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SPEECH OF REV* DR. ROSS,
OF HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA,
OV THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
. n j PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY, (x.
s.) may 22, lSofi.
q- Wisner having said lie would argue the
, it ioo on the Bible at a following time,—
, P n he t.wk his seat Dr. Ross rose, and ta
?hi-'position on the platform near the Mo
derator's Chair, said—
I s m?pt the challenge given by Dr. Wis
e, to argue the question of slavery from the
Scriptures.
pi-. Wisner.— Does the brother propose to
into it here?
* Dr. Ross.-Yes sir.
p r , Wisner.—Well, I do not propose to go
jtitd it Here.
Pr. Ross.—You gave the challenge, and I
accept it.
Dr. Wisner. —I said I would argue it at a
prone- time; but it is no matter. Go ahead.
Pr. Reman hoped the discussion would be
rJ y out. He did not think it a legitimate
fubieet to go into —Moses and the prophet 3 ,
Ost and his apostles, and all intermediate
authorities, on the subject of what the Gen
eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in
America has done.
Judge Jessup considered the question had
been opened by this report of the majority:
after which
Dr. Beman withdrew his objection, and
Dr. Ross proceeded.
lam not a slaveholder. Nay, I have
shown some self-denial in that matter. 1
emancipated slaves whose money value j
would now be $40,000. In the providence j
of God, my riches have entirely passed from j
me. I do not mean that, like the widow, I
cave all the living I had. My estate wa,
then, greater than that slave property. I
merely wish to show I have no selfish mo
tive in giving, as I shall, the true Southern
defence of slavery. (Applause.) I speak
from Huntsville, Alabama, my present home.
That gem of the South, that beautiful city.
where the mountain softens into the vale
where the water gashes, a great fountain, i
.Tom the rock—where around that living ,
■ ream there are streets of roses, and houses
of intelligence, and gracefulness, and gen
tlest hospitality— and with all, where so
f:gh honor is ever given to the ministers of
God.
bneam'ng, then, from that region where
Cotton is King,” I affirm, contrary as my
‘inton i to that most common in the South,
-that, the slavery agitation has accomplish
'd. and will do great good. I said so, to
ministerial and political friends, twenty-five
jears ago. I have always favored the agita
t—just as I have always countenanced
Mission upon all subjects. I felt that the
slavery question needed examination. I be
evpd it was not understood in if* relations
to the Bible and human liberty. Sir. the
dit is spreading North and South. ’Tis
said, T know, this agitation has increased the
-verity of slavery. True, but for a moment i
only, in the days of the years of the life of !
this noble problem. Farmers tell us, that
,;rt P ploughing in poor ground, will, for a
•e&r or two, give you a worse crop than be
!jfe you went so deep. But, that deep
ploughing will turn up the under soil, and
sita and air. and rain, will give you harvests
increasingly riclu So, this moral soil, North
la ‘i South, was unproductive. It needed
4,ee P ploughing. For a time the harvest was
* r *c. Now it is becoming more and more
The political controversy, how- I
c tierce an 1 threatening, is only for power.
- ■ ne moral agitation is for the harmony
•tie Northern and Southern mind, in the
• interpretations of Scripture on this
pe&t subject, and. of course, for the ultimate 1
®‘or. of the hearts of all sensible people, to j
- •- SiGod s intention—to bless the white i
and the black man in America. lam
sure of this.
‘ ;iM ' a w 'ide view of the progress of the !
—ny of this vast empire. I see God in
ea. I see Him in the North and in the ‘
V I see Him more honored in the I
U than he was twenty-five years i
■ a ‘i ; hat, higher regard, is due. mainly, j
tne citation of the slavery question. Do
luCm ! Wh 7 this is the how.
wity-five years ago the religious mind of
“ai J ’ “ k* vene d, by wrong Northern
Dm ” on the great point of the right and
‘*avery. Meanwhile, powerful in
0[ - a U 1 e South, following the mere light,
oaithy good sense, guided by the cora
,s •of God, reached the very truth of ‘
oft” matter —namely, that the relation
♦jja t 6 llUster an d slave is not a sin. And |
a Withstanding its admitted evils, it is i
W-sr Ct ° * >etween the highest and the !
rat 3 Inan ’ re vealing influences j
for the 11 ' 5 * he, most benevolent, i
slave U l!n ‘ ate ?°°d of the master and the j
serving!r? natiVe ° n the Union > b 7 P re ‘ ;
ksaticrrv,’ S ° rom forms of Northern j
*a fe^/~~ ant * thereby being a great bal- j
* tbe working of the tremen- ‘
gove rnr /' iinery our ex P er ' men t of self
fras j;,. se o n result of slavery,
Ut |’ to be in absolute Larmonv with
of God.
then ’ of hig>ie;?t of
: * ia d turned in scorn from ‘
these m n °ti°ns, now see in the Bible tliat
reaq > ti^ ns are false and silly. They now
?r °Wm Dever ex andned before, with
g| or y rs s P ec ** God is honored, and his
ti°n more and more m their salva
-siat,i OR ., / are some °f the moral consum
devol, ‘ ° this Station of the South. The
0„ t^ ment bas ,J< --en two fold in the North,
have If ? e | Jar, d> some anti-slavery men
j 1 1 fe °f the Bible, and wander
the blark- C ar^ Qess un dl they have reached
il “' u fdiluwmg hard after, and are
throwing the Bible into the furnace—ara
melting it into iron, and forging it, and weld
ing it, and twisting it, and grooving it into
the shape, and significance, and goodness,
and gospel of Sharp's rifles. Sir. are you not
atraid that s<,me of your, onee, best men will
soon have no better Bible than that ?
But on the other hand, many of your
I Slightest minds are looking intensely at the
. subject, in the same light in which it is stu
i died by the highest Southern reason. Aye,
i s d’, mother England, old fogey as she is, be
| gins to open her eyes. What, then, is onr
! o a in? Sir, Unde Tom’s Cabin, in many of
its conceptions, could not have been written
twenty-five years ago. The book of genius
over which I aud hundreds in the world
i have freely wept—true in all its facts—false
in all its impressions,—yea, as false in the
prejudice it creates to Southern social life, as
it Webster, the murderer of Parkman, may
be believed to be a personification of the elite
t of honor in Cambridge, Boston, and New
England. Nevertheless, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
could not have been written twenty-five
years ago. I)r. Nehcmiah Adam's ‘‘South
Side A iew” could not have been written
twenty-five years ago, nor Dr. Nathan Lord’s
■‘Letter of Enquiry, nor Miss Murray's book,
nor “Cotton is King, nor Bledsoe’s “Liberty
and Slavery. These books, written in the
midst of this agitation, are all of high, some
the highest reach of talent, and noblest piety, !
—all give, with increasing confidence, the j
present Southern Bible reading on Slavery. !
May the agitation, then, go on. I know the 1
New School Presbyterian Church lias sus- i
Laiued sonic temporary injury. But God is :
honored in his word. The reaction, when 1
the first abolition movement commenced, !
has been succeeded by the sober second
thought of the South. The Sun, stayed, is
again travelling in the greatness of his
strength, and will shine brighter and brighter
to the perfect day-.
My only fear, Mr. Moderator, is, that as
your Northern people are so prone to go to
extremes in your zeal, and run everv thing
into the ground, you may. perhaps, become
too pro-slavery; and that we may have to
take measures against your coveting, much,
our daughters, if not our wives, our men ser
vants, our maid servants, our houses, and our
lands. (Laughter.)
Sir, I come now to the Bible argument. I
begin at the beginning of eternity ! (Laugh
ter.) AY hat is rierht and wrong? That the
question of questions.
Two theories have obtained in the world.
The one is, that right, and wrong are eternal
facts—that they exist per se in the nature of
things—that they are ultimate truths above
God ; that he must study, and does study to
know them, as really as man, and that lie
comprehends them more clearly than man.
only because he is a better student than man.
Now. sir, theory is atheism. For. if rierht
and wrong are like mathematical truths—
fixed facts—then. I may find them out, as T
find out mathematical truths, without instruc
tion from God. Ido not ask God to tell me
that one and one make two. Ido not ask
him to reveal to me the demonstrations of
Euclid. I thank him for the mind to perceive, j
But I perceive mathematical relations without
h : s telling me, because they exist independent
of his will.
Ts then, moral truths, if right and wrong,
if rectitude and sin are, in like manner fixed,
eternal facts—if they are out from, and above,
Godlike mathematical entities, then I may
find them for myself. I may condescend,
perhaps, to regard the Bible a? a horn-book,
in which God, an oMer student than I, tells
me how to begin to learn what he had to
study; or. T may decline to be taught,
through the Bible, how to learn right and
wrong. I think the Bible was good enough,
may be, for the Israelite in Egypt and in
Canaan; good enough for the Christian in
Jerusalem, and Antioch, and Rome, but not
good enough, even as a hom-book, for me.
the man of the nineteenth century—the man
of Boston, New York, and Brooklyn! O
no! I may think I not at all. What next ?
Why. sir. if I may think I need not God to
teach me moral truth, I may think I need
him not to .each me any thing. What next ?
The irresistible conclusion is, I may think I
can lire without God; that Jehovah is a
myth—a name : I may bid him stand aside,
or die. O, sir. I will be the fool, to say—
there is no God. This is the result of the no
tion that right and wrong exi-t in the nature
of things.
The other theory is, that right and wrong
are results, brought into being, mere contin
gencies. means, to good, made to exist, sole
ly by the will of God, expressed through his
Word; or, when his will is not thus known,
he shows it in the human mison by which
he rules the natural heart This is so; be
cause, God, in making all things, saw that in
the relations he would constitute between
himself and intelligent creatures, and amongst
themselves, NATURAL GOOD AND EVIL
would come to pas-c In his benevolent wis
dom, brethren willed Law to control this na
tural good and evil. Aud lie thereby made
conformity to that law to be right, and non
conformity to be wrong. Why? simply be
cause he saw it to be good, and made it to
be right; not because he saw it to be right,
but because he made it to be right.
Hence, the ten specific commandments of
the one moral law of love, are just ten rules
which God made to regulate the natural good
and evil which he knew would be in the ten
relations which he himself constituted, be
tween himself and man, and between man
and his neighbor. The Bible settles the
question—sin is the transgression of the
law—and where there is uo law there is no
i sin.
; I must advance one stop farther—What is
| am, at a mt-aud stats ? is it amuc. quality—
* ? om? concentrated essence: —some elementa
ry moral partielc.hr the nature -of thing
something black, orrCfTSike crimson, in the
! constitution,,#! the soul—or the soul and
bodipjas amalgamated? No. Is it self-love ?
No. Is it selfishness? No. What is it?
•Just exactly—self-will. Just that. I. the
creature, will not to submit to thy will,
God, the Creator. It is the I am. created,
who dares to defy and dishonor the 1 am, not
created, the Lord God. the Almighty. Holy,
Eternal.
Ghat is six. per se. And that is all of it—
|~° help me God. Your child, there—John—
j say ß to his hither, “I will not submit to your
will.” “Why not, John?” Aud he answers
and says, “Because I will not.” There, sir,
John has revealed all of sin. on earth or in
hell. Satan has never said—can never snv
more. I. Satan, will not, because I will
not to submit to thee, God— my will, not
thine, shall be.
The beautiful theory is the ray of light
which leads us from night, and twilight, and
fog, and mist, and mystification, on this sub
ject. to clear day. I will illustrate it by the
law which has controlled, and now regulates
the most delicate of all the relations of life,
viz: that of the intercourse between the
sexes. I take this, because it presents the
strongest apparent objections to my argu
ments.
Lain and Abel married their sisters. AVas
it wrong in the nature of things? [Here Dr.
W i.sner spoke out, and said, certainly.] I de
ny it. \\ hat an absurdity, to suppose that
God could not provide forihe propagation of
the human race, from one pair, without re
quiring them to sin! Adam’s- sons and
daughters must have married had they re
mained in innocence. They must then have
sinned, in Eden, from the very necessity of
the command upon the race—“Be fruitful,
and multiply and replenish the earth.” Gen.
1, chap. 28. AYhat pure nonsense. There,
sir—that, my one question, Dr. Winner's re
ply, and my rejoinder, bring out, perfectly,
the two theories of light and wrong. .Sir,
Abraham married his half sisters. And there
is not a word forbidding such marriage, until
God gave the law, Lev. 18. prohibiting mar
riage in certain degrees of consanguinity, j
Tnat law made, then, such marriage sin. j
But God gave no such law in the family of !
Adam—because he made, himself, the mar
riage of brother and sister the way, and the
only way. for the increase of the human
race. He commanded them thus to marry.
They would have sinned had they not thus
married—for they would have transgressed
his law. Such marriage was not even a na
tural evil in die then family of man.
But, when in the increase of numbers, it
came a natural evil, physical and social, God
placed man on a higher platform tor the de
velopment of civilization, morals, and reli
gion, and then made the law regulating mar
riages, in the particulars of blood. But lie
still left polygamy untouched. [Here Dr.
Wisner again asked if Dr. Ross regard the
Bible as sustaining the polygamy of the Old j
Testament] Dr. R.—Yes sir, yes sir, yes
sir. Let the reporters mark that question,
and my answer. (Laughter.) My principle
vindicates God from unintelligible abstrac
tions. I fearlessly tell what the Bible says,
iu its strength I am not afraid of earth or
hell. I fear only God. God made no law
against polygamy, in the beginning. There
fore it was no sin for a man to have more
wives than one. God sanctioned it, and
made laws in regard to it. Abraham had
more wives than one, Jacob had, David had.
Solomon had. God told David, by the
mouth of Nathan, when he upbraided him
with his ingratitude for the blessing lie had
given him, and said—“Aud I gave thee thy
master’s house, and thy master’s wives into j
thy bosom.” 2d Sam’l. xvii. 8.
God, in the Gospel, places man on another
platform, for the revelation of a nobler social
and spiritual life. He now forbids polygamy.
Polygamy now, is sin—not because it is in
itself sin. No—but because God forbids it !
—to restrain the natural and social evil, and j
to bring out a higher humanity. And see, j
sir, how gently in the gospel, the transition, l
from the lower to the higher tabic land of our
progress upward is made. Clnist and his
apostles do not declare polygamy to be sin.
The new law is so wisely given tliat nothing
existing is rudely disturbed. The minister ;
of God, unmarried, must have only one wife j
at the same time. This law, silently and I
gradually, by inevitable and fair inference of I
its meaning, and from the example of the
apostles, passed over the Christian world. 1
God, in the gospel, places us in this higher J
and holier ground and air of love. We in,
then, if we marry the sister, at the same
time, more wives than one, not because there
it sin in the thing itself, whatever of natural
evil there might be, but because in so doing
we transgress God’s law, given to secure and
advance the good of man. I might comment
ia the same way on every one of the ten
commandments, but 1 pass on.
The subject of slavery, in the view of right
and wrong, is seen in the very light of hea
ven. And you, Mr. Moderator, know, that
if the view I have presented be true, 1 have
got you. (Great laughter.)
[The Moderator said, very pleasantly—
Yes—if—but it is a long if.] (Continued
laughter.)
Dr. R. touched the Moderator ou the
shoulder, and said, Yes, if—it is a long if
for it is this—if there is a God, he is not Jupi
ter, bowing to the Fates, but God, the sove
reign over the universe he has created, in
which he makes right, by making law to be
known and obeyed by angels and men, in
their varied conditions.
He gave Adam that command—sublime
in its simplicity, and intended to vindicate
the prmciple I ana af&iirqy -ti&U. thwwia.
MIACOIV, GA. JU3L.Y 1, 1836.
,• no right and wrong in the nature of things.
There was no right’ or wrong, per se , in eat
j ing or willing to eat of that tree of the know
ledge of good and evil.
But God made the law-—thou shall not
eat ol that tree.. As if he had said—l seek
■to test the submission of your will, freely, to
my will. And that your test may be* perfect
I will let your temptation be nothing more
than your natural desire for that fruit. Adam
sinned. AYhat was the sin ?
Adam said, in heart, my will, not thine,
shall be. ’that was the sin. The simple
transgression of God’s law, when there was
| neither sin or evil iu the thing which God
; forbade to be done.
Man fell and was cursed. The law of the
; control of the superior over the inferior is
j now to begin, and is to go on in the depraved
conditions ot the fallen and cursed race.
! And. first. God said to the woman, “Thy
desire shall be to thy husband, and lie shall
rule over thee.” There, in that law is the
beginning of government ordained of God.
There is the beginning of the rule of the su
perior over the inferior, bound to obey.
There, in the family of Adam, is the germ of
the rule in the tribe—the state. Adam, in
his right, from God, to rule over his wife and 1
his children, had all the authority afterwards |
expanded in the patriarch aud the king. This
simple, beautiful fact, there, ou the first leaf;
ot the Bible, solves the problem, whence and 1
how has man right to rule over man. I
In that great fact God gives his denial to the j
idea that government over men is the result
of a social compact, in which each individual
man living in a state of natural liberty, yield- j
ed some of that liberty to secure the greater i
good of government. Such a thing never I
was—such a thing never could have been, j
Government was ordained and established i
before the first child was born— “lTe shall |
rule over thee.” Cain and Abel were born
in a state as perfect as the empire of Britain,
or the rule of these I'nited States. All that
Blackstone, and Paley, and Hobbs, or any
body else says about the social compact, is
flatly and fully denied and upset by the Bible,
history, and common sense. Let any New
A ork lawyer—or even a Philadelphia lawyer I
—deny this if he dares. Life, liberty, and !
the pursuit of happiness, never were the in- :
alienable l ight of the individual man.
His self-control, in all these particulars,
from the beginning, was subordinate to the
good of the family—the empire. The com
mand to Noah was—“ Whoso sheddeth man’s
blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” (Gen.
9, G.)
This command to shed blood was, and is,
in perfect harmony with the law, “Thou
shalt not kill.” There is nothing right or
wrong in the taking of life, per se, or in itself
considered. It may, or it may not be, a na
tural good or evil. Asa general fact, the ta
king of life is a natural evil. Hence, thou
shalt not kill is the general rule, to preserve
the good there is in life. To take life under
the forbidden conditions is sin, simply be
cause God forbids it under those conditions.
The sin is not in taking life, but in transgress
ing God’s law.
But sometimes the taking of life will se
cure a sweater good. God, then, commands
that life be taken. Not to take life, under
the commanded conditions, is sin—solely be
cause God, then, commands it
This power ovgr life, for the good of the
one great family of man, God delegated to
Noah, and through him to the tribe, the clan,
the kingdom, the empire, the democracy, the
republic—as they may be governed by chief,
king, emperor, parliament, or congress. Had
Ilam killed Shem, Noah would have com
manded Jnpheth to slay him. So much for
the origin of the power over life—now, for
the power over liberty.
The right to take life included the right
over liberty. But God intended the rule of
the superior over the inferior, in relations of
service, should exemplify human depravity,
his curse and his overruling blessing.
The rule, and the subordination, which is
essential to the existence of the family, God
made commensurate with mankind, for man
kind is only the congeries of families. When
Ham, in his antediluvian recklessness, laugh
ed at his father, God took occasion to give to
the world the rule of the superior over the
inferior. He cursed Ham. He cursed him,
because he left him, unblessed. The with
holding of the father’s blessing, ia the Bible
was curse. Hence, Abraham prayed God,
when Isaac was blessed, that Ishmaol might
not be passed by. Hence, Esau prayed his
father, when Jacob was blessed, that he
might not be left untouched by his holy
hands. Ham was cursed to render service,
forever, to Shem and Japheth. The special
curse on Canaan made the general curse on
Ham con=picuous, historic, and explanatory,
simply because his descendants were to be
brought under the control of God’s peculiar
people. Shem was blessed to rule over Ham.
Japheth was blessed to rule over both. God
sent Ham to Africa, Shem to Asia, Japheth
to Europe.
Mr. Moderator, you have read Guyot’s
“Earth and Man.” That admirable book is
a commentary upon this part of Genesis. It
is the philosophy of geography. And it is
the philosophy of the rule of the higher
races over the inferior, written on the very
face of the earth. He tells you why the
continents are shaped as they are shaped;
why the rivers run where they run; why
the currents of the sea and the air flow as
they flow. And you tells } r ou that the earth
south of the Equator makes the inferior man.
That the oceanic climate makes the inferior
man, in the Pacific Islands. That South
America makes the inferior man. That the
solid, unindented Southern Africa makes the
inferior man. That the huge, heavy, mas
nr&ynt;,ft ojg (oaices the hugs, it£-
vy, massive, magnificent man. That, Eu
rope. indented by the sea on every side, with
| its varied scenery and climate, and northern
influences, make the varied intellect, the ver
satile power, and life and action of the mas
ter man of the world. And it is ~0. Africa,
with here and there an exception, has never
produced men to compare with die men of
; Asia. For six thousand years, save the* un
intelligible stones of Egypt, she has had no
I history. Asia has had her great men, and
her name. But Europe has ever shown, and
i ar >d how, her nobler men, and higher desti
ny. Japheth has now come to North Amer
ica—to give up his past greatness and his
j transcendent glory. (Applause.)
And, sir. I thank God our mountains stand
where they stand. And that our rivers run
wlu re they run. Thafik God they run not
across longitude, but across latitudes, from
North to South, If they r crossed longitudes,
we might fear for the Union. But I hail the
. I uiou made by God, strong as the strength j
j°f our hills, and ever to live and expand,— :
I like the flow and swell of the current of our I
streams. (Applause.)
f liese two theories of right, wrong—these
two ideas of human liberty—The right, in
the nature of things—or the right as made
by God—the liberty of the individual man—
ol Atheism—of Red Republicanism—of the
devil—or the liberty of man, in the family—
in the State—the liberty from God, —these
two theories now make the conflict of the
world. This anti-slavery battle is only part
of the great struggle—God will be victorious
—and we, in his might.
I now come to the particular illustration
of the world wide law that service shall be
rendered*by the inferior to the superior.—
Ihe relations in which such service obtains
are very many. Some of them are these.—
Husband and wife. Parent and child.—
Teacher and scholar. Commander and sol
dier—sailor. Master and apprentice. Mas
ter and hireling. Master and slave. Now,
sir, all these relations are ordained of God.
They are all directly commanded, or they
are the irresistible laws of liis providence, in
conditions which must come up in the pro
gress of depraved nature. The relations
themselves are all good in certain conditions.
And there may be in the lowest than in the
highest. And there may bo in the lowest, as
really as in the highest, the fulfilment of the
commandment to love thy neighbor as thy
self, and of doing unto him whatsoever thou
would’st have him do unto thee.
\A hy’, sir, the wife, every where, except
where Christianity has given her elevation,
is the slave. And, sir, I say, without fear
of saying too strongly, that, for every sigh,
every groan, every tear, every agony of strile.
or death, which lias gone up to God, from
the relation of master and slave, there have
been more sighs, more groans, more tears
and more agony in the rule of the husband
over the wife. Sir, I have admitted, and
do again admit, without qualification, that
every fact in Uncle Tom’s Cabin has occurred
in the South. But, in reply, I say deliber
ately, what one of your first men told me,
that he who would make the horrid exami
nation, will discover in New York city, in
any number of years past, more cruelty from
husband to wife, parent to child, than in all
the South from master to slave, in the same
time. I dare the investigation. And you
may extend it farther, if you choose—to all
the result of honor and puritv. I fear no
thing on this subject. I stand on a rock—
the Bible. And therefore, just before I bring
the Bible, to which all I said is introductory.
I will run a parallel, between trie relation of
master and slave, and that of husband aud
wife. I will say nothing of the grinding op
pression of capital upon labor, in the power
of the master over the hireling—the crushed
peasant—the cabin-harnessed coal-pit wo
man, a thousand feet under ground—work
ing in darkness; her child toiling by her
side—and another child not born—l will say
nothing of the press gang which fills the na
vy of Britain—the conscription which makes
the army of France—the terrible floggings;
the awful court-martial—the quick sentence
—the lightning shot—the chain, and ball,
and every day lash—the punishment of th
soldier—sailor—slave who had run away.—
I pass all this by—l will run the parallel be
tween the slave and wife.
Do you say—the slave is held to involun
tary service. So is the wife. Her relation
to her husband, in the immense majority of
cases, is made for her, and not by her. And
when she makes it for herself, how often,
and how soon, does it become involuntary-
ITow often, and how soon, would she throw
off the yoke if she could. O, ye wives—l
know howsuperior you are to your husbands
in many respects—not only in personal at
traction (although in that particular compa
rison is out of place)—in grace, in refined
thought, in passive fortitude, in enduring
love, and in a heart to be filled with the spi
rit of Heaven. 0! I know all this. Nay.
I know you may surpass him, in his own
sphere of boasted prudence, and wordly
wisdom about dollars and cents. Neverthe
less, he ha3 authority from God to rule over
you. You are under service to him. You
are bound to obey him in all things. Your
service is very, very, very often involuntary
from the first—and if voluntary, at first, be
comes hopeless necessity afterwards. I know
God has laid upon the husband, to love you
as Christ loved the church—and in that sub
lime obligation has placed you in the light,
and under the shadow, of a love infinitely’
higher, and purer, and holier than all talked
about in the romances of chivalry. But the
husband may not so love you. He may rule
you with the real of iron. What can you
do? Be divorced I God forbids it, save for
crime. Will you say that you are free—
that you will go where you please—do as
/wi please?
band may forbid—and, listen—*you eaunot
leave New \ ork nor your palaces, no
more than your shanties. No—you cannot
lea\ e your parlor, nor your bed-chamber, nor
your couch, if your husband commands you
to stay there! W'hat can you do? Will
you run away, with your stick, end your
bundle? He can advertise you! What can
you do? lou can, and I fear some of you
I do, wish him from the bottom of your hearts,
at the bottom of the Hudson. Or, in your
sell-will, you will do just as you please.—
(Great laughter.)
[A word on the subject of divorce. One
of your standing denunciations on the South,
j 18 the terrible laxity of the marriage vow
amongst tho slaves. We!!, sir, what does
your Boston Dr. Nehemiah Adams say?—
He says, after giving eighty, sixty and the
like number of applications for divorce, and
nearly all granted at individual quarterly
Courts in New England—he sa3’s —he is not
sure but that the marriage relation is as en
during amongst the slave? in the South, as it
is amongst white people in New England.—
I only give what Dr. Adams says. I would
fain vindicate the marriage relation from this
rebuke. But one thing I will say—you sel
dom hear of a divorce in Virginia or South
Carolina.]
But, to proceed—
Do you say the slave is sold and bought.
So is the wife the world over. Everywhere,
always, and now as the general fact, how
ever done away or modified by Christianity-
The savage buys her. The Barbarian buys
her. The Turk buys her. The Jew buys
her. The Christian buys her—Greek, Ar
menian, Nestorian, Roman Catholic, Protes
tant. The Portuguese, the Spaniard, the
Italian, the German, the Russian, the French
man, the Englishman, the New England
man, the New Yorker, especially the upper
ten —buy the wife—in many, very many
cases. She is seldom bought in the South,
and never amongst the slaves themselves—
for they always marry for love—(confined
laughter)—Sir, I say, the wife is bought in
the highest circles, too often, as really as the
slave is bought. O! she is not sold, and
purchased, in the public market. But, come,
Sir, with me, and let us take the privilege of
spirits, out of the body, to glide into that
gilded saloon, or into that richly comfortable
family room, of cabinets, and pictures, and
statuary’—see the parties, there, to sell and
buv, that human body, and soul, and make
her a chattel!
See how they sit, and bend towards each
other, in earnest colloquy, on sofa or rose
wood and satin—Turkey’carpet, how befit
ting under feet. Sun light over head, sof
tened through stained windows—or, it is
night, and the gas is turned nearly off, and
the burners gleam, like stars, through the
shadow, from which the whisper is heard,
in which that old, ugly, brute, with grey
goatee, how fragrant—bids, one, two, five,
ten hundred thousand dollars, and she is
knocked off to him—that beautiful young
girl, asleep up there, amid flowers, and in
nocent that she is sold and bought. Sin
that young girl would as soon permit a
baboon to embrace her, as the old, ignorant,
gross disgusting wretch to approach her.—
Ah. Has she not been sold, and bought, for
money? But. But what? But, you say
she freely,and without parental authority ac
cepted him. Than she sold herself for money,
and was guilty of that which is nothing bet
ter than legal prostitution. I know what I
say—you know what I say. Up there in
the gallery, you know—you nod to one ano
ther. All! You know the parties—Yea—
You say—all true, true, true. (Laughter.)
Now, Mr. Moderator, I will clinch all I
have said by nails sure, and fastened, from
the Word of God.
There is King James’ English Bible, with
its magnificent dedication. I bring the En
glish acknowledged translation. And just
one word more to push gently aside, for I
am a kind man to those poor, deluded anti
slavery people, their last argument. It is,
that, thi i English Bible, in those parts which
treat of slavery, don’t give the ideas which
are found in the original Hebrew and Greek 1
Alas! for the common people! Alas! for
this good old translation ! are its days num
bered ? No, sir. No, sir. The Unitarian,
the Universalist, the Arminian, the Baptist,
when pressed by this translation, have tried
to find shelter for their false isms, by making
!or asking for anew rendering. And now
: the anti-slavery men are driving hard at the
, same thing. (Laughter.) Sir, shall we per
! mitour people everywhere to have their con
| fiJencein this noble translation undermined
j and destroyed, by the isms and whims of
every, or any man, in our pulpits? I afiirim
; whatever be our perfect liberty of examina.
tion into God’s meaning in all the light of
the original languages, that there is a respect
due to this received version, and that great
, caution should be used, lest we teach the
people to doubt its true rendering from the
original VVordofGod. I protest. Sir, against
having a Doctor-of-Divinity-priest, Hebrew
or Greek, to tell the people what God has
spoken on the subject of slavery, or any
other subject. (Laughter.) I would as
soon have a Latin priest—l would as soon
have Archbishop Hughes—l would as soon
go to Rome as to Jerusalem or Athens—l
would as soon have the Pope, at once, in his
fallible infallibility, a3 ten or twenty, little or
big, anti-slavery Doctor-of-Divinitv priests,
each claiming to give his infallible render
ing, however, differing from his peer.—
(Laughter.) I never yet produced this Bi
ble, in its plain unanswerable authority, for
the relation of master and slave, but the anti
slavery man ran away into the fog of his
Hebrew or Greek (laughter,) or he jabbered
the nonsense that God permitted the sin of
slaveholding amongst the Jews, but that he
don't do it now t Sir, God sanctioned
jty then, and sanctions it now. He made it
right, they know, then and now. Having
thus taken the last puff of wind out of the
sails of the anti-slavery phantom ship, turn
to the 21st chap. Exodus, vs. 2-5. God, in
these verses, gave the Israelites his command
how they should buy and hold the Hebrew
servant; how, under certain conditions, he
went free; how, under other circumstances,
ho might be held to service for ever, with
his wife and her children. There it is.—
Don’t run into the Hebrew. (Laughter.)
But what have we nere—vs. 7-11: “And
if a man sell his daughter to be a maid ser
vant, she shall not go out as the men servants
do. If she please not her master, who hath
betrothed her to himself, then shall he let
her be redeemed; to sell her unto a strange
nation he shall have no power, seeing he
hath dealt deceitfully with her. And if he
hath betrothed her unto his son, he shall
deal with her after the manner of daughters.
If he take him another wife, her food, her
raiment and her duty of marriage shall he
not diminish; and if he do not these three;
unto her, then shall she go out free without
money.” Now, sir, ttie wit of man can’t |
dodge that passage, unless he runs away in
to the Hebrew (great laughter.) For what
does God say ? Why this —that an Israelite
might sell his own daughter, not only into j
servitude, but into polygamy; that the buyer
might, if he pleased, give her to his son fora
wife, or take her to himself. If he took her !
to himself, and she did not please him, he !
should not sell her into a strange nation, but i
should allow her to be redeemed by her i
family. But if he took him another wife, |
before he allowed the first one to be redeem
ed, he should continue to give the first one 1
her food, her raiment, and her duty of mar- :
riage—that is to say, her right to his bed.—
I the did not do these three things, she should j
go out free, i. e., cease to be his slave with- j
out his receiving any money for her.
There, sir, God sanctioned the Iraelite fa- j
thcr in selling his daughter, and the Israelite
man to buy her, into slavery and into poly
gamy. And it was, then, right because God
made it right. In verses 20 and 21, you
have these words: “And if a man smite his
servant or his maid with a rod, and he die
under his hand, he shall be surely punished,
notwithstanding, if he continue aday or two,
he shall not be punished: for he is his mon
ey.” What does this passage mean? Sure
ly, this—if the master gave his slave a hasty
blow with a rod, and he died under his hand,
he should be punished. But if the slave
lived a day or two, it would so extenuate the
act of the master, he should not be punished,
inasmuch as he would be, in that case, suffi
ciently punished in losing his money, in his
slave. Now, sir, I affirm that God was
more lenient to the degraded Hebrew mas
ter, than Southern laws are to the higher I
Southern master in like cases. But there |
you have what was the Divine will. Find
fault with God, ye anti-slavery men, if you j
dare. In Leviticus, chap. 25, vs. 44-40:
“Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids,
which thou shalt have, shall be of the hea
then thatare round aboutyou; of them shall
ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover,
of the children of the strangers that do so
journ among you, of them shall ye buy, and
of their families that are with you, which
they begat in your land; and they shall be j
your possession. And ye shall take them as
an inheritance for your children after you to 1
inherit them for a possession; they shall be
your bondmen forever.”
Sir, I do not see how God could tell us
more plainly, that he did command his peo- |
pie to buy slaves from the heathen round j
about them, and from the stranger, and o 1
their families sojourning among them. The
passage has no other meaning. Did God
merely permit sin? Did he merely tolerate
a dreadful evil ? God does not say so any
where. Pie gives his people law to buy and
hold slaves of the heathen forever, on cer- ]
tain conditions, and to buy and hold Hebrew
slaves in variously modified particulars.—
Well, how did the heathen, then, get slaves
to sell ? Did they capture them in war?—
Did they sell their own children ? Wherever j
they got them, they sold them, and God’s
law gave his people the right to buy them.
God in the New Testament, made no law
prohibiting the relation nf piaster and slave.
But he made law regulating the relation un
der Greek and Roman slavery, which was
the most oppressive in the world.
God saw that these regulations would ul
timately remove the evils in the Greek and
Roman systems; and doit away entirely from
the fitness of things as there existing, for
Greek and Roman slaves for the most part
were the equals in all respects of their mas
ters. yEsop was a slave—Terence was a
slave. The precepts in Colossians, 4 chap
-18 23, 1, Timothy, 6 chap. 1-6, and other
places, show unanswerably that God as real
ly sanctioned the relation of master and slave
as those of husband and wife, an 1 parent
and child ; and that all the obligations of the
moral law and Christ’s law of love might
and must be as truly fulfilled in the one rela
tion as in the other. The fact that he has
made the one set of relations permanent, and
the other more less dependent on the condi
tions of mankind, or to pass away in the ad
vancement of human progress, does not
touch the question. He sanctioned it t:n ler
the Old Testament and the New, and ordains
it now while he sees it best to continue ii>
and he now, as heretofore, proclaims the
duty of the master and the slave. Dr. Par
ker s admirable explanation of Colossians,
and other New Testament passages, saves
me the necessity of saying any thing more on
the Scripture agumenL
One word, on the Detroit resolutions, and
I conclude. Those resolutions of the As.
of dddde that aUvdt-y is gin* un
IVO. 14.
less the master holds his slave as a guardian,
or under the claims of humanity.
Mr. Moderator, I think we had on this
floor yesterday, proof conclusive that those
resolutions mean anything or nothing—that
they are a fine specimen of Northern skill in
platform making—that it put in a plank here
to please this man—a plank there to please
that nmn—a plank for the North—a broad
board for the South. It is Jackson’s judi
i cions tariff. It is a gum-elastic conscience
stretched now to a charity covering all the
1 multitude of our Southern sins; contracted
now, giving us hardly a fig leaf of righteous- .
ness. It is a bowl of punch—
A little sugar to make it sweet,
A little lemon to make it sour,
A little water to make it weak,
A little brandy to give it power.
[LACCHTtR.]
Asa Northern argument against us, it is a
mass of lead, so heavy, that it weighed down
even the strong shoulders of Judge Jessnp.
For, sir, when he closed his speech, I asked
him a single question. I had made ready
for him. It was this—“Do you allow tl at
Mr. Aiken, of South Carolina, may, under
the claims of humanity, hold 3,000 slaves, or
must he emancipate them?” The Judge
staggered, and stammered, and said—“No
man could rightly hold so matly.” I then
asked, “How many may he hold, in human
ity? The Judge saw his fatal dilemma.—
He recovered himself handsomely, and fa;r
ly said. Mr. Aiken might hold 3,000 slaves
in harmony with the Detroit action. I re
plied, “Then, sir, you have surrendered the
whole question of Southern slavery.”—
And, sir, the Judge looked as if he felt he
had surrendered it. And every man in this
house capable of understanding the force of
that question, felt it had shivered the whole
anti-slavery argument, on those resolutions,
to atoms. Why, sir, if a man can hold three
slaves Tvith a right heart, and the approba
tion of God, he may hold thirty, three hun
dred, three thousand, or thirty thousand.—
It is a mere question < f heart, an i capacity
to govern. The Emperor of Russia holds
sixty millions of slaves, and is there a man
in this house so much of a fool, as to say
that God regards the Emperor of Russia a
sinner, because he is the master of sixty mil
lions of slaves.
Sir, that Emperor has certainly a high and
awful responsibility upon him. But if he is
good, as he is great, he is a god of benevo
lence on earth. And so is every Southei n
master. His obligation is high, and great,
and glorious. It is the same obligation, in
kind, he is under to his wife and children,
and in some respects immensely higher by
reason of the number and the tremendous
interests involved for time and eternity, in
connection with this great country, Africa,
and the world. Yes, sir, I know, whether
Southern masters fully know it or not, that
they hold from God, individually and collec
tively, the highest and the noblest responsi
bility ever given by Him to individual pri
vate men on all the face of the earth. For
God has intrusted to them, to train millions
of the most degraded in form and intellect;
but, at the same time, the most gentle, the
most amiable, the most affectionate, the most
imitative, the most susceptible of social and
religious love, of all the races of mankind ;
to train them, and to give them civilization,
and the light and the life of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. And I thank God he has giv
en this great work to that type of the noble
tamily of Japheth, best qualified to do it—to
the cavalier stock—the gentleman and the
lady of England and France, bom to com
mand, and softened and refined under our
Southern sky. May they know and feel and
fulfil their destiny. O may they “know that
they have a master in heaven.”
BASHFUL MAIL
BY MRS. MARY A. DI'XXISOX.
We never saw a genuinely bashful man
who was not the soul of honor. Though
such may blush and stammer, and shrug
their shoulders awkwardly, unable to throw
forth with ease the thoughts tha. they would
express, j-et commend them to us for friends.
There are fine touches in their characters
that time will mellow and bring out; percep
tions as delicate as the faintest tint is to the
unfolded rose; and their thoughts are none
the l‘ v 'S refined and beautiful that they do not
flow with the impetuosity of the shallow
streamlet.
We are astonished that such men are not
appreciated; that ladies with really good
! hearts and cultivated intellects, will reward
! the gallant Sir Mostachio Brainless with
j smiles and attentions, because he can fold a
; shawl gracefully and bandy compliments
with Parisian elegance, while they will not
| condescend to look upon the worthier man
who feels for them a reverence so great that
j his mute glance is worship.
The man who is bashful in the presence of
j ladies, is their defender when the loose tongue
jof the slanderer would defame them; it is
not he who boasts of conquests, or dares to
talk glibly of failings that exist in his imagi
nation a’one; his cheek will flush with re
sentment, his eye flash with anger, to hear
the name of woman coupled with a coarse
oath; and vet he who would die to defend
them is least honored by the majority of our
fairer sex.
Who ever heard of a bashful libertine?
The anomaly was never seen. Ease and ele
gance are his requisites; upon his lips sits
flattery, ready to play court alike to blue
eyes and black ; he is never nonplussed, he
never blushes. For a glance he is in rap
tures ; for a word he would professedly lay
his life. Yet it is he who fills our vile city
dens with wrecks of female purity; it is he
who profanes the holy name of mother, des
olates the shrine where domestic happiness
ii Uutnttd, ruin* thi? ifeart that trusts Jh him