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Fiat Justitia Ruat Cælum.

dulous persons, should be deceived by the perpetual reiteration of the falsehood that the rising of the blacks in the island was caused by their being set free, is not to be wondered at. But we should have expected Professor Dew would have sought and obtained correct information, which was so easy of access. We would not willingly accuse him of deliberate and wilful misrepresentation, but his ignorance of facts is inexcusable. No apology can be offered for citing in support of his positions an assumed fact which is known to be false. The insurrections in St. Domingo were caused, not by eman

an

of his neighbors, proprietors or managers, were in prison, the negroes of their plantation came to him to beg him to direct them in their work. "If you will take care not to talk to them of the restoration of slavery, but talk to them of freedom, you may with this word chain them down

to their labor. How did Toussaint succeed?

How did I succeed before his time in the plain of the Culde-Sae on the plantation of Gouraud, during more than eight months after liberty had been granted to the slaves? Let those who knew me at that time, let the blacks themselves be asked: they will all reply that not a single negro upon that plantation, consisting of more than 450 laborers, refused to work: and yet this plantation was thought to be under the worst

discipline, and the slaves the most idle of any in the plain. I inspired the same activity into three other plantations of which I had the man

cipation, but by attempt to reduce the black, who had tasted of liberty, again to slavery. There is no instance recorded in history of in-agement. If all the negroes had come from

surrections and bloodshed being caused by the emancipation of slaves. It is contrary to the natural order of cause and effect. No man is converted into an enemy by just and humane treatment. The emancipated slave has no inducement, no temptation to injure his benefactor. The idea is too absurd to deserve a serious

argument.

We shall give some facts in proof, however, of the safety and advantages of emancipation wherever it has been tried.

Of the many persons who declare themselves averse to slavery, and yet afraid to join in measures for its abolition, some perhaps have not paid much attention to the instances of emancipation that have already taken place. If any such will take the trouble to read the following account of the effects of emancipation as far as it has hitherto been tried, they will perhaps see that their fears on the subject are not justified by experience.

The history of Hayti, when separated from the accidental circumstances attending it, furnishes irrefragable evidence of the safety and advantage of immediate emancipation. It is true that much blood was shed there during the course of the French revolution; but this was not owing to the emancipation of the slaves, but was the consequence either of the civil war which preceded the act of emancipation; or of the atrocious attempt to restore slavery.

In September, 1793, Polverel, one of the Commissioners sent to St. Domingo by the National Convention, issued a proclamation declaring the whole of the slaves in the island free. Colonel Malenfant, a slave proprietor, resident at the time in the island, thus describes the effects of this sudden measure. "After this public act of emancipation, the negroes remained quiet both in the south and in the west, and they continued to work upon all the plantations. There were estates which had neither owners nor managers resident upon them, yet upon these estates, though abandoned, the negroes continued their labors where there were any even inferior agents to guide them, and on those estates where no white men were left to direct them, they betook themselves to the planting of provisions; but upon all the plantations where the whites resided, the blacks continued to labor as quietly as before." Colonel Malenfant says that when many

Africa within six months, if they had the love of independence that the Indians have, I should own that force must be employed; but ninetynine out of a hundred of the blacks are aware that without labor they cannot procure the things that are necessary for them; that there is no other method of satisfying their wants and their tastes. They know that they must work, they wish to do so, and they will do so."

Such was the conduct of the negroes for the first nine months after their liberation, or up to the middle of 1794. In the latter part of 1796 Malenfant says "The colony was flourishing under Toussaint, the whites lived happily and in peace upon their estates, and the negroes continued to work for them." General Lacroix who published his "Memoirs for a History of St. Domingo," in 1819, says that in 1797 the most wonderful progress had been made in agriculture. "The colony," says he, "marched as by enchantment towards its ancient splendor: cultivation prospered; every day produced per. ceptible proof of its progress." General Vincent, who was a general of brigade of artillery in St. Domingo, and a proprietor of estates in the island, was sent by Toussaint to Paris, in 1801, to lay before the Directory the new constitution which had been agreed upon in St. Domingo. He arrived in France just at the moment of the peace of Amiens, and found that Bonaparte was preparing an armament for the purpose of restoring slavery in St. Domingo. He remonstrated against the expedition; he stated that it was totally unnecessary and therefore criminal, for that every thing was going on well in St. Domingo. The proprietors were in peaceable possession of their estates; cultivation was making a rapid progress; the blacks were industrious, and beyond example happy. He conjured him therefore not to reverse this beautiful state of things; but his efforts were ineffectual, and the expedition arrived upon the shores of St. Domingo. At length, however, the French were driven from the island. Till that time the planters had retained their property, and then it was, and not till then, that they lost their all. In 1804 Dessalines was proclaimed Emperor; in process of time a great part of the black troops were disbanded, and returned to cultivation again. From that time to this, there has been no want of subordination or industry among them.

A gentleman who had been for upwards of twenty years past a general merchant in Hayti, frequently crossing to Europe and America

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Fiat Justitia Ruat Cælum.

gave the following account of the condition of the Haytians to Captain Stuart at Belfast last winter. The present population he supposes consists of at least 700,000. He said that there

was very universal happiness amongst them, and that though their conduct was not unexceptionable, yet there was a less proportion of such

crimes as disturb the public peace in Hayti, and

less distress than in any other country within his knowledge. That they obtain abundance by their own labor: that there were no paupers except the decrepid and aged: that the people were very charitable, hospitable, and kind, very respectful to Europeans, temperate, grateful, faithful, orderly, and submissive, easily governed, lively and contented, good mecha

nics, and that no corporal punishments are al

lowed.

Cayenne and Guadaloupe were the only other French colonies in which the slaves were eman

prostitution of the use of language, and a palpable perversion of the meaning of words.

"We have not formed our opinion lightly upon this subject; we have given to the vital question of abolition the most mature and intense consideration which we are capable of bestow ing, and we have come to the conclusion, a

conclusion which seems to be sustained by facts and reasoning as irresistible as the demonstration of the mathematician, that every plan of emancipation and deportation which we can possibly conceive, is totally impracticable. We shall endeavor to prove, that the attempt to execute these plans can only have a tendency to increase all the evils of which we complain, as re

sulting from slavery. If this be true, then the great question of abolition will necessarily be reduced to the question of emancipation, with a permission to remain, which we think can easily be shown to be utterly subversive of the inter

cipated. In Cayenne the sudden enfranchise-ests, security and happiness, of both the blacks

ment was attended with no ill consequences; after their emancipation the negroes in general continued voluntarily upon the plantations of their former masters, and no irregularities what ever were committed by those men who had thus suddenly obtained their freedom.

In Guadaloupe the conduct of the freed negroes was equally satisfactory. The perfect subordination which was established, and the industry which prevailed there, are proved by the official reports of Victor Hughes, the governor of Guadaloupe, to the French government. In 1793 liberty was proclaimed universally to the slaves in that island, and during their ten years of freedom their governors bore testimony to their regular industry and uninterrupted submission to the laws. The reports of the commissioners to the local government also speak of the tranquillity which reigned in the agricultural districts, and on the plantations. In a letter addressed by the supreme council of the colony in February, 1802, to the Commissary Valluet of the Canton de Deshayes, it is said "Continue, Citizen Commissary, to maintain that order in your Canton which now reigns universally throughout the colony. We shall have the satisfaction of having given an example which will prove that all classes of people may live in perfect harmony with each other under an administration which secures justice

to all classes."

and whites, and consequently hostile to every principle of expediency, morality, and religion. We have heretofore doubted the propriety even of too frequently agitating, especially in a public manner, the question of abolition, in consequence of the injurious effects which might be produced on the slave population. But the Virginia Legislature, in its zeal for discussion, boldly set aside all prudential considerations of this kind, and openly and publicly debated the subject before the world. The seal has now been broken, the example has been set from a high quarter; we shall, therefore, waive all considerations of a prudential character which have heretofore restrained us, and boldly grapple with the abolitionists on this great question. We fear not the result, so far as truth, justice, and expediency alone are concerned. But we must be permitted to say, that we do most deeply dread the effects of misguided philanthropy, and the marked, and we had like to have said, impertinent intrusion in this matter, of those who have no interest at stake, and who have not that intimate and minute knowledge of the whole subject so absolutely necessary to wise action."

The author then goes into an examination of the origin of slavery among mankind, and attempts to prove its lawfulness from the fact of its general prevalence among the nations of antiquity, and in modern times among the uncivilized tribes of Africa. The argument in its favor, drawn from the practice of barbarous nations, is too futile to demand a serious refutation. If the example of the uncivilized heathen, in re

From the following paragraph it will be seen that our author deprecates equally "every plan of emancipation and deportation," and "emancipation with permission to remain." The first might easily be shown to be "totally impracti-gard to slavery, is to justify Christians in vio

cable," as well as utterly inconsistent with justice and sound policy. Besides, the incongruity of the words associated in the proposition reduces it to a mere nullity. It is a contradiction in terms. Emancipation associated with deportation is no emancipation at all. It is only calculated to bewilder the understanding and mislead the judgment. But the idea that slavery in this country must be perpetual, is too gross to be sustained, even by the learning and talents of Professor Dew. To speak of truth and justice, or even expediency, on the side of slavery, is a

lating the plainest precepts of their religion, the obligations of the moral are prostrated, and all the abominations of heathenism become the legitimate objects of imitation.

But the claim of divine authority for the practice of slavery, derived from the example of the Israelites, partakes more of the character of impiety than argument. No man, who seriously believes in an overruling Providence, and the accountability of man for his actions, can believe that a system of slavery, similar to that now practised in a Christian country, would ever

Fiat Justitia Ruat Cælum.

have received the sanction of a just and merci- || tory upon us, (which we deny,) the advocates of

ful God.

negro slavery would gain nothing by the admis-
sion. For it has already been shown that the
latter has no parallel in ancient history.

"Slavery, says he, "was established and sanctioned by Divine authority, among the elect of Heaven-the favored children of Israel. Abraham, the founder of this interesting nation, and the chosen servant of the Lord, was the owner of kundreds of slaves ;-that magnificent shrine, the temple of Solomon, was reared by the hand of slaves." Truly the professor must be accredited for boldness of assertion, in the absence of all evidence. What proof have we that Solo-patible with the present system. That of Deu

mon's workmen, and the Tyreans who assisted them, were slaves? None but the word of Professor Dew. "The servants of Solomon," and "the servants of Hyram, king of Tyre," were not slaves, in the modern use of that term, but the subjects of those kings. We have no evi. dence in the only authentic history of these events extant, of their being servants in any other sense than the subjects of absolute monarchs. The political condition of the subject under those

If the comparatively mild system of servitude which existed among the Hebrews and the neighboring nations, was sanctioned by the Jewish lawgiver, does it follow that the more cruel and debasing bondage in which the negro race are held in the United States, would also have been tolerated? The many humane provisions contained in the law, in favor of the bond servant, prove the contrary-provisions which, if admitted into our code, would be found incomteronomy xxiii. 15 and 16, would alone be sufficient to put an end to slavery in this country, and proves the mildness of servitude among the Hebrews. Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee; he shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place which he shall choose, in one

thy gates where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him.' Again: The penalty for manstealing, by the 21st chapter of Exodus, verse 16th, is death. 'And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.' The crime is

absolute kings, furnishes no argument in sup-ranked in immediate connexion with the capital

offence of smiting or cursing father or mother,
and the same punishment is awarded to each.
The 26th and 27th verses of the same chapter
ordains, that if a man smite the eye of his ser.

port of the unconditional slavery and abasement
of the African race, in a country where personal
freedom is the acknowledged right of every man.
Besides, the builders of the temple were archi-vant, or his handmaid, so that it perish; or if he

tects of the first order in skill and experience in the art. And we have the evidence of history to prove that none but freemen were permitted, in those days, to be initiated in the art of building.

Again. The professor asserts that the patriarch Abraham owned hundreds of slaves. We

smite out his servant's tooth, he shall go free for
the eye or the tooth's sake.' Besides, an effectual
limit is put to that species of servitude practised
among the Hebrews, in the 25th chapter of Le-
viticus, verse 54, which provides that the ser-
vant shall go out free in the year of Jubilee,
'both he, and his children with him.' This pro-
vision is general, and applies to all servants,
without distinction of nation, country or reli.
gion. But the Hebrew servant was to be free at
the end of six years, the utmost limit of his ser-
vitude which the law provides. 'And if thy bro-
ther, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be
sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in
the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from

assert that he never owned one slave. One as-
sertion is just as good as the other, because nei-
ther assertion is capable of proof. The proba-
bilities of the case, however, are in favor of the
latter assertion. First, because the government
of Abraham over his household was patriarchal.thee. And when thou sendest him out free from

The servants born in his house submitted to his

paternal authority, as children to a father whom they loved, and obeyed from a principle of love and gratitude. Secondly, because the servitude among the Hebrews, as we discover from the Pentateuch, bore no analogy to the slavery of the African race in our own country. The lat ter finds no parallel in ancient history. The

condition of the slave in the United States is beyond comparison more hopeless and debased than the slave of ancient Greece or heathen Rome. And when we attempt to compare it to the condition of the Hebrew servant, the contrast is so striking and obvious that the two conditions cannot be represented by the same form of words, and ought not to be designed by a

common name.

"But granting for the sake of argument, the civil provisions of the law of Moses to be obliga

thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty.
Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock,
and out of thy flour, and out of thy wine-press,'
(See Deut. xv. 12-14.)

If the Mosaic law is to be resorted to in jus-
tification of slavery, let us take the whole of it
as it was given by the inspired lawgiver; and
let not the hapless servant be deprived of its le
nient provisions in his favor. If we are to be
Jews and not Christians, let us at least be con-
sistent Jews, and conform literally to all the in-
structions of our lawgiver."

(To be continued.).

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1.

Fiat Justitia Ruat Cœlum.

tions any subordinate clauses, such as, that the deplorably defective propositions of Mr. Canning's administration, may be carried into effect -and, that the children, born after a certain date, shall remain free? &c. &c.

1st-They ought to petition for complete and immediate emancipation of the Negroes, in the above sense.

Because it is morally right.

Because the Negroes have a right to it, whether we look to the fundamental principles of the constitution of our country, or of the religion of Christ: and of this right, nothing can rightly deprive them, but their own guilt. But they were stolen before they could be guilty-they were stolen as soon as they were born.

Because no sin ought to be tolerated, even for a moment by any body-it is every body's duty instantly to cease from sin.

Because in the same manner, it is every man's duty to do all that he rightfully can, immediate. ly to put an end to all sin in others.

Because to suffer sin upon our country, is in God's own language, to hate her in our hearts.

Because the worst way in the world to get rid of sin, is to parly with it. It is, in fact, but a device for remaining for the present at peace with it. But, say some, the politicians will rise up against us, and we can never succeed. Well, they are but politicians, and who does not know the character of their wisdom! God, who requires right, is wiser than the politicians, and He knows how to bring their wisdom to nothing; we ought to look to Him, not to them; and where is their power, when, listening to the cries

Because every moment they are kept in slavery, places them under the most violent temptation, to hate and destroy their masters-and continually endangers one or other of two dread-of His children, God fights against them! ful catastrophes, viz.-either the utter extinction of the slaves, through the yearly slaughter to which they are actually subjected in our colonies-or, their retaliating upon their tyrants, in a deluge of blood, whenever amidst the revolutions, sudden as the whirlwind, to which all despotisms are exposed, the grasp of the tyrant relaxes, and the oppressed trample in their turn upon their oppressors.

Because, if we do not free them to-day, to. morrow the empire over them may be torn from us, and we be left to mourn, when it is too late,

"The sin of Slavery, and its remedy; containing some reflections on the moral influence of African Colonization. By Elizur Wright, jr., Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, Western Reserve College. New York. 1833."

We propose to take a summary view of this pamphlet of fifty-three octavo pages. It is writ.

that we had rejected the golden opportunity of ten in the spirit of Christian benevolence, but

verti

our

with the uncompromising fearlessness of conscientious rectitude and uprightness of intention. The appalling magnitude of the evil of slavery is vividly portrayed; and the veil which sophis

doing them justice, justice, and of averting from souls the curse of their groanings! And because their history is replete with evidences, that nothing but placing them under the dominion of law, with all its upright restraints to coerce them, and with all its sacred privilegestry and selfishness have thrown over the lauded

to awaken their affections and to inspire them with hope, is wanting, to make them as free, as useful, and as happy as any other class of our fellow subjects.

2d-We ought not to insert in our petitions, any subordinate clauses, such as those abovementioned &c. &c.

Because it is our duty to petition for the whole-it is our duty to do all in our power to have justice done instantly and universally.

Because to petition for a part, in the same petition as we petition for the whole, is inviting those whom we petition, in the first place at least, to give us that part instead of the whole.

Because, if the government be inclined to give us the whole, we shall only perplex them petitioning for a part also.

Because, if the government be inclined to give us the whole, they do not stand in need of our assistance to tempt and encourage them to give us a part.

Because, if we ask for nothing more or less than what is evidently upright, and do this in a right and lawful manner, we cannot conceive it possible that the government will be less willing to give us all which they will give, when they find that we do not, and dare not, tempt them to give us, at least for the present, less than they ought to give.

Because colonial slavery is a national crime of the most atrocious description; so atrocious, that our own legislature has declared a mere branch of it, the African slave trade, to be felony! and because it is the nation's duty, at once and altogether, to "cease from doing evil!".

scheme of African Colonization, is torn asunder; and its inefficiency fairly exposed. We shall copy the introduction entire.

The American revolution was incomplete. It left one sixth part of the population the victims of a servitude immeasurably more debasing, than that from which it delivered the rest. While this nation held up its declaration of independence-its noble bill of human rights before an admiring world, in one hand, it mortified the friends of humanity, by oppressing the poor and defenceless with the other. The progress of time has not lessened the evil. There are now held in involuntary and perpetual slavery, in the southern half of this republic, more than 2,000,000 of men, women, and children, guarded with a vigilance which strives, and with success appalling as it is complete, to shut out every ray of knowledge, human and divine, and reduce them as nearly as possible to a level with the brutes. These miserable slaves are not only compelled to labor without choice and without hire, but they are subjected to the cruelty and lust of their masters to an unbounded extent. In the northern states there is very generally a sympathy with the slave-holders, and a prejudice against the slaves, which shows itself in palliating the crime of slave-holding, and in most unrighteously disregarding the rights, and villifying the characters of the free colored men.

At the same time, slavery, as a system, is (in a certain sense) condemned. It is confessed to be a great evil, "a moral evil," and, when the point is urged, a sin. The slaves, it is admitted,

Fiat Justitia Ruat Cælum.

have rights every principle of honesty, justice, || the practicability of rescuing the victim by flatand humanity, "in the abstract," calls aloud that tering the oppressor, the whole cause of Christhey should be made free. The word of God istian benevolence is attacked? If not, why not

a

in their favor. Indeed, there is no ground claimed by the abettors of slavery, on which they pretend to justify it for a moment, but a supposed, begged expediency, baseless as the driven clouds. I say baseless, for while not a single fact has ever been produced, going to show the danger of putting the slaves, all at once, under the protection of law, and employing them as free laborers, there have been produced, on the other side, varied and fair experiments, showing that it is altogether safe and profitable.

no

welcome inquiry? A thorough investigation, a looking on both sides, s, would surely do harm. Those defenders of truth who have shunned such inquiry, have always proved themselves short-sighted. The cause of God courts scrutiny-its advocates are thrown into no unseemly agitation when they are most rigourously sifted.

The subject cries aloud for more earnest consideration than it has yet received. More than two millions of outraged, down-trodden men cry out, shall we die in this sore bondage that

In this state of things where has the Ameri-white Christians may have the pleasure of at

can church stood? Has she too sympathized with the hearts of the Pharaohs? Or has she, in the spirit of the martyrs of former times, borne an unflinching testimony against this sin? Alas! the painful truth stares us in the face. She has come down from the high and firm foundation of scripture truth, and is professedly at work upon a floating expediency, doing against slavery what can be done upon the unchecked current of popular prejudice. Speaking through the organ of the Colonization Society, she has admitted all that the most determined slaveholder could ask, and she is doing just that and no more, which, so far as he understands the subject, he hails with pleasure as a safeguard to his property in human bodies and souls. This is the testimony of slave-holders themselves -most competent witnesses.

Is further evidence needed? When the American Colonization Society, as a remedy for slavery, has been called in question, as well it might be for its tardiness, if for no other reason, there has been manifested a determination to hush inquiry. There has been a most pusillanimous shivering and shrinking from the probe. Nay, the few men who, in the uncompromising spirit of Christian benevolence, have urged this inquiry, have been slandered as disturbers of the public peace have been assailed with abusive epithets, not by slave-holders only, but by their brethren in the bosom of the church.

A most singular spectacle is presented in this enlightened and Christian age; a handful of philanthropists dare to denounce a system of legalized oppression, and to charge guilt upon all who uphold it; upon this, not only do the principals in crime, as might be expected, ascribe the whole to sheer malice, but the leaders of the Christian church, as ought not to be expected, endorse and give currency to the charge, and throw the whole weight of their cold and crushing influence to smother in its cradle this attempt at a gospel reformation.

What does all this mean? Are Christians in these northern states interested in upholding slavery? Are they unwilling to be convinced that their colored brethren are better than the

tempting to shun God's wrath without repenting of sin? Half a million of free colored men cry out-America is our country-the land for which our fathers bled as well as yours. Why will you seek to banish us? The wrongs of the poor Indian cry aloud, There is no safety in league with transgressors! The present political aspect of the South cries out, that tyrants do not regard law! Six hundred millions of idolaters cry out to the American church, "Why pluckest thou the mote out of thy brother's eye, and behold a beam is in thine own!"

Let us, Christian brethren, for I will not waste an appeal upon those who do not acknowledge the authority of the Gospel, dispassionately, and in the fear of God, look this inquiry in the face-Is the Colonization Society doing what the gospel requires to be done for the removal of slavery and its concomitant sins?

Take the following pointed testimonies as a specimen of the boldness with which our author meets the question of slavery, and presents it to his readers in all its naked deformity. Who can say that the description is not true that the denunciation is not just? Many thousands who think they have a testimony against slavery are afraid to speak their real sentiments lest they should give offence-they have not moral courage to speak the truth, to give utterance to their own convictions, lest they should be the means of producing excitement in the South. And what is still more to be deprecated, they censure and condemn those who are less timid, and squemish, and cautious, than themselves. It is cheering to see men engaged in the righteous cause of emancipation who are not afraid to "beard the lion in his den," and who will speak the truth, regardless of consequences. Such a man is ELIZUR WRIGHT. Hear him.

"It is heard from the south, and reëchoed from the remotest north, that instant emancipaslanders of their oppressors would make them?tion "would be but an act of dreamy madness" Are they sure, beyond a doubt, that the coloniza--the fatal match to produce a most appalling

tion scheme will relieve our country of the mighty evil which is crushing it? that it is the Christian way to relieve it? Are they on good evidence convinced that it is not expedient to say to the wicked, "O wicked man, thou shalt surely die?" Must they have PEACE at any rate -peace, though the groans of millions should

and distructive explosion. A reformation so sudden, it is said, would be worse than the sin. But where are the facts? In the name of sacred verity, where are the FACTS? We must have evidence, the same in kind, and not less in de. gree, than that which convinces us that the sun will rise to-morrow, before we believe that God

ascend and mingle with the muttering thunders || has so constituted his creatures that they must of coming wrath? Will they have it, that if a continue in one sin to avoid another, or that word is said against a mere experiment, to test there is danger in being just and merciful. In

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