The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1779-12-25 00:00:00, page 2

f, the Printer of the Pennsylvania PACKET.
3 I R,
?ht foliating is a copy of a genuine tetter from a perLn in
this ty, to i Clergymanii the country. It is upon an in
t^Qln 6 fubjecl ; an I may perhaps serve to throw some
1^ it uo l it. Dyou have roon for Inch a lengthy
p^ce, I truf? it frill please, as well as inform your rea
c rb. l am, &c.
C. D.
Philadelphia, December ir, 1779.
R-. r rc.il .ad Dear Sir, f
a Bit L was brought into the Assembly of Pennfyl-
A vaoia, during the lad year, for the gradual abolition
offlivery. fh A "benevolence, justice arid policy of this
d^i^'a, wis upon publication in the ufudl manner, much
approved 4), a. '^parties and denominations here; and in
dec ! t-.o^hout the State: Whilst it attracted the atten
tion, and invited the imitation of the other United States
of America. fa fad, it gained the applaud of the gene
rous and the wife of our new-formed nation in every part.
From Europe the intention must certainly receive the
highert honours ; for the fr:ndsof America, and of hu
-0.1:1 nature, in that part of the world, are astonished to
find, that a people so enlightened to their own rights, as
we ue, fit )u'd re nain blind to the case of the poor Africans,
who/n we hold in fervimde; and that, in any age of civi
lization, , rat and liberal, such an instance of barbarous.
n. L, as slavery, should continue and prevail throughout
aef'^r mmms, made by the defendants of their common
anceftom 1:1 America.
Tire bill met wi;h little opposition in the House of Af
t^mhly. Coinciding with, and exactly pursuing the very
firft words, and the main principle of our Conftitutien,
'' thib me^are born equally free and independent, and
t; ilkv have certain natural, inherent and unalienable
rights,"' a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania,
must feel himfelf to be but awkardly employed in opposing
such a design. In fhor*, great and general countenance
was given to it. Bur how manifestly soever this bill was
founded in equity and the Conflitution, yet as mistake
or prejudice, might suppose it to have an injurious effect
upon a species of property, in which some of our sister
3 ores abound, and on which their husbandry greatly de
pehdeth, it was thought prudent that not only our own 1
citizens, but aifo tn^fe of the other United States, should
be fully a, prized of the benevolent intentions of the friends
of the bill. In this view, I suppose the late Assembly for
bore to give it rhe forms of law.
If we may decide from the general favour, the plan has
met w tn, in this place, and the silence of the owners of
the Babes, in every part of the State, except one, the late
assembly had certainly the general consent of their con
ftrtuentsto pass the bill. The exception arises from a me
morial ^lioftthe bill, presented last fail, to thelate House,
br an in ^fidenble number of persons, residing in the
western p m rts of yeur county. Considering how long the
b 'lh^i lam before the public, the smallness of this oppo
frim. is c very considerable circumstance in its favour,
and attne fame time very honorable to the citizens of the
S^te, who p Ifefs slaves within it. It ffiews that they have
c refudy coufiJered the foundation of the present resist
ance t >Great-Britain, and that they intend to ad confid
ently with the Confutation.
On this public teflimony, in favour of this bill for ahro
siting finery, by a flow, but effectual operation, the
present Assembly have r^fumed it, and after the usual read
ing, have direaed that it beagain published for confi
d/ration 'by the vote of a decisive majority. Indeed,
the longer tris benign proposal has been contemplated,
and the'oqener it is brought up to view, the higher ad
vances it makes in the public approbation ; the few, whose
Arid regard to their interest, perhaps prejudices them a
gainst (0 benevolent a design, being ashamed to objed.
It may be bf rvedfiatb the .nvafion of this State, and
the poffedion the enemy obtained of this city, and neigh
b ur.moi, great part of the (laves hereabouts, were enti
ced away I,he British army. The plan has now ob
tained fuel an aCendency over the mind of the public, that
like ad useful delions, fecur? of luccefs, it muff take
eDAt : So mat if the present Assembly ihould decline from
any nufmprehenfion, to ered so fplendii a monu meat to
their fame, the,next will probablybe compelled, by the
gatfral voice.
Ym my be assured that in the other States, the high
-6(1 --Gardes are given to our legislature, upon this occasi
on ' ven in Virginia, the people are fully sensible of the
w y hindrances to public strength, morality andin
duh , wHich a multitude of Slaves introduces: They
v an to be able to extricate their State outof these diffi
cc.hes, and have lately passed laws to restrain and corre&
in some me.ifurc the mischiefs of them TheE flernSratesdif
cover a great disposition to 'relieve theoppreffed, and put
ai end to thraldom. I have no doubt of the immediate
concurrence of for of them, for the small number of
their bond men, w^i enable them to do it with less
inconvenience. Indeed, this /Era of founding a new em
pire in America feerns to be designed by Providence,
for the extindion of so savage a practice, inconfift
feiit with civilization, morality, and the true spirit of
chriftianty.
In the mean time it is irksome to find, that these few
oppofers of the bill,fhould generallybe members of the Pref-•
byterian Churches, which are etherwife remarkable for
their real,and for their exertions in the cause of freedom.
If out:I procure a copy of their memorial, I would take
notice of every thing they have urged, for it is lengthy and
arcruttentative. But the piece is not to be found a
raong the public papers, Since the Assembly rose. The
Clerk supposes that some friend of the Signers, hath with
drawn it. To such parts ofit, however, as I can recoiled,
I intend to reply.
Firfl, then, these objeftors set up the right of the miller
to the offspring of his female slaves, upon the allowance of
Moses to the "ifraelites, Leviticus xxv. 46. to purchase
bondmen of their heathen neighbours, and to buy the
children of Grangers living among them, and to hold these
and their posterity for ever as an inheritance: which
doubtless goes much farther than the case of captives, taken
in war, and their children.
On this I would observe, that Moses legislated for a
people, iu a very low and deb Ted Rate of Society, who
having been themselves in bondage in Egypt, were fully
habituated to the practice of slavery; a people grossly ig
aoraat, and befo..cd with the usages and fuperdiuons of
the country from which they had been just delivered ; a
people now taken under the dominion of the Almighty, as
their earthly King, and secluded from intercourse and
commerce with the rest of the world, for great and extra
ordinary purposes, to be accomplished in disown time, . It
is manifeft '/.at laws and regulations, backed and aided
by a succession of miracles, if properly adapted to the cir
cumstances of such a people, and to attemper them to the
divine will and purpose, must be of a nature very unsuit
able to any other nation.
A great man of our time, Mohtefquieu, on thisfubjeft,
fays, that “ Solon being aSked, if the laws he had given
to the Athenians were the best ?" He replied, “ I have
given them the bit they were able to bear :" A fine ex
pression, that ought to be perfectly underflood by ail Le
gislators. When Divine Wisdom Did to the Jews, "I
have given you precepts, which are not good," Ezekiel
xx. 25. this lignified; that fr hey had only a relative geod
nefs; which is the sponge that wipes out al! the difficulties
that are to be found in the law of Moses. Spirit of Laws,
vol. I. 435. In faft, we can in no other manner recon
cile many of his statutes to the perfeftien of God, than by
fuppefing, they were made in accommodation to the hab ts
of the nation to which he delivered them, and to the cir
cumßances and usages of the country and time, in which
this very extraordinary Republic flouriflied. Learned men
have judged, that some of his ordinances were contrived
to counteract the superstitions and abominations of Egypt,
and to preferre this feleft people from the idolatry of their
neighbours; to which, it appears, they were remarkably
prone. The low state of society and improvement, in
which Moses found them, certainly occasioned the eftab
lifhmeot of the cities of refuge, for the innocent manflayer
to flee to from the avenger of blood; for the rude method
of punching murder, hereby countenanced, never subsist
ed, unless among barbarians or savages; accordingly we
find it in full vigor among our Indian, neighbours. The
law of war, Deut. xx. 13. “ to put all the males to the
edge of the sword," could be exercised only by a very un
civilized nation. We are affared, by the highest autho
rity, that the law of divorce, in the Jewish code, wrong
in its nature, was indulged to the hardness of their hearts.
And not to multiply inflaoces ; poligamy must have been
regulated by Moses, (for, as he acknowledges two wives,
he doth not forbid it) from the fame motive. Dent. xxi.
15. 16. 17. " If a man have two wives, one beloved and
another hated?' that is, one preferred to the other, " and
they have borne him children—if the firft born be hers*
that was hated ; that he may not make the son of the be
loved, firft-born, before the son of the hated, which is in
deed firft born." Had Moses intended to determine the
birthright on the chriflian law of one wife, he would have
used other words. The priority of marriage would have
afforded a very simple rule; or rather, he was wrong to
speak of another wife, whose son was however to be pre
ferred*. Yet, as we find, that more male infants are born
than females, it muff be contrary to equity and nature,
that any man should indulge himfelf in a plurality of
wives.
Nothing can be wilder, than to draw examples from the
law of Moses into our policy and jurisprudence, whose go
vernment reds wholly on compaQ and human authority,
and whose customs, habits, and date of civilization, differ
in every refpe& from the state of the Israelites, at their
exodus from bondage. Christ has certainly fettled this
point, by declaring, " that his kingdom," unlike his fa
ther's, “ is not of this world." Yet Chrifliah Princes,
mistaking the law of Moses for a law of everlasting obli
gation, have form times proceeded on this principle, so as
to embarrass themselves, and distress and oppress their
fubjefts. Wituefs the absurd prohibition, formerly ex
tended throughout Europe, forbidding Christians to lend
money upon infereft, fiercely upheld for a long time, which
erected a monopoly of lending in the hands' of the Jews,
who on the fame ground were supposed to be qualified to
pradife what these Legislature injuriously termed usury.
If this was meant tg hinder real usury, it is certain they
took a preposterous method, for it mutt have in creased
the abuse. But these rulers returned toproper regulations
concerning interest, as soon as they saw that this statute
of Moses was no more than a local ordinance, proper e
n©ugh for a secluded people, but inconsistent with com
merce. Perfetution under Chriflianity also, has always
been derived from like mifappreheoficns. Superficial
readers of the Bible, not understanding the nature of the
theocratic government of the King of Israel, to whom
Moses, Saul, David and Solomon, and the other rulers of
that nation, were but Viceroysor Deputies, have not con>
fidered, that idolatry, falfe worship, blasphemy, &c. were
punched in that state as in fiances of high treason. These
rulers never added to, abrogated, nor altered the law de
livered by Moses. They were exprefsiy set up and fre
quently removed by th^ir superior And they are laid
“ to fit on the Throne es the Lord;" 1 Chron. xxix. 23.
2 Chron. ix. 8. and xiii. 8. But the great Head of the
Christian kingdom renounced all such procedures. When
his disciples, with heads filled with Jewish ideas, urged
him, in the style of a Prophet of their nation, to command
fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans, who refuted
to receive him, he rebuked them for their ' ignorance of
the very different nature of his kingdom.
If precedents from the law of Moses, were proper in ®ur
times and circumstances, then the fin of adultery must be
punished with death, tho' our Saviour delivered a woman,
taken in the a&, from being floned; as the jewifh code
ordains. The divine right of Tythes, claimed for the
ehriftian Clergy by some, should be yielded. The stubborn
and rebellious son, is to be put to death; nay the matter
of a negroe slave, who should correct him, with ever so
much cruelty, must not, if he die not under his hand, but
survive a day or two, be treated as a murderer; for the
Have was his mailer's money; Exodus xxi. 20. 21. And
the wife of the bosom, enticing to idolatry, ought to be
dragged forth, and slain by the husband; Deut. xiii. 6.
“ a law," fays Montefquieo, of this l ift, "which cannot
be a civil law, among most of the nations known to us,
* Besides the general practice of the nation; Kings,
Priests and Prophets, uncondemned; fee the words of
Nathan to David, 2 Sam. xii 8. where the gifts of his
master's kingdom, and of his wives, are coupled, as bless
ings. The text, Levit. xviii. 18. " Neither shalt thou
take a wife to her sister, to vex her, besides the other, in
her life time," is of doubtful interpretation. It is plain,
the Jews did not look upon it as forbidding poligamy in
general. See also Exodus xxi. 7. 8 9. 10.
because it would pave the way for all manner of wicked
ness." Spirt of laws. Vol. 1. 280.
Give me this ground of the law of Moses, and I will
prove, that the trial of homicide by Jury ought to be re
jeded, for the savage pursuit of the avenger of blood ; I
will juftify the enslaving of the Bri.uh prisoners, women as
well as men; involving also their poflerity in the fame
wretched doom, alrho' the fivage deed might be in ftantly
retaliated, by the perpetual servitude of our people, who
are, or may be, in the powerof the enemy ; Thus renew
ing thafe cruel laws of war, which chriftians have renoun
ced. Nay, rhe putting to dheth prisoners of war, in cold
blood, might 'be readily vindicated from Jewish ordinan
ces and practice. Yet such inhumanities would be repro
bated by every one. Ina people, civilized as we are, and
blessed with the pure exhibition of the Gospel, which we
enjoy, most of the depravities here mentioned, would be
atrocious wickedueffes, such as no cultivated people ever
relapsed into at once. Before this could be, we must erase
the great chriftian precept; " do unto others, as you
would that they should do veto you."
But the Memorialifts rely on the silence of our Saviour
and his Apofiles, on the f^bjed of'Slavery. It is well
known, that at the coming of Christ, the w^rld as far as it
was them oifcovered, was deep in the pr Rice of slavery.
All the labourers of Italy at that period were Haves; for
the Romans, who fligmatizeJ the rest of the world, ex
cept the Greeks, as barbarians, were themselves truly bar
barous, in condemning prifeaers taken in war, and the
children of such to perpetual servitude; and in abandon
ing their own citizens, made captives, to the like referable
condition. The exhortations in the epistles of Saint
Paul and Saint Peter, addressed to servants, were m®ft
probably intended for servants o' this nature, many of
whom had embraced chriftianity. Onefimus was doubtless
the runaway slave of Philemon, carefully sent heme by
St. Paul, after he had converted him. But what does all
this amount to ? It only ihews the great prudence with
which the Apostles afted. The peace and order of socie
ty would have been highly diflurbed, if they had preached
up nakedly the rights of mankind, and brought about, if
possible, a general manumission of the vast multitudes of
haves, then in the Roman empire, unqualified by their e
ducation to previde'for themselves. Such a procedure too,
must have excited the oppofitien of a croud of interefied
owners, amd involved the Apostles in a dangerous and une
qual contest, concerning the lawfulnefs of holding men in
a condition which was fortified by the general praßice of
the world, and established through paftages. Their si
tuation was therefore delicate. But slavery was a gross
departure from the great and golden rule of their master,
just quoted. The course they took, appears to be this.
They delivered and inculcated such general principles, as
must in their nature and tendency bring about the relief of
these oppressed people Tho' we find nothing directly poih
ted against this grand abuse, in all their writings, yet bif
tory tells us, that it gradually gave way to the spirit of
chriftianity, so thatin a few hundred years it was greatly
lessened, whereever the gospel was embraced, and when in
latter times, upon the irruption of the rude nations of the
north, into the western empire, this cruel and unjust prac
tice was again revived, the genuine spirit of chriftianity,
again displayed its power, in foftening and extinguishing
it. It is evident, that the base tenancy of the hufWandman
of Europe termed Villeinage, was a remainder of the bon
dage of their predecessors; a condition, which has been
abrogated in England, nearly 300 years; is generally an
tiquated tht;o' most of Europe; and was lift year abclifhed
in the kingdom of Bohemia ; remaining now only in
some parts of Poland, in Hungary and Russia; countries
of great ignorance, as to the common people. Such are
the triumphs of the religion of Jesus!
The cendud ofthe firft preachers of chriftianity in re
gard to slavery, will be much illuflrated, by considering
their management, as to another extravagant practice,
which greatly prevailed, especially in Asia and Egypt, in
their days. I mean poligamy, or the taking of two or
more wives at the fame time. Among the converts to
chriftianity, there must have been many persons thus cir
cumstanced. Yet however contrary thia was to the law of
nature, or to the precepts of their great mafler, it is re
markable, that the writings of these Evangelists, are silent
also, on this fubjeft. No intimation even is given, that the
fwpernumerary wives should be dismissed. Itir onlydi~
reded, in the epistles cf St. Paul, to Timothy and Titus,
thatthe ministers of Christ should be taken from those,
who had but one wife. Yet it is a faa, well supported by
profape history, that poligamy fell into total disuse, under
this prudent behaviour of the Apostles, and their imme
diate successors, throughout the chriftian churches. Some
zealots perhaps would have contended that, more deci
sive measures would display greater integrity and zeal ; and
regardless of the consequences to women and children, have
proceeded to immediate coreflion ; but these excellent men
afted very differently.
I shall in a few days give you my farther remarks on this
memorial In the mean time, I am, &c.
•ftggQQ ++ 'H+ "H+frH4'„4H
MUSCOVADO Sugar in hogsheads and
barrels, Indigo in tierces, and a quantity of
Turnips by the bushel, to be SOLD by
LEVI HOLLINGSWORTH.
To be SOLD by tie Subscriber,
In Second-street, above Race ftr&et,
A LARGE quantity of G L W E, either wholesale
" or retail. Large allowance to these who buy to fell
again. DANIEL SUTTER.
JAMES NEWPOR=r;'
At his Distillery-Store, within the next gate-way above
Church-Alley, in Third-street,
Has by wholesale and retail,
tyESl'-INDIA Rum,
' V A quantity es neat Brandy,
Geneva,
Aniseed Water,
Orange ditto, and
Spirits of Wine,
being proper for railing low proof Rum,
N. B. He gives particular encouragement to those who
buy to fed again.