The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1780-10-04 00:00:00, page 1

Mr. COLLINS,
Please to give the enclosed a place in your ufeful paper.
rr^ think what we please and speak what we
E think, is an essential right of a freeman ;
A and as it is the privilege, so it is the duty
M of every honeß man in this land of liberty
to examine all questions of a public nature, touching
the welfare and happiness of the government under
which he lives. In this light we may view alate pub
lication in your paper, signed with the name of the
author, on the fubjett of manumitting slaves. The
gentleman's design reaches farther, and appears to be
more comprehenlively beneficial to this class of men
than the late law in Pennsylvania, but how far it may
be consistent with fad policy, and the present situa
tion of our affairs, will, in my_poor opinion, bear
feme difeuffion. In this view I mean chiefly to take
up the argument; in the course of which I shall ad
dress my reasonings to him as an inhabitant of this
state, and a citizen of the United States in general.
The knowledge of human nature is a teience at
once the moßufcful and difficult, as it is that which
mult help us to direct and adopt the spirit of the laws
by which men are to be governed. A ftrift moralist
may lay down rules for the conduct of human life,
and flatter himfeif into a belief that because they are
the molt just they are practicable ; but in molt cases
an attempt of this nature would only serve to con
vince him of his error, and the futility of his opinion.
The business of tiie closet is one thing, that of per
suading or convincing mankind very different. Solon
the Athenian lawgiver felt the force of this truth when
he was allied if he had given his countrymen the belt
laws, his celebrated answer was, " I have not given
them the belt I could, but the belt they were capa
ble of receiving." Now it appears, if we were to
judge of his underßanding or his virtue from his laws
alone, we should not probably do him justice. But
there is fumetimes the perfection of policy in measures
which are not perfectly virtuous; and the reason is
the fame that Solon gave, to wit, " they are the belt
the people are capable of receiving," or in other words,
that the nature and situation of things will admit.
Thus we fee that even a general knowledge of hu
man nature, and the belt intentions, tho' they may
help us to make wife and good institutions, yet is not
all-fufficient without fully considering the peculiar
state and condition of the people on which they are
to operate. If Solon had not done this, his plan of
government would in all probability have turned out
a fanciful, ineffective, Utopian scheme.
It seems as if there was some weight, and that not
inconsiderable, due to the customs of nations ; even
those which, when Briefly examined, may not be very
righteously founded. Our Saviour,.conliftently with
this idea, did not helitate to pay tribute to C^far,
tho' he knew his power was ill gotten, and that he
was a tyrant.
Arguments drawn from scripture authorities when
veiled in obfeurity, as they are apt to weigh impro
perly with some men, ought to be cleared from the
mists that surround them; and in pursuance of this
idea, it may not be an unacceptable talk to explain
what the accursed thing was which was among the
Israelites, and prevented for a time their conquering
their enemies. When Joshua came to the land
of the Amorites he sent three thousand men against
Ai, who were defeated, and the men of Ai smote of
them about thirty and fix men, Josh. vii. 5. —Joshua
hearing of this, applied to the Lord to know the cause
of t'js misfortune, and the Lord said, " Israel hath
finned, and they have also transgressed my covenant
which I commanded them ; for they have taken of
the accursed thing, and they have also Bolen, and dis
sembled also, and have put it even amongst their own
fluff." Josh. vii. 11.
Achan, the son of Charmi, being, among others,
examined before Joshua, made the following confef
fion. —" When I saw among the spoils a goodly Ba
bylonifli garment, and two hundred shekels of silver,
and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I
coveted them, and took them, and behold they are
hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the til
ver under it." Josh. vii. 21. This was diredly in the
face of the following commandment: " The graven
image shalt thou burn with fire, thou shalt not desire
the silver or gold that is in them, nor take it unto
thee, left thou be ensnared therein; for it is an a
bomination to the Lord thy God." Deut. vii. 25. —
'' Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thy
house, least thou be a cursed thing like it, but thou
shalt utterly detest it, and thou flialt utterly abhor it,
for it is a cursed thing." Deut. vii. 26.
But the author in question has, with what boldness
I leave the world tojudge, in effed made a commanu-
NEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
[Vol. III.]" -
WEDNESDAY, October 4, 1780.
But the gentleman having chosen the ground of
scripture, the following authority does not seem in
applicable to the point in question;
in that part of the Levitical law relating to the year
of Jubilee, chap. xxv. 45, 46, are these words, —45.
'' Moreover of the children of the strangers that do
sojourn among you, of them shall you byy, and of
their families that are with you, which they begat in
your land, and they shall be your poffeilion.—46.
And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your chil
dren after you, to inherit them for a poffeflion ; they
shall be your bondmen forever : but over your bre
thren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one
over another with rigour."
In these parts of the Levitical law perpetual slavery
seems rather more than permitted under the Jewilh
nation, and of course it could not have been deemed
an accursed thing.
Having just mentioned an authority of no small
weight, drawn from the sacred writings, I shall now
endeavour to shew from the reason of fads taken from
profane hillory, that the practice of holding slaves
among other nations has not been deemed more of
fenlive than 'it was of old among the Jews. Plutarch
tells us in his life of Solon, " that the slaves in At
tica were absolutely the property of their matters,
and as such were used as they thought fit ; they were
forbidden to wear clothes or to cut their hair like their
masters ; they were likewise debarred from anointing
and perfuming themselves, and from worfhipping cer
tain deities ; they were not allowed to be called by
honourable names, and in most other respects were
used like dogs."
In Sparta the cruelties practifed upon their Hetoles
or slaves, were still more barbarous. There was a
certain custom among those people called Cryptia,
thaf is, Ambuscade, such as had the care of educat
ing the Spartan youth picked out the ftoutett ofthem,
and having armed them with daggers, sent them to
dettroy their unhappy slaves, which they did by fall
ing upon them in the night or the day when they
were at work, without any crime being pretended
against them ; once a day they received a certain num
ber of Bripes, for fear they should forget they were
slaves.
Among the Romans the method of treating slaves
was arbitrary and cruel in the highest degree ; they
were subject to the will of their masters, who could
do and really did with them as they pleased.
It has also been the policy of alraoft all the mari
time nations of Europe to employ slaves in their co
lonies, particularly in the Weft-Indies, where they
live miserably, and are used with great rigour.
Having thus stated the fads, let us now consider
what betel these nations and people in consequence of
their having this pretended accursed thing among
them. Athens became the school of politeness, of
the liberal arts and science, and after the full enjoy
ment of all earthly happiness, submitted in her turn
to the inevitable fate of all human things.
Sparta, more rigid in her moral and political max
ims, flourifhed for the space of seven hundred years,
and maintained an enviable rank in the government
of the world. Rome, Imperial Rome, the mistress
of nations, the wonder and envy of mankind, for
many hundred years ruled over the earth with def
potick power.<
The nations of Europe who have employed slaves
in their Weft-India colonies have uniformly grown
rich by their labour, and increased in strength, and
the individuals among them immediately concerned
in the business enjoy a great share of ease and happi
ness ; and even these Bates, from Georgia to New-
Hampshire, all of them have grown and flourifhed
with the pretended accursed thing among them beyond
the example of other times, or nations enjoying in
reality for many years the fancied happiness of the
golden age of the poets.
I hope no one will do me the injustice to think I am
an advocate for Slavery ; my design in what I have as
ment for us, and an accursed thing, which he firft
pronounces us guilty of, and then roundly deals out
a judgment of his own making, also againftour en
deavours to defend ourselves from the enemy, for
having this accursed thing of his among us. This
kind of reasoning seems to favour pretty much of the
arts praCtifed by the church of Rome in the plenitude
of her power, many of the offences and punishments
being of her own invention.
For my own part, having never put on the yoke
of implicit faith with refpett to any such authority,
I disclaim the absurd jurifdiaion; being of opinion
that the causes of our misfortunes arc merely human,
and very different from that which he ascribes them,
for I believe truly we have many accursed things
amongst us.
T H E
I have heard within these few days that there is a
probability of the law in Pennsylvania, for freeing the
children of the present generation of slaves, being al
tered, if not repealed, on the ground of inexpediency,
A WHIG.'
The SCOURGE, [No. IV.]
Saturday, February 19, 1780.
To the Right Honourable (subtle Scotchman ) William
Murray, Earl of Mansfield, and Lord Mansfield,
Lord Chief fuflice of the polluted Court of King's
Bench, Governor of the Charter-House, and one of Lis
MajeJly's most baneful Privy Counfellors.
My Lord,
I AM perfectly sensible of your power, and I as well
know your infamous and corrupt abuse of it ; but
that shall not deter me from expoling your baneful
influence, treacherous arts, and Scotch cunning, how
ever dangerous it may be to my personal liberty, at
this time, when Lord Sandwich's Mulgra've, the n<-
torious apostate, and ministerial blood-hound, had
the consummate assurance and barefaced impudence
on Monday last to fay in the House of Commons, that
the people of England, because they have entered 111-
( For the remainder fee the fourth page.)
I think, though it may be right and highly praise
worthy to set free the children of slaves to be born
after a certain time, there are many weighty reasons
of policy Against freeing the present race of slaves at
this crilis.
I. That at this time when many parts of the state
in the neighbourhood of the enemy are laid watte and
rendered desolate by the ravages of that army, and
many families driven from their lands depend in a
grea & measure on the labour of their slaves for a live
lihood, it would be unreasonable to deprive them of
their only support.
2. That as all slaves are in reality as much the pro
perty of their matters as the gold and silver for which
they were bought, or may be fold, according to every
idea of law and custom prevailing among us, they
cannot be deprived of them without being paid the
value, which will be a new and heavy tax upon the
publick.
3. 1 hat there will be a considerable number of su
perannuated, diseased, and vagabond slaves, to be
maintained at the publick cost, which will also be a
heavy tax.
4. That the quantity of labour will be considerably
lessened at a time when every nerve should be Brain
ed to furnifh money and supplies for the maintenance
of the army, on which our own liberty and property
depends.
5. Because they are unfit for good commonwealth's
men from their having all the habits of servitude deep
rooted in their minds.
6. Because they are treated with a humanity un
known in other parts of the world, and are better
off than the generality of white poor, who are oblig
ed, those who have families, from their necessities to
work harder than the slaves in general in this state.
But what shall we fay when we confider the writer
as a citizen of the United States, to the interest of all
which some attention and duty are owing. What
will an inhabitant of Georgia or the Carolinas think
of these examples in the more northern parts of the
American Republick at this distressing and critical
time, when his very exigence as a man, and that of
his family and friends, depends on the obedience of
tbt slaves, who arc so much more numerous than the
white inhabitants ? The evils consequent upon so large
a body of slaves, idle, ignorant, and helpless as they
are in those countries, being liberated, or even pof
feffeckof the spirit of disobedience, would now be ir
remediable. Will the people of those Bates, depriv
ed of the labour of their slaves, be able to furnifh their
refpedtive quotas of the taxes towards finking the pre
sent money, and the farther important purposes of
carrying on the war ? I cannot but imagine that if the
writer were now in this predicament, Bruggling with
losses and misfortunes, the aftual fuffering of which
would add a poignancy and weight to reasons of po
licy, he would find theffi operate in such manner as
to induce him to change his opinion, which, if it be
comes a measure of government, will, in my opinion,
be attended with consequences pernicious if not fatal
to the common cause.
yet said is only to shew the fancifulnefs and enthufiaf
tick turn of the argument made use of in the perform
ance in question, which seems calculated rather to
work on the imaginations than the good fenle and
found judgment of the public, whilst other obvious
reasons of irrefragable force with refpedt to the justice
of the measure might have been substituted in their
place.
[Numb. 145.]