free? These, and kindred inquiries, have hitherto baffled all our wisdom. It may do something towards answering them, if we can settle the grand preliminary question whether slavery is right or wrong; an evil per se, or only an evil incidentally and by abuse; a good institution which God designs to be perpetuated, or an institution which he regards as evil, and which he designs that the principles of his religion and his own Providential dealings shall ultimately destroy.

In the examination of this subject, on which I propose now to enter, the appeal will be made wholly to the Bible, for the following reasons:

1. The Bible is the acknowledged standard of morals in this nation. To an extent wholly unknown in other lands, it is allowed here to settle all questions of right and wrong, and its decisions, when clearly ascertained, are conceded to be final. It is not indeed directly made the basis of legislation, and it cannot be denied that there are departures from its principles in many practical views which prevail, yet still it maintains an ascendency on all questions of morals which no other book can acquire, and which, by the mass of this nation, will be conceded to no other authority whatever. There are few writers on morals, and probably none of reputation, who would undertake to defend a position that was plainly against the teachings of the Bible. It may be safely affirmed that there is not a legislative body that would take the ground of openly legislating against the Bible; there is not a judge on any bench who would pronounce a decision that would be clearly contrary to a principle laid down in the Sacred Scriptures; there is not a department of government that would not admit that if the Bible has settled a question, it is final. It is to be regarded as an elementary principle in the questions which come before the public mind in this nation, that on subjects in relation to which there are clear principles in that book, the intellect, and the heart, and the laws of this great people will bow reverently before that high authority. It is proper therefore to bring this question before this admit

ted standard in morals, and I shall regard it as a safe position, that if the people of this nation were convinced that slavery is contrary to the Bible, they would at once institute a train of measures which would effectually remove the evil. We may carry a clear decision of the Bible to any class of our citizens, expecting that the authority will be respected, and that the obligation to obey it will be conceded. This sentiment is recognised at the South as well as at the North; and by candid men there as well as elsewhere it is admitted that, if slavery is contrary to the Bible, it must be abandoned. Thus it is said in the Southern Quarterly Review, for October, 1845, p. 334, "Greatly the most important view of the subject [slavery] is the religious one. For assuredly if slavery be adjudged a sin, if it be condemned by the revealed will of God, then in Christendom it cannot continue to exist. It is the duty of every man, making the laws of God the rule of his conduct, to use all practicable efforts to abolish whatever violates them."

2. The subject of slavery is one on which the Bible has legislated, and there is, therefore, a propriety that we should ascertain its decisions. An institution of servitude of some kind early existed in the world. The most ancient and venerable men whose names the Sacred History has transmitted to us, were in some way connected with it. There are numerous statutes on the subject in the Mosaic code of laws. The Prophets often refer to it. Servitude had an existence in the time of the Apostles, and they often came in contact with it in their attempts to spread the Gospel. They have repeatedly alluded to it in their writings, and have laid down principles in regard to it which they evidently designed should be understood to be the settled laws of the Christian religion. In fact there is scarcely any one subject to which there is more frequent allusion in the Scriptures, in some way or other, than to slavery; and it cannot be that a subject should so early attract the attention of the Great Legislator whose laws are there recorded, and be so often referred to,

without ever laying down any principles which may be regarded as decisive in regard to his views. It is to be presumed that it is possible to ascertain whether God regards it as a good institution or an evil one; an arrangement in society which he meant his religion should contribute to sustain and perpetuate for the good of the race, or an institution which he intended it should ultimately abolish.-There is, therefore, perfect propriety in carrying the appeal to the Bible; and there can be few things more important than to ascertain what are the teachings of the Bible on the subject. If slavery be in accordance with the principles of the Bible, and be the best thing for society, there is then an increasingly large part of the world that is neglecting to avail itself of the advantages which might be dérived from the institution, and that is falling into dangerous error on a great question of morals—for there can be no doubt that there is a growing conviction in the world that the institution is not one which it is desirable to perpetuate for promoting the welfare of mankind.

3. There is little approximation to a settlement of the question whether slavery is right or wrong on other grounds than an appeal to the Scriptures. Apart from the influence of the Bible, it may be doubted whether any advance is made towards a settled and uniform judgment on this subject. Considerations of humanity or policy have done something indeed to change the views of men in regard to the slave trade, and by common consent this has come to be regarded as piracy; but it may be doubted whether these considerations have done any thing to affect the question about slavery itself in slaveholding communities. No progress was made towards its abolition in the Roman empire by the influence of these considerations. Slavery flourished in its extremest rigour under the highest advances made in Roman policy, and in the brightest days of Roman jurisprudence, and it was only by the application of religious principle that it was ever permanently affected in the empire. In England, it was by the power of religious principle in Clarkson, Wilberforce, and

their fellow-labourers, that slavery was abolished, and not by considerations of policy or mere humanity. In our own country, it may be doubted whether any considerable progress has been made in determining whether slavery is to continue or not, by mere political considerations. The convictions of the great mass of our fellow-citizens in the slaveholding part of our country in regard to the evils of slavery, are not more decided than were those of Jefferson, and though since his views were so firmly expressed there has been an opportunity of observing the effects of the system for half a century, yet slavery has a hold on the country at large not less tenacious than it had then. It is indeed not difficult to show the impolicy of the system. It is easy to show the superior prosperity of those portions of our country where it does not exist. It is easy to point to the exhausted soil; the wasted fields; the diminished population and wealth; the compara tive destitution of schools, colleges, and churches; the ignorance, degradation and corruption of morals which slavery engenders; and it is easy to fortify all this by the splendid declamation of Southern statesmen themselves about the impoverished condition of their country,* but still almost no

*The following eloquent remarks by two Southern gentlemen in Congress, furnish at the same time a mournful description of the effects of slavery on the condition of a country; show the comparative influence of freedom and slavery; and illustrate the argument which might be derived from the tendency of slavery, to show that God does not approve of the system. The first extract is from a speech of the Hon. Mr. Clowney, of South Carolina. He says:

"Look at South Carolina now, with her houses deserted and falling to decay, her once fruitful fields worn out and abandoned for want of timely improvement or skilful cultivation; and her thousands of acres of inexhaustible lands still promising an abundant harvest to the industrious husbandman, lying idle and neglected. In the interior of the state where I was born, and where I now live, although a country possessing all the advantages of soil, climate and health, abounding in arable land, unréclaimed from the first rude state of nature, there can now be found many