OCR Text |
Show 138 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. CIIAPTER III. TllE ARGUMENT FROM TilE SCRIPTURES. IN discussing the arguments of the abolitionists, it was scarcely possible to avoid intimating, to a certain extent, the grounds ou which we intend to vindicate the institution of slavery, as it exists among ns at the South. Btlt these grounds are cntitJca to a more distinct enunciation and t~ a more ample illustration. In the prosecution of this object we shall first advert to the argument from revelation; and, if we mistake not, it will be found that in the foregoing discussion we have been vindicating against aspersion not only the peculiar institution of the Southern States, but also the vet·y legislation of IIcaven itself. § I. The argument from the Old Testament. The ground is taken by Dr. Wayland and other abolitionists, that slavery is always and everywhere, semper et ubique, morally wrong, and should, therefore, be instantly and uni\'cr- ARGUMENT FROM TITE SCRIPTURES. 139 sally swept away. W c point to slavery among the IIebrows, and say, rrhero is au instance in which it was not wrong, because there it received the sanction of the Almighty. Dr. \Vayland chooses to overlook or evade the bearing of that case upon his fundamental position ; and the means by which he seeks to evade its force is one of the grossest fallacies ever invented by the brain of man. Let the reader examine and judge for himself. II ere it is: "Let us reduce this argument to a syllogism, and it will stand thus: Whatever God sanctioned among the Hebrews he sanctions for all men and at all times. God sanctioned slavery among the lie brews; therefore God sanctions slavery for all men and at all times." Now I venture to affirm that no man at the South has ever put fotth so absurd an argument in favor of slavcry,-not only in favor of slavery for the negro race so long as they may remain unfit for freedom, but in favor of slavery for all men and for all times. If such an argument proved any thing, it would, indeed, prove that the white man of the South, no less than the black, might be subjected to bondage. But no one here argues in favor of |