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after he had taken Hagar to be his wife, the reason given by Sarah, why Hagar should be put out of the house, was, that Ishmael, the son of Hagar (who was a slave according to my friend) should not be heir (!) with Isaac. (Gen. xxi, 10.) Hagar went out, accordingly, because she was "put forth.” Now if Hagar had been a slave, it would not have been necessary to put her out. She would have gone out very willingly. They would have had but to open the door and point to the north star, (if there were a Canada in the region) and she would have gone out quickly enough of her own accord. [A laugh] Slaves will always go free when permitted unless slavery has already broken their souls upon its wheel. But the point is this; Ishmael had a right to be coheir with Isaac, otherwise there would have been no force in Sarah's plea to expel her. But the merciful slave-holder of the South, allows whatever he allows to slaves, as a privilege, not as a right. The slave cannot keep a shilling in his pocket, one moment longer than until his owner sees fit to take it from him. Why he may take all he has and sell him too! the owner may sell him with his shilling in his pocket. If the master dies, not a cent of his property goes to his slave. But the slave is put up with the hogs and sold for a division among heirs. My brother knows all these facts, but I suppose he means to argue the best he can. [A laugh. ]

I have shown that the Hebrew servant has secured to him as rights, his life, his property, and his civil liberty, with personal liberty after his indentures expire. "Oh but" says Dr. Rice, “according to the gentleman; eternity means only six years!"

Now Dr. Rice knows that Dr. Wilson, of this city, who strenuously opposes abolition, teaches in his pamphlet, that fifty years is the longest term the Hebrew bond service could last, and my friend does not and dare not dispute the fact. There was no perpetual servitude for the ear-bored servant, Nor is fifty years any nearer a literal "forever," than six

ars? I observed you smile at his reply to me on this

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point, but I could not tell whether you laughed at the smartness of the joke or the folly of the argument. Both were somewhat marked.

The Hebrew servant was secured, I repeat, in life, liberty and property, in neither of which the American slave either was or is; and I have shown that Roman, Grecian, English, and American slavery are one and the same. Now if you wish to abolish slavery in Kentucky, what have you to do? Nothing, but to strike the chattel principle from the code, and then give the emancipated free access to the courts. Repealing the chattel principle turns the slaves into men, and giving them access to the courts, secures to them the rights of men. This sweeps slavery from the soil. There is no person in this audience but can see this. If you strike out the chattel principle and enable slaves to come into courts of justice and establish their rights to person, wife, children, property, and character-what is there left of American slavery? Now these two things THE MOSAIC CODE DID. No: I do not speak correctly. The Mosaic law did not strike out the chattel principle, for it never was there. There was, therefore, nothing of the kind to strike out. But it allowed the lowest order of servants free access to courts of justice; and these two things, viz: the absence of chattelism and legal security, show conclusively, that no such thing as slavery did or could exist in Judea. Give the Jewish law of bond service to Kentucky, and the thousands who lie down slaves to-night, will rise in the morning free men. Establish the Hebrew code throughout the States, and there will not be a slave left to wet the soil with the tears, and the sweat of his unpaid labor, in the whole country. So utterly false is it, that "God did expressly permit his people to hold slaves." Again-All the Hebrew servants who were bought from the heathen, were to be circumcised. Gen. xvii, 13. "He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised." And this law of circumcision alone shows that THEY WERE NOT SLAVES. For they had nothing to do, to free themselves, but simply to refuse to

be circumcised, unless you adopt the abominable and monstrous supposition that they might be forced to be circumcised and profess the true religion. Thus their relation to their master was a voluntary condition, while slavery is involuntary, hereditary and perpetual, in the slave and his posterity. Hebrew servitude was voluntary, and limited, ordinarily, to six years, and could never go beyond fifty: and even from this modified bond service, they could free themselves after they were bought from the heathen, by refusing circumcision.

Maimonides, contemporary with Jarki, (both writers of authority with Jews,) says, that the master who had bought a foreign servant, must win him over to the true religion in one year or send him back to his tribe. And his statement surely has reason to support it; seeing there is no other supposition possible, but the absurd one that the Jews filled their land with forced converts who were forced to undergo circumcision. If one of these servants bought of the heathen had disliked his condition, refused to be circumcised and become a Jew, what could they do? Seize him and cut off his foreskin before the eyes of the people! Surely it was not so that the Hebrews made converts to their religion.

Now Professor Jahn, in his Archaeology, a high authority in Jewish statistics, says that these bondmen "were circumcised," and that "after circumcision THEY WERE RECORDED AMONG THE HEBREWS."

Now in the light of all these facts, let us look into Judea, and see what sort of a thing this bond service, or religious serfdom was. Remember, that not only the Hebrew servant who was waxen poor and sold for debt, but the bond-servant bought from the heathen, was required to be circumcised, and all "were reckoned among the Hebrews," and the law of the Hebrew servants was, that they should serve for six years and then go free. "What then," says one," was the fifty-year jubilee for?" It was to free any remnant who had waved their right to go out at six years, by having their ear

bored before the judges and agreeing to remain until the next semi-centennial jubilee.

'But what was the Hebrew bond service instituted for? Was it not founded on the same reason as slavery? Was it not indeed slavery for six years?' No. The end proposed was to bring in heathen and convert them to God. If a servant relapsed into heathenism, his wife and children whom he had obtained while in service, he could not compel to follow him into idolatry and wretchedness. If they remained' steadfast in the true religion; he might redeem himself as soon as he was able without waiting for the jubilee; and he was, at all events free when jubilee came. For in that year, Hebrew bondmen, foreign servants, circumcised, earbored servants and all went free. Lev. xxv, 10.

The Jews were few land-holders, each land-holder owning a great tract, and each head-man was a priest-prince or sheik x-a sheik is a sort of a head of families who unites the sacred and civil characters of priest and magistrate in his own person. These heads of tribes, called "elders" were general heads of families like Boaz the husband of Ruth. And their clan was their "house-hold," in registering which, the grandson is frequently called the son; indeed, the descendants generally, were called children, and the head man the father, or prince. Such was the patriarchal state. If a servant at the end of six years was unwilling to leave his master, he was obliged to take his master before the judge and make that declaration in his presence. His ear was then bored, and he staid with his master till the fifty-years jubilee. The mass of servants were Liebrews by birth, and their servitude of course was only six years. Those who were bought from the heathen became Hebrews by circumcision, and says Jahn," were reckoned among the Hebrews;" from that time. In consequence of this they came under the law of six years. The little remnant of ear-bored servants went free at the jubilee; but the great mass went free in six years.

In object and effect it appears, that the Mosaic law of bond

service was a sort of missionary mill, to take up the servants of the heathen and grind them into children of God. A system of moral screw-blocks and pulleys, to elevate the heathen from their abject degradation, sunk to the lowest pitch by their worship of idols, to the pure and holy and elevated worship and service of the true God.

Is that system to be quoted here as authority for American slavery, which lays stripes on the back of a slave if he but teach his child to read the sacred name of Jesus?

Moreover, there was in Judea one manner of law for the stanger and him born in the land. But, you recollect, that in the Mississippi criminal code, an article reads thus, "The provisions of this act (the criminal code, condensed into 344 sections,) shall not be construed to apply to slaves." The same law, in principle, was adopted in Kentucky in 1802. The slave is, therefore, left under the brute's criminal code, to be whipped, sold, or killed, as the owner's exigencies may demand. But the Hebrew bond-servant had the same criminal law, the same judge, and the same free access to courts of justice, as his master had. The judges held their courts in the gates of all the cities and towns through which the population passed every morning and evening. In David's time, there were six thousand of these judges! See what ample provision they had for the administration of justice! You will read it in Chronicles xxiii, 4.

The people brought their causes before these judges, în person, as heretofore said, without intervention of advocate or jury. And before the manners of the people were corrupted, the men who were made judges were those most distinguished for wisdom, piety, and integrity. Job was one of these judges, as is evident, from his speaking of himself as "rising up to go to the gate." This wise, and cheap, and equitable administration of justice existed among a people who were better instructed in their laws, perhaps, than any other nation in any age: who, by the appointment of God, wrote their statutes upon the posts of their doors, the borders of their garments, and the frontiets of their fore

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