Autographs for Freedom Part 9

The Bible vs. Slavery.

"Nothing," says Dr. Spring, "is more plain to my mind than that the word of G.o.d recognizes the relation between master and slave as one of the established inst.i.tutions of the age; and, that while it addresses slaves as Christian men, and Christian men as slaveholders, it so modifies the whole system of slavery as to give a death-blow to all its abuses, and breathes such a spirit, that in the same proportion in which its principles are imbibed, the yoke of bondage will melt away, all its abuses cease, and every form of human oppression will be unknown. The Bible is no agitator. It changes human governments only as it changes the human character. It aims at transforming the dispositions and hearts of men, and diffusing through all human inst.i.tutions the supreme love of G.o.d, and the impartial love of man."

Now, this either means that the Bible requires that all inst.i.tutions be adjusted and harmonized with the moral law--the law of love--or it means nothing. For, we maintain, that slavery is _per se_ wrong, where the enslaver has no direct warrant from heaven, or the enslaved has not forfeited liberty by crime on principles of recognized and universal equity; and the whole Bible forbidding wrong must be held as forbidding slavery, or any arbitrary and inhuman tamperings with the inalienable rights of a fellow-creature.

If slavery is not a wrong in itself, irrespective of what are called its abuses, then all that is essential in it may be retained from age to age; and all the amelioration which the Christian law superinduces may be such as to consist with the violation of the natural prerogatives of humanity, and with the denial to man of the essential and dearest privileges of social and domestic life, with the denial of the rights of conscience too. For slavery, as distinguished from service by contract, is this thing and no other:--it is labor undefined, unrewarded, on the condition of being used as vendible property, and every independent right of the slave, as an intellectual and moral being, is ignored. By practical indulgence such rights may be sometimes conceded. But the slave-law ceases as such when these are recognized.

Now, we hold it a libel on the Bible to affirm that it sanctions such slavery. We must warn you of the fallacy that lies in this distinction of the thing itself, and its abuse. What is called the abuse here is the essence and the characteristic of the subject. Service as well as slavery may be abused. Everything may be abused. But, the claim of the slaveholder is itself the abuse of the G.o.d-ordained relation of master and servant. Can men be regarded as a chattel?--that is the question--and so regarded without his consent, and his family treated as such permanently, without his consent, or even with it?

It comes of this bad interpretation of the Christian law, that in the nineteenth century slavery still remains,--is cherished. It is not that the principles of Christianity do not tend to extinguish it. But men, forcing their false interpretation on the Scriptures, plead their authority for a system or inst.i.tution, to which their whole spirit is opposed,--and which confesses its unscriptural character by keeping out Christian light, and forbidding the Scriptures with the slave.

To talk of the spirit of Christianity, in distinction from its express or implied law against slavery, is as if one would trust for the extinction of sin against the sixth or seventh commands of the decalogue, by general inculcation of meekness or purity, without denouncing murder and defining it, or defining between allowed and disallowed affinity in the marriage law. We may if we do not proscribe theft, and bring the positive law of G.o.d to bear against it, and bring a law into harmony with the divine, be understood, while we talk only of the abuses of property, as warning rather against spending stolen goods in a bad way, than against theft itself? But the design of the moral law is to define rights, as well as to govern the use of them; and it requires that not only the tempers of men, but the inst.i.tutions of society, be adjusted by the law of equity and charity. It forbids not only the abuse of just power, but all false usurpations of power, and cla.s.ses man-stealers and extortioners as murderers.

Who, if he but examines the laws of social and relative duty, as laid down in the New Testament Epistles, may not discern that the relation of master and servant is recognized side by side with the permanent relations of parent and child, husband and wife, which rest on the law of nature; just because it is not the temporary, unnatural, and violent relation of slaveholder and slave which is recognized, but that of master and servant by contract. The other, its very apologists allow, will pa.s.s away; but these duties are enhanced in a law of permanent application, and rest on natural principles, common to all times and all nations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) Michael Willis]

"The Work Goes Bravely on."

Like all Reforms which have for their object the amelioration of man's condition; the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom; the cause of human freedom has encountered many oppositions calculated to impede its progress. It has temporarily suffered from cruel defection within, and the most virulent persecution without the camp.

John, the forerunner of Jesus, had for his portion "locusts and wild honey." But those who have stood forth in the sunlight, the advocates of the crushed and bleeding bondman; whose motto is, "Our country is the world, and our countrymen all mankind," have had no _honey_ for _their_ portion. Oh no! they have ever dwelt among the tempest and the storm, with thunder, lightning, and whirlwind, to feed upon.

Some have been called, for the advocacy of the truth, to wing their flight from the prison-house to Heaven; and others, to bare their bosoms to the red-hot indignation of relentless mobs, arrayed in murderous panoply. They have gone; but, thank G.o.d, "THE WORK GOES BRAVELY ON!"

The great men of the nation, the mighty men, the chief priests and rulers, have risen in their strength, and resolved to crush, as with an avalanche, the irrepressible aspirations of the bondman's heart for FREEDOM; they have attempted to padlock the out-gus.h.i.+ng sympathies of humanity; to trample in the dust the sacred guarantees of the palladium of their own liberties, but their "terribleness hath deceived them, and the pride of their heart," for the desolating angel hath sealed _their_ lips in the silence of the tomb, and we, the recipients of their crus.h.i.+ng cruelties, thank G.o.d "THE WORK GOES BRAVELY ON."

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) Wm. James Watkins]

Slaveholding not a Misfortune but a Crime.

LONDON, September 2, 1853.

"For your movement on behalf of the slave, I have profound respect. I a.s.sure you of my unfeigned sympathies and of my earnest prayers. In my view, you deserve the high esteem of all who love and serve G.o.d.

Nothing would be deemed by me a greater honor than co-operation with you actively in your work of faith and your labor of love. With full consent of all that is within me, do I range myself among those who deem American slavery not a sad misfortune, but a heinous crime: a crime all the more heinous, because justified and even perpetrated by men who call themselves the servants of Christ.

"I am, madam, yours respectfully,

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) William Brock]

The Frugality of Slaveholding.

There is nothing in the universe that can deserve the name or do the work of valid LAW but the commandment and the ordinance of the living G.o.d. All human enactments, adjudications and usages not founded on these, are of no legal force, and should be trampled under foot. The practice of slaveholding, for this reason, can never be legalized, and all legislative or judicial attempts to sustain it are rebellion against G.o.d, and treason against civil society. To teach otherwise, would be to set up other G.o.ds above Jehovah, to promulgate the fundamental principle of atheism, and proclaim war against the liberties of mankind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) Wm. Goodell]

"Ore Perennius."

I ask no prouder inscription for my humble tomb, than "Here lies the Friend of the Oppressed."

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) David Paul Brown Sept. 28, 1859]

The Mission of America.

BRUNSWICK, Maine, September 30, 1853.

MISS JULIA GRIFFITH,

My Dear Madam, your letter of September 23d I have received. I regret exceedingly that it is not in my power to furnish the article you have done me the honor to solicit, for the "Autographs for Freedom."

Particularly do I regret this now, when the great conflict between aristocracy and democracy is about being renewed all over the continent of Europe, and when despots are pointing with exultation to the unparalleled enormities of our "peculiar inst.i.tutions," and the friends of republican equality, in all lands, are disheartened by our example. Would the slaveholders of the south but consent to place those who till their lands, under the protection of wholesome and impartial law, and pay them honest wages, it would ere long cause human rights to be respected in every corner of the globe. It should be the mission of America, by the silent influence of a glorious example, to revolutionize all despotisms. We have a vast continent to subdue and to adorn, and we need the aid of millions more of willing hands to accomplish the magnificent enterprise. With much esteem I am truly yours,

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) John S. C. Abbott.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lewis Tappan, esq. (Engraved by J. C. b.u.t.tre)]

Disfellows.h.i.+pping Slaveholders.

The late Dr. Chalmers, not long before his death, spoke with disapprobation of Abolitionists in the United States, "for undertaking," as he said, "to decide, without sufficient evidence, upon the irreligious character of ministers and church-members.

_They_, forsooth, undertake to exclude men from the Lord's table, who are in good and regular standing in the church of Christ, because they happen to hold slaves! _They_ pretend to decide who, and who are not Christians!" It is marvellous that so learned and so distinguished a man should have fallen into such a mistake; and, on hearsay, ventured to utter a most calumnious accusation against the friends of the slave.