The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-09-23

|
somewhat pOrtly in dimensions. lnquiring the
cause of this phenomenon, ] found that the
good man, whose spare time is very scarce, had
hurried up TO get a book 1--WE have lending It.
brary) for one of the children, who was sick,
and could not get it for himself. The cane, as
you may imagine, is an instrument which may
pretty safely be left in the hands of such man
as this. And that cane is the only emblem OF
authority for miles round-cOrrespOndng IN
fact with the Roman fasces. To be sure, there
is a policeman in the district but he is very
little heard of and upon the occasion OF the
robbery of few spoons which occurred some
years ago that important officer, putting ms
hand pitiaby on his breast and telling me
what he had gone through in the matter, ex-
claimed that he had not felt well ever since
Now, if we were in France, we should have
little army of fifty or Il hundred men quartered
| upon us and if we were in slave district IN
America, what whipping, what imprisonments,
how many Overseers would not be necessary to
get the work done which we do in our quiet,
noiseless stolid way-loving law and order and
our country all the while. Do you think that
| if our poor were like your slaves they would
love law and order as they do
Then, too, we have our warehouses for the
very poor. the aged and the infrm; and their
right TO support does not depend upon the Gu
price of any single man. 1t cannot enter into
| the mind Of any person to speculate whether
| it would be worth his while to use those under
! him well or i'll.
These things are elementary and | am
| ashamed to tell them to a studiOus and intelll-
| gent man like you; but it is so important for
nations to understand one another, that it IL
worth while to enter into the fullest detail
about our poor people, if by so doing one could
disabuse an American of the idea that the Eng
lish labOrer is the least like slave-a COM
parisOn which may help to soothe the bewil-
dered conscience Of many man who seeks to
Justify slavery and which ! dare say is, and
has been, repeated many times in every hour
of the day, by some Southern STAKEHOLDER or
other
Throughout this book, which has been the
cause of my inllictng such long letter upon
YOU. find the authOrcsS again and again en-
deavOrng to meet a set of arguments which
are so thoroughly exploded in our part of the
world that, to use one of your American words.
we find it difficult to realize them These
arguments profess to be founded on the Bible;
and no doubt it must be charming thing,
when a man is stepped all over in iniquities, to
find it said by grave men with black coats and
white neck cloths that there is no harm in any
thing he has done, but that the institution
which he adores is based upon the soundest re-
lgious principles. To Il man steaming down
one Of your magnificent rivers with his dark
cargo of slaves, it must be very cheering to
hear from some benz gnant and iudiciOus-OOk-
ing clergyman the words, "cursed is Canaan"
and to be told that they justify what he, the
slave-Owner, is doing.
Oh the evils that spring from any miscOn-
ception on any great matter! used to won
der, when somewhat juvenile. at the unneces-
sary stress-unnecessary rs itappeared to me
laid by Solomon upon wisdom, and to see his
absolute dread of fools and folly A little more
experience has shown me that there is no wiser
fear than the fear of foolshness-a thing more
terrible to meet than any wild beast of the
forest. What frightful calamities, for instance,
may not be directly traced up to the miserable
and pedantic views which have been taken of
the Bible-views which enabled the sarcastic
GibbOn to contend that the Reformation had
brought in az much evil as it had removed
Yet the simplest consideration would show
that the Bible was a bOOk-the book, if you
like-but not all books that it does not con-
tain all history or geology or any other sci
ence, nor pretend to represent perfect state
OF things from which there is to be no improve
ment To think this, is to blind ourselves to
all reason, philosophy and religion. For in
stance does any sacred writer intimate that
the world is in a satisfactory state at the time
he is writing, or that he would not alter it if he
had supreme power, Was Christianity set in
a world so complete in its social arrangements
that you had only to perfect them in detail,
and then that all would be right! Were the
political arrangements of that day perfect
What would your iellow-countrymen say to
that!
But the favOrers of slavery, rs it exists in
the United States, would reply, that if slavery
were such II bad thing it would have been es-
peclally provided against and preached against
in the Gospel. SO you might say of absolute
political power. The absolute political power
OF Nero and of Commodus, of Attila and of
Genghs Kahn, produced no doubt, horrible re-
suits; but there is nothing that | know of in
the Scriptures particularly directed against
dcspots, and there has always been great
deal brought forward in their favor ont of these
very Scriptures, by ilatterng CLOSING learned
| men
| Such views are far from being derogatory to
the Bible Comparatively slight would be the
good of Christianity if it could have been sterc-
| otypcd in the way that some mems fancics
would have had it, embracing complete code
not only of moral but of social and political
! laws. All such codes are mortal All systems
| are mortal
no sooner see any of them arise rs may be
seen in every age, than ! say to myself "That
means something, perhaps it suits this people,
this age this country it will have its day; but
| IL provides and settles too much and there will
| be an end of it
contend, moreover, that modern slavery is
essentially different from the slavery of old
times. If you will look at what ! have said
elsewhere on this subjects you will see that
Jewish slavery differed toto cGiO-n fact, was
whole heavens and whole hes apart--from
anything like modern slavery,
As for slavery among barbarians, or in the
Roman Empire the difference between that
and anything like yours is immense-much
greater than YOU are likely to have any notion
of, until you have looked carefully into the
question
The rare liberality Of the Romans, which
could endure most gods, was also very notice
able in its tolerance of all races of mankind
and 1t would be comparatively needless to be
forever DINING this dreary subject of slavery
into the ears of mankind, if your slaves in
America but enjoyed the hopes, the kind treat
ment and the privileges, which the same class
enjoyed amongst the Romans under their best
Emperors. But when once the evils of slavery
are deepened and darkencd by the difference
Of race then comes the utmost cruelty of which
human nature is capable-where all rcmorse
is anticipated or destroyed by disgust
But, to pass to other considerations which do
not require learning or thought let us simply
go back in imagination to the time of Christ's
coming upon earth, and for moment bring
before Him in our fancy such transactions in
slavery rs may be seen now, which are, indeed,
daily occurrences, mere matters of business in
your country.