Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1859-03-18

l may as well notice, here, that worn
out quotation enormously 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 UOce, so con-
fused he did not know his son from his
grandson, he uttered the malediction,
g Cursed be Canaan" not Ham who had
been guilty of the wrong. And now, III
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 hu-
man rights from the lips of man still
half drunk. d" Cursed be Canaan" is ev-
ermore the refrain of Democratic min
strelSy.
And now to the Bible. I will not de-
tain the Committee long, for l have no
patinnce with the impiety that attempts
to throw the sanction of this holy book
around the diabolical system of Ameri-
can Slavery. What says this inspired
volume Thou shalt not steal p Brief,
comprehensive, and to the point. This
must be taken from the Bible before it
can be made to sanction Slavery. Does
this forbid my taking my neiehbor's horse,
but allow me to reduce the man to a slave,
/. and then claim them both How much
better is a man than sheep? If / am
told that Slavery is not theft, because the
felonious intent is not there, reply, as
, the gentleman from Georgia replied, who
has in former years on this floor attempt
, ed to justify Slavery on the authority o.
: the Scriptures. He declared that the
+, act of Paulding in arresting the marau
der, Walker, was an act of robbery
Some one replied, that it could not be
robbery, for there was no felonious in
/ tent. The gentleman from Georgia re
a joined, " l said robbery did not say
legal robbery" So l say theft / dC
i not say legal theft, or theft in the lega
0 sense. We are talking about the moral
t not the legal, character of Slavery. Th'
a title to every slave originated in viOlenc
S and robbery, and its continuance has n
: other moral character. There can be n
n mistake about the rightiul ownership G
human being. He belongs to himself
:, Because my father or mother was redu
d ced to the same condition of a slave, doe
e that justify my being reduced to the sam
z. condition of brutism? Does the contir
D, uance Of wrong take away its guilt
/ repeat, there can be no doubt as to tn
t ownership of any human being. The t
is tie is in himself. To take it from hir
10 is robbery. But we have a specific sta
ID ute on this subject. He that stealeth
ID man and selleth him, or if be be foun
in his hands," that is, in his possession
IS :" he shall surely be put to DEATH" Th
as enactment takes its transaction out OF th
a catalogue of ordinary crime, and branC
i it with peculiar repTobation. Other form
Mt of theft could be atoned for by returnin
X four-fold this claimed the forfeiture
IT'S life itself, thus making it a capital offerc
ce No squirming Of sophistry can get rour
in this. There it stands, the estimate
a the Jewish Scriptures of the crime
as traf1icking in human flesh. So ont
,s- thought tle Presbyterian church, whe
. they declared slaveholding to be a viol
q ton of the eighth commandment.
,w thought President Edwards, when he d
lis cIared the STAKEHOLDER guilty of ma
ed stealing every day. This was the co
m stitutional law of Jewish Commonwealt
itb No other statute could contravene it, al
III more than a State or Territorial Ia
,e- could annul provision Of the Constit
di- ton of the United States. All the
re- stances of buying and selling relied u
ed on by the advocates of Slavery are &C
,rn fined to the person bought and sold.
is person I" falling into decay" sold himst
in not as chattel or slave, but as a servs
to for term of years; and when the ju
en- lee came round, liberty was proclaim
the throughout all the land, to all the inha
ION tants thereof. When there was failt
her on the part of the people to proclaim t
ew liberty, promised and secured by Ii
and then God proclaimed liberty TO tn
no to the sword, and to the pestilence, 9
chi those other judgments that fell swift 9
you terrific from the hand of an incen
,rd- God. 1t was this providential retri
ade ton which made jefferson tremble for
cry country, when he remembered that {
Ives was just, and that bis justice would
e of sleep forever. In the uprising of til
sm, oppressed millions, he averred that no
oide tribute of Jehovah could take sides Y
enk the oppressor.
n :. Horor thu fatban ond thy y,.o4Ls,