The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1854-02-22

StauceS auu ou I'LL theirs) THAT tney should
do unto you. II you are creditor. treat
your debtor with that forbearance and
consideration which, il you were the debt
or and he the creditor, YOU might reason
ably wish and expect him to use towards
you, This does not mean creditors dis
charge your debtors free. Again, if YOU
are a aveholder, use your slave with gem
tlcness, humanity aud Kindness, reward
him when he does well, never punish him
wantonly or opprcssively-in short, just
as you could reasonably wish, were you
the slave and he the master, that he would
behave towards you. Therefore the in
Junction of the New Testament is not,
masters discharge your slaves, but be mer-
citul to your slaves-slaves be obedient to
your masters.
But said something of slaves being
lashed. Yes, the very idea of lave in
cludes the idea Of a coertion, but docs not
at all include the idea Of cruelty and
when | wished for plantation of negroes,
your reverence and the Tribune with great
candor proclaim that want slaves in or
der to have the luxury of flogging them.
Does any one marry wife that he NAV
have the pleasure Of beating his children?
Yet he who spareth the rod spoilc,h the
child. Does any man buy horse for
the sake if whipping himl Did Wash
lngton keep negroes merely that he might
indulge himself in threshing them9 In
fact, wanted to set down the principle,
as markedly rs possible, that it is not wrong
to hold a slave. From the principle it
follows that it is not wrong to make
slave work and there is no way of ina
king them work (n tho last rcsort) but
dread of the lash.
This is an ungracious task find my
self forced to undertake. On my side,
in this controversy, everything sounds
harsh and looks repulsive. Your revcr
ence has chosen, if not the better, at
least the baImicr part. Yours is the priv
llege, dear to the heightened modern
heart, of uttering kind-looking sentences
1t comes easy to you Qor all the prevail
ing cants are with you) to assume for your
self and your followers the credit of benev-
olence, and philanthropy, and enIigh:en
ment, and progress" and all the rest Of
it. While to escape the charge Of bar
barous cruelty aud blood-thirsty atrocity,
am forced to shield myself under the au-
thorlty of mere ancients; persons behind
the century persons who had notthe ad-
vantage of hearing your lectures at the
tabernacle; persons, like the Legislators
OF Jews, and the wise men Of the Greeks,
and the trainers of the Declaration Of
independence. 1t would be easy for me
oil - Il I, Al
am not cruel or tyrannical by nature; that
| hate all oppression; that if had slaves,
| would influence and govern them uni
formly by kindness, instead Of coercion -
in short that would use them as humane
ly rs Jefferson himself, whose enthusias-
tic reception by his attached negroes, on
his return to Monticello, forms so agree
able picture in fuckers life Of that H.
lustrious man. IT would be easy, but
do not condescend TO treat the question
in this personal and restricted manner.
My position was, and is, the naked as
sertion, that slaveholdng is not
crime;" and that nobody has ever thought
1t crime until some time towards the
close Of the last century.
For the sake Of undeceiving your disci-
pies at the Tabernacle, | think it right
now to inform them (and do it with re-
greO that you are in the habit of giving
so erroneous an account OF slavery among
the Hebrews, that Moses himself would
not know his own laws if he heard them
described in one of your reveience's lee
lures. You say that the Mosaic law did
not indeed prohibit slavery, but surround
ed the system with such restrictions as to
make it very inconvenient. and finally to
abolish it. The very ingenious au,horess
of Uncle Toms Cabin" in her "Key" to
the same, has asserted, quoting Mr..
Barnes for it, that although Hebrews
might buy slaves, they could not sell them;
and again, that there was an enactment
requiring Hebrew shareholders to Iibcrate
their slaves every fiftieth year. These are
statements which you and your school
seem to take on trust from Mrs. Stowe and
Mr.. Barnes; but you will find that it is
unsafe to rely for facts Of this kind upon
pamphlsteers or lady-novelists. Undoubt-
edly some Of your hearers and some of
the readers Of "Uncle Tom" will be sur
prised to hear that there were no such
enactnents at all, except in reference to
that class Of slaves who were children Of
Israel.
The Mosaic law commanded the Israel
ties to buy slaves from the "heathen who
were round about" These slaves it com
manded them to take as an inheritance
forever. "Ye shall take them us m in
heritance for your children after you, to
inherit them for n possession; they shall
be your bondmen forever. But over your
brethren, the children Of Israel, We shall
not rule over one another with rieor."
(Levit. XIV. 46)
In the year Of jubilee liberty was to be
proclaimed throughout the land, ito all
the inhabitants thereof" but is il possible
for learned thcologian like your rcver-
encc not to be aware that foreign slaves
were never spoken Of rs inhabitants of the
land, but as strangers and sojournersl II
is in this very same chapter that foreign
slaves are declared to be their inheritance
and their possession, and their children's
possession forever. "Moses," says the
learned commentator Michaelis. "speci6ed