From the hour of the organization of the Abolition Society, these
Southern planters assumed an aggressive position. Their editors,
politicians and lawyers began to publish briefs, in support of the
peculiar institution. The usual argument began with ridicule of Thomas
Jefferson's famous statement that all men are born equal. The second
argument was an economic one, based on the value of the slaves. Three
million slaves would average a value of five hundred dollars each, and
this meant a billion five hundred millions of property, that had to be
considered as so much property in ships, factories, engines, reapers,
pastures, meadows, herds and flocks. All planters invoked the words of
Moses, permitting the Hebrews to hold slaves, and therefore exhibiting
slavery as a divine institution. Statesmen justified the Fugitive Slave
Law by triumphantly quoting Paul's letter, sending Onesimus back to his
rich master, Philemon. Jefferson Davis rested his argument upon the
curse that God pronounced upon Canaan, and asserted that slavery was
established by a decree of Almighty God and that through the portal of
slavery alone the descendant of the graceless son of Noah entered the
temple of civilization. Once a year the Southern minister preached from
the text, "Cursed be Canaan, the son of Ham. A servant of servants shall
he be unto his brethren."

A few scholars grounded themselves on the scientific argument. These men
held that the black man was separated from the Saxon by a great chasm,
that if freed he was not equal to self-government, that he was a mere
child when placed in competition with the white man, and that the strong
owed it to the weak, that it was the duty of every superior man to take
charge of the inferior, and impose government from without.

The politician had a stronger argument in defense of slavery. He held
that the nation that was strong, educated, prosperous, with an army and