service_ escaping from their masters should be delivered up; no more
excuse than was the reason which Adam assigned for eating the forbidden
fruit. _He_ was _condemned and punished because_ he hearkened to the
voice of _his wife_, rather than to the command of his Maker; and _we_
will assuredly be condemned and punished for obeying _Man_ rather than
_God_, if we do not speedily repent and bring forth fruits meet for
repentance. Yea, are we not receiving chastisement even _now_?

But by the second of these laws a still more astonishing fact is
disclosed. If the first effectually prevented _all involuntary
servitude_, the last absolutely forbade even _voluntary servitude
being perpetual_. On the great day of atonement every fiftieth year
the Jubilee trumpet was sounded throughout the land of Judea, and
_Liberty_ was proclaimed to _all_ the inhabitants thereof. I will not
say that the servants' _chains_ fell off and their _manacles_ were
burst, for there is no evidence that Jewish servants _ever_ felt the
weight of iron chains, and collars, and handcuffs; but I do say that
even the man who had voluntarily sold himself and the _heathen_ who
had been sold to a Hebrew master, were set free, the one as well as
the other. This law was evidently designed to prevent the oppression
of the poor, and the possibility of such a thing as _perpetual
servitude_ existing among them.

Where, then, I would ask, is the warrant, the justification, or the
palliation of American Slavery from Hebrew servitude? How many of
the southern slaves would now be in bondage according to the laws of
Moses; Not one. You may observe that I have carefully avoided using
the term _slavery_ when speaking of Jewish servitude; and simply for
this reason, that _no such thing_ existed among that people; the word
translated servant does _not_ mean _slave_, it is the same that is