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Page 11
SECTION V.
Abolitionists may affect as much sanctity and philanthropy, as they
please, and pile their maledictions and execrations on the heads of
slave holders mountain high! They can call them murderers, thieves and
robbers to their hearts content! They can anathematize better men than
themselves; and denounce slavery as a curse, an evil, a hardship! They
can call slavery by what name they choose! For it matters but little
what they call it; nor what it really is; nor in what it originated;
nor yet, what perpetuates it; nor what our feelings and views may be;
for slavery exists in our midst; and has existed in our world as a
civil institution, for more than three thousand years: and when God in
his amazing condescension, unbounded benevolence, and infinite mercy
vouchsafed to us a revelation of his will; he informed us in language
clear and explicit, how we should treat it. The duties and obligations
of ministers, and churches--of masters and servants, are unfolded and
enforced in the Sacred Record; and he that errs, is without excuse.
"But men have become wise above what is written." God, alone, was
competent to decide what was best for masters and servants,
individuals, and nations. We are all the work of his hands, and it is
his prerogative to dictate to us laws for the guidance and regulation
of our conduct. Those, then, who receive the Bible as a revelation of
the will of God, and take it as their guide and counsellor; cannot
consistently do otherwise, than to treat slavery and slaveholders in
accordance with its clear and unmistakable injunctions, warnings and
admonitions, a precept or practice from the Sacred Oracles, is
practical infidelity; and I here, openly and boldly assert, that no
intelligent man, who reads and believes the Bible to be the word of
God, ever did, or ever will embrace the extreme views of the abolition
party in the United States. No! It is impossible: for they are in
direct opposition to the plainest declarations of the inspired
writers--to the whole spirit and tenor of the Sacred Volume. I care
not on whom this may fall; nor where it falls, it is true. I am well
aware, that nine tenths of mankind, neither read nor think for
themselves--particularly on subjects that relate to their duties and
obligations to their Creator, or their fellow creatures! No! They
suffer others to read and think for them; and by the by, they too
often commit their consciences, and their souls, to the keeping of
those whose object is to secure the fleece, though the devil take the
flock!
I have said that God, alone, was competent to decide what was best
under the circumstances for masters and servants, individuals and
nations. I have clearly shown in the following chapters, that as
masters and servants, and as a nation we cannot do better, than to
faithfully observe and carry out the injunctions of Holy Writ--that
the best interests of all concerned will be subserved thereby--that
there is no other safe and practicable course--that the Bible, and the
Bible alone, is a safe and sure guide in this emergency. We "may bite
and devour each other;" speculate, wrangle and contend to no purpose.
No good will ever grow out of it. I have shown that nothing is likely
to mitigate the evils of slavery--or rather, its abuses; or in any
reasonable time bring about its abolition, but a rigid adherence on
the part of masters and servants, to the duties and obligations
imposed on them in the Sacred Volume. That it is the duty of servants
to love, serve and obey their masters, and that it is the duty of
masters to enlighten the minds and elevate the characters of their
slaves--to prepare them for self government and the enjoyment of
liberty, and then to colonize them.
And I flatter myself, that I have clearly and indisputably
demonstrated, that the African race in this country, are not yet
prepared for freedom--and that they cannot enjoy freedom in our midst,
provided they were prepared for it--and consequently that the African
derives no benefit from emancipation if he remain among us. Hence, the
propriety of manumitting slaves is, to say the least, doubtful, unless
they are colonized. Every man of truth and candor, who is acquainted
with the condition of slaves and free negroes, North and South, must
admit, that the conditions of slaves is better, than that of free
negroes.
Mrs. Stowe has labored hard to prove that there are evils and abuses
in the treatment of slaves in the Southern States; but then she would
have us substitute greater evils for lesser--according to the old
proverb, "out of the frying pan into the fire." Many of the Southern
people as deeply deplore these evils, and are as fully impressed with
the necessity of removing them, as Mrs. Stowe or any one else; but
hitherto they have been unable to decide upon any plan by which these
evils could be removed--except, at least, to a very limited extent.
They knew well, that if they manumitted their slaves, it would involve
both the slaves and themselves in greater evils than African slavery
itself, as it exists in the Southern States.
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