The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-06-01

pravty had corrupted the fountains Of the heart or
one blush Of guilt had redeemed the countenance
serene Aud God having instituted matrimony,
Christ says For this cause shall q man leave his
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his
wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, therefore,
those whom God hath Joined together let not man
put asunder; and yet slavery does this it lays its
unholy hands upon the bridal pair & rends them as
under as though God had not joined them together
But it may be question with some whether there
Is any such thing as matrmony among slaves.
know there is not, there cannot be, SO far as matr-
mony is to be regarded as legal contract, bat are
they married in the sight of God So far as this
argument is concerned, it matters not whether they
are married or not, for will take position which
will make the argument good in either alternative
say, then, they are married or they are not ; if
they are married, then slavery parts those whom
God hath joined together and if they are not
married, then slavery annihilates the institution
and so far as the three million of slaves are con-
cerned, the cntre south is one scene of corruption
pollution and rotenness. Take which horn of the
dilemma you please, and the argument is good ::
say that slaves are married, and you charge sa-
very with parting husbands and wives, and of ma
king twain Of those whom God has pronounced
one or say that slaves are not married, and YOU
charge slavery with the entire subversion of d.
vine institution. | repeat, take which horn of the
dilemma you please, either will hang up slavery
to the contemptuouS gaze of all who have pure
and virtuous eyes, and to be pierced by the fiery
arrows of God Almighty's law.
2. Slavery annihates the obligation growing
out of the relation subssting between parents and
children. The command of God is, Children,
obey your parents in the Lord, and We fathers pro-
woke not your children to wrath, but train them
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord =
God says Children obey your parents in the Lord
but slavery says, No. not so, Lord, they must obey
their masters who own both parents and children,
and have the right of separating them forever by
selling the one at auction and the other by the
pound. The son is robbed of all interest in his
sire out of whose lons he came is denied all right
of obeying him during the years of his minority,
or of assisting him in the ripper years Of his man.
hood he cannot even reach out his hand to wipe
the tear from his gref-Gurrowed cheek, or to sup
port his falterng limbs as he is fastened down
life's declivity by the sting of the drivers LASH
The daughter has no right to obey her mother,
cannot administer to the comfort of her who in
anguish gave her being, cannot pour one drop of
consolation into that grief-chargcd bosom from
which she drew her first nutrment and at which
she was nurtured and reared from helpless infan-
Parents are also denied the right of responding
to the obligations due to their offspring God
commands parents to train up their children in
the nurture and admonion o. the Lord, but sla-
very says, No, parents, yc shall not train up your
children, or if you do, it shall not be for yourselves
nor for the Lord, but for me, that | may sacrifice
your sons on the altar of my avarice, and your
daughters upon the altar of my lust.
Thus you see that the resolution is true TO the
very letter: Slavery usurps the prefogatives of
God, tends to blot the divine image from the soul
of man, degrades him from the dignifed rank his
Maker gave him in the scale of creation, and sub
verts all the social relations which God and nature
have rendered essential to his earthly allotment
But though think have sustained the resolution.
vet feel that have come far short of giving
full view of the snfulness and horrors of slavery
have only discovered to you the points of the
serpents forked tongue the body of the viper, in
hideous form, still lies concealed and is known in
the ever-abiding mlseres and dark horrors of the
cotton field, the sugar plantation, and the rice
swamp, from which have not attempted to draw
the VEIL Let no one think that | have given an
exaggerated view of the subject exaggeraton is
impossible, the reality ranscends the power of fc-
ton, and every attempt OF defamation lessons the
sublime horror of slavery. TO describe it would
require words that should, at the same time shrek
with terrors of DEATH shade with the night of des-
pair, and glow with the fires of hell. could
wake the winds of the south, and cause them to
pour into the of this assembly, the signs and
groans and shreks of tortured fathers, and tortur-
ed mothers, and tortured sons and tortured daugh-
tiers, should need no other argument, for such
signs and groans and shrieks, coming up from the
dark land of slavery, and concentrating at this
point, would howl in the ears of the assembly in
notes as wild as the cheer of assembled ghosts
But must forbear, or my indignant soul will sub
stitute execraton for argument, whereas Michael,
when contending with the devil, brought not
railing accusation against him, but said, The Lord
rebuke thee; and may the Lord rebuke slavery
rebuke it as Christ rebuked intruding devils, with
a rebuke that sent them back in scamperng haste
to their native hells and may it not, like the eject
ed legion, be permitted to enter into the swine but
be driven naked and unattended down the gulf of
everlasting chaos and oblivion, never more to lf
its serpentne head this side of The bourne that d.
vdes this from the world of wo. Let it be blotted
from the polluted records Of the church, let it be
bottcd from the disgraced annals of the State and
Nation, & if it must have an enduring page assign
ed it on which TO write its dark crimes, let it be
in the biography of some damned ghost or in the
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