The Arkansas banner., 1845-09-03
No. 5I

the fri ot the earth and the animal creation he stepped there. 'He never rave him any further right over his fellow men.o You re- strict the descendants of Adam to T very short list oi rights and powers, duties and re- responsibilities, # you limit them solely to those conferred and enjoyed in the first chap ter of Genesis. It Is very obvious that n this narrative ot the creation Moses did not have Il in view to record any part of the law in- tended for the government of man in his so- clal or political state. Eve was not vet erea- ted; the expulsion had not vel taken place Cane was unborn, and no aluson whatever Is made to the manifold deerees of God to which these events gave rise. The only serious ans .a sks argument deserves is to say, what IS so laaniteslly true. that Gods not expressly giving to Adam ''any r,oht over his fellow mena by no means excluded him from conierring that right on his deseen- dants, which he in fact did We know that Abraham, the chosen one of God, exercised Il and held properly in his fellow men, even anterior to the period when property in land was acknowledged. We might infer that God had authorized 1t. But we are not re- duced to inference or conjecture. Al the hazard ot iatlgnlng you by repetition, l will again refer you To the ordinances of the scriptures. lnnumerabe instances might be quoted where God has given and command cd men to assume dominion over their fellow men. But one will suffice. In the twenty fifth chapter of leyitieus you will find Do mestle Slavery precisely such as is main tanned at this day in these States-ortained and established by God, in language which dcly you 10 pervert so as To leave d doubt on any honest mind that this institution was founded by Him. and decreed 10 be perpe- taal quote the words
 Leyltleus, 25 eh. 44 v-"Both thy Bond men and thy Bondmaids which thou shalt have, shall be of the Ileathen .tfricaus tbat are round about you of them ye shall buy Bondmea and Bondmaids
 4o. Moreover, of the children of the stfan- gers tl.at do soiourn among von, of them shall yc buy, and of their families that are with you which they begat in your land Ideseend- ants oi Africans :: and they shall be ill yonr possessionn
 46. And ye siall take them as an inhefi- lance for your children after you, to inherit them for possession. They shall be your Bondmen forevef1
 What human Legislature could make Il de- cree more full and explicit than this What court ol Law or chaneery could defeat title to slave conched n terms So clear and com pleie as these And this is the law of God, whom you pretend to worship, while you de- nounce and traduce us for respecting IL
 
 
 ' our next complaint is, that onr slaves are kept ill bondage by the flaw of force.o In what country or condition of mankind do you see human affairs regulated merely by the law ot love; Unlcss am greatly mis- 1 taken you will, fl you look over the world. l find nearly all certain religions resting on and ultimately secured by the ''law of force.' $ the power ot maj ajorlles--of aristocracies- oi kings hay of priests, for the most part, and oi property, resolves itself at last into ''lorce," and could not otherwise be long maintained. Thus in every turn of your ar gument against our system of slavery, you advance, whether conscious of Il or not, radi- cal and revolutionary doctrines calculated to change the whole face of the world, to oyer throw all government, disorganize society. and reduce man to state of nature--red with blood, and shrouded once more in harbarii ignorance. But you greatly err, ii you sup pose, because we rely on force in the las | resort to maintain our supremacy over oul slaves, that ours Is stern and aneelng dom i nation at all to be compared in hard hearted i severity 10 that exercised, not over the mere laborer only, but by the higher over each ] lower order, wherever the British sway k acknowledged. You say, that if those you address were to "spend one day in the south i they would return home win impressions against slavery never to be erased" But the fact Is universally the reserve l have known numerous instances, and never knew a single one, where there was no other cause of offence and no object 10 promote by false- hood, that individuals from the non-save- holding States did not, after residing among Us long enough to understand the subject, "return home" 10 defem our stapery
 You charge us with looking on our slaves Gas chaltles or brules," and enter intoa some what elaborate argument to prove that they have "hanan forms, H''ialk, !" and even think , Now the fact is, that however YOU may it- dulge in this strain for effect, il is the ahoh- tionists and not the shareholders who prac- tically, and in tlse most important point of view, regard our slaFes as chattles or brutes. , h your calculations of tie consequences of emancipation, you pass over entirely those which must prove most serious, and which arise from the fact of their being persons. ! ou appear to think that we might abstain from. the use of them as readily as if they were machines to be laid aside, or cattle that might be turned out to find pasturape for themselves have heretofore glanced at some of the results that would follow from breaking the bonds of so many human beings now peacefully and happily linked into our social system. The tragic horrors, tie decay and ruin thet would for years, perhaps for ages, brood over our land, if il could be ae- complished, l will not attempt to portray But do you fancy the blight would, in such an event, come 10 us alone The diminu- ton of the sugar crop of the West Indies al- lected Great Britain only, and their chiefly the poor It was matter of no moment 10 Capital, that Labor should have enc comfort less Yet it has forced a reduction of the ..l