The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1860-06-28
TERMS --$l.25 PER ANNUM.

rOWeCj perhaps, from Tue MaHouSuau
Moors who SO long occupied Spain; and
besides, our Thirteen Colonies had NO
umbiIlcal connection with Spain. Nor is
it derived from English statutes OF Amer
lean statutes, for We have the positive and
repeated averhent of the Senator from
Virginia Mr.. Mason, and also Of other
Senators, that, In not a single State OF
the Unieu can any such statutes author
izing Slavery be fodnd. From none of
these does it come.
No, sir; not from any land of civilisa.
ton is this Barbarian derived. 1t comes
from Africa; ancient nurse of motisters,,
from Guinea, Dahomey and ConSo.@~
There is its origin and fouutain. This
bcnlghted region, we are told by Chief
Justice Marshall, in memorable judg-
ment { The Antelope,..l0 Wheaton R., 66)
still asserts a right, discarded by Christ
endom, to cnslaTe captves taken in war !
and this African Barbarism is the Begin
ming of American Slavery. And ths
Supreme Court of Georgia, Slave State
has not shrunk from this conclusion. "Li-
censed to hold slave property" says the
Court, "the Georgia planter held the
slave as a chattle, either directly from
the slave-trader, or from those who held
under him, and he from the slaye-captof
in Africa. The property in the slave id
the planter, became thus, the property
of the original captor." Neal v. Farms
en-, 9 Georgia Reports, page 555.l It
is natural that right, thus derived In
defiance of Christendom, should be excr.
cised without any mitigating influences
from Christianity that the masters au-
thority over the person Of his slaye-over
his conjugal relations-over his parental
relations-over the employment of his
time-over all his acquisitions, should be
recognized, while no generous presump-
ton incliues to Freedom; and the womb
of the bond woman can deliver only
slave
From it's home in Africa, where it Is
sustained by immelnorol usage, this Bar.
barism, thus derived, and thus developed
traversed the ocean to American soil. II
entered on board that fatal slave ship,
built in the eclipse, and rugged with
curses dark" which in 1920 landed its
cruel cargo at jamestown, in Virginia,
and it has boldly taken its place in every
succeeding slave ship from that early day
till uow-helping to pack the human
freight, regardless of human agony; sur.
viving the torment of the middle passages
surviving its countless victims plunged
beneath the waves; and it has left the
slaveship only to travel inseparable from
the slave in his various doom, sanctionlng
I by its barbarous code every outrage,
whether of mayhem or robbery, of lash or
lust, and fastening itself upon hls offspring
to the remotcst generation. Thus are the
barbarods prerogatives of barbarous Afri-
eau chiefs perpetuated in American Slave.
masters, while the Senator from Virginia
! MIR. Mason, perhaps unconscious of
their origin-perhaps desirous to secure
for them the appearance of a less barbar-
Gus pedigree--tricks them out with
phrase of the Roman laT discarded by
the common law, parf,lS seguttur Gems
h'en,, which simply renders into ancient
Latin an existing rule of african Barbar-
ism, recognized as an existing rule of
American Slavery.
Such is the plain iuridisai origin Of the
American slave code, which is now
vaun:ed as badge of Civilization. But
all law, whatever may be its juridical of4
! igin, whether English or Mahomedau,
Roman or African, may be traced to oth4
er aud ampler influences in nature, some4
times of Right, aud sometimes of Wrong.
Surely the law which blasted the slaves
trade as piracy punishable with death had
different inspiration from that other
law, which secured immunity for the
slave-trade throughout an immense terri.
tory, and invested its supporters with pc-
litical power As there is higher law
above, so there is lower law below, and
each is felt in human affairs.
Thus far, we have seen Slavery only in
its pretended law, and in the origin of
that law. And heie might stop, with.
out proceeding in this argument; for, on
the letter cf the law alone Slavery must
be condemned But the tree is known
by its fruits, and these | nov shall ex4
hlbit; and this brings me to the second
stage Of the argument.
CO. In considering the practical res
suits 1f SlaoerY, the materials arc so OBJ
viors and diversified, that my chief care
will be to abriage and reject and here
shall pat each pOiut the blasting inaaenco
of Slavery.
The States where this Earbarisn now
exists excel tie Free States in all natu4
raj advantages Their territory is more
extensive, stretching over 85l,3 ,3as square
miles, while the Free STAGES, including
q. Il . SfiH.-