William Jay, "do honor to his name, and, but for his complexion,
would excite universal admiration."
In 1846, the slaves in Santa Cruz rose in rebellion against their
masters, took possession of the island, and thus obtained their
freedom, but did no injury to any white person. This was remarkable,
as the whites numbered 3,000, and the blacks 25,000.
Now, what is the inference from this list of conspiracies and
insurrections, and scores of others which could be collected? Why,
(1,) that all danger arises from the continuance of slavery, and not
from its abolition. And, (2,) that if the Bible sanctions slavery,
the God of the Bible does not. The language of God's providence is
one and uniform, and too explicit to be misunderstood. It assures us,
and writes the assurance in lines of blood, that the way of the
transgressor is hard, and that though hand join in hand, the
violators of God's law shall not go unpunished. All history, ancient
and modern, is full of examples and warnings on this point. Shall we
slight these warnings, shut our eyes against the light, and madly
rush on our own destruction? Let us remember that slavery is an
unnatural state; that Nature, when her eternal principles are
violated, always struggles to restore them to her true estate; and
that the natural feelings accord with the sentiment of the poet,
"If I'm designed yon lordling's slave,
By Nature's laws designed,
Why was an independent wish
E'er planted in my mind?"
"If the Bible," says the Rev. Albert Barnes, "could be shown to
defend and countenance slavery as a good institution, it would make
thousands of infidels; for there are multitudes of minds that will
see more clearly that slavery is against all the laws which God has
written on the human soul, than they would see that a book,
sanctioning such a system, had evidence of divine origin."
Says Charles Alcott, of Medina, Ohio, in his very able lectures on
slavery:--"It is easy to show that slavery has, from first to last,
been supported directly and solely by crimes, and that the commission
of nearly every crime in the Bible calendar, and many crimes against
the common law, are absolutely necessary to support it, and give it
full effect. It is a fact equally curious and true, that crime of any
kind can only be supported by crime; and that, in order to persevere
in the commission of one crime, and prevent its detection and
pun
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