OCR Text |
Show 122 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. raiment. 'rhat is, all men have an equal right to food and raiment, pl'O''i<lecl they will cam 1hcm. Ancl if they will not earn them, cl,oosing to remain idle, improvident, or nuisances to society, then they should he placed under a goverment of force, and compelled to earn them. Again, all men have an equal right to serve God according to the dictates of their own consciences. The poorest slave on earth possesses this right-this inherent and inalienable right; and he possesses it as completely as the prondest monarch on his 1ln·one. lie may choose his own religion, and worship his own God according to his own conscience, provided always he seek not in such service to interfere with the rights of others. But neither the slave nor the freeman has any right to murder, or instigate others to murder, the master, even though he should be ever so firmly persuaded that such is a part of his religious duty. lie has, however, the most absolute aud perfect right to worship the Creator of all men in all ways not inconsistent with the moral law. And wo be to the man by whom such right is denied or set at naught! Snch a one we have never known ; but ·whosoever he may be, or where- A.IUJI:.ME~TS OF ABOLlTIOXISTS. 123 soeYer he may be found, let alltbc abolitionists, we say, hunt bim down. lie is not fit to be a man, much less a Christian master. But, it will he said, the slave has also a right to religious instruction, as well as to food and raiment. So plain a proposition no one doubts. But is this right regard eel at the South? N 0 more, we fear, than in many other portions of the so-called Christian world. Our children too, and our poor, destitute neighbors, oftc1; suffer, we fCar, the same wrong at our remiss hands and f•·om our cold hearts. Though we have done much and would fain do more, yet, the truth must be confessed, this sacred and imperious claim has not been fully met by us. It may be otherwise at the North. There children and poor neighbors, too, may all be trained and taught to the full extent of the moral law. This godlike work may be fully done by our Christian brethren of the North. They certainly have a large surplus of benevolence to bestow on us. But if this glorious work has not been fully done by them then let him who is without sin cast the first 'stone. This simple thought, perhaps, might call ic doubt their 1ight to mil at us, at least with |