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i^C(/ * To THE 
 
 CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 / ^ , ^ PROVINa THAT THE 
 
 doctrineIs advanced and the measures pursued 
 
 BY THE 
 
 ABOLITIONISTS, 
 
 RELATIVE TO THE 
 
 SUBJECT OF EMANCIPATION, 
 
 ARE INCONSISTENT WITH 
 
 ?rhe JTcachtufis arttti Jilvectious ot tft? 3$ff)U, 
 
 AND THAT THOSE 
 
 engaged in the dissemination of these principles, 
 
 SHOULD be immediately DISMISSED BY THEIR 
 RESPECTIVE CONGREGATIONS, 
 
 AS FALSE TEACHERS. 
 
 :</ 
 
 BY SIMON CL.OUGH, X>.D. liL.D. 
 
 Pastor of the Christian Society, Fall River, Masa. 
 
 .NEW-YORK> 
 
 PUBLISHED BY A. K. BERTRON, 268, BOWERY. 
 W. Mitchell, Printer, 2U5, Boweiy. 
 
 1834. 
 

 Entered according (o Act of Congress, In the year 1834, 
 
 By SIMON CLOUGH, D.D. LL.D. 
 
 In the Office of the Clerk of the Southern District of New. York. 
 
 fstr 
 
t^ A 
 
 CANDID APPEAIi, 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : 
 
 A Society, of a very extraordinary character, was 
 organized in the month of December last, in the city of 
 Philadelphia, known and designated by the name of the 
 ^^ JSTational Anti-Slavery Society. ^^ The Society has 
 published and sent forth to the world a '* Declaration of 
 Sentiments," including the " Designs and Measures" of 
 the Society, and the objects they propose to accomplish. 
 According to this Declaration, the following sentiments, 
 principles, and measures, are distinctly avowed : — 
 
 " We maintain, that in view of the civil and religious 
 privileges of this nation, the guilt of its oppression is 
 unequalled by any other on the face of the earth ; — and, 
 therefore, that it is bound to repent instantly, to undo the 
 heavy burden, to break every yoke, and to let the 
 oppressed go free. 
 
 " We further maintain, that every man has a right to 
 his own body, to the products of his own labour, to the 
 protection of law, and to the common advantages of 
 society. It is piracy to buy or steal an African, and 
 subject him to servitude. Surely the sin is as great to 
 enslave an American as an African. That every American 
 citizen, who retains a single human being in involuntaiy 
 bondage, is, according to the Scripture, a man-stealer ; 
 that the slaves ought to be instantly set free, and brought 
 under the protection of law ; that all those laws which 
 
are now in force, admitting" the right of slavery, are, 
 therefore, before God, utterly null and void ; being an 
 audacious usurpation of the Divine prerogative, a daring 
 infringement on the law of nature, a base overthrow of 
 the very foundations of the social compact, a complete 
 extinction of all the social relations, endearments, and 
 obligations of mankind, and a presumptuous transgression 
 of the holy commandments ; and that, therefore, they 
 ought to be instantly abrogated. 
 
 " We further affirm, that all persons of colour, who 
 possess the necessary qualifications which are demanded 
 of others, ought to be admitted forthwith to the enjoy- 
 ment of the same privileges, and the exercise of the 
 same prerogatives, as others ; and that the paths of 
 preferment, of wealth, and of intelligence, should be 
 opened as widely to them as to persons of a white 
 complexion. 
 
 *' We maintain that no compensation should be given 
 to the planters emancipating their slaves. We regard as 
 delusive, cruel, and dangerous, any scheme of expatria' 
 tion, which pretends to aid, either directly or indirectly, 
 in the emancipation of the slaves, or to be a substitute 
 for the immediate and total abolition of slavery. This 
 relation to slavery is criminal and full of danger ; it must 
 be broken up. 
 
 " We shall organize Anti-Slavery Societies, if possible, 
 in every city, town, and village of our land. We shall 
 send forth agents to lift up the voice of remonstrance, of 
 warning, of entreaty, and rebuke. We shall circulate 
 unsparingly and extensively, anti-slavery tracts and pe- 
 riodicals. We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the 
 cause of the suffering and the dumb. We shall aim at a 
 purification of the churches from all participation in the 
 guilt of slaveiy. We shall encourage the labour of free- 
 men over that of slaves, by giving a preference to their 
 productions, and we shall spare no exertions nor means 
 to bring the whole to a speedy repentance. 
 
 " These are our views and principles — these our 
 designs and measures, With entire confidence in the 
 
over-mling" justice of God, we plant ourselves upon the 
 truths of divine revelation, as upon the everlasting rock." 
 
 Such are the principles and designs of the Society, as 
 set forth in the words of their own " Declaration," which 
 was subsciibed by the members of the National Conven- 
 tion, and under their express sanction published to the 
 world. 
 
 This Society has been organized under the special and 
 particular direction of clergymen, who have been the 
 active and efficient members of the Society since its 
 organization: they have been the principal agents and 
 orators who have addressed assemblies in the different 
 sections of our country on this excitable topic. Having 
 lain a train of powder in various directions through our 
 widely-extended countiy, they propose to elicit a spark 
 from heaven, and kindle one general conflagration through 
 this w^idely-spreading Republic. Hence their constant 
 appeals to Heaven, to God, and to the Bible, in support 
 of their principles, and in justification of their measures. 
 They use the most fieiy and excitable " language, and 
 endeavour to bring all the moving and quickening in- 
 fluences of Christianity to operate upon the minds of the 
 community, for the purpose of enlisting them in the cause 
 of abolition. 
 
 It is not our intention, at this time, to go into a general 
 discussion of the question of slavery, as it exists in this 
 country, to either justify it, or to propose any remedy for 
 it. We propose merely to show, that the doctrine, 
 principles, and measures of the Anti-Slavery Society, as 
 set forth in their " Declaration," are wholly inconsistent 
 with the doctrine and teachings of the Bible on this 
 subject, and that no Minister of the Gospel can con- 
 sistently become a member of that Society, or advocate 
 its measures. I wish here to be distinctly understood. 
 The question at issue is not whether we shall continue 
 the African slave trade, or whether we shall enslave the 
 free coloured population of our country ; the question is 
 simply concerning those who are now held in a state of 
 
6 
 
 legal servitude. What is the duty of the Minister of the 
 Gospel towards this class of our fellow-being-s, and what 
 are the teaching's of the Bible on this sulDJect, which 
 should be observed and enforced by eveiy Minister of 
 the sanctuary. The doctrines and teachings of the Bible 
 on this subject are a safe directory, and should be an 
 infallible guide to eveiy Minister of Christ. We propose 
 to inquire into the teachings and directions of the Old 
 Testament on the subject of slavery, and then to ex- 
 amine the New Testament respecting the teachings and 
 directions of Jesus Christ and his Apostles on the same 
 question, and the directions they have given the Ministers 
 of the Gospel respecting slaves and slave-holders. 
 
 In order, however, fully to understand and approve 
 the doctrine of the Old Testament on the subject of 
 slavery, it will be necessaiy to make some preliminary 
 observations. 
 
 Philosophers, who have made human society the 
 subject of their speculations, have divided civil society 
 into five c! asses. These classes of society include all 
 the various civil conditions of men, from the most rude 
 and barbarous, to the most civi]ized and cultivated. 
 
 1. First class. In this state of society, the human 
 species are in the lowest and rudest state ; their natural 
 and mental powers are very faintly developed, but their 
 external senses are acute, and their organs are active 
 and vigorous. Hunting and fishing are the chief employ- 
 ments on which they depend for support. During that 
 portion of their time, which is not spent in these pursuits, 
 they are sunk in listless indolence. Destitute of foresight, 
 they are roused to active exertion only by the pressure 
 of immediate necessity, or the urgent calls of appetite. 
 Accustomed to endure the severity of the elements, and 
 but scantily provided with the means of subsistence, they 
 acquire habits of resignation and fortitude, which are 
 b -beld with astonishment by those who enjoy the plenty 
 and indulgence of civilized life. But in the state of want 
 and depression, the milder affections are unknown ; or if 
 the breast is at all sensible to their impulse, it is ex- 
 
tremely feeble. Husband and wife, parent and childj 
 brother and sister, are vmited by the weakest ties. Want 
 and misfortune are not pitied. Why, indeed, should 
 they, where they cannot be relieved ? Of arts they are 
 almost entirely destitute. They may use some insti-u- 
 ments for fishing- and the chase; but these must be 
 extremely simple and rude. If they are acquainted with 
 any means to shelter themselves from the inclemency of 
 the elements, both their houses and clothing will be 
 awkward and inconvenient. 
 
 2. Second class. But few human beings have been 
 found in so rude a state as that which we have described. 
 Even those tribes which we denominate savage, are, for 
 the most part, farther removed from mere animal life. 
 They generally appear united under some species of 
 government, exercising the powers of reason, capable of 
 morality, though that morality be not veiy refined ; dis- 
 playing some degree of social virtue, and acting under 
 the influence of religious sentiments. Persons in this 
 state of society, however, are still to be found in the 
 hvmting and fishing state ; but they are further advanced 
 towards social life, and are become more sensible towards 
 the impulse of social affections. We behold its members 
 in a more comfortable condition, and find reason to view 
 the human character with more complacency and respect. 
 Huts are now built, more commodious, clothes are 
 fashioned, instruments for the annoyance of wild beasts, 
 and even of enemies, are contrived ; in short, arts and 
 sciences, and social order, and religious sentiments, and 
 ceremonies, now make their appearance in the rising 
 society, and serve to characterize it by the particular 
 form which distinguishes each of them. But though the 
 social order is no longer unknown nor unobserved, yet 
 the form of government is extremely simple, and its ties 
 are but loose and feeble. In this state of society the 
 principal distinction between the young and the old is 
 experience ; if the old, however, have experience, the 
 young have strength and activity. The whole tribe 
 deliberate ; the old give their advice ; each individual of 
 
8 
 
 the assembly receives or rejects it at pleasure ; and the 
 warrior who is the most distinguished for strength, 
 address, and valour, leads out the youth of the tribe to 
 the chase, or against the enemy. War, which in the 
 former state did not prevail, as they, who were strangers 
 to the social sentiments, were at the same time scarcely 
 capable of being enemies, now first begins to depopulate 
 the thinly inhabited regions, where those hunters and 
 fishers pursue their prey. They are scattered, possibly, 
 in scanty and separate tribes, over an immense tract of 
 countiy ; but they know no medium between the affec- 
 tion which brethren of the same tribe bear to each other, 
 and the hatred of enemies. Though thinly scattered 
 over the earth, yet the hunting parties of the different 
 tribes will sometimes meet as they range the forest ; and 
 when they meet, they will naturally view each other 
 with a jealous eye ; for the success of one party in the 
 chase may cause the other to be unsuccessful ; and 
 while the one snatches the prey, the other must return 
 home to all the pangs of famine. Inveterate hostility 
 will, therefore, long prevail among neighbouring tribes in 
 the hunting state. 
 
 3. Third class. In contemplating the third class of 
 civilized society, we shall carry our views a little forward, 
 and survey human life as approaching somewhat nearer 
 to a civilized and enlightened state. As property is 
 acquired, inequality and subordination of ranks neces- 
 sarily follow ; and when men are no longer equal, the 
 many are soon subjected to the will of the few. But 
 what gives rise to these i^iew phenomena is, that after 
 having suffered from the precariousness of the fishing 
 and hunting state, men begin to extend their cares be- 
 yond the present moment, and to think of providing some 
 supply for future wants. When they are enabled to 
 provide for such a supply, either by pursuing the chase 
 with new eagerness and perseverance, by gathering the 
 spontaneous fruits of the earth, or by breeding tame 
 animals,, these acquisitions are at first the property of the 
 whole society, and distributed from a common store to 
 
9 
 
 each individual according- to his wants ; but as various 
 reasons will soon concur to convince the community, 
 that by this mode of distribution, industry and activity are 
 treated with injustice, while neg-lig-ence and indolence 
 receive more than their due, each individual will in a 
 short time become his own steward, and a community of 
 goods will be abolished. As soon as distinct ideas of 
 property are formed, it must be unequally distributed ; 
 and as soon as property is unequally distributed, there 
 arises an inequality in ranks. Here we have the origin 
 of the depression of the female sex in rude ages, of the 
 tyrannical authority exercised by parents over their chil- 
 dren, and of slavery. The women cannot display the 
 same perseverance, or activity, or address, as the men in 
 pursuing the chase ; they are, therefore, left at home ; 
 and from that moment are no longer equals, but slaves 
 and dependents, who must subsist by the bounty of the 
 males, and must, therefore, submit with implicit obedience 
 to all their capricious commands. Even before the era 
 of property, the female sex were viewed as inferiors ; 
 but till that period they were not reduced to a state of 
 abject slavery. 
 
 In this period of society new notions are formed of the 
 relative duties. Men now become citizens, masters, and 
 servants ; husbands, parents, &c. It is impossible to 
 enumerate all the various modes of government which 
 take place among the tribes who have advanced to this 
 stage ; but one thing is certain, that the authority of the 
 few over the many is now first established, and that the 
 rise of property first introduces inequality of ranks. In 
 one place, we shall find the community subjected during 
 this period to the will of a single person ; in another, 
 power may be lodged in the hands of a number of chiefs ; 
 and in a third, every individual may have a voice in 
 creating public officers, and in enacting laws for the 
 support of public order. But as no code of laws is 
 formed during this period, justice is not very impartially 
 administered, nor are the rights of individuals veiy faith- 
 fully guarded. Many actions, which will afterwards be 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 considered as heinously immoral, are now considered as 
 praiseworthy or indifferent. This is the ag-e of hero 
 Worship, and of household and tutelar gods ; for it is in 
 this stag-e of society that the invention of arts, which g^ave 
 rise to that worship, contributes most conspicuously to 
 the public g-ood. War, too, which we consider as be- 
 ginning- first to ravage the earth during the former period, 
 and which is another cause of the deification of dead 
 men, will still prevail in this age, and be carried on 
 with no less ferocity than before, though in a more 
 systematic form. 
 
 4. Fourth class. But let us contemplate our species 
 in a new light, as having acquired greater dignity and 
 anaiableness of character. Let us view them as hus- 
 bandmen, artisans, and legislators. Whatever circum- 
 stances might turn the attention of any people from 
 hunting to agriculture, or cause the herdsman to yoke his 
 oxen for the cultivation of the ground, certain it is that 
 this occupation would produce a happy change on the 
 character and circumstances of men, it would oblige them 
 to exert a more regular and persevering industry. The 
 hunter is like one of those birds that are described as 
 passing the winter in a torpid state. The shepherd's 
 life is extremely indolent. Neither of these is very 
 favourable to refinement. But different is the condition 
 of the husbandman. His labours succeed each other in 
 regular rotation through the year. Each season with 
 him has its proper employments ; he, therefore, must 
 exert active, persevering industry ; and in this state we 
 often find the virtues of rude and polished nations united. 
 This is the period where barbarism ends and civilization 
 begins. Nations have existed for ages in the hunting 
 and shepherd state, fixed as by a kind of stagnation, 
 without advancing further. But scarce any instances 
 occur in the history of mankind of those who once 
 reached the state of husbandmen, remaining long in that 
 condition without rising to a more civilized and polished 
 state. Where a people turn their attention in any 
 considerable degree to the objects of agriculture, a dis- 
 
11 
 
 tinction of occupations naturally arises among* them. The 
 husbandman is so constantly employed throug-h the 
 several seasons of the year in the labours of the 
 field, that he has no longer leisure to exercise all the 
 rude arts known among- his countrymen. He has not 
 time to fashion the instruments of husbandry, to prepare 
 his clothes, to build his house, to manufacture household 
 utensils, or to tend those tame animals which he con- 
 tinues to rear. These ditTerent departments now begin 
 to employ different persons ; each of whom dedicates his 
 whole time and attention to his own occupation. The 
 manufacture of cloth is for some time managed exclu- 
 sively by the women ; but smiths and carpenters arise 
 among the men. Metals begin now to be considered as 
 valuable materials. The intercourse of mankind is now 
 placed on a new footing. Before, every individual prac- 
 tised all the arts that were known, as far as was neces- 
 sary for supplying himself with the conveniences of life. 
 Now he confines himself to one or two of them ; and, in 
 order to obtain a necessary supply of the productions of 
 those arts, which he does not cultivate himself, he gives 
 in exchange a part of the productions of his own labours. 
 Here we have the origin of commerce. In process of 
 time commerce gives birth to currency, which serves as 
 a medium of the exchange of property. 
 
 One of the noblest changes which the introduction of 
 the arts by agriculture produces on the form and circum- 
 stances of society, is the introduction of regular govern- 
 ment and laws. In tracing- the history of ancient nations, 
 we scarce ever find laws introduced at an earlier period. 
 Minon, Solon, Lycurgus, do not appear to have formed 
 codes of wisdom and justice for regulating the manners of 
 their countrymen, till after the Cretans, the Athenians, 
 and the Lacedemonians, had made some progress in 
 agriculture and the useful arts. 
 
 Religion, under all its various forms, has in eveiy stage 
 of society a mighty influence on the sentiments and con- 
 duct of men ; and the arts cultivated in society have, on 
 the other hand, some influence on the system of religious 
 
12 
 
 belief. One linppy effect which will result from the 
 invention of arts, though perhaps not immediately, will be 
 to render the characters of the deities more benevolent 
 and amiable, and the rites ol' their worshijj more mild and 
 humane. 
 
 The female sex in this period generally find the yoke 
 of their slavery somewhat lightened. Men now become 
 easier in their circumstances ; the social affections assume 
 stronger influences over the mind ; plenty, and security, 
 and ease, at once communicate both delicacy and keen- 
 ness to the sensual desires. All these circumstances 
 concur to make men relax, in some degree, that tyrannic 
 sway by which they before depressed the softer sex. 
 The foundation of that empire, where beauty triumphs 
 over both wisdom and strenjrth, now begins to be laid, 
 buch are the effects which history warrants us to attri- 
 bute to agriculture and the arts ; and such the outlines of 
 the character of tliat which we reckon the fourth stage in 
 the progress of society from rudeness to refinement. 
 
 5. Fifth class: Let us advance one step further. We 
 have not surveyed mankind in their most polished and 
 cultivated state. Society is rude at the period when the 
 arts first begin to show themselves, in comparison of that 
 state to which it is raised by the industrious cultivation 
 of them. The useful arts are first cultivated with such 
 steady industiy as to raise the community to opulence, 
 and to furnish them with articles for commerce with 
 foreign nations. The useful arts cannot be raised to this 
 height, without leading man to the pursuit of science. 
 Commerce with foreign nations, skill in the useful arts, 
 and a taste for science, naturally aid each other, and 
 conspire to improve the fine arts. Hence magnificent 
 buildings, noble statues, paintings expressive of life, 
 action, and passion, and poems in which imagination 
 adds new graces and solemnity to nature, and gives the 
 appearances of life more irresistible power over the 
 affections of the heart. Hence are moral distinctions 
 more carefully studied, and the rights of every individual 
 and of every order in society better understood and more 
 
13 
 
 accurately defined. Moral sciehce is generally the first 
 scientific pursuit which strong-ly attracts the attention of 
 men. Accordingly, when we view the state of literature 
 in this period, we perceive that poetry, history, and 
 morals, are the branches chiefly cultivated. Arts are 
 usually casual inventions, and long practised before rules 
 and principles on which they are founded assume the 
 form of science. But morality, if considered as an art, is 
 that art which men have soonest and most constantly 
 occasion to practice. Besides, we are so constituted by 
 the wisdom of nature, that human actions, and the events 
 which befal human beings, have more powerful influence 
 than any other object to engage and fix our attention. 
 Hence we are enabled to explain why morality, and 
 those branches of literature more immediately connected 
 with it, are almost always cultivated in preference to 
 physical science. 
 
 This is the period when human virtue and human 
 abilities shine w^ith most splendour. Rudeness, ferocity, 
 £ind barbarism, are now banished. Luxury has made 
 her appearance ; but as yet she is the friend and the 
 benefactress of society. Commerce has stimulated and 
 rewarded industiy, but has not yet contracted the heart 
 and debased the character. Wealth is not yet become 
 the sole object of pursuit. The charms of social inter- 
 course are known and relished ; but domestic duties are 
 not yet deserted for public amusements. The female 
 sex acquire new influence, and contribute much to refine 
 and polish the manners of their lords. Religion now 
 assumes a milder and more pleasing form ; splendid rites, 
 magnificent temples, pompous sacrifices, and gay fes- 
 tivals, give even superstition an influence favourable to 
 the happiness of mankind. The gloomy notions and 
 barbarous rites of former periods fall into disuse. Phi- 
 losophy teaches men to discard such parts of their 
 religion as are unfriendly to good morals, and have any 
 tendency to call forth or cherish unsocial sentiments in 
 the heart. 
 
 War, which is prosecuted in this state of society, no 
 
14 
 
 long-er retains its former ferocity ; nations no long-er strive 
 to extirpate one another ; to humble, not to destroy, is 
 now the object. Prisoners are no longer murdered in 
 cold blood, subjected to horrid and excruciating tortures, 
 or condemned to hopeless slavery. They are ransomed 
 or exchanged ; they return to their country, and again 
 fight under her banners. In this period the arts of 
 government are likewise better understood, and prac- 
 tised so as to contribute most to the interests of society. 
 Whether monarchy, or democracy, or aristocracy, be the 
 established form, the rights of individuals and of society 
 are in general respected. The interests of society are 
 so well understood, that the few, in order to preserve 
 their influence over the many, find it necessary to act 
 rather as the faithful servants than the imperious lords of 
 the public. Though the liberties of a nation in this state 
 be not accurately defined by law, nor their property 
 guaranteed by any legal institutions, yet their governors 
 dare not violate their liberties, nor deprive them wantonly 
 of their property. This is regarded as the golden age of 
 society : every trace of barbarism is effaced, and vicious 
 luxury has not yet begun to sap the virtue and happiness 
 of the community. Men live not in listless indolence ; 
 but the industry in which they are engaged is not of such 
 a nature as to overpower their strength, or exhaust their 
 spirits. The social affections have now the strongest 
 influence on men's sentiments and conduct. 
 
 But human affairs are scarce ever stationary. The 
 circumstances of mankind are almost always changing, 
 either growing better or worse. Their manners are ever 
 in the same fluctuating state. They either advance 
 towards perfection, or degenerate. Scarce have they 
 attained that happy period in which we have contem- 
 plated them, when they begin to decline, till they perhaps 
 fall back into a state nearly as low as that from which 
 we suppose them to have emerged. Instances of this 
 unhappy degeneracy occur more than once in the history 
 of mankind ; and we may finish this short sketch of the 
 histoiy of society by mentioning in what manner this 
 
15 
 
 degeneracy takes place. Perhaps, strictly speaking*, 
 eveiy thing but the simple necessaries of life may be 
 denominated luxury : for a long time, however, the wel- 
 fare of society is best promoted, while its members aspire 
 after something more than the mere necessaries of life^ 
 As long as these superfluities are to be obtained only by 
 active and honest exertions ; as long as they only engage 
 the leisure hours without becoming the chief objects of 
 pursuit, the employment which they give to the faculties 
 is favourable both to the virtues and the happiness of the 
 human race. 
 
 The period arrives, however, when luxury is no longer 
 serviceable to the interests of the nations ; when she is 
 no longer a graceful, elegant, active form, but a languid^ 
 overgrown, and bloated carcase. It is the love of luxury, 
 w^hich contributed so much to the civilization of society, 
 that now brings on its decline. Arts are cultivated and 
 improved, and commerce extended, till enormous opu- 
 lence be acquired : the effect of opulence is to awake 
 the fancy, to conceive ideas of new and capricious wants, 
 and to inflame the breast with new desires. Here we 
 have the origin of the selfishness which, operating in 
 conjunction with caprice, and the violence of unbridled 
 passions, contributes so much to virtuous manners. Sel- 
 fishness, caprice, indolence, effeminacy, all join to loosen 
 the bonds of society, to bring on the degeneracy both of 
 the useful and fine arts, to banish at once the mild and 
 austere virtues, to destroy civil order and subordination, 
 and to introduce in their room anarchy and despotism. 
 
 History furnishes us with numerous examples of the 
 declining state of society. The Assyrians, the Egyptians, 
 and the Persians, were all of them once flourishing 
 nations, but have been brought low by luxury and an 
 unhappy corruption of manners. The Greeks, the Ro- 
 mans, and the Arabians, owed their fall to the same 
 causes ; and some of the European nations seem to be 
 rapidly treading in their downward steps. The Portu- 
 guese, the Venetians, and the Spaniards, have already 
 fallen, and some other nations are on the decline. 
 
16 
 
 Tlie most striking- example, however, of the declining 
 state of society with which we are furnished by modern 
 history, is St. Doming-o, one of the West India islands. 
 This astonishing change in the decline of society on that 
 island, is owing to the revolution of 1789. In this revo- 
 lution the civil government passed out of the hands of the 
 white into the coloured population, and the condition of 
 slavery ceased on the island. The exports of this island, 
 from January 1, 17S9, to December 31 of the same year, 
 were 47,516,531 lbs. white sugar; 93,573,300 lbs. brown 
 sugar ; 76,835,219 lbs. coffee ; 7,004,274 lbs. cotton ; 
 758,628 lbs. indigo ; and other articles, as tanned hides, 
 molasses, spirits, &c. to the value of 46,873 livres. The 
 value of all these articles taken together was nearly fifty 
 millions of dollars. At the present time there is not one 
 sugar, coffee, or cotton plantation on the island. There 
 is now exported from the island about 5,000,000 lbs. of 
 inferior coffee, which grows vv^ild, and is picked up by 
 the inhabitants off the ground, whence it falls after it 
 becomes ripe. The inhabitants are so indolent, that it 
 has become necessary to declare it under martial law, 
 and use a military force to compel the inhabitants to 
 labour during certain hours of the day. 
 
 From the foregoing observations it will appear evident, 
 that when we speak of any state or condition of society, 
 we use the word comparatively, as referring to some 
 other state or condition of society, either better or worse, 
 as the case may be. All states and conditions of society 
 are essentially imperfect, and must necessarily remain so, 
 from the imperfection of the elements of which they are 
 composed. One nation is necessarily rude and uncul- 
 tivated, from the character of its individual members, 
 while another is polished and refined, because it is com- 
 posed of men whose minds are improved and cultivated. 
 The character of society must be determined by the 
 state of the individuals of whom it is composed. Indivi- 
 duals of the human species, while in the lowest and rudest 
 state, can never be formed into polished society, where 
 arts, and science, and commerce, and manufactories, and 
 
ir 
 
 agriculture flourish, any more than the roug-h materials 
 of nature, without first being- prepared, can be incor- 
 porated into a magnificent building. The stones of 
 which the Temple was composed, were reduced to 
 proper shape and size, before they were united together 
 in that noble structure, which was the pride and glory of 
 the Jewish nation. In like manner, the individuals of 
 whom society is composed, must be properly trained and 
 cultivated before they can be incorporated into civil 
 society with any advantage to themselves, or benefit to 
 the community. If an opposite course should be pur- 
 sued, all civilized society would be broken down, as 
 when the northern hordes over-run Europe, and bar- 
 barism again assumed her iron sway. 
 
 It should also be observed that the most rude and 
 barbarous state of society does not admit of the condition 
 of slavery. Mankind must have made considerable im- 
 provement before the state of society will admit the 
 condition of slavery. Men must have acquired an idea 
 of property before the necessary distinction in society 
 can make its appearance, which g-ives birth to slavery. 
 Perhaps no state of society is more favourable to the 
 condition of slavery than that of the patriarchal. When 
 men lived together under this form of government, they 
 employed themselves chiefly in tending flocks and 
 herds. Children in such circumstances cannot soon 
 rise to an equality with their parents, where a man's 
 importance depends on his property, and not on his 
 abilities. When flocks and herds are the chief articles 
 of property, the son can only obtain these from his 
 father ; in general, the son, therefore, must be entirely 
 dependent on the father for the means of subsistence. If 
 the parent during his life bestow on his children any part 
 of his property, he may do it on such conditions as shall 
 make their dependence on him continue till the period of 
 his death. When the community by this event are 
 deprived of their head, instead of continuing in a state of 
 union, and selecting some one from among- themselves, 
 whom they may invest with the authority of a parent, 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 they separate into so many distinct tribes, each subjected 
 to the authority of a different lord, the master of the 
 family, and the proprietor of all the flocks and herds 
 belonging to it. Under such a form of government, all de- 
 pendents are necessarily reduced to the condition of 
 slaveiy. This condition of slavery, however, is more 
 desirable than the more rude and barbarous state of 
 society which we have described. 
 
 Having made these preliminary remarks, we shall 
 now proceed to inquire into the doctrine and teachings of 
 the Bible on the subject of slavery. In order, however, 
 fully to understand the Bible on this subject, it will be 
 necessary to inquire into the import of several words, 
 which ai-e employed by the sacred writers when speaking 
 on the subject of slavery. 
 
 {Servant. We but seldom meet with the word slave 
 in the common version. Hence it is supposed by some, 
 that there is no word in the original Scriptures, either in 
 the Greek or Hebrew, answering to the word slave in 
 the English. But this is a mistake. The translators 
 have employed the -word servant in the common version, 
 not because it conveys a different idea from the woiti 
 slave, but because it is a softer term. The English word 
 servant comes from the Latin word servus, Avhich is 
 derived from servare, " to preserve," and signifies, not a 
 hired servant, but a slave. Such men were called by 
 the Romans servi, because they w^ere captives, whose 
 lives were preserved on the condition of their becoming 
 the property of the victor. Since slavery ceased in 
 England, this word has acquired by time a softer signi- 
 fication, and is now generally employed to designate an 
 obedient attendant. 
 
 Doidos. The Greek word doulosy which answers to 
 the Hebrew word «6«r, literally signifies a slave. Dr. 
 Parkhurst gives the following definition of this word : 
 " one in a servile state ; a servant or slave. ''^ Of the 
 wretched condition of slaves, according to the laws and 
 customs of the Romans, a late learned writer, Dr. John 
 Taylor, gives us a delineation : 
 
19 
 
 " The common lot of slaves in generaly^ says he, 
 ** was, with the ancients, in many circumstances, very 
 deplorable. Of their situation take the following in- 
 stances. They were held pro nullis, pro mortuis, pro 
 quadrupedibus, for no men, for dead men, for beasts ; 
 nay, were in a much worse state than any cattle what- 
 ever. They had no head in the state, no name, no 
 register, no tribe. They were not capable of being 
 injured ; had no heirs, and therefore could make no will 
 of course. Exclusive of what is called their peculium, 
 whatever they acquired was their master's ; they could 
 not plead nor be pleaded, but were excluded from all 
 civil concerns whatever ; — were not entitled to the rights 
 and considerations of matrimony ; nor were the proper 
 objects of cognation, nor affinity ; — they could be sold, 
 transferred, or pawned as goods, or personal estate ; 
 for goods they were, and such were they esteemed ; 
 might be tortured for evidence ; punished at the discretion 
 of their lord, and even put to death by his authority ; 
 together with many other civil incapacities, which I have 
 not room to enumerate." The description which is here 
 given of slavery, according to the Roman law, will 
 enable us to enter into the full meaning of several pas- 
 sages in the New Testament, particularly in the Epistles 
 of St. Paul. 
 
 The word doulos, in the New Testament, is used in a 
 religious as well as in a political or civil sense. " The 
 word doulos,''^ says Dr. Clark, (Com. on Rom. I. 1.), 
 "which we translate servant, properly means a slave, 
 one who is the entire property of his master ; and is used 
 here by the Apostle with great propriety. He felt he 
 was not his own, and that his life and poivers belonged 
 to his heavenly owner, and that he had no right to dis- 
 pose of, or employ them, but in the strictest subserviency 
 to the will of his Lord. In this sense, and in this spirit, 
 he is the willing slave of Jesus Christ, and this is, per- 
 haps, the highest character which any soul of man can 
 attain on this side of eternity. " 1 am wholly the Lord's ; 
 and wholly devoted in the spirit of sacrificial obedience to 
 
20 
 
 the constant, complete, and energetic performance of the 
 divine will." A friend of God is high ; a son of God is 
 higher ; but the servant^ or, in the above sense, the 
 slave of God, is higher than all ; in a Avord, he is a per- 
 son who feels he has no property in himself, and that 
 God is all, and in all." 
 
 Thus, St. Paul, in reference to the custom of pur- 
 chasing slaves, on whose heads a price was then fixed, 
 just as upon any other commodity, and who, when 
 bought, were the entire and unalienable property of the 
 purchaser, by a very beautiful and expressive similitude, 
 represents Christians as the servants, slaves of Christ ; 
 informs them that an immense price has been paid for 
 them ; that they were not at their own disposal ; but in 
 every respect, both as to body and mind, were the sole 
 and absolute property of God. '* Ye are not your own ; 
 for ye are bought with a price : therefore glorify God in 
 your body and in your spirit, which are God's." I. Cor. 
 vi. 20.) St. Paul usually styles hmiself the servant, or 
 slave, of Christ ; and in a passage in his Epistle to the 
 Galatians, alluding to the signatures w^ith which slaves in 
 those days were branded, he tells them, he carried about 
 with him plain and indelible characters impressed in his 
 body, which evinced him to be the servant, or slave, of 
 his master Jesus. " From henceforth let no man trouble 
 me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." 
 (Gal. vi. 17.) 
 
 Misthios. The Greek word misthios, which answers 
 to the Hebrew word shabyr, signifies a hired servant, a 
 hireling, in contradistinction to a slave. These words 
 are all rendered in the common version by the word 
 servant, which signifies, as we have already observed, 
 either a slave, or a hired attendant. The word misthios 
 is used in the parable of the prodigal son, who said, 
 ** How many hired servants of my father's have bread 
 enough, and to spare, and I perish with hunger." Hence 
 he resolved on his return, to petition his father to make 
 him as one of his hired servants. The condition of a 
 hired servant was, in many respects, worse than that of 
 
21 
 
 a household slave. It is, therefore, supposed that our 
 Lord used the word misthios, instead of doulos, to point 
 out the depth of the wretchedness and miseiy to which 
 the prodigal son was reduced. Slaves not only had the 
 advantage, in many respects, over a hired servant, but in 
 Gorae respects over the children of freemen ; for, accord- 
 ing to the Roman law, a slave could not be sold but 
 once, whereas a child could be sold three times. 
 
 We shall now proceed to inquire into the teachings of 
 the Bible on the great question of slavery ; and we shall, 
 in the first place, examine the Old Testament on this 
 subject. 
 
 The first place ^vhere the word slave occurs in any 
 known language is in the Bible. It is used in the 
 famous oracle uttered by Noah respecting the descend- 
 ants of Ham. " And he said, cursed be Canaan, a 
 servant of sei-vants shall he be unto his brethren." (Gen. 
 ix. 25.) The original word which is here employed 
 properly signifies a slave, and points out the nature of the 
 curse which, in the course of time, was to fall upon the 
 descendants of Ham. From the use of the word in this 
 oracle, it has been inferred that slavery existed among 
 the Antediluvians ; but whether this be, or be not, a fact, 
 we have no positive information. 
 
 Slavery appears to have veiy generally prevailed in 
 the age of Abraham. That patriarch had three hundred 
 and eighteen servants, literally slaves, born in his own 
 house, and trained to arms, with whom he pursued and 
 vanquished the four kings who had taken captive his 
 brother's son. (Gen. xiv. 14) And it appears from the 
 conversation which took place between him and the king 
 of Sodom after the battle, both believed the conqueror 
 had a right to consider his prisoners as a part of the spoil. 
 "Give me," says the king, " the persons, and take the 
 goods to thyself." (Ver. 21.) It is indeed evident from 
 numberless passages of Scripture, that the domestics 
 whom our translators call servants, were in those days 
 universally considered as the most valuable part of their 
 masters* property, and classed with his flocks and herds. 
 
22 
 
 Thus when the sacred historian describes the weahh of 
 Abraham, he says, " That he had sheep and oxen, 
 and men-servants and maid-servants, and camels*" (Gen. 
 xxiv. 35.) And when Abimelech wished to make some 
 reparation to the patriarch for the unintentional injury he 
 had done him, " He took sheep and oxen, and men-ser- 
 vants, and women-servants, and gave them to Abraham, 
 and restored to him Sarah his wife." (Gen. xx. 14.) 
 The riches and power of Isaac and Jacob are estimated 
 in the very same way. Of the former it is said, " The 
 man w^axed great, and went forward and g-rew, until he 
 became very great, for he had possessions of flocks and 
 possessions of herds, and great store of sei'vants, literally 
 slaves J and the Philistines envied him." (Gen. xxvi. 13, 
 14.) The latter we are told, '* Increased exceedingly, 
 and had much cattle, and men-servants, and maid-ser- 
 vants, and camels." (Gen. xxx. 43.) 
 
 The patriarchal form of government, as we have seen, 
 included the condition of slavery, and was highly favour- 
 able to that state of society. And it is highly probable 
 that the governments which existed under the patriarchs, 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were the best governments 
 in the world which existed at that time. And it is 
 believed that the condition of the slaves of these patri- 
 archs, when compared with the condition of the sur- 
 rounding nations, was highly enviable. They were 
 taught the knowledge and instructed into the worship of 
 the true God — their employment was of a rural cha- 
 racter, attending the herds and flocks of their masters. 
 All their temporal wants were well supplied ; they were 
 freed from the restless cares and corroding anxieties of 
 the world ; they were well satisfied and contented with 
 their condition as slaves, otherwise they would not have 
 been entrusted with arms. 
 
 According to the doctrine of the Abolitionists, these 
 very patriarchs should be ranked among the most wicked 
 and abominable men, for they held property in man ; they 
 deprived their fellow-men of their natural rights ; they 
 degraded them to a level with brutes, and reckoned them 
 
23 
 
 as so much property along* with their sheep and oxen ; 
 that they were living in the daily habit and practice of 
 sin, in thus detaining- their fellow-men in bondag-e ; that it 
 was their duty, their indispensable duty, to have liberated 
 all their slaves at once, let the consequences have been 
 what they might ; nay, that these very patriarchs were 
 all man stealers, and deserved death. 
 
 But the character which is given of Abraham in the 
 Bible is very different. In the sacred volume he is 
 represented as being the friend of God — as the father and 
 pattern of the faithful — as one who, with joy unspeak- 
 able, foresaw the coming of the Messiah — as a noted 
 possessor of the heavenly glory. There is not a saint 
 whose name is recorded in the Old Testament, whose 
 reputation stands higher than that of Abraham, for piety, 
 integrity, and virtue, notwithstanding he was a slave- 
 holder. And there is not a passage in the whole Bible, 
 which intimates that God disapprobated his conduct in 
 holding slaves. It indeed was a virtue, instead of a vice, 
 in the conduct of Abraham. He became occasionally 
 involved in war with the surrounding nations, and while 
 they offered up their prisoners of war in sacrifice to their 
 false divinities, Abraham adopted his as slaves, taught 
 them the knowledge and worship of the true God, and 
 supplied all their temporal wants. This course of con- 
 duct was an amiable trait in his character, and evinces to 
 every reflecting man, that, instead of his being an abo- 
 minable sinner, he was an enlightened saint. 
 
 But would it not have been a virtue in Abraham to 
 have liberated all his slaves, and made freemen of them ? 
 I answer no, it would not ; Abraham had engrossed all 
 the wealth of the community, and all the members of the 
 community were, therefore, entirely dependent upon him 
 for support. As he was the legal owner of all the pro- 
 perty of the community, it was a much better order of 
 things for him to remain lord of the community, by which 
 he was under obligation to supply all the temporal wants 
 of the community in all the vicissitudes of life. These 
 slaves were incapable of self-government, and had he 
 
24 
 
 have liberated them, they would, probably, have relapsed 
 into idolatry, and become an easy prey to the surrounding- 
 nations. I have no hesitation in saying, that, in my 
 judgment, their condition would have been rendered 
 infinitely worse, had they been liberated, than what it 
 was to remain in a state of servitude to the patriarch. 
 Abraham sustained to his slaves the relation of a law- 
 giver, a ruler, a judge, a protector, a benefactor, a father, 
 a religious teacher, and a master. It was certainly much 
 better for his slaves to have remained under his mild and 
 paternal government, than what it would have been to be 
 made free, and then to have supported, protected, and 
 defended themselves, the best way they could. 
 
 That the practice of buying and selling serv^ants, thus 
 early begun among the patriarchs, descended to their 
 posterity, is known to every attentive reader of the Bible. 
 It was expressly authorized by the Jewish law. " Both 
 thy bond-men and bond-maids," says Moses, " shall be of 
 the heathen that are round about you : of them shall ye 
 buy bond-men and bond-maids. And ye shall take them 
 as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit 
 them for a possession ; they shall be your bond-men for 
 ever." (Lev. xxv. 39.) 
 
 Accordinsr to the law of Moses, there were several 
 ways of legally acquiring slaves. 
 
 1. By captivity. Captivity is supposed to have been 
 the first origin of slaveiy. According to the law of Moses, 
 the Jews w^ere to make slaves of their captives. " When 
 thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then 
 proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee 
 answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, 
 that all the people that is found therein, shall be tributaries 
 unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will make 
 no peace with thee, but will war against thee, then thou 
 shalt besiege it : and when the Lord thy God hath 
 delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male 
 thereof with the edge of the sword : but the women, and 
 the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city. 
 
25 
 
 even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; 
 and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies." (Deut. 
 XX. 10, 14.) 
 
 2. By dcbty when persons being poor were sold for 
 the payment of their debts. *' The creditor is come to 
 take my two sons for bondmen." (2. Kings, iv. 1.) 
 
 3. By committing a theft, without the power of 
 making restitution. "If a thief be found breaking up, he 
 should make full restitution ; if he have nothing, then he 
 shall be sold for his theft." (Exodus, xxii. 23.) 
 
 4. By birth, when persons were born of married slaves. 
 These are termed bor7i in the house. "And when 
 Abraham heard that his brother was taken captive, he 
 armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three 
 hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan." 
 (Gen. xiv. 14.) They are also said to be home-born. 
 " Is Israel a servant ? Is he a home-born slave ? why 
 is he spoiled?" (Jer. ii. 14.) 
 
 5. By purchase with money. " And Abraham took 
 Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and 
 all that were bought with his money, every male among 
 the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of 
 their foreskin in the self-same day, as God had said unto 
 him." ((jlen. xvii. 23.) 
 
 Notwithstanding these legal methods of acquiring 
 slaves, the Jews were strictly forbidden from acquiring 
 such property by any other than fair means. " He that 
 stealeth a man," said their lawgiver, " shall surely be put 
 to death." (Lev. xxi. 16.) 
 
 As slavery was legalized by the law of Moses, so 
 various statutes were passed to regulate the conduct of 
 the master towards his slave. 
 
 . 1. The master was to provide food and raiment for the 
 slave, and to treat him with humanity. '' And if thy 
 brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold 
 unto thee ; thou shall not compel him to serve as a bond- 
 servant : but as a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he 
 shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of 
 Jubilee : and then shall he depart from thee, both he and 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 his children with him, and shall return unto his own 
 family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he 
 return." (Levit. xxv. 39, 41.) This passage indeed 
 speaks expressly of slaves who were of the Hebrew 
 descent. The law regulating- the conduct of masters 
 towards alien-born slaves was, in some respects, different, 
 and admitted of more rigour. *' Both thy bond-men, and 
 thy bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the 
 heathen that are round about; of them shall ye buy 
 bond-men, and bond-maids. Moreover of the children of 
 the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall 
 ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which 
 they begat in your land : and they shall be your posses- 
 sion : and ye shall take them as an inheritance for your 
 children after you, to inherit them as a possession ; they 
 shall be your bond-men for ever ; but over your brethren 
 the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another 
 with rigour." (Levit. xxv. 44, 46.) 
 
 2. If a master struck a slave with a rod or staff, and 
 the servant died under his hand, he was to be punished 
 by the magistrate ; if, however, the slave survived a day 
 or two, the master was to go unpunished, as no intention 
 of murder could be presumed, and the loss of the slave 
 was deemed a sufficient punishment. " If a man smite 
 his sei-vant, 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." (Exodus xxi. 20, 21.) 
 
 S. If a slave lost an eye or a tooth from a blow of the 
 master, such a slave acquired liberty. " 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 a man smite out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid- 
 servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's 
 sake." (Exodus xxi. 26, 27.) 
 
 4. Slaves were to rest on the Sabbath, and on the 
 great festivals. " Six days shalt thou labour, and do all 
 thy work ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the 
 Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor 
 
27 
 
 thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy 
 maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy 
 cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates ; that thy 
 man-servant, and thy maid-servant, may rest as well as 
 thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the 
 land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee 
 out thence through a mighty hand, and by a stretched 
 out arm, therefore the Lord thy God commanded 
 thee to keep the Sabbath-day." (Deuteronomy v. 13, 
 15.) In order to induce the Jews more particularly to 
 observe this law, regulating the conduct of the master 
 towards the slave, he reminds them of their condition of 
 slaves in Egypt, when they did not enjoy any rest of the 
 Sabbath, but were compelled to work eveiy day in the 
 week. 
 
 5. They were to be invited to certain feasts. " Thou 
 mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy com, or 
 of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds, or 
 of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor 
 thy free-will-offerings, or heave-offerings of thine hand : 
 but thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the 
 place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou, and thy 
 son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid- 
 servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates." (Deut. 
 xii. 17, 18.) " And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks 
 unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a free-will 
 offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the 
 Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God has 
 blessed thee : and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy 
 Grod, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man- 
 servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is 
 within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, 
 and the widow, that are among you, in the place which 
 the Lord thy God has chosen to place his name there.** 
 (Deut. xvi. 10, 11.) 
 
 6. A master who had betrothed a female slave to 
 himself, if she did not please him, was to permit her to 
 be redeemed, and was prohibited from selling her to a 
 strange nation, seeing that he had dealt deceitfully with 
 
2S 
 
 her. If he had betrothed her to his son, he was to deal 
 with her after the manner of daughters. If he took 
 another wife, her food, raiment, and duty of marriage, he 
 was not to diminish. And if he did not these three unto 
 her, then she was to go out (ree without money. " If a 
 man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not 
 go out as the men-servants do. If she please not her 
 master, who hath betrothed her to himself, than shall he 
 let her be redeemed : to sell her to a strange nation he 
 shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully 
 with her. And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he 
 shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. If he 
 take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her 
 duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. And if he do 
 not these three unto her, then shall she go out free 
 without money." ^(Exodus, xxi. 7, 11.) 
 
 7. Hebrew slaves were to continue in servitude only 
 till the year of Jubilee, when they might return to liberty, 
 and their master could not detain them against their 
 wills. If they were desirous of continuing with their 
 master, they were to be brought to the judges, before 
 whom they were to make a declaration that for this time 
 they disclaimed the privilege of the law ; and had their 
 ears bored through with an awl against the door-posts of 
 their masters' houses, after which they had no power of 
 recovering their liberty until the next year of jubilee, 
 after forty-nine years. *' If the servant shall plainly say, 
 I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not 
 go out free; then his master shall bring him unto the 
 judges; he shall also biing him to the door, or unto the 
 door-post ; and his master shall bore his ear through 
 with an awl ; and he shall serve him for ever." (Deut. 
 xxi. 5, 6.) This significant ceremony implied that they 
 were closely attached to that house and family ; and that 
 they were bound to hear, and punctually obey, all their 
 master's orders. This law did not extend to alien-born 
 slaves ; it only regarded Hebrew slaves. 
 
 8. If a Hebrew by birth was sold to a stranger, or an 
 alien dwelling in the vicinity of the land of Judea, his 
 
29 
 
 relations were to redeem him, and such a slave was to 
 make g-ood the purchase money if he were able, paying in 
 proportion to the number of years that remained, until the 
 year of Jubilee. "And if a sojourner or strang-er Wax 
 rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax 
 poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by 
 thee, or to the stock of die stranger's family : after that 
 he is sold he may be redeemed again ; one of his brethren 
 may redeem him : either his uncle, or his uncle's son, 
 may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of 
 his family may redeem him ; or if he be able he may 
 redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him that 
 bought him, from the year that he was sold to him, unto 
 the year of Jubilee ; and the price of his sale shall be ac- 
 cording to the number of years, according to the time of a 
 hired serv^ant shall it be with him. If there be yet many 
 years behind, according unlo them shall he give again 
 the price of his redemption out of the money that he was 
 bought for. And if there remain but few yeais unto the 
 year of Jubilee, then he shall count with him, and accord- 
 ing unlo his years shall he give him again the price of his 
 redemption. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be 
 with him, and the other shall not rule with rigour over 
 him in thy sight. And if he be not redeemed in these 
 years, then he shall go out in the year of Jubilee, both 
 he, and his children with him." (Levit. xxv. 47, 54.) 
 
 9. If the slave of another nation fled to the Hebrews, 
 he was to be received hospitably, and on no account 
 given up to Viis master. '' Thou shalt not deliver unto 
 his master the servant which is escaped from his master 
 unto thee ; he shall dwell with thee, even among you, in 
 that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, 
 where it liketh him best : thou shalt not oppress him." 
 (Deut. xxiii. 15, 16.) 
 
 Beside these general laws, by which slavery was 
 reofulated among the Hebrews, there were other regula- 
 
 IT 
 
 tions and customs that prevailed among the Jews re- 
 specting slaveiy. 
 
 AU the property which slaves acquired belonged to 
 
30 
 
 their masters, hence they are said to be worth double the 
 value of hired servants. " It shall not seem hard, when 
 thou sendest him away free from thee ; for he hath been 
 worth a double hired servant to thee." (Deut. xv. 18.) 
 
 They formed marriages at the will of their master ; 
 but their children were slaves, who, although they could 
 not call him a father, yet they were attached and faithful 
 to him as a father, on which account the patriarchs 
 trusted them with arms. 
 
 If a married Hebrew sold himself, he was to serve for 
 six years, and in the seventh he was to go out free, 
 together with his wife and children : but if his master had 
 given one of his slaves to him as a wife, she was to 
 remain, with her children, as the property of her master." 
 *' If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall 
 sei*ve : and in the seventh he shall go out free 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. Jf 
 his master gave him a wife, and she have borne him sons 
 or daughters ; the wife and the children shall be her 
 master's, and he shall go out by himself." (Exod. 35xi, 
 2, 4.) 
 
 The duty of slaves was to execute their lord's com- 
 mands, and they were for the most part employed in 
 Jtending cattle, or in rural affairs ; and, though the lot of 
 some of them was sufficiently hard, yet under a mild and 
 humane master, it was tolerable. " If I did despise the 
 cause of my man-servant, or of my maid servant, when 
 they contended with me ; what then shall I do when 
 God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I 
 answer him?" (Job, xxxi, 13, 14.) 
 
 When the eastern people have no male issue, they 
 frequently marry their daughters to their slaves, and the 
 same practice appears to have obtained among the He- 
 brews, as we read in I. Chron. ii. 34, 35. " Now She- 
 shan had no sons, but daughters, and Sheshan had a 
 slave, an Egyptian, whose name was Jarha, and Sheshan 
 gave his daughter to Jarha, his slave, to wife." In 
 Barbary, the rich people when childless, have been known 
 
31 
 
 to purchase young slaves, to educate them in their own 
 faith, and sometimes to adopt them as their own children. 
 The greatest men of the Ottoman empire are well known 
 to have been slaves, brought up in the Seraglio ; and the 
 Mameluke sovereigns of Egypt were originally slaves. 
 Thus the advancement of the Hebrew captive, Joseph, 
 to be viceroy of Egypt, and of Daniel, another Hebrew 
 slave, to be the chief minister of state in Babylon, cor- 
 responds with the modern usages of the East. 
 
 From the foregoing observations, I presume it will be 
 readily admitted that the laws of Moses fully legalized sla- 
 very. The system of slavery is interwoven into the whole 
 of the Mosaic economy. All the precepts of that institu- 
 tion, both civil and religious, abound with allusions and 
 references to it. Even the decalogue, or ten command- 
 ments, which were inscribed upon the tables of stone by 
 the finger of God, give their explicit sanction to this 
 system. Two of the ten commandments are what is 
 termed slave laws. One of them is designed to regulate 
 the conduct of the master towards the slave on the 
 Sabbath, and the other regulates the conduct of a Jewish 
 citizen towards the slave of his neighbour. If slavery, 
 thus regulated by law, was morally wrong, was a crime 
 of the deepest dye, under that dispensation, God could 
 not have countenanced it. 
 
 The Abolitionists assert that slavery is unqualifiedly 
 condemned in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. In this 
 chapter the Prophet openly, boldly, and sharply, reproved 
 the Jews for their wickedness and hypocrisy, and par- 
 ticularly for their formality in worship. But it cannot be 
 reasonably supposed that he reproved them for observing, 
 in a proper and becoming manner, the laws and institu- 
 tions of Moses. At the time the Prophet addressed the 
 nation, not one of the slave laws had been repealed, they 
 were all in full force. It is unreasonable, therefore, to 
 suppose, that the Prophet utterly condemned what God 
 by Moses had established. 
 
 The passage to which the Abolitionists refer, reads as 
 follows : — " Is not this the fast that I have chosen 1 to 
 
32 
 
 loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy bur- 
 dens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break 
 every yoke." (Isaiah I. viii. 6.) It is not absolutely 
 certain that the Prophet had any allusion whatever to 
 slavery, in his remarks as above quoted. If he alluded 
 to slavery among- other thing's, he must have referred to 
 the abuse of the institution of slavery, and not to the 
 institution itself as established by law. It is, however, 
 probable that the Jews had disregarded the laws of 
 slavery among other acts of oppression and vnckedness, 
 and had drawn upon themselves the just displeasure of 
 God. Indeed, in the third verse of this chapter, there is 
 a complaint of this kind. The Prophet charged the Jews 
 with violating one of the slave laws, by exacting labour 
 from their servants on the days of their public fasts, 
 which was an express violation of the direction of Moses. 
 The best Commentators suppose the Prophet alluded, 
 principally, in the passage above quoted, to the eccle- 
 siastical oppression and tyranny, which, at that time, 
 prevailed in the Jewish church. Jesus Christ referred 
 to the same burdens in the remarks to his disciples, as 
 recorded in Matthew xxiii. 3. " For they bind heavy 
 burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on 
 men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them 
 with one of their fingers." These heavy burdens were 
 the traditions which the ecclesiastical rulers added to the 
 law of Moses, and called by their own writers the strokes 
 of the Pharisees, as being such as made the service of 
 God burdensome. These traditions were enforced by 
 the sanction of penal laws, such as fines and confiscations, 
 and even by casting multitudes into prison, and detaining 
 them for a long time in filthy dungeons. However 
 heavily these burdens oppressed the people, the eccle- 
 siastical rulers would not move them with one of their 
 fingers. They enforced the observance of these tradi- 
 tions without mercy, even against those w^ho were the 
 most severely and cruelly pressed by them. At the 
 same time, the Jewish nation abounded in wickedness of 
 almost every description. Under these circumstances 
 
33 
 
 the pungeiit and emphatic lang-uag-e of the Prophet was 
 highly appropriate. " Is not this the fast that I have 
 chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the 
 heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and 
 that ye break every yoke." 
 
 Thus it appears that the Abolitionists can derive no 
 authority, from either the law or the prophets, in justifi- 
 cation of their doctrine. I feel no hesitation in saying, 
 that there is not a passage in the Old Testament, which, 
 upon any fair construction, can be adduced in support of 
 their wild and headlong course. But what shall be said of 
 those learned divines, who affirm that the law of Moses 
 never sanctioned slavery ? It is highly probable that these 
 reverend gentlemen never examined the Bible on the 
 subject, and that they have hazarded their reputation for 
 honesty and integrity, by affirming slavery to be inconsist- 
 ent with the laws of God, under the Mosaic dispensation, 
 when, at the same time, they had never examined the 
 laws of God on the subject. How applicable to such 
 men is the maxim of our Lord ; — " If the blind lead the 
 blind, they will both fall into the ditch." 
 
 It may, however, be very justly said, that the laws of 
 slavery to which we have referred, are all contained in 
 the Old Testament, and were given to the Jews, and, 
 therefore, have no reference to us under the gospel age. 
 It is granted that the lav/s of Moses respecting slavery 
 are not in force now, and especially are not binding upon 
 Gentile converts to Christianity. But still these laws 
 have an indirect bearing upon the subject. They esta- 
 blished slavery among the Jews. The Jews, therefore, 
 legally held slaves during the personal ministry of our 
 Lord. Slavery, then, existed among the Jews when 
 Christianity was established. It also existed among the 
 Greeks and Romans when Christianity was planted 
 among the pagan nations. Under these circumstances, 
 we turn to the New Testament, and inquire into the 
 teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles on this subject. 
 Jesus Christ during his public ministry never interfered 
 with political or civil questions. He but seldom, if ever, 
 
34 
 
 touched upon the subject of private rights. He left 
 these matters for the adjustment of civil rulers. He 
 taught all men to love one another, to respect each others 
 rights, to submit to each other ; to show all fidelity, to be 
 obedient, humble and meek ; and to know that his king- 
 dom was not of this world. 
 
 The Apostles, however, in some respects, pursued a 
 different course. Several important questions appear to 
 have been settled by them, with which Jesus Christ but 
 seldom, if ever, meddled. 
 
 1st. They fully recognized civil government as an ordi- 
 nance of God ; in other words, that it is the will of God 
 that men should not live as the beasts of the field, with- 
 out control ; but that they should be formed into societies 
 regulated by laws, and that the laws should be executed 
 by magistrates appointed for that purpose. The particular 
 forms of government they left to the wisdom of men to 
 frame, and to nations to regulate; but what the spirit of the 
 government should be, they have plainly indicated. What 
 kind of government and rulers are intended, the Apostles 
 thus particularly specify: Romans, xiii. 1, 3, 4 ; 1 Peter, 
 ii. 14. " They are not a terror to good works, but to 
 evil. Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise 
 of the same ; for he is the minister of God to thee for 
 good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he 
 beareth not the sword in vain ; for he is the minister of 
 God, an avenger to execute wrath, sent by him for the 
 punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that 
 do well." They are God's ministers attending to this 
 very thing ; that is, their talents and their time are wholly 
 employed in this great and good work. Such are the 
 principles of government laid down in the New Testa- 
 ment, and such the duties which it prescribes to the 
 rulers and magistrates of nations. 
 
 But Christianity does not confine its injunctions to one 
 part of the community, and leave the rest to act as they 
 please : it addresses itself likewise with equal energy to 
 the people^ and binds on their consciences the obligations 
 of subjection and obedience. Subjects are taught to be 
 
35 
 
 submissive and obedient to the higher powers ; to pray for 
 them ; to fear God and honour the king; to give unto 
 CcBsar the things that are Casar^s ; to render tribute to 
 whom tribute is due ; custom to custom ; J ear to whom 
 fear ; honour to whom honour ; and to do all this, not 
 merely because the civil laws require it, and for fear of 
 punishment from men, but for conscience-sake, and in 
 obedience to the laws of God. (Matt. xxii. 21 ; Rom. xiii. 
 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 ; 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2 ; Tit. iii. 1 ; 1 Peter ii. 13, 15.) 
 These injunctions are highly reasonable, and exactly corre- 
 spond with the nature and state of thing's. If the members 
 of a community refuse to honour and obey the divine ordi- 
 nance, to be subject to government, to give high respect to 
 rulers, or to pay them tribute, — and all this, not from 
 fear of punishment, but for conscience-sake, it must be 
 allowed by eveiy rational man, that they resist an ordi- 
 nance of God, — an ordinance that is both reasonable and 
 beneficial, and deservedly receive to themselves condem- 
 nation. 
 
 2. The Apostles expressly taught that, by becoming a 
 Christian, a man did not abolish nor change his civil rights. 
 The civil state which a man was in before his conversion, 
 is not altered by that conversion, nor does the grace of 
 God absolve him from any claims which either the state 
 or his neighbour may have on him. This was a rule of 
 conduct which the Apostle says was ordained in all the 
 churches. " But as God has distributed to every man, as 
 the Lord has called every man, so let him walk : and so / 
 ordain in all the churches. Is any man called being circum- 
 cised ? let him not become uncircumcised. Circumcision is 
 nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the 
 commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same 
 calling wheiein he was called. Art thou called being a 
 slave 1 care not for it, but if thou mayest be made free, 
 use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a 
 slave, is the Lord's free man : likewise, also, he that is 
 called, being free, is Christ's slave.'' (1. Cor. vii. 17, 22.) 
 
 The rule which the Apostle here lays down, and 
 which was established in all the churches, and is still in 
 
36 
 
 force, is one expressly in point, and touches the question 
 at issue. The law of Moses leg-alized a certain descrip- 
 tion of slavery among- the Jews. Under the dispensation 
 of the Gospel, which immediately succeeded the Mosaic 
 economy, the Apostle established a rule that the civil 
 condition of the slave and his master, by embracing 
 Christianity, was not chang-ed, but that this civil condi- 
 tion of slave and his master was still to continue, even 
 should they both become members of the same church. 
 And the same rule applied to the slave and his master 
 who was converted to the Christian faith, either among* 
 the Greeks or the Romans. And the same rule is also 
 applicable to the slave and his master now, in this or any 
 other country. 
 
 Hence the New Testament, and especially the apos- 
 tolic Epistles, abound with directions for the reg-ulation 
 of the conduct of the slave and his master towards each 
 other. Thus, slaves were enjoined, as a necessary part 
 of relig-ion, to obey and serve their masters with all proper 
 respect, fidelity and diligence, not purloining, not answer- 
 ing again, with good will doing service as unto the Lord, 
 and not unto men ; knowing whatsoever good thing any 
 man doeth, that shall he receive of the Lord, whether he 
 be bond or free. These things, when really believed and 
 duly considered, will have much stronger influence to 
 engage them to a faithful and cheerful discharge of their 
 duty, than mere custom, or the law of the countiy ; for it 
 will be observed, that the Apostle enjoins submission and 
 obedience on the part of the slave to his master, not only 
 as a civil, but also as a religious duty. He expressly 
 enjoins this submission and obedience as a necessary part 
 of his religious duty. On the contrary, masters are 
 required to give their slaves that which is just and equal, 
 forbearing threatening, knowing that they have a Master 
 in heaven, and with him there is no respect of persons. 
 These obligations are also bound upon the master, not 
 merely as a civil, but as a religious duty, the ob- 
 servance of which constitutes a necessary part of his 
 obedience to God. Eph. vi. 5, 9 ; Col. iii. 22, 25 ; iv. 1 ; 
 1 Tim.vi. 1, 8; Titus, ii. 9, IL) 
 
37 
 
 If these relative duties between the slave and his 
 master were duly observed, the horrors of slavery wou.ld 
 for ever cease. Altliough it was not the province of 
 Christianity to put a period to the condition of slavery, 
 yet by her wise and humane regulations she has mitigated 
 its evils, and rendered the condition of the slave tolerable. 
 3. The Apostle Paul entered his stiong protest against 
 those who taught a different doctrine from that which we 
 have stated. It was a doctrine of the pharisaic Jews, 
 that proselytes were released from all antecedent, civil, 
 and even natural relations : and it is highly probable that 
 some of the Jewish converts might carry the same prin- 
 ciple into the Christian community, and teach that, by the 
 profession of Christianity, slaves were emancipated from 
 their Christian masters. In opposition to this false notion, 
 the same great Apostle required that all who were under 
 the yoke of servitude, be taught to yield due obedience to 
 their masters, and animadverts with great severity upon 
 those false teachers, who from mercenary views, taught 
 a different doctrine. " Let as many slaves as are under 
 the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, 
 that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. 
 And they that have believing masters, let them not despise 
 them, because they are brethren, but rather do them 
 service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers 
 of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any 
 man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome 
 words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to 
 the doctrine which is according to godliness ; he is proud, 
 knowing nothing, but doubting about questions and strifes 
 of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, and evil 
 surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds 
 and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness : 
 from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with con- 
 tentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into 
 this world, and it is certain that w^e can carry nothing 
 out. And having food and raiment let us be content 
 therewith." (L Tim. vi. 1,8.) 
 
 The doctrine which was inculcated by the false teach- 
 
38 
 
 ers, and reprobated by ihe Apostle, appears to be the 
 same as that set forth by the Abolitionists in their " De- 
 claration.^' They state in that document, " That all 
 those laws which are now in force, admitting- the rig-ht of 
 slavery, are before God utterly null and void." By this 
 sweeping remark, which is a cardinal doctrine of the 
 Abolitionists, they at a blow cut the slave loose from all 
 the moral and religious obligations of the Bible to obey 
 the master^ and charge the master with the crime of 
 man-stealing, which is worthy of death, for detaining 
 him in a condition of servitude. The doctrine of the 
 Abolitionists, and the doctrine of the false teachers in the 
 apostolic age, are the same. They both absolve the 
 slave from all moral and religious obligations of submis- 
 sion and obedience to his master, and they both lead 
 directly on to a civil war. This doctrine excites the 
 prejudice of the slave against his master, and the pre- 
 judice of the master against the abolitionist who was the 
 author of the mischief^ and who by the propagation of 
 his incendiary doctrine, has excited the rebellion of the 
 slave. 
 
 The course which has been pursued by the Abolition- 
 ists, has already produced those fierce and acrimonious 
 disputes, to which the Apostle alludes in describing the 
 dreadful consequences of the inflammatory doctrine the 
 false teachers propagated in his day. If these fiery con- 
 tentions continue to spread as they have commenced, we 
 may well tremble for the fate of our country. It will soon 
 be involved in all the horrors of a civil war — our wives and 
 children will be massacred — our fields will be covered 
 with the slain — and the fairest portions of our country 
 will be drenched in the blood of our fellow-citizens. 
 
 I deprecate the measures to which some have resorted 
 to arrest the progress of this false doctrine ; they are of a 
 highly dangerous character, and too frequently involve 
 the innocent with the guilty. The Apostle has given us 
 a more excellent rule, and a more effectual mode of 
 arresting the progress of these clerical incendiaries : 
 " From such," says the Aposde, *' withdraw thyself." 
 
39 
 
 Let those societies over whom such pastors preside, that 
 is, pastors who have embraced and are propagating- the 
 doctrine of the Abolitionists, or who are secretly abetting- 
 and aiding the apostles of this Society, immediately dis- 
 miss them. And if the Society neglect, or refuse, to do 
 this, let the minority of the Society do their duty ; let 
 them withdraw from such a man, agreeable to the direc- 
 tion of the Apostle, and refuse their support to such a 
 ministry. The clergy must be taught that the quesdon 
 of slavery, as it exists in this country, is a political and 
 not a religious question, and that it must be settled upon 
 the floor of Congress, and in the halls of legislation, and 
 not in pulpits and ecclesiastical councils. *' Render unto 
 Csesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God 
 the things that are God's." Political questions should be 
 decided by political rulers, and religious questions by 
 religious rulers. 
 
 If slavery is regarded as a moral and civil evil in this 
 country, the Bible points out the remedy, and the mode 
 by which the freedom of the slaves should be effected. 
 It is by redeeming them with money, by paying a fair 
 equivalent for their value. In this manner the Hebrews 
 freed their kinsmen from bondage, when they were sold 
 as slaves to the surroundino- nations. And the same 
 mode was pursued by the primitive Christians. It is 
 supposed that the Apostle alluded to this custom in his 
 first Epistle to the Corinthians, where he asks the ques- 
 tion, " Have ye been bought with a price ?" (vii. 23.) 
 That the charity of Christians was employed to buy their 
 brethren out of slavery, we learn from the apologies of 
 Justin Martyr, and Tertullian, who tells us " that the 
 offerings of Christians at the Sacrament, were amongst 
 others employed for that use." In this way Christians 
 may exercise their benevolence without invading the 
 rights of individuals, or disturbing the public tranquillity. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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