Rev. Albert Barnes:-- Dear Sir:--The argument against slave-holding, founded on the Golden Rule, is the strongest which can be presented, and I admit that, if it cannot be perfectly met, the master must give the slave liberty and equality. But if it can be absolutely refuted, then the slave-holder in this regard may have a good conscience; and the abolitionist has nothing more to say. Here is the rule. "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." (Matt. vii. 12.) In your "Notes," on this passage you thus write:--"This command has been usually called the Savior's Golden Rule; a name given to it on account of its great value.--All that you EXPECT or DESIRE of others, in similar circumstances, DO TO THEM." This, sir, is your exposition of the Savior's rule of right. With all due respect, I decline your interpretation. You have missed the meaning by leaving out ONE word. Observe,--you do not say, All that you OUGHT to expect or desire, &c., THAT do to them. No. But you make the EXPECTATION or DESIRE, which every man ACTUALLY HAS in similar circumstances, THE MEASURE of his DUTY to every other man. Or, in different words, you make, without qualification or explanation, the MERE EXPECTATION or DESIRE which every man,--with no instruction, or any sort of training,--wise or simple, good or bad, heathen, Mohammedan, nominal Christian,--WOULD HAVE in similar circumstances, THE LAW OF OBLIGATION, always binding upon him TO DO THAT SAME THING unto his neighbor! Sir, you have left out the very idea which contains the sense of that Scripture. It is this: Christ, in his rule, presupposes that the man to whom he gives it knows, and from the Bible, (or providence, or natural conscience, so far as in harmony with the Bible,) the various relations in which God has placed him; and the respective duties in those relations; i.e. The rule assumes that he KNOWS what he OUGHT to expect or desire in similar circumstances. I will test this affirmation by several and varied illustrations. I will show how Christ, according to your exposition of his rule, speaks on the subject,--of revenge, marriage, emancipation,--the fugitive from bondage. And how he truly speaks on these subjects. Revenge--Right according to your view of the Golden Rule. Indian and Missionary--Prisoner tied to a tree, stuck over with burning splinters. Here is an Indian torturing his prisoner. The missionary approaches and beseeches him to regard the Golden Rule. "Humph!" utters the savage: "Golden Rule! what's that?" "Why" says the good man, "all that you expect or desired other Indians, in similar circumstances, do you even so to them." "Humph!" growls the warrior, with a fierce smile,--"Missionary--good: that's what I do now. If I was tied to that tree, I would expect and desire him to have his revenge,--to do to me as I do to him; and I would sing my death-song, as he sings his. Missionary, your rule is Indian rule,--good rule, missionary. Humph!" And he sticks more splinters into his victim, brandishes his tomahawk, and yells. Sir, what has the missionary to say, after this perfect proof that you have mistaken the great law of right? Verily, he finds that the rule, with your explanation, tells the Indian to torture his prisoner. Verily, he finds that the wild man has the best of the argument. He finds he had left out the word OUGHT; and that he can't put it in, until he teaches the Indian things which as yet he don't know. Yea, he finds he gave the commandment too soon; for that he must begin back of that commandment, and teach the savage God's ordination of the relations in which he is to his fellow-men, before he can make him comprehend or apply the rule as Christ gives it. Marriage--Void under your Interpretation of the Golden Rule. Lucy Stone, and Moses--Lady on sofa, having just divorced herself--Moses, with the Tables of the Law, appears: she falls at his feet, and covers her face with her hands. This woman, everybody knows, was married some time since, after a fashion; that is to say, protesting publicly against all laws of wedlock, and entering into the relation so long only as she, or her husband, might continue pleased therewith. Very well. Then I, without insult to her or offense to my readers, suppose that about this time she has shown her unalienable right to liberty and equality by giving her husband a bill of divorcement. Free again, she reclines on her couch, and is reading the Tribune. It is mid-day. But there is a light, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about her. And he, who saw God on Sinai, stands before her, the glory on his face, and the tables of stone in his hands. The woman falls before him, veils her eyes with her trembling fingers, and cries out, "Moses, oh, I believed till now that thou practised deception, in claiming to be sent of God to Israel. But now, I know thou didst see God in the burning bush, and heard him speak that law from the holy mountain. Moses, I know ... I confess.".... And Moses answers, and says unto her, "Woman, thou art one of a great class in this land, who claim to be more just than God, more pure than their Maker, who have made their inward light their God. Woman, thou in 'convention' hast uttered Declaration of Independence from man. And, verily, thou hast asserted this claim to equality and unalienable right, even now, by giving thy husband his bill of divorcement, in thy sense of the Golden Rule. Yea, verily, thou hast done unto him all that thou expectedst or desiredst of him, in similar circumstances. And now thou thinkest thyself free again. Woman, thou art a sinner. Verily, thine inward light, and declaration of independence, and Golden Rule, do well agree the one with the other. Verily, thou hast learned of Jefferson, and Channing, and Barnes. But, woman, notwithstanding thou hast sat at the feet of these wise men, I, Moses, say thou art a sinner before the law, and the prophets, and the gospel. Woman, thy light is darkness; thy declaration of equality and right is vanity and folly; and thy Golden Rule is license to wickedness. "Woman, hast thou ears? Hear: I, by authority of God, ordained that the man should rule over thee. I placed thee, and children, and men-servants, and maid-servants, under the same law of subjection to the government ordained of God in the family,--the state. I for a time sanctioned polygamy, and made it right. I, for the hardness of men's hearts, allowed them, and made it right, to give their wives a bill of divorcement. Woman, hear. Paul, having the same Spirit of God, confirms my word. He commands wives, and children, and servants, after this manner:--'Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord; children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord; servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God.' Woman, Paul makes that rule the same, and that submission, the same. The manner of the rule he varies with the relations. He requires it to be, in the love of the husband, even as Christ loved the church,--in the mildness of the father, not provoking the children to anger, lest they be discouraged,--in the justice and equity of the master, knowing that he also has a master in heaven: (Colossians.) Woman, hear. Paul says to thee, the man now shall have one wife, and he now shall not give her a bill of divorcement, save for crime. Woman, thou art not free from thy husband. Christ's Golden Rule must not be interpreted by thee as A. Barnes has rendered it; Christ assumes that thou believest God's truth,--that thou knowest the relation of husband and wife, and the obligations and rights of the same, as in the Bible; then, in the light of this knowledge, verily, thou art required to do what God says thou oughtest to do. Woman, thou art a sinner. Go, sin no more. Go, find thy husband; see to it that he takes thee back. Go, submit to him, and honor him, and obey him." Emancipation--Ruin--Golden Rule, in your meaning, carried out. Island in the Tropics--Elegant houses falling to decay--Broad fields abandoned to the forest--Wharves grass-grown--Negroes relapsing into the savage state--A dark cloud over the island, through which the lightning glares, revealing, in red writing, these words:--"Redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation".--[Gospel--according to Curran--and the British Parliament.] Jamaica, sir, to say nothing of St. Domingo, is illustration of your theory of the Golden Rule, in negro emancipation. You tell the Southern master that all he would expect or desire, if he were a slave, he must do unto his bondman; that he must not pause to ask whether the relation of master and slave be ordained of God or not. No. You tell him, if he would expect or desire liberty were he a slave, that settles the question as to what he is to do! He must let his bondman go free. Yea, that is what you teach: because the moment you put in the word OUGHT, and say, all that you OUGHT to expect or desire,--i.e. all that you know God commands you to expect or desire in your relations to men, as established by him,--THAT do to them. Sir, when you thus explain the Golden Rule, then your argument against slave-holding, so far as founded on this rule, is at once arrested; it is stopped short, in full career; it has to wait for reinforcement of FACT, which may never come up. For, suppose the FACT to be, that the relation of master and slave is one mode of the government ordained of God. Then, sir, the master, knowing that FACT, and knowing what the slave, as a slave, OUGHT to expect or desire, he, the master, then FULFILS THE GOLDEN RULE when he does that unto his slave which, in similar circumstances, he OUGHT to expect to be done unto himself. Now comes the question, OUGHT he then to expect or desire liberty and equality? THAT is the question of questions on this subject. And without hesitation I reply, The Golden Rule DECIDES that question YEA or NAY, absolutely and perfectly, as God's word or providence shows that the GOOD of the family, the community, the state, REQUIRES that the slave IS or IS NOT to be set free and made equal. THAT GOOD, as God reveals it, SETTLES THE QUESTION. Let the master then see to it, how he hears God's word as to THAT GOOD. Let him see to it, how he understands God's providence as to THAT GOOD. Let him see to it, that he makes no mistake as to THAT GOOD. For God will not hold him guiltless, if he will not hear what he tells him as to THAT GOOD. God will not justify him, if he has a bad conscience or blunders in his philosophy. God will punish him, if he fails to bless his land by letting the bond go free when, he OUGHT to emancipate. And God will punish him, if he brings a curse upon his country by freeing his slave when he OUGHT NOT to give him liberty. So, then, the Golden Rule does not, OF ITSELF, reveal to man at all what are his RELATIONS to his fellow-men; but it tells him what he is to DO, when he ALREADY KNOWS THEM. So, then, you, sir, cannot be permitted to tell the world that this rule must emancipate all the negro slaves in the United States,--no matter how unprepared they may be,--no matter how degraded,--no matter how unlike and unequal to the white man by creation,--no matter if it be a natural and moral impossibility,--no matter: the Golden Rule must emancipate by authority of the first sentiments of the Declaration of Independence, and by obligation of the great law of liberty,--the intuitional consciousness of the eternal right! No. The Rule, as said, presupposes that he who is required to obey it does already know the relations in which God has placed him, and the respective duties in those conditions. Has God, then, established the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, master and slave? Yes. Then the command comes. It says to the husband, To aid you in your known obligations to your wife,--to give you a lively sense of it,--suppose yourself to be the wife: whatsoever, therefore, you OUGHT, in that condition, to expect or desire, that, as husband, do unto your wife. It says to the parent, Imagine yourself the child; and whatsoever, as such, you OUGHT to expect or desire, that, as parent, do unto your child. It says to the master, Put yourself in the place of your slave; and whatsoever you OUGHT, in that condition, to expect or desire, that, as master, do unto your slave. Let husband, parent, master, know his obligations from God, and obey the Rule. Fugitive Slave--Obeying the Golden Rule under your version.
Honorable Joshua R. Giddings and the Angel of the Lord--Hon. Gentleman at table--Nine runaway negroes dining with him--The Angel, uninvited, comes in and disturbs the feast.
Giddings has boasted in Congress of having had nine fugitive slaves to break bread with him at one time. I choose, then, to imagine that, during the dinner, the angel who found Hagar by the fountain stands suddenly in the midst, and says to the negroes, "Ye slaves, whence came ye, and whither will ye go?" And they answer and say, "We flee from the face of our masters. This abolitionist told us to kill, and steal, and run away from bondage; and we have murdered and stolen and escaped. He, thou seest, welcomes us to liberty and equality. We expect and desire to be members of Congress, Governors of States, to marry among the great, and one of us to be President. Giddings, and all abolitionists, tell us that these honors belong to us equally as to white people, and will be given under the Golden Rule." And the angel of the Lord says to them, "Ye slaves, return unto your masters, and submit yourselves under their hands. I sent your fathers, and I send you, into bondage. I mean it unto good, and I will bring it to pass to save much people alive." Then, turning to the tempter, he says, "Thou, a statesman! thou, a reader of my word and providence! why hast thou not understood my speech to Hagar? I gave her, a slave, to Sarah. She fled from her mistress. I sent her back. Why hast thou not understood my word four thousand years ago,--that the slave shall not flee from his master? Why hast thou also perverted my law in Deuteronomy, (xxiii. 15, 16?) I say therein, 'Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee: he shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy gates where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him.' Why hast thou not known that I meant the heathen slave who escaped from his heathen master? I commanded, Israel, in such case, not to hold him in bondage. I made this specific law for this specific fact. Why hast thou taught that, in this commandment, I gave license to all men-servants and maid-servants in the whole land of Israel to run away from their masters? Why hast thou thus made me, in one saying, contradict and make void all my laws wherein I ordained that the Hebrews should be slave-owners over their brethren during years, and over the heathen forever? Why hast thou in all this changed my Golden Rule? I, in that rule, assume that men know from revelation and providence the relations in which I have placed them, and their duties therein. I then command them to do unto others what they thus know they ought to do unto them in these relations; and I make the obligation quick and powerful, by telling every man to imagine himself in such conditions, and then he will the better KNOW 'whatsoever' he should do unto his neighbor. Why hast thou made void my law, by making me say, 'All that thou expectest or desirest of others, in similar circumstances, do to them'? I never imagined to give such license to folly and sin. Why hast thou imagined such license to iniquity? Verily, thou tempter, thou hast in thy Golden Rule made these slaves thieves and murderers, and art now eating with them the bread of sin and death.
"Why hast thou tortured my speech wherein I say that I have made of one blood all nations of men, to mean that I have created all men equal and endowed them with rights unalienable save in their consent? I never said that thing! I said that I made all men to descend from one parentage! That is what I say in that place! Why hast thou tortured that plain truth? Thou mightest as well teach that all 'the moving creatures that have life, and fowl that fly above the earth, in the open firmament of heaven,' are created equal, because I said I brought them forth of the water. Thou mightest as well say that 'all cattle, and creeping thing and beast of the earth, are created equal, because I said I brought them forth of the earth, as to affirm the equality of men because I say they are of one blood. Nay, I have made men unequal as the leaves of the trees, the sands of the sea, the stars of heaven. I have made them so, in harmony with the infinite variety and inequality in every thing in my creation. And I have made them unequal in my mercy. Had I made all men equal in attributes of body and mind, then unfallen man would never have realized the varied glories of his destiny. And had I given fallen man equality of nature and unalienable rights, then I had made the earth an Aceldama and Valley of Gehenna. For what would be the strife in all the earth among men equal in body and mind, equal in power, equal in depravity, equal in will, each one maintaining rights unalienable? When would the war end? Who would be the victors where all are giants? Who would sue for peace where none will submit? What would be human social life? Who would be the weak, the loving? Who would seek or need forbearance, compassion, self-denying benevolence? Who would be the grateful? Who would be the humble, the meek? What would be human virtue, what human vice, what human joy or sorrow? Nay, I have made men unequal and given them alienable rights, that I might INSTITUTE HUMAN GOVERNMENT and reveal HUMAN CHARACTER.
"Why hast thou been willingly ignorant of these first principles of the oracles of God, which would have made thee truly a Christian philosopher and statesman?"
Fugitive Slave--Obeying the Golden Rule as Christ gave it
Rev. A. Barnes and the Apostle Paul--Minister of the gospel in his study--Fugitive slave, converted under his preaching, inquiring whether it is not his duty to return to his master--Paul appears and rebukes the minister for wresting his Gospel.
With all respect and affection for you, sir, I imagine a slave, having run away from his master and become a Christian under your preaching, might, with the Bible in his hands and the Holy Spirit in his heart, have, despite your training, question of conscience, whether he did right to leave his master, and ought not to go back. And I think how Paul would listen, and what he would say, to your interpretation of his Epistle to Philemon. I think he would say,--
"I withstand thee to thy face, because thou art to be blamed. Why hast thou written, in thy 'Notes,' that the word I apply to Onesimus may mean, not slave, but hired servant? Why hast thou said this in unsupported assertion? Why hast thou given no respect to Robinson, and all thy wise men, who agree that the word wherein I express Onesimus's relation to Philemon never means a hired servant, but a slave,--the property of his master,--a living possession?
"Why hast thou called in question the fact that Philemon was a slave-holder? Why hast thou taught that, if he was a slave-holder when he became a Christian, he could not continue, consistently, to be a slave-owner and a Christian,--that if he did so continue, he would not be in good standing, but an offender in the church? (See Notes.)