UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

120 KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.
all the
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stead of exciting military ardor by inhabitantsthereof," related onlyta
shalt proclaimliberty through the land to 2. It is not guardianship.
visionsof glory and- of splendor, Hebrew slaves. This assumption is based
to repeat it over and over againentirely
on the supposition that the slave
that they would probablydie in the battle was not considered, in Hebrew law, as a
and never gethome,and hold this idea up person, as an inhabitant of the land, and a
before them as if it were the onlyidea suitable
member of the state ; but Ave have just
for their purpose, how excessively absurd
provedthat in the most solemn transaction
is the whole statute considered as a of the state the heAverof ayooc!and drawer
military law, justas absurd as the Mosaic of Avater is expresslydesignated as being
fugitive law, understood in itswidest application,
just as much an actor and participator as
is,considered as a slave laAV! his master ; and it Avould be absurd to suppose
It is clearly the object of this military that,in a statute addressed to all the
law to put an end to military expeditions ;
inhabitantsof the land,he is not included
for,with thislaw in force, expeditions
as an inhabitant.
must alwaysbe entirely expeditions.
Barnes enforces thisidea by some pages
Just as clearly object of of quotationsfrom JeAvish writers,Avhich
the fugitive slavelaw to put an end to compulsory
any
will fullysatisfy one who reads his
servitude ; for,with that law in work.
force, the servitude must, in effect, be,to a
From a review,then, of all that relates
greatextent,voluntary, and that is justto the HebreAV slave-laAV, it will appear that
what the legislator intended. There is no
it Avas a Arery Avell-consideredand wiselyadaptedsystem
possibility of limiting the law, on account
of education and gradual
of its absurdity, when understood in its emancipation. No rational man can doubt
widest sense, except by proving that the that if the same laws Avere enacted and the
Mosaic legislation was designed to same
perpetuate
practices prevailedAvith regardto
and not to limit slavery ; and this certainly
system
slavery cannot be proved,for it is of American
directly shiverymight be considered, to
contrary to the plain matter of fact. all intents and purposes, practically at an
I repeatit,then,again: there is end. If
nothing
there is any doubt of this fact,and
in the language of this statute,there is it is stillthoughtthat the permission of
nothing the connection in which it stands, shivery among the HebreAvs justifies American
there is nothing the historyof the Mosaic
slaArery, in all fairnessthe experiment
legislation
this subject, limit the of making the tAvo systems alike oughtto
application of the law to the case of servants
be tried, and Ave should then see what would
escaping from foreignmasters ; but be the result.
every consideration, from
every legitimate
source, leadsus to a conclusion directly the
opposite. Such a limitationisthe arbitrary,
unsupported voluntas pro ratione assumption
CHAPTER XV.
of the commentator, and nothingelse.
The only shadow of a philological
SLAVERY IS DESPOTISM.
argument that I can see, for limiting the It is ahvaysimportant, in discussing a
statute, isfound in the use of the words to thing, keep before our minds exactly what
thee,in the fifteenth verse. It may be said it is.
that the pronoun thee isused in a national The only means of understanding precisely
and not individual sense, implyingan escape
Avhat a civil institution is are an
from some other nation to the Hehrews.
examination of the laAvsAvhich regulate it.
But, examine the statute immediately
In diiferent ages and nations, very different
precedingthis,and observe the use things have been called by the name of
of the pronoun thee in the thirteenthverse. slavery. Patriarchal servitude Avas one
Most obviously, pronouns in these thing, servitude AAras another, Greek
statutes are used with reference to the individualsand
Roman servitudestill a third ; and these
addressed, and not in a collective institutionsdiffered very much from each
or national sense exclusively ; very rarely, other. What, then,is American slavery,
if ever,
can this sense be givento them as we have seen itexhibited by law, and by
in the way claimed by the argument referred
the decisionsof courts 1
to.
Let us beginby stating it is not.
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2. It issaid that the proclamation, Thou 1. It is not apprenticeship.