_Before the New York Court of Appeals, on the "Lemmon
Slave Case."_
"I submit most respectfully that the only desire I have manifested here
or elsewhere, in reference to the question, has been to draw the mind of
the court and the intelligent mind of the American people, to the true
question which underlies the whole conflict, and that is the question to
which my friend (W. W. Evarts, Esq.) has addressed the best, and, in my
judgment, the finest part of his very able argument. * * * My friend
denounces the institution of slavery as a monstrous injustice, as a sin,
as a violation of the law of God and of the law of man, of natural law
or natural justice; and in his argument in another place, he called your
attention to the enormity of the result claimed in this case, that these
eight persons--and not only they, but their posterity to the remotest
time--were, by your Honors' judgment, to be consigned to this shocking
condition of abject bondage and slavery. Why, how very small and minute
was that presentation of the subject! My friend must certainly have used
the microscope or reversed the telescope, when, in seeking to present
this question in a striking manner to your Honors' minds, he called your
attention to these _few_ persons and their posterity. Why, if your
Honors please, our territory embraces at the least estimate _three
millions of these human beings_, who, by our laws and institutions, as
now existing in these states, * * * are not only consigned to hopeless
bondage throughout their whole lives, but to a like condition is their
posterity consigned to the remotest times. * * * It is a question of the
mightiest magnitude. But the reason why I call your Honors' attention to
its magnitude is this: that you may contemplate it in the connection in
which my learned friend has presented it; that it is a SIN--a violation
of natural justice and the law of God; that it is a monstrous scheme of
iniquity for defrauding the laborer of his wages--one of those sins that
crieth aloud to heaven for vengeance; that it is a course of unbridled
rapine, fraud, and plunder, by which three millions and their posterity
are to be oppressed throughout all time. Now, is it a sin? Is this an
outrage against divine law and natural justice? _If it be_ such an
outrage, then I say it is a sin of the greatest magnitude, of the most
enormous and flagitious character that was ever presented to the human
mind. The man who does not shrink from it with horror is utterly
unworthy the name of a man. It is no trivial offence, that may be
tolerated with limitations and qualifications; that we can excuse
ourselves for supporting because we have made some kind of a bargain to
support it. The tongue of no human being is capable of depicting its
enormity; it is not in the power of the human heart to form a just
conception of its wickedness and cruelty. And what, I ask, is the
rational and necessary consequence, if we regard it to be thus sinful,
thus unjust, thus outrageous?"
* * *
Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, being much engaged in urging the sinfulness of
slavery, called one day at the house of Dr. Bellamy in Bethlem,
Connecticut, and while there pressed upon him the duty of liberating his
only slave. Dr. B., who was an acute and ingenious reasoner, defended
slaveholding by a variety of arguments, to which Dr. H. as ably replied.
At length Dr. Hopkins proposed to Dr. Bellamy practical obedience to the
golden rule. "Will you give your slave his freedom if he desires it?"
Dr. B. replied that the slave was faithful, judicious, trusted with
every thing, and would not accept freedom if offered. "Will you free him
if _he_ desires it?" repeated Dr. H. "Yes," answered Dr. Bellamy, "I
will." "Call him then." The man appeared. "Have you a good, kind
master?" asked Dr. Hopkins. "Oh! yes, very, very good." "And are you
happy?" "Yes, master, _very_ happy." "Would you be more happy if you
were free?" His face brightened. "Oh! yes, master, a great deal more
happy." "_From this moment_," said Dr. Bellamy, "_you are free_."
[Transcriber's Note, Continued.--The following minor errors have been
corrected: the word "in" missing before "spite" on p. 1 ("and spite of
all compromises ..."), a superfluous quotation mark on p. 5 (""That he
had men-servants ..."), a missing "d" in "praised" on p. 17 ("is praise
as acting"), "is" used for "in" on p. 25 ("now existing is these states
..."), and on p. 6, where the first two characters of #NAAR# were
transposed. Also note that the author used Ashkenazic pronunciation for
his transliteration, and that it would not be considered accurate by
modern standards. Alternative transliterations are:
1. auvadh--avad
2. evedh--eved
3. saukir--sakhir
4. aumau--ama
5. shiphechau--shifcha
6. kaunau--kana
7. naar--na'ar
8. Yov[=a]l--Yovel]