Morning Star

SLAVERY.

From the Signal of Liberty.

Selling Christians at Auction.

We mentioned last week among our national customs, the very remarkable and peculiar one, of robbing a portion of our population, many of them Christians, for the purpose of Christianizing foreign heathen. We showed that the plan of supporting foreign missions by slave labor was unknown in other countries, and that American Christians are entitled to all the honor that can be derived from its practice.

We now proceed to mention another custom of ours, which we assert to be national, in which we, as a Christian nation, stand almost alone—that of selling Christians at auction. The selling of human beings has been customary in all ages. We read concerning the merchants of Babylon that they traded in slaves and souls of men. The selling of slaves was usual among the Greeks and Romans, and all ancient nations, except the Jews. In all these cases, the sellers and buyers were heathen. Again, it has been usual for Mahometans to sell Christians. Greeks and Circassians, as well as negroes from Africa, are found in their slave markets. The instance in which the Algerines reduced our American seamen to slavery, is familiar to all. In these cases, the buyers and sellers are Mahometans. Again, in the barbarous state of society, among people who dimly apprehended the truths of Christianity, it was formerly customary for persons nominally Christians to sell one another. But as revelation and science have extended their sway over the mass of mind, the horrid custom has disappeared. In England, France, Germany, Prussia, Spain, and even the dominions of the Pope, who is commonly considered to be the Beast of Revelations, it has been swept away. The only Christian countries to which we can look for countenance in man-selling, are Russia, Brazil, and a few of the West India Islands. Shall we take these for our patterns?

The practice of selling human beings at all is attended with effects destructive to the best interests of society. But the evils are greatly aggravated by a public sale to the highest bidder. It brutalizes and degrades the mind, and leads individuals familiar with the spectacle, to despise humanity, in the person of the victim sold. The slaves at Washington are usually marched to the slave mart in coffles, chained by the hand and neck. When placed on the stand, all, of both sexes and all ages, are examined, felt of, turned about, and made to exhibit themselves as brute beasts are when sold. The demoralizing effect of the traffic, especially upon the rising generation, has been set forth by many hundred petitioners in the District of Columbia, who have entreated Congress for its abolition.

That this custom of Christians selling Christians at public outcry to the highest bidder is national, is evident

1. Because it exists by express national legislation. The slave codes of Virginia and Maryland, from which States the Federal District was taken, were re-enacted by Congress and have been in force ever since. Traders are licensed in that District by Congress for $400 each to sell Christians. The power of Congress to abolish slavery in the Federal District has been questioned, just for the purpose of making it a peg to hang an argument on. But the power of Congress to abolish the public auction sales of human flesh, is indisputable. Mr. Giddings urged this distinction in the House of Representatives in 1839, until he was questioned, motioned, ordered, and finally gagged down by those who could not argue him down. If both houses of Congress and the President have established an institution by law, it is national, is it not?

2. Selling Christians at auction, is a national institution, inasmuch as it is sanctioned and approved by all the national denominations of Christians, except the Friends and Freewill Baptists. The ecclesiastical authorities of the Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian and Catholic denominations, do not express any disapprobation of the practice, at Washington, or elsewhere, although a portion of their members are continually subject to public sale, and another part of them frequently appear as buyers and sellers. The purchasers at these auctions, are often members of the same denomination with those whom they buy.

3. It is national, inasmuch as it has received the express or implied approbation of all national parties, except the Liberty party. Whoever heard of the Whig, or Democratic, or National Republican, or States Rights party being opposed to the public sale of human beings at Washington, or of making an effort for the abolition of the traffic when they have been in power? Those parties have had more important business on their hands than to repeal this law of their own making. It was not too unimportant to enact, and its continuance is sustained by both the great political parties, embracing almost all the voters in the nation. Both parties are dumb on the subject. They will not say a word in Congress, unless to uphold it. If you doubt this, ask those who have the best means of knowing. Inquire of Porter, Woodbridge, or Howard, or any other member of that body.

4. It is national, inasmuch as it has received the implied approbation of every President of the United States. It is the duty of the President to recommend to Congress the adoption of such measures, as he may deem of public utility. They have uniformly done so. The foreign slave trade has often been recommended to the attention of Congress, in strains of eloquence, and the national treasure has been expended for its suppression. The local affairs of the district are alluded to in nearly every annual message. But what President has recommended the withdrawal of the license for selling American Christians at auction?

5. It is national, inasmuch as Congress has been urged for many years, by many thousand petitioners, to abolish the practice, and they have as often refused. Many citizens of the district, have petitioned for this very thing. The members cannot plead forgetfulness of the subject. It has been brought to their notice from millions of freemen, and has existed in all its deformity, within sight and bearing of the hall in which they daily declaim concerning the rights of men.

We hope our readers, especially those who are professedly Christians, will feel for the disgrace of their country and their religion, and use their earnest endeavors to unnationalize this hideous custom by every means in their power—by bearing their testimony against it in their religious connections—by abjuring all support of those parties which maintain it, and consecrating their political power for its overthrow, by bestowing their suffrages for those men only, who, if elected to office, will preclude all necessity of petitioning for its removal, by their own voluntary and manly efforts for its eternal extirpation from our land.