TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS.
To the true friends of freedom throughout the world, it is a pleasing
thought, and one which, by being communicated to others, is well
calculated to universalize the principles of liberty, that the great
heroes, statesmen, and sages, of all ages and nations, ancient and modern,
who have ever had occasion to speak of the institution of human slavery,
have entered their most unequivocal and positive protests against it. To
say that they disapproved of the system would not be sufficiently
expressive of the utter detestation with which they uniformly regarded it.
That they abhorred it as the vilest invention that the Evil-One has ever
assisted bad men to concoct, is quite evident from the very tone and
construction of their language.
Having, with much pleasure and profit, heard the testimony of America,
through her representative men, we will now hear that of other nations,
through their representative men--doubting not that we shall be more than
remunerated for our time and trouble. We will first listen to
THE VOICE OF ENGLAND.
In the case of James Somerset, a negro who had been kidnapped in Africa,
transported to Virginia, there sold into slavery, thence carried to
England, as a waiting-boy, and there induced to institute proceedings
against his master for the recovery of his freedom,
MANSFIELD says:--
"The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of
being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by
positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons,
occasion, and time itself whence it was created, is erased from the
memory. It is so odious that nothing can be sufficient to support it
but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from
the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the
law of England, and therefore the black must be discharged."
LOCKE says:--
"Slavery is so vile, so miserable a state of man, and so directly
opposite to the generous temper and courage of our nation, that it is
hard to be convinced that an Englishman, much less a gentleman,
should plead for it."
Again, he says:--
"Though the earth, and all inferior creatures be common to all men,
yet every man has a property in his own person; this nobody has any
right to but himself."
PITT says:--
"It is injustice to permit slavery to remain for a single hour."
FOX says:--
"With regard to a regulation of slavery, my detestation of its
existence induces me to know no such thing as a regulation of
robbery, and a restriction of murder. Personal freedom is a right of
which he who deprives a fellow-creature is criminal in so depriving
him, and he who withholds is no less criminal in withholding."
SHAKSPEARE says:--
"A man is master of his liberty."
Again, he says:--
"It is the curse of Kings, to be attended
By slaves, that take their humors for a warrant
To break within the bloody house of life,
And, on the winking of authority,
To understand a law; to know the meaning
Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humor than advised respect."
Again:--
"Heaven will one day free us from this slavery."
Again:--
"Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!--
Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets;
Some to the common pulpits, and cry out,
Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement"
COWPER says:--
"Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free.
They touch our country and their shackles fall.
That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud
And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then,
And let it circulate through every vein
Of all your Empire, that where Britain's power
Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too!"
MILTON asks:--
"Where is the beauty to see,
Like the sun-brilliant brow of a nation when free?"
Again, he says:--
"If our fathers promised for themselves, to make themselves slaves,
they could make no such promise for us."
Again:--
"Since, therefore, the law is chiefly right reason, if we are bound
to obey a magistrate as a minister of God, by the very same reason
and the very same law, we ought to resist a tyrant, and minister of
the devil."
DR. JOHNSON says:--
"No man is by nature the property of another. The rights of nature
must be some way forfeited before they can justly be taken away."
DR. PRICE says:--
"If you have a right to make another man a slave, he has a right to
make you a slave."
BLACKSTONE says:--
"If neither captivity nor contract can, by the plain law of nature
and reason, reduce the parent to a state of slavery, much less can
they reduce the offspring."
Again, he says:--
"The primary aim of society is to protect individuals in the
enjoyment of those absolute rights which were vested in them by the
immutable laws of nature. Hence it follows that the first and primary
end of human laws is to maintain those absolute rights of
individuals."
Again:--
"If any human law shall allow or require us to commit crime, we are
bound to transgress that human law, or else we must offend both the
natural and divine."
COKE says:--
"What the Parliament doth, shall be holden for naught, whenever it
shall enact that which is contrary to the rights of nature."
HAMPDEN says:--
"The essence of all law is justice. What is not justice is not law;
and what is not law, ought not to be obeyed."
HARRINGTON says:--
"All men naturally, are equal; for though nature with a noble variety
has made different features and lineaments of men, yet as to freedom,
she has made every one alike, and given them the same desires."
FORTESCUE says:--
"Those rights which God and nature have established, and which are
therefore called natural rights, such as life and liberty, need not
the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man
than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when
declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no
human power has any authority to abridge or destroy them, unless the
owner himself shall commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture."
Again, he says:--
"The law, therefore, which supports slavery and opposes liberty, must
necessarily be condemned as cruel, for every feeling of human nature
advocates liberty. Slavery is introduced by human wickedness, but God
advocates liberty, by the nature which he has given to man."
BROUGHAM says:--
"Tell me not of rights--talk not of the property of the planter in
his slaves. I deny the right; I acknowledge not the property. In vain
you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim. There is a law above
all the enactments of human codes, the same throughout the world, the
same in all times; it is the law written by the finger of God on the
hearts of men; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal, while men
despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they shall reject
with indignation the wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold
property in man."
THE VOICE OF IRELAND.
BURKE says:--
"Slavery is a state so improper, so degrading, and so ruinous to the
feelings and capacities of human nature, that it ought not to be
suffered to exist."
CURRAN says:--
"I speak in the spirit of British law, which makes liberty
commensurate with and inseparable from British soil; which proclaims
even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment he sets his foot
upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy and
consecrated by the genius of Universal Emancipation. No matter in
what language his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what
complexion, incompatible with freedom, an Indian or African sun may
have burnt upon him; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty
may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may
have been devoted upon the altar of slavery, the moment he touches
the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the god sink together in
the dust; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; and he stands
redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of
Universal Emancipation."
The Dublin University Magazine for December, 1856, says:--
"The United States must learn, from the example of Rome, that
Christianity and the pagan institution of slavery cannot co-exist
together. The Republic must take her side and choose her favorite
child; for if she love the one, she must hate the other."
THE VOICE OF SCOTLAND.
BEATTIE says:--
"Slavery is inconsistent with the dearest and most essential rights
of man's nature; it is detrimental to virtue and industry; it hardens
the heart to those tender sympathies which form the most lovely part
of human character; it involves the innocent in hopeless misery, in
order to procure wealth and pleasure for the authors of that misery;
it seeks to degrade into brutes beings whom the Lord of Heaven and
Earth endowed with rational souls, and created for immortality; in
short, it is utterly repugnant to every principle of reason,
religion, humanity, and conscience. It is impossible for a
considerate and unprejudiced mind, to think of slavery without
horror."
MILLER says:--
"The human mind revolts at a serious discussion of the subject of
slavery. Every individual, whatever be his country or complexion, is
entitled to freedom."
MACKNIGHT says:--
"Men-stealers are inserted among the daring criminals against whom
the law of God directed its awful curses. These were persons who
kidnapped men to sell them for slaves; and this practice seems
inseparable from the other iniquities and oppressions of slavery; nor
can a slave dealer easily keep free from this criminality, if indeed
the receiver is as bad as the thief."
THE VOICE OF FRANCE.
LAFAYETTE says:--
"I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I
could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery."
Again, while in the prison of Magdeburg, he says:--
"I know not what disposition has been made of my plantation at
Cayenne; but I hope Madame de Lafayette will take care that the
negroes who cultivate it shall preserve their liberty."
O. LAFAYETTE, grandson of General Lafayette, in a letter under date of
April 26th, 1851, says:--
"This great question of the Abolition of Negro Slavery, which has my
entire sympathy, appears to me to have established its importance
throughout the world. At the present time, the States of the
Peninsula, if I do not deceive myself, are the only European powers
who still continue to possess slaves; and America, while continuing
to uphold slavery, feels daily, more and more how heavily it weighs
upon her destinies."
MONTESQUIEU asks:--
"What civil law can restrain a slave from running away, since he is
not a member of society?"
Again, he says:--
"Slavery is contrary to the fundamental principles of all societies."
Again:--
"In democracies, where they are all upon an equality, slavery is
contrary to the principles of the Constitution."
Again:--
"Nothing puts one nearer the condition of a brute than always to see
freemen and not be free."
Again:--
"Even the earth itself, which teems with profusion under the
cultivating hand of the free born laborer, shrinks into barrenness
from the contaminating sweat of a slave."
LOUIS X. issued the following edict:--
"As all men are by nature free born, and as this Kingdom is called
the Kingdom of Franks, (freemen) it shall be so in reality. It is
therefore decreed that enfranchisement shall be granted throughout
the whole Kingdom upon just and reasonable terms."
BUFFON says:--
"It is apparent that the unfortunate negroes are endowed with
excellent hearts, and possess the seeds of every human virtue. I
cannot write their history without lamenting their miserable
condition." "Humanity revolts at those odious oppressions that result
from avarice."
ROUSSEAU says:--
"The terms _slavery_ and _right_, contradict and exclude each other."
BRISSOT says:--
"Slavery, in all its forms, in all its degrees, is a violation of
divine law, and a degradation of human nature."
THE VOICE OF GERMANY.
GROTIUS says:--
"Those are men-stealers who abduct, keep, sell or buy slaves or free
men. To steal a man is the highest kind of theft."
GOETHE SAYS:--
Such busy multitudes I fain would see
Stand upon free soil with a people free."
LUTHER SAYS:--
"Unjust violence is, by no means, the ordinance of God, and therefore
can bind no one in conscience and right, to obey, whether the command
comes from pope, emperor, king or master."
An able German writer of the present day, says, in a recent letter to his
friends in this country:--
"Consider that the cause of American liberty is the cause of
universal liberty; its failure, a triumph of despotism everywhere.
Remember that while American liberty is the great argument of
European Democracy, American slavery is the greater argument of its
despotism. Remember that all our actions should be governed by the
golden rule, whether individual, social, or political; and no
government, and, above all, no republican government, is safe in the
hands of men that practically deny that rule. Will you support by
your vote a system that recognizes property of man in man? A system
which sanctions the sale of the child by its own father, regardless
of the purpose of the buyer? What need is there to present to you the
unmitigated wrong of slavery? It is the shame of our age that
argument is needed against slavery.
"Liberty is no exclusive property; it is the property of mankind of
all ages. She is immortal, though crushed, can never die; though
banished, she will return; though fettered, she will yet be free."
THE VOICE OF ITALY.
CICERO SAYS:--
"By the grand laws of nature, all men are born free, and this law is
universally binding upon all men."
Again, he says:--
"Eternal justice is the basis of all human laws."
Again:--
"Law is not something wrought out by man's ingenuity, nor is it a
decree of the people, but it is something eternal, governing the
world by the wisdom of its commands and prohibitions."
Again:--
"Whatever is just is also the true law, nor can this true law be
abrogated by any written enactments."
Again:--
"If there be such a power in the decrees and commands of fools, that
the nature of things is changed by their votes, why do they not
decree that what is bad and pernicious shall be regarded as good and
wholesome, or why, if the law can make wrong right, can it not make
bad good?"
Again:--
"Those who have made pernicious and unjust decrees, have made
anything rather than laws."
Again:--
"The law of all nations forbids one man to pursue his advantage at
the expense of another."
LACTANTIUS says:--
"Justice teaches men to know God and to love men, to love and assist
one another, being all equally the children of God."
LEO X. says:--
"Not only does the Christian religion, but nature herself cry out
against the state of slavery."
THE VOICE OF GREECE.
SOCRATES says:--
"Slavery is a system of outrage and robbery."
ARISTOTLE says:--
"It is neither for the good, nor is it just, seeing all men are by
nature alike, and equal, that one should be lord and master over
others."
POLYBIUS says:--
"None but unprincipled and beastly men in society assume the mastery
over their fellows, as it is among bulls, bears, and cocks."
PLATO says:--
"Slavery is a system of the most complete injustice."
From each of the above, and from other nations, additional testimony is at
hand; but, for reasons already assigned, we forbear to introduce it.
Corroborative of the correctness of the position which we have assumed,
even Persia has a voice, which may be easily recognized in the tones of
her immortal Cyrus, who says:
"To fight, in order not to be made a slave, is noble."
Than Great Britain no nation has more heartily or honorably repented of
the crime of slavery--no nation, on the perception of its error, has ever
acted with more prompt magnanimity to its outraged and unhappy bondsmen.
Entered to her credit, many precious jewels of liberty remain in our
possession, ready to be delivered when called for; of their value some
idea may be formed, when we state that they are filigreed with such names
as Wilberforce, Buxton, Granville, Grattan, Camden, Clarkson, Sharp,
Sheridan, Sidney, Martin, and Macaulay.
Virginia, the Carolinas, and other Southern States, which are provided
with _republican (!)_ forms of government, and which have abolished
freedom, should learn, from the history of the monarchal governments of
the Old World, if not from the example of the more liberal and enlightened
portions of the New, how to abolish slavery. The lesson is before them in
a variety of exceedingly interesting forms, and, sooner or later, they
must learn it, either voluntarily or by compulsion. Virginia, in
particular, is a spoilt child, having been the pet of the General
Government for the last sixty-eight years; and like most other spoilt
children, she has become froward, peevish, perverse, sulky and
irreverent--not caring to know her duties, and failing to perform even
those which she does know. Her superiors perceive that the abolition of
slavery would be a blessing to her; she is, however, either too ignorant
to understand the truth, or else, as is the more probable, her false pride
and obstinacy restrain her from acknowledging it. What is to be done?
Shall ignorance, or prejudice, or obduracy, or willful meanness, triumph
over knowledge, and liberality, and guilelessness, and laudable
enterprise? No, never! Assured that Virginia and all the other
slaveholding States are doing wrong every day, it is our duty to make them
do right, if we have the power; and we believe we have the power now
resident within their own borders. What are the opinions, generally, of
the non-slaveholding whites? Let them speak.