New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-03-03
IAmAR,s LESSON.

---@@-.@
LAuAR,s LESSON.
Mr.. Lamar of Mississippi member of the House
of Representatives, has been making speech. IL
is greatly praiqed by some of the newspapers. We
have read it, and the highest praise we can give it
is, that it is trife less absurd in opinion and con-
sderaby less extrayagant in style than the speeches
of Pryor, Keitt and other great men of the South,
who have seized upon one or another occasion, re-
Gently to ventilate their eloquenta powers at tho
public expense. Here and there point In this
speech deserves little examination.
In the first place, panied to notice the In
gratitude which Mr. Lamar displays toward those
learned doctors of divinity, eloquent pulpit orators,
erudite biblical scholars, and able editors of so
called religious newspapers, who have for the last
dozen years been doing their best to bolster up
Slavery by scriptural exegesis. What says Lamar
about their learned rubbish What respect has ho
for their mutitudnous, lOng.drawn, wire-drawn,
sophistca dissertations upon the curse OF CanaanI
Not the slightest. He expressly says that the Bible
does not justify Turkish Slavery, Agerine Slavery.
f" nor White Slavery; tjustifes no sort of Slavery
except that rhich justifes itself By the righgiansss
lofts oun conditions and circumstances" That is
to say it justifes no Slavery of particular race,
because it justifes all Slavery. Turkish Slavery
right, if the Turk can maintain his right; Agerine
Slavery (of white people) is right if the Agerine so
determine; negro Slavery right because the ne
gro's owner go DEGREES. For, be it noticed, Mr..
Lamar has no standard BY which to measure the
rightfulness of the condition and circumstances"
of Slavery except the will and opinion of the mas
ter. He is the sole judge. There is no outside
tribunal OF course, the judgment is in favor OF
ayehoding. The voluptuOusness of tyranny, and
its apparent profit combine to satisfy the savehOld-
ing mind upon the great question of the ghtfulness
of the slaves "conditiOn and circumstances"
What does the master for the curse of Canaanf
What does he care about the slavehoding practices
of Hebrews and Egyptians several thousand years
ago1 1t is enough for him that his own personal
convenience and profit induce him to hold slaves. DR..
Lord and Dr. Adams may stupefy the Northern
mind and benumb the Northern conscience if they
will with their sophistres; but they may go hang
far as be is concerned. The strong arm, welding
the "benefcept whip" is his warrant for Slavery.
Having satisfied himself that Slavery is right in
the abstract and that the Bible and the Deity sus-
tain the right of the strong TO enslave the weak,
whether the weak be white or black, Circassap,
Anglo-Saxon, or African, Mr. Lamar undertakes to
show that the conditions and circumstances" OF
the peculiar kind of Slavery which exists at tia
South, to w.t. the Slavery of the negro race justly
its continuance. And be presents a variety of argu-
ments to sustain this position. The first is this:
that the negro race has been greatly improved By
being brought from Africa and reduced. to Slavery
in this country. 1.-THE African The says] has been
"borne UP higher and higher until he furnishes
"inspirstion for Northern song" etc. But is Mr..
Lamar quite sure that the contact of the African
with the white race would not have been followed
BY still greater and better results if the white race
had chosen to employ, instead of saslave, the Sacki
Is it necessary, in order to make civilized man oil
the African to deny him all civil rights the society
of his wife, the custody Of his eAildreni The fact
of African improvement shows, not what Mr.. La
mar supposes, but another fact, viz: tho cspaciy
of the black race for civilization and hbSrty. why
not elevate them 30 fast and far as they show ca
pacity Of being eleyate3h But no. Ii slave
shows sense enough to mako his way 10 the North
and establish himself ia BUSINESS anS thus demon
strate his right TO freedom Mr.. Lamar does not
yield to the fitness of things, and les him go but no
dispatches an officer ia pursuit of him, and threatens
TO dissolve the Union if he cannot get hun BACK
He should take things more quietly. Again: MT
Lamar's argument, 80 far as it applies to N"
SutAern States, applies only to the black man.
" She African, with all his Eoulness" 1t is qres-
ton of color. But We do Dat understand that bel
any more willing to emaScipate the white OF tho
yellow slaves than the back ones. How is thisf
If Shareholders would only make beginning by
aboisbing the old law of pa,ius sequitur Senfren.
and provide that the offspring of their own bodies
should be made free, We should think great m
dicston of progress. The AfrieaH' 1t mol
que stion of the enslavement of the -itr'ea" Inc
African was emancipated, by death, years ago. ana
bis grandchildren aud greatgrandohidrea' WAC ais