New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-10-28
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT ON the CRIME
A Sc r M ON:
Delner,d at a. c'Snk Of 10 Psrsiass on Sunday
Errri~g, OFT. p. 1856.
By THE REV. GEORGE r. CHEEvER, q. D.


up before me the lard hI should not de.rrOy H. bu,i
,Ton thm hsve consumed them Nth The my wrath.
their have recon Persed upon their hests saith the
Lo,d God "-E1ekie! ?; > a. 81
This passage written with reference to precisey
the same generation an precisely the same inquty,
AS the tremendous passage the pphesy Of Jeremiah
,pm which our las: sabbath evening text was taken.
To those who have Dot examined the subject, il may
seem strange that not the sin Of Id ,ery but the sn Of
Slavery the violation Of the law Of Freedom, should
have been marked OF God as the one decisive acc Of
wickeduees that filed up the measure OF the jewish
inioui,ies ard brought down the wrath OF God upon
them without remedy or repeal But the wonder ceaseS
when the nsture of the crime is taken into consders
,;op B.inc a crime concocted and determined by
rrinces priests ard people, together with the KING
was really making the whole nation nation OF mea-
stealers: and man-stealing CRIME whose penalty
was death so that the adopting of 1t by the Govern
ment ard the people enshrning of the ipiquty
public, and glaring dehsnce of God authority 10
the form Of their State policy. They thought them
selves secure against punishment, as corporation o.
usurIers, under guilt which they could not have com
miited individuals without exposure 70 the pensuy
of desth. But tie sword Of God came down upon
them in the very midst OF this appalling crime as s"t.
almost as the ginning.
They were deliberately inaugurating an niquty
their chosen state policy, which they kneW
to generation. II it could have been re' trictsd
to the 6rst persons stolen and deprived Of
their liberty, the niquity would have been compare.
tiy civ small But for every two immortal beings forced
INTO this chatteism there would he five Others stolen
and forced in ike manner by the ne xt generation;
the guilt Of oppression the one side and the uier-
Of cruelty on the other enlargng as IL ran on mt"
pos,erity Now. TO set agoirg such system ct IN
Justice, which WAS to branch out like the hefedl-
| tary perdition from the deprayed head OF
| race mceasiug as the Amazon; to set CEN
| tal spring Of thousand other springs oil o-mesus
and State iyraupy cooled and ceiling on. in geometrlcM
progression; and central fountain OF Thousand oh~
fountains OF humanty and misery: and TO do TINS 10
opposition to the light of freedom and Religion and OF
law IN ot, ctjOn of liberty g, from God and main
tanned by Him for thousand years, was so extreme
ard aggravated a pitch OF wickedness that u 10 nos
wonderful that God put slant stop to It, bywipns
| Jerusalem and Judea of its Inhabitants, as a mn"
| wipeth dish and turneth 1t upside down.
The evil of s,th crime wa the greater, because,
while it enlargng every year both III guilt and hope
lessEess it seems lessfned in intensity as passeS
down into uostery. The SONS Of toe INST men ST. ass
would with comparatively easy consciences, take the
children of those wt0m their parents had stolen, ana
claim hem their property, being slaves born bu''
in fact. find that the guilt IL doubted; oecausc.
| while the parents may have been stolen only from
Themselves Ibe children are stolen boh nom the pa
| rents and from themselves. The stealing ana enr'av
| ing of the parents could create no CLAIM upon inc
| children ss properly nor troduce any mitigation or
ey,,puation Of the sin of stealing the children, Also
and holding them slaves. Aud 40 the guilt runs on
nor could the progress oil "hole agce o"'i'"" ~ ="
| change III character.
In nuruinp our demonstration Of the sinfuluess OF
Slavery and consequently the guilt OF its extension.
we Gene neat to the laws against ian stealing mani
| selling, using mon sery ants WITHOUT wages anu
bringing them into bondage against their WILL slavery
is forbidden of God and condemned NJ sinful oy every
| one of them He THAT STEALTH MAN AND
| SELLETH HIM, OR - III ~ POUND IN MS HAND, W.
| SHALL SURELY BE PIT TO DEArH. God be prasfd
Tor this law IL strikes through aud through the vita
| of this sin.
| Mar stealing and man selling are almost the sole
origin OF Slavery and both in The Old aud New Iee-
ar ut the So things are condemned sina sin worthy
OF death But il neither stealing man and selling
! hin nor holding him, conveying him IN any way
- another. couo make him the property OF another,
nsiIherr could the buyfrg OF man. 50 ''o'on ,a1s
anoiber. The sum of $50 600 might be paid for man
offered 10 You by slavetraGer, but you would
have more right of property in him after you hsd
paid that sum than before, than If you had paid but
one srtbing The common Law Iays down this princi-
pie even regard TO hoIse, which, IL It be stolen
and sod forty tin es over neither the selling asy
than tie stealing can take awey the right " The right
iui owner but whenever anc wherever he sppeAp no
claim his properly Now stolen man may have
been passed through five hundred hands, and the five
huDdreth may have paid for him than all tho four
hundred and ninety nine put together but the last
| purchaser has more rightful claim over him, no
more right Of property III bim than the tint seses.
| And if he purchased him with the knowledge
of his beng originally stolen, be is himself also
4
| COZ mon law hDd Righteousness Aud IT he had not
| that knowledge, but mace the purchase ignorant
Of the ogE al theft bis ignorance cannot change right
into wOrg caIn0ta away the man indefeas bic sod
inaensble night Of ownership over himself The price
Of world might have been paid for him, but he Is still
biz own. When Joseph so.d by the lshmaslites
into Egypt the purchase OF him by Potiphar did not
take away dmni b ota his iudestructite right
of fre edom 10 hn.ef Not the wealth % ali Egypt
could have given purcha<er the Iea, right of prop
erty in him.
He that ste aleh and selleib, if he be found in his
hancs-steaiDg, keeping, tadlpg-a forbidden %
PAIN OF death. IL 10 impossible ny Transmission 70
vert this crime ito innocent tran action. No MAJ
can iDn0centy buy fellow uian property, or &C
qure ally right Of property 10 him. though be should
give for him the cost Of the whole solar system if that
eoud lie weighed il Gods balances ana Put into bis
ldD6e.
Now the main origin of all the slavery on our giobo
hts been violence aud eft An unrlghteou predatory
wal theft, such the bar oarOus rioes Africa
wbge ogaI,st each other and then sell their cspves,
are theft. man violently taken from his family and
thrust into bondage by such violence stolen mso,
10 motier whether 'eD did the deed or ten thou
sand Bat the csptves Of the African race the trsin
Of the body Of slaves in this couotry, were
brought Ia ar the prey OF kicnspPers, slave
tracer, the most abandoned, degraded, Internal
mscreaDts the face Of tie earth, lowering ON the
coast oieaiDg up the creeks rvers proving about
the upguarded bsmlets, and Ike yulturer. graspiag
their victims in their tslOos, or With -tafagcms and
Lures brbiDg others 10 eDtrdp them The save-shps,
6ld tie slave -peus have been crowded and stdt
for .ii tie accursod traffic rage, with such outraged
and down-troddeD human beings, bought and sold aud
H. slave Iropery called tbs whole contoeo of N
the result t!oCdy violence and theft so that thou g
YOU nsy talk .murh a. you pesse " your slaves e
Icing Inherited or a. having been the property Of your
faiLer or grandfather grandfather but every
rcrtbse from every ships cargo ever landed on our
hOies from The latest importation in this gppernioo
back 10 The landing and eDsavfment Of the very nrvt