The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1857-01-29

author. Favus Josepbus states that there were among
out the of the Mosaic law which is the first written
record of sayerythe Pharees the Saducees, and the
Essenans the latter Of which had continuity OF proper
ty, and regarded all to be naturally equal Ihis
sect however, obscure, numbering only about four
thousand adopts about the close Of the Augutan age ana
vergiug the of Christianity yet though they as
serted this dogma OF human equality in theory IN pracce
The second fact to which have alluded and which Is
consequence of the former consists in this that antiquity
offers instances of those crises which frequently con-
vuse the working classes in modern times This fact may
be readily spprchended when come to reflect that Inc
emancipation Of individuals taking place in limited num-
bers only the soil before they could spread
over the surface Of society The free working population
before the Christian era comparatively scanty whlls
the records Of legislation show that in the year afier
Christ the hrtyfve corporations of trades which are de
fined In ~ jav AZ the Emperor Constantine (Codex Theo
dos3nus, lib. xiv tit ILL., lex u had all their mechanical
work performed by the agency OF slaves The number OF
ton OF Christianity and through ths first four CEN
turies which followed its establishment and this relative
scarcity In the ratio Of the small number OF freed men
who turned upon society in the pursuit OF seremu
nerating toll.
The 1Erarium Pu5licum, our modern Treasury Depart
ment had slaves and derived indirect revenue from
them by committing the public works to their hands Con-
tractors hired out slaves and trades corporations had their
privileges improved by the labor of their workshops
eeng with slaves owned by themselves, or hired from
striking fact Also that professional beggars were
scarce. The works of antiquity which have come down
to US indulge many ibe n relation to parasites high
life beggars but make mention Of street mendcants
confirm my oEhion by the fact that have never been
able to find instance in Pagan antiquity 81 one city that
founded amahouse to feed the poor or hospital
tend the sick at need One of the constitutions OF JUS
nian, promulgated in tbs year $780, is precious docu
ment this Whilst 1t goes into minute enume
ration Of all expenditures for public purposes chargeable
upon the various municipalities of the empire, even from
the warming of baihs the scavenging of ake there is
single alusion to any hospital asylum, whether
for the mendcant the in6rm the worn-out or diseased
This however is Of easy solution upon the general fact
that in the organization of ancient society, as on our
southern plantations every Shareholder had an inhrary
for the Of his slaves The Roman master had also
domestic Jail Now as emancipation entirely cum
dered the bonds between the slave and the ase and as
the latter continued to hold right the succession Of
his freedom, erected into CLIENT oven 50 could the
client upon occasion have to the munifcence
Of his MASTER attcnuated into patron, and appeal
to him with every assurance whether in case OF sick
fore who might constitute the body of compulsory beg
gars or worn-out operatives in ancient society neces-
CARLY issuing from the body Of emancpated slaves re-
whose reaners they continued be- and consequently did
require that system Of public ptovdence which one
of the necessities Of modern times steadily eating its dis
solving way into the body of society This view OF the
question is inference the sporuld or dole,
which the wealthy patron had daily distributed to his
per clients shows that it ress upon fact The existence
and lawfuness of domestic prisons is sufficiently estab
lshed by the fact that the right of domestic prisons was
only abolished in the eastern empire in the year 1885, by
constituon Of Theodosius and Arcadus and by law Of
Jusnia in the year $40 the western empire but the
prohibitions even then limited to cs and villages and
the use Of pvats ais continued in the late funda OF
large estates cultivated BY the prsedial slaves.
It is not my purpose Mr. Chairman, in these reflections
to touch upon the mode in which slavery organized
but only to examine and expose of the vestges
slavery ia antiquity Taking history 10 is sources beor,
theories find numerous Deep and unmistakabc traces
of two classes Of which, in every country appear in
the framework Of every society Of these classes Of
lana 10 that Of
The former possesses the latter is possessed. This
universal fact There masters and slaves among ht
the direct legislation Of God hmsef There such
among the Greeks (see the 1iad and Odyssey paSsirn
hore such among the Romans Justinian Institutes
there such among the Germans, Tacus, Customs o
the Germans ) there were such among the Gaus Cesar
there such among the Saxons Turner's Anglo-Sax
ons, Therry's Conquest of England, Doomsday Book i
tury Asszes of Jerusalem and there such among
the Prussians late the year 1850 General Code
the Kingdom of Prussia, tit s, art. l96, 1919
The existence of slavery in oil time, and in every
try is great historical fact the proofs of which every
where in every book in every poem in every history il
every code to which may have access 1t is clear tina
this fact of slavery from all the testimonies connected will
it, is most ancientso ancient indeed, that running il
every stream of time IL cannot be traced to any clear foun
tain head 1t is lost in the mist of ages in common witt
the essential rudiments of s0cetyvz the insttu
i ton of marriage and the ndividualizng of property
Slavery is already substng when the institutions of
tons be framed Centuries after the existence
L
establishments of slavery and yet Abraham and his
emporares, when there other law than the ora
law of the passed directly between God and them
selves had their slaves in their tents and in their fields
Homer preceded the historical and constituted periods
Greece by many centuries and yet the harp of the Moon
ian bard has string that sings of the slaves estate Th
laws of the Twelve Tables the first written exorum
Roman institutions, and yet Romuus, long before tn
sanction of the Twelve Tables had opened in Rome
um for the fugitive slaves Of Latum The Sale and Ri
the Germans the Angles the starting points Of the in
Bttnons of all modern nations; and yet slavery among
them precxsted it's recognition in those codes of invasion
and conquest 1t important fact ALSO that in all th
Legislative historical poetica monuments whsh hav
just mentioned slavery pria acc instituted by the
enactnenis their records but IL is mentioned
extanta KNOWN admitted, and settled fact Noses Ho
mer Romulus the laws OF INVASION and the results of
regulate its existence 1t existed before they did.
repeat then, that from the study OF all traditions
does appear that slavery instituted founded
orcreated that it ~ uri according the expires
sion OF civilians Positive law did lay hold of slavery
did Of every other social fact when 1t to se
the relations of society 1t subsequently watched
after 1t had passed under its CONTROL defined modified
it, assimilated it with ITSELF so that the period wher
the institutions of nations assumed their respective forms
slavery entered The province of positive law But hat
its own, and may say its personal existence before
passed under the control of civil political law viii
also assert upon the authority of the legislative
of Hebrews, Greeks Romans and Bsrbarians which
ton slavery, and which evidently do not it, tina
there is no shadow Of doubt that not only slavery
found in Levitcus in the Ilad in the Carmen the SOM
Of the Twelve Tables Livy calls it. in the codes of
vasion newly institution but that it appear
there Is an aboriginal thing oden thing; aoknon
thing with the marks Of time upon it. that had gon
through portion of its course that far from tracing
its birth to human institutions, slavery of thos
unwrten traditions with the hoar Of ages upon its face
when the Oldest of those human institutions were framet