The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1860-07-11

has such property is recognized IN the '0n''''
W;th regard TO the first Of these pretensions.
might simply refer to what have already said
Z N earlier stage Of this argument. bus
hould do Injustice to the part it has been made
q play in this controversy, if did not again
.xpoee it. Then sought particularly to sho"
"a barbarism; now ] shall show something more
Pronerty implies an owner and thing owned.
IN the one side is human being, and on the
,ther side thing. But the very idea OF hu'
IN being necessarily excludes the idea OF prop
.ry in that being, just as the very idea OF
hing necessarily excludes the idea OF human
he;ne. II is clear that thing cannot be hui
man being, and it is equally clear that human J.
being cannot be thing. And the law Hse'i'
when it adopts the phrase, "relation OF master
md slave" coufesses it's reluctance to SANCTION
the claim of property. 1t shrinks from the pre-
tension of Senators, and satisfies itself win
formula, which does not openly degrade human
nature.
If this property does exist, out OF what title L
il derivedg Under what ordinance OF Nature OIL
of Natures God is one human being stamped az
owner and the other stamped thing? God Il
no respec.er of persons. Where is the Sanction
for this respect Of certain persons to degre'
which becomes outrage TO other persons! zoo
ia the Father of the Human Family, and we arr
all his children. Where then Is the sanction
this pretension by which brother lays vioieh
hands upon brother? To ask these quesuoh
ia Illuminating: but it is clear there can be bu
one response. There Is no sanction ior sue.
nretension: no ordinance for il, or title. On al
grounds Of reason, and waving all questions o
3 nositiye" statute, the Vermont Judge was no
tbs. n n
master. he said: mo; not until you show
R;lI of Sale from the Almighty" Nothing shor
of this impossible link in the chain OF title wonl
do. know something of the great Judgment
bv which the jurisprudence of our country ha
been illustrated; but doubt if there is anythin,
in the wisdom of Marshall, the learning OF Story
or the completeness of Kent, which VIII bighte
With time ike this honest decree.
The intrinsic feebleness OF this pretensiOn
apparept in the intrinsic feebleness OF the argu
ments by which it is maintained. These ar
tvo-fold. and both have been put forth in re
cent debate. by the Senator from Mississippi
Mr.. Davis.
The first is the alleged inferiority OF the AFR
can race an argument which, while surrender
ING to slavery a whole race, leaves it uncertai
whether the same principle may not he apple
70 other races, ss to the polished Japanese, VIII
are now the guests Of the nation, and even
persons of obvious inferiority in the white race
Indeed, the latter pretension is openly made i
other quarters. The Richmond Enquirer,
leading journal of slave-masters, declares, 9Th
principle Of slavery is in itself right, and does nd
depend ON difference of complexion" Aud
leading writer among slave-masters, George Fit,
hugh. Of Virginia, in his Sociology for the SoutI
declares. "Slavery, black or auhtte, is right an
necessary. Nature has made the weak in min
~ body for slaves" And iii the same vein,
Democratic paper of South Carolina has salt
"Slavery is the natural and normal condition {
the labOring man, ichite or black.
These more extravagant pretensions reve'
still further the feebleness of the pretensiOn pr
forth by the Senator; while instances, accum'
lating constantly, attest the difficulty OF discrim
mating between the two races. MIR. Paxton,
| Virginia, tells US, that "the best blood in vi
Qinia flows in the veins of the slaves" and fug
| i've slaves have been latterly advertised as pc
sessing "a round face" "blue eyes" "iaxe
hair" and as Escaping under the pretense
being white man."
This is not the time to enter upon the gre'
question of race, in the various lights of religion
history and science. Sure / am that they WI
understand il best, will be least disposed to Il
pretension, which on the assumed ground OF i
feriority would condemn one race to be the pro
erty of another. IL the African race be inferiO
as is alleged, then it is the unquestiOnable du
of Christian Civilization to lift it from its de
radiation, not by the bludgeOn and the chain, n
by this barbarOus pretensOn of ownership; b.
by generous charity, which shall be measure
precisely by the extent Of its interiority.
The second argument put forward tor this pr
tension, and twice repeated by the Senator fro
Mississippi, is, that the Africans are the pOsteri
of Ham, the son of Noah, through Canaan, wi
| was cursed by Noah, to be the servant'-th
is the word employed-of his brethren, and tn
this malediction has fallen upon all his descen
ants, who are accordingly devoted by God
perpetual bondage, not only in the third al
fourth generations, but throughout all succee
ing time. Surely, when the Senator quot
Scripture to enforce the claim of slave-mastel
he did not intend jest. And yet it is hard
/ suppose him in earnest. The Senator is cha
man of the committee on Military Affairs,
which he is doubtless experienced. He ma
perhaps, set squadron in the field, but he b
evidently considered very little the text of Seri
ture on which he relies. The Senator assume
that it has fixed the doom of the cOlored rae
leaving untouched the white race. Perhaps
does not know that, in the worst days OF q
Polish aristOcracy, this same argument "
/ adopted as the excuse for holding white serfs
bondage, precisely as it is now put forward
the Senator, and that even to this day the ang
Polish noble addresses his white peasant as q
"s0n of Ham,"
1t hardly COMFORTS with the gravity OF Il
debate to dwell en- such an argument, ard yet
cannot 90 wrong il, for the sake of a much
Iiured race, brush il away. To Justify the Sc
ator in his application of this ancient curse,
must maintain at lee at FIVE different proposition
o. essential links in the chain of the African.
lean slave: first, that, by this malediction,
naan himself was actually changed into "chi
tel" whereas he is simply made the "servan
of his brethren; secondly, that not merely
naan, but all his posterty, to the remotest ger
ration, was 30 changed, whereas the langua
has no such extent; thirdly, that the Afr
American actually belongs to the pOSterity
Canaan-an chronological assumption ABSURD
difficult to establish Jourthiy, that each Of &
descendants of Shem and Japheth has right
hold an Afric.American fellow man as sch
tea proposition which finds no semblance
support; and, ffthiy, that every slave-master
truly descended from Shem or Japheth-a pc
gree which no anxiety can establish! II
plain analysis, which may fifty excite a emi
, shows the five-fold absurdity of an attempt
! found this pretelson on
Fl "Any successive title, long and DARK
Fl Drawn from the mouldy rolls Of Noah's ark -
, From the character of these two argumer
for property in man, am brought again to
, denial
Il It is natural that Senators who pretend tn
} by the law Of nature, man may hold property
, man, should find this pretension in the Consti
} ton. But the pretension is as much witho
foundation in the Constitution as it is witho