Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1861-02-28
for ,.asght" We might add this senough

| TO show the use Uf the term.
! An incidental consideration will confirm
this use Of the term buy IN the 5lst verse
Of this chapter We have this language "IfI
there be yet many years behind, according
unto them he shall give again the price Of
his redemption ''oat cf the monsy he ,rds
bOught for" This never could occur If the
servant bad not DH hinisclf, and had not
received the money he was bought for
n ndrdnce.
The terms possesion and inheritance, it
might be sufficient to say, are mere idiolnatic
/ phrases and like the other terms must be
4 taken in their connection, and interpreted
consistently with the subject TO which they
are applied. If they were never used in
the Bible but Of real or chattle estate, there
might be some shadow Of argument.
God is said to be the inheritance of his
\ people Theysure called Che Lord heritage
or inheritance. Children are said to be the
Lord heritage, or his reward given to par
ents. The church, including all her privil-
egcs, is called goodly heritage. 1t is raid
of corruption, that it cannot inherit incor-
ruption; in which sense the term cannot be
relevant to slavery. Solomon says: The
simple inherit folly +" These and scores of
other references which might be made, show
that these terms and phrases, idiomatic in
their character, can afford no foundation for
an argument in which the precious rights of
humanity are put in jeopardy
Finding these terms in the Bible, no mat
ter in what connection, no matter what the
subject, the friends of slavery eagerly siezc
them, press them into their cause, and make
out of their mere sound a plea for crime
made capital by the law itself Such is the
character of the whole argument from first
to last.
These terms, in the presence of all the in
stitutions and enactments of the Hebrew
code, the holy and just character of the law
giver, the highly benevolent designs of the
law and the spirit of the religion of the
} whole Bible, give not even the shadow of
d comfort to piracy, to man-stcaling. to hui
man chattledom. The Hebrew code, as a
part of the divine revelation of mercy to
, man for his salvation, must be interpreted
/ in consistency with the teachings of the BIZ
bic as whole, which can never be charged
: with contradcting itself If any part of its
teaching be irreconcilable with stealing, buy
ing, selling, holding as chattle property, the
purchase Of the blood Of Jesus Christ, that
J, teaching-or, in other words, slavery must
be wrong. For, if the negro is a man, to
steal him is sin. If to steal him is a sin,
to sell him, as stolen horse is sold, is sin.
: If to steal and sell him is a sin, to buy him
is sin. And if these are all sin, to hold him
7 in our hands by virtue of such tenure and
claim can be nothing else but sin. Some
thing more than idiomatic phrases must be
. nut in balance to Offset the cumulative tes-
t timony against American Slavery, which is
l the embodiment Of all this complication of
crime.
i, There are yet other provisions of the He
:, brew law In regard 70 Slavery IN which We
: have the spiritand design of its enactments.
With these Slavery can never be reconclled.
& |. Tie law expressly forbids the vexing
: of the stranger; and gives as the reason
enforcing, for we were strangers in the
land of Egypt" The simple statement is
enough to forestall the condemnation of all
f the essential elements of slavery Can you
n steal u man-a social intelligence from par
= ents, children, brothers. sisters, wife,
friends, home, country, and not vex him ?
e None but fiend incarnate would answer in
: the affirmative Can you place female
A upon the auction block, expose her person,
examine her limbs, her mouth, her teeth,
(, her muscles, her joints as jockeys do horses
! and not yex her? None but soulless soul
G driver could dare risk an affirmative. Tc
n unfold in its breadth the loathsome and sick
t ening roll is almost to impute either idiocy
/ or depravity of lowest depth to those fo
whom we reason To doom an immortal t.
IL the slave ship, to the slave pen, to tn
a slave coffle, to the rice or cotton fields drive
le under the lash as beasts of burden, is NOR
II yexing to the soul upon which divinity hh
stamped manhood than life confinement il
4, the solitary cell of penitentiary;
M 3 The law expressly says, Thou shal
m not oppress q stranger;n and for the sam
III reason--''ye were strangers in the land o
Egypt ,,.
is and pierced to his inmost soul, crushed dow
er by his inhuman degradation, by force a
an hard labor, on raiions more beiittinga brut
of than man, and under the lash as if dos
tn an OK or an ass, and without wages NOR
in than tho sustenance portioned out, and upo
hit the same principle, us to beast of burdeI
Is, only to sustain under the hard labor-if tn
nd is not to oppress, then were the Hebrew
not oppressed in Egypt. Yet their cond
ry ton in Egypt was not, as to its oppression
in TO be compared with the oppression
tlyI American Slavery They were not stole
s away from their friends and homes an
ter country. They were not separated, in the
bondage from friends and relations. Tht
he were not sold as brute beasts in the marke
lie, NO, tnelr NeAiiiB OppIcsSiou was, III ihai
nd of its essential elements, mercy compare
Sc, with SoNtbern Slavery.
~ g. The law expressly forbids what is
md the very essence of Slavery in its every d
i, a life. and without whichit can have no exi.
epce. 1t says, ''Thou shalt not defra'
of thy neighbor, neither rob him: the wag
the of him that is hired shall not abide wi
I'M thee all night until the morning Agai
t of 'Wo' INTO him that buildeth his house
ose lunrighteousness and his chambers by wron
the that useth his neighbours service witho
uct wages, and giveth him not for his work
".Service," we believe, is the term in t
ept Constitution on which Shareholders fou
(, their claim to fugitive slave law. d L
- term is the recognition of their. Slavery.
ght They claim the 's1'rice." They eifoi
The the claim by the law of their own mallir
do They have never asked the consent of t
II, Slave to the claim upon service or lab
!. They first rob him of himself in securi
1te, the property possession of his person; a
the then by their own law and the lash III
INTO compel him to labor, or "serve." This
'ord longs to the criminal process already atte,
DC ed to, and condemned by the penal code,
,os, 'He that stealeth a man, &c,
VOW ra This law now under consideration is m,
,