The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1859-04-26

constituted them kind OF close corpora
tiop, with peculiar privileges as a common
wealth. But all those unusual franchises
were bestowed upon them on the express
condition that they should comply with a
prescribed ritual. God explicitly declared
that he would say every native-born Je
that cid not comply with the provisions Of
their charter. Now, / desire to inquire of
those who claim the right to hold slaves
under this old charter given to the jews
Have you complied with the acquisitions Of
that charterG Do you abstain from Vir-
ginia ham and other swine's 1esha Do
you observe the new moons. the sabbaths,
circumcision, and the appointed feasts p
IL not, you are no Jew, and are not enti-
tied to the franchises of Jew; but on the
other hand you belong to the Gentle race,
who, according to your theory, were Of
right made slaves. If the advocates of
Slavery choosd to 90 back and place them
selves under code Of laws given TO race
of men evidently yet in state Of barbar-
ism, let them take the whole code, and
abide by it, and obey it. Another state
ment. IL the Bible sanctions Slavery at
all, il is the enslavcment of white men,
No one pretends that the servants spoken
of in the Bible were blacks The Roman
slave was not black man. Tho Hebrew
servant was not black man. The qucs.
ton is, whether the laboriug man, white
or black, may rightly be enslaved.
l may as well notice, here, that worn
out quotation erroneously placed on Ham.
Noah planted vineyard, raised some
grapes, made some wine, and got drunk.
When he walked up, still fuddled with the
fumes of the wine, soto voce, so confused
he did moi know his son from his grandson,
he uttered the maledlction, "cursed be Ca
man." not Ham, who had been guilty of
the wrong. And now, in the blaze of the
nineteenth century, with the radiance OF
Christianity shining around, Democrats go
mousing back five thousand years to learn
the basis of human rights from the lips of
a man still half drunk. "Cursed be Ca
naan" is evermore the refrain of Democrat
ic minstrelsy.
And now to the Bible. l will not de.
tain the Committee long, for have no
patience with the impioty that attempts to
throw the sanction of this holy book around
the diaboical system Of American Slave
ry. What says this inspired volume p
'Thou shalt not steal" Brief compre-
hensive, and to the point. This must be
taken from the Bible, before it can be made
to sanction Slavery: Docs this forbid !o.h;a nv
taking my neighbor's house, but allow me
to reduce him TO slave, and then claim
them both! How much better is a man
than sheep? If l am told that Slavery
is not theft, because the felonious intent is
not there, l reply, as the gentleman from
Georgia replied, who has in former years
on this floor attempted to Justify Slavery
on the authority of the Scriptures. He
uo.iaIou .Las ,ho aoo vr rauIuinS a. -,,oo
ting the msrauder, Walker, was an act of
robbery. Some one replied, that it could
not be robbery, for their was no tclonious
intent. The gentleman from Georgia re-
joined, said robbery; 81 did not say legal
robber" So l say theft; do not say legal
theft, or theft in the legal sense. We are
talking about the moral, not the legal,
character of Slavery. The title to every
slave originated in violence and berry,
and its continuance has no other moral
character. There can be no mistake about
the rightful ownership ola human being
He belongs to himsely. Becaus my father
or mother was reduced to the condition of
slave, does that justify my being reduced
to the same condition of slave, does that
justify my being reduced to the same con-
dition of brutisin? Docs the continuance
Of wrong take away its guiltl l repeat,
there can be no doubt as to the ownership |
of any human being. The title is in him
self. To take from him is robbery. But
We have specific statue on this subject
"He that stealeth man and selleth him,
or if he be found in his hands," that is, in
his possession, she shall surely be put to
DEATH" This enactment takes this tran.
saction out Of the cataloge of ofordinary crime
aid brands it with peculiar reprohation.-
Other forms Of theft could be atoned for
by returning four-fold; this claimed the
forfeiture of life itself, thus making it a cap
tal offence. No squirming sCphistry can
get round this. There it stands, the esti-
mate of the Jewish Scriptures of the crime
of trafhcing in human flesh. So once
thought the presbyterian church, when they
declared saveholding to be a violation Of
tho eighth commandment. So thought
President Edwards, when he declared the
stakeholder guilty Of manstealing every
day. This was the constitutional law of
tho Jewish Commonwealth. No other
statue could contraveno it, any more than
a State or Territorial law could annul
pro vision of the Constitution of the United
States. All the instances Of buying and
selling relied upon by the advocates Of
Slavery are confined to the person bought
and the person sold. A person Jalling
into decay" sold himself, not as chattel
or slave, but as servant for term Of years;
and when the jubilee came round, liberty
was proclaimed throughout all the land. to
all the inhabitants thereof. When there
was failure on the part of the people to
this liberty, promised and secured by law,
thon God proclaimed liberty to them to
the sword, and to the estlence, and those
other judgments that fell swift and terrific
orom the hands of an incensed God. II
was this providential retribution which
made Jefferson tremble for his country,
when he remembered that God was just,
n Al. 4. IL