Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-07-22

and therefore, slaves, not being fixed to the soil
but capable of motion, are properly classed as
chattels But the law does not say that slave:
are mere chattels; the mere is an Interpolation
whether designed or not, shall not stop to in.
quire. Neither the law of South Carolina or OF
any other State, regards slaves as mere chattels
They are, in contemplation of law, rational and
accountable beings As such they are to 9 be
treated, and as such they are held responsible
for their actions.
Nor is the question whether slaves may be
kept in a state of mental and moral degradation,
that their slavery may be prolonged. A great
outcry is made because our laws forbid slaves to
be taught in schools. Gentlemen must remeIn-
Der that we have not established any general
system of public schools in the South, even for
the white population. And may be permitted
to express doubt whether the evils incident to
such a system do not more than counterbalance
the benefits it confers But there is no law
which prohibits the master or mistress from
teaching his slaves; and many in fact are so
taught And would remind you, sir, that it is
the agitation of this subject of slavery at the
North, and the attempt to scatter infiammatory
publications among the slaves, which induced
this law Slavery had existed in Virginia one
hundred and fifty years before it was enacted,
and, doubt not, will survive its repeal for as
long period.
But the true question is, whether the negro,
under the conditions and circumstances in which
he exists at the South, may be required to rem
der service to his master for life; and may be
subjected to the restraints necessary to enforce
that service and obedience9
/ shall not enter upon the Bible argument for
slavery. That has been well done by those who
have preceded me. Nor shall insist that be-
cause slavery was right in the days of Abraham,
Moses and the Apostles, it must be right always
and everywhere. Its treatment at the times
mentioned, proves concusively that it is not
wrong always and everywhere; and we there
see the circumstances under which it was at
least countenanced by God and his people. And
it is striking fact, too, that when Moses gave
his directions on the subject, the Israetes did
not own slave. There is another fact, too,
which we may well consider In the time OF
the Apostles, the master and the slave, If not
the same, were of equal races, and there was no
distinction of color; so that the difficulties in
the way of emancipation at that day, if any
existed, were trivial indeed, compared with the
difficulties attending the emancipation of the
slaves of the South.
We are to remember that our slaves are here,
and have been here for five generations. a
member has in this discussion characterized sla-
very as man stealing; and has insisted that the
title having been originally acquired by theft,
no time can make it valid. Certainly those who
are now here were not stolen. Those who were
stolen, were stolen by the North, and sold to the
South and if Northern gentlemen have at this
late day discovered that our title is not good on
account of its original defect, then submit, that
upon every principle of honor and justice, if we
are to surrender the slaves, they should return
the purchase money.
But, further! Do men inherit a right to lib
erty from their ancestors2 And if this is the
ground of the right of our slaves to liberty, what
sort of liberty is ita A liberty to enjoy or to
suffer the lowest form Of savage life. A liberty
to be sold as slave in Africa to an African saw
age. A liberty to know no God but the work
of his own hands. A liberty to live and to die
without hope and without God. Certainly no
man can desire such change for our slaves
That they are elevated, morally, socially and
intellectually, greatly above the race from which
they sprang, as that race was and is now in Af-
RIGA, no man can doubt.
| But we do not derive our natural rights by
Inheritance from our ancestors. Every man
holds these rights whatever they are, by direct
grant from God himself; and their nature and
extent are to be ascertained from view of bis
own nature, character, capacity, relations and
condition. 1t is thus that the rights of the mas.
ter and the slave are to be ascertained and
neither can have a right which conflicts with
the rights of the other or with the rights of the
society of which he is a member.
HOW OUR RIGHTS ARE TO BE AsoERTAINED.
1t has been said that every people are in that
condition for which they are fitted for their NOR
al and intellectual capacity. And the presump-
ton is against them, that they are not qualified
for greater degree of liberty than they enjoy.
The French, with all their intelligence, want the
moral qualities which will enable them 10 main
tain free government. They seem to be inca
pable of submitting to any other restraint than
force, and they are thus continually vascllatlng
between an uprestrained license and a despotism.
And our southern neighbors who have thrown
off the Spanish yoke, have been unable to main
tain the institutions they attempted to establish
because they look to US for their model, without
having the moral and intellectual fitness for q
government as free as ours. And the conse-
quence has been succession ofrevolutions, end
ing at one time in despotism, and at another IN
anarchy And this must continue until their
leaders shall become wise enough to suit their
institutions to the capacity of the people, or
Providence shall accomplish the work for them.
1t is equally vain to give to our slaves liberty,
until they have the moral and mental capacity to
maintain and to enjoy it. And he is not wise
man who would place them in any higher con-
dtion OF social or political life, until they have
the capacity which will fit them for it. 1t is q
fact which all experience teaches that when a
superior and inferior race are brought into con-
tact the only alternative of the inferior race is
subsection or determination. Nor is it necessa-
ry that the inferiority shall arise from detclen
cy of natural intellect Inferiority in physical
or moral qualities, or in civilization, is alike ia
tai to them. This truth is exemplified on our
frontier. The Indian with physical qualities,
with courage, ,manlness and independence, which
might fit him for civilization, has not retired but
has vanished away, before the march of the
white man. And so he will continue to do
Christian effort may preserve few of the race
but it will be by practically becoming their ru,
lers. Or if any others are preserved, they viii
be those whose blood is in part derived from
the white man. and who have thus acquired the
force of character and the civilization which vii
enable them to bear the contact with the white
race without extinction.
THE GREAT PRACTICAL QUESTION.
That there are different races of men on the
earth. certainly no man can doubt. That these
races should be unequal in some respects, is al
least probable. That we all consider Our owl
race race as standing among the first in physical, mo-
raj and intellectual qualities, and in our type o
civilization. is beyond question. That the AT
rican has been for two thousand years one OF the
most inferior of the races, his history during
that period most clearly proves. His mora
qualities have been of the lowest type. His in
telleetua] faculties have not emitted one sparl
sufficient to attract for a moment, the attention
of ony part of the civilized world. His coudi
tion has been that of savage, so degraded, tina
he has been elevated in all respects by becoming
n slave in America. Now it is bootless to in
| or;ro ,ybethar he NAV not have capacity fo