Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1844-12-11

nave Seeu Tue ulhileI W ttilS. lISuti duu II
is atlributins to.us bul a small share of.
common sense To suppose that we would
not take the same view Of il ourselves.
Whether death should be inflicted for
such an offence is another question. We.
have modified in great degree the SAN
culinary code Of law left US by our British
ancestors; but we have NOT gone the
length 10 which some philosophers. both
here aud in yonr country, would have all
Governments to go-of, ,ahoishing the pun
ishment of death. Nor do lbeleve the
success your Government has met with in
endeavoring TO diminish crime by abolish
ing this punishment in So mary cases, will
encourage hem 10 press The matter much
farther al this time. Considering lbe value
Of slave; The facility of seducing him
from his owner; lhe'evi Influence which
frequent seduction might exercise on an
institution, the destruction Of which must
speedily and inevitably strike from the
roll of civilized States nearly the whole
slave holding section Of this country, as it
has already done ST.. Domingo aud Jamai.
ca; and the enthusiastic and reckless ene-
mics of This Institution by whom we are
surrounded. il seems TO me that IL any
offence affecting property merits death,
This is One.
Your memorial. like all that have been
sent 10 me, denounces slavery in the sever
est terms; as traverslng every Law OF
Nature, and violating Inc II nost sacred do.
meslic relations, and the primary Rights
of Man" You and your PresbyIery are
Christians. You profess TO believe. and
no donbi do believe that the laws laid
dom in the Old and New Testamenls for
The government Of man, in his moral, So
cial and political relations. were all the di
rect Revelation of God himself. Does ii
never occur to you, that in ana:hemntizine
slavery, you deny this Divine Sanction of
those laws, and repudiate both Christ and
Moses; nr charge God with downright
crime. in regulating and 2erpeluaIing,
slavery in the Cid Testament, and The
most criminal neg lec', in no, only no. abol
ishng, but nol even experimenting il. in tie
New! If these TesIamenls come from
God, il is impossible thai slavery can "tra
verse he Laws of NaIurc. or violate the
primary Rights of Man" What those
Laws and Riehrs really are, mankind have
not agreed. But they are clear 10 God;
and i, is blasphemous for any of His crea-
lures to SET w. their notions Of Them in
opposition to His immediate and acknowl-
edged Revelation Nor does our system
Of slavery outrage tle most sacred domes
tic relations. Husbands and wives, pa.
rents and children, among our slaves, are
seldom separated, except from necessity or
crime. The same reasons induce much
more frequent separations among the
white population in this, and. l imagine.
in almost ev.ry other country.
But make bold 10 say thai The Presby
lery OF the Free Church of GLASGOW, aud
nearly all the Abolirionisls in every part
of The world, in denouncing our domestic
slavery, denounce Thing of which they
know absolutely nothng-nay, which does
not even exist. You weep over The hor
rors Of the Middle Passage, which have
ceased, so far as we are concerned; and
over pictures Of chains and lashes here,
which have no existence hut in the ina
gination. Our sympathies are almost
equal excited by the accounts published
by your Conmittees of Parlamenl-aud
therefore true; and which have been veri
fled by The personal observation of many
of us-of the squalid misery, loathsome
disease, and actual starvation, of multi
tudes of the unhappy aborers, not of Ire
land only, but of Eneland-nay, of Glas
gov itself. Yel we never presume TO in
lerlere with your social or municipal regu
laiious-your aggregated wealth and con
gregaled miscry-nor lhe crimes attendant
on them, nor your pitiess laws for their
Suppression. And when we see by your
official returns, that even hest classes OF
English Agricultural laborers can obtain
for their support but seven pounds of
bread and four ounces Of meat per week,
and when sick or OUT of employment must
either starve Or subsist on charity, we can
NOT bui look with satisfaction to the con-
dirion of our slave aborers,. who usually
receive as weekly allowance, fifteen
pounds of bread, aud three pounds of
bacon-have their children fed without
stint, and properly attended to-are all
well clothed. and have comfortable dwell
lings, where, with their gardens and poul-
try yards. they can. if lhe,ll least Industrious,
more Than realize for themselves The vain
hope of The great French King, thai he
might see every peasant in France have
his fowl upon his table on the Sabbath
who from the proceeds of their own crops,
purchase even Injuries and 6nery-who
labor scarcely more than nine hours day.
on The average Of the ycar-and who, in.
sickness, in infancy aud decrepitude, are.
watched over with a tenderness scarcely
short Of parental When we contemplate
the knolcn condition Of operatives, of
whom, thai of your agricultural laborers
is perhaps the least wrelched, we are not
only not ashamed ofthat Of our slaves
but are always ready TO challenge 4 COM
parison, and should be highly graiiGed TO
submit 10 reciprocal investigation, by
enlightened and impartial Judges. IS :s &
u w., o,o lae -, & ,r;o,or thar oil