UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 199
Again(p.21):
If language can convey
meaning at all,I know not how it can more
plainly or unequivocally presen to the mind
any
thought or idea țhan the twenty-fifth chapter of
Leviticus clearly and unequivocally
a clear and definite
viz :
then
What languagecan more explicitly show,not
that God winked at slaverymerely, but that țo
say the least,he gave a written permitto the Hebrews,
are
the best peoplein the
unanimous in the
world,to buy,
opinionthat it is better to
hold^ and bequeath, men and permitservants thus circumstanced to
women, to
take
perpetual
another
servitude? husband or
What, now, becomes of the
wife.
position
of the Chillicothe Presbytery? * * * * Is
would be so viewed. To forbidsecond
marriages,
only to strongerhardships and strongtemptation,
sentiments of Mr.
but_ to church censure, for actingin obedience to
theirmasters, who cannot be expectedto acquiesce
in a regulationat variance with justiceto the
slaves,and to the spiritof that command which
regulatesmarriage among Christians. The slaves
are not freeagents, and a dissolution by death is Iwith Mr.
questionwhether God is or is not a true witness not more entirely without their consent,and be-
that is,providedit is God's testimony, their controlțhan by such separation.
merelythe testimony Presbytery,
that
"
it isa heinous sin and scandal" to buy, sell At the Shiloh BaptistAssociation, which
and hold slaves.
met at Gourdvine, a few years sincețhe
ald,
yond
following query, says the Religious Her-
was presentedfrom Hedgmanchurch,
Is a servant, whose husband or wife has been
sold
establishes by his or her master into a distant country,
to
the fact that slav
be
erv was s inctioned by God hi permittedto marry again?
self,and that buying,selling, holding and bequeathing
The
slaves, as property,are regulations which query was referredto a committee,
we establishedby himself.
who made the following
discussion, was
adopted :
report; which,after
That,in view of the circumstances in which
servants in this country are placed țhe committee
it,indeed,a factțhat God once
gave a written The Reverend Charles C.
permission
Jones,who was
to his own dear people["ye shall buy"] to an earnest and indefatigable laborerfor the
do that which is in itselfsinful] Nay, to do that
good of the slave, and one who,it would be
which the Chillicothe "
Presbytery says is a heinous
sin and scandal
supposed, would be "
1
likely to feel strongly
this subject, if any one would,simply remarks,
in
God resolves that
estimating the moral conditionof
his own children may,
or
"
rather
the
shall, " buy, possess and hold,"bondmen
negroes,that,as husband and wife are
and bond-women,in bondage,forever Ḅut subjecto all the
the ChillicothePresbytery
vicissitudesof property,
resolvesthat "
buying, and may be separated by
selling, or holdingslaves,
divisionof estate,
for the sake of gain,is a
debts, sales or
heinous sin and scandal."
removals, "c. "c, themarriage
'relation naturally losesmuch of its sacred-
and says
We do not mean to say that Mr. Smylieness,
had the internalslave-tradedirectly
:
his
It
mind in
is a contract of
writingthese sentences ; but we do
convenience, profit or pleasure,
that
say that no slave-traderwould ask for may be entered into and dissolved at
a the will of the parties, and that without heinous
more explicit justification of his trade than sin,or injuryto the propertyinterests of any
this.
Lastly, in regardto that dissolutionof
the
In this
marriagerelation, which is sentence he
the is
necessary
expressing, as we
consequence of thiskind of suppose, the common idea of slaves and
tradețhe
masters of
following decisionshave
the nature of
been made
this
by judicatories
institution,
and not
of
his
the church.
own. We infer this from the
fact
The Savannah
that
River
he endeavors in
(Baptist) Association,
his catechism to
in 1835,in reply to the impresson the slavethe sacrednessand
question,
perpetuity
of the relation. But,when the
Whether, in a case of involuntary separation, most piousand devoted men that the South
of such a character as to precludeall prospect
of future
has,and those
intercourse, the
professing
partiesoughtto be allowed
to spend their
to marry again ?
lives for the service of the slavețhus
calmly,
answered,
and without any reprobation, contemplate
thisstate of thingsas a state with
That such a separation, among persons situated which Christianity does not call on them to
as our slaves are, is civilly a separationby death, interfere, what can be expected of the world
and theybelieve that,in the sightof God, it in general ?
in such cases, would be
It is to be
to expose the parties,"not remarked,with regardto the
Smylie' s pamphletțhat
they are endorsed in the appendixby a
document in the name of two presbyteries,
which document,thoughwith less minuteness
of investigation, takesthe same ground
Smylie.This Rev. James Smylie