The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1860-09-12

ganization--that some men are your inferi-
ors, and some vastly your supcriors, does not
touch the question of their humanity more
than yours, nor GUST their title to the rights
of human nature. Are they human beings
DO they belong to the human family; are
they the children OF the same Father? III
they are, then, whatever their race, whatever
their inferiority, or ignorance, or Degrade
ton, and whatever your enmity or prejudice
against them, there lie nothing that can dis
charge you from the obligation of this sec-
ond great commandments. No: by all the
authority OF God and Christ and the example
of this good Samaritan, every human being
is your neighbor; and when within the cir
ole OF your influence he needs your help
when he ia wronged, distressed, forsaken--
you have no better authority than this Priest
and Levite to pass him by on the other side.
1t 10 too late to say, We have nothing to
do with this wrong Of slavery; thatit is none
| of our business that the slave is in n sense
our neighbor; for il has come to pass that
slavery is the great wrong we have to do
with; it is our most public and constant
business, and the slave is our nearest neigh
Dor. ! do not stop to inquire why this ques-
ton occupies so large place in the public
mind. No doubt the hand of a good Provi-
dence is in it.. God does not mean to let US
forget the 1900, 900 in bonds in this land Of
boasted Christian light and freedom. AT
any rate, the character of human slavery is
now discussed in ell places where free speech
Is tolerated; it's wrongs and barbarisms are
brought home to oil minds aud appeal to
every conscience and every heart. And will
you still tell me tce have nothing to do with
this question: tell you it has very much
- a. a. Ia H.
nature, and either hardening or softenng
our hearts. 1t is either infusing them with
the compassion and humanity of this good
Samaritan toward our wronged and suffering
kind, or else it is steeling them TO the hard
selfshness of this Jewish Priest or the cold
indifference OF this Levite. Ii is either OPEN
ing our eyes TO broader and nobler views of
human rights and our hearts to larger love
of humanity, or else it 10 binding as to the
plainest distinctions OF right and wrong and
hardening our hearts to the common instincts
OF our moral nature.
And care not on what plea chattel slavery
is justified, whether the inferiority of race
or the sacredness of property, the Constisu-
ton OF the United States or the Constitution
of Moses, the increasing demand for sugar
and cotton, or as great missionary work
! for basting the gospel into the flesh of stolen
i Heatben,-the man whe, on any ground, says
1t is right and good and ought to be perpet
uated and extended, or that he don't care
whether it is or not, tells me not 30 much
what he has done for slavery, as Uhat sIare-
ry has done for him! | cannot call that
man a good Samaritan, and you may call
| him what you please. For though he may
never have bought or sold human being as
| property, or robbed the hierlpg in bis wa
| ges, of himself, or wife, or children; though
no fellow being, robbed, hunted, starving,
has ever been turned away from his door, the
whole wrong has been a thousand times be-
| fore him, and be has taken bis position. And
what a position
/ | have likened it to this Priest and Levite
who left the wounded man TO die and passed
| by on the other side.
| But, alas how does their indifference and
| inhumanitv to their neighbor fall short of
our Christian alacrity TO do him wrong
| For there are protested Christians who not
| only believe it is right TO enslave men, or
/ do not care whether they arc enslayed or not,
but when the slave, like this poor brother
who had fallen among thieves, comes to them
weary, cold, naked, starving, hunted, but
/ fleeing for liberty and life, are ready to
| pledge their Christian love to him by helT ing
[
hounds upon bis track Not that they love
their neighhor less but property o; not that
human compassion, and duty, and conscience,
and religion are not good in their place; but,
then, they are not to be named with things
so sacred as party and property, cotton and
the Constitution!
! My friends, have q scrupulous regard for
the rights Of property and the eternal prin
ciples on which all just laws and constitu-
tons are founded. And il is not by those
who revere the higher law, the conscientious
and humane, that the one 10 invaded or the
other overthrown. No, sthe Law is not made
for righteous man, but for the lswless and
disobedient; for the ungodly and for sinners,
Tor unholy and profane; for murderers Of
fathers ard mnrdersrs OF mothers; for man
slayers and men, stealers !" for men whose
moral sense has become SO blinded that they
cannot distinguish their neighbor from q
/ chattel, or see show much better ia a man
than a Sheep" Let US revere, then, AZ above
all price and all compromise, not more thi.
Divine Law that binds us to every human be
ing as our neighbor, than those sacred rights
and sensibilities which make us HUMAN, and
our own nature the measure Of our regard
for him. Let as beware that no enmlty, no
prejudice, no terms of mookery or reproach,
50 harden Us toward any class or race that
we can look upon their wrongs and sufferings
with indifference or contempt. Let us not
admit the thought into our hearts, more than
our fathers would into the Constitution, that
there can be property In man. And then,
when even the least OF our brethren are fall
en- by our wayside, We shall not pass them by,
but the spirit OF this good Samaritan shall
come to our hearts, to bless our neighbor and
| ourselves.