THEFTS OF LITIGATION AND OF WITHHOLDING. 361 is seen in most places, at least in this country, in the abuses of public property. Public buildings are almost everywhere injured and defaced: the windows are broken; the doors, wainscoting, pillars, and other appurtenances formed of wood, are shamefully carved and hacked; the courts, balustrades, and other vulnerable articles are mangled and destroyed-in a word, injuries of this nature are endless, and all of them are scandalous frauds, useless to the perpetrators, wounding to every man of integrity and taste, discouragements to public improvement, and sources of public deformity and disgrace." (12.) Thefts of Litigation. [Dr. Dwight.] 750. It is a breach of the spirit of this commandment, when one person puts another to the charge and hazard of law, unjustly or needlessly; or in ever so necessary a lawsuit, occasions unnecessary expenses, and contrives unfair delays in short, when anything is done by either party, by the counsel that plead or advise in the cause, or by the judge who determines it, contrary to real justice and equity. : (13.) Theft of Withholding. 751. When persons, by any means whatever, withhold from another his right; either keeping him ignorant of it, or forcing him to unreasonable cost or trouble to obtain it; this, in its proportion, is the same kind of injury with stealing from him. This is often practiced upon the poor; but not unfrequently also upon the rich. Though the person who is wronged be ever so wealthy, still his wealth is his own, and no one can have more right to take the least part of it from him without his consent, than to rob the meanest wretch in the world. The same remarks apply to the government, or the public, when defrauded. The crime is the same, whoever be the sufferer. (14.) Theft of Participation. 752. Whatever things it is unlawful to do, it is also unlawful to advise, encourage, help, or protect others in doing hence the buying, receiving, or concealing stolen goods, known or suspected to be such, is becoming a partner in the stealth. The being in any way, a patron, Q assistant, or tool of injustice, is no less evidently wrong, than being the immediate and principal agent in it. (15.) Thefts of Forgery and Counterfeiting. 753. The first of these consists in making or altering any written instrument with the intention to defraud or wrong any person. The other consists in making false and base coin; in preparing false bank-notes or frauduThe civil law makes it crimlently altering true notes. inal not only to make or pass such coins or notes, but to hold in possession any engraved plate or notes unsigned, which are intended to be used for such purposes. (16.) Theft of Gambling. 754. This is a direct method by which we injure the property of others. It cherishes, and calls into exercise, the desire to acquire what others possess, and thus leads to a violation of the law of God. ways. The There are but two possible methods by which we can acquire property from others honestly: either by free gift, or by rendering an equivalent for what we receive. In gambling it is received in neither of these gambler may lay his account with losing a certain sum, but not with freely giving away; and the only equivalent which he obtains is the chance, as it is called, of depriving another, contrary to his intention, of a part of his property. Nor would he hazard his own at all, but that it is necessary for him to do so, in order to get possession of that which is not his. The money lost is lost contrary to the wish, the design, and consequently to the proper consent of the persons losing; while the winner holds it by no better tenure, according to the laws of morality, than the thief or the robber. The gambler, therefore, is guilty of a direct violation of the law of God, in plundering the property of others, and reducing them to poverty and wretchedness; and proves himself by such conduct to be void of piety, benevolence, or humanity. He is a source of evil by his example, as well as by his actions; a corrupter of youth, stealing from them not their property only, but what is infinitely more valuable, their virtue and their happiness; and doing all in his power to prevent their retreat from the road that inevitably leads to present and future ruin. THEFT OF PERSONS AND PERSONAL RIGHTS. 363 If it be said by the advocate of gambling, that every man has an exclusive right to the use of his property, it is to be remarked, by way of qualification, that every man is also a steward, and is accountable to the Proprietor of all for the way in which he employs it. As it is manifestly the design of God that the gifts which he bestows should be expended in useful and beneficent purposes-in diffusing happiness-we are not at liberty to appropriate them to other ends, or foolishly to waste them much less, dispose of them for unworthy purposes -for encouraging vice. [Dewar.] These are some of the various modes in which the commandment relating to property is violated. Others might be specified. We shall add but one more. (17.) Theft of Persons and Personal Rights. 755. This being the most serious and criminal kind of theft, has been reserved for consideration last. It brings to view one of the most vexed and difficult subjects in the whole range of moral discussion; one which in late years has awakened more interest, and occasioned more acrimony and danger, than almost any other; one, however, that cannot with propriety be omitted in a work of this kind; one upon which a right opinion should be formed, and right action taken by every American citizen. No subject has the author approached with more diffidence and fear than this; lest amid the great discordance of views entertained even by great and good men, he should fail to present such a view of the matter as the divine law, and the Scriptures generally, sanction and require. He claims no superior wisdom or judgment, but is obliged, under a sense of his personal responsibility, to present what he considers the sober truth upon the great question of AMERICAN SLAVERY; and, as in other parts of the work, so in this, he will freely introduce the thoughts and language of other and abler minds than his own. No attempt will be made, for there is not space, to present the subject in all its bearings; but to offer only some general views, such as are demanded in a treatise on Moral Philosophy. Those who desire a more full discussion can obtain their object by reading the works of Albert Barnes, Drs. Fuller and Wayland, and Dr. Channing. V. Slavery. 756. The first important question that claims our attention, is, whether slavery, in its essential characters, possesses such attributes as entitle it to be ranked among the violations of the Eighth Commandment. To settle this question is the object of the present article. The character of complete slavery is, that it deprives the slave unjustly of all his rights: and what property can be more dear than these? In confirmation of this charge against slavery, Dr. Channing advances and demonstrates the following positions : Slavery violates, not one, but all rights; and violates them, not incidentally, but necessarily, systematically, from its very nature. In starting with the assumption that the slave is property, it sweeps away every defense of human rights and lays them in the dust. (1.) Slavery strips man of the fundamental right to inquire into, consult, and seek his own happiness. His powers belong to another, and for another they must be used. (2.) The slave is forbidden to acquire property. Being himself owned, his earnings are the property of another. He can possess nothing but by favor. (3.) The slave is stripped of his right to his wife and children. They belong to another, and may be torn from him, one and all, at any moment, at his master's pleasure. (4.) He is stripped of the right to the culture of his rational powers; nor is he allowed to toil that his children may enjoy a better education than himself. (5.) He is deprived of the right of self-defense. No injury from a white man is he suffered to repel, nor can he seek redress from the laws of his country. (6.) He is stripped of the right to be exempted from all harm except for wrong doing. (7.) He suffers the wrong of robbery. Whatever he may be denied by man, he holds from nature the most valuable property, and that from which all other is derived his strength. To the great mass, in all countries, their strength or labor is their whole fortune. To seize on this would be to rob them of their all. In truth, no robbery is so great as that to which the slave is habitually subjected. To take by force a man's whole estate, the NATURE OF SLAVERY. 365 fruit of years of toil, would, by universal consent, be denounced as a great wrong; but what is this compared with seizing the man himself, and appropriating to our use the limbs, faculties, strength, and labor, by which all property is won and held fast? The right of property in outward things is as nothing, compared with our right to ourselves. Were the slaveholder stripped of his fortune, he would count the violence slight, compared with what he would suffer, were his person seized and devoted as a chattel to another's use. 757. That the above are not groundless assertions, but a true account of the domestic institution at the South, could easily be shown by quoting from published laws there enacted, and either enforced, or liable to be enforced upon any slave. The Louisiana code declares: "A slave is in the power of the master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, his labor. He can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything but which must belong to his master." The laws of South Carolina say: "Slaves shall be deemed, taken, reported, and adjudged, to be chattels personal in the hands of their masters, and possessions to all intents and purposes whatsoever.” 758. That the above view of slavery is correct, will further be substantiated by quoting the testimony of the Rev. R. J. Breckenridge, D.D., who was born and educated in a slave state, and still resides in a slave state, and must therefore be well acquainted with the morals and usages of the South. He says:— "What is slavery as it exists among us? We reply, it is that condition, enforced by the laws of one half of the states of this confederacy, in which one portion of the community, called masters, is allowed such power over another, called slaves, as "1st. To deprive them of the entire earnings of their own labor, except only so much as is necessary to continue labor itself, by continuing healthful existence, thus committing CLEAR ROBBERY: "2d. To reduce them to the necessity of universal concubinage by denying to them the civil rights of marriage, thus breaking up the dearest relations of life, and encouraging universal prostitution: "3d. To deprive them of the means and opportunities |