BONDAGE A MORAL INSTITUTION, SANCTIONED BY THE SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS AND THE PREACHING AND PRACTICE OF THE SAVIOUR AND HIS APOSTLES. BY A SOUTHERN FARMER. Abraham, the father of the faithful and the friend of God and man was a slave The best man that the Saviour found in all Israel was a slave-owner. Matt. 8; 10. E449 857 To the honest YEOMANRY of the Southern States, the following pages are dedicated by their fellow-citizen. THE AUTHOR. [COPY RIGHT SECURED.] BONDAGE A MORAL INSTITUTION. WHEN the destiny of millions is suspended on the adoption of a sentiment said to be moral, it becomes the duty of the most humble citizen to enquire whether indeed it be founded on truth. That such a sentiment pervades our country, is obvious to all who have read the moral essays of the Abolitionists, and marked their unhallowed influence on the minds of the credulous. No circumstances however delicate, nor events however perilous, have prevented them from affirming that "neither the New-Testament Scriptures, nor the preaching and practice of our Lord and his Apostles will justify slavery." Nor have they been idle in their efforts to secure the patronage of the virtuous and talented in the publicity of the sentiment. The Press has announced it as sacred truth-the minister of God has hailed it as the messenger of Heaven to the slave; and the Statesman has laid it on the Altar of his country, invoking the genius of Liberty to sanctify the offering. Under such circumstances, modesty would seem to forbid the humble farmer to utter a word; but viewing the sentiment as a reflection on the wisdom and piety of our fathers who framed the Constitutional 320283 Compact cr our country, he could not subscribe to the sanctity of its character, until he had searched the Scriptures and found it written in letters intelligible. He has searched them most carefully and the result of his researches is offered to the public in the following pages. In the adoption of the sentiment "neither the New Testament Scriptures, nor the preaching and practice of our Lord and his Apostles, will justify slavery," the votaries of emancipation seem to have lost sight of the conflict with which it involves the moral laws of the Old and New Testaments. The words are so arranged as to admit the conclusion, that the Old Testament Scriptures do justify slavery; and if according to their declarations, "Slavery is a moral evil, for which humanity blushes and the angel of mercy weeps" then the moral law of the Old Testament sanctions a moral evil, which humanity, mercy and the New Testament Scriptures condemn. Nor does the absurdity of the sentiment rest here-it implies that the HOLY TRIUNE GOD who inspired the patriarchs and prophets with the purest principles of piety, did not only permit them to live in the perpetration of the moral evil, but decreed, that for "the poor unfortunate slave," the dictates of humanity should not be felt, nor the voice of mercy heard, until the days of the Abolitionists: for Abraham, with all his sterling virtues and holy faith, seemed to have been a stranger to the warm pulsations of that humanity with which their bosoms throb; and the angel of mercy who permited him to bequeath his bond-servants to Isaac and sustained his immortal spirit in its last conflict, must either have forgotton to admonish the Patri arch of the wicked deed, or reserved for the present generation, the more melting sounds of his voice: strange divinity this, but it is as plainly written in the moral essays of the Abolitionists, as the perpetual bondage of the descendants of Ham is revealed and sanctioned in the Holy Scriptures. Moses, we are told, possessed in an eminent degree the principles of philanthropy. He communed with his maker, and on the Holy Mount where he was consecrated the first Law-giver of the human family, received such instructions as INFINITE WISDOM perceived would best promote their present and future happiness. And did he grant unto the Israelites the moral right to hold the descendants of Ham in bondage? Hear his words: "And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying: if thy brother that dwelleth by thee, be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant; but as a hiredservant, and a sojourner, he shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubilee; and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids which thou} shalt have, shall be of the Heathen that are round 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 you 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 you, to inherit for a possession; they shall be your |