signs, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever." 1 And here is the definition supplied by the Civil Code of Louisiana: "A slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, and his labor. He can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but what must belong to his master." "2 In similar spirit the law of Maryland thus indirectly defines a slave as an article: – "In case the personal property of a ward shall consist of specific articles, such as slaves, working beasts, animals of any kind,.... the court, if it shall deem it advantageous for the ward, may at any time pass an order for the sale thereof." & Not to occupy time unnecessarily, I present a summary of the pretended law defining Slavery in all the Slave States, as made by a careful writer, Judge Stroud, in a work of juridical as well as philanthropic merit: "The cardinal principle of Slavery that the slave is not to be ranked among sentient beings, but among things, is an article of property, a chattel personal - obtains as undoubted law in all of these [Slave] States." * Out of this definition, as from a solitary germ, which in its pettiness might be crushed by the hand, towers our Upas Tree and all its gigantic poison. Study it, and you will comprehend the whole monstrous growth. Sir, look at its plain import, and see the relation which it establishes. The slave is held simply for the 1 Statutes at Large of South Carolina, Vol. VII. p. 397, Act No. 670, sec. 1. 2 Civil Code, Art. 25. 8 Laws of Maryland, Acts of 1798, Ch. CI. xii. 12. 4 Stroud, Law relating to Slavery, pp. 22, 23. use of his master, to whose behests his life, liberty, and happiness are devoted, and by whom he may be bartered, leased, mortgaged, bequeathed, invoiced, shipped as cargo, stored as goods, sold on execution, knocked off at public auction, and even staked at the gaming-table on the hazard of a card or a die, all according to law. Nor is there anything, within the limit of life, inflicted 'on a beast, which may not be inflicted on the slave. He may be marked like a hog, branded like a mule, yoked like an ox, hobbled like a horse, driven like an ass, sheared like a sheep, maimed like a cur, and constantly beaten like a brute,—all according to law. And should life itself be taken, what is the remedy? The Law of Slavery, imitating that rule of evidence which in barbarous days and barbarous countries prevented the Christian from testifying against the Mahometan, openly pronounces the incompetency of the whole African race, whether bond or free, to testify against a white man in any case, and thus, after surrendering the slave to all possible outrage, crowns its tyranny by excluding the very testimony through which the bloody cruelty of the Slave-Master might be exposed. Thus in its Law does Slavery paint itself; but it is only when we look at details, and detect its essential elements, five in number, all inspired by a single motive, that its character becomes completely manifest. Foremost, of course, in these elements, is the impossible pretension, where Barbarism is lost in impiety, by which man claims property in man. Against such blasphemy the argument is brief. According to the Law of Nature, written by the same hand that placed the planets in their orbits, and, like them, constituting part of the eternal system of the Universe, every human being has complete title to himself direct from the Almighty. Naked he is born; but this birthright is inseparable from the human form. A man may be poor in this world's goods; but he owns himself. No war or robbery, ancient or recent, no capture-no middle passage, no change of clime, no purchase-money, -no transmission from hand to hand, no matter how many times, and no matter at what price, can defeat this inde-* feasible, God-given franchise. And a divine mandate, strong as that which guards Life, guards Liberty also. Even at the very morning of Creation, when God said, "Let there be Light," - earlier than the malediction against murder, he set the everlasting difference between man and chattel, giving to man "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." "That right we hold By his donation; but man over men He made not lord: such title to himself Slavery tyrannically assumes power which Heaven denied, while, under its barbarous necromancy, borrowed from the Source of Evil, a man is changed into a chattel, a person is withered into a thing, a soul is shrunk into merchandise.. Say, Sir, in lofty madness, that you own the sun, the stars, the moon; but do not say that you own a man, endowed with soul to live immortal, when sun and moon and stars have passed away. Secondly. Slavery paints itself again in its complete abrogation of marriage, recognized as a sacrament by the Church, and as a contract by the civil power, wher 1 Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XII., 68-71. ever civilization prevails. Under the Law of Slavery no such sacrament is respected, and no such contract can exist. The ties formed between slaves are all subject to the selfish interests or more selfish lust of the master, whose license knows no check. Natural affections which have come together are rudely torn asunder: nor is this all. Stripped of every defence, the chastity of a whole race is exposed to violence, while the result is recorded in tell-tale faces of children, glowing with a master's blood, but doomed for their mother's skin to Slavery through descending generations. The Senator from Mississippi [Mr. BROWN], galled by the comparison between Slavery and Polygamy, winces. I hail this sensibility as the sign of virtue. Let him reflect, and he will confess that there are many disgusting elements in Slavery, not present in Polygamy, while the single disgusting element of Polygamy is more than present in Slavery. By license of Polygamy, one man may have many wives, all bound to him by marriage-tie, and in other respects protected by law. By license of Slavery, a whole race is delivered over to prostitution and concubinage, without the protection of any law. Surely, Sir, is not Slavery barbarous ? Thirdly. Slavery paints itself again in its complete abrogation of the parental relation, provided by God in his benevolence for the nurture and education of the human family, and constituting an essential part of Civilization itself. And yet by the Law of Slaveryhappily beginning to be modified in some places — this relation is set at nought, and in its place is substituted the arbitrary control of the master, at whose mere command little children, such as the Saviour called unto him, though clasped by a mother's arms, are swept under the hammer of the auctioneer. I do not dwell on this exhibition. Sir, is not Slavery barbarous ? Fourthly. Slavery paints itself again in closing the gates of knowledge, which are also the shining gates of Civilization. Under its plain, unequivocal law, the bondman, at the unrestrained will of his master, is shut out from all instruction; while in many places-incredible to relate the law itself, by cumulative provisions, positively forbids that he shall be taught to read! Of course the slave cannot be allowed to read: for his soul would then expand in larger air, while he saw the glory of the North Star, and also the helping truth, that God, who made iron, never made a slave; for he would then become familiar with the Scriptures, with the Decalogue still speaking in the thunders of Sinai, — with that ancient text, "He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death"1-with that other text, "Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal," 2with that great story of Redemption, when the Lord raised the slave-born Moses to deliver his chosen people from the house of bondage, — and with that sublimer story, where the Saviour died a cruel death, that all men, without distinction of race, might be saved, leaving to mankind a commandment which, even without his example, makes Slavery impossible. Thus, in order to fasten your manacles upon the slave, you fasten other manacles upon his soul. The ancients maintained Slavery by chains and death: you maintain it by that infinite despotism and monopoly through which human nature itself is degraded. Sir, is not Slavery barbarous ? 1 Exodus, xxi. 16. 2 Colossians, iv. 1. |