New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-05-21
FOR DIsTRICT ATTORNEY,
II Il CARREII.
A Review Of the Decision of Judge Paine,
H1CrIoN NEXT MONDAY, MAY %.

ELECTION NEXT MONDAY, MAY %.
a Review Of the Decision of Judge Paine,
.4 YORK,
ON THE CASE OF THE SEIZURE AND LIBERATION OF
MR.. LEMONS SLAVES.
Although much has already been addressed
to the public mind on the subject of Slavery,
unless it could be said to be entirely exhaust
ed. its pre-eminent Importance may well claim
still further investigation.
The particular views assumed by the Judi
ciary Of New York, in arresting the property
of an individual, and severing the relation OF
master and servant, makes this question of Sla-
very one Of the deepest interest This decision
involves fearful and momentous consequences to
the peace and institutions Of the South. This
adjudication, claiming the right of interdict-
ing q citizen from passing through its territory
with slave property, with the view of transport
ing it to another State, must be considered as
initiating against the best interests ofthe South
and as subverting policy, in the observance of
which we have reaped the most abundant fruits
of prosperity and harmony. This decision seeks
to introduce a new system in the relations be-
tween different sections of this confederated Re-
public. The South processes to cultivate peace,
commerce and honest friendship with every Sec
ton of the Union, whilst the North seeks the
establishment of a policy so well calculated to
ALLEVIATE different members of this confederacy
This decision assumes two propositions.
l. That slaves are not property.
O. That the State of New York had constitu-
tional power to adopt prohibitory statute
against the introduction of such property with
in her ports.
We will examine the first proposition. Sla-
very, in its most absolute or more qualified form,
az it existed in ancient or in modern times,
ID too well understood to define it, nor shall we
enter upon any elaborate disquisition as to its
origin, its history, or the principles upon which
it is justified. That property is the creature of
the law; whether the natural or social law, is
not material now to be ascertained Its enjoy
ment may be modified by law. We will not ar
que on an abstract question--whether slaves are
property-we will only refer, as matter of his
tory, to several eminent instances in which
slaves have been clearly recognized as such.
The legislative records of the several States,
from the earliest period to which we can refer,
prior to the Revolution, as well as subsequent to
that event, prove that not only slavery existed.
and was tolerated, but that it was recognized
and treated as legal institution. The mas
ter's claim of property in his slaves, his power
and authority over him to limit and even re-
strain, to sell and transfer him to another, have
been, by repeated acts, both of the Colonial and
State Governments, again and again recog-
nized, protected and regulated
Slavery was introduced among us during our
Colonial State, against the solemn circumstances
of our Legislative Assemblies. The revolution,
which made us an independent nation, found
slavery existing among US. 1t was brought
upon us by the commercial policy of the parent
country--see Hargreve's Argument in Sommer-
setts Case IL, State Trials, 346
If 1T be one of those great and moral precepts
and injunctions, which is discoverable by the
light of reason, that no man can make his fellow
being his slave, it is one of those precepts or in
functions, which every man in our community
have interpreted and applied for themselves,
whatever the precept may be, by whomsoever or
whcresoever proclaimed, it has always encoun-
tered the fact, that mankind have always been
divided into masters and SLAVES! Whatever
changes the world or society have undergone in
other respects, thus far it has undergone none
in this, excepting in some few communities
where slavery has ceased.
The right Of life over u captured enemy was
gradually ameliorated into right unto the
services, labor, and obedience of the captive.
We read of Andromache, in the Iliad, bitterly
bewailing her anticipated slavery and in the
Odyssey, the Phenecians are described as rob-
bers and kidnappers of human flesh.
The monuments of Africa, which have sur
vived all history and tradition, prove nothing
30 distinctly as their own antiquity, and that
they were raised by the toll of slaves
The same distinction is found among the Jews
and Gentiles; among Greeks and barbarians
among Romans and Strangers. The Romans, the
creeks, and other nations of Antiquity, held
slaves at the time Christianity first dawned on
society, and the preachers Of its mild doctrines
never proclaimed against it.
In the Roman Republic, the practice of pre-
dial and domestic slavery was countenanoed
There were instances of private persons owning
singiy no less than four thousand slaves RI
Gibbons History, p. &C, ell
hume IN his Essay on the Populousness of
Ancient Nations, says that some great mon
among the Romans possessed the number Of ter
thousand slaves. Mr.. Blair, in his INQUIRY into
the State of Slavery among the Romans. csa3
assigns as many as three slaves to every free
person in Italy, in the time of the Emperor
Claudius. Almost all the agricultural AS we'll
as domestic labor, was performed by slaves
even from the time of Tiberius. TPlutareb,s
life Of Gracious. Hawkes. Roman History. h
!, chill Barbarian captiyes, taken in war,
were considered slaves, and purchased by slave
merchants for Italy,
But if the Abolitionists are guided bv that
evidence upon which the Christian system is
founded, they will find that religion is mo,
against it. They will see, from Genesis to Rev.
citations, the current setting strongly that wav
There never was a government on the face of tho |
earth but what permitted slavery. The purest
sons of freedom in the Grecian Republics tho
citizens of Athens and Lacedemon, all held
slaves. On this principle the nations of Europe
are associated it is the basis of the feudal
system.
The Carthagenians are known to have had
black slaves; and it seems equally certain that
the Greeks and Romans had numbers of them;
but modern Europe was scarcely acquainted
with the existence of the negro race, when las