perfect ignorance of what he does. I know
it is perfect ignorance of what the author is.
If Bishop Hopkins, with his venerable locks,
after a walk through a long and active life,
undisturbed by the whisper of slander from
his cradle to his present extended old age,
were lo make his appearance in this hall,
there is not a heart so nearly kindred to stone,
that it would dare to look at the man and
doubt his integrity or his piety. And of his
book I would say, there is not a man here of
so little intellect, in my judgment, that he
can go through it, not with a view to refute
what Bishop Hopkins says, but to consider
calmly what Bishop Hopkins proves from
authorities never doubted or denied, and not
feel ashamed of denouncing slaveholders as
impious men, and the system of slavery
as a "covenant with death and an agree-
ment with hell," as it has been pronounced I
believe upon this floor, or if using such lan-
guage end making such demonstrations as
would be more proper for a mob out of doors
than for members of this body, such clapping
of hands as suited a theatre better than a
deliberative body.
The PRESIDENT. It is not in order for the
gentleman to characterize the remarks of
members.
Mr. CHAMBERS. I merely say that the
language and applause was not proper for
this place.
The PRESIDENT The Chair has always
exerted his power to restrain it.
Mr. ABBOTT. I have been here all the time,
and I have never heard such language and
applause here as is referred to.
Mr. CHAMBERS. The gentleman has not
heard it? Does the gentleman rise here and
say that ?
The PRESIDENT. When there have been
demonstrations of applause in the Conven-
tion, the President has taken occasion, at
all times, when in the chair, to restrain those
demonstrations of applause. The gentlemen
from Kent (Mr. Chambers) will do the Pres-
ident the justice to say that he has at all times
interposed to prevent demonstrations of ap-
plause whether upon one side or the other
Mr. CHAMBERS. That is true; and I shall
be obliged to the President always, if in a
moment of excitement, I use expressions' un-
becoming a member of the Convention.
The PRESIDENT. The Chair did not call the
gentleman to order for using unbecoming
expressions, but for reflecting upon the body
Mr. CHAMBERS. I am indebted to the Chair
and will endeavor to profit by it.
Dr. Clarke is one of those who has been con
sidered as an exponent of the doctrine of the
class of Christians at whose head was John
Wesley. Doctor Clarke is one of the most
violent enemies of the system of slavery that
can be found anywhere, denouncing it on
every occasion. Yet Doctor Clarke does no
at all doubt or deny the gospel texts on the |
subject, or their application. Be gives a cor-
rect note on the text, Deuteronomy 23: 15,
" Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the
servant which is escaped from his master un-
to thee." Doctor Clarke says :
" That is, a servant who left an idola-
trous master, that he might join himself to
God and to his people. In any other case it
would have been injustice to have harbored
the runaway."
That is Doctor Clarke's language. Here
is another passage from the language of Doc-
tor Clarke:
"The main who, being a slave, is converted
to the Christian faith, is the Lord's freeman ;
his condition as a slave does not vitiate any
of the privileges to which he is entitled as a
Christian; on the other hand, all freemen who
receive the grace of Christ, must consider
themselves the slaves of the Lord, that is, his
real property, lo be employed and disposed
of according to his godly wisdom, who,
notwithstanding their state of subjection, will
find the service of their master to be perfect
freedom."
I now turn to the comprehensive commen-
tary, which professes to contain nearly all
that is valuable in Henry, Scott, and Doddridge,
whom my Presbyterian friends will re-
cognize as at the head of their church This
book says:
The Israelites ''might purchase bondmen
of the heathen nations round about them,
(except of the seven nations to be destroyed,)
and might claim a dominion over them, and
entail them on their families, as an inheritance,
for the year of jubilee should give no
discharge to them"
When the assertion was made that all the
slaves were freed by the year of jubilee, I
contradicted it. I said that the Hebrew slaves
went out in the year of jubilee and no others.
But those that became slaves, from the Pagan
nations, never went out in the year of jubi-
lee. There is not a word in the Bible to jus-
tify the idea. Dr. Clarke states this same
thing, in so many words. He proceeds:
"Thus negroes only are used as slaves,
how much to the credit of Christianity I
shall not say."
He was no friend of slavery. He was not
vindicating the system of slavery. But he
was stating what the system of slavery was.
Bishop Hopkins quotes still further from
the comprehensive commentary, and shows
that the Bible doe» not say that slavery is
robbery; and I say that the New Testament
states the contrary, and that slavery is in ac-
cordance with the injunction of the Apostle;
a system of government not only recognized
and not censured, but for the proper adminis-
tration of which they have given many and
repeated rules and regulations. The Apostles
never gave directions to sinners as to the
manner in which they should continue to
offend—nor would they ever prescribe rules |
