The Anti Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4 by American Anti Slavery Society

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This is the amount of my information, and comes in so direct a
channel as leaves no room to doubt its correctness. What our
southern champions will now say to this direct testimony from their
brother planters of the West Indies, of the practicability and
safety of immediate emancipation, remains to be seen. Truly yours."
AMOS TOWNSEND, JUN.

ST. LUCIA.

Saint Lucia.--The Palladium states that affairs are becoming worse every
day with the planters. Their properties are left without labourers to
work them; their buildings broken into, stores and produce stolen,
ground provisions destroyed, stock robbed, and they themselves insulted
and laughed at.

On Saturday night, the Commissary of Police arrived in town from the
third and fourth districts, with some twenty or thirty prisoners, who
had been convicted before the Chief Justice of having assaulted the
police in the execution of their duty, and sent to gaol.

"It has been deemed necessary to call for military aid with a view of
humbling the high and extravagant ideas entertained by the
ex-apprentices upon the independence of their present condition;
thirty-six men of the first West India regiment, and twelve of the
seventy-fourth have been accordingly despatched; the detachment embarked
yesterday on board Mr. Muter's schooner, the Louisa, to land at
Soufriere, and march into the interior."

In both the above cases where the military was called out, the
provocation was given by the white. And in both cases it was afterwards
granted to be needless. Indeed, in the quelling of one of these
factitious rebellions, the prisoners taken were two white men, and one
of them a manager.

* * * * *

THE
CHATTEL PRINCIPLE

THE ABHORRENCE OF
JESUS CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES;
OR
NO REFUGE FOR AMERICAN SLAVERY

IN

THE NEW TESTAMENT.

NEW YORK
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
NO. 143 NASSAU STREET.
1839

_Please read and circulate._

The

NEW TESTAMENT AGAINST SLAVERY.

* * * * *

"THE SON OF MAN IS COME TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THAT WHICH WAS LOST."

Is Jesus Christ in favor of American slavery? In 1776 THOMAS JEFFERSON,
supported by a noble band of patriots and surrounded by the American
people, opened his lips in the authoritative declaration: "We hold these
truths to be SELF-EVIDENT, _that all men are created equal; that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among
these are life, LIBERTY and the pursuit of happiness._" And from the
inmost heart of the multitudes around, and in a strong and clear voice,
broke forth the unanimous and decisive answer: Amen--such truths we do
indeed hold to be self-evident. And animated and sustained by a
declaration, so inspiring and sublime, they rushed to arms, and as the
result of agonizing efforts and dreadful sufferings, achieved under God
the independence of their country. The great truth, whence they derived
light and strength to assert and defend their rights, they made the
foundation of their republic. And in the midst of _this republic_, must
we prove, that He, who was the Truth, did not contradict "the truths"
which He Himself, as their Creator, had made self-evident to mankind?

Is Jesus Christ in favor of American slavery? What, according to those
laws which make it what it is, is American slavery? In the Statute-Book
of South Carolina thus it is written:[A] "Slaves shall be deemed, sold,
taken, reputed and adjudged in law to be _chattels personal_ in the
hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors,
administrators and assigns, to all intents, constructions and purposes
whatever." The very root of American slavery consists in the assumption,
that _law has reduced men to chattels_. But this assumption is, and must
be, a gross falsehood. Men and cattle are separated from each other by
the Creator, immutably, eternally, and by an impassable gulf. To
confound or identify men and cattle must be to _lie_ most wantonly,
impudently, and maliciously. And must we prove, that Jesus Christ is not
in favor of palpable, monstrous falsehood?

[Footnote A: Stroud's Slave Laws, p. 23.]

Is Jesus Christ in favor of American slavery? How can a system, built
upon a stout and impudent denial of self-evident truth--a system of
treating men like cattle--operate? Thomas Jefferson shall answer. Hear
him.[B] "The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual
exercise of the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism
on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. The parent
storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the
same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to his worst
passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, can
not but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a
prodigy, who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such
circumstances." Such is the practical operation of a system, which puts
men and cattle into the same family and treats them alike. And must we
prove, that Jesus Christ is not in favor of a school where the worst
vices in their most hateful forms are systematically and efficiently
taught and practiced?

[Footnote B: Notes on Virginia.]

Is Jesus Christ in favor of American slavery? What, in 1818, did the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian church affirm respecting its nature
and operation?[C] "Slavery creates a paradox in the moral system--it
exhibits rational, accountable, and immortal beings, in such
circumstances as scarcely to leave them the power of moral action. It
exhibits them as dependent on the will of others, whether they shall
receive religious instruction; whether they shall know and worship the
true God; whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the gospel; whether
they shall perform the duties and cherish the endearments of husbands
and wives, parents and children, neighbors and friends; whether they
shall preserve their chastity and purity, or regard the dictates of
justice and humanity. Such are some of the consequences of slavery;
consequences not imaginary, but which connect themselves with its very
existence. The evils to which the slave is _always_ exposed, _often take
place_ in their very worst degree and form; and where all of them do not
take place, still the slave is deprived of his natural rights, degraded
as a human being, and exposed to the danger of passing into the hands of
a master who may inflict upon him all the hardships and injuries which
inhumanity and avarice may suggest." Must we prove, that Jesus Christ is
not in favor of such things?

[Footnote C: Minutes of the General Assembly for 1818, p. 29.]

Is Jesus Christ in favor of American slavery? It is already widely felt
and openly acknowledged at the South, that they can not support slavery
without sustaining the opposition of universal christendom. And Thomas
Jefferson declared, that "he trembled for his country when he reflected,
that God is just; that his justice can not sleep forever; that
considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the
wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events;
that it may become practicable by supernatural influences! The Almighty
has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest."[A] And
must we prove, that Jesus Christ is not in favor of what universal
christendom is impelled to abhor, denounce, and oppose;--is not in favor
of what every attribute of Almighty God is armed against?

[Footnote A: Notes on Virginia]

"YE HAVE DESPISED THE POOR."

It is no man of straw, with whom in making out such proof we are called
to contend. Would to God we had no other antagonist! Would to God that
our labor of love could be regarded as a work of supererogation! But we
may well be ashamed and grieved; to find it necessary to "stop the
mouths" of grave and learned ecclesiastics, who from the heights of Zion
have undertaken to defend the institution of slavery. We speak not now
of those, who amidst the monuments of oppression are engaged in the
sacred vocation; who as ministers of the Gospel can "prophesy smooth
things" to such as pollute the altar of Jehovah with human sacrifices;
nay, who themselves bind the victim and kindle the sacrifice. That
_they_ should put their Savior to the torture, to wring from his lips
something in favor of slavery, is not to be wondered at. They consent to
the murder of the children; can they respect the rights of the Father?
But what shall we say of theological professors at the North--professors
of sacred literature at our oldest divinity schools--who stand up to
defend, both by argument and authority, southern slavery! And from the
Bible! Who, Balaam-like, try a thousand expedients to force from the
mouth of Jehovah a sentence which they know the heart of Jehovah abhors!
Surely we have here something more mischievous and formidable than a man
of straw. More than two years ago, and just before the meeting of the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, appeared an article in the
Biblical Repertory,[A] understood to be from the pen of the Professor of
Sacred Literature at Princeton, in which an effort is made to show, that
slavery, whatever may be said of _any abuses_ of it, is _not a violation
of the precepts of the Gospel_. This article, we are informed, was
industriously and extensively distributed among the members of the
General Assembly--a body of men, who by a frightful majority seemed
already too much disposed to wink at the horrors of slavery. The effect
of the Princeton Apology on the southern mind, we have high authority
for saying, has been most decisive and injurious. It has contributed
greatly to turn the public eye off from the sin--from the inherent and
necessary _evils of slavery_ to incidental evils, which the _abuse_ of
it might be expected to occasion. And how few can be brought to admit,
that whatever abuses may prevail nobody knows where or how, any such
thing is chargeable upon them! Thus our Princeton prophet has done what
he could to lay the southern conscience asleep upon ingenious
perversions of the sacred volume!

[Footnote A: For April, 1836. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church met in the following May, at Pittsburgh, where, in pamphlet form,
this article was distributed. The following appeared upon the
title page:

PITTSBURGH:
1836.
_For gratuitous distribution_.
]

About a year after this, an effort in the same direction was jointly
made by Dr. Fisk and Prof. Stuart. In a letter to a Methodist clergyman,
Mr. Merritt, published in Zion's Herald, Dr. Fisk gives utterance to
such things as the following:--"But that you and the public may see and
_feel_, that you have the ablest and those who are among the honestest
men of this age, arrayed against you, be pleased to notice the following
letter from Prof. Stuart." I wrote to him, knowing as I did his integrity
of purpose, his unflinching regard for truth, as well as his deserved
reputation as a scholar and biblical critic, proposing the following
questions:--

1. Does the New Testament directly or indirectly teach, that slavery
existed in the primitive church?

2. In 1 Tim. vi. 2, And they that have believing masters, &c., what is
the relation expressed or implied between "they" (servants) and
"_believing masters_?" And what are your reasons for the construction of
the passage?

3. What was the character of ancient and eastern slavery?--Especially
what (legal) power did this relation give the master over the slave?

PROFESSOR STUART'S REPLY.

ANDOVER, 10th April, 1837.

REV. AND DEAR SIR,--Yours is before me. A sickness of three months'
standing (typhus fever,) in which I have just escaped death, and
which still confines me to my house, renders it impossible for me to
answer your letter at large.

1. The precepts of the New Testament respecting the demeanor of
slaves and of their masters, beyond all question, recognize the
existence of slavery. The masters are in part "believing masters,"
so that a precept to them, how they are to behave as _masters_,
recognizes that the relation may still exist, _salva fide et salva
ecclesia_, ("without violating the Christian faith or the church.")
Otherwise, Paul had nothing to do but to cut the band asunder at
once. He could not lawfully and properly temporize with a _malum in
se_, ("that which is in itself sin.")

If any one doubts, let him take the case of Paul's sending Onesimus
back to Philemon, with an apology for his running away, and sending
him back to be his servant for life. The relation did exist, may
exist. The _abuse_ of it is the essential and fundamental wrong. Not
that the theory of slavery is in itself right. No; "Love thy
neighbor as thyself," "Do unto others that which ye would that
others should do unto you," decide against this. But the relation
once constituted and continued, is not such a _malum in se_ as calls
for immediate and violent disruption at all hazards. So Paul did
not counsel.

2. 1 Tim. vi. 2, expresses the sentiment, that slaves, who are
Christians and have Christian masters, are not, on that account, and
because _as Christians they are brethren_, to forego the reverence
due to them as masters. That is, the relation of master and slave is
not, as a matter of course, abrogated between all Christians. Nay,
servants should in such a case, a _fortiori_, do their duty
cheerfully. This sentiment lies on the very face of the case. What
the master's duty in such a case may be in respect to _liberation_,
is another question, and one which the apostle does not here
treat of.

3. Every one knows, who is acquainted with Greek or Latin
antiquities, that slavery among heathen nations has ever been more
unqualified and at looser ends than among Christian nations. Slaves
were _property_ in Greece and Rome. That decides all questions about
their _relation_. Their treatment depended, as it does now, on the
temper of their masters. The power of the master over the slave was,
for a long time, that of _life and death_. Horrible cruelties at
length mitigated it. In the apostle's day, it was at least as great
as among us.

After all the spouting and vehemence on this subject, which have
been exhibited, the _good old Book_ remains the same. Paul's conduct
and advice are still safe guides. Paul knew well that Christianity
would ultimately destroy slavery, as it certainly will. He knew too,
that it would destroy monarchy and aristocracy from the earth; for
it is fundamentally a doctrine of _true liberty and equality_. Yet
Paul did not expect slavery or anarchy to be ousted in a day; and
gave precepts to Christians respecting their demeanor _ad interim_.

With sincere and paternal regard,

Your friend and brother,

M. STUART.

* * * * *

--This, sir, is doctrine that will stand, because it is _Bible
doctrine_. The abolitionists, then, are on a wrong course. They have
traveled out of the record; and if they would succeed, they must
take a different position, and approach the subject in a different
manner. Respectfully yours,

W. FISK

"SO THEY WRAP [SNARL] IT UP."

What are we taught here? That in the ecclesiastical organizations which
grew up under the hands of the apostles, slavery was admitted as a
relation, that did not violate the Christian faith; that the relation
may now in like manner exist; that "the abuse of it is the essential and
fundamental wrong;" and, of course, that American Christians may hold
their own brethren in slavery without incurring guilt or inflicting
injury. Thus according to Prof. Stuart, Jesus Christ has not a word to
say against "the peculiar institutions" of the South. If our brethren
there do not "abuse" the privilege of exacting unpaid labor, they may
multiply their slaves to their hearts' content, without exposing
themselves to the frown of the Savior or laying their Christian
character open to the least suspicion. Could any trafficker in human
flesh ask for greater latitude? And to such doctrines, Dr. Fisk eagerly
aid earnestly subscribes. He goes further. He urges it on the attention
of his brethren, as containing important truth, which they ought to
embrace. According to him, it is "_Bible doctrine_," showing, that "the
abolitionists are on a wrong course," and must, "if they would succeed,
take a different position."

We now refer to such distinguished names, to show, that in attempting to
prove that Jeans Christ is not in favor of American slavery, we contend
with something else than a man of straw. The ungrateful task, which a
particular examination of Prof. Stuart's letter lays upon us, we hope
fairly to dispose of in due season.--Enough has now been said, to make
it clear and certain, that American slavery has its apologists and
advocates in the northern pulpit; advocates and apologists, who fall
behind few if any of their brethren in the reputation they have
acquired, the stations they occupy, and the general influence they are
supposed to exert.

Is it so? Did slavery exist in Judea, and among the Jews, in its worst
form, during the Savior's incarnation? If the Jews held slaves, they
must have done so in open and flagrant violation of the letter and the
spirit of the Mosaic Dispensation. Whoever has any doubts of this may
well resolve his doubts in the light of the Argument entitled "The Bible
against Slavery." If, after a careful and thorough examination of that
article, he can believe that slaveholding prevailed during the ministry
of Jesus Christ among the Jews and in accordance with the authority of
Moses, he would do the reading public an important service to record the
grounds of his belief--especially in a fair and full refutation of that
Argument. Till that is done, we hold ourselves excused from attempting
to prove what we now repeat, that if the Jews during our Savior's
incarnation held slaves, they must have done so in open and flagrant
violation of the letter and the spirit of the Mosaic Dispensation. Could
Christ and the Apostles every where among their countrymen come in
contact with slaveholding, being as it was a gross violation of that law
which their office and their profession required them to honor and
enforce, without exposing and condemning it.

In its worst forms, we are told, slavery prevailed over the whole world,
not excepting Judea. As, according to such ecclesiastics as Stuart,
Hodge, and Fisk, slavery in itself is not bad at all, the term "_worst_"
could be applied only to "_abuses_" of this innocent relation. Slavery
accordingly existed among the Jews, disfigured and disgraced by the
"worst abuses" to which it is liable. These abuses in the ancient world,
Prof. Stuart describes as "horrible cruelties." And in our own country,
such abuses have grown so rank, as to lead a distinguished
eye-witness--no less a philosopher and statesman than Thomas
Jefferson--to say, that they had armed against us every attribute of the
Almighty. With these things the Savior every where came in contact,
among the people to whose improvement and salvation he devoted his
living powers, and yet not a word, not a syllable, in exposure and
condemnation of such "horrible cruelties," escaped his lips! He
saw--among the "covenant people" of Jehovah he saw, the babe plucked
from the bosom of its mother; the wife torn from the embrace of her
husband; the daughter driven to the market by the scourge of her own
father;--he saw the word of God sealed up from those who, of all men,
were especially entitled to its enlightening, quickening
influence;--nay, he saw men beaten for kneeling before the throne of
heavenly mercy;--such things he saw without a word of admonition or
reproof! No sympathy with them who suffered wrong--no indignation at
them who inflicted wrong, moved his heart!

From the alledged silence of the Savior, when in contact with slavery
among the Jews, our divines infer, that it is quite consistent with
Christianity. And they affirm, that he saw it in its worst forms; that
is, he witnessed what Prof. Stuart ventures to call "horrible
cruelties." But what right have these interpreters of the sacred volume
to regard any form of slavery which the Savior found, as "worst," or
even bad? According to their inference--which they would thrust gag-wise
into the mouths of abolitionists--his silence should seal up their lips.
They ought to hold their tongues. They have no right to call any form of
slavery bad--an abuse; much less, horribly cruel! Their inference is
broad enough to protect the most brutal driver amidst his deadliest
inflictions!

"THINK NOT THAT I AM COME TO DESTROY THE LAW OR THE PROPHETS; I AM NOT
COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFILL."

And did the Head of the new dispensation, then, fall so far behind the
prophets of the old in a hearty and effective regard for suffering
humanity? The forms of oppression which they witnessed, excited their
compassion and aroused their indignation. In terms the most pointed and
powerful, they exposed, denounced, threatened. They could not endure the
creatures, who "used their neighbors' service without wages, and gave
him not for his work;"[A] who imposed "heavy burdens"[B] upon their
fellows, and loaded them with "the bands of wickedness;" who, "hiding
themselves from their own flesh," disowned their own mothers' children.
Professions of piety, joined with the oppression of the poor, they held
up to universal scorn and execration, as the dregs of hypocrisy. They
warned the creature of such professions, that he could escape the wrath
of Jehovah only by heartfelt repentance. And yet, according to the
ecclesiastics with whom we have to do, the Lord of these prophets passed
by in silence just such enormities as he commanded them to expose and
denounce! Every where, he came in contact with slavery in its worst
forms--"horrible cruelties" forced themselves upon his notice; but not a
word of rebuke or warning did he utter. He saw "a boy given for a
harlot, and a girl sold for wine, that they might drink,"[C] without the
slightest feeling of displeasure, or any mark of disapprobation! To such
disgusting and horrible conclusions, do the arguings which, from the
haunts of sacred literature, are inflictcd on our churches, lead us!
According to them, Jesus Christ, instead of shining as the light of the
world, extinguished the torches which his own prophets had kindled, and
plunged mankind into the palpable darkness of a starless midnight! O
Savior, in pity to thy suffering people, let thy temple be no longer
used as a "den of thieves!"

[Footnote A: Jeremiah xxii. 13.]

[Footnote B: Isaiah lviii. 6,7.]

[Footnote C: Joel iii. 3.]

"THOU THOUGHTEST THAT I WAS ALTOGETHER SUCH AN ONE AS THYSELF."

In passing by the worst forms of slavery, with which he every where came
in contact among the Jews, the Savior must have been inconsistent with
himself. He was commissioned to preach glad tidings to the poor; to heal
the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the captives; to set at
liberty them that are bruised; to preach the year of Jubilee. In
accordance with this commission, he bound himself, from the earliest
date of his incarnation, to the poor, by the strongest ties; himself
"had not where to lay his head;" he exposed himself to misrepresentation
and abuse for his affectionate intercourse with the outcasts of society;
he stood up as the advocate of the widow, denouncing and dooming the
heartless ecclesiastics, who had made her bereavement a source of gain;
and in describing the scenes of the final judgment, he selected the very
personification of poverty, disease, and oppression, as the test by
which our regard for him should be determined. To the poor and wretched;
to the degraded and despised, his arms were ever open. They had his
tenderest sympathies. They had his warmest love. His heart's blood he
poured out upon the ground for the human family, reduced to the deepest
degradation, and exposed to the heaviest inflictions, as the slaves of
the grand usurper. And yet, according to our ecclesiastics, that class
of sufferers who had been reduced immeasurably below every other shape
and form of degradation and distress; who had been most rudely thrust
out of the family of Adam, and forced to herd with swine; who, without
the slightest offense, had been made the foot-stool of the worst
criminals; whose "tears were their meat night and day," while, under
nameless insults and killing injuries, they were continually crying, O
Lord, O Lord:--this class of sufferers, and this alone, our biblical
expositors, occupying the high places of sacred literature, would make
us believe the compassionate Savior coldly overlooked. Not an emotion of
pity; not a look of sympathy; not a word of consolation, did his
gracious heart prompt him to bestow upon them! He denounces damnation
upon the devourer of the widow's house. But the monster, whose trade it
is to make widows and devour them and their babes, he can calmly endure!
O Savior, when wilt thou stop the mouths of such blasphemers!