The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1854-02-24

reasonably wish and expect him TO use towards
you Ths does not mean creditors discharge your
debtors free. Again, if you slaveholder,
| use your slave with geniieness, humanity and
kindness, rewarding him when he does well, never
| punshlng him wanony or oppressively-in short,
just as you could reasonably wish, were you the
slave and he the master. that he would behave
! towards you. Therefore, the injunction Of the
New Testament Is not masters discharge your
! slaves, but be mercilul to your slaves-sIaves be
OBJ dent TO your masters.
But ( SAID something of slaves being ashed.
Yes, the very idea of slave includes the idea ol
a coercion, but does not at all include the idea OF
cruelty and when | wish for plantation OF
| negroes, your reverence and the Tribune, with
great candor proclaim thai | want slaves in order
to have the luxury Of foggng them. Does any
man marry wife that he may have the pleasure
OF heaiing his children? Yet he who spareh the
rod spoileth the child. Does any man buy a horse
for the sake OF whipping him Did Washington
keep negroes merely that he might indulge him.
self in threshing them? In fact wanted 20 SET
down ibe principle, nakedIy possible, that 1t
is not wrong 10 hold slave. From the principle
J 1t follows that it is not wrong to make a slave
work; and there is way OF making them work
| lin the last resorl) but dread of the lash.
This ungraeious task find my self forced
| TO undertake. On my side, in this controversy,
| everything sounds harsh and looks repulsive
our reverence has chosen, If not the better, at
| least the ba!micr part. YouIs is the privilege,
dear to the eng htened modern heart OF utterng
! kind-Iooking sentences. 1t comes easy TO YOU
(tor all the prevailing cants with you) TO as
sumo for yourself and your followers The credit Of
beneVolence, and philanthropy, and enIighten-
ment, and "progress,'' and all the rest of it.
While !, to escape the charge of barbarous crulty
and bood.thlrsty atrocity, am forced to shield my
sell under the authority of mere ancients per-
sons behind the century; persons who had not
Inc advantage oil hearing your lectures at the
tabernacle; persons like the legislator of the
Jews, and the men Of the Greeks, and the
trainers of the Declaration OF Independence. 1t
would be easy for ne also, and ii would be true,
to assert that am not cruel tyrannica by ma
ture; that hale all oppression that if | had
slaves, would Influence and govern them uni
tormly by Kindness instead Of coer cion--,in short
that | would use them humanely as Jefferson
himself, whose enthusiastic reception by his at
tached negroes, on his return 10 MoncPlIo forms
so agreeable a picture IN fuckers life of that
lIustrious man. 1t would be easy, but | do not
cehdescentt TO tTesttTe question in this personal
and restricted manner. My position was, and is,
The naked assertion, :" that slaveholding is not a
crime ; and that nobody ever thought it crime
until some time towards the close of the last
century.
For the sake of und"ceivIng your disciples at
The Tabernacle, think ii right now TO inform |
them (and do it with regre) that you are in the
haoit OF giving so erroneous account of slavery
among the Hebrews, that Moses himself would
not know his own laws if he heard them described
IN one of your reverence's lectures. You say
that The Mosaic law did not indeed prohibit slave
ry, but surrounded the system with such restrc-
lions as TO make it very inconvenient and finally
10 abolish it. The very ingenious auIhoress OF
" Uncle Toms CABIN, in her Key to the same,
has asserted quoting n Mr.. Barnes for it, that al.
lhough Hebrews might buy slaves, they could
not sell them; and again, that there was an enact
nent requiring Hebrew Shareholders 10 liberaie
their slaves every fftieth year. These are state
ments which you and your school seem TO take
On trust from Airs. Stowe and Mr.. Barnes; but
you Will find that it is unsafe rely for facts of
his kind upon PamphIet2ers or lady y-noveIists.-
u Undoubtedly some of your hearers and some of
he readers of "Uncle Tom" will be surprised 10 t
'ear that there were no such enactmens at all, !
xct PIT in reference 10 that class of slaves who t
we're children Of Israel. II
ne Mosaic law ommGnded the Israelites to Il
uy slaves from The (" heafhen who were round Q
bout These slaves it commanded them to take !
S an inheritance forever. "Ye shall take them p
S an inheritance for your children after YOU. to p
1her't them for possession they shall be your u
'ndmen forrrer, But over your brethren, the P
hdren OF Israel, ye shall not rule over one an p
her with rigor." (Levit. XIV. 46) h
In the year of juti!ee, liberty was to be pro ci
aimed throughout the land, to all the inhab, Sc
mis- thereof" but is it possible for learned W
eologan Ike your reverence not to be aware az
at foreign slaves we're never spoken OF as nha- pr
'ants OF the land, but as strangers and soiourn-
s 1t is in this very same chapter tnat foregn ou
aves are declared 10 be their inheritance and Oh
Ell: possession, and their chdrens possession lr
rever. 'Moses," says the learned commentator !,
IchaelIs, ''sPecllifd two periods at which the
ehfeW servant was to regain bis freedom-the ar
h year and .he 50th"-that is 10 say, as he ex re
aims II, at the end OF years from the darc ca
the slaves falling into slavery (he sabbatica ca
ar had nothing 10 do with I'D and at any rate WI
the Jubliee year, whether he had been them TN
ven Tears IN slavery not. But nothing of so
5 applied to the slaves purchased from foreign c
or taken IN war, or TO the children of such Inf
YES. wi
1t S precisely as if there was law in Ameri.
whereby all American citizens who might
Fe fallen in:o the state of slavery, we're TO be
free at two stated periods in each century.
II you know Of any commentator worth atten nee
VINO taxes a different view Of The mailer, pro- La
,e him. R.
ARD II IS not true, nor is there The smallest Ne
ndaIIon Tor The statement, that Hebrew slave MIA
der was not permitted TO sell his foreign slave mir
the contrary, there is one very peculiar and CaI
optional case, (Deu xxi. 14.) in WHICH mas The
is forbidden TO sell female captive whom he TIE,
taken TO wife; he shall not ma ke merchandise Bo,
her. And this eXceDfionaI nrobiI;,;on | r.