Untitled - African American History

cclxxviii APPENDIX.
would be of free-will. Such is the Apostle's idea of the
perfect law of liberty in Christ. 1 To be such is to be
Christ's freemen.
" "Where the spirit of the Lord is,
2
there is liberty." Such a man needs no restraint, what-
ever may be his situation. If " called, being a servant,
he cares not for it." "For, brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty ; only use not liberty for an occasion to the
flesh, but by love serve one another." 3 Such would be
the glorious fruits of the complete triumph of the Gospel
of Christ. In the present dispensation, it would seem
that we need hardly expect it. For when the prophetic
vision of St. John saw the " heaven departed as a scroll
when it is rolled together," there were "bondmen" as
well as "freemen," who "hid themselves in the dens and
in the rocks of the mountains." 4
From this investigation into the law of nature, the
will of God, our conclusion is, that until the nature of
the African negro becomes by some means radically
changed, there is nothing in his enslavement contrary
to the law of his nature. In this, we speak of the limit-
ed or qualified slavery, such as exists at present in the
United States, and not of absolute or pure slavery, as
defined by us. For the latter includes the power over
life, the jus vitce et necis; and as it cannot be said that
the physical, intellectual, or moral nature of the slave,
can be improved, or his happiness promoted, by the ex-
istence or exercise of such a power as this, so we find in
the law of nature no justification of or foundation for this
power. 5
1 James 1 : 25. See Psalm 119 : 45.
3 Gal. 5 : 13. See also 1 Pet. 2 : 16.
2 2 Cor. 3:17; John 8 : 32.
4 Rev. 6 : 14, 15. In replying to the argument to show slavery a sin
from the Bible, I have not referred to the authors by express reference.
The reader will perceive that I have examined the objections made by
Sharp, Barnes, Channiug, and Wayland, and repeated in
by smaller imitators.
various forms
6 This is the conclusion to which Grotius arrives. De Jure Belli et
Pacis, Lib. II, c. v.