Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1851-05-29
The Bible Argument on Slavery.

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will give challenge to any man who may
be present from the South, be he clergyman
or lawman, and | would say the same in
Georgia, If | were there, and | believe
could say il there with less interruption than
can here ; (laughter) or rather, will
make fair compromise, as it is the day of
compromises, though they are not all fan. !:
(cheers) | will yield the poin, of the Bible
, If you at the South will agree to put South.
orh slavery on the platform of Bible slave
Try.
f There were three forms of servitude a.
, mong the Hebrews
!. There was servitude into which
. Hebrews themselves might come-which
, can be regarded as but an apprenticeship
IL was limited to seven years; it did not
take away any political right; nor did it
forbid the slave the ownership of property
He could buy himself, if he chose; or his
friends had right, at any time, perempto-
rily to release him, by purchase
, There were public slaves, Also
They were owned by the government
They lived by themselves, and only render
ed TO the public certain amount of service.
Such we're the Gtbeontes
3. The third form of seryitude, was that
Of the Bond-slaye.
The following points will give an accur-
ate view Of the features of this slavery.
a. He must be of foreign origin But
not OF day nation could the Hebrews buy
bond-slaves; for, the capacity of the slave
Tor religious education, and his tendency to
spread AN infectious healhenism, were re-
garded Certain nations we're expressly ex-
copied. They were too much enriched 10
be slaves.
(2) The slave must be, in some sense.
adopted into the religious community by
circumcision.
Thereafter, he was to be reigiously ed
ucated, and as the religion of the Hebrews
comprehended all the knowledge which they
then possessed, 1t follows, that, TO teach
slaves the Lar, was to teach the sum of hu-
man knowledge. We have schools, acade-
mics, scientific societies, libraries, maya
zines and newspapers. But the Hebrew
had only the Pentaleuch This was the
encyclopedia of his knowledge in things
human as well as divine. If we should
: therefore give our slaves an education,
bearing the same relation to the whole of
our knowledge that the Hebrews did, in
comparison with the amount ollhelr knowl-
edge, we should send him to school, TO the
academy, to the college, and then pat HIM
to pillow aud hoe with diploma.
If the same regul atoms were carried out
nov, 1t would require the Southern slave
owner TO send his slave to the academy, aud
then put him through some Northern col
I lege, and graduate him before he tied him
down to the plough or hoe of the planta-
ton. Enthusiastic cheering) That was
the Hebrew idea of slavery. Then again,
If any one will enter into calculation of
the Sabbaths, ieastdays, the seventh year on
which no one could labor, &C., he will tind
that the Hebrew slave had about one-haf of
his time to himself Moreover, the Hebrew
slave had every motive held out 10 him to
rise. lie could, under certain clrcums,an-
ces, hold property; he could better his con-
duion, advance, establish himself indepen-
IDENTIFY
J az The bond-slaVe had liberty of dl-
rect appeal to the Magistrate; aud il he had
been injured. wounded or manned. that
fact set him free.
I (5.) There was, moreover, standing
canon that when a slave ran away, he should
not be iorcibly returned. The attempt has
been made to show that this did not apply
To Hebrew slaves, but only to those who fled
from among the heather But it was not
so. This Das not so. Slavery was so re-
garded IA fact, that II was expected that a
slave would never wish TO run away. And
if he did run away, that very fact was re-
gdrded evidence that he ought to have
run away, And think that the same pre-
sumption should be held now and all the
world over.
( (6.) The purity of all the sexes was ex-
pressly guaranteed. Summary, then, the
Hebrew Slave Law regarded the slave as a
MAN; as a moral, accountable, immortal
creature all its eaactments Vere IA fdu0r
Of the Siaoe, regarding the masters right as
not likely TO suffer. The result of such a
regulation was, that no man could afford to
own large number Of slaves under such
obligations of treatment, aud the system be-
came SO burdensoae, as soon to destroy H.
self. 1t would be so with US. II slaves
should be treated in the South as men, If
they should receive Christian instruction, II
their minds and souls received any Chris
tan Development, aud If this should be-
gin to be general, it would be utterly lnpos-
sIble to retain them as slaves. Nor do the
most eminen, jurlsts of the State scruple to
admit this fact (Cheers.) Such was the
system of slavery 1000 years ago, among
people who had but Just shaken off the dust
of Egyptian bondage, just dried their gar
menls from the waters of the Red Sea-but
no, they did not need to dry their garments
Il remember they came over ON dry land
(laughler) Just emerged with the dim twi-
light of education, best with only the hrst
rays Of revelation. Four thousand years
have passed since that day, aud the canon
Of Scripture has been completed, and the
full blaze of christianity has been poured
upon the world, and Christ has come. and
there have been contentious and revolutions
and martyrs for the truth, aud educalion.
and with great labor the bulwark Of civil