New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-11-22
A NEW PHILOSOPHY.


| OF dubious dialectics. This social system of
Slavery, being of Divine origin and the result of d.
rect revelation, is utterly repugnant to the unre
| generate man that he must be argued into its
acceptance by prOsy pamphleteers, who make
| their conclusions first, and then wander upon a
retrograde search for their premises. Thus it is
not in the nature of things to suppose that if the
| Rev. DIR. Lord had not found Slavery already
| existing he would have attempted to construct
| the system from Bible history, or to prOyejt to
be the duty Of the Church to establish it; while
| it is clear, if we admit the Dartmouth theology,
that slaye-traders are the true missionaries, and
that the Christian religion can nowhere be intro
duccd in all its power and purity unless human
bondage be simultaneously introduced because
God has just as much at heart the enslayement
| of blacks as the salvation of whites and there
fore the whites cannot be saved unless the blacks
| are at the same time enslayed. And this c0ndi-
ton is the more vital in the Lord theology, be-
cause it is OF direct commandment from the be-
ginning, while purity, temperance, charity, and
monogamy were not preached until the coming of
Christ, about four thousand years after the crea-
Abraham logged his first negro. Hence, having
made man, the Creator Immediately turned His
attention to making him slave; and if He had
failed in tbis-we make the supposition without
rreyerence, for the purpose of the argument
He must have failed in the whole projected sal
walton and civilization Of man; that if AGRA
ham had never owned slave, we should never
l.. I'll ~. n. % n
after arriving at these comfortable conclusions
Slavery appears to DR.. Lord to be exceedingly
beautiful; and he proceeds, with polemic feryOr
and sanctifed zeal, TO cut off from the comforts
Of Christianity all who do not receive the Gospel
according to John C.. Calhoun.
Among the disciples of this eminent the
ologian and philosopher, we must now
| number Mr.. w. S. Grayson of Benton, Mis-
sissippi, whose discursons upon Slavery are
brought to us by late number of The Southern
Literary Messenger. Mr.. GraysOn is one of the
profOundest and least Ineligible gentlemen of his
school; and his Pro-Slavery treatise, intituled
Natural and Moral Philosophy COntradistin-
"guished," has again painfully convinced us of
the inyulnerabity of absnrdity. it is the man
10 point is straight line who is the safest
from refutation. 1t required incalculable genius
TO demonstrate the Theory of GrayitatiOn; it re-
quires no head whatever to assert that Newton
was wrong; and the man who should do so would
find no one wise enough to contend with him for
moment. Mr.. ". S. GraysOn is, in this re-
spect, like Sir Isaac. Scoring all other civilians
and casting despite upon all other philosophers,
Mr.. Grayson announces that 50 natural rights and
&" natural justice are false terms'-that L" the De-
caraton of Independence is infde produc-
tion and that " il manilesty cOnfounds natural
- freedom with moral obligation" Alas the
poor Declaration of independence 1t was
teemed tOlerable state paper in its day. and for
many years IT did enjoy uncommon respect; but
now it may be regarded as the most thoroughly
refuted document in history Calhoun trampled
upon it; Choate scorched it with redhot rheto-
ric: Caleb Gushing buried il under twenty tuns
Of cyrlopedas; and now the Benton Miss Phi
osopher has disinterTed it to do il new dshonor.
He says: " | think am able to trace the teach.
ings of the Declaration of Independence with
respect To rights in the social state, back to
" the writings of David Hume and V0taire aud
the French encyclopedias generally" The sin
OF these gentlemen, and of John Adans of
Thomas Jefferson, and 0f Benjamin Franklin,
was, that, instieated by David Hume and the
Devil, they asserted that Man had rights by na-
ture, whereas the Grayson theory is that by ma
ture Man had nothing was nothing, could do
nothing. He vas free to be- sure, in natural
state; but he Was therefore exceedingly uuhuppy
and dreadfully degraded. 1t Is astonishing what
a grdec Grayson has against Nature. We might
be- led from bis logged aud cruel hostility if it
were not for his brilliant pamphlet, to infer that
Nature had done him an injury in stintng his al.
lowance of brains. As for the Natural Man.
Grayson holds birn in profound contempt. Al
what time in the worlds history this Natural
Man existed, We do not know, and We are equally
ignorant OF bis personal appearance, his ayoca-
tiOns, his dress, and his diet. lie had, however,
(see Grayson), " all the bad propensities of our
" race'-he Was better than brute-hs
" hannah feelings" we're mere " animal sensibili-
" ties" But leaving the Natural Man. Mr.. Gray
son proceeds once more to assault Nature with
all his might " look upon Nature as fall
" bic standard Of TRUTH" says Grayson. {" find
" that | very often do right when | sthe Ma
tUre,' says Grayson. al find | very often
" slide into vice and immortality when give heed
" to Nature" says Grayson. " have, therefore,
" no confidence in Nature" says Grayson, indig-
uanly. Therefore" he might have added
when Nature tells mo that it ia wrong to hold