OCR Text |
Show 320 SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. possessor of four thousand-such were the numbers. Tho rights of the owners over this m altitude of human beings was that of life and death, without protection from law or mitigation from public sentiment. The scourge, the cross, the fi sh-pond, the den of the wild beast, and the arena of the gladiator, was the lot of the slave, upon the slightest cxpressiou of the master's will. A law of incredible atrocity made all slaves responsible with their own lives for the life ·or their master; it was tho law that condemned the ""hole household of slaves to death I in case of the assassination of the ma Ler-a law under which as many as four hundred have been executed at a time. And the slaves were the white people of Enrope, and of Asia Minor, the Greeks and other nations, from whom the present inhabitants of the world dcri vo the most valuable productions of the human mind. Christ saw all this-the number of slaves-their helpless condition-and their white color, which was the same with his own ; yet he said nothing against slavery; he 1~ reaebed no doctrines which led to insurrection and massacre; none which, in their application to the staLe of things in our country, would authorize an inferior race of blacks to exterminate that superior race of whites, in whose ranks he himself appeared upon earth. lie preached no such doctrines, Lnt those of a contrary tenor, which inculcated the duty of fidelity and obedience on the part of the slave-humanity and kindness on the part of the master. Ilis apostles did the s::tme. St. Paul sent back a runaway slave, Oncsimus, to his owner, with a letter of apology and snpplication. He was not the man to harbor a runaway, much less to entice him from his master; and least of all, to excite an insurrection. • CITAPTER XI. SESSION OF CONGRESS OF 1839- TIIE GAG RULE-SLAVIm~ AGITATION IN TIIE IIOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND I RETIRING OF SOUTIIELtN MEMBERS FltOM 1'IIE IIAT.L. ' ( Fr01n "Benton's Thirty Years' View.") THE most angry and portentous debate which had yet taken place in Congress, occurred at this time, in the IIouse of Representatives. It was brought on by Mr. William Slade, of V crmont, who, besides presenting petitions of the usual abolition character, and moving to refer them to a committee, moved their reference to a select committee, with instructions to report a bill in conformity to their prayer. ·rhis motion, infiammatot·y nnd irri tating in itself, and wilhout practical lcgislalivc object, as the great majority of the Ilousc was known to he opposed to it, was rendered still more exaspcl'll.ting by the manner of supporting it. 'rhc mover entered into a general disquisition on the subject of slavery, all denunciatory, n.nd was proceeding to speak upou it in the State of Virginia, and other States, in the same spirit, when lVIr. Leg·arc, of South Carolina, interposed, aud hoped the gentleman from V crmont would allow him to make a few remarks before he proceeded further. lie sincerely lloped that the gentleman would consider well what he was about, before he ventured on such ground, and that he would take time to consider what might be its probable conscqueuces. Tie solemnly entreated him to reflect on the possible results of such a course, which in· volved the interests of a nation and a continent. Ho would warn him, not in the language of defiance, which ali 21 (321) |