The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-03-17


preposterous. Does the Bible sanction a sys-
tenn that abrogates its own injunctions
There stands that slave mother, pressing with
mothers love her own child to her heart !
To whom does it belong? Is it not hers
against the universe? Is there any being, this
side the throne of God, that has the right to
take it from herr Has the master the right to
come and tear it away from her embrace, and
claim it as his property? And is this robbery
sanctioned by the Bible, and that Bible, the
word of God? l know the people are taught
this by ministry that dislike to characterize
as l think they deserve.
Wea ill., lust. and fashion, bid hem still 10 bleed,
And holy men quote Scripture for the deed"
But these men do not truly interpret the BIZ
bic. They teach for doctrinces the command
ments of men, and make the word of God of
none effect through their traditions. How dare
these men make the Bible lend its sanction to
a system that abrogates parental authority and
filial duty?
So, also, with the conjugal relation. The BIZ
bic everywhere represents this as the most
sacred invioate, and indissoluble of all human
relations. Father and mother are to be for
saken, in obedience to the claims of this still
highg and holier relation Now, what does
Slavery do with this domestic institution Leave
God aud the parties perfectly free to regulate
it in their own way? No; with impious and
brazen front, it steps in and utterly annihilates
the marriage relation so far as its victims are
concerned. There is no more any legal marriage
among the three or four millions of slaves in
the United States, than there is among so many
cattle. Slaves in the eye of the law are cattle,
and their union is that of brutes. They are
declared to be goods, chattels personal, to all
intents, constructions, and purposes, whatever.
The civil law which prevails in some of the
States takes them pro nuliis, pro mortuis, pro
quddyupedibuS.
Would it not be an interesting spectacle to
see one of these clergymen, who teach that the
Bible sanctions Slavery, called in to attend the
wedding of bureau and chest of drawers
The chairs, and shovel, and tongs, are invited
as guests. After a fervent prayer for the di-
vine blessing, the clergyman says:
"By The old LeviIical laws,
JOIN the bureau 10 the drawers"
Qlfid Rides nO1iine, d, fabula ,uarrat,e
Absolutely there can be no more legal mar
fiage between two slaves, than between two ar
ticles of furniture, or between two brutes. They
take up together F" they do not marry. No
clergyman dare pronounce two slaves husband
and wife till death shall separate them. The
will of the master is their fate. The Bible SAYS:
"What God hath joined together let not man
put asunder." The slave system says: Who
cares for God? | will separate them when |
please. A slave who is church member is
taught by his religious teachers, that it is his
duty, on being sold from one plantation to an
other, leaving so-called wife behind, to take
another mate and the reason assigned by
these pious instructors is, that in this way he
can be most profitable to his master, which is
his first and paramount duty. Thus he may, as
a good Christian, take up with new woman on
nj al IN Uhi no &c hos
been formally so decided by an ecclesiastical
council. And yet these blasphemers seek to
make God partner in this revolving practice.
The Bible everywhere requires an equivalent
to be given for services rendered. " Wo unto
him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness
and his chambers by wrong; that useth his
neighbours service without wages, and giveth
him not for his work" Behold, the hire of
the laborers who have reaped down your fields,
which by you is kept back by fraud, crieth and
the cries of them that have reaped are entered
into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." Slavery
never allows any wages at all to those who gar
ner in its harvests. To say that the clothing
and the food that the slave receives are wages,
is to say that the hay, grain, and stablng of the
horse, are wages. These constitute the keep
ing Of the horse and Of the slave; wages they
are not
1t is frequently said, that although indiviiu-
ais may do wrong, yet the system is right.
Now, it is against the system that speak. The
truth is the individuals are better than the sys-
TEN. The hpmanity-and in my charity, per
haps, / ought TO say the Christiantv-of the
master often triumphs to a great extent over
the system. If every master exemplGed the
extreme capability of the system for outrage
and diabolsm, an indignant world would rise
and wipe it out.
Suppose, now, this system, all reeking with
lust, incest, crime, and cruelty, is brought out
and placed under the blaze of Christianity
Whatsoever We would that men should do unto
you, do We eren so unto them; for this is the
law and the propAets. Th;s is the condensed
summary of the whole Bible. Who has IRE
hardihood to say that The practice of slayehold
ing is consistent With this Injunction What,
in the New Testament, is the Classification Of
shareholders? IL places them with muFdeFers
of fathers and murderers of mothers.
Everywhere the Bible inculcates spirit of
generous magnanimity. "Ge that are strong
ought to bear the infrmities of the weak, and
not to please 5ogrzelgez." Slavery, l know,
claims this attribute, and talks apoas ;ts chiv-
airy and magnanimity. And is it not magnani-
nous to cheat a poor, ignorant, degraded man,
ont of the entire earnings of his whole life-rob
him of his wife and children, and then justify it
by, saying that they aye %n iater.o. raceP Adj
NIT the fact of inferiority-does it therefore fol-
low that it is right to Cypress them? Every
page of the Bible flashes its anathemas against
the oppression of the poor and helpless. The
chivalry of the Bible is to help the weak, to pro-
tect the dcfenceless, and rescue those in peril.
This indeed, is the idea of the olden chivalry.
Witness TIE incident b the toi4snce IF Ivfn-
hoe. The true knight, enfeebed' by sickness,
rides into the lists to meet powerful antago-
nist--saa ~. hose defence? For one belonging
to a race as despsed aaa aegkSde9 then rs that
of the African now is. This ehivalTy VIZ lecig-
uise Ak having something manly and noble in
it. But. from the chivalry that robs mothers of
their children; that :ennlies the sconrge to help
less roH,e2, TO secure their LABOR or make them
surrender their chasniy. Yhich sells boy io1
a harlot and girl for a pair of shoes; yk:ch,
by superior knowledge, combination, and legal
enactment, reduces millions of human beings
to the condition Of brutism and then by false
teaching seeks to dellde tieir conscience, and
cause them 10 believe that their ensisva,aant is
in accordance with the will of God-from all
such chivalry | ask to be delivered
The Bible sanctions Slavery, and, if the Bible.
then God. What kind of an ideal of DEITY has
that reiigi0.li-. yho holds this doctrine? The
ancients divided their wees, AM made one of
their gods the divinity of each The advocate
of Bible Slavery takes system that concen
trates in itself all crime, and makes Jehovah its
patron Dsitg, do wish that Slavery would
leave us an ideal Of the Supreme Being that is
not polluted with lis shiny touch 1t is said
of Goldsmith, as a writer, that there was moth
ing that he did not touch and nothing that he
touched that he did not beautify And it can
truly be said of Slavery, that there is nothing
that 1t does not touch, and nothing that it
touches that it does not defe. 1t has perverted
,ba Co,- IL .