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Show George B. Cheever. pa sed and endured, it wa prophe ied we should be,) not knowin()" what to do with the body, endeavoring to Lury and hide the cnrcas' of our a. sa sinatcd Yictim. But. the trampled ()"round, the fre ' h dirt, the very 1 ave matted on the gr:.we, disclo e the crime; neither can we keep a seal upon th' s(' pulchre of the freedom of a rnorally a as inated, but till living and growing, race. '\V c would be glad to keep t.hcm fore vel', provided we could keep them as slaves ; provided we could still harnes and concentrate their energies as chattel', and compel them to drag forward the juggernaut of our political g raHdeur and power; proviued we could limit them to that point, where oppre~ ' ion of them i convenient for oursclve , where we can sen·e our,clvcs of th m, as tliey are, and. pn·Y nt simply their extension to the point of in con,· >n ience, agitation, or intru. ion on the monopoly of free labor for the white . As profitable p1·operty, we like their character, degracl •d, and their color, black; as men, we hate and abhor both the color and the race. But here they a rc. 'Vhat hall we do with them ? It begin to be the perplexity of a hunter with a wolf by the cars; you dare not let him go, you cannot keep him; there is no one to kill him while you l1olcl him. l\Icantime, God's voice thunder , L et mJ' pcopl' go! The Christian Pharaoh in our Egypt an wcr., unuer in. tru ction of theological technicalities about m.alwn in se, vVho 1 ~ the Lord., that I houlu obey his Yoice to let the people go? I know not ~uch a Lord, nor such a theology. I will not let them go. And again God thunder. , IJet my people go ! And, except the company of ~Jnnnes nnd Jambrcs, with thcit mag icians in the AmericaE gyptian Church, turned the claim into ridicule dcn}'in()" its ' b divine origin, even the modern Pharaoh wonlcl come to his sen cs and believe. But the heart i~ hardened more aml more, and . tcp by .. tcp th very proce:. c of cxasperntion and increase in the opprc~ ion arc gone through, by whi ch of olcl the slaveholders drew do\\'n upon themscln! · the \\'bole appointed catalogue of plngnes for- t lwir d<:':;;truct ion. George B. Cheever. But can we let them go with safety? E ven if we could not we have no rjght to k ·ep them; 110 more than a man'K not' Lcing able to give up a . tolen e:tn.t , without reuueing bi. fiunily to pov<•rty, g iv<'s him a right loth robbery, or relea ·cs him from the obi igat ion to re ·tore. But. even thi::-; selfi-;h que;-;tion O(l in bi :-~ me rcy has answer <l; has proYided a m o~t marv ·llou ~, exp li cit, entcgorical nnsw 'r, in the ea ·e oC Brjtish Emancipatiou, the lessons of' which we must solemnly poml '1'. And one of tho"e lesson., from cxp •ricncc as well as of native fundamental principle, is tlti : that to hold th \ e human being' a ' prope rty, and. . till pretend to cck to rai ·e them, until they are, ncconlin()" to our pronouncement, worthy of being set fr(' ',is both an insult and a crime. '\V e call not rai, c them, a. , Ia veE! to fr edom; we cannot rai. e them till we free them, till we acknowledge th ' ir ri ()"ht and our duty and be()"in its " 0 ' 0 performance; till we arc , c ·n . ctting at work the proce. s of Rtriking o{f' their f<:tte rs. It is a vast, terrific libel to say that they owe their sla.v •ry to th •ir animal degradation, wh n we know that they owe the perpct u i ty of their clcgraclat.ion to their being kept in Hlavery, and that every gene ration r etaincu in "ueh slav ry, uncler the pret nee of not Leing pr •par d for freedom, is a generation stolen from the birth. To justify this form of man-. tcalin!!, the indcc<'nt and horriLle maxim or la\' •-law, partus srrpritnr ventrem, is adopted and bapti:wd in the slav 'holding th ·olop:y, and along with it, the mo."t 1ncre( 1iL!c inhumauilics, monstrosit ies, impo~. ibilitics in morals, haYe b •en pre: ' nted to the f;outhern cons i nee, and delibern. t<·ly ace •pted as trutl1 divine, while the plaine t, propositions of' ri g hteo u sn c~~, and requi sitions of the 'Vord of God, have h<' ·n scornfully rej ·ctecl a fanatici:m. It will not. now Le .·trange if God says, (nay; the stra11gcnes will be, if he docs not ay,) Fill yc up, then, the mea urc of your iniquiti ' . In contra t and r ebuke of such ob~t inate atheism and crne1ty, God has given us the glorious example in another nation, of one of the g randest, mo. t unalloy 'd triumphs of Lcnevolencc. anu justice OVCL' Cl'llt'lty a!Hl wrong, or lnpnn,nity l :3 |