Squatter sovereign., 1855-06-26


parate man and wife, parent and child.
by denying ingrcss to his premises, sooner
than compel him to free or sell the mother.
that the marriage relation might be honor
| ed. The preference is given OF, God to
enslaving the father rather than freeing the
mother and children.
Under every view we are allowed to otake
of the subject, the conviction is forced upon
the mind, that from Abrahan's day, until
the coming of Christ, Ga period of two
| thousand years. this institution found favor
with God. No marks of his displeasure
are found resting upon it. It must, there
fore, in its moral nature, be in harmony
with those moral principles which he re-
quires to be exercised by the law of Moses,
and which are the principles that secure
harmony and happiness to the universe,
viz: supreme love to God and the love Of
our ne1ghbor as ourself. Deut. vi. g.
Levitt. xix. Is. To suppose that God has
laid down these fundamental principles of
moral rectitude in his law, as the soul that
must inhabit every preceptive requirement
of that law, and yet to suppose he created
relations among the Israelites, and pre-
scribed relative duties growing out of these
relations, that are hostile to the spirit of
the law, is to suppose what will never bring
great honor or glory to our Maker. But
if l understand that spirit which is now
warning against slavery, this is the position
which the spirit of God forces it to occupy,
viz: that God has ordained slavery, and yet
slavery is the greatest of sins. Such was
the state of the case when Jesus Christ
made his appearance. We propose.
Third. To show that Jesus Christ re-
cognized this institution as one that was
lawful among men, and regulated its rela-
tive duties.
Having shown from the Scriptures, that
slavery existed with Abraham and the pa
triarchs, with divine approbati on, and hay-
ing shown from the same source, that the
Almighty Incorporated it in the law, as an
institution among Abraham's seed, until
the coming of Christ, our precise object
now is, to ascertain whether Jesus Christ
has abolished it, or recognized it as law
full relation, existing among men, and pre-
scrbed duties which belong to it, as he has
other relative duties; such as those between
husband and wife, parent and child, mag
istrate and subject.
And first, I may take it for granted,
without proof, that he has. not abolished it
by commandment, for none pretend to this.
This, by the way, is a singular circum-
stance, Jesus Christ should put system of
measures into operation, which have for
their object the subjugation of all men to
him as a law-giver-kings, Legislators, and
private citizens in all nations; at a time,
too, when hereditary slavery existed in all;
and after it had been incorporated for fif-
teen hundred years into the Jewish con-
stitution, Immediately given by God him.
self. say, it is passing strange, that un-
der such circumstances, Jesus should fail
to prohibit its further existence, if it was
his intention to abolish it. Such an omis-
sion or oversight cannot be charged upon
any other legislator the world has ever
seen. But, says the Abolitionist, he has
introduced new moral principles, which
will extinguish it as an unavoidable con-
sequence, without direct prohibitory COM
mand. What are they? ''Do unto others
as you would they should do TO you" TAX
ing these words of Christ to be body, in
closing moral soul in them, what soul, f
ask, is it?
The same embodied in these words of
Moses, Levitt. xix. 10: ''thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself;" or is it another? 1t
cannot be another, but it must be the very
same, because Jesus says, there are but
two principles in being, in Gods moral
government, one including all that is due
to God, the other all that is due to men.
If, therefore, doing oothers as we would
they should do TO us. means precisely what
loving our neighbor as ourself means, then
Jesus has added no new moral principle
above those in the law of Moses, to pro-
hibit slavery. for in his law is found this
principle, and slavery also.
The very God that said to them, they
should love him supremefy, and THEN
neighbors as themselves, said to them also,
ssof the heathen that are round about you,
thou shalt buy bond-men and bond-women,
and they shall be your possession, and ye
shall take them as an Inheritance for your
children after you, to inherit them as a
possession; they shall be your bond-men
forever" Now, to suppose that Jesus
Christ left his disciples to find out, without