The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-08-20
THE RATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON, D. c. AUGUST ee-fe57-

the beasts and the birds nurture and br;no -,
their offspring, while acting from their IN,
stincts? But, under such law as this tho
master has the right to separate the husband
AID wife. LIS this consistent with the law ~
nature Is it consistent with the law of natur.
to separate what God has Joined together and
declared that no man should put asunder9 ~
The opposite counsel, however, urge that
by the laws of England person NAV for a
crime, be sent into other parts of the world
away from parents, sisters, and brothers. never
more to return. In the present case, a subiect
of this free Commonwealth may be taken. with.
out crime, from his friends, his father and
mother, his brothers and sisters, and Skinned
Oh, with spawned horses, as an article of mer.
chandise, to the West Indies. They say that,
In the early history OF the country, slaves were
needed to cultivate the earth. But instead Of
that, now, the employing of them does an act.
uaf injury to the poorer classes of peonla bv
being in the way of their finding employment
LIS he slave by the custom of the country? A
custom must be general, to be binding as sucb.
This is not general custom. 1t has ever been
against the principles of some to make slaves.
and some have freed them. 1t must, moreover
be undisputed, in order to be binding. But
this has always been disputed-in the General
Court, in the courts of Justice, and elsewhere
1t must, besides, not be against reason. In
making out that negroes are the propertv of
their masters, the counsel for the plaintiff
speak of lineage, and contend that the children
of slaves must be slaves in the same wav that
because our first parents fell, we all fell with
them. But are not all mankind born in the
same way? Are not their bodies clothed with
the same kind of flesh? Was not the same
breath of life breathed into all? We are under
the same gospel dspensation, have our com mon
Saviour, inhabit the same globe, die in the
same manner, and, though the white man NAV
have his body wrapped in fine linen, and his
attire may be little more decorated, there all
distinction of mans making ends. We all
sleep on the same level in the dust. We shall
all be raised by the sound of one common
trump, calling unto all that are in their graves,
without distinction, to arise-shall be arraign.
ed at one common bar, shall have one common
judge, and be tried by one common Jury, and
condemned or acquitted by one common Law
by the Gospel-the perfect law of liberty. This
cause will then be tried again, and your verdict
will there be tried. Therefore, gentlemen of
the jury, let me con ure you to give such a yer.
dict now as shall stand this test, and be al.
proved by your own minds in the last moments
of your existence, and by your Judge at the last
day. 1t will then be tried by the laws of
reason and revelation. Is it not law of ma.
ture that all men are equal and free? Is not
the law of nature the law of God? Is not the
law of God, then, against Slavery? Ifthere is
no law of man establishing it, there is no diff
Guilty. If there is, then the great difficulty is to
determine which law you ought to obey and
if you shall have the same ideas as / have of
present and future things, you will obey the
former. The worst that can happen to you for
disobeying the former is the destruction of the
body-for the last, that of your souls.