FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454   455   456   457   458   459   460  
461   462   463   464   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   481   482   483   484   485   >>   >|  
rs, he has saved you the time and trouble of looking up and hiring laborers on emergencies, therefore, "thou shalt furnish him liberally," &c. This gratuity at the close of the service shews the _principle_ of the relation; _equivalent_ for value received. ] It should be kept in mind, that _both_ classes of servants, the Israelite and the Stranger, not only enjoyed _equal, natural and religious rights_, but _all the civil and political privileges_ enjoyed by those of their own people who were _not_ servants. They also shared in common with them the political disabilities which appertained to all Strangers, whether servants of Jewish masters, or masters of Jewish servants. Further, the disabilities of the servants from the Strangers were exclusively _political_ and _national_. 1. They, in common with all Strangers, could not own the soil. 2. They were ineligible to civil offices. 3. They were assigned to employments less honorable than those in which Israelitish servants engaged; agriculture being regarded as fundamental to the existence of the state, other employments were in less repute, and deemed _unjewish_. Finally, the Strangers, whether servants or masters, were all protected equally with the descendants of Abraham. In respect to political privileges, their condition was much like that of unnaturalized foreigners in the United States; whatever their wealth or intelligence, or moral principle, or love for our institutions, they can neither go to the ballot-box, nor own the soil, nor be eligible to office. Let a native American, be suddenly bereft of these privileges, and loaded with the disabilities of an alien, and what to the foreigner would be a light matter, to _him_, would be the severity of _rigor_. The recent condition of the Jews and Catholics in England, is another illustration. Rothschild, the late banker, though the richest private citizen in the world, and perhaps master of scores of English servants, who sued for the smallest crumbs of his favor, was, as a subject of the government, inferior to the lowest among them. Suppose an Englishman of the Established Church, were by law deprived of power to own the soil, of eligibility to office and of the electoral franchise, would Englishmen think it a misapplication of language, if it were said, the government "rules over him with rigor?" And yet his person, property, reputation, conscience, all his social relations, the disposal of his time, the right of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454   455   456   457   458   459   460  
461   462   463   464   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   481   482   483   484   485   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

servants

 

Strangers

 

political

 

disabilities

 

privileges

 

masters

 
enjoyed
 

common

 
employments
 

office


Jewish

 
condition
 
principle
 
government
 

franchise

 
Englishmen
 

foreigner

 
matter
 

England

 

recent


eligibility
 

Catholics

 

severity

 

loaded

 

electoral

 

bereft

 

ballot

 

institutions

 
language
 

American


suddenly

 

native

 

misapplication

 

eligible

 

illustration

 

inferior

 

property

 

lowest

 
reputation
 
person

master
 

crumbs

 
subject
 
smallest
 

scores

 
English
 

richest

 

disposal

 

banker

 
Rothschild