UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

" the
KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.
ture, under the king'speace, with malice aforethought,
daughter Rachael. When daughterRachael,
express
or implied, is murder at common
therefore, marries,her husband
"
law. Is not a slave a reasonable creature? ishe
sets up a
"
claim for this
not a human being1 And the meaningof this
increase, as it is stated,
phrase,reasonable creature,is, a human being. quiteoff-handțhat the " wench had several
For the killing a lunatic,an idiot,or even a child children." Here comes a beautifully interesting
unborn, is murder,as much as the killing
a philosopher
case, quitestimulating to legal acumen.
; and has not the slave as much reason as
Inferior court decides that Samuel
a lunatic,an idiot,or an unborn child?
Thus triumphantly, in thisnineteenth century
of the Christian era and in the State
of this argument with regardto the nature
rights. Thus he says : "
Because individ-
may have been deprived of many of case. Let us hear him :
their rightsby society, it does not follow
that they have been He who is the absolute owner of
deprived of all their
a thing owns
rights."Again, he all its faculties for profit
says
of the slave: "He
or increase ; and he
is stilla human being, and possesses all may, no doubt,grant the profits or increase,as
well as the thing itself. Thus, it is every day's
those rightsof which he is not deprivedby practice to grant the future rents or profits
real
the positiveprovisionsof the law." Here estate ; and it is held that a man may grant the
wool of a flock of sheep
he admits that the provisions of law deprive
for years.
of slavery Ạccording to
think any
man might say,
that it is quite a
depriving human beings of many of their correct the maxim," onlydifficulty being
uals that it does not at all applyto the present
the judge, it is
the slave of natural rights.Againhe says :
"
The right of the master existsnot by force
of the law of nature or of nations, but by
virtueonly of the positive law of the state."
According to the decision of this judge,
therefore, slavery exists by the same right
that robbery or oppression of any
kind does,
rightof ability Ạ gang of robbers
associated into a society have rightsover
all the neighboring property that they can
acquire, of precisely the same kind.
With the same unconscious serenity of force and
the law apply that principle
JudgeStroud,in his sketch of the slavelaws,page
99,lays down for proofthe fol-
robbery which is the essence of slavery, and
show how far the master may proceed in
assertion : That the penalcodes of
appropriating another human beingas his the slave states bear much more severely on
property.
slaves than on white persons. He introduces
The question arises, May a master give a
wheeier, p. 23. woman to one person,
and her
u.aMarktbm-y!
unborn children to another one 1
Spring t. 1823. Let us hear the case argued.
3 Little's
"
Rep.
.,,,
275. The
"
unfortunate
t
mother
i . j
selected
A being,ignorant of letters,unenlightenedby
as the test point of this interesting legalreligion,
and derivingbut little instruction from
principle
comes to our view in the will of goodexample,cannot be supposedto have right
one Samuel Marksbury, under the conceptions as to the nature and extent of moral
styleor
political obligations. This remark, with but a
"
and denomination of my negro wench slightqualification, is applicable to the condition
Pen." Said Samuel states in his of the slave. It has been
willthat,
just shown that the
benefits of education are not conferred
for the goodwilland love he bears to his upon him,
own
children,he give said while his chance of acquiringa knowledgeof the
negro
wench Pen to
son Samuel,and allher future increase to
Marksbury could not have givenaway unborn
children on the strength
of the legal
maxim, " "
Nemo dat quod non habet"
of Mississippi, has it been made to "
i.
appear e., Nobody can givewhat he has not
"
that the slave is a
"
reasonable creature, a got," which certainly one should think
human being !
sensibleand satisfactory enough. The case,
What sort of system, what sort of a public
however,is appealed, and reversed in the
sentiment,was that which made this superior court; and now let us hear the
argument necessary 7
reasoning.
And let us look at some of the admissions The judgeacknowledges the force of the
"
maxim above quoted,
says,
as one would
See also p.
33. Fanny v. Bryant, 4 J. J.
reader
the same language
will proceed, he
applied with equal
will find also this
Marshall's Rep., 368. In this almost precisely
is used. If the
principle
clearness to the
hiring,selling;, morto-ao-ino; of unborn children
; and the perfect legal nonchalance of
these discussionsisonlycomparable to running
a dissecting-knife through the course
of allthe heart-strings of a livingsubject,
for the purpose
of demonstrating the laws
of nervous
contraction.
lowing
his consideration of this proposition
by the following humane and sensible remarks
:
precepts of the gospel is so remote as scarcely to
be appreciated. He may be regarded țherefore