The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-05-31

questioned, just so long as the law exists unre
pealed. Cease then to blazon the humanity o.
slave-masters. Tell me not of the lenity with
which this cruel law is tempered to its unhap
Ply subjects. Tell me not of the sympathy
which overhows from the mansion of the mas
ter to the cabin Of the slave. In vain YOU assert
these instances. In vain you show that there
are individuals who do not exert the wicked
ness of the law. The law still endures. The
Institution of Slavery, which it defines and up
holds continues TO outrage Public Opinion
and within the limits of our Republic upward
Of three millions of human beings, guilty only
of q skin not colored like your own, are left the
victims of its unrighteous, irresponsible power
Power divorced from right is devilish; pow
er without the check of responsibility is tyran-
meal; and L need not go back to the authority
of Plato, when assert, that the most complete
injustice is that which is erected into the form
of law. But all these things concur in Slavery
1t is, then, on the testimony of slave masters,
solemnly, egislatively udicially, attested in the
very law itself, that l now arraign this instita-
ton, as an outrage upon man and his Creator
And here is the Necessity of the Anti-Savery
Enterprise. wrong so transcendent, so loath-
some, so direful, must be encountered aphererer
1t can be reached, and the battle must be con-
tlnued, without truce or compromise, until the
field is entirely won. Freedom and Slavery
can hold no divided empire; nor can there be
any true repose until Freedom is everywhere
established
To the necessity of the Anti-Slavery Enter.
prise there are two, and only two, vital obiec
tions-one founded on the alleged distinction of
race, and the other on the alleged sanction OF
Christianity. All other objections are of an in
ferior character, or are directed logically at its
practicability. OF these two leading objections
let me briefly speak.
l. And first of the alleged distinction of race
This objection itself assumes two different
forms One founded on prophetic malediction
i'll the Old Testament, and the other on the
protested observations of recent science. Its
Importance is apparent in the obvious fact,
that, unless such distinction be clearly and un-
mistakably established, every argument by
which our own freedom is INDICATED, every
applause awarded to the successful rebellion of
our fathers, every indignant word ever hurled
against the enslavement of our white fellow-cit-
liens by Algerine corsairs, must plead trumpet
tongued against the deep damnation of Slave
ry, whether white or black.
1t is said that the Africans are the posterity
of Ham, the son of Noah, through Canaan, who
was cursed by NOAH to be the servant Of his
brethren; and that this malediction has descend
ed upon all his posterity, including the unhap-
py Africans, who are accordingly devoted by
God, through unending generations, to unend-
ing bondage. Such is the favorite argument
often put forth at the South, and more than
once directly addressed to myself Here, for
instance, is passage from letter recently re-
ceived "You need not persist" says the wri-
ter, :" in confounding Japheth's children with
Hams, and making both races one, and argu-
ing on their rights as those of man broadly"
And have been seriously assured that, until
this objection is answered, it will be in vain to
press my views upon Congress or the country.
Listen now to the texts of the Old Testament
which are so strangely employed:
Sand he (Noah) said, Cursed be Canaan; a
servant of servants shall he be unto his breth-
rem. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of
Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God
shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the
tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his SER
want. 7--ueHcytS, rNuP. CT, ho-sr.
That is all; and / need only read these words
in order to expose the whole transpicuous hum
bug. But am tempted to add, that, to justify
this objection, it will be necessary to maintain
at least five different propositions, as essential
links in the chain of the African slave; first,
that by this malediction Canaan himself was
actually changed into chattel, whereas he is
ondly that not merely Canaan, but all his pos
terity, to the remotest generation, was so chang
ed, whereas the language has no such extent;
thirdly, that the African actually belongs to
the posterity Of Canaan-an ethnographical as
sumption absurdly difficult to establish; fourth
IN, that each of the descendants of Shem or ia
pheth has right to hold an African fellow
man as chattel-a proposition which finds no
semblance of support; and, filthy, that every,
slave-master is truly descended from Shem or
Japheth--a pedigree which no anxiety or auda-
city can prove This plain analysis, which
may fifty excite smile, shows the fve-fod alb
surdity of an attempt to found this revolving
wrong on
"Any successive title, long and dark,
Drawn from the musty rolls Of Noahs ark"
The small bigotry, which could find comfort
in these texts, has been lately exalted by the
suggestions of science, that the different races
of men are not derived from single pair, but
from several distinct stocks, according to their
several distinct characteristics and it has been
audaciously argued that the African is so far
inferior as to lose all title to that liberty which
is the birthright of the lordly white. Now, l
have neither time nor disposition, on this occa-
sion to discuss the question of the unity ofraces
nor is it necessary to my present purpose. 1t
NAV be that the different races ofmen proceeded
from different stocks; but there is only one
great Human Family, in which Caucasian and
African, Chinese and Indian, are all brothers,
children of one Father, and heirs TO one happi-
ness-alike on earth and in Heaven. "Star-eyed
science cannot shake this everlasting truth. 1t
may vainly exhibit peculiarities m the African,
by which he is distinguishable from the eau
casian. 1t may, in his physical form and intel.
lectual character, presume to find the stamp OF
permanent inferiority. But by no reach of
learning, by no torture of facts, by no effrontery
of dogma, can it show that he is not man.
and as a man he stands before you an unques-
tionable member Of the Human Family, and en-
titled to all the rights Of man. You can claim
nothing for yourself, as man, which you must
not accord to him. life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness-which YOU proudly declare to be
your own inalienable, God given rights, and to
the support of which your fathers pledged their
lives, fortunes, and sacred honor-are his by
the same immortal title that they are yours.
D. From the objection founded on the alleged
distinction of race, pass to that other, founded
on the alleged sanction of Slavery by Christi
dnity. And, striving to be brief, shall not un-
dertake to reconcile texts often quoted from the
Old Testament, which, whatever may be their
import, are all absorbed in the later New; nor
shall I stop to consider the precise interpreta-
ton of the oft-quoted phrase, SERVANTS obey your
masters nor seek to weigh any such imperfect
Injunction in the scales against those grand
commandments on which hang all the law and
the prophets. Surely, in the example and teach
ings of the Saviour, who lifted up the down-trod-
den, who enjoined purity of life, and overfowed
with tenderness even to little children, human
ingenuity can find no apology for an institution
which tramplcs on man, which de6les woman,
and sweeps little children beneath the hammer
of the auctioneer. If to any one these things
seem to have the license of Christianity, it is
only because they have first secured license in