New-York daily tribune., 1856-05-03
SLAVERY AND SCIENCE.

e'gneet results OF science. Its corrosions guaw
equally at the products of mental and material
labor, and the intellectual domain ia blishts bv itu
theories in an equal degree with the earth. urfsce
This mental distortion strikes not only indyiduaI.
but is chropicaly rooted 10 generations of th- prs
sent, and will be % in some of the future Indeed
the normal healthy state ofreason on the SUBJECTS
affected for long years to come. no logical arga.
ment being able to penetrate the massive stoidity
Of the mind trained to ,aveb breeding and the slave
trade. Hence, in this view, religion, ethics,
history, social and economical relations, and sew
raj members Of the large family of sciences, are
rendered false and corrupt
To what extent, in the hands of Slavery. support
ing theologions, Christianity with its purified ethics
has become demoniac ordinance, not only justi-
flying, but decreeipg bondage, is shown in the ar
| guments of Southern as we'll as Of Northern di-
vines. On this point, then, we need not dwell.
Adultery, polygamy, cOncubnage, traffic in ones
own flesh and bood-these are pre- eminently dis.
tinctve Of slaye-tradiDg morale; and have often
been brought before oar readers as such and as
contrary to every religious aspiration Of the Chris
tan world. Theology being thus defled at it,
source by slave. breediog paradox, Science next
comes in for its share fimpure observation. Thus,
in theory as in practice, Slavery attacks what
men consider Of divine origin in faith and morals
as well as their convictions growing out Of reason
and science.
Next to religion and ethics, the history of our
race is the most polluted when handled BY tho
doctors of Slavery. For them, human annals servo
as eternal evidence for the origin, necessity and
blessedness of the institution. History, accord
ingly, is ranssck,d aud pilaged 10 the most reck-
less and INSCRIPTIONS manner. Vainly for them
does she teach that if Slavery existed in antiquity,
in the East as in the North, among the Asiatic as
among the European races, its origin was wholly
different from that of American bondage. Ancient
Slavery was never at any place or time based on
theories Of the physical and psychological inferior
tiles of one race, do med TO another; bat it
resulted from one paramount fact-war and con-
quest. In times so remote as hardly to be reached
by positive chronology, is dimly seen tho first
historical conquest in the appearance Of the
Arans. or inhabitants of the plains and table
lands of Hindoo- Kosh, or Himal iya--those pro-
peuitors Of all European nations yulgarly consid-
cred to be of Caucasian origin. Those Arians
successfully invaded, overthrow, aud subdued,
wholly or partially, the nations living along the
Ganges, Euphrates and Nile; nations already en-
loving state Of civilization and culture when the
invaders were as barbarOus those who afterward
overtbrew and enslsved the Roman world In
subsequent centuries, the Persians conquered and
enslaved the more highly y-cultivated Lydians, Assy.
risns, and Egyptians. Continually the prisoners
of war became slaves; and thus, through unnum-
bered wars, men Of the same race tribe, and family
with the yictOrs being made prisoners, were sold
into Slavery. Such was the exclusive origin and
element of Slavery in Asistic and European Greece
among the Jews and PhGnicians. The slaves men,
toned in the Scriptures, and possessed by the Jews,
were drawn from tribes belonging to the same race
as the Hebrews-nsmely, the Semitic. This,
too, was the case in Italy and Sicily before and
under the Romans. Thus slaves were often men
of the higher social order or caste, well as Of
superior mind and culture-yesterday friends, al
lies and equals to-day, by the fortune Of war, and
through cruel system, which we trust s difficult
now to understand, miserable and enslaved beings.
Roman citizens, too, could be sold into Slavery to
satisfy the claims Of creditors, and thus may have
originated the proyerb, q"od hodie mihi, eras tibi-
nv luck to. day may be yours tomorrow.
In the pagan world, neither divines nor moral
sts, philosophers, poets, nor statesmen, nor
even the rigid miser Cato, eulogized Slavery,
or considered il blessed institution,
forming the cornerstone of Society, De-
mocracy, and Liberty. Slaves, however, were
among the most cultivated, active, intellectual.
and industrial members Of the community, being
philosophers, doctorr, rhesoricians, artists, and
mechanics Plato was once sold into slavery; and
the purest moralist of antiquity, Epctetus, lived
many years the slave Of q bad Romsn master.
Nearly all the monuments of Rome which have
survived the destructive force of time had slaves
for architects and constructors. According to
some historians, Vitruvius, whose architectural
writings are still authority, was slave. Tho
Spartans, the fierce oligarchy Of the Greeisn
world, who cultivated no arts whatever, did not
consider the Helots originally an inferior race.
But they brutalized their victims deliberately and
purposely by every vice and crime and above all
by fostering iDtemperanee among them; thus ex
tingushiDg all higher aAd more humane aspir atoms.
So speaks historJ generally. II teaches likewise
that with the extension Of Slavery, the free yeo-
manry of Rome was either destroyed or reduced to
detected social state, like that Of the Southern
freewhite lsbOrers and small cultivators Be it re-
marked that in proportion Slavery increased, ths
spirit of ancient Rome became faint. Not slaves,
but ncinnatus himself plOwed his farm when the
Deputies brought him the news of his election BY
bis fellow. citizens to the dignity Of dictator.
When Sfterward the soil Of Rome was owned BY