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Show 228 TTIE MISSOURI QUESTION. raised in favor of the African slave trade. A nnivcrsal dis. position has ever been evince.cl to annihilate forever t?is cruel branch of commerce, whiCh 'wc1ls every bosom wtth sorrow; which fills every heart with indignati on. If all the States, in which slavery cxi t, can furni sh one exceptionif lhc slave trade hns ever had one advocate within th e. c walls, let it be proclai mcd to the world! No snch exception docs exist-no such ndvocn.lc can be found. For my own part, in verity I protest, thn.t no person in existence morn detest this nbominaulc traffic in human beings than myself; and I am confid 'nt tha~ cve1? man .whom I represent has the. ame auhor'l't'nt fceltngs 111 relatton to the !:>object. But, sir, the right of CongTc:s to interfere in property of this, n.nd other description, is quite a different question. It wa, originally imposed upon us by the policy of Great Britain; but now we have acquired in it a legitimate propriety ; we have paid for it onr money; we hold it under the slwction of law, and huvc the rio-ht to di spose of it as we plcr.vc. Tho G 'ncrnl Government, if not pledged to gu:uantce to us the enjoyment of it, ccrtniuly hare no ri g-ht, constitutional ot· moral, to wrest it from us. 'lvo hold not ourselves account.ahle to the nalion for the treatment we shall observe, or the disposi lion we shall make of this, more than any other species of p ropcrty, nor will any ?c permit· ted to dictate our conduct therein. N otwithslanding these sentiments, no person can more sincerely lament, than I do, the existence of involuntary servitude in the Uuitcd States; and none wonlu make grcn.tcr personal sacrifices, could I discover a way, in the providence of God, to bring it to an end. We nrc not the only people who hare had slaves ; yes, and slaves of thcit· O\vn complexion. I speak not this to justify the principle, but to rcminl1 you of the fact, that ilavery has cxisteu from the earliest ages of antiquity to the present day. Nor has its existenec been con fined to heathen TilE MISSOURI QUESTION. 229 nations ; both J cws and Christians, believers as well as unbelievers in divine re velat ion, from the patriarchs of God's ancient people to the present time, have be n the proprietors of slave , without one admonition from Ilravcn in the whole book of in. piralion agaiu:t it. The law of Mo.· Ps, delivered by the Almighty himself forth governmrnt of his own chosen raec, recogn ized a complete property in sl:lv<•s. ''Abraham, the fath er of the fai thful," "the fri end of God," had upwards of two hundred born in his own house, whom he trained to war. I saac, the ch ild of promi:c, inherited this property; o.nd Jacob, the prog 'n i tor of the twcl ve tribes of Israel, had bond-men and bond-maids of his own. \Ve even find the same custom to have prevailed with them, which continues to the present day; that when a dn.uo-htct· was given in marriage, she received, as n gift from her father, a maid-servant, and a man-servant was given \Vi lh n. son. Under the uenign inilucnce of the gospel dispensation, no change in this respect is found. rn10 Apo. Lie Paul, in his letters to the churches of Ephesus a.ncl Colosse, and in his instruction to Timothy, dcsi rrnc<l for all Christians, and in all ages, speaking of the relative and reciprocal duties of parents and ch ildrcn, of husbands and wi vcs, never fails io exhort servants or slaves to be obedient to their masters, and masters to deal gently with their slaves. Fidelity, on the part of the slave, and kindness, on the part of the muster, are thus made Christian duties; bnt emancipation is not even hintcu at, as the rio-ht of tho one, or the obligation of the other. Before I leave this part of the subject it may uot be improper to ad. vert to the story of Onesimns ; he was the slave of' Philemon, a disiino- uished Christian minister. One. imus ilcd from his mas- o tcr and went to I'tomc, where, by the in struction of Paul, be was converted to the Chri tiau fai th. Paul found him usc· ful in the cause and desired to retain him in J{.ome; but recognizing the' property of Philemon in him, be had ll· l |