Three Prize Essays on American Slavery Part 1

Three Prize Essays on American Slavery.

by R. B. Thurston and A.C. Baldwin and Timothy Williston.

PREMIUM OFFERED.

A benevolent individual, who has numerous friends and acquaintances both North and South, and who has had peculiar opportunities for learning the state and condition of all sections of the nation, perceiving the danger of our national Inst.i.tutions, and deeply impressed with a sense of the importance, in this time of peril, of harmonizing Christian men through the country, by kind yet faithful exhibitions of truth on the subject now agitating the whole community, offered a premium of $100 for the best Essay on the subject of Slavery, fitted to influence the great body of Christians through the land.

The call was soon responded to by nearly fifty writers, whose ma.n.u.scripts were examined by the distinguished committee appointed by the Donor, whose award has been made, as their certificate, here annexed, will show.

PREMIUM AWARDED.

The undersigned, appointed a Committee to award a premium of one hundred dollars, offered by a benevolent individual, for the best Essay on the subject of Slavery, "adapted to receive the approbation of Evangelical Christians generally," have had under examination more than forty competing ma.n.u.scripts, a large number of them written with much ability.

They have decided to award the prize to the author of the Essay ent.i.tled, "_The Error and the Duty in regard to Slavery_," whom they find, on opening the accompanying envelope, to be the Rev. R. B.

THURSTON, of Chicopee Falls, Ma.s.s.

They would also commend to the attention of the public, two of the remaining tracts, selected by the individual who offered the prize, and for which he and others interested have given a prize of one hundred dollars each. One of these is ent.i.tled, "_Friendly Letters to a Christian Slave-holder_," by Rev. A. C. BALDWIN, of Durham, Conn.; the other, "_Is American Slavery an Inst.i.tution which Christianity sanctions and will perpetuate?_" by Rev. TIMOTHY WILLISTON, of Strongsville, Ohio.

ASA D. SMITH, MARK HOPKINS, THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN.

_May, 1857._

THE ERROR AND THE DUTY

IN

REGARD TO SLAVERY.

BY

REV. R. B. THURSTON.

The great and agitating question of our country is that concerning slavery. Beneath the whole subject there lies of course some simple truth, for all fundamental truth is simple, which will be readily accepted by patriotic and Christian minds, when it is clearly perceived and discreetly applied. It is the design of these pages to exhibit this truth, and to show that it is a foundation for a union of sentiment and action on the part of good men, by which, under the divine blessing, our threatening controversies, North and South, may be happily terminated.

To avoid misapprehension, let it be noticed that we shall examine the central claim of slavery, first, as a legal inst.i.tution; afterwards, the moral relations of individuals connected with it will be considered. In that examination the term _property, as possessed in men_, will be used in the specific sense which is given to it by the slave laws and the practical operation of the system. No other sense is relevant to the discussion. The property of the father in the services of the son, of the master in the labor of the apprentice, of the State in the forced toil of the convict, is not in question. None of these relations creates slavery as such; and they should not be allowed, as has sometimes been done, to obscure the argument.

The limits of a brief tract on a great subject compel us to pa.s.s unnoticed many questions which will occur to a thoughtful mind. It is believed that they all find their solution in our fundamental positions; and that all pa.s.sages of the Bible relating to the general subject, when faithfully interpreted in their real harmony, sustain these positions.

It is admitted that the following argument is unsound if it does not provide for every logical and practical exigency.

The primary truth which is now to be established may be thus stated: _All men are invested by the Creator with a common right to hold property in inferior things; but they have no such right to hold property in men._

Christians agree that G.o.d as the Creator is the original proprietor of all things, and that he has absolute right to dispose of all things according to his pleasure. This right he never relinquishes, but a.s.serts in his word and exercises in his providence. The Bible speaks thus: "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein, for he hath founded it. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture"--ourselves, therefore, subject to his possession and disposal as the feeble flock to us. Even irreligious men often testify to this truth, confessing the hand of providence in natural events that despoil them of their wealth.

Now, under his own supreme control, G.o.d has given to all men equally a dependent and limited right of property. _Given_ is the word repeatedly chosen by inspiration in this connection. "The heavens are the Lord's, but the earth hath he _given_ to the children of men." In Eden he blessed the first human pair, and said to them, in behalf of the race, "Replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Behold, I have _given_ you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed." This, then, is the original and permanent ground of man's t.i.tle to property; and the important fact to be observed is the _specific divine grant_. The right of all men equally to own property is the positive inst.i.tution of the Creator. We all alike hold our possessions by his authentic warrant, his deed of conveyance.

Let us be understood here. We are not educing from the Bible a doctrine which would level society, by giving to all men equal shares of property; but a doctrine which extends equal divine protection over the right of every man to hold that amount of property which he earns by his own faculties, in consistency with all divine statutes.

This right is indeed argued from nature; and justly; for G.o.d's revelations in nature and in his word coincide. It is, however, a right of so much consequence to the world, that, where nature leaves it, he incorporates it, and gives it the force of a law; so that in the sequel we can with propriety speak of it as a law, as well as an inst.i.tution.

To the believer in the Bible, this law is the end of argument.

It will have weight with some minds to state that this position is supported by the highest legal authority. In his Commentaries on the Laws of England, Blackstone quotes the primeval grant of G.o.d, and then remarks, "This is the only true and solid foundation of man's dominion over external things, whatever airy metaphysical notions may have been started by fanciful writers upon this subject. The earth, therefore, and all things therein, are the general property of all mankind, exclusive of other beings, from the immediate gift of the Creator."[A]

It will enhance the force of this argument to remember that this universal right of property is one of what may be called a sacred trinity of paradisaical inst.i.tutions. These inst.i.tutions are the Sabbath, appointed in regard for our relations to G.o.d as moral beings; marriage, ordained for our welfare as members of a successive race; and the right of property, conferred to meet our necessities as dwellers on this material globe. These three are the world's inheritance from lost Eden. They were received by the first father in behalf of all his posterity. They were designed for all men as men. It is demonstrable that they are indispensable, that the world may become Paradise Regained. "Property, marriage, and religion have been called the pillars of society;" and the first is of equal importance with the other two; for all progress in domestic felicity and in religious culture depends on property, and also on the equitable distribution or possession of property, as one of its essential conditions. Property lies in the foundation of every happy home, however humble; and property gilds the pinnacle of every consecrated temple. The wise and impartial Disposer, therefore, makes the endowments of his creatures equal with their responsibilities: to all those on whom he lays the obligations of religion and of the family state, he gives the right of holding the property on which the dwelling and the sanctuary must be founded. It is a sacred right, a divine invest.i.ture, bearing the date of the creation and the seal of the Creator.

The blessing of this inst.i.tution, like that of the Sabbath and of the family, has indeed been shattered by the fall of man; but when G.o.d said to Noah and his sons, concerning the inferior creatures, "Into your hand are they delivered; even as the green herb have I given you all things,"

it was reestablished and consecrated anew. The Psalmist repeated the a.s.surance to the world when he wrote, "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hand; thou hast put all things under his feet."

We now advance to the second part of our proposition. Men have no such right to hold property in men. Since the right is from G.o.d, it follows immediately that they can hold in ownership, by a divine t.i.tle, only what he has given. But he has not given to men, as men, a right of ownership in men. No one will contend for a moment that the universal grant above considered confers upon them mutual dominion, or rightful property in their species. The idea is not in the terms; it is nowhere in the Bible; it is not in nature; it is repugnant to common sense; it would resolve the race into the absurd and terrific relation of antagonists, struggling, each one for the mastery of his own estate in another,--I, for the possession of my right in you; and you, for yours in me. Nay, the very act of ent.i.tling all men to hold property proves the exemption of all, by the divine will, from the condition of property. The idea that a man can be an article of property and an owner of property by the same supreme warrant is contradictory and absurd.

We now have sure ground for objecting to the system of American slavery, as such. It is directly opposed to the original, authoritative inst.i.tution of Jehovah. He gives men the right to hold property. Slavery strips them of the divine invest.i.ture. He gives men dominion over inferior creatures. Slavery makes them share the subjection of the brute. That slavery does this, the laws of the States in which it exists abundantly declare. Slaves are "chattels," "estate personal."

Slave-holders a.s.sembled in convention solemnly affirm in view of northern agitation of the subject, that "masters have the same right to their slaves which they have to any other property."

This a.s.serted and exercised right is the vital principle and substance of the inst.i.tution. It is the central delusion and transgression; and the evils of the system to white and black are its legitimate consequences. The legal and the leading idea concerning slaves is that they are property: of course, the idea that they are men, invested with the rights of men, practically sinks; and, from the premise that they are property, the conclusion is logical that they may be treated as property. Why should _property_, contrary to the interests of the proprietor, be exempt from sale, receive instruction, give testimony in court, hold estate, preserve family ties, be loved as the owner loves himself, in fine, enjoy all or any of the "inalienable rights" of _man_?

It is because they are held as property, that slaves are sold; because they are property, families are torn asunder; because they are property, instruction is denied them; because they are property, the law, and the public sentiment that makes the law, crush them as men.

We do not here call in question the mitigations with which Christian masters temper into mildness the hard working of an evil system. Those mitigations do not, however, logically or morally defend slavery. Nay, they condemn it; for they are practical tributes to the fact that the laws of humanity, not of property, are binding in respect to the slaves.

Hence they really show the inherent inconsistency of the idea, and the unrighteousness of the system which regards men as property.

Notwithstanding those mitigations, the system itself, like every wrong system, produces characteristic evils, which can be prevented only by removing their cause, the false doctrine that men can be rightfully held in ownership. Fallen as man is, no prophet was needed to foretell at the first the dreadful facts that have been recorded in the bitter history of man's claim of property in man. Such a history must always be a scroll written within and without with lamentations and mourning and woe. Man is not a safe depositary of such power. A human inst.i.tution which subverts a divine inst.i.tution, and which carries with it the a.s.sumption of a divine prerogative in const.i.tuting a new species of property, naturally saps the foundations of every other divine inst.i.tution and law which stands in its way. Hence, for example, the fall of the domestic inst.i.tution before that of slavery.

The inherent wrongfulness of American slavery as a legal and social inst.i.tution is therefore clearly demonstrated. It formally abolishes by law and usage a divine inst.i.tution. Hence, in its practical operation, it sets aside other divine inst.i.tutions and laws. Consequently it stands in the same relations to the divine government with the abolition of the Sabbath by infidel France, and with the perversion of the family inst.i.tution by the Mormon territory of Utah.

Here the fundamental argument from the Bible rests. But slavery justifies itself by the Bible. It becomes essential, therefore, to examine the validness of this justification.

There are but two possible ways of avoiding the conclusion that has been reached. To vindicate slavery it must be proved, first, that G.o.d has abolished the original inst.i.tution, conferring on men universally the right to hold property; or, secondly, it must be proved, that, while he has by special enactments taken away from a portion of mankind the right to hold property, he has given to other men the right to hold the former as property. Further, to justify American slavery, it must be shown that these special enactments include the African race and the American States.

In regard to the first point we simply remark, it is morally impossible that G.o.d should permanently and generally abolish the original inst.i.tution concerning property; because, as in the case of its coevals, the Sabbath and marriage, the reason for it is permanent and unchangeable, and "lex stat dum ratio manet," the law stands while the reason remains. Moreover, there is not a word of such repeal in the Bible. That inst.i.tution, therefore, is still a charter of rights for the children of men. Till it is a.s.sailed, more need not be said.

As to the second point, we believe that careful investigation will prove conclusively, that no special enactments are now in force which arrest or modify the inst.i.tutions of Eden, in regard to any state or any persons. It will, then, remain demonstrated, that the legal system of slavery exists utterly without warrant of the Holy Scriptures, and in defiance of the authority of the Creator. The word of G.o.d is throughout consistent.

It is here freely admitted, that G.o.d can arrest the operation of general laws by special statutes. He can take away from men the right to hold property which he has given, and, if he please, const.i.tute them the property of other men. It is, in this respect, as it is with life. G.o.d can take what he gives. If, then, he has given authority to individuals or to nations to hold others as property, they may do so. Nay, more; if their commission is imperative, they must do so. But such an act of G.o.d creates an exception to his own fundamental law, and, like all _exceptions_, conveys its own restrictions, and _proves the rule_. It imposes no yoke, save upon those appointed to subjugation. It confers no authority, save upon those specifically invested with it. They are bound to keep absolutely within the prescribed terms, and no others can innocently seize their delegated dominion. Outside of the excepted parties the universal law has sway unimpaired. It is in this instance as it is in regard to marriage. G.o.d permitted the patriarchs to multiply their wives; but monogamy is now a sacred inst.i.tution for the world. So the supreme Disposer can make a slave, or a nation of slaves; and the world shall be even the more solemnly bound by the original inst.i.tutes concerning property. It follows, without a chasm in the argument, or a doubtful step, that, when persons or States reduce men to the condition of chattels, _without divine authorization_, they are guilty of subverting a divine inst.i.tution; and, since it is the prerogative of G.o.d to determine what shall be property, they are chargeable with a presumptuous usurpation of divine prerogative, in making property, so far as human force and law can do it, of those whom Jehovah has created in his own image, and invested with all the original rights of men.

The soundness of the principle contained in these remarks, both in law and in biblical interpretation, will not be questioned. In the light of it, let us examine briefly the justifications of slavery as derived from the Bible. Happily the principle itself saves the labor of minute and protracted criticism.

We first consider the curse p.r.o.nounced upon Canaan by Noah. Admitting all that is necessary to the support of slavery, namely, that that curse const.i.tuted the descendants of _Canaan_ the property of some other tribe or people, upon whom it conferred the right of holding them as property, yet even so this pa.s.sage does not justify but condemns American slavery; for that curse does not touch the African race: _they are not descendants of Canaan_;[B] and it gives no rights to American States.

In later times the Canaanites were devoted to destruction for their sins. The Hebrews were the agents appointed by Jehovah to this work of retribution. It was not, however, accomplished in their entire extermination. In the case of the Gibeonites it was formally commuted to servitude, and other nations occupying the promised land were made tributary. Thus the curse upon Canaan was fulfilled by _authorized executioners_ of divine justice.

What light does the whole history now throw upon slavery? It is plain the curse was a judicial act of G.o.d concerning Canaan. It follows that conquest with extermination or servitude was a judgment of G.o.d, which he appointed his chosen people to execute. It follows further, that those, who, without his commission, reduce to bondage men who are not descendants of Canaan, do inflict a curse on those whom he has not cursed; and thus virtually a.s.sume his most awful prerogative as the Judge of guilty nations.