Letter of Gerrit Smith to Rev. James Smylie, of the State of Mississippi (Classic Reprint)

Angebote / Angebote:

Excerpt from Letter of Gerrit Smith to Rev. James Smylie, of the State of Mississippi Sir, - Accept my thanks for your politeness in sending me a copy of your book on slavery. This book proves, that the often repeated assertion, that the whole South is opposed to the discussion of the question of slavery, is not true, - and so far, I rejoice in its appearance. I presume - I know, indeed, that you are not the only man in the South, who is in favor of this discussion. There are, doubtless many persons in the South, who believe, that all attempts to suppress it, are vain, as well as wicked. Besides, you virtually admit, that the South is compelled to discuss the question of slavery, or, at least to give her own views of it, in order to prevent the conscience of Southern Christians - that conscience, "which does make cowards of us all" - from turning traitor to the cause of slavery. I rejoice, too, that you accompanied the copy sent to me, with the request, that I should review it, and make "candid remarks" upon it, and, that you have thus put it in my power to send to the South some of my views on slavery, without laying myself open to the charge of being discourteous and obtrusive. You undertake to show that slavery existed, and, with the Divine approbation, amongst die Old Testament Jews, and that it also existed, whilst our Saviour and his Apostles were on die earth, and was approved by them. You thence argue, that it is not only an innocent institution, but one which it is a religious duty to maintain. I admit, for the sake of argument, that there was a servitude in the patriarchal families which was approved by God. But what does this avail in your defence of slavery, unless you show, that that servitude and slavery are essentially alike? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.