"These are the judgments, says God to
Moses, which thou shall get before them. If
thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall
serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free
for nothing. If he came in by himself, he
shall go out by himself; if he were married,
then his wile shall go out with him. If his
master has given him a wife and she have
borne him sons and daughters, the wife and
her children shall be her masters, and he
shall go out by himself."
It is a part of history that while the Hebrew
servants became free in the year of jubilee,
others remained in bondage forever. And
the Hebrew servant also had the privilege of
remaining with his master and becoming a
servant forever. We turn to Leviticus for
the law relating to the year of jubilee.
The following plain and explicit words
of one of the laws respecting that trade and
registered in this book, can admit of no other
construction :
"Both thy bondmen and bondmaids, says
the supreme Lawgiver, which thou shalt
have, shall be of the heathen that are around
about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen
and bondmaids. Moreover, of the children
of the strangers that do sojourn 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 your possession.
And ye shall take them as an inheritance for
your children after yon to inherit them for
a possession; they shall be your bondmen
forever." (Lev. 25: 44, 46.)
No such thing as slavery? The gentleman
from Talbot (Mr. Valliant) deliberately put
on paper and deliberately read it as that it
was nothing more than that Abraham was at
the head of a clan, that these people were his
subjects like other princes, and strange us
was the illustration, the princes named by
him were Buonaparte, Queen Victoria, and
Abraham. Lincoln.
In Exodus we find a description of what we
may understand by a slave, that he is prop-
erty. The expression is that he is "money."
"And if a man smite his servant, or his
maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand;
he shall be surely punished.
" Not withstanding, if he continue a day or
two, he shall not be punished: for he is his
money." (Ex. 20: 20, 21.)
If a man cannot claim that as prop-
erty which he considers as his money, I am
at a loss to know what definition can be giv-
en to property. If a man takes from me
that which is my money, the fact is as self
evident as the truth of the proposition in Eu-
clid that things which are equal to the same
thing are equal to each other, that he takes
from me my property. I think it would be
very difficult for any man to sustain the idea
that slaves are not property but are money.
Now I will turn to the New Testament
We we told that there is only a reserve by |
the Saviour and Apostles upon the subject,
because they did not design to interfere with
the civil rights of any class of persons; that
they have maintained silence upon the sub-
ject. In the epistle to Timothy we have pos-
itive injunctions, Rules and laws for the gov-
ernment of Christian persons are prescribed;
and amongst them [not silently passing over]
this question—relation of master and slave.
St. Paul has taken special care to direct what
are the duties of master and slave, their ob-
ligations, and what the Christian system re-
quires at their hands. He says :
" Let as many servants as are under the
yoke, count their own masters as worthy of
all honor, that the name of God and his
doctrine be not blasphemed.
" And they that have believing masters, let
them not despise them, because they are
brethren: but rather do them service, because
they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the
benefit. These things teach and exhort.
" If any man teach otherwise, and consent
not to wholesome words, even the words of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine
which is according to godliness,
" He is proud, knowing nothing, but
doubting about questions and trifles of words,
whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil
surmisings, &c." That these so called servants
were slaves is not denied and cannot be
denied.
' St. Paul, instead of saying that the master
i was committing sin, living in the daily and
hourly exercise of immorality, counted him
worthy of all honor, to be respected; and
if any man should teach otherwise, he puts
censure upon him. It is a class of people
that have been very numerous since those
days. The Helpers will be found there; the
Livermores will be found there; for they
leach a very different doctrine. The aboli-
litionists throughout the country, in this age,
teach them to disobey their masters, and de-
sert their masters, and cut the throats of their
masters. And the production of these au-
thorities here has elicited—[clapping his
hands]—what I never deaired to see in a re-
spectable body like this, marks of gratifica-
tion such as would be exhibited in a play-
house.
This book was written in 1787, in England.
It was not written for the present or any
similar occasion, as my friend tells us that
some of these books, about Jamaica, and oth-
ers, were. He was a learned divine speaking
to the church. Here is what he says of the
epistle of St. Paul to Philemon:
"Philemon, to whom St. Paul addresses
this affectionate epistle was a rich Colossian,
I and a Christian of distinguished merit. The
I character given of him in the first part of this
epistle, represents him as one of the most
zealous and fervent Christians of his time.
His assiduity in promoting the interests of
christianity in quality of fellow laborer with |
