Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-04-13

Plato and Aristotle say thar Strangers
that is, barbarians-are natural slaves.
Under this system there was not, and
there could not be, any such thing as
philanthropy cherished; there was no
brotherhood of nations recognized. The
languages of foreigners were despised
and hated as proofs Of a distinct, per-
haps hostile origin, and Of isola-
ton were looked upon as the natural
relations of nations to each other, and
war itself became finally a real blessing
10 the world, as breaking up the still
more unnatural isolation which vas the
desired and pictured condition offs bliss
full nation. Horace and Virgil both give
this as the true picture Of happiness,
and Cicero speaks Of the counting-house
of the merchant as fit only for slaves or
freedmen, not for honorable citizens. In
fact, almost all commerce was piracy,
and there is eItant the copy Of a treaty
between Carthage and Rome, in which
it is agreed that the vessels Of the latter
shall be allowed to pass the Straits in
the pursuits of war, commerce and
piracy.
War, too, was carried on not for the
redress Of grievances merely, but as q
mutual pursuit the entrails were in
spected, and all other auspices, and ii
these we're favorable to success, it was
considered a just war and a pious duty
The city attacked was considered for
saken, doomed, and justly destroyed
the war not terminating with a white
| flag of surrender, but all being put tc
the sword or sold as slaves. Every
thing-the life, liberty and entire prop
erty Of each i~hhabitant belonged to thu
conquerors as a right, and one that wal
expected to be exercised. The Jews
who would have torn up the pavementS
Of the street to stone to death an adul'
tress, would have taken all the wives
and virgins to their harems and sold the
children as slaves. So did the Assyr.
ians and Babylonians make war, and SC
the Romans ; $4,000 slaves were sold on
the capture of one city, $1,000 after that
Of another, until the market was glut,
ted, and the conqueror, whose nightly
suppers cost $40, 900, sold slaves at 81!
cents each. 10000 slaves were sold
after the conquest of Jerusalem. The
conouering chiefs abused the bodies OF
the slain, as Achilles dragged about
that Of Hector, or chained them, if liv-
ing, to their chariot wheels to adorn
their triumphal return just as tho be-
trayed rather than conquered Jugurtha
was served, who, when unclaimed, was
cast naked into a dungeon, and only
after six days starvation was there put
to death.
Indeed, slavery thus SO multiplied
that Gibbon, who seems to look back
with peculiar conplacency on the old
and p~rofane institution, says there were
about sixty millions in the Roman En-
pire. But this is too little; fully three
fourths Of the inhabitants were slave.
Every son, also, was the natural slave
Of his father, and never emaucipated BY
being Of age, and the wife and all the
slaves Of q man were subject to his will,
so that no process Of Roman law could
cross q mans threshold to inquire why
be put slave or wife or son to DEATH
In fact, the ancient civilization, which,
so far as material and outward matters
went, far exceeded ours, was based on
two great principles-hostile gods and
different races. But there was in 1t all
q total lack of spiritual life.
Christianity, based on one God and
the brotherhood of man, has introduced
humanity, brotherhood and equal rights
into international law out Of the idea Of
the common divine origin Of man. When
Jesus asked who was neighbor to him
that fell among thieves, he erected q
standard humanity, towards which in
ternational law has been climbing up
for 1900 years. An eye for an eye, and
8 tooth for a tooth, to love a neighbor
and hate an enemy, had been the theory
and Practice before. But under the
early Christian leaders an enthusiasm
for humanity sprang up, and there was,
in their view, neither Jew nor Greek,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free.
And this system advanced first to q
share in power in the Roman Empire,
and then to dominion. Christianity,
not searching timidly for truth, as
philosophy had done, but teaching it as
an authority and an institution, changed
the whole views Of man..
The councils Of the Christian Church,
with all their imperfsctions, are yet a
lust and noble monument Of an intellec-
tual kingdom arising-one that broke
down the old national barriers, mas
tered every language as If it had re-
c.iysd . new gift Of tongues, and even
established a universal language to har-
mouise races more thoroughly. Tho
IONS Of. serfs became Princes of the
Church, Archbishops Of Canterbury
and Popes. The cfusades, though q
sad error, yet united nations In new re-
Chivslry, though bad, was
war itself humanized BY Christianity.
Under charlsmangue the idea Of unity