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Show 182 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. but it will not, we assme him, enter into our consciences, until we shall not only become "slave-traders," but also, with a view to the gain of such odious traffic, make war upon freemen. We have undertaken to defend, as we have said, neither" slave-traders," nor" maustealers." We leave them both to the tender mercies of Mr. Sumner. But we have undertaken to defend slavery, that is, the slavery of the South, and to vindicate the character of Southern masters again,st the aspersions of their calumniators. And in this vindication we shrink not from St. Paul's "real judgment of slavery." Nay, we desire, above all things, to have his real j udgment. llis judgment, we mean, not of manstealers or of murderers, but of slavery and slaveholders. W c have just seen "his real judgment" respecting the character of one slaveholder. We have seen it in the very epistle Mr. Sumner is discussing. Why, then, does he fly from St. Paul's opinion of the slaveholder to what he has said of the manstealer and the murderer? We would gather an author's opinion of slavery ft·om what he has said of slavery itself, or of the slaveholder. But this does not seem to suit Mr. Sumner's purpose quite so well. AROUl\IENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 183 Entirely disregarding the apostle's 'opinion of the slaveholder contained in the passage right bcfot·e him, as well as elsewhere, Mr. Sumner infers his "real judgment of slavery" from what he bas said of manstealers and murdcret ·s! lie might just as well have inferred St. Paul's opinion of Philemon from what he has, "on another occasion," said of Judas Iscariot. Mr. Sumner contents himself with "calling attention to two things, apparent on the face" of the epistle itself; and which, iu his opinion, are "in themselves au all-sufficient response." The first of these things is, says he: "Whiie it appears that Onesimus had been iu some way the servant of Philemon, it docs not appear that he had C\'er been held as a slave, much less as a chattel." It docs not appe11r that Onesimus was the slave of Philemon, is the position of the celebrated senatorial abolitionist. We cannot argue this position with him, however, since he has not deigned to give any reasons for it, but chosen to let it rest upon his assertion merely. We shall, thm·eforc, have to argue the point with Mr. Albel't Barnes, and other abolitionists, who have been pleased to attempt to bolster up so novel, so original, and so hold an |