HEBREW 
 
 AMERICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 A DISCOURSE, 
 
 Bv REV. G. S. COIl"WIISr, 
 
 ELBA, N.Y. 
 
 ROCHESTEE, N. Y. 
 
 PRESS OF A. STRONG & CO., DEMOCRAT AND AMERICAN OFFICE. 
 1863. 
 
 f 
 
NOTICE TO THE READER 
 
 Tnis Sermon is not given to the Press by the author, or the friends who 
 sohcit it for publication, with the belief that it contains anything new, but 
 as a concise abridgment of works on the subject in another form of argu- 
 ment, and so brief, that it is hoped some may be benefited who will not 
 read a hook on the subject, and some who hear much about political preach- 
 ing, and have much to say about it, who do not know what it means, being 
 rarely found in church. 
 
 Again, they believe in times like these, every man should strike for his 
 country who has a sword, and if he has none, sTiould sell his coat and buy 
 one. If he cannot strike a heavy blow — still he should strike — strike as he 
 can. He may wound the sin, if he cannot kill it ; he may excite a new 
 thought if he cannot originate one. To be indifferent in a time like this, is 
 to be a traitor to his country, to his religion if it be the Christian religion, 
 and he has any. Nothing we have should be held too dear for the altar of 
 God and a good government in danger. If it is but little we have — a straw 
 breaks the camel's back, a dust turns the balance, a drop overflows the bowl. 
 
■J DISCOURSE. 
 
 Lktiticus, XXV., 44-45. — " Both thy boudmen and thy bondsmaids, uhich 
 thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about thee, of 
 them shall ye buy bondmen and handmaids. Moreover, of the children 
 of strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of 
 their families that are with you which they begat in your land ; and 
 they shall be your possession, — and ye shall take them as an inheritance 
 for your children after you to inherit them for a possession ; and they 
 shall be your bondmen forever." 
 
 Slavery is the great question of the day, of the nation, of 
 the age ; ought not every man to stud j it? It enters into 
 almost every subject with which we have to do ; ought we 
 not to inform oui'selves of its merits, its nature, and its 
 workings ? It has become, it is true, a political question — 
 or has been — it is now more a national question, i. e. a ques- 
 tion of national existence ; but it is still a moral, a religious 
 question, and pro])er for religious investigation. The fact 
 that every man is required to act on it, makes it doubly im- 
 portant that every man should study it and be thoroughly 
 acquainted with it. PoUtics are never so noble as when 
 they grapple with some great moral subject, for then if men 
 will be studious and honest, the national intellect will be 
 enlarged and the national heart made better. But it will 
 not do to say, a moral or a religious subject shall not be dis- 
 cussed in the pulpit when it becomes a political subject. 
 The minister's duty is then the more imperious. 
 
 Two years and a half ago I found a paper lying on the 
 desk, requesting me to comment on this text. 1 was at the 
 time preaching a series of sermons on the sacred feasts and 
 fasts of the Old Testament, and other institutions of the 
 Mosaic law. I regarded it at the time a challenge to con- 
 trovert, if I could, the doctrine of Slavery as here taught. I 
 
laid tlie paper aside, intending at a future time to preacb 
 from the text. It was then the sunnner before the election 
 of President, and the question of Shivery entered very 
 largely into the contest, and I judged that preaching on it 
 at that time might and would be construed as- a design on 
 my part to meddle with politics. The position of thinus are 
 changed. It has brought a civil war upon us, and it is not 
 so much a question of politics as of national existence. It 
 has brought the war upon us and has been hitlierto the great 
 sustaining power of the war against the Government. Every 
 man is called on to judge whether it is right or wrong, 
 whetiier our Government is acting riglit or wrong in resist- 
 ing its demands, and in the blows it is dealing against it. 
 Some say it is a Divine institution and we are fighting 
 against God in defending ourselves against it. Secession 
 preaches this doctrine, politicians preach it, the fiiends of 
 Secession in the North preach it, ministers South and North 
 preach it ; and if Slavery is right they have a right to, and 
 they ought to. I find no fault with any one advocating it 
 if he sincerely and jprayerfidhj believe it riglit. But I do 
 object to men professing to be honest in advocating, some 
 for preaching it in the pulpit and denouncing others for say- 
 ing a word against it. I protest against such a spirit as this 
 — it is tyranny. I protest against such men's claims to con- 
 sistency. I protest against any such claiming that it is 
 Tight^ for nothing that is riglit requires darkness, or hinder- 
 ing the honest expression of opinions. If it be right for Mr. 
 Yandyke or Palmer to preach on the subject, where is the 
 right of closing the mouths of other ministers, who by the 
 Constitution and laws are guarantied equal rights ? Men 
 who do this virtually admit the unsoundness of the doctrines 
 they hold ; and expose the tyranny they would exercise 
 over the consciences of men. And these are the men who as 
 a general thing are the most noisy against our Government 
 for doing it in extreme cases. 
 
 The text is a part of a system of laws designed for a par- 
 ticular people, for a particular age and circumstances, and 
 was not designed for our age of the world nor for any nation 
 
5 
 
 of the present day. They ceased to be binding even on tlie 
 Jews after the death of Christ. In this system of law are 
 enjoined three annual feasts, binding on the whole nation ; 
 eating a lamb with bitter herbs and nnleavened bread for 
 seven days, circumcision of every male child on the eighth 
 day after its birth ; the sacrificing of lambs, bullocks, goats, 
 birds ; cities of refuge for the manslayer to flee to, &c. &c. 
 
 The Jews for whom the law was made were not allowed 
 to take any interest for money loaned to a Jew, if he was 
 embarrassed ; they were required to marry a deceased 
 brother's widow ; they weie permitted to divorce their 
 wives for mere capi'ice or dislike, and marry others ; there 
 was no prohibition in this law against polygamy, and this for 
 a time was generally practiced even by their best men ; they 
 were forbidden to eat swine's flesh, and certain other 
 animals, and birds. None of these laws are now incorpo- 
 rated into the codes of civilized or Chi'istianized nations. 
 Kone of them are binding on Jew or Gentile. Mo^ of them 
 are prohibited by law with Christian Jiations. Men would 
 now be imprisoned for doing what Abraham, Jacob, David, 
 Solomon, and the Jews generally did. 
 
 Why then should we appeal to this law to justify Slavery 
 when we wo^jld not allow the Mormon or the Free-lovei- to 
 appeal to it to justify divorce or polygamy? The advocates 
 of Slavery appeal to the Patriarchs in justification of it ; the 
 Mormons appeal to the Patriarchs in justification of poly- 
 gamy- Does the conduct of the Patriarchs justify the one 
 more than the other ? Abraham held slaves, therefore 
 Slavery is right. Abraham had a child by one of his 
 slaves, therefore adultery is right. The one is no more con- 
 demned than the other and no more justified than the 
 other, in anything said about Abraham. Jacob had two 
 wives and two concubines, and not a word is said against 
 it, therefore polygamy "is a Divine institution. The Jew 
 was allowed to divorce his wife for personal dislike, and this 
 he might repeat as ofren as he pleased for there is no restric- 
 tion ; and this is all the Free-lover asks. And by the 
 arguments used for Slavery we must justify Mormon- 
 
6 
 
 ism, Free-loveism, polygamy, concubinage, and adnltery. 
 All the Mulattoes, Quadroons, Octoroons of the South, 
 two millions or more, have as honorable parentage as 
 Ishmael, so far as marriage is concerned, and are a part 
 of the Divine institution. If a Patriarch's practice may be 
 appealed to to justify one wrong it may be to justify another. 
 The Mormon and the Free-lover have just as good argu- 
 ments for their systems as the Slave-holder has for his, in 
 the conduct of the Patriarchs. 
 
 " Happy is he that conderancth not himself in that thing 
 which he alloweth." Are any of the advocates of Slavery 
 wilh'ng their sons-in-law should put away their daughters 
 and marry other women ? or take other wives or concubines 
 to share the conjugal honors and emoluments with their 
 daughters? If not, they are advocates of a system for 
 others which they will not allow for themselves. Yes, 
 they approve for others what they would regard a great 
 wrong — an outrage on themselves. Are these men willing 
 their sons should be sold into Slavery? But this was 
 a part of the law. The text commands or permits rather, 
 purchasing and holding as slaves the heathen about them, 
 but the system permitted them to enslave one another, not 
 only for six years, but for life or till the year of Jubilee. 
 "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, 
 and in the seventh year he shall go out for nothing. If he 
 came in by himself he shall go out by himself; if he were 
 married then his wife shall go out with him. If his master 
 have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or 
 daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters 
 and lie shall go out by himself And if the servant shall plainly 
 say, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not 
 go out free ; then his master shall bring him unto the judges, 
 and he shall also bring him unto the door or unto the door- 
 post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, 
 and he shall serve him forever."— Ex., xxi. 2-6. The He- 
 brews might enslave each other for debt, that is, compel to 
 service, (See Lev., xxv. 39.); to be held till the year of release 
 or jubilee j and the wife and children might be held as ser- 
 
vants to one of these periods, according to the law ; and if the 
 man was not willing to leave his wife and children he might 
 become a servant himself till their time expired. Thns the 
 poor were subjected to this kind of slavery and subjected 
 their children to it. Are any of the advocates of Slavery 
 willing to abide by this law ? which is very much better 
 than our laws on Slavery. Most families have some poor 
 among them. What father or mother is willing that their 
 poor son should be a slave for his poverty ? Every man who 
 would do to others as he would that others should do to him, 
 ought never to appeal to the Mosaic law for what he would 
 regard as a great injustice if put in Ibrce with him or his 
 children. Such an appeal furnishes a very strong argument 
 against his honesty, his humanity, and especially against 
 Ills Christianity — for this is the law of Christianity — the 
 digest, the sum and substance of all her laws as well as the 
 test of the Christian ; to love our neighbor as ourselves, and 
 if there is any doubt aboiit any duty, the justice of any law 
 or practice, we are to try it by th.s rule: — Would it be a good 
 law if practiced on us? Are we willing to abide by it ? K 
 not we expose ourselves when we advocate it for others. 
 
 Our argument is not against the Mosaic law as a bad law, 
 but against justifying any lorong by that law ; a law made 
 for another people and under entirely different circumstan- 
 ces. Two things especially are wrong with us on this point : 
 
 1st. For a people with our opportunities, our intelligence, 
 the light of the age in which we live, to appeal to the laws 
 of a people just emerging from heathenism and bondage 
 living in the darkest age of the world and in the midst of 
 all forms of wickedness consequent thereon. 
 
 2d. Appealing to laws to justify what is a great deal 
 worse than anything found in those laws. Our system of 
 Slavery is not the Scripture system but the heathen in its 
 worst form. Whoever will be at the trouble to compare 
 will not fail to see how little it resembles the one and how 
 much it resembles the other. It differs from the Mosaic sys- 
 tem in these particulars : 
 
 I. Hebrew Slavery permitted the enslaving of any for 
 
8 
 
 debt ; the man might sell himself, Lev. xxv. 39 ; a father 
 might sell his children, Ex. xxi. 7 ; insolvent debtors might 
 be delivered to their creditors as slaves, 2. Kings, iv. 1 ; 
 thieves not able to make restitution were sold for the benefit 
 of the injured party, Ex. xxii., 3 ; prisoners taken in war of 
 the heathen nations about tliem, Lev. xxv. 44, 46. In all 
 these cases, if we except the last, which we will presently 
 Consider, there is some propriety — at least a show of justice. 
 The man who has had value received and in debt for it, 
 ought to pay it if he can; and if he has not the money ought 
 to labor for it, if he is able; and if he will not, deserves to be 
 made to do it. The Hebrew law of debt would not be a bad 
 one for us. It would empty many a bar-room ; prevent 
 much extravagance and dishonesty in contracting debts ; 
 greatly diminish the tenants of our poor-houses, jails and 
 prisons ; prevent a vast deal of idleness, vice and crime ; 
 make great numbers honest men who are now rogues ; save 
 a vast amount of money to the Government ; and give a 
 security against public and private thieves, which is very 
 much needed, and a sense of security in person and property 
 which would add very much to the comfort and happiness 
 of society. Slavery for thieving, we have no objections to, 
 and I doubt M'hether any but rogues have. Would it not 
 be better to make a man work and pay twice or three times 
 the amount stolen than to lock him up in jail and maintain 
 him there at the public expense, taxing the innocent to pay 
 for the crimes of the guilty ? No one is benefited by this 
 process — neither the loser of ihe stolen property, the person 
 imprisoned nor his family, and the public is the loser in all 
 the expenses incurred. Our State prison laws (in the Free 
 States) are founded on the Jewish law. AVe make men 
 slaves for a number of years in proportion to their crimes, 
 the amount they have stolen or the mischief they have done. 
 This part of the Jewish law was right — absolutely better 
 than our jail system. 
 
 But our Slave code has no resemblance to this. It is not 
 founded on justice, nor in the slightest show or pretence to 
 justice. It is not for debt, and it is not for crime. The 
 
Southern slave owed his master nothing and had never 
 wronged him, never stole a farthing from him but was him- 
 self stolen ; and the difference between the two systems on 
 this point is the difference between enslaving a man for 
 stealing^ and stealing a man to enslave him ; between making 
 a man pay his honest debts, and making him labor to sup- 
 port idleness and crime in others ; between enslaving him 
 for his own wrong doing and enslaving an innocent man for 
 the villaiiy of others ; it is the difference between the honest 
 man who pays his laborer for services rendered and the in- 
 famous villain who forces another to labor for nothing. 
 
 II. Stealing men for slaves was forbidden and punished 
 with death by the Hebrew code. Our Slavery is of this 
 character exclusively. " And he that stealeth a man and 
 selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be 
 put to death," Ex. xxi., 10. The Jews might purchase a man 
 — if he was willing to sell himself, or if he was sold for debt 
 or crime, he might pui'chase those held in Slavery by the 
 heathen, and enslave the heathen taken captive in war. 
 These were the only sources of Slavery to the Jew. Our 
 Slavery comes from none of these sources. Our slaves are 
 stolen men and women — stolen by those who hold tliera, or 
 purchased from those who stole them or who were hired to 
 steal them. They have been kidnapped in Africa and in 
 our own country. American Slavery began with the Roman 
 Catholic Spaniard in the darkest age of that darkest system 
 of human iniquity. It was devised as a substitute for 
 slavery of the Indians who M'ere found unable to endure the 
 hardships of Spanish Slavery, and by that system of religion 
 which made merchandise of "the bodies and souls of men," 
 or as it is translated, " slaves and souls of men," Rev, xviii., 
 13, and which by God is doomed to perdition. The origin 
 of the system is this : " In order to provide some remedy 
 for this, (enslaving the Indians,) without which he found it 
 was in vain to maintain his scheme, Las Casas proposed to 
 purchase a sufficient number of negroes from the Portuguese 
 settlement, on the coast of Africa, and to transport them to 
 
10 
 
 America in order that they might be employed as slaves in 
 working the mines and tilling the ground. Yarions cir- 
 cumstances concurred in reviving this odious commeice (in 
 slaves), which had been long abolished in Europe, and which 
 is no less repugnant to the feelings of humanity than to the 
 principles ot religion. As early as the year 1503, a few 
 negro slaves had been sent into the New AVorld. In the 
 year 1511, Ferdinand permitted the importation of them in 
 greater numbers;" and Charles in greater numbers still, 
 and so it went on to increase to its present magnitude. — 
 Eobei'tson's Am., I., 209. There is not a word of license in 
 the Scriptures for this. It was wholly a question of interest 
 with those who engaged in it. The negro could endure 
 more than the Indian, and this was their warrant, and it is 
 ours — and all the one we have. The law of Moses would 
 consign all engaged in this business to the gallows. The 
 whole system was a system of kidnapping — man stealing; 
 and every means was taken to steal men, women and 
 children. -Their dwellings were set on fire by night, vil- 
 lages set on fire and the fleeing, helpless inhabitants caught 
 and sold for slaves ! Wars were made to catch slaves, the 
 land desolated for this object alone — and men — strange as 
 fiction, Bible men, Christian ministers call this a Divine in- 
 stitution ! Will they show where Moses or God authorized 
 making war on an unoflending people to make slaves of 
 them ? or firing a dwelling by night to catch the inmates 
 for slaves ? or knocking men down and gagging them and 
 selling them for slaves, as has been done in hundreds if not 
 thousands of instances in our own land ? This is our system. 
 It had its origin in cupidity, in the lowest, worst passions of 
 man's fallen nature, and like Mormonisin and most other 
 falsehoods craves justification from the Bible. 
 
 III. Hebrew Slavery was not a system of traffic in human 
 beings ; ours is ; the Hebrew slave when bought had a home 
 secured to him till the year of release or the year of jubilee. 
 Ours has no security that he shall not to-morrow be sold into 
 another part of the country and be separated from his wife 
 and children. 
 
11 
 
 111 our text the Jews were permitted to buy slaves, but the 
 text cannot be found where they are permitted to sell them ; 
 neither can a case be found except Joseph, which is recorded 
 as a crime of the darkest hue. When the slave was bought 
 he became a part of the family and a permanent fixture in 
 the family till the year of release or the year of jubilee. 
 He must be educated as one of tlie family, be circumcised 
 corrected, religiously instructed the same as the children of 
 the family, and he must remain in the family as one of its 
 members till he is made free. There is no law in the Hebrew 
 code for selling slaves, no permission as there is for buying, 
 no provision, no intimation of a right to sell or a recorded 
 case of sale. 
 
 Our system is one of traffic, speculation, buying and sell, 
 ing to make money. Like the Harlot of Rome, we trade in 
 " beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, 
 and tJie souls of men^ The laws of all the Slave States 
 authorize the sale of slaves, for debt, or at the will of the 
 master. The slaves, male or female, are put up at auction 
 on the slave block, often naked or nearly so, that the pur- 
 chaser may see if there is any defect. They are purchased 
 by slave-traders, kept in slave-pens or prisons till a day of 
 sale, or till they can be transferred to another market. 
 
 In Virginia, for several years, slaves have been raised for 
 the Southern market ; and this has been one of her sources 
 of wealth. One of the reasons assigned by some of her 
 public men why she should go with the Southern Confed- 
 eracy was that her interest was with the South ; it was her 
 market for her Slaves. 
 
 And our system on this point shows no regard to the laws of 
 God or humanity. The husband is separated from his wife 
 and family, mothers from their children, brothers and sisters 
 from each other, and sold into distant parts with no more 
 regard to the laws of God on marriage, or the laws of 
 humanity, than if we were a nation of Turks or Mormons. 
 On the score of humanity we ought to be ashamed to look a 
 Mormon in the face. He has not added this disgrace to his 
 system, of selling his own children. 
 
12 
 
 rV". The Jewish code of Slavery was mild and humane ; 
 ours is the most inhuman and tyrannical system at this day 
 on the face of the earth, and holds rank with any that has 
 ever existed, in its oppression and severity. An injury to 
 the Hebrew slave secured him his liberty. " And if a man 
 smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid that it 
 perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. And if he 
 smite out his man servant's tootli or his maid servant's 
 tooth, he shall let him go for his tooth's sake." — Ex. xxi., 26, 
 27. By this law he was protected from injury. Again, if 
 his master oppressed him or made his servitude harsh or 
 such as he was unwilling to endure, he might run away, 
 and the law forbade any to deliver him up. "Thou shalt 
 not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped 
 from his master unto thee ; thou shalt not oppress him." — 
 Deut. xxiii., 15, 16. You shall not send him back to be op- 
 pressed nor oppress him yourself. The passage in Ex. xxi., 
 20, 21, is the ouly one whicli looks like American Slavery 
 in all the Bible : " If a man smite his servant or his maid 
 with a rod and he die under his hand, he shall be surely 
 punished. Notwithstanding if he continue a day or two he 
 shall not be punished, for he is his money." The punishment 
 of murder was death, and there was no exceptions made as to 
 who was murdered. See Lev. xxiv., 21, 22. If the man killed 
 his slave he was to be put to death ; if he lived he lost his 
 property; for it is enacted in verses 26 and 27, of this same 
 chapter (Ex. xxi.) and of the same persons, that if they 
 only suffered the loss of an eye or a tooth they had their 
 liberty ; the man was fined and not executed, fur his cruelty. 
 If our Slave laws were as good as this and had been put in 
 practice, probably more than a million of our slaves would 
 be free ; this number, at least, we doubt not have been mal- 
 treated. If there were any evidences of intention to murder, 
 the man was to be put to death ; if in the anger of the 
 moment he killed him, he was to be punished for man- 
 slaughter; if the slave lived he lost him; his cruelty secured 
 him his liberty. The law did not differ materially from 
 some of our Free State laws and with persons who are not 
 
13 
 
 slaves. Men are here, in the State of New York, executed 
 for murder (wlien we can find judges and jurors honest 
 enouirh to execute the hiw), imprisoned for manslaughter 
 and fined for injury done their neiglibors. Some suppose 
 it had reference only to those slaves who were heathen, 
 and that God allowed this severity only to this class. They 
 are one and the same, as will be seen by reading the pas- 
 sage. The whipping and the loss of tlie eye and the tooth 
 are spoken of servants — and the same servants whether they 
 be Jew or heathen, or both ; let those who wish to make 
 something more or less than the truth out of it determine. 
 Again, God forbid all harsh treatment to the stranger, to all 
 who embraced the Jewish religion, witiiout regard to their 
 position or circumstances. "Judge rigliteously between 
 every man and his brother and the stranger that is with 
 you," — Deut. i., 16. " God regardeth not persons ; He doth 
 execute the judgment of the fatherless and M'idow, and loveth 
 the stranger j love ye therefore the stranger i for ye were 
 strangers in the land of Egypt." — Deut. x., 17, 19. "The 
 stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one 
 born among you, and thou shait love him as thyself." — Lev. 
 ix., 34. " Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oj)press 
 him.r — Ex. xxii., 21. " Thou shalt not oppress a stranger^ 
 for ye know the heart of a stranger." — Ex. xxiii., 9. " Cursed 
 be he that perverteth the judgment of a stranger.''"' — Deut. 
 xxvii., 19. 
 
 JSTothing like these provisions is found in our system of 
 Slavery. There is no law agaiisst the most wanton cruelty 
 which is not a dead law on the statute book. It is not known 
 that a master has ever been executed for killing his slave, 
 or that a slave has any claim by law, to his liberty for mal- 
 treatment, however severe, even to maiming. The slave, in 
 our system, has no remedy — no appeal for injuries done him 
 by his master. He cannot even testify as to what he or his 
 fellow-slaves suffer by their masters. They have been whip- 
 ped to death, starved to death, died from want of clothing 
 and ill usage, and they have no remedy — none to help. I 
 state these facts on the testimony of the Eev. Geo, "Whitfield, 
 
14 
 
 Kev. Jonathan Edwards, their members of Congress, tbeir 
 own newspapers, cases in their Courts of law, Southern men, 
 and men of unimpeachable character who have witnessed 
 these things. U one escapes from bondage, however he may- 
 have been whipped, or torn and maimed by dogs or by 
 shooting him, he must be restored to his master to be whip- 
 ped and tortured to his heart's desire ; and God appealed 
 to as the author of the system ! It is made a penal oflence 
 to harbor a slave, as in the old heathen laws of Eome, while 
 Mosaic law made it a duty. 
 
 Y. Hebrew Slavery was by express permission and direc- 
 tion of God for a people under very different circumstances 
 and surroundings from ours, and our Slavery is without any 
 such permission. Slavery was universally practised in that 
 dark and barbarous age of the world. The Jews themselves 
 had just emerged from a state of bondage, ignorant, sensual, 
 vicious, as all who are brutalized by Slavery are to a greater 
 or less degree. Their ancestors were taken from among the 
 heathen a few centuries before, taught something of the true 
 God, which was transmitted by tradition and hieroglyphics, 
 for we have no evidence that they had any written language 
 at the time, and they themselves had been in bondage to an 
 idolatrous nation, more ignorant than themselves, for more 
 than two hundred years. It would be strange if they, with 
 such surroundings and circumstances, should not have been 
 idolatros, sensualists, a "stiff necked and rebellious peo- 
 ple," ignorant, vicious and cruel. This is just what they 
 were. They lived in an age of great darkness and ignorance, 
 and they were ignorant and blinded by the darkness which 
 surrounded them. They saw nothing but Slavery, and no 
 wonder they should think it right. They had lived for no 
 higher object than the gratification of sense, as this is all 
 any slave without religion has to live for ; no wonder they 
 should be sensualists and prefer " the iiesh-pots," " the fish 
 which they did eat in Egypt freely ; the cucumbers, and the 
 melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick." 
 "With no written language, no bible, no books, and but 
 
15 
 
 God ; everywhere seeing Slavery, idolatry, polygamy, con- 
 cubinage, divorce, with no law against them, no wonder 
 they should be in favor with all these, and with their fallen 
 natures uncurbed by religion, should resist the sudden over- 
 throw of all this by law. This was the condition of the peo- 
 ple to whom the Mosaic law of Slavery, of divorce, of po- 
 lygamy, was given. It was good, the best that could be 
 done for them. It was just or nearly what has had to be 
 done, or what has been done with the savages to whom the 
 gospel has been sent. AVill the Slave-owners or the advo- 
 vocates of Slavery admit this to be tlieir condition ? Is such 
 a law necessary for them ? or has God given them the codes 
 which they practice ? We know that the system of Ameri- 
 can Slavery is incomparably worse than the old Jewish sys- 
 tem, and to be justified by that, the people ought to be in- 
 comparably worse — be more ignorant, brutalized, debased 
 and vicious. Is their system given them by God ? then it 
 is the best God could give them, for God does that which is 
 best under the circumstances. What then must be the state 
 of that people with such a system of Slavery as exists in the 
 South ? Does God authorize those laws which forbid teach- 
 ing the slave to read the Bible? which imprisons ministers 
 for preaching it? and even females for teaching its j^recepts ? 
 None but barbarians have ever had such a system of laws, 
 and if Southerners are not, they are an exception. God 
 allowed no such laws as are found on the statute books of 
 our Slave code, to the Jews with all their darkness, idolatry 
 and sensuality. Which of these dilemmas will Slavery 
 take ? If God authorized their system and gave them the best 
 that their moral and Intellectual condition would admit of, 
 they must be a very benighted, sensual, cruel, beastly peo- 
 ple ; but if God did not authorize the system they must be 
 a great deal worse ; be all this and knaves to boot, for they 
 claim God for their system. The laws themselves prove the 
 authors of them to be a very cruel, unj ust, Godless, graceless, 
 heartless, barbarous people. No such laws are found on the 
 statute books of any but such a people. Heathenism in ita 
 worst forms had but few things worse on this subject. That 
 
I have not misconstrued the Jewish law, we adduce the 
 Saviour's exposition of it. The Jews — the Pharisees, for these 
 are the men who are for tight laws for others and loose ones 
 for themselves — appealed to Moses for the law of divorce, 
 — the right to put away a wife for any personal dislike. 
 The Saviour answered them : " Moses, because of the hard- 
 ness of your hearts^ suffered you to i^ut away your \vives, 
 but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, 
 whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, and 
 shall marry another, committeth adultery." — Math, xix., 3, 9. 
 This was a part of the Mosaic law, and like the rest of it 
 adapted to the circumstances of the Jews at the time it was 
 made. The thing was allowed as a part of their civil polity, 
 not because it was right in itself, but because circumstances 
 made it necessary. " Moses found the custom in use. He 
 found a hard-hearted and rebellious people. In this state of 
 things he did not deem it prudent to forbid a practice so 
 universal," but did the best he could for the people under 
 the circumstances. Among some heathen nations to whom 
 the gospel has been carried, who had never known anything 
 but polygamy and slavery, something has been allowed to 
 those who had several wives and held slaves when converted 
 to Christianity ; and if our Slave-holders are in this con- 
 dition something may be allowed to them. The Saviour's 
 exposition of the law is not very creditable to the intelli- 
 gence and virtue of any who practice or appeal to the law to 
 justify their conduct and sentiments. " Because of the hard- 
 ness of your hearts^ Moses suffered you ;" because of wicked- 
 ness,, your love of wrong^ your insensibility to what was 
 right / because oijowv perverse will to do what was wrong^ 
 and hatred and resistance of what was right ; because of 
 your enmity to God's holy law, written on the tables of 
 stone, and delivered by God himself on Mount Sinai ; 
 Moses allowed you to depart from that law, the spirit of it 
 at least ; but I say unto you, the man who practices Moses' 
 law of divorce is guilty of adultery, and by the same rule 
 the man who ensla\ es another is guilty of robbery and the 
 worst kind of robbery — for he robs a man ot his inalienable 
 
17 
 
 rights, — ^^ Life, liberty, and the pnisnit of happiness ;" robs 
 hini of the most precious of God's gifts to him, — his wife and 
 children, — of his own manhood ! and, no wonder, when he 
 has gone thus far that he can appeal to God to justify the 
 sin. 
 
 The questions for those to settle who plead the Mosaic law 
 as a justification for modern Slavery, are : 
 
 1st. Is the law still in force, or is it permitted to those to 
 whom it was originally given ? If it is, the Jews have a right 
 to enslave the heathen now, — any heathen, — white or black, 
 all that do not embrace the Jewish religion, and ourselves 
 among the rest. We are not Jews. Nor do we embrace 
 their religion as these Pharisees held it. If itbe said it was 
 given to the Church, and we have been engrafted into the 
 Jewish Church, and are therefore entitled to its privileges, 
 from which the Jews were cut off, then we may enslave the 
 Irish, the German, the Indian, any who do not embrace the 
 religion ; any who are too poor to pay their debts, or guilty 
 of theft or other crimes, and hold them for fifty years ; then 
 all who are members of the Church, and are slaves, are 
 entitled to theit- liberty at the end of six years ; for if we 
 adopt the system or claim it as ours, we must have a year 
 of release every seventh year, and a jubilee every fiftieth 
 year. In this case, the laws of all the Free States, on the 
 subject of Slavery are wrong. May we select such parts 
 of the system as suit us? The Mormon and Free-lover 
 have selected theirs, and the Slave-holder has selected his, 
 but is by no means as near the original law and practice as 
 the Mormon. 
 
 2d. Did God, authorizing the Jews four thousand years 
 since to do certain things, authorize us to do the same or 
 similar things? He authorized the Jews utterly to exter- 
 minate the Canaanites and Amalekites. Does this authorize us 
 to exterminate the Indians, the Mexicans, or any nation? 
 If not, upon what grounds do M'e plead the practices, per- 
 missions or laws given to another people under entirely dif- 
 ferent circumstances ? 
 
 The Saviour has answered both these questions in his 
 2 
 
18 
 
 reply to the Pharisees, who would perpetuate a system suited 
 to their prejudices and their wickedness ; and his answer 
 carries with it an exposition of the law, and a tremendous 
 rebuke to all who take shelter under it for Slavery, polygamy 
 and sli])pery divorces. His answer shows that the law was 
 made, and was fit only for men who would not endure a 
 better one — men shrouded in moral darkness and surround- 
 ed with the wrongs which were tolerated; and he pronounced 
 it 'inoperative, null and void to the Jews themselves; in the 
 better state of things to which they had arrived. 
 
 YI. The Mosaic code of Slavery was designed to amelior- 
 ate the condition of the slave, elevate him to manhood, make 
 him intelligent, and fit him for usefulness ; our system in all 
 its laws and workings is calculated and designed to brutal- 
 ize the slave, to work manhood out of him, to keep him 
 ignorant, and to debase him and convert him from a man 
 to a thing. 
 
 1st. In the Hebrew system he was to be educated in their 
 religion and admitted to all its privileges and advantages. 
 " And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among 
 you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in 
 thy house or hought with money of any stranger which is 
 not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house and he that 
 is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised ; and 
 my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting cove- 
 nant." This was the seal of membership to the covenant 
 made with Abraham, and secured them the privileges of 
 that covenant. These slaves or servants were instructed in 
 the Jewish religion, went with their masters to the Passover, 
 and all the great religious festivals of the Jews, heaid the 
 reading of the law, and had all the precepts of the law not 
 only taught them, biit they were ccmjyelled to keep them the 
 same as their children. Ex. xxiii., 14-17, and xxxiv., 23. "• The 
 slaves were likewise guests in the family festivals." " And 
 there shall ye eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall 
 rejoice in all that ye put your hands unto, ye and your 
 households^ wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, 
 
19 
 
 and je shall rejoice before the Lord yonr God, ye and your 
 sons, and your daughters, and your menservanls^ and your 
 maidservants^ and the Levite that is within thy gates." — 
 Deut. xii., 7, 12. The whole family was included in these 
 religious festivals. The slaves shared' equally with the 
 children in the religious instruction, in the festivity, in all 
 the advantages of their whole religious system. In one of 
 these great national convocations, Moses thus addressed 
 them : " Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your 
 God ; your captains of your tribes, your elders and your 
 officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your 
 wives, and the stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer 
 of thy toood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou 
 shouldst enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and 
 unto his oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee 
 this day." Deut. xxix. 10 — 12. All congregated together, 
 the master and his servant, all received the same instruc- 
 tion, all entered together into covenant with God, all ate 
 together, all rejoiced together, all had a mutual interest, and 
 shared in each other's welfare. 
 
 Nothing like this is found in our system, but the very 
 reverse of it all. The laws of South Carolina forbid any as- 
 semblage of slaves for the purpose of mental inslruciion, and 
 the magistrates are required to disperse any assemblage of 
 slaves, free negroes, mulattoes and mestizores, and authorizes 
 inflicting corporeal punishment not exceeding twenty lashes. 
 They are not permitted to meet even with white persons for 
 the purpose of mental instruction. (Brevard Dig. 251:-5.) 
 The laws of Virginia are the same, imposing twenty lashes 
 to any such persons. In Georgia they impose ten days' 
 imprisonment and thirty-nine lashes. In North Carolina, 
 to teach a slave to read or write, or sell, or give him any 
 book, (the Bible not excepted,) or pamphlet, is punished 
 with thirty-nine lashes or imprisonment. (Law of 1831.) 
 In Georgia, if a white teach a slave to write, he is fined 
 five hundred dollars, and imprisoned at the discretion of the 
 Court. A father may be flogged fur teaching his own child. 
 (Law of 1829.) Kentucky and Maryland are the only 
 
20 
 
 States in which education is not forbidden to the slaves. 
 The spirit and design of it are shown in a speech of Mr. 
 Berry, in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832. "We 
 have," said Mr. Berry, '■' as far as possible^ closed every 
 avenue hy which light tnight enter the minds of slaves. If 
 we could extinguish the capacity to see the light, our worh 
 would ha completed ; they ivould then le on a level with the 
 heasts of the field, and we should he safe ! I am not certain 
 that we would not do it if loe could find out the process, and 
 that on the plea of necessity. '''' 
 
 Ministers have been imprisoned, females have been im- 
 prisoned, and treated with aJl kinds of hardships and abuse 
 for teaching slaves to read the Bible. These cases have be- 
 come quite numerous of hite years, and barbarous enough 
 we should think to satisfy even a slave driver's appetite for 
 cruelty. 
 
 2d. The Jewish law made the slave a man, regarded him 
 a man, treated him as man ; cur laws make him a chattel, a 
 mere beast of burthen, not a man but a thing. Bj the Jews 
 he was treated with respect, worshipped with the femily, 
 eat with the family, sat with the family, was entrusted with 
 the interests of the family, sometimes married into the 
 family, and the children of them became the heirs of the 
 master. Abram did not treat Hager's son as Southern 
 masters do their children by their slaves, sell them into 
 bondage. Jacob's children, by Bilhali and Zilpah, his wives 
 slaves, were made equal with his children by Leah and Ea- 
 chael. Eliezer, Abram's servant, was entrusted with the 
 oversight of all his property, sent with wealth and authority 
 to select a wife for his son, was received into the family of 
 Bethuel, and treated as the plenipotentiary of a great prince. 
 "Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them into 
 the 2)arlor, and made them sit in the chiefest place, among 
 them that were bidden, which were about thirty pers>on8," 
 1. Sara.ix. 22. One of our slaves would have found a place 
 in the kitchen. Ziba, Saul's servant, had twenty servants of 
 his own, and large estates, 2. Sam. ix. 10. In 1. Chron. ii. 
 34 — 35j we find this history of a slave : " Now Shcshan 
 
21 
 
 had no sons but daughters. And Sheshan had a servant^ an 
 Egyptian^ whose name was Jarha, and Sheshan gave his 
 danghter to Jarha, his servant to wife, and she bare him 
 Attai." What shameless amalgamationists those Hebrews 
 were! Thej not only married with their slaves, but eleva- 
 ted them to posts of honor. The grandson of this Attai was 
 made a noble in David's army. 1. Chron. xi. 11. 
 
 Our slave laws do not recognize slaves as men, but as 
 chattels. The decisions of our Slave Judges are, that they 
 have no rights as men, no religious, no civil rights. Judge 
 Crenshaw decided that : " A slave is in absolute bondage. 
 He has no civil rights.'''' Stewart's Ala. Rep. 320. '''■Slaves 
 are deprimd of all civil rights.'''' Judge Mathews, in Mar- 
 tin's Lou. Rep. 559. Chief Justice Taney has decided that 
 *' the sLave has no rights which white men are bound to re- 
 spect." He is not a citizen, and has no rights as a man. 
 And the whole system of American Slavery is calculated 
 and designed to degrade hiin from a man to a brute. If he 
 is permitted to go into church, he must go into the negro's 
 pew in some out of the way corner. If he comes to the 
 Lord's table, he must sit by himself. In the family, he never 
 eats with the family — never permitted to sit with the family 
 — nor be educated with the family, and even in the Free 
 States is excluded from the schools of the whites. The 
 whole system of American Slavery is a studied effort to de- 
 grade the slave, to work manhood and humanity out of him, 
 to make him feel that he is an inferior being, and servitude 
 the place for which God created him. We degrade him, 
 debase him, brutalize hiin, and then excuse ourselves for 
 enslaving him by the argument that he is an inferior race! 
 What would they be who boastingly use this argument, if 
 they were in the slaves' place a few hundred years? The 
 argument itself shows that they are below many of them now 
 in reasoning powers. He must be more than a man, who 
 would not be inferior by such usage as the slave receives, 
 and suiTounded with such circumstances as he is and has 
 alwavs been. 
 
YII. The Jews made provision for giving freedom to 
 their slaves ; all our provisions are to make Slavery perpet- 
 ual ; the Jewish system abridged it, ameliorated and abol- 
 ished it ; ours intensifies it in severity, perpetuates and ex- 
 tends it. If a Jew was sold for debt, or for crime, he 
 received his freedom in the year of release, or at the end of 
 six years at the longest. Exod. xxi. 2. If he sold himself 
 through extreme poverty, he could be held only till the year 
 of Jubilee. Lev. xxv. 39 — 41. In this year was proclaimed 
 throughout the land, universal freedom. This year — every 
 fiftieth year, all were made Iree, and all lands reverted to 
 their ancient owners. "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth 
 year, and proclaim liherly ihrouqliout all the land, unto all 
 the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you, and 
 ye shall return every man unto his possession, and unto his 
 family." Lev. xxv. 8—11. 
 
 From the passage in Lev. xxv. 46, " They shall be your 
 bondmen forever," it is argued, that slaves purchased Irom 
 the heathen did not receive their liberty in the year of Ju- 
 bilee. That this is not correct, is evident from these con- 
 siderations : 
 
 1st. That the word /c>rev«r, is frequently used in a limited 
 sense, and is here. Lev. x. 15, "And it shall be thine, and 
 thy sons with thee by a statute forever.''' But this statute 
 has long since ceased. 1. Saml. i. 22, " Then will I bring 
 him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide 
 forever," in the temple at Shiloh, Avith Eli. But he abode 
 there only during his litis ; Q.ndi forever^ here meant only as 
 long as he lived. Josh. iv. 7, " And these stones shall be 
 for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever ;" for a 
 long time. In Exod. xxi. 6, it means till the year of Jubilee, 
 as is plain by comparing it with Lev. xxv. 39 — 41. In 
 ' Exod. xxi. 6, it is ordained that the Jew was made a slave 
 forever by a certain act of his ; and in Lev. xxv, 41 — 54, 
 it is shown that this forever means only till the year of 
 Jubilee. 
 
 2d, The word forever is just as long with the heathen 
 slave as with the Jewish, and no longer. If it meant to the 
 
23 
 
 Jubilee in the one case, it did in the other ; for it is applied 
 to both dasses of slaves. In Exod. xxv. 6, it is ordained 
 of the Jew^ that '' he shall serve him, (his master,) fortver.^^ 
 In Lev. xxv. 46, it is ordained of heathen slaves^ " they shall 
 be your bondmen forevery Is forever in the one case any 
 longer than the other ? If it be limited in the one, and not 
 the other, it must be by some enactment or explanation 
 which cannot be found. 
 
 3d. Freedom in tlie Jubilee is proclaimed to all. '• And 
 ye q\\qX\ 2)roGlaim libeiiy tliroughout all the land" — to whom? 
 to all the Jewit;h slaves ? to all of a particular class wlio are 
 enslaved ? No, but " to all the inhahitanU thereof^'' to all 
 in bondage, to all whom it concerned ; '' the stranger that is 
 in thy camp, the hewer of tljy wood, and drawer of thy 
 water." 
 
 4th. It is proved by its results — it broke up Slavery, as 
 doubtless it was designed to do, and as such laws inevitably 
 would. We find no evidence that Slavery existed among 
 the Jews alter Nehemiah's day — and then it was only Jew- 
 ish oppression ; Jews oppressing Jews, and not foreigners. 
 They evidently had no foreign slaves at this time, and there 
 is no mention in any of their writers or writings of Slavery, 
 until the gospel came in contact with the heathen nations, in 
 and after Christ's day ; and this accounts for Christ saying 
 nothing about it. While it existed, the prophets severely 
 rebuked it, denounced its wickedness, the displeasure of 
 God against it, and as one of the causes of their being sold 
 into Slavery. Ish. i. 17; Iviii, 6 — 7. Ezek. xxii. 29; xxxiv. 
 17. 
 
 We have considered JcM'ish Slavery from the brief laws 
 and notices of it as recorded in the Bible in the beginning 
 of that nation, emerging from a state of Slavery themselves, 
 and entirely surrounded with it in an age of great moral 
 darkness ; but to justify our Slavery by theirs, it should be 
 when they had made their greatest attainments in religion 
 and Christian knowledge. Though they never had the light 
 and advantages we have, they had enough to abolish Sla- 
 very. 
 
24: 
 
 ago, in all their seini-barbarism, had religion, virtue and 
 humanity enough in them to undermine and destroy thia 
 more tlian barbarous practice of enslaving their fellov^ men. 
 The careful study of the Bible on this institution, cannot fail 
 to convince us how grossly it is misunderstood — and sweep 
 away the iniiders cavil against its inspiration. If our Sla- 
 very is Bible Slavery, the infidel has a valid argument for 
 his infidelity, for if God is the author of such a system, he i& 
 a monster whom all would fear, but none could love. ]S"one 
 who will look at the difference will fail to see how little they 
 resemble each other, and how absurd, disingenuous at least, 
 to justify the one by the other. Hebrew Slavery existed in 
 an age of great darkness, three thousand years ago ; ours in 
 the full sunshine of gospel knowledge. Theirs was the best 
 that could be done uuder the circumstances ; ours is the 
 worst that can be under the circumstances. Theirs Avas for 
 debts contracted by the man himself, for crimes committed; 
 ours is for neither debt nor crime. Theirs was for a righte- 
 ous claim or a just punishment ; ours is without the pretense 
 of either. When purchased of the heathen, or taken pris- 
 oners in war, they were educated in the Jewish religion, 
 made members in the family; our slaves are stolen, kid- 
 na])ped, and denied a religious education, or a family mem- 
 bership. Man-stealing in the Jewish system, was punished 
 with death ; ours is a system of man-stealing entirely. 
 Theij-s was not a system of traffic in human beings ; ouis is. 
 Theirs was mild and humane ; oui-s is cruel and oppressive 
 in the extreme. Theirs was by express permission of God, 
 or direction of God ; we have no such j)ermission or direc- 
 tion. Theirs was designed to amelioi-ate the state of Slavery 
 then prevalent in the world ; ours is no improvement on 
 Slavery anywhere existing, but is worse than any system 
 found in the civilized world. Theirs was designed and cal- 
 culated to elevate the slave to manhood ; ours- is designed 
 and calculated to work manhood out of the slave, and bru- 
 talize him. They made him a man ; we make him a chattel. 
 The Jewish system made provision for the slave's freedom; 
 ours makes every possible provision against it. Theirs grew 
 
25 
 
 milder, and disappeared from among them as they gained 
 light; ours has increased and extended in the midst of light, 
 and has grown worse instead of better. Theirs was a mild. 
 Christian system; onrs is a cruel, heathen system. Theirs 
 worked its own cure by a wise legislation; ours is working 
 its cure by its monstrous wickedness, and is washing itself 
 out in blood. Theirs ceased by doing right about it, giving 
 the slave his freedom, as England and other Christian States 
 have done; ours is ending as it did in Egypt, and other 
 heathen nations in the Red Sea. 
 
 I have nsed the words slave and slavery in running a par- 
 allel between American Slavery and the old Jewish code of 
 service, because the advocates of slavery claim the Jewish 
 code as a system of slavery, and justify American Slavery 
 by it ; but in truth, the Jewish system was not slavery in 
 any sense as we now use the term. The term servant^ as 
 used in the Old Testament writers, is not slave^ in the sense 
 we use the word. It did not convey to the Jew the idea of 
 chatleX^ thing^ Irute animal^ but a man or a woman bound to 
 service for a time. The framers of our National Constitu- 
 tion would not allow the terms slave and slaveinj in that in- 
 strument, and thereby refused to recognize what the term 
 slave is now meant to imply — ownership of men, and the 
 destruction of the rights of man, the converting of a man to 
 athing — a beast of burthen — a thing without rights, abso- 
 lutely, unconditionally the property of another, a creature to 
 be regarded in no other light than the amount of money 
 he will bring in the market, or the amount of labor he can 
 perform. This is the meaning of slave as now defined by 
 Southern law, and maintained by their courts of law. in this 
 sense the Jews never held slaves — they never had any such 
 laws as these, and to charge it upon them is the grossest 
 slander. 
 
 The teachings, the laws, the institutions of the Old Testa- 
 ment are all against Slavery — opposed to all oppression. 
 This is the declaration of their learned men, Maimonides, 
 and others. It is found in their proi)hets and sacred writings, 
 coupled with threatenings and denunciations. Prov. xxii. 
 
26 
 
 22—23. Ish. i. 17; v. 7—9 ; xxx. 12—13 ; Ixviii. 6. Jer. 
 xxxiv. 17. Ezek. xxii. 29 — 31, and chapter xxxi v. Learned 
 and able writers on Jewish law assure us, that there is in 
 Hebrew no word for slave in the sense we use it, and the 
 laws of Moses no where recognizes such a right in man as 
 slaveholders claim. Able and learned Jewish writers show 
 conclusively that the Mosaic law was much milder than it 
 appears to us, designed for the general good of the poor and 
 the oppressed, and worked out the problem it designed, of 
 elevating and freeing them. 
 
 A careful examination of the Mosaic laws will convince us: 
 
 1st. That there was no slavery in the modern sense of the 
 word among the Jews ; and 
 
 2d. Therefore no slave insurrections, as in every nation 
 where Slavery has prevailed; in Sicily, Rome, Crete, Sparta, 
 Thessaly, Havti, and the United States. 
 
 3d. That their laws of service prevented pauperism, va- 
 grancy, idleness, &c. We find no mention of poor-houses, 
 alms-houses, jails, prisons, beggars, and the like. Their 
 remedy fur poverty was work, fur insolvency work and pay 
 the debt, for theft, work. They carried out God's law, "six 
 days shalt thou labor," and made all comply with it ; and 
 this was much better, and accomplished more in preventing 
 poverty, bankruptcy and crime, than all modern improve- 
 ments for these evils. 
 
 Since our attention has been called to the subject, we must 
 not dismiss it without noticing the teachings of the New 
 Testament. It is claimed that Christ said nothing against 
 it, and therefore he approved it. It is certain Christ said 
 nothing for it, and never manifested any interest for it, then 
 how comes it, that those who profess to follow his example 
 can say so much ibr it, and manifest so deep an interest in 
 it? If Christ said nothing against it, it was because it was 
 not necessary he should, for it did not exist, was not prac- 
 ticed by those to whom his teachings M^ere given. His teach- 
 ings were given to the church, and it did not exist in the 
 church. The Jews, to whom his teachings were confined, 
 were not guilty of it, how could ke condemn it in them ? 
 
27 
 
 Christ's doctrines were not promulgated to the Roman gov- 
 ernment, nor even to the centurion, whose servant he healed 
 from whofti he turned away and directed his instructions to 
 his disciples. Math. viii. 5 — 13. 
 
 But if the Saviour did not condemn it where it did not 
 exist, he gave his disciples, and through them, his church a 
 code of law -which cuts it up by the roots — which at once 
 destroys it wherever, and by whomsoever his law is em- 
 braced. No law can be enacted against it more sweeping 
 than this : " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
 " Therefore all things, whatsoever ye would that men should 
 do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and 
 the prophets." Math. vii. 12. Every law on the Southeni 
 statute book, every law and every practice of modern Sla- 
 very is opposed to this. No man wishes his neighbor to 
 enslave him, therefore by this law, he cannot enslave his 
 neighbor. As any man is averse to any of the wrongs and 
 evils of Slavery, and would not have them practiced on him- 
 self or his children, so far as a Christian, must he condemn 
 the system and all its details. 
 
 If it be a valid argument, that it is right because the Sa- 
 viour said nothing against it, then all other practices and 
 laws are right against which he did not utter his protest. 
 Now look into Roman history of that day, and see what a 
 mass of wicked practices, and wicked laws we shall be com- 
 pelled to justify. If we find it approved or condemned in 
 the New Testament, it will be when the New Testament 
 Church comes in contact with it ; and this was not till after 
 Christ's death, for not till then was the gospel preached to 
 the heathen who held slaves. And what is the Teaching of 
 the Apostles f What they taught, and its effects on Sla- 
 very, will prove this much : 
 
 1st. That not a word of approval or of justification, for the 
 system, nor a license to any Christian to hold a slave, is any 
 where to be found. A man is not expressly forbidden to 
 hold a slave, but he is required to do what entirely destroys 
 the system. " Masters, give unto your servants that which 
 is just and equal ; knowing that ye also have a master in 
 heaven." Col. iv. 1. 
 
2» 
 
 Is it " jnst or equal" to deprive a man of his wife, or child, 
 or earnings ? What master would so regard it if practiced 
 on himself? 
 
 Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, whom none will accuse of "Ab- 
 olitionism," says on this text, " Slaves are to be treated by 
 their masters on the principles of equality. Not that they 
 are to be equal with their masters in authority*, or station, 
 or circumstances ; hut they are to he treated as having^ as 
 men^ as husbands^ and as parents^ equal rights with their 
 masters. It is just as great a sin to deprive a slave of the 
 just recompense for his lahor., or keep him in ignorance., or 
 take him from his wife or child, as it is to act thus to a free 
 man. This is the equality which the law of God demands, 
 and on this principle the final judgment is to be admin- 
 istered." 
 
 How much of a slave is that man who has equal rights 
 with his master in everything but " his station and circum- 
 stances?" Has a right to his wages, an education, to his 
 wife and children? Have we any such Slavery as this? 
 Was this Eoman Slavery? ]S"o one will object to such 
 Slavery as this, but slave owners and those who are for de- 
 priving men of these gospel rights. This is a good regula- 
 tion for master and servant., but a death blow to master and 
 slave. It effectually abolishes Slavery. Every commentary 
 which I have seen, takes this view of the text, some directly 
 and others inferentially. 
 
 It is argued that those passages which enjoin obedience to 
 masters, as Eph. vi, 5 — 8, and others, approve the condition 
 of master and slave. We have men North of Mason and 
 Dixon's line, who have committed these scriptures by heart, 
 and repeat them as conclusive arguments that the apostles 
 justified Slavery; but one circumstance militates against 
 their honesty or their intelligence; they either do not know, 
 or will not repeat what the apostle said to masters. I have 
 heard Eph. vi. 5 — 8, quoted very accurately; but the stojiping 
 place was at the 8th verse. The 9th verse either did not 
 make for the system, or it was too hard to learn, or tliought 
 not to have a connection. This disinwenuousness of its ad- 
 
29 
 
 vocates is a very strong argument that these men do uot 
 believe the apostles taught Slavery. Slave owners are 
 willing you should preach what the Bible enjoins on the 
 servant to their slaves, but he had better be out of Dixie if 
 he ventures to preach what the scriptures enjoin on the 
 master. What stronger argument can we have that the 
 Bible does not justify Slavery ? 
 
 That we may see how much the argument is worth, let 
 us collate it with other passages. '' JJut I say unto you, 
 love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to 
 them that hate you, and pray fur them which despitefully 
 use you, and persecute you." Math. v. 44. " Let every 
 soul be subject unto the higher powers." Eom. xiii. 1. 
 
 Do these commands approve or justify enmity, hate, 
 persecution, cursing, and despiteful abuse? Does obe- 
 dience to a bad government justify bad government? 
 The apostles commanded obedience to the Eoman govern- 
 ment, a government tolerating persecution for Christianity, 
 feeding Christians to wild beasts, burning, torturing them, a 
 government that gave the father power to kill his children, 
 the husband his wife, and enjoined the death of hundreds or 
 thousands of slaves for the murder of the master; does his 
 command to be obedient and serve such a government, ap- 
 prove or sanction it? Just as much as his commands to be 
 obedient to a master who violates the laws of God and na- 
 ture, sanctions such a master, or such a system. 
 
 2d. That slavery is not a good condition to be in, and 
 therefore it is not good to hold a man in it. " If thou mayest 
 be made free, use it rather." 1. Cor. vii. 21. If you cannot 
 be free it is not your fault, but the fault of another — if yon 
 can be, it is your duty to be free. If it is the slave's duty 
 to be free, it is every man's duty not to enslave him Sla- 
 very is not as good a state as freedom ; then every man is 
 guilty of a wrong who forces such a state. The apostle 
 plainly declares that Slavery is uot as good a state for men 
 as freedom, then how can he justify any for forcing this 
 worse state on men? It is no where justified by Christ or 
 his apostles. 
 
30 
 
 3d. The effect of Bible teaching, of Christianity, is to de- 
 stroy Slavery ; how then could it be that Christ and his 
 apostles taught it to be right? The converted heathen gave 
 freedom to their slaves. Owners of slaves when converted, 
 manumitted their slaves in hundreds, and it is said thous- 
 ands, as inconsistent with the principles of their new reli- 
 gion. In the days of Constantine by an order of the Em- 
 peror it was done in the church and before the whole congre- 
 gation. The real Bible portion of the world objected strongly 
 against American Slavery, when introduced by enslaving 
 the Indians. Las Casas " Et^ected with indignation the 
 idea, that any race of men was born to servitude, as in-e- 
 ligious, and inhuman." Bob. Am. 1, book III, It was the 
 Bible in England which brought it to an end in the West 
 Indies. It was Bible teaching in New England and Atlan- 
 tic States, which banished it from every State where it 
 existed, North of Mason and Dixon's line. The result of 
 Bible teaching, if practiced, would be just what it was in 
 the case of Onesimus, and what Paul exhorted Philemon to, 
 the servant set free, and received as a brother beloved. 
 Here is a sample of New Testament teaching, and practice. 
 Paul tells Philemon he might enjoin him as a Christian^ yet 
 for love's sake, he beseeches him as a Christian brother, to 
 receive his servant — but not as a servant or slave, but a 
 brother, beloved. Taking Paul's Epistle to Philemon as 
 their guide, how many Christians would hold slaves? Nay 
 — how many could? Paul says he might coinma7id as an 
 inspired apostle, what he asks Philemon to do — not to hold 
 Onesimus as a slave, but regard him above a slave — a broth- 
 er an equal by the law of Christianity. If this is the law 
 
 of Christianity, who then pleads Christianity to justify 
 American Slavery ? Phil, verses 8, 10—16. A Missionary 
 in the West Indies before the abolition of Slavery there, 
 was charged with reading an inflammatory chapter from 
 the Bible to his congregation. It might have been true, for 
 the Bible has many such chapters, and as offensive to our 
 slaveholders as to the West Indians. 
 
 Great numbers in every age, since Christ's advent can 
 
31 
 
 say, with Cochin, " / owe. to Christianity the horror with 
 which Slavery inspires mey 
 
 4th. The apostles place our Shivery among the worst 
 crimes. 1. Tim. i. 9 — 10, in enumerating things against 
 which the law is ordained he specifies, the " profane, mur- 
 derers of fathers and mothers, man-slayers, whore- 
 mongers, men-stealers^ liars, and perjured persons." Our 
 Slavery is founded in man-stealing, and it will be found to 
 embrace all this catalogue of crime, profanity, murdering 
 fathers and mothers, man-slaying, whoredom, lying and 
 perjury. John Wesley expressed very briefly what Paul 
 particularizes, " Slavery is the sum of all villanies." There 
 is not a crime forbidden in the Bible, which American Sla- 
 very does not tolerate and practice. 
 
 There are hard problems in ethics and some men's system 
 of theology, the solving of which Avould confer a favor on the 
 miskilled and dull of apprehension, I have not been able 
 to solve these, and will acknowledge my obligations to 
 any one who will. 
 
 1st. How it is that the Bible teaches Slavery, and yet 
 slave owners will not allow it to be taught to their slaves. 
 Slaveholders, and the advocates of Slavery are very sure 
 the Bible teaches Slavery, and yet Slavery makes it a crime 
 to teach a slave to read the Bible. Are they afraid their 
 slaves will find out it is a sin to be free ? Or that God made 
 them for slaves, and doomed them to this state? 
 
 2d. How it is that Slavery is good, and yet productive of 
 untold evils; good, and yet always ends in mischief. In 
 nearly every State or kingdom where it has not been abol- 
 ished by law, it has ended in civil wars, insurrections, mobs, 
 &c., as in Greece, Rome, Hayti, and the United States. Wbat 
 a Southern father told his children would be the result of 
 Slavery in this country, " That the sun of Slavery would 
 set in blood," was predicted from the history of Slavery and 
 oppression in other countries. This has been its history. 
 We need not go abroad to know what demoralization, vio- 
 lation of the decencies and amenities of life, brutalities and 
 cruelties it breeds. We have all these and every sin lorbid- 
 
32 
 
 den in the decalogue, as the result of it in our land. God 
 approves b la very, His word teaches it, and His providence 
 is always against it, from the day He drowned the Egyptians 
 in the Red Sea till to-day, when He is drowning American 
 Slavery " in destruction and perdition." How is this ac- 
 counted for ? 
 
 3d. How is it, that God has implanted in the human soul 
 a desire for freedom, a foci which every one knows in his 
 own experience, and yet created men to be slaves ? Does 
 God make such contradictions, or is the desire of freedom a 
 part of Adam's sin? 
 
 4th. How is it that the Bible teaches Slavery, and yet 
 wherever the Bible goes, Slavery is abolished. It univer- 
 sally prevailed in the heathen world at the coming of Christ, 
 but did not prevail among the Jews, and it disappeared 
 from the heathen world wherever the Bible was introduced, 
 and believed as the word of God. 
 
 6th. Slavery is a Divine institution — a Bible institution 
 ordained and taught by prophets and apostles, then how is 
 it, that nearly all good men in every age, have been opposed 
 to it ? and such a majority of bad men are in favor of it? 
 To-day, ninety-nine out of one hundred of all Evangel- 
 ical Ministers throughout Christendom, are opposed to it, 
 at least those who have not an interest in it, or are not in 
 some way involved in it. The scandal of being aholitionists 
 has belonged to Cln-istians in all ages, and the glory of ap- 
 proving and justifying Slavery, to but very few. Thousands 
 in this country are heartily opposed to the system, w^ho 
 have hitherto been opposed to meddling with it in the States, 
 until those States have sought to enforce it on the country, and 
 to found a slave empire, have waged war on the Government. 
 This has been my position until this war. Though called an ab- 
 olitionist, 1 have not till lately been entitled to the credit, 
 or scandal, as you please to regard it. lam now thoroughly 
 converted, and have no scruples in placing it where Paul 
 has, among the worst of crimes, and am so far a Wesleyan 
 as to believe with the author of Wesleyanism, that " it is the 
 sum of all villainies." ''A Divine Institution!" a divine 
 
33 
 
 institution for man-stealing — for robbing a man of his rights, 
 for adultery per force, and by the right of the master — for 
 traffic in the souls and bodies of men! All this, and a 
 thousand other things of like character, and some ^vorse, by 
 the grace of God, to be sure! By the grace of God to 
 whom ? Why, to the slave himself we are told ! To the 
 man who is knocked down, manacled, and sold to men who 
 work them as they do oxen, deny them the Bible, keep them 
 in ignorance, whip and torture them to their heart's content! 
 To woman, Avhom the good and gracious system, subjects to 
 the lusts of the master, and to see their own offspring sold 
 at the master's pleasure for a cotton plantation! What a 
 God the God of Slavery must be ! and the men who con- 
 ceived such a being! The day is coming when the world 
 will be at a loss to understand what could have been the 
 condition of society when such sentiments were tolerated or 
 believed. 
 
 In conclusion, I have no apology to offer for this sermon, 
 the text was laid upon the desk, and I was requested to 
 preach from it ; and, I judged, not by an abolitionist or an 
 anti-slavery man, for they are not apt to fasten their atten- 
 tion on such texts, or feel any special favor for them. I have 
 not preached it therefore, to gratify anti-slavery men, nor 
 with any design or desire to wound the feelings of those who 
 differ with me. This I would gladly avoid. It is always 
 more or less painful to preach what I know friends dislike 
 to hear. I love my friends, and pray God to give me grace 
 to love my enemies. For several years jDast, the question of 
 duty and friendship have had a constant struggle in my 
 mind. I have hesitated, pondered and prayed, to know 
 what I should do. Friends on the one hand, and the ques- 
 tion of duty on the other — friends who had been such for 
 twenty long years, and the claims as I believed of my coun- 
 try, of patriotism, of religion, of my vows as a minister, to 
 be faithful to the truth and my fears of the judgment on the 
 other, have given me some wakeful hours, and no small 
 agitation and anxiety. I would not be understood that this 
 was entirely on my own account — the welfare, the unity. 
 
34 
 
 and prosperity of the church over which God lias placed me, 
 Iiad something to do in the matter. The church is worth 
 many such things as myself. Every member is as precious 
 in the eye of God as myself, and I would not offend one of 
 Christ's little ones. I fear the millstone. I have read the 
 maledictions of politicians on the floor of Congress against 
 ministers, and heard them in the streets by the drunken tools 
 of politicians, for meddling with politics, wlien praying for 
 our country, for the Government, was the sin, when the mere 
 mention of Slavery was politics, and this by men who brand- 
 ed every man aa an abolitionist who was not heart and hand 
 for Slavery. These were not my trouble, but friends in the 
 fold of Christ — who, perhaps, were his in the covenant of 
 redemption, but were misled, were in the dark on the sub- 
 ject, and who suffered the blindness, perhaps in the provi- 
 dence of God to rebuke my own unfaithfulness, and be a 
 thorn in the flesh to keep me sensitive to duty, and cure 
 pride. The effect has been a careful examination as to duty 
 on the subject now discussed, and to the church and govern- 
 ment. I have not been able to prove to my satisfaction, 
 that a Christian Minister may not be, or ouglit not to be a 
 patriot, love his country, pray for the Government ; or that 
 his patriotism should be less at a time above all others 
 when patriotism is demanded, or his prayers or efforts be 
 less when his country is in danger, and great efforts made to 
 overthrow the Government. I am convinced that a Chris- 
 tian must he a patriot^ and none the less for being a min- 
 ister ; that in time of need, as I conceive the present to be, 
 he ought to be willing to make any sacrifice of time, labor, 
 friends, money, and life, if need be. A good Government is 
 God's gift, and the best gift to men for this world, and ours 
 is unquestionably the best the world has, or perhaps ever 
 has had, being founded on the principle of universal free- 
 dom to all, and in which ail help to govern ; the very kind 
 of government indeed, which God himself gave to his own 
 chosen people ; separate tribes, but one general govern- 
 ment ; the tribes distinct, and yet one ; a written Constitu- 
 tion for each State, and a ITational one ; laws enacted by 
 
35 
 
 the people, rulers and judges chosen bj the people, and 
 from among the people, and full provision made for amend- 
 ing and correcting any bad law, and the removal of every 
 bad magistrate, and redressing every wrong What more 
 can any people ask? What better can God do for them in 
 the bestowment of a government? Being fully pursuaded 
 of these facts, I have preached some four patriotic ser- 
 mons since the war began, in my feeble way trying to 
 convince my people of these truths, and our duties in con- 
 nection with them. Holding these sentiments, I cannot but 
 regard every man in error who lightly esteems the rich 
 boon which God has conferred on us in the Government he 
 has given us ; and every man who, from party motives, or 
 any other, takes part against the Government or those labor- 
 ing to sustain it against this rebellion, as the enemies of the 
 country, my enemies and yours ; and every system, and 
 everything whicli endangers the peace and perpetuity of 
 this Government as mischievous, wrong, wicked. Such I 
 regard Slavery. It is at the bottom of, and the author — 
 the sole cause of this war. As a patriot then, I ought to hate 
 Slavery ; it has sought, and is now struggling to destroy 
 my country ; as a friend to good Government, I ought to 
 hate it ; it has undermined and fired the train, to blow to 
 fragments, the best Government in the world. As the friend 
 of universal, civil, and religious liberty, I ought to hate it; 
 it is the monster tyrant that seeks the destruction of human 
 liberty, and to extend its empire of darkness and oppression 
 over the world. As the friend of education, of light and 
 intelligence, 1 ought to hate it ; it has opposed and obstructed 
 all these as far as it could. As a Christian, I ought to hate 
 it, and all kinds of oppression; all the prophets, and good 
 men of every age, have been its enemies. As a minister 
 of the gospel of peace, I ought to be its enemy ; it has com- 
 menced, and is now waging a bloody, cruel, causeless and bar- 
 barous war, of which savages ought to be ashamed. As a phi- 
 lanthropist, I ought to abominate it ; what wrong has it not 
 inflicted on men? What thousands, yea what millions, 
 has it robbed and murdered, and cast to the sharks of the 
 
36 
 
 ocean:' No, there is not a Christian emotion in the soul of 
 man, not a kind or a right emotion, which is not opposed to 
 American Slavery. We rejoice in the belief that its day of 
 doom has come, that the hand is seen writing on the wall, 
 that the river is turned, and the army of deliverance is 
 entering "the two-leaved gates," and soon God's captives 
 shall be set free, and the American Belshazzar and his 
 impious Lords be slain, and Babylon be utterly destroyed. 
 A " voice from heaven," the providence of God, the signs 
 of the times, say to God's people, " Come out of her, my 
 people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye 
 receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached 
 unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 
 Reward her according to her works ; in the cup which she 
 hath filled, fill to her double. How much she hatli glori- 
 fied herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and 
 Borrow give her ; for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, 
 and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore 
 shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, 
 and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for 
 strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." 
 
HS3 75 550 
 
►'.^^5> 
 
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