  our  pur- 
pose to  prove  that,  as  a  man,  he  is  naturally  equal  to  the 
white.  No  matter  whether  he  be  equal  or  not.  If  he  be 
equal,  surely  he  ought  not  to  he  made  inferior  : — if  he  be 
naturally  inferior,  there  is  no  need  of  caste  to  keep  him  so. 
The  law,  which  supports  caste  by  reason  of  inequality,  should 
forbid  the  intercourse,  and  especially  the  marriage,  of  une- 
qual individuals.  No  man  should  admit  guests  to  his  table 
till  he  has  had  them  gauged  and  weighed,  both  corporeally 
and  intellectually.  No  man  should  take  a  wife  either  above 
or  below  his  own  degree  on  the  scale  of  humanity.  There 
should  be  public  weigh-masters  in  these  matters.  If  the 
principle  is  good  for  classes,  it  is  good  for  individuals,— we 
mean,  simply,  the  principle  of  other  people's  dictation^ 
whether  in  the  shape  of  law  or  custom. 

Our  limits  will  confine  us  to  a  glance  at  some  of  the  mis- 
chiefs of  caste.  In  the  first  place,  it  injures  our  national 
character.  The  civilized  world  look  upon  our  quarrel 
about  color  with  disinterested  coolness.  On  the  one  side 
they  see  the  rich,  the  honorable,  the  learned  whites,  clam- 
oring against  the  blacks  as  a  poor,  inferior,  ignorant,  de- 
graded, incurably  wretched  race  of  people,  who  would  be 
better  off"  out  of  the  country  than  in  it,  and  without  whom 
the  country  would  be  better  otf.     And  yet  they  see  these 


196  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  [JANUARY, 

boasting  whites  in  terrors,  lest  the  blacks  should  become 
rich,  intelligent,  virtuous,  and  every  way  as  respectable  as 
■themseh^es  ;  shutting  them  out  of  honorable  employments, 
out  of  schools,  out  of  every  avenue  to  preferment;  mobbing 
down  all  their  attempts  to  become  what  they  are  banished 
from  society  for  not  being ;  calumniating  a  whole  class  of 
men,  and  then  laying  out  all  their  brute  force  to  make  their 
calumny  tjiie.  On  the  other  side,  they  see  the  blacks  stri- 
ving to  rise  from  a  condition  to  which  they  have  been  de- 
graded without  their  own  fault ;  asking  only  for  fair  play  ; 
claiming  to  be  judged  of  after  enjoying  equal  advantages. 
Is  it  doubtful  on  which  side  the  sympathies  of  disinterested 
foreigners  will  be  found  ?  They  cannot  fail  to  see  that  the 
treatment,  which  the  colored  people  receive,  is  evidence  of 
unutterable  meanness  on  the  part  of  the  whites.  To  shut 
the  door  on  the  victim  of  misfortune  is  disgraceful  enouffh  ; 
but  to  abuse  him  as  a  beggar,  and  then  kick  him  from  the 
threshold  for  offering  to  earn  his  bread,  is  much  more  so  ; 
yet  it  is  only  a  faint  type  of  the  working  of  our  American 
caste.  Here  is  a  foul  blot  on  American  character,  a  share 
of  which  every  white  American,  who  goes  abroad,  must 
bear  with  him. 

Again, — our  caste  is  a  reproach  to  republicanism.  Let  it 
be  understood,  that,  in  the  model  republic  of  the  world, 
there  is  a  minority,  or  a  sect,  or  a  caste,  which  has  nothing 
to  expect  but  to  be  trampled  upon  without  mercy,  and  who 
will  not  choose  despotism  ?  Let  it  be  understood,  that,  in  a 
republic,  men  may  be  born  to  infamy,  though  not  to  honor ; 
and  what  honorable  man  will  not  prefer  monarchy  with  its 
hereditary  nobility?  Our  prejudice  props  the  tottering 
thrones  of  all  Europe ;  it  rejoices  the  tyrant-hearts  of  the 
nabobs  of  Asia ;  it  strengthens  every  where  those  vampires 
of  the  human  race, 

"  Whose  robber  rights  are  in  their  swords." 

Again, — it  is  a  disgrace  to  our  Protestant  Christianity. 
We  profess  to  reverence  the  Bible  ; — we  appeal  to  it  as  of 
paramount  authority  ;  yet  we  are  condemned  by  it  in  une- 
quivocal terms.  "  My  brethren,"  says  James,  "  have  not 
"  the  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  of  Glory, 
"  with  respect  of  'persons.  For  if  there  come  into  your  as- 
"  sembly  a  man  with  a  gold  ring,  in  goodly  apparel ;  and 


1S37.]  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  197 


"  there  come  in,  also,  ca  poor  man  in  vile  raiment ;  and  ye 
"  have  respect  to  him  that  weareth  the  gay  clothing,  and 
"  say  unto  him.  Sit  thou  here  in  a  good  place  ;  and  say  to 
"  the  poor,  Stand  thou  there,  or  sit  here  under  my  footstool ; 
"  are   ye  not  then  paitial  in  yourselves,  and  are  become 
"judges  of  evil  thoughts?"     In  our  churches,  men  are  cor- 
nered up,  not  for  the  vile  raiment  in  which  they  have 
clothed  themselves,  but  for  the  raiment  in  which  God  has 
clothed  them.     And  though  in  Christ  Jesus,  there  is  to  be 
neither  -  Barbarian  nor  Scythian  ;"  yet  certain  of  our  own 
fellow  citizens  are  bid  sit  by  themselves,  because  they  are 
Africans  !      "  That   which  long  astonished  me,"  says   de 
Beaumont,  "  was  to  find  this  separation  of  whites  and  blacks 
"  in  the  religious  edifices.     Who  would  believe  it  ? — ranks 
"  and  privileges  in  Christian  churches  !      Sometimes  the 
"  blacks  are  confined  in  an  obscure  corner  of  the  temple, 
"  sometimes  wholly  excluded.*     Imagine  what  would  be  the 
"  displeasure  of  a  genteel  assembly,  if  it  were  obliged  to  be 
"  mingled  with  coarse  and  ill  clad  people.     The  meeting 
"  in  the  holy  temple,  is  the  only  amusement  which   the 
"  Sabbath  authorizes.     For  American  society,  the  church  is 
"  promenade,  concert,  ball,  and  theatre  ; — the  ladies  there 
"  display  themselves   elegantly  dressed.      The   Protestant 
"  temple,  is  the  saloon  where  one  prays.     Americans  would 
"  be   distressed  to   meet    there   people  of   low   condition. 
"  Would  it  not  be  grievous,  too,  if  the  hideous  sight  of  a 
"  black  face  should  come  in  to  tarnish  the  lustre  of  a  brilliant 
"  assembly  ?     In  a  congregation  of  fashionable  people,  the 
"  majority  will  necessarily  have  a  mind  to  shut  the  door 
"  against  people  of  color  :  the  majority  willing  so,  nothing 
"  can  hinder  it. 

"  The  Catholic  Churches  are  the  only  ones  which  admit 
"  neither  of  privileges  nor  exclusions :  the  black  population 
"  finds  access  to  them  as  well  as  the  white.  This  tolerance 
"  of  Catholicism,  and  this  rigorous  police  of  the  Protestant 
"  temples,  is  not  accidental,  but  pertains  to  the  very  nature 
"  of  the  two  systems."t 

*  M.  (le  Beaumont,  perhaps,  did  not  understand  that  it  is  the  cornering  which 
op  rates  as  an  exclusion. 

t  If  tlie  work  of  de  Beaumont  hnd  been  of  the  Fiddler  and  Troliope  kind,  it 
would  lone;  ago  have  been  printed  in  our  language  for  the  gratification  of  those 
who  know  how  to  repay  such  travelers,  principal  and  inteiest,  in  their  own  ccin. 
But  our  booksellers  have  no  notion  of  having  their  houses  pulled  down  about  their 
ears,  for  translating  too  much  truth  about  American  prejudice. 


198  CASTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  [JANUARY^ 

If  it  be  true  that  colored  people  are  admitted,  on  equal 
terms,  to  catholic  churches,  we  are  quite  sure,  with  M.  de 
Beaumont,  that  it  must  be  due  to  the  nature  of  the  catholic 
system — an  implicit  submission  to  foreign  authority  in  spi- 
ritual matters — and  not  to  its  better  morality  or  the  greater 
freedom  from  prejudice  of  its  American  devotees.  But 
in  furnishing  to  the  Frenchman  ground  for  this  unfavor- 
able comparison  we  think  the  Protestian,  churches  haA^e  not 
unlikely  done  more  to  confirm  Catholicism  in  Europe,  than 
all  their  "  Protestant  Associations"  will  ever  do  to  check  it 
in  America. 

The  inhumanity  of  the  church  is  the  food  of  infidelity. — ■ 
Slavery  in  the  church  makes  infidels  by  thousands,  caste  in 
the  church  is  still  more  mischievous,  because  more  exten- 
sive. If  Christianity  cannot  be  purified  from  this  corrup- 
tion, her  doom  is  sealed.  Her  etibrts  to  convert  the  world 
will  recoil  to  her  own  destruction. 

Finally,  this  institution  of  caste,  this  disfranchising  of  a 
whole  class  of  our  countrymen,  is  an  immense  waste  ot  the 
resources  of  our  country.  The  people  of  a  country  are  its 
riches.  A  country  in  which  there  are  all  varieties  of  men, 
and  in  which  all  the  departments  of  human  achievement 
are  open  to  all,  is  like  one  in  which  there  are  all  sorts  of 
mines,  and  all  of  them  open.  What  mines  of  incalculable 
wealth  are  there  not  hid  in  the  hardy  constitutions,  the 
patient  industry,  the  light-heartedness,  the  peaceful  disposi- 
tions, the  thirst  for  knowledge,  the  strong  social  affec- 
tions, the  patriotism  and  the  noble  generosity  of  our  colored 
brethren  !  All  this  wealth,  some  of  us,  forsooth,  would  keep 
buried,  or  fling  it  across  the  ocean,  because  we  do  not  like 
the  looks  of  the  ore  ! 

We  deny  that  he  is  the  greatest  hero  who  has  climbed  to 
the  greatest  height.  In  estimating  what  a  man  has  done, 
we  must  take  into  the  account  what  he  liadjto  do  with.  George 
Washington  saved  his  country.  But  he  was  born  to  her 
smiles,  and  dandled  on  the  knees  ot  her  favor.  Toussaint 
Louverture  also  saved  his  country.  He  was  born  a  slave. 
We  avow  that  when  we  look  for  those  examples  of  heroism^ 
of  which  a  nation  does  well  to  be  proud,  we  shall  expect  to 
find  them  most  noble  and  most  abundant  below  the  sum- 
mits of  society— individuals  who  have  not  risen  to  the  top, 
but  have  started  from  the   bottom.     We  shall  find  among 


1837.J  THE    DIVERSITIES    OF    MEN. 


199 


them  the  hero,  who,  with  his  wife  and  children,  started  from 
a  cotton  plantation  in  Georgia,  and  followed,  over  floods  and 
mountains,  the  north  star,i\\\  he  trod  a  soil  which  cannot 
be  trodden  by  slaves,  and  is  now  the  honest  cultivator  of 
that  soil ;  we  shall  find  among  them  the  heroine,  who  has 
ransomed  herself  and  her  children  by  nightly  toil  over  the 
wash-tub,  and  her,  who,  by  tlie  same  honorable  occupation, 
has  ransomed  eleven  of  her  enslaved  brethren  and  sisters  ; 
we  shall  find  among  them  the  noble-hearted  colored  men 
and  women,  who,  when  the  yellow-fever  was  desolating 
Philadelphia,  and  white  people  fled  from  their  own  brothers 
and  sisters,  stood  by  to  wet  the  parched  lip,  to  soothe  the  dy- 
ing agony — to  perform  the  last  sad  offices,  for  the  race  that 
despised  them.  Talk  about  the  misfortune  of  having  such 
a  population  among  us — the  natural  repugnance  which  pre- 
vents us  from  walking  or  sitting  or  eating  with  such  people, 
because  they  have  black  skins — pass  about,  in  mock-benev- 
olence, contribution  boxes  to  freight  them  across  the  ocean  ! 
Oh  !  it  is  the  consummation  of  cruel  insult,  cursed  pride,  base 
ingratitude,  abomanible  sin  and  self-destructive  folly  ! — 
May  our  reputation  stand  before  the  world  in  everlasting 
pillory,  if,  consenting  to  be  the  slave  of  this  insane  custom, 
we  ever  refuse  to  honor  those  to  whom  honor  is  so  justly 
due, — that  portion  of  our  fellow  citizens  falsely  called  Afri- 
cans, 


THE    DIVERSITIES    OF   MEN. 

■  In  examining  the  question — whether  the  known  influence 
of  natural  causes  is  sufficient  to  account  for  the  diversities ^ 
which  characterize  the  inhabitants  of  the  (liferent  conti- 
nents,— it  seems  appropriate  to  inquire  what  causes  act 
with  greatest  energy  in  each,  and  what  analogies  can  be 
foundrshowing  the  tendency  of  any  of  those  causes  to  pro- 
duce the  peculiarities  of  the  people  subjected  to  their  influ- 
ence. 

The  influence  of  heat  over  all  material  substances  is  al- 


200  THE    DIVERSITIES    OF    MEN.  [JaNUARY, 

most  omnipotent  in  chano-ing-  their  magnitude  and  form, 
and  consequently  their  color.  For  the  color  of  a  body  de- 
pends wholly  on  its  power  of  transmitting,  absorbing  or  re- 
flecting the  rays  of  colored  light,  as  they  severally  fall  upon 
its  surtace. 

The  similarity  of  the  vegetable  and  the  animal  kingdoms, 
in  a  number  of  important  particulars,  is  a  subject  of  common 
remark,  and  the  ground  of  innumerable  daily  comparisons. 
Every  observant  person  has  been  struck  with  the  changes 
produced  in  the  growth  and  appearance  of  plants  by  varia- 
tions of  temperature,  or  by  a  change  of  soil.  When  the  ap- 
propriate food  of  the  plant  is  afforded  in  abundance,  it  ac- 
quires a  rapid  growth ;  but  dwarfish  hardy  plants  are 
produced  by  dry  or  sterile  soils.  The  diminutive  oxen  of 
our  Oakland  neighbors,  and  the  little  horses  fed  by  the  In- 
dians with  the  undergrowth  of  the  forest,  are  uncommonly 
hardy.  In  like  manner  tJte  poor  people  of  countries  wliere 
the  law  of  caste  deprives  them  of  the  sympathy  and  assist- 
ance of  the  wealthy,  are  generally  much  inferior,  both  in 
beauty  and  in  size.  The  Soodras  of  Hindostan  are  not  only 
blackened  by  continued  exposure,  but,  owing  to  their  re- 
stricted food  and  frequent  destitution,  dwarfed  ;  while  the 
lordly  Brahmins  sitting  under  the  shade  and  reveling  in 
abundance,  possess  a  commanding  stature  and  comparatively 
fair  complexion.  The  Inrves  of  most  kinds  of  insects,  that 
burrow  in  the  cavities  of  the  earth,  the  roots  of  plants,  and 
the  leaves  and  stalks  of  vegetables  kept  in  a  cellar  or  a 
thickly  shaded  nursery — when  exposed  to  the  direct  influ- 
ence of  the  solar  rays — exchange  their  whiteness  for  a  deep 
tinge  of  black,  brown  or  green.  It  may  here  be  remarked 
that  the  leaves  and  flowers  of  plants  consist  of  two  transpa- 
rent coats,  containing  a  colored  pulp,  which  gives  them  their 
peculiar  hue.  It  has  been  found  that  the  human  skin,  also, 
consists  of  three  layers,  or  coats  :  the  outer  and  inner  skins, 
which  are  colorless,  and  an  intermediate  substance  called 
the  mucous  web,  whose  color  varies  in  different  individuals, 
according  to  their  complexions.  Now  the  color  of  men,  as 
well  as  of  plants,  increases  in  proportion  to  the  thickness  of 
this  mucous,  or  pulpy,  substance,  in-the  same  manner  that 
a  heavy  coat  of  paint  gives  a  hue  to  the  surface  which  it 
covers,  distinguishing  and  well  defined.  The  leaves  of  corn 
planted  in  a  barren  spot,  owe  their  paleness  not  less  to  the 


1837.]  THE    DIVERSITIES    OF    MEN.  201 

thinness  of  the  pulp,  than  to  a  deficiency  in  its  color.  Both 
these  causes  operate  in  the  production  of  the  deep  rich  tints 
of  the  tropical  regions ;  for  there  the  size  and  thickness  of 
the  flowercups,  and  the  leaves  (one  of  the  former  being  large 
enough  for  a  child's  hat,  and  of  the  latter  for  a  good  sized 
tent)  are  equally  astonishing  with  the  richness  of  their  dyes. 
It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  mucous  coat  being  of  pre- 
cisely the  same  color  in  two  individuals,  but  thicker  in  the 
one,  his  complexion  must  have  a  darker  cast  than  that  of  his 
thirmer-skinned  companion.  If  we  find,  then,  people  re- 
markable for  the  thickness  of  their  skin,  even  in  a  cold  cli- 
mate ;  their  complexion,  according  to  our  rule,  will  be  sim- 
ilar to  that  of  people  in  general,  who  live  in  a  much  warmer 
clime. 

Plants,  removed  to  a  climate,  or  soil,  very  different  from 
their  own,  manifest  a  wonderful  power  of  adapting  their 
conformation  and  habits  to  the  circumstances,  which  princi- 
pally affect  them.  Thus  several  of  the  annual  herbs  of  the 
polar  regions,  when  transferred  to  a  temperate  clime,  become 
perrenial  shrubs ;  our  shrubs  become  in  the  torrid  zone, 
stately  trees.  The  quincetree,  in  the  south  of  France 
where  it  is  cultivated,  is  an  evergreen.  The  tendency  ot 
the  largest  kinds  of  corn  to  depreciate,  and  of  the  smallest 
to  improve  in  size  and  fruitfulness  in  this  climate,  is  another 
example  of  this  adapting  power  ;  and  will  appear  especially 
striking,  when  we  consider  that  all  the  varieties  of  this 
platit,  from  the  luxuriant  gourdseed  of  the  South  to  the 
pigmy  species  of  Nantucket,  are  from  the  same  original 
stock.  Some  trees,  covered  in  their  wild  state  with  thorns, 
when  cultivated,  cast  off"  this  formidable  armor  of  defence, 
and  present  only  smooth  and  verdant  branches.  All  the 
different  kinds  of  the  ajrple,  also,  are  derived  from  the  same 
original,  and  owe  their  peculiarities,  principally,  to  their  va- 
rious climates,  soils,  situations,  and  to  the  degrees  of  culture 
they  have  received.  "  The  ranunculus,  in  its  native  soil  is 
yellow  ;  when  transplanted,  it  acquires  various  colors. — 
Tulips,  auricolas,  and  dianthuses,  of  the  same  species,  dif- 
fer greatly  from  one  another  in  color.  The  smell,  taste,  color, 
and  size,  of  pears,  plumbs,  and  other  fruits,  are  changed  by 
a  difference  of  seasons."  As  the  year  changes  its  seasons, 
beasts,  birds,  and  insects,  change  their  covering,  and  to  some 
extent,  their  form  and  habits.     The  mirth  and  activity  of 

26 


202  THE    DIVERSITIES    OF    MEN.  [JaNUAKV, 

spring  laying  aside  the  cumbrous  garments  and  haggard 
poverty  of  winter  for  the  beauty  and  abundance  of  summer, 
cannot  fail  to  suggest  to  every  mind  many  a  subject  of  as- 
tonishment and  gratitude  for  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of 
the  Creator,  who,  with  their  varying  circumstances  varies 
the  wants  and  habits  of  the  animal  creation.  "  As  we  ap- 
proach ihejjoles,  we  find  every  thing  progressively  whiten  ; 
bears,  foxes,  hares,  falcons,  crows,  and  blackbirds,  all  assume 
the  same  common  livery."  The  air  in  those  icy  regions,  is 
always  of  a  low  temperature,  and  consequently,  it  must  be 
of  the  highest  importance  to  the  preservation  of  animal  life 
that  the  heat  of  the  body  should  not  be  transmitted  ;  ac- 
cordingly a  white  covering,  the  best  of  all  colors  for  retain- 
ing heat— is  found  universally  prevalent.  In  the  warm 
and  tropical  regions,  on  the  contrary,  deep  hues  and  often 
black,  form  the  prevalent  color  of  all  animated  tribes.  In 
the  tropics,  the  external  heat,  though  rarely  raised  to  the 
temperature  of  the  body,  is  still  so  great  as  to  impel  the 
system  to  excessiv^e  action,  and  in  this  way,  would  destroy  life 
by  the  ragings  of  fever,  unless  the  color  were  such  as  to  allow 
of  the  transmission  of  heat  from  the  body  with  the  umost 
freedom. 

Let  us  now  consider  briefly,  whether  the  diversities  of  the 
human  race  are  greater  than  clime  and  manner  of  life  have 
made  in  single  species  of  the  brutes.  "  Quadrnpeds,  of  the 
same  family,  in  the  state  of  nature,  are  generally  of  one 
color,  but  they  become  of  various  colors  by  domestication 
and  rich  pastures.  Wild  cattle,  are  brown,  tame  cattle  are 
of  many  colors.  Horses,  deers,  and  goats,  brought  into  a 
state  of  servitude,  or  handled  and  fed  by  men,  change  their 
color.  The  horse  of  Arabia  is  strong  and  beautiful,  with 
short  hair  and  a  smooth  skin — in  Russia,  he  is  clumsy,  and 
is  clothed  in  winter,  with  a  shaggy,  frizzled  coat— in  China^ 
he  is  weak  and  spiritless.  The  cow  among  the  Eluth  Tar- 
tars, is  seven  or  eight  feet  high — in  Cuba  she  has  large  horns, 
in  Iceland,  no  horns.  The  immediate  descendants  of  excel- 
lent wool-bearing  sheep,  have  been  known  to  alter  in  form, 
and  become  hairy  as  goats  by  removal  from  a  temperate 
to  a  hot  climate.  Birds,  of  the  same  species,  in  their  wild 
state,  are  all  of  the  same  color  ;  they  acquire  different  colors 
by  domestication  and  a  change  of  food.  Pigeons,  in  the 
state  of  nature,  are  alike  ;  but  domestic  pigeons  are  of  many 


T83T.]  THE    DIVERSITIES    OF    MEN.  203 


colors.  The  turkey  in  America,  its  native  country,  is  a 
dark  colored  bird,  almost  black  ;  and  the  whole  family  are 
of  one  color.  By  domestication,  many  of  them  have  become 
speckled  and  some  white."  The  English,  by  separating 
into  herds  by  themselves,  the  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  and 
swine,  excelling  in  some  particular;  and  by  carefully  re- 
moving, for  successive  generations,  all  the  young  of  only 
ordinary  quality,  have  succeeded  in  forming  several  distinct 
breeds  of  each  kind  of  animals,  distinguished  for  their  pecu- 
liar excellencies — some  for  size,  some  for  speed,  some  for 
beauty.  The  svjine,  which,  in  all  its  varieties,  is  known  to 
have  sprung  from  the  wild  boar,  not  being  indigenous  to 
America,  we  are  enabled  to  trace  their  changes  with  perfect 
certainty  ;  thus  the  swine  imported  from  Europe  into  Cuba 
by  the  Spaniards  have  become  a  race  of  monsters,  double  the 
height  and  magnitude  of  the  stock  from  which  they  were 
bred  and  with  solid  hoofs,  not  less  then  12  or  14  inches  in 
circumference.  In  several  instances,  swine  have  been  reared 
of  the  enormous  weight  of  12  or  1500  pounds,  equal  to  a 
yoke  of  good  sized  oxen.  "The  fineness  and  coarseness  of 
the  woof  or  hair,  the  firmness  and  flavor  of  the  flesh,  and  in 
some  degree  the  color  of  the  skin  and  extent  of  the  stature, 
are  all  influenced  by  the  nature  of  the  diet.''''  Thus  swine 
and  other  animals,  fed  on  madder  root,  are  found  to  have 
their  bones  tinged  with  red.  In  Piedmont,  the  swine  are 
black ;  in  Batavia,  reddish  brown ;  in  Normandy,  white. 
Among  the  white  swine  of  Normandy,  the  bristles  on  the 
body  are  longer  and  softer  than  among  other  swine ;  and 
even  those  on  the  back  are  flaccid,  and  cannot  be  used  by 
the  brush-makers.  In  like  manner,  fair  hair  is  soft ;  in 
the  Albinos,  or  chalk-white  persons,  being  a  perfect  down  ; 
black  hair  is  coarser  and  often  crisped.  Keeping  in  mind 
that  the  countenance  is  darkened  hy  whatever  has  a  ten- 
dency to  render  the  skin  coarse  and  thick  :  as  frequent  ex- 
posure to  a  changeful  atmosphere,  strong  and  greasy  food, 
as  well  as  stimulating  drinks  and  heat  of  climate,  (to  say 
nothing  of  the  coloring  matter  applied  to  the  external  sur- 
face in  the  form  of  dust  and  smoke,)  we  will  take  a  cursory 
view  of  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

"  In  the  different  climates  of  Africa,  Asia,  and  Europe, 
there  are  men  of  all  the  different  shades,  or  colors,  from 
white  to  black,  there  are  hardly  any  two  nations  perfectly 


204  THE  DIVERSITIES  OF  MEN.  [JANUARY, 

alike ; — short,  middle-sized,  and  tall ;  white,  brown,  tawny, 
red,  olive,  copper-colored,  swarthy,  and  black  ; — -features, 
very  coarse,  or  very  fine  : — hair,   brown,  fair,   red,  and 
black,  long,  curled,  frizzled,  or  woolly  ;  we  find  innumera- 
ble combinations  of  these  different  shapes  and  colors,  ac- 
cording to  the  difierent  degrees  of  latitude,  temperature,  or 
civilization.      Hoio   many  races   shall  ice  count  )      The 
number  five  has  been  taken ;  but  fifty  might  be  taken  for 
the  same  reason.     Among  the  blaclvs,  there  are  coarse  and 
delicate  features  ;  strong  and  slender  forms  ;  deep  black, 
and  innumerable  varieties  of  lighter  shades,  until  they  be- 
come swarthy ;  from   flat  noses   and   thick  lips   to   high 
noses  and  thin  lips  ;  from  short  frizzled  wool  to  long  straight 
hair.     Among  the  nations,  who  are  called  fair  or  white, 
there  are  so  many  shapes  and  shades,  that  no  two  men 
could  be  expected  to  agree  in  fixing  where  the  white  ends, 
and  where  the  tawny,  the  red,  the  brown,  or  the  olive  be- 
gins."    The  thick-skinned  Esquimaux  Indians,  far-famed 
for  filthy  habits  and  smoking  huts,  ''are  of  a  yellowish 
gray  color.     Their  blood  is  dark,  dense,  warm,  and  oily  ; 
their  hands  and  feet  are  as  clammy  as  bacon  ;  and  the  efflu- 
via from  their  bodies  is  extremely  offensive."     The  Mogul 
Tartars  are  another  example  of  the  disgusting  effects  of  bar- 
barian habits.     While  the  "Moguls,  who  invaded  India, 
and  settled  in  Hindostan,  have  acquired  the  darker  com- 
plexion, the  figure  and  features,  of  the  people  they  sup- 
planted ;"  and  the  Portuguese  colony,  settled  at  Mitomba, 
have  become  perfect  negroes  ;  the  Falatahs,  or  Foulahs, 
who  have  sojourned  with  their  flocks  for  successive  gene- 
rations, among  the  gross  features  and  thick  skins  of  the 
naked  aborigines  of  Guinea,  by  their  mode  of  life,  and  pe- 
culiar neatness  of  dress,  and  cleanliness  of  person,  have 
preserved  their  general  elegance  of  form  and  the  delicacy 
of  their  features.     Owing  to  these  circumstances,  the  hair 
of  the  Foulahs  is  fine,  and  the  skin  thin  ;  consequently 
their  color  is  only  of  a  brown,  or  tawny,  caste.     America, 
although  it  stretches  from  the  extreme  North  beyond  the 
fiftieth  degree  South  of  the  Equator,  cannot  strictly  be  said 
to  possess  any  torrid  region.     "  The  immense  extent  of 
ocean  by  which  its  shores  are  bounded,  its  lofty  mountains, 
running  continuously  from  one  extremity  of  the  continent  to 
the  other,  with  their  tops  covered  with  perpetual  snow," 


1837.]  THE  DIVERSITIES  OF  MEN.  205 

and  its  dense  forests,  "  cool  the  scorching  breezes  of  the  tor- 
rid zone,  and  convert  it  into  a  temperate  clime."     Of  the 
inhabitants  of  its  frozen  regio7i,  mention  has  been  already- 
made.     All  the  other  parts  of  this  vast  continent,  have  a 
moderate  temperature,  compared  with  that  of  Guinea  ;  con- 
sequently the  curly  hair  and  black  skin  of  the  negro,  are 
not  to  be  expected  among  the  aboriginal  Americans.     We 
find,  however,  different  shades  of  complexion  according  to 
the  actual  variations  of  heat.     "  The  Araucans  of  Chili," 
says  Molina,  "  are  white  and  red,  with  blue  eyes,  fair  hair, 
and  regular  features,  like  Europeans  in  the  middle  of  the 
northern  temperate  zone."     "  In  Europe,  the  complexion 
grows  darker  as  the  climate  becomes  warmer.     The  com- 
plexion of  the  French  is  darker  than  that  of  the  Germans, 
while  the  nations  of  the  South  of  Germany  and  France  are 
darker  than  those  of  the  North."     In  Asia,  the. same  change 
is  observable  ;  the  people  of  the  temperate  clime  of  Asia 
Minor  having  a  fair  complexion,  while  the  inhabitants  of 
the  South  of  Persia  are  remarkably  sallow,  and  those  of 
Hindostan,  nearly  black.     "  The  Jews,   though   scattered 
over  the  face  of  the  earth,  have,  in  general,  remained  a  dis- 
tinct and  separate  race  ;  yet  they  are  found  fair  in  Britain, 
brown  in  Spain  and  Portugal,  copper-colored  in  Arabia  and 
Egypt,  and  almost  wholly  black  at  Cochin,"  on  the  Malabar 
coast  of  Hindostan.     It  should  be  further  remarked,  that 
the  Jews,  by  the  force  of  climate  alone,  approximate  in  fea- 
tures, as  well  as  complexion,  to  the  original  inhabitants  of 
the  several  countries  in  which  they  reside.     As  the  surface 
of  the  ocean,  and  of  other  large  bodies  of  water,  can  never 
freeze,  until  the  whole  mass  of  water  becomes  intensely 
cold,  and  as  the  perpetual  agitation  of  the  waves  in  sum- 
mer mixes  the  cold  waters  of  the  deep  with  the  heated  sur- 
face, the  wind  passing  over  it  acquires  a  moderate  tempera- 
ture.    On  this  account,  small  islands  and  countries  abound- 
ing with  seas  and  lakes,  are  noted  for  the  mildness  of  their 
climate.     Hence,  the  superior  fairness  of  the  complexion  of 
the  Greeks  to  that  of  other  nations  in  the  same  latitude. 
Abyssinia,  both  on  account  of  its  elevated  j)osition  and  the 
abundance  of  water,  though  in  the  same  latitude  with  the 
burning  region  of  Guinea,  enjoys  a  milder  climate,  and  its 
inhabitants  are   lighter  colored  by  several  shades.     The 
southern  extremity  of  Hindostan,  also,  being  fanned  by  the 


205  THE  DIVERSITIES  OF  MEN.  [JANUARY, 


breezes  of  the  ocean,  both  from  the  Eastland  West,  is  cooler 
by  far  than  countries  of  the  same  latitude,  in  the  central  and 
western  parts  of  Africa  and  in  New  Holland.  Indeed  the 
color  of  the  New  Hollanders  is  scarcely  distinguishable  from 
that  of  the  blacks  of  Africa.  The  vast  extern  and  compact 
form  of  this  region,  its  excessive  drouth,  and  the  savage 
manners  of  its  inhabitants,  sufficiently  account  for  the 
blackness  of  their  complexion.  Wherever  a  colony  of  peo- 
ple have  settled  among  others  of  a  very  different  complex- 
ion, although  they  have  been  a  great  length  of  time  in  ac- 
quiring the  characteristic  appearance  of  the  natives,  yet,  in 
all  cases,  where  the  native  customs  have  been  adopted,  the 
features  and  complexion  have  gradually  assimilated  them- 
selves  till  no  trace  of  distinction  remained.  "  The  descend- 
ants of  French  and  English  families,  who  have  lived  two 
or  three  generations  in'the  West  Indies,  are  tending  fast 
towards  the  complexion  of  the  original  inhabitants  ;  indeed 
the  finest  skin,  by  a  few  months  residence  in  the  West  In- 
dies, and  frequent  exposure  to  the  sun  and  wind,  becomes 
almost  brown.-'  It  is  on  all  hands  admitted  tliat  the  people 
of  these  United  States,  "  descended,  as  they  are,  from  many 
different  European  nations,  have  acquired  a  uniform  cast  of 
features,"  the  complexion  being  considerably  darker,  and  the 
form  more  slender,  than  of  tlie  original  colonists.  "  The 
African,  with  a  flat  nose,  thick  lips,^arched  shins,  and  large 
hips,  in  a  few  generations  after  he  is  removed  to  a  better 
climate,  and  has  been  accustomed  to  sit,  and  dress,  and 
feed,  like  civilized  people,  is  greatly  improved  in  formP 
It  is  even  maintained  by  Dr.^Smith,  of  New  Jersey,  that 
the  negroes  in  this  country,  not  amalgamated  with  the 
whites,' ^re  gradually  losing  the  curled  hair  and  black  com- 
plexion of  their  African  progenitors.  The  fact  that  a  colo- 
ny of  gipsies,  who  settled  in  one  of  our  southwestern  states 
a  number  of  years  since,  have  so  completely  lost  their  dis- 
tinctive traits,  as  to  be  entirely  similar  to  the  other  inhabi- 
tants,— the  analogy  of  the  vegetable  world,  and  the  well-at- 
tested change  of  the  color  of  every  kind  of  animals  into 
white  in  the  polar  regions,  render  it  highly  probable  that 
his  statement  is  correct.  We  have,  indeed,  testimony  as 
full  and  positive  on  this  point  as  need  be  desired.  We  learn 
from  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  Siculus,  that  the  Egyptians 
m  their  day  were  woolly  headed  and  black,  and  were  sup- 


1837.]  THE  DIVERSITIES  OF  MEN.  207 

posed  to  be  a  colony  from  Ethiopia.  Historians,  writing" 
some  hundred  years  after,  have  described  them  as  some- 
what less  black  than  formerly.  At  the  present  day,  the 
Copts,  who  are  accounted  the  descendants  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  are  a  brown  race.  It  seems  certain,  therefore, 
especially  since  the  discovery  of  statues  of  the  negro  caste 
in  Egypt,  and  the  investigations  of  Professor  Blumenbach, 
who  has  found  Egyptian  mummies  to  possess  the  features 
characteristic  of  the  negro, — that,  in  the  process  of  time, 
the  descendants  of  negroes  have  acquired  the  very  same 
complexion,  tvhich  the  descendarits  of  Eurojieayis  have  ac- 
quired by  residing  for  successive  generations  in  the  same 
climate. 

Seeing  that  it  is  sometimes  alleged,  in  disproof  of  the 
oneness  of  the  human  family,  that  some  of  its  tribes  have 
scarce  a  perceptible  advance  of  the  brutes  in  intellect,  1  sub- 
join a  little  touching  the  evidence  on  which  that  allegation 
is  based.  Spanish  travelers  of  high  repute,  describing  the 
Indians  of  this  country,  say  that  "  stupidity,  gluttony,  cow- 
ardice, and  effeminacy,  characterize  them.  Abstraction,  or 
a  chain  of  reasoning,  is  far  beyond  their  power.  Even  the 
negroes  from  all  the  dijferent  provinces  of  Africa,  learn 
more  readily,  and  comprehend  subjects  above  the  capacity 
of  the  Americans."  Cicero  pronounced  the  savage  Britons 
blockheads,  fit  only  for  slavery.  The  Greeks  called  all  men 
barbarians  but  themselves.  Only  sixty  years  since,  Eng- 
lish officers,  who  had  served  in  America,  said  in  parliament 
concerning  our  grandfathers,  "  the  Americans  are,  by  na- 
ture, cowards,  and  so  effeminate,  that  they  are  disabled  from 
gohig  through  the  service  of  a  campaign.  Five  regiments 
will  drive  them  from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the  other." 
What  are  the  Greeks  7iov:>  but  savages?  What  are  the  de- 
scendants of  the  old  Romans,  compared  with  those  of  the 
despised  Britons,  but  slaves  ?  The  poor  Indian,  traduced 
below  the  brutes,  has  not  only  shown  all  the  virtues  of  the 
ancient  Spartans, — he  has  also  put  the  defamers  of  his  in- 
tellect to  eternal  silence.  The  Chaldeans,  the  black  Egyp- 
tians, the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  the  Saracens,  have  each  in 
turn  held  the  supremacy  in  the  literary  world  ;  each  in  turn 
has  sunk  into  listlessness  and  ignorance.  The  Chinese 
and  Hindoos,  for  many  hundred  years,  have  been  wasting 
away  their  stock  of  knowledge.     Paganism  and  tyranny 


208  ILLUSTRATIONS    OF  [JANUARY, 

combined,  have  never  failed  to  cover  a  land  with  darkness 
that  may  be  felt.  Liberty  alone  has  given  a  momentary 
light.  Liberty  and  Christianity  will  render  all  men  of 
every  shape  and  every  shade  intelligent,  reasoning,  and 
holy.  In  view  of  the  evidence  presented,  can  any  one  donbt 
that  custom  and  climate  fully  account  for  the  diversities  of 
the  human  form  l  Shall  the  baseless  and  disproved  theo- 
ries of  the  infidel  always  hold  professed  Christians  in  cov- 
ered, but  real  and  practical,  skepticism  7  Shall  "the  mother 
of  harlots"  and  "the  father  of  lies"  persuade  us  that  God 
and  mammon,  uniting  their  interests,  require  the  enslave- 
ment of  pagans,  to  fit  them  for  Heaven  ;  and  when  we  have 
debased  them  that  they  are  merely  noble,  but  soulless, 
brutes  1  The  withering  dogma,  that  no  man  can  gain  with- 
out another's  loss,  begins  at  last  to  be  found  a  pestilential 
lie.  Soon  may  equal  and  exact  justice  be  mutually  rendered 
by  all  men  of  every  state  and  nation  ;  then  shall  liberty, 
wealth,  and  happiness  bless  the  world.  M. 

See  Williamson  on  Climate,  Edinburgh  Encyclopedia,  Lander's  Travels, 
Good's  Book  of  Nature,  Sumner's  Botany,  Robertson's  America,  Marshall's 
Washington,  &c. 


ILLUSTRATIONS    OF  AMERICAN   COMMERCE. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  makes  it  the  duty  of  Congress  "  to  regu- 
late," if  need  be,  "commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and  anions,  the  several  states." 
Hence  it  seems  to  us,  that  if  under  the  name  of  "  commerce,"  either  external  or 
internal,  there  should  spring  up  any  nefarious  system  of  outrage  upon  mankind — 
any  atrocious  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature,  it  would  be  the  duty  of  Congress 
utterly  to  weed  it  out,  and  leave  nothing  but  commerce  properly  so  called.  In 
our  cities  a  power  to  regulate  the  streets,  gives  the  proper  officers  authority  to  re- 
move nuisances,  and  even  to  shut  up  a  street  which  it  would  be  dangerous  to  pass 
through.  There  is  abundant  evidence  to  us  that  the  American  inter-state  slave 
trade  is  an  intolerable  evil,  and  consequently  we  think  that  Congress,  in  regula- 
ting commerce  ought  to  regulate  it  out  of  existence.  A  highly  valued  conespond- 


1837.] 


AMERICAN    COMMERCE.  209 


ent  haa  furnifihed  us  with  some  striking  illustrations  of  this  subject,  which  we 
give  below. 

Slave  mongers. — A  person  has  lately  been  hung  in  North  Carolina  for  kid- 
napping— but  dealers  in  slaves,  and  slave  drivers  in  Maryland  and  elst  where,  are 
not  to  be  reached  by  the  laws.  The  time  will  come,  when  this  business  will  be 
as  severely  punished,  as  it  is  heartily  detested  by  all  honorable  men.  We  do  not 
mean  to  cast  reproach  on  'he  owners  of  slaves  Humanity  itself  forbids  general 
emancipation  unless  gradual,  and  with  provision  for  the  relief  of  the  en)ancipated, 
but  we  cannot  conjure  up  to  our  imagination  a  character  more  monstrous  than 
that  of  a  dealer  in  slaves,  as  ordinary  merchandise. — Niks'  Register,  for  June 
28,  1828. 

Domestic  Slave  trade. — The  New- York  Gazette  says,  "It  is  but  a  few  weeks 
since  we  observed  the  arrival  at  New  Orleans  of  three  vessels  from  Norfolk,  hav- 
ing on  board  nearly  six  hundred  slaves." — Niles'  Register,  Dec.  27,  1828. 

It  appears  from  the  reports  of  the  CompJroller  of  South  Carolina  that  the  number 
of  slaves  in  that  State  decreased  in  one  year,  from  1824  to  1825,  thirty-two 
thousand  s-ven  hundred  and  twenty-seven;  and  in  the  next  year,  one  thousand 
one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  :  total  decrease  in  two  years,  33,856 — being  more 
than  one  eighth  of  the  whole  number  (260,282)  in  1824. — Niles'  Register,  April 
8,  1829. 

The  internal  Slave  trade. — A  Porfsmouth  (Ohio)  paper  sives  the  details  of 
a  bloody  transaction  that  occurred  between  a  drove  of  negroes  and  their  drivers 
about  8  miles  from  the  above  village,  in  the  state  of  Kentucky.  It  appears  that 
the  negroes,  60  in  number,  were  cliaintd  and  hand-cuffed  in  the  usual  manner  of 
driving  these  poor  wretches,  and  ihat  by  the  aid  of  a  file,  ihey  succeeded  in  sepa- 
rating the  irons  whih  bound  them  in  such  way  as  to  be  able  lo  throw  ihem  off 
at  any  monipnt.  In  the  course  of  the  journey  two  of  ihe  slaves  dropped  their 
shackles  and  commenced  a  fight,  when  the  wagoner.  Petit,  rushed  in  with  his 
whip  to  compel  them  to  desist.  At  this  moment  every  negro  was  found  perfectly 
at  liberty,  and  one  of  them  seizing  a  club  gave  Petit  a  violent  blow  on  ihe  head 
and  laid  him  dead  at  his  feet.  Allen,  who  came  to  his  assistance,  met  a  similar 
fate  from  the  contents  of  a  pistol  fired  by  another  of  the  gang.  Gordon  was  then 
attacked,  seized  and  held  by  one  of  tie  negroes,  whiie  another  fired  iwice  at  him 
with  a  pistol,  the  ball  of  which  each  time  grazed  his  head,  but  not  proving  effec- 
tual, he  was  beaten  with  clubs  and  left  for  dead.  They  then  commenced  pilla- 
ging the  wagon,  and,  with  an  axe,  split  open  the  trunk  of  Gordon,  and  rifled  it  of 
the  money,  about  82,400,  Sixteen  of  the  negroes  then  took  to  the  woods.  Gordon 
in  the  mean  time,  not  being  materially  injured,  was  enabled,  by  the  assistance  of 
one  of  the  women,  to  mount  his  horse  and  flee ;  pursued,  however,  by  one  of  the 
gang,  on  another  horse,  with  a  pistol.  Fortunately,  he  escaped  with  his  life, 
barely  arriving  at  a  plantation  as  the  negro  came  in  sight,  who  then  turned  about 
and  retreated.  The  neighborhood  was  immediately  rallied,  and  a  hot  pursuit 
given,  which  we  understand  has  resulted  in  the  capture  of  the  whole  gang,  and 
the  recovery  of  the  greater  part  of  the  money. — Niles'  Register,  Sept.  5,  1829. 

Domestic  Slave  trade. — The  schooner  Lafayette,  with  a  cargo  of  slaves, 
from  Norfolk  for  New  Orleans,  narrowly  escaped  being  captured  by  them  on  the 
voyage.  Tliey  were  subdued  after  considerable  difficulty,  and  twenty-five  of  them 
were  bolted  down  to  the  deck  until  the  arrival  of  the  vessel  at  New  Orleans. — 
Niles'  Register,  January  9,  1830. 

Domestic  Slave  trade. — According  to  the  New  Orleans  papers,  there  were 
imported  into  that  port,  during  the  week  commencing  on  the   16th  ult.,  from  the 

27 


210  OPINIONS    AND    TESTIMONY  [JANUARY^ 


various  ports  of  the  United  States,  371  slaves,  principally  from  Virginia,  as  fol- 
lows : — 

By  the  Tribune  from  Alexandria,  141 

"      Sarah  "    Baltimore,       4 

"  United  States  "  Norfolk,  150 
"  James  Ramsay  "  Baltimore,  2 
"      Susan  "    Charleston-    14 

"      Atlas  "  do.  60 

Total,        -        -        .        371 

Niles^  Register,  November  26,  1831. 

It  is  among  the  abominations  that  attend  upon  slavery,  in  which,  in  soms 

cases,  we  fear  that  fathers  have  made  a  traffic  in  their  own  children  as  slaves  I. 
We  well  remember  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Calhoun  when  Secretary  of  ^ar,. 
in  which  he  introduced  the  subject.  He  staled  a  case,  in  which  the  feelings  of  a 
large  assembly  had  been  much  outraged  by  the  exposure  of  a  man  placed  on  the 
stand  for  sale  as  a  slave;  whose  appearance,  he  said,  in  all  respects,  gave  him  a 
better  claim  to  the  charac'er  of  a  white  man  than  most  persons  so  acknowledged 
could  share  ;  and  he  thereupon  suggested  that  some  regulation  ought  to  he  made,  by 
which  individuals  so  circrcumstanced,  should  be  declared  heemen.— Niks'  Re- 
gister, October  25,  1834. 


OPINIONS    AND    TESTIMONY    OF    THOMAS    JEF- 
FERSON. 

A  friend  has  kindly  put  us  in  possession  of  a  letter  from  Mk.  Jefferson  to 
Dr.  Pkice,  of  London,  for  which  we  are  exceedingly  obhged.  It  was  written 
more  than  half  a  century  ago,  while  Mr.  Jefferson  was  in  France,  and  shows 
with  authority,  which  few  will  dare'to  dispute,  what  was  the  state  of  public  sen- 
timent in  the  United  States  in  regard  to  slavery  at  that  time.  By  the  help  ol 
this  letter  as  a  sure  signal  we  may  ascertain  what  progress  we  have  made  in  re- 
spect to  liberty.    The  letter  may  be  found  in  Jefferson's  Posthumous  Works,  Vol. 

I.  page  268. 

Pabis,  Adg.  7th,  1785. 

To  Dr.  Price. 

Sir — Your  favor  of  July  2d  came  duly  to  hand.  The  concern  you  therein  ex- 
press as  to  the  effect  of  your  pamphlet  in  America  induces  me  to  trouble  you  with 
some  observations  on  that  subject.  From  my  acquaintance  with  that  country 
I  think  I  am  able  to  judge  witu  some  degree  of  certainty  of  the  manner  in  which 
il  will  have  been  received.  Southward  of  the  Chesapeake  it  \\'\\\  find  but  few  rea- 
ders concurring  with  it  in  sentimentun  the  subject  of  slavery.  From  the  moulb 
to  the  head  of  the  Chesapeake,  the  bulk  of  the  people  will  approve  it  in  theory, 
and  it  will  find  a  respectable  minority  ready  to  adopt  it  in  practice.  A  minority 
which  for  weight  and  worth  of  character  preponderates  ogamst  the  greater  num- 
ber who  have  not  the  courage  to  divest  their  families  ot  a  property  which  how- 
ever keeps  their  consciences  uneasy.  Northward  of  the  Chesapeake  you  may 
find  here  and  there  an  opponent  to  your  doctrine,  as  you  may  find  here  and  there 


1.837.] 


OF   THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  211 


a  robber  and  a  murderer,  but  in  no  grenter  number.  In  that  part  of  America  there 
Iteiiig  but  few  slaves  they  can  easily  disencumber  themselvesof  them  and  eman- 
cipation is  put  into  such  a  iram  rliatin»Ji  few  years  tht-re  will  be  no  slaves  north- 
ward of  Maryland.  In  Maryland  I  do  not  find  such  a  disposition  to  begin  the 
redress  of  this  enormity  as  in  Virginia.  This  is  the  next  stale  to  which  we  may 
turn  our  eyes  for  the  interesting  spectacle  of  justice  in  conflict  with  avarice  and 
•appression,  a  conflict  wherein  the  sacred  side  is  gaining  daily  recruits  from  ilie 
influx  into  office  of  young  men  grown  and  growing  up — these  have  smoked  in  the 
jirincipies  of  liberty,  as  it  were  with  their  mothers'  milk,  and  it  is  to  them  I 
Jook  with  anxiety  to  turn  the  fate  of  this  question.  Be  not  tlierefon-  discouraged, 
what  you  have  written  will  do  a  great  deal  of  good,  and  could  you  still  trouble 
yourself  with  our  welfare,  no  man  is  more  able  to  give  aid  to  the  laboring  side. — 
The  college  of  William  and  Mary  in  Williamsburgh,  since  the  remode'ing  of  its 
plan  is  the  place  where  are  collected  together  all  the  young  men  of  Virginia  under 
preparation  for  public  life.  They  are  there  under  the  direction  (most  of  them) 
of  a  Mr.  Wythe,  one  of  the  most  virtuous  of  characteis  and  whose  sentiments  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  are  unequivocal.  I  am  satisfied  if  you  could  resolve  to  ad- 
dress an  exhortation  to  those  young  men  with  all  that  eloquence  of  which  you  are 
master — that  its  influence  on  the  future  decision  of  this  important  question  would 
be  great,  perhaps  deci^ive.  Thus  you  see  tha'  so  far  from  thinking  you  have 
cause  to  repent  of  what  you  have  done,  I  wisli  you  to  do  more,  and  wish  it  on  an 
■assurance  of  its  effect.  The  information  I  have  received  from  America  of 
the  reception  of  your  pamphlet  in  the  different  states  agrees  with  the  expectation 
I  had  formed.  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

At  what  time  during  the  last  twenty  years  would  one  of  our  foreign  ministera 
iiave  dared  to  court  "foreign  interference"  with  our  "domestic  institutions'?" — 
Let  our  maligners  and  the  persecutors  of  George  Thompson  settle  their  account 
with  Thomas  Jefferson.  It  is  in  the  language  of  Thomas  Jefferson — one  of 
the  southern  parties  to  the  "  compact" — that  we  sa.y, — Be  not  discouraged, 
Geobge  Thompson  ;  your  mission  will  do  a  great  deal  of  good,  and  could  you 
still  TsouiLE  YOURSELF  WITH  OUR  WELFARE,  no  man  is  morc  able  to  give  aid  to 
ihe  laboring  side.  So  far  from  thinking  you  have  cause  to  repent  of  what  you 
have  done,  WE  WISH  YOU  TO  DO  MORE.— In  saying  this,  are  we  traitors 
to  our  country  1  So  was  Thomas  Jefferson.  In  saying  this  do  we  violate  the 
spirit  of  the  great  compromise?    We  were  taught  by  Thomas  Jefferson. 

Again,  are  we  wrong  in  agitating  the  subject  of  slavery  because  slaveholders 
are  opposed  to  such  agitation?  So  were  the  great  majority  of  them  in  1785.  Are 
"we  wrong  in  agitating  the  subject  at  the  North,  where  there  are  none  or  very  few 
slaves?  Dr.  Price  was  encouraged  to  write  Anti-Slavery  pamphlets,  though  he 
could  find  few  reai-lers  at  the  South,  and  at  the  North  emancipation  was  already 
in  a  train  of  accomplishment.  At  the  North  he  had  but  here  and  there  an  oppo- 
nent—few will  pretend  that  o«r  opponents  at  the  North  are  as  rare  as  "  robbers 
and  murderers." 

Again,  we  are  accused  of  being  young  ourselves,  and  of  endeavoring  to  excite 
the  young.  It  was  to  the  young,  too,  that  Jeffeb-son  looked  "with  anxiety  to 
turn  the  fate  of  this  question."  Much  as  we  revere  age,  and  we  trust  no  one 
more  sincerely  honors  the  hoary  head,  that  is  found  in  the  wayof  wisdom, we  have 
no  faith  in  age,  for  reform.  The  mature  generation  cannot  be  expected  to  rebuke 
itself,  nor  mar  its  own  hold  on  immortality.  The  great  men  of  ripe  years  have 
built  their  reputation  upon,  and  mixed  up  their  interests  with  existing  institutions. 
They  cannot  be  expected  to  pull  down  the  old,  now  that  it  is  too  late  to  build  uP 


212 


OPINIONS    AND  TESTIMONY.  [JaNUART, 


anew.    We  think  that  a  certain  poet  was  not  far  from  the  truth  when  he  sang 
that 

grave  and  hoary  men  were  bribed  to  tell, 

Prom  seats  where  law  is  made  the  slave  of  wrong, 
How  glorious  Athens  in  her  splendor  fell, 
Because  her  sons  were  free — and  that  among 
Mankind,  the  many  to  tne  few  belong, 
By  Heaven,  and  Nature,  and  Necessity. 
They  said,  that  age  icas  truth,  and  that  the  young 
Marred  with  wild  hopes  the  peace  of  slavery, 
With  which  old  times  and  men  had  quelled  the  vain  and  free. 

We  are  blamed  for  meddling  with  the  colleges.  The  youth  at  our  colleges,  it  is 
said,  have  nothing  to  do  with  slavery.  AUdiscussion  of  it  interferes  with  the  busi- 
ness of  their  education.  Why  should  mere  "  boys"  trouble  their  heads  with  grave 
matters  of  legislation — let  them  leave  such  things  to  their  fathers.  Instructors 
too,  are  blamed  if  they  venture  to  express  unequivocal  opinions  in  regard  to  slave- 
ry. It  is  traveling  beyond  their  calling.— Thomas  Jefferson,  in  1785,  had  other 
views  on  these  points.  He  looked,  as  we  do,  to  the  young  men  of  our  colleges 
as  the  nation's  hope,  and  wished  to  have  them  exhorted  with  all  possible  eloquence, 
with  a  view  to  their  action  on  the  decision  of  this  important  question.  The  hopes 
of  Jefferson  will  yet  be  realized,  though  during  his  life  time  they  waned  exceed- 
ingly, as  is  evident  from  the  following  letter  to  Governor  Cole  of  Illinois. 

MoNTicELLO,  Aug.  25,  1814. 
Dear  Sir, — Your  favor  of  July  31st  was  duly  received,  and  was  read  with  pe- 
culiar pleasure.     The   sentiments  breathed  through  the  whole  do  honor  to  both 
the  head  and  heart  of  the  writer    Mine,  on  the  subject  of  the  slavery  of  negroes, 
have  long  since  beenin  possession  of  the  public,  and  time  has  only  served  to  give 
them   stronger  root.    The  love  of  justice  and  the  love  of  country  plead  equally 
the  cause  of  these  people  and  it  is  a  moral  reproach  to  us  that  they  should  have 
pleaded  it  so  long  in  vain,  and  should  have  produced  not  a  sinele  effort, — nay,  I  fear, 
not  much  serious  willirgness  to  relieve  them  and  ourselves  from  our  present  con- 
dition of  moral  and   political  reprobation. — From  those  of  the  former  generation, 
who  were  in  the  fullness  of  age  when  I  came  into  public  life,  which  was  while 
our  c  ■ntroversy  with  England  was  on  paper  only,  I  soon  saw  that  nothing  was  to 
be  hoped.     Nursed  and  educated  in  the  daily  habit  of  seeing  the  deeradta  condi- 
tion, both  bodily  and  mental,  of  those  unfortunate  beings,  but  not  reflecting  that 
that  degradation  was  very  much  the  work  of  themselves  and  their  fathers,  few 
minds  have  yet  doubted  but  that  they  were  as  legitimate  subjects  o*"  property  as 
their  horses  or  cattle.    The  quiet  and  monotonous  course  of  colonial  life  had  been 
disturbed  by  no  alarm,  and  little  reflection  on  the  value  of  liberty.    And  when  an 
alarm  was  taken  at  an  enterprise  of  their  own,  it  was  not  easy  to  carry  them  to 
the  whole  length  of  the  principles  which  they  invoked  for  themselves.    In  the 
first  or  second  session  of  the  legislature,  after  I  became  a  member,  I  drew  to  this 
subject  the  attention  of  Colonel  Bland,  one  of  the  oldest,  ablest,  and  most  respect- 
ed members,  and  he  undertook  to  move  for  certain  moderate  extensions  of  the 
protection  of  the  laws  lo  these  people.    I  seconded  his  motion,  and  as  a  younger 
member,  was  more  spared  in  the  debate;  but  he  was  denounced  as  an  enemy  to  his 
country,  and  was  treated   with  the  greatest  indecoruin.    From  an  early  stage  of 
OUT  Revolution,  other  and  more  distant  duties  were  assigned  to  me;  so  that  from 
that  time  till  my  return  from  Europe  in  1789,  and,  I  may  say,  till  I  returned  to  re- 
side at  home  in  1809, 1  had  little  opportunity  of  knowing  the  progress  of  public 
sentiment  here  on  this  subject.    I  had  always  hoped  that  the  younger  generation, 


1837.] 


FOREIGN    INTELLIGENCE.  213 


leceiving  their  early  impressions  after  the  flame  of  liberty  had  been  kindled  in 
every  breast,  and  had  become  as  it  were  the  vital  spirit  of  every  Amcricrm,  in  the 
generous  temperament  of  youth,  annlagous  to  the  motion  of  their  blood,  and  above 
the  suggestions  of  avarice,  would  iiave  sympathised  with  oppression  wherever 
found,  and  proved  their  love  of  liberty  beyond  their  own  share  of  it.  But  my  in- 
tercourse with  them,  since  my  return,  has  not  been  sufiBcient  to  ascertain  that 
they  have  made  towards  this  point  the  progress  I  had  hoped.— Your  solitary, 
but  welcome  voice,  is  the  first  which  has  bro  ight  this  sound  to  my  ear;  and  I 
have  considered  the  general  silence  which  prevails  on  this  subjef't  as  indicating  an 
apathy  unfavorable  to  every  hope.  Yet  the  hour  uf  emancipation  is  advancing  in 
the  march  of  time. 

I  am  sensible  of  the  partialitie  with  which  you  have  looked  towards  me  as  the 
person  who  should  undertake  this  salutary  but  arduous  work.  But  this,  my  dear 
sir,  is  like  bidding  old  Priam  to  buckle  the  armor  of  Hector  "  trementibus  aevo 
humeris,  et  inutile  ferrum  cingi."  No :  I  have  overlived  the  generation  with 
which  mutual  labors  and  perds  begat  mutual  confidence  and  influence.  This 
enterprise  is  for  the  young-;  for  those  who  can  follow  it  up,  and  bear  it  through 
to  its  consummation.  It  shall  have  all  my  i  rayers  ;  and  these  are  the  only  wea- 
pons of  an  old  man. 

It  is  an  encouraging  observation,  that  no  good  measure  was  ever  proposed 
which,  if  duly  pursued,  failed  to  prevail  in  the  enil.  We  havf  proof  of  this  in  the 
history  of  the  endeavors  in  the  British  Parliament  to  suppress  that  very  trade 
which  brought  this  evil  on  us.  And  you  will  be  supported  by  the  religious  pre- 
cept, "  be  not  weary  in  well  doing."  That  your  success  may  be  as  speedy  and 
complete,  as  it  will  be  honorable  and  immortal  consolation  to  yourself,  I  shall 
as  fervently  and  sincerely  pray  as  I  assure  you  of  my  great  friendship  and  re- 
spect. THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 
Edward  Cole,  Esq. 


FOREIGN  INTELLIGENCE. 

FRENCH   SOCIETY  FOR  THE  ABOLITION   OF  SLAVERY. 

Prom  a  report  which  gives  the  proceedings  of  this  society  down  to  the  10th  of 
August,  1836,  we  are  enabled  to  quote  some  particulars  which  may  be  interesting 
to  our  readers.  The  society  was  formed  in  1834,  and  embraces  among  its  members 
men  of  high  political  importanee.    Its  oflScers  are : — 

President. 
The  duke  de  Broglie,  peer  of  France. 

Vice  Presidents. 
M.  Passy,  minis'er  of  commerce  and  public  works. 
M.  Odillon  Bahrot,  member  of  the  chamber  of  deputies. 
Secretaries. 
M.  Count  Alexander  Delabohde,  aide-de-camp  of  the  king,  member  of  the 

Institute,  &c.  .  ,        ^  ,      ,       , 

M.  IsAMBERT,  counsellor  of  the  court  of  cassation,  and  member  of  the  chamber 

of  deputies. 

Treasurer. 

M.  A.  Thayer,  banker,  Rue  de  Menars,  Paris. 


214  FOREIGN    INTELLIGENCE.  [JANUARY, 

The  following  articles  are  extracted  from  the  "statutes"  of  the  society. 

1.  The  object  of  the  society's  labors  is  to  invoke  the  application  of  all  those 
measures  wliich  tend  towards  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  in  our  colonics,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  seek  the  most  prompt  and  effectual  means  to  ameliorate  the 
condition  of  the  colored  class,  to  enlighten  their  minds,  and  to  make  their  liberty 
useful  and  profitable  to  all  the  inhabiiants  of  the  colonies. 

2.  The  society  is  composed  of  twenty  seven  founding  members,  and  of  an  un- 
limited nuniber  of  associated  members. 

3.  The  candidate  for  admission  to  the  society  must  be  presented  by  two  of  its 
members,  and  proposed  at  the  following  sitting,  by  the  central  committee. 

It  is  also  necessary  to  pay  an  annual  subscription,  of  which  the  amount  is  op- 
tional, but  which  cannot  be  less  than  25  francs  for  each  member. 

4.  All  the  members  of  the  society  have  the  right  to  be  present  at  its  sittings  and 
take  part  in  its  deliberations. 

5.  The  founding  members  form  a  central  committee.  This  committee  has  pow- 
er to  elect  on  committees  for  the  direction  of  the  society's  labors  such  associate 
members  as  are  distinguished  for  their  labors,  and  these  members  shall  enjoy 
the  same  rights  as  the  founders. 

6.  The  central  committee  shall  render  account  of  its  labors  at  the  general 
and  public  meetings. 

7.  The  amount  of  subscription,  after  defraying  incidental  expenses,  is  de- 
voted to  publications,  and  to  the  collecting  of  documents  which  can  throw  light 
upon  the  question  of  the  enfranchisement  of  the  slaves. 

8.  The  treasurer  of  the  society  shall  render  an  account  of  his  administration 
quarterly. 

Addition,  June  \st,  1835. — The  society  admits  corresponding  members  in  the 
departments,  with  a  voluntary  payment  which  is  to  be  addressed  to  the  treasurer. 

The  report  of  the  society's  operations  is  arranged  in  the  form  of  minutes  of  its 

sittings.    From  these  minutes  we  make  a  few  extracts. 

January  11th  (1836.)— M.Passy,  one  of  the  vice  presidents,  announced  that  in 
concert  with  M.  de  Tracy,  he  had  drawn  up  the  project  of  a  proposition  to  the 
chamber,  it  consisted  of  three  parts. 

By  the  first,  slavery  would  be  abolished  on  the  first  of  January,  1840. 

By  the  second,  royal  ordinances  would  provide  the  necessary  measures  to 
prepare  the  people  of  the  colonies. 

By  the  third  and  last,  certain  financial  measures  would  be  proposed  to  the 
chambers,  in  the  session  of  1839,  to  effect  the  liberation. 

February,  15!h. — It  appears  by  documents  received  from  French  Guiana,  that 
the  decree  of  the  convention  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  1794,  did  not  cause  any 
disturbances,  but  that  it  impaired  industry,  because  it  was  published  alone,  with- 
out any  measure  relative  to  the  cultivation  of  ihe  estates.  Slavery  was  again 
established  there  by  order  of  the  consular  government,  by  a  proclamation  of  Victor 
Hugo,  of  the  5th  Floreal,  year  XI. 

At  the  time  of  this  re-establishment,  the  colony  exported  wore  products  than 
in  1789,  icith  a  considerably  smaller  number  of  laborers.  The  colonists  were 
free  from  their  old  debts.  Most  of  the  actual  fortunes  date  from  this  epoch.  The 
re-establishment  of  slavery,  therefore,  is  to  be  considered  as  a  useless  and  impoli- 
tic measure  ;  after  eight  years  of  the  enjoyment  of  liberty,  there  was  resistance ; 
five  or  six  hundred  blacks  lost  their  lives  in  the  struggle. 

February,  28ih. — In  the  sitting  of  the  chamber  of  deputies,  of  the  9th  of  March, 
(1836),  M.  admiral  Diiprrrc,  upon  the  interrogation  of  M.  Rosrer  du'Loiret,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  society,  said  that  in  imitation  of  the  president  of  the  council,  "  the  gov- 
ernment was  occupied  in  collecting  all  the  facts  which  could  throw  light  upon 
the  important  question  of  eniancii>ation." 

After  the  session,  he  continued,  I  shall  lose  no  time  in  addressing  to  the  gov- 
ernors of  our  colonies,  a  note  which  indeed  I  have  already  communicated  to  the 
colonial  delegates,  that  they  might  have  it  to  submit  to  the  colonial  oouncils,  and 
enjoin  upon  them  to  consider  it.    Consequently,  the  colonial  councils  are  at  this 


1837.] 


FOREIGN    INTELLIGENCE.  215 


moment  possessed  of  the  note  which  I  have  sent  them.  It  is  at  this  present  ses- 
sion of  1836  that  they  will  be  occupied  with  it.  The  results  will  be  forwarded  to 
me,  and  the  government  will  take  measures  accordingly  ;  but  on  account  of  the 
great  distance,  ti.e  chamber  will  see  the  necessity  of  giving  time. 

The  department  of  tlie  marine,  for  its  part,  is  spontantously  occupied  with  all 
the  means  of  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the  slaves ;  it  has  also  sought  by  the  pro- 
visions of  a  law  which  is  already  drawn  up,  to  augment  the  number  of  enfranchise- 
ments in  yielding  to  the  slave  the  power  to  liberate  himself,  either  by  means 
of  ransom,  creating  for  this  purpose  a  peculium  of  which  he  is  assured  the 
legal  possession,  or  by  other  means,  for  example,  requiring  that  every  slave 
wtio  quits  the  colony  to  accompany  his  master  shall  be  freed  before  his  departure. 
He  added  that  the  government  would  neglect  no  means  of  promoting  religious 
and  moral  education,  so  as  to  advance  the  civilization  of  this  class  of  the  popula- 
tion. He  thought  this  the  best  way  to  insure  to  them,  as  well  as  to  all,  the 
peaceable  enjoyment  of  the  boon  which  would  one  day  be  granted  them. 

March  21st. — The  society  heard  a  statement  from  M.  Ramon  de  la  Sagra, 
for  a  long  time  Director  of  the  Botanic  Gaiden  at  Havannah.  He  employed  only 
emancipated  blacks,  who  had  gone  through  an  aiiprenticeship  of  five  years ;  he 
was  perfectly  satisfied  wi:h  them;  their  number  is  from  four  to  five  thousand. 
They  work  for  hire.  Ther^J  will  not  be  in  this  island  (Cuba)  very  great  obsta- 
cles to  emancipation,  inasmuch  as  the  prejudice,  so  to  speak,  does  not  there  e.xist. 
Children  found  or  left  destitute,  who  are  fully  black  or  mulattoes,  are  placed  in 
the  hospitals,  under  the  protection  of  the  king,  and  by  virtue  of  this  are  considered 
noble,  as  well  as  the  whites;  they  are  admissible,  and,  in  fact,  admitted  to  all 
employments,  for  which  they  have  the  necessary  knowledge. 

April  11th. — Since  the  ordinance  of  1832,  in  regard  to  enfranchisements, 
among  20,000  claims  of  liberty  in  Martinique,  there  have  been  but  20  objected  to ; 
among  these  objections,  there  has  been  but  one  put  in  by  creditors ;  all  the  objec- 
tions have  been  declared  ill  founded. 

May  9th. — A  member  proposed  to  petition  for  partial  and  successive  emancipa- 
tion, commencing  by  the  enfranchisement  of  the  children  without  indemnity. 

The  society  thought  that  it  ought  to  hold  on  to  the  principle  of  general  aboli- 
tion. The  Chamber  of  Deimiies  and  the  government,  are  but  too  much  disposed 
to  avoid  the  financial  difficulties  of  the  question  by  edopiing  such  means  Be- 
sides, a  partial  emancipation,  to  say  nothing  of  irs  injustice,  would  not  prevent 
the  dangers  which  are  apprehended,  and  would  be  more  injurious  to  the  colonies. 

June  6th.— The  secretary  gave  an  account  of  an  interview,  which  he  had  had 
with  the  director  of  the  admmistration  of  the  colonies,  in  consequence  of  the  dis- 
cussion in  the  chambers. 

He  inquired  what  was  the  disposition  of  the  administration  since  the  discussion. 
He  was  answered  that  it  was  sincerely  abolitionist ;  but  that  under  this  name  it 
had  been  already  vigorously  attacked  by  the  colonial  party. 

How  long  time  will  the  administration  require  to  carry  its  abolition  designs 
into  execution  1    Answer.     Three  years. 

More  than  this,  the  director  is  not  a  partizan  of  the  English  system.  The 
apprenticeship,  he  says,  is  useless.  The  experience  of  it  has  taught  that  it 
needs  rigorous  rules  to  insure  the  continuance  of  labor.  This  will  make  a  sla- 
very almost  as  cruel  as  the  old. 

Besides,  it  will  be  necessary  to  consult  the  interests  of  the  treasury.  France 
will  never  consent  to  give  200  millions  to  the  colonies  to  ransom  260,000  slaves. 

The  director  grants  that  the  two  ordinances  published  in  the  month  of  May, 
however  useful,  are  no  step  towards  emancipation.  From  this  time  lo  the  next 
session  of  the  chamber.-,  the  minister  will  prepare  measures  more  efficacious.  M. 
the  director,  has  also  promised  to  publish  an  analysis  of  the  votes  of  the  colonial 
councils. 

A  member  complained  of  the  little  aid  which  the  society  obtained  from  the 
Catholic  clergy. 

As  to  the  Protestants,  M.  Guizot,  has  pronounced  a  remarkable  discourse  as 
president  of  the  Bible  Society,  at  its  silling  on  the  20th  April,  1836.    In  this  dis- 


216  DOMESTIC    INTELLIGENCE.  [JANUARY^ 


cours°,  published  in  the  Moniteur  of  the  30th  May,  the  ex-minister  has  said', 
"thatr-hgion  has  for  its  essential  object  the  siul  of  man,  not  the  soul  in  a  general 
"  and  abstract  manner,  but  the  soul  of  every  man ;  the  soul  of  every  living  and 
"immortal  being. 

"  The  most  of  the  ameliorations  effected  among  us,  he  added,  for  the  last  50 
"  years,  liave  had  for  their  object  the  social  condition,  the  relations  of  men  to  each 
"other.     Amidst  so  manypr  jects,  the  soul  of  man  itself  has  often  been  forgotten. 

"This  love  of  humanitv,  which  has  so  much  honored  our  times,  has  given 
"  place  to  a  shuddering  timidity ;  there  must  be  more  devotedness,  more  ambition 
"for  this  great  and  holy  cause." 

It  is  to  hi  regretted  that  a  civilian  in  so  high  a  place,  has  not  up  to  the  present 
time,  uttered  a  single  word,  nor  taken  any  )  art  whatever  in  labors  which  have 
for  their  object  to  ransom  the  souls  of  our  260,000  blacks  and  their  posterity  ; 
theSe  people  are  not  taught  to  understand  any  moral  duty  j  they  live  and  die  like 
brutes. 


A  nation's  broke;^  Vow.— On  the  20th  of  October,  1774,  the  delegates  of 
twelve  colonies  being  assembled  in  Congress,  in  Philadelphia,  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  relief  from  British  oppression,  entered  iinatiimously  into  a  solemn  agree- 
ment binding  upon  themselves  and  their  constituents,  which  wiih  their  names  was 
placed  on  record  before  God  and  the  world.  The  second  article  of  this  instrument 
was  as  follows: — 

"  We  will  neither  import  nor  prRcHA.=E  ANY  SLAVE  imported  after  the 
"first  day  of  DRCEMBER  NEXT,  after  which  time  WE  WILL  WHOL- 
"LY  DISCONTLNUE  THE  SLAVE  TRADF-:,  and  will  neither  be  concern- 

"  ED  IN  IT  ourselves,  NOR  WILL  WE  HIRE  OUR  VESSELS,  NOB  SELL  OUR  COMMODITIES 
"  OR  MANUFACTURES  TO  THOSE  WHO    ARE  CONCERNFD  IN  IT." 

Agreea'  1  v  to  this  vow,  tlie  several  states  shut  their  ports  against  the  foreign  slave 
trade.  Mr.  Walsh,  in  his  "  Appeal,"  says  Virginia  formally  abolished  the  trad« 
in  October,  1778,  and  the  other  states  followed  her  example,  at  different  times, 
before  the  duteof  the  Federal  Constitution.  South  Carolina,  in  1803,  was  the  first 
to  break  the  vow,  by  a  small  majority  of  her  legislature  ;  and  she  plead  the  "  pro- 
visions of  tlie  Constitution."  Congress  prohibited  the  traffic  in  Louisiana,  in  1804. 
In  1805  the  prohibition  was  reppnli"d, — from  that  time  to  December  31st,  1807, 
the  trade  flourished  horribly.  39,075  slaves  were  imported  into  Charleston  alone; 
8,683  of  these  were  torn  from  Africa  by  the  human-flesh-brokers  of  A^ew  England! 


Domestic  Affairs,  Briefly. — The  President's  message  of  Deccemher,  1835> 
accused  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  of  issuing  insurrectionary  publica- 
tions. The  society  threw  open  its  doors,  and  invited  the  President,  by  aconeres- 
sional  committer  to  examine  all  its  dolvsrs  and  publications  The  President 
made  no  reply.     His  message  of  December  1836— is  silent. 

Last  year  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina  would  have  abolitionists  "hanged 
without  benefit  of  clergv"—wonld  dissolve  tiie  union  if  Anti-Slavery  Societies 
•were  not  suppressed.  This  year  he  would  have  a  "  solemn  declaration"  assert- 
ing the  right  to  recede,  in  case  slavery  be  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
Last  year  slavery  was  his  "  corner  stone,  &c."  This  year  it  is  his  reason  for  not 
provoking  foreign  wars. 

Last  year  the  governor  of  New  York  thought  abolitionism  was  dying.  Thi« 
year  he  is  sure  of  it.  Ecce  signa — Gov.  Ritner. — Vermont  resolutions— chop- 
fallen  mobocrats  in  Utica.  Mr.  Birney's  new  press  in  Cincinnati. — Abolitionist* 
in  Congress— increased  number  of  lecturers.    Anti-Slavery  Societies  doubled. 


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