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obedience so far too, to that heathen empire and emperor, as to work a miracle, to obtain the necessary sum to pay the required tax—yes, to that same Cæsar who is to receive his eternal doom and destiny from his lips.
The parable of the tares and the wheat is another example in proof of our position; and is, perhaps, more in point than any of the others that have been cited; as it is a full illustration of our position, and of the condition of slavery at this time in our country, which has become so incorporated and interlaced with the whole fabric of social life, domestic, civil and political, identifying its very existence, that to abolish slavery by immediate emancipation, would be to tear up society by the roots—and would be the destruction of master and servant—or a practical exemplification of attempting to separate the tares from the wheat. And, therefore, if slavery is an evil, it is like those evils contained in the foregoing examples given from the word of God—and is under the eye and protection of Heaven for the present: and, therefore, abolitionists should pause and reflect, lest they be found fighting against God.
These examples, which we have drawn from the word of God, contain a vast fund of instruction to all, especially to statesmen who have the welfare of their country at heart; but to none would they prove so profitable as to abolitionists, if they would but study them.
Do nothing before the time; and wait for the “fullness of time,” by watching “the signs of the times,” is a safe and wise rule: but in this helter skelter and headlong age, it is lost sight of; and men who are too lazy to learn, too stupid to understand, and too impatient to wait, substitute zeal for knowledge, and action for wisdom, prudence and talent—and their fanaticism assures them that God stands committed to second all their plans and purposes.
We will now proceed to file our objections to the doctrine of abolitionism.
We object to it in the first place, because what it demands is legally and politically unjust. We have disposed of the moral division of this question on biblical grounds, and we will now look at its legal and political aspect. Slaves, as property, are as much legitimated by legislative enactments and safeguards, as any species of property in our country, in lawful possession; and, therefore, it is the height of presumption and injustice to ask the slave-holder to surrender up this species of property—which gives to his other property whatever value it may possess. It is the insolent demand of
