The Arkansas banner., 1845-08-27

i human agency could do, the African slave trade had increased three-told under your own eyes-more rapidly, perhaps, than any other aneient branch of commerce-and that your efforts to suppress l, have effected no- thmg more than three-told increase of hor- TOTS. There IS God who rules this world all powerful--tar-seeing. He does not per init his creatures to foil his designs. Ii IS he who, for his all-wise, though to us often i lnscrutable purposes, throws Simpossibii- ilese in the way of your iondest hopes and most strenuous exerlions. Can YOU doubt this
 Experience has settled the point, that this trade cannot be abolished by the use of force, and that biocka3iag s4aaAeoos setve only to make 1t more profitable and more cruel, am surprised that the ate npt is sste in, uu- less as fl serves as a cloak to some othefpur- i poses It would be far better than it now Is for the African, if the trade was free from all restrictions, and Jeff 10 mitigation and de- l lay which time and competition would sure ly bring about. If kidnapping, both secretly and hy war made for the purpose, could be by any means prevented in Africa, the next l greatest blessing you could bestow upon that l country, would be to transport it's actual sla- ves m comfortable vessels across the Allan tic Though they might be perpetual bonds men, stlll they would emerge from darkness nto lght-from barharism to civilization from idolatry to christianty-n short from death to life
 But let us leave the African slave trade, winch has so sigually defeated the philan- anhropY of the world, and turn to American slavery, 10 which you have now directed yoof attention, and against which a crusade has been. preached as enthusiastic and feroci- oas as that ot Peter, the Hemit-destined, l l believe, to bc about as successful. And here l let me say, there is not a vast difference be- tween the two, though you may not ae- Knowledge t. The wisdom of ages has con- cured i'll the justice and expediency of es- ta5liohng rights by pfesefiptiVe use, hoWev- CT, tofious in their origin they may have heen ou would deem man insane whose keen sense Of equity would lead him to de nonnce your right 10 the lands you hold, and winch perhaps you inherited from q long line i oi ancestry, because your title was derived l rom saxon or Norman eohqHeror, and ] your lands were originally wresied by vio= lence from the vanquished Britons And SO would the New England abolitionist regard any one who would insist that he should re- store his farm to the descendants of the l slaughtered red men, 10 whom, God has as clearly given it, as he gave life and freedom to the kidnapped African. That time does not cohseefate wrong, is lallacy which all history exposes; and which the best and vii sest men of all ages and professions ofieligi- gous faith, have practically denied The means, therefore, whatever they may have been, by which the African race now i'll this country, have been reduced 10 slavery. can not affect Us, since they are our property, as your land isyoHrs, by inheritance CT purchase and prescrpiive right. ' ou will say that man cannot hold property in man. The an- swer Is, that he can, and actually does hold property in his fellow all the world over, in a variety of forms, and has always done so. will show presently his authority for doing it
 Governor Hammond here lakes up the question of slavery in the abstract, and after admitting his hostility to that principle, pro- ceeds to show the inutlity of abstraet truths, and discussions founded upon moral ab7traellons. Slavery must be contemplated as Ii Is. If it be found contrary to the will oi God as revealed in scripture, the writer admits that t is a sin, and every man bound 10 emancipate his slaves.
 Then follows various citations from Scrip tufe. First, Exodus, 20lh chap, l7th verse, where God prohibits the covetng of the goods ot others, including his servants or slaves. The writer contends that the term slave is the proper one; if so, slavery can be traced to God him elf The fact of Paul7s experimenting a run away slave and sending hlm to his master is advered to; also'-Exo- dus, 2lst chap, 9th verse, in which God di- rects the Hebrews 10 ''bore holes in the cars of their brothers," to mark them, when un- der circumstances they become perpetual sla- yes. From all this, American slavery Is ar- gned to be no sin, but especially command ed by God through Moses, and approved by Christ through his apostles.
 The remainder of the first letter is dedica- ted to slave holding on its influence on mans political anu social state. Tine writer endor- ses the saving of Mr McDulIie that slavery Is the corner stone of our republican editice," and repudiaies thlt of Jefferson that ''all men are born equal"
 
 j. is a great mistake to suppose, as is ge- nerally done abroad, that in case of war sla- very would be source of weakness. Itdid not weaken Rome, nor Athens, nor Sparta, though their slaves were comparatively far more numerous than ours, of the same color for the most part with themselves, and large numbers of them familiar with the use o arms. have no apprehension that oar slaves would seize such an opportunity to revolt. The present generation, of them born among Us, would never think of such thing at any time, unless instga,ed to il by others Against such institutions we are on our guard In time of war we should be more watclful and better prepared to put down lnsurrectlons than at any other periods. Should any for elgn nation be so lost to every sentiment of civilized humanity, as to attempt to erect among us the standard of evolt, or lo invade Us with black troops, for the base and barba- rous purpose of stirring up serYlle war, their efforts would be signally rebuked. Our sla-