Break the master's sympathy, which is inseparably connected with his property right in his slave, and that moment the slave race is placed upon a common level with all other competitors for the rewards of merit; but as the slaves are inferior in the qualities which give success among competitors in our country, extreme poverty would be their lot; and for the want of means to rear families, they would multiply slowly, and die out by inches, degraded by vice and crime, unpitied by honest and virtuous men, and heart-broken by sufferings without a parallel.
So long as States let masters alone on this subject, good men among them, both in the church and out of it, will struggle on, as experience may dictate and justify, for the benefit of the slave race. And should the time ever come, when emancipation in its consequences, will comport with the moral, social, and political obligations of Christianity, then Christian masters will invest their slaves with freedom, and then will the good-will of those follow the descendants of Ham, who, without any agency of their own, have been made in this land of liberty, their providential guardians.
Yours, with affection,
Thornton Stringfellow.
[It is or ought to be known to all men, that African slavery in the United States originated in, and is perpetuated by a social and political necessity, and that its continuance is demanded equally by the highest interests of both races. All writers on public law, from Drs. Channing and Wayland, among the abolitionists, up to the highest authorities on national law, admit the necessity and propriety of slavery in a social body, whenever men will not provide for their own wants, and yield obedience to the law which guards the rights of others. The guardianship and control of the black race, by the white, in this Union, is an indispensable Christian duty, to which we must as yet look, if we would secure the well-being of both races.]
STATISTICAL VIEW OF SLAVERY.
To satisfy the conscientiousness of Christians, I published in the Herald, some years past, Bible evidence, to prove slavery a lawful relation among men. In a late communication you[231] refer to this essay, and express a wish that it should be republished. Many have expressed a similar wish.
Some who admit the legality of slavery in the sight of God, question the expediency of its expansion. It is believed by them to be an element that is hostile to the best interests of society, and therefore, great efforts have been, and are now being made, to exclude it from all the new States and Territories which may hereafter be organized upon our soil.
While the expediency of its expansion or continuance, are questions with which I have not heretofore meddled, yet I hold their investigation to be within the legitimate range of Christian duty.