Year: 1860

In the House, Lamar of Miss. replied to the
able speech of Mr.. Ferry of CT. His reply
was the very best defense of slavery which
could be made--full of sophistry and false rea-
soning, yet so prepared as to furnish an avail
able excuse for negro slavery to those men who
have little conscience, and who wish to trade in
the bones aud muscle Of the negro race, for Mr.
Lamar did not pretend to Justify slavery-only
negro slavery.


Here is his argument "The gentleman
| from Connecticut appealed to the instincts
of the human heart and the dictates of an
enlightened conscience He wOnld admit
! that neither that gentleman nor he could
rightfully be reduced to slavery, but he
would also ask that gentleman if he would
not rather die than be- a felon--if he would
not rather see islittle son dead in his cof-
fin than tenanting a felons cell 2 All the
minors Of our country were kept under
personal restraint and denied the right of
private judgment, because it was for the
interest of civil society. The gentleman
had asserted that the object of the Amer-
can Revolution was to establish absolutely
equal social and political rights, yet women
were universally denied those equal rights,
simply because the interests of society re-
quired it. The same argument required
that the degraded, inferior African race
should be kept in subjcction. A govern
ment applicable to free intelligent white
men could not be forced upon a nation con-
ssting of two widely dssimilar races, like
the white and the negro races.
"Bat were they to have no settled insti-
| tutions, no precedents Must every in
stitution be tested by newly discovered
principles of natural reason There were
philosophers who held that property of any
kind was not warranted by natural reason


He quoted from the language of DR.. Way
land, in his Elements of Moral Science,
who admitted that slavery had existed in
the time Of the Hebrew patriarchs Plato
had said, our slaves are our enemies But
| Christianity found this institution aud shed
on it its beneficient influence. Slavery was
recognized by all Christendom and there
still stood in England the statue of the
! favorite negro slave Of William Ill, and
around bis neck a carefully-carved collar,
| in every respect made like a dogs collar
! He read from the Minister'S Wooing,' by
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, certain pas-
sages admitting that slavery was an insti-


tuition established by God among the He


brews. lie did not ask gentlemen on the


other side to accept the doctrine that sav-


cry is sanctioned by the Bible, but he did


maintain that this unnatural warfare against
slavery was against the teachings of the
Bible, and that God never would have Civ
en- to the children of Israel a permission
which was against the eternal principles OF
right Of which he was the author. When
he gave permission to the Jews to hold
slaves he recognized the fact that there
are circumstances under which slavery is
not hateful to God and unjust to man; and
the South maintained that those circum.
stances existed in relation to her institution
of negro slavery. 1t was the unftness Of
the black race for a higher condition upon
which the South justified her institution.
The negro had neither political nor social
equality in the Northern states. The gen


tleman from Connecticut was only FOR free


ing the labor Of the negro. and thus max


ing the negro the equal of the free labor


ing man of the North Why such pro.
position did not arouse the indignation OF


every free white laborer Of the North was


a political phenomenon for which he would
J not undertake to account" E