nd defend their rights, they made the
foundation of their republic. And in the midst of _this republic_, must
we prove, that He, who was the Truth, did not contradict "the truths"
which He Himself, as their Creator, had made self-evident to mankind?

Is Jesus Christ in favor of American slavery? What, according to those
laws which make it what it is, is American slavery? In the Statute-Book
of South Carolina thus it is written:[A] "Slaves shall be deemed, sold,
taken, reputed and adjudged in law to be _chattels personal_ in the
hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors,
administrators and assigns, to all intents, constructions and purposes
whatever." The very root of American slavery consists in the assumption,
that _law has reduced men to chattels_. But this assumption is, and must
be, a gross falsehood. Men and cattle are separated from each other by
the Creator, immutably, eternally, and by an impassable gulf. To
confound or identify men and cattle must be to _lie_ most wantonly,
impudently, and maliciously. And must we prove, that Jesus Christ is not
in favor of palpable, monstrous falsehood?

[Footnote A: Stroud's Slave Laws, p. 23.]

Is Jesus Christ in favor of American slavery? How can a system, built
upon a stout and impudent denial of self-evident truth--a system of
treating men like cattle--operate? Thomas Jefferson shall answer. Hear
him.[B] "The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual
exercise of the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism
on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. The parent
storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the
same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to his worst
passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, can
not but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a
prodigy, who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such
circumstances." Such is the practical operation of a system, which puts
men and cattle into the same family and treats them alike. And must we
prove, that Jesus Christ is not in favor of a school where the worst
vices in their most hateful forms are systematically and efficiently
taught and practiced?

[Footnote B: Notes on Virginia.]

Is Jesus Christ in favor of American slavery? What, in 1818, did the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian church affirm respecting its nature
and operation?[C] "Slavery creates a