The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-04-30

00uts N " Ia 10s II, 10.
These Hebrew statutes provided that thu
heather might be purchased and held .,
slaves, and their posterity after them; thai
under their naturalization laws all strang-
ers and sojourners, bond and free, have
the privilege of acquiring the rights of citi-
zenship that all Hebrews, natives or nat
uralized, might assert and maintain theiI
right to freedom.
At the end of six years q Hebrew slave
sent away empty; the owner, 30 far from
claiming compensation from his-neighbors
or from the public treasury for setting him
free, was bound to divide with the freed
man of bis own possessions, to give him of
his f1ocks, Of his herds, Of his granary, and
Of bis wine press, of everything with which
the Lord Almighty had blessed the master
during the years Of his servitude and
then the owner was admOnished that be
was not 10 regard it as hardship to be re.
quired to iberate the slave, and to divide
with him Of his subsistence. The Almighty
places the liberated slaves claim to d.
vision Of his former masters property, on
the eternal principles Of justice, the duty
TO render an equivalent for an equivalent.
be paid for his service, must be paid lib
orally, because he had been worth even
more than hired servant during the peri
cd Of his enslavement.
Mr.. HARLAN. II the Justice OF this
claim cannot be found either in reason, nat
ural justice, or the principles Of common
law, or in any positive municipal or statute
regulation OF any State, or in the Hebrew
code, written by the finger of God pro-
truded from the flame of ere on the summit
Of Sinai, or in the principles Of the teach
ings of the Savior, ask whence the origin
Of the title to the services of the adult Off
spring Of the slave mother? Or is it not
manifest that there is no just title? Is it
not mere usurpation without any known
mode of justification, under any existing.
code Of laws, human or divine?
If it cannot be thus justified, is it de-
sirable institution? If the supposed own
er has no title, is it the duty Of the nation
to maintain the usurped claim of the mas
ter to the services Of his slaves? Conced-
ing that the STAKEHOLDER has no sufficient
title to the services OF his slaves, I inquire
whether the necessary incidents and pecu-
liar characteristics Of slavery aresufiicient-
ly desirable to justify its continuance
II necessarily abolishes the conjugal re-
latiOn. This, apprehend, needs no argu-
ment for its support on the floor Of the
Senate. We have the result OF the accu.
mulated experience and wisdom Of the
people Of the slave States for period Of
character Of their laws. Here may be
found the elimination Of their wisdom,
the fruits Of their ripened judgment.
The honorable Senator from Maryland,
Mr.. johnson, . few days since, when dis
cussing this subject, stated that in none Of
the slave States was this relation tolerated
in opposition to the will Of the slave owner;
and that in many Of them, think he said
q majority OF them, it was prohibited absO-
lutely by their statute laws. This, then, is
the matured, ripened opinion of the people
of those States. In their opinion the pro-
hibition of the coDjugal relation is a neces-
sary incident Of slavery, and that slavery
cannot or would not be maintained in the
absence of such q regulation.
The existence of this institution. there.
fore, requires the enforcene d o. /. law that
annuls the law Of God establishing the re-.
lation of husband and wife, which is taught
by some Of the churches to be sacrament
as holy in its nature and its design as the
eucharist itself. And it is regarded by all
virtuous and enlightened men all over the
earth as q sacred relation, necessary to se-
cure the happiness of man and the welfare
of civil society, and which should be care
fully guarded and protected by penal laws
OF the greatest stringency, Furnishing those
who violate its sanctity as common felOns.
And yet this holy ordinance, instituted by
the Author of our being, deemed to be ne
cessary for the preservation Of virtue in
civil society, is absolutely inhibited by the
statute laws Of the States tolerating slave
~. The conjugal relation is abrogated
among four million human beings, who
are thus driven to Heterogeneous inter-
course like the beasts Of tfle acid, the mos:
Of whom are natives Of these Christian
States. If you tolerate slavery YOU must
tolerate this necessary incident .f its ex-
istence.
1t practically abolishes the parental rela-
ton, necessarily depriving the children of
the tender care and faithful protection, and
patient instruction Of that guardianship in
stituted by the common Father Of the hu-
man family. So tender and all-pervading
is the love Of the parent for his children,
that the inspired writer's always refer to it
to illustrate Divine affection for the sub
jects of redeeming grace. And yet, accord
ing to the matured judgment of these slave
States, this guardianship OF the parent over
his own children must be abrogated to sc.
cure the rerpetuity of slavery.
It necessarily abolishes the relation of
person to property. 1t declares the slave
to be incapable Of acquiring and holding
property, and extends this disability to his
offspring from generation to generation
throughout the coming ages. We some
times weep over the misfOrtunes of men,
and when by flood or storm or fire or sword
they are deprived Of their earthly possess
sions contributions are made for their re-
lief But the Senator who votes to perpet-
uate slavery, votes not only to sweep away
every shred Of property from four millions
Of people in the United States, but he votes
to destroy their capacity to acquire and
bold 1t, and to impose this disability on
their posterity forever. If successful in per.
petuating 1t he becomes more disastrous to
this multitude Of people than storm and
flood and fire and sword, more disastrous
than the unclaimed pestiience, the blast o1
the sirocco, or the monsoon Of the desert.
But it also necessarily, as an incident oi
its continuance, deprives all those held to
be slaves Of status in court. Having no
rights TO maintain and no legal wrongs to
redress, they are necessarily excluded from
the courts, and deprived Of the opportunity
to complain Of wrong or cruelty before i'm
partial tribunals Of justice. Let the depriv-
alton or anguish or excruciating torment
be AZ 1t may-the offspring Of unbridled
greed or lust or hate, the victim can have
no voice in court.
It denies its victims the right to mental
culture-makes it felony to teach them to
read and write-thus booming them and
their posterity to abject and unending ig-
norance.
And then as climax to its robbery and
wrongs it denies them the right to receive
the sympathies Of mankind. Senators are