If right in my case, it is right in principle; for if
slave-holding be a violation of rights, I am guilty of that violation,
however humane a master I may be. The Apostle does not reprove me, nor
require me to manumit Onesimus, but tells me that I now receive him
"forever," and he teaches me how to treat him. I could occupy your time
by arguing the abstract question relating to property in the services of
men,--but I rest my case for the present on the letter of Paul the
Apostle, brought to me by the hand of my fugitive servant, returning to
what the laws call his bonds.
"'Let me add a few words, however, on the general subject, to the
argument of Theodotus.
"'Our good brother from Laodicea tells us that slavery and polygamy are
"twin barbarisms." He argues that slavery was winked at, like polygamy;
was "suffered," by the Most High. But I propose to refute this, and I
will throw myself on your candor to judge if I succeed.
"'God, in Eden, appointed the marriage of one man and one woman to be
the law of matrimony. "And wherefore one?" says the prophet. "He had the
residue of the spirit," and could have ordained otherwise. "Wherefore
one?" The answer is, "that he might seek a godly seed.
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