f the ordinances promulgated by
Moses, and all such as were at war with his mission of "peace and
good-will on earth." He "specifically" annuls, for instance, one
"barbarous custom" sanctioned by those ordinances, where he says, "ye
have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth; but I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall
smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Now, in the
time of Christ, it was usual for masters to put their slaves to death on
the slightest provocation. They even killed and cut them up to feed
their fishes. He was undoubtedly aware of these things, as well as of
the law and commandment I have quoted. He could only have been
restrained from denouncing them, as he did the "_lex talionis_," because
he knew that in despite of these barbarities the institution of slavery
was at the bottom a sound and wholesome, as well as lawful one. Certain
it is, that in his wisdom and purity he did not see proper to interfere
with it. In your wisdom, however, you make the sacrilegious attempt to
overthrow it.

You quote the denunciation of Tyre and Sidon, and say that "the chief
reason given by the prophet Joel for their destruction, was, that they
were notorious beyond all others for carrying on the slave trade." I am
afraid you think we have no Bibles in the slave States, or that we are
unable to read them. I can not otherwise account for your making this
reference, unless indeed your own reading is confined to an expurgated
edition, prepared for the use of abolitionists, in which every thing
relating to slavery that militates against their view of it is left out.
The prophet Joel denounces the Tyrians and Sidonians, because "the
children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto
the Grecians." And what is the divine vengeance for this "notorious
slave trading?" Hear it. "And I will sell your sons and daughters into
the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the
Sabeans, to a people far off; for the Lord hath spoken it." Do you call
this a condemnation of slave trading? The prophet makes God himself a
participator in the crime, if that be one. "The Lord hath spoken it," he
says, that the Tyrians and Sidonians shall be _sold into slavery to
strangers_. Their real offense was, in enslaving the chosen people; and
their sentence was a repetition of the old command, to make slaves of
the heathen round about.

I