15 the same principle pervading the heavenly bodies abofe us. One star differs from another stat in i apd in none of them is there anything against it L—this is the moral law. In Leviticus we have the civil law on this subject, as given by God to Moses for the government of his chosen people iii their municipal affairs.' In chapter xxv., verses 44, 45, and 46, I read as follows: “ 44. Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids which thou shalt have shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them ye shall buy bondmen and bondmaids. “ 45. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them ye shall buy, and of their families that are with you which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. “ 46; And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever; but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another, with rigor.” This was the law given to the Jews soon after they left Egypt for their government when they should reach the land of promise. They could have had no slaves then. It authorized the introduction of slavery amorigst them when they should become.established in Canaan. And it is to be noted that their bond men and bondmaids to be bought, and held for a possession and an inheritance for their children after them, were to be of the heathen round about them. Over their brethren they were not to rule with rigor. Our southern system is in strict conformity with this injunction. Men of our own blood and our own race, wherever born, or from whatever clime they come,, are free and equal. We have n.o castes or classes amongst white men—no “ upper tendom” or “lower tendom.” All are equals. Our slaves were taken from the heathen tribes—the barbarians of Africa. In our households they are •hrougkt within the pale of the covenant, under Christian teaching and influence; and more of them are partakers of the benefits of the gospel than ever were rendered so by missionary enterprise. The wisdom of-man is foolishness—the ways of Providence are mysterious. Nor does the negro feel any sense'of degradation in his condition—he is not degraded. He occupies and fills the same grade or rank in society and the State that he does in the scale of being; it is his natural place; and all things fit when nature’s great first law of order is conformed to. Again: Job yas certainly one of the best men of whom we read in the Bible. He was a large slaveholder. So, too, were Isaac and Jacob, and all the patriarchs. But, it is said, this was under the Jewish dispensation. Granted. Has any change been made since ? Is anything to be found in the New Testament against it? Nothing—notaword. Slavery existed when the Gospel was preached by Christ and his Apostles,and where they preached: it was all around them. And though the Scribes and Pharisees were denounced by our Savior for their hypocrisy and robbing “ widows’ houses,” yet notaword did He utter against slaveholding. On one occasion, He was sought for by a centurion, who asked him to heal his slave, who was sick. Jesus said he would go; but the centurion objected, saying: “ Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am ,a mam under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, go, and he magnitude and luster—some are larger, others are smaller—but the greater and superior uniformly influences1 and controls the lesser and inferior within its sphere; If there is any fixed principle or law of nature it is this; In the races of men we find like differences in capacity and Jevelopment. The negro is inferior to the white man; nature has made him-so; observation and’ history, from the remotest times; establish the fact; and all attempts to make the inferior equal to the superior is but an effort to reverse the decrees or the Creator, who has made all things as we find them, according to the counsels of his own will. The Ethiopian can no more change his nature or his skin than the leopard his spots, j Do what you will, a negro is a negro, and he will remains negro still. In the social and polit- j icaf system of the South the negro is assigned to that subordinate position for which he is fitted by the laws of naturp. Our system of civilization is founded in strict cpnfortnity to these laws. Order and subordination, according to the natural fitness of things, is the principle upon which the whole fabric of our southern institutions rest. Then as to the law of God—that law we read not only in his works about us, around us, and over us, but in that inspired Book wherein he has revealed his will to man. When we differ as to the voice of nature, or the language, of God, as spoken in nature’s, works, we go to that great .Book, the Book of Books, which is the fountain of all truth. To that Book I now appeal. .God,' in the days of old, made acovenant with the human family—for the redemption of fallen man: that covenant is the corner-stone of the whole Chris-. ( tian system. Abram, afterwards called Abraham, was the man with whom-that covenant wap made. He was the great first head of an organized visible church here below. ■ He believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He was in deed and in truth the father of the faithful. Abraham, sir, was a slaveholder. Nay, more, he was required to have the sign of that covenant administered to the slaves of his household. Mr. CAMPBELL. Page, bring me a Bible. Mr. STEPHENS. I have one here which the gentleman can consult if he wishes. Here is the passage, Genesis xvii., 13. God said to Abraham: “ 13. He that is bom in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised ; and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.” Yes, sir, Abraham was not only a slaveholder, but a slave dealer, it seems, for he bought men with his money, and yet it was with him the covenant was made by which the world was to be redeemed from the dominion of sin. And it was into his bosom in heaven that the poor man who died at the rich man’s gate was borne by angels, according to the parable of*the Savior. In the 20th chapter of Exodus, the great moral law is found—that law that defines sin—the ten commandments, written by the finger of God himself upon tables of stone. In two of these commandments, the 4th and 10th, verses 10th and 17th, slavery is- expressly recognized,
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