The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1860-10-05

clesiastical or laical, from presenting to Dc
fend that commerce in negro slaves undo
pretense or borrowed color, or to teach o.
publish In any manner. publicly or privately
i things contrary to the admonitions which VI,
have given in these letters.
4 1t ia not to be supposed that the Protest
ant churches Of Europe were behind th'
Catholic, though We have not their testimon,
as body.at hand. Bishop HorsoIy, of tb,
Church of England, said:
"Slavery 10 injustice, which no considera
ton of policy can extenuate."
Thomas Scott, the great commentator
said:
! "To number the persons OF men with
/ beasts, sheep, horses, as the stock of farm
or with bales of goods, as tho cargo OF ship
| is no doubt most detestable and anti.
| Christian practice"
Yet that 10 the very practice which fancy
says was universal, and no one thought OF
disputing the justice or propriety of it.
| Wesley, the founder Of the Methodist
Church, who exerted a wide infuenoe, wrote:
| "Meu buyers are exactly on a level with
men stealers,'' and that "Amercan slavery
is the vilest that ever saw the sun it consti.
tntes the sum Of all viliaines."
Sir William Blackstone, whose Comm enta-
ries were held as authority wherever the
commonllaw prevailed, held that all slavery
was founded in violence and injustice, and
said
elf neither captivity nor contract can, by
| the plain Law Of nature and reason, reduce
the parent to state of slavery, much less
can they reduce the offspring"
Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of England,
in a case where negro slave from the West
Indies was brought before him by habeas
corpus on a claim to bis freedom, says, in
delivering judgment 10 the case:
ssIhe state of slavery is of such nature
that it is incapable of being introduced on
any reasons, moral or political, but only by
| positive law. it is SO odious that nothing
can be sufficient to support IL but positive
| law. Whatever inconvenience, therefore,
NAV follow from the decision, ! cannot say
| that this case il allowed or approved by the
law of England, and, therefore, the black
must be discharged "
This judgment of the Chief Court of Eng
land was familiar to our fathers before the
formation of the Constitution, and known to
the civilized world. And in allusion TO this
England's poet wrote and the world read:
"slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive cur air, that moment they free.
They touch our country and their sEaekles fall.
That's noble, and besp peaks q nation proud
And jealous OF the blessing
And again
"But ah what wish prosper whst prayer
For merchants rich in cargoes of despair;
w no drive a Loaf hsome trstiie--guage and srau,
And buy the muscles and the bones of man
Souls have no discriminating hue,
| Alike important in their makers view.
/ None are free from hlemish since the fall,
And love Divine has paid one price for all. /"
Locke, the English philosopher, whose
writings were widely difused, wrote upon
the subject, and said amongst other things
"Though the earth and all inferior crea.
lures be common TO all men, vet every man
has property in his own person; this no.
body has right TO but HIMSELF
DR.. johnson, who was read more than any
author OF his day, said
''No man is BY nature the property Of an,
other"
Montesqueu, one Of the most popular Of
the French civil law writer's, in his "Spiri
of the Laws" which was more UNIVERSAL
read than Blackstone, devotes a great dea
of attention TO slavery, aud utters the mos
severe condemnation Of it in every point o.
view, and says:
"Siavery is contrary to the Fundamental
principles Of all societies.
Brissot, whose writings were popular, ant
who took a conspicuous part in the Frenct
Revolution, says:
"slavery, in all it's forms, in all its de
grees, is violation Of divine law, and
degradation OF human nature"
Grotlus, the great German luridioal wri
ter, who was a writer of universal authority
said:
"Those are men stealers who abduct, keep
sell, or buy slaves, or free men. To steal
man is the highest kind of theft.''
We have now furnished illustrations Of til
manner in which slavery was regarded b,
the decretals, and the opinions Of the chief
OF the churcnes In the civilized world; b,
the judgments aud commentaries OF th
greatest judges and jurists; by statesmen
philosophers, authors and poets,-all 0
whom condemn, in measured terms, the prac
tice of making merchandise Of Africans an
holding negroes in slavery, as violation o
the rights OF nature and the principles 0
Justice and religion. Yet In the face OF th
almost universal verdict of the civilized " orl