PICTURES

SLAYERY AND AI^TI-SLAYERY

ADVANTAGES OP NEORO SLAVERY AND THE
BENEFITS OP NEGRO FREEDOM.

MOKALLY, SOCIALLY, AND POLITICALLY CONSIDERED.
BY
JOHJSr BELL ROBINSON,

PHILADELPHIA:
1330 NORTH THIRTEENTH STREET,
1863,

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
JOHN BELL ROBINSON,
in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States
in and for the Eastern District of the State of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

To the people of the United States and the Christian
ministry ; especially those of them who seem to
have forgotten tlie "prize of their high calling,"
and have converted their pulpits into places of politi
cal, sectional strife, and rendezvous for recruiting in
civil war.
I HAVE written the following chapters on the relation
between Christianity, civilization, the prosperity of the
universe, and negro slavery. I have long feared a dis
solution of this great and glorious Union would sooner
or later occur in consequence of sectional, political
questions being introduced into the pulpits of the
Christian church, believing it to be as much infidelity to
have introduced the slave question into the church, in the
way it has mostly been done, as it would be to deny that
the several Epistles of Paul were a part of the Grospel.
Had I not just grounds for fears when the General
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church divided
in 1844 on the slave question, and a majority of that
body deposed a bishop who stood high for his talents,
zeal, and great moral worth, who had never owned a
slave, though a Georgian by birth, education, and resi
dence through his entire life, but had recently married
a lady who, a short time before, fell heir to two or
three little negro children, whom she had to raise up to
maturity ? For marrying this lady, Bishop Andrews
was suspended from his office as bishop. Since that
(iii)

IV PEEFACE,
day I have feared just what is now upon us, and at
every fit opportunity since, I have tried to -make those
who led that dangerous experiment (and all others who
seemed to approve of the course of that General Con
ference) see the ruin they would plunge both church
and State into, if they did not stop their denunciations
of slavery from their pulpits, and treat the question
as St. Paul did in his day.
I have often desired to write and publish my opinions to
the world, but being without an education, and but little
scjiooling, the Child's Primer, Webster's Speller, En
glish Reader, and Bennett's Arithmetic, having been
the cmly school books used in those days, where I was
schooled, and any knowledge beyond the rudiments of
these branches was thought ruinous to all scholars who
should happen to pass those limits. An educated man
or woman was thought very dangerous, therefore the
children were not allowed to cross those limits, conse
quently I felt that I was incompetent to such a duty.
But when the John Brown raid was made in Virginia, I
was satisfied something would have to be speedily done,
or our end as a republic and a free people was near.
Knowing there was no other sectional question besides
the slave question, and that no other could jeopardize
our national Union, I thought I would write a pam
phlet of some twenty-five or thirty pages, contrasting
slaves with free negroes, and slave negro labor with free
negro labor, showing the superiority of one to the other,
to which I have devoted Chapter III. of this book.
But I soon found I had given myself too short a limit,
and I have written some eight or nine hundred pages,
12mo., all of which was ready in the summer of I86I ;
but Ending nearly all of my old friends so directly op
posed to me, and being denounced with such bitterness

PREFACE. V
by some, and ridiculed by others, that I found my moral
courage not equal to the task, so I was kept back in
that way till other circumstances intervened, which
stopped me until now, and now I only feel at liberty
to publish half of the work.
A part of the second chapter was written for the New
York Methodist in 1860, but was refused a place' in
that paper, for reasons the reader will see in the corres
pondence between my friend, the Reverend Mr. Crooks,
and myself, at the end of the chapter ; it was returned
to me in the following February ; after which time, I
enlarged it to its present size by discussing the points
more extensively. The first and second chapters are on
human slavery, as set forth in the Bible. The ap
pendix and the other chapters fully sustain my position.
Then I have copied two written addresses by ex-Sena
tor Bigler of Pa., one on the Crittenden Compromise,
the other on the only plan by which this Union can
ever be restored.
I know I shall meet with bitter opposition and severe
denunciations for my views, but knowing that with the
overthrow of this Union will end all my hopes of peace
and pleasure in this world, not only mine, but all others,
and all future generations ; therefore I feel it to be my
duty to publish this much of the original now, notwith
standing the severe chastisements that may be inflicted
upon me, I appeal to Him who knoweth the secrets of
all hearts, for my sincerity.
When I say I have no sympathy with secession or rebel
lion, I mean just whatJE say, I hope no one will pass
sentence upon me until they have heard me through ; then,
if I am found guilty, I must submit to the penalty,
I have written a chapter on the causes of the civil
war in this beloved country, that will, perhaps, surprise

ti PREFACE.
the reader more than anything herein published ; when
he comes to see the mass of evidences I have adduced,
pointing out the sections, parties, and the very men,
many will wonder how this great calamity was produced
without their knowledge of the facts which were all
around them. That, with thirteen other chapters, I
intend to publish at a proper time.
I believe the Christian church could now restore
peace and union to this entire country, if the Christian
ministers in all the free States would speedily return to
their legitimate calling ; for right will beget right, and
as sure as God reigns in heaven, everything will beget
its kind. If we want peace we must sow peace ; if we
want war we must sow war, "for whatever we sow of
that shall we also reap."
I had arranged eight of the following chapters in a
book of twenty-one chapters, which were the 6, T, 9, 10,
13, It, 18, 19, therefore they will read somewhat awk
wardly, as references are frequently made in those chap
ters to authors and chapters I have left to be published
hereafter, though I altered them so as to chime in the
best I could.
My Orthodox and Hicksite Quaker friends must
pardon me for the chapter I have written on their con
nection with the causes of this bloody civil war, now
devastating this great and glorious empire, I felt it a
duty, as I had alluded to them in the first chapter with
out fully explaining my views of their character. A
large part of the book was put in type in my absence
from the city ; therefore some awkward blunders may
have occurred in consequence, the book having been
compiled from the whole manuscript a little hasty, I
hope Chapter III, will be read by all good men and
women.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I, PAGE
Pictures of Slavery by Noah, Moses, and the other
Patriarchs  13

CHAPTER II,
Pictures of Slavery by St. Paul of the New Testament , 66
Nature of the Africans, in four letters . . . 131-155
CHAPTER IlL
The Difference between Slave Negro Labor and Free
Negro Labor ........ 168
CHAPTER IV.
Mixing of blood between the White and Black Races
forbid by the Law of Nature and Nature's God . 223
CHAPTER V.
Who are Union Men and who are Anti-Union Men ? . 247
CHAPTER VL
What Connection had the Quakers or Friends with the
Instigators of the War ?  293
( Vii )

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIL PAGE
Do as you would be done by  ^^^
CHAPTER VIII.
Correspondence between Mrs. Mason, of Virginia, and
Mrs. Child, of Massachusetts  338

APPENDIX.
Ex-Senator Bigler's Letters on the Crittenden Com
promise, and Plan for Settlement . . . 374-382

SLAYERY AND ANTI-SLAYERY.

CHAPTER I.
The Moral Question of Slavery — Is Negro Slavery as it exists
in the United States a Moral Evil?
This question bas been discussed in the United
States, pro and con, for nearly eighty-five years. I
believe the Quakers were the first, a§ a Christian
association, who took the idea that slavery was anti-
christian. And, if I mistake not, their faith or moral
notions on tbe subject was predicated upon a feeling
that tbey would not (themselves) like to be slaves
under negro masters. Therefore, they, as a religious
society, abolished slavery among themselves in or
about 1780. But tbe Orthodox or Foxites, as a reli
gious association, has never interfered with other
people's rights ; that is, they have not united in po
litical associations to oppose the institution of slavery
as a civil institution. They only opposed it among
themselves as a religious society; but left other peo
ple to do as they pleased. There was a split in the
Society of Friends in 1827. Led by a certain man
named Elias Hicks, who came out against the atone
ment of our Lord,- and declared that his blood was
2 ( 13 )

14 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
of no more account than that of a bull or ram. He
diffused his infidelity through the minds of very
many of that most excellent and influential Christian
union. All of these, religious, ignorant, and scep
tical, followed Elias Hicks in his treason and seces
sion, and formed another association, and called
themselves Friends, gr Quakers— commonly known
as Hicksites. This latter organization are generally
Abolitionists of the . Garrisonian school, and have
formed associations to interfere with the civil "and
.moral rights . of others, even against constitutional
laws. They have united' with associations to form
underground railroads, to run off slaves from their
masters. Through this sham society called Quakers,
the true Quakers, or Foxites, have been compelled
to endure much persecution. In all external appear
ance, the Quakers and secessionists are similar j and
the Orthodox of Foxites have been charged with all
of their infidelity, for they call themselves the
Society of Friends.
But the Hicksite Quakers are not the only class
of men and women who have interfered with the
legal institutions of other States. But every infidel
association that has sprang into existence for the
last fifty years has seized upon the negro slavery of
the United States as a great and terrible moral evil.
Men and wonien who were guilty of every kind of
abomination, would seem to look upon the institution
of negro slavery with horror, on account of the mag
nitude of its moral wickedness, and denounce Chris
tian slaveholders as thieves, murderers, and robbers,
and the Christian Church as the centre of all abomi-

AFRICAN SLAVEP.Y. 15
nations, because slaveholders are admitted to their
communions. Infidelity has assumed every shape
and form known to skilful invention, through which
they could bring the slightest influence to bear
against Christianity. Bjit no shape nor form of
infidelity has yet been discovered that has answered
their purposes so well as antislavery ; therefore, all
their associations have the antislavery link the most
prominent. All, all of whom detest the Constitution,
and the union of the United States. It would be
impossible to enumerate the shapes and forms infidel
ity has taken within the last sixty or seventy years;
all of which have been antislavery and antiunion in
this country. And all the isms invented in New
England in the last fifty years have placed their
antislavery and antiunion principles at the head of
the list.
Many associations ' have been formed within the
borders of the Christian Church who affiliate with
infidelity in their opposition to negro slavery, and
in very many cases in their treason against the Con
stitution and the union of the United States, whose
only object, I believe, has been to overthrow the
Union. Therefore they have raised the antislavery
standard above all others, and have such standard-
bearers as Wendell Phillips, Eev. H. W. Beecher,
Eev. Dr. Cheever, Eev. Dr. Thompson, Eev. Dr.
Furness, Wm, Lloyd Garrison, Gerrett Smith, and
many Others who meet, shake hands, and call each
other brother; and all unite with one accord in
the denunciation of the Constitution and the union
of the United States.

16 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
English infidelity has also denounced the Constitu
tion and union of the United States with even greater
venom than our native infidenty; and in every case
the pretext has been a morbid sympathy for the poor
slaves ; all of which is to jpnlist the malice of man
kind against the revealed wiU of heaven. Those
demon-begotten spirits have in many instances
assumed a profession of Christianity, and made their
way into the Christian ministry, and become great
sensation preachers in the Church of God, when
their object was to be only half Christian, and the
other half infidel, with a double purpose, one to
destroy the union of States, and the other to get the
people to support them while they were at it.
Many of those who have this morbid sympathy
for the poor slaves, have long since renounced and
denounced the Bible as an infernal book, simply
because they could not twist it far enough from the
truth, to make it condemn slavery. Now, without
the Bible there is no moral law or guide. It is the
only constitutional guide of the Christian Church,
and the only rfevealed will of God to mankind, or
that ever will be in this world. Yet these pretenders
have become so tender on the sinfulness of slavery,
tjiat they justify and recommend the extermination
of the whole white population of the slave States, and
all others who attempt to defend them in their lawful
rights, that the negro slaves may be freed, and placed
on a social and civil equality with We, the people!
I will now undertake to prove from the only
moral law or guide that ever has or ever will be given
in this world, that slavery is not a moral evil. The

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 17
Bible is Jehovah's only revealed will to mankind ;
it contains aU we ever have or ever shall have or
know of the moral law, and he who attempts to
teach from any. other moral law, guide, or doctrines,
"is a thief or robber." I will refer the reader to the
seal of these truths, that he may be careful how he
attempts to interfere with God's moral law and
revealed will to mankind.
Rev, xxii, 18-19 : " For I testify unto every man that
heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man
shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book. And if any man shall take
away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shal}
take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy
city, and/rom the things which are written in this book."
I presume 'no Christian, or even a pretending
Christian, will attempt to deny that John, while ex
iled on the Isle of Patmos, wrote the above awful
warning to the churches by inspiration. Yet we
find many who profess to be called of God to preach
his everlasting Gospel to a fallen world, and have
been ordained and set apart for that holy and deli
cate cause, trying to darken counsel as revealed in
the book of God, and preaching doctrines not.
revealed in that book, and denying others which are
as clearly set forth, as that of profane swearing, lying,
adultery, fornication, or drunkenness, is forbidden,
and thereby thousands of the most ungodly and
soul-destroying isms have been produced in the
world — isms that have destroyed the sanctity of
churches, ruined families, destroyed nations, and
damned millions of souls. And none has been
2*

18 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
more delusive, deceptive, and destructive to both
church and state in our beloved country, than the
doctrine that slavery is a moral evil, or sin agamst
God. There is no doctrine more clearly set forth in
that book than the lawfulness of human slavery,
except those in the Decalogue, and slavery is even
set forth in that edict, or in the ten commandments ;
and the moral question is so clearly revealed, that no
man who is fit to enter the sacred desk can possibly
make a mistake, and be ignorant of such mistake on
the moral question of slavery. Some ministers who
have been ordained and set apart as expounders of
God's holy law, for want of Scripture to condemn
slavery as a moral evil, select passages entirely for
eign, and apply them to slavery, such as oppression,
when it is as clear that the relation of master and
slave is not meant as it is that the relation of husband
and wife, or parents and children are not meant. All
are made precisely the same in morals, so far as the
book of God teaches on the subject. But infidelity
having but the one aim, and that is the overthrow
of Christianity, they, like their great exemplar, the
devil, are willing to give up this; the greatest boon
ever bestowed on any nation (our independence) for
the sake of overthrowing the book of God.
I will now proceed with my proofs.
Genesis ix. 20 to 27 inclusive : " And Noah began to be an
husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. And he drank of
the wine, and was drunken ; and he was uncovered within his
tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness
of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem
and J-apheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoul-

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 19
ders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their
father ; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their
father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from Ms wine, and
knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he
said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto
his brethren. And he said. Blessed be the Lord God of
Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant. "God shall enlarge
Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan
shall be his servant,"
Here we have the first introduction of slavery into
our world, after the flood, at least. Abolitionists say
that the Bible reading is servant, and not slave,, and
therefore Canaan was only made a hired servant.
That servant merely meant a hireling, but we are
told by the best linguists who have ever blessed
society, that the original meant slave or bondservant,
and ought to have been so translated. But as the
word servant is accommodating and will represent a
hired, or a bondservant, or slave, therefore the word
servant was used by the translator. But it is too
clear- for cavil, in both the Old and New Testament
Scriptures, that bondservant and hired servant were
two distinct conditions of labor, and the former was
the curse that was put upon Canaan for bad treat
ment to his old grandfather while in an unfortunate
condition. It is said that Noah "planted a vine
yard, and he drank of the wine, and was drunken ;"
it is believed that this was the first wine ever made,
and Noah not knowing its intoxicating properties
made himself drunken. It is the only account
given of his ever being drunk. Some people ask.
What power there could have been in the words of
Noah as above quoted, upon Canaan and his pos-

20 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
tenty through all future time? I will answer, that
what Noah said was merely prophetic, and that it
was Qod who imposed the curse upon that unfortu
nate race. Therefore slavery is a divine institution,
which I think I shall make clear to every sincere
truth seeker.
Some ask why God should have been so cruel to
that race of mankind. If I had lived before the
Supreme Being, and above him, and could have
looked forward to the end of all things like he did,
I could, perhaps, tell why he did it ; as it is, I cannot.
But no doubt it was done for the good of man. I
wiU offer a few ideas on this point. Adam disobeyed
God in one single (and.it would seem an almost in
nocent) matter ; but yet he was expelled from Eden,
he and his entire posterity cursed with a thousand
times more sickening and terrible curse than was
Canaan and his posterity. Yet every true man will
see that Ham's crime was a thousand times more
flagitious. It is believed by most commentators
that Ham's son Canaan was with him when he dis
covered his old and respected father in such an
unfortunate condition, and joined him in telling it
to all they met; and, perhaps, that while Ham -felt
a deep vindictive contempt towards his old father,
when he, as a dutiful son, should have pitied the
good old patriarch, and -hastened to have covered
him from the public gaze, and cautioned his son
Canaan not to tell it even to his best friend, that his
father might not be disgraced before the public, and
that future generations might not feel justified in
drunkenness, because the old patriarch got drank

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 21
through ignorance, he run off and published it to
his brethren.
I am asked why Canaan was cursed instead of his
father Ham ? I will say that, perhaps, if Ham had
been cursed, all his posterity would have felt the
weight of the displeasure of Almighty God, and the
innocent would have suffered for the guilty. The
whole human family have suffered from the founda
tion of the world, because of Adam's disobedience,
and will suffer through all time, and unless they are
saved through the atonement of our Lord, they will
have to suffer through all eternity. The reason for
believing that Canaan was with his father Ham,
when he discovered his fathei* Noah lying uncovered
in his tent, we read from the 22d verse : "And Ham
the father of Canaan saw," &c. If Canaan was not
with his father, why should his name have been
mentioned in that connection? Japheth and Shem
had sons, no doubt, but no allusion was made to them
whatever. I cannot see how any sincere truth seeker
can doubt that idea, when taken in connection with
the fact that the terrible sentence was passed upon
Canaan, instead of his father. As I have already
said, if Ham had been cursed, his whole posterity
would have been slaves through all tirae, and that
would have been unjust. And wheii we remember
that God could not do an unjust act, and will not
punish the innocent, we must believe that Canaan
had something to do with that great disrespect to
the old patriarch.
" And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his
father and told his two brethren without,"

22 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
22d verse clearly demonstrates the duty of children
to parents under every circumstance of this life,
which moral law has never been revoked by any
decree of heaven. Shem and Japheth had the bless
ing of their father bestowed upon them both,
while Ham was left out in the cold, without the
warming influence of his father's blessing to cheer
his drooping spirits at the grave of his sire. But
Canaan was thus cursed with the most obnoxious,
judgment of any other physical stain ever inflicted;
upon man since the fall from Eden. A curse that
is and will be unchangeable this side of the grave.
No, "no Jewish type or sprinkling priest can ever
wash the stain away." By the disobedience of Adam
to his heavenly Father, all wickedness, all hardness,
and all that afflicts the soul, body, or spirit, entered
into the world, and fell upon the whole human
family, yea, every unpleasant sensation, and all that
disturbs union, peace, harmony, and tranquillity ;.
even slavery and abolitionism are all, all the conse
quences of his disobedience to his Great Sire. Had-
he been obedient he would now live among us in
. all the vigor of youth and beauty that he possessed
before the fall. So also if Ham and his son Oanaan
had been true to their father and grand-father, there
would have been no slaves nor negroes in this world.
of ours.
24th verse, says, "Noah awoke from his wine, and
knew what his younger son had done unto him,"
and pronounced the unchangeable judgment re
corded in the 25th verse, which sentence was divine,

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 23
as I shall show. How- "Noah knew what Ham had
done unto him," we are not informed by the inspired
penman. Some commentators suppose he was in
formed by his two eldest sons. And others suppose
he knew it by inspiration. How he got the facts, is
immaterial ; he knew it in some way ; therefore the
terrible sentence fell upon the right one. Ham was
not exempt from the effects of divine displeasure,
nor was any of his family, or their posterity. But
none was made slaves except Canaan and his de
scendants; "a servant of servants." The reader
will see that Canaan was not only a servant to his
brethren, hut a servant of their servants. It is, there
fore, evident that he was placed far below hired
servants. Dr. Hales says, " Ham signifies burnt, or
black." Therefore his name was significant. Ham, ,
nor his son was not cursed, because Noah pronounced
those words against them. But because of the
magnitude of their crime. The words of Noah
being prophetic only, therefore what he said had no
influence whatever upon the physical appearance, or
character of those culprits, or their posterity. It
was the just judgment -of God for their crime against
the old patriarch, who was their temporal parent.
But Shem and Japheth took a garment, and covered
the nakedness of their father, without looking upon
him, as every good child would. Therefore a bless
ing was pronounced upon them. Now the declara
tion of Noah had no influence whatever upon the
lives and characters of his two elder sons, or theit
posterity, but simply a prophecy, and just as sure as
the prophecy was fulfilled in the latter, so it has

24 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
been in the former, and will continue to be until the
end of time.
I do not say that the curse was a spiritual one
pronounced against Canaan, for it was not; but
was .to affect his civil liberty, afld his physical ap
pearance, and that of his posterity for ever. None
of the descendants of Ham had any permanent
abiding place in this world, but were driven about
at the pleasure of their brethren, the descendants of
Shem and Japheth. Neither does it appear that
Canaan was directly enslaved to his brethren ; but
the process of preparation for bondage was com
menced immediately on the pronunciation of the
sentence for bondage, and went on through succes
sive generations until they were completely prepared
for the yoke. And then to be bond-servants was
the greatest blessing that man could bestow upon
them, and is so until this day, and will be so through
all time to come. This bondage does not interfere
with their spiritual liberty and salvation through
the atonement, and no doubt millions of that race
have embraced it. But that will not alter their
relations in this world. There seems to be some
hope for them in the Liberian Colony on the coast
of Africa. Yet I fear it will prove a failure, though
the climate is in their favor, as it naturally forbids
the residence of the whites there, by a prohibitory
law that is insurmountable, and perhaps unchange
able. But when the influence of the Anglo-saxon
races shall be entirely withdrawn from the colonies,
the great probability is they will sink into their
original heathenism and barbarism. They are the

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 25
only tribes on the earth that can be easily reduced
to slavery, and who prosper and improve best under
the yoke of bondage. But I do not wish to dis
courage the experiment being fully tried in Liberia,
for if there is any degree of freedom for them in
this world, it is there, and only there.
The Chinese are made slaves in the tropical re
gions, or the West India Islands, but two-thirds of
them die off prematurely. The Cooleys are being
brought in large numbers and sold into bondage on
all those Islands for a term of about eight years,
and perhaps the half of them die off before they
are free, and those who live the eight years have
not life enough left in them to enable them to pro
cure a livelihood. But the Africans are greatly
improved ¦ by the yoke of bondage in all parts of
the world, and especially in the sunny climes of the
torrid zones, and they become vigorous, strong,
lively, happy, and long lived in the low hot cli
mates. While those climates positively forbid con
stant labor in the sun by any other tribes or colors
on the face of the globe, and as it is evident beyond
all cavil, that the Africans are entirely useless in
this world in any other capacity but slavery. And
they are found to bc'the only persons among all the
tribes of earth, who can labor constantly and im
prove in their moral and physical health by having
good masters who hold them for life in those climes.
I say they can toil in those climates without the
least inconvenience, and with such great benefit to
themselves, and such vast profit and advantage to
the whole civilized world. I ask, would it be right

26 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
under these circumstances for those climates to be
abandoned that produce such blessings to the world,
and be forever lost, both in Europe and America,^ as
well as in Africa, when they have proved a blessing
through African slavery, of such magnitude to the
world, and to none more than the African laborer
himself. One of the most important points. in this
matter is, to show us that children must be respect
ful to their parents in and under all circumstances
in this life. One of the commandments says,
" Honor thy father and thy mother ; that thy days
may be long upon the land which the Lord thy
God giveth thee."— Ex. xx, 12, Disobedience was
the crime which produced all the afflictions known
in this world since its creation, and turned a glorious
paradise of order and beauty into one perpetual heap
of corruption, confusion, and ruin. Therefore other
laws equally strict become necessary for the govern
ment of this fallen world ; and the one above stands
next in importance, and equal to the preceding
ones of the ten commandments. And Ham and his
descendants, especially those through the lineage of
hi.s son Canaan, are marks of the displeasure of the
Divine Being towards the disobedience of children
to their parents, and they are this day moving,
living, hearing, and talking monuments of his dis
pleasure towards disobedient children to parents, I-
am asked why I set the Africans down as the de
scendants of Ham ? It is evident from history, both
sacred and profane, that they are the true descend
ants of Ham, through Canaan, I refer the reader
to Drs. Clarke, Benson, Watson, and other divine

AFlilCAN SLAVERY. 27
commentators of the highest standing, and all the
best authors who have written on the subject. The
sacred text is too clear to be misunderstood on that
point. 26th verse: "And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of
Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant." 27th verse : " God
shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ;
and Canaan shall be his servant,"
These words are so significant that comments are
unnecessary to prove that slavery was divinely au
thorized, so far as Canaan and his posterity were con
cerned. He had no part in his father's blessings
given before his death, only as an underling or
subordinate. Genesis xvii. 13 : " He that is born in thy house, and he
that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised,"
This test shows that the buying and selling of
human beings as chattels was justified by law both
sacred and civil. This was four hundred and fifty
years after Noah pronounced the awful sentence
against Canaan, This shows that Abraham did not
only hold slaves, but bought them for his own use.
And the old patriarch expresses no misgivings on
the subject or moral question of slavery.
Genesis xx. 14 : *' And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen,
and men-servants, and women-servants, and gave them unto
Abraham." Abraham did not hesitate to receive slaves as pre
sents at that time, nor at any other time, though pre
sented by a heathen as Abimelech was. He expressed
no conscientious scruples whatever about holding

28 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
them as property, chattels, whether purchased or pre
sented, and yet he held converse with angels. And they
gave him no intimation that it was to infringement
on the moral law. If slavery was sin against God or
man, then angels must have been very remiss in not
inform-ing the old patriarch, out of whose lineage
the Son of God was to appear, when he stood alone
with them in the mountain and in his tent. And
the patriarch was very humble before the sacred
visitors, and obedient to a letter ; yet no instruction
was given him on the sin of slavery. Moses, four
hundred and six years subsequent to Abraham's
connection with slavery, held converse with the
Almighty himself, among the thunderings of the
mountains, and there received the whole moral law ;
and in the 17th verse of the xx. of Exodus, we have
the following : — ¦
" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man
servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any
thing that is thy neighbor's."
In the ten commandments the whole moral law
was written, and slavery is mentioned, as quoted
above from 17th verse; and it covers the entire
moral ground until this day. And it stands in full
force, for our Lord and his holy apostles brought the
whole Decalogue forward into the Christian Dispen
sation, and reindorsed the whole Decalogue with the
tenth commandment, as above quoted. And in that
slavery is completely indorsed and sanctioned. And
in all that mighty thundering, lightning, and alarm,
that was to prepare Moses to receive the law, and
bow obedience to every sacred edict that should be

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 29
handed over for the government of the world. And
yet the Supreme Being did not utter one word
against the institution of slavery. What a pity the
Eev. H. W. Beecher, Dr. Cheever, Wendell Phillips,
or some other apostle of universal freedom and equal
rights, had not been there to have reminded the
Almighty that his people had enslaved the Canaan
ites, and that it was an abomination in his sight, and
that he must annul the cursed institution ! What
troubles they would have saved us ia the United
States ! I will refer the reader to Genesis xxiv. the
latter part of the 2d and the 3d verses, to show you
that Abraham would not associate with the descen
dants of Canaan, because they were an accursed race,
and Abraham knew it. He knew also that it would
be inconsistent with prudence and policy, as well as
the design of the divine Being, to have united the
child of promise to one of a cursed race, though that
curse was only a physical and a political one.
" Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh ; And I will
make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God
of the earth, and thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the
daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell." The 4th
verse: "But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my
kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac."
Now, why was Abraham so afraid of the Canaan
ites? Shem was an own brother of Ham, the father
of Canaan. And on what account was he so parti
cular as to swear his servant by one of the most
binding oaths, not to take a wife unto his son Isaac
.from the Canaanites, among whom he was living,
and who he refused to acknowledge as his kin, but
3*

30 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
sent him away into a far country, to a city called.
Nahor, in Mesopotamia, among the descendants of
Shem, to get a wife for his son ? Because he knew
the Canaanites were cursed physically and politically,
and destined for slaves forever. Abraham was a
slave-owner at this time. It was slaves he sent in
pursuit of a wife for his son.
Genesis xvii, 23 : "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,"
It seems clear that God commanded Abraham
in this verse to circumcise his slaves (for he had
bought them with his money), and yet that great and
eternal Being expresses no dissatisfaction at the
institution of slavery. The abolitionists say it was
a different kind of slavery then from what it is now.
I would like them tell how different, for they were
bought, sold, and held as chattels just as they are
now. But they say, they were then white men. I
have some doubt about that; and suppose they were,
is it any worse to hold a negro in slavery than it is
a white man ? I have not the slightest doubt but
that all the race was white until after the confusion
of tongues, at the building of the Tower of Babel,
which was one hundred and one years after Canaan
was cursed ; and, until after the dispersion, I have
little or no doubt that the most of the slaves were
Canaanites. We see from Genesis xxvi. 25, that
Isaac was also a slaveholder. Look again at Gen
esis xxxii. 22, " And he rose up that night, and took

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 31
his two wives, and his two women-servants." So we
see that Jacob was a slaveholder also. Pharaoh was
a large slaveholder, as we see in many places. Ex.
ix. 20th to 34th verses. They seemed to be put on
an equality with cattle, as they often were, by even
the IsraeUtes. The Israelites were all slaves at this
time, except Moses and Aaron. And how came it
that such special effort was made to free them from
bondage, where they had been 'for so long a time,
and not the slightest counsel given to free the Ca
naanites at any time, or any part of them ? And no
prophetic vision alludes to any time or place in
which, or at which time, they are to be free.
I will here put forth a little prophecy, and I hope
it will not be forgotten. Whenever the abolition
ists shall get sufficient power to amend the Con
stitution of the United States, and abolish slavery,
our glory will end as a prosperous nation, and we
shall be cursed from that very hour, as the British,
French, and Spanish provinces were and are, by the
universal emancipation of their slaves. And not
withstanding the mighty ^nd untiring efforts of the
British missionaries with the Bible and gold, the
slaves have already sunk quite as low as they are in
the interior of Africa, and nothing but the sight of
a standing army prevents them from becoming as
barbarous as they were in their native territory ; and
a standing army will have ever to be kept on their
account. And from the very day they are all freed
here, the reign of terror will set in, and a military
despotism will have to be established that will of

32 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
necessity have to be of greater magnitude than any
other on the face of the earth.
Look again at Exodus xxi. 2: "If thou buy an
Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve ; and in the
seventh he shall go out free for nothing." This pas
sage is often quoted by antislavery men in great boast,
because they say it proves that slaves could not
be held over six years under this law. It is true &o
far as the Hebrew slaves were concerned ; and the
sacred Legislator is very particular to make this
special provision for the Hebrews, and doubtless be
cause they were the heirs of promise, and had not com
mitted an unpardonable national or domestic sin, as
Canaan had done ; nor had they been condemned
and sentenced to everlasting slavery.
Ex. xxi. 3 : "If he came in by himself, he shall go out by.
himself; if he were married, then his wife shall go out with
him. 4. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne
him sons or daughters ; the wife and her children shall be her
master's and he shall go out by himself.
5. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master,
my wife, and my children ; I will not go out free :
6. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall
also bring him to the door, or unto the door-post ; and his
master shall bore his ear through with an awl ; and he shall
serve him for ever."
It is clear, from the above passages, that the wife
given to a Hebrew slave, was a slave for life, and
also her children, and, of course, she was a Canaan
itish woman, or she could not have been held for life.
If she had not been, she and her children could
have gone out with the husband and father. And

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 33
if Abraham had allowed his servant to have taken
a wife to his son Isaac from among the Canaanites,
his children by her would have at least been like the
Ishmaelites, and the lineage of Isaac would have
been a curse to the world the same as the Ishmael
ites, instead of being a blessing. And, no doubt, his
servants, who he sent out to seek a wife for Isaac,
were all of the heathen around about ; in other words,
Canaanites. Therefore the necessity for the strong
oath which was administered to them, and the posi
tive charge not to take a wife for Isaac, from that
race, who had been sentenced to perpetual slavery.
Had these servants not have been Canaanites, there
would have been no need of such binding oaths. But
from the above text we learn that a Hebrew slave
could be held for life by his own consent, and only
by his own free consent and choice. And when his
ear was once bored through, according to law, his
condition was then fixed for fife, and he was then a
bond-servant, and was treated as such, and not as a
hired servant, as before that act, even if his wife and
children died the next day. In Lev. xix. 20, we are
told that if any man have carnal intercourse with a
bondmaid, who was betrothed, she should be scourged
but should not be put to death like the Hebrew
women, because she was not free, and had no power
to resist ; clearly setting forth that she was not her
own, and was treated altogether different from the
Hebrews, for the same crime. Lev. xxii. 10, hired
servants are spoken of, and we are told in the 11th
verse, a priest was justified in purchasing slaves with

S4 , AFRICAN SLAVERY.
his money, and deal in human beings. Lev. xxv.
38th to the 55th inclusive.
These 17 verses ought to settle the whole ques
tion, for it is given as the word of the Lord. I will
give the whole passage for the convenience of the
reader, and I think it ought to end all cavil among
Christians. But if it should be twisted to mean
something else, I think the doctrines of salvation
by repentance and faith may be twisted into some
other meaning, and the moral influence of the whole
book of God will turn to nought. Some professing
Christians have said to me, if such declarations
were in the Bible as I stated to them, they would
dash it from their houses, as an infernal book. I
pity such professors, but they must suffer the con
sequences of their own fanatical prejudices. The
passage says: —
" 38. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out
of the land of Egypt, to giie you the land of Canaan, and to
be your God.
39. And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor,
and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a
bond-servant :
40. But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be
with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee:
41. And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his
children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and,
unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
42. For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of
the land of Egypt : they shall not be sold as bondmen.
43. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear
thy God.
44. Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 35
have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you, of
thein shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
45. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do so
journ among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their famiUes
that are with you, which they begat in your land : and they
shall be your possession.
46. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your chil
dren after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall lie
your bondmen for ever : but over your brethren, the children
of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor.
47. And if a sojourner or stranger 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 the
stranger's family:
48. After that he is sold he may be redeemed again ; one of
his brethren may redeem him:
49. 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.
50. 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 according unto the number of years ;
according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.
51. If there be yet many years behind, according unto them
he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money
that he was bought for,
52. And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubi
lee, then he shall count with him, and according unto his
years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.
53. And 3,3 a yearly hired servant shall he be with him : and
the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight.
54. 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. 55. For unto me the children of Israel are servants ; they
are my servants, whom I brought forth out of Egypt : I am
the Lord your God."

36 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
No siacere seeker of the truth will deny that the
above quotations are the words of the Lord. For
the 38th says, / am the Lord your God, the 39th to
the 43d show us that the descendajits of Shem cannot
be made slaves or bond-servants, absolutely, without
incurring the displeasure of the Supreme Being.
They are in no way adapted for bond-servants.
They were not made for slaves, and cannot be en
slaved without their own consent, and when they
were taken and sold on account of their poverty or
any other cause, the master or purchaser is ordered
by God himself to treat them as hired servants, and
they are forbid to rule over them with rigor ; but
that they should treat them as their brethren, because
they were of the heirs of promise, and the children of
Israel, who were their equals in his sight, even if they
were poor. And if one should by chance fall into
the hands of a stranger or heathen, in other words, a
Canaanite, that may be in tTieir midst, every means
should be used to free him at once if the money
could be raised for that purpose. His kin are
called upon to redeem him, but not without paying
the full cost or amount of purchase to this hea
then (I hope the abolitionists will notice this). Al
though it seemed to disturb even the Almighty for
one of his redeemed children to be a slave to one
who was of the Canaanites, and a cursed race, and
unlawful for them to hold Israelites as bond-servants
for any time. Yet the sacred-law giver made it
imperative that the whole purchase money should be
returned to this heathen master, after deducting the
earnings of the Hebrew servants up to the time of

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 87
his redemption. But in case the money could not
be raised to redeem him, he was to go out free at
the jubilee ; which was every fiftieth year.
There is not a more beautiful lesson in the whole f
moral code. The Almighty does not sanction the
taking of any man's property from him without
giving him the value of it. Though it was not law
ful for a stranger to hold a Jew in slavery, yet he
had got him honestly, and the just law of God would
not allow him to be taken away from his master
without returning his money to him. (0 abolition
ist! where wilt thou stand in the great day of God?)
These are the laws of God, and any individual, asso
ciation, or nation, even in this day of our Lord, will
be overthrown, who attempts to grapple with them ;
and any nation that shall sanction the holding of the
Caucasians, Celts, or Anglo-Saxons in slavery, with
out their own free consent and agreement, are
grappling with the righteous laws of heaven, and
will ever be in trouble, for the just judgments of the
Almighty will rest upon them, and a tyrant shall
reign over them, and uncertainties shall surround
them day and night ; for the white people are the
descendants of God's people, whom he brought forth
out of bondage by a mighty arm. But the holding
of slaves is fully sanctioned by the Supreme Law
giver in the 44th, 45th, and 46th verses. But they
were to be of the strangers or heathen, who were
the descendants of Canaan, on whom the terrible
sentence was pronounced eight hundred and fifty-six
years before.
It is evident from God's own words that no part
4

38 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
of the sentence had been modified or abated down to
that day — neither has it been down to this date.
The difference between a hired and. a bond-servant
is fully set forth in the quotations I have made from
this chapter.
This arrangement of God for the government of
the world is a just one, and woe be unto the church
or nation that shall attempt to revoke the decrees
that the great I Am has put his seal to. The Afri
cans are the strangers or descendants of the heathen
that were around about ; they are the Canaanites who
are useful as slaves only. God has so arranged the
nature of the Canaanites or Africans, so that there can
be no mistakes made. The marks are such that they
cannot be mistaken, day or night ; and the natural laws
that designate them from the descendants of Shem
are unchangeable, and God has so made them that
no mistakes might occur. Therefore, every attempt
to free them and place them on an equality with the
people of God, or the whites, must be wilful. And •
whenever it shall be done in this country, woe be
unto us, for our glory will pass from us as soon as it
is done ; and every step we take towards that achieve
ment is a step towards the complete overthrow of
this national government, just so sure as God gave
the^bove laws. No white race has ever yet taken
the Africans on an equality who did not sink down
to their level.
I shall say enough on the incompetency of the
African race for self-government in another chap
ter, and their level when left to themselves with the
power in their hands. In that we can read our doom

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 39
whenever universal emancipation shall prevail in
this whole country ; and then our steps cannot be-
retraced. The 55th verse seems to seal the law, and
shows clearly that the whole seventeen verses quoted
were especially in accordaace with divine wisdom.
There was very special pains taken in this chapter
to show who was lawfully set apart for bond-servants
forever, and who were to be their temporal masters,
Tgithout limit; for no time for their freedom is men
tioned, or even intimated, nor can be inferred.
The reasons are again repeated in the last verse
why the children of Israel should be treated as
hired servants (when they were unfortunate, and
fell victims to the law of slavery), and not as slaves.
And they were, because he (the Lord) had redeemed
them from perpetual slavery. They (Israel) had
been made long before the children of promise, and
whose numbers should be great that they might be
a blessing to all the nations of the world. But the
'Canaanites had no promise of a temporal redemp
tion, neither have they ever been redeemed, nor they
will not be in this world. And every official effort
to redeem them, will only make their condition
worse, for God has set his seal against it, and put
an irrevocable and a prohibitory, mark upon them
so that they cannot be redeemed ; and if we attempt '
to do it, we shall be sunk far below the level of our
southern slaves, for the Almighty jvill not allow us
to tamper with his laws with impunity.
In this chapter the line is completely drawn be
tween the children of promise and that accursed
race. Though the service of the Hebrews was some-

40 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
times long to the jubilee when they happened to be
made slaves, but their redemption at the jubilee
was typical of the redemption from the corruptions
of the fall from Eden ; by the Son of God, which is
a spiritual redemption, and all who will accept shall
be made spiritually free, whether bond or free; but
their temporal relations will not be changed, yet
both will be greatly improved by it. A heathen
could not be a type of the promised spiritual re
demption by the gift of God's only Son. But they
are a type of all who shall reject the offer of spiritual
salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord, whether
bond or free, black or white, and no more changes
will be made in this world by divine sanction, and
jusj; so far as we attempt to grapple with the laws
of nature, and nature's God, we shall be left to our
selves, and we shall be cursed just in proportion to
our interference with the laws of nature. Slavery
did not then bind a man's soul, and does not now.
A real pious slave ought to be the happiest person '
on earth, for he has no worldly cares to trouble him.
No matter if he should have a wife and twelve
children, and be sick, he has no concern about them,
for he knows they are fully provided for. And
they have none of the annoyances or perplexities
the free people have, of either color.
Deut. V. 14th: "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the
Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor
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 * within thy gates ; that thy man-servant
and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou."

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 41
This command was given forty years later to slave
holders, and none are so especially mentioned in the
command or edict as the slaves, showing that the
master had the same power over them that he had
over all his beasts of burthen,-ftnd it seems that the
last clause of this article was inserted into the moral
law for the protection of the slaves, they having no
natural or lawful rights to protect them from over
burden and imposition, and to prevent the welfare
of the slaves being lost sight of by their owners,
and woe be unto that master or mistress who shall
look upon their servants as beasts of burden only,
especially under gospel dispensation. If they do,
the Almighty will look upon them as traitors to his
moral government, and treat them as such in the
great day of reckoning. They are reminded in the
15th of the same chapter that they were once slaves
in Egypt.
21st. " Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife, neither
shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field, or his man
servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing
that is thy neighbor's."
This text differs slightly from the tenth command
ment ; in that the field is not mentioned, and this al
most complete repetition by the Sacred Law-giver
forty years after writing the Decalogue, shows clearly
that no change had taken place in his mindon the sub
ject of slavery ; and eight hundred and ninety-seven
years after Canaan had been sentenced to perpetual
slavery, so far as moral, and civil law, written by
Moses goes, the moral question of slavery was fully
4*

42 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
settled. If there had been some Charles Sumner,
T. Stevens, H. Beecher, Dr. Furnace, or any one of
the apostles of abolitionism, to have translated the
words of the Lord to Moses, amid all that thunder
ing and lightning in the mountain, or to have told
the King of kings that he was committing a great
and fatal error, what a world of trouble they might
have saved us if there was any mistake ! In the
14th of the xxi. of Deut. it is strongly inferred that
the Israelites did buy and sell human slaves as
chattels, by forbidding a husband to make merchan
dise of his own wife, though she was a heathen.
Deut. xxiii. 15-16 verses, seem to forbid the return
of a slave to his master ; but must have been under
some peculiar circumstances ; and the only circum
stance under which slaves were forbid to be delivered
up to their master. And I believe the only passage
or text we have on record, which in any way forbids"
an unconditional surrender of slaves to their legal
owner. It is the only one at least quoted by the
celebrated abolitionist, Mrs. Childs, of Mass., in her
long letter to Mrs. Senator Mason, of Virginia, pub
lished January 7th, 1860, in the Philadelphia Ledger.
She gave about eighteen passages, only two of which
had any allusion to slavery, whatever ; and among
them was this passage, and the precept of our Lord
in Matthew: "Do as you would be done by." And
seemed to think she had gained a great victory over
Mrs. Senator Mason. She was careful not to quote
any of the many passages so directly to the point.
Dr. Adam Clarke says in his comment on those two
verses —

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 43
" Thou shalt not dehver the servant which is escaped unto
thee." " That is, a servant who left an idolatrous master that
he might join himself to God and to his people. In any other
case, it would have been injustice to have harbored the run
away." Dr. Adam Clarke was a native of Ireland, and
never was in this country, and was looked upon
even by the British government as one of the most
profound linguists on the earth, and by all as a man
of mighty powers of mind, and of the deepest piety,
and was esteemed by all good men in both church
and state ; and, I think, his opinions ought to be re
spected. Though he said, on a passage in the New
Testament, something like the following : The pains
of hell are not adequate to the crime of slavery;
in this declaration he must have alluded to some
special act of slavery ; perhaps the slave trade that
was being carried on by the British government at
that time on an enormous scale. For on all other
passages he clearly shows that slavery was fully
justified by both the Old and New Testament Scrip
tures. The above severe remarks of Dr. Clarke are quoted
by abolitionists everywhere ; but they are very care
ful to quote no other passage from his extended
commentary on slavery as set forth in the Bible.
And the same "course is pursued about what the
Eev. John Wesley said on the slave trade, or the
crimes so often committed in connection with it by
cruel and hard-hearted men. Those declarations are
quoted everywhere by antislavery men and women ;
but they are very careful never to allude to his

44 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
having so frequently after that baptized the children
of slaveholders, and even licensed slaveholders to
exhort in the church, and admitted them to the
sacraments in the West Indies, and never after he
visited the United States of America, and saw for
himself the condition of master and slave, did he
utter one- word against receiving slaveholders into
the Church of God.
It is evident from the passage above, that the
escaped slaves were descendants of Shem, though
this text does not say. But every article in the law
written prior and subsequent proves beyond a doubt
that it was Israelites, who perhaps had been taken
in war by the heathen, and then escaped and returned
to their brethren. Therefore they were not to be
delivered up. I think the above quotations ought
and will satisfy every candid and unprejudiced
mind, they all being taken from the heads of moral
departments. I will quote a few more passages,'
however, from the Old Testament, and say some
thing about the Ishmaelites, to show that even those
that mix blood with the Canaanites have never done
but little or no good in this world ; or, in other
words, those sections of the globe occupied by them
exclusively — I mean, wherever they have the govern
ment in their own hands. It is clear that the-
African negroes are the true and unadulterated-
descendants of Canaan, and the children of all those
that intermarried or otherwise mixed kin with them
are this day to a greater or less extent under the
curse that was passed upon Canaan four thousand
two hundred and nine years ago, and perhaps are

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 45
colored just in proportion to that mixture or kin.
Benson said : " The Phoenicians and Carthagenians
are also included in the curse denounced on Canaan,
for they descended from him, and were both subdued
by the Greeks and Eomans with dreadful destruction,
and made tributary to them." This was four hun
dred and thirty-six years after the curse was
denounced on Canaan by his grandfather, Noah,
and after Abram and Sarai had left Egypt with all
their property, and the presents given them by
Pharoah, among which were slaves, and perhaps of
both sexes, and, no doubt, Hagar was one of them,
for she was an Egyptian slave, and doubtless a
Canaanite, for the descendants of Shem and Japheth
could not be made slaves at pleasure, and especially
those in the lineage of Shem. As we have here
tofore shown, the Egyptian slaves were bond slaves,
while all others were hired servants, or treated
as such, and were not held for life, except by mutual
agreement. Genesis xvi, 1, "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no
children : and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name
wcbs Hagar."
So we see she was an Egyptian slave, and at that
time concubinage was tolerated by both civil and
moral law. Therefore Sarai would have had a per
fect right to have made an agreement with her
husband to give her an heir by some other woman.
But in this case she was doubting the promise, and
even if she had not doubted, she had no right to
have an heir through a cursed race, and a heathen ;
and we see as soon as this thing was agreed upon

46 AFRICAN SLAVERY,
between Sarai and Abraham, and Hagar had con
ceived, that trouble set in between Sarai and Hagar,.
and even between Sarai and Abraham; and the
consequence was Hagar was driven off, and she fled
to the wilderness.
Gen. xvi. 7, "And the angel of the Lord found her by a
fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way
to Shur.
8. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence earnest thou ?
and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face
of my mistress Sarai.
9. And the angel of the Lord said unto her. Return to thy
mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.
10. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply
thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multi
tude. 11. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou
art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call^his name
Ishmael ; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.
12. And he will be a wild man ; his hand will be against
every man, and every man's hand against him ; and he shall
dwell in the presence of all his brethren."
In the first place we are taught by the angel of
God in these passages, the right of property in men
and women as slaves ; see 9th verse. Now was this
a divine or human law ? If slavery be a sin against
God, was not this a befitting time to have made it
known ? Here was a messenger directly from the
throne of the eternal God; yet he utters not one
word against the institution of slavery. But tells
Hagar to return to her mistress, and to submit her
self under her hands. The anti-slavery man says
this was under the old law, when God 'winked at
sin. But what law of earth has God and holy-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 47
angels ever been governed by? This is simply
preposterous. They say adultery and fornication
was then allowed as well as slavery — ^which are
forbidden under the new law. I will show you when
I get into the New Testament, that the two former
are positively forbidden, and slavery allowed, and
not one word uttered against it in any way. In the
12th verse the angel told Hagar her child should be
a wild man, "and his hand should be against every
man, and every man's hand against him," and that
he should "dwell in the presence of his brethren.
It has now been thirty-seven hundred and seventy
years since the angel talked with Hagar as above ;.
and from thence unto the present day, the descend
ants of Ishmael have been against every man, and
every man has been against them. And M^hat is
their present condition and their location? We
find them now located in a section of country, a
large territory which stretches from Aleppo to the
Arabian Sea, and from Egypt to the Persian Gulf;
containing about one million six hundred and twenty
thousand square miles, where they have dwelt to
gether for thousands of years. God himself has
sent them out free, because they were kin to the
children of promise, and therefore could not be
made slaves of any kind, either bond or hired.
They are divided into twelve tribes and are circum
cised, and marry among themselves same as the
Jews. They are loose from all political restraint.
The wilderness is their habitation, and in a land
where no other human beings can live, they have
their homes, but no fixed habitations. They com-

48 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
mit depredations on all the cities and towns near
their borders. They are universally thieves, rob
bers, and murderers; after committing their depre
dation, they can retire into the desert with such
precipitancy that they cannot be caught. Their
fleetness is almost equal to the gray hound. The
Abyssinians, Persians, Egyptians, and Turks have
endeavored to subjugate those Bedouin Arabs, and
sometimes they have thought they were going to
have full success, but ultimately all was abortive.
And from the beginning to the present day they
have maintained their independence; and they re
main as living and moving monuments of the truth
of the Holy Scriptures, and of the disapprobation
of God to any mixture of blood with the descendant
of Canaan. All, because Ham made ftin of his
father Noah, while .prostrated in his tent beneath a
misfortune. I shall speak of the mulattoes of this country in
another chapter, and show you that the curse of
God is still upon any mixture between the true de
scendants of Shem, and those of Ham through the
lineage of Canaan. I hope the reader will examine
the xvi. chapter of Gen., and read Clarke's views
on it. What use have those wild Arabs been to the
world ? Where have they done any good ? What
nation, or tribe, or spot, on this earth has been in
any way benefited by them ? None, whatever. Yet
they are descendants of Abraham, as well as the
Jews ; but, unfortunately, through a Canaanitish
woman and a cursed slave. The only benefit the
Arabs have been, or perhaps ever will be, is as a

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 49
warning to all men not to interfere with divine
decrees, and the arrangements of his government
by which he intended to govern the world. Abra
ham was severely punished by the trouble he
was thrown into with Sarai — through her slave
Hagar. The pure descendants of Canaan are very
useful to the whole world as slaves, but in no other
capacity. And slavery is as great a blessing to the
Africaii in the United States as Christianity is to a
heathen, and is so in their native Africa, though to
a much less extent, and altogether in a temporal
way. And whenever we, as a nation, which God
has chosen as his agents and guardians to take care
of a part of those descendants of Ham, and to make
them useful to him iu the world, and to teach them
Christianity and the way of life here and hereafter,
shall set them all at liberty, his curse will be upon
us from that day in which it shall be done, and we
shall feel the weight of his hand untU. the end of
time, in some way that will destroy our peace and
happiness, as a nation and people; and this country
and nation that was intended to be as the ante-cham
ber of heaven, will be thrown iiito confusion, tu
mults and ruin. As I have said m-uch on this point
in another place, I will now only ask what would
become of us, if four or five millions more slaves'
were turned loose upon us, and what would become
of them ?
There was a striking difference between hired
servants and bond servants. To oppress the former
was positively forbidden, even if they were poor and
needy. See Deut. xxiv. 14, 15. And they were
5

50 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
reminded that they were bond-servants in Egypt,
see 18th verse, as a warning to them against their
withholding the pay from hired servants, and there
by oppressing them. The descendants of Shem,
though often made slaves through poverty and
otherwise, so far as the law required obedience, to
the master, was the same as bond-servants, and so
far as remaining their time out ; but they were to
receive wages in some way, and were to be treated
as hired servants who went and came at pleasure ;
but were just as much bound to serve their time out,
whatever that was, as the bond-servants were to
serve for life ; and live on such as his master saw
proper to give him. In the beginning, while under
a provisioiial government, the descendants of Shem
or Japheth, were only allowed to serve six years, and
go out free on the seventh, as typical of the Sabbath.
But under the permanent government, as established
by Moses, the time was extended to fifty years ; that
is, they were all set free at the jubilee which was
every fiftieth year ; that making the whole time of
service for those who should happen to enter on the
first day after the jubilee, forty-nine years ; and those
entering one year after, would have to serve forty-
eight years ; and those entering on the forty-eighth
*year, would have to serve only one year to the first'
morning of the year of jubilee, when all the children
of promise went out free. Lev. xxv. 52, 53, 54, 55.
Now the reason why they were not to be held for
ever as bond or hired servants is clearly set forth in
the 55th verse. But what is said of the strangers
that sojourned among them ? Lev. xxv. 45, 46. Who

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 51
were meant by strangers ? Were they not heathens,
or in other words, the descendants of Ham through
Canaan ? How different were they treated ! They
were to be bought, sold and kept for an inheritance
for their children, and to be held as their possessions
forever — ^to be at the beck and call of their masters,
and no intimations given that they were ever to
be free, and satisfy themselves on whatever their-
owners gave them, and had no legal claim on them
for anything beyond that.
A wealthy gentleman, in whose breast beats as
kind a heart as ever moved the pulse of man, said
to me last night, while talking on this subject,
in reply to my views, that I must not talk that way ;
that he could not bear it, for it would be cruel ; that
God was no respecter of persons. I said to the
doctor, Why, then, are they black and so repulsive
in their appearance to all our senses ? therefore
God must have been a respecter of persons, so far as
the. physical nature of man is concerned. And he
does respect man according to his obedience to his
government, and has done from the foundation of
the world, and will do to the end of time. Spiritual
ly, ia a general way, he is no respecter of persons,
and has opened up a way for the salvation of every
man, without respect to color or condition. A great
many men do not seem to draw the line between the
spiritual and temporal kingdom of God in the world.
If he was no respecter of persons, how came Noah
and his family to have been admitted into the ark
and saved, and all others left out to perish ? How
came Lot and his family to be taken out of Sodom

52 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
by an angel of God, and all the Sodomites left to
perish in the flames? How came David to be
chosen and anointed, and Jonathan left out ? And
how came the Africans to be what they are in
color and personal appearance, and the Anglo-Saxon
so superior in color and personal appearance ? To
say God is no respecter of persons, physically and
temporally, is preposterous. I know he sends the
rain on the good and bad alike, that the bad may
have no excuse ; and all are invited alike to partake
of the waters of life, and all can have it alike, without
respect to color, tribe, or nation ; and if the Hindoo,
Chinese, Indian, Arab, African, or southern slave
will come unto God through Jesus Christ, and give
him their hearts alike, he will free them all alike
from the dominion of sin, and they will be free
indeed ; and if faithful, the devil and sin will have
no more dominion over them. But it will make no
difference in their temporal or physical relations
whatever, only so far as they may be improved in
principle and grace. But it will make no change in
the color of the skin, the texture of the hair, or the
odor of the body.
Thousands of abolitionists speak of the spiritual
freedom of the Bible, and twist it into a temporal
freedom, and thus preach it from their pulpits, with
long, aped faces, and by that try to make the people
believe that they have a large store of pity for the
poor slave, that is ten times as happy and well off
as two-thirds of our white servant-girls in the
northern cities ; and no sympathy is expressed for
them whatever. Thus they have adulterated the

AFRICAN SLA,VERY. 53
Gospel of God, and converted the sanctuary into a
, den of corruption, deception, and slander. Many
such are ministers of Apollyon, and not of Christ, and
are guilty of high treason against the government
of God and this country, and deserve the gallows just
as much as old John Brown or any other culprit.
And we shall never have peace in church or state
until they are hung or stopped in some way. Was
it any worse for God to curse the Canaanites with
perpetual slavery for a sin of such enormity, than
it was to curse the whole world, simply because
our first parents hit a very delicious fruit in the
Garden of Eden? Ham (and no doubt his son
Canaan joined with him, or he would not have been
selected to take the curse) saw his father lying drunk
and naked in his tent, and doubtless the first and
last time it ever happened, and instead of covering
him, and tryiag to hide his shame from the gaze of
the ungodly, ran off and told his brethren, as before
described. Every good man will agree that this was
a great sin, and would have been, even if Noah had
been a stranger to him ; and by this curse only a
small part of the human family were stained, and
not punished with corporeal punishment. But was
the "curse that took hold upon Adam and the whole
human family simply because he ate the fruit? No;
certainly not.
Suppose the stress was laid on the mere act of
the two, which was the worst? I would say that
Ham's was a thousand times more flagitious than
Adam's. In Adam's case there was no harm in
simply eating the apple, but in Ham's case there
5*

54 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
was a flagitiousness that excelled most all other
crimes. Yet, for it, the descendants of one branch ,
of his family were made slaves forever. But what
was, and is, the immensity of the curse that affected
the whole world, without respect to persons? not
only to man, but the beast of the field, the fowls of
the air, the fish of the sea, and the earth, and all
that grows thereon. The seasons, the winds, the
seas, and even the atmosphere was poisonous; all
fell under this most terrible curse. The extra curse
added to Canaan and his family was not a drop to
the ocean, compared to it. The descendants of Ca
naan was' not corrupted any more than what they
were before, by the disobedience of Adam. They
were gradually turned black, and made slaves. But
by the transgression of Adam, Ham committed this
great sin; the whole antediluvian world was de
stroyed, and every pain that afflicts man, beast,
fowl, or fish, was produced by it. There would
have been no winter, no storms, no burning sun,
but one perpetual serene and balmy spring. Had
it not been for the sin of Adam, there would have
been no slaves, labor would not have been toil,
there would have been no thorns or thistles, no
venomous. reptiles, no unclean thing, or contending
parties, no misunderstanding, no fevers, no agues,
no pains of any kiad, no wars, nor rumors of wars,
and above all, no death would ever have been known
in the whole family of earth, and the presence of
Almighty God would have been the perpetual
glory of man. But Adam disobeyed God by eating *
the fruit he was told not to; therefore God has

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 55
expressed his great displeasure to disobedience by
letting this terrible calamity in upon us.
This curse is an eternal one, it reaches beyond
this world, and to all eternity, unless we obey the
commandments. The special sin of Ham does not,
but only reaches to the grave, there it ends. There
fore it is only temporal and physical, and of such
small moment that no special or separate atonement
has been made for its extirpation in this world ; no
amendments has been made to the decree that
brought it about ; it not being necessary for the
salvation of the slaves, they hold the same relation
to God the white man does. Jesus Christ died to
atone for all ihankind ; but does that screen us from
the curse that fell upon us (by the fall) in this world ?
It does not, though we may embrace the benefits of
the atonements, but we shall still have all the bodily
afflictions that come into the world by the sin of
Adam, and the last one to the Christian will be
death, and eternal damnation after death to the
disobedient and ungodly.
This life became a probation by the fall, and the
slave is included in this probation, with the master ;
here we all bear the same relation, and all are invit
ed to embrace Christ, without any respect or refer
ence to our temporal relations. It matters not
whether we are masters, bond-servants, or hired
servants, we may all be free in Christ Jesus. And
God has never called man into his work of the
ministry to interfere with those relations between
master and slave ; if he has, he is inconsistent with
himself; for he nowhere has taught us any such

56 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
doctrines, either in the Old' or New Testament.
Then who has called all those men to the pulpit to
preach doctrines in direct opposition to the inspired
word of God? If God himself has done it, he has
either changed or he did not inspire the writers of
the Bible, and the anti-slavery party gospel preach
ers declare it to be inspired, and go into pulpits and
declare slavery to be a sin against God. If that be
so, God is the author, and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Job, and David, were all sinners unto death, and St.
Paul was a great sinner, and we have no account of
his repentance ; for "he encouraged the relation of
master and slave throughout his entire ministry,
and should have repented. If he did, it was not put
on record for our instruction. Then I ask again
wbo called the anti-slavery gospel preachers into the
pulpit to proclaim against the government of the
United^ States, and the decrees of the eternal God ?
But the anti-slavery man says that was a decree of
an old drunken man in his dotage. If that was so,
how came the class of men against whom the decree
was made, to be so affected by it, that their skins
turned black, and their hair like black curled
bristles? Old Noah's declaration did not amount to
anything towards affecting the thing decreed ; it was
only prophetic ; God saw the crime of Ham, and de
termined to place a warning in the world, against a
repetition. And he only, had the power to make the
effect follow the cause. Noah had no more power
to produce such a thing than he had to create a
world. Therefore slavery is a divine institution.
Then, did God call men and women into the ministry

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 57
to preach an antislavery gospel ? I say he did not,
nor could not, without inconsistency, if the Scriptures
be true. Then who did call them ? None but the
Prince of darkness — that same devil who said unto
Eve, Thou shalt not surely die. This fiend of dark
ness determined to make war against God, and
prevent the righteousness of man, if possible, and he
has seized upon everything that he could appro
priate to his use for that purpose ; and as soon as
God saw fit to take hold of the poor down-trodden
African under the heel of debauchery, and bring him
into usefulness for their immediate good, and the
benefit and glory of all mankind, and as soon as the
all-wise Governor of the universe chose his own
plan, and began to introduce them into usefulness
among his Christian people, Apollyon commenced
his attack upon the institution that was ordained of
God for the good of his people ; but never until the
year 1620, when it was introduced into countries
where he saw Christianity would "be promulgated,
and the poor down-trodden African would be Chris
tianized through the instrumentality of slavery.
These Canaanites had been used as slaves and as
beasts of burthen for over four thousand years, and
we have no account of any opposition being made
to it.
As long as it existed among heathens, the Prince
of darkness was too cunning to make an attack upon
it, in the time of the inspired writers, especially those
of the New Testament, for it might have been the
means of bringing out some strong declarations that
might have been recorded. He wanted it for some

58 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
future use, and perhaps feared the apostles would
frustrate all his designs, by warning masters and
slaves to be on the lookout for him. The enemy of
God and' man knows well that circumstances make
the slave question more exciting than any other.
And he and his numerous followers, who are found
mingling in all Christian congregations and pulpits,
know that it is their only scheme by which they can
break up this glorious and God-like government. If
the Scriptures of truth had forbidden the existence
of negro slavery, no doubt, those preachers and the
devil would have taken a strong stand for slavery,
and would have endeavored to establish it in every
part of this country. They are opposed to God and
righteousness ; therefore their opposition to slavery.
I have no doubt but the Prince of darkness was
opposed to this planet's being peopled at the time
we understand to be the creation of the world. It
might have been created many millions of years ago,
and perhaps wa^ one of the brightest stars in the
whole constellation of the heavens ; and perhaps the
devil was the chief ruling angel, under the great
central Power, and, it may be, he had millions of
angels under him who might have acted as messen
gers to other planets, and to the great Creator of
them all. And it may be that this ruling angel and
great central power of this planet concluded to set
up for himself, and made it known to all his contri-
butories, and called them around him to secede from
the great constellation of heaven (just as the Gover
nor of South Carolina did last week, with his host
of rebels, and withdrew from this great constellation

• AFRICAN SLAVERY. 69
of States) ; and, perhaps the very moment the bill
passed, this planet was banished into outer darkness,
far outside of all moral or optic light, and this
glorious star was instantly reduced to a chaotic state,
and all its inhabitants (who agreed to the ordinance)
into Hevils, Apollyon being king. And it may have
floated about in outer darkness in a state of chaos for
millions of years. But at a set time it retunied from
a state of darkness to its place, a heap of ruins, with
out a speck of light or glory. And at the time of
creation, God let in the light upon it from other
planets, on which it is still dependent for light ; God
took it through a process of preparation for six days,
and put it into a beautiful shape, no doubt ; and
when done, God blessed it, and pronounced it good, and
then created a new set of beings, perhaps somewhat
different in nature from those before the rebellion and
attempted secession (and for which presumption the
sudden transmigration from angels of light to devils
took place), to dress, cultivate, and beautify it. But
it being the dwelling place of this enemy of God and
the Prince of secession, he assailed our first parents,
and seduced them from their purity ; and therefore
all the corruptions of this poor fallen world.
I have no doubt this planet shone as bright and
trinkled as much as any other heavenly body. Now
it is clear that the Prince of Hell had no access to
the hearts of our first parents, as he now- has to us,
for he was compelled to employ another who could
¦speak in audible words, and in a beautiful and en
ticing manner. And no doubt it was some animal
that was admired by Eve, and he persuaded her to

60 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
taste the fruit. She found it sweet, and gave to Adam,
and. induced him to taste. From that moment the
devil has had access to the hearts of every living
creature ; and there is no power that can resist him
but the power . of the spirit of Almighty God. I
know this is not all Bible doctrine, for some of it is
a mere speculation of my own, and therefore can
not be relied on, only so far as it is sustained by the
Bible. But any part of it is as clearly taught in the
Bible, and as much to be relied upon as the doctrine
of the immorality of slavery as taught by modern
abolition gospel preachers, and fully as reasonable
as it is that African slavery as it exists in the United
States of North America is in the abstract sinful,
and all such preachers are at variance with the
decrees of the eternal God, and are endeavoring to
set at nought his plan of civilization and evangeliz
ing this world of sin. But notwithstanding their
efforts under the direction of their father, the devil,
whom they serve, this planet will be redeemed by
the grace of God, through the preaching of the
gospel of Christ (and not abolition), from the subju
gation of the devil, and all the kingdoms of the
world will become the kingdoms of God and his
Christ. And the time will come when Apollyon
with all his motley crew and abolition preachers,
will be swept from this planet over which he has
ruled so lc3ng, and with such tyranny and hatred
into outer darkness, where there will be weeping,
wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Where is outer'
darkness? I suppose it is outside, and away
beyond all the planets, fixed stars, and systems.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 61
where the light of heaven will never strike their
optical vision, and the powers of restraining grace
will never be heard of, much less felt, to all eternity.
I have long believed that according to the attri
butes of Jehovah, no spirit can be destroyed, bad or
good, but will exist somewhere forever, yea, forever and
ever, and as this planet could not be at rest as long
as it is his habitation, at a fixed time in the mind
of God they will be arraigned before the court of
heaven, with all his followers and disobedient,
whether -human or fallen angels, all false teachers,
or pretended gospel preachers, who have added
doctrines not written in the word of God, and
preached them as very truth, or extracted therefrom
what is really written, in order to give it a different
meaning, whether on slavery or any other question,
even of minor importance, will be found guilty of
rebellion and treason. All such "will be banished
from the presence of Him who sitteth upon the
throne, and from the glory of his power," into outer
darkness. There can be no darkness within the
Kingdom of God after this planet is redeemed.
Therefore "outer darkness" must be outside of the
everlasting range of the government of God, where
the softening sounds and melting appeals of "come
unto me, and be saved," will never be heard, but
they will be beyond the reach of all ^ood, even
beyond the power of God to save. I will add
another class to ApoUyon's kingdom, and they are
those who are everlastingly interfering with a good
government like ours, and finding fault with what is
done by authority, and never take one step to try to
6

62 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
cure the evils they complain of, and see everybody's
wrongs except their own, finding fault with their
own church and state, as though everybody in it
was bad except themselves, in both ecclesiastical and
civil administrations. If there should be any place
in God's domains for any such, it will be on the
borders, where it may only be a little unpleasant.
I will compare another principle of abolitionism
with divine law.
Deut. xxii. 1. •" Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his
sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them : thou shalt in
any case bring them again unto thy brother.
2. And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if t,hou
know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house,
and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and
thou shalt restore it to him again.
3. In like manner shalt thou do with his ass ; and so shalt
thou do with his raiment; and with all lost things of thy
brother's, which'he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou
do hkewise: thou mayest not hide thyself."
The first verse teaches us that it is our duty to
take care of our neighbor's property if we see it
wasting, or inform him where it is, that he may
regain it. The 2d teaches us that if the owner
should be far away, and an entire stranger, then" we
shall take his property to our own house, and keep
it until he comes for it, and restore it to him. The
3d verse teaches us that we are to do the same thing
with any property or anything that belongs to our
neighbor or a stranger. The text says, "all lost
things of thy brother's which he hath lost." Now was
slaves not a possession, or, in other words, property,
according to both the civil and moral law ? I sup- -

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 63
¦'J
pose no one will pretend to say they were not.
Then they were included in "all lost things." Some
people will see their, neighbor's property destroyed
under their feet and. make no effort to save it,
neither will they inform him of the fact. But
abolitionists go mwch further than that, for they
hide their neighbor's property that he may lose it,
and they endeavor to get it away from him, that he
may not find it. Yes, they even box up slaves, in
order to steal them from their owners, that they
may lose them. One good brother told me he had
seventeen slaves hid in his garret at a time, that the
anti-slavery party had run off from their masters,
all of which they conducted on to Canada, into a cold
climate not suited to their nature. This villainous
practice has been and still is carried on by many
northern men and women and pretended preachers
of the gospel from nearly every denomination of
professing Christians. Now, I ask again, by what
spirit are those men guided ? Can it be the righte
ous and benevolent spirit that inspired the writing
of these three verses ? I think every candid man
will say no. Then of what spirit are they? There
is but two that can inspire men's hearts, to do bad
or good ; one is of God and the other of the devil.
Am I wrong in saying they are of the devil ? I
will say I am right, or those verses of Scripture are
wrong. I am told by some that this was under the Mo
saic dispensation, and. that the Christian era brought
up a new state of things. I think I shall be able to

64 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
show you that the only change made in the relation
of masters and slaves, was, the Apostles taught the
slaves that they must be obedient to their masters,
for in so doing they served God. Some say
there was no such thing as the return of fugitive
slaves to their masters in, those days. That there
were no slave catchers and that they were not to be
delivered up if they were sought after. This is
like many other things said by anti-slavery gospel
preachers. I. Kings ii. 39. " And it came to pass, at the end of three
years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto
Achish son of Maachah, king of Gath: and they told Shimei,
saying. Behold, thy servants he in Gath.
40. And Shimei arose, and saddled his ass, and went to
Gath, to Achish, to seek his servants : and Shimei went, and
brought his servants from Gath."
Here we see the law fully carried out, for
"Shimei" was informed (as taught in Deut. xxii.
and first three verses) of the whereabouts of his
slaves. And he went for them and no one attempted
to interfere with his rights to those two slaves, and
they were delivered up to him, and he brought
them to his home. Now if the anti-slavery gospel
preacher will show me one word that condemns
" Shimei," or those who informed him, in the whole
revelation of God, I will give up that slavery
is a sin. I could give many other passages
from the Old Testament to show that slavery was
an institution formed under .the providence of
Almighty God. But I think I have given enough

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 65
to satisfy every believer in the inspired word of God,
and -will now close this chapter by saying that it is
as clear to my mind that slavery is the work of
Eternal wisdom, and to help make up the machinery
by which God will civilize and evangelize this fallen
and sin-stricken world.

CHAPTEE II.
FREEDOM AND SLAVERY.
Does the Gospel Dispensation condemn the relation of Master
and Slave ?
The main part of this chapter was written in the
fall of 1860, as an article for the New York Metho
dist, but was rejected by the editor for reasons given
at the latter end of the chapter, in the correspond
ence between the Eev. Mr. Crooks and myself, and
was written before the fifth chapter; therefore, I
shall leave out most of the quotations from the Old
Testament, and the comments thereon, with the
introductory remarks made to that paper. The first
account we have of the institution of slavery was
established two thousand three hundred and forty-
eight years before Christ, by Divine decree and
acknowledgment, as I think I clearly proved in the
previous chapter by quotations from the Old Testa
ment; and I now propose to show from the New
.Testament that slavery was not abolished under the
Gospel Dispensation, nor condemned by Christ or
any of his apostles,' or their disciples. That every
passage on the subject in the latter endorses the
institution, if it does not directly sanction it.
( Qe )

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 67
I will say before I enter into the argument, that I
am a friend of the negroes, and every principle in
me is in favor of freedom and the general good of
all mankind. And I desire the happiness of the
negro race as much as I do any other' race or tribe
on the'earth. My opposition to emancipation is not
from a principle of opposition to the freedom of the
Jplack race, but because I know they are not capable
of self-government, and consequently better off in
slavery. And I believe a free republican constitu
tional government and union could not .exist ten
years with one-sixth part of the entire population of
the country black African negroes, and the other
five-sixth pure Anglo-Saxons, and that a national
military despotism would have to be established for
their government, for two reasons.
First. To prevent their extermination by the white
people; for the colored race would push in for a
social and political equality, and then we should
have a scene of blood such as has never been on the
globe; therefore a military government would be
necessary to prevent the greatest act of barbarism
on which the sun ever shone. And under such a
government there would be infinite danger of " we,
the people," being reduced to a social and political
equality with them,, against which equality I now
enter my everlasting protest.
Secondly. If neither of the above evils should take
place, and they should be allowed to remain with
us in peace, they would become' entirely useless, and
sink down into the lowest degradation and ruin, as
they have done in South America, Mexico, and the

68 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
British West Indies, where they have never been of
any use to themselves, or any body else, since their
emancipation. On ihese grounds, I ain personally
opposed to the emancipation of any more slaves in
the United States, and I believe it would be a far
greater deed of charity to the poor unfortunate free
persons of color ia this country, to reduce the nine-
tenths of them to slavery, than it would be to set the
slaves all free. Therefore, even without the clearest
teachings of the book of God, I am opposed to the
emancipation of the slaves in this country, for the
good of both raees, especially that of the negroes.
And, when we come to the moral law, the emancipa
tion of the negro race is so clearly forbidden, that I
dare not advocate their freedom ; for in that, I be
lieve, I should be acting against the clearest teachings _
of Divine inspiration ; consequently, I should afflict
my conscience by doing different from what I now
do on the slave question. If I were entirely selfish,
and cared nothing for my country, my God, or future
generations, .1 should have taken another course ; for
I had no doubt, four months before the Presidential
election, that all other parties would be enormously
in the minority to thej-epublican party. I was well
satisfied before the election, what the .result would
be in case that party succeeded, as I am now of what
has taken place. And I had feared from the elec
tion of 1856, that the Eepublican party would suc
ceed in 1860, and that we should have a collision
with our southern brethren, and perhaps an eternal
overthrow of this great and glorious Union would
be the result — lohich Union was my greatest earthly

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 69
admiration, while, I believe, its overthrow would be
my earthly ruin — that with its end ended all my
earthly hopes ; and I felt that if I had had a thousand
lives, I would have given them all rather than the
abolitionists should have got the reins of the national
government in their hands, for I knew what they
intended to do; and I as firmly believed that the
result would be a total breaking up of the business
of the whole country, which I declared to almost all
I talked with.
Under these circumstances, I knew my safest plan
would be, to secure my bread (while we should be
undergoing the greatest revolution yet known to the
world), to go in with the republican party, for I knew
none who opposed them, and stood up for the union
on the only ground that there was any possibility of
its being saved, would have any patronage under the
government. But I loved this great and glorious
government too well to advocate what I believed
would be its everlasting overthrow; and it was so
strange to me that every body else did not see it
just as I did, that 1 almost lost all confidence in the
capabilities of man for self-government. A Christian
brother said to me the other day, on Market Street,
that he would like to see me hung up by the neck
to the nearest lamp-post, and there hang until I rot
ted, because I believe coercion, or an attempt to force
the seven States back that have now seceded, would
destroy all hope for a restoration of peace and union.
I firmly believe the seven States can be brought back
by peace measures. But coercion will drive several
others out, and perhaps throw us into universal

70 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
anarchy. Therefore, I can not, under these circum
stances, advocate coercive measures. Could I do it,
I should be far better off than I am, so far as my
present bread and meat is concerned; but I love
peace and the union of the whole United States too
well to raise my puny arm against them, by advocating
coercive measures. I solemnly declare the above to'
be my clearest and most positive convictions, gather
ed from the teachings of our Saviour and his- holy
apostles, and the clearest reasoning from a long study
of the history of the rise and fall of nations and of
human nature. I have placed several pages of the
forepart of this chapter, as it was originally written
for the Methodist, in the forepart of the first chapter.
I will now proceed with my argument on the
question of slavery, as set forth in the New Testa
ment. Modern abolitionists tell us that slavery has
been the cause of a vast amount of evil, therefore it
should be abolished. I say slavery has not pro
duced any of the evils we have had or now have in
our country. Neither did it produce or cause the
John Brown Eaid in Yirginia; nor has it produced
the ill feeling now existing between the two ex
tremes of our great and glorious country. But the"
opposition to slavery has done all the mischief."
No advent since the world was, has been surrounded
with more evils than the advent of our Lord and Sa
viour Jesus Christ. It has been made the occasion of
the shedding of more blood, perhaps, than has beeii
shed by any king or potentate who has lived since
his advent into the world. Now, teU me, was our
Lord the cause of all the evils which have followed -

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 71
liis appearance to redeem a fallen world, or was the
trouble produced by an opposition to his mission
among men. I say he was just as much the cause
of all those evils, as slavery has been the cause of
the John Brown Eaid in Virginia. And if slavery
was the cause of all the trouble that has surrounded
or seemed to hang around it, then our Lord must
have been the cause of all the wickedness which fol
lowed Christianity.
Now it is clear that the evils which have followed
the one, has been produced by the same spirit of
wickedness that followed the other. Then if we
abolish the one, because of the wickedness that was
brought out by the opposition to it, through infi
delity and wicked men, then we certainly ought
to abolish Christianity as well as slavery. But who
will venture to say that Christianity ought to be
abolished, because bad men and infidelity hate it,
and use every kind of wickedness to drive it (if pos
sible) from the world ? If the people of the United
States was to make a decree, that Christianity should
be driven out of the country, because its opponents
make trouble, and howl, and fight, would you justify
such a decree ? I think no man would do so foolish
a thing. Marriage is one of the most honorable
institutions ever known in the world, and one of the
greatest blessings ever bestowed upon mankind. Yet,
the most enormous evils has come out of it, perhaps
of any other blessing that was ordained unto us by
heaven. Now I ask every sincere man and woman
if marriage was the cause of the wickedness that
. seemed to grow out of it ? or was it in consequence

72 .AFRICAN SLAVERY.
of the wickedness of bad men? Now must mar
riage be abolished simply because enormous evils
are practiced upon the ceremony, and bad men whip
their wives, and often murder them ?
There is a large class of people in the United
States opposed to marriages, who are divided into
.several classes, one called the Shaking Quakers, who
are otherwise a moral industrious people. Another
large class of religious fanatics, who formerly called
"themselves the Battle Axe Christians. And still
another class who openly avow infidelity. Those
classes are much larger now than the Garrisonian
Abolitionists were in 1840. All of those fanatics de
nounce the marriage tie, as the " sum of all villain
ies," and declare it to be more righteous to put a cat
,and dog in a bag together, than it is to marry a. man
to a woman. These fanatics have formed associations
all over the free States (and are on the increase), in
order to abolish the marriage contract. And give
as their reason, that it is slavery of one to the other,
and therefore should be abolished from among men.
Now according to the doctrine of all who say
that slavery must be abolished because a set of men
who have no direct interest in the institution, nor
have they the most distant right, either civU or
moral, to interfere with it in our Southern States,
the marriage ujontract should be abolished simply
because those religious fanatics protest against it
and say it is a sin, or moral evil. They have just
as good a right, and good deal better, for the mar
riage contract exists in the States in which they live.
But slavery does not exist, in any of the States in

AFRICAN SLAVERY. -i- 73
which its opponents live, therefore the opponents of
marriage have a better right to claim the arm of the
government to aid them to prevent the evils that
follow the maftiage ceremony, by sweeping it from
our land. I could name almost every good institu
tion in our country, and show that it is surrounded
with great evils. Therefore should be abolished,
according to abolition notions of the evils of slavery.
I have written the above in the place of the pages
transferred to the previous chapter, and as an an
swer to thousands of our most excellent men, who
say that slavery should be abolished, because a cer
tain class of men and women in the free States say
it is a moral evil, and produces great tumults, harass
parties and Legislatures, because the poor African
negroes are in slavery, and "we, the people," are
not. When this class of abolition zealots are mainly
made up of men who never saw a slave in slavery,
and who have no more right to interfere with it than
they have to interfere with the serfs of Eussia, or
the dark shades on the face of the moon ; and yet
these good men, who are among our best citizens,
say slavery must be abolished if, by so doing, we are
compelled to exterminate the entire white population
• of the slave States, and say it would be preferable to
having those abolition fanatics everlastingly stirring
up strife and treason here in the free States, and
keeping us ever in dread and fear that some terrible
judgment will befall us, or that we may be com
pelled to put down servile insurrections in the South.
Now is not this most wicked? Could old Apollyon
take a more unrighteous course — to go to work and
7

74 ^ AFRICAN SLAVERY.
rob the slave States of $4,000,000,000 worth of pro
perty, and turn five millions of persons loose to starve
and die, or prowl about in a state of the lowest degra
dation, and be a pest to society? What for? Why;
because a set of infidels in our midst, who hate God
and all who love him, and who make it their busi
ness to disturb all peaceful relations -between men
who have the good of all mankind in view. I wish
I had a talent to set this point before the reader that
he might see it in its right and true shape.. To rob
the innocent, righteous, and unoffending, to satisfy, a
set of traitors like Wendell Phillips, Charles Sum-i
ner, and Wm. L. Garrison, and their thousands of
dupes, is an enormity of crime of such magnitude;
that I shudder when I think of a sia-avenging God ;
for woe be unto us when we insult His Majesty with
impunity. Is slavery a moral evil according tp the teachings
of the New Testament, and did Christ or any of his
apostles condemn it, or did they endorse and justify
it? I say they did both endorse and justify it in all
its legitimate forms. When the government of
the United States was adopted, and the Union there
by secured, twelve States out of the thirteen were
slave States. We then had universal peace and har-.
mony from- centre to circumference of the thirteen
States. The slave clause in the Constitiition was
adopted by a very large majority, and also the ex
tension of the slave trade for twenty years, passed by
a large majority; though there was a powerful
opposition made to the latter by Luther Martin, of
Md., and one or two»others. The whole country

AFRICAN SLAVERY. - 75
prospered from that day. The blessings of a kind
Providence rested upon the whole nation, and the
people loved each other, and knew no North nor no
South, and church and state prospered alike. The
state looked to the church for moral and religious
example, and the church looked to the state for the
civil protection she might need. And the blessings
of an all-merciful Father seemed to rest upon all
alike,' and we were the happiest nation on whom the
.sun ever, shone. There was a small fragment in
the Northern States who commenced an opposition to
the government some three or four years after it was
formed, and, in a very few years, infidelity brought
every kind of "ism" to bear against both church
and state; but as long as both rejected that
form of infidelity called abolition, they done us no
harm. For many years abolitionists could not even get a
nomination for any office in the nation, much less be
elected to one. Churches interrogated candidates for
the ministry on the question, and if they were found
to be abolitionists, they were rejected, though in all
other points unobjectionable. The New York Con
ference rejected two candidates in (about) 1840 to
1842, simply because they were suspected of being-
tainted with abolitionism, when they were in all
other points unobjectionable. As long as this was
strictly attended to, the church and state prospered
unmolested, though abolitionism and infidelity howled
against both. Yet both prospered in spite of all the
schemes of infidelity and the devil, through their
agents, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and

76 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
their sub-agents, Charles Sumner, Henry Ward
Beecher, Drs. Cheever, Furness, and others. But as
long as those schemes of the devil and abolitionists
were openly avowed against church and state, their
darts fell harmless at our feet. But they finally took
it into their heads to change their mode from candor
to deception, and by so doing, they got possession of
a large part of the church, and a strong hold in the
state. And as soon as the church and state give way
for the sake of their votes, and yielded, trouble set in,
and danger was perceptible. It was not long after
this before churches began to quarrel and- divide, and
statesmen who had always loved each other, became
the bitterest enemies, and soon began to be sectional
in their feelings and speeches, and in a very few
years churches elected the most ultra abolitionists to
conduct their journals, They (the churches) having
taken the first steps for a dissolution of the Union.
There was not the slightest danger to church or
state apparent, when the votes o£ those devils in
carnate was first sought for. As soon as that con
cession was made, the blessing of prosperity, peace,
harmony, and love began to fade away. Just in pro
portion to the encouragement given to this class of
infidelity by the church and state, just in that ratio
both have been retarded in their peace and pros
perity. In about 1842 many thousand seceded from the
Methodist Episcopal Church in -New England,
because slaveholders were allowed to commune in
the southern branch of the church, whose leaders
werQ Scott, Sunderland & Co. It would not be hard

, AFRICAN SLAVERY. 77
to prove that those leaders were bad men before
they left the church, and perhaps joiued it for the
very purpose of trying to split and ruin it. Very
soon after they withdrew, the most of the leaders
went to ruin (I mean the preachers), for some of them
took to hard drink, and others to fortune telling,
some to Spiritualism, and others to Animal Magnet
ism, Millerism, Mormonism, and every other kind
of ism ; all this because they had become so holy
and pure that they could no longer remaiu in a
communion that slaveholders were admitted to,
though a thousand miles from them. Notwithstand
ing their great conscientious scruples about slavery,
they went headlong into all those blackening inven
tions of the devil for a livelihood, which I think is
as near ApoUyon's Kingdom as can be reached in
this world. So the leaders mostly exposed their
cloven feet before they died.
What became of the twenty thousand laymen,
I am asked, that followed them ? I know not, but
it is to be feared they went about the same road.
It is only necessary for us to look at the prosperous
condition of the whole nation as well as the church
befoi'e abolitionism became popular in them, and
look at them since it succeeded to power, to know
what spirit they are of. Look at our condition now,
since abolitionism got the ascendency. Look at the
divisions, the tumults, the hard words, the curses,
and see the blood that has been shed, and the scaf
folds that have been erected to hang men and women
from, and assassinations in almost every form. See
the ruin to business of every grade, and perhaps
7*

78 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
five hundred million dollars would not pay the loss
produced by the opposition to slavery in this coun
try. There is not an infidel association that I know
of who are not abolitionist, *and who declare the
Bible to be an infernal book, because it endorses or
sanctions slavery. And they seize upon the slave
question to strengthen their opposition to the Chris
tian religion. And now the strong and bitter feelings
between the North and the South, that no doubt will
result in a clash of arms, and perhaps will be one of
the greatest civil strifes evei* known on the face of
the earth, and perhaps the slaughter of millions
of our race, and ultimately the total exterminatipn .
of the entire black population of this whole country,
or the driving of them from among us, who have
had no hand in making this trouble. Those of that
race who have the name of freedom are in the great
est danger. It is not necessary to go into details,
for every man and woman of the slightest obserya-
-tion ought to know the history, and see the catastro-
phy just before us, and unless God in his mercy
shall interfere in behalf of "We, the people," we shall
be dashed to pieces as a nation upon the rocks of
a universal despotism or anarchy that will make us
quail with fear and pain.
I joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1827.
At that time the slave and free States were a unit in
church as well as state; with -the exception of a
handful of abolitionists in the free States, there was
no sectional quarrels, aiU was love, peace, harmony,
and union, between the ,two extremes of our beloved
country. And so it would be now had no concessions

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 79
ever been made to infidelity through Garrisonian
abolitionism. This class of infidelity had gained so
fast after its admission into official stations in the
church, that in the General Conference of 1844,
Bishop Andrews, of Georgia, one of the most
respected, and devoted bishops of our (then) great
and powerful Christian Church, was suspended,
simply for having married a lady who had fell heir,
or by will, to some two or three little negro chil
dren. What has been the result of that fatal act of
that most unfortunate conference is now before us,
and all can realize it. It was the first step for a
dissolution of this great and glorious union. That
step divided this great body of Christians nearly on
the geographical line, called Mason's and Dixon's.
The following year, our Baptist brethren, the next
most powerful church, followed the example set by
our church, dividing about on the same line as her
leaders did. Some time subsequent the New School
Presbyterian separated on about the same line.
While other congregational churches who had no
general form of church government have not ceased
to say hard things of our Southern brethren because
they allowed slaveholders in their communions, and
have done great service in the fatal cause of destruc
tion to the last, and perhaps the only hope of man
for liberty and self-government.
The Old School Presbyterian Church has now
virtually divided, and the only ligament which has
not been officially severed, is the Protestant Episco
pal Church, which is now our only hope for liberty
and union. If that fails we are without hope in

80 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
this country. These churches have not only divided,
but are being subdivided, and all brotherly inter
course between members of the same church seems
to be lost sight of, while they denounce each other
like fiends, one asserting that the negro is as good
as the white man and ought to be made his equal,
and others dissenting. Ministers seem to have en
tirely forgotten the sword of the Spirit given them
by their Great Progenitor, who told them to use it,
and no other, which is loye to God and to all man
kind. And they have now unsheathed a sword of
steel, or the temporal sword, and go into pulpits and
recommend it to all their members. No prayers
are allowed to be offered for our sectional enemies;
no love to be tendered them- which was the only
spirit and foundation of the union. But Sharp's
rifles, cannon balls, and the temporal sword contains
all the gospel of love they seem to recommend to
those we have first made mad. How sweet it would
be to find a communion where none but the sword
of the Spirit of the living God was used. I well
remember when we had such communions ; but not
since abolitionists were admitted, and called brothers.
Then our peace, union, and love, among our Christian
brethren was unmitigated. But alas! how is it to
day ? How do we now greet each other ? With
curses, denunciations, and threats. What has done
all of this mischief? Opposition to God's' own
arrangement for the government of the world. But
wo be unto us, if we lift our arm against his de
crees. This rebellion has already produced animosities

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 81
between brethren who loved each other with Chris
tian forbearance, that is painful. But we have reason
to fear that all our happy and peaceful days as a
nation and church are past forever. One of our
most popular young preachers, preached a sermon
the other Sunday morning, in one of our popular
churches, against slavery, that produced disputes,
quarrels, and bad feelings which may never be
erased in this life. Thousands have left the church
in consequence of the agitation of negro slavery in
them, and perhaps will be forever lost to the church ;
and it is to be feared they will lose their preparation
for the Kingdom above. It is to be feared also, that
many ministers and laymen have committed blas
phemy against the Throne of heaven; especially
since old John Brown and his co-associates wgre
executed at Charlestown, Va. Ministers of the Gos
pel have proclaimed from the sacred desk, that
{that old murderer and traitor) John Brown was the
second Jesus Christ; others, that the gallows was
sanctified and made precious as the cross of our Sa
viour by his execution thereon-^ and others have
said the horrors of the gallows were entirely re
moved, and now it was a desirable death to die. At
similar declarations made in this city, at one of our
large halls, it is said, by good men, that some lay
men and ministers responded with a solemn and
hearty amen. They were ministers who draw very
large crowds to hear them preach treason to the
laws of heaven and earth. These are the true and
certain effects of ministerial religious and political
opposition to lawful negro slavery.

82' AFRICAN SLAVERY.
If I were to attempt to enumerate all the evils
growing out of the opposition to African slavery in
this country, it would make a very large book ; and
none have suffered more than the poor slaves them
selves. There are evils growing out of the system of
slavery, I know ; but is that any evidence that the
system is a moral evil ? If it is, then every good thing
we have, or ever had, is a moral evil — even Chris
tianity, as I have already shown,- for the devil has
never ceased to try to bring all the bad out of good he
could. And will any one undertake to say that he
has not succeeded to an alarming extent ? Yet, not-
¦withstanding all the combined efforts of infidelity and
the devil, had it not been for the offer and free gift
of Christianity, we should now be in a far worse con
dition than the natives of Africa ever were. And
we are indebted to Christianity for all the benefits
we ever had, whether civil or moral. And all the
civilization that has been since the world was, was
the legitimate result of Christianity. Yet infidelity
and abolitionists say Christianity must be abolished,
because evils have resulted from its advent. Many
leading antislavery men have dashed the Bible from
their tables because it sanctions slavery.
If slavery be a moral evil, it ought to be abolished,
provided it can be. done without producing a greater
one. But is slavery a moral evil ? If so, it was en
dorsed by all the actors and inspired writers of the
Holy Bible, from Noah to St. Paul, the Son of God
not excepted. The evidence of this I have already
given from the Mosaic dispensation in the previous
chapter. But I -will refer again to Exodus xx. 17.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 83
" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-ser
vant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass,
^or anything that is thy neighbor's." If property
in men and women is not recognized in this, the tenth
commandment, and fully sanctioned by the inspired
penman, then houses nor cattle cannot be claimed as
property, and man has no moral claim to anything
he possesses, and he is sinning against light by not dis
charging it. Let us look at and examine it until we
fully understand it, for an awful responsibility rests
upon us ; for upon our decision may rest our liber
ties, our peace, and happiness through all time to
come. After we have thoroughly iuvestigated it,
and find slavery to be a moral evil, then we must
blot out the Decalogue or ten commandments, or
charge the Supreme Being with the authorship of a
moral evU. Slavery may be looked upon as a
greater missionary movement to evangelize the
heathen than all the missionary movements of the
Christian churches. Let no man forbid the holding
of slaves until he can prove by holy writ that slavery-
is a sin against the moral law ; fear lest he should
oppose one of the great divine schemes of evangel
ization. Abraham, the friend of God, and the father
of the faithful, a great and good man, was command
ed by the eternal to " circumcise the servants bom
in his house, and bought with his money." Genesis
xvii. 13. Yet in all this there is not the slightest
command or intimation given against the institution
of slavery, or that it was a moral evil, or in any way
displeasing to the Almighty.

84 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
There are many other . passages in the Old Testa
ment, and a great' many in the New, that fully
endorse the holding of men and woman as property
(of a particular race), but no others, except for crim^
or by their own free consent. The Eoman centurian,
whose faith Jesus commended as follows : " I have
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel," Matt. viii.
5-13, was a large slaveholder. Yet his faith was
commended by our Lord, as being superior to any
he had found. But not one word uttered against
that institution (or that it was a moral evil), or in
any way displeasing to God, much less to the centu
rian being the master of so many slaves, who were
accredited to him as his o-vm property. The Eoman
law invested the master with power of life and death
over his servants. And the fact that the centurian
held slaves under this law, did not in the least, in
the estimation of Jesus of Nazareth, render him
unworthy of the high commendation bestowed on
him by Christ, and recorded for our instruction. If
slavery is a sin, then our Lord neglected his duty in
this case, and thereby became accessory to the crime.
He could so easily have said to him that he was a
sinner by owning slaves, instead of bestowing so
high a commendation upon him. And it was such
a fit time for h'im to have warned others against this
(alleged) crime, by telling him that no slaveholder
should enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But not one
word of the hind.
As the sons of Adam are bound to submit patiently
to the decree that binds them to earn their living by
the sweat of their brows, so also must the sons of

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 85
Ham, through his son Canaan, submit to their fate.
The -wise and benevolent friends of the African race
may learn from the prophetical curse passed by
-Noah, that slavery is a part of the mysterious plan,
according to which God is governing the world, and
they should be careful for fear they should he found
opposing God.
The Scriptures furnish yet another, and even a
stronger argument for the lawfulness of slavery.
In the fact that they instruct masters how to exer
cise authority over their slaves.
Eph, vi. 5. " Servants, be obedient to them that are your
masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in
singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.
6. Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but as the servants
of Christ, doing the -will of God from the heart;
7. With good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to
men; 8. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the
same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he he bond or free.
9. And ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbear
ing threatening : kno-wing that your Master also is in heaven ;
neither is there respect of persons with him."
If the relation of master and slave be unlawful
and sinful, then the relation of parents and children
must be the same, for both are exhorted alike to
obedience. Except Paul said more to slaves, know
ing there was more danger of their being neglectful
of their duty to masters, and the danger of masters
forgetting their duty to slaves, and to impress the
minds of the slaves so deeply, that they might not
think they had the right to waste their time which'
8

86 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
belonged exclusively to their masters, and not to
themselves, and that they should love and respect
them. If slavery be a moral evil, why was Paul so
particular in insisting upon those duties to each
other, -without giving the slightest intimation that
slavery was wrong, or in any way objectionable to
Christianity? But St. Paul seemed to make so
much greater effort to impress his precept upon the
minds of the slaves, than any others he named in
those verses; there must have been some special
reasons for it. Does it not look as though he had
his prophetic eye cast forward to the present times ?
Those precepts stand in as full force to-day as they
did when he uttered them. I am told by the anti-
slavery party, that Paul was speaking to servants,
and not to slaves. I have shown already in a former
chapter that whenever the hired servants were
spoken of, they were speaking of Israelites, and
not Canaanites, and whether they were bought for
a term of years or for life, their master had the
same unconditional control over them. But what
does Paul mean in the latter clause of the 8th verse
when he says, "whether they be bond or free?"
Are not two distinct classes of servants alluded to?
Who does he mean by bond-servants ? I hope the
reader will examine Webster, Walker, Baily, Eeid,
or any other lexicographer known in the world, on
the word bond-servant, bond-slave, bond-man, and
bond-maid. And then ask yourself the question,
why all the inspired writers were so particular in
designating between a hired servant and a bond-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 87
servant. Was it not to instruct us that the relation
of master and slave was lawful in the sight of God ?
A gentleman said to me this morning, that servant
always meant a hireling. I refer him, and all others
who thus believe, to the quotations from Lev. xxv.
if Webster and all lexicographers fail to satisfy
them. For to argue such a question would look too
simple for even children to cavil over. The text
needs no comment.
Col. iii. 18. " "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own hus
bands, as it is fit in the Lord.
19. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against
them. 20. Children, obey your parents in all things : for this is well
pleasing unto the Lord.
21. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they
be discouraged.
22. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to
the flesh ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but in sin
gleness of heart, fearing God :
23. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and
not unto men."
Col. iv. 1. " Masters, give unto your servants that which is
just and equal ; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.''
This is nearly a repetition of- the Epistle to the
Eph. And therefore adds more strongly to the
testimony that slavery was, to say the least of it,
as just a judgment upon the descendants of Ham
•as the afflictions of the whole human family are for
Adam's transgression. If the relation of master
and slave be a moral evil; St. Paul could not have
been an inspired Apostle. For he treats the rela
tion of master and slave, husband and wife, parents
and children, precisely the same, except as I said

88 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
before, he was far more impressive in his injunctions
to slaves. If they were not equally lawful in the
sight of God, Paul's name ought to be stricken from
the New Testament, and not stand as an inspired
Apostle. But as I can see nothing criminal or sin
ful in the decree under Noah, I shall still look up
to the Apostle Paul as God's greatest ambassador
and favored friend, and believe I am just as much
forbid to interfere with the relation of master and
slave, as husband and wife.
I hope every master will read the first verse of
the iv. of Col. with special attention, for it was
written for him. He must not oppress his slaves
with harshness and bitterness. Their earnings be
long to him, for which he is bound by this precept
to give them enough good wholesome food, com
fortable clothing, and not to put more on them than
they can comfortably bear. In short, he must do
to them as he would have them' do to him, if cir
cumstances between them were completely reversed.
They are held responsible to the. moral law, and
if they neglect their duty in this thing, God will
judge them in justice and truth.
But the 22-28d verses of the iii. chapter rivets
the slave's duty to his master so particularly, that it
cannot be misunderstood or misapplied. While
the masters are reminded that they have a Master in
heaven who will render them their just reward for
their conduct to their slaves, the servants are
commanded in all things to obey their masters, and
told that they must do it as unto God, "not with eye-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 89
service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart,
fearing God."
If slavery be a moral evil, St. Paul was a bad man,
and endeavored to deceive the people. But if the
Scriptures be the word of God, and written by in-
spfration, then slavery is as much a divine institu
tion as labor and the cultivation of the soil of the
earth. For Noah said, "Cursed be Canaan, a ser
vant of servants shall he be to his brethren." God
said to Adam, " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread, till thou return unto the ground," &c.
The decree against Adam was pronounced by the
great "/ Am," and has been executed to the strictest
letter, upon all his descendants without one excep
tion ; And no one can deny it. Noah was the grand
patriarch under God, and the commander-in-chief of
the whole human family, who held so near a place
to the heart of the great "I Am," that he was selected
to pass from the antediluvian to 'the postdiluvian
world, and was made builder and then commander of
the mighty ark, which was planned by God himself.
He delivered the decree in the case of his grandson
Canaan -with the same authority^ (doubtless) that he
erected and commanded the great ark until it rested
upon the summit of Mount Ararat. And woe be
unto that man, party, or nation, who shall set at
nought those decrees, by trampling upon the -wisdom
of heaven, for he knows what is best.
I will refer to 1 Tim. yi. —
1. " Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their
own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and
his doctrine be not blasphemed. 8*

90 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
2 And they that have believing masters, let them not de
spise 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.
3. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to whole
some words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to
the doctrine which is according to godliness,
4. He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil
surmisings, 5. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and desti
tute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness : from such
withdraw thyself,"
I hope these five verses will be read -with profound
attention by all who believe slavery to be a moral
evil, especially those who profess to have embraced
Christianity, and claim St, Paul as the great ambas
sador of Jesus Christ, and also preach Christ from
the sacred desk by the teachings of St, Paul, and
then publish a sermon from those five verses, that
we may all understand them alike, for I am certainly
puzzled. Not that there seems to be anything
mysterious in them, but to understand how preach
ers of the Gospel of God our Saviour can go into
pulpits and denounce human slavery as a moral evil.
It puzzles me so much, that, if I had never tasted
the good word of life, or felt the change of heart by
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, I should now
repudiate the idea that the Bible was written by in
spiration of the Spirit of the living God, But having
had an experimental knowledge of the truth of
divine revelation, as written in the New Testament, I
am..constrained to think some of them do not believe
what they preach to be according to the word of the

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 91
Lord, I am strongly of the opinion that if the Holy
Scriptures taught and proclaimed that slavery was
a moral evil, as they teach that it is not a moral evil
or sin against the Holy Spirit, they would become
pro-slavery, and denounce abolitionists as I now do.
The teachings of both the Old and New Testament
Scriptures are so plain, righteous, consistent, and
palpable, that I cannot exercise a sufficient stretch
of charity towards such men to believe them sincere.
But infidelity is at the bottom of the whole scheme
of abolitionism. I talked with a gentleman the
other day, who said he did ifot want to believe"
slavery was right, and would not believe it. I told
him the danger laid just there, that men would estab
lish their creeds by their own natural feelings and
morbid sympathies, and then repudiate the inspired
truth because it condemned their infidel notions on
the subject in dispute between God and themselves.
What is meant by "believing mas'ters?" what were
they masters of?
" Let them not despise them, bScause they are brethren ;
but rather do them service, because they are faithful, and
beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and
exhort." How many abolition gospel preachers thus speak
of the slaveholders ? Who of them have imitated
their great exemplar Paul, the Apostle to the Gen
tiles ? There are good abolitionists, I have no doubt,
but they are of those who have not had time to read
the Bible consecutively through, and perhaps even
if they have, they never once noticed the relation
of master and servant, they being in search of some-

92 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
thing else, and consequently have made up their
minds from what some infidel preacher of a gospel,
like the Eev. Henry Ward Beecher, Dr. Cheever,
Dr. Furness, or Wendell Phillips, has said on the
subject to them, and from their own natural feelings.
They believe these great preachers are honest ; they
have not once thought that they are the very class
of men prophesied of, or alluded to, in the 3d, 4th,
and 5th verses above quoted ; just read the 1st and
2d verses with marked attention, and then read the
3d, 4th, and 5th, with the same attention, and see
how clear and positively they point to those preach
ers, and all such who pretend to believe as they do.
They may be given over to " believe a lie, that they
may he damned.'' Yet it is hard for me to believe
that they are so well off as that. I hope the readei*
will examine Dr. Adam Clarke on those verses, and
see how clearly he points out those hypocrites above
named, and all such. Those pretenders denounce
Paul's exhortation or precept, and make him out a
hypocrite and a deceiver of the people like them
selves, and every slave owner or master as a thief,
murderer, and robber, right in the teeth of Paul's
teaching. O man, who art thou, that thou shouldest
resist God and denounce his own plans for evangel
izing the world ? Paul's teachings are, that all such
preachers " Are proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil
surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and
destitute of the truth, supposing' that gain is godliness: from
such withdraw thyself."

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 93
In the above verses, St. Paul was not only an
apostle, but an inspired prophet, and I think the
present circumstances in the United States is enough
to convince any infidel in this country that the Apos
tle Paul was an inspired writer, therefore we are
bound as professing Christians to obey his precepts.
I quote those passages for those who embrace the
Scriptures as the inspired word of God. I kno-w
there is no use to quote Scripture to a professed
infidel, for it would only be casting pearl before
s-wine, and the worst kind of swine! For if there
is anything that is hateful on this earth, and that
ought to stink in the nostrils of all good men, it is
the man who mocks at the word of God, and de
nounces it as a book of lies ; yet there is a class of
men who are even worse than the infidel. They
are those who profess to believe the Scriptures to
be the inspired truth of God, and are even ordained
preachers of the gospel, who are popular speakers
and who draw large congregations, and then preach
doctrines to them that completely nullifies the laws
of Moses, and the Spirit, and letter of the Gospel
of God our Saviour, as taught by St. Paul. Some
preachers of the gospel of all denominations go
high up into pulpits, and tell the Christian slave
holder that he is a thief, a murderer, and robber,
and exhort the slave to leave his master, to steal
his horse, or his money, that he may make sure his
escape. Yes, if his master, or any one else, attempts to
impede his flight, to kill him. Now I ask, in the
name of God and all his holy angels, prophets, and
apostles, is this right ? even if we leave St. Paul's

94 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
doctrines of the Gospel of God our Saviour, out of
the question, would it be right in the name of
reason and, common sense for preachers of the
gospel to encourage the running off of slaves from
their masters, and leave the poor creatures in the
most terrible state of degradation, ruin, filth, and
suffering, among strangers who ha-ve no respect for
them ; in the name of truth is it right ? How much
more God-like was the preaching of St. Paul, in his
letter to Timothy, than these hellish doctrines, that
will sooner or later turn this glorious government into
universal anarchy, and saturate its fertile soil with
human blood.
0 how I hate the man who scorns at the word of
God ! But I hate that man still more who pretends
to- believe the Bible to be the word of God, and
takes upon himself the authority to preach the truths
of the everlasting Gospel, and go into his pulpit and
annul a large portion of it by recommending Sharp's
rifles as being the best Gospel for slaveholders, and
encouraging murder, robbery, and theft. Who and
what has brought us to such a crisis ? Antislavery
preachers. Has God prepared any place for such
preachers in the kingdom of Glory ? If he has, I
don't know who will not he there. Old Apollyon will
not be far off. How does Henry Ward Beecher's
Sharp rifle sermon compare with St. Paul's letter to
Timothy on the subject of slaves and slaveholders?
St. Paul says : —
" Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their
own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his
doctrine may be not blasphemed."

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 95
What could the apostle have said that would have
been more convincing and inviting to all candid
persons than the above? How much more God
like than Beecher's sermon, or the whole antislavery
doctrine ! After the above remarks of the apostle,
which were spoken to all servants and masters, with
out respect to their moral standing, he then alludes
particularly to believing masters, and declares them
to be brethren. Therefore, a more special obedience
to them seemed to be enjoined. But the antislavery
gospel preachers say, the slaveholders are " thieves,
murderers, and robbers, and ought to be shot down
like sheep-killing dogs," " or smashed like mosqui
toes." What could be invented by the devil better
calculated to raise the standard of infidelity in all
parts of the world, and reduce the Scriptures of truth
to be looked upon as heathen fables ? " But rather
do them service, because they are faithful and be
loved partakers of the benefit. These things teach
and exhort."
It is evident frohi these precepts that there were
abolitionists in those days, or the apostle had the
nineteenth century in full view when he wrote that
epistle, or he would not have said so much on the sub
ject in so many places. He declares that there were
believing masters who were faithful, and beloved
partakers of the truths of the Gospel. Therefore he
enjoins this as a greater reason why their servants
should obey them, and that the Church should
respect them. But the antislavery preachers have
used every means to expel all slaveholders from all
the communions of the different Christian churches.

96 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
and declare them unworthy of respect right in the
face of the apostle's exhortation and doctrines. Now,
tell me, how can such men be Christians? Some.
say they do not see it in this light. If they do not
understand such plain teaching, they are not fit for
the Gospel ministry, and should be silenced for
their ignorance.
But I cannot believe some of them are as ignorant
as all that; they know better. I have no doubt but
some follow their own sympathies in preference to
Paul's teaching ; others take that ground because it
is more popular, and yields a better livelihood ; hut
many enter the antislavery circle out of prejudice
and malice. But much the larger number enter into
the arena because they know it to be more exciting
than any other question, and produces the greatest
amount of bad feelings, bickerings, and sectional
hatreds ; and last, but not least, because it is entirely
sectional, and they can la"vish their slanders without
personal danger". " If any man teach otherwise," &c.
What does St. Paul mean by these words ? Does
he not condemn all that oppose slavery ? Does he
not advocate directly the right of property in
men, and that it is the will of the Lord ? " And all
who teach otherwise are proud, doting about words,
to try to make the word of God of no effect." Has
not the doings in the M. E. Church and others been
a complete fulfilment of what St. Paul said in the
4th and 5th verses ? What has been the result of
the opposition to slavery, or of antislavery gospel
preaching? Eead those verses, and then read the
history of the churches prior to 1840, and investigate

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 97
its troubles since that time, and tell me what did the
mischief. Where did all the evil surmisings come
from? How all this bitterness in the Church of
God? How about all the disputings, splits, and
everlasting separations? And what has produced
the secession of six States from this Union, and the
almost certainty of the separation of five or six
more? What has caused the seizing upon go
vernment property by ruthless mobs, and what
caused the bombardment of Fort Sumter last week ?
What has been the means of calling 75,000 men out
under arms, ready for the battle-field ? What has
given infidelity the victory over the church ? Who
has done all this? Antislavery preaching, with all
the combined powers of the devil and abolitionists,
who may soon have the pleasure of hearing of a
million of human souls being sent into eternity by
the sword, unprepared.
I refer the reader again to the first five verses of
the vi. chapter of 1 Timothy, and "hope they may
read them over and over until they understand
them, and look over the present condition of the
church and state, and ask themselves the question
as standing at the bar of the eternal God, Who has
done all this mischief?
Paul's letter to Titus ii. says —
9. "Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters,
amd to please them well in all things; not answering again ;
10. Not purloining, but showing all good fideUty ; that they
may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things."
Here the Apostle also tells Titus to "exhort serv
ants to be obedient to their masters in all things;
9

98 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
answering not again," that is, they must not hesitate
when they hear their masters' command, but obey it
to the strictest letter, and not steal their masters'
property nor no other, but show all good fidelity,
that they might adorn the doctrine of God their
Saviour in all things. "But," says the abolitionist,
"those were all hired servants." I w'ill ask how
hired servants came to have masters, and why could
they not do as they pleased, and if. they did not do
their duty, could not their employers have discharged
them and hired others that would do their duty ?
" Servant" was an accommodating term, it means a
hired servant or a bond-servant. But slave means
a bond-slave only, and could not be made to cover
both, therefore the word servant was used by the
translators. The thing being so clear to their minds,
that no doubt, they thought a dispute could not arise.
I think, perhaps, they did not .know the devil as well
as they did the languages_of the ancients. I insert
these passages in full for the convenience of the
reader, that he may see how much more comprehen
sive the Apostle was whenever he alludes to the
servants. If gne of the relations alluded to be wrong
and sinful, all of them are morally wrong,; but if
any of them are right, they are all right.
I would like some good anti-slavery man to ex
plain to me why the Apostle was more • comprehen
sive and particular in his exhortation to the slaves,
than he was to any others ? If they were journey
men and had a right to leave off at pleasure, or if
the master had a right to discharge them without
loss, why was the extra language used in the 22d

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 99
verse ; look at it, and tell me why, if they were not
slaves for life. These passages are so emphatic and
clear, that with even casual readers, comment is
unnecessary, and not one word was left on record,
from the history of the fall of man to the Eevela-
tions, that makes comment necessary to the attentive
and ' unprejudiced reader. I feel compelled to say,
that every abolitionist who reads the Bible, and says
the relation of master and slave is a sin against
God, is an infidel, and ought not to be allowed a
place in the Christian ministry. Suppose a minister
of the gospel should denounce the relation of husband
and wife, and parents and children, as a sin against
God, and constantly labor to separate them by any
means that would produce the effect. Would such
a one be tolerated in the Christian church? No,
not one month. And society would hold him. up to
scorn and derision. Why then should abolitionists
be tolerated in the Christian church, when the rela
tion of master and slave is even more strongly
sustained in the text, than that of husband and
wife, and parents and children. Did St. Paul any
where instruct the people how to be idolaters, or to
commit adultery, perjury, theft, extortion, or intoxica
tion ? Does the Scriptures anywhere instruct those
who in violation of the matrimonial law, and live
in unchaste intercourse with each other, how they
must act towards each other in the unlawful relation
which they have assumed? But the Scriptures
everywhere teach us that if we have stolen, to steal
no more. But they nowhere tell us that the relation
of master and slave must be broken up._ No, not

100 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
even one single intimation was given that we can
draw an inference that it was objected to. I will
also refer the reader to Paul's letter to Philemon,
which w^s a private letter, and was not intended for
the public, for Philemon was not an Apostle, but
had been converted under the preaching of Paul
long before Paul went to Eome, where he was a
prisoner when he wrote this epistle to Philemon.
I will here give the whole letter of Paul to Phile
mon —
The Epistle op Paul to Philemon. — 1. " Paul, a prisoner
of Jesus O^ist, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our
dearly-beloved, and fellow-laborer,
2. And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellow-
soldier, and to the church in thy house :
3. Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ.
4. I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my
prayers, 5. Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the
Lord Jesus, and toward all saints ;
6. That the communication of thy faith may become effectual
by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in
Christ Jesus.
7. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because
the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.
8. "Wherefol-e, though I might be much bold in Christ to
enjoin thee that which is convenient,
9. Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such a
one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus
Christ; 10. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have
begotten in my bonds :
11. "Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now
profitable to thee and to me ;

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 101
12. "Whom I have sent again ; thou therefore receive him,
that is mine own bowels ;
13. "Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead
he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel :
14. But -without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy
benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.
15. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that
thou shouldest receive him for ever ;
16. Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother
beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both
in the flesh and in the Lord ?
17. If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as
myself. 18. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that
on mine account ;
19. I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay
it : albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even
thine own self besides.
20. Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord : refresh
my bowels in the Lord.
•21. Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee,
knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say.
32. But withal prepare me also a lodging : for I trust that
through your prayers I shall be given unto you.
23. There salute thee Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ
Jesus ;
24. Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow-laborers.
25. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ he with your spirit.
Amen. \ "Written from Eome to Philemon, by Onesimus a servant.
Why did Paul not advise Onesimus to stay away
from his master Philemon, when he could have done
it without its ever having been known by his mas
ter ? If Paul had been a timid man, what a chance
here was for him to have done right without em
barrassment. But it is very clear that he was not a
9* '

102 AFRICAN SLAVERY,
timid man, for he made the very foundations of
heathen mythology and society to tremble, by
proclaiming the Gospel of Christ everywhere in
public, from Jerusalem to Eome, and denounced
their idols, their adulteries, fornications, drunkenness,
barbarism, dishonesty, and oppressions, and every
kind of wickedness, and told them that God could
not behold any of those things with the least degree
of allowance, and reminded them on the highway,
and upon the house-top, and in church, irrespective
of prisons and bonds, that God would judge them.
If slavery had been wrong, he would not have sent
Onesimus home with the above epistle. It is evident
he would have denounced the relation of master and
slave, and told Philemon he was sinning against
God, and, unless he set Onesimus free, he would be
sent away with the devil and his angels into outer
darkness, where there would be weeping, wailing,
and gnashing of teeth. Yet the apostle, with all his
courage and boldness in denouncing sin of every
kind, tolerates slavery, by sending Onesimus back
to his master (although he had become a Christian)
with the above epistle ; although Philemon was far
away from Paul's prison-house, yet • he seemed to
have no rest after he learned that Onesimus was a
fugitive from bondage, arid his Christian brothSr
Philemon's legal property.
If slavery be a moral evil, why did the apostle
send Onesimus back to bondage, from which he had
fled, -with an epistle to his master Philemon, who had
been converted under Paul, -without inserting one
single sentence against his moral right to Onesimus

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 103
as his property ? Being now far from his master's
power, just as much so as a slave from Georgia is when
in Canada. -If it had been right for him to have
continued free, why did this inspired apostle of
Christ send him back to bondage ? Did he not see
by the wisdom that God had given him, that he
could not be a true apostle of Jesus Christ unless he
did so ? That Onesimus could not remain there and
be a righteous man, in the sight of God, while o-wing
ser-vice to his master without his master's consent.
Why was this epistle handed down to us as a part
of the Scriptures of truth, containing Paul's direction
in this case? Was it not for our instruction on the
subject of slavery ? Certainly no Christian man
¦will say it was not. How a professing Christian can
endeavor to give so different a meaning to all the
passages in the Old and New Testaments, I cannot
tell ; and when I read the 18th and 19th verses of
the last chapter of Eev., as follows; —
18. " For I testify unto every man that heareth the words
of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in
this book.
19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the
book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the
b.ook o£ life, and out of the holy city, and /com the things which
are written in this book.''
I tremble at the thought of even bad men trying
to overthrow the Christian Church, by misconstruing
the Holy Scriptures; but I fear more when men,
professing to be the followers and believers in the
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and declare they are

104 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
called of him to preach his own everlasting Gospel
to a fallen, sinful, and dying world — when they enter
the sanctuary under a pretence of administering in
holy things, and expounding the holy Scriptures,
and then condemn and denounce as the " sum of all
villainy" what is so clearly taught throughout divine
revelation by all the inspired writers of that holy.
book of God, who mentioned the relation of master
and slave, I say I fear more that some terrible
judgments will be let fall upon us of the nineteenth
century. When our ministers of the Gospel of
Christ, in the teeth of the warning quoted above
from Eevelations — right in opposition to the clearest
teachings of divine revelation, declare the relation
of master and slave to be .a sin against God, when it
is their imperative duty to sustain that relation just
as much as it is to sustain the relation of husband
and "wife or father and child; for. the teachings of
divine inspiration in reference to the relation of
master and servant is more impressively taught, and
made more imperatively the duty of every teacher. of
the Holy Bible to sustain the relations of master and
slave, and it is their imperative duty, under the Gos
pel Dispensation, to use every honorable means to
send fugitives from labor home to their masters,
whenever they come in contact with them, if they
do not do this, and " teach otherwise," they are ten
fold more the children of the devil than they were
before the Bishop laid his hands on their heads, be
cause they refuse to declare the whole gospel truth,
not only by withholding such parts of it as do not
suit their taste, but they denounce those certain

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 105
portions as being from the devil, and in league with
hell. St. Paul every-where exhorts the slaves to be obe
dient to their masters in all things, not to neglect
their work, not to serve with eye service — that is,
they were required to be just as faithful in the per
formance of their duty in the absence of their
masters as when they were present with them — ^n6t
to steal nor waste anything that belong to their
masters, but to perform every duty as to God, and
they should have a reward in heaven, whether they
be " bond or free ;" that is, whether they were of the
Israelites, who could not be made slaves for life, and
had to be treated as hired servants, or whether they
were of the heathen, for whom there was no liberty
or freedom in this world promised. They were all
alike exhorted to faithfulness to their masters, with
out which they had no promises of heaven hereafter.
And even the return of them to their masters, when
ihey run away, is required of the Church, as St. Paul
sent Onesimus directly home to Philemon, his master.
" If any man teach otherwise," he is a hypocrite — a
child of the de-vil ; and for " teaching otherwise," he
shall have his "portion in the lake that bums with
fire and brimstone forever, yea, forever and ever."
They will not only destroy the Christian Church,
which is the only hope of the free government, but
they will break up this great and glorious free
republican government, if they have not already
done it, and placed it almost beyond the hope of
recovery, by their unlawful and ungodly opposition

106 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
to negro slavery, whose condition never can be
bettered in this country outside of slavery.
There is no philanthropy so merciful as that of
slavery for the poor unfortunate Africans. There is
no trade more hated, and that has the appearance of
greater wickedness, than the slave trade. My o-wn
soul abhors the very idea of the foreign slave trade.
l*he Eev. John Wesley said it was the " sum of all
villainies;" Adam Clarke said very strong things
against it, though, perhaps, he never saw a negro
slave, and but few negroes, if any, as his entire life
was spent in Europe ; therefore he had no personal
knowledge of the relation of master and slave. Yet
he fully justified the moral right to hold slaves for
life, throughout his Commentary on the Bible.
After Mr. Wesley made use of that very strong
denunciation, he visited the United States and the
West India Islands, and saw the condition of master
and slave. He received masters and slaves both into
the church, and administered the sacraments to them,
baptized the children of slaveholders, and, I believe,
if I recollect right, licensed slaveholders to preach
the Gospel of God our Saviour. He was not heard
to utter a word against the institution of slavery, or
tell any slaveholder that he was a thief, murderer,
and robber, because he was a slaveholder, or that
slavery was a moral evil, as it existed in the United
States or the West Indies ; and, if I am not mistaken
in my recollection of facts, he admonished the mis
sionaries coming to the United States not to interfere
with the relation of master and slave, but to preach
the Gospel to both alike. Yet with all the abhor-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 107
rence to the foreign slave trade, and Mr. Wesley's
denunciation, it has produced more civilization, and
raised more human beings from heathenism and bar
barism to Christianity, than all the missionary efforts
of the world besides, since the reformation, though
they have done much good for ci-vilization and- true
Christianity. I know I shall be branded with the
most terrible names for giving utterance to such
sentiments ; if so, I must bear it the best I can, for
if I speak at all on the subject, I must speak- what I
believe to be the truth, as taught in history. As I
have said, I am a true friend of the negro race, and
pity them; but human nature, common sense, and
reason, philanthropy, Christianity, and my great love
and admiration of this great and glorious Union, and
the fear of the judgments of Almighty God, binds
me to these opinions.
Does it not look as if my fears were about to be
realized ? Look at the condition of our great coun
try — are we not on the very verge of a bloody civil
war ? Where will it end when once inaugurated ?
Can it be restored by any compromises, after hostili
ties once set it ? Can we have Union without love
'and harmony between the slave and free States?
Will the taking of their slaves from them produce
love and harmony between the two extremes? 'For
that is the only object of the anti- slavery party. Oppo
sition to slavery has brought us to this a-wful crisis.
With an army behind us so terrible that it is resist
less, while we are on the brink of aa endless gulf of
the eternal overthrow of the best government on
which the sun has ever shone (I don't mean the

108 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
present administration), and it is only a step before
us, which can be averted only by a speedy return
to our loyalty, to the Constitution, and laws of the
United States, which have been trampled upon by
some of the free States for many years, and a speedy
return to Christian forbearance and love, as taught
by our Saviour and his holy Apostles.
The free States now have the truly religious
means within their reach to save the whole nation
from a collision that will engulf us, as a nation,
perhaps forever. We are not asked to concede any
thing that belongs to us. If we speedily turn, and
do right in the sight of heaven, we shall be saved ;
if we do not, national ruin, -with anarchy or a terri
ble and perpetual despotism may be the result of
our fcdly.
I will give a short extract from a letter I received
from the Hon. Edward Everett, of Boston, a short
time ago, for those who differ with me about the
loyalty of some of the free States. Some of us
wanted to get up a large mass meeting, to avert, if
possible, the calamities we saw before us. I was
requested to write to Mr. Everett, and invite him to
come on, and make a speech on the occasion. I
wrote, and received an answer, from which I quote
the following from recollection, as I have not the
letter before me —
" There is no use of making any more speeches for the Union,
unless the free States -will repeal their unconstitutional personal
hberty bills." ,
Mr. Everett must pardon me if I have erred in
the wording, I have given the very sentiment, and

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 109
it is full of meaning. I have spent about twenty-
six years of my time in the slave States, and twenty-
nine years in the free. I have been well acquainted
in nine or ten of the slave States. And had it not
been for my objections to having anything to do
with slave labor, I should have settled in the State
of Mississippi many years ago. For a finer, more
liberal, agreeable, and devout Christian people, I
have never seen in this world, of whom I have
spoken in full in the first two or three chapters of
this book, and to my notion, one of the most pleasant
climates in this country, for those who are not com
pelled to labor constantly in the hot sun. I have
travelled a good deal, and been a considerable ob
server of the happiness of the people. But I have
never seen a class of persons so happy as the negro
slaves of that State. I never saw one exception
among the slaves of the South, nor one maltreated,
and never knew of but one being badly flogged. I
, did not see that, but if I was to tell what for, you
would wonder that he had not been killed on the
spot. I knew aU the parties well.
The stories about maltreatment to slaves, are the
foulest and most unmitigated slanders that were ever
hatched up by the devil and his emissaries. If
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mrs. Childs, the Misses Grim-
kies, Dred, and a thousand and one more, had been
born in the lower regions of the damnation of hell,
and had been educated at the feet of old Apollyon,
they could not have belched out more foul, infamous
slanders, than they have done in the many books
they have written against slavery and slaveholders.
10

110 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
No one has a better knowledge of the infamous
slanders than they have. And thousands of ministers
of the gospel join in and help spread those slanders
from the desk that has been dedicated to the service
of the living God, knowing them to be false in many
cases, Snd if they do not, they ought to be expelled
from the ministry for their ignorance. But they
cannot be so ignorant, for common sense and reason
teaches better things. They are the employees of
the King of darkness, who he has commissioned
and sent forth to destroy the hopes of mankind.
How does their teachings compare with the Apostle
Paul in the quotations herein made from the Bible ?
Henry Ward Beecher says from his pulpit, that
Sharp's rifles are the best gospels, and the only one
fit to preach to slaveholders. He sent his agents out
¦with Sharp's rifles in their hands, and a Bible in
their pockets, to administer to .slaveholders with
powder and bullets ; and I suppose the Bible was
for the negroes and followers of the abolition gospel
preachers. A celebrated Methodist preacher stationed
at one of our finest churches, said in a sermon on
the war —
"Brethren, I feel that I cannot restrain myself much longer.
I must shoulder my musket, start for the rebels, and the first
one I meet, I will discharge the contents of my musket through
him, and while the blood is weltering frofli his veins, I will
kneel down by his side, and pray God to pardon his sins."
" Great Britain," said he^ " is threatening to come and attack
us, but" (clasped his thumb to his nose, and spreading his
fingers like an ape) " let her come, and she will never try it
again." Now I ask, how much of the mind that was in our

AFRICAN SLAVERY. Ill
Lord, was- in that man? How much of the spirit
that moved St. Paul when he was preaching to both
masters and slaves ? Are such as the above possessed
with love ? Christ said " we must love our enemies,
return good for evil, and by so doing we shall heap
up coals of fire on their heads." The sword of the
spirit is the only weapon of warfare our Lord be
queathed to those he sent forth to preach his own
everlasting gospel. And as soon as we take up the
temporal sword, the Holy Spirit takes its flight.
Our Lord said to Peter —
Matt. xxvi. 52. " Put up again thy sword into his place :
for all they that take the sword shall perish -with the sword."
Has all our preachers obeyed this admonition of
our Lord. Or did he give his ambassadors licenses
that he had not froni the great God who sent. him
to us as his great ambassador. Compare these
abolition gospel preachers with our Lord and his
Apostles, and where do they stand on the slave
question? How did the prophets, the patriarchs,
our Lord, and his Apostles, treat upon slavery and
slaveholders ? Why, our Lord said to his disciples
in reference to a large slaveholder, "I have not
found so great faith, no not in Israel." Paul said,
"slaves, obey your masters in all things." "Yet
as many as ar||^nder the ^oke count their own
masters worthy of all honor."
A preacher said to some gentlemen the other day,
that he almost desired to be the devil from now
throughout all eternity, that he might go down to
hell to torture the slaveholders, by piling them up
a'nd dashing them to pieces against each other, to

112 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
increase their torture throughout all eternity : that
he feared he, the devil, would be too lenient towards
slaveholders. I am glad to say this was not a
methodist preacher.
How it is that the masses can be so blinded and
led by such devils incarnate, is entirely beyond my
comprehension; and how it is that so many good
people seem so blind that they do not see the vortex
of ruin just before them that these abolition leaders
and preachers are leading them into. And if we do
not speedily awake from our sleep of blindness and
hurl these infidel traitors from our midst, or ever
lastingly silence them, our great and glorious govern
ment, that was so heaven-like, will be lost forever,
and we shall be placed under a despotism that will
end all our liberties, and our happiness.of course;
or some other diabolical change will take place.
War will end all our hopes for ..future happiness ;
nothing can now save us but for us to submit to be
guided by the teachings found in the gospel of Christ
on the subject in dispute.
Iwas in Mississippi in 1844. while the General
Conference of the M. E. Church was in session in
New York, which struck the first official and fatal
blow at the union of these States. The alarm among
the people was beyond description -^jiey thought the
people of the free States were determined to drive
them out of the Union. They looked upon it as a
direct attack upon their rights when Bishop Andrews
was deposed because he had married a lady that
owned two or three little negro children that had
been left her. How must every Christian slaveholder

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 113
have felt when that most Ungodly and unfortunate
step was taken. It unlocked the first door to our
ecclesiastical and national ruin, and the complete
breaking of the glorious systems that God had in
his goodness blessed us with. The cottjpn States
then were as the antechamber of Paradise. There
were then no distractions, except the bowlings of the
abolitionists of the north, and the response of a few
fire-eaters of the south, who were the legitimate off
spring of the abolitionists of the free States. They
were called fire-eaters because they threw back the
charges made against them by the anti-slavery party
with contemptuous indignation. The abolitionists
aimed their blows at their tenderest spots for no
other purpose than to break up this great and glo
rious Union. They made slavery the pretext, and
it was only a pretext ; for, what can such fellows as
the preacher who said he would like to be the devil
(for fear the old devil would fail in his duty to slave
holders) care for the poor slaves 1 About as much
as the serpent cared about the happiness of our first
parents, when he seemed to pity them so much for
their ignorance of good and evil, when their ruin
was his only object.
So also those devils incarnate pretend to love and
pity the poor slaves, and swell out great big words
of admiration for the union of States ; yet they pre
tend to love the dear slaves a little better, and by
that means they know just as well as the devil did
that the tasting of the fruit would curse Adam, that
their course would destroy the peace and tranquillity
of this nation and our liberties, and ruin the last
io-»

114 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
hope for poor Africa. All this is aimed at the root
of Christianity; it is a hatred towards God, and the
peace and happiness of mankind. Theft, slander,
persecution, and abuse have been the means used to
overthrow this nation, that the Christian Church
might be overthrown.
I am met with the reply that it is only a few reli
gious fanatics who do these things. I say that is
not so ; it is whole communities, counties, and States
united with those fanatics. Did not the State of
Massachusetts elect Charles Sumner to the United
States Senate the second time when they knew just
what he was? How many of the free States have
passed laws which completely annul the constitu
tional-rights of the slave States. Get the slave laws
of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,- Ehode Island, and
Connecticut, called personal liberty bills, and read
them over until the scales shall fall from your eyes,.
and you will see that they were framed expressly to
embarrass the Constitution and the laws of the United
States, and thereby to rob the slaveholders of their
own lawful property. These things were done many
years ago, and -with them the persecutions and slan
ders have been unceasing. And what has been more
insulting than anything else, those terrible denuncia
tions have been made by Christian ministers from
the pulpit to large and crowded houses, and now the
terrible judgments of Almighty God are upon us,
and no man seems to repent of his sin against heaven
and earth. May the Lord have mercy upon us, and
save us from the judgments which now stare us in
the face ; for if they are not averted they will soon

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 115
burst upon us like the raging -winds and seas upon
the rock-bound mariner. Almost the only passage
that the abolition party ever quote from the Bible to
condemn slavery is the general rule or precept given
by our Lord, Matt. vii. 12.
" 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." How this passage can be construed to affect the
lawful relations of men, is as puzzling to me as any
thing else they do. This precept is a general one,
and if the anti-slavery party had only just obeyed it,
we should now be at peace throughout this entire
country. For it compels them to treat the slave
holders just as they would have the slaveholders to
treat them. How would they have the slaveholders
to treat them? With all candor and respect in all his
lawful right. He.would not have the slaveholders
to interfere with anything which belongs to him
without his permission ; he woidd not have them to
insult him by calling him hard names, and proclaim
to large audiences that he was a thief, murderer, and
a robber. Now, under this precept he is bound to
tre'at the slaveholder with the same kindness in all
things whatever, which he might desire from the
slaveholders. And if he cannot fully realize his
duty, let him completely reverse the circumstances
between himself and the slaveholder, by supposing
himself born and brought up a slaveholder, and sup
pose he had five hundred slaves on his plantation,
how would he have the people of the North to treat
him ? Would he not have them to treat him with

116 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
all kindness and respect in all of his lawful rights?
Then, by this precept of our Lord, are you not bound
to treat the slaveholder with that kindness which
you would require if placed where he is ? But you
say, the relation of masters and slaves is a very dif
ferent thing. So it is. But does that change the
question in the least ? Are not slaves bound by the
same precept just as much as their masters ? Are
they not required to render such service and obe
dience to their masters in all things, that they would
have their masters to render unto them full obedience
and service, if their circumstances were completely
reversed? And the master is only required to treat
his slaves as he would be treated by them, if he was
their slave ; besides, it is his lawful right to hold such
persons in slavery.
But no white man who is a true descendant of
Shem can be righteously enslaved, except for crime,
for the laws of heaven forbid it. But not so with
the Africans. An all-merciful God decreed that they
should be slaves to the Israelites without limitation.
Although it was over twenty -three hundred years
before Christ, yet he in his day never uttered a
word against the slave law ; and he blest men who
were large slaveholders, without saying to them that
it was sinful. We find St. Paul, some fifty or sixty
years after Christ, enjoining the duties of slaves to
their masters upon them in the strictest manner, and
also the duties of masters to their slaves, and not a
word uttered by that great man of God against the
slave laws, or a petition for their repeal. But woe
be unto eyery master who shall maltreat slaves by

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 117
putting more on them than they are fully able to
bear, or by withholding from them sufficient good
wholesome food and comfortable clothing ; for they
have a Master in heaven, who will hold them to a
strict accountability for their treatment to the ser
vants God has allotted to them to care and provide
for. Suppose we should give to this injunction of our
Lord the one-sided definition that abolitionists do,
and that construction should be agreed upon the
world- over. Let us see what the result would be :
A criminal stands before the court for sentence, he
addresses himself to his honor, and says: if your
honor were in my place, and I in yours, your honor
would have me to discharge you without sentence.
Therefore, I demand of your honor to do to me as
you would have me do to you, and let me go free.
The culprit on the platform, under sentence of death,
would say to the sheriff, you know you would not
have me to hang you, if our circumstances were re
versed, you know you would have me say to you
go in peace, and sin no more. Therefore, I demand
of you to do as you would be done by, take off
these shackles, and let me go free. This definition
to this injunction would ruin the world if men
should go by it. While on the other hand, the
injunction with the legitimate construction, and the
only one which can be put on it by true men, if
all should resolve to live by it, wars and rumors of
wars would cease, and the whole world would be at
peace in a very short space of time. There would
be no quarrelling, no fighting, no cheating, no steal-

118 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
ing, and a police force would be useless. It is a
most glorious precept. One of its principles seems
to be overlooked altogether by the abolitionist.
That is, it forbids one man to ask of another what
he feels in his soul that he would not do for him if
circumstances were reversed. And no honest man
will ask another to help him under such circum
stances. So much for this precept of our Lord.
But slavery is a sin, or moral evil, says the aboli
tionist, therefore must and shall be destroyed, even
if church and state shall both be destroyed with it.
How came slavery or anything else to be a moral
evil ? There must be some rnle by which morals
are established, therefore there must be a moral law,
or there can be no moral evil. It is conceded by
all abolitionists that there is moral evil, therefore
they must admit that there is a moral law. If there
is a moral law, where did it come from, and by
whom was it established ? There was a moral law
among the antediluvians. But the first written law
we have any account of, was written by Moses, and'
it seems that it was handed down to him by the
Almighty in the mountain. And in that very law,
slavery was fully recognized. Gen. xvii. 12-13,
Ex. XX. 17, Lev. xxv. 38-55. Those passages I
have copied in full in the previous chapter. It is
enough to show that slavery was fully recognized
by Moses, the great Jewish lawgiver, in both the
moral and civil law. The decalogue, or ten com
mandments, was given to Moses at the mouth of the
Lord hiihself. And in that, slavery is fully recog
nized by the eternal God, and no slave laws in the

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 119
United States are more positive than those contained
in the xxv. of Lev. There can be no moral law
without divine sanction.
If none of the laws of Moses have divine sanction
upon them, then there could not have been any
" moral evil. Then if there is any moral evil in the
world, God must have directed the passage of the
laws of Moses, for there could not have been any
morals without his presence, and as slavery is re
cognized in those laws, it must have been recognized
as a moral right. The xxv. of Lev., the 38th and
55th verses, ought to be noticed with marked atten
tion, "as one immediately precedes, and the other
immediately follows the most positive pro-slavery
laws ever enacted in the world. Eead from the 38th
to the end of the chapter, and you must admit divine
sanction was given to all those verses, if there is
any truth in the declaration, that all Scripture was
written by divine inspiration.
There are no passages. of Scripture which con
demns human slavery as it exists in this country.
There is not one line, nor one word, from which an
inference can be drawn against the relation of master
and slave. The relation of husband and wife has
not got such Scriptural protection thrown around it
that slavery has. And I suppose the only reason
for that was, the inspired -writers knew that the
relation of husband and wife would not at any age
of the world need the amount of support, because
it was more natural and congenial to both parties
than slavery ever would be. There is great caution
given by St. Paul to husbands and wives to love

120 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
each other, but their obligations were not so particu
larly and specially enjoined, as that to masters and
servants. And doubtless the reasons were, that the
spirit which impressed the minds of the inspired
writers what to write, saw far in the future the bold
opposition that would be made to his arrangements
for the good of mankind by abolitionists. Therefore
the difference, or extra advice to masters and slaves.
.What has been the result of the interference with
the moral and civil rights to hold slaves as pro
perty ? The frightful condition of our great repub
lican empire at this time are its legitimate results ; •
and unless the precept of our Lord shall be speedily
and righteously adhered to, our great free republican
government will be eternally overthrown, and we
shall be reduced to an equality with negro slaves.
The just judgments of the Almighty are already
upon us ; an attempt to save the Union by the force
of arms will blast all our hopes as a free and inde
pendent nation and people forever, and proclaim to
the whole world that man is incapable of self-
government. We were, a free and independent
people, governed by laws made by the people — a
general government with a limited central power,
conceded by a number of free sovereign States.
The adoption of the Constitution by all the people
of all the sovereign States, produced a free Eepub
lican Constitutional Union of all free citizens of
North America. It was a free-will offering or con
cession of all the people, for the good of the whole.
Therefore, if one part interferes with the Constitu
tional rights of the other, and resolves upon any

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 121
unconstitutional plans to limit or circumscribe those
rights, having the numerical power to do so, the
minority or the oppressed are no longer under any
obligations to the other, and can withdraw at plea
sure. This is common sense, common reason, and
common law. This was the opinion of most all
good men. The Honorable John Quincy Adams, of
Mass., gave it as his opinion in a positive way, a
short time before his death. How truly does he
say— " But the indissoluble link of the union between the people
of the several States of this confederated nation is, after all,
' not in the right,' ' but in the heart.' " And also, "far better
will it be for the people of the disunited States, tp part in
friendship with each other, than be held together with con
straint !"
Mr. Adams took the only true ground ; that our
strength was in the union, and not in the right.
Now, this being the case, as every common sense
man in the nation must agree, who has given the
principles of a free republican constitutional Union
like ours only a limited, impartial study, in con
nection -with a slight knowledge of human nature,
how it is that so many people seem to think that
one part of this 'great nation has a right to slander,
abuse, oppress, and hate the other part, and limit
them in their lawful rights, and then force them to
live in a union with us, is too ridiculous for sensible
men to believe. I hear professing Christian men
denouncing our southern brethren as the greatest
scoundrels and devils on the face of the earth, and de
clare they shall not leave us if it cost $10,000,000,000
11

122 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
and one million, or even five millions of lives of
white men to force them to live in the Union with
us. That is, they would do all this to make slaves
of eight millions of white citizens, of our own race
and blood, who are fully capable of self-government, to
free less than four millions of black negroes, nat of
our race or blood, and made totally incapable of self -
government by a decree of the Almighty, and must have
guardians, or be miserable through all time, if not
throughout eternity. We have just as good a right
to suppose King "Dehomi" is fit for President of the
United States, as to suppose the slaves of this country
are fit for freedom and self-government. And just so
sure as we betray our trust, and set them free in this
country, God will judge us as not being fit for self-
government ; and every man who is not a million
aire, will be reduced to slavery, and placed on an
equality with negroes. How men can take the
course they do for the emancipation of that race who
are so physically dissimilar, and even obnoxious to
the sight and taste of every decent white person, and
right in the face of the most positive teachings of
inspired truth, is an enigma of which I must decline
the solution.
The Gospel tends, in its effects, to abolish im
prisonment, capital punishment, war, and even
involuntary servitude to a limited extent. When
the people are all righteous, sheriffs and police will
be of no further use, the penal code will be a dead
letter, courts of all kinds will be held as a mere
prudential system for the convenience of the people,
and perhaps the Decalogue or ten commandments

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 123
will be the only law on the statute books. What
has broken up our peace and happiness as a Chris
tian society ? What has been the greatest distur'ber
of the peace and happiness of this great nation for
the last forty years ? What has separated the Chris
tian churches of this country, and what is now sepa
rating this great and mighty Eepublican Empire?
Who and what is plunging us into a bloody civil or
servile war, and perhaps bloody revolutions, which
may not end in a hundred years, and will end only by
reducing us to slavery under one of the most extreme
despotisms that has ever reigned over any people ?.
Then the difference between the white man and
negro will not be respected by our rulers. I say,
what has done all this mischief? Abolitionism,
with their unlawful and ungodly opposition to slave-.
ry; and all the responsibility, with all the awful
consequences are upon them. There was no room
for a doubt, that if the Chicago Platform was sus
tained by a vote of the people, our ruin would be
sealed by that act. That we should be whipped
with many stripes was certain. All who had
watched the course of things, and had given human
nature a proper study, had not the slightest doubt
of the fatal result. There never has been an event
in the world. that was more certain to follow any
contingencies than the secession of the Cotton States
from the Union on the success of the Chicago Plat
form, or the success of a candidate who had given
his solemn pledge to sustain it if elected. I was
astonished to find so many good men who accepted it
as their political creed, and who looked upon us as.

124 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
the greatest fools for seeming to fear any danger.
They said, in reply to our warnings, that there was
not a man in South Carolina who could be kicked
out of the Union.
The prospective result was so clear to me, in case
that that most unconstitutional political creed was
sustained at the Presidential election of 1860, that I
sometimes almost doubted their sincerity, because it
was so strange to me that every man of observation
did not seem to see it, for it was the very course of
nature. Christian men seemed now to rely on the
arm of Jehovah, and are now bold in saying that
they have no fear while he is on the Throne ; that
the South are altogether in the wrong, and he wiU
, rebuke them by turning their negroes upon them,
and they would soon call on us to save them from
the savage tribe, and the negroes would all be freed
without our striking a blow.
Sayings of this kind are in almost every Eepub
lican mouth. If I believed Jehovah is on our side,
I should not suffer as I do. But I fear we are not in
the right, and I cannot claim divine aid in a war for
the emancipation of the negro slaves of the South.
I believe the judgments of God are already upon us
for our interference with his own arrangements
among men ; and so sure as we go on to coerce the
Southern States, our downfall will be completed.
Every southern leader offered to accept the Crit
tenden Compromise, which gave us the three-fourths
of all the public domain of the United States as free
territory, which was more than I thought they would
do. If we had accepted that, and removed every

AFRICAN SLAVERY. . 126
unconstitutional obstacle out of the way, including the
Chicago Platform, and the South had then seceded, as
they have done, I believe God would then have been
on our side, and I should feel safe. But as it is, I have
no hope, because I believe we are in the wrong; and
1 fear the sequel will prove it to be so when too late.
The avenger of blood is already at our heels, and,
unless we speedily repent and concede what is right
in the premises, God will hold us to a severe account
ability. We have been interfering with their rights
for many years, personally, collectively, and by
statute laws. We were the first sinners against the
Constitution of the nation, and we have acted as
though it was made for the free States, and that the'
slave States had no part nor lot in it. Therefore, if
we do not move first, and concede all their rights to
them, and no more — and no more have they ever
asked — we shall be ruined forever — ruined as a great
nation. Our constitutional government will end
now, and God will hold us responsible.
I have no sympathy with secession, for they had
no right to do wrong because we did. They are
not clear of a fearful responsibility, and God will
deal out justice to them in proper measure. I am a
citizen of Pennsylvania by choice. All my interests
are here, and here I expect to live and die. If this
great Union is to be dissolved, I shall be a ruined
man. There will be no hope for me on the other side
of a dissolution of this great Eepublican Empire.
The sound of the cannon and the bray of the war-
horse will never cease to be heard by us, until we
go hence. I have nothing to do with the South now.
11*

126 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
I might write five hundred pages of abuse and slan
der upon them ; it would please those I am com
pelled to come in contact with, and make me many
strong friends, who now hate me because I cannot
see and think as they do. To say what I do not
believe, and what I know is not the truth, I will not,
not even to save my neck from being stretched on
the "lamp-post," or incarceration in some desolate
Bastile. For to do so I should sin with my eyes
wide open against heaven, my country, and my own
personal liberties. If I could believe the word of
God was any more certain than the course of the
republican party is to destroy this great constitu
tional government, I should have some hope of a
restoration with peace and union while that party is
in power. But as it is, I have no hope of ever
being a free man in the United States again, because
I see such a determination on the part of the domi
nant party to coerce the seceding States back again,
knowing the very attempt is disunion and destruc
tion. For union is peace, love, harmony, tranquillity,
and mutual agreements ; but war is its very opposite.
How can good make bad, or how can bad mahe good?
Where does our great Christian chart recommend
so hateful a course towards our enemies? The
great John Quincy Adams said that the strength,
permanency, and safety of our great Union " was not
in the right, but in the heart;" and as long as it was
kept in the heart, we were the strongest, the most
powerful, and the most glorious government on the
face of the earth. But as soon as our power was
removed from the heart to the arm, we at once be-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 127
eome the weakest of all great nations ; and unless
we return to our first love, our liberties and peace
will never return to us as a great nation, and we
shall be laughed at as fools by the whole civilized
world, and our glorious Stars and Stripes will never
be respected again as they have been.
The administration, -with all their violent support
ers, seem to be as ignorant of where our strength
lay, as Delilah and the Philistines were of Sampson's.
As long as God was his strength he was more than a
match for the world. But as soon as he was shorn
of his strength, his enemies had no trouble in pluck
ing out his eyes. The abolition Delilah found out
where our strength lay as a great and mighty em
pire, and have been using all foul means to remove
our strength from the heart to the head, or anywhere
else so that it was not, in the "heart." For while it
was there God was our strength, and every civilized
nation of the globe trembles at the thought — not at
our rights, for there was no power in the "right," but
in the "heart." Therefore, infidelity through the
agency of abolitionism have shorn us of our mighty
power by producing sectional hatreds, divided by a
geographical line, separating the North from the
South, And infidelity through a special pretended
or morbid philanthropy for the negro slaves of the
South (but none for anybody else), have labored inces
santly for more than forty years to remove our
strength from the "heart" to the head and arm,
Kno-vying that as soon as the North and South was
made to hate each other, their work of ruin was
complete.

128 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
In order to do that, the most damning slanders
have been originated in the free States, and published
from pulpits, platforms, newspaper offices, books,
and periodicals of every description and shape, and
the man who could say the hardest things against
their Southern brethren from their pulpits was the
most popular preacher of the day. " Uncle Tom's
Cabin," perhaps, was the most fatal of all other
periodicals, because it found its way into all the
Theatres in the free States of this country, and all
European theatres, where our Southern brethren
were held up to ridicule and the foulest slanders
ever heaped upon mankind. No theatricals before
them were ever so popular, all because the false
hoods and slanders excelled all before them, and
were made against as high minded, liberal, noble
hearted and truly Christian-like people as ever lived
in this or any other country.
Now, how was it possible under such circumstan
ces for any truly loyal citizen to have expected any
thing else than civil war. Nothing could have been
more certain to follow, and yet nothing so wicked,
unholy, and ungodly. O, how I hate the men and
women who have ruined my country, my home, and
all my hopes (as a-free citizen) for ever. The South
ern people have acted bad towards their friends in
the free States, and no punishment would be ade
quate to their crime against the Constitution and
Union of these once happy States. That being the
case, what ought to be the punishment of those here
in the free States who have labored so long and
incessantly for no other purpose than to drive them

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 129
to do just what they have done, under the belief,
that we could whip them without much trouble or
expense? The great reliance being in the negro
slaves of the South rising up and cutting the throats
of all their owners — what could be more wicked
than such a desire or thought ? But how sadly has
been o.ur mistake ; and in addition to that, however
soon the war may terminate, we shall be slaves to a
national debt which will bind us down for ever.
When I know all this is the price of an ungodly
opposition to negro slavery; yea, when I see my
brethren and race yoked and forced from their fami
lies by thousands, and even hundreds of thousands,
and driven into the field to battle for the negro
slaves, to be set free contrary to divine revelation;
that is, the white race are made slaves, that the
negroes may be freed, and put out of use for ever —
I feel an indignation rising that is hard to suppress,
for God "said, they (" We, the people") should not be
"ruled over with rigor." 1 will give one more
quotation and close.
I. Peter ii. 18. " Servants, be subject to your masters with all
fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward."
Here the servants are charged to be subject to
their masters, not only to the good but also the bad
and hard hearted, " with all fear." If I could find
one word in the whole book of God that gave the
slightest intimation that slavery was a moral evil,
there would be some apology for the course of that
class of preachers and people against it. But as there
is no such passage, which can be sustained by other
Scripture, there can be no apology off'ered in their

130 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
behalf They have joined themselves to the only
class of infidelity that ever could have overthrown
the Christian church as it existed in this country,
and with it our great Christian-like national govern
ment and constitutional union, which, when rightly
sustained, was the very counterpart of the Kingdom
of Heaven. Yet, in all probability, the very men
who profess to have been called by the eternal God
to preach his own everlasting gospel to a lost and
ruined world has ruined this great Constitutional
government and free Eepublican Union.
It is so strange that men cannot see the difference
between a voluntary Union by all the people, and
an involuntary one established by force or military
power. If voluntg,ry by concessions and agreements
of all the people, as this one was formed, then of
course it must be sustained as it was formed, or it
must go down. This is the only plan of a free
Eepublican Constitutional Union in which the people
rule, or are a self-governing people. If any attempt
is made to sustain the Union by force or military
power, that very day you take the government out
of the hands of the people, and we become a
monarchical despotism, and the people are no longer free.
This is what Garrisonian abolition was established
for in New England, and all who joined them against
negro slavery have aided, and many have aimed at
bringing this terrible crisis upon our glorious repub
lic, whether in the church or state, and it is a just
judgment of almighty God for our attempt to de
stroy his own arrangements for the salvation of the
human race.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 131
I am now done — I have written this chapter about
as long again as the articles I wrote for the " Metho
dist," which was declined publication, for reasons
given in the correspondence between the Eev. Mr.
Crooks (the editor) and myself, which I now add as
an appendix.
LETTEE I.
" Office of 'the Methodist,'
Nassau Bank Building, No. 7 Bbekman Street,
New York, February 25, 1861.
" My Dear Bro. Robinson : —
" I confess your article did surprise me not a little. I think
you have made the common mistake of rushing to one exj^eme
in order to avoid another. Slavery in the Bible is humanized
and tolerated, but not, as far as I can see, sanctioned. I think
it a state of society which men outgrow, but which they can
not easily be driven from by storm and bluster. Your article
would call out replies and open controversy, which I wish to
avoid. There is so much contending to be done necessarily,
that I do not wish to bring on a new discussion on another
branch of the subject, if I can help it. I have for this reason
made no reference to Van Dyke's sermon, which goes over the
ground of your article. " Yours truly,
" George R. Crooks."
Brother Crooks' note surprised me quite as much
as mine did him. But he does not say what part
of it surprised him so terribly. He mentions several
points in my article, but he plainly gives one as
his reason for refusing to publish the article, and
that was the fear of "controversy on new points of
this subject." If that were really his only objection

132 • AFRICAN SLAVERY.
., -. .• J3 ^ fnr I do not wish to
I should be perfectly ^^^f^'^^^^ tl^at I copied
do wrong; but he strongly ii^t^'^^^f /^^^ reached
the Eev. Mr. Yan Dyke's sermon that ^-^^^l^
in New York or Brooklyn some time m December
.1'860.. I never saw the sermon alluded to, nor heard
of it until the morning I mailed my article to the
Methodist. A gentleman called at my place just as
I was going to mail it, and I asked hmi to read it.-
He did so. When he had finished, he remarked
that my ideas and Eev. Mr. Van Dyke's were simi
lar on the subject. That was the first intimation I
had that a sermon had been preached by any one on
these points; and I have not had the pleasure of
seeing that celebrated discourse yet. But Bro.
Crooks will find similar sentiments expressed in a
Philadelphia daily, about the first of last November,
in a column and a half over the cognomen of Wide
awake. Therefore Mr. Van Dyke was not the first
that imbibed such sentiments. I do not think Bro.
Crooks' insinuation was as respectful as it might
have been.
But Bro. Crooks says, the Bible humanized and tole
rated slavery, but did not sanction it. Sumanize is
to soften, or make susceptible of tenderness, or put
in human shape or form, or to be human-like.
Tolerate is to allow what is not la-wful. It would
appear from the declaration of the Eev. Crooks, that
our Heavenly Father saw fit to add to the beasts of
burthen men and women, to be used as such ; for I
do not see how they could be humanized in any-
other way, unless cattle and horses could be turned
-into human beings. This would be contrary to the

AFRICAN SLAVERY.. 133
laws of nature. Therefore, slavery could not be
humanized in that way. Then 1 take the ground
that the Bible must fully recognize slavery, or it
could not humanize it ; for to be a slave is to be under
the complete control of a master, the same as horses
or cattle. I cannot apply the term to slavery in any
other way, and I confess that the application I have
made is rather vague to my own clumsy mind. I hope
Mr. Crooks will tell us what he means by the Bible's
humanizing slavery, and how it could be done with
out sanctioning it ; for I confess I am too dumb to
see. Tolerate is to allow something that is unlawful.
Actions and doings were lawful under the Mosaic
dispensation, that were forbidden under the laws of
our Saviour. Acts xvii. 30. "And the times of
this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent." I understand this to
teach that we are to turn away from all unrighteous
ness. Therefore, if slavery be unseriptural, it cannot
be tolerated by the Bible ; and I cannot see how the
Bible can tolerate anything that is contrary to divine
law. Therefore, if the Bible only tolerates the sys
tem of slavery, it must tolerate what is unlawful. If
the word means to allow what is contrary to divine
law, and all that is contrary to di-vine law is sinful.
Therefore, if slavery be contrary to the law, it would
be sinful to tolerate it. Mr. Crooks is very far from
being an abolitionist, but I cannot understand his
logic. Mr. Crooks'- strongly intimates that my article
was full of storm and bluster, and that I attempted
to carry my point by "storm and bluster." "Bluster"
12

134 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
is to roar, as a storm, to bully, to puff. "Storm" is
a little different— it is a tempest, a commotion of
the elements, assault on a fortified place, tumult,
violence, vehemence, tumultuous force. I do not
think there is anything of that kind in the article ;
if there is, I did not mean it. If I had had the
advantages of an education like my friend Eev. Mr.
Crooks, perhaps I should be able to write without
making any impression on my readers. But as I
never went to school but a very few months, there
fore I am not sufficiently acquainted with language
to be able to combat with an opponent without
making him feel what I say. Webster's Speller,
the Primer, the English Eeader, and Bennett's
Arithmetic, were almost the only books used in those
days where I was educated ; and the teachers, per
haps, could not pronounce twenty words correctly
in the whole. English language. The general im
pression among the old folks was, that any know
ledge of books beyond being able . barely to read
and cipher to the single rule of three, would be
certain ruin to the scholars. Therefore, I must be
excused for stating things plain and pointed, so as
to be understood. If I was well versed in etymology
and English grammar I might become so "human
ized" that I could find sufficient language, and roll
my words up so finely, softly, and beautifully, that the
reader would be so struck with my language, so'
exquisitely beautiful, that my hearers or readers
would never know what I was talking or writing
about. St. Paul was very pointed and plain. And
our Lord was even more so. Matt, xxiii. 33. " Ye

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 135
serpents, ye generation of vipers ! how can ye escape
the damnation of hell." Bro. Crooks, I don't think
I have said anything in the article I sent you for
publication more severe than the above. Why did
he speak so severe to the Scribes and Pharisees?
Because they had become so hardened in iniquity,
that he knew they could not be touched in any
other way. Just so I think of the abolitionist ; yea,
they are even worse than the Scribes and Pharisees,
for they made no pretensions of love to our Lord,
but the abolitionists do. They profess to be his dis
ciples, and preachers of his gospel ; and yet they
denounce his precepts, and steal their neighbor's
property, and lie to hide it. They are traitors to
the government of God, and of the United States,
and deserve to be called a generation of vipers and
serpents just as much as the Scribes and Pharisees,
and to be hanged as much as old John Brown did.
I will now close this chapter, by saying to Mr.
Crooks, that I will not write another article for pub
lication in the '• Methodist" until I am so-humanized
by the Bible that I can write without "storm" or
"bluster." I could have made many other quota
tions from the Bible which would prove that slavery
was not only common in the Holy Scriptures, but
as completely endorsed as any other practice, occu
pation, or Q-wnership, that was foretold and author
ized by the prophets, apostles, and believers in them,
and I think I have givein enough for any candid man,
and we must not forget, that whatever the prophets
or apostles said or foretold had no more power to
produce or affect what was foretold than we have to

136 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
produce such effects. Noah's declaration that Canaan
should be a slave did not make him a black heathen.
But the power that enabled him to foresee the flood,
and foretell it, effected the curse alike in both cases.
Yours, very truly,
John Bell Eobinson,
Feb. 28, 1861.
LETTER II.
Are the Africans capable of Self-government? Or can
they he made so? If not, ought they to be Free?
Messrs. Editors: It is conceded by all men,
everywhere, that happiness is the chief object of the
human race throughout the earth. Happiness is
what every man desires. Ungodly men are selfish,
and care not for the pleasures of others, and will
extort, by craft or even force, to reduce their neigh
bors, and rob them even of their natural as well as
their lawful rights to increase their own store of
happiness. Godly men desire happiness just as
much as the avaricious, but they desire to see their
neighbors as happy as themselves, and they will use
every righteous means to make them so. Their
philanthropy reaches not only to their neighbors
(though to them first), but to the happiness of their
State, their nation, and then to the whole world;
and they are ready to give out of their substance,
whether it be great or small, a portion to advance
the happiness of the human family in every part of
the world, beginning at their homes, which are their
godly rights, and then those nearest to them, and the

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 137
next ; and so on their philanthropy spreads over the
whole world. Philanthropy is very popular ; there
fore there is a large amount of false philanthropy in
the world, and even in the Christian church. Ava
rice knows no bounds; stops not even at human life.
Happiness does not consist in the greatest amount a
man has, but in the manner in which he uses it,
Alexander the Great conquered the world, and then
was tormented the balance of his days because there
were no more worlds for him to conquer, John
Jacob Astor or Stephen Girard was a thousand
times more unhappy than the southern slaves ; there
fore it is not the greater amount that a man has that
makes him happy, but the condition he keeps his
mind in, and the cultivation of his disposition for
enjoyment. Freedom is sought for as a source of
happiness ; but an unlimited freedom would be death
to all human happiness. Fanatics, and bad, ava
ricious men, desire and seek for unlimited means
and unbounded liberty to satisfy their avaricious
ora-vings and their fanatical ideas of freedom. The
Garrisonian abolitionists seem to have but one idea
of happiness, and that, is universal liberty or free^
dom of the human race. With them that idea swal
lows up all others without the slightest respect to
circumstances, conditions, races, or capability. The
only happiness they seem to think of or seek for is
the universal freedom of the African negroes in this
country and the placing them- on an equality with
the white man, St, Paul was one of the greatest
and most amiable philanthropists that ever lived,
and had but one superior in human shape, and that
12*

138 AFRICAN SLAVERY,
was our Saviour, Our Lord sanctioned no liberty
as being Christian but civil or constitutional liberty,
and said that the powers that be are ordained of
God, St, Paul adhered strictly to this doctrine with
all the other sacred teachers, and exhorted the mas
ter and his slave, the husband and his wife, the child
and parent, all, in the same language, to respect each
other's civil rights, and used the strongest language
to impress this sacred duty upon the minds of all
his hearers, and was even more impressive to the
slave or bond-servant than to the others, and told
him that by his obedience to his master he did the
will of his heavenly Father, Liberty is one of the
most dangerous blessings ever bestowed upon man
kind, and yet the sweetest, and therefore it has been
limited with all, and trusted to but few, of the human
race, God seemed to have set this country apart for.the
purpose of showing kings, despots, and monarchs,
that the white race are capable of self-government,
and that this constitutional liberty was conditionally
intrusted even to "We, the people" of the United
States, and that is, we must respect each other's con
stitutional rights without condition, or there can be
no real civil or constitutional liberty, A libertine
is opposed to all restraint by law or otherwise upon
himself, and cares nothing for the rights of others.
Abolitionists advocate the freedom of all men, -with
out the slightest respect to their capability for self-
government or usefulness in the world, or the safety
of the rights of others. They declare that the Afri
can slave was included in the Declaration of our

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 139
fathers when they said " We, tlie people." This brings
us up to the question of the competency or safety of
.the negro race to mingle in the Government of the
United States,
I say the African is unfit, and, therefore, would be
unsafe, even if admissible, to take any part in this
government, either municipal or general. No people
are fit for self-government, or to mingle with " the
people" in government, who are generally inclined to
idle, lazy, and dissipated habits, I think I am as
well acquainted -with the habits and nature of the
negro as most men, I have spent about twenty-six
years of my time in the slave States, and twenty-
eight years in the free States, No man, I presume,
feels a greater degree of sympathy for the African
race in the United States than I do. They have
always been objects of pity to my mind; and I de
sire here to apologize for a remark I made in my
feeble speech, on the 23d ult., at the great mass meet
ing in the Statehouse Yard, when I spoke of them
as " stinking negroes." It was a slip of the tongue
-under excitement, and it was not said out of any ill
will to the negroes. I do not blame them for the
troubles we are now in with our southern brethren.
They have had no agency in the terrible calamities
that now surround us. Hypocrites and infidels have
plunged us into this ungodly war with our own race
and kinsmen, under -a feigned love for the poor, un
fortunate Africans, that they may the sooner destroy
them ; for no man, having a proper Christian sym
pathy for them, would advocate their freedom in
this country. The negro race is not fit for self-

140 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
government. They are incapable, in this country
and all others, to manage a government as a republic,
or even partly so. I know we are told that they
have been kept down by being made slaves to the
white people. This, at a glance, might seem to be
so ; but when we come to look at the whole black
race, here and elsewhere, we shall see that slavery
¦ has not degraded the African, but greatly elevated
him in the scale of civilization and the domestic and
social relations of this life; while, on the other hand,
freedom has, as a general thing, degraded and hea
thenized the African race in all parts of the world.
There is an experiment now undergoing a trial on
the coast of Africa, called the Liberian Colony, of
some promise, -vfhich has my warmest sympathies
and strongest desires that it may prove a complete
success, and redound to the glory of God and the
complete freedom and civilization of all the descen
dants of Canaan on the face of the globe. But I
confess that this hope is without warrant in sacred
prophecy; for there is not the slightest hope of
supremacy, or even of temporal freedom, for the Oaif
naanites in this world given in the sacred Scriptures.
I may discuss the moral question of slavery, if
agreeable to you, hereafter; but the fitness of the
negro for universal freedom, and his claims for
equality with " We, the people," are all I propose to
discuss under the heading of these articles.
What are the natural habits, disposition, or ambi
tion of the African race in this country ?
Their habits are laziness and negligence. They
will not work, if they can help it, under any circum-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 141
stances, except to prevent starvation. They cannot
be made to think of any wants beyond the present,
and will not provide for the future. When they, by
chance, make a dollar, they at once cease work until
it is gone. They will not labor for wages, if they
can get food without it, and they will undergo any
amount of suffering by deprivation rather than en
gage at constant manual labor for the comforts of
this life. I am told this is because they are kept
down by the prejudice of color, slavery, and other
wickedness of the white people. This I deny as
being generally true. There are instances, no doubt,
of such oppression. To prove my assertion I will
give a single case that I know to be true, with
names and location, and will hold myself ready to
prove that it is a complete illustration of nineteen-
twentieths of all the free negroes in this country.
My father was a farmer in Prime-Hook Neck,
Cedar Creek Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware.
He owned a negro woman named Mill. She was an
excellent slave. David Hazzard, Esq., a merchant
and farmer, who lived at Milton, about four miles-
distant, and still lives there, owned a slave named
Jacob. Jacob and Mill got married, and Jacob
usually came to see his wife on Saturday afternoon
and remained until Monday morning. My father
was at Milton one day, when Mr. Hazzard proposed
to him that if he would set Mill free, he (Mr. H.)
would set Jake free. My father agreed to it on the
spot. The arrangement was effected at once, and
their freedom lawfully established. They, while
slaves, were sober and useful to their masters ; but

142 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
as soon as the knot was slipped that bound them to
'their masters, a change was apparent. Jake at once
left his home, and came to my father's and took a
seat by his beloved companion, and there they
basked in the pleasures of this life — both ceasing to
labor, but not to live. My father finally told them
they must get themselves a house and take care of
themselves, and told Jake that if he would go and
choose a lot near the cedar swamp, by an old apple
orchard, he should have an acre of ground, and he
would lend him tools and teams, and .give him the
timber to build himself a good house. The reply
was, ¦" Sank you. Mass John, I do 'em." Jake took
an axe on his shoulder and started for the cedar
swamp, or woods, as he had his choice, to cut enough
for his house complete and to pay for sa-wing, as the
mills sawed timber on shares, and one less than a
mile distant. Jake spent the day in chopping away
the bushes around the large cedar trees ; but that
was all he did that day, except to make up his mind
that it would be labor to fell the trees and get them
to the mill. He came back, and father asked him how
he was getting along. " Oh, good. Mass John." The
next day he took his axe and started off full speed ;
but instead of going to cut the timber he went to
John Smith's mills to see about the sawing. There
he found a large pile of oak slabs that were useless
to the owner, and asked Mr. Smith to give them to
him to build his house. His request was granted,
and back he came for the team to haul them. After
that was done he commenced his building operations,
and the first thing he did was the digging of a

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 143
trench .around the size he wanted his house, which
was about twelve feet square, and dug about eighteen
inches deep, and cut his slabs offj with an axe, about
nine feet long, and sat them in the trench around,
leaving them about seven feet and a half high, and
leaving an opening for a door, but no window. He
peaked them up at the ends for the pitch of the roof.
He then put a pole across for the ridge, and laid
poles the other way for rafters, and covered them
with brush for laths and oak-leaves for shingles, and
begged some cuUen boards at the mill, out of which
he made a door, and cut the soles out of a pair of
old shoes for the hinges, and nailed them on with cut
nails. He had no chimney or fire-place, but left a
hole open in the roof to let the smoke out. He laid
slabs in one corner, with the flat side up, on cross
pieces, for a bed, which, I believe, never had any
thing on them but an old ragged quilt to soften the
oak slabs. The dining-table was made in about the
same, style, and out of the same material. They
built their fire at one end, on the ground, and piled
dirt against the slabs to keep them from taking fire.
Oak leaves were plenty in the woods, and he could
patch his roof at anytime; but when the snow came,
with a strong wind, it would be nearly as deep in
side as out. His chairs and shelving were all of
rough oak slabs; and there they commenced life
together. My mother gave them some bed-clothes
and a little assortment of the necessary articles for
housekeepiag, and I believe Governor Hazzard did
the same. They at this time were each about twen
ty-four years of age. That was forty-four years

144 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
ago, and there they live until this day, and have
raised several children in that miserable smoke
house, not half as good as my mother's hen-house for
an in-dwelling for human beings. I suppose^ there
is scarcely a piece of wood in the house now that
was first put there, the entire house being replaced
time and again with patches. I believe his acre of
ground has never been sufficiently fenced to keep
the cattle and hogs out of the house, as the single
door of the house has had to be kept constanly open,
winter and sumiher, for light, there being no window
in the establishment.
Jacob had worked at hewing house frames for his
. master while a . slave ; but my father offered him
white oak timber enough to saw him a frame, and
to pay for sawing, if he would cut the trees, and ce
dar trees enough for siding and shelving, and to pay
for sawing, and his board until he should get it
finished; but he was too lazy to embrace the oppor
tunity to make himself and family comfortable for a
long life ; and there they still live in that miserable
hut, not even fit for reptiles of the lowest grade.
The last time I saw them, their eyes looked to be
almost completely smoke-dried out. If they had
built the right kind of a house, their old masters
would have furnished it and made them comfortable ;
but, instead of that, they have dragged out a mise
rable existence, for about forty-five years, in smoke,
filth, and deprivations of the worst kind.
This is a strong figure, but nevertheless true, and
it is an average case of a vast majority of all free
negroes in the world. The only idea of freedom

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 145
they have is to live without labor, which I shall
undertake to prove in next week's number.
Now, do you not think that Jacob and Mill would
have seen a thousand times more pleasure had they
remained slaves until this day? Only look at it
without prejudice against the only place designed
for that race in this world among the white race.
LETTER III.
In a former article I stated a few facts on the
capability or fitness of the African race for freedom
and self-government, under a republican form like
ours. I now proceed to give further evidence of
their unfitness for freedom and equality with " We,
the people."
1 gave a short history of a single family who were
set free by their master, who believed they would do
well, from the fact that they were both such superior
servants. They could not have been made to believe
that the end of their servitude would be the end of
their usefulness and happiness in the world; yet,
notwithstanding the great confidence that all had in
them, it was so. And so it has been with nineteen-
twentieths of all that have been or ever will be set
free. The Eev. Mr.  , of South Carolina, owned a
large number of slaves and a large plantation. He
became dissatisfied with the business, as he was an
itinerating Methodist preacher, and finally made up
his mind to give them (the slaves) the plantation, and
rid himself of the responsibility and vexation, and
13

146 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
give himself entirely up to his holy and favorite
calling, the preaching of the Gospel. He was advised
of his fatal error, but had such an unlimited confi
dence in all his slaves that he could not be made to
believe that they, would prove faithless and betray
their trust. As they had been so faithful to him in
all things, he consummated the arrangement, and
took his leave for an unlimited time, a year being
the time of each engagement. He had not been
gone long before he received letters from old neigh
bors, advising hini that things about his plantation
were changing very fast, and not for the better ; but
he thought it was a mere prejudice against his
scheme of freeing his slaves, it being the only plan
by which it could be done, for the master had to
appear as their o-wner at law, or they would be taken
up and sold by the sheriff to . the highest bidder.
He paid no attention to the first letter, nor to the
second nor third; but within a year he received
such information as fully satisfied him that he was
in danger, and made up his mind to repair to his
former home; for his neighbors informed him that
unless he speedily returned and took charge of his
negroes he would have damages enough to pay to
take all his negroes and plantation too, several of
them being already in prison for plundering their
neighbors' plantations. When he arrived he found
the plantation completely swept of poultry, hogs,
and cattle ; even the work oxen and cows had been
killed and eaten up, or sold for rum. His fencing
and outhouses were demolished and used for fire-
Avood, and even the farming utensils were mostly

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 147
burnt up, and he found himself a ruined man, for
he was answerable for all the damages to his neigh
bors. They started fair in the spring and planted
. the crops, but that was the end of their ambition
and enterprise, their only idea of freedom being to
eat, drink, sleep, and nothing else.
Many similar experiments have been tried in all
the southern States with similar results.
. I am told this was owing to their being under
laws that were prejudicial to their freedom : yet
nineteen-twentieths, if not the ninety-nine hun
dredths of all the slaves who have been freed have
resulted in etil to the liberated negro, and has
brought them into disrepute and to want, and made
them a dead weight to society and a clog to the
wheels of general prosperity; for the free negroes
have never paid. their way in this country, nor never
-will. Their Maker never intended them for rulers
or leaders in this nation, nor in any way to be placed
on an equality with "We, the people;" and no true
Christian who can read the Word of God will ever
advocate the universal emancipiaiion of the negroes in
this country, and their equality .with the people of the
United States ; nor will any true Constitutional Union
man who has had opportunities to know the nature of
the African negro, and made use of them, as it was his
duty to do, wish them freed and placed on an equality
with the rulers of this land.
Now let us see if the case I gave last week, and
the above, was owing to the laws of the slave States
in which they occurred.
In 1819, if I forget not, two thousand acres of

148 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
land was procured in Brown County, Ohio, on which
four hundred negroes were placed, and made the
legal owners of the property. In a very short time,
says the Cincinnati Gazette, "they became too lazy
to play." Their vicious, lazy, thieving habits was
so apparent that the neighbor's became much
alarmed ; and efforts to remove them was strongly
talked of. The depredations and criminal law suits
of that spot, was nearly equal to the whole county
outside of that colony. The farmers for miles
around could, nor cannot, keep any portable valua
bles unless they put them under lock and key at
night. And these depredations haveftncreased from
the beginning of that colony even more than, the
increase of the population of the negroes, and the
whole colony abounds in filth, stench, licentiousness,
laziness, theft, drunkenness, debauchery, rags, and
profanity ; and they are of no use in the neighbor
hood whatever, but a dead weight and a great curse
to all the people for miles around. An Ohio senator
spoke of them as follows : —
".The black settlement in Brown County was
made in 1819, the original number located there
being four hundred and twenty, for whom about
two thousand acres of land were procured. From
the commencement there has been no improvement
in their morals or social habits. Idleness and vice
are the prevailing concomitants. The cost of crimi
nal prosecutions has been very large in proportion
to the number of inhabitants, and keeps up a pro
portionate average with their increase. In the
vicinity of this settlement there is not a family

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 149
within two miles who are not kept in constant dread
of depredations or injury of some sort. Every
valuable that can be removed is stolen. -They are
absolutely com.pelled to confine themselves to what
is merely necessary to support life, for anything
beyond from hand to mouth, must inevitably fall a
prey to lurking vagrants, who, far worse than a gang
of gypsies, are hovering around seeking literally
what they may devour. And this state of things is
not confined to any section alone; it extends in a
greater or less degree wherever this class of the
population is permanently located."
Now this is in the great free State of Ohio, where
the shackles of slavery has never been known. And
I believe Brown County is, or was, a great abolition
county. And yet this terrible state of things has
been produced by the presence of this small colony
of the black race there. I ask, that if four hundred
and twenty in a neighborhood has produced such a
state of society, what would four thousand do in a
neighborhood, all being free. And suppose further ;
that there was one free negro in that State for
every five or six white people, what would be the
condition of things in that great State ? It cannot -
be said that they have not an equal chance in Brown
County to prosper and be improved. The fact is,
the negroes have never made a particle of improve-
ment in a state of freedom.. There is not one single
spot on the globe that has been in any way im
proved by them only in a state of slavery. They
have never been of any use to the world, or to
human society, except as sla-ves, not even to them -
l.S*

150 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
selves. But as slaves they have been very useful
to the whole civilized world, and no people have
been more useful of the same number. But that
moment you free them, their usefulness ceases. If
this is not so, tell me where and when it was not.
Show me one spot on the earth where they have
been of any benefit to themselves or any body else,
except in the Liberian Colony, which I admit pro
duces a slight promise. But did they, through their
o-w?i enterprise,, make the discovery, and try the ex
periment ? You know they did not, nor had they
any hand in it. But it was started by white mis
sionaries from other countries. It was soon discovered
that white men could not live there long enough to
do any good. And black men were taken as an ex
periment, and it was found that they lived, and had
their health as well there, or even better than here.
There seems to be providential reasons for be
lieving that that may be their place, and God may in
tend to raise them up to some notice or usefulness in
the world. But if African slavery had never had an
existence in civilized states, the African colony could
never have had an existence ; and if slavery should
now be abolished in all civilized and Christian
states in the world, and left free and equal, the
whole Liberian colony will glide into barbarism in
a short space of time; for you may depend, they
will cease to immigrate to that country if freed and
placed on an equality with "We, the people," here,
and elsewhere. And when fresh accessions cease to
arrive there from civilized and Christian states, that
colony will be doonied to barbarism. I will not

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 151
discuss the present prospects of that colony, only to
say it is yet an experiment quite as much as it was
at the beginning. I -will say here, that whatever my
opinions "may be about the competency of Africans
to govern, I am a friend of that experiment, and
want it to go on to the end of time; although God
has not given the slightest encouragement on the
pages of inspired prophecy for them to expect any
honors as rulers, outside of slavery.
But the Scriptures are totally silent on the sub
ject of their emancipation. It is not for me to say
there is no hope for them for freedom in their own
native Africa ; but I -will say, there is no hope for
them anywhere else in the world, and every attempt
to raise them to authority will only make their con
dition incalculably worse than in slavery to southern
masters. But I will say again, the southern slaves are the
happiest class of people I have ever seen in all my
travels in North or South America or the West In
dies, and I believe they are the happiest people on
the face of the globe, except where abolitionists have
disturbed their peace, and twenty times more moral,
civil, respectful, happy, and well behaved than any
colony or state of free negroes I have ever seen.
Now, if the African race in the United States have
principles or fitness for self-government, how is it
they have not shown it in some shape or form?
They have been here over twcf hundred and forty
years, among the best men, and the best examples,
and influences the sun has ever shone upon, and yet
not the slightest -appearance of fitness for rulers,

152 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
leaders, or teachers has "been perceptible among
them. If I am wrong, show me how, when, and
where, and I will give in. Can any spot be found
in the United States that has been improved by the
free negroes locating thereupon ? Can you tell of
a colony of them who have emigrated to the west
ern territories, to clear up the lands, to make them
selves permanent and comfortable homes ? Or has
one ever done so? Where are they to be found,
either many or few, taking the lead in any enter
prise of worth or hope, that would induce any man,
or set of men, of common sense and moral worth to
follow in their wake ? How many African negroes
can there be found, who are free, that have had fore
thought enough to save up something for a rainy
day ? Don't point out to me mulattoes and quad
roons ; I know some few of them have done so —
but they are comparatively few and very far between.
I know a great many negroes get themselves a house
to live in ; and what sort of a house is it when got ?
See the description of Jacob's house I described in
my previous article, and you have a description of
twenty-nine-thirtieths of all the houses got up by
that class of persons. If you will investigate the
subject without prejudice or favor, you will find that
just so far as they depart from pure Anglo-Saxon
blood, just in thai ratio they lose the principles and
qualifications for self-government.
It may be said that I have given a case that was
originated while Brown County was a wild forest,
and therefore the consequences occurred alluded to.
above. To show that this was not the case, I will

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 153
give one more example that took place under the
direction of the great apostle to negro freedom, Ger-
ret Smith, of New York State : Gerret Smith, Esq.,
is a gentleman of talents, of respectability, and great
wealth and uncommon liberality, and an abolitionist
of the Garrisonian school. He had such an unlim
ited sympathy and confidence in the poor African
that he determined to set them on their feet, that the
world might see that they were fit to be classed with
We, the people. And he, true to his principle^, put
his hand into his pocket to put the negroes where
the world would see that the negroes were honest
men. I am sorry that I cannot lay my hand on the
history of this case, for it tells the story more vividly
than any other. Mr. Smith purchased a large tract
of land in western New York, large enough (if I
forget not) for one thousand small farms (though I
am not sure about the number), and deeded them in
fee to that number of negroes, and gave each one a
nice little .start, and no doubt felt that he had done
a good thing. ]^ut, to his great disappointment, in
a very few years every farm passed out of their
hands for provisions and rum ; and the condition of
society was even worse than in Brown Co, colony,
and Mr, Smith was compelled to concede that he
had done them more hurt than good; for he had
made a selection to take charge of those farms of the
best and safest negroes in the State of New York,
I do not say these things out of any ill will to the
poor unfortunate negroes; I am their friend, and
would defend their civil and moral rights to the
very death : but I must state facts just as they are,

154 AFRICAN SLAVERY,
if the sky falls. No man can do them any good by
saying what is not true, and in that way place them
in a false position before the world ; this would, in
the end, only degrade them the more. If abolition
ists would state facts with their apparent zeal for the
poor negroes, they would do them great good ; but
by stating falsehoods, and placing them' m a false
light before the ignorant, they have produced all the
miseries and woes the poor Africans have ever been
subjected to in this country. If all the ministers of
the Christian Church had only have followed the ex
ample of their great exemplar, St. Paul, of the New
Testament Scriptures, this whole nation would now
abound in almost paradisiacal glory from one end to
the' other; and the white people would this day be
rejoicing from Maine to Florida, and from the Atlan
tic to the Pacific, and the slaves would be singing,
shouting, and dancing all over the slave States, and.
brother would not now be at war with brother, and
destroying each other worse even, than hyenas. You
may sum up all of our preSfent calamities, hatreds,
irialice, and heart-burnings, and all, all are traceable
to the preaching of abolition sermons in the sacred
desk that was dedicated to the preaching of the glo
rious Gospel of God our Saviour. There is not a
fire-eater nor a rebel in the south who is not the
legitimate offspring of abolition Gospel preachers..
They are the worst enemies the poor slaves ever had
in this world;
For an intimation of Egyptian bondage or ancient
slavery of the negroes, I will refer the reader to an
article in your last Saturday's issue, from the New

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 155
York Journal of Commerce, 6th page; it will pay for
reading. The fact that the African never has made
any improvement, or did any good outside of slavery,
is to my mind a sufficient reason why he should not
be set free. More on the subject next week.

LETTER IV.
In my two last communications I gave a gene
ral -view of the condition and habits of the freed
and free people of color in the United States. I
would like now to give a general history of the
slaves, but I will only say here, that they are the
happiest persons, as a class, that I have ever seen;
and the stories of the cruel treatment by their mas
ters, as a general thing, is as false and slanderous as
it would be to say the devil is a truthful and good
spirit. Such stories have been invented by aboli
tionists and infidels to break up this great and glori
ous Christian government, because it had the impress
of divine goodness and wisdom upon it. I have no
doubt there are cases of bad treatment to slaves by
some masters. But they are as few in ratio as such
cruelties are in the free States, even to children by
parents. And there are but few half so devilish as
a large amount of treatment to apprentice and servant
girls in our northern cities. But I will proceed
with the free negroes.
I was in New Granada, South America, in 1856,
where the negroes have not only their universal
freedom, but the reins of government exclusively
in their hands. I Avill give a short account of the

156 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
condition of things in that State across the Isthmus
to the ancient city of Panama. I say ancient be
cause it took its stairt in the early days of the settle
ment of South America by Spain. There is no
State in the world that excels the State of New
Granada in a fertile and productive soil. They have
no winter frost or chilling winds to impede agricul
tural pursuits. And it would excel the richest
parts of North America in the super-abundance of
every product except wheat and rye. There is no
country on the globe that would pay the farmer or
planter better than that country. It abounds in all
that is good, even the precious metals. There are no
seasons, but it is one perpetual season. It matters
but little what time of the year planting is done.
Two crops of corn per year could be raised off of
the same ground, and plenty of time between to
clear off the soil. Most of the fruit trees are always
in bloom, and have fruit on them in every stage
from the. blossom to the ripe fruit. Sugar cane
grows spontaneously, and wherever it formerly got
a hold, it still holds the soil, and its growth is so
powerful that it overruns everything else, and holds
the soil supreme. And, perhaps, there is not better
cane in the whole world, and stands so thick that a
rabbit would have great trouble to make his way
through it. In short, there is no State on the face
of the globe that offers superior advantages to the
planter or farmer.
And, notwithstanding all this, there is not one
acre of ground in the entire State of New Granada
in any condition of cultivation that I ever sa'W.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 157
They plant in some places (I know) among the
bramble and bushes, but cultivation is not known.
I saw but one lot of corn there in all my travels, and-
I walked over that with the greatest dmculty.
The bramble and undergrowth was so great that I
could seldom reach ground with my feet. They
planted the corn without hoe, spade, or plow ; they
reached their arms down through the bramble and
undergrowth, and scratched the corn under the
ground with their fingers without the slightest order,
leaving an indefinite number of grains in a hill,
say five to ten ; and that is the last time they see it
until they go to gather the corn. It grows up
through the bramble and bushes to an enormous
height, with slim stock, not larger than a man's
thumb, and each stock bears a nubben of corn two
or three inches long. And when ^hey gather the
corn, they pull up the stocks, and replant at the
same time.
That country was under the government of Spain
about three hundred years, and has been in the
hands of negroes I believe nearly forty years.
I never saw a road in the State, that a mule could
travel safely on, nor a cart road outside of the
villages. The appearance of many abandoned plantations
are yet visible all over the State, and everything
like industry has disappeared; but not one single
vestige- is apparent in any part of the State except
in the seaport towns, by white men. In fafct, every
thing has sunk to ruin, total ruin, since the negroes
were emancipated and took possession of the govern-
14

158 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
ment, and that State, with its rich fertile soil, is
almost a total loss to the world.
The inhabitants are so low in the moral scale and
civilizfbion that their condition is indescribably low.
There are some foreign quadroons about the larger
seaport towns that do better ; but even these have
no right to claim a place in civilization. A majority
of the inhabitants all over the State are of mixed
breed, but in every case the whites have been re
duced to the level of the negro, and booth together
into the vats of all abominations. There is not one
particle of ambition or enterprise among them ; they
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are
one continual mass of licentiousness and vulgarity,
They even all go naked at almost all times, even to
church (for they are all professing Christians). The
women and men strip themselves together to bathe,
and any number can be seen walking and standing
together on the rocks, high and dry, in a perfect
state of nudity. They are as the beasts of the field,
without shame or modesty. They have no sympathy
for their offspring.
The few white people that have been born there
are as high above them in intelligence and all moral
requirements for respectability as it i^ possible for
one set of men to be above another. You will hear
them talking about State affairs, and lamenting over
the condition of society, the great chances of pros
perity, the immense wealth in their soil, and how
rich they could be in a short time if they could
work in the sun, but they cannot; neither. can the
mulatto; nor would he if he could. He is more

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 159
delicate than the white man. But the negro, who is
improved and strengthened by labor in the sun in
that climate, will not now, nor never did, nor never
will work without a master ; and unless that great
country shall be reduced to negro slavery under the
pure white, that rich and alluvial soil is not only
now lost, but will be through all time to come, un
less God shall change that climate to suit our nature,
or the principles, spirits, ambition, and enterprise of
the negro to that of the white man, without changing
his nature, that is now suited to the torrid zone of
the world only.
I know the quadroons or mixed breeds are a much
better people than the negroes, but they are alto
gether inadequate to successfully maintain a repub
lican form of government, and hardly a government-
of any kind. They are nearly all very treacherou.s,
and not worthy of trust. I wish some of our abo
litionists would go down to that country and spend
six months among the negroes ; I think they would
hesitate some time, if they had a trust to give out,
to decide which they would bestow it upon, the
monkeys or the negroes. Let theni see the Jamaica
negroes at Aspinwall, who have gone there to get
clear of wholesome, lawful restraint, and I think
they will never want to behold another free negro,
much less to have them on an equality with " We, the
people" of the United States.
Now those were raised on the Island of Jamaica ;
they were born free, and some of them can read,
write, and speak English, Spanish, and some French.
I will close this article with a short account of

160 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
what I saw of free negroes at and about Kingston,
Jamaica, from where many of the pure negroes have
gone to New Granada, South Am.erica. I have often
been referred by abolitionists to the glorious effects
of emancipation in the Island of Jamaica, and even
told by some that the emancipated slaves soon be
came the ruling spirits of the island, and that they
were at the head of all good. It is true, they are
lawfully on an equality with the white people, but
in appearance, and all, all. of the requisites for pros
perity and government, are as far beneath the white
people as the earth is beneath the heavens. Were
it not for the standing army and the British bay
onets that glitter in that sunny clime at all times,
the whites, ere this, would have been exterminated,
-if it had been in the power of the negroes to have
done so. The negroes are somewhat better there
than, in South America, but it is owing entirely to
the strict wholesome laws and the British soldiers '
that can be seen at all times patrolling. •
Since the negroes were set free by an act of Par
liament, in 1833, they have sunk down to the lowest
depths of degradation that is possible under good
restraining laws. They will not work for wages;
in consequence of which a great many of the best
plantations on the island have been abandoned, or
turned into grazing farms. The stories of any im
provement whatever there, by the emancipation act,
is as false as the declaration of the serpent to Eve,
when he said " Thou shalt not surely die." If the
English government could have it to do over again,
the negroes would never be made free by the laws

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 161
of that nation. Many of the leading journals of
Great Britain have been warning us for years to be
careful how we take any further steps towards the
emancipation of the slaves of this country, and refer
us to the ruined condition of that island by emanci
pation, and the complete degradation and entire ruin
of the negroes there.
Some of the quadroons do better than the negroes,
and a few of them own small plantations ; but no
such thing is to be found among the negroes ; they
are a dead weight to progress. It was an experiment
when the emancipation bill passed. The English
people thought they would work for wages, and
therefore it would be altogether better for the planter
to hire his labor than to own it; but the sequel
proved the sad mistake when too late.
It would have been a thousand times better for us
if there never had been a free negro in this (that was
a) glorious land. The whole civilized world have
been paying the penalty of British emancipation
ever since it took place, in high prices of the pro
ducts of the British West India Islands, and the
partial emancipation of the slaves in this country.
If universal emancipation should be effected here,
woe be unto us, and the slaves too.
LETTER V.
In my first two articles I portrayed the principles,
disposition, nature, pride, and ambition of the negro
race in this country. In my third, that of the same
race in South America and the Island of Jamaica.
14*

162 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
The facts I have given ought not to require any
application by me, and will not by those who are
truly constitutional union men, and do not value the
emancipation (and, by that, the degradation and ruin
of the entire black race in this country), more than
the liberties and prosperity of " We, the people." I
say I have given the true character of the free ne
groes wherever they may be found on the face of
this globe. Taking this in comparison with the
great usefulness of that race while slaves, ought to
satisfy every good man that they were destined for
slaves or bond-servants, and nothing else.
Though God has not declared anywhere in his
revelation that they never are to be free, yet in Lev.
xxv. 46, he says to their masters that they shall be
their inheritance, and their children's forever ; which
I have shown in the two chapters on the moral ques
tion of slavery. As I have said, there seems to be
some encouragement for them in Liberia, on the
coast of Africa. And if they ever are to have free
dom, it will be there and nowhere else. But while
they remain among white people, they are to be
slaves, or they will be in a far worse condition; and
any nation who shall attempt to free them, and place
them on an equality with the "people," will be made
to suffer just to the extent they shall do that wicked
act. See the effect on Mexico, Central America, New
Granada, and all the British, French, and Spanish
provinces. While the two or three former have suf
fered by constant revolutions and civil commotions
for allowing an equality with that race, the latter
have suffered the loss of three-fourths of the products

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 163
of those provinces, and, in addition to that, they have
been compelled to keep a stronger standing army to
keep the negroes in their place, and have had to pay
double price for all the products of those islands that
require constant agricultural labor to bring them
forth, because the negroes will not engage in useful
pursuits and manual labor when free, and there
fore they are of no use in the world, but a dead
weight upon the prosperity and happiness of any
nation which shall venture in such a forbidden path.
Look at the present condition of the free people of
color all over this country. See them in this city,
where we have about thirty thousand. If you have
never looked into the question, I think you will be
perfectly satisfied that they would be better off in
slavery, even if the institution is as bad as Wendell
Phillips says it is. You will not find two thousand
out of the thirty doing anything for a livelihood.
And even most of these are engaged in pursuits that
are of no use to the general prosperity of the city
whatever, and the balance are far worse than no
account. What are we as a nation and "the people" now
suffering for attempting to lay violent hands upon
the institution of slavery? I will say again (and
hope it may never be forgotten by the reader), that
whenever universal freedom to the negroes shall be
established in this country, our Constitutional Union
with our liberties will end, and the judgments of God
will rest upon us, perhaps through all time to come.
You may laugh me to scorn for this idea. No doubt
Adam thought it a very small matter to taste a deli-

164 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
cious fruit from a tree that he had to prune and dress
that, he was forbidden to eat by his Creator, yet see
the effect upon the whole human family. If Adam
had kept that simple little command, we should now
all be one race and one people, and there would
have been no negroes, nor abolitionists, or any other
pest on the face of the globe, not even death. Be
careful; "God will not" always "be mocked."
But some men tell me that slavery is wrong, and
must be abolished, irrespective of consequences to
either race. That it is our duty to free them, and
allow them to become our equals in all the relations'
of this life. For, say they, we were all " created equal"
and therefore are all one flesh and blood. And we
must loose their bonds, and let them go free.
When the dangers of emancipation are pointed out
some of those saints say, let them go to the de-vil, we
have nothing to do with that ; others say, we "will
drive them all out of the country, and if they at
tempt to resist, we will exterminate them all. Now
those are some of the men who have such great con
scientious scruples about slavery ; even so great, that
they say, rather than it shall not be destroyed, let
our great government be broken up, and a monarchy
established or anarchy reign through all time. Now,
we are all equally interested in this matter, whether
we were born and live in a free or slave State. Our-
destinies for all time are at stake alike. The people of
Maine and Florida will suffer the same. We are all •
one people, and are equally responsible for whatever
may come upon us. Therefore let us reason to
gether, and look this matter fair in the face. If we

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 165
stick to our fanaticism, and refuse to weigh the facts
that can be seen and understood by every man, just
so sure as we do not do this, just so sure we shall be
overthrown, and our . glory will be taken from us
and given to some other land.
God has. given us that unfortunate race, that they
might be made useful to the whole civilized world.
They were first brought to this country while we
belonged to Great Britain, and there is no room to
doubt that God designed it, for every circumstance
proves this idea. And it was done to bring that
race into usefulness, in the only way it could be
done. It is wonderful that any man who has read
their history, both sacred and profane, cannot see
this, for our Creator commanded that every man
should live by the sweat of his brow. The meaning
of this is, no one will doubt, that every man should
toil in some form for the fruits of life, and without
it, no man was entitled to the "penny."
I have shown unmistakably, that the African race
are a dead weight on society, and a nuisance in the
world, in a state of freedom. If this is not so,
everywhere (outside of Liberia, which is yet barely
an exception, if an exception at all), then I hope
some one will show us where it is, and in what part
of the world, and how. I know there are some
individuals who do better than others, where they
are surrounded by influences so powerful that they
cannot resist them. But show us a community
of colored people away from the powerful ipflu-
ences of the watchful perseverance of the enter
prising whites, who have set one single example.

166 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
that would be safe for us to imitate. What have
they done in the world that has been of any benefit
to mankind? "Where and when have they by
companies, formed colonies to. clear up the land in
our western wilds, or even on the' frontier of any
State, and made themselves comfortable homes, and
by that produced anything beyond their own wants,
or even half "that amount? Now take a survey
from Maine to Florida, and from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and show us the group or colony who have-
done any good for mankind, or have exhibited the
slightest enterprise? Where are their inventions
of useful implements, of husbandry, or any of the
mechanical arts? Where are they found leading
their hosts of workmen in any of the trades, or
manufacturing operations of this life, or any of the
useful arts and sciences? Now, without one cir
cumstance to show their fitness for self-government,
or to mingle with our rulers, or even to take care of
themselves under the most wholesome laws that
mankind ever was blessed with, where all their
rights are fully protected, they having equal access
for that purpose, with us, to all the courts of justice,
ought 'vfe to set them free, or ought they to be
free, while they are so exceedingly useful in a
state of slavery? Was it not madness in us to
plunge ourselves headlong in this the most ungodly
of all wars which have preceded it since the founda
tion of the world was laid? No, none has been
more terrible, more heart rending, or more wicked,
and all, all because of an opposition to the just and
wise arrangements of the great Jehovah to govern

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 167
his people, as seemeth him good. I know some will
laugh at this idea, especially some of those who, it
was intended by the Great Spirit, should unite all
hearts, and cement them by diffusing his own ever
lasting love among the people. But, alas! they
have forgotten the pit from which they were taken,
and by whom, and for what purpose, and let false
sympathy and fanaticism take possession of their
hearts, instead of that unadulterated love that makes
a man justified in whatever position -of usefulness he
may be called to in this life. And instead of preach
ing Jesus Christ and him crucified, they recommend
their hearers to go forth and exterininate eight
millions of white people to change or destroy the
relation of master and slave (that it is in the order
of God), that the negro may be the white man's
equal, which is clearly forbidden in his Great Book,
which I have already proven.
I wrote this and the three previous articles for the
Press, but concluded to withhold them for this book.
I have written these mostly on my own knowledge
of the facts given. I shall now publish a chapter in
which I have given an array of testimony to show
that the negro or African race ought not to be freed,
and that they are physically and mentally incompe
tent for self-government. My testimony will be from
national and municipal records, and official reports
from abolition missionaries, travellers, and others.
They will clearly show to what an alarming extent
designing men have deceived the people on this
question.

CHAPTEE III.
Statistical evidence of the ruinous effect of negro emancipa
tion to the whole civilized world.
I FEEL it to be my duty to write a few pages on
imports and exports, and illustrate them by statis
tical facts, -which more than sustain me in all I have
said about the unproductiveness of the free and the
freed negroes, and the productiveness of negro slaves.
These statistics will astonish the reader more than
anything I have said in this book. The first fre§d
people of color were the negroes of St. Domingo,
who ultimately freed themselves of the white popu
lation by an indiscriminate massacre of all the white
people on that island. In that way they became the
sole occupants of that immensely rich soil.
It has been about seventy years since universal
freedom was proclaimed on that alluvial island, which
I think was in 1793; therefore I will begin with the-
exports of Hayti in 1790, three years before negro
freedom was obtained. In that year the exports of
that island were $27,828,000, the main productions
being as follows : —
Sugar  163,405,000 lbs.
Coffee  68,151,000 "
Cotton  6,286,000 "
Indigo  930,000 "
(168 )

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 169
About thirty years after freedom, the products of
that rich island were as follows : —

Sugar .

82,800 lbs..

less 163,373,000 lbs,

Coffee .

. 32,189,700 "

" 35,961,300 "

Cotton

620,900 "

5,664,100 "

Indigo .

000,000 "

930,000 'I

I will here remind the reader that coffee grows
¦without labor, it being an article of spontaneous
growth, which accounts for its having fallen off only
a little over one-half. Now sugar and indigo have
entirely disappeared, and cotton not much better.
Logwood, mahogany, and other articles of sponta
neous growth, which require no labor to produce
them, are the only articles of exportation now.
Coffee grows wild (though it has been transplanted
there), and therefore requires labor to gather it only,
which is made a sporting operation or frolic, like
huckleberrying parties retire to the swamps in this
country sometimes. See about sixty years after
emancipation on that island, which was in such a
high state of cultivation in 1790, as far as settled,
and then ruled entirely by white masters. In 1849
we have the latest statistics that are reliable from
ih&t fallen star: —

1849.

1790.

Sugar

000 lbs.

163,405,000

Coffee

. 30,608,343 "

68,151,000

Cotton

544,516 "

6,286,000

Indigo

000 "

930,000

It seems to me this ought to be enough to satisfy
an abolitionist, even of the Garrisonian stripe, much
more Christian men, that the emancipation of the
15

170 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
negro race is not only wrong, but a great moral, social,
and political evil In or prior io impartial ireeAom
on this island, it supplied at least the half of Europe
with sugar. It was originally a French colony, and
if that island, with the negroes, had remained in the
possession of the French people ijntil this day, it
would now be the garden spot of the earth, instead
of being a lost and desolated state. The negroes
were not to blame for this change.
The French people themselves, in France, had be
come -wild on the subject of "impartial" freedom,
among themselves not including negro slaves, for
they were not considered fit for anything else than
slaves. But the French people became fanatical
about the word "slave," and desired to strike it from
the statute book. The quadroons and mulattoes
took hold of it, and determined that all who were
possessed of their blood should be included among
the "impartial" freed people. Therefore the destruc
tion caused by the blast of "impartial" emancipation.
Just so in our glorious nation and country. When
the Convention met in 1787 to form a Constitution,
that we might have a more perfect Union as sove
reign States, there was not an abolitionist in that
Convention — no one thought of freeing the slaves,
or desired to free the negroes in the southern
States — :yet many of them were strongly prejudiced
against the foreign slave trade, produced, no doubt,
by the cruelties practised by hard-hearted, bad men
going into that trade, that should have been carried
on by Christian men only. Therefore the fanatical
notions about the word slave being placed in our

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 171
great national chart, the Constitution of the United
States. "We, the people," had been a subordinate
people, held by a tyrant king, and of whom God
said, " should not be ruled over -with rigor." There
fore the prejudice that prevailed in the Convention
against the word slave or servant being embpdied
in the national chart of the United States. That
prejudice was perhaps the beginning of our downfall
as a great nation; for, "What therefore God hath
joined together, let no man put asunder." Matt. xix.
6. That national Convention did not intend to abo
lish slavery at any time, but were thrown a little on
the other extreme, by having been treated like slaves
by Great Britain, and thinking the Constitution could
be formed so as to secure the rights of the people to
their slave property without naming slavery in it.
They forgot for what a small thing Moses was de
prived of the honor and pleasure of marching before
the Israelites into the promised land. He was com
manded to speak, that the water might come forth ;
but instead of that, he smote the rock twice. Num.
XX. Therefore he was not allowed to enter the land
that "flowed with milk and honey," but was buried
in "Mount Nebo," on the borders of the promised
land. No doubt France, England, and Spain thought, or
mistook .the omission of the word slave in our chart,
for some future intention of abolishing slavery in all
the States, at the same time thinking it would not
do to let the United States, who had just emerged
into being, take the lead in so great a work. In
less than six years France was wild on the subject

172 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
of freedom, not of the negroes, but of their own
race, and half or mixed breed. Those nations did
not know at that time, that the end of slavery was
the end of labor with the African race. But the
French see how it is now, when to late. If the French
had that Island now, and owned all the negroes,
instead of exporting about $28,000,000, as they did
in 1790, they would now export at least $100,000,000
worth annually. But, alas! what is it now? The
nearest that it can be got at, at this time, is about
•$1,200,000. The French had it up to $28,000,000
when the negroes took possession. The demand for
the different kinds of wood is twenty times as much
now as it was in 1790. Emancipationists, look at
this before you go any further in your mad career.
But is this all? Let us look at the Island of
Jamaica, which is yet held by the power of British
bayonets in the hands of white men.
(I will say here, the statistics I have quoted are
from the " United States Commercial Eelations," vol.
i. pp. 561-2, officially- reported to Congress.)
This Island is nearly equal in fertility to Hayti.
There have been falsehoods enough told about it by
abolitionists to sink a world into oblivion. I will
give one statement made by an English missionary
in the Five Points mission chapel at New York in
the fall of 1856, about three months after I was
at Kingston, Jamaica, where he said he had been
laboring for many years as a missionary isent there
by the Congregationalists of England, if I remember
right. His sermon consisted in an. alleged history of

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 173
the great benefit emancipation had been to that
Island, and to the negro race there. I thought if he
was a sample of all foreign missionaries, they had all
better be called home and put to hard labor in the
coal pits of England.
He said the negroes had become leading men in
every good enterprise of that Island. That the pro
ductions had gradually increased every year since
1833, when the slaves were freed. That they were
the leading business men of that Island, that they
were nearly all property holders, and many of them
largely. That nearly the whole Island was in a state
of dilapidation and ruin in 1833, but now every
thing was in a most prosperous condition. That the
city of Kingston had so re-vived and increased in
beauty, style, and wealth, that it did not now look
like the same place. That the negroes were com
monly consulted by English Lords, on plans of
government for the Island. And that many of them
lived in palaces of beauty and comfort. In short,
he made them out as being far superior to any other
persons on the face of the earth. This seems to be
the common declaration of nearly all abolitionists,
and it would appear to be the faith of the Eepub
lican party.
The island of Jamaica contains about 4,000,000 of
acres, and was prior to 1833 in a high state of culti
vation, as far as occupied, at which time the slaves
were all reduced to apprentices for five years, to be
freed in 1838, by an act of Parliament.
I will now give a few statistics and reports that
will satisfy every reader that that missionary knew
15*

174 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
he did not tell the truth. I will quote from the
Cyclopsedia of Commerce, published by Harper &
Brothers, of New York, before and after emanci
pation. Pkiok to Freedom. After Freedom.
Tears. Value of exports. Tears. Value of exports.
1809, $15,166,170 1853, $4,186,380
1810, 11,517,895 1854, 4,661,580
•
Two successive years of exports, before freedom,
$26,684,065 ; two successive years of exports after
freedom, $8,847,960, This ought to satisfy every
white man in the world that the negroes ought not
to be free. The deficit, $17,836,105. I have taken
the above about twenty years before and twenty
years after freedom, so as to be clear of the agitation
of the question.
The bulk of products of Jamaica in 1805 —
Sugar  150,352 hhds.
Rum  46,837 punch.
Allspice  1,041,540 lbs.
Coffee  17,961,923 "
This was prior to the stoppage of the importation
of slaves to the island of Jamaica, at whichtime
agriculture was in a high state of improvement.
The • sugar was the largest crop ever produced on
that Island. So the following table -will show the
want of labor in the sugar culture in 1834, one year
after slavery was abolished and the negroes con
verted into apprentices ; but they at once ceased to
¦fear their masters, and consequently to labor as they
previously did, and sugar requiring an- immense
amount of labor and care to produce and save it.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 175
therefore see as follows for 1834, just thirty years
after the above crop was produced, which was prior
to the agitation of the abolition question.
In 1834, exports of Jamaica —
Sugar  84,756 hhds.
Rum  32,111 punch.
-Allspice  3,605,400 lbs.
Coffee  17,725,731 "
Eemember that coffee and allspice are of spon
taneous growth, and therefore labor was only required
to gather them, which is very light work, and mostly
done by women and children, which accounts for
those two articles 'not falling off proportionably to
the others. Coffee ought to have largely increasedj
for, like the allspice tree, it takes possession of aban
doned lands soon after they are deserted, and grows
"without cultivation.
The next year after emancipation, sugar fell off
10,000 hhds. ; coffee fell off 7,000,000 lbs., and this
decrease has constantly continued until 1856, when
the productions of Jamaica were as follows : —
Sugar . . . . ¦. 25,920 hhds.
Rum  14,470 punch.
Allspice  6,848,622 lbs.
Coffee  3,328,200 "
I will compare 1856 "with 1805, and I wish every
abolitionist would look at it with a single eye to his
and his own country's true glory.
1805. 1856.
Bum . . 46,837 punch. 14,470 punch.
Coffee. . 17,961,923 lbs. 3,328,150 lbs.
Allspice . 1,041,540 " 6,848,600 "
Sugar . . 150,352 hhds. 25,920 hhds.

176 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
This table shows the effect of emancipation on the
Island of Jamaica from the year before the importa
tion of slaves was prohibited and 1856, which was
twenty-three years of the glories of free labor with
1856 inclusive. Sugar fell off 124,432 hhds., rum
32,'367 puncheons, coffee 14,633,773 lbs.; pimenta or
allspice gained 5,807,060 lbs.
It' seems to me that this ought to be more than
enough for every lover of hi-s country. Certainly
no Christian man, woman, or minister will ever ad
vocate emancipation after looking over these reports
or statistics, which are from the most reliable sources,
and I hope they may be thoroughly investigated.
In a very short time, at the same rate of decrease^
the Island of Jamaica, that while under slave labor
was sufficient to supply the whole United States with
all they needed of those products, will be forever
lost to the world, like Hayti. If slave labor had
been allowed to have gone on until this day, under
proper safeguards and protection of law, instead of
their only producing 26,000 hogsheads of sugar,
they would now produce 250,000 hogsheads, or
425,000,000 pounds ; and instead of 3,328,150 pounds
of coffee, they would now produce 50,000,000 pounds;
allspice and rum in the same ratio, with all other
products of that island. Sugar would not now be
over four cents a pound, and coffee not over six cents,
and all other articles in proportion.
I am reminded hj my abolition friends (exultingly)
that I have not given freedom credit for the large
increase of pimenta. Well, the increase of that ar
ticle was, according to the table, above 5,633,773

AFRICAN SLAVER-r.- 177
pounds, I admit ; but that fact sustains my position
as strongly as any other. Allspice or pimenta grows
in the mountains, on bushes or trees ; therefore no
labor is required to produce it; to gather it is like
child's play ; it is more of an exercise than manual
labor. Thousands, and even hundreds of thousands
of idle negroes, men, women, and children, daily
resort to the swamps or mountains, for sport, in
gathering allspice, which is a darkish red looking
berry, similar to currants. They have only to gather
them from the trees, and dry them in the sun ; (the
tree is a native of those islands.) It requires no
manual labor; therefore those lazy idlers do that
because it is more of a frolic than labor, and it pro
duces a scant livelihood or subsistence. Nor does it
require the slightest ingenuity or calculation to
gather and dry them. These are facts that fully
account for the increase of that article.
Coffee is not_ a native of those islands, but has
been transplanted there. It produces better by cul
tivation ; but, once introduced into suitable soil and
climate, it spreads like the allspice tree. It does not
only spread- in the mountains, but, with the allspice
tree,. takes, possession of forsaken lands, and grows
in a very short time to a producing size, and is con
sidered far more profitable, and pays better for labor
than allspice. But, unfortunately for Sambo, it re
quires ingenuity, labor, and great care, as it grows
within a covering, and cannot be got out and cleansed
"without work ; therefore Sambo and his hosts say,
" me no like ''em" and turn away to the allspice trees.
This is still a stronger evidence that all I have

178 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
said in the several chapters I have written on the
nature of the negro race is true beyond successful
contradiction or proof to the contrary, that the ne
gro race is not now, never has been, nor never "wiU
be of any use, in any part of the world, except in
slavery to white men. There they are as useful a
people as is on the face of the earth.
The coffee crop of Jamaica, 1813, before slavery
was abolished, amounted to nearly 35,000,000 pounds.
For the last eight or nine years the average has
been about 5,000,000 pounds, deficit 30,000,000
pounds per annum, and in 1853 the sugar crop was
only 20,000 hhds. So you see I have not taken the
two extremes, or erred, in order to sustain my posi
tion, for any kind of an error would injure my case.
The English missionary I spoke of above, said a
large number of estates had been* abandoned under
slave labor and considered lost to the world, but
now had been bought by the freed negroes, since
emancipation, and brought into use by them, and
that the freed negroes had made them the most pro
ductive plantations on the Island. But how does
his story stand by the side of the above official
reports or statistics ? He was not the only man that
did not hesitate to say what he knew was false.
But every intelligent abolition preacher does the
same thing. Let us look at the abandoned planta
tions a little, from the undoubted reports, and we
shall see that that preacher (who, by the way, was a
very talented and an educated man) knew better,
(for he said he had been on the Island twenty years),
and all others who preach the same doctrine. If

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 179
they do not, they are not fit to preach the gospel,'
and ought to be silenced for their ignorance.
'I quote from the legislative reports of that Island
as follows : " Before emancipation, the assessments of
property, real, and personal, was over $250,000,000.
In 1850, the assessment was $57,500,000. In 1851,
it was reduced to $47,500,000, and Mr. Westmore
land, in the Assembly, said it was believed that the
falling off wpuld be $10,000,000 more in 1852.
From an official report to the Assembly, of the
number and size of the plantations abandoned
during the years of 1848, '49,' '50, '51, and '52 are
as follows; —
Coffee plantations abandoned .... 96
" " partly abandoned ... 66
Sugar estates abandoned  128
" " pai<ly abandoned ... 71
^he number of estates abandoned the five years
immediately succeeding emancipation were as fol
lows : —
Sugar estates . . . 145 168,000 acres.
Coffee plantations . . 467 189,000 "
Add to this, those above . 361 391,000 "

This gives us in ten years 973 748,000 " lost,
for ever lost.
I have not been able to obtain reliable reports or
statistics for any time except the ten years, as above.
But, rest assured, that the same process of declen
sion has been going on steadily from 1833 to this
the 30th of August, 1862, at about the same rate ;
and now more than one-half of the plantations and
sugar estates of the entire Island are abandoned.

180 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
and grown up in allspice and coffee trees. These
plantations employed over 100,000 slaves, who were
then moral, sober, civihzed, industrious, and v^y'
useful. But now aie useless, degraded, savage,
vagabonds, who lay about in the sun, or lie in the
shade in large gangs, many in a state of nudity- and
filth, like the mosquitoes and flies that suck the
life blood out of those who are their only hope for
any state of happiness in this world without permis
sion. They seem to think they have a right to ap
propriate to their own use whatever they find out
of sight of the British soldier. They are the most
loathsome beings- on the face of the earth. I speak
this from personal knowledge of_ the facts, for I was
among them in 1856, and know what I say is very
true. I have been cutting from (Mcial reports and
statements from travellers who were and still are
emancipationists. Some of the latter I will copy, after
giving the following tables, computated from statis
tics and official reports (by a gentleman who is as well
posted on the rise and fall of the West India Islands
as any other man living, and I hope he will excuse
me for taking his table verbatim. I will say to him
I have written manuscripts enough on the subject
for 600 pages 12mo., and had I published them one
year ago when ready, I might have thought he had
borrowed of me. But as I still have .the work
locked up, I know he selected, as I did). It clearly
shows the contrast between /ree negro labor and slave
negro labor, and I hope every man, woman, and
child who are now supporters of the republican

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 181
party will examine these statistics, and official re
ports before they ever give another vote for universal
emancipation in this country.
"Slave" Negro Labor.
Tears. lbs. Sugar. lbs. Coffee. lbs. Cotton.
British W. Indies, 1807, 636,025,643 31,610,764 17,000,000
Hayti, 1790, 163,318,810 76,835,219 7,286,126

Total, 809,344,453 108,445,983 24,286,126
"Free" Negro Labor. »
Years. lbs. Sugar. lbs. Coffee. lbs. Cotton.
Britisb "W. Indies, 1848, 313,306,112 6,770,792 427,529
Hayti, 1848, none to ex. 34,114,717 1,591,454

Total, 313^306,112 40,885,509 2,018,983
Free Negro Labor Deficit, 496,038,341 67,560,474 22,267,143
I think this is proof enough for any honest man,
and much more a Christian. The sugar deficit alone
is enough to produce a war of extermination on all
abolitionists, and bring the Christian Church, which
is our only guide and safeguard as a free people, into
bad repute with a struggling world ; for very many
of her strongest and most powerful ministers have
taken the lead for this ruin to the world, and burn
ing blast to our peace and happiness, perhaps for
ever. Look at it, and you will see the deficit in one
year of free negro labor is sufficient to supply every
man, woman, and child, black and white, each with
over sixteen and a half pounds of sugar ; 496,038,341
lbs. of sugar, at 10 cts. per lb., is- $49,603,834.10.
This is only one article of produce. If the West
India Islands and if Hayti had gone on by slave labor
under good white masters, sugar and coffee would
16

182 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
never be over four to six cents per pound, and
. all the luxuries of those islands would now be
as accessible and attainable by every poor laboring
man as they are now by the rich. The whites would
have been exterminated long before this, had it not
been for the British standing army constantly in
sight. Mr. Underbill, a member of the Jamaica Assembly,
an abolitionist^ from whom I have already quoted,
speaks of Cuba, where slavery still exists, and those
islands where it does not exist, as follows. Of
Havana he says : —
" It is the busiest and most prosperous of all the
cities of the Antilles. Its harbor is one of the finest
in the world, and is crowded with shipping. Its
wharves and warehouses are piled with merchandise,
and the general aspect is one of great commercial ac
tivity. Its exports nearly reach the annual value of
nine millions sterling, and the customs furnish an
annual tribute to the mother country over and above
the cost of government and military occupation.
Eight thousand ships annually resort to the harbor
of Cuba."
Is it not strange that Mr. Underbill did not at
once proclaim to the world his great mistake in sup
posing that the negro was the white man's equal,
and not fit for anything else than a slave ? Mr. U.
seemed to have been surprised to find that that pro-
slave'ry island was still what Jamaica was before the
British government, by that insane and diabolical
act of emancipation, had ruined their hopes forever.
To find Cuba still exporting produce to the amount

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 183
of $45,000,000 annually, while that of Jamaica had
fallen from nearly as large an amount of exportations
to $4,500,000 in consequence of emancipation of the
slaves on that island, see the following illustration : —
Jamaica in 1809 .... $15,166,000
Cuba " 1826 .... 13,809,388
Jamaica " 1854 .... 4,500,000
Cuba ¦ " 1854 .... 31,683,731
So you see Cuba, under slaveholders and by slave
labor, has gradually increased from 1826 to 1854 from
$13,809,388, to $31,683,731; while Jamaica gradu
ally fell off. from 1809 to 1854, from $15,166,000,. to
$4,500,000. This picture certainly will surprise a
great many good people who have been deceived and
totally blinded by disunionists and traitors of the
north, or free States, among whom are the most talent
ed statesmen, many of whom are now in power under
the government; preachers of the Gospel, of all de
nominations, and some of them the most talented and
influential, and, like the English missionary alluded to
before, they say in their pulpits what they know is
false, from. beginning to end, with such grace and zeal,
with their hands on their hearts and eyes rolled into
the heavens, in such way that their hearers believe
them sincere and truthful. They in their pulpits
speak of Sharp's rifles as being the best gospel for
slaveholders, and talk of blowing men's -brains out
with (apparently) as much relish as they would have
for a fine dinner. Where will such wretches stand
in the great day of account?
I met a merchant the other day, an old acquaint
ance, with whom I had been contending at times on

184 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
the slave question for twenty- eight years. He tack
led me on the prospects of universal emancipation
in the United States ; referred me to Jamaica, and
said it was enough to convert any man who was not
given over to believe a lie, that he might be damned.
I replied that I thought so too. I believe he thought
I had become a convert to his expressed opinion, and
he went on to tell me of the great and astonishing
changes that had taken place in the Island of Jamaica
since emancipation. I remarked that that was so.
He said the island produced at least three times as
mijch now as it did before the negroes were freed ;
that everything on the island had improved at the
same rate. I just looked him in the face at that
point and said I was on that island in 1856, and said
no more. He was certainly embarrassed at the remark.
That gentleman could be trusted on all other
subjects of civil or natural jurisprudence, and was
as clever a man as this city held. I regret to say
he was buried in one week from that day.
Will any one say that that gentleman did not
. know that what he said was not the truth ? Though
a member of meeting, yet he was a boasting infidel,
and hated Christianity with a perfect and bitter ha
tred, and became an infidel because the Bible sanc
tioned slavery.
It will' not be long before cultivation will entirely
come to an end on that island. The island contains
about 4,000,000 acres, and its white inhabitants, in
1844, was 15,776 ; Africans, 293,128 ; mixed breed,
63,500. In 1861 the whites were 13,800 ; Africans,
346,300 ; mixed breed, 81,000. So you may see by

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 185
this table, that it will not be long before this island,
like its sister, Hayti, will be totally lost to the world.
Tp know this, it is only necessary to look at the
tapid increase of the colored race and decrease of
the white. The whole number of inhabitants is
441,100 : 80,700 can read, and 50,700 can write (of
the 80,700). So you see that 360,400 can neither
read nor write.
In Hayti no census can be taken, no figures can
be got, because the negroes have got free and full
possession. Abolitionist, look at those figures, and
think over this interesting subject before you take
another step towards the downfall of this great
country. Will you draw that awful blight of negro
emancipation over this great nation that will fester
in the hearts of future generations, and cause them
to rise up and look back with bitter curses upon us.
For they will know and feel the effects of our infi
delity and disgraceful wickedness that we deliber
ately inaugurated as a blighting curse upon them.
While history will tell them of the glories our
fathers inaugurated and handed down to us. But
for us, with all those figures before us, and right in
the teeth of di-vine revelation, with all the teachings
of that Holy Book to do what is so clearly forbidden
by nature, and nature's God, is more than I can ac
count for. What must our condemnation be in the
great day of God !
I will now give a few extracts from prominent
men. An English writer, writing from the Capital
of Hayti, says :^
" This country has made since its emancipation no
16*

186 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
progress whatever. The population partially live
upon the produce of the grown wild coffee planta
tions, remnants of the French dominion. Properly
speaking, plantations after the model of the English
in Jamaica, or the Spanish in Cuba, do not exist
here. Hayti is the most beautiful and most fertile
of the Antilles. It has more mountains than Cuba,
and more space than Jamaica. Nowhere the coffee
tree could better thrive than here, as it especially
likes a mountainous soil. But the indolence of the
negro has brought the once splendid plantations to decay.
They now gather coffee only from the grown mid
trees. The cultivation of the sugar cane has entirely
disappeared, and the Island that once supplied the
one-half of Europe with sugar, now supplies its own
wants from Jamaica and the United States."
Mr. E. B. Underbill was sent out to Hayti by the
Baptist Missionary Society, of London. He was an
abolitionist of the Thompson stripe; after making
many excuses for Cuffee, for his having ruined that
Fden of this world, was compelled to give the fol
lowing history : —
We passed by many, or through many abandoned
plantatiotis, the buildings in ruins, the sugar mills de
cayed, and the iron pans strewing the road-side, cracked
and broken. But for the law that forbids, on pain of
confiscation, the export of all metals, they would
long ago have been sold to foreign merchants. Only
once in this long ride did we come upon a mill in
use ; it was grinding cane, in order to manufacture
the syrup from which tafia is made, a kind of inferior
rum, the intoxicating drink of the country. The

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 187
mill was worked by a large over-shot, or water-
wheel, the water being brought by an aqueduct
from a very considerable distance. With the excep
tion of a few banana gardens or small patches of
maze round the cottages, nowhere did this magnifi
cent and fertile plain show signs of cultivation.
" In the time of the French occupation, before the
Eevolution of 1793, thousands of hogsheads of sugar
were produced ; now, not one, all is decay and desolation.
The pastures are deserted, and the prickly pear
covers the land once laughing with the bright hues
of the sugar cane.
"The hydraulic works, erected at vast expense
for irrigation, have crumbled to dust.
" The plow is an unknown implement of culture, al
though so eminently adapted to the great plains and
deep soil of Hayti.
"A country so capable of producing for export,
and therefore for the enrichment of its people — ¦
besides sugar and coffee ; cotton, tobacco, the cacao
bean, spices, every tropicarl fruit, and many of the
fruits of Europe, lies uncultivated, unoccupied, and
desolate. " Its rich mines are neither explored nor worked,
and its beautiful woods rot in the soil where they
grow. A little logwood is exported, but ebony,
mahogany, and the finest building timber rarely fall
before the woodman's axe, and then only for local
use. The present inhabitants despise all servile
labor, and are for the most part content with the
spontaneous productions of the soil and forest."
Mr. Underbill was a resident Baptist missionary,

188 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
or something of the same nature, at Hayti, and an
abolitionist, and therefore ought to be respected in all
he-says on the subject. Like many other good men,
he has put the most favorable construction on all he
saw, that he possibly could without twisting the
truth, as you will see above, where he speaks of
" cottages." This naturally impresses the mind here
with the idea of a nice little house, when they are
nothing but the most misera'ble thatch cabins with
out glass windows, and they have earthen floors.
Mr. U. published a work in London, entitled
"The West Indies; their Moral and Social Condi
tion," in which some of his excuses are laughable
for the degradation of the negroes. Yet every
abolitionist ought to read it.
"The Vandoux," says Mr. Underbill, "meet in a
retired spot, designated at a previous meeting. On
entering, they take off their shoes, and bind about
their bodies handkerchiefs, in which a red color pre
dominates. The king is known by the scarlet band
around his head, worn like a crown, and a scarf of
the same color distinguishes the queen. The object
of adoration, the .serpent, is placed on a stand. It is
then worshipped, after which the box is placed on
the ground ; the queen mounts upon it, is seized with
violent tremblings, and gives utterance to oracles in
response to the prayers of the worshippers. A dance
closes the ceremony. The king puts his hand on the
serpent's box ; a tremor seizes him, which is com
municated to the circle. A delirious whirl of dance
ensues, heightened by the free use of tafia. The
weakest fall as if dead upon the spot. The baccha-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 189
nalian revellers, always dancing and turning about,
are borne away into a place near at hand, where
sometimes under the triple excitement of promis
cuous intercourse, drunkenness, and darkness, scenes
are enacted, enough to make the impassible gods of
Africa itself gnash their teeth -with horror."
I have said in a former chapter that the negro
race might be raised to the highest state of civiliza
tion and Christianity they are capable of, under the
immediate influence of the best Christian white men
and women in the world, and then leave them* en
tirely 'to themselves, with all the advantages of soil
and climate, and a full supply to start on equal
footing with the best part of .all creation, and with
both the moral and civil governments in their own
hands, then^ in less than ten years, they would be on
a level with the most degraded and savage men on
the earth. God himself has made them for useful
ness as slaves, and requires us to employ them as
such, and if we betray our trust, and throw them off
on their own re.sources, we reconvert them into bar
barians, and we shall be compelled to atone for our sin
towards them through all time.
I have given enough evidenqe to satisfy any true
seeker after truth, that unconditional freedom to the
negro race is not only a great moral and political
wrong inflicted upon them, but a great political and
financial affliction and curse to the whole civilized
¦ world, and a moral evil of greater magnitude than
any before introduced among men. The whole civil
ized world was blessed by Hayti while in the hands
of white men ; but those blessings stopped short by

190 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
that rich and beautiful country passing into the
hands of the negro race ; the rich man's pocket is
heavily taxed in high prices, and the poor are left
in want. The testimony I have given to sustain my
position in reference to Hayti is not the fiftieth part
I have in hand ; but it seems to me to be enough. »
I will now make a few quotations to sustain the
statistics I h^ve given, showing the rise and fall of
the Island of Jamaica. I have an editorial from the
London Times that was in my possession before Mr.
Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency ; so you
will see that the civil war now raging in the United
States did not influence it either way. See as fol
lows : —
" There is no blinking the truth, years of bitter experience,
years of hope deferred, of self-devotion unrequited, of prayers
unanswered, of sufferings derided, of insults unresented, of
contumely patiently endured, have convinced us of the truth — ¦
it must be spoken out loudly and energetically, despite the
wild mockings of howling cant ; the freed West India slave
will not till the soil for wages; the free son of the ex-slave is
as obstinate as his sire. He will not cultivate lands which he
has not bought for his own. Yams, mangoes, and plantains,
these satisfy his wants ; he cares not for yours. Cotton, sugar,
coffee, and tobacco he cares but little for. And what matters
it to him that the Englishman has sunk his thousands and tens
of thousands on mills, machinery, and plants, which now totter
on the languishing estate, that for years has only returned him
beggary and debt. He eats his yams, and sniggers at buckra.
"We know not why this should be, but eo it is. The negro has
been bought with a price — the price of English taxation, and
English toil. He has been redeemed from bondage by the sweat
and travail of some millions of hard-working Englishmen.
Twenty millions of pounds sterling — one hundred milhons of
dollars — have been distilled from the brains and muscles of

' AFRICAN SLAVERY. 191
the free English laborer, of every degree, to fashion the 'West
India negro into a free, independent laborer. Free and inde
pendent enough he has become, God knows, but laborer he is
not; and, so far as we can see, never will be. He will sing
hymns and quote texts ; but honest, steady, industry he not
only detests, but despises." (The italicizing in all these quo
tations are mine.)
Have I said anything stronger than the above?
The London Times makes full confession of its errors..
It had supposed that the negroes would work better
for wages than under masters; but. Oh, what a sad
mistake; for they never would, nor never will labor
without white masters. And, "woe" be unto this
great country whenever all the negroes are freed.
Besides, freedom is the end of civilization to the
negro race, and his perpetual overthrow and ruin ;
and God will hold us responsible for all the bad
which shall grow out of emancipation.
I will make another quotation from an English
writer, who was one of the strongest antislavery men.
Mr. Anthony TroUope says, in a book he wrote on
-Jamaica, and from which the following was quoted
by a London paper : —
"A servile race, pecuHarly fitted by Nature for the hardest
physical work in a burning climate. The negro has no desire
for property strong enough to induce him to labor with sus
tained power. He lives from hand to mouth, in order that he
may have his dinner, and some small finery, he will work a
little, but after that he is content to lie in-the sun. This, in
Jamaica, he can very easily do, for emancipation and free
trade have combined to throw enormous tracts of land out of
cultivation, and on these the negro squats, "getting all that he
wants with very little trouble, and sinking in the most resolute
fashion, to the savage state. Lying under his cotton-tree he

192 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
refuses to work after ten o'clock in the morning. No, tankee,
massa, me tired now ; me no want more money. Or, by the
way of variety he may say — no, workee no more ; money no
nuff; no workee no pay. And so the planter must see his
canes, foul with weeds, because he cannot prevail on Sambo to
earn a second shOhng by going into the cane field. He calls
him a lazy nigger, and threatens him with starvation. His
answer is ; No, massa ; no starve now ; God send plenty yam.
Thes'e yams, be it observed, on which Sambo lives, and on the
strength of which he declines to work, are grown on the
planter's own ground, and probably planted at his own expense.
There lies the shiny, oily, odorous negro under his mango-tree,
eating the luscious fruit in the sun. He sends his black
urchin up for a bread-fruit, and, behold, the family table is
spread. He pierces a cocoa-nut, and lo ! there is his beverage.
He lies on the ground surrounded by oranges, bananas, and
pine apples. Why should he work; me no workee to-day ; me
no like workee, just um little moment."
This witness more than sustains me in all I have
said about the negro in the United States and else
where. I have admissions enough made by anti-
slavery men to fully satisfy me that I am right on
both the moral and civil question of slavery, even if
I had never seen any wrong produced by emancipa
tion. I have not given the strongest testimony I
have in my possession by a great deal. I have made
no quotations from men who were not anti-slavery
men. I will give one more from the same source.
I quote from the American and Foreign Anti-slavery
Society's report for 1853, p. 170. Speaking of the
emancipated slaves, see as follows : —
" Their moral condition is very far from being what it ought
to be. It is exceedingly dark and distressing. Licentiousness
prevails to a most alarming extent among the people. * * *
The almost universal prevalence of intemperance is another

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 193
prolific source of the moral darkness, and degradation of the
people. The great mass among all classes of the inhabitants,
from the governor in his palace to the peasant in his hut, from
the bishop in his gown to the beggar in his rags, are all slaves
to their cups."
This much for emancipation and abolitionism.
Instead of freedom . having elevated the negro, it
has sunk him into the deepest degradation and ruin.
" The end of slavery is the end of civilization to the
negro race."
I will give a few more statistical tables to show
the great benefits of slave labor to the world, and
the great moral benefit to the negroes, without one
exception. The exports and imports in Cuba in 1859 were as
follows : —
Exports for 1859  $57,455,000
Imports " "  43,465,000

Surplus over imports .... $13,990,000
This table of itself is sufficient to satisfy all can
did men, to see how steadily Cuba, with the other
Spanish Islands, have advanced under slave labor;
while the morals of the slaves there are a hundred
times better than the morals of the negroes in Ja
maica. If the institution of slavery be immoral,
how does it produce so much good? Can moral
evil beget moral good and righteousness ? If eman
cipation of the negro be morally right, how is it
that it has produced nothing but moral evil and
complete ruin and degradation to the negro race,
wherever he has been freed, either here or elsewhere?
17

194 ' AFRICAN SLAVERY.
Abolitionist, think of this, or show some good done
to either race by the emancipation of negro slaves.
You will see by the above table that the export
ations of Cuba amount to $40 for each man, woman,
and child, black and white, on the whole island.
But let us look a little at our own exports and
imports. I have not got the figures for 1860 and
'61. I will give the tables for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1860.
Including specie, our exports were . . $373,167,000
Foreign produce in addition .... 27,000,000
In all  $400,167,000
Imports for the year  361,727,299
Surplus over importations . . . $38,439,791
This gives about $1.26 per head, supposing our
population to be 30,000,000. But in Cuba, where it
is exclusively slave labor, it is over $9.30 per head.
Our whole exports amount (including the $27,000,000
of foreign produce reshipped), to about $12.44 per
head, and that of Cuba to $40.00. I hopfe the reader
will look well at these figures, for they fully sustain
my position on all points, and rebuke the whole
abolition movement. How strange it is that men
let a false or morbid sympathy run off with all their
brains ! A nation whose judgments are led by their
sympathies, will sink into ruin in a very short time.
God made animals to move by instinct, and white
men by judgment. If we allow anything to rise
above that judgment, wo be unto us, for God will
leave us to follow our idols.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 195
There has so much been said about the sla'^
States having been a great incumbrance to the free
States, ever since the adoption of the Constitution,
that hundreds of thousands of the people have got to
believe it all 'over the free States. I have heard so
many good men say we should be better off without
the slave States, and that we have had to carry them
on our backs. Abolitionists have declared the false
hood with such zeal that many of the best and most
influential men have taken their word for it, and
preached the same doctrine with equal zeal, and
think they are right.
Let us look at it a little by figures and tables, for
they will not lie. We have been importing between
three and four hundred millions, say $362,000,000
round numbers, which is $12.66 per head, for
30,000,000 of people. The exports are $400,000,000,
including the $27,000,000 of foreign produce re-
shipped, and the specie,^ which is $13.33 per head.
Now let us see where those exports come from, and
to whom we are indebted for this immense export
ation, which is the life of the country, while large
importations are her death. But who pays for the
$362,000,000, which is nearly all imported by the
free States ? We must deduct the specie, which is
$57,000,000, .and the foreign produce, 27,000,000,
which makes $84,000,000; this leaves $316,000,000
of American produce exported, which is about $10.50
per head. I now propose to show just how much
of the $316,000,000 is of the free States, and then we
shall know what the slaves have done.

196

AFRICAN SLAVERY.

The free States exclusively . . ¦ ¦ $5,071,400
The free and slave States which cannot be exactly
credited to the States it is from, is made up of
raw produce, manufactures, products of agri
culture, vegetable food, products of the forest,
and manufactured articles, etc., exports . 96,826,300

The slave States exclusively —
CottonEiceRosin and turpentine
Tobacco .
Tar and pitch .
Brown sugar .
Molasses .
Hemp Total of the slave States
Alfogether —
Free and slave States
Free States exclusively .
Slave States exclusively .

$191,806,555 2,566,400 3,734,500
15,906,517 151,100 103,244 44,562 ¦
8,951
$214,321,829

$96,826,300 5,071,400
214,321,829

$316,219,529
Now here is $96,826,300 jointly exported by the
free and slave States. It is made up of produce that
is raised alike in all the States in the United States;
therefore a correct division cannot be made of the
credible amount to each State. But any one having
the slightest familiarity with the slave and free
States would say, at least one-third of the amount is
of slave labor. There is no difficulty about the rest.
For instance, the $5,071,400 set down exclusively for
the free States is ice, coal, and fish.
Then we are compelled to add to the exclusive
exportation of the slave States —

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 197
One-third part of the $96,826',300 . . . $32,275,433
Slave States exclusive  215,321,829
"The full amount exported from the South . $246,597,262
Exclusively from free States .... $5,071,431
Add to the two-thirds of the joint exportations,
slave and free  64,550,867
Exclusively^ from the free States . . . $69,622,298
Exclusively from the South .... 246,597,262
Exports of the whole United States . $316,219,560
¦I am met with a protest against these tables, and
told the free States send a vast amount of produce
manufactured to the South, and therefore the slave
States should not have credit in the above table for
one third part of the joint exportation of $96,826,299.
I only have to say in reply to this objection, that
the South sends vast amounts of produce to the
North, that are not included in the above tables, for
they do not enter any custom-house whatever, there
fore are not included in the United States Eeports
at Washington, from which the above is taken.
They are as follows, and I want every republican
and abolitionist to look at them as well as all anti-
slavery democrats —
Cotton manufactured in the free States . $55,500,000
Sugar  25,000,000
Naval stores, lumber, tobacco, rice, and hemp,
perhaps  50,000,000
Aggregate  $130,500,000
I have no figures before me by which I can give
the value of the latter slave produce, and should not
be surprised if I have placed it far below the mark.
17*

198 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
This immense amount is consumed in the free States.
There is no doubt but we receive a much larger
amount of domestic (raw) produce from the slave
States than we furnish them ; but they' have taken
from us a vast amount of manufactured goods, and
paid a profit on them, which has been the support of
legions of our poor in the free States. In these es-
timateSj^you will find that the free States export
$3.41 per head, and the slave States export $24.60
per head. If you disbelieve it, get the United States
Eeports by a republican administration, and make
your own calculations, and let us have them in black
and white, and I, fol''one, will stand by the right,
even if my life was required to pay the penalty.
I will now copy a table prepared by Messrs.
Yan-Evrie, Horton & Co., No. 162 Nassau Street,
New York, which every loyal man in the United
States ought to get and read. For ten cents, sent,
with your address, order No. 2 on statistics. It will
surprise you to find how you have been deceived.
I have a table of my own made out, but this one is
easier to be understood —
Returns from the Treasury Department at Washington,
shelving the value of the exports and imports for forty years,
from 1821 to 1861, with the customs paid during the same time
to the United States.
Gross value of exports from 1821
to 1861  $5,556,339,272
Gross value of imports from 1821
to 1861  5,501,238,157
Customs, duties on imports paid
in the United States Treasury
Office  1,191,874,443

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 199
Total United States exports for forty years —
Cotton . . $2,574,834,991
Tobacco . . 425,118,067
Eice . . 87,854,511
Naval Stores . 110,981,296

 Amount of duty.
Total in forty years $3,198,788,865 $689,141,805
Food . . 1,006,951,335 216,682,773
Gold . . 458,588,615 95,349,955
Crude articles,
manufactures, &c. . . 892,010,457 190,699,910

$5,556,339,272 $1,191,874,443

Exports from the South, exclusively for forty years-
Cotton . . $2,574,834,991
Tobacco .
f
EiceNaval stores

Forty per cent.
of the gold
l-3d of food

425,118,067 Amount of duty
87,854,511 paid by the South.
110,981,296 $689,141,805

183,588,615 72,227,591
335,650,411 38,139,982

Total in forty years $3,718,027,891 $799,509,378
Amount of duties from the North . . 392,365,065

Excess duties paid by the South over the
North in forty years .... $407,144,313
Duties per head on the present population of
the free States, the last forty years ending 1861,
was. $19.61 paid by the South in the same time
per head on the present population of the slave
States, including slave women and children, was
$79.90. I had heard so much of declensions of the
slave States, by the blight of slavery, that I had
got to believe there was some truth <n the assertion.

200 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
and, like thousands of others who were anti-aboli
tionist same as myself, had got to speaking of slavery
as a social, political, and financial evil. But I took
a tour through several of the interior slaves States
some years ago. I made it my business to lose no
spare time in looking into the political, social, and
moral condition of the slaves and their masters. I
found the political, social, and moral standing of the
latter generally equal to any people I' have ever
seen, and I believe equal to any on the face of the
globe. And that of the slaves was indescribably
better on the general than any class of free negroes
I had ever seen. I had not- then even thought of
slavery as a moral question. Though, I had so
often heard men say it was a great sin against God,
and that no slave owner ever had, or ever could
enter the Kingdom of Glory. Those declarations
had but little effect on my mind, until preachers of
the gospel began to denounce slavery from their
pulpits as an unbounded moral evil, and slave
holders as moral devils. This caused me to look
into the moral question of negro slavery, and the
result was as stated in the first two chapters of this
book. I think I have proved, both by negative and
positive testimony, that slavery is not only not a
moral evil, but a great moral blessing to the whole
civilized world. While the emancipation of .the
negro race has always been, and is now, a moral
evil of the greatest magnitude of any other ever
introduced into this sin-stricken world by the Prince
of darkness. I must see more good than evil from
the emancipaticffl of that race, before I change my

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 201
mind in one iota, and then I should be compelled to
close the Book of God for ever. For if slavery be a
moral evil, the Bible is not the inspired word of God.
If slavery be a moral evil, how is it that it has
done so much good to both races ? And if emanci
pation be a civil and moral blessing, or either, how
is it that it has proved such a terrible curse to both
races throughout civilization, but especially to those
countries in which they are freed ? See how quick
any country is blighted and ruined by the freedom
of the negro race. Look at Mexico, Central America,
and the Tropics of South America, and all the Brit
ish and French West Indies — how quick they all fell
from a high, prosperous state of cultiv^ion and
moral worth tp the deepest degradation and ruin 1
How is it the slave States of our great country have
done so much more for the glory of the United States
with only one-third of the inhabitants than the free
States have done with double the people? ^Eow
is it that the slave States have so steadily increased
their exportations from the fidoption of the Consti
tution to 1860 ? The exportation is the only spring
that keeps a country alive. How is it that the ex
portations of the slave States amount to about $246,-
597,262, annually, while that of the free States was
only about $69,622,298? See how constant the
increase of the great staple of this country was from
1800 to i860. In 1800 the slave States produced
35,000 bales of cotton only. In 1860, they raised
4,300,000, and they increased double as fast the last
ten years, as they had ever done before.
Tell me how this come to be so, if slavery is such

202 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
a great moral, political, financial, and social curse ?
How come it that over 2,500,000 square miles of the
best and most productive land in the known world
has been almost entirely abandoned, consequent
on the emancipation of the negro slaves ? Why is
it that every tropical country on the globe, where
slave labor was necessarily used, has been at once
ruined and almost lost to the human family, on the
freedom of the negro, and all the black races of those
climes at once reverted back into demoralization
and barbarism, from a good state of civilization; and
the country from a high state of cultivation, wealth,
and prosperity to utter ruin, if the freedom of the
negro raae be such a great blessing to the human
family, and especially to the negroes ? Examine the
few statistics I have given, and the abolition 'wit
nesses I have adduced (of which I have enough such
to make a volume yet in my possession) and throw off
all jjour party bias, decide quickly, for national
ruin is at our doors. The separation of the Union, or
the emancipation of slaTes in this great country, will
be nearly equally ruinous. A dissolution of the
Union will damn all the free States, and end our
hopes in this world. And the emancipation of all
slaves, will blast the whole nation for all time to
come, just as sure as God lives and records the acts
of men.
Look at Mexico, Central America, New Granada,
Venezuela, Ecuador, British Guiana, Dutch Guiana,
French Guiana, and all the British and French West
India Islands, in which there is now turned out wild
nearly 2,600,000 square miles, of the best land in

AFRICAN SLAVERY. . 203
the world, and many millions of human beings re
duced by it from a good degree of civilization, and
a high state of prosperity and usefulness in the world,
to the deepest state of degradation and ruin known
on the globe, of which I have given some account in
former chapters, and have now proved what I said
to be far more true than stated by the best evidence
the world can produce.
Governor Wood of Ohio, who was an anti-slavery
man, ¦visited Jamaica in 1853, and said of the negroes
there —
" Since the blacks have been liberated, they have become
indolent, insolent, degraded, and dishonest. They are a rude,
beastly set of vagabonds, lying naked about the ^.streets, as
filthy as the Hottentots, and I believe worse. On getting to
the wharf of Kingston, the first thing the blacks, of both sexes,
perfectly naked, come swarming about the boat, and would
dive foismall pieces of coin that were thrown by the passengers.
On entering the city, the stranger is annoyed to death by the
black beggars at every step, arid you must often show them
your pistol, or an uplifted cane, to rid yourself of their impor
tunities." Lclipped the above from a western paper, and have
no doubt of its authenticity. I was at Kingston in
1856, and can testify to the very truth of Governor
Wood's statement. Now, what ought to be our
punishment for the crime of attempting the eman
cipation of the black slaves of this country?. If we
advocate their freedom with all this ruin to the
human race staring us in the face, with its blighting,
devastating, and diabolical ruinous effects upon the
blacks, it at once casts us loose from the moorings

204 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
of civilization and safety, into a lake of idleness,
where there is no anchorage for our earthly hopes.
In the struggle between slavery and anti-slavery
parties, the church has already lost its winning and
saving powers, and also the Christian ministry that
was ordained in heaven by the Eternal himself, to
guide the ship of the Moral Government of God in
the world, as set forth in the Scriptures of truth.
There is every evidence that is necessary to satisfy
any lover of the Union {Christianity) that God in
tended this great country for one universal Union,
as a counterpart (in form), of his own everlasting
Kingdom, for our good aS his chosen people, and for
the salvation of as many of the African race as our
Heavenly Father might see proper to intrust us with,
for our servants, for the good of both races — not
only for our good and that of Africa, but that the
whole civilized world might see and know his peo
ple, through the great "blessings of a universal
Union, were capable of self-government, and that they
could govern themselves.
The whole civilized world were upon tiptoe of
wonderment at our great prosperity and glory — that
so great, happy, and prosperous a nation should be
governed better than any other on the globe, without
kingly or military power. The Hon. John Quincy
Adams told them how it was, and that the strength
of this great nation " was not in the right" {the arm),
"but in the heart." That is, in the affections and love
for each other ; and that very moment we appealed
to the arm instead of the heart, our government was
gone, or was no more than burnt flax, as a Constitu-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 205
tional Union, and we at once became a monarchical
despotism, and Avill never be anything else unless we
return to our first love. As a free nation we are now
without a God (and have no right to appeal to him
as the source and fountain of all love, and the only
source of peace and union), unless we return to our
loyalty to his throne, as set forth by Christ and his
holy apostles.
Ministers of the Gospel, think of this before you
preach any more war sermons from your pulpits, or
present any more Sharpe's rifles and military swords
before your altars (that were dedicated to Almighty
God in love and holiness for his service only), and
exhort your people no more to rush to the field to
spill your brothers' blood. I say, think of your
legitimate calling, and take no more steps for the
destruction of this great government, whose strength
was in the "hearts" of the people and not in their
arms, until you can show us some precept or example
for such a course in tHe New Testament Scriptures.
God will hold you responsible to his moral govern
ment for your conduct in this war. You were called,
if called at all, to deal out love and mercy to all the
people, as your great Progenitor did. While he is
your example, he will be your God, and no longer.
War never did nor never can produce a union of
"hearts" for war is of the devil, and union is of
God. Paul, the great apostle and ambassador of
Jesus Christ, never presented any military swords or
guns at the altars dedicated to Almighty God, nor
recommended them anywhere else, but said —
18

206 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
" Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst,
give him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on
his head." — Eomans xii. 20.
" Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil With good."
21. " Then said Jesus unto him : Put up again thy sword mto
his place ; for all they that take the sword, shall perish with
the sword." — Matt. xxvi. 52.
In' the above verses we have both example and
precept. But in the following we have the denuncia
tion of all such preachers who recommend the sword
to spill their brother's blood.
" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape
the damnation of hell ?" — Matt, xxiii. 33.
This is a terrible denunciation, but is it more ter
rible than this bloody civil war, that this great nation
has been plunged into by abolition gospel preachers ?
Did those Scribes and Pharisees deserve such a denun
ciation any more than those preachers who have turned
away from teaching the way of life, peace, and union;
and glory in spilling the blood of their fellow men,
and not only their fellow men, but their own race
and blood? And yet Avith all the pretensions of
righteousness that the Scribes and Pharisees ever
feigned. By this course you have destroyed the
fraternal power of love, in this great nation, reduced
us from the lofty state of universal union, which is
of God, to universal opposition, malice, and civil ¦
war, and saturated the soil of this glorious country
with rivers of once fraternal blood, by the sword.
" Ye blind guides ! which strain at a gnat, and swallow a
camel." " Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." — Matt.
yxxiii. 24, 38.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 207
Yet, abolition gospel preachers, you have closed
your eyes to the truths plainly set forth in the New
Testament (see 2d chapter), you have blindfolded
yourselves by the god of this world and taught
doctrines in direct opposition to the gospel, as taught
by the Apostle Paul. You have not only done, and
recommended evil for evil, but you have done evil
for good. "Behold, your house is left unto you
desolate." And instead of being a savor of life unto
life, you have been a savor of death unto death, and
by your doings, ruin, desolation, consternation, and
mourning cover our once glorious and happy land.
Even now, if the church would return to God, and
repent, and forsake their allegiance to the king of
darkness, our glorious union may yet- be restored,
and peace and love be hallowed throughout our land.
APPENDIX.
If the President of the United States has any
desire to restore peace and union to our distracted
and ruined nation, and intends to gratify that desire,
he will have to make up his mind to restore it just
as .God gave it unto us, or he will not live to see
peace and union restored on this great continent.
If slavery had been morally wrong, it would never
have been here. God himself produced the circum
stances, which made slavery not only necessary, but
an insurmountable necessity. I have clearly shown
from Divine Eevelation, that the Supreme Being
not only "sanctioned" slavery, but commanded that
a particular race should be made slaves for life with-

208 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
out limit to time. And the fact that this great
country was so blessed under slave labor, prosperity
having crowned our every lawful effort and enter
prise from end to end, and from side to side, the
truth of God run and was glorified. Gospel efforts
blazed everywhere, and both races shouted and
praised God aloud throughout the land. No people
on the globe was ever so blessed as the slaves, for
they excelled all others in unmolested happiness.
When we see slavery such a great blessing to this
whole nation, and even more to the free States than
the slave States, and equally so to the whole civilized
world. To know this fact, we only have to look at
the condition of nearly all Europe at this time, as
well as our own; all of which troubles and ruin
has been caused by the attack upon slavery in this
country. Yea, all civilized Europe is now fro^wning
down upon us for this most ungodly attack upon the
divine institution- of negro slavery. With all this
in view, and pressing upon us on every side ; will
the President, and so many good people in the free
States close their eyes against the enormous facts,
and still persevere to glorify infidelity and the devil,
and sink this great nation into ruin ? For as (iod
lives, we shall reap just what we sow. If we sow
union, peace, and love, we shall reap the same. If
we go on in this God-forbidden course, and free 'the
..slaves of the South by force of arms, I have only to
ask you to inquire of Mexico, Central America,
Venezuela, New Granada, British and French West
Indies, to know what we shall come to soon.
You say there is no danger in this country, for it

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 209
is different from all others. That the freedom of the
slaves will improve everything in the entire con
federation. So said Great Britain and France, and
so thought the planters in the West Indies, and said
it would be cheaper and better for them to hire the
negroes than it would be to own them ; and many of
the planters went in for it, believing they could hire
them at less cost than it took to support them as
slaves, and thought one hired freed or free negro
would do as much work as two slaves. But 0,
what a sad mistake they found they had made when
too late. What was their consternation and disap
pointment when they learned that the freed negro
would not work at all for wages or love, and that
his only idea of freedom was to lie about in the
hot sun, and do nothing but sing and eat yams, as a
Cincinnati Journal said of the Brown County negro
Colony, "too lazy to play."
Inquire of England how many millions pounds
sterling annually has been distilled from the brains
and muscles of her white people, in consequence of
emancipation in her provinces. She will tell you
the. $100,000,000 to pay for the negro freedom was
not much ; but the losses since to the government,
and the want of the articles produced on those
Islands, had doubled the price of almost all the
tropical articles, and vastly raised the price of most
all other necessaries of life, so that her poor have .
been oppressed beyond calculation. And what for ?
has it done anybody any good anywhere on the
globe, of any color ? Not a single instance can be
found ; but it has struck a fatal blow to the wants
18*,

210 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
of all civilized people on this verdant earth. Is
that all ? If it was we might put up with it. But it
has sunk the black race (who had been brought up
to a good state of civilization by being taken there
from the most degraded land of barbarism on which
the sun ever shone and made slaves to white mas
ters) down to the lowest state of their ancestors.
Eead the history of Dehomi's kingdom in Africa,
and you will learn from what a depth of ruin they
were taken and civilized by slavery, and the depth '
of ruin, degradation, and barbarism, they have again
been consigned to by emancipation.
Now if President Lincoln, or his host of followers,
with all the abolition gospel preachers, who seem to
think that the emancipation of the slaves would be
the greatest boon ever bestowed upon mankind, will
only -weigh this negro question in view of all the
true concomitant circumstances, without prejudice or
favor, except for the general good of all mankind, they
will doubtless make up their minds to restore the
Union as it was first formed, with slavery unmolested
in all the , States who may desire it. Thus God
blessed us with the Union, and thus he has blessed us
with the greatest prosperity ever kno^wn on the face
of the earth. And unless it is thus restored, no man
now living will ever see it restored, or enjoy union,
peace, and happiness again on the face of this con-
-tinent. Many seem to have little or no respect for the
rights and happiness of white men, and for the sake
of the restoration of the Union, I am willing to admit
that " We, the (white) people," deserve all the foretold,

AFRI0-4.N SLAVERY. 211
and untold ruin which is now upon us, for we had
become a proud, high-headed, and stiff-necked peo
ple ; yet the happiest people that ever had a being.
But as those ministers and people seem willing to
destroy hundreds of thousands of " the people" by the
sword, for the sake of placing the negro race
on an equality with " the people" or a little higher,
will they not try to restore the Union as it was,
for the good of that poor unfortunate race (the
negroes), who have been so useful, and have so
multiplied the glories of this world, as slaves ? Go
to Mexico, Central America, the Guianas, New Gran
ada, Ecuador, the West Indies, or any spot on the
earth where the negroes have b^en freed, and made
equal to the white man, and you will see that you
are a thousand times more cruel to the black race,
than any system of slavery ever was ; especially that
of this country.
I never saw a good slave yet who was not inex
pressibly happier than any free negroes I saw in
New Granada, and just as far above them in moral
standing. Yet the black race there, or in Jamaica,
or Hayti, were just as good before emancipation as
our slaves are ; but look at them now. Now, for
the" sake, and in the name of the descendants of Africa,
stop your mad attack upon that institution of God,
devised for the good of both races, that his'name may
yet again be glorified in this world.
I will say again that, if all those who have been
ordained, or licensed to preach the glorious gospel
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, had stuck to
their legitimate calling, and followed the example of

212 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
their great exemplar St. Paul, we should now be at
peace, and the Union would not only exist in name,
but in fact, and the whole nation would be as a band
of brethren held together by the strong bonds of
love to God, and each other. Yea our great strength
would still be in the " hearf and not in the battle
field. What will future generations think of the church
in the middle of the nineteenth century, when his
tory shall hand our past glories down to 'them,
when they shall compare it with their ruined con
dition ? God will hold the church of the present day
responsible for the ruin that has overtaken this
nation, which he hq,d called into existence, to be as
a city set upon a hill, that all the world might see
that this people were capable of self-government,
and glorify his great name. But alas, we have
fallen into the valley.
I have written the last four or five pages as an
appendix to this chapter, since I had finished, to try
to get the people to see what was going on around
them. And how they are being deceived by the
ungodly protestations of newspapers, and public
speakers. No falsehood seems too monstrous, no
slander too malignant and bitter for them to belch
forth to an adkious people, and they have done it
with such vehemence and boldness, that many thou
sands of good people have Ijeen made to believe
that all they have said was very truth.
This publication may end my liberty; if so, I
shall have the consolation of knowing that I ha^vfe
used my little talent in trying to expose the true

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 213
traitors to this great and glorious government, whose
power and strength was in the " hearts" of the people,
and not in the arm. That they might not now blind
the people" by a great hurrah for the Union, while in
their very souls they know they have destroyed it .
And now they are wasting hundreds of millions, de
stroying hundreds of thousands of lives, and demor
alizing and beggaring the whole nation, to hide their
sins, and make the people believe somebody else
did it.
I am now done, and doubt not but I have made
many errors on unimportant points, as I have writ
ten much from memory of history, but on the main
question before me I know I am right. I hope the
statistics I have given will recei-ve proper attention.
Please look over slight and unimportant errors. If
you differ with me on the main question, don't slan
der me by calling me a traitor, for I hold myself
second to no__one in this whole natioii for true love
and loyalty to the Constitution and the Union of the
Avhole thirty-four States. God knows I am sincere ;
therefore let us have your objections in black and
white, that I may be able to compare and weigh the
whole matter. If I have misunderstood the quota
tions I have made from the Bible, I hope some true
and faithful divine will show me my error, as Christ
taiight "Nicodemus," and not denounce me as a
traitor. You must not understand me above to in
clude all the preachers of the Gospel, for God knows
I don't. I hope and believe that there is yet salt
enough in the ministry to save the Church from
a complete overthrow. I only mean to include

214 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
such as Beecher, Cheever, Furness, Thompson, and
others. Before I give this work into the hands of the
printer, I must make a little reply to aii article in
the New York Methodist of the 13th Dec, 1862. I
had finished the chapter long since, except some
corrections, but as it is not yet published, I will add
a few remarks on this article of Prof. Cairnes on the
slave power. He is an Englishman writing on the
American question. The article before me seems to
be Mr. Cairnes' second on the subject. The first I
did not see. I only wish to call attention to one or
two points in the letter before me.
Mr. Cairnes says, since emancipation 'va the West
Indies, "small proprietors have increased an hun
dred fold." " Within the last fifteen years, notwith
standing the high price of land, and the low rate of
wages, the small proprietors of Barbadoes, most of
them formerly slaves, have increased from 1100 to
3537." I will say that I have no objection to the
above statement, so far as it is true, and I will not
say that any part of it is false, but shall ask a few
questions on some points before I get through.
Prof. Cairnes seems to be writing iu favor of uni
versal emancipation in the United • States, evidently
trying to make the impression that emancipation has
been a great benefit in the West Indies, by infer
ences, without saying so. His first expression in-^
eludes the West India Islands, where universal
freedom has been granted, and then gives the Island
of Barbadoes as an illustration, and says, "the small
proprietors have increased in the last fifteen years

AFRICAN SLAVERV. 215
from 1100 to 3537, notwithstanding the high price
of land and low rate of wages." I regret that I
have, not the statistics of that island at hand, and
therefore can only say that if the land has increased
in price on that island, it is very dissimilar from all
the rest of the Antilles. It is true that the small
proprietorships have increased an hundred-fold on
all the West India Islands and in all States, where-
eve^ universal emancipation of the negroes have
been granted, both in Europe and America. But
who have been benefited, or where is the spot of
land that has been improved by it, and what has
been the result ? Just turn back to the statistics I
have given in this chapter, and you will see desola
tion, degradation, demoralization, idleness, laziness,
licentiousness, and drunkenness, have been the only
results. Why did not Prof. Cairnes tell exactly
what he meant, and give some other evidence of
good by freedom, besides the great increase of small
(negro) proprietorships ? All who know much about
negroes, are aware of their disposition to have a
home of their own, that they may have a spot
from which no man can move them, or interfere with
their habits. Eead the history of Jacob and Mill,
commencing on page 141, and you will have a com
plete illustration of those .small proprietorships in
Barbadoes, so boastingly chronicled by Prof Cairnes.
A vast majority of those small proprietorships cover
from a quarter to about one or one- and a half acres
of land, all of which has the appearance of laziness,
ruin, and desolation. There is not the slightest ap- .
pearance of mdustry of any kind, much less enter-

216 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
prise, throughout those small proprietorships, and
they look more like habitations for animals of the
reptile order, than for human beings. These small
proprietorships are general from Mexico east,
throughout the countries, wherever emancipation
of the negro race has been effected.
Why did not Professor Cairnes state the good
results of freedom by that immense increase of pro
prietors? Because he knew of the degradation,
demoralization, and ruin, to the entire negro race
caused by it, and the almost complete stoppage of
every kind of business, and total stoppage of the
exports of every product that requires any labor to
produce it. He says, "notwithstanding the high
price of land, and low rate of wages." This seems
to be said to impress the mind with the idea that
there is industry and drive-ahead enterprise arnong
the freed negroes. That, notwithstanding, those two
obstacles since emancipation, the proprietors have
increased from 1100 to 3537 on thejsland of Bar
badoes. In the first place, it is not true that wages are low.
The planters would pay any price for hands, but
wages, no matter how high, -will not bring them.
For they will not engage themselves for seasonable
labor for love nor money. When emancipation was
effected in the West Indies, planting almost entirely
ceased, and was only barely revived by the importa
tion of Coolies from China, who were kidnapped and
forced from their native land and sold as slaves in
Jamaica and other Islands for eight years ; nearly
one-half of whom die before the end of the eight

' AFRICAN SLAVERY. 217
years' service, and but few have life enough in them
to enable them to procure a livelihood. Hard labor
in the hot sun in the torrid zones is ruinous to their
physical health, and nearly all of them are brought
to a premature end by the cruelties of hard-hearted
opponents of negro slavery. And all this to allow
Sambo to lounge and bask in idleness under the man
go-tree, who was greatly improved both physically and
morally by slavery, and was incalculably useful to the
whole civilized world, whose usefulness has been
totally lost to the human femily, and the slaves
suddenly reduced to heathenism and barbarism by
emancipation from slavery to good white masters,
and the world is taxed at least fifty per cent, on all
they consume to encourage Sambo's lazy habits.
This is abolition righteousness and emancipation
consistency. One of the greatest blessings of the
human family must be forever lost and the greatest
civilizer yet known to mankind forever abolished
and blotted out, whose place cannot now, nor never
'will be supplied in this world. Methinks, I almost
see old Apollyon sitting in his big armed antislavery
chair as placid as a Turk smoking opium, while he
views his servants accomplishing so much glory for
his kingdom by negro emancipation.
Prof. Cairnes speaks of high priced lands. I will
only say that if the land has raised, it is contrary to
all other West India Islands. All travellers on
those Islands whom I have consulted, tell us that
the best of lands can be bought for a mere song.
In Jamaica two-thirds of all the sugar estates have
been totally abandoned, and one-half of the other
19

218 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
third partly. Every sugar plantation on the Island
of St. Domingo has been long since totally aban
doned, from where they exported nearly 200,000,-
000 pounds of sugar annually before emancipation.
And if slavery had been maintained there, no doubt
they would now export 400,000,000 pounds instead
of not now one pound. While Cuba, where slavery
has been continued, has been constantly advancing
in prosperity and civilization.
Prof. Cairnes declares that white and black people
are equal, that both alike will only^work under com
pulsion, and this he says after the experiment had
been tried for so many long years, and proved a
total failure wherever it has been tried.
Eev. Dr. Channing was considered a great man,
and he put forth the following prophecy in 1833,
while the emancipation bill was before Parliament.
I have no doubt he thought he was right, for the
experiment had-not been made in any of the pro
vinces of Great Britian. The majority of Parliament
entertained the same opinions, notwithstanding the
total ruin of the Island of St. Domingo, and the
complete demoralization and ruin of the whole black
race of that island by emancipation some thirty years
prior, and was then fully demonstrated. But the Eev.
Dr. Channing, like the Eev. Drs. Cheever and Beecher
of this day, was disposed to niake an apology for
the failure in Hayti, and other French Provinces,
Haytians having freed themselves by a revolution
and complete massacre of the whole population after
the emancipation bill had passed, therefore the Eev.
Dr. Channing and all the other English abolitionists

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 219
thought if they were set free, and placed on an equal
ity, the white population would be greatly benefited.
Therefore Dr. Channing made the following decla
ration : —
" The planters, in general, would suSer little, if at all, from
emancipation. This change would make them richer rather
than poorer. One would think, indeed, from the common
language on the subject, that the negroes were to be annihi
lated by being set free ; that the whole labor of the South was
to be destroyed by a single blow. But the colored men, when
freed, will not vanish from the soil. He will stand there with
the same muscles as before, only strung anew by liberty ; with
the same Hmbs to toil, and with stronger motives to toil than
before. He will work from hope, not from fear ; will work for
himself, not for others ; and, unless all the principles of human
nature are reversed under a black skin, he will work better
than before. "We believe that agriculture will revive, our worn-
out soils will be renewed, and the whole country assume a
brighter aspect under /ree labor."
Eev. Dr. Channing spoke very lightly, and con
temptuously of the opinions of those who knew that
human nature was totally " reversed under a black
skin," just as all the abolitionists treat us here who
have sufficiently investigated the nature of the white
and black races, to know that human nature is entirely
and completely "reversed under a black skin." The
Eev. Dr. Channing was .told what the result would be,
but he and the British House of Lords would not be
lieve it, until they struck the fatal blow upon the in
terest of that entire nation, and all other civilized
people. And now, if the blow should be struck
here, and the negroes freed, it will throw civiliza
tion back five hundred years, and forever end the
hopes of white men for self-government and per-

220 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
feet liberty. It is strange that men will not see the
ruin that will follow the success of abolitionism in
this once happy country. O that I could open the
eyes of the blind, who are being led into ruin by
designing men !
I don't know with what amount of literary know
ledge Prof. Cairnes may have been possessed, but one
of two things is evident. He either has no know
ledge of negro human nature, or the teachings of
inspired truth, and the immense disasters to the busi
ness of the whole civilized world, with the complete
overthrow of the last hope of civilization for the
African race,, and their everlasting degradation from
civilization outside of Africa by emancipation ; or
he is an infidel or anti-Christian, and is aiming at
the destruction of the latter. For it cannot be pos
sible that he is so ignorant of the degradation to the
negro race in all the British and French Provinces,
or West Indies, t.he financial, social, and political ruin
to all the white inhabitants of those Islands, and
great embarrassment to the mother countries by the
freedom of the negroes.
The Lslands of Barbadoes and Trinidad are con
stantly brought forward by abolitionists to show the
advantages of negro freedom. They don't tell us of
the stringent laws of those miniature islands, and
the immense number of Coolies whom they have
been compelled to import from China, and make
them slaves, on the Island of Trinidad, to keep up
their producing operations. Nor do they tell of the
laws of Barbadoes, that compels the negroes to drag
a^heavy block, chained to them, for refusing to work

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 221
when work is offered to them, and thus they are
punished worse than their masters ever punished
them for idleness.
I 'will give one more table that will satisfy every
reader that what I say about Prof. Cairnes is about
true. In 1800 the West Indies exported 17,000,000
lbs. of cotton, and this country exported 17,789,803
lbs. This was after cotton had nearly ceased to be
cultivated in St. Domingo and other French colo
nies, or they would have been ahead of the United
.States that year. In 1840 all the West Indies ex
ported 866,157 lbs. of cotton; the United States
exported 743,941,061. Is this not enough to satisfy
every common-sense man that Prof. Cairnes must
have known better, and that the American system is
the best in the world ? Is negro slavery a social,
political and moral evil, and negro freedom a
blessing? The abolitionists say that if there never had been
any slaves in the United States, we should now be
at. peace throughout our own land. That may be
so ; but not so certain as .it would have been if we
never had had any abolitionists among us. If there
never had been any negroes, we should not have had
any slaves ; if there never had been any money, we
should never have had any pickpockets nor high'
way robbers; if we never have had any marriages;
we should never have had any abusing and aban
doning of wives. But God made negroes, money,
and instituted slavery and the marriage contract — •
but he did not make the abolitionists. Therefore,
19*

222 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
they have been produced by the other great spirit,
who is the father of lies and all bloody wars.
I will repeat, that if I had been called upon (by an
irrevocable decree) to have destroyed this great
moral government by the people, and to have raised
up in its place the worst despotism ever known on
the earth, and if I failed in the fir^ effort death was
to have been the penalty, I should have taken the
very course the republican party did in 1860 and
'61, and should have pursued the very plans they
have pursued to this day, and I should have had no
fear of death by the decree.
God intended this government to be as near like
what he created man for, as it was possible for man
to be in his fallen state, and established the Christian
churches as safety valves ; but many of the Chris
tian ministry, whom he ordained and sent forth as
moral teachers and pioneers of civilization, have
turned away from that holy calling, and have sub
stituted Sharpe's rifles, the cannon-ball, and the
sword for the Gospel of our blessed Lord, and prayed
that they might swim in rivers of blood of their O'wn
brethren in the Church, to break up and completely
destroy an institution established by God himself for
the mutual good of the black and white races in the
world ; and now the consequences are upon us. Will
not those preachers do as Judas did, that peace may
come to our land ?

CHAPTEE IV.
Can the "White or Anglo-American Eace, and the African or
Negro Eace, hve together on a political, social, and domestic
equality in the United States of North America, and how ?
If so, would it be justified by the laws of Nature or of Na
ture's God ?
Human or civil laws are changeable, and can be
suited to the majority of a republic, or the whim or
caprice of a king or despot. The laws of Nature
vary somewhat, but the fundamental principles are
.unchangeable and entirely beyond the control of
man. Wherever the civil laws or human practices
in any way interfere with the laws of Nature, they
interfere with the laws of Omnipotence, and the
penalty is severe and interminable; and woe be
unto that government or people who shall attempt
to change or interfere with those laws, only to ex
pose, cultivate, dress, and improve them. On these
doctrines we have had line upon line, and precept
upon precept, and no man or woman can in this day
of light and knowledge plead ignorance of them
and their penalties. They may plead ignorance of
human or civil laws, for they are changed by the
caprice of parties, but the laws of Nature have un
dergone no change since the fall of man. Though
miraculous additions have been made to the variety,
( 223 )

224 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
there has been no change in the fundamentals for
nearly 6000 years.
I have said enough in former chapters on the
origination of the now African race, the descend
ants of Canaan, the confusion of tongues, and the
separation of the human family, from the building
of Babel. There was but one family and one- tongue
prior to that day. From that miraculous event all
the different tribes, races, and nations of the earth
sprang, except the Canaanites, now the African race,
and the Ishmaelites, now the Bedouin Arabs, or the
Arabs of the desert of Arabia ; and those tribes who
sprang from 'a mixture of blood with them, by the
true descendants of Shem and Japheth, all of whom
are accursed races to a greater or less extent. Canaan,
as I have shown in former chapters, was condemned
to perpetual slavery; from that event springs a
decree or edict in the laws of the code of Nature.
Abraham trespassed upon that law when he yielded
to the overtures of his doubting wife, and took
Hagar to his bosom, who was doubtless a descendant
of Canaan, whose whole race was accursed to per
petual degradation and slavery. See Gen. ix. 20-27.
To show us that any matrimonial intercourse or
connection with them was divinely forbidden, we
have the Arabs of the desert, as living monuments
of the displeasure of Almighty God to any mixture
of blood between the pure descendants of Shem and
Japheth and the descendants of Canaan, the grand
son of Noah, who doubtless was accursed for making
fun of his old grandfather, while laboring under i.
misfortune. Tlie Africans are living monuments of

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 225
Jehovah's displeasure towards children who badly
treat their parents. They, the Canaanites, may be
improved, but will never be capable of self-govern
ment ; and slavery is their only hope among men.
I have said enough on these points in previous
chapters. The above is sufficient to show that cer
tain unchangeable laws of human nature on which
I now propose to give a few thoughts cannot be
broken with impunity. I have said enough to show
that all men are not created equal.
Then the question arises. Can the black and white
man live together on a social, political, and domestic
equality ? aifli if they could, would such an associa
tion be sanctioned by the divine law or the laws of
Nature ? Let us look at this without prejudice or
favor, and with a single eye to the glory of God and
the good of all mankind. It is conceded on all
sides that liberty of conscience, peace, popular
government, and union, with great physical health
and longevity, are the greatest blessings of God to
mankind. This being conceded, then it must also
be that man's first duty is to cultivate those blessings
above all else that is human, and expel every in
truder upon those laws that are life guards of our
physical and social salvation. The laws of Nature
are to some extent protected by both divine and
civil law. For instance, the Sabbath day is neces
sary for the health and longevity of man. Gluttonous
and intemperance of every kind is prohibited, with
intermarriages between the whites and blacks, row
dyism, and all overt extravagances that overtax the
physical strength of man. Human laws inflict cor-

226 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
poreal punishments, fines, and imprisonments upon
man for transgressing of many of the laws of Nature,
but the laws of Nature inflict more terrible punish
ments for disobedience to her requirements, all of
which are imperative and unchangeable. The pen
alties are bodily afflictions, poverty, degradation,
loathsome diseases, premature death, or long sickly
lives. I presume all will agree that human ingenuity
ought to be exerted to prevent any and all such ex
travagances, which are so fatal to the good of man
kind. No law could be too severe, and no punish
ment too extreme for that man or set of men who
would establish places to promote disobedience to
the laws that will entail with certainty ruin to the
peace and happiness of mankind.
Now if I should succeed in showing that the eman
cipation of all the slaves in this country will place
the negro race on a political, and an attempt to social
equality, and that that system will produce a diseased,
sickly, short-lived, and unhappy race of men and
women, would it not be our duty to close every
avenue in our power that leads to such fatal results ?
I have already alluded to the mulatto race, in a
former chapter, as being very weak, sickly, and
short-lived on the general. There is not the slight
est danger of a general or universal amalgamation
of blood between the Anglo-American and African
races in this country, but if the universal emancipa
tion of the slaves should take place, enough would
be found among the Saxons to equal the Africans in
number, who from -various causes would be reduced
to a level with Africans, which causes might be

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 227
dissipation, crime, and lazy habits, and who would
feel more at home, perhaps, and happier among the
black race than among the whites. The negroes
being free and consequently on a civil equality and
in competition with the whites, the lower classes of
the Saxons would unite their interests with the Afri
cans, in competition with the higher order of the
Anglo-Americans, and the result would be inter
marriages or mixing of blood in some way between
the negroes and lower orders of the whites. This
would result mainly from interest or a combination
between the two, to try to compete -with their supe
riors. This would produce in a very short space of
time an immense population of mulattoes, who are,
with, but few exceptions, a very sickly and short
lived race, especially in the northern climes of this
country. This population would rapidly increase
at first. The antipathies between them and the pure
whites would be too great and bitter for them to
dwell together, and insurrections would be inevita-
table between the two races. This would not be a
sectional strife, as the strife now is, and a complete
extermination of the weaker party would be the
inevitable result.
Suppose this should not turn out to be the case ;
then say the amalgamationists, we should all soon be
of one color, and one people ; just what they (the aboli
tionists) have been laboring for so many years, in
order to end the prejudice of color, that our great
nation might be at peace. This I admit would be a
good thing if it was compatible with the righteous
laws of nature and nature's God-; and a promotion

228 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
of civilization, and a general genuine physical health
and long life should be the result. But if the con
trary should be the inevitable consequence, then
your whole scheme of peace, union, and happiness
falls to the ground. The scheme is so incompatible
with all the blessings of union, peace, tranquillity,
harmony, and righteousness, that it is surprising that
any man or woman could be found in this land of
schools and science so led by -wild fanaticism, who
would embrace such a doctrine for one moment;
yet it is even so. Let us examine it and see how it
will stand the test of the unchangeable laws of human
nature. ->
It has been two hundred and forty two years since
the first cargo of African slaves landed in this coun
try, and legal records show that laws were passed in
some of the colonies nearly two hundred years ago
to prevent a spurious color being made between the
white and black races. I mention this to show that
mulattoes must have been produced that far back,
or those laws would not have been passed. Now if
mulattodom commenced so nearly with the first
introduction of negro slavery in this country, how
is it that there are so few mulatto families ? Is it
not strange that they are so much less prolific than
either the pure whites or negroes ? You may bring
together in matrimony two individuals of any two
separate nations of the world of the same pure color,
and you will find that their children will not only
be very healthy and long lived, but exceedingly
prolific, generation after generation, thrcJugh centuries
of time; but if you marry the pure white and negro

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 229
people together, they will be as prolific as any others,
but their children will, three to one, be puny, sickly,
and short lived, and cease to multiply almost if not
altogether by. the third generation, and even the
first produces very sparingly, with few exceptions,
unless those children return directly to the white or
black of the pure colors. But that is even more
uncommon than breeding between the pure black
or white.
The better class of mulattoes are as much preju
diced against the negroes as the whites are, and was
it not for circumstances that force them in company
with the negro, the antipathies would be far greater.
The negroes are very jealous of^' the mulattoes,
because of the improvement they see in their color
and general appearance. The whites know they
would sink themselves just as much by an inter
course with the mulattoes as with the negroes, there
fore a return by the mulattoes to either of the pure
bloods is almost entirely prohibited by a law that
cannot be controlled by man unless he falls to a level
with the beast.
The amalgamationists say, this prejudice of human
colors is very wicked, and ought to be done away
with altogether. I say it is not. The prejudice of
color is suffered by our great Maker, if not divinely
produced, to prevent spurious mixtures of colors or
blood ; he having in his providence produced the
colors and appearances of these two distinct races of
men, for the good of the "people" The divine dis
pleasure is so clearly apparent in the mixture of the
blood of these two distinct races, that I am at a loss
20 •

230 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
in some cases to understand how Christian men can
-be found who defend it, and even advocate it; but
in others I am not disappointed, for the devil hates
all that is good, and it is his business to advocate any
and every principle that is in any way calculated to
demoralize society, or depopulate this part of the
world; therefore infidelity and abolitionism run
almost parallel. It is a mistake that there are a
greater ratio of mulattoes produced among slaves
than there are among free people of color. But the
South is more congenial to their health and longe
vity than the North. Now, these are natural laws
that no power under heaven can change. Though
all the civil and uncivilized nations and tribes of the
earth may unite for that purpose, they could not
change one "jot or tittle" of those laws, for they are
unchangeable and irrevocable.
Now, it being so clearly proved by circumstances
and experience that any interference with those laws
is fatal to the peace and happiness of our race, and
equally so to the poor unfortunate negro, and to the
¦whole human race, is it not our duty as a Christian
and free people, to watch against and close up every
avenue that leads to such fatal, corrupt, and demor
alizing results ? There is no room for a doubt that
if there were an equal number pf negroes to the white
people in this country, and then let them be prohi
bited by an irrevocable decree that there should be
no marriages except between the white and black
races, and all sexual intercourse was prohibited
between the white people, and all emigration to this
country stopped, the whole country would become

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 231
entirely depopulated in one hundred and twenty years.
Mulattoes are a forbidden race, and to prohibit a
mixture of blood with the negroes by the white
people, our great Creator has made these laws of
nature to prohibit a new race of men being formed
between those two very distinct races of mankind.
He gave us the negroes for our benefit, and their
good, and if we prove faithless to our trust, we shall
be " whipped with many stripes."
Those who deny these doctrines will please show
the contrary, by pointing out unchanged mulatto
families, who descended from the pure stock of white
or black one hundred years ago ; I will then agree
that there are some exceptions, but you will find
them very scarce.
Prof Adams says, that the " pure mulattoes cease
to produce altogether after the third generation, and
that it is very common for the first generation of
pure mulattoes to be as barren as mules, unless they
marry with the pure white or black blood, and even
their offsprings are mostly delicate and short-lived."
Quarter-bloods are healthier and longer-lived than
half-bloods, and, as they near either pure blood, they
increase in health and length of life. If these afe
not evidences of divine prohibition of the mixing of
blood between these two races, I don't know how
anything on earth could be sustained by circumstan
tial evidence. The pure white blood is injured by
mixing with any red, copper, or yellow tribes on the
globe, but as they mix with those who approach
nearer to the black or negro race, they reduce or
degrade their issue more.

232 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
The abolitionists attribute mulattodom to slavery.
This is a misrepresentation. The ratio of free mu
lattoes in the slave States is perhaps five to one of
the mulatto slaves. This shows how clearly eman
cipation increases amalgamation; and just in the
ratio that the negroes are freed, amalgamation will
increase. The ratio of original mulattoes bora in
the free States exceeds those born by or from slave
women five to one. There are comparatively few
mulattoes born from white women ; but ten, perhapfs,
in the free States to one in the slave States. These
declarations will astonish many, for disunionists or
abolitionists (they are almost synonymous) have
been trying to prejudice the South by foul slander
so many years, that good people have got to believe
the slander. I don't wish to be understood to say
that the people of the southern States are generally
better than they are in the free States, for that would
not be the truth, but I will say that the ratio of
anti-constitutional .union men, up to the Presidential
election of 1860, in the free States were twenty to
one of those of the slave States ; neither do I mean
to say that the people of the free States are more li
centious and dishonest than the people of the slave
States, for they are not ; therefore, the fact of the
greater ratio of mulattoes being produced in the free
States, is the legitimate consequence of the universal
freedom of the negroes in those States, there being
more loose bad men in the free States, and perhaps
in a little greater ratio, than in the slave States.
The city/of New York, for instance, might be called
the great metropolis of the United States for bad

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 233
men, and the worst of men, as well as the greatest
commercial city of the country ; it also contains a
very large number of the best and most upright men
in the world.
The idea that there is a greater ratio of mulattoes
produced in free States than in slave States is very
insulting to many, but if they will examine the ques
tion for themselves, they will soon see how far they
have been misled by designing men and women.
We all know there are a great many more mulattoes
produced in the slave States than in the free, but
you must not forget that there are about twenty
negroes in the slave States to one in the free ; yet
the mulattodom of the slave States is not in half
that ratio to the free. It is well known that most
of the Northern men who move South become the
most ultra pro-slavers very soon after- they arrive
there, and the stronger their opposition to slavery
was before they left here, the stronger their pro-
slavery feelings become there. . Why is it so?
Simply because they see how they have been mis
led by designing men, who profess to be such great
philanthropists. This is common on all subjects in
dispute, with all who are honest, when they see they
have bqen misled and deceived by their leaders.
I will now return to the main subject of this chap
ter, and will give the following statistics gathered
by the late Dr. Jesse Chickering : —
" It appears that the blacks die in Massachusetts in a ratio
of three to one, as compared with the whites. This state of
things is the result of both moral and physical causes. The
depressing influence of extreme social hardships, w.hich no
20*

234 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
philanthropy can alleviate, accounts in a great measure for
this unequal mortality, while physical causes operate perhaps
still more to the same effect."
Of the latter, we may learn something from a
paper read a few years since before the Boston So
ciety of Natural History, by Dr. Samuel Knefeland,
from which the following is an extract : —
" The mulatto is often triumphantly appealed to as a proof
that hybrid races are prolific without end. Every physician
who has seen much practice among the mulattoes knows that
in the first place, they are far less prolific than the blacks or
whites — the statistics of New York State and city confirm this
fact of daily observation ; and, in the second place, when they
are prolific, the progeny is frail, diseased, short-lived, rarely
arriving at robust manhood or maturity. Physicians need not
be told of the comparatively enormous amount of scrofulous
and deteriorated constitutions found among those hybrids.
" The Colonization Journal furnishes some statistics with
regard to the colored population of New York city, which
must prove painfully interesting to all reflecting people. The
late census showed that, while other classes of our population
in all parts of the country were increasing in an enormous
ratio, the colored were decreasing. In the State of New York,
in 1840, there were fifty thousand ; in 1850, only forty-seven
thousand. In New York city, in 1840, there were eighteen
thousand ; in 1850, seventeen thousand. According to the
New York City Inspector's report for the four months ending
with October, 1853 :—

1. The whites present marriages

2,230

The colored .. « . _ 26
2. The whites " births . . . 6,780
The colored " " ... 70
3. The whites " deaths about . . 6i,000
(exclusive of 2,152 among 116,000 newly-
arrived emigrants, and others unac-
climated.)
The colored exhibit deaths . . . 160

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 235
giving a ratio of deaths among accliniated whites to colored
persons of thirty-seven to one ; while the births are ninety-
seven whites to one colored. The ratio of whites to colored is
as follows : Marriages, 140 to 1 ; births, 97 to 1 ; deaths 37 to
1. According to the ratio of the population, the marriages
among the whites, during this time, are three times greater than
among the colored; the number of births among the whites
is twice as great. In deaths, the colored exceed the white
not only according to ratio of population, but show one hun
dred and sixty-five deaths to seventy-six births, or seven deaths
to three births, more than two to one.
" The same is true of Boston, as far as the census returns
will enable us to judge. In Shattuck's census of 1845, it ap
pears that in that year there were one hundred and forty-six
less colored persons in Boston than in 1840 ; the total number
being 1842. From the same work, the deaths are given for a
period of fifty years, from 1725 to 1775, showing the mortality
among the blacks to have been twice that among the whites.
Of late years, Boston, probably, does not differ from itself in
former times, nor from New York at present. In the com
pendium of the United States census for 1850, p. 64, it is said
that the ' declining ratio of the increase of the free colored
in every section is notable. In New England the increase is
now almost nothing ;' in the southwest and the southern States
the increase is much reduced ; it is only in the northwest that
there is any increase, 'indicating a large emigration to that
quarter.' "What must become of the black population at this
' rate in a few years ? What are the causes of this decay ?
They do not disregard the laws of social and physical well-
being any more than, if they do as much as, the whites. It
seems to me one of the necessary consequences of attempts
to mix races ; the hybrids cease to be prolific ; the race must
die out as mulatto ; it must either keep black unmixed, or
become extinct. Nobody doubts that a mixed offspring may
be produced by intermarriage of different races — the Griquas,
the Papuas, the Cafuses of Brazil, so elaborately numerated
by Pritchard, sufficiently prove this. The question is, whether
they would be perpetuated if strictly confined to intermarriage

236 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
among themselves ? From the facts, in the case of mulattoes,
we say unquestionably not. The same is true, as far as has
been observed, of the mixture of the white and red races, in
Mexico, Central and South America. The well-known infre-
quency of mixed offspring between the European and Austra
lian races, led the Colonial government to official inquiries,
and to the result, that in thirty-one districts, numbering fifteen
thousand inhabitants, the half-breeds did not exceed two hun
dred, though the connection of the two races was very inti
mate. " If any one wishes to be convinced of the inferiority and
tendency to disease in the mulatto race, even with the assist
ance of the pure blood of the black and white race, he need
only witness what I did recently, viz. : the disembarkation from
a steamboat of a colored picnic party, of both sexes, of all ages,
from the infant in arms to the aged, of all hues, from the darkest
blp,ck to a color approaching white. There was no old mulatto,
though there were several old negroes; many fine-looking
mulattoes of both sexes, evidently the first offspring" from the
pure races ; then came the youths and children, and here could
be read the sad truth, at a glance. The little blacks were
agile looking ; the httle mulattoes, youths and young women,
farther removed from the pure stock, were sickly, feeble, with
frightful scars and skin diseases, and scrofula stamped on .
every feature and every visible part of the body. Here was
hybridity of human races, under the most favorable circum
stances of worldly condition and social position."
It seems to me the above would be sufficient to
satisfy any class of men, even the abolitionists ; but
.the antislavery question being the only question by
which this Union, the succor and glory of man,
could possibly be destroyed, therefore this powerful
testimony is rejected by t'he hosts of disunionists here
in the free States. Pardon me for these out of place
remarks, for they come up ''feo strongly and vividly
before me, that my pen seems almost involuntarily

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 237
to write them down. Hybridity in the North is
more fatal than in the South. The half breeds and
quadroons are not so sickly and puny in the warm
climates, therefore not so short lived, but yet fatal
enough to be visible to every observing slaveholder,
who knows too well the fatal effects to his interest,
of having the blood of his negroes mixed with white
blood, to encourage it in any way whatever, even if
he had no moral objections to such an ungodly busi
ness; and yet every slaveholder is accused of en
couraging it between his own sons and his negro
slaves, and of engaging in it himself. Now let us
ask ourselves the question. How would we like to
be thus slandered by the Southern people? Just
suppose the tables were turned, how would we like
it ? I have shown already that hybridity is fatal
to the human race in this country, and is prohibited
by laws altogether out of our control. Then we
may despair of ever bringing the two races together
on a social equality on that plan. It is wonderful
how any white man or woman can sink themselves
low enough to desire such a ruinous and hell-begotten
scheme. I will give one more very singular and striking
result in hybridity, which I hope wiU be noticed
with special attention. In the animal, hybrj^ity
hardeneth, and increaseth longevity. Take the
horse and the ass, and breed them together, and
their offspring will be, and is, alriiost like brass.
There are no hardships too great for the mule;
although much less in size than the horse, yet he is
far more useful for general drudgery, and suited to

238 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
all climes. Whether in the torrid or frigid zones, the
mules are the same long-lived beast of burden, and
no hardships seem too much for their grizzly nature
in any chmes. Take the wild and tame goose, or
the wild and tame duck, or the common and Mus-
cova ducks, and breed them together, their offspring
(though entirely neutral and unproductive) will be
strong and long-lived.
Now, how is it, that hybridity or mixing of blood
among the animal creation produces such great
strength and longevity, while between the Anglo-
Saxon and African it is so fatal to health and life,
and almost as unproductive in the propagation of
their species as the animal ? Is there no Providence
in this ? Is it all by chance ? Has it no meaning ?
And how is it that the negro is so much healthier
and longer lived in the torrid than in the frigid
zones ? And yet, like the mule, they will not culti
vate the soil without a master. Is this not too sig
nificant to be without meaning? Then is it not
clear that 'the negroes were originally intended to
be used by the white man to do the drudgery in the
hot sun of the tropical regions of the world ? This
being the' case, which all experience and history
shows the fact, and the demonstrative evidence now
manifest by the Emancipation of all the slaves in
the British, Spanish, and French Provinces, from
thirty to forty years ago, without one palliating cir
cumstance having even yet grown out of that scheme
of degradation and ruin to the poor African, and the
almost incalculable loss to the whole civilized world
by that scheme, ought to satisfy every good man.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 239
How, then, are these two distinct races to meet on
a social, political, and domestic equality ? Would
you have a people totally incapable of self-govern
ment to hold their proportion of the offices ? Would
you have the sixth part of our police force to be
African negroes, or the sixth part of our lawyers,
our legislators, the Congress of the United States,
and every sixth President and Yice-President to be
of that race ? How would you like to go into our
Supreme Court in Bank, and there see a black
negro the presiding judge ? Would you have the
sixth part of our courts to be negroes ? Even sup
posing this could be done without a social and
domestic equality, which would be impossible, would,
you be willing to force anything upon us that would
be so extremely forbidding? You know all our
senses revolt at the thought. Would you change
the beauty of the Anglo-American race for the sake
of one of the most obnoxious and forbidding races
on earth, to all our senses? Would you sink us
from the high and noble state God has given us in
the world, down to heathen and barbarism ? Don't
you suppose that if God had willed such a mixture,
he would have thus created us? And if it was
right for us to be on an equality with African ne
groes, would he have placed those laws in human
nature so disastrous to its perpetuation and domes
tic happiness ? I think the party who advocate these
principles are not only lower than the angels, but a
little lower than the devil.
Now the question naturally arises, can the negroes
all be set free, and allowed to remain with us, with-

240 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
out being placed on a political and social equality,
at least, or be completely exterminated? Now, if
you set them all free, one or more of these events will
come up in our history. Our Heavenly Father has
made us to rule, and the negroes to serve, and if we,
through a pretended sympathy, or a false philan
thropy, right in the face of all common sense and
reason, set aside his holy arrangements for the good
of mankind and his own glory, and tamper with his
laws, we shall be overthrown and eternally degraded,
and perhaps made subjects of some other civilized
nation. This will be our doom as sure as God lives.
Then, will you persevere in such foolery, right in
the face of truth and righteousness, "with your heaven-
daring schemes of ¦wickedness, that will as assuredly
overthrow this great and glorious Union as the
scheme shall be adopted, or bring about the extermi
nation of the whole negro race in this country ? The
laws of nature and nature's God prohibit the mixing
of the two colors into one blood, which ends that
plan. Colonization in their native land of all the
negroes would be so nearly impracticable, that it
will never be done, and no other spot on this, green
earth will do for them. It would be the height of
cruelty and barbarism to send them anywhere else.
If they could all be colonized on the coast of Africa,
they would fall back into heathenism and barbarism
in less than fifty years ; for the civilization of Af
rica will cease as soon, or very soon after, the influx
of fresh supplies shall cease to arrive there from a
true and complete civilized nation. That being the
only way that the civilization of Africa can be sue-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 241
cessful and perpetual — all other schemes for the
safety of the negro in this country, and the civiliza
tion of Africa being out of the question, except
through African slavery in the United States.
These ideas -will be denounced by all the aboli
tionists in the whole country, whether republicans,
democrats, or Union men; but denunciations will
not disprove them. Don't understand me to be
opposed to colonization, for I am a strong advo
cate of that scheme, for great good has been effected
by it on the coast of Africa. But if all the Africans
in the United States should be colonized there, it
would mainly end the deep interest that is felt for
the success of those colonies, and it is universally
admitted that the black race is a lower order of the
human family than any other. It is asserted by
many of the best and most experienced men on earth
that they are not now or ever 'will be capable of self-
government. But as long as we keep them here,
and colonize the surplus every year, and those who
are willing to go, a government will be kept up
there of some sort, that will be better than no govern
ment at" all.
Every circumstance seems to prove that slavery
in the United States was the work of God, for the
civilization of the African race, that it produces a
greater wonderment in my mind than any other
strange thing I have ever seen or heard, that so
many sensible men can be found who reject the idea
as a 'wicked one, and denounce all who embrace it as
murderers, thieves, and robbers. If all such would
only divest themselves of all prejudice, and examine
21

242 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
the question as Christian men ought, they would
soon see it in a different light, and change their
opinion altogether on the question.
Prior to 1620, every scheme was adopted to suc
cessfully cultivate the soil of the tropics of the
United 'States. Three-fourths of the whites who
attempted to work the soil in the hot sun, soon
sickened and died ; they then enslaved the Indians,
and they died off faster than the whites. When
despair had filled every man in the southern colonies,
and they were fast coming to the conclusion that
they would be compelled to strike their tents and
leave those rich and sunny climes to the Indians
and -wild beasts, and retire in hopeless despair, news
came that a vessel had arrived from the Portugal
possessions on the coast of Africa, with a small cargo
of Africans. The colonies concluded to try the new
experiment. They purchased them and set them td
work in the fields, looking for the same result as
they had from the Indians and white men; but after
the experiment had been sufficiently tried, to their
agreeable surprise they found them . just exactly
suited to their wants, and instead of becoming weak,
sickly, and to a premature death, as the white men
and Indians did, they waxed strong under the
yoke of bondage. The hot sun and hard labor were
soon found to be more congenial to their health and
longevity, than to the beasts of burden, or labor, or
idleness in the shade. Another most remarkable
fact showed itself very soon. They were altogether
unlike the Indians, who^hated their masters> and
would slay them in secret at every opportunity ; the

1 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 243
negroes loved their masters, and leaned upon them as a
child leans upon its parents, and do to this day,
wherever their minds have not been poisoned by
designing, wicked white men and women. They thus
continued for two hundred years, contented and happy,
loving their masters more than any other earthly
object, and still do wherever they have not been
deceived by designing disunionists, and haters of a
republican form of government.
Now the fact is that negroes are so much happier,
healthier, and longer lived in slavery than they are
free, and that free negroes have never been of any
earthly use to themselves or anybody else, in this
country, as I have fully shown in former chapters.
No light never could have been thrown, either
gospel or any kind of ci'vilization, into that great
and benighted country (Africa), had negro slavery
never have been introduced into the United States.
All the good that has ever come to the African in
any shape or form, has been through the insti
tution of slavery ; and every attempt to ¦ change
that relation, has proved a great curse to both
races in our once happy land. He who labors to
.break up the relation of master and slave, is a trai
tor to heaven's righteous plans of government among
rnen, and an enemy to the true happiness of man
kind. See now what terrible curses have fallen
upon the whole country by our interfering with
that institution. Who could have believed two
years ago that saints could have so soon been turned
into devils! The best and most tender hearted
liberal Christian men and women, and the greatest

244 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
lovers of our national constitution and union" of
States, seem now to be wicked spirits, who glory in
murder and the destruction of liberty and property.
Why this sudden change, and who or what has done
it ? It is because of an attempt to abolish slavery
in this country. It is because of the determination
in the North never to cease to interfere with the
institution in the States, where God has so com
pletely provided for its existence, that it should be
a necessity. But in his goodness and wisdom in
making this arrangement for the salvation of Africa,
spiritually and temporally, did not forget that the
white race would be burdened with an evil, there
fore he designed that man should be paid for his
labor and trouble, and made slavery profitable to all
good and well-managing men, while he created the
necessity that would force man into the ownership
of slaves.
I 'will repeat, in conclusion, that the two races
cannot, for the reasons herein given, ever live to
gether on a social or political equality, without the
destruction of the peace and happiness of both races,
and a complete overthrow of this great and glorious
government. The emancipation of all the slaves
will produce the same ruin, for as soon as so many
millions of free people (negroes) are thrown upon
the country and not placed on a social and political
equality, the Union is at once gone. To place them
on an equality, would be a perpetual ruin to the
whole nation. To colonize them is impossible.
Then it is as clear as a sunbeam that the only plan
is to keep up the relation of master and slave unmo-

¦AFRICAN SLAVERY. 245
lested, and colonize the surplus in Liberia, but to
.send none over forty years old, and them of the best
and most -intelligent class. All the free negroes
imder forty and over eighteen years old should be
colonized there, for they are no manner of use here,
but stand in the way of a free republican govern
ment and Union. There should be no negroes in
this country, but those who are sla'ves. I have tried
to come to other conclusions, but circumstances
herein alluded to have forced me intp these opinions
against my desire, knowing such opinions would be
exceedingly unpopular with nearly all my best
friends, and would not .raise me up any with the few
.who may not denounce me as a cruel man, I desiring
to have the confidence of all who know me or may
hear of me. But I cannot after a complete and
thorough unbiased investigation of the subject, both
civil and moral 'with all its concomitant circumstan
ces, take a different course. I felt that I could better
bear the loss and wrath of my friends and others,
than I could a conscientious sense of ha'ving taken
a wrong or false ground. Policy suggested a different
course on this subject, and the temptation was so
great that in the beginning of this work T wrote
several pages, in which I aimed to trim between the
two extremes on the moral question of slavery ; but
on an examination of the Bible, authorities of the
question, and reason for the good of mankind, and
the opinions of the most eminent divines who have
ever written on the Scriptural laws of slavery, espe
cially those who 'wrote before the strife had risen on
the subject in this country, and the more modern
21'»

246 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
'writers who were so prejudiced against the traffic in
human beings that they condemned it in strong terms,
I became so powerfully convinced that slavery was
divinely authorized that I stopped short and threw
away, perhaps, twenty pages of manuscript, in
which I had attempted to show that slavery in the
abstract would be a moral evil. Ha-ying then fully
made up my mind that I would rather have a sense
of being right than to be popular, consequently I
have written this book conscientiously, believing I
have taken the only true, safe, and righteous grdnnd
on all subjects herein noticed. It being my faith,
allow that I am honest, and aim at right, if you con
demn the faith as heterodox ; for I do believe the,
negro race heterogeneous to white people.

CHAPTEE V.
'Who are Union Men ?
The larger part of this chapter was written for
the Press after the war commenced, but was refused
admission. I have since added four or five pages of
new matter.
I, as a Constitutional Union man, who love the
Constitution and the Union more than anything else
under heaven, desire to know who are the Union
men, and who the anti-Union ' men per se. I under
stand that a real Union man must be a real lover of
the Constitution, or if he professes to be a Union
man and declares hostility to the Constitution, that
he is either a gross hypocrite or a fool. If I have
misunderstood the meaning'of a true Union man, I
should like to be set straight by some " lexicogra
pher," for no man hates the wrong and loves the
right more than I, especially in matters of such vast
importance as the above. It seems to me that the
principles of Union and disunion are so plain that
a child four years old can comprehend them. Then,
how can a man be a real genuine Union man, and
hate the Constitution — ^the only chain of the Union
'that holds it together ? He must either hate both or
love both, for every man well knows that one cannot
( 247 )

248 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
exist without the other ; therefore, the inferences are,
that if he hates one he must hate both, or, if he
loves one he loves both. How is this question to be
solved ? I will undertake to do it as briefly as pos
sible, and, if I mistake, please correct me, for there
is nothing affecting the hopes and fears of this coun
try at present more than this. T look upon a dis-
unionist per se, as the most abominable monster on
the face of the earth. I can think of nothing under
the heavens so hateful in the eyes of the Almighty,
and in the hearts of all good men. They are the
very excrescence of the bottomless pit.
I meet with men every day who cry loudly for
the Union, and urge the prosecution of the war be
yond possibility ; and denounce the administration,
Gen. Scott, and Gen. McClellan, for not ha'ving
pushed the war on before this, to the total destruc
tion of the whole South, with their entire interest,
without the slightest respect to the helpless women
and children. They seem to be so aggrieved and ¦
mortified at the Southern people for attempting to
destroy this great and glorious Union, that many of
them say that the whole white population of the
seceding States must be exterminated for the crime
they have committed in the attempt to withdraw from
the Union. They most bitterly denounce every man
as a traitor who speaks of trying to save the Union
¦without the destruction of human life. Tetthey say
they never want to see the Union restored vrith peace and
harmony, while there is a slave on American soil. No!
rather than have one negro in slavery in the United
States, they would see the Union split into frcHgnienls,

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 249
and a monarchical government established with the
most extreme despotism ever known. Or rather than
yield up one single line of the Chicago Platform, or
to allow one single slave to go into the territories of
the United States under protection of law. or one
sent back to his master who had made his escape
into the free States, " let the Constitution slide," let
the Union be broken up, let anarchy reign from
Maine to Florida, and from the Atlantic to the
' Pacific. This class of men, and women too, are very
large in this city of Brotherly Love, and they allow
no man to speak of peace through the medium of
olive-branches. If he dare do it, they denounce him
as a secessionist, and tell him he ought to be hung
upon the lamp-post by the neck, or locked up in a
prison cell and kept there until he rots. One of these
kind of Union men, a large merchant in this city,
said he had two sons in the battle field, and if he
had forty, he would send them all to save this glori
ous Union from destruction, and if one refused to go
he would disown him. Yet this great patriot de
nounces the Constitution as a compromise 'with the
devil and a league with hell. There are thousands
upon thousands of these great patriotic Union men,
who would rather anything should take place, no
matter how devilish, than there should be one single
negro slave in the United States.
Now, I cannot conceive of but one way to solve
this enigma, and that is as follows : In the first place
they are "wolves in sheep's clothing," as set forth in
the Bible. Secondly, they are servants of old Apol
lyon, and hate Christianity, and all that is good in

250 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
this world ; in short, they are an infidel crew, sent
forth by the father of lies and the hater of God and
all good government, to destroy this model govern
ment, simply because it was marked out by the finger
of Jehovah, and destined to remodel the whole world,
and usher in the millenium spoken of in the Scrip
tures. It would not be hard to prove that the great
love and sympathy they profess to feel for the poor
slave is a false pretext, feigned for the purpose of
breaking up the Union between the North and South,
and not that they care anything about the poor Afri
cans in slavery, or have the slightest conscientious
scruples on the subject of slavery or slaveholding.
But they hate pure Christianity more than they love
the Constitution, therefore their opposition to South
ern slavery. Why ? Because they know there is no
other sectional question of interest in the United
States, and they know that to be a vital and exciting
one to the Southern people. If there were no slaves
they would seize upon soinething else the most ex
citing in the country. If these people have so much
sympat'hy for the poor negro, how is it they have
none for any other species of mankind? Every
man or woman 'wKo has any knowledge of facts in
the case, knows the slaves to be well ofi^ and a great
deal better off than one-half of the white population
of the free States. They have few or no troubles,
and are the happiest people on earth ; they have no
concern beyond the present moment. Then why is
it there is so much concern felt for the poor slaves,
while the free people of color are in so much worse

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 261
condition in every shape and form, and no sympathy
felt or expressed for them whatever ?
Where are the thousands of Indians who occupied
the very ground on which this great city is built ?
They pre-occupied this soil, and in that way were the
rightful owners of every foot of earth now occupied
in the United States by the white man. But where
are they to-day ? Have they not been driven from
their rights and rightful homes, to the western wilds
and Bocky Mountains, and thousands upon thou
sands of them murdered and slaughtered in their own
homes, simply because they contended for their birth
right? Millions of them have been compelled to
perish with cold and hunger, under the snow-flakes of
the Eocky Mountains, after having been driven from
their just rights and happy homes. Who will pre^
tend to say this is-not real robbery, theft, and mur
der? But who has condemned all this wickedness?
Where are the long aping and pitiful faces that
have been forced or feigned, or those that originated
from pure sympathy, to be found among all the
sympathizers in this country with the poor slaves,
who have every right conceded to them they ever
had or now have? They are well clad and fed,
cared for and respected, and enjoy all the fruits of
their labor, even more than Stephen Girard ever
did. They have good homes, the doctor when sick,
and are well nursed. There is not one to be found
in the United States, who owes one cent, and all
who do right are as happy as men can be in this
world of sin. Yet this great and glorious Union
which has produced such happiness and peace to

252 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
the Africans, is to be broken up, and the whole
white population reduced to slavery, under some
despotic monarch or thrown into a state of anarchy,
rather than one negro should be left in slavery in
the United States, the only condition of peace and
safety they ever 'will find in this world.
Now tell me how is this, that we must give up all
that is dear to us in this world, and not do the slaves
any good, but reduce them to a far worse condition
than their present one, and not even a complaint
made against the treatment to the poor Indians, who
have been robbed of aU their rights, and slain like
blackbirds, and driven back to the very ends of the
earth, and there left to perish 1 For all this, not one
association formed, or a meeting called, or a tear
dropped, nor no long sympathetic aping faces made
by those who would give up all that is good, rather
than there should be one negro left in slavery in
this great country. I ¦will tell you how it is.
The Indian question cannot be made a sectional
one. The whole country is of the same opinion,
and it would produce no opposition between the
North and South, nor the East and West. It would
rather tend to strengthen the Union, therefore it
would not answer the purpose. But the slave ques
tion is a sectional one, it strikes at the very -vitals of
the benefits of one-half of the soil of this country,
the dearest rights of the people thereof, and the
Constitution of the United States. It aims a death
blow at all the civil, social, and domestic institutions
of all the States. And all this is aimed at the very
vitals of this great Union. It is done because the

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 253
Union encourages Christianity through the Gospel
of Christ. If I am wrong I hope some one will set
me right. Ask those men what they propose to do
with five millions of free negroes suddenly turned
loose on the country 1 Some answer that they will
leave that for an after consideration ; others say that
they have nothing to do with it, that their business
is to free them ; and some say they may go to the
devil for all they care about them ; but others say
they must be placed on an equality, that our Creator
had made us all equal, therefore we are compelled
to take them into a political, social, and domestic
equality. Mr. G., who is rather a fine-looking man,
said to me the other day, in the presence of a num
ber of witnesses, that he was no respecter of persons
on account of their color, that he would just as soon
take the arm of a black person, or have them take
his {male or female of course) and walk through the
city, or promenade the -social circle, as he would a
white person. Mr. G. is well-known in this city.
A large majority of the above named Union men
are of this class, according to their declarations.
Now, I don't believe one word of such asseverations,
nor do I believe any man of common sense or good
judgment does ; for such a thing is contrary to
human nature and common sense. All such asseve
rations are for effect, and all such persons would be
the first to rebel against any government that would
attempt to enforce it, even if it was the government
of Jehovah himself, if it was made morally and civilly
right to do so. All such declarations are without
22

254 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
the slightest foundation in honest truth, and have
an ulterior object in view, and that is the total de
struction of this great and glorious Union. They
are the very men who have brought us to this awful
crisis, and now denounce every man as a secessionist
who dares to speak of saving the Union, and restor
ing peace, tranquillity, and harmony, in any other
way than the one that will eternally destroy it, just
as sure as we have had peace and prosperity through
and by the Constitution and the Union. Yea! as
sure as there is a heaven above and an earth beneath,
our peace and harmony is gone, eternally gone, if
the above class of Union men are allowed to lead or
are listened to. They know well that a free republi
can Union cannot exist with five millions of inhabi
tants interspersed among them totally incapable of
self-government or of being made so. And even if
they were, human nature is such that they could
not be admitted on an equality, for which they would
sue in less than five years. Then a scene would
transpire such as the sun has never shone upon. Our
soil would be drenched with huinan gore from one
end to the other ; and our Union that has been the
harbinger of peace, love, tranquillity, and har
mony would suddenly be converted into a reign of
anarchy, which would exist as long as there was a
colored person on American soil, or a terrible des
potism established by some tyrant of a Nero, who
would seize the reins of government, mount^the
throne, and reduce us all to slavery, or to an equality
without the slightest respect to color, and that would
be the end of civil and religious liberty. I look

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 255,
upon this class of fanatics as being just such as the
devil would have them to be.
I -will say, in conclusion, that, as long as the slaves
are let alone, in the possession of their masters, the
free people of color will be safe in this country, and
their rights cared for, but no longer. The four and
a half millions of slaves in the United States are the
only safeguards the free black . man has, and none
would suffer a greater overthrow by the emancipa
tion of all the slaves, or destruction of the Unton,
than they. In either case, they will be the greater
losers, unless a Nero should seize the reins of govern
ment at the same time, with five hundred thousand
troops under his control. This would end all con
troversy, and forever solve the question of the
capability of man for self-government.
The course those Union men are pursuing, is the
most cruel to the colored race in this country that
could be devised. How men can be so cruel and.
hard-hearted towards so large a class of innocent,
unprotected, and, to this day, a useful people, I am
unable to decipher, for I tell you now, that whenever,
they are all emancipated, you will see cruelties here
tofore unknown (even under Nero). Human nature
is such, that this trouble will come very soon after
the emancipation of all the slaves, unless a military
despotism be established on the heels of universal
emancipation. For a free republican union, where
every subject is a king, cannot stand where one
sixth of the subjects are marked with such obnoxious
distinctness ; so much so, that every colored man
would almost give his life to be made a pure white

256 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
man for one month. I am not willing to give up
the Union for any cause. Union means love, har
mony, tranquillity, and peace. Love is the only bond
that will ever restore the Union. We must love the
southern people, and they must love us, or there never
can be a union between the two extremes. I am
ready for any plan that is the most direct to such a
glorious result. To get at the best plan, every bitter
feeling, with all hard sayings, all prejudice, and sec
tionalism must be suspended, let us get together
and discuss the best plan to save the Union of the
thirty-four States, for I tell you, a great many people
have got to believe that this war is not to save the
Union, but to emancipate all the slaves, and break
it up forever. This feeling has been engendered
altogether by the class of Union men above alluded
to. These men are traitors, and they tremble with
fear that peace will be made with slavery in the
country. They know the emancipation of all the
slaves would make it necessary to change the govern
ment from a free republican Union to a military
despotism ; for five millions of people set free among-
us, totally incapable of self-government, could not be
ruled without it, for as soon as they are all freed,
the prejudice of color will rise to its highest pitch,
and could be restrained only by military power.
These people are the worst enemies of the colored
race, and the union of the States on the face of the
earth. They have been seeking the destruction of
this glorious Union for more than fifty years, and
now exult over their prospects. O ! " Ye serpents,

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 257
ye generation of vipers 1 how can ye escape the
damnation of hell ?"
I will give another sample or two of these pre
tended Unionists. I stepped into one of our largest
newspaper offices the other day, where there were
three or four gentlemen, some of whom were re
porters, and an assistant editor. I was asked by one
of them what my ideas were about the close of the
war. I began to tell them how I believed it could
now be settled without any further destruction of
human* life. This was a few days after the Fort
Donaldson victory was reported. I had not pro
ceeded far, before I was asked if I supposed peace
could be restored with slavery in the country. I
answered in the affirmative. I was laughed at as a
strange man. They then denounced slavery as the
greatest crime known to God or man. I told them I
could not see how they could make out such a case,
where neither the moral nor civil law forbids its ex
istence — that it was constitutional according to the
declarations of both, and the moral constitution and
law sustained it in stronger terms than did the ci-vil.
Two of those gentlemen simultaneously denounced
the Old and New Testaments as books of falsehoods
and lies, and were only calculated to ruin men and
women by debauchery and degradation. I saw
there was no use to quote Scripture, for it was like
casting pearl before swine. I then referred them to
the fact that the colored races could not be so civil
ized as to be capable of self-government — ^that there
was not the slightest appearance of any improvement
on the globe made by them, except as slaves under

258 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
the direction of white men. They referred me to
the Liberian colony on the coast of Africa. I told
them that that was yet an experiment, which I hoped
would succeed, that I was a strong and unyielding
friend of the enterprise, but there are circumstances
already apparent that have produced doubts in the
minds of many friends of the experiment. It is cer
tain there is room to fear that idleness will sooner or
later prevail, and, if it should, it was to be feared
that barbarism would follow, which can be prevented
only by a monarchical form of government,' They
remarked that that was not so; that the negroes
were just as capable of self-government as white
men, and had just as good a right to govern in this
country. I asked them how it was that the Indians
of the United States had not been civilized— that
they were here when we came, but removed from
civilization as chaff before the wind. They remarked
that it was because the Indians had too much good
sense even to yield to such a humbug as civilization
- — that it was opposed to life and liberty, and was
only calculated to make men work twelve hours in
the day, and consequently made slaves of us all. I
told them I could not talk with them any longer on
that subject, as they had rejected the foundations of
all my arguments for the Union, and my hopes for
this life and that which is to come. They said they
hoped the war would not cease as long as there was
a slave in the United States, and, if nothing else
would free them, let the entire white population of
the slave States be exterminated, and the soU given
up to the slaveSj to whom it righteously belongs.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 259
These men are in very responsible situations,
where they can wield a powerful influence over the
minds of both young and old. I meet with so many
such men, that my hopes for the restoration of the
Union with tranquillity and harmony, are sometimes
very faint ; and when I am denounced as a traitor
by such men, I wonder what kind of government
we should have if such as they had the entire con
trol ! They seem to think there would be no harm
in making white men slaves, provided they were
made ' slaves to negroes. One of their sweeping
arguments which they almost invariably use, is,
how would you like to be a slave ? I know I would
not like to be a slave, because it would be degrad
ing to me. I am one of the individual rulers or
governers of this country, and was intended by the
Supreme Euler of the world to be a free man.
[Neither I nor my ancestors were ever heathens or
slaves ; neither were they black, nor could not be
made so, because it was not the will of God. The
negroes are greatly elevated by slavery. They are
black, and wholly inferior. Their ancestors were
black heathens and barbarians. They kill and eat
each other with as much relish, as we kill and eat
turkeys. Some of the Fejee Islanders never have a
feast without a roasted negro, and he an acquaint
ance or subject. Therefore they are greatly blessed
and elevated by being brought here and made slaves.
The slaves of the United States are, on the general,
so much better off and happier than the so-called
free people of color, and are not degraded but ele
vated by slavery. The morals of the slaves are

260 AFRICAN SLAVERY,
SO incalculably better than that of the free colored
people, that it is surprising to any man who has not
been ruled by party cliques, or run wild by an ex
citing hobby, tp meet such men. But how would
you like to be a slave ? say they. I say I would not
like to be a slave, especially to my colored brethren.
I will ask those very refined soft fingered ladies
and gentlemen how they would like to be cesspool
cleaners ? Those of the large cities know what and
who I mean. How would you like to start with your
horses and carts, buckets and hoes, at 10 o'clock at
night (instead of retiring to your beautiful downy
couch, surrounded with the finest drapery, with a
sweet wife and child), and drudge through the streets,
and enter some gentleman's back yard, and descend
the cesspool to clean it out, and after toiling nearly
all night in that filth, return to your mansion and to
your bed ? Now I ask again, how would you like
to be a cesspool cleaner ? I know you will answer
in the negative, and so will your wife and family.
Is that any proof that that business is morally
wrong, and should not be follbwed by any one else,
simply because you would not like to do it? Accord
ing to your own arguments, all such callings should
be abolished at once, it being morally wrong and
cruel, simply because you would not like the occu
pation yourself.
Again : How would you like to turn out daily
with a gang of hardy, sun-burned, German laborers,
'with your paving pick and pounder, and paive streets,
lay water pipes for your living, and your wife to go
out daily and wash, with her teiider hands ? I know

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 261
you would not like it any more than I would like
to be a slave. Now is it morally wrong and bar
barous to employ those German laborers to do that
kind of work, simply because you would not like to
do it yourself? Must that kind of work be abol
ished, and our streets left knee-deep in mud ? Is it
morally wrong to wash clothes, because your wife
would not like to retire to the back yard of some
lady's house to wash ? Must washing be abolished
because she would not like the business, and you
yourself deeply humiliated by the operation ? These
arguments can be used against any of the above
occupations with just as much force and good sense,
as yours can be against slavery.
I will say again that the only temporal salvation
on any spot of this verdant earth for th(3 African
race, is in being slaves to white men, unless it should
turn out to be otherwise on the coast of Africa,
which I hope and pray may prove successful. The
Supreme Being has so ordained it, and every attempt
by us to make it otherwise, will prove a terrible
curse to both races. Every national affliction we
have had, since the adoption of the Constitution,
'with one exception, has been produced either direct
ly or indirectly by an inconsiderate opposition to
negro slavery. The war with Mexico was the con
sequence of a constant interference with Southern
State rights because of slavery, by the people and
legislators of the free States. I believe just as much
as I believe I am now writing, that God so directed
the convention of 1787 in its deliberations in framing
our national Constitution, to grant the independent

262 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
State rights, that slavery might not be disturbed or
interfered with by the abolitionists of the free- States.
If slavery was a cruel barbarism, and a sin against
God,, it would have but few opponents among such
as are now abolitionists. I will ask those who deny
the truth of this assertion how it is that no Sym
pathy has been expressed for the poor Indians, who
were the aborigines in all these States ? who have
been murdered and slaughtered by thousands and
driven to the ends of the earth by us, and there
left to starve under the snow-flakes of the Eocky
Mountains. We have robbed them of their moral
and just rights, and driven them from their homes.
As inhuman as this seems to be, no abolitionist has
ever mourned over the cruelties to this most inter
esting race. Why is it so ? Because the movement
would be right in the sight of God, and could not.
be made a sectional issue, therefore would produce
no quarrel between the two extremes of our com
mon country ; and our national glory and God-like
Union would be in no danger of an eternal over
throw by such a righteous movement and sympathy.
This war with all its horrors and concomitant cir^
cumstances, is the direct product of the anti-slavery
party. I mean that portion of them who have been
unceasingly interfering with Southern rights, and
denouncing the slaveholders as devils incarnate, and
charging them with the most hideous crimes kno"wn
to criminal law. Those charges were not against a
slave owner who might chance to be a bad man, but
they were and are made against all slaveholders indis
criminately, and every one of them charged with the

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 263
highest crimes known in the whole world, such as
murder and robbery, and all their sons with constant
cohabitation with their negro female slaves to produce
children for the market. I say it is more wonderful to
me that this most ungodly and wicked rebellion did
not break out many years sooner than it is it has now
broken out. When we think of all these things, in
connection 'with the many schemes of interference with
Southern rights to this species of property by the free
States, and the constant denunciations of Southern
slaveholders from a thousand pulpits on each succes
sive Sabbath day, is it not wonderful to all who
have given human nature and the jealousy of our
lawful rights a proper thought ? I will appeal to
every honest, thoughtful, unprejudiced man for an
answer to this question. Is it not wonderful that
this rebellion, as wicked and ungodly as it is, did
not come sooner ? Eemember that this was a free
will, volunteer Constitutional Union, made up by
free-will concessions, "for a more perfect Union,"
and not for one section of the country to hold the
other as with a halter ; to slander, insult, and perse
cute them with the foulest defamations known to
the vicious.
If it is true that the constant cohabitations take
place 'in the South as alluded to above, how is it
that there are any real negroes to be found in the
slave States by this time, for they have been thus
charged for rhore than two hundred years; and if
the white men of the free States are so much purer
in that way than those of the slave States, how is it
that the proportion of mulattoes in the free States

¦264 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
are SO much larger than in the slaVe States? Now,
don't lay this to the white females of the North, for
that would be a still greater slander, and would not
abate the disgrace, but rather increase it. These
things have been stated by designing men and wo
men, with such boldness and assurance, that many
of our very best people in the free States have been
overcome and made to believe it, and some of them
will flare up if you tell them it is false. I want all
such to read over what I have written on this point
of the subject, with particular care, and examine the
statistics of each ten years, and see for yourselves
whether the slave States are any worse than the free,
on the mulatto question.
I will again say, if the Southern people are as bad
as the abolitionists would have them, I' don't want to
be in the Union with them. I am no little surprised
to find so many of those who believe all such foul
slanders, so anxious to save and prolong a Union
with them. I think, to say the least of it, that it
shows a degraded and demoralized taste, just as foul
as that with which they charge the slaveholders.
The very fact of our sympathies being so often
appealed to by abolitionists, in asking how ve
would like to be slaves, is a proof ppsitive that they
are governed entirely by their sympathies and feel
ings, if anything but 'wickedness, and not by convic
tion or judgment. What sort of a country should
we have had by this time, if every person was to
move and rule according to their sympathies. Sup
pose Gen. Washington had yielded to his sympathies
in the prosecution of the Eevolutionary war, should

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 265
we ever have been an independent nation ? Suppose
all men and women should govern their children by
their sympathies ; what sort of children would they
have ? Suppose a surgeon should act upon the dic
tation of his sympathies, would he ever do any good
to himself, or any unfortunate afflicted person ? Feel
ings or sympathies are the most dangerous guides
for church or state to follow, and if followed without
the guide of good judgment, they will break up
every church and government in the civilized world.
I know all such charges to be mainly false, there
fore I am willing to be in the Union with the South
ern States. But can this Union be restored by con
stantly proclaiming such foul slanders against those
we have got to reconcile before any Union can be
formed with them ? Would it hot be better to look
upon and speak of them as our unfortunate misguided
brethren, who have misunderstood the majority of
the North, in the late Presidential election ? Whose
misunderstanding was produced by the wholesale
slanders herein alluded to, and by their Constitutional
and lawful rights having been constantly interfered
w^th almost from the adoption of the Constitution to
.the present day, by indi'viduals,' associations, and
statute laws of the free States. Under these circum
stances, have they not ground for great complaint^
And if they have such ground, is it not our duty,
as a liberal, benevolent; Christian people, to remove
every such ground from our escutcheon ? Is it not
right for him who gives the first insult, to make the
first concession ?
23

266 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
You say the general government of the United
States has always allowed and protected them in
their Constitutional rights. I say they have not.
For Congress has ever refused to protect their rights
to all property in all the territories of the United
States. The Eepublican party adopted a platform
in 1856, repudiating protection to their property in
the territories of the United States, and renewed it
again at Chicago in 1860, (and in both instances
chose both of their candidates for the Presidency
from the free States,) and this directly in the teeth of
the Constitution and the decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States in 1854. Now, I. ask
every candid man, if this was not sufficient to im
press the mind of the whole South that we intended
to crush them with all their peculiar institutions.
I cannot say that I have ever heard the slightest
sympathy expressed by any leading republican for
the sufferings of our unfortunate southern brethren.
I hear them bitterly ctirsed almost daily ; by some, for
fleeing from their homes with their wives and children
on the approach of pur troops, while others seem to ex- .
ult at every such report, and laugh over it as though
"nobody was hurt, and no harm had been done;'.'
Among these are some professing Christian ministers
and their disciples, whose profession binds them to
mercy's side of every question. The examples set
in the Scriptures, from Genesis to Eevelations, are
altogether on the side of mercy, especially those of
our Saviour. We are there informed that we must '
not only forgive seven times, but seventy times
seven. The South had borne with our encroaching

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 2d7
upon their rights for many years, which caused the
rebellion. If human nature had ever been forced to. love, or
an example could be found on the pages of Holy
Writ for. forcing people to love each other, I should
have, some hope that this war would ultimately re
store the Union. But as there has been no success
ful precedent recorded on the pages of sacred or
profane history, I am left without the slightest hope
of any. forced restoration of harmony and peace
between the two extremes of our beloved country.
This being the case, would it not be better to propose
an amnesty with .our southern brethren ? I would
pardon the whole South, if that would restore peace,
harmony, and obedience to the laws throughout the
whole country. I believe God would bless the effort,
and make it successful. We may conquer the South,
but that will not restore the Union, without which
there never can be peace and harmony in. this great
nation. There is only one way to restore the Union,
and that must be through love as proposed by our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who said, "Bless
them that curse you." The only bond of this Union
was love for each other ; therefore sectionalism was
started to destroy it, that being the only means by
which it could be effectually done. The war will
produce horror upon horror, and hatred upon hatred,
and the longer it is- prosecuted, the further we shall
be from harmony and peace. I would submit to any
depth of humiliation for the sake of handing a per
fect Union down to future generations. I know that
if it is not soon settled, it never can be, and we shall

268 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
go down to our graves, leaving it a terrible despotism
or in a state of universal anarchy. May God in his
mercy save us from the interminable ruin that seems
to be before us, all of which is the legitimate result
of opposition to slavery, which was only a pretext
of the leaders to destroy the Union. When the
taxes come, we shall be made to sweat and atone for
our hypocrisy.
The worst troubles are yet to be realized. If the
slaves should all be freed, they will become a mass of
ruined humanity, that 'will be an intolerable weight
around the neck of society, which will chafe our fu
ture hopes, our national pride, and clog the wheels
of the onward course of the prosperity of the whole
country. God has given them to us for the mutual
benefit of both races, but the relation to be master
and slave, as decreed about four thousand two hun
dred and forty-eight years ago. Our only moral
right in the matter, as a people and nation,- is to see
that they are humanely treated. I know my best
and most influential business and social friends are
bitterly opposed to me in these views, and some of
my religious friends say they would be pleased to
see me hung up by the neck. They may crucify
me, but while I can speak and write, I will state my
cleariest convictions, and nothing else. In facts I
have told the truth ; I may have erred a little in
some of my inferences, and some of my quotations
from history may be a little misplaced, as I have
written mostly from memory.
Wherever professing Christians take up the sword

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 269
to avenge their enemies, they sin against the holy
precepts of the Son of God and his holy apostles.
" Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst,
give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals pf fire on
his head." — Eom. xii. 20.
" Then said Jesus unto him, put up again thy sword into his
place ; for all they that take the sword, shall perish with the
sword." — Matt. xxvi. 52.
The very essence of the principles on which. this
¦yy^ar is waged by professing Christians, fully and com
pletely repudiates Christianity, and all free repub
lican governments and unions. Our general govern
ment was wholly begotten and truly Christian in all
its articles and clauses, made up by mutual conces
sions and compromises, without the -temporal sword.
I know they came to a dead halt while forming it, but
was the sword drawn from its scabbard? No,
brethren! Did they quarrel and call each other
hard names, such as thieves, murderers, and robbers?
No ; they did no such thing. How, then, did they
get unlocked? They unanimously agreed to send
'for a celebrated clergyman to come into their midst
with his Bible, read a chapter, and pray for the
Holy Ghost to rest down upon them. The result
was, the dam gave way, union of sentiment was at
once restored, a,nd the Constitutiojj speedily agreed
upon. This war, and every particle of the malice and
hatred between the North and South, has grown out
of resisting the constitutional and lawful rights of the
slave States of the Union, All those who instituted
the sectional antipathies by resisting those rights, and
23*

270 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
those who have carried it on to present results, are
guilty of murder in every life that has been lost ; and
all 'those who persist in urging the war against our
southern brethren, without first restoring their fullest
Constitutional rights, as agreed upon after the Eev.
Mr. White read the chapter, and prayed for the bless-
ing of Jehovah to descend into all the hearts of those
constituting the Convention, are sinning against God
and their own civil and religious liberties. I do not
include the soldiers who have obeyed the call of the
Chief Magistrate of this nation. The war cannot be
justified until every right belonging to the slave
States, under the Constitution of the United States,
shall be restored to them ; then, if they still rebel, I
shall have nothing to say. But I am well satisfied
that there would not be ithe slightest necessity of
firing another gun or unsheathing another sword,
providing the offer should be made in the same spirit
that the Eev. gentleman was invited into the National
Convention that adopted the Constitution. That is, if
the offer should be fully clothed in the spirit of love, .
the only power that, has ever yet conquered the
wickedness of the human heart, so that enemies would
love each other, without which we never can again
have any Union of these United States. The extremes
must love each other, or union is impossible. Con
vince me that war will produce love to each other;
then I will be for war, or anything that will restore
the Union; for union means love, harmony, and
tranquillity. I don't want to be understood to justify this wicked
rebellion, for I abhor it more than any event that has

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 271
taken place since the fall from Eden. I abhor it, not
only because it is destructive to human life and
morals, and to the happiness and prosperity of the
free States, but because it is destructive to our
Southern brethren themselves, and still more so to
the poor negro race in this whole country. The
rebellion is far more than equal to the provocation
given by the abolitionists of the free States, and
complete extermination ¦would not be more than
equal to the crime of such wicked rebellion. . But
when we think of the cause of their crime, it is
enough to cause our hearts to sink with sadness;
and when we remember how small a matter would
have prevented it, and placed us oh terms of harmony
and love, it is enough to make the very stones cry
out and say, destroy us that we may not see the ex
tent of the wrong we have done ourselves.
But this great and glorious Union cannot be re
stored by war, for it is its opposite, and the more we
fight the further we shall be from a Union. Every
step taken by the Son of God and his holy Apostles,
so clearly sets forth that he came into the world to
do away with all cruelties, and carnal weapons of
warfare, and to bring about a new state of things,
A state in which Christians should ever stand ready
to concede to each other enough of their political
opinions to enable them to acquiesce in civil and re
ligious government, that it is so astonishing to me
to find so many Christians and Christian ministers,
recommending war to the hilt, even to the extermi
nation of the white population of one-half of the
territory of the United States, because they will not

272 AFRICAN SLAVERYi
submit to have their Constitutional rights and liber
ties trampled upon, instead of offering them a com
promise or the least concessions which the slave
States have never asked for or desired. They have
always been ready, and offered to concede a large
portion of their Constitutional rights for the sake of
peace and union, until after a number of the cotton
States had prepared to secede. Then they offered
to stop, and remain contented in the Union with us
forever, if we would allow them their full Constitu
tional rights in said Union ; which offer .was unani
mously and indignantly refused by the anti-slavery
party. They were offered by those gentlemen in
the latter part of" December, 1860, in the Senate
Committee of thirteen appointed to compromise the
dispute between the extremes. In those offers they
asked for nothing but their own, under the Constitu?
tion and laws of the United States'. If their offer
had been accepted by the free States we should, have
had no war, and our civil peace and Union would
now be like a paradise, and the only, unpleasant
sound that would grate upon our ears, would be the
howling of infidelity, caused by the great disappoint
ment in not being able to break up this heaven-horn
Union that was even a happy home for African
negro slaves.
I repeat that I am greatly discouraged and have
fears that I have lived to see the end of a free Ee
publican Constitutional Union, and the only hope of
free institutions, and the rights of conscience in this
world, and the end of peace. I am asked why I am
almost hopeless? I answer, because I find the

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 273
Christian church, the anchor and safeguard to all
free institutions, advocating the war on our Christian
brethren. Yea, they seem to glory and exult in
the devastation and consternation of the slave States,
produced by the advance of the superior powers of
the free States. All this without first conceding to
them their just rights in the Union ; and when we
.know we have the superior numerical strength and
power, and could afford to do right and be liberal
without the slightest humiliation, and still more
when we have men of great Christian power and
influence, attributing this war to the Supreme Being,
^nd this directly in the teeth of every precept of the-
New Testament and every principle of a free repub
lican government. I believe the great God of the
universe has suffered this outbreak, to teach us that
we cannot trample upon th'C rights of our Christian
brethren with impunity.
That we can conquer the slave States, I have not
the shadow of a doubt. But will it be any honor to
us? Will it give us a glow of pleasure when we
look upon the ruin that has followed our superior
powers to crush them? When we find all this
has not restored peace and union, and we shall be
compelled to gi-^e them all they asked for previous
to the outbreak, and knowing that if we had ac
cepted their offer, this terrible calamity would all
have been avoided. When we see that after all this,
the great blessings of a perfect Union are gone,
perhaps, never to return.
If Christian men still teach that the Holy God in
stituted this war, just at the right time and in the

274 AFRICAN SLAVERY-.
right place, what will the world think of the Chris
tians' faith or their God? Will it not lead them to
believe that the Supreme Being is opposed to repub
lican governments, and enter into extreme infidelity?
I fear this will be the result, because I believe God'
to be a jealous God, and that he has chosen us to
take charge of this republican government, to be as
a city set upon a hill, that its great brilliancy might ,
dazzle the eyes of the whole world, and teach them.
that the white man was made for self-government,
and competent for it, and to show us that the only
plan under existing fallen human nature, was to
concede to every man his lawful rights. Therefore^
under His blessings of love we were divided into
independent State governments, in all the municipals
enactments ; and each left without the shadow of a
right, by the great adopted mother of them all (the
Constitution of the United States), to interfere in
any manner whatever with the rights of each other.
But in spite of the precept to do unto others as we
would they should do unto us, we have interfered
with the lawful rights of other States ; therefore we
may look for universal anarchy and confusion, or .a
perpetual iron-hearted despotism, which 'will place,
Anglo-Americans and Africans on a social and po
litical equality, unless we make up our minds (and;
act it out through all the ramifications of this life)
to concede to all others, white or black, all their
lawful rights under the Constitution of the United
States. If the Christian church had stuck to her integrity,
with a single eye to the glory of God, there would

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 275
never have been any separation nor civil war in this
country. When I read such speeches as were made ,
by the Hon. T. N. Arnold of III. in the House of
Eepresentatives, on the 17th of February, 1862, my
hopes for the Union go down to a low ebb.
We have had no calamity yet, to be compared to
the one that universal emancipation of the slaves in
.this country will entail upon us. Think of 5,000,-
000 set at liberty among us, who will by such a
national act be placed on a political and social
equality with the white man, and in a very short
space of time demand it. Then think of the preju
dice of color, manners, and style, and of the pride of
the human heart. 1 will leave Mr. Arnold to judge
of the consequences; for every sensible unprejudiced
man 'will see the end from the beginning. May the
Lord God of Israel have mercy upon all such men,
and avert such a direful calamity ! For if he does
not, and the slaves are all freed, we shall be reduced
from the highest and- most powerful nation on earth
to the most degraded.
In conclusion, I will say again that the seceding
slave States committed as great a crime as ever was
committed against any nation or people since the
foundation of the world, except that of Adam ; and
according to human government and precedents,
there is no punishment adequate to their crime
short of complete extermination of all the leaders,
and banishment of the aiders and abettors. But
those who drove them to such desperation are still
worse, and deserve double punishment. They did
it with their eyes wide open, and knew well what

276 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
they were at. They did it 'mthout the slightest pro
vocation. They resolved, many years ago, to agitate,
slander, and persecute the slave States, until thfey
would drive them to commit this desperate act.^
Now the very leaders of those men cry rebellion against
the South louder than all the world besides. They do
till this to turn attention away from their own treason,
to make the world believe that they are great patriots,
and lovers of the Union of States ; hut they never say
a word in favor of the constitution, the only safeguard
of the Union. It is so strange to me that so many
pe'ople of the free States, are so completely blind
folded by these northern disunionists and rebels
against the best government ever known in this earth,
since that in Fden^e&rly 6000 years ago. And this
great and glorious boon is to be destroyed to place
the African negro on a social and political equality
with the white man. Yet hundreds and thousands
of our best citizens follow in their lead, and they
cannot be made to see the diabolical treason of these
leaders ; and they seem to look upon all who en
deavor to point out to them the deception of these
devils incarnate as the friends of the southern rebel
lion. Consequently the mouths of the true friends
of the Constitution and Union are locked up, and
they are not allowed to speak out their true con
victions, to expose the immense treason in the free
States, and it is feared they.will not see until it is
too late ; for union is love and war its opposite.
Tell me how it was that Wendell Phillips, Esq.,
after having delivered his soul of a great load of its
anathemas against the Constitution and Union in the

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 277
Smithsonian Institute -at Washington, D. C, the other
day, and told them how long he had been laboring
to destroy this, the greatest boon ever given to man,
and then was invited to visit the Senate Chamber
of the United States, and there received the most
cordial congratulations by the majority of that au
gust assembly. If this is not a war on the institu
tions of the South, and for the destruction of the
Constitution, why was this not only suffered, but
the fell traitor and rebel invited to sow a fresh batch
of treason and sedition at the capital of the nation ?
Now if these leaders are fighting to save the Con
stitution, how came this circumstance to take place ?
I would like Mr. Sumner, or some such talented
member of that majestic body, to explain this enig
ma, for I confess that I am too shallow to compre
hend it (if they are all Constitutional Union men).
And again, after he (Mr. Phillips) had let loose his
embittered treason and sedition against the Consti
tution of the United States in the very citadel there-
. of, how came he to be invited by the State Senate
of Pennsylvania to go to the capital of that State to
repeat the same treasonable and seditious doctrines ?
The majority of the party in power must be in favor
ef those treasonable doctrines, or this could never
have been so. How is it that I and others have
been threatened to be hanged to lamp-posts by the
neck or looked up in some fort for even desiring
peace and union without the shedding of blood?
Yet this arch traitor was not only allowed but in
vited to visit the United States Senate and the Sen
ate of Pennsylvania to convert the few remaining
24

278 , AFRICAN SLAVERY.
loyal men, in those important bodies, for the safety
of' this great Union, to treason and sedition. If
those Senators are Constitutional Union loving men'
how is this ? Tell me, for .God's sake, for I am in
great trouble on this subject.
A celebrated Garrisonian abolitionist told me this
morning that he had been called upon three times by
an authorized committee, to inquire of him if I was
not a fit subject for incarceration in Fort Lafayette.
I know I have often been threatened not only with
a home in some fort, but to be hanged by the neck.
Now tell me how is this ? Why were such threats
made against me? Why did those Eepublicans
denounce me as a secessionist, traitor, and rebel,
when I had been opposing abolition movements
against the Constitution and the Union for the last
twenty-five years ? They then denounced me as a
negro hunter, thief, murderer, and robber, and why ?
Because I stood up for the Constitution and Union,
and declared them to be the greatest blessings that
heaven had ever bestowed upon any nation of this sin-
stricken earth. They have reason to believe and
know that I have never uttered one word on the
subject, that was not in defence of the Constitution •
and the Union. They also know that I hate a trai
tor or a rebel against this great heaven-like govern
ment, more than anything outside of the kingdom- of
darkness. There is.no class of human beings so sunken
in crime, that I hate as I hate the man or woman
that would even express a dislike to the great safe
guards of this great and glorious government. It
has been tbe object of my earthly admiration from

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 279
my first understandings of the great and glorious
national scheme. No abolitionist or secessionist, no
Constitutional Union man or woman, has ever heard
me utter a single word . against these the greatest
earthly blessings ever bestowed upon any people.
No man nor any set of men can come forward and^
say with the slightest semblance of truth, that they
have ever uttered a sentence in my hearing against
these two great blessings, that I did not raise my
voice in their defence, and they had a right to be
lieve that my life was not respected by myself when
I heard these great national blessings denounced as
a " covenant with the devil, and a league with hell !"
He who charges me with having at any time or,
under any circumstances, got up any association, or
united therewith, or joined any party or association,
for any other purpose than to arrest sectionalism in
the general elections of this nation, are foul slander
ers. I knew just as well fifteen years ago, that if.
they ever succeeded in a national election, that we
should have a civil war in this country, as I now
know that it is existing, and the most terrible ever
known since the Christian era set it. They thus
accuse me because of the strong stand I have always
taken in defence of the Constitution and the Union.
They do it because of the fearless manner in which
I try to expose their treason, and if such a commit
tee ever waited on my Hicksite friend as he said this
morning, they must have been base traitors like him
self. They could have had no other object in view
(fearing I would tell on them, and expose their -in
fidelity to the Constitution a^d the Union, they

280 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
knowing that I had a personal knowledge of their
treason) than being anxious to put me out of the
way. My Hicksite friend, even in this conversation, de
nounced me as a traitor, and told me my only object
_in joining the Constitutional Union party was to
encourage the slave trade; and bitterly charged
every man who voted for Bell, Breckenridge, or
Douglass with being traitors, and in league with the
South for keeping up the slave trade. He who
charges me with being favorable to the slave trade,
either foreign or domestic, is guilty of the basest
slander, no matter what his pretension may be. I
have always been opposed to the slave trade> because
it is unla'wful ; still I do not believe slavery to be a
moral evil. But if those directly interested had
not been interfered with by those Northern traitors,
slavery would have been the greatest blessing to the
slaves that could be bestowed upon them in this
world, and a blessing to the whole white population
of this country, as much so to the New Englanders
as the Southerners, and all other civilized nations
of the earth. If they should all be freed, they will
at once become the greatest curse to themselves and
the whole white population of the United States,
that has ever fallen upon any free and happy people.
I have said enough on this point in former chapters,
therefore I will leave it for the present.
There is not a rebel in the South who is not the
legitimate offspring of the abolitionists. These
Northern traitors are something like Judas Iscariot,
Simon's son, when ^e said, " Why was not this

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 281
ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given
to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for
the poor ; but because he was a thief, and had the
bag, and bare what was put therein." John xii. 5-6.
Now these abolition fanatics care no more for the
welfare of the poor slave, than Judas did for the
poor, when he had accepted the price and was ready
to betray the Son of God. The abolition fanatics,
perhaps, have got the bag, and if they succeed in
the universal emancipation of the slaves, they of
course expect to take charge of the government,
and control its purse strings. If we are allowed to
judge from what we now see divulged by their near
approach to power, what will it be when they are
fully installed at the head of this great nation. The
poor negroes will lament their emancipation, if they
should not be put on an equality with the whites,
which every man and woman of common sense
knows, will never be in this country; and the
attempt to bring about such a state of social and
political intercourse, is more devilish, if possible, than
the Southern rebellion. If successful, it _ will pro
duce a general rebellion of the white people against
the negroes, who are now harmless and innocentj
only so far as they are deceived into wrong by their
pretended white brethren ; a rebellion that will not
cease, perhaps, until the American soil is completely
saturated 'with innocent blood, from Maine to Florida,
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This will as
suredly be the result of universal emancipation of
the slaves in the United States, unless a universal
despotism is established on the heel of emancipation
24*

282 AFRICAN SLAVERY,
with an immense standing army under the control
of a single monarch. Then our abolition fanatics
will have their wish, for in this way we shall be
brought down and placed on an eqnality with
Africans. It is denied by many that one of the objects of the
republican party was the emancipation of all the
slaves in the United States. If that is so, how came
Congress to pass the following into laws by the ap
proval of the President of the United States ?
1. "A resolution to induce the States to free' their
negroes." 2. "An act abolishing slavery in the District of
Columbia," 'without the consent of the people there.
3. "An act empowering the negroes to carry the
United States mails."
4. " A new article of war, prohibiting officers, in
the army and navy, from returning the negroes to
their masters, who run into their ranks."
I think these acts need an explanation to make
them harmonize with the declarations of said party)
that they would not interfere with slavery where it
already existed. All four of them are unconstitu
tional, and 'will go far towards weakening the chances
for the restoration of the Union ; and every true
unconditional Constitutional Union man, who fully
understands its eminent glories to man, will think as
I do, and who is not -willing to jeopardize these great
blessings to man (white or black) for the sake of
freeing a few slaves, or for any amount of military
glory, not even to be Commander-in-chief of the
armies of the United States. The thought of losing

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 288
the Union is more terrible to them than any other
earthly calamity that could possibly befall man. If
the restoration of the Union, with peace and bar*
mony, was the only and exclusive object sought for
by the party in power, there would be no attempt
to free the slaves. But it is clear to every thinking
man, that emancipation is the main object sought for
by many of the leaders, and a vast number of- their
constituents. Tell me how can these be purely Union men, and
yet trifle -with it for matters comparatively of no mo
ment to us for good, but fraught with evil, and even
if successful -without a complete overthrow of the
Union, would throw us back as a prosperous nation
at least one hundred years, and make the condition
of the poor negro hopeless ? Don't tell me again that
I sympathize with the Southern rebellion, for if I
was capable of hating as bitterly as the devil hates
Christianity, I could not satisfy myself with hatred
to any party who favors the destruction of this great
and glorious Union, or denies that white men are
capable of self-government; therefore I hate the
war and the means used, and the men who produced
it. Abolitionism is the progenitor of this rebellion,
and will be thus held in history. They are respon
sible for its origination, for all the sectional hatred
between the North and South, and for all the de
struction of life, limb, and the horrors of this most
ungodly rebellion, for all the devastation and con
sternation broadcast over this once happy country ;
and for a national debt, that perhaps will reach
before it is settled $3,000,000,000, for which we

284 AFRICAN SLAVERT,
shall be compelled to raise by a direct tax to pay
the annual interest, and to support a standing army,
^ith the expenses of the government of at least
$300,000,000, without reducing the principal one
cent. In short, they are the sum and substance of
all the sectional villiany we have had, or ever shall
have in this nation.
Lay off your sectional and partisan prejudices,
and look the matter fair in the face, and you 'will
see hundreds of millions of dollars being wasted to
blind the credulous populace that they may load
their sins on the backs of the innocent, while they
are destroying and devastating the best government
that ever has been or ever shall be on this earth,
this side of the millenium. Indeed it was the fore
shadowing of that blessed ddy.
I will requote the peace measures offered by Jeff.
Davis of Miss, and Eobert Toombs of Geo., that the
reader may draw his own conclusions, by compar
ing the peace, love, harmony, and union we should
now have between the extremes and throughout the
entire country with the widespread ruin and destruc
tion of human life, and the thousands of millions of
hard earned property, with the devastation and
consternation now widespread over our country, all
of which would have been prevented had the fol
lowing peace offerings been accepted by the repub
licans in power, or had the Crittenden Compromise
been accepited by the same party.
" The Proceedings of the Senate Crisis Committee.
Washington, Dec. 26, 1860. The Senate Committee, of
thirteen had another meeting to-day, and discussed further

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 285
the general subject of reconcihation ; but nothing was adopted.
which would answer as a basis for permanent peace."
The (then) Hon. Jefferson Davis offered the fol
lowing resolution, which he held to be necessary as
an elementary principle of an adjustment that would
satisfy the South, unless it was a division of Terri
tories : —
" Resolved, That it shall be declared by amendment of the
Constitution that property in slaves, recognized as such by
the local law of any of the States of the Union, shall stand
on the same footing in all Constitutional and Federal relations
as any other species of property so recognized, and, like other
property, shall not be subject to be divested or impaired by
the local law of any other State, either in escape thereto or of
transit or sojourn of the owner therein ; and in no case what
ever shall such property be subject to be divested or impaired
by any legislative act of the United States, or of any of the
Territories_thereof." The Eepublicans voting unanilnously against the
resolution, and all the others for it, it was lost by a
sectional vote.
The following resolutions were then offered by
the (then) Hon. Eobert Toombs of Georgia, and were
lost in the same manner as the above.
"First, That the people of the United States shall have
an equal right to emigrate to and settle in the present or any
future acquired Territories, with whatever property they may
possess, including slaves, and be securely protected in its
peaceable enjoyment until such Territory may be admitted
as a State in the Union, with or without slavery, as she may
determine, on an equahty with all the existing States.
"Second, That property in slaves shall be entitled to the
same protection from the government of the United States in
all of its departments, everywhere, which the Constitution

286 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
confers the power upon it to extend to any other property ;
provided nothing herein contained shall be construed to limit
or restrain the right now belonging to every State to pro
hibit, aboUsh, or establish and protect slavery within, its
limits. " Third, Thafepersons committing crimes against slave pro
perty in one State, and fleeing to another, shall be deUvered
up in the same manner as persons committing other crimes,
and that the laws of the State from which such persons flee
shall be the test of criminality."
Now, for the sake of the common peace and hap
piness of the whole country, let us reason together
and look this matter fair in the face, remembering
that we all have the same interest at stake. We
are all one people, east, west, north, and south, and
every blow we strike the South, hits us just as hard
as it does them, and vice versa. For God's and.
humanity's sake, let us now try to settle this matter
like brethren. We can yet call a national conven
tion and accept the offer ; it is not even now too late.
This union will never be fully restored without
some such settlement. We may whip the South,
but that will not bring peace and union back to our
distracted country ; but it will consign us to an eter
nal despotism, and destroy the • last vestige of hope
for the poor negro race in this country. We shall
never know the great value of this God-created
Union, until it is lost, and when once lost, it will be
lost forever. Human nature can he managed by
Gospel means, but not by coercion. The South want
nothing but to be placed on a political equality with
the North, where they would have the same protec
tion and feel themselves entirely safe. Now see

AFRICAN SLAVEKV. 287
how easy it would have been to have prevented this
widespread ruin. May the Lord save us from such
an interminable woe! This settlement would not add
one slave more to the number, nor increase the num
ber of slave States, but would most undoubtedly
result in making four or five of the border slave
States free, and incalculably increase the liberty and
happiness of the slaves in all the other slave States.
It would end the controversy, and our peace ^and
union would flow as a river until we should be
engulfed in the Millennium.
As I have said, we may ultimately overpower the
Southern States, but a standing army will have to
be kept in the field, to keep them in subjection,
which 'will eat out our very 'vitals, and this curse
will be our doom throughout all time. It will place
tyrants over us, and reduce us from a self-governing
people to slaves, and force us to social, political, and
domestic equality with African negroes. For God's
sake stop and think before you take another step
towards coercion, for I tell you the displeasure of
Omnipotence will eternally rest upon us all, and our
political glory will be extinguished forever, and the
bright sunbeams of our national Union will cease to'
arouse the admiration of all the civilized nations of
the earth, and to dazzle the eyes of kings, monarchs,
or potentates of other lands. It will veil heaven in
sackcloth, elevate infidelity, and send a thrill or
howl of glory throughout deep, dark damnation.
I tell you that a union of these United States
cannot be produced by war or coercion. A free
Eepublican Union has never been nor never will be

288 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
created or restored by coercion. Coercion and the
sword are the legitimate weapons of monarchs, or
the last resort against oppression; and monarchical or
despotic governments are the only offsprings of
coercion by the sword. Better for us a thousand
times we had never broken loose from our mother
country, better for us we had never tasted complete
liberty, and felt the exhilarating influence of a true
union of hearts. Yea, it would have been better
for us had the blessed Lord suffered the destroying
angel to have swept the whole nation at one dash
from the occupancy of this part of his vineyard,
while we were in a state of peace, and harmony, than
it will be for us to attempt to reconstruct or restore
our lost Union by coercion and civil war ; for I tell
you it will produce the very opposite and secure
our nationtal, state, and individual ruin. The dis
pleasure of Jehovah is already upon us, and unless
we change our ideas of restoration in this matter, it
win grind us to powder. And all this because the
Great Giver of the unbounded and unlimited bless
ings we have enjoyed through our great and glori
ous union of States, charged us with a portion of an
accursed race, for their good and our glory and
benefit, and by whom' all the States were equally
blessed. The South has been trying for more than fifty
years to drive the negro question from the political
arena, that the Union might be complete. They
have offered to concede three quarters of their Con
stitutional rights on the question of slavery. Eead
the thirteen resolutions passed by a Soutliern con-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 289
vention in 1850, at Nashville, Tenn., and their
proposition voted for in 1848, by a unanimous South
in both Houses of Congress, to extend the Missouri
•Compromise through to the Pacific Ocean. You
will find them in the reports of 1848 ; but those
published above are sufficient to satisfy any true
.Union man that the Southern States did not want
to break up this Union, but to save it in peace and
harmony. Now don't stop to denounce tcib as a
sympathizer with the Southern rebellion, for I tell
you I hate it more than you do who are willing to
destroy the Union to get clear of slavery. Look
over Davis's and Toombs's offers, as above, and just
think how different our condition would now be
had the party in power accepted that last offer,
though in that they asked for a -great deal more
than they ever did before, but for nothing more
than their constitutional rights. Now, for human
ity, union, and peace sake, stop and think before
you take another step to coerce the South, and let
us call a national convention and make those amend
ments to the national constitution. I don't mean that
we shall draw our armies -from the field unless the
South should withdraw theirs.
I am told it is too late now to make any changes.
How are we to know tha^ it is too late if we refuse
to make the offer ? How came the majority in the
committee of thirteen to refuse when it was not too
. late ? Simply because it was a union saver and a
peace restorer, and a complete abolisher of the ever
lasting slave question from the halls of Congress,
and a preventer of any and every man from sad-
25

290 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
dling the poor unfortunate negro, and riding him
into power.
The publication of this book may ride me off to
some fort or dungeon; if so, I 'must submit to my
fate. I know that I shall go there with a conscious
ness that I have done all in my power to prevent the
collision between the North and South in the first
place, and in the second, to save this great and
glorious nation from an everlasting overthrow. I
shall feel guiltless, and posterity wiU not rise up
and curse me for what I have done. H I could be
the means of convincing some good men of the great
error of forcing or coercing men and women into
a union (we had just as well undertake to coerce
them to be Christians), or if I should be the means
of convincing some of my Christian brethren of the
different means necessary to establish despotic or
monarchical governments, and a free republican
union, I should feel happy locked up in some fort
for my sins against abolitionism and infidelity. I
have many good friends whom I love much, by
whom I shall be stigmatized as a traitor to my
country for this publication, but if they could see
and know my heart they would not charge me with
such a crime. I had rather be charged with murder
in the first degree, or with highway robbery, and
either one would be equally true and even more proba
ble ; for I look upon a traitor as being far worse than
either. No patriot will interfere with the constitu
tional and lawful rights of any State, and he who
does it is a traitor, and ought to be hung up by the
neck until he is dead: True patriots are willing to

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 291
yield to any man or set of men or States all of
their lawful rights and a little more for the sake of
the general good of their country ; especially to save
it from a civil war, and any refusal of the majority to
yield to-the minority all of their constitutional rights
is treason, braggadocio, bullyism, and infidelity.
All abolitionists are not traitors in the true sense
of the word, for I know some true men who are
abolitionists, but not of the Garrisonian stripe. See
what a condition we are in just by refusing the mi
nority their Constitutional rights in our National
Commonwealth, and how righteously easy it would
have been to have prevented all this national and
individual ruin. • If our leaders had been true
unadulterated patriots in the free States, all would
now be happy and prosperous, east, west, north and
south. The South may soon be conquered in war, but
our glorious Union will never be restored with
peace, harmony, and tranquillity, without some suph
concessions as asked for in the offers above.
I will close this chapter with a short quotation
from a speech made by the Hon. John Q. Adams
not long before his death, before the New York
Historical Society.
How truly does he say, ".but- the indissoluble link
of the Union between the people of the several
States of this confederated nation, is, after all, not
iif the right, but in the heart," and also "far better
will it be for the people of the disunited States, to
part in friendship with each other, than he held together
by constraint^
" In calm hours of self-possession, the right of a State to

292 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
nuUify an act of Congress, is too absurd for argument,, and
too odious for discussion. The right of a State to secede from
the Union is equally disowned by the principles of the Declara
tion of Independence. Nations acknowledge no judge be
tween them upon earth, and their governments from necessity,
must in their intercourse with each other decide when the
failure of one party to a contract to perform its obligations,
absolves the other from the reciprocal fulfilment of his own.
But this last of earthly powers is not necessary to the freedom
or independence of States, connected together by the immedi
ate action of the people, of whom they consist. To the people
alone is there reserved, as well the dissolving, as the con
stituent power, and that power can be exercised by them only
under the tie of conscience, binding them to retributive justice
of Heaven.
" "With these qualifications, we may admit the same'right as
vested in the people of every State in the Union, with reference
to the General Government, which was exercised by the people
of the United Colonies, with reference to the supreme head of
the British empire, of which they formed a part — and under
these limitations, have the people of each State in the Union
a rigid to secede from the confederated Union itself.
" Thus stands the right. But the indissoluble link of Union
between the peopleof the several States of this confederated
nation, is, after all, not in the right, but in the heart. If the
day should ever come (may Heaven avert it) when the affec
tions of the people of these States shall be alienated from
each other ; when the fraternal spirit shall give way to cold
indifference, or collisions of interest shall fester into hatred,
the band of political associ^-tion will not long hold together
parties no longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated
interests and kindly sympathies ; and far better will it be for
the people of the disunited States, to part in friendship wiih
each other, than to be held together by constraint. Then
will be the time for reverting to the precedents which oc
curred at the formation and adoption of the Constitution, to
form again a more perfect Union, by dissolving that which
could no longer bind, and to leave the separated parts to be
reunited by the law of political gravitation to the centre."

CHAPTEE VI.
Have the Friends or Quakers Produced this 'War ?
I HAVE very often heard it said that the Quakers
were all abolitionists, and cpnsequently bad citizens.
There is an impression throughout the free States, as
well as the slave States, that the society of Friends
were among the leaders, if not the instigators or
originators, and perpetuators of all the schemes of
abolitionism in the United States, and that they
were contrivers and engineers of the underground
railroad, and all other schemes of slave stealing
ever concocted in this country. That their object
is to get their labor for nothing, a^d I have often
heard stories similar to the following told on them.
That they would contrive to get the slaves to run
away from their, masters, and take them in their
employ, and agree to pay them ten dollars per
month, and board them for ten months, the wages to
be paid at the end of the time. They worked them
very hard, from the first of March to the middle of
December, at which time they would inform the
runaways that they had just got news that their
piasters were in the neighborhood after them, and
that they must take the railroad immediately for
Canada, or they would be caught ; and frighten the
25* ( 293 )

294 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
poor darkies out of their -wits. They would have
their tickets ready through to Canada, and pack up
provisions enough to last them through, and then
say they would send their wages as soon as they
sold their crops ; so the poor negroes would run
into Canada penniless. But their Quaker friend
would never send the wages. And in- that way
they would get their ten months' labor for their
board, and about twenty dollars. The underground
railroad would bring them another supply for spring,
who would be carried through the same manoeuvres,
and run off in the same way, and so on, they would
get their work done in that way for almost nothing.
These charges are false, and as slanderous as the
charges of cruelties against the Southern slavehold
ers. The Orthodox Quakers have never meddled
with slavery except in a lawful way, and that, I be
lieve, has only happened in a few special cases, and
then by lawful petitioning. There are no better
citizens in the world than the Orthodox Friends;
they have always attended strictly to their own
business, and let other people's alone; which if all
others here in the North had done,- the present trou
ble would never been known or thought of, and the
Quakers of North Carolina would be as happy to
day, as their brethren were twenty years age in the
North, and there would be a perfect business Union
this day between the Quakers of the free States and
the slaveholders of Charleston, South Carolina, and
the slaveholders of the South would be allowed this
day, and at all times, to travel through the free
States anywhere, with their body bond-servants, un-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 295
molested ; and Quakers would this day be in Charles
ton, from free States, attending to their business, and
would be respected and loved there, as they are here
at their homes.
Think of it. What a different state of things we
should have to-day. And how quick peace would
be declared, and everybody at their homes attend
ing to their legitimate business, if every man
would suddenly imbibe the principles of the Qua
kers in attending to their own business strictly and
let other people's alone.
I have been intimately acquainted with the Socie
ty of Friends for thirty years, and have had a great
many business transactions with them, some of long
continuation, and some short, and have made as
many settlements, and I can testify to their correct
ness and honesty in all their transactions in life.
I have never known one to be troublesome or quar
relsome in a single case. They believe in " render
ing unto Cesar the things that are Cesar's, and unto
God the things that are God's."
The Quakers are anti-slavery in principle and
in fact ; they are not slave-holders, and do not allow
their members to own them, either directly or indi
rectly. But they are a law-abiding people, and
are opposed to any interference with the laws of
other States. They never have interfered with
slavery beyond their own society ; they say they are
not responsible for the institution of slavery in this
country. I have had many conversations with them
on the subject, and some warm arguments; they
differ with me on the divine institution of slavery,

296 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
but many of them agree with me on many points.
One is that the negro race is a lower grade of beings,
and the two races never can be on an equality to
gether in this world. And many of them say the
slaves are better off where they are than they would
be free. They are honest, upright, and sober, and
are not apt to speak unless they have something to
say. They are generally magnanimous, generoUSj
and slow to anger ; and very liberal where need be,
and mostly kind in their dispositions. Of course they
have some scabby sheep among them. But on the
general they are outwardly all that pertains to a
true Christian people, which must flow from a pure -
fountain within.
I don't know that I ever saw one angry, or the
least excited. This gives them great advantage in
debate, and they are mostly very respectful to
the feelings of others. Upon the general, they are
as near perfection as a society can be in all their
walks in this world. And I believe, had they not
rejected the sacraments, as a Christian society, they
would now control a great part of this world, pro
vided they had kept up their present principles as
they have mostly done.
I am not a Quaker nor never was, and never had
a relation that was. And I believe there was not
one in the county in which I was born and raised.
There were some in the adjoining county. I am
not now connected with them in any way whatever,
and I have no personal interest in them to influence
me to speak for them. They take care of their own
poor, and never allow them to suffer want. I never

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 297
saw one a beggar, or in the county almshouse.
They have their own asylums for the poor. I
think they are somewhat in error in their ecclesi
astical arrangements. But, upon the whole, they
are the most upright, straightforward, and consist
ent citizens in this country.
I made a remark of this kind the other day to a
gentleman, and he said that could not be, for he
thought Passmore Williamson was a very meddle
some man, and he was a Quaker. I told him I had
known Mr. Williamson for twenty-five years, and
knew he had not been a member of the Orthodox
Meeting for many years; therefore they are not
responsible for his conduct. Though 1 know no
thing whatever against his character, but his fanati
cal notions of slavery, which I think have arisen
from great zeal without knowledge on that great
subject. I have often thought that if the national Legisla
ture were made entirely of Orthodox Quakers for
six years, we should have such an example set that
would do the nation good. I believe every article
and section of the constitution and laws would be
carried out and executed to the letter, even the
fugitive slave clause, for they are a law-loving, and
law-abiding people. They have, from George Fox
down to the present, made it a part of their religion
to respect the laws of the land. And yet they have
been subjects of great persecutions at times, even in
this country, and by professing Christians too. The
Puritans persecuted them to death in some cases, in
New England, where all the abominations have

298 AFRICAN SLAVERY,
been conceived and born, that have brought about
the awful crisis now in this nation, that perhaps has
ended the freedom and happiness of us all, in trying
to free those that God never intended to have tem
poral freedom. For when Noah said a servant of
servants he shall be to his brethren. He, Jehovah^
named no time this servitude should cease. He did
not say, until you are sufficiently punished, or until
you have repented, and have acknowledged your
crime against your old parent. But we are left to
suppose it will run through all time, and prevent
their freedom, and social equality. He has given
them a more loathsome and obnoxious appearance
to nearly all the senses of their brethren, the descend
ants of Shem and Japheth ; so much so, that social
and domestic equality is impossible, and their free
dom would be the means of their extermination.
I have sufficiently discussed this point in the first
and second chapters, to which I refer the reader.
I say the Quakers have done nothing to produce
this war between brethren of the same family.
A great many people seem not to be aware that
there was a split in the Society of Friends in 1827,
on the atonement. Elias Hicks took the ground
that there was no more virtue in the shedding of
Christ's blood than that of a bull or a ram ; and he
had many followers ; and the Orthodox Society was
cleansed thereby from fanaticism and discord. The
new societies are called the Hicksites. They are en
tirely independent of the Orthodox Quakers or Fox
ites. And the Orthodox are not responsible for any
doings of the Hicksites no more than they are for the

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 299.
doings of Passmore Williamson, or any other anti-
slavery fanatic. There are many Garrisonians among
the Hicksites, and infidelity prevails among them
to a very great extent, and in nearly all the infidel
associations that come along, we find a large sprink
ling of Hicksite Quakers, and at the public contro
versies that have taken place between Christians and
infidels, we find very prominent Hicksite Quakers
in attendance, and on the side of infidelity. The
last controversy of the kind I attended was at Con
cert Hall, between Dr. Berg, D. D., of Philadelphia,
and an Englishman named Barker who was once a
minister of the Gospel of Christ ; at which I saw a
number, yes many of the disciples of Hicks seated
through the house, and some on the platform, all of
whom' seemed to be on the side of infidelity. I was
personally acquainted with a number I saw there
of that class, all of whom seemed to exult more
than any others whenever a hard blow would be
let loose against Christianity by that celebrated
infidel, by shouting, and stamping their feet, and
clapping their hands, or pounding the floor with
their canes. They followed this deserter from the
Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the devil,
the Sunday Institute, that was got up to blaspheme
the name of the Son of God; they there worship
at the feet of infidelity.
I cannot say that this self-styled society of Friends
has had nothing to do with this awful calamity that
is now afflicting this country from, centre to circum
ference. For the only religion they seem to profess,
is to oppose the atonement of our blessed Lord, and

300 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
denounce slavery and slaveholders. They have
dealt largely in the many publications that have so
embittered the present generation of the free States
against the slaveholders of the South and all the
Southern people, except the poor negroes who are
always better off and happier than the five-sixths of
the poor people of the free States. I have heard
some of them express themselves exultingly over
the war now prevailing, and say many thousand
lives may be lost, but the slaves would be set at
liberty, and that would pay for all.
Those are the people that have given the Ortho
dox Quakers a bad name, a great many people
not knowing that Apollyon had assailed the genuine
ranks of the true Friends, and made many disciples,
who formed themselves into a separate and independ
ent society, and have closed the only door against
themselves ever opened for eternal life. But among
them are many useful citizens, and outside of their
religious views of the atonement and their activity
against slavery, they are much the same as the Or
thodox. The true Quakers are among the leaders in all
the great improvements in the country. They have
a great many rich men among them ; and we have
had the Copes, the Browns, the Woods, &c. &o., and
they have not withheld their hands from any good
thing. They are never hasty in any new improve
ment ; but, when once started, they are untiring in
their perseverance.
The Quakers, from George Fox down, have been
opposed to war. In this they have been proverbial

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 301
or celebrated- for their opposition to all war and
bloodshed, and the Quakers of the Eevolution that
entered the battle-field, were disowned, or excommu
nicated ; they were called the fighting or free Qua
kers, and had their nieeting house _in this city at the
S. W. corner of Fifth and Arch Sts. ; but I don't
think they have worshipped there for many years.
It was said that, they had to have Quaker preaching
there a certain number of times every year, but
they had no. preachers. Yet some one of their mem
bers would go there at the appointed time, and go
through the manoeuvres. It was said the meeting
house was left to them in that way. I do not vouch
for those reports.
But I find a significant change has come over
many of the Friends. The Hicksites seem nearly
all to approve of the present civil war: This is
strange, for they have always taken the ground that
when attacked they would not resist by force of
arms, but fold their hands and trust in the Lord for
redemption. The disciples of, Elias Hicks were
celebrated for this kind of defence. But, strange
to say, they seem to encourage the prosecution of this
war to the hilt, to the steel, and to the death. And
all the stories we ever heard told about the mild
ness of the Quaker in the time of an attack, showed
them to be celebrated for compromise in order to
make peace. And above all their great coolness
when in the hands of an enemy of any kind, so that
the worst of men have been made to love them, and
offer terms of compromise, even when they had all
26

302 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
in their hands. Yery many such stories have been
told about' them, to illustrate their cool wit and lib
erality to enemies and all others, under all circum
stances of life. Therefore is it not wonderful that
they should be opposed to any peace measures being
introduced in order to settle the present trouble in
some way to save the Union without the shedding
of blood?
How are we to account for this among this class of
Quakers ? I don't say all of them, but many or most
of them. Why did they and all others that went in
for the success of the party now in power, say one
year ago that there was no danger, that no attempt
would be made by the South to secede from the
Union, let who would be elected ; that even South
Carolina could not be kicked out of the Union.
Such declarations were made by all the leaders of
the successful party,, and their followers, in reply to
the declarations made by the opposition, that the
success of the republicans would produce this trou
ble, unless they nominated and elected men who
were known in the South not to be abolitionists.
And why do they say now this trouble had to come
anyhow, and let us push it through at the mouth of
the cannon, at the point of the bayonet, and at the
edge of the sword ? Why did they then pronounce
such anathemas upon us for foretelling these calami
ties ? And now why do they denounce us as seces
sionists, and rebels against the government, because
we tell them the only way to save the Union, and
have a perpetual peace, will be to give the South her
equal rights in the territories of the United States,

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 303
and gi've them such guaranties as will make them
feel safe in the Union with us.
I ask this question of all that I talk with
who differ with me, and the only reply I get is : It
had to be, and therefore there was no way to avoid
it. I ask, have you tried any other way ? Did we
not tell you that your way would produce destruc
tion to this heaven-like Union ? And did you not
tell us we were only sensationists, fools, ai^d locofoco
lick-spittles, and all such hard things ? Now if we
were such good prophets then, and foretold just what
has come to pass, why not respect us now, when we
tell you, under the same prophetic vision, that war
will never save this Union ? We may subdue the
South, but I tdll you again the white man has never
yet been conquered nor never will be by force. He
may be subdued by an overpowering force, and
held in subjugation by the same ; but he cannot be
conquered. I mean he will never submit volunta
rily, and love the place into which he is forced, or the
power that compelled him.
Negroes can be conquered and made to love the
power that holds them; it is congenial with their
nature, and so of some of the mixed races. But
the descendants of Shem have never been conquered
into an affectionate submission, except by an equal
compromise made in love, and by claiming them as
equal in every particular. So if we want our Union
restored, it must be done by peace measures offered
in love, by acknowledging our Southern brethren to
be our equals, and giving them their equal rights in

304 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
all the territories that now belongs or may hereafter
belong to the United States.
The time was when the extension of the Missouri
compromise to the Pacific Ocean would have done,
and saved us. But it will not now, I fear. If we
continue to shout, no compromise with traitors, and
determine to subjugate them, mark my words, our
die is cast, and our doom fixed. Every repubUcan
that has studied the history of the questions that
now divide us, knows well what would be the re
sult of the success of the republican party. And
when they persuaded the people that there was no
danger in their success, they knew just as well as
the devil did when he beguiled Eve, and said thou
shalt not surely die, that death would be the result.
That result was just what he wanted, and the eman
cipation of all the sla,ves is just what certain leaders
of the republican party wanted, and still want, or
there would be no trouble in settling this question.
This is the answer to my question, and the only cor
rect answer that can be given.
I would ask my Hicksite friends, what they ex
pect to gain by the emancipation of all the slaves ?
Have you ever studied the human nature of the
Anglo-Americans? Do you suppose for "one mo
ment, that he will ever be put on an equality .'with
Africans, or allow them to have equal rights with
the white man? If you do, you will be disap
pointed, for that day will never come ? God never
intended it should be so, and you never knew one,
that went down to their level, that did not fall far
below them, and was looked upon with disgust and

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 305
contempt by all good citizens. What is that beauti
ful white girl thought of after she has become the
wife of the African ? Or what is that nice-looking
and polite, chaste, and accomplished, white man
thought of by all good people, who has chosen, and
taken to himself a black, notty-headed negro woman
for a wife ? Think of it ; this is the only way of be
ing on an equality.
You say the white people of the South have
children by their negro women. If they do, they
take care of the mother and of&pring. And so also
do the white men of the North have children by
black women, in much larger proportion to numbers
than what is done in the South; and they leave
mother and child to starve, or live upon the slops
from the swill-tub provided for the hogs. We don't
deny these facts, they are truths that stare us in the
face daily. I would ask my Hicksite friends in what
kind of esteem they hold men who do those things.
If you find out who they are, are they not loathsome
to your very soul whenever you think of them, and
do you not' hate and shun them wherever you see
them ? We know persons of strong passions and
degraded by bad company and intoxicating drink,
yield to such passions in the moment of temptation.
But ask that man, if he is willing to be placed on
a public and perpetual equality with the black man,
and his very soul will revolt within him at the in
sulting question, while he will answer no.
I know some steps have been taken in New Eng
land towards a political equality. They are allowed
to vote in some of those States, and in New York
26*

806 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
on certain contingencies. That has been done for
effect, and if all the slaves were emancipated, those
liberties would be abolished in less than three years,
and an animosity and prejudice would spring up
against the poor negroes that would be more terrible
than any slavery ever known on this earth. A large
proportion of the liberties of the so-called free ne
groes of the free States, is the certain result of a
hatred to the slaveholders of the South. Those
liberties are given in some of the free States to try
to prejudice the slave States, and to set the slaves
against their masters. And I say again that the
only safety in this country for the negro race, is to
keep them in slavery; for universal emancipation
will bring about a universal sweeping from Ameri
can soil the entire colored race in some way. That
will go hard with the poor negroes, and that awful
conflict may commence where abolitionism did, and
among those who have been the strongest opponents
of slavery, will be found the first who will move to
drive them out of the country.
I have many friends among the Hicksite Quakers,
and I hold them in the high esteem, for when I was
a stranger they took me in, and gave me my start
in the world. But, alas ! it now turns out too much
like the cow that gave a large pail of milk, and
when done, she up foot and kicked it all over. ' So
I fear my friends have, by their conduct towards the
South, aided largely in upsetting the pail that was
so nearly filled. The Orthodox Quakers^ never have
voted so nearly all one way as the Hicksites. They
were mostly Whigs in Mr. Clay's time ; yet they

AFRICAN SLAVER-V. 807
were somewhat divided between the two great
parties, and last Ml a great many of them voted for
John Bell, and a good many for Judge Douglas ;
and even some for Mr. Breckinridge, and others for
Mr. Lincoln. So their vote was not a sectional one.
They are true to their country as a people, and
they do not make abolitionism their religion. They
embrace Christ as their only hope of salvation. They
were charged by some of being privy to the John
Brown raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in conse
quence of which they made the following declara
tions, which 'will show that I have not misrepresented
them. I cannot but admire the principles set forth
in the declarations, however much I may differ with
them on a few points ; but they nowhere call the
masters thieves, murderers, and robbers, simply
because they are slave-holders ; but friends, in an
humble, affectionate, and Christian-like manner.
Which, if all other anti-slavery men had done like
wise, our national peace would flow this day like
a river, and our Union and prosperity would be
limited only by the bounds of our country. By the
bounds of our country did I say ? I should have
said unparalleled on the face of the globe. See the
declaration of the Foxites, who are the Orthodox
Quakers : —
"At a Meeting of the Representatives of the Religious So
ciety of Friends, in Pennsylvania, New-Jersey, Delaware,
§-c., held in Philadelphia, Third Month lUh, 1860 :—
"Several articles have appeared in the public Journals
¦within a few mouths past — some in the form of Letters, dated
and written in the plain style used by Friends ;— and others as

808 AFRICAN SLAVER'S-.
proceedings of Meetings in which persons designated as
Friends took part ; — which articles seem to sanction the use
of force to free the Slaves, and also to connive at efforts to
subvert the government ; and as those who are unacquainted
^with our principles and practices may be thereby led to im-
pUcate the Society in such views and proceedings, we beheve
it right, on behalf of those we represent, to disclaim any
unity there-with, and to repel an imputation so unjust and
injurious to the religion Friends have always professed.
" In compliance with the precepts of the Saviour of the
world, which breathe peace on earth and good-'will to men,
and command us to love our enemies, and to do good to them
that hate us and persecute us ; our religious Society has stead
fastly maintained a testimony against all wai-s and fightings,
tumults, violence, and shedding of blood, and against forcible
resistance to oppression, whether inflicted -with or -without color
of law; and has believed it to be a duty to live peaceably under
the authorities placed over us — ^to obey the laws of our country
where they do not infringe on our religious principles ; and
where they do, passively and patiently to endure the penalties
inflicted on us.
"The Society of Friends has long borne a decided testi
mony against holding our fellow men in bondage, as being
incompatible -with the benign spirit of the Gospel, and con
trary to the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ ; Matt, vii,
12 ; John xiii. 34, 35 ; xv. 12, 17, &c. ; and those members
who once held slaves, long since set them free, and in many
instances remunerated them for their labor whUe in bondage.
This testimony is as dear to us now as ever ; and we feel
religiously bound to uphold it in the spirit of meekness and
in that Christian love which craves the welfare of both mas
ter and slave.
" "While convinced of the injustice and wrongs attendant on
the system of Slavery, we cannot approve of, or sympathize
with, any forcible or violent measures to obtain the liberty, or
to redress the grievances of the Slaves ; but have counselled
them to endeavor to serve -with patience and fidelity while in
bondage, to fulfil their Christian duties with propriety, and to

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 309
commit their cause into the hands of a merciful and omnipo
tent Father in heaven.
" "Whatever any persons, unjustly assuming the name or the
appearance of Friends, may have said or done, which is incon
sistent with these principles, is contrary to the faith and the
practice of the religious Society of Friends, and cannot justly
be charged upon it.
" Signed on behalf and by direction of the meeting aforesaid.
JOSEPH SNOWDON, aerk."
I disagree with my Orthodox friend on the moral
question of slavery in the abstract. That difference
is caused simply by their confounding spiritual
precepts and examples with temporal, though I do
not know that they declare slavery to be a moral
evil, but they strongly intimate the doctrine. The
introduction of Christianity into the world was not
intended to change a man's temporal condition in
the world, but his spiritual condition only ; so far as
he would be improved by becoming a true Christian,-
he would be entitled to all the benefits thereof, by
his increased worth. If he should continue to l5ve
and fear God, he would rise higher and higher in
the scale of confidence, love, and respect ; whatever
his condition or situation might be in life. What is
the greatest boon or blessing of this life ? Is it not to
have the confidence of all that know us, especially
those who are concerned in us ? What will drive a
good man, or even a bad man to distraction sooner
than to be sensible of having lost the confidence of his
neighbors and friends, and especially those who have
an interest in them? Eighteousness is the only
staff of pleasure, if it is unadulterated and constant,
so that it becomes patent to all that know us.

310 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
.The good slaves are the happiest people I have
ever seen. They have privations, and great priva
tions, it is true. And we have our privations. Theirs
are singular, while ours are plural. While they are
deprived of the liberty of working for whoever
they please, they have no other concern in this
world, but the salvation of their souls. Their bread,
meat, drink, and homes are provided for them ; they
are not troubled about the future of this life in any
way whatever. While we are far greater slaves
than they. We are equally deprived of such liber
ties as we desire ; and what is our concern about the
future? How many white people are driven to
distraction, and thrown into consternation at this
time ? Is it the case with the slaves, except those on
or near the battle-ground ? What are the pains and
aches of the entire white population of the United
States at this time, while the slaves of the South
are fully provided for, and they feel no concern
whatever, but to take care of their masters' property,
and to prepare for heaven? What is the painful
concern and solicitude of at least twelve milhons of
the white people of the free States, at all times, who
are dependent on their daily labor for bread, and a
home for themselves, their wives, and little ones.
They are dependent upon their employers, and they
know if thrown out of employment their families
must suffer, for they have had to stint themselves
and families in the necessaries of life, all the way
through, to make their inadequate earnings keep
them along. So if they lose their situations, they
are thrown upon the' cold charities of the world.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 311
Compared to this, the slavery of the South is a bliss,
it is a heaven and glory.
If our Saviour had fixed a temporal standard, or
condition in this life for us to arrive to before we
could embrace Christ as our Saviour, how many
millions would be debarred, and sink into ever
lasting despair ? But, blessed be his name, that is
not the case. He is just suited to every man's case
and condition in this life ; and it is not required
that any man should change his temporal relations
in life, pro^vided they are lawful.
We have an account of slavery since 2348 years
before Christ, and slaves were the rightful property
of their masters from that time until nearly 100
years after his ascension, and the entire Old and
New Testament Scriptures were written after its
introduction, and most of the patriarchs and pro
phets were slave owners. Yet, strange to say, not
one single word was uttered against it in the whole
book of God. Slavery still existed extensively in
the time of the Evangelists and Apostles, and yet
no one of the writers gives the slightest intima
tion that it was a moral evil. That book being the
only moral guide ever given, and slavery being one
of the fruits of the fall, or consequences of sin having
entered into the world, therefore it is no more
sin in itself than all other afflictions poor sinful
men are subjected to in this world.
I will now close up with my Orthodox brethren,
by telling a little story to illustrate their usual plan
of interfering with slavery : —
Womer Miflin was an inHuential member of

312 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
Friends' meeting, and a man of talent and great
moral courage, and a large amount of philanthropy.
He was untiring in his efforts to get a master to set
Joe, a slave, free. His frequent conversations and
intercessions on behalf of Joe became annoying to
his master ; therefore he said to Worner one morn
ing, that he was welcome at all times at his house
whenever he visited Yirginia ; but I say now, you
must never speak to me again about the emancipa
tion of Joe, for that he should not do. Worner told
the slaveholder he certainly would not, if it was
unpleasant to him. But requested of the master to
allow him to hold a conversation with Joe, and he
would never mention the subject again. The mas
ter consented, and told him where he could see Joe
at a certain hour. The master concealed himself
near the spot, and Worner Miflen made his appear
ance, and said to Joe : I have seen thy master time
after time to try to obtain thy freedom ; I have done
all in my power, but thy master cannot spare thee.
I have called on thee to say, thy master is a very
good man, and tliee must be a faithful servant until
the day of thy death. Love thy master, and obey
him in all things ; be not slack in thy duty to thy
master at any time. And above all, never leave
him without his consent, and let his will be thy will
through life, and thou shalt have thy reward in
heaven. Worner bid Joe farewell and left him.
At the dinner-table next day, the master said to
Worner that he had heard all his conversation the
day before with Joe, and I expected thee was going
to persuade Joe to run away, but thy honor has so «

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 313
affected me, that I say to thee now, that Joe is a free
man from this hour.
This is a complete illustration of the true prin
ciples of the Orthodox Friends — this is now thefr
true character. Therefore, I say, if they had been
the ruling power of the free States, we should now
be in no trouble with our southern brethren. I
have endeavored to give an outline of the true char
acter of the true Quakers, and if I have in any way
erred, they must pardon me, for I have aimed at
right.

27

CHAPTEE VII.
Do as you would be done by.
" 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." — Matt. vii. 12.
I don't know that I ever had a controversy with
an abolitionist on the moral question of slavery who
did not quote the above text to condemn it, and to
prove that the institution of American slavery should
be abolished at once by church and state, because
(say they), " We, the people," feel that we would not
like to be slaves to the African race ; and also to
prove that if we refuse to give our influence for
negro emancipation, we sin against both heaven and
earth. They seem to take it for granted that negro
slavery is a great moral evil under all circumstances,
and no power of heaven or earth can make it other
wise, and think this precept is entirely one-sided in
its bearing {or say so at least), forgetting that the
slaveholders are partners in the great contest
between the North and South of this country, and
in the precept of our Lord above quoted. They for
get that the slaveholder has a right to this text to
shelter himself from the barbed arrows of abolition
ists. For the slaveholders say, if the abolitionists
( 314 )

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 315
would only obey this glorious precept, they would
have peace and rest in all their borders. The abo
litionists seem to think that this great moral precept
was given exclusively for the benefit of the free
States and negroes, and that " We, the people," have
no protection under its beneficent hand from impo
sition and slander. Yet, if abolitionists could only
be prevailed upon to obey this the best of all
precepts, we should now have peace and harmony
throughout this whole nation, .instead of being on
the verge of ruin by a most bloody civil contest.
It would bring us to the very threshold of the great
Millennium spoken of by Christ.
This text is in the words of our Lord himself, and
no man can be his trye follower and disobey it. If
the abolitionists do not disobey it in all its require
ments, no person on this earth does.
Suppose an abolitionist had a relative in Alabama,
owning two hundred slaves, who should die, lea-ving
all of his servants to his only heir, an abolitionist in
Boston, what would you have the abolition heir to
do, who should happen to be a very poor man?
Your answer would be, free them or have nothing
to do with them. Now, you know the laws of the
South are such that the slaves must have a master
to take care of them or to set them free, for none
but a legal owner could free them, and without a
legal claimant they would all be sold by the sheriff,
to the highest bidders, which would scatter them to
the four winds. Then, you say, let him go and take
charge of them and free them. But you know the
law does not allow them to be freed and left there.

816 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
Therefore you would be compelled, in order to free
them, to take them to a free State. And if you
should send them to a free State without equipping
them suitably for the journey, and give them some
thing to subsist upon until they could procure a
livelihood, you would not be doing for them as you
would be done by. And if you should conclude to
send them to free States, it would cost you at least
one hundred dollars each — that would amount to
twenty thousand dollars. Suppose this amount
should be raised to bring them away, and when you
commence operations you should find at least two
hundred more belonging to other men, who were
wives, husbands, children, parents, brothers, and sis
ters of your two hundred slaves, what would you do
then ? To separate man and wife, and parents and
children, would not be doing as you would be done
by. To purchase them would be dealing in human
blood, and if you should get over that point, it would
take perhaps at least two hundred thousand dollars
to purchase them. Suppose that amount could be
raised, and you should find that their masters would
not sell themi, then would you separate man and wife
by bringing yours to a free State ? You know that
this is one of your great objections to slavery; there
fore, you could not do that, and "do as you would J«
done by." If you should resolve to have nothing to
do with them, then all of them would be sold to the
highest bidder. Parents and children, husbands and
wives, would be separated never to see each other
again. Let this abolitionist heir suppose himself to
be a slave, and the husband of one of his women.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 317
who belongs to another owner, would he not have
his master to purchase him, that he might go with
his loved wife ?
Now you must bear in mind that a negro hus
band, wife, child, or parent has the same protection
under this glorious precept of our Lord, that the
white abolitionist has. And no man has a right to
claim what would infringe upon the moral or civil
rights of others under this righteous law : " To do
to others all things whatsoever you would have them
to do to you." No man can be a Christian and
disobey this counsellor, and an authorized Christian
minister who does not respect this law, is simply a
moral devil.
Suppose a murderer was arraigned before the
court for sentence, and the criminal should say to
the court : If your honor was in my place, and I in
yours, I know you would have me to discharge
you, and allow you to go out free, therefore you
must do as you would be done by, and discharge
me from custody, or you will 'be a criminal before
God, and suffer eternal wrath for your disobedience.
in this glorious precept of his. This has just as
much reason in it, as applying the precepts to the
civil relation of master and slave. All that is
taught by this counsel of Christ is, that the master
should treat his slaves just as he would have them
to treat him if circumstances were reversed, and he,
a negro slave to one of them. Of course he would
have his master to treat him the very best that
could be und^ all the circumstances. So the mas-
27*

318 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
ters are all morally bound to treat their slaves the
very best that all the circumstances would allow, by
giving them good wholesome food sufficient for
their real wants, with comfortable clothing, and
never to put on' them more than they can bear with
out injury, and not to injure them in any way what
ever. When he has done this, he has fulfilled this
law so far as the law of master and slaves is con
cerned. If the master does not do this he will be held
to a fearful responsibility, and he will have to render
a fearful account in that great day of God. The re
lations of men are not to be changed to fulfil this
divine precept.
This text is applicable to every transaction of
this life, and no man is required by it to give away all
of his property. But if we go out to sell a horse, we
must not try to make the purchaser believe what we
know is not the truth, in order to get more than the
value. " We must do as we would be done by," if
we were purchasing. The abolitionists are bound by
the same precepts ; that is, to do to the slave-owner
just as they would be done by if they were owners
of slaves. And he is bound to place himself, by
supposition, in a slave State with a large number of
slaves, for whose maintenance he is responsible, and
there ask himself the question, how would he have
men to treat him as a slave-holder. If he can make
up his mind that he would like to be called a tyrant,
thief, robber, and murderer, simply because he is a
slave owner, then he, as an abolitionist, has a right
to say hard things of the slave owner. He must
do as he would be done by if circumstances were

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 319
reversed ; and if he does not do as he would be done
by, he will be held to a fearful account.
A slave is bound by the same rule to do justice
to his mfster in all things, just as he would have a
slave to do to him if he had one, and if he does
not render faithful ser^vice to his master, he will be
held by the moral law as a thief and robber.
He who persuades or steals a slave away from his
master, simply to get him away, has committed a
crime, for which there is no punishment adequate.
He does not only steal a man from his legal owner,
but he runs him into a climate that is not congenial
to his nature, and leaves him there to starve and die.
Therefore, he is not only a man-stealer, but a tyrant
and murderer.
It seems clear to my mind that if this precept of
our Lord was understood by the whole Christian
church as the abolitionists pretend to understand
it, it would be fatal to almost every business in
terest on the earth, it would encourage all kinds
of villainy and wrong, punish the innocent and let
the guilty go free. It is a moral precept in which
we cannot always judge another. Every man must
be his own judge, and if every man was religi
ously honest, no man would then desire another
to do for him what he would not do for another
under the same circumstances. The abolitionists
reqmre the masters to do for their slaves what they
(the abolitionists) would not do, were they placed
under the same circumstances. And they have
reason to believe that they require the master to do
for the slave what the slave feels in his own heart

320 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
he would not do for his master were circumstances
reversed between him and his master.
The abolitionists have introduced a new code of
morals, as unseriptural as that of Joe Smfifh, or the
Spiritualists, and more productive of evil than the
doctrines of the Mormons and Spiritualists. They
are so palpably wrong that they do away with
the code given by our Saviour and the apostles, and
say its day has passed, therefore it does not affect
society in general, and perhaps has been in some .
degree a benefit, because it calls out the morbid, the
vicious, the licentious, the weak, misguided, and the
fanatical, and in this way society is succored and
purified by those doctrines of the devil. But the
abolitionists remain in good society and try to in
still their new code of morals into the minds of the
pure, the virtuous, the unlearned in Scripture, and
the unsuspecting and most pious, zealous portions
of both church and state. They work with a zeal
that is calculated to deceive. The manner of their
proceeding is to agitate society by the question of
slavery. They tell them of its great moral evil,
that the slaveholders are murderers, robbers, and
.thieves, of the worst kind.
On the morning preceding the evening the Penn
sylvania Hall in this city was burnt, I heard an abo
lition lecturer, by the name of Wright, tell a gentle
man from Baltimore that Gen. Washington was a
thief, robber, and murderer, simply because he
(Washington) was a slaveholder. This doctrine, is
universally taught by abolitionists of the Garrison
school, and their object is to throw firebrands into

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 321
society, and to prejudice the North against the South,
and thg South against the North. They are guilty
of treason, murder, and theft. . Of treason, by dis
obedience to the laws of the United States, and by
resisting the same with violence and deadly weapons.
and of murder and theft by persuading the slaves to
run away, " and if their masters pursue them and
attempt to arrest them, to kill them just as they
would a dog, and to steal their master's horses and
money, if they can get it, and make their escape."
But. the most glaring part of the theft is, stealing
slaves from masters. I know men who do this thing
and boast of the success they have had ; and men
who profess to be followers of our Lord. One told
me, on a Sabbath afternoon, at his Sabbath school,
that he had had as high as seventeen runaway slaves
(run off from their masters by means of the under
ground railroad) hid in his garret at one time, all of
whom they passed on to Canada on the railroad.
I am of the opinion that this crime ought to be
made next, if not equal, to the highest crime known
to our criminal code. To say the best of it, it is as
bad as murder in the first degree. When a. man
premeditates a murder, he is likely to make up his
mind to do it in the most expeditious way, that will
prove safest to himself; therefore, does not torture
his victim any more than he can help. But the
underground railroad man does it in a more cruel
manner. He first decoys his victim from his home,
and does it by flattering words of freedom ; he tells
him of the gruelty of slavery — of its enormous wick
edness — ^the hardships he has to undergo, and when

822 AFRICAN SLA-VERY.
he is old and past labor, will be killed and thrown
out. On the other hand, of the glories of the free
States and of freedom ; the happiness they will have,
and of the rich fruits and abundant harvest of the
free States ; of political and social freedom ; that he
will be on an equality with his neighbors, and that
the further he goes north, the better his condition
will be — the greatest friendship and affection is
shown to him. So the poor ignorant slave is com
pletely deluded, and at once becomes dissatisfied
with his condition, and anxious to be free.
I will here insert a report of an abolition meet
ing held in Boston the other day, and the wonderful
exploits of a female conductor on the underground
railroad. I have no doubt she was induced to think
she was doing God's ser'vice by this cruel act. See
as follows: —
" A Female Conductor of the Undeegkound Eailkoad. —
At the late 'Woman's Rights Convention, at Melodeon Hall,
Boston, the most interesting incident was the appearance on
the platform of the colored woman, Mrs. Harriet Tupman, who
has been eight times South, and brought into freedom no less
than forty persons, including her aged father and mother, over
seventy years old. She had a prolonged and enthusiastic
reception." The most noted point in this act of horror was
the briiiging away from ease and comfortable h'omes
two old slaves over seventy years of age. Now
there are no old people of any colot more caressed
and better taken care of than the old worn-out
slaves of the South, except the wealthy whites, who
are few in number. A much larger proportion of
the Southern slaves live to very old ages than do

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 823
the colored people of the North, or free States. Why
is it so ? 1. Because they have regular employ
ment or labor ; 2. they have regular food ; 3. they
have but few, or no hardships, and are never over
worked; 4. they are not dissipated, nor half so
filthy in their living; 5. They are more cheerful
and happy, and the climate is more congenial to
their nature. The nature of the negro never was
intended for the cold climates of America.
On the other hand, the colored people of what is
called the free States seldom have regular employ
ment ; if they could have, they would not. They are
exceedingly irregular in their food, and generally
have that which is unsuited to health, being mostly
refuse. They are very dissipated and filthy, and
have little or almost no employment ; and would
not confine themselves to constant employment if
they could get it. Those old slaves had earned
their living while young, and a home for themselves
when past labor, and had sat down at ease around
the plentiful board of their master, whose duty it
was to support them through old age, and see them
well taken care of in sickness, and when dead to
give them a respectable burying. This ignqrant
woman must have been persuaded and bewildered
by flattery from some fiendish source, or she cer
tainly would not have been guilty of such a diaboli
cal act of wickedness and cruelty to her parents,
who had a fortune laid up for old age, and had
come to the time when labor had ceased to be re
quired at their hands, and were entitled to a peace
ful home with him whom they had served so many

824 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
years, and where the laws of the State compelled
him to give them that support righteously due them
the balance of their days, and where they had friends
to comfort and console them in declining life.
Can it be possible that so large an audience of
white people can be found in so high a civilized
community, professing so much love for the poor
slaves, who could applaud such an act of wicked
ness and cruelty in a child to her parents, as this
certainly was ; and a thousand times worse than to
steal young ones away ! I admit it to be a great
act of kindness to the master, or the estate that had
•them to support ; and perhaps was a saving of some
two hundred dollars a year to him or his estate.
The notice does not say where she took them to;
but we suppose as far north as she could get them,
and altogether likely into Canada, where they
have nearly six months of severe winter out of the
twelve, I cannot conceive of a more wicked act
towards parents. Confinement in the penitentiary
for life would be "inadequate" to her crime, for
stealing her old parents away from a good home
and friends, and a living already laid up sufficient
for all their wants; and from a warm climate
altogether congenial to their nature, to a very cold
one, and where there is nothing to depend on but
their labor. And in a climate where the thermome
ter is in the neighborhood of zero four months out
of twelve, and no m.aster's wood-pile to go to ; and
no rich white man or woman to call them " Uncle
Tom, and Aunt Lotta," whose fortune was protected
by the laws of the State in which they had labored

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 326
for their support. Yet an audience of white people
professing love to the slaves, could applaud a being
in human shape, for so cruel an act.
I have been in Boston many times, and at all
seasons of the year, and most people I have talked
with seemed to be Christians of some sort, and men
and women of very large philanthropy, and yet
how in that city of education and refinement such an
audience can be culled out is more than I can tell,
unless the underground railroad passes through
ApoUyon's Kingdom, for certainly they cannot be
altogether human, or such exultation could not be
had over such wickedness in June, 1860.
In the' winters of 1851, 52, 53, 1 was in Boston, and"
could hardly go into a store or hotel without meeting
some one with a subscription book that seemed to
beg every one they met to subscribe some amount,
to save the fugitive slaves in Canada from freezing
or starving to death, and their, stories of horror
were enough to move the hardest heart ; and now,
in June, 1860, those devils incarnate could clap their
glad hands and shout over the report of two old
slaves, over seventy years of age, having been stolen
and abducted from good homes in a southern climate,
and brought to and turned loose in the frigid zones of
the north, to freeze to death or starve with hunger.
If the devil is any worse than that puritanic audience
who assembles to hear the report of this wretched
hard-hearted negro woman, I am sure it is a
sufficient reason why I should strive to avoid his
kingdom. I will ask those Puritans if that was in keeping
28

326 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
with the golden rule of our Saviour, quoted at the
head of this chapter, or which were the greatest sin
ners, this negro woman and the Boston audience, or
the master of those two old slaves? Eead the
former chapters, in which I have fully set forth the
moral questions of slavery, and then decide the above
question. Who would have supposed the descendants of the
Puritans who landed on Plymouth Eock in 1620,
and who had been driven from their native land by
infidel tyrants, because they determined to worship
God according to the dictates of their own conscience
could have so fallen. It-was thought to be a happy
day when the Mayflower, with over one hundred of
those Puritan saints, arrived at Plymouth Eock 'with
open Bibles ; but their descendants, like the good
cow after she had given a large pail of rich milk,
up foot, and kicked it over. Just so did the de
scendants of the Puritan saints, for it was soon
discovered that they had imbibed so much of the
tyrannical spfrits of their fathers who had driven
them from their native land to our shores for shelter;
consequently they turned tyrants, and persecuted
the Quakers of New England even unto death, be
cause they desired to worship God according to the
dictates of their own consciences, which differed in
mode only from that of their Puritan brethren.
This conduct of the descendants of the inhabitants
of Plymouth Eock was sufficient to satisfy every in
telligent Christian, that they had totally backslidden
from that true Christianity that sustained them
under similar trials in their native land.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 327
Yet from the landing of those pilgrim fathers we
date the birth of true Christianity in this country.
But their sudden transition from infidel bondage to
Christian freedom was too much for them, and they
consequently overleaped the limits of religious
liberty and soon became religious despots, and
advocated the passage of such laws as would punish
a man for kissing his wife on the Sabbath day, or
expel him from- church for happening to smile in
church. And it was said they built their hen
houses so as to exclude the entire light of the sun,
the brightest days, when the door was closed, and
that they closed that door each Saturday night, and
kept it closed until after twelve o'clock Sunday
night, for fear lest the cocks would break the Sab
bath by crowing, or the scratching of the hens for
their little ones would cause anger in heaven.
Therefore it was hardly to be wondered at in the
summer of 1860, that their posterity should all
assemble at Melodeon Hall, in the city of Boston, to
worship the goddess of liberty in the shape of a poor
deluded negro woman. And sing and shout with
the loudest acclamations of glory and honor to her
for the performance of as cruel an act as ever wa&
performed by a child towards parents.
Did those religious fanatics " do as they would be
done by ?" Did they "render unto Cesar the things
that were Cesar's, and unto God the things that were
God's?" But those demoniacs were harmless to both church
and State, as long as both kept them at a distance ;
but when both opened their doors to them officially,

328 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
and invited them in for their money and votes, our
¦die was cast and ruin sealed. And when they were
placed in power by the Constitutional votes of " We,
the' people," the blessings of heaven were withdrawn.
from us, and we are now entering a gulf of strife in
which fraternal blood will flow as rivers, and unless
we speedily spue out those Puritanic saints (devils)
from power we shall speedily be plunged into the
-most terrible despotism ever kno'W'n on this earth,
yea, under the fangs of whose power every man and
woman will be imprisoned who may refuse to wor
ship the "goddess of liberty" of Melodeon Hall,
Boston. Those deluded Puritanic successors have now suc
ceeded to power, and the coronation took place the
fourth of last March, and now we see the fore-shad
owing of a national overthrow more terrible than
any history has yet recorded. The enormous
amount of fraternal blood that will be shed during
the present {republican) administration will cause
the whole civilized world to wonder if there is any
such thing as Christianity. How else can it be,
when the descendants of the Puritan saints, who are
'now leaders of the so-called Christian ministry
throughout New England, have, by trampling upon
the Constitution and laws of the United States
and. by the foulest slanders ever heaped upon any
people on the face of the earth, so completely alien
ated the hearts of our Southern brethren from us,
that nothing but the overpowering grace and love
of God can ever reunite the two extremes of our
great country, without which our government is no

AFRICAN SLAVERY. . 329
more than a rope of sand. Take grace and love
from the Christian church, and let such hate take its
place as now exist between the North and South of
our country ; how long do you suppose the church
woiild stand ?
There is but one road to a. political salvation for
us, and that is for all those Northern abolition fanat
ics to stop short, and " do to all others as they would
have aU others fo do unto them." " For this is the
law and the prophets." Without these Christian
principles shall be fully established, there can be no
such thing as a government by the people. Any
attempt t^ force the South' to love us will he certain
destruction to our great national fabric that was marked
out and planned for us by no other finger than God's
own finger ; therefore the slander and hatred. But let
us restore the government by the principles embraced
in the above text, which were the principles by which
it was first formed, the only principles on which it
ever can be restored, and without which it would not
stand if restored. K the free States had always
treated the South according to the principles em
braced in the above text, there would not be one
secessionist this day south of Mason's and Dixon's
line. As long as we lived by those principles we
were inflexible, and all the powers on the face of the
globe combined could not have affected us in war,
because we were all, " We, the people," and God was
our King. We were all one people, and the laws
bore the same relation to the poorest hard-working
man in the nation, as they did to the President of
the United States, and he was only equally protected
28*

830 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
with the poor industrious man and no better, and
owned no more law than the poor man.
But the Chicago platform has been substituted for
the Constitution and laws of the United States.
Therefore the office holders are our supreme rulers.
The Chicago platform is a rebellion by the free
States against the Constitutional and lawful rights
of all the slave States. The great Daniel Webster
of Mass. declared all such proceedings to be treason
against the United States government, in a speech ,
he made at Albany, in 1851. Yet the Melodeon
Hall of Boston was filled to overflo'wing by an in^
fidel crew culled out of that city of education and
Puritanism (a city that contains many as true, and
as good loyal, national men as are in the United
States), who clapped their glad hands, and shouted,
"Glory to a black Goddess of liberty," not only
for having committed treason against the United
States government, but against the State govern
ments ; and for a theft of over $50,000 worth of
property, besides robbing her aged parents of
homes, where they had plenty of this world's goods,
and friends without limit, and brought them into a
country, heartless and cold towards the negro race,
especially old worn-out ones. ¦
Now I ask all candid men to look at this con
gregation of traitors a little ; and see if the South
had not reason not only to be insulted, but alarmed
to the extreme, when they learned that enough such
men and women could collect at Melodeon Hall in
Boston in 1860, to densely fill it, who would laugh
and shout over such wickedness, in a poor weak-

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 831
minded negro woman, in trampling upon the rights
of the South with impunity. What could be more
insulting, after having lost over $50,000 worth of
property by that deluded negress, than for a large
congregation of white and well educated people of
Boston to endorse such an imposition on the Con
stitutional rights of the slave States ? Had we any
right to expect anything but a rebellion against a
government that refuses to protect them against
such outrages on their rights ?
Suppose some negroes of the South had gone
into Massachusetts, and run off $50,000 worth of
horses, and landed them safe in South Carolina,
and two or three thousand citizens of Charleston
had collected and endorsed the operation by loud ap
plause, and concealed the property from the owners,
as the Bostonians did the forty negroes, what would
the Yankeys have thought and said ? Then sup
pose this game had been going on forty or fifty
years without abatement, and even constantly on
the increase, until millions of dollars worth of our
horses had, been run offj and when we should go
for them, we should have found seven or eight of
the slave States had passed laws that completely
forestalled the Constitutional laws of the United
States and made it next thing to impossible for us
to recover our "property ; and in addition to that,
they should have turned a large gang of negroes
loose against our free white citizens, and mobbed
them out of the State, or shot them dead on the spot,-
for going down there to recover their own. What
should we have thought of it ? Should we have

332 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
borne with it for fifty years ? Now I ask all can
did men to look this thing fair in the face, and
answer me the question, should we not have re
belled against the government long before this, if
the circumstances had been reversed as above ?
It is all nonsense to say the South has done
any worse than what we should have done under the
same circumstances. The fact of the matter is : cer
tain leading men in the free States have been aiming
to produce a rebellion for forty years, and had the
South not loved the Union a thousand times better
than the Melodeon Hall assembly, they would have
seceded ten or fifteen years ago. Every man and
woman who has studied human nature to any extent,
and had a thorough knowledge of the movements of
the abolitionists or disloyal people of the North or
free States, have been looking for this rebellion to
to take place since 1850 ; for as soon as the fugitive
slave law was passed by Congress, in that very year,
some of the free State Legislatures amended their
personal liberty bills so as to overthrow or defeat,
its action, if possible. Several of the free States
rebelled at once by Legislative acts against the law
of the United States, passed for the security of the
South. This assertion is proved by the personal
liberty bills passed in several of the free States.
If you do not agree with me that this rebellion
was forced upon us- by the free States rebelling
against the Constitution and laws of the United
States, I shall yield all hope of this great Union
ever being restored, and shall look for a military
despotism to be permanently established, that is

AFRICAN SLAVERY. -333
now only temporarily upon us. There were not
only free State laws passed against the national
laws, but associations were formed all over the free
States to defeat the Constitutional laws of the
United States, many of whom pledged their lives
that those laws never should be executed in their
respective neighborhoods; and employed the free
negroes and fugitive slaves to aid them in the exe
cution of their treasonable designs. And perhaps
one-half of all New England pulpits constantly
echoed the loudest declamations against those laws,
and the rights of "the southern people, attended with
the foulest slanders ever heaped upon any people,
by any man or set of men. I say, under these cir
cumstances (in connection with the success of that
very party in the national election of 1860, on
a platform containing the clearest treason which
the whole party was pledged to sustain at all
hazards), we had no right to have looked for any
thing else but a rebellion and a civil war. We have
brought it on ourselves by not doing " as we would be
done by."
I -will say, in conclusion, that the South did not
desire to rebel against the government of the United
States, only so far as the United States officials
refused to protect the slave States in their Constitu'
tional rights by not making them equal with the
free States. They only intended to rebel against
the executors of the national government (and all
others) who were chosen from that class of people
who had declared themselves against the civil in
stitutions of the slave States. As Seward (now

334 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
Secretary of State) said, "slavery must and shall be
abolished, and we can do it." Mr. Lincoln said one
year before his nomination, that " this is a world of
compensation, and he who would be no slave, must
own no slaves. He who denieth freedom to others
deserves it not for himself, and under a just God he
shall not long retain it."
Between sixty and seventy republican members
of both houses of Congress endorsed with their own
signatures and by their own hand in 1859 the fol
lowing sentiments : — ¦
" Ineligibility of slave-holders. Never another vote to the
trafficker in human flesh. No co-operation -with slave-holders
in politics. No fellowship with them in religion. No affiha-
tion with them in society. No patronage to slave-holding
merchants. No guestship to slave-waiting hotels. No fees to
slave-holding lawyers. No employment to slave-holding
physicians. No audience to slave-holding parsons. No re
cognition of pro-slavery men except as ruffians, outlaws, and
criminals. Abrupt discontinuance of subscription to pro-
slavery newspapers. Immediate death to slavery, if not
immediate, unqualified proscription of its advocates during
the period of its existence. A tax of sixty dollars on each
and every negro in his possession at the present time, or at
any intermediate time between now and the 4th of July,
1863," &c. &c.
This is a correct quotation from Helper's book,
that was endorsed by nearly all the republican
members of both Houses of Congress. This, taken
in connection with the John Brown raid that was
arranged to take place just at the right time to
produce the greatest and most alarming effect upon
the minds of the people of the slave States, did pro
duce an alarm and consternation unsurpassed. Those

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 335
republican members of both Houses of Congress
who did not endorse Helper's book with their signa
tures, mostly defended those who did by all the
powers they possessed. Let any candid man read
the quotation above, then turn to another page of
the same, and read the names of all the endorsers of
those sentiments, and get a copy of the Congress
ional Globe of that Congress, and see how strong
most all other republicans endorsed them in their
speeches, and denounced all who dared to condemn
those sentiments. This is not a thousandth part
of what has been said and 'written against the.
Southern people by leading men of the North.
¦Now, think of human nature, and tell me, had we
any right to expect anything but secession and re
bellion in a country like this, where the govern
ment was with the people ? And just as sure as God
lives, we shall be humiliated, unless we speedily
stop our rebellion and persecutions against the
Southern State rights, and give them all that was
conceded to them by the adoption of the Constitu
tion in 1787. The Southern people have never in
terfered with us, nor with any Constitutional law of
the free States. I know a few leaders of South
Carolina attempted to nullify a national law in 1832,
and all other Southern Statesmen nullified them, and
would this day still do the same to all such, had we
not nullified the Constitution of the United States
and the laws of Congress passed for the protection
of the lawful institutions of the slave States, by the
laws of many of the free States. I ask candid
Christian men to say whether we had a right to

336 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
look for anything but national, State, and individual
overthrow, and social ruin.
Whom has the present national executive called
around him for his supporters and guides? Why,
those very men who cordially endorsed the above
declarations in " Helper's book, and none others.
Only think of it I Eead the sentiments over again,
and suppose yourself to have been a Southern slave
holder, and then remember that the very men who
endorsed those sentiments had succeeded in 1860
in the election to the Presidency of one who had so
recently declared in writing to that party, that he
who refused to free his negroes^ should be made a
slave himself, and that speedily. Could any family,
social circle, or any volunteer association or com
bination either religious or political, hang together
under such circumstances? Look at it and bring
it home to yourselves. Eemember that the Presi
dent has surrounded himself with the most ultra of
the endorsers of Helper, and exhausted his patron
age with them; and will give no man an office of
the most paltry kind, who refuses to endorse Helper
entire ; and by so doing he has laid a sickle with
two edges at the root of the best and most whole
some government ever formed since the one for our
first patents in Eden. Every Christian man and
woman, who knows anything of human nature,
knows that a volunteer government must be volun
tarily sustained, or fall into ruin. But Mr. Lincoln
was selected by the endorsers of the above declara
tion from Helper's book. Eead over the quotation
again, and in view of all these circumstances, say

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 337
whether we had a right to have expected anything
else than the threatening circumstances which are
thickening before us.
Don't stop to accuse me of being a secessionist,
traitor, disunionist, or a sympathizer with rebellion,
for there is not the slightest shadow of truth in the
declaration, unless rebellion against the abolitionism
of the free States be treason.
Let the present administration and all other abo
litionists, including the worshippers of the black
goddess of liberty of Melodeon Hall, Boston, " do as
they would be done by ;" then we shall have peace
throughout our great and glorious country, and the
Union be restored in less than a month.
" 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." The words of Jesus Christ. Don't forget to notice
the words in the text, " aZZ. things whatsoeter."-
I wrote about two thirds of this chapter in 1860,
prior to the Presidential election, and the balance
soon after the firing upon the American flag by the
rebels at Charleston. This is the reason why it first
speaks of prospective ; then the appearance of present
strife between the North and South.

29

CHAPTEE VIII.
Correspondence between Mrs. Mason of Virginia, and Mrs.
Childs of Massachusetts. Mrs. Childs' Scriptural Quotations
to sustain Abolitionism.
Mrs. Senator Mason wrote Mrs. Childs last fall,
soon after the John Brown raid in Virginia, on the
impropriety of the interference by Northern people,
¦with the lawful institutions of the South, to cauJ;ion
abolitionists not to place the southern people into
such imminent danger, by trying to get up ser'vile
insurrections in the South. Mrs. Childs answers in
a long letter, justifying herself in her ungodly insur
rectionary work, in teaching southern slaves that
they are as good as their masters, and should be in
subordinate, and by charging, the southern slave
holder 'with the most infamous and foul crimes that
ever were charged to the hearts and hands of human
beings. She quotes largely from Miss Grimkee, said
to be a daughter of Judge Grimkee of South Caroli
na, whR came North (she said) to get clear of the
sound of the lash, and bemoanings of the tortured
slaves, that did not cease to sound in her ears from
six in the morning until late in the evening.
I have unfortunately lost fifteen pages of my
manuscripts, in which I replied to the awful slanders
( 838 )

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 339
therein made ; and as I have lost the letter of Mrs.
Childs also, I have to restore them from memory.
Therefore, can give only an outline of one or two
stories. One was, that it was so common to whip
slaves to death, that it was no more noticed than
killing an animal, and that for ' the slightest dis
obedience. That it was an every day occurrence
to strip men and women naked, and tie them up to
a limb by the hands, and draw them up until they
were on tiptoe, and then give them five hundred
lashes, and let them stand in that position for many
hours, after having bathed them with salt and water,
and then give them five hundred lashes more, and
salt them again, and let them hang for some hours
more, and cut them down. They frequently died
under this torture, and no account taken of it.
Again; after tying up men and women in the
same position, they would take a large paddle made
for the purpose, with holes through it, and paddle
their naked bodies with it ; every hole in the paddle
would raise a blister, at each blow, until the whole
surface of the body would be a complete jelly, and
then they would throw on the salt and water, for still
greater tortures; and that they frequently died under
this mode of torture also, but no account taken of it
by the authorities, and if they should happen to
notice it, it would be passed over by a sham trial,
and the parties discharged, or never call it up for
trial. I have no doubt some could be found in the North
weak enough to believe such enormities in crime.
And I might believe such stories under some cir-

340 AFRICAN SLAVERY.

k.

cumstances. But no thoughtful person would be-
liejre this one told by Miss Grimkee. I have
tra'velled a great deal over this country, and have
not yet seen the party or parties who were willing to
amuse themselves at so dear a rate. Every man or
woman will count the cost of their pleasures.. But
I do not believe that any man in his right mind
could enjoy such cruelties and tortures, even if it
cost them nothing in dollars and cents. And if the
believers in Miss Grimkee's book will take a cow
skin, and give a tree five hundred lashes as hard as
they can lay on, and then give it five hundred more
in the same strain, they will find themselves very
tired when done, and will conclude there is too
much labor for the trifling fiendish pleasure it might
be to them, when we remember that the people of '
the South are not so fond of hard work. And that
such flogging may cost the owner $1500 each, for
he could get that sum for the slave at any time if
sound. ¦*
Is it possible, that any man or woman is fool
enough to believe any such stories? Who would
believe any one raised in the South could tell so
monstrous a falsehood ? It would be hard for me
to decide which I would prefer to be guilty of: the
believing of such unnatural and foul slander, or to
be the originator of it. For I think I should com
mit as great a sin by one as the other. It is hard
for me to believe any man or woman credulous
enough to believe such monstrosities, and cannot
persuade myself they believe it when they tell it,
unless reason has ' been confused. And if such

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 341
things were sanctioned in the Bible, all such as. Mrs.
Childs and Miss Grimkee would take the opposite
track, and deny the truth of all such statements.
What, a man to purchase negroes at $1000, $1200,
and $1500 each, and then whip them to death, or
maim them so that they would be of no use what
ever ? Would you believe that a man would pur
chase a thousand dollar horse and then whip him to
death, or allow it done ? I thought Miss Grimkee's
murderous stories were sufficient to murder them
selves; though I am inclined to believe she only
intended them as a burlesque on the monstrous
abolition stories told and written by the thousand
by other unscrupulous persons. And yet Mrs.
Childs, of Wyland, Massachusetts, seizes upon them
in her reply to Mrs. Mason, with an air of boast
that would seem to a credulous mind to be sincere,
and quoted the whole story, as though it had been
the Gospel of God our Saviour.
I still have the part of this chapter embracing
Mrs. Childs' quotation from Scripture to sustain her
self and Miss Grimkee, and to condemn slaveholders,
which is sufficient of themselves to satisfy any man
that reads the Scriptures for the truths therein con
tained, that the abolitionists know better, and that
with the fact that they care nothing for the suffering
of the poor free people of color, either North or
South. And the hypocrisy of the Eev. Dr. Cheever,
and all others that are laboring to abolish slavery
in this country, ought to satisfy any observing
mind that it is not the slaves, or slavery, or slave
holders they care about ; it is' evident they have
29*

342 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
other, objects in view than the abolition of slavery.
Then what can their object be, you ask ? It is for
the abolition of the Constitution of the United
States and the union of States, that the "Liberator"
says is in " league with hell." (The Liberator is the
organ of the abolition party.)
Why should they want to break up such a coun
try and government as this that is the ante-chamber
of heaven ? I ask the inquirer, why did the devil
say to Eve " thou shalt not surely die ?" was it not to
prevent the Kingdom of God from ever being
established on this planet, where he (the devil) had
reigned, perhaps, many millions of years "without a
competitor? I answer that the abolitionists have
the same object in view that the king of darkness
had when he spoke to Eve, and said, " thou shalt
not surely die." They hate God, and righteousness,
and this government, because it is so God-like in its
formations and aims, and (they) being the true
Aping sons and daughters in spirit of the same old
Apollyon. They take upon themselves every form
of Christianity that they may effect the destruction
of the Constitution of this great and glorious go
vernment, that he, their master, the devil, may reign
supreme and without a rival on this globe of ours.
I do not wish to be understood to say that the
abolitionists are the only infidels on this continent;
for there is another set in the South called fire-
eaters, who are the legitimate offspring of the aboli
tionists of the North, and they might be called the
children of the devil, for they are co-workers "with
the abolitionists in the work of the destruction of

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 343
this, the best government known under heaven.
A government formed by God himself; for it was
not in the heart of man to form such a one ; and no
one in the Convention of 1787 intended to make it
just what it is. But He interfered, and would not
allow them to agree on any other form, and no one
of them seemed pleased with it at the time. Every
article in it seemed'to be the result of compromise
between the conflicting parties in the convention.
And they at one time came to a dead lock, being
completely gamed, and could not move one inch
further. Here was a perplexing dilemma. No one
seemed to see light. Some proposed to give up
and fall back on the Articles of Confederation. And
they sat and looked at each other with despair.
And it was only when they saw that they could do
nothing else, that a proposition was made to send
for Bishop White to come and offer up a prayer to
Him who saw their dilemma, and held them fast.
The good Bishop arrived with his Bible in hand,
took his stand on the platform, opened the holy
book, read a chapter, and called upon them to unite
with him in prayer. He knelt do'wn, and with
uplifted hands and heart, he stated the case to the
great God of the universe, and implored his mercy,
his blessing, and his direction in the great dilemma
they had fallen into, and to lead them in the path
of Union and love. When he was done, every
thing seemed changed. The sunlight of hope
broke through the dark cloud that had benighted
them. The spirit of love was visible in each face,
and the Christian spirit of compromise was felt in

344 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
every heart. From that time, each member of the
convention seemed disposed to yield in. part for the
sake of an agreement, that the Constitution might
be formed and adopted for the sake "of a more
perfect Union" than that of the Confederation which
was nominal and without ligaments. And they had
little or no trouble after that prayer was ended.
They formed the Constitution ; that is to the United
States just what the Bible is to the Christian church.
And woe be unto that party, or State, or confedera
tion of States that shall attempt its destruction.
I have digressed too far from my subject, and
will return after saying that if all the contending
parties would now send for such a man as Bishop
White, and in the same spirit that he was sent for,
all contentions, disputes, and di'visions would end
in a week.
Some persons may think I use very severe lan
guage towards Mrs. Childs, Miss Grimkee, and other
great apostles of abolitionism. But if they saw
the consequences ahead as I do, they would say —
say on, for God's sake, and awake the people that
they may see the deep black gulf of civil or ser
vile war that they are surreptitiously leading the
nation into. But instead of giving us encourage
ment in foretelling the troubles and pointing out the
way of escape to the rock of safety and universal
peace and union, they cursed uS with bitter curses/
and told us we were hirelings of the democratia
party, and were- working under false pretences, to
enable them to elect their candidate to the Presi
dency. ^ Many of the old Whig, American, and the

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 345
People's parties having united themselves with the
Eepublican party, who had dropt the name of aboli
tion, free soil, and anti-slavery, and taken the name
of Eepublican ; which was about as consistent as it
would be for an African negro to drop his title and
take that of Anglo-Saxon. It was surreptitiously
taken, and for purposes of deception. There were
a few thousand in the North who saw the trick, and
refused to take a part in the union with the Eepub
lican party ; who in order to destroy and 'defeat our
movements to save_this country from civil or servile
insurrection, war, and anarchy, or an everlasting
despotism. We were accused of, and called every
thing bad, and nothing good.
I wrote this chapter long before the election
of Mr. Lincoln, but by some mishap, as before stated,
I lost the first fifteen or twenty pages of manuscript
out of forty -four, and now rewrite a part of it, after
the election, from notes I made at that time ; there
fore, I cannot avoid alluding to facts as they then
were, and as they now are. When we told the peo
ple what would be the result of the success of the
republican party in the election of 1860, we were
called fools — cursed fools — locofoco lickspittles, whom
they hired to do their dirty work, negro traders, pro-
slavers ; and at least three hundred thousand men of
the free States united in those declarations, and that
to vote for the Constitutional Union party would only
be voting for the locofoco party, when they knew in
their heairts that it was not so; and the most of them
only did it that they might succeed in electing a

346 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
President by an exclusive sectional vote of the free
States against the slave States.
They were told by thousands of the best men in
the free States what the result would be. But the
leading Eepublicans only spit at us, and threw
their dirty water upon us. And the same leaders
after having secured the offices, and robbed the
State treasury of this State of at least $500,000, and
other corporations and associations of $500,000
more by extortion, and the sale of their votes and a
signature with the State seal, turned around and
charge us Union loving men with being secession
ists and rebels against this glorious government,
that would be a heaven-like Union was it not for
abolitionism; and we are so strongly threatened
with the hemp, that I, for one, conceit I almost feel
the rope around my neck, and simply for proposing
measures to try to settle this question 'without a
most inhuman, unnaturS.1 contest between brethren
of the same family, when, once fully inaugurated
and seated, will be one of the most bloody ever
known on this earth ; and when we have conquered
them, it will be found that they are not subdued.
And even if we should subdue them and bring
them into the traces of the Union again, whal will
be the state of society ? Will fifty years bring us
back again to where we were prior to the John
Brown raid in Virginia ? See how demoralization
has spread already.
Talk even to some of our Christian ministers on
the subject, and see if they exhibit -anything of the
spirit that was in our Lord while he sojourned here

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 347
below. No ; you will find them full of fight and
the spirit of revenge, I talked with one not long
since, who at once bristled up, his eye filled with
vengeance, and he said he would see the Union fiin-
dered to atoms before he would yield one tittle from the
so-called republican principles. So the Christian
church generally are becoming more or less de
moralized by the contest even now. If that is the
case now, what will it be when this war shall be
ended by the force of arms, and our fathers, our
sons, and our brothers have been slain ? Shall we
love the South as we did before ? Will there not
be a bitterness of feeling that will not be wiped out
only when this generation has been forgotten and
every page of history obliterated that shall truly
record its scenes ? Our children's children will be
more or less tainted with it. What a history it will
be to hand down to our children, and grandchildren,
and thefr successors. Of course they -will take it
for an example or precedent ; will it be such as our
Lord left on record for us ?
The abolitionists want to break up the union of
States. I for one cannot now, nor ever shall, consent
to a di'vision of these States into two separate king
doms. AU I asked for is, that all honorable and
Christian means should be used before force, to try
to settle the dispute, without a resort to arms. We
have a record to cleanse, which ought to be done be
fore we ask our brethren to correct theirs. Let us
first " cast the beam out of our own eye, that we
may see clearly how to remove the mote from our
brother's eye." We have laws in a number of the

348 African slavery.
free States in direct opposition to the Constitution
of the United States. This is enough to make the
South to feel that she has the right to appropriate
the whole instrument to herself, and to establish an
independent government o'n its principles. After
we have given them all their lawful rights under
the Constitution, and then if they still refuse to co-
opei'ate with us in the Union, I would then say
make them do it at any cost.
I have been told so often in debates on the dangers
this Union was in, by ultra republicans, that they
would let the Union slide. This was a very common
expression through the campaign of 1860, and even
a member of Congress from the third district, I am
told, said that he would see this government split to
atoms before he would yield one inch from the late
republican platform. If this is the spirit that is to
be shown by the party coming into power, terrible
will be the result. It is not to be wondered at if
the South should take the Constitution and appro
priate it to their exclusive use, when members of
Congress abandon it, and take the Chicago plat
form in preference, and say they would see the
Constitution flindered to atoms before they would
yield one principle of said platform.
Now in the name of heaven, what are we to ex
pect, when we find that members of Congress have
no respect for the Constitution of the United States,
and take a party platform for the government of
this nation, adopted by a set of office seekers, who
•ire thirsting for power, place, and the public crib ?
May the Lord save the people ! Slavery has been

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 349
made the machine for all this. What a convenience
is made of the old patriarchal institution when
there is not one word found on Scriptural record or
reason that shows slavery to be a moral evil.
Modern emancipationists say there are a great
many sins not named in the Scriptures of truth that
we know to be sins, and the sin of slavery was ne
glected or forgotten. I would ask if there is any
sin named in the Scriptures of truth that is not
condemned by the writers of the moral law ? If
slavery be a sin, it is the only one that was so ex
tensively spoken of without having one condemna
tory sentence passed against it. They say card-
playing was not mentioned, and many other sinful
games. But card-playing is not mentioned at all,
and it is evident did not exist in the time of the
apostles. But no one will pretend to say that slavery
did not exist, even as far back as Noah, Moses, Abra
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, and notwithstanding this, there
is not a single declaration or precept made directly
or indirectly against it. But swearing, or taking
God's name in vain, lying, stealing, murder, adultery,
fornication, and drunkenness, and all such are de
clared to be sinful and forbidden by the moral law,
all of which were extensively practised in those
days. For the evidence of which I will refer the
reader to the first two chapters of this book.
St. Paul never told the owners of slaves that they
must set them free, or that they could not enter
into the Kingdom of Glory hereafter ; not the slight
est intimation of the kind was given. Yet there
was a moral connected with slavery as with every-
80

850 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
thing else. If a master treats his slaves as mere
beasts of burden, and refuses to look upon them as
men, he is a moral rebel, and will be held as such ¦;
and God will judge him accordingly. But tells the
masters how they must treat their slaves, and re
minds them that they have a master in heaven.
The master must remember his slaves have the
same infirmities caused by the same transgressions,
and in addition to that the servant has the curse
put upon Canaan to bear,^ caused by the sins of Ham
against his father Noah, therefore they are to be
bond-servants forever ; and they merit the sym
pathy of their masters; and do not deserve to be
treated merely as beasts of burden but as an un
fortunate man that is of great use to the world,
made up of flesh and blood, soul and body, just as
the white man is, and that it is sufficient to be a
slave without being ruled with a rod of iron. That
they must not be stinted in food and raiment, and
he must make them as comfortable as circumstances
will allow. The servants are affectionately told
that they must render unto their masters due ser
vice, that by so doing they please God, and that it
will be counted in righteousness. That- their time
belongs to their masters and must not be wasted,
and if it is, it will be counted in. unrighteousness.
So the duties of each are equally set forth by St.
Paul, and both will be held equally accountable
for their doings towards each other, in the great and
final day of reckoning.
But the Apostle nowhere teaches that the ser
vant is to be placed on an equality with his master

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 351
in this world. But the supremacy of the master is
set forth everywhere in the Bible. Yet the apos
tles pf abolitionism teach another and different doc
trine. They tell the slaves to be disobedient to thefr
masters, and not render "unto them good service, for
none belongs to them ; that their masters are thieves,
murderers, and robbers, therefore run away, steal
their masters' money, and their horses to make their
escape, and if their masters attempt to stop them,
kill them as they would a mad dog. When he gets
him away from his master who respected him, and
cared for him, and watched over him in sickness,
dressed his wounds, and soothed his heart under
pain, he leaves him among strangers in a cold cli
mate, without money or friends, and he at once
becomes an object of charity, but soon finds that
there is no response. He is sick, and no doctor,
no nursing mistress's soothing hand to wipe the
sweat from his or her heated brow. No master's
pocket to lean upon, nor wood pile to resist the
piercing northwester. And that his hypocritical
pretended abolition friend is always distant in the
time of need. He is left to starve and die ; and no
one to drop a tear upon the plank, brick pavement,
or 'virgin earth on which he may be stretched to die.
/ Now I ask which teaching of the two is the most
Christ-like, or human, and common sense-like? Tell
me which is the most merciful, the teachings of St.
Paul, or that of the abolitionist ? Throw off your
prejudices ; look the subject fair in the face ; think
of the common lot of the whole human family, and
make up your mind from sound unbiassed reason

352 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
and common sense, and say which is the most God
like, or which is the most demon-like. I must be
allowed to think every candid seeker of tbe truth
will say St. Paul's doctrine is the most Christian
like and reasonable. I think it would be better for
him who takes so strong a stand against the Bible
and the United States government to be careful.
I have said enough about the usefulness of slaves
in previous chapters, to which I refer the reader.
Through the fall from Eden the whole earth was
corrupted, and the torrid and frigid zones, the blast
ing winters, the burning summers, and all that is
unpleasant was produced through the sin of Adam,
and so, also slavery, for usefulness in the tropics.
Man is in fault, therefore he must submit to the
direful and variegated consequences.' The African
race, as slaves, are one of the offsprings of sin, hut
not sin in itself, and his lot is before him, and he
will have to submit. And if the Anglo-Saxon race
attempts to change the decrees of God, God may re
verse the curse ; and terrible will be the day when
negro slaves shall become the masters of those who
have interfered with God's arrangements among'
men — better for him he had never been born. He
may look upon the highwayman, the pickpocket,
the burglar, the swindler, and the deceiver and rob
ber of the widow and orphan with contempt, hatred,
and condemnation, and even feel that such persons
would be a blackening disgrace to a midnight assas
sin's gallows ; but I look upon him as their equal
in crime, and will stand on the same ground in the
day of judgment, and perhaps on a higher scale of

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 353
crime than any others, for he just as much robs men
of their own, as the pickpocket does when he slips
his hand into his neighbor's pocket and steals his
money and appropriates it to his own use. The
slave is held by the same moral law to render faith
ful service to his master, not as a man-pleaser, but
" with singleness of heart, doing the will of God."
His time righteously belongs to his master, and if he
wilfully wastes it, by neglecting' to do duty to his
master as a good servant, he robs his master of what
belongs to him just as much as a pickpocket would
in stealing another man's money, and is equally
guilty before God, and will be so judged by the
moral law, and he who persuades him that his mas
ter has no right to claim his labors, and tries to
dissatisfy his mind with his condition as a slave, and
persuades him not to render service, is worse than a
thief, for he not only encourages robbing the master
of what belongs to him, both legally and morally,
but he is a traitor to the laws of his country.
How men professing Christianity, and say they are
called by the Holy Ghost to preach the everlasting
Gospel of God, can be inodern abolitionists, I cannot
understand. I can well see how infidels can be fol
lowers of Wm. L. Garrison, especially those who
deny the Bible being the word of God, and know
nothing of the nature of the negro ; but those who
embrace the Scriptures as the revelation pf God,
know they have no right given them in that book to
declare slavery to be a sin against God. Therefore
it is a new code of morals started up for which
there is no warrant given in the Scriptures, and is as
30*

354 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
demoralizing as the doctrine of Joe Smith, or those
of the Spiritualists; and all such have done ten
times the mischief to both church and state that
could be done by the Mormons or- Spiritualists.
The Mormons separate themselves from aU others,
and unite themselves as a separate people, and
openly declare Joe Smith a prophet and great high
priest ; but the abolitionists remain in good society,
and there promulgate their doctrines of infidelity,
and split up churches and good society, distract
neighborhoods, and whole State Legislatures, and
have now well nigh destroyed our national govern
ment, and are likely to plunge us into a civil war
in the prospect of which they now exult, and say,
better this should all take place a thousand times
than that slavery should be allowed in any part of
this country.
It was and is, as I have said before, a very com
mon reply to the declaration that the Union was in
danger, "let the Union slide." There was no ex
pression more common through the late political
struggle by republicans, than " let the Union slide,"
and "I would see this Union and government split into
a thousand atoms, before I would yield one letter from
the Chicago platform." Leading men of the aboli
tion stripe did thus reply whenever they were
warned of the infinite danger the Union was in by
the course they were pursuing in politics.
I have known professing Christians for more than
twenty-five years, who have been laboring to obli
terate the Constitution of the United States, that
they might be able to separate this great Union, that

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 355
the slaves of the South might clear themselves of
their masters; and ministers of the Gospel have pro
claimed those doctrines from the pulpit, and de
nounced slavery, and slaveholders as murderers in a
most vehement and vindictive manner, right in the
teeth of aU the patriarchs, prophets, our Saviour, and
the apostles, all of whom encouraged slavery and
slaveholders, from Noah to St. Paul ; and Paul never
Mled in a single instance to declare the right of the
master to the earnings of their slaves, and plainly told
the slaves that they must be diligent in their service
to their masters. That in so doing they were doing ser
'vice to God ; that he must not waste his master's time,
for he cannot do this and be a child of God, and not
the least intimation given anywhere to the contrary.
I presume Dr. Adam Clarke's opinion will have
some influence on most minds, or ought at least. Ho
being a foreigner, and so much opposed to slavery,
that he said there was no punishment adequate to
the sinfulness of slavery. Please examine his opin
ions at full length on all the following passages of
Scriptures. John Wesley said some hard things
against slavery, but at the time he said it, it- is cer
tain he had little or no - knowledge of American
slavery, but had a fuU knowledge of the British
slave trade, which was then the sum of all villainies.
There is not a doubt but Wesley and Clarke both
alluded to the cruelties of British slave trade, that
was not prohibited but carried on by that govern
ment to an enormous extent at that time.
For a long while after Wesley passed his terrible
anathema against slavery he ordained slaveholders

356 AFRICAN slavery;
in the West Indies, and set them apart for the min
istry of Christ, and baptized their children, know
ing them to be slaveholders, and that the children-
would be heirs to slaves, and not one single word
expressed against it by Mr. Wesley.
Dr. A. Clarke, and all others whom I have con
sulted, show clearly in their commentaries that
American and English slavery is the same as ex
isted in the time of the apostles, and the great
probability of its existence throughout all time.
But they do not attempt to turn a single passage
of Scripture to condemn it as a moral evil or sin
against God, notwithstanding their great personal
opposition to slavery, ancj when Dr. Clarke said there
was no punishment adequate to the crime of slavery,
he must have had r-eference to the British African
slave trade, and not to common slaveholding, such
as is legalized in our Southern States, and recognized
by the .Constitution of the United States. No true
follower of our Lord, who reads the New Testament,
and is capable of understanding it, will embrace
this false code of morals, that slavery is a sin against
God under all circumstances. Mrs. L. Maria Child,
of Way land, Mass., in her letter to Mrs. J. C. Mason,
wife of Senator Mason,-of Virginia, herein alluded to,
quoted eighteen passages of Scripture in reply to,
or as an offset to some very appropriate passages
quoted by Mrs. Mason, in her letter to Mrs. Child.
Mrs. Child is said to be a lady of uncommon talents,
possessing great knowledge of the Scriptures, and
is held up as the great champion of this new moral
code o.f Garrison, Wright, Abe Kelley, and others.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 357
Therefore it is evident, if she has produced nothing
from the Holy Scriptures that proves slavery to be
a moral evil, it cannot be done. I will now examine
her quotations and see how much they prove.
She commences as follows :^Heb. xiii. 3d.
" Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them ;
and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the
body.'' This certainly has no reference to common sla
very, but refers to those who were in prison for
preaching the gospel of God our Saviour, and not
the slightest allusion to common legal ser-vitude, or
involuntary labor, for an individual or master;
but that they should feel for those in prison as they
would have those to feel for them if circumstances
between them were reversed. I will refer to A.
Clark on this verse.
id quotation, Isa. xvi. 3, 4 : —
"Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as
the night in the midst of the noonday ; hide the outcast ; be
wray not him that wandereth.
" Let mine outcasts dwell with -thee, Moab ; be thou a co
vert to them from the face of the spoiler : for the extortioner
is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed
out of the land."
These two verses have not the slightest allusion
to slavery as found in our Southern States. But
Judah. had been invaded by the Israelites, and
defeated, slaying one hundred and twenty thousand
men, nearly ruining his kingdom. When Judah
began to recover, and becoming more prosperous,
he seemed to be called upon to receive and protect

358 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
the fugitive Moabites, that, perhaps, were scattered in
the time of battle. I think any candid person wUl
say there is no application to American slaves in
this quotation, nor to fugitive slaves from the South.
The context makes the text Quoted clearly some
thing else.
%d quotation, Deut. xxiii. 15, 16 : —
" 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."
This quotation doubtless has an allusion to some
sort of slavery. Dr. A. Clarke says this " is a servant
who left an idolatrous master,'' that he might join
'himself to God and his people. In any otlier case it
would have been injiistice to have harbored the runaway."
It is clearly set forth in Scripture that a legal owner
of a slave has a moral right to claim his service
anywhere, and ought not to be prevented from
taking him back to where the law made him a slave,
and any laws passed by the free States to prevent
a man from another State recovering his slave that
has run away, is a crime. We have just as good
a right to pass a law making it legal to take
every Southern man's money from him that comes
into our midst, and appropriate it to our own use ;
or seize their vessels and appropriate them to our
selves, or to protect a mob in doing it, as we
have to protect them in rescuing a fugitive slave
from his legal owner or his agent. The several

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 359
.quotations I have made from St. Paul's letters to
the churches make this clear.
Ath quotation, Prov. xxxi. 8-9 : —
" Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as
are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righte
ously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy."
Those verses, perhaps, allude to poor persons ac
cused of crime, who have not the language to plead
their own cause, nor the money to pay counsel. And
no application to American slavery can be drawn
from it by any course of reasoning whatever ; for
the slaves of the South are not oppressed, nor
"dumb," nor "appointed to destruction," neither are
they " poor and needy."
bth quotation, Isa. Iviii. 1 : —
"Cry aloud, spare not; lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
and show my people their transgression, and the house of Ja
cob their sins."
This verse is also foreign to the subject, and con
tains no allusion whatever to the subject matter in
dispute. Qth quotation, Col. iv. 1. I will refer the reader to
what I have said on this text, in Chapter II. of this
* book. 7th quotation, I think will satisfy the reader that
Mrs. Child was not honest, and has undertaken to
do what she knew she could not do, that is, to sup
port a bad cause by the Holy Scriptures. She
quotes from Matt, xxiii. 8th and 10th. Why did she
not quote the 9th also ? I will quote the 8th, 9th,
and 10th, and every reader will see clearly why she
left the 9th out.

860 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
" 8th. But be ye not called Rabbi : for one is your Master,
even Christ ; and all ye are brethren.
" 9th. And call no man your father upon the earth : for one
is your Father, which is in heaven.
" 10th. Neither be ye called masters : for one is your Mas
ter, even Christ."
I think comment on the above is not necessary,
for every reader will see that there is no reference
to common American slavery, and the teaching of
our Lord in the above verses has no allusion to the
relation of master and slave, but to the Head of the
Church ; that he himself is the Head, and no one
else can be, and it would be treasonable for any one
else to attempt to place himself there. Therefore
they are forbid calling any one master besides Christ
himself. Why did Mrs. Child quote the 8th and 10th
verses of the above chapter, lea^ving out the 9th ?
Simply because in the 9th we are forbidden to call
any one our father upon the earth, because we have
a Father in Heaven, which is Christ Jesus. How
perfectly ridiculous it would be for us to forbid our
children calling us father, because of the language
of our Lord in the 9th verse, and it is just as ridicu
lous to say a slave should not agree that his owner '
is his master, and therefore refuse to call him mas
ter ; and Mrs. Child has just as good a right to for
bid the relation of parents and children under the
moral law of the 9th verse, as she has to forbid the
relation of master and slave, because of the precept
contained in the 8th and 10th verses. And from
tho'se three verses it would be just as consistent with
common sense or moral law, to establish a party or

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 361
association to prevent parents from controlling their
children, or to run the child off on an underground
railroad, from his or her parents, as it is to oppose
the relation of master and slave from anything con
tained in the above quotation.
. Children are held as the property of thefr parents
by the civil law, and if there was not a civil law
giving the parents the full control of their children
until they are twenty-one years old, they could not
compel them to remain with them for any period.
In this country the age is fixed at twenty-one years
for the parents to have full control of their children.
In Spain I think the law fixes the maturity of the
child at twenty-five years ; and if I am not mistaken
in some countries they are held by the civil law
under the control of the parents a much longer
period. The right of the parents to control their
children and put thefr earnings in their own pocket,
is sustained by the moral law, as well as the civile
and I believe by all the civilized nations of the
earth ; and I don't know any association that has
ever been formed to oppose the moral and legal
claim of the parent to the child during his mino-
> rity. Yet the 9th verse above, according to Mrs. Child's
reasoning, forbids the lawful relation of parent and
child, and that the child should not call any man
his father ; or in other words, should not submit to
the government of its parents ; for this doctrine is
just as fully taught in the 9th verse as the anti-
slavery doctrine is in the 8th and 10th verses. 'For
slaves are held by the same human laws to the mas-
31

362 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
ters titat children are to parents. And if the doc^
trine of the abolitionist is sustained: in the 8th and
10th verses, then no parent can, under the moral law,
sustain a claim upon his children. And according
to the abolition creed and teachings, no civil law
should be respected when that law interferes with
the liberties of any part of the human race.
8th quotation. Matt. vii. 12 :—
" 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." I don't know that I ever held a conversation on
the subject of slavery with an anti-slavery man who
did not boastingly quote this passage from our
Lord's exhortation. This certainly is one of the
most sublime precepts of the whole gospel code;
and if every man -would only take it upon himself
to follow it, or be governed by it, troubles and
disputes between men would be at an end, and the
South would not be under the necessity of making
laws to prevent the abolitionists from stealing their
slaves, which would be a most glorious achievement
for this whole country.
The meaning of this text is obvious to every un
prejudiced mind ; and every slave-holder would be
willing to enter into a covenant with all modern
abolitionists to keep this precept to the strictest
letter. But abolitionists seem to think that they
are not bound by this precept, and that it is a rule
that only works one way, and seem to forget, while
they' require the masters to set their slaves all free
under this precept, that the masters are calling upon

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 863
the North under the same rule to let them -alone.
There is only one rule to explain this passage, and
that is as follows : — " Do as you would be done by."
In. order to decide righteously on this, you must
reverse your circumstances and place yourself en
tirely where the slave-holder is, with all the con
comitant circumstances through which he became,
and still is, a slave-holder, and then ask yourself
the question, how would you have Northern abolition
ists to treat you on the subject. This is the' only
righteous rule by which we can come to a righteous
application of this text.
This brilliant precept of our Lord ought to silence
every true follower of His on this negro question,
except those who, aftei* having reversed situations
with the slave-holder as above, and then makes up
his mind that he would have the abolitionists to call
him a thief, robber, and murderer, and run his
slaves off to Canada on the underground railroad by
$10,000 worth at a time. Even then that man has
not the right, according to this precept, to call all
the slaverowners robbers, thieves, and murderers,
and to steal the slaves away from their masters, and
then let them starve and die among strangers, be
cause it. would not be a reversion of circumstances
as they are. I think all honest unbiassed minds will
agree with me on this quotation.
I will respectfully refer Mrs. Child and her
followers to the first five verses of this chapter, and
hope they may be read with prayerful hearts.
Quotation 9th, Isa. Iviii. 6 : —
" Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? to loose the bands

-.364 -AFRICAN SLAVERY,
of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens and to let the op
pressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ?"
Dr. A. Clarke says this' verse alludes to the slave
trade ; but I cannot see any allusion to that business ;
for I do not believe a greater crime can be com
mitted than to buy human beings, and drive them
through the country like cattle, and sell them
among strangers, without respect to the treatment
they may receive. I believe men will be held
responsible at the bar of God for all such crimes.
When a man has more slaves than he can make
useful to himself, it is his religious duty to choose a
master for that servant, with the same care he would
for his own cMld that he wanted to send away to
learn a trade. He should know the man to be a
good man to his servants. And if he sells his negro
to whoever shall give the most for him, without
respect to his future welfare, he will be held respon
sible to his Maker in -the great day of accounts.
The servant's future welfare should be looked to,
and, not the highest price that could be got.
I believe this verse has reference to the moral
conduct of the Jewish nation ; they made loud profes
sions in public that they did not practise in private,
and they were very overbearing and selfish. They
perhaps taxed the people more than they were able
to pay, and binding burdens, and laying them on
other men's shoulders, too intolerable to be borne,
such as they were not willing to touch with the end
of their finger. And no doubt they extorted duties
from surrounding trib^, over whom they had, by
supreme power, extended their government, that

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 865
was more than they could pay. The slave trade
could not have been included in this precept.
Every American who has read the Declaration of
our Independence, will have some idea of oppression,
and the opium war between England and China
some few years ago will have some idea of the bonds
of wickedness alluded to in this verse.
Quotation \^th, Joel iii. 3.
. " And they have cast lots for my people ; and have given a
boy |pr a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might
drink." This verse certainly has reference to treatment to
the Jews while in captivity. Their sons and
daughters were traded off for wine and necessaries
of life, and they were used for the most brutal pur
poses, it has no reference to common slavery of the
Africans. Quotation 11th, Prov. xiv. 31.
"He that oppresseth the poor, reproacheth his Maker; but
he that honoreth him hath mercy on the poor."
This verse is so foreign from the question at issue,
that I am surprised that Mrs. Child should have
quoted it. The slaves in the southern States are not
oppressed ; they are fed and .clothed, and the hap
piest people I have ever seen, and have no concern
about the future of this world whatever. Their
masters attend to- all their business for them, and
feed and clothe them. They are not oppressed, for
they 'want nothing. But he who persuades the
slaves to run away from their masters is a thief and
an oppressor of the poor in the strictest sense of th6
word; and he that winks at it is no- better.
31*

366 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
Quotation 12th, Prov. xx. 22, 23.
"Say not thou I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord,
and he shall save thee.
23. Divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord, and a
false balance is not good."
Whatever Mrs. Child sees in this quotation to
condemn slavery or slaveholders she can enjoy it;
I 'can see nothing touching the subject whatever.
But I would advise Mrs. Child to be careful that
she does not make out a false balance in her own
favor, for such things are an abomination to the
Lord. Quotation ISth, Jer. xii. 13.
" They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns ; they have
put themselves to pain, but shall not profit. And they shall
be ashamed of your revenues, because of the fierce anger of the
Lord." This verse is quoted also to condemn slaveholding,
but 1 think the reader will see that it condemns the
abolitionists just as much as it does slaveholders
and a great deal more.
Quotation lith, Eph. iv. 28.
"Let him that stole steal no more ; but rather let him labor,
working -with his hands tKe thing which is good, that he may
have to give to him .that needeth."
I think Mrs. Child ought to call the attention of
all the underground railroad companies to this text,
and urge the Christ-like precept home to their every
heart ; for if she can prevail upon all people, white
and colored, male and female. North and South, to
respect this text, we shall have but little trouble on

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 367
the slave question. Eemember that man stealing is
a great crime against God.
¦Quotation 15th, Isa. x. 1, 2.
" 'Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that
write grievousness which they have prescribed,
2. To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away
from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey,
and that they may rob the fatherless."
Those verses, no doubt, allude to certain laws
made for extortion. "Unrighteous decrees and
grievous writings" has reference to taking the labor
ing classes or surrounding tribes, that had been
overpowered and made subjects, and then taxed
them more than they, were able to pay, which is
condemned throughout by the Holy Scriptures, but
it is a very different thing from American slavery.
A slave gets more for his work than any other la
borers, generally ; he has his board and clothes, and
a house to live in, and his doctor's bills are all paid.
His wages goes on while sick, even his nurse is paid,
and all his tobacco bills, and taxes by his master ;
and he gets all this for doing about one-half the
work that any white man does that works at all ;
and it is no matter if he (the slave) has a wife and
ten children, they are all supported by the master,
and he does not have to work one minute more on
their account, and he takes " no thought for to-mor
row," and has no concern about the future. He is
not called upon to provide for winter or lay up for
sickness. The only concern he has is to prepare for
death and judgment, and there is reason to believe
that many thousands are laying up for themselves a

368 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
very large fortune, where it cannot be taken from
them. I will repeat that .they are the happiest peo
ple I have ever seen. But oppressive rulers will
have a large account to settle some day, and that is
the class alluded to in the above quotation. They
taxed them more than they were able to pay, and
many times, under all such oppressive laws, their
personal tax takes nearly all the man's earnings, and
he is left without support to his family. There is
no such oppression in our southern States. But if
abolitionists ever get the power, we shall learn- by
sad experience the meaning of this* text.
Quotation IQth, Job xxx. 13, 14 : —
" They mar my path, they set forward my calamiity, they
have no helper.
" They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters ; in
the desolation they rolled themselves upon me."
These verses had reference to war, no doubt,
either to cutting off retreat, or obliterating" the
guides for an attack. The 14th has reference to a
besieged city, a storm, fight or slaughter. There is
not the slightest allusion to slavery such as is found
in our Southern States.
Quotation 11th, Job xxii. 9, 10, 11 : —
" Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the
- fatherless have been broken.
" Therefore snares are aroun3 about thee, and sudden fear
troubleth thee ;
"Or darkness that thou canst not see; and abundance of
waters cover thee."
I think these verses have a strong allusion to dis-i
honesty or hardness of heart, and would .bear

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 369
much harder upon the conduct of the underground
railroad company, than upon a large majority of the
slave-holders. There is nothing in the three verses
that condemns slavery, or slave-holding.
•:_ Quotation 18th, James v. 4: — ¦
"Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down
your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth : and
the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears
of the Lord of Sabaoth."
The precept in this verse is a good one ; it has
reference to laborers, and clearly sets forth that it is
not honest to hire a man, and after he has done
your work, to withhold his wages. This is a sin of
the worst kind. But a slave is not meant, for he
gets the worth of his labor. If you pay the volun
tary laborer all ofi" at the end of every day, the four-
fifths of them have to limit themselves in all the
necessaries of life, and the larger the family the
smaller the allowance, and a large majority of them,
cannot satisfy their wants, and with this they have
constant fear of being thrown out of work, and their
wives and children left to starve. But not so with
slave laborers.. They do not have to limit them
selves in food, they have no fear of being out of
employ, and it is no matter whether they have a
wife and twenty children, or no wife and no child
ren, their concern about * this world is the same.
Their bread is sure, and their pay certain.
I think it will be admitted that Mrs. Child w|g
driven to some extreme for Scripture, to have made
those quotations. To say the most of them, but
little could be got out of them that ias any refer-

370 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
ence whatever to the matter in dispute. They barfe
on all alike, they are general terms and not special.
Mrs. ChUd is said to possess a talent far above
mediocrity, and yet she has not produced one single
passage that proves slavery (in the abstract) to be a
moral evil. Her friends say she is fully conversant
with the Scriptures from the beginning to the end ;
yet after all her boast of "favorite passages of
Scripture" to sustain abolitionists, she has produced
the above eighteen passages, and there is only one
or two of them that has any reference to slavery
whatever, and according to the best authorities they
just as much prove that it is wrong to hire a man,
and pay him his hire in silver, as it does to own
African negroes, and give them all the necessaries
of this life ; and it proves no more. So clear are
the Scriptures on this subject that hundreds of ex
treme abolitionists have rejected them entirely, be
cause they do not condemn slavery.
It is clear from the New Testament, that the
Christian church is not to interfere with civil ques
tions. Her mission is to point out the ways of truth
and righteousness, and make men as happy in this
world as circumstances will permit, and to show
them the way to eternal glory. Therefore our Lord
refused to depide civil questions, as in Matt. xxii.
15th-22d. The Pharisees took council ho'w they
might entangle our Lord, by getting him to decide a
^estion that did not belong to the Christian church
that was maturing at that moment. Whether they
knew the effect of getting him entangled in State
matters or not, the great wicked spirit did know

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 371
that it would overthrow the mission of the Saviour
of the world ; and our Lord knowing that, he care
fully avoided giving his opinion on the subject.
" The Pharisees sent unto him their disciples with the Hero-
dians, saying. Master, we know that Thou art true, and teach-
est the way of God in truth, neither carest Thou for any man;_
for Thou regardest not the person of man. Tell us therefore,
'What thinkest Thou ? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cesar,
or not ? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, why
tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money.
And they brought unto him a penny. And he said unto them
Whose is this image and superscription ? They say unto him
Cesar's, Then saith he unto them., render, therefore, unto
Cesar the things which are Cesar's ; and unto God the things
tiiat are God's."
Now it seems clear to my mind that our Lord
refused to answer this question directly, to show us
that the church has nothing whatever to do with
ci'vil institutions, that do not interfere 'with the rights
of conscience, and allow all men to worship Godrac-.
cording to the dictates of their own judgments.
And so far as I have learned, the masters of the
Southern slaves have not at any time attempted to,
control the conscience of their slaves, or forbid them
to serve the Lord, in their own way ; and a large
majority of the masters pay liberally to have the
gospel preached to their slaves each week ; and I
believe they are not charged with dictating to their
conscience, and the slaves are not required to work
on the Sabbath day, and are taught that they should,
worship God according to the dictates of their own
conscience. I will refer the reader to Paul's Epistle to Phile-

372 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
mon, and I hope Mrs. Child and all other abolitionists
will read the whole chapter with attention.
It seems that while Paul was imprisoned in Eome
for preaching Christ, he did not cease to preach the
gospel ; and under his preaching, a servant by the
name of Onesimus was converted by Paul, and be
coming a true child of God, he made it known to
his spiritual father, " St. Paul," that he was a fugi
tive slave from the service of one Philemon. Onesi
mus became a great comforter to St. Paul, after his
(Onesimus) conversion. Yet as soon as Paul learned
that Onesimus was a fugitive slave, and had a
Christian master, he rested not until he got Onesi
mus off to his master Philemon, with the epistle
alluded to; though he needed Onesimus much to
wait on him, but he could not consent to keep him
there without his master's (" Philemon") permission.
Therefore he started him with the letter to his mas
ter, and by that letter he intercedes between Phile
mon and his fugitive servant Onesimus, thereby to
get Philemon to pardon his servant, and if he would
do so, and take him back to his service, he (Paul)
would pay for whatever Onesimus might have
taken from his master previous to his flight. See
18th verse. "If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee
aught, put that on mine account."
How does this contrast with modern 'abolitionism,
the underground railroad, the negro female con
ductor, and the Boston congregation alluded to in a
previous chapter.
In reference to the church, I think this epistle
does settle the question, and clearly demonstrates

AFRICAN SLAVERY. .373
that the church has nothing to do with slavery, only
to see that her members, if slaves, should be faithful
to their masters, and the masters to their slaves.
The teachings of the New Testament are too clear
to be misunderstood, and I believe every good man,
who seeks for truth only, will understand it so ; and
instead of making trouble between master and slave.
and running the slaves off on the underground
railroad, and persuading them to steal their master's
property, or kill him if necessary to make their
escape, will teach the slaves how they should best
serve their masters, and be the most useful to them ;
that they cannot be true Christians, and wilfully
neglect one duty to their masters. This was left on
record by St. Paul; therefore he who teacheth other
wise is an infidel ; and I think I have proved satis
factorily to every candid Christian man and woman
that every circumstance connected with the African
race down to the present day, fully sustains the
preaching of St. Paul and proves that the descend
ants of Canaan were to be slaves or ' subordinates
through all time, from Noah's declaration after the
flood, over 4200 years ago, that Canaan should be a
" servant of servants to his brethren." I
APPENDIX.
I WAS charged with deception soon after the John
Brown raid in Virginia, for my opinions, and was
called a fool when I said the success of the aboli
tionists to national power would produce a civil war
in this country, and destroy the Union of States.
32

874 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
This I said in the winter of '59 and '60. How
stands the matter on this the first day of October
1862 ? I add this little appendix merely as a re
membrancer. I am not disappointed in the result,
neither do I think anybody else is who had given
human nature and abolitionism an impartial study.
I will now close this volume by giving two letters
from the pen of the Hon. Wm. Bigler of Pennsyl
vania, who was called upon in writing, by a number
of his constituents, for the information given in the
letters; I hope they may be examined with scruti
nizing attention, for they are written by one who
knew the facts.

LETTEE I.
Gleabfield, September 29, 1862.
Gentlemen : I am in receipt of your letter, and -with plea
sure proceed to comply with your request. In doing this I
shall endeavor to be brief, though it must be obvious that any
thing like a full history of the proceedings of the United
States Senate on the resolutions famiharly known as the
Crittenden Compromise, and the occurrences incident thereto,
cannot be compressed into a very short story.
You can all bear me witness that in the addresses I - have
made to the people, since my retiracy from the Senate I have
not sought to press this subject on their consideration in any
party light — I have held that the government and country
must be saved, no matter whose, folly and madness had im
perilled them — that we should first extinguish the flames that
are consuming our national fabric, and afterwards look up and
punish the incendiary who applied the torch ] but as the
subject has been brought before the community by a distin
guished member of the Republican party, for partisan ends,
and statements made inconsistent with the record, , it is
eminently proper that the facts — at least all the essential facts
¦ — should be given to the public.
It is not true that some republican members of the Senate
supported the " Crittenden Compromise" and some opposed it.

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 375
They opposed it throughout, and without an exception. Their
efforts to defeat it were in the usual shape of postponements
and amendments, and it was not till within a few hours of the
close of the session that a direct vote was had on the proposi
tion itself.
On the 14th of January they cast a united vote against its
consideration, and on the 15th they did the same thing, in order
to consider the Pacifiq railroad bill.
But the first test vote was had on the 17th day of January,
on the motion of Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, to strike out
the Crittenden proposition and insert certain resolutions of
his own, the only object manifestly being the defeat of the
former. , The yeas and nays on this vote were as follows : —
Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bingham, Cameron, Chan
dler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Dirkee, Fessenden,
Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, King, Seward, Simmons,
Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, and Wilson
—25. Nays — Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bragg, Bright, Clingman,
Crittenden, Fitch, Green, Lane, Latham, Mason, Nicholson,
Pearce, Polk, Powell, Pugh, Kice, Saulsbury, and Sebastian
—23. So Mr. Clark's amendment prevailed, and the Crittenden
proposition was defeated. On the announcement of this re
sult the whole subject was laid on the table.
This was the vote on which. some six or eight Senators
from the Cotton States withheld their votes, and of this I shall
speak hereafter.
It is true that, within a few hours after these proceedings,-
as though alarmed about the consequences of what had been
done. Senator Cameron moved a reconsideration of the vote
by which the Crittenden proposition had been defeated.
This motion came up for consideration on the 18th, and to
the amazement of everybody not in the secret, Senator Came
ron voted agairist his own motion, and was joined by every
other Senator of his party. The vote is recorded on p. 433 of
1st vpl. Congressional Globe, and is as follows : —
Yeas — Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bragg, Bright, Clingman,
Crittenden, Douglas, Fitch, Green, Gwin, Hunter, Johnson of
Arkansas, Jdhnson of Tennessee, Kennedy, Lane, Latham,
Mason, Nicholson, Pearce, Polk, Powell, Pugh, Eice, Sauls-
bury, Sebastian, and Slidell — 27.
Nays — Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bingham, Cameron, Chan
dler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Pos
ter, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, King, Seward, Simmons, Sumner,
Ten Eyck, Wade, Wigfall, WiUdnson, and Wilson— 24.
This vote was regarded by many as conclusive against the

376 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
Crittenden proposition, for the reason that the Eepublican
Senators, after full deliberation and consultation, had cast a
united vote against it. I shall never forget the appearance
and bearing of that venerable patriot, John J. Crittenden, on
the announcement of this result. His heart seemed full to
overflowing with grief, and his countenance bore the unmis
takable marks of anguish and despair. The motion of
Senator Cameron to reconsider had inspired him with hope —
strong hope ; but the united vote of the Republican Senators
against his proposition showed him too clearly that his efforts
were vain.
The final vote was taken directly on agreeing to the Crit
tenden proposition on the 3d of March — one day before the
final adjournment of Congress — and is recorded on p. 1405 of
the Congressional Globe, second part. On this vote every
Democrat and every southern Senator (including Mr. Wigfall,
who voted against the reconsideration of Mr. Clark's amend
ment), voted for the proposition, and every Republican
against it.
As for the Cotton State Senators who withheld their votes
on the 16th of January, so that Mr. Clark's amendment might
prevail, I have certainly no apology to make for their mis
chievous and -wicked conduct on that or any other occasion,
but if they are blameworthy for withholding their votes, and
not sustaining the Crittenden proposition, what shall we say of
the Eepublican Senators who, at the same time, cast a solid
vote against it, as I have already shown ? It was no half way
business with them — they aimed directly at its final defeat.
Some of the southern Senators, on the other hand, who had
withheld their votes on the 16th (Messrs. Slidell, Hemphill,
and Johnson of Arkansas), by the 18th had repented their
error, and cast their votes to reconsider and revive the Com
promise proposition ; but the Eepublicans persisted in their
hostility to the end.
Nor is it true that the votes of the Cotton State Senators
with those of all the other southern Senators, and those of all
the northern Democrats, could have saved and secured the
Crittenden Compromise. They could have given it a majority,
but everybody knows that the Constitution requires a vote of
two-thirds to submit amendments to the Constitution for the
ratification of the States. These could not be had without
eight or ten Eepublican votes. But suppose the Constitution
did not so require — what could it have availed to have adopted
a settlement by a mere party vote ? It was a compromise be
tween the two sections that the exigencies required. The
Eepublican was the dominant party in the North, and no com
promise or adjustment coulcl be successful, either in the

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 877
Senate or before the people, without their active support.
They constituted one of the parties to the issue, and it would
have been folly — worse than folly — to have attempted a set
tlement without their sanction and support before the country.
But no one can misunderstand the real object of the Re-
pubhcan orators in parading the fact that six or eight South
ern Senators had, at one time, withheld^ their votes from the
Crittenden proposition. It is to show that the South was not
for it and did not desire a compromise, and hence the Repub
licans are not responsible for the horrible consequences of its
failure. On this point the testimony is very conclusive, and I
«hall give it at some lengtji, please or displease whom it may.
If Eepublicans choose to take the responsibility of saying
that they were against the proposition and determined to
make no settlement, however we may lament their policy, no
one could object to that position, as matter of fact ; but they
will forever fail to satisfy the world that the South was not
fairly committed to a settlement on the basis of the Critten
den proposition, or that the Northern Democrats would not
have compromised on that ground had they possessed the
power to do so. I am aware that there are plenty of Repub
licans who would still spurn to settle with the South on such
conditions, as there are also radical fanatics who would not
take that section back into the Union even on the conditions
of the Constitution. They certainly can have no complaint
against my views and sentiments.
When Congress assembled in December, 1861, it was obvi
ous to every one who was at all willing to heed the signs of
the times, that the peace of our country was in imminent
peril, the natural consequences of a prolonged war of crimina
tion and recrimination between the extreme and impracticable
men of the North and the South. The anxious inquiry was
heard everywhere — " What can be done to allay the agitation
and save the unity and peace of our country ?" Amongst those
who were willing to make an effort to compromise and settle,
regardless of sectional, party or personal considerations, consul
tation after consultation was held. The first great task was
to discover whether it was possible to bring the South up to
ground on which the North could stand. Many and various
were the propositions and suggestions produced. But it was
finally.concluded that the proposition of the venerable Sena
tor from Kentucky (Mr. Crittenden) was most likely to com
mand the requisite support in Congress and before the people.
These, together with all others of a similar character, were
referred to a select committee, composed of the following
Senators : —
Messrs. Crittenden, Powell, Hunter, Seward, Toombs, Doug-
32-^

378 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
las, Collamer, Davis, Wade, Bigler, Eice, Doolittle, and
Grimes— five Southern men, five Eepublicans, and three
Northern Democrats. The Southern and Eepubhcan Senators
were regarded as the parties to the issue, and hence a rule
was adopted that no proposition should be reported to the
Senate as a compromise unless it received a majority of both
sides. All the Southern Senators, save Mr. Davis and Mr.
Toombs, were known to favor the Crittenden proposition. On
the 23d of December, this proposition came Tip for considera
tion, and it became necessary for Messrs. Davis and Toombs
to take their positions in regard to it, and I shall never for
get the substance of what both g,aid, for I regarded their
course as involving the fate of the compromise. Mr. Davis
said, " that for himself the proposition would be a bitter pill,
for he held that his constituents had an equal right with those
of any other Senator to go into the common Territories, and
occupy and enjoy them with whatever might be their property
at the time ; but nevertheless, in view of the great stake in
volved, if the Eepubhcan side would go for it in good faith he
would unite with them." Mr. Toombs expressed nearly the
same sentiments, and declared that his State would accept
the proposition as a final settlement. Mr. Toombs also, in
open Senate, on the 7th of January, used the following lan
guage : —
"But although I insist on this perfect equality in the terri
tory, yet when it was proposed, as I now understand the Senator
from Kentucky to propose, that the line of 36-30 shall be ex
tended, acknowledging and protecting our property on the
south side of that line, for the sake of peace — permanent peace,
I said to the committee of thirteen, as I say here, that with
other satisfactory provisions I would accept it." [Page 270,
Con.g. Globe, 1st.]
In addition to my own testimony of what occurred in the
committee of thirteen, I present extracts from speeches of Mr.
Douglas and Mr. Pugh, bearing directly on this point: —
On the 3d of Jan., in the course of an elaborate speech, Mr.
Douglas used the following language : —
" If you of the Eepublican side are not -willing to accept this
nor the proposition of the Senator from Kentucky, pray tell us
what you will do ? I address the inquiry to the Eepublicans
alone, for the reason that in the committee of thirteen, a few
days ago, every member from the South, including those from
the Cotton States [Messrs. Davis and Toombs] expressed their
readiness to accept the proposition of my venerable friend from
Kentucky, as a final settlement of the controversy, if tendered
and sustained by the Eepublican members. Hence the sole
responsibility of our disagreement, and the only difficulty in

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 379
the way of an amicable adjustment, is with the Eepublican
party." These remarks were made, as I well remember, be
fore a very full Senate — in the presence of nearly, if not quite
all the Eepublican and Southern Senators, and no one dare to
dispute the facts stated.
Mr. Pugh on the 2d day of March, in the course of a very
able speech, remarked : —
" But suppose that Senator does promise me a vote on the
Crittenden proposition : 1 have followed him for three months ;
I have followed my honorable friend from Kentucky [Mr.
Crittenden] for three months ; I have followed my friend, the
Senator from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Bigler] for three months ; I
have voted with them on all these propositions at a time when
there were twelve other Senators in this chamber on whose
votes we could rely ; and what came 'of it all ? Did we ever
get a vote on the Crittenden proposition ? Never. Did we
ever get a vote on the peace conference proposition ? Never.
Did we ever get a vote on the bill introduced by the Senator
from Pennsylvania [Mr. Bigler] to remit these propositions
to a vote of the people ? Never. They were not strong enough
to displace the Pacific railroad bill, which stood here and defied
them in the Senate for more than a month. They were not
strong enough to set aside this plunder bill you call a tariff.
They were not strong enough to beat a pension bill one morn
ing. For three long months have I followed the Senator and
others, begging for a vote on these questions ; never can we
get it ; never ; and now I am to be deluded no further ; and I
use that word delusion certainly in no unkind sense to my
friend. " The Crittenden proposition has been endorsed by the al
most unanimous vote of the Legislature of Kentucky. It has
been endorsed by the Legislature of the noble old Common
wealth of Virginia. It has been petitioned for by a larger
number of the electors of the United' States than any proposi
tion that was ever before Congress. I believe in my heart,
to-day, that it would carry an overwhelming majority of the
people of my State, aye, sir, and of nearly every other State
in the Union. Before the Senators from the State of Missis
sippi left this Chamber, I heard oneofthem, who now assumes,
at least, to be President of the Southern Confederacy, propose
to accept it, and to maintain the Union, if that proposition
could receive the vote it ought to receive from the other side of
this Chamber. Therefore, of all your propositions, of all
your amendments, kno-wing, as I do, and knowing that the
historian -will write it down, at any time before the first of
January, a two-thirds vote for the Crittenden resolutions in
this Chamber would have saved every State in the Union but

380 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
South Carolina. Georgia would be here by her representatives,
and Louisiana also — those two great States which, at least,
would have broken the whole column of secession."
Mr. Douglas, at the same time said in reply, " I can con
firm the Senator's declaration that Senator Davis himself,
when on the committee of thirteen, was ready at all times to
compromise on the Crittenden proposition. I will go further
and say that Mr. Toombs was also ready to do so."
But if this testimony were not in existence at all, do we not
all know that the great State of Virginia endorsed this propo
sition and submitted it to the other States as a basis of a
final adjustment and permanent peace. It was this basis on
which that State called for the Peace Conference which
assembled soon thereafter.
It was also endorsed by almost the unanimous vote of the
Legislature of Kentucky, and subsequently by those of Ten
nessee and North Carolina. But it is useless to add testi
mony. The Republican members of the Senate were against
the Crittenden proposition, and the radicals of that body were
against any and every' adjustment. "When the Peace Con
ference had assembled, and there was some hope of a satis
factory settlement, it is well knewn that Mr. Chandler, Mr.
Harlan and others urged their respective Governors to send on
impracticable fanatics as Commissioners in order to defeat
a compromise. In what I have said I have not intended to extenukte or ex
cuse the wickedness of the secessionists. Bad and impolitic
as was the policy of the Northern radicals, it furnished no sufifi-
ciept reason for secession, rebellion, and war ; but I believed
most sincerely then as I do now, that the acceptance of Mr.
Crittenden's proposition by one-third of the RepubUcans in
Congress, at the right time, would have broken down secession
in nearly all the States now claiming to be out of the Union ;
and it might have been accepted without any sacrifice of
honor or principle. So far as the common territory of the
United States was concerned,-. it proposed an equitable parti
tion, giving the North about 900,000 square miles, and the
Sou-th about 300,000. No umpire that could have been
selected would have given the North more. i
If, then, it was a material interest and value we are, con
tending for, it gave us our full share ; if it was the application
of a political principle the Eepublicans were struggling for,
it allowed the application of their doctrine to three-fourths of
the estate that belonged to all the States and all the people.
It expressly excluded slavery from 900,000 square miles, and
allowed it in the remaining 300,000. The EepubUcans, it is
true, had just elected a President, and were about to take

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 381
possession of the Government ; but still the popular vote in
the several States showed that they were over a million of votes
in the minority of the electors of the United States. Being a
million in the minority, if they secured the apphcation of their
principles to three-fourths of all the territory, was that not
enough ? Could they not on that have boasted of a great
triumph ?
For a time these arguments and considerations seemed to
have weight with the more moderate and conservative of the
Eepublican Senators. 'Indeed at one time I had strong hopes
of a settlement. But the radicals rallied in force, headed by
Mr. Greeley, and the current was soon changed. We were
then met with the argument that the people, in the election of
Mr. Lincoln, had decided to exclude slavery from all the ter
ritory, and that the members of Congress dare not attempt to
reverse that decision. We then determined to go a step
further and endeavor to overcome this obstacle ; and it was to
this end, after consultation with Mr. Crittenden and others,
that I myself introduced a bill into the Senate providing for
taking the sense of the people of the several States on the
Crittenden proposition, for the direction of members of Con
gress in voting for or against its submission for the ratifica
tion of the States, as an amendment to the Constitution.
This was an appeal to the source of all political power, and
would have relieved the members of all serious responsibility.
The vote of the representative would have been in accordance
with the votes of his constituents, either for or against the
proposition. The only objection made was that it was some
what irregular and extraordinary. But the same men could
not make that objection at present. Too many extraordinary
things have since been done by their chosen agents. I be
lieved with the Senator from Ohio, as I believe still, that the
proposition would have carried a majority in nearly all the
States of the Union, but it shared the fate of all other efforts
for settlement. Would to God our country was now in the con
dition it then was, and that the people could be allowed to
settle the controversy for themselves under the hghts of
eighteen months' experience, of war and carnage, and count
less sacrifices of national strength and character.
"Very truly, your obedient servant.
^ ^'^ -Wm. Bigler

882 AFRICAN SLAVERY.

LETTEE II.

Cleaefield, Pa., November 1, 1862.
Mt Dear Sir : In reply to your favor of the 30th ultimo, I
have to say that you have been rightly informed. I do not in
tend to be a candidate for United States Senator at the coming
election, and have so expressed myself to friends on all proper
occasions. I have a number of reasons, public and private,
for this course, one of which is that the Eastern and Northern
sections of the State, make special claim to the Senator, at
this time, on the ground that we have one in the West
recently elected, and cannot reasonably claim both for so long
a term. The other question you ask, "what can be done to save the
country," is not so readily answered. The usual response is;
God inows. Few of our best thinkers seem to have any clear
views on the question ; and it is not even certain that the
Administration at Washington has a well defined policy to
that end. I have some thoughts on the subject which I do
not hesitate to give you. They may seem to you crude, and
on some points even novel and startling; but they are the re
sult of some reflection.
The sword is the only agency at work. But the sword can
not do all. It is an agent of destruction. It can tear down
but cannot build up. It may chastise and silence the rebels
in the field ; but it cannot make a union of States ; it cannot
restore confidence and fraternity amongst a people estranged
and alienated from each other. If the war was against the
leaders in the South only, as many at the beginning supposed,
then the sword might put them dewn and the masses could
return to their allegience. But the conflict turns out to be
-with the whole mass of the people within the revolting States,
old and young, male and female, numbering many milhons.
'With such a power, sooner or later, we shall have to treat and
negotiate. The sword alone will never restore this people to
the Union.
You well know that when the present calamities menaced
the nation, I was for peaceful means to avert the blow. Then
our present suffering and sacrifices could have been avoided,
and as I believe, the unity of the States preserved for genera
tions, without the sacrifice of principle, or honor, or conscience
on either side ; passion, prejudice and fanaticism only would
have been required to give way ; and I still think, nay, I am
sure that other means beside war are necessary to save our

AFRICAN SLAVERY. 383
country — our whole country — from present afflictions and im
pending ruin.
I know how easy it is to talk about war and carnage ; about
stratagetic positions and brilliant victories; about the prompt
subjugation of the South by the North; even how pleasant it
may be to some to float in the common current of excitement
and passion ; and especially how unpleasant, if not unsafe it is
to stem this tide. But the time is coming, if, it be not now,
when the public man who would render his country a substan
tial service must do this. He must look at the whole work
before us, and strike for the right regardless of clamor or con
sequences to himself personally.
We have had war for eighteen months, the like of which
the world has seldom -witnessed before. To sustain which a
national debt of startling magnitude, which must hang over
posterity long into the future, has already been created, and
more than a quarter of a million of invaluable lives sacrificed,
on the Union side alone, in addition to the many thousands
that have been crippled or diseased for life ; and yet but little,
if any substantial progress has been made in the good work of
re-establishing the Union, or even of maintaining the Federal
authority within the revolting States. Has not then, the ex
periment of war, as a means of extricating the country from
its present deplorable condition, been already tested^tested
at least to such an extent as to prove its utter futility unaided
by other means.
It was a happy thought of President. Lincoln, expressed in
his Inaugural, that if we went to war we could not fight
always ; " and when, after much loss on both sides and no
gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions
as to terms of intercourse are again upon you." This pro
phetic and highly significant sentiment shows that even Mr.
Lincoln, before the war began, anticipated the time, in case it
did begin, when it would be necessary to put the sword to
¦ rest, at least for a season, in order to resume the identical old
questions about intercourse and settlement. It does not seem
to have occurred to him that the sword could do the whole
work, but that inevitably we would have to come back to the
original point to compromise and settle. If then, we cannot
fight always ; what amount of fighting is necessary to render
it proper to prepare to cease, or suspend in order to consider
terms of reconciliation. There has already " been much loss
on both sides and no gain on either," and whilst the time to
cease fighting may not be yet, the period has surely come
when other means besides the sword should be employed in
the effort to save the government and country. Certainly
the object of the war, and the extent to which it is to go.

384 AFRICAN SLAVERV.
should be definitely known to the country. If it bo intended
to subjugate the States in rebeUion, and hold them, not as
States in the Union, but as conquered provinces, then the
sword must be kept in constant motion, and war and carnage
must be the order of the day. New levies and fresh supphes
may be properly raised, for it will require a formidable army
in each of the seceded States to execute and maintain this
scheme. If extermination be the object, then the sword
should have unrestrained license to deal death and destruction
amongst the rebels, in all parts of their country, regardless of
sex, or age, or condition. But neither of these purposes, if
practicable, would re-establish the Union, although there
might remain a Union composed of certain States. But,
when the Union is re-established, the South as well as the
North must be in it ; the family of States must exist as here
tofore, else it will not be the Union about which we have
talked so much and for which so many brave men have off'ered
up their lives. The physical triumph of the North over the
South in the field, as the North in the end, may triumjih, is not
the whole of the task. The States must be brought together ;
the feelings of the people of both sections must be so con
strained and moderated, that they can fraternize and live
together, else the Union is gone forever. To subjugate the
Southern States and so hold them, could subserve no good
end for either section, and in no way, that I can discover,
advance the welfare of the North ; for so long as the South
was so held their hate of the North would increase, and whilst
the North so held the South, it could do but little else ; mean
while its material interest must languish and die. But, in
addition, such a work is utterly inconsistent with the genius
of our institutions and could scarcely fail to lead to their utter
perversion and ultimate overthrow, adding to the calamities of
disunion, the sacrifice of free government. Conquest and
empire, however magnificent, could not compensate for such a
loss. To exterminate the inhabitants of the South, would be a
deliberate emasculation of- the Union, rendering its recon
struction at once impracticable and hopeless, and involve a
work of barbarity, from which the Northern people would
shrink in horror. The existence of the Southern States, in
some form, -with their inhabitants, and on some terms of inter
course, is highly essential, nay, I will say, iiidispensible to
the welfare of the North. I am, therefore against extermina
tion, and against the policy of holding the Southern States-as
conquered provinces. This ground can be so easily main-
ta,ined on purely selfish considerations for the North, which
wiU occur to all, that I need not trouble you with their pre-

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 385
sentation on this occasion. I am for re-establishing the
Union as it was, or making a Union as simUar as practicable,
the States to be equals, and to be sovereign to the extent the
States now are, each to have and enjoy such domestic institu
tions as it may choose, and, were I in Congress I should sus
tain that measure of war and that only, that would clearly
tend to the accomphshmenf of these ends ; but no war of sub
jugation or extermination.
I know it may be said in reply to all this, then let the
Southern people lay down their arms and come back into the
Union, and all wUl be right again. Would to God they could
be induced so to do ! There is no guarantee in reason that I
would not be wilhng to grant them. But do we see any indica
tions of such a return to reason and duty? I can see none,
and I expect to see none, so long as the sword is unaccom
panied by agents for settlement and peace. When our army
went to Mexico it was accompanied by a peace commission in
order to embrace the earliest opportunity for. settlement. In
God's name, I would ask, should we do less when engaged in
a war amongst ourselves ? It is idle, and worse than idle, to
delude ourselves about the nature of the conflict in which we
are. engaged. We cannot make a Union by force alone,
though we may triumph over the South in the field, and we
may as well look the comphcations square in the face as not.
The first question is, do we intend — do we desire, to have all
the Southern States back into the Union, on the terms of the
Constitution ? If we do, then it is seen that they are to be
the equals of the Northern States, in rights, sovereignty, and
dignity. Does any one believe that such a relation can be
estabUshed and maintained by the sword alone ? Should a
certain number of Ihe States subjugate and humiliate the
others, then they could not live together as equals and friends,
for the subjugated are always the enemies of the subjugators.
When all the States, therefore, resume their former relations,
or new relations of Union and intercourse, it must be the act
af a}l, if the settlement is to be complete and permanent.
I have heard a great deal about patching up a dishonorable
peace — about the humiliation and disgrace to the North, in
volved in any and every proposition for settlement, and there
is nothing that is said about the affairs of the country for
which I have less respect. It is even held by some that he
is a disloyal citizen who seeks to re-establish the Union by
other means than the sword. How absurd ! The sword has
been at work ; its agency has been tested — vigorously and
terribly tested, and how stand the States now that should
be in harmony ? The sad response is, where they were when
the war began, arrayed in grim , and relentless hgstility.
33

386 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
Then, why spurn other agencies to aid in the good work ? In
the words of Mr. Lincoln we cannot fight always, and we
should not fight longer, unless we can do so as a means of
ultimate union and permanent peace.
What, then, can be done ? and I regret that all that should
be done cannot be accomplished promptly. The States now
in the 'Union should be in Convention, or have delegates ready
to go into Convention, in order to reafiSrm the present consti
tutional relations amongst the States, with explanations on
controverted points, or to make such new relations as may be
found necessary to bring together and retain all the States.
The State Legislatures could petition Congress for such a
Convention, as provided by the Constitution, and Congress
could make the necessary provisions for it, before the close of
the coming session. Such State legislatures as do not meet in
the regular order could be specially convened ; and when the
necessary number of States petition, it is obligatory on Con
gress to comply. The body thus constituted would be compe
tent to adjust and settle all the comphcations which now beset
us. In the midst of war, then, we should be prepared to make
peace. Whereas, when the time comes for settlement, in the
absence of such a body, it might be found that we have no
competent authority in existence to do the things that may
be necessary. Neither Congress nor the Executive, nor the
two together, have rightful authority to change the old or to
make new relations amongst the States. Congress may sub
mit amendments to the Constitution for the ratification of the
States, and I believe the present calamities of the nation could
have been averted in that way in the winter of 1861 j but now
the disorders of the country are probably too comphoated to be
reached in that form.
Meanwhile, the President and Congress should prepare the
way for settlement; indeed, by consulting the people through
the ballot-box, they might make a settlement, to be ratified by
the States thereafter. Let the President propose an armistice,
for the purpose of considering some, programme of reunion and
settlement, in which the feelings and rights of t.he masses in
the South shall be duly appreciated and provided for. Invite
them to come back on the conditions of the Constitution, with
exphcit definitions on controverted points, or on new condi
tions with the fullest assurance of justice and equality when
they do so come. Let him do this, and challenge the rebel
authorities to submit such propositions as may be agreed
upon, to an unrestrained vote of the citizens of the Sojithern
States, as he will, at the same time, submit such propositions
to a vote of those of the Northern States, with the under
standing that if a majority of slave States, and a majority of

AFRICAN SLAVERY, 887
free States accept the proposition, its conditions should be
binding until ratified or superseded by the States. Suppose
the Confederate authorities reject this, or any similar proposi
tion, no harm could ensue to the Northern cause. Such
action would only leave them in a worse light before the world
and the Government at Washington in the better. 'The preli
minaries for such a movement could be readily arranged by
commissioners selected for that purpose.
It may be said that we are constantly inviting.the Southern
people to lay do-wn their arms, and come back into the Union
and this would seem to be conclusive; but it must not be for
gotten that they rebelled, because, as they say, the party now
in power at Washington, would not permit them to enjoy, in
peace, the real conditions and covenants of that Union, and
that there is no evidence that they would fare better now.
Beside, he has studied human nature to a poor purpose, who
cannot discover that unconditional submission involves a de
gree of humiliation, to which they -will never come so long as
they have any means of resistance. In the effort to gain back
even the masses, their passions and pride, and self-respect,
may be -wisely considered. "We must give them some new
ground ; some pretext, if not complete and substantial guaran
tees, before we can expect them to entertain the idea of' for
saking their present leaders, and embracing the old Govern
ment. I am fully aware of the indignation and even contempt with
which these suggestions -will be perused, by some, in both sec
tions ; but I care not ; are we not engaged in an effort to
re-establish and maintain the Union, and are not the seceded
States to compose part of that Union ? Then why not endeavor
to rescue them from destruction, and cultivate good relations
¦with them ?
' When the family of States again exists as heretofore, they
must become our brethren and our equals in every particular.
What pleasure, then, can we have in their destruction or hu-
mihation. If there be any friends of the old flag and the old
Government -within the seceded States, they should cultivate
the same spirit toward the North. The absent element of a
substantial Union is fraternity amongst the people, and that
can never be furnished by the sword. Again, in the words of
Mr. Lincoln, "there has been much loss on both sides and no
gain on either," and the identical old question as to terms of
intercourse are upon us, and we should seek so to adjust them
as to re-establish the Union on an imperishable basis.
But, it may be asked, is this a war for the Union ? Are we
sure that those in authority intend nothing else 1 They cer
tainly profess nothing else, and I attribute to them nothing

388 AFRICAN SLAVERY.
else. If the war is not for the Union, and is not directed -with
sole reference to that end, then it is the most stupendous fraud
that has ever been practised upon the world. We all know,
however, that many, very many of its partisans will not be
satisfied with that issue. It might be very important, there^
fore, to the salvation of the country, when the time for recon
struction comes, if ever it should come, to have the soundings
on this point taken in advance. I should like exceedingly to
see a popular Jcote taken in the North, especially in New Eng
land, between the proposition to receive all the States back
into the Union, on the terms of the Constitution, which makes
the States equals and alike sovereign, each with the right to
have such domestic institutions as it may choose ; and a pro
position to recognize the independence of the Southern Con
federacy. It might be interesting, as well as instructive, to
unveil the hypocrisy of a certain school of politicians who
have clamored so zealously about the war for the Union. It
is painfully apparent that notwithstanding this clamor, they
do not intend that the Union shall exist hereafter on the terms
of the Constitution, if it is to embrace all the States. The
ratio of slave representation, and the rendition of fugitive
slaves, are features of the Constitution which they condemn
and abhor. Between the maintenance of these and the recog
nition of the Southern Confederacy, many of them, in my
judgment, four to one, would prefer the latter. Their aversion
to these clauses of the ConstitutiQu were a primary cause of
the alienation and hostihty of the South, and I fear they would
not yield that aversion now to render the Union what it once
was. Let Mr. Lincoln try this question if he would solve the
problem of the nation's embroglio.
Do not understand me that 1 would yield the sword or any
other means to render the Uuion what it was. What I mean
is, that if the Union, and that only is the object, the sword
will never find the belligerents in a better condition to con
summate that work than they are now, and that other agencies
should be promptly employed. I yield to no man in devotion
and loyalty to the Union as it was, and to the principles of
government transmitted to us by our fathers. The mainte
nance and perpetuation of these shall be the object nearest
my heart, whether-J be in private or public life.
With much esteem, I remain, yours truly,
"Wm. Bigler.
To S. D. Anderson, Esq., Philadelphia, Pa.
I fully concur in all of the above sentiments,
JOHN BELL- EOBINSON.