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.
r ■* i