Footnote D:
Haywood’s Manual, 521; Stroud on the Laws relating to Slavery, p. 102.
-----
Does the mind hesitate as to the design of this laboured and lengthy
argument? That its object is to do away, to destroy the scriptural force
of the facts stated in these records? Does not this argument
substantially deny that Abraham had slaves bought with money? And even
if he did have them, then that it was just as wicked at that time as he
thinks it to be now? Or, if he shall thus far fail, then to bring down
the characters of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to a level with Nero,
Caligula, Richard III., and Cæsar Borgia? And the holy books themselves
to the standard of Herodotus, Tacitus, and Livy; and inure our mind to
compare them with the writings of Hume and Gibbon?
The writer who lessens our veneration for the characters of the ancient
worshippers of Jehovah; who, as by a system of special pleading,
attempts to overspread the simple announcements of the holy books with
doubt and uncertainty, however conscientious he may be in these labours
of his hand, while he assumes a most awful responsibility to God, must
ever call down upon himself the universal and determined opposition of
the intelligent and good among men.
The more secret, the more adroit the application of the poison, the more
intensely wicked is the hand that presents it.
------------------