The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-10-14
L.. ..r m,,s.dt-,. Rsar.-Ne. XIV.
70 the Editors Of The Examiner:

purpose has been to tTea; the subject generally,
without tuning aside to consider every special
plea urged by perpetualists in Justification oil
their policy, and having proved, as ] humbly
conceive, that slavery is contrary to the whole
scope Of revealed truth-and utterly condemned
by the entire spirit Of the christian system, was
content To leave unnoticed, some OF the Jsn pas |
sages which seem to warrant it, believing that
the good sense Of the reader would suggest an
Interpretation of them confomsble tothe general
character and principles of revelation. In this,
it seems, | was mistaken, and must now pause
to examine this fortress, or remain obnoxious 10
the change of taking counsel of my feaIsl Be
fore proceed TO the engagement, it Is proper to
premise that failure to answer II fully IN all ITS
Details will prove nothing, except want Of ablll-
| ty in me; because the system OF domestic slave
~ is proved ID be contrary TO natural justice and
the law of God. But te the argument; 1t Is
founded on Genesis TX, 25-27: "Aad he said,
cursed be Ca7aan, a servant of servants shall he
be unto his brethren. And he said blessed be the
Lord God of Shsm; and Canaan shall be his SER
rant God shall enlarge Japhsth, and he shall
dUeH iaths tents Of Shan, and Canaan shall be
his servant"
The argument Of the peIpetualists founded up
on this passage may be stated thus: Ham and all
his posterity, by the righteous decree Of infinite
wisdom and justice were doomed to intermina-
Bile slavery, and the Africans being the descend
ants of Ham, are now receiving in themselves,
at the hands Of the posterity Of Shem and ia
pheth, the accomplishment Of the prediction
and hence African slavery as it exists among US
is not wrong! The pretence to sustsin this po-
siton by an appeal TO the history Of the world,
and close the appeal by solemnly asserting that
while the posterity of Shem and Japheth have
often conquered and ruled the descendants of
Ham, there is no instance in which his have tn
umphed oven theirs. In their eageIness TO al
rive at conclusion consonant with their theo-
ny, they overlook the fact that for more than four
hundred years the descendants OF Shem served
under task-masters in Egypt-and that their task
masters were the descendants Of Ham; and that
after they had entered the land Of Canaan they
were again subdued by the descendants of Ham
and held in in subsection twenty yeaIs-JHdgss
IV-2.
But tothe direct answer. 1.-The argument
assumes, and takes as granted what should be
proved, viz that Ham and all his descendants
were placed under this tenible anathema Ham
is not named in the text, though in the context
he is named as the oflender-and those who
adopt the opinion that all his family were placed
under the ban say, that Canaan is here put by
ellpsis for "he father of Canaan" but this
seems TO be gratuitous assumption, supported
by no respectable authority, except Newton, who
IN his dissertation on the prophecies" express
ed the opinion that it is probable; DR.. Adam
Clarke in his note on the place, says, ''the Ara
BIC version has Ham The father Of Canaan, but
this Is acknowledged by none of the other ver-
sions, and seems to be merely gloss" The
p opinion Of Josephus, "That Noah dill not curse
Ham, by reason of his neamess IN blood, but
cursed his postenty, and when the rest of them
escaped that curse, God inflicted il on the chill
: dren of Canaan" seems more probable and
/ agrees better with the text and the subsequent
history of the people.
II 1.-The argument assumes, and takes as
2 granted, that the terms ga servant of servants
=
shall he be 10 his brethren imply all that is ne.
o eeSsaTy to justification Of Afroan slavery as
practlsed by Us. Tue, it is an intensive form
OF expression denoting great degradation, but moi
|, implying necessarily, If at all, what we under
e stand by slavery Every reader of the Bible
; will remember a similar passage where the idea
: OF slavery Is wholly inadmissible; "The elder
: shall serve the younger" Gen. XXv-23, i'm.
! ports no more by common consent, than the su.
7 penonty of the descendants of Jacob over those
5 OF Esau. The subsection of the Edomites TO Is.
: rael in the reign of David, Samuel viii, IA, is
g generally regarded as an accomplishment of the
c prediction and ii does not possess a single char.
5 acteristic of slavery. Why puts greatly harsher
S sense upon the text But will allow, for the
|, moment, that they have proved the second thing
: assumed IN the argument, that the force of the
terms Justihes the idea of slavery, and still in.
slst the authority is not good, for,
3. In order to make il warrant for African
slavery as practised by us, they must prove tina,
the Africans are the descendants of Canaan,
d and should they fail to do this the whole arpu.
ment must fall. have before given IL as the
received opinion of Biblical critics that the
curse was limited to Canaan, and that il fell no,
upon him but on his posterity, and think /,
y can be shown that it came upon them to the Mt
terinost. The Eible throws fence about II,
= predictions, no that men can neither breal
through TO grze, nor weave its truths into
cloak Of licentiousness. If we turn to the BIZ
y BILE, we find particularly in the notices 4
takes OF Canaan, contrasting strongly with thos,
- IT takes of others; thus in Genesis Y. l9-"An.
. the border Of the Canaanites was from Siclo,
Z as thou CONTEST to Gerar, and GAIA; and as tho,
=, goest unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Adu,ab
and Zeboim, even unto Laska,'' we have IN,
precise metes and bounds of the country occu
pied by his posterity-and this particularly i
: wanting in relation to all others. Infinite wis
dom seems thus to have drawn a line roun,
about them, that when the cup of their inioui
ty should be full, His chosen people, the instru
y ments Of His power, might know where to fin
> them; and the purposes of His Justice being sc
complished, no man might theme forward plea
. the curse Of Canaan in extenuation of oppres
&c sion and wrong The Canaanites were devote
y to destruction, "But the Lord thy God aha
70 deliver them unto thee, and shall DESTROY ther
u with mighty destruction until they be des,ro,
70 ed. And he shall deliver their kings into thin
~ hand, and thon shalt destroy their name fror
Is under heaven. There shall no man be able I